September 27, Colombo (LNW): President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has directed officials to allocate luxury vehicles used by previous governments exclusively for Essential Services, according to his Private Secretary, Ananda Wijepala. Speaking at a media briefing held yesterday (26) at Galle Face grounds, Wijepala highlighted the misuse of public funds by previous administrations and emphasized the need for a comprehensive review of the matter.

A total of 107 vehicles, previously assigned to associates of past governments, are now parked at Galle Face and other locations. Wijepala noted the symbolic significance of these vehicles, which represent the waste of public wealth while citizens have struggled to meet basic needs. Due to the insufficient parking space at the Presidential Secretariat, these vehicles have been relocated.

Wijepala also pointed out the irony of a healthcare system suffering from a shortage of ambulances, while luxury vehicles were distributed to political allies. He assured the public that a full review of the misuse of these vehicles will be conducted, with plans to reassign them to Essential Services to ensure efficient use of public resources.

Additionally, he revealed that 59 vehicles from various institutions had been distributed via the Presidential Secretariat, and despite a vehicle importation ban, 16 vehicles had been brought in for official use. Of the 833 vehicles owned by the Presidential Secretariat, 29 are currently missing, prompting President Dissanayake to order an investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

September 27, Colombo (LNW): External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar emphasized that India does not seek to control the political dynamics of its neighbors but remains confident that interdependence will ensure constructive relationships. Speaking at the Asia Society in New York, Jaishankar addressed concerns about recent political changes in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, reaffirming India’s focus on fostering regional economic cooperation.

Amid discussions about potential shifts in Dhaka and Colombo’s ties with Delhi following the regime change in Bangladesh and Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s election victory in Sri Lanka, Jaishankar clarified that India does not impose political conditions on its neighbors. He highlighted India’s timely support for Sri Lanka during its economic crisis, stating that it was done without political strings attached. “What happens politically in Sri Lanka is for their politics to work out,” Jaishankar said, underlining India’s respect for each country’s internal dynamics.

Addressing Bangladesh, Jaishankar traced the progress of the past decade and projected confidence that mutual benefit and interdependence will sustain healthy relations despite political shifts in the region.

September 27, Colombo (LNW): Chinese Ambassador Qi Zhenhong emphasized that the Chinese government and people have always stood firmly with Sri Lanka in facing both traditional and non-traditional threats, and will continue to do so despite changes in the international landscape. He made these remarks during a reception in Colombo on Wednesday (25), celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Ambassador Qi highlighted that the friendship between China and Sri Lanka predates their official diplomatic relations established in 1957. He praised the 67-year-long partnership based on mutual respect, equality, and shared benefits. He also congratulated Sri Lanka on its successful Presidential Election, expressing confidence that with China’s support and other friendly nations, Sri Lanka would overcome its challenges and revitalize its economy under President Dissanayake’s leadership.

Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath was the Chief Guest at the event, which was also attended by former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa, Maithripala Sirisena, former Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, Ambassadors, former MPs, and members of the Armed Forces.

September 27, Colombo (LNW): President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has instructed the Treasury to grant an allowance of Rs. 25,000 per hectare to paddy farmers for the 2024/25 Maha Season. This represents an increase in the previous fertilizer subsidy, which was set at Rs. 15,000 per hectare. The enhanced subsidy will take effect on October 1, with funds directly transferred to farmers’ bank accounts, ensuring efficient and timely distribution.

The government’s new policy statement emphasizes effective management of agricultural inputs, including the provision of chemical and organic fertilizers at reasonable prices. This initiative aims to support sustainable farming by offering targeted subsidies.

In addition to agricultural aid, the President has directed the Treasury to implement a fuel subsidy for the fishing community, also starting on October 1. This monthly subsidy will cover both multi-day and one-day fishing vessels, with funds directly deposited into fishermen’s bank accounts. The policy aims to boost fish production, making it accessible to consumers at fair prices while improving the quality of life for the fishing community.

The government is also committed to supporting the recovery of marine fisheries through financial and technical assistance. This step is in response to the significant challenges currently facing the industry, with a focus on sustainability and environmental responsibility.

By Krishantha Prasad Cooray

On the morning of the 13th of July 2022, nothing seemed certain about Sri Lanka. Just two months prior, the country had declared bankruptcy and defaulted on more than $50 billion of sovereign debt. Its self-styled ‘patriotic’ president had just fled the country, cowering in the back of a cargo plane. For several days, it was not clear who was running Sri Lanka. It seemed certain to citizens and prognosticators alike that the country would follow firmly in the footsteps of Venezuela, Argentina, or Tunisia, with popular uprising leading to a further backslide into autocracy and economic paralysis.
No one could have predicted, on that Wednesday morning, that in just over two years, Sri Lanka would replenish its foreign reserves, amend the constitution to partly undo the authoritarian carte blanche of the 20th amendment, successfully renegotiate its debt, retain the independence of the judiciary and independent commissions, and hold what would become the most complex and peaceful presidential election in its history. Predicting any one of those things in July 2022 would have sounded optimistic. Predicting that they would all happen would have been sheer lunacy.

Ranil Wickremesinghe is no longer President because these accomplishments alone were not enough for voters to entrust him with another five years to captain the ship of state. However, as he announces his retirement from electoral politics, he has cemented his legacy by, for the third time in 15 years, taking the reins of a country in crisis and steering it away from the edge of oblivion.

Just as he did as Prime Minister in 2001 and 2015, as President in 2022 Wickremesinghe wasted no time explaining the gravity of the situation, engaging stakeholders both foreign and domestic, and rescuing the country from certain economic calamity. But just like in 2001 and 2015, Wickremesinghe once again found himself handicapped by the hand he was dealt.
In 2001 and 2015, he was beholden, as Prime Minister, to presidents who tolerated him and eventually clashed with him. In 2022, as President, he was forced to make do with the cabinet, parliamentary majority, and state apparatus left to him in trust by the Rajapaksa family. Wickremesinghe has often invited Sri Lankans to imagine what he could accomplish if he were elected president and empowered to choose his own cabinet and team.

However, whether in his terms as Prime Minister or most recently as President, he became seen as a leader who surrounded himself with personal staff who seemed more interested in their own political and personal enrichment than in the plight of ordinary citizens. He allowed himself to be cut off from reality and dissenting opinions by those who had neither his nor the citizenry’s interests at heart, rather than building a team who could take his message to the people and put their interests first. It is in large part due to this failure that he has never been given the opportunity he has sought so doggedly since taking over leadership of the UNP 30 years ago.
Despite rescuing Sri Lanka from economic calamity over the last two years in a way no one else dared even attempt, Wickremesinghe is seen as particularly indifferent to the suffering of the poorest Sri Lankans, while those around him were widely perceived to be prospering out of touch.

One can only hope that history remembers him not for these tragic political failings, but as the leader who thrice rescued Sri Lanka’s economy, abolished criminal defamation, outfoxed and splintered the LTTE, setting the stage for their eventual demise, and architected the progressive 17th, 19th, and 21st amendments to the constitution.

Last week, the sun set on the Wickremesinghe presidency as we learned that 5.7 million Sri Lankans, hailing from every ethnic community, rich and poor, old and young, men and women alike, have chosen to entrust Anura Kumara Dissanayake to succeed where they felt Wickremesinghe had failed.
One of the most striking characteristics of Sri Lanka’s newly elected President is that he remains something of an enigma for many who have not closely followed or supported him. For all of his political savvy, Dissanayake is perhaps the first President in Sri Lanka’s history to not employ a team dedicated to ‘spinning’ his personal image in the media. This has made it easy for his political rivals to frame and pigeonhole him with unflattering labels.
He is labelled an ‘anti-intellectual’ because few know that Dissanayake is the first President ever elected by Sri Lankans to have completed a bachelor’s degree. He is labelled an anarchist or autocrat in the making, despite having played a pivotal personal role in every attempt to defeat the Rajapaksas since 2005, including the 52-day coup of 2018, and having been one of the strongest liberal voices in support of every major piece of liberal constitutional reform proposed or enacted since he took over the JVP and formed the NPP. He is called a far-left communist, despite having run twice on platforms that emphasise a critical role for a vibrant private sector devoid of crony capitalism, and despite holding policy positions in line with most centre-left governments in Europe, Australia, or Canada.
Contrast this with the election of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as President in 2019. Rajapaksa, with a fraction of Dissanayake’s qualifications, quit the army at the height of the war and put Sri Lanka behind him, renouncing his citizenship and pledging allegiance to another country, returning to Sri Lanka only to take power as his brother’s defence secretary.
In 2019, he proudly embraced his reputation as a cold-blooded “terminator”, spun up the astroturf “Viyathmaga” movement to brand himself as an intellectual and campaigned almost entirely catering to majoritarian fearmongering. Yet his rise was widely hailed as that of a savvy, patriotic technocrat who would unite Sri Lanka.
Rajapaksa went on to turn the machinery of the state against his perceived enemies, doing so even before appointing a cabinet. He governed through fear and xenophobia, torturing Muslims during Covid by ordering the cremation of their remains without basis, and eventually imploded the economy through pseudo-scientific mismanagement of astrological proportions.
In contrast, the 55-year-old Dissanayake has demonstrated integrity and political savvy throughout the ten years since he was elected leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). He has distinguished himself from other party leaders by being extraordinarily wary of power for power’s sake, and for taking politically courageous decisions that were in the country’s best interests, while being to his or his party’s political detriment.
The first of these took place in London, in May 2014. Shortly after assuming leadership of the JVP, he openly apologised for the carnage wrought by earlier iterations of his party during the violent insurrections of 1971 and 1987, and shared his perspectives on those tragedies with rare candour. Less than a year later, he threw the weight of the JVP behind the united opposition parties who rallied to defeat the authoritarian Rajapaksa regime in 2015. Despite being pivotal to electing Maithripala Sirisena as President, Dissanayake turned down overtures for his party to join a coalition government, eschewing the trappings of cabinet ministries to serve as a watchdog against state excess from the opposition benches of Parliament.
As an MP, Dissanayake demonstrated a strong understanding of parliamentary procedure, the role of committees, and constitutional law. During the 52-day coup in 2018, when former President Rajapaksa illegally purported to assume the office of Prime Minister, Dissanayake, without hesitation, rallied the JVP to rescue the unpopular incumbent regime. He knew that doing so was politically suicidal for his party but insisted on standing up for democracy and the rule of law, no matter the cost.
Just this weekend, as his victory became assured, his first priority was trying to unite the country. He encouraged his supporters to refrain from celebrating his victory. Winning an election is not something to celebrate, he said, but rather an opportunity to accomplish something worth celebrating. He reaffirmed his commitment to the IMF pact, putting to rest fearmongering that he would tear it up. His inauguration remained a low-key affair, sans fanfare, attended not just by leftists, but by several senior business leaders and professionals from the very echelons of society that we were supposed to have the most to fear from an AKD regime.
Much of Dissanayake’s appeal to voters comes from his ability to remain down-to-earth, even as he has transformed into a political phenomenon virtually overnight. I saw this firsthand in 2015, barely a year after he assumed leadership of the JVP. One of his party cadres, a domestic aide who was known to me, was suffering from heart disease, hospitalised and about to undergo a dangerous surgery. He didn’t know if he would live or die.
Before undergoing his operation, Somapala had one request. He wondered if it would be possible for him to meet his party’s leader, Anura Dissanayake, whom he admired, and speak to him face-to-face. When I passed the request on to Dissanayake, he made his way to the hospital without delay. I greeted him on arrival, and as I walked him to Somapala’s room, Dissanayake peppered me with questions about his background and condition.
When I watched him by that hospital bed, I could not tell who was more awestruck by whom. Dissanayake told Somapala he had nothing to worry about, promising to return to check on him after the surgery. And he did.
Dissanayake has spent the past decade quietly visiting people like Somapala – his supporters and detractors alike – from widely differing political backgrounds, exposing himself to a diversity of opinions, and driving a movement to combine the integrity of his former insurrectionist party with the diversity and political acumen of the wider NPP coalition.
No one can predict what kind of leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake will become. But one thing we can be sure of is that Sri Lanka has never elected a leader quite like him.

September 27, Colombo (LNW): In a significant development, the Sri Lankan Court of Appeal has issued an interim order suspending a Cabinet decision related to the purchase of 750,000 N-Series travel documents from Thales Finland OY and Just In Time Technologies Ltd. 

The decision, made on September 2, 2024, and the associated procurement process for machine-readable passports (MRPs) and 5 million e-passports, has been temporarily halted due to concerns over potential violations of procurement procedures raised by Epic Lanka, a competing bidder.

Epic Lanka had filed a petition challenging the procurement, arguing that the contract awarded violated the original procurement process. The court has not only suspended the Cabinet’s decision but also halted all actions connected to the deal, including the invitation for bids and any subsequent contracts or agreements with the aforementioned companies. 

The Court of Appeal will revisit the case on October 1, 2024, through the Writ Application No. 609/2024.Procurement Controversies and Tender Process

The Ministry of Public Security initially called for international tenders to supply and print 5 million e-passports over a span of ten years, adopting a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. 

However, this tender was later canceled by the ministry, citing the availability of upgraded printing infrastructure at the Department of Immigration and Emigration (DIE). The ministry floated a new tender, limited to the procurement of the passport booklets, with the expectation that the passports would be printed using the existing infrastructure.

Of the four companies that submitted proposals, Thales, in partnership with local firm Just In Time Technologies, was selected to supply the e-passports. This decision was based solely on purchasing the passport books, without including printing services.

Public Backlash and Operational Issues

Meanwhile, the DIE introduced an online-only system for passport applications, accepting just 800 applications per day, down from the previous 3,000. This sudden shift led to chaos at the DIE office in Battaramulla, with long lines and public frustration. 

The reduced daily applications were seen as a measure to manage the limited stock of MRPs until the e-passports were ready to be rolled out next year. However, this reduction in applications has significantly impacted government revenue.

Alleged Breach of Tender Conditions

After being awarded the contract, Thales and its local partner reportedly informed the authorities that they could not print the e-passports using the existing infrastructure, contradicting the original tender conditions.

 Instead, they offered to provide the necessary infrastructure and charge for each passport printed. This new proposal led to the submission of a Cabinet paper for approval, which Epic Lanka claims is a violation of government procurement policies. Critics have compared this situation to the controversial VFS visa issuance deal, where Sri Lanka paid high fees to a foreign company for tourist visa processing, despite having a more cost-effective local system.

September 27, Colombo (LNW):  India does not aim to control the internal political dynamics of its neighbouring countries including Sri Lanka, but relies on the region’s inherent interdependence to maintain positive and constructive relationships, said External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. Speaking at an event in New York,

Jaishankar emphasized that while India has its preferences, it understands that each nation will navigate its own political landscape, and Delhi remains focused on fostering economic cooperation in South Asia.

This statement comes at a time when political changes in both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have raised concerns about the future of their ties with India. 

In Bangladesh, mass protests against the Sheikh Hasina government have led to a regime change, while Sri Lanka has recently seen the rise of a new political leader, Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), after elections.

These developments have sparked discussions about how these countries’ policies will impact their relationship with India.

Regarding Sri Lanka, Jaishankar underscored that India played a key role in stabilizing the country’s economy when it was on the brink of collapse.

He pointed out that India offered aid without imposing political conditions, emphasizing that the country’s assistance was motivated by goodwill and the desire to prevent an economic disaster at its doorstep. 

“What happens politically in Sri Lanka is for their politics to work out,” Jaishankar stated, highlighting that India respects the sovereignty of its neighbours. He reiterated that every nation has its dynamics and India does not expect them to align entirely with its interests.

Sri Lanka’s new government, however, brings a level of uncertainty. Although India has engaged with Dissanayake in the past, his previous criticisms of Indian policies have led to apprehensions, particularly in light of China’s ongoing influence in the region. 

Nevertheless, Jaishankar remains optimistic about the future of India-Sri Lanka relations, emphasizing that the historical pattern of mutual cooperation will continue to prevail.

Turning to Bangladesh, Jaishankar acknowledged the complex situation there, noting the long-standing ties between India and the Awami League, led by Sheikh Hasina. 

The recent protests, which have been driven by opposition to Hasina’s government, have raised concerns in Delhi, especially with the rise of Islamist forces in the country. 

India is wary of the potential security risks that instability in Bangladesh could pose, particularly in its northeastern states. 

However, Jaishankar expressed confidence that the mutual benefits of cooperation will outweigh any short-term disruptions.

 In conclusion, Jaishankar emphasized that India’s foreign policy is centered on reading, anticipating, and responding to changes in the region. Despite the challenges, he remains confident that India’s relationships with its neighbours will remain “positive and constructive,” rooted in shared interests and historical ties.

September 27, Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka’s apparel industry, known for its high-quality and ethically produced garments, faces new challenges and opportunities as it adapts to the European Union’s (EU) latest sustainability and labeling requirements.

 This shift in regulations comes as the EU, a critical market for Sri Lankan exports with over 448 million consumers, moves toward greater transparency and sustainability across global supply chains.

Sri Lanka is already ahead of the curve in some respects. Its apparel industry has successfully piloted the ADB-GS1 Digital Link technology, showcased at COP28, which allows seamless exchange of product data while minimizing environmental impact.

 This initiative will help the country meet the EU’s evolving requirements, supporting the industry’s shift toward sustainability

The EU has long been a leader in promoting environmentally and socially responsible production practices. Recent regulatory frameworks such as the EU Textile Regulation, the Digital Product Passport (DPP), and the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act are set to reshape the apparel sector. 

These policies aim to ensure that goods entering the EU market meet strict environmental, ethical, and human rights standards.

One of the most significant changes is the introduction of the Digital Product Passport (DPP). By 2027, all apparel products sold in the EU must include a QR code providing detailed information about the product’s origin, environmental impact, and supply chain. 

This digital labeling initiative aligns with the growing consumer demand for transparency and sustainable consumption.

Additionally, the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act requires that businesses adhere to human rights and environmental standards throughout their entire supply chain. 

Non-compliance could result in substantial fines or exclusion from key markets such as Germany, emphasizing the need for Sri Lankan exporters to adapt quickly.

Malintha Gajanayake, Head of Corporate Affairs and Export Promotions at the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Sri Lanka (AHK Sri Lanka), notes that while these new regulations require significant investment in technology and supply chain transparency, they also provide an opportunity for Sri Lanka to stand out in a highly competitive market by showcasing its commitment to sustainable manufacturing practices.

However, these regulations also present major challenges, particularly for smaller manufacturers. 

Meeting the EU’s stringent requirements demands substantial upgrades to technology and infrastructure, particularly in terms of digital labeling and supply chain tracking. 

The cost of compliance—both in terms of product modifications and international marketing—can strain smaller companies, while the varying regulations across EU member states add another layer of complexity.

Despite these hurdles, there are notable opportunities for growth. Sri Lanka’s strong reputation for ethical production positions it well to capitalize on the new EU standards. By complying with sustainability regulations, Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers could enhance their marketability, particularly to European retailers that prioritize ethical supply chains.