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Maithripala and Ranil paint their rainbow blue and green
View(s):Gala of ceremonial openings to herald economic boom plus the unveiling of Sirisena’s secret weapon to crush Rajapaksa threat
The New Year sparklers came belated but they came nevertheless when both President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe emerged from their sullen corners last week, firing all guns in unison to spray paint their rainbow blue and green.
Rajapaksa’s declaration two weeks ago that he will topple the government this year seems to have finally jolted both Sirisena and Wickremesinghe to lay aside their differences and show a united stance in the face of the common foe. Even before the sun had set on the national government’s two year reign last Sunday, the loose Rajapaksa comet which threatened to disintegrate their very existence, brought the two leaders out from their seeming complacency to paint the grandiose picture that the brand new dawn they had promised for Lanka was just round the corner and would soon be visible in the aquamarine sky.
After playing the cat and rat game, and pooh-poohing the former president’s pre announced plan to overthrow the people elected government this year with the scorn it deserved, nonchalantly stating that Rajapaksa could do so if he wished while he was away in Switzerland on January 17th enjoying the alpine air, the Prime Minister unveiled his five year plan for Lanka.
Ranil: Unveils ‘Powerful Lanka’
Holding up in each of his hands the road map to El Dorado, Ranil Wickremesinghe described to the media the good times ahead by displaying his latest testament: Powerful Sri Lanka. Soon, he declared, the Hambantota Port Agreement, with the framework agreement already signed with the China Merchant Company, would be implemented with a follow-up agreement with the company later.
And that’s only the tip of the sandcastle. Two primary corridors namely the South West Monsoon Corridor and the North Eastern Monsoon Corridor would be set up in this year. Under the South West Corridor he said Kandy, Colombo, Galle, Hambantota and Moneragala will be linked. This would comprise two airports and two ports. The North Eastern Monsoon Corridor would comprise the Tincomalee Harbour. The Tincomalee Port he said would be developed with the assistance of countries such as Japan, India and Singapore.
The icing on the cake will be when ‘Ceylon City’ which is similar to Dubai International Financial Centre, is developed. In addition to this several tourism zones and industrial zones would be developed. And more cities are planned. And though it’s still in the air, the central business district is to get its own Aero City, whilst a Science and Technological City is also on the cards. And neither is the north to be ignored. It will be developed as a special war zone city. The Prime Minister also said the country will go for Free Trade Agreements with China and with India this year. “FTAs would be a key to venture into foreign markets in order to enhance investments,” he said.
And as for the plum, the sweet cherry to crown the cake: “The GDP would be increased while the minimum wages of a Sri Lankan will be increased to US $ 300 a month.”The whole of last week in fact has been a gala of ceremonial openings heralding the nation’s forward march to a better future. Kicking off the New Year hopes was the foundation stone laying ceremony at the Mahanugalanda estate in Kuliyapitiya to build a motorcar assembly plant where the president and the prime minister both participated. Originally it had been hailed that it was a German Volkswagen project. Had it been so, it would have sparked investor confidence in the nation and boosted more international investments. Unfortunately for the country, it was later revealed that the engine lay not in the front of the chassis but in the boot and that it was nothing more than a local outfit’s attempt at putting four doors together without the Volkswagen insignia on its bonnet.
But no matter. Cars run on wheels and on 5th January the Prime Minister declared open a tyre factory in Horana. Then on January 6th the Prime Minister inaugurated a new factory, a joint venture between locals and a British investor in Koggala set to create 8,000 jobs. As the Prime Minister declared what was most important is that these enterprises will generate jobs for Lanka’s youth. As the prime minister emphasized what was important was the economic benefits that accrued to Lanka in the creation of employment and he spoke against the devils of development who waited to cast their devilry at every turn.
Not to be outdone, President Sirisena was also doing the rounds and giving the assuring finishing touch that all these fancied development schemes will not be at the cost of prostituting state resources. At the opening of the newly built Rs. 374 million bridge in Dodanwala, Kandy last Friday, he declared: “though new industries and investments are needed for the country, the land will be given according to laws and regulations. Our agreements with countries are very open.”
And, as a parting shot to send a message to the opposite banks and to waylay the Rajapaksa threat to overturn the government’s boat midstream, the president declared: “Though some groups issue statements saying that the Government will be toppled, nobody can put down the current Government. Nobody has the ability to change the Government until a new government is elected in the next election to be held in 2020”.
This week on Wednesday the President commissioned the Moragahakanda Project, the country’s biggest irrigation project next to the Victoria project. It is a project that is close to the president’s heart. Though it had been on the drawing board as part of the Mahaweli Master Plan for decades, it was only in 2007 it got off ground. At the time Sirisena was the Minister in charge, as the Minister for Mahaweli Development, in the Rajapaksa government. Soon afterwards, Rajapaksa attempted to transfer it to his brother Basil, but in the face of Sirisena’s threat to resign relented. But funds were denied to him to proceed with it and work on the project came to a standstill till 2010 when Sirisena was given the Health Ministry portfolio and had nothing more to do with it as minister.
Immediately upon becoming president, Sirisena was determined to finish what he had started in earnest and valued more than his ministry. In February in 2015, not after a month of being elected President, he toured the area and ordered work to recommence immediately on the Lanka’s biggest multi faceted irrigation project. The groundbreaking ceremony for Ehala Elahara Ela, the longest canal ever built in the country which will take the precious waters to northern farmers to irrigate their lands was also conducted. It is claimed that the Rajapaksa government dragged their feet in building the dam and canal because it was to be used as a bargaining chip – the Sinhalese gift to the Tamils it is said, water for peace.
On Wednesday, when the waters of the great rivers of Lanka were marshaled to flow prosperity to the people’s door and make green the barren land they occupied, the president declared that though the present financial crisis was not of his own making but a financial burden inherited by his government, he would meet the challenge to usher in an era of affluence to the nation.
If that wasn’t enough for a fortnight of good news development plans to herald the nation’s expected economic boom, there was more to come to add to the surfeit. Even as Saturn’s move this month on the 26th from turbulent Scorpio, house of the war lord Mars, to the benevolent dwelling of Sagittarius, home of the Zodiac’s sage Jupiter, portends a well-to-do year for Lanka provided the leaders work to make hay while the planets shine on the land, the Central Bank Governor chipped in with his own bit of good tidings. Coomaraswamy predicted last week that Lanka’s economy was expected to expand 5.5 – 6.0% in 2017, up from 4.5-5.0% last year; and that he expects more domestic and foreign investment this year.
But if the rainbow set to light on the economic front was one way for the national government to take its fight to the enemy camp and banish the clouds of pessimism the Rajapaksa regime had blown across the landscape, it did not lose sight of the need to fortify its political banks that faced the threat of erosion from the persistent dredging of the joint opposition. And if the economic news was the sugar, the political bulletin was the bitter pill.
The Empire strikes back with a vengeance  Maithri: Unveils secret weapon Perhaps triggered by Mahinda Rajapaksa throwing down the gauntlet two weeks ago and threatening to topple the government this year, the Sirisena faithful drew ranks last week and proceeded to lay the groundwork for The Empire to strike back with a vengeance. The party’s secretary, the Rajarata knight Duminda Dissanayake took it upon himself to forestall such an eventuality by springing the proposal at the SLFP’s committee meeting last week that called for the appointment of President Sirisena as the party’s presidential candidate at the 2020 presidential election. This was put forward by Mr. Dissanayake irrespective of whether, as he said to his colleagues, Maithripala Sirisena liked it or not, and the committee endorsed it unanimously. This proposal for Maithripala Sirisena would have been like crossing the Rubicon in reverse. He would have well remembered how he had on January 9th two years ago declared his intention to be only a one term president. He would have recalled also how on November 16th 2015, he had solemnly declared at Ven Sobitha’s funeral, before the coffin was consigned to the flames, how he would act to turn the monk’s vision to reality. In his funeral oration he declared, “I pledge before the hallowed mortal remains of this venerable and esteemed monk, to establish a just Yahapalana government in this country, to found a democratic society in this country, and, in order to create a just and equitable social system in the country, to take all the steps I can take and should take to abolish the executive presidency as desired by the Ven Sobith Thera.” It would indeed have been galling for him to now make a U turn but he would have realised that the political tide had overtaken his own inclinations and drowned them in the process. That, like the Volkswagen which packs its engine in the boot, so would he have to shove his promise to be only a one term president in the dickey. Beside his party was clamouring for him to re-contest. As S. B. Dissanayake stated this week, “the party has made a decision and the president cannot say no”. Perhaps, in his final term, if he is reelected in 2020, he can keep the pledge he made before Ven Sobitha’s coffined corpse and drive the final stake into the very heart of the vampire executive presidency and lay it finally to rest without any chance of resurrection even as a mutilated phantom. The second was a line of attack. It came with Sarath Amunugama unveiling the President’s secret weapon of mass destruction, the first draft of the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) bill, which can be a weapon of deterrence or a weapon of annihilation. It was the plan to take a short cut, go off the beaten track from the long and laborious judicial process and bring to book those guilty of corruption and abuse of power. It would allow him to fell two birds with one stroke of his inked quill. With only three years left to keep his promise to the people to crackdown on corruption he will be able to finally show results. And simultaneously exile those belligerent but masked in guilt from the political landscape and leave the field clear, come 2020. But the short route of expediency also has its pitfalls. The only silver lining is that the commission must comprise of sitting or retired judges of the Supreme Court or Appeal Court which at least will give it a semblance of judicial authority and independence but the provision to also include in the commission, an attorney-at-law with over 30 years of practice tends to dull the cloud’s edge. Those in black coats and black ties whatever their pedigree can be accused of partisanship where at least those purple cloaked and ermine wigged are presumed to be more independent and unprejudiced in their judgments. to empower a committee comprised of the president’s men and women but of such a nature which, the President holds to be in his opinion, is of national importance or endangers national security or national interest; and then for that committee to act freely, without the fetter of sticking to the rules of procedure and evidence ordinarily applicable to a court of law, but guided only by the principles of natural justice, to sit in judgment and pass decree on the innocence or guilt of the person so arraigned and to pass sentence, short of the death penalty, And that verdict to be final and conclusive and be unchallengeable in any court of law in the land. And if need be, for parliament by a two third majority to deny that person his or her civic rights for a maximum period of seven years. But the question is whether it will be in conflict with public opinion. Will it gain the air of legitimacy in the public eye? True, the president’s predicament is understandable, even to be pitied. And the majority will appreciate his efforts to see jailed those guilty of the mega corruption the president and Ranil’s UNP accused the previous regime of before they were elected to power. Though they waxed eloquent and tarred the whole Rajapaksa regime as corrupt beyond redemption, no single high profile conviction has still been wrought to redeem them from the allegations they made then. And that must worry them. But recourse to extra judicial mechanisms to expedite justice has had a history of backfiring. Those found guilty by bodies appointed outside the normal judicial system, have demonstrated a tendency to emerge as martyrs. Often the process serves to cleanse them of their sins and elevate them to national heroes, as happened to Mrs. Bandaranaike when J. R. Jayewardene brought his commission and, upon its findings, stripped her of her civic rights, thus ruling her out of the equation when he re-contested in 1982. And President Sirisena will do well to bear the past in mind before he assents to give his blessings to such a piece of legislation that will enable him to raise a two edged sword. He will either triumph using it or fall on it.
GSP plus HR monitor The Finance minister has already announced that it will bring in more than 2 billion dollars to the national kitty. It’s another sign of the benefits to accrue with Saturn’s move to Sagittarius. But as the Sunday Punch commented on January 1st, the bounty will have to be earned with honest sweat. The European Union had made it clear that that it will be conditional upon the government maintaining a clear human rights record. Thus Lanka will have a foreign monitor closely watching the government’s actions. It is a double benefit for the people for they will receive not only extra dough but also a foreign monitor to ensure that the people’s fundamental rights are not violated.
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| Ravi’s secret admirer waits to do him honour Ah! there he stands, probably with an untaxed bubbly in his hands whilst the region’s banking world sings ‘For he’s a jolly good fellow.’ The long awaited accolade came this week for Ravi Karunanayake when he became the cover boy of the Banker, the London based international finance magazine which chose him as the Finance Minister of the Year for Asia-Pacific for his sterling efforts to steer Sri Lanka into a new era of economic reform and a change of mindset.  Ravi: More awards due But what price the Banking Idol award? But while the international banking community clap the good minister’s great achievements in conforming with IMF conditions to the letter, why the hush on home turf? Alas, as they say, a prophet is never valued in his homeland but only hailed and honoured abroad. But Ravi should not despair the sound of silence. His efforts in nation building by imposing further taxes on the people have not gone unnoticed and unappreciated. At least one Lankan admirer is waiting to grant him state honours when the propitious time dawns for him to do so. Emerging from the Welikada Prison on Thursday where he had gone to see his old comrade Wimal Weerawansa, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa told the media that he was waiting to bestow on the award winning Lankan Finance Minister another award of his own, when he comes to power, which he said will be shortly. In Mahinda’s own words, “the award for precipitating the present government’s downfall by heaping burdens on the people”. |
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