Supreme Court issues notice

By Stanley Samarasinghe-2013-04-30  The Supreme Court after considering an appeal filed by Attorney General (AG) Palitha Fernando against a judgment of the Court of Appeal today issued a notice on former Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake and Parliamentarians R. Sampanthan and Vijitha Herath, returnable on 29 May. Bench comprised Saleem Marsoof, and Justices Sathya Hettige, Eva Wanasundara. AG supporting the appeal submitted to court that the judgment was delivered by the Court of Appeal in favour of former Chief Justice Bandaranayake and issued writ of certiorari preventing the implementation of the Parliamentary Select Committee report. AG contended that according to Parliamentary Privilege Act no court can issue a writ or an order on Parliament and that judgement is a bad precedent. Even according to 140 of the constitution, the court cannot issue a writ or an order to Parliament and its activities. The removal of Supreme Court Judges on disciplinary action had been taken away from the court and entrusted to Parliament by Constitution, AG argued before the court. Any citizen of the country can file a petition of this nature as public interest litigation and request the court to declare this judgement null and void, AG submitted. Court ordered to submit written submission within 4 weeks and issued notice on former CJ and two Parliamentarians.(Ceylon Today Online)

Foreign intervention in Sri Lanka counterproductive: Peiris The HinduSri Lankan External Affairs Minister G. L. Peiris. File photo: V. Sudershan April 29, 2013 Foreign intervention in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs — such as the pursuit of social harmony — will be counterproductive, Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Minister G. L. Peiris said here on Monday. He was speaking at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies. The event marked the inauguration of a series of discussion on Sri Lanka’s National Policy on Social Integration. “We do not comment on the domestic affairs of other nations. We respect their sovereignty. Sri Lanka expects reciprocity in that regard,” he said.

Inflation to hit double digit soon

Tuesday, 30 April 2013 

Economists have said that inflation would hit the sensitive double-digit sooner than later due to the fuel and electricity price hikes.

According to the latest Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES 2009/10) undertaken by the Department of Census and Statistics, the average (mean) monthly household expenditure (nationally) was Rs.31,331; out of which Rs.18,064 (57.7%) was non-food expenditure. Out of the total non-food expenditure the second highest expenditure (after housing) is spent on transport. That is, on average, every household spends Rs. 2,317 (or 12.8% of the total non-food expenditure) for transport.

In addition, average monthly household expenditure on fuel and light is Rs. 1,278 or 7.1% of the total non-food expenditure. Thus, almost 20% of the non-food expenditure is spent on transport and fuel/light.

The foregoing figures are averages for the country as a whole and of course, there are differences between urban, rural, and estate areas, between different districts, and between different income groups.

According to economists, the 20% national average expenditure (out of the total non-food expenditure) for transport and fuel/light will have considerable impact on inflation. Inflation would hit the sensitive double-digit sooner than later due to the fuel and electricity price hikes, they have said.

REDUCING ELECTRICITY TARIFFS BY 20% WILL NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM

April 30, 2013 

The President has advised the Power and Energy Ministry to reduce the electricity tariff hike by 20%, the UNP claims, adding that increasing the tariff by 100% and then reducing it by 20% will make not solve the problem.

UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake stated that the President will announce tomorrow (May 1) at the May Day rally that he has directed the Ministry to reduce the tariff increase for bills under 150 units by 20%.

He said that the President, without attending the cabinet meetings, will throw the cabinet into the fire to score points with the public.

However, speaking at a press conference held in Colombo today (April 30), MP Attanayake said that increasing the tariff by 100% and then reducing it by 20% will not solve the issue as a further 80% will continue to burden the people.

He also pointed out that Minister Wimal Weerawansa will hold a separate rally tomorrow under the banner of the National Freedom Front while he has also made it compulsory for the employees of the National Housing Authority to participate in the rally.

Attanayake said that the government is forcing state workers to join its various rallies, bring them for the rallies in SLTB busses.

Vijaya Kumaratunga’s Life, Death And The Crisis In Governance In South Asia

By Pratap Bhanu Mehta-April 30, 2013

Prof Pratap Bhanu Mehta

Madam Chandrika Kumaratunga, distinguished friends and colleagues, I cannot tell you how deeply overwhelmed I am by this occasion.  I feel humbled that I have been asked to speak on as momentous an occasion as this, because what we are in a sense remembering today is not just a historical event.   When I think what characterizes Vijaya Kumaratunga’s life history is that like all great men who sort of touched peoples hearts, he was an event an historical event.  But he also becomes part of a memory, perhaps a suppressed memory.  But he has also become in a sense a metaphor, much larger than, as it were, than historical events that he participated in.  I feel humbled because of the school we are speaking in, is a very distinguished institution in Sri Lanka.

But above all else, I think I want to begin with this point.  Humbled by just the enormity of  what Vijaya Kumaratunga’s life and death reminds us about. I think we can’t even begin to imagine the courage and grace that is required to cope with the kind of loss that his untimely death must have represented not just for his family, but for millions of his fans, political followers and so forth.  What I propose to do in the next few minutes, is perhaps ask a question which I gathered from the quotations that we saw on the screen before I began speaking, and which  he wrestled with all his life.  I think anybody reflecting on Vijaya Kumaratunga’s life and death, cannot but help ask this question.

Why was this person who enacted so many screen plays; who brought so many stories to life;  who gave so many songs an utterance; Why was he unable to complete his own story? Sing his own song to its fullest; Bring his own screen play, to the conclusion that he desired? And then if you ask this question, you cannot help further asking a question, why is it that so many in South Asia, suffered the same fate? What was remarkable about the quotation that was put up there ; when he talks about the fact that when a road is built, we forget the workers.  We do not recognize whose pain and suffering has gone into  building that road. We are all too eager to sit in our comfortable cars and drive on it. But in that very simple quotation, I think he seems to have grasped what I would submit is I think  a fundamental challenge confronting all citizens of South Asia  The fundamental challenge was something that I think  his family, all his followers and fans have in a sense had to viscerally experience.  It can be described in one sentence.  Why is there such a conspiracy of silence around suffering in South Asia?  

States want to encourage that conspiracy of silence because any mention of suffering of any kind, seems to put a question mark on their legitimacy.  But we as citizens as well also in some ways participate in that conspiracy.  Because we say look, though we want to drop this veil of silence, we want to move on.  Let the past be the past.  Whether it is the suffering of  a labourer or whether it is the death of somebody in conflict ; whether it’s the injustice somebody has experienced. We also contribute to that conspiracy in our eagerness to move on, its a very understandable eagerness to move on!

But the fact remains, as we are seeing tonight, as we remember Vijaya Kumaratunga’s life, that even this well meaning attempt to draw a veil of silence over suffering in our midst, is a mere delusion.  It cannot be sustained for too long.  Because the facts come out, the suffering will break through, perhaps in a sad song, or worse perhaps, in violent rebellion.  The  question in a sense is, is it a wise strategy even amongst the well meaning  to pull that veil of silence over that kind of suffering. The one thing that I think is common to all South Asia’s  traditions, I am not a big scholar, but my little knowledge of the Mahavamsa or the Mahabharata, all those great epic texts, is that the central message they gave is everything we do, leaves a trace on this world and that trace cannot  be erased; that makes the world that we inhabit; that makes us who we are.  If we don’t confront what we do,  every single act thoughtfully, it will come back to haunt us in some way or the other.

I think somewhere in the songs and the quotations that we see from the Vijaya Kumaratunga’s life is that exhortation to thoughtfulness.  We can all disagree about many things. But  when you have a kind of cultural inheritance, I think it’s common to South Asian  in many ways, whose core teaching is, you cannot erase the effects of your actions, you cannot run away from them; you cannot throw a veil of  silence over them.  I think it is incumbent upon us, to ask this question or at least confront our own demons, not so that we are stuck in the past, but so that we can be liberated, to lead much more thoughtful lives as citizens.

Now my own view is that I think South Asia is at the cusp of a very exciting revolution. I think it’s a revolution that Vijaya Kumaratunga would have loved, had he lived. I think it’s a momentum of history that he would have liked to see.  But, the success of this revolution depends upon whether we, actually as citizens, recognize that this revolution is taking place.  Whether our political elites, and I am talking loosely of South Asia. Obviously there are differences between Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, but I think there are some common features.  Whether our political elites recognize what is this demand bubbling from below and can they  respond to that demand.

In this brief lecture I just want to mention three facets of this revolution and submit to you that if we thoughtfully understand the logic of these three facets, we can perhaps overcome the kinds of traps that we have been mired in.  South Asia is always described as the perpetually under achieving region  of the world! How can we overcome that sense of under achievement ? And the three facets that I want to touch upon are these.  I will make two or three points about Governance.  I will make a couple of points about the Nature of Our Politics and then a couple of points about South Asia’s Place in the Emerging Global Order. And I think these  three are intimately connected.

I think most of you would agree that across South Asia there is a general discourse where we all say that there is a governance crisis of some kind or  other.  It manifests itself in many different forms:  sometimes conflict; sometimes political paralysis; sometimes as it were the breakdown of institutions.  What is the root source of this crisis?

Now the first source of this crisis, in my of understanding of history, is that in all South Asian states despite all their differences, and I don’t want to minimize these differences, politics always has a local colour. But all our states inherited a certain architecture of governance and that architecture of governance is no longer adequate for the demands of the modern world.

Very briefly put that architecture of governance had four elements.  The first element was what you might call Vertical Accountability.  So how do we hold people accountable in our systems? You hold them accountable, to their boss: bureaucrats to minister, ministers to cabinet, cabinet to Prime Minister, something like that.  If we want change, if we want somebody punished we have to appeal to somebody above them to take action. So the principle of Vertical Accountability.

The second principle that bedevilled all our states was the principle of Relative Secrecy.  Decisions were taken in a relatively opaque manner. There is across the world this right to information revolution which is pressuring governments to make their own workings more transparent.  But when I mean information, I don’t just mean secrets, file notings: what did what minister say and about what subject.  That’s a relatively easy problem.  You can actually fix that by a good right to information law. But I also mean information in a deeper sense. Our states acquired power over us as citizens, because they had the knowledge advantage over us.  They are the ones who gave the measure of what society was going to be like.  The State is the one that gives you statistics: how many people are poor, how many people are educated and so forth.  The State was the producer of a certain form of knowledge.

What’s happened in the last 20 or 25 years?  Civil society’s capacity to generate knowledge, now far exceeds that of the state. If the state wants to suppress a fact, civil society in some way or the other, media or NGO or something, will uncover them.  Twenty years ago in India, if the state did not tell you that your air was polluted or your water was poisoned with arsenic, you didn’t know.  Now some NGO, civil society will tell you.    If the state didn’t tell you that your kids were actually not learning anything in school, some NGO will do their own measurement test and tell you.  So we are in the midst of a great revolution where instead of States taking a society’s measure, societies are beginning to find their own measures. And they are not liking what they are seeing!   So Relative Secrecy is the second principle; this asymmetry of information between state and civil society.

The third principle which is again common to all our states, with some variation was, we had relatively Centralized Systems. We have never ever quite implemented the subsidiarity principle, which talks about what function should be performed, at what level of the state quite appropriately.

The last principle of the state was very Wide Discretion. In all democracies, governments need discretion, otherwise you could have robots running a system.  I am not one of those who believes that governments don’t require discretionary power. But the exercise of that discretionary power has to be justified, to all those who are going to be affected by those decisions. 

Now the one revolution that we are witnessing in South Asia is that any state that wants to govern on these four old principles, is going to find it difficult to govern for very long. Not that these principles are mutually reinforcing, Centralization, secrecy and vertical accountability all go together. Wide discretion where you don’t  have to justify what you do, in terms of public reason and public reason has a specific meaning. Will that decision be justified to all those who are affected by it? These principles formed an interlocking old regime of the state. What states are finding, whether in Pakistan, Bangladesh India perhaps in Sri Lanka as well,is  if your administrative practices presume these old principles you will not be able to govern effectively.

Instead of Vertical Accountability, citizens now want Horizontal Accountability.  They are directly participating, demanding accountability for services.  As we saw in Delhi, just literally, over night, a social media movement  has led to changing laws. So instead of vertical we want horizontal accountability. Instead of secrecy, we want not just transparency as it is narrowly understood, but we also want government to take into account all this information that civil society is generating. Government cannot just bury its head in the sand and say this information doesn’t exit.

Instead of Centralization, we want more of Participatory Governance.  You cannot have participatory societies without participatory governance.  When discretion is exercised, when a government takes a decision, it has to justify it to the satisfaction of those who are affected by it. Any state which now doesn’t understand that the old game is up and believe me states are trying to govern by the old game. Old habits diehard.  They are going to find it very difficult to govern without conflict and without violence.  I think, if our political establishments, our civil society leaders, our religious leaders, if they understood, that there is a new order in the making from below, I think they would respond to it a bit more intelligently rather than  go in for suppression.  So that’s on the State.

On politics I will just mention two things which I think are particularly important, again part of this revolution.  Now being a politician I think is the hardest job in the world. For all our criticisms of politicians  and so forth, it’s an extraordinarily difficult job, catering to demands of constituents and so on and so forth.  But the single biggest challenge a politician has to face is the following :-

Politicians derive their legitimacy from the people, they are a kind of social glue. They are what keep societies together.  How do politicians know what the people want ? What is this thing called Public Opinion that politicians are supposedly responding to ?    My humble submission to you is one of the reasons  we are seeing this kind of new complexity in South Asian politics, is that as you get economic growth, as you get the rise of a new middle class; as you get this expansion of aspirations;  large social changes, it is becoming harder and harder to tell any simple story about what it is that people want.

Often the story we get about what is public opinion is a semi-manufactured story.  A small group goes and protests, we think that is public opinion. Maybe, it is so, maybe its not, maybe its just a small group organizing.  Media gets up and says this is public opinion. We all say that is public opinion.  The peculiar quality of public opinion is  that  public opinion  is self-fulfilling.  If everybody thinks that is public opinion, it actually becomes public opinion!  So it is really a big challenge for us as societies;  How do we articulate public opinion in a way in which it actually reflects the true character of the conversations that we are having.  That is important because otherwise public opinion will be hijacked!  It will be hi-jacked by demagogic politicians. It will be hi-jacked by small groups.

In the introduction as was rightly pointed out, one of the admirable things about Vijaya Kumarataunga was that he was a person of conviction. And there is a line from Yeats that we use in India a lot, about describing our current   predicament. Where we say, “the worst are full of passionate intensity but the best lack all conviction”!  But one of the reasons I think the best in our democratic politics  lack all conviction or appear to lack all conviction is they are very unsure of their ground.  So how do we actually ascertain what this public opinion is, in a very very complex world, much more complex than many years ago?

The second danger, puzzle, in our politics, is as we navigate  this complex transition, in  governance, in politics, in our identities. It is very easy to be tempted by a certain kind of impatience with democratic politics. And that impatience usually manifests itself in an impatience with institutions.  In India, we hear that all the time.  I mean,  Institutions are slowing down growth. Some very successful chief ministers are ones that have actually by-passed lots of institutions!  But the fact of the matter is, you cannot govern in a diverse society for long without a respect for institutions.  If you want to understand the contemporary predicament in our countries in all our countries, I think the most interesting readings are not what contemporary social scientists write. One needs to go back to the great histories of the Roman Republic; the great histories of the decline of Rome.  One of the common features you’ll find there is that it’s not economic decline, it’s not cultural decline. It is in a sense the moment where societies come to treat their institutions as mere instruments of somebody’s will, that societies become most vulnerable to long term decline. 

I am just quoting a passage from the  great German historian Heinrich  Meyer from a biography of Julius Caesar.  This passage will remind you of so many South Asian politicians, It certainly reminds me of Indira Gandhi, very vividly, and many other State leaders.  Heinrich Meyer describes Caesar as, being insensitive to political institutions and to the way they operate.  He was unable to see them as autonomous entities. He could see them only as instruments of his power or as instruments in an interplay of forces. He had no feeling for the power of institutions, to guarantee law and safety. But he had only feelings for what he found troublesome about them!  In Caesar’s eyes no one existed or no institution existed, except if it was useful as it were for him  “The people were not the people; they were either supporters or opponents. The scene was thus denuded of any impersonal institutions; and politics became a fight for the leader’s own rights”.  This authoritarian temptation is very prevalent in South Asian politics. I don’t think it represents the majority public opinion. But when you have the best lacking all conviction, you can see the temptation to have things as it were as politicians speak things up.  So how do we move the equilibrium back to  a political culture which understands  institutions. It is going to be the second big challenge of democracy.  Public opinion and Institutions are the two backbones of democracy if you get these two wrong, everything else follows. 

The third feature of our political,  predicament is the following. And again this is true of all across South Asia.  Our politics are very complex. They have to deal with social and economic change and so forth. But somewhere over all our politics hovers the shadow of what I call the Tyranny of Compulsory Identities.  This is the way in which we construct our societies and the way in which we construct our identity politics. Even amongst the well intentioned, really in a sense, it darkens all the kind of exuberant vision that Vijaya Kumaratunga  talked about.

What are the elements of this complex that I call Tyranny of Compulsory Identities.  The first element is that Identity is Compulsory.  We can never escape the identity we have. Valets will remain valets, Brahmins will remain Brahmins.   There is nothing you can do to escape it.  The second element of this tyranny of compulsory identities, is we think of politics as competition between communities.  So the good politicians are the ones that keep the balance between the communities and the bad politicians are the ones that gives one community more power over others.  But the fundamental mistake is not, whether you keep the balance or whether you go for majoritarian domination; obviously balance, is preferable than majority domination.  The fundamental mistake is, why should politics be constructed in a way where it is seen as a competition between communities.  Because that will always be an unstable equilibrium and so we’ve ended up with this paradox, where every community in South Asia, literally there isn’t a single one that violates this rule feels itself a victim. Majority communities in India feel they are victims.

Every community feels that their identity is constantly under assault and been threatened by something.  How did we produce this psychological syndrome? The tragedy is that in this politics of victim hood, which comes from this emphasis on compulsory identities, real victims always become invisible. The veil of silence is about those who actually suffer; those who actually toil.  So how do we create a post-Identity politics, and I am saying that post- Identities are important to people. You cannot build a just society if people feel humiliated simply for being who they are.  But the, promise of a democratic society is that those identities do no matter for the rights you have, those identities are freely chosen. Those identities  inhabit in a sense,  private spaces. 

Now it is very easy and all governments in South Asia since 1905 have been using the same sentence, “you know we promise equal rights for all”. But promising equal rights requires building credible structures of trust.  The only way you can do that is through institutions. That’s one of the reasons why institutions matter. They are  a kind of artificial form of trust.  I don’t have to trust you, but I can trust the law.  I don’t have to trust you, but I know that the structure of electoral politics is such that my interests will be safeguarded.  So unless we are honest about understanding that the syndrome of compulsory identity is a constant temptation for politicians in all our countries.  Its created a trap that is inhibiting us, in some sense is   suffocating us. And it is really ironic that it is South Asia that has created this kind of ubiquitous identity trap. Because again, the one common element of our shared legacy is, the self is always larger than who you are.   You can always be somebody other than who you are, somebody bigger than who you are.  I can’t think of any philosophical culture that has so in a textured way, made the boundaries of a self so permeable in fact almost made it non- existent in some ways, that that civilization should now be trapped in narrow narcissism. Its completely inexplicable. So we have to get over it.

The last and final set of issues,  I’ll end this very briefly, is I think we also have to come to terms with South Asia’s place in the world.  We are all products of  anti-colonial movements. The one legacy that those anti-colonial movements have still left with us, or perhaps we have renewed them combined with this focus on identity politics, is by and large we still see the outside world  as a threat rather than as an opportunity.   Of course there will be forces who are trying to compete and bring our countries down. This is part of global history, world civilization. But  by and large the world is rooting for South Asia.  It’s the one zone of great power and agreement in some ways. The world also knows that if South Asia doesn’t get it right, there is no future for humanity. So unless we begin by saying, look we have to be prudent, sure there are some technical issues here and there, but fundamentally, we have to trust ourselves, that the world is an opportunity and not a threat, We must  liberate ourselves from our narrow horizons.  If you see the whole world as a conspiracy against you, nothing is more disabling than that. Nothing takes your agency away or more than this idea that everybody else is ganging up on.  If you want to exercise agency you say okay here’s opportunity out there let me see what I can do.

The second aspect of South Asia’s place in the world is there was this brief moment in South Asian history I would say 1920’s to may be the 1950’s  again across Sri Lanka, India, now Pakistan, and  Bangladesh,  where the big achievement of South Asian thinking was, that it genuinely wanted to join the stream of global history.  Its critique  of the West was not your exercising power over us and so forth. Its critique of the West was, we want to create a deeper and more authentic universality that is not based on tenets of power.  I think the biggest intellectual failure in South Asia,  there are lots of examples of that. We often say the UN Declaration of Human Rights is a Western document. Nothing could be further from the truth!  Read the accounts of the negotiations of the drafting of the UNDHR and the role actually two women Vijaya Laxshmi  Pundit and Hansa Mehta  played in its drafting.  India was the original non-sovereignist power in the United Nations because it wanted Apartheid  to be an issue that  the global conscience of mankind should confront.  So as a civilization we had acquired that confidence  even despite colonialism  that we want to shape  the moral currents of history.

We wanted to be at the cutting edge of moral progress, not be in this defensive position where we always feel we have been assaulted upon, found short. That project somehow disappeared. We drew these shutters and retreated into a certain kind of defensiveness. Certainly all of us have quite a bit to be defensive about. But the response to our problems cannot be not recognizing  the fundamental fact that, there is a common conscience of mankind that has evolved; after all slavery has been abolished. Apartheid has been abolished. That is tending towards reinstating the core principle of  the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which is the dignity of every individual.  It is something Vijaya Kumaratunga said, again very sharply comes across, in all the quotations that he in some ways uses.  So I like to submit to you, but I think South Asia is at this moment for the first time in recent history, that it can overcome all these demons.

My confidence comes from the fact that, if you talk to young people, even if they do not articulate it, they are ready for a paradigm shift in our politics.  From old administrative practices to new administrative practices; from identities being prisons, to identities being  freely chosen. And from looking upon the world as a  place they can go out and conquer, I am using conquer metaphorically, rather than as a place that  is beating them down and keeping them in that place. I think nothing would perhaps serve Vijaya Kumaratunga’s memory better than if he had actually seized the promise of this moment; all our elites,  political, bureaucratic, civil, military, and recognize that South Asia can now move beyond  being a perpetual under achiever. That we can create a civilization that lives like Vijaya Kumaratunga’s will not be cut short by political violence; that each of us gets to write our own story, sing our own song and  enjoy the exuberance which so manifestly comes out in his movies but which is alas so much at variance  with the politics we experience.

Thank you.

*Prof. Pratap Bhanu Mehta is the President & CEO of the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. His Speech on “The Crisis in Governance in, South Asia”  Commemorating the 25^th Anniversary of the Death of Vijaya Kumaratunga – Delivered on 27^th February 2013 at Bishops College Auditorium in  Colombo

A Case for Best Legal Brains - Editorial

TUESDAY, 30 APRIL 2013 

A picture on Yesterday’s Daily Mirror front page where a police officer was saluting the controversial UPFA parliamentarian Duminda Silva at his residence and the picture’s table head ‘Can you Believe it’ raised grave questions with regard to public confidence in the independence of the police force and the  judiciary.
For more than 19 months since October 2011 since the Presidential Trade Union advisor Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra was killed during an election day brawl with several people, allegedly including Mr. Silva, we have heard conflicting and contradictory stories about what happened and who did what.

Of course Mr. Premachandra was killed, but one of the biggest political mysteries if not disgraceful episodes in Sri Lanka was, about the role of MP in the incident. Media reports and government leaders claimed Mr. Silva suffered serious brain injuries during the Kolonnawa shoot out and was treated at a top Singapore hospital for more than 17 months. He was given leave by Parliament and when the case came up at different courts, lawyers for Mr. Silva submitted certificates from medical specialists claiming he had suffered serious brain injuries and was not fit to be present at the Court.

Amidst confusing and conflicting reports, Mr. Silva suddenly returned to Sri Lanka in February this year was taken on a wheel chair to the airport gate and from there in an ambulance to the Nawaloka hospital. When a bail application came up in courts, lawyers for Mr. Silva claimed he was still suffering from serious brain injuries and could not come to courts. They sought bail for him but the courts refused and prison guards were placed outside the hospital ward. This meant Mr. Silva was in remand custody with his lawyers and others saying he could not even speak.

After the recent mass transfer of District judges and Magistrates by the judicial Services Commission headed by Chief Justice 44 Mohan Peiris—transfers which the Bar Association of Sri Lanka has claimed were largely on personal or political ground—Mr. Silva was given bail last Wendesday. Court officials went to hospital for Mr. Silva to sign his bail application.  On Saturday Mr. Silva left hospital not on a wheel chair or an ambulance but walking like a fully fit man. He was welcomed by a huge crowd who had been brought to the hospital area in buses. Buns and packets of milk were given to the people, in addition to fireworks and all that.

A private radio channel sent an sms claiming Mr. Silva had recovered miraculously. Mr. Silva later went to meet President  Rajapaksa - their first meeting since October 2011.    

With the abolition of the 17th Amendment some years ago, the Independent Police Commission was also scrapped and the Police Department has been politicised to a large extent with rampant corruption, creating a crisis where few people except ruling party politicians, have confidence in the police to act fairly and justly.
Now the Rajapaksa regime is also trying to slowly kill the independence of the judiciary in a manner that will lead to a breakdown in the rule of law, with anarchy raising its horrible head.

If people are losing confidence in the police and also in the Courts’ process, we are in danger of becoming not the miracle of Asia, but the muddle and political mud hole.

Duminda Gets The Last Laugh?

By Malinda Seneviratne -April 30, 2013 

Malinda Seneviratne

Duminda Silva, MP (UPFA) is something else.  First he was accused of murdering ex-UPFA MP Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra.  He was supposed to have sustained severe gunshot injuries and was said to have been fighting for his life while the funeral rites were being administered on Premachandra. Then he was whisked out of the country, purportedly for treatment.  Then he returned – straight to hospital.  Stories were circulated to the effect that he was recovering – slowly.  Doctors and lawyers stood for him, trotting out reasons that warranted continued hospitalization. Then he was granted bail.  Was this for lack of evidence to warrant continued ‘incarceration’ (note quotation marks)? Did the AG’s Department solicit further information from the Police? We don’t know. He walks out of hospital, in the best of health. He brags about returning to politics and claims he is fullyy recovered.  There are no scars to be seen. A miracle in plastic surgery, perhaps?  He is laughing and that is no crime.  If he is innocent, then he could laugh even louder.  But if there is something called circumstantial evidence, then either the circumstances or the evidence appear to be fishy (putting it mildly here) with respect to health and healing.  If justice should be done AND seem to be done, then much is being revealed.  Duminda Silva seems to be having the last laugh (for now) but will he laugh the longest and the loudest? But time is long and so too the arm of the law.

R. Duminda Silva’s underworld connections by Bharatha Lakshman

Part – 1

Part – 2

Part – 3

Part – 4

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of ‘The Nation’ and his articles can be found at www.malindawords.blogspot.com

MP Duminda Silva released on bail makes a beeline to Temple trees to meet the dirty deity who performed the miracle cure

Lanka-e-News-29.April.2013,11.00PM) Duminda Silva the prime suspect in  the Bharatha Lakshman murder who, according to his brother Renodha Silva’s media had been cured miraculously went home as a free man before the rudely shocked citizens of the country. 

A large number of Duminda’s cronies and supporters who were summoned to the Nawaloka Hospital greeted him when he was walking out of the hospital. The ABC media chain belonging to Renoda Silva , via sms messages revealed yesterday that Duminda Silva the murder suspect will be leaving the hospital at 11.15 in the forenoon last 27th .

Duminda Silva who returned to SL after one and half years from Singapore , and supposedly highly vulnerable to infection , and therefore was not even produced before court , walked without any difficulty today amidst the stampeding crowds . Duminda Silva who spoke to the media said , before everything , he will be going to the Temple Trees to meet the President to get his blessings , meaning that his so called ‘miraculous’ cure was not due to god but due to the ‘miracle performed’ by his boss (the President), the dirty deity of dirty followers .

Be that as it may , what is most significant in this monumental play acting in this melodrama is the profusion of lies told by the mendacious Rajapakse regime to deceive the people , going by these photographs herein.

The Rajapakses who appointed an internationally notorious liar from the Temple Trees backyard to the post of chief justice got down Duminda Silva from Singapore. Thereafter, a photo of Duminda was produced to the court depicting surgical operation scars on Duminda’s head , which was also given to the media. The photos herein are those. 

Subsequently , today , Duminda Silva posed for photographs for the first time and several photos of his head can be seen herein which does not bear any scars belying the previous doctored photos.. Accordingly , the photographs that were produced to court earlier on is that of the ’Gajini’ film scene , it is widely believed.

A media personnel speaking to Lanka e news having a hearty laugh over the fake drama and doctored photos said , anyone who designed these make ups and fakes must be awarded a prize.

Following the granting of bail by the Colombo magistrate court to Duminda Silva , M.P. the 11th suspect in the murder of Presidential advisor Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and three others , Duminda Silva placed his signature on the bail application 26th morning while being at Nawaloka hospital , Colombo. 

The Registrar of Magistrate court No. 09 arrived at the Nawaloka hospital with the bail application to obtain Duminda Silva’s signature. Duminda Silva signed the application while his father Vincent Premalal Silva and his younger brother Prabodha Silva signed the surety bails. PC Hemantha Warnakulasooriya , Senior Counsels Weerasena Ranahewa, Premasiri Perera and Hansadewa Samaradiwakara were also present on the scene .

Hitherto , the lawyers of Duminda Silva told court with a medical specialist report that the suspect was in a most critical condition . The medical specialist report was given by a Doctor by the name of Ratwatte residing at Mirihana . Based on that Silva was not produced before the court. The judge also visited the hospital and confirmed it. 

However ,as the suspect signed the bail application he is supposed to have got cured , as stated by his elder brother who describes it as a miracle. In any case the residence of this so called specialist Doctor Ratwatte cannot be traced.

A supporter of Late Bharatha Lakshman speaking to Lanka e news said, to perform all these spurious dramas and comedy acts , it must be Bharatha Lakshman’s wife who is giving advice to the President Mahinda Rajapakse ; and it is Baratha Lakshman ‘s daughter who must be proffering advice to Namal Rajapakse , for Baratha ‘s wife is under the President as his advisor , and at every function of Baratha ‘s daughter , it is Namal who is the chief guest. This is therefore a justifiable conclusion , the supporter added.

Lanka e news always first with the news and best with the views was the first to expose that when Duminda Silva was in Nawaloka hospital he had no paralytic ailment below the waist.

Please await more succulent news related by a member of the security intelligence division to Lanka e news pertaining to Duminda Silva.

Alberta jail guard union fined, found in contempt of court

Union fined $100K, other striking workers ordered back to work

Apr 29, 2013

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees has been fined $100,000 after it was found in civil contempt of court for ignoring a back-to-work order issued Saturday to striking correctional officers.

In his ruling issued Monday around 10:30 p.m. MT, Associate Chief Justice John Rooke said that the fine would rise to $250,000 if the strike does not end by noon on Tuesday; the fine goes up to $500,000 if workers are still off the job on Wednesday, and each day after that.

The $100,000 fine is to be paid immediately. "Banks are open tomorrow, last I checked," the judge remarked.

AUPE did not do enough to instruct workers to end the strike, the judge ruled. He said that union leaders were "sarcastic" and "mocking' in their comments about the court order.

Rooke also ordered the union to remove all online material posted in support of the strike.

The strike started on Friday afternoon when officers represented by AUPE walked off the job at the Edmonton Remand Centre.

The Alberta Labour Relations Board ruled that the strike was illegal and ordered the officers back to work. But the guards remained off the job and were joined on Monday by sheriffs, court staff, probation workers and social workers.

After a hearing that also took place Monday evening, the Alberta Labour Relations Board issued a cease-and-desist order to the other striking workers and ordered them back to work.

AUPE sent a news release late Monday stating that it would "carefully review" the court ruling.

“We need to evaluate it very carefully and consider our legal options,” said AUPE president Guy Smith. The news release said the union would not comment any further.

'Even one day of this will bring this system to its knees.'—Lawyer Deborah Hatch

The widening strike slowed court proceedings in much of the province, which will be forced to adjourn cases if the work stoppage at several correctional facilities continues much longer.

"It seems very chaotic inside the courthouse," said Deborah Hatch, past president of the Criminal Trials Lawyers' Association outside the Edmonton court building. "It's absolutely not business as usual. We don't have the people we need to function.

Sheriffs set up a picket line at the Calgary Courts Centre Monday morning. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)

"Even one day of this will bring this system to its knees."

Social workers in the province are also walking off the job in support of correctional officers, who say they share similar issues as the guards.

"We want to show our solidarity with [Edmonton Remand Centre] and their occupational health and safety issues," said Alberta Union of Provincial Employees local spokeswoman Shamanthi Cooray.

Social workers will join picketers at jails across the province, she said.

The strike is costing the province $1.2 million a day to have RCMP, Edmonton and Calgary police officers take over security in the affected facilities.

Officer swarmed by inmates

The illegal strike began Friday afternoon when guards from Edmonton's new $580 million remand centre — which is the largest in Canada — refused to report for duty citing concerns for personal safety in the facility.

The guards are also angry that two of their colleagues were suspended for speaking out.

Todd Ross is one of the two guards who were suspended after they spoke out about safety concerns in the remand centre. The walkout occurred partly in response to the suspension. (CBC)

Todd Ross, one of the suspended guards, says he was placed on a leave of absence with pay on Friday after he wrote to the director of the remand centre and a deputy minister about workplace safety.

"It came to a head when [the remand centre executive director] decided to walk me out in front of 70 oncoming correctional officers," Ross said.

"And he walked me past those and they went into their muster and decided not to go into work and come out and join me on the street."

Ross said a junior officer had a terrifying experience at the new facility, which just began receiving inmates two weeks ago.

"The officer that's on there with only seven months' experience was basically swarmed by 72 guys wanting their canteen and was told to get off the unit," Ross said. The officer made it out safely.

"I have 28 years experience," Ross said. "I am at a loss to tell you, with all my experience, how I would have handled that particular situation. That is unacceptable for this government to put anyone in that predicament."

Ross, who is the head of the remand centre union local, believes he will be fired following an investigation for sending the emails, unless he and the other workers are granted amnesty.

Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk claimed that the current unrest was caused by someone "not liking their boss."

He again repeated that occupational health and safety officers have deemed the facility safe and that the union signed off on a hazard assessment last month.

“I would be the last person to send someone to work knowing that the workplace is unsafe,” Lukaszuk said.

No workers have yet been fined, he said, but he hoped that workers would obey the law and return to work.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford has yet to make a public statement on the situation. Lukaszuk said that it would be inappropriate for her to get involved.

“Premier should not, and would not, get involved in negotiating issues with unions directly,” he said.

Stalemate between union and government

Inmates were moved from the old remand centre in downtown Edmonton earlier this month, shortly after the government brushed off concerns raised by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees about unresolved safety problems at the new centre.

The jail is built around the concept of direct supervision, where there are no barriers separating guards from the majority of the prisoners, which is supposed to allow for better rapport.

The strike reached a stalemate over the weekend after a war of words between Lukaszuk and AUPE.

While the high-tech centre relies heavily on closed-circuit TV allowing inmates to make court appearances remotely, one inmate told CBC News the people backfilling the striking guards do not know how to use the equipment.

The province is hoping to use police and RCMP to replace the sheriffs and transport inmates to and from the court.

"We believe that we will be able to ensure that the right prisoners, the right individuals, get delivered to the right courts across the province so that the justice system will continue to operate," said deputy solicitor general Tim Grant.

Can only do so much

About 40 Edmonton police officers were filling in for sheriffs Monday morning at the Edmonton courthouse while about 45 officers helped staff the Calgary courthouse.

Calgary police Duty Insp. Rick Tuza said that while police are prepared to help out, they can only do so much.

"For us to effectively take over all of the security roles that the sheriffs are responsible for, I think would be a huge undertaking," he said. "We have a responsibility to police the city."

RCMP officers and managers are replacing the jail guards at eight correctional facilities across Alberta.

Edmonton remand inmate Colin Struth said inmates are working with the RCMP replacement workers, trying to get through what he calls tough times.

"Lots of guys aren't getting their medication, life-threatening medication," he said. "The nurses won't cross the picket lines.

"They're on a skeleton crew there. They haven't given us clean underwear in four days."

One inmate was taken to hospital after a fight broke out at the Calgary Remand Centre around 10 p.m. Sunday.

The victim was taken to hospital in life-threatening condition, but has improved.

The walkout has led the Health Sciences Association of Alberta — which includes pharmacists, pharmacy assistants, addictions counsellors and paramedics — to refuse to report to work over what they consider unsafe work conditions.