Welcoming the Verdict of the Tamil People

Image courtesy AFP

• by Kalana Senaratne
• - on 09/23/2013 

The TNA has swept the polls in the North. More importantly, the Tamil people have voted courageously, convincingly, and clearly. It was an expected outcome, but as President Rajapaksa took off to New York, he would have known that numbers and statistics on paper, more than just mind-made presumptions, can have a very coruscating impact, that the numbers in this case do not lie; not in the ‘South’, and never in the ‘North’.

Welcoming the Verdict of the Tamil People by nelvely

Minister CB and brother wreak revenge – damage property and attack people – MaRa lawless reign post election violence
(Lanka-e-News-22.Sep.2013,11.30PM) The MaRa lawless government transport Minister C B Ratnayake and his younger brother S B Ratnayake who is a candidate at this PC election had arrived at Nildandaginna , Walapane with a gang of goons and wrought havoc indulging in post elections violence . They had set fire to buses , attacked householders and their houses creating fear , panic and pandemonium, according to reports .

Some days ago when the Minister and his brother were on their way to the UPFA rally , another group of UPFA supporters had thrown fecal matter and urine in polythene bags at them . The Minister and brother who had waited until the elections were over to avenge the attack had with their goons gone on a rampage damaging property and people who they believed as responsible for the pre election fecal and urine filled polythene bags attack. The destruction and assaults have been launched at about 11.00 p.m. yesterday.

Underworld criminals including notorious ‘Kukuna’ and his younger brother were among the group of about 15 who arrived to launch the attack. A bus 62-7736 belonging to Ratnayake Mudiyansalage Sumith Ratnayake worth Rs. 4 million had been completely reduced to ashes following the arson committed by the UFFA Ministers and his brother’s marauding gang . The bus is still burning based on reports . Even the team that came to douse the fire had been furiously set upon by the Minister and his gang ,and fired at with T 56 weapons.

These goons and gangs have also broken into houses, forced out the householders made them to kneel and had assaulted them ruthlessly .

It is noteworthy that his own party UPFA supporters launched the attack on the Minister C B Ratnayake on the day of the pre election rally in protest against the monumental fraud allegedly committed by him by remitting massive amounts of public funds to a foreign account . It is in order to wreak revenge for the humiliation he faced on that day and to conceal the fraud via intimidation and violence ,he had organized this indiscriminate brutal attack on the peaceful people -the characteristic criminal method used by the corrupt MaRa’s Ministers to cover up their frauds and crimes under a lawless climate stoked by their mentor. It is natural for criminals, frauds and the corrupt to take the law into their hands when the country’s rule of law is trampled by the rulers themselves .

NPC Elections: Sampanthan’s Leadership To TNA And The Way Forward

By R. Balachandran -September 23, 2013 

R. Balachandran

TNA’s overwhelming victory in the Northern Provincial Council has become the talk of the town as it results clearly showcased the aspiration of the Tamil people in the North.

Even though the TNA’s victory in the election was predicted well ahead, the final result came as a scathing blow to the ruling UPFA alliance. The reason behind this is that, TNA’s plead to the people in the North to give them not just a win but a two thirds majority was granted emphatically.

Given the prevailing situation in the country, TNA’s landmark victory in the Northern Provincial Council could be attributed the party’s strategically planned and executed election campaign.

Selection of Mr. C.V. Wigneswaran as the chief ministerial candidate

Unlike for the Eastern Provincial Council elections, the TNA had to decide on a chief ministerial candidate for the Northern Provincial Council elections.

This, however, proved to be an opportunity for the party’s leader, Mr. Sampanthan, to learn from past blunders. The veteran politician did not make the same mistake twice as he went on to impose himself on the party’s decision to select a Chief Ministerial candidate.

It was not an easy decision for Mr. Sampanthan as all those who opposed Mr. Wigneswaran and supported Mavai Senathirajah had valid reasons for their arguments. In spite of the internal riff raff, Mr. Sampanthan tactfully brought the TNA to a consensus at a very tough parliamentary group meeting.  Looking back, there is no doubt that the outcome of that monumental meeting was emphatically manifested in Saturday’s election results.

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Northern PC: Lesson To Learn, Landmine To Avoid

By Dayan Jayatilleka -September 23, 2013 

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

Having been in my early 30s, a Minister in the North-East Provincial Council a quarter century ago – I resigned within six months –  I remember how easily it can all go wrong and what the landmines are. I also have some sense of how they may be avoided; what must be done and what is to be avoided by both sides.

The primary task of the newly elected Council led by Justice Wigneswaranmust be to last its full term; to “remain at the crease” in cricketing parlance, putting runs on the board but not throwing one’s wicket away. As with a Presidency, so also with a Provincial Council and even more so, by which I mean that the tasks of the second term must not be attempted in the first.

It is likely that Tamil nationalist sentiment assesses the degree of external support to be such that the Government would be unable to dissolve the Council. That is a very risky calculus, because the NEPC was dissolved despite a far stronger external presence on the ground in the North-east, namely, the Indian Peacekeeping Force.

Two factors combined to effect that dissolution and a combination of such factors could do so again. One was political adventurism on the part of the Council, manifested in the announcement, not of an independent Tamil Eelam, but of a deadline and the intent to declare a separate state if certain demands were not met within a specific time frame.  Those demands included a Sri Lankan troop pullback. In short, the first factor was a manifest threat on the part of the Council.                        Read More 

The political landscape post the provincial polls

Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images

• by Harim Peiris
• - on 09/23/2013 

The elections to the North Western, Central and Northern provincial councils are over and the results have been largely as many political analysts predicted. The UPFA won in both the North Western and the Central provinces, while the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) romped home in the North. The political landscape though remains largely unchanged subsequent to the polls, with the polls reiterating but not altering the political dynamics that existed since the end of the war and the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2010.

The Political Landscape Post the Provincial Polls by nelvely

There Is Something In The Air In The North Of Sri Lanka

By TU Senan -September 23, 2013 

TU Senan

‘It’s a ghost of the past,’ shouted the media in the south. The northern media, however, was relentless in creating the ghost of a new future.

The North had not seen an election of this kind for decades. In the first and only Northern Province Council (NPC) election, held in 1988, a dismal number of people turned out to vote – so embarrassing that the number of votes were not even widely published!

Then the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) in control of the north, with the Indian army, won all seats. Contrast that to the second NPC election 25 years later. On a 68% turnout 78.48% of the votes went to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) under the party name of Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK). The TNA won 30 out of the 38 contested seats.

Voting did not take place under normal conditions. The government will most likely use this result to boost their false propaganda that democracy is blossoming in the country. Basil Rajapaksa declared that the very holding of an election in the north is itself a ‘victory’. But the level of election-related violence and the numerous breaches of electoral rules give the lie to any such claim.

The reaction of Tamils in the north to the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and their puppet, the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), had an element of being a ‘political revolt’. The ruling party, their candidate, and the authorities tried many tricks – not to win the election but at least to prevent an outright majority for the TNA.                                                         Read More

Must Not Rest On Oars: The EPDP In Rage Must Be De-Fanged

By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole -September 23, 2013

Prof S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole

Congratulations are due to Chief Minister-Elect C.V. Wigneswaran, the TNA and to the many observers whose vigilance and reporting made the usual ballot-box-stuffing difficult for the government and its EPDP ally. The TNA’s performance turned out to be better than even the Federal Party’s best under SJV Chelvanayagam. Even in landslide victories we do not see the winning party reaching nearly 80% of the vote as did the TNA. It goes to show how this government has totally alienated the Tamil people. The meager 6 seats out of 36 for the government are likely from the votes of soldiers and die-hard EPDP persons whose days of terror need to be ended.

Reports from the islands off Jaffna say that on Sunday Sept. 22, between 1PM -4PM, EPDP goons have severely assaulted with batons 26 persons who worked for the TNA in Puliyankoodal, Oorkavat-thurai, Velanai, Thambaati, Chaati and Naranthanai. It would appear they are unable to bear the loss in democratic spirit.

This kind of retaliatory violence no longer has a place in the North. It is time for the government to disarm the paramilitary personnel of the EPDP whose guns are used only to terrorize the public. Even during the LLRC hearings armed members of the EPDP came into hearing rooms with guns in their waistband to intimidate witnesses who might have given evidence against them. Even though present, the police did not ‘see’ what the public saw.                                        Read More

Tamils vote overwhelmingly for self-determination in the NPC election - BTF

Monday, 23 September 2013

 

The Tamil people have once again stated loud and clear their desire to determine their own future by voting for the Tamil National Alliance in overwhelming numbers in the Northern Provincial Council Election.

British Tamils Forum calls on the international community to take heed of the message delivered by the voters of the Northern Province; the Tamil national question and Sri Lanka’s perpetual human rights crisis will only ever be resolved by giving the Tamil people the chance to decide for themselves how, and by whom, they wish to be governed.

It is widely agreed that the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) will be a largely ineffectual body, with negligible executive power. Furthermore, in the past few months the Sri Lankan government has openly stated its intention to even further limit the power of the council by stripping it of land and police powers.

Nevertheless, the NPC election has been of significance for one reason only. Following the atrocities of 2009, the Tamil population of the Northern Province had been given a historic opportunity to either:

a) Reaffirm their desire for self-determination – first expressed through the Vaddukkoddai Resolution, mandated in 1977 – by voting for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA); or

b) Give up on this desire, by showing support for Sri Lanka’s ruling, Sinhala-dominated United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA).

With the TNA winning 30 out of 38 council seats, there can be little doubt which option the Tamil people have chosen.

The Tamil people’s overwhelming support for Tamil rule in the election is made all the more remarkable by the widespread violence, intimidation and misinformation they faced in the run-up to and on the day of the election. Examples include:

· The murder of a TNA activist;

· The disruption of TNA campaign meetings and threatening attendees;

· An attack on the home of a TNA candidate and assault of an election monitor who came to investigate;

· Intimidation by unidentified gangs who roamed Tamil villages, defacing TNA posters and daubing pro-UPFA graffiti, in an effort to dissuade Tamil villagers from voting;

· The publication of counterfeit newspapers to spread misinformation about a Tamil candidate.

In addition, the Sri Lankan government unashamedly tried to bribe the votes of Tamil people in the final weeks of the election campaign by promising all manner of infrastructure and “development” projects for the region.

That Sri Lanka’s ruling alliance received such a drubbing in the election – despite the threats and bribes it offered the Tamil people – is testament to the courage and overwhelming conviction of the Tamil people. Furthermore, the shocking reports of intimidation during this election – often in full view of election monitors and the media – should serve as a reminder to the global Tamil community that it is their duty to speak up and tell the world about the injustices and persecution faced by their kin in the island of Sri Lanka.

The international community has long been reluctant to recognise the Tamil people’s desire for self-determination. Instead, international actors have largely insisted on framing all the atrocities and violations that have been perpetrated by the Sri Lankan state squarely within the framework of human rights and good governance. The Tamil people’s longstanding charge that they face genocide by the Sri Lankan state is wishfully dismissed as exaggeration.

However, following these election results, the international community must finally listen to the opinion of the vast majority of Tamil people. The decades of violence and persecution they have faced is genocide, and the Tamil people really do want to choose how they govern themselves.

Furthermore, angered by its election defeat, the Sri Lankan government is likely to further intensify its campaign of persecution against the Tamil people – whether it be sexual and physical violence against Tamil civilians, the theft of Tamil lands, or the deprivation of Tamil livelihoods. The Tamil people need protection from these genocidal acts – and all those responsible for previous acts of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity must be brought to account through an independent, international investigation.

Given the increasingly perilous position of the Tamil people in Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka, it is more important than ever that the international community works with the Tamil people, and the Tamil-mandated TNA, to safeguard their human, political and cultural rights – including their right to self-determination – and to protect them from the genocide perpetrated by the Sri Lankan state. British Tamils Forum stands shoulder to shoulder with any individual or organisation that works towards these aims.

Sunila - A Tribute to an indefatigable defender of human dignity

"What does it mean to call a country democratic when government critics are exiled and branded terrorists? Who decides what is patriotic and what is not? Whose voices are actually being heard? Whose rights are really being protected?"

BY N. SHANMUGARATNAM-

23 SEPTEMBER 2013

-- Sunila Abeysekera, interviewed by Kiri Westby, Huff Post World, 10/22/2012

The last time I saw Sunila was on October 2, 2012, when she visited the Norwegian University of Life Sciences to speak on Women’s situation and human rights under militarisation of society: the case of Sri Lanka and personal experience as a ‘Scholar at Risk (SAT)’. She had sent me a mail about her visit to Norway although I already knew about it from university sources, and was looking forward to seeing her on the campus at Aas. She was a guest of the ‘Norway Section of SAT’, which is a network of several universities and university colleges in Norway. At the time, Sunila was based at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, of which she was an alumna. We had not met for some years and it was nice to see Sunila in her cheerful self during a chat before her talk. After the talk, while having lunch in the university’s main cafeteria, she did tell me and a couple of colleagues about her illness. We had hoped it was treatable.

Sunila - A Tribute to an Indefatigable Defender of Human Dignity by nelvely

The Letter The ‘London Times’ Didn’t Publish

By Revd. Lakshman Wickremesinghe -September 23, 2013 |

Bishop Lakshman Wickremasinghe

The late Bishop of Kurunegala, the Revd. Lakshman Wickremesinghe’s letter he wrote to the London Times on 8 December, 1982  in response to a  leader published in that newspaper which that venerable newspaper did not publish. This  letter was later published in the Lanka Guardian (Vol 6  No.20 of 15 February, 1984) edited by the late Mervyn de Silva. We reproduce below the letter in full

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A Cry From The Heart

By Revd. Lakshman 

Wickremesinghe -September 23, 2013 |

30 years ago today the late Bishop of Kurunegala, the Revd. Lakshman Wickremesinghe, one of Sri Lanka’s finest sons, delivered what turned out to be his final Pastoral Address to his diocese. Because of the continuing relevance of issues raised in that insightful Address we reproduce it today.

 today.

Late Bishop of Kurunegala, Revd. Lakshman Wickremesinghe

There are theories and there are facts. Theo- ries vary… The facts however cannot be de- nied. Thousands of Tamils, old and young, and even little children, were assaulted, robbed, killed, bereaved, and made refugees. They saw their homes, possessions, vehicles, shops and factories plundered, burnt or destroyed. These people were humiliated, made to live in fear and rendered helpless…

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GTF: NPC result meant Tamils want political freedom

September 22, 2013, 8:37 pm 

The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) yesterday asserted that the ITAK’s overwhelming victory, at the first Northern Provincial Council polls, meant that Tamil speaking people want political freedom.

UK based GTF spokesperson Suren Surendiran issued the following statement in response to a query by The Island at the conclusion of the election: "Under occupying military intimidation and violence the defiant Tamil people of North have shown, in unprecedented record numbers, their true aspirations through the ballot box.

"President Rajapaksa and his government, including some of his Tamil collaborators, must at least now understand that mere infrastructure development and reconstruction is not what our people want.

"Our people want a political solution that will allow them to be self-governing.

"If the President and his brothers believe that their manifesto is what the southerners have voted for, it is the TNA’s manifesto, that the northerners have voted for too, which incidentally calls for an international independent investigation into the alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed against their loved ones at the end of the war, four years ago."

Winners and losers

Editorial-September 22, 2013

The PC polls have ended without surprises. The UPFA has won comfortably in the Northwestern (NWP) and Central Provinces (CP) and the TNA has swept the polls in the Northern Province (NP). The UNP and the JVP have lost as usual and Gen. Sarath Fonseka’s newly formed Democratic Party (DP) has got something to crow about. The Elections Commissioner says the polls were free and fair in spite of several incidents.

The TNA has naturally become the centre of attention. It bagged the North in style by winning all electorates in that province and obtaining 78.48% of the votes and 30 seats—UPFA 18.38% and 7 seats, the SLMC 1.5 % and one seat and the UNP 0.68% and no seat. For a political party, winning an election is one thing but retaining its popularity as well as honouring its promises is quite another. This is the task before the TNA. It has a choice between adopting a confrontational approach in dealing with the government from the word go and making use of its popular mandate to work for the betterment of the North. This is the first time the TNA is going to wield power and whether it will be able to live up to people’s expectations remains to be seen.

Either the UNP or the SLFP has so far controlled the provincial councils since the EPRLF-run North-East PC was dissolved in 1989. With the TNA out to exercise all powers under the 13th Amendment we will see how devolution really works.

The DP has eaten into the vote bases of the UPFA, the UNP and the JVP considerably. In the NWP it polled 4.34% of votes (3 seats)—UPFA 66.43% (34 seats), UNP 24.21% (12 seats), SLMC 2.62% (two seats) and JVP 1.85% (one seat). In the Central Province it polled 3.8% of votes and won two seats—UPFA 60.16% (36 seats), UNP 27.79%, (16 seats), CWC P-wing 2.46% (two seats), SLMC 1.49% (one seat), the Up Country People’s Front 2.09% (one seat) and the JVP 1.17% (no seat).

Gen. Fonseka has proved that hard work pays. He beavered away at his party’s polls campaign for weeks on end, addressing as he did hundreds of pocket meetings. However, if he is to realise his goal of challenging the government effectively his target should be the UNP and not the JVP.

The need for a course correction has been staring the UNP in the face for a long time. Unless it sorted out its internal problems and got its act together without relying on forging alliances with microscopic parties to gain political traction, a comeback wouldn’t be possible in the foreseeable future. Its vote base has shrunk in the NWP from 28.07% (in 2009) to 24.21% and the number of seats has dropped from 14 (in 2009) to 12. In the CP its votes have come down from 38.65% (in 2009) to 27.79% and the number of its seats has decreased from 22 (in 2009) to 16. It managed to win only one electorate (Mahanuwara) out of a total of 40 in the two provinces.

The UPFA has reason to worry in the NWP. It mobilised the entire state machinery in its expensive election campaign, but its vote base has shrunk from 69.43% (in 2009) to 66.43%. It has lost three seats out of 37 it had in the previous council. However, it obtained 60.16% of votes in the CP as opposed to 59.53% in 2009 and retained all its seats (36). It has, no doubt, secured a bridgehead in northern politics but it has its work cut out where the expansion of its support base in that part of the country is concerned. Development alone won’t work.

The government, however, ought to continue its development work in the North in spite of the TNA’s spectacular victory the way it is doing in the Colombo City despite its loss to the UNP at the last local government polls. The interests of people should take precedence over everything else.

One of our journalists who toured the North prior to the PC polls tells us that in Kilinochchi an elderly Tamil gentleman who had nice things to say about the government, when asked whether he would vote for the UPFA, answered in the negative. He said the TNA was his choice. Asked why, he replied, "Simply because a woman smiles with a man, it doesn’t mean she is ready to marry him." Perhaps, this is the best description of the people’s verdict in the North.

The North has smiled and it is up to the government to woo her further and build a strong relationship.

The ‘immorality’ of chemical weapons

Andy Ho-Published: Saturday, September 21, 2013

In August last year, United States President Barack Obama declared that if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should ever use chemical weapons against rebels, he would consider a “red line” crossed.
The ‘immorality’ of chemical weapons by nelvely

India among top targets of spying by NSA

• In the overall list of countries spied on by NSA programs, India stands at fifth place, with billions of pieces of information plucked from its telephone and internet networks just in 30 days. File Photo: AP

RIO DE JANEIRO, September 23, 2013

GLENN GREENWALD 

SHOBHAN SAXENA

Snowden’s files show billions of pieces of phone & internet data plucked

Among the BRICS group of emerging nations, which featured quite high on the list of countries targeted by the secret surveillance programs of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) for collecting telephone data and internet records, India was the number one target of snooping by the American agency.

In the overall list of countries spied on by NSA programs, India stands at fifth place, with billions of pieces of information plucked from its telephone and internet networks just in 30 days.

India Among Top Targets of Spying by NSA by nelvely

Should Central Banks Make Profits?

By W.A Wijewardena -September 23, 2013 

Dr. W.A. Wijewardena

Fuss over Central Bank’s reduced level of profits

A few years back, when the Central Bank’s senior officers were summoned before the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises, commonly known as COPE, the members of the Committee were inquisitive about the Central Bank’s making a lesser amount of profits in the year in question compared to the previous year. The Committee had been guided by a report filed by the Auditor General.

The Committee was perplexed when it was explained to them that a good central bank is not supposed to make profits, unlike other organisations; central banks can make profits just by making book entries, those book entries invariably lead to an increase in money supply and through it an increase in inflation rate and therefore good central banks which are expected to keep inflation at a low and stable level do not target for profits but allow profits to arise in their normal monetary policy operations.

By the same token, if a central bank has increased its profit levels through its domestic operations, it means that the particular central bank has caused inflation in the economy by expanding its asset base and it is not a good barometer of evaluating the performance of a central bank.      Read More

My Memories Of The Rt. Revd. Lakshman Wickremesinghe (1927 – 1983)

Late Bishop of Kurunegala, Revd. Lakshman Wickremesinghe

By Tissa Jayatilaka -September 23, 2013 

Tissa Jayatilaka

Thirty years have passed by since we experienced three significant events in the recent history of our country.  Coincidentally the 23^rd of July, September and October of 1983 are yoked together in our memory. What we have come to identify as “Black July” of Sri Lanka, when unarmed Tamil citizens were attacked and killed by goons associated with leading members of the Government of Sri Lanka of the time, began on 23 July, 1983.  Two months later on 23 September, one of Sri Lanka’s finest sons spoke sincerely, eloquently, passionately and apologetically about  our national  tragedy focusing  on  ‘Black July’ when he addressed his diocese in Kurunegala, in what  turned out to be his last Pastoral Address. A month later on 23 October, that marvellous son of Sri Lanka lay dead.  I refer to the late Bishop Cyril Lakshman Wickremesinghe and write these several inadequate words to remember him with love and gratitude on this thirtieth anniversary of that insightful Pastoral Address.Read More