Saturday, 8 December 2012

Sri Lanka Perspectives - November 2012

Col R Hariharan
  
Highlights

  • Judiciary and parliament are on a collision course after the parliament took up a motion to impeach the Chief Justice of Supreme Court for misconduct.
  • President Rajapaksa has highlighted the need for changing the present provincial council set. This would indicate that 13th amendment to the constitution was likely to be replaced or amended.
  • Indian business in Sri Lanka heading for tough competition from China and Japan.
  • Sri Lanka’s woes at the UN Human Rights Council(UNHRC) continued when the UNHRC discussed the nation’s universal periodic review of human rights. 
  •  Miscellaneous: Sri Lanka army recruits Tamil women for its women’s wing for the first time.
Impeachment of Chief Justice
 
Stung by the ruling of the Supreme Court Chief Justice Mrs Shirani Bandaranayake that the Divi Neguma Bill which seeks to centralize rural savings assistance schemes required the approval of all the provincial councils, ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) coalition has moved the parliament to impeach her. Charges of her misconduct include alleged corruption charges against her husband. The impeachment move has triggered a lot of protests from the judiciary, legal profession and civil society as well international criticism. Viewed in the larger context of President Rajapaksa’s authoritarian style of governance, this is probably a move to bring judiciary under his control.

The Chief Justice was handpicked by President Rajapaksa though she lacked adequate courtroom experience. In her submission to the parliamentary select committee examining the impeachment charges, she said the select committee had no jurisdiction to exercise judicial powers and impeach her. Refuting the 14 charges of misconduct against her, she asked for an inquiry to be held by “a lawfully appointed body consisting of eminent and independent persons not politically affiliated” to look into the charges against her. She told the media she would fight to preserve the independence of the judiciary.

Future of 13th amendment

President’s brother and Defence Secreary Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s call to abolish the 13th amendment last month, taken up by some of the ruling coalition partners, would appear to be heading for implementation. According to Weera Wansa, one of the vocal protagonists of the abolition call, 19th amendment to the Constitution was likely to be introduced to replace it. Another brother of the President, Basil Rajapaksa, minister for development and industries, has also supported the move. The introduction of the 13th amendment led to the creation of Provincial Councils (PC) thanks to the  India-Sri Lanka agreement 1987 in order to meet the aspirations of Tamil minority.

In his budget speech in parliament on November 8, President Rajapaksa said, “A change in the prevailing Provincial Council system is necessary to make devolution more meaningful to our people. Devolution should not be a political reform that will lead us to separation but instead it should be one that unifies all of us.” He further added that the elimination of provincial disparities using national standards was the main weapon “through which national reconciliation can be promoted…That will be an effort which ensures greater self-respect than having to lobby foreign countries to interfere in our internal problems.”  This would indicate that moves are probably afoot to repeal or replace the 13th amendment. Though President Rajapaksa had been promised that Sri Lanka would fully implement the 13th amendment, it has so far refrained from giving land and police powers to the PCs. Abolition of the 13th amendment could further delay the revival of stalled political reconciliation process. That could affect India-Sri Lanka relations; so we can expect the President to take face saving measures before doing away with it.    

Trade and industry

A 13-memebr high power business mission from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) visited Colombo from November 18 to 20. The delegation  led by Adi Godrej, President of CII and chairman of Godrej Group, showed interest in consumer goods, IT and BPO, automobile sector, electronic and engineering products, air conditioning and refrigeration, hydro power generation, wind energy, infrastructure and real estate sectors.

Other members of the delegation included Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, Bajaj Auto Ltd, Sunil Duggal, CEO, Dabur India Ltd., Satish Jamdar, Managing Director, Blue Star Ltd and S Shrivastava, Chief (Global Business and Strategy), The Tata Power Company Ltd.  The delegation met with Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa, Deputy Finance Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama and CEOs of Sri Lankan business.   

This was the fourth business delegation from India to visit Sri Lanka indicating Indian business’ growing interest in the island nation. India-Sri Lanka bilateral trade has jumped from $3 billion in 2009-10 to $5.1 billion in 2011-12, with India exporting $4.3 billion worth of goods to Sri Lanka in 2011-12 (over 22% of Sri Lanka’s imports.) Indian investment in Sri Lanka has doubled from $ 78 million in 2009 to $ 147 million. Tata, Bajaj, Godrej, Bharti, and RPG are well established in Sri Lanka. Others who have invested in Sri Lanka include Dabur, Britannia, Ultratech, Ambuja Cement and Ashok Leyland. 

However, Sri Lanka government’s recent actions are likely to help China and Japan and curb the growth of Indian business interests. Prohibitive duties have been slapped on import of Indian vehicles. Indian cars control 80 percent of the automobile market. Under the new import duty regime the price of Maruti Alto was expected to go up by Rs 250,000.  Price of an Indian truck could to go up Rs ten lakhs placing them at a disadvantage. On the other hand exemptions have been given to cars coming from Japan. Already China has a huge presence in infrastructure building and construction industry. Now the government has also granted clearance for a Chinese investor to set up car assembly plants in Hambantota and Gampaha with an investment of $ 20 million.

China has also emerged as Sri Lanka’s top lender. Up to August this year, China has disbursed $443.6 million in loans and export credits; it has also committed $1055 million dollars as loans and $ 0.16 million as loans. India has disbursed $179.9 million as loans and $34.8 million in grants which need not be paid back. India is financing houses for internally displaced persons and low income households. Japan has disbursed $ 280.2 million as loans and $ 9.8 million as grants.

Sri Lanka’s UNHRC woes

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) reviewed Sri Lanka’s human rights record during its session in the first week of November at Geneva when the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Sri Lanka carried out by India, Spain and Benin came up for discussion. A total of 99 speakers spoke and over 200 points were suggested for inclusion in the UPR report. 

Sri Lanka faced severe criticism from Britain and European countries which also referred to recent action to impeach the chief justice. India for called immediate implementation of the 13th amendment in keeping with the commitments Sri Lanka had made and to build upon it “to achieve a meaningful devolution package.”

Around the same time a report of the UN internal review panel headed by former UN official Charles Petrie on the conduct of UN during Sri Lanka’s Eelam war also surfaced. It found major weaknesses in UN functioning both at the local level and at the departmental level in handling a crisis affecting thousands of civilians. It concluded that events in Sri Lanka marked “a grave failure of the UN to adequately respond to early warnings and to the evolving situation in the final stages of the conflict and its aftermath in contradiction to the principles and responsibilities of the UN.  It also found systemic failure in UN’s handling the situation. It said among the UN personnel in Sri Lanka there was a sustained and institutionalized reluctance to stand up for the rights of people. 

Miscellaneous
  • Sri Lanka army recruits Tamil women: In a path breaking move, Sri Lanka army has recruited 109 young Tamil women from Northern Province for its women’s wing.
  • Assassination of former LTTE leader: Unknown assassins riding a motorcycle shot dead Nadarajah Matheenthiran alias Parithy (also known as Reagan in Sri Lanka ), chief of LTTE’s front organisation - the Tamil Coordinating committee - in Paris on November 8. French police suspect the killing was due to faction fight between two factions of LTTE. Parithy belonged to the group led by Nediyavan while the rival faction is led by Vinayakam. Some Tamil Diaspora organisations have alleged that attack by Vinayakam faction was engineered by Sri Lanka military intelligence. Sri Lanka has denied any involvement in the killing. In any case, the killing highlights on going power struggle among overseas LTTE elements overseas to gain control over the LTTE’s overseas set up now in disarray.
Written on November 30, 2012                                                                                             Courtesy: South Asia Security Trends, Volume 6 No 11, December 2012                                            URL: www.security-risks.com

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