Ceylon Today Editorial

NEW YEAR WISHES AND PIPE DREAMS

01 January 2017

As this paper has foretold in advance, the Chinese factor breaks through as a decisive force in the fluctuating fortunes and misfortunes of the government as well as of the Joint Opposition. This motley collection of so-called politicians, have been drawn together by two common factors: Hatred for Maithripala Sirisena and hatred for Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Naturally, in their minds, it's always been an imperative that this government must be ousted and the sooner the better. There's no doubt about it that investigations into serious frauds and killings under the previous government are being from day one impeded by persons within the investigative bodies and perhaps also in the Judiciary with the sole intention of preventing any successful prosecutions. The President came down hard on these forces in disgust just a month ago with biting criticisms that led to the resignation of the CIABOC chief Dilrukshi Wickramasinghe. That resignation has not changed the pace of the process that could hopefully lead to prosecutions. In other words, the moles of the Rajapaksa era remain ensconced in the system, working from within to ensure that allegations are not proved.

It's therefore an angered and deeply frustrated President who's left to unravel a massive tangle of political perfidy operating right under his nose. The CB Bond Scam which casts government's partner – the UNP – in bad light, is spoken of in hushed tones behind the scenes as being used as a trade-off to indefinitely drag out all cases against members of the previous government in exchange for its silence on the Bond scam.

It is this that has angered hitherto pro-Sirisena SLFP ministers and MPs in the government to the extent that they have been bringing heavy pressure to bear on the President to 'Get things going' on prosecuting the culprits in the former Rajapaksa regime...many of whom are leading lights in the JO. It would appear that in a bid to push this vital issue into the background, the government and the JO/SLPP have conspired to rather blow out of all proportion the Draft Bill on Power Ministers and Draft Constitutional proposals, when there is absolutely no sense in raising this hue and cry about them, because any idiot knows that they will either never get through the House or will do so only...if only...the latter at least passes a referendum. The Draft Ministries Bill to my mind is all a load of hogwash not worthy of debate in a school debating society. A more appropriate title for that Bill would have been 'A Red Herring to cover up the Draft Constitution and Delimitation Issues.'

The UNP has some stupid people but none so stupid, as to not know that a super powered minister who would dwarf the powers of the President is completely out of the equation. I think it was Rajitha Senaratne who defined it well saying Meka Vihuluwak. Added fuel came by way of G.L. Peiris announcing that MR would lead the group, presumably meaning the JO cum SLPP, at the coming LG elections, while on the other hand the Prime Minister on 5 January will go public with his perceptions on where the government stands in the midst of all these developments. To sustain the tempo the story was leaked that ten SLFPers were to quit the government and interestingly neither the UNP, SLFP nor JO have said anything about whether their recent membership drives were fruitful or not.That could suggest that the status quo as far as the government is concerned is about the same as it was back on 8 January 2015 and August of that year too.

JO keeps making noises in an effort to make the people feel disgruntled but its ho-ha about the new Constitution simply won't hold any water, because the most imbecilic man in the village will know that it must get through a referendum. Besides which, all parties represented in Parliament have subscribed their proposals for inclusion and the final document will very likely embody all of these proposals. Even TNA leader R. Sampanthan is on record as having acknowledged the fact that the referendum is mandatory. So what's the big JO fuss about it all? Rajitha Senaratne and UPFA General Secretary Mahinda Amaraweera have said that the JO hopes of the government falling...and soon at that! ...is just a pipe dream.

But lots of money, from China or elsewhere is dumped into the JO campaign talks. That money can at least get a lot of noise such as the hoarse yelling at Pada Yatras, Harbour and other strikes, bus strikes, GMOA walk-outs etc. But will it buy Tamil and Muslim votes for that wafer thin majority that's the vital factor?

Weekend Nation Editorial

Year 2017 Rhetoric vs Reality

01 January 2017

It has been already announced that there will be radical political and economic changes in the New Year. Underlying all this will be the urgent need to boost the economy in a manner that people can be given some of the benefits they expected through the creation of the Yahapalana government.

Almost two years ago it all began with high expectations. At the time, most people thought that investments were not coming to the country because of the authoritarian style of the then government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa. The reasons often cited were deficiencies in good governance and their inability to maintain good relations with the rest of the world, mainly India and the West and the general expectation was that a change of regime would result in a high flow of FDIs into the country.

The big change did happen, but the two-year period that followed hasn’t seen anything beyond mere expectation and preparation. None of those with allegations of large scale corruption from the previous administration have been punished. Only investigations have been made into such cases; nineteenth amendment to the Constitution was passed and only some preparatory work has been done for drafting a new constitution and resolving the national issue.

On the diplomatic front, friendly relations have been re-established with the West as well as all other important countries in the world. The right to information law has been passed enhancing democracy and a national health policy has been introduced to make certain essential drugs more affordable to the people.

However, in practical terms all these measures have failed to give people the kind of relief they expected. On the contrary, the government’s efforts to increase revenue and establish fiscal consolidation have heaped extra burdens on the people in the form of escalating cost of living while their incomes have remained the same.

As the joint government of the two main parties reach the second half of its term more tangible measures have become necessary to create the change that people expected. The people are becoming weary of mere talk and promises.

Despite negative developments in the area of democracy and good governance, the actions of the previous government were much more visible to the people in terms of change, the most prominent being ending the 30-year war, building noticeable infrastructure such as highways, ports and airports and other projects.

The delayed local government elections technically will have to be held within the new year while the do or die 2020 elections are fast approaching and now it’s time the ruling coalition gets into a mood they can meet people. And that is where mere talk about investments and economic development will not serve any purpose. Henceforth, whatever they do has to be tangible enough for the people if they are to reap electoral benefits which are fundamental to any democracy because it is the will of the people that finally matters.

The New Year is waiting to see a successful beginning of some major infrastructure projects, visible happenings in the much talked about Western Province Megapolis Project and the Colombo Port City with sizable foreign investments coming into the country which together should increase the income levels of the people in a convincing manner.

In the past two years people have been patiently observing all these developments with some hope and their patience has a limit. Therefore, the very survival of the government to a large extent will depend on what they do within this year. It’s a crucial year for the government as well as the country both politically and economically..

Sunday Times Editorial

Swim together or sink separately

01 January 2017

A New Year in the Gregorian calendar has dawned. For the Chinese it is the Year of the Rooster. 2016 was the Year of the Monkey; the monkey being regarded as a clever animal. There is also an old Chinese saying; “May you live in interesting times”, the origin of which however has negative connotations – of turbulent times. How 2017 will unfold is anyone’s guess.

In our first editorial of last year, we referred to the cacophony of voices in the then new Government. “Earlier, we had authoritarian rule, a Master Chef, so to say; now we have too many cooks”, we said. The carry forward from 2016 does not bode good tidings. We asked for decisive decision-making after the 2015 ‘trial run’. A look at the horizon (not astrologically, but politically) predicts a shaky coalition in the name of the Government of National Unity with sharp differences on how to manage the country; a new Constitution in the making that has already created waves, not just ripples; a third political force waiting for what it sees is rising mass disaffection with the Government and a possible break-up of the marriage of convenience; a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council hanging perilously; the Indian poaching issue unresolved; a shortage of the staple diet of Sri Lankans, rice; and if all that is not bad enough, the possibility of an impending drought that will hit farmer and country alike.

The Government was only too happy to announce that the 2017 Budget was passed last month by a majority of two-thirds in Parliament. That is a mirage of the ground reality. This Government is walking on quicksand and the outside world can see the political instability that prevails.

A three-cornered battle is taking place in the ring. The SLFP is split down the middle and the incumbent President continues his uphill task of securing the party membership to accept his leadership. The National Unity coalition is clearly divided on important issues and one need not be a seer to foretell that these divisions will intensify in 2017. Only the instinct of self-preservation will keep this Government together and afloat. They know they must swim together, or sink separately.

The Local Government and Provincial Council elections cannot be postponed much longer without the Government turning representative democracy on its head. The results are the worrying factor for the ruling parties, especially the President-led SLFP. In a recent interview with a foreign newspaper, the Prime Minister said he believed 2017 would see a turn-around of the economy and fortunes, for both the country and the Government. His proposals are, however, getting regularly shot down by his coalition partner, the latest being the Development (Special Provisions) Bill.

Political maneouvering between the divided SLFP and within the divided Government will be the order of the day in 2017. The UNP has begun to hit back at the SLFP which carried out a not-so-subtle campaign criticising the UNP initiatives in Government. Now, UNP MPs are being selectively unleashed in a tit-for-tat initiative to counter the SLFP ministers lashing out at the UNP. This week two of them hammered the President’s own brother for heading a ‘rice mafia’ and accused some of working hand-in-glove with the SLFP Opposition to defeat the Government and install an SLFP Administration. All this disunity will be at the expense of national development. Foreign investors will look askance at Sri Lanka. As a substitute, Hambantota port has been earmarked for China and Trincomalee harbour and Palali airport for India. How all this pans out for the ordinary people – who will have to sit tight in the meantime, hoping for the best will be testing times for the nation.

The 2017 challenges facing the world

 

While Sri Lanka welcomes 2017 with a degree of uncertainty, the world seems to do so with even greater trepidation. The advent of a maverick business tycoon to the Presidency of the United States of America is being watched with bated breath throughout the world. European and Chinese leaders have already voiced concern and made adverse comments about the assumption of Donald Trump to the post of President of USA later this month, while Russia has welcomed him with cautious optimism.

This week’s US Government decision to expel Russian diplomats on allegations that Moscow interfered with the US electoral process, and last week’s US Government decision not to vote for a non-binding UN resolution condemning Israel on its controversial settlements policy have boxed the incoming President into a compromising position.

Many expect that some of the outrageous things Trump said on the campaign trail will be left behind as platform rhetoric – none more dangerous than his comment that the issue of global warming and climate change is a “hoax”.

The Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 which came into force last year where 195 countries promised to limit global warming is now at risk if one of the world’s biggest contributors to climate change pulls out of the Agreement, or does not abide by it. Among the most vulnerable are small island-nations. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has launched a campaign to ‘Help Save the Fridge’; a reference to the melting ice in the Arctic that is swelling sea levels and asking Governments, companies and citizens around the world to make the right choices about energy conservation and use.

Sri Lankans would have also experienced a warmer December than before with warm afternoons and cooling off only at night. According to the Met Department, the average Colombo mean temperature in December 2011 was 27.0 degrees Celsius and just four years later, i.e. in December 2015 it was 27.9 degrees Celsius – almost one full degree Celsius higher in such a short span. Last month’s (December 2016) average temperature will only be available today from the Met Dept.

While this thrust towards doing something to arrest global warming is gathering momentum, now comes a new US President who pooh-poohs the entire exercise seeing things perhaps purely from a profit-oriented businessman’s perspective.

If climate change is a threat to the planet as a whole in the not-too-distant future, the immediate dangers to world peace, and peoples living on the edge comes from the wars, a refugee crisis on par with what happened during World War II, human trafficking, xenophobia, nuclear fallouts and what not — the 2016 issues that will be entered into the 2017 ledger.

All is not gloom and doom though. Despite the news that grabs the headlines more often than not, vast progress has also been made, outside of the politics of the day, especially in the alleviation of poverty. So much so, private philanthropists like Bill Gates are optimistic that poverty as is known today can be abolished in his lifetime. Recent statistics on the eradication of disease, hunger and ignorance are positive.

Ordinary people – and not the politicians, are dictating terms nowadays around the world and setting the agendas for themselves. Whether the world flourishes or flounders remains to be seen.

Sunday Observer Editorial

A ‘To Do’ List

01 January 2017

As our planet begins yet another 365-day solar orbit, we habitually look ahead for the New Year and, we think of all the things that we could not do in the past 12 months and try to envisage our list of things to do in the 12 months ahead.

As Sri Lankans, ‘we’ means our island society with its political leadership in Government and Opposition, as well as its citizenry. ‘We’ must also include our beautiful island home itself as it continues to shelter us as it has done since humanity evolved.

Since New Year’s Day is a matter of planetary movement, we begin with things that need to be done for Mother Earth and, especially – for us – the Sri Lankan island. According to global environmental measurements, the Earth’s atmosphere is getting hotter by the year. The consequent melting of the planet’s ice caps and rise in sea levels means that our island is getting smaller while neighbouring islands, like the Maldivian archipelago, face obliteration if the current rate of global warming continues.

What this means to us is that, if Colombo’s real estate values are sky-rocketing today, in less than half a century, there could be no Colombo and, it will be the hill-country that will enjoy a property boom. In terms of human survival, especially, that of our children and future generations, high on our task list should be the multitude of issues affecting the Earth and the atmosphere – rampant heat emissions and toxic effluents, chemical pollutants (including plastics), deforestation, soil erosion, etc.

Have we correctly mandated our government to manage this process through detailed economic and social planning that will steer our nation away from a disastrous lifestyle to a model of ‘development’ that controls waste, damaging extravagance and, environmentally destructive economic practices? Will our business sector lead the way towards a more ecologically viable pattern of development? How will eco-sensitive business be profitable? How will Government facilitate an economy that makes it profitable? And what is the cap on profit-making that will complement the global cap on heat emissions?

As individuals, is our private lifestyle changing to match the health of the Earth we live on? What are the ‘caps’ that we impose on ourselves and, what are our new, Earth-friendly, lifestyle goals and aspirations?

Even as we add climate change to our ‘To Do’ List, by next week, we will enter a period of national politics critical to our stability and success as a nation. On January 9, our Parliament convenes in its historic first session as a Constitutional Assembly to begin formally deliberating on our future political system. As the many detailed and difficult aspects of constitution-making proceed, the Government and Opposition face the challenge of building a consensus on a new Constitution that will inspire the citizens with a vision of a society that upholds community, social equality and other norms of high civilization.

This must necessarily include political structures that celebrate and unify an ethnically and regionally diverse nation. It must also include new avenues of public participation in governance that enables better citizens’ oversight of, and inputs into, that governance so that we avoid the massive corruption and the easy recourse to authoritarianism of the past. Work to repair the social and economic damage of the internal war, especially, in those regions and communities most affected, must show clear progress in the coming months if bitterness and estrangement is not to revive as enmity.

For the Government, high on its 2017 task list will be the further reorientation of national management away from politically and personally opportunistic practices to systematic planning based on accurately discerned national needs – in the economy and in social management. We must move sharply away from that mode of ‘beautification’ to one of intelligent development as befits our civilization.

The war against corruption and, especially the political-criminal nexus, must proceed with greater vigour that sees results of significance rather than token, showpiece, prosecutions against small fry allowing the big-timers to escape. Justice must be seen to be done in this aspect more than in any other aspect of public life.

While the Government must get going on the task list for 2017, the Opposition needs to be more collaborative within itself in Parliament so that its watchdog and corrective role is coherent. Opposition politics should not be obscured by short term political survival interests, like the antics among some Opposition parliamentarians to escape justice and redress for past misgovernance. All Opposition parties and parliamentarians, while working to ensure the interests of their specific constituencies, must also ensure a proper monitoring of national governance overall, irrespective of sectional interests.

Civil society, too, needs to move in a similar direction of a convergence of interests. At the same time, privately funded social action and service organizations need to evolve new models of operation that rely more on citizens’ support rather than the support of resource-rich special interest groups, both here and abroad. The business community faces the challenge of reviving that culture of philanthropy exemplified by those great founders of colleges and hospitals and other social institutions in our recent past as well as in our historic civilization.

Our ‘government servants’, like the bureaucracy and the guardians of law and order, should, once again, make efficiency, integrity and humane care high on their task list for 2017.

As citizens, we will see that the List can be long and that we, too, as individual Lankans, must do our bit in most, if not all, these tasks. Life looks busy this year. Come next January 1, will our List be longer or, will we be able to sit back and relax with a good cup of tea and look back at a year of work well done?

Sunday Island Editorial

S.P. Tao

01 January 2017

 

There was insufficient focus last week on the visit here of Mr. S.P. Tao, the Singapore property tycoon, for the symbolic ground breaking of the USD 166 million Havelock City Commercial Development. Despite being already past 100 years in age, Tao made the special effort to come here for the launch of an iconic 46-storeyed project that will comprise 600,000 square feet of top quality office space and a 200,000 square foot shopping mall which, as he said, "will visually anchor" the Havelock City residencies where 450 apartments have been completed and are already in occupation and work is going apace on the balance 650 units.

Tao is a businessman who has gone public about his great affection for this country which he first visited in 1941 when his then employer gave him a week’s rest and recreation vacation. He chose to spend his holiday at the Mount Lavinia Hotel, coming here from Rangoon where he was working at the time. He is on record saying that "I was so impressed by the gentle and friendly people and the natural beauty of your country. Subsequent to that, I took many holiday trips to my unforgettable Ceylon." His business links with this country began in the late fifties when he was in the commodities and shipping business with a lot of dealings with the Food Department. He sold the Ceylon Shipping Corporation its first ship, the SS Lanka Rani in exchange for a 20 percent stake of Colombo Dockyards.

It was in 1990, when he was in Colombo on Dockyard business, that he was persuaded by his friends here (he had many of them) who knew he was active in the property business to take a look at the Echelon Square site on which the World Trade Center (WTC), often presented as the country’s best address, now stands. He walked the site and was impressed by it. He said about three years ago when he was here to join in the celebration of the WTC’s 15th anniversary that the possibilities of the site that piqued his interest was more than that of a possible commercial development in an emerging market. He said in his speech at the anniversary event in October 2012 that he went back to Singapore and through his close friends (Mr. Baku Mahadeva was one of them), told the concerned authorities that he intended investing in an unprecedented development on the site "even though it may be 10 years ahead of the market." This was at a time when the northern insurgency was raging and there was little prospect of an early end to the war. Tao’s decision to invest here certainly gave a much needed boost to the business confidence in the country. He was by then a big name in the regional property industry having developed two World Trade Centers in his native Nanjing in China and in Jakarta in Indonesia.

Tao believed that in building the Colombo WTC there were three major givens to achieving his vision – the most appropriate design concept, one of the world’s leading construction companies and as he stressed NO bank borrowings. "Otherwise I might not have achieved my idealistic goal," he said. Admittedly Overseas Realty, the public listed company controlled by Tao’s Shin Kwang Group, which built and operates the WTC had numerous setbacks during the construction and had to face other challenges such as the LTTE attack on the neighboring Central Bank soon after then President Chandrika Kumaratunga had opened the building in 1997. But conditions improved in subsequent years and Tao’s group was encouraged to make its second major investment here in Havelock City in partnership with the Bank of Ceylon which owned the extensive 18-acre site on which the development is proceeding apace. It was for the launching of the latest phase in this project that Tao was here last week in the country which he says is closest to his heart after China, his birthplace.

S.P. Tao has made a remarkable journey in his long life with his career beginning after stowing away in a Jardine Matheson ship bound for Indo-China armed with a Confucian upbringing, a Jesuit education and the proverbial five silver coins given him by his father. Some 50 years later, after a successful career in commodity trading in Burma and shipping in Hong Kong and Thailand taking on the Conference Lines, he switched his focus to brick and mortar in Singapore teaming with Jardine Matheson to build Singapore Land and later Jakarta Land. It is Sri Lanka’s great good fortune that this country was a stopping place in Tao’s memorable journey, and even at his age he chose to come here last week to be present at the launch of the next phase of what he is doing here. That he chose to confront the infirmities of his great age and come here was clearly an index of his affection for the country.

Tao said last week that he is a fervent believer that the property market is the biggest enterprise in any leading city in the world and its development tracks a country’s social and economic success. It is certainly the lead industry here although questions abound of whether there will be takers for all the massive constructions proceeding apace particularly in greater Colombo. Meeting their infrastructure demands would also be a major challenge. Nevertheless, it is clear that the various developers be they China Harbor with the Colombo Port City, John Keells Holding with its mega Cinnamon Life project, or the plethora of other lesser ventures are confident enough to invest hugely in large developments. Overseas Realty has made a cash call on its shareholders to raise funds for its ongoing development. Given current conditions on the Colombo stock market, there is little incentive for shareholders to pay the twenty rupee price per share new share given that it is trading at this level on the secondary market. But Shin Kwang which is the dominant shareholder will take up its rights and mop up anything that will not be subscribed, analysts believe. That is surely an index of Tao’s confidence of the future of this country.