Sunday Leader Editorial

Leap-Frogging Into The Developed World

Sunday 08th November 2015

 

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announced his brave vision for a spanking new Sri Lanka in his ‘Third Generation Economic Reforms’ address to parliament on Thursday. It is an outline of a comprehensive economic plan for the future hitherto not considered for which much thought and hard work would have gone in. It is not possible to do justice to this plan in this account that is written scarcely 24 hours after its delivery, and we would confine our comments to a brief view of it on our first reading.

The first generation reforms Wickremesinghe refers to is that of President J.R. Jayewardene’s  reforms after he swept the 1977 polls and was able to usher in drastic economic changes without much protests with his 4/5^th majority in parliament. The Jayewardene reforms shifted the economy from the Mixed Socialist Economic Policies of the Bandaranaikes, so devoutly followed, to an unabashed Market Economy which was a move of great foresight. India which had been ploughing on with the so called Nehruvian-Gandhian economic policies shifted to a Market Economy only 10 years later. The Second Generation Reforms are those of President Premadasa which was basically a continuation of the Jayewardene reforms while the Third set of Reforms are those presented by him with President Maithripala Sirisena.

Wickremesinghe claims that with the January 8 and parliamentary election victory the issue of Geneva resolutions brought against Sri Lanka was hanging like the Sword of Damocles over the country even threatening international sanctions but that has been cleared, and the entire market of the world was now open to Sri Lanka.

Indeed the world market may be open to Sri Lanka now, but he is well aware of how hard it is to enter this competitive market. To do so, he says the economic foundations must be right, and Sri Lanka must have a knowledge based Social Market Economy built on social justice principles. There can be no valid objection to an economic system based on principles of social justice, but in Sri Lankan politics valid reasons for objections are not required. The opposition opposes anything that is proposed.

The Prime Minister says that in his opinion the right political climate has been created to build a strong economy. The main objective in forming a national government by the two main political parties in the country was to provide a common platform to deliver long term social economic policies that can solve the key economic problems of the country.

True, there is a national government in place trying to achieve such objectives, but there is also an extremely disruptive opposition within the UPFA determined to wreck every move made by the government. With such opposition, the economic miracles performed by Park Chung-hee of South Korea or Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore or even J.R. Jayewardene are not possible. Gen Park Chun Hee was a military dictator and Lee Kuan Yew himself saw to it that he had no opposition, and Jayewardene broke the back of a very powerful trade union movement that rose against him.

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government is a democratic government elected on the ticket of Good Governance. So Wickremesinghe will have to find a way out of this political impasse.

Some of the proposals such as empowering three million citizens to become land and house owners, priority for middleclass housing schemes in sub-urban and semi-urban areas were long awaited and so far confined only to political rhetoric. They can be of immense benefit to the working class who today have to part with a quarter or half their monthly income on house rents. Housing schemes built on sustained plans that will have neighbourhoods created with hospitals, schools, shopping complexes etc., are still dreams which the middleclass is longing for.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe says ‘the biggest challenge of all is to lift ourselves up from the economic abyss the Rajapaksa administration placed this country through procedures that were erratic economic processes and irregular practices’. To uplift the people’s income levels while creating one million jobs, Sri Lanka has to enter a market bigger than the local market and find space in the world market. He lists a number of steps that have to be taken to achieve this objective one of which is foreign investment; some others most Sri Lankans are still not familiar with.

Two years are required for consolidation of these plans, and then moves will be made to go forward.

If his vista of sweeping economic reforms materialises it will take Sri Lanka from a backward Lower- Middle Income country in which 46 per cent earn less thant $ (US) 2 per day into a prosperous Middle Income Country like say South Korea or Singapore. One vital factor that is lacking appears to be the personnel required for implementation for such a sophisticated economic plan. It requires people with a committed work ethic like the so called Confucian work ethic of the Chinese and those beyond China such as in Singapore. Expertise and innovative talents are required among indigenous people as well as contributions from foreigners. A change in the insular Sri Lankan mindset is required beyond those who object even to a rival institution producing fellow/professionals.

Wickremesinghe’s thinking is in accordance with global trends of economic development. Sri Lanka has to leap-frog out of the hole it is in, if it is to jump into the developed world.

The Nation Editorial

Ceylon Today Editorial

Is Yahapalanaya turning Wasapalanaya? 

Sunday 08th November 2015

 
Minister of Law and Order and Prison Reforms, Tilak Marapana, is also the instructing Counsel for Nissanaka Senadhipathi in the Avant Garde case as claimed by Marapana. He made a rather controversial statement in Parliament last week which appeared in defence of Avant Garde Security Services. The minister blamed the Police for making a mountain out of a mole hill like the Millenium City controversy.

Justice and Buddha Sasana Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, adding insult to injury, proclaimed that he singlehandedly prevented the arrest of former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa for the Avant Garde case. He further highlighted that he advised the President and Prime Minister that there is no substantive evidence that would support the arrest of the former Defence Secretary. However, contrary to this, the Attorney General's Department had initially disclosed that there was evidence to file a plaint against Avant Garde.

On 10 January, President Maithripala Sirisena took office to establish Good Governance (Yahapalanaya). With regard to the Avant Garde case, allegations were levelled in Parliament by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Leader and the Chief Opposition Whip, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who named Tilak Marapana, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe and Vajira Abeywardena as the ministers behind the curtain supporting Avant Garde to sweep the controversy under the carpet.

Tilak Marapana is a former Attorney General of the country, Defence Minister and the incumbent Minister of Law and Order and Prison Reforms who has openly stated that he is the instructing Counsel for Nissanka Senadhipathi and his company Avant Garde Security Services. More so, his statement in Parliament last week created a major uproar in the House, which in nature looked bona fide, as his statement signified the conflict of interest of Tilak Marapana in his capacities as the Minister of Law and Order and instructing counsel for Avant Garde.

Meanwhile, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe who said that he prevented the arrest of Gotabaya Rajapakshe has breached the boundaries of the Judiciary and appears to have interfered in the duties of the Police Department and the Attorney General's Department. It is the police or the Criminal Investigation Department that investigates such an incident, gathers evidence to submit to the Attorney General's Department for necessary advice. Likewise, the Attorney General is the one who examines such evidence and decides or recommend whether or not to indict the suspected party. The Justice Minister absolutely has no role to play between the police and the Attorney General with regard to such investigations. The Justice Minister under provisions embodied in the Constitution of Sri Lanka has no powers to prevent the arrest of any suspect in this country by influencing the President and the Prime Minister or to release suspects or prisoners. The Constitution clearly defines that not even the Executive who is the Head of State is empowered to direct the police or the Attorney General to prevent such arrests.

The development that took place in Parliament and at Cabinet Meetings recently clearly shows that political interference is caused in the Avant Garde controversy as some ministers are reported to have vested interests with the company. The previous allegations made by Minister of Health and Indigenous Medicine, Rajith Senaratne, who claimed that Avant Garde officials offered him a monthly bribe of Rs 2 million to sweep the issue under the carpet, acts as proof to this predicament. Rajitha told the Cabinet that Avant Garde Chief who was his friend earlier cut off links following his refusal to accept bribes.

It was the then UNP Opposition which accused the previous Rajapaksa administration of being corrupt and rallied round Maithripala Sirisena to topple that regime. Today some ministers in the same UNP are being accused by their own men in fold for taking bribes. What a twist and turn in politics in the UNP camp? Maithri and Ranil were elected by the people in January and August this year to wipe out corruption. They view these ugly developments with much heartburn.
Those who voted for the Yahapalanaya Government today ask whether Yahapalanaya is fast turning Wasapalanaya.

Sunday Times Editorial

Corruption; the same difference 

 Sunday 08th November 2015

Hardly had the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs waxed eloquent at the United Nations Convention on Corruption in faraway St. Petersburg on the new Government’s crusade against corruption, did Sri Jayawardhanapura, Kotte reverberate with a thundering speech in Parliament by the leader of the JVP. His, the only party still not tainted by the highly corrupt political system in Sri Lanka, pulled no punches in accusing this Government of encouraging bribery and corruption and protecting crooks.

The JVP leader spared no one; not even the President or the Prime Minister and was especially tough on some Ministers, Deputies and MPs whom he said he was identifying by pointing his eyes at them. He said he spoke with a sense of anger, frustration and disappointment because this was a Government his party helped into power and place defeating what was a corrupt administration.

Backing his statements with facts and figures, the JVP leader listed individual cases of fraudulent transactions that have been suppressed or swept under the carpet. He said this was an era of deal-making and accused people in high office of being the new partners in crime.

This was barely 48 hours after the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the UN Convention that corruption is a “pernicious crime” that “devastates lives” and the Deputy Minister said that the Government “under the leadership of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had taken a host of measures to prevent corruption, to seek out stolen assets, and to build the capacity for effectively curbing corruption and bribery, in an effective, comprehensive, result-oriented manner”. He went on to tell the world community that “in a country where anti-corruption was only a rhetorical commitment under the last Government, all these measures, aimed to contribute towards a culture of good governance, represented a paradigm shift”.

One could be excused for wondering if the contradictory speeches spoke of one and the same country – both made by those who helped defeat a clearly corrupt former Government and pledged to usher in a clean administration for which the people voted them in had great hopes.

That Parliament and the people are already beginning to talk of corruption under the new Government just ten months into office is indeed a sad state of affairs. The JVP leader’s speech and what amounted to the Government’s response spilled over to the Cabinet the next day with some Ministers threatening to quit over the way the campaign against corruption was being handled by their own Government.

The question is: why, after six decades of Independence we still cannot get it right. Every democracy has its share of corruption but Sri Lanka’s is endemic. Is it the political system, the greed of individual politicians, or a combination of both?

The Deputy Minister’s assertion that the Government’s policy “to foster a society with zero tolerance of corruption” had echoes of the previous Government’s policy of “zero civilian casualties” during the last days of the war against the LTTE, but rang hollow in the face of the accusations within Parliament and in the Cabinet.

The continuing debate on the floating armoury — the Avant Garde case — exposed the frailty of the political system and how politicians have got sucked into the fray by big bucks. Notwithstanding the legality, or otherwise of the controversial but lucrative project that was launched to combat sea pirates, there is evidence that slush monies went into campaign funds — a matter that has been brought to light over electioneering under the existing political system.

That it has extended to other areas in the investigations into the Avant Garde activities has compromised this Government. The Police dragging their feet and blaming the Attorney General’s Department for inaction is typical of how things get hushed up along the way. Questions are now being raised as to why the Government that is contemplating bringing foreign investigators for purported war crimes tribunals cannot get foreign investigators on the job for corruption probes. There is also a suggestion to bring back the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) of yesteryear with some amendments to fast-track prosecutions.

We said in our editorial of January 25, soon after the Presidential election in reference to the rogues of the recent past: “All the culprits need to do is duck their heads for a while and ride out the storm. In the meantime they will be looking for patrons in the new dispensation”. And that is exactly what they have succeeded in doing. Take a look at the delegation that accompanied the President on his State visit to Thailand this week. Not quite the ‘Rogues Gallery’ but these are businessmen who can do “business” with any Government. Stories are aplenty of today’s deal-making as the JVP very correctly said – and they are not limited to Avant Garde.

The Finance Minister when in Opposition referred to catching “thoras” (big fish) of the past Government not the sprats when they came to office. Now, with the National Government in place, he finds some of the ‘thoras’ as his Cabinet colleagues. As for the shady businessmen who surround these politicians, they have taken just ten months to announce their “mission accomplished”.

It’s not that the leadership of this National Government is totally unaware of all that is happening around them. But it is not so easy to change the inbuilt, ingrained corrupt system overnight. A recent remark the Premier made to the Finance Ministry officials exposed his frustrations.

But, take the case of the recent appointment of the new chairman of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) – the brother of the Minister in charge. It is a textbook case of nepotism, which together with corruption was another platform on which the present leadership slammed the previous administration and promised the people who voted for them, and the country at large, a change.

Soon after the Parliamentary elections, the people were told very righteously that heads of Government institutions would be selected by a committee comprising the President and the Prime Minister. That such selections would be done on a “scientific basis”. Pray, on what ‘scientific basis’ was this selection done? The Minister claims he has a personal bond with the President. He is one of the few loyalists of former President Kumaratunga who form the troika – or the ‘Holy Trinity’ that runs the Yahapalana Government together with the Prime Minister, in whose party the Minister is now. What explanation have the three of them got for this appointment? It’s a leaf taken from the Rajapaksa regime which they denounced and dethroned.

The disillusionment with the Government is increasing, simply because there was such great hope. Is this the transparency and accountability that the Deputy Minister spoke of in St. Petersburg? Go tell it to the Marines.