Can Ranil’s new cabinet of ministers revive the country..?
How will SL face UN sanctions..?
“Whither Sri Lanka in UNHRC..?
The Geneva Human Rights Council meeting is also scheduled to begin in the first week of next month. According to the information received by the ‘Rajya Rahas’ column, there is already a risk of a resolution against Sri Lanka being passed in Geneva. Due to the fact that countries such as the United States and Britain are included in the middle group there is a news that this time as well as last time, they are working urgently to pass a serious resolution against Sri Lanka.
28August 28
It has been learned from sources coming from Geneva that several rounds of special negotiations between powerful countries are already taking place behind the scenes in Geneva with Sri Lanka as the foundation. America, Britain, Canada and several European countries are mainly involved in it. They have now come to a consensus and are strongly pressuring other countries to renew the human rights resolution against Sri Lanka at this conference.
September 4
Now the government has to answer two accusations at the same time. One charge is war crimes. The other charge is economic crime. Accordingly, it goes without saying that the government will have to face a dangerous period in the future.
September 11
Confirming all the facts we have said time and time again, last week the High Commissioner of the Geneva Human Rights Office, Michelle Bachelet sent a special report to the government informing all the allegations against Sri Lanka in writing. As we said, it contained many allegations of serious human rights violations against Sri Lanka. But the most dangerous allegation was the clause that punishment should be given against the people who committed economic crimes in Sri Lanka.’
The above shows how we have been reporting one by one about the events that are going to happen in Sri Lanka in the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva through the ‘Rajya Rahas’ column for the past few weeks. While none of the media in this country paid any attention to Geneva and followed a lukewarm policy,
we took steps to expose the serious diplomatic danger that Sri Lanka is going to face in Geneva this time. Confirming all the facts we have said, everything is ready to adopt a new resolution against Sri Lanka in the Geneva Human Rights Commission. Even though the powerful countries represented by the Geneva Human Rights Commission have already issued announcements against Sri Lanka, the end is over. Among them, the main countries are America, Britain, Canada, Europe, New Zealand.
Ranil’s promise of 4 billion dollars
In addition, before being appointed as the new president, Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe said that he was ready to bring 4 billion dollars from Japan to Sri Lanka. But we revealed that the statement was false and that Japan would not provide any aid to Sri Lanka on those days. Confirming what we said, this time Japan has also taken steps to make a strong statement against Sri Lanka at the Geneva Human Rights Commission.
The odd thing is that India, which has always supported Sri Lanka in Geneva, has reversed course this time. India is our closest strong neighbour, a stance we’ve defended in Geneva. When the IMF claimed it could provide us $3.8 million for 4 years to recover from the economic crisis, 4 months ago when the government went bankrupt, India provided a loan of roughly $4 billion. India loaned Sri Lanka money for fuel, food, and medical.
India’s grouse over Chinese ship
But it has been learned that India has started to respond allowing the Chinese spy ship to come to Sri Lanka, which angered India, after providing such help. One of them is to give a strong signal against Sri Lanka in Geneva. The second is to declare that India will no longer provide financial assistance to Sri Lanka.
Accordingly, it is a special event that only China, North Korea, which is currently isolated from the world, and Maldives, which is in economic crisis, have expressed their opinions in favor of Sri Lanka in the Geneva Human Rights Commission. Through that, it is clear that the international community is moving towards a stance against Sri Lanka.
Most serious allegations in the history
However, regarding the proposal to be presented against Sri Lanka this time, the representatives who have worked with Geneva for the past few governments are of the opinion that the most serious proposal presented against Sri Lanka so far in history is to be presented this time. According to the information known to the ‘Rajya Rahas’ column, there is a risk of imposing certain sanctions against certain security personnel by personally naming them in this proposal. In particular, it is said that there is a possibility that they will be banned from entering certain countries. In addition to this, it has been learned from the same sources that this proposal also contains some clauses that contain certain restrictions against people who have committed economic crimes.
Lack of support in UNHRC
The ‘State Secrets’ channel has heard that even the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ali Sabri, and the Minister of Justice, Mr. Wijayadasa Rajapaksa, who have gone to Geneva to deal with it, are are very uncomfortable due to some incidents that happened in the Human Rights Commission in recent days. The message Ali Sabri had given to Sri Lanka was that no powerful country is in a position of support for Sri Lanka, and a very difficult situation has been created in the Geneva Human Rights Commission that cannot even be faced.
According to the current news, this resolution against Sri Lanka has been hosted by several countries including America, Britain, Canada and the European Commission as one group. And this proposal is going to be passed with the approval of all these countries. On the other hand, it is also special that all these countries represent the Executive Committee of the International Monetary Fund. In view of the acute financial crisis that has emerged in the country, the only option of President Ranil Wickremesinghe and the government is to seek the support of the Financial Fund.
What happens when resolution is adopted
But after these countries jointly adopt a resolution against Sri Lanka, that resolution is to be connected with the United Nations General Assembly. It is also going to be associated with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Accordingly, it is needless to say that these human rights issues and accusations related to economic crimes are tied together when the proposal regarding the granting of loan assistance to Sri Lanka comes to the approval of the Executive Committee of the International Monetary Fund.
Therefore, this time we very responsibly claim through the ‘state secret’ belt that from the day the Geneva resolution is passed, it will push the process of Sri Lanka in the International Monetary Fund to a very dangerous place. If that happens, the country will have to face a very serious danger.
Role paid by USA
On the other hand, in this Geneva resolution against Sri Lanka, it was a matter that we continuously pointed out that America is playing a major role. The United States acts as a chief arbitrator in the IMF and as a chief arbitrator in the World Bank. It is a special incident that the American government has not yet officially congratulated the new president of Sri Lanka, even though Mrs. Julie Chang, as the American representative in Sri Lanka, has met the president and held discussions on several occasions, and has declared her support for Sri Lanka.
The general tradition from the past is that when a president or prime minister of any country is elected, the United States officially accepts it and congratulates that president or prime minister. But there are several reasons why the US has not officially congratulated the President of Sri Lanka.
Official recognition
One of the most important of these has been the discussions between the American State Department and the American Ambassador to Sri Lanka Mrs. Julie Chang. The result of those discussions is that Sri Lanka’s ambassador, the US State Department and the US White House have decided that Sri Lanka is not in a suitable position to give such official recognition. It can be considered as a serious signal from the US side. Also, America’s taking such a stand can be considered as a warning that Sri Lanka is going to be stuck in every way in the future.
The other serious factor is that the European Commission has also contributed to the Geneva resolution against Sri Lanka. The information we have says that the European Commission has provided a very active contribution to the inclusion of clauses that should impose sanctions on Sri Lanka. The European Commission is a unit consisting of countries that buy most of Sri Lanka’s exports. Most of the dollars already received by Sri Lanka come from exports to America, Britain and the countries of the European Commission.
In particular, the garment sector, which currently generates the highest dollar income for Sri Lanka, is completely dependent on the GSP granted to Sri Lanka by the European Commission. Plus concessions. During the recent period of human rights violations in Sri Lanka, the European Commission had taken steps to issue a number of serious announcements condemning the use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act to suppress the activists and other people.
GSP+ and the EU
Those events G.S.P. It had been stated that there will be adverse effects on the provision of plus relief. But Sri Lanka would not have seen any of those statements being heeded at that time. But this time with the adoption of the Geneva resolutions, the GSP given by the European Commission. It should be mentioned that Plus relief is also in serious danger.
All the world’s powerful nations are strangling the president and his government. If this idea passes, Sri Lanka may lose foreign economic support. They say the current government doesn’t have a mandate. They think Sri Lanka needs a mandated government soon. Peter Brewer, chairman of the Financial Fund’s team that recently visited Sri Lanka, said a government with a mandate to implement economic and political reforms is needed.
Emergency general election ?
Accordingly, in view of the situation that has arisen, the country has now reached a point where it is unavoidable to push for an emergency general election. If a general election is held soon, Sri Lanka will be able to form a government with a mandate and get international support to quickly overcome the economic crisis. If not, it is difficult to imagine what situation will arise in the country in the future.
During all this, by last week, a new situation could be seen developing in Sri Lanka regarding the elections. According to the constitution, the local government elections should have been held by now, but former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa decided to postpone it by a year last January. But according to the existing constitution, the local government election cannot be postponed at all and the election should be held and completed before March 20 to appoint new members.
outcome of the local govt. polls
But according to the current situation in the country, the president of UNP and the government of Pohottuwa are well aware of the terrible fate that will befall the United National Party and Pohottuwa if the local government elections are held. Accordingly, both the president and the government know very well that the opposition party that wins the local government election will win the next general election and take over the government.
Accordingly, the ‘Rajya Rahas’ column has heard that Ranil is currently planning to play a trump card in a strange tune to somehow postpone the local government elections. This plan of Ranil came out due to the phone calls received by the local government members of the UNP to the President, the party’s seniors and presidential advisors throughout the last few days. Ranil told them not to worry because they know that if the local government elections are held, the remaining members of the UNP and Municipal Councils will lose their way to and fro.
President’s trump card
When the presidential advisors were asked, they also replied not to worry and that the president has planned to play a trump card. But Ranil or Ranil’s advisors had not revealed to their party members what that trump card was.
But Ranil’s trump card came out during the visit of Mrs. Samantha Power, the chief administrator of the American Institute of USAID to Sri Lanka. Ranil, who knew in advance that the issue of the mandate of the government would arise during this trip, said in the discussion with Samantha Power that the government is hoping to carry out electoral reforms before it arises, and a period of 06 months has been set aside for it, and it is not possible to reach an agreement within those 06 months by discussing with other parties. If so, he said that he is ready to refer it to a referendum.
How is Ranil going to play the trump of this referendum?
Last week we found out how Ranil was going to play the game. Accordingly, Ranil has planned to get certain people who are friendly to him from the opposition political parties to implement the referendum plan. Ranil has already made efforts to plant this opinion by having his loyal people in Samagi Jana Balawega and Vimal’s groups. In addition, Ranil has already taken steps to get a third party to send this message to JVP. something should also be mentioned about the team inside SJB that Ranil has chosen.
Although the names of these people could have been revealed to the country in the ‘state secret’ belt, we are not going to reveal those names at this time. But we are ready to reveal those names to the country when necessary. Talking about democracy and good governance, we are ready to unmask them by revealing to the country the details of the talks held with Ranil and Ranil’s representatives, the places where those talks were held, some of the issues discussed in them, how some of the talks failed, etc.
Ranil’s point to Samantna
Here, Ranil emphasized this point to Samantha Power by gathering a group of opposition members from within the parliament and preparing the plan to postpone the small vote.
Also, the Election Commissioner is considered to be a Rajapaksa sympathizer who works very closely with the Rajapaksa appointees by the previous Rajapaksa government. At that time, when the Election Commissioner Mr. Nimal Punchihewa was appointed, the opposition made a serious accusation and said that a person very friendly to the Rajapaksa family was appointed to the Election Commission in order to conduct the elections as desired by Pohottuwa.
Local government elections and election commission
However, last week, the Chairman of the Election Commission, Mr. Nimal Punchihewa, and the members of the commission, during a visit to the Trincomalee area, said that the Election Commission will get the authority to hold the local government election after the first of September, and that it cannot be revoked by the President or the Prime Minister or anyone else, given by the Supreme Court.
It has been confirmed through a court decision. Accordingly, the Chairman of the Election Commission said that the election list will be finalized by the first week of October and that he will announce the date of the election next January and that the election will be held before March 9th.
Accordingly, if Ranil fails to succeed in the plan prepared by the members of the opposition who are loyal to him, the commission will definitely announce the elections by next January. The commission will definitely work to give a date before March 9 for that purpose. In that case, the period up to that time will be 06 months. But in view of the current socio-economic political and international crisis, it is very clear that the situation in Sri Lanka will be extremely dangerous by that time.
Enlarged cabinet
At present, the president has enlarged the cabinet and appointed 37 more MPs who represent Pothattu as ministers of state. However, the manner in which these 37 state ministers were appointed is still a mystery. But the ‘State Secrets’ belt very responsibly reports this time that the President appointed these state ministers after many rounds of extremely secret negotiations between Basil Rajapaksa, the mastermind of Pohottuwa, and the President.
Although the President’s side presented various ideas, suggestions and accusations during these discussions, finally Basil managed to reach an agreement between the two parties and appoint these 37 people. At one point, when the negotiations were about to break down, Basil played his last trump card and managed to get Ranil to surrender. Basil’s trump card was to inform Ranil that if the state ministers are not appointed within a week, a number of serious problems may arise within the government and an unimaginable group of MPs may become independent within the ruling party. In the end, Ranil had to bow to Basil’s trump card.
Basil’s instruction on cabinet appointments
Also, several proposals have been made to Basil Ranil to appoint cabinet ministers. It is also reported that Basil has informed the President that Namal Rajapakse, Johnston Fernando, Pavitra Vanniarachchi, Mahindananda Aluthgamage and Rohitha Abeygunawardena should be appointed as cabinet ministers. The reason for this is a notification to the President that all these people must be in the cabinet to show that the government is strong.
According to this, Pohottuwa has continued to inform the President to make these appointments immediately and strengthen the government, otherwise various problems may arise within the government. Accordingly, Ranil is ready to appoint 12 more Cabinet Ministers within the next few days, including the names suggested by Basil. Basil overseas after finishing all these works.
Confidential meeting of Pohottuwa
However, last week at a special place in Colombo (we will not mention the name of the place due to confidentiality) a group of seniors from Pohottuwa met and held a discussion. It was seen that several people who were said to be joining the cabinet had participated. This discussion was held as an extension of many discussions held in several places before.
There was a discussion among the seniors of Pohottuwa about how to work in the government in the future, how to face the elections, etc. Also, these seniors were able to make several decisions there. One of them will be to hold the anniversary of Pohottuwa next November in a very grand manner. It was also decided to organize it at the constituency level. It was also proposed to get the support of MPs who are currently separated from the party and are independent. In addition to this, many other political issues were also discussed there, the ‘State Secrets’ belt has informed.
Gota and Wimal meeting
While discussions are being held in different places like this inside Pohottuwa, it is also possible to see how various people from the government come to meet former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa at his official residence in Malalasekara Mawatha. Last week, we took steps to disclose the details of several such discussions through the ‘Rajya Rahas’ column, and this time we are disclosing the details of a discussion between Gota and a leader of the Northern Coalition represented by Wimal Weerawansa.It is reported that this leader, who represents Wimal’s Uttara coalition, has brought a proposal to Gotha in a highly confidential discussion last week.
It is a proposal to bring Gota back into politics and create a new alliance between President Ranil and Gota. In this regard, it is known that this chief has exchanged views with Ranil on many occasions. His plan is to prevent Basil from getting stronger within Pohottua and align all those who broke away from Pohottua under Gota, bring the Gota Parliament and form a new government with Ranil under his leadership. It is known that several other top politicians are working together with this chief for this purpose. As far as is known, no objection has been expressed from Ranil’s side or Gota’s side to this proposal. But the problem lies in the fact that the new cotton can bring together the people who were broken in the bud.
Samantha Power’s series of meetings
Mrs. Samantha Power, the administrator of USAID, who came to Sri Lanka last week, met all the opposition representatives before ending her visit to Sri Lanka. The discussion took place at Water’s Edge Hotel in Battaramulla. Before that discussion, a 15-minute separate discussion was held between Mr. Sajith Premadasa and Mrs. Samantha Pawer in a special room at Water’s Edge Hotel.
However, it was a special event that all the party representatives representing the opposition participated in this meeting. Accordingly, Sajith Premadasa, Dayasiri Jayasekara, M. that. Sumanthiran, Mano Ganesan, Rauf Hakeem, Rishad Badurdeen were present in this discussion, the opposition representatives had directly pointed out to Samantha Power that the government has lost its mandate and that the international community should definitely hold a general election and force the government to form a government with a new mandate.
Samantha Pawer has also discussed with the opposition at length regarding the provision of aid. There, the opposition representatives have emphasized that it is essential for Sri Lanka at this moment, and even so, a mechanism should be set up to find out whether the aid is being given to the people properly without being exploited by the politicians. However, it was seen that the two sides had a long discussion regarding the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Ranil’s foreign trips
Almost two months have passed since President Ranil Wickramasinghe took office. But the President has not yet made an official visit abroad. Although it is a tradition for a president to visit India as soon as he becomes president, Ranil’s first invitation to visit his country came from China. Although Ranil has been invited to visit China on several previous occasions, it has not been seen that Ranil has accepted the invitation in the past.
However, with the assassination of the former Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Shinzo Abe, the President decided to visit Japan to pay his last respects to Mr. Abe as his first foreign trip. It was supposed to be done on the 27th. However, due to the sudden death of the British Queen, Ranil is currently preparing to leave for Britain on the 19th to pay his last respects to the Queen as his first foreign trip. Accordingly, Ranil has now informed China that he plans to go to India after his trips to Japan and Britain, and then he will return to China.
Missing out china?
Meanwhile, the latest information reported in the ‘State Secrets’ belt says that Ranil is scheduled to visit the Philippines while returning to Sri Lanka from Japan. That is to join a discussion with representatives of the Asian Development Bank. The President has also planned to organize an executive level discussion with representatives of the Asian Development Bank. It is learned that the purpose of the President’s visit to the Philippines is to deliver a speech there and gain some recognition for Sri Lanka.
After completing his visit to the Philippines, the President is currently planning to visit India and then China. However, due to a wonderful photo published on the social media last week, various stories have been circulating on the media networks. The photo shows Ranil wearing a European suit by Fausul Hameed, the head of Hamidia. Most of the people who commented on that photo had mentioned that since Ranil is going to visit five countries in a row, he has bought clothes from the head of the ‘Hamidia’ company.
Complaint against a ‘Pohottuwa’ minister
The ‘Rajya rahas’ Column has heard that the President is receiving a large number of complaints from several parties against a strongman of Pohottuwa who is in the cabinet. This column learned that several powerful businessmen are among the people who have submitted complaints to the President against this minister. It is reported that this minister is putting pressure on the importation of certain goods into Sri Lanka and demanding certain amounts of money.
Another Pohottu member of parliament who is said to be close to the president these days, related to the said minister, is also involved in this operation. However, a special discussion was also held between this minister and the president last week. It is also reported that the minister mentioned the names of several businessmen who work with his ministry and said that more tax should be levied against them.
Minister’s new tax proposal
The minister has suggested that taxes should be imposed on those businessmen who expressed their unwillingness to pay extortion to this minister. But it has been learned that due to the fact that many complaints have been received about the minister, the president has also shook his head as usual saying, ‘Hmm Hmm…’.