Features
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for the People VS Donald Trump for the Virus
by Rajan Philips
Four years ago, a minority of American voters unwittingly perpetrated a fraud on their country. In November this year, the American people will have the opportunity to vote wisely and retake their country. In 2016, a technically ill equipped and morally debased candidate won the presidential election thanks to the chicanery of an electoral college system against an eminently qualified but cruelly maligned candidate. Hillary Clinton who lost the election to Donald Trump, would have made history as the first female American President if she had prevailed in the electoral college vote just as she won the popular vote. But having a woman succeed an African American President was too much for America’s mastodons. Pundits blamed it on the Clinton baggage that the American right and the national media had piled on her and her erratic genius of a husband over 40 years of their conjugal public life. This time there is no excuse for a repeat blunder. The Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris carry no baggage. The only darts that can be flung at them are – he is too old, and she is too bi-racial. There is no other political stump for Donald Trump to stand on. Except fraud.
And fraud is what Trump seems to be banking on for this election. If it was covert and indirect fraud in 2016, Trump is now ready for direct and blatant fraud. From the time he became candidate for the 2016 election, Trump has been calling the American electoral system a fraud and basing it on the canard that the voting system is manipulated in favour of minorities and illegal immigrants. The reverse is, in fact, the case. What is fraudulent about the American electoral system is the systemic voter suppression targeting minorities and marginalized communities through any means possible. But that is not Trump’s concern. His reason for crying fraud is to prepare his base to reject the November election results which he fears will go against him. Every day he is pulling a new trick from outside the rule book to subvert the system and extend his stay in office even after an electoral defeat.
In his latest detour last Thursday, he was reaching to a new ally in the right wing nut organization called QAnon. The organization operates on the theory that “there is a worldwide cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who rule the world,” and that these Satan-worshippers have infiltrated the American “deep-state” and are plotting against their President Donald Trump and his supporters. Even as Trump was signalling this organization to rile up his base, Facebook was taking down thousands of groups and accounts sharing QAnon messages on its platforms. In another poetic setback, Steve Bannon, the creator of far-right Breitbart News who went on to become the CEO of Trump’s 2016 campaign down its home stretch, and later White House Chief of Staff for political strategy, was arrested on Thursday for allegedly defrauding “We Build the Wall” campaign that was set up to raise private funding and build sections of Trump’s border wall against Mexico.
Trump will dismiss every indictment as a deep state ploy against him, and use it to reinforce his core white American support and retrace his 2016 victory path. His difficulty this year is that he has to defend his record in office, especially his terrible failure to contain the new coronavirus, whereas in 2016 he had the advantage of projecting himself as the new outsider marching on Washington to take down the establishment. To ‘drain the swamp in Washington,’ was his clarion call in the last election. Now, the Trump swamp stretches all over America and spills over beyond its borders.
No certainty
There is no certainty of a Democratic victory given the electoral college system which can thwart the verdict of the popular vote as it did in 2016. If they were to falter again similarly, it would be the third time this century that the Democrats would have won the popular vote but lost the election. Trump’s popularity and approval ratings are at the historically low at the 30-40% levels, but they are disturbingly high compared to other western democracies where governments and leaders with similar performance could hardly have their popularity upwards of 20%. Trump’s 30-40% ratings are indicative of the deep divisions in American politics, which Trump irresponsibly aggravates at every opportunity.
However, these numbers might be deceptive to Trump the same way they were deceptive to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Hillary Clinton’s consistent but narrow leads in national polling concealed her vulnerability in the handful of swing states which she eventually lost by small margins. Only a few pollsters, perhaps only one among them as far I know, consistently commented on this vulnerability. In 2020, Trump’s national polling between 30-40% is concealing his vulnerability in the same swing states that he snatched from the Democrats in the last election. Biden is currently leading Trump in these states by a healthy margin. But no one is making any final prediction for sure. Adding to the shock of the last election is the uncertainty of Covid-19, and no one is rushing to predict the outcome.
Demographically, going by Pew Research Centre’s comparison of voting patterns from 1972 (when Nixon won his short second term), Republicans have always obtained a majority of white voters since 1972, while Black and Hispanic voters have overwhelmingly supported the Democratic party. There was no gender gap until the 1988 election, and only in 1992 (with Bill Clinton’s first win) women’s vote started breaking decisively for the Democrats while men’s vote stayed with the Republicans. Until this century, the more educated sections voted Republican while those with less education supported the Democrats. Traditionally, potential Democratic voters did not show up to vote except in the four elections won by Bill Clinton (1992 and 1996) and Barak Obama (2008 and 2012). Bill Clinton in his two wins and Obama in his first made significant inroads into white voters, while Obama won 90% of the black vote and in large numbers in his two victories.
Hillary Clinton maintained the same voter demographic profile as Obama but with a slightly lower voter turnout. Yet, her vote tally of 65,850,000 is second only to Obama’s 69,500,000 (2008) and 65,915,000 (2012) in American history. More significantly, the racial, gender and educational, as well as regional, gaps between the voting bases of the two parties widened the most in 2016 unlike in any previous election. More non-white, female, educated and urban Americans voted Democrat, while their white, male, less educated and rural counterparts voted Republican. Inasmuch as the turnover of the swing states was seen as being due to white working-class votes moving from Democrats to Trump, winning them back became the immediate strategy of Democrats for the 2020 election.
This was also the premise on which Joe Biden launched his presidential bid based on his working class roots in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the state Democrats lost to Trump in 2016. He projected himself as a moderate candidate. After awkward stumbles in the early primaries, Biden’s campaign took off taking advantage of his strong support among African Americans. With Bernie Sanders, unable to regenerate the enthusiasm he achieved against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primaries, Biden easily sealed the Democratic Party nomination weeks before the pandemic hit America. He would have run a cautious campaign and tried to win back the lost white working class votes in Midwestern States, but for Trump’s disastrous handling of the pandemic, and the public outrage at the slow killing of George Floyd, on May 25, under a police knee on a public road in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Obama’s rebuke
There is nothing cautious now about the Democratic 2020 campaign. Democrats have turned the campaign into a referendum on Trump and they are betting on the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket as an appealing restorative alternative to the Trump sickness. The Party’s convention held last week was historic not so much because it was the virtual political convention ever to be held, but really because it was the first when a sitting President was roundly condemned by the opposing Party as being crass, callow, lazy, incompetent, unempathetic and immoral.
Michelle Obama, the former First Lady, led off on the first day with a blistering attack on Trump for his incompetence. Former President Bill Clinton blasted Trump the next day for spending time watching TV and tweeting while letting America with 4% of the world’s population end up having 25% of the world’s Covid-19 cases and deaths. The third day belonged to what the western media has called “boundary breakers” – Hillary Clinton, the first female Presidential candidate; Nancy Pelosi, the first female Speaker of the House; Barak Obama, the first African American President; and Kamala Harris, the first woman of colour to be nominated as Vice Presidential candidate.
Obama’s convention speech was hugely unconventional. Speaking live from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia with the words of American Constitution inscribed on the walls behind him, Obama tore into Trump and his record in office, showing anger, scorn and even fear – fear for American democracy should Trump win a second term. Incumbent American Presidents are never publicly criticized by their predecessors. Obama’s scathing rebuke of Trump is a speech for history and perhaps a more consequential speech than his no less historic speech on race delivered in 2008 as a first-time presidential candidate. “Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” said Obama nonchalantly, and appealed to the American voters to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and stop Trump from winning a second term.
Joe Biden was Obama’s Vice President for two terms over eight years (2008-2015), and sat out the 2016 election when Hillary was the overwhelming favourite to carry the Democratic torch that year. Before becoming Vice-President, Biden was the US Senator from Delaware for 36 years, and made quite a few unsuccessful attempts to win nomination as the Party’s presidential candidate. Now Biden has a good shot at defeating Trump and continuing Obama’s legacy as President. His selection of Kamala Harris is as historic, as it is a repetition of the Obama-Biden ticket, for Kamala Harris with her Jamaican-African and South Indian ancestry is often touted as America’s female Obama.
In her acceptance speech as Vice-Presidential candidate, Harris recalled the first time she uttered the words “Kamala Harris for the people”, as a young Prosecutor in San Francisco. She went on to become the District Attorney in San Francisco, Attorney General for the State of California, and US Senator from California. Now she is making the case for the American people against the Trump presidency. “It is an open and shut case”, she has asserted. Biden and Harris have 72 days to convince the jury.
by Dr Gotabhya Ranasinghe
Senior Consultant Cardiologist
National Hospital Sri Lanka
When we sought a meeting with Hon Dr. Ramesh Pathirana, Minister of Health, he graciously cleared his busy schedule to accommodate us. Renowned for his attentive listening and deep understanding, Minister Pathirana is dedicated to advancing the health sector. His openness and transparency exemplify the qualities of an exemplary politician and minister.
Dr. Palitha Mahipala, the current Health Secretary, demonstrates both commendable enthusiasm and unwavering support. This combination of attributes makes him a highly compatible colleague for the esteemed Minister of Health.
Our discussion centered on a project that has been in the works for the past 30 years, one that no other minister had managed to advance.
Minister Pathirana, however, recognized the project’s significance and its potential to revolutionize care for heart patients.
The project involves the construction of a state-of-the-art facility at the premises of the National Hospital Colombo. The project’s location within the premises of the National Hospital underscores its importance and relevance to the healthcare infrastructure of the nation.
This facility will include a cardiology building and a tertiary care center, equipped with the latest technology to handle and treat all types of heart-related conditions and surgeries.
Securing funding was a major milestone for this initiative. Minister Pathirana successfully obtained approval for a $40 billion loan from the Asian Development Bank. With the funding in place, the foundation stone is scheduled to be laid in September this year, and construction will begin in January 2025.
This project guarantees a consistent and uninterrupted supply of stents and related medications for heart patients. As a result, patients will have timely access to essential medical supplies during their treatment and recovery. By securing these critical resources, the project aims to enhance patient outcomes, minimize treatment delays, and maintain the highest standards of cardiac care.
Upon its fruition, this monumental building will serve as a beacon of hope and healing, symbolizing the unwavering dedication to improving patient outcomes and fostering a healthier society.We anticipate a future marked by significant progress and positive outcomes in Sri Lanka’s cardiovascular treatment landscape within the foreseeable timeframe.
by Fr. Emmanuel Fernando, OMI
Jesuit Fr. Aloysius Pieris (affectionately called Fr. Aloy) celebrated his 90th birthday on April 9, 2024 and I, as the editor of our Oblate Journal, THE MISSIONARY OBLATE had gone to press by that time. Immediately I decided to publish an article, appreciating the untiring selfless services he continues to offer for inter-Faith dialogue, the renewal of the Catholic Church, his concern for the poor and the suffering Sri Lankan masses and to me, the present writer.
It was in 1988, when I was appointed Director of the Oblate Scholastics at Ampitiya by the then Oblate Provincial Fr. Anselm Silva, that I came to know Fr. Aloy more closely. Knowing well his expertise in matters spiritual, theological, Indological and pastoral, and with the collaborative spirit of my companion-formators, our Oblate Scholastics were sent to Tulana, the Research and Encounter Centre, Kelaniya, of which he is the Founder-Director, for ‘exposure-programmes’ on matters spiritual, biblical, theological and pastoral. Some of these dimensions according to my view and that of my companion-formators, were not available at the National Seminary, Ampitiya.
Ever since that time, our Oblate formators/ accompaniers at the Oblate Scholasticate, Ampitiya , have continued to send our Oblate Scholastics to Tulana Centre for deepening their insights and convictions regarding matters needed to serve the people in today’s context. Fr. Aloy also had tried very enthusiastically with the Oblate team headed by Frs. Oswald Firth and Clement Waidyasekara to begin a Theologate, directed by the Religious Congregations in Sri Lanka, for the contextual formation/ accompaniment of their members. It should very well be a desired goal of the Leaders / Provincials of the Religious Congregations.
Besides being a formator/accompanier at the Oblate Scholasticate, I was entrusted also with the task of editing and publishing our Oblate journal, ‘The Missionary Oblate’. To maintain the quality of the journal I continue to depend on Fr. Aloy for his thought-provoking and stimulating articles on Biblical Spirituality, Biblical Theology and Ecclesiology. I am very grateful to him for his generous assistance. Of late, his writings on renewal of the Church, initiated by Pope St. John XX111 and continued by Pope Francis through the Synodal path, published in our Oblate journal, enable our readers to focus their attention also on the needed renewal in the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. Fr. Aloy appreciated very much the Synodal path adopted by the Jesuit Pope Francis for the renewal of the Church, rooted very much on prayerful discernment. In my Religious and presbyteral life, Fr.Aloy continues to be my spiritual animator / guide and ongoing formator / acccompanier.
Fr. Aloysius Pieris, BA Hons (Lond), LPh (SHC, India), STL (PFT, Naples), PhD (SLU/VC), ThD (Tilburg), D.Ltt (KU), has been one of the eminent Asian theologians well recognized internationally and one who has lectured and held visiting chairs in many universities both in the West and in the East. Many members of Religious Congregations from Asian countries have benefited from his lectures and guidance in the East Asian Pastoral Institute (EAPI) in Manila, Philippines. He had been a Theologian consulted by the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences for many years. During his professorship at the Gregorian University in Rome, he was called to be a member of a special group of advisers on other religions consulted by Pope Paul VI.
Fr. Aloy is the author of more than 30 books and well over 500 Research Papers. Some of his books and articles have been translated and published in several countries. Among those books, one can find the following: 1) The Genesis of an Asian Theology of Liberation (An Autobiographical Excursus on the Art of Theologising in Asia, 2) An Asian Theology of Liberation, 3) Providential Timeliness of Vatican 11 (a long-overdue halt to a scandalous millennium, 4) Give Vatican 11 a chance, 5) Leadership in the Church, 6) Relishing our faith in working for justice (Themes for study and discussion), 7) A Message meant mainly, not exclusively for Jesuits (Background information necessary for helping Francis renew the Church), 8) Lent in Lanka (Reflections and Resolutions, 9) Love meets wisdom (A Christian Experience of Buddhism, 10) Fire and Water 11) God’s Reign for God’s poor, 12) Our Unhiddden Agenda (How we Jesuits work, pray and form our men). He is also the Editor of two journals, Vagdevi, Journal of Religious Reflection and Dialogue, New Series.
Fr. Aloy has a BA in Pali and Sanskrit from the University of London and a Ph.D in Buddhist Philosophy from the University of Sri Lankan, Vidyodaya Campus. On Nov. 23, 2019, he was awarded the prestigious honorary Doctorate of Literature (D.Litt) by the Chancellor of the University of Kelaniya, the Most Venerable Welamitiyawe Dharmakirthi Sri Kusala Dhamma Thera.
Fr. Aloy continues to be a promoter of Gospel values and virtues. Justice as a constitutive dimension of love and social concern for the downtrodden masses are very much noted in his life and work. He had very much appreciated the commitment of the late Fr. Joseph (Joe) Fernando, the National Director of the Social and Economic Centre (SEDEC) for the poor.
In Sri Lanka, a few religious Congregations – the Good Shepherd Sisters, the Christian Brothers, the Marist Brothers and the Oblates – have invited him to animate their members especially during their Provincial Congresses, Chapters and International Conferences. The mainline Christian Churches also have sought his advice and followed his seminars. I, for one, regret very much, that the Sri Lankan authorities of the Catholic Church –today’s Hierarchy—- have not sought Fr.
Aloy’s expertise for the renewal of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka and thus have not benefited from the immense store of wisdom and insight that he can offer to our local Church while the Sri Lankan bishops who governed the Catholic church in the immediate aftermath of the Second Vatican Council (Edmund Fernando OMI, Anthony de Saram, Leo Nanayakkara OSB, Frank Marcus Fernando, Paul Perera,) visited him and consulted him on many matters. Among the Tamil Bishops, Bishop Rayappu Joseph was keeping close contact with him and Bishop J. Deogupillai hosted him and his team visiting him after the horrible Black July massacre of Tamils.
Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement
By Gomi Senadhira
senadhiragomi@gmail.com
“You might tell fairy tales, but the progress of a country cannot be achieved through such narratives. A country cannot be developed by making false promises. The country moved backward because of the electoral promises made by political parties throughout time. We have witnessed that the ultimate result of this is the country becoming bankrupt. Unfortunately, many segments of the population have not come to realize this yet.” – President Ranil Wickremesinghe, 2024 Budget speech
Any Sri Lankan would agree with the above words of President Wickremesinghe on the false promises our politicians and officials make and the fairy tales they narrate which bankrupted this country. So, to understand this, let’s look at one such fairy tale with lots of false promises; Ranil Wickremesinghe’s greatest achievement in the area of international trade and investment promotion during the Yahapalana period, Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SLSFTA).
It is appropriate and timely to do it now as Finance Minister Wickremesinghe has just presented to parliament a bill on the National Policy on Economic Transformation which includes the establishment of an Office for International Trade and the Sri Lanka Institute of Economics and International Trade.
Was SLSFTA a “Cleverly negotiated Free Trade Agreement” as stated by the (former) Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama during the Parliamentary Debate on the SLSFTA in July 2018, or a colossal blunder covered up with lies, false promises, and fairy tales? After SLSFTA was signed there were a number of fairy tales published on this agreement by the Ministry of Development Strategies and International, Institute of Policy Studies, and others.
However, for this article, I would like to limit my comments to the speech by Minister Samarawickrama during the Parliamentary Debate, and the two most important areas in the agreement which were covered up with lies, fairy tales, and false promises, namely: revenue loss for Sri Lanka and Investment from Singapore. On the other important area, “Waste products dumping” I do not want to comment here as I have written extensively on the issue.
1. The revenue loss
During the Parliamentary Debate in July 2018, Minister Samarawickrama stated “…. let me reiterate that this FTA with Singapore has been very cleverly negotiated by us…. The liberalisation programme under this FTA has been carefully designed to have the least impact on domestic industry and revenue collection. We have included all revenue sensitive items in the negative list of items which will not be subject to removal of tariff. Therefore, 97.8% revenue from Customs duty is protected. Our tariff liberalisation will take place over a period of 12-15 years! In fact, the revenue earned through tariffs on goods imported from Singapore last year was Rs. 35 billion.
The revenue loss for over the next 15 years due to the FTA is only Rs. 733 million– which when annualised, on average, is just Rs. 51 million. That is just 0.14% per year! So anyone who claims the Singapore FTA causes revenue loss to the Government cannot do basic arithmetic! Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, I call on my fellow members of this House – don’t mislead the public with baseless criticism that is not grounded in facts. Don’t look at petty politics and use these issues for your own political survival.”
I was surprised to read the minister’s speech because an article published in January 2018 in “The Straits Times“, based on information released by the Singaporean Negotiators stated, “…. With the FTA, tariff savings for Singapore exports are estimated to hit $10 million annually“.
As the annual tariff savings (that is the revenue loss for Sri Lanka) calculated by the Singaporean Negotiators, Singaporean $ 10 million (Sri Lankan rupees 1,200 million in 2018) was way above the rupees’ 733 million revenue loss for 15 years estimated by the Sri Lankan negotiators, it was clear to any observer that one of the parties to the agreement had not done the basic arithmetic!
Six years later, according to a report published by “The Morning” newspaper, speaking at the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) on 7th May 2024, Mr Samarawickrama’s chief trade negotiator K.J. Weerasinghehad had admitted “…. that forecasted revenue loss for the Government of Sri Lanka through the Singapore FTA is Rs. 450 million in 2023 and Rs. 1.3 billion in 2024.”
If these numbers are correct, as tariff liberalisation under the SLSFTA has just started, we will pass Rs 2 billion very soon. Then, the question is how Sri Lanka’s trade negotiators made such a colossal blunder. Didn’t they do their basic arithmetic? If they didn’t know how to do basic arithmetic they should have at least done their basic readings. For example, the headline of the article published in The Straits Times in January 2018 was “Singapore, Sri Lanka sign FTA, annual savings of $10m expected”.
Anyway, as Sri Lanka’s chief negotiator reiterated at the COPF meeting that “…. since 99% of the tariffs in Singapore have zero rates of duty, Sri Lanka has agreed on 80% tariff liberalisation over a period of 15 years while expecting Singapore investments to address the imbalance in trade,” let’s turn towards investment.
Investment from Singapore
In July 2018, speaking during the Parliamentary Debate on the FTA this is what Minister Malik Samarawickrama stated on investment from Singapore, “Already, thanks to this FTA, in just the past two-and-a-half months since the agreement came into effect we have received a proposal from Singapore for investment amounting to $ 14.8 billion in an oil refinery for export of petroleum products. In addition, we have proposals for a steel manufacturing plant for exports ($ 1 billion investment), flour milling plant ($ 50 million), sugar refinery ($ 200 million). This adds up to more than $ 16.05 billion in the pipeline on these projects alone.
And all of these projects will create thousands of more jobs for our people. In principle approval has already been granted by the BOI and the investors are awaiting the release of land the environmental approvals to commence the project.
I request the Opposition and those with vested interests to change their narrow-minded thinking and join us to develop our country. We must always look at what is best for the whole community, not just the few who may oppose. We owe it to our people to courageously take decisions that will change their lives for the better.”
According to the media report I quoted earlier, speaking at the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) Chief Negotiator Weerasinghe has admitted that Sri Lanka was not happy with overall Singapore investments that have come in the past few years in return for the trade liberalisation under the Singapore-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement. He has added that between 2021 and 2023 the total investment from Singapore had been around $162 million!
What happened to those projects worth $16 billion negotiated, thanks to the SLSFTA, in just the two-and-a-half months after the agreement came into effect and approved by the BOI? I do not know about the steel manufacturing plant for exports ($ 1 billion investment), flour milling plant ($ 50 million) and sugar refinery ($ 200 million).
However, story of the multibillion-dollar investment in the Petroleum Refinery unfolded in a manner that would qualify it as the best fairy tale with false promises presented by our politicians and the officials, prior to 2019 elections.
Though many Sri Lankans got to know, through the media which repeatedly highlighted a plethora of issues surrounding the project and the questionable credentials of the Singaporean investor, the construction work on the Mirrijiwela Oil Refinery along with the cement factory began on the24th of March 2019 with a bang and Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his ministers along with the foreign and local dignitaries laid the foundation stones.
That was few months before the 2019 Presidential elections. Inaugurating the construction work Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the projects will create thousands of job opportunities in the area and surrounding districts.
The oil refinery, which was to be built over 200 acres of land, with the capacity to refine 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day, was to generate US$7 billion of exports and create 1,500 direct and 3,000 indirect jobs. The construction of the refinery was to be completed in 44 months. Four years later, in August 2023 the Cabinet of Ministers approved the proposal presented by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to cancel the agreement with the investors of the refinery as the project has not been implemented! Can they explain to the country how much money was wasted to produce that fairy tale?
It is obvious that the President, ministers, and officials had made huge blunders and had deliberately misled the public and the parliament on the revenue loss and potential investment from SLSFTA with fairy tales and false promises.
As the president himself said, a country cannot be developed by making false promises or with fairy tales and these false promises and fairy tales had bankrupted the country. “Unfortunately, many segments of the population have not come to realize this yet”.
(The writer, a specialist and an activist on trade and development issues . )
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