12 May 2023

Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

 

 

 

IMF AND NOT PARIS CLUB

 

In the Australian Tamil community, those  married as per religious ceremony are allocated much higher status than those living as de facto partners. One has position and the other does not. This applies to governments also. If the Sri Lankan government is recognized as the official militants are recognized as de facto governments. The parallels at international debtor-creditor relationships are the IMF and the Paris Club respectively.

 

‘The Paris Club was created gradually from 1956, when the first negotiation between Argentina and its public creditors took place in Paris.’ – Wikipedia.

 

As per yesterday’s Sunday Times report headed ‘IMF staff to meet President Wickremesinghe today’:

‘The delegates of the global lender will be in Sri Lanka until May 23.

Visiting as part of regular consultations ahead of the first review mission later this year, the IMF staff team will summon a press briefing on Monday evening (May 15) in Colombo, led by Krishna Srinivasan, the IMF’s Director of Asia and Pacific Department; Peter Breuer, the Asia and Pacific Department’s Senior Mission Chief for Sri Lanka; and Sarwat Jahan, the IMF Resident Representative in Sri Lanka.

The IMF staff team’s visit comes days after the first meeting of Sri Lanka’s official bilateral creditors committee, during which the island nation’s authorities formally presented a request for debt treatment. China, Saudi Arabia and Iran were in attendance as observers.

The committee, co-chaired by India, Japan and France, carries 17 members that comprise Paris Club creditors as well as other official bilateral creditors.’

As per the above report, the meeting with Paris Club happened after the Sri Lankan  parliamentary approval of the IMF agreement.

As a Tamil Diaspora elder stated about my yesterday’s article, it is about relativity. True. But relativity works naturally only within a sovereign body / entity. If this is IMF, why are Sri Lankan authorities seeking  Paris Club observation?  Have Sri Lankans separated from official structures and positions? If yes, how did this happen?

As per my experience, the more I invest in the official system, the more it supports me. From time to time, when I have to take a position ‘outside’ the official system, I ensure that it is as per my Truth, which invokes the power of Universal system. We carry with us the structure of our own Truth. It is our DNA which is bound to be different to that of any other. But when we go into our own DNA / Karma, we connect to all those who were through whom that DNA was formed. These ‘others’ have positions as Equal other sides of the true positions we invested in. They are no longer our seniors or juniors at the end of a completed relationship. The end happens when we are driven by truth and not the law.

To be valid, the law needs to connect two or more positions within the same structure. Some who are committed to a position where the other side fails go develop relationships with others who have fulfilled that other side. Then the two make up a natural relationship. Together they are Sovereign, functioning as One. If we complete both sides on our own, we become Power of One.

As per Sri Lankan government’s history, it has downsized its structure to accommodate militants. In his press meeting in April 2002, LTTE leader stated that he was open to then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. I believe this was genuine. But taken as a whole, he had to reject any proposal under Sinhala Buddhist leadership. That was LTTE’s official mandate that underpinned its visible structure. Hence , three years later, in 2005, the LTTE opposed Ranil who demonstrated willingness to a negotiated settlement. That which was denied in 2005, became reality in 2022 through the very same clan that effectively ‘stole’ his position.

Nations that contributed to the end of the war in 2009, including India, USA & China, did so to protect their own official structures, inherited and upheld over many generations.

Paris Club does not have such a heritage that would work naturally. Institutional structures underpinned by heritage, will work naturally wherever it has a current medium. Ranil Wickremesinghe is such a medium for Sri Lanka to work the IMF agreement. Why go to a club / de facto governance when we have admitted to a global institution / official government status?