Ceylon Today Editorial

Trump worries Asian-Pacific Leaders

17 November 2016

President Maithripala Sirisena and Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe in addition to Sri Lanka's Defence establishment and fiscal/monetary planners will hang on to every word spoken between US President–elect Donald Trump and Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe immediately after Abe flies in to New York shortly after you read this commentary.

Abe could be as worried a man as India's Narendra Modi is and more worried about Trump's campaign rhetoric about possible scaling down of US commitments in the Asia/Pacific as well as rethinking about the Trade and investment oriented Trans-Pacific agreements. Sri Lanka's Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake in fact significantly singled out pursuing US-Lanka Trans-Pacific negotiations as a focal point in his Budget speech in Parliament last week.

Besides India, Japan and Sri Lanka, other Asia-Pacific nations, who were recently invited to the G7 meet in Tokyo where Obama showed every sign of a post-Obama continuation of the US Pivot to Asia, the totally unexpected Trump presidency has infused sudden military/defence and economic fears amongst all of the US friends in this region. The Japanese Premier was shaken badly enough to almost immediately after Trump's election seek a face-to-face talk with Trump on these vital issues to which Trump readily agreed.

China, Russia and Pakistan as Syria will also be keenly following the talks in New York. Russian strategies have split US forces and focus between the NATO region and the Asia-Pacific theatre, thus tending to ensure US forces cannot be concentrated to act in any one given crisis area.

Trump will need to alter his worldview to a more rational one if only because the entire security and prosperity of the Asian-Pacific nations will also ensure US defence and economic stability. One wrong move by Trump, can plunge the entire Asia-Pacific region into abysmal chaos, and undo the relationships nurtured by Obama with Asian and Pacific leaders. This is why Sri Lanka under Sirisena will also share in global misgivings about Trump's Asia-Pacific policies. Abe will be in power until 2021. Modi will be in power until 2019 and Sirisena will be in power until 2020. And they will all have to deal with a man at the White House who seems lacking in a wider worldview.

Modi leads the world's largest democracy. Abe heads the world's third-largest economy and plays host to an overwhelming number of US forces in the Pacific. As a foil for anti-US Chinese ambitions, Trump had better see the light and shed his blinkers in talks with Abe. Not only has Abe upped Japan's defence spending enormously but Abe made it a point to invite Sri Lanka's President Sirisena to the G7...and by describing him as the new Voice of Asia, the Japanese Premier was in fact emphasizing the increased role that Sri Lanka under Sirisena had begun to play in the Indian Ocean-Pacific military/economic nexus led by the US. Trump's stated general political philosophy does not gel with any of this.

The evolving military security threat faced by Japan in the region and by extension the threat to the US too, is amply underscored by the fact that Abe has pumped billions of dollars into putting 130 war ships out to sea and strengthening its air deterrent machine. It's all because of the depth of the Japanese commitment to the maritime security architecture necessitated by the Japan–US partnership. On 26 April last year, François Hollande launched an Asia-wide initiative in an attempt to halt declining trade figures and improve its overall leverage with the region. France is helping Sri Lanka immeasurably to regain her lost GSP+ exports status.

Nuclear powered France and Canberra have now forged a close military-trade partnership...the two seem to inevitably go together in global affairs today. All this seems to be leading to a closer knit link between France and Australia and Japan...but can they sustain a mammoth military defence architecture without a substantial US involvement? This underscores the huge difference a Rajapaksa regime would have on the geopolitics of the region should a negative Trump policy need a helping hand in Colombo for China and Russia.

Let's remember that Hollande, is committed to the Quadrilateral Defence Coordination Group that includes the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and which coordinates maritime security efforts in the Pacific...and by extension, the Indian Ocean domain.

France is also developing close ties with India, Japan, South Korea and South East Asian countries, especially Sri Lanka, which have all received French ministerial visits recently. Trump has to reckon with all of these facts when he sits down for talks with Abe tomorrow...remembering that there's a growing new joint European Union policy towards the Asia-Pacific related to developments in the South China Sea. All this could encourage Trump's pull-back thinking and foster a wider French-Japan-India-Australia role in the Asia-Pacific.

Daily News Editorial

Govt. must act fast

17 November 2016

It did not need the President and the Prime Minister to spell it out. That a well funded political project was already underway from the outset to destabilize the government was evident from the very outset. Speaking at the ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the Ravaya publication in Colombo on Tuesday both the President and the PM spoke of a plot to destabilize the government and an attempt to cause a major rift between the different communities towards this end with a large amount of funds pumped into the project.

Usually a new government is allowed a grace period, so to speak, to settle down to business. When Chandrika Kumaratunga became the country's leader Ranil Wickremesinghe graciously offered a two year period, to show results, before his party started to take her on. In any event both retired Presidents J.R Jayewardene and Chandrika conducted themselves exemplarily after leaving the scene (D.B. Wijetunga quietly faded into the sunset) with the JRJ being in great demand as an after dinner speaker in the social circuit. In any event CBK allowed herself a decent interval before getting herself involved in the January 8 project.

But from the very inception the Joint Opposition, nay Mahinda Rajapaksa, started to rock the boat. No sooner he was defeated, Rajapaksa started crawling over temples to pick on the new government hardly installed in office. Vajiraramaya was turned into a political office with JO stalwarts virtually pitching camp at the temple. It did not end there. Massive rallies were organised titled Mahinda samaga negitimu (Let us rise with Mahinda) in many cities to rally the people against the government just a few weeks into office.

Even at that time it was apparent that these rallies and demonstrations were being funded by those who were allowed to amass illegal wealth under Rajapaksa. It is now pay back time. It was the constant claim by members of the Joint Opposition that the regime change that saw the ouster of Rajapaksa was funded by western governments with their embassies here doing the spade work. By the same token it would pertinent for the government to ascertain whether there is foreign funding involved in the JO's destabilization project.

For, the President and Prime Minister could not have envisaged any other force behind the current spate of protests and demonstrations. It can only be the JO, whose members are today running like headless chicken jumping from one issue to another, holding daily press conferences, to cause the maximum difficulty for the government. Like the Premier noted it is also obvious that sections of the media are exploiting and manipulating situations to cast the government in poor light. There is one TV channel which has already shed any pretense to balance and impartial coverage, openly toeing the Rajapaksa line. Its TV anchor while reading the morning newspaper headlines does not fail to add his two cents worth to the contents of the news articles, giving his own twist and interpretations that casts aspersions on the government, portraying it as the oppressor and villain.

It is no secret that owners of certain TV channels, during the Rajapaksa era, were allowed to manipulate the stock exchange and obtain high stakes in money spinning ventures. These individuals are still beholden to the Rajapaksas for their mind boggling riches and do not hesitate to oblige their one time benefactors.

The government has been justifiably criticized for its slow progress in investigating the mega corruption of the VIP politicians of the last regime and finding out the whereabouts of the stashed loot. Now it is clear that this money, stolen from the public, is being put to use to destabilize and wreck the government. This, while the government is being challenged by those in the JO to trace any ill gotten wealth. Mahinda Rajapaksa himself is on record saying he would slit his throat if even one dollar could be shown against his name. This is a challenge to the government thrown at its face. Hence it must pick up the gauntlet and go all out to unravel the hidden wealth of these exVVIPs, if for no other reason than to destroy the sources of funding that are being used to destabilize the government.

A commendable decision

The Government's decision to put on hold the proposed increase in the water tariff is to be commended. The 30 % percent increase, if allowed to go ahead with, would have had a domino effect impacting almost all food items in the eateries down to the buth packet. Not only that. The eatery owners would have pounced on the opportunity with glee to increase the food prices out of proportion to the actual increase in the water bills. The President has appointed a committee to study the matter. The Chairman of the Water Supply and Drainage Board says water bills have remained static for the last three years and a hike was due, as is the normal practise, every three years. It is hoped that the committee will arrive at a reasonable solution and not burden the people further.

The Island Editorial

Shooting rapids upstream

17 November 2016

Come to think of it, we have been in print for three and a half decades, which represent perhaps the most eventful phase of the country’s post-Independence history. This arduous journey would not have been possible without our faithful readers who have been solidly behind us through thick and thin. The Island is theirs and we raise our editorial hat to them.

We do not make our 35th anniversary an excuse to preen ourselves on what we consider our achievements. Our readers are the best judges. We are only happy that we have taken on repressive regimes, ruthless terrorists, dangerous criminals and wily crooks in the line of duty.

The J. R. Jayewardene government went all out to throttle Upali Newspapers financially; the Old Fox once personally summoned a group of top bankers to his Ward Place residence and threatened them to stop doing business with us, but in vain. His successor was far worse. It looked as if the raison d’etre of the Premadasa government was to attack The Island and its sister paper, Divaina. Its top guns did not consider their day complete unless they vented their spleens on us. That kept us going!

The Kumaratunga government was no better; it remained as hostile as its predecessor towards us until its end. Under the Rajapaksa government, too, this newspaper was banned in some government institutions and its editor received threats for being critical of its grandees who thought no end of themselves. The present dispensation also indulges in bashing us for refusing to toe its line and exposing its corrupt deals and abuse of power as evident from the streams of invectives its leaders let out against us.

There is only a thin line between journalism and activism. And, it is often crossed. A mainstream newspaper playing an activist role is like a commercial airliner undertaking a combat mission. In so doing, it faces not only many limitations but also risks and dangers. But, there come times when a publication worth its salt cannot avoid activism. The history of The Island is replete with such instances.

It is being argued in some quarters that newspapers are fast becoming dinosaurs of the information industry where multi-platform journalism has become the order of the day; even web publications have come to be considered traditional! It is against the backdrop of these formidable challenges that the rapid development of the information industry throws up, besides a highly competitive environment where dogs no longer hesitate to eat each other, that The Island’s 35-year-long journey should be viewed.

The aforesaid ‘doomsday prophecy’ has thankfully gone the same way as pollsters’ predictions as regards Brexit and the recently concluded US presidential polls. Driven by its anything-goes mindset, the alternative media employing different platforms are doing the mainstream media a big favour; not bound by any code of ethics and encouraged by the laxity of laws and morals they have adopted an unorthodox, if not, heterodox, daredevil approach and irrevocably compromised their credibility.

The media have come to such a pass today that we have television journalists stooping so low as to use their programmes to advertise various products themselves; some of them even appear in advertisements. The print media, too, is struggling to prevent itself from being swept away by the rising tide of commercialism.

Many publications, the world over, have already slipped their professional and ethical moorings and drifted into the sea of commercialism with packaging having taken precedence over content. A mainstream publication which compromises gravitas, in our book, is not worthy of the name.

The biggest challenge before us is to continue to shoot the rapids upstream in keeping with the principles we have cherished for three and a half decades.