Hambantota: A capital in waiting in Sri Lanka?

| by A Special correspondent

( November 30, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) This article is written objectively in the national interest of Sri Lanka. I do not endorse any regionalism or village-mania at all. All regions in Sri Lanka should be equally developed and equally treated with fair development projects and programmes. That is the true expression of national patriotism. Developing one region at the expense of other regions is not the true expression of national patriotism rather such attitudes and mindsets are pure expression of regionalism. When politicians with excessive executive powers engage in such activities of regionalism that would deprive all other regions and what exactly happening in Sri Lanka is President and His Brothers are keen to develop their place of birth than any other part of the country. All recent development programmes are mostly concentrated in this district of Hambantota. Why is this favouritism to this district? Is it this President and his family hail from a remote village in this part Island? Consider for example how many mega projects have been constructed in Hambantota alone in recent time.

Hambantota Harbour, Mattala Air port, International Convention Centre, Newly built Cricket ground, a number of hotels complexes and many more projects are constructed recently in this distinct alone. All these mega projects are constructed as if Hambantota is the new capital of Sri Lanka. As if millions of Sri Lankans live in this remote part of Sri Lanka. I would argue that money barrowed with high interest rates for these projects would unquestionably put Sri Lanka into unimaginable economic crises. If these projects are not successful it would be an economic suicidal for Sri Lanka. It is not MR and his Brothers who are going to repay loans borrowed for these projects rather it is Sri Lankan public bear the burden of repaying all loans with high interests.

I wonder why opposition parties cannot object these political blunders. These are not mere mistakes rather these are deliberately and intentionally done political incorrectness. These are mere abuse of political powers and these are mere politics of arrogance. Even a child with a Credit in Economics would know the economic consequences of these unviable and unsustainable projects. It is true that Anura Dissanayake of JVP did try to expose some of these political blunders. I think that it is moral duty of politicians to expose all these political mistakes of this government. 

Hambantota is situated in a remote part of Sri Lanka and it is believed Hambantota is one of the less populated districts of Sri Lanka. It is a humble postulate of this essay to argue that Public money spent in all mega projects in this part of Sri Lanka could have been wisely and appropriately spent in many viable projects. Sri Lanka may need some of these projects and yet to construct these mega projects in this part of Island is not commercially wise and appropriate. These projects may have been constructed in appropriate places with maximum national benefits. Some of the projects should have been built as and when necessary with the phase of development and progress. Public money spent on these projects should have been used in many more useful projects.

It is a natural instinct that everyone loves their place of birth. Yet, Sri Lankan President MR has got special love and attachment to his birth place at the expense of billion rupees of public money. He has taken every step to make his birth place a future capital of Sri Lanka. Why on earth this remote district of Sri Lanka gets a special provision? Why most of developments of projects are done in this remote district of Sri Lanka at the expense of all other districts? Look how mega development projects have been constructed at this district alone in with last 9 years of MR presidency? This is done at the expense of billions of public money in Sri Lanka? Some of these developments are done with loans borrowed in high interest rates. Who is going to pay back all these loans? It is the hardworking people of this country will bear brunt of these long term loans?

It is well known fact that Hambantota is one of less populated districts in SL. It is situated geographically in a remote part of Sri Lanka and most of parts of geographical landscape of this district is forest and only suitable for agriculture and wildlife. Changing the landscape of this district would be an ecological and environmental disaster for Sri Lanka in long terms and yet, with the political powers MR and Brothers ventured into these mega developments without any second thought on ecological and economic consequences of these projects. No doubt like all other countries Sri Lanka needs some mega development projects and yet, these should be sustainable developments projects. These developments projects should be done in appreciate time and appropriate regions with professional advice of all stakeholders. Public should have been consulted in all these projects and properly these issues should have been debated in the parliament as well.

A cursory look at some of recent mega development projects in his birth place would reveal some shocking statistics. Recently, an artificial port was developed in Hambantota at the expense of billions and yet, what return Sri Lanka expects from this port? What are the economic benefits of such port? It is reported even some international shipping companies do not want to come near to this Harbour for fear of ship wreckage? What a waste of public money is this? What an economic disaster is this? Who take responsibility for this political blunder? If this disaster is not enough then comes Air port project. Mattala Air port is one more political blunder of MR and co. 

Sri Lanka is a small island. Sri Lanka is not a Singapore. Only a limited numbers of flights are landing in Sri Lanka daily. During night one fight lands every one hour or less than that? Why do we need one more Air port in this remote corner of Sri Lanka at this time? What are the economic benefits of such air port? Do you think people from the other part of Island will be willing to travel through this airport in their air travel journeys? It was reported that this Air port is built is unsuitable and unfitting geographical location for many reasons. It was an ecological and environmental disaster as well. It has destroyed a large numbers of wildlife. It was reported that elephants and snakes are coming to near sides of the air port.

Air ports mainly depend on flight arrivals for their financial survivals. The more flights land the more profits Air ports make. Otherwise, government will have to spend a lot of money for day to day expenses of air port as well as wages for its employees. It is reported that only a few flights are landing in this air port right now. How long government could spend money to maintain Mattala Air port if enough flight arrivals are not materialised in coming years? Consider for instance if this Air port is built and developed in Jaffa or any part of Northern Province, it would have been commercially more profitable and more appropriate.

Why do I say this? Because today more 2 Million Tamils live abroad and most of them live in European countries. They would love to come to Sri Lanka if there is an Air Port in the Northern Province. It would make their travel back home easy and convenient. Moreover, it could have attracted more tourists from India particularly from Tamil Nadu. More inter-connections would have been made between such an Air port in Northern Province and South Indian Air port. It is physiological fear of Singhalese politicians that does not permit them to develop any mega projects in North. They all fear that if they develop Jaffna that would pave the way for Tamil EELAM.

I think that Singhalese should think broadly and diplomatically on the subject of Northern development programmes. It is a undeniable reality that Sri Lankan Tamil community have got money and they are ready to invest in the northern part of Island. Government should encourage them to invest in Jaffna for that government should expedite some mega development programmes in Jaffna. Constructing an international Air port in Jaffna would have been more appropriate than Hambantota from this perspective. Constructing Northern Express way into Jaffna would have been more profitable than Southern Express way to Hambantota. .... (To be continued)

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Powers of Chief Minister vs Governor

The answer is a conundrum

| by Pearl Thevanayagam

(November 30, 2013 – London – Sri Lanka Guardian) The powers of chief minister and governor under provincial councils is blurred. Who is top brass and how much clout has the CM over governor in the North East? The former is a justice and the other is a member of the armed forces. This marriage was doomed from the start.

The governor dictates no public commemoration of war heroes should be held and CM had to resort to private mourning of those who sacrificed their lives in defence of the ostracised Tamils.

Sri Lanka is a socialist democratic republic as decreed by consecutive presidents and its constitution is unique in that there is no model - federal or otherwise - but it remains a mystery to even those who are educated in political science.

Even Foreign Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris who is well-versed in constitutional affairs and law would find it hard to define the Sri Lankan constitution. Rather he has succumbed to the Rajapaksas and is bending over backwards to amend the constitution at will with scant regard to constitutional law which is decreed at random by the executive presidency.

As the only erudite minister in the Rajapaksa Government, Prof. G.L.Peiris, ex vice-chancellor of Colombo University is putty in the hands of the regime. How the hell did he manage to descend to the level of genuflecting before the Rajapaksas from the outbacks of Hambantota begs the belief that GLP is approaching senile dotage.

Now he is only an apologist for President Perceival Mahinda Rajapaksa for crimes committed in his two years of presidency. How low can one get and stooping to the level of a PR emissary trotting the globe making apologies on behalf of his HMV and forfeiting his erstwhile credentials?

He has become the butt of many jokes post Chogm and he is accused of having travelled far and wide spending public money to beg leaders to attend Chogm meeting with just only 23 Heads attending.

When this writer met Cheliyan Perinpanayagam in 1995 he said his only power as Mayor of Batticaloa was to make sure cows do not stray onto roads. He was incarcerated in his own municipality which was declared a military zone. (There are still 2,500 bodies of university students buried under Batticaloa Stadium which is a military zone according to Fr Harry Miller)

He still managed to allow a photo opportunity in his mayoral regalia. Soon after he was gunned down by either the LTTE or PLOTE and we’ll never know.

CVV is no dissimilar to Cheliyan. His power is just a sugar coating under the bitter pill of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ham-fist.

GLP has accustomed himself with switching allegiance. Now we have another eminent person Justice C.V.Vigneswaran who has forfeited judiciary to enter the murky world of politics and he is caught between the devil of the call of Tamils crying for autonomy and the need to be subservient to the government which is holding him to ransom.

Neither GLP nor CVV are in enviable positions. How academics and law professionals are enticed into entering politics is beyond comprehension. Is it too much to ask that politics is best left to scoundrels and not academics and legal luminaries?

Ballage vada balla krandada one; booruwe vada boorowamai karanda one. Will we ever learn ?

(The writer has been a journalist for 24 years and worked in national newspapers as sub-editor, news reporter and news editor. She was Colombo Correspondent for Times of India and has contributed to Wall Street Journal where she was on work experience from The Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley, California. Currently residing in UK she is also co-founder of EJN (Exiled Journalists Network) UK in 2005 the membership of which is 200 from 40 countries. She can be reached at pearltheva@hotmail.com)

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What is fundamentally wrong with the 2014 Budget?

| by Laksiri Fernando 

( November 29, 2013, Sydney, Sri Lanka Guardian) The economic fundamentals overtly appear strong in the 2014 budget with the objectives of reducing the debt rate, budgetary deficit and sustaining a reasonable growth rate. That is when we look at the budget from a conventional economic point of view or a ‘bourgeoisie’ stand point, to be more precise. But what is the point of a budget in a developing country like Sri Lanka if it doesn’t address the key challenges in the socio-political system, not to speak of any socialist or progressive objectives? 

This article focuses on the budget’s implications on the provincial council system or the country’s fiscal devolution. 

Lost Direction

Let me begin with some general points. It is unfortunate that a UPFA budget which is expected to be progressive in its social content has almost completely lost its social direction - neglecting social equity, fair distribution of income and upliftment of the poor and the needy. The UPFA talked about a ‘caring society’ in the last budget and it has now been completely dropped. All in all, if the President’s speech, as the Minister of Finance, at the last budget kept some semblance of traditional SLFP-Left policies or his almost bygone ‘pro-poor’ orientation, the speech this time is a mark contrast and it contains only glorified financial notes and figures perhaps from the Department of National Budget of the Treasury without any sense of direction for the people or the country except casino-type growth.  

There are many vantage points from which the current budget could be critiqued, including major flaws in economic (miss)management or fiscal policies. There is no doubt that Sri Lanka is in a favourable position, particularly after the end of the war, to utilize the advantages accruing from the Asian growth, being next to India, and linked to China’s economic resurgence. However, it is doubtful whether the present regime is utilizing the full potential of this undisputable advantage, given the self-interests of the ruling elite and the increasingly disdainful attitude towards the general masses and the provincial/regional development. 

As many have already pointed out, the present budget is ineffective in attracting enough Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), as it could have been, or reforming the tax structure to utilize the full potential of the domestic capital formation, ‘not from the poor’ but from the rich. Most of the present taxes are indirect taxes burdening the poor. Be as it may, the present article focusses, however, its attention on seemingly untouched area of complete abandonment of fiscal devolution which could have been a cornerstone of a developmental budget at this stage of social development in the country both addressing the spatial inequity in general and the question of ethnic and social reconciliation in particular. 

Fiscal Devolution for PCs 

It is possible that fiscal devolution is largely an unfamiliar concept in Sri Lanka. It is more possible that financial mandarins at the Ministry of Finance are averse to the concept. But it has been there in practice since the 13^th Amendment (1987) and even it took expression at least in some form at the last budget and its speech. It is completely absent from the present budget speech or in any tangible form in the budgetary planning documents except crude figures given for the allocations under the Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Councils. Let me first quote what it said in the last budget by the President himself. 

Hon. Speaker, Rs. 130 billion has been allocated in this Budget for development activities in the education, health, social service and provincial economic activities that are devolved on Provincial Councils. To broaden the sources of income of the Provincial Councils, it is expected to allocate Rs. 32 billion from the income derived through Nation Building Tax, Stamp Duty and Motor Vehicle Registration. As such, it has been ensured that the Provincial Councils could spend around Rs. 162 billion in 2013.

The above is not the only statement on fiscal devolution for the Provincial Councils in the last budget. There was a complete section on the subject titled “Provincial Council Activities.” But the above statement is quite sufficient to understand what was there until the present budget in terms of fiscal devolution, at least in circumscribed manner. While the President promised budgetary allocation of Rs. 130 billion from the government income at the national level, another 32 billion was allowed through sharing taxes at the provincial level. These included NBT, Stamp Duty and MVR. All these seemed to be scrapped.

Why I say “in circumscribed manner” is that even by the last budget, arrangements had been made to collect the taxes through the central agencies and then allocate the estimated amounts to the PCs. This is not the fiscal devolution intended under the 13^th Amendment. Fiscal devolution proper incorporates both expenditure and income within the devolved units as much as possible. This is what is in practice in India, South Africa or China, not to speak of Canada, USA or Australia. Fiscal devolution or decentralization has nothing much to do with federalism or unitary state under contemporary circumstances. It is sine qua non in any country with major regional disparities or under development. It is of paramount importance when power and governing functions are devolved. If one argues that fiscal devolution is applicable only in large countries, then the counter examples are from Switzerland or Belgium. In countries or socio-political systems, like among living beings, human or animal, the anatomy is the same whether the country is big or small.   

It should also be noted that although the last budget talked about 162 billion for the Provincial Councils, the present revised estimate is 148 billion for the current year (2013) and by the end of the year, it would prove to be much less. There must have been a drastic cut somewhere, most probably in the tax revenue sharing. And for the coming year (2014) what can be seen is purely an allocation for the Ministry of Local  Government and Provincial Councils and through which, of course as in the past, funds would be transferred to the respective Provincial Councils as an appendage of the central Ministry and controlled by the Treasury. This appears to be the dominant thinking of financial centralization at present, instead of what intended as financial devolution under the 13^th Amendment mediated through the Finance Commission.

Budgetary Allocation

Under the Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Councils, 148 billion is allocated for the 9 Provinces for the year 2014 without any policy reference in the budget speech. I believe the omission is by purpose and indicative of how the government is going to treat the provincial councils in the future. This is exactly the reduced amount for the current year, from the promised 162 billion, even after the (re)constitution of the Northern Provincial Council in September this year. There is clear callousness in the budget estimates for the provincial councils, or otherwise the two figures could not have come that close as if the figures are largely duplicated or even manipulated. 

This allocation also contrasts quite significantly with what is allocated to the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development which amounts to over 270 billion. Instead of reconciliation through devolution, the big stick of military might has taken priority and instead of provincial/regional development, urban development in the Western Province and provincial cities of particularly the South has taken priority.     

Out of the allocated amount of 148 billion, 111 billion is for recurrent expenditure and only 37 billion is for much needed capital and development expenditure. Even out of the recurrent expenditure, the major bulk of 94 billion is for personal costs (i.e. salaries) and the rest, 17 billion is limited for operational costs. There is obviously something fundamentally wrong in these estimates and allocations, making the principles of devolution a mere mockery. However, in theory, there are 35 functions assigned to the provincial councils even after taking away the police and land functions. Among them, education, health, social services and provincial economic activities are of paramount importance and they will all suffer as a result.   

Most of the capital/development expenditure, yet meagre, which could be considered the backbone of any devolutionary system geared for rectifying regional disparities is allocated largely for politically induced projects that are called the Special Development Initiatives such as Pura Neguma etc. and are funded mainly by foreign sources with the goodwill of seeing some progress of devolution in the country. For example, Japan, Australia, ADB and WB are the main funders of these projects.    

The following table gives overall budgetary allocations for the provincial councils for 2014 in contrast to 2013.

Allocation of Funding for Provincial Councils (2013-2014)

                                                                                                                        Rs. ‘000

Province	2013 (revised)	2014
Western	11,928,755	11,755,000
Central	19,832,032	19,527,000
Southern	15,565,273	15,895,000
Northern	14,908, 054	17,331,000
North Western	17,033,105	17,470, 000
North Central	11,780,121	12,393,000
Uva	15,311,208	14,873,000
Sabaragamuwa	17,190,463	18,580,000
Eastern	19,911,354	16,046,000
Total	148,215,130	148,849,697

                                                                                                Source: Department of National Budget     

What the above table signifies is that there is no tangible overall increase for the Provincial Councils from the last year and the difference is only 634,567 million which is not even sufficient to counter the inflation. After its constitution, the Northern Provincial Council is allocated an additional amount of 2.4 billion perhaps at the expense of the Eastern and other Provincial Councils. There are reductions for the Eastern, Central and Uva and sharp increases for the Southern and Sabaragamuwa whatever the reasons. The ‘cut’ for the Eastern Provincial Council is a staggering (nearly) 4 billion.

                                                                                        

Major Flaws

The very second sentence of the Budget Speech of the President has highlighted the importance of the end of the war and the establishment of provincial councils in the North and the East in the following words. There cannot be many qualms about that.

Our nation is proud today that our Government has converted the once mined lands of the North and East into lands that harvest the dividend of peace and prosperity. The consolidation of the democratization process of the 30 year terrorist trapped North, having institutionalized a Provincial Council and Local Authorities in the province through free and fair elections, has further enriched the pride of our nation.

       

However, the words have not been translated into deeds particularly in financial allocations to the Provincial Councils. The importance of Provincial Councils and fiscal devolution are multifaceted. ‘An effective system of financial devolution is necessary in the country for sustainable development with environmental care, minimize regional/provincial disparities and to bring redress to the people while enhancing the principles of ethnic/social reconciliation and democracy.’ I am almost quoting from a World Bank sponsored Report to the Finance Commission and the President submitted in August 2011. 

The provincial disparities are a key dilemma in Sri Lanka’s development challenge. These disparities have been the breeding grounds for insurgencies both in the North and in the South in socio-economic terms in the past. Uneven development in any country could create social upheavals in both ethnic and social terms. These upheavals cannot only be contained through military means. While the per capita income in the Western Province has gone apace during the last decade or so, it has been lagging tragically behind in other provinces. This is what is called kolambata kiri apata kakiri (milk and honey to Colombo and just forage to us). The temporary revival of economic activities in the North and the East cannot be reasons for complacence. If there has been any improvement in bridging the gaps in provincial disparities, as highlighted by some Central Bank reports recently, those are due to the devolution and provincial council system. 

The paragraph 3 of Article 154R of the Constitution or the 13^th Amendment says “The Government shall, on the recommendation of, and in consultation with, the [Finance] Commission, allocate from the Annual Budget, such funds as are adequate for the purpose of meeting the needs of the Provinces.” This is the constitutional provision which is in fact violated by the 2014 Budget. 

In all countries where there is political devolution, or where there is fiscal devolution, there are targeted amounts of allocation to the provinces and these allocations as percentages of government revenue are progressively increased. China is a very good example. Sri Lanka is the only country that these allocations are now circumscribed and even decreased. Between 2000 and 2010, the government progressively increased the transfer of funds to the provinces from 32 billion to 107 billion according to the Central Bank statistics. Earlier, the percentage of transfer was lagging behind and was around 10 percent in 2008, but in 2010 it increased to almost 13 percent of the government revenue. The World Bank sponsored study report in 2011 recommended an increase, and the following was what it stated on the subject in essence. 

In 2010, central government transfers to provinces amounted to Rs. 107.03 billion which was only 13% of the total revenue of the central government in that year. In view of the importance of promoting regional development by allocating more resources for productive investment in the provinces, this proportion needs to be accelerated gradually to reach the level of at least 25%. 

What has happened instead is the reduction of overall allocation from 162 billion last year to 148 billion this year, and transfer of 130 billion from government revenue, which is mere 8.4 percent of the annual government revenue estimated to be around 1,100 billion in 2014.         

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Press Freedom Prize goes to Uzbek journalist and Sri Lankan daily

( November 28, 2013, Paris, Sri Lanka Guardian) Reporters Without Borders, Le Monde and TV5Monde are pleased and proud to award the 2013 Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Prize to the imprisoned Uzbek journalist Muhammad Bekjanov and the Sri Lankan Tamil-language daily Uthayan.

The names of the winners were announced during a ceremony this evening in Strasbourg’s city hall, where the awards were presented to Uthayan editor Vallipuram Kaanamylnaathan and owner Eswarapatham Saravanapavan, and to Uzbek human rights defender Nadejda Atayeva on behalf of Bekzhanov, who has been in prison for the past 14 years.

“This year we again salute the exemplary courage of men and women for whom reporting the news is a daily battle,” Reporters Without Borders president Alain Le Gouguec said. “Their activities embody the universal value of media freedom in a real and concrete way. Thanks to them, information becomes a force capable of enlightening, mobilizing and advancing the cause of freedom.”

One of the world’s longest held journalists, Bekzhanov was the editor of Uzbekistan’s main opposition newspaper Erk (Freedom), which he used in the early 1990s to start a debate on such taboo subjects as the state the economy, the use of forced labour in the cotton harvest and the Aral Sea environmental disaster. As result, he became one of the leading bugbears of President Islam Karimov, who had quickly established an autocratic and repressive regime.

The regime took advantage of a series of bombings in Tashkent in 1999 to silence its critics. Under torture, Bekzhanov was forced to “confess” to being an accomplice to terrorism and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In January 2012, just a few days before he was due to be released, he was sentenced to another four years and eight months in jail on a charge of disobeying prison officials.

The relatives and colleagues who are very occasionally allowed to visit him say he is in terrible health. No fewer than eight other journalists are currently detained in appalling conditions for defying the ubiquitous censorship in Uzbekistan, which is ranked 164th out of 179 countries in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

A daily newspaper based in Jaffna, in northern Sri Lanka, Uthayan is one of the country’s few Tamil-language media and the only one to have kept going throughout the 1983-2009 civil war between the Tamil Tiger separatists and the Sri Lankan regular army. It supports the Tamil National Alliance and, with 28 years of experience, is nowadays read by a fifth of the Jaffna Peninsula’s inhabitants.

Despite operating in a country that is ranked 162nd in the press freedom index, Uthayan has never balked at covering stories that are controversial in a still fragmented society. As a result, it has been the target of repeated violence, leading to the departure of many of its employees over the years. Two were killed in May 2006 and its editor, Gnagnasundaram Kuhanathan, was beaten unconscious in Jaffna in 2011.

In April 2013, armed men forced their way into its distribution office in Kilinochchi, smashing equipment and attacking employees. What with abduction of its journalists, threats, attacks on its offices, forced closure, destruction of equipment and smear campaigns, there is little that Uthayan has not endured and it continues to pay a high price for its uncompromising coverage of the country’s situation and its frequent revelations about illegal activity by the government and armed forces.

Reporters Without Borders has been awarding an international prize to a journalist and a news organization every year since 1992. In partnership with Le Monde and TV5Monde, its aim is to encourage, support and publicize the work of journalists and media that have contributed significantly to the defence or promotion of media freedom.

More than 30 men, women, news organizations and NGOs have received this prize in the past 20 years. Some who were in jail at the time subsequently recovered their freedom. Others who were in danger received a form of protection as a result of this international recognition.

“This year we are honouring one of the best known writers of the struggle for democracy in Uzbekistan, Muhammad Bekjanov, and through him we would like to renew our support for all the journalists who are in prison in that country for courageously doing their job to report the news,” Reporters Without Borders director-general Christophe Deloire said.

“The war in Sri Lanka is not yet over for Uthayan. If this newspaper were to succumb to the constant harassment to which it is exposed, the abuses by the security forces against the population in the north would continue with complete impunity, without being brought to the attention of Sri Lankans and the international community. The courage and persistence of Uthayan’s staff in reporting what happens in this embattled country demands our respect and our full solidarity.”

TV5Monde news director Pascal Guimier said: “Many prizes are awarded every year but this one has a particular importance for us. It is a prize for freedom of information, one of the conditions necessary for the existence of every form of democratic life. It is therefore logical for us to join Reporters Without Borders and Le Monde in this event paying tribute to all those who work with courage and passion, sometimes paying with their lives, because they deeply believe that this helps to bring about freedom for all.”

Reporters Without Borders, Le Monde and TV5Monde would also like to pay tribute to all the other nominees for the 2013 prize:

In the “journalist” category: Reyot Alemu (Ethiopia), Jorge Carrasco (Mexico), Luo Changping (China), Ntina Daskapopoulos (Greece) and Ismail Saymaz (Turkey).
In the “media” category: Lakome.com (Morocco), L’Eléphant Déchaîné (Côte d’Ivoire) and Radio Kimche Mapu (Chile)

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The Counter-Robin Hoods

| by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“I shop everywhere, anything that fits perfect will be purchased, price and name does not matter”.

Rohitha Rajapaksa (Daily Mirror – 8.5.2013)

( November 28, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) In her autobiographical-history of Pre-revolutionary China, Han Suyin explains how the country’s incompetent and spendthrift rulers used taxes as a mode of wealth-extraction from ordinary people. Kettle tax, stocking tax, bedding tax, hog tax, wealthy house tax, army mule tax, troop movement tax, soldier reward tax…the list was endless. “There was inaugurated in certain areas a ‘happy tax’ for the purpose of promoting happiness on the day taxes were paid” .

‘Janamoola Nayakaya’ (Leader rooted in the People) is one of the innumerable accolades bestowed by the Rajapaksa-state media on President Rajapaksa. The Rajapaksas use ethno-religious chauvinism to create a sense of identification and commonality between themselves and the Sinhala-Buddhist majority. This rhetoric of solidarity is belied by Rajapaksa economics. As the 2014 Budget reveals, again, a fundament of Rajapaksa economics is taxing the poor and the middle classes (including the Sinhala poor and middle classes) to the benefit of the Ruling Family and its kith and kin.

This week, JVP Parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake revealed that the government imposes a tax of Rs.25 on a litre of petrol . This is just one example of the nexus between indirect taxes and cost of living in Sri Lanka. Indirect taxes form the financial mainstay of the government. Prices go up, primarily because of indirect taxes; indirect taxes go up, because the government has no other way – apart from borrowing – to make ends meet. 

According to 2014 Budget 87.1% of government income is expected to come from taxes; 67.1% of government income is expected to come from indirect taxes.

2014 Budget reveals not only a government dependent on indirect taxes for its financial survival but also a government which is intent on rewarding its kith and kin at the expense of the masses. This bias is obvious in the way the regime wielded its tax-sword to the detriment of the ‘Common Man’ and the benefit of the ‘Rajapaksa Man’. 

Cess taxes were increased, at unspecified rates, on a range of goods including wheat flower, cheese, curd, margarine, sauces, sausages, sweets, chocolates, cereal, pasta, vinegar, vegetables, mushrooms, nuts and fruits, fruit juice, mosquito coils and cut flowers. A 25% tax was imposed on gauze. Import cess taxes on steel products, aluminium bars and tubes, padlocks, hinges and Portland cement in packs of 50kg or below were hiked. A special commodity levy was imposed on sprats, chickpeas, green grams, canned fish, sugar, Maldive fish, dried fish, orange, coriander, cumin, tumeric, ground nuts, mustard seed, palm oil, salt, yoghurt, butter and margarine. A Nation Building Tax of 2% was slapped on banks. A 5% tax increase was imposed on telecom services. VAT exemptions on paddy, rice, wheat, some spices, dessicated-coconut, rubber, latex, coconut, tea including green tea, rice flour, wheat flour, eggs and liquid and powdered milk, tractors, semi-trailers, machinery for tea and rubber industry, plant and machinery for firms, and some pharmaceutical preparations were removed .

2013 budget gave a 300% tax break to super racing cars. That trend of pampering a tiny sliver of the politico-economic upper crust continues in the 2014 Budget. Designer pens, ties and bows have been made Cess-free. Branded consumer items have received a tax relief; they will be taxed at 7.5%, the lowest rate possible.

Indirect taxes, imposed not on luxury goods but consumer essentials, amounts to a form of wealth extraction from ordinary people. When this extraction is not balanced by increased incomes, consumption levels decrease and debt levels go up. This scissors crisis in popular living standards causes a host of secondary problems, such as the exacerbation of under-nourishment. Japan has already warned about precarious nutrition levels of among resettled IDPs, especially children . As Amartya Sen and Jean Drèze point out, “Endemic undernutrition is a less obvious – less ‘loud’ – phenomenon than famine… But even in terms of sheer mortality, many times more people are killed slowly by regular undernourishment and deprivation than by the rarer and more confined occurrence of famine” . 

Sri Lanka is in danger of becoming a country characterised by under-developing people. And as Budget 2014 demonstrates, national wellbeing (including Sinhala-Buddhist wellbeing) matters to the Rajapaksas only as an attractive façade and a convenient slogan.

.
Acolyte Capitalism

Using the example of Latin America, Michael Walton warns India about the dangers of ‘structurally disequalising growth’ caused partially by “implicit social contracts between the state and the business and the state and various social groups” .

This warning is extremely apposite for Sri Lanka, not only because the country is becoming an Asian leader in inequality-increase but also because the growing nexus between the Rajapaksas and a segment of the private sector is becoming a key-determinant of economic and budgetary policies.

According to some analysts, the regime is using taxes to impose protectionism, for the benefit of favourites: “In a continuing disturbing trend, more industries were given protectionism, allowing favoured businessmen to avoid competition, further worsening a culture of rent seeking and exploitation of poorer consumers. Boats and gauze were added to the list while protectionism was increased for building materials and food. Already monopolises have developed in building materials under protective tariffs…” After a recent spree of acquisitions, the Rajapaksas’ in-house business magnate, Dhammika Perera stated, “We now have a monopoly in ceramic tiles and aluminium industries” . Mr. Perera is reportedly a ‘big fan’ of President Rajapaksa . Naturally; the Rajapaksas kept him as the BOI Chairman for three years and then made him the permanent secretary to the Ministry of Transport; Rajapaksa economics and Rajapaksa budgets are particularly good for his many businesses.

This is Acolyte Capitalism, a system where success in business depends on how loyal and obedient you are to the Ruler/s.

In October 2013, the Perceived Economic Opportunity Index (PEOI) decreased, “ending up around the lowest level since the index was developed in July 2011… Most people are just managing to meet their household expenses but are worried about rising prices into the future, according to the Index complier.” This tallies with the findings of the far more scientific opinion poll by the CPA; ordinary people, from South to North, want decreases in living costs and improvements in agriculture, health and education. The Rajapaksa priorities occupy the polar opposites, as Budget 2014 demonstrates.

The rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless do not inhabit the same world. Sensible policy makers try to lessen this gap, lest a clash of the worlds happen. The inverse is happening in Sri Lanka. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s latest budget proves, again, that the regime, given its nature, cannot but continue on its current economically ruinous and politically destabilising anti-Robin Hood path.

Attacking political critics and opponents, mismanaging national finances, tolerating obscene disparities, further alienating ethno-religious minorities and antagonising powerful regional/international players – these are outward signs of a fatal systemic disease. Patriotic rhetoric and fear mongering are merely interim solutions to the crisis. As the other Rajapaksa-priority – a gargantuan military and a bloated defence budget – indicates, naked force will be the Siblings’ ultimate solution to the burgeoning economic malaise and its socio-political and electoral fallout.

References;

http://life.dailymirror.lk/article/5024/rohitha

The Mortal Flower

http://newsfirst.lk/english/2013/11/problematic-situation-arises-parliament-amount-spent-liter-petrol/5945

http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/news/sri-lanka-raises-telecom-levy,-ups-taxes-on-foods,-removes-vat-exemptions/2105612484l

http://colombogazette.com/2013/11/27/nutrition-levels-of-resettled-poor/

Hunger and Public Action

http://www.michaelwalton.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Inequalities-rents-transformation-of-India_walton_July-2010.pdf

http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/news/sri-lanka-targets-lower-deficit-in-2014-budget,-ups-protectionism/1793196494

http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/news/Sri_Lankas_Dhammika_Perera_extends_business_empire/1710402931

http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesasia/2013/11/20/sri-lankan-dhammika-pereras-master-plan/

http://www.ft.lk/2013/11/19/confidence-in-economic-opportunity-among-general-public-not-picking-up/

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The Dragon Wakes Up To Human Rights Record In Sri Lanka

( November 28, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) China is waking up. Having been elected to power President Xi Xinpin has so far enjoyed a honeymoon of silence on human rights and corruption for the past one year.

He has now become serious about making his presence effectively felt. To coincide with the election of China to the United Nations Human Rights Council the Chinese leadership is saying enough is enough to the glaring human rights abuses in Sri Lanka which stand out.

Resonating with the calls from India, Britain and other powers, Qin Gang the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, reflecting the views of the general secretary of the Chinese Communist party Xi Xinpin, has told Sri Lanka to "make efforts to protect and promote human rights" and to address allegations of rights abuses against the country's minority Tamils, further stating "Due to the differences in the economic and social development of different countries, there could be differences on human rights protection." It is no coincidence that this statement came during the CHOGM, making it opportune for universal consideration. Though not a member of the Commonwealth, China provided most of its infrastructure. China's current stand is undoubtedly not the work of the LTTE rump or the Tamil Diaspora although the support and the closeness to the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese culture amongst the Tamil people during the fifties to the nineties are worthy of note.

Xi is an outstanding and resolute leader bent on action. His integrity is unquestioned and his family is also reputed for being above corruption. At a time when he is wooing the western powers especially the European Union and the US he cannot be seen flirting with Sri Lanka riddled with corruption and enmeshed in grave human rights abuses. However, unlike Europe, China also refuses to be intimidated by the US.

Unfortunately for China the matter of corruption and to a lesser extent human rights are seen as its Achilles' heal and they cannot at this juncture be seen to be hamstrung with the horrendous crimes against humanity obtaining in Sri Lanka. Qin apparently echoing the views of Xi has further stated: "I believe that on the human rights issue, dialogue and communication should be enhanced among countries." Qin has further said: "We always maintained that on the human rights issues, countries around the world should enhance mutual understanding through dialogue and communication and take constructive means to promote the development of the international human rights cause." This comes at a time when the Rajapaksas have been counting on China and Russia to bail them out from the US resolutions of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the next human rights sessions in March 2014 in Geneva.

From Xi's firm stand against corruption and his urging the Chinese administrators to respect its Constitution have encouraged the Chinese liberals. In one of his recent speeches Xi has emphasised that "all citizens are equal before the law", that "freedom should be guaranteed" and that "no one should be allowed to be above the constitution." This has been interpreted by some observers as his manifesto to usher in a new era of liberalism and the rule of law. The position of China being a secular State is the better for it.

Most recently President Rajapaksa went to the ridiculous extent of rewarding a parliamentarian, promoting him to the rank of a cabinet minister. His only claim to such elevation was that he was responsible for organising protests and blockades, during the CHOGM, against foreign human rights activists moving freely and meeting with victims of human rights abuses.

It was during the time of Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike as prime minister that close relations with China came to be forged much to the mutual advantage of both countries. This relationship was not tainted with even the slightest semblance of corruption for Mrs. Bandaranike for whom enriching herself and the members of her family was the furthest in her thinking. Despite her other failings she was indeed above corruption. Today in Sri Lanka while its human record is in tatters its effective leadership concentrated in just one family has also to account for the enormous corruption also in connection with the Chinese aid and loans. More loans that the Rajapaksas ask for more commissions they are paid finding their way into their pockets.

With Xi Xinpin's warning and the serious concerns of western powers, it is becoming increasingly evident that the noose is tightening around the necks of Mahinda Rajapaksa, now taking cover under the fact that he is the Chair of the Commonwealth, his brothers and the other war criminals who are getting around with impunity.

( The writer is the editor of the Eelam Nation)

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Afghanistan: Rationality Questions Insanity of War

| by Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.

“We Are Going to Lose the War in Afghanistan and it will Help Bankrupt us. One of our major strategic blunders in Afghanistan was not to have recognized that both Great Britain and the Soviet Union attempted to pacify Afghanistan using the same military methods as ours and failed disastrously. We seem to have learned nothing from Afghanistan's modern history -- to the extent that we even know what it is. Between 1849 and 1947…..” (Chalmers Johnson. Dismantling the Empire - America’s Last Best Hope: 8/2010). 

( November 28, 2013, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) If you ask the American leaders and few of their seasonally hired European bootlickers - what are they doing in Afghanistan other than killing the innocents and bombing the silent historic graveyards? None of them can offer a rational explanation to justify the decade old warmongering and occupation of that poor and helpless nation. Their terminology of peace and security makes no sense, out of the nonsense. Obama administration is pushing President Hamid Karzai to sign a strategic agreement enabling the US troops to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely after its planned withdrawal in 2014. Ironically, Hamid Karzai lacks legitimacy and constitutional power to do that as his terms of presidency will expire during the summer of 2014. The other day, Ms. Suzan Rice, Obama’s Security chief, reiterated the threat, if Karazi fails to sign the deal, it could undermine the promised US 2 billion or so aid to Afghanistan. Undoubtedly, America is using money to buy time and influence. Why should America keep its troops in Afghanistan when President Obama wanted to end the Afghan tragedy as he publicly declared since he took office in 2009. Was Obama lying to the American people and to the humanity about ending the bogus war in Afghanistan? All insane warriors have acted the same way throughout history and Obama is no exception until such people meet their self-geared tragic end and delusional imagined triumph and glory out of the Afghan pains, ruins and sufferings of the innocent people. America and its European agents of influence could never justify their war and occupation of Afghanistan in any rational context. The ultimate aim of the Afghan war is to move gradually into Pakistan and destroy its nuclear arsenal which the US and its allies view as a place of harboring terrorism and threat to US global hegemony when seen in the growing Pakistan- China relations. Pakistani paid agents - political-military bootlickers follow the US dictum as they get cash dollars and so called military aid (dry milk, used clothes and obsolete military hardware) to stay afloat. History is living, not a dead entity of human conscience. Pakistani political culture is on flame because of the American intransigence in neighboring Afghanistan and continued drone attacks on the civilian population. 

Hamid Karazi - a former US hired manager of a Oil company in California, will ultimately succumb to US argument and sign the deal if and when the Us will deliver millions of dollars cash to him and his supporters. Kabul is highly insecure place and nobody can protect Karzai and American troops from the wrath of God, and the anti-American sentiment across the masses of Afghanistan. America and its paid allied went to Afghanistan without any invitation and since 2001, they have failed gain any logical position of strength to fight the Talaban- the natives of Afghanistan defending their homeland against foreign aggression. Obama is not that stupid to risk his life and security but appears smart and tactful at least on paper and in his secured outlook, fighting and killing people thousands of miles away from his drawing room without any repercussions to the self- his inner soul and human conscience. In early 2012, reportedly one US soldier went out at night time to kill 17 innocent children and women in an Afghan remote village. If it had happened in the US as was the Sandyhook, Ohio school massacres in December 2012, American news media would have mentioned their whereabouts and ages for the record. Strange as it was, the US mainstream news media never bothered to ask the names of the 17 children and women massacred by its soldier, the children birthdates, about their toys if they had, and how they were massacred while asleep - something the US media is used to portraying in its journalistic cultural context. You cannot blame the US military psyche either because they are doing a job. They went there to kill people, and this is what Obama calls the invincible armies. Under the NATO, the Western allied nations use media as a weapon to manage innovative battlefield and defeat the perceived enemies in lands far away that the US military minds could not understand - its people, their psychology or cultural identity. One of the biggest hurdles that American strategists face is that they are disconnected and ignorant of the social, moral and civilizational culture of Afghanistan and Iraq, and failed to comprehend its vitality in fighting effectively and successfully. To put a pattern to the context, first it was the US marines photos of pissing on the dead Afghani corps, then the unknowing burning of the Muslim Holy Book Qura’an, and later the added new massacres of the innocent civilians. American commanders in Afghanistan offered apologies as if there were not aware what the Qura’an means to the Afghan people. The American history narrates that Thomas Jefferson, the architect of the American Constitution had three volumes of the Holy Al-Qura’an in his library that he used to devise the legal, moral and ethical stipulations for the American Constitution. Does it mean that the American populace is not aware of their own history?

The US armed forces are trained and represent the US culture of thinking, sense of freedom and liberty and justice, moral values and political indoctrination, strangely, why should the Commander-in-Chief be ‘saddened’ for these latest atrocities against the people who never harmed nor threatened the US national interests. Does insanity and hypocrisy have another name and meaning? To invest in favorite perversion, torture, corruption and massacre of the innocent people happening frequently to portray sadistic political governance, and the world can watch the bloody atrocities with deafening silence and inhuman complacency but what kind of glorification would it produce for the future generations to understand the sacred norms of humanity? Deliberate massacres of the innocents need no explanation or psychological clarification, massacre is massacre. To distort the facts and misinform the public, media outlets bring hourly paid intellectuals and subject experts to discuss the war stigma and psychological imprints on the soldiers leading them to commit massacres. The media exercise shields the actual crimes and creates TV imagery on screen as if it is unreal, no blood - no killing, all unknowingly and “a lone marine”- the Obama explanatory note. The informed and conscientious global community wonders, when rationality would replace the drudgery, hypocrisy of wars and killings of the innocent people? History will judge the people and leaders by their actions, not by their claims. Nobody can tell the informed global community, why do 18-25 American war veterans commit suicide daily in abundant corridors and drug addicted dusty hallways of the US public backyards?

There is growing trend of “Big Thinking” in American politics that often overwhelms the powerful nation to drain out its abilities to see the mirror for a critical self-analysis and reconstruction of policy and strategic behavior in a situation of primary crisis management conflict resolution. Throughout its two centuries of evolving history, the US government has been continuously engaged in more than 220 wars. 

Robert Pape, Professor, University of Chicago's, and author of the Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, 2005, points out the alarmingly failing record of the US Empire in war engagements:

"America is in unprecedented decline. The self-inflicted wounds of the Iraq war, growing government debt, increasingly negative current-account balances and other internal economic weaknesses have cost the United States real power in today's world of rapidly spreading knowledge and technology. If present trends continue, we will look back on the Bush years as the death knell of American hegemony."

Late Chalmers Johnson (Dismantling the Empire) warned:

“We Are Going to Lose the War in Afghanistan and it will Help Bankrupt us. One of our major strategic blunders in Afghanistan was not to have recognized that both Great Britain and the Soviet Union attempted to pacify Afghanistan using the same military methods as ours and failed disastrously. We seem to have learned nothing from Afghanistan's modern history -- to the extent that we even know what it is. Between 1849 and 1947…..”

Twenty years after the forces of the Red Army withdrew from Afghanistan in disgrace, points out Chalmers Johnson, that the last Russian general to command them, Gen. Boris Gromov, issued his own prediction: Disaster, he insisted, will come to the thousands of new forces Obama is sending there, just as it did to the Soviet Union's, which lost some 15,000 soldiers in its own Afghan war. We should recognize that we are wasting time, lives, and resources in an area where we have never understood the political dynamics and continue to make the wrong choices.

Do the American politicians and military strategists THINK like the common folks who love peace, freedom and liberty? Professor P.L Thomas (Furman University, South Carolina) speaks out loud and clear (“Obama's Failed Hope and Change: "Forget the Politicians. They are Irrelevant.” Speak Out: 9/04/2013):

Forget the politicians. They are irrelevant. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice! You have owners! They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear….They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want: They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests.

What is the cure to raging indifference and cruelty to the interests of the people of the United States and for that matter the whole of the mankind? Looking at the Nature of Things, the universe encompasses many challenging opposites - time, space, sun, moon, gravitational rotation of the earth, fire, water, air, sand, floods, earthquakes, tsunami, disasters, explosions, wars, destructions, bombing and all that can be imagined to destroy the mankind and endanger the continued movement of the splendid, inspiring and harmonious Universe. How it is that Man - a creation of God cannot co-exist with fellow Man? Is Man by nature a blood thirsty creature? Perhaps, the invisible forces of culture and environment and societal indoctrinations frame and shape that mindset.

To change the world, it is incumbent upon the intellectuals, academics, visionaries, poets, philosophers and the thinking people to perceive and articulate new and creative ideas, new political imagination for the 21st century organizations to be functional for the people, by the people and accountable to the supremacy of the people’s will. Thus facilitating opportunities for dialogue and reason to deal with issues of primary national conflicts, competing economic and political discords, freedom, justice, human rights, and to invent new terminologies of diplomacy, peacemaking and co-existence between Man, the Humanity and the encompassed Universe. Peace and global security are not the properties or the exclusive domains of any superpowers, UNO or the Security Council or corporate entity. The global mankind enjoins rational optimism to see the ideas and ideals of peace and human security as it’s own collectively, not possession of the few.

One major factor encouraging the global superpowers to go freely and unchallenged out of their own hemisphere to far fetched lands and commit massacres and destroy human habitats, is the obvious corrupt system of global peace and security operated by the UNO. It is nothing more than a debating club overwhelmed by the few – the five obsolete global powers at the UN Security Council to claim legitimacy to rule the nations of the world. The UNO is in a desperate need of change and reformation,. If not perhaps a new initiative is to be taken by global thinkers to plan and evolve anew International Institution of systematic credibility and legitimacy by the people, of the people and for the people. The abstract notion of European State has lost its relevance and meanings.

Time and encompassing opportunities warrant New Thinking, New Leaders and New Visions for change and the future-making. But change and creativity and new visions will not emerge out of the obsolete, redundant and failed authoritarianism of the few insane leaders. None have the understanding of neither peace nor respect for human life and co-existence in a splendid Universe. To challenge the deafening silence of the US and Europeans for global peace and security, the humanity must find ways and means to look beyond the obvious and troublesome horizons dominated by the few warlords and continued to be plagued with massacres, barbarity against human culture and civilizations, destruction of the habitats and natural environment as if there were no rational being and people of Reason populating the God-given Universe. The informed and mature global community looks towards those Thinkers, educated and honest proactive leaders enriched with coherent unity of moral, spiritual, intellectual and physical visions and abilities to be instrumental to rescue it from the planned encroachment of the few global warlords.

To sign a strategic deal with America at this juncture of the allied clear military defeat in Afghanistan, it will be a major error of judgment and irresponsible behavior on the part of the Karzai government. He will be out of office shortly and has no authority from the masses to comfort America for its aggression and to maintain continued occupation. The Kabul Jirga was a hired and hurriedly arranged set-up for the Western media outlets and Obama administration to claim some element of legitimacy in its policy adventure. Rationality wants answer and clear commitments to phase-out the insanity of the treacherous war and create a culture of normalcy to phase-in a legitimate government of the people of Afghanistan including those of the Talaban and support its functional stability. The American- led occupation has articulated frightening trends in crimes, moral and social decadence and ultimate collapse of the Afghan people and culture. Its direct and dire impacts on the emerging chaos and disorder are visible in neighboring Pakistan. Unless America in collaboration with another Pakistani-rival nation plans to occupy Pakistan, there is no logical discourse for the US to keep its Rapid Deployment Forces in Afghanistan. If George Bush – the indicted criminal for the Iraq war, was to be questioned, Ben Laden is already killed and there is no obvious political ambition to stay in Afghanistan and get its own troops kill innocent people and be killed. Aggressors never help to develop nation, they go-in there to destroy the people.

William Boardman (Is “America a country at war with an Illusion.” Information Clearing House: 8/19/2013), offers a rational insight into American psyche of continued warmongering:

“We are waging war on terrorism even as we embody terrorism. No wonder we seem sometimes to be at war with ourselves, and have been for most of the 21st century….. No American under 12 Has Lived in a Country at Peace…whatever the U.S. government knows, or thinks it knows, is not widely shared with most of its citizens….. The American Enemies List Is Decided Anonymously and Secretly.”

(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution, and comparative Western-Islamic cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest one: Global Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking. Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, May 2012).

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