Monday, July 29, 2013

China to build new port-city in Colombo on 99-year-lease

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 July 2013, 09:47 GMT]
The Sri Lankan State, which has been trading human rights with the West and ports with China for completing the structural genocide on the occupied country of Eezham Tamils, has now signed a US$1.43 billion deal with China Communications Construction to build a port facility with a 99-year-lease on a 230 hectares reclaimed land in Colombo, Sri Lanka Ports Authority chairman Priyath Wickrama has announced. “The Chinese firm will be given 50 hectares of reclaimed land and the construction project, schemed to start in September will last for 39 months,” said a report by Latvia-based Transport Weekly on Monday.

The port facility will become a ‘city’ with eco-parks, residential areas, offices and shopping malls, the report further said.

“The site is next to the main Port of Colombo, close to Shangri-La Hotels Lanka, a unit Hong Kong-listed Shangri-La Asia, which is building a 500-room hotel.”

More funds for Mattala

By Shiwanthi Fernando
& Umesh Moramudali

2013-07-29

Minister of Civil Aviation, Priyankara Jayaratne, is seeking Cabinet approval to obtain an additional loan from EXIM Bank, China, consequent to which a contract to extend the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA), would be signed.

Minister Jayaratne has forwarded the memorandum to Cabinet, as some areas need to be extended at the MRIA, taking into consideration the increase in the price of building and other material.

Accordingly, the initial contract fee for MRIA has increased from US$ 209,000,000 to US$ 356,875,025.
In the Cabinet Paper, Minister Jayaratne has stated that additional tracks should be constructed in the airport.
Luciano Technic Ltd., together with SriLankan Airlines, is engaged in the construction, and has requested the ministry to provide an aircraft hangar and some other facilities in the Southern side of the airport.Meanwhile, it was reported that areas surrounding the MRIA have been declared a free port in the latest bid to attract business to the multi-billion rupee venture.

There will be exemptions from customs duty, exchange control and import-export regulations, in terms of an order signed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his capacity as the Minister of Finance and Planning.

Further, the order declaring the MRIA premises as a bonded area was made by the Department of Trade and Investment Policy, under the Customs Ordinance.

A part of the development plan for MRIA is to set up a tax-free industrial zone within the area allocated for the airport.

2011 killing of UK national, rape of his girlfriend:
Tangalle PS Chairman, seven others to be indicted in HC

for murder, unlawful assembly etc

By Shamindra Ferdinando-July 28, 2013,

Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Sampath Vidanapathirana and seven of his associates will be shortly indicted, in the High Court of Colombo, for the 2011 Christmas Eve killing of British national Khuram Shaikh (32) and rape of his partner, Victoria Aleksandrovna Tkacheva (23).

Authoritative sources told The Island yesterday that the suspects would be charged on ten counts including murder, attempted murder and unlawful assemble. The Attorney General has given the green light for non-summary proceedings against them.

Shaikh was stabbed in the throat and shot dead in the early hours of Christmas Day 2011. His girlfriend was beaten unconscious and gang raped, according to investigators.

The eight suspects are: Sampath Vidanapathirana (SLFP), his private secretary Mohottige Sarath alias Sahan, Weerappuliga Pradeep Chathuranga, S. P. Januka Chathuranga, H. T. Nuwan Chnithaka, E. T. Nadeera Shaman, Nalagama Praveen Chaturanga, Saman Deshapriya and Obada Arachchige Lahiru Kelum.

A senior security official recently briefed Deputy British High Commissioner Robbie Bulloch on the status of the ongoing investigation.

The official assured the Deputy HC of Sri Lanka’s commitment to bring the legal proceedings to a successful conclusion.

Responding to a query, sources acknowledged that there had been a delay in obtaining the DNA report, pertaining to the Tangalle murder investigation.

Amidst allegations of a cover-up, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) inquired into the high profile killing with the British High Commission constantly pushing the government to bring the legal proceedings to a speedy conclusion.

Malaka Silva Was Stabbed By A Group Of Army Men

July 29, 2013

Minister’s Mervyn Silva’s son Malaka Silva was stabbed in the car park of Odel. He was admitted to the Nawaloka Hospital.

According to the Colombo Telegraph sources a group of Army men in two Defender jeeps had attacked Malaka Silva. The group was waiting for Malaka in the car park of Odel and asked him “Oyada Malaka kiyanne? ” ( Are you Malaka?) as soon as he said “yes” they stabbed him by using a broken bottle.

Malaka

‘Serious irregularities’ overshadow Cambodia election result

KhmerBits

Posts by Clothilde Le Coz-Jul 29, 2013

Last night before the election results were officially announced, opposition leader Sam Rainsy declared Sunday was “a historical day and a victory for the whole nation in the advancement of democracy”. The leader of the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) said he had “heard of some incidents”, but qualified the day as “great for Cambodia”. This morning there was an altogether different mood as the CNRP rejected the preliminary results announced last night by the National Election Committee (NEC). Speaking to journalists this morning, Sam Rainsy stated that “all serious election irregularities” should be investigated.

It is estimated that 69% of registered voters went to the polling stations (compared to 75% in 2008) and, according to the preliminary results, the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won a majority of 68 seats and the CNRP 55. This represents a considerable loss of 22 representatives for the CPP. Moreover, the opposition won some of the most significant provinces in Cambodia (Phnom Penh, Kandal, Kompong Speu and Kompong Cham) leaving the ruling party in a tough situation. While it will still be able to form a government without requiring a coalition with the CNRP, the CPP will no longer be able to unilaterally change the Constitution, which requires a two-thirds majority of votes in Parliament.

Unusually high number of incidents

“The results do not reflect the will of the Cambodian people,” said Preap Kol, the executive director for Transparency International Cambodia this afternoon. According to the Transparency International observation, the CPP won the elections with 48.5% of the votes (margin error of 1.6%) and the CNRP came second with 44.4% (margin error of 1.8%).

Buddhist monks and villagers watch as a military police car burns near a polling station in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday. Pic: AP.

The organization also released the findings of a sample-based observation showing that citizens with proper identification were unable to find their names on the lists in three out of five polling stations, while it was possible to vote without a valid ID in close to three out of 10 polling stations. Considering these numbers, one can’t help but wonder whether irregularities have had a pivotal role in deciding the results of the election.

These findings echo a litany of complaints that the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (COMFREL) received all day at its situation room in Phnom Penh. At 10am one voter reported that his name was already ticked when he arrived at the polling station. He was asked to wait until 2pm to be able to vote. “They did the same last year,” he said. “I do not understand why the lists are not correct.” Accusations and complaints against the government spread rapidly.

“In this country, we always have doubts and suspicions when things do not go right,” explained Preap Kol.

Yesterday, violence flared in Phnom Penh when two police cars were set on fire in a south-western neighborhood of the capital city.

“People get angry because they cannot vote,” warned a local monk.

The situation became tense and a hundred of riot police were deployed to control the demonstration. The director of the polling station was detained by a group of angry young people.

Before announcing the results last night, the NEC acknowledged that the vote was “more messy” than in 2008. However, the Committee rejected all allegations of electoral fraud.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

30th July 1983: The Second Naxalite Plot

By Rajan Hoole -July 29, 2013

Rajan Hoole

Sri Lanka’s Black July – Part 5 -

Addressing the nation over radio on the 29th, Prime Minister Premadasa attributed the violence to wild rumours. On the 30th Minister of State and Cabinet Spokesman de Alwis blamed the violence on three Left oriented parties, the JVP, the Communist Party and the Trotskyite NSSP. He announced a three-phase conspiracy by these groups. Its first phase was to induce violence between Sinhalese and Tamils, second between Sinhalese and Muslims, and third between Buddhists and Christians among the Sinhalese. They were banned and the detention of their activists and leaders was ordered. The confusion among the ministers on covering up their crimes was also reflected in the Sun editorials. On the 28th it was Sinhalese reaction to the loathsome Northern terrorists. On the 29th it was a mastermind who seemed to enjoy licence from the law enforcers. On 1st August the editorial was on de Alwis’s suggestion that Communists with money were behind the violence – a line that the ruling class was comfortable with, as witnessed from the press either promoting or not challenging the repression licensed under Jayewardene’s invention of the first Naxalite Plot in October 1982.

Addressing the government parliamentary group on 4th August, Jayewardene, now clearer about the line to take, elaborated on the second Naxalite Plot. He spoke of a four-phase plan which was to culminate in the Government being replaced by certain groups in the armed services. It is almost unnecessary to add that no such sections were identified, and no inquiry was ordered into such a grave allegation. Read More

Part one - Sri Lanka’s Black July: Borella, 24th Evening

Part two - Sri Lanka’s Black July: What Really Happened At Kanatte?

Part three - Black July: ‘Api Suddha Kara’ – JR’s Failure To Declare Curfew

Part four - Sri Lanka’s Black July: The Cover Up

*From Chapter 9 of Rajan Hoole‘s “Sri Lanka: Arrogance of Power - Myth, Decadence and Murder”. Thanks to Rajan for giving us permission to republish. To be continued tomorrow ..

Pillay To Give Report »

By Easwaran Rutnam-Sunday, July 28, 2013

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay is expected to submit a report on her Sri Lanka visit to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva when it meets in September, sources told The Sunday Leader.

Pillay will address the Council on its opening day when it meets for its 24th session from 9 to 27 September.

A spokesman at her office confirmed to The Sunday Leader that she will be in the country from Sunday August 25 and end with a press conference on the morning of Saturday August 31. Asked about reports that the visit may take place earlier, the spokesman said that so far there is no change in the dates but he could not rule that out.

The Chief Security Advisor to Pillay’s office was in Sri Lanka last week ahead of the scheduled visit by Pillay to the country. Abraham Mathai manages security operations of the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) worldwide and as a member of the senior management team he participates in organising policy issues.

Pillay had told the BBC Tamil service last month that she will look at the post-war developments in Sri Lanka during her visit and meet all the concerned parties.
Sri Lanka considers the visit as part of its “continued, transparent and proactive engagement” with the High Commissioner and her office.

“We believe that the visit would enable the High Commissioner to experience at first hand the significant strides made and also efforts presently underway in the reconciliation process in Sri Lanka, in the relatively brief period of 4 years since the end of the ruthless terrorist conflict that decimated our nation and its peoples for 30 long years,” the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva Ravinatha P. Aryasinha had said in May.

On Politicized Black July

By Malinda Seneviratne -July 29, 2013

Malinda Seneviratne

Last week The Nation commented on the events of July 1983, referring inter alia, to the context and how it helped shape the larger tragedy that unfolded. July 1983, referred to as ‘Black July’ has been politicized to the point where the victims have receded into a statistical figure, a rhetorician’s convenience to be debated about, to be manipulated for political ends. Inevitable, one might say.

It was black, that July.

There were other Julys that followed, in many ways as or more tragic, as or more violent, as or more dark, but strangely forgotten. On July 24, 1996 was a black day. The Dehiwala train bombing. Sixty four is less than 300+, but death is death, the loved ones of the victims would not have wept less. No commemoration, though. No ‘Never Again!’

There was a July in 2001. Katunayake. Twenty four aircraft were damaged or destroyed in an audacious LTTEattack which had a tremendous and negative impact on the economy. It paved the way for ‘regime-change’ and the Ceasefire Agreement on February 22, 2002, the ill-effects of which, including the massive loss of lives, are well documented. Unremembered. No ‘Never Again!’

And if only numbers matted, we had a July in 1990. Thousands were killed in that month by vigilante groups who did the bidding of the then Government. If July 1983 was black, then a darker color to describe the July of 1990 is yet to be named. No commemoration. No ‘Never Again!’ Read More

Relief for 37 differently able during the Mobile Service in the North

Details: Created On Sunday, 28 July 2013 08:55; Category: General

Birth Certificates are normally issued before a week time after the child birth. K. Selvarani a resident of Vadamarachchi in Jaffna obtained her Birth Certificate last July 24th at the age of 34.

She received this during the Mobile clinic jointly organized by the CaFFE organization, Centre for Human Rights and Research (CHR).

Disabled people are not a repercussion only due to war but due to natural disasters such as Tsunami. The duty of a civilized society is not to neglect such people but to uphold them with courage and confidence.

During the mobile Service Clinivs CaFEE and CHR gave preference to these differently able people first priority.

During the Mobile Service clinic to facilitate the identity a village level register is created for people who don’t have certified documents. It is the duty of Centre for Human Rights to mobilize these people to this clinic. In absence we had to go with the photographers and Grama Niladaris to their doorstep. We put our maximum effort for this successful event.

There were 37 differently able persons among 7500 people in the North during the mobile Clinic. During the temporary ID clinic organized by CaFFE and CHR many hundreds were facilitated to obtain the service.

We consider the disabled people as a part of our society therefore priority is given to all differently able people to take part in FaFFE’s clinic.

CaFFE is dedicated by heart to mobilize all citizens for a free and fair election.

The Time For Change Is Approaching

By Dr Jehan Perera-Sunday, July 28, 2013

Dayasiri Jayasekara and C. V. Wigneswaran

The hope of change in the type of politics that might be practiced in the country was short lived. The TNA’s nomination of former Supreme Court Justice C. V. Wigneswaran to be its chief ministerial candidate for the Northern Provincial Council upgraded the quality of those contesting the provincial elections. As a person who had earned his reputation as a professional and a judge, his nomination was also seen as having the potential to upgrade the standard of politics in the country. There was some hope that other political parties would also follow suit and nominate those who had shown that they put the interests of the larger society before their own. But it was not to be. Politics at the present time is too much about attaining and retaining personal power, and too little about looking at the best interests of the larger community.

The crossover of articulate UNP Parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekera to the government ranks has emphasized how politics in the country is about personal power and being part of the power structure. In justifying his crossover in his farewell speech in Parliament the chief ministerial aspirant blamed his former party leaders of taking no effective action to oppose the passage of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, the impeachment of the former Chief Justice and the electricity price hike. He expressed his disappointment that his former party leadership did not effectively oppose the government. But he joined this very government when it offered him a position. Unless there is more to the agreement he has with the government that took him in, it looks like he will only seek to strengthen the government to continue on its path without changing course.

Accompanying the UNP Parliamentarian in his defection are several local level members of the opposition. This will almost certainly guarantee yet another electoral defeat for the opposition and will further reduce the institutional checks and balances on the power of the government. It will also increase the pressure on the Opposition and UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to revamp his party structure. It will lead to calls to him to consider the greater good of his party, and of the country, rather than continue to lead the opposition in the present manner. The most recent defections, which will further weaken the opposition, are a continuation of a process that has been debilitating the main opposition party during most of the past two decades.
There is a tendency to blame the UNP leadership and its internal divisions and weaknesses for the sins of the government.

ut the criticism of the opposition leadership for its ineffectiveness needs to be accompanied in equal if not greater measure by public pressure on the government to practice good governance rather than engage in misgovernance as at present. It is the government that has the levers of military and economic power under its control, and not the Opposition. It must use its powers in the interests of the larger society and not of itself or its supporters only. This recalls the timeless advice of Arahat Mahinda to King Devanampiyatissa over two millennia ago when he said that the king was not owner of the land and its inhabitants, but only the trustee.

That this type of thinking is still being talked about at the more intellectual levels of civil society is a reason to be optimistic and not pessimistic about the future. This was indeed the thought that emerged at a symposium on Religion and Reconciliation organized by the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations where the keynote speaker was the founder of the Sarvodaya Movement, Dr A. T. Ariyaratne, and other speakers included senior Buddhist monks, Ven. Dr Bellanwila Wimalaratana and Ven. Galkande Dhammananda, and leaders of other religions, Kurukkal Babu Sharma, Fr Benedict Joseph and A. M. N. Ameen.

Although the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute is a government-controlled one under Foreign Ministry auspices, those who attended the symposium showed a much greater liberality and universality of spirit than is presently visible in the government. Both the speakers and the audience upheld the importance of universal values for the betterment of the country. One of the monks said that he saw the country heading towards renewed conflict, and we would have no one to blame but the present generation. If the thirty year war that ended in 2009 could have been blamed on the previous generation, the coming conflict will be due to the misgovernance of the present generation, and all who sanction the absence of morality in politics, he said.

Another notable feature at the symposium was the dissent of youth. When a representative of an extremist religious group tried to criticize the liberality of the main speakers at the event, he was immediately challenged by the youth present in the audience. This echoed another event that took place a week earlier where the opposition leadership was itself challenged and was unable to come up with an adequate response. The growing impatience of the youth with the older generation of leaders is one sign of change. The duty of politicians who aspire to be elected to office, or hold it, is to lead the country as a whole to a better future, not to cater to only a section of the people in order to secure themselves in the seats of power, whether in government or opposition.

The Land Of The Cowards And The Home Of The Opportunists

By Tisaranee Gunasekara -July 28, 2013

“….for what may seem

Terrible or bizarre, when once our eyes

Have had time to acclimatise,

Becomes quite commonplace.” -La Fontaine (Selected Fables)

For 12 years the semiotics of Nazi Germany shaped Victor Klemperer’s existence. As a German Jew, he witnessed how the Nazis turned the language of Goethe, Schiller and Heine into a tool; and experienced, at first hand, the diabolical results of the consequent transformation of German society and the German mind.

The Nazis would take a familiar word, give it a new meaning by implication, and use it intensely and extensively until it sank deep into the public mind and caused noxious changes in the public consciousness: “If someone replaces the words ‘heroic’ and ‘virtuous’ with ‘fanatical’ for long enough, he will come to believe that a fanatic really is a virtuous hero, and that no one can be a hero without fanaticism. The Third Reich did not invent the words ‘fanatic’ and ‘fanaticism’; it just changed their value….[i]”

An analogous process is at work in Rajapaksa Sri Lanka. It was evident in renaming the Fourth Eelam War a ‘Humanitarian Operation (with Zero Civilian Casualties), the giant internment camps ‘WelfareVillages’ and the Witch Trial of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake an impeachment. It is evident in the deliberate fanning of the flames of ethno-religious racism, in the whipping up of ant-devolution hysteria, in the transformation of Gen. Fonseka from Patriotic Hero to Arch Traitor.

The latest manifestation of this toxic process of psychological and moral transformation is the case of Dayasiri Jayasekara.

The defection of Dayasiri Jayasekara was an act of pure unadulterated opportunism. In making his jump, Mr. Jayasekara, until very recently a voluble critic of Rajapaksa Rule, was motivated by nothing more than naked self-interest. Like those other UNPers who took the same path, he did what he did because he wanted to be more than a leader in the opposition, because he wanted the illusion and the trappings of power

Opportunism is common to all politics. The problem is when it is transformed from a negative to a positive value, and depicted as an honourable act. July 28, 2013

Merry fiddling while the country burns

Sunday, July 28, 2013

This week’s dire warning by the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) that Sri Lanka’s public and state banking sector would collapse if loss-making public bodies are not made duly accountable deserves immediate and imperative public attention.

Serious warnings and general despair

COPE has called for the re-capitalization of the country’s national carrier as well as the gloriously unnecessary Mihin Lanka, (the sole purpose of which was to satisfy the egoistical whims of this administration), both of which have incurred gargantuan losses. It has also recommended that other loss-making enterprises be liquidated.

Yet it was not as if this warning comes as any surprise. It is also not as if the warning would be heeded by this government. In a private conversation last month, a senior public official with decades-long experience in Southern provincial land administration confessed to a looming uncertainty over the ability of the state coffers to pay the salaries of public servants in the forseeable future. ‘Will we have to privatise public administration? I cannot get persons of good education to even apply for public sector positions as no one trusts the state sector to deliver’ he said despairingly.

His despair is not singular. Indeed, COPE had observed in this most recent report that political recruitments into the country’s managerial and administrative sector should be halted and that only capable persons ought to be recruited. But the problem is, as that senior public servant said hopelessly but so aptly, very few good persons will want to be absorbed into Sri Lanka’s public sector with the rampant politicization, corruption and bargaining that takes place.

Extremely dangerous iceberg

Along with the warning issued by COPE, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which is the other financial oversight body in Parliament also focused this week on an astounding Rs 9 billion arrears incurred by Sri Lanka Customs during a five year period, observing that no action has been taken to recover these arrears.

COPE and PAC have traditionally fulfilled the role of issuing early warning safeguards in regard to the observance of financial discipline in the state sector, public corporations and other semi-governmental bodies. The entities identified as exemplifying irregular practices and outright corruption have included the Ceylon Electricity Board, the Bank of Ceylon, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, the Board of Investment, the Airport and Aviation Services, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority and the Samurdhi Authority of Sri Lanka.

Yet, grave and endemic practices of government corruption exposed in these reports are given only passing public attention. The trend is that some media publicity follows upon the presentation of COPE and PAC reports but thereafter public interest dwindles. This should however be far from the case.

The use of public funds attracts the concept of public trust and a government’s duty in that regard cannot be easily brushed aside. The issues highlighted in these reports reveal only the conservative tip of an extremely dangerous iceberg which courts economic ruin even as ordinary people struggle with the unbearably high cost of living while the financially profligate enjoy the beautification of Colombo and speed to their destinations outside the capital on newly built and gleaming expressways.

Oversight bodies shackled beyond effectiveness

Meanwhile, reports of the Auditor General have been equally revealing in regard to the financial mis-governance of state entities. The exposure of the 2004 VAT scam tax scandal which cost the Inland Revenue Department and the Ministry of Finance losses estimated in billions is notable. Willful or negligent action on the part of the state institutions is one good example. Many of those involved at the highest levels escaped the reach of the law. This continues to be the case in regard to the massive financial scandals that are currently taking place. The courts as well as the Bribery and Corruption Commission are shackled beyond all effectiveness except to be used as weapons of political witch-hunting.

Importantly however, in a context where President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brothers and his large extended family control an unprecedented percentage of public institutions, accountability for severe financial mismanagement lies at the highest executive level. Coming down the political ladder, the corruption and negligence evidenced at local and provincial level is therefore only inevitable. The Auditor General has repeatedly warned of deeply entrenched corruption on the part of political appointees who do not have the requisite capacity along with general negligence in the public sector. And as Sri Lanka braces itself for a Commonwealth extravaganza in the coming months with additional financial burdens, it is apt to question whether we have lost our senses as a nation. The answer to that question is unfortunately all too self evident.

Bewailing at what is being done in our names

So we go merrily to our doom with scarcely any protest at the grievous harm being done to this country’s financial systems in regard to prudence, good governance and economic sustenance. Yet these are issues that should dominate public debate and discussion as is the case in India where endemic government corruption led to public protests. Even more than in India, the criminal wastage and corruption that is a matter of course in the public sector has the potential of irreversibly destroying the Sri Lankan economy. But public reactions thereto remain minimal.

This process of extreme negativity cannot, of course, go on endlessly. There will undoubtedly come a harvesting of the destructive seeds that are being sowed in these ruinous times. At that time and assuredly, all of Sri Lanka and future generations will ceaselessly bewail at to what has been done to this country’s resources in our name.

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