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Ruling party MPs and their Opposition counterparts never see eye to eye on anything other than ways and means of feathering their nests. The national interest does not figure, at all, in their scheme of things. So, it is only natural that they are clashing over the IMF bailout, which is to be put to the vote in Parliament.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe, speaking in Parliament, on Wednesday, urged all the MPs to sink their political differences and support the IMF deal, and vowed to grasp the nettle in doing what needs to be done to sort out the economy. It is heartening that he has chosen to act decisively, and one fervently hopes that he will succeed in his endeavour. Populism has been the bane of Sri Lanka’s economy, and tough decisions have to be made regardless of their political fallout to usher in economic stability.
The government’s agreement with the IMF is now a fait accompli, and there is hardly anything that the Opposition could do to effect changes thereto. Arguments for and against the IMF bailout are not based on the merits or demerits thereof. The government MPs are blindly supporting it, and the views of its critics are coloured by their political prejudices. The MPs of both sides of the House act out of expediency and not principle.
There is no way any member of the current Parliament could absolve herself or himself of the blame for the present economic crisis, which has come about due to reckless borrowing, corruption, waste and, above all, the mismanagement of the national economy over the decades. The political parties they represent have either misruled the country or supported corrupt, failed regimes. So, the onus is on these worthies to stop fighting and make a concerted effort to clean up the current economic mess they themselves have created.
The MPs’ right to support or oppose the IMF agreement or anything else for that matter cannot be questioned. But they should not lose sight of the fact that beggars are no choosers. Never do bailouts for bankrupt countries come without constricting conditions. It behoves those who oppose the IMF conditions for assistance to reveal how else they would have sought to tackle the economic crisis. Mere rhetoric will not do.
Wimal vs. Julie
US Ambassador in Colombo, Julie Chung, has sought to rubbish former Minister Wimal Weerawansa’s claim that the US and India were behind the ouster of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, last year, and she on behalf of Washington urged Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene to take over the government, at the height of Aragalaya, albeit in vain. Weerawansa’s conspiracy theory has gone viral on the Internet.
Ambassador Chung, however, has not named Weerawansa in her response; issuing a twitter message, she has only said, “I am disappointed that an MP has made baseless allegations and spread outright lies in a book that should be labeled “fiction.” We thought she would issue a detailed response, given the severity of the allegations Weerawansa has levelled against her.
One should not be so naïve as to believe that Weerawansa’s claim at issue is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. What politicians say should be taken cum grano salis, as is public knowledge, for they are very economical with the truth, which they also stretch as if to the manner born, when they have to safeguard their interests, and the same is true of diplomats who, after all, are said to ‘lie overseas for their countries’.
Thus, it may not be advisable to draw any conclusions solely based on what Weerawansa or Ambassador Chung has said; their claims should be checked against information to be elicited from other sources if doubts anent the alleged conspiracy are to be allayed, if at all. This, we believe, is a task for Parliament, which orders probes at the drop of a hat. When an MP says that a foreign envoy approached the Speaker, and pressured him to take over as the Acting President during a popular uprising, Parliament should hold an investigation and get at the truth.
Weerawansa named names when he claimed that last year the US and India brought pressure to bear on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to sack Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe before quitting. Gamini Senarath, Secretary to the President, according to Weerawansa, sent two letters to President Rajapaksa, who was in the Maldives, for his signature; one was his resignation letter and the other was to announce the removal of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, but Gotabaya resigned without removing the PM. It will be interesting to know what Gotabaya, Speaker Abeyewardena and Senarath have to say about Weerawansa’s allegations.
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Hardly a day passes in this country without a conspiracy theory being concocted, and the latest one has come from National Freedom Front leader and former Minister Wimal Weerawansa, MP. It is always advisable to approach ‘grassy knoll’ theories with a critical and sceptical mindset and ignore them as far as possible, but Weerawansa’s claim is too serious to be glossed over.
Weerawansa would have us believe that last year, the US and India conspired to oust both President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and have an interim administration set up with the Speaker as the Acting President. Speaking at the launch of his book, ‘Nine: The Hidden Story’, in Colombo, on Tuesday, Weerawansa claimed that their plan had gone pear-shaped because President Rajapaksa refused to remove Prime Minister Wickremesinghe.
The US and India had gone all out to pressure President Rajapaksa, while he was in the Maldives, to sack PM Wickremesinghe before quitting, said Weerawansa, claiming that two letters had been sent from Colombo for President Rajapaksa’s signature, one announcing his resignation and the other sacking Wickremesinghe. But Gotabaya resigned without removing Wickremesinghe, according to Weerawansa. In support of his theory, Weerawansa has claimed that US Ambassador Julie Chung visited Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene and persistently asked him to take over the government even though he pointed out that, according to the Constitution, the Prime Minister had to be appointed the Acting President. Neither the Speaker nor Ambassador Chung has responded to Weerawansa’s claim.
Interestingly, the demand that both President Rajapaksa and PM Wickremesinghe resign, letting an interim government be formed with the Speaker as the Acting President was something that the JVP was particularly vocal about. The JVP also received praise from US Ambassador Chung, who met its leaders. Has Weerawansa sought to implicate his erstwhile comrades in the alleged conspiracy indirectly?
Weerawansa’s conspiracy theory lacks clarity in some respects. He says the US controlled both President Rajapaksa and Aragalaya, and together with India sought to oust Prime Minister Wickremesinghe as well; the arson attack carried out by some protesters on Wickremesinghe’s private residence was part of the plot to make Wickremesinghe resign as the PM so that he would not become the President. In the same breath, the NFF leader has claimed that the UNP was involved in Aragalaya and PM Wickremesinghe was supportive of the anti-government protesters. The US Ambassador, according to Weerawansa, prevented President Rajapaksa from ordering a crackdown on Aragalaya by threatening to discontinue the IMF programme in case of defiance. If so, how come Wickremesinghe, whom, Weerawansa says, the US wanted to oust, was able to make short work of Aragalaya without much resistance from Washington? Why didn’t the US derail the IMF programme in protest against the military crackdown on Aragalaya?
The crux of Weerawansa’s claim is that there was a plot to assassinate key military leaders in July 2022 and capture power. This is a very serious allegation that should not go uninvestigated. Who was behind the alleged conspiracy? Is there any guarantee that they will not make another attempt to achieve their goal?
President J. R. Jayewardene declared a political officer of the US embassy persona non grata for ‘talking out of turn’ at a cocktail party. In the early 1990s, the Premadasa government meted out the same treatment to the then British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, David Gladstone, who was asked to leave the country because he had gone out of his way to visit a polling station affected by vote rigging during the 1991 local government elections. Those diplomats’ actions at issue pale into insignificance in comparison to what, Weerawansa says, incumbent US Ambassador Chung has done.
It behoves the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe government to have the allegations against Ambassador Chung and others probed thoroughly. It will be able to ascertain all necessary information from Gotabaya, the Speaker and others named by Weerawansa. More importantly, a high-level investigation is called for into the allegation that there was a conspiracy to eliminate the military top brass during Aragalaya.
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Former Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Prof. G. L. Peiris, MP, has faulted the IMF for paying scant attention to the high incidence of corruption in Sri Lanka. He has struck a responsive chord with the public. When the current dispensation stopped dilly-dallying and asked for IMF assistance, many Sri Lankans thought there would be no bailout unless an anti-corruption drive was launched. But, as Prof. Peiris has said, the IMF does not seem keen to pressure Sri Lanka to battle bribery and corruption with might and main. Unless the canker of corruption is eliminated urgently, economic recovery will continue to elude this country.
The former Justice Minister’s sharp barb at the IMF has come in the wake of incumbent Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe’s public statement that someone who is influential enough to derail the litigation process in respect of the sinking of X-Press Pearl cargo ship and the resultant environmental disaster had received as much as USD 250 million in a questionable manner.
It is believed that Sri Lanka will be able to obtain about USD 6.2 billion as compensation from the owners of X-Press Pearl if litigation is handled properly. A case is reported to have been filed in Singapore against them, at long last. Legal experts have demanded to know why legal action was not instituted here. The Opposition has asked whether the government has no faith in Sri Lanka’s judicial system.
Sri Lankan authorities have mastered the art of making court cases collapse and letting wealthy offenders off the hook, and, therefore, the possibility of an escape route being opened for the shipping company concerned cannot be ruled out. They stand accused of manipulating the legal process to help even drug dealers caught in the act of transporting huge consignments of narcotics walk free.
If Sri Lanka can obtain USD 6.2 billion as compensation for the X-Press Pearl maritime disaster, it will be able to overcome its foreign currency crisis much to the relief of its citizens and the foreign creditors affected by its shameful debt default.
Now that the government has reportedly taken action to sue the X-Press Pearl owners, in Singapore, of all places, it should ask the government of Singapore to extradite former Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Arjuna Mahendran, to stand trial here over the Treasury bond scams. Will the Attorney General’s Department and the Police get cracking?
Japan is doing its best to enable Sri Lanka to come out of the current crisis, and the latter has benefited immensely from Japanese aid all these years. It therefore has a right to insist that Sri Lanka make a serious effort to eliminate bribery and corruption. Will it ask the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe administration to conduct a thorough probe into Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa’s allegation in Parliament that a member of the current Cabinet of Ministers demanded a bribe from a Japanese company in respect of a development project? Last year, the dissident SLPP MPs claimed that the Japanese Embassy in Colombo itself had made a complaint to the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa against the minister concerned.
Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva, stepped down, asking President Rajapaksa to conduct an investigation into Premadasa’s allegation. Following the ouster of President Rajapaksa, his successor, President Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed a committee to probe the allegation, and it cleared de Silva. In this country, probe committees are said to be tasked with clearing politicians and their henchmen in trouble. It may be recalled that a committee consisting of lawyers appointed to investigate the bond scams concluded that there had been no wrongdoing on the part of Mahendran as the Central Bank Governor!
Sri Lankans will be grateful to Japan, the IMF, etc., if they care to help this country rid itself of corruption.
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It is with shock and dismay that the world is watching waves of barbaric violence sweeping across Sudan. The current conflagration has resulted from a bitter dispute over an internationally-backed move to facilitate the formation of a new civilian government four years after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir in a military coup.
What is of tragic import is the fact that the secession of South Sudan has not helped resolve Sudan’s crises once and for all. It may have helped contain one conflict, but, overall, the partition has enabled neither Sudan nor South Sudan to come out of other crises, which are numerous. South Sudan is also gripped by economic, humanitarian and political crises. It is facing mass displacement, a culture of impunity, food insecurity, blatant human rights violations, economic deprivation and political instability. The situation in this relatively new state is extremely complicated and requires careful handling.
Interestingly, when a peace process got underway in Sudan with the signing of the Machakos Protocol in Kenya in 2002, an effort was made internationally to impose something similar on Sri Lanka, where the UNP-led UNF had just formed a new government with Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister and was clashing with the then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. In fact, the UNP government entered into what was made out to be a peace process with the LTTE at the beset of the US, the UK, Norway and Japan and allowed the LTTE to do as it pleased because the implementation of an aid pledge to the tune of USD 4.5 billion was tied to progress to be made in the Norwegian-brokered peace process. The real architects of the Sudanese peace deal were also the US, the UK and Norway though these nations called themselves ‘observers’ with Italy also as a partner. The Machakos Protocol paved the way for the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (2005) and the subsequent secession of South Sudan in 2011. The split caused considerable oil revenue losses to Sudan, worsening its economic crisis, and compelling Khartoum to adopt austerity measures much to the resentment of the public.
It is doubtful whether the developed world is doing enough to help resolve the ever-worsening conflict in Sudan. The unfolding tragedy is only one dimension of a multifactorial crisis, which has been chipping away at the foundations of the state of Sudan for decades. Apart from making some half-hearted diplomatic interventions and other such moves to crank up international pressure on the warring parties responsible for barbaric violence, which has already claimed many lives in Sudan, the Global North ought to end the practice of its powerful multinational corporations exploiting Sudan and other African nations to ensure a continuous supply of cheap minerals and other natural resources to improve their bottom lines. If this unholy nexus between the influential western businesses and the armed groups/dictatorial regimes in Africa is severed, there will emerge some space for the internecine conflicts that plague countries such as Sudan to be tackled politically. Corruption, economic mismanagement and ethno-religious tensions underlie Sudan’s protracted conflict, but the economic exploitation and external interference are also responsible for the perpetuation of it.
The ongoing conflict in Sudan, the third largest African country, straddling the Nile River and located at the gateway between Africa and West Asia, is of existential importance to the entire region. It is feared that some of its neighbours might take sides in the raging armed conflict to safeguard their interests. This will only exacerbate the crisis. It is only natural that the unfolding tragedy in Sudan has sent shock waves across the world. The western powers, however, have chosen to close their diplomatic missions in Khartoum and evacuate their diplomats. The US and the UK were the first to launch special operations to fly their envoys out of Sudan while fighting was on.
The most important lesson that the world could draw from the predicament of two Sudans is that there are no shortcuts to conflict resolution, which requires a holistic approach with economic development as one of its prongs. Public resentment that all rebel groups are utilising to fuel their violent campaigns in Sudan is mainly due to the economic and political marginalisation of various ethnic and religious groups in the peripheral states such as Darfur and Blue Nile. These factors, too, have to be eliminated if peace and political stability are to be achieved in Sudan.
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