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• A ‘Rich Beautiful Life’ but a blanket hush on how to raise the nation’s income: Economist Harsha thrashes JVP plan to change IMF’s Debt Sustainability Analysis

Behold and lo! Soon under a Marxist JVP government all Lankans will live in a rich beautiful utopian paradise where milk and honey trickles nonstop from the cornucopian horn of plenty, and where money grows abundant on Kapruk trees.

In their manifesto unveiled on Monday, titled, ‘A Rich Beautiful Life’, the JVP promises the sun when it’s out at night, the moon when it’s out of sight and promises the stars in clear blue skies. In short, a pampered life ideal for a tribe of lotus eating islanders, where under a benevolent JVP sun, they can suck the grapes of every want and desire.

For starters, since the defence of the realm is paramount, a ban will be placed on the use of Lanka’s ground, sea and air space to prevent any world power threatening the peace of the region from infringing our territorial borders. Perhaps, the Tri-forces will be armed with a quiver full of arrows to resist any violation, presumably, after a warning shot had first been fired.

Then to the mother of laws under which the country will be governed. The present constitution will be dumped into history’s trash bin and, in its stead, a new JVP constitution will be brought. The existing presidential system will be abolished and a Westminster style of Government, which existed when Ceylon was a Dominion State under the British Crown, will be re-introduced. What a giant leap, what a radical idea for a revolutionary party that follows Lenin who overthrew the Russian Tzar.

But there’s a catch. Out of the sketchy details, so far revealed to public scrutiny, a ‘Right of Recall’ clause will be contained in the JVP Constitution. A faceless committee of ‘Political Commissairs’ appointed by the party hierarchy will decide to remove the Prime Minister if he outsteps the bounds of office. Only a maximum of 25 cabinet and deputy ministers can be appointed. State ministerial portfolios will be scrapped. But with a ‘right to recall’ five-member committee in each ministerial office, it will more than recompense the loss of privileged office to JVP’s backbench MPs.

The JVP has long claimed, all its lasting solutions to every problem that besets the country, be it in the field of the economy, health, education, unemployment, law and order or any other field, can only be meaningfully implemented under a JVP political system. A far cry from the Westminster style of government, which the JVP has now embraced as the style that befits them best. Nothing new nor radical in that since many—including the SJB—had said it before them.

But the success of Britain’s unwritten constitution lies rooted in the traditional spirit in which it is observed. If the spirit is weak though the flesh be willing, no amount of unambiguous words and unequivocal articles, clearly spelt out in a constitution can make it truly work. Britain’s unwritten constitution has evolved organically for 800 years since the Magna Carta was signed in 1215.

But no matter. It’s assuring that a ‘first past the post’ Westminster style of Parliament is even envisaged than to fretfully find no Parliament at all in the landscape.

Even their much flaunted 400 files of corruption against politicians that JVP member Wasantha Samarasinghe carries about with him, can, as Anura Kumara has recently said, only be used under their own government and not in the existing system of justice.

And pray, what’s that? Is it the faith he expressed in a speech on August 22 in Village Sabhas when he said, “After we win the election, the peace of the village will be protected by the Village Sabhas of the area?”

JANATHA VIMUKTHI PERAMUNA LEADER: Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s saccharine-coated manifesto is everyone’s darling

Doesn’t this echo and confirm what senior top JVP politburo member Lalkantha said in his May Day speech that, when the JVP comes to power, “We will empower each Village Sabha with judicial authority to summarily hear cases and mete out immediate punishment to the guilty.” Much like the kangaroo courts the JVP had during its terror reign in the in the latter Eighties. But, funnily enough, the JVP manifesto of August 26 does not mention one word of it.

Perhaps, Anura Kumara should answer allegations of corruption filed at the Bribery and Corruption office against him on Tuesday by a civil activist group, Civil Citizen Struggle Movement. Its leader Darshana Thanthrige alleged: “According to the due procedure, if an MP is to be given a house from the Madiwela Housing Scheme, he or she should not have a residential property within 25 miles of the Parliament. But Anura Kumara, in his Assets Declaration form, written under his own hand, has declared, he lives at Wavehena Road, Kadawata, Kirillawala, which is within the eligible 25 miles or 40 kilometers. JVP’s Anura Kumara has fraudulently used an official house from Parliament causing financial loss to the government.”

Furthermore, filing another complaint at the CID against Anura Kumara, Thanthrige claimed: “JVP leader Anura has misused state property for 17 years since 2007 and should be immediately arrested and charged under the Public Property Act.” Thanthrige also alleged that “JVP presidential candidate Anura had allowed a person named Chandrasekeran to live on that state property as said by another senior JVP member Lalkantha.” Thanthrige alleged, “he is the one who provided us with the evidence.”

Only this Tuesday, long-serving parliamentarian Fowzie was sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs. 400,000 for misusing a state vehicle since 2007. Passing sentence the High Court Judge observed that, since Fowzie had pleaded guilty and considering his age of 86, he will suspend the sentence for 10 years.

What grief comes to those who when given state power misuse state property? As Abraham Lincoln said, in a quote widely attributed to him: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

Wise words we all must remember well when we hear men who have never held public office, claim, “we are incorruptible.” Without the opportunity arising, temptation will lie dormant, behind a mask of seeming honesty, until the opportunity is ripe.

With the JVP’s manifesto euphemistically titled, ‘A Rich Beautiful Life,’ what will the people of Lanka be waking to in a JVP dawn? As the illustration in their abridged English manifesto graphically describes, a farmer will wake to ‘a well-watered farmland and an abundant harvest’, a fisherman will wake to ‘a life where he cherishes the ocean,’ a teacher to ‘a successful education where students and teachers experience satisfaction’, a mother to ‘a country where my child can breathe freely and live confidently’, the youth will wake to ‘a country where they feel satisfied’, to ‘a world that embraces fun,’ and to a coconut scrapping housewife to ‘a day that opens the door to new horizons beyond the kitchen’; and so forth in full gush, in a desperate bid to satisfy all the aspirations of those from every walk. No wonder it’s everybody’s darling. But soon, when all the euphoria has died down, it might end up as nobody’s baby.

But where, for god’s sake, where will the JVP find the money to afford this utopian pipe dream in paradise? It’s a constant refrain from Anura’s hymn book sung at rallies that, “I will make the dreams of youth come true.” The JVP manifesto declares that a new development bank will be set up to grant a 10 million buck loan to every entrepreneurial hopeful without collateral and without any reference to his financial history. Wow. What a fun way for thousands of wannabe entrepreneurs to suddenly sprout and claim the 10 million buck free give-away.

The JVP says they will collect this money from rogues who have plundered this country to the bone. But can a country’s future be built on corruption spoils?

The JVP’s future Finance Minister Sunil Handunnetti recently said he will acquire all fixed deposits and set up a bank where all the corrupt can hand over their black money and escape punishment. Are these the new models of tax collection? For a nation to live on laundered black money?

And how will they scale the unscalable mountain of foreign debt? The JVP in its manifesto states, they will stay with the IMF Agreement. But they demand the IMF to change its ‘Debt Sustainability Analysis’—the DSA—which forms the bedrock of the entire IMF programme. The JVP insists that its alternative. ‘Debt Sustainability Analysis’ be accepted by the IMF authorities. In a manifesto that’s more than 200-odd pages long, this quintessential demand, on which ‘a rich beautiful life’ hinges, occupies only a para.

SJB economic expert Dr. Harsha de Silva thrashed the JVP plan to change the DSA. “Make no mistake,” he warned on August 27, “this cannot be done. The IMF’s DSA is the very foundation on which the programme rests. It cannot be altered in the slightest. We have been given certain DSA parameters. These are, by the year 2031, relative to our GDP we must have reduced our debt to 95 percent. Then there is the Gross Financial Need for which the amount of debt that can be obtained must be 13 percent of the GDP of which only 4.5 percent can be taken in foreign loans.”

Harsha explained: “We have to restructure our debt according to those parameters. To do this, we must keep a 2.3 percent surplus in the budget’s balance. It’s on these assumptions that the DSA is calculated. And it’s on this DSA that the entire programme is based. Any attempt to meddle with this will mean the whole programme will collapse. It’ll be kaput. Curtains. We cannot change the foundation. What we, in the SJB, are attempting is to change the sizes of the rooms to make the programme more habitable.”

If the JVP has a home-grown solution hidden in its backyard as former Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal had tucked up his sleeve, they have not revealed it to the public. The JVP manifesto observes an uneasy silence on it.

What is eerier about the JVP manifesto are the chilling things left unsaid, much more than the saccharine-coated things euphemistically described and paraded before the public eye.

As Roman port Virgil wrote, “I fear the Greeks even when bearing gifts.” Better look at this gift horse’s mouth very, very thoroughly.

Dr. Rajitha appeals to Lankan expats who’ll be coming to vote: ‘Stay out’ Dr. Rajitha Seneratne who recently crossed from Sajith’s SJB to Ranil’s camp made a special appeal to hundreds of Lankan expats abroad who have said, in a surfeit of patriotic zeal, a thousand fold more than any local can boast, they intend to come home in plane loads merely to vote for JVP’s Anura Kumara and return to their foreign abodes as soon as possible. DR. RAJITHA: ‘We can manage’ Well, to these lion flag-draped—or is it the now abandoned Marxist hammer and sickle flag?—expats who eagerly left their motherland shores to live and work in affluent Western countries, Dr. Rajitha had a special warning message. He said: “Now that the election is near at hand, our imported gentlemen may come to give their verdicts and to preach and advise us on for whom we should vote. They will themselves vote and fly back. To those brothers I say don’t come in droves to Katunayake airport, saying, like you said the last time, ‘we bought our own plane tickets spending our own money to vote for Gotabaya.’ Look at the mess you left behind last time you came, leaving us with empty gas cylinders and endless queues.” Rajitha continued: “Now you say, you’re coming to vote for comrade Anura, saying whatever happens the country must be there. Again, like the last time, you will give us the works and leave. Then we can suffer, and you can drink and dine in those Western capitals. You’ll will return to your homes abroad and watch the news at night on television, while gulping down a good whisky, saying, ‘hell of a thing happened, no, and eat your dinner and go to bed for a good night’s sleep.’ “I’ll tell you, why don’t you stay and reside here? Then after making your Anura win, you, too, can face the unfolding tragic consequences with us. You, too, can stand with us in the endless long queues. Don’t fly away, okay. Only those prepared to stay here should come and vote. Those unwilling to remain here, please stay there. Somehow, we will bear the hardships and find a way to develop this land. We didn’t go, no? We suffered all untold pains and remained to make this country work. We’ll manage without your help. Thank you very much.” Rajitha couldn’t have put it better what most Lankans living here feel about a condescending flock of bleeding hearts descending en masse to ruin our painstakingly harvested crop, and then to fly away. As mama used to say, “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.”