GTF Wants Visas Of Brigadier Fernando’s Family Cancelled

FEBRUARY 24, 2018

The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) has written to Amber Rudd, Home Secretary, UK, demanding that the visas granted to family members of Brigadier Priyanka Fernando be cancelled.

Fernando, former Minister Counselor (Defense) of the Sri Lanka mission in London, was asked to return to Sri Lanka following an incident at a protest organized by expatriate Tamil organizations.

The GTF argues that the family member’s visa statuses were dependent on Fernando’s and since the GTF believes that the latter has no status as of now their statuses ‘should also fall’.

However, in a letter that the South Asia Department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London, had written to the GTF in response to a letter by the latter, what is intimated is just that the Sri Lankan Government has ordered Fernando to return to Colombo ‘while the incident is thoroughly investigated’. This follows, according to the South Asia Department, serious concerns being expressed to Sri Lanka by UK authorities.

Both letters are given below in full:

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Will this coalition government ever learn?

 Sunday, February 25, 2018

In the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s local government elections, a weary sense of resignation weighs heavier in the scales than lingering (if not hopeless) optimism. As President Maithripala Sirisena dons white and is back again to his accustomed role of preaching morality and the virtues of good living to the restive populace, the fire breathing persona in blue promising to spearhead a new corruption fight on the election platforms a month ago appears to have disappeared not with a bang but with the proverbial whimper.

Extraordinary failure of political competency


On their part, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his band of now not-so-merry men protest that the warnings given by the electorate earlier this month will be taken to heart. A senior ministerial committee of the United National Party will present recommendations for policy reforms which will be discussed with its coalition partner to ensure unanimity and then swiftly implemented.

These are mind numbingly familiar terms emanating from the lips of the Prime Minister, committees, policy reforms, so on and so forth. When these words are heard in the public mainstream, sardonic chuckles ensue. It is this palpable absence of public faith that the coalition Government must overcome. Both the President and the Prime Minister are put to the stern test in terms of delivering more than the endless stream of political rhetoric, now hinged apparently on the musical chair games of changing the Cabinet. Who in this Cabinet actually commands public confidence? What is the point of changing portfolios when the same discredited faces circulate in nauseatingly slow motion rather like that dreaded nightmare from which one wakes up in a petrified state?

From the cosy corners of Colombo, there is no point preaching good governance and the Rule of Law to a potato farmer in the Uva province whose family is starving or to desperate paddy cultivators in the North Central province stricken by drought. The utterly inept handling of the portfolio of Agriculture by President Sirisena’s protégé in the Cabinet says a lot for the determination (or the absence thereof) of both to redress the plight of their own constituencies. It was an extraordinary failure of political competency, more so given that public anger had been visible for months previously. So there must be concrete change in the way that the Government is run. But none of that is discernible so far. This is why the public await future action with resignation uppermost in its collective mindset and the Rajapaksa lobby salivates in the wings.

The return of the Rajapaksas

A good friend of mine who disagreed vociferously regarding the strong critiques featured in these columns after the ‘yahapalanaya’ victory was secured in 2015, based his fears on the possibility that ‘Mahinda may come back’, if public scrutiny of the coalition government was too harsh at the inception. My counter to that was that, if constant vigilance over the Government was not maintained, that would lead to precisely that same result. Three years later, that possibility if not probability has now reared its head in a ferocious show of defiance, surprising only the supremely naïve. And let us not forget that it was precisely in the honeymoon period of ‘the inception’ that the first bond fraud occurred at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). It says much for the manipulations of those in power that this fraud was engineered scarce before the bloom had faded from the promises held out at Independence Square that Sri Lanka will take genuine steps towards ridding itself of the horrors of a murderous, corrupt past.

Cynical power games continued, aided and abetted by once strident critics of the Rajapaksas who suddenly turned to purring cheerleaders of the coalition Government despite the fact that many points of controversy had uncanny similarities. One example was the Government’s effort to bring in a new counter-terror law which was worse than the existing public security and prevention of terrorism statutes. Even now, there is apparently a new draft that has been finalized but the public is kept in the dark while in all likelihood, this has already been shared with western missions. Is this how governance is conducted? Will this Government never learn?

A grotesque subversion of the right to vote

And this allegation of a lack of accountability in governance swings both ways. There are many who are of the view that the commonly known Commission of Inquiry into the Treasury Bond issuance at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) should never have been appointed and that in doing so, the President focused public attention on the UNP for which the coalition paid a high electoral price. But that is a misapprehension of the most serious kind. The logic therein is indeed akin to saying (absurdly) that an investigation should not take place in regard to a serious crime given the danger that the robber could be identified.

However the allegation leveled against the President that he took action in respect of this scandal only at a point that it became politically expedient for him to do so and that the act of appointing the Commission was part of a deliberate scheme to gain political capital out of the fiasco remains to be answered. In any event, the result of the February elections was an unequivocal reprimand to both parties that the public is not impressed by these political games. But how many electoral lessons are to be meted out to Sri Lanka’s irrepressible politicians, which they never seem to quite grasp?

In a grotesque subversion of the right to vote, the only thing that elections seem to accomplish these days is to allow the country to get handed over from one group of crooks to yet another, both of whom take turns at robbing the public coffers but get off scot free as they are safeguarded by each other. Each so-called ‘victory’ that is seemingly won at these elections is ephemeral. In January 2015, the rainbow revolution petered out into dismal quarrels though some strides in the improvement of the Rule of Law were evidenced. In February 2018, the strong showing of the Rajapaksas can only thrill those with lamentably short memories of what happened during that ‘decade of darkness.’

Where redemption lies

Right now, effective action based on the Commission of Inquiry report in to the CBSL Treasury Bond issuance is high on the list of imperatives for this Government. Two scapegoats disappearing into the murky depths of Sri Lanka’s criminal justice system does not suffice to meet the public call for justice. It is on this along with a range of other factors, that the ‘yahapalayana’ Government was rightly judged.

And it is on these legitimate points of concern that it must redeem itself, if redemption is yet achievable in the public domain.

Non-governance and non-opposition in Sri Lanka

To end on a slightly different but not unrelated note, if we could have learnt anything from our 40 years of presidential-parliamentary experience it is that the country is not served well by the two extremes of constitutional exuberance.

by Rajan Philips- Feb 25, 2018

( February 25, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) We can no longer blame the local government election results for the continuing paralysis of government and the consistently off-the mark criticisms of the Joint-Opposition. The much anticipated cabinet reshuffle (even though there is nothing to shuffle in a pack of jokers with no aces, as Pieter Keuneman once wisecracked) would have given something new to write about for the weekend column, but that did not happen at the time of writing. So we are back at the same topic of non-governance and non-opposition. Political gossip and rumours now are all about the UNP-SLFP haggling over cabinet portfolios in the expected new makeup. Of the two senior portfolios, who will take the foreign ministry – Sarath Amunugama for the SLFP? Will Managala Samaraweera leave finance and have another portfolio, if the banks are not brought back to finance where they belong? Will Kabir Hashim agree to part with the banking institutions after getting used to them for three years?

Lakshman Kiriella – is he going to be toppled from his twin high horses – highways and higher education, and brought down to something more earthly and less lucrative? Will John Amaratunga, that erect symbol of Christian morality and frequent flyer to see the Pope, continue his inflicting cabinet presence, or be relieved of serious perks as minister without portfolio? Nimal Siripala de Silva could be the SLFP counterpart and good company to John Amaratunga in the club of senior ministers without portfolio. Whatever will happen to the SLFP busybodies who tried to create an SLFP-SLPP government and remove the UNP from the government? Will the anxious Harsha de Silva and the poised Eran Wickremaratne finally break out of their prolonged internships and be promoted as fully-fledged cabinet ministers? If Harsha de Silva does not get a full cabinet position, it will only confirm the rumours that the decadent UNP leadership is going to punish him for calling for leadership change after the local elections.

The opposition then and now

On the other hand, the media and the Joint Opposition have been keeping up the pretence of a constitutional crisis and the illegality of government based on the status of an agreement between the UNP and the SLFP to collaborate in a national-unity government. If the agreement had lapsed, or been broken, it has been argued, there could be no government except illegally. Speaker Karu Jayasuriya apparently had to consult outside legal opinion to dismiss the opposition’s and the media’s vexatious claims. By this token, the LSSP could have argued in 1975 that the then government of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike was rendered illegal because she had broken up the United Front agreement by dismissing the three LSSP ministers – NM Perera, Colvin R de Silva and Leslie Goonewardena.

The LSSP leaders made no such claim because they were serious grownups and not the overgrown juvenile delinquents that many of our parliamentarians are today. What NM, Colvin and Leslie did after losing their ministerial portfolios was to take parliament and the government by storm from the opposition. They were not the official opposition, which was the UNP and JR Jayewardene was the official Leader of the Opposition. But that did not deter the LSSP trio from vigorously and relentlessly holding the government to account. Their energy and focus apparently prompted UNP’s Gamini Dissanayake to remark that if NM, Colvin and Leslie could be so irrepressible when they were old, how much more formidable they would have been when they were young. There are no such formidable figures in the Joint Opposition today.

The only opposition spark in parliament during the drab two weeks came from R. Sampanthan, the TNA Leader and the official Leader of the Opposition. His concluding salvo that any prospect for Eelam blooming rests not with the TNA but how the Rajapaksas use their Lotus Bud politics, created bit of a benign stir in political circles. GL Pieris, not known for general humour or political wit, took a rather puerile shot at Sampanthan that the TNA Leader was trying to take the shine away from the SLPP’s local elections victory. It is not Sampanthan but Mahinda Rajapaksa who takes the shine away from his victory by opportunistically tarnishing it with anti-Eelam rhetoric when the Tamil vote in the northern and eastern provinces, if not the rest of the country, was overwhelmingly for parties, including the TNA and the EPDP, who stand for a united and devolved Sri Lanka.

As well, the electoral shine of the SLPP’s February 10 victory has no matching substance or depth in terms of policy or direction for governing Sri Lanka, nationally or locally. The SLPP’s victory is by and large a negative victory, caused by a rejection of the present government’s corrupt practices and performance blunders. It is not a positive victory based on an endorsement of the Rajapaksas and their platform. In fact, the Rajapaksas offered nothing new or different at the February 10 elections from where they stood and were defeated in 2015. The Rajapaksas kept their numerical vote total and swept the board of local seats, while those who were united against them in 2015, foolishly went their separate ways in 2018, splintering their votes and losing badly in terms of local seats.

Government’s cooked-up crisis

While the responsibility for the election debacle should fall squarely on the shoulders of President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, the responsibility for the post-election paralysis is entirely the President’s making. The government’s crisis is a cooked up crisis, with President Sirisena as the principal chef. His ingredients have been primarily ineptitude and indecisiveness. The main stock apparently is man’s ambition to be in office beyond the first term that will be over by the end of 2019. There are hardly any Machiavellian spices in his political stew although there seems to be some attempt to suggest a clever design behind his incoherent chess moves. The Machiavellian explanation for the President’s inept inconsistency is that he deliberately confused the UNP and the SLPP by cajoling and rejecting both in order to re-establish his authority after the damage it suffered at the local elections. Anyone who believes this is qualified to join the President’s unimpressive team of advisers.

The more plausible explanation is that the President has become a captive in the hands of a handful of SLFP ministers who have been allegedly working in collusion with the SLPP and the joint opposition. Their apparent advice to the President is for him to wield the stick at Ranil and the UNP to the point of getting rid of them from government, and they (SLPP and JO) will then get him the carrot of a second term in office. This explanation is plausible for if anyone could be duped into this stick-and-carrot promise it would be Maithripala Sirisena. A complementary explanation is the President’s tendency to agree with everyone who meets with him in spite of their inconsistent positions, and the tendency of almost all the people who meet with him is to rush to the media to announce the President’s agreement(s) with them. And the media has developed its own tendency to broadcast everything that is reported to it by the so called political insiders without checking for their inconsistencies, let alone their inaccuracies. This is fake news but different from the Trumpian use of the term.

In the midst of all this, the Prime Minister seems to have gone quiet and withdrawn. He emerged briefly to announce in parliament that the UNP-SLFP agreement is intact and that the national-unity government is continuing – whatever that means. But the basis for unity would appear to be an agreement over the spoils of office – i.e. cabinet positions and portfolios, rather than an agreed upon program for government action for the next two years – at the most. We will have a better picture if and when a cabinet reshuffle actually takes place. Until then non-governance and non-opposition will be the order of the day.

A taste of things to come seems to be building up in the apparent contradiction between UNP ministries, on the one hand, and the Central Bank, on the other, over the ministry proposal to establish a new agency (National Payment Platform) for the clearing of retail payments. Newspapers have reported the fundamentally different positions but no one in the Joint Opposition has picked up on the issue. They are still basking in the shine of their local election victory. It will be instructive to see how the location of the Central Bank is addressed along with the anticipated cabinet reshuffle. If the Central Bank and other banking institutions are not reverted to the Ministry of Finance, it will only mean that Ranil Wickremesinghe and the UNP have learnt nothing and forgotten everything after the bond scam disaster and the local elections debacle. It will also mean that for all his public flaying against corruption, the President is unable to restore the Central Bank to its traditional and legal location. Nothing would have changed, but we will have a great deal to write about.

To end on a slightly different but not unrelated note, if we could have learnt anything from our 40 years of presidential-parliamentary experience it is that the country is not served well by the two extremes of constitutional exuberance. One is the tendency to extend terms in office or postpone elections: to wit, the 1982 referendum; the 18th Amendment; and the recent delays in local and provincial elections. The other is to orchestrate elections – as another way to extend terms, to exercise executive overreach, and to enforce authoritarian control at all levels of government: examples include, the notoriously self-serving timing of presidential elections, the 2004 dissolution of parliament, and the holding of staggered local and provincial elections to ensure victories at the peripheries for the governing party at the centre.

The 2015 January presidential election and the 19th Amendment thereafter, despite its publicly jested 19 defects, have admirably pushed back on both extremes. The real benefit of 19A in the current circumstance is in its forcing on our parliamentarians the hard work of making our institutions function as they are supposed to and not rushing to the people for a new mandate at the drop of every political hat. After the local election public thrashing and almost two weeks of much constitutional ado about nothing, the prematurely tired and tottering Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government seems set to sworn itself a new lease for governing. The expectations are for a new cabinet makeup and new assurances to govern differently and for the better in the two years that are left for Messrs Sirisena and Wickremesinghe to do something worthwhile before their respective political sunsets. Neither man deserves this reprieve as a reward. The reprieve is really a punishment to both men: a sentence to two years of good behaviour and good governance. No more, no less.

Containing Mahinda’s racist and kleptomaniacal neo-populism Crisis of govt and latent crisis of state

"What a bloody mess!"
(Image from Asia Mirror via Groundviews)

Kumar David-February 24, 2018, 

Danger has surfaced; there is a threat of a return to authoritarianism which may harden into semi-fascism. The dark side is unifying and mobilising. Those who are for democracy, the Jan 8 Movement, the left in all its complexions, national minorities and liberals must prepare to join battle. In 2015 we decided on a common candidate to use as a lever to resolve a Single Issue, restoration of democracy. Democracy has been restored; the lever MS has rotted and been discarded; no problem. If the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, then the people must reawaken every time peril returns.

About half the LG councils are "hung" in the sense that no one party has a clear majority to form an Administration. This is a consequence of Compensatory Proportional Representation (CPR). I described CPR with an illustrative table in my column on 4 Feb. Take Jaffna MC; the ITAK polled about 37% and was awarded 16 seats (FPP+PR). All others shared 63% and secured 26 seats (FPP+PR); Gajendra Kumar’s party 13 in total, the EPDP 10 and smaller entities 6 seats. Fifteen of the ITAK’s seats were FPP; only one PR. GK’s party and the EPDP won 9 FPP seats between them, but pocketed a thumping 13 PR places under CPR. Had it been an all-FPP, 40-constituency election, the ITAK would have bagged about 30. (All numbers are for illustration).

This pattern has repeated itself all over the Island; not one LG body in Jaffna District has a single-party majority. SLPP got 40% to 50% in many Sabhas but is unable to form an Administration since the balance of power lies with others, UNP, JVP, UPFA/SLFP or CWC. Wheeling and dealing goes on; as usual in Lanka, politicos are bought and sold by the crate. Those who anticipated a power struggle and crisis between a RW-MS Centre and an MR Periphery bungled their arithmetic, again.

Crisis of Government, not State

I remember reading 10 days ago in the pro-Rajapaksa Island newspaper (not to be confused with Sunday Island) an assertion that the polls ushered in a state of Dual Power. Rubbish it did not! In revolutionary Paris in 1848 real power (physical control of the city, its institutions and the streets) was contested; two regimes were at war. The writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon describe it well. It was dual power, though the term was coined 50 years later by Lenin to describe chaotic conditions in Petrograd from Feb to Oct 1917 when two governments, two armies, two state-powers prevailed. The nearest Lanka came to dual power was in the Vanni in the 1990s when two states overlapped. The currency was Colombo’s, Colombo paid salaries, sent food and ran services, while the LTTE had an army, police, Ministries (Forestry, Agriculture etc) and levied taxes. Two governments ruled the same people and the same territory simultaneously. It is like that in Syria and Iraq’s Kurdish territories now. Only a novice would call the post LG-election predicament in Sri Lanka dual power.

Still, let’s not quibble over terminology; is there a latent crisis of state power, is dual power on the horizon, are we heading there? I don’t think so; but here’s a hypothetical scenario, and were things to go this way, it would be dual power. Say Rajapaksa mobilises his crowds for direct action, say the streets are occupied with throngs demanding Ranil’s removal, say Ranil refuses and the President is trapped (he cannot dismiss the PM without a vote of no-confidence in parliament). Say fired up masses flaunt de-facto power like in Cory Aquino’s yellow revolution, say relations between LG bodies and the centre break down, the country becomes ungovernable and the military wavers. Now that would be dual power, but we are nowhere near, and most unlikely to get there - except what I will say later regarding the national question.

One other comment before moving on. Prof Hoole’s "Devolving Powers to Women . ." (Island 19 Feb) is lucid and essential reading to understand how the 25% minimum quota for women will be implemented. Many people are not clear how this excellent new provision will be executed.

Can the Unity Government

recover?

A crisis of state power it is not, but a crisis of government is upon us. If Ranil goes as PM - possible only if his party wills it - it can be used to advantage by yahapalana. Whether RW continues as party leader while, say #, becomes PM is beside the point. The odds favour the status quo, that is a MS-RW-Administration (MS-RW-A) enduring, but be that as it may, what will the UNP do to try to recover by 2020? It will have to undercut Mahinda-SLPP’s three trump cards; racism, the corruption dilemma and cost of living. This yahapalana menagerie is incapable of addressing the first, but it can make headway on the other two.

The government has blackened its copybook by consorting with rogues and killers. If corrupt Ministers - there are stacks - had been prosecuted and thrown behind bars, if the Lasantha case had not been wilfully derailed by powers at the top, if rogues like Mr Tenpercent, Mr MIG and Mr SL-Airlines were in prison, then MS-RW would not be spat upon as now. If the UNP hopes to rebuild barricades by 2020 it will have to make amends for harbouring criminals. I doubt it has the willpower, balls and guts to mount even a belated offensive to throw felons into whatever pit they deserve to be dumped in (unfortunately the death penalty has been abolished). If the UNP acts even now (forget MS he is dead meat) it could improve its electoral prospects. Those calling for Fonseka to be Law & Order Minister are sending the same message in their own way.

A key statistic is that 1.49 million UNP voters (13.04% of valid votes cast) abstained in Feb 2018 compared to August 2015. If the UNP cannot win back this vote bank it does not have a hope in hell. Also note that if, say, half these votes had been cast, the apparent percentage of the SLPP would have slipped from 44.7% to 40.7%, the SLFP/UPFA from 13.4% to 12.2%, and so on with others. I make this remark because, perhaps, chastened UNP voters may not boycott in such large numbers in future Provincial, General and Presidential elections.

Let me touch on cost of living concerns. How is MS-RW-A (or MS-#-A) likely to respond to the popular demand for more goodies to eat and enjoy – long-term development be damned! I am not a UNPer and have no role advising it; my job is to judge what it is likely to do. My answer is it will swing to economic populism. Mangala’s perspective and budget were long-term and development oriented – it is not neoliberal, notwithstanding the ‘analysis’ of left ignoramuses. It is growth-oriented capitalism. Not my cup of tea, but my point is that this will be pruned. Guardian angels in the IMF will permit more deficit financing (jargon ‘fiscal loosening’), allow increased debt (jargon ‘debt slippage’) - it’s the mutts who come after 2020 who will pay - and wink at concessions to consumption over development (jargon ‘hand-outs’).

People want to eat, drink and enjoy, no! The culture of sacrificing present consumption for future betterment is not Lankan, unlike the ethos of East Asia. So, our ensnared government will shift gear to give people what they want. What I anticipate for the next two years is that MS-RW-A (or MS-#-A) will swing in a populist direction to recoup lost electoral ground. Even privatisation – good riddance if Sri Lankan Air goes – will be for the purpose of raising cash to feed the masses. Ranil has attributed the defeat to economic setbacks, this of course is to deflect attention from his failure to fight corruption, but it does indicate that more "hand-outs" are on the way.

Populist economics and an aggressive drive to lock up Rajapaksa era crooks and murderers may pay dividends. My view is that with no other options, this will be the government’s game plan.

Dead-end for Tamils

As for the national question, prospects are bleak. Political prisoners will not be released, return of military occupied land to owners will be at snail’s pace and fittings will be looted before return, rehabilitation at 5000 a year will take 20-30 years to complete, and what about devolution and the constitution? Rajapaksa chauvinism killed devolution, Sirisena was an accomplice. Race and religion, overt or subliminal, have been bigoted for 70 years; deep racial pathology changes very slowly, if at all. Even if the government contains pressure by addressing corruption and easing cost of living concerns, the one trump in the Rajapaksa-SLPP pack that can do much mischief is racism.

The Tamils and the TNA are up the gum tree; the poor sods have been taken for a ride for the fifth or sixth time. They are better off buying real-estate from Elon Musk to settle on planet Mars than to expect justice from the Sinhalese. Tamil nationalism will strengthen, overshadowing a progressive trend in Kilinochi (Chandrakumar) and pluralism in Mannar and Vavuniya.

There will be no devolution, constitutional amendments may scrap the executive presidency but not devolve power to minorities, no police powers, no release of political prisoners, minimal resettlement, inadequate reconciliation and aggravation of the psyche of alienation. This is where a crisis of state power will ripen, slowly but surely; this is Lanka’s latent crisis of state.

The government will awaken to the tactical benefits of economic populism and it cannot evade the corruption quagmire any longer, but it cannot do anything about the Tamils. However, it is neither the government or its supine leaders, but mobilisation of people – including of course the lower rungs of the UNP - that can be a bulwark against tyranny. Hey, any UNP Ministers ready to discard comfortable sinecures and come join and organise the real struggle? Welcome!

Tech vs. Democracy

Featured image courtesy Jason Howie

 

GUY VERHOFSTADT-02/23/2018

BRUSSELS – Instagram, a photo-sharing platform owned by Facebook, recently caved in to a demand by the Russian government that it remove posts by opposition leader Alexey Navalny alleging misconduct on the part of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko. In a YouTube video that has garnered almost six million views (and which is still available), Navalny shows Prikhodko hobnobbing with the oligarch Oleg Deripaska on a yacht in Norway, where he alleges bribery took place.

After Navalny’s posts appeared, Deripaska went to the Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor to request that Facebook remove the content, which it immediately did. This episode has now attracted much attention, as well as criticism for Facebook. And yet there have been thousands of other cases just like it.

In an age when most people get their news from social media, mafia states have had little trouble censoring social-media content that their leaders deem harmful to their interests. But for liberal democracies, regulating social media is not so straightforward, because it requires governments to strike a balance between competing principles. After all, social-media platforms not only play a crucial role as conduits for the free flow of information; they have also faced strong criticism for failing to police illegal or abusive content, particularly hate speech and extremist propaganda.

These failings have prompted action from many European governments and the European Union itself. The EU has now issued guidelines for Internet companies, and has threatened to follow up with formal legislation if companies do not comply. As Robert Hannigan, the former director of the British intelligence agency GCHQ, recently observed, the window for tech companies to reform themselves voluntarily is quickly closing. In fact, Germany has already enacted a law that will impose severe fines on platforms that do not remove illegal user content in a timely fashion.

These ongoing measures are a response to the weaponisation of social-media platforms by illiberal state intelligence agencies and extremist groups seeking to divide Western societies with hate speech and disinformation.

Specifically, we now know that the Kremlin-linked “Internet Research Agency” carried out a large-scale campaign on Facebook and Twitter to boost Donald Trump’s chances in the 2016 US presidential election. According to US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s recent indictment of 13 Russian individuals and three organizations, an army of Russian trolls spent the months leading up to the 2016 election stoking racial tensions among Americans and discouraging minority voters, for example, from turning out for Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Mueller’s findings obviously raise important questions about transparency and the protection of democratic institutions in the digital age. Despite having allowed themselves to become Kremlin special-operations tools, the major social-media platforms have been reluctant to provide information to democratic governments and the public.

For example, in the United Kingdom, the MP Damian Collins has launched an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum, but he has struggled to receive much cooperation from Facebook and Twitter. In December, he described Twitter’s response to his questions as “completely inadequate.” That is regrettable. When democracy itself is at stake, social-media platforms have a responsibility to be transparent.

Moreover, if Russia can interfere so thoroughly in the US democratic process, just imagine what it has been doing in Europe, where we still do not know who financed some of the online advertising campaigns in recent national elections and referenda. I suspect that we have only just scratched the surface when it comes to exposing foreign meddling in our democratic institutions and processes. With European Parliament elections due in May 2019, we must be better prepared.

The tech giants, for their part, will continue to claim that they are merely distributing information. In fact, they are acting as publishers, and they should be regulated accordingly – and not just as publishers, but also as near-monopoly distributors.

To be sure, censorship and the manipulation of information are as old as news itself. But the kind of state-sponsored hybrid warfare on display today is something new. Hostile powers have turned our open Internet into a cesspool of disinformation, much of which is spread by automated bots that the major platforms could purge without undermining open debate – that is, if they had the will to do so.

Social-media companies have the power to exert significant influence on our societies, but they do not have the right to set the rules. That authority belongs to our democratic institutions, which are obliged to ensure that social-media companies behave much more responsibly than they are now.

Editor’s Note: To view more content from Project Syndicate, click here. 

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Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister, is President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (ALDE) in the European Parliament.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2017.

www.project-syndicate.org

WB praises Sri Lankan health service

2018-02-24 

The World Bank (WB) praised the public health service in Sri Lanka by saying that there are few if any other low or middle-income countries that have public health service like in Sri Lanka, simultaneously achieved strong health outcomes, good financial protection and low cost.

In a publication on universal health care study series titled ‘Sri Lanka: Achieving Pro-Poor Universal Health Coverage without Health Financing Reforms,’ says that many countries are lauded for achieving two out of three, but few can claim to have done as well as Sri Lanka on all fronts, especially considering that it is still classified as a lower-middle income country.

“Sri Lanka’s health system has a long track record of strong performance. For at least 50 years it has achieved much better outcomes in maternal and child health and infectious disease control than would have been predicted by its income level. Health financing indicators also indicate that the health system is both pro-poor and efficient,” it said.

Sri Lanka’s Reshuffle repair?

Differences between the two national ruling parties were exposed during the local elections where what was at stake included not only the 341 local bodies up for grabs but also national elections not far down the road.

by Manik de Silva-Feb 25, 2018

( February 25, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Few analysts were venturing guesses on what the cabinet reshuffle expected to be completed today will bring us. The signs are that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will make some changes on the UNP side but there have been no hints that President Sirisena, whose SLFP/UPFA fared worse that the UNP at the Feb. 10 local election, will do likewise. Wickremesinghe has made some mea culpa noises after the results were declared; but not so Sirisena who has laid all the blame at the UNP’s door. Whether making some changes on who occupies which ministry for the next two years will make any real differences in the government’s report card is unlikely. Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayake has publicly indicated willingness to step down from that ministry although he’s expected to remain Minister of Southern Development. The prime minister is reported to favour Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka to take responsibility for law and order although whether the president and SLFP will agree to that is a question that remains wide open.

Fonseka, once described by his then commander-in-chief, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa whom he challenged for the presidency in 2010 as the “world’s best army commander,” paid dearly for his effort to dethrone Rajapaksa. He was cashiered from the army, stripped of his rank, medals and decorations, deprived for his pension and court martialed and jailed. A tough military officer who neither gave nor sought any quarter during his military career, Fonseka endured tough prison conditions that might have been made easier had he been less unbending. The ‘common candidate’ formula which worked for Sirisena did not work for Fonseka who was confident of victory in 2010. Following Sirisena’s 2015 victory, Fonseka was pardoned and a newly created rank of field marshal was bestowed on him. Given the rough treatment he received at the hands of the Rajapaksa dispensation, conferring the law and order ministry including overseeing investigations heaped on the Rajapaksas following the regime change, on Fonseka will be akin to setting a rotweiller on the former president and his family including then Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. In that event, there will be no room for allegations of the kind that has been leveled against Sagala Ratnayaka who was accused of going ‘soft’ on the former first family.

Even if the UNP wishes to make the appointment, whether President Sirisena will go along with it remains an open question. Despite his assertions to the contrary, there is no ironclad guarantee that the incumbent is not seeking a second term. His recent bid to build up his SLFP at the local elections at the cost of the UNP points in the direction that Sirisena is nursing that ambition. Many of his campaign statements, including one saying that his present government is more corrupt that that of the Rajapaksas’, was aimed at the UNP. While the prime minister reined his own side and did not permit UNPers to do unto Sirisena what the president was doing unto them, there is no escaping the reality that both major constituents of the ruling coalition has emerged battered and bruised from the Feb. 10 contest which some political analysts say has “also exposed the failure of their long-term political strategies.”

Differences between the two national ruling parties were exposed during the local elections where what was at stake included not only the 341 local bodies up for grabs but also national elections not far down the road. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s pohottuwa has already seen the coming colour although its leader cannot run for president again under terms of the present constitution. A general election must be held in 2020 and this must be preceded by a presidential election. While Sirisena said soon after he took his oaths at Independence Square in January 2015 that he does not plan to seek a second term of office, his silence on this score since then has been eloquent. Also leading members of the SLFP he leads have gone on the public record saying that the incumbent will be their candidate and the president has not contradicted them. Wickremesinghe who chose not to run against Rajapaksa in 2010 annointing Fonseka as the ‘common candidate’ did likewise five years later. Nobody would attribute altruistic motives for these decisions. On both occasions, it was obvious that the best chance of de-throning the war-winning Mahinda was ensuring a Mahinda vs. the Rest match and what better candidate to field in 2010 than the general who commanded the army in May 2009 when the LTTE was finally defeated after a near 30-year war. Apart from the UNP, Fonseka was then even able to enlist the support of the TNA and the JVP. But it took five more years for that strategy to work and Wickremesinghe had to be content with the second slot of prime minister – an office he had held twice previously.

He has not formally announced his candidature for the presidency next time round but most observers think he will want to crown his political career with the office at least three incumbents promised to abolish but welshed on their promise to the electorate. After the drubbing his party suffered at the local elections, Wickremesinghe has gone on record saying that the UNP must set about the long- neglected task of grooming a future leader. But there have been no signs of anything of the sort happening. Whether two years are long enough for the UNP, regarded the senior partner of the ruling coalition, to deliver on the expectations of the people enabling its leader to make a pitch for the presidency Ranil might have won in 2005 but for the LTTE which prevented Tamils in the north voting to emerge from the wings and take center stage remains to be seen.

( The writer is the editor of the Sunday Island, a Colombo based weekly newspaper where this piece first appeared)

Back To Square One: What Next?

By Ameer Ali –FEBRUARY 25, 2018

Dr. Ameer Ali

In spite of the landslide victory to the SLPP at the local polls, the acrimonious campaign between the MS-RW couple, driven almost to the verge of permanent divorce, and the theorization of constitutional pundits and soothsayers about the future design of the government, the country is back to square one with the same faces and with the same policies. How much of pressure from international players like India and the US was brought in to save the MS-RW matrimony one can only guess. The main question now facing the country is, what next?

The voters who showed their utter disgust of the MS-RW regime in the local elections are not worried about any constitutional changes or who holds which ministry in the cabinet. (In fact the voters know the character and background of each of the ministers, their deputies and other representatives in the parliament. Nothing is a secret in a country like Sri Lanka). But the voters’ main concern is about the rising cost of living and corruption in government circles. In a way these two evils are interlinked. Corruption in public administration is partly the cause for rising cost of living. On the one hand, the government’s commitment to work within a neoliberal open economy makes it hard to contain cost increases, a greater part of which is imported. If the regime decides to intervene in setting prices arbitrarily, that will earn the wrath of its international managers, which will prove detrimental to the regime’s international dealings in the future. On the other hand corruption adds to the imported costs, because the middlemen will always pass the corruption cost on to the final consumer. Eradicating corruption will certainly remove the locally added component of the cost of living. The problem is therefore systemic and cannot be tackled in a piecemeal fashion.

On corruption, Transparency International has shown that the situation remains as it was when the new rulers came to power in 2015, although with the promise of eradicating it. Their failure to bring the culprits from the former regime to books and allowed the new ones to escape from justice demonstrates either the government’ lack of commitment or its incompetency or both to cure this cancer. No wonder they received the drabbing from voters in the local elections. When the echelon at the top itself is corrupt cleaning up the subaltern is an impossibility. With the issues of cost of living and corruption remaining unresolved the government’s confidence deficit in the eyes of the public will only widen.

What is the alternative? The SLPP cannot expect it to be swept to power at the next general elections simply on a protest vote against the current regime. In fact, there is no guarantee that their success at the local polls will be repeated at the national one unless its economic policies and solution to the ethnic issue manifest radical changes. The former MR regime was also working within the neoliberal open economy paradigm in spite of its close links with China. One important lesson that China’s rapid economic development teaches to the world is the way it operates its markets. The market is given freedom but within the parameters set by the Chinese Five Year Plans. This is why some economists describe the Chinese economy a ‘bird cage economy’, where the bird is the market and cage is the plan. To apply this model to Sri Lanka will involve systemic change but will go a long way in containing the rise in cost of living provided corruption is also tackled at the same time. Is the SLPP or any other opposition party prepared to undertake this radical alternative?

The ethnic conundrum is a running sore in Sri Lankan polity. No national party irrespective of its hue wants to solve the problem, because by solving it the party loses the trump to win another election. Ever since SWRD let the ethnic genie out of the bottle no political party, including the ethnic parties, has demonstrated a sincere commitment to put the genie back where it was, in the interest of the country and nation. From JR to MR and MS and from FP to LTTE and TNA this had been the sad story. SLMC of course is an irrelevant element when it comes to national issues.

Corruption demands a clean and heavy hand at the top to be eradicated. The current one at the top has disqualified itself by its proven incompetency and lack of commitment. Corruption also was the major problem to the MR regime, which brought its downfall in 2015, in spite of its victory in the civil war. 

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Minister Kabir Hashim’s hogwash

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by Rajeewa Jayaweera-February 24, 2018, 7:03 pm 

According to media reports, Minister of Public Enterprise Development and subject minister for the national carrier SriLankan Airlines, Kabir Hashim, responding to a question from JVP Parliamentarian Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa is reported to have stated, he had written to President Sirisena requesting investigations by the recently appointed Special Presidential Commission should be based on the J.C. Weliamuna Report. The Weliamuna Board of Inquiry was hastily appointed, shortly after the installation of the Yahapalana government.

Minister Hashim has supposedly further stated, the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) should investigate SriLankan Airlines and now defunct Mihin Lanka. He had expressed his willingness to testify before the COPE on the two airlines, should an investigation be initiated.

Minister Hashim has been the subject minister of both SriLankan Airlines and Mihin Lanka till its amalgamation with the national carrier since August 2015. He failed to direct the Chairman of the airline to conduct internal inquiries based on the findings by Weliamuna and his associates. The report highlighted issues related to Manpower (HR) including recruitments carried out before Presidential elections, Tenders associated with Duty-Free Services besides alcohol for onboard service and General Sales Agent appointments abroad. The mothballed report for which the subject minister must be held accountable cost taxpayers over Rs 3.5 million. Having neglected his duties during last two and half years, the sudden urge for an investigation by COPE in the wake of the appointment of the Special Presidential Commission is suspect of sinister motives.

The mandate issued to the Special Presidential Commission is to investigate wrongdoings at SriLankan Airlines and Mihin Lanka during the period January 01, 2006 till January 01, 2018. The Weliamuna investigation report did not go as far back as January 2006. It also did not cover wrongdoing between January 10, 2015, until January 01, 2018.

No doubt, an in-depth investigation is required to establish the truth relating to the purchase orders of six Airbus A330-300 and eight A350-900 aircraft by the previous administration. That said a thorough investigation into mismanagement in many other areas including recruitment, especially to critical positions, promotions and service extensions is equally necessary. Also required is the examination of procedures and processes. Such an in-depth investigation is bound to provide answers to the airline’s continuing abysmal financial results.

An investigation by COPE as suggested by the subject minister will serve no purpose at this juncture. Lessons must be learned from the two COPE investigations into the Bond scam in which the SLFP and other members were on the offensive and UNP on the defensive, resulting in findings being watered down with footnotes to reach consensus. Members of the Yahapalana government were found to have had hundreds of phone/ Viber/ WhatsApp conversations with those accused.

A COPE investigation into the national carrier will not be similar to the two Bond investigations by COPE. UPFA members and their acolytes committed wrongdoings before January 2015. Yahapalana members and their acolytes have taken their turn since January 2015. Any report is bound to end up with more footnotes than content.

As for the offer to give evidence during a COPE investigation, the less said, the better. The public is aware of the ‘invaluable’ evidence given by Minister Hashim and another Yahapalana minister during the Presidential Investigation into the Bond scam. There is no reason to believe, evidence during a COPE investigation of SriLankan Airlines relating to matters pertaining after January 2015 would be any less ‘invaluable.’ It would be an utter waste of public funds.

Consequent to the SriLankan Airlines Board meeting held on January 25, 2018, the public came to know, a majority of Directors had requested the resignation of the Chief Executive Officer within one week or face dismissal. At the end of one week, a statement from the Prime Minister’s office stated, such a course of action is not possible without the approval of the subject minister, thus making the Board of Directors irrelevant.

Directors demand the resignation of CEOs under extenuating and compelling circumstances. Reasons for a majority of Directors to demand the resignation of the airline’s CEO needs investigation. Unfortunately, this issue cannot be investigated by the Presidential Commission as it falls outside the mandated period.

The transformation of SriLankan Airlines Limited to the Department of SriLankan Airlines going back in time to the Air Ceylon era of 1947 – 1979 is now complete.

Sri Lanka needs sensible and sound leadership

Friday, 23 February 2018 

The Asia section of the print edition of the Economist, under the headline ‘Beasts and Monsters’, said: “To critics of Mahinda Rajapaksa, local council elections that were held in Sri Lanka on February 10th felt like a horror film, as the controversial ex-president rose from his silk-lined political coffin to declare victory.”

The outcome of the Local Government election to the ordinary people of this country was certainly not a shocker. It was certainly a shock for the ruling elite because they never had their ears to the ground. Even two weeks since the election defeat, the leaders so far have not taken any tangible and immediate measures to restore confidence in the Government and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party to rein in their ministers. The governance of the country needs to take a new direction in 2018 for all its citizens to witness real social, political and economic advancement. And for inspiration and to stay together as a government, the Government only needs to refer to what they promised in their manifesto in 2015 and work hard to deliver these promises.

Responsibility

to the public

The President and Prime Minister would find it very hard to abandon the promises they made because the next presidential election is only 18 months away and parliamentary polls are not due for two and a half years.

Moreover, 6.2 million people voted for the National Unity Government with so much of hope. Therefore, President Sirisena must ensure his ministers do not act in a manner detrimental to the Government’s interests. Thankfully, it is reported the President had spoken to those who contributed to the current problems and alerted them to the threat posed by the former president. Because, as civil society activists point out, the Joint Opposition/Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna strategy is aimed at causing a permanent rift between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe, isolating the UNP and then bringing the entire SLFP parliamentary group under the SLPP.

The SLFP ministers screaming at the UNP leader must realise the UNP got 44.6% of the vote at the last parliamentary elections and Wickremesinghe polled 502,000 preferential votes. Whereas, some of the ministers currently creating chaos and havoc had lost their parliamentary seats very badly. They were nominated to Parliament by the President and once again lost their electorates in the 2018 LG elections.

Interestingly, 15.7 million voters were eligible to vote at the 2018 LG elections according to 2017 listings. Out of that only 11.2 million have cast their votes. Around 4.5 million boycotted the Local Government elections to either show their disgust or their frustration with the current administration.

4.5 million silent and dissenting voices is massive in any democracy. It is time our politicians understand the public is getting fed up with the current political parties and have shown their dissent very silently.

Practical solutions

No doubt at the recent election the strength of the UNP was reduced to 32.5% while the President’s SLFP was reduced to 13%. Political analysts say the decision to cut farmer subsidies to the bone was a disaster for the Government.

The price of essential items like coconut, rice and sprats have skyrocketed. The Sri Lankan people sadly have short memories. In 2015, petrol, which was priced at Rs. 162 was reduced to Rs. 117, Kerosene from Rs. 110 to Rs. 44 and a 410-gram milk packet was reduced from Rs. 465 to Rs. 325 while electricity bills reduced by 25%.

But the fact that VAT increased in general from 12% to 15% and interest rates went up, along with the depreciation of the rupee, has had an overwhelming impact on the cost of living. Therefore, going forward the Government should focus on issues that can help alleviate the suffering of the people.

The people want the price of food (onions, potatoes, lentils, sprats, milk powder, coconut and dry fish) reduced.

The Government needs to ensure there is enough rice in stock for the New Year season. Then farmers’ issues need addressing. Will they be given fertiliser at an affordable price? Today there is a drinking water shortage in five provinces. All this clearly needs to be addressed by the Government.

Regaining confidence 

The recent political events more or less will go down in our political history as one of the worst and most pathetic displays of political manoeuvring in this country by a few politicians rejected by the people attempting to form a government of their own, even misleading the President and pushing him against the wall. To regain the confidence of the public the Cabinet of Ministers also needs to focus only on nationally beneficial projects.

For example, the high cost of the Central Expressway, the one proposed by Kiriella costing Rs. 120 billion and Ranawaka costing Rs. 20 billion, needs to be thoroughly examined by the President. Ranawaka, with his training in engineering, must surely have a better sense of matters than Kiriella, a lawyer by training. For the Unity Government to once again become a beacon of hope and win the trust of the people, the President and Prime Minister both need to act with responsibility and maturity and maintain discipline among their ranks by getting rid of the people around them directly accused of bribery and corruption.

If nothing really changes in the next two weeks in the Government and the same tainted people continue, the decision to continue with the National Government by the two parties could be hugely beneficial for the SLPP and Mahinda Rajapaksa.

(The writer is a thought leader)

Political drama climax today; mainly reshuffle of same Ministers

By Our Political Editor-Sunday, February 25, 2018

• Portfolio changes for Kiriella and Hashim; Harsha, Ajith and Sujeewa likely as non-Cabinet ministers

• Amaraweera for Agriculture, Duminda gets Skills and Vocational Training, Premajayantha to move out

• Though coalition continues, disputes prevail with President often disposing of what Premier proposes

• President asserts authority, especially ineconomic matters; big projects on Tabs and Central Highway put on hold

The suspense for Sri Lankans, kept in the dark for two weeks over the political crisis triggered by results of the local polls, will end today.

The Presidential Secretariat on Friday informed new ministers to be present at a swearing-in ceremony at 11 this morning. The move signals the continuation of the SLFP-UNP coalition with most differences resolved, at least for the moment.

The past two weeks have seen President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe locked in a see-saw exercise. Sirisena has rejected, at least on three different occasions, some of the names forwarded by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for Cabinet portfolios. They have also had a string of one-on-one meetings in this regard. Thus, the delay of a swearing-in as a periodically amended lists went back and forth. However, the final list was approved by Sirisena with one rejection – that of the controversial former military strongman Sarath Fonseka as Minister of Law and Order, a portfolio under which the Police Department comes.

Assisted by UNP Chairman Malik Samarawickrema, Premier Wickremesinghe has been devoting considerable time formulating his list of new ministers. The delay was because he was engaged in a consultation process before deciding on the nominees – a departure from previous UNP leaders. When the late Presidents J.R. Jayewardene and Ranasinghe Premadasa sought to name their Cabinet, the prospective ministers did not know what their subjects would be until they turned up for the swearing-in ceremony.

If all goes as planned, there will be a switch in the portfolios held by Lakshman Kiriella (Highways and Higher Education) and Kabir Hashim (Public Enterprise Development). Ravi Samaraweera, the Badulla District MP, is to be the new Minister for Sustainable Development and Wild Life. The present incumbent Gamini Jayawickrema Perera will remain as Minister of Buddha Sasana. Sagala Ratnayake is to be the Minister of Southern Development and National Policies. Other likely changes are a set of non-cabinet rank ministers. These independent portfolios are to be held by Harsha de Silva, Ajith Perera and Sujeeva Senasinghe. An SLFPer or two is also to be brought in as non-cabinet rank minister. President Sirisena has allowed the UNP to name a minister to be in charge of Samurdhi, a portfolio held by the SLFP earlier. This is in exchange for one now held by the UNP. Kurunegala district parliamentarian J.C. Alawathuwala will be a new Deputy Minister. Tourism Minister John Ameratunga had turned down a request to step down and take the portfolio of Senior Minister.

Ministers from SLFP

Among the changes likely on the SLFP side is the appointment of Mahinda Amaraweera as the Minister of Agriculture. The present incumbent Duminda Dissanayake is to be the Minister of Skills Development and Vocational Training.
Chandima Weerakkody who now holds that portfolio is to be the new Minister of Fisheries.

The political drama that played out for two weeks is not without some vile humour. Minister and United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) General Secretary Mahinda Amaraweera was one of two ministers who wrote to President Sirisena only last week. Pointing out that “our party cannot accept a situation where the Government continues to be managed by the Prime Minister based on the number of votes obtained by the UNP”, they requested Sirisena “to grant the SLFP and the UPFA this opportunity” to form “a new Government.” That move meant a new Prime Minister too, but it failed.

This week, the same Mahinda Amaraweera sang a different tune. He told Parliament that the “Government of National Unity” was still intact and would continue. He said they would keep to the Memorandum of Understanding which the SLFP had signed with the UNP. In reality this agreement for two years has lapsed in September last year. In saying so, Ameraweera was acknowledging that Wickremesinghe was the Prime Minister and would continue. In his call for change Amaraweera charged that the Government’s “economic management, is turning its back on good governance principles, and following a programme which was completely opposite to one which sought to protect the national interest.” No doubt it was a complete turnaround but in politics such desperate situations do occur. Some are strong enough to stick to their principles whilst others, for survival, have to change. The joke is when they expect the public to believe their remarks from their dual positions.

It is Minister SLFP General Secretary Duminda Dissanayake who had signed the MoU on behalf of his party with UNP General Secretary Kabir Hashim. However, it was Amaraweera who spoke in Parliament on the MoU. Dissanayake has been under a cloud since his open backing for the UNP after the local polls. He is reportedly ill and had undergone surgery.

The Amaraweera episode highlighted the chaos and confusion in the Presidency. Every now and then, their position seems to shift underscoring the fact that President Sirisena is unable to make up his mind. The delay was costly not only in economic terms but with Sri Lankans being kept completely in the dark about the goings on. In fairness, it was only Premier Wickremesinghe who chaired a news conference to assert that he cannot be removed by the President. Sirisena made many approaches to the leadership of the ‘Joint Opposition.’ There were talks between the two sides but the swearing-in today puts an end to them. Seems he was left with little choice and time was running out.

Sirisena’s angry mood since the local poll results were announced was reflected even at last Tuesday’s meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC), the apex body for all matters related to economic development and related activity. At the meeting, Premier Wickremesinghe gave a discourse on plans for future development at the macroeconomic level. Among those present were Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera, Special Assignments Minister Sarath Amunugama, and Secretaries to key ministries.

Sirisena was more concerned about the cost of living, a key factor which he believes caused the party’s loss at local polls. Mata oya jathiyanthara deval oney nehe. Kiyanna kohomada buth packet ekey mila adu karanney kiyala, he said. I am not interested in those international matters. Tell me how we could reduce the price of a packet of rice (and curry), he exhorted. In what seemed a move against the Premier, Sirisena directed that in future all decisions of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) should first be referred to the National Economic Council (NEC) before they are presented to the Cabinet of Ministers. Wickremesinghe chairs the CCEM which was once likened to a parallel Cabinet. It had only UNP Ministers and pro-UNP advisers in it. This was on the grounds that their decisions, contained briefly in their minutes, were forwarded for Cabinet approval. SLFP ministers alleged that one of their UNP counterparts had his projects approved at the CCEM.

Sirisena-Ranil meetings

The new developments began last Sunday. Sirisena had a meeting with Premier Wickremesinghe. Accompanying the latter were Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, UNP Chairman Malik Samarawickrema and General Secretary Kabir Hashim. There were some tense moments when Sirisena declared that he proposed to prorogue Parliament. He gave no reason. A senior SLFPer disclosed that the exercise would have given the President time to get over the current political impasse. Others opined that he was planning to thwart a possible impeachment motion though there was no such move. Speaker Jayasuriya was to assure nothing untoward would happen. Both Wickremesinghe and Jayasuriya strongly opposed a prorogation and declared it was inadvisable. They said they could guarantee it. Wickremesinghe and the UNP have been victims of such a move when the then President Chandrika Kumaratunga despite a written assurance she will not dissolve Parliament, did exactly that in 2004. Jayasuriya was also to say that he was in favour of Wickremesinghe being Prime Minister in a new Cabinet. His presence was to demonstrate support to Wickremesinghe in the wake of calls to him to take over as Premier.

During the conversation that ensued, Sirisena spoke about the mistakes made by the Government. That included ignoring the mounting cost of living and the long delay in the distribution of fertilizer to paddy farmers. Wickremesinghe was to admit that there were quite a few lapses. Eventually, there was agreement that the coalition would continue.

After the brief meeting, Wickremesinghe drove to ‘Temple Trees’ for a meeting of leaders of the United National Front (UNF). Regrettably, it was erroneously reported last week that it was a dinner for a group of SLFP ministers. Wickremesinghe declared there was no need for any affidavits since “we trust our members.” The UNF leaders were entertained to a meal of hoppers, seeni sambol, katta sambol and different curries. Naturally, it sparked jokes among participants. One of them told another “now don’t go back and join the other side.” They were alluding to an episode where Maithripala Sirisena went to ‘Temple Trees’ when former President Rajapaksa was in office. There he ate hoppers and the next day announced his candidature for the presidency to contest Rajapaksa.

A more serious development came on Monday. For the first time Sirisena disclosed to his SLFP Parliamentary Group that the Attorney General has advised him that under the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, he has no power to remove the Prime Minister. He appealed to his party MPs to give him one month’s time to put things right. He said those willing to serve in a new Cabinet could do so whilst others were free to decide what they wanted to do. Minister Susil Premajayantha indicated that he would quit his Cabinet post. He said files with him were being returned to the Ministry. Premjayantha is due to leave for Japan today. Sirisena’s speech was to give rise to speculation that a ministerial re-shuffle would get under way on Wednesday, but it did not materialise. The UNP list was going to and fro.

Sirisena asserts his authority

At the weekly Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Sirisena was more assertive. He reversed a Cabinet decision adopted last week to spend five billion rupees to issue electronic tablets to students. This is how the matter was reported exclusively in these columns last week: “….The cost of the entire exercise was five billion rupees. Sirisena declared that it was a large amount of money. He asked whether it would not be advisable to spend a billion rupees first on a pilot project and later expand it. This was because there were several schools in the country without tables and chairs. Others lacked buildings and other amenities.

ickremesinghe was not in favour. He declared somewhat tersely that the necessary funds for the purpose have been allocated in the 2018 budget and he had made personal pledges that such a project would be implemented. Sirisena then gave in saying if the Premier insisted he had no option, said a Minister present.” This week, however, Sirisena did a complete about-turn and insisted that the decision be reversed and the matter put on hold.

Sirisena also put on hold for a week another recommendation by Premier Wickremesinghe (on behalf of Highways Minister Kiriella) a Japanese 100 billion Yen (US$ 936 million) proposal for the Section 3 of the Central Expressway. This was after a heated exchange between Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka and Highways Minister Lakshman Kiriella. Minister Ranawaka complained that even before the signing of the loan negotiated for this purpose, there was a recommendation to award the tender to Taisei Corporation of Japan. He said that the recommendation to begin “immediate implementation of the project with the selected contractor using their own funds on the basis of reimbursement of relevant costs” was irregular.

Ranawaka also pointed out that major projects costing millions of dollars or billions of rupees should comply with the national physical plan. That was to ensure that projects are undertaken on pre identified priorities instead of being ad hoc. Moreover, the Colombo-Kandy Highway has been found to be going through a fragile area. He noted that land acquisition alone would cost Rs 200 billion and a third had to be borne by the Sri Lanka Government. If this project were to be accepted, he warned, we would have to cut costs from all other projects. A sarcastic comment on Government inaction over the matter came from Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa who declared “this looks like Nero playing the fiddle whilst Rome was burning.” Sirisena has put off the decision by a week. By this time, a source close to him said, there may be a new Minister in charge of highways. The matter is to be reviewed thereafter, the source added.

On the other hand, Minister Kiriella who is to switch his portfolio of Higher Education and Housing with Kabir Hashim’s Public Enterprises sought to bring under his purview the Central Expressway Project. This has, however, not been successful. Premier Wickremesinghe, in his memorandum as Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs, among other matters, to the Cabinet said that:

“The Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UNJ (BTMU) has been appointed by the Government as the Mandated Lead Arranger (MLA) for making financing arrangements for the construction of CEP III Project through a syndicated yen loan from Japanese banks, together with Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) as the Export Credit Agency of the facility.

“As directed by the Cabinet of Ministers on 20th July 2016 for issuing mandate letter to BTMU, the Department of External Resources negotiated the terms and conditions of the facility and finally agreed that the terms and other obligations of the GOSL (Government of Sri Lanka) relating to the facility as follows:
“Facility Amount JPY 100 billion (Note: $ 936 million)

“Six months JPY Tibor plus 0.95 per cent. Arrangement Fee: 0.8 flat of the facility Amount at the execution of General Loan Agreement and 0.37 flat of the amount of each Individual Loan Agreement; Commercial Fee 0.25 per annum; Agency Fee US $ 30,000/US $ annual, thereafter. 25 years including four years Availability period plus two years Grace period plus 9 years Repayment period; NEXI insurance – maximum 10.7 % flat, upfront of each tranches of the facility; ESDD Consultant JPY 30 million (to be paid by the Government of Sri Lanka) and Legal Counsels NEXI/BTMU Us $ 201,312 to be paid by the Government of Sri Lanka.

“Therefore the Effective Interest Rate (AIR) of the above facility is about 2.7 per annum inclusive of all related costs. According to the indicated time plan agreed with the financier, the GLA (General Loan Agreement) is expected to be signed in April 2018. Considering the above progress of the facility arrangement, the Ministry of Highways and Higher Education and RDA have proposed to deploy the contractor to start the project subject to the finalisation of the above loan with the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ of Japan.

“The following arrangement has been made by the Ministry of Highways and Higher Education in the contract agreements in view of the awarding the contract and commence the work prior to the execution of GLA, avoiding the possible documentation delays of facility arrangement with financiers.

“As per the bidding condition, contractor shall continue with the works with their own funds until the loan is activated. Further, in the event of the Loan Agreement is not signed on or before 365 calendar days from the date of signing Contract Agreement, the Contract shall automatically stand terminated. Further, as per negotiations concluded with Taisei Corporation, the Employer (RDA) shall pay the contractor, only for the works done using their own funds including the financing cost incurred by the contractor.”

Since the construction of Phase III of the Central Expressway from Potuhera to Galagedera via Rambukkana, is costing almost a billion dollars, it does raise questions on whether it is a high priority one. This is particularly in the light of a number of other projects which have been labelled as high priority but lie without funds. Raising a serious question is how a move is being made to hurriedly commence a project even before a loan agreement is in place. This again is a snub on Premier Wickremesinghe, just after overturning the tablets for student’s project and insisting that all decisions of the CCEM be directed to the Cabinet only through the National Economic Council (NEC). These were indicators that even in the event of the coalition Government choosing to continue in office, the relationship between the two leaders could be acrimonious. “What the Prime Minister proposes the President disposes”, said a Minister. That brings one to the all-important question of how long they could continue together if things are to remain this way. In this regard, answers given by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to questions posed by the Sunday Times are of relevance. See box story on this page.

Rishad-Malik encounter

On the subject of a ‘major’ cabinet reshuffle, which President Sirisena sought, there were delays with some candidates for portfolios not getting his approval. The process has not been without dramas. One was when Minister Malik Samarawickrema met Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiuddin at ‘Temple Trees’ to tell him that Sirisena was not happy with his performance. Hence, he planned a change in his portfolio. In the alternative, he said, he may lose some institutions like the Food Department and the Consumer Affairs Authority. This was on the grounds that he had not done enough on the rising cost of living. Bathiuddin asked how this could be when President Sirisena had asked to support him saying he would get additional subjects. He had politely turned down that request.

An infuriated Bathiuddin sought a meeting with Sirisena thereafter. He told the President he could not be accused of being responsible for the rising cost of living. There were floods, drought and the pricies of some commodities were high. It was Minister Samarawickrema who headed the Cabinet Sub Committee on the Cost of Living. The Mannar District parliamentarian Bathiuddin asked Sirisena whether he had sought to make changes in his portfolio. He said it has been conveyed to him by Samarawickrema. Sirisena was angry. He got Samarawickrema on the telephone and asked “ai ek ekkanawa maath ekka kotawanney” why are you pitting others against me? Samarawickrema denied the charge and said Bathiuddin’s portfolio would remain intact. Sirisena then handed over the telephone receiver to Bathiuddin. Samarawickrema repeated the same assurance. Evidently the move to shift Bathiuddin failed.

Needless to say, that even partners in the UNP led United National Front (UNF) have expressed concerns over recent political developments. Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) leader and Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka told the Sunday Times, “The people’s verdict is very clear. We have not addressed the economic necessities whilst in power. The steep rise in the cost of living has not been addressed. We failed in the distribution of fertilizer. There is no development projects in the villages. How are we going to pay our debts?

“No one is punished for wrongdoings. Take the Meetotamulla Avurudhu tragedy at the garbage dump. We have not taken any action against those responsible for the deaths of innocent people. Power blackouts have taken place. No one has been punished. Fuel shortages have occurred. No one has been dealt with. Cases linked to large scale corruption have been ignored. We need to re-brand and re-structure our Government. Those in the SLFP and the UNP should give the correct leadership. Otherwise we will be in trouble.”

There is soul searching now by both the SLFP and the UNP leadership who want to give a new face to a Government almost three years old. Many a statement about the new measures and changes are now in the public domain. There is still suspense over who will take what portfolio. And a nation has been kept in the dark for the past two weeks. The next phase is the second innings of the coalition. The question is whether the situation will change for the better or remain the same in the minds of most Sri Lankans. That, one might say, is politics in Sri Lanka.