‘I’m not a politician, I only wish to serve my suffering people’

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Well-known for his fiery speeches since retiring from the Supreme Court in 2004 and now stepping into the court of politics, as the TNA’s Chief Ministerial candidate for the upcoming NPC election, Justice Wigneswaran shares little known aspects of his life with Namini Wijedasa

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He may have made a career out of music, had his mother not pushed him to study Law. Canagasabapathy Viswalingam Wigneswaran is still an accomplished sitar player. The retired Supreme Court Judge was, last week, named Tamil National Alliance’s (TNA) Chief Ministerial (CM) candidate for the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) election.

“My mother was the one important cause for me to take up Law, because that was such a passion on her part,” smiled Justice Wigneswaran, at his residence in Cambridge Terrace, Colombo 7. “But there is another interesting story.”

If his mother had not pushed him in the legal line Justice Wigneswaran could very well have been a sitarist. Pic by Nilan Maligaspe

While waiting for the results of an important school examination, his mother, Athynayaki, visited a Buddhist priest in Kolonnawa, who was renowned for his astrological predictions. She showed him her son’s chart and asked him whether the boy would pass his test.

“Mey apey lamayekda?” (Is he one of our children?) the priest had asked.

‘I’m not a politician, I only wish to serve my suffering people’ by nelvely

TNA’s Choices: Justice Wigneswaran For NPC; No, Thanks, To PSC

By Rajan Philips -July 21, 2013 

Rajan Philips

The TNA’s choice of retired Supreme Court Judge C.V. Wigneswaran as candidate for Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council is a good political example of that trite management phrase: ‘thinking outside the box’.  If all goes according to plan, Justice Wigneswaran will be literally landing from outside the box into Lanka’s political fray. The choice and its anticipated outcome throws open a wide range of possibilities. I think this is the first time a retired Supreme Court Judge will be running for an elected office in Sri Lanka.  This is also the first time a high-profile candidate would be contesting a Provincial Council election after Chandrika Kumaratunga’s successful venture in the 1994 Southern Provincial Council election.

The TNA made another choice last week. It chose not to participate in the government’s latest parliamentary select committee exercise. If someone did not understand the meaning of the maxim that one cannot fool all the people all the time, the PSC is a good example of it. The example also shows that those who try to fool others all the time ultimately end up fooling themselves. President Rajapaksahas exhausted everyone with his ‘shape koraladanne’ politics and parliamentary select committee mechanism. He was knavishly expecting the TNA to naively become party to a PSC process that has been ‘exclusively set up’ to manufacture ‘consensus’ for either severely diluting or totally repealing the 13th Amendment. The TNA like everyone else who has listened to the President’s promises was not going to be fooled anymore.

The President made his usual appeal to New Delhi to persuade the TNA to join the PSC and even managed to briefly meet with TNA leader, R. Sambanthan, after standing him up for almost over an year. The TNA politely said, ‘no, thank you,’ and made the counter but positive move of its own by nominating Justice Wigneswaran for the Northern Provincial Council election. Regardless of the electoral considerations, the choice is objectively positive on a number of counts.

Representation and Provincial Councils   Read More

Japan hopes for fair poll

July 19, 2013

Japan says it will support the conduct of free and fair elections in the Northern, North Western and Central Provincial Councils.

The Japanese government appreciates the initiative taken by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in directing the Elections Commissioner to conduct elections in the north, in pursuit of realizing the recommendation of the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission, the Japanese Embassy in Colombo said.

The Japanese Embassy said the election would be a milestone for the Government of Sri Lanka in the process of national reconciliation.

The Embassy today announced that Japan has decided to provide US$ 88,667 (approximately Rs. 11.4 million) in grant aid for “The Project for Mobilization of the Citizenry to Participate in the Electoral Process to Strengthen Democracy,” with a view to conducting voter education in the Northern Province and election monitoring in the three upcoming provincial council elections under its Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP).

“Supporting the efforts of the Government of Sri Lanka to strengthen democracy, this project is aimed at encouraging local people in the North to exercise their first-ever franchise at provincial level since 1988 and to ensure the conduct of free and fair elections for Northern, North Western and Central Provincial Councils,” .

Under this project, the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), an election monitoring organization will organize election-related activities in a neutral manner. Backed by its vast expertise since 1987, PAFFREL will conduct programs to educate voters in the Northern Province on voting and the system of provincial council and deploy election observers in each polling station in the three provinces. Furthermore, it will also engage with the training of these observers working as immediate guardian of people’s political rights. Collaborating with Japan for the seventh time, PAFFREL also conveys to people Japan’s determination to support the consolidation of peace in Sri Lanka.

The Japanese Embassy noted that under the leadership of Yasushi Akashi, Representative of the Government of Japan on Peace-Building, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Sri Lanka, Japan has been encouraging the national reconciliation process in Sri Lanka.

In March, 2013, President Rajapaksa visited Japan and during his meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, he expressed his strong commitment to hold an election for the Northern Provincial Council.

Recognizing these elections entirely as domestic processes, Japan hopes that its electoral assistance would reach people at grass-roots level without any prejudice through PAFFREL and ensure inclusive participation of local people.

Japan also expects that this project would further enhance the efforts of the Government of Sri Lanka to conduct the elections in a free and fair manner, devoid of election violence, thereby building people’s confidence in freedom of expression and their participation in the democratic political process in the country.

The Grant Contract between Nobuhito Hobo, Ambassador of Japan and Rohana Hettiarachchie, Executive Director, PAFFREL, was signed today at the Ambassador’s residence in Colombo in the presence of Jezima Ismail, Chairperson of PAFFREL. (Colombo Gazette)

VIDEO: GOVT HOPING TO BUY TAMIL VOTE BY IMPROVING LIVING STANDARDS - NIRJ DEVA

July 20, 2013 

The Sri Lankan government is hoping that by working very hard and expending vast resources to improve the living standards of the people in the North and East that they will get away with the problem of sharing political power, says a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). 

Sri Lankan-born Niranjan Devaadithya, also known as Nirj Deva, stated that government hopes they can “buy” the affection and the goodwill and the electoral vote of the Tamil people by improving their living standards. 

It is a strategy and it might work, he told Ada Derana, in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the visit by the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with the Countries of South Asia. 

However, Devaadithya conceded that he does not know how much the bitterness and depth of feeling about not having representation is and that to him the Tamil people in the country are equal to everybody else. 

“So to me this is not an issue, but if I was living in the North I don’t know how you feel,” he said.    

He stated that this raises another question of whether the ordinary Tamil people living in the North and East really care about who is making the decisions and whether it is a small number of elites in the North who are making this great point whereas the vast majority of people in the North want to have a good home, good education for their children, food in their stomachs and equality of opportunity. 

“It could be a breakdown in this political structure,” he pointed out.     

The government of Sri Lanka, having won the fight against terrorism, has spent an enormous amount of money reconstructing the North and the East, the politician from the United Kingdom said. 

It is a strategy to win the hearts and minds of the Tamil and Muslim people in the North, to the concerns the government has to increase their welfare, he said. 

“But I think the government also needs to understand that they can increase the welfare and spend money but they will not necessarily get the support of the Tamil people wholeheartedly unless they recognize that the Tamil people themselves have had a sense of grievance that there emotional, cultural and political needs have not been fully appreciated in the South,” the MEP said.    

“It’s not an ethnic issue. It’s an issue more of displacement, of not having a substantial voice,” he opined.  

He stated that the government also needs to recognize that the Tamils and Muslim people in the North must have some area of self-control in their own little area of land in a “unitary state”. 

Mr Devaadithya said he believes the problem will go away if Sri Lanka can come up with a solution like having a Senate, with a two-chamber assembly where the representations of the minorities can be more representative in the second chamber, or a similar construction.  

He also stated that these concerns about the 13th Amendment, about land and police powers are legitimate concerns. “Because I have seen what’s happened in Scotland.”

A member of the Conservative Party, Nirj Deva has been a Member of the European Parliament representing South East England since 1999. 

He was previously a Member of Parliament (MP) in the British House of Commons from 1992 to 1997, representing the constituency of Brentford and Isleworth.

He stressed that there are great dangers in shifting powers, which should be done carefully, and that in a small country like Sri Lanka it’s far better to pool political authority in the center and share it in the center. 

As Others See Us: The View From Sri Lanka

By David Leask -July 20, 2013 |

David Leask

He’s adored by breakaway movements across the globe and – publicly or privately – loathed by their enemies.

An international statesman, he has inspired demands for freedom plebiscites, most recently in Catalunya after telling Spain rulers “to let the people decide”.

Meet David Cameron, world separatist pin-up.

The British prime minister may seem an unlikely nationalist hero on these shores.

But internationally his Edinburgh Agreement with Scottish counterpart Alex Salmond is often seen as Britain “allowing” Scots a vote on their destiny.

And that, in many places, is simply revolutionary.

Take Sri Lanka. Its government back in 2009 defeated a go-it-alone statelet in the Tamil-dominated north of the island after a war that lasted a quarter of a century and cost perhaps 100,000 lives.

Now the bitterly divided island state is trying to figure out some kind of long-term fix. Some have mooted devolution. This delights mainstream Tamil opinion. And horrifies some in Sinhalese-dominated government circles in the capital, Colombo.

Suren Surendiran speaks for the Global Tamil Forum, an international diaspora organisation set up after the war and describing itself as backing a “non-violent” negotiated settlement on the island.

London-based, he says educated Tamils see Scottish parallels.                   Read More

Can Power, silent on Sri Lanka genocide, redeem herself in UN, asks Boyle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 July 2013, 00:50 GMT]
The Director of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights of the U.S. National Security Council, Samantha Power, who has been nominated for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has been attending a Senate hearing on the nomination this week where she has been forcefully advocating action to stop “the grotesque atrocities being carried out by the Assad regime,” Washington media reported. Professor Boyle, pointing out Power's conspicuous silence during the killing of Tamil civilians reaching genocidal proportions by the Sri Lanka military, said that Power now has a chance to "redeem" herself by establishing an International Criminal Tribunal for Sri Lanka, as did her predecessor Madeline Albright to the former Yugoslavia. 

Samantha Power

Professor Boyle said, "[Samantha] Power stood by and watched 150,000 Tamils be exterminated by the GOSL and did nothing to stop it that I am aware of. 

"Despite the fact that Article I of the Genocide Convention clearly required that the United States government and all of its officials “undertake to prevent and to punish” genocide, Power did not “prevent” the GOSL genocide against the Tamils," Boyle said, adding, "But now she has the opportunity to redeem herself, the Obama administration and the United States government by acting “to punish” the GOSL genocide against the Tamils. 

"Her predecessor Madeleine Albright as US Ambassador to the United Nations almost single-handedly established the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for the punishment of all the Serbian genocidaires against the Bosnians, including Milosevic, Karadzic, and Mladic, inter alia. Power has the right, the power and the obligation to do the same against the GOSL genocidaires, especially the Rajapaksas. 

"We must all demand and settle for nothing less from her than what Madeleine Albright did for the Bosnians: Bring all the GOSL genocidaires to Justice," Professor Boyle said.

Ms. Power won a Pulitzer for "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide," her book about America's response to genocide. In the book she argues that American foreign policy in this area has failed; we promised "never again" after the Holocaust but willfully ignored genocides in Cambodia, Iraq, Bosnia, and Rwanda, she had earlier said, before she was invited to join the Obama's first campaign.

Professor Francis A. Boyle is the author of "The Tamil Genocide by Sri Lanka (Clarity Press: 2010)," and "The Bosnian People Charge Genocide! (Aletheia Press: 1996)."

Freedom Of Speech In Sri Lanka: Colombo Telegraph And Groundviews

By Michael O’Leary -July 21, 2013 

Michael O’Leary

There are in Sri Lanka two main websites which give the opportunity for members of the reading public to participate in debate. Both publish high quality articles by distinguished contributors which shed light on many issues relating to Sri Lanka. Very often, great enlightenment is to be gained from a reading of the exchanges in the comment threads.

Commenters are allowed to participate using pseudonyms. Many claim that they must use false names because they fear for their own safety or the safety of their families. Many use the cloak of pseudonymity as license for frivolity or vicious abuse.

Moderation among moderators

The guidelines of Groundviews state: “The tone we seek in our online discussions is closer to the kind of collegial exchange you’d share with someone from your workplace, group of friends or home. That means focusing on the substance of arguments as opposed to their presenters. It also means avoiding insults and other forms of ad hominem comments…”
They say they will not tolerate: “comments that are off topic, defamatory, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy”.

Reactions to Marga Institute

I recently posted an article on Groundviews.                                 Read More

UK still concerned on Lanka

July 19, 2013

The British Government says it still has some concerns on human rights related issues in Sri Lanka.

An update on Sri Lanka by the Foreign and Commonwealth office in its human rights report states that the human rights situation in Sri Lanka between April and June saw both positive and negative developments.

The update says: The UK welcomed the Sri Lankan Permanent Representative’s announcement to the EU Parliament that Sri Lanka will investigate the Channel 4 video footage alleging war crimes. The High Commissioner for Human Rights will undertake a visit to Sri Lanka in August. The Sri Lankan Permanent Representative told the UN Human Rights Council in May that a centralised, comprehensive database of detainees had been established by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) and investigations on 1,628 cases were completed. Families of missing detainees however maintained that the database was not freely accessible.

The UK welcomed the announcement that Northern Provincial Council elections will take place in September. However, the debate continued over devolution of power. In May a government coalition member introduced a motion in Parliament to abolish the 13th amendment to the constitution which devolves power to the provinces. The Sri Lankan Defence Secretary said that empowering a “hostile” provincial administration with land and police powers would have grave repercussions. There were also increased reports of land takeovers in Tamil areas. On 15 May over a thousand landowners from the north filed writ applications challenging the acquisition of their land as being “illegal and unlawful”.

There were continued restrictions on freedom of expression during the last three months. The Jaffna based Uthayan newspaper was repeatedly attacked, including an arson attack on the eve of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. There was a failed attempt to abduct the editor of an anti- government Sinhala language newspaper on 30 May. Opposition politicians, particularly MPs from the Tamil National Alliance, reported increased threats and harassment. In May, Azad Sally, an anti-government Muslim politician was arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act over press comments. He was subsequently released on a Presidential directive.

The BBC World Service suspended Sinhala and Tamil broadcasts citing “targeted interference” of Tamil programming. A number of local and international activists including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Human Rights Watch raised concerns over plans to introduce a code of media ethics. The Media Minister said that the code would not become law, but legal ramifications of non-compliance remained unclear. Government officials were also quoted as stating that new digital/social media needed to be monitored as it had the potential to “destabilise nations” and “affect serious change”. The UK raised concerns over attacks on media institutions and threats to freedom of expression with Sri Lankan authorities.

There were a number of attacks on minority religious sites and continued campaigns against Christians and Muslims during the quarter. On 12 April a peaceful vigil against religiously motivated hate campaigns was dispersed by the police.

There were also concerns surrounding Freedom of Association. On 21 April a protest held by the political party the Democratic People’s Front calling for wage hikes in the plantations sector was disrupted by persons allegedly connected to a ruling party politician. Party Leader Mano Ganesan sustained minor injuries during the incident.

A ruling party MP told Parliament on 5 June that disappeared journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda was currently living in France. The MP was asked to give evidence at the inquiry in to the disappearance. In a separate case regarding the death of a detainee during a prison riot, Chief Justice Mohan Peiris was quoted as stating that “human rights are there to protect the majority and not the minority of criminals”. 25 June marked 18 months since the murder of British National Khuram Sheikh. The High Commission expressed concern that no progress had been made in the murder investigation.

NGOs expressed concern about increasing restrictions on their operations in the country. Amnesty International in its latest report accused Sri Lanka of intensifying its crackdown on dissent and urged the Commonwealth not to hold the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka unless the country’s human rights situation improved. In May, the British Prime Minister announced his decision to attend CHOGM. A government spokesman told media that “we do not think that turning away from the problem is the best way to make progress in Sri Lanka….” The Prime Minister will use his visit to “…..shine a light on what is going on in the country, what has been achieved and what more needs to be done”.

The British High Commission in Colombo marked the International Day Against Homophobia in May with a presentation of a cheque to Equal Ground, a non-profit organisation seeking rights for the LGBT community.(Colombo Gazette)

A Janus-Faced Charade Or Are The Timbers Wrenching Apart? Is There A Gota-Mahinda Split?

By Kumar David -July 21, 2013 

Prof Kumar David

Everybody has an opinion about which way the ship is listing, and I have mine, but the answer to the question in my caption is important; it will set the national course for the coming months. Let me add that I take no side in this purported sibling row as I am implacably opposed to both. Rather, my effort is to read the signs, summarise arguments of pundits and punters, and to think through what either the great-deception, or a parting of ways will mean in the medium term – say next 12 months.

If Lanka was a normal political dispensation, where what leaders say could be taken as frank, and not as deception and sham calculated to deceive, then there is a searing deadlock in government. No government can survive with such an intractable conflict on the major policy issue of the day. Symbols of the opposed positions are the President (presumably supported by majorities in Cabinet and parliamentary group) on one side, and on the other his brother, the Defence Secretary with the shrill and strident backing of a cacophony of monks, extremists and the military(?) Imagine if this was Obama and Secretary Kerry on Middle East policy, or Singh and Minister Anthony on India’s military stance to Pakistan; the survival of such governments would be untenable. (Don’t be misled that Gotabaya is not a minister, he is more powerful than any Cabinet Minister; who else in the SLFP could challenge government policy so plainly, and even to key visiting dignitaries – Menon for example – and still retain control of the armed forces and the police?)

The core of the conflict is all too well known. The President has, or has been compelled, to proclaim the formation of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) and instruct that elections be held in September. In the interim no changes will be made to 13A. That is now settled policy and can be reversed only conspiratorially – say by inciting an agent to pray court that NPC elections be postponed and quietly making the regime’s wishes known to the ever obliging courts. Short of conspiracy, or rigged elections, come late September we will have a TNA led NPC Administration in place.                                     Read More  

Polls chief won’t shut the door on European monitors 

By Shamindra Ferdinando-July 19, 2013

Polls Chief Mahinda Deshapriya yesterday scotched claims that the Elections Secretariat wouldn’t invite polls monitors from the European Union and Commonwealth countries due to opposition by some political parties.

In a brief interview with The Island, Deshapriya emphasised that the EU and Commonwealth countries, along with two Asian monitoring group, had deployed personnel in Sri Lanka during parliamentary polls on many occasions. Monitors for the late September polls would be picked from among them, he said, adding that his responsibility was to act sensibly in the best interest of the electorate.

Asked whether some political parties had strongly opposed the deployment of monitors from those countries, which voted against Sri Lanka at the last sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Deshapriya said that the final decision on foreign polls monitors would be taken by him.

Deshapriya said: "Let me tell you, there is absolutely no basis for claims that I have already decided to exclude European monitors on the basis that some EU and Commonwealth countries voted against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC. The decision on foreign monitors will not be based on the Geneva vote."

Responding to a query, Deshapriya said that those opposing Commonwealth monitors at the September elections shouldn’t ignore the fact that Sri Lanka was taking over the leadership of the grouping in November. The outspoken official pointed out that at a time when the government was seeking the Commonwealth leadership in spite of heavy lobbying over alleged accountability issues, it would be nothing but foolish to shun Commonwealth monitors purely on the basis of them being European.

Commenting on criticism directed at the EU, Deshapriya recalled an extremely strongly worded statement issued by the EU at the conclusion of Dec 2001 parliamentary polls regarding the conduct of the TNA as well as the LTTE. Deshapriya said that those concerned about the impartiality of the EU should examine a copy of the comprehensive EU report on the Dec. 2001 parliamentary polls. The then head of the EU polls monitoring delegation went to the extent of alleging the TNA being a beneficiary of violence unleashed by the LTTE. Deshapriya pointed out that particular EU report dispelled allegations that the mission was biased towards the LTTE.

Deshapriya acknowledged that a credible election monitoring mechanism should be in place soon in the run-up to the polls. Election monitoring was meant not only to ensure a level playing field but prevent interested parties questioning the outcome, Deshapriya said. The official stressed that it would be of pivotal importance to prevent any untoward incident and also thwart possible attempts to undermine the electoral process. Deployment of credible overseas monitors would in fact prevent interested parties from making wild allegations at the conclusion of the polls, Deshapriya said.

Responding to another query, Deshapriya said that his department was ready to work with local monitors too, to ensure a free and fair election. Deshapriya said that he was in the process of consulting those local organizations with an expertise to monitor polls.

Commenting on the 2008 Eastern Provincial Council elections, Deshapriya said that some Asian election monitors had been involved in the monitoring along with local monitors.

Sri Lanka Refuses To Keep Army Inside The Camps During Elections In Tamil Areas

Wed, Jul 17th, 2013

Sri Lankan Defence Secretary who is accused of organising the Tamil killings , Gottabaya Rajapaksa brother of President Rajapaksa, refused the Tamil Coalition TNA’s request to keep Sri Lankan military inside the camps during the elections of Northern Tamil Province. Tamil Coalition’s requested Rajapaksa to respect the democratic rights of ethnic Tamils by keeping the military inside the bases and release the Tamil political prisoners, and both requests were refused by Gottabaya.

Gottabaya said he will not listened or negotiate with anybody regarding Sri Lankan military’s heavy presence in north which is equivalent to one Sinhala soldier per five Tamil civilians. Gottabaya also said there are 858 Tamil Tiger rebels who will never be released as they could cause danger to national security. Tamil campaigners says there are thousands of other youth kept in secret camps who are raped and killed in systematic manner since their capture in May 2009.

Tamil coalition which is solely representing the Tamil community is been threatened and intimidated by Sri lankan military as local candidates and politicians try to run surgeries. Local meetings of TNA is been threatened by military men taking pictures of people attending the surgeries. Sri Lankan military is also a mandatory member in civil service meetings.

Britain , Australia and other countries ignored the ongoing persecution of Tamils and refused to boycott the Sri Lankan summit of Commonwealth.

The Pluses And Minuses Of The 13th Amendment

By Malinda Seneviratne -July 21, 2013

Malinda Seneviratne

Thirteen. Thirteen Plus. Thirteen Minus. That’s the talk in the politico-ideological streets. It is almost like a rudimentary arithmetic problem.  In July 1987 Sri Lanka may have been plus or minus or average compared to other members in the community of nations.  Wherever the country may have stood, it was dragged in the negative direction by the Indo-Lanka Accord.

Did the Indo-Lanka Accord deliver on ‘peace’? No.  Did India, as it pledged, subdue all military groups including the LTTE? No.  Indeed, India in effect reneged on the deal more than twenty years ago.

A bloody conflict that was about to be ended, was given a lease of life.  It lived on for 22 years more.  Took 100,000 lives or more. The Accord precipitated a bloody insurrection that took 60,000 lives.  If even 1% of the dead were ‘smart’, we are talking about a monumental loss of invaluable human resources.  That’s the genesis of the HR crisis Sri Lanka faces right now. All in the minus column.

Sovereignty.  India inserted clauses to subvert Sri Lanka’s right to commerce with other nations on matters of security. The accord sought to concretize random boundary lines in terms of a homeland claim that has no basis in terms of history, archaeological record or demography, effectively helping turn myth into fact. Drop that in the minus column.

Legality.  The bill was presented in part to Parliament.  A 9-member bench of the Supreme Court could not conclude on constitutionality. They were divided 4-4. It took a Chief Justice (who happened to be a Tamil) to interpret the opinion of the 9^th member in favor of ‘constitutional’.  The Provincial Council bill was passed immediately after the Indo-Lanka Accord was passed, as though father and son were birthed together.  Minus that!                                                    Read More  

Challenge before Jumbos

Editorial-July 19, 2013

Challenge before Jumbos

The Krrish Towers affair has taken a dramatic turn with the government going on the offensive. Claiming that the life of a high ranking public official who had allegedly accepted a USD 4 mn bribe on behalf of two government bigwigs for granting a further extension of time to Krrish Towers to fully pay up on the Fort land agreement was in danger, the UNP on Wednesday called for a high level probe. The Ministry of Defence has demanded that the three persons involved in the alleged scam be named and a formal complaint lodged with the police so that a probe could be conducted.

The UNP has chosen not to name the persons concerned, but now that the government has offered to conduct a probe, provided the matter is formally reported to the police, it should take up the challenge and furnish the required information. It has been in the political wilderness, troubled by ignominious electoral setbacks and debilitating defections for a long time, and here is a real godsend in the form of an alleged racket; if it could prove its ‘towering’ allegation, it would hit political pay dirt, especially in the run-up to three crucial elections.

It is hoped that the Opposition will refrain from reducing the Krrish affair to a mere political slogan to be used and discarded after a while and, instead, go the whole hog and make the best use of it to expose government corruption. If it fails to respond to the Defence Ministry’s challenge, its credibility is likely to suffer hugely though its failure to prove its allegation will not necessarily mean that the government is clean. Besides, the UNP is duty bound to move the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption (CIABOC) against the government bigwigs concerned. Here is a political tide which, ‘if taken at the flood, is sure to lead on to fortune’. Whether the UNP will take time by the forelock or let this vital chance go begging and continue to be in political shallows till the cows come home remains to be seen.

Father, Son and Unholy Mess

Sri Lanka ‘A’ cricketer Ramith Rambukwella has been fined Rs. 250,000 over a recent incident where he allegedly tried to open the cabin door of a flight in mid-air at an altitude of 35,000 feet. (Why should planes fly so high?)

The poor boy insists that he is a somnambulist and he may have been sleepwalking at the time of the alleged incident. He has vehemently denied that he was in a state of inebriation contrary to media reports. (There are conspiracies against his family!) His truthful father, Keheliya Rambukwella, who heads the Ministry of Truth, has vouched for the veracity of the boy’s claim. Initially, Sri Lanka Cricket issued a statement based on the team manager’s report, attributing the incident to the lamentably dim lights in the passageway leading to lavatories. (British Airways should be given some 1,000 watt bulbs!)

So, the question is why Sri Lanka Cricket Executive Committee has punished a player afflicted with a chronic sleep disorder, for what he is said to have done in an abnormal state of consciousness whereas it has not taken any punitive action against notorious rogues who, in a state of full consciousness, helped themselves to Cricket Board funds, struck corrupt deals and ruined the game. It’s not cricket!

We urge the aggrieved Rambukwellas to sue Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).

Meanwhile, the SLC Executive Committee has proved that it is capable of performing the functions of the disciplinary committee and, therefore, we suggest that the latter be disbanded forthwith, for it is redundant. Why should there be so many committees when the Executive Committee is equal to the task of running the SLC all by itself?

"Spare the rod and spoil the child" is a threadbare adage which has lost its meaning in this country. Our politicians’ obedience to their sons is amazing. Ramith must be proud of the way he has brought up his father!

First accused claims lawyers threatened him

By Ishara Rathnayaka-2013-07-20 

Krishantha Koralage, the first accused in the murder of millionaire businessman, Mohamed Shyam, yesterday complained to Additional Magistrate, M.A. Sahabdeen that three attorneys-at-law visited his remand cell and threatened him.

The alleged threats were issued after several suspects, including the first accused, decided that they did not need representation by the lawyers.

The accused Koralage told the Court that lawyers threatened him and said: “Did you swallow (ASP) Shani’s capsule? Let’s see later on.”

State Council, Wasantha Perera, appearing on behalf of the Attorney General said the accused had been threatened by three lawyers and not the police.

“When the accused say they do not need legal representation, I cannot allow the lawyers to appear for them,” Counsel Wasantha Perera told the Court.When the case was called for hearing, the other accused, former DIG Vass Gunawardena, Mohamed Fousideen, Indika Bamunusinghe (SI), Gamini Sarathchandra and Priyantha Kelum were also produced before the Magistrate.

ASP Shani Abeysekera of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), producing a detailed report, informed the Court that whereabouts of Ravindu, Vass Gunawardena’s son is still not known. ASP Abeysekera also informed the Court the police searched two houses – one in Galle and the other one in Mirihana for Ravindu, but no arrests were made.

He also informed that forensic investigations are being conducted on the firearm that was believed to have been used to commit the murder.

When the Magistrate inquired, first, fourth, fifth, sixth and the seventh accused informed the Court they did not seek legal representation.

On this instance, Counsels Ajith Pathirana and Anura Seneviratne told the Court that they merely advised the suspects through their juniors and did not threaten the suspects.
The Magistrate adjourned the case until 1 August and further remanded the seven suspects, including Vass Gunawardena, until the next Court date.

On Being “targeted”

By Emil van der Poorten -July 21, 2013 

Emil van der Poorten

I make no apologies for the fact that this piece is less concerned about “rural perspectives” than it is about being on someone’s “hit list!”

It is now a considerable time since I was first accosted on the streets ofKandy and threatened for “writing against the President.”  While it was not the first occasion that a shot was “fired across my bows,” it was the first overt threat.  Prior to that incident, I had had frantic messages from Colombo friends “close to the seats of power” warning me against criticising certain Cabinet members in print because they had a track record of (let’s not indulge in euphemisms here!) killing those who had crossed their paths.  I must admit, that considering the source of these warnings, they did have something akin to a chilling effect on me, particularly since I was relatively naïve in the ways of the Sri Lankan political establishment, having been brainwashed, I suppose, by being very politically active in another part of the world where the biggest threat to one’s person would have been a dog who objected to a political canvasser knocking on his master’s door!

Some of the stuff that has gone on around us belongs in the category of the crass and unsophisticated.  However, I must admit that a couple of the initiatives have been slicker and more difficult to deal with in the absence of money to burn, the difficulty attendant on organizing publicity campaigns, or seeking recourse to a legal system that exists only in name and is regularly subverted by those with the appropriate “connections.”

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