Monday, March 11, 2013

The hidden ruthless sword of ‘Nanasara Sena’ pops out: Don’t get frightened of ‘Nanasara’, Gota says

(Lanka-e-News-11.March.2013, 9.30PM) As Lanka e news and several others had all along reported that the hidden cruelly active sword behind the Bodhu Bala sena is defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse , so it was confirmed last friday that this is indeed the true position by Gota himself. Gotabaya who was the chief guest at the opening of the Buddhist center for training of Buddhist leaders ,by his own enunciations confirmed that he is behind this Bodhu Bala sena.

“Bodu Bala sena Ven. Gnanasara Thero announced recently, ‘when told nicely , if it is not understood, it must be told a little louder.’ I think I have also faced this experience Hamaduruwane. Sometimes when you speak louder some people are getting scared. Nobody needs to get scared of these Theros. If there is a section that is having such fears , my request to them is to dispel those fears.”

Today, Gotabaya by declaring that issued a certificate on behalf of Baala Sena’s ‘ Nanasara’ describing and clarifying it as detailed above. A group of the intelligence units of the Forces of the Navy and army is being employed for these ‘Sena’ operations was first exposed by Lanka e news. We also revealed that they are directly operating on Gotabaya’s orders . A former Minister of foreign affairs Mangala Samaraweera M. P. also disclosed that the Bodhu Bala Sena is being granted financial grants out of the defense Ministry secret fund .

The building that was inaugurated today was built by a German national , Michael Kirstware. This was gifted to the Nedimala Buddhist cultural center in the name of ‘Sevana’. It was later handed over to the Bodhu Bala Sena center for training of Buddhist leaders . It was at this Bragged inauguration ceremony , Gotabaya made the comments proudly referred to in the above paragraphs. It must be evident to everyone by now , based on whose patronage and backing , the Bodhu Baala Sena recently bragged that its Nanasara is prepared to carry out police duties too.

Under the Rajapakse regime there had proliferated a number of para military groups, namely, EPDP Devananda’s group; Karuna Amman’s group; and numerous other groups under the name of the Presidential security division . They are called as paramilitary groups by those individuals who are associated with these armed groups and have made these a part of their sphere of operations. Who are these individuals? Who are responsible? How much are they paid? Nowhere have these been reported. The expenses towards them are met by the slush funds mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs ,and those are being concealed as state secrets and do not even come under the purview of Institutions that make audit checks.

Gota’s latest paramilitary group is the ‘Nanasara Sena’. Lanka e news had already revealed this with evidence when reporting on the discovery of weapons hidden in Temples , when they were seized.

Bodu Bala Sena And The Friday Forum

By C. Wijeyawickrema -March 11, 2013

Colombo crowd’s Friday Forum is worried about “Muslim hunting” in Sri Lanka. As usual this mostly retired-elite group is in a tunnel. Not a word about the Ulamas working like Taliban agents in Sri Lanka. Aasad Saaly does a better job in his consideration of the other side of the Halal certification issue. FF wants to blame the Bodu Bala Sena and that is all. I do not know how many parents of the Friday Forum’s (FF)Sinhala Buddhist members sent them to a village/town Temple Sunday school when they were young children. I also do not know how many of them had heard the story of a colonial governor expressing his embarrassment when (in the 1880s) the Sinhala representative of the then Legislative Council had voted against the resolution to make Vesak a public holiday in Ceylon. The Sinhala rep who was a Christian said that one week of Christmas holidays was enough for all in Ceylon. No Forum can become a “useful” entity unless it at least gives the impression to the public (in this case Colombo English-speaking crowd) that it knows what it is talking about. Otherwise, the perception of people will be that FF is nothing but a weekend gathering of a wine and cheese party.

Sri Lanka’s history and a geography cannot be ignored. How can it (FF) forget even the most recent past? Think of the dark days of CBK who is now coming back to talk about bad MPs forgetting that she was the one who first madeMervyn Silva, the thug, an MP! With her two chief disciples Mangala Samaraweera andS. B. Dissanayake, organizing white lotus peace parades in Colombo, ridiculing the village boys and girls sacrificing their lives in the North, Sinhala Buddhists were hiding their faces in fear and shame! It was the late Ven. Gangodavila Soma, reminiscent of the earlier times of the Anagarika Dharmapala who came forward to pump oxygen to a dying and discriminated community of Sinhala Buddhists. There was no lay man or woman with a backbone to help boost Buddhist morale, and Ven. Soma said he had nothing to lose. He became an unstoppable national force which a shrewd converted evangelical businessman like Lalith Kotalawala was able to foresee. The others saw the true value of Ven. Soma Movement only after Ven. Soma’s tragic death, reminding people the Buddhist doctrine of impermanence of things. Ven. Soma’s funeral proved that Buddhists are becoming a disciplined-organized, and if necessary Malcolm X-like force.

Three entities tried to claim Ven. Soma’s dowry. Chandrika tried to bribe Ven. Soma’s mother and take a photograph with her. JVP demonstrators found Buddhist monks waiting on roadsides with pirith nuul. Ultimately, it was Mahinda Rajapakse who could benefit from Ven. Soma’s effort. MR won because of the Sinhala Buddhist vote. A president is the president all ethnic groups. But it does not mean he should ignore Sinhala Buddhists at the expense of so-called ethnic harmony or interfaith labels. Ali Jinna once told Gandhi, “Mr. Gandhi you worship cow but we eat cow, so how can we become friends?” Similarly one God-based religions and Buddhism cannot be same as Buddhists do not believe in a God. Since Buddhist never harmed or interfered with other religions, what the government was expected to do was to protect Buddhism from harm perpetrated by other religions came from the West. Buddhists did not ask to make Buddhism the state religion. For example, when D. S. Senanayake, on the advice of Ivor Jennings said that there is no Pali stanza saying “Aanduwa Saranam Gachchami” (I take refuge of the government), Buddhist position was clearly laid out thus:

“The Buddhists wish—and quite rightly—that in this country where they form 70 percent of the population, Buddhism should be recognized as the predominant religion of the people. In the rest of the world, Ceylon is regarded as essentially a Buddhist country, and they want this claim established here as well…They will not be content to remain in the position of inferiority to which they have been reduced by 450 years of foreign occupation… They have no desire to make Buddhism the State religion—in spite of the cry raised by self-seeking politicians— but they want the State to help them rehabilitate themselves and undo some, at least, of the injustices perpetrated against them during the days of their subjection.”

(From a speech by Professor Gunapala Malalasekera, President of the All-Ceylon Buddhist Congress, printed in Times of Ceylon,January 15, 1956, reproduced on page 196 of the book, Ceylon: Dilemmas of a New Nation by W. H. Wriggins, Princeton Univ. Press, 1960, p. 196).

Despite this position successive governments of Colombo ruling families used Buddhism as a platform for them to get votes and erected constitutions mentioning foremost position to Buddhism etc. As we can clearly see from the Buddhism ministry under the present prime minister, this kind of false recognition became a loss to Buddhists on five different ways: No extra benefits were given to Buddhists, but other world religious units got government office space; and international Christian groups started a propaganda campaign against Buddhists citing the constitutional words. Useless and sabotaging ministry officers did more damage than good to Buddhist institutions via government control. Temple chief monks who were independent sovereign entities unlike a Christian church became dependent on government dole for funds; villagers thought that they do not have to donate for temple maintenance now that the government is taking care of temples! While this is going on in Sri Lanka, on the other hand in Christian countries such as in USA George Bush gave all the privileges to Christian evangelists, despite the requirement of religious neutrality mentioned in the US Constitution. In UK it is Queeen’s religion. In Norway it is another Christian faith.

When a president who came to power with the Sinhala Buddhist vote could not protect even the Buddhist ruins in the East and North, when Buddhist social values and heritage was rapidly declining, Bodu Bala Sena came to speak on behalf of Buddhists. Halal issue was the match that lighted the firewood gradually accumulating all over Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka could not prevent the dynamiting of the Bamian Buddha or setting fire to ancient Buddhist manuscripts found in Afghanistan. But the government must at least be able to prevent bulldozing ancient Buddhist temples. The jokers in the Archeology Department could not stop even that. For them it was only a heap of earth. Both Christian Church and Islam organizations in the world spend millions of dollars to convert people by unethical means.

It is true that it was Gotabhaya Rajapakse who helped MahindaR to win the war. FF can have cheese and wine parties in Colombo because of that. But when it comes to civil administration, MR Administration is no different from past administrations. Corruption, inefficiency and general stupidity is continuing. It divides people either as yes men or enemies. Mahinda R is missing a great opportunity to make Sri Lanka a real Dharmishta Rajya. Mahinda Chinthanaya cannot work unless and until people are freed from crook politicians. One of the best approaches is to empower people at the village level demarcated by natural, language-blind political units with a ten-member council elected on non-party basis. Instead of the present Divineguma plan based on officialdom, which is bound to fail, village councils so selected must be allowed to decide on local affairs including education. Officers and higher governmental units must be there to help and not to decide on behalf of people. This is what one can say is the 13A Plus as from village level councils it can go upward to seven river basin regions in the island with Yalpanam as the northern river basin.

Because LLRC report created more problems to the government, Ulamas thought they can capitalize on MahindaR’s weakness to bend over backwards to please the minorities and introduce hala joke in an authoritarian manner. A Buddhist country like Sri Lanka does not need American or Navi Pillay-kind of advisors to teach on human rights. Buddhist gave women equal rights and even animals and trees their rights 2600 years ago. The problem is past politicians and present president is either not willing or not able to implement Buddhist principles. Buddhist principles are reasonable principles. For example, Muslims Ulamas can have halal but it is unreasonable to gear it toward non-Muslims. Sri Lankan Muslim women do not have to become goni billas covering their head in streets as Sri Lanka does not have sand storms. In their mosques they can cover their bodies not on public roads.

I wanted show FF that if they just isolate an issue and write complaints it will be a waste of time and energy. FF must try to be a forum wanting to help all Sri Lankans and not directing their frustration against MahindaR. For example, FF members need to watch on Youtube what Bodu Bala Sena said at the Archeological Dept meeting or in Beruwala hotel about the Buddha Bar to see both the trees as well as the forest. I challenge FF to have a meeting with BBS so that FF will not write another silly letter to the president. Otherwise FF is no different from that Tisaranee Gunasekara who spits her venom against the Rajapakse family. She throws the baby with the bath water. Judging from how it works via Youtube videos I think BBS will be the future hope of Sri Lanka.

Video: ACJU to remove Halal logo in SL

MONDAY, 11 MARCH 2013

All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) says that it will remove the Halal logo from local products and will issue the Halal certificates free of charge only for exporters.

Addressing a press conference in Colombo with the participation of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and a group of Buddhist monks led by Ven. Bellanwila Wimalarathana Thero, the ACJU said that although the Halal logo will not be displayed on Packs after end of the exhausting of stocks, companies can continue to obtain them voluntarily as the ACJU will continue to issue Halal certificate free of charge.

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce also confirmed that all Sri Lankan producers will no longer carry the Halal logo on their products unless requested by the foreign consumers.

No Halal logo required for SL market

MONDAY, 11 MARCH 2013
Together holding a news conference with Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) and a group of Buddhist monks led by Prof. Ven. Bellanwila Wimalasara Thera, All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulama (ACJU) said that it would remove the Halal logo from local products and would issue Halal certificates free of charge only for exporters. Pix by Pradeep Dilrukshana

Islamophobia and attacks on Muslims on the rise in Sri Lanka

MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

During the past year, there has been an unprecedented level of violent attacks, demonstrations and hate speech targeting Sri Lanka’s eight per cent Muslim population. Mainly perpetrated by Buddhist fundamentalist groups, the
events have left the country’s second largest minority community – the Muslims – feeling afraid and vulnerable.The response from the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has been limited.

Police inaction in some cases has enabled violence to take place and there have been few arrests. The ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ or ‘Buddhist power force’ is the main group behind the targeting of Muslims. Appeals by Muslim civil society to the GoSL to take action against this group have met with little positive response. On 27 January 2013, President Mahinda Rajapaksha reportedly met monks and members of the Bodu Bala Sena and asked them to avoid conflicts with other religious communities. The President’s statement at this meeting was only publicised in the English language and not in the Sinhalese language media, thereby not reaching a large number of supporters of the Bodu Bala Sena. In his speech on Independence Day, 4 February 2013, there was again a call to stop inciting racial hatred. While these initiatives must be welcomed, they are far from adequate considering the level of
violence and hatred being unleashed on Muslims at present.

MRG has received reports of other religious communities facing serious problems too. However the Muslim community is currently facing a concerted campaign against them. In addition to attacks on places of religious worship there are calls to boycott Muslim shops and establishments, all of which is increasing tensions, particularly in areas where Muslims and Sinhalese live close to each other. The incidents against Muslims are widespread across the country and have picked up momentum during the last months.

In addition to the protests and attacks, there has been a spate of online hate campaigns targeting Muslims. These campaigns have run on social networking sites and also appear as responses to comments and news on other websites. The campaigns use degrading and threatening language about Muslims and on some occasions insult Islamic beliefs and texts. There is also currently a major campaign against the system of issuing halal certificates, which at present is done by a national level Muslim religious body.

To the Government of Sri Lanka

● Take immediate action to protect all religious minority communities from violent attacks, threats of violence as well as incitement to religious hatred. Community property,including places of religious property, must be protected and access ensured. This protection responsibility extends to ensuring the safety and well-being of potentially vulnerable groups within minority communities, including women, children, the elderly andpersons with disabilities.

● Take immediate action to investigate impartially all attacks against all places of religious worship. Prosecute those involved in the attacks in accordance with Sri Lankan law.

● Take immediate action to enforce Sri Lankan law with regard to the activities of fundamentalist groupsthat engage in attacks on places of religious worship in line with international human rights norms.

● Take immediate action to draft legislation regarding the prevention of religious intolerance and hate speech. The drafting process must include full consultation with minority community representatives in relevant languages.

● Take immediate action to implement Lessons Learned & Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recommendations on freedom of religion and minority rights.

● Take action to promote the religious freedom of all communities in accordance with international human rights standards.
● Respond to communications made by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Independent Expert on Minority Issues and invite them to visit and report on Sri Lanka.
● Finally, the President should make a public statement, in all national languages, condemning acts of violence and incitement to religious hatred against Muslims and all othercommunities and assure minorities that their rights will be protected.
To UN Human Rights Council (HRC) member states
● Ensure a strong UN HRC resolution on Sri Lanka that establishes an international, independent and impartial mechanism to investigate violations of international human rights and humanitarian norms during the recent armed conflict in Sri Lanka as well as current violations, including with regard to religious freedom and minority rights.
● Use their bilateral communications with the GoSL to raise their concern about the on-going attacks on Muslims and call for immediate measures to be taken to ensure the protection of Muslim and all other minority communities.

Problem Of Missing Persons Will Persist Until Addressed

By Jehan Perera -March 11, 2013

Jehan Perera

Problems can be denied as non-existent, they can be blamed on others, or they can be faced up to and addressed so that they are resolved. There is a story from Columbia, which has been wracked for many decades by civil war with tens of thousands of extra judicial killings and disappearances. In early 2002 there was a systematic rise in violence. It started with killings and disappearances of young men. A woman came back to her home after working in the family coffee plantation and found her husband had disappeared. She checked with the local military commander about her husband who denied any knowledge and then threatened her for asking and sent her home. Months passed into years but without any news.

In time the government announced a new peace plan. The woman’s husband’s brother took a risk and decided to go back to the farms and see if anything of a coffee harvest might be possible. He found the fields abandoned and walked along the coffee plants they had seeded and cared for in earlier decades. Late in the afternoon he walked along the field closes to the family home, he stopped in his tracks. Something was calling. His eyes went to a cracked area on dry ground. He was frozen for minutes and later he would say, ‘His blood called my name. I heard a voice. Someone calling me like, “I am here. Get me out”.

At first light the next morning he dug around the opening. A grave revealed itself at the bottom; in a square open box he found dry bones. On top of the bones, neatly folded, a shirt and pants retained their colour and form. When they re-opened the box it took only a single glance to confirm that they knew. “The clothes, the teeth – it is our father,” the woman’s son would tell his mother. The blood called unexpectedly. “We know where the graves are located,” the community was able to say. (Excerpts from John Paul and Anjela Jill Lederach, When Blood and Bones Cry Out. Oxford University Press, 2010, pp 34-40). The wounds have to be healed, or else memories will not die and voices from beyond will continue to speak.

MASS GRAVES

At the end of last year, a mass grave was found in Matale, in the central hills in Sri Lanka by workers at a construction site. This discovery is far from the war zones of the North and East. It is widely believed that this mass grave contains the remains of those who were killed extra judicially during the JVP insurrection of 1988-89 when the present opposition party was in power. Like in the case of the government’s last war against theLTTE, it is still not known how many perished in the JVP insurrection. There was no counting the numbers, only guesses, most common of which puts the figure at 60,000. But it could be more, it could be less. There has never been any accounting or accountability for what happened during that period of terror.

So far there has been no immediate or publicized governmental action on the issue of the mass grave found in Matale. If those buried there were those killed during the JVP insurrection, it would mean that they would mostly be of Sinhalese ethnicity. The JVP insurrection was by Sinhalese from the underclass who revolted against the inequalities and injustices that they described as “Curd for Colombo, inferior Cucumber for us.” If past practice with regard to accountability and truth seeking in the case of the two JVP insurrections (1971 and 1988-89) is to be any guide, it is unlikely that there will be any independent and credible investigation into what happened.

In this context the suppression of a public protest with regard to the disappearances that occurred in the last war against the LTTE goes in tandem with the lack of interest to seek the truth of what happened during the JVP insurrection. A protest to be held in Colombo, intended to culminate in the handing over of a petition to the UN office, organized by northern civic groups under the banner of the Families of Disappeared was blocked by the police in Vavuniya in the North only last week. According to participants, the reason given by the Police was that they could not guarantee the safety of the travelers in the night. The family members were surrounded by Police and did not allow them to leave. The buses they were going to travel on were blocked by Police trucks. When contacted by the organizers, the Inspector General of Police had said he was not aware of what had transpired and shown polite interest.

While the family members were deprived of the psychological satisfaction of handing over their petition to the UN office on behalf of their missing loved ones, this petition can be handed over in a less public manner. This act of suppression will add to the negative image of the government that is prevalent internationally and will not ease the grievance that is burning inside the relatives of the missing persons. Those who disappeared in the last phase of the Eelam war were Tamil. The victims of the Matale mass grave were Sinhalese. They both share a common fate. The discovery of the Matale mass grave is a reminder that the past will intrude into the present in unexpected ways, and this will continue into the future until the problem is addressed.

CONTINUING PROBLEM

The fact that there are many thousands of missing persons in Sri Lanka is known within Sri Lanka and internationally. The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission appointed by the President has called for special investigatory mechanisms to be set up to investigate into this problem. Therefore, blocking a protest regarding a problem that is not secret cannot be justified at all from a democratic perspective. It was both a denial of the right of movement and the right of free expression, both of which are basic to the democratic system of government. President Mahinda Rajapaksa would know this well, having been a person who himself carried files of missing persons secretly to Geneva to lobby with the UN Human Rights Committee when he was in the political opposition nearly two decades ago.

The issue of war crimes and human rights violations during the course of the war continues to be raised internationally putting the Sri Lankan government on the defensive. The latest is the proposed US resolution at the ongoing UN Human Rights Council session that calls for establishing an independent international investigation into these issues. It was to this forum that President Rajapaksa carried files of missing persons during the JVP insurrection of 1988-89 as an opposition parliamentarian seeking redress from the international community. It was an occasion to name and shame the then government for its poor human rights record. Ironically, the last four years have seen his government under intense pressure at this same forum on account of its own human rights record.

Sections of the international community along with the Tamil Diaspora will continue to press the politicians of the countries they reside in to take action against the Sri Lankan government. Many of those in the Diaspora lost relatives who were either in the LTTE or were simply civilians who went missing or died in the last phase of the war. The country needs to deal with the issue of missing and disappeared persons. When the recourse to justice within the country fails, it is inevitable in this globalised world that an appeal would go to the international community. As a result there will soon be one more UN resolution that highlights the problems within Sri Lanka and speaks of wounds that need to be healed, memories that will not die and voices from beyond that continue to speak.

Read the Message of the Mothers: The ‘Vavuniya Blockade’ by the Police in photos

Baboons oppose human rights in SL : defeat at UN is a foregone conclusion so no Ministers are attending UNHRC

Happy FAMILY

Read the Message of the Mothers: The ‘Vavuniya Blockade’ by the Police in photos

MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2013

A mother holding to loaf of Bread distributed as dinner after they were forced to leave their buses heading for Colombo

”On March 5^th, 2013, at about 8.30pm, the Police blocked about 600 persons, comprising families of the disappeared and civil society activists from the North, from traveling from Vavuniya to Colombo to attend a protest organized by the ‘Association of the Families Searching for the Disappeared Relatives’ the following day (6^th). Following the protest at Viharamaha Devi Park, in Colombo, the families had planned to march to the UN office in Colombo and hand over a petition. This protest was meant to be part of a larger campaign organized by the families of the disappeared to know the truth about their loved ones, and to lobby the international community to intervene on their behalf by calling on the Sri Lankan Government to provide them with truth, justice and accountability. As a result of this obstruction however, the planned protest could not be held” - Watch Dog

Police moving guarding unarmed Mothers, body language of the police shows that their despair

The so-called equal treatment meted out to Tamil civilians : herding them ..

NO permission needed to tell the truth and sit on the ground: they sat on the street as a protest

Hundreds of innocent family members waiting for justice for their disappeared loved ones

Requesting Government officials to come out and accept their petition

Ruling regime is blind and deaf to their grievances

Mothers of Vanni, calling UN form Vavuniya

Will they be heard in Geneva? Colombo is deaf

They wanted Govt officials to accept their petition , only after mothers blocked the road the relevant officer came out

What could be in their mind? Hope or Despair? read the faces please!

Better to light a candle than curse the darkness: Mothers held a vigil
Photos provided by the watchdog group. Please credit to Anonymous via watchdog

Hugo Chávez: Hero To Many, Villain To Others

By Rajan Philips -March 11, 2013

Rajan Philips

Hugo Chávez, the controversial revolutionary leader of Venezuela, died last week at the age of 58. He was too young to die at a time when human beings are living much longer than before, and he fell victim to that most capricious of all killer diseases: cancer. Reactions to his death have been as varied as the reactions to his politics. The tumultuous mourning in Venezuela is also burdened by the uncertainty about the country’s future. His influence reached across the Latin American continent and his passing will alter the political dynamic in one of the most fastest growing regions in the world. Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretian (1993-2003), who had worked with Mr. Chavez in the Organization of American States and who attended the funeral service in Caracas, described Mr. Chávez as “an unusual and colourful leader” who modeled himself in the revolutionary tradition of Fidel Castro.

In a rare obituary to be written by the leader of a neighbouring country, the former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has admiringly and critically assessed the contributions of Hugo Chávez to the people of Venezuela and towards “the integration of Latin America”. According to his Brazilian counterpart few believed as Mr. Chávez did “in the unity of our continent and its diverse peoples — indigenous Indians, descendants of Europeans and Africans, recent immigrants.” Hugo Chávez was a hybrid of all of them – of Amerindian, Afro-Venezuelan, and Spanish ancestries; he represented and stood for the plurality of his continent and not single-ethnic dominance.

There was a time when Latin American political events and debates made waves in Sri Lanka’s political and intellectual circles. The names of the iconic Cuban leader, Fidel Castro; the foremost itinerant revolutionary, Che Guvera; the Chilean socialist leader and victim of the 1973 military coup, Salvador Allende; and the peripatetic academic and dependency theorist, Andre Gunder Frank, were all too common among Sri Lankan leftists during the 1960s and 1970s heady days of anti-imperialism. That was the era of the cold war, superpower dominance, neo-colonialism, centre-periphery dichotomy, and third world dependence that encompassed the countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa. It is a different world now.

Political genealogy

Hugo Chávez both manifested and embodied the mixed political traditions of his continent and its searching questions in the post-coldwar world of today. His political genealogy had deep and well-founded roots even though sections of the media caricatured him as a theatrical maverick. In a society where poverty was common and the Church and the army provided the main avenues for education and mobility, Chávez born to working class teacher-parents took the latter route joining the Military Academy and graduating among the top ten in a class of seventy five. Interestingly, the military curriculum provided for both military training and academic courses taught by civilian professors brought in from civilian universities. A better approach, one might say, than forcing civilian students to undergo military orientation as is being done in Sri Lanka!

The academic courses shaped Chávez’s intellectual and political development giving him a sense of history and commitment to social justice. He also excelled in poetry, painting and baseball. It was at the military academy, that Chávez began his life-long attachment to the memory and legacy of Simón Bolívar (1783-1830), a nineteenth century descendant of early Basque aristocratic immigrants, who lead the independence revolution of the South American colonies against imperial Spain. A widely travelled man and a military hero, Bolívar was a keen follower of the French and American revolutions, an admirer of Washington and Jefferson but a principled opponent of slavery. It was Bolívar who planted the seeds of democracy in Latin America. But the evolution of constitutional democracy took diametrically different trajectories in the US and Latin America.

Whereas modernization took full flight in the US, the process has been severely hampered by the persistence of neo-colonial structures even after more than a century and half of independence in Latin America. The Church became a fact of politics in a continent (i.e. South and Central America) that had been carved between the Portuguese and the Spanish empires by the Papal bulls of the 15^th and 16^th centuries. In every state, the political and economic power became the monopoly of self-perpetuating oligarchies predicated on feudal property rights systems and sustained by military juntas. Sustained industrialization was not realized and national economies came to depend on the extraction and export of the continent’s abundant resources. The structural dependency of the Latin American countries on Western Europe and the US was somewhat preordained by the anomalous situation of Spain and Portugal in Europe. The two were empires overseas but were economic dependencies in Europe, and their colonies were caught in the same dependency trap. Completing the picture was the vast mass of people in poverty in every Latin American country. The demographic explosion in postwar twentieth century aggravated the misery of the rural masses causing internal migrations and the creation of urban ghettos.

The antitheses to status quo inequalities ironically arose within the two main bulwarks of the oligarchical regimes: the Church and the Military. The Latin American Catholic Church became the incubator of Liberation Theology – the concept first developed in 1971 by the Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiérrez and later caught fire throughout the Christian world, even inspiring clerics in Sri Lanka such as Bishop Leo Nanayakara and Fathers Paul Caspersz and Tissa Balasuriya. It was the Christian response to the realities of injustice and oppression in society. It was only natural that this reinterpretation of the Christian faith as a call to political action should have been provoked in a continent where, as Father Gutiérrez himself described at that time, “60% of the population live in a state of poverty, and 82% of those find themselves in extreme poverty.”

No admirer of Pinochet

The second antithesis came from Military leaders in countries like Peru and Panama, who supported military intervention to remove corrupt governments of the propertied classes and liberate the majority of the people who were mired in poverty. Hugo Chávez was greatly inspired by the ideas of progressive militarists as well as by the interpretation of the Bible to advocate political liberation. He was, however, not an admirer of General Augusto Pinochet, the rightwing Chilean dictator who ousted Allende, and described himself as anti-Pinochet. But Chávez was prepared to emulate Pinochet for different reasons, and in Venezuela it meant freeing the country from the political logjam of the two corrupt and centrist political parties, the Democratic Action Party and the National Convergence Party. In 1992, Chávez led an unsuccessful coup to overthrow the government of the Action Party, and six years later he defeated both parties in the presidential election and became President. He went on to win two more elections and was in power for 14 years until his death.

Chávez’s espousal of the process of democratic elections was in keeping with the reformist changes in many Latin American countries that saw the fall of military dictatorships and their replacement by elected governments. The economy in quite a few Latin American countries, Brazil and Chile in particular, has turned the corner and was beginning to register unprecedented growth. In his first term, Chávez implemented several pro-democratic measures, constitutionally mandated the alleviation of poverty and the allocation of sufficient resources for education and health, and continued the involvement of foreign investment and expertise in the petroleum industry. He travelled abroad visiting Latin American countries as well as US, Canada and Europe. He impressed his audiences with his wit, charm and business savvy.

Things began to change for the worse and independent observers have noted that the change coincided with steep increases in the global oil prices from the price of $13 a barrel, the lowest since the 1960s, soon after he became President in 1998. Venezuela holds one of the largest oil reserves in the world, and phenomenally higher world oil prices in the next ten years boosted government revenues as never seen before (rising from $20 to $80 billion annually between 1999 and 2008). Chávez opened the coffers to help the poor with sincere but misguided generosity. He spurned western governments and western investments while supplying almost free oil to Cuba, Dominican Republic and Jamaica. He dramatically externalized the traditional anti-American sentiment in Latin politics, taking particular delight in ridiculing Washington. The good times turned sour when the great world recession hit Venezuela and its oil production, without foreign investment and expertise, began to fall.

After fourteen years of pumping money for the government the petroleum industry now stands gutted, and the government has nothing to show for the additional $700 billion that it received from petroleum exports. The economic maladministration went hand in hand with political authoritarianism. The pro-democratic measures that were introduced in the first term have been wiped off. Mr. Chávez’s wild popularity is only the façade of a deeply divided country. His people either loved him or hated him. While he did much to improve the lot of the marginalized, they are also the most to suffer from the breakdown of law and order and the rising wave of crimes. His vaguely formulated 21^st century socialism would hardly be remembered after him.

Hugo Chávez was a charismatic political leader whose heart was in the right place in championing the interests of the poor, the weak and the marginalized. His political vision was not at all parochial but continental in range. He was bold and right in shaking up what was wrong and rotten with his country but he did not have the wherewithal to deliver in a sustainable way not just on his public promises but more so on the many good things that he probably wanted achieved. The missing medium was the political party whose role it must be to not only project the leader to the country but also to act as a restraint on the leader. Mr. Chávez did change the course of Venezuela’s history, but he failed to achieve it through a proper political organization that would have given his legacy greater credibility and more longevity.

Govt.’s unwillingness to have certified price for paddy is to protect middlemen & businessmen – All Ceylon Farmers’ Federation

MONDAY, 11 MARCH 2013

The price of a kilo of paddy should be made Rs. 40, as farmers have not been able to sell their paddy harvest for prices the government had stated states the National Organizer of All Ceylon Farmers’ Federation Namal Karunaratne adding that the present administration has made farmers slave labourers.

Speaking at a media conference held at Hotel Nippon today (1th) Mr. Karunaratne said, “The farmers have been severely inconvenienced as they are unable to sell their paddy harvest. The harvest in small scale irrigations schemes has been completed by now and gathering of harvest in paddy fields that are in large scale irrigation schemes has started. The price of paddy has drastically come down. According to government’s own estimates the cost of producing a kilo of paddy is Rs.31. However, the government’s certified price for a kilo of ‘Nadu’ is Rs.32 and a kilo of ‘Samba’ is Rs.35.

There are only 82 paddy buying centers in the whole island. This is not adequate. Normally the annual paddy production in Sri Lanka is about 6.5 million metric tons. The government buys only about 3% to 4% of the production. The rest is bought by middlemen. Despite the government publishing full page advertisements in newspapers and boasting on the TV, it is the reality.

At present the price of paddy in Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Ampara, Hambantota districts range from Rs.17 to Rs.26 a kilo. Paddy is bought at government’s buying centers under various conditions. In Anuradhapura District only 2500 kilos are bought from each farmer. At Kurunegala it is 5000 kilos and the number differs in other districts. Normally a farmer would produce between 12,000 to 15,000 kilos of paddy. Where could he sell the rest of his harvest?

The farmer is confronted with another issue. In government’s buying centers the moister level should be under 14%. How can the farmer dry his paddy? Paddy bought by farmers is rejected at the government center when it is not under this moister level. Farmers stay in the queue the whole day, pays lorry hire and then when the paddy is rejected has to take his production back home paying another lorry hire. As such, the farmer is scared of going to government’s buying centers. Only businessmen sell their paddy to government centers for Rs.32. The farmer is unable to sell his paddy and middlemen and businessmen buy it for Rs.17 or Rs.18 and sell it to the government for Rs.32. They get a profit of Rs.12 per kilo within a few days while the farmer who has toiled for months spending Rs.31 to produce a kilo of paddy has to sell it for a pittance.

Government officials too are involved in this racket. They get commissions through brokers. The 14% moister condition is not relevant to paddy brought by businessmen. Drying machines should be made available if the government is truly concerned regarding the farmer and his product should be bought at a certified price. However, the government doesn’t think of the farmer. The produce the farmer gets after struggling with the land, weather and other elements is plundered by middlemen, businessmen and officials. The government doesn’t take any action. We call on the government to be fair by the farmer.

Despite the government making a big hullabaloo stating facilities have been made for farmers to sell their produce, it merely protects a few such as ‘Nipuna’, ‘Araliya’ and middlemen. We say it because the farmers have taken to the streets, carry out agitations, put up posters and have written letters to the President demanding a certified price of Rs.40 for a kilo of paddy; to make it a law. It doesn’t cost the government anything. It could be passed with a majority in parliament. However, the government doesn’t take this step. If such a law is passed in parliament the farmer doesn’t have to sell his produce for a pittance. The middlemen won’t be able to buy paddy at a lower rate. As it is a law in the country the farmer can take legal action. We can’t understand why farmers are treated in this manner by a person who boasts that he is a man of the land. Why are the middleman and the businessman allowed to plunder the produce of the farmer? The middlemen have been given the right to exploit the farmer. We demand the government to bring a law that gives a certified price for paddy.

We can’t allow the government to neglect the farmer community that has been battered repeatedly for two years. We would rally farmers throughout the island and carry out a massive agitation programme. We would also ask eh government not to blame the farmers for setting fire to paddy, burning tyres of blocking roads.”