News
CP Leader warns of danger of being at mercy of the dollar with it likely to lose its world reserve currency status
Suggests looking at India and China as alternative options
By Rathindra Kuruwita
The United States has printed trillions of dollars in the past year and Sri Lanka will be at the mercy of its volatility unless it looks at ways to reduce its dependence on the dollar, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) Dr. G. Weerasinghe told The Island on Wednesday.
The CPSL recently released a policy manifesto, Idirimagin Idiriyata, at the party’s 80th anniversary and proposed an alternative development mechanism.
After several centuries, the centre of world economy has shifted to Asia, and it has opened up new developmental avenues for Sri Lanka, General Secretary of the Communist Party said. Speaking about the Idirimagin Idiriyata policy manifesto the CPSL launched on 03 July, he said that most Sri Lankan economists are western oriented and ignore new world trends.
“In the last 20-30 years, many Asian economies took off, but we couldn’t get on the bus. This is because our entire economy is oriented to the West. We don’t even think what the Chinese, Indian, Korean or Japanese market wants. Clearly they don’t need our tea or garments. We have to figure out what these new markets want,” he said. Dr. Weerasinghe added that China is the main business partner with 140 countries in the world. China and India do a lot of business together, despite the frequent clamouring by Indian media, he said. “China is the biggest market in the world. China has a 500 million strong middle class. We have to also seriously think of India, which is the most populous country in the world. What about ASEAN? CPSL calls for a reorientation of Sri Lanka’s trade policy,” he said.
The CPSL General Secretary said that de-dollarization and the availability of new payment platforms are also developments that Sri Lanka should look at. In recent years, it has become evident that the United States and a few of its allies are manipulating international institutions that were meant to be apolitical, he said.
“They are also using sanctions to punish countries that do not bow down to the West. They are misusing the fact that the U.S. Dollar is the reserve currency of the world. They have also used payment platforms like SWIFT which was said to be beyond politics. A lot of countries have seen what happened to Iran and Russia and are worried that the same fate would befall them. Most major powers in the world are thinking about using alternative currencies to do business between each other. They have also looked at payment gateways like Mir,” he said.
Dr. Weerasinghe said that the US and EU imposed sanctions on about 6000 products on Russia following the Ukrainian war. Without being daunted, it rearranged its economy towards Asia and have managed to escape economic collapse. This made many major powers realize that the US and EU can only influence them, if U.S. dollars are used for trade.
“De-dollarization has gained momentum ever since. Russia, Iran and a few other countries have been kicked out of SWIFT,” he said.
Dr. Weerasinghe said that Sri Lanka has now decided that the Chinese Yuan and the Indian rupee can be used for trade. Some elements are insisting that this would be bad for the country without giving a rational explanation, he said.
The CP General Secretary mentioned that there are a few new development banks in the world, i.e. the BRICS bank and the AAIB. Sri Lanka only depends on the World Bank, IMF, etc., and these establishments have been tools of the West to impose its hegemony on the rest of the world, he said.
Dr. Weerasinghe added that until 1978, Sri Lanka took a number of progressive steps to defeat colonialism, and to industrialize. It attempted to formulate its own drug policy with Dr. Senaka Bibile, which is now widely respected around the world.
However, everything changed after 1977 and the problems created from the shift in the economic policy culminated with the current economic crisis, he said.
“Almost all governments, since 1977, have followed policies that were inimical to the agriculture and manufacturing sectors. We moved to low paying and low-productivity service jobs. It is a well-known fact that all nations that joined the developed nations club in the last 60 years focused on labour intensive manufacturing and boosting agricultural productivity. This is the history of development, but we have decided to ignore, it since 1977,” he said, adding that the institutions set up to ensure adherence to the Washington Consensus, i.e. World Bank and the IMF dictates, had encouraged deindustrialization in Sri Lanka.
“In fact, a 2003 agreement we signed with the IMF says that the Sri Lankan government will not take steps to develop industrialization,” he said.
The CPSL General Secretary said that as the state had lost both tax and non-tax revenue, it was compelled to borrow, especially from the International Sovereign Bond (ISB) markets.
“We started borrowing from these markets in 2007. Up until 2015, we borrowed about 30 percent of our total debt from ISBs. Between 2015 and 2019, we borrowed over 13 billion US dollars from these markets. These bonds are held by companies based in the US and the EU. They are literally poli mudalalis (loan sharks). Borrowing from these markets has ruined us. However, there is a big campaign by the West and its local allies to place the blame on China,” he said.
State coffers suffered huge losses
A probe conducted by the Auditor General’s Department and the Parliamentary watchdog committee, COPA (Committee on Public Accounts) has revealed that a large number of luxury cars and SUVs have been imported with the help of forged documents that declared them as tractors.
During a recent COPA investigation into the Department of Motor Traffic (DMT), it was disclosed that the files related to the registration of those vehicles had gone missing.
COPA Chairman Aravinda Senaratne pointed out that BMWs and Mercedes-Benz cars had been declared as tractors. A total of 158 such cases had been specifically identified, the COPA said.
At the last COPA meeting, the DMT was instructed to provide details regarding those instances, but the Department has not yet done so. Some officials had already been identified and charged with the fraudulent registration of vehicles, Senaratne said.
“Wrong information about these vehicles has been entered deliberately. Their years of manufacture have been altered. According to our records, whenever an issue is raised, officials claim that the relevant files are missing,” Senaratne stated.
Current Commissioner General of the DMT, Nishantha Weerasinghe, said that those incidents had occurred before he assumed office.
Former DMT Commissioner General Sumith Alahakoon revealed that he had lodged two complaints with the CID. “When I took office, there were about 12 container loads of files flagged for errors. Out of those, 118 files were recovered by internal auditors and submitted to the CID. Thereafter, I was removed from my post,” he said.
The COPA Chairman accused the current DMT Commissioner General and his officials of failing to follow up on the complaints lodged with the CID by his predecessor.
When asked about action taken against the prime suspect in the fraud involving the luxury cars imported as tractors, the current Commissioner General said the suspect had been released due to insufficient evidence. A system analyst had been interdicted as investigators found that the database contained wrong information about vehicle imports.
COPA member MP Chandana Sooriyarachchi remarked that COPA investigations would be meaningless if officials sought to absolve themselves of responsibility simply by claiming that files had gone missing.
Sooriyarachchi said such fraudulent actions had cost the state coffers billions of rupees.The COPA Chairman said all aspects of the case would be thoroughly investigated.
by Saman Indrajith
SLMC General Secretary Nizam Kariapper, MP, yesterday (23) said that the National People’s Power (NPP) government owed an explanation as to why it continued to ignore indiscriminate Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Parliamentarian Kariapper pointed out that a statement, dated March 21, issued by Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism Ministry, while expressing deep concern over the deteriorating conditions in Gaza, requested all sides to avoid any action that would lead to further escalation of the situation.
The government statement conveniently failed to mention that Israel killed over 400 civilians and launched a fresh ground offensive in Gaza regardless of the ceasefire in place, lawmaker Kariapper said. The top SLMC official accused the NPP government of remaining silent on US approved slaughter of civilians taking place.
“The majority of victims in the Gaza war were women and children,” MP Kariapper said. If the NPP government lacked the strength to issue a statement that properly dealt with the ground situation, Sri Lanka should have refrained from commenting on the latest developments.
The SJB National List MP said that the Jewish State also launched operations in Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon as it sought to exploit the situation to its advantage.
MP Kariapper urged the government to take a principled stand on Israeli military action that so far claimed the lives of over 60,000 people since late 2023.
Israel launched large-scale offensive action after Hamas terrorists killed over 1,200 Israeli civilians in raids carried out in early Oct 2023. Hamas abducted a large number of Israelis and a section of them have been released so far.
By Shamindra Ferdinando
There has been an increase in underworld activities and gun violence this year, and 27 shooting incidents have left 22 persons dead, and more than a dozen others injuried.The latest shooting incident was reported from Devinuwara on Friday night, when two gunmen killed two youths at point-blank range.
The shooting spree which began in early January has continued into March, with incidents reported from areas such as Mount Lavinia, Mannar, Galle, Kotahena, and Devinuwara. Victims included civilians gang members, and a former prison official.
On 19 February 19, a man and his two young children were brutally gunned down in Middeniya. On the same day, underworld figure Ganemulle Sanjeewa was assassinated inside the Aluthkade Magistrate’s Court by a suspect disguised as a lawyer. Those brazen attacks, often carried out in broad daylight, have caused serious concerns over public safety and the proliferation of firearms in criminal networks.
January saw multiple targeted attacks, including the contract killing of two men in Mount Lavinia for Rs. 1.5 million on 19 Jan. A dried fish trader narrowly escaped death outside his home in Devinuwara on 13 Jan., when gunmen opened fire on a house in Dodangoda. A shooting incident on Jan 31 in Hiniduma, Galle, claimed three lives, including that of a lodge owner.
The gun violence intensified in February, with the assassination of an alleged gang member in Kotahena on February 10 and the shooting of a man near a school in Minuwangoda on 07 Feb. Following the courtroom assassination of Ganemulle Sanjeewa on 19 Feb., the violence continued with two separate shootings in Ja-Ela and Kotahena on 21 Feb., leaving two people dead.
March saw a further escalation of gun violence, with the fatal shooting of former Boossa Prison Superintendent Siridath Dhammika at his residence in Galle on 13 March. A day later, a man known as Podi Sudda was gunned down in Ambalangoda.
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