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Editorial

The goose and the golden egg

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Labour Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva has accused the plantation industry of attempting to sabotage the 1,000 rupees a day wage award by resorting to court action. A pile of cases have been filed in the courts challenging the wages board award and when these will be determined is not yet clear. The case was called on Friday but not taken up at the time of writing and had later been postponed for Tuesday. Equally unclear is whether the challenge that has been mounted by regional plantation companies (RPCs), tea factory owners and other interested stakeholder will succeed or not. If it fails, will plantation workers get the promised thousand rupees with arrears? What will the employers do in such an event? The whole picture is murky with both sides having dug their heels in. The demand from the workers is very long standing and has seemingly been under negotiation forever. The industry response from the RPCs is that they just can’t afford to pay this wage and keep the estates viable.

Other noises too have been heard. Among the more ridiculous of these is that the government will take the estates back if the employers do not fall in line with the 1,000-rupee wage. Post land reforms, the big estates were not sold to the RPCs or anybody else. The Sri Lanka State, And hence the people, retains the ownership of these properties. What happened was that two state-owned entities, the Sri Lanka State Plantations Corporation (SLSPC) and the Janatha Estates Development Board (JEDB), were entrusted were entrusted with their management. Former Finance Minister Ronnie de Mel was fond of often saying that “the magic is in the management.” Unfortunately where the nationalized plantations of this country were concerned, there was no “magic” in their management. The result was mounting losses and near-total disarray.

That was when post-1977, the decision to privatize the management of the plantations was taken. During President Premadasa’s tenure, the plantation assets were grouped into regions but, with an abundance of good sense, they were not allocated region-wise to what were termed the Regional Plantation Companies that took the management contracts. This was because of climatic factors like rainfall, or the lack thereof, that determine performance of plantations. Therefore the different RPCs were entrusted to manage a mix of estates in different climatic zones; and this logic has proved impeccable. There was, and there is, in this country strong opposition to divesting national assets to private interests and President Premadasa brilliantly overcame this hurdle. He did not call what was being done “privatization” but coined a new word “peoplization” to describe the process then underway. To top it all, he gilded the lily by giving the plantation workers a 10 percent stake in each of the RPC’s free of charge. He believed that this would give the workers a sense of ownership of their workplaces.

That did not work out quite as intended. The RPCs were listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange and their shares, like those of any other quoted company, were freely tradable. That resulted in most, if not all, workers selling their shares to ready buyers. While there were small windfalls for a large number of people, the proprietorial sense that President Premadasa was aiming at did not result. The plantation economy as most people know is highly dependent of climate and prices. As a result it is cyclical with frequent ups and downs. Editorialists, once upon a time, were fond of writing “tea needs sympathy while rubber has lost its bounce.” Right now, fortunately, the green leaf price of tea is around a remunerative 100-rupee level and rubber which was deep in the doldrums is picking up.

Tea is a particularly labour intensive industry with about 70 percent of the cost of production being the labour component particularly of harvesting. The employers tried as best as they could to persuade the unions to accept a productivity based wage model enabling the demanded Rs. 1,000 to be earned and even topped by bringing in more leaf than the prevailing norm. But the unions, some might say stubbornly, resisted this formula presented as a win-win proposal, There is no escaping the reality that worker productivity in our tea fields falls far short of those prevailing in other big tea producing countries like India and Kenya. But the highly unionized labour, conscious of the political muscle they command, have flatly refused to take this route. Their unions with the ability to deliver block votes at elections are able to effectively influence the various contenders as they have done time and again.

The cost of a wage increase to the employer is not only the basic wage. There are various other costs like EPF/ETF, holiday pay, gratuity, maternity benefits and more involved. Over and above that, a very large number of persons who do not work on the plantations live on them occupying estate housing and benefiting from the plantation-paid infrastructure. This builds up to a formidable figure which, according to the RPCs, the industry cannot afford. On the flip side of the coin are management expenses and fees payable to the controlling shareholder. This has sometimes been waived during lean times but not always. Mr. Arumugam Thondaman, at one round of negotiations with an RPC, once told the employer on the other other side of the table, “You pay your CEO a million rupees a month and grudge the worker 1,000-rupees a day.” But the employers say that management costs absorb only about 8% of the COP.

Given the current cost of living and prevailing wage rates outside the plantations, the demanded wage is obviously not unreasonable. Against that the worker too must contribute in productivity terms to ensure that his livelihood provider is viable. A dead goose cannot lay golden eggs.



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Editorial

Cat out of the bag

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One of the best kept secrets following the 2022 Aragalaya which saw the end of the Mahinda/Gotabaya regime was revealed in parliament on Thursday when the chief government whip, Minister Nalinda Jayatissa let the cat out of the bag stating that 43 former ministers had together collected over Rs. 1.2 billion compensation from the government for property lost and damaged during the tail-end of the rioting when gasoline carrying mobs torched the homes and offices of government politicians. To his eternal credit, then prime minister and later president, Ranil Wickremesinghe’s name is not among the beneficiaries although his Kollupitiya home was perhaps the most valuable of those properties that were destroyed/damaged.

Jayatissa in his speech alleged that some of those who had been compensated had pressured divisional and district secretaries to increase valuations. While it would be freely admitted that brave souls in the public service able to stand up to political heavyweights are few and far between, the people would like to know from the present regime, delighting in flaunting the misdoings of its predecessors, whether it has any intention of re-assessing the claims presumably settled? Among those massively compensated to the tune of over Rs. 60 million each were some former cabinet ministers and a deputy minister, one of whom was convicted of extortion and held cabinet office pending appeal and another who spent several months in remand on corruption charges who resigned upon being arrested.

Even an economic simpleton well knows that the value of real estate today is more related to the land on which buildings stand and very much less or not at all for the buildings themselves. So compensation payable must be limited to homes/offices destroyed by mobs. While nobody could (or should) gloat over the misfortunes of another. Politicians who lost property in the Aragalaya, however unpopular or corrupt they may have been, deserve some compensation for their losses. But as Minister Jayatissa said in parliament, compensation for ordinary people losing their homes in natural disasters is capped at Rs. 2.5 million. Why did no similar cap apply in this instance? Did the claimants have tax files and can they explain wealth amassed to build palatial mansions? And how were these payments kept under cover these many months?

Ken Balendra, one of a kind

The death last week after a long illness of Kandiah (Ken) Balendra, the first Lankan to head the John Keells Goup of companies of which he was chairman from 1990 to 2000, took away from the scene an iconic business leader who built what is probably the country’s largest business conglomerate. Balendra who had no formal academic or professional qualifications began his working life as a planter in the James Finlay managed Hapugastenne Group in the Ratnapura district and a few years later moved as a tea broker to what was then John Keell, Thompson White Ltd., a produce and share brokers under British ownership and staffed at the top by Britons. This was probably due to the professional needs of his doctor wife and schooling needs of his children.

Ken Bala, as he was popularly known, did not come from an elite family, his father serving as a revenue inspector in the Colombo Municipal Council. But his sporting prowess on the rugby field where he hooked for the first fifteen of Royal College opened the doors to a planting career to him, as it did for many other young men in the colonial and post-colonial era. While his exploits on the rugger field are very well known few remember that he was a member of the Stubbs Shield winning Royal College boxing team. Old stagers will recall Royalists of yore chanting “hook, Bala, hook,” from the sidelines during his school’s rugger matches.

After six years as a planter on the thottam, Balendra came to Colombo to work as a tea broker in one of then Ceylon’s very long established commodity broking houses. Like many planters, though lacking in book learning, he had wide ranging managerial skills and it was not long before he was appointed a director of his company. This was a time when tourism was taking off in the country and John Keells was among those seriously investing in the industry. They were the first to build a hotel at Habarana rightly calculating that it could serve tourists headed for sun and sand holiday in the east coast and those taking the sights of the ruined cities from a junction town. As head of Walkers Tours he led the company’s inbound and outbound tourism sectors taking the John Keells tourism portfolio to new heights.

As the first Lankan chairman of the company, Balendra led the conversion of the group into John Keells Holding PLC (JKH) in which employees were given preferred share allotments in the Initial Public Offer (IPO) on the Colombo Stock Exchange followed later by employee share options. This encouraged their acquisition of an ownership stake in the company in which he himself invested substantially earning substantial profits. A longtime JKH employee says in an article we republish today that the group’s culture in the Balendra years centered around the principle “play hard, play smart, play together and have fun.” He adapted long-held colonial management systems within the group to conform to modern times, had an unerring knack of spotting young talent which he nurtured within the firm to its great advantage. He was a patron of the arts with substantial JKH support for the George Keyt Foundation.

Acquisitions made during his time, including those of Whittalls and Ceylon Cold Stores brought substantial real estate assets into the group portfolio now developed into the iconic Cinnamon Life City of Dreams, the country’s biggest private sector investment. He stood up to President Premadasa who threatened to reduce the JKH share to five rupees by courageously resisting the appointment of a Premadasa-backed main board director to JKH. A public relations genius with an instinct for an opportunity and the long term view, he was a business leader who will be hard to replace.

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Editorial

Cost puzzles

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Saturday 8th February, 2025

The government has not yet disclosed its costing formula for paddy. It only releases information about cost calculations in dribs and drabs in an unorganised manner, which has left the public none the wiser. Farmers insist that their production costs are much higher than the guaranteed prices announced by the government; some of them have even claimed that the average certified paddy price should be above Rs. 140 a kilo.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture Namal Karunaratne told Parliament yesterday that the guaranteed prices of paddy had been properly worked out, and they included a 30% profit margin. The production cost of red kekulu paddy was only Rs. 76, and the farmers of that variety of rice earned a profit of Rs. 44 per kilo, he said. Interestingly, the guaranteed price of red kekulu paddy has not been specifically mentioned in government communiques on guaranteed paddy prices. Karunaratne also claimed that it cost farmers only Rs. 91 to produce a kilo of white nadu paddy, which fetched Rs. 120 although its actual cost plus the 30% profit amounted to only about Rs. 118. But paddy farmers say their production costs are much higher.

How can there be such vast cost discrepancies? Who is telling us the truth—the paddy farmers or the government politicians/officials? Will the two sides present itemised cost estimations for the public to decide whose claims are credible? The current cost calculations lack transparency and credibility. Most of all, on what basis was the 30% profit margin for paddy determined? Was it just plucked out of the air?

Deputy Minister Karunaratne told Parliament yesterday that in calculating the paddy production costs, the fertiliser subsidy had not been taken into consideration. The government ought not to ignore such vital factors when costs are estimated. The public, who bears the cost of fertiliser subsidy, must not be made to pay higher prices for rice unfairly.

Going by Deputy Minister Karunaratne’s statements at issue, the government can be accused of having facilitated the exploitation of the red rice consumers by placing the profit margin for the growers of that variety of rice far above the stipulated 30% level. The government should have taken steps to ensure that at least one variety of rice was reasonably priced for the benefit of the ordinary people who are getting by on shoestring budgets. It would also have been politically wise for the government to do so ahead of the local government elections slated for late April.

Subsidies for farmers could be considered an investment in the agricultural sector, for they help incentivise cultivators and keep production costs low. The government is duty bound to ensure that the benefits of subsidies accrue to the public, who bears the cost of them. Therefore, the fertiliser subsidy, or at least a part thereof, should have been factored in when the paddy production costs were calculated.

How does the government propose to prevent rice millers from making unconscionable profits? They have benefited from a 30% power tariff reduction, which must be passed on to the public. Rice wholesalers and retailers must also be prevented from fleecing the public. The government, which has failed to protect rice consumers against rapacious businesses bent on exploiting them, should get its act together.

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Editorial

Trump’s shockers

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Friday 7th February, 2025

President Donald Trump has apparently inherited from his father a propensity to acquire real estate. What he did as a real estate tycoon before becoming the US President has not caused much concern to anyone except some of his political rivals, but the problem is that old habits die hard; he, even as the US President, has not stopped eyeing land that belongs to others.

President Trump has expressed his desire to acquire Greenland. He is apparently dreaming of something like the Louisiana Purchase (1803), the greatest land bargain in US history. He has also disclosed his intention to take over the Panama Canal. Another shocker came on Tuesday, when he revealed a plan for the US to take over and own Gaza, resettling the Palestinians living there in neighbouring countries. Thankfully, all Arab states and even the western allies of the US have condemned Trump’s idea.

Gaza belongs to Palestinians, and the world must oppose any plan to dispossess them of their land. President Trump has brought shame on the US by seeking to capitalise on the misery of Palestinians who have undergone untold suffering for decades. The least the world can do for those people crying out for justice is to ensure that the UN-sanctioned two-state solution is implemented without further delay. One can only hope that the fragile Gaza ceasefire will hold, with Hamas and Israel acting with restraint, and that the West Bank will not face the same fate as Gaza.

The White House has sought to walk back Trump’s absurd idea of taking over Gaza. It has claimed that Trump has only suggested temporary resettlement of the Palestinians pending reconstruction. No matter how hard the White House spin doctors try, they will not be able to unsay what Trump said very unequivocally.

Trump has not started wars, and he deserves praise for that, but one wonders whether he is trying to make America great again by taking advantage of the US-backed wars and their disastrous consequences. Israel would not have been able to reduce Gaza to rubble without US backing. Ukraine would not have provoked Russia into a war but for assurances from the US and other NATO members that they would stand solidly behind it. Now, Trump is eyeing land in Gaza and rare earths in Ukraine. One is reminded of the bloody conflicts in some African countries which have many terror groups secretly funded by certain multinationals plundering their minerals. The Democratic Republic of Congo has been plagued by armed conflicts mostly due to power struggles over mineral resources, especially coltan used in producing mobile phones, laptop computers and automobiles. It is protracted violent conflicts claiming many lives that ensure a steady supply of coltan at cheap prices to the West.

President Trump has said the US will stop pouring dollars into a bottomless pit that is the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. He has told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in no uncertain terms that the US wants Ukraine to supply it with rare earth minerals in return for financial support. Ukraine is agreeable to his proposition, according to Trump. This is the price Ukraine has had to pay for its efforts to join NATO at the behest of the US and its western allies and antagonising Russia in the process. Hereafter, Zelensky will have to dispose of his country’s rare earths to fight NATO’s proxy war! Unless the other NATO members increase military aid to Ukraine, he will be in serious trouble economically, militarily and politically. Even during the Biden administration, when the US allocated funds generously for Ukraine’s military operations, Zelensky went around the world, complaining that support from his allies was woefully inadequate.

It is now clear that Trump’s second presidential terms will be much more problematic than the first one. He has also suspended US assistance to the developing world granted through the USAID. What other shockers Trump has up his sleeve is anyone’s guess.

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