Tamils, Trincomalee And The Real Scope For Peace

By Elijah Hoole -November 10, 2013 

I was in Trincomalee for a few days after a long time. The trip was fantastic. But, fun aside, the trip was also a harrowing experience as a Tamil. The speed at which the history and heritage of the town has been reversed by the hegemonic state is remarkable.

For example, a huge statue of Buddha (annexed) has been erected right below the famous Koneswaram temple.

While I have little clue as to how the hot water springs of Kanniya came about, I know for a fact that the official version has now been reversed. The yellow signboard from 2010 (annexed) has been removed and in its place there is a signboard in Sinhala and English claiming that the wells were part of a Buddhist monastery. While it would take some serious research to actually validate this claim, one has every right to question the motive behind not using Tamil. If the historical claim is indeed true, what purpose does the government hopes to serve by hiding it from Tamils? In addition to the new Buddhist temple that has been built, there are signs of another being constructed. One wonders why. The entire tourism industry is controlled by the military. It was hard to find Tamil vendors around any of the famous tourist attractions that I visited. I wonder what the city will be like in 5 years’ time.

When the collective existence of a group is under threat and their place in history is consistently undermined by the state, what hope is there for peace? What hope is there for equality? What hope is there for justice? What hope is there for reconciliation?

British FCO prevents group of Conservative MPs coming during CHOGM 

By Shamindra Ferdinando-November 9, 2013, 

With the 22nd edition of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) a few days away, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has intervened to prevent a group of dissenting Conservative MPs from attending the confab, well informed sources told The Sunday Island.

Sources claimed that six MPs would have taken a position on Sri Lanka contrary to that of UK Premier David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague thereby undermining the overall British strategy.

Responding to a query, sources said that as they had visited Sri Lanka previously the MPs would have been in a better position to examine the situation on the ground since the conclusion of the conflict in May 2009.

UK based sources said that the unprecedented move had come to light in the wake of UK Premier Cameron meeting representatives of three groups, namely the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), British Tamil Forum (BTF) and Tamils against Genocide a few days ago. Sources alleged that the FCO move was meant to ensure that the UK addressed the accountability issues in one voice during Premier Cameron’s much publicized visit to Colombo.

The British delegation is also scheduled to visit Jaffna.

Authoritative sources pointed out that the Canadian government had taken a position contrary to that of the British. Although the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Affairs and International Human Rights Minister John Baird had boycotted the Colombo summit accusing Sri Lanka of war time atrocities, Canada would be represented by Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary to Baird.

Sources said that in spite of Obhrai being a low level representative, he would be able to examine the situation on the ground much better than the Canadian Premier and the Foreign Minister as he (Obhrai) was one of the few foreign parliamentarians to visit the Vanni shortly after the conclusion of the war. In fact, the Canadian Minister had the opportunity to meet a few Canadians nationals of Sri Lankan origin captured during the Vanni push, sources said.

"We provided him with an SLAF chopper to visit the Vanni," a senior official told The Sunday Island.

Sources recalled an explosive Wiki Leaks revelation regarding the former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband playing politics with the Sri Lankan issue in the run-up to the final battle to appease the electorate comprising Tamils of Sri Lankan origin.

The Secret History Of Jaffna And The Vanni

By Darshanie Ratnawalli -November 10, 2013 |

Darshanie Ratnawalli

The Vanni was the source of elephants to the Kingdom of Jaffna and elephants were Crown Property. By issuing a proclamation dated Lisbon, 3rd Jan., 1612, the King of Portugal had let the natives know that he had cottoned on to that and no one therefore should mess with Crown Property, which right now meant his property. ” Whereas I have learnt that the elephants in the Island of Ceilao are and always have been from ancient times the property of the Crown,…”-(The Kingdom Of Jafanapatam 1645 Being An Account Of Its Administrative Organisation As Derived From The Portuguese Archives, P. E. Pieris, 22-23)

While managing their newly acquired crown property, elephantine and otherwise, there accrued to the Portuguese, a wealth of information, which reveals to us, the modern observers, the threads of cohesion[i] between the centre and periphery of the pre-colonial Lankan state. We learn for example that one such thread had created synergy in the realms of Lanka with regards to elephants and bequeathed the office of Kuruwe Vidane to the Kingdom of Jaffna, a territory which by the 17^th century was covered by a diaphanous Tamil garb, through which the Sinhalese inner garment showed much plainer than it does now.

In Jafanapatam, the officer who supervised the collection of the elephants due to the Crown was called Kuruwe Vidane. This information comes to us courtesy of the “Copy of the Foral of the Kingdom of Jafanapatam and the Vany” as well as of the “Island of Manar and of Mantota”, a manuscript in the archives of Portugal, which is the basis for P.E Pieris’s work op.cit. This Vidane do Curo or Kuruwe Vidane, as P.E. Pieris explains in page 64, endnote 50, “is a Sinhalese title, the Kuruwa being the Elephant Department. In later times the officer was called Kuruwe Mudaliyar. The office was in existence within living memory.” (The living memory of the 1920s is meant).

According to the Foral, the Kuruwe Vidane received areatane from the Bellales (Vellalas), who were not hunters, “both for his maintenance and for the expenses of the elephant catchers.”- (P.E, op.cit. 25-26). More importantly for our ‘threads of cohesion’ trip, the Kuruwe Vidane of Jaffna “was also allowed the areatane of the village Changatarvael.”- (ibid). The name Changatarvael “signifies “the rice field of the Buddhist priests.” Changatar represents the Sinhalese Sanghaya, Buddhist priest, and the word is used by Ribeiro.”- (P.E. op.cit. p64, endnote 54). Also according to the Foral, the Recebedor at Manar was authorized to incur the expenditure of two Kurunayakas (the traditional Sinhalese word for elephant caretaker, rendered in the Portuguese as “cornax”) for a tusker of certain size and one Kurunayaka for an alea. – (P.E. op.cit. p31-32 and endnote 63 in p65).

Another group of people who entered the Jafanapatam-Vanni-Mannar-Mantota Foral by having dealings with “aleas” (throughout the Foral, this Sinhalese word is used for elephants without tusks) was the “Patangatins” of Manar. This word (as P.E. explains in endnote 55, p65) is the “Sinhalese Patabenda, usually applied to headmen of the Fisher caste”. These people had been given the village Pembathy “as an emphyteuta” by the native kings of Jafanapatam and by the Portuguese too “this was confirmed on the Patangatin Mor Thome de Mello, the heir of the last holder, on condition of his supplying yearly an alea of not less than four covados.”- (P.E. op.cit. 26).

Read More

Colombo simulates ‘clustered camp’ for uprooted people of Valikaamam East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 November 2013, 23:27 GMT]
Colombo deployed its officials on Friday to showcase a ‘clustered camp’ project in Valikaamam East in Jaffna, promising ‘settlement’ to a few hundred uprooted Tamils in a deceptive move of moving a few hundred uprooted people from their camps outside the former ‘High Security Zone’ into the clustered camp environment in former grazing lands at Idaik-kaadu and Antony-puram near Palaali in Valikaamam East. Around 150 uprooted people from different camps were taken with journalists from South to showcase the ‘settlement’, a smokescreen move by SL military just ahead of Sri Lanka CHOGM to be held this month. More than 51,000 uprooted people from Valikaamam, which was occupied and declared as HSZ by the SL military, are continuously languishing in more than 10 so-called welfare camps and elsewhere in Jaffna peninsula since 1990. 

The latest deception has come while the occupying SL military is demolishing the houses inside more than 6,000 acres of land covering several villages inside the former HSZ in Valikaamam North, now being converted into a permanent ‘Sinhala Military Zone’. 

The move also seeks to diffuse the protests being planned by the people of Valikaamam North, S Sajeevan, the deputy head of Valikaamam North Piratheasa Chapai (PS), told TamilNet. 

The SL military has started to wage a propaganda that it is prepared to allow the people to settle inside the former HSZ. 

Meanwhile, informed civil sources said most of the grazing lands being utilized for the clustered-camp settlement were lands belonging to private owners. This will also create legal issues, the sources further said.

You must be getting sick of receiving updates from us, but the situation is changing rapidly and we want to keep you up to date. Here is the latest:

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  10/11/2013

• The Indian Prime Minister has confirmed that he is not going to be attending the Commonwealth Summit, following pressure from Tamil political parties. 
• The British Prime Minister is still going, but has called for an Independent International Investigation in Sri Lanka if there is no meaningful progress. This is the first time the British PM has used the word international in this way. 
• The Sri Lankan Government have handed out a 222 page paper attacking the journalism of Channel 4 news to every journalist attending the Commonwealth Summit. Channel 4 have refuted the claims the book makes here.
• Two Members of Parliament, from Australia and New Zealand respectively, were detained when they arrived in Sri Lanka. Lee Rhiannon and Jan Logie, both Green Party politicians, are believed to be safe but have had their passports confiscated. 
• The full BBC documentary, in which brave victims of sexual violence make allegations that in the programme are judged to amount to a crime against humanity, is now available online. In the UK you can watch it here, outside the UK it is currently only available in 3 parts: pt1, pt2, pt3

All in all it has been a good week for the campaign for peace and justice and a bad week for the President of Sri Lanka. And a lot of that is down to your pressure and activism. Thank you, and well done.

But we mustn’t get too triumphant. The leaders of 50 world nations are still on their way to fete a regime in which we know systemic rape and torture takes place, and which has the blood of around 70,000 civilians on its hands.

Now is the perfect time to press home our advantage, and keep the pressure up.

Click here to join our campaign on sexual violence

Click here to support our appeal for the victims.

UK To Seek Commitment 

By Easwaran Rutnam-Sunday, November 10, 2013

The British Government is to push Sri Lanka to demonstrate its commitment to Commonwealth values when British Prime Minister David Cameron visits the country for the Commonwealth summit (CHOGM) this week.

British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka John Rankin told The Sunday Leader that, as British Prime  Minister David Cameron has stated, he is coming to Sri Lanka because of the importance Britain attaches to the Commonwealth, irrespective of where CHOGM will be held.

He noted that Britain is a strong supporter of the Commonwealth as a force for good, and Britain will continue to promote its values.
“Secondly, we are coming because the spotlight will be on Sri Lanka as host – and Chair of the Commonwealth for the next two years – and we will look to Sri Lanka, as we would any host of CHOGM, to demonstrate its commitment to Commonwealth values,” he added.
Meanwhile, members of the British Tamil community, including British Tamils Forum members, met Cameron last week to challenge the UK government on its decision to attend CHOGM.

The delegation was invited to meet the Prime Minister following sustained calls by many, both within and outside the Tamil community, that the UK Government should follow the Canadian government’s lead and boycott CHOGM 2013.
The Prime Minister told the delegation that he could not boycott the summit without betraying Britain’s duties to the Commonwealth and its other member states, and that it is now too late to prevent the Sri Lankan President gaining chairmanship of the Commonwealth. Nevertheless, the Prime Minister assured the delegation that he would not let Sri Lanka use the event as an opportunity to whitewash its international image, and that he would instead ensure his visit is used to shine a spotlight on past and current crimes being committed by Sri Lanka.

PM not to attend CHOGM; Salman Khurshid to represent India
External affairs minister Salman Khurshid will head the Indian delegation at the CHOGM Summit to be held in Sri Lanka next week.

Nov 9, 2013
NEW DELHI: External affairs minister Salman Khurshid will head the Indian delegation at the CHOGM to be held in Sri Lanka next week with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh deciding against undertaking the visit in view of the opposition by parties in Tamil Nadu as well as a section in Congress.

The decision on level of Indian representation and Singh skipping the meet will be communicated to the Lankan government by Sunday, sources said.

"The Prime Minister is likely to write to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa by Sunday regarding his decision," government sources said.

However, there was no official announcement over Singh's decision to skip the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit on November 15-16.

Political parties in Tamil Nadu and several other outfits have opposedIndia's participation at any level in the CHOGM alleging that the Sri Lankan government had committed gross violation of human rights and had no plans to devolve powers to the ethnic Tamils.

However, Khurshid has been favouring Singh's presence in the CHOGM scheduled on November 15, maintaining that it was vital as it will reflect India's interests. According to MEA, it is also paramount to the nation's strategic and security interests.

Asked if there was a possibility of Vice-President Hamid Ansari representing India at the CHOGM if Singh decides not to go, MEA spokesperson did not give a direct reply.

He, however, said in 10 summit level meetings since 1993, the Prime Minister represented India five times while on four occasions, ministers had headed the Indian delegation. There was one instance of the Vice President representing India.

"So what you can summarize from this is that what we have followed in terms of participation in the CHOGM is an approach of something akin to horses for courses.

"We focused on what is required for our national interest, our foreign policy priorities and our international obligations. Taking those into account we have our delegations led by different people," he said.

Commonwealth, In Nineteen Eighty-Four

By Tisaranee Gunasekara -November 10, 2013 

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four”. - Orwell (Nineteen Eighty-Four)

The Commonwealth Summit will cause no traffic jams; the public will not be inconvenienced; there will be no disruption of normal life.

So the government has decreed.

The public are being advised to avoid many of the most-used roads. Schools are closed, at a time when teachers and students are busy preparing for GCE OL exams. Universities are closed – so that the students can study the Commonwealth, “in freedom and with a clear mind, from their homes” according to the Chairperson of the University Grants Commission, Prof. Kshanika Hirimburegama[i](whose husband was made the VC of the University of Colombo in violation of proper procedure and despite the opposition of university academics[ii]).

Traffic jams in Colombo are an everyday occurrence. When some of the roads are closed, some of the time, this normal congestion cannot but exacerbate. But such logical, rational assumptions are abhorrent to the regime. The public is being told to disbelieve the evidence of their eyes and ears and accept the regime’s version, unquestioningly: “A road will be closed for about 20 minutes when a head of state travels by. Even during the closure public will have alternative roads for their transportation. No shops or state institutions will be closed. Therefore the public will face no disruptions to their day-to-day life. Everything will continue as usual”[iii].

Anyone disagreeing with this version of reality will be committing a punishable offence. According to DIG Anura Senanayake, “Police, including their intelligence unit, have already begun investigations to nab such people”[iv].

Such repackaging of reality would be a trivial matter for a government which conjured up ‘the Humanitarian Offensive with zero-civilian casualties’ and ‘Welfare Villages’.Read More

Commonwealth Boycott

India Evading Rationale as Gothabaya Seems to Call for an International Inquiry

| by S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole

Indian Boycott of Summit

( November 10, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) After weeks of speculation over whether India’s Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh would attend the Commonwealth Summit in Colombo, in the late hours of Friday 8 Nov. 2013, Gulf News announced that “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may skip the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) due to domestic political compulsions.” But the report kept the tension high, attributing the news to sources and saying there was nothing official.

Commonwealth Boycott by nelvely

An Open Letter To Commonwealth Peoples Forum: The Hikkaduwa Declaration On Elimination Of War

By Saroj Jayasinghe -November 10, 2013 |

Prof Saroj Jayasinghe

Activities related to CHOGM 2013 have begun in earnest. The focus of the Commonwealth Peoples Forum (CPF-2103) at Hikkaduwa (10 to 13^th Nov) is on formulating proposals on how the Commonwealth could contribute to the United Nation’s Global Development Goals of 2015 (i.e. successor to the Millennium Development Goals of the UN that is scheduled to ‘expire’ in 2015).   The CPF-2013 offers a unique opportunity for global civil society and citizens of Sri Lanka, to submit proposals to influence this process and ultimately usher a better globe. In pursuance of the latter, the Hikkaduwa Declaration is proposed for discussion and acceptance at the CPF-2013.

As a gathering of civil society groups from many nations that have been devastated and maimed from wars, invasions, colonisation, and cross border conflicts, the Hikkaduwa Declaration calls the UN to include a  Global Development Goal that pledges to eliminate all forms of war from the globe by 2030.

Preamble:

Since the origin of human history, wars have cost billions of human lives.  Wars have decimated millions within minutes (e.g. due to dropping of nuclear bombs), destroyed whole civilisations and societies, created millions of displaced populations and crippled billions mentally and physically for a life-time. Furthermore, they destroy environments and whole ecologies forever.  In short, wars have the ability to destroy ALL development agendas overnight.  As a group of peoples who have experienced numerous invasions, colonization, cross-border wars and conflicts, we in the Commonwealth are placed in a unique position to make stand against any future repetition of such evil acts by fellow nations.

The United Nation’s Global Development Goals of 2015 (which is a continuation of the path taken by its Millennium Development Goals) offers a historic opportunity for individuals, civil society groups, nation-states and humanity to demand and pledge towards a globe free from wars and continue its march towards global peace. This is a prerequisite for any form of development, whether it is human development, social development or economic prosperity.

The on-going discussions on the UN’s post-2015 Global Development Goals focus on conflicts and violence within countries, and gives inadequate attention to wars between countries and global peace. Some of the reports and documents of the Commonwealth and the UN, relevant to these discussions avoid using terms such as ‘war’, ‘invasions’ and ‘cross border conflicts’.  Instead the focus of these discussions is on conflicts and violence within nations.

Read More

United roar of Tamil pride silences centre

By M C Rajan and R Prince Jebakumar-10th Nov 2013

It’s Advantage Jayalalithaa. Again. The most vocal champion of Sri Lankan Tamils, the articulate Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has ensured that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s trip to the island nation to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is all but off, cementing her position before the 2014 polls.

With virtually every party in the state speaking in the same voice, and as many as four ministers from Tamil Nadu in his government voicing their reservations, a cornered PM had little choice in the matter.

But, it was Jayalalithaa who gave the much-needed push for the fledgling movement to boycott the meet to gain momentum. The winter session of the T N Assembly passed a unanimous resolution moved by her opposing even titular representation at the meet. During the debate on the resolution, she took the Centre to task for being soft on Sri Lanka, which had violated every tenet of the Commonwealth. Further she also sent a missive to the Prime Minister explaining the rationale behind the boycott demand and debunking the claim of those advocating ‘engagement’ for strategic reasons. The boycott demand, it is being pointed out, attempts to bring a moral content to foreign policy.

Well, neither Jayalalithaa nor the political opinion in the state is wrong in arguing that engagement with a neighbour does not necessarily require a Prime Ministerial visit that too when the host is accused of war crimes against the ethnic Tamils. Analysts wonder as to why the Centre is so worried over engagement with Colombo, while it has failed to engage with the people in Tamil Nadu, where the Lankan Tamil issue strikes an emotional chord with the people.

 “It is not true that the relations between India and Sri Lanka could be strained because of the boycott. And the participation of the PM is not the only means of engaging Sri Lanka as claimed by some of the bureaucrats in the Ministry of External Affairs”, a senior AIADMK leader said. “If the PM attends, it signals that Lanka can do whatever it pleases with Lankan Tamils and India will be a silent neighbour watching it. Rather, India should move a strong resolution against Sri Lanka in the ensuing UNHRC session at Geneva”, he added.

After the Channel 4 ‘expose’ of LTTE news anchor Isai Priya’s rape and murder during the close of the Eelam War IV, the clamour for boycott reached its peak. Political parties and pro-Tamil outfits in the state flexed their muscles to ensure New Delhi stayed away from the event, which according to them would accord legitimacy to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, facing grave war-crime charges. Adding to the discomfort of the Prime Minister is the division in the Union Cabinet with a few senior ministers opposing his visit to the island nation, in view of the growing demand from TN for a total boycott.

The campaign for CHOGM boycott commenced in the cyberspace ever since the formal announcement was made by Commonwealth on December 7, 2012. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to boycott the summit gave a shot in the arm to the anti-CHOGM crusade spearheaded by the Tamil diaspora. Citing this, parties here demanded that New Delhi too take a ‘principled stand’ and refrain from attending the Colombo meet.

From DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi to Vaiko of MDMK, leaders of every political party also appealed to the PM not to grace the CHOGM summit. As was the case during the run up to the Geneva UNHRC session, where Sri Lanka was taken to task for its poor human rights record, this time too there were protests and demonstrations all over the state and even students took to the streets. Tamil nationalist and writer Thiagu went ahead with a fast which lasted for 15 days. “The Prime Minister has a conscience. We hope he will act accordingly,” told Karunanidhi to the media skirting the issue of the DMK extending outside support to the UPA government.

Similarly the MDMK, MDMK Lok Sabha MP Ganesamoorthy said the party was for the expulsion of Sri Lanka from Commonwealth. “More than war crimes, the Rajapaksa’s government has carried out genocide of Lankan Tamils. How can we allow him to chair CHOGM and if that happens he would head Commonwealth until the next the CHOGM conclave”, he said.

Calls for Key to boycott Sri Lanka trip

GLOSSY VERSION: A man puts the finishing touches to the decorations for this week's Commonwealth Heads Of Government meeting. John Key will attend despite calls that he boycott it.

19 10/11/2013
Prime Minister John Key has rejected calls to stay away from the Commonwealth summit in Colombo because of concern's over Sri Lanka's human rights record.

Andrea Vance talks to refugees haunted by the conflict.

Calls for Key to Boycott Sri Lanka Trip by nelvely

CHOGM – A Carnival Is Coming To Town!

By Sharmini Serasinghe -November 10, 2013 |

Sharmini Serasinghe

There is a tangible feeling of an impending carnival-coming-to-town in the air these days in Colombo. The city is being virtually turned up-side-down and inside-out, dusted and vacuumed by the Surgeon General of Lanka’s cosmetic surgery-Urban Development cum Defence - in order to make it look pretty to impress the visiting revelers.

Vibrant coloured banners and gadgets decorate the streets and roundabouts, competing with larger-than-life cut-outs of our very own Emperor-in-new-clothes. Trees pruned and some uprooted, innocent homeless dogs banished, roads re-carpeted and of course the pavements/side-walks dug up and some still awaiting to be tiled. In the interim, pedestrians at great risk to life and limb must share the roads with speeding vehicles.

In short, anything that doesn’t look pretty and prosperous is being removed and pretty-looking-things put in its place.

But this is not just any ol’ carnival coming to town, it’s CHOGM!

One wonders if such a din has ever been made by any other member nation over CHOGM during the entire 64-year history of the organisation..Read More

The Woodpecker And The Banana Trunk

By Ruvan Jayamanne -November 10, 2013 

There is a Sinhala proverb that says: “the woodpecker happily pecks away at trunk after trunk, but the day it pecks at the banana trunk it’s beak is stuck”. The reference is to the copiously threaded nature of the trunk of the banana that can entangle any object that pierces it, potentially suffocating the intruder, in this case the woodpecker.

It increasingly appears that in wangling the hosting of the CHOGM, the Rajapaksa regime has been pecking at a banana trunk.

The regime has so far stridently proclaimed its self-righteousness, and blamed “anti-Sri Lankan” elements for its international woes. By wangling the CHOGM it hoped to whitewash itself and get world attention; to showcase the Rajapaksa glory with its highways, ports, airports and other constructions; to cover up its misdeeds that constitute a long list from corruption and nepotism to ill governance and the denial of the rule of law; to get political mileage for continued ill governance and re-election; and to attract foreign investment worth an estimated US$ two billion.

Rather than any conceivable content of the Commonwealth conference, what has been increasingly gaining world attention are the misdeeds of the regime, most conspicuously war crimes, human rights violations and ill governance. Starting with the boycott by the Canadian prime minister and foreign minister, the regime’s expectations are dwindling by the day. The severest blow is that of the boycott by the Indian prime minister DrManmohan Singh, the leader of the nation most important for Sri Lanka and the Commonwealth. In addition, five Caribbean countries are joining the boycott, and the British prime minister David Cameron is expected to take up the demand for an international investigation into the alleged war crimes.

Contrary to the dreams of the Rajapaksa regime, the world media will be focused on the failings and crimes of the host rather than any substantial proceedings.

The local media, firmly in the regime’s grip, will sing its praises and portray Rajapaksa as a world leader.  For the negative publicity it is bound to get, the regime and its agents will blame the west, the Tamil diaspora and the NGOs.

Why Manmohan Finally Decided To Skip Lanka?

What appears to have tilted the balance for the Prime Minister not to attend was the fact that Rajapaksa was unwilling to make any concessions on greater devolution of powers to Tamils even if Manmohan Singh did go.

| by Raj Chengappa

( November 10, 2013, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s decision not to attend the 23rd Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) being held from November 15 to 17 in Colombo was one of the toughest on foreign policy he had to take in his almost decade-long tenure as Prime Minister. Days before the event, the divide between the political class on one side and his strategic advisers on the other was marked and out in the open.

Why Manmohan Finally Decided to Skip Lanka by nelvely

Some thoughts on CHOGM

Editorial-November 9, 2013, 6:48 pm 

By the time next Sunday comes round, CHOGM would be ending and Sri Lanka and Lankans will be catching their collective breath. There is no doubt that the government has spent a colossal amount of money in hosting this extravaganza. Whether this will be recouped with foreign investment that the Business Forum was intended to drum-up, and an enhancing of the country’s somewhat tattered image in global eyes as propagandists supporting/defending holding the event here claim, remains to be seen. There has been an effort on the part of government, which has been somewhat coy about being transparent about the actual spending, to argue that much of the cost is voted expenditure under different heads for work that must be done anyway. Road repairs and maintenance, apologists argue, has to be done in any case. Hosting the Summit only accelerated the process. Similarly, various government institutions and agencies have to buy vehicles. So these were brought in time for CHOGM and will be used by the various departments and ministries who need them and will eventually use them.

Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella went on record saying at one of his regular post-cabinet press briefings that a Head of State/Government could not be expected to ride a Toyota Corolla. Many of our BMW/Benz/Jaguar riding worthies would of course think like that. Home was never so good to these politicians, most of whom never got within sniffing distance of high-end vehicles they now swank around in, before they attained political office and boarded the gravy train. All this, of course, is paid for by the heavily burdened taxpayer. Rambukwella, perhaps, has not heard of Indian leaders who use modest vehicles to get around in and others like the former leader of Iran whose simple lifestyle attracted a lot of attention globally. As was suggested by The Island’s editor, it wouldn’t have been a bad idea for the various ministerial panjandrums to have lent their limousines for use of the CHOGM visitors during their short stay here and retrieved them after they left. That way the visitors wouldn’t have to ride Toyota Corollas and the poor taxpayer wouldn’t have to pay for expensive imports to ferry them around. It was reported some time ago that vehicles imported for the visiting dignitaries would be auctioned; then it was said they would be re-exported; finally it was said that some ministers would like the cars post-CHOGM. No prizes offered for guessing what will eventually happen.

The flurry of road repairs now acquiring added momentum saw some roads and pavement in reasonable shape ripped up and re-laid. Potted flowering plants are being buried in some places to leave the impression that they are growing out of the ground. We’ve seen some root-balled palms appearing along our roads. Hopefully all this work would be completed in time for the big show. More hopefully, no corners would have been cut and shoddy workmanship passed for payment in the eagerness to get the job done in a hurry. Should that be the case, the people will have to pay for it all over again in the not so distant future. Did we hear somebody groan? It has been heard emanating, privately of course, from some higher-ups in the councils of state that we could have done without CHOGM. The idea that we host it here was apparently first mooted by a former foreign minister, fairly well known for profligacy with the public purse, who we hope will remain confined to history. We were fortunate that we were not selected to host the Commonwealth Games, for which we made an expensive bid, and were thus spared expense we could ill-afford. We can’t say we wish the nay-sayers won the argument about whether we should or should not be allowed to host CHOGM. That would have meant that many false allegations made by diaspora-fuelled and funded elements were established as true which certainly was not the case. We hope that the majority of our people would take pride in the fact that we were able to successfully stand up to a powerful, well-funded lobby to take CHOGM away from Colombo. Those responsible for that deserve the warmest compliments.

Hosting this event naturally turned the international spotlight on us. Just yesterday the Financial Times in London had a piece on the state of press freedom in the country which was probably timed for the big show later this week. A knowledgeable reader of this assessment may well regard that the situation is not as bad as some of the government’s worst opponents would have it. Yet it harked back quite a bit to the worst of times which many readers of that respected newspaper would have long forgotten unlike those of us who lived close to the events. The government has won some plaudits for allowing the Channel Four team which had unleashed damaging propaganda about the conduct of the last stages of the war to come here for CHOGM. Given the track record of Callum Macrae and company there is little doubt that their focus will surely be on the negative. That is to be expected. Yet we are glad that Sri Lanka took the right decision to allow them in to cover an international event without let or hindrance. That is their right and we would have only shot ourselves in the foot by denying visas.

It is a pity that the authorities did not do as well in permitting the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) to have a meeting here during CHOGM week. The organization together with the Sri Lanka Bar Association planned a conference titled ``Making Commonwealth Values a Reality: the Rule of Law and the Independence of the Legal Profession.’’ Revoking visas, unless for the best reasons, having granted them with an assurance that the event will be permitted left the impression that we have something to hide. That gives the country a bad name. Certainly the way in which Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake was impeached did us no credit and was not in consonance with Commonwealth values. We see that the External Affairs Ministry has dug up some so-called ``due process’’ requirements under which it is ostensibly not possible to have any conference/workshop/seminar with foreign participation here without its approval. How does that square with the freedom of association guarantee in the constitution?