Thursday, July 5, 2018

Trade war set to escalate as Fed warns of economic hit

A Chinese official warned July 5 the United States is “opening fire” on the world with its tariff threats. He added China would respond to any U.S. measures. (Reuters)

By Danielle Paquette and Emily RauhalaJuly 5 at 2:59 PM

BEIJING — Some U.S. companies are pulling back investments in equipment and jobs “as a result of uncertainty over trade policy,” the Federal Reserve warned Thursday, adding that the U.S. clashes with trading partners were already huring the stock market and could also harm overall economic growth.

The statement by the Fed, as part of a recap of the U.S. central bank’s June meeting, was the latest indication of the high-stakes of President Trump’s brewing trade war. The conflict will escalate further Thursday night when U.S. tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports take effect, with Beijing planning to swiftly respond on an equal amount of goods.

In its statement, the Fed indicated it planned to continue to gradually raise rates as it seeks to return monetary policy to a more normal state — after years of extraordinary efforts to stimulate growth — but cautioned that it was watching the trade conflict carefully.

Most Fed senior officials, the statement said, “noted that uncertainty and risks associated with trade policy had intensified and were concerned that such uncertainty and risks eventually could have negative effects on business sentiment and investment spending.”

Here in Beijing, in response to the U.S. tariffs, border officers here could receive the order as early as midnight to slap new taxes on hundreds of U.S. products, including pork, poultry, soybeans and corn.

That would begin an unprecedented commerce battle between the world’s two largest economies — a conflict analysts fear could rattle markets, cripple trade, and undermine ties between the United States and China at a time when the administration seeks Beijing’s cooperation on North Korea.

As the global business community watches the clock, China is moving to pin the fallout on Trump, framing the United States as a bully the Asian nation is forced to confront. A state media editorial this week called the United States’ “dictatorial bent” a global threat, while officials said China will “absolutely not” take the first swing.

President Trump escalated his trade war with China on June 18, and threatened to put in place tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. (Reuters)

“The United States will be opening fire on the whole world and also opening fire on itself,” Gao Feng, a spokesman for the Chinese Commerce Ministry, said Thursday.

[Editorial: Trump’s trade war with China is over for now. China won.]

Those measures appear to be aimed at the United States’ heartland, which helped lift Trump into the White House. Farmers in the overwhelmingly red Midwest fear they will lose access to China’s lucrative market and be left with the bill for excess produce and livestock.

What happens next is anyone’s guess, analysts say, since both sides have pledged not to back down.

“It’s a dark day tomorrow for global trade,” predicted Jörg Wuttke, former president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

Trump’s trade war has started. Who’s been helped and who’s been hurt? VIEW GRAPHIC

Uncertainty hangs over companies, supply chains and investment plans, he said. U.S. firms in China are already reporting spikes in random inspections at ports.

One U.S. manufacturer said Chinese authorities on average used to inspect 2 percent of the vehicles it sent abroad. Since June, agents have taken a closer look at every product.

“Don’t expect the ‘war’ to be out in the open in some imaginary tit-for-tat tariff battlefield,” said James Zimmerman, a partner in the Beijing office of international law firm Perkins Coie LLP. “The real battle will be on the flanks” — in the form of unnecessary inspections, product quarantines and heightened regulatory scrutiny.

Supply chains will also suffer a blow, said Cliff Tan, East Asian head of global markets research at Japan’s MUFG Bank in Hong Kong. The initial set of U.S. tariffs could rock companies in the technology sector and hike the price of “Walmart-type” products.

“It’s like a war where everybody points the guns at themselves,” Tan said.

The conflict over U.S.-China trade has been brewing for years but has intensified rapidly in 2018. On April 3, the United States released a list of targets for proposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports, taking aim at high-tech and industrial goods. On April 4, China fired back.

In the months since, the tit for tat has escalated, with the U.S. threatening successive rounds of tariffs on goods valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. China vowed to match U.S. moves, using both quantitative and qualitative measures.

Kenneth Jarrett, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, said that a sense of anxiety has settled over business in the port city.

“My hope is that with this start, people will feel that the cost is too great and we will not move on to the second wave,” he said.

Thus far, the U.S. president has showed no interest in a last-minute truce. Though he has called Chinese President Xi Jinping a “good friend,” he has expressed no apprehension over what could happen in either country when the first tariffs land.

“Trade wars are good,” Trump recently tweeted, “and easy to win.”

Yang Liu contributed from Beijing.

Japan’s China Deals Are Pure Pragmatism

Even Donald Trump can't push Tokyo into Beijing's arms.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (L) shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping (R) before the G20 leaders' family photo in Hangzhou on September 4, 2016. (GREG BAKER/AFP/Getty Images)

BY J. BERKSHIRE MILLER-

JULY 3, 2018

Several analysts have recently argued that unpredictable and blunt foreign-policy moves by the United States under President Donald Trump have prompted Japan — America’s most important East Asian ally — to move toward China. An article in the Wall Street Journal was headlined “Trump Trade Fight Brings Japan and China Together,” dubbing them “strange bedfellows.” Others have used the uncertainty caused by Trump as the background to a thaw between the two East Asian rivals.

Yet while there’s some truth to these arguments, Tokyo isn’t about to ditch Washington for Beijing anytime soon. Japan’s policy toward China is becoming more pragmatic in the face of growing Chinese power and a more uncertain U.S. role, but the last thing it wants is to see the United States disappear from East Asia.

During his first week in office, Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the region’s flagship multilateral trade deal that was previously shepherded by Washington and co-piloted by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He has subsequently attempted to shake down long-standing allies, including Japan and South Korea, with accusations that they profit from the U.S. security alliance at a minimal cost.

His more recent full-frontal attack on trade issues has affected allies and rivals — such as China — alike. Japan, like Canada and the European Union, has received no favors despite being a loyal long-term ally to the United States. Instead, the Trump administration has slapped large tariffs on Japanese steel and aluminium, citing draconian provisions that framed such moves as necessary for U.S. national security.

Japan is also concerned that the Trump administration is overselling a deal with North Korea that has no reality on the ground and that Washington lacks a comprehensive strategy — despite landing several blunt blows — for dealing with China’s regional assertiveness. While Japan has been a vocal supporter of the maximum pressure campaign aimed at bringing North Korea to the negotiating table, led by the Trump administration, it has also been wary of recent developments that have been viewed as providing concessions to Pyongyang for free.

Shortly after the recent Singapore meeting, Trump offered to suspend bilateral military war games with South Korea — dubbed Ulchi Freedom Guardian — slated for later this year. Trump’s announcement, which was apparently made without consulting either Japan or South Korea, has catalyzed doubts on the U.S. approach to the Korean Peninsula. Tokyo is also deeply worried over Trump’s articulation that the exercises are “provocative” and “expensive.” This type of language re-emphasizes concerns that the White House increasingly views alliances in the region as a financial and security burden, rather than as an essential component of U.S. Asia policy and regional stability.

At the same time, there have also been notable improvements to the Japan-China relationship. Last month, Japan hosted Chinese Premier Li Keqiang for a bilateral visit, alongside the trilateral summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. During Li’s visit, Tokyo and Beijing agreed to establish a Belt and Road Council and also finalized a long-discussed air-sea contact mechanism to avert an unintended skirmish in the East China Sea, where they continue to clash over disputed islands. On trade issues, both sides — which remain heavily interdependent — have interests in pushing back on Trump’s protectionist moves and promoting a more stable trade climate in the region. Despite large differences on the ambition of trade agreements, Japan and China continue to negotiate both minilaterally and multilaterally through the China-Japan-Korea free trade agreement and the larger Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

Yet these steps of improvement, while welcome, are modest and incremental. In other words, what we are seeing here is pragmatism, not détente. The main structural issues of strategic mistrust in the relationship — namely, the dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands and natural resources in the East China Sea, China’s regional assertiveness and rapid military modernization, the presence of the U.S.-Japan alliance, and the relationship with Taiwan — remain deep-rooted and largely unaddressed. Second, while there are legitimate concerns in Japan, and among most U.S. allies, on the Trump administration’s increasingly hostile rhetoric about alliances, Tokyo remains fully tethered to Washington as its security guarantor. This point has not changed even with Trump’s rhetorical barbs.

Rather than name and shame Washington for its protectionist language on trade — a step that would further reduce U.S. credibility in Asia and embolden China’s position — Japan has been consciously making an effort to keep the United States engaged in the region through an intensive campaign of diplomacy. This has been most prominent in South and Southeast Asia, where Abe has worked hard to enhance and develop Japan’s strategic relationships with countries such as India, Vietnam, the Philippines, and others. This move is not aimed at balancing against an unreliable Washington but at keeping the United States involved in the region through a web of minilateral groupings — but also through Japan’s own bilateral relationships — which support U.S. goals in the region, such as the freedom of navigation and the resolution of disputes through international law.

Finally, while Japan continues to retrofit its security and defense posture under the Abe administration, these moves are evolutionary and part of a process that has been happening for decades under different Japanese administrations. Key developments under the Abe administration — such as the establishment of a National Security Council, National Security Strategy, and revised bilateral defense guidelines with the United States — are largely intended to complement and enhance the U.S.-Japan alliance, rather than pivot away in fear of a retrenching America.

While the recent steps in the relationship between Japan and China are not a nothing burger, they are also far from a sign toward rapprochement. In the coming months, we are likely to see a more pragmatic relationship between Beijing and Tokyo but no accommodation on their main areas of divergence. The fate of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party may play a crucial role. If Abe is able to continue on for a third term as party head, and thereby prime minister, relations with Beijing will stay on track. A change at the top, however, could add a dose of instability back to the relationship.

Modi's bonanza to Indian farmers hampered by funds, storage

Women plant rice saplings at a paddy field in a village in Nagaon district, in the northeastern state of Assam, India, July 3, 2018. Picture taken July 3, 2018. REUTERS/Anuwar Hazarika

Rajendra Jadhav, Mayank Bhardwaj-JULY 5, 2018

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pre-election gambit to sharply hike state-mandated prices for summer crops, including rice, may mean little to millions of farmers, as the government lacks the storage and funds needed to buy most of the produce.

The median increase in the so-called minimum support prices (MSPs) approved by the government on Wednesday was 25 percent, compared with 3-4 percent in the first four years in office for Modi, whose bid for a second term next year is expected to be much tougher than his landslide victory in 2014.

The government announces MSPs for most crops to set a benchmark, but state agencies mainly buy limited quantities of staples such as rice and wheat at those prices, restricting benefits of higher prices to only around 7 percent of the country’s 263 million farmers, according to various studies.

Implementing the scheme in full would be expensive, economists say. The government’s fiscal deficit target for the current financial year, at 3.3 percent of GDP, is already under pressure due to high oil prices.

“With funding under stress, the government can’t widen the scope of agri purchases,” said Sanjay Mookim, India equity strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “And even if it does, there is no storage available and you can’t build storage in two-three months.”

The ministries of agriculture and food did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The government said its limited purchases could cost it 150 billion rupees ($2.18 billion) this year, although industry officials say it is difficult to estimate actual spending, which depends on the quantity procured.

MSPs typically dictate crops that most farmers opt for, often leading to a glut of certain commodities, millions of tonnes of which have to be sold into a depressed local market at well below the cost of production, sparking angry farmer protests across the country.

For graphic on India approves hikes to crop support prices click reut.rs/2tTP2lq

“What’s the use of a hike when we did not even get last year’s MSP?” asked Purshotam Sontakke from a village in Wardha district in the western state of Maharashtra, who sold soybean at 2,700 rupees per 100 kg in 2017, 11 percent below the state-set price.

A crash in farm commodity prices over the past few months has led to a waning of Modi’s popularity in the countryside - where more than two-thirds of India’s 1.3 billion people live - prompting the premier to invite a group of farmers to his residence last week and promise MSPs at 1.5 times of input cost.

He called the latest hike historic and said he was committed to do more for farmers. His stated goal is to double farmer’s income by 2022.

LACK OF STORAGE

State agencies bought only 71 million tonnes of wheat and rice in 2017/18 out of 210 million tonnes produced. In the same year, the country produced hundreds of millions of tonnes of oilseeds and horticulture crops like onion and potatoes, which are not typically procured by the government.

The food ministry told parliament bit.ly/2z8C3RO in March that the peak storage demand for food grains like rice and wheat was 60 million tonnes for the central pool, compared with a capacity of 73.5 million tonnes, 17 percent of which was open storage covered by plastic or other material.

The ministry says on its website that the government will add more storage capacity by 2020.

“Higher MSPs are welcome but there is inadequate public procurement at MSP, except in the case of wheat and rice,” said M.S. Swaminathan, an renowned agriculture scientist.

“This is clear from the experience of farmers who cultivated more pulses, on the expectation of procurement but were let down by a crash in market prices.”

For graphic on India Government Food Subsidy click reut.rs/2IQbsZF

ELECTION PLEDGE

During election campaigning in 2014, Modi promised steep hikes in MSPs and the doubling of farmers’ income soon after becoming prime minister.

But double-digit food inflation and a higher fiscal deficit forced him to raise MSPs only by low single digits over the past four years. This year’s hefty hike marked a major shift in the government’s approach.

But Harish Galipelli, head of commodities and currencies at Inditrade Derivatives & Commodities in Mumbai, said farmers sold below MSP even last year and were likely to do so again given piles of grains and sugar lying in private warehouses.

The below-MSP rates, however, are as much as 30 percent higher than global prices for some commodities like pulses, making exports uncompetitive, Galipelli added.

The latest hike will only widen the difference and hit India’s farm exports, which fell to $33 billion in 2016/17 from $42.6 billion in 2013/14, said the India head of a global trading firm who declined to be named citing company policy.

“The glut will only increase in the country with higher MSPs,” he said.

Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav, additional reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Krishna N. Das and Raju Gopalakrishnan

Thailand: Rescuers race against the monsoon rains

Jonathan Miller-5 Jul 2018Asia Correspondent

The boys have been trapped by floodwater in the cave system for 12 days. If they’re aren’t freed soon the arrival of the monsoon rain could mean months stuck underground.

Now the pressure is on rescuers in northern Thailand to find a way to free 12 boys and their football coach stranded in a cave, before torrential rain hits.

The boys have been trapped by floodwater in the cave system for 12 days. If they’re aren’t freed soon the arrival of the monsoon rain could mean months stuck underground.

Canada heatwave: more than 30 deaths reported as extreme weather continues

Officials warn that the sweltering heat and humidity are expected to continue for at least another day

Children play in the water fountains at the Place des Arts in Montreal, Canada, on 3 July 2018. Photograph: Eva Hambach/AFP/Getty Images

Ashifa Kassam -Thu 5 Jul 2018

A heatwave rolling through central and eastern Canada has caused the deaths of more than 30 people, with officials warning that the extreme weather conditions are expected to continue for at least another day.
The sweltering combination of heat and humidity, which began on Friday, has been linked by health officials to the deaths of 33 people across southern Quebec.

Most of the victims lived alone, had health issues and did not have access to air conditioning, David Kaiser, a physician at Montreal’s public health department, told Reuters.

The furnace-like conditions are expected to continue on Thursday, with Environment Canada issuing warnings for southern Quebec, along with parts of Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Montreal reached a high of 34C (93F) degrees on Wednesday, with a humidity index near 40 (104F).

On Thursday temperatures are expected to rise slightly to 35C degrees while humidity values will reach between 40 and 45 in the region – a level at which people are warned to avoid exertion.
Temperatures are expected to cool to 24C on Friday.

“My thoughts are with the loved ones of those who have died in Quebec during this heat wave,” the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau wrote on Twitter. “The record temperatures are expected to continue in central & eastern Canada, so make sure you know how to protect yourself & your family,” he added, along with a link to information on how to cope with extreme heat.

Montreal’s emergency services said in a statement that they have been stretched to the limit as more than 1,200 heat-related calls a day – a 30% increase over the usual – have come pouring in. They urged Montrealers not to dial 911 for non-urgent ailments.

The city’s fire and police departments have visited 20,000 homes to check on residents in recent days, while the city extended the hours of local swimming pools and community centres equipped with air conditioning.

In 2002, the city became one of the first in North America to adopt a heat response plan. The plan was refined in 2010, after a heatwave led to more than 100 deaths in the Montreal area.

Valérie Plante, Montreal’s mayor, called on the public to help keep residents safe. “I’m counting on Montrealers to knock on doors, maybe of a neighbour, just to find out if the person is OK. It’s a team effort,” she told reporters.

Philippe Couillard, the premier of Quebec, praised the response of public health officials. “It’s tragic, but whenever there are heatwaves like this – and we will have more of them because of climate change – it is the weak and vulnerable who are affected first,” he said. “The good news is that according to the weather reports, this heatwave will break in a few days. But we have to expect episodes like this every year.”

Sperm quality improved by adding nuts to diet, study says

Eating nuts regularly could improve sperm health, a study suggests.

By Alex Therrien-4 July 2018

Men who ate about two handfuls of mixed almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts daily for 14 weeks improved their sperm count and had more viable "swimmers", scientists found.

The study comes amid a decline in sperm counts across the Western world, linked to pollution, smoking and diet.

Researchers said there was growing evidence a healthy diet could boost the odds of conceiving.

About one in seven couples have difficulty getting pregnant and about 40-50% of cases of infertility are attributable to men.

The scientists randomly divided 119 healthy men between the ages of 18 and 35 into two groups:

One added 60 grams (2oz) of nuts a day to their normal diet
One made no changes to what they ate

Those in the nut group improved sperm:

count by 14%
vitality by 4%
motility (movement) by 6%
morphology (shape and size) by 1%

All of these are the parameters the World Health Organization lists as measurements of sperm quality and are associated with male fertility.

Experts said the study backed up others that showed a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and the B vitamin folate improved fertility.

Nuts contain many of these and other nutrients.

"Evidence is accumulating in the literature that healthy lifestyle changes such as following a healthy dietary pattern might help conception," said Dr Albert Salas-Huetos, from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, in Spain, who led the study.

'Interesting academically'

However, researchers cautioned that these men were healthy and apparently fertile, so it was not clear whether the findings would apply to the wider population, including men with fertility problems.

Allan Pacey, professor of andrology at the University of Sheffield, who was not involved in the research, said it was also possible that men in the nut group might have made other positive changes to their lives not taken into account by the study.

Dr Virginia Bolton, formerly consultant clinical embryologist at Guy's Hospital in London, said the findings were "interesting academically" but it was impossible to say what effect they would have in terms of boosting the chances of pregnancy.

She added: "But meanwhile, until we get the answers to the questions, we should all be encouraging all of our patients to stop drinking alcohol, stop smoking, eat healthily, all of the standard things."

The results of the study are being presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Barcelona.

Follow Alex on Twitter.

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

“WE DON’T WANT THE MILITARY TO RUN FARMS ON OUR LANDS” SMAPANTHAN TELLS UN

(Image courtesy of the TNA)

03/07/2018

“We don’t want the Military to run farms on our lands which they are doing now, we want them to be out of these commercial activities which hinder the livelihoods of our people; That decisions of releasing lands should not be left alone to the armed forces but the government must decide and implement. ”, TNA leader Sampanthan has told The United Nations Resident Coordinator for Sri Lanka his excellency Terence D. Jones today. Issuing a press release TNA further said that “we don’t want the entire military to be framed as criminals, but certainly those who committed grave atrocities must be punished.”

(Press Statement 03 July 2018)

The United Nations Resident Coordinator for Sri Lanka his excellency Terence D. Jones paid a courtesy call to the Leader of the Opposition and the Tamil National Alliance Hon R Sampanthan today in Parliament.

Raising his concerns on the implementation of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) resolution Mr. Sampanthan said many aspects of the resolution are not seriously addressed, not only the Government of Sri Lanka cosponsored the resolution but it did request for more time to implement the resolution and the International community graciously accepted that request, therefore the government cannot afford to go back on their commitments.

Mr Sampanthan also highlighted the importance of adopting a New Constitution which will ensure the non-recurrence of the past which is also a crucial matter stipulated in the UNHRC resolution. “There had been a lot of work done regard to this matter since 1988 and what we need now is the political will and the courage to take it further,” Mr Sampanthan said. We will remain committed in this process and will continue to exert pressure on the government to fulfil its commitments to both its own people and to the international community” said Mr Sampanthan.

Mr Sampanthan also raised his concerns over the slow phase in which the lands are being released in the North and East. “we don’t want the Military to run farms on our lands which they are doing now, we want them to be out of these commercial activities which hinder the livelihoods of our people said Mr Sampanthan. TNA spokesman and Jaffna District Parliamentarian Mr Sumanthiran pointed out that decisions of releasing lands should not be left alone to the armed forces but the government must decide and implement. Speaking further Mr Sampanthan said when the government overreact to the extremists its only becomes an impediment to achieving reconciliation”.

Our people are unhappy, they contributed substantially to bring this government to power, but the government has shown very little progress in the past. our young people are being discriminated against in many matters especially with regard to the employment opportunities, our people are suffering continually. This government accepted the need for certain things to be done, and they must take necessary steps to address those said Mr Sampanthan.

Speaking on the issue of accountability Mr Sampanthan said, we don’t want the entire military to be framed as criminals, but certainly those who committed grave atrocities must be punished.

The UN Resident Coordinator assured that despite USA withdrawal from the UNHRC council the International communities concerns will remain unchanged with regard to the progress made by the government of Sri Lanka towards the implementation of the resolution adopted in 2015.

Along with Mr Sampanthan, the TNA spokesman and the Jaffna District Parliamentarian Mr M. A. Sumanthiran was also present at the meeting which lasted for an hour.

Winning trust and confidence internationally and locally

by Jehan Perera-July 2, 2018, 10:07 pm

The war ended nine years ago but the country has still to address issues of healing and transition meaningfully or effectively. This may be disappointing but it is not too surprising. Dealing with the past is never easy. In Colombia, where a peace accord between the government and rebels was signed in 2016, and ended a five decade long civil war which had led to more than 200,000 deaths, a presidential election was held last month. The government candidate from the party of the president who had signed the peace accord lost and the opposition candidate from the party of a hardline president who fought the war against the rebels won. This has thrown the internationally, backed peace process into doubt even though the former president and rebel leader were awarded the Nobel peace prize.

To meet international commitments, the Sri Lankan government has formulated a post-war reconciliation process with international support. While the government is progressing with technical details of mechanisms it hopes to introduce, much of the task of building public consensus to support such mechanisms and the process itself is being left to civil society organisations. However, civil society has neither the resources nor the media coverage to work on a national scale in the absence of governmental leadership. There needs to be governmental leadership.

At the present time the government is giving space to civil society, and also space to nationalist groups, to carry out their activities, but the government leadership itself is restrained in taking the message to the people or giving public leadership to the campaign for reform. The challenge today is to communicate to the people and explain to them what needs to be done. At the present time the public has little knowledge of the process, or opportunity to participate in debate, and therefore there is no real acceptance of the process. The failure to communicate on the part of the government is partly due to the disunity within the government which is composed of two formerly rival political parties.

EXPLOITING FEARS

Like in Colombia, the opposition is utilizing the democratic space that the government provides to widen the pre-existing rifts between the religious and ethnic communities by stoking up nationalist fears. The government’s main achievements are in the realm of an improved framework of good governance and human rights. This has obtained appreciation by the international community. The European Union, during the third meeting of the Working Group on Governance, Rule of Law and Human Rights under the European Union-Sri Lanka Joint Commission in May this year, commended efforts by the Sri Lankan government for its progress in protecting and enhancing human rights.

The political problem for the government, however, is that progress in setting up a system of good governance are no readily visible or understood as such by the general population. Mass sentiment is more easily swayed by nationalist rhetoric that points to the dangers of compromising on national security. The general population is also desirous of material development that is visible such as highways or punitive actions whereby prominent political leaders are sent to prison for corruption. Therefore, there is a need for a strong communication strategy which includes counter messaging campaigns.

The government’s approach to governance so far has been to take a more hands-off than hands-on approach. The government has been commended by the EU for setting the framework for good governance by passing new laws. However, the problem with this approach is that it does not take into account the Sri Lankan political ethos of demonstrating an ethos of care and political patronage. People want to feel that their leaders care for them and therefor expect to see them come to them and solve their problems. President Ranasinghe Premadasa understood this well when he commenced the Gam Udawa village reawakening scheme and went and personally spent days with the people in their localities. He also gave emphasis to the problem-solving mechanism of the mobile presidential secretariat that gave on-the-spot solutions to the problems of the people.

The need to demonstrate an ethos of care and political patronage at the local level is well known by politicians who campaign for the votes of the people and who cannot rely on their reputations alone to bring in the votes. It is often the case that though local level politicians do not have much in the way of their education level or integrity they are nevertheless capable of winning the hearts and minds of their local electorates. This is in contrast to those who have much better education and integrity, but who fail to go to the people to directly engage with them and help them to deal with their problems instead preferring to remain in the decision-making centres of the capital.

WINNING TRUST

Cognisant of the need to provide the people with tangible benefits in the run up to the national elections that are falling due within the next 18 months, and mindful of the electoral debacle at the local government elections held in February this year, the government has recently started implementing three major accelerated development projects. They have been called Enterprise Sri Lanka, Gamperaliya and Grama Shakthi and are meants to develop rural infrastructure, give soft loans to small and medium businesses in the rural areas and commence 15 large development projects to develop both urban and rural communities.

It is important that the government leadership itself gets involved in the process of implementing these activities and engage directly with the people whom it is intended to benefit, rather than leave it to lower level politicians and government officials alone to undertake those tasks.

Recently the National Peace Council intervened to secure a pipe borne water supply to a Tamil community located in a tea plantation area in the Southern Province. This was done with the participation of Buddhist and other religious clergy of the area who have formed an inter religious committee through which they foster positive relationships between themselves and with the multi ethnic and multi religious communities amongst whom they live. The reason for their intervention in this particular case was the failure of the state to provide an impoverished Tamil community with their basic needs.

A Buddhist nun who was part of the group said that her concern was the wellbeing of the people amongst whom she lived. It mattered to her that the local community did not have access to motorable roads and to clean water supply. She said that the former president had promised this to the people. She said the government had made plans to provide this to the people but before they could deliver on their promise the former president lost the presidential elections and lost the power to govern. With that loss, the plans of the government were not implemented, and she was sad about that. The new government has brought in new laws, political freedom and a new framework of governance that provides for better governance, but the good nun’s heart lay with the previous government leaders who were going to do something for the people amongst whom she lived.

I was in Brussels last week and met with EU officials among others. One of them recounted how Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had visited Brussels during the time of the campaign to get back the GSP+ tariff concession that the previous government had lost due to their violations of internationals covenants and human rights. The EU official said that it was not easy for any country to get back GSP+ once they lost it. But Prime Minister Wickremesinghe’s competent and comprehensive understanding of governance issues and human rights and what needed to be done had won for him the admiration and trust of the EU parliamentarians and officials with whom he engaged with. This ability to inspire trust and confidence needs to be taken from the international and capital city realm of high finance and cosmopolitan life to the grassroots of Sri Lanka by the government.

Mullaitivu residents stop further land grabs from Archaeology Dept

04Jul 2018

Residents in Mullaitivu on Tuesday stopped officials from the Department of Archaeology from surveying in land in view of what they believe is an attempt to acquire further land in the region.

The residents, who where accompanied by local councillors and members of the Northern Provincial Council, TNA and TNPF, arrived en masse as officials were setting up equipment to survey the land, and demanded that they leave immediately.

Already over 20,000 acres of land have declared as state land by the Forestry Department, residents said, accusing the government of attempting to acquire more land by stealth through the Archaeology Department.

The protest by residents is the latest in a series of protests and demonstrations by residents against ongoing land occupation by state officials and the military in the North-East.

MMDA: Colombo Telegraph Leaks Complete Saleem Marsoof Committee Report, ‘Leaked Report’ Redacted, Incomplete And Distorted

A leaked version of the report compiled by a committee led by Justice Saleem Marsoof to amend the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) published in the website Groundviews is incomplete and distorted. Colombo Telegraph obtained the original and complete report and publishes it below.

JULY 2, 2018

Six long months have gone by after the finalization of the MMDA Committee Report and its hand over by the Chairman of the Committee Justice Saleem Marsoof, PC to the Minister of Justice Thalatha Atukorale on 22nd January 2018, but still the Report has not been officially published, and several applications for access to the Report filed by women’s activists are still pending before the Right to Information Commission. The only silver lining in the dark horizon has been the publication of a “leaked”, redacted, incomplete and to some extent distorted yet useful version of the Report for the reform of the MMDA in the Groundviews of 5th April 2018.

The Marsoof Committee had been appointed by the former Minister of Justice and Law Reform Hon. Milinda Moragoda in July 2009 to consider and propose amendments to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act, No. 13 of 1951 (MMDA) and the upgrading of Quazi Courts, as Minister Moragoda was of the opinion, as stated in the letters of appointment issued to the members of the Committee, that a “review of the Muslim personal law and the system of the Quazi Courts was urgently necessary”. The general public, in particular affected Muslim litigants of either sex, have anxiously awaited the publication of the Report of the Committee and its implementation, but since of late, they have expressed their frustrations in many ways.

It is not surprising that on the very day the MMDA Report was handed over to the Minister, the Muslim Personal Law Reform Action Group (MPLRAG) speaking on behalf of all affected Muslim women, expressed their anguish and anxiety against the delay in handing over of the Report which had been finalized on 21st December 2017. The MPLRAG also staged a protest in front of the Ministry of Justice at 9 am on 22nd January 2018 to demand the handing over of the report without further delay. Apparently, the women’s activists were not aware that the Report was to be handed over to the Minister that very day, but intelligence reports about the proposed demonstration prompted the Ministry of Justice to change the time of handing over of the Report from 9 am to 11 am in order to avoid embarrassment to the much-respected Chairman of the MMDA Committee.

The aspirations of long suffering women for the improvement of the Quazi Court system were expressed in the said article published in the Sri Lanka Brief on 22nd January 2018 by the MPLRAG in the following words:-

“We understand that the submission of the report by the Committee is just the start of the process for reforms, as each individual recommendation for amendments to the MMDA will need to be considered in the light of constitutional guarantees of equality and non-discrimination, as well as other human rights standards and Sri Lanka’s international treaty obligations. But the submission of the report we believe, will be a significant step towards the expediting progress on equality and justice for Muslim women. Therefore today’s silent stand is to say NO MORE TO DELAYS and to ask the Minister of Justice, Hon. Thalatha Athukorale to (1) provide the Muslim community with an urgent update of the status of the report and its exact date of submission; (2) ensure that the report once submitted is shared with the public; (3) invite open consultation and dialogue about the contents and recommendations of the report, especially engage with women who are directly affected by the MMDA; (4) brief the Muslim community on the process and timeline as to when the MMDA amendment bill will be prepared and tabled in Parliament; and (5) ensure that any and all amendments considered to the MMDA are in keeping with equality and non-discrimination between Muslim men and women and formulated with full engagement and participation of women’s groups.”