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• Satellite still in orbit, confirms Supreme SAT company boss
  

It’s official. Chichi’s rocket, long believed to have gone out of control and lost in space, costing the state billions of dollars, has returned home, bringing with it a bounty of millions of dollars it has annually earned for providing telecommunication services while orbiting earth.

Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya on Wednesday in Parliament flayed the allegation, endlessly made by JVP members on various political platforms, that the satellite launched by Supreme SAT Limited during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime in 2012 had caused millions of rupees in losses to the state, by stating it was a total fabrication.

In a detailed answer to a listed parliamentary question that had been first raised by SLPP MP D.V. Chanaka on July 9, Prime Minister Harini said, “Supreme SAT had entered into an agreement with the Board of Investment on 23rd May 2012 and invested Rs. 12.1 million for the satellite during 2013 and 2014. According to the investment application, the Lankan government had not invested any money, and under clause 17 of the BOI Act, the investment was made as a project targeting the local market.”

CHALLENGED: Prime Minister Harini

She added that, “for the establishment and operation of a satellite system at the Kandy Industrial Park, with an investment of Rs. 1,828 million, Supreme SHST (Pvt) Ltd entered into an agreement with the BOI on May 23, 2012. The project, aimed at providing telecommunications and broadcasting services to local consumers, commenced commercial operations on August 27, 2015.”

Since the Lankan government hadn’t invested a dime in the Supreme Sat satellite project, it had not caused any losses to state coffers, she said.

On the contrary, the Prime Minister stated that the Supreme Sat satellite had paid annual dividends to the Sri Lankan government totalling an average sum of Rs. 20 billion from 2015 to the first half of 2023.

The Prime Minister, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, also presented revenue figures reported by Supreme SAT over several fiscal years, indicating consistent financial returns to Sri Lanka. The breakdown is below:

2016: Rs. 19,617 million,

2017: Rs. 28,133 million,

CHALLENGER: Trade Minister Wasantha

2018: Rs. 29,106 million,

2019: Rs. 34,169 million,

2020: Rs. 40,960 million,

2021: Rs. 62,545 million,

2022: Rs. 87,789 million,

First half of 2023: Rs. 39,590 million

The sum earned from Supreme SAT totals Rs 280 billion during a period of seven and a half years. An average of not 20 billion but 38 billion.

Not bad a return at all for a zero investment by the government by any reckoning or yardstick. Not bad at all for Chichi’s much-condemned rocket for turning out to be a cash cow for the Treasury, churning billions of rupees each year. Chichi, the family pet name for Mahinda Rajapaksa’s youngest son Rohitha, has been treated as a joke ever since he expressed a wish to be a professional astronaut and was said to have been involved in the Supreme SAT takeoff.

The unfounded allegation made through the years by the JVP while in the opposition had entrenched grievous hate in the people’s hearts towards Mahinda Rajapaksa for squandering taxpayers’ money to cater to his youngest son’s demand to have a ‘rocket as his plaything’ to further his astronautical dreams.

But now father and son have both been cleansed by no less a person than the JVP Government’s Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, in no less a place than the country’s Supreme Legislative Assembly, exonerated of the vile allegation that the Supreme SAT satellite had made the State suffer any financial loss but instead had earned the State billions of rupees every year in dividend rewards.

It must have been like getting an acquittal from a full bench of the Supreme Court or, better still, receiving from the accusers themselves a certificate absolving them from any wrong or blame while simultaneously being awarded a cup for enriching the State. No doubt, there would have been all-night celebrations in the Rajapaksa household on August 6th. Must be a great relief to be vindicated by the JVP government even at this late stage.

INSTIGATOR: SLPP’s D.V.Chanaka

But there could not have been any restful sleep on the August 6 night at the JVP’s Pelawatte headquarters but only a restless despondency as they stared at the debris of Chichi’s rocket that had self-destructed on crash landing from space on the JVP’s launching pad, from whence the canard had been fired to the ether, the crash destroying its credible base.

The following day, the JVP’s Wasantha Samarasinghe arrived in Parliament to demolish the figures provided in the Prime Minister’s figures. While admitting that the Supreme SAT satellite had not caused the state any loss, he disputed everything else in Prime Minister Harini’s statement.

He claimed that the rocket was still missing.

He claimed that the Board of Investment had provided wrong information to the Prime Minister.

He claimed the company had generated only Rs. 342 million, and that too from other businesses such as a television channel and not from the satellite.

He claimed discrepancies in the company’s financial records.

He claimed that ‘earlier reports indicated that the company had assets worth Rs. 12 billion and liabilities of Rs. 11 billion, and claimed ‘these figures have been removed from its annual reports since 2014’ and asked, ‘How can such a thing happen?’

He said the company was established using loans from two Chinese banks and claimed that the satellite, launched in November 2012 at a cost of US$300 million, had reportedly gone missing since its deployment and remains missing to date.

He claimed that Supreme SAT had not tendered accounts to the BOI after 2022.

The Prime Minister’s source for the information given in her answer to Parliament is the Finance Ministry’s BOI. What was Wasantha Samarasinghe’s source? He did not refer to a source except to refer to company accounts and the internet.

As the SLPP’s D.V. Chanaka explained, after Wasantha Samarasinghe had shredded the Prime Minister’s statements to strips, “Once a parliamentary question is asked from the Prime Minister, the normal procedure is to refer it to the Prime Minister’s Secretary, who will refer it to his counterpart at the Finance Ministry, who, in turn, will direct it to the relevant institute, which, in this instance, will be the BOI.”

“The answer to the information sought,” D.V. Chanaka continued, “will be sent back to the Finance Ministry, where an Additional Secretary will check, verify and screen its contents before sending it to the Prime Minister’s Office, where an additional Secretary or Secretary will study and screen it before sending it to the Prime Minister’s personal office. Then the Parliamentary Secretary and Private Secretary will check it again before submitting it to the Prime Minister.”

D.V. Chanaka asked, “Does Wasantha Samarasinghe think the Prime Minister merely parrots whatever she’s given to read in Parliament?”

Furthermore, he stated that both Prime Minister Harini and Wasantha Samarasinghe have agreed that no loss has been incurred by the state as a result of Supreme SAT’s satellite investment. “We have proved that an investment has been made; it has not caused a loss to the state but has earned money for the state. I leave it to them to fight out the correct amount it has earned amongst themselves.”

In the ensuing embarrassment caused to the JVP Government with Wasantha Samarasinghe disputing in Parliament his own Prime Minister’s statement, three questions were asked. The first was whether it was unbecoming of Wasantha Samarasinghe, a top JVP leader, no doubt, but yet a relatively low-ranked Trade Minister, coming below in the pecking order, to contemptuously dismiss the Prime Minister’s answer as totally wrong.

The second was whether, if Samarasinghe had any misgivings with the Prime Minister’s answer, the better course of action would have been to discreetly whisper in the Prime Minister’s ear and let her rectify the mistake made, rather than make her cringe with embarrassing shame by confronting the veracity of the figures in her answer to the House?

And the third is whether this is evidence of a growing rift between the Malima-come-lately group with Harini as its ostensible head and the old diehard JVP faction.

As for the mystery of the long-lost Chichi’s rocket, which is still hurtling past the darker regions of infinite space in the JVP’s finite minds, Supreme SAT announced on Friday, ‘It remains in orbit at 87.5° East, precisely where it was positioned on launch.’

In a statement issued by its Chairman, R.M. Manivannan, on August 8, the company said it welcomed the “long-awaited public acknowledgement” of these facts after 13 years, noting they had been part of the public record since 2012 despite “politically motivated narratives” to the contrary. It further said:

1. The SupremeSAT satellite was successfully launched.

2. No government funds were used for the project.

These facts have been a matter of public record since 2012, yet, for over a decade, politically motivated narratives sought to deny them. Unfortunately, despite this long-overdue recognition, certain individuals continue to make unfounded statements regarding our company, focusing particularly on the satellite’s location and our corporate accounts.

SupremeSAT operates under stringent contractual, regulatory, and technical obligations across multiple jurisdictions. Our operations meet and exceed internationally recognised standards in performance, compliance, and transparency, consistent with the practices of leading global satellite operators.

While we remain unaffected by baseless claims, we are firm in expressing our dissatisfaction with the continued misrepresentation of our work. SupremeSAT will remain focused on delivering its projects, honouring its commitments, and upholding its reputation as a trusted, world-class operator in the space sector.

For accurate information about our company, its history, and the scope of our operations, we encourage all interested parties to visit www.supremesat.com.

The company also expressed its regret that its accounts had been conducted unilaterally. It said:

Discussions about our private company accounts, conducted without our participation, are both inappropriate and misleading, especially when driven by those lacking the technical understanding and operational insight necessary to comment on a complex, globally integrated business such as ours.

It has been a turbulent week for politics. Perhaps the worst jet streams encountered since, 11 months ago, 42 per cent of voters gave the country in one fist to Anura Kumara to run. His government will have to weather worse thunderous storms to come.

If it is to survive, the first thing it should do is to shoot down the lie ruling the sky.

Dance of Skanda’s peacock re-lives Kathirgamam’s legends on stage It was the night Skanda’s peacock dance came alive in Bharathanatyam’s step and style to convey, on a Colombo stage, Kathirgamam’s enchantment that transcends all religious divides on the banks of the River Manik. In a cultural rhapsody that was sheer delight to behold, over 100 students from Kalasuri Thivya Sujen’s Abhinayakshetra School of Dance, together with top Bharatanatyam dancers from India, presented the grand dance drama ‘Kathirgamam’ at the New Kathiresan Hall, Wellawatte, on the 20th last month, and enacted on stage, through Southern India’s ancient dance form, the myth-enriched history of one of Lanka’s most sacred shrines. Staging poetry in motion, this bevy of classical dancers held the audience spellbound as they breathed new life into old legends and relived the myths surrounding the domain, Kathirgamam, where the warrior deity Lord Murugan, or Skanda, or Kataragama, rules incarnate. RHAPSODIC CULTURAL FEAST: Bharatanatyam exponents bring to life on stage As God of Love, he had wooed and won the heart of a forest maid. The annual perahara held in July is a symbolic celebration of their union of love. As God of War, this ancient shrine was visited by the island’s southern ruler, King Dutugemunu, to seek his blessing and pray for military success before embarking on his march to oust Chola invader Elara from the island’s capital throne. As folklore holds, to the Hindus, Kathirgamam is the sacred spot where Lord Murugan sought refuge to pray and pay penance after vanquishing the demon Surapadman. His quest to find the idyllic wilderness to engage in his spiritual cleansing led him to the banks of Lanka’s Manik River, the origin of which, it is believed, gushes from divine springs. It is also believed the earliest royal patron of this ancient shrine was King Vijaya, who had built the original shrine to Lord Murugan, but it’s a historical fact that a sapling of the Anuradhapura Bo tree was planted at this forest shrine during the reign of King Devanampiyatissa, symbolising the fusion of Hindu and Buddhist traditions. In an unforgettable dance spectacular, the endearing mystique of Kathirgamam, with all its rituals and rites, its faith and its worship, its kavadi dancing given the Bharatanatyam touch, and its sacred lore and romance found deep in the forest heart of Kathirgamam, palpitated with a resonating and resounding beat within the bosoms of its beholders.