Features
Let’s play party-games with Marx
by Kumar David
Everybody is fed up with news of impending catastrophe; covid that will not go away even in 2022, climate change that threatens to engulf both nature and Homo sapiens by mid-century, broken supply chains, inexorable price inflation and coups by military gorillas on the left and the right. In Lanka endless bickering, racial hatred and after three failed constitutions the pending fourth will be the nastiest on many counts. So my dear countrymen of all nationalities and faiths gird up your loins the worst is still to come. Our regime, licking its putrefying financial sores and the international lacerations it has suffered, is in no position to do anything for the people. So what the hell, let’s relax and take time off from this dismal reality to have fun. Let’s work through some of things Marx said or didn’t say to see what the old codger really meant. This is a lightweight piece, if you are the ponderous polysyllabic intellectual type, turn the page.
Religion
Most controversial and interesting is religion; Marx is much misunderstood. You do not need to be an atheist to be a Marxist; the old boy was not concerned with the spiritual messages of Gautama, Jesus or the Prophet, nor did he scrutinise the economic system in heaven. The famous “Religion is the opium of the people”, as the extracts below shows, says that religion is a tranquiliser which sedates man to accept this oppressive world instead of rising up against it, by promising carnal joys in paradise or exalted awareness after enlightenment.
Here are extracts from the famous text to emphasise this point – strung together with deletions in between.
“Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d’honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against a world whose spiritual aroma is religion. Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”
“The abolition of religion as illusory happiness is the demand for their real happiness. To call on people to give up illusions about this condition is a call to end a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is in embryo criticism of the vale of tears of which religion is the halo.”
Base and Superstructure
In early Marx (before the Communist Manifesto) there are references to the material groundings of society (geography, resources and the production-economic systems) as the Base, and to culture, institutions and the state as the Superstructure. It was granted that influences could flow in both directions but in this structural metaphor the Base was presented as dominant. How these bidirectional influences flow cannot be theorised in the abstract but only by concrete and specific analysis. E.g. Eric Hobswam’s Age of Revolution: Europe 1789–1848 and Industry and Empire: From 1750 to the Present Day, or Kumari Jayawardena’s History of the Labour Movement in Ceylon and in many other studies. There you will find concrete explorations of how ‘Base’ and ‘Superstructure’ influence one another.
The Base-Superstructure imagery is oversimplified except in political polemics and Marx never returned to it in his major historical pamphlets of later life. A great weakness of this imagery today is uncertainty about where ethnicity, which by the late Twentieth Century has come to centre stage in many places, stands.
Materialism
Central to Marx’s philosophy are (a) Historical Materialism and (b) like all great post-Enlightenment scientists (Faraday, Darwin, JJ Thompson, Einstein, modern geneticists) Epistemological Materialism. A para on each.
Historical Materialism views the great movements of human history as impelled more by material interests than idealist beliefs. For example colonialism and imperialism transformed the world for raw materials, gold and silver, the slave trade and the export of capital for plantations, railways and mines. The Bible, bringing the heathen to god and spreading European civilisation among the savages followed in the wake of these material benefits. Another example is that big pharmaceutical companies do indeed invent and produce lifesaving drugs, but their raison d’etre is returns to shareholder capital. Unlike a mother’s ideal selfless love for her child, material interests, not idealism, drives class society and history. This I believe is now universally accepted. Historical materialism has come out with a score of 90 out of 100. The ten percent in doubt is because of the enigma of the spread of Islam. One cannot explain it like colonialism, imperialism, the settling of the Americas, South Africa and Australia-NZ, by pointing to material interests as the primary driver. When Islam surged out of Arabia and transformed the Middle East and large chunks of Central Asia the motive seems to have been entirely faith. I don’t know enough, so I keep 10% in reserve.
Epistemological materialism is pretty much the same as science; the solo nigger in the woodpile is an aspect of quantum physics but no more on that. Modern science, broadly speaking, contends that the material world really exists out there independently of our minds and our job is to examine it, experiment with it and find out how it works. The causality of material events is not a thing of our will (Newtonian gravitation, General Relativity, chromosomes, black-holes and mathematics are true or not for all, not just Christians or males). Epistemological materialists though firmly of this view of course grant we don’t
know everything now. But as science moves we will find more and turn up ever more questions – otherwise science and the pursuit of knowledge will halt. The domain of epistemological materialism does not intrude into spiritual territory; that is faith, enlightenment, heaven and hell (except man-made hell on earth). It is not concerned with the questions like “Does God exist?” or “Should you be a believer?” The philosophical domains of science and religion are separate. Richard Dawkins was silly to transgress the line though his critique of intelligent design is justified because the religious lot first transgressed the boundary and intervened in scientific evolution theory.
The Transformation Problem
This is a bit technical but I bet I can make it intelligible to most of you. If you held out this far please don’t switch off now. This is a difficulty in Marxist economics but first contrast modern quantitative economics with Marx. The former is philosophically arid. It’s about things like ‘if China raises tariffs how much will EU’s exports rise or fall’ or ‘if India changes FDC rules this way or that what will be the impact on local industry, exports or farmers”. Mechanics, calculations, that’s all; fine, leave it to PhD students and sham algorithmic Nobel Prize winners, some later convicted as crooks. A PhD now is a reward for moderate intelligence and moderate effort, it’s a training ground in research-methodology, no longer much to do with an original contribution.
The transformation problem belongs to different category from quantitative economics. It is located in the triangulated border between political practice, philosophy and economics. Kapital I is 100% grounded in the labour theory of value whose premise is that only human activity (labour) creates value. Hence the value of a commodity is inputs (raw materials and machinery) plus the average socially necessary labour newly added in its production. Of this added-value a part is used to pay wages (the average socially necessary subsistence and reproduction costs of the worker). The portion left after this Marx called surplus value. The more familiar word in economics is profit, including interest, tax and rent. This surplus appropriated by the capitalist may be ploughed back into reproduction (another production cycle) or used to expand the economy in new directions. This is how capitalism works, morality apart.
Marx recognised that value (the socio-philosophical concept) and price (market price at which commodities trade) are not the same. There is dislocation between value and price and between surplus value and profit. For example a commodity made in a plant employing lots of labour should generate lots of surplus value, but commodities produced in high-tech plants with little labour apparently generate only a small surplus. The former should then be generating high profits, the latter only a small profit! Not only is this counter-intuitive but also screws up reality. Volume III of Kapital, inter alia, is Marx’s struggle to resolve this contradiction.
He recognises that capitalism is a social system hence a plant by plant analysis is bollocks, it can only help introduce concepts. Taking society overall the rate of profit will be uniform (capital will migrate if there is a difference in profitability). But the total surplus-value of the whole production system equals the total profits of the whole economy. Then whether some activities (mines, healthcare) intrinsically needed more labour and others (robot-controlled industry) intrinsically needed less does not matter, the natural rate of profit across the economy will be the same. An average plant in each category would yield the same as the economy wide average rate of profit. So Marx first conceded that value and price need not be the same, second he postulated that the total surplus value created in production equals the total profit in the whole economy, and third he saw a tendency for the rate of profit across the economy to equalise. Nevertheless contradictions, too complex to explain here, remained. In my view this effort was pointless since the labour theory of value and market economics belong to separate though parallel philosophical domains. To attempt to map them point-by-point is as absurd as attempting to map personal psychology point-by-point to aggregated social behaviour.
Marx was a guy-and-a-half; he thundered like the prophets from Isiah to Mohamed; his damnations and exaggerations would make a second-hand car salesman blush. But my god, how many thinkers in the last two centuries produced ideas of comparable depth? Yes, Darwin – of Einstein and Freud I am not so sure. And none revealed such kaleidoscopic range – philosophy/dialectics, history, economics and revolutionary politics.
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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