Sunday, October 27, 2013

Genocide Replaces Separatism in Tamil Diaspora Vocabulary

By Samuel Oakford-Sunday, October 27, 2013

This article is the second of a two-part series on the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora in the years since the civil war ended in 2009.

Tamils protest Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's speech at the U.N. General Assembly, Sept. 24, 2013. Credit: Samuel Oakford/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 26 2013 (IPS) - Sri Lankan Tamil hopes for a separate state – Tamil Eelam – in the north and east of the island were dashed when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were summarily defeated in May 2009 by government forces.

Allegations of war crimes during the final months of the Sri Lankan Civil War have offered an agenda to a diaspora groups struggling to find their place in a post-separatist political scene.

But for a diaspora that was largely responsible for financing one side of a three-decade war, questions remain about what role these groups should play.

Excoriating their own lack of action during those months, a 2011 U.N. Panel of Experts Report found that the Sri Lankan government repeatedly attacked “No Fire Zones” where it had told civilians to congregate and “systematically shelled hospitals on the frontlines.”

The report concluded that most of the estimated at least 40,000 civilian deaths “in the final phase of the war were caused by government shelling.”

President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed a commission of inquiry in 2010 to investigate the war but it was heavily criticised by international human rights groups for lacking independence.

This September, the office of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, stated she had “detected no new or comprehensive effort to independently or credibly investigate the allegations which have been of concern to the Human Rights Council.”

Pillay will submit a full report with recommendations at the 25^th session of the Human Rights Council in March 2014. She has given that month as a deadline for the Sri Lankan government to carry out a credible national enquiry. If they do not, she will recommend the international community establish its own.

Visvanathan Rudrakumaran, the prime minister of the Transnational Government of Tamil Elaam (TGTE), one of the groups most closely linked to the remnants of the LTTE, said what took place was genocide and alleged war crimes should be recognised as such.

“Our struggle is to demonstrate to the world that what happened in Sri Lanka is an act of genocide, so that will convince the international community that reconciliation is not possible,” Rudrakumaran said in an interview with IPS.

He believes the ill-treatment of Tamils under the current Sinhalese Buddhist government isn’t likely to stop and the only solution is a separate state.

“Rajapaksa is the latest manifestation of Sinhalese chauvinism” he told IPS. “Sinhalese oppression did not start with Rajapaksa… it’s been going on since independence.”

For Rudrakumaran, proving genocide is a natural evolution from a separatist ideology, and a means to an end. How that could come about is unclear.

Other groups, like the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), have toned down their words.

“If you ask a Tamil person, they would love to see a separate state,” said David Poopalapillai, national spokesperson of the CTC. “But having said that, normalisation is our policy.”

The CTC and the umbrella Global Tamil Forum (GTF) have supported Northern Council Elections in September, which despite heavy voter intimidation, were won handily by the moderate Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

The TNA is seen as moderate, but many diaspora groups point to their late adoption of LTTE rhetoric and imagery as evidence a hardline is still necessary.

CTC press releases published before and after the election make no mention of war crimes or genocide.

“Any solution that the TNA comes up with, the diaspora should be happy with,” said Poopalapillai.

Without the leverage afforded by Tamil Eelam, the diaspora worries its voices will be relegated to the chorus of marginalised groups around the world. Refusing to let up pressure has had the effect of discouraging self-reflection.

“It’s sort of a human truism, Tigers don’t change their stripes,” said Gordon Weiss, the U.N. spokesperson in Sri Lanka at the war’s end.

“It really requires a big leap for people to completely drop the things people have believed and repeated and lived among groups of people who have repeated as well and suddenly turn around and say a separate state won’t work.”

But claims of genocide are difficult to prove to an international community hesitant to become embroiled in the moral prerogatives that accompany the term.

And because such a massive element of the diaspora was in some way linked to the LTTE – a group that pioneered suicide bombings and conscripted children to fight the state – it is potentially weakened by the very organisational unity it once boasted.

“I think that the issue of accountability for what happened during the war has not been helped by the past associations with the Tamil Tigers or the ongoing goals of some Tamil groups for a separate state and raising allegations of genocide,” said Weiss. “Combined, they have not necessarily advanced Tamil aspirations.”

Focusing so greatly on genocide puts a full reckoning of the war at risk and muddies chances for reconciliation, said Alan Keenan, a Sri Lanka analyst at the International Crisis Group.

“It is certainly possible that one might someday be able to prove in a court of law what happened in Sri Lanka was genocide,” Keenan told IPS.

“But the current use of the genocide framework makes it harder for Tamils to have a discussion about the various ways that the LTTE contributed to their community’s catastrophe. And by painting things in such a black and white fashion, it also makes it harder for Sinhalese to accept their own community’s responsibility for atrocities.”

Weiss, whose book, “The Cage,” lays out a detailed case for charging the Sri Lankan government with war crimes, believes no lasting solution can be reached without an investigation and eventually a truth and reconciliation process that puts the crimes of both sides out in the open.

Yet the current political set-up, fueled in no small part by the diaspora, gives the Rajapaksa government little incentive to cooperate.

“Part of the problem is their culpability is intimately entwined with allegations of war crimes,” said Weiss. “It makes it very unlikely that the current government will be going down the path [of a true investigation] unless they can sell an amnesty package.”

This leaves diaspora groups in a painful bind. Do they prioritise engagement via the TNA and national politics or focus their attention on a distant and slow-moving international system, beholden to the whim of unfriendly U.N. Security Council members?

The diaspora and Tamils in Sri Lanka can postpone self-reflection in part because the government has continued with land grabs and human rights abuses and exhibited a general intransigence when it comes to reconciliation, said Keenan.

“If the Sri Lankan government gave reforms that would treat Tamils as equal citizens, that would give Tamils more space to criticise their own past leadership,” said Keenan. “As long as the government is being so harsh, it’s hard for Tamils to look at their own leaders’ mistakes.”

Part One of this series can be found here.

Northern Provincial Council: Openings And Democratisation

By Ahilan Kadirgamar -October 27, 2013

Ahilan Kadirgamar

The first time I spoke at the Faculty of Arts Seminar Series was in January 2008. It was at a very different moment, at the height of the civil war. My talk was titled “Third World Sovereignty, Conflicts and Democratisation” and was primarily a critique of law, particularly international law. At the time, I highlighted the importance of domestic political processes in seeking a viable political solution. I want to emphasise that four and a half years after the war, little progress has been made towards a political solution. Next, the debates on Sri Lanka, both within Sri Lanka and without, continue to focus on international law, sovereignty and the right to self-determination. I believe it is important to challenge the terms of such discourse, particularly given their currency in international and statist interventions. Furthermore, the limited politics circumscribed by law fall far short of the much need progressive politics of social justice and democratisation.

The Provincial Council elections in the Northern Province took place after twenty five years. The Government took over four years after the war ended to hold the NPC elections, losing valuable time, leading to further ethnic polarisation. The post-war North approaching the elections was characterised by militarisation, a polarising Tamil nationalist discourse on the ascendance, and a development programme that had failed the ordinary people. Indeed, the results of the elections were but an overwhelming protest vote against the Government’s post-war policies in the North. However, it is important to realise that the outcome of the elections and the NPC has created openings. These openings are fragile, but are perhaps the most significant for the North in the post-war years.

Political Economy of Openings

I begin by articulating two aspects of these openings, which are both in and of the North. First, in temporal terms, these openings are historical opportunities. Second, in spatial terms, these openings are about transforming the geography including the borders of the North. Furthermore, any understanding of these historical and geographical openings should contextualise them in relation to barriers that closed the North in the past. Militarisation, the market, financialisation, nationalist ideology and the reduction of politics to law are characteristic of such barriers.

What is then the political economic context of these historical and geographical openings? Opportunities for capital accumulation were limited in the North as production stagnated with production facilities far behind the rest of the country. This is also true of Jaffna despite having remained relatively unscathed by major battles during the last decade of war. The situation in the Vanni was dismal with the region being razed to the ground during the last phase of the war. Read More

So now we know the truth about eu gsp plus

Sunday, October 27, 2013

This week, the Government of Sri Lanka admitted for the first time, the financial losses that the country has been subjected to as a result of losing the European Union (EU) GSP Plus facility in 2010. At the time that we bartered away this facility, what was told to us was quite a different story. Shrugging off prophecies of severe impact on the apparel industry, ministerial spokesmen boasted that Sri Lanka did not actually need this facility and that its removal would not cause major financial impact.

A curious question

Now we hear the truth, albeit dragged out unwillingly from none other than the proverbial horse’s mouth or in other words, from Minister of Investment Promotion Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena in Parliament in response to an opposition question. In brief, the loss of this facility ‘has caused the closure of 25 apparel factories, forcing almost 10,000 people out of work, with the total loss to the country exceeding Rs. 782 million from apparel exports’ (Daily Financial Times, 24^th October 2013).

To a casual observer, it may be a curious question as to why the government would dig in its heels in refusing to honour preconditions laid down by the EU which were applicable to all interested countries, not only Sri Lanka. Was this part of a grand Western plan to subordinate the country to vested interests, one could ask? Was Sri Lanka being asked to perform to impossible standards, to satisfy unreachable goals as part of a scheme designed to humiliate the country for having won the war against the Tamil Tigers so as to speak?

Forsaking a sensible approach

The reality was very far from this case. At that time, talk of international conspiracies and a Tiger hiding behind every bush had, true enough, not been rubbished so thoroughly as now. These games became particularly ridiculous after the impeachment of the country’s 43^rd Chief Justice when even the Chief Prelates, senior clergy of the Congress of Religions and industry leaders were accused of being conspirators when they rightly voiced their perturbation.

This is not to deny that the propaganda network operated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or its remnants after the 2009 military defeat is certainly highly skilled in its functioning. Yet the best way to meet that propaganda would have been through reasoned debate. Rather than this most eminently sensible approach, every dissenter was labeled an international conspirator to the extent that government propaganda backfired, making its progenitors look remarkably silly. Such counterproductive rantings were evidenced in respect of all critiques made of government action, national or international, constructive or abrasive. To make matters worse, this was complimented (if one may call it that) by uncouth and abusive government supporters traipsing the halls of the United Nations tasked with the sole objective of harassing and humiliating critical voices. This crude behaviour got to be so problematic that even those United Nations diplomats who tended to be partial towards Sri Lanka on the basis that the country needed more time to recover from a decades-long conflict, stood back appalled. It is encouraging to see that in the past year, such asinine behavior in international fora has changed to some extent though much of the damage has already been done.

Uncanny foreshadowing of the LLRC

But when the EU GSP facility was under reconsideration three years ago, this propaganda attack was on in full throated fury, regardless of anxious interviews to the newspapers by EU representatives who almost imploringly yet vainly called upon the government to yield a little. And what exactly were these preconditions for the GSP Plus facility? Did they involve the country’s national security or the integrity of the State?

The converse was the case. In fact, in an almost uncanny foreshadowing of later events, much of what the EU said reflected what this government’s proudly homegrown Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) itself said a few years later. And in an aside, it is vastly amusing to recall that, true to form, the lunatic fringe Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) went so far as to allege that the LLRC had betrayed the country.

Brushing this aside, detailed examination of commonalities between the EU’s recommendations and what the LLRC recommended would be an interesting effort for another occasion. Suffice to say for the moment that the politicization of the police investigative function, the need for an independent National Police Commission and the separation of the military command structure from the Department of the Police were important common points. Needless to say, this demand cannot be met by a farcical Ministry of Law and Order operating under a political authority which remains linked to the military.

The practical manifestation of the absurdities that arise consequently was seen very well this week when the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence severely castigated the North’s Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran for asking that police powers be effectively devolved. It may well be asked as to how the Defence Secretary can make these statements when the Department of the Police (or so we are informed) has been moved to a new Ministry. This clearly shows the command responsibility still exercised by the Ministry of Defence over the Police.

Losses to the country due to braggadocio

Let us be very clear on this in the final result. The EU GSP Plus facility was not extended to Sri Lanka in 2010 because the government refused to take certain steps for the betterment of its own people. This call was not part of a grand international design to humiliate Sri Lanka. If the country had a Minister of Foreign Affairs who was less cravenly servile to the Rajapaksa administration, this would have been apparent at that time itself.

Instead, what we saw unseemly braggadocio. Years later, the government now admits the negative impact of the loss of this facility on apparel industry workers who form part of our society’s underprivileged. These matters are however inconsequential for the politically privileged who luxuriate in their expressways and mushrooming five star hotels. Unfortunately, this continues to be the common tale of woe of post war Sri Lanka’s poorest sectors, majority and minorities alike.

Casino Circus

By M. A. Sumanthiran -October 27, 2013

M A Sumanthiran

It was with great relief that I noted that the Government had decided to put on hold the decision to approve regulations governing gazette notifications for the establishment of casinos in Colombo. Amidst protest by key government allies SLMC and JVP and opposition party UNP, the powers that be had little choice but to re-think an act that could well turn out to be a disaster for our society and economy.

However, there is no guarantee that this decision will not be brought up again as soon as the heat subsides, as has been the case with other government proposals that have not been received well at the outset and have been passed later with little resistance from us! The casino circus could continue!

As such I would like to assess this issue further. Gambling, as a form of entertainment, can be described simply as playing a game to make a quick buck. To some perhaps the fun is in the game itself. However, to others it is in the risk of gain or loss that comes with one ‘pitch or toss’! To yet others it is in the ‘quick buck’ that can be won so easily – the fact that the chances of losing that ‘quick buck’ are as high is dismissed as negligible! For addiction blinds you to risk, to harm, and before you know it you are caught in its trap. And so the wise man in the Book of Proverbs of the Holy Bible warns us that ‘wealth gained hastily will dwindle…” Here is an indication that money habitually gained without effort, without work may not last.

Make no mistake gambling can become addictive and as such gambling along with smoking and drinking is denounced by most religions as a form of social evil. Some would consider this intolerant. Yet, most people no matter their religion would consider any of the above harmful when indulged in to an extreme.

Not many will attempt to justify chain smoking, drunkenness and protracted gambling, except in that the individual should be free to make their own choice. And yet, leaving cigarettes and alcohol aside, it is noteworthy that research indicates an increase in gambling addiction in areas close to gaming zones.

For example, a 2010 report by Ohio based research firm Community Research Partners (CRP) states that,

“The University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center (NORC 1999) estimates that 1.2%

of U.S. adults are lifetime pathological gamblers and 1.5% are lifetime problem gamblers.

The literature shows a connection between casinos and increased rates of compulsive gambling

problems. Reith et al (2006) cite a variety of research (NORC 1999, Welte et al 2004, Emerson

and Laundegran 1996, Volberg 1995) to show that the location of a casino within 50 miles of an

individual’s home is associated with approximately double the likelihood of problem gambling.

Based on this, opening a casino could potentially double the existing prevalence and social

impacts of problem gambling in a community.”
Read More

Govt. Muslim MPs mum on Casino Bill

By Dinouk Colombage-Sunday, 27 Oct 2013

The controversial Casino Bill (Regulations under Strategic Development Projects Act), which has been withdrawn from Parliament Order Paper, has left the Muslim political circles divided.

Central Provincial Councillor, Azath Salley, has lashed out at the Muslim political figures in the government, accusing them of turning their backs on their religion. "This Casino Bill, and all forms of gambling, goes against the teachings of our religion. On religious grounds we must all stand together and oppose this Bill. It is haram to support such a project," he said.

While Salley went on the offensive, the Muslim members of the ruling coalition used the withdrawal of the Bill from parliamentary debate as an opportunity to avoid commenting. A.H.M. Fowzie, Senior Minister of Urban Affairs, refused to comment on the Bill stating, "There is no need to speak about this since it has been withdrawn from Parliament."

However, Fowzie admitted that if the Bill was taken up again in Parliament for debate with the amendments, then he would comment. "How can I make my stance known until I have seen the Bill? Once it is seen, then only will I comment," he said. The minister refused to comment on whether or not his religion would play a role in his decision to support or oppose the bill.

When contacted, many other Muslim MPs in the government declined to comment and requested not to even mention their names in the story.

According to Quran, gambling is considered to be a sin and is strictly forbidden, while accepting there are benefits to mankind the sin of it outweighs them.

On the back foot?

Editorial-October 26, 2013, 6:08 pm

The government is clearly on the back foot regarding the controversial casino issue and the decision to review the ill-fated gazette notifications which it had expected to steamroll through parliament last week is clearly the result of three members of the ruling coalition taking a hard line against making this country a casino hub. Neither the JHU, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress nor Minister Wimal Weerawansa’s National Freedom Front have the numbers to rock the government boat in parliament. No political punditry is required to say that their numbers in the legislature would have been much fewer than now if they had run on their own steam rather than under the UPFA umbrella. Yet it is obvious that the president does not wish to have a confrontation with his allies, however small they may be, at this point of time. Therefore a way out is obviously being looked for.

As we said in this space last week, if big time casino operators are being welcomed to Sri Lanka, the country must tax them properly and not offer sweetheart deals. Dr. Harsha de Silva, the UNP National List MP, who has done yeoman service exposing many details of the casino deal that would have remained submerged but for his efforts, has said that the intended taxes are much lower than in other countries in the region. We do not know whether he is right or wrong but Investment Promotion Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene is on record saying that foreign investors are not crazy to come here without incentives. True, we are not the only girl on the beach. Countries like Singapore which had earlier shied away from the gaming industry have now changed their minds and are earning a pretty penny from tightly regulated casinos. Our track record of regulation is weak at best and whether we will do better this time round is moot.

Backpedaling can prove costly in the matter of attracting the foreign direct investment we badly need. James Packer would not have gone as public as he has on what he proposes to do in Colombo unless he had firm assurances of the deal he was getting. The signs are that this will change, though to what extent we do not know. But Packer has not actually put money on the ground and the physical construction of the `mixed development’ of which casinos will be part had not yet begun. So he will not lose much if he pulls out because the deal is lesser than what was originally offered. Not so John Keells Holdings which has begun demolition work on the properties on which the company’s Waterfront Development Project will stand. The conglomerate had vacated its corporate headquarters at Glennie Street and its people are camping out in offices scattered around the city. The last day for payment on the JKH rights issue, raising a substantial cash tranche to pay for the project was Friday. By all accounts the issue was fully subscribed. Investors, no doubt, factored the casino/casinos this project will host into their calculations on the potential earnings from the Waterfront Development; if there is any radical change of plan such calculations can go awry.

This where the government can or indeed must be faulted. Policy must be clear cut and agreements must both be transparent and honored. There should be no room for changing gears midstream for whatever reason. The arguments that are now being raised against admitting big casino operators are not new. The relatively small casinos that have been around for some years are taxpayers, we are told, although the actual laws under which they operate are a grey area. We have heard it said that entry into these establishments is for foreigners only but the authorities, if they are worth their salt, would well know that locals too patronize these casinos. The various ladies of Chinese and East European descent seen around these places late in the nights and the wee hours of the mornings are perceived to be part of the service they offer in addition to free food and drinks on the house. So nobody should be taken by surprise about the vices that such gaming establishments are likely to spawn. There is now talk that the casinos will be for foreigners only and, according to one report, Minister Weerawansa is comfortable with this arrangement.

There is no doubt that activities like gaming, if easily accessible to locals, will have wide ranging social implications. But gambling is very much a part of the national scene with bookies present in every nook and corner of the country. We banned horse racing in the country decades ago but many of our people back horses and greyhounds in England. Bookmaking is obviously profitable given the number of ``turf accountants’’ we see around our towns and one of them is a government Member of Parliament. Booruwa and asking hitting plus not so surreptitious drinking is common in poor funeral houses. As we pointed out last week, the existing two casino license-holders, one of whom is the Secretary to the Transport Ministry, hold a valuable concession given the president’s declaration that no new licenses will be issued. How the ongoing drama will play out is anybody’s guess. We tilt in the direction that while some cosmetic changes will be made, there will be no radical changes in the decisions already taken. Some of the opposition parties are smelling blood but how potent they will be given the dismal track record of particularly the UNP remains to be seen.

Hypocrisy is an ever-present part of human nature and there is an overabundance of that quality in this island of ours. Despite Mathata Thitha we are among the bigger boozers in the world with an illicit liquor industry going great guns competing with tax paying manufacturers contributing a major slice of government revenue. Liquor is certainly not banned in official entertainment going up to the highest levels and the taxpayer pays for most of it. The UNP whose record on casinos (remember Joe Sim who was sent away after a change of heart?) now sees evil it was blind to in the past. We are building a great many hotels and plan to make tourism a lead industry, if not the lead industry, in the country. All these rooms have to be filled and practical measures, however morally repugnant to some, will have to be taken to ensure the great leap forward. Though not inclined to betting, we’d place our money on the proposition that whatever the changes that will be made to the original plan will be merely cosmetic.

”Bring them Home”

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Ex-LTTEers demanding war cemeteries will be arrested – Gota

By Ravi Ladduwahetty--Sunday, 27 Oct 2013

Any living ex-LTTE cadres, who demand for the setting up of cemeteries to serve as memorials for their dead in the 30-year war, will be arrested, Defence Secretary, Retired Colonel Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, told Ceylon Today. He was responding to a question from this newspaper as to what the reaction of the government would be to the demand of the ex-LTTE cadres that such a war cemetery be erected to remember the LTTE cadres, who were killed in the war, amid a resolution passed by the Chavakachcheri Pradeshiya Sabha towards this end.

"The LTTE is a banned organization, both locally and internationally and they have no legitimacy in the first place.

They have no right whatsoever to ask for war cemeteries to commemorate the dead. Anyone who does that, will be arrested," Rajapaksa said.

"We will do the same thing that we did to the other ex-LTTE cadres, by arresting them and rehabilitating them as they are misguided youth, who were a part of a banned organization and who wreaked havoc over three decades," the Defence Secretary said.

He also said the cemeteries could not be located and constructed at anyone's will but they were located in certain specific areas.

Responding to a question as to what the reaction of the government was, on the statement made by recently-appointed Chief Minister of the Northern Province, C.V. Wigneswaran, that he and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Councillors of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), were working towards getting land and police powers to the North, Rajapaksa said that it was not possible.

He said the fact that there was a Supreme Court Judgment given to the effect that there would not be land powers devolved to the Provinces, should make the Chief Minister and the Council realize the impossibility of the NPC having land powers to themselves.

Commenting in police powers, he asked why the NPC should be given special police powers when all the other Provincial Councils did not have separate police powers. He also reminded that President Mahinda Rajapaksa too had spelt out the government would not be devolving police powers to the NPC.

"Why should the NPC have special privileges on police powers?" the Defence Secretary queried and added, "The core function of the police is to maintain law and order and that is the function of the Central Government and the mandate of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is also the Defence Minister and Commander-in- Chief of the Armed Forces.

"What the NPC should do is to help the police to maintain law and order and they could assist the police in the prevention of crime. There could be a system of community policing where the politicians – the Members of Parliament and the Provincial Councillors, the business community and the members of the public could assist in the prevention of crime.

"Therefore, there was no need for a separate police force for the NPC. All the stakeholders could cooperate with the police and that is what they should be doing," he said.

Asked how he sees the development and the administration of the North in the light of the NPC being dominated by the TNA, he said the TNA will have to cooperate with the government in terms of decisions taken to develop the North.

"The TNA can utter their rhetoric on election platforms, but they will have to consult the government on key issues. That is because the North is not some other country, but it is a part of Sri Lanka. The North also comes under the aegis of the government and Sri Lanka too," he quipped.

If they do not cooperate with the government and engage in development work that the people and the voters expect of them, the Northerners will undoubtedly reject them, Rajapaksa added.

Anti-Indian Gota Heading To New Delhi

Gota

October 27, 2013

Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa who has repeatedly criticised India over its responsibility in the Sri Lankan war

and the 13th Amendment is expected to leave for New Delhi this week for talks with the Indian Government.

Gotabaya will address bilateral security issues and the Tamil Nadu fishermen issue during his visit, Colombo Telegraph learns.

The Secretary MOD has been vocal of New Delhi’s role in fostering the LTTE and the conflict in Sri Lanka.

Gota Gives Tech Evaluation Committees 24 Hours To Review Defence Purchases, Blames Academics When Corruption Allegations Occurred

October 26, 2013 |

The Ministry of Defence calls on academics to sit on Technical Evaluation Committees for defence purchases, gives them less than 24 hours to review documentation and then finally blames academics when things begin to go wrong, an ex-senior academic at the University of Moratuwa has claimed.

Secretary to the Ministry of Defence

In response to a statement made in a speech by Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa who said that many national professionals leave Sri Lanka for higher paying jobs abroad, Dr.Thrishantha Nanayakkara, a senior lecturer at the Moratuwa University between 2003-2007, said he and fellow academics were often called to sit on TECs of the Ministry of Defence. Dr. Nanayakkara said often those committees were chaired by Defence Secretary himself. “

“Very often the documents to be reviewed were delivered on the same day the TEC meeting was held depriving us of enough time to do a credible review. Very often, I had only the time during the ride from Moratuwa to ministry of defense to review the documents. Due to the urgency of many such purchasing decisions, we signed those documents based on complete trust in Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the chair of the committee,” he explains.

But Dr. Nanayakkara notes that it was very unfortunate that the Ministry of Defence itself took to exposing the names of professionals and the recommendations of those TECs whenthings went wrong. “It seemed to us that the professionals who were kept in the darkness whole throughout the TEC process were just used as a cleansing shield in the event things go wrong. I am not alone in this concern. One can check with any academic in the University system in Sri Lanka on this,” he explains.

Responding to the fraud said to have taken place when purchasing MIG 27 fighters for Sri Lanka Air Force, the Ministry of Defence exposed the names of the Technical Evaluation Committee.

According to the MOD the members of the MIG TECs were, Air Marshal Roshan Goonethilake (Chairman), Air Commodore EGJP de Silva (Director Aeronautical Engineering SLAF), a Senior Lecturer from the University of Moratuwa, Mr. HD Weerasiri (Accountant- Ministry of Defence), Mr. VJ Premarathne (Deputy Director Airworthiness- Civil Aviation Authority), and Mrs. KDR Olga (Accountant-Department of National Budget).

Child Abuse In Vavuniya?

By Nirmala Kannangara

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Following the latest sordid episode of child molestation reported from Vavuniya where a young man in robes is accused of committing the crime, questions have been raised as to whether there are loopholes in the law in the country that prevents or delays action being taken against the perpetrators.

Sumithra Fernando, Attorney-at-Law, Women-in-Need (WIN) said that the laws are in place and added that the laws cannot be implemented against the suspects because of the workload in courts.

Child Abuse in Vavuniya by nelvely