News

United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Parliamentarian Manusha Nanayakkara, who accepted a deputy ministerial portfolio from the new government recently, has resigned from his post today (06). 

The parliamentarian visited Temple Trees to extend his support to Prime Minster Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Nanayakkara stated that he submitted his resignation as he could not agree with the decision taken by President Maithripala Sirisena to prorogue Parliament and appoint a new Government that has been deemed unconstitutional and illegal by the Speaker.

He also noted that no international country has recognised the "perpetrated government that we took oaths in."

"This has certainly provoked my democratic conscience", he added.

Nanayakkara also reminded the president about the mandate that he received on the 08th of January, 2015, and pointed out that the subsequent government that was formed was "very clearly to eradicate such abuse power and undemocratic acts."

Full Text of Manusha Nanayakkara's Letter to the President:

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said he would have to continue with the previous status in Parliament until a clear majority was shown in Parliament as a majority of the MPs had requested him to accept the previous composition.

He said in a statement that MPs had pointed out that changes which had been made in Parliament were against the Constitution and the Parliamentary Tradition and they had requested him to accept the previous composition in Parliament.

He said he could not remain silent anymore on the information received by him saying that peoples’ representatives were being offered perk and privileges, violating democratic principles. (Daily Mirror)

The Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Patricia Scotland has called on Sri Lanka to uphold democratic practices.

She also called President Sirisena to reconvene parliament as soon as possible to solve the constitutional crisis.

"Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland today noted the decision by President Sirisena to reconvene Parliament on 14 November 2018. Secretary-General Scotland emphasized the importance of the role of Parliament as provided for under the constitution and expressed hope that Parliament would meet as soon as possible to resolve the current crisis in the country.

Scotland further stated that as per the Commonwealth Charter, adopted in 2012 by all the Commonwealth member states which specifically refers to the responsibility of governments, political parties and civil society to uphold and promote democratic culture and practices.

It is reported that several rounds of discussions have taken place over the weekend to form a new national government between the United National Party, Joint Opposition, Sri Lanka Freedom Party and other minority parties in order to settle the current political crisis in the country.

Discussions have also centred on the possibility of dividing the Cabinet portfolios equally between the UNP, JO and the SLFP in the new national government, political sources said.

Furthermore, several senior members representing the United National Front (UNF) had met with President Sirisena for discussions but are yet to arrive at final agreement, the sources added.

They also say that the final objective is to facilitate a meeting between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe.

Sajith Premadasa, Rajitha Senarathne, John Amaratunga and Rishad Bathiudeen, with the blessing of UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, had reportedly met with the president and held discussions over the past few days on the possibility of finalising an agreement.

At the same time, President Sirisena had also phoned a few UNP MPs asking for ther support to resolve the current political crisis.

• The U.S. and Japan have both paused their respective projects in Sri Lanka amid concerns about democracy, according to the country's ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

• The European Union said it may consider revoking Colombo's trade privileges if the government doesn't continue progress on human rights

• "Foreign governments and organisations should reconsider any economic support linked to democratic governance," The International Crisis Group warned in a statement.

President Maithripala Sirisena has issued the gazette notification to convene the prorogued Parliament.

Accordingly, the Parliament will be reconvened on the 14th of November at 10.00 am.

A statement by the Minister of Finance and Media Mangala Samaraweera addresses the economic ramifications caused by the illegal and anti-democratic coup. Samaraweera says that the economic consequences will be borne by all Sri Lankans and reiterates that only an immediate return to the norms of the democracy and the Constitution could save the economy.

Full Text of statement by the Minister of Finance and Media is as follows:

As a result of the illegal and unconstitutional coup, led by President Maithripala Sirisena, Sri Lanka’s economy has been placed in great peril. The uncertainty created has triggered an immediate negative impact at a time of tremendous fragility in global financial markets.
 
The first impact was felt in the stock market. Between Monday and Thursday net foreign outflows from the Colombo stock exchange were Rs. 4 billion in just a 4 day period. For the entire 9 months (270 days) from January to September 2018, the total net outflow from the stock market was Rs. 6.1 billion.
 
Foreigners are selling out rapidly due to a sharp drop in confidence in Sri Lanka’s economic management. These outflows are putting major pressure on the Sri Lankan rupee in an already fragile global economy.
 
The yield on the US$ 1 billion international sovereign bond maturing in January 2019 increased from 5.6% to 9.9% this week - almost doubling in an unprecedented manner. The spike in yield is because global investors are demanding a higher return for the very recently increased risk associated with Sri Lankan debt. This means Sri Lanka’s external borrowing costs will almost double.
 
If Sri Lanka is unable to meet its external obligations we will collapse into a situation like Argentina or worse Venezuela, where similar reckless policies were implemented. It is our citizens that will suffer as a result of this reckless, opportunistic behaviour. In Argentina, a country with similar challenges to Sri Lanka and made key policy errors like what we saw this week, interest rate just reached 74%, inflation is 22%, and the Peso depreciated 115% this year.
 
As a result of the accelerated foreign sales of Sri Lankan debt and equity, there will be significant pressure on the value of the rupee and will cause domestic interest rates to spike. The selling rate of the SL rupee that had stabilized below 175 spiked from 174 to 177.3 in just 4 days. The old Rajapaksa strategy of selling off our hard earned reserves to try and defend the Rupee has no doubt already been deployed – this has been proved time and again to be a failed strategy. Lost reserves will make it even more difficult to meet our upcoming external debt repayments.
  
There is already significant upward pressure on domestic interest rates as liquidity had tightened sharply - it is highly probable that the Central Bank will have to increase interest rates in order to withstand the pressure that has developed this week. This will increase costs in borrowing across the board and will stifle investment and economic activity.
 
Sri Lanka had just managed to turn around our declining exports and stagnating FDI. In 2017 we had our best ever exports and FDI and in the first half of 2018 these figures continued to grow. Unfortunately, the blatantly undemocratic, unconstitutional measures by this illegal regime have put at risk our hard won access to the EU market through the GSP + scheme. If we lose this market we will severely undermine our fishing & seafood sector and apparel sector, which were making strong inroads into the world’s largest single market. A return to inward looking, protectionist, regressive policies will put us back on the fast lane to economic crisis.
 
These negative developments have immediately attracted the attention of global rating agencies. Fitch is quoted as stating “Prolonged political upheaval accompanied by deterioration of policy continuity could undermine investor confidence and make it more challenging for the government to meet its large external financing needs in 2019-2022”. Another rating agency Moody’s stated “At a time when global financial markets are turbulent, uncertainty about the direction of future policy could have a large and lasting negative impact on international investor confidence”
 
There is a serious risk that rating agencies will downgrade their Sri Lanka ratings. In addition to the spike in yields on Sri Lankan international sovereign debt, the incoherent policy of this week will make creditors extremely reluctant to lend to Sri Lanka to enable us to refinance our US$ 15 billion debt payments in the next three years. We are at very serious risk of our first ever international default unless the economy is restabilised immediately by reverting to the policy path that our government had carefully put in place.
 
Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Finance and Central Bank had worked hard to build fiscal consolidation and macroeconomic stability in the last 2 years - sacrifices were made in order to ensure we gained the trust and credibility of global financial markets since we have such high external debt obligations between 2019 and 2022. This credibility has been eviscerated in the most irresponsible manner by an illegal regime in just one week.
 
The range of tax cuts made on Thursday will severely undermine government revenue. In a context where we have Rs. 2 trillion worth of debt service in 2019 and our revenue in 2018 was just touching Rs. 2 trillion - any revenue slippage will be disastrous for the government’s ability to meet its financial obligations and to fund public services.
 
 
Taking just three of the 15 tax measures proposed – telecommunications levy reduction, VAT threshold increase, and WHT on interest income – the revenue impact would be around Rs. 75 billion (almost double the annual expenditure on Samurdhi). Unless of course by removing the 5% Final Withholding tax they are expecting interest income to be declared as income tax and charged 24% tax instead of 5% applicable at present.
 
It is not clear as to how this illegal administration expects to reduce government expenditure in order to balance the budget after these erratic, irresponsible, and populist tax cuts. In the first 6 months of 2018, total revenue was Rs. 925 billion. Expenditure on salaries and wages was Rs. 316 billion, interest payments Rs. 391 billion, welfare Rs. 223 billion. These 3 items alone add up to Rs. 930 billion. Will Mahinda Rajapaksa reduce the size of the public service? Will he cut salaries? Perhaps he will reduce pensions?
 
In fact with the spike in treasury yields as a result of this coup interest expenditure will be far higher than previously estimated. The only other option is drastic cuts to development expenditure which our government was not willing to do. Simply saying that lost revenue will be caught up by “rationalising cabinet ministers” and “re-examining capital expenditure” is an irresponsible and lazy attempt to deceive the public.
 
By shelving the fuel pricing formula, the illegal administration is attempting to revert to the opaque, politicized regime of fuel pricing that resulted in the CPC being landed with debt of more than Rs. 350 billion – which is eventually borne by tax payers. There has been a 12% reduction in the Singapore Platts price of refined petrol since October 10th, which would have enabled a reduction in pricing as per the fuel price formula as well.
 
The irresponsible measures during this week have gone against the basic principles of economic management. These short-term, cheap, populist measures are an attempt to deceive the public to capture political power and avert impending court cases, whilst putting the country risk of major economic peril.
 
Our government had put in place a carefully thought out, responsible set of programmes to stimulate economic growth and uplift the people. Enterprise Sri Lanka loan schemes have been making great progress in empowering small business and entrepreneurs, Gampereliya has resulted in a major drive to boost economic infrastructure in rural areas. Our pragmatic macroeconomic policies brought inflation under control and in fact food prices declined by 2.3% in October. We did not resort to cheap, short sighted, irresponsible measures like what have been proposed this week. I urge the public to not be fooled by these unsustainable gimmicks and to reject all undemocratic, unconstitutional measures of this illegal regime.   

The legislator son of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa today indicated that the demand of the Tamil minority community to release all Tamil prisoners may be fulfilled soon, a move aimed at persuading the Tamil legislators to support Rajapaksa.

"President Sirisena and Prime Minister Rajapaksa would make a decision very soon," Namal Rajapaksa tweeted.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE had run a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years before its collapse in 2009 after the Sri Lankan Army killed its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was the president at the time, has repeatedly said that the war was against the LTTE and not against the Tamil community.

Since the war with the LTTE ended in 2009, the Sri Lankan government has denied that the imprisoned LTTE members are political prisoners. Tamils say some of the prisoners have been held over a long time under anti-terrorism law without even being formally charged.

Namal's comments are aimed at persuading the legislators in the Sri Lanka's main Tamil party -- Tamil National Alliance (TNA) -- to switch their allegiance to Mr Rajapaksa in his bid to prove majority in the parliament.

So far Mr Rajapaksa has 100 MPs on his side while sacked prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has 103 MPs in the 225-member house. Most of the 22 remaining MPs, including the TNA, are likely to oppose Mr Rajapaksa.

Mr Rajapaksa's camp had already enticed a TNA legislator to join ranks by giving him a deputy ministerial position. The TNA's parliamentary strength has been reduced to 15 as a result and there was speculation that at least four more of them were willing to support Mr Rajapaksa.

The TNA has said it will support a no-trust motion Mr Rajapaksa, amid mounting pressure on President Sirisena to let the suspended parliament hold a vote to end the political crisis.

In a statement, the TNA on Saturday said Mr Rajapaksa's appointment was a violation of the Constitution's 19th amendment. The alliance had "decided to vote in favour of the no-confidence motion against Rajapaksa," the statement said.

Mr Rajapaksa claims he has enough numbers to prove his majority and at least six of Mr Wickremasinghe's men have defected to his side. The current suspension of parliament by the president is seen as a key to Mr Rajapaksa negotiating for enough defections.

COMMENT

Mr Wickremesinghe was sacked by President Sirisena on October 26. His United National Party claims that Mr Wickremesinghe's sacking was "unconstitutional and illegal". The president's move has plunged the country into a constitutional crisis with Mr Wickremesinghe claiming he is still the prime minister.(NDTV)

A political crisis in Sri Lanka, where two prime ministers are fighting for power, is scaring away tourists and raising questions over foreign aid, ringing alarm bells for the economy as the currency slumps to record lows.

The turmoil in the Indian Ocean nation that has seen one premier refuse to be sacked, and another battle to prove a majority in a parliament that is banned from meeting, has caused major upheaval that Sri Lanka cannot afford.

Amidst warnings from politicians of a "bloodbath" if the dispute escalates, tourists are cancelling hotel bookings just as Sri Lankan beaches and major sites like the Temple of the Tooth prepare for peak season.

While no official figures have been given, deluxe hotels have reported cancellations and a critical decline in new bookings in the past 10 days.

"This comes at the worst possible time when people in Europe are making their holiday plans abroad," a Colombo city hotel executive told AFP. "We have had a lot of cancellations from the United States."

"With the political crisis our winter season is gone," the director of a luxury beach resort in the south of the island said.

- Tourist dollars needed -

Western nations have warned their citizens to be on their guard in Sri Lanka.

"You should exercise vigilance and avoid all demonstrations or large political gatherings," a British government advisory said.

 

It is reported that the Secretary General of Parliament Dhammika Dasanayake has been hampering Speaker Karu Jayasuriya of issuing the gazette notification to reconvene Parliament by presenting spurious legal arguments.  

Parliamentary sources said that Dhammika Dasanayake, who is a close associate of the Rajapaksa family, had once personally looked into the meal arrangements of former first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa when she visited Parliament.

It is also reported that the Speaker had been preparing to issue the gazette notification to reconvene Parliament today (04). Joint Opposition sources, however, said that a group led by Basil Rajapaksa had met Dasanayake last night and requested the Secretary General to delay the reconvening of Parliament.

The inability of the Maithri-Mahinda faction to muster the majority in Parliament has been identified as the reason for their request to delay the issuance of the gazette notification.

The Maithri-Mahinda faction has 104 members as of now but fears of certain SLFP MPs abstaining during the vote has led the conspirators of the coup to delay the convening of Parliament until they are able to secure the majority.

SLFP MP Lasantha Alagiyawanna is currently overseas while Duminda Dissanayaka, who was recently sworn in as a Cabinet Minister, has gone into hiding, SLFP sources said. Close associates of Duminda Dissanayake said that he, together with a few SLFP MPs will act against Mahinda at a decisive moment in the future.

UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has warned that the time is running out to avert a "bloodbath" while voicing hope that Parliament will resolve a damaging constitutional crisis in the coming days.

In an interview with the AFP, Mr.Wickremesinghe has said that "desperate people" could cause chaos.

"We will be calling on our people not to resort to violence but you don't know what arises in a situation like this. A few desperate people can start off a bloodbath,” he said on Friday.

Mr.Wickremesinghe said he hoped the showdown could be ended peacefully and expressed optimism that a solution to the crisis would soon be found.

"I feel Parliament is going to prevail finally. This can't take too long. I would say in a week to 10 days at the most," he said, adding the priority was to establish Parliament's "supremacy".

Mr.Wickremesinghe said two smaller parties - the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the Tamil National Alliance - were backing his call for the legislature to meet despite obstacles placed by Sirisena.

"A majority of Parliament has said all these actions (of the president) are not legitimate and not in accordance with the Constitution," he said. (Daily Mirror)

Sri Lanka’s main Tamil party today urged the president to reconvene parliament and end a worsening political crisis, as the minority ethnic community emerge as kingmakers in the power struggle.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) could tip the balance should parliament be recalled this week to decide between two rivals both claiming the lawful right to head Sri Lanka’s government.

Sri Lanka has been gripped by constitutional turmoil since President Maithripala Sirisena sacked his former ally, prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and his cabinet on October 26.

Sri Lanka’s ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe arrives for an interview with Reuters at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Colombo November 3, 2018. Reuters

Wickremesinghe says his dismissal was illegal as he commands a greater majority in parliament than Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former strongman president controversially installed in his place.

The TNA has already said it would vote against Rajapaksa in a no-confidence motion when parliament reconvenes.

Both rivals have been marshalling numbers behind the scenes, worrying civil society groups who protested Sunday in the capital Colombo against the horse-trading.

TNA legislator Dharmalingam Sithadthan said the president had called the Tamil legislators to a meeting on Wednesday — the same day parliament was expected to reconvene.

“We have asked the president to immediately call parliament and end this crisis,” TNA legislator Dharmalingam Sithadthan told AFP. 

Wickremesinghe’s party risks losing legislators to Rajapaksa’s camp as the days drag by. Some members of his party have already alleged they were offered portfolios and huge amounts of money to switch allegiances.

Six MPs have already switched sides and been granted portfolios under Rajapaksa’s new administration.

The Sunday Times of Colombo newspaper described the sacking of the prime minister as “sheer political expediency” and outside the law.

The state-run Sunday Observer, now controlled by Rajapaksa-loyalists, defended the change of government but acknowledged the crisis should be resolved.

According to latest counts, Wickremesinghe has 103 MPs from the 225-seat assembly while Rajapakse and Sirisena have 101.
Most of the remaining 21 MPs — including the TNA — are set to oppose Rajapaksa, observers said.

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) party, which has seven lawmakers, said its members had also rejected offers to join the Sirisena-Rajapaksa camp. — AFP