Sri Lanka will buy more military transport planes from China and seek its help in transforming its failed Hambantota port into a hub comparable with Shenzhen, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told This Week in Asia in an exclusive interview.

“I have travelled around in some of the Chinese transport planes we have. They are good workhorses. Some people have raised questions about their quality but I have always said, ‘Look, as far as I am concerned, I will always underwrite Chinese military transport planes’. We will buy two more,” Wickremesinghe said.

China’s newly developed Xian Y-20 would be in contention if Sri Lanka is looking to buy more Chinese military transport craft, making it one of the first countries outside China to get the new plane. That would mark a new high for Sino-Sri Lankan relations that have been on the mend since Wickremesinghe’s government put the brakes on big-ticket Chinese projects soon after it came to power ousting pro-China president Mahinda Rajapaksa in January last year.

“Logically it makes sense for Sri Lanka to buy strategic transport aircraft because the old ones are not serviceable in a cost-effective manner,” said IHS Jane’s aerospace analyst Ben Moores, but added it wouldn’t come cheap.

Codenamed “Kunpeng” after a mythical Chinese bird, Y-20 makes China the third nation after Russia and the United States to design and develop its own heavy military transport aircraft. It is the largest military aircraft currently in production and the first cargo aircraft to use 3D printing technology. It was officially inducted into service by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force in July.

“The only thing is getting the US federal aviation clearance, without which there might be insurance issues for Western tourists. Since our airports have excess capacity, we will try to get dual-use military planes that can also carry tourists. We are talking to the Chinese to see if we can get planes that can conform to these norms,” Wickremesinghe said.

The prime minister, however, wouldn’t let on which way he is swinging with fighter jets. Colombo was expected to sign a deal to purchase up to 12 JF-17s co-developed by Pakistan and China in January. The deal was cancelled after intense diplomatic manoeuvres by India, which has been trying to sell its own Tejas to the strategically located Indian Ocean island nation.

“China, India, Sweden and Russia have made offers, we are studying them,” he said.

India had been concerned about an increasing Chinese presence in Sri Lanka since two Chinese submarine calls in Colombo last year. The incident was the final straw in India’s relations with Rajapaksa, whose China tilt had strained his ties with New Delhi, which worked behind the scenes to unite a fractured opposition and pave the way for the unity government of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe.

The new government set out by putting on hold several projects it saw as Rajapaksa’s white elephants bankrolled by China. But need for Chinese investments and a crushing debt burden – created partly by billions of dollars of Chinese loans for infrastructure projects – has softened the government’s initial anti-Chinese stance.

Work on US$1.4 billion Colombo Port City, a development project off Colombo, among the first projects the government pulled, recently resumed after protracted negotiations. “There is no financial hub between Singapore and Dubai. Colombo Port City will fill that void,” Wickremesinghe said.

The government has also decided to give 80 per cent of Hambantota deep sea port on a Hong Kong-style 99-year lease to China Merchants Holdings for US$1.1 billion. Built and financed by the Chinese, this US$1.5 billion port has been a commercial failure, getting hardly any ships.

For the Chinese, Hambantota and a Colombo port terminal, also built by China Merchants, are among the main attractions of Sri Lanka – which sits bang in middle of the principal east-west sea lines of communication connecting China to the main oil exporters in the Middle East and Africa. That makes Sri Lanka a key component of China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ strategy of integrating the regional economy through infrastructure development.

Leasing the port, which alone has been costing US$147 million a year in debt repayment, will help ease the external debt load of US$64.9 billion. Sri Lanka’s foreign debt soared from 36 per cent of GDP in 2010 to 94 per cent last year. Debt repayment is sucking up around 95 per cent of all government revenue, with a third of all earnings estimated to be servicing Chinese debt. As a result, Sri Lanka recently had to resort to a US$1.5 billion IMF bailout.

Wickremesinghe, however, believes he can make Hambantota work – as well as Shenzhen, in fact. “When we took over, the port couldn’t even meet the recurring expenses, let alone debt repayment. We had a long discussion with the Chinese government over turning around this white elephant. A plan was drawn up for the industrialisation of Hambantota, including freeing up to 50 sq km of land for an industrial estate for Chinese companies. The Chinese side proposed a refinery, an LNG and cement plant, and a dockyard. China Merchants has asked for land to develop backward logistics as they have done in Shenzhen,” he said.

But surely Hambantota, in the southern tip of Sri Lanka and in one of the most backward areas of the country, cannot match Shenzhen’s locational advantage?

“Why not? I had been to Shenzhen in 1979, it was a paddy field. I was travelling by train from Canton [Guangzhou] to Hong Kong by train. I went there again in 1987 and saw how it had transformed from a small fishing village. I must say Hambantota today is more developed than Shenzhen in 19679."

(South China Morning Post)

On Sunday Jaffna observed Great Heroes’ Day (Maaveerar Naal) in memory of cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who had laid down their lives for the cause of establishing an independent Tamil Eelam.

Northern Provincial Council members M.K.Shivajilingam and Ananthy Sasitharan, and provincial Agriculture Minister P.Aingaranesan were among many who gathered at the Thileepan memorial in Nallur, Jaffna, to pay homage to the dead fighters.

Thileepan had fasted unto death to force India to side with the LTTE in its confrontation with the Sri Lankan government in 1987. He is hailed as “Thyagi Thileepan” and touted as the non-violent face of the LTTE’s struggle. 

A Thayaga Sudar or Torch of Sacrifice was lit and blood donation camp was also organized.

Shivajilingam said that Heroes’ Day observance is meant to remember not just the dead of the LTTE but all the dead of all militant groups, including those who had lost their lives in internecine warfare. He put the total number of dead in the armed struggle at 50,000.

The provincial councilor who is related to Prabhakaran but belongs to a rival group said that observance of the Heroes’ Day symbolizes the continuing struggle for a just political solution to the Tamil question. Those who oppose the observance lose the right to speak on behalf of the Tamils he said.  

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP.E.Saravanapavan lit the torch at a former graveyard (Thuyilum Illam) for LTTE cadre in one of the islands off Jaffna. Similar observances were held in other parts of the Northern Province like the districts of the Wanni which had borne the brunt of the last phase of Eelam War IV.

To mark LTTE chief Prabhakaran’s birth anniversary (November 26) students and faculty of Jaffna University lit candles and planted tree saplings in the campus. 

A memorial service was held in which the object of veneration was a picture of the flower Gloriosa Lily (Karthigai Poo) which is deemed the national flower of Tamil Eelam.

In contrast to the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government allowed the observance of Heroes’ Day without getting the police and army to disrupt it according to Indian media. 

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and Cabinet Spokesman Rajitha Senaratne had both said that it is the right of the Tamils to commemorate their dead.

To make it acceptable to the central government, the observances generally avoided references to Prabhakaran or the display of his pictures. 

Everywhere it was a solemn occasion to remember the dead by  observing silence, lighting torches and candles, planting trees and donating blood.

In a probe being carried out by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in India, alleged Islamic State (IS) recruit Ashfaque Majeed’s father has revealed that Arshi Qureshi, guest manager with the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), had allegedly funded Ashfaque and his fellow recruits’ Sri Lanka trip.

IRF is led by the controversial priest Zakir Naik.

After Abu Anas, another alleged IS recruit from Rajasthan who the NIA believes received a Rs-80,000 scholarship from the IRF, this is the second instance in which the now banned NGO is suspected to have spent its funds on alleged IS recruits.

“Ashfaque’s father Kader claims that while leaving for Sri Lanka in February this year, Ashfaque told him that Qureshi was funding the tour. In all, 21 people were attending a small course on ‘Learning Quran’. Qureshi had also paid money to make their passports,” an official told the Indian Express.

According to Kader, on February 23, Ashfaque left for Sri Lanka, where he stayed in Jaffna, the Indian Express said.

He later returned to India in the first week of March and stayed mostly in Kerala. On May 24, he came to Mumbai for a week, before leaving for Afghanistan in June along with his wife and their 18-month-old daughter.

Based on the complaint by Kader, the Mumbai Crime branch had arrested Qureshi, Rizwan Khan of Al-Birr Foundation and Mohammed Haneef, a maulana from Kerala. Last month, the case was transferred to the NIA, which is probing the larger case of 21 Kerala-based youth who were allegedly radicalised and then fled the country to join the Islamic State.

The IRF has said they plan to challenge the validity of the FIR filed by the NIA.

“The case under UAPA is based on cases for which an FIR had already been registered, and therefore the new FIR is invalid,” an IRF spokes-person said.

The NIA has also written to banks asking them to freeze Naik’s bank accounts.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Police is set to register a first information report (FIR) against Islamic televangelist Zakir Naik, after the state law and judiciary department sent in its opinion that a case may be made out against him for inciting enmity.

SLFP ministers will be awaiting Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake's 2017 budget speech this afternoon to see if their proposals have been incorporated in it.

Karunanayake will deliver the speech at 2 p.m. He insisted that the budget will be a people's friendly budget.

Meanwhile, the SLFP ministers of the government have already handed over their proposals pertaining to the budget to the Finance Minister.

Pandit W. D. Amaradeva, widely considered to be the doyen of Sri Lankan music, passed away at the age of 88.

He was admitted to the Sri Jayawardenapura Hospital this morning.

Born on December 5, 1927, Amaradeva started his careed in the 1940s and was also a violinist in his early days. He reached his peak in the 1960s and early 1970s, especially with collaborative work with Mahagama Sekara.

Addressing a press conference a short while ago, JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake called on the Prime Minister and his supporters to cleanse themselves before attacking the media over reports on the Central Bank bond scam.

He slammed the government for threatening the media instead of addressing the findings of the COPE committee on the Central Bank Bond Scam, saying that the government's threats to bring the media before the COPE and the Parliamentary Priviledges Committee was laughable.

Most of the media had reported true facts all along, as seen by the COPE findings, Dissanayake said.

He challenged the government to take legal action against the wrongdoers in the matter.

President Maithripala Sirisena said that the police made a laughingstock of itself by the immature raid on the estate of UPFA MP Kumara Welgama in search of two state vehicles.

Speaking to a vernacular newspaper, Sirisena said that the police put the government in a very difficult situation through this.

If the police suspected that there were vehicles in that premises, there were better ways to investigate than putting on a spectacle, the President said.

The President's remarks come a week after his attack on the Bribery Commission, the CID and the FCID where he warned that stern measures will be taken if they work according to a political agenda.

The 'Joint Opposition' has decided to delay the launching of the new party till early next year, political sources said.

The 'Joint Opposition' has done most of the organizational work for the new movement and had taken steps to prepare a party constitution as well. However, the leaders of the JO have now decided to wait till December and observe the moves taken by President Maithripala Sirisena.

Both sides of the SLFP seem to be reluctant to see the party divide. Several prominent SLFP leaders backing President Sirisena publicly stated this fact in the recent weeks.

There is a sizable minority within the JO which opposes the launching of a new party.

It is also said that the leadership of the new party will be taken by Gotabaya Rajapaksa or Dinesh Gunawardena. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is unlikely to officially take the leadership, sources said.

The 'Joint Opposition' has appointed a committee of seven members which, by October 30, is expected to prepare the constitution of the new political party proposed to be formed.

A President's Counsel, two senior lawyers, two university lecturers, a professional and a social activist are among the seven members.

Meanwhile, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's office has received 13,000 emails with suggestions for the name of the party and proposals for the constitution. The office is open for suggestions on points to be included in the constitution till October 15.

However, the office has stopped accepting suggested names for the party.