Sri Lanka Tamils: No Choice But To Join GotaGoGama, Stay Put Or Go Abroad

By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole –MAY 30, 2022

Prof S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole

I wrote a public letter on 22 April 2022 to the IMF and the Indian government asking them not to support the Sri Lankan government with loans until there is transparency and accountability. My point was that the failed regime had robbed and milked the country so dry that more loans would mean they would rob more and leave us worse off. So, until we have a transparent and accountable regime, no loans please. I stand by that despite Mahinda Rajapaksa’s harangue against me in Parliament for doing what I did.

The IMF at least seemed to say on 23 April 2022 at the conclusion of the IMF Executive Board 2021 Article IV Consultation with Sri Lanka, leaving aside the fluff:

[IMF] Directors also called for a prudent management of the Colombo Port City project, and continued efforts to strengthen governance and fight corruption.

Very diplomatic language indeed against Port City mismanagement, calling for strengthening governance and fighting corruption!

However, as reported in The Hindustan Times, the statement included a lot of spin to not embarrass Sri Lanka: that the IMF had “fruitful technical discussions” with crisis-ridden Sri Lanka on its loan request. Fruitful as deliberately intended, can be interpreted in a multiplicity of ways. Perhaps the talks were fruitful in making friends with the Sri Lankan team. It was certainly not fruitful in getting Ali Sabry what he went all the way to Washington for.

The irony is that Ali Sabry was sent to negotiate with the IMF on strengthening governance and fighting corruption in exchange of the loan. While a member of the Election Commission, I am aware that Ali Sabry in a video recording I still possess threatened Muslim voters that they would get thrashed (he used the word Ambaanai) if they did not vote for Gotabaya Rajapaksa because however they vote he is going to win. I lodged a formal complaint, and the Election Commission suppressed my complaint.

It was the very same Ali Sabry who brought Gotabaya Rajapaksa to the Election Commission before the presidential election with a letter purporting to be from the US Embassy claiming that Rajapaksa had renounced his US Citizenship, whereas a subsequent letter purporting to be from the State Department said his renunciation was ongoing and no US official was to talk about it.

The IMF in negotiating strengthening governance and fighting corruption with Ali Sabry should know what he has done, and any talk with him on these matters is a charade. I hope they are being diplomatic in their silence rather than foolish.

While Ali Sabry asked for $3-4 billion as bridge financing, his spin was to talk about $500 million “being considered” from the World Bank. In reality actually only $10 million as World Bank’s emergency response package was on the table to be made immediately available for the purchase of essential medicines. These were funds shifted from our ongoing COVID-19 health preparedness project. Even the $10 million was therefore not new money. It would have come to us anyway for other needs for which it had already been assigned.

The IMF Mission Chief for Sri Lanka, Masahiro Nozaki was harder in his statement on 17 May 2022 (Colombo Page): “Because Sri Lanka’s debt is assessed as unsustainable, approval of IMF financing, including through a Rapid Financing Instrument, would require adequate assurances that debt sustainability will be restored”.

It may take six months for IMF money said Sabri (4 May 2022, Economy Next). Given the use of the word “may,” we may have to wait for next year! Only Ranil Wikremesinghe has been frank about what is to come.

India

So Sri Lanka will work with smaller amounts from the World Bank even as India helps with larger amounts to ease social tensions from lack of electricity, medicine, gas etc. India has foolishly released over $ 1 bn, a likely target for our robber rulers. Even as I write, 15,000 litres of kerosine have arrived from India for fishermen in the islands.

The people in the South Block may think themselves rather clever for the intrigues they indulge in in Sri Lanka, but are they not aware of the implications for the rule of law in India when their diplomats hobnob with criminals wanted for murder there, and help them electorally by implicitly projecting the kerosine as a gift from the wanted criminals?

GA Mahesan (2nd from left), Raakesh Natraj (Consul General, 4th from left), and Douglas Devananda and Oorhaavatthurai DS Manjula 6th, 7th from left,)

Crooks and Communalists Everywhere

The Sinhalese polity is so badly gone that it is impossible not to spot crooks and communalists in the new government. From Bond Scam to everything bad, the perpetrators are ensconced in the new government. I do not think they are reformed. I cannot even believe they will ever be punished. The law will be used to let every crook escape. A good example is Sashi Weerawansa. She was sentenced yesterday (27th) for 2 years in prison for passport fraud. But she has applied for bail because she has appealed. I believe she will go unpunished. It is how our justice system works. The conviction shows that laws are applied. What follows usually leads to the criminal being let off. A classic example of that is Punchi Banda Jayasundara. Colombo Telegraph gives the full story of how Jayasundara and the AG were accused by Naganada Kodituwakku, the case was postponed umpteen times, and collapsed when Kondituwakku fled to the UK under death threats.

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