IMF Delegates Arrive on Election Day
Pivotal Election to Shape Sri Lanka’s Political Future
Verdict on Hamilton Case Remains Pending
New Governments in the U.S. and Sri Lanka May Reassess Hamilton Case
AKD Discusses Government’s Role in Key Issues
Israeli Official Meets with Sri Lankan Government for Talks
14th is crucial
The crucial general election is only a few days away. Malimawa led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Samagi Jana Sansandhanaya led by Sajith Premadasa are in the frontline battle in the general election this year and several other parties in the south have joined the battle to win some seats in the parliament. The general election on the 14th has reached a pivotal position because it would decide Sri Lanka’s political fate for the next five years. A high-ranking delegation of the International Monetary Fund, which will decide Sri Lanka’s economic fate, is scheduled to land in Sri Lanka for decisive discussions.
Through the ‘inside politics’ column, we have continuously pointed out that continuing to deal with the international monetary fund has become very risky. The volatility of this situation is notable from the arrival of representatives of the Financial Fund to Sri Lanka on the day of the general election, which will decide the future direction of the country.
The compass and IMF
Anura Kumara Dissanayake led Malimawa during the presidential election campaign said that he would under a Malima government work to change the agreement with the financial fund. But from the events that have taken place after assuming the role of president, it looks that Malimawa government is geared to proceed without any amendments to the IMF agreement which was reached by the previous government. However, materializing the agreement is in a doubt going by the events that has taken place between the two fractions.
Privatizing loss-making government entities was one of the main conditions laid down by the IMF. In particular, SriLankan Airlines, which has been suffering huge losses for a long time, was one such establishment. Ranil Wickremesinghe’s administration tried several times to restructure the airline, but all attempts failed. Despite this, the current government has decided to suspend the sale of SriLankan Airlines. Accordingly, it is possible to see a contradiction between the terms of the agreement signed with the financial fund and the actions of the current government.
The Hamilton case
In another special disclosure, we made last week through the ‘inside politics ‘ column, we reported that the Hamilton Reserve Bank, a bond owner in Sri Lanka, had sent a letter to the court seeking a decision in the case filed in the Federal Court of New York against Sri Lanka. In response, the government also sent a letter to the Federal Court to inform the court that it is ready to proceed with the agreement signed with the financial fund.
Opinions are already emerging from various parties that the verdict, in this case, will be very unfavourable for Sri Lanka. Although the Federal Court was ready to announce the judgment earlier the Wickramasinghe government took steps which postponed the judgment of the case in consultation with the US State Department. At that time, the Biden government had informed the court that the Sri Lankan government and the I.M.F had reached an agreement, and the judgment of the case got postponed.
However, there is no Wickramasinghe regime now in Sri Lanka. Also, the Democratic Party Biden government has lost power in America. There is a compass government in Sri Lanka. There is a conservative Trump government in America. Accordingly, the current government decided to keep the loss-making Sri Lankan establishments and the Electricity Board, which was planned to be sold, with the government. This raises doubts which direction the agreement with IMF would take its turn or twist.
IMF strategies
On the other hand, the IMF team is coming to Sri Lanka in an atmosphere where doubts are emerging about whether the current government will get a majority in the general election or not. Last week, we revealed in this column that some confusion has arisen within the current government regarding obtaining the majority of 113. The assumption of the leaders of Malimawa is that they will be able to get nearly 100 MPs. In that case, we also reported that in a discussion held in a certain hotel in Colombo, the leaders of Malima had chatted about how to form the government.
However, as soon as the current government came to power, the financial fund informed the government that the future economic plan of the government should be submitted to the financial fund. But still the government has not given a written note about the economic program to the financial fund. Accordingly, the financial fund is hoping that the government will provide such an economic plan to the financial fund during this round of negotiations. In order to release the next installment, the economic program of the government must be submitted to the Board of Directors of the Financial Fund and approved. Accordingly, when it comes to the future of Sri Lanka, this year a very crucial round of discussions will be held between the heads of the financial fund and the government.
The representatives of the financial fund participate in the discussion with two strategies in hand. One of the strategies is how the government will conduct the discussion if it somehow gets a majority of 113. The second strategy is how to proceed with the negotiations if the government does not get a majority of 113 in the general election.
Anura returns to battle
However, after winning the presidential election, Mr Anura Kumara Dissanayake participated in the political program ‘Satana’ for the first time which was aired on Sirasa Television last Wednesday. Sirasa journalists questioned the President regarding the crucial issues that have been raised, and it was noted that the President gave some very clear and serious hints regarding the economic future of the country.
Here the hints given by the President regarding India are also very decisive. In particular, the President clearly said that the government has decided to re-investigate the proposed power generation project in the Mannar area with India. The President clearly stated that it is not possible to agree on generating electricity in Sri Lanka and giving a part of it to India. Through that, the President indirectly informed that the government is not ready to transfer the controlling rights of Sri Lanka’s energy to any other country.
In addition, the President also stated that the Mannar Renewable Energy Project, the Trincomalee Oil Tank Project and the Sampur Power Plant Project will not be handed over to India as they are.
But these are some points contained in the agreement signed with the International Monetary Fund. But the question of how to deal with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in the future has been raised by the government’s decision to re-investigate the Indian energy project. On the other hand, it can be seen that the government has created a conflict of opinion with the financial fund due to the breaking of the clause signed that the electricity board will be restructured.
Conflict with IMF?
Accordingly, with some answers given by the President, many people point out that it is inevitable that there will be some conflict with the conditions of the agreement made with the financial fund. Accordingly, they think that a problem may arise in moving forward with the financial fund.
Apart from this, the President was also questioned about the Arugambay attack accident that shocked Sri Lanka two weeks ago. The President said that currently six people have been arrested on suspicion and also said that there would be a long investigation into the people they all associated with in the past and how the money came into their accounts.
Furthermore, he said that when examining the places where these people travelled, there was a suspicion that there was an attempt to launch an attack, and accordingly, a special investigation was started regarding the people coming through the airport as tourists. This was done because the foreign intelligence services that provided the information revealed information that people coming as tourists were behind this attack. One thing that became clear from the President’s answer was that there was a serious situation behind this incident.
We said it before
We made a special disclosure in this regard last week and reported that Israel’s Mossad intelligence service found information about this attack for the first time. There we said that the Israeli Mossad intelligence service provided this information to America’s main investigative agency, the FBI. that had given the agency, and after verifying that information, from the F.B.I the relevant information was passed to Sri Lanka. It is special that the President confirmed the revelation we made in his Sirasa TV program. The President said that the relevant information had been informed to Sri Lanka by foreign intelligence services. The President also said that the situation is now under control.
According to the information provided by foreign intelligence services, the president had been informed that there was a risk of attacks on the places where 20 to 40 Israelis were gathered, and accordingly, he had taken steps to provide security to all such places across the country. The President said that there were more than 1,100 Israeli nationals in Sri Lanka when the risk of this attack arose, adding that about 100 people left the country due to the risk, but all the other Israeli nationals remained in Sri Lanka.
An Israeli chief visits
However, two or three days after this incident, a very special person came to Sri Lanka. It was none other than Roy Vaknin, who was the Israeli security officer in charge of the region and also a member of parliament. It was a special incident where a high-ranking official of the Israeli government came to Sri Lanka and discussed with the government officials, but no information came out. Although there is no information about who he met, what he discussed and what agreements were reached, it was learned that a high-ranking representative of the Israeli government had come to Sri Lanka when a photo emerged of the representative discussing with the Acting Inspector General of Police Mr Priyantha Weerasuriya. Apart from that discussion, no information has been reported so far about any other discussion in which the Israeli leader participated.
Our story is exactly right
In addition to all this, the President also took steps in this discussion to confirm another piece of information that we uncovered through inside politics column three weeks ago. That is in the explanation of how to develop the economy in the future. There, the President said that he plans to bring 40 lakh tourists to Sri Lanka next year, and that he has already started discussions with the authorities in the tourism sector to prepare the related environment. Apart from this, the President also said that many rounds of special discussions are being held to ensure the safety of those tourists.
About a month ago, we made a special disclosure through our column to make the country aware of this. There we said that this agreement has been reached in the recent discussions between the President and the Chinese authorities and that China has planned to send 60 lakh tourists to Sri Lanka in the next tourist season, and in the first phase, about 30 lakh people will be sent to Sri Lanka during the tourist season starting from this December. It has been decided. Accordingly, it is a special event that the President confirmed the same disclosure we made on the Sirasa TV program held last Wednesday.
Social media takes over
Social media contributed immensely to making Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake the President of the country. In the beginning, the media allocated more space to Anura, but it was the social media that made it a wave in the country. In particular, social media contributed greatly to building the compass. Even though there is a serious problem of right and wrong and morality there is no law and rule to regulate the social media, so it was seen how the social media had implemented a media method of the bulldozer theory by slandering the opposition candidates and assassinating their characters. In particular, it was seen how Anura’s image was raised by calling Mr. Sajith Premadasa, who was Anura’s main rival, a fool, and killing the characters of the Premadasa family.
Because there was a huge demand for Anura during the presidential election, whatever was posted on social media about Anura created a huge demand for it. It was also possible to see how some YouTube activists and their YouTube channels who expressed their opinions in favour of Anura and Malima on YouTube received a lot of audience responses (views).
But after the presidential election, the situation has completely changed. Now the statements made by these YouTube channels and YouTube activists regarding Anura and Malimawa do not get much audience response. The amount of views they get has also dropped drastically. Although the signal here is serious from the government’s side, the next result is that YouTubers who responded in favour of Anura and Malima have now started issuing statements against Anura and Malima.
Sepala Amarasinghe was famous as a well-known YouTuber who spoke in favour of Anura and Malima, especially during the referendum. He has been pushed to the point of criticizing Anura and Malima. Some social media activists who still comment in favour of Anura and Malimawa can be seen publicly reacting against those social media activists who comment against Malima. But the problem is that social media, which played a major role in bringing the President to power, turned back within a month of his appointment.
Now fallen behind Sajith
Apart from this, it has also been seen how these social media activists who were loyal to Malima have now started following Sajith. It was a special event that Upul Shantha Sannasgala and Sepal Amarasinghe, who criticized Sajith during the presidential election, brought Sajith to their studios and conducted interviews last week. Sepal Amarasinghe, in particular, spoke so strongly in favour of JVP and Malima recently that he even had to go to jail once. That is based on a statement made regarding Dalada.
But many think that Sepal had taken steps to give some hint to the compass through the conversation with Sajith. Also, Sepal had taken steps to question JVP’s insults to Prime Minister Harini in its programs. Through that, a conflict between Sepal and Malimawa can be seen now.
Vijitha also spoke
However, we have reported about this change that has happened in a very short time in social media because some dangerous hints have appeared through it. Usually, the media does not start criticizing the government until a year or two after a new president comes in. It’s because of their honeymoon period. But we believe that it is the responsibility of the government authorities to strongly grasp the signal behind the social media that brought the government to power even before a month has passed.
The next incident was seen through Minister Vijitha Herath. It was an incident in which Vijitha, who was angry because false news against the government had been published on social media, publicly scolded the social media. There, Vijitha said that no one should be given freedom. Vijitha said that the media should behave responsibly while reporting news and that no one can be given free rein. Generally, after a new government comes to power, accusations are raised against the media in this way during the last period of that government. But a month before the President came to power, Mr. Vijitha Herath, a cabinet minister, accused the media of this way is noteworthy.
Ranil going overseas.
Former President Ranil Wickramasinghe, who said he is retiring from politics, has been seen on the political stage again these days. He was addressing political meetings in various places on behalf of the candidates running for the general election under the cylinder. The UNP stalwarts who issued statements on Ranil’s behalf after losing the presidential election said that Ranil will not contest the elections again, at least he will not enter the parliament from the national list and that Ranil has decided to retire politically. When the UNP leaders said that way, we responsibly said at the same time that their statements were completely false, that Ranil will continue to do political work, and that Ranil is issuing such statements to reduce the pressure from within the party to leave the leadership.
However, we also made a special disclosure regarding the cylinder through the last ‘state secret’ belt. It is said that Mr Ravi Karunanayake is ready to come to the parliament from the national list no matter what the cylinder hits. Because the new democratic front led by Ravi is contesting as the cylinder. Shamila Perera is the party secretary. Earlier we mentioned that Ravi, who met Shamila while preparing the national list, also arranged to include his name in the 10th place in the national list. Accordingly, we pointed out that Ravi Karunanayake is ready to come to Parliament through the first round if the cylinder gets a national list.
However, the information we have received so far says that Ranil is ready to go abroad as soon as the general election is over. We are also told that after taking a long break, Ranil is planning to come back to Sri Lanka and start political activities.
Trouble for Sujeeva
Currently media is flooded with news of vehicles. Regarding the abandoned supercars. Ex-state minister Lohan Rathwatte and his wife are currently in the reserved prison because of the vehicles. In addition to this, Mr. Galthanne Kapuwa, who was a well-known figure in Kandy, has also been accused of assembling vehicles. The latest victim of this last week was none other than Sami Jana Balawega’s Sujeewa Senasinghe.
Last week, when Sujeeva was out of her house, Valana anti-corruption unit came to Sujeeva’s house and conducted an inspection. It was informed that LTTE. That he had received some information regarding the suits, and that he had come to inspect them. Later, when Sujeeva was informed about this, he also took steps to come home immediately.
In the conversation that followed, the officers of the Walana unit mentioned that they needed information regarding the registrations of the old vehicle collection that Sujeewa has. There, Sujeewa presented the legal documents of those vehicles and informed them that they were all legal. However, Sujeeva had clearly told them that he would take legal action in the future regarding this incident. In the same way, Sujeewa, who spoke to the President’s lawyer Ali Sabri, had also taken steps to inform him in this regard.
And Sujiva, who later met Mr. Sajith Premadasa, also took steps to complain to him in this regard. There, Sajith also said that this situation is very dangerous and immediate action should be taken in this regard. Accordingly, with the conclusion of the general election, a special legal team will be deployed and further legal action will be taken.
