A significant breakthrough in the ongoing battle against narcotics emerged as law enforcement arrested an individual in the Wanawasala area within the Peliyagoda police division. The suspect was found in possession of a substantial quantity of ‘ice’ drugs, commonly known as crystal methamphetamine.
The operation, skillfully executed by the Western Province (North) Crimes Division, transpired on the evening of August 15th. A meticulously planned raid resulted in the confiscation of illicit substances.
During the operation, a 23-year-old resident hailing from Dippitigoda in Kelaniya was taken into custody. The suspect was intercepted while transporting a staggering 1 kilogram and 6 grams of crystal methamphetamine on a motorcycle.
This apprehension marks a significant stride in combating the drug trade, protecting communities from the pernicious influence of narcotics. The arrested individual is slated to face legal proceedings at the Aluthkade Magistrate’s Court later today. Meanwhile, the Western Province (North) Crimes Division continues to delve deeper into the case, striving to uncover further insights into the illicit activities.
SJB MP Eran Wickramaratne asks Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to disclose the identities of his (the Speaker’s) legal advisors from whom the latter had sought legal advice before ruling that the Parliament-approved Domestic Debt Optimisation motion was not open to a legal challenge.
Finance Ministry relaxes restrictions on importing motor vehicles for public transport including buses, lorries, tankers/bowsers and trucks: State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya asserts that the same items imported during the restricted period & lying uncleared in ports will also be released, subject to a surcharge of 30%.
Sri Lanka Ports Development Authority to raise tariffs in accordance with the Govt’s revenue enhancement plans: approval granted to revise the tariff structure of navigation, stevedoring, harbour tonnage, container operations, conventional cargo operations, etc:
President Ranil Wickremesinghe announces plans to transform Mannar into an energy hub: also says an inter-city express train service between Thalaimannar and Colombo will commence on 15 September to enhance connectivity between the two cities.
An IMF team is scheduled to visit Colombo from September 14 to 27 to conduct its 1st review of the Extended Fund Facility arrangement for Sri Lanka.
Assn of Medical Specialists media spokesman Ashoka Gunaratne says SL may have to bring down specialist doctors from overseas in the next couple of years or reduce the size of the cadre in given hospitals, if specialist doctors continue to leave the country.
NPP’s Dr Nalinda Jayatissa says the airtime of state-owned Channel Eye had been sold secretly to VIS Broadcasting (Pvt) Ltd for Rs.250 mn per month, effective for 6 months from June 30: alleges that the Minister of Mass Media had submitted a Cabinet Paper after the Rupavahini employees and people who were aware of the deal objected to it.
Cabinet approves the termination of what was once described as the largest-ever FDI agreement between the BOI and Hambantota Oil Refinery after years of protracted inaction by the investor to fulfil the stipulations of the agreement.
Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera says the Chinese oil company Sinopec which is expected to start operations in Sri Lanka on Sep 20, will be allowed to sell fuel at less than the maximum retail price set by the Govt.
Top Cricketer Wanindu Hasaranga, 26, informs Sri Lanka Cricket that he is retiring from international Test cricket: the highly talented Hasaranga has not been a regular member of the Test squad over the last 2 years, and has played only 4 Tests.
As the academic year unfolds, the inaugural segment of the second school term for 2023 in Government schools and Government approved private schools is poised to draw to a close on Thursday, August 17, 2023.
Following this, the anticipation builds for the imminent commencement of the second phase of the same term, slated to kick off on Monday, August 28. As students, educators, and parents navigate this transition, the educational journey continues, brimming with opportunities for growth and learning.
Except for a few showers in Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces and in Galle and Matara districts, mainly fair weather will prevail elsewhere over the Island.
Fairly strong winds about (40-45) kmph can be expected at times in Northern, North-Central and North-Western provinces, and in Trincomalee, Hambantota and Monaragala districts
Colombo (LNW): Public Security Minister Tiran Alles today (15) lodged a complaint with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) seeking an immediate probe into a controversial statement made by Duminda Nagamuwa of the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP).
Alles defended himself saying that he is a public’s representative who always orders the relevant parties to enforce law regardless of one’s status, and expressed confidence that the law enforcement will do the same in this case.
The authenticity of such severe claims, in particular, should immediately be divulged before the public, he added.
On August 12, 2023, FSP member Nagamuwa calling in a briefing alleged that the lawmaker together with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) the leading leftist party in Sri Lanka had invested in an isle in the Europe.
Colombo (LNW): President Ranil Wickremesinghe has recommended retired Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) special grade officer Jayantha Wijerathne to be appointed as the new Chairman of the Welfare Benefits Board of Sri Lanka.
The recommendation has been made to the Constitutional Council later today (15), after it was announced that B. Wijayaratne resigned from his position as the WBB Chairman.
Colombo (LNW): An exclusive coverage on the April 2019 Easter Sunday Massacre scheduled to be telecast today (August 15, 2023) at 7 pm UK time (11 pm local time) on ‘Channel 4’ in the United Kingdom is reportedly being deferred due to what it was claimed to be a ‘technical issue,’ reliable sources told LNW.
The Channel 4 exclusive on the Easter Sunday Bombing was originally intended to be telecast after the evening news brief, but will not be on air anytime soon, over what the sources described as the credibility of the main narrator of the programme being ‘seriously problematic’ due to disturbing facts uncovered about his bank accounts.
A number of important persons including the former Head of State of Sri Lanka were interviewed in this programme.
Colombo (LNW): The Government of Japan has provided a total sum of US $547,443 (approx. Rs. 170 million) to Skavita Humanitarian Assistance and Relief Project aka SHARP for humanitarian demining activities in Northern Sri Lanka, international humanitarian information portal Relief Web reported.
Ambassador MIZUKOSHI expressed Japan’s commitment to supporting continuously for the conflict-hit area to achieve reconciliation and promote sustainable development in Sri Lanka.
Since the beginning of Sri Lanka Mine Action programme, the Japanese Government has been a continuous aide to Sri Lanka in supporting mine clearance activities. The total amount of assistance exceeds US$ 43 million to date. Development of the conflict-affected regions is one of the priority areas in Japan’s official development assistance policy to Sri Lanka.
This Financial Year’s project is expected to enable resettlement of over 400 internally displaced people and enhance their livelihoods of over 2,300 individuals directly or indirectly by clearing contaminated lands in Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu districts.
Commenting on the provision of this grant, Major Gen. (retd) Mr. Sumathi Ranjan Balasuriya stated;
“SHARP is most grateful to and deeply appreciative of the Japanese Embassy for the trust and confidence placed in SHARP by being the sole donor to SHARP continuously for 6 years, from its inception to initially commencing the demining operations in 2016, and thereafter until 2021. As of July 2023, in support of grant assistance from the Government of Japan, SHARP has cleared a total of 2,414,199 Sq Mtrs and recovered 11,471 anti-personnel mines, 168 anti-tank mines, 4,166 UXOs and over 19,647 SAA with over 2,596 families or 10,300 individuals directly and indirectly benefitted. This accounts for over 90% of the total cleared lands by SHARP.
SHARP will continue to carry out our operations to the best of our ability diligently, efficiently and effectively fully co-operating with the Japanese Embassy and all other agencies to completely justify the funds provided and fulfil the desires of our sponsors. The heartfelt gratitude and thanks of all members of SHARP is conveyed to His Excellency Ambassador MIZUKOSHI Hideaki, all GGP staff members of the Japanese Embassy and most of all the people of Japan, for their unstinted support by sponsoring SHARP, and more so ever for the Embassy of Japan being in the forefront of supporting demining activities in Sri Lanka and their continuous commitment, cooperation and assistance for the well-being of the people of our country.”
Long term survival of an entity depends on developing a culture of innovation. This needs to be an organizational priority. Fostering such a culture consultatively and inclusively needs a free flow of information, employee empowerment, collaborative problem-solving and aligning values, policies, and procedures to achieve business objectives.
An outward looking worldview, merit-based employment opportunities, recognising employee skills and knowledge, fostering life time learning and acquiring skills, encouraging to dream big in terms of future, flattening hierarchies and developing 3600 collaboration, fostering a climate conducive for accepting and respecting diversity and promoting sense of belonging and new initiatives are vital. These are crucial characteristics of an innovative culture. Only then an entity becomes dynamic, responsive, adaptable, and resilient.
Turning around a business
A business entity cannot be turned around without the active engagement of the workforce. Every worker needs to be convinced of and made accountable for the expected performance with the assurance that beneficial outcomes will be shared across the workplace.
If the entity is already insolvent, the situation needs to be turned around immediately. In this situation, it will be extremely difficult to get external funding. So, the entity must start with cutting down costs, expenditure, wastage, and mismanagement; expediently collecting what is owed to the business, and selling available products and services to the best customers for generating money.
Tough decisions in the turnaround plan need to be executed with full commitment and dedication of the workforce, while continuously monitoring key results areas and their performance indicators. Simultaneously, any contingencies that arise in the process need to be handled by thinking decisively and taking appropriate remedial action sooner rather than later.
What is crucial is the adopting of a disciplined approach in analysing the situation, developing a turnaround plan, and utilising the experience and expertise of everybody and executing the plan for achieving the anticipated outcomes.
Dealing with a country-wide economic crisis
Dealing with an economic crisis country-wide is more complicated than just spending less money, as politics plays a big role. Austerity, the key neo-liberal tool does not simply represent spending cuts. It is a process of moving society away from consumption and wages towards investment and profits. It strengthens financial capital at the expense of security and certainty in people’s lives, and drives increasing socio-economic inequality in society.
Private enterprise increasingly penetrates into the state and makes it more punitive, coercive and less welfare oriented, driving a culture where callousness and cruelty towards those in need and enforcing values of social hierarchy, dependency and competition. There are better and fairer alternatives as evidenced by what Chile endured and overcame.
Chile and neo-liberal experience
If we recollect Chile in 1973, the elected government of Salvador Allende was overthrown by the US backed and Augusto Pinochet led military regime. The USA sent a team of economists[1] to introduce neo-liberalism in Chile and to counter the left movement that was gaining popularity in Latin America. This was done prior to neo-liberalism was introduced in Sri Lanka under the regime of President J R Jayawardene. Pinochet worked along with the IMF and restructured the economy following their conditionalities.
They reversed nationalizations, privatized public assets, introduced unregulated exploitation of natural resources, privatized social security, and facilitated foreign direct investment and free trade. The regime guaranteed foreign firms the right to repatriate profits generated from such business operations in Chile and favored export-led recovery over import substitution.
Despite these developments, Chile’s budget viability was dependent on the income generated from copper, which was the natural resource that was held in the hands of the state. All revenues from copper flowed into government coffers. The results of structural reforms in Chile, such as growth rates, capital accumulation, and high rates of return on foreign investment were short-lived. With the Latin American debt crisis in 1982, everything went pear shaped.
What an IMF package entails and not
An IMF rescue package is conditional on governments needing to enhance their incomes and shrink expenditure. For IMF loans, this means national resources and public enterprises will be privatised outright, or through public-private partnerships. Direct and indirect taxes will increase with price increases of all essential commodities including food, education, health, electricity, fuel, and water. Nevertheless, people’s reactions to such unpopular policies will be counteracted by the ruling elites pledging to create more employment by boosting agriculture and industry, with the private sector assisting national development. At the same time vital causes to the crisis such as corruption and ineptness of the leaders, and wastage and mismanagement of resources are side stepped.
IMF’s research arm in 2016 published a paper titled ‘Neo-liberalism: Oversold?’[2]. IMF’s independent evaluation office has acknowledged that fiscal austerity has not delivered the expected outcomes. Despite this, IMF does not promote sovereign debt reduction to boost economic growth, but insists on fiscal retrenchment and austerity. It appears that when it comes to countries like Sri Lanka and Ghana, IMF ignores its own advice. The IMF is still adhering to austerity measures that inhibit economic growth, thus undermining efforts to reduce debt-to-GDP ratios.
According to the IMF, unanticipated transfers to state-owned enterprises and unexpected exchange-rate depreciations may undermine debt-reduction efforts. The IMF has not acknowledged that such undermining occurs as an unintended consequence of its own programs. This is because indebted countries are required to shift to market-determined exchange rates, raise interest rates, and cut state subsidies. Such measures also drive up business costs.
Further into debt
The IMF executive’s emphasis is still on faster and more effective sovereign-debt restructuring. These measures have led countries into further debt distress and re-seeking IMF help to face excessive delays, geopolitical bullying, and unresponsive creditors. Disregard for their own research has led to lending programs that include onerous conditions that bring deleterious living conditions to these countries’ populations and economies.
For countries like Ghana and Lanka, the IMF rarely looks at the socio-economic and political conditions that lead to debt problems. The risk is not necessarily the size of the ratio of debt to the GDP of a country. The issue really lies in what sources of income such as manufacturing, agriculture, services, tax revenues, and the amount of savings and reserve levels a country has. This overall picture will indicate whether a government could service a certain debt level while retaining lending agencies’ confidence and credibility. If this manoeuvrability becomes limited or vulnerable, there will be difficulties in addressing the spending needs and any ensuing crises. Ultimately, these situations can negatively impact a country’s health, education, and other essentials, leading to a crisis.
[1]Chile was the testing lab for the neo-liberal model. The economists (Chicago Boys) asked Pinochet to withdraw government involvement in all private sectors at once so as to bring back the Chilean economy to equilibrium. This move backfired with inflation escalating above 700 percent. These policies were so destructive, and difficult to implement under a democracy. Mostly, this was done through military dictatorships and state terror campaigns against any resistance emerging anywhere against it. Aggressive deregulation of economy needed aggressive regulation of the political sphere. Refer: https://www.hoover.org/news/chiles-chicago-boys-and-latin-americas-other-market-reformers and https://www.promarket.org/2021/09/12/chicago-boys-chile-friedman-neoliberalism/
