It’s time for different fuels – equations are only equations!

We really must get rid of the consumption at any cost mindset 

Thursday, 23 August 2018

In 2017 Sri Lanka spent an estimated $ 3,427.9 m in importing crude oil and refined petroleum products. Sri Lanka interestingly spent a lot on importing vehicles too. The value indicated is $ 772.7 m, the most significant of the non-food imports.

Sri Lanka has also borrowed and built roads, which are supposed to ease traffic and get us moving from place to place quite quickly. However we note the toll collection goes up mainly during holiday periods. Still the income is hardly sufficient to make ends meet on these roads. A few highways with lots of byways have hardly eased the traffic too.

It is no secret that our transport sector is a significant consumer of imported fuel and there is no sign of easing things up as well. These days our university table talk is all about vehicle permits. Talk about university dons engage in highly-productive luncheon discussions, pushing the frontiers and making the nation competitive. Anyway they too are human and very Sri Lankan!

Cars mean almost everything! The sheer pleasure of getting down from a sparkling top brand perhaps sends such pleasure up and down the spine and the feeling is very much anticipated.

The nation revels on cars and really top brands. Germans really should be proud (or are they really confused) of this little island nation, indebted as they are, yet managing to spend so much on Class X and BMWs, etc. The number of tax files at the Inland Revenue do not increase at the rate vehicle registrations are taking place. Subsequently more water flows in cleaning this grand fleet of ours than washing our bodies and I am sure a decent water consumption audit would reveal the issue.


Big spenders on consumption

We as a nation are big spenders on consumption. What is seen to be new enterprises and landmark investments are all on supporting consumption – condominiums, grand reception halls and hotels. Some who closely watches the system may wonder, how do we get any money to spend like this?

I was at a budget meeting recently and really felt both sympathy and empathy with the senior Treasury official who was quite forthright over the requests from the Ministry officials. He was asking, ‘Do you know the current situation of revenue and debt repayments, when you only ask money to put up buildings!?’ Indeed we appear not to understand the importance of decisions and projects, which will bring us money – there were hardly any projects of that sort from what I heard.

First, have buildings, then have furniture – and we really display our taste in this area too and ensure that the vehicle fleet is ready and awaiting to have field visits. Once an official vehicle is allocated with almost unlimited fuel, there are so many demands on your precious time and we usually are very happy to oblige. With all this spiralling expenditure 2017 recorded historically the highest value of imports ($ 20,980 m). The Central Bank report is quite clear that this value had been mainly due to higher fuel imports.

We must also not forget that in the recent past we have been benefitted by low oil prices. We know that the average import price of crude oil was $ 57.99 per barrel in 2017. Yes the average has gone up from 2016, which had been $ 46.3 per barrel. However we went through periods when the price was $ 147 per barrel! Overall this is not that important as due to no investments in expanding the refinery we continue to refine a fixed amount of crude oil but today spend much more on importing refined petroleum products as was shown.

Of course refined products costs do depend on the crude oil prices. However in buying refined products we then pay the mark up of external refineries, and usually refinery operations are quite profitable. Singaporeans know this very well.


Fuel pricing formula

Today we have a fuel pricing formula and that took a long time coming. The basic philosophy of it is quite fine. I cannot find fault with the equation per se but what I think is we should be paying more attention to doing things differently than the equation. We cannot entertain economics of spending more and paying less.

Subsidising consumption is never good economics. However, we are quite used to that, as popular governments are which take the entire burden from the citizen and allows the person to have all the fun and frolic. The population adores such generous, caring gestures. Even though we may not have been born with such DNA, subsequently we have mutated quite well to such thinking and practices.

However, the formula is challenging. It is logical enough in saying that when prices go up, the selling prices too will go up and when the prices come down the cost of fuel would most certainly come down. The usual experience had been what goes up had stayed up even though at times the world market prices had come down. Hence this logic is certainly appealing.

People really believe prices may come down and that may be the more common occurrence than prices going up. That demonstrates lack of knowledge on the politics and the economics of oil – the scarcity of the resource and the finiteness notwithstanding. We must know that oil is a finite commodity and when we pump up and use oil what is in store below the surface of the earth is dwindling. As the demand is going up the available resources too are getting consumed at an alarming rate.

However, politics are distorting the real picture. Some flood the market and create artificial glut. Some like United States have innovated and had managed to extract from places that they were not able to extract before and thereby transform themselves to a different kind of nation. Fracking changed the US oil and gas industry and thereby the world too. Well from a Sri Lankan point of view we neither extract nor innovate and thus we are at the mercy of what is on offer.

Yes we may be calculating as per Singapore prices i.e. Platt index. However, in the absence of some innovation we are surely would be at the receiving end of adverse pricing. What is then more likely is to witness increasing prices and the formula would righty request every other month to increase cost of fuel.

As cost of fuel is everything then subsequently all others rise too and another aspect so important to the electorate hits the ceiling – prices of food. Food perhaps is the only one thing that gets the more attention than vehicles.



Alternative strategy

It should be remembered that Shell in 1973 thanks to one of its employees who had the foresight managed to secure significant profits as they anticipated the impact of a cartel and was ready. For Sri Lanka it is an imperative that we do have an alternative strategy to depart from our deadly relationship with external fuels.

Now energy in bulk is not an easy thing to replace overnight. The first question to ask is, do we have alternatives? Another is, are we the first nation on earth to think like that? After 1973 all countries were rudely awakened to the reality of dependence and the impact of price escalations. Brazil is an excellent example of a country which took steps and identified alternatives. Japan moved into efficiency very fast and they built their industry around selling efficient appliances too.

Many other countries did quite a number of programs to move away from a 100% dependency. Today you have examples from Costa Rica and Finland to Germany of doing things differently. Sri Lanka never really attempted seriously in this direction other than working strongly on a cook-stove strategy and introducing Anagi Uduna at the end.

There is a need for the country to have an alternative transport fuel road map. At one point the Sustainable Energy Authority actively pursued various options and developed roadmaps. This was not seeking one alternative but a few. From fuel alcohol to all electric, from private to public, from bus to rail, from diesel to electric, from fossil fuel to solar, from algae to cellulose there a number of strategic pathways to take.

One must have the vision to pursue knowing very well an equation cannot deliver what the nation really wants. We really must get rid of the consumption at any cost mindset. That is a dangerous, selfish attitude that we appear to bent on perfecting from individuals to corporates.

It may not be sufficient to admonish the officials to think differently. Maybe one has to execute a specific strategy to wean the nation from this expensive habit via a more visionary forceful action.

Open letter to the UNP hierarchy If you want a change, change the context…

 

“Life does not change if you only modify the content, your life will change if you will dare to alter the context.” 
 ~ Santosh Kalwar 

2018-08-22

In my previous column, I emphasized the need for any political party, if it were to be successful, to name its candidates well ahead of time. However, I do repeat my argument so that its appeal to the reader is surpassed by its urgency to the one leader who has shown some remarkable ability to keep ahead of his followers by avoiding doing just that. The need to retain the leadership of the UNP seems to play an integral part in the political calculus of Ranil Wickremasinghe. On last two occasions, 2009 and 2015, Ranil displayed that inner craving. In 2009 he opted for Sarath Fonseka, a total outsider; not only to the UNP, but to politics altogether, while in 2015 he chose Maithripala Sirisena a one-time UNP hater from Polonnaruwa, which was a UNP bastion during the golden era of the UNP-rule, when the lucrative benefits of the Mahaweli Programmes were flowing to that ancient land. 

• Ranil can still overcome this deficiency. If only he tries to portray an image of strength, decisiveness and allegiance
• The announcement of its candidate by the UNP leadership is seen as a usual routine
• Ranil should realize, once and for all, that delaying the announcement is a lose-lose option
• Ranil’s generation is waning; in the twenty first century, it’s spending its last lap in life

On both those occasions, if his judgment was not to nominate himself, Ranil could have effortlessly nominated a second-tier UNPer for the Presidential race. Either Karu Jayasuriya or a younger candidate such as Sajith Premadasa may have had a fighting chance to win the election. In 2009, Karu Jayasuriya was the assured choice the UNP would have fielded, but in 2015 the context was quite different. The trio of Ranil-Chandrika-Ven. Sobhitha Thera came into the scene and selected Maithripala Sirisena, who by that time had realized that the horrendous rule of the Rajapaksas had to be defeated. In the aftermath of both these elections, the rank and file of the UNP did not have to say anything remotely close to complement towards Ranil. The number of traditional UNP supporters who did not go to the polling booth was more than sufficient to defeat the opponent had they opted to vote! Yet the nett result of the strategy conceived and executed by Ranil was successful in that he managed to remain the leader of the UNP. 

But today’s context is different. The UNP is in power. It is more than likely that the common candidate Maithripala Sirisena would not be a common candidate of any coalition that the UNP will be associated with. In such a positive scenario, the announcement of its candidate by the UNP leadership is seen as a usual routine. Unlike past leaders of the UNP, Ranil is being perceived by his own rank and file as a doubtful winner. His past performance is not very attractive. His lack of charisma and inability to be a sought-after national speaker in the vernacular is woefully noticeable.

The leader of a nationally reputed political party such as the UNP has had in its

 storied past some magnificent speakers of the calibre of Dudley Senanayake, JR Jayewardene, Premadasa, Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali. Among them Ranasinghe Premadasa could be classified as one of the best ever Sinhala Speakers of Sri Lanka. Only Rohana Wijeweera would match him as a mob orator. The wherewithal of such oratorical skills is the most demanded product in an election time. People would trek miles to listen to such an orator. 

Ranil could still overcome this deficiency. If only he tries to portray an image of strength, decisiveness and allegiance to truth and facts, by delivering a calm and stern speech, he could avert this decisive disadvantage. If necessary, he might have to recruit another speechwriter whose fidelity is to the needs and demands of grassroots elements in the country. Great orators are not born. They are always made. One unique example is Premadasa. In his speeches, he had gone to the extent of noting in his written speech as to where he had to pause, at the end of which sentence he had to remove his spectacles etc. for the dramatic effect such gestures would entail. Sir. Winston Churchill used to practise his speeches in the toilet before a mirror. Speechifying, or for that matter all politics, is drama and theatre. Ranil has to adopt the positive aspect of that drama and theatre. Of the two elements of any oration, content and delivery, the average man is moved more by the delivery than the content. When one lacks in delivery, he or she has to make do with the content. Ranil has to be more consistent with the content of his speeches. Continuing on the same lane would eventually take him to a political cul-de-sac and he would have nowhere to turn. 

In 2009, Karu Jayasuriya was the assured choice the UNP would have fielded, but in 2015 the context was quite different. The trio of Ranil-Chandrika-Ven. Sobhitha came into the scene and selected Maithripala Sirisena

If, on the contrary, he opts to adopt a more forward-looking and aggressive posture, I once agin iterate, he has a fighting chance in the coming Presidential Elections. But in the absence of any evidence that he would make such adjustments, both the second tier and the rank and file of the party will keep hoping and praying for ‘anyone but Ranil Wickremasinghe’.

Being preoccupied with the next election is no evil; it is not a political sin to organize for the next election, especially in case of a government power. Ranil’s generation is waning; in the twenty first century, it’s spending its last lap in life. Two generations have come to the political stage since the 1977 JR-led UNP victory. Those two generations do not remember JR, Premadasa, Gamini or Lalith. For those two generations, print media is an anachronism; the predominance of the social media has changed life and the direction in which average socio-political dynamic taking them; it’s unpredictable as any other social transformation in human history. 

A generational thinking, that is as supple and susceptible to the vagaries of social and cultural spectacles such as fundamentalism in religious action and adherence to the fringes of the political spectrum, is waiting in the wings of sustainable change. That is the ultimate challenge facing the UNP leader. Prime Ministerial powers have not been able to allure an intellectually curious and politically probing generation. Waiting until the proverbial ‘eleventh hour’ would only exacerbate an utterly volatile situation. The popular belief that Ranil would be anyway contented even if the UNP loses, by being the Leader of the Opposition is a myth; a political party in Opposition is much more prone to divisions and inside fighting so as to challenge its leadership and come aftermath of a potential UNP loss in 2020, the UNP would be disseminated into pieces. 

That is why Ranil should realize, once and for all, that delaying the announcement is a lose-lose option, firstly for Ranil and secondly for the UNP and eventually for the country. He has to make that announcement as an official statement of the Party, not through intermediaries or unacceptable emissaries. If not himself, Sajith, Navin or Karu, let it be announced now. Then his successor has sufficient time to launch and execute a successful campaign. 

Fundamentals of politics have not changed. Prime among those fundamentals are content and process. Tactics as to how the content is phrased and nuanced could be changed. They need to adjust and adapt themselves to be changed. In the same vein, the process and the need for a solid and fundamentally sound process is a fundamental for a developing society. Whatever the character the process takes, whether it’s authoritarian, democratic or by royal decree, a need for a process does not change. 

So, what is that content and what is that process by which the content is delivered to the people who ultimately decide in a democratic society? While the structure of a process is being built by the UNP, the ‘leader’ which is an essential and integral part of that content still remains a core issue in the UNP. That burning desire of the people to discover the next leader or deliverer is second only to the desire to come to power as one single unit which is the Party, UNP. 

Today that content includes among others, Sajith Premadasa and Navin Dissanayake in the lead. The UNP grassroots may be having an inclination towards Sajith on the grounds that he has been more overtly active, especially among the Buddhist clergy in the country. Yet he has not been recognized as a great orator on the one hand, and on the other, his inability to criticize the Rajapaksas and the blatant absence of his rhetoric on nationally urgent issues has contributed to him being considered as ‘not-yet-tested’ category. 

On the other hand Navin Dissanayake catapulted himself to the leadership ranks thanks mainly to the 65% of the votes he received from amongst Working Committee members of the Party and the immense faith and trust the Party higher-ups had for his father Gamini Dissanayake. Sajith’s father, President Premadasa, died when his popularity was on a downward trend, thanks mainly to the aborted impeachment issue, while Gamini’s demise occurred when he was on his way to the ‘summit’ as the UNP Presidential candidate. That is exactly why I say that, in politics,it’s all context that matters above everything else. 

The author can be contacted at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com  

Prime Ministerial Fairy Tales

By Rajeewa Jayaweera –AUGUST 22, 2018

Rajeewa Jayaweera

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, addressing a gathering in Kegalle on August 19 to distribute Title Deeds to 1,364 persons on the completion of three years of “Good Governance” by the Yahapalana government held sway of the abundance of democracy in the country.

Wickramesinghe complained that although the government has created a climate of democracy in the country, there are those who abuse it.

The Prime Minister stated, “We live in a democratic society. There are those who make use of this freedom while there are those who misuse it”. Referring to striking doctors (over SSLFTA) and Students (resulting in the closure of universities), he quoted Abraham Lincoln stating, “Those who deny people their freedom do not deserve freedom themselves.” He further elaborated, “We live in a democratic society. People of this country now have the freedom to elect who they wish and to protect their fundamental rights. We have never hindered this process by kidnapping people in white vans or committing murders. We will be holding Provincial Councils elections very soon. It is not us who is holding this up but the Elections Commissioner. Party leaders have been notified.” 

Democracy in the country which was restored by the people on January 08, 2015 was lost once again at the Independence Memorial Hall by sunset on January 09, 2015 immediately after the swearing-in of Maithripala Sirisena as President when the sitting Prime Minister DM Jayaratne was vaporized, and Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Prime Minister. The appointment was never ratified with a vote of confidence, the first order of business in any democracy after a new government takes office, until after parliamentary elections in August 2015. 

A few days later, the Chief Justice (CJ) too was vaporized by sending a mere letter of removal after declaring his appointment as void at inception as his predecessor’s impeachment was deemed unlawful. Decisions made, and Judgements passed by this CJ during his two-year tenure in office remains unaddressed to date. Even the draconian Rajapaksa administration went through the motions of an 11-member parliamentary committee which investigated and found her guilty of professional misconduct on 14 trumped-up charges of financial and official misconduct followed by a motion in Parliament which was carried 155 for and 49 against. 

In any democracy, all types of elections are held on its due date. What kind of democracy is the Prime Minister talking of which he claims was restored by the “Good Governance” government? Local Government elections which should have been held in 2015 were eventually held in February 2018.  Three Provincial Councils are currently being administered by its Governors due to lack of elections. The terms of office of another three Provincial Councils are due to expire in October with no dates set for elections. 

Read More

Mahinda’s ‘ I can again’ baila to buoy up his baiyyas ; everything turning turtle for him ! (Video)

(Lanka e News -20.Aug.2018, 11.00PM) It is by now a well known fact that the Rajapakses truly haven’t a presidential candidate. While the Medamulana walauwe baiyyans (lackeys and lickspittles) think the presidential candidate should be a Rajapakse and none other.

The court verdict delivered in the case against Geetha Kumarasinghe M.P. clearly stated a dual citizen cannot be a parliamentarian.

Among the eligibility requirements to be a presidential candidate in Sri Lanka (SL) , he/she must have the qualifications to be a parliamentarian. Hence neither Gotabaya nor Basil with dual citizenship can be a presidential candidate and if they want to contest they must divest themselves of the dual citizenship. Basil of course has said , he will not give up his dual citizenship.

Gotabaya on the other hand said , he has made an application in that regard , but later retracted to say he will be making such an application to the US authorities in the future ( in keeping with the characteristic ‘double tongued’ nature of the Rajapakses). However the US has still not revealed his application was received , and the dual citizenship will be withdrawn .

The overriding fact of the matter is , there are two cases filed by two Human rights organizations in the US in two courts against Gotabaya . Until those cases are concluded , the dual citizenship cannot be rescinded.

When Gotabaya is even uncertain he will be able to get presidential candidature certainly here , he is certainly not going to divest himself of the assets in the US nor the dual citizenship to become presidential candidate.

The other Rajapakse brother is Chamal Rajapakse. But because his son Sashindra Rajapakse has the rajayogaya( prospects to become a ‘king’) , Mahinda –Shiranthi is in fear and the naaki (old) couple despite having outlived their utility on earth will not make Chamal the presidential candidate. Their hope is to hold on until Namal reaches the right age.

It is certain if Chamal becomes the president , promoting and propelling Sashindra to the fore is inevitable while the deep rift between the Gota group and Basil group is further deepening.

It is well to recall Basil openly in Weligama said , it is because of the military activities of Gotabaya their government was defeated. With the revelation of the Hitler story of ‘Asgiriya monk’ ,Gotabaya was ‘annihilated’ in much the same way as Tsunami lashing him and dragging him away with all the force. Moreover , if the cases of massive corruption in the high courts against Basil , on whom indictments have already been served are heard continuously , it is likely Basil will be meted out punishment before the next presidential elections. Anybody who had been sentenced by court cannot be a presidential candidate.

In the circumstances , the Rajapakses are driven into a deep quandary without a suitable presidential candidate . Finding kalunika ( medicine for immortality ) to them is a less difficult task therefore than selecting a presidential candidate .

Mahinda well known for his cunning and crookedness realizing the dire situation , and if this becomes known among his lackeys and cronies , it will demoralize them resorted to another crafty tactic- forbade his team from announcing who is the presidential candidate for some time. Notorious Machiavellian MR having no option has now done a complete turnabout and devised a clever subterfuge to boost the spirits of his cronies and lackeys, that is , the 19 th amendment is relevant only to the future and not to the past . ‘Hence, I can again contest the presidential elections’ he had said. He has also started uttering all the most despicable and disgraceful lies such as , he will seek Supreme court opinion in that regard, and so forth to defend his stance, with a view to instill that in the minds of the people to prop his FL (Fools listen) ‘theory’. Mahinda who knows well and truly he cannot again be a presidential candidate is resorting to this FL theory tactic solely and wholly to buoy up the flagging spirit of his lackeys and cronies .

19 th amendment article 4(2) in no uncertain terms stipulates in Sinhala …

‘An individual who has been elected by the people to the post of president twice is not eligible to be elected again for the same post ’

Hence , there is no necessity at all to ask for another clarification from the SC as to whether that refers only to the future and not to the past . Mahinda by all these machinations and maneuvers to fool the people had only made a display of his own imbecility and idiocy.

Moreover , every son of every bitch cannot seek opinion of the SC as and when they want. There are 3 instances where that can be made….

The incumbent president can request the opinion of the SC to resolve an issue.

Second instance : The speaker of parliament can inquire regarding a statute .

The third instance : inquire about any laws pertaining to the district court or a higher court .

Accordingly , Mahinda Rajapakse is not entitled to inquire from the SC whether he can again become the president no matter how inordinate his greed is for power based on his maniacal power craze . If he has really a need , a baiyya (crony , lackey or lickspittle ) of his/her by virtue of his/her right to vote can file a petition in the district court inquiring whether MR can be made president again.

Of course if the DC does not dismiss the inquiry saying ‘ read the 19 th amendment you idiot,’ then the DC might seek SC opinion .

In those circumstances it is clear a weeping and wailing ‘ I can become president again’ Mahinda’s story will become the subject of a long drawn litigation.

Dr. Wijedasa Rajapakse addressing a media briefing on the 20 th , elucidating this position said, before the presidential election the prospective candidate must submit a sworn affidavit that he/she is eligible to be a presidential candidate . If by any chance a false affidavit had been forwarded , the candidate is liable to punishment of 3 years in jail under Penal code section 190 ,if proved guilty.

This liability therefore applies irrespective of who is the culprit, MR not excluded.

Hence , MR’s attempts are not truly to be presidential candidate any day ( knowing very well he cannot) but to camouflage the deep quandary the Rajapakses are plunged in pertaining to the presidential candidature, as well as to pep up his blindly following lackeys , cronies and lickspittles . The camouflage is so obvious that even a Kindergarten class child will need no help to understand MR’s duplicitous and deceitful moves.

Mahinda who is facing fiascos after fiascos , lost the battle he fought until the 19 th to secure the opposition leader post. Now by trying to wear the trunk long before the presidential elections is sure to lose that too ( but this time to his delight?).

Mendacious MR to whom lying is his favorite pastime by uttering all the falsehoods to his lackeys , lickspittles and cronies that he is going to be the next presidential candidate is certainly going to drive those depending on him into a worse quagmire than they are already in. Not that MR is not aware of the old maxim ‘ you can fool some people all the time , all the people some time but not all the people all the time’ , it is simply that after having successfully fooled all the people all the time during his tenure of office as president , it is now his belief he can succeed through mendacity and Machiavellianism even in the future. Sadly , this time he is duping his own group .

Video footage of speech of Wijedasa Rajapakse hereunder 

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by     (2018-08-20 18:19:37)

Keith Noyahr abduction: MR tells CID that Gota could order anyone's release

KAVINDYA PERERA- AUG 21 2018

The mere mention of former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s name was enough to have any detainee released from custody, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had told police he heard from a senior officer.

In the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court yesterday (20), the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said in the statement that the former President made to them with regard to the abduction of journalist Keith Noyahr he had related a conversation he had had with Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) Anura Senanayake. In that conversation, Senanayake had said, anyone could be freed on the orders of the Defence Secretary, former President had said.

The submissions were being made by the CID before Mount Lavinia (MTL) Additional Magistrate Lochana Abeywickrema as the hearing into the abduction and assault of journalist Keith Noyahr was taken up.

The CID told the Court that its officers had visited the house of the former President on 17 August ahead of recording a statement from him on the case and the CID said that Mahinda Rajapaksa had told them that journalist Noyahr had been abducted and assaulted before releasing him after being ordered to do so by the former Defence Secretary.

The CID informed the Court that the former President told them that once when he had visited the prison in order to meet certain inmates there, he had also spoken to then imprisoned former SDIG Senanayake.

The CID further told the Court that the former President had told them that while speaking to Senanayake, he could vaguely remember that the latter had allegedly confided in Rajapaksa that anyone could be freed at the time if the former Defence Secretary had ordered such.

The CID also told the Court that the former President during his statement had stated that he cannot clearly remember that current Speaker Karu Jayasuriya had informed him regarding the abduction of Noyahr.

The CID informed the Court that the former President had told them that he could not at the time even remember whether there had been a journalist named Keith Noyahr as most of the journalists at the time had published critical articles against his regime. The CID informed the Court that the former President had told them that he had no special recollection of whether incumbent Speaker Jayasuriya had back then informed him via a phone call that Noyahr had allegedly been abducted.

Taking the submissions into consideration, the MTL Additional Magistrate told the Court that since witnesses appeared to be forgetful the CID should probe into it. Senior State Counsel Lakmini Girihagama representing the prosecution told the Court that as long as witnesses continue to state that they cannot remember, it could scupper the investigations into the case.

Also on the day, the statement obtained by the CID from Noyahr was summarized before the Court by them.

The CID told the Court that Noyahr had informed them that he had at the time published articles vehemently critical of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the tri-forces and that the final report he had written had been about the bomb blast that had taken place at Lotus Road in Colombo, and in that article he had directly berated the former Defence Secretary and that 24 hours later he had been abducted.

The CID told the Court that during his statement to them, Noyahr had told them that while he was being abducted, his captors had continued to assault him and that his captors had demanded to know from him as to who was supplying information to him for his articles, the sources behind his articles and the details regarding his spouse, children and his bank accounts, among others.

The CID informed the Court that Noyahr had told them that he had been taken to the Budawatta house blindfolded before disrobing him and taking away his cell phone and his wedding ring.

The CID told the Court further that Noyahr had told them that while continuing to assault him, one of the captors had received a call and to that they had replied ‘okay, okay sir’ and after that they had stopped the assault on him before dumping him at a place in Mount Lavinia. Further, the CID told the Court that Noyahr had told them that before releasing him, his captors had warned him not to spill the beans related to his abduction and if so his spouse and children will not be allowed to live.

Also, the CID informed the Court that Noyahr had told them that soon after the abduction and assault incident, he had spotted white vans roaming near his residence before he had left the country to reside in Melbourne, Australia with his family.

The prosecution told the Court that questionnaires that had been sent to different people (including the current Defence Secretary), adding however that they had not yet been replied to by those concerned and those related to the case.

Taking the submissions into consideration, MTL Additional Magistrate Abeywickrema said that the eighth suspect in the case, former Head of the Army Intelligence Retired Major General Amal Karunasekera cannot be denied bail repeatedly on the aforementioned detail, and that she will announce her decision on bail for the defendant at the next hearing.

Afterwards she ordered the suspect to be further remanded till 27 August before fixing the next hearing of the case to that date.

Politics in make-believe realities

Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya, President , GMOA and former Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa

“There hasn’t been any non-evidence yet…”

By Tisaranee Gunasekara-19 August, 2018

A Donald Trump supporter in Pennsylvania on QAnon, the latest conspiracy theory[i]
Politicians everywhere are amnesiacs, to various degrees. The condition probably comes with the territory, a necessary facilitator for such in stock-in-trade as lies and hypocrisy.

But total amnesia, forgetting everything one has said and done, standing on one’s head and believing that was always how one stood – that belongs in a different territory, the territory of rejecting objective reality, of living not in the everyday world, but in a world of one’s own creation.
That seems to be the direction in which former president Mahinda Rajapaksa is heading.

In the last several weeks, Rajapaksa castigated the Government for being anti-democratic, upbraided the Government for violating media freedom and excoriated the Government for militarising society.
This week, he took the greatest leap so far into his own make-believe reality by exhorting the Government to allow independent commissions to be independent.

Months after he won his second presidential term, Mahinda Rajapaksa rammed through the 18th Amendment which abolished the independence of the independent commissions and turned them into presidential appendages. Given this clear-cut history, Rajapaksa’s latest diatribe is like Jack the Ripper pointing his blood-and-gore dripping finger at a pickpocket.

When parliamentarians tried to get their salaries increased exponentially, there was an outburst of public indignation. Dismayed, most politicians backtracked. The JO was particularly vociferous, blaming the Government for proposing the raise. The proposal, in reality, was the outcome of a rule introduced by the Rajapaksa administration in 2006, creating an unprecedented link between the salaries of parliamentarians and the upper judiciary.

Politicians do rail against other politicians for doing what they themselves have done in the past. But Mr. Rajapaksa and his cohorts seem to be headed in an entirely different direction, towards a world made up of ‘alternative facts’ (as former Donald Trump staffer Kellyanne Conway memorably phrased it). The danger of such a place is that those who occupy it absolve themselves completely of accountability. They can say and do anything, however outrageous, because they think their opinions are the facts.

In Lankan context, democracy, media freedom and even the independence of independent commissions will be what the Rajapaksas say they are.

One of the earliest sign of this departure from reality came in December 2017, in a statement issued by the former president, under his own signature, blaming the Government for not resolving the SAITM issue his own government created. The statement, a hotchpotch of lies, evasions and alternate facts, deserves to be read in its entirety.[ii]

The statement is also important for another reason; it inadvertently reveals when SAITM was turned into a do-or-die by the GMOA. Not in 2008, when SAITM started; not in 2011, when the Government of Mahinda Rajapaksa accepted it as a medical and engineering degree awarding institution via the Extraordinary Gazette No. 1721/19; not in 2012, when the Supreme Court gave the green light to the SAITM; not in 2013 when the then President Rajapaksa awarded 11 scholarships (each worth Rs. 7 million) to SAITM students using public funds. The continuous protests against the SAITM, the disruptive demonstrations and the unethical doctors’ strikes began in 2015, after the electorate sent the Rajapaksas home.

Playing Patriots and Traitors, the GMOA Way

Playing with words like traitors and patriots is something one expects from politicians, or religious leaders, not from respected professionals, especially doctors. That renders doubly shocking the words of Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya, the head of the GMOA. “We have created a point scheme,” Dr. Padeniya reportedly told a Lake House journalist. “In psychiatry there is a method to identify people who betray the country. We are going to launch this list and keep it online with the materials you publish. So we can display that you are carrying out a contract.”[iii]

Is the GMOA compiling a list of traitors, using abusive psychiatric methods, the very methods used by authoritarian rulers to confine their opponents in psychiatric facilities by sticking the mentally sick label on them?

Is this what Lankan medical fraternity has sunk to?

In 1977, the World Congress of Psychiatry adopted the Declaration of Hawaii. The purpose of the Declaration is to take a firm stand against the abusive use of psychiatry for political and personal ends: As the Declaration states, “The psychiatrist must never use his professional possibilities to violate the dignity or human rights of any individual or group and should never let inappropriate personal desires, feelings, prejudices or beliefs interfere with the treatment… If a patient or some third party demands actions contrary to scientific knowledge or ethical principles the psychiatrist must refuse to cooperate.”[iv]

There are 18,000+ members in the GMOA. Do they all approve of the GMOA engaging in practices banned by the World Congress of Psychiatry?

It is highly likely that a majority of doctors go along with the GMOA out of fear. Given Dr. Padeniya’s threat to journalists, it is not hard to imagine what he and fellow GMOA bosses would do to any dissenting doctor. But the silence of the silent majority is enabling the GMOA to bring disrepute and shame on a venerable profession. When the good play Chinese monkey, the bad can become super villains. The fear of the silent majority is understandable, given the GMOA’s thuggish conduct. But by staying silent, the good and decent doctors are placing in danger the lives of people they have pledged to protect

What occasioned Dr. Padeniya’s outburst? According to The Sunday Observer, he was angry about having to admit that “only about half the private practitioners had participated in the token strike.”
 Incidentally, Dr. Padeniya knew that his words were being recorded and will be made public. “I know you must be recording this. That is good. Let others in your newspaper also listen to this.”[v]
What was the strike about?

One demand is that all government doctors be paid a monthly transport allowance of Rs. 100,000. The GMOA reportedly has 18,000+ members.
Work the maths.
Another demand is a monthly allowance of Rs. 30,000 each for all medical administrators. Then there is the demand that children of GMOA members be guaranteed entrance to top level national schools.

Prof. Colvin Gunaratne called the GMOA a trade union. That is doing injustice to absolute majority of trade unions. The Mafia would be a closer analogy. The GMOA is guided not by Hippocrates of Kos (or even physician-king Buddhadasa of Lanka) but Mammon. Having become doctors at public expense, the GMOA is holding the public as hostage to gain yet more perks and privileges for its members.

Sri Lanka is one of the very few countries in the world where medical education is free. Doctors are created at public expense. The public also pay their salaries and benefits. Now the GMOA wants the public to pay even more. That would mean having to impose more taxes on an already overburdened populace.

A key structural anomaly in the Lankan economy is the complete imbalance between direct and indirect taxes – the ratio is 80:20. This grossly disproportionate reliance on indirect taxes works against the poor and most of the middles classes by pushing up prices and living costs. The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration promised to redress this imbalance, a promise observed in the breach until Mangala Samaraweera tried his tax reform.

The pluses and minuses of the new tax proposals are open to debate. But the need for a tax system which reduces the burden on poor and middle classes by correcting, even marginally, the gross imbalance between direct and indirect taxes is obvious. That was why the PAYE rate for those earning more than 350,000 a month was increased to 24%.

The people who have the least right to oppose such an increase are those who benefit most from the tax monies, such as doctors, many of whom would have been denied access to medical education had it not been free. Therefore, there’s something particularly noxious about the demand that doctors be exempted from this increase.

The Strong Leader as the Pied Piper

The wildcat strike by railway trade unions was a despicable action in the midst of the AL examination. But the constant strikes by the GMOA are even more despicable. No civilised society can approve of poor patients being held hostage by a mafia. No government worthy of the name should permit such outrage.

When it comes to the patriotism of politicians, Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary is the go to reference. Bierce defines patriotism as ‘as fierce as a fever, pitiless as the grave, blind as a stone and irrational as a headless hen.” That perfectly describes the movers and shakers of the GMOA; their greed is as fierce as a fever, they are as pitiless as the grave when it comes to denying treatment to suffering men, women and children and they are as blind as a stone to the pain and harm they are causing. Irrational as a headless hen too, because they are heaping disrepute on a great profession by speaking like politician-thugs and acting like the Mafiosi.

In November 2016 as the American presidential election was drawing to a close, a Morning Consult/Politico exit-poll revealed that 36% of voters wanted a strong leader. Only 16% percent wanted someone who shared their values (compared with 2012, when only 18% wanted a strong leader. 27% wanted someone who shared their values).

The result was President Donald Trump. His election was the clearest indication that an authoritarian wind was sweeping across the entire world.

In Sri Lanka, the less immoderate, less illiberal government is in a state of semi-paralysis. The extremist and anti-democratic opposition is surging ahead. The myth that democracy is part of ‘The Problem’ (or even ‘The Problem’) rather than the least bad form of governance is ascendant. If democracy is the problem, then the solution, by definition has to be anti-democratic. This is the dangerous place to which Sri Lanka is careening.

In his Mandela Centenary Lecture, former President Barrack Obama warned, “We now stand at a crossroads – a moment in time at which two very different versions of humanity’s future compete for the hearts and minds of citizens around the world.” Obama ended his lecture by cautioning against cynicism and despair. “It is tempting to give into cynicism; to believe that recent shifts in global politics are too powerful to push back; that the pendulum has swung permanently. Just as people spoke about the triumph of democracy in the 90’s, now you are hearing people talk about end of democracy and the triumph of tribalism and the strong man. We have to resist that cynicism.”
Resistance, easy to advocate, way harder to undertake, especially when the obstacle is not repression by the Government, but our own warranted sense of disillusion. In Sri Lanka, the Government we elected paving for the triumph of tribalism and the return of the strong man. Like The Donald, we too have The Mahinda and The Gotabaya, promising to make Sri Lanka Great again, by making it a Rajapaksa-fief again.

The Good Governance government is anything but. Still, the right to criticise, to oppose remain, and occasionally achieves something worthwhile – like parliamentarians deciding not to avail themselves of a pay hike. Monk Galagoda-Atte Gnanasara has been sentenced to prison, because judicial independence has been restored to some degree. If the Rajapaksas return, one of their first tasks will be to cow the judiciary into submission again. The Independent Audit Commission has finally been sworn in. That was thanks to the 19th Amendment, which will be thrown aside, if the Rajapaksas return.

The Government tries to portray tiny advances as colossal victories. That is wrong. But there is a companion-error on our part too, focusing too much on defeats, losing sight of the small victories. In a secure democracy, that would be an affordable error. But in a country faced with the prospect of a triumphant authoritarianism, it is an unaffordable luxury, an unpardonable indulgence.

[i] https://www.thedailybeast.com/watch-qanon-followers-try-to-explain-their...

[ii] http://static.ow.ly/docs/1-English%20SAITM_79EC.pdf

[iii] http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2018/08/05/news/gmoa-president-threatens-jo...

[iv] http://www.codex.vr.se/texts/hawaii.html

[v] Ibid

Awaiting the Million dollar verdict!

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Three and a half years after he was ousted from power, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was the focus of attention last week. Although some of the reasons for the publicity Rajapaksa generated may not have been to his liking, other events may have reignited presidential ambitions for the country’s fifth Executive President.

Rajapaksa hit the headlines when officers of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) recorded a statement from him last Friday regarding the abduction and assault of the then Deputy Editor of The Nation, Keith Noyahr.

Noyahr was abducted and assaulted on May 22, 2008 in Dehiwala. In the hours after his abduction, Karu Jayasuriya, who was the Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs in the Rajapaksa led government, was alerted by Noyahr’s colleagues. Jayasuriya telephoned Rajapaksa to inform him. Hours later Noyahr was released by his abductors, battered and bruised but alive to tell the tale.
Noyahr has since left the country and is now domiciled in Australia. However, investigators have pieced together the jigsaw relating to his disappearance and visited Australia to interview the journalist. Several army personnel including former Military Intelligence Director and Chief of Staff of the Army, Major General (Retired) Amal Karunasekara are in remand custody over Noyahr’s abduction and assault.

Previously, investigators had recorded Speaker Karu Jayasuriya’s statement regarding his intervention. The interview with Rajapaksa was a natural follow-up on that. The CID forwarded Rajapaksa’s statement to the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

Politicised investigation

Although Rajapaksa was extended the courtesies befitting a former President with the CID visiting him at his official residence rather than vice versa and was informed at the outset that he was not being treated as a suspect, he chose to politicise the investigation. Emerging from the interview he claimed that the government was engaged in a political witch-hunt against him.

“The CID must have been instigated by government leaders to record my statement. The government is trying to achieve its political ends. This is an event which shows that the government is vindictive”, Rajapaksa alleged. Rajapaksa, who rarely loses his composure, was rattled enough to lash out at his private secretary Udith Lokubandara, for bringing him to face the media after the CID interview.

As for the interview itself, Rajapaksa said he had told the CID that he could not recollect Jayasuriya’s telephone call as it happened over ten years ago and also because many ministers call him from time to time. Former minister G. L. Peiris and former Chief Justice Sarath Silva were with Rajapaksa during the interview.

If Rajapaksa was unhappy at this turn of events, another development has led to a glimmer of hope within the ranks of the Joint Opposition (JO). That comes in the form of legal opinion that he is not debarred from contesting the Presidency for a third time.

The popular perception was that the introduction of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution prevented Rajapaksa from running for President again. That is because Section 4 of the 19th Amendment decreed that “no person who has been twice elected to the office of President by the people, shall be qualified thereafter to be elected to such office by the people”. This section amended Article 31 of the Constitution.

It will be recalled that the Constitution, when it was first introduced in 1978 did have a disqualification imposed on individuals who had held the office for two terms. However, this was repealed through the 18th Amendment passed by a two-thirds majority in Parliament when Rajapaksa was President. It was widely acknowledged that it was a move to facilitate Rajapaksa running for President a third time, which he did in 2015 and lost.

There is no dispute that the 19th Amendment bars individuals from assuming office more than twice. However, some legal experts are of the opinion that the amendment is prospective and cannot be applied retrospectively which means that the two-term limit applies only after 2015, when the 19th Amendment was introduced.

Although that does not appear to be the spirit of the 19th Amendment, there does appear to be some room for debate on this issue. That is because Section 4 of 19th Amendment, which restores the two-term limit, does not specify the date from which it is applicable.

High office

However, with regard to the entire 19th Amendment, Section 1(2) of the 19th Amendment states that: “The provisions of this Act other than the provisions of section 9 (in so far it relates to paragraph [1] of Article 46 of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka) and the provisions of section 15 shall come into force on the date on which this Act comes into operation”.
Since the 19th Amendment was certified into law on May 15, 2015, some legal experts contend that the two-term limit would not apply to Rajapaksa as well as the only other ex-President, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. Kumaratunga, of course, is not interested in running again for high office.

Among the legal experts reportedly supporting this view are former Chief Justice Sarath Silva and former Justice Minister and Professor of Law, G. L. Peiris who is also the nominal head of the Sri Lanka Podujana Party (SLPP). Supporting this view in the media was Dr. Nihal Jayawickrama, the controversial former Secretary to the Ministry of Justice in Sirima Bandaranaike’s 1970-77 government.

Peiris was to announce on Monday that the SLPP would soon move the District Court on this issue. Peiris expects that court to then refer the matter to the Supreme Court. When this plan was first suggested to Rajapaksa, he had been dismissive of the idea saying he had no appetite to canvass the issue in courts. However, it has been pointed that any citizen could file a fundamental rights application in the Supreme Court which would then be required to provide an interpretation of the Constitution.

However, others such as Higher Education and Cultural Affairs Minister Dr Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe have maintained that only the President could consult the Supreme Court. Other such as United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian Thushara Indunil have noted that the Supreme Court recently decided that President Maithripala Sirisena’s term of office was five years- though that too was a measure introduced in the 19th Amendment.

Next presidential election

The political implications of this issue are immense. That the JO has inquired into this issue and has arrived at this conclusion is indicative of the dilemma they face in finding a candidate for the 2020 presidential election. Although Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is the frontrunner among potential JO nominees, it was no secret that there is also significant opposition to his candidature, with the likes of Vasudeva Nanayakkara and Kumar Welgama speaking out against it publicly.

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa himself has other hurdles to overcome. He remains a United States citizen and it is unclear whether he could renounce it within a short period of time. There are also many court cases where his role has come under scrutiny. In that sense, there is a school of thought within the JO that while Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had arguably the highest profile apart from Mahinda Rajapaksa, his candidacy also had the highest element of risk.

In such circumstances, if Mahinda Rajapaksa could contest again, that would be ideal for the JO. Clearly, Rajapaksa is the most marketable opposition politician in the country. However, in trying to pursue legal avenues to assess whether Rajapaksa can run for President again, the JO and the SLPP are also playing with a double-edged sword: if the campaign to re-instate Mahinda Rajapaksa as candidate fails in court, the JO would be losing valuable time and resources in promoting the eventual candidate.

For that reason, it is likely that the JO will move to have the matter scrutinised by the Supreme Court sooner rather than later. It will be a verdict that will, for obvious reasons, shape the nature and perhaps the outcome of the next presidential election.

SRI LANKA SHOULD THINK TWICE BEFORE COPYING DUTERTE’S VICIOUS DRUG WAR

22/08/2018

Filipino men place their hands over their heads as they are rounded up during a police operation on October 7, 2016. Photo credit: © Aaron Favila/AP Photo.

July 26, 2018 /Giada Girelli.

This summer, Sri Lanka’s president, Maithripala Sirisena, defiantly announced that he could end the country’s 42-year moratorium on the death penalty and sign off on the execution of convicted drug traffickers alleged to be running illegal operations from their prison cells.

More disturbing, a government spokesperson added that the country will try and “replicate the success” of the Philippines government’s drug war, a bloody crackdown that is estimated to have claimed over 12,000 lives since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016. Many of these deaths are extrajudicial killings.

The degradation of human rights under Duterte hardly deserves replication, and the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has expressed its dismay that any “cruel and inhumane” punishment is being considered. The EU and other diplomatic missions have also warned against imposing the death penalty due to its “[incompatibility] with human dignity.”

Unfortunately, Sirisena dismissed these concerns and stated he will convene the judiciary, law enforcement, and prison officials this week to decide which people will be executed first.

If Sirisena is successful in breaking Sri Lanka’s four-decade hold on executing people, he will drag Sri Lanka to the extreme fringe of the international community, aligning it with countries that violate international human rights law by implementing the death penalty for drug offenses, such as China and Saudi Arabia.

Sri Lanka is sadly not alone in its willingness to join this group. The Bangladesh government is moving to expand application of the death penalty for drug offenses, as is India’s Punjab state government, and Duterte continues to push for reinstatement of the death penalty in the Philippines. Even the president of the United States came out in favor of this draconian policy earlier this year.

All of these governments have trotted out the familiar fallacy that there’s a need to “get tough” in response to drug-related crime. Not only is such justification based on inflated or unreliable data, but there is no proof that imposing the death penalty has any effect on drug use or trafficking.

So what are the consequences of the death penalty, if not a hindrance to the drug trade? Beyond being barbaric in practice, the death penalty is disproportionately imposed on the poor and most vulnerable; most of those sentenced to death are not kingpins but rather low-level drug couriers. Further, the death penalty demonizes people who use drugs and enables an environment of discrimination and abuse toward this group.

Perhaps most disheartening is the fact that Sri Lanka’s move is going against the global trend away from using the death penalty for drugs offenses.

As detailed in Harm Reduction International’s most recent research on this topic, only a minority of the 33 countries that have the death penalty for drug-related crimes actively execute people. As more countries continue to restrict use of the death penalty, executions have more than halved since 2015, falling from 718 in 2015 to 280 in 2017.

For example, Malaysia and Thailand—both of whom were once among the worst offenders in this respect— recently passed legislation which in practice restricts the application of capital punishment. Even the hard-line government of Iran, which until last year executed hundreds of people, recently passed a legislative amendment raising the minimum quantity of drugs required to incur capital punishment. Executions have since dropped 99 percent, and a judicial review into the death and life sentences of thousands of people is underway.

This move away from the death penalty could be seen as an acknowledgement that it is completely ineffective in curbing the drug trade. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime admitted, in its 2018 World Drug Report, that the global drug trade continues to flourish, stating that “both the range of drugs and drug markets are expanding and diversifying as never before,” with “production of opium and manufacture of cocaine at the highest levels ever recorded.”

If Sri Lanka is serious about protecting the health of its population from drugs—and not tarnishing its international reputation—its government must abandon any plan to resort to executions.

Harm Reduction International is a grantee of the Open Society Foundations.

What brings the US Peace Corps to Sri Lanka?

2018-08-23

The available information on the return of the US Peace Corps (USPC) to Sri Lanka on the stated mission of ‘English language education’ raises many questions, given the timing and context of their arrival. Under the terms of the agreement signed between the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Acting Director of the Peace Corps in February, the first 25 volunteers will arrive in the country in September 2019 for their two year assignments. This is likely to coincide with the run-up to the next presidential election which, according to the constitution, has to be held by  December 9, 2019 the latest. The volunteers along with the members of their households as well as ‘persons performing functions under contract’ by them,are to be granted diplomatic privileges under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, that would exempt them from taxes and customs duties, “as provided to members of the administrative and technical staff of the Embassy of the United States,”according to a report in the Sunday Times (ST) of July 8, 2018.

• USPC will be here for ‘English teaching’
• Peace Corps was created in the US in 1961
• First batch of 25 will arrive in Sept. 2019
• GoSL reported to have invited USPC in 2016

US President John F. Kennedy when he created the Peace Corps in 1961 stated that its goal was to allow American citizens to serve the cause of ‘world development.’ He said it “is not designed as an instrument of diplomacy or propaganda or ideological conflict.” USPC volunteers were expected to work with poor communities in developing countries,enjoying no special privileges. 

Though there is supposed to be a strict separation between the USPC and any intelligence activity of the US government, its chequered history has shown that it has often been accused or suspected of being involved in espionage in the host country, and being asked to leave.Among countries USPC had to leave are Indonesia (1965), Guinea (1966), Sri Lanka (1971), India (1976) and Cambodia (2017). In Bolivia, in 2008, a US embassy official was charged with espionage, sent home and not allowed to return. ABC News revealed that 30 USPC volunteers, as well as a Fulbright scholar, had been asked by the official to spy on Cubans and Venezuelans living in Bolivia. The US embassy in La Paz acknowledged the incident, reports said. 

Richard Haas, head of the Council on Foreign Relations even suggested that the rules be relaxed so that USPC, along with American journalists and members of the clergy, could work as agents or as cover for the CIA’s intelligence gathering, the Washington Post (WP) reported in1996. The astounded USPC Director Mark Gearan responded at the time saying the suggestion was ‘both dangerous and cynical.’

The US move to send the Peace Corps to Sri Lanka needs to be viewed in the context of the larger plans in the region it calls the ‘Indo Pacific

“Peace Corps volunteers often serve in remote areas of their host countries without access to modern communications or special security arrangements. They are not government employees, are paid only a small subsistence allowance and are not granted any special privileges, such as diplomatic immunity. They are prohibited from involving themselves in the political affairs of their host countries,”Gearan wrote, in the WP.

The move by the government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) of granting USPC diplomatic privileges comes across as doubly odd in the light of Gearan’s description of the volunteers. According to the ST, the government has also exempted from taxes, customs duties and other charges “all equipment, supplies, and other goods and services introduced into or acquired in Sri Lanka by the US Government or any contractor financed by it,” under the agreement. It would be interesting to know what costly‘equipment’ is being brought into the country by the USPC for the purpose of ‘English teaching,’ that requires suchtax concessions.The inclusion of ‘contractors’ too under this exemption is of concern, seeing that private contractors hired to carry out projects forthe US government have on occasion been accused of being CIA fronts. It’s no consolation either, to know that the current US Secretary of State took up his post following directly from his job as CIA director in the Trump administration.

To come back to the question of English teaching (assuming that the USPC mission is bona fide): while there is no doubt that the school system throughout the country can benefit from more and better English teachers, one needs to ask whether Sri Lanka’s own English teaching community with their decades of experience wouldn’t be better able to handle the challenges involved in teaching English in a post-colonial context, given also the fast-changing present day social environment, than a few dozen foreign volunteers flown in for a couple of years.

The US embassy says the Sri Lanka English Teachers Association (SLETA) will ‘work closely’ with the volunteers. But who sets the priorities and who makes the decisions? Wouldn’t the SLETA and Sri Lanka’s own educationists be better positioned to improve the English teaching programme themselves, in a way that complements their ongoing work, if the funding and resources were turned over to them? Its hard to avoid the conclusion that, on the balance, the party benefiting more from this exercise will be not the Sri Lankans but the American volunteers, who will gain useful exposure to a different culture, language and value system through grass-roots interactions with local communities.

It’s interesting to note that in India - in the context of efforts to revive the USPC programme that was phased out in 1976 - John Chromy, Special Assistant to the Director of Peace Corps (1976) observed that “India in the past decade has moved rapidly into a modern economy and sees itself not as a recipient of aid assistance but in fact a donor of assistance to other countries much poorer then India.” Sri Lanka’s situation may not comparable to that of a regional power like India, but as a middle income country its worth considering whether this is the kind of ‘aid’ that it needs.

30 USPC volunteers, and  a Fulbright scholar, were asked by the official to spy on Cubans and Venezuelans living in Bolivia

Acting Director of USPC Sheila Crowley expressed gratitude “to the Government and people of Sri Lanka for their invitation” to the USPC to return. However it is news to “the people of Sri Lanka” that they had extended such an invitation. The GoSL is reported to have invited the USPC back in 2016, but it is only now that this is being made known.

The US move to send the Peace Corps to Sri Lanka needs to be viewed in the context of the larger plans in the region it calls the ‘Indo Pacific.’The $39 million in ‘military financing’ to Sri Lanka announced last week would be part of the $300 million reportedly pledged by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier in Singapore, on the sidelines of an ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting,“to reinforce security cooperation” throughout the region (meaning, to push back against China).

In Sri Lanka though the US cut back its development assistance, it has been investing large sums in programmes of its own design at every level. Military ties are being pursued with frequent ship visits and joint military exercises. Not only the military, but the legislative and executive branches of government, as well as the legal system and local government, have by now been virtually ‘mapped’ in terms of their infrastructure, human resources, capacities etc.,through USAID and other programmes. The GoSL tells the public little,if anything, about these projects and it is not clear if there is any accountability to anyone on the Sri Lankan side, regarding the use of these considerable funds. Against this backdrop, its worth asking, is the USPC mission; nothing more than yet another aspect of the US penetration of Sri Lanka - this time at the grassroots, community level?  

High NPAs in SME sector: Who is responsible?

SMEs operate without formal registration, registered as proprietorships, partnerships or a limited liability companies. Irrespective of legal status, generally SMEs are proprietary nature. They do not have a corporate management structure and they are managed by the sponsor himself, commonly called a “one man show” – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

Monday, 20 August 2018

Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) of the banking sector have been increasing in the recent past. Gross NPA ratio reached about 3.3% as at end of May2018 recording an increase of about 0.8% over the past five months. The banking sector reached the best gross NPA ratio of 2.5% as at the end of 2017 for the past five years. Therefore deterioration of the ratio by 0.8% during the period of five months ended May 2018 should be a cause for concern across the sector.

High NPAs in SME sector Who is responsible.docx by Thavam on Scribd