Global Talmi Forum 

GTF stands in solidarity with the Muslims in Sri Lanka

28 April 2012

Global Tamil Forum stands in solidarity with the Muslims in Sri Lanka 

Global Tamil Forum (GTF) strongly condemns the Sri Lankan Government’s complicity in the orders for the removal of the Muslim mosque in Dambulla, central Sri Lanka. GTF is profoundly disturbed by the attacks on the mosque by a minority, yet in their thousands as reported, of extremist Sri Lankan Buddhists led by monks on 20 April 2012, calling for its destruction claiming it was constructed illegally.

 The inaction of law enforcement authorities to stop the attacks and the Prime Minister’s decision to order its removal and relocation highlights the State authorities’ continued infringement on religious freedom and intolerance of non-Buddhist faiths on the island. It is of greater concern that the Prime Minister’s office declared that the decision was taken in consultation with Muslim political leaders when this claim has been vehemently denied, as widely reported in the media. It is characteristic of successive Sri Lankan governments to succumb to pressure from the majority whenever there are ethnic tensions.

 The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka has said that the mosque was legally registered and has been in existence for over 50 years, long before the area was declared a sacred Buddhist area. Sri Lankan Muslims have a history in the island dating as far back as the 8th century.

 The incident at the Dambulla mosque is not an isolated attack on a Muslim place of worship in recent months. In September 2011, a Muslim shrine in Anuradhapura was demolished by a group of Buddhist monks. These incidents can only take place under a Government which is willing to turn a blind eye, and even encourage, the maltreatment of non-Buddhists.

 Some Buddhist leaders have said that they intend to demolish 72 structures in the Dambulla area, including the mosque and a Tamil Hindu temple. These deplorable acts are indicative of the treatment suffered by other religions in Sri Lanka.

 In the Tamil majority areas, of the North and East of the country, Hindu temples and Christian churches have been desecrated and destroyed whilst a number of Buddhist structures have been built in their place or within close proximity. Tamil National Alliance has highlighted, in their situation report to Parliament in October 2011, the rapidly changing demography of the North of Sri Lanka where the numbers of Buddhist statues, viharas and stupas on the A9 highway have noticeably increased. It was also highlighted that armed forces are preventing people from rebuilding original Christian and Hindu places of worship that have been damaged or destroyed during the war.

The politicisation of Buddhism as the state religion and the intervening influence it has in politics and social affairs continues to threaten religious minorities and hinder peaceful coexistence of all communities on the island.

GTF calls on the state institutions and law enforcement agencies in Sri Lanka to prevent all attacks on places of worship, whatever the faith, and to take immediate measures to ensure that all religions on the island are accorded the same treatment and respect. GTF strongly urges the Government of Sri Lanka to act immediately to build confidence among all communities that the state institutions and mechanisms will accept, protect and promote the religious and cultural rights of all its citizens, as the foundation for reconciliation and lasting peace on the island.

Burning of Muslim Flag by Buddhist Monks in Sri Lanka - April 2012

‘Any Indian citizen can detain Douglas Devananda if he trespasses into Indian waters’

By TWL Bureau   28 Apr 2012

Posted 23-Apr-2012 Vol 3 Issue 16 Sri Lankan Minister Douglas Devananda’s reported threat to cross into Indian territorial waters with 5000 Sri Lankan fishermen to protest against alleged poaching by Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters has once again raked up the demand for arrest of the minister in Tamil Nadu, where he is wanted in connection with a 1986 murder case. Advocate P Pugazhendi, who had recently filed a petition in the Madras High Court seeking direction to the State Home Secretary and the Director General of Police to take steps for issuing a Red Corner Notice by the Interpol against the minister, said the Tamil Nadu police should make efforts to secure him when he attempts to enter Indian waters illegally. Douglas Devananda is a proclaimed offender in Tamil Nadu “When he is leading an agitation of this nature, he does not enjoy the diplomatic immunity that he enjoys as a minister. It is an opportunity for the Tamil Nadu police to arrest him and make him face trial in the 1986 shootout and murder case,” he said. Pugazhendi also added that since Devananda is a proclaimed offender, any Indian citizen could apprehend him and hand him over to the police. Devananda, leader of Eelam People’s Democratic Party and an ally of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was involved in a neighbourhood brawl in Chennai and opened fire at a crowd on November 1, 1986. One person was killed and four others were injured in the shootout. A case was registered against him. He was arrested and later released on bail in January 1987. In 1988 another case was registered against him on charges of kidnapping a ten-year-old boy and demanding a ransom of Rs.7 lakh. He was subsequently detained under the National Security Act. Pugazhendi had filed a petition seeking the court's directions to arrest Devananda, when he visited India in June 2010. However, the external affairs ministry had told the Madras High Court that the minister cannot be arrested as he enjoyed diplomatic immunity. The ministry also submitted that if Devananda was arrested while on a state visit, it would affect relations between the two countries. It also told the court that India does not have any extradition treaty with Sri Lanka. – with inputs from IANS

Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka

Buddhism Betrayed?

( April 27, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Buddhism Betrayed? : Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka (A Monograph of the World Institute for Development Economics Research) - Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah, University of Chicago Press, 1992

Short excerpt from the chapter on the Period of Buddhist Revivalism - 1860-1915:

"There is no doubt that Sinhala Buddhist revivalism and nationalism, in the form we can recognise today, had its origin in the late 19th nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is in this earlier period that we see most clearly the contours and impulsions of a movement that acted as a major shaper of Sinhala consciousness and a sense of national identity and purpose....

from the backcover:

Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah is professor of anthropology at Harvard University and curator of South Asian Ethnology at the Peabody Museum. He is a past president of the Association for Asian Studies. His numerous books include Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Buddhism Betrayed?Given Buddhism's presumed non-violent philosophy, how can committed Buddhist monks and laypersons in Sri Lanka today actively take part in the fierce political violence of the Sinhalese against the Tamils?

Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah's Buddhism Betrayed? seeks to answer this question by looking closely at the past century of Sri Lankan history and tracing the development of Buddhism's participation in such ethnic conflict and collective violence. Tambiah analyses the ways in which this participation has, over time come to alter the very meaning of Buddhism itself as a lived reality.

Even before Sri Lankan independence, Buddhist activists and ideologues—monks and laypersons, educators and politicians - accused the British raj of "betraying" Buddhism and spoke of a need to restore Buddhism to its rightful place in the life and governance of the country. Tambiah sympathetically portrays and critically assesses the ways in which these views gave rise to discriminatory anti-Tamil policies. He details the increasingly volatile nature of the participation of monks in national politics from its first stirrings in the 1940s to its final phase, when some monks themselves become parties to violence. The successive transformations of "political Buddhism" and what some vocal Buddhist monk ideologues now conceive as an ideal Buddhist-administered society are outlined and evaluated.

Buddhism Betrayed? skilfully combines detailed scholarship with the author's own passionate plea for an end to hostilities. In the eloquent essay on the "burdens of history" in Sri Lanka that concludes the book, Tambiah examines the Sinhalese Buddhists' alleged long-term historical consciousness, with its anti-Tamil sentiments as portrayed in chronicles written by monks over the centuries, and advances countervailing evidence in Sinhalese history of tolerant assimilation and incorporation of peoples and traditions from South India.

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Parliament has failed, says DEW

Warns of dire consequences unless financial discipline is restored

by Shamindra Ferdinando   April 27, 2012 

Senior Minister DEW Gunasekera yesterday said that the Sri Lankan parliament had pathetically failed in its duty to uphold financial integrity and transparency in the public sector.

The outspoken Chairman of the parliamentary watchdog committee on public enterprises admitted that the national economy was in a mess due to failure on the part of parliament. "Parliament has failed the country. In fact, the Opposition should raise the issue in parliament at least now. We are wasting time on some insignificant issues, whereas a matter of national importance is not touched."

The General Secretary of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) was responding to a query by The Island on whether the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) would intervene to stop several State enterprises from paying PAYE (Pay as You Earn) tax to the Treasury on behalf of their workers.An irate Gunasekera said that since 1999 successive governments had allowed the CPC, CEB, SLPA, NWSDB, BoC and People’s Bank to pay the taxes of their employees in violation of the Inland Revenue Act and the Appropriation Act. The veteran politician said that those were the major violators. According to him, there are several other public enterprises, which operate outside the financial regulations.

Had parliament intervened, the officialdom would have been forced to take corrective measures, he said. But, unfortunately, all political parties, including the SLFP-led UPFA, in which the CPSL is a constituent, had turned a blind eye to the gross violation. The National List MP alleged that political parties, officials and trade unions affiliated to political parties were responsible for massive frauds. The minister asserted that theirs was an alliance, which cooperated with each other to get the maximum benefits even at the expense of the national economy.

The Communist Party leader said that in 2010 alone the aforesaid State enterprises had paid Rs. 2.3 bn on behalf of their workers. Asked whether he could provide a breakdown of payments made by each enterprise, he said he had received the information from the Auditor General’s Department. "I have asked the AG to furnish all data pertaining to these payments since 1999. Those struggling to make ends meet have a right to know what is going on in the country."

Commenting on the widening budget deficit and the rupee depreciation , the minister asserted that the people hadn’t been able to enjoy peace dividends due to the failure on the part of the managers of the economy. He said he had taken up the issue with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, ministers and Secretaries to ministries.

"We need to realise that whichever party is in power, it should generate adequate revenue to provide services. Those who demand free education, free health services and higher salaries are silent on the gradual decrease in State revenue over the years. Today, we are struggling to maintain even the basic services due to lack of adequate resources. They don’t realise that the government needs funds to provide services to the public."

MP Gunasekera said that when Sirimavo Bandaranaike had handed over the government to J. R. Jayewardene in 1977 state revenue accounted for 24 per cent the GDP. By 2004 it had come down to 13 per cent of the GDP, though now the UPFA managed to increase the figure to 15 per cent.

Had Sri Lanka managed its economy prudently, it wouldn’t have had to depend so much on international lending institutions, Minister Gunasekera said, emphasising the urgent need to review the financial policies and accountability on the part of the government.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Safeguard Resources From Corruption, Waste – IMF

By Paneetha Ameresekere

With prospects of Sri Lanka striking oil seemingly looking good, an IMF official briefing reporters in Washington DC on Monday stressed the importance of emerging economies having an adequate, regulated financial framework to safeguard against the squandering of its natural resources (NR) from corruption and wastage.
Rabah Arezki of the IMF Institute speaking on the topic “Current Issues-Natural Resources Management,” gave the example of Chile as positive example of  putting in place a mechanism to safe guard revenue from its copper mines a key foreign exchange earner.
“For instance there is a cap on how much of those monies could be used for public investments,” he said. There are committees appointed comprising academics and experts in the copper sector, empowered to make such decisions, said Arezki.
Though such committees have no power to direct politicians to decide on which infrastructure development project to invest, they are empowered to ascertain the commercial viability of such projects and if necessary to strike down projects that they believe are not viable.
He said that at the height of the commodity boom at the turn of the century, because of the restrictions enforced by both the then Chilean President Ms. Michelle Bachelet Jeria and her Finance Minister on public investments, they became unpopular.
But the wisdom of their actions were seen when the commodity bubble burst, made worse by a deadly earthquake that hit the capital city Santiago. The Chilean economy however didn’t go down despite these vicissitudes due to the earlier prudent and austere spending programmes instituted by the government.
As a result the Chilean President and the Finance Minister who were previously unpopular, saw their popularity ratings soar.
Arezki said that grandiose infrastructure schemes not giving adequate financial returns may also be wreaked with corruption.
Drawing examples from history, he said that the 1970s commodity boom that benefited emerging economies, saw them ploughing back their earnings on public investments and transfers which also increased their public debt to unsustainable levels when the commodity bubble burst, forcing them to seek IMF bailouts.
Arezki, said that in the present context, the danger is that with commodity prices being once more on the ascent, whether that would lead to another debt trap, like in the 1970s.
In this context some of Sri Lanka’s questionable infrastructure projects, especially those financed from foreign commercial loans,, may have to be looked at in terms of their viability, coupled with the burden that the accumulation of such debt would have on the exchequer. Among those projects are the Hambantota seaport and the Mattala airport, massive road development projects all located in President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s electoral stronghold, the Hambantota district. Losses caused by corruption may not necessarily be measured only in US dollar terms, in the broader canvass, it’s the loss that has to be borne by future generations and made worse would lead to the rise in social instability as a result, Arezki warned.

Human Capital, Best Resource
Developed economies which are scarce in natural resources (NR) have got to the top by investing in human capital, Arezki pointed out.
Quoting the father of modern Singapore Lee Kuan Yew, he said that despite the fact that Singapore was bereft of any NR, it however became an economic powerhouse by investing on its people.
In the context that certain emerging economies, which, especially in the 1970s, benefited due to the rise in oil prices, only found themselves mired in increased indebtedness when prices fell, having had invested the monies made in good times on public works which were not necessarily economically viable.
They had to be eventually bailed out by the IMF.
Pointing out that natural resources are finite, the long term answer is economic diversification which will lead to fiscal sustainability and reduce macroeconomic volatility. Arezki further said that resource rich countries are generally dependent on revenue from this avenue, ignoring the non resource sector. “But tax the non resource sector to help fiscal stability, he said.

by Our Special Correspondent (KK)

Sri Lanka’s Democracy in Peril

Let us unite for assurance of human rights in Sri Lanka.

( April 28, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian)“We in Sri Lanka in a deep crisis right now, all the institutions which has to look after democracy, are now collapsed. It started in 1972 and since then with the introduction of 1978 constitution, it became worse with regard the intuitions. Then introduced the 17th amendment to the constitution to remove political interference by the Executive and the politicians, formulated key independent commissions like Police, Public Service & Judiciary etc, thereby giving certain independence to democracy. But in 2010, the 18th amendment adopted by this government paved the way to abolish the 17th amendment and gave power to appoint all political henchmen to key posts in state institutions.” said The Senior Constitutional & Human Rights Lawyer, Mr.J.C.Weliamuna at the seminar held recently at Jayawardena Centre,Colombo.

“Recently state appointed 23,000 graduates bypassing all public service requirements needed. The circular no.15 of 1990 completely abandoned now. The application form issued, contains a requirement to furnish how the applicant worked for the governing party during elections, thus giving a bad precedence for governance. Yet another 25,000 have to be appointed this way”.

‘Even the Attorney General withdrew several indictments filed in High Courts of the state party supporters as well for opposition crossovers to the government. Even the crossovers of members of parliament are not valid according to the constitution, yet it is happening’.

‘The parliament has no financial control over the public finances. Though there are two parliamentary committees for C.O.P.E. & C.O.P.A., however both committees are headed by Ministers but not the opposition members as such in other countries. The Finance Minister and the President should not be the same, what happens then is no transparency in finance controls of the parliament, with that any scrutiny of public money is questionable. Can there be democracy like that? Even the Auditor General is not authorized to audit some government expenditure, certified by the Finance Minister & President.

‘Rule of Law, means everything is done according to law, is our constitution followed, no. why even the 13th amendment of the constitution is not followed, what about 17th amendment when it was in force. How many times, the executive betrayed the constitution by not appointing members to constitutional council?’

‘Abductions, White van culture, it is a grave crime against humanity & democracy. Yet it is happening, for the last 6 months ending 26th March 2012, there had been 56 abductions.

‘In the case of journalists, how many were abducted and killed. Or if found and next living in exile. Threats to journalists still continues, Media organizations like MTV attacked, Lasantha Wickramatunga Editor, ”Leader”, killed, Udayan in Jaffna in the high security zone ,attacked, but nobody brought before law’.

‘State Media ITN in particular, initiated malicious campaign against human rights defenders, Nimalka, Sunila, Parkyasothi,& Sunanda for being to Geneva UNHRC recent sessions. Even though I did not go to Geneva, I was not spared’.

‘The seriousness of government accountability is adverse. Nobody even cabinet ministers do not know what is happening. Accountability applies to human rights as well to legal system of the country. There is a myth re’ human rights that are the myth of domestic matter, but other countries have legitimate right to inquire into international accountability. That is part of rule of law’.

‘world changed due to determined few, we have to go in the correct direction. Present crisis can only be prevented by gaining a comprehensive social transformation’.

Finally he concluded by reminding the famous words of South African hero ‘The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed’.

Dr.Nimal Ranjith Devasiri, Dr. Wickramabahu Karunaratne also spoke at the seminar.

Except For The LTTE, All Tamil Groups Accepted 13th Amendment

April 28, 2012 

By Nirupama Subramanian - The Hindu -

Nirupama Subramanian

Lucien Rajakarunanayake is right to point out the difficulties that attended the 1987 India-Sri Lanka agreement. No doubt space constraints prevented him, as they do me, from recounting here the tragic events that led to the Indian intervention. The initial opposition to the 13th amendment notwithstanding, all parties that opposed it then, including the SLFP, the main constituent of the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) today, and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), another constituent, have been enthusiastic participants in the provincial council elections held since then under the provisions of the amendment. Today, the UPFA controls all the provincial councils including in eastern Sri Lanka, where elections were held in 2008 for the first time after the collapse of the ill-fated North-East Provincial Council in 1990. No provincial council election has yet been held in the northern province. The JVP contested the provincial council elections for the first time in 1999 and hasn’t looked back since. It is hard to detect the national abhorrence for the 13th amendment that Mr. Rajakarunanayake speaks about.

If it is really true that this particular provision is widely hated, and the SLFP and the JVP are still as opposed to it as they were in 1987, there could be no better time than the present to do away with it. For the first time since 1987 in Sri Lanka, a ruling party enjoys a two-thirds majority in Parliament and therefore, a unique opportunity to change the constitution to its liking. After all, the government has already demonstrated the ability to amend the constitution — in 2010 it used its majority to remove the two-term bar on the President. This too was opposed as being undemocratic — by the UNP, the JVP and the left parties in the ruling alliance, and the Tamil National Alliance, but the 18th amendment is now accepted as part and parcel of the Constitution.

All said and done, the 13th amendment represents the only constitutional measure towards the settlement of the Tamil question. In her first term as President, Chandrika Kumaratunga attempted to bring in constitutional reforms that would go far beyond the 13th Amendment in devolving powers to the provinces. After its tortuous passage through a parliamentary select committee, the package was scuppered at the last minute by the LTTE on the one side, and by the opposition and even by government members on the other. Since then, the only effort by the Sri Lankan polity at devising a “home-grown” devolution plan was the All Parties’ Representative Committee. Its report, never made public, seems to have been quietly shelved. The 13th amendment is no silver bullet, but at least it exists on the books. Except for the LTTE, all Tamil groups accepted it. If implemented honestly in letter and spirit, with devolution of financial and police powers, and land rights, it could still go a long way in meeting Tamil aspirations. Such a move would be welcome not just in the north and east but also in the other seven provinces of Sri Lanka.

Read LUCIEN RAJAKARUNANAYAKE’s article here