‘BBC World Service Journalist’s Interest-Free Loan Application ‘On The Waiting List’ Says Sri Lankan Government

By Colombo Telegraph-November 17, 2012 

“BBC World Service Journalist Chandana Keerthi Bandara’ s application for an interest-free motor vehicle loan has not been rejected, the Secretary of the Ministry of Mass Media and Information  Charitha Herath told Colombo Telegraph.  Herath added that Bandara, like others, is on a waiting list. 

BBC World service Journalist Bandara

He made above statement when asked why two BBC journalists were treated differently. BBC Sinhala Service Colombo reporter Elmo Fernando was granted the loan last week.

The loan scheme is part of a proposal made by the President in the 2012 Budget to implement a relief loan scheme for senior journalists, artists and authors to purchase motor vehicles and to form a fund for their welfare.

According to the Ministry of Fianance and Planning website, Senior Journalists, Artists and Authors are now able to obtain a maximum amount of Rs. 1,200,000/- as an interest free loan from the state banks to purchase cars or vans. If the value of the vehicle exceeds the limit of Rs. 1,200,000/- the balance can be obtained from the relevant state bank under normal interest rates. The Treasury will grant the interest due to the state banks for the interest free loan amount of Rs.1,200,000/-.

According to the Ministry of Mass Media and Information websitethe objective of the loan scheme is to recognise the services rendered by media personnel towards national development and to enhance their productivity and quality of service.

Applicants will be interviewed by a selection committee appointed by the Secretary of   the Ministry of Mass Media and Information.  The decision of the Secretary on the selection and eligibility will be final and conclusive.

Last week Chandana Keerthi Bandara was critised by the Sinhala weekly Divaina for applying for this loan. The report said the Londoner came to Sri Lanka before the President started the loan award ceremony. The Colombo Telegraph has been unable to reach Chandana Keerthi Bandara for comment.

Meanwhile London based Tamil Guardian reported the event as “the perks of being a journalist in Sri Lanka“

Irida Lankadeepa Editor Ariyananda Dombagahawatte receives papers for the car loan from President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees on Saturday. Mass Media and Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, Environment Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa and Mass Media and Information Ministry Secretary Charitha Herath were also present. Picture by President’s Media Division

Daily News Editor Rajpal Abeynayake receives his Laptop from President

Distribution of Laptop Computers for Journalists

Protest outside Israeli embassy in London, condemn Gaza violence

Protest outside Israeli embassy in London, condemn Gaza violence.Photograph:Palestine Solidarity Campaign

( November 17, 2012, UK, Refugee News Network )-More than  Three of thousands  protesters demonstrated near the Israeli embassy in London on Saturday, waving placards and chanting slogans, over the escalating violence in the Gaza Strip.

The rally was called by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, British Muslim Initiative, Palestinian Forum in Britain and CND.

Glyn Secker of Jews for Justice for Palestinians received huge applause when he spoke to the crowd .

Sarah Colborne, Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign said demonstrators wanted to show their opposition to the Foreign Office’s standpoint.

“We are insisting that the British Government uphold international law and human rights and tells Israel to end its war now.Thirty nine  Palestinians have been killed so far and over There hundred Ninety  have been wounded. Israel’s war on Gaza has to stop.”,she said

Protesters waved placards reading “End the criminal siege on Gaza”, “Free Palestine” and “Gaza — stop the massacre”.

Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian General Delegate to the UK, said  “What is our crime? It is to want freedom and an end to the occupation, blockade and abuse of our human rights. When will Israel understand that we are people seeking our freedom and our self-determination?”

Jeremy Corbyn MP said,  “Where else would the EU tolerate the imprisonment of elected Parliamentarians? We need to see the end of the EU’s preferential trade agreement with Israel and we need to see an end to the arms trade with Israel. Yet the West are standing idly by whilst civilians are being bombed.

Jean Lambert MEP said, “This is nothing to do with security or peace and everything to do with the internal politics of Israel, with their election coming. We need an embargo or arms both going into and coming out of the area. We should invoke the human rights clause of the EU trade agreement with Israel and suspend their preferential status. We need a ceasefire, but this alone is not enough. We need real justice and the recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations.

Protesters waved placards reading “End the criminal siege on Gaza”, “Free Palestine” and “Gaza — stop the massacre”photo:Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Anas Altikriti pointed out how the mass demonstrations against Operation Cast Lead had forced Israel to end its air and ground invasion of Gaza, and that ‘four years on from Israel’s 2008 bombing of Gaza, we’ve made a huge difference.’ He continued: ‘Those who pretend this is a war between two equals are deluded or liars. This is a nuclear power using all its might against what is little more than a refugee camp. For the very first time we are seeing delegations from neighboring countries visiting Gaza to offer support. The line of visiting ministers is getting longer and longer, whilst those willing to support Israel are shrinking by the day.’

Hundreds took part in a similar rally in Edinburgh, Yorkshire and different palaces in UK.

Hone a crisis to finish off a crisis

Sunday 18 November 2012

There are times when one must drive a political crisis to a ruthless finish to terminate a pernicious adversary whose continued survival will be iniquitous. Obama and the joint opposition in Lanka, each in their spheres, surely smell blood these days. Obama must finish off the Republicans for a decade. Events have played into his hands; the point is whether he has that killer instinct the moment demands. The Rajapaksa regime has abruptly been caught flat footed and can be bloodied. No, I am not saying it can be brought down in months, but its face can be ground in the dust so that it will limp on a cripple for the remainder of its term. Lanka’s Opposition, does it have the hard-nosed intelligence to drive home the advantage of the moment – oh sigh! Still, neither my dismissal of Obama as short on testosterone, nor disdain for the stunted aptitude of Lanka’s Opposition, will stop me from having a damned sassy say at speaking my mind more openly than usual today.
Let’s talk about Obama first; if only his spherical appurtenances were feral enough, he would refuse to blink, right up to, and over the “fiscal cliff.” This is also the time to press a reset button on US-Israeli relations, to tell Netanyahu where to get off, and to reconstruct US-Arab and US-Muslim relations in alignment with the 21st Century. All that mush about eternal love for Israel was election talk; now elections are over, its time to get real and hard nosed, time to grow up. Obama set off on the road of rebuilding relations with the Arab and Muslim World but backed off when he got no support at home and was blocked by the powerful US Israel lobby. The US-Israel special relationship dates back to the Cold War and the Arab nationalism of the post-war period. But that’s a long gone world. Long run US interests now lie in ditching Israel and dealing with newly semi-democratic Arab nations. Obama must press reset buttons, one by one, step by step.

Is Obama tough enough?
Next let’s tackle the economy. Obama must not blink right up to, and over, the ‘fiscal cliff.’ The ‘fiscal cliff’ is a term to describe the end of Bush tax cuts due to expire in a few weeks, after which, across the board tax increases come into effect and everyone, including low income earners, pay more. Simultaneously, fiscal expenditure on defence and other discretionary items, as well as social security and medical aid will come under pressure. The panic story sold by Wall Street and American capitalism is that this will lead to a double edged (private and public) decline in demand which will trigger a second recession. Their chorus is “Let the rich continue to enjoy Bush era tax cuts to prop up demand, invest and rebuild the economy.” Recession talk is bollocks! There will be more recessions in the US in the next decade, but that’s to do with the fundamentals of capitalism. The so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ is a scare story to panic Obama into approving tax cuts across the board; for poor as a smoke screen, for the filthy rich, the essence of the plot. Compromiser Obama may fall for it.
If the US goes over the so-called fiscal cliff it will be a good for the Obama administration. First, tax cuts will reduce consumption, but by nowhere as much as Europe-on-austerity diets. Some belt tightening is essential for US capitalism if it is to ever climb out of the hole it has fallen into. Second, further cycles of recession will benefit capitalism by clearing out moribund enterprises. There is nothing for the Obama administration to fear if America falls off the so-called cliff; if Obama plays his cards properly he can come out a winner.
The important motive for taking the fiscal plunge is political. Obama can blame Republicans in Congress, who will, in any case, continue to be as obstructionist as before. Obama wants to let the Bush tax cuts on the rich and companies expire, but keep them for 90% of lower income earners – a populist measure, not economic rationality. That’s my point; let tax cuts expire for everybody and blame the Republican dominated House of Representatives and the Republican minority in Senate. “Bloody obstructionist sons of bachelors!” must be the battle cry. The target, the 2014 congressional elections, when the entire House and one-third of the Senate come up for grabs. From right now Obama’s objective must be to smash the Republicans in 2014 with an appeal to voters to give him a Congress he can work with instead of saboteurs. If he is strategic and cold blooded, he can win control of the Congress in 2014 and drive the Republicans into the wilderness for years.

Tables turn on the lynch-mob
In Lanka, a deaf and dumb 117 signed a piece of paper without knowing what would eventually be written on it. This is further proof, if needed, that the UPFA is stuffed with toadies grovelling at the feet of the Paksas to safeguard sinecures and dip their fingers into slime baskets. It is beyond belief that the mob would sign up to a motion of such monumental importance without extended, itemised discussion, and without conducting their own thorough investigations, prior to formalisation. Only poodles sit or stand when commanded by the master. Now the tables have turned and the lynch-mob is a public laughing stock! The statement released by the CJ’s lawyers, I guess is 100% true, no way can they risk anything else at this conjuncture. In which case, the egg on the face of the Paksas and the lynch-mob is inches thick. 
It is also very significant that Rauff Hakeem, DEW and Thondaman are not among the signatories. Tissa Vitarana who initially signed seems to have been instructed by his party to withdraw. I am not sure of Vasudeva’s situation though his signature is not there. Are some pro-government parties going to step back and let the SLFP drown in its own excrement? The CP has issued a statement of dissociation from the impeachment resolution; this is important. Some commentators have suggested that what the Dead Left does, does not matter since it is dead anyway. Well there’s more to politics than that; when a decaying structure is crumbling, every brick pulled away, expedites its fall. When rats leave a ship, it proclaims a stinking sinking story. 
This then is my point about driving home the crisis. I forecast the last quarter of 2012 as the turning point in the fortunes of the Rajapaksa regime, the beginning of its end. I am prophet enough to see that, but not prophet enough to foretell the funeral date. Six months, 36 months, I don’t know; but it’s downhill, all the way from now. The Opposition however needs to get its act together; it needs the firmest unity, and merciless, relentless determination, to drive home the stake.
Can Obama or Lanka’s Opposition rise to their tasks? I don’t know, we have to wait and see.

Sunday 18 November 2012

Natural Justice By The Wayside In Public-Interest Litigation?

By Rohan Samarajiva -November 17, 2012 

Dr. Rohan Samarajiva

To respond to a question in your publication about whether people had spoken out against Sarath Silva‘s behavior while CJ, I looked for old pieces.  I found a piece I had written for Montage and another published in the Mirror. Sadly, no longer available on the web.

Natural justice by the wayside in public-interest litigation?

A former President was found to have abused her powers and fined. A powerful government official was drummed out of all his positions.  A conglomerate was compelled to reverse a lucrative privatization transaction.  A land deal, suspect from the start, was annulled.   Electricity prices were reduced, perhaps.  Noise pollution is stopped, maybe.

Draconian TV licensing and control regulations have been stayed.  Charging for polythene bags by supermarkets has been prohibited.  The selective extension of retirement age was reversed.  The relevant actors are being pushed to implement the 17^th Amendment to the Constitution.

The recent hyper-activism of the Supreme Court has opened the floodgates of public-interest litigation.  It is seen as the one place where justice will be done; where decisions will be taken; the one element that works in a dysfunctional system.

Fumbles are rarely recalled. School admission is as broken as ever. Even the appearance of resolution was lacking when the Court tried to resolve salary anomalies so Advanced-Level exam scripts could be marked without delay.

It is not that the Supreme Court has been supremely effective, but the overall impression is highly positive.   But is justice being done?

Let us take a case seen as one of the greatest successes of the Silva Court, the ruling made on the privatization of Lanka Marine Services Limited in an application under Article 126 of the Constitution made by Mr Vasudeva Nanayakkara (SC/FR 209/2007).

The mystery of the BOI-exemption finding                Read More             

A necessary catharsis

November 17, 2012

The internal report of the United Nations on its role in Sri Lanka raises troubling questions about its strategies and actions during critical stages of the conflict in the island nation. It unmasks yet another failure of the world body in preventing mass civilian casualties despite overwhelming evidence that a catastrophe was imminent. Its failure was ensured by a determined government that assembled a formidable diplomatic and strategic barrier around its military objectives. Sri Lanka was able to pass off its use of disproportionate force against a cowering population caught between an advancing army and a ruthless terrorist force that needed a civilian shield, as a necessary measure to eliminate terrorism. In the report, Sri Lanka emerges none the purer, as it contains cogent evidence of how Colombo worked to stave off international scrutiny and brazenly hounded U.N. and aid agencies out of the conflict zone so that there were no witnesses to its undoubted excesses. The U.N.’s internal narrative reveals a weak system that did not have the stomach to stand up for the rights of the people it was mandated to protect. The government deliberately underestimated the population trapped in the Vanni region and issued patently false denials about targeting no-fire zones and hospitals. It carried on a campaign of intimidation and calumny against U.N. officials, detained its national staff, and shelled convoys carrying essentials for the trapped population.

The emergence of the report should also occasion a sober reflection on the most appropriate response to a worsening conflict situation. One cannot forget that in those crucial months between late 2008 and May 2009, the international community faced the classic dilemma of the post-9/11 world — how long does one look away, if at all, when a democracy is fighting a “terrorist insurgency”? Could the U.N. have been expected to be out of sync with the global mood? To many, humanitarian aspects were clearly subordinate to the objective of eliminating terrorism. At least two permanent Security Council members — China and Russia — and India added heft to the Sri Lankan camp, and the diplomatic odds were stacked against the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has promised that the U.N. would learn from its mistakes and strengthen its responses. The world body cannot afford to give the impression that justice and accountability for past impunity have been forgotten. After perceived failures in Bosnia and Rwanda, and possibly Syria, the U.N. needs to find ways of insulating itself from the diplomatic clout of key players. Publication of its damning internal report on Sri Lanka serves as the perfect occasion for a break with the past.

The budget: A balance of payments crisis
Sunday 18 November 2012
The country is facing a downward spiral in the economy. Will it be a temporary phenomenon as assumed by the government which hopes to restore 7-8% growth in the next two years, or a secular decline? There is the balance of payments crisis with exports continuing to fall while imports are still rising despite a deceleration in the rate of decline. Many investors in the stock market are burnt and left holding unrealised losses. Owing to the balance of payments crisis the Central Bank has to tighten monetary policy by imposing a ceiling on credit provision by the banks. With the current account in the balance of payments being in deficit the money supply is declining (unless offset by foreign capital inflows) which is pushing up the interest rates unless the Central Bank prints more money  by buying up Treasury securities. If it doesn’t do so, interest rates will go up and the debt servicing charge of the government will move up. If it does, then inflation will move up and worsen the lot of the poor but also create distortions in the economy – discouraging long term private sector investments. It will also create a bubble in the stock market and land market. In this situation, it is the growth in the private sector that will be curtailed. 
The budget speech says the budget deficit will be reduced to 5.8% of the GDP. It is Rs507 billion and the nominal GDP next year would then be Rs8742 billion. This seems to be overly optimistic. 

Living beyond our means 
The crisis was brought on by the massive investment in infrastructure by the Government, funded not by domestic savings but foreign savings received in the form of loans.
What sort of budget is called for in these circumstances? Certainly not more of the same kind as in the previous years. The authorities (at least the secretary to the Treasury – ST) seem to have realised the risks involved. He has said that he would not resort to foreign borrowing for the budget in 2015. Foreign borrowings in the next year’s budget has been held down at Rs234 billion of which Rs143 billion is for repayment of foreign debt. He is now urging the private sector to borrow from foreign countries instead. But the risk of over-borrowing applies to the national debt and not only to the government debt. A better option is to limit government investment for if the Government borrows locally instead of from abroad it would pre-empt resources from the private sector and also crowd out private sector investment. 
A better option is to attract more direct foreign investments to the country. This is really the selling of our assets instead of building up foreign liabilities. Apparently the Government will not sell land to foreigners. But foreigners cannot take away the land and if anyone invests in land and develops it, it will benefit the whole country whether they are foreigners or not. An economist cannot see any opposition to foreigners owning land. There should instead be liberalisation of rules regarding foreigners buying land or local businesses. Portfolio investment too should be liberalised and foreign investors allowed to buy local stocks and bonds freely without having to open special foreign investments called SIERA accounts. 

Liberalisation of
portfolio investments
There is provision in the CEPA for liberalisation of portfolio investments including the cross listing of our companies in Indian stock exchanges (and Pakistan too). It is better to sell our assets rather than borrow from foreigners for if we run into a debt crisis we would have to force sell our assets at knock down prices or even see them being seized for debt default.
Both the present Government and the people have been living beyond their means and still continue to do so. This is made possible by the false economy created by a plethora of subsidies and free goods and services provided by the Government – free education, free health care, cash grants like Samurdhi, the diesel subsidy, the electricity subsidy. But the scarcity of resources and the fundamental economic problem cannot be wished away. The budget has failed to tackle the oil and the electricity subsidies and the losses incurred by the state owned business undertakings. The fertiliser subsidy is also a burden but some modification seems to  be hinted at by way of recovering part of it as a crop insurance premium. This budget deserves to be remembered for the liberalisation and deregulation. Tapping a kitul tree would require a license from the grama niladhari and even after obtaining the licence it would be necessary to prove to the authorities that the licence is applied to one tree and not to another as the ST himself pointed out. This has now been done away with. Of course it was not necessary to wait for the budget to do so. The SME sector which accounts for over 70% of the economy has at last been given much needed tax relief. The tax rate is 12% and with the raising of the threshold to pay VAT and NDT. The SME sector has been exempted from these taxes. The ST said the deregulation must be carried forward to the Municipal Councils and local authorities, for there too the SME sector is subject to much hassle by way of licences. The cost of doing business must be reduced not only to the corporate sector but also to the SMEs. Has the Government at last realised the need to run a market economy rather than a regulated economy? But the size of the government sector must be brought down. Since the Government policy is not to privatise it must at least outsource some of the activities which are high cost or where cost control is difficult. This process was taken up by the Colombo Municipal Council with regard to garbage collection. 

Tax exemptions and tax reliefs 
Several incentives have been introduced through the budget to provide a stimulus to economic activities which is desirable. The ST mentioned that investment relief and additional deductions for depreciation have also been provided for a host of such economic activities. He referred to relief for investment in cold storage facilities which could promote the preservation of fruits and vegetables which often go waste during seasonal gluts.
Several incentives have been provided to invest in bonds both government and corporate. We need to build a corporate bond market and to expand the secondary market in government bonds. The proposal to allow Municipal Councils to issue their own bonds is a step in the right direction. This will strengthen local government governance for, to be able to issue their own bonds these authorities will have to be run efficiently with budget surpluses. Withholding tax on interest has been removed and this should promote more activity in the secondary market in bonds. The state corporations too should be encouraged to issue debentures instead of being funded by the Treasury.
Making a budget is only part of the job. The more difficult part is to see that it is implemented.

Hills Like White Elephants: Reading Hemingway With 13th Amendment

By Ruchindra Abeytunge -November 17, 2012

Ruchindra Abeytunge

“On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies”.  It is a place somewhere between Barcelona and Madrid or maybe it is a kind of political simile to describe a place somewhere closer in dry, dusty A-9 road with no shade and no trees which connects the dominant South to the subordinate North. A bamboo curtain, precisely an ‘armed curtain’ hung across the open door to keep out ‘flies’. The subordinate North that is politically isolated with a ‘curtain’ has been crying for devolving power from the center to the periphery, now weeping faintly after the victory of  Sri Lankan military over LTTE.

The symbolism of Hemingway’s story represents the shaky relationship between the protagonists, the girl and the man, and their continuous conflict regarding humanity based on the discourse on abortion.  The man is manipulating the girl to convince her for abortion with no respect or dignity of life of the girl and the unborn.

“I’ll go with you and I’ll stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and then it’s all perfectly natural.”

Democracy is the rule of the people by people according to Abraham Lincoln intended that all people should have the fare chance to participate in their decision making directly or indirectly. In multiethnic pluralistic societies with weak civil societies and strong and dominant centralized state, majoritarian or Westminster democracy not only may not reflect its real meaning but also have a tendency to go towards authoritarianism, violating most of the norms of democracy. Societies with deep ethnic divisions and cleavages need more consensual political framework that engage greater compromise guaranteeing minority rights. In that juncture, the recent development of ‘anti 13^th amendment’ force is clear and severe threat to the ‘consensual democracy’. In contrast, the 13^th amendment- that was the major initiative of devolution dialogue in Sri Lankan polity- should be strengthened for reconciling deeply divided societies together, especially after the end of civil war; now the government should convince the Tamil society that it ready to come up with viable solution for the ethnic problem; the government should show its political will to solve this problem for good by strengthening the power sharing process.

The “café para todos” or “coffee for all” formula devolved the power concentrated in the center in Span; that finally heard demands of Catalonia, the Basque country and Galicia that regions contain culturally distinct nationalities. The Spanish Constitution recognizes the existence of such regions with right to self-government which shows asymmetric power devolution. Finally Spain consists of seventeen Autonomous Communities and two enclaves with asymmetrically devolved powers.

Hemingway wrote about the girl and the man in a restaurant or a bar closer to the train station in Spain; the express train coming from Barcelona stopped there and went to Madrid. After many years of Hemingway’s writing, Former Prime Minister of Spain and Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) member Rodríguez Zapatero stated that “the rivalry between Barcelona and Madrid may have acquired an edge of mistrust, but it is in essence a creative tension.” It created tension but creative, spread power to the periphery; impeded power concentration in the center; and as it is named, it provided ‘coffee for all’.

The extensive power sharing process devolved power from the state to the periphery within less than twenty years in Spain. After more than twenty years of civil war in Sri Lanka, killing thousands of people, destroying properties and adversely affected to the country’s economy, if the authorities push the devolution dialogue to be ended up by repealing the 13^th amendment, it will divert the whole political process to the place where it was in decades before.  Abolishing power sharing aggravates mistrust between the communities and continues the shaky relationship of them.

Hemingway has written in HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS, where the girl asks:

“Then what will we do afterward?”

“We’ll be fine afterward. Just like we were before.”

SLRC loses Rs.131M because of Carlton Network: Ravi

 SATURDAY, 17 NOVEMBER 2012

The Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) has lost Rs.131 million by transferring broadcasting rights to Carlton Sports Network (CSN) and thus giving up the sole broadcasting rights of sports programmes, United National Party (UNP) front-liner Ravi Karunanayake told Parliament yesterday.

He said this was a serious matter because losses incurred by state institutions were losses incurred by the people.

Minister Keheliya Rambukwella who responded said this issue was not relevant to the segment on oral questions. He said the Peoples Bank, National Insurance Trust Fund, National Construction Association of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Cricket, Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation, Central Environment Authority and the Health Education Bureau owed a total of Rs.7.9 million to the SLRC as at November 5 this year.

It has also been disclosed that the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) owed Rs.9.1 million to SLRC.(Yohan Perera)

It’s Not Mahinda Vs. Shirani; It’s The Rajapaksas Vs. The Rest

By Tisaranee Gunasekara -November 17, 2012

“No questioning arises from subservient lips”. Andrée Chedid (For Rushdie)

Ideally Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranaike would have prevented her husband from accepting Rajapaksa largesse; ideally.

Ideally, the Supreme Court would have resisted the 18^th Amendment; ideally.

Ideally the term-limit provision would be in place and a post-Rajapaksa future just five years away; ideally.

But as Gandalf of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy told Frodo Baggins, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us”. And the time that is ours has given us just three options: follow the Rajapaksas out of conviction, fear or cupidity; seek refuge in indifference; or do whatever possible, within the law and within democratic norms, to preserve the last remaining non-Rajapaksised spaces.

And for those who value the few islets of relative autonomy and marginal freedom still extant in our polity and society, supporting the CJ and the judiciary in their contestation with the Ruling Family is an inescapable duty.

Irrespective of their analysis/opinion of the CJ’s past actions.

The Rajapaksa tide is an all encompassing one; it will allow no exceptions; it seeks to submerge every aspect of political and civil life. It will dictate not only who will rule us but also how we should live and what we should think.

The Siblings are targeting the judiciary precisely because the courts are beginning to resist this absolutist tide.

In its ruling on the 2013 appropriation bill, the three-judge bench headed by Justice Shiranee Tilakawardane reiterated that finances are the sole responsibility of the legislature and stated that “…no single member of the executive should be permitted to traipse within the boundaries of that power” (The Sunday Times – 11.11.2012). Rulings such as these are of seminal importance because they remind us of those lines of power-demarcation without which a democracy will die.

It is that spirit of judicial independence the Rajapaksas want to pulverise.

The Siblings overwhelmed the CJ’s husband with largesse, partly to discredit her, partly to ensure her ‘good behaviour’. Indubitably, the impeachment would have come sooner, had the CJ resisted the Rajapaksa power-grab earlier. That is why our opinion of Ms. Bandaranaike’s past conduct should not prevent us from defending her in the impeachment battle, so long as she continues to resist the absolutist tide. In that battle she symbolises judicial independence; she stands for a judiciary which is willing to uphold the constitution even at the risk of incurring the wrath of the political leaders. That battle has a relevance beyond Rajapaksa Rule. Lankan judiciary must retain the capacity to resist anti-democratic, anti-constitutional moves by the executive, irrespective of the identity of the executive.

The impeachment is thus not a contestation between Shirani Bandaranaike and Mahinda Rajapaksa. The impeachment is not even a contestation between the executive and the judiciary in the classic sense, in the way such contestations happen in democratic contexts. It is a contestation between an ailing democracy and a voracious despotism. It is the final Rajapaksa offensive against the judiciary, in the Siblings’ overall battle to sealSri Lanka’s fate as a patrimonial oligarchy.

If the Rajapaksas win the impeachment battle politically and propagandistically, if Lankan polity and society fail to inflict a de-legitimising wound on Rajapaksa Rule, the Siblings will have a judiciary that is totally under their thumbs. This will enable them to do administer the last rites to democratic freedoms and basic rights perfectly legally, with the blessings of the courts. Equally pertinently, it will enable them to win the succession battle, if the demise of President Rajapaksa happens before another Rajapaksa is ensconced in the prime minister’s seat.

The Succession Issue

The Siblings are accelerating their power-grab – via the impeachment – partly because they want to ensure that a Rajapaksas succeeds a Rajapaksa.

The Rajapaksas are making serfs of all Lankans, starting with SLFPers. Since their project includes not just familial rule but also dynastic succession, the demise of Mahinda Rajapaksa will not save the SLFP (and the country) from bondage. It will be a case of ‘President Rajapaksa is dead! Long live President Rajapaksa!’

Is that the future we want for ourselves? Would any non-Rajapaksa SLFPer, however true-blue, be happy with such a future?

Usually, aspiring despots with dynastic dreams come to power in youth/early middle age. Thus they have the time to acclimatise their societies to the notion of dynastic succession. By the time the Presidential-father dies, the country has been conditioned into seeing in the son-in-waiting the only possible successor. Such travesties are possible not just in antediluvian lands like North Korea but even in sophisticated societies like Syria.

Mahinda Rajapaksa became president rather later in life. This makes a gradualist approach to the succession issue unaffordable, politically. His sons are too young and his brothers are not ‘party-seniors’, the way a Maithripala Sirisena or Nimal Siripala Silva is. If a presidential demise happens before the succession issue is resolved, the Party might rebel against the Family.

Since death is the great unknown, the Siblings must subjugate every pivotal institution in society so that they play their allotted role in ensuring that President Rajapaksa is succeeded not by another SLFPer but by another Rajapaksa.

The militarization of Sri Lankaby a Rajapakasised military is an important component in this plan. The subjugation of the Supreme Court is another. A non-subjugated chief justice can seriously upset Rajapaksa dynastic plans, by ruling against the Family in a post-Mahinda power contestation between the Party and the Family. A completely invertebrate CJ is thus a necessary condition for dynastic succession.

The importance of the impeachment battle cannot be overdrawn for either side. If the Rajapaksas win it politico-psychologically, they will be able to use the courts to destroy every pocket of resistance. But if the Rajapaksas emerge from the impeachment battle with their legitimacy scathed, the judiciary will gain a much needed dose of vigour to lead the democratic resistance against the gathering darkness of impunity, arbitrariness and unfreedom.

No judicial system is perfect. There are judges who act unjustly in any judicial system. But if the impeachment battle is lost, the end result will be more than a few or even many unjust judges; it will be an unjust system, a system which is structurally incapable of dispensing justice, even occasionally; a system which is nothing more than an instrument of Rajapaksa patronage and Rajapaksa vengeance, not some of the time but all the time.

Only the Rajapaksa kin and their current kith would be safe in such a land. Even Rajapaksa friends/allies/supporters will become insecure, if they slip down the totem pole of Rajapaksa-favour, as symbolised by the fate of Presidential Advisor Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra.

For the Rajapaksas and for the rest of us, the impeachment is the Rubicon. Once this is crossed, there will be no turning back, and barring a miracle, Lankans will have to become resigned to a seemingly endless Rajapaksa future. Realistically the options before us will be reduced to servitude, death/imprisonment or exile.

Vellupillai Pirapaharan did not give Tamils any other choice. The Rajapaksas will treat all Lankans, including every Sinhala-Buddhist, in the same way.

Ban Ki-moon acknowledges UN failure in Sri Lanka war

ALSO SEE

• Sri Lanka civil war: UN failed to protect civilians, says report

• Sri Lanka’s war crimes: UN says sorry, will the government?

Nov 16, 2012

United Nations: UN chief Ban Ki-moon acknowledged the failure of the UN system in meeting its responsibilities to respond to the human rights violations in Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war after a panel set up by him criticised the world body for its “grave failure” in handling the situation during the final stages of the conflict.

“The United Nations system failed to meet its responsibilities,” Ban said after he released a United Nations report on accountability issues stemming from the final months of the 2009 war in Sri Lanka.

Ban Ki moon. Reuters

The report was produced by a panel of experts, established by the UN chief in 2010 to advise him on measures to advance accountability following the war’s conclusion, and after an agreement with Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

In completing its eight-month study, the panel reviewed about 7,000 documents, including internal UN exchanges with the government of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan government forces declared victory over the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009, after a conflict that had raged on and off for nearly three decades and killed thousands of people.

The final months of the conflict had generated concerns about alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. The report by UN official Charles Petrie was particularly critical of the Security Council’s inaction in responding to the crisis.

“In particular, the Security Council was deeply ambivalent about even placing on its agenda a situation that was not already the subject of a UN peacekeeping or political mandate; while at the same time no other UN Member State mechanism had the prerogative to provide the political response needed, leaving Sri Lanka in a vacuum of inaction,” it said.

The report added that UN action in Sri Lanka was not framed by member state political support.

“In the absence of clear Security Council backing, the UN’s actions lacked adequate purpose and direction. Member States failed to provide the Secretariat and UN Country Team with the support required to fully implement the responsibilities for protection of civilians that Member States had themselves set for such situations.”

It said a number of UN senior staff at its New York headquarters chose not to speak up about the Sri Lankan government and LTTE’s “broken commitments and violations” of international law as they thought that would be the only way to increase UN humanitarian access.

PTI