Thursday, January 26, 2012

Africa - From Transition to Transformation - Annual Meeting 2012

Watch live streaming video from worldeconomicforum at livestream.com

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, General Secretary of the National League for Democracy, addresses the participants at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting.

Once again I have the honor and the privilege of addressing this gathering of thinkers and doers, movers and shakers, who are in positions to influence the direction that our world will take in the foreseeable future. I would like to express my thanks to the organizers of the World Economic Forum, especially to Professor Schwab who made it possible for this message to be sent and who also kindly invited me, very warmly, to join you here. That I am, very regretfully, not able to be with you today is due to reasons which are closely related to the theme of this meeting – “The great Transformation: Shaping New Models.”

Last year I spoke of the challenges that Burma was facing, our missed opportunities, our fundamental need for political stability, national reconciliation and rule of law, that we may be able to achieve genuine democratization, human development and economic growth. The aspirations of our people, not only to catch up with the rest of the world, but to make their own contribution towards a safer, happier planet for us all.

A year on I can say that we have taken some steps towards meeting those challenges. We are not yet at the point of a “great transformation,” but we have a rare and extremely precious opportunity to reach such a point. That Minister U Soe Thane is attending the 2012 World Economic Forum is a sign of the positive changes that have been taking place in our country. I would like to appeal to all those who wish to promote the interests of Burma, and other nations and societies struggling for peace and stability, development and prosperity, to support us in our efforts to take the next crucial task, that will enable us to bridge the gap between potential and fulfillment.

It gives me intense satisfaction, I do not think it will be going too far to say that it thrills me, to learn that the purpose of this Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum is to ensure that the leaders exercise their responsibilities, jointly, boldly and strategically to improve the state of the world for future generations.

May I be so bold as to say that this is a happy paraphrase of a major aim of my party, The National League for Democracy, except that we aspire, modestly, to start with our own country before we extend our efforts to the rest of the world.

This brings me back to the reason why I am not with you today. As I said earlier, the possibility of a “great transformation” is in sight for our country. An important step that will take us nearer to a truly revolutionary break through will be the inclusion of all relevant political forces in the electoral and legislative process of our country.

We are now reconstructing our party and preparing to contest by elections scheduled for first April. That we may extend our efforts for peace, national reconciliation, here I would like to emphasize the need to resolve ethnic conflicts and democratization into the national assembly. The work connected with these preparations is keeping me away from your meeting this year but I hope the fruit of our labors will contribute towards to a closer, positive links between our domestic economy and global developments.

Economic progress is dependent on more than the fiscal and monetary measures that have been advocated for Burma by international financial Institutions. Such measures will need to be up held by judicial and legislative reforms, which will guarantee that sound regulations and laws will be administrated justly and effectively.

We wish to create a political, social and economic environment that will bring ethical, new and innovative investments to our country. We would like to draw up our blue print for a sustainable new model economy with a view to the future needs of our globe, social and environmental concerns, woven into food, water and energy needs.

Once again I would like to end with an appeal to all of you: please support our endeavors to make Burma the shining representative of what can be possible if we cooperate in our efforts to make our world a happier, safer home for all our peoples.

In conclusion, may I say that I very much hope that the day will come when I too can be part of this distinguished, vibrant gathering.

Thank you.

It is two years since Prageeth ‘disappeared’- after leaving home fondly telling “I’ll come back”

(Lanka-e-News-26.Jan.2012, 9.30PM) As at 24th January 2012, two full years have elapsed since the disappearance of our ever loving friend and colleague Prageeth . We became aware of his disappearance exactly on the 25th morning , that is a day after his disappearance two years ago.

We moved heaven and earth to find him without avail .We have not abandoned this search until today , and we will not hereafter too.

We are in receipt of enough and more truthful information about this mysterious disappearance and we are still in need of more.

Until we are done to death we shall not abandon our efforts in this direction. We are collecting every evidence scrupulously , and some day when this lawless climate of criminal abductions , murders and disappearances changes that day we shall bring out the truth against these criminals. Wrongdoers have no patience in their criminal activities. Indeed that is why these beasts commit them so inhumanly. But , we as humans with humane feelings have stoic patience.

There is a group that had exploited the disappearance of Ekneliyagoda to propel themselves and ingratiate into the favor of the evil forces. To them , not only the sufferings of Ekneliyagoda and his family , but every tragedy that strikes every media personnel at the hands of these evil powers is an ‘event’ to celebrate and rejoice in, for their gains in pelf and position with the evil powers which pamper them is dependent on those exploitation exercises. These are the vultures in human form fattening on death and despair. That is their life , livelihood and lifestyle. They have no place in the sun otherwise.

There are also groups that concoct falsehoods about Prageeth. These groups via their jealousy and mealy mouth attitudes aid and abet these criminal wrongdoers knowingly or unknowingly.

But let us not forget to mention that the void created by Prageeth’s disappearance is felt most by his bereaved family – his ever loving wife and two young children who are ever grieving. We deeply regret that we could not join them on the 24th as we are far away. But , may we solemnly assure that some day somehow we will search and track down those behind Prageeth’s disappearance.
Have faith -we shall somehow expose the culprits and ensure that the long arms of the law will rope them in .
By
Sandaruwan and the
Lanka e news Editorial Board

‘Thirteen plus’means the Senate assembly: Govt. expresses its view- what is this Senate? – is it chewing gum ?

(Lanka-e-News -26.Jan.2012, 11.30PM) Cabinet spokesman and media Minister Keheliya Rambukwela strained hard to explain what 13 plus means at the Cabinet meeting.

“I have told this many a time’. Today , I am telling for the 100th and one time too. 13 plus is a Senate assembly of members. It is not just today , but even two years ago our President when speaking with Dr. Manmohan Singh and the opposition leader in India , said, we are going to create a senate assembly which does not exist now. He added that he would be creating ‘something’ that will coordinate between the Central Govt. and the provincial councils (PC), and that is the 13 plus”.

That is the Govt.’s view.

There was a Senate assembly of members in Sri Lanka earlier. That is not something new. It was in 1947 , a senate assembly was established in SL by the Soulbury Commission. Based on the election promise given by the SLFP at the 1970 election the Senate assembly was abolished on 2nd October 1971 by late Mrs.Sirimavo Bandaranaike. In the new constitution introduced by her , there was no such assembly. Now , it is the present Govt. preponderating with SLFP members which is wanting a Senate assembly.

In 1947 , the Senate assembly was established in SL in line with the House of Lords. Some of the members elected to Parliament as well as a group of intellectuals selected by the Governor appointed by the Queen constituted the Senate Council. At that time it was felt that a Senate Council was necessary because a more intellectual group must oversee the proposals brought forward in Parliament by the members who are elected by the people who are not of that high level of intelligence , and it was the view therefore a group of intellectuals of a higher level need examine the proposals as to whether they are beneficial to and are in accord with the people’s needs. Those Parliamentary proposals therefore did not become law until the Senate approved them.
The Rajapakse Govt. on the other hand is today seeking to re establish the Senate with a different motive. That is , as revealed by the Cabinet spokesman , it is to co ordinate between the central Govt. and the PCs. However , there is already a body of the Central Govt. for this. That is the Minister of PC and Govt. Ministry of PC.

No matter what, if a Senate assembly is to be created above the Parliament that is constituted by people’s representatives of different ethnic groups, and if that entity is to preclude introduction of unjust laws, then it is salutary, because in the Parliament with a preponderance of Sinhala representatives, the Tamils, Muslims, Burghers and Malays have faith that their rights will not be taken away. Likewise, the confidence can be built that there will be no injustice done to the majority Sinhalese, and that no legislation will be brought favoring the minorities.
But, the Senate Council the present Govt. is seeking to establish is apparently not in conformity with such a broad based motive. This Council is only for coordination purposes of the PCs ‘and , if that entity is going to be under the Executive President it will serve no purpose at all for the nation. It is the consensus that, because the judges are appointed by the President today , and the lunatic circuses they are engaged in , the sacrosanct judiciary has also lost its independence despite the fact that independence is an indispensable attribute of a judiciary if it is to maintain its integrity and rectitude. Going by this , if the Senate is also to be appointed by the President, that action will be tantamount to multiplying the lunatic asylums in SL.

This ‘Senate Council’ is what Mahinda Rajapakse is offering to the gullible people to keep on chewing like the chewing gum in order to ‘buy’ time.

Ensure Sri Lanka delivers

Anuradha M Chenoy 26 Jan 2012

The visit by an Indian external affairs minister to Sri Lanka is always an important affair. Sri Lankans of all communities and political leanings watch it carefully. They listen to the statements and read between the lines. To many, especially for the Sri Lankan Tamils and the committed democratic sections of the Sri Lankan and Indian polity, these are moments of hope. S M Krishna has had a busy week in Sri Lanka. Can peoples’ hopes in a post-conflict situation be fulfilled by this visit?

Krishna’s visit has been more than symbolic. He handed over the first lot of 1,000 houses of the total 50,000 that is India’s contribution in post conflict reconstruction in the north of the country that remains easily one of the most devastated regions. This project is the largest among development assistance that India has undertaken in the world. In addition India has promised to pour in money to develop a platform for industry and telecom where Indian business is likely to get a decent share. More>>>

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Poorest Still Go Hungry

By Amantha Perera

Children living in Sri Lanka's tea estates are among the country's most malnourished.
Credit:Amantha Perera/IPS

COLOMBO, Jan 25, 2012 (IPS) - Experts agree that Sri Lanka's free pre and postnatal clinics across the island nation have helped bring infant mortality down to 15 per 1,000 live births and the under-five mortality rate to 21 per 1,000 live births.

But, beneath that general picture of success lie pockets of vulnerability where poverty and lack of awareness are causing high levels of malnutrition in this country, classified as a middle-income country by the International Monetary Fund in 2010.
According to a November 2011 paper released by the Institute of Policy Studies, a semi-government research body, a fifth of children under the age of five suffer from malnourishment, as also every sixth newborn.
"This is a fairly high rate," Angela de Silva, lecturer at the Colombo University and a vice-president of the Nutrition Society of Sri Lanka, told IPS. She said the high rates of malnourishment were primarily "due to certain pockets with high levels of underweight." Full Story>>>

Cartoon of the day- Mr. President, you’re not worthy of the office you hold…

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Mr. President, you’re not worthy of the office you hold…

LANKA Standard Vishnuguptha | Published on November 27, 2011

The occasion was the annual Budget Speech in Parliament. Unlike in the Westminster- system days, andin terms of age-old traditions of parliamentary practices, the Finance Minister, in this instance His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka (as he could not trust to give this vital portfolio away to any other member of his sixty one-strong Cabinet) was in the process of presenting his Budget in an unusually halting manner, exposing his lack of familiarity with the gravity of the occasion and the seriousness of the contents of his presentation. In the well of the House, the Opposition MPs, mostly UNPers, held placards that read “Shame” etc. Some government MPs, including some Cabinet Members like Mervyn Silva started advancing towards the placard-holding UNP MPs and manhandling them in the assembly.Full Story>>>

Hidden hand behind bloody prison riot? * 26 inmates, 5 jail guards injured

January 24, 2012
article_image

By Norman Palihawadane

Thirty one including five jail guards and 26 inmates were injured yesterday at the Welikada New Magazine prison in a bloody clash.

The injured had been admitted to the Colombo National Hospital, prison sources said.

Hospital sources described the condition of two of the injured as serious and said that all 19 inmates admitted to the hospital following the clash had suffered injuries below the knee. Read more...
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Sri Lankan Supreme Court overturns convictions in Bindunuwewa massacre

By Deepal Jayasekera
30 June 2005

The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka has acquitted the remaining four men convicted over the brutal massacre of Tamil detainees at the Bindunuwewa rehabilitation centre near Bandarawela in 2000. All charges against M.A. Sammy, D.M.S. Dissanayake, R.M. Premananda and S.J. Karunasena were dismissed on May 27 for “lack of evidence”. The first three were residents of the area and Karunasena was a police inspector in Bandarawela at the time.

On the morning of October 25 2000, a crowd of several hundred whipped up by Sinhala extremists gathered outside the Bindunuwewa centre, which held suspected members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Most of the detainees were young Tamils held without trial. Posters declaring “Chase out the Tigers who have destroyed the country” and “Close down the LTTE rehabilitation camp” had been pasted up in the area. Full Story>>>

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Tamil prisoners murdered in custody - December 1997

"Amnesty International today appealed to Sri Lanka's Minister of Justice to order a full and impartial inquiry into the killing of three Tamil detainees on 12 December at Kalutaraprison, south of the capital, Colombo. In its letter to Professor G. L. Peiris, the human rights organization expressed concern for the safety of other detainees who witnessed the killings and are currently under guard by prison staff who may have been involved in the act. Amnesty International urges that all necessary steps be taken to protect these witnesses.

During a magisterial inquiry into the killings, several detainees who reportedly saw the killings refused to give evidence out of fear for their lives. To Amnesty International's knowledge, those responsible have not yet been identified. Muthulingam Dharmalingam and Shanmugarajah Sivanesan, from Jaffna, and Sharif Jehan, a displaced person from Mannar, were among 137 Tamil detainees held at Kalutara prison. The three were reportedly hacked to death in front of Ward D at around 1 pm on 12 December by a group of Sinhalese common criminal prisoners in what appears to have been a premeditated attack. Full Story>>>

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Welikade Prison Massacre 1983

Ilankai Tamil Sangam .Association of Tamils of Sri Lanka in the USA

by TamilNation, T. Sabaratnam & UTHR

In speeches from the dock, the two men announced that they would donate their eyes in the hope that they would be grafted on to Tamils who would see the birth of Eelam, the independent state they were fighting. Second hand reports from Batticaloa gaol, where the survivors of the Welikada massacre are now being kept, say that the two men were forced to kneel and their eyes gouged out with iron bars before they were killed. One version has it that Kutimani's tongue was cut out by an attacker who drank the blood and cried: "I have drunk the blood of a Tiger."

The two men were among the 35 killed in the Welikada gaol on July 25. Another 17 were killed in the gaol two days later and the Guardian has obtained a first hand account of part of the fighting in this incident, including the circumstances in which Sri Lanka's Gandhian leader, Dr. Rajasunderam, died.

Report by T. Sabaratnam, written in 2004, entitled 'Massacre of Prisoners' posted on Sangam website

...Prison Riots

Police knew about the Welikada Prison riots around 2.45 p.m. At that time, the following conversation was heard on the police radio network.

Entrance to Welikada Prison

South 2 to South 1- There is a serious situation in the prisons. The Tamil prisoners are being killed. Mr. Janz is seeking police assistance. We can’t get there. The army is in control.

South 1 to South 2- If the army is in control, we had better keep off. We can’t afford to have a rub with the army.

South 2 to South 1- Received Sir, Roger.

Christopher Theodore Jansz was the Acting Prison Commissioner. Prisons Commissioner J. P. Delgoda was out of the country.

Trouble in the Welikada Prison started at 2:00 p.m. As the clock struck 2:00, 300 to 400 prisoners who were outside their cells ran towards the Chapel Section of the Welikada Prison, the high security jail in Sri Lanka. “Kill the Tamils,” they shouted. Some barked, “Kill Kuttimani.”.

INDICTMENT AGAINST SRI LANKA

Black July 1983: the Charge is Genocide

Fifty three Tamil prisoners were murdered whilst in government custody

Dr.S.Rajasunderam

Selvarajah Yogachandran
(Kuttimuni)

Nadarajah Thangathurai Full Story>>>

‘In ravaged times, poets become the voice of the voiceless’

R Cheran is a Sri Lankan Tamil poet and academician, born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. He published his first collection of poems Irandaavathu Suriya Uthayam (The Second Sunrise) in 1982. His other titles include Yaman (God of Death) (1984), together with an anthology of Tamil resistance poems, Maranatthul Vaalvom (Amidst Death, We Live), which he edited in 1985, and Miindum Kadalukku (Once More, The Sea), published in 2004. He is currently a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Windsor, Canada.

Bhamati Sivapalan
Jaipur
A lot of your literature deals with the Sri Lankan Tamil experience. In places caught in ethnic conflicts, we witnesses destruction of cultural identity. In this context, how do you position your work?
Full Story>>>

No justice for Tamils in Sri Lanka: Human Rights Watch

New York25 Jan 2012

The Sri Lankan government has failed to advance justice and accountability for victims of the country's 25-year-old armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said Monday.
While Sri Lanka's war-ravaged north and east became more open after the Tamil Tigers were crushed, the government had deepened repression of basic freedoms throughout the country, it said in its World Report.

This placard designed by Save Tamils Movement shows the place assigned for Mahinda Rajapaksa in history

The government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa continued to stall on accountability for abuses by the security forces, threatened media and civil society groups, and largely ignored complaints of insecurity and land grabbing in the north and east, Human Rights Watch said.
The long-awaited report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), published in December, largely absolved the military for its conduct in the final months of the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The war ended in May 2009.
"In 2011, accountability remained a dead issue, the media faced increasing censorship, and the long-standing grievances which led to the conflict were not seriously addressed," said Brad Adams, the group's Asia director.
"Sri Lankans face a lack of justice, weak rule of law, land grabbing, and a censored media from a government that is increasingly authoritarian."
In its 676-page report, Human Rights Watch assessed progress on human rights during the past year in more than 90 countries, including popular uprisings in the Arab world that few would have imagined.
The Sri Lankan government's failure to hold perpetrators of abuses accountable remained a key issue throughout the year, it said.
No one was prosecuted for atrocities committed during the conflict with the LTTE. The government ignored the findings of a Panel of Experts report, commissioned by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The panel found rampant abuses by both government forces and the LTTE, and called for an independent international mechanism to investigate laws-of-war violations.
The government insisted instead that its LLRC would be the mechanism to address wartime abuses, though the mandate, composition and procedures of the commission were deeply flawed.
The LLRC effectively exonerated government forces for laws-of-war violations, rehashed long-standing recommendations, and took no concrete steps to advance accountability.
Sarath Fonseka, the former army commander who challenged Rajapaksa during the 2010 presidential election, was sentenced to an additional three years in prison after his current sentence expires in January 2012.
"As the Rajapaksa government has strengthened its grip politically, basic rights protections in the country have deteriorated," Adams said. - IANS

Black January

'Black January' marked amidst rival protests

Media organisations mark 'Black January' while RSF downgrads Sri Lanka's rank in press freedom index.

Media groups to mark 'Black January'

Lasantha murder: International probe urged

Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Media freedom activists and journalists marked Black January in a protest organised by several media associations against the continuing suppression of the freedom of expression at Lipton Circus today. Pix by Pradeep Pathirana

Media freedom activists and journalists marked Black January in a protest organised by several media associations against the continuing suppression of the freedom of expression at Lipton Circus today. Pix by Pradeep Pathirana

Unarmed prisoners brutally shot at – Prisoners set fire to Magazine prison

Unconfirmed sources says 2 prisoners dead ; confirmed 30 hospitalized

(Lanka-e-News -24.Jan.2012, 11.30PM)Following a conflict between the prisoners in the remand prison of Colombo Magazine prison and the Prison officers this noon , unarmed prisoners were shot at by the police and prison officers. Consequently, 30 persons have sustained injuries , including 4 prison officers. They are all hospitalized.

According to prison inside sources, due to this dastardly shooting, two prisoners have died within the prison. There are more prisoners who have sustained injuries , but do not want to come out in fear that they would be killed, reports say. They are in mortal fear that they could be confined to the cell in the night and mauled , or even killed. It is not a custom any where in the world to shoot at unarmed prisoners with actual bullets within the prison ( except when escape attempts are made ). Most prisoners have received gunshot injuries to their two legs .

The prisoners who were obviously infuriated had set fire to the prison. Two Buildings have been fully consumed by the fire while another has also caught fire by now. The Fire brigades could not enter the premises as they were being pelted with stones and missiles, reports say.

The roads in front have been completely closed. The Army , police and prison officers were struggling to bring the situation under control. Tear gassing and shooting were going on within the prison.

The root cause of this attack has been the advent of Emil Ranjan , a crude and cruel prison administrative officer from the Kalutara prison transferred to the Magazine prison. He has a putrid record of getting caught red handed smuggling ganja into the prison when he was a jailor. He treats the prisoners in the most bestial manner. If he finds even a beedi in the possession of a prisoner , he tries to prolong the jail sentence of that prisoner by a year.

Today’s clash was triggered when the meals brought to the prisoners by visitors were restricted. When it was ordered that only a loaf of bread and two plantains can be brought by a visitor , a heated dispute has sparked between the prisoners and prison administrators.

Some prisoners have tried to climb to the roof of the prison and protest . The prison officers have started assaulting the prisoners when the dispute escalated. The prisoners have then retaliated by hurling stones and missiles , whereupon the prison officers have started firing at the prisoners. When they were shot at , the prisoners who were further provoked set fire to the prison and attacked those who came to douse the flames.
It is noteworthy that prison officers are absolutely prohibited from entering the prison with firearms. Shooting at the unarmed prisoners is therefore a most serious crime and an act of worst brutality.

The prisoners who are inside are panicking and requesting to save their lives.

Meanwhile , according to reports , Gen. Sarath Fonseka who is detained at the Welikade prison and not at the Magazine is safe.

Based on reports received in the evening , a Commission is to be appointed to inquire into the cause of the riot within the prison. More pictures below.

Violence and censorship on the rise in Asia - Violence and impunity persist in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Philippines, more repression in Sri Lanka, Vietnam and China

ASIA - 2011-2012 WEDNESDAY 25 JANUARY 2012.

In Afghanistan (150th) and Pakistan (151st), violence remained the main concern for journalists, who were under constant threat from the Taliban, religious extremists, separatist movements and political groups. With 10 deaths in 2011, Pakistan was the world’s deadliest country for journalists for the second year in a row.

In the Philippines (140th), which rose again in the index after falling in 2010 as a result of the massacre of 32 journalists in Ampatuan in November 2009, paramilitary groups and private militias continued to attack media workers. The judicial investigation into the Ampatuan massacre made it clear that the response of the authorities was seriously inadequate.

Journalists continued to be exposed to violence in Bangladesh (129th) and Nepal (106th), although less than in the past. In Nepal, journalists were regularly subjected to threats from rival political groups and their supporters. In Bangladesh, opposition groups and the ruling Awami League took turns to attack and obstruct the press. Despite genuine media pluralism, the law allows the government to maintain excessive control over the media and the Internet.

In Nepal, a decline in attacks by Maoist groups in the south and greater efficiency on the part of the justice system account for the modest improvement in the country’s ranking. However, press freedom was marred by threats and attacks by politicians and armed groups throughout the year.

Authoritarianism and ambivalence at the bottom of the index

Freedom of information worsened considerably in two Asian countries under authoritarian rule.

China, which has more journalists, bloggers and cyber-dissidents in prison than any other country, stepped up its censorship and propaganda in 2011 and tightened its control of the Internet, particularly the blogosphere. The first protest movements in Arab countries and the ensuing calls for democracy in China’s main cities set off a wave of arrests with no end yet in sight.

In the autonomous regions of Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, protests by minorities regularly gave rise to a harsh crackdown by the authorities. In Beijing and Shanghai, international correspondents were particular targets of the security forces and had to work under the continual threat of expulsion or having their visas withdrawn. Journalists were prevented from covering most of the events that threatened China’s stability or might have given it a negative image.

Vietnam (172nd) appeared to follow China’s repressive lead and fell seven places. Politically committed journalists and pro-democracy bloggers were harassed by the authorities while the courts continued to invoke state security to hand out prison sentences ranging from two to seven years. The blogger Pham Minh Hoang, for example, was sentenced to three years in prison and three years under house arrest on 10 August on a charge of trying to overthrow the government.

In Sri Lanka (163rd), the stranglehold of the Rajapakse clan forced the last few opposition journalists to flee the country. Any that stayed behind were regularly subjected to harassment and threats. Attacks were less common but impunity and official censorship of independent news sites put an end to pluralism and contributed more than ever to self-censorship by almost all media outlets.

Burma (169th) showed signs of beginning to carry out reforms including partial amnesties and a reduction in prior censorship, but it remained largely under the control of an authoritarian government run by former members of the military junta reinvented as civilian politicians. Less than 10 of its journalists remain in prison at the start of 2012.

In North Korea (178th), although news and information was able to move across its borders to a greater extent, no one knows whether this will continue under Kim Jong-un, the son and heir of Kim Jong-il. The dynastic succession, the dominance of the military machine and the government’s desire for power give no grounds for optimism.

At the top, the good boys turn bad

Those who are traditionally good performers did not shine in 2011. With New Zealand’s fall to 13th position, no country in the Asia-Pacific region figured among the top 10 in the index. Hong Kong (54th) saw a sharp deterioration in press freedom in 2011 and its ranking fell sharply. Arrests, assaults and harassment worsened working conditions for journalists to an extent not seen previously, a sign of a worrying change in government policy.

In Australia (30th), the media were subjected to investigations and criticism by the authorities, and were denied access to information, while in Japan (22nd) coverage of the tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear accident gave rise to excessive restrictions and exposed the limits of the pluralism of the country’s press.

Causes for concern

In India (131st), journalists were exposed to violence stemming from the persistent conflicts in the states of Chhattisgarh and Jammu and Kashmir. The threat from mafia groups operating in the main cities of the coutnry also contributed to self-censorship. However, the authorities were no better. In May, they unveiled the “Information Technology Rules 2011,” which have dangerous implications for online freedom of expression. Foreign reporters saw their visa requests turned down or were pressured to provide positive coverage.

In Indonesia, an army crackdown in West Papua province, where at least two journalists were killed, five kidnapped and 18 assaulted in 2011, was the main reason for the country’s fall to 146th position in the index. A corrupt judiciary that is too easily influenced by politicians and pressure groups and government attempts to control the media and Internet have prevented the development of a freer press.

Illegal detention and intimidation in Mongolia (100th) and the Maldives (73rd) showed up the weakness of press freedom there. A climate of religious intolerance prevailed in the Maldives, where media organizations were subjected to threats by the authorities and had to deal with an Islamic affairs ministry bent on imposing the Sharia to the detriment of free expression.

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Mahinda Rajapaksa as a Modern Mahāvāsala and Font of Clemency? The Roots of Populist Authoritarianism in Sri Lanka

*groundview journalism For citizens

Add caption

On 4^th December 2011 the Sunday Island carried a headline: “Mahinda ready to meet General Fonseka’s family over pardon” — with a picture alongside showing President Mahinda Rajapaksa seated in an armchair perusing an official document – a document in royal red and marked by a recognisable state seal. It is the juxtaposition of the headline and image that drew my interest. In my reading as an analyst attentive to indigenous cultural threads, this combination suggested several interrelated motifs, namely, that