The Sunday Leader » Paththarakaraya

Getting Away With The Numbers Game

admin — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 18:54:48 +0000

Not so long ago most young Sri Lankan students wanted to end up in one of three professions – medicine, engineering or law – in that particular order. Then somewhere between J. R. Jayewardene’s open economy and Mahinda Rajapaksa’s open sesame it all changed. Today this country produces more accountants each year than medicine, engineering and law put together.

The younger generation of Sri Lankans, both men and women have taken to accounting like ducks to water so much so that outside Britain, Sri Lanka has the largest population of CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) members in addition to about 80,000 trainee accountants – all of them crunching numbers in what is turning out to be a national speciality.
With such a rapid proliferation of accountants it is reasonable to expect the country to have in place a governance structure that places some degree of importance on accountability – at least when it comes to numbers. But as in everything else in this land of contradictions, reality is anything but that.
Take for instance the two hotel projects at Galle Face, for which the government gave the green light recently. Initial reports stated that the Hong Kong based Shangri-la hotel group would invest US$ 125 million in the Galle Face hotel project. A few days later government media placed the investment at US$ 250 million. Just last week the Government Information Department in a statement said that the foreign hotel project will bring in a direct investment of US$ 500 million. Within a period of a few weeks the Shangri-la investment, just like Transport Secretary Dhammika Perera’s stock market investments, first doubled and then tripled.
This overnight multiplication did not stop there. With another Chinese chain given the green light to put up another luxury hotel at Galle Face the Government Information Department is on record stating, “the two giant foreign hotel projects will bring in a direct investment of US$ 1 billion.”
Not to be outdone Sri Lanka Tourism then joined the party claiming some US$ 1.5 billion worth of hotel projects are expected to kick-off this year. We are not sure if this figure includes the Galle Face projects. Whether it does or does not, what is raising eyebrows is the fact that this figure is double the entire national Foreign Direct Investment component for the entirety of last year.
In this somewhat dubious accounting environment one is entitled to suspect whether some of the highly qualified accountants of this country are more a part of the problem. After all the former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, Nivard Cabraal is today presiding over a Central Bank that is shamelessly cooking up numbers to show the government in a positive light. With the cost of living at an all time high it does not take much for even Muthubanda from Mahiyangana to tell Cabraal that his single digit inflation rate is way off the mark. Same goes for his cost of living index where systematically consumer items that are rapidly going up in price are surreptitiously taken out and replaced with insignificant items that are less likely to experience regular price hikes – an example being bread being taken out of the Central Bank’s basket of consumer items and replaced with biscuits. Which family in this country has replaced bread with biscuits at their breakfast, lunch or dinner table?
With the thousands of accountants in this country choosing to look the other way when obvious manipulation of numbers is staring them in the face, the problem is assuming serious proportions. Take for instance the recent flood damage assessment.
According to the government the flood damage has been assessed at Rs. 50 billion. What kind weather gods we have – since they don’t want to trouble our accountants too much with cumbersome figures they created damage to the exact value of Rs. 50 billion. Nice and big and round and convenient – not like say 46, 456, 153, 987 which is bound to give one a headache. Then again the Paddy Marketing Board is supposed to have made a loss of Rs. 500 million last year. Once again a nice, big, round and convenient figure.
How considerate these loss-making entities are towards our hassled accountants – they come up with very easy to handle figures. Mind you this institution that has come up with this 500 million loss assessment has not had an audit done of its accounts since 1994. COPE Chairman, Senior Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera said a mouthful last Monday when he lamented that unless a new culture of financial discipline and budgetary guidelines were introduced at all 149 state ventures, a majority of them were bound to fail. Unfortunately Gunasekara’s alarm comes a little too late with terminal damage already done in most of the state enterprises.
Why is it that no one, not least the thousands of our world beating accountants, ever queries these nice, round numbers that are frequently trotted out? For instance the Ceylon Electricity Board loss for last year is Rs. 50 billion. How come its not 49.5?
This disregard for fiscal discipline was highlighted by a startling revelation in parliament last week. It was brought to the notice of the house that a mind-boggling sum of Rs. 2,400,000,000 had been spent to ‘rehabilitate’ 43 km of the Trinco – Habarana road. That basically works out to a massive Rs. 55,813,953 to ‘rehabilitate’ one kilometre of road. The colossal cost of the Trinco – Habarana road had prompted Opposition Parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekara to inquire from the minister concerned, in parliament, whether this particular road was paved with gold.
If this is the ‘going’ rate to ‘rehabilitate’ one kilometre of an existing road then what would be the cost if the entire rail and road network the British built from scratch was to be replicated tomorrow by this mega-project-loving government?
Now there’s a figure for the accountants to crunch on since more adventurous pursuits like probing the nice round figures presented by various entities is not their kind of thing.

National ‘Attitude’ Problem

admin — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 19:03:57 +0000

Almost every part of Sri Lanka has seen some form of flooding in the last one year.
While there is absolutely no argument about the unprecedented quantum of rain that has fallen on the island during this time period, it can certainly be argued the damage that was caused could have been mitigated had the storm water drainage systems been in decent condition.
It is a well-known fact that half an hour of heavy rain is enough to flood Colombo making many key roads impassable. A little less known fact however is that much of the flooding in the agricultural areas as seen last week, like in the North Central, Central and Eastern Provinces, could have been more manageable had the water holding capacity of tanks and reservoirs in these areas been at the maximum level.
The plain truth is that due to years of neglect many of these tanks and reservoirs can hold only a fraction of the quantum of water they are capable of holding primarily due to soil erosion and sediment build-up. These tanks need regular maintenance by way of de-silting. What happens now is that, just like Colombo getting flooded in half an hour, these tanks fill up in double quick time during the rainy season and no sooner the rains end and the dry season sets in, these tanks also empty in double quick time.
It is indeed a sad situation that while this government is busy carrying out mega projects that would benefit only a relatively small segment of the population, the more needy projects like de-silting tanks and reservoirs that would benefit thousands of people and also improving the storm water drainage system in the capital city get little or no attention. The usual excuse of ‘lack of funds’ is also no longer valid because far less useful projects like Formula One racing tracks are being built in the middle of the sea using the government’s financial resources.
While all this constitutes one side of the coin, the other side is the attitude of the people tasked with maintaining these crucial facilities. Take a peep into any gully in Colombo and one is sure to find it blocked either with garbage, earth or both. This situation prevails even though the Colombo Municipal Council has a cadre far in excess of the real requirement. Many of the Council’s workers turn up for work in the morning, sign the attendance register and then disappear. Colombo being flooded is the least of their concerns.
When it comes to maintaining tanks the attitude of irrigation workers is no different. Which brings us to the question: why is it that the average Sri Lankan worker is so detached from the work he is supposed to do and in most cases does not do at all? After all, this is the very segment of society that answers to the call of ‘patriots’ and are very vocal about their love for the ‘motherland.’ This is also the most impressionable segment of society that cunning politicians prey on to further their political goals.
Why is it then that a CMC worker who professes to love his motherland being the patriot that he is, does not realise that by doing his job of cleaning a gully, he prevents a part of his motherland from being flooded and thereby obtains the satisfaction of having done his part for the country?
Why is it that the very vocal trade union, the “Railway Protection Society” does not see the need to clear the 10-foot high grass that is growing in plain sight among the dozens of carriages consigned to the railway yard at Maradana and allowed to rot away? No human being with his nostrils in working order can go to a railway toilet even when in dire need. Isn’t that a part of railway property that needs to be protected from ruin? It is clear that all these protectors have as there primary goal the protection of their self-interests and nothing more.
Around six months back, during the height of the dry season, a group of tourists who were passing a remote hamlet in the North Central Province had observed the difficulties the villagers were undergoing due to the lack of water. The emaciated village women had to trudge many kilometers carrying a large pot to collect water from the only available resource, an irrigation tank.
The group of tourists who incidentally were Sri Lankan expatriates, on the spur of the moment, had decided to help the people in this remote village by sponsoring the construction of a couple of tube wells and the construction of a public bathing/toilet facility.
According to the tourists, the village consisted of around 20 scattered families who make a living either as dry-zone farmers or labourers, and the dry season makes them virtually helpless with no income and no water, as the tank in the area dries up during this period. It is only during the rainy season that they could cultivate their lands. The officials and the politicians have turned a blind eye to them with false promises at election time, according to them.
Having understood the plight of the villagers and with limited time on their hands, the tour party had wanted to do things quickly. Following some inquiries they had been directed to the Grama Niladhari for the area whose office was a good 15 km away. When they had made their way to the Grama Niladhari he in turn had directed them to the Divisional Secretary whose office was a similar distance away. Once at the Divisional Secretary’s office the tourists turned philanthropists had been advised to consult an Agricultural Project Officer since the Divisional Secretary had claimed that the Project Officer was the proper authority for granting approval for a project of this nature.
Having been driven from pillar to post the now weary philanthropists were not at all surprised when staff at the agriculture office had advised them to contact the relevant minister. The tourists had by now wasted three days of their precious holiday time in the pursuit of their philanthropic deed, but yet had achieved nothing. However all this was nothing compared to the two weeks they then had to sacrifice in trying to get an appointment to meet the relevant minister back in Colombo. These people had met no less than three different secretaries at three different levels at the ministerial office and each had promised to arrange a meeting with the minister. But nothing had happened despite repetitive telephone calls to these officials.
By now totally disgusted with the status quo, in sheer desperation they had contacted a local NGO that was active in the area. After a series of discussions with the officials of the organisation, they had finally agreed to undertake the project but subject to three conditions: one, to treat and recognise it as an initiative of the NGO itself; two, to deposit at least 50% of the proposed budget in this organisation’s bank account in order to commence the project; three, to help them by financing a similar project in another district. Having invested so much of time, effort and money these philanthropists in the end got zero credit for their good deed. Needless to say that was the first and the last time any Sri Lankan would be the beneficiary of their benevolence.
This indifference to duty is nationally ingrained. Take for instance the simple matter of crossing a road. It is the civic duty of the people to respect road rules. The universal road rule is that ‘green’ you go, ‘red’ you stop – be it motorists or pedestrians. Today colour lights are popping up all over the city but no pedestrian respects these colour lights – be it red or green it is open sesame for them to cross. The saddest part is that policemen who instantly reprimand motorists for running even the amber light turn a totally blind eye to pedestrians crossing roads when it is red for the pedestrians. Even the top cops now monitoring the 108 cameras all over Colombo don’t seem to see anything wrong in that.
The government may well tout its slogan of making Sri Lanka ‘the miracle of Asia’ but unless through some miracle the people of this country become civic-conscious, the achievement of that status will surely require no less than a miracle.

Born Suckers

admin — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 18:47:35 +0000

When it comes to political promises, Sri Lankans are born suckers. From S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike’s ‘Sinhala Only’ Utopia to his wife Sirimavo’s ‘Rice from the Moon’ to J.R. Jayewardene’s ‘Dharmishta Society’ to Chandrika Kumaratunga’s ‘Eradication of Dooshanaya and Beeshanaya’ to maestro Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ‘Miracle of Asia,’ Sri Lankans from all walks of life – rich and the poor, educated and the uneducated, have all fallen for what has almost always been, crap.
To expect this situation to change in the short to mid term would be akin to expecting the sun to rise from the West in the same period. Which is why Maestro Mahinda is at it again. Hardly had the volume of the call for the Rs. 2500 salary increment promise to be granted dropped a notch or two, he sent his mouthpiece Minister John Seneviratne to ‘announce’ that the President never made any such promise. And this in a day and age when every word that is said by the President is recorded and reported in some form or the other.
And it gets better. On Saturday, January 8, President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing a meeting at Temple Trees is reported to have said, “this government does not have any faith in privatisation and it would not sell state property.”
The audience no doubt in typical Sri Lankan fashion lapped it up and probably gave a thundering round of applause to the Presidential pronouncement. It is highly unlikely that the President was unaware that his Treasury Secretary, P.B. Jayasundera was at that very moment making arrangements to list some high profile government owned establishments in the Colombo Stock Exchange. If that is not privatisation then heaven help our Finance Minister.
How does one get away, and even get a round of applause, after resorting to such blatant, in your-face deception? Only two requirements – the speaker obviously needs to be an absolute maestro at his game and of course the audience, a bunch of suckers.
Privatisation is now taking an ugly, hitherto unseen face. It has been the practice that when foreign investors seek state land, be it in Colombo or anywhere else in the island for that matter, such land is given to the investor on a maximum 99 year lease. State land has never been sold outright to foreign investors.
This policy for some reason is no longer practiced. It was announced recently that Shangri-la had been ‘sold’ 12 acres of land at Army Headquarters opposite Galle Face. Days later, last Thursday it was announced that Cabinet had approved the sale of another huge block of land, again at Galle Face to China National Aero Technology Import and Export Corporation to build a multifunctional complex comprising of a five star hotel and a shopping mall.
It is an open secret that the days when powerful countries fought wars to conquer other less powerful countries are long gone. Now the same goals are achieved through the use of economic firepower. The Chinese have already got a firm foothold in Hambantota through the port it is now building there. From this vantage point they can easily monitor the shipping traffic in the Indian Ocean – the veritable jewel in the Chinese’ ‘String of Pearls.’ What the Chinese lacked was a firm foothold in the commercial capital and now it seems the Government of Sri Lanka has given it too, on a platter.
State land does not belong to the Government of Mahinda Rajapaksa to dispose as they please. State lands belong to the people of Sri Lanka and it is held in trust on their behalf, by the government of the day. How does selling, for example, say the Timber Corporation differ from selling a part of Galle Face to the Chinese? How does this government define the word ‘privatisation’? When one of the most prime assets of the country such as a part of Galle Face or Army Headquarters is sold to a foreign government is that not privatisation of a key state asset?
One can just imagine the wailing cardboard ‘patriots’ such as the JHU and its Champika Ranawaka, Wimal Weerawansa, Vasudeva and such others would have resorted to had Ranil Wickremesinghe and his UNP decided to sell Army Headquarters to a foreign company to build a five star hotel. They would be screaming from the rooftops of a ‘threat to national security,’ ‘sovereignty has been surrendered for a few million dollars,’ ‘traitors of the nation’ etc. Today, their silence is deafening. So it was when the Casino Bill was introduced.
It will be intriguing should some selective activists like Vasudeva Nanayakkara, like he did in the case of the Insurance Corporation, initiate public interest litigation at least for the purpose of defining whether the two Galle Face deals are indeed instances of privatisation. Part two can then begin where part one ends.
It is also interesting that former President Chandrika Kumaratunga in an interview last week had said that 40% of every government deal was shrouded in corruption. When asked as to how she came about this figure she had replied it was through experience she had gathered as head of state for two consecutive terms. What it means in terms of the colossal projects undertaken by this regime, which incidentally consists of the very same ministers that served under her watch, we leave it to the imagination of readers.
It will be recalled that until last year the Galle Face area in its entirety was closed to the public of Sri Lanka for ‘security reasons.’ Should there be a security issue in the future will the seven star Shangri-la and the other Chinese five star hotel be told to pack up and leave due to security reasons? After all that was what the citizens of this country were told until a few months ago when they were denied access to even park a motorcycle in this area.
It won’t be long when some Indian company also demands a piece of Galle Face if one is to go by recent events. When that happens Sri Lankans who come from such far away places as Mahiyanganaya and even the city folk who have enjoyed this open space for centuries, will have no option but to jump right into the Indian Ocean while the high and mighty can wine and dine in Shangri-la style at Galle Face. To hell with national security etc. etc.
The bottom-line is this. A key part of Sri Lanka’s capital city has been sold outright to China – for USD 250 million – by a government that claims to be against privatisation. And the people of Sri Lanka? Well, they are cheering! What then, is the word that describes such a people?

The Northern Imbroglio

admin — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 18:57:07 +0000

Last week this column lamented that there was hardly any coverage of the crime wave sweeping the north in the English and Sinhala media. Lo and behold, beginning the very next day, Monday and continuing through Friday as this piece was written the mainstream media and parliament have been dealing with the issue exhaustively.
What is unfathomable is the fact that this crime wave is happening in the most militarised part of the island where military personnel cram every nook and cranny in this former war zone.
The Jaffna peninsula was only a witness to the final war that took place in the Wanni battlefields last year, with the peninsula being under government control since the mid ‘90s. This is all the more reason that law and order in this region should be well established by now and be a showpiece to the other former war zones as to what could be.
That no less a person than the EPDP Leader, Douglas Devananda, a government minister, has been bitterly complaining both in and out of parliament about the lawlessness in the north speaks volumes about the ground reality and the government’s post war strategy.
Devananda is no angel by any stretch of the imagination. After the LTTE was vanquished from the north by the Kumaratunga administration in 1995, Devananda’s EPDP outfit quickly moved in to fill the void, and with the nod and a wink from the government, has held sway over the region ever since. Its cadres who are still allowed to carry arms have resorted to more or less the same tactics as the Tigers to achieve their ends. Many crimes have been attributed to the organisation but no one to date has been brought before the law. Now, to find that the very man who presided over all this is complaining that there is no law and order sure raises an eyebrow if not two.
He was to state in parliament Tuesday, “people fear whether their area will be stained in blood again. It is the general fear” referring to the present ground situation.
According to Tamil media reports abductions, rape, robbery and murder have seen a drastic increase in the recent past. No one seems to know who is behind them with the police unable to bring any of the culprits to book. The military for its part has stated that most of the crimes are of a personal nature. If that is the case what exactly is stopping the police from arresting the criminals or is there something more sinister going on where the police are reduced to being mere bystanders?
Today, ask any diaspora Tamil and he/she will confirm that the LTTE is still debiting their personal bank accounts and is collecting money. What is this money being collected for? It is obvious that something is in the Tiger works, not necessarily in military form this time around, and the ground is being prepared for it. The situation today in the north is a throwback to the pre-1983 era and it seems history has not taught the present government of Sri Lanka any lessons. It would be a very sad day indeed for Sri Lanka were the events of pre-July 1983 to be repeated in the days ahead and what is really worrying is that there is nothing to assure the people especially of the north that it will not be so. Ghosts from the past seem to be visiting the region on a regular basis beginning with the episode at the Jaffna Public Library a few months ago.
The way forward is for the government to first begin by admitting that there is a law and order problem. On Monday the Police Spokesman Prishantha Jayakody told media that ‘law and order was well maintained in Jaffna.’ If that is the case then what is Devananda, the TNA and the Tamil media complaining about and in the case of the latter, reporting about?
Army personnel based in the region this columnist spoke to said that law and order was handled exclusively by the police. We have argued before that a separate police was needed to police the police so no surprises as to who is to be blamed for the deteriorating situation going by what the military personnel insinuate.
If there is nothing to hide why is it that a proposal by Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe in parliament on Wednesday calling for an all-party committee headed by the Speaker to visit the north on a fact finding mission shot down?
Why is the government trying its level best post war to grab defeat from the jaws of victory when it comes to the true liberation of the people living in the north?
After all wasn’t the entire war effort of the government described as a humanitarian operation to liberate the people from the LTTE? The LTTE is no more but does that mean the people in the north enjoy true liberation today? Ask any northerner and the answer will be no.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to participate at the annual state sponsored Thai Pongal festival next Saturday, January 15 in Jaffna. He could use this occasion to reassure the northern people who now according to Douglas Devananda “fear whether their area will be stained in blood again,” that it will not be so. He needs to get the police to do its job and the military to rein-in armed paramilitary groups that pay scant regard for the law. Otherwise he risks walking in to a Tiger trap being laid by the diaspora.
While speaking in Tamil, like he is expected to do, at the official function in Jaffna, maybe welcome, it will take much more for the war weary Tamil people of the North to begin trusting the Rajapaksa regime. Restoring law and order in the north will be a good place to start building that trust if the government is at all serious about national reconciliation.

Needed: A Police To Police The Police

admin — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 19:14:56 +0000

In a rare case of efficiency the police has managed to round up the mastermind and most of his accomplices in the biggest robbery in Sri Lanka’s history, the Rs 70 million ATM cash heist a few months ago in Kelaniya.
However one startling fact the investigating cops discovered was that there was a police hand in the robbery itself. It has been found that a serving cop had been part of the gang and had played a key role in the robbery.
This is just the tip of the iceberg in the rot that has set in to what was once an efficient and independent entity. Today, it is an open secret that the underworld and most criminal gangs have a police ‘connection.’ Even big time brothels are said to be owned by policemen or in the alternative they are allowed to operate in return for favours. Top cops also own many private buses that observe traffic rules in the breach. Most crimes in recent times have a common streak – police involvement or the involvement of army deserters. At the last count it has been found that there are 50,000 army deserters – that is one in five army personnel is a deserter. It has been said that even post war the rate of desertion has not seen any reduction.
That this army that operates outside of the regular army is a threat to national security leave alone to individual security, is an understatement. After all these are men who are trained in the use of deadly weapons and are quite used to blood, death and violence. What they are not used to, is peace. The sooner the authorities do something about this the better. Also it would be good to study the reasons for such a high level of desertion post war.
There is a crime wave sweeping the north at present and though the English and the Sinhala media hardly report even a fraction of the crimes committed, the mainstream Tamil media is full of such reports on a daily basis.
It is a severe indictment on the police that when a serious crime occurs it is almost customary for the minister in charge to issue a statement saying that he has instructed the IGP to carry out a thorough investigation. Why such a directive is required in the first place defies logic. After all it is like telling a doctor to examine a patient whom he is supposed to treat. Isn’t that what he is supposed to do? What would happen if the minister forgets to ‘direct’ the IGP?
That the Police Department has hit rock bottom is an open secret. Ask 10 people what they think about the performance of the police and nine people will tell you that not only are they not happy with the department but are also disgusted by its (non) performance. As the former sports minister C. B. Ratnayake not so long ago pointed out, the police are one of three institutions that are most corrupt.
The level of corruption today is unprecedented – from the highest in the force pandering to the orders of his political bosses in return for survival and thereby all the perks that go with it, to the lowest level cop standing on a street corner booking motorists for traffic violations, the corruption is almost systemized. It is today quite normal for a politician to call the police top brass and order that his/her wishes be carried out as it is for a motorist who has been booked for an offence to offer a bribe to the policeman in order that the charges are dropped. Charges are generally instituted only when the bribe does not materialise or is ‘inadequate’ as per the policeman’s demands.
Despite this the IGP is on record stating that the police had collected Rs. 119 million in traffic related fines in 2010. We can safely hazard a guess that a similar amount went in to khaki pockets last year.
The traffic police have made extracting money a fine art. When their job is to prevent traffic violations or any crime for that matter, the cops will instead hide behind various places permitting violations to take place and then spring in to action when the crime has been committed. This strategy is akin to the police watching a murder being committed and then when the job is done, catching the murderer.
DIG Mediwaka a few months ago publicly frowned on this practice of the police and said that it was obvious the strategy had failed judging by the increasing number of violations. He instead suggested that police should be visible so that their very presence will act as a deterrent. This of course is highly unlikely to happen, as it will not fill khaki pockets.
Two incidents in the last two weeks really highlight the depths to which the police have fallen. In the first incident two cops had arrested a couple that had been together on the Wattala beach. The cops had then demanded Rs. 2000 from the poor couple in order that the charges be dropped. If the couple could spare this amount of money it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that they would have chosen a better place. The couple had made a complaint to the police and the two bribe-seeking cops instead had been arrested. They had been drunk at the time.
In the second incident, days later, a young couple had been arrested by the Mt. Lavinia police for being inside a room. When the Magistrate inquired on what grounds the arrest had been made, the police had said – wait for it – that the couple could have disturbed the peace! How a couple inside a room can disturb the peace only a police with a very fertile imagination can explain. Case dismissed.
Sometime ago it was revealed that only four percent of all cases filed by the police were successfully prosecuted in court. It is hard to imagine that this startling statistic would have improved since the revelation a couple of years ago. IGP Balasuriya who is busy launching email addresses directly to him and complaints via SMS has his work cut out more than any other public official as the New Year dawns.

The Absence Of Accountability

admin — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 19:25:15 +0000

It has been just two weeks since the final budget vote was taken and already the entire exercise is a distant memory in the collective Sri Lankan psyche. Such is the importance we accord to issues that affect us directly, the stomach to be precise, so less said the better of things that do not directly affect us, like say Ban Ki-Moon’s Expert Panel.

Budgets come and go and we Sri Lankans have taken it for granted that it is an annual ritual and basically leave it at that. “What to do – we have to live with it” is what the average Sri Lankan could be relied upon to say.
The 225 politicians for their part make a din in the house by the Diyawanna during the three weeks the budget is debated and at the end of it, laugh it all off, pat each other on the back and head to their luxurious abodes dumping all the budget baggage in the Diyawanna. And there it lies, till salvaged a year later, at the next budget. This is about as far as fiscal discipline goes at the highest level of governance in this country.
Basically, a set of figures is presented to the Finance Minister by the budget maestro P.B. Jayasundera, which the Finance Minister painstakingly reads for hours and hours on budget day and these figures are then debated in one of two ways for the next three weeks – on the basis that either the figures (allocations) are too much or too little. The scope of debate is more or less limited to this. No one bothers to go back one year and find out what happened to the figures presented a year ago – contrast what was budgeted as against how the money was actually spent or collected, as the case may be.
As an example, in the year 2009 the External Affairs Ministry busted its entire budgetary allocation for the year in six months. A supplementary estimate had to be approved to cover the rest of the year. We never saw any one of the worthy politicians query as to how this happened when the Ministry vote was taken up this year. Instead koheda yanne malle pol stories were presented and debated – like Ban Ki Moon’s panel – when the one and only issue that should have been focused on was the fiscal aspect of the Ministry’s operation, especially in the year that ended – with nothing to show by way of performance.
The budget is the national forum to dissect a ministry balance sheet. What happens is anything but that. So we blunder on, from one set of sham accounts to another – year after year. Who is it that could be held accountable for perpetuating this mockery of financial management?
This is just one instance of (non) governance in this country where accountability and good governance are just mere words plastered on issues as and when the need arises to accord some degree of credibility in the eyes of the public.
Take for instance what happened last Thursday when the Colombo magistrate remanded 160 “hardcore” LTTE cadres who were in IDP camps. By all means, all terrorists – be they ‘hardcore’ or any other ‘core’ need to be brought before the law. If the state feels some should be ‘let-off’ from facing the full force of the law for some reason or the other, the one and only option it has is to present the suspects before a court of law and plead for clemency. It is then up to the court to decide on the matter. The government cannot at its discretion decide which terrorist is to be punished and who is not to be. The law is equal to all, including the state.
Which LTTE terrorist could be more ‘hardcore’ than KP, Karuna, Daya Master and George Master – all of whom are being given royal treatment by the government? Why aren’t they being presented before the Colombo or Kilinochchi magistrates? How does one explain this contrasting scenario? Is it that their ‘core’ is not ‘hard’ anymore? Exactly where does accountability lie in this particular case?
Let’s take the case of the murder of the Founding Editor of this newspaper, Lasantha Wickrematunge. The very next day after the murder it was announced that four police teams had been tasked with apprehending the killers. Weeks passed and with nothing to show, the IGP announced that he was personally taking over the investigation. Months passed and it was announced that the CID would take over the investigation as little or no progress had been made. Now, recently, it was announced that the TID would be taking over the investigation from the CID. Where does the passing of the buck end?
In exactly 12 days it will be two years since Lasantha Wickrematunge was killed, yet while in that time the LTTE and its long elusive chief was located and annihilated, while his successor was scooped up from far away Malaysia and is now in government custody, while the entire LTTE intelligence network was also dismantled, Wickrematunge’s killers, who performed their despicable act in broad daylight in the middle of a busy highway and just 100 meters from a key military installation, still roam free. Who is it that can be held accountable for this?
Take Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Oxford fiasco – shouldn’t the person responsible for this disaster resign without any further delay? Whoever it was that advised Rajapaksa to go to London despite advice to the contrary by his own External Affairs Ministry needs to own up and resign. After all the person/s blundering resulted in not only a personal insult to Rajapaksa but to the whole nation.
In the alternative, if the person/s responsible don’t resign shouldn’t they be sacked? Isn’t that the way forward? Why this ultra tolerance of mediocrity where certain people are allowed to blunder on and bring the whole nation to ridicule? Who is it that can be held accountable for this?
In less than two months, the ICC Cricket World Cup will kick-off in the Sub Continent with Sri Lanka being a co-host. Definitely, the biggest sporting event to come our way. This decision was not made the day before but years ago. Sri Lanka had all the time in the world to get its stadia ready, but sadly none of the three venues listed to host the World Cup matches are yet ready. What does this mean, it means the new grounds would be as alien to the Sri Lankan cricket team as it would be to the visiting teams as the local lads will have no opportunity to familiarise themselves with the new venues.
And with that the only benefit in the home team’s favour, the “home advantage” has been squandered at the altar of politics. With the accent on completing the stadia no one is even talking of the logistics and infrastructure necessary to convey back and forth, and accommodate 40,000 people in a far corner of the island where the collective hotel room strength is still a couple of hundred.
The last team to visit the country, the West Indian team, had been livid that they were made to sit in a bus for five hours to make the trip to Hambantota. While this nightmare unfolds the mandarins in government are busy canvassing to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Hambantota. If ever there was a case of mixed priorities then this one has to be it. Who is it that can be held accountable for this disaster in the making? Many more are the issues that can be mentioned such as our foreign policy disaster where accountability, though a prerequisite, is sadly missing.
With the first decade of the new millennium drawing to a close and a new one beginning in five days one can only hope that the powers that be realise that the path to development is not only putting up buildings, harbours and roads but putting in place a system where there is little or no room for mediocrity, where good governance is assured and the only way to ensure this is by making people — however big or small — accountable for their actions.

Miracle In The Making

admin — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 18:50:03 +0000

It is the first week of December and what has been quite an eventful year is coming to a close. As such, a little reminiscing of the year that was, is in order. Kicking off the year 2010 was the acrimonious presidential election, which was held on January 26. Mahinda Rajapaksa comfortably won that election but contrary to what he promised pre-election he has done the opposite January through to December.
The budget, the icing on the presidential cake for 2010, is now being debated in parliament and if nothing else, it goes to show the absolute contempt shown to the electorate ever since January 27.
Picture this scenario. The date is January 25, 2010 – one day before the presidential election. Candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa gets on an election campaign stage and states the following:

Mahinda — Master of the art of deception

‘I will bring in an amendment to the constitution (18th Amendment) where instead of abolishing the executive presidency as promised so far by me it will enable the president to carry on forever with full immunity from legal action.
I will take measures to put in jail ‘’the greatest army commander in the world’’ for daring to contest me at this election.
I will present a budget in November where government servants will get a salary hike in the form of a non-pensionable allowance of 5 percent of basic salary and a Rs. 600 increase in the cost of living allowance. Pensioners however will be given only Rs. 250, which will be added to their cost of living allowance. I will not bother about private sector employees who outnumber government servants by 5:1.
In November I will appoint 95 ministers, most of them having nothing to do, but I will provide them with maximum luxuries. They will have nothing to do, as I will place over 80 government departments directly under the Rajapaksas.
But these ministers will behave like royalty and as and when they feel like it, like King Akbar, they will disguise themselves as ‘normal’ people and mingle with the public to find out their problems.
I will also allow these royal ministers to tie government servants to trees to teach them a lesson when they don’t do what we order them to do.
I will scrap all the independent commissions and appoint a new set of commissions totally dependent on me. There will be a parliamentary committee just to attach some veneer of credibility to the whole process but I will not listen to them and I will do what I want. For my convenience this will be specified in the new law.
I will ensure that government owned entities will be put on the Colombo Stock Exchange and sold to the public. This is a novel way of privatising government institutions and no one will oppose this, as it will take some time for them to figure out what is happening. By this time the government will be laughing all the way to the bank.
I will ensure that the cost of living will match the income of my ministers with a coconut at Rs.50 and bread at Rs.50. With the cost of living increment I have given the people in the 2011 Budget, they can buy 12 coconuts for Christmas (12X50=600).
I will organise banquets, parades, carnivals and other tamashas spending millions and millions for the slightest excuse. I will also create the world’s biggest five star kiributh and feed it to 65,000 people.
I will kick out 65,000 people (coincidence or what!) who have for decades been living in the city, out of Colombo. If they have deeds for their dwellings they can throw it to the Wellawatte canal which I will clean up anyway.
Colombo will get flooded week after week and I will provide Armored Personnel Carriers for MPs to visit parliament and navy boats for ordinary people. Beyond this I do not propose to do anything else.
Student protests will be a thing of the past, as I will lock them all up in remand prison.
On every foreign trip I will take a minimum of 100 persons and house them in the poshest hotels.
I will introduce legislation in parliament where casinos can be opened in any part of the country with the only requirement being permission from my royal ministers. As you know the proliferation of casinos will provide night-time employment for our young women and the extra consumption of liquor at these places will lead to increased excise/tax revenue for the government. Just to be sure I will raise the tax on liquor.
Also, to ensure we have enough workers at these places in the future I will reduce the allocation for education for next year.
All these will help make Sri Lanka the Miracle of Asia, so please vote for me.’
This is not a hypothetical situation; it is present day reality in Sri Lanka. All these ‘developments,’ for want of a more appropriate word, took place during the course of this year – certainly a most eventful and colourful one.
Having witnessed all this in the space of just 11 months post election we cannot help but wonder what would have been the outcome had candidate Rajapaksa in all sincerity promised the above to the electorate on January 25. It can be safely assumed that the number of votes he managed to obtain, jilmart aside, would have been drastically less than the 6,015,934 votes or 57.88% of the vote he got in the end.
For those who often speak of the ‘massive mandate’ the President got at the last election it would be good to keep in mind that Rajapaksa got his mandate for quite the opposite of what he has done throughout the year. Let’s hope at least in 2011 he will revert back to the Mahinda Chinthana Idiri Dekma.

The Battle To Be The Chief Opponent

admin — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 18:52:35 +0000

He came, he conquered and he has now settled down to rule happily ever after. By all accounts, the President is a happy man with at least six years to go without a care in the world. With the opposition decimated, there is nothing to stop him from doing as he pleases with a two-thirds majority in the bank to rubber stamp all that he wishes to pass into law.
While theoretically this might be the case on paper, there is a slight chance that life can become a little more challenging for the President if the main opposition finally manages to get its act together.
Right now all is clear on the Presidential radar screen, except for a tiny little dot that is approaching. And that tiny dot is December the 12th. That is the day the once mighty, almost invincible UNP, now reduced to a 40-odd-member opposition bloc, will be holding their party convention.
The party convention itself was hanging in the balance until two weeks ago when the reformists won the day at the Working Committee, the supreme decision making body of the UNP.
The December 12 convention will be no ordinary convention. And no one will be watching it more closely than Mahinda Rajapaksa himself, for it will decide who will emerge as his main contender.
The race to be party leader is a two horse race – the present party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe being challenged for the top job by Sajith Premadasa, son of Former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, on whose demise Wickremesinghe took over government as prime minister in 1993.
For the UNP in general and Ranil Wickremesinghe in particular, the wheel has turned full circle since those tumultuous days following the assassination of Ranasinghe Premadasa. Today Premadasa’s son, Sajith, who started from the bottom and worked his way into contention from the Rajapaksa bastion of Hambantota, stands at the threshold of creating history by throwing his hat into the ring to take on the leadership mantle of the party.
But nothing is guaranteed and there is every chance come December 13, the status quo in the grand old party will remain the same.
If that were to be, then Ranil Wickremesinghe would be to the UNP what Mahinda Rajapaksa is to the SLFP – an all-powerful one-man show. Such a prospect however will find the President grinning from ear to ear, for he has Wickremesinghe all measured up and there is not much else Wickremesinghe can do that he has already not done to challenge Rajapaksa.
On the other hand, should Premadasa win the day, Rajapaksa would surely have some cause for worry. By and large on a national scale, Premadasa is an unknown quantity. If he were to replicate his Hambantota success on a national scale, then life for Rajapaksa in the next six years will not be smooth sailing. Premadasa using Hambantota as his bastion to launch his national effort will to a great extent take the wind off Rajapaksa’s sails.
Premadasa has the brand name to go national effortlessly. The key attribute of the brand is nation-building with people still recalling with awe the many building works undertaken, done and delivered by his late father. Ranasinghe Premadasa won the war against the JVP, sent the IPKF packing and immediately got down to building houses, roads and infrastructure. Rajapaksa won the war against the LTTE and has got down to building houses, roads and infrastructure. Almost the same thing at the macro level, but with two very different attributes at the micro level. Premadasa senior was informed by the common man and frowned on corruption by public officials. It is the opposite with Rajapaksa where his own ministers label institutions as ‘most corrupt’ and an elite coterie advises him.
Ministry secretaries were up at four in the morning ready to answer calls from President Premadasa. Nothing of the sort happens now. Overnight, Premadasa junior can claim all the aces in the President’s hand but he must play sharp. He must re-invent himself in his late father’s mould. He must speak up on national issues, not on what is happening in the UNP.
It will be recalled that after much deliberation, procrastination and finally relenting the UNP’s Working Committee gave its blessings to party reforms, the key feature of it being the election of party leader, among other posts, when there is no consensus on a nominee. This decision however does not become party law until ratified at the annual party convention. Which is why the December 12 convention is a red-letter day for the party. With there being no consensus on the nominee for party leader, an election for the top post is a certainty once the reforms are approved.
Much backroom maneuvering is ongoing and will reach a climax closer to the big day. There is every possibility that party excreta may engage the fan. The bottomline however is this – it is the UNP that must win on the day and whether the leader is Wickremesinghe or Premadasa is secondary. On December 13, the loser must ensure that intra-party conflicts are a thing of the past and unite to form a challenge worthy of the grand old party to the regime of the day. Democracy demands that. The battle to be the chief opponent has begun. Less ugly the better.

Colombo: Closed For Business

admin — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 18:45:09 +0000

The Finance Minister according to recent reports is not happy with the performance of the Board of Investment (BOI) and is even contemplating scrapping the institution all-together come the next budget which is due to be presented tomorrow (22). The Finance Minister’s ire is due to the lackluster performance of the BOI in the post war scenario where the flow of foreign investment at best has only been a trickle when it should be the opposite.
The unhappy Finance Minister is President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The unhappy Finance Minister however is happiest when as President big ceremonies are held in his honour. And when these big ceremonies are held the financial hub of the country and corporate Sri Lanka, which is essentially based in Colombo 1, 2, 3,4 and 7 have to shut down – in each instance for a week so as to facilitate rehearsals for the big day. So far this has happened three times this year.
The first time the financial hub was forced into paralysis in year 2010 was during the Independence Day celebrations in the first week of February. City roads were closed to facilitate rehearsals and no foreign businessman or even tourists for that matter could approach or get out of any of the five star hotels which are all located in Colombo 1,2 and 3 during rehearsal times and during the actual ceremony. Roads were closed on each of these days from 7 am to 2 pm.
This was repeated five months later when an almost identical ceremony cum parade was held at the same location — Galle Face — to commemorate the first anniversary of the completion of the war. Corporate Sri Lanka was again made to suffer for a week with the same road closures and same restrictions on movement.
Now, again exactly five months later from that event, last week the country’s business hub was again made to suffer for a week and come to a grinding halt on Friday. This time around, not only corporate Sri Lanka, but even all the schools in Colombo were made to shut down, most of which were in the midst of conducting their end of year examinations. All in all, three full weeks of work in the commercial hub have been disrupted this year. Which is why the BOI, understandably, has a Herculean task on its hands in convincing the big international corporations to set up shop in Colombo and for all his business acumen, Dammika Perera is certainly no Hercules.
One cannot help but feel sorry for the hapless BOI Chief, Dammika Perera who must explain to would-be investors that for three weeks of the year they will not be able to approach the financial hub of the country nor any of the five star and four star hotels located in the city centre. And all this, keep in mind, in the country that has the highest number of holidays in the world – 29, in addition to Saturday and Sunday where the sleepy state sector goes well and truly to sleep. No investor, or private entity can operate at optimum level when the state sector is inoperative.
Add to this the fact that Sri Lanka held two national elections during the year – the presidential election in January and the general election in April. During both these elections the nation virtually came to a standstill while in the run up to these elections the state sector was more or less involved in the sole task of canvassing for the governing party while all regular work was pushed to the back burner.
Which foreign investor in his right mind will want to part with hard earned money in a country where its commercial hub is closed for business for much of the year and even when it is open for business corruption plays a major part in getting anything done?
The President in his address to the nation shortly after taking oaths for a second term in office said he will work hard to eradicate corruption during his second term, but then, if the President is a man who keeps his word he would not be taking oaths for a second time, having solemnly promised to the nation five years ago that the presidency will be abolished at the end of his first term. To the discerning international businessman, the political speeches of third world leaders have little or no meaning. They almost always go on the report card prepared by their research divisions where what is said by politicians is compared as against what is done. In this regard the less said the better.
When it came to the disruption of life in the capital the more business savvy UNP when in power was well aware of the consequences of hampering commercial activity and shifted many of the national events including the Independence Day parade to the relatively more convenient Parliament Grounds in Sri Jayewardenepura. This necessitated the closure of just one road, the Parliament Road, and this in no way hampered the functioning of corporate Sri Lanka. But the huge appetite for grandeur of the Rajapaksa regime has meant that this is no longer an option and hence the City Centre needs to be shut down each time there is a ceremony.
The next one, by the way, is less than three months away – Independence Day – where a cabinet sub committee is already planning great things, at the same venue. One can almost feel the business community and the five star hotels – six of them – shudder at the thought. And to go with it local polls are due in the early part of next year and one can imagine the paralysis that will once again set into the state sector.
The President opening the ‘Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port’ on Thursday said at the ceremony that ‘Sri Lanka must catch up with other fast developing countries like India and China and walk in tandem with them if the country is to be recognised in the international fora.’ If the President is to walk his talk then it will be good for him to realise that India has just three national holidays for the whole year and China a few more. None of these countries close down the capital city when the president /prime minister takes oath. Roads are not closed when VIPs move about. Same goes for China. In fact most of the Indian VIPs go unnoticed in normal traffic in their Marutis and Ambassadors.
All things combined it is no mean task for the BOI to convince businessmen to set up shop in Colombo with the capital closed down every now and then on the whim of politicians. The Finance Minister may well decide to scrap the BOI and set up another or do some other cosmetic change but until the fundamentals are set right where businessmen can do what they come here to do – business – at least for the better part of the year, the foreign investment levels will remain as it is – a trickle. That there is a nett outflow of foreign capital at a time when the Colombo Stock Market is booming, is proof of this fact.

Is Mahinda A Closet UNPer?

admin — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 18:57:54 +0000

For one week starting tomorrow, Sri Lankans morning, noon and night will be force-fed a diet of how great their leader is. Hosannas will be sung praising him to high heaven, military parades will be held reminding one and all as to who won the war, coinciding with it, the first ship will be arriving at Hambantota, power will be generated for the first time at Norochcholai and among the many other ‘celebrations’ two Guinness World Records will also be attempted – the biggest kiributh and the planting of 1.1 million trees in 11 minutes – flat.
While the pros and cons of all this will be the main subject of analysis when you read through the Sunday papers today, we thought of reflecting on the plight of the main opposition party, the UNP, who surely must be gnashing their teeth as the mother of all Rajapaksa parties kicks off, with the silver lining to their dark cloud still not visible. To add insult to injury, what must really be getting their goat is the fact that Mahinda Rajapaksa seems more of an UNPer as the days go by than the UNP itself.
Take for instance Mahinda’s ‘A’ Team: G.L. Peiris, S.B. Dissanayake, Keheliya Rambukwella, Johnston Fernando, Bandula Gunawardena, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Rajitha Senaratne, Lakshman Abeywardena, Gamini Lokuge, Arumugam Thondaman, Susantha Punchinilame, Sarath Amunugama, Neomal Perera and P. Dayaratne, among others, are all UNPers who have crossed over.
Despite all the talk of the UNP and the troubles facing it, a little spoken about fact is that the SLFP is almost in the same predicament – neglected, unwanted. In addition to the UNPers who crossed over sitting pretty in government, the other movers and shakers in government come from an assortment of other parties such as the JHU, NFF, MEP, CP, EPDP etc. In fact, on close inspection, one finds that those who have the President’s ear are all from parties other than the SLFP. The President it seems is keeping a safe distance from his own party.
If any indication is required, the plight facing the SLFP’s Headquarters says it all. The present headquarters at Darley Road in Colombo 10 is in a dilapidated condition with little or no activity, while the new headquarters project in Battaramulla is reportedly at a standstill – all this while mega development projects are taking place all over the island. Except for the yearly convention that takes place, not much else seems to be happening in the first breakaway party of the UNP.
Internal power struggles that are obviously going on get little or no press coverage. It is apparent that General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena’s hands have more or less been tied by members of the Presidential family. Sirisena, one of the more senior members of the party is not one to give in easily and is holding on grimly.
On the other hand, Mahinda Rajapaksa with each passing day is proving to be more of an UNPer than even Ranil Wickremesinghe. Take for instance his pet projects – the Hambantota harbour, Norochcholai power project, Upper Kotmale, Southern highway, airport expressway – they are all UNP initiated projects. He has embraced the policies of the late President Premadasa albeit sans the all important checks and balances which the former president was renowned for. While back then the public sector would shudder at the mention of the former president’s name – where even ministry secretaries had to climb ladders to check on repairs — today it is the converse in a scenario where corruption rules at every level.
This is where Rajapaksa has gone wrong big time. Premadasa was a master at putting on big shows, yet there was a method in the man’s madness — for want of a better word — and it must be said that much of the splashing Premadasa did was more to the benefit of the people at least after the event like the mega Gam Udawas unlike the vulgar extravagance today where there is nothing for the people after the high budget events.
Mahinda Rajapaksa for all his socialist talk is putting the best of capitalists to shame. He is buying back big businesses like SriLankan Airlines, Shell gas etc. and is planning to use the stock market to sell the government’s stake to the public, no doubt making a tidy profit for the government in the process. He has also now made it possible for casinos to open up in all parts of the country. Import taxes have been slashed and foreign exchange restrictions lifted – all very capitalist in nature indeed.
When J.R. Jayewardene opened up the economy in 1977, he had in place the necessary safeguards to rein in the ‘robber barons’ who he famously invited in to the country. Over the years, in the name of ‘attracting investment’ many of those safeguards have been either diluted or removed in toto. So much so, the biggest growth segment in the books of the Board of Investment at present are Chinese and Indian restaurants and not the big corporations of the West as envisaged back in the day.
It is truly extraordinary that Rajapaksa has got away ushering in this new brand of capitalism while having in his ranks the Communist Party and the JVP breakaway, the so called Socialist NFF and of course the here-nor-there bikkhu-run JHU who for all intents and purposes see nothing and hear nothing when money talks.
The UNP are past masters in the game but Mahinda seems to be beating them at their own game. The grand old party’s strongest point has been its management capacity and more so when it came to the economy. The UNP was more akin to be run the way of a private corporation, which is why the leader of the party was endowed with almost infinite power when it came to matters of the party. With the right leader at the top the party machinery would be akin to a well run private corporation, operating with ruthless tenacity to increase its market share (voters) while all the time keeping things lean and mean in-house. To the UNP’s credit, it also gave adequate space for representation of every hue while doing this.
Up until Dingiri Banda Wijetunga took over the party leadership following the assassination of President Premadasa, this was the status quo at Sirikotha. Without an ineffective leader at the helm, the corporation simply collapses. Look at Sirikotha today and the proof is there for all to see.
Today the lean and mean corporation of yesterday that commanded a solid market share (voters) has turned into something like a government-run establishment (pun unintended), where inefficiency and lethargy are the order of the day with a dwindling market share.
Ranil Wickremesinghe being the corporate animal that he is and by far not the political variety by any stretch of the imagination, should know what he needs to do to reverse the trend however unpleasant it maybe to him personally, in the larger interest of party and country, which has much to benefit from a reborn UNP.
In the mean time, Happy Birthday Mahinda Rajapaksa. Bring on the kiributh.