The Garrison State Delusion

By Dayan Jayatilleka -February 5, 2013 

Dr Dayan Jayatilleka

Strategic misconceptions and foreign policy misperceptions

As an island, Sri Lanka’s history has been shaped by the dialectic of the internal and external, with the latter playing a decisive role for prolonged periods. These external forces and factors have primarily been the neighbouring powers and the colonial ones.

Today, no three states have greater importance for Sri Lanka’s future than India, China and the USA, though not in any inevitable order. What is alarming is that the Sri Lankan policy makers seem to understand none of these powers.

China

Let’s start with the seemingly easiest and most unproblematic, China. The Ministry of External Affairs no longer has ‘China hands’ as it once did in the persons of Jayantha Dhanapala and Charlie Mahendran. Even if the Ministry had such human resources they are likely be ignored just as the US State Department and even the CIA’s professionals were by the blinkered, hawkish Cheney-Rumsfeld duo.

The ruling elite seems to have no understanding of the foreign policy-making process in China, and that civilian political authority is absolute, in line with the principle that “the party commands the gun and not the gun, the party”. Any Sri Lankan policy based on signals, accurately read or more likely misread, from any single component of the Chinese power-structure, however influential, ignoring the collegiate character of policy-making and strategic calculation, is doomed to fail disastrously.
Sri Lankan policy makers, who brandish the China card, possibly to the embarrassment of the Chinese, do not seem to have an accurate estimation of the actual value of that vital card. It is far from unlimited. With the best will in the world, China can protect Sri Lanka only so far. Unlike in the case of Pakistan, there is no contiguous overland route. China does not have and will not have for many more years, perhaps decades, the naval and aerial capacity to project power into the Indian Ocean in anything like the manner needed to offset the naval assets of India or the USA, let alone any combination of the two. The Indian navy on the other hand, is already moving in the waters of South East Asia and the Far East.

It is, in any case, highly improbable that China would bruise its relations with India over anything but its own core interests within its own sphere of influence. The rules that the competing and co operating Asian Big Powers play by is that neither China nor India will step on each other’s toes within their respective spheres of influence. Sri Lanka just isn’t important enough for China to do so.
Within the worldview of Sri Lanka’s movers and shakers, the geostrategic location of the island gives it enormous value and virtually open-ended bargaining and balancing power. They regard it as being a permanent seller’s market. This is a dangerous delusion.

A crucial geostrategic location is what attracted the colonial powers and their oppression. Occupying a critical location can mean that you have a target painted on your back. In the grand contest between the USA and China in Asia and obviously the Indian Ocean, a contention in which India will play its part not as a puppet of the USA but as a quasi-ally or autonomous strategic partner, it would be well to bear this in mind.

It is truly a pity that the Melian dialogue – that between the Athenians and the people of the strategic island of Melos — as reconstructed by Thucydides, would mean nothing to any Sri Lankan decision-maker.

India

The Sri Lankan power-elite fails to understand its gargantuan neighbour, India. If it did, it would have known that the best chance we had of securing India’s strategic support was while the Congress was securely in office and before the dawning of the prospect of a coalition at the centre influenced by a Tamil Nadu hostile to Sri Lanka.

Colombo also fails to comprehend that India is an open, dynamic democracy in which public opinion about events in Sri Lanka — public opinion in Delhi and not just Chennai — can impact negatively on India’s stance.

The most glaring evidence of the Sri Lankan power-elite’s misperception of India is the entire discourse about the 13th Amendment. From a purely domestic or internal perspective the 13th Amendment may be good or bad, but that is an entirely secondary matter from a Realist standpoint.
What is most germane is that it is the Indo-Lanka Accord and the 13th Amendment that swung India from a patron and supporter of the armed Tamil Eelam movement to an opponent of it. If that is removed, dismantled or diluted to the point of meaninglessness, how will Delhi balance off pressures from Tamil Nadu?

Surely, the high-level advocacy in Colombo of dismantling the 13th Amendment, weakens Delhi in its equation with Tamil Nadu over Sri Lanka, reduces the prospects of support for Sri Lanka from an increasingly influential India in the world arena, and could reverse India’s attitude to the Tamil nationalist movement in Sri Lanka, leading perhaps to a re-opening of the ‘pin thalam’ — the ‘rear base’ — in Tamil Nadu, not for armed terrorism but for political secessionism and irredentism.
United States

Sri Lanka’s ruling collective utterly fails to understand the United States as well. Take the current discourse about Secretary of State John Kerry. Of course the Kerry-Lugar report was an excellent one but that deal was on the table in late 2009 and Sri Lanka failed to pick it up (despite my urging in print and in private that we do so).

Since then the Government of Sri Lanka has behaved in such an illiberal manner that has weakened the hand of those in the US system who were willing to give Sri Lanka the time, space and the benefit of the doubt. Given US public opinion and opinion among the Democrats on the Hill, it will be rather difficult for the new Secretary of State to automatically press a re-set button.

John Kerry is a Democratic politician, with a razor-sharp mind, a fine military record and strong ethical views (which is why he joined the anti-Vietnam war movement). While he has been quick to recognise the historic military achievement on the Sri Lankan armed forces, he will be revolted by Sri Lankan invocations of the Bush-era War on Terror doctrine that in such a war, anything goes.
The ruling coalition in Colombo has learnt nothing from the experience of Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike. While the Cold War was still raging Washington under the Nixon administration viewed her centre-left coalition with suspicion. This was drastically reversed and Mrs. Bandaranaike was a State guest by 1972.

Two men were responsible: the brilliant intellectual Cold warrior Prof Robert Strauss-Hupe who was US Ambassador in Colombo, and Neville Kanakaratne, Mrs. Bandaranaike’s superb choice of Ambassador to Washington. The highly literate and articulate Ambassador Kanakaratne opened doors in Washington by his off-the cuff lectures at the most prestigious venues such as the Woodrow Wilson centre and by his personal friendship with the heads of such institutions.

Today, Sri Lanka is flying blind in Washington, to the degree that in 2008 and in 2012, Colombo was one of the few capitals on the planet that was not only expecting but actually hoping for a defeat for Barack Obama and operating on that assumption. Relying on AIPAC assessments and reports from Sri Lankan expatriates does not make for intelligent evaluation.

Three large blind-spots

Thus Sri Lanka’s foreign and strategic policymaking has three large blind-spots: India, China and the USA. When these blind spots converge, the state which is now blinkered will be as if blindfolded, while our enemies within the Tamil Diaspora and in Tamil Nadu will be taking aim at us. Instead of intelligently combating them, we shall lash out blindly.

Why is Sri Lankan policy and policymaking in the lamentable state it is; a state that enhances our strategic vulnerability and risks the hard won gains of the war? To my mind the reasons are two-fold, and two fold rather than two distinct reasons because the two factors are interconnected.

Firstly, our rulers have forgotten Sun Tzu’s injunction ‘know yourself, know your enemy’. When they look in the mirror they do not see themselves or us as we are, they see Israel. This dangerous delusion confuses this small island which is vulnerable to a naval cordon sanitaire and whose significant military assets can be neutralised in a single strike by its giant neighbour, with the most powerful military entity in the Middle East. It confuses a state which has a powerful ethnic lobby in the world’s sole superpower with Sri Lanka which has and can have nothing of the sort.

President Obama warned Israel that time and demography were not in its favour. Without the image of being a durable oasis of western style democracy in a tyrannical Middle East, the commonality of cultural heritage (‘Judeo-Christian’) with the West, the Jewish lobby in the US, the indelible global memory of the Holocaust, the open commitment of the US to Israel (which includes top-of-the-line weapons systems) and the Israeli nuclear weapons stockpile, Israel’s position would shift from isolation to strategic untenability.

Sri Lanka has not a single of Israel’s advantages. It cannot be any kind of model or inspiration for our conduct towards our Tamil citizens in the former conflict areas, the region or the world.
Colombo’s current delusions of being an Israeli type garrison state, seem to regard China as being to Sri Lanka what the US is to Israel as security patron and diplomatic guarantor, though their respective strategic capacities and global reach are vastly different.

Secondly, our policy-makers neither understand the concept and value of ‘soft power’ nor the limits of their own ‘hard power’. They do not know that even the USA, the state which posses more hard power or kinetic power than everyone else on the planet, has an acute awareness of soft power, and that the key to American leadership is the combination of the two.

Our leaders also do not understand that ‘soft power’ is the power of voluntary attraction and emulation, not of coercive compliance, and thus it resides in the eye of the beholder, in the eyes of others, of the world’s public, not in one’s own eyes when one gazes narcissistically in the mirror.
Worse still, the Sri Lankan leaders do not understand the limits of their State’s own hard power, in relation to both the soft power of other communities (Tamils, Muslims, Christians) and the hard power of other states (India, the USA). In short, they do not understand the balance of power outside their shores. They do not grasp the larger reality in its tangible and intangible dimensions.

‘It is imperative to keep the focus on their right to self-determination’

By  P C Vinoj Kumar   06 Feb 2013

Posted 04-Feb-2013 Vol 4 Issue 5 Introduction Any problem has to be first understood and defined in clear terms, if it is to be resolved. The problem in Sri Lanka is that a people who have been subjugated are demanding freedom and their liberation struggle is being crushed with ruthless force. There is not only a historical basis for their struggle, but the demand for a separate Tamil nation is strengthened by the continued oppression of the Tamils in modern Sri Lanka from the time political power changed hands from the British to the Sinhalese in 1948. Since then, the Tamils living in their historic homeland in northern and eastern parts of present day Sri Lanka have been treated as second-class citizens. After trying in vain to obtain equal rights within a united Sri Lanka, the democratically elected Tamil political class declared in 1976 at Vaddukoddai that the “restoration and reconstitution of the free, sovereign, secular, socialist state of Tamil Eelam” was inevitable. Tamil militancy took over in the 1980s and lasted till May 2009, when Sri Lankan forces wrested the last inch of territory under the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In the last phase of the civil war, over one lakh Tamil civilians are estimated to have been killed. There is no unity among parties fighting for the Eelam cause in Tamil Nadu; so, evolving a common agenda is important Sri Lanka is now a totalitarian regime under President Mahinda Rajapaksa, where all institutions of governance are crumbling, and even the country’s majority community is being denied its democratic rights. The plight of Tamils has worsened. In this situation, it is imperative to keep the focus on their right to self-determination, as all other efforts to find a settlement within a united Sri Lanka has failed miserably. Far from any signs of devolution of powers to the Tamil provinces, there are clear indications that Colombo is sliding to a dictatorship. The demand for an UN-supervised referendum on Eelam or a separate Tamil State has never seemed more justified than now. It is important to seize the opportunity and mobilize support for the cause at the international level on an urgent basis. All other campaigns, including the demand for an international inquiry into Sri Lanka’s war crimes, and the mobilizing of support for the upcoming US sponsored UNHRC resolution, though necessary, should not be allowed to slacken the efforts to initiate an UN referendum. Equal importance has to be accorded to the welfare of the displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka, whose rehabilitation has to be closely monitored and efforts made to bring it under international scrutiny. Animosity with the Sinhalese public should be avoided at all cost and the ground should be built for peaceful co-existence of the Tamil State with its neighboring Sinhalese State. The Role of Indian Tamils Broadly, the organizations and political parties which work for Sri Lankan Tamils’ right to self-determination outside Sri Lanka can be divided into two categories – the Sri Lankan Diaspora Tamils and Indian Tamils. While at present various political parties and groups in Tamil Nadu have come forward to take up the cause of the Eelam Tamils, which is a strong point, the weak point is the lack of unity among them. To attempt to bring together these groups, which include political parties and non-political groups, would be a difficult task. It would be more pragmatic to lay out a broad agenda and appeal to the parties to prioritize the issues highlighted in the agenda in their independent campaigns. The Agenda The ‘Agenda’ given below is merely a list of suggestions meant to invoke some fresh thoughts on the issue being dealt with, and meant to complement the ongoing efforts to secure the self-determination rights of the Sri Lankan Tamils: Political parties and other groups in Tamil Nadu need to interact with political parties outside Tamil Nadu, both regional and national, and secure their support for Eelam. If the parties can mobilize the support of some hundred registered political parties – never mind if they are ‘unrecognized’ - it will be possible to defeat the argument that the Eelam issue does not have an appeal beyond the geographical boundary of Tamil Nadu and that it does not affect the rest of India. It will go a long way in strengthening the international campaign for the right to self-determination of the Sri Lankan Tamils. Declaration of support can be obtained from elected local body representatives, and from both present and former MLAs and MPs. Their support could be translated into tangible form by compiling the details of number of elected representatives supporting Eelam across India. Separate teams can be formed within the parties and groups working for the cause of Sri Lankan Tamils to monitor the situation in Sri Lanka and to quickly respond to developments affecting Tamil interests. Such teams, if they had already existed, would have got into action the moment news about Rajapaksa’s forthcoming visit to Bodhgaya was out in the media. Even exhorting the cadres of parties to send emails to the Chief Minister of Bihar to intervene and stop Rajapaksa from visiting the State would have had an impact. Young, computer savvy people proficient in English and Tamil need to be roped in and deployed for the task. Strategic alliances and friendly relations need to be built with likeminded parties and groups in each of the States of India, so that on occasions like the forthcoming visit of Rajapaksa or similar events in the future, the partners would mobilize public opinion in their respective areas for the issue at hand. Tamil groups need to harness the power of internet, especially the social media networks, and hire professional agencies if necessary for disseminating information and creating favourable public opinion. Since cricket is a popular sport across India, a campaign to stop the Indian cricket team from playing against Sri Lanka or inviting its players to play in the IPL League will be successful in creating awareness on the Tamils issue among the Indian public. South Africa’s isolation in the sports arena played a crucial role in the fight against apartheid in the last century. Political parties need to shed their inhibition on this issue and try to obtain maximum mileage from the campaign. Formation of a coordination committee between likeminded parties and establishment of a full-fledged coordination secretariat to carry out the above mentioned responsibilities could be considered. (The above extract is from a paper presented by P C Vinoj Kumar, Editor, The Weekend Leader, at a seminar organized by Makkal Nalvazhvu Iyakkam at Loyola College, Chennai, on 3 February 2013) Also Read Editorial: Sri Lanka sliding to dictatorship

9 countries support Sri Lanka at the UN assembly. May have to face international crisis states Wasantha Bandara

During the UN Human Rights Conference held in Geneva, only nine countries would support for Sri Lanka. Hence Sri lanka may face international crisis was said by Patriotic Nation movement General Secretary Wasantha Bandara

He said, if 13th amendment is completely implemented, government will be split.  America will bring a resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council sessions held next month and India will also support it.

In this state China, Russia including 9 countries would vote in support of Sri Lanka. Most of the membership countries will support America and against Sri lanka.

 America will submit for debate the impeachment issue brought against the former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake as an anti-democratic action. 

In this state, if government completely implements the current 13th amendment, there would be split inside the government. However government will be pushed to a state of implementing the 13th the amendment was mentioned by him.

Wednesday , 06 February 2013

“The Slow Spread Of Discord” »

• From anti-halal to anti-Muslim protests

Rishard Bathiudeen

On January 19, an unruly group protested in front of the Maharagama No Limit, demanding that the shop be removed from the town. On Thursday (January 24) protesters in Kuliyapitiya burned effigies and waved offensive placards, calling for an end to halal-produced foods in Sri Lanka.
Both these incidents were said to be connected in some way to the Bodu Bala Sena group at the time. However, the Bodu Bala Sena group vehemently denies the allegations.
Executive Committee member Dilantha Withanage is eager to prove that Bodu Bala Sena is not a terrorist group as has been reported in the media. The group behind the Kuliyapitiya protest was alternatively called “Sinhala Api” and “Hela Sihila Hiru,” and were not connected with their group at all, Withanage said. Last Monday representatives met with the President to discuss their own concerns. The President in turn had reportedly told the group not to incite hatred, and that strengthening Buddhism should not come at the expense of other religions.

Bodu Bala Sena Logo Misused

Protest held in Kuliyapitiya   
Picture Courtesy: www.jaffnamuslim.com, Bodu Bala Sena at a conference. The group has on earlier occasions called to stop the issuance of halal certification and One of the pictures found on an ‘anti-halal’ Facebook page. Bodu Bala Sena said that their logo has been misused by Facebook groups during protests in Maharagama and Kuliyapitiya

The group had spoken publicly about their antipathy towards some Muslim extremist movements, Withanage said, which led to some Muslim leaders asking for the President to intervene. “They never initiated dialogue with us. Instead, they went to the President and said [all the protests] had been done by the Bodu Bala Sena,” Withanage said.
The movement the Bodu Bala Sena had spoken out against was ‘Wahhabism’- proponents of Wahhabism often received funding from Middle Eastern countries, to construct more mosques, according to Withanage. “When people from overseas dump money into the country for unnecessary construction, it would definitely create suspicion and stress,” Withanage explained. In addition, Withanage alleged, some of the funds were sent with the aim of converting more people to Islam. “We have an issue with people being converted because of foreign funding,” Withanage said, adding that such extremism was unwelcome.
Upon being asked whether Bodu Bala Sena receive foreign funds themselves, Withanage replied, “Not really,” adding that most of the work done was voluntary or funded through donations.
However, he revealed that one of their first events, a dhane for 1,000 bhikkus in memory of people who had lost their lives in the war, had been funded by a Buddhist monk in a foreign country.
The Bodu Bala Sena logo was misused during the protest in front of No Limit on January 19 and in the campaign in Kuliyapitiya, Withanage said, adding that the organization was not involved in either of these incidents and condemned them.
Apart from this, the group also pointed out to the President that the constitution calls for giving priority to Buddhism as well as protecting it, and had asked for a clearer definition on how Buddhism was to be protected. A Buddhist commission in 1959 had made many proposals in this regard but at the moment these were mere words. The 1959 commission had included rules to protect Buddhist temples and devalayas, but had been in colonial times, Withanage said.
The Bodu Bala Sena had also asked for amendments preventing temple land from being sold. They had also voiced their condemnation of a recent ‘Buddha Bar’ party in Beruwala, where the venue had been described as ‘Nirvana-style’. ‘These words were not used in a proper ethical manner and discredited Buddhism,” Withanage said (two hotel managers were reportedly arrested for organizing the event).
The group had also asked that Sri Lankan history be taught in all schools, including international schools, and voiced their displeasure at the Family Planning Act, asking that unethical abortions be stopped. With regards to recent events, they had also petitioned the President to stop sending women to the Middle East, but provide such women with social and economic development so that they can stay in Sri Lanka. They had asked that all communities be governed by one rule, and that party politics on religion, language and similar issues be prohibited.
The halal issue had also been raised at the meeting, Withanage confirmed. “We completely understand the right that Muslims have to use halal certification for business purposes. We just ask that Buddhists not consume halal foods,” he said. Just as Muslim organizations asked Muslims to eat solely halal food, Buddhists should refrain from eating such food, Withanage said. As such, they had proposed that a special corner be introduced in supermarkets where halal certified foodstuffs could be sold.
This suggestion had not drawn much response from the President, with Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa explaining that the issue was a thorny one as Sri Lanka was promoting goods in the Middle East. “We did not expect him to intervene on this issue,” Withanage said. “We understand that most of these issues cannot be initiated immediately.”
In the past, Bodu Bala Sena has been accused of claiming that money from halal certification goes towards funding Hamas or groups connected to Al Qaeda. Asked about this, Withanage cited a Point de Bascule article which claimed that an authority handling halal certification in Quebec was sending funds to a Hamas fund collector. However, Withanage denied that they had claimed the same situation occurred in Sri Lanka. “We have received this information about other countries… we are just asking people to be vigilant,” Withanage said.
However, the group bemoaned the fact that they had been branded as a terror organization, citing several foreign and local newspapers.
Withanage said there were a number of youth groups who were using Facebook to create groups, some even disrespecting the name of Sri Lankan kings. “We condemn these groups. We do not need Facebook heroes, but real heroes”, Withanage said, adding that the Bodu Bala Sena was a transparent organization which had no secret affiliations with any groups as some media personnel had suggested.

Muslim Community Deeply Hurt

Even as Bodu Bala Sena vehemently denies involvement in the inflammatory riots, Muslim politicians and activists voiced their hurt about the recent demonstrations. Educator and diplomat Javid Yousuf said the protests had not only caught the Muslim community by surprise, but had also contributed to a sense of unease. The protests were no longer about halal products, he said, but were targeting the Muslim community at large. This was unfortunate due to the cordial relations the Muslim community enjoyed with Sinhalese and Buddhist communities in the past, he said. Yousuf added that non-Muslims had certain misunderstandings about the concept of halal, which did not just apply to food but rather to every aspect of their lives, including trade. Some protesters had even accused the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) (the Council of Theologians, who levy a charge to cover the administrative costs of issuing a halal certificate) of contributing these funds to Al Qaeda and jihadist groups.
Yousuf pointed out that the ACJU had been incorporated by an act of Parliament, and was thus subject to the rules and regulations of the country. In recognition of this, the Government had even donated land for building the ACJU headquarters. “It is unlikely that such a donation would have been made by the Government at the height of the civil war if there was even the slightest suspicion of any links with Al Qaeda or Jihad groups,” Yousuf said. He added that Muslims had always taken care to consume halal products, but he understood that non-Muslim communities are not compelled to eat such products. As such, he said, he would support having ‘halal corners’ in supermarkets.
Speaking about the Bodu Bala Sena’s objection to Wahhabism, Yousuf said this was ‘puzzling’ as there was no group of Muslims in Sri Lanka who called themselves Wahhabis- the term was usually used by some Muslims to refer to those who strictly follow the Quran’s teachings and those of the Prophet Mohammed. “The mere fact of overseas funding is no reason to oppose Wahhabism or any other ideology. Funding locally or otherwise becomes objectionable only if it is used for illegal or anti social purposes,” Yousuf added. “What one should be more concerned about is not whether a mosque is built with foreign or local funds, but whether there is need for a mosque in a particular area, whether it is built in conformity with all local laws, whether it functions in a manner that does not inconvenience other communities in the area, and so on.”
Yousuf added that the rapid mushrooming of websites spewing anti Islamic sentiment were ‘extremely disconcerting’ and dangerous to national stability. Yousuf added that a further problem arose with lack of accountability on the part of these websites, unlike with traditional media. These websites were quietly planting seeds of religious discord, and youth were vulnerable when exposed to these messages of hate, Yousuf said. As such, Yousuf said it was time for the state to curb this menace by registering websites to ensure accountability. He added that in order to maintain freedom of expression an independent statutory body should be entrusted with this task, thus safeguarding against hate speech.Also troubling was the fact that the police had remained passive bystanders during several of the demonstrations, Yousuf said.
“If the Police act impartially and enforce the law without fear, these incidents can be controlled without being allowed to snowball. The Police have a solemn duty to ensure the protection of the people irrespective of their race, political or religious belief,” Yousuf said.
However he added that there had also been police officers who had tried to be even handed and these officers should be commended. Finally, Yousuf exhorted the Muslim community to act with restraint, identify the areas of mistrust between Buddhists and Muslims and work to build up confidence in these areas. At present, the demonstrations were slowing down the process of national reconciliation.
“If the goal of the protestors is to articulate Buddhist rights or grievances that is understandable and legitimate. But the articulation of the rights of Buddhists or indeed any other community should not be done in a manner to hurt the feelings of other communities,” Yousuf said.
Minister of Trade and Commerce, Rishard Bathiudeen also spoke to The Sunday Leader, saying the Muslim community was deeply hurt by the protester’s recent actions. “Even though we speak Tamil as a language, the Muslim community has always stood for one country. This is why the Muslims were even kicked out of the North by the LTTE,” Bathiudeen said, citing the shooting at Kattankudy mosque and the eviction of Muslims from Muttur during wartime.
“The Muslim youth have never taken up arms against the state, although they use names to describe them such as ‘jihadist’ or ‘Al Qaeda’” Bathiudeen said. He added that even when the UN resolution was taken up the Muslims always supported Sri Lanka, even while a religious leader in Mannar was asking people to vote against Sri Lanka. “We pray to Allah to give the protesters guidance to not hurt other religions again,” Bathiudeen said.
Bathiudeen said that he met and spoke with the President, explaining that the movement was not against Muslims but was in fact moving against the Government. “We suspect that there is foreign money involved and this might be an anti Government movement,” Bathiudeen said. He added that there had previously been attempts to interfere with Parliament affairs in 2007, when attempts were made to buy Members of Parliament to the other side. Given the high rate of development and advances in the tourism sector, certain influences might be trying to create problems for them, Bathiudeen said.
Minister of Buddha Sasana and Religious Affairs, M. K. A. D. S. Gunawardena would only confirm that the meeting between the Bodu Bala Sena group and the President took place. “They came and stated their case and had a discussion,” Gunawardena said.
The question remains as to the identity of the group named ‘Hela Sihila Hiru’- the Bodu Bala Sena group have already dissociated themselves from the groups which have been stirring up trouble, both online and off. No record can be found of the Hela Sihila Hiru group save the articles naming them as the instigators behind the Kuliyapitiya protest. There is however an ‘Api Sinhala’ page which has 570 ‘fans’. It is unclear whether this group participated in the Kuliyapitiya incident. The posts of this page include pictures with the logo ‘no halal’ and other posts proclaiming Sri Lanka to be a Sinhala Buddhist country. Several other similar groups also exist which bear anti-halal messages. As ominous as these mushroom Facebook groups are, what is even more troubling is the accusation that police are not intervening, even when things spiral out of control.
As Yousuf notes, the protests are no longer against halal certification but are turning out to be anti-Muslim protests. In Kuliyapitiya, the protesters carried pictures of pigs and burned effigies; acts clearly aimed to hurt and outrage. It remains to be seen whether the President’s words to the Bodu Bala Sena will dissuade the smaller extremist groups from continuing their protests, and indeed, what these groups hope to achieve in spreading their message of hate.

A Problem Of Power

By Kath Noble -February 5, 2013 

Kath Noble

That MPs have lost interest in democracy was clear from the impeachment of the Chief Justice. But even the rewards given to those who played important roles in that process reveal just what a state Parliament is in.

Last week’s reshuffle was very limited in scope. The major changes were the elevation to the position of Minister of Petroleum Resources of Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, who headed the Parliamentary Select Committee that investigated the charges against Shirani Bandaranayake, and the promotion of Pavithra Wanniarachchi, who led the group of five MPs who handed over the impeachment motion to the Speaker, as Minister of Power and Energy.

They have been rewarded for their service to Mahinda Rajapaksa. But just look at their rewards! The only way in which these positions can be considered rewarding is in terms of the potential they offer for corruption – bribes and jobs for hangers-on.

In every other sense, they are god-awful jobs.

The incumbents are blamed for the regular and egregious failures of the institutions within their purview, which are brought to public notice whenever the prices of electricity and fuel are increased and then again when these price increases are used to justify increases in the prices of pretty much every other necessity. But the ministers are usually near powerless to make any important changes.

Both sectors are totally mired in corruption of a kind that only a concerted effort by the Government as a whole could hope to tackle.

When the ministers are from the SLFP, they don’t even get to decide who to appoint to key posts such as the chairmanships of the CEB and the CPC. The President gives the orders, and the appointees know it. They don’t bother about what their ministers say.

Susil Premajayantha, who lost the portfolio of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources last week, faced a lot of criticism over the import of substandard oil, which is estimated to have cost the country hundreds of millions of rupees. Perhaps, he was indeed to blame. But it is rather more likely to have been the work of the CPC Chairman.

Champika Ranawaka was slightly better off at the Ministry of Power and Energy, as he did at least get to pick his own people. But in a rather unique development in the history of trade union agitation, he was compelled to withdraw them following a strike by engineers.

While this is the kind of activism that the Government is usually very eager to crack down on, including with the use of the military, it for some reason felt that this was a special case.

If the minister is not even in a position to decide who should be the CEB Chairman, what chance does he have of tackling the endemic corruption in the sector, which Ranawaka said when he was appointed was his main priority? (He also claimed that he was determined to make Sri Lanka an energy hub, but we can pretend that we have forgotten that since it was a very silly idea.)

Engineers are now ruing his departure, interpreting it as a sign that the Government is planning on privatisation.

The UNP claims that the reshuffle was done at the behest of India, since Ranawaka was seen as the main obstacle to starting work on the Sampur coal power plant. He probably was delaying it, but there is a bigger story here.

It was not only with regard to Sampur that Ranawaka was raising objections. Ravaya has reported that he was opposing the handover of the Norochcholai coal power plant to China.

Although China built Norochcholai, it is the Government that owns and operates it. China lent Sri Lanka the money to pay for it, but that loan will soon have to be repaid. The suggestion is that rather than repaying, the Government could hand over the plant instead. As far as China is concerned, this would be great news, since it would have employed its own people, equipment and materials in building a plant that would not need to concern itself with the cost of its output since it would be to Sri Lankans and not Chinese that it would be sold. Meanwhile, its company has positioned itself very nicely to secure a whole range of other projects, many of which may be happening only because it has ‘somehow’ managed to convince officials that they would be a good idea.

It has already been given a maintenance contract for Norochcholai because there didn’t seem to be any other way of stopping the plant breaking down on a regular basis, so it is not hard to imagine the Government deciding that it would be easier still to let China have the whole thing.

The trouble with the power sector is that there is always a lag between when foolish mistakes are made and when the public feels the impact. Price increases of recent years are the result not of what this administration has done but of what its predecessors did or failed to do, in particular the decision to allow private power producers and the terms of the agreements signed with them.

Such concerns are behind opposition to the handing over of Norochcholai to China. It may give relatively cheap power now, but who knows what it will ask for later.

As a joint venture, Sampur is less of a problem, but Ranawaka told the Sunday Times last month that India was demanding an excessive return on its investment and also an excessive rate of interest on the loan that it is giving the Government for its part of the project.

Whether it is to private power producers or foreign countries, relinquishing control of a strategic sector like power is inherently risky.

Just a week before the reshuffle, Minister of International Monetary Cooperation and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Sarath Amunugama spoke in favour of privatisation, and Ranawaka shot him down. But now Ranawaka is gone.

Time will tell if that too is a coincidence.

It would seem that his successor at the Ministry of Power and Energy, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, has no particular views about anything, which is fortunate for her, since she would anyway not be allowed to act on them!

The reshuffle has been criticised for adding to the already unbelievably heavy burden Sri Lanka has to bear due to the proliferation of ministers, which is certainly fair. Surely no other country in the world has a cabinet consisting of nearly one third of MPs! The cost is far more than the Rs. 32 million that the Government admits to spending monthly on each one, since this amount is only to pay their salaries and allowances and to provide them with basic facilities.

But while ministers are proliferating, power is continuously being concentrated and centralised. They are there literally only to make up the numbers in Parliament.

The question is when MPs will remember that their emasculation is possible only because they agree to it.

*Kath Noble’s column may be accessed online at http://kathnoble.wordpress.com/. She may be contacted at kathnoble99@gmail.com.

The Muslim Factor – a New Era?

February 5, 2013, 12:00 pm 

by Izeth Hussain

I believe that the Muslim factor in our politics is entering a new era because in the last few days developments of an epochal nature have been taking place. Suddenly, and totally unexpectedly, the following banner headline appeared in The Island of January 25; ‘Special PSC to look into racial, religious extremism". The item stated that Minister Nimal Siripala de Siva had told Parliament on the previous day that a special Parliamentary Select Committee would be set up to address growing concern about the rise in racial intolerance and religious fundamentalism in the country. He was quoted as stating: "This is a very important question. We cannot take party lines when we address these issues. We have to get together to tackle problems that can arise and cost our country its hard-won peace."

There followed on January 28 another front page news item in The Island under the heading "President Rajapakse stresses need for respecting rights of all communities". It was about his meeting on the previous day with members of the Bodu Bala Sena, which reportedly lasted for two hours. The President had raised the issue of the ongoing campaign against Muslims by certain Buddhist organizations. The BBS had denied its involvement in any such campaign. The President had stressed that members of all communities had a right to live as equal citizens in this country, since it is theirs too, and that he would not tolerate any acts of terrorism. All peace-loving Sri Lankans should be mindful of the efforts being made in certain quarters to tarnish the image of this country. I have seen another report also, which goes into some detail about disclaimers made at the meeting to the effect that the BBS was not behind the extremist acts in Sri Lanka.

Now what on earth is there in all this to justify my speaking so grandiloquently about a new era and developments of an epochal nature? Surely talk about equal rights of the minorities and so on and so forth is no more than windy rhetoric, no more than part of majoritarian racist discourse, which in the view of many minority members signify little or nothing, not much more meaningful really than the inane quacking of ducks. As for the Parliamentary Select Committee, how many mature adults are there in Sri Lanka who believe that anything useful will come of it? Surely practically everyone is aware of the stupendous record of this Government and previous Governments in ignoring Commission reports. Surely everyone knows that the LLRC Report would have been totally ignored if not for pressure from abroad. I believe that such views are mistaken and that indeed we are witnessing developments of an epochal nature.

To establish my argument I will have to go back to developments since 1975, that is thirty eight years ago. That year inaugurated a new phase in Sinhalese-Muslim relations, in which Muslims were subjected to physical harm, sometimes killings, and Muslim property was destroyed. The start was given by Muslims being killed within Puttalam mosque – possibly the first anti-Muslim riot since 1915 - the consequence of Sinhalese misperceptions that our Muslims were economically privileged, which remains a major motivation for anti- Muslim hatred. The economic motivation behind the Puttalam riot was clearly indicated by the initial act which caused the unrest culminating in the riot: the shifting of a bus stand from an area where Muslim business establishments predominated to one where the Sinhalese business establishments predominated. Since then, practically every year witnessed anti-Muslim violence ranging from minor ructions of no great significance to major rioting as in Hulftsdorp in December 1993. The anti-Muslim violence mysteriously stopped around 2002.

I am probably well-situated – possibly even uniquely situated – to write on anti-Muslim violence from 1975 to 2002. After leaving the Foreign Ministry In 1988 I took to writing articles, mostly in the Lanka Guardian of Mervyn de Silva, in the course of which I covered the more important episodes in the anti-Muslim violence. As far as I am aware no one else did so, not at least in the mainstream media. The Muslim fear psychosis forbade other Muslims from doing so – a fear psychosis that led to the mistaken belief that writing on the Muslim plight would only make it worse. As for the Sinhalese the (idiotic) conventional wisdom of the time held that all the episodes of anti-Muslim violence were no more than fracas between thugs, with no ethnic dimension to them at all. Probably no mainstream newspaper of that time would have published any of my articles, all of which Mervyn gladly published. I am mentioning these and other details of how things were in the past as they are useful for bringing out the epochal nature of developments in the last few days.

The most important of the anti-Muslim riots between 1975 and 2002 were the Hulftsdorp riots of 1993, about which I wrote in some detail in a lengthy article published in the Lanka Guardian. I could go into some detail because I had as my neighbour a reliable informant, a Muslim doctor who practised in Hulftsdorp and played an important role in restoring normalcy through dialogue in the aftermath of the riots. The riots followed an established pattern. A Muslim had lent money to a Sinhalese, which led to a misunderstanding and an altercation in which the Sinhalese poured petrol over the Muslim and threatened to burn him alive. That was the initial "fracas between thugs" that ignited the rioting that followed, with much destruction of Muslim property and some deaths. The police played the usual role as spectators. Some Muslim politicians made their appearance after the riots, but of course did nothing thereafter that might embarrass the Government. The Government promised to pay compensation.

The usual perfunctory action was taken against those responsible for the riots. Some degree of normalcy was restored by the Sinhalese and the Muslims of the area getting together. And thereafter Sinhalese-Muslim relations were allowed to continue to deteriorate. I must add that the civil society, as distinct from the NGOs, was in a comatose condition those days. I must acknowledge, however, that the Movement for Inter-Racial Justice and Equality (MIRJE) wrote, sometime around the beginning of this century, an excellent well-researched paper on the violent anti-Muslim activity that had been going on. Otherwise all that was ignored by the Government, the Opposition, Muslim politicians and organizations, and the civil society.

I recall making an important point in my article. I asked what Lee Kuan Yew would have done if something comparable to the Hulftsdorp riots had occurred in Singapore. A clue to the appropriate answer was given in his memoirs. He wrote that Singapore had a violent crime-ridden society until the Japanese Occupation, but it became practically crime-free soon afterwards, the reason for which was that the Japanese took extremely brutal action against crime. Lee would have followed the same strategy, and all anti-minority activity would have stopped forthwith. In Sri-Lanka on the other hand action against communal rioters has always been perfunctory. The reason for the contrary responses was not apparent to me at that time. It is this: in Singapore Lee was very much in earnest about building a multi-ethnic nation with equal rights and opportunities for all citizens irrespective of ethnicity, while in Sri Lanka the Sinhalese power elite has always had a tribal conception of the nation, since in their view this land has belonged to the Sinhalese, and only the Sinhalese, from ancient times. Therefore there has been no authentic drive to build a multi-ethnic nation. Instead there has been much inane duck like quacking.

As I have remarked above, the anti-Muslims ructions and riots stopped mysteriously around 2002. It might seem therefore that I had been uniquely fussy in writing about all that, while those who viewed that violence as really no more than fracases between thugs were quite right. But what really happened was that the pattern of anti-Muslim action changed. There was a monk who some years ago expressed what was widely regarded as anti-Muslim hatred on a Government-owned TV channel. That was stopped after protests by Lucien Rajakarunanayake. There was the Grease Devil phenomenon, the targets of which were mainly Muslim females. There was an epidemic of kidnappings, the main targets of which were Muslim businessmen. Some, probably many, would argue that all that was sporadic ant-Muslim activity to which no great importance should be attached, and which in no way changed the underlying reality of solid first-class pukkah Sinhalese-Muslim amity. That view has been confounded, and confounded utterly, by recent developments.

Over several months an outstandingly moronic anti-Muslim hate campaign has been going on, with nineteen websites devoted to that ignoble task. Latheef Farook, veteran Muslim journalist, Hamid Kareem and others have done their splendid best to bring the relevant facts to public notice. I myself wrote an article on the Dambulla mosque outrage. Subsequently mosques and Muslim business establishments have come under attack on a wide scale. Udaya Gammanpila of the JHU recently wrote an article in which he declared that a repetition of the anti-Muslim riots of 1915 was imminent. Many Muslims feared that their long-standing expectation that the Muslims would be the next target of another 1983 pogrom was about to come true. The anti-Muslim campaign mounted to a horrible crescendo at Kuliyapitiya in the North Western province of Wayamba where demonstrators carried posters with the drawing of a pig together with Arabic letters reading "Allah". It was probably meant to provoke the Muslims into violence, providing a pretext for unleashing a pogrom on a grand scale, another 1983.

But the Government has this time unexpectedly reacted with the President’s meeting with the BBS, the declaration of intent to appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee, and more than one statement against racism by Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva which to my mind had about them a clear note of authenticity. I have provided above an outline historical narrative showing the Sri Lankan State’s total indifference and near-total inactivity in the face of anti-Muslim action over a period of thirty eight years. In that perspective it does not seem grandiloquent at all to speak now about changes of an epochal order taking place and our ethnopolitics entering a new era. But what really does that signify? Before answering that question it is important to ask why the Government has reacted at long last in what seems to be a positive way.

The meeting of the UN Human Rights Council is under way in Geneva, and a grand-scale anti-Muslim pogrom just now would provide excellent material for the anti-Lankan lobby. The Muslim vote there could be prejudiced. A high-level US delegation is here right now and the thought echoing in their minds over the anti-Muslim hate campaign would probably be this: Are these fellows completely mad? That will certainly be reflected in their talks with the Government. But I believe most important is the economic factor. For many years Sri Lanka has been what might be justly called "a housemaid republic" because crucial for our economy is the foreign exchange sent home by our housemaid in the Middle East. After the Rizana Nafeek horror the Government has the idea of concentrating on providing skilled labour for the M-East market. Will all that be jeopardized if there is a 1983-type pogrom against the Muslims?

suaded that the best way for minorities to get fair and equal treatment from recalcitrant majorities is to establish that that will be in the interest of the majorities themselves. In Sri Lanka certainly the appeal to the self-interest of the majority will be far more potent than the appeal to principles. It seems probable therefore that recent statements by Chambers of Commerce that ultra nationalism will deter foreign investment and be harmful to the economy has played an important role in bringing about what looks like an attitudinal change in the Government towards anti-Muslim activity. Does it mean that we are entering a new era in our ethnopolitics? It all depends, in my view, on whether the Government can be persuaded that ethnic discord will be harmful to the interests of the Sinhalese themselves.

Izethhussain@gmail.com

Paradise Lost

By Gamini Dullewe -February 5, 2013 

I doubt the heading will have any appeal or meaning to the present generation, unless for those as myself who have seen both worlds. I was born in the ‘40s and the vestiges of the British rule and systems continued even till the mid ‘50s after the country have been granted Independence. Prior to the advent of the British where the whole country came under the British Monarch, only the coastal areas were under the Dutch and the Portuguese rule and there was no central administrative system as the British had established. It is the British, who established a form of Democratic governance, granting franchise to the masses. A system of revenue collection and an administrative body to function a central health department that manned the Hospitals throughout the country. A Police Department to maintain Law and Order. An Independent Judiciary to dispense Justice to the masses. A transport system of a Rail and Road network spanning the whole island. The above was administered through a system of Local Govt. Service directly under the British, before Independence and after Independence by the Locals who were qualified to replace the British.  An Education system by the Church body was run parallel to educate the locals to take over the Administration from the British. Although education by the Church body was for those who had converted to Christianity, latterly many a Buddhists were accommodated in the leading Christian Schools without having to convert. About the same time there were some schools with the assistance of foreign bodies that were established to cater for theSinhalese Buddhists from the lower rungs of society, who could not afford to pay for education. When education was first made available to the locals by the Christian missionaries, there was reluctance from the Sinhalese to convert and also was not much enthused, but the Tamils not only became converts but many changed their names too to English names. It is for this reason that at the time of Independence that there were a larger number of Tamils occupying govt. Jobs in comparison to the number of Sinhalese, as they took a keen interest in Education more than the Sinhalese, which fact the Sinhalese today try to interpret as the British having favoured the Tamils. Not a single could have gained employment in the Govt. Service without qualification then, let alone being Tamil.

There were no Drug Barons and Shady Businessmen with underworld connections posing as the Rich today, who could not account for their wealth. |AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena

The social structure was fairly simple. The elitist class were Western educated that filled the professions of Doctors, Engineers and Lawyers who were the wealthy in society along with the Landed Proprietors. There were no Drug Barons and Shady Businessmen with underworld connections posing as the Rich today, who could not account for their wealth. The rest of the Western educated middle classes of all communities filled the Clerical posts of the Administrative system and quite a number took to teaching which was a very noble Profession then. The society was very Law abiding and all respected the Laws of the Land. The young respected the adults and any who violated was dealt with. Even the poor who constituted a majority were quality poor, not starving to eat off dustbins and lived in houses with a minimum two rooms to preserve family traditions. There were no poor without houses living on road sides nor had the country seen the birth of Shanties that has proliferated since. A land owner never hesitated to allow a poor family to put up a house in one’s land as it was an asset to have such family. However later with Laws being enacted allowing such households to claim ownership, this facility was denied to the poor and the country saw the birth of Shanties as a Major impediment in today’s context that has not only created a housing imbalance but a threat to the entire social fabric with it’s influence of a Shanty Culture, where the undesirables are hob knobbing with the Powerful in society or simply some of those powerful Politicians and Businessmen today, themselves hail from such background.

The country then was most peaceful and tranquil, not to mention that there was no effort or the need on the side of the govt. to foster or force Religion on society then, as Religion was left for the society to indulge, Religion being a personal matter. This by no means indicate, that the society then was less Religious, than today. Infact the people then were Religious not for Commercial purposes and competition as today, but for genuine purpose of faith. For that matter, crime rate was less and any who committed an offence was punished accordingly where even MPs of the govt. was sent to jail for Bribery. There was no case of saving any as today being considered as ‘apey miniha’ or escaping punishment stating the Laws are insufficient. What a Joke and a Mockery has been made of the Judicial System today? The Judiciary then had the cream of society unlike today, devoid of synthetic products. Not only the Judiciary had the cream, but even the Politicians then were of repute, who spent their own wealth, but not made money from Politics as happening today.  Therefore the myth, that the society had reached the present level of decadence due to the society not being Religious enough is completely untrue. It is more for the reason due to the prostitution of Religion by these Saviours overdosing the society with Religion, with the Politicians backing, is one reason for the present decadence and destruction.

Education from the school level through the Universities was in the English medium. Hence all citizens irrespective of ethnicity or religion were under the same umbrella and the best entered the Universities and the rest fitted in to various other positions in the Govt. and the Private sector. Everyone did their job with pride and was committed to the job. The chances of coercing Officials with bribes were not heard of.  The Police Department was filled with the decent in society and not from the Slums and one could have turned to any and need not have known someone for Justice to be met. This all changed with the country’s education switched to the Vernacular. Similar mindsets as today in the Education sector, who have found the highest scorers in Maths and Science in the A/L from the Weerakatiya Rajapaksa Maha Vidyalaya, turned the Gampaha District then, in to the Education hub of the country over the students of the popular Private schools in the more Urban areas. Subsequently it was these products from the Gampaha Education Hub that were churned out from the Universities and the Maha Vidyalayas that replaced the Local Govt. services as GAs and AGAs and the entire Govt Clerical Staff including the Teaching Profession in the country and most importantly the Election Commissioners Dept. I am not trying to run down but if some had seen the quality of staff of Govt. Service who was replaced by this Swabasha type will agree with me that the majority were not fit to be engaged as Peons in the Govt. service, let alone being appointed as Officers. It is no wonder that the quality of Govt. Servants were so poor that no Govt. was able to deliver with such a workforce. Here started the rot of this country and the vicious attitude towards everyone else in this country who were Law abiding respectable educated citizens. This Swabasha type soon found to their dismay that the Tamils too were entering the Universities by the number. The obvious was that the Sinhalese could not check the Tamil answer scripts and they believed the Tamils were favouring their own as the Sinhalese Swabasha type were doing to their own kith and kin, which of course  never got highlighted. The result was the govt. of the day implementing a scheme of standardisation preventing the Tamils who were earlier qualified to enter University. This is where Tamil Militancy gave birth to the LTTE. When the medium of education was in English earlier there were no hiccups as these, as any person could have checked the answer scripts and neither the Sinhalese nor the Tamils could have cheated. So is it surprising that we have created a Nation of CHEATS thanks to the Swabasha Education? So folks do not be surprised of the level of Corruption prevalent today with the Swabasha quality of Politicians in our midst. This country will never ever get out of the mess unless the majority of us forgetting trivialities trust someone who has proved himself to be Honest, Gentlemanly, and who would be fair to all, to make this country a Home for all of us to all ethnicities and all Religions, is to have such Leader as Ranil Wickremasinghe.  He is like, the last of the Mohicans.

Considering the life we enjoyed then to the suffering we endure today with selective Law and Order meted to a society where the majority have no say, but simply sit and watch. The question is how long? It is not only us who suffer but all those who are responsible for the decadence and the Lawlessness, who have contributed in no small measure for this transition.

I would like to conclude with an addition to Martin Niemoller’s, ‘Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me’.

‘I welcome thee to come for me and save me the suffering I endure under thy Tyranny’.