Midweek Review
Post-war deceptions
Fifteen years after the eradication of the LTTE, unsubstantiated allegations regarding the number of dead civilians, LTTEers and missing persons persist. Forced disappearances, as alleged by the UN, remains a major issue, with the concerned demanding accountability on the part of Sri Lanka. How many of those who had been categorized as missing are living overseas, under different identities, with passports issued from various countries. Unfortunately, the powers that be seemed to be wholly incapable of building Sri Lanka’s defence. For one and half decades, they shirked their responsibilities. Shame on this lot.
By Shamindra Ferdinando
Parliamentarian Akilan Manoharan Ganesan found fault with the US-led Western powers, successive post-war governments and one-time LTTE mouthpiece, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) for what he terms the continuing predicament of the Tamil community.
In a statement tweeted on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the conclusion of the war, the former Yahapalana Minister alleged (1) the international community gave Sri Lanka the go ahead for all-out war against the LTTE (2) Sri Lanka ordered the closure of the Vanni Office of the UN to pave the way for war without witnesses (3) international community failed to ensure a political solution nor address accountability issues, as promised (4) Western powers arranged ‘honeymoon’ between Sri Lanka and TNA (5) Tamil community not allowed to commemorate the war dead (6) President Ranil Wickremesinghe response to Tamils’ concerns and grievances questionable (7) UN failed to ensure the Tamils’ right to commemorate war dead and (8) the failure on the part of the US to convince/compel Sri Lanka to address Tamils’ grievances.
MP Ganesan shared the tweet with his leader Sajith Premadasa and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of the JVP-led Jathika Jana Balawegaya (JJB). Interestingly, when the UNP backed retired war-winning General Sarath Fonseka’s candidature at the 2010 presidential poll, Mano Ganesan’s party was in that coalition, consisting of the UNP, TNA, JVP and SLMC.
Lawmaker Ganesan chided outgoing US Ambassador Julie Chung for the US inaction, despite all of her interferences here, especially in regard to the success of the violent protest movement that ousted the duly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. She conveniently called them peaceful protesters and prevailed on the military and police not to take any action against them. Chung’s successor Elizabeth Horst has already caused controversy by declaring that Sri Lanka imposed a one-year-ban on the entry of foreign research vessels into our waters at their behest. Appearing before the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Horst has stressed the need for the ban that came into effect on January 1, 2024. The US move, made in consultation with New Delhi, is meant to block visits by Chinese naval vessels.
Let us get back to the issue of post-war consensus among the communities on political solutions, the status of the accountability process and foreign interventions.
Sometimes foreign interventions made for strategic reasons (US interventions here are meant to counter Chinese influence, appease India and influence Tamil community) can be quite devastating. So-called bipartisan US resolution that had been introduced to the US Congress calling on the United States to work towards an independence referendum for Eelam Tamils and recognize the ‘genocide committed against them’ by the Sri Lankan state revealed the superpower’s evil machinations here not having learnt any lessons from their vicious plots executed almost world over. They should at least now open their eyes to the calamity they have created in Palestine by their imperialist plots.
If the US is so sincere in its intentions why not it first create an independent nation for the natives of that country, virtually wiped out by numerous acts of genocide committed by white settlers to grab their land. The few natives who survived such pogroms are still more or less confined to reservations created by white colonialists in most hostile environments. As retribution, the world must demand that the US creates native independent states right across the country for each surviving decimated native tribe.
The same goes for Canada which had been found guilty of killing more than 2000 native children, forcefully boarded at Church run schools there, till themid-1990s to make them assimilate into the white man’s world. The victims’ bodies were found buried in unmarked graves in the precincts of those schools.
The circumstances the resolution compared the Sri Lankan situation to that of South Sudan, Montenegro, East Timor, Bosnia, Eritrea, and Kosovo where independence referendums had been held with support from the United States and other countries are a mystery
Parliamentarians, who represent the Tamil community, not only in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, but the Up country region as well, should state their position on the US proposal. The UNP reduced to just one National List seat in Parliament, the main Opposition party the SJB, largest single group in Parliament, the SLPP, and the new darlings of the West, the JVP, too, should reveal their position.
The US-based Tamil Diaspora seems to be working overtime and appeared to have taken the lead in a high profile campaign to carve out a separate state in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Their task has been made easier by an utterly corrupt and treacherous political party system, hell-bent on advancing personal agendas even at the expense of the country’s unitary status.
Lawmaker Ganesan’s hard-hitting tweet must have surprised Western embassies. Or did Ganesan just fire the first shot for a fresh round of ethnic chaos here with a wink from the evil West, whose hands are tainted with so much innocent blood from across the globe. However, the not so young politician conveniently left out any reference to India, whose leadership cannot absolve itself of responsibility for the consequences of the war here that she laid the foundation for. The death and destruction caused by India, in Sri Lanka, in the ’80s, and the revenge assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, in May 1991, by an LTTE suicide bomber, underscored their overall involvement here.
Perhaps, MP Ganesan should consider commenting on the origins of the war as well. The accountability issue cannot be discussed, leaving out India, as she lost nearly 1,500 military personnel fighting the LTTE (July 1987-March 1990).
Having entered the Colombo Municipal Council, in 1999, on the People’s Front ticket, Ganesan successfully contested the Colombo District at the 2001 General Election on the UNP ticket. He was re-elected at the 2004 General Election on the UNP-led UNF ticket. At the 2010 General Election, he moved from Colombo to Kandy but failed to retain his seat. In the following year, he was back at the CMC after successfully contesting the 2011 Local Government polls on the Democratic People’s Front (DPF) ticket. At the Provincial Council polls held in 2014, he was elected to the Western Provincial Council as a DPF member.
The 2015 General Election marked a significant change in Ganesan’s political life when the Yahapalana leadership granted him a newly created National Dialogue portfolio. In the wake of the UNP split in 2019/2020, following the 2019 presidential election, Ganesan switched his allegiance to the Leader of the breakaway UNP faction, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, Sajith Premadasa. The outspoken politician contested the last parliamentary poll on the Premadasa–led SJB ticket and was elected from the Colombo district. The war-winning Army Chief is the Chairman of the SJB.
Ganesan leads the DPF (Democratic People’s Front, originally Western People’s Front founded in 2000 to represent the interests of Tamils of Indian origin living in Colombo and its suburbs).
At the onset of the Yahapalana administration, Ganesan played a significant role in establishing the Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA). In his capacity as the DPF leader, Mano heads the TPA, comprising the National Union of Workers and the Up-country People’s Front.
However, the TPA seems to be sharply divided over political strategy as the country heads for the next presidential poll. At the recently concluded May Day celebrations, TPA’s Palani Digambaram appeared on stage with Sajith Premadasa, at Thalawakelle, whereas Ganesan joined the TNA May Day show in Kilinochchi.
War without witness
It was nothing but a blatant lie that Colombo District lawmaker Ganesan uttered in his statement that Sri Lanka received the blessings of the international community to conduct a war without witnesses. Let me discuss the MP’s allegation, taking into consideration the Report of the UNSG’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka.
During high intensity battles in the Vanni east, the only permanent hospital functioning in that region was at Puthukkudiyiruppu. Regardless of government denials, that hospital had been hit repeatedly by SLA artillery, including Multi Barrel Rocket Launchers (MBRLs) during the January 29-Feb 04, 2009 period. There is absolutely no point in denying that fact.
According to the UNSG’s report that had been officially released on March 31, 2011, the SLA granted UN international staff access to the hospital damaged due to attacks during January 29-Feb 4, 2009. The report also disclosed that there had been two ICRC international members at the hospital when it was hit on February 04 (Paragraph 91).
Therefore, there is no basis for MP Ganesan’s malicious claim that Sri Lanka conducted a war without witnesses. The UNSG’s report also acknowledged that LTTE cadres who had been wounded in fighting in nearby frontline were brought to Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital where the organization maintained a ward for them. (Paragraph 94).
As the SLA further advanced into LTTE-held territory, the ICRC international staff that had been in Puthumathalan throughout the offensive were evacuated by ship flying the ICRC flag on February 10, 2009. Although Sri Lanka didn’t allow UN international staff on that vessel. ICRC ships evacuated thousands of wounded civilians, beginning February 10, 2009 till May 09, 2009, the last voyage before the conclusion of the war. But on 16 occasions, ICRC flagged ships arrived at Puthumathalan during this period, ICRC international staff were allowed to return to Puthumathalan each time the vessels came.
The writer was one of the few journalists allowed to observe the movement from a SLN Fast Attack Craft (FAC) positioned off the Puthumathalan coast in the last week of April 2009 and then visited Pulmoddai where the wounded were handed over to the Indian medical team, based there.
The UNSG report admitted that altogether 2,350 metric tons of food had been delivered to Mullivaikkal, from February 10, 2009 to May 09, 2009 and 14,000 wounded civilians and their relatives evacuated during this period (Paragraph 108).
The ICRC made a bid to bring in supplies and evacuate the wounded on May 15, 2009, but couldn’t do so due to heavy fighting. The bottom line is that the ICRC had access to Puthumathalan till May 09, 2009, just 10 days before the SLA killed LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
The bottom line is that the ICRC remained in Vanni east till late January, though the UN pulled out of Kilinochchi in Sept 2008. However, UNSG report admitted that UN international staff were allowed entry to the Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital, following the January 29-Feb 4, 2009 ,artillery barrage.
The international community never gave Sri Lanka the go ahead for an all-out war in 2006. In fact, Western powers constantly put pressure on Sri Lanka to continue negotiations, regardless of grave provocations by LTTE terrorists. There couldn’t be a better example than the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, at his Bullers Lane residence, in August 2005. The assassination had been carried out just four months before the presidential poll, regardless of the Norway arranged Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) that was meant to destabilize the country.
Western powers, Japan and the UNSC asked the government to continue with the CFA. In April 2006 an abortive bid was made to assassinate Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka. In early Oct, the same year, another abortive suicide attack was mounted on Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. In January, 2007, the LTTE blasted FAC, off Trincomalee, killing the SLN crew on board. When the LTTE was behaving as if it was on top of the world, none of those shedding crocodile tears bothered at least to issue a statement requesting the LTTE not to escalate chaos. Then in late July 2006, the LTTE closed down the sluice gates of Mavil-aru, depriving the people downstream of water. In the second week of August 2006, the LTTE declared Eelam War IV with simultaneous attacks on the SLA’s northern frontline and in the East. The rest is history.
Western powers and India never believed that the Sri Lankan military had the wherewithal to bring the war to a successful conclusion. In the wake of a relentless ground offensive, backed by strategic air and naval strikes, in addition to operations carried out in support of the advancing troops, the LTTE retreated on all fronts until they were trapped in Mullaithivu. Once considered to be invincible, the LTTE collapsed within two years and 10 months 15 years ago.
Turning a blind eye to post-war developments
Those who couldn’t stomach eradication of conventional fighting capability of the LTTE continued to find fault with Sri Lanka for various post-war shortcomings. Unfortunately, successive governments haven’t done enough to convince the people and the global community of successful handling of post-war developments.
Sri Lanka can quite rightly be proud of the way over 12,000 LTTE combatants at all levels, including hardcore cadres, were integrated back into the society. The International Organization for Migration (IOM), with the support of the international community, including the UK, the US, Norway, Japan and Australia, implemented quite a successful project to reintegrate them to civilian life, following rehabilitation under military supervision.
The Tamil Diaspora, or Tamil political parties represented in Parliament, never wanted to support that project. They played politics until the government and the IOM brought that project to a successful completion. Tamil Diaspora and Tamil political parties never acknowledged that over 12,000 terrorists were released without being produced in court. They never appreciated the gradual release of land held by the military during the war. Instead, they propagated lies. One of the most blatant lies was the declaration that 104 LTTE cadres, held by the SLA, were poisoned to death. The claim was made by the then Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, his TNA colleagues and a section of the Tamil media.
Retired justice Wigneswaran had no qualms in involving the US by requesting their intervention to conduct medical examination whereas international media gave ample coverage to the TNA lie.
Headline in the Madras-based Hindu online edition of August 18, 2016, updated on Nov 17, 2021, screamed ‘104 LTTE cadres poisoned to death at Sri Lanka rehab centres’ with strap line ‘Startling accusation by Tamil politicians who say the surviving ex-combatants had claimed physical disability as a result’
Wigneswaran went to the extent of seeking the then US Ambassador Atul Keshap’s intervention. Finally, Wigneswaran ended up with egg on his face but that didn’t prevent him from entering Parliament on Thamil Makkal Theshiya Kutani (TMTK), a newly formed political party.
Obviously, Tamil political parties and the Tamil Diaspora never expected Sri Lanka to reintegrate thousands of LTTE cadres, detained during the final offensive, to be rehabilitated and released within a few years.
Then they unleashed a far bigger lie when the SLA was accused of killing and burying thousands in Manner mass graves. The then UN human rights Chief Michelle Bachelet held Sri Lanka accountable. But a US lab revealed that the bones found therein were several centuries old and belonged to the colonial period.
The radiocarbon dating analysis by the Beta Analytic Testing Laboratory in Florida, US, in respect of six skeletal samples sent there in January 2019 determined scientifically that the skeletons belonged to a period that covered the Portuguese and the Dutch rule here. The UN never bothered to verify facts. The global body was in an indecent hurry to heap up pressure on war-winning Sri Lanka.
The following is the relevant section bearing No 23 from Bachelet’s report: “On May 29, 2018, human skeletal remains were discovered at a construction site in Mannar (Northern Province), Excavations conducted in support of the Office on Missing Persons, revealed a mass grave from which more than 300 skeletons were discovered. It was the second mass grave found in Mannar following the discovery of a site in 2014. Given that other mass graves might be expected to be found in the future, systematic access to grave sites by the Office as an observer is crucial for it to fully discharge its mandate, particularly with regard to the investigation and identification of remains, it is imperative that the proposed reforms on the law relating to inquests, and relevant protocols to operationalize the law be adopted. The capacity of the forensic sector must also be strengthened, including in areas of forensic anthropology, forensic archeology and genetics, and its coordination with the Office of Missing Persons must be ensured.” The Bachelet report dealt with the situation here from Oct 2015 to January 2019.
If the LTTE hadn’t been eradicated 15 years ago how many more children could have perished in the war? The LTTE mercilessly used child soldiers in high intensity battles in the northern theatre until the very end. Had Sri Lanka been allowed to finish off the LTTE at an earlier stage lives of thousands could have been saved. Had that happened, the war could have been fought to a finish somewhere else not at Nanthikadal from where Prabhakaran was sent to the netherworld.
The following are the key issues that have to be dealt with, regardless of the outcome of tomorrow’s parliamentary election:
* Restoration of the national economy in line with the IMF programme agreed by the previous government. None of the political parties, represented in the last Parliament, including the JVP, voted against the much discussed Economic Transformation Bill approved in terms of the agreement with the IMF
* Foreign policy challenges as China and the US sought to influence the government of the day.
* Accountability investigation led by Geneva-based UNHRC at the behest of the US-UK combine
* A new Constitution that reflected the post-war developments.
*Effective measures to rein in political parties.
* And, finally, consensus on response to terrorism. Those who had been found guilty by courts for acts of terrorism should never be referred to as ‘political prisoners. President AKD caused himself and the country much harm when he declared in the north that ‘political prisoners’ would be released.
By Shamindra Ferdinando
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD), having raised expectations about National People’s Power (NPP) in the eyes of the public as never before by coming to power claiming to be holier than all previous administrations dubbed by them to have been corrupt to the core, now faces the daunting task of securing a simple majority in Parliament at the General Election tomorrow (14), with feet of clay as shown by some of their recent decisions.
In spite of repeated vows, since the Presidential Election, to fill the next Parliament with members of the National People’s Power (NPP), the ruling party won’t find that objective easy to achieve as already reflected in the recent Elpitiya Pradeshiya Sabha poll held after the Presidential Election that it secured. It clearly showed that there is no groundswell of support for NPP despite it emerging the winner at the important Presidential Election as is the usual case with Lankan voters in the past.
Such NPP rhetoric won’t change the situation on the ground as AKD polled 5,634,915 (42.31 %) votes at the Presidential Election, very much less than the combined Opposition. Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) leader Sajith Premadasa (SP), independent candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe (RW) and Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) candidate Namal Rajapaksa (NR) polled 4,363,035, 2,299,767 and 342,781, votes respectively.
The bottom line is that together they had polled 7,005,583 votes – in other words 1,370,668 votes more than AKD. That is the ground reality. The above figures do not include preferences received by AKD and SP at the presidential poll.
The issue at hand is whether AKD, the leader of the NPP and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), can now attract a substantial number of those who hadn’t exercised their franchise for him at the presidential poll. Of 17,140,354 eligible to vote, only 13,619,916 (79.46%) exercised their franchise whereas a staggering 3,820,738 didn’t turn up to vote.
Contesting political parties shouldn’t also ignore the fact that the total valid votes polled was 13,319,616 (97.8 %), therefore the rejected number of votes was 300,300 (2.2 %).
AKD should be wary of the unprecedented challenge, particularly because his government hadn’t been able to impress the electorate, especially those who didn’t exercise their franchise at the Sept. 21 election.
The possibility of the NPP falling just short of a simple majority (113 out of 225 seats), too, cannot be ruled out in spite of the party putting on a brave face with countrywide political rallies with hardly any such mass gatherings by the Opposition rivals.
NPP’s much touted stand that it wouldn’t, under any circumstances, accommodate the SJB, the New Democratic Front (NDF) comprising a group of ex-rebel SLPP lawmakers, and the UNP, as well as the SLPP, may compel AKD to reach a consensus with those elected from the Northern and Eastern provinces.
Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) leader and Sarvajana Balaya Colombo District candidate Udaya Gammanpila’s declaration that Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi’s (ITAK) M.A. Sumanthiran, PC, would be the NPP’s Foreign Minister cannot be dismissed. Former Minister Gammanpila also claimed that the NPP and ITAK reached an agreement on a federal structure for the Northern and Eastern provinces in line with their overall arrangement. Jaffna district ITAK’s Sumanthiran flatly denied Attorney-at-Law Gammanpila’s allegation when the writer sought his response.
Against the backdrop of the breaking up of the once ITAK-led Tamil National Alliance (TNA), despite all the bravado about its impending successful electoral outcome, the ITAK may not be able to even secure 10 seats that the grouping garnered at the last parliamentary election. ITAK shouldn’t underestimate the challenge posed by Democratic Tamil National Alliance (DTNA) consisting of fractured TELO, PLOTE and EPRLF. Previously known as Tamil Democratic National Alliance (TDNA), DTNA knows the danger of a sharp split in the Tamil vote. (Let me correct the wrong declaration that the DTNA had been formed in the late ’80s in last week’s midweek piece ‘The General election: The Northern vote’. A former Tamil speaking colleague of mine pointed out the writer’s fault.).
In fact, TELO and PLOTE had no option but to resurrect TDNA last year after ITAK decided to terminate the partnership put together by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The EPRLF and some other interested groups joined the DTNA. ITAK is taking a huge risk at the General Election with its elitist face as the bulk of the population in the North and East are said to be those belonging to so-called lower castes (non Vellala). The former Federal Party may end up losing its predominant position in the Northern and Eastern regions since the 2004 General Election when the ITAK-led TNA secured 22 seats with the backing of the LTTE, which included Tigers stuffing ballot boxes on their behalf as was witnessed by none other than EU election monitors. Since then at every general election, the TNA obtained the highest number of seats in the N&E. At the 2010 parliamentary election the TNA won 14 seats, followed by 16 in 2015 and 10 in 2020. The ITAK’s gamble may not pay off.
Both ITAK and DTNA realize that the Tamils may fail to secure at least one seat in the strategically important Trincomalee district. Even the Roman Catholic clergy intervened to pave the way for ITAK and DTNA to submit a joint nomination list for the Trincomalee district where a sharp division of Tamil votes could prevent the community from securing one of the four seats available.
Sumanthiran backs partnership with NPP
During the AKD-led parliamentary election campaign, the NPP repeatedly declared its intention to work with Tamil lawmakers. In spite of Sumanthiran’s categorical denial, the former lawmaker declared his readiness to accept a ministerial position during a meeting with Jaffna-based journalists. The senior lawyer didn’t mince his words when he emphasized the responsibility on the part of his party to consider partnership with the NPP.
This is how Sumanthiran responded to a query regarding future NPP-ITAK partnership raised at the Jaffna Press Club recently. Sumanthiran was asked what they would do if he or members of his party were invited to take up ministerial positions under a government of NPP.
Sumanthiran (verbatim): “That was the expectation of the people at most of the meetings I attended. There was an opinion in recent times that ministerial positions must not be taken. There was also an opinion that we must not join the central government until a permanent political solution is given. But that is not the policy of the party. In 1965 members of our party held ministerial positions. The situation changes with time. Therefore, my opinion is that if we get such an offer, it must be considered. There are photographs of us marching in Jaffna with Anura Kumara Dissanayake, while wearing red sashes on a May Day six years ago. However, we do not take photographs with him targeting ministerial positions. When an effective programme is presented we must move forward together. Our party will not engage in such actions for the sake of positions. We can discuss with them and seek solutions to fulfil fundamental needs of our people, including a political solution. At the same time, we hope to work together to combat fraud and corruption. Even today I am appearing as his counsel in cases filed by that party against fraud and corruption. Therefore, we do not hold different opinions on these matters.”
Among the DTNA candidates are several ex-LTTE combatants though the ITAK-led TNA never accommodated any former fighters. In fact, ITAK wouldn’t have a truck with even TELO, PLOTE and EPRLF, one-time India-sponsored terrorist groups if not for the LTTE’s directive that they contest under one symbol in line with its overall political-military strategy.
Although two prominent ex-eastern LTTE cadres, who fell out with it, namely Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan aka Karuna, and Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pilleyan of Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), served as lawmakers the duo never received the respect they sought. Both are in the fray in the eastern Batticaloa district from different political parties.
EPDP Douglas Devananda, who has served several governments as a Minister, has already declared his support for the future NPP government. Having met AKD, Devananda assured the public that he would be delighted to accept a ministerial portfolio. However, the NPP declared in Jaffna that Devananda wouldn’t be accommodated in their Cabinet.
Several readers, including my colleague, found fault with me for asserting that all contesting political parties, without exception, are careful not to condemn the LTTE in any way. They pointed out that Devananda, who had been high on the LTTE hit list and was fortunate to survive a spate of assassination attempts, remained a strong critic of the group until the successful conclusion of the war.
My colleague also queried the assertion that the ITAK may perform better sans nominees of former terrorist groups. He raised the following issues:
* Are you suggesting PLOTE leader Dharmalingam Siddarthan, who is contesting the Jaffna district on the DTNA ticket, should be considered as a former ‘terrorist’?
* Such an assertion could be ironic as some Tamil ‘nationalist’ elements/ITAK/TNPF, etc., have accused the PLOTE of collaborating with the military during the war.
* In fact, Siddarthan, a son of ex-Jaffna district MP Visvanather Dharmalingam, killed by TELO in 1985, is widely believed to have backed Mahinda Rajapaksa’s 2005 Presidential Election campaign.
The writer is in touch with Siddarthan since 1990 and never considered him a terrorist though his role in a terrorist group cannot be denied. Siddarthan had been with the PLOTE at the time the group made an abortive bid to assassinate Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in Nov. 1988.
In the last Parliament, five Tamil political parties altogether had 16 seats. Would Tamil parties be able to do better at the 2024 General Election? Twenty-nine MPs are elected from Jaffna (07), Vanni (06), Batticaloa (05), Digamadulla (07) and Trincomalee (04). Obtaining the same number of seats would be a huge challenge. In spite of the NPP leader being the President of the country, his party may not do well in the Northern and Eastern regions.
It would be pertinent to mention that Ariyanethiran Pakkiyaselvam, who contested the recently concluded Presidential Election, is backing ITAK candidates. The former TNA MP (2004-2015) polled 226,343 votes (1.70%) as he couldn’t secure the backing of ITAK. Sajith Premadasa, however, secured Jaffna, Vanni, Batticaloa, Digamadulla and Trincomalee electoral districts with ITAK’s backing.
In spite of the belief that Pakkiyaselvam had the backing of the LTTE rump, and the Tamil Diaspora, he couldn’t win at least the Jaffna electoral district, whereas SP emerged victorious with a slight margin. The votes received by AKD in the N&E electorates were negligible, except Digamadulla where he polled 100,000. However, AKD’s party stands to do better at the General Election now as the President.
A controversial appointment
Perhaps, the decision on the part of the government not to reduce the price of Octane 92 (current price Rest 311), auto diesel (Rest 283) and kerosene (Rs 183) when the latest revision was effected on Oct 31 may have dismayed those who voted for AKD at the Presidential Plection.
Having accused successive governments of unfairly taxing fuel imports, thereby robbing the people, in addition to corruption, the NPP struggled to explain why Octane 92, auto diesel and kerosene couldn’t be substantially reduced.
The Opposition questioned the rationale in reducing the price of a high end litre of Octane 95 and super diesel by Rs 6 each when those struggling to make ends meet couldn’t be provided any such relief.
The JVP-led NPP shouldn’t forget that 5.7 mn voters who exercised their franchise in support of AKD, less than two months ago, are not card carrying members of the ruling party or its leading partner. Therefore, the government cannot, under any circumstances, antagonize the electorate ahead of the General Election. If the Octane 92 and auto diesel cannot be reduced, under the present circumstances, all those who had accused successive governments of unfair taxation owed the public an explanation.
Having campaigned relentlessly on an anti-corruption platform, the NPP shouldn’t take unnecessary risk by making controversial appointments. The appointment of a JVP trade union activist D.A. Rajakaruna as the Chairperson of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC/CEYPETCO) attracted media attention in the wake of the latest fuel price revision. That wouldn’t have happened if Rajakaruna, who had served as the Manager of the Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Limited’s Muthurajawela Terminal years ago, didn’t appear before the media to defend the government decision not to reduce Octane 92 and auto diesel prices.
Convener of United Trade Union Alliance (UTUA) Ananda Pallitha recently questioned the appointment of a person whose integrity had been questioned as Chairman of a vital state enterprise after being accused of corruption. Rajakaruna’s media briefing was nothing but a fiasco. The JVPer simply couldn’t handle the media as journalists fired a spate of questions as the man was caught lying. As a longstanding employee of the CPC, Rajakaruna couldn’t have side-stepped the issues raised, after having been so critical of previous administrations.
The NPP cannot afford to make appointments to appease long standing party men. Previous governments have paid a huge price for accommodating alleged wrongdoers in key positions. This issue can cause friction among the NPPers.
The government has pathetically failed to explain why prices of Octane 92 and auto diesel couldn’t be reduced against the backdrop of its repeated allegations regarding the entire pricing process being corrupt.
The electorate will give its verdict tomorrow. Make no mistake, no political party can take things for granted, especially in the backdrop of Aragalaya two years ago that caused so much mayhem and that helped NPP stock to go up as never before by playing a Mr. Clean image. The NPP seems to have caused itself irreparable damage ahead of the General Election.
The sudden disclosure of the NPP government plan to shut down the state-owned Thriposha Company can also have a detrimental impact on the government. Such a course of action will lead to further deterioration of the nutritional intake of many already malnourished Lankan children.
FSP Education Secretary and Colombo District Jana Aragala Sandhanaya candidate Pubudu Jayagoda declared the closure would benefit private sector cereal manufacturers, an extremely serious accusation. The government remained silent as it couldn’t have explained the issuance of the Gazette Notification No. 2403/53 dated 27 September 2024 that dealt with the proposed abolition of the Thriposha Company.
The handling of fuel price revision and the proposed closure of the Thriposha Company that met 100% of the demand (free supply to the needy), since 2016, and also catered to the private market, dominated the media over the past few days. The two issues will have far more impact on the electorate than the arrest of former State Minister Lohan Ratwatte and his wife Shashi Prabha remanded till Nov. 18 on a charge of using an illegally assembled vehicle, investigation into former State Minister Sujeewa Senasinghe using an illegally assembled super luxury vehicle, the much-touted investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage and depriving former Presidents and an ex-President’s widow of various privileges.
Having overwhelmed SP, RW and NR at the Presidential Election just weeks ago, the NPP seems to be on a tricky wicket. Contrary to perception among some, the General Election is not going to be a cakewalk for the government.
By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya
Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s victory at the presidential election of 21 Sept. was greeted with enthusiasm by a large segment of Sri Lanka’s people, owing to its promise of ‘change,’ that would see things done differently in a troubled state. People from all walks of life, including the poor, the middle class and the wealthy welcomed the new leader with an expectation that he would introduce a new political culture, and introduce parliamentary representatives with a more enlightened outlook.
Assessing the interim period between the elections, people are likely to go by AKD’s speeches on the campaign trail, to ascertain what kind of government may be expected under his leadership if the National People’s Power alliance led by him wins a majority of seats in the 225-member House, or leads a coalition government. The pattern of campaign rhetoric has not been altogether consistent. The anti-corruption platform still holds, with emphasis on ‘cleaning up’ Parliament, meaning, bringing an end to the corrupt political culture of past decades. But where policies are concerned, some doubts arise within the space created by appeals to ‘wait for a strong mandate’ from the parliamentary poll, before the government can deliver on its promises.
At the conclusion of a television talk show last week, AKD listed six of his priorities, which include some grey areas. As the sole panelist being interviewed on Sirasa TV’s Satana programme of 06.11.24, he summarized them as follows:
1/ Eliminating rural poverty
2/ Swiftly developing the tourism industry
3/ Digitising services, with emphasis on the Digital ID card (UDI)
4/ Minimise fraud and corruption
5/ Education to go hand in hand with poverty elimination
6/ Agricultural reforms
Questions arise regarding the goals envisaged under 3/ (Digitising services) and 6/ (Agricultural reforms). Unlike the other four which are general, and cannot be faulted, reforms in these two areas would lead to far reaching and possibly irreversible changes. They have not been spelt out in detail, and they therefore have not received public scrutiny. Going by AKD’s brief comments on the show, they will be problematic, not only because they could run counter to the popular perception of the NPP as a potentially ‘people friendly’ government, but also because they appear to head into neo-liberal territory, serving the interests of foreign capital and posing a possible threat to sovereignty. Fears have already been expressed that the government will go all the way with the IMF agreement entered into by the previous government, and there is no more talk of ‘re-negotiating’ it. The ‘relief’ measures are yet to materialize.
Digitisation
Where the Digitising project is concerned, the President on Satana emphasized the importance of the ‘digital ID,’ and mentioned ‘UDI,’ which refers to the Indian-funded ‘Unique Digital Identity’ project, for which India has already advanced some money. AKD himself cautioned the then government on this project, as a former Opposition MP in August last year. Expressing concerns over “personal data of millions of Sri Lankan citizens potentially falling into the hands of another country,” he noted that the company winning the contract would have access to all biographic and biometric data of citizens registered within the digital platform. There were local companies ready to do the job but they ‘can’t complete it in one and a half years,’ The Sunday Times reported him as saying. Following his allegation that the tender process had been manipulated, two companies were disqualified, and the project appeared to have gone into limbo.
There has been little public awareness or informed debate in Sri Lanka on the digitising project. AKD told Sirasa it would make the delivery of services quicker and more efficient. This is how it was marketed in India, too, where petitions from civil liberties groups led to several Supreme Court rulings. He mentioned ‘Aswesuma’ benefits and job applications, as examples of processes that could be caried out ‘from home,’ with a digitized system. He didn’t clarify whether the UDI would be mandatory in order to draw state benefits, or whether biometric and other sensitive personal data would be collected only with the subject’s consent. The European Parliament in October 2021 voted to back a total ban on biometric surveillance, in accordance with a report from a parliamentary committee on civil liberties. The Sri Lankan public would need to be concerned about ANY government having access to their biometric data in a centralized database controlled by the state. AKD’s naming of a prominent IT industry professional as his choice to head the project (ready to work for free), does not make these concerns disappear.
Agricultural reform
Agricultural reform is the other subject mentioned by AKD in his concluding remarks on Satana, where red flags pop up owing to the lack of information as to what is envisaged. He mentioned that the average extent of land under paddy cultivation is 1.3 million hectares. He asked, “Is this a good thing?” and said there is a need to rethink this, adding that “we are a small country.”
Attempts at reforming land ownership and usage patterns in Sri Lanka have a long history. There have been World Bank reports of 1996 and 2015 saying that laws must be changed to introduce commercial agriculture.
Analysts have long argued that releasing land to private investors for large scale commercial agriculture would harm the interests of Sri Lanka’s farmers, who are mainly smallholders. Eighty percent of Sri Lanka’s land is owned by the state. The goal of the US government grant-supported Millennium Challenge Compact, that the Yahapalana government was compelled to suspend owing to public protest some years ago, was said to be to ‘increase land market activity’ and the ‘tradability of land’ through ‘policy and legal reforms.’ Analysts have warned of the danger of mass dispossession of smallholders that could result from such policies.
Has AKD’s ‘project’ undergone subtle transformation since the time of the presidential election? Has there been encroachment by vested interests and capital, especially foreign capital, that was not there, or not noticed, earlier? Is it the case that ‘Everything has to change so that everything stays the same?”
An architect of Southern Order
by Amali Wedagedara
“My main message is: by all means follow the logic and the imperatives of a flexible resilient, and open economy. But adapt and modify such logic to reflect the imperatives of our own society, the level of development it has come to, and the way it can evolve then or 20 years from now. What is needed today should not be jettisoned, in the name of some textbook argument, that comes from institutions in the outside world. I would say to people: take a closer look at classical economic theory, rather than the so called laissez-faire economic theory that is put before us today. Classical economic theory did have a place for protection; it did have a place for intervention in the commodity markets; it did find a role for the state in combating private monopolies, particularly in the field of infrastructure. In all these and other areas classical economic theory provided exceptions to the rule of the operation of free markets. We should not jettison all these, but rather look to these arguments and use and adapt them to our own needs.”
Gamani Corea, 1998
A fresh encounter with Gamani Corea’s work late in life has provided me with an opportune moment to reflect on the “politics of jettisoning” in the teaching and policy making of economics in Sri Lanka. Not only that, the undergraduate economics degree curriculums have ignored the intellectual legacies of the ideas and thinking of Sri Lankan economists like Gamani Corea, S B D Silva, G V S de Silva, Buddhadasa Hewavitharana, H.A. de S. Gunasekera, I. D. S. Weerawardena, Jayantha Kelegama, Ian Vanden Driesen, and Victor Gunasekara, the political-economy approaches that these 1st and 2nd generation of economists embraced in their teaching and research on economics have also been abandoned. Lack of critical reflection on homegrown economic ideas to generate policy responses to development challenges has left us dependent on dump downs of the World Bank and the IMF and incompetent in “exercising the degree of pragmatism” that Corea instructed. In the absence of a political-economic understanding, Sri Lankan policymakers in the Treasury and the Central Bank have tended to ignore the urgency of correcting the asymmetric power relations inherent in the international order and distorted market conditions. As a result, Sri Lanka is a marooned nation – deep in debt, at the risk of recurrent defaults and entangled in neoliberal geopolitics, as a destination for cheap labour, cheap resources and a satellite.
This article is a preliminary attempt to examine the key ideas of Gamani Corea that contributed to consolidating the structural power of developing countries, such as commodity price controls, the New International Economic Order, and UNCTAD. While commemorating the 99th year of his birth anniversary and 11th death anniversary, the article proposes to revisit the works of Sri Lankan economists like Gamani Corea to formulate a Sri Lankan school of economic thought to inform policymaking that promotes Sri Lanka’s interests towards development.
Southern Order
Gamani Corea was the third Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) between 1974 and 1984. His career at UNCTAD began as an expert engaged in the preparatory work for the 1st session of UNCTAD in 1964. Rubens Ricuperoa, a former Secretary General of UNCTAD, captures the significance of Corea to UNCTAD when he said that Corea contributed to the preservation of UNCTAD as “the moral and intellectual conscience of development” (Corea, Khor, and South Centre 2014). Corea’s involvement in developing institutions and platforms that further the collective power of the Third World transcends UNCTAD to the South Commission and later to the South Centre.
Through years of engaging developing countries and promoting North-South dialogues, Corea had realised that “problems of the newly de-colonised countries in the third world were not in the front ranks of [developed countries’] concerns” (Corea, 1998). Hence, he advocated collective actions of the South to highlight “unity among nations of the South and their position in multilateral negotiations” (Corea, Khor, and South Centre 2014). The period in which Corea joined UNCTAD marked a jubilant period for developing countries. With the Peak Oil, OPEC countries, along with G77 countries, had come together with demands for a more responsive international order – the New International Economic Order (NIEO) that was founded in 1974. To use Corea’s own words, NIEO consisted of “two strands – the insistence on […] structural change as a necessary ingredient of the evolution of international economic relations and […] the concept of collective self-reliance” (Corea 2014). The developing countries were calling for fundamentally transforming the mechanisms and relationships that constituted global economic relations while advancing their shared strength to mobilise collective bargaining power. It also meant that the domestic economic structures of developing countries, such as plantations and mining, reflecting a character of the colonial era, should change.
Corea Plan – the Integrated Programme for Commodities and the Common Fund
On the eve of their independence, the postcolonial countries discovered they lacked the political influence to maintain commodity agreements that ensured stable prices, unlike the colonial powers. The changed relationship with consumer states, which used to be the colonial powers, eliminated the newly independent nation’s ability to maintain stable prices. Except in some cases where the consumer states like the UK and the US believed offering stable prices was essential to the political stability of a few favoured regimes in Africa and Latin America, the consumer states, too, were not willing to offer stable prices. With falling prices, developing countries heavily dependent on primary commodities like tea, natural rubber, sugar, cocoa, tin, copper, iron ore and jute for national income were at the brink of economic collapse and facing Balance of Payment crises.
The instability of commodity prices was a major point of deliberation at the Havana Conference in 1946. The agreement to form an International Trade Organisation as an outcome of the Havana Conference shows the urgency of attaining price stability from the developing country’s perspective. Discussions lasted until the UNCTAD IV meeting in Nairobi in 1976, which assembled “a new constellation of forces”, as Corea called it, to capture the rise of OPEC countries and the configuration of global south forces along the New International Economic Order (Henrikson and Corea 1986). The UNCTAD secretariat proposed the Integrated Programme for Commodities to create a framework to strengthen and stabilise international commodity markets. Instead of an ad hoc approach to negotiation, the new programme proposed an overall framework of principles which look at commodities as a whole. It also entailed the establishment of the Common Fund, an international institution with a greater voice and representation of developing countries, to raise finance to facilitate buffer stocks in developing countries, enabling them to stabilise prices and promote research and development to improve structural conditions in commodity markets. The Common Fund was also expected to provide “compensatory financing to provide loans for shortfalls of export earnings from the expected levels” (Henrikson and Corea 1986). In subsequent meetings at UNCTAD V in Manila in 1979 and UNCTAD VI in Belgrade in 1983, more resolutions were adopted to progress the programme for commodity stabilisation. As the history of reforms in international trade, finance and development reveals, the non-committal and agnostic behaviour of the developed countries has been an impediment to the progress of both the integrated framework and the Common Fund. In his writings, Corea also exposes “old and familiar demons” that composed the attitude of the developed consumer countries and transnational companies, ranging from the idea of the free market, producer cartels, consequences of rising commodity prices, and intervening in the private grain and minerals trade markets (Henrikson and Corea 1986). Devoid of comparative facilities available to the OECD and European Economic Commission, the developing countries also demonstrated a sense of unpreparedness and lack of confidence that they had any influence on international negotiations on commodities.
The challenges that Corea recognised as affecting developing countries, particularly the prices of agricultural commodities and minerals, continue to this day. His vision for stabilising prices also lives in the dissent and contention of developing countries and peasant movements in the WTO processes.
Sri Lankan School of Economic Thought
Gamani Corea, even though hailing from the planning era, was not a Marxist or a leftist economist who advocated for Import Substitution policies and State control of the economy. Neither was he a neoliberal economist who blindly believed that the market cures all ills, the private sector is sacrosanct, and the IMF and the World Bank are God sent. Resurrecting the intellectual legacies of people like Corea, who are globally reputed for their work towards strengthening the positionality of developing countries by alleviating negative terms of trade through rules and systems of the global South, is important as there is a call for greater cooperation between developing countries. These ideas amount to the soft power of Sri Lanka that we should project to the rest of the developing world by integrating them into our diplomacy and taking the leadership in lobbying and building consensus on debt relief, stabilising commodity prices, and attaining overall development aspirations.
Corea’s work was grounded in the everyday problems of developing countries. He drew connections to developing countries’ experiences, from Sri Lanka to El Salvador to the Soloman Islands. His praxis was closely aligned with the rise of Dependency School and the influence of Raúl Prebisch. Unfortunately, thinking of underdevelopment is almost non-existent in Sri Lankan departments of economics, which also explains the sense of paralysis in economics teaching, failing to connect to the everyday experiences of people. Sri Lankan economics teaching also contrasts with the new waves in Europe – rethinking and new economics thinking, emerging to encounter challenges posed by the 2008 global financial crisis. Corea also had the advantage of the interdisciplinary eco-system that economics departments offered in the early years before being compartmentalised into different disciplines. The intellectual tradition and historical approach afforded by interdisciplinary thinking made Corea what he was.
My generation of economics undergraduates, even younger generations now employed either as school teachers, university lecturers, researchers, civil servants, private sector professionals or Central Bankers, would have certainly felt the limitations in our training when attempting to address the current challenges. Our training in neoconservative economic theory decapitates our skills to bring about the “structural change” that a developing country like Sri Lanka needs. Nurturing a renaissance in economics teaching in Sri Lanka by incorporating the ideas and thinking of people like Gamani Corea into the curriculum could be a first step in the right direction.
References:
Corea, Gamani. 2014. Need for Change: Towards the New International Economic Order. 1. Aufl. s.l.: Elsevier Reference Monographs.
Corea, Gamani, Martin Khor, and South Centre, eds. 2014. A Tribute to Gamani Corea: His Life, Work and Legacy. Geneva: South Centre.
Henrikson, Alan K., and Gamani Corea, eds. 1986. Negotiating World Order: The Artisanship and Architecture of Global Diplomacy. Wilmington, Del: Scholarly Resources.
Corea, Gamani. 1998. 50 Years of Economic Development in Sri Lanka. Occasional Papers No. 27. Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
Amali Wedagedara (PhD, Hawaii) is a feminist political economist. She works as a senior researcher at the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS).
The BCIS is organising a Gamani Corea Retrospective on November 22 between 4.00 pm and 6.00 pm at the Kolamba Kamatha
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