Power of block votes then and now

by Rajeewa Jayaweera-June 7, 2020

A mischievous and anonymous SMS circulating in the social media stated the following. "Opened the Parliament. Got rid of Social Distancing. Got rid of cremation within 24 hours. Got rid of the prohibition of traveling between districts. Got rid of the minimum number for a gathering. Got rid of Quarantine for 14 days for people who arrived from abroad. Quite an achievement." That, in brief, says it all.

It relates to the sudden developments following the passing of the late Arumugam Thondaman, Minister for Community Empowerment, and Estate Infrastructure Development. The CWC leader represented the Nuwara Eliya district in Parliament. He was also the single Tamil Minister in the present cabinet of ministers.

Thondaman succumbed to a massive heart attack following a fall at his home on May 26. He had met with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and the new Indian High Commissioner earlier in the day. According to a shocked Prime Minister, a lengthy discussion had taken place including, the increase of the daily wage of estate workers to Rs 1,000.

The Prime Minister tweeted, "Just a few hours ago, we sat together reminiscing memories we shared. I am shocked and saddened to hear of the untimely passing of my dear friend and colleague, Arumugam Thondaman. My deepest condolences go out to his family. You will be missed, dear friend," after a visit to the Talangama Hospital. He hugged the deceased’s son when offering condolences throwing social distancing to the winds.

With an election due soon, it is anybody’s guess whether the wage hike was a conditional request or a demand. During the Prime Minister’s address at the funeral in Norwood, he confirmed he had already forwarded all of the late Minister’s requests to the cabinet. Meanwhile, Rajapaksa has taken his oaths as the new Minister for Community Empowerment and Estate Infrastructure Development in addition to his many other duties and responsibilities.

The government decided to accord a state funeral to the deceased Minister. As a result, the body was lying in state at the Parliament complex on May 28. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, and former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya paid their respects there. Also present were former Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa, dozens of ministers and hundreds of parliamentarians.

Amidst the many anomalies, confusion reigned with many believing that the flag draping the coffin was the Indian national flag. It was, in fact, the CWC flag with the rising sun party emblem and not the Indian Dharma (Ashoka) Chakra. Nevertheless, the use of a political party flag in preference to the national flag, particularly at a state funeral raised many eyebrows.

The body of the late CWC leader was taken to Kotagala by helicopter on Saturday and to the Norwood Thondaman Stadium in Hatton for cremation on Sunday.

COVID-19 turned the lives of Sri Lankans upside down commencing March 20. Lockdown and Quarantine, words unheard of by average citizens and Curfew, not heard of for quite some time, became household words.

Traditional cultural and religious festivals had to be celebrated and observed from home. Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, and believers of Islam had to celebrate/observe Sinhala & Tamil New Year, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Vesak, the month of Ramadan culminating with Eid and Poson from the confines of their homes. Visiting relatives, Temples, Kovils, Churches, and Mosques was banned.

The President’s Media Division, on May 29, announced a quarantine curfew on Saturday in the Nuwara Eliya District and an all-island curfew on Sunday. However, what took place in Nuwara Eliya last Saturday and Sunday indicated, the President’s writ did not extend to Nuwara Eliya.
In total disregard of quarantine and social distancing regulations besides the Curfew imposed, thousands of estate workers thronged to pay their last respects.

It was a slap on the face of the millions of citizens who respected government regulations introduced to fight the deadly virus, especially those living in Colombo, Gampaha, and Kalutara, who bore the brunt. They remained virtually imprisoned in their houses for over two months. It was also a terrible let down of all the men and women of the armed forces, Police and health sector, who exposed themselves to the deadly virus and made enormous personal sacrifices. Meanwhile, the top Police spokesperson who treated ordinary citizens to a daily dose of pleas and threats to abide by Curfew and Quarantine regulations has since fallen silent.

Should a second wave of the epidemic originate from among mourners in Parliament, other Colombo locations, Kotagala, and Norwood, will those responsible for overruling the Presidential directive and ignoring curfew and social distancing regulations be held accountable?

Many believe in the theory, a high profile state funeral, and ignoring anti-corona virus measures was due to the need to impress the estate worker population. Unable to make any electoral headway in the North and East for decades, this was a god-sent opportunity to consolidate the support of the SLPP’s alliance partner CWC and tap the Indian Tamil block vote during the forthcoming elections.

Reading and following funeral arrangements, this writer’s mind went back to a set of events commencing with the Ranasinghe Premadasa Presidency in early 1989. At the time, I was a mid-level staffer with the national carrier Air Lanka, as it was then known (UL).

Savumiamoorthy Thondaman (Thondaman Snr.), Arumugam’s Thondaman’s grandfather, was one of the earliest Presidents of the CWC, the main political body of Indian Tamils. Having first entered Parliament in 1947 together with six other CWC MPs, dis-enfranchisement of Indian Tamil voters resulted in CWC losing its positions in Parliament in 1952. Entering Parliament as a nominated MP by the SLFP government in 1960, he contributed to the government’s downfall in December 1964 by refusing to vote on the vote of thanks on the Governor General’s speech. He was a UNP-nominated MP in the 1965 Parliament.

Returning to Parliament in 1977 and appointed a cabinet minister by President JR Jayewardene in 1978, he held cabinet portfolios continuously for 21 years under four Presidents till his demise in 1999. He successfully obtained Sri Lankan citizenship for 150,000 stateless persons not covered in the Sirima-Shastri Pact in 1964 and Sirima-Indira Pact in 1974.

President Premadasa, realizing early in his Presidency of the value of the Indian Tamil estate vote, wooed Thondaman Snr. by granting his many concessions, perks, and privileges. One such concession was the UL General Sales Agency (GSA) in the vital Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Maharashtra.

A brief description of airline GSAs is necessary for the benefit of laypeople. A GSA represents an airline in cities or countries not having the carrier’s own offices. In the olden days, they received remuneration by way of an overriding commission (ORC) of 2-3% on all air ticket and cargo flown revenue less taxes within the territory. The GSA had to provide suitable office space and required staff, excluding airport office requirements. It was the time of handwritten tickets. The GSA was required to provide a Bank Guarantee to cover the value of two months’ sales to be mutually agreed and would receive a stock of tickets. In turn, the GSA would distribute ticket stocks to Travel Agents in the territory after obtaining adequate security. Their responsibilities included the collection of all sales reports from Travel Agents together with monies due for each months’ sales. After that, a consolidated Sales Report would be prepared and handed over to the airline with all funds collected.

The airline would then replenish ticket stocks to the value of sales reported and funds received from the GSA. They, in turn, would replenish ticket stocks of Travel Agents.

The new Board of Directors constituted under the Premadasa Presidency included Treasury Secretary Ramalingam Paskaralingam. Most, if not all, directives to the airline flowed through this bureaucrat. The first Premadasa appointed Chairman/MD, renowned civil servant Bradman Weerakoon gave up after three months and moved out as the Foreign Relations Adviser to the President. One time Chairman of UDA Dunstan Jayawardena succeeded him.

UL’s operations to Chennai (MAA) and Tiruchirapalli (TRZ) in Tamil Nadu, Thirivanthipuram (TRV) in Kerela, and Mumbai (BOM) were self handled by the airline. GSAs were in place for the rest of India. Delhi was yet to come on-line. These were high demand routes. Aircraft lease charges being negligible by 1989, routes other than BOM were profitable. One benchmark of measuring a route’s viability was by computing the Expenditure Revenue Ratio (ER Ratio). Computation was by way of calculating the Route Costs as a percentage of Station Revenue, also known as Flown Revenue. With the evolution of the aviation industry, this benchmark is no longer in use.

In 1989, MAA ER Ratio was in the rage of 1% -1.5%, TRV 6%-8% and BOM around 18%-20%.
A directive was received shortly after the President’s change to appoint GSAs for Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Maharashtra. The standard procedure for GSA appointments was by placing advertisements in several leading newspapers and a merit-based selection process. The selected company received an appointed for three years. Standard ORC payment would be 3%.

In this instance, the directive required the appointment of M/s Trans Lanka Ltd for Tamil Nadu, M/s Anusha Travels for Kerala, and M/s Lakshmi Travels for Maharashtra. The ORC stipulated for each state was 3%. It would increase the MAA ER Ratio, the most profitable of the four routes from 1%-1.5% to over 3%. Chairpersons of all three companies were Indians. Interestingly, the senior Thondaman’s grandson Arumugam Thondaman was the lead director of Trans Lanka. The granddaughter and her husband, a medical doctor, were lead directors of Anusha Travels and Lakshmi Travels.

After a short period, Lakshmi Travels voluntarily gave up their GSA ship in Mumbai due to high costs. Trans Lanka and Anusha Travels complained of unbearable expenses, and UL received instructions to increase their respective ORC to 5%.

By 1995, Trans Lanka owed UL a sum of over INR 50 million or over USD 2.7 million. Thondaman Snr., when informed, requested UL to audit the Trans Lanka accounts. The audit revealed Directors visiting Chennai from Colombo had incurred bills amounting to INR 300,000 to INR 400,000 per visit at the Maris Hotel in Chennai, all paid by Trans Lanka. These funds rightfully should have been utilized to settle their dues to Air Lanka.

Due to the looming scandal, Thondaman Snr. agreed to resolve the issue by selling Trans Lanka to a Dubai based company ETI and Anusha Travels to the reputed Indian company Spencers. Trans Lanka dues to UL were paid in full by ETI. Their new contract included an enhanced ORC of 7% to enable them to recover the amount paid. This writer can no longer remember outstanding dues of Anusha Travels. However, being a better-managed company, it was, in comparison, an insignificant amount. Over the next eight years, the new owners of Trans Lanka would have recouped their initial payment more than ten times over.

The Emirates Management finally reduced ORC for both Trans Lanka and Anusha Travels to 3% in the early 2000s.

In this instance, President Premadasa used the national carrier to further his political interests. He secured the Indian Tamil block vote by affording the grandson and granddaughter of the CWC leader opportunities for enhancing their livelihoods at state expense. May it be state resources or the well being of health and safety of citizens, block votes have and will always take precedence over all else.
Nothing has changed and will ever change.

PS Corrections to last Sunday’s column titled ‘What our cricketing greats did not say.’ The Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Ground, since its inception in 2001, has hosted a total of 50 matches (not 28), the last being in October 2018 (not 2010). COPE was informed, Rs 5.8 billion (Rs 5 mil was a typo) was the value of work carried out for the Sooriyawewa International Cricket Stadium in Hambantota. The venue has hosted 28 matches during the last decade, the last being in February 2020 (not 2017). The inadvertent errors are regretted.