Make schools places where love is distributed to the most needed instead of being melting pots of stress and competition

(October 03, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity, Ajith Perakum Jayasinghe)Sri Lanka government has announced that legal action will be taken in future against the parents of the children that are not attending schools.

A recent survey of the Census and Statics Department pointed out that around 250,000 children do not attend schools despite education plus text books and uniforms are provided free of charge to all needy and affluent children.

The government has decided to direct these children to schools and to make the village officer, the lowest rank administrative official, answerable if there is any child that is not attending school.

Meanwhile, several teacher activists pointed out that the above mentioned number can be more than the estimate of Census and Statics Department since there are many regular absentees in schools. These students are counted as those attending schools although they are not doing so.

A major reason for absenteeism and dropping out among school children is failing year end examinations and the students losing interest in schooling after failing to enter the next grade.

Many schools make students to repeat in grades but lacks programmes to improve them in the second year they stay in the same class. The attitudes of the teachers towards the repeaters are another reason for dropping out. Most teachers consider the failing students as a nuisance. Many children that lose the association of the peers fail to adjust to the new situation.

Many ignorant parents do not send their children to schools and direct them to earn a living through minor work due to poverty. Assistance and law enforcement is necessary for these families to make their children attend schools.

But that will not solve the problem. There is severe lack of good attitudes in the schools system towards slow progressing students. Principals and teachers are made to show good results and answerable to poor outcome compelling them to make the slow progressing students dropouts to save the heads of the principals and education officials.

It is not easy to get all students pass major competitive examinations. Focus should be to take all the students through the school education process. Failures should not be highlighted as the politicians, officials and media do now for petit gains.

See how many times it is reported that this number of schools has this amount of failures. The principals and teachers are needed to be monitored but not stressed to show the best outcome. There should be proper mechanism to attract and keep the slow progressing students in schools.

The schools are needed to be made places where love is distributed to the most needed instead of being melting pots of stress and competition.


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The decay of the capitalist class and the rise of the wealthy elite in Sri Lanka

(September 27, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity, Ajith Perakum Jayasinghe) Sri Lanka' ruling party MP Rajitha Senarathna, a liberal democrat converted into dictatorial worshipper said to The Sunday Observer newspaper that the capitalist class has lost faith in the United National Party (UNP). "They are also working very closely with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Government." he said adding "UNP is having a class crisis."

He also says he does not believe in that a vibrant Opposition is essential for democracy.

It is understandable that the capitalist class is closely working with the Rajapalsa regime since their main focus is business for profit and the situation that prevails in the country at present is one even the smallest business needs the blessings of politicians to survive. Capitalist class has adjusted to any harsh condition, even under socialism to survive.

Capitalist class does not essentially mean the wealthiest class of a country. Capitalists are capital accumulators, investors and entrepreneurs. They are independent of the state but both state and capitalists are inter-dependent. Their class interest is a rule that maintains peace for a level they can run businesses normally and a democracy that pays way for enterprise competition healthy to them. No less, no more.

They further need a cheap labor force that is contented or adequately suppressed not to rebel to the level they challenge the system.

For them, the middle class is not a crucial force. It is an intermediate social strata than a class, perhaps a wealthy elite of bureaucrat, small and medium scale businessmen and  pre-capitalist class remnants. However, the middle class was active in the bourgeois cultural space.

UNP, especially under the brilliant leaders like D.S. Senanayaka, Dudley Senanayaka and J.R. Jayawardhana maintained the balance of handling the interests of both crucial classes, the capitalists and the proletariat. Symbolizing this phenomenon, the leaders appeared equally at ease both in the parties of the social elite as well as among the masses in May Day rallies. There was a time UNP challenged the leftists and the trade unionists by holding massive May Days in which real workers enjoyed the shade of the green flag. UNP was well-founded among the peasant class as well. an important social strata in Sri Lanka especially due to their numerical massiveness.

Thus, UNP became the party of the capitalists. Are they the same further?

It is unarguable that the UNP still appears for the interests of the capitalist class unequivocally and boldly. But it has lost the grip of the rein of the peasant and  proletarian classes that have given in to Mahinda Rajapaksa regime. UNP lost its roots. If one argues it is a problem of the present leadership, a counter argument also exists that there is and perhaps was no alternate.

We propose that this is a class crisis, that parallels with the leadership crisis of the working class. The result seems an inevitable situation evolved from the right inception of the social system in the post-colonial era.

Rajitha Senarathna says only the capitalist class "working very closely with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Government" and he does not point out that the capitalist class has faith in Mahinda Rajapaksa regime. It is understandable. The regime appears more for the interests of a wealthy middle class than the capitalists.

What is this wealthy class? They belong to a social elite that depends on state for the new found prosperity. Namely, the businessmen and the bureaucrat made of the politicians and the public or service sector officials that have made state their primary source of profit through salaries, perks and benefits, commissions, contracts and unscrupulous means. What they usurp is the local and foreign debt obtained by the government, the tax collections and the loss-making business ventures of state.

They are a rich class but not a hardworking people like capitalists. They cannot prosper without the government. Their unethical, abhorrent earnings are also re-invested in state loans such as treasury bills, unless they are not taken away from the local economy for laundering.

This kind of greedy usurping strata existed everyday in the margins of the capitalist and middle classes. The paradigm shift in recent times is this class outwitted the capitalists and came to front as the most powerful class in Sri Lanka. The ideological and leadership crisis of the working class that paved way for the spread of chauvinist political ideologies among the lower classes was a blessing for this class to prosper.

Mahinda Rajapaksa led regime belongs to this class and it appears for their interests. One fact to prove this argument is as follows. The Sunday Times newspaper on 26-09-2010 reported that President's brother Basil Rajapaksa was given a new responsibility of foreign direct investment development. The same government that is in a dire need a rapid increase of foreign direct investment to peddle through a possible debt crisis in near future is also chasing away the major reputable foreign investors from the country. State took over Appolo Hospital even giving a name change, took back the Emirates management of the Sri Lankan airline and now discussing to buy back the shares owned by Shell Gas while incessantly clashing with Prima.

Capitalist economists identify the situation as mismanagement of economic affairs. We propose you are completely wrong. It is the really brilliant management of the wealthy class, not your bourgeoisie. Hell with FDI! State is a hen laying golden eggs for this wealthy class. That is why they are strengthening it both politically and economically. Keep no more hopes under this regime to get the private sector made the engine of the growth. Forget the fact that state enterprises make losses. People will pay for it. Women will continue to go to Middle  East.

Tourists will arrive in Sri Lanka. IMF will bail the economy. The task of the Central Bank is to maintain good ratings so that the government can obtain loans perhaps until a day until the government will be declared bankrupt. The rulers will try to postpone the day as far back as they can. That is politics or better say governance.


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Sri Lanka's hand picked democracy; what an amendment to what a constitution!

(September 23, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity, Ajith Perakum Jayasinghe)Today, the 23rd of September is a crucial day for Sri Lanka.

The time frame given to the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader to appoint members for the five-member parliament committee will end today and the Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa will appoint the two Tamil and Muslim representatives for the committee in accordance with the powers vested in him by the 18th amendment to the constitution.

The Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe earlier appointed Tamil National Alliance MP M.A. Sumanthiran as his representative but the TNA rejected it on the basis it opposed the 18th amendment. The Opposition Leader said his strategy was to appoint representatives that reject the position so as to disrupt the smooth functioning of the parliamentary committee. It is understandable that his party has no MPs that he is sure of rejecting the position as he expects. He wants TNA to be his scapegoat but TNA does not.

The Prime Minister is in a struggle to save his position in the second term of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa that is to start in November. He will readily appoint any Tom, Dick or Harry asked by the President. But here it seems worse than that and the President appears advised the Prime Minister to keep mum. Therefore the Premier leaves his nomination vacant and the Speaker will have the chance to appoint the two nominees to represent Tamil and Muslim communities.

Who is the Speakaer? He is non other than the President's elder brother Chamal Rajapaksa.

The President handpicked the Prime Minister. The President hand picked the Speaker. The President hand picked the two Tamil and Muslim representatives. The Opposition Leader will not participate in the parliamentary committee.

The parliamentary committee has powers only to make observations to the appointments made by the President to the 'independent' committees. The President will hand pick the members for these committees and he may regard or disregard the observations of the parliamentary committee members he hand picked. Perhaps the observations may also be hand picked by the President.

What an amendment to what a constitution!


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Sri Lanka's cultural custodians blast historical sites for treasure hunting

(September 22, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Nine persons including the Assistant Superintendent of Police of Vakarai were arrested by police when they were fleeing after attempting treasure hunting in Polonnaruwa.

The group had been treasure hunting in a place close to Siripura temple of Polonnaruwa in the night of 20th. The villagers that came to know about the crime, sounded the bell of the temple and summoned people. They kept the group surrounded and informed police.

The suspects that were armed with a revolver threatened the villagers and fled in a van. Police apprehended the van with the group later. Equipment used in the treasure hunting were also arrested.

The arrested suspects included seven police officers including the ASP and two civilians.

A week ago, police produced a Buddhist monk before Mathale magistrate for attempted treasure hunting in a historical site.

The Buddhist monk and his accomplice, a businessman, had blasted a rock using dynamite, police said.

The land in which treasure hunting took place is a fortress belonged to colonial period. It is called Fort Macdoval and belongs to Mathale Sambuddha Jayanthi Sangamaya.

The Buddhist monk was released on personal bail of Rs. 100,000.

Treasure hunting is often reported around the country and people who want to become instantly rich believe that the ancient kings have hidden unbelievable amounts of wealth in unbelievable places like inside the rocks.

A spokesman of the Archeological Department said that this belief was wrong and it had led to vandalism and destruction for valuable historical and cultural property.

It seems that the majority of these treasure hunting cultural vandalists are in some way the should be custodians of the historical and cultural values.

There is a Sinhala saying meaning what if a farmer can do when the field fence and borders. (Wetath niyarath goyam ka nam kata kiyamida e amaruwa?)



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Sri Lanka is no more a destination of cheap labor for investors

(September 19, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity - Ajith Perakum Jayasinghe) Sri Lanka appears no more an oasis of cheap labor for foreign investors in manual labor is prime. That is not because the majority of Sri Lankans have better living standards now. The reason is that life conditions are so difficult that a few rupees thrown by factory owners as salary cannot save them from misery.

Reports say that the garment and other similar factories country wide have around 30,000 regular and increasing number of unfilled vacancies.

Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment (BOI) says that 7000 positions are vacant in the BOI investment zones alone island wide.

Vacancies are unfilled of the skilled and unskilled workers in the garment, furniture, diamond, rubber, plastic and electronic trades, BOI says.

More than 1000 vacancies are available in Katunayaka, Seethawaka, Biyagama and Mawathagama export zones, according to BOI. Over 600 vacancies are unfilled in Wathupitiwala export zone. Around 300 vacancies are available in Koggala. Hundreds of unfilled positions are in other investment zones as well.

Trade unions say that the reason for less attraction of workers in investment zones is the lower salary.

A recent report of the Medical Research Institute of the Ministry of Health stated that 20%of Sri Lankans are in extreme poverty and they depend on less than 2 $ income per day. Basic salary of most of these factories is around or just above 2 $ per day. Sri Lanka is a country with high cost of living.

Especially, the price of food is extremely high due to government taxes on imports. The category of people mentioned above spend 60% of their daily income for food.

Anyone can understand why the workers from far away areas are not attracted in work in export zones as it happened earlier. One time, young girls of poor families of remote villages worked in these factories to earn their living and to save for their dowry. Nowadays, the salary of these factories is not sufficient even to pay for food and lodging. Why to come and waste time?

Many village women still opt to migrate to Arab countries since they are paid in foreign currency and they can have free food and lodging although salary is meager.

Of the 1.8 million Sri Lankan expatriate workers, the vast majority is the women from poor families. They are the major source of foreign income of Sri Lanka that is ruled by a bunch of fat male asses.

Sri Lanka expects Rs. five billion as remittance this year.


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Burning polythene; a burning health issue in dengue prevention campaign of Sri Lanka

(September 14, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Sri Lanka's health officials, mainly the persons deployed in dengue prevention campaigns, advocate burning of waste plastic and polythene.

Despite rhetoric of the Ministry of Environment, proper methods of disposal of polythene and plastic waste are unavailable in most parts of the country. Therefore people are prompted to burn polythene and plastic waste causing severe harm to environment and to the health of the man, animals and plants.

Dioxin, released when burning polythene is extremely hazardous to human health and the worst factor is that the dioxin can cause harm to people living even hundreds of kilometers far away from actual burning places.

Following are some key facts regarding dioxin we researched in WHO sources.

Dioxins are a group of chemically-related compounds that are persistent environmental pollutants.

Dioxins are found throughout the world in the environment and they accumulate in the food chain, mainly in the fatty tissue of animals.

More than 90% of human exposure is through food, mainly meat and dairy products, fish and shellfish. Many national authorities have programmes in place to monitor the food supply.
Dioxins are highly toxic and can cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and also cause cancer.

Due to the omnipresence of dioxins, all people have background exposure, which is not expected to affect human health. However, due to the highly toxic potential of this class of compounds, efforts need to be undertaken to reduce current background exposure.

Prevention or reduction of human exposure is best done via source-directed measures, i.e. strict control of industrial processes to reduce formation of dioxins as much as possible.

For more details visit here, the WHO website


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The development bubble of Sri Lanka is on top of a debt bubble

(September 07, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) "The country has been liberated for more than 15 months but has not recoded any significant large scale private investment, which is puzzling. The government and the private sector have to come on to a common ground in order to achieve a high economic growth, the mind sets of both has to be one in order to gain an economic victory," John Keells Holdings Chairman Susantha Rathnayake told the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission of Sri Lanka yesterday afternoon.

"The private sector has to play a vital role in the development process and should be encouraged to invest. FDIs are necessary for the country’s development and should be encouraged. The private sector in the country alone cannot go ahead with the development activities without adequate capital to invest. We should focus on attracting large players who will help develop the country in the long run, rather than the small investors who come in for a quick buck," he said.

Jayampathy Bandaranayeka, the chairman and director general of the country's state-run Board of Investment (BOI) also expressed the same views in an interview with Reuters "We are unlikely to move beyond $1 billion (in regard of Foreign Direct Investment) and investments would be more in line with what was achieved last year." Last year Sri Lanka achieved US $ 602 million.

These two statements are indications of the crisis behind the development bubble of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka has accelerated infrastructure development. Harbors, airports, expressways, coal power hoses and many more constructions are underway funded by massive loans obtained from international financial markets.

Latest reports of Central Bank of Sri Lanka shows that the local and external debts of the state has sharply escalated.

The report says that the unpaid debt has increased by 4.5% now compared to the end of 2009.

According to economic indices of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka the accumulated local debts of the state in May 2010 rose from Rs. 2521.5 to Rs. 2544.2 within a month by Rs. 22 billion.

Overall foreign debts of the government by end of May was Rs. 1777.9 billion and it rose to Rs. 1803 billion by Rs. 26 billion within a month.

By the end of June, the total unpaid debt of the government was Rs. 4347 billion and it is an increase of Rs. 54 billion from May. At the end of May the state debt remained in Rs. 4293 billion, Central Bank reports show.

The development bubble of Sri Lanka is on top of another bubble, i.e, debt. How are we going to continue paying back these massive loans? In 2009, Sri Lanka state spent 86% of the Gross Domestic Product to for loan repayments. The repayments of external loans cost 36.5% of GDP.

The government has made each Sri Lankan indebted Rs. 217,350 and of this massive indebtedness, Rs. 90,150 is to foreign countries, as per end of June.

In line with this trend, the government will not be able to maintain the ability to continue to obtain loans continuously.

When the debt bubble bursts, what will happen to the development bubble?



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