Last June, the Parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Security decided that telecom privatization is a threat to national security. It was announced by Chairman MP Sarath Weerasekara. After that, the government issued a statement saying that the SOC report was unacceptable and that telecom privatization was not a threat to national security. Yesterday, SOC recommended to the government to inform the American Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Julie Chung, not to issue statements regarding Sri Lanka’s internal issues. SOC committee chairman Sarath Weerasekaraya has recommended that.
Sarath Weeraseka was scheduled to leave for America recently, and the American Embassy refused to grant him a visa. The government has not yet responded to the reference made by Sarath Weerasekera, to the American ambassador. The government, which rejected SOC’s report on telecom privatization, is not known whether it will accept SOC’s recommendations regarding Julie Chung or not.
The government was to appoint a parliamentary committee to investigate the judges of the court who ordered the holding of the local government election in the recent past, and a parliamentary committee was to be appointed to investigate the actions of the election commissioner who moved towards conducting the local government election. The opposition termed this as the government using the parliament to silence those who oppose the government. SOC has warned the American ambassador who is now criticizing the anti-democratic actions of the government.
When the SOC issued recommendations regarding American intervention in Sri Lanka’s internal issues, Hamilton Reserve Bank’s sovereign bondholders have expressed surprise at the US’s intervention in the case filed by the New York Hamilton Bank against Sri Lanka’s bond default. Hamilton Reserve Bank has filed the suit to recover the debt. However, the US government has intervened in the case and informed the Federal Court to postpone the judgment of the case until the Sri Lankan government restructures its debt. The Financial Times newspaper has expressed its surprise about this intervention of America which is quoted below.
‘A judgment holder is insulated from many of the most common restructuring techniques and may, while in its protected cocoon, still be able to interfere with the rest of the restructuring.
Seemingly the US objects to this. The letter also mentions in a footnote that the US government “understands that other official creditors may separately submit a filing reflecting their views”, but stresses that the SDNY is planning to “address the interest of the United States”.
This is fascinating, as at face value it is hard to see how and why the US government has an interest in Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring, or even grounds for making its views known to the court.
It could be a delaying tactic to help Sri Lanka engineer a debt restructuring, by sabotaging Hamilton Bank’s rush to the courthouse for a more restructuring-resistant judgment. We’ll be checking the docket more regularly to see what SDNY eventually says.’
If the United States had not intervened in the case of Hamilton Bank, Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring would have completely collapsed. If American intervention in Sri Lanka’s debt is good for Sri Lanka, American intervention in Sri Lanka’s democracy cannot be bad for Sri Lanka.
The human rights organizations of the world have accused the United States of being silent regarding the anti-democratic acts of the Sri Lankan government. The United States intervened in the Hamilton Bank case without imposing any conditions on Sri Lanka. Those countries should be assured that the government of Sri Lanka will protect democracy and get the support of the international community including America to save Sri Lanka from bankruptcy.
During the government of Mahinda Rajapakse, when Mahinda’s government was having problems with Western countries, the German ambassador to Sri Lanka made a valuable statement in a conference. That is, the Sri Lankan government should decide whether Germany needs Sri Lanka or Sri Lanka needs Germany. This statement is more valid for Sri Lanka today than it was then.
