Fonterra shuts down in Sri Lanka after ‘threats’

New Zealand giant faced product bans, court cases and protests over alleged tainted ers stand guard as local activists protest against alleged contaminated products in front of a Fonterra factory in Colombo. Photo: Xinhua

Saturday, 24 August, 2013
Earlier this week, it was banned by a Sri Lankan court from selling or advertising its products after the country's food safety authorities said they found high levels of the agricultural chemical dicyandiamide (DCD) in two batches of milk powder it tested. Fonterra, which has been recently targeted by China for food safety bans, vigorously disputes the finding.New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra Co-operative said yesterday it had suspended operations in Sri Lanka after the world's largest dairy exporter faced product bans, court cases and angry demonstrators over its supposedly tainted milk products in the country.

Four of Fonterra's top officials have since been charged with contempt of court for failing to adhere to the bans, while a Sri Lanka state institute said it would test all milk powder in the market.

Industry observers in New Zealand say the row is not about food safety, but is an attempt by the government to promote its domestic dairy industry.

The debate triggered an angry demonstration on Thursday. More than 100 members of a hardline nationalist party in President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling coalition gathered outside Fonterra's regional offices near Colombo to demand a ban on the company's products in the country as riot police looked on.

"The temporary suspension is the right thing to do. It is a precautionary measure to ensure our 755 people working there are safe," Chief Executive Theo Spierings said in a statement.

Speaking to Radio New Zealand, he added that it was unclear when operations would resume in the country.

Fonterra's critics in Sri Lanka yesterday said the protests were prompted by the company's disregard for legal rulings.

"We did not request Fonterra to close down. What we wanted is to make sure that Sri Lankan people, mainly the children, do not get DCD-contaminated milk," said Saman Rathnapriya, a leader of the National Health Services Union, the main petitioner for the ban on the company's products.

The action in Sri Lanka follows a global food scare after Fonterra said that some of its products could contain bacteria that can cause botulism. Its products have been removed from shelves in about nine countries, including China, while other countries have restricted imports.

In New Zealand, Sri Lanka's actions are widely seen as a move to pressure Fonterra and promote local dairy farmers.

"There clearly are industry politics going on over there," said Keith Woodford, professor of farm management and agribusiness at Lincoln University. "There's no doubt that Sri Lanka wishes to have its own dairy industry."

Bollywood Sri Lanka war film pulled in UK, south India

Indian Tamils protest against the release of "Madras Cafe" in Mumbai on August 22, 2013. The Bollywood spy thriller set against the backdrop of the Sri Lankan civil war has been pulled from British and some Indian theatres after protests over its depiction of rebel fighters.

24 AUGUST 2013

AFP - A Bollywood spy thriller set against the backdrop of the Sri Lankan civil war has been pulled from British and some Indian theatres after protests over its depiction of rebel fighters, the movie's distributors said Saturday.

Madras Cafe, which opened Friday, features John Abraham as an Indian secret agent sent to Sri Lanka during the island's decades-long conflict between the government and separatist Tamil rebels.

But the film has failed to reach a number of cinema halls after ethnic Tamil populations in India and in Britain complained that they were unfairly portrayed.

"Our UK exhibitors, Cineworld, decided to hold back the film after protesters gathered outside their UK offices," said Rudrarup Datta, marketing head at the film's Indian co-producer and distributor Viacom18 Motion Pictures.

"Exhibitors do not want to take a risk and withdrawing screenings of the film is their prerogative," Datta said.

No British cinemas are currently showing the film although they were still hopeful of a release at a later date, he added.

A full release has gone ahead in the United States, Canada and the United Arab Emirates.

Indian media reports said theatres also refused to show the film in southern Tamil Nadu state after protests from its large Tamil population.

Activist group Naam Tamilar (We Tamils) asked the state government to block the film's release, unhappy that rebels were depicted as "terrorists", according to media reports.

In Britain, an online petition was launched calling for a halt to the film's release there because it was believed to portray Tamils "in a poor light". Nearly 2,000 people have given their support to the petition.

The film passed India's censors with no cuts and a parental guidance certificate, and was classified for those aged over 15 in Britain, while director Shoojit Sircar has insisted the movie does not take sides.

"Since the release, so many Tamil people have tweeted that there is nothing anti-Tamil about the film. People have the right to protest but you cannot stop cinema-lovers from watching a film and deciding for themselves," Sircar told AFP.

The bloody conflict in Sri Lanka, which cost up to 100,000 lives, erupted between government forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who were fighting for an independent Tamil state. Both sides are accused of human rights violations.

Sri Lankan troops declared an end to 37 years of ethnic war after wiping out the leadership of the Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009.

Sri Lanka has resisted international pressure for an independent investigation into war crimes despite what the UN calls "credible allegations" of up to 40,000 civilians killed in the final battles in 2009.

Muslim woman must remove burka in court, judge insists

A judge has refused to let a Muslim woman in a full-length burka enter a plea until she shows her face to the court.

By Rosa Silverman and agencies- 23 Aug 2013

Judge Peter Murphy said he would not allow the 21-year-old defendant to stand trial in the veil, which only revealed her eyes, because her identity had not been confirmed.

He said the principle of open justice overrode the woman's religious beliefs and warned that a different person could go into the dock pretending to be here if she did not show her face.

But the woman, from Hackney, east London, told Blackfriars Crown Court she could not remove the veil in front of any men because of her religion.

Judge Murphy told her: “It is necessary for this court to be satisfied that they can recognise the defendant.

“While I obviously respect the right to dress in any way she wishes, certainly while outside the court, the interests of justice are paramount.

“I can't, as a circuit judge, accept a plea from a person whose identity I am unable to ascertain.”

He added: “It would be easy for someone on a later occasion to appear and claim to be the defendant.

“The court would have no way to check on that.”

The defendant, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, is facing an allegation of intimidating a witness in Finsbury Park, north London, in June.

Her barrister, Claire Burtwistle, told the court she was not prepared to lower her veil at all while men were in the room.

“In front of women, it is not an issue”, she said. “It is simply men that she will not allow to see her face.”

Ms Burtwistle suggested herself, a female police officer or a female prison guard could identify the defendant and confirm to the court that it is the same person as in the police arrest photos.

Prosecutor Sarah Counsell added that the police officer in charge of the case was content that he recognised the defendant while she was in the burka.

But Judge Murphy rejected the suggestions, saying: “It seems to me to be quite fundamental that the court is sure who it is the court is dealing with.

“Furthermore, this court, as long as I am sitting, has the highest respect for any religious tradition a person has.

“In my courtroom also, this sometimes conflicts with the interests of a paramount need for the administration of justice. In my court room, that's going to come first.”

He said “the principle of open justice” could not be subject to the religion of the defendant.

“I am not saying this because of the particular form of dress by this defendant”, he added.

“I apply that to any form of dress that had the same issues.”

Judge Murphy adjourned the case for legal argument over whether the defendant should have to remove her veil.

It will be heard again on September 12.

Exclusive Affidavit: Justice Shiranee Protecting De Facto Chief Justice, The Case Goes Geneva

August 25, 2013

As conflicts of interest challenges mount for de facto Chief Justice Mohan Pieris who continues to appoint benches to adjudicate on cases in which he is cited as a main respondent or the offending party, Colombo Telegraph can now reveal a first person account of how Supreme Court Justice Shiranee Tilakawardane is personally instructing journalists to refrain from reporting court proceedings in a way that would be injurious to Pieris based on sources close to the UN Committee on Human Rights.

Justice Shiranee Tilakawardane

Supreme Court Justice Shiranee Tilakawardane summoned journalists to her chambers and instructed them on how to report on a controversial Fundamental Rights application filed against de facto Chief Justice Mohan Pieris alleging misconduct and abuse of power during his tenure as Attorney General, an affidavit submitted by a senior court reporter claims.

Tilakawardane was the only Supreme Court Justice to give evidence at the Shirani Bandaranayake PSC that convened in secret and summoned witnesses at the eleventh hour, after Bandaranayake and the Opposition MPs in the Committee had walked out of the Parliamentary Committee citing a lack of due process.

Ceylon Today news editor Stanley Samarasinghe affirmed that Justice Tilakawardane had made a hand-signal to journalists present in Court Room 403 when the controversial Colombo Dockyard Vs. Sri Lanka Customs case was taken up on February 26, 2013.                        Read More

VIDEO: ONE PERSON KILLED AS POLICE OPEN FIRE ON GANG ROBBING HOUSE OF JOURNALIST

August 24, 2013 
One person from a five member gang, attempting to rob the house of a journalist in Bambalapitiya, was shot dead after police opened fire. Three police officers were also injured in the incident this morning.

The alleged gang of robbers had entered the residence, located in Dickman’s Road, at around 2.00am today, while the house owners had reported this to the police via the 119 - emergency hotline. 

 Acting immediately police officers had surrounded the residence and confronted the robbers, resulting in a clash between the suspects and the policemen.

One of the robbers had stabbed a police officer in the neck during the exchange prompting another officer to open fire.

One of the suspects was wounded in the shooting and succumbed to injuries after being admitted to the Colombo National Hospital. 

The other four members of the gang have been arrested and are currently receiving treatment at the Colombo National Hospital under heavy police security.

The residence targeted by the robbers belongs to Mandana Ismail Abeywickrama, the president of the Sri Lanka Journalists Trade Union and journalist for a local newspaper. 

Journalist Mandana Attack: One Shot Dead, Four Armed Men In Police Custody

August 24, 2013

Four armed men who broke into journalist and media activist Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema’s home early this morning are in police custody after one intruder was shot dead by police during an altercation.

Mandana

The men had held Abeywickrema and gunpoint and threatened to abduct her, saying they were carrying out a contract for someone who was an enemy, the journalists told reporters earlier today. “They said their orders were to rob the house and abduct -me,” Abeywickrema said.

She said the five intruders were armed with knives and had ransacked cupboards looking for money and valuables. The intruders woke up the journalist’s parents and her daughter, to ask them probing questions, Abeywickrema said.

She said she spoke to the intruders throughout the incident, urging them to take whatever they desired from the house but refrain from harming her parents or child. At one point, the intruders argued among themselves, saying they had “wasted enough time” at her home.

Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema is Associate Editor of the Sunday Leader newspaper and recently formed a trade union for journalists and assumed its presidency.  Her husband Romesh Abeywickrema who was not present in the house during the intrusion, called the police emergency from outside the residence when he saw the lights on upon his arrival. When the police walked into the residence, the intruders were still inside.

Three of the intruders were injured in the shoot out with police, with one of them in critical condition at the National Hospital, police said.

Police Spokesman Buddhika Siriwadane said three police officers had been injured when the intruders attacked them with knives.

One intruder was shot while all the others remain in police custody following the incident.

Police have persisted in calling the intrusion into Abeywickrema’s home an armed robbery, but the Free Media Movement has denounced attempts to play the incident down. The FMM said that the intrusion was part of an attempt to intimidate the journalist.

Inspector General of Police N.K. Illangakoon has called an urgent press conference regarding the issue.

Abduction attempt made on journalist foiled by police: backfires –one abductor dead (Lanka-e-News-24.Aug.2013,9.00PM) In a strange quirk of circumstances , the attempted abduction of Lanka professional media association President, Mandana Ismail, a senior journalist attached to the Sunday Leader by an unidentified group misfired because the police stormed into her house unexpectedly. Consequently one suspect died while a police officer sustained injuries, according to reports reaching Lanka e news. These abductors have entered the house of Ismail at Dickmans road at about 2.30 early morning . At that time , only Mandana’s parents and her child had been in the house , as her husband Romesh is out of the house. These suspects have first confined each member of the family into separate rooms and given the impression they have come for robbery. Though there are wealthy residents at Dickman’s road , these ‘robbers’ entering a journalist’s home for robbery is therefore stupid. All of them were wearing gloves. This group had threatened the daughter , Mandana and her mother by holding knives to their necks while also assaulting Mandana. Thereafter they have ransacked her files apparently search for a file they were looking for. They have spent about two hours examining a file. One of the marauders had then said, at about 4.30 a.m. , as a lot of time had already been spent , to expedite the action . When Mandana had questioned , ‘who are you all? Take anything and go away.’ Their answer to that was , they are hired to execute a contract. Subsequently when these criminal brutes covered Mandana’s face with a cloth and tried to abduct by holding a knife to her back , the police had arrived. The reason for the police to visit her house was a call made by her husband Romesh who is outside the house to the police emergency 119 , when nobody had answered his call made by him to his family, and therefore he had harbored suspicion. Romesh’s suspicions were heightened because Mandana had been receiving threatening calls for the last several days , and on the 22 nd , a carcass of a dead cat was found thrown into her house , and on the following day her vehicle tires were slit. In addition ,in the last Sunday Iridina a media coolie Keerthi Warnakulasuriya in the defence column had castigated her at length and called her as a traitor. Romesh was aware of the pattern in the past followed by the present criminals who are highest in the hierarchy where after fastening the label of traitor first , it is followed by assaulting , abducting or killing of journalists . He was hence obviously perturbed when his call received no response that night . The unexpected arrival of the police on the scene had caused panic among the criminal marauders who have shot at the police and tried to flee whereupon the police had retaliated resulting in one of the marauders who sustained injuries succumbing to the injuries after admission to hospital . In the struggle between the police and the criminal marauders , one police officer had got stabbed , and is now hospitalized. The remaining five suspects had been arrested, according to reports. A grenade had also been found on the ground which had dropped down from one of those arrested . The police had taken it into custody. (Photos attached below)

Media rights group calls for investigation into attack on journalist

A leading local media rights group today raised serious concerns over a predawn break-in at the house of a senior female journalist in Colombo and demanded a swift investigation into the incident which is the latest in a string of violent atacks on journalists. In the early hours of Saturday (24) a group of men armed with knives and hand grenades stormed the residence of Mandana Ismail Abeywickrama, the Associate Editor of "The Sunday Leader" and the President of the newly formed Sri Lanka Journalists' Trade Union (SLJTU). 

The armed intruders forced their way into the house and threatened the journalist at knifepoint, while her family was asleep. The journalist husband of Abeywickrama, who returned home from work at the time of the incident, brought in the police who shot one of the intruders dead while the rest escaped. At least two of the escapees were later arrested according to police sources.

'Ensure journalist's safety' - FMM

The Free Media Movement (FMM) called the Inspector General of Police for 'rapid and thorough investigation' into the matter while expressing 'suspicion' over the 'true intent' of the attackers.

'The incident raises serious suspicion as the attackers had spent several hours going through various documents and files after cutting off the phone lines' the FMM's Convener Sunil Jayasekara said in a statement.

Days before the incident the tyres of the family vehicle had been slashed while a body of a dead cat was found dumped on their door step. 'The latest incident proves that all such previous 'mysterious' incidents have to be understood as clear warning signs' the FMM said in their statement.

'We urge the Inspector General of Police to carry out an immediate investigation revealing the truth while ensuring the safety of the journalist and her family' the statement further said.

'Unpatriotic'

Meanwhile, the General Secretary of SLJTU, Priyantha Karunaratna, who spoke to media in Colombo said that the 'sordid and organized act had been carried out by those who detest and are alarmed at the practice of the SLJTU and journalism of Ms. Mandana Abeywickrema.'

'The act would have ended Mandana’s life, though it fortunately didn't. Interestingly, during the last two weeks a certain pro-government ‘national’ newspaper had slandered Mandana’s media practice as unpatriotic' he said.

The incident came a day before the UN's human rights chief Navi Pillay's vsit to the island to take stock of the country's 'post war progress.'

Sri Lanka has one of the worst records in the world for press freedom and journalists safety and as has been repeatedly highlight by international media watch dogs. According to the detailed information gathered by the JDS,the government and its paramilitaries stand accused of killing at least 39 journalists and media workers since May 2004.

Photos: Ravindra Puspakumara

Egypt’s Blind Alley; The Gota-Mahinda Riddle; Extremists Vs. Muslims

By Kumar David -August 25, 2013 |

Prof Kumar David

The style today is different; it’s not all on one theme, it is three short pieces on different topics for the reason that if I spread them over three weeks they would all be outdated. Timely comment assists in thinking through events as they unfold and is fodder for latter day historians reviewing analysts’ judgment of events and interventions prescribed. The sorry state of affairs in Egypt and crumbling of the Arab Spring is first. Second, I want to push on with a topic I recently injected into political discourse; is there a disconnect, or is it cunning coordination, between Rajapakse siblings, in recent events –Weliveriya, and violence against Muslims and mosques. The third matter is Sinhala-Buddhist (SB) extremism and the end of low key response by the Muslim community and leaders.

Revolution Betrayed

The debate whether the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) or democratic-radical-secular (DRS) groups including the youth movement Tamarod, did more to destroy the gains of Egypt’s Arab Spring, can go on all night. Growling “a pox upon both your houses” is the most appropriate allocation of culpability for the period prior to the coup. The bigoted and sectarian MB-Morsi government alienated every other shade of opinion and drove Egypt’s minorities and the DRS to desperation and folly.  Then DRS jackasses, with a Judas kiss, delivered the people into the murderous jaws of the military.

The DRS first threw away the 2012 presidential election by putting forward a dozen candidates and opening the door for a runoff between Morsi and a candidate of the old establishment. From then it was all downhill as it staggered from blunder to blunder. Finally it paved the way for a coup and a de facto military regime. It is only a matter of time before the army shoots DRS activists like dogs on the streets if they venture out as the economy deteriorates and democratic rights are further trampled. (From Vannie to Weliveriya, a cynical Lankan would be wont to remark).  Elections next year! What elections with MB, the country’s largest party for better for worse, crushed? Banana republic elections under a military heel!             Read More

Arson attack on anti-DCD activist’s house 

August 23, 2013, 9:39 pm

Dr. (Mrs.) Ajantha Perera examines part of her residence which was fire bombed on Thursday noon by unknown attackers.(Pic. By Kamal Bogoda)

By Norman Plaihawadana

Unidentified persons set fire to a window at Dr. (Mrs) Ajantha Perera’s house in Rattanapitiya, at noon on Thursday.

She said that members of the household were away at the time of the incident.

Dr. Perera, who is a vehement campaigner against contaminated milk powder is also the Chairperson of the Association of Consumer Action and Consumer representative of the Food Advisory Committee at the Health Ministry.

Asked whether she suspected anyone, Dr. Perera told The Island that it could be the work of some elements who wanted to stop her campaign against contaminated milk powder. She added that she would not yield to threats. "I will continue my campaign against unethical and fraudulent practices and would not resign from any committee however big the threat is and no one can influence my decisions," she said.

Dr. Perera is also a leading environmentalist who has grappled with a number of burning issues which have been detrimental to the country.

Boralesgamuwa police investigating the incident have so far drawn a blank.

Were Returning Officers (GAs) asleep?

August 23, 2013

I am astounded by the Election Commissioner’s toothless threat to deny gazetting to elected candidates who have not declared their assets. I’ll eat my hat if he can ever do this.

What he should have done is to have instructed the Returning Officers [GAs] to reject all nominations that did not attach a declaration of assets. In any case, GAs should have done so as they are, presumably, aware of this requirement.

On Navi Pillay’s ‘Open-Mind’, Mildly

By Malinda Seneviratne -August 25, 2013

Malinda Seneviratne

Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, is due in Sri Lanka today.  Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe expects Pillay to come with an open mind.  Pillay, for her part, said on Friday (23^rd) that she has an open mind and will not be pre-judging anything ahead of her visit.

Well, words are words, can be used to communicate, can be used to miscommunicate, to lie and distort, play down or exaggerate.  Pillay knows words.  Pillay employs them.  And there are times she’s silent.

Navi Pillay says she won’t pre-judge and that’s a good thing to say.  On the other hand she has pre-judged before and has shown a clear penchant to believe tall stories cooked up by pro-LTTE elements and regurgitated by the naïve or else sour-graped, i.e. those who prayed for a different military outcome in May 2009, backed a different horse or bet on a different political winner in January 2010 and April 2010.  None of the claims treated as fact by Navi Pillay are substantiated; dig from source to source and one ends up with an LTTE spokesperson or someone held hostage by the LTTE as Source No 1.

But Pillay is a human being; she can make mistakes.  There are things Pillay’s confidantes have not told her and things she is not ready to give ear to because she is not ready to believe anything contrary to what she has decided was the truth.  That’s human too.  She cannot with finger-snap divest herself of all the judge-baggage she’s accumulated over the years.  So let us not entertain any illusions about Pillay’s open-heart.

On the other hand part of being human is being able to recognize error and having the humility to acknowledge.  Pillay can compare and contrast. She must.  She can take into account context. She must.  She can be fair. She must.  She can visualize the what-might-have-been if things didn’t happen the way they did.  She must.

All this time, she’s clearly been fed by mischievous elements in the I/NGO sector that sided with the LTTE (for a variety of reasons of course, not necessary because of love for terrorism or Tiger but perhaps in accordance with the adage, ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’).  There was that infamous and laughably flawed ‘Darusman Report’.  There were scurrilous documents authored by pen-for-hire ‘scribes’ who are either utterly naïve or incompetent or else suffered traumatic childhoods,  not to mention great television productions by Channel 4 (key word: productions).  Can Pillay shed all that? Let us see.

Pillay must, most importantly, take care not to confuse issues.  This regime is not the best on earth.  It has erred horrendously on many counts.  In this, there’s very little to pick between this regime and its predecessors going all the way back to 1977 at least.  Pillay’s project however is not regime change.  That’s the business of the people of Sri Lanka.  Now there are people who want regime change (for right and wrong reasons), but it is the most pernicious and politically bankrupt among them who would deliberately tag regime-change-need to a tall, uneven and politically tainted narrative about the last stages of the struggle against terrorism.

Read More

Police, STF placed under new ministry in line with LLRC recommendations – GR

Nanda Mallawaarachchi-August 23, 2013

By Shamindra Ferdinando

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has created an Internal Law and Order ministry to take charge of police operations with immediate effect.

During the conflict the police were under the direct supervision of the Defence Ministry, though the UNP had brought law enforcement operations under a newly created Interior Ministry following the Dec. 2001 general elections. The police were brought back under the Defence ministry by the then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in early 2004.

The Internal Law and Order Ministry was meant to streamline police operations, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told The Island yesterday.

Asked whether the ongoing controversy over the military crackdown on the August 1 Weliweriya protest had prompted the sudden decision, the Defence Secretary said that the new ministry had been created in keeping with the recommendations made by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).

The government was in the process of implementing LLRC recommendations, the Defence Secretary said, adding that eradication of terrorism had paved the way for far reaching changes in the security apparatus.

The official pointed out that the new ministry had been created in an environment free of emergency regulations and Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) which gave security forces wide powers to deal with threats posed to the government.

President Rajapaksa would remain in charge of the newly created ministry, the Defence Secretary said. Sri Lanka’s former ambassador to Indonesia, Major General Nanda Mallawaarachchi would function as the Secretary to the ministry. At the commencement of eelam war II, Mallawaarachchi held the post of Army Chief of Staff during the tenure of Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka as commander of the army. Responding to a query, Defence Secretary Rajapaksa said that the elite Special Task Force (STF), too, would be

He said that successive governments had been compelled to keep the police under direct supervision of the Defence

Ministry during the conflict.

The Strengths And Weaknesses Of A Totally Corrupt Regime

By Emil van der Poorten -August 25, 2013 

Emil van der Poorten

Given Sri Lankans’ penchant for crystal-ball gazing and analysis of everything from the future of the world, through the alleged conduct of Sri Lanka’s version of Murder Incorporated by a Deputy Inspector of Police to the newest forced genuflection of a teacher or rape of a minor by a prominent politician, or reign of terror conducted by our Rana Viruwo, I have, for a time at least, felt sort of left out of the national penchant for endless prediction.

Let me try to make amends this week!

I have been provoked by the most recent defection from the ranks of the United National Party (UNP), the “Grand Old Party,” as some laying claim to political erudition have dubbed it without any respect for the fact that it is the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln in the US that owns that term, one which hardly fits our more appropriately nicknamed the “Uncle Nephew Party.”

When Dayasiri Jayasekera left the UNP under a cloud of suspicion about being, literally, bought over by a regime that wouldn’t know Judas Iscariot from Mary Magdalene, the tongues began wagging again.  Even if, in the last analysis, applying all that time and trouble to the behaviour of one to whom the term “political lightweight” would be an over-statement, it cannot be sufficiently emphasized that this is not a piece of aberrant behavior but just another link in the chain of endless corruption that seems the obsession of a government that epitomizes viciousness and totally unprincipled conduct.

Given that lengthy preamble, whoever has reached this point of my narrative is certainly entitled to a return to the pith of the argument!

I would suggest that a detailed recounting of the recruitments of the good, the bad and the ugly that now fill the ranks of the United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) would make the gang that they started out with look like the “good guys” in some penny dreadful of the last century.  After all, those who’ve extracted substantial bribes from the medical system, monopolized paddy purchasing in the North Central Province, or done the same to sand-mining  from the Mahaveli would look like paragons of virtue beside those who’ve sexually harassed track athletes of international fame, shot to death several of their supposed political allies, and been accused of raping children.                                     Read More