Pilgrim’s Regress: On The ‘Usefulness’ Of Racism In Sri Lanka
By Anupama Ranawana -February 25, 2013
Anupama Ranawana
Purely for the sake of amusement, I encourage you to follow the Twitter account of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS). Claiming to be the revival of ‘real Buddhism’, the BBS will ask you to ‘rise up’ against the issuing of Halal Certificates, and inform you that they are enlightening Buddhists of the threats from the ‘dark forces’ of the minority. And just when you think you have them pegged as insufferably extremist, they will retweet a quote from the Dalai Lama espousing the need to have tolerance and love for all beings. It’s a masterclass in farce, and one wishes they were so easily dismissible. It is when their rhetoric becomes racist that you will perhaps need to block the BBS. Case in point- just a couple of days ago they responded to a Tweeter by calling him a ‘thambiya’- a terribly crude way of referring to a Muslim person. Whether Muslim or not, it was difficult not to be appalled.
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Sri Lanka legal team pocketing public funds in Geneva
Monday, 25 February 2013
Our sources in Geneva say that the team representing the Attorney Generals’ Department for the upcoming UNHRC session are enjoying a luxury life from the public coffers violating government’s own regulations on expenditure.
Deputy Solicitor General Buwaneka Aluwihare, and Senior State Counsels Janak de Silva and Nerin Pulle are paid US $400 a day as allowances for the entire month in addition to be paid for their full-board hotel accommodation.
But all three of them pocket that money and stay with Sri Lankan friends in Geneva.
The trio, who are close associates of controversial CJ Mohan Peiris, have long been enjoying foreign trips for weeks and pocket all the expenses.
One of their recent cases involve staying in London and Singapore for weeks to argue the Hedging case for the government. But they never have won a major law suit, including the Hedging case, abroad.
Analysts are of the opinion that, given their closeness to the CJ, they will soon be appointed as judges of the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court.
