Ceylon Today Editorial

To us all towns are one, all men our kin

15 May 2017

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi graced the International Vesak Day celebrations in Sri Lanka in an admirable manner winning the hearts and minds of Sri Lankans.

It was on the initiative of late Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar Vesak was declared as an International festival by the United Nations to pay homage to Lord Buddha whose teachings led mankind to follow the right path to lead the right life.

Modi's visit to Sri Lanka had inspired not only the majority Buddhists in the country, the Indian Premier's visit to the hill country had also remained impressive with the opening of the new state-of-the-art hospital in Dickoya built with Indian assistance.

Addressing a mammoth gathering at his upcountry meeting, the Indian Prime Minister spoke in Tamil to the pleasure of thousands of Indian origin Tamil labour force of the central hills of the island.

Quoting an ancient Tamil verse Yaadhum Oore Yavarum Kelir (To us all towns are one, all men our kin) Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized the need of unity and integrity in a country of multi- ethnicity.

Being the leader of a country of multi-ethnicity and multi-religions, Narendra Modi is aware of the importance of strengthening peace and reconciliation for an overall progress.

Narendra Modi became the first leader of a country to visit Sri Lanka after the dawn of the National Unity Government in January 2015.

India's role in safeguarding the sovereignty of Sri Lanka is immense. When the island nation faced with three decades of separatist war India remained supportive of bringing an end to the strife while playing its role in handling the ethnic crisis in the island.

However, with Sri Lanka opening a new chapter focusing on developing its economy which was battered by the war in recent years, India has even made a significant contribution towards the future prosperity of the island.

Sri Lanka's geographical location not only makes it the immediate neighbour to India but the Island Nation also exists as a corridor for new economic vistas between the West and the East.

The Indian Prime Minister's visit to Sri Lanka last week took place in the backdrop of China holding the 'One Belt One Road' (OBOR) Summit which commenced in Beijing yesterday. The two-day Summit focuses on enhancing the economic activities via the landlocked ancient 'silk road' in the North and via the maritime route in the South.

Soon after ensuring the success of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Sri Lanka, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe flew to China last Saturday (13) to join 30 Heads of State who are attending the two-day Summit in Beijing.

As the Summit has been described as the brainchild of Chinese President Xi Jinping, China commented on the summit saying that the initiative has been taken as a measure of peaceful 'win-win' inclusive and open global cooperation in trade and culture.

However, India boycotted the Summit citing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as a threat to its regional integrity and commenting on the OBOR summit of China, India has stated that the proposed connectivity initiatives must be based on universally recognized international norms, good governance, Rule of Law, openness, transparency and equality.

As China has already embarked on its mega Colombo Port City Project attracting Sri Lanka into the One Belt One Road initiative, the 'Great Wall' country remains vital as far as the future of Sri Lanka's economy is concerned.

As the regional superpowers India and China have already focused on extending their economic cooperation extensively towards the future economic endeavours of the Island Nation, it is now Sri Lanka's turn to say what the Indian Prime Minister had said in the upcountry a few days ago: "To us all towns are one, all men our kin".

Daily News Editorial

One Belt, One Road

15 May 2017

More than 2,000 years ago, China’s imperial envoy Zhang Qian helped to establish the Silk Road, a network of trade routes that linked China to Central Asia and the Arab world. The name came from one of China’s most important exports—silk. And the road itself influenced the development of the entire region for thousands of years. Fifth Century Chinese traveller FaHsein gives a good account of this link in his travelogues, along with a detailed description of then Sri Lanka.

In 2013, China’s President Xi Jinping, proposed establishing a modern equivalent, creating a network of railways, roads, pipelines, and utility grids that would link China and Central Asia, West Asia, and parts of South Asia. China is hosting a global summit today on this biggest ever infrastructure project in the world - the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative that will eventually link 68 Asian, European and African countries (including Sri Lanka) and 4.5 billion people. Sri Lanka is being represented at the OBOR summit by a delegation led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

OBOR, more formally known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is a complex infrastructure plan that will link Europe to the Far East, based on the ancient Silk Road trade route. The project, for which US$ 1 trillion has already been earmarked, has two components – land and maritime. Sri Lanka is included in the maritime category.

According to the Chinese Government, OBOR is about the free flow of people, goods, trade, capital and ideas. This flow can only come about when the countries, the people and the economies are highly connected by roads, rail, aviation, trade, investment, banking and finance. The land segment (named the Silk Road Economic Belt) will run from London to Xian (or beyond) via Moscow, Istanbul, Tehran, Samarkand, Almaty, Urumqi and Lanzhou while the maritime route (21st Century maritime Silk Road) will stretch from Rotterdam to Fuzhou via Venice, Athens, Colombo/Hambantota, KL, Jakarta, Hanoi and Guangzhou. This is only a broad outline and one of several proposed routes. Nothing is written in stone, so cities could be added or deleted. Moreover, country-specific infrastructure projects such as the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur High Speed Railway (slated for completion by 2026) could benefit from or even become part of OBOR. A number of projects are already underway, including a train line from China to Iran that may be expanded to Europe. There are also new rail links with Laos and Thailand and high-speed-rail projects in Indonesia.

Formally, OBOR emphasizes five key areas of cooperation: coordinating development policies, forging infrastructure and facilities networks, strengthening investment and trade relations, enhancing financial cooperation and deepening social and cultural exchanges. Incidentally, the aims of the Medium and Long-term Development Plan for Investment, Economic and Technological Cooperation that China and Sri Lanka will be signing during the Lankan Premier’s visit have similar objectives. The projects under this pact will include section one of the Central Expressway and the Ruwanpura Expressway, two vital infrastructure projects.

From a purely infrastructural and investment point of view, this project will revitalize much of Asia and also parts of Africa and Europe. While some countries will no doubt harbour doubts about China’s ambitions, there is no denying that the project will enhance connectivity and trade across Asia. This will be especially beneficial to developing countries that cannot finance massive infrastructure projects on their own.

Sri Lanka has not fully realised its potential as a strategically-positioned island between Dubai and Singapore, the two regional economic centres. Sri Lanka must promote itself as the gateway to India, with its one billion plus market. In this context, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe has outlined the reasons for creating a North-South link, an investment corridor through Sri Lanka. “Sri Lanka’s situation in the nautical corridor between the East and West is of import not only from a geostrategic perspective, but also from maritime economic and security perspectives. On the one hand, the Indian Ocean is a vast source of maritime economic resources, on the other; it is a maritime trading corridor through which nearly two thirds of the world’s oil is transported,” he noted recently.

The Chinese-funded Colombo International Financial Centre (Port City), whose terms were amended to be more favourable to Sri Lanka after this Government came to power, will be a catalyst for economic growth and greater international trade. The Port project at Hambantota, against which factions of the Opposition carried out a misleading protest campaign, does have the potential to make Sri Lanka a bigger trade hub.

We do have an “island mentality” which sometimes makes us covet insularity and shun greater connectivity, without thinking of the ultimate benefits of greater integration with the Asian mainland. We have to change our attitudes to cope with the times and economic imperatives. Several countries that recently traversed in the direction of isolationism are now discovering that it is not so easy to live alone in a globalised world. We need to more enlightened and more open to greater regional connectivity as proposed by OBOR and similar projects.

The Island Editorial

Dual-citizenship blowback

15 May 2017

 

The SLFP (Maithri faction) may not have thought its desperate move to deprive the Joint Opposition (JO) of one MP would lead to such a huge blowback. It successfully moved the judiciary against UPFA MP and Mahinda loyalist Geetha Kumarasinghe on the grounds that she had been a dual citizen at the time she was nominated to contest the last general election. The government which has not yet taken any action against Treasury bond racketeers went hell for leather to have the court decision implemented. Its selective efficiency is really amazing! Kumarasinghe has appealed to the Supreme Court against the Court of Appeal judgment and obtained a stay order, which is valid till today.

There are said to be several dual citizens in Parliament including some failed candidates appointed via the National List. The Court of Appeal judgment, disqualifying Kumarasinghe from being an MP, is likely to lead to a situation where the UPFA will lose several of its MPs with dual citizenship within its ranks. Her disqualification should lead to the cancellation of the UPFA’s Galle District nomination list, some legal experts have argued. A similar situation is likely to occur in other districts where the UPFA fielded dual citizens at the 2015 parliamentary polls. In such an eventuality, the UPFA may lose about 10 of its MPs including several National List members, some lawyers have argued.

Activists of the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) are among those who argue that the Court of Appeal judgment at issue could lead to several legal challenges against the lists of UPFA candidates in Galle and Matara Districts where dual citizens contested the last general election. There is, however, another school of thought, which claims that the question of the entire UPFA nomination list being rejected does not arise and only the MP concerned will lose her seat.

The legal requirement that MPs, unseated due to being a dual citizen at the time of contesting, return what they have obtained by way of salaries and perks reminds us of a presidential decree which caused a Chief Justice to disappear, so to speak, soon after the 2015 regime change. There are some unresolved issues concerning the post of the head of the judiciary from 2013 to 2015 and they are bound to manifest themselves sooner or later.

One may recall that in 2015, President Sirisena decided that the impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake in 2013 was illegal, the post of the Chief Justice had not fallen vacant and, therefore, her successor, Mohan Peiris, had never been the CJ! Now that Kumarasinghe has been required to return what she has received as an MP from the state, the question is why no such action has been taken in respect of CJ Peiris, who had not been the CJ according to the President! Peiris headed the judiciary, heard cases, wrote and signed judgments and other vital documents, made appointments, drew the salary of the CJ and enjoyed various perks. Strangely, the government hasn’t taken any action to recover the losses the state has suffered as a result? Is it because the yahapalana leaders fear that the matter will end up in courts if they try to do so and, therefore, don’t want to open up a can of worms for themselves?

It is being argued in some quarters that the dual citizenship issue has led to a legal battle as there was some confusion at the time of the submission of nomination papers in 2015 over the 19th Amendment’s bearing on the existing election laws. Some returning officers disregarded objections to the nomination of the candidates alleged to be dual citizens, stating that the courts would sort out the issue later. This is what happens when politicians introduce constitutional amendments in a hurry and implement them without giving two hoots about the need to update the existing laws in line with them.