Gota Must Go

July 12, 2012 

By Mangala Samaraweera – MP -

Mangala Samaraweera

Over a month ago in June, we said in a statement released to the media, “This country, can not afford to allow such an inefficient, non administrative service person to handle a serious and important ministry as its Secretary, and allow the country to go chaotic and into anarchy. People of this country, what ever their political affiliations can not live with such unsolved crime, dictated by politically backed armed thugs under a Secretary, who is not even willing to accept he is a total failure as a State officer.”

Defence Ministry Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse has again proved us more than right. He has not only proved he is “inefficient”, he has also proved he is wholly uncultured and uncivilised too, to hold even the most menial of all public posts. His verbal purging thrown on journalist cum editor of the Sunday Leader, Ms. Fredrica Jansz, should have immediately grounded the entire print and electronic media into a loud halt in any other country. Most unfortunately it is not that here. Even those men and women who talk about internet obscenity and want websites banned for polluting a great ‘Sinhala culture’, is yet to speak their first words on how vulgar and threatening, the language of the Defence Ministry Secretary is.

With such a person who continues to break all the rules of the establishment code with his arrogant, uncouth and psychotic behaviour giving leadership to the Ministry of Defence, it is not suprising that the law and order situation in the country has totally collapsed. The law of the jungle is preailing today and it is not surprising no to hear the Police media spokesperson say, during the first 06 months of this year, the police have recorded 975 cases of rape against women and 700 of them were against teenage and little girls. This society knows it is Rajapaksa’s ruling political party thugs brought in as local government nominees and voted as members who have gone maniac in raping and sexually abusing young girls. A new and insane political culture at grass roots is now being nurtured with rape against women and young girls growing and drugs pedalled into villages with political patronage. This most certainly would be the local election machine of this Rajapaksa regime, when elections are fixed in the future. The police are therefore kept inactive and at times complicit in crimes committed by these political thugs, with pressure brought on the police.

We therefore once again say quite clearly and with responsibility, its the culture of impunity under this Ministry Secretary, who does not know his language is foul and vulgar, knows not his ways of reacting to queries and criticism is much less than sane, that had allowed this society to go this beastly and wild.

Unbridled power, he thinks he could wield with vulgar threats, is definitely intolerably anti social. If still the President does not remove Gotabhaya Rajapaksa from the post of Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development, we don’t hesitate to say, its the right of the people to demand his removal from his office, immediately.

We therefore call upon all democratic organisations, trade unions and independent professional organisations to join us in bringing this maniacal administrator to leave his post for a saner, competent person to have law and order re established, in a decent and a disciplined way.

Against threat and intimidation

THURSDAY, 12 JULY 2012 


Activists across the social and political spectrum held a joint protest at the Lipton Circus in Colombo, today. Leaders of opposition parties together with activists urged the government to stop threats and intimidation on the media, and protested against the proposed website regulation. Pix by Nisal Baduge

 

Sri Lanka to regulate news websites amid crackdown

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka on Thursday announced new regulations to control websites, defying international criticism of a recent crackdown on opposition news portals.

Media minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the government was amending the 1973 Press Council Act to include news websites, which will now be required to be registered with the authorities.

The Press Council has powers to fine and jail journalists who defy its orders.

"The government thought it fit and the time is right to make amendments to the existing act to accommodate new technologies," Rambukwella told reporters.

Police raided two opposition news websites and arrested nine employees late last month on charges of discrediting President Mahinda Rajapakse. Both Srilankaxnews.com andSrilankamirror.com had been critical of the government.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch accuses Rajapakse of trying to silence critical media since the military crushed separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, ending decades of ethnic warfare on the island.

The United States and the European Union have urged the government to stop what they call harassment of journalists.

A total of 17 journalists and media employees have been killed in Sri Lanka in the past decade. No one has been brought to justice for the killings.

Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.

Combat Related PTSD Among The Sri Lankan Army Servicemen

July 11, 2012    By Dr. Neil J Fernando and Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge -

The 30 year armed conflict in Sri Lanka has produced a new generation of veterans at risk for the chronic mental health problems that resulted following prolonged exposure to the war. Over 100,000 members of the Sri Lanka Army had been directly or indirectly exposed to combat situations during these years. There had been nearly 20 major military operations conducted by the Armed Forces from 1987 to 2009. A large number of combatants from the Sri Lanka Army were exposed to hostile battle conditions and many soldiers underwent traumatic battle events outside the range of usual human experience. These experiences include seeing fellow soldiers being killed or wounded and sight of unburied decomposing bodies, of hearing screams for help from the wounded, and of helplessly watching the wounded die without the possibility of being rescued. Following the combat trauma in Sri Lanka, a significant number of combatants were diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The combat operations in the North and East had involved military personnel in major ground combat and hazardous security duty. A significant number of combatants had posttraumatic reactions soon after the traumatic combat events. Majority of these reactions were undetected and untreated. A large number of combatants of the Sri Lanka Army have been directly or indirectly affected by the armed conflict. These psychological and emotional traumas were resulted from witnessed killings, handling human remains, exposing to life and death situations, engaging and witnessing atrocities and numerous other battle stresses. This is a form of invisible trauma in the military. But it has direct implications on the mental health of the soldiers.

The Sri Lankan Conflict     Read More

Court orders CID to visit Singapore to get details on Duminda’s actual health condition

(Lanka-e-News-11.July2012, 11.55PM) Colombo Magistarte Prassanna Alwis, ordered the CID yesterday (10) to visit Singapore and make a first hand report on the actual health condition of Duminda Silva M P (kudu Duminda) who is the prime suspect in the Baratha Lakshman murder. This order was made to the CID following a request made by Upul Thevaraperuma , the lawyer for Late Baratha Lakshman. Thevaraperuma pointed out that the CID is only going by the information furnished by Duminda Silva’s Lawyer , and that is not acceptable in court. It is common knowledge that Solicitor General Palitha Fernando who was sworn in as acting Attorney general (AG) and is notorious for his mockeries abusing official position is deliberately delaying this case . At yesterday’s hearing , Shani Abeysekera representing the CID said, the AG Dept has still not advised them on this.

Magistrate Prassanna Alwis thereafter postponed the case until the 24th, while ordering the CID to furnish the requested medical report on Duminda Silva on that date.

Ilankai Tamil Sangam 

16th Year on the Web

Association of Tamils of Sri Lanka in the USA

Remembering Kovai Mahesan (1940-1992)

My first mentor in journalism

by Sachi Sri Kantha, July 10, 2012

If memory serves me well, Kovai Mahesan was the first Tamil journalist to be harassed by the Sri Lankan police and law enforcement investigators in Colombo in 1970s. Why I solicited his profile? As a precautionary measure (knowing that he was one of the marked Tamil activists of that era) I wanted to collect his profile directly from his own hand... I began working at Sutantiran in 1962. Became associate editor in 1965. Elevated to the rank of editor in 1968. My public life began at the Federal Party. For the first time, I participated at the black flag demonstration to Sir John Kotelawala in 1954, when I was at 8th standard. Thereafter I also took part in Party’s anti-Sri campaign and 1961 Satyagraha campaign. I joined Sutantiran in 1962. Initially, I was involved with poetry. I also worked in Kalaichelvi andThamil Arasu papers. In 1971, for the cause of ‘Newspaper Freedom’, I was placed for 2 days in ‘lock-up’ at the Kollupitiya police station. For umpteen times, I have been investigated at the Fourth Floor of C.I.D. building for days.

Twenty years had passed since Kovai Mahesan (one of the colorful Eelam Tamil journalists in the last quarter of the 20th century) died on July 4, 1992 in Tamil Nadu, India. He was born Maheswara Sarma in Kopay, Jaffna, and was 52 at the time of his premature death. I consider him as my first mentor in journalism. With the exception of a few, not many remember him now. Whereas the Tamil journalists of his generation who were employed in news establishments owned by Sinhalese moguls lacked the will and spine to address the issues affecting the Tamil lives, Kovai Mahesan was an opposite for a 15 year period (1968 to 1993). Quite a section of Tamils, including the journalists, who lacked the courage for confrontational politics (or polemics, if his detractors termed it), found it difficult to taste Kovai Mahesan’s journalism. He was also one of the survivors of the infamous Welikade prison massacre in July 1983.

A scanned photograph I provide nearby was taken in 1972, when S.J.V. Chelvayakam (the leader of Federal Party) visited Tamil Nadu. We see Kovai Mahesan (at extreme right) in the company of Chelva. He would have been 32 then. Kovai Mahesan was the editor of Sutantiran, the weekly newspaper owned by Chelva’s family for almost 15 years. Other personalities seen in the photo are (from left): A. Amirthalingam, Mrs. M. Amirthalingam, Chelva, A.P. Janarthanam (student leader of DMK, and later affiliated with MGR’s Anna DMK) and A.S. Manavaithambi (Indian Tamil leader in Sri Lanka, who later returned to India). This was taken on the occasion when Chelva and Amirthalingams visited Anna’s (C.N.Annadurai, that is) house.

Eulogy in 1992      Remembering Kovai Mahesan  Full story >>

Sri Lankan ambassadors respond to the Presidential rebuke

Tuesday, 10 July 2012

Sri Lankan diplomats serving in overseas missions say it is humorous to hear the President reprimanding mission heads saying their only aim was to educate the children when the President had used all resources in overseas missions to provide facilities to his three sons to be educated overseas.

The President had reprimanded the heads of Sri Lankan missions overseas during the two day workshop in the Diyathalawa defence academy. The President has said the ambassadors did not work for the country, but were busy trying to educate their children.

A head of a Sri Lankan diplomatic mission who attended the workshop said, “Then Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the UK Kshenuka Seneviratne was personally assigned the task of providing food and lodging to the President’s eldest son Namal Rajapaksa when he was pursuing his higher education in London. Namal’s mobile phone bill was paid by the Sri Lankan High Commission.”

Also, when second son Yoshitha Rajapaksa was studying at the Ukrainian Defence Academy, al facilities required by him were provided by the Sri Lankan ambassador in Kiev, Udayanga Weeratunge. When Yoshitha traveled to the South Hampton Academy for studies, it was once again the Sri Lankan High Commission in the UK that provided for his requirements.

The President’s youngest son, Rohitha Rajapaksa is now being looked after in the US by the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington and Ambassador Jaliya Wickremasuriya. The official who gave us the information said that it was the embassy that had purchased a house for Rohitha near the NASA Academy and three vehicles for his use.

“Sri Lanka’s image amongst the international community has been damaged due to the government’s pig headed actions and that even a hundred workshops like the one that was held in Diyathalawa would not be able to lift the country’s image,” the official said.

Wimal Weerawansa Using 30 Vehicles

By Colombo Telegraph -July 11, 2012 
Minister Wimal Weerawansa

Construction, Engineering services, Housing and Common Amenities Minister Wimal Weerawnasa is using 30 vehicles released from the State Engineering Corporation, trade unions allege.

Trade Unions including those affiliated to the Communist Party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) have protested outside State Engineering Corporation (SEC)  today. The issues they were protesting ranged from alleged corruption in Weerawansa’s Ministry to a demand for a salary increase. Minister Wimal Weerawansa was also not spared of allegations. One of them was that he used nearly 30 vehicles released from the SEC. Dudley Palansooriarachchi, General Secretary of the Corporations and General Workers Union, told media another issue was the allotment of 22 acres of land in Peliyagoda to a private concern. It adjoins the SEC’s main construction workshop.

Yet another was about 40 SEC employees whom the trade union leader alleges are working “unofficially” as Sales Development Officials. “They are receiving substantial salaries which are not recorded and are not part of the pay-sheet,” he said. They wanted the matter investigated. The protestors demanded a pay-hike for all SEC employees and claimed it was long overdue.

The Convener of joint trade unions Thushara Gunasekara alleged that rampant corruption is prevalent at the corporation. “Large scale corruption prevails within the corporation, we have not received any salary increase during the last three years and we will continue to fight for our rights” he said

Cabraal SL’s economic bugger all gambling with public funds- is worse than Sakvithi fraudster –Tissa
Wednesday 11 of July 2012
(Lanka-e-News-11.July.2012, 3.30PM) The UNP Gen . Secretary , Tissa Attanayake , speaking at a media discussion yesterday (10) said , defying the clear and stern opposition to it of the Auditor General, and violating all fiscal regulations the Govt.’s Central bank in its Greece fried dried fish investment lost a colossal Rs. 34000 lakhs !

This loss was revealed when questions were posed at the COPE committee meeting recently .Because the Greece economy collapsed first in the European financial crisis , the SL’s investment in 2011 was a total loss. 

The Govt. auditor General had made it absolutely clear in his prior warnings against this investment as it is risky. Greece is a country that had during the past experienced continuous economic crises. When these were pointed out , the Central Bank Governor had admitted that our country had lost Rs. 3400 million.

The governor tried to defend himself by saying , the Central bank went into this investment because it desired to reap more profits. This is like Sakvithi ‘s investments or worse . This same Central Bank of Cabraal warns the public via notices against investing in Financial Institutions which are not registered and having problems. But this same bank that advises others has invested in Greece , a country which is well and widely known for its dire economic mess, because of the greed for profits ! How wonderful is this ? , he asked .

The Govt. says , it invested in this fried dried fish deal earlier and earned Rs. 1240 million for six years . But the Central Bank has lost Rs. 3400 million just in the Greece investment alone. What is this comic and magic in the reckless deals and investments of Cabraal and Govt.
Are these monies from the personal funds of Cabraal or President or any other of the Govt.? The fiscal responsibility belongs to the Parliament , yet the Govt. has played ducks and drakes with these public funds without Parliamentary approval. Mind you , these are foreign loans taken from the IMF .

Investments are made to augment our foreign assets But in this case our debts have increased. We frown upon the Central Bank’s frivolous attitude after this massive bungling. Cabraal should stop this gambling with people’s money which is worse than robbing. We will be taking action against this gambling Governor , Attanayake asserted.

Sri Lankan editor needs backup after minister's tirade

By Bob Dietz/CPJ Asia Program Coordinator

Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa responded nastily to a question from The Sunday Leader, an editor says. (AFP/Ishara S.Kodikara)

As far as Frederica Jansz is concerned, "The Sri Lankan media have been completely cowed into submission by this regime with the exception of The Sunday Leader. It is Mahinda Rajapaksa's biggest success story next to winning the war."

Jansz is the Leader's editor who, over the weekend, had the temerity to call up the president's brother, Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and ask him "to clarify and find out if he was aware that the management at SriLankan Airlines had taken a decision to change a wide bodied A340 scheduled to fly to Zurich on Friday July 13, to a smaller A330. The change was to be made so that a SriLankan Airline pilot, who is dating a niece of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, could personally fly the aircraft that would carry a 'puppy dog' for Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa from  Zurich," to quote theLeader's lead.

The question apparently did not go down well with the defense secretary. Jansz reported his lengthy, abusive response fully in the Leader, and you can read it at "Gota Goes Berserk." Beware: It's a verbatim account filled with the obscenities Jansz says the minister heaped on her. (CPJ emailed and called the defense ministry seeking Rajapaksa's side of the story; the email went unanswered. On the phone, after I identified myself to someone and asked to speak to the minister, that someone hung up. Subsequent calls went unanswered).

This is more than a juicy story of a government official behaving badly. It is a first-hand account of something that many Sri Lankan journalists speak of privately, but few make public out of fear of retribution. CPJ research shows that threats--some delivered over the phone, some by text, some by word of mouth, some by firebomb or claymore mine,others by gangs of thugs wielding pipes and clubs--are a fact of life for many Sri Lankan journalists.

CPJ first wrote about Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2007 (see "Government moves to re-enact criminal defamation law"). In May 2009, he ordered a Channel Four team deported back to Britain. "Gotabaya Rajapaksa is the second most powerful man in Sri Lanka, next to the president. He enjoys complete immunity coupled with the trappings of power equivalent to holding executive office," Jansz told CPJ.

In January of this year, Sonali Samarasinghe, the widow of slain Leader editor Lasantha Wickramatunga, mentioned him in her statement marking the third anniversary of her husband's death, "Sri Lanka's democratic institutions have metastasized into something dangerous"--a headline which, for me, captures succinctly the state of Sri Lanka. Samarasinghe suggested Gotabaya Rajapaksa is part of the larger problem behind the "murders, abductions and assaults [that] are not random acts or accidental killings. These are acts of violence that have become emblematic of the current leadership, the erosion of society, and the impunity with which the regime now operates."

In that statement, Samarasinghe called on the international community "to urge Sri Lanka's government to hold a proper independent investigation into Lasantha's murder." CPJ has repeated that call many times in the cases of many other threats, attacks, arsons, and beatings directed at journalists and media organizations. After years of denials and legal obstruction, we have come not to expect action from the Sri Lankan government, but we try to get external peers--diplomats and the United Nations, mainly--to engage the government in a way that brings some sort of relief to the media community.

Jansz inherited the Leader's editorial position after Wickramatunga was killed by eight men on four motorcycles during morning rush hour on a busy Colombo road a few hundred yards from a military checkpoint. Despite interminable hearings, no prosecution has ever been launched in the case.  (CPJ's 2009 investigation of that murder can be found at "Failure to Investigate.") In her email communication with CPJ Monday, Jansz said "I fully expect some repercussion following yesterday's publication, but in what form remains to be seen."

CPJ is in touch with several diplomatic missions in Colombo. They should step into this situation before it gets worse.

Sri Lanka dengue workers on strike over murder

Sri Lanka's government is on a major drive to contain the spread of dengue

Public health inspectors in Sri Lanka have held a one-day strike in protest at the murder of a colleague as he checked a house for dengue fever.

The inspector was clubbed to death as he looked for stagnant water, a breeding ground for mosquitoes that carry the deadly disease.

The alleged attacker has been arrested, but the striking inspectors are demanding safer working conditions.

Dengue fever has killed at least 76 people in Sri Lanka this year.

The disease, which causes severe pain in the bones, has no known vaccine and the government says home inspections and anti-mosquito spraying are crucial to contain the spread of the disease.

'Tenacious mosquito'

Firdosi Mehta of the World Heath Organisation in Colombo says dengue is a major health problem.

"It is a very tenacious mosquito in which the eggs can lie dormant for about six months or so. So it's a difficult disease to control."

The Association of Public Health Inspectors says 1,700 of its members went on strike. Its secretary told BBC News that there had been similar attacks on health officials recently, and all inspectors should now work in teams.

He alleged that some attackers enjoyed political patronage and would not get punished.

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says the government is on a major drive to contain dengue, involving ten thousand security force personnel and many officials.

More than 50 people have been arrested for not taking proper precautions against the mosquitoes.

But our correspondent says the number of inspectors is limited and the inspectors' wish to work in teams for better security may be hard to fulfil.

For the notice of minister Allahapperuma - by Robinhood

(Lanka-e-News-10.July.2012, 5.30AM) During yesterdays media briefing minister Dallas Allahapperuma accused one of his old friend who is now with the UNP for character assassinating and mud slinging of politicians in the ruling regime. He said he revealing deliberate lies about ruling party politicians and disseminating anti government news to the international community. He asserted that he is the person who started the culture of character assassination, mud politics and he is born, bread and dies in the mud.
I wish to remind minister Allahapperuma how many people has been murdered by this ruling regime when it came to power and how many murders have not been investigated and how many murderers and thugs are roaming with arms with the patronage of this regime. I wonder whether this unscrupulous minister doesn’t have a sense of feeling to speak about characters of politician such as him who are always whitewashing the regime of its bestial
1. Has the police/CID investigate any one of the white van abductions and killings
2. Did the police prosecute the captured white van abductors and produce in courts.
3. Did the CID prosecute the actual museum robbers?
4. Did the regime find the killers of Lasantha Wicramathunga and other journalists /media people killed and missing and media institutions set ablaze?
5. Can the regime find the missing cartoonist Pregeeth Ekneligoda?
6. Why the government is fail to implement the 17th amendment and stop the violence of this coming provincial council election?
More >>

How did a financial fraudster get appointed as a director at Commercial Bank?
Tuesday, 10 July 2012

Director General of the Media Center for National Security (MCNS) Lakshman Hulugalle, who has been appointed to the board of directors of Commercial Bank, has been ordered a suspended jail term and fined by the Colombo High Court over a timber racket. Details have also surfaced that he is also the respondent in a case related to a fraud of 80,000 Sterling Pounds that is being heard before the Colombo High Court.

He was found guilty of selling timber to the Ethkanda Viharaya in Kurunegala at a price higher than the allocated price. The timber was allocated by the State Timber Corporation. The Colombo High Court found him guilty around 1990 and ordered a two year jail term with a 10 year suspended sentence and a fine of Rs. 20,000.

This fraud was committed when Hulugalle was serving as a director of the State Timber Corporation.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General has filed an indictment before the Colombo High Court in 2000 against Hulugalle for allegedly misusing 80,000 Sterling Pounds given by millionaire businessman Ravi Wettasinghe to the SLFP Fund. The monies have allegedly been taken for personal use by Hulugalle.

Hulugalle at the time had been serving as an advisor to Minister S.B. Dissanayake and Dissanayake joined the UNP in 2001. However, Hulugalle had managed to push the case aside with the change in the government.

It is President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his capacity as Finance Minister who has appointed Hulugalle, who has been found guilty by courts of financial fraud and is also the respondent to a case on financial fraud, as a member of the Commercial Bank board of directors.

Hulugalle also serves as the head of the NGO Secretariat where there are large sums of monies.

Making Complaints, UN Human Rights Council And Its Subsidiary Bodies

July 11, 2012

By  S. V. Kirupaharan -

S. V. Kirupaharan

In March 2006, the international intergovernmental body, the UN Human Rights Council – UNHRC/HRC was established by General Assembly – GA resolution 60/251 to replace the Commission on Human Rights. The 1^stsession of the HRC took place in June 2006. Its members review and consider thematic and country-specific human rights issues.

Since the creation of the HRC there have been 20 regular sessions. Special sessions can be called at any time with the support of one-third (16) members of the HRC. So far 15 special sessions have been convened. These have addressed emergencies – Worsening world food situation; and the Global economic crisis – and urgent situations in the following states – Darfur Sudan; Myanmar; Occupied Palestinian territory (3 sessions); Democratic Republic of Congo; Sri Lanka; Haiti (earthquake); Ivory Coast; Libyan Arab Jamahiriya; Syrian Arab Republic (3 sessions).

The HRC is composed of 47 member States, elected by majority vote in the GA. No country may serve more than two consecutive three-year terms. They are not eligible for immediate re-election after the six years, without taking a break of at least one year. The Council’s Membership distribution is as follows:

Africa                                                   -          13         States

Asia                                                      –           13         -do-

Latin America andCaribbean                 –             8        -do-

Western Europeand other                     –             7        -do-

Eastern Europe                                    –             6        -do-

Since the beginning of the HRC – Bangladesh, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Jordan, Mauritius, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, and Uruguay have been members for six consecutive years and so they are not qualified to contest for re-membership immediately.

 Read More

Northern Province elections in September 2013, says Rajapaksa

R. K. RADHAKRISHNAN   July 11, 2012
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa

Elections to Sri Lanka’s northern provincial council will take just over a year from now. “We want to hold elections in September 2013,” President Mahinda Rajapaksa told The Hindu. “We are working towards it [the elections] in a systematic manner.”

In an interaction at his official residence, Temple Trees, here, Mr. Rajapaksa said there were many issues to be resolved ahead of holding of elections. The primary one related to the electoral rolls. People who fled when the Tamil Tigers were in power and during the war were still coming in and staking claim to their land and property after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in May 2009. These people too had to be accommodated in the rolls.

The last rolls were more than 30 years old and had no relation to the current eligible voters in the province.

The second issue was the completion of the rehabilitation and resettlement process. This was on with international support and was expected to be completed soon. Livelihood issues too were being addressed.

The holding of elections hold the key to moving forward on the question of granting Tamils the political space they lacked. In fact, this should have been possible soon after the India-Sri Lanka accord of 1987 (later called the 13th Amendment because the Sri Lankan Constitution was subsequently amended to include this provision), which also had a clause on devolution of powers. Ironically, the amendment benefitted all the other regions — albeit in a very limited manner — and all the provinces, barring the North, had a provincial council.

On the issue of glaring visibility of the Army in all walks of life, Mr. Rajapaksa said he had instructed that the Army should be visible only when required.

Mr. Rajapaksa refused to accept that the Indian vote against Sri Lanka in the United Nations Human Rights Council was because Colombo did not implement the promises it made to the Council in 2009. Insisting that his government had worked on all the promises that were delivered and was serious about fulfilling all undertakings that were given, he said he had even said that he was willing to go beyond the 13th Amendment.

Clarifying for the first time what the plus was, Mr. Rajapaksa said this was the creation of a Senate. “I said 13th Amendment plus. Then Shankar [Shiv Shankar Menon, Indian National Security Adviser] remarked if I meant the creation of a Senate, and I said yes.”

Mr. Menon had met Mr. Rajapaksa on June 29 on post-Geneva issues. India is the chair for the Universal Periodic Review at the UNHRC that comes up in November.

Mr. Rajapaksa made it clear that the creation of a Senate and the fleshing out of a solution needed to come from Parliament. “This is [where] the Parliamentary Select Committee is important,” he said

When The Hindu brought to his notice the plight of five fishermen from Tamil Nadu, who were being held in a Jaffna prison since November 28, 2011, he said he would first ascertain the facts of the case. He had called the Inspector General of Police and received an update on the issue.

The Brewing Crisis Of The Tax State: Stimulus For Prosperity Or Austerity For Sustainability?

July 11, 2012

By W.A. Wijewardena  -

Dr. W.A. Wijewardena

The Tale of Two Countries

Two events hit the local and global media separately last week.

The local media event was the release of the Midyear Fiscal Position Report 2012 by the Ministry of Finance and Planning in terms of the requirements of the Fiscal Management (Responsibility) Act of 2003 (available here). The global event was the Keynote address delivered by the newly elected Prime Minister of France, Jean-Marc Ayrault, in French National Assembly outlining the policy framework and strategy of France’s new socialist government (available here).

Both events have been the response of the policy authorities to a brewing crisis in the budgetary outcomes of the two respective countries. Hence, they deserve public discussion, debate and deliberation.

Sri Lanka’s shaky budgetary outcome

Sri Lanka’s Midyear Fiscal Position Report has provided the latest data relating to the country’s government budget for the first four months of 2012. According to the data released, Sri Lanka’s budgetary performance is shaky, off-the track and demonstrative of a brewing crisis in the government’s finances.

The report has not compared the budget’s actual performance with its original budgetary targets and therefore does not provide the full picture relating to the true state of the government’s finances of the country. Instead, the report has provided a comparison with the previous year’s levels which always show an improvement in money terms, given the increase in the country’s total output measured in money terms due to inflation. This has, therefore, concealed the brewing crisis in the government’s budget from public eye.

The revenue of the government, according to the Midyear Report, has increased from Rs 285 billion in the first four months of 2011 to Rs 306 billion during the corresponding four months of 2012. This is an increase of 7 per cent and, hence, an achievement. However, when compared with a pro-rated budget of Rs 369 billion for the first four months, the revenue performance has fallen short by some 17 per cent in this period. Consequently, as a ratio of GDP, when pro-rated, it amounts to a mere 12.1 per cent in 2012. The comparative numbers in 2010 and 2011 were 14.6 per cent and 14.3 per cent respectively. This is clearly a sign of the erosion of the revenue base of the government.

Sri Lanka’s government a consumer beyond means    Read More

Press freedom in Sri Lanka

Gota explodes

Banyan  Asia  Jul 11th 2012

SRI LANKA’s powerful defence secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, seemed to threaten a senior newspaper editor with death in a profanity-strewn outburst. The cause for his rage was that she called to check whether the state-run national airline had changed aircraft for a scheduled flight from Switzerland. The cause for that switch may have been—or so the editor wished to learn—for Mr Rajapaksa’s niece’s pilot-boyfriend to be allowed to fly an aeroplane which was to deliver a puppy from Europe to the defence secretary’s wife.

Frederica Jansz, the editor of The Sunday Leader, reported that Mr Rajapaksa, who is the younger brother of Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, “went berserk” when she rang him. He said would “sue [her] fucking newspaper” if she wrote “any bloody word about this”.  He also barked that he was “not afraid of the bloody courts”.

In a second telephone conversation, Mr Rajapaksa elaborated. He called Mrs Jansz “a fucking shit, a pig who eats shit”. “Shit, shit, shit journalists!” he ranted.

Ninety percent of the people in this country hate you! They hate you! You come for a function where I am and I will tell people this is the editor of The Sunday Leader and 90% there will show that they hate you.

“People will kill you!  People hate you! They will kill you!” he shouted next. As it happens, Ms Jansz took over the newspaper after its founding editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge, was murdered in broad daylight in 2009. The case remains unsolved. When she questioned whether she would be killed on his directive, the defence secretary seemed to prevaricate. “What? No. Not mine. But they will kill you, you dirty fucking shit journalist.”

The conversation can be viewed in its charming entirety here. Media-rights groups have expressed strong concern over Ms Jansz’s safety.

(Picture credit: AFP)