Is the MCC ‘dead and buried’?

Perhaps the lady's career plans are at stake!

I wouldn’t blame anyone for believing that the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact is dead. Indeed many thought it was effectively shot down in early November 2019 when Ven Ududumbara Kashyapa Thero ended a fast-unto-death protesting the compact upon assurances first by Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the presidential candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and then by the United National Party’s candidate Sajith Premadasa.

Rajapaksa, at the time, vowed that all agreements signed after elections were called would be reviewed. Premadasa immediately asserted the same. The two polled 94.24% of the total votes cast. While the election was not primarily fought over the MCC Compact it is obvious that the result did not demonstrate a green light for it. The sentiment probably leaned the other way, i.e. against the MCC Compact.

So, is it dead then? Well, in politics it is not unusual for people, parties and policies considered dead and buried to be resurrected. At the turn of the millennium many in the then ruling People’s Alliance and their ideological cousins in the UNP would have believed that nationalism or at least Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism was dead and buried, along with concerns over the future of the unitary state . Federalism was the future they may have believed. They would have to shed such convictions a few years later. Similarly those who thought federalism in and of itself and as stepping-stone to separatism was buried when the LTTE was defeated in May 2009 had to live with a resurrection of sorts after January 2015.

So let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, not least of all because US Ambassador Alaina B Teplitz has stated that the MCC Compact would be signed after the General Elections of August 5, 2020. For all the assurances given by the lady and MCC representatives about benefits (‘It’s a gift, not a loan, dudes,’ they’ve said) one has to wonder why the gifting party seems to be more invested in the matter than the would-be beneficiary. The answer was provided in December 2019 by Senator
Bob Menendez (D-N.J) in his opening statement at a US Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing titled ‘Oversight Of The Millennium Challenge Corporation.’ Convened to question the MCC’s Chief Executive Office Sean Cairncross, Senator Menendez, the Vice Chair of the Committee made the following observations:

‘MCC’s data driven approach assesses countries’ constraints to economic growth, and their needs to ensure a maximization on investment returns each countries receives. Americans benefit from these investments as strategic partner countries experience improved regional security through improved economic security, growing trade opportunities, and the ability to resist malign external influence. MCC is an important tool in the U.S. foreign policy toolbox that requires congressional support, including robust oversight to ensure the independent agency sustains its success.’

Flag the following sections: a) ensure a maximization on investment returns, b) ability to resist (as ‘strategic partners’) malign external influence (China?), and c) important tool in the US foreign policy toolbox. So it’s not a ‘bucks needed by friends, bucks given, end of story’ as made out by outfits such as the so-called ‘independent policy think tank’ Advocata Institute which brags that its reductionist and anti-intellectual beliefs in ‘free-markets’ will deliver ‘sound policy ideas’ that are compatible with ‘a free society.’

Advocata is either ignorant of the basics of political economy or is as thick-as-thieves with the goons in this matter, for they submitted to the review committee the view that the Compact ‘should be accepted without further delay.’ Advocata need not call Menendez to figure out what’s what — a close reading of the text should have sufficed. This however would first require a suspension of both free market fixations and a preference for wide-eyed embracing of stuff dished out from Washington DC.

Back to the question. Is it dead, then? The Review Committee (on the MCC Compact) has submitted its final report to the Prime Minister. The Committee, in the Interim Report submitted in February clearly opined the following in the main: a) the Compact would have an adverse impact on the national, social and economic well-being of Sri Lanka, b) the Compact in its draft form contains sections that are at odds with Sri Lanka’s constitution and the law while implementation would be detrimental to national interest, sovereignty and national security.

Given that US Government has not indicated any willingness to amend the terms of the MCC Compact as of now, one can surmise that the Sri Lankan Government would have found it hard to sign the document if the final report does not stray significantly from the above. Apparently there’s been no such departure — Joint Cabinet Spokesperson Minister Ramesh Pathirana declared that Sri Lanka will not sign the Compact.

However, we can’t dismiss the Ambassador’s claim. She mentioned elections. Let’s consider the key players in this election. We know that the SLPP has a significant edge. We know that the Opposition is split, after the UNP’s presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa broke ranks and decided to contest in a separate coalition, the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJP).

In January this year President Rajapaksa told the visiting Deputy Assitant to US President Donald Trump, Lisa Curtis, and Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, Alice G Wales, that a decision on the Compact will be taken considering the views of the people and after the expert committee which is going into it comes out with its report. The views of the people were obviously considered by the Review Committee and found expression in the Interim Report, over and above the antipathy that’s evident in the November 2019 election result. Ramesh Pathirana has articulated the Government’s position. The party, i.e. the SLPP, hasn’t said anything so far.

The UNP’s stand is clear. The Compact’s key champion was Mangala Samaraweera, a powerful minister in the UNP Government of the time. In late October, the Cabinet of Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government decided to sign the agreement. Wickremesinghe claimed that this will happen before the Presidential Election. Interestingly, Sajith Premadasa, a senior minister in the same cabinet never once raised any concerns about the MCC Compact. He went along. He offered silent consent. It wasn’t until Gotabaya Rajapaksa gave the above-mentioned assurance to Ven Ududumbara Kashyapa Thero that Premadasa discovered an ‘opinion.’ He essentially copy-pasted his opponent’s position.

In December 2019, Sajith Premadasa went a step further. ‘I will provide parliamentary support if the Government decides to tear up the MCC (agreement),’ he declared. Just a few days ago, Premadasa upped the ante, ‘I am prepared to sign an affidavit pledging I would never sign the MCC agreement,’ he said, adding that the present government should give a similar assurance. Premadasa no doubt would publicize the promised affidavit in the coming days.

Is it dead, then? Let’s say, ‘buried,’ and as a note of caution add, ‘for now.’ The US is down (on multiple fronts) but it is certainly not ‘out,’ as machinations in Geneva to stop moves for a UN resolution or investigation on rights violations indicate. Moreover, this is not only about Washington’s prerogatives as clearly articulated by Menendez. It’s a pet project of the Ambassador. Ms Teplitz was in charge of making Nepal swallow the MCC pill. Perhaps it is a career-defining matter for the lady. One would have to be very naive to believe she would ‘take a knee’ (in remorse) having ‘given the knee’ (so to speak) in a diplomatic equivalent of what George Floyd had to experience.

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malindasenevi@gmail.com

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DANGER: The MCC Compact is down, but not out

There’s an agreement on the table which could thrust Sri Lanka into an inextricable bind where knot could be tightened at will by another country through multiple means.  The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact. 

The US Government has been working tirelessly to get it off the ground. Few if any are purchasing the rhetoric about it being a ‘Sri Lankan draft, made by Sri Lankans with Sri Lankan interests at heart.’ The ‘drafters’ were operating from Temple Trees. They were supervised (a generous term) by the MCC. There was a scandalous rush to obtain cabinet approval. 

The probable reason is that the movers and shakers felt that there was an imminent ‘danger’ of regime change. The stated reason is that Sri Lanka would miss out because new rules disqualify countries in the Upper Middle Income category. 

Interesting. The MCC probably has valid reasons for such a limitation. As of now, according to the World Bank, Sri Lanka IS an ‘upper middle income nation’. What this means is that Sri Lanka, like any other upper middle income country, is not in dire need of the so-called benefits of an MCC Compact. Sri Lanka barely satisfies the criteria of being among the poorest 75 countries. In terms of per capita income Sri Lanka is ineligible. The assessment score is computed by considering several criteria, naturally a design to make it possible to approve or disapprove. 

The US Embassy in Colombo and Jenner Edelman, Sri Lanka Country Director for the Millennium Challenge Corporation have pooh-poohed at concerns raised. They have not once mentioned that the MCC has terminated agreements with Niger, Yemen, the Gambia, Tanzania, Nicaragua, Honduras, Madagascar, Armenia, Mali and Malawi. Neither have they mentioned that the Nepal Parliament has been debating the MCC Compact for five months. 

The MCC Compact ‘Recitals’ state that the Government has consulted with the private sector and civil society to determine priorities. This is akin to a condition for eligibility. [See Page 1 of the Agreement]. However, there has been no consultation whatsoever with the people of this country. The draft was not made public. Public views were not solicited.  The Bar Association had access only to what is little more than a concept paper. The National Institute of Security Studies, which comes under the Ministry of Defense, commented extensively on the drafts of the SOFA and ACSA agreements but not on the MCC Compact, which makes us wonder whether that outfit was deliberately kept in the dark.

The Government has rushed to defend the Compact. Mangala Samaraweera not only defended the agreement but as is par for HIS course unleashed invectives on Ven Ududumbara Kasyapa Thero who started a fast unto death in protest. More on that later. Champika Ranawaka said ‘there’s nothing wrong’.

Well, there is much that’s wrong with the MCC Compact. Outside of general and healthy suspicion of any move by the USA (for reasons too well known to warrant enumeration) and the insane rush to push a ‘grant’ (typically it’s the beggar that begs, not the giver!), there’s much in the print and small print that should be of great concern.

The rhetoric regarding poverty alleviation is downright silly.  The targeted districts named in the so-called ‘Parcel Fabric Map’ covers districts that are below the national poverty headcount index. The move is essentially to survey, document and ‘free’ parcels to what would become a volatile land market. The safeguards of various land alienation schemes to protect poor farmers would be immediately dismantled. The vulnerable will be pushed to sell. In any case, enumeration is the first step of a time-tested process of plunder. It’s like documenting the fauna of Sinharaja as precondition for gene piracy. Markets facilitate it and markets always favor those who can demand from AND supply to them.

The most dangerous element is ‘control’. The Compact not only gives a foreign government absolute access to data that could be sensitive, but is full of clauses which in effect force Sri Lanka to submit to Washington. For those in happy-pill land, here’s some information: The MCC Board is made up of representatives. These include the MCC's CEO, the U.S. Secretary of State who is the chair, the Secretary of Treasury who is the vice chair, the administrator of USAID, and the U.S. Trade Representative.   

The MCC Compact will be governed by international law. Wow! A supposedly Sri Lankan project, designed and run by Sri Lankans for the benefit of Sri Lankans and funded by a grant (not a loan) cannot be governed by Sri Lankan law! Wow, again! Naturally any disagreement by any government will be sorted out in international courts. Need we say we would be severely handicapped in this regard? 

The Compact makes for ‘a Land Policy Research Group (LPRG)’ purportedly to ‘assist the government to conduct research and policy studies’ to gather information for land policy decisions. MCC will kindly help hire the staff and fund study tours for them! Ahem! Aha!

The MCC can, according to the agreement, terminate matters at will with no costs whatsoever. Sri Lanka, if wisdom kicks in at some point after the agreement is signed, can terminate at great cost. 

If indeed, Sri Lanka needs to do what’s set down in the project document, it does not require MCC support. The land project costs US $ 62.7 million over five years. That’s a little over $ 12 million a year. Much larger sums are wasted every year.  Why then should we agree to a design that could have serious infringements on sovereignty not to mention as serious social and political fallout?  

Happily, the peaceful protest by Ven Kassapa Thero (ridiculed by Mangala Samaraweera with acerbic comments reserved for the Maha Sangha) quickly yielded an undertaking by SLPP Presidential Candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa that all agreements signed from the time the election was announced until results are released will be reviewed keeping in mind the country’s interests including sovereignty. Sajith Premadasa, happily, followed suit. Better late than never, one might say, for the gentlemen has said nothing about the MCC even though he is a member of the cabinet that approved it! The fast was abandoned once Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe gave a written undertaking not to move on the MCC Compact.  

The fact that the candidates from the two main parties have given this undertaking is a good sign.  What Champika Ranawaka and Mangala Samaraweera have to say now would be interesting. So too leftists, liberals and others supporting Premadasa who defended the MCC Compact tenaciously when the SLPP started criticizing it. 

It pays to be wary. We should not be lulled into complacency by the statements issued by politicians during an election campaign where anything and everything can be promised only to be forgotten and/or rubbished later. 

malindasenevi@gmail.com. www.malindawords.blogspot.com

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Did the 'going devil' break the earthenware pot (crock)?

  

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The MCC: did the ‘going devil’ break the earthenware crock (koraha)?

Guess who will get the last laugh! 

Elections come and go. People and parties come to power. They come and go. Agreements sometimes have longer shelf lives.  This is why we have to be very worried about the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact which Cabinet approved recently.  Sure, it’s a ‘project’ that was mooted a long time ago, negotiations having begun way back in 2001 when too Ranil Wickremesinghe was Prime Minister. However, time has not lessened its controversial nature.

The US Government and the MCC have maintained that it’s a Sri Lanka led process, meaning that the document was authored by Sri Lankans. The Government has maintained that it is an agreement that will benefit Sri Lanka. 

Strangely, though, neither of these two ‘camps’ have bothered to make public the document, even in draft form.  Perhaps it is not ‘strange’ given the sway that the USA has over this government and especially the UNP. Perhaps it is not strange given that the Finance Minister, Mangala Samaraweera, has always held the USA in high esteem and given the impression that he is the point man in Sri Lanka for US interests of all kinds, political, military and economic.  

Perhaps it is not strange that that this decision was made with a major election just two weeks away. Perhaps it is not strange that the USA has wanted this agreement as well as SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) and ACSA (Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement) signed this year (meaning ‘before the election).

What it means is that the USA, known to be risk-averse in such matters, possibly sensed a regime change. If the MCC Compact could wait for 18 years, why not a further three weeks? If SOFA and ACSA are Sri Lanka friendly agreements, why should the USA (and not Sri Lanka) push them so ferociously? And if they were so harmless why is the USA and the United National Party (UNP) so cagey about them? Why keep things under wraps until the last moment? Should we not conclude that they have reached a point where they can’t wait any longer? ‘Couldn’t wait any longer,’ because they have a good sense of what might transpire on November 16, 2019, shouldn’t we conclude?  

This Government is out of order. Just to keep things in perspective Sajith Premadasa is part of this Government. He is a Cabinet Minister. He has not raised one word of objection to the MCC Compact, SOFA or ACSA. Well, he has not raised any questions regarding the Central Bank bond scam either. Nothing about corruption, nepotism, rank incompetence and abuse of state resources either. In fact he has abused his authority in his little ministerial empire, so one could argue that he doesn’t have the moral authority to question cabinet colleagues. 

It is the secrecy and the almighty hurry to see the MCC Compact through before November 16 that makes it scandalous. The document itself is heavy. What was ‘released’ are the sunshine parts, obviously. The devil will be in the detail and rest assured these details will come out. BEFORE THE ELECTION.  Sajith who is the Yahapalana candidate and who is made of the Yahapalana DNA will be held accountable, rest assured. 

The genes tell a story. It’s not the father-to-son thing that we are talking about here. It’s the truth of association and partaking that Sajith cannot escape from. He is for better or worse the Yahapalana baby. The Yahapalana voice. He cannot run away from the last five years of misrule and incompetence. He cannot pretend he was not part of that party.  

This is why Sajith Premadasa must make a statement about the MCC compact.  Will he go along with it in the event he becomes President? Will he scuttle it?  Election outcome notwithstanding, he has to speak up. He has to defend it or condemn it. The problem is that he has offered his silent consent by way of being a member of the Cabinet that approved it!  

But this is bigger than Sajith Premadasa. This is bigger than his campaign, which is providing laughs that make Maithripala Sirisena’s and Ranil Wickremesinghe’s foot-in-mouth statements seem halfway intelligent. In short it is no laughing matter.  

The Yahapalana Government turned the term ‘good governance’ into a cuss-word. The UNP was supposed to do wonders with the economy. Wickremesinghe and his team claimed that they inherited a massive debt burden. Well, they’ve made it worse, haven’t they? 

They talked of mismanagement and waste. Pruning waste would yield enough for massive economic turnaround and amazing development, we were told. Zilch on the ground. The growth rate (by which the UNP’s neoliberals swear) is abysmal, with only Afghanistan’s performance being worse. No wonder that not a single big-name businessman attended the much hyped ‘business forum’ organized by Sajith Premadasa’s campaign team. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s event was packed to capacity, not by ‘brought-in’ crowds but people seen as business leaders. 

It’s the ordinary folks who count, however, when it comes to an election. They are certainly not cheering the Yahapalana Government. Even if we counted out the wrecking of national security that facilitated the Easter Sunday attacks, the disappointment and even disgust is palpable on the city streets and in the villages (those places that Colombots, Funded Voices, Born Again Democrats, Candlelight Ladies and other Kolombians are ignorant about).  

The MCC could, theoretically, make for a far more pronounced (and abiding) US footprint on the island. And the USA is NOT Sri Lanka’s friend. Nothing demonstrates this more than the machinations of that country in Geneva, interestingly supported by people like Mangala Samaraweera who literally wrote the country into a hole with Resolution 30/1 of the UNHRC.  

There’s an apt Sinhala saying about the destructive ways of those on their way out: යන යකා කොරහත් බිඳගෙන යනවා (yana yakaa korahath bindagena yanava). The ‘going devil’ will wreck everything before he leaves. Is that the story of the Sajith Premadasa’s Cabinet approving the MCC Compact? The wrecking is disturbing, obviously. It also means that there’s a devil on the way out. Small consolation but consolation nevertheless.

READ ALSO:  A political reading of the US Ambassador's angst

malindasenevi@gmail.com. www.malindawords.blogspot.com     

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A political reading of the US Ambassador's angst

Not out of love for Sri Lanka, let us be clear on that!

The US Ambassador, Ms Aliana Teplitz is agitated. The lady is in a hurry. She has written to President Maithripala Sirisena seeking his intervention to ensure cabinet approves the proposed Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact agreement between the two countries. 

Well, we know that the MCC is just one of three agreements currently under discussion. There’s the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and the Acquisition and the Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA). More on all these later. For now, let’s talk about Aliana’s missive.

Aliana has stated that the US is committed to an open and transparent partnership with the Government of Sri Lanka. She has alluded to her country’s investments in Sri Lanka. She’s talked about various benefits. 

Now is she assuming that there’s no one in the President’s office capable of reading the draft agreements that’s being discussed behind closed doors?  That’s not transparency on the part of the Government, but then again that’s not something she needs to worry about. 

The question is one of urgency. Why is Aliana in such a hurry? What’s agitating her so much that she has to write such a heartbreaking plea to the President?  

The answer to these questions may be found in the recent assurance given by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to the Bar Association of Sri Lanka. He said that none of these agreements will be signed this year.  

Well, that means, technically, they could be signed in 2020. Why can’t Aliana wait? What’s this great hurry-love for Sri Lanka? Surely, a few months of delay won’t wreck the ‘development’ she is marketing? After all it’s not as though we can go further down the tube courtesy Yahapalalana incompetence, theft and rank idiocy! So why can’t she wait? Here’s a probable answer. 

Aliana could be worried that come 2020 the yahapalana lot would be out of power. Ranil Wickremesinghe, a known receiver of US dictum (who, to his credit, hasn’t gone ga-ga as yet over these agreements), might no longer be the premier. Mangala Samaraweera, whose genuflection before the West is legendary, in such an eventuality would be out of the decision-making equation as well. Maybe it’s not ‘could’ but really ‘most certainly would’ in terms of electoral outcome.  

So, ladies and gentlemen, it’s not about love. No country loves another; countries take care of interests and if other countries are arm-twisted or fooled into playing the idiot all the better. In this instance, one player (the USA) has the arsenal to destroy the world several times over and the bucks to buy agreement (declining, sure, but still with considerable purchasing capacity) while the other (Sri Lanka) is not only economically weak but is burdened by a mindless, clueless regime whose signature attribute is a slave-mentality when it comes to the West.   

It is not that a different government would be, well, ‘different’ but these are ‘friends’ and it is also easier to do business (or extract edge) with friends as opposed to the possibility of having to deal with a regime made of people you’ve spent a lot of bucks to oust not too long ago. Interesting, in the context, is the fact that Aliana had also paid a courtesy call to Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa. We don’t know what they talked about, but it won’t be out of order to presume that the lady is covering bases, hedging bets.  

Forget Aliana, she’s doing her job. How about the Government? It is supposed to take care of the people’s interest. Some ministers have rubbished those who have raised objections to these agreements saying ‘no such agreement has been signed’ and asking ‘if you haven’t seen the documents, how can you oppose it?’ Valid points. On the other hand, why can’t the Government release the draft agreement or the US proposal(s)? Why be so opaque about it? 

In the absence of transparency we have to assess these things in terms of track records. The history of the USA need no repetition; a rogue state if ever there was one. The history of the UNP, the principal mover with regard to these agreements, is not exactly celebratory. Deceit, secrecy and sycophancy are typical markers of agreements signed by UNP-led regimes, the most recent being UNHRC Resolution 30/1. That was Mangala’s baby and therefore it is laughable when he says ‘I stand by the agreements and take full responsibility’. Easy words. Cheap words. Especially when you don’t have to deal with the consequences of downright chicanery and treachery.  

Government spokespersons have dismissed opposition to the SOFA and ACSA saying they were agreements that are being ‘renewed’. This is a blatant lie. As P.K. Balachandran has pointed out it’s not a matter of changing the date on which agreements expire. THEY ARE NEW DOCUMENTS. In the case of ACSA, it’s an 83-page text with more than 50 appendices. Moreover it is open-ended, with no time limit apart from a provision for ending it with either party giving 180 days’ notice. A lot can happen in a single day; a lot more in 180!  

SOFA is a nice acronym. Sounds comfy. Is it, though? What’s in the small print? Where’s the document? Why is this good-governance government so scared to make public the draft that’s being discussed? It’s the same with the MMC. We need the details. Why is the government is cagey?

We are not a happy nation, when it comes to representation. We are not a happy nation when we look at the people who makes decisions that could have disastrous outcomes for ourselves and our children. This government is not making us happy on most counts and that’s probably why Aliana is so agitated. She’s scared, perhaps, just as her yahapalana friends are, about political outcomes that are distasteful and which could sink or at least make it that much harder to stuff agreements such as SOFA, ACSA and MMC down the country’s proverbial throat. 

  

malindasenevi@gmail.com. www.malindawords.blogspot.com

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