Commonwealth Dodges Sri Lanka Problem

April 26, 2013

The Commonwealth has failed its first major test since it strengthened its Ministerial Action Group in 2011 to renew its commitment to human rights and democratic values. Meeting in London today, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), which is charged with dealing with violations of Commonwealth values, failed to discuss Sri Lanka on its formal agenda. Sri Lanka is due to head the 54-nation body and host its major summit in Colombo in November, but it stands accused by two UN reports of war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is also the only Commonwealth country technically to have two Chief Justices after the top court in the land ruled the impeachment of the first unlawful.

Tamil demonstrators protest outside today’s Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group meeting in London. Pic: Sri Lanka Campaign.

Canada has been a lone voice raising the issue of Sri Lanka and it appears it had few supporters among other nations represented on the Action Group. There are reports one nation present said it wouldn’t be held hostage to human rights zealots. The deliberations on Sri Lanka fell into the “Other Matters of Interest to Ministers”, which are not made public.

At a news conference after the meeting the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group said it was not up to them but up to the heads of Commonwealth governments to decide the venue for the summit in November and they’d already chosen Sri Lanka. Instead, the Secretary General Kamlesh Sharmam repeatedly stressed his commitment to positive engagement with the Sri Lankan government. He refused to put a time limit on that engagement because he said he was so optimistic about its success. Mr Sharma cited the Commonwealth’s involvement in assisting Sri Lanka with media policy, two Press Institutes, the Election Commission, human rights, the issue of the independence of judiciary and a workshop next week in London for the Sri Lankan government to meet reconciliation experts from other post-conflict countries. “We are working with them in a way which we expect will bring progress rather than disappointment,” he said.

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird greets Tamil protesters after the CMAG meeting. Pic: Sri Lanka Campaign.

Asked if he wasn’t worried about the credibility of the Commonwealth being at stake over its engagement with Sri Lanka, the Secretary General said on he contrary its credibility was increasing right now. He said some people just made statements while other were actually doing real work on the ground making a difference. Mr Sharma did concede there were what he called “many lacunae” in the appointment and dismissal of judges in Sri Lanka but added that the Commonwealth was working with Sri Lanka to share best practices from other member nations and recommend remedial measures.

Outside the venue of the meeting in London a small but colourful protest took place by Tamils, calling on the Commonwealth to suspend Sri Lanka and move November’s summit meeting. As he left, the Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird made a point of walking along the barricade and shaking hands with many of the protestors before getting into this car.

Canada’s Foreign Minister says he is appalled that Sri Lanka seems poised to have the honour and responsibility of hosting the Commonwealth summit meeting in November. Mr Baird said Canada had wanted to see meaningful progress on accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka but the situation had got worse, not better. He added that the impeachment of the Chief Justice in Sri Lanka was deeply disturbing.

Asked about what the Commonwealth Secretary General Kamlesh Sharma says is positive engagement with Sri Lanka, Mr Baird replied that he would rather accept the judgement and conclusions of the Commonwealth Journalists Association, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, The Commonwealth Lawyers Association, the Commonwealth Legal Education Association, the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges, Human Rights Watch and the UN Human Rights Council. All of these have pointed to a deterioration of civil liberties and human rights in Sri Lanka after the end of the civil war.

Mr Baird said Canada cared passionately about the issue of Sri Lanka and it wasn’t just going to “go alone to get along”. He added it wasn’t about accommodating evil, but about combating it.

By Frances Harrison – Asian Correspondent

Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group in crucial meeting today

• Sri Lanka likely to be taken up under ‘other matters’ at key meet in London
• Govt. denies Lanka will be discussed at CMAG meet
• Dhaka to extend support to Sri Lanka as CMAG Chair
• Canadian PM hints at other countries being willing to host CHOGM 2013
• Intl. Bar Association, rights watchdog step up calls for summit venue change

By Dharisha Bastians-April 26, 2013 
Sri Lanka is likely to feature during a meeting of the Commonwealth’s most powerful eight-member body in London today, with Canada hinting it is seeking a shift in the venue and Tamil Nadu political parties,  international lawyers grouping and human rights activists lobbying against allowing Colombo to host a key Commonwealth summit in November.

The Government has consistently denied that Sri Lanka would feature on the agenda of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) 26 April meet, which will be chaired by Bangladesh and includes Australia, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, Vananatu, Jamaica, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. Maldives is also a CMAG member but is currently suspended.
The Daily FT learns that while diplomatic overtures, especially between Colombo and Dhaka, have prevented Sri Lanka from being an official CMAG agenda item, the issue of Sri Lanka hosting this year’s summit and the country’s human rights record is likely to come up for discussion at the London meeting under ‘any other matters’.
Canada is leading the call for discussion on Sri Lanka, with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday hinting in the House of Commons that many other countries would be willing to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
When CMAG held a meeting via tele-conference on 20 March, Canada raised concerns about Sri Lanka’s rights record.
It called for the issue to be taken up at the group’s April meeting in London. Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, both countries of the Realm, backed the Canadian representative’s call.
However, the Government of Bangladesh has assured Sri Lanka of its fullest support at CMAG, the Daily FT learns. Minister of External Affairs G.L. Peiris has undertaken at least three trips to Dhaka since February to lobby the Government there for support at CMAG.
CMAG is the Commonwealth’s most powerful decision-making body, with a mandate to recommend member states for scrutiny, suspension and expulsion from the Commonwealth of Nations.
Canadian media reported yesterday that in response to a question by the opposition Liberal Party in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Harper said that while the summit is scheduled to be held in Colombo in November, “any number of countries would be willing to host the event”.
The Canadian Prime Minister has already indicated he would not be attending the Summit in Colombo this year unless Sri Lanka made effective progress on setting its human rights record straight.
Meanwhile, representatives from the Karunanidhi-led DMK party from Tamil Nadu have travelled to London to lobby CMAG representatives against allowing CHOGM to go ahead as scheduled in Colombo, according to Indian media reports.
“I insist that the demand not to hold (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka should be discussed in detail and a decision is taken. DMK MPs and TESO members will meet the envoys of member countries of CMAG and explain in detail that the meeting should not be held in Sri Lanka,” Karunanidhi was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying.
The DMK, which walked out of the UPA coalition over the Lankan Tamils issue last month, had in the executive also demanded that India boycott the meeting in the event it is held in Colombo.
While a venue change for CHOGM 2013 is unlikely at this stage, with Colombo in full preparation for the key summit, it is likely many Commonwealth Member states will downgrade their level of participation for the event, diplomatic sources said.
But the powerful International Bar Association and human rights watchdogs have stepped up calls to shift the CHOGM venue from Sri Lanka ahead of the CMAG meet this week.
The International Bar Association Human Rights Institute in a panel discussion held to launch its remote probe on the Sri Lankan Justice System entitled A Crisis of Legitimacy: The Impeachment of Chief Justice and the Erosion of the Rule of Law in Sri Lanka in the UK earlier this week, urged the Commonwealth to reassess Sri Lanka’s suitability to host the summit and ascend the CHOGM Chair. IBAHRI members of the delegation that compiled the report on Sri Lanka said that Commonwealth is committed by its Charter to the observance of the rule of law, good governance, independence of the judiciary, and the upholding of human rights.
Panelist and delegation member Sadakat Kadri said in the discussion that if the Commonwealth stands for those values, then it needs to carefully consider whether “Sri Lanka is an appropriate venue for the CHOGM and whether it is an appropriate chair in office for the two years after that, because Sri Lanka will become the body that represents the Commonwealth and its core values around the world.”
Yesterday Human Rights Watch also urged the Commonwealth to shift the venue of its key Summit in November from Colombo.
“The Commonwealth will rightly face international ridicule if it goes ahead with its summit in Sri Lanka,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch told Reuters.
“The CMAG meeting should send a message to the Sri Lankan government that the scale and severity of its abuses violate the Commonwealth’s core values and will not be rewarded,” Adams said.
Human Rights Watch said that since 2009, the Sri Lankan government had been responsible for clampdowns on basic freedoms, threats and attacks against civil society, and actions against the judiciary and other institutions, imperilling Sri Lanka’s democracy.

SL Military turns back Ranil visiting Valikaamam

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 April 2013, 11:34 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army, which is busily transforming the former High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North in Jaffna into a Sinhala Military Zone (SMZ), turned away a delegation led by SL opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe on Thursday evening, denying them access to visit the area and witness the scale of the land acquisition. In the meantime, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran told the visiting UNP leader to voice for the rights of the uprooted people of Valikaamam North. 

Conducting elections to the Northern Provincial Council, under the prevailing circumstances of SL military interference in the civil and political affairs in North would be a mockery of democracy, Mr Premachandran has said.

Twelve entire divisions of SL military are deployed in Vanni alone. The SL military is engaged by the SL government to harass political parties that are not in their UPFA alliance. The military also engages in attack on media and activists. Lately, it has even gone to the extent of wooing candidates for the UPFA, the TNA parliamentarian told Mr Wickramasinghe.

Mr Premachandran was campaigning for the presence of an impartial international monitoring mechanism at least two months ahead of the PC elections.

Mr Premachandran also urged the UNP leader to address the crucial issue of resettlement of people in Valikaamam North, the area that is being permanently seized by Colombo for the SL military.

Meanwhile the organisation representing the interests of the uprooted people of Valikaamam North has requested the people, who had been invited by the SL military, not to place their signatures on any papers, as there is a danger of SL military forging documents.

The people who were called up to identify their lands, had been instructed to come to the boundary of the HSZ, along with the deeds and any other documents pertaining to their lands.

Army sent back the UNP delegates in Waligamam

[ Friday, 26 April 2013, 04:26.16 AM GMT +05:30 ]

Military personals have sent back the United National Party parliamentarians arrive to view the lands grab by the Army in Waligamam North and East areas. They further said need to obtain permission from the ministry of Defence.

Military perosnals have aware on this visit and dumped large amount of security personals at the high security zone in Mawattapuram. Military personals have stopped the vehicle of the UNP parliamentarisa and questioned about their arrival. Refused to grant permission to the UNP delegates to visit the lands of people. Due to the UNP leader Ranil Wickramasigne and other parliamentarians returned back.

Cardinal seeks written assurance from President on church land

April 25, 2013, 9:52 pm 

Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith in the presence of government ministers, Sarath Gunaratne and Nimal Lansa and Western Province Council member, Meril Perera addresses the parishioners, who feared the alleged attempt of acquiring a parish owned land for a tourist resort by a powerful minister in the Western Province.

A section of the parishioners of the St. Joseph Church, Pamunugama, who converged at the church’s Jubilee Hall to seek a written assurance from the President listen to the leader earnestly.Pic by S. K. J. Kurera, Our Pamunugama Correspondent.

By Madura Ranwala and S. K. J. Kurera

Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith had on Tuesday requested a written assurance from President Mahinda Rajapaksa that a land belonging to St. Joseph’s Church, Pamunugama, where a chapel had been built and Holy Mass was being celebrated once a month, as part of catholic devotion, would not be acquired arbitrarily by the government for a tourist resort.

The Cardinal made the request through parliamentarian Sarath Gunaratne, Western Provincial Council Minister Nimal Lanza and WPC member Merril Perera, at a hurriedly arranged meeting attended by them along with parishioners and the media at the Jubilee Hall in the Church premises.

Recalling the history of church, a disappointed yet strong-willed Cardinal said that the plot of land at Sedawatta, bordering the Negombo lagoon and the Hamilton Canal was handed over to the Catholic Church by the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1980.

The Cardinal requested the Catholic MPs and Provincial Council members in the Wattala, Ja-Ela and Negombo to be more vigilant and act wisely to safeguard the rights of the Catholics, despite being vulnerable to political pressure.

Though the MP Gunaratne and WP Minister Lanza promised that the land would not be used for a tourist resort, the Cardinal along with the parishioners and parish priest Fr. Ananda Withana, in one voice, requested that they seek a written assurance from the President.

Sri Lankan bishop shrugs off Tamil separatist charges

Prelate called an 'anarchist' for alleged support of Tamil rights

Tamil refugees wait to leave a settlement camp in northern Sri Lanka last year

• ucanews.com reporter, Colombo
• Sri Lanka
• April 24, 2013

A Catholic bishop responded today to allegations by local media accusing him and the Church of engaging in a conspiracy to promote a separate Tamil state in collaboration with representatives of the Indian government.

Bishop Rayappu Joseph of Manar said he had never advocated an autonomous state for the ethnic Tamil population as a viable political solution to the country's ongoing reconciliation issues.

“I have neither stood for the separation of the country nor at any time rejected any viable political solution to the national question,” said Bishop Joseph, who serves as the vice chairman of the Catholic National Commission for Justice, Peace and Human Development.

The allegations followed a visit by a delegation of Indian parliamentarians this month.

“The recent media reports are totally inaccurate and misleading,” Bishop Joseph said.

“I reiterate that as a Catholic leader who has always had the welfare of my people at heart, I never hesitate to speak out for their rights and wellbeing.”

The bishop was among several other Catholic priests and rights activists who signed a petition last month during a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, during which they sought action on unresolved grievance of Tamil communities in northern and eastern Sri Lanka.

The UNHRC subsequently passed a resolution urging the government to allow an independent investigation into alleged war crimes committed during the civil war that ended in 2009.

The bishop’s involvement with the petition has prompted accusations from government officials and the local press.

Nishantha Warnasinghe, publicity secretary for the government coalition party Jathika Hela urumaya, accused the bishop of being a Tamil separatist.

“Even the war crimes charges were being highlighted by the bishop,” Warnasinghe said.

Father Sarath Iddamalgoda, a human rights activist, said that refuting media reports is difficult, since the media is totally dependent on government and military sources.

“I have been at several meetings where the bishop spoke his mind on national issues, but he never stood for a separation of the country. He strongly stood for a political solution which respects the Tamil identity,” Fr Iddamalgoda said.

He added: “We have not seen any serious attempt on the part of the government to implement a political solution, and we can see that the media has a biased mind and an agenda to destroy the good name of the bishop.”

Related reports

Bishop intervenes on behalf of Tamil asylum seekers

Christians petition UN for war crime probe

Seven-Year-Old Pushpakumara’s Murder And The Link Between Lawlessness And Perversity

By Basil Fernando -April 26, 2013

Basil Fernando

A seven-year-old child, Pushpakumara Wijekoon from Kegalle, went to school as usual and left around 1 pm.

He walked to the junction where his father usually picked him up on his cycle to bring him home. As the child did not see his father, he started walking back home. The distance was about a mile. His brother, who was sixteen years old, reported to his father at about two that Pushpakumara had not come home. The father rushed home and thereafter they started searching for the young child. As they could not find the child after much searching, they complained to the police. The police searched with their trained dogs. The dogs stopped at an abandoned house and the police entered. There, they found the dead body of the seven-year-old, strangled with his own school tie, and with his clothes removed. The police are now looking for suspects.

The incident has caused shockwaves in villages around Kegalle. The general suspicion is that the child had been sexually abused before he was strangled.

While the killing of a child after abuse may not be a frequent occurrence, the spread of child abuse is in epidemic proportions has led to many statements from child protection authorities, religious leaders and non-governmental organizations. However, the government has ignored all such expressions of concern as it, as a general rule, ignores every kind of protest. What the people of Kegalle have learned through the tragic death of seven-year-old Pushpakumara are the consequences of such defiance of protest by the government.

The government has entered into a course of action through the 18th amendment which has deprived it of the capacity to control crime and create a social milieu where criminals fear committing crime due to serious consequences that would follow. When the criminals have no fear of the consequences of breaking the law, anything is possible. That is exactly what has happened in this instance.

Recently, in an interview by the 24-year-old Russian girl Victoria Tkacheva, who was raped and seriously abused while her partner Khuram Shaikh was assassinated, she complained of the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of this heinous crime. She vowed to fight back. It would not be an easy fight. The chief suspect is Sampath Chandra Pushpa Vidanapathirana, the head of the local council inTangalle. He, like Duminda Silva and very many others, enjoy the patronage of the Rajapaksha family, who, without any kind of embarrassment, protect “their” criminals. The overall policy of the government, entrenched by the 18^th Amendment to the constitution itself, is to be crime-friendly.

A crime-friendly government is, in the normal understanding of governments, a contradiction in terms. Thomas Hobbes (5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679) observed that a government comes into being by way of agreement between people and the sovereign, where the sovereign takes over the obligation of protecting people from the crimes they commit against each other. Ever since, the development of the theory of the state has emphasized the primary obligation of the state as being to prevent crime and to ensure security for everyone within its jurisdiction. Thus, a government that is crime-friendly is an abnormality. It suffers from a malignant disease which is destroying itself.

When criminals perceive that the government is crime-friendly, they lose the fear of committing crimes. From this, daring comes. The heyday of the perverts. Lawlessness begets perversity. How far such perversity has gone in Sri Lanka is evidenced by this child’s tragedy. However, it is not confined to sexual perversity. What has been happening in the stock markets and in almost every sphere of life in Sri Lanka demonstrates how lawlessness and perversity join hands and reign in Sri Lanka while the government, as a matter of policy, sticks to the course of impunity.

Political implications of lawlessness and perversity

When the law is not a major concern for the government, democracy simply cannot exist. The essence of democracy is to make the government accountable and responsible for its citizens. The only mode within which the state could be held responsible to its citizens is through the law. In fact, the test of responsible citizenship is also the observance of the laws that hold a community together. When the state itself becomes crime-friendly, then the law has no place in that society and the result is disintegration.

In Sri Lanka, disintegration is often understood only in terms of ethnic relationships. A nation divided in terms of ethnicity is a common theme since the 1956 language policy and the racial riots that followed. However, what everyone has ignored is a far deeper disintegration of society that is taking place in Sri Lanka due to the failure of the state to uphold law.

This division disintegrates all communities, including even small village communities. What the people in Kegalle are experiencing in terms of the brutal murder of this seven-year-old child is the disintegration of morals and societal protection of each other, which has gone out of all bounds. When parents have to fear sending their child to school because of distrust of their own neighbors, it indicates a societal crisis in its worst forms.

In such a situation, what could democratic practices such as elections mean? Within a lawless society it is not possible to hold free and fair elections. All claims of such fairness are nothing more than hypocrisy. The government organizes such things as elections merely as a game to deceive the population and to create some semblance of legitimacy for itself. Lawlessness contaminates everything and acts like leukemia on the bloodcells of a human being. That is where we are.

The major issue on which public protests should emerge in the context of Sri Lanka is the issue of lawlessness. No family can be safe, as shown by this incident, until this great monster is defeated. However, as people like Victoria Tkacheva are learning, defeating this monster is not an easy task. A crime-friendly government uses crime itself in order to ensure its survival. However, if Sri Lanka is to cure itself of the depth of disintegration it has been facing for decades, then the people themselves have to find their own solutions to face this kind of situation. When mythology speaks of great monsters and the heroes who fought against them, what they symbolically show are the kind of situations that Sri Lanka is faced with now. The government, which should be the protector, has turned out to be the monster that deprives people of security.

When bodies of the children of Ambilipitiya  were dug out of a grave inside an army camp, one of the mothers present was quoted saying,” this is worse than animals”, referring to the perpetrators. Pushpa Kumara parents will join, tens of thousands of others who would utter similar words. A Dutch journalist made a documentary which he entitled  Murder Land referring to Sri Lanka in the late eighties. Title fits even now. It may remain so , as long as the government remains crime friendly.

SRI LANKA: Seven-year-old Pushpakumara’s murder and the link between lawlessness and perversity

Indisputable evidence on violation of court orders. Compensation claims and Contempt of courts issues

Friday, 26 April 2013

Any student affected due to repeated alteration of advance level results and violation of court orders may seek compensation from the Additional secretary responsible for university admissions. UGC failed to inform students changes made on method of university admissions prior to the examinations. They submitted a totally new irregular experimental method to the Supreme courts, and they blatantly violated the last supreme court orders as well. Indisputable evidence documented in Supreme Court submissions highlighted here can be use by the students affected and seeking compensation.

University Grant Commission (UGC) has not finalized and not filled the large number of vacancies in medical faculties yet, students have appeals requesting the Additional secretary Mr. M.M. P. Premakumara to admit students according to the Island ranks as compensation for highest ranking students affected due to errors made in calculation of z scores by the UGC and due to the fact that several legal issues resulted as A/L results were issued for four times since the 2011 examinations due to alterations done after the examinations without giving prior information.

Kandy District has been given the highest cut off mark to enter faculties of medicine in the Island. This is also the historically highest recorded for medicine. Numbers of students enter medical schools from Kandy district have been reduced in this year compared to the previous year 2010, and the students affected have not been compensated.

There are legal issues, similar students affected in Colombo district with high ranks Z score above 2.1 range have been compensated without obtaining any court order by the UGC. Additional secretary at the UGC has compensated high ranking students in Colombo district arbitrarily outside the court order, wonder whether it is considered as contempt of courts issue on the last court order according to SRFC. No. 418/2012 at least 23 students who would not have been taken to the medical schools have been taken in by the additional secretary without obtain a court order, where as similar students with high ranks and z score above 2.1 from Kandy district have not been taken despite making several appeals by the students affected to the UGC and the ministry of higher education. Similarly students were affected in Kurunagala, Kaluthara, Jaffna and Mathara districts as well.

According to P2 document submitted in SRFC 563/2012 legal document, UGC has violated the court order and there is evidence at least 23 students were taken to the faculties of medicine while depriving similar students with z score ranks above 2.1 in Kandy district.

We request all these documents on number of students taken on merit basis and district allocations to be provided for scrutiny from the UGC.

A according to the results cut off marks and allocations given on UGC website and according to the court order on allocation of students stipulated in P2 document extracted from the Supreme Courts following observations can be made. We request the UGC to provide all details on allocation of places for faculties of medicine in all districts.

According to P2 Document stated on page 4 All Island merit percentages allocated for Fresher’s is 44%.

For the Repeaters – 59%

Proposed Intake would be 1175- 18 (special Intake) = 1157

Merit quota is 40% ( 1157x40% = 463 Places)

Places reserved for first timers on merit basis is ( 463x 44%) 204

Merit quota for Colombo District (Those above the Island rank 204 ) would be 61 or approximately - 61

District quota (according to page 11 on document P2) is 79

Percentage for fresher’s (according to page 14 on document P2) is 47%

Therefore district quota for fresher in Colombo is (79x47% ) is 37

Total number of places for medicine available for Colombo district for freshers is 61+37= 98

UGC has manipulated the cutoff mark and lowered the cut off mark to 2.1777 to illegally accommodate at least 23 additional students who are not eligible for medicine according to the court order. Cut off Z score given for Colombo is 2.1777 which is an altered figure to accommodate large number of students arbitrarily, therefore this irregular method gives plenty of room for corruption.

The District rank of the student with the cut off mark should be 98 according to the court order for the Colombo District. It is impossible for the students above the district rank 100 to enter medical schools. Instead the student whose district rank is 122 (Index No.1041240) has been selected to medical faculty of Rajarata. The District rank of the student with the cut off Z score 2.1777 is 122 according to UGC website.

While 122 students from Colombo district were allocated for medicine among the fresher’s only 24 students from Kandy district were allocated for fresher’s large number of students above z scores 2.1 and high Island ranks were deprived of university education.

Extra 24 students have been taken from the Colombo District out of the court order none of the students were compensated from Kandy, Galle, and Mathara Kaluthara and Kurunagala districts.

As there is well documented evidence, Student named Chathurika District rank 116 have been admitted illegally to Ruhuna faculty of medicine. The index number 1070827 rank 102 in Colombo district has been taken to the faculty of Medicine in Kalaniya University, this student is one of the students signed SRFC 563/2012 document, as this student was not getting admission to faculties of medicine under this newly devised method based on percentages. Several other students below the rank 99 and the index number 1070827 rank 102 have been absorbed which is not correct and the admissions are irregular. There are contempt of courts as well as compensation issues. These types of irregular method based on percentages were never informed to the students prior to the examination.

These malpractices may have been done without the knowledge of the UGC chairperson and the Minister of higher education, there is no point in charging them as the officers responsible for malpractices get the help of superiors to defend court proceedings and try to escape when the others are also charged with malpractices. Contempt of courts issues and compensation need to be seek from the Additional secretary who was responsible for irregularities.

Similar manipulations may have done in Gampaha District with old syllabus students, students have to request the UGC to provide all data. These irregularities need further investigation in other subject streams and other districts. Colombo district admissions to faculties of medicine is an instance where the students affected in other subject streams can prove with indisputable evidence that additional secretary has violated the court orders and they all could seek compensation. This corrupt method devised by the Additional secretary was not recommended by the supreme courts to use in future examinations , UGC has violated this court order as well according to a notice given in the UGC website for next year admissions. UGC has not compensated thousands of students affected in 2011 examination and they have not filled large number of vacancies in peripheral faculties in all subject streams yet.

References.                        Read more.

Recruiting LTTE’s Daya Master as Candidate for Northern Poll Demonstrates Political Bankruptcy of Govt

Recruiting LTTE’s Daya Master as Candidate for Northern Poll Demonstrates Political Bankruptcy of Govt

Friday, April 26, 2013

”In Vavunia UPFA lost 35% -55%, in Mannar, 39% – 59%, in Kilinochchi where Namal Rajapaksa was resident for weeks, the UPFA lost 30% – 68% while in Jaffna the government lost 26% – 71% and in Mulativu they were clobbered 17% – 82%. The great “humanitarian operation with zero civilian casualties” myth broke asunder.  ”
Vishnuguptha
“It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.”
~ Aristotle
The Government in general and the ruling family in particular, do not show any signs of learning any lesson from history. The local government elections concluded more than two and half years ago on July 23, 2011 and exactly twenty four years after the infamous ambush of thirteen armed soldiers at Thirunelveli, Jaffna and the riots that it ensued in the South of Sri Lanka, the Tamils of Jaffna once again passed a crushing verdict on the absurdity of naked chauvinism openly practiced by the first family and their cohorts in the Government of Sri Lanka.

After suffering one defeat after another at the international fora, after failing to prove their bona-fides regarding their commitment to the implementation of the Thirteenth Amendment to our Constitution, after making pledge after pledge to international leaders that a fair and just system of government would be put in place, after ensuring the sustenance of a ‘free and fair’ Press, the Government now seems to be desperate.

And in their mad rush to find a suitable strategist and a winning candidate for the forthcoming elections in the Northern Province, they turned to a well-known one-time ‘friend’ of the Tamil people, Daya Master now turned ‘traitor’, to spearhead their election campaign in the peninsula. Daya Master whose real name is Velayutham Dayanidhi was the master propagandist of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam. His prowess at the mechanics and methodologies of how a media outlet could be run for and by a terrorist organization is now going to be used for the benefit of the Sri Lankan Government. His methods and motives could only be absolved by the results of the forthcoming elections of the Northern Province.

In the 2009 local elections, Mahinda Rajapaksa entered the peninsula, all clad in national dress and wrapped in the bright red shawl (satakaya), to show the world and Tamil Nadu in particular, that the majority of Sri Lankan Tamils were with his government; started the campaign by unleashing the brute power of his Yuva Raja (deputy-at-arms) Defense Secretary’s soldiers; attended many rituals at many Hindu Kovils invoking the gods for election victory, took babies into his arms to show his boundless compassion for kids, promised no less than a sports stadium of international class for Kilinochchi; traveled from Kayts to Jaffna to Kilinochchi to Mulativu in a frenzied program of electioneering, installed his heir apparent Namal Rajapaksa in Kilinochchi; provided staff of his campaign program at state expense and boasted that holding elections alone should be good enough for the Northern voters.

A people battered for more than a quarter century by unspeakable sufferings, left in the lurch by their own Colombo elites and derided by the Southern brethren of the Mahawansa mindset, held fast; this time they decided to be the deceivers and dealt the leader and his son a devastating blow. The sale that the Rajapaksas tried to consummate did not materialize, not because of buyer’s remorse but as what the regime considered to be the buyer in fact turned out to be the seller, a seller of a different kind of merchandise to the international community.

They showed the value of the age old cliché-“buyer beware”; Northern voter is different. The feelings and utter scorn pent up for three decades were given vent to and out of 23 local bodies, 20 in the North turned towards the leading Tamil party as their overwhelming choice. Only 3 were secured by the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and ironically all three local bodies – islands of Kayts, Delft and Velanai (in Kayts)- are not part of mainland Jaffna, adding fuel to the rumor that the votes were manipulated while in transit via helicopters. So much for free and fair elections!

In Vavunia UPFA lost 35% -55%, in Mannar, 39% – 59%, in Kilinochchi where Namal Rajapaksa was resident for weeks, the UPFA lost 30% – 68% while in Jaffna the government lost 26% – 71% and in Mulativu they were clobbered 17% – 82%. The great “humanitarian operation with zero civilian casualties” myth broke asunder. 

This is the theatre where the Channel 4 drama was enacted during the last stages of the war. Amidst many hardships, harassments, murder and unspeakably vicious government propaganda, the Northern voter stood fast, unafraid and unbowed. The carrot would have been too tempting if it was offered in the South. With power well entrenched in the center, in the hands of a virtual King and his l(r)oyal family, with no hope or clear vision in the horizon they defied all odds.

A betting man would have placed his life earnings at least on a close fight, considering the baits that were thrown which were in fact too good to throw away. From agricultural equipment to tractors to free rides to funfair activities to international playgrounds including the kitchen sinks were rejected on a wholesale basis. They extracted their Shakespearian revenge from an all-powerful President and his family. The return by the President for this cruel yet honest expression of anger and rejection by the Northern Tamils might have been too gruesome and unkind had the President so decided at the time.

They might have come in the form of white vans, dogs’ heads, sudden disappearances or plain murder, for they are obsessed with their own self-righteousness. The defeat of the LTTE gave them that sense of self-righteousness. That went into their blood and marrow. Every high-handed act was justified in the name of that self-righteousness, reminding one of the repugnant demeanors of Goebbels, Sukarno, Suharto, Marcos, Kaddafi and Saddam Hussein.

The Tamil population of the North might suffer the repercussions of their conscience in the short term. But such daring and clear display of courage (or stupidity as one pundit has already said) might reap benefits in the mid to long term. As Shylock in the Merchant of Venice, Tamils too have been more sinned against than sinning. How long they can defy odds is yet to be determined. Nevertheless, the campaign carried out at that local election by the TNA and its leaders had reaped the harvest.

This would have certainly strengthened their position amongst Tamils further; it would have also galvanized the Diaspora to a very great extent who will no doubt use the Channel 4 presentation as a great recruiting tool for their own cause, but would it soften the hearts and minds of the ruling family? In the midst of a clean sweep in the South by the UFPA against a pathetic non-campaign by the UNP where it suffered another loss, securing barely 31% of the vote, a clear polarization along ethnic lines has taken root.

Unfortunately for all Sri Lankans, whether they come from the North or the South, the fate that the Sri Lanka Freedom Party suffered in 1977 has befallen the United National Party. The leader has proven to be a perennial loser, undertaking a foreign jaunt after each losing election. A rudderless boat is drifting in the murky and foggy waters of unpredictable Sri Lankan politics. 
The campaign undertaken by the ‘Reformists Group’, one-time led by Karu Jayasuriya and Sajith Premadasa, has fallen flat and Ranil Wickremesinghe has been entrenched in power of the UNP for at least another six years.

And it is in this background that the Government sought the assistance of the former LTTE media master to win the elections in the North. It is not only the Government that is politically bankrupt, the Opposition in the form of the United National Party too finds itself in a deep hole from which they seem utterly incapable of extricating itself. In the meantime the people of the North might be in a ready position to launch themselves into another showdown with the Government, this time on a much peaceful front-Provincial Council elections.

They cannot look to the South, for the South is too preoccupied with their own triumphalism and gullibility. They cannot look to the Government which they still consider to be their arch enemy. They may well rest with their own kind, ITAK. Sampanthan and Company will have their work cut out.

CEB auditing: Ganegala refutes Costa’s claim

Vasu’s attempt to discuss power tariff hike at Cabinet meeting fails

by Shamindra Ferdinando-April 25, 2013

CEB Chairman W. B. Ganegala yesterday denied Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) chief, Dr. Jayatissa Costa’s allegation that internal auditing was almost non-existent at the CEB.

Meanwhile, government sources said that National Languages and Social Integration Minister and General Secretary of the Democratic Left Front (DLF) Vasudeva Nanayakkara had on Wednesday night had asked for a meeting of Cabinet of ministers to discuss the power hike but in vain.

Dr. Costa alleged that waste, corruption and irregularities were rampant at the CEB due to the absence of team of internal auditors. The PUCSL Chief claimed that there were only six internal auditors for 18,000 workers.

Ganegala told The Island that every effort was being made to properly manage his institution.

Head of the Internal Audit Branch Mrs. Priyanmali Banduthilaka yesterday told The Island that her section comprised 52 persons including two deputies and 18 Audit Assistants (AA), though there were vacancies for 24 AAs.

Responding to a query, Banduthilaka said in spite of constraints her branch was playing an important role. Asked whether her section worked with the Auditor General’s Department, Mrs. Banduthilaka said that the AG’s representatives operated separately. The AG’s Department team comprising about 15 personnel, too, operated at the CEB, the official said.The CEB and PUCSL have been on a collision course over the recent unprecedented increase in electricity tariff with the latter alleging that mismanagement of the State enterprise, too, had contributed to the current crisis.

Meanwhile, government sources alleged that the electricity revision hadn’t been discussed at the Cabinet, though Cabinet spokesman media minister Keheliya Rambukwella on Wednesday said that it was a collective decision.

The Cabinet had met at Temple Trees for about 40 minutes, sources said, adding that the issue had not been taken up as President Rajapaksa had another appointment.

Well informed sources said JHU heavyweight, Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka had distributed a letter among members of parliament contradicting Power and Energy Minister Pavitra Wanniarachchi’s claim that the latest tariff increase had been proposed by him during his tenure as the minister in charge of the power and energy.

Excise Dept. officials ban sale of liquor to women

By Dinouk Colombage-2013-04-26 Members of the Excise Department have reportedly been travelling to supermarkets and taverns around the city seeking to enforce a previously unenforced law, which prevents the sale of liquor to women. According to the Nawala Keells branch manager, Camella Balasuriya, two members of the Excise Department had visited the store recently. They had reprimanded the sales attendant at the liquor counter when she attempted to sell alcohol to a lady. According to the Excise Act, Section 11.2, it is prohibited for a tavern to sell alcohol to personnel in uniform, underage people, people who are under the influence of alcohol, and women. Balasuriya explained she will have to write a letter to the Excise Department clarifying Keells is not classified as a tavern and as such does not come under this law. However, Commissioner General of the Excise Department, D.G.M.V. Hapuarachchi, denied any knowledge of such a law. "No, there is no law preventing the sale of liquor to women. If an establishment wishes to do so, they may do so at their own discretion." When asked about the alleged actions of the excise officers, he responded he would investigate the claims.