Author: TELO Admin

Reported by Nikkei, Sri Lanka and a group of its creditors are in final negotiations to suspend debt repayments until 2028, Nikkei has learned, as country creditors including Japan seek to prevent China’s influence from expanding in the debt-ridden island.

Sri Lanka’s national security adviser to the president, Sagala Ratnayaka, told Nikkei in a recent interview, “Negotiations with the creditor nations have concluded. We are hoping that it [a detailed announcement] will take place in the next few weeks.”

The repayment period will be 15 years, from 2028 to 2042, with the interest rate newly set at around 2%. He said that there will be no further debt reduction, despite a request by the island nation.

Sri Lanka in April 2022 announced a temporary suspension of public external debt payments, in effect putting the country into default.

A meeting of creditor nations was set up in April 2023.

Japan, which is the largest creditor country after China, is serving as the chair in the talks along with India and France.

Sri Lanka and the creditor nations have reached a basic agreement on a repayment moratorium and a reduction in interest. The provision of financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund, which was conditional on debt restructuring agreements being struck with major creditor countries, has also begun.

China, the biggest creditor, has only joined the meeting as an observer. However, the restructuring of debt from China via loans of the Export-Import Bank of China would be “similar,” Ratnayaka said. “We have a saying which means ‘everyone will be treated equally’,” implying that the terms of debt repayment to China would be similar to those agreed at the creditors’ meeting.

As of the end of 2023, Sri Lanka’s outstanding debt was $37.3 billion, of which China accounted for $4.7 billion.

Sri Lanka handed over control of its southern Hambantota Port to China in 2017. This was seen as a typical example of a “debt trap,” where infrastructure rights are taken away amid delayed debt repayments. Some creditors, including Japan and India, are wary of China expanding its influence into the Indo-Pacific, with Sri Lanka as its base.

Ratnayaka explained that “this is all purely commercial. There is nothing military [about the port agreement]. Sri Lanka is open to investment and we don’t pick and choose on the basis of what country, unless it affects national security.” He added, “But in the north and areas which would affect the security of India, we are conscious.”

Source : Nikkei Asia

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) has summoned the party’s politburo on Monday (March 08) to discuss the future course of action of the party, in view of its current internal crisis situation.

The meeting will reportedly be chaired by former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.

On Thursday (04), the Colombo District Court issued an interim injunction preventing former President Maithripala Sirisena from functioning as the SLFP chairman, following a complaint filed by former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.

Nevertheless, Sirisena has reacted, saying that he intends to present facts before the court regarding the matter.

Meanwhile, the Acting General Secretary of SLFP Dushmantha Mithrapala lodged a complaint with the Maradana Police on Friday (05), alleging that several ‘important’ files have gone missing from the party headquarters.

Thus, entering the SLFP headquarters in Darley Road, Colombo 10, has been prohibited for all individuals, due to the ongoing investigation into the relevant complaint.

However, the said politburo meeting will accordingly take place at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute.

It was reported that all party members excluding former President Maithripala Sirisena, former General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara and MP Shan Vijayalal de Silva have been invited for the relevant meeting.

Reports that third-term Parliamentarian and former Minister, Namal Rajapaksa, has taken over as the National Organiser of the family-run Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) make for interesting reading. The first question is about the future role of Basil Rajapaksa, who until he left office some months back, was the National Organiser. Even more important from the current context is the role that Namal will play in the decision-making process – thus far, he has been providing inputs to his father and Party Leader, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is a two-term President and three-term Prime Minister of the country. Of course, Namal has also been free to air his political views in public, to a greater or lesser degree.

Maybe, the experience of younger brother and former President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, would be on how a political leader and more so, the nation’s top-most elected administrator should not conduct the business of governance. Gota’s is also an experience that expertise and achievement in one field automatically translate into the same in another field, however much one might have observed it from inside.

As the idiom goes, only the wearer knows how the shoe pinches – and how one should cure it. Mahinda had it in him and knew it. Chamal and Basil understood and acknowledged their limitations. As Defence Secretary after winning the conclusive Eelam War IV, Gota acknowledged his limitations to enter direct politics and Parliament, straightaway.

He did not even acknowledge the offer of maverick Parliamentarian Mervyn Silva to resign his Parliamentary Seat for Gota to enter the House and also the Cabinet under Brother Mahinda in the latter’s second term. He should have stuck to that decision, for the good of the Family, the good of the Party and the good of the Nation – but in the reverse order.

Basil’s Game-Plan

Friends, allies and foes of the SLPP and the Rajapaksas would be keenly watching Namal’s transformation from being an ordinary MP into the Party’s National Organiser. While Basil had been talking to incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe on the premise of a common alliance with the latter’s UNP, Namal was believed to be taking the side within the SLPP that wanted the party to field a candidate in the Presidential Election.

Basil has a Game Plan. He wants Parliamentary Polls to precede Presidential Elections under an alliance between his Party and President Ranil’s emaciated UNP. He argues that if Presidential Polls precede the other, as is due now, voters kind of play-act their previous outing and give a (undeserved?) higher number of seats for the Party or alliance that the elected President represents. He seemed to have divined this argument only after his Party – the SLFP first and the breakaway SLPP since – had been out of Presidential power, with Gota’s premature exit, post-Aragalaya.

Still, Basil has a point. But the UNP seems to be looking at it all the other way around. That is, if they won a comfortable number of seats, which no pollster is ready to give the SLPP just now – whatever their samples, reasons and justification – the SLPP might after all want to field a Presidential candidate of their own. Ask the SLPP, they would tell you how Ranil could play uppity if he won the Presidential polls on their strength and may go all out to liquidate friends and foes alike, before ordering Parliamentary Elections.

To Lose, not to Lose

In a way, Namal is under test, both nearer home, and literally so, inside the Party and outside. He has been tasked without being told to retrieve the Party’s still-sagging image if one were to go exclusively by pollster predictions that the SLPP’s vote share is below ten per cent and has been going down. If it were true, and if Party leaders and Parliamentarians believed it from their contacts with the ground, they might have deserted the Rajapaksas faster than the fastest missile in the world.

It is not happening, and this could be a good way for Namal to begin his career, his responsibility. In a way, he has nothing to lose. In other ways, he has everything to lose – or, so it seems. He might then have to start from the grassroots up to reinvent himself and also the Party, and also reinvigorate the cadres, or whoever may remain. Whatever the immediate Election results, he would still be transitioning the Party through the new generation of voters, not all of them would have received their early electoral enlightenment from the Aragalaya protests that were in fact against the Rajapaksa clan – and not just one person.

Namal may have an advantage, as at 37, he is among the youngest Senior Political Party Leaders in the country. The next round is going to be difficult. Like his father, he has to work for himself and move up the ladder. He needs to learn from his father even more, as to when to open his mouth and what to say – and when not to open his mouth and what not to say. He graduated during the five years of the Sirisena-Ranil GNU dispensation – when the government that the family had headed for ten years in the past was chasing them.

Instincts, not Inputs

Of course, the immediate concern is for Namal to provide his field-level inputs on the Party’s position on the twin polls, beginning with his advice on whether the SLPP should field a Presidential candidate – rather, risk fielding one. He was known to have backed the group that wanted an SLPP candidate, which many believed was none other than Namal.

Today, his whims cannot be the guiding principle, not even the cadre mood. He needs to weigh them both like Mahinda was known to act more on his instincts than inputs, and yet do what is good for the Party – and the nation. Then, and then alone will the nation accept him and the Party, too. Or, that has been the Aragalaya experience.

Time used to be when under the ‘transition government’ of the Sirisena-Ranil duo, in the run-up to the Parliamentary Polls of 2015, they had Parliament amend the laws on qualifications for contesting the Presidential Polls. One of course was to revert to the old ways after Mahinda in his second term had facilitated his third-time contest, only to lose it to his own ‘disloyal’ loyalist in Maithripala Sirisena. The other was to deny the Presidency to ‘foreign nationals’, rather than those with dual nationality. Gota thus could contest the Presidency – and win it too – in 2019, only after surrendering his US citizenship.

There was a third amendment, upping the minimum age qualification from 30 years to 35 years. It was aimed at denying Namal a chance, as he was 32 at the time. It was a reflection of the powers that be about the possibility of the young politician defeating him in the next outing. But their calculations were based on the ‘Mahinda constituency’, which was put at a conservative 40 per cent even while in the Opposition.

That is what the Party is believed to have lost, or at least a substantial portion of it – and that is where Namal will have to begin, as the National Organiser.

About the Author:

N Sathiya Moorthy is a Chennai-based Policy Analyst/Political Commentator.

Email: sathiyam54@nsathiyamoorthy.com

Locals allege interference by Kalmunai South and discrimination over development, land, and financial matters
By Wasantha Chandrapala and S. Rubatheesan

The scorching sun and intermittent rains have not deterred the women and men protesting outside the Divisional Secretary office in Kalmunai North, a Tamil populated area in Ampara, since Monday.

Their longstanding demand has been that the Divisional Secretariat area be given its due recognition, and function similar to other Divisional Secretariats across the country.

Former Assistant Director of Agriculture, Kandasamy Sivalingam (70), alleged that funds coming from the decentralised budget have been stopped and local communities are discriminated against when it comes to rural development, land, and financial matters.

That is very unfair to us. Even today, there are people coming from the Kalmunai South Division and filling up land illegally. All funds have to come through the Kalmunai South Division,” he told the Sunday Times.

“The Divisional Secretary South claiming to have rights over the land is distributing lands at his own will. Some of the ancient tank areas are being filled up. There seems to be no law, and Urban Development Authority (UDA) and coast conservation laws are not applied in these areas,” he charged.

The dispute dates back to 1989, when former Home Affairs Minister K.W. Dewanayagam created the Assistant Government Agents division.

A proposal was submitted to the Cabinet in March 1993 to create AGA divisions and Assistant Divisional Secretary offices. Kalmunai (North) was one such division. A Cabinet Subcommittee was set up, and their report was submitted in July 1993.

Accordingly, approval was granted to upgrade 28 divisions as Divisional Secretary areas, and that included Kalmunai North as well. Even though all other Divisional Secretaries are vested with land and financial powers, this Divisional Secretariat is barred from exercising those powers due to political decisions.

According to data (2022) from the DS division, which consists of multi-ethnic communities, it serves 36, 346 persons from 10,361 families in the region from six villages, namely Kalmunai, Pandiruppu, Periyaneelavanai, Natpiddimunai, Chenaikudiyiruppu, and Manalchenai.

Protesters alleged that the Divisional Secretary, Kalmunai South, who was appointed by the Public Service Commission, has been exercising his powers over the Kalmunai North DS division unlawfully with backing from authorities.

Even though a cadre position for the post of accountant was created for DS North recently, no steps have been taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs yet to fill the vacancy due to political pressure, protesters alleged.

Athisayaraj Jacob, Divisional Secretary of Kalmunai North, told the Sunday Times that failure to exercise the full powers of the council resulted in significant challenges in the day-to-day affairs of the administrative system of the council when it comes to serving the local community.

“Since we are unable to exercise powers with regard to land, finance, budgetary allocations, etc., we have been writing referral letters to other DS South and District Secretariats to perform our basic operations,” Mr. Jacob told the Sunday Times.

Following a similar protest in 2019, steps were taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs to upgrade the DS division, but locals questioned why the respective division needed to be upgraded when it had been functioning as a Divisional Secretariat for over 30 years based on a cabinet approval granted on July 28, 1993.

Those powers are exercised by the Kalmunai South Divisional Secretary area, which is located in a predominantly Muslim area. Protesters allege that the Kalmunai South Division is blocking the full fledged operations of the Kalmunai North Division due to political reasons.

Currently, around 320 state employees are attached to the Kalmunai North office, even though the office cannot exercise its powers fully and serve those residing within its limits.

Protesters allege that lands located in the Kalmunai North area are being distributed at the will of the Kalmunai South Divisional Secretary.

A visit to the area revealed that some of the of the area reserved for the water to flow into the sea is being used to construct houses, some of them multi-storey buildings. In some locations, walls have been built, blocking the flow of water as well, locals allege.

Divisional Secretary Kalmunai South J. Liyakath Ali said even though there is a Kalmunai North Divisional Secretariat, the land powers are with the Kalmunai South Divisional Secretariat . “Those powers have not been gazetted,”

In response to a question by the Sunday Times about illegal constructions in marshy lands that have been filled up, he said, “Those involved have obtained permits for the lands from the Kalmunai Municipal Council, and the Divisional Secretary cannot take responsibility.”

Pon Selvanayagam, a former municipal member, said that many of those who settled there claimed they had deeds, but those were illegally forged deeds. “We are taking to the streets due to the injustice that is taking place here,”

“There are other Divisional Secretary areas that have not been gazetted, but they have been given financial and land powers. Among the areas are Nawadanveli, Aliyadiwembu, and Lahugala. So the question is why Kalmunani North is being treated differently,” he asked.

“There cannot be two laws in one country,” he added.

Ampara District Secretary Chinthaka Abeywickrema said since the Kalmunai North Divisional Secretariat has not been vested with land powers, the Secretariat has appointed an Acting Accountant . “Therefore, we don’t see a problem there.”.

In response to the question about illegal lands, he said he has not got any reports so far on the matter. “If any information is provided, I will stop them right now.”.

Ms. V. Dushitha, an officer attached to the suboffice of the UDA in Kalmunai, said that approvals for construction are given by a planning committee, and so far approvals have been given only for two constructions, and the Kalmunai South divisional secretary said they were private lands. Filling in two other lands has been stopped.

Due to Sri Lanka’s current economic advancement, the United Kingdom has revised its Travel Advisory for Sri Lanka effective April 5, 2024.

This update encompasses various aspects including access to emergency medical services, entry security requirements, road safety, overall security situation, and health facility accessibility, the President’s Media Division (PMD) said in a statement.

The revised advisory no longer includes previous concerns regarding shortages of food, fuel, and medicine. Additionally, the previously mentioned risks related to limitations in health services, such as the lack of medical equipment, have been omitted.

The Sri Lankan High Commission in London has consistently advocated to British authorities for the removal of negative information from previous advisories. This effort aims to ensure tourists have a clear understanding of Sri Lanka’s current progress, it added.

Between January 1 and March 27, a total of 53,928 tourists from the United Kingdom visited Sri Lanka, establishing the United Kingdom as the third largest source of tourist arrivals. This updated advisory is expected to further boost Sri Lanka’s tourism sector, the statement mentioned.

Sri Lanka’s main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) has welcomed some of the most prominent members of the former Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) government headed by ousted ex president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, with the SJB general secretary particularly heaping praise on MP G L Peiris.

SJB parliamentarian Ranjith Madduma Bandara speaking at a ceremony to mark the alliance between his party and the Freedom People’s Congress headed by Peiris said the latter’s partnership was a “great strength” to the SJB.

“G L Peiris and the team have become a great strength to us today. He has joined us with his team, bringing in his economic vision, his knowledge, and his political experience,” said Bandara.

“I think this strengthens us greatly,” he added.

The MP claimed that a majority of Sri Lankans have already decided that only the SJB can save the country.

“Other parties that love the country, want to develop it, and think about the future generations of this country have decided to partner with the SJB,” he said.

The new alliance will be called the Samagi Jana Alliance, he said.

The other MPs who joined the alliance on Friday April 05 are SLPP MPs Dilan Perera, Nalaka Godahewa, Upul Galappaththi, Wasantha Yapa Bandara and K P S Kumarasiri .

The six MPs have signed a memorandum of understanding with the SJB.

Both the SJB and President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) have alluded to coming crossovers to each other.

UNP parliamentarian Vajira Abeywardena said: “Let’s see what alliances there are after May.”

Referring to speculation that the presidential election may not be held this year, he said: “Because the opposition has nothing else to say, they’re using this as a slogan. When this year began, the president said clearly that the presidential election will be held before October 17.”