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Eyebrows were raised among a segment of the diplomatic corps with the resumption of talks on the Thai/Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA) earlier last week.

At the recent diplomatic briefing organised by the Foreign Ministry, an official of that institution happened to overhear an extraordinary inquiry by some of the Western diplomats from the Thai Ambassador, regarding the basis for the resumption of talks at this juncture.  

To the credit of the Thai Ambassador, he took pains to explain that considering the traditionally strong bilateral relations, Thailand wishes to assist Sri Lanka to overcome this unprecedented economic crisis. He said that since Sri Lanka took the initiative in the resumption of the talks, the Thai side supported Sri Lanka in a bid to prepare the country for the future.

Hearing this exchange a non-Western diplomat observed that some Western countries continue to be hell bent in being detractors of Sri Lanka, and questioned whether this was the price to pay for the vote bank of the Sri Lankan community they were playing host to in their countries.

US Ambassador tells China not to be a spoiler for Sri Lanka

Beijing should honour its promise of being a friend to Sri Lanka by immediately giving financial assurances, and should not be a “spoiler’’ in the bilateral debt negotiations, United States Ambassador Julie Chung said.

Referring to debt talks, Ms Chung told the BBC: “Beijing has said it is a friend of Sri Lanka and I am sure the Sri Lankan people are about to see that turn into action and make sure there is no delay and that Beijing really responds quickly without delay in terms of providing those financial assurances. Sri Lanka does not have time to delay. It needs these assurances immediately.”

“And we have seen, again, delays in Zambia, and Chad and other countries, where for one reason or another, it has been held up. And China has been the spoiler. So, again, for the sake of the Sri Lankan people, we certainly hope, China is not a spoiler as Sri Lanka proceeds to finalise the IMF agreement.”

China Eximbank is one of the biggest lenders, funding nonviable projects through which Beijing engineered political influence over former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who created a credit card economy from October 2007 onwards, borrowing billions of US dollars from China, while the Central Bank of Sri Lanka led by Ajith Nivard Cabraal, the Finance Ministry, and the Treasury, went along giddily for the ride.

Fisheries Minister in troubled waters with Gurunagar fisherfolk

Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda had to field some tough questions from Northern fisherfolk on Friday when he met the Gurunagar Fishermen Federation Union over his failure to stop Indian fisherfolk entering Lankan waters to engage in bottom trawling, an illegal fishing practice banned in the country.

Minister Douglas Devananda met with the Gurunagar Fishermen Federation Union on Friday . Pic by Loha Thayalan

The local fisherfolk openly blame his ministry and Navy officials for failing to take decisive steps to protect their livelihood, claiming “local fisheries resources are being plundered by Indian fishermen during the day” while authorities turn a blind eye.

Realising that the fisherfolk are tired of empty assurances, Minister Devananda came up with the proposal. He declared, that he is planning to distribute two Indian mechanised bottom trawlers which were seized earlier from Indian fisherfolk for each federation to patrol the sea to confront the Indian trawlers which enter Sri Lankan waters.

The former paramilitary leader turned politician said fisherfolk do not have to depend on the Navy alone but they also need to play a role.

A fisherfolk leader who was in the audience was heard saying that someone has to remind the Minister that he is no longer a militant to make provocative statements, but a Minister who took an oath to protect the Constitution, and mere statements similar to South Indian film punch lines will put the lives of fisherfolk from both countries at risk in mid-sea.

Sabry welcomes once banned Qatar charity

For Foreign Minister Ali Sabry, this week appeared to be more hectic than usual, with meetings with Colombo-based envoys, especially the one with the Acting Canadian High Commissioner who was invited to the Foreign Ministry to be told that Sri Lanka was not happy with sanctions imposed on its two former presidents hailed for ending Sri Lanka’s decades-long ethnic conflict.

Also this week, he met a delegation from Qatar Charity, an organisation that wound up its operations in Sri Lanka some two years ago following controversial remarks made by then Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekera after lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah’s arrest.

Mr. Sabry, in welcoming the delegation and the charity’s decision to resume operations in Sri Lanka, said he was delighted to have the services of Qatar Charity, a world-renowned organisation that has committed US$ 11.7 million for 2023 for the welfare of Sri Lankans.

The day prior to this meeting, he had meetings with another group of diplomats to discuss bilateral concerns with each of them. At this meeting, the Russian envoy raised the issue of numerous problems Russian tourists faced in Sri Lanka, especially at the airport where they spent long hours, sources said.

They also said talks between President Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on reconciliation also figured at the meeting, with Palestinian Ambassador Zuhair Mohommad Hamdallah Dar Zaid saying he believed the Muslim issue should also be included in the reconciliation talks.

In a statement this week, the President’s office said the Muslim and upcountry Tamil issues would be taken up after a consensus was reached with the North and East based Tamil parties.

Sumanthiran describes Tamil Nadu as an ‘elder brother’

Amid the ongoing discussions with the Government on a durable political solution for ethnic conflict, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is engaged in discussions with various stakeholders both locally and globally including its diaspora umbrella networks on the status of the talks.

Early this week, TNA Spokesperson M. A. Sumanthiran was in Chennai attending a cultural festival that consisted of guests from Tamil communities across the globe, with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin presiding over the event.

On behalf of Tamil speaking people in Sri Lanka, Mr Sumanthiran gifted a model harp (yarl) to Chief Minister Stalin. During his brief speech, he stressed the importance of Tamil Nadu being the ‘elder brother’ for Tamil speaking communities Sri Lanka and called for continued support for their struggle to secure political rights for Tamil people in Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, on the following day, the TN Assembly unanimously passed a resolution urging the Central Government in New Delhi to implement the Sethusamudram project, which aims to create a shipping route between India and Sri Lanka.

The project was controversial for both religious and political reasons in recent times, especially after the Hindutva ideology led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took over the premiership years ago.

They don’t have the cake to eat the cake

Even though tight curbs on State expenditure are already in place, things have now gotten even more difficult for state institutions after President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s directive instructing ministries to slash their allocations by 5%.

Officials now have the task of figuring out how they are going to go about reducing their expenses in line with the directive.

One top official of a government  institution knew one area where expenses can definitely be reduced–snacks during meetings.

“We had milk tea and cake earlier. We can manage with just milk tea or even plain tea now,” he quipped.

Exorbitant egg prices down despite mafia’s scramble

The Government’s recent announcement to import eggs from India to meet the local demand and reduce exorbitant prices in the local market came as a shock to the local mafia that influenced egg prices for some time.

The result–prices of eggs came down significantly this week from between Rs 65 to Rs 70 to between Rs 57 and Rs 58 in many markets across the country.

Consumers lamented that with the ongoing economic crisis making it difficult for many families to put food on the table, crooked business mafia elements were using the current crisis to make some extra bucks at the expense of suffering people.

Worst of all, consumers noted the lackadaisical attitude of the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) officials who turned the other way when mafia factions had their field day with the ulterior motive of making money at any cost.

Monkey business at Manthai East Divisional Secretariat

It is true, State employees came under severe criticism in the recent past for their lack of efficiency and effectiveness to serve the people, but Manthai East Divisional Secretariat officials in Mullaitivu had a different complaint.

The respective Divisional Secretary directed officials attached to various departments in his office to be deployed in a mandatory two hour guard duty for monkeys in vegetable gardens located within the premises of the secretariat, on a rolling basis.

Last year, under the directive issued by local government authorities in view of imminent food security concerns, employees were engaged in organic farming of vegetables in gardens. This attracted much appreciation from locals and senior government officials visiting the secretariat.

If elephants were a major player in the human-animal conflict in the South, it is monkeys in the North.

Accordingly, employees were on duty from 7.00 a.m. in the morning to 6.00 p.m. in the evening on a rolling roster. Obviously, some staff were not on board about the new directive.

One of them–a development officer–was heard saying to his colleague: “We joined the State service as fresh graduates only to find ourselves guarding for monkeys. It is sad to see it has come to this level!”

Major event forgotten by Tamil parties

Every year on January 10, Tamil political parties and nationalists commemorate the 1974 Tamil conference incident in Jaffna, where Police violence resulted in the deaths of nine civilians and dozens were injured.

The incident was one of the decisive moments in post-Independence history ahead of ethnic tensions and was followed by the separatist war in later years.

This year, presumably busy with making electoral alliances ahead of the local government elections, many political parties seemed to have forgotten the day and no preparations were made near the memorial in Jaffna town even on the day before the scheduled commemoration day on Tuesday.

Thanks to intelligence personnel who were deployed in the region for surveillance on the day before, Tamil politicos realised that someone had kept date notes and hurriedly organised a brief commemoration event on the following day.