The Island Editorial

EU wooing dragon

European Union (EU) Foreign Affairs Chief Joseph Borrell is sure to incur the wrath of US President Donald Trump. He has recently told a group of German diplomats that the world is now witnessing the dawn of the Asian Century, and called upon the EU to formulate a robust strategy in respect of China. This may be taken as a call for the EU to refrain from supporting Trump’s hostile campaign against China.

President Trump’s pugnacity and tendency to bulldoze his way through in trying to ‘make America great again’ may have made the EU wary of emulating him in dealing with China and adopt a balanced approach, taking into consideration the new global economic reality. The EU, however, is critical of what it calls lack of transparency and reciprocity on the part of Beijing. It has also taken exception to the manner in which China is handling the Hong Kong crisis.

It is only natural that China has come under heavy criticism for its handling of protests, but even if Beijing were to soften its stand on Hong Kong, the US would find some other issue to fuel its anti-Chinese campaign. The US needs a bogey. During the Cold War era, it had Russia, and now it is using China. The US cannot rely on its military might to tame China for obvious reasons; it would have been more than happy to weaken China the way it once debilitated Russia, but Washington’s problem is that Xi Jinping is vastly different from Mikhail Gorbachev, and the Chinese economy is robust unlike Russia’s when Perestroika and Glasnost were introduced.

Meanwhile, it is not out of any love for democracy that the EU and the US have taken up the cudgels for the people of Hong Kong; they are only using democracy as an instrument to further their interests. They had no qualms about backing the repressive Saddam Hussein regime, for years, prior to the invasion of Kuwait. The US provided Hussein with ‘crop spraying’ helicopters during the Iran-Iraq war, knowing that they would be used for chemical attacks on humans. A US Senate Inquiry revealed, in 1995, that Washington had supplied to Iraq samples of many strains of germs. Iraq obtained uranium from Portugal, France and Italy, and embarked on building centrifuge enrichment facilities with German assistance. Luckily, Hussein failed to produce weapons of mass destruction.

Besides, thousands of Chagos islanders, evicted by the UK for the construction of a US military base, have been demanding that they be resettled, for decades, but in vain. A leaked British diplomatic cable refers to these people as ‘Tarzans’ and ‘Man Fridays’. Has the EU ever pressured the US and the UK to respect the democratic rights of the Chagonese people and/or heeded protests by Mauritius against the breaking up of its territory?

China has been playing its cards well. It moved in to help Africa financially when Europe tied its aid to the promotion of democracy and human rights, there, while western corporate giants were thriving on arms sales to terrorist groups and repressive regimes and exploiting natural resources in that continent. Europe had to change its strategy, be less hypocritical and compete with China in helping Africans. China assisted the EU during the global financial meltdown in the late noughties, and chose to remain neutral on Brexit unlike Russia.

China is not likely to do as the EU says in the name of strengthening its ties with the latter. It has become a global economic powerhouse because it has acted cautiously without giving in to foreign pressure or accepting unsolicited advice from the western bloc. Its autochthonous economic model has worked so much so that it has been in a position to help even the EU. Its belt and road initiative may have suffered a temporary setback due to the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus crisis, but the mega project is on track, and Beijing will pursue its geo-strategic and economic goals with renewed vigour in time to come.

It will be interesting to see how India, which has drifted towards the US in the post-Cold War era, will position itself in the overall scheme of things in the present global context. Sri Lankan politicians who are trying to be more anti-Chinese than Trump should take cognisance of the EU’s dramatic policy shift at issue.

Daily News Editorial

Towards a new beginning

The lifting of the day time curfew in Colombo and Gampaha from yesterday and thereby ending the near three month lockdown of the country in the wake of the Coronavirus, no doubt, is a clear indication that we have turned the corner in the battle against the deadly Pandemic.

Understandably, there was no big rush or stampede in the Colombo city by the public to break free from the restrictions imposed on the public that kept them indoors for a lengthy spell. In fact the capital city more or less took on the same sombre atmosphere that prevailed during the ‘stay at home’ period with public and traffic movement only improving slightly.

They, perhaps, have taken seriously the health guidelines and were adapting a wait and see approach. The authorities too were playing safe, not going overboard to claim overall victory over the pandemic knowing that there is still unknown factors that could change the picture. This fact is being unambiguously enunciated time and again by the Health authorities who have laid the onus on the public to salvage the situation.

Now that the Health authorities have given the green light for the resumption of normal life across the board the Government, no doubt, will be anxious to get the wheels of administration moving again. Here too it will be advisable for the authorities to take nothing for granted. Although we may have moved away from the critical stage there is still the risk of a second wave as some countries which were quick to ‘open up’ in haste have learnt to their cost.

True, life for the most part, will not be the same again. There will no doubt be drastic departures from entrenched routines, practices and set patterns of life that are taken for granted. Offices and workplaces will have to adapt to the new reality. Already many establishments are operating their staff on a rotation basis adhering to the norms of social distancing.

There are bound to be other changes in many fields of activity especially where sports are concerned. One is at a loss to comprehend how an essentially body contact sport like Rugby is going to survive in the present milieu. Ditto for the film world which now will be hard pressed to continue with intimate scenes that have been their stock in trade, without violating the one meter distance rule. Small hotels and eating houses too will have to make the necessary changes to survive .There can be no question of having meals in groups anymore at a single table as in the past.

What this will to do occupations and livelihoods is not clear and the authorities would do well to ponder the situation and come up with solutions without compromising on health standards. But life has to continue even amidst the limitations and restrictions .

The chief concern for the Government , no doubt, will be the revival of the economy which has been dealt a mortal blow as with the economies in the rest of world where the pandemic has had a stranglehold. In most sectors the Government may have to start from scratch such as tourism and the revival of the export sector. Needless to state,that the foreign exchange position is rather bleak, made worse by the by sizable drop in the remittances of our expat workers from countries hit by the pandemic.The Government, no doubt, will have to take certain unpopular moves to tide over the immediate crisis. It has already imposed heavy import duties on certain consumer items that may not go down well with those who have got accustomed to imported goods.

However, sacrifices are called for at this critical stage of the country. Hopefully President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s insistence on simplicity and economy where he has shown by example would rub off on all Government ministers and politicians particularly, at this critical time when the country will need all the financial resources it could muster.

The coronavirus has taken the country in a new direction and a new outlook with the transformation now being witnessed gradually coming to stay. It is apparent from what we see that the people too have come to appreciate and adapted to the present changes which could lead to a disciplined and healthy Sri Lanka. The total reopening of the country could also signal a new chapter for Sri Lanka which has successfully grappled with a pandemic that has caused havoc the world over.

Already President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has received the encomiums of world leaders for his successful handling of one of thebiggest health emergencies the world seen at any period of time. Sri Lanka has emerged from worse situations and crises and has forged ahead as a nation. This time too it is certain to wither the storm and come up trumps if the public continues to cooperate with the stringent measures imposed for their own good.

Daily Mirror Editorial

Surplus of Rice and Vegetables

The rush to grow vegetables and cultivate abandoned paddy land, due to Corona pandemic, is creating a surplus of vegetables and rice in the country. This indeed is a good thing as far as paddy is concerned.

After all, if the Paddy Marketing Board manages to purchase the surplus paddy and store them it can help offset any shortfalls in the next season. Due to the climate change effect, any effort to predict the weather patterns has become almost a futile endeavour. Last year it rained seven months non-stop in the Western Province starting from June.

There were flash floods in the rest of the country as well. The Agriculture Sector was affected very badly as a result. No wonder Sri Lanka has been declared the second-worst affected country by climate change effects. There’s absolutely no guarantee whether the farmers would be able to reap the harvest they expect next season.

As such having a surplus in one season is not going to be a big issue. The only hitch is the technology used by the Paddy Marketing Board to store grain. The Paddy Marketing Board which was established in 1971 still depends on the traditional methods of storage. Countries like Israel continue to experiment on rice storage techniques and it will be of help if Sri Lanka too studies their methods especially those like Volcani cubes and use them here in Sri Lanka.

It is also important to have large and well-developed storage facilities in the northern and eastern provinces, as well as districts of Mullaithivu and Batticaloa, have been producing large quantities of rice post-war. Mullaithivu farmers have done extremely well despite the recurrent issue of water shortage. Everyone must take note of that. 

In Sri Lanka, nearly 70% of farmers are smallholders owning less than one hectare of paddy land. 

As for the surplus of vegetables, unfortunately, there is very little that can be done. Even in the district of Colombo those with small patches of extra land started growing vegetables with the government declaration of lockdown. As a result in the peripheral areas of the district in like Padukka, Avissawella and Meegoda every other householder has become a vegetable seller today.

The availability of vegetables certainly is a big consolation for the non-farmer. Especially those in Colombo suburbs really benefitted from the small-time sellers who visited their areas during the lockdown, mostly without permits even. However, now this trend has become a big blow on those who used to run small vegetable outlets with the profit made through those as their sole source of income.