• RW-Modi meet tentatively fixed for 21 July in New Delhi; other meets also fixed
• China’s invitation to RW for BRI Conference this October pushes India to plan visit
• Chinese Ambassador organises reception to thank Sri Lankan rescue mission, Govt.
• RW finally intervenes to resolve standoff between SJB and SLPP over COPF Chairman
• COPF Chair asked to be mindful of IMF recommendations for EFF, related legislation
• Sajith surprises COPF members by walking into Harsha’s meeting to congratulate him
• TNA politburo meets on Monday, meets Prez on Tuesday; RW seeks time till 30 July
• Talk of a new political alliance making rounds; RW invited SJB for alliance, says Tissa
• RW wants another meet with SLPP parliamentary group, calls to inform party leaders
• SLFP MPs meet RW to discuss current situation, ask Prez to acknowledge SLFP as ally
• In bid to resolve internal crisis, SLFP decides to annul suspension of party MPs in Govt.

The Ranil Wickremesinghe Government’s game of political hardball continues while President Wickremesinghe is focused mostly on manoeuvring Sri Lanka’s repositioning on the regional geopolitical map.

One of the key achievements for Wickremesinghe was the green light last week on his long-overdue visit to India, which is now scheduled to take place next month. The Indian visit will now happen far ahead of the President’s impending visit to China towards the latter part of the year.

A recent statement by Wickremesinghe that Sri Lanka would choose to stand by the Asian region instead of any other country in the West came as a surprise to many. The move by the President to also look at revamping the country’s foreign policy with more prominence being given to the Asian and African regions with the aim of developing new and strong strategic partnerships undoubtedly caught the attention of many countries traditionally believed to have wielded much influence over Sri Lanka’s functions.

It is in such a backdrop that India finally decided to move ahead with the planning work for Wickremesinghe’s visit to the country.

Also, the invitation extended to President Wickremesinghe to visit China for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Conference in October this year by Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Sun Weidong during his recent visit to Sri Lanka gave a much-needed nudge to India to get activated and ensure that the Sri Lankan President visited India ahead of China.

According to highly-placed Government sources, President Wickremesinghe is expected to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 21 July in New Delhi. The President is to also meet with senior Indian Government ministers during his Indian tour.

Although an invitation for Wickremesinghe to visit India was extended during Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s visit to Sri Lanka this year, dates for the visit were delayed due to difficulties in securing an appointment with the Indian Premier.

However, it is learnt that the President’s official visit to India had to be put on hold until the Sri Lankan Government made some form of headway when it came to projects of Indian interest as well as certain issues like those India has intervened in addressing, such as issues and concerns of the Tamil community in the country.

Until now, it has been usual practice for most Sri Lankan presidents to make their first official visits to neighbouring India and to meet with the Indian heads of State. Nevertheless, this time around, Wickremesinghe had to first wait for an invitation from the Indian Government for an official visit to India and then had to work on attending to Indian requests.

It is learnt that several Indian projects in Sri Lanka are likely to be finalised during the President’s Indian tour while progress made in addressing the longstanding grievances of the Tamil community is also expected to be discussed during this visit. Wickremesinghe has already taken steps to address the land grab issue in the Northern Province and has also called for quick action in releasing Tamil prisoners held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

Refocus on SL

Wickremesinghe’s visit to Japan last month and the agreements reached on resuming key projects including the controversial Light Rail Transit (LRT) project following the conclusion of the debt restructuring plan this September had also pushed China and India to refocus on Sri Lanka.

It is reliably learnt that Weidong’s meeting with President Wickremesinghe had resulted in some questions being raised among members of the diplomatic community as to why the President had met with a Vice Minister. However, the President’s response has been that it was his prerogative to decide on meetings granted to foreign dignitaries.

It is therefore evident that Wickremesinghe’s focus on strengthening ties in Asia and the invitation to visit China have had an impact on many countries. However, the Sri Lankan Government continues to work towards finalising the country’s debt restructuring programme.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Deputy Managing Director Kenji Okamura during his recent visit to Sri Lanka and US Department of the Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for Asia Robert Kaproth during his visit to Sri Lanka on Monday (5) and Tuesday (6), while commending the Sri Lankan Government on its reforms agenda, had also emphasised the need to move ahead with the supplementary legislation. They had also expressed support for Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring programme.

However, Sri Lanka’s creditors as well as multilateral agencies, it is learnt, while expressing support for the country’s economic revival programme, have expressed doubts over China’s possible response to it.

A senior Government member noted that China had not yet made any clear commitments on debt restructuring and that other creditors were also awaiting China’s response. 

Chinese thank Lanka

Chinese Ambassador Qi Zhenhong on Tuesday (6) hosted a reception at the Shangri-La Hotel Colombo to express China’s gratitude to Sri Lanka for the Lu Peng Yuan Yu 028 rescue mission.

“On behalf of the Chinese side, I wish to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to President Ranil Wickremesinghe for his decisive and timely decision to provide full assistance; our sincere gratitude to Honourable Sagala Ratnayaka for the great coordination that brought valuable rescue time. I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the Ministry of Defence of Sri Lanka, the tri-forces, and all the officers and sailors of Sri Lanka Navy ship Vijayabahu P627 for immediately responding to the order and coming to their aid despite the long distance,” Ambassador Zhenhong said.

LKR performance

Amidst the latest development on the geopolitical sphere, the Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR) has become the best-performing currency among emerging markets in the first five months of 2023 with spot returns of 26.25% as the US Dollar (USD) fell below Rs. 300 for the first time since April 2022, according to Bloomberg data.

According to Bloomberg, the Sri Lankan Rupee was on top of the emerging market currency performances between January to May 2023 with spot returns of 26% while Colombia and Mexico were in second and third places with 12% and 11% respectively as the LKR appreciated by 10.2% in May 2023.

Ironically, Sri Lanka was the worst-performing currency globally a year ago when the LKR was hovering near Rs. 300 per USD in the first week of April 2022, down by 32% Year-to-Date.

However, a report by Bloomberg at the end of May had predicted that the LKR, which climbed 1.4% to Rs. 289.91 per dollar on Wednesday, was forecast to decline to 350 by the end of December, according to Standard Chartered PLC and BMI. 

“Once imports normalise with the relaxation of restrictions and demand picks up, we expect the rupee to depreciate,” First Capital Holdings PLC Chief Research and Strategy Officer Dimantha Mathew had told Bloomberg. “The rupee will be highly volatile as the economy picks up toward the second half of the year,” he had added.

Also, BMI Singapore Head of Asia Country Risk Raphael Mok had told Bloomberg that upcoming external debt repayments which could start around the fourth quarter, alongside the need to build up reserves, would exert downside pressure on the LKR once again in the coming months. 

However, the Opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) last week stated that despite the USD showing a decline against the LKR, people were still starving in most parts of the country.

JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva had noted that commodity prices had not been as high as at present even when the USD was Rs. 400. He had further stated that the Government was trying to balance its accounts by increasing taxes and heaping more burdens on the people.

According to the JVPer, people had sold most of their belongings over the past year to survive and were now left with nothing.

TNA’s ultimatum

President Wickremesinghe meanwhile is focused on resolving the longstanding issues raised by the Tamil community, especially in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politburo that met at its Leader MP R. Sampanthan’s residence on Monday (5) had decided to meet and discuss with the President the need for solid action on the commitments undertaken by him nearly one year ago after he assumed the office of President.

The TNA MPs had noted that President Wickremesinghe had first said that the issues of northern land grab, Tamil political prisoners, missing persons, and a permanent solution to the national question would be resolved by this year’s Independence Day, but it had not happened.

Therefore, a majority of the MPs had said it was important to have a final discussion on the issues with the President, especially given his official visit to India next month.

Accordingly, Sampanthan had sought a meeting with the President and Wickremesinghe had given an appointment for Friday (9).

The TNA parliamentary group and Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) Leader Mavai Senathiraja had attended the meeting while Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Sabry, President’s Secretary Saman Ekanayake, the Prime Minister’s Secretary, and several Government officials had represented the Government side headed by the President.

The TNA MPs had pointed out the undertakings of the President and the delay in implementing them. Wickremesinghe, while explaining that action to address the issues of the Tamil community had been put in place, had requested until 30 July this year to resolve the issues. 

The TNA members had agreed and said that 30 July would be the last date they would give for the Government to address the issues and concerns raised by them. The MPs had added that if the issues were not resolved by the given deadline, the TNA would have no choice but to take up the issue before the international community. They had noted that it would not be with a separatist agenda, but only in order to get solutions to longstanding issues.

Criticising RW meet

Meanwhile, Opposition and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Leader Sajith Premadasa last week raised concerns over President Wickremesinghe’s move to host a banquet for several justices of both the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

Speaking in Parliament, Premadasa revealed that information had come to light that the President had hosted a banquet in Nuwara Eliya recently for the justices. “During a juncture where several sensitive court matters are to be decided, I’m of the opinion that the President should have refrained from hosting such a banquet,” the Opposition Leader said.

Stating that it has been proven that the Government did not lack funds to hold elections, MP Premadasa urged the authorities to conduct either the Local Government Polls or the Presidential Elections.

The MP added that the Opposition was ready to support amendments to hold the Presidential Election earlier than originally scheduled.

RW’s intervention

However, the President had to last week intervene to finally resolve the longstanding dispute between the main Opposition SJB and the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) over the chairmanship of the Committee on Public Finance (COPF).

The appointment of a permanent chair to COPF was filled with drama as the ruling party first backed the appointment of SJB MP Mayantha Dissanayake to the post, resulting in chaos within the SJB, which finally saw Dissanayake resigning from the post. Since then, COPF functioned under temporary chairpersons appointed by a majority vote during each of its sessions.

SJB MPs Kabir Hashim and Dr. Harsha de Silva had then met with President Wickremesinghe last month to resolve the confusion. The meeting had taken place with the concurrence of SJB and Opposition Leader Premadasa. Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and Chief Government Whip Prasanna Ranatunga had also attended this meeting.

Wickremesinghe had then pointed out the importance of COPF given that legislations recommended by the IMF needed to be taken forward without any hindrance since it had received parliamentary approval. Both Hashim and de Silva had said the SJB would be objective in its work and would engage in constructive criticism and not act to block the IMF programme.

While the President had agreed to de Silva’s appointment as COPF Chair at the meeting, Hashim had conveyed the message to Premadasa as well. However, it was vetoed later by the Premier and Ranatunga. In fact, Ranatunga had maintained that the President was just one individual representing a different political party and not the ruling party. This fact was reiterated by Ranatunga in the Chamber when Premdasa had questioned why the SLPP had reneged on the President’s agreement.

The Opposition had also raised the issues faced by good governance and democracy during meetings with US Department of the Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for Asia Robert Kaproth who was in Sri Lanka on Monday (5) and Tuesday (6) as well as with IMF Deputy Managing Director Kenji Okamura during his recent visit to Sri Lanka. Interestingly, these meetings were not only attended by Premadasa and representatives of the SJB, but also leaders of the joint Opposition coalition.

Given the growing pressure over the appointment of a chair for COPF, President Wickremesinghe had informed the members of COPF on Tuesday (6) that he would be meeting with them the following day (7). All COPF members were asked to attend the meeting under the President’s patronage.

The meeting chaired by the President got underway at Committee Room No.1 in Parliament on Wednesday. It was the first time a President had chaired a COPF meeting. 

Speaking at the outset of the meeting, the President had stated that the first business for the day was to appoint a chairman to the committee and that he proposed de Silva’s name to the position. Afterwards, the President had called on all COPF members to work together for the betterment of the country.

Meanwhile, following de Silva’s appointment as COPF Chair, Wickremesinghe had urged the COPF Chairman to work in accordance with the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreement since it had been adopted by Parliament.

Following the President’s statement, SLPP MP Madhura Withanage had addressed the gathering and said that de Silva, after assuming the post of COPF Chair, should not make unilateral decisions and that work as the committee head should not be done while making Twitter posts. He had added that the COPF should not be handled according to the agendas of the business community.

De Silva had then addressed the gathering and had thanked all those who had placed their trust in him by appointing him to the position.

After the meeting had concluded, COPF members Johnston Fernando, Madhura Withanage, and Shehan Semasinghe had made their way to congratulate de Silva on being re-appointed to the post. They had also joked by making statements like: “Only now can we see a smile on Harsha’s face.” De Silva had laughed saying there was no such issue.

President Wickremesinghe after witnessing the friendly banter had said: “Now you will have to work together with all of them without any issues.”

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Premadasa, while accepting de Silva’s appointment as the COPF Chair, last week claimed that the procedure followed when making the said appointment was not in keeping with the Standing Orders of the Parliament.

Premadasa in a statement to Parliament had criticised the manner in which the proceedings of the COPF had been carried out during the past months.

“We welcome the appointment of Dr. de Silva while noting that he has been appointed by violating the Standing Orders as President Ranil Wickremesinghe had to come to the Parliament and intervene in the matter personally. This day can be considered as a landmark where the Parliament lost its independence,” he had stated.

Sajith attends COPF

On Thursday (8), de Silva convened his first COPF meeting as the Chairman in parliamentary Committee Room No.1.

Surprisingly, SJB and Opposition Leader Premadasa had reportedly walked into the meeting room. Everyone gathered in the room had looked surprised to see Premadasa walking in. It seemed like most of them had thought that after the President had chaired the meetings the previous day, Premadasa might be looking at chairing the meeting that day.

However, Premadasa had walked up to de Silva and congratulated him on the appointment as COPF Chair. On his way out, Premadasa had joked with the rest of the COPF members, asking them not to worry since he had no intention of chairing the COPF.

EC objections

Amidst the developments in Parliament, the Election Commission (EC) has raised objections to the Government’s move to appoint a representative of the Divisional Development Committee (DDC) chair to oversee the functions of the now-dissolved Local Government bodies.

The commission had pointed out that the operations of the Local Government bodies would be politicised since the DDC chair was a political representative. Therefore, it has been noted that candidates representing other political parties at the next Local Government Elections would face an unfair situation.

The Election Commission had also stated that it would inform its disagreement to the Government’s plan in writing to the Local Government Ministry.

According to the commission, coordination work at the Local Government bodies including getting various required information from the bodies could be carried out by the commissioners of the Local Government bodies or even the respective divisional secretary. Therefore, there is no necessity to appoint another official for the purpose, according to the Election Commission.

The main Opposition SJB has already handed a petition to the Supreme Court challenging the Government’s decision to appoint a representative of the DDC chair to the Local Government bodies.

RW’s invite

Meanwhile, talk of impending elections has once again resulted in political parties manoeuvring to form alliances.

It is in such a background that SJB National Organiser Tissa Attanayake has told the media that President Wickremesinghe had called the SJB to join the Government. However, he had noted that the SJB had told the President to first hold a General Election.

“We have told the President that a General Election should be held first to find out the opinion of the people. We have told him that we will consider supporting him depending on the fresh mandate of the people,” Attanayake told a media briefing.

“The President told us to work with him collectively, but the main issue is that he is allied with the wrong people. He is with the SLPP, which is responsible for the current economic crisis. This is the main reason which is stopping us from working with the President,” he had further stated.

Attanayake had also taken a swipe at the President’s recent speech at the Law Conference, which the SJB Leader had already criticised in Parliament, saying: “At the same time, we do not welcome the recent comments made by the President at the Law Conference. He has said people are tired of elections and no party will secure 50% of the votes in future elections. We feel that the President is trying to imply that the election map of the country will be folded temporarily and no elections will be held in the near future. The right thing which the President could do is to hold a referendum and seek the people’s consent to temporarily postpone elections. However, we request the President to hold any election, be it Presidential, General, Provincial Council, or even Local Government without further postponements.”

New alliance

Apart from the main political parties, several dissident parliamentarians in the parliamentary Opposition including some members of the main Opposition SJB are reportedly looking at forming a political alliance.

According to reports, MPs Kumara Welgama, Dr. Rajitha Senaratne, Patali Champika Ranawaka, and SLPP dissidents are currently holding talks on a possible union among them.

Some Opposition politicians engaged in the discussion to form an alliance had stated they were looking at forming an electoral alliance targeting the impending elections.

It is also learnt that Prime Minister Gunawardena, United National Party (UNP) MP Vajira Abeywardena, and President’s Chief of Staff Sagala Ratnayaka had also engaged in a discussion to look at forming a political alliance.

The ruling SLPP, it is learnt, is also looking at forming a committee to initiate a discussion with all the SLPP’s affiliated parties to reform the SLPP-led alliance.

Another SLPP meet

Meanwhile, President Wickremesinghe is looking at organising another meeting with the ruling SLPP this week.

It is learnt that a meeting of the SLPP parliamentary group headed by Wickremesinghe is to be held on Monday (12). It is believed that this meeting would focus on the holding of a national-level election.

A senior official at the Presidential Secretariat had reportedly contacted SLPP MP Namal Rajapaksa to get the party parliamentarians to attend the meeting. However, Namal had explained that while the President could convene a meeting of the SLPP ministers or state ministers, he would have to forward a request to the party if he intended to convene a meeting with the SLPP parliamentary group.

Namal had further noted that the SLPP was a political alliance and that the party leadership had to be informed first if the President intended to hold a meeting.

It is also learnt that SLPP General Secretary MP Sagara Kariyawasam had then been informed of the President’s need to address the party’s parliamentary group.

During a recent meeting between Wickremesinghe, the SLPP parliamentary group, and the party’s district leaders, Kariyawasam had been critical of the manner in which the meeting had been organised.

A large number of senior SLPPers are currently disgruntled with the President over the delay in appointing them to the Cabinet.

Meanwhile, SLPP MP and State Minister Geetha Kumarasinghe last week criticised the allegations levelled by certain senior members of the ruling SLPP that they have not been given proper places in the current Government.

She had made this statement in response to a question posed by the media about the allegations made by some SLPPers that they have not been treated in line with their seniority in the party as well as their performance at the last General Election.

Kumarasinghe had said that the SLPP also did not consider seniority in certain cases. “Did the SLPP work with respect to seniority? Sometimes it did not consider seniority. I was one of those who were not given due consideration. There was a time when 50 parliamentarians other than me were given ministerial positions. What goes around comes around.”

SLFPers meet RW

Parliamentarians of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) supporting the Government had last week met with President Wickremesinghe to discuss the current economic and political situation in the country. The President had also asked his Secretary Saman Ekanayake to attend this meeting.

During the discussion, the SLFP MPs had proposed that the President publicly acknowledge that the SLFP was an ally of the Government since a majority of the party was openly supportive of the Government. Otherwise, they had noted that there was confusion among members of the Government and public officials as well as SLFP members.

A senior SLFP MP had explained to Wickremesinghe that while they (a group of nine SLFP MPs) openly supported the Government in Parliament, the Government officials, including officials of the Presidential Secretariat, were unaware of this fact. This, the MP had noted, had made it difficult for SLFP MPs to get certain work done from State institutions.

However, Wickremesinghe had listened and said that he would see when it would be appropriate to make such a public statement and how it should be done.

When the issue of new appointments to the Cabinet had been taken up by several SLFP MPs, the President had refrained from making any comment, but smiled and nodded.

SLFP’s decision

Meanwhile, the SLFP Central Committee has last week decided to annul the letters issued to the party’s MPs who have joined the Government suspending their party memberships, SLFP General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara had said.

The relevant letters were issued several months ago under the name of SLFP Leader Maithripala Sirisena.

According to Jayasekara, the suspension letters had been annulled following a court directive on a case filed by senior SLFPer, Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva. De Silva had challenged the amendments to the party Constitution, Jayasekara had told the media, adding however that the charges over their having joined the Government would stand.

Focus on legislation

The Government however is also focused on moving ahead with the introduction of legislation required as part of the political and economic reforms programme.

Sri Lanka’s next country assessment on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism will commence soon, President Wickremesinghe had said recently, noting that it held immense significance as it directly impacted the country’s Ease of Doing Business (EDB) rating and its ability to attract foreign investments.

Addressing the National Law Conference on 3 June, Wickremesinghe had said that Sri Lanka had been informed about the impending country assessment on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism.

This assessment holds significant weight as Sri Lanka’s compliance in these areas is crucial for enhancing the EDB rating and attracting foreign investments.

Wickremesinghe had noted that recognising the urgency, it was imperative for Sri Lanka to prioritise bridging these gaps and that it would also support the governance and anti-corruption framework, ensuring the successful implementation of the IMF programme.

Meanwhile, State Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya has stated that all politicians would be required to register for income tax under new regulations.

“The new regulation will especially be applicable to politicians,” Siyambalapitiya had noted, referring to the gazette issued on 31 May 2023 under the income tax law, where a number of professionals including doctors, accountants, bankers, architects, and lawyers of the Supreme Court have to be registered with the Inland Revenue Department by 1 June.

“Only parliamentarians are presently functioning as the representatives of the public. Therefore, we have opened income tax files for all 225 parliamentarians,” Siyambalapitiya had added.