Sri Lanka Finance Ministry is reportedly preparing to introduce new regulations to enable those pawning their gold to obtain the maximum value.
A high official from the Finance Ministry said that a circular regarding this issue is being prepared now.
It is revealed that the government is preparing to provide certain guarantees against the risks to banks and financial institutions in paying the maximum amount to those pawning their gold.
When the gold prices in the world market fell recently banks and financial institutions in Sri Lanka which had provided more loans against gold faced grave risks.
Sri Lanka pawning (gold-backed loans) credit from the banking system had grown rapidly as most of the middle class families have pawned their gold jewelry to meet their day to days due to severe economic difficulties in high cost of living conditions.
Owing to the ongoing economic crisis, gold worth nearly Rs. 200 billion has been pawned to various financial institutions in the country, a survey has revealed.
Accordingly, as per a survey conducted by the University of Peradeniya’s Department of Economics and Statistical Studies, it was revealed that gold worth over Rs. 193 billion has been pawned within the first 10 months of 2022.
The Department’s Prof. Wasantha Athukorala revealed that a majority of those who had pawned their gold belonged to the middle class, adding the two most common uses of the money received was for the education of their children and agricultural activities.
Prof. Athukorala further noted, however, that people are more likely to obtain the service from privatized pawning centres now, as they provide higher rates. The survey was conducted on a total of 13 licensed commercial banks and 10 pawning centres
The recent reversal in gold’s fortunes could prove painful for Sri Lankan banks, says a report by a leading rating agency
As gold prices soared over the past few years, Sri Lanka’s banks substantially expanded their pawning loans (gold-backed loans).
The competitive nature and need for a rapid turnaround in the pawning business could compromise the ability of banks to perform thorough credit assessment of borrowers, including checking their credit histories recorded with the Credit Information Bureau of Sri Lanka.
Banks’ pawning loans grew at a steep average annual rate of about 50 per cent over the past three years, compared with average annual loan growth of 25 per cent for the banking industry.
New regulations for pawning come up soon amidst gold credit hike
SL Govt speeds up public investment for productive projects next year
Sri Lankan government is aiming to speed up public investment disbursement for projects which generates return on investment to further economic growth post-pandemic as the country opens up in 2023.
Disbursing public investment capital is vital for the country’s economic recovery as it looks to bounce back from the negative effects of the pandemic and slowdown in its economy.
The expenditure on infrastructure development in priority areas covering highways, water supply, irrigation, transport, and agriculture and education sectors was nearly Rs. 210 billion in the first nine months of 2022.
A sum of Rs. 114 billion has been allocated o for the development of roads,highways, bridges and expressways, Rs. 15 billion for ensuring adequate and safe drinking water for all and Rs. 31 billion for improving efficiency, capacity and connectivity of the transport network
Feather a sum of Rs. 11 billion has been set apart for improving productivity and efficiency of the agriculture value chain by introducing modern technology and introducing new seeds varieties, Rs. 28 billion for ensuring water availability for agriculture by constructing multipurpose irrigation schemes and canals
Rs.11 billion will be spent for infrastructure development and quality improvement of the education system the investment projects take time to implement. Hence, ramping up of safe infrastructure maintenance is advisable rather than going for new projects during the pandemic. Finance ministry public investment report on 2022 projects reveled.
These ongoing projects will providence benefits immediately for the people and investments are made in the most productive sectors, senior treasury official said.
Hence, committed projects could be reviewed/restructured and consider relaunching of halted/delayed projects due to pandemic situation. In 2020, only 40 projects out of 100 projects in the pipeline were implemented due to island wide lock-down.
For 2021, 90 projects have been identified as priority projects for implementation. The total investment for new projects during 2022-2024 is Rs. 234 billion and this accounts to 8 percent of the to all investment, the report disclosed.
As such, priority needs to be given to projects that addresses the post crisis recovery needs.
Accordingly, the main purpose of the PIP 2021-2024 is to achieve the development targets of the government and the United Nations Agenda 2030.
Financing the investment projects is crucial considering the high debt burden and uncertainties in the speed of the recovery.
Hence, non-debt financing options such as FDIs, green bonds etc. should be encouraged. Moreover, the United Nations 2030 Agenda provides a blueprint to achieve a more sustainable future for all.
FAO and UNODC to enhance skills of SL prisoners in modern agriculture
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) are working with the Department of Prisons in Sri Lanka to enhance the skills of inmates in modern agriculture practices.
Accordingly, a selection of agricultural land under the Mahara Prison and the Pallansena Youth Correctional Center is being utilized to establish sustainable farming structures.
FAO and UNODC are providing technical equipment such as greenhouses, irrigation systems including solar water pump and sprinkler systems, and mushroom cultivation units along with training on sustainable agriculture practices for inmates and officials engaged in agriculture within these prisons.
The officials and inmates will be granted certificates to recognize the skills developed as part of the project and support the inmates’ access to livelihoods in the agriculture sector at the point of reintegration into society.
The Commissioner–General of Prisons, Thusara Upuldeniya describing the added value of the initiative stated “Inmates must be provided opportunities to develop their skills in a meaningful way to ensure successful re-integration into society.
The modern farming structures at the correctional facilities will also help strengthen the food security of the inmates. We thank FAO and UNODC for its support.”
Speaking on the initiative FAO Representative for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Mr Vimlendra Sharan stated “As FAO we are committed to encouraging urban agriculture by developing skills and promoting livelihoods in the agriculture sector.
The technical knowledge and skills transferred through this project will support the participants by providing expanded employment opportunities in the agriculture sector at the point of reintegration into society.”
Speaking on UNODC’s commitment, UNODC Head of Office a.i., Ms Siri Bjune stated “UNODC’s Global Maritime Crime Programme is committed to further support Sri Lanka Prisons to improve their capacities in managing secure, sustainable and human rights compliant detention facilities, that also promote effective rehabilitation.
UNODC would like to see this project contributes toward improved mental and physical well-being of the prisoners and further encourages Sri Lanka to meet international standards in treatment of prisoners and prison facilities.”
Let’s not miss this golden opportunity to solve National Crisis!
Below is a remark on President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s intervention of providing a political solution to the Ethnic Crisis faced by the Tamil communities of the North and the East by initiating several rounds of discussions having all political parties involved as stakeholders.
It would be an unavoidable fact that the National Crisis facing Sri Lanka, which at one point heated the arena in the form of a political crisis and at another an armed struggle for three decades, has taken a drastic turn influenced by the economic meltdown affecting the lives of the people of Sri Lanka regardless of their ethnicity. In the backdrop, the island nation is suffering from its worst economic crisis since independence, a scenario that can only be solved by the help of the International Community and more importantly, the Sri Lankan Tamil Community living overseas.
The extent to which the Economic Crisis facing Sri Lanka is solved will be decided by the extent to which the International Community wishes to extend their support to us, and the scenario of Sri Lankans being compelled to suffer further and for how long will be on their hands. The fact that many Sri Lankan regimes throughout the course of time breaking the promises made before the United Nations Human Rights Council and India during and after the thirty-year war leading the International Community to grow negative towards the island nation remains intact, and it is only fair that they may hold doubts about the sincerity of the Government of Sri Lanka catering especially to the National Crisis.
Sri Lanka being the paradigm of being relentlessly divided against the Political Crisis in the eyes of the International Community may give them no pleasure to support us to solve the Economic Crisis, unless the political leaders step up sparing differences. The International Community may have no interest in supporting a nation that has no willingness to settle its own political grudges. We, therefore, must open the door that provides solutions to the National Crisis by ourselves first, are we to solve the Economic Crisis.
Be the fact that the incumbent President of Sri Lanka is a person who is capable of leading the mission of solving the crisis true, Ranil Wickremesinghe has always been in the political view of providing solutions to the National Crisis by ‘power devolution’, against every backlash of him being labelled as a pro-LTTEer.
During the presidency of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, she also tendered the resolution of power devolution, which at the time did not receive the support of the United National Party (UNP) led by Wickremesinghe. On another occasion, political streams like the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) opposed the peace establishment process initiated by Wickremesinghe. Despite the history being arguable, today Wickremesinghe does hold the position of Executive President of Sri Lanka and is administering the country alongside the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), or commonly known as the ‘Pohottuwa,’ a faction that unplugged itself from the SLFP mainstream after the 2015 Mahinda Rajapaksa defeat. The combination would be very crucial at this time, given that Sri Lanka may have been left with no more options.
Notwithstanding what is laid down above, there is also a standalone fighter in Parliament who is very much capable of boosting the process of solving the National Crisis by becoming a bridge between the Tamil political parties of the North and the East and the political parties of the South. He is none other than Dr. Rajitha Senaratne, a senior politician representing the Parliament of Sri Lanka for decades who has always been a huge voice for the minority communities of the country. His vision has also stood for providing a political solution to the National Crisis, despite his decisions to switch parties from which he contested throughout the years. During his tenure as a Cabinet Minister in the out and loud racist regime led by Mahinda Rajapaksa, Dr. Senaratne never changed his belief of providing a political solution to the National Crisis. The former Health Minister may have been ridiculed by the nationalists and their overwhelming followers, but Senaratne had never betrayed his vision towards any force that had stood against him. Needless to say, that the Tamil political parties can lay their trust upon him.
Almost every occasion on which a political solution was sought to solve the National Crisis, racist political powers of the South called it an attempt to divide the country. Contradictory to what the vast majority devoted to the South-led political stream believes, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) led by R. Sampanthan has made it very clear that they have no intention of dividing the country at all, but the implementation of power devolution, especially in the backdrop that there is no more LTTE separatism in the island nation. The TNA’s stance easily debunks the South-led political forces’ argument of dividing the country.
Reminiscent of the famous catchphrase by John Dickinson, the founding father of the United States, “United We Stand, Divided We Fall,” us the Sri Lankans too have to make a very unpopular decision as to whether we should stand up together to solve the Political and Economic Crises of the country by sparing our prejudice for the sake of the future generations, or should we continue to divide ourselves losing this golden opportunity once and for all.
*Adapted by original article, “ජාතික ගැටලුවට විසඳුමක් සෙවීමට මේ ස්වර්ණමය අවස්ථාව මඟ නොහරිමු !” published on 11.12.2022
Sri Lankan workers overseas sends more money home in November
Sri Lankan worker remittances revenue continued its ascent in November for the third month in succession reflecting end of the poor run of the key foreign currency inflow, helping the dollar-starved country to fund its essential imports
Labour and Foreign Employment Minister Manusha Nanayakkara expressed his gratitude to every expatriate worker who has sent money through the banking system legally.
He said that all Sri Lankans need the support of expatriate workers at this time, with the country facing a foreign exchange shortage.
The foreign remittances are moving closer to a US$5bn in annual rate based on November monthly data. Sri Lanka remittances for the month of November totaled US$384mn, up about 10 percent from the prior months figure.
Before the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, the country used to receive over US$7bn per year in foreign remittance. This figure had dropped in half to an annualized rate of approximately US$3.5bn during the worst of the crisis.
Sri Lankans have been lining up in droves to migrate overseas for job opportunities that will allow them to earn foreign currency based salaries.
As record numbers of migrants of around 200,000 depart Sri Lanka raising expectations of rising foreign currency remittances in the medium term in future.
This, coupled with a tourism industry recovery and stable global oil price will be key to Sri Lanka’s economic recovery.
Sri Lanka’s workers’ remittance increased to US$ 384.4 million in November 2022, according to the Central Bank.
Accordingly, the cumulative figure for the first eleven months of the year (Jan – Nov) is reported as $ 3,313.9 million,
Sri Lanka had observed an increase of 12% in workers’ remittances in October 2022 compared to the inflows recorded in October 2021.
Figures released by the Central Bank (CBSL) showed that workers’ remittances had increased to $ 355.4 million in October 2022 from$317.4 million in September 2022
Sri Lanka’s officially calculated worker remittances grew 1.73 percent from a year earlier to$359.3 million in September 2022, official data showed. Official remittances were also up from $325.4 million in August.
Sri Lanka received around $446 million s in remittances in August 2021, when the central bank tightened rules on how much banks could pay for remittances.
Overseas workers send money through unofficial channels when central banks in the region print money creating pressure on outflows and then imposes exchange controls, triggering parallel exchange rates.
Sri Lanka Original Narrative Summary: 11/12
- Chief Negotiator of Free Trade Agreements at the International Trade Office set up under the Presidential Secretariat, K J Weerasinghe says, “we hope to commence negotiations on the ETCA with India later this month”.
- Around 3,000 workers from Sri Lanka Telecom, Sri Lanka Insurance Corp and the State Banks protest in Colombo, Matara, Kalutara, Badulla and Negombo, against “Privatisation”: they also protest against the Govt’s austerity measures.
- IMF Chief Kristlina Georgieva says she had a “fruitful exchange” with her Chinese counterparts this week on her repeated calls for accelerating debt treatments for countries like Zambia and Sri Lanka.
- President’s Senior Advisor Ruwan Wijewardene says the Japanese Govt has agreed to recommence the multi-billion dollar Light Rail Transit project funded by Japanese loans, after the conclusion of the IMF negotiations: the LRT project was abandoned in 2020 with the objective of reducing Sri Lanka’s Forex borrowings: Sri Lanka is currently facing a severe debt crisis and has defaulted on its external debt.
- Ministry of Agriculture says 1,092 heads of cattle and goats have died due to the shock of prevailing cold weather in the Northern and Eastern provinces: as a consequence, President orders the suspension of the transportation of beef and mutton at district and provincial levels with immediate effect.
- COPF Chairman and SJB’s Economic Guru MP Dr Harsha Silva says the COPF has approved the regulations under the Casino Business (Regulation) Act No.17 of 2010 which are expected to enable the establishment of a Casino Regulatory Authority by 30th September 2023.
- President Ranil Wickremesinghe pledges to assist the University of Colombo to improve its quality: participates at the “Back to the Faculty” alumni programme at the Law Faculty as the first alumnus of the Colombo Law Faculty who became the Executive President.
- Police Media Spokesman says the Police Mounted division has lost 7 horses due to feed shortage amid import bans: also says each horse is worth around USD 35,000 and there are around 50 horses that are being maintained currently.
- Former CB Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal says the Rupee had been “fixed” at around Rs.365 per USD for the past 7 months: warns the Rupee is likely to depreciate rapidly and substantially when the IMF programme commences officially and the Monetary Board is precluded by the IMF from “fixing” the Rupee thereafter.
- Head of International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption Unit Alex Marshall to investigate allegations of match-fixing during the recent Test series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan: Sri Lanka Cricket had invited the ICC to undertake this investigation based on a claim by SJB MP Nalin Bandara in Parliament that the 2-match Test series played in July was “fixed”.
Showers to continue in several provinces during afternoon or night
Showers or thundershowers may occur at a few places in Northern, North-Central, Eastern and Uva provinces during the afternoon or night, and showers may occur in North-western province and in Mannar and Jaffna districts during the morning, said the Department of Meteorology in a statement today (11).
Several spells of showers are likely in Western, Sabaragamuwa and Central provinces and in Galle and Matara districts.
General public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimise damages caused by temporary localised strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.
Marine Weather:
| Condition of Rain: |
| Showers or thundershowers will occur at several places in the sea areas off the coast extending from Mannar to Pottuvil via Colombo, Galle and Hambanthota. |
| Winds: |
| Winds will be Westerly to South-westerly. Wind speed will be (30-40) kmph and gusting up to 50 kmph at times over the sea area off coast extending from Kankasanthurai to Hambanthota via Mannar, Colombo and Galle. Wind speed will be (20-30) kmph in the other sea areas around the island. |
| State of Sea: |
| The sea area off the coast extending from Kankasanthurai to Hambanthota via Mannar, Colombo and Galle will be rough at times. Temporarily strong gusty winds and very rough seas can be expected during thundershowers. |
MIAP
IGP apologises to the LGBT community for historic injustices and promises to deliver a better police service
IGP C.D Wickramaratne, in a historic meeting between senior police officers and members of the LGBT community, tendered an apology to the LGBT community for historic violations and promised to address their key grievances.
The meeting, initiated by the Ministry of Women, Child Affairs and Social Empowerment and Sri Lanka Police, brought together several LGBT organisations, including Equal Ground, National Transgender Network, Venessa Transgender Network, Young Out Here and legal pro bono organisation, iProbono. Senior officers of Sri Lanka Police who were present included the DIGs for Women, Legal and Media, amongst several others.
LGBT organisation representatives highlighted key issues faced by the community including physical and sexual harassment against the community.
Legal pro bono organisation iProbono highlighted incidents of police torture against LGBT individuals including forced anal and vaginal examinations conducted against them by JMOs following police arrests. Police officers have also refused to take down complaints by LGBT individuals when they become victims of violence and abuse.
The National Transgender Network and Venasa shared the sexual and physical violence endured by the transgender community including by the police. Police regularly arrest transgender persons under “cheating by impersonation” laws although no cheating or impersonation has happened.
Gender recognition has been legal in Sri Lanka since 2016.
IGP Wickramaratne promised to look into grievances affecting the community and as confirmed in a press release directed the Women’s desk of the Police and DIG Legal Range to take responsibility for issues facing the LGBT community. The Police also confirmed that they are in the process of preparing a circular with assistance from the Attorney General’s Department on addressing grievances affecting the LGBT community and in accordance with Sri Lanka’s Constitutional guarantees.
Since 2014, Sri Lanka’s Attorney General has confirmed that discrimination against LGBT persons is unconstitutional and that LGBT persons are protected under the right to equality and freedom from discrimination provisions in the constitution. The Attorney General has also confirmed that no existing law can be used or applied against the LGBT community in a discriminatory manner including sections 365 and 365A of the Penal Code and to do so would be unconstitutional.
In 2021, the Attorney General intervened to dismiss a case filed by the Naharenpita Police against 3 gay men for homosexuality.
Early this year, the Welisara Magistrate dismissed an attempt by the Welisara Mahabage Police to prosecute a lesbian woman for homosexuality accepting the argument from defence counsel that homosexuality was neither an offence nor a mental illness.
Last year Equal Ground and several LGBT individuals filed a case against the Sri Lanka Police for hiring discredited counsellor Ama Dissanayake where she spread homophobia and accused LGBT people of being predators. The police has since confirmed that Ama Dissanayake has been blacklisted from providing similar training to the police.
Power-sharing won’t bring peace to SL
The power-sharing experience shows that even having a Grand Coalition or a second chamber could not sustain peace and democracy in power-sharing regimes
- Some thoughts on the Daily FT Guest Columnist of Wednesday, 30 November 2022, Raj Gonsalkorale’s article, ‘Resolving the ethnic issue’
By Dinesh Dodamgoda
Sharing power among the political representatives of Sinhalese, Tamils, and Muslims will solve the ethnic issue and guarantee a democratic, peaceful, plural society, Raj Gonsalkorale, the Guest Columnist of Wednesday, 30 November 2022, Daily FT, argues.
In his article, ‘Resolving the ethnic issue’, Raj believes that the power-sharing resolution will be long-lasting. However, as the power-sharing global experiences suggest, power-sharing institutions cannot find sustainable peace and democracy.
Power-sharing
According to the Oxford Dictionary, ‘power sharing’ entered the English language as a term in 1972 in conjunction with the short-lived settlement in Northern Ireland. Arend Lijphart, the foremost consociational power-sharing theorist, views power-sharing as a mechanism that secures the participation of representatives of all significant groups in political decision-making. Therefore, in an ethnically or religiously divided society, a power-sharing mechanism should ensure the involvement of elite political representatives of ethno-religious groups from all significant ethno-religious groups in making governmental decisions.
According to the proponents of the power-sharing strategy, under proper conditions, as suggested seven conditions, can favour the success of power-sharing institutions. Those conditions are: having an elite dominance over their groups to facilitate the successful implementation of the power-sharing agreement; the existence of a culture of accommodation similar to Switzerland, Netherlands and Belgium in which groups find negotiated settlements to their disagreements rather than resort to conflict; a sincere commitment from all stakeholders to honour the power-sharing agreement; having the state strength to secure an effective and legitimate government and administrative bureaucracy; having economic prosperity and equality that facilitates a proper redistributive justice system; maintaining a stable demographics among groups as any change may affect the proportional system agreed in the power-sharing agreement; and the existence of a constructive relationship with the international community.
It is easy to understand that Sri Lanka does not have many conditions that favour the success of a power-sharing agreement. As critiques of the power-sharing strategy view, in ethnically divided societies, few, if any, of these conditions are typically present at the end of conflicts – particularly after intense civil wars.
Contemporary realities
Raj proposes, ‘Rather than a debate on who came first and who lived where a solution based on contemporary realities would be more beneficial for the current and future generations.’ However, suppose Raj aims to find a solution based on contemporary realities. In that case, he will never suggest a resolution based on sharing power, as it is a counterproductive mechanism, as evident.
What happened in many of the power-sharing regimes is that power-sharing gives power to the ethno-religious elite from parties and groups that contributed to creating, maintaining, or ending ethno-religious conflicts. Therefore, the power they would be given enhances these elites’ capabilities to press for more radical demands, especially once the violent phase of the conflict is over and peace is in place. These capabilities give opportunity and power to these elites to escalate the conflict in ways that can threaten democracy and peace. This is evident in most of the conflict theatres, especially after severe conflicts such as civil wars.
Arend Lijphart, the foremost theorist of consociational power-sharing in 2002, listed 16 consociational power-sharing regimes in the 20th century. Yet, Philip G. Roeder shows that three of these cases mentioned by Lijphart (Suriname 1958-1973), Netherlands Antilles (1950-1985), and Northern Ireland (1999-1999) were not independent states, and four more (Austria 1945-1966, Netherlands 1917-1967, Luxemburg 1917-1967, and Colombia 1958-1974) were not ethnically divided societies, Czechoslovakia’s four-year experiment with power-sharing (1989-1993) ended in the partition of the country, Cyprus’s (1960-1963) and Lebanon’s (1945-1975) experiments ended in civil wars, Malaysia’s (1955-1969) experiment with power-sharing was particularly rocky: The Malaysia federation saw session (or expulsion) of one ethnically distinct region (Singapore) and only strong-arm tactics prevented the secession of the ethnically distinct Sabah state. Malaysia’s consociational government ended in widespread ethnic violence, Fiji’s one-year experiment (1999-2000) ended in a military coup, South Africa’s (1994-1996) ended in a peaceful slide into majoritarianism, and only three consociational regimes in ethnically divided societies have reportedly survived – Switzerland (1943 -), Belgium (1970 -), and India (1947 -).
Therefore, it is understandable that contemporary realities do not favour a power-sharing solution. Despite many attempts to portray power-sharing as a practical peace and democracy-building mechanism for Sri Lanka, the power-sharing strategy has been unsuccessful.
The perils of power-sharing
Researchers who evaluated the success of the power-sharing strategy, such as Donald Rothchild and Philip G. Roeder, observed seven conditions that threaten the consolidation of peace and democracy in power-sharing regimes: power-sharing mechanism limits democracy as it deviates from competitive practices of political decision-making – the accepted norm of Western democracies; power-sharing institutions empower the leaders of the ethnic groups with means to challenge the power-sharing agreement, weapons such as vetoes; as the power-sharing strategy focuses on the interethnic allocation of power and resources and only adopts the principle of proportionality in doing so, it was often debated whether the rules of proportionality disadvantage one or the other group unfairly; the ‘second generation problem’ which is even whether ethnic elites are initially sincere in their commitments to power-sharing, the emergence of more radical leaders in the same group tends to put the initial commitment away as it was evident in Serbian power-sharing experience; as the power-sharing institutions are designed to expand the representativeness of the state, this representativeness comes at the cost of more significant governmental inefficiency; as the power-sharing strategy freezes a status quo when entering the agreement, institutions tend to be inflexible and unable to adapt to rapidly changing social conditions during a period of transition; and it is extremely difficult to enforce the rules of a power-sharing agreement against opportunistic behaviour of the ethnic leaders of significant groups of the accord.
If this is the reality, the proponents who push for a power-sharing resolution for Sri Lanka are either unaware of the perils of power-sharing or lying, maybe with ulterior motives. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, on 22 November 2022, told President Ranil Wickremesinghe in Parliament, “Tell the truth to the Sinhala people that the federal path is the only solution to the ethnic question in Sri Lanka… He should not hesitate to tell the Sinhalese people. Federalism is not separation. Quite the contrary.” Was not Gajendrakumar either unaware of the perils of power-sharing, or was not he lying?
The myth of a plural society
Raj also holds a narrow perception of diversity, like the other proponents of power-sharing. He limits ‘diversity’ only to recognising cultural diversity and everything associated with that diversity. A society comprises people with many identities; some are cultural identities such as ethnicity, religion, or language. Some are non-cultural identities, such as the identity of professional groups, occupation-related identities, etc. A society has multiple identities. Yet, Raj proposes to uphold diversity by suppressing the rest of the identities to recognise the most vexatious identity, in the Sri Lankan case, ethnicity.
Can Raj or other proponents of power-sharing celebrate the diversity proposed by the power-sharing mechanism as genuine? In such a model, ethnic identity with a numerical majority dominates over any different identity in Sri Lankan society. It, therefore, does not recognise principles of equality and diversity or the fundamentals of a plural society. It is evident that Raj also believes the same myth that the proponents of power-sharing believe, “power-sharing brings a plural society”.
A second chamber
To find a fresh approach, Raj proposes, as an interim solution, to establish a second chamber comprised of representatives from Sinhalese, Tamils, and Muslims with the power to veto to block bills that impinge on the equal rights of ethnic groups. However, nothing is fresh in that approach as Raj proposes the same ‘Grand Coalition’ of a power-sharing regime that uses ethnicity to select representatives to the chamber. Does it secure the fundamentals of a plural society? Or does it suppress other cultural and non-cultural identities to give a dominant status to ethnicity?
Yet, Raj portrays a rosy picture of the proposed second chamber’s role: It could bring all communities together via ethnic representatives, according to Raj’s beliefs. This is instead a wish than a rationale expectation, as the power-sharing experience shows that even having a Grand Coalition or a second chamber could not sustain peace and democracy in power-sharing regimes.
So, what fresh evidence can Raj suggest convincing readers that a second chamber as an interim mechanism will not result in counterproductive effects? So far, nothing afresh has come, even in the global context.
SL tourism regains momentum to end the year with 750,000 tourist arrivals
Sri Lanka hopes to double tourist arrivals to 1.5 million next year and bring in US$5 billion (about Rs22.1 billion) in vital foreign exchange with the regaining of tourism to end this calendar year with 750,000 tourist arrivals and about $2 billion in earnings, Tourism Minister Harin Fernnado said.
An estimated US$4 billion loss in tourism revenue over the past two years also contributed to tipping Sri Lanka into the financial crisis.
The tourist arrivals for the first seven days of December have already crossed the 15,000 mark, indicating the revival of the hard-hit sector is on track.
The provisional data from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed that for the December 1-7 period, the arrivals to the island nation totalled 16,169. This brings the total number of arrivals for the year, ending on December 7, 2022, to 644,186.
The daily arrival average for the first week of December is 2,302. In the recent weeks, with the start of the winter season, the daily arrival average for Sri Lanka tourism has been increasing.
The top three source markets for Sri Lanka tourism witnessed a slight change for the first week of December. The Russian Federation tops the list as the largest tourist traffic generator for Sri Lanka, accounting for 21 percent of the tourist arrivals for the month so far.
Ranking second is India, contributing to 18 percent of the total arrivals. Back on the third rank is the United Kingdom, which brought in 10 percent of the total number of tourists to the country.
In the month of October, the United Kingdom slipped to the fourth position. Taking over as the third largest tourist traffic generator last month was Germany, which in the first week of December ranked at the fifth position. Taking the fourth position is Australia, contributing to 6 percent of the total arrivals.
Contributing to the increased tourist arrival numbers is the arrival of the luxury cruise Azamara that called on the Colombo Port on December 4. The vessel brought in 600 passengers and 400 crew members who were on the island for three days.
Coming alive this month was also the FIFA Zone in Colombo, set up to lure football fans to Sri Lanka, between the ongoing matches at the World Cup in Qatar, Doha.
However, the Tourism Ministry and SLTDA have not shared the numbers and the success of the promotional packages that are being rolled out for the FIFA World Cup spectators.