19 March, 2024

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Failing Banks, French Turmoil & Sri Lanka’s Contraction & Confusion 

By Rajan Philips

Rajan Philips

Last Wednesday, March 15, the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) revealed a whopping 7.8% contraction of the economy in 2022, the fourth quarter being the villain with 12.4% negative growth. Everything now is the worst ever. But there is no contraction, whatsoever, in the political confusion that is twisting the country’s parliament in knots. In global economic news, the dramatic collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in California last week, followed by New York’s Signature Bank, and Credit Suisse’s public woes on Wednesday, in Zurich – all in a span of five days, have raised alarms about a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis. In France, the Macron government is executively pushing through pension reforms without a parliamentary vote and risking an even more heightened confrontation with protesters who are already out on the streets in their millions, from Marseille to Paris. 

There is no connection between the bank failures, French protests and Sri Lanka’s contractions and confusions, but by juxtaposing parallel developments one might luck out in getting better insights than by navel gazing into homegrown sovereignty. The troubles facing the two American banks and the premier Swiss bank have been primarily attributed to their idiosyncratic circumstances. Poor risk management is suggested in the case of the Silicon Valley Bank, which although only 40 years old is the 16th largest American bank and the financial mainstay of the technology sector. It has also been compliant with regulations and did nothing improper. The 167 year old Credit Suisse, on the other hand, has long been beset by scandals, losses and plummeting shares. 

Whatever is necessary

At the same time, amidst growing market and investor fears, the three banks in trouble are being seen as the first casualties of the aggressive interventions by central banks to raise interest rates and tighten monetary policy to end what is being called “the era of easy money.” The era of easy money began after the inflation crisis of the 1970s and the downward trend in interest rates that followed. Easy money flow became a flood after the 2008 financial crisis and more recently the pandemic, which triggered near-zero interest rates and stimulus funding as necessary responses to avert economic depression. 

The not wholly unintended consequence has been the steep rise in national and global debt levels. To put it in perspective, the global debt level rose by 30% in five years to a staggering $300-trillion in 2021, which is 350% of the annual global GDP of $85-trillion. The combination of debt and rate hikes in the new fight against inflation has made the financial system, if not the real economy, vulnerable to failures. The Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) which had created an unusual mix of a high proportion of bond assets and large volumes of variable-rate deposits became a direct casualty of rising interest rates. 

Although it is the failure of only one bank, real people were affected as technology firms lost their deposits, even if temporarily, and could not make payroll leaving thousands of employees in the lurch. But this is America, where during a government shutdown standoff under former President Trump that would have left the US government unable to pay its employees, Trump’s Commerce Secretary and business tycoon, Wilbur Ross, infamously asked, “why do people need salaries?” May be, no longer.     

While asserting that the troubled banks were not a source of contagion to the financial system as whole, the Federal Reserve and other regulators in the US, and the Central Bank in Switzerland, have decisively stepped in to provide liquidity to stop panic bank runs escalating the crisis. President Biden has vowed to do “whatever is  necessary” to protect the American financial system, seemingly echoing an identical pledge in 2012, by then European Central Bank President Mario Draghi to protect the euro from collapse. 

Whatever he wants

Turning to Sri Lanka, I do not recall any pledge by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to do whatever is necessary to rescue Sri Lanka’s economy. Only thing anyone can recall is his assertion that there is no economy to rescue or reform. The other thing everyone can now realize is that rather than doing whatever is necessary, President Wickremesinghe is bent on doing whatever he wants. He has raised the issue of LG elections to a new level of presidential intransigence. He is directing the executive branch to stop funding the Election Commission to conduct the local elections. He is putting the legislature and the judiciary on a needless collision course over whose responsibility it is to manage state funds. He is daring protesters and strikers to try what they did with Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in order to teach them a lesson. 

Not unlike the lesson that his mentor-uncle made clear after a shooting incident involving security forces and protesters in January 1966. Raising the matter in parliament, Dr. NM Perera asked rhetorically, whether the government thought it had the army to shoot people. Pat he got the answer from the then Minister of State, JR Jayewardene, “what else, for fishing?” More than a decade later as Executive President, Mr. Jayewardene was known to muse that he was glad that he got power late in life as he was not as ruthless as he was when he was young. It may be that President Wickremesinghe is learning to be ruthless in his old age. But to what end? 

And the opposition parties are either nowhere where they need to be, or all over the place where there is no need for them. The President’s cheap maneuvering over LG elections is abominable, but he is using the election as a bone to keep the opposition distracted while he goes about doing whatever he wants. The real question is what is the President going to do about the contracting economy? The 2022 contraction is not easy to overcome, and the ongoing political circus involving the President, his nondescript government and the unfocussed opposition is not making economic recovery any easier.

If the President is going to insist on doing and continues to do what he wants, he is not going to achieve the critical level of consensus that is needed for anything that he undertakes to succeed. Aside from the LG elections the proposed tax changes have become a major flashpoint. The current standoff could have been avoided through prior consultations and the proposed measures need not have been presented as a take-it-or-leave-it fait accompli. The threatened strike action has not been a convincing success but it would be a mistake for the government to conclude that it has succeeded in stopping it. Friday’s announcement that the organizations opposing the tax changes are going to meet with the Secretary to the President and eventually with the President himself, is a positive sign, but such meetings could and should have occurred before, and not after, the tax proposals were finalized.         

Protest Politics

In a vastly different situation, French President Emmanuel Macron with his executive fiat to raise the legal age of retirement from 62 to 64, is taking on some of the sacred cows of French society – the deeply ingrained commitment to equality and social solidarity, and the equally well grounded resistance to unbridled capitalism and suspicion of profit motives. Quite a far cry from the conventional American ethos which celebrates greed and profit so much so that someone like Trump was cunning enough to exploit it to win the presidency. Sri Lanka is neither here nor there but it doesn’t have to be either/or. It can remain small and in the middle, even if not beautiful always. The French resistance to having to work two years longer to get their pension is not the same as the opposition to taxation in Sri Lanka. There cannot be social security without progressive taxation, but it is not easy to change a system of low taxes or no taxes that people have got accustomed to without provoking a backlash. 

President Macron has gone to unprecedented lengths to achieve his retirement age goal. Having secured the passage of the pension bill in the inherently conservative Senate, the Macron government on Thursday invoked the ‘nuclear option,’ Article 49.3 of the constitution, and adopted the pension reform by executive decree without a vote in the legislature, where the government does not have a majority. In the peculiarly French way, the same article allows the opposition to automatically bring in a motion of no confidence against the government. 

Such a motion may likely succeed as President Macron currently heads a minority government having lost his legislative majority in the parliamentary election last June. Out on the streets, turmoil continues as France faces political uncertainty and not without revolutionary nostalgia. It has been said that President Macron is risking his political future by going ahead with his plan to raise the legal age of retirement. “You have to take your risks,” is his mantra. At 45 years of age, nearly 20 years to retirement in any job, Mr. Macron has indeed taken a huge risk. President Wickremesinghe, on the other hand, is 74 and does not have too much of a political future left to risk. But he seems prepared to risk the country’s future to get one elected term as President.  

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Latest comments

  • 9
    14

    The author mentioned one bank failure, but it seems that by the time he finished writing another big bank had failed.
    European woes are worse.
    Any idea of what is to blame? Not many like to talk about the sanctions boomerang.
    We are living in interesting times I guess.

    • 5
      2

      SJ,
      What you have noted is reflected in a comment made by a reader to a piece written by Mohamed El-Erian (https://www.ft.com/content/7150ac69-248d-4920-aa7b-a24136ab7a28).
      I have reproduced it below.
      ‘Perhaps the elephants in the room – the War in Ukraine and US pivot against China should be addressed.
      For a very long time US and European inflation was kept low by Russian materials and energy and Chinese manufacturing.
      Unsolved and onshoring, inflation will stay high for the longer term or unemployment will have to rise significantly to kill demand.
      The war in Ukraine needs to be brought to a negotiated end. China is not the enemy.
      No acknowledgement of the elephants in the room shows the real intellectual vacuum in the west and in this column.’

      • 3
        0

        “Chinese manufacturing.”

        Offshoring manufacture of almost everything to cheap-labour China kept the inflation low for decades in most of the western-block nations. Upward mobility of the Chinese labour force and the resultant increase in the wages is causing inflation in China itself. The disruption of the supply-chain due to the pandemic ……. causes shortages and inflation in the West. Sanctions on Russian energy didn’t help either. It was a perfect storm.

        Unlike before, when interest rates were cut (to get out of trouble) inflation did not go up …… due to cheap imports from China, the inflation in the West hovered around 2 – 3 even if the interest rates were near zero. The West has had near-zero interest rates for almost 15 years.
        A whole generation has got used to near zero interest rates and million dollar (or several million) mortgages are the norm. Banks have got used to near zero interest rates and have no contingency/risk-management plans for higher interest rates.

        It’s a difficult situation to get out of ……… Japan has had near zero or negative interest rates since 1989 …… and they can’t increasing the rates without crashing most of their banks/banking-sector.

        This guy, a banking insider, gives a good analysis/insight ……. how herd-mentality and fear can cause a run on the banks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_SS7d2HdzA

      • 2
        3

        Sunil
        Thanks.
        The US views China as a threat to its global domination, having wrecked its own industrial base to rely on China for affordable goods as China grew into the centre of global production.
        Unlike Japan which buckled under US pressure in the 1980s, China stood up while building its defences to even overtake the US in some sectors.
        Obama tried his ‘Pivot on Asia” and failed. Trump targetted China ignoring Russia, which really was no threat in any way.
        Biden antagonized Russia for seemingly personal reasons. So he made two enemies in one stroke.
        The US is obsessed with the idea of a military victory after its humiliation in Afghanistan and failure in Syria.
        But the world has changed. It will soon be US and its few allies (Canada, EU and Australia) vs the rest of the world.
        Saw how the political weather has changed in Saudi Arabia?
        Saudi-Iran friendship will lead to destruction of the petrodollar unless the US acts more circumspectly.

      • 3
        1

        Guess, China and Lanka Banks are “too big to fail” and China / Russia are immune to Global financial recession. That is good news , so that Lanka can get uninterrupted loans in future.

        • 1
          2

          I wonder if there has been an excess of domestic back and knee bending exercises!

          • 3
            0

            That’s your speciality deadwood. Remember that is what you did for a living

  • 10
    1

    This may not be the right platform, but I’ll grab it.
    ‘In France, the Macron government is pushing through pension reforms without a parliamentary vote’.
    A bit of a taste of Sri Lanka, it sounds. Not at all. Macron is right. The protesters are not.
    Let me take just the item of increase in retirement age.
    France’s retirement age is 62, far lower than many of its neighbours. France wanted to raise it to 64. Should that be protested?
    In Spain it is 65. In the UK 66. In Germany and in Italy it is 67.

    • 4
      2

      Nathan…… difference is, Sri Lanka took the money of her Middle East workers and placed it on the Western Capitalistic monetary system, instead of developing our country for our people after all their hard work.

      • 0
        0

        Thank you, ramona.
        The retirement age is adjusted – increased – gradually based on factors such as health care needs and affordability, longevity of lifespan, and ratio of the young to the adults.

    • 4
      4

      “The average retirement age in the United States is 64.9 for men and 64.7 for women, though Americans can claim benefits at 62.”
      What the French workers want is what they have in the US.
      62 is fair retirement age for voluntary retirement.
      Those who want to toil longer may if they wish.

      • 2
        0

        How will a government employee from Lanka , will know the true meaning of retirement after years of service ??? Through out employment they act as though they are in semi retirement, getting perks which they do not deserve, make extra money in addition to salary, do not pay any taxes, mostly involved in kissing…. the higher ups for promotion, power, influence, looking for crumbs under table, showing off their newly found power / influence to under staff and desperate to get into who is who list.

        • 2
          0

          Haven’t we heard enough about government bureaucrats looting millions in removing a stone from a rural health clinic construction site.

        • 0
          0

          Oh dear, the ranting has to go on!

          • 0
            0

            As long your warped thinking continues. You said Daily Mirror was unreliable source but then quoted, Baddu Mohamed’s speech reproduced after editing in 2019. What I quoted is the original speech he gave in 1938. Difficult to believe isn’t it?? Venue may be wrong but there are still people living who attended that meeting.

  • 10
    7

    Is Ranil truly saving the country or saving himself from never being able to win an election and becoming President? Does he also save the notorious Rajapaksa family? Since Ranil became the President of the country violence by the Police and Armed Forces has increased against civilians who protest. The constitution gives the right to people to protest. The Speaker of the Parliament continues to violate the constitution and the standing orders by being biased toward SLPP. The Attorney General’s advice to the Government has been shown to be wrong on numerous occasions by the decisions given by the courts. Corruption in Coal, Oil, Gas, Medicine, and other tenders is still continuing. Above all the independent commissions are no more independent and they have become an extension of the government. Senior Government Officials like the Treasury Secretary, Chair of the Government Printers, and IGP are violating court orders. Recommending a murderer and a person against whom so many cases have been filed and inquiries found him to be at fault has been recommended by Ranil to be the next IGP. Once upon a time, we had a Maha Rajah, now it appears we have an Emperor or should I say, Hitler?

  • 21
    3

    Comparing the two countries, one a very developed industrial country with a mature population that makes rational political choices based on the common good, and a backward, thoroughly exploited and poverty-ridden country with a gullible population which make often very wrong political choices based on emotions, divisions and simplified criteria seems a waste of good space. A rascal like the present man in charge, who has a crony network similar to earlier ones, always protecting their grand criminal friends and enslaving the people into newer and deeper levels of entrenched poverty where every new misery is accepted as fate, while the cronies become unbelievably rich, is committing crimes against humanity as he proceeds to stifle democracy and the people’s will. It is very important the people see through the facade and act to rid the land of this menace.

    • 8
      2

      Exactly!

    • 10
      2

      Lasantha Pethiyagoda….
      Any IMF money given now (if at all), will be used to whip our workers into slavery so the Western monetary system is stabilized. Ranil and his Elite will do very well however.

    • 11
      1

      Dear LP
      You have compared and contrasted France and Sri Lanka so accurately and aptly.
      The average Sri Lankan is basically an idiot.
      Thanks for your honest opinion. I think you are absolutely correct.

      • 3
        0

        Absolutely right. There is not many, outright and honest as LP.

    • 0
      2

      “one a very developed industrial country with a mature population that makes rational political choices based on the common good,”
      I think that this is going a little over the top.
      Go through the list of utterly corrupt French Presidents in the past few decades.
      What sign of political maturity is the current surge in ultra-right vote in France?
      The invalidity of the comparison has more fundamental reasons. One is that we are still a neo-colony willing to be ordered about by the likes of the IMF.

      • 0
        0

        I reiterate, there are not many outright yet matured gentleman like LP. Obviously many seems to agree with him.

  • 10
    1

    True or false? ……. Any valid counter arguments? ……… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RbMhSG-dHI

    Or is Ranil a profoundly gifted genius whose intelligence is far above the rest of the citizens of the nation? …… He knows best?

    • 6
      3

      nimal fernando

      “True or false? ……. Any valid counter arguments? ………”

      To tell you thetruth I watched only 5 minutes.
      I got very very bored.
      I have seen people like him, heard people “Orate” like him with the usual “rhetoric” of a true lefty, ….

      We have heard enough.
      Did he say anything new, and what would be the alternative?
      Did he blame the saffronistas who poke their nose in every persons life?

      Did he mention that our Surgeon General Silva is seen actively participating in Sinhala/Buddhist ceremonies along with or surrounded by Safronistas? By the way he was seen in white prayer clothe visiting a Vihare in the South. The same general was seen with the usual Saffronistas in the north visiting a newly built Vihare in his uniform, perhaps he must be planning to put forward his name as the serious candidate in the next Presidential Elections.

      Could you send him this youtube link in case:
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-65010345

      • 3
        0

        Geeze Native! …….. Is that a counter argument? You have gone into a harangue of your personal pet peeves.

        Is Ranil trapping us into the dictates of the IMF/USA/Western-Block for the long run …….. as he says? ……. If he is a Leftist or not the truth is the truth. …… Do we first have to look at the credentials of the person who is saying it? :))


        Or is Ranil a profoundly gifted genius whose intelligence is far above the rest of the citizens of the nation? And you are willing to go along with him unquestioning?

  • 6
    0

    The trend towards increasing the retirement age in European and some other countries to cut down on government expenditure happened after the 2008 financial crisis. The funds saved by delaying the retirement benefits were funnelled to save the financial/banking sector that was in trouble.

    It was/is nothing but a transfer of money collected through taxes going from the working class who can least afford to lose it …… to the moneyed ruling class and their lackeys/lobbyists who can well afford to lose it.

    In the pandemic-bailout of 2020 ……. more than $5 million went to Mitch McConnell’s wife’s father’s company who didn’t need the money.

    At least make an attempt to understand how this game is played.

  • 3
    0

    Very good write up as usually by RP.
    The problem in SL is the various constitutions the country has had not been able to tackle the culture of impunity which is the real menace.
    The country needs a new constitution with term limits and age limits and some minimal educational requirements for elected office and equal representation of both sexes in The Parliament before the next general parliamentary elections. This will help significantly to introduce “new fresh blood ” which the country has in abundance in spite of the recent massive exodus with modern solutions and
    prosperity.

  • 6
    0

    2.9 billion dollars is not going to solve anything. The IMF will only create loans. It will not solve the fact that the ethnic problem eats away the resources of the country, with a permanent military stationed in the NorthEast on the basis of the fear that the LTTE will re-emerge. The country is ruled by fear. The young are teargassed and bashed up for protesting. So, there has to be more militarisation. The only people having it good are the politicians, the army guys who have to be kept happy to protect the politicians, the bhkkus who look like professional wrestlers who can leap over tall buildings. The rest of us will starve.

  • 2
    0

    Those who look to the self serving interest of leaders and agents cannot find a solution, but remain slaves only to swich from western to Russian or Chinese masters from time to time. useless blaming other nations to deflect our home grown malaise of loans.

    Where are the folk who advocate “home grown” solutions ? Why don’t they get together and promote honesty in a regime that wipes out corruption present past and future and institute production.
    Is the world so globalised that we cannot do it or are we sporting pseudo intellectual theories confounding the confusion and being puny agents of forces one pretend to understand. Even the students of this world are not impressed or give a piss.

  • 0
    0

    France is the country where the revolution took place and set an example for the world about the “People’s Republic”. Those people were politically mature even from that time. The Evil Emperor formed a government by stealing the Hitler’s King acolytes of 225 Afghani Donkeys and running a government only for awarding the Donkeys lifetime pension for the greatest deed of bankrupting the South Asia’s richest country, by the end of parliament’s this term. One who can think will understand that the country has gone on the opposite of the French Revolution when Evil grabbed the power to give pension to Royal slaves and bailout Rowdy King’s family from ICC. Evil is the man who resigned the parliament 1 year before its term in 2019, because he could not make it go by the harsh restriction it was facing by listing it as the World Greatest Money Laundering Nation. IMF loan is only to open the import basics and float the Rupee.

  • 0
    0

    It is not a capitalization grant for the kleptocracy government. Its effect is more or less like the Chinese loans. Chinese loans are to import from China only for white elephant projects, while IMF bailout loans open the import from all UN constituent countries for local consumption. Evil to wash off the memories of earlier 16-time bailouts from IMF, now says that he may lose but not the country is going to become Asian Wonder. What black art his lecture is. Nandalalla Vinotham is more dupe Master, even larger than ones like UOJ Saddampi. The imbecile seems to not be knowing that he can print rupee and pay the salary for the 225 Donkeys in the parliament, but if he prints Dollar more than the country is earning, America will come inside and pull off his pants, tie on his head, and drag him to the Netherlands. No more money laundering game with America which they did with the EU.

  • 2
    2

    With IMF we are going into very deep debt crisis. Ranil and his fellows will be happy as they can get commissions out of these loans. Even with the Indian credit line this fellow who is the minister of health got his commision by importing unwanted drugs throuhg unauthorised companies, what did ranil do, he will suppor those cuuurpt characters. Ranil is the first politician who brought in thugs into politics directly, remember gonawala sunil. People are lighting crackers for getting a loan, we are living in a fools paradise governed by fools. Now ranil has already sold Lanka Hospital and telecom to some one. Now the person who is buying the majority shares is not going to keep the income in this hell hole, they will take it out as dollars, we will be loosing rupee income plus dollars by this ventrue. Ranil knows that the debt repayment will not even start during his life time, he has no worries , as long has he has power, poor fellow god will have other plans. He will distroy this country.

    • 2
      0

      Dear sensitive thinkers,
      .
      Why are our people still unable to take a step back and compromise for a common cause?

      Finally why can’t they stop being misled by “local so called patriotic promoters”?

      If “so-called patriot gang” introduces something favorable to all, it is always considered as “nationalists” and if it comes from any other leader “if it is from the incumbent President and CBK or any other leader, they brand it as “anti-nation”. But the people will be misled that “it will be a plot to grab us who were formerly colonized”.
      The knowledge of such delinquents who constantly spread wrong thoughts are just fools (just compare the profiles of WIMAL BURUWANSE), they are neither learned nor people who love people. They love to seize their power and corrupt the nation again.

      This primitive thinking should eventually be replaced by “realist thinking” that if only the nation opens up to the world, we can work with them multilaterally and by agreeing through such agreements.
      Then investments will be open to flow into the country.

      -> 2

      • 3
        0

        ->2
        Dogs need to stop barking even now. Dog owners should be able to control them.
        Then the rational thinkers of the beautiful land will come together and shape its economy. If Vietnam is now waking up with their numerous investments, Ethiopia is now breaking records as no others, with their economic achievements, and many other Southeast Asians are achieving their goals, why aren’t we “a small nation of 22 million” stagnating at one point?

        At least a good portion of people must be in hellish countries and even societies.

        India’s SOFT WARE industry is run by 1% or less in their population (1300 million living in that subcontinent).
        That means that even small fractions of a nation can make it, amidst, all other various sinister forces against them, only if they are powerful enough. I truly believe, if srlankens would think back properly, getting the nation to the track will not be impossible.

        Sri Lanka’s so-called academics constantly jump to their misinterpretations, but the reason why Sri Lankans have not been successful with the IMF 16 times, upto now, is because we have not been able to implement a significant portion of the reforms beneficial to us for our own goals.

        We must be able to see deep into it and not let the barkers run the nation and lead us astray into a hell-like state.

        ->3

        • 3
          0

          3
          I think our experts should come forward to save the nation not by allowing them to further spreading lies by some Pinguththarayas (fake buddhist monks) and misleading the nation. If these monks dont know the facts, they should better be away from their public statements.

          Even if experts in Geology and other sciences have yet to confirm, see what blatant lies they are now spreading about our so-called rich soil resources. Our stupid men dont seem to learn from their former failures. They repeat their failures.
          .
          I don’t know why our university experts in responsible fields continue to act like “Amazonian sloths-too-lazy animals” even though biased journalists continue to abuse people’s perceptions.
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggzp7SH–lY

          And in retrospect, we all saw, at the time the covid crisis was at its peak, real experts (Prof Witharana and other virologists) were not given a chance to warn the nation, GMOA (Professional Association) was held as an expert panel… can you imagine?

          Why on earth our so called ” buddhist monks” cant position this cancerous men yet today ? I mean if our LAW AND ORDER would not work, at least intelligent BUDDHIST MONKS (using the place being given to them in the society) should be able to stop liars becoming the WEERAYAs of the society yet today ?

          ->4

          ->4

          • 3
            0

            4
            We often overestimate our own resources, values, and everything else, regardless of the world’s standards. These are common to many stagnant nations. Ethiopians did it until their young leaders spoke to the conscience of their people. Today they won. I am happy for them that they have achieved a lot in the last 5 years.
            Adisabeba is much more booming than our colombo city today. I think 4 years ago, they introduced ” city tram for their transport”:
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz_nJpqvaiE
            .
            The more we mislead, the worse misled people will be in our society… false perceptions will drag them deeper. Each of us citizens must contribute to fixing our society. “our people are intelligent is another myth planted to mislead them”: Mahinda Rajapakshe fooled this nation as nothing can reverse them.
            .
            That is why our nation experienced the unprecedentedy by appointing a former “petrol shed assistant or Gotabhaya” as the leader caught in a lie.
            Since stupid fractions (dominated fraction in our country) are the majority, yet today, those Rajapakshes can roam in the city, but in a civilized world, people would go on protest demanding Rajapakshes be jailed.

            ->5

            • 3
              0

              5
              . 69 lakh stupid voters led by Pinguttaraya (I said Pinguttaraya only to hora monks) contributed to make GOTABAYA a leader. Remember? What did not lie?

              Media crooks, you are responsible for the mess. There is no one but you.

              You are not free to live your normal life if this country would have been a law-abiding country because you are the kingpins of criminals.

              The so-called Viatmaga does not exist today; Jayasumanaya is one of the lead racists in recent srilanka. The kind of dogs should be put in jail forever. IF WE REALLY WANT TO DO GO FOR IT; IT IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE:

              . VIYATHBALUMAGA fate is now the fate of defeated dogs who will not come out of hiding.

              People should be corrected. It is not impossible, it LL then be the real turning point in this stagnant nation without seeing the future.

              Sinhalese man or the like “LOW LIVES” are always there. They will do anything to promote anything other than their “brag”. It does not bring us forward. To me and rational thinkers, he is one another candidate of “Kadamandiya people” of commenter SIMON.
              Sinhala man repeatedly tries to manipulate CT readers.More he acts so, readers will realize the truth face of the stupid person.

              ->6

              • 3
                0

                6
                We are in South Asia and they are mostly “wrong mentality, rascals, outright liars based on some invisible ideologies and their own conspiracy theories”.

                Whether we like it or not, our society is run by idiots. Where on earth do Mahinda Rajapaksa or people like him can behave “like gods”?

                They rob the last cent of the poor people but they even today enjoy their lives at the expsense of the very same people. Not a single person in that brute family has sweated for real earnings.

                Auditors, accountants, it’s up to you….. you can expose the size of loot to the nation.. .

                Is it difficult to reveal the truth of Mahinda’s income before 2005 and compare it today? You can also do it with CBK, Sorisena and reveal the truths…. Then this society will see things right with their own eyes and decide what is true and what is false.

                Ethiopians (most of them) finally changed their attitudes under the youth political groups and made a compromise for the good of their nation. Many vegetables and fruits found in European markets today come from Africa.
                Must try Not long ago Ethiopians were branded as the poorest nation on this planet but today news makers promote it as a country with 10% annual economic growth.

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