Defeated Candidates Eye SJB National List
Sajith Halts Questions under Parliamentary Privilege Rule 27/2
Chinese Ambassador Echoes Haiyan’s Statements
SJB Engages in Heated Debate with IMF
Ranil Continues to Issue Fallacies During India Visit
Who is Haiyan
When Cabinet Spokesperson Minister Nalinda Jayatissa informed the media that President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka had selected India as the destination for his first overseas visit, a high-ranking Chinese government official was visiting Sri Lanka. This official was Sun Haiyan, the Vice Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. While Sun Haiyan is a well-known figure to President Anura Kumara, she remains relatively unfamiliar to the general public in Sri Lanka.
The connection between Haiyan and the president dates back several years, a detail first revealed in the Inside Politics column two months ago. In that column, we highlighted Sun Haiyan’s pivotal role as a steadfast supporter of the president in forming a new government. Specifically, in our October 6 Inside Politics column, we noted:
Secret Chinese trip
During the past two years, Anura has undertaken many foreign tours which include his secret Chinese trip last December. All the other tour pictures were shared in the media but it was not so with this Chinese trip no information was shared about this. This Chinese trip was facilitated by a powerful Chinese lady connected to the central government of China. She was Sun Haiyan, Deputy Minister of the International Affairs Department of the Communist Party of China and a member of the Central Committee of the party.
During the discussion, Anura asked the Chinese authorities what assistance China could provide to ensure that his party would rule without a crisis if it seized power in Sri Lanka. After this discussion, Haiyan, who was on a tour of Sri Lanka, visited the JVP office in Pelawatte and had a special discussion with Anura. She also took steps to meet the then President Ranil and the Opposition Leader Sajith during that visit.
However, in the discussion with Anura, Haiyan responded to Anura’s request in China and handed over a file with several special proposals to Anura. It contained a proposal that included support that China could provide to a JVP government. At the forefront of it was that China could help Sri Lanka which no other country in the world could provide for the promotion of the tourism industry.
There, she had said that China could send 10 million tourists to Sri Lanka within 2 years. Although this could not be done all at once, she had stated that since the existing infrastructure in Sri Lanka was not sufficient, the number of Chinese tourists could be increased to 10 million gradually. Anura contested the presidential election with this trump card in mind.
Accordingly, immediately after Anura was sworn in as President, Anura discussed this matter with the Chinese authorities. At that time, China informed that it would send 3 million Chinese tourists to Sri Lanka during the tourist season starting in December as an immediate support to Sri Lanka. It is also learned that China has agreed to increase it to 6 million when the next tourist season begins. Accordingly, many believe that this trump card provided by China is a very powerful one that cannot be underestimated.
The ‘Inside Politics’ column also reports that the West and other countries have started investigating Anura’s Chinese friendship, and whether they have lost their nerve in this regard. However, the information currently available suggests that Anura has taken the first step towards a very balanced journey by balancing China, India, the West and the International Monetary Fund. This can be seen when looking at the visit of Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar to Sri Lanka. Many say that Jaishankar has come to Sri Lanka to invite Anura to visit India as his first visit. Accordingly, many believe that Anura will choose India as his first foreign visit, just like other presidents have done. ( ‘Inside politics’ 6th October)
A message from China
Haiyan is not just any woman. She is a powerful figure with close ties to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Once, Haiyan visited Sri Lanka in 2023 during the reign of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe. There, Haiyan met not only Ranil but also all opposition activists including Anura and Sajith.
However, during the discussion with the President during this visit to Sri Lanka, Haiyan, in addition to other matters, also focused on one special issue. That was regarding maintaining geopolitical balance in implementing the government’s foreign policy. Through this, she had requested that Sri Lanka’s foreign policy be implemented in a balanced manner, without acting in a way that would give a special advantage to America, India or China. It is also reported that Haiyan has informed the President that as long as China does so, it will deal with Sri Lanka.
One thing is clear from this. That is, China is not just preparing to help Sri Lanka but is also trying to win Sri Lanka. On the other hand, as mentioned at the beginning, Haiyan came to Sri Lanka just as the President’s visit to India was about to be confirmed. Accordingly, Haiyan may have intended to send a message to India through her visit. In addition to the President, Haiyan met and discussed with Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and Namal Rajapaksa separately. During the discussion with Sajith, Haiyan also expresses special gratitude to Sajith. This was because, as the Opposition Leader, Sajith had maintained a balanced foreign policy with all countries in the past. Haiyan also took steps to inform Sajith about the support provided to the government.
In addition, the discussion that Haiyan held with Mahinda and Namal was also very cordial. Generally, the Rajapaksa family is considered to be a family that has exercised government power in a pro-Chinese manner since then. Mahinda had very close dealings with China during his presidency. Because of this, China received a large amount of investment and loans during Mahinda’s time.
Many huge projects in the country were given to Chinese companies at that time. The construction of the Southern Expressway, the Lotus Tower, the Port City project, the Mattala Airport, the Lotus Pond, the Sooriyawewa International Stadium, and the Hambantota International Conference Hall were Chinese projects implemented during the Rajapaksa regime. Because of this, there has been a strong friendship between China and the Rajapaksa family since then.
In the discussion with Namal, Haiyan informed Namal that in terms of policy, there is not much difference between Mahinda’s government and Anura’s government. Therefore, she informed Namal that if any crucial issue arose for the government, it would severely affect the country and that in such a case, he should not pull the government’s leg but help it. That was the most notable incident reported during the discussion between the Rajapaksa family and Haiyan.
Chinese Ambassador speaks out
A few hours after Haiyan left the country, the Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Qi Zhenhong, made another special statement to the local media. He emphasized the same point that Haiyan had informed the President. That is, Sri Lanka should act independently without being subject to any external influence in implementing its foreign policy. On the one hand, it is like another signal issued by China, in light of the President’s visit to India. In addition, the Chinese Ambassador had taken steps to express his views on several other strong issues, including the ban on Chinese research ships imposed by Sri Lanka. It was reported by the ‘Mawrata’ website on Friday as follows.
Sri Lanka should not bow to external pressure and pursue an independent foreign policy while some parties try to take advantage of the economic situation, Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Qi Zhenhong told reporters in Colombo. On China’s stance and future relations with Sri Lanka, he said that some countries have indicated that the country needs the support of other countries to overcome the economic situation. He said that this statement is wrong as the Sri Lankan people should be confident in them and look to strengthen relations with friendly partners like China.
‘China has no personal agenda regarding Sri Lanka. We firmly believe that China’s assistance to Sri Lanka will help Sri Lanka become an independent state and withstand foreign pressure. With the victory of the new government in the upcoming elections, Sri Lanka has opened a new chapter and China has confidence in the future of Sri Lanka,’
The Chinese ambassador reiterated that relations between China and Sri Lanka were strained after the former government rejected China’s request to enter Sri Lankan waters, and noted that it was regrettable that the former Sri Lankan government took such actions despite strong ties.
He said that the Maldives welcomed the research vessel into its waters but Sri Lanka rejected it, leaving them surprised and disappointed.
Although some parties continue to claim that China has invested in ‘white elephant’ projects in Sri Lanka, the Chinese ambassador said that every project in which the Chinese have invested was at the request of previous Sri Lankan governments.
Citing the Lotus Tower as an example, he said that it had started making profits after being leased to a private company and had become a symbol for Sri Lanka.
Commenting on the Hambantota Port and the Colombo Port, he said that both these ports generate huge revenue for the Sri Lankan government and that the country should know how to implement them when projects are built at the request of the Sri Lankan government.
‘Some former parliamentarians call some of these projects ‘white elephant projects’. But these allegations are baseless. China built these projects at the request of Sri Lanka and the poor performance of these projects on the part of Sri Lanka led to their non-utilization…’
Commenting on the allegations of China’s debt trap, the Chinese ambassador said that there is no such thing as a debt trap, which China itself claims to be a developing country, but it has still provided loans and investments to Sri Lanka. This was done based on the strong friendship between the two countries and the request of Sri Lanka.
‘When lending, the lender should not be blamed. Instead, the one who does not know how to use the loan properly should be blamed.’
He added that despite seven rounds of talks with Sri Lanka, the talks on the free trade agreement between the two countries are still stalled, further that these groups are also alleging that the Chinese will dominate the Sri Lankan market if the free trade agreement is signed and that such allegations are false and misleading.
‘If the Sri Lankan side feels that China will benefit from signing the free trade agreement, I can assure you that they can fix the agreement after a year. Many other countries will benefit from a free trade agreement with China. Why are we taking advantage of Sri Lanka?’
Commenting on the economic situation, the ambassador said that if Sri Lanka is not paying off its old debts, then any new debt the country takes on will become a burden. He said that some lenders are also using it to their advantage and charging higher interest rates from Sri Lanka.
IMF also arrived
After the Chinese chief representative, Haiyan, left Sri Lanka and the Chinese ambassador made a special statement, another special team landed in Sri Lanka. That was the International Monetary Fund delegation. They had come to Sri Lanka to review the third tranche and discuss the future work regarding obtaining the fourth tranche. Accordingly, following the discussions held with the government, the IMF representatives agreed to sign the staff agreement to receive the third tranche. Also, during their time in Sri Lanka, the IMF representatives took steps to meet and hold discussions with former President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa. The group also met with the President and exchanged views.
Heated discussions in SJB
However, the most special discussion among these discussions was, if not the one held by the IMF representatives with Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa. This was because several heated exchanges of words were witnessed after the initial few minutes of the discussion.
Economic analysts Eran Wickramaratne and Dr Harsha de Silva, representing the SJB, participated in the discussion held in Colombo with Sajith. The discussion was initiated by Eran Wickramaratne. Eran expressed special gratitude for the assistance provided to Sri Lanka by the IMF using diplomatic language. However, the situation heated up not only with the IMF representatives but also with Sajith, who unexpectedly launched an attack during his speech. Taking a firm stance, Sajith said that if an SJB government were formed, he would have taken steps to amend the agreement reached by the previous government with the IMF in a way that would benefit the people.
‘There is a problem here. We asked the people to vote during the election to change this agreement. But Anura said during the election that he would completely change the IMF agreement once he came to power. At that time, when we were saying good things about the IMF agreement, Anura attacked that agreement. But now Anura is not working for the mandate given by the people. The people gave them the mandate because they said they would change the IMF agreement. But now what they are doing is implementing the agreement which Ranil made as it is. We cannot accept that…’ Sajith said, and Harsha started the attack from where Sajith had left, and the IMF representatives could be seen watching in shock.
‘This is a complete distortion. At that time, when we were saying good things about the IMF agreement, Anura and Malaima attacked the IMF agreement. But now these people are doing something completely different…’ Harsha also took Sajith’s position and explained the facts at length, and the IMF representatives were visibly upset. Accordingly, a head of the IMF who was at the negotiating table immediately asked Sajith directly, ‘Are you going to sabotage this?’ (Are you trying to sabotage this program?).
There, Sajith told them that the SJB is not in a position to sabotage the IMF agreement. Sajith also pointed out to the representatives of the IMF that it is not the SJB policy to do politics with the country’s economy.
‘We are not in a position to sabotage this program at all and not ready to do politics with the country’s economy and the lives of 22 million people. We are not those who engage in such petty politics. But those who were in power before, saying that whatever happens to the country, it does not matter, only looked at their political gain and their political future. They did not look at the future of the people of the country. We are not like that. But we are questioning this policy of the government.
We are telling the people of the country. It is our duty as we have said from the beginning that if the people give us a mandate and we come to power, we will change this agreement. We are still in that position today. But you know that is not why the current government came to power. They said that the IMF agreement would be completely abolished and would reduce taxes and pay as you earn taxes. They said they would reduce oil prices drastically and said that the clauses of the agreement would be changed.
People voted for them because they were deceived by what they said. So we tell the people. It is our duty….’ When Sajith said this, the officials of the Monetary Fund, who were further disturbed, took steps to make a special request to Sajith. That was to not send this program into a crisis by creating problems in the country at this moment, since the country has now reached a certain financial stability. In response, Sajith said that his party will not create problems in the country at all and will continue to educate the people about its position as an opposition. That was how the discussion with the SJB and the Monetary Fund ended.
Ranils visit
While former President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s sudden visit to India was being praised by Ranil’s family media and other media outlets, claiming that Ranil had received a high level of recognition with an invitation from India, the ‘Mawrata’ ‘Inside Politics’ column took the responsibility of writing down the true story behind Ranil’s sudden visit to India for the public last week. We said there that Ranil’s visit to India was a big lie that Ranil had not received an invitation from India, and that Ranil was going to India purely as a personal visit.
We had also mentioned that this visit was planned to show that he had received an invitation from India before the President and that Ranil had planned this visit to show that he still had international recognition through it, and also that Ranil had set aside a lot of time to visit historical religious sites and wildlife in India with his wife, Mrs Maithri Wickremesinghe.
However, a statement made by Ranil while in Delhi caused a stir in Sri Lankan politics. Ranil said that the current President Anura Kumara Dissanayake should also implement the agreements signed between him and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the same manner. Many people believed that Ranil made that statement deliberately, not for any other reason, but to create a conflict between the government and India by making the President’s visit to India a pretext.
The government did not stand idly after Ranil’s statement. An operation was also launched by the government to find out the origins of Ranil’s visit to India. They also learned that Ranil’s visit to India was not made with any interference from the Indian government or the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka. It was also revealed that Ranil had not received the traditional welcome in India that is usually given to a former head of state when he visits another country.
Delayed Budget
Last week, we revealed in the main news of ‘Mawrata’ that the government is currently preparing to hold the local government elections. However, it is noted several problems are emerging within the government regarding the holding of the local government elections and the presentation of the government’s first budget. The government had initially planned to convene Parliament immediately after the general election and present the budget by December. However, the government later postponed it until January and then until March. Until then, the government plans to present an interim vote account to Parliament and allocate the necessary funds to run the government.
However, information that has now been received by the ‘Inside Politics’ column indicates that the presentation of the budget has been delayed until next April. While investigating the reason for this, the column learned that the government has decided to postpone the presentation of the budget until April due to some connection between this year’s budget and the local government elections.
The people have high hopes for the new government’s first budget. Also, during the last elections, the leaders of the ‘Compass’ said that they would provide great relief to the people through the budget. However, there is serious doubt as to whether the government can present such a popular budget based on the agreement signed with the IMF and the country’s financial situation. Therefore, can the government present a popular budget? Can it fulfil the promises made to the people?
It is said that there was a big discussion within the government recently regarding if the local government elections are to be held after the budget, it will adversely affect the outcome. There is no doubt that if the results of the local government elections are unfavourable to the government, it will harm the continuation of the government. That is the invisible connection between the government’s first budget and the local government elections.
However, the first party leaders’ meeting was held last week against the backdrop of a huge debate within the country regarding the cancellation of nominations for the local government elections. The government has also taken a policy decision to cancel the nominations that had been submitted for the local government elections. The government has also planned to bring a new bill to parliament and pass it.
All the opposition party leaders attended the first party leaders’ meeting, which was attended by Speaker Ashoka Ranwala, Prime Minister Harini, Ministers Bimal Ratnayake, Nalinda Jayatissa, etc. When the government proposed the cancellation of nominations for the local government elections all the party leaders unanimously agreed to it.
Afterwards, views were expressed regarding the agenda of the Parliament to be held on the 3rd, and the government side stated that the government planned to bring an interim vote on that day, which would be presented for 4 months until April. Although the government had initially said that the budget would be presented in March, everyone present understood that the budget would be postponed to April through this statement made by the government. Accordingly, it seems that the local government elections will most likely be held in March, and the budget will be presented in April thereafter.
A proper meeting after a while
However, something special should be mentioned about this party leaders’ meeting. That is, everyone involved was very optimistic about this party leaders’ meeting. Because in almost every party leaders’ meeting held over the past few years, the government representatives, as well as the Speaker, had behaved in a very biased manner. Or rather, in a one-sided manner to ensure that the government’s opinion prevailed.
In many cases, through the ‘Inside Politics’ column, we have reported on the behaviour of former Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, the Chief Organizer of the Government Party, Prasanna Ranatunga, and Nimal Siripala de Silva during those party leaders’ meetings. Despite former President Ranil Wickremesinghe was not present at the party leaders’ meeting, we have also reported limitlessly on how he directed the party leaders’ meeting from the outside through them.
At this party leaders’ meeting, it was seen that the Speaker and the government ministers conducted it in a very important manner and gave more space to the opinions of others. Accordingly, many party leaders said that this was the first time in many years that an important party leaders’ meeting was witnessed where discipline was maintained. We are confident that this situation will continue in the future.
Blame from Above
Although the party leaders’ meeting was held in such a disciplined manner, it has been reported that the heads of the government have a rather regrettable feeling about the way some of the Compass MPs behaved during the inaugural session of the 10th Parliament. In particular, some of the Compass MPs were seen sleeping when the President launched his policy statement. Other MPs were also seen taking selfies and laughing with each other. This behaviour of some MPs was also reported to the heads of the government. Also, the relevant photos were widely circulated on social media that day. Accordingly, it is reported to the ‘Inside politics’ column that the heads of the government have warned some of the Compass MPs in this regard.
‘Compass’ also seeks privileges
Over the past few years, there has been a huge protest within society regarding the privileges and perks enjoyed by members of parliament. In particular, the Compass did a great job in taking this protest to the people. They told the entire country on the election platform that they would abolish these parliamentary privileges as soon as they came to power. Some Compass leaders also stated that they would not obtain official residences or official vehicles. Due to the opposition to the members of parliament, the people also queued up to vote and supported the Compass, thinking that the Compass would serve the people without going for the privileges and perks.
But by now, the Compass has also been seen to be following the old path because many Compass members have already submitted applications to Parliament requesting official residences in Colombo. Over 100 applications have been received so far, and, significantly, nearly 80 of them are from the Compass Party. Several ministers from the Compass Party have already stated that they cannot carry out their duties without official vehicles. However, while some MPs from the Compass were behaving in this way, Hesha Withanage, who returned to Parliament from the SJB, presented a special motion to Parliament last week. That was the motion to remove the privileges of MPs. It will be debated in Parliament shortly.
Sajith ends 27-2
Although other parties had nominated their national list of MPs after the general election, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya and the New Democratic Front have not yet finalized their national list of MPs. In the case of the SJB, the reason for this is that there has been a huge demand from various parties for the remaining 4 national list MPs. In particular, Harsha de Silva’s statement that two of the national list MPs should be given to Iran Wickramaratne and Hirunika Premachandra, who contested the election and were defeated, and many of the defeated SJB MPs continued to express their views that they should also be given a national list MP post, which had become a major crisis. However, by now, there has been strong pressure from within the party on the leadership, saying that no defeated MP should be given a seat on the national list.
However, last week, a special request was made to party leader Sajith, by SJB MPs. That was to not take up a lot of time in Parliament and present questions under 27/2. In the last Parliament, Sajith’s continuous presentation of questions under 27/2 had caused a big headache not only to the government’s MPs but also to the then President Ranil Wickremesinghe. Therefore, when Sajith presented public questions under 27/2, there was a great deal of opposition from the government.
However, since this request came from the party’s MPs, Sajith said that he would refrain from presenting the people’s issues to Parliament under 27/2. However, Sajith also presented certain conditions to the MPs. That is, the MPs should remain in the House throughout the parliamentary day and speak about the people’s issues in Parliament.
