Rohingya refugee Yasin Arfat, 6, who suffers from diphtheria, lays on a bed at a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) clinic near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Dec 18, 2017. Source: Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis
THOUSANDS of children are at risk of contracting diphtheria in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, say humanitarian agencies, as the UN Rights Chief has again warned “shockingly brutal attacks” against Rohingya Muslims in Burma (Myanmar) could amount to genocide.
Since the first cases of diphtheria were detected on Nov 8, some 1,326 suspected cases have been detected in the refugee camps. This number is significant, given only 4,500 cases were reported globally by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2015.
Diphtheria is a potentially deadly, airborne disease which causes glandular swelling and severe respiratory problems. It is significantly more likely to affect children than adults. In Cox’s Bazar, 76 percent of cases are under 15 years old. At least 19 people have died.
Unicef and WHO last week launched a major vaccination campaign against diphtheria and other preventable diseases for all Rohingya children aged six weeks to six years in Bangladesh camps – an estimated 255,000 people.
Rohingya refugees, who suffer from diphtheria, are being treated at a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) clinic near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on Dec 18, 2017. Source: Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis
“Diphtheria usually appears among vulnerable populations that have not received routine vaccinations, such as the Rohingyas,” Unicef Representative to Bangladesh Edouard Beigbeder said. “The outbreak shows a steep rise in cases, an indicator of the extreme vulnerability of children in the Rohingya camps and settlements.”
Health problems are expected to worsen as Bangladesh enters its winter months. Humanitarian agencies are issuing shelter, clothing and other relief items to the affected population.
“Children, who are 55 percent of the Rohingya refugee population, are particularly vulnerable. So are women, and they represent more than half of all refugees in Bangladesh,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Babar Baloch said last Friday.
“An estimated 10 percent are either disabled, have serious medical conditions, or are older persons at risk.”
A Rohingya refugee boy makes his way in the Balukhali refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on Dec 17, 2017. Source: Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis
Mounting evidence of atrocities
As humanitarian agencies work to provide shelter, food and healthcare for the displaced, rights groups are increasingly presenting evidence of mass atrocities in Burma’s Rakhine State.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein told theBBC in an interview over the weekend that “on the basis of what we see” it “wouldn’t surprise” him if an international criminal court would find genocide to have taken place in Burma.
Zeid arrives at the 36th Session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on Sept 11, 2017. Source: Reuters/Denis Balibouse
According to the International Organization for Migration, at least 655,000 new arrivals have entered Bangladesh since violence broke out on Aug 25, when the Tatmadaw army of Burma launched “clearing operations” in response to attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on security force outposts.
The military has now been accused of committing atrocities, deemed by some as crimes against humanity, including arson, rape, and extrajudicial killings.
As a result of mass exodus, Bangladeshi immigration officials have recorded a total of more than 844,000 people residing in refugee camps within the poor South Asian country’s borders.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) revealed new satellite imagery on Sunday which showed 40 Rohingya villages had been destroyed in Rakhine State since October – contrary to Aung San Suu Kyi’s government’s claim that violence had ceased in the region.
An updated map of destruction of Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine State during October and November 2017. Source: Human Rights Watch
The rights watchdog claimed that “dozens of buldings were burned” in the same week that the Burmese government signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Nov 23 to begin returning refugees from Bangladesh within two months.
“The satellite imagery shows what the Burmese army denies: that Rohingya villages continue to be destroyed. Burmese government pledges to ensure the safety of returning Rohingya cannot be taken seriously,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW.
HRW said that of 354 villages affected by burning, at least 118 had been partially or completely destroyed after Sep 5 – the date Suu Kyi claimed “clearance operations” had ceased.
A team from Manchester has found distinctive molecules that seem to be concentrated on the skin of Parkinson's patients.
One in 500 people in the UK has Parkinson's - that is 127,000 across Britain.
Musky smell
It can leave them struggling to walk, speak and sleep.
Currently there is no definitive test for the disease, with clinicians diagnosing patients by observing symptoms.
This is how the disease has been diagnosed since 1817, when James Parkinson first established it as a recognised medical condition.
However, that could change because of Joy Milne from Perth, whose husband Les was told he had Parkinson's at the age of 45.
About a decade before her consultant anaesthetist husband was diagnosed, Joy noticed she could detect an unusual musky smell.
Joy's husband Les died in 2015, at the age of 65
Joy said: "We had a very tumultuous period, when he was about 34 or 35, where I kept saying to him, 'you've not showered. You've not brushed your teeth properly'.
"It was a new smell - I didn't know what it was. I kept on saying to him, and he became quite upset about it. So I just had to be quiet."
The retired nurse only linked the odour to the disease after meeting people with the same distinctive smell at a Parkinson's UK support group.
She told scientists at a conference, and subsequent tests carried out by Edinburgh University's Dr Tilo Kunath confirmed her ability.
BBC SPORTImage captionDr Tilo Kunath, from Edinburgh University's school of biological sciences, was one of the first scientists Joy spoke to
Joy was given 12 unmarked T-shirts to smell - six worn by Parkinson's patients and six worn by volunteers without the disease.
She correctly identified the six worn by Parkinson's patients, but could also smell the odour on a T-shirt worn by someone in the control group without Parkinson's.
Joy was told three months later that this person had in fact been diagnosed with Parkinson's after the T-shirt tests.
No cure
Dr Kunath said: "She was telling us that this individual had Parkinson's before he knew, before anybody knew.
"So then I really started to believe her, that she could really detect Parkinson's simply by odour that was transferred on to a shirt that the person with Parkinson's was wearing."
Joy's husband died in 2015, aged 65.
There is no cure for the disease and Joy's last promise to him was that she would investigate her special ability and how it might help others.
Dr Kunath has enlisted the help of Prof Perdita Barran, an expert in chemical analysis from Manchester University, to try to isolate the actual molecules that form the odour that Joy is able to smell.
Prof Perdita Barran and her team found that people with Parkinson's seem to have some different molecules, which is what Joy is smelling
Prof Barran's team collected samples from patients with Parkinson's and a control group of those without, to see if there were molecular signatures that only people with the disease have.
The samples were put through a mass spectrometer, a device that isolates and weighs individual molecules.
The first set of results indicated there were 10 molecules distinctive to Parkinson's sufferers.
Prof Barran said: "It is very humbling as a mere measurement scientist to have this ability to help find some signature molecules to diagnose Parkinson's. It wouldn't have happened without Joy.
"For all the serendipity, it was Joy and Les who were absolutely convinced that what she could smell would be something that could be used in a clinical context and so now we are beginning to do that."
You can see more on this story in The Woman Who Can Smell Parkinson's at 19:30 on Monday 18 December, on BBC One Scotland, and afterwards on the BBC iPlayer.
The slowness with which the government is implementing many of the promises made to the international community in regard to human rights and justice issues that arose in the course of the war and post-war period have come in for criticism. It has led to doubts about the government’s intentions in regard to the implementation of the commitments it has made. The government’s slowness is attributed to bad faith by its human rights critics. The delay has been protracted even when it comes to setting up the Office of Missing Persons. The legislation was passed over a year and a half ago. But the institution has still to get off the ground and the commissioners have yet to be appointed.
Apart from the Office of Missing Persons the government has promised to establish three other key mechanisms that would enable the human rights violations of the past to be dealt with more substantially. These include a truth seeking commission, office of reparations and judicial accountability mechanism. It is reported that legislation pertaining to these institutions have been formulated but they are yet to be presented to the general public. The delay may also be attributed to resistance that comes from within the polity. The opposition has been claiming that the government policy on national security is being driven by sections of the international community and is detrimental to national unity and sovereignty.
In this context the government’s accession to two hitherto controversial international instruments that would protect human rights has passed without much political controversy within the country. These are the Optional Protocol on the Convention against Torture that allows for greater international scrutiny of a country’s detention facilities and the Ottawa Treaty to ban landmines. Successive Sri Lankan governments had resisted acceding to these international instruments even while agreeing to their content in principle. In the case of the mine ban treaty previous governments had supported the humanitarian objectives behind them and even voted in favour of UN General Assembly resolutions on the matter from 1997 onwards, but without acceding to the treaty.
PRIORITISING SECURITY
The government’s willingness to accede to the Optional Protocol on the Convention Against Torture and the Ottawa Treaty to ban landmines during the run up to local government elections suggests a consolidation of peace and confidence in issues of national security since the end of the war. In the past the war conditions on the ground served to block concrete actions towards reaching international standards on issues that impacted on national security. However, the accession to the Ottawa Treaty on banning landmines indicates that national security and human security are no longer seen in contradictory terms. In fact the most recent conceptions of national security do not see it as being in opposition to human security. Enhancing the human security of citizens and ensuring their human rights is now seen as contributing towards national security.
The main feature of the mine ban treaty is that it bans anti-personnel landmines, requires destruction of stockpiles and the clearance of mined areas, and assistance to victims who have suffered landmine injuries. In the past both the Sri Lankan military and LTTE used such mines in their military campaigns against each other. The Sri Lankan Army defended itself on the grounds that the use of mines by the military was strictly limited and restricted to defense purposes only, to demarcate and defend military installations. The mine ban treaty is forward looking in that it prohibits the future use of antipersonnel land mines. It does not deal with the past except to provide assistance to those who have become victims.
Similarly with regard to signing the Optional Protocol of the Convention against Torture, in terms of it the government has agreed to visits by independent international and national bodies to places of detention in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The member states that accede to the optional protocol are expected to give investigators access to places of detention, provide access to all information concerning the persons detained and their conditions of detention and also permit those detained to be interviewed. This too is a forward looking commitment as it seeks to ensure that present practices do not permit torture and the violation of human rights.
PROGRESSIVE ATTITUDE
Both of the international instruments that Sri Lanka has acceded to are about how it will act in the future. It reflects an analysis by the government that subscribing to international norms builds confidence in the international community about the country’s stability, which will attract more economic investments into the country. The focus on the future has also made it easier for both the government and the security forces to accept. The progressive attitude of the Sri Lankan security forces in regard to international standards has been facilitated by the end of the war. During times of war it is much more difficult to put humanitarian ideals into practice. This phenomenon can be seen in the case of wars fought elsewhere by the militaries of other countries.
In addition, new opportunities have arisen for Sri Lankan military personnel in international peacekeeping operations. The Sri Lankan experience in demining for instance would be relevant to international hotspots such as Syria which have been heavily mined by those who were fighting to control territory. Serving military personnel are now following courses in human rights and conflict resolution at local universities. Obtaining degrees and diplomas assists them when they apply for these international appointments. It is the past that is troubling to them, in which human rights violations and war crimes occurred.
The challenge for the government and for the security forces would be to accept the commitments to deal with issues that continue from the past. The commitments made by the government in Geneva before the UN Human Rights Council in October 2015 are about dealing with the past. The transitional justice mechanisms pertaining to truth seeking, finding missing persons, reparations and accountability are important to the victims. They are also important to the vast majority of members of the security forces who have a rational interest in clearing their names. There are over 400,000 members of the security forces and only a very small percentage of them would be guilty of war crimes.
A widely criticised Sri Lankan army food festival failed to draw local crowds in Jaffna.
The three-day festival was inaugurated on Friday by the Northern Province governor with guests including the Jaffna Army Commander Darshana Hettiarachchi.
No Tamil politicians were in attendance for the ceremonial opening.
"As has happened with most military festivities, locals largely ignored this food festival," a Jaffna-based journalist said.
"And as usual, the event was filled out with troops in plain-clothes to give the impression of a popular event," the journalist said.
The festival has been roundly criticised by local civil society and international groups alike since the publication of promotional material for the event.
Sri Lankan Campaign advised its followers on Twitter to "steer well clear" and to instead opt for leisure activities "that don't involve harming the dignity, livelihoods and human rights of local people."
What happens when religion, that opioid placebo of the ignorant masses, blinds one to the true nature of one’s beliefs, in this case Buddhism, and obscures the central tenet of the Buddhist faith, which is one of tolerance, and instead breeds that which is most despicable of the manifestations of institutionalized religion, self-righteous prejudice and cultural xenophobia? The result is Coleman v. Attorney General and Others.
The facts of the case – the petitioner
It all began, when Naomi Michelle Coleman, herein onwards referred to as the Petitioner, a British national and nurse by profession, who characterizes herself as a “devout, practicing Buddhist,” had arrived at the Katunayake airport in 2014 to engage in a tour of Sri Lanka with a friend, the latter who was to arrive later.
Even though the Petitioner had received official clearance from the Customs and the Department of Immigration and Emigration to enter the country, she had nearer to the airport’s exit, been accosted by a trio comprised of a taxi driver, another person and a person claiming to be from the civil defence force, who had taken objection to the tattoo on her upper right arm, depicting Buddha seated upon a lotus flower, which according to an affidavit filed by the Petitioner was a respectful personal expression with the view of paying tribute to and showing her devotion to the Buddhist teachings via a “symbol of peace and compassion representing her travels to Buddhist countries and the lessons she had learned from Buddhist monks”, stating that such was unacceptable and thereafter had forced her to accompany them to the Katunayake Police Station. According to the petition, other uniformed officers outside the airport had neither taken notice of the tattoo nor taken any visible offence to it.
According to the Petitioner, what followed was a litany of abuse and harassment, specifically of arbitrary arrest at the hands of the Katunayake Police, events that transpired at the Negombo Magistrate’s Court (MC), detention at the Negombo Prison and the Mirihana Immigration Detention Camp, and ultimately, unlawful deportation, a process at each stage of which she was subjected to degrading treatment.
Apart from the Attorney General, the other respondents, in the order of listing in the petition, are a Police Sergeant and Police Inspector cum Acting Officer-In-Charge (OIC) attached to the Katunayake Police Station, the OIC of the Negombo Prison, the Inspector General of Police and the Controller General of Immigration and Emigration.
At the said Police Station, although the Acting OIC who questioned the Petitioner was not, according to the Petitioner, able to comprehend the answers provided by the Petitioner to his questions, no attempt was made to obtain a translator, with the taxi driver serving as the translator during the interrogation. Even though no statement was recorded from her, she was directed to make a written statement. Furthermore, the Petitioner, despite requests for the said information, had not been informed of the charges levelled against her (Neither did the ‘B’ Report subsequently submitted to the Negombo MC when the Petitioner was produced before Court provide details of the offence allegedly committed and the provisions of law under which she was arrested, charged or detained). She was also not afforded an opportunity to contact the British High Commission in Sri Lanka.
When she was detained behind bars in the Court cell at the Negombo MC, the Petitioner had had no opportunity to properly consult, instruct or obtain legal advice from the Attorney introduced by the Prisons Guards, the former who appeared for a fee of Rs 5,000. She had not been able to follow the Court proceedings which were conducted throughout in Sinhala by the Magistrate, the Court officials and the lawyer. As of the legal entitlements afforded to an alleged offender, Section 4(1)(e) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Act, No. 56 of 2007 holds that, where the alleged offender cannot understand or speak the language in which the trial is being conducted, the said person is to be provided with the assistance of an interpreter. Also, while in the MC cell, the Prison Guard in charge of the Petitioner had subjected her to lewd, obscene, disparaging and sexually explicit remarks.
According to the Petitioner’s friend who was to accompany the Petitioner on their tour, who however ended up having to visit the Petitioner at the Court house, the Petitioner was “very pale and worried,”, “crying,” and “shaken,” by the whole ordeal. The friend too had been accosted by a female Officer and male Guards who had demanded money, and she had had to part with Rs 500. When she had brought and given food and water to the Petitioner at the Court premises, a Guard had put his hand on his pistol when she had attempted to hug the Petitioner. She too had subsequently been fleeced by the aforementioned taxi driver.
At the Prison, a Woman Police Constable (WPC) had after going through the Petitioner’s belongings, demanded Rs 10,000 from the Rs 13,000 she had had on her person and had attempted to take the Petitioner’s mobile phone too. The WPC had finally taken Rs 2,000. The aforementioned Prison Guard had continued with the verbal harassment, in language which the superior Court in its verdict deemed as “unacceptable,”, “horrifying and scandalous,”, and he too had demanded money.
She was then deported and her passport returned to her only once she had arrived on England soil.
Early this month, Sri Lanka along with three other nations, had the dubious honour of dominating the agenda of the first ever Global Asset Recovery Forum held in Washington.
2017-12-19
All four countries featured in the Washington forum are going through some form of regime transition: Sri Lanka, Ukraine and Tunisia recently got rid of elected or otherwise autocrats and the Nigerians denied a second term for incompetent Goodluck Jonathan. Initiatives by the new governments, since then, to trace stolen public money stashed abroad during previous administrations have little success, perhaps except for Nigeria, which got hold of a fraction of former kleptocratic dictator Sani Abacha’s loot through an agreement with Switzerland. It may also not be reassuring that in some countries, old thieves, usually anti-American ones, have only been replaced by the new pro-American ones. (Former Georgian President and fugitive of his native country Mikheil Saakashvili who was earlier appointed the governor of Odessa by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko was later sacked and stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship after he allegedly began investigating people close to Poroshenko.)
In Sri Lanka and elsewhere, corruption is much less a problem due to people and culture, than due to lack of institutions. People after all cannot be trusted in the absence of institutional mechanisms and laws that hold them accountable. In the wake of disturbing revelations of the Central Bank bond scam, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe could well have learnt the hard way. Successive governments in Sri Lanka have paid scant regard to build that institutional framework, instead, they opted to play a political game. This government has not done better. So much for the promise of passing a National Audit Bill within the first 100 days of the government, the bill had been delayed and amended over 25 times in the Cabinet. The rare consensus in the government and opposition is that the bill confers too much powers to the Auditor General. On the other hand, arcane laws in the country embolden crooks. It does not inspire confidence in the legal process, when those found guilty are let go with a pat on the back. Early this month, Sajin Vas Gunawardene, former monitoring MP of the Defence Ministry who pleaded guilty for the non-declaration of assets and liabilities while he was serving as a Parliamentarian, was ordered to pay a fine of just Rs. 1000. He is the third politician who was convicted under the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law, and let go after paying a nominal fine. These laws need to be revamped to reflect the gravity of the offence, failing that they remain a mockery on the rule of law. Sri Lanka’s asset recovery effort itself is hamstrung by an ill-fitting domestic legal framework. According to the current Sri Lankan law, the government needs to secure a criminal conviction in order to start the asset recovery process. This is a catch 22 situation, and a really tight one, that the investigators would find hard to overcome. The failure of the government’s investigation into a Dubai bank account allegedly belonging to a son of a VVIP was a case in point. The Dubai court refused to freeze the bank account which allegedly had 500 million dollars, on the ground that the young politician was not convicted in Sri Lanka or had a case filed against him in any court of Sri Lanka. A government that genuinely seeks to recover the stolen public funds, should first reform the local law to remove those handicaps.
" In Sri Lanka and elsewhere, corruption is much less a problem due to people and culture, than due to lack of institutions. People after all cannot be trusted in the absence of institutional mechanisms and laws that hold them accountable. In the wake of disturbing revelations of the Central Bank bond scam, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe could well have learnt the hard way"
The progress of domestic investigations are equally disappointing. The failure is blamed on the delay in the legal process and heavy workload at the Attorney General’s Department. There are proposals to expedite the process, such as Trial at Bars at High Courts and appointment of a special prosecution authority under the Attorney General, enabling anyone to appeal to the Supreme Court directly against the rulings by the High Court. However a sense of urgency to implement those measures is lacking; the tendency still is to fight corruption with words, rather than deeds. The anti-corruption exercise so far is more about manufacturing political slogans than securing convictions. If the government is to conduct any meaningful anti-corruption hunt, it should also draw a line between the party-politics and the national interest. The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption (CIABAC) and Financial Crime Investigation Division (FCID) should conduct monthly media briefings to update the public on the progress on their investigations. When politicians make statements on behalf of the CIABAC, that does not reflect well on the Commission.
On the eve of the Global Asset Recovery forum in Washington, the United States offered the expertise of a Resident Legal Advisor in Colombo to provide anti-corruption and asset recovery training to the Bribery Commission. Auditor General Gamini Wijesinghe has described Sri Lanka’s current predicament as a ‘slur on every honest Sri Lankan’. He is genuinely aghast at the delay in the National Audit Bill and government MPs who slander the Auditor General’s reports. However, the failure of successive governments has brought the country to where it is now. It is advisable to swallow up the pride and get whatever assistance in order to put the house in order. But, whether the government’s acceptance of a resident advisor was a sign of its commitment to fight corruption, or a sycophant gesture to be seen with America, is a still a moot point.
Economic policies have always been mysteries to laymen. They have become mysteries because top economists often present them in a language not comprehendible by ordinary people. Policymakers design policies after much labour and thought. Yet, they fail to explain their rationale to people, leaving them in a state of confusion.
This leads to the creation of a trust deficit between the policymakers, on one side, and those who are to benefit from policies in the long run, on the other. It also gives opportunities for those who feel threatened by new policies to put pressure on governments not to go for them by mobilising people and other forces to serve their cause.
As a result, even the policies which are essential and carry high economic costs if they are not implemented are abandoned mid-course due to prolonged public protests. Sri Lanka’s past is full of such instances. It also explains why Sri Lanka’s economic growth has been low – about 4.4% on average annually in the whole post-independence period – and why it had been a laggard compared to its peers.
(Lanka-e-News - 17.Dec.2017, 11.45PM) The ‘Selacine Institute’ belonging to the media ministry of Mangala Samaraweera has now transformed into a corruption and fraud den from all angles. It is a matter for deep regret that while the monumental corruption and frauds during the era of deposed and discarded Rajapakses, are still being investigated this racket of the present media minister has surfaced.
It is a close friend of Ruwan Ferdinands , the media secretary to the media minister , by the name of Shantha Bandara Jayawardena who was appointed as the chairman of ‘Selacine’ . Though Selacine is doing the commercial advertisements of the government , still even the name of the chairman has not been made known via the website of the ministry , which is a clear index of the inefficiency and ineptitude of Selacine. Even at the time of writing this article , it is Thusitha Jayawardena the name of the previous chairman which is appearing .
Selacine chairman who passed the ‘dummy’ of Maithri to Rajapakses
Shantha Bandara who was appointed as the chairman of Selacine after Mangala became the media minister was the notorious culprit who provided the ‘dummy’ of Maithripala to Rajapakses during the last presidential elections. The minister might not be aware of this , but his secretary Ferdinands cannot deny knowledge of that. Shantha Bandara is such a double faced ,double tongued, ‘double dealer’. However , since Mangala and Shantha are cast in the same mould , and have the same double faced traits those traitorous activities are a matter of routine for them.
We deem it is our duty in the interests of the public to reveal some of the countless past villainies and sordid activities of Shantha Bandara …
He was one who had to step down from the post of Director, Sirasa Television channel because he was incompetent and an utter ‘failure’. After being relegated to the business division , as usual he flourished on his private sly activities. After launching a program ‘Adha Kaale business” and conducting live interviews with high profile business magnates , created opportunities for himself to jointly do private business with them . When his wheeler dealer deals and illicit earnings came to light , he was expelled from Sirasa.
This corrupt turncoat who moved very closely with Mahinda Rajapakse , along with Harin Gunawardena who initiated the ‘Always breakdown ‘ program , commenced another similar program on the ITN. Through that program he insulted and humiliated Ranil and Mangala of the opposition at that time , making them the butt of his jokes while also trying to show that the opposition was splitting up. He collected a cool Rs. 500,000.00 per month for that .
Being a wheeler dealer with a crooked mind he joined hands with Ruwan Ferdinands for clandestine reasons so that he can make another fast buck if the UNP came to power. Actress Nadeesha Hemamali was introduced to politics by Ruwan. It was Shantha who performed the role of a pimp for Ruwan. During that period , it was this scoundrel who provided many other facilities including transport, apart from supplying women to Ruwan.
Shantha the lickspittle who is skilled in snobbery and bootlicking , through Ruwan got himself introduced to the UNP bigwigs , secured the advertising rights of several good governance Government Lotteries Institutions after inaugurating an advertising Firm. Meanwhile making use of the connections he had with Mahinda’s government , through Shiral Lakthileke the NGO crook cum brief-less lawyer and Dayasiri Jayasekera, he was also able to obtain the SLFP faction advertisements.
Shantha became the editor of the tabloid part of the Sathhanda newspaper of Ruwan , and with the introduction of new tele-drama actresses thereby , he disgraced the newspaper profession and made that a pimp’s profession.
After making arrangements to interview ministers for the Sathhanda newspaper , used that as an opportunity to obtain a job in an advertising Co.
One of the many rascally ‘crimes’ he committed was , supplying the dummy of Sirisena to Mahinda Rajapakse to enable him to cast the vote .Though Ruwan knew it , that incident was kept hidden from Mangala.
In any event , Shantha Bandara knew nothing about advertising or publicity . Being a lickspittle and lackey by birth he knew only plain bootlicking and arselicking . If Mangala Samaraweera had any idea about ethics and etiquette he would never have appointed such a scoundrel as a chief of a State advertising Institution , while he is already the owner of a private advertising establishment . This is not only unlawful but also because of the conflict of interests created by such an appointment . Much worse , Mangala has now gone further and taken the initiative to make Selecine a private Institution.
Mangala favored his sister
No sooner Shantha took over duties as Selacine chairman than five advertising accounts that were handled by Selacine were transferred to Mangala’s sister . This was corruption through and through. Earlier on , when Selacine took a decision regarding a television advertisement payment ,its chairman saying ‘ we want quality badu (things)’ gave it to an outsider through a coordinator for actors and actresses (quality ‘badu’ in chairman’s thesaurus) making huge disbursements .When this corruption was questioned from the Chairman , he gave the above answer.
Although the previous chairpersons , took action to get the Lottery notices and advertisements to Selacine, now the advertisements of the 5 Lotteries including Development Lottery , Jayodha , Laksapathi and Super Ball had been given to ‘Bates Ads’ , a company belonging to Jayanthi Chandani Gunawardena , the own sister by birth of minister Mangala . By transferring these advertisements of the five lotteries to Minister’s sister , Shantha the shameless sycophant cum lickspittle somehow ingratiated himself into the favor of Mangala .
The Selacine which has made it a habit to obtain the signatures of artistes on blank receipts has been converted into a daily money earning machine. It is the policy of the chairman to pamper the favorites who helped him to create the crooked background , with the result he has opened the gateway wide for massive corruption .
For instance when an advertisement of the Finance Ministry is being produced , payments are arranged to be made to outside Institutions. Yet , part of the 15 % commission from the scheduling had not been paid to the outside advertising establishment as their commission. Yet the new chairman while saying it is his ‘new idea’ , is paying scheduling monies in millions to the outside sources.
This amount in full or part being received by the chairman from those sources is obvious and cannot be precluded . For example , from a single advertisement schedule of Rs. Ten million , Selacine gets Rs. 1.5 million. 5 % of that amount is being channeled out..
It is therefore the duty of the minister having the prefix ’honorable’ to explain to the people who elected him as their representative , why he is silent as a grave when the Lotteries advertisements which were with Selacine are being transferred to his sister , and Selacine commissions are being channeled to the outside?
Undoubtedly these corrupt individuals through the subterfuge of converting the Selacine Institution under them into a private establishment , are paving the way for bigger frauds, and such rackets will be inevitable when that happens.
By Nuran Ekanayake
--------------------------- by (2017-12-17 23:54:07)
By Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha-2017-12-19
I was asked last week by the European Union (EU) to attend an exhibition about celebrating partnerships, and attended, though I left early, when the speeches began. I was not sure why I was asked to attend, since the invitation was for development partners and the TVEC was not involved in the project.
But as I looked around the exhibition, I realized that, as Charles Ryder put it in Brideshead Revisited, "I had been there before; I knew all about it." And it brought back fond memories of the last public service I performed successfully, before (as I put it in Endgames and Excursions, memoirs of the last five years which Godage published), "I began to feel that my shelf life was over."
I have written about how I helped the UN resurrect the project in the 6th chapter of that book. Though I start by saying that it seemed clear in 2013 that "there was no hope of stopping Mahinda Rajapaksa rushing headlong into disaster, given that so many of those around him, while pursuing their own agendas, had lulled him into a false sense of security," the way he responded to my appeal indicated he still genuinely cared about the country and the development programme he had embarked on.
In late 2013, I had been told about proposals prepared at district level for a UN project to be funded by the European Union. This had been agreed with the government, after Basil Rajapaksa suggested modifications including that it be extended to areas outside the North and East too, but then suddenly he clamped down and said it could not proceed.
Bathiudeen and Hizbullah
I was told that it might be because his then favourites, Bathiudeen and Hizbullah who had a free hand in the North and East respectively, had not been consulted in planning, and were angry that they could not put forward projects catering to their own agendas. An alternative view was that Basil wanted to control the funds himself and did not like the decentralized manner in which the project had been conceived. Yet, another explanation was that he was upset that the Northern Province had rejected the government at the recent Provincial Council Election, and this was his revenge. Sarath Amunugama indeed suggested it was because of what he characteristically described as "unrequited love."
I inquired about the matter from Subinay Nandy, the UN Head whom I would meet regularly. He was upset and could not understand how the government could reject so much funding. I wrote then to the President, in November, about the matter:
"During reconciliation meetings in the East I was told about an European Union project to spend 60 million Euros on district development, which has been abruptly stopped by the Ministry of Economic Development. Efforts on the part of the UN to meet with the Minister and the Secretary to clarify matters have proved fruitless. I would be grateful if this matter could be looked into and steps taken to adopt a more positive approach to dealing with the United Nations. We can ill afford to alienate the positive elements in the international community at this stage."
No response
There was no response, but at the dinner after the Budget, I brought up the matter. It was evident that he had not seen my letter, which reminded me of what he had once said when I told him, about some step that he belatedly agreed should be taken, that I had written to him about it previously. "But you write in English," he said, "how can you expect anyone to understand?"
At the dinner, I explained the matter very simply, and he seemed to have taken action promptly. Soon after, Subinay told me the Secretary to the Treasury had instructed that the project was to proceed. I felt I was not wrong then in feeling the President still had a positive mindset about how the country should move forward, but it was also clear that he was less and less in control.
Sadly, the same scenario seems to be now playing out, with Maithripala Sirisena still, I think, committed to his manifesto, but incapable of ensuring honest and productive action.
Tuesday, 19 December 2017 Hero and Antihero
Maduluwawe Sobhitha Hamuduruwo and Medagoda Abayatissa Hamuduruwo differ in their world views. The differences are so deep that an attempted comparison would be absolute blasphemy. It would be as heretical as a comparison of Gandhi – the Mahatma with Bin Laden – the fundamentalist.
The reported tête-à -tête between President Sirisena and Medagoda Abayatissa Hamuduruwo in cloistered confidentiality is an alarming eye opener. It alerts us to politics of caprice.
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found guilty are let go with a pat on the back. Early this month, Sajin Vas Gunawardene, former monitoring MP of the Defence Ministry who pleaded guilty for the non-declaration of assets and liabilities while he was serving as a Parliamentarian, was ordered to pay a fine of just Rs. 1000. He is the third politician who was convicted under the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law, and let go after paying a nominal fine. These laws need to be revamped to reflect the gravity of the offence, failing that they remain a mockery on the rule of law. 
