Last Sunday's Business pages were mostly devoted to a review and assessment of Sri Lanka's economy in the fifty years after independence and our economic prospects.
We published the views of several economists, among others. They captured different facets of the country's economic development, gave their prognosis for the inadequate economic growth and their prescriptions and perspectives for the future.
Dr Lal Jayawardena, the Economic Advisor to the President and the Vice-Chairman of the National Development Council, focused on the relatively slower economic growth of Sri Lanka in comparison with East Asian and South East Asian countries. He pointed out that over the 1970-93 period Sri Lanka's economy grew by only about 4 per cent while East Asian countries' grew by 7 to 8 per cent per year. Consequently the challenge for the future is daunting. In Dr Jayawardena's words it is "nothing less than the compulsion to compress into a 15-20 year period, the kind of development achievement that East Asia has registered over a 30-35 year period.
To achieve this growth, the investment ratio has to increase from the current 25 per cent of GDP to 35 per cent of GDP. How can this be achieved? Dr Jayawardena has spelled it out as comprising the elimination of domestic borrowings, which would save 5 per cent of GDP, a reduction in subsidies, privatisation of loss making public enterprises, reduced expenditure on the public service wage bill and pensions, reduction in defence expenditure by 2 per cent of GDP through "the negotiated cessation of hostilities", and increased foreign investment from the current 0.5 per cent of GDP to at least 3 per cent of GDP. The underlying imperative for achieving most of these targets is peace and harmony.
There can be only limited debate about this prognosis or prescription. First and foremost, there is no doubt whatsoever that peace would bring in handsome dividends. It would not only cut the costs of defence - a huge burden in recent years - but increase output in several sectors and regions of the country, increase foreign investment and increase tourist earnings. Without it a growth of more than 5 per cent per year is hardly possible. But can we really achieve this pre-requisite.
Another economist, Dr Saman Kelegama, Executive Director of the Institute of Policy Studies struck an optimistic note, though his prognosis was similar. Citing the ADB projections for Sri Lanka, he was of the view that we "should not lament over the missed opportunities of the past 50 years but look ahead with optimism for it (economy) still has a good foundation for a rapid economic take off".
Prof W. D. Lakshman, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Colombo traced the different economic regimes and said that the country's GDP growth was "a comparatively poor performance, averaging 4 per cent upto 1977 and 5 per cent since then". He was of the view that privatisation, liberalisation and private sector economic growth "have not necessarily improved the overall health of our economy".
He focused on the unsatisfactory distributional aspects of our growth and the expectations generated by globalisation being far higher than the benefits. Increased production of goods and services and better distributive mechanisms were the means to meet these expectations.
Dr Nimal Sanderatne, President of the Sri Lanka Association of Economists and Chairman of the National Development Bank, was of the view that a multitude of pre-conditions had to be established to achieve higher rates of economic growth. The level of domestic savings had to be raised appreciably.
He was of the view that "we lack technological as well as managerial skills" and that "we have to increase our labour productivity" and added that "A strong bureaucracy and neutral law enforcement agencies are essential for economic development".
It is often said that when two or three economists are gathered together, there is bound to be four or five views on the economy. The four economists who discussed the issues were, however, more or less of the same view. In fact there does not appear to be that much divergent views on what needs to be done, but an incapacity to get it done.
We are a people good at analysing the problems and dishing out the prescriptions, but incapable of effectively implementing our prescriptions, policies, plans and programmes. That in the final analysis is our national weakness.
It is imperative that we acknowledge this weakness and find ways and means of being more effective in implementing our policies. Perhaps the country could adopt some of the strategies which corporate bodies adopt in implementing their corporate strategies to achieve results.
In the face of [the] challenge (of the Asian financial turmoil), our first job is clear: to help stabilize the immediate crisis.
Yet, to make the most of the opportunities and limit the risks of the new global financial system and to have a viable situation for the years ahead, we must also modernize the architecture of the international financial markets that we helped create and that has served us so well for the last fifty years.
No single factor would likely have produced a financial crisis. While economies usually adjust in a relatively orderly fashion to market swings, in this case the combination of factors proved combustible.
When these crises began, foreign investors started to withdraw capital, local companies sought to hedge hard currency exposures, exporters stopped bringing their export earnings home, and citizens moved their savings abroad.
The international community has been involved in a major effort to focus countries on these underlying problems and to assist them in addressing them.
These issues have been a central focus of the IMF as well as of our interactions with these countries.
The programme we have supported has focused on four key elements: supporting reform programmes in individual nations; providing temporary financial assistance when needed; encouraging strong action by Japan and the other major economic powers to promote global growth; and fostering policies in other developing and emerging economies to reduce the risk of contagion.
First, and most important, our approach requires that these countries take the concrete steps necessary to reform their economies. These programmes, which are designed with the IMF, address the specific causes of each nation's crisis and can be adapted as the situation changes.
These are not austerity programmes. These are primarily programmes of structural and financial reform. It is the crisis and the ensuing loss of confidence not the reform programmes that leads to economic hardships.
The second element of our approach is to support these programmes of reform with temporary financial assistance. When a nation's financial stability is at risk, this money provides the breathing room for a nation to establish the conditions to restore economic confidence, attract private capital and resume growth.
The third element is to encourage the major industrial countries to act to strengthen their own economies and take the steps necessary to promote the strong economic and financial environment globally that can contribute to resolving the crisis in Asia.
Fourth, and finally, we have worked closely with the IMF to encourage other emerging markets to make policy adjustments to reduce their vulnerability to contagion from the countries now in crisis.
The IMF is the right institution to be at the centre of these support programmes. With tremendous expertise and technical resources, the IMF has the ability to shape effective reform programmes.
As a multinational organization, it is able to require an economically distressed country to accept conditions that no contributing nation could require on its own. Finally and critically important the IMF internationalizes the burden during a global financial crisis by using its pool of capital.
The American people should also know this: over the past fifty years our contribution to the IMF has not cost the taxpayer one dime. When the IMF draws on our commitments, we receive a liquid, interest bearing offsetting claim on the IMF.
There are no budget outlays. Our contribution does not increase the deficit, or divert resources from other spending priorities. Support for our periodic pledge to the IMF, and support for a new emergency fund, the New Arrangements to Borrow, which supplements the IMF's resources to deal with crises such as this one, is critical.
The financial instability in Asia involves enormously complicated problems and presents challenges the global financial system has never faced. I am confident that overall these are strong well-crafted programmes and the best and probably the only viable way to help these countries re-establish stability and confidence.
The global economy needs architecture as modern as the markets. That is why, even as we have tried to confront the immediate crisis in the Asian region, we have also begun an intensive effort to improve the global financial system to both better prevent crises from occurring and better deal with them if they do occur.
To build on these efforts, we have begun an intensive internal effort with the (US) Federal Reserve Board and others, to identify and analyse possible mechanisms for dealing with new challenges to the international financial system.
This initiative will focus on four objectives: improving transparency and disclosure; strengthening the role of the international financial institutions in helping to continue to deal with the challenges of today's global markets; developing the role of the private sector in bearing an appropriate share of the burden in times of crisis; and strengthening the regulation of financial institutions in emerging economies.
"Policymakers who for years have sought to pre-empt spiralling inflation must now be active in fighting spiralling deflation." This is stated by Robert Reich in an article, entitled "Deflation: the real enemy" contributed to the London Financial Times.
The writer says that the old war was against inflation and that that war is largely over. But a new enemy is approaching from the opposite direction. It is spiralling deflation. He reminds the reader that the seeds of depression were sown in the late 1920s when demand began to fall.
By 1927 the sales of cars, houses and consumer durables were in the decline, commodity prices had turned downwards and industrial production had begun to fall.
Reich says that we are entering a similar era. But, he says, we have been so accustomed to the danger of excessive demand that we no longer appreciate the danger of inadequate demand. Nor, he says, do we feel the urgency of pre-emptive action .
He points out that a deflationary spiral can be as dangerous as an inflationary spiral. Falling prices reduce profits, causing companies to reduce wages and cut employment. This in turn results in workers having less money for goods and services causing prices and profits to drop further.
An important consequence of this development is that "the value of property bought on credit declines until it is worth less than the debt owed resulting in defaults. Lenders are unable to make further loans. The crisis deepens."
Furthermore, he says a vicious deflationary cycle can also produce a vicious social cycle worsening the economic one. Weak or receding demand causes higher unemployment and falling wages. There could be strikes, changes in democratically elected governments or violent forms of unrest.
Reich says that "a large unco-ordinated global contraction is under way and we are experiencing only the beginnings." He observes that demand is contracting is south-east Asia and the consequences are rippling outwards.
Many Japanese banks are technically insolvent; Japanese companies have lost a large portion of their south-east Asian customers and US companies that had expected east Asian growth to continue "are frantically revising their plans."
Reich cites as an example: one third of the backlog of orders for Boeing aircraft is from Asian airlines. Another deflationary development is the shrinking of demand in much of Latin America, he says.
Brazil's contraction is" rippling through much of the rest of Latin America." In Europe too, he points out, demand is listless, Budget deficits are being slashed in order to qualify for a common currency a year hence and European interest rates remain relatively high.
Orders for German exports, a rising share of which had gone to developing countries including Asia have been tumbling for months and German unemployment shows no sign of improving. In France despite there being 3 million jobless, the budget continues to be cut.
In the Unites States, says the writer, the economy is "supremely healthy". Unemployment is lower than it has been in almost quarter of a century. The economy grew by nearly 4 per cent in 1997, largely due to consumer spending and to large business outlays for new equipment in anticipation of even greater demand.
Spending, says Reich, pushed corporate profits to their highest levels in 30 years but US wages have hardly risen. This means, says the writer, that the economy is being propelled largely by household debt which includes credit cards, personal loans and mortgages.
The writer states that household debt has reached record levels and, in turn personal bankruptcies have also risen to record levels as have defaults on credit cards. In fact, says Reich, household debt is starting to slow down, as households cut back their borrowings, and as they do, the most important source of demand in the US will shrink.
Reich outlines a scenario - east Asia with toppling currencies and bank insolvencies, rising unemployment in Latin America's largest economy and falling real wages throughout the region, stagnation and unemployment in Europe and a rapidly approaching limit to the capacity of US consumers to take on more debt.
This unco-ordinated global contraction, he observes could lead to a deflationary cycle. He says that central bankers, finance ministers and the IMF acting rationally in their own spheres of responsibility may be failing to see the larger picture.
He urges that they discuss what steps they could take to have a significant effect in the opposite direction and at the very least draw up contingency plans. And as regards the IMF's loans to Asia, while they may be conditional on financial restructuring, he says the IMF must balance its demands for sharp cuts in public budgets and for higher interest rates against the strong contractionary forces under way.
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The Central Bank has temporarily shelved plans to obtain a credit rating for Sri Lanka, in the wake if the turmoil in Asian financial markets.
"We will wait for the markets to settle down," Central Bank Governor A. S. Jayewardene said. "This is not the appropriate time to go for a rating."
Originally the Central Bank was hoping to initiate the process of obtaining a sovereign rating by the end of 1997.
A sovereign rating rates the credit risk of a country. The rating serves as a ready guide to investors to arrive at a interest without having to do in depth investigations for themselves. It also serves as a benchmark to base the rates at which money will be lent to private issuers. High ratings enable borrowers to obtain funds at cheaper rates.
In the absence of a reliable rating the government last year floated a US $ 50 mn debt issue, mainly to serve as a guide for private borrowers to also go to international markets.
Another such issue which was to follow at around this has also been delayed.
Top rating agencies such as Moody's Investors Services and Standard and Poor Corp, suddenly downgraded ratings for most East Asian nations during the past few months when their financial markets collapsed and some corporates were unable to pay back foreign debt.
The rating agencies came under fire from investors for not being able to anticipate the weaknesses in these country early enough.
Rating agencies on their part have said that unlike in developed countries accurate information was not available on a timely to basis to base their decisions.
But when the Asian economies were on the growth track leaders such as
Malaysian Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim have heavily criticized Western
rating agencies of giving poor ratings to East Asian countries when their
external accounts were better than some of the developed countries.
Numismatists will have a chance to indulge their passion for extraordinary coins this week with the Central Bank issuing a series of commemorative coins and a currency note to mark Sri Lanka's Golden Jubilee Independence incorporating a number of special features, including the use of Braille characters.
The Central Bank will issue 5,000 gold coins with a face value of Rs. 5,000. Minted in London, the coin is sold at Rs.8,000 with 200 coins being placed on the international market.
The Central Bank has gauged the market price of these coins in consultation with international experts.
Such special coins increase in value with time.
The gold coin is the exact size of the sterling pound, and is the most expensive commemorative coin to be issued so far, Central Bank Governor A. S. Jayawardena said.
The last British Sterling Pound coin minted in 22 carat gold is said to be trading at £149 each. The Rs. 5 Commemorative coin issued to mark 2500 years of Buddhism (the 'Buddha Jayanthi' coin) is now believed to be trading as high as Rs. 4,500.
The gold coin depicts a 8-9th century gilt bronze sculpture of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. This is regarded as one of the finest works of culture in South Asia outside Buddha statues, which are not used in coins. The Central Bank had consulted Buddhist leaders before using the image of the statue in the new coin.
The coins come in a presentation pack with the certificate of authenticity from the mint.
A Rs.1000 silver coin is also being issued for Rs. 1200 each. It depicts a famous lion sculpture found in Anuradhapura. Twenty five thousand silver coins have been minted.
The Central Bank is also issuing a Rs.10 bi-metal coin for the first time in Sri Lanka. It has a Nickel Brass inner ring (yellowish hue) and a Cupro-Nickel outer ring. It depicts the Pattirippuwa. For collectors it will be available in a plastic sachet in sets of 10 in an untouched mint condition for collectors at Rs. 120. The coins will have its value printed in Braille for the first time.
"All future coin issues will have Braille to enable blind persons
to identify them,'' Mr.Jayawardena said.
The local telecommunications industry received a further boost, when Sri Lanka's wireless loop operator Suntel commissioned their second telephone exchange, giving additional 45,000 lines to its subscribers last week.
Costing a cool Rs. 600mn, the AXEIO switch is designed by Ericsson International and is in service in over 120 countries worldwide.
The second exchange comes on the eve of Suntel's first year of operation in Sri Lanka. It will bring the total switching capacity of the Suntel network close to 100,000, Managing Director Suntel, Jan Campbell said. "This is a reassurance of the confidence we have in the business environment of Sri Lanka.''
Since commencing operations in 1997, over 20,000 subscribers have been connected to Suntel's network. Mr. Campbell admitted Suntel had periodic teething problems due to the lack of connectivity to the Sri Lanka Telecom network.
We are pleased to tell you that last week we have upgraded our facilities with Sri Lanka Telecom and now our customers can enjoy a conjestion free service,'' he said.
Already around 8,000 subscribers have been transferred to the second exchange. With the commissioning of the second exchange, Suntel subscribers can look forward to high quality voice data transmission.
The AXEIO swith is designed to absorb new technologies and permits a more dynamic response to changing market needs.
Suntel switches are incorporated with the lates ISDN capabilities, which could offer business users modern features such as video conferencing, high speed data transmission, and bandwidth on demand.
He said 1997 saw the telecommunications industry expand to accommodate three players in the market. With deregulation, a subscriber is able to get a telephone within a short period. All networks, including the Sri Lanka Telecom are doing their best to give a good service to their customers, as the customer is the king.
"Sri Lanka is a good example for South Asia of how good competition can operate in the telecommunications market,'' he said.
He emphasised that the Telecom Regulatory Authority played a vital role in the highly competitive telecommunications market of Sri Lanka. ''We are looking forward to free and fair competition in the future.''
The final list for the setting up of the 50 new garment factories under the recent budget proposal is due to be released within the next 10 days.
"Work is almost done and the applicants can expect a result within the next 10 days,'' a top BOI official told The Sunday Times Business.
The BOI official said the textile ministry received a
tremendous response' for these factories. Around 170 applications have been received, which have been shortlisted to 77. The final selection is to be done within the next 10 days and the names of the lucky 50 applicants will be submitted to Industries Minister C. V. Gooneratne for approval.
All applications received were from present manufacturers. But preference was given to aggressive investors who have had the courage to invest in Sri Lanka. Successful parties were selected on their ability to demonstrate immediate results, and the capacity to penetrate the non-quota market.
A minimum investment of Rs.20mn is required from each applicant. Each factory is to provide employment to 250 workers including graduates and educated youth. Priority is to be given to Samurdhi beneficiaries.
Each industry will be required to provide transport to employees from the nearest bus station to the factory. Prospective investors will also be allowed to import buses on a duty free basis.
The budget proposal was to establish 25 of these in the Southern Province. ''We have been able to allocate one factory in every electorate in the Southern Province,'' the BOI official said.
The balance factories are to be established in selected districts in other provinces with high rates of unemployment.
The government proposes to generate nearly 25,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities through this programme.
Investors selected, will be guaranteed quotas and BOI incentives. Such investors will be allocated land at designated locations at discounted prices to be paid over a five-year period.
They will also be given utility vehicles on a duty free basis.
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Few popularly elected Presidents and Prime Ministers confronted by an increasingly hostile electorate, can resist the temptation to find some comfort, however temporary, in some "foreign crisis" or threat abroad.
An "oil man" from the West before he took to big-time politics, George Bush found the perfect "screen villain" in Saddam Hussein of oil-rich Iraq.
He had quite a record too-a land-and - oil grab, a staunchly pro-West Kuwait. Alas "Desert Storm" swept Sheriff George Bush away. No second term, no more politics.
All the applause did not help him defeat young Bill Clinton, the new John F. Kennedy. And young Bill Clinton led the Democrats to another victory - the maximum 8 years. The triumph was not wholly complete. The Republicans had a majority in the powerful senate. Thus the conventional wars between the White House and the Congress.
Nobody however thought that he may face impeachment. Is this a new "Wate-rgate"? Though it is treated by a hostile media as a sex scandal, and introduced as the Whitewater Affair, President Clinton’s reputation is on the line.... and of course the verdict of the historians. It is not often that a President as young as Mr. Clinton has won a second term in the White House. John F. Kennedy, with whom he is often compared, was denied that very special claim to a place in American history. It is not the similarities but the differences which are highlighted by the historians, the political scientists anchor-men of the TV programmes and of course the Washington-based foreign correspondents.
"Even when the weight of evidence of high crimes and misdemeanours against President Nixon grew heavy, the system moved with all deliberate speed, involving as it did special prosecutors, Congressional healings, Supreme Court rulings and ultimately the careful drafting of the articles of impeachment...."
Drama and Media
Haynes Johnson, editor of the Washington Post, described it as "a slowly unfolding drama, more of a detective story". This writer did not have the privilege of meeting the famous Haynes Johnson but he did attend editorial Monday "conferences" chaired by Ben Bradlee, and thus an introduction to Bob Woodward, the reporter who was co-author with colleague Bernstein of the All the President’s Men.
Of this, one can be certain, the American press, certainly the Washington and New York-based, some major TV stations and newspapers in Clinton country, will provide a worldwide audience, directly or indirectly, the "evidence" on which those who call for the impeachment of President Clinton justify their history-making campaign.
Andrew Jackson was impeached in the 1860’s. The Senate decided to acquit him. Some Presidents are exceptionally lucky. Students of American politics and international affairs have reason to return once more to Irangate or the Iran-Contra controversy.
Was the ever-popular Ronald Reagan just lucky? It took two sympathetic Senators to save Reagan and the fact that one was an (opposition) Democrat strengthened the demand to have the inquiries by a Special Prosecutor stopped "short of the Oval office". Pals of Ron Reagan, cowboy and nice guy? Not quite. The Senators held the view, though it was not publicly declared, that "the nation did not need another trauma so soon after Watergate".
Luckily for the White House Monicagate has come far too close to the State of the Union Address for anti-Clinton snipers to target the young President right now. Besides, he seems to have friends in strange places. Clinton is having difficulties and we’re not happy about it.
On the contrary we hope he can get over them.
In this particular context, we should not speak of "strange bedfellows" but the student of US foreign policy may bear in mind that the companero Castro has a seconder to the motion that Clinton has been targeted by "the American rightwing".
How large will be the bill that President Bill Clinton will be called to pay.
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So the Government botched another one. The 50th anniversary celebrations seemed doomed from the day it was decided to hold the ceremony in Kandy, the citadel of the ruling Ratwattes.
The bomb was bad enough; the theatrics of the resignation was worse and then came the fiasco in Colombo.
Surely there must have been a moment when Prince Charles felt like many Sri Lankans. Watching the poor soul seated alone with no one even to talk to - "what am I doing here" feeling. That is probably why he referred to the occasion as a "memorable one" and Prince Charles is known for his wit. The Sunday Times Special reports point out how Sri Lankans in and around Colombo were under "house arrest" on February 4.
There were no people’s celebrations organised. The Opposition had to have their own separate celebrations . VVIPs and the nation waiting, the President came late keeping her mother, the chief guest, a VVIP tango - and then came the President’s speech in English only - what a disaster. Those who defend her every mistake went to the extent of saying how great it was, because the BBC world service relayed her speech to the world.
No one says she should not have spoken in English - but her primary role as Head of State and Head of Government was to address her own people, her voters and her fellow citizens in the language they understand. So much for that.
Now that the party is over, it will be back to business.
Hardly had the heir to the British Throne Charles left the sovereign shores of Sri Lanka to the safer salubrious mountains of Nepal and Bhutan - a lethal bomb exploded in the heart of Colombo reminding all of us that a very explosive situation exists in our 14 -year- old civil war.
At this very moment of time this country has never been so divided. The minority Tamils are divided - those like the LTTE who want nothing short of Eelam, those who favour an ‘armed democracy’ (like the EPDP, PLOTE, TELO etc), and an ‘unarmed democracy’ (TULF) those who wish to live with the Sinhalese as one nation as Sri Lankans.
The Muslims are divided and the Sinhalese are divided right down the middle on party lines and now the package has even divided the Maha Sangha. It is this fragmented nation that is at war with itself.
Surely all these bombings must convince the un-convinced that the LTTE terrorists must be combated with all the might and resources at the State’s command. A State fighting the terrorists only with one hand and their perceived enemies (UNP, media, judges, public servants etc. )with the other, cannot win a war as ferocious as it is.
We felt so proud of our valiant men and women in the Armed Forces - when we saw them parade in their regalia on February 4 but because some among us hate this Government so much they don’t want those very men and women to win in the battle- field.
The bitter acrimony between the Government and its perceived opponents has resulted in a vicarious thrill for those who hate this Government each time the LTTE secures a victory over our security forces.
We unfortunately see no signs of a united Nation fighting a Fascist terrorist organisation. The acrimony is getting worse much to the advantage of the LTTE. Standing before the Nation, the President talked of "uniting all the peoples living in it", "Let us those of us, who have taken on the responsibility to guide and govern the Nation, whatever our political party or affiliations may be, march towards the future in unison putting behind us mean desires for petty, personal or political gain."
At least on February 5, President Kumaratunga and Ranil Wickremesinghe shook hands at the banquet to Prince Charles. Let that be some beginning towards national reconciliation and the peace the good people of our nation long for.
The President’s words at the parade so stateswomanlike must now however transform into deeds and the onus is on her to do so. There is no other way.
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 The Sunday Times photographer Lakshman Gunathilake, captured this event moments before the arrival of Prince Charles at the Bandaranaike International Airport. Must one say the security was tight. Even Air Force Personnel according the Guard of Honour to the visiting Prince were also subjected to body checks. And that was by none other than the men from the Presidential Security System |
Contents |
The personal security of three government leaders - President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte and Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar - has been intensified after reports that LTTE suicide cadres have infiltrated the city.
The Sunday Times reliably learns that the measures came after last Tuesdays meeting of the National Security Council where fresh intelligence reports concerning the matter were discussed.
According to these reports, suicide cadres had planned to execute their task by posing off either as traffic policemen on duty in a city street or by using a blue Pajero commonly used by the Police. The NSC also discussed a number of other methods the suicide cadres had planned to use and initiated action to counter them. For obvious reasons, such measures cannot be spelt out.
The fact that a suicide bomber triggered an explosion at Malay Street, just two days after the National Security Council discussed the likely suicide bomb attacks, has prompted the Ministry of Defence to conduct an in depth investigation. Three airmen, two soldiers and three civilians died in Fridays incident. Police investigators are now trying to ascertain how the incident occurred and what the target of the attackers was.
With preparations for the Golden Jubilee Independence celebrations, security arrangements for the President were tightened. So much so, a minor diplomatic row broke out between the British and Sri Lankan officials over bodyguards of Prince Charles carrying weapons during their visit to Colombo. The matter was amicably resolved with Charles guards being allowed to do so except not to possess the weapons when the Prince of Wales was with the President.
The woman suicide bomber who set off an explosion near Air Force headquarters on Friday was not travelling in a van but walking on the other side of the road, detectives said yesterday.
In a communique on Friday the Defence Ministry had said the suicide bomber, identified as Indirani from Batticaloa, had been in a van with three others. But investigations have now revealed that she was walking on the other side of the road near SLAF headquarters and was summoned to the checkpoint on suspicion.
The Hiace van involved in the blast belonged to a textile shop in Pettah and the two persons in it were killed. They were identified as driver Paramaseelan, 32, from Wattegama and salesman Suresh Kumar,38, from Mutwal.
A third civilian killed in the blast was identified as Kumaravail Surendran, 29, a fish stall owner from Kompannaveediya. He was returning from St. Anthonys church Kotahena.
The two woman soldiers killed were identified as Damayanthi and Nayana Kumari while airmen killed were Jayaratna, Weerakoon and Basnayaka. A Magisterial inquiry will be held on February 16, but all bodies except that of the suicide bomber had been released to family members.
Police said they were looking into the possibility that the woman suicide bomber was assigned on a mission to explode herself on a VIP motorcade. Meanwhile three lodges were temporarily closed down in Kotahena following information that the bomber had stayed in one of them. The closure had forced some 600 persons to find alternative places
A national referendum on the devolution package or provincial council elections are round the corner.
The likelihood of one of these polls became evident last week when the Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake met Assistant Commissioners and gave instructions to them.
The five-year terms of office of provincial councils end in June.
As a government appointed three-member committee began its probe on the Dalada Maligawa bomb explosion, the two top Buddhist prelates in Kandy insisted that three more representatives nominated by them should be included in the committee or they would not accept its validity.
The Mahanayake Thera of the Malwatte Chapter, the Most Ven. Rambukwelle Sri Vipassi Thera told The Sunday Times that Buddhist prelates and other religious leaders in Kandy would meet soon to decide on their three nominees. He said they could have faith in the committee only if their nominees were included and he hoped the government would agree to their proposals.
Last Tuesday, President Kumaratunga appointed a committee headed by Defence Secretary Chandrananda de Silva to probe the January 25 bomb attack on Buddhisms most hallowed shrine. The committee also comprises former High Court Judge W. T. A. Leslie Fernando and former Police Chief T. P. F. De Silva.
The committee was yesterday due to visit the scene of the explosion and it has called for written submissions from the public to be filed before February 16.
Some 600,000 estate workers will continue their crippling strike as negotiators including the Labour Minister have yet failed to hammer out a compromise between trade unions and the employers, union officials said.
The workers belonging to the Ceylon Congress, the Lanka Jathika Estate Workers Union and 16 other unions under the Joint Committee of Plantation Trade Unions launched their massive strike last Thursday in support of demand for a daily wage of Rs. 125.
As the biggest plantations strike in recent years was poised to continue into the new week, estate managements and the Employers Federation of Ceylon were insisting they could offer an increment of Rs. 15 a day and nothing more.
At present, the daily wage is Rs. 83 and employers say they are ready to increase it Rs. 93 plus the profit-sharing bonus of Rs. 5.
But estate unions, pointing to the sky-rocketing living costs and other factors, are demanding a daily wage of Rs. 125. During negotiations, they have indicated they would be ready to settle for Rs. 105, while Labour Minister John Seneviratne has proposed Rs. 100.
On Friday, a 90-minute discussion was held among all parties but though differences were narrowed no settlement was reached and thus the strike will continue, CWC leader and minister S. Thondaman said.
Space visionary Arthur C. Clarke, under a cloud for a week after a London newspaper threw child sex allegations against him, has come out fighting describing the accusations as nonsense, contemptuous and revolting.
The British-born Dr. Clarke who was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth recently faced the storm when the Britains Sunday Mirror last week published an interview claiming he had admitted to being a paedophile.
The sensational report led to the postponement of the ceremony where the visiting Prince Charles was to have conferred the Commonwealths highest award on Dr. Clarke who is now a citizen of Sri Lanka.
In the aftermath of the report, Dr. Clarke had declined to speak to the media on legal advice.
But on Friday, Dr. Clarke broke his silence by announcing he was taking legal action on the matter.
Dr. Clarke strongly denying allegations of child sex allegations, said he had decided to speak out because silence can easily, though wrongly be taken as an admission of guilt.
He said that having always had a particular dislike of paedophiles, few charges could be more revolting to him than to be classed as one. Indeed the accusations are such nonsense that I have found it difficult to treat them with the contempt that they deserve. My conscience is perfectly clear.
In any event, I categorically state that The Sunday Mirror article is grossly defamatory and contains statements which in themselves and by innuendo are quite false, grossly inaccurate and extremely harmful, he said.
Dr. Clarke thanked all those who supported him after the allegations, and expressed his regret for the embarrassment caused to them and others over this issue.
Dr. Clarke has been hailed all over the world for his cosmic vision and predictions that have given him the image of a modern-day Jules Verne.
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Deputy Defence Min ister, General Anuruddha Ratwatte, well known for his verbal rapid fire, has done it again.
“It is a military practice to set targets. If the task is not completed ......we set a new time frame,” he told Daily News on February 6.
Yes, it is a military practice to set targets. They are set by military planners on the basis of operational plans they formulate.
Gen. Ratwatte candidly admits it is he who sets the targets now and not the military planners. Even then, it is not military practice to set targets to shake hands with LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran or to shock critics who criticise his conduct of the war.
War, it seems, is too serious a thing to be left in the hands of a General and a Politician. It’s a case of mixing up targets like mixing up priorities.
It was hampers galore December, last year. There were 2400 recipients to be exact.
Some say the new business empire spent Rs 26 million on them. Even if the sum was less, it sure ran into millions.
They not only contained premium liquor and imported goodies but also first class return air tickets to Singapore and other destinations.
There were 600 hampers sent to one service arm. Recipients were carefully picked. Those qualified included the ones who have been helpful and the one’s who showed signs of reaching top positions. That is to enable access at a later date.
At least four recipients rejected them. That included a senior Brigadier.
An Air Force bigwig went literally mad when he heard the code name assigned to the fly past at Golden Jubilee celebrations in Kotte.
Of all things, it was “Operation Madonna”. For sure, there are Madonna fans in the SLAF.
But the bigwig did not like the idea of associating her with the great event. So it was re -named “Operation Fly Past.”
Douglas Devananda, leader of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) politely declined a cash offer from a business house as campaign funds for last month’s local government elections in Jaffna.
The amount - a cool half a million rupees. It came in the form of a cheque from a subsidiary of a newly emerging business house. But the accompanying letter bore no graphics.
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When I was a school boy, hailing from a not too affluent family, One rupee was a lot of money. It was a princely sum and one could do quite a number of things, like settling the debt of 20 cents owing to the gram seller, whom one had judiciously avoided meeting.
Now all these are only dim memories of a bygone era. Today, people talk in lakhs and millions and even billions. It is in this context that I am writing this letter.
How much exactly is a billion? The concise Oxford Dictionary defines a billion as million (in US and Franco), thousand million. All this is rather confusing. The Govt. tells us that it is spending billions of rupees an year on account of the ongoing war.
A few days ago there was a radio announcement in Sinhala that all ranks in the Sri Lanka Army were going to contribute a day's pay for the reconstruction of the Sri Dalada Maligawa and that the total amount would be Koti dhaatak (18 Kotiyas).
A news item in one daily paper of 28/01/1998 states the sum to be so collected would be 18 million. Here, a 'Kotiya' is equivalent to 1 million which is as I understand obviously wrong, in that a 'Kotiya' is 10 million or 100 lakhs. Then the word milliyana is used in Sinhala. This must be the equivalent of 10 lakhs - a lakh being 100000.
I wish a knowledgeable person would enlighten the public on these matters.
Fifty years ago at the celebration in London of the regaining of sovereignty by Sri Lanka, I stood within two yards of the then British Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, and our High Commissioner Sir Claude Corea.
On February 4, 1998 in Colombo at 6 a.m. I was barely able to walk 200 yards on Dharmapala Mawatha, the Police, clearly carrying out orders, did not allow me to approach Green Path, Colombo 7, on foot.
A short story and poetry competition organised by the English Writers' Cooperative of Sri Lanka has been given much publicity.
They are charging a fee for every entry - Rs. 50 for a short story and Rs. 30 for a poem. According to their press release, published in all the newspapers: "Fee-please pay either in cash or by cheque made out to the English Writers Cooperative of Sri Lanka."
On Tuesday. January 17,1998, I took two entries (not my own) to the English Writers Cooperative of Sri Lanka at the address given in the newspapers, which was in Rosmead Place, Colombo 7.
The
gate of the palatial upstair house was padlocked. When I rang the bell
on the gate, an old woman appeared and asked me what I wanted. When I told
her that I wanted to hand over two entries for the competition and also
pay the fee of Rs. 100 in cash, she told me "Nona telephone ekay.
Mata deela yanna." (Madam is on the telephone. Give them to me).
When I requested a receipt, so that I would have proof of payment, she went into the house. "Godak vela yayi enna. Onanang thiyala yanna naththam thappalen evanna." (it will take a long time. If you want keep it with me otherwise send it by post).
Then came another woman and the first opened the gate for her and told her "I wanted a receipt." She said that all the people who came left their entries and paid the money without problem. I could do what I liked. When I insisted that I would like a receipt, she walked into the house saying loudly, "Eya rekulasi katha karanawa." (She's laying down the rules).
When I told the other woman that I would like some gum to paste the envelopes of the entries (I had wanted to enclose the receipts for the entry fee) she went into the house and brought some gum. I kept the envelopes on the gate post, pasted them and handed them over to the woman, who said she was Kamala, along with the Rs 100.
Then Kamala, tongue in cheek told me that if I wanted she would sign on a piece of paper that I gave her the "Small' sum of Rs 100. And I told her quite shortly that she could keep it and walked off. I was only sorry that I had paid money and got insulted in the bargain. Is this the way a reputed group deals with the public? Who are the committee members? For what will the entry fee be used? Can someone enlighten me?
May I refer you to 'Is it not unfair' - the letter by Lucian Peiris in The Sunday Times of 1st February. Mr. Peiris should have verified his facts before writing a letter of this nature. It was George III and not George IV who reigned in England at the time the 1815 convention was signed.
The criticism levelled against the opinions expressed by Buddhist Prelates and The National Joint Committee as ''quite unfair and ungracious coming from a Buddhist country'', is utterly ridiculous. Doesn't the writer conclude that such opposition to the visit of Prince Charles is unbuddhistic and that some high and mighty bureaucrats endorsing the visit of the Prince is Buddhistic? Aren't such arguments baseless?
The British could never have entered Kandy in 1815 without the support of the Kandyan chiefs. They very well knew that a conquest by the force of arms would be futile. So they waited for the opportune moment. They came in on the pretext of friendly intervention with the Kandyans to depose the tyrant monarch and restore peace. John D'Oyly's cunning pledges and promises persuaded the Kandyans to agree. At the end of this episode D'Oyly's conspiracy amounting to sheer hypocrisy worked its way. The Kandyans stood helpless and bewildered!
Mr.Peiris seems to regard the Waste Land Ordiance very lightly. He says it caused some misfortune. We know then that the Waste Land Ordinance sounded the death knell of the incumbency of viharas, peasants and land owners whose sole existence depended on land and land alone. The landless peasants were forced to seek their livelihood as labourers mostly under those who were completely alien to everything that is ours. ''Land for whose retention in their hands an ocean of blood was shed by the Sinhala people changed hands.
This sacred soil of our ancestors, now forcibly taken by imperialists were sold to British syndicates for the planting of rubber, coffee and tea''. For whose benefit and for whose misfortune was it that nearly 900,000 acres went to the foreigners? These planters in turn sold produce and sent the money across to fill the coffers of England. The cultivation of rice, our staple food was neglected. For the first time in our history rice had to be imported.
Rape of our fertile virgin lands by these unscrupulous foreigners resulted in soil erosion of our hill slopes that ruined our paddy lands. Lands that were thus acquired were fenced in and the villagers lost their grazing grounds for their cattle. Today there is a hue and cry by environmentalists regarding the devastation of our forests. The onslaught of our virgin forests began with the work of these imperial foreigners. This in turn resulted in the drying up of our water-resources that fed the paddy lands.
Mr.Peiris says if not for the Waste Land Ordinance our hills of the central province would still be under heavy forest cover. This is nonsense. Have not Japan, Thailand and China that never went under a Western power, progressed on modern lines?
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The bombing of the Dalada Maligawa deserves our fullest condemnation as a senseless act. The LTTE cannot expect the world to believe that it was not the perpetrator of this crime just because it has not claimed responsibility. The Maligawa is sacred to the Buddhists and a serene symbol of pride to all peoples of Lanka. The targeting of such a monument which is the country's cultural heritage shows the extreme insensitivity of the attackers and their lack of cultural values. This particular attack has hurt the Buddhists most deeply and aggravated the communal tensions in a city in which Tamils, Muslims and other minority communities have been peacefully coexisting with the majority Sinhalese community.
The Maligawa and its environs are part of the most pleasant memories of my life as a student at Peradeniya in the 1960s and I have been returning to this bewitching site as often as I could. I last visited it in the middle of December 1997 and stayed overnight in a charming little hotel overlooking the Lake, the Maligawa and the whole hill capital. A memorable experience of this stay was the gentle manners and hospitality of the Sinhala and Tamil staff of the hotel. Barely seven hours before I checked in, I was in the war-torn, brutalised and depressing East with its bunkers and numerous security checkpoints and now I was in Kandy in the company of Sinhalese and Tamils under one roof feeling completely at ease and sipping a dram of Old Arrack while ordering Pittu with pol sambol and kiri hodi for dinner. I had experienced two different realities of my country on the same day!
The news of the bombing came as a rude shock and angered me . In the past fifteen years, the war has caused destruction of cultural treasures and symbols in the North-East and deeply hurt the feelings of the Tamil speaking people. I would not expect any self-respecting Tamil to feel happy about the attack on the Maligawa. An eye for an eye makes us all blind. As a people who have experienced the grief of seeing their most treasured library burnt to ashes and their places of worship damaged. Tamils should be able to empathise with the people who have been hurt by the dastardly attack on the Dalada Maligawa.
All of us Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and other Lankans are fast losing the few remaining threads that unite us in our diversity which has been systematically turned into mutual distrust and hostility by the forces of ethno-nationalism in the past five decades. Let us hope the forces of peace and humanity will gather the strength to prevail over the forces of war and inhumanity and help us find a lasting solution to the national crisis and regain the unity we enjoyed in our diversity.
Dear Politicians!
It's time you gave up
Party rivalries
In the wake of the bomb blast
In the sacred precinct
Of Sri Dalada Maligawa.
Forget power, prestige
And personal glory.
Eschew party politics,
Sink petty differences.
Do not beat the communal drums
Think of the Nation first
Spread the concept of
One country; One people;
Forge unity among every community
The country needs
Peace, unity and stability.
Resolve to usher in
A golden era of progress and prosperity
For dear Politicians!
United we stand; Divided we fall.
The Sri Dalada Maligawa is the sanctum sanctorum, treasured and venerated symbol of historical significance to Buddhists. The motive of the bomb attack on Sunday 24.1.98 on this sacred institution is abundantly clear; to create a backlash of an unprecedented magnitude aimed at completely eliminating the minority Tamils.
The immediate victims would have been the Tamils in and around Kandy, whose permanent homes are where they live as they have no place in the North or East. Mayhem and anarchy would have thereafter spread into the estates bordering Kandy causing untold havoc and brutal killings; thereafter it would have gained momentum and the whole of Sri Lanka would have been on fire. Providentially, the people of Kandy are fully conscious and aware of the untold misery pepetrated on the minority Tamils in the communal holocaust of August 1977, in which the central province was a focal point. Although 20 years have passed, yet the residents are full of regret and keep reminding themselves of this unwarranted upheaval. They are also conscious of the events of 1983 and other similar incidents, and the folly of turning their anger on helpless Tamils.
The terrorist attack failed in their motive. But their supporters, the hooligans succeeded to some extent. They desecrated the oldest and much venerated Hindu temple, the Katukelle Sri Selva Vinayagar Kovil, which is right opposite the Police Station Kandy.
They also disrupted and robbed at the wedding held in the Hindu Cultural Hall on Peradeniya Road, indulged in setting fire to vehicles, pulling down name boards and damaging houses of Tamil residents
The Hindus in and around Kandy pay homage at the Dalada Maligawa. Large numbers of Buddhists worship at the Pillayar Kovil. In the historic annual pageant of Kandy, the Esala Perahera, there is the pride of place for the Hindus who participate in the procession with their traditional Nagasuram music and mela thalam. In Nattarampotha close to the Tennekumbura bridge there is the Kalapura, centre of crafts and handicrafts, close by there is Galmaduwa and Sirimalwatte.
There is a close affinity between the Hindus and Buddhists and the common factor is God Ganesar, the Ganadeviyo. In fact the people of Kandy heave a sigh of relief. Those who sincerely believe that, "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of", say that God Pillayar has taken the fatal blow on himself and saved the Tamils from massacre and prevented the destruction of the Hill capital of Sri Lanka.
The Hindus should join hands with the Buddhists to restore the Sri Dalada Maligawa to its pristine glory. At the same time they should initiate action to restore the damage to the Pillayar Kovil.
The aftermath of the bomb blast in the precincts of the Temple of the Sacred Tooth - the Dalada Maligawa must awaken us from our slumber.
Nero was fiddling while Rome was burning. This is equally true applied to Sri Lanka in today's context.
Our politicians are engaged in a game of tug-of-war while the country is being shattered into bits by bomb blasts.
Even now will it open the eyes of our politicians to realize the gravity of the situation? Are they so blind as not to see, and so insensitive as not to feel the pulse of the nation?
We have had enough of this party struggle for power. They are drunk with power, and it has gone to their heads. Neither is this the time for theatrical performances and burning of effigies.
What we - the country, needs today is for all parties to rally round together to save Mother Lanka. They must put the nation before their parties, give up this Westminster type of party tug-of-war and unite to form a National Government.
The Executive Committee system is the most appropriate form of governance for the country today.
I would like to bring to the notice of the concerned authorities about the shoddy road repairs done for the past few years or so along the Mattegoda - Kottawa road. This appalling state has been highlighted many times via the media, However no stern action regarding this matter has yet been taken.
For a period of about two and a half to three months the Mattegoda-Kottawa road, a stretch of approximately 3km and various by-roads were uneven and full of pot holes. Then about a month back the road was supposedly repaired and tarred, and brought back to normal.
Today, in the very places in which repairs were carried out, small pot holes are beginning to emerge. So what does this show us? It obviously proves that the work carried out a mere month back was not of a satisfactory level, and that it will eventually turn out to be in that appalling situation, it was 3-4 months back.
More letters to the editor * How much is a billion? * "Independence!" * Can someone please enlighten me? * The arguments were utterly baseless
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