Tuesday 3rd December, 2024

Incompetent governments that fail to live up to people’s expectations turn to the media as a convenient scapegoat, attributing their failure and declining popularity to bad press. Never do they own up to their bungling, much less mend their ways. This is particularly true of Sri Lanka, where the media has suffered at the hands of successive unpopular regimes. The culture of media bashing has caught on in this country; the newly-elected JVP-led NPP government has already thrown down the gauntlet, indicating its readiness to curb media freedom.

The hunt for social media activists who refuse to kowtow to rulers has begun to all intents and purposes. Digital platforms are not entirely blameless, though. Many of those who call themselves social media influencers are in fact polluters of the digital realm. These purveyors of hate speech, fake news, deepfakes, etc., abuse social platforms in such a way that their sordid operations bolster arguments being peddled in some quarters for stronger laws to regulate social media; they are ruining the potential of social platforms to evolve into a real alternative public media space. Guided by Rafferty’s rules, they carry out vilification campaigns and even offer their services as propaganda hired guns. They are an asset to oppressive governments, paradoxical as it may sound, for they create conditions for rulers who are intoxicated with power to suppress media freedom across the board and silence dissent. However, on no grounds can the Big Brother tactics that governments employ to railroad social and mainstream media into toeing the official line be countenanced.

The JVP-NPP combine is acting as if it had already forgotten that social media enabled it to gain a turbo boost for its efforts to capture state power. The present-day rulers abused the digital space to their heart’s content to disseminate countless half-truths, mistruths and lies, demonise their political opponents and project themselves as saviours. Today, the boot is on the other foot, and their rivals are giving them a dose of their own medicine; they are at the receiving end of what can be described as piranha attacks in the digital realm. Their reaction has been to try to muzzle user-generated content platforms in a bid to intimidate the media into submission. They have gone to the extent of making the police use the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which they promised to abolish during their presidential and parliamentary election campaigns, to arrest some social media activists for posting online content pertaining to the recent commemoration of slain LTTE leaders. The matter, which is now before a Magistrate’s Court, is best left to the learned judge concerned.

Meanwhile, those who commemorate dead terrorists responsible for killing thousands of civilians, destroying properties worth billions of rupees and suppressing the people’s democratic rights including franchise are without any moral right to advocate democracy. Strangely, all victims of terror, except those who perished in the Easter Sunday attacks, have been forgotten. There is a pressing need for a mass movement to seek justice for the victims of terrorism unleashed by the LTTE, the JVP and governments.

As for the arrests at issue, the question is why our brave police have chosen to give kid-glove treatment to those who commemorated the dead Tigers in violation of a ban. This turn of events makes us wonder whether Kekille, a legendary eccentric king in folklore, who allowed wrongdoers to get off scot-free and punished others, actually lived in this country, for Sri Lankan leaders of all political hues have the same absurd traits as he and therefore can be considered his descendants. Those who expected a hiatus in the Kekille rule after the recent regime change must be disappointed.

Let the government be urged to stop blaming the media, get its act together and make good on its election pledges, which are legion. It had better realise that mammoth majorities alone do not make strong governments, as evident from the fate that befell the governments of Mahinda Rajapaksa and his sibling, Gotabaya, who also enjoyed a two-thirds majority in Parliament but had to show his pursuers a clean pair of heels in 2022.

Having talked the talk, the JVP-NPP leaders must walk the walk without taking on the media and testing the people’s patience lest only their National List MP Sugath Thilakeratne, a former champion runner, should be safe in case of a situation similar to the one we witnessed in 2022 arising again––absit omen!

Monday 2nd December, 2024

India’s Adani Group has been in the news of late —for all the wrong reasons. It has come under fire for very serious corporate malpractices for the umpteenth time. This time around, it has had legal action in the US to contend with. The US Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York, has made an official announcement that a five-count criminal indictment was unsealed on 20 Nov., 2024, in federal court in Brooklyn, inter alia, charging Adani Group Chairman Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain, and some executives of the Indian Energy Company, with ‘conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from US investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements.’

Curiously, legal action against the Adani Group bigwigs, in the US, does not seem to have caused much concern to Sri Lanka, which has been described by the international media as one of the four countries that have come out in support of the Indian conglomerate under a cloud. Other backers of the Adani Group have been named as Israel, the UAE and Tanzania.

Cabinet Spokesman and Media Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa has gone on record as saying that the NPP government is looking into the matter and reports have been called from ministries involving the Adani projects here. But the Sri Lanka Ports Authority reportedly lost no time in declaring its continued confidence in Adani’s role in expanding Sri Lanka’s port infrastructure, according to media reports. This, it has done although the outlook of several Adani companies which are affiliates or parents of project companies in Sri Lanka have been cut to negative by global rating agencies, after the institution of legal action in the US against the group. Sri Lanka should have been particularly concerned about the reports that the US International Development Finance Corporation, which is partially funding the Colombo port terminal, has reportedly said it continues to conduct due diligence to ensure that all aspects of the project meet its rigorous standards before any loan disbursements are made, and it hasn’t concluded a final agreement on the loan worth $500 million to the Adani Group under scrutiny.

When the indictment of the Adani grandees in the US became known internationally, one expected the JVP-led NPP government, which has embarked on a crusade against corruption, to seize the opportunity to order a high-level investigation into the questionable deals its predecessor entered into with the Adani Group. Environmental outfits, Opposition parties, and good governance activists have been calling for the cancellation of Sri Lanka’s agreements with the Adani Group.

The NPP government should have emulated Bangladesh in handling the very serious issue at hand. A review committee formed by Bangladesh’s interim government has recommended assigning an investigation agency to probe power agreements inked by ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s regime with the Adani Group, and others. That is the way a country should act to ensure that its national interest prevails over everything else.

The JVP-NPP combine very effectively campaigned on an anti-corruption platform, condemning its opponents as corrupt, mostly on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations, and won elections pledging to rid the country of bribery and corruption. Having done so, it ought to explain why it has allowed Sri Lanka to be bracketed with the countries that are supporting the Adani Group despite a host of damning allegations against it, especially in the US. Such a categorisation is the last thing this country needs at a time when its image, which suffered immense damage under previous governments, has to be repaired to attract foreign investors. Is the NPP government under pressure from India to back Adani, who is a close ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi?

Let the NPP government, which pontificates ad nauseam about the virtues of transparency, integrity and corporate best practices, be urged to muster courage to order a thorough probe into Sri Lanka’s agreements with the tainted Adani Group.

In early November this year, following the appointment of a new president, many headlines were grabbed by news of the recall to Colombo of 16 heads of Sri Lankan missions overseas including ambassadors and high commissioners appointed outside the professional service for political and other reasons totally unrelated to the national interest. Among them were two high commissioners to India and Australia, who were retired members of the Sri Lanka Overseas Service reappointed on contract to head our missions in New Delhi and Canberra. Sensibly, the present high commissioner in Delhi would continue there until the president’s forthcoming visit to India in December is concluded. It has been reported that the performance of the recalled diplomats, including some former armed services commanders, would be evaluated and whether some of them will be reappointed remains to be seen though some sources regard this as unlikely.

Unfortunately many appointments to the diplomatic service post-independence have been political or for reasons of patronage. In the early years, people like Mr. GCS Corea (later Sir. Claude), Mr. RSS Gunawardene (Later Sir. Senerath), Sir. Oliver Goonetilleke, Sir. Edwin Wijeyaratne, Sir Susantha de Fonseka and labour leader AE Goonasinha were among those appointed to the newly minted diplomatic service from the body politic after then Ceylon obtained her independence from Britain. Before independence, Mr. DB Jayatillake (later Sir. Baron) went to India as the Ceylon Government Agent and died en route home to Colombo. These were were undoubtedly men of high achievement and few, if any, would have begrudged them their appointments. With no professional Overseas or Foreign Service in the early days of independent nationhood, members of the then Ceylon Civil Service (CCS) were sent to help man the few overseas missions that the country then had.

In October 1949, the year after independence, the Ceylon Overseas Service (COS) was set up and the first batch of cadets were recruited. This was on the basis of the CCS examination and a few of those ranked lower than those absorbed into CCS were recruited to the COS. In later years, in economic terms, many who served abroad for their country as members of the COS, did better than civil servants in the higher bureaucracy due to perquisites they enjoyed like bringing back duty free vehicles when they returned for home posting as well as the various overseas allowances paid to them in foreign currency. Import and foreign exchange restrictions enforced in later years made overseas postings doubly and trebley attractive; and many were the patronage appointments granted in the country’s missions abroad to wives and children of senior politicians and other kith and kin. These cost the taxpayer dearly as the returns were personal to those appointed and were of no benefit to the country.

Apart from bad appointments made to our overseas missions, their sheer number for a country of Sri Lanka’s size and resources is truly mind boggling. According to official data, we now have 35 embassies overseas plus a dozen high commissions (missions in fellow commonwealth countries), two permanent representatives to the United Nations in New York and Geneva, 10 consulates-general, one deputy high commission (in Chennai) and one representative office in Palestine. Our diplomatic presence in countries like the Seychelles defies explanation with a former president’s close kinsman appointed ambassador. Branches of the Bank of Ceylon and the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporations too have been opened in that country for which an affection of the highest in the land is clearly apparent.

The public, however, is in the dark on whether these institutions are earning their keep leave alone operating profitably. The Right To Information law now operative and used both by journalists and public interest activists should be invoked for the public benefit from news in this regard.

Quite apart from that, a forensic review of the cost benefit aspects of the country’s overseas missions is long overdue. A feeble attempt was made about three years ago with then foreign ministry announcing in 2021 that the Sri Lanka consulate in Frankfurt, the high commission in Nigeria and the consulate in Cyprus were to be closed down. Then foreign minister GL Peiris is on record saying that operations in Frankfurt would be moved to Berlin and that under then circumstances the mission in Nigeria could not continue. The closing of these missions were part of a much needed cost cutting exercise. But earlier this year it was announced that Sri Lanka was looking to open its first diplomatic office in Central Asia with a diplomatic presence in Astana in Kazhakstan.

Some of the countries where Sri Lanka have resident diplomatic missions do not have a reciprocal presence here. Very many of the foreign ambassadors accredited to Colombo are resident in New Delhi and are concurrently accredited to Sri Lanka. This is something that we too do in some parts of the world where ambassadors posted to some important capitals are concurrently accredited to less important neighbouring countries. Undoubtedly, a presence in countries in the Middle East and elsewhere hosting a large number of Lankan workers is necessary but a consular presence rather than a fully-fledged mission in such countries may be in order.

What is unfortunate is that there is a greed for foreign diplomatic posting and too often political influence and patronage results in rank bad appointments. Sad but true, a close kinsman of President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed ambassador to Washington and found to have made money on a property transaction (which he subsequently returned) was proposed to be high commissioner in Canada despite the then president reportedly saying “this fellow has rubbed soot on my face!” Fortunately Ottawa refused to have him.