Sunday, January 31, 2016

TNA Demand for Federalism is Reasonable

There should be political commitment on the part of the leaders to take Sri Lanka in a new non-antagonistic direction. People have suffered enough. There should be measures and efforts for public awareness and education, both in the South and in the North on these and related matters. After all, the demand for federalism on the part of the TNA or any other is not a monster or ‘Gona Billa.’

by Laksiri Fernando

( January 31, 2016, Sydney, Sri Lanka Guardian) The demand for federalism coming from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is reasonable. The question is how best to accommodate it within the existing realities. In my view, it could best be accommodated within the rubric of devolution.

It is not only from the Tamil community that the demand has come from. The first to demand federalism was the Kandyan Association in 1927. The founder of the SLFP, SWRD Bandaranaike was a firm advocate of federalism in the 1930s. There were more specific reasons for the founder of the Federal Party (FP), SJV Chelvanayakam, to demand federalism in 1949.

Some Reasons

With the deprivation of citizenship and franchise of the plantation Tamil community in 1949, a threat was perceived to the Tamil community in general. That was the genesis of the federal demand today, and the perception was not incorrect judging by the experiences of the 1950s and thereafter.

The demand for a separate state is a different one although the ‘federalists’ capitulated to that extremist demand under the heat of the events or circumstances. Otherwise, the demand for federalism cannot be considered an extremist demand. As separatism is now defeated, it is reasonable to consider the demand for federalism in an amicable manner.

Can there be risks? There can be risks but those can be minimized or shielded. This is where compromises are necessary.

There are ‘thousands’ of reasons why separation should be avoided in Sri Lanka. It is purely unnecessary. It will be a disaster for all communities. As human beings, the Sinhalese, the Tamils and the Muslims should be able to live amicably. But it should not be under the rule or hegemony of the majority Sinhalese. The fact that the Sinhalese are the majority in the country is a reality. That should not be misused. With that majority status, the Sinhalese have more responsibilities. The rights of the minorities should be safeguarded.

The Sinhalese should not have a ‘minority fear’ just because there are more Tamils in South India or elsewhere. Terrorism undoubtedly was a threat. This is something that the Tamils also should understand. If not for terrorism, reconciliation could have been easier.

Human rights awareness in the country appears to be quite low. That is one reason for the hostile and antagonistic situation. Human rights awareness allows people to shed their narrow tribal or ethnic feelings. Awareness of human rights motivates people to respect others equally without discrimination or distinction.

Federalism is not a monster or a ‘Gona Billa.’ It is basically a constitutional system. There is no single form of federalism. There are many forms. It is not about the name, it is about the structure and the system of governance. It is akin to our ancient system of ‘Manda-la,’ – within an overall system with a centre (‘Manda’), the existence of different units (‘La’).

Overseas Experiences Read more>>>

Dismal failure of the judiciary ends up with people’s demand for hybrid justice mechanism

Featured image courtesy AsianTribune

by Nagananda Kodituwakku
- on 01/31/2016

In the co-sponsored UN Resolution (A/HRC/RES/30/1) adopted on 01st October 2015, the government conceded that that people of Sri Lanka have no trust and confidence in the justice system and was compelled to agree for a hybrid justice system with an international dimension, to try alleged serious crimes committed against humanity.

However at a recent BBC interview President Sirisena vehemently refused to set up such a hybrid system and now the former Justice Minster GL Peiris says that the President Sirisena has not been properly briefed on the content of the Geneva Resolution. This is a baseless argument, that effectively undermines President Sirisena’s ‘wisdom and knowledge’ as the executive head of the State.

Then Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, in a damage-minimising exercise, conceded to BBC Channel 4 that the government would respect its obligations under the Geneva Resolution.

However, the Daily Mirror on 28th Jan 2016 reported a contradictory speech made by the Prime Minister in the parliament, which states as follows, “… He had stated that he had never told such a thing during the interview he gave to Channel Four…” exposing the total lack of integrity in the government business and raising concerns in the international community.

Rights groups express concerns

In this backdrop Prof. Savitri Gunasekera, representing the Friday Forum, a pressure group, issued a statement on 29th Jan 2016, justifying an independent and credible inquiry process, and stressing that ‘the joint resolution is a reminder that truth-seeking and justice, however complex, ensure social integration, and that their absence is detrimental to civic order and the rule of law and that the citizens must support efforts to establish an impartial inquiry process, to probe the events’.

Continue Reading →

A Defence Of War Crimes And War Criminals?

Yasmin Sooka

by Emil van der Poorten-Sunday, January 31, 2016

The fact that the hounds from hell are baying for the blood of South African Yasmin Sooka should surprise no one given the fact that this same bunch accused two other South Africans with similar credentials, the late Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu, of being “Tiger collaborators!”

It is not a matter for any surprise that the very same people who are organizing a thinly-disguised “Super Race” project called “Sinha Le,” continue their support of the Bodhu Bala Sena’s well-financed project which had seemingly run out of steam. The surprise is that a government allegedly committed to stopping Nazi projects continues to turn a blind eye to the reality that the vast majority of Sri Lankans recognize, if not oppose wholeheartedly. What are we waiting for? Another Black July or a Sri Lankan Kristallnacht?

The attack on Sooka, whose early history is with Mandela and Tutu, is only a part of the “philosophy” practised by the lumpen of this country, tacitly supported by those up to Cabinet rank and even higher, it seems, within the Ohey Palayang government.

There is an old chestnut about living with the dividends of history unobserved and the geniuses who claim to represent “Sri Lankan interests” are pushing the envelope in the matter of achieving that fate. That may well constitute poetic justice. However, if we let greedy morons take us down that path, we will have no one to blame but ourselves for the fate that ultimately befalls us all: “governance” that makes the Rajapaksa regime’s excesses look like a Sunday School Picnic!

I have said it before and I will say it again: the only way that we will see an objective analysis of what happened during the violent ethnic conflict that ended in 2009 will be if an international tribunal of committed and skilled people conduct such an examination and analysis. And let me be clear about any such initiative, the Desmond de Silvas, even if the third generation of self-promoting figures with their primary loyalty to those in their family circle, have no place in any such plan. To expect justice from a local panel, including hangers-on from this dispensation or its predecessor, is not only pushing credulity to the edge of the precipice of doom and gloom but giving it that final shove into the abyss. Those that pass for “practitioners of the law” in Sri Lanka have proven totally incapable of delivering on their local responsibilities in the day to day lives of our citizens, leave alone apply fairness and justice to a far bigger task. To expect them to deal fairly and within the bounds of universally-accepted norms is nothing short of ludicrous. Without an objective analysis and the determinations that flow from it, we are doomed insofar as any pretensions to civilized behaviour are concerned. After all, human rights and crimes against humanity are now within an internationally-accepted framework and even the most repressive regimes in the world pay lip service to those precepts, no matter how hypocritically. There Is Absolutely No Evidence To So Much As Suggest That A “Made-In-Sri-Lanka” solution can come even close to delivering. And please do not drag into this debate any of the Sri Lankans who are considered jurists of international repute. One in particular, who was the recipient, not incidentally, of some national honour from our Monarch-recently-deposed, displayed what can only be described as deafening silence as far as condemnation of the rampant abuse of human rights conducted, literally, under his very nose. If that individual (and his kin) were silent then, how in heaven’s name can you expect those at the lower levels of his particular totem pole to deliver in circumstances which could be, to put it mildly, fraught with political and personal risk? Read More »

A Defence Of War Crimes & War Criminals?

By Emil van der Poorten –January 31, 2016

Emil van der Poorten

The fact that the hounds from hell are baying for the blood of South AfricanYasmin Sooka should surprise no one given the fact that this same bunch accused two other South Africans with similar credentials, the late Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu, of being “Tiger collaborators!”

Channel 4 ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ 1 colombotelegraph

It is not a matter for any surprise that the very same people who are organizing a thinly-disguised “Super Race” project called “Sinha Le,” continue their support of the Bodu Bala Sena’s well-financed project which had seemingly run out of steam. The surprise is that a government allegedly committed to stopping Nazi projects continues to turn a blind eye to the reality that the vast majority of Sri Lankans recognize, if not oppose wholeheartedly. What are we waiting for? Another Black July or a Sri Lankan Kristallnacht?

The attack on Sooka, whose early history is with Mandela and Tutu, is only a part of the “philosophy” practiced by the lumpen of this country, tacitly supported by those up to Cabinet rank and even higher, it seems, within the Ohey Palayang government.

Domestic war crimes probe: Lack of clarity as Government tries balancing act

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe talking to Jon Snow (not seen) in the video grab taken from Channel 4 footage

By Our Political Editor-Sunday, January 31, 2016

President tells BBC no foreign judges will be allowed, but PM speaks of foreign participation
Fonseka likely to enter Parliament and get portfolio as part of the battle against Rajapaksa-linked group
One stand for local polls and another for world community could put Sri Lanka in political quagmire again

With local council elections only six months away, according to his own agenda, President Maithripala Sirisena dropped a bombshell last week.

Sirisena was perhaps trying to nip in the bud a possible campaign at the polls by the opposition, backed by his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa, about troops being tried by foreign judges. Leave alone a foreign judge, the very fact that they are being tried even by a local court is such a sensitive issue particularly in rural areas. It could be projected as the troops being punished for defeating the guerrillas. Sirisena told BBC’s Sinhala service Sandeshaya that neither the judges nor foreign prosecutors should be involved in an investigation into alleged war crimes. However, the remarks set off anger among local and overseas Tamil groups. The foreign offices of some western governments were livid. United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein who arrives in Colombo on Friday night, a UN source in Geneva said, would raise issue with President Sirisena.He declared that foreign judges and prosecutors should not be involved in investigations into allegations of war crimes by troops and Tiger guerrillas. It was only a week earlier he declared that local polls would be held in July. There is still some doubt on the date. The Delimitation Commission would have to first re-define boundaries of some local bodies. Thereafter, several amendments to local government laws will have to be passed by Parliament. One such amendment is to make provision for an increase in representation of women.

“He will ascertain whether the Sri Lanka Government is going back on the commitment made when it co-sponsored the US-backed resolution,” the source who did not wish to be identified said. On Saturday, Zaid will fly to Jaffna for a meeting with Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran and others. Upon his return, he is due to meet President Sirisena, Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe and Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera. Thereafter, the Human Rights High Commissioner is to have a detailed meeting in Colombo with Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MPs on the basis they are key stakeholders.

Sandeshaya interview

The BBC Sandeshaya report, later widely reported by its English channel, said: “The President of Sri Lanka has said foreign judges and prosecutors should not be involved in an investigation into allegations of war crimes. In a BBC interview, President Maithripala Sirisena said the country did not need to ‘import’ specialists. Both the army and Tamil Tiger rebels are accused of atrocities in the civil war that ended in 2009.

31/01/2016

Any journalist worth his salt knows only too well, the media is the darling of politicians only when they are out of power. When in power, unless one is absolutely willing to toe their line, journalists soon becomefoes from being friends.

Hence, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe‘s outburst against journalists and several media organisations is not something to be surprised about, as the honeymoon between a new government in power and the media is almost always short lived.

Of course, for those who had great expectations that the new yahapalanaya government would usher in an era when media personnel can have their say without getting thrashed by politicians, it is no doubt cause for great disappointment.

The Prime Minister’s remarks against media personnel on Thursday came during an adjournment debate moved by the JVP on the “Conduct of the Police in the recent past”. While many were expecting to hear more about the recent high profile crime cases including the Seya murder case and the death of a young man at Embilipitiya, in which the Police acted in a highly questionable manner, what followed was a lot of media bashing. The Prime Minister turned his guns on the media, accusing them of going on a witch-hunt against the police, referring in particular to the cases where the notebook of a reporter was forcibly taken away by police, while court hearings into the Embilipitiya case were under way.

The Prime Minister was irked that media groups and journalists have been selective in reporting on attacks on their colleagues and organisations during the former regime. “We do not need a media that applauds the Embilipitiya court and goes on a hunt at Homagama court. Have you been able to write a single editorial on what happened at Homagama court? What is your position with regard to Homagama incident? Do you approve the manner in which Eknaligoda’s wife was spoken to at court? We know you are trying to stir up racism. We will not allow that,” the Prime Minister said. Read More

Those Who Killed Media Freedom Still At Large

Lasantha Wickrematunge and Thevis Guruge and Premakeerthi de Alwis and Richard de Zoysa and Mylvaganam Nimalarajan and Atputharajah Nadarajah

by Ashanthi Warunasuriya-Sunday, January 31, 2016

We have been talking about media freedom for a long time now. Many a time, those in power had tried to intimidate journalists through abducting them, and by killing them. Some journalists escaped from this merciless treatment, fled the country seeking refuge overseas leaving their loved ones in Sri Lanka. They sacrificed their whole lives for the fight against injustice.

Freedom of the press in Sri Lanka is guaranteed by the Article 14(1) (a) of the Constitution, which gives every citizen “freedom of speech and expression and publication”. Despite this constitutional assurance, widespread suppression of media, particularly of those who are critical of the government is quite evident in the country. Of the 180 countries listed in the 2014 Press Freedom Index issued from the Reporters Without Borders, Sri Lanka is at 165th position.

According to Freedom House, during the civil war in the island, Sri Lankan journalists had no freedom at all to expose the true situation of the country let alone expressing their opinions. They had also reported at that time that Sri Lanka was one of the most dangerous destinations for a journalist to function. During this period, many journalists were killed, assaulted and made to disappear. Between 1999 and 2011, 25 journalists had been killed in the island. No accurate reports are available regarding murders, assaults and other forms of intimidation against the media during the war period in Sri Lanka. However some of them are as follows:

Thevis Guruge, the Chairman of the State-owned Independent Television Network (ITN), was killed on July 23, 1989. Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) was blamed for the murder.

Global Oil Price & Stock-Market Rout

By Kumar David –January 31, 2016

Prof. Kumar David

Do not imagine that the topic discussed here matters little to little Lanka. If the world economy goes into a tailspin we won’t find investors, markets for our products will dry up and Middle East employment will decline. This time with the world much more integrated it will be worse than the 1929-1944 depression and capitalist crisis induced WW2. So read on, duly warned

Is last week’s downturn a forerunner of a big crash to come later in 2016? Analysts are divided and at a guess pessimists outnumber fence sitters and optimists 2:1. Many expected an immediate bloodbath following the January market rout and the collapse of oil prices to below $30 a barrel. I doubted this since fundamentals need time to work themselves through the US and global systems and correctly opted for a delayed-crash theory. Yes, the price bubble in equities and property is spurred by ceaseless money printing and near-zero real interest rates in the US, Euro and Japan, yes spurts in US GDP and job growth may be dubious and jinks in the Chinese economy were unexpected. Yes oft quoted “top 1% owns more than lower 90%” jibes are symptoms of systemic disorder in global capitalism. However, systemic failure like fine wine needs time to mature.

British Marxist Michael Roberts shows that invest movement lags profit, up and down, by 12 to 18 months and adds: “Currently global corporate profits (weighted average of US, UK, Germany, Japan and China) have turned negative and US corporate profits are falling. That suggests business investment will start to drop too within a year or so. If that happens the US will likely head into recession”.

Since the Great Financial Crisis eight years ago I engaged in lively debates with Professor Harsha Sirisena (HRS), Professor Sivaguru Ganesan and Asela Dahana. HRS graduated from the Engineering Faculty (there was only the classic one then) a year after I did so I have known him for 50 years. Though friends, we are ideologically apart. I am a Marxist, he thinks socialists are balmy; he concedes Marx’s stature as a thinker but holds that on socialism he got it wrong. I had access to EFac records till I quit and HRS had the highest scores except for Alagiah Thuriarajah; so he is an exceptionally bright fellow.

President’s Interview with BBC Sinhala: Murandu-palanaya? – Sanjana Hattotuwa

President Sirisena

31/01/2016

A recent interview with President Sirisena, conducted with the BBC’s Azzam Ameen, is recommended viewing for those who want to assess contemporary politics and the trajectory of governance over 2016 and beyond. Over Twitter, I averred that while some of the President’s answers were positively disturbing, the opportunity given to grill him, and the fact that Ameen is still alive, unharmed and living without fear of a white van abduction, is testimony to how much Sri Lanka has changed from the dark Rajapaksa years.

In a segment of the interview, the President is asked for his opinion on the disturbingly racist ‘Sinha-le’ movement, which has recently gone from random acts of vandalism and car stickers to boisterous, inter-city, Sinhala-Buddhist supremacist rallies and Police confrontations. The President dismisses the movement entirely, saying in effect that it is fringe lunacy and without any merit. Where he gets it completely wrong is in trusting the capacity of our society itself to negotiate violence and extremism. This, lest we forget, is the same society that countenanced the rise of the BBS, Sihala Ravaya and all manner of manic monks, were generally ok with the massacre of thousands at Nandikadal, ignored the plight of those interned in Manik Farm, gave rise to the bheeshana yugaya in the late 80’s, which reads and believes mainstream media that regularly conflates Tamils with Tigers, elects murderers and thugs to Parliament, support MPs who abduct citizens, countenances a brutal, corrupt Police force and are fine with rampant militarisation in almost every sphere of public life. Where the well-springs of hope the President has over society’s ability to discern and resolutely disavow the ‘Sinha-le’ movement for what it really is a mystery.

In another question, President Sirisena is asked about nepotism, and the optics around the fact that his younger brother was appointed by him as the Chairman of Sri Lanka Telecom. The President’s answer is revealing. He claims there is a difference between what he terms ‘family rule’ (he uses the example of Cuba) and the fact that Sri Lanka Telecom, by virtue of being under a line ministry and a government minister, is essentially outside his sphere of influence. Azzam presses on and asks the President about taking his son – Daham – to New York, to sit alongside him at UN sessions and the fact that his daughter has also been spotted at public functions in an officiating capacity. Though it isn’t mentioned in the BBC interview, the official Facebook page of the President, handled no doubt by the Presidential Media Unit, photo-shopped Daham out of images of the official UN delegation when faced with, at the time, a vocal media backlash, especially online. The President’s answer is to first ask whether anyone, with any sense, will question why taking his son to New York is wrong. He says fathers who have sons will understand the love for a son, and that it really isn’t a question over governance. In what can only be described as a tad delirious, President Sirisena then says that fathers who haven’t been lucky enough to have children are the only ones interested in critiquing Daham’s place in Sri Lanka’s official delegation to the UN. He says this is their misfortune. Becoming increasingly defensive, in tone and body language, the President then avers that those who question him on this are devoid of humanity. Claiming the public aren’t really concerned about these issues, he pegs critical questions on this score to political enemies.

Aside from his tragically twisted take on nepotism, the President’s larger mistake is to use, as he does in this interview, the Rajapaksa’s and their political culture as a baseline to judge his own actions, and those of the present government. A rough analogy would be to compare Sri Lanka’s democratic timbre with that of the Central African Republic, or the Democratic Republic of Congo. We can pat ourselves on the back that we are so much better than either country, but what does this really mean? Likewise, to use the Rajapaksa’s as a baseline is a bluff that must be called – as President Sirisena knows only too well, our democratic values were reflected far more in the plural social mobilisation that put him where he is. It is to those who saw in him the best of who we are and can be that he has to answer to, not to autocrats and their sons from the past.

Further on, the President’s take on critical web and online media is to equate them, carte blanche, to yellow or tabloid journalism. Much has changed then from his first televised address to the public in early 2015, where he explicitly thanked those who supported his candidacy online and on Facebook, against all odds, to his current position, where when the spotlight is on him and his actions, critical online voices become destructive, shallow and irrelevant. When asked about the full colour, full page ads taken out in print media by various ministries to celebrate his first year in office, he again gets very defensive and proceeds to indicate he either doesn’t mean what says, or says what he doesn’t mean. On the one hand, he says that circulars were issued to not publish advertisements, which cost tens of millions of rupees in the aggregate, taken from public coffers. When then asked as to what action he himself will take against ministries and public bodies that went against these circulars, he says a complaint has to be lodged with the Ministry of Finance, after which an investigation will be held. Yet again, he uses the excessive corruption under the Rajapaksa’s to suggest that things are comparably much better, and that change itself takes time.

We have a President who isn’t yet used to being a President. It is unclear he was coached on the answers around the questions he and his media team knew would be asked by the likes of the BBC. Maithripala Sirisena is still operating as if he is competing against Mahinda Rajapaksa. Clearly opinionated and believing he has risked more than most, the President may think this entitles him to an arrogance and stubbornness that in turn are effective firewalls against good advice. Critical commentary is taken personally, and sadly, ignored. President Sirisena’s most recent BBC interview will be remembered for a singular lack of vision and humility, which were hallmarks of Sirisena the Presidential aspirant.

It is not just his loss. It is ours too.

Sanjana H

An angry PM and the betrayal of a revolution

by Rajan Philips-January 30, 2016, 9:10 pm

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is an angry man these days. The winter in Davos has not cooled him down. He lashed out at GL Peiris before going to Davos. He lambasted the journalists, just last Thursday, after returning from Davos. Peiris came under fire in Jaffna where the PM had gone to celebrate Thai Pongal, just as Mahinda Rajapkaksa used to fly to NuwaraEliya to preside over the CWC’s cow-milking ceremony to mark Pongal. A milky way to reconciliation, you might say. But GL Peiris fully deserves the PM’s wrath for the once great professor has as little credibility left in him to lecture about the constitution as one time Chief Justice Sarath Silva has to talk about the Supreme Court. The latter seems to have finally come to terms with keeping his mouth shut, and the former must smarten up and lock up his gab for good, politically speaking.

Coming back to the Prime Minister, it is not clear who he despises more – Peiris or journalists? On Thursday, in parliament, it was verbal flailing at the media gallery by an angry Prime Minister on his feet. His anger and his frustrations at the goings on in the country are understandable, even welcome, given the perception many have of him as being a man with, for all his cleverness, not enough fire in his belly for politics. He is obviously sincere about turning the country in a new direction for the better from the disastrous last five years. But the turning is not happening. It is even worse than one step forward and many steps backward. Nothing seems to be unfolding the way the Prime Minister would have wanted the Sri Lankan universe to unfold after January 2015. While this is a serious problem for the PM and the government, or those in the government who stood for genuine change in January 2015, it is not going to be solved by scolding Peiris and the journalists in public and in parliament.

Was there a revolution?

Talking about January 2015, was there a revolution in Sri Lanka one year ago? There is more curiosity than debate if the term, revolution, is apropos or not. There are those who say there was, and others who think it’s a joke to think that there was one. But there is greater agreement about an unfolding betrayal. I am not suggesting that if there is betrayal there must have been a revolution. The accusation of ‘betrayal’ comes not only from those who worked for the victory of President Sirisena in January 2015, but also and more stridently from those who called him a traitor for leaving his leader and worked to defeat him (Sirisena) in the election.

Yo You Arrested; An Official Sri Lankan Mourning Day

By Sulakshi Thelikorala –January 31, 2016

Dr. Sulakshi Thelikorala

Awwwww… It is sweet how he is handling it. I feel kind of sorry for him. A young boy cuffed and taken to remand.

I think before you read any further, best is to take a quick look at your FB home page. It is an official Sri Lankan mourning day on FB.

Yositha: my mind runs back to the very first time I saw this young lad with two of his friends. He was in a pair of shorts and rubber slippers, one November evening in 2011 at Spices Restaurant at Hilton Colombo. He didn’t have to be the President’s son but he was attractive enough to catch everyone’s attention. He seemed nice, down to earth that day and shared a smile. He was anyhow my favourite of the three brothers. He was a charming young lad and I actually feel sorry for this sight.

Today, he has captured everyone’s attention like never before.  Some are crying on FB for him and some are happy. Facebook is having more or less of a mourning day today. What follows these posts are those ofDeshapalana Paligeneem posts.

sts.

(Lanka-e-News -31.Jan.2016, 1.25PM) It is very unfortunate the unscrupulous media coolies of Sri Lanka in keeping with their sordid traits tried to paint a picture that the arrest and remanding of the five high ranking officers of the CSN channel including Yoshitha Rajapakse (son of Mahinda Rajapakse) ,Nishantha Ranatunge (younger brother of Arjuna Ranatunge ) and Rohan Welivita are the consequence of political vendetta .

One of those stinking media coolies who was there without bathing holding the mike for Mahinda Rajapakse did not have the guts to question ‘Didn’t your son go to jail because of daylight robbery of public funds?’ and ‘why did you allow your son to rob and you remained an idle spectator ?’ . The stinking media coolies were also unable to ask from Arjuna who parades as a paragon of virtue criticising all and sundry pointing out the frauds of all others across the country while his brothers were most corrupt ,why Arjuna could not notice the robberies of his own younger brother committed under his very nose? and, is it because his eyes were blurred by the exudation from his eyes due to eye gland infection?

These unscrupulous media coolies who would sell even their souls for a mess of potage notwithstanding , let us emphatically state , it is the responsibility of the true media to expose the truth pertaining to the criminal incriminations of these culprits , Yoshitha Rajapakse , Nishantha Ranatunge, Rohan Welivita, J.T.S Fernando and Kaveeshan Dissanayake of the CSN , and why they had to be put behind bars.

According to reports reaching Lanka e news , this investigation launched into the frauds at the CSN channel is the biggest ever in Sri Lanka ‘s history. The magnitude of the fraud is so huge , it is still not fully unravelled , but based on information surfacing so far , it is in the region of about Rs. 520 million ! though the actual figures are still being probed. This fraud is so extraordinary and astounding , because of the scheming modalities adopted much more than the amount of money involved.

In any Establishment when there is a fraud , it is only a section of that establishment or some group that is involved, but in the CSN , the entire establishment had been involved with the participation and collusion of all in general. In other words this Institution has been established with the sole primary aim and objective to commit frauds. From the very beginning –that is ,from the time of registration including the auditing and audit reports, the operations have been fraudulent .

The CSN does not have a permanent chairman. This is because its chief is Yoshitha Rajapakse and being an officer in the Navy he cannot legally hold that post in a private establishment .Therefore that aspect was kept hidden. Though Yoshitha was not the chairman overtly , he had signed all important documents. Hence , those actions of his alone are enough to dismiss him from the Navy.When any Institution is launched , an initial outlay is necessary. How is it provided and by whom ? must be clearly made known .

However pertaining to CSN , although a sum Rs. 90 million is its initial outlay, it is not mentoned who invested that Rs. 90 million or from which source it came. The worst part ? though the chiefs of the CSN were interrogated for the last several months in this regard , none could give an answer.That means this amount of Rs. 90 million is ‘black’ money out and out .The next question is , to whom does this money belong?

In addition , a further sum of Rs. 169 million had been remitted to this company from Singapore.Even the remitter of this sum is not recorded anywhere .The details and documents furnished in Singapore in this connection are also spurious, and nobody knows who remitted. Interrogation for two months was unavailing as none of the culprits were giving answers during the interrogations.

These ‘black’ monies have come to this Co. not from Singapore alone. From these transactions it is clear CSN was utilized for the money laundering activities of Rajapakses.

Money laundering is a most grave and heinous offence under the law. Those incriminated in money laundering cannot be ganted bail by the Magistrate court , as the latter has no powers to grant bail. Bail can be sought only through the high court . Therefore after Yoshitha and group were produced before the Kaduwala Magistrate court yesterday (30) they were remanded until the 11 th of February .

We have in our aforenoted report only revealed just a part of the massive fraud at the CSN based on what have been hitherto uncovered . A detailed report of the colossal misuse of state property and funds will be brought to you shortly.

By a special Lanka e news reporter
Translated by Jeff

---------------------------
by (2016-01-31 10:27:51)