Ceylon Today Editorial

Do what we can do best in sports

29 October 2016

Recently, the Education Minister was heard saying that the government was going to have more sports schools around the country. This would be immensely helpful for the nation if the programme was planned on some scale to benefit the country as well as those going to pursue sports.

The government has learnt that infrastructure is an immediate need to promote the country internationally. As with roads, airports, harbour building there are many more ways to show the world that a country is advancing and sports is an important aspect of this. Most Asian countries took a long time to realize this. If you look at countries such as Japan when caught in the 2nd World War and crushed by the Americans, they came out of it clinging on to their aggressor with an all-round plan that included embracing the American way of thinking. They also discovered sports the way Americans thought and played it. Soon Americans recognized Japanese sports stars especially their baseball players.

Sports were a very highly regarded activity in Japan and the Samurai, were a clan that were highly skilled riders and archers that happened to be paid handsomely for their favours to various courts that they agreed to serve. It was through them that martial arts became a widespread activity that could be regarded as a sport.

The Western sporting influence hit Japan in the 1870s with baseball, soccer, basketball and many more including cricket being introduced to no avail. But it was soon after the World War II that the Japanese took to professional sports with boxing at the helm. And they soon had many world champions by 1970.

By the 1960s Japanese sports culture had grown steadily to be recognized by world sports governing bodies like the IOC to allow the 1964 Olympics to take place in Japan. Japan was the first non-Western nation to hold the event.
Sri Lanka is an Asian country like Japan, Western sports being introduced there almost simultaneously in the early 19th century. South Korea is another Asian country which began professional sports quite recently but has grown in wide proportions due to the government helping with the sport culture with clubs encouraging sports lovers to join these and do serious sporting activity getting involved in it thoroughly.

South Korea became number three medal winner at the 2012 London Olympics. They first took part in an Olympic games in 1948 and since then have gathered 243 medals up to 2016. Even China who began Olympic activity after Sri Lanka is doing better today and advocates professional sports. All these three Asian giants are doing well due to one thing and that is thinking of sports purely from a professional point of view.

America by far is the place where the standards of any sport they indulge in is taken seriously and played professionally. Even when they play it in a park or on the beach games such as basketball, volleyball etc. they play it for money and that is how they improve their game getting better at skills, doing it with other professionals. America has the best sports infrastructure in the whole world at any level. Most of their schools have no shortages of infrastructure; it is good if the officials read this description given about the way America goes about attending to their sports activity to remain on top.

There is a saying that most professional international sports clubs would kill to have the facilities American Colleges afford. It clearly shows the interest they offer its students to become competitive in sports. A quotation from Quora on line news carrier says, "There's no shortage of sports infrastructure in the US. Everywhere you go, no matter how big or small the community, you'll see basketball courts, baseball and softball fields, football fields, soccer fields. Every middle school has a track and a big open space where you can play anything. Every high school has organized facilities – at the minimum, a big field that hosts football, soccer, field hockey, baseball, at the most, separate fields for each of those sports, with indoor training and practice facilities. And basketball courts, sometimes multiple courts, are a commonality.

The best sports offered by the American schools do not include track and field as with the Sri Lankans inter-house meets. Building athletes is the major issue, first was to have the infrastructure and then knowing their limitations the Asian giants chose the sport they could be competitive in at the Olympics and win medals. Table tennis, gymnastics, badminton etc. were the sports, and especially with their big populations they could easily afford to do this. Australia having a population similar to Sri Lanka, they too do well in events like swimming, team games, especially women's, because they are out to win medals. The programme for building sports schools should necessarily have the basic thinking on these lines to build up athletes as Sri Lanka did with the Susanthika case and got her to get that Olympic achievement, train the minimum best to achieve the maximum possible.

Daily News Editorial

Towards better economic prospects

29 October 2016

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe made a very assertive and bold statement in Parliament that the Government will not let the debt burden fall onto the shoulders of the next generation. No Sri Lankan leader has made such a clear-cut statement on this vexed issue that has adversely affected the economy.

All Governments have obtained loans from foreign countries and agencies, mainly because financing is often not available locally. Governments resort to this practice to speed up development projects, lest they be delayed while waiting for local funds to flow in. However, it is generally understood that such loans should only be obtained for urgent and essential development projects.

This principle was violated with impunity by the previous regime, which borrowed heavily for “white elephant” projects such as the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport and the Magampura (Hambantota) Port. Since these projects hardly make any money, at the present rate of payback it will take hundreds of years to end the loan commitment.

This is indeed a bleak prospect and some “thinking outside the box” was clearly in order. From the time they came to power in January 2015, both President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have stressed the importance of turning these two white elephants to viable entities.

Now the Government has embarked on just such a step, with the Prime Minister’s announcement of initiating a Public-Private Partnership for the Hambantota port and the Mattala airport for developing the area as an international air-sea hub. Along with expanded the Bandaranaike International Airport, Colombo Port, Western Region Megapolis and the Colombo International Financial City, this is projected to save US$ 1 billion the country was about to lose, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe has said. Chinese, Korean and Japanese investors have expressed strong interest in investing in the special economic zone to be put up in 15,000 acres in Hambantota.

Presenting details of the Government’s 1,500 day economic development programme, the Prime Minister added that a considerable share of the country’s debt could be reduced in this manner. This is a victory for the country’s economy and the people who expect some relief from the High Cost of Living. The Government has explained that the proposed VAT increase to 15 percent to partially offset the debt burden will only be a temporary measure, until adequate funds are generated locally, making indirect taxes such as VAT unnecessary. We hope that this day will dawn sooner rather than later.

This is not the only highlight of the Premier’s path breaking speech – he explained that revolutionary thinking, bold policies and initiatives are required to take forward Sri Lanka’s economy. We should let go of stereotype and hackneyed ideas and embrace bold new initiatives. Trade and investment will be the keys to a more prosperous future. This is where the proposed (and much misunderstood) Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) with India, Free Trade Agreements with China and Singapore and the proposed restoration of the European Union’s GSP Plus facility for exports come into play. It is vital to develop our exports which are hovering around US$ 11 billion at present by using such initiatives. There will also be a campaign for securing more Foreign Direct Investment and tourist arrivals. The key driver for all these initiatives is Sri Lanka’s strategic position as a gateway to South Asia.

The Prime Minister, elaborating on what he called the “third generation” of economic reforms (after the first and second generation of economic reforms initiated by Presidents J.R. Jayewardene and Ranasinghe Premadasa), said the Government’s aim is to put the income potential of Sri Lankans on a faster trajectory by doubling the current level of Per Capita Income. However, at the current rate of 5% economic growth it will only be achieved in year 2033 – personal income levels can be doubled by 2025 only if the growth rate is 7% per annum. The above measures will go a long way towards achieving this target.

Sri Lanka must align itself with future trends to move forward – the digital and knowledge economy should be a priority. The modernization of education will play a key role in this regard. Hence the Government’s plan to distribute tabs among A/L students and also have a limited number of “smart classrooms” with digital interactive screens with a view to expansion islandwide. In parallel, the Government has already taken measures to make education compulsory until Year 13.

We must heed the lessons of the past in order to secure our future. As the Prime Minister has rightly pointed out, Sri Lanka has missed many opportunities to achieve truly viable economic success in the past 68 years following Independence. We should not let this opportunity before us slip once again.

In the Prime Minister’s own words, “we need to focus on the path forward, on our ability to compete successfully in a dynamic global market place and carve out our niche among the prosperous nations of the world”.

The Island Editorial

COPE report out; action needed

29 October 2016

 

The much-awaited COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) report on the Central Bank bond scam has been released at last. It is being described as damning, but, we reckon, it is not damning enough.

The COPE report has, as we reported last Friday, reveals that there has been a bond scam and holds the then Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran responsible. It has also called for legal action against the culprits and recovering the losses the state has suffered because of them.

The UNP members of the COPE raked us over the coals for reporting facts and even threatened to sue the editor of this newspaper for doing that. A UNP MP yesterday repeated the call for summoning editors and reporters and questioning them for reporting on COPE proceedings which were not open to the media. Speaker Karu Jayasuriya should have fulfilled his promise to open COPE proceedings to the media in time for the committee’s last few stormy sessions. Better late than never!

We believe that it is media pressure that compelled the government to act with restraint and come to terms with the inevitable as regards the COPE findings. Else, perhaps, the COPE report would not have seen the light of day or it would have been heavily watered down before being released.

COPE Chairman Sunil Handunnetti, presenting his committee’s report in Parliament yesterday, stressed what had been in the previous report (which we quoted from) remained unchanged. Interestingly, he revealed that 16 COPE members had taken exception to footnotes in the final report, but nine others had endorsed them. One member, Ranjan Ramanayake, has chosen to remain noncommittal. His silence is eloquent!

It is a pity that Handunnetti was prevented from revealing to the public his ordeal at the hands of the UNP members of the COPE. The government took cover behind parliamentary traditions and ethics to silence him. So much for its much-flaunted commitment to right to information!

The billion-rupee question is what will happen to those responsible for the bond scam.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe sought to scotch rumours that Mahendran had fled the country. He said the latter would return after attending a wedding overseas. It will be interesting to see whether complaints against the former Central Bank Governor will be entertained by the FCID, CID and other such outfits whose raison d’etre is to arrest the political opponents of the government. A bond fraud which has cost the state coffers billions of rupees is surely a far worse offence than keeping elephants without permits or misusing one or two state-owned vehicles, for which the backers of the former government get arrested.

One should not be so naïve as to expect legal action to be instated against Mahendra or others on the basis of the COPE report. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said the Attorney General would have to be consulted first of all. The AG’s department has been reduced to an appendage of the government and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa must take the biggest share of the blame for this sorry state of affairs. It has earned notoriety for helping further the interests of governments in power. Under the previous regime, it let the then Rajapaksa loyalist Mervyn Silva, who owned up to a cheque fraud off the hook. Any other person would have been sent to jail for that.

So, as for the damning COPE report and action to be taken against those responsible for bond scams there’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.

It may be recalled that the COPE headed by Wijayadasa Rajapakshe, once, blew the lid off several illegal transactions under the UNP-led UNF government (2001-2004). Subsequently, the Supreme Court declared them null and void and the state took over the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation and the Lanka Marine Services bunkering facility, which had been sold illegally. But, strangely, nobody was arrested and prosecuted for those illegal deals.

It is now clear that President Maithripala Sirisena was right in denying Mahendran another term as the Central Bank Governor even at the risk of the government breaking up on that issue. Will he go the whole hog and ensure that no one responsible for the fraudulent bond auctions will go scot free?