The reality of rise of per capita in come of Sri Lanka

(February 23, Colombo - Lanka Polity)   Sri Lanka government has proudly announced that the per capita income has risen from $ 2200 to $2300 from 2008 to 2009.

Accordingly, if the national income is distributed equally, each Sri Lankan irrespective of age must have a share of Rs. 240,000 annual income. That simply means Rs. 20,000 monthly income and a family that has four members must earn Rs. 100,000 per month.

But the data released by the state relates a different story.

According to the Ministry of Social Security and Social Welfare, there are 350,000 recipients of concessions provided to extremely poor people of the country. This allowance is yet to be raised to Rs. 1000 a month. These people are subjected to live with 1/3 of a dollar per day.

Sri Lanka government provides 'Samurdhi' poverty concessions to low income groups. The Deputy Minister of State Revenue and Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said in the parliament on May 05, 2009 that the number of Samurdhi recipients were 1,672,159 in 2008. He further stated that by 2007, there were 452,000 families that earned less than Rs. 6283/= per month. This is well over 5% of the population of Sri Lanka. This is the social strata that is in extreme poverty. What about the lower middle class? They too complain about a miserable life due to lack of income.

Sri Lanka government can boast about the increase of per capita income. But if the income does not distribute fairly and if the disparity widens, that means a bunch of affluents in social elite have robbed the national wealth pushing the masses further in poverty.

Tourism begin to bloom in Sri Lanka

Ancient Jaffna Fort

(February 22, Colombo - Lanka Polity)  The January performance of Sri Lankan hotels has been excellent, with arrivals reaching 50,750, which is a 32 percent increase on last January. The main contribution to this increase has been the British market (24.6 percent increase), Germany (54 percent) and India (73.5 percent). January and February are two of the busiest months in the tourism calendar, which is the peak of the high season. Better performance is expected in February.

Meanwhile, the state-run English weekly Sunday Observer quoted Tourism Minister Achala Jagoda as saying nearly 550,000 local and foreign tourists had toured Jaffna via A-9 road during last week.

The number quoted has come as a surprise to observers particularly since the Northern Province is still virtually out of bounds for foreigners and there is very little tourism infrastructure on the ground in the war-ravaged province.

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa said recntly in an interview with The Hindu "I have set new targets for tourism. I called the Tourism Board and said I was not satisfied with the present [rate of development]. I want to call the private sector. They're going to the Maldives and various other countries to invest their money. I am going to tell them to invest here. I want to get Indian companies, the Tatas and others, to invest in Sri Lanka."

Ranil to face Fonseka in Colombo polls

(February 22, Colombo - Lanka Polity)  Sri Lanka's major opposition United National Party (UNP) that has already admitted the defeat at the upcoming general election scheduled on April 8 is facing another trouble as the defeated opposition presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka is likely to contest in an alliance with the Marxist People's Liberation Front (JVP). 

Fonseka is slated to contest under National Democratic Alliance's trophy symbol in Colombo district where UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe expects to obtain a massive number of preferential votes. 

UNP abandoned Fonseka following the election and it is understood that there was a government-UNP understanding behind the arrest of the ex-General. JVP took the brunt of agitations for his release and opened up a new path for a fighting opposition under his leadership. 

Sri Lanka definitely needs a new leadership to fight the rising constitutional and democratically elected dictatorship. The opposition led by Ranil Wickramasinghe is too submissive and lethargic for the task. Perhaps, the polity will try for new options. 

Are Sri Lankan Marixsts eying for the opposition leadership?

(February 20, Colombo - Lanka Polity)  The opposition coalition in Sri Lanka has shattered. The parties that backed the opposition presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka are now divided. Major opposition United National Party (UNP) is no more actively supporting the campaigns for his release.

Only the Marxist People's Liberation Front (JVP) has not abandoned him. JVP has decided to contest the general election under the 'trophy' symbol offering the leadership to Sarath Fonseka.

At a press conference held yesterday, National Organizer of Jathika Hela Urumaya Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe said that arrest of Gen (Rtd) Sarath Fonseka might prove to be detrimental to the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance's interests, particularly in view of the forthcoming general election.

Based on the same argument, one can say that the JVP is in an advantaged position. It can vie for sympathy votes, gratefulness votes and hatred votes etc. generated for Sarath Fonseka.

This will be detrimental not only to the ruling party but also the major opposition UNP as well. UNP is insisting the elephant symbol in a coalition to fight Rajapaksas at the upcoming general election. This is definitely a move not to ally with JVP. The Marxists cannot accept the elephant symbol due to understandable reasons.

JVP also actually wants to sun allying with the UNP although there is pressure from party grassroots to unite to fight Rajapaksa menace. JVP is a fighting force unlike the lethargic submissive UNP that has already admitted defeat. If JVP can create a wave of protest based on the arrest and court martial of Fonseka, the Fonseka-led coalition will be able to become the major opposition of the country.

The Sri Lankan polity that backs a regime change are in need of a pushy leadership to fight Rajapaksas. The general election scheduled for April 08 will decide if Fonseka and the JVP will be able to cater the need.

China's Sri Lanka port raises concern

(February 18, Colombo - Lanka Polity)  We feel the following UPI article is significant since it reveals the Indian pessimism regarding China's involvements in the affairs of the Indian Ocean. It also discusses about the Hambanthota port and its implications on international affairs.

China's construction of a port in Sri Lanka and a Chinese admiral's suggestion Beijing build a naval base in the Gulf of Aden has raised fears in the Middle East that a confrontation between China and India is looming along vital energy export routes.

Both the Asian titans, whose economies continue to expand despite the global financial meltdown, are heavily dependent on Middle Eastern oil and will become more so as supplies dwindle.

The Indians are building their naval forces across these vital shipping lanes through which some 85 percent of China's oil supplies pass along with raw materials from Africa.

Inevitably, these will increasingly encroach on Middle Eastern and African waters as Beijing seeks to protect the economic arteries on which it is becoming increasingly dependent all the way from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea.

This is causing grave concern in India, which is vying for the same energy and mineral resources as China.

This raises the prospect, distant though it may be, of a confrontation between the two. The region is vital too for the Gulf states as an energy export and trading route as they increasingly look eastward.

There is also the possibility that one day China and the United States, which has long been the dominant naval force in the Indian Ocean, may also clash.

New Delhi views China's efforts to expand its regional clout through its "string of pearls" strategy -- ringing India with naval bases and electronic listening posts -- as an attempt to muscle into waters India has long considered its own.

Indeed, the Chinese are seeking to protect their maritime trade further east as well in the Strait of Malacca, a major shipping choke point between Malaysia and Indonesia that links the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

Beijing wants to ensure unhindered access to the narrow waterway for its energy shipments.

The construction of the $1 billion container port at Hambantota, until recently a fishing hamlet on Sri Lanka's southeastern coast, illustrates how the Chinese thrust into the Indian Ocean is becoming more pronounced.

The deep-water port will include a development zone and an oil refinery.

Over the last few years, the Chinese have built a similar port at Gwadar on Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast, which will eventually be the terminal for pipelines carrying Gulf crude and natural gas to western China.

Another is planned at Chittagong in Bangladesh, an oil refinery terminal in the northern Bay of Bengal east of India.

These could become bases for China's growing submarine fleet, a potential threat to the arterial shipping lanes running east from the Persian Gulf.

The Chinese are reported to have established a naval base in Myanmar and intelligence surveillance bases on islands across the Bay of Bengal.

Another is reportedly being built on Marao Island in the Maldives chain that runs south toward the British base of Diego Garcia, currently manned by U.S. forces.

Beijing says it has no interest in establishing major foreign bases so far from home. But as its economy mushrooms and its naval forces swell, it will inevitably require bases to project its growing power.

China is reported to be interested in establishing facilities in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Thailand.

In December, Rear Adm. Yin Zhou, a senior officer at the Chinese navy's Equipment Research Center, proposed a naval base be established in the Gulf of Aden, which would take Chinese expansion even further west than it is now.

Ostensibly, Yin's idea was to support China's naval flotilla attached to the international anti-piracy task force deployed off Somalia.

There is no question that piracy is a growing problem, not only in the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, but in the Strait of Malacca and elsewhere.

The International Maritime Bureau, which monitors global piracy, said there were 42 attacks on oil tankers around the world in 2009, a 40 percent increase over 2008. And most took place off Somalia and the Arabian Peninsula.

But given China's naval expansion, it would make sense for Beijing to seek a military foothold in the Gulf of Aden, adding another strategic dimension and threat of conflict to a region already riddled with risk.

Tamil IDPs of Sri Lanka to 'miss' the general election too

(February 16 Colombo - Lanka Polity)  Over 100,000 Tamil IDPs of Sri Lanka will have to languish in refuge camps until the end of general elections scheduled for April 08. 

The IDPs were not given fair opportunity to exercise their franchise at the presidential held on January 26, monitors say. The turn out was extremely low due to discouraging technical problems. The same can be expected on April 08 as well. 

The government missed the self-imposed deadline to resettle all the IDPs by the end of January. The Minister in charge of resettlement Rishad Badurdeen says that the IDPs will be resettled by April, probably after the polls. The reason cited for the delay is the incompletion of de-mining. 

By February 05, 106,000 IDPs were still in camps according to UN reports. Government has resettled 160,000 IDPs. Around 30,000 IDPs live in friends' and relatives' houses outside the IDP camps. 

An environmental friendly lamp for lagoon fishermen in Sri Lanka

(February 16 Colombo - Lanka Polity)  A Sri Lankan environmental organization is introducing a new lamp for the fishermen that engage in the industry in lagoons. This new lamp is a compact florescent lamp with a rechargeable battery. It will replace the traditional kerosene lamps that consumes at least a liter of kerosene per each night.

The Negenahiru Environmental Center has already supplied around 40 such lighting units to the fresh water and lagoon fishermen in Maduganga and Madampawila in the Southern Province. Recharging units have been provided one per each four or five fishermen.

There are around 35,000 lagoon fishermen in Sri Lanka and they usually use low efficient kerosene lamps that gives dim light while emanating carbon dioxide and soot that is hazardous both environmentally and health wise. The cost for kerosene is also around Rs. 85.