Ceylon Today Editorial

Poor showing on a national treasure

29 April 2017

The recent story of Tharjini Sivalingam's success playing in Australia might have the chance to be the next valuable national treasure to move to greener pastures to become a loss to Sri Lanka because of official bungling. Sri Lanka officials in charge of the netball in the country could not have noticed this 6'10" tallest netballer in the world and her capabilities and get the real value from her skills as a netball player. Even after being the player to be selected as the Best Shooter at the 2011 World Netball Championship, instead of being celebrated over her success as a national treasure, three years later she became an unwanted in the national side. There was a lot of disagreement over the way Tharjini was treated by the then authorities. This was purely not a show of faith and the disgusted top national player decided to call it a day.

This girl who did not know what sports could bring to her life played the game for the team performing her given duties playing for the Batticaloa District, while studying at the Eastern University in 2004 and caught the eyes of national scouts. She was immediately invited to join the national side that year, where she proved her value as a netball player, going on to become a most valued player. By the year 2009 she had become a star player in the Sri Lankan national side and in 2009 during the Asian Championships she became the highest scorer getting 74 of the 77 points scored by the Sri Lankans. For someone who kept a low sports profile it was an awesome achievement, but, there were others who could never resist her performances for the country, when her playing brought glory.

Here is an excerpt of a 2016 April interview, done on the netball player, by a staff writer from Ceylon News: Senior netball star Tharjini Sivalingam ruled out any chance of her returning to the national side in the near future with the current netball hierarchy in the country. "I firstly want to say that whenever we played for Sri Lanka, we played because of our love for the country. We never played for money or anything of that sort because we were never paid on contract basis, but still we gave our all to the country. With these present administrators and coach, I don't want to play for Sri Lanka. We were the champions of Asia and there was a fear factor about us. During tournaments people will look at us and talk about us because we were that good, but now the national team's standards have gone down drastically. I would play for my country, I would fight for the coach, only if it is worth it and it is not at the moment," the giant netballer said.

The shallowness of the Sri Lankan authorities got highlighted when they appointed her the captain of the national side only to be told later that she would have to share it with another. To be brought down like that would have made others not want to be in that country, leave alone the team, yet, Tharjini still talks of playing for her motherland if it would be possible for her to do so, after being ditched by the selectors of the national netball team in 2014, it might not have shaken her firm cementing achieved through her humbleness and upbringing, but, her being selected for this scholarship by one of strongest Australian netball clubs, City West Falcons of Melbourne, would have relieved her pressure to a great extent.

She now seems to be enjoying herself so much representing St. Albans for City West Falcons in the Victorian Netball League; she has definitely caught the eyes of the press who are comparing her height to that of hulks in the NFL. They have gone to praise her abilities and describe her catching passes that are four inches away from her body position and doing all the scoring by herself.

Why could not the Sri Lankan authorities notice these possibilities of a player who was thought to be Sri Lanka's best at one time?

It is always the same with other sports and the so called federations that are designed to take care of the sport. Not all of those that involve themselves in such organizations are at fault, though some of them are there in it because of their love of the sport, many are incapable of comprehending much of what is needed to take sport to the top, except themselves. This is an unfortunate occurrence taking place in these sporting bodies too often, it only makes the nation lose their most needed assets like players and coaches who are good and know what is wrong where and how to fix it.

Daily News Editorial

Another victory for Sri Lanka

29 April 2017

Sri Lanka secured a major victory in the international arena on Thursday as a motion to deny the Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) to Sri Lanka was defeated at the European Parliament. The motion to deny the trade concession put forward by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left, was voted down, as 436 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted against it. There were 119 votes for the resolution, while 22 abstained.

The proposal to deny Sri Lanka the GSP Plus status was tabled by 52 MEPs from the European United Left/Nordic Green Left group, who argued that the country’s labour laws are insufficient to protect workers, while there had not been enough progress in the field of human rights. This initiative was led by MEPs Anne-Marie Mineur and Lola Sanchez Caldentey, who visited Sri Lanka from April 10 to 12 and sent a letter to European Commissioner on Trade Cecilia Malmström arguing that the trade concession should not be restored unless Sri Lanka kept its promise to improve labour rights.

However, the majority of MEPs clearly had not agreed with this view, acknowledging the vast progress made in the fields of labour rights and human rights since January 2015. There is a general consensus in the European Union (EU) that even though improvements could be made in the above sectors, the present achievements can justify Sri Lanka’s efforts to regain GSP Plus.

This is yet another major victory for Sri Lanka at the EU, following the restoration of fish exports to the bloc a few months back. The final decision with regard to granting GSP Plus to Sri Lanka will be taken as soon as next month by the EU, but judging by this vote Sri Lanka will not experience any problems.

The granting of GSP Plus will make Sri Lankan exports to the European Union market cheaper and lead to export growth. GSP allows developing countries to pay fewer duties on their exports to the EU. This gives them vital access to EU markets. The “GSP+” enhanced preferences mean full removal of tariffs on essentially the same product categories as those covered by the general arrangement. Sri Lanka still does enjoy the normal GSP, but Plus status gives additional advantages.

The main beneficiary will be the apparel and textiles sector, which accounts for nearly 62 percent of all experts to the EU (2016 figures of European Commission). The EU is also the country’s second biggest trading partner after India, absorbing 32 percent of all exports, which amounts to around Euro 2,225 million (2016). Garments are one of the country’s top export items and any losses on that front affect the economy adversely.

Sri Lanka lost the Plus facility in 2010, after an HR investigation by the European Commission. The investigation relied on reports by UN Special Rapporteurs and Representatives, other UN bodies and by human rights NGOs that identified significant shortcomings in Sri Lanka's implementation of three UN human rights conventions: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This was partly due to the belligerent attitude by the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration towards human rights in general. They argued that conforming to these conventions would amount betraying the country’s sovereignty, whereas they would actually have strengthened sovereignty.

The loss of GSP Plus was a massive blow to the economy, as we could not compete with the other countries in the region including Bhutan, Pakistan, Nepal and Laos which were enjoying the additional zero duty benefits of Plus. Thousands lost their jobs as many garment factories closed around Sri Lanka. The garment industry did find some new markets, but that could not offset the losses incurred from the loss of GSP Plus.

This Government promised to get the ban reversed. Now Sri Lanka is on the cusp of receiving GSP Plus again. The new Government’s pragmatic foreign policy has won over the International Community, especially the West, that was once very hostile towards Sri Lanka as a result of human rights concerns. If the Rajapaksa administration continued, many countries would have blacklisted Sri Lanka and imposed economic sanctions. Fortunately, the January 8 transformation saw an end to such designs. In fact, the Government was able to secure a two-year extension for its accountability and truth-seeking endeavours at the UN Human Rights Council recently.

As Sri Lanka moves higher up the development ladder, it will lose most aid packages granted by Western countries. It will have to rely mostly on external trade and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Hence it is vital to rely more on trade, according to the mantra “trade not aid”. Efforts should thus be made to increase exports other than garments to the EU and other countries. This is why the Government is keen to have more FTAs with leading economies in our region, which will give duty-free access for our goods. Trade and investment are the keys to a prosperous future and the GSP Plus will be an immense boon to our economy.

The Island Editorial

Garbage: Heed CM’s proposal

29 April 2017

 

The main difference between Sri Lanka and the rest of the world is that the latter is manically focused on economic development and the former is still grappling with basic issues which should have been sorted out decades ago such as mountains of garbage. It was only the other day that a visiting Japanese disaster management team said in Colombo that Japan had solved the waste problem way back in the 1960s in response to public protests. All signs are that our politicians won’t be able to tackle the issue even by 2060.

What really snuffed out so many lives in Meethotamulla the other day was not garbage as such but corruption, so to speak. Garbage has become a goldmine for politicians at all levels. There have been several proposals to remove the Meethotamulla garbage dump, but some politicians have scuttled them. Western Province Chief Minister Isura Devapriya revealed, in an interview with Bandula Jayasekera on Sirasa TV yesterday, that he had asked for a government land encompassing about 60 perches to start a project with a British company to segregate, recycle and remove the Meethotamulla garbage replete with harmful heavy metals, but in vain. He said he had sought help from the Urban Development Authority (UDA), President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to launch the project only to be disappointed.

President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a commission to probe the garbage issue. There have been many such commissions, but the problems they are intended to solve continue to trouble us. Most of them are toothless. It is hoped that the Western Province Chief Minister will be summoned before the aforesaid commission so that he will be able reveal why his plan to clear the Meethotamulla garbage came a cropper. He told Sirasa that his plans had gone awry because certain persons could not get their palms greased. Under the previous government everything became a deal and nothing got done unless the ruling party politicians and their kith and kin benefited from them. The situation hasn’t changed in spite of the 2015 regime change.

Let the Cabinet be urged to study Chief Minister Devapriya’s project and see whether it is feasible.

Finding facts

On Thursday, Justice K. T. Chitrasiri, Chairman of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing the alleged bond scams, happened to declare that his outfit was only a fact finding one and it could not punish anyone. He made no revelation. That its mandate does not provide for prosecution is only too well known.

Bond scams perhaps may get into the Guinness Book of World Records as the most probed issue in the world! It was first investigated by the COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) in 2015 under the chairmanship of UPFA MP D. E. W. Gunasekera. The second probe was conducted by the COPE with JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti as the Chairman. Now, presidential commission inquiry is currently underway. It was also investigated by a committee consisting of UNP lawyers. Enough and more facts about the bond rackets have already been found and what needs to be done now is to have the culprits arrested just like the Joint Opposition MPs who are made to languish in remand prison for alleged abuse of public property.

Nobody in his proper senses expects the government to punish those responsible for the bond scams. For, that will be plain political suicide for the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration, which captured power by promising to eliminate bribery and corruption. If any of the politically connected bond racketeers were to be sacrificed by any chance, he would surely rat on the mastermind behind the racket before being thrown behind bars. Therefore, the powers that be are all out to ensure that the culprits will get away with the mega financial crime.

Some of the much-publicised probe committees and presidential commissions of inquiry, appointed by successive governments, have been like fake wrestling matches on TV. Those well rehearsed contests look real and are very entertaining. But, nobody gets hurt.