President Anura Kumara Dissanayake last week met four new ambassadors to Qatar, Russia, Kuwait and Egypt and our first high commissioner to New Zealand who will assume their assignments shortly. All of them are members of the Sri Lanka Overseas Service with no political appointee among them. The heads of mission were selected during the incumbency of the last regime and, in fact, had been cleared by the High Posts Committee of the last Parliament. The new Parliament has not yet appointed a committee to oversee senior government appointments requiring such clearance although, as we report in our news columns today, the ruling party has made its nominations and opposition nominations are awaited. Presumably there will be retroactive clearance of those already in office where necessary.

What the president told the new envoys about what is expected of them was all too obvious. No new thrust in the country’s diplomacy under the new order was revealed. President Dissanayake, while expressing his confidence in the newly appointed diplomats, emphasized the importance of their roles in strengthening Sri Lanka’s bilateral ties and fostering mutual cooperation with the countries to which they had been posted. Other matters covered included giving the best possible service to Lankan working in the countries of accreditation, something that is most important as we are heavily dependent on the remittances they send home. A large number of Lankans today work not only in the Middle East as during the early years of foreign employment but also in countries like South Korea and Japan and now Israel. Also the president urged pushing for more foreign investment, supporting the tourism industry, boosting exports etc.

There is reasonable cause for hope that the new administration, unlike its predecessors, will not make blatantly political diplomatic appointments, not only at ambassadorial level but in other positions in our missions overseas. Barely a month ago, Chief Government Whip Nalinda Jayatissa read out in parliament a list of names of politicians who have drawn money from the President’s Fund for whatever reason and promised to make more revelations. A similar list of progeny and close kith and kin of politicians posted to Sri Lanka’s overseas mission would be as revealing. We do not say that all appointments to Sri Lanka missions abroad should only be from the professional diplomatic service. There have been outstanding performances by those coming from outside, notably Mr. Shirley Amarasinghe, CCS, a former Secretary to the Treasury who chaired the UN Law of the Sea Conference with greatest distinction. So much so, when the 1977 JR Jayewardene government refused to keep him in New York as our Permanent Representative to the United Nations, the UN contrived to keep him in his Law of the Sea role.

Soon after the new regime took office, a total of 16 heads of diplomatic missions deemed political appointments were ordered to wind up their affairs and return to Colombo by December 1. As a state visit by the president to India was pending, the serving high commissioner in New Delhi was asked to remain until the visit was concluded. This was a sensible decision as a new appointee or a relatively junior officer may not have been able to competently handle the work involved at an important juncture. Also the high commissioner who was in place in India was a retired member of the Overseas Service with wide experience serving in important capitals. She was re-appointed post-retirement by the previous administration and this, among others, was apparently read as a “political appointment.” The single exception to the recall was former cabinet minister Mahinda Samarasinghe who quit his ministerial position to go to Washington as ambassador. This was purportedly in view of ongoing discussions with the IMF although it is well known that the embassy is little involved in this process.

However that be, several heads of mission positions, including in important capitals overseas like London and New Delhi as well as the UN in New York, remains to be filled. Whether the existing cadre in the Overseas Service has enough trained and experienced officers to meet this requirement is an open question. The late Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, unquestionably the best foreign minister this country ever had, made some imaginative appointments such as those of business leader SK Wickremesinghe posted to London and eminent lawyer H.L. de Silva who went to New York as our Permanent Representative to the UN. We also had Mr. Mangala Moonesinghe who served in Delhi and briefly in London. The other side of the coin was that there were some rank bad appointments, notably that of a cousin of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Washington. He was caught with his pants down profiting from a property acquisition for the state and returned the loot. Nevertheless the then government proposed to appoint him high commissioner to Canada. Fortunately, Ottawa declined accreditation.

The current political leadership like all its predecessors will, no doubt be pressured by supporters, friends and fellow travelers to make various diplomatic appointments for which there is an insatiable greed in this country. An Additional Foreign Secretary in Mrs. Bandaranaike’s day, obtained cabinet approval to abolish the Sri Lanka Overseas Service and amalgamate it with the SLAS, opening the doors to a vast number of patronage appointments, Mr. Dharmasiri Pieris who functioned as Secretary to the Prime Minister has revealed in his autobiography of which we are running excerpts. This was fortunately nipped in the bud. Finding the right people for the jobs that must be done, not only in the diplomatic service but also in the local administration, will be a monumentally challenging task. Hopefully, there will at least some success in this regard.

Saturday 11th January, 2025

The government has announced a concessionary loan scheme for small and medium-scale (SMS) rice millers and cooperative societies to purchase paddy during the current Maha season. The Treasury has set aside Rs. 10 bn for that purpose, we are told. Successive governments have provided such loans to SMS millers.

One may recall that in February 2024, the Treasury announced that the SMS millers and warehouse owners could obtain loans ranging from Rs. 25 million to Rs. 50 million each under a concessionary pledge loan scheme for paddy purchase during the 2023-2024 Maha season. It was reported that the loans would have to be repaid in six months, and Rs. 9 billion would be disbursed. But that loan scheme did not help make a dent on the problem of powerful millers dominating the paddy market. Such measures could therefore be considered soft punches thrown at heavyweights.

It is doubtful whether the loan amounts to be made available to the SMS millers and cooperative societies will be adequate vis-à-vis the financial prowess of the big-time millers they have to vie with against tremendous odds in purchasing paddy. Most of all, they do not receive funds in time for the commencement of harvesting. The state machinery and lending institutions are geared towards serving the interests of the wealthy millers, who also have politicians on a string.

Worse, large millers double as loan sharks in the rural sector. Many paddy farmers obtain loans from them before the commencement of cultivation seasons on the strict condition that they do not sell their paddy to anyone else. Thus, the Millers’ Mafia keeps the farmers in bondage to all intents and purposes and buys their paddy at unconscionably low prices. Some agricultural experts have pointed out that these millers also keep part of their paddy stocks with the farmers who are beholden to them, and hence it is difficult to trace the hoarded paddy.

Interestingly, the rich millers have taken on the heartless microfinance companies that provide loans to farmers at exorbitant interest rates, and employ draconian recovery methods. They accuse the latter of exploiting farmers! There is hardly any difference between the Millers’ Mafia and the ruthless microfinance companies, where the exploitation of the farming community is concerned. No government has made any serious effort to liberate the hapless farmers from the clutches of the unscrupulous millers and other Shylocks.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake declared in his New Year message that his government had, inter alia, the goal of eliminating rural poverty high on its agenda. Economically empowering farmers will be half the battle in tackling rural poverty. This ambitious goal however will remain elusive as long as politicians and political parties benefit from the largesse of the big-time millers and baulk at doing what needs to be done to protect the farming community against exploitative practices.

Let the government be urged to make funds available to the SMS millers and cooperative societies expeditiously in sufficient amounts if it is genuinely desirous of making the paddy and rice markets really competitive to safeguard the interests of farmers and consumers. Usually, by the time the government reaches the starting block, the big-time millers are already halfway down the track, sprinting.

The provision of soft loans for paddy purchase is welcome, but much more needs to be done to prevent paddy/rice market manipulations and the exploitation of farmers and consumers. The need for a pro-people government capable of dealing with the exploiters in the garb of millers and wholesalers, with a firm hand, cannot be overstated.

Friday 10th January, 2025

The JVP-led NPP government has announced that its ongoing programme to rid private buses and trishaws of unauthorised accessories and enforce road discipline will go on despite protests. However, following a discussion with the private bus owners, the police have reportedly announced a grace for compliance. It is hoped that noncompliance will be severely dealt with thereafter. Nobody must be allowed to trifle with the law.

Some Opposition politicians are shedding copious tears for the bus and trishaw mudalalis. SLPP MP Namal Rajapaksa has said something to the effect that the government should be lenient. The Rajapaksas’ leniency towards lawbreakers is only well known. They unashamedly shielded even notorious characters like Mervyn, and numerous other rowdies, some of whom went berserk in Parliament in 2018. The members of the former ruling family and others of their ilk, still reeling from last year’s shocking electoral defeats, are making a desperate bid to gain political traction. Some of them have the chutzpah to proffer unsolicited advice to the incumbent government on how to run the country!

Worryingly, the NPP government continues to provide a bunch of political rejects with rallying points, albeit unwittingly. They are on the offensive although they are not in a position to convince the public that they are an alternative to the incumbent dispensation. They cannot even criticise the government in a credible manner without being exposed for stretching the truth and hypocrisy. Some of their absurd claims make one wonder whether they have been able to realise the gravity of the country’s economic situation properly, far less think of a solution.

The Opposition lacks pragmatism, and its leaders except a few like Dr. Harsha de Silva talk nineteen to the dozen, and their circumlocution about economics signifies nothing. They have condemned the ongoing IMF bailout programme as an evil, but they have stopped short of offering any alternative. The same holds true for the non-parliamentary oppositional groups. The Frontline Socialist Party has sought to belittle the increase in Sri Lanka’s foreign currency reserves, which amount to more than USD 6 billion. It is also demanding an immediate end to the IMF programme.

In 2022, the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government sought an IMF bailout when the country’s usable forex reserves plummeted to about USD 20 million. That regime was left with a choice between a soft default and a hard default. It opted for the former. True, an IMF programme is not a long-term solution in itself. Nobody likes the IMF’s constricting loan conditions, which are extremely painful to the people, especially the poor, but it is a sine qua non for economic recovery. Sri Lanka will have to shore up its foreign currency reserves by increasing exports and attracting foreign investment, among other things, to achieve economic recovery.

In fact, the IMF has asked Sri Lanka to do what the latter should have done of its own volition years ago to prevent the current economic crisis. If the Gotabaya administration had asked for IMF help at the first signs of trouble, economic recovery would not have been so difficult and painful.

A claim the SJB is propagating is that the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe government undertook to resume debt repayment with effect from 2028 although the IMF had agreed to a grace period until 2033. It has not furnished credible evidence in support of its claim. Dr. de Silva found himself in an embarrassing position in an interview with Derana TV, last week, when he was asked to comment on his party’s aforesaid claim. He should not try to defend the indefensible and ruin his image as an economist.

One can only hope that the political rejects will not get an opportunity to make a comeback by capitalising on the NPP administration’s bungling.