Bharat Rakshak

Probe on Namal’s Companies
“Gowers Corporate Services Pvt Ltd has recorded an earning of Rs. 81 million in the 2013/2014 financial year”

by Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema

The police Financial Crimes Investigations Division (FCID) has last week raided a company operated by former First Son and United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa as part of a probe being carried out under the Money Laundering Act.

The FCID is carrying out a probe covering the operations of six companies operated by Rajapaksa – Hello Corp Pvt Ltd, Gowers Corporate Services Pvt Ltd, Gowers Solutions, Gowers Secretariat, Gowers Ceylon Holdings and NR Consultancy.

The Sunday Leader learns that FCID officers had commenced a probe on Gowers Corporate Services Pvt Ltd on Friday and is to continue investigating the other companies as well.

The FCID probe is expected to uncover the sources of funding for these companies and its earnings as well as how the monies were utilised.

Gowers Corporate Services Pvt Ltd, which was floated with the sale of 100 Rs. 10 shares, had purchased Hello Corp Pvt Ltd for a sum of Rs. 100 million even before completing a year in operation, FCID sources said. Despite claims that the monies were raised through loans and by the sale of NR Consultancy to a Bangladeshi national for Rs. 50 million, the FCID is yet to find proper evidence that could prove this fact. In fact, Gowers Corporate Services Pvt Ltd has recorded an earning of Rs. 81 million in the 2013/2014 financial year. The Sunday Leader further learns that MP Namal Rajapaksa has already been questioned by the FCID over the investigation into the six companies.

13A is a recipe for disintegration, Indianisation and ethnic polarisation of the Sri Lankan society. It imposes the Indian governance model, which is based on ethnic enclaves. In India, people of a particular ethnic group is concentrated in a state (a territory). It is not the case in Sri Lanka where most Tamils living outside the north and east. 13A has created friction and conflicting interests in governance. It also imposed the Tamil language as an official language of Sri Lanka. It is absurd to recognise Tamil as an official language of Sri Lanka with a Tamil population of just 3 million when India doesn’t recognise it as an official language despite its Tamil population of 72 million.

TORONTO—A member of the Tamil Tigers who was allegedly sent to Toronto to run the Sri Lankan guerrilla group’s Canadian front organization has been ordered deported for terrorism, according to documents filed in the Federal Court.

The government has been trying to deport Manickavasagam Suresh since 1995, when he was first arrested in Toronto. The case was thought to have languished but last week the case reappeared on the court docket.

The Immigration and Refugee Board declined to comment Tuesday. But in an application filed in Toronto on Oct. 5, Suresh asked Federal Court to overturn an IRB decision “in which Mr. Suresh was found inadmissible to Canada.”

The decision was received Sept. 17, according to the documents, which indicate that Suresh was found inadmissible under sections of the immigration law that allow for the deportation of members of terrorist groups and those engaged in terrorism.

Tortured Toronto man says he feels vindicated by UN report on Sri Lanka
Lawyers representing Suresh wrote in their application that they wanted to argue that the IRB erred by finding that he had “engaged in terrorism,” was “complicit in terrorism,” and that there had not been an “abuse of process.”

The Suresh case has a long history in the courts.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, allegedly tasked Suresh with running the World Tamil Movement, a non-profit that Canadian officials said had “raised significant funds” for the rebels.

His arrest in 1995 was approved by the then-Liberal government of Jean Chrétien. The Federal Court of Appeal upheld the case, writing that, “Those who freely choose to raise funds to sustain terrorist organizations bear the same guilt and responsibility as those who actually carry out terrorist acts.”

But Suresh appealed to the Supreme Court, which overturned his deportation order in 2002, ruling that the security threat he posed to Canada had to be balanced against the threat of torture he faced upon his return to his home country.

The government appeared to have backed off Suresh, 60, who lived in Mississauga, Ont. and was working as a computer engineer. The new case, however, indicates that officials have continued their attempts to remove him from Canada.

The leadership of the WTM acts at the direction of the LTTE and has been instrumental in fundraising in Canada on behalf of the LTTE,
IRB spokeswoman Anna Pape said she could neither confirm nor deny any information about the Suresh case. A copy of the IRB’s reasons has not yet been filed in the court so it was unclear why it had approved his deportation at this time.

But in January, Sri Lankans elected a new president Maithripala Sirisena, widely considered more reform-friendly than his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose 2009 military defeat of the Tamil Tigers killed an untold number of civilians.

Much has changed since Suresh was first arrested two decades ago. The World Tamil Movement was dismantled following an RCMP investigation called Project Osaluki that found evidence the group had funneled millions to the rebels. The WTM was added to Canada’s list of terrorist entities in 2008.

“The leadership of the WTM acts at the direction of the LTTE and has been instrumental in fundraising in Canada on behalf of the LTTE,” reads the listing on the Public Safety Canada website. “WTM representatives canvas for donations amongst the Canadian Tamil population, and have been involved in acts of intimidation and extortion to secure funds.”

His lawyer, Barbara Jackman, declined to comment.

Philip wrote:Oops! RW is walking on shaky soil with this latest about turn.The GOI will not be pleased.

Yagnasri wrote:

Philip wrote:Oops! RW is walking on shaky soil with this latest about turn.The GOI will not be pleased.

Srilankan politicos proved to be just as untrustworthy as Pakis. Remember Prema dasa supporting LTTE just to oppose India.

Philip wrote:Nehru's greatest blunder was not '62,not accepting the UN seat,but dividing India into linguistic states. Many eminent parliamentarians pleaded with him,but on this score Nehru was the biggest ignoramus,cretin,moron, that India has ever produced after Muhammad Bin Tughlak.Thus he paved the way for regional chauvinism,best demonstrated by the fascist Shiv Sena.We now have Nagas,ULFA,and a host of other jokers ,not to mention the Khalistanis too,supported in their western homelands by firang entities,stirring the pot relentlesly. Dravidian jokers like Vaiko espouse a separatist agenda openly...for Sri Lanka,a backdoor method for separating from India! If "Eelam" is established in Lanka,then Tamilnadu will swiftly follow.That will be the clarion call at election time with both major Dravidian parties tripping over themselves to be more separatist than the other! Has no one in Delhi realised this insidious trap that the Western backers of the LTTE really wanted? Just imagine a future central govt.,as weak as Snake-Oil Singh's,with an HM like Chidambaram,who instantly defecated when the Telengana embers exploded again! Before we know it we will have lost Tamilnadu,then Kerala ....

And we still persist with the 13th amendment for Lanka! 13 is an unlucky number for some,and so will it be for this amendment in the island. Forgetting the damage that Nehru's severing of a national identity,where the states boundaries were based more on geographical and historic factors,we want to advocate it for Sri Lanka,a small island,barely the size of Tamilnadu.The demand for separatism/federalism in Sri Lanka has to be stamped out not to keep primarily Lanka united but India!

Advocating ‘across the border’ citizenship for Sri Lankan Tamil refugees presently living in India, the former National Security Adviser, M.K. Narayanan, on Wednesday said, “it was not easy, but it should be possible.”

Speaking at a colloquium ‘The Future of Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees in India’ organised by The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, he endorsed the argument that providing financial support to refugees who intend to return should help them. “By and large the Government of India can meet its obligations on returning the refugees back to their homeland with a certain amount of backup and support,” he said.

“What they want is, give us a little more support, in helping those who want to go back to do so. I think this is easy,” the former NSA said.

Organisation for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation treasurer S.C. Chandrahasan also emphasised the need to facilitate the return of these refugees who had spent over 30 years in India. Unlike other countries in the West, Afro-Asian nations, especially India, did not make the refugees wait in a queue and instead, accepted them as they came. The opinion of the vast majority of refugees living in India was to go back home and safeguard their lands, he said.

The Chairman of Kasturi and Sons Limited, N. Ram, said the conditions in the Island had improved “significantly, if not radically” and it was the best time for the safe return of Tamil refugees to their homeland. With a new government in the island, there was a conducive atmosphere for those who were willing to return, he added.

R.K. Radhakrishnan, Senior Deputy Editor, Frontline, said the conditions in the refugee camps in Tamil Nadu were bad and the accommodation provided to them had not been repaired in several years. He made a presentation on the future of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in India.

Role of the Church

There are allegations from various agencies throughout India and officials from Home Ministry that several Christian organisations and Christian NGOs are behind the protest against KKNPP.[36][37] The Church of South India, The Catholic Bishops Conference of India[38] and the National Council of Churches openly oppose the KKNPP.[39] It is also implicitly recognizable that officials in the Catholic Church of these regions too spread rumours through anti-nuclear videos from church premises and through Missionary Schools.[40] The prime motives for opposing the Nuclear Reactor were allegedly multi-faceted. One of the allegations was that the protest was meant to damage the Russian civil nuclear credibility and to make it impossible for Russia to recover costs of construction, and thereby, artificially creating a state of uncertainty for future foreign investments in India.[41][citation needed]

The role of Church has also come under the scrutiny. The pro-government calls the movement “Church-orchestrated” and foreign funded.[42] The protest leaders did not deny the support of the Church but dismissed the allegation of foreign funds. As majority where Christian fishermen — called Fernandos in the area — belonging to Most Backward Classes (MBC), Fernandos where the surviving factor of the movement, as the Church’s support was “important and natural” for the movement.[43] The local clergy did not conceal support to the fisherfolks but chose to be on the sidelines, particularly after the government’s accusation.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday reiterated his government’s position that it would not sign the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India but it would enter into a pact on economic and technology collaboration with the neighbour.

Expressing his government’s reservations about allowing Indian professionals into Sri Lanka under any new agreement with the neighbouring country, he told Parliament that his country would not sign any pact similar to the CEPA with India.

He clarified that his government had conveyed to India its opposition against the inclusion of “services” in the proposed pact and the latter too had agreed to this.

State-owned Power GridBSE 1.05 % Corp said the call to implement the proposed Rs 3,000 crore undersea power transmission link has to be taken by Sri Lanka. The report on the 500 MW project, to be jointly implemented by Power Grid Corporation of India LtdBSE 1.05 % and Ceylon Electricity Board, has been already sent to the island nation.

It will only be the second project of its kind, after the transnational 2,000 MW power transmission line between Britain and France.

India is preparing to build a sea bridge and tunnel connecting it to Sri Lanka, while a pact has been signed with Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal for seamless flow of traffic and passenger vehicles, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday.

''The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is ready to fully finance a bridge-building project connecting Rameshwaram to Sri Lanka. The project was also discussed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his counterpart during the latter's recent visit.''.Gadkari said in a suo motu statement in the Lok Sabha.

The India-Sri Lanka connectivity project cost is pegged at about Rs 24,000 crore.

Protests close channel tunnel between England and France

By Don Melvin, CNN
June 23,

Migrants take advantage of strike chaos in port city

Watch this video
Migrants take advantage of strike chaos in port city 00:10

Major link between continent and British Isles closed for several hours
Eurotunnel spokesman says service to resume soon

London (CNN)—The tunnel that runs under the English Channel between England and France was closed Tuesday afternoon, cutting off a key link between the European continent and the British Isles.

All traffic was suspended starting at 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET), because protesters broke into the tunnel entry site in France and set tires on fire, a Eurotunnel press officer told CNN. He declined to give his name.

Eurotunnel -- Groupe Eurotunnel SE -- manages the channel tunnel, sometimes referred to as the Chunnel, earning money from the Eurostar passenger train service and trains owned by other companies that use the passageway.

Would-be passengers trying to contact Eurotunnel got a recorded message saying, "Our passenger service is temporarily suspended."

The Eurostar train service shut down operations completely. "We have been advised by Eurotunnel that we will be unable to run any services for the rest of the day. Normal services will resume tomorrow," said a statement on the Eurostar website.

The tunnel runs about 31 miles from a point near Calais, in northern France, to Folkestone, in southeastern England.

People jumping into semitrailers
Video of the French entry point showed trucks backed up and people running and jumping into the trailers.

Calais has for years been a gathering place for migrants trying to find a way into the UK -- a part of the European Union but not part of the passport-free Schengen Area.

But the Eurotunnel spokesman said he could not confirm that migrants were jumping into the trailers of the backed-up trucks because it was not happening on ground managed by Eurotunnel.

The Eurostar statement said the closure of the tunnel was due to a strike by MyFerryLink workers from the port of Calais, blocking the tracks with rubble and burning tires. They were reportedly protesting anticipated job losses on ferries.

Phone calls to the company offices in the UK went unanswered late Tuesday afternoon.

How Eurotunnel went so wrong
By Jeff Randall
BBC business editor Eurotunnel train
Eurotunnel is still losing money hand over fist

When the world's most successful investor, Warren Buffett, said, "if you overpay for an asset, there ain't no cure", he might have had Eurotunnel in mind.

From the word go, construction of the channel tunnel was blighted by delays which caused a rapid escalation of costs.

By the time Eurotunnel opened in May 1994, it was one year behind schedule and £2bn ($3.6bn) over budget.

Before the first passenger car had boarded Le Shuttle for the short trip from Folkestone to Calais, the original business plan was in tatters.

Missing passengers

To make matters worse, the company's rose-tinted projections of demand for Eurostar, the London-Paris train service that uses the tunnel, turned out to be embarrassingly aggressive.

Traffic forecasts were not just out by a little bit - they were completely potty
David Freud, Warburg

Although Eurostar is a completely separate entity from Eurotunnel, it is linked commercially to the channel tunnel operator because it pays a fee for using the facility, based on traffic numbers.

"We were predicting that on Eurostar there would be 21 million passengers (annually)," admits David Freud of Warburg, the investment house which sold Eurotunnel shares to the public.

The actual figure was less than a third of that.

"So the traffic forecasts were not just out by a little bit. They were completely potty; they were nowhere."

Those who drafted Eurotunnel's prospectus failed completely to foresee a robust response from the ferries.

Growing competition

Not only did P&O not fade away, as Eurotunnel had thought likely, it fought back with better ships and lower prices, retaining the loyalty of passengers who had been forecast to switch to the tunnel.

Another blow to Eurotunnel was the unexpected emergence of no-frills airlines, offering rock-bottom prices on short-haul trips to a wide range of European destinations.

P&O cross-channel ferry
Sailing across the Channel is still an attractive option

Flawed forecasts, management mistakes and bad luck turned the Eurotunnel dream into a financial nightmare for the investors and banks who funded the project entirely from private money.

Heavy losses - £500m last year, £1bn the year before - have meant that Eurotunnel has been unable to meet even its interest bills, much less repay capital.

As a result, Eurotunnel has been burdened with mounting debts, like straws being loaded on a donkey's back.

Inevitably, the company has buckled under the weight of its financial obligations.

With debts now standing at about £6.5bn, Eurotunnel can until the end of this year service interest charges with IOUs.
But thereafter the borrowing terms change and it must pay in cash.

At that point, Eurotunnel's management knows the game will be up - which is why the chairman, Jacques Gounon, is desperate to renegotiate funding arrangements with the company's 200 banks.

His problem is that as well as keeping creditors sweet, he must try to placate 800,000 small - mostly French - shareholders who have seen the worth of the company crash by about 98%.

It's a fiendishly difficult task, because concessions to the banks inevitably mean a dilution for shareholders.

Each side is, in effect, competing for scraps of value from the Eurotunnel carcass.

Mr Gounon's response has been to draw up a rescue plan which asks the banks to let Eurotunnel off about two thirds of its debt.

He's hoping that creditors will be prepared simply to kiss goodbye to about £4bn.

If nothing else, Mr Gounon's move redefines positive thinking. It is optimism on a heroic, perhaps ludicrous, scale.

Make or break

Even some of Mr Gounon's colleagues are sceptical. Last week, Jean-Louis Raymond, Eurotunnel's chief executive, walked out in protest at his chairman's handling of the crisis.

The crunch comes this Friday, 17 June, when Mr Gounon and Eurotunnel's other directors confront shareholders at what is sure to be an acrimonious annual meeting in Coquelles, just outside Calais, the French terminus of the tunnel.

There Mr Gounon will again face Mr Raymond, who plans to offer himself as an alternative chairman, and also Nicolas Miguet, the maverick investor who last year orchestrated the ousting of Eurotunnel's entire board.

Miguet dismisses Mr Gounon as a "clerk" and seems bent on stirring up yet more trouble.

But Mr Gounon told BBC News that if his plan is rejected by either shareholders or creditors the company will go bust.
The light at the end of this tunnel is fading fast.

A special Money Programme, "Britain's Biggest Black Hole", presented by Jeff Randall and investigating Eurotunnel's woes, was shown on BBC2 at 10pm on Tuesday 14 June.

durairaaj wrote:What is the use of building a tunnel or bridge? Sri lanka is neither an industral or economic power house nor an energy dump from where we need to move a lot of goods or fuel. This is nothing but a conspiracy to preclude any possibility of developing sethu canal that may bring the vast coast line of Tamilnadu closer to international shipping lane. This will preclude any possibility of developing good port facilities in Tamilnadu or Kerala. If the government goes ahead this will prevent a vast area of Tamilnadu from export oriented industrialization. This will be much worse than ceding the fishing and ownership rights of Kachathevu. It will be an yet another backstabing of Tamilnadu from the central government. The difference now is it is done by BJP while the earlier one was by Congress.

India and Sri Lanka will be discussing early next year, a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) on Standards to boost Lanka’s exports to India, the Development Strategy and International Trade Ministry said in a statement here.

Lanka’s exports to India have so far not realized their potential because India does not recognize the standards certificates issued by Lankan authorities.

Pakistan, Sri Lanka ink eight accords of cooperation PDF Print E-mail
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Jan 5 (APP): Pakistan and Sri Lanka on Tuesday signed eight bilateral instruments in diverse fields including cooperation in trade, financial intelligence, science and technology and healthcare. Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Srisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe witnessed the signing of documents at a ceremony held here at the President’s Secretariat.

The Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) is unlikely to buy the Pakistan-made and Chinese-designed JF-17, a third generation jet fighter, even if Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pushes for it during his sojourn in Colombo between January 4 and 6, a leading Lankan defense expert has told the Indian Express.

Reacting to a report by Anthony Davies in IHS Jane’s 360, dated December 29, saying that Sharif will press for its purchase, the Lankan expert who did not want to be identified said that two factors will prevent Colombo from going in for it: First, there is India’s opposition.

And second, there is the cost factor, with the fighters going at USD 35 million apiece. But the SLAF is eager to replace its aging Kfirs and MIG 27.

Official Indian sources denied any knowledge of Lanka’s intention to purchase the JF-17 from Pakistan or India’s counter offer to provide its Light Combat Aircraft “Tejas’. But the Lankan media has been talking about these for some time, briefed by none other than the Air Force Commander Air Marshal Gagan Bulathsinghala.

The Lankans are probably aware that the “Tejas” has a problem. While the JF-17 is a fully developed aircraft in operation since 2010, Tejas is still undergoing development following the discovery of some flaws by the Indian Air Force.

While Pakistan has to sell the JF-17 to justify the existence of a production facility, and may even offer credit, the Lankan defense expert quoted above wondered if Lanka will be able to afford the aircraft given the fact that it is in the doldrums financially with huge international debts to repay.

Additionally, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe may not approve of the SLAF’s plans to buy fighter jets, given his interest in giving the island nation a Blue Water navy to safeguard its coastline more effectively, and also to play a meaningful role in international maritime security as desired by the US.

Finally, given the current bonhomie between Nawaz Sharif and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seen in the unscheduled meeting at Lahore recently, many wonder if Sharif will ruffle India’s feathers now by pushing for the sale of the JF-17. - See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/101459/buy-pa ... kymsO.dpuf

No Decision On JF-17 Fighter Jets

by Camelia Nathaniel
The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) claims that no decision has been made regarding the purchase of aircraft for the SLAF yet, despite reports that Pakistan is expected to be pushing hard for a follow-up agreement with Sri Lanka on the purchase of its JF-17 multirole fighter aircraft for the Sri Lanka Air Force.

Speaking to The Sunday Leader regarding this issue, the Air Force spokesman Group Captain Chandima Alwis said that the evaluation process is still on-going and no decision has been made regarding a decision.

“We are not interested in particular models of aircraft but we are looking at multi role aircraft that would be best suited for our purpose,” he said.

Although numerous news articles had been published regarding the SLAF’s desire to purchase the JF-17 Thunder – a third-generation fighter co-produced by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and China’s Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation (CAC), according to the spokesman perhaps certain interested parties are trying to push for this deal by claiming that the deal had been confirmed.

However Group Captain Alwis said that a decision will be taken for the purchase of aircraft to the SLAF as the current fleet is now old. He said that as the war has ended, there was no particular requirement for combat aircraft and there was a greater need for aircraft that could be used for multiple purposes.

Meanwhile it was also reported that Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka this week, and this issue is likely to be high on his agenda.

Defence officials accompanying the {Pakistani} prime minister said that both countries signed eight agreements related to defence, security, anti-terrorism, trade and science and technology and Pakistan would provide eight JF-17 fighter jets to Sri Lanka at the first phase.

The scenario for 2016
Dr.Dayan Jayalatilika.
2016-01-06
“I can see badder weather”
“Badder Weather” (Josephine Oniyama, with Mathew Halsall & the Gondwana Orchestra)

2016 is the 60th anniversary year of many significant historical landmarks, local and global, that studded the year 1956. Internationally this is the 60th anniversary year of Nikita Khrushchev’s ‘secret speech’ to the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist party, which led to the Sino-Soviet schism and the eventual downfall of global communism; the Hungarian and Suez crises; and the landing of the yacht Granma, carrying Fidel, Raul and Che on the shores of Cuba on December 2nd -- the day that is celebrated as the founding of the FAR, Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed

Forces. (If I may strike a personal note, half way across the world and by the next dawn, which meant probably around the same time, I was born.) Nationally, it was the MEP victory of April 1956, led by SWRD Bandaranaike and amounting to what was dubbed ‘the Silent Revolution’. Following that socio-political upheaval, Sri Lanka (Ceylon at the time) would never be the same again.

The UNP-CBK bloc is determined to attempt five huge experiments amounting to a total rupture and meta-transformation within the year 2016, which no other country I can think of, even ones with revolutionary administrations, has attempted either simultaneously or in rapid uninterrupted sequence. Each one of these changes would be regarded as polarizing in any society. Any pair would be considered risky. A combination or continuum of three or more would be avoided as incendiary if not suicidal.

What are the five big-ticket items that form Agenda 2016?
Firstly, the new Constitution which will dislodge the unifying power centre that is the nationally elected executive presidency while de-constructing the country’s unitary state framework and reassembling Sri Lanka as a mere collage of self-governing provinces.

Secondly, the initiation of extraordinary measures such as introduction of special laws, setting up special courts and a special prosecutors’ office and inducting foreign forensic experts to prosecute a popular military and political high command of a large military which won a thirty years war against secessionist terrorism.

Thirdly, the initiation of an underwater tunnel and road and rail bridge which will eliminate after millennia, the protective natural barrier, the narrow sea wall that keeps Sri Lanka separate, independent and distinct from the Indian behemoth and its billion people, and what is more, will bridge this country’s Tamil majority North and Tamil Nadu. If anyone should be whipped with a stingray’s tail for posing danger to our culture and traditions, it is the one who agreed to close Nature’s protective gap with India which enabled us to evolve and preserve a distinct, independent, demographic, cultural and religious identity.

Fourthly, the ECTA which is to be signed in February, the economic pact with India, which will “liberalise” Sri Lanka’s labour market in the IT sector and the ship/boat building sector, going by the recent joint communique issued after the meetings of the Secretaries of the Commerce Ministries of India and Sri Lanka. Thus Sri Lanka’s IT sector will be swamped by graduates from India’s IT universities and colleges.

Fifthly, the adoption of market fundamentalism and deep and extensive privatization as Government policy, as symbolized by the forthcoming appointment (if one is to go by mass media reports) of Prof. Razeen Sally as Secretary to the Treasury. In an essay in the Daily FT Prof Sally charged Mahinda Rajapaksa with “ caveman economics” and with no trace of irony suggested as a model of economic policy and management for Sri Lanka, that of Chile in 1973-’74. Those were the years in which Gen. Augusto Pinochet bloodily overthrew the democratic soft-left regime of President Salvador Allende and inducted US economists led by Milton Friedman from the Chicago School, to erect a model which laid waste to Chile’s social welfare system and imposed ruthless free market fundamentalism. So the elected Rajapaksa was a “caveman” while the neo-fascist dictator Pinochet was not!

Prof Sally is an adherent of Friedrich Hayek and a member of the Mont Pelerin society, a freemasonry of ultra-rightwing, anti-state, neoliberal economists. The PM’s Austrian federalism and Prof Sally’s Chilean privatization will fuse and ignite.

The Sri Lankan model of a strong State which combines the centripetal unitary system, the directly elected executive presidency, multi-party electoral democracy, devolution of power to the provinces, a large state sector and social welfare, has proven a conspicuous success in prevailing over suicide bombing and mid-intensity war, two ultra-left xenophobic uprisings, a military coup conspiracy, cross-border terrorism based in an ethnic kin-state, and an interlude of a foreign intervention and peacekeeping troop presence. The Sri Lankan system succeeded in protecting and preserving independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, multi-party democracy and a market economy. It not only enabled victory in war but also a rapid postwar reconstruction and a fast-growing postwar economy. Why attempt to dismantle rather than gradually reform it?

Why such a surreal agenda and where from? The agenda is overcrowded because it is a grab-bag of tattered pre-war/antiwar appeasement wish-lists, namely those of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Mangala Samaraweera, the TNA, the CFA Co-Chairs, India, the Tamil diaspora, Colombo’s civil society, the international human rights NGOs, and some UN players. It’s got everything ranging from CBK’s ‘union of regions’ packages, Sudu Nelum anti-military ideology, Bergh of Foundation Federalism, the PTOMS, Ranil’s CFA, the ISGA, and radical privatisation, to the Ranil-Mangala’s West-dependent foreign policy. This system-transplant project is being introduced in a political context that is utterly unconducive to its furtherance:

(a) The two-thirds majority that was cobbled together after the August 2015 parliamentary elections do not represent anything remotely like the mandates of the Constitution-making electoral avalanches of 1970 and 1977

(b) The character of the political power play today is multi-polar: Ranil, President Sirisena, Mahinda Rajapaksa and the TNA. The main arena is tri-polar: Ranil, Maithri and Mahinda. The three poles are not static but tend to form ephemeral patterns --a fluidity that my father Mervyn de Silva used to call ‘kaleidoscopic’. This is confirmed by the pragmatic interview President Sirisena has just given The Hindu (Jan. 3rd).

(c) The atmosphere has been vitiated by a witch-hunt via the FCID and the Special Commission on Bribery. Any serious reform needs dialogue and broad consensus, but that is exactly the opposite of the dynamics generated by the witch-hunt.

Ideologically we now have the most rightwing pro-Western government we have had since 1952-1956, which triggered the Bandaranaike–DA Rajapaksa breakaway, the founding of the SLFP and the MEP victory of 1956. Having found our way as a nation to a truly historic zenith in 2009 under Mahinda, we have lost our way since (Just as we had before Mahinda arrived at the presidency in 2005), because we have strayed too far from the social democratic Middle Path in one direction or another.

Postwar, we needed reformist change, but not just any change. We needed to evolve beyond the hyper-securitised developmentalist model to a more liberal progressive agenda while consolidating the historic victories this nation achieved under MR’s leadership. Instead we have returned to an obsolescent pre-MR agenda, piloted by pre-MR leaders, who failed the greatest test history set us for centuries. Their agenda targets, subverts and aims to dismantle our hard-won victories. That isn’t progress, it is rollback and retrogression.

Society needed a measure of ‘Glasnost’ i.e. openness, but we are going too far in an entirely wrong direction with ‘Perestroika’ i.e. restructuring, as reform metastasizes into anarchic, nihilistic trashing of the state and its successful achievements, risking an uncontrollable chain reaction culminating in chaos. If we have taken a welcome step forward in terms of a less uptight, more relaxed social atmosphere, we have taken a ‘Great Leap Backward’ in terms of stability and the national interest. - See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/101945/the-sc ... mjUky.dpuf

Colombo: Sri Lanka has strongly condemned the terrorist attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot and reaffirmed its commitment to combat terrorism in all forms.

The Government and people of Sri Lanka extend condolences to the victims and their families, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a release.

Sri Lanka remains committed to work with countries in the region and beyond to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, it added.

Colombo:An unidentified investor has promised to park $1 billion in dollar deposits in Sri Lanka to help the island nation defend its currency, the finance minister told Reuters, in an unusual move that highlights the country’s precarious finances.Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake declined to reveal the identity of the investor. But he said the investor was Belgian and was working with a Sri Lankan partner.The investor has promised to transfer the money in two equal tranches from banks in Brussels and Luxembourg, the minister said.“Instead of going for bonds and other borrowing, we are permitting it to take place,” Karunanayake said.“This is better than negative returns in Europe”, for investors, he said.The deposits, which pay an interest rate of 2 percent, are part of the ministry’s plans to raise $3 billion to $4 billion to shore up reserves and defend the rupee, which has hovered around record lows since the central bank floated it on September 4.Remittances from expatriate workers, worth about $5.8 billion in the first 10 months of last year, are expected to dry up because of the political turmoil in the Middle East.Foreign reserves, which stood at $7.3 billion on December 31, are under pressure as $5 billion is expected to be repaid on foreign loans in 2016, according to central bank data.Financial experts said bringing in so much money from an individual investor was fraught with risks. Karunanayake has already liberalised dollar remittances from foreigners into the country.
“This allows room for money-laundering. Black money could easily come through this,” said Sirimal Abeyratne, an economics professor at the University of Colombo.“Also, this money could go out quickly creating further volatility,” Abeyratne said.Karunanayake said anybody who felt black money was coming in could take up the matter in the courts.A senior finance ministry official said it was the responsibility of the remitting bank in Europe to check the source of funds and know their customers.“Sri Lanka will not question any investors who want to remit the money,” the official said.The first tranche of $500 million from the Sri Lankan investor’s partner was deposited on December 26, and the second is expected to arrive some time this month, Karunanayake said.So far, the country has got $1.5 billion from such deposits, Karunanayake said. He said the deposit has no lock-in period and the government would allow withdrawals at any time.The money from the investor and others – appears to have helped. Dealers said the central bank was selling dollars.The Sri Lankan rupee closed steady at 143.75/85 to the dollar on Monday. It hit an all-time low of 144.30 hit on December 30.“What I feel is the authorities have the dollars to control the market since the last week of December,” a currency dealer said.

Colombo, Jan 12: Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar on Tuesday arrived in Sri Lanka to hold bilateral discussions with the island nation’s leadership, media reported. Jaishankar is expected to meet Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera among other dignitaries, a report in the Daily Mirror online said.

According to the report, during the course of his visit, Jaishankar is expected to pave the way for the India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission (ISLJC) meeting scheduled to be held in Colombo next month. Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is likely to attend the meeting.

India’s largest naval ship, the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, arrived here on Thursday on a three-day visit. The carrier is accompanied by a destroyer, INS Mysore, which is an Indian frontline missile destroyer

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena today got on board INS Vikramaditya, India's largest warship and aircraft carrier, in the port of Colombo.

Sirisena, who became the first head of state to get on board the ship, spoke to the crew and exchanged greetings with them, officials said.

Jhujar wrote:http://thehimalayantimes.com/business/s ... end-rupee/
Sri Lanka turns to mystery investor in bid to defend rupee

Colombo:An unidentified investor has promised to park $1 billion in dollar deposits in Sri Lanka to help the island nation defend its currency, the finance minister told Reuters, in an unusual move that highlights the country’s precarious finances.Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake declined to reveal the identity of the investor. But he said the investor was Belgian and was working with a Sri Lankan partner.The investor has promised to transfer the money in two equal tranches from banks in Brussels and Luxembourg, the minister said.“Instead of going for bonds and other borrowing, we are permitting it to take place,” Karunanayake said.“This is better than negative returns in Europe”, for investors, he said.The deposits, which pay an interest rate of 2 percent, are part of the ministry’s plans to raise $3 billion to $4 billion to shore up reserves and defend the rupee, which has hovered around record lows since the central bank floated it on September 4.Remittances from expatriate workers, worth about $5.8 billion in the first 10 months of last year, are expected to dry up because of the political turmoil in the Middle East.Foreign reserves, which stood at $7.3 billion on December 31, are under pressure as $5 billion is expected to be repaid on foreign loans in 2016, according to central bank data.Financial experts said bringing in so much money from an individual investor was fraught with risks. Karunanayake has already liberalised dollar remittances from foreigners into the country.
“This allows room for money-laundering. Black money could easily come through this,” said Sirimal Abeyratne, an economics professor at the University of Colombo.“Also, this money could go out quickly creating further volatility,” Abeyratne said.Karunanayake said anybody who felt black money was coming in could take up the matter in the courts.A senior finance ministry official said it was the responsibility of the remitting bank in Europe to check the source of funds and know their customers.“Sri Lanka will not question any investors who want to remit the money,” the official said.The first tranche of $500 million from the Sri Lankan investor’s partner was deposited on December 26, and the second is expected to arrive some time this month, Karunanayake said.So far, the country has got $1.5 billion from such deposits, Karunanayake said. He said the deposit has no lock-in period and the government would allow withdrawals at any time.The money from the investor and others – appears to have helped. Dealers said the central bank was selling dollars.The Sri Lankan rupee closed steady at 143.75/85 to the dollar on Monday. It hit an all-time low of 144.30 hit on December 30.“What I feel is the authorities have the dollars to control the market since the last week of December,” a currency dealer said.

Sri Lanka gets second currency swap from India; total US$1.1bn

Sri Lanka has received a 400 million US dollar currency swap from Reserve Bank of India’s facility for South Asia, Central Bank Deputy Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said, taking the total support to the island’s monetary authority to 1.1 billion dollars.

India’s cabinet of ministers this week gave the nod to provide another 700 million dollar swap to Sri Lanka’s central bank taking the total up to 1.1 billion dollars. The facility will be available for three months or until a deal is reached with the International Monetary Fund, India said.

There are differing accounts as to the origin of the Sri Lanka Matha. According to K. M. de Silva, Howard Wriggins, The Times of India and IBN Live, Ananda Samarakoon was inspired by Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore.[6][7][8] Rupavahini, Sunil Ariyaratne and R. K. Radhakrishnan state that Samarakoon returned to Ceylon from India around 1938 and wrote Namo Namo Mata in October 1940, whilst teaching at Mahinda College, inspired by his learning under Tagore.[3][9][source needs translation][4][source needs translation][5][10][11] According to Sumana Saparamadu, Samarakoon had been asked to write a patriotic song by the Chief Inspector of Schools for the Southern Province T. D. Jayasuriya.[10] Nayomini R. Weerasooriya says Tagore helped Samarakoon write and compose the song.[12]However, according to Bengali journalists Haroon Habib and Junaidul Haque, Tagore wrote the music and lyrics for Nama Nama Sri Lanka Mata in 1938 in the Bengali language for his student Samarakoon.[1][2] According to them, Samarakoon then returned to Ceylon in 1940 and translated Tagore's song into the Sinhala language Apa Sri Lanka, Namo Namo Namo Namo Matha, Sundar Sri Boroni.[1][2] After the song was sung by the choir from Musaeus College at a public event it became hugely popular in Ceylon and was widely played on radio.[13]