Blaming in Sinhala and apologizing in formal English in Sri Lankan politics

(July 04, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Sri Lanka government may tender an apology to the United Nations (UN) over comments made by government Minister Wimal Weerawansa urging the public to surround the UN office in Colombo and prevent the staff from leaving the premises in protest over the UN panel appointed by UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said responding to a question posed by a journalist from Innercitypress at a media briefing at the UN Headquarters in New York on Saturday.

He said that the UN has received some indications that an apology might be in order.

Sri Lanka government coalition party National Freedom Front (NFF) leader and Minister of Housing and Construction Wimal Weerawansa vowed last week to launch a fast unto death unless the panel appointed by the UN General Secretary to advise him on Sri Lanka is not dissolved.

Weerawansa also warned the UN that a protest would be held before the UN office of Colombo.
He urged the Sri Lankan people to surround the UN office in Colombo and keep its staff hostage until UN chief Ban Ki Moon would decide to dissolve the three-member advisory panel he appointed on Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, Maithripala Sirisena, the General Secretary of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and senior Minister accused several unnamed Western countries for conspiring against the island nation.

In an exclusive interview with the state-owned Sinhala daily The Dinamina on Friday, the Minister said that the countries that tried to trap Sri Lanka amidst war are speaking against it. He also said that there is a massive conspiracy behind the revoke of GSP Plus tariff concessions by European Union.

Commenting on the panel appointed by the UN Secretary to advise him on the war crime charges against Sri Lanka, Minister Maithripala Sirisena said that the UN Secretary’s move would be a failure since UN is not him but the member nations.

The Minister pointed out that Russia, China, India and the non-aligned nations have come to the rescue of Sri Lanka. “Those who speak about the human rights of Sri Lanka, avoid speaking about war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the Minister charged.

The problem that remains with these vociferous Ministers is their inability to build up as leaders in an environment of diplomacy due to the sheer backwardness in aspects such as class, culture and language. To hide these weaknesses, they always revert to ethnic extremism their clan knows too well. They do not bother about the troubles their immediate bosses have to undergo since they actually want to see them in trouble. Otherwise, how can they climb up in the power ladder?

They wield their tongues freely in Sinhala language while their leaders have to rent English professors like Rajive Wijesinha to write letters of apology in Queen's English. What an irony! 


You may also like to visit our Sinhala Blog W3Lanka

The Prime Ministerial musical chair of Sri Lanka

D.M. Jayarathna

(April 19, Colombo - Lanka Polity)  In Sri Lanka's history of executive presidency, always the Prime Minister has become the successor to the post sans single occasion. It was when President D.B. Wijethunga, the successor of slain President R. Premadasa, did not contest for a second term. The Premier under a President who is in his second term has always become the next President. 

President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to commence his second term this year. Who will be the Premier of the next parliament in Sri Lanka? Whoever he (probably not 'she' under the present context) is, he will definitely be the next President, we guarantee.

However, President Mahinda Rajapaksa is ambitious to change the constitution before the end of his second term and he will try to be the next state head, either President or Premier. He is now training his elder son 24-year-old Namal Rajapaksa to be the hair to the throne. 

In 2004, the major partner of the ruling coalition People's Liberation Front (JVP) wanted to appoint Lakshman Kadirgamar as the Prime Minister. Mahinda Rajapaksa fought vehemently for the post and he won it despite the President Chandrika was not in his favor. If he lost the battle then, there would not be a President Rajapaksa or a Rajapaksa Brothers Company too. 

Likewise, many seniors of the ruling coalition are engaged in a cold war for the post of Prime Minister. The cold war is likely to warm in the coming days. 

President's brother Basil Rajapaksa who has good control of media is manipulating media to set forth his candidacy. Sinhala daily Lankadeepa ran a story this weekend in the front page highlighting Basil Rajapaksa as the best candidate for the Premiership on the basis he can maintain the balance of the ruling coalition. The balance is promptly challenged since he is the brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. 

Meanwhile, a political writer in Sinhala nationalist daily Divaina argued the rightness of appointing Basil as the Prime Minister although he is the brother of the President. One argument is that he is a senior of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party that was active in 1970s and even contested for the Mulkirigala electorate in 1977 general election. However, the fact that he once broke away from the party and joined the United National Party (UNP) before he left the country for permanent residency in US is deliberately shunned by media. No doubt, he is a hard worker and a brilliant manager of power affairs under President Mahinda Rajapaksa, a plus point in his bag. 

But the most suitable contender for the Prime Minister post is non other than the veteran Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena. He is now mustering party support to field him as a contender for the post. 

Elderly SLFP man D.M. Jayarathna is also slated for the post and S.B. Disanayaka that recently crossed over to the SLFP from UNP is backing him probably with hopes for benefits in future. Premiership for Kandy is a racist argument set forth by S.B. Disanayaka. One day, he will argue for the Presidency for Kandy. Latest reports say that the President is likely to appoint D.M. Jayarathna as the Prime Minister until he begins his second term in November. This seems the most cunning move since all those who wish to be the next real Prime Minister will have to be extremely loyal to the leader until a day the President decides to change the post.

You can obsever pro-government media now propagating evils of the management of health sector under ex-Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva. This will tarnish any chance for Silva to vie for Premiership although he came to top in the list of preferential votes in Badulla district. 

Amidst these hullabaloos ex-Prime Minister Rathnasiri Wickramanayaka might have luck again to be appointed as the Prime Minister. Luckily, his name is in the national list. In 2004, even the name was not in the  national list. 

One can argue that the post of Prime Minister is similar to the post of Minister without portfolio. He will not have powers that even the Speaker of the parliament has. He can be a 'talk master' like Rathnasiri Wickramanayaka. 

But for sure, the Prime Minister of this parliament has the most opportunity to be the next President. 

Sri Lanka's fertilizer subsidy; Robbing Martin Ayiya to pay Bandayiya

(April 01, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Sri Lanka Minister of Agricultural Development Agrarian services Maithripala Sirisena said proudly addressing a pres briefing held in Mahaweli Center, Colombo that the government spends Rs. 65 billion annually for the fertilizer subsidy. This subsidy goes mainly to the rice industry.

The Minister said that the government bore a cost of Rs. 26,065 per an acre for fertilizer subsidy since 2005.

Eight paddy cultivation seasons have passed since the initiation of the fertilizer subsidy and the cost for the government for a farmer that owns two and half acres is Rs. 521,300, he said.

The cost for a farmer that owns three acres is Rs. 625,560 while the cost for a farmer that owns five acres in major farmer colonies is Rs. 1,042,600.

Sri Lanka provides a 50 kilo bag of fertilizer at a subsidized price of Rs. 350 for the farmers while the government purchases the same amount of fertilizer at a price well over twenty times the selling price.

Fertilizer subsidy fuels the vote machine of the ruling party in rural areas. However, most of these farmers are not real farmers. A good portion of the subsidy receivers of Sri Lanka are public servants who hire agricultural laborers to work in their cultivations while they manage them at the cost of the government via paid leave.

Sri Lanka's fertilizer subsidy is a specimen for bad concessions. The rice cultivation appears fully dependent on this subsidy and the subsidy needs to be sustained now for the survival of the paddy cultivation.

The whole country pays heavy taxes in the name of these farmers who have been over praised for their task. Criticizing the unproductive nature of subsidizing paddy cultivation in Sri Lanka has become a taboo subject.

However, most of the inputs of Sri Lanka’s rice industry are imports such as machinery, fuel, fertilizer, agro-chemicals and even the gunny sacks. There is no big difference between the garment industry and the paddy cultivation though most do not raise this issue.

Rice prices escalated sharply late last year and early this year. The government had to slash the import taxes for rice to stabilize the prices. Now the harvesting has commenced. Farmers lament about the low price of paddy purchasing prices in the market. They need the government to purchase their product at higher prices.

According to information revealed in Sri Lanka Parliament by the Minister Bandula Gunawardane in November 2008, the government imported 52,800,209 kilos of milk food accounting for 89.1 percent of local demand in 2005, but this amount had seen an increase up to 62,518,062 kilos last year. It was 90 percent of the local requirement.

The country had imported 57 percent of its potato requirement in 2008, and it had been a sharp rise against 33.9 percent imported in 2005. In 2006, the government had imported 37 percent of the country’s potato requirement and 52.6 percent in 2007.

Big onions had recorded an import growth of 71.9 percent in 2008 in terms of local requirement, against 60.4 percent in 2007, 61.9 percent in 2006 and 66.6 percent in 2006.

In contrast to attempts to boost local agriculture, Chillie imports had also registered an increase, as a percentage of the local requirement, from 72 percent in 2007 to 73 percent last year. In 2005, the country had imported only 67 percent of its Chillie requirement and 69 percent in 2006.