I have no regrets By Upul Joseph Fernando-2013-06-02 01 As I reached the house opposite the police guard post close to the Royal Park condominiums, a policeman shouted; "Where are you going?" When I replied to him, I saw a lady dressed in a purple blouse and a pair of black trousers standing at a stark black gate nearby. "He has come, putha, can you open the gate?" she asked a young man, who appeared to be her son. The lady, who stood before me, was none other than the 43rd Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake. While many have attempted to portray her in many lights, the Aluthkade legal fraternity would describe her as a simple, charming lady wearing a Kandyan saree and wore no makeup. My first impression of her was that she was quite calm without even a shade of ennui. Seeing her inside the closed compound of her home, with windows and doors closed, I had the impression that she was under house arrest. Q: Don't you get the feeling that you are sort of under house arrest? A: I certainly do. It was all due to my honest struggle to promote the cause of justice. I am proud of it. With the Bribery Commission periodically summoning me there, neither myself nor my son and husband, have any rest and peace in our lives now. A: Would you like to tell us about your family, village, schools and so forth?

I Have No Regrets by nelvely

The Other Dark Side Of The Shirani Impeachment Saga

By Paridhi Singh -June 3, 2013 

Paridhi Singh

It comes as no revelation to anyone who has been following the Impeachment saga, the profundity of impact it has had on all the citizens of Sri Lanka, be it their unsatiated hunger for justice for the former CJ Shirani Bandaranayake or their bereaved hopes in the present Government. To proclaim that it has rocked and vitiated the very foundations of the country, wouldn’t have been better proven as the penultimate truth, than at an event ‘Law talk’, organized by the Law Students Association of Sri Lanka (LSASL) on the topic “Aftermath of the Impeachment: Its Constitutional Implications” on 22^ndJanuary 2013. It witnessed the participation of over sixty, from various legal and non-legal backgrounds.

The two guest speakers comprised former Chief Justice Mr. Sarath N. Silva, who as he phrased it, was ‘the lone survivor of an impeachment motion in the country’ and was accompanied by, Mr. S.L. Gunasekera, present Senior Attorney in the Supreme Court. The speakers focused on the domino effect the impeachment had brought forth in the very provenance of Justice and laws in the country, ‘The Constitution of Sri Lanka’ also including the, far reaching and uncringing ripples that it may have on the present and future force of the rule of law in the country.

Former Chief Justice unmasked the entire constitutional elements of the impeachment trial and shed light on some of the sections, which because of their inherent ambiguity became the very vulnerabilities that led to the severance of ‘clear notions of justice’ from impeachment process. He further added that guilty or not guilty, the very process of the CJ’s impeachment is one that has undermined the inherent checks between the threeequal pillars of democracy, the legislature, executive and judiciary and has given birth to a precedent that will poison and chokehold the might of law and independence of Judiciary in the country.

Senior Attorney Mr. S.L. Gunasekara in contrast to Mr. Sarath’s pure constitutional law perspectives gave a profound picture of the rigmarole that the state of law and politics has become, as a consequence of this impeachment. He focused exhaustively on role power plays in being instrumental to such events crystallizing and how invariably politicization of all decisions causes weighing of political interests over one another, while the actual adjudication ought to be on the principles of “justice, equity and good conscience” and the consideration limited in its scope to only one which incorporates the affects the aforementioned decisions on its citizens.

The floor was later opened to the house to ask questions to be answered by the speakers, which saw fruitful engagement of students on various themes like right to fair trial, the appointment of the new CJ and the future of the laws in the country to name a few.

To conclude, the event ended on a bittersweet note, because although every participant had gained far more awareness and insight from the Law talk, yet that awareness came at the cost of having to fathom the reality of the country in which we live. The reality being a divergence, from the vision of a free and fair country we all foresaw and of Sri Lanka being known worldwide as a great and powerful nation that respects democracy and all its citizens. However, to rephrase what Mr. S.L. Gunasekera said at the end of his speech, the might of public opinion is far more powerful that any arm-twisting by the government. So long as the people resist injustice or raise their voices on fora like the ‘Law Talk’, then change can still come. To add my own two piece of wisdom from the ‘Law talk’ the epiphany of it all could be summed as following, that, Democracy dies not by the hands of a power-ridden government or a corrupt judiciary or a prejudiced parliament, but by the silence of all its citizens.

* Paridhi Singh is presently working with the Attorney General’s department as a part of the United Nations Development project called “Access to Justice” and is pursuing BA.LLB. integrated law course in Jindal Global Law School, India.

Govt. buys Iranian oil illegally from vessels passing Colombo

By Ravi Ladduwahetty

In what could be an allegation, which could have international repercussions, the UNP charged yesterday the government was surreptitiously purchasing Iranian crude oil from vessels passing Colombo in spot purchases.

“This is a very serious offence where the government is doing spot purchases from vessels passing Colombo and avoiding opening Letters of Credit, which is very illegal and we have all the satellite images to prove this,” Colombo District UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake alleged.

He told Ceylon Today , that the UNP, as a party had not released the evidence, being acutely aware of the  consequences that Sri Lanka would have to face as a country.

He also dared the government to say why it was not purchasing finished petrol from credible suppliers and not from blacklisted companies. “Purchasing petroleum purchases from international markets have become a rich cash cow for the government,” he alleged.

Meanwhile, Petroleum Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa denied the allegation, claiming the government has not imported either Iranian oil or oil of Iranian origin since June 2012 and there was no basis for the allegation for evidence of satellite communication for spot purchases, as there were no spot purchases.

He also refuted news reports the government was planning to privatize the Sapugaskanda Refinery and that the work of the laying of the pipelines from the Colombo Port would be expedited to be completed by end 2013.

Petroleum Ministry Secretary, Dr. R.H.S. Samaratunga, also said the government has specified in all tender documents that the oil to be purchased by Sri Lanka should not have oil of Iranian origin.

India's opposition party delegation to visit Sri Lanka to discuss 13th Amendment
Sat, Jun 1, 2013, 10:38 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Jun 01, Colombo: A six-member Indian delegation led by the deputy leader of Indian opposition Bharatha Janatha Party (BJP) Ravi Shankar Prasad will arrive in Sri Lanka on June 04 for a five-day visit to hold discussions with the Sri Lankan President and Defense Secretary on power devolution.
The purpose of the Indian delegation's visit is to discuss the issue of granting police and land powers to the provinces under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and Northern Provincial Council election with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the Sinhala language Sunday Divaina reported.
Quoting unnamed top sources, the newspaper said that the BJP delegation would meet the representatives of the government in the evening of June 7.
A 15-member Sri Lankan delegation comprising five senior Sri Lankan ministers, a senior intelligence official, a member of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), and four officials of the Ministries of External affairs and Defense will participate in the bilateral discussion, according to the newspaper.
In addition to the leader Ravi Shankar Prasad, Indian delegation will include Shiv Sena leader Suresh Prabhu, senior Indian journalist Swapan Dasgupta, retired IFS officer Vivek Katju, RSS representative Ram Madhav and human right activist Monika Arora.
Reportedly, Ministers Rauf Hakeem and Douglas Devananda are also to take part in the discussions while ministers Wimal Weerawansa and Patali Champika Ranawaka who oppose granting land and police powers to provinces will not be participating.

According to the newspaper this is the first discussion BJP will have with the Sri Lankan government prior to India's general election in 2014.

SL military intelligence backs Buddhist extremist move in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 June 2013, 22:25 GMT]
The threatening act of Sri Lankan military intelligence operatives, who took close-up photographs of the Tamil protestors against the construction of Buddha statue at the entrance to Batticaloa city on Wednesday, has exposed the nexus between the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry and the Sinhala Buddhist extremists, alternative political activists in Batticaloa said. The harassment by the SL military intelligence has also provoked Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr S. Yogeswaran to react saying that if any untoward incident befalls the peaceful demonstrators, it would be considered as the work of the Sri Lankan intelligence operatives who were involved in the act of public harassment on peaceful demonstrators. In the meantime, Batticaloa Magistrate NMM Abdulla has issued an injunction order prohibiting the construction of the Buddha statue, legal sources in Batticaloa said. 

The SL Police in its report to the court had admitted that the construction of the statue at the site would cause public controversies, the legal sources further said. 

However, news sources in the city said that the chief Buddhist monk at the Mangalarama Buddhist temple in Batticaloa has vowed to appeal the decision of the magistrate court and resume the construction of the statue at the same spot. 

The Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian of Batticaloa Mr. S.Yogeswaran has condemned the act of the Intelligence personnel for taking photographs of the participants of the demonstration. 

Mr. Yogeswaran said that he, as a member of parliament, took photographs of those intelligence operatives who were involved in the hostile act against the peaceful protestors. 

A tense situation emerged at the scene for a while during the protest on Wednesday when the demonstrators were rounded up by the SL military intelligence.

If India obstructs 13 abolition; severe danger warns Minister Sampika

We did not  oppose only to hold the northern provincial council election, but our objective is to completely abolish the 13th amendment.

 

If India intervene to obstruct this, it has to face severe consequences was the warning given by Minister Sampika.

 

He queried if two lacks and 36 thousand Tamil people could live in Colombo, why Sinhala people cannot live in north.

 

He said in the past 21 thousand Sinhala people lived in Jaffna. But now only 674 persons are living.  Sinhala and Muslim people were expelled from the northern region, and do they not have the authority to register?

 

Tamil National Alliance office was inaugurated in Bambalapitiya, and did we pelt stones? However why stones are pelted when Sinhala colonization’s are done? He said, if Sambanthan says don’t live with Sinhala people, all get settled in Jaffna, it will sound normal. 

Sunday , 02 June 2013

Government is firm in land confiscation. Land Minister Janaka Bandara says no changes

To erect a defense central center in Jaffna, six thousand 381 acres of private lands will be confiscated has planned. There will not be any reason for alternative opinion, explicitly said Land and Land Development Minister Janaka Bandara Tennakoon

 

Against this land confiscation, the land owners have filed petitions at the Court of Appeal and if necessity arises against the confiscation, interim injunction could be obtained was said by the Court of Appeal, in this situation, Land Minister made the above statement.

 

If lands are required for national security or development activities, it cannot be considered whether it is north or south. Wherever necessity crops up, it would be confiscated said Land Minister.

 

Minister said, government for the above requirements, had even confiscated ancestry properties. Lands identified to construct military camps will be taken over for the requirement, and the balance will be given to the owners, Minister said.

 

He said measures are taken to grant compensation to the owners whose lands get confiscated. Meanwhile opposing to government’s land confiscation, on behalf of 2176 land owners, petitions were filed at the Court of Appeal.  Court informed the petitioners have the right to obtain interim injunction. 

Sunday , 02 June 2013

A Grand Failure Of The Sri Lankan State

By Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena -June 2, 2013 

Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena

Verily, one is not sure whether to be outraged or amused by assurances made by Sri Lankan Government’s Permanent Representative this week that non-summary proceedings into the brutal killings of 5 students of Tamil ethnicity in Trincomalee during 2006 will commence in the first week of June 2013.

This statement made at the 23rd Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in Geneva was presumably based on advice tendered by the Attorney General. The UNHRC was also informed that the investigation into the deaths of 17 Action Contra L’ Faim (ACF) aid workers, who were shot at point blank range at their office during that same year in Mutur, is continuing.
We have been hearing these claims for quite a while. Indeed, this appears to be part of a monotonously standard response that is trotted out by state representatives each time that the Geneva sessions come around.

Insincere promises and lack of political will

The Mutur and Tricomalee incidents involved calculated and cold blooded executions of civilians occurring seven years ago during the thick of the conflict in the East. Despite tremendous public shock at that time, the Government declined to properly investigate let alone prosecute the offenders even though the circumstances were opportune, at least in the case of the executions of the students in Trincomalee. In the ACF case, serious deficiencies were demonstrable in the judicial process such as the transfer of the case from the Magistrate of Mutur to the Magistrate of Anuradhapura (for which differing reasons were given by state officials), lack of due diligence in the preservation of the scene of crime and omissions in the forensic process, including breaking of the chain of custody.

Now we are being informed with all pomposity of the grand step of a non-summary being initiated in one instance. In the other, we are told that the investigations are ‘continuing’. It is a classic example of adding insult to injury no less.

Impact not limited to a few individuals

The impact of these two cases is not limited to the devastation caused to the family members of the victims. Rather, as Premawathie Manamperi’s rape and murder during the first Southern insurrection came to symbolize the atrocities committed at that time by a Sinhalese government against the Sinhalese people in the name of crushing an insurrection, the Trincomalee students case and the ACF murders symbolize the cry for justice of innocents of Tamil ethnicity during the last years of the conflict.

Resolving these cases through a proper working of the Sri Lankan legal system would have brought goodwill to the Government itself. So would acknowledging that atrocities happen during war and making an apology to the family members of the victims. Instead, we have cynical role playing which fools no one, least of all the UNHRC.

And where pray is the Government’s adherence to the recommendation of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) which strongly advised that the report of the Udalagama Commissionwhich investigated these murders, be released? Even if the assurances that the killings are being investigated ‘pursuant to recommendations made by the LLRC’ are taken at face value, only part of the LLRC’s recommendations thereto are being implemented. This is an important point that ought not to be lost sight of.

Why is the Government reluctant to release the Udalagama report?

The Udalagama Commission was headed by a former Supreme Court judge and constituted under warrant by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. It sat for many months inquiring into mandated cases of human rights abuses before it was unceremoniously wound up with its mandate uncompleted. Its report remains unpublished. So like the proverbial Pandora’s Box, are we to assume that publicizing its contents would open up all evils for this country? Are the Commissioners presumed to have thrown all discretion to the winds and embarked on a reckless condemning of State actions?

Certainly it requires a remarkable stretch of imagination to conceive of such an eventuality. Given the general thrust and trend of these reports by Sri Lankan Commissions of Inquiry typically tend to err on the side of caution rather than function as bold purveyors of the truth akin to their Latin American counterparts. Further, even more than past Commissions, the Udalagama Commission faced considerable structural problems (lack of timeliness, lack of an effective witness protection system etc) and provoked concerns as to its independence from the Government and from the Department of the Attorney General. It was assuredly not an ideal example of a dynamic fact-finding body.

Why is this Government guilelessly prevaricating in regard to the release of the Commission Report for so long? The continued ignoring of a simple and commonsensical suggestion by the LLRC, against the Government’s own proudly touted ‘homegrown’ Commission is mysterious, to say the least.

A State’s legal responsibility

Leaving the Udalagama Commission aside, State responsibilities in regard to the Mutur and Trincomalee killings are very straightforward under the domestic law as well as international standards. There can be no justification for the killing of civilians and a defence by state agents that relies on orders from above cannot be upheld.

In fact, as was held in the very case concerning the rape and murder of Manamperi, a soldier cannot be penalised when he disobeys an order which is manifestly and obviously illegal, such as shooting a helpless and unarmed person. And when a state of emergency is called, the ordinary civil law of the land cannot be regarded as pro tanto suspended, thus entitling the military to engage in whatever acts of brutality in pursuance or supposed pursuance under emergency powers conferred on them (Wijesuriya v the State, 77 NLR, 25).

In terms of international standards meanwhile, Sri Lanka is directly responsible for its failure to meet positive obligations to prevent and punish certain serious violations such as arbitrary violations of the right to life even if the acts are carried out by non-state actors. A State party has a responsibility to investigate extra judicial executions, to bring to justice those responsible for disappearances, and to provide compensation for the victims’ families. These are all fundamental duties on the part of the Sri Lankan State in regard to which it has resoundingly failed.

Crimes that resonate in our conscience

At a time when the 13th Amendment is generating more heat than reason, it seems surreal to (for example) be occupying oneself with the virtues or ills of devolving police powers to the provinces when the entire national policing process has become so degenerate in the first instance. Let alone extraordinary crimes, police functions in regard to the ordinary law and order process have become exceedingly politicized. The recommendation of the LLRC that the Department of the Police should be delinked from the Ministry of Defence continues to be disregarded by the Government. The National Police Commission is a farcical shadow of its original self under the 17th Amendment. In its present form, it merely swallows up public funds and performs no useful function.

Effective investigation and prosecution of cases such as the Mutur and Trincomalee killings is therefore well nigh impossible, notwithstanding flamboyant promises held out by this country’s representatives abroad. Yet it is also quite clear that these are crimes that resonate in the conscience of this nation. And the victims will not be forgotten as much as the disappeared Sinhalese schoolchildren of Embilipitiya were not forgotten until their cases were heard and a measure of justice ensured. That much must be said.

The implications of States’ surveillance of communications for the exercise of freedom of opinion and expression

The implications of States’ surveillance of communications for the exercise of freedom of opinion and expression

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Frank La Rue, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression

''The present report analyses the implications of States’ surveillance of communications for the exercise of the human rights to privacy and to freedom of opinion and expression. While considering the impact of significant technological advances in communications, the report underlines the urgent need to further study new modalities of surveillance and to revise national laws regulating these practices in line with human rights standards.''

Experts:  

V. Modalities of communications surveillance 

The implications of States’ surveillance of communications by nelvely

China’s blank cheques: No checks and balances

Editorial-Sunday, June 02, 2013

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has just concluded his seventh state visit to China in as many years as the country’s Head of State and Head of Government. The importance — and significance — of the regularity of these visits can hardly be missed.

In the early years of his presidency, the priority was seeking Chinese military hardware to overcome the northern separatist insurgency. There was a steady supply of arms and ammunition often given on ‘tick’ (loan) through the People’s Liberation Army of China. They were meant to be Government-to-Government contracts, but with the liberalisation of China’s economy in more recent times, arms procurements were not without the taint of sleaze and scandal, but the lid was always firmly on the bin.

In the new dispensation, post-2009, the emphasis is naturally on economic development, something the Rajapaksa Government has embraced with gusto.

While the West is pre-occupied with pulling the Sri Lankan Government by its legs, so to say, and the Western-dominated lending agencies of the World Bank and the IMF hem and haw about giving conditional loans, the Chinese have no qualms in lending a helping hand with no questions asked.

Somewhat understandably, the President’s latest trip was akin to a secret visit. There were no formal announcements about his departure, and on his return, a brief media statement from his office referred to a US$ 2.2 billion (Rs. 278 billion) loan and that the two leaders held bilateral talks “encompassing several areas, strengthening Sri Lanka-China relations and laying the base for a new era of friendship and cooperation”.

Another paragraph referred broadly to Chinese funding to develop Sri Lanka’s transport sector that includes a number of expressways, including a Colombo-Jaffna expressway, road networks and railway lines, water supply projects and upgrading the national hospital in Colombo and the teaching hospital in Ragama.

In separate talks with the Chinese Export-Import Bank (Exim), President Rajapaksa made public what was already known. He said Sri Lanka has changed the development patterns inherited from the colonial period. Clearly, the West has pushed him into this corner. Read with what Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Minister said at a Beijing news conference about enhancing defence ties with China, the outcome of this visit is bound to cause ripples in many quarters in a geo-political sense. Adding to these concerns is a move to send Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry officials to China for training in diplomacy.

What is dealt with here are about the borrowings. Welcome as these projects are, the nagging question in this ‘preferential bias credit facility’ towards Sri Lanka by China is about transparency — in all the loans obtained and how the money is spent.

Much of the money borrowed from China goes back into the Chinese economy. Chinese companies are doing the contract work with Chinese labour. Sri Lanka has spent a massive Rs. 391.7 billion on investment projects in the country in the last four years. This money has been allocated for five projects, of which only three have been completed but are still to serve any real purpose.
All of these projects have been undertaken by Chinese firms, and have been funded by loans obtained from the Exim Bank. Many of these loans have been taken with interest rates for long term borrowing (20 years) varying from 3% to 6%, and short-term loans at an interest of 2%.

Construction of the Hambantota port was undertaken by the China Harbour Engineering Company at a cost of Rs. 149.2 billion. The contract to reclaim the sea and build the port city adjoining the Colombo South port was awarded to the same company at a cost of Rs. 85.4 billion; the Mattala airport project cost Rs. 22.7 billion.

All of these projects were carried out by China Harbour Engineering Company and have been funded by the Exim Bank at interest rates between 3% and 6%; the Chinese have also provided the labour force; the Norochcholai power plant was undertaken by China Machinery Engineering Corporation at a cost of more than Rs. 51.2 billion; the Southern Expressway (connecting Colombo to Galle) was also handled by the China Harbour Engineering Company at a cost Rs. 68.3 billion; the Nelum Pokuna theatre in Colombo provided Sri Lanka with its first state-of-the-art concert hall at a cost of Rs. 3.08 billion — only 60% of the loan was financed as a grant by the Chinese government.

Sri Lanka is now embarking on a project to construct the largest tower in Asia (down D.R. Wijewardene Mawatha in Colombo at a cost of Rs. 11.9 billion. The construction will be carried out by China National Electronics Import and Export Corporation and Aerospace Long-March International Trade Col. Ltd.

The total commitment made by China from 2007 to 2011 was US$ 2.13 billion. Of this amount US$ 2.1 billion came as loans and US$ 24 million as grants.

In the months to come, China’s Exim Bank will provide a loan of $278.2 million to Sri Lanka to help lay a 27 km single-line rail track connecting Hambantota and Matara; the Chinese government is giving US$ 240 million in loans to build infrastructure in southern Sri Lanka; China’s Exim Bank is financing the construction of flyovers and roads in the southern town of Hambantota with the aim of making it a transport hub; Sinohydro Corporation was given the construction of the Moragahakanda Project, which is the second largest tank ever built in Sri Lanka, at a total cost of US$ 382 million.

In the absence of the Right to Information Law that exists in more 100 countries around the world, but not in China or Sri Lanka, how these loans are expended, how much goes as commissions to individuals who farm out the contracts and how much to political party coffers, and how much is wasted is never known. And, these are loans that future generations will have to pay off.

The other issue is how wise it is to put all the country’s eggs into one basket and how indebted the country will be to one country, mindful that Sri Lanka’s geographical importance in the scheme of world affairs is not to be downplayed. But that is another issue.
That the Chinese have a geo-political strategic interest in the waters around Sri Lanka is only too well known. If all these projects are for the wellbeing of future generations, well and good, but serious questions have arisen over the prudence and feasibility of some showpiece projects executed with these Chinese loans.

One of the painful but beneficial aspects of World Bank/IMF loans was that there was a certain amount of fiscal discipline attached to them. Recipient nations, like Sri Lanka, had to work hard and show results to secure the loans. In so far as the Chinese loans are concerned, there seems to be a carte blanche or virtual blank cheque. It is almost as if while the Washington-based banks compromise the present for a better future; the Beijing bank works on the reverse theory.

Securing loans from a bank/nation ever-willing to lend is not as difficult as how you spend that money. Every loan, whether from Washington or Beijing has strings attached.

Sinhala Video: Thushara Speaks On The Scandal Of Namal Rajapaksa’s Law Final

June 2, 2013 

The scandal of Namal Rajapaksa, eldest son of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Member of Parliament, and heir apparent, receiving favoured treatment by the authorities at the Sri Lanka Law College at his attorneys-at-law final examinations grabbed media attention in year 2011.

Thushara Jayarathna, another candidate at the exam, alleged in complaints made to the police, Law College and even the thenChief Justice, that Namal Rajapaksa had been accommodated separately in an air-conditioned room with internet enabled computer facilities to sit for his examinations.

Namal Rajapaksa, eldest son of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Member of Parliament, and heir apparent

In the present political climate of Sri Lanka, the courage of Jayarathna’s decision to go public does not need to be retold. He has not only faced physical harm and intimidation for his trouble, but also received no justice either from the Law College or from the Sri Lankan courts. The Supreme Court has thrown out his fundamental rights case on technical grounds, thereby exhausting all his local remedies.

In this interview with Beyond Boston Thushara Jayarathna explains what has happened to him after he reveled the scandal;

Ven. Bowatte Indrarathana Thero’s Silence

By Malinda Seneviratne -June 2, 2013 

Malinda Seneviratne

Ven. Bowatte Indrarathana Thero’s act of self-immolation has generated much debate.  The act has been condemned as being ‘un-Buddhistic’.  Thebikkhu’s past was commented on. This included his political affiliations.

Theories about his ‘state of mind’ were floated on the internet.  The stated precipitating factor, objection to cattle-slaughter, was taken up, taken apart.  Some asked ‘Why only cattle?’  Some pointed out that such things cannot be legislated.  Some pointed fingers at the bikkhu’s political associates and others who have shared similar objections.  Some, who either objected to the political associates and/or Buddhists and Buddhism in general, were unabashedly salivating. ‘One down, more to go!’ some cheered on Facebook.

Then there is the issue of encouragement and apathy.  There were those who prompted the act or created the ‘objective preconditions’ for self-immolation, those who were seen accompanying the bikkhu, and the journalist who was informed of the act ahead of time and who turned up not to stop it (not part of his duty of course)  but to record it.  He has been singled out for censure, but other onlookers, policemen included, have been ‘let off’.  That too has been questioned.

The ‘before’ has been imposed on the ‘moment of immolation’ by referring to the Bodu Bala Sena, the Jathika Hela Urumaya, the furor over Halal labeling and related rhetoric and incidents.  The ‘after’ has drawn from ‘moment’, which has fattened the ‘before’.  The calls for banning cattle slaughter have got louder.  Piggybacking on the incident, the call for legislation against unethical conversion has received new life.

So there’s before-politics and after-politics.  Those who are invested in the political will not be apolitical, especially when political capital can be made one way or the other.   Lost in all this is a human being who was but is no more, remembered in frames in flames, but reduced to a name to rally around or direct invective at.

The image of a bikkhu in flames disturbs me.  The image of anyone in flames would disturb, but being a Buddhist I am that much more perturbed.  Granted that what went before marks the moment and granted that moment feeds what follows, which in turn marks the moment, there’s still something tragic about missing the moment.

Let us forget for a moment the fact that Ven. Bowatte Indrarathana Thero was a member of the Maha Sangha, the Buddhist Order. Let us forget his political affiliations. Let us forget the drama that preceded the act of self-immolation. Let us forget all that followed the act.  We see then a human being who emptied a can of petrol over himself, a human being whose garment caught fire, a human being who suffered terrible burn injuries before the fire was put out, a human being who was rushed to hospital and who was unburdened of burn and spectacle, politics and ideology, memory and wincing, concern for the living and dead, the survivals and slaughtering, pity and pathos, carrying (according to his beliefs – and mine) just the karmic accumulations of this life and those that were lived before.

Ven. Bowatte Indrarathana Thero is no more.  There is a before-death and an after-death in commenting preferences.  No one can stop that and no one should.  We nevertheless talk of respecting the dead. We observe silence for those who are no more.  Buddhists offer pin to such people.  There’s civility and culture, propriety and civilization, a time for word and comment, dissection and conclusion. There is a time for silence. It is made of respect.  It obliterates identity markers.

Maybe it is a personal thing, i.e. an individual choice, but it disturbs somehow that there is a strange reluctance to be silent.  All I see is a human being in flames, cheered by those who cry ‘one down!’ and glorified (in the same magnitude) by those who find fuel in flame for other kinds of torching.

Ven. Bowatte Indrarathana Thero is silent now.  By himself.

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of ‘The Nation’ and his articles can be found at www.malindawords.blogspot.com

Education handed over to an executioner – JVP

SUNDAY, 02 JUNE 2013 

Education in the country has been handed over to an individual whose main interest is privatization says the Member of the Central Committee of the JVP Bimal Rathnayake and condemned the attack on the just struggle of the students of Rajarata University by the political police of the Rajapaksa regime.

Speaking at a special media conference held at the JVP head office at Pelawatta today (2nd) Mr. Rathnayake said, “An unprecedented destruction of education in the country has taken place during the past thirty to forty years.  Also, Minister S.B. Dissanayake , appointed on the necessity of President Mahinda Rajapaksa  to destroy education, is engaged in destroying universities, suppressing students and university teachers and privatizing education. This government has suspended more than 1000 university students during the past three years; university education has been destroyed. This attack on education has been a concern not only in our country but internationally as well. We experienced one of the most intense moments of this sinister move at Sabaragamuwa yesterday.  There are many issues regarding the administrative and welfare sectors of the university. The university has come to the low level being closed it down for rain as well as sun. The students of this university do their studies under very trying conditions.

There are five faculties in Sabaragamuwa University. About 500 students have been left out when admitting students for the year 2013. Admission fee has been raised by three fold. Students and the academic staff condemned and opposed this state. Rajapaksa regime, following its usual policy of using ‘spectacle projects’ for its political leverage, attempted to hold opening ceremonies at Sabaragamuwa University. Ministers tried to declare open buildings that had not been completed. Students launched peaceful protests for government’s attack on education and its ‘spectacle projects’. Students asked not cut down the number of admissions. Sri Lanka is one of the ten countries that have fewer admissions to universities. Also, it is a country that spends the minimum for education.

While the students were engaged in agitations Minister S.B. Dissanayake and university administration suspended five student leaders. The Students’ Council was banned. The administration closed down the university. At a discussion the administration had with students they promised to take back the suspended students and students agreed to stop their agitation. However, the administration did not keep its promise. Instead, more disciplinary committees were appointed and more students wee suspended. As a result students commenced their agitations. What exists in Sabaragamuwa University is a government assisted arbitrary administration. The government attacked the students deploying its political police and gangs brought in by Air Force vehicles. Nine students were arrested. Five of them were students who had been hospitalized due to injuries received in the police attack. The hunting down of student is not over yet.

This suppression is taking place while education is being privatized, when courses are being sold and allocations for education are being slashed. Rajapaksa regime has handed over the higher education to a heinous minister. He looks at students like a jailor looking at prisoners. He has privatization in his head. They have made Sabaragamuwa University a torture chamber; a politically oppressive administration has been established here. The political police had been deployed to assist them. The police personnel assaulted students with wooden bars that are used to put across beds. The students were assaulted for requesting the right for their student leaders to sit for the examination. What is hilarious is the Chairman of Embilipitiya Pradeshiya Sabha in Ratnapura District, where the University is, assaulted two police officers. This incident occurred five days ago. However, the assaulter has not been arrested. The Chairman gives voice cuts to the media. The special police team appointed is unable to arrest him. Rajapaksa police will never arrest him. The police that has been weakened and made impotent by Rajapasa regime to wash its pots and pans would never arrest perpetrators who assaulted its own officers. Senior police officers assaulting university students instead of arresting suspects who assaulted their officers is a very dangerous trend. The police officer who was assaulted has been found fault with for making a statement to the media regarding the incident. However, the assaulter is under government’s protection.

Rajapaksa regime doesn’t maintain a lawful administration. It is a political band of hoodlums. Recently, the students’ collective of Sabaragamuwa University forwarded a letter to the IGP. In this letter it is stated that illegal gangs and groups come to the university at dawn in vehicles without number plates and carry out shootings. However, there hasn’t been any investigation regarding this.  According to police there had been only lighting of crackers. The government maintains such gangs of hoodlums. They set fire to newspaper offices, excavate for treasure at Vilachchiya and break into the museum. However, no suspects are arrested. It is very clear that suspects cannot be arrested as they are gangs of thugs maintained by the government.

There is a special fact that should be revealed regarding this incident. It is Keerthy Mahawallage who announced the banning of Students Council of Sabaragamuwa University.  He is a former SLFP Parliamentarian from Galle District. He has been given a post of ‘Director if Students’ Affairs’, a post that does not exist in the administration of the Ministry of Higher Education. The government has carried out the programme of banning students’ councils through this individual. The government, while reducing the intake of students to universities, is planting its henchmen in universities and fills university security services with its stooges to attack students.

As the JVP we condemn this incident. We emphasize that the government should immediately stop repression of students at Sabaragamuwa University and restore the right of student leaders to sit for examinations.

The suspension of students should be immediately withdrawn. The students should be freed from court cases they have been dragged into. This government protects rogues, murderers, plunderers, those who torch warehouses and ethanol racketeers. This regime is an illegal administration that destroys independence of the judiciary and set fire to newspaper offices; a government that violates the Constitution and attempts to destroy education. It is moving towards a dictatorship.  Hence, we ask masses to understand the nature of this government from these incidents. We also ask the masses to support the just struggle of students of Sabaragamuwa University and to come forward on behalf of just struggles.

The Member of the Central Committee of the JVP and the National Organizer of Socialist Students' Union Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa too was present.