President under pressure from Bharathi

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

 Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Turkey, Bharathi Wijeratne has given many telephone calls to the President to direct the police not to arrest her son.

Bharathi was the wife of former Minister Mano Wijeratne and is a close friend of the President. Bharathi’s son, Rohan Wijeratne had been involved in a brawl with an army major attached to the army intelligence unit at the car park of Jaic Hilton at around 3.30 a.m. on the 9^th. Public Affairs Minister Mervyn Silva’s son, Malaka Silva had also been involved in the fracas.

Malaka and Rohan have been in the company of five girls and the brawl had taken place following an argument. The major who was attacked had been admitted to the Colombo National Hospital. Bharathi’s son, Rohan Wijeratne has served as the media secretary to Minister Silva and later traveled overseas after Bharathi traveled to Turkey.

An Army Major Is Hospitalised; Mervyn Silva’s Son Malaka Silva Has Done It Again

By Colombo Telegraph -September 9, 2012

Army Major Shri Pradeep was admitted to the National Hospital after being assaulted by a group led by controversial minister Mervyn Silva‘s son Malaka Silva at a five star hotel in Colombo last night, according to a complaint made to the police.

Army Major was assaulted by Malaka Silva, Former Minister Mano Wijeratne’s son and five other persons at the Jaic Hilton car park at around 3.30 early this morning

Police spokesman Ajith Rohana said a corporal who was with the Major at the time of the incident was also injured during the clash. The Slave Island police have recorded a statement from the Army Major who charged that his official pistol had been taken away by the group.

Chaminda Senasinghe and (inset) Malaka Silva

Not unlike his father, Minister Silva’s son Malaka has been notorious for terrorizing Colombo and its nightspots and is also a paid government official in Minister Silva’s Ministry. No one dares speak out against the Silva family due to their connections both with the underworld and their immunity due to presidential patronage.

Malaka’s track record

In September 2007 Chaminda Senasinghe was attacked by Malaka Silva at the Bistro Latino Restaurant and Salsa Bar.

Malaka Silva and two of his bodyguards on November 2, 2006 pleaded guilty to attacking attacking Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) officers who were on a drug raid at a night club in a five star hotel.

Colombo High Court Judge Upali Abeyratne ordered each of them to pay compensation of Rs. 10,000 each and enter into a bond in Rs 100,000 each to be of good behaviour for one year. The accused were Malaka Silva and his bodyguards Sampath Kumara Rajapakse and Prasanna Kumara Suresh. The judge ordered that the compensation be directed to the Police Rewards Fund.

In a direct indictment by the Attorney General the three accused were charged with willfully causing hurt to deter a public servant from his duty. Malaka Silva was charged with intimidating and obstructing the PNB team which went on a narcotics raid with a court order to the night club My Kind of Place at Taj Samudra in the early hours of July 24, 2005.

The accused were indicted with assaulting police personnel including PC R.W. A. Dayan Lasantha – an offence punishable under Section 323 of the Penal Code.

According to the statements given by PNB officers and PNB OIC Buddhika Balachandra at the magisterial inquiry, on the said date the narcotics team, on a tip-off had raided the night club to arrest an ‘ecstasy’ dealer who was said to have been trafficking the drug at the hotel. When the PNB officers who were in plain clothes were leaving the night club after completing the ten-minute raid, Malaka Silva had obstructed them and abused them in foul language. Malaka Silva had allegedly threatened the police officer at gunpoint and assaulted the police officers. Later he had called his bodyguard who was armed with a pistol and attacked the police officers.

The PNB team had allegedly withdrawn from the place as the accused were armed and as they did not want to create a problem there. Later they had complained to the Colombo Fort police station.

The accused had later surrendered to the police station. Ironically two days after the attack former Police Chief, Chandra Fernando, announced the release of Malaka Silva and his mates saying that there was no evidence. Media reported that the police were under pressure not to work hard on the case.

In his attempt to defend his son, Mervyn Silva abused journalists in filth and stated that he knows what to do with the owners of Sirasa and Swarnavahini – two privately owned media outlets.

Earlier in connection with this trial Malaka had also been banned from entry into night clubs after 7 p.m with a warning that if the ban were violated the one million rupee bail on the two persons would be converted to a fine and charged from them. (Sunday Leader September 9, 2007)

Related stories;

WikiLeaks: Mervin Silava Is A Drug Kingpin Patron Chief

By Colombo Telegraph

suspected of trafficking the drug “ecstasy”-------------------------------------------------------suspected of trafficking the drug “ecstasy”

A leaked US embassy cable reviled “drug kingpins in Sri Lanka have political patrons in the government”. “Chief among them Dr. Mervin Silva, a Member of Parliament and the Minister of Labor” the cable further said. The Colombo Telegraph found the cable from the Wikileaks database.

The remarks by Washington’s embassy to Sri Lanka, are revealed by the Wikileaks leaked cable. The cable was classified as “ CONFIDENTIAL” by ambassador Patricia A. Butenis. Read More

Enforced Disappearances: Turned Sri Lankans Into A Broken-Hearted People

By Basil Fernando -September 11, 2012

Basil Fernando

Enforced disappearances and deprivation of enforceable entitlements have turned Sri Lankans into a broken-hearted people

Yesterday, we discussed several protests that took place in Asia. They are the students protest in Hong Kong; the protests of the people fighting against eviction from their lands by the Onkareshwar Dam project in Madhya Pradesh, India; the fight against the abuse of blasphemy law in Pakistan in the case of Rimsha, the 14-year-old mentally handicapped girl; and the student protest in Sri Lanka.

We noted that while in all the other three instances there was massive support for the protestors from the local media after the incidents had been revealed, the Sri Lankan media was almost completely silent about the attacks on the students by the government.

We also noted that in the other instances the governments showed tolerance towards the protestors and there was no use of violence against them. In contrast, in Sri Lanka the police, who arrived in large numbers, used brutal violence. Tear gas and baton charges were used against the peaceful demonstrators and some were arrested and charged. Added to this a heavy propaganda campaign was carried out by the government spokesman, and this was given wide publicity through the state media, which said that the violence was provoked by the students and that there are investigations are being carried out against them.

In all the other three instances the governments concerned at least partially granted the relief demanded by the protestors. The Hong Kong authorities promised not to enforce the proposed new curriculum on moral and national education that the students were objecting to; in India the Madhya Pradesh government promised to grant all the demands of the protestors, who stood neck-deep in water for seventeen days, and appointed a five-member committee to deal with the matter completely within 90 days by giving land for land and stopping the rise of the dam’s water levels. In Pakistan, where protesting against the blasphemy law has remained difficult for a long time, the court released the young girl on bail and the government provided her with protection to move out of the location. Also, the police have arrested the cleric that made the false charges against the girl and charged him in turn with blasphemy.

What all this shows is that there is at least a certain degree of willingness to negotiate with the protestors, and to treat protest as a legitimate means by which citizens may express grievances and demand urgent action when they are frustrated with the negligence of the authorities. Such negotiations are possible when the idea of rule by consent is treated as the foundation of the legitimacy of a government. What the Sri Lankan government showed in this instance was that they derive their power purely by physical force and the idea of government by consent no longer has a practical relevance.

How did Sri Lankans come to accept rule by brutal force? Why have the citizens cowed down to this way of being ruled? How have the mass movements, which were at one time so vibrant in Sri Lanka, become so subdued? Why is the media so self-censored in the face of brutal violations of all the basic norms of democracy and rule of law? Why is everybody so unwilling to lend support for those who come forward to protest for legitimate reasons?

The answer to all this is not difficult to find. It lies in the way enforced disappearances have been used as an effective tool to suppress public protest. The fear of abduction followed by torture and many other forms of harassment, probably ending in an enforced disappearance, is now an impression so deeply embedded in the psyche of the Sri Lankan people.

While all that happens, the legal machinery of investigations into complaints, prosecution of offenders and even the judicial independence has been so badly undermined. That investigations into complaints against the state’s abuse of its powers and of the use of naked violence will not take place is now known to everyone.  The examples are available of such refusals to investigate, not in their hundreds, but in their thousands.

The Sri Lankan people have being reduced to persons with no enforceable legal entitlements. The Constitution does have a bill of rights and many fundamental rights are mentioned. There are many statutes that have criminalised violence of various forms against the people. However, the enforcement mechanism has been suppressed and by now it can be said that, virtually, an enforcement mechanism against violations of rights no longer exists.

A long period of the abuse by way of enforced disappearances, illegal arrest and detention, torture, denial of fair trial, suppression of freedom of opinion and expression, publication and association have virtually made the Sri Lankan people into a broken-hearted people who have lost faith in their legal rights.

When there is no possibility of the enforcement of entitlements, the idea of citizenship becomes a hollow one.

Lankan minister ready to face murder trial in Chennai through video conferencing

A Subramani, TNN | Sep 11, 2012,

Douglas Devananda, a Sri Lankan minister wanted in connection with a murder case in Chennai, has approached a sessions court saying he was ready to face the murder trial through video-conferencing.

CHENNAI: Douglas Devananda, a Sri Lankan minister wanted in connection with a murder case in Chennai and who was declared as a proclaimed offender in 1994, has approached a sessions court here saying he was ready to face the murder trial through video conferencing.

He wanted the court to recall the non-bailable arrest warrant pending against him, and to dispense with his personal appearance in court.

Douglas Devananda and his men are charged with the murder of one Thirunavukkarasu at Choolaimedu in Chennai, in 1986.

According to the city police, the then Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front(EPRLF) cadres had opened fire at local residents on Diwali eve, and killed one person.

Though all were arrested and remanded in judicial custody, all of them absconded after they were released on bail.

In 1994 the trial court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him and proclaimed him as an absconding accused.

On Tuesday, Douglas filed a petition before the IV additional sessions judge, Rajagopalan, seeking to dispense with his personal appearance in connection with the case.

Noting that he was a minister in Sri Lanka since 1994, Douglas said his visit to Tamil Nadu at this juncture would trigger a law and order problem in the state.

He, however, said he was prepared to face the trial through video-conferencing.

He is facing various charges such as rioting and offences punishable under the Arms Act.

The additional judge, Rajagopalan, issued notice to the public prosecutor and posted the matter to Wednesday for further hearing.

I became second because of the President – Berty

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

 Former Chief Minister Berty Premalal Dissanayake has told the media that the UPFA had won the North Central Provincial Council election because of the President. However, behind the cameras, he has said that it was the President’s actions that had pushed him to the second place.

The former Chief Minister had engaged in a lengthy chat with the media personnel after making his official comment. He had spoken with great pain about the issues he had to face during the election campaign.

Dissanayake had explained in details that he and his eldest son are being targeted by the President after hearing a report that his son had a Raja Yoga in his horoscope.

Minister S.M. Chandrasena’s brother, S.M. Ranjith had bee provided with complete state patronage in order to minimize Dissanayake’s powers in the North Central Province. The former Chief Minister has said the President has for some time being using Chandrasena against him and that Chandrasena and his family is now with swollen heads due to the President’s backing. He has added that Chandrasena was of a low caliber and not fit to engage in politics.

The former Chief Minister has noted that the President had even got the Elections Commissioner to act against him to shut down his election offices and that the election laws had been fully applied only to him.

Dissanayake has added that he knew very well that JVP member Wasantha Samarasinghe had been provided with various documents by the Presidential Secretariat to be used against him at a television debate telecast on Derana durng the period of the election.

A senior government minister said the beginning of the end of the Rajapaksa government would start if another person was appointed to the chief ministerial post other than Dissanayake. The minister said that senior SLFPers were trying to avoid such a senior and the President would have to face a bigger crisis if he fails to listen to the seniors.

We think we should act with responsibility at a critical point, says Hakeem
Tuesday , 11 September 2012

Leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, Rauff Hakeem says that the views of party members and those who voted for the party will be taken into consideration when deciding as to who the party would support to form an administration in the eastern Provincial Council.

Speaking to Newsfirst, Hakeem said that TNA Parliamentary Group Leader, R. Sampanthan
had discussed the matter with him over the telephone.

Rauff Hakeem shared these thoughts.

’I participated in the government’s parliamentary group meeting. Few questions came up about our stance there as well but I explained that it will take time to provide them with a proper response. I discussed about this with the President as well this morning. I believe that we should agree on certain questions relating to the principles. We should also remember that TNA will be the focal point in forming a broad alliance. Therefore, we think we should act with responsibility at a critical point. People hope that we will do what we should to reduce these problems among ethnic groups and move towards a sustainable political solution. Therefore, we will take these into consideration and arrive at a decision.’

SLMC should heed to the voice of its voters -Azath Salley
(Lanka-e-News- 10.Sep.2012, 3.00PM) A strong and clear message has been given to the government by the people of the eastern province . I have achieved what I set out to do.The true feelings of the people of the East has to be felt by the government.

I resigned my seat in the Colombo municipal Council as the government was continuously ignoring the feelings of the minority community .

The leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress invited me to contest this election and campaign for the tree symbol. I campaigned in all three districts for the party with the clear objective of achieving my goal. Despite this the people of Batticaloa District have placed me in the 2nd position in the SLMC list. This is an honour considering the achievements of those who attempted this in the past.

This Government has no mandate to govern this province . 400,000 people have rejected the governemnt of His Exellency Mahinda Rajapakse .UPFA was able to get only 200044 votes against the three major parties in the province which is as follows 
ITAK. 193827
SLMC. 132917
UNP. 74901
-----------------------
Total 401645
-----------------------
UNP has decided to give unconditional support to the TNA. TNA is willing to concede the Chief Minister's post to the Muslims. The SLMC must accept this and show the world that we can work together without the support of the government.

This is a great opportunity for both tamil and muslim communities to work together. The aspirations of both communities will be met by this move.

The SLMC should heed to the voice of its voters.

Kosovo declared 'fullyindependent'

Kosovan Prime Minister Hashim Thaci (r) called the decision a 'historic turnaround' for the state

Western powers overseeing Kosovo have announced the end of their supervision of the tiny Balkan nation.

Kosovo had been overseen by a group made up of 23 EU countries, the US and Turkey since 2008, when it unilaterally declared independence from Serbia.

US President Barack Obama said Monday marked a "historic milestone" for Kosovo, which he said had made "significant progress".

But Serbia dismissed the sovereignty announcement as meaningless.

It does not recognise the secession of Kosovo and regards it as part of Serbia.

"The supervision of Kosovo is finished," Dutch diplomat Pieter Feith, the highest international representative in Kosovo, told a press conference.

"The International Steering Group has decided to end the period of [Kosovo's] supervised independence," he said, speaking in Albanian.

Turnaround

Kosovan Prime Minister Hashim Thaci called the decision a "historic turnaround" for the state.

"This is an international success for Kosovo which confirms that the international community respects Kosovo," he said.

He acknowledged that there was still work to be done, above all integrating the Serb majority in northern Kosovo, which is out of the ethnic-Albanian government's control.

A Nato-led peacekeeping force in charge of security and a European mission on the rule of law will continue to operate in the country.

But Mr Obama said that the state had already made great strides.

"With the optimism, energy and determination characteristic of its people, Kosovo has made significant progress in solidifying the gains of independence and in building the institutions of a modern, multi-ethnic, inclusive and democratic state," he said.

More than 90 countries, including the US and most of the EU, have recognised Kosovo.

However many others, such as Russia, Georgia and China, have refused to do so. Some fear encouraging secessionist movements in their own countries.

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic stressed Belgrade would never recognise Kosovo's independence "supervised or unsupervised", and dismissed the decision as meaningless.

Fraying brotherhood over troubled waters

NIRUPAMA SUBRAMANIAN
September 11, 2012

If Tamil Nadu politicians truly care about Sri Lankan Tamils, they should discourage the State’s fishermen from cornering the marine resources in the Palk Straits

When Tamil Nadu politicians raise the pitch against the Sri Lankan government’s perceived atrocities on the Tamils in that country, they invoke popular sentiment in Tamil Nadu, saying Tamils here are hurt and angry at the way their brethren across the Palk Straits are being treated.

But that sympathy is nowhere evident on an issue that truly hits the Sri Lankan Tamils where it matters — their livelihoods. In fact, it is an issue on which Tamil Nadu actively works against the interests of fellow Tamils across the Palk Straits.

For the last three years, Sri Lanka’s Tamils have been trying to pick up the broken pieces of their lives, shattered by a long and brutal war. One of the main livelihoods of people in Northern Sri Lanka is fishing. As people have gone back to their homes, this is what they have expected to do to earn a living — go out in a boat and come back home with a decent catch.

By itself, that does not sound like a big deal. But as the Sri Lankan government waged a long and hard war against the LTTE, the waters off Northern Sri Lanka’s coastline were barred to the fishermen of the area.

The waters were declared high security zones and fishermen could put out only a kilometre into the sea in the entire North and East; ditto on the north-western coast, from Mannar upward, while the catch frolicked in the waters beyond.

New enemy

Now those restrictions no longer exist. The Sri Lankan Navy is no longer the villain it was in the war years. But Sri Lankan fishermen in the North find they have a new enemy. It’s the hundreds of boats that put out to sea from the Indian side daily, sailing into Sri Lankan waters as if they belong there.

As Antony Pillai, head of the Jaffna fishermen’s union, told The Hindu’s Sri Lanka correspondent R.K. Radhakrishnan last month: “They come in large numbers; it’s as if a huge island is moving”.

Bad fishing practices have depleted the catch on the Indian side; all the Indian fishermen want is to get to where the catch now is. Tamil Nadu fishermen organisers, such as U. Arulanandan in Rameswaram, flatly say it is “not possible” to restrict themselves to Indian territorial waters as the marine wealth, and the area on the Indian side, are limited.

Decades of war ensured that at least the marine resources in Sri Lanka’s northern seas were protected, if not lives on land. The International Maritime Boundary Line, for the Indian fishermen, is drawn on water. In Tamil Nadu, all the stress is on the fishermen’s “traditional areas/waters”. The State is still sore that there was no consultation with it before the “imposition of an artificial boundary” in the Palk Straits, and before India ceded Kachchatheevu to Sri Lanka.

But Tamil Nadu fails to see that Sri Lankan Tamil fishermen too have the right to a livelihood.

An agreement between India and Sri Lanka in October 2008 — when Sri Lanka was still in the midst of its war against the LTTE — virtually gave carte blancheto Indian fishermen to cross the IMBL, and venture into Sri Lankan waters except for “sensitive areas” along the Sri Lankan coast, designated by that country’s navy.

Sri Lanka also gave the commitment that there would be “no firing” on Indian vessels; the Tamil Nadu fishermen had to carry valid identity cards issued by the State government.

Only after the war ended did the full impact of this agreement sink in for the Sri Lankan side. Equipped with powerful mechanised boats rigged for sea-bed trawling, Tamil Nadu fishermen have had no qualms about aggrandising the resources on Sri Lanka’s side of the sea. The Sri Lankan fishermen can only watch helplessly as the Indian boats rip their nets, and speed away with the catch, leaving behind a muddied sea in their wake.

The authorities on both sides monitor how many boats cross the IMBL every night. Records for January to June 2012, obtained from Indian government sources, are revealing. In January, 5,166 trawlers were seen crossing the boundary; in February, the number was 6,376; in March, it was 4,740; in April, it came down to 1,050; in May, it dipped to 304; in June, it rose again to 3,026. Checking the identity of each boat is impossible. Every month, 10 per cent or less are recorded as “positively identified”.

The waters where these boats were found fishing? Forget Kachchatheevu, where Indian fishermen claim fishing rights — they were seen even as far away as Pulmoddai and Mullaithivu in eastern Sri Lanka; Chundikulum, Point Pedro and Kankesanthurai; in the islets around Delft Island off the peninsula; and, all the way down to Mannar.

On August 20, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa asked the Centre to take up “strongly” the issue of attacks on Indian fishermen, saying the Sri Lankan Navy had been “emboldened” by India’s “soft handling” of the issue. Between June 2011 and August 2012, she wrote 12 letters to the Prime Minister on this issue.

Direct action

Tamil Nadu fishermen allege the Sri Lankan Navy beats them up, humiliates them, even foists smuggling cases on them. But so fraught have relations become between the fishermen of northern Sri Lanka and the ones from Tamil Nadu that the Sri Lankans are quite happy when their Navy takes on the Indians. In one incident in February 2011, Sri Lankan Tamil fishermen resorted to direct action, rounding up more than 100 Indian fishermen, and handed them over to their navy.

Over the last two years, Sri Lanka has stressed that the Indian fishermen must respect the IMBL, most recently at a meeting of the joint working group on fisheries held in Colombo in August.

Should the Tamil Nadu government really wish to help Sri Lankan Tamils, there are several constructive ways of doing so. Sending back school children and cultural groups is not one of them. In fact, nothing is worse than raising the temperature for visiting Sri Lankans in Tamil Nadu. The links between the two sides run too deep and too strong, and destroying them serves no purpose. Think of the petty Tamil traders from Colombo who travel to Chennai daily, and how the new negatively charged atmosphere affects them. Think also of the Indians who have made Sri Lanka their home, live, work and have invested in that country over the four or five decades, their numbers increasing since the 1990s, and it should become clear that such brinkmanship serves no purpose.

Protesting the “training” of Sri Lankan officers at Wellington or NDC is certainly not constructive either. If anything, having them here is an opportunity to give them a first-hand experience of how a federal system in a multi-ethnic country works, with all its pulls and pressures.

But what can be truly constructive, and with an immediate positive impact on the lives of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils living in Jaffna is if Tamil Nadu can restrain its fishermen from plundering the Palk Straits with their bad practices, and from cornering all its resources. Tamil Nadu politicians, if they truly care about Sri Lankan Tamils, should encourage the State’s fishermen to see the fishermen on the other side of the straits as partners with their own rights to the marine resources of the region. Some fishermen know co-operation is the way forward.

As far back as 1985, according to Mr. Arulanandan, Rameswaram fishermen submitted a proposal for developing alternate areas for deep sea fishing. Others, such as N.J Bose, another fishermen’s leader, have suggested a bilateral agreement that will enable fishermen from both sides to fish in each other’s waters. Instead of resorting to damaging rhetoric aimed more at maximising their political mileage, Tamil Nadu politicians should take the lead in encouraging such options by which fishermen on both sides can share these resources.

(With inputs from T. Ramakrishnan in Chennai and S. Annamalai in Madurai)

Tamil Nadu fishermen slapped, chased away by Sri Lankan Navy

Ramanathapuram: In yet another instance of mid-sea confrontation reported on Sunday, the Sri Lankan Navy allegedly chased away a group of fishermen and took away a mobile phone from one of them.

The Indian fishing boats, which set out on Saturday, were surrounded by the Lankan Navy while they were netting mid-sea.

The Navy personnel allegedly chased away some of the boats and snatched a cellphone belonging to Adimai, a local resident.

The Lankan Navy personnel also slapped some of the fishermen, accusing them of trespassing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL), it has been alleged.

As a result, the fishermen were forced to return to shore with a poor catch.

The Fisheries Department was yet to receive a formal complaint about the incident.

What a tragic fall
Ramachandra Guha-September 09, 2012
Last year I travelled to Sri Lanka on work; my previous visit had been a decade earlier. The people were, as before, gentle and polite; the scenery spectacular; the roads and residences, spotlessly clean. But the political culture had changed in the interim. An air of Sinhala superiority was abroad. A war had been waged and won; what had been imposed afterwards, however, was a victor's peace. Instead of assuring the Tamils that their rights would be protected, the idea that only Sinhala-speakers and followers of the Buddhist faith were authentic citizens was being promoted. The army had not disbanded its units in the north; there were fears that large numbers of non-Tamils would follow them and settle there.

These chauvinistic policies were accompanied by a promotion of the First Family of Sri Lankan politics. Photographs of the president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, were everywhere. His brother, Gotabaya, was making loud and threatening noises at regular intervals. While I was in Sri Lanka the President's son was engaged in an electoral campaign, and the notion that he would one day succeed to his father's office was being broadcast to anyone who cared to listen.
As I said earlier, the war against Velupillai Prabhakaran and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was necessary, and just. The Tamil Tigers were a band of bloodthirsty brutes. However, once the war was won, a wise and far-sighted regime would have reached out to the Tamils. The acts of discrimination that had irked them, and polarised the country, would have been reconsidered. A key contributory factor in the disenchantment of the Tamils had been making Buddhism the State religion in 1972. After the war, if that privileged status for Buddhism and Buddhists had been withdrawn, the Tamils would have begun to feel at home again.
Religious majoritarianism combined with political authoritarianism - that, tragically, is the cast of Sri Lankan politics today. In my walks and talks in Colombo last year, I was reminded sometimes of Narendra Modi's Gujarat and at other times of Indira and Sanjay Gandhi's Emergency.
The political climate in Sri Lanka today is depressing. That said, the recent incidents in Tamil Nadu, aimed at intimidating Sri Lankan visitors to the state, are deplorable. The chief minister's stoppage of a football match, and the suspension of the official organising it, was a petty and vindictive act. Sri Lanka and India are not at war. Cultural and sporting exchanges tend to assuage fears and banish feelings of mistrust. Just a few weeks earlier, musicians and dancers from Tamil Nadu had performed to much applause in Jaffna. The goodwill generated by that festival was undone by the banishment of the Sri Lanka footballers.
The chief minister's recent aggressive postures are perhaps linked to the fact that her main political competition, the DMK, has historically been far closer to the political leadership of the Sri Lankan Tamils. She, and her party, think that they now need to 'prove' that they care more for their brethren across the Palk Straits. However, by acting in such an arbitrary fashion, the state has only encouraged non-state actors to stoke the flames further. Thus Vaiko's MDMK sought to show that their 'love' for the Tamils on the other side was even more intense than that of the chief minister. Hooligans set upon pilgrims from Sri Lanka, and attacked them.
Even as these nasty incidents occurred in Tamil Nadu, across the country, in Maharashtra, that state's politicians were competing with one another to display their hatred for the 'outsider', in this case, innocent Biharis rather than innocent Sri Lankans. Here, too, the chauvinism has run across party lines. More recently, it is the rival cousins, Uddhav and Raj Thackeray, who have threatened and abused other Indian citizens. In the past, however, it has been politicians of other parties, such as the NCP and the Congress, who have banned and burnt books and attacked and intimidated writers they deem not sufficiently 'Maharashtrian'.
To the historian, it is ironical, and tragic, that this kind of competitive chauvinism should be so dominant in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. For these two states once were in the vanguard of progressive social reform. The first modernists in India were the Bengalis. Rammohan Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar in particular worked tirelessly to promote access to modern education and to emancipate women from the shackles that bound them.  From the latter decades of the 19th century, however, the baton shifted to Maharashtra, and, in time, to Tamil Nadu. The challenges to caste discrimination; the movement to emancipate women; the spread of modern education and a rationalist outlook - these necessary social projects were undertaken with greatest zest in the Maratha and the Tamil country.
Once, leaders in these states worked to spread education and equality. Now they seek only to stoke the baser sides of human nature. The politics of emancipation has given way to the politics of nepotism and vengefulness. The state that once produced Phule, Gokhale, Ambedkar, Pandita Ramabai and YB Chavan now has as its leaders the Thackerays and Sharad Pawar. The state that gave birth to or was home to Iyothee Thass, G Subramania Iyer, EV Ramaswamy, Ammu Swaminadhan, K Kamaraj and CM Annadurai is now represented to the world - and to itself - by J Jayalalithaa, MK Stalin and Vaiko.
There may be no other states of the Union that have witnessed such a precipitous fall in the quality of their political leadership as Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. This grim conclusion will, I think, be shared by most citizens of those states, and by non-Tamils and non-Maharashtrians who know something of this history as well.
Ramachandra Guha is the author of India After Gandhi and Makers of Modern India
The views expressed by the author are personal

US House of Representatives Resolution Urges GSL, IC And UN To Establish A Mechanism To Look Into War Crimes

By Colombo Telegraph -September 10, 2012

The US House of Representatives urges the Government of Sri Lanka, the  international community, and the United Nations to establish an independent international accountability mechanism to look into reports of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other human rights violations committed by both sides during and after the war in Sri Lanka and to make recommendations regarding accountability.

To read the full text of the six point US House of Representatives Resolution on Sri Lanka .

click here

Suspend the Rules And Agree to the Resolution, H. Res. 177 with 

Amendments 

(The amendments consist of a new preamble and a substitute text) 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION

H. RES.  177

Expressing support for internal rebuilding, resettlement, and reconciliation 

within Sri Lanka that are necessary to ensure a lasting peace. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 17, 2011

Mr. GRIMM submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 

Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION

Expressing support for internal rebuilding, resettlement, and 

reconciliation within Sri Lanka that are necessary to 

ensure a lasting peace.

Whereas May 19, 2012, marked the three-year anniversary of 

the end of the 26-year conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri 

Lanka; 

Whereas the people of Sri Lanka suffered greatly as a result 

of this conflict, the impact and aftermath of which has 

been felt especially by women, children, and families; 

Whereas the Government of Sri Lanka established a Lessons 

Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) to report -click here

Sri Lanka: Ruling UPFA wins provincial elections but with reduced votes

By Deepal Jayasekera 
10 September 2012

In the provincial elections held on Saturday in Sri Lanka, the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) won the North Central and Sabaragamuwa provincial councils but could not muster enough seats in the Eastern Province to form the administration.

Compared to previous provincial elections in 2008, the UPFA’s overall number of seats declined from 65 to 63, while its vote fell from 54.7 percent to 51.1 percent. These figures are a pale reflection of the widespread disaffection among the rural poor toward the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

In the North Central and Sabaragamuwa provinces, the ruling coalition increased its seat tally from 20 to 21, and 25 to 28, respectively. It did so by deliberately whipping up anti-Tamil chauvinism in order to polarise working people and drive them to vote along communal lines in these Sinhala majority provinces.

UPFA leaders ran a scare campaign, claiming that the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which was militarily defeated in 2009, was regrouping in Sri Lanka and abroad with the backing of the international powers. Rajapakse portrayed his government as the victim of the Western powers and appealed to voters to support the country against the “international community.”

These claims are completely bogus. All the Western powers, including the US, backed Rajapakse’s renewed war against the LTTE and remained largely silent on its war crimes and gross abuses of democratic rights. Washington and its allies are now exploiting the issue of “human rights,” not to defend the island’s Tamil minority, but to pressure Rajapakse to distance himself from China.

In the war-ravaged Eastern Province, where there are substantial Tamil and Muslim minorities, the UPFA seat tally dropped sharply from 20 to 14. In 2008, it was able to form the administration in conjunction with the Tamil People’s Freedom Party (TMVP), but could not do so this time.

The TVMP, a breakaway faction of the LTTE, is notorious for terrorising political opponents, especially among the Tamil and Muslim communities. Many Tamils and Muslims have been living in squalid refugee camps since the end of the war, and used their votes to register their hostility to the government and the TMVP.

The UPFA will have to rely on the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) if it is to form an administration in the Eastern province. Although the SLMC is a coalition partner and its leader Rauf Hakeem is a minister in Rajapakse’s cabinet, the party contested the provincial election separately—an indication of the deep hostility among Muslims to the government.

Rajapakse called the election early in a bid to obtain a mandate for the next round of austerity measures demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and to blunt international criticism over his government’s human rights record. Despite the UPFA’s blatant misuse of state resources and thuggish methods, the election outcome is not the ringing endorsement that the president had hoped for.

The UPFA vote did not fall further only because the main opposition parties—the United National Party (UNP) and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)—offer no serious alternative. Their policies do not differ fundamentally from those of the UPFA. Both parties are mired in Sinhala communalism. They backed Rajapakse’s war against the LTTE and support the pro-market agenda demanded by international finance capital.

The UNP, which has only held office for two of the past 18 years, is deeply divided by factional infighting. The number of seats it has in the three councils fell steeply from 44 to 29 and its vote dropped from 40.2 to 27.7 percent. The JVP lost its two seats in Sabaragamuwa, its seat in the East and now has only one seat on the North Central Provincial Council. Its vote declined from 2.8 percent to 1.6 percent.

The UNP and JVP both campaigned against declining living standards and attacks on democratic rights, but few people believe these parties would do any different if in office.

In the Eastern Province, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), an alliance of Tamil bourgeois parties, gained 11 seats. This was largely a protest vote by sections of the Tamil minority against the government, rather than an endorsement of the TNA. Since the end of the civil war, the TNA, which acted as the LTTE’s parliamentary mouthpiece, has been desperately seeking to integrate itself back into the Colombo political establishment.

The TNA is now intent on using its electoral gains to plead with the “international community” to push Rajapakse for a power-sharing arrangement that provides the Tamil elites with a greater political say. Clearly the party expected to do better. TNA MP Suresh Premachandran complained to the Associated Press that his “party performed below expectations because not enough Tamils voted.”

The election results are a highly distorted reflection of the actual political situation in Sri Lanka. Throughout the campaign, there have been protests and struggles by workers, farmers and students over declining living standards. Some 15,000 power workers conducted a week-long campaign over wages while university lecturers engaged in a two-month wage strike over pay. Farmers in the North Central Province have protested frequently over broken promises of drought relief, and students have held demonstrations against university closures.

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) stood a slate of candidates for Kegalle district in Sabaragamuwa Province to warn that the Rajapakse government will step up its austerity agenda, and to begin to mobilise workers and the rural poor independently of all bourgeois parties on a socialist program. The SEP received 86 votes, each of which was a class conscious choice for a socialist and internationalist alternative.

During the election campaign, Jerry White, the presidential candidate for the US SEP, visited Sri Lanka and addressed public meetings, including in Kegalle. His visit expressed the socialist internationalism that is at the heart of the perspective of the international Trotskyist movement. Workers around the world are confronted with similar attacks as the global crisis of capitalism worsens. The only solution is a unified struggle by the international working class to abolish the bankrupt profit system.

SEP campaigners won a significant hearing from workers, including Tamil-speaking rubber plantation workers, youths and farmers. We would like to thank all those who supported our campaign and voted for the party. We urge you to seriously study the party’s program and to join and build the SEP as the mass revolutionary party of the working class.