Opinion
Is Gotabaya Rajapaksa a victim of regime change?
Public protests that have erupted as a reaction to the economic and financial free fall of the country have now entered a dangerous phase with one person being shot dead in Rambukkana. If a protest goes on long enough, the odds are that someone will get killed and looters will arrive soon enough. All sorts of forces will begin to fish in troubled waters.
The government should have known that the West will invest to make regime change, given what happened elsewhere and in 2015. So, a good Army commander, even in retirement, should have anticipated that there will be those who will attempt to undermine him.
However, no outside agents are necessary when the Army man shoots himself on both feet. In the case of Sri Lanka, these two feet are energy supply and food supply. The energy supply depended crucially on the ability to buy fuel, using foreign exchange.
Gutting the Food supply
It is said that the President listened to “Gnanakka”, Nalin, Jayasumana, Ven. Ratana and some politicised medical doctors in banning fertilisers, sidelining the very experienced scientists of the Dept. of Agriculture. Gotabaya was going far beyond the ban on glyphosate, previously engineered by Ven. Ratana who was a part of the Yahapalanaya government.
As public servants, the scientists of the Agriculture Department couldn’t say much without getting sacked – those who dared got sacked. Chamal Rajapaksa (a supporter of traditional “govikama”), many leading monks, as well as a number of fringe scientists had supported going back to “traditional agriculture” and low-yielding “traditional” varieties of rice seeds. They opposed modern high-yielding hybrids or the use of agrochemicals. So, if the President erred, he had company.
As the scientists of the research Institutes like Maha Illuppallama, TRI, RRI, etc., are gagged, some of us wrote articles and even told the powers that be privately to not to shoot themselves in the foot, but to no avail. Scientists who spoke out were said to be in the pay of big agrochemical companies. Planter’s associations with decades of experience pleaded with the authorities, but to no avail.
Financial collapse
As for the financial collapse, already in 2010 (and before), Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange expenses and foreign debts exceeded foreign income. So, even without big calculations and economic projections you could see that the country will become bankrupt soon. What was going to happen soon became very soon with the coming of the pandemic.
But the pandemic took over two years to have its full impact and so an intelligent government could have taken steps to avoid the heavy impact, especially when the foreign credit agencies began to downgrade Sri Lanka’s credit worthiness.
However, leave aside financial prudence, even when faced with a deadly virus, Ministers and the Speaker of the Parliament sought the protection of occult powers and some went onto launching clay pots carrying charms in rivers.
When Gotabaya took over he did not state that the Treasury was empty and put in hard restructuring; instead he lowered taxes, gave new cars to MPs, and spent freely. There were budgets under MR and then Basil R. Their budgets should have recognized that Lanka’s foreign income was smaller than her foreign expenditure and spelt out remedial measures.
They did not want to admit that; instead a rapid path to prosperity (“Saubhagya”) was promised.
Like irresponsible teenagers given a credit card, the government began with a spending spree. They lowered taxes, began building new highways, cancelled already tendered power projects and other contracts, and opened new contracts using their own henchmen who could get new commissions. The country paid damages for breached contracts.
Conspiracy theories
Where did the breakaway in parliamentary power begin? It began with Weerawansa, Vasudeva, Gammanpila and others leaving the government and agitating against the power contract signed at midnight with a US company.
So, the rebels are not recognised as “puppets of the US”. While it is clear that the JVP had a significant hand in organizing protests in foreign capitals, and in synchronizing the slogan “Gota go home”, its role in local protests is much less certain.
The Western foes (“friends” to some) or any other foes or “friends” in the North or in the East will exploit the situation to the maximum; they will infiltrate the on-going protests and begin to fund them. But they cannot be named the agents who triggered it, even though such conspiracy theories would be very plausible to many people.
The first Rajapaksa government fell to regime change in 2015. If the second Rajapaksa govt. under Gotabaya, fell into the same trap then that is incompetence comparable to the Yahapalanaya louts who were fore-warned of the Easter attack but took no precautionary steps.
The “Sinhala Buddhists” (and many Sinhala Catholics disenchanted by the Easter bombing under Yahapalanaya) reposed their faith in Gotabaya. He has let them down badly, and allowed the enemies of the “Sinhala Buddhists” (be they the “ritual” types or the “meditation” types) to make a mockery of the best aspects of what individuals like Anagarika Dharmapala, Baron Jayatilleke or EW Adhikaram, Malalasekera and others argued for, since a century ago.
In any case some may say that the Gota government was closer to US control than even the Yahapalanaya. So, why would the West need to turn this government out, especially now that it has gone to Washington for an IMF bailout?
Gotabaya brought about the crisis himself, with the help of people like Venerable Ratana (who was the government’s authority on Agriculture), and the government strategists on finance.
During the war Gotabaya listened to his generals unlike Chandrika or Ranil, who was more interested in winning the Nobel peace prize. During his stint in urban planning Gotabaya listened to the architects. But perhaps as he aged, and with more power in his hands he became more superstitious and more irrational?
After he became President it is said that he listened to Gnanakka and others, just as Ranil and others would rush to the Tirupathi Kovil in India. It is said that when things began to go bad, Gnanakka asked the government to have a Sandalwood forest in front of the Parliament and said then all the “avaduru” (bad portends) would go away.
Apparently, the government followed Gnanakka’s instructions to appease the Gods. Clearly, the Gods want more!
Chandre Dharmawardana,
Canada.
Opinion
Boxing day tsunami:Unforgettable experience
The first and only tsunami that Sri Lanka experienced was on Boxing Day(26th) of December 2004. My wife and I, as usual, went down to Modara in Moratuwa to purchase our seafood requirements of seafood from our familiar fishmonger, Siltin, from whom we had been buying fish for a long time. Sometimes we used to take a couple of friends of ours. But on this day, it was only both of us that went on this trip.
We made our purchases and were returning home and when we came up to the Dehiwala bridge, many people were looking down at the canal from both sides of the bridge. This was strange, as normally if there was something unusual, it would be on one side.
Anyway, we came home unaware of anything that had happened. A school friend of mine (sadly he is no longer with us) telephoned me and asked whether I was aware of what had happened. When I answered him in the negative, he told me to switch on the TV and watch. Then when I did so and saw what was happening, I was shocked. But still I did not know that we had just managed to escape being swept away by the tsunami.
Later, when I telephoned Siltin and asked him, he said that both of us had a narrow escape. Soon after we had left in our car, the tsunami had invaded the shore with a terrifying wave and taken away everything of the fishmongers, including their stalls, the fish, weighing scales and money. The fishmongers had managed to run to safety.
This had been about five minutes after we had left. So, it was a narrow shave to have escaped the wrath of the demining tsunami( the name many Sri Lankans came to know after it hit our island very badly}
HM NISSANKA WARAKAULLE
Opinion
Shocking jumbo deaths
Sri Lanka has recorded a staggering 375 elephant deaths in the past eleven and a half months due to a multitude of causes, according to the Department of Wildlife Conservation. U. L Thaufeeq, Deputy Director – Elephant Conservation said the deaths include 74 from gunshots, 53 from electrocution, 49 from hakka patas (explosive devices hidden in food), seven from poisoning, 10 from train accidents, three from a road accident, and six by drowning. It makes such diabolical reading!
“The causes of other deaths are due to natural causes or causes that could not be identified. Most of the elephants that died were young,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the human-elephant conflict has also taken a toll on people, with 149 human deaths reported this year.
Accordingly, human-elephant conflict has resulted in 524 deaths of both elephants and humans in 2024.
In 2023, a total of 488 elephants and 184 people have died consequent to the conflict, according to Wildlife Department statistics.
The human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka has escalated to unprecedented levels with reasons like habitat destruction, encroachment, and the lack of sustainable coexistence measures contributing to the issue.
This is an indictment of the Wildlife Department for just giving the sad yearly statistics of shocking losses of our National treasures !
Given the fact that Sri Lanka boasts of 29.9% of the country declared as protected forests, Sri Lanka is a haven for nature lovers. Boasting 26 national parks, 10 nature reserves including 3 strict nature reserves, and 61 sanctuaries, the national parks in Sri Lanka offer an incredible variety of wildlife experiences.
Taken in that context, the million dollar question is why on earth the Wildlife Department is not being proactive to capture these magnificent animals and transport them into protected sanctuaries, thus effectively minimising dangers to villagers ?
Being a Buddhist country primarily, to turn a blind eye to these avoidable tragic deaths to mankind and wild elephants, we should be ashamed !
As a practising Buddhist myself, I think our clergy could play a major part in calling upon the Wildlife Department to get their act together sooner rather than later to protect human elephant conflicts !
Sri Lanka being a favourite destination amongst foreign tourists, they are bound to take a dim view of what is happening on the ground!
If the top brass in the responsible department are not doing their job properly, may be there is a case for the new President to intervene before it gets worse!
All animal lovers hope and pray the New Year will usher in a well coordinated plan of action put in place to ensure the well being of wildlife and villagers !
Sunil Dharmabandhu
Wales, UK
Opinion
Laws and regulations pertaining to civil aviation in SL, CAASL
This has reference to the article from the Aircraft Owners and Operators Sri Lanka, titled ‘Closer look at regulatory oversight and its impact on Tourism’, published on Tuesday, 24th December 2024.To explain further, in the beginning there was the Air Navigation Act No 15 of 1950 which was followed by the Air Navigation Regulations (ANR) of 1955. This was long before the national airline had acquired pressurised aircraft, intercontinental jets, sophisticated navigation equipment, satellite communication and automatic landing systems, and ‘glass’ flight-deck instrumentation.
Today, civil aviation in Sri Lanka is governed by Civil Aviation Act Number 14 of 2010. Yet the Air Navigation Regulations (ANR) promulgated back in 1955 remain in force.
These outdated regulations still stipulate rules forbidding the carriage of passengers on the airplane’s wings or undercarriage (landing gear). In short, they are neither practical nor user-friendly. In contrast, the Air Navigation Regulations of other countries have progressed and are easy to read, understand, and implement.
To overcome the problem of outdated regulations, as an interim measure in 1969 the then Minister of Communications and Transport, Mr E.L.B. Hurulle issued a Government Gazette notification declaring that the Standard and Recommended Procedures (SARPs) in Annexes to the ICAO Convention signed by Ceylon in 1944 shall be made law.
Even so, nothing much was done to move with the times until updating of the Civil Aviation Act 14 of 2010, while the Air Navigation Regulations remained unchanged since 1955. However, these regulations were modified from time to time by the promulgation of Implementing Standards (IS) and General Directives (GDs) which were blindly ‘cut and pasted’ by the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL), from the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) Annexe ‘SARPS’ without much thought given. To date there are literally 99 IS’s starting from 2010.
The currently effective air navigation regulations are not in one document like the rest of the world, but all over the place and difficult for the flying public to follow as they are not regularly updated. This sad situation seems to have been noticed by the current regime.
The National Tourism Policy of the ruling NPP states, “Domestic air operations are currently limited due to high cost and regulatory restrictions. The current regulatory and operational environment will be reviewed to ensure domestic air connectivity to major tourist destinations. The potential of operating a domestic air schedule with multiple operators is proposed. Additionally, domestic airports and water aerodromes in potential key areas will be further developed, for high-end tourism growth.”
“The tourism policy recognises Sri Lanka’s potential to develop Sri Lanka’s aviation-based specialised tourism products, including fun flying, hot air ballooning, paragliding, parachuting and skydiving, and scenic seaplane operations. To facilitate the growth of these niche markets, existing regulations will be reviewed with the aim of attracting capable investors to develop and operate these offerings.”
It remains to be seen whether the NPP government lives up to those promises.
Note:
That OPA report talks of two funds: ‘Connectivity’ and ‘Viability’ for a limited period like three or five years to help jump-start the domestic aviation industry.
The ‘Connectivity Fund’ will cap the seat price for local passengers to a more affordable value to destinations while the ‘Viability Fund’ will assume that all seats are occupied and compensate the operator for any unutilised seat. The intention is to popularise domestic aviation as a safe, quick and convenient mode of transport.
Capt. Gihan A Fernando
RCyAF/ SLAF, Air Ceylon, Air Lanka, Singapore Airlines and Sri Lankan Airlines.
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