Monday, August 25, 2014

Sarath Silva and MR’s third term

August 23, 2014, 6:52 pm

Last week the Irida Lankadeepa published an interview with the former Chief Justice Sarath Silva where he had argued that President Mahinda Rajapaksa was disqualified from contesting a third time. It was a ruling given by Silva in 2005 that sent Chandrika Kumaratunga home one year before she thought she was due to relinquish office. This writer has always held that Silva ranks as one of the heroes who pulled this nation out of the abyss because he sent CBK packing one year early. If not for him, Mahinda would not have become president, Gota would not have become defence secretary, Sarath Fonseka would not have become army commander, the war machine would not have been set up, Prabhakaran would have been still wiping his feet on us, Sri Lanka would have been a broken, defeated nation, the roads would not have been carpeted, Colombo wouldn’t be looking like what it is today, and the Sinhalese would have had no self respect.

Sarath Silva and MR’s Third Term by Thavam

A reply to “The Asian Human Rights Commission - Impunity to do wrong..!”

By Basil Fernando, Director of Policy and Programmes at the AHRC

(Lanka-e-News -25.Aug.2014 7.30PM) The article published yesterday(24) under the title “The Asian Human Rights Commission - Impunity to do wrong..!” is completely misleading and does not refer to any actual event.

The basic issue was that the contract of Mr. John Stewart Sloan was not renewed. Under those circumstances, and under the Hong Kong law, an employee is entitled to a long-term service payment and the law lays down the manner in which such payment should be calculated. Mr. Sloan was paid all such payments according to the law. At no stage has Mr. Sloan complained that his dues have not been paid. If that was the case, he was entitled to approach the Labour Department in Hong Kong. The Department strictly looks after the interests of employees.

Even from the article published, it is quite clear that Mr. Sloan does not make any direct complaint of not being paid any of his dues. The following statement in Mr. Sloan’s article is completely false:

“The staff member was informed of the amount that he was to receive as a long term award and was surprised as the employer has the right to deduct any contributions to the MPF. After making inquiries of Francis in the presence of the Admin manager he was told that his MPF award would NOT be affected.”

At no stage has any employee been paid more than what the law requires to paid. In any case, even the management has no authority to pay to any employee anything more than what the law requires them. If the management does so, the management is acting outside their authority and the management would be liable to pay back any such money that is given to an employee beyond their legal due.

Mr. Sloan was given, in writing, his legal rights and entitlements. Mr. Sloan has these letters with him and he has misled your publication by withholding the letters than he has in his possession. If required, we are willing to publish the letters and other official documents which have been given to Mr. Sloan.

Had your publication consulted us before publishing his version, we would have been in a position to provide you with all the written material regarding all the dealings the AHRC has had with Mr. Sloan regarding his long-term payment.

All the “facts” Mr. Sloan has published regarding whatever dues that he expected to receive but has not received is false. This is virtual blackmail, perhaps with the view to obtain more money than what the law requires an employer to pay to an employee.

I explained the matter to him in a letter, which he mentions in the article only in part. Here is the letter in full, which explains all the matters mentioned above:

19 July 2014
Dear John,

Thank you for your e-mail and what you say about me. However, as I know everything that went on, I can tell you that it was not within our knowledge as to how much a bank and MPF authority would deduct from your MPF payment, in terms of deducting the employer's contribution from the long service payment. This information was requested by us from that bank but they refused to give it.

All that we knew was the formula that is used under the Hong Kong law.

What you do not know is Bijo personally tried with the Board of the AHRC to find some other way to help you out as, from our personal point of view, the manner in which Hong Kong does the calculation for long service payment does not seem to be in the best interests of the employee.

There was nothing to gain for the AHRC or for Bijo or any of us by denying you this information if it was available to us.

I think what exists is a misunderstanding and I hope you can accept my assurance that there was no attempt to deny information or to lie to you.

The same formula that Hong Kong has used regarding you will also be applied to all of us. It is the same formula found in the Hong Kong statute that was also applied to all previous employees. In their case, too, the actual amount deducted was decided by the bank in terms of their interest rates.

Wish you well.

Thank you,

Basil

Security denied to Upul given to underworld leader

MONDAY, 25 AUGUST 2014

Attorney at Law Gunaratna Wanninayaka, representing the President of Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) Upul Jayasooriya, speaking in Colombo Magistrates Court in Fort said it is regrettable that the President of BASL is not given security while an underworld leader in Colombo has been given security of six police officers.

He asked whether intelligence reports were taken into consideration when giving security to Kumaran Pathmanathan or the underworld figure.

Senior DIG Anura Senanayaka has informed Fort Magistrates Court today that it was not necessary to provide security to Mr. Jayasooriya as the Secretary of the Ministry of Law and order retired Maj. Gen. Nanda Mallawaarachchi had informed the IGP that intelligence reports confirm there was no threat to Mr. Jayasooriya’s life.

The Senior DIG has declared to Magistrate Thilina Gamage that he would be totally responsible regarding Mr. Jayasooriya’s security. The Magistrate ordered the complaint to be investigated and report to Court on 20th October.

Back-Door DPL Posting For Vasu’s Niece

AuAugust 25, 2014

Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara‘s niece is to be given a diplomatic posting in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington DC, it is learnt.

Janathri Nanayakkara who completed an undergraduate degree at the US Binghamton University, a state university in New York will join the Sri Lanka Embassy staff in Washington, External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris has announced. She has also worked as an intern at the UN and is also reported to have supported at the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN in New York.

Janathri Nanayakkara

Janathri who is the daughter of Minister Nanayakkara’s brother Asanga will be posted to the Sri Lankan Mission in Washington because there was a ‘shortage’ of Foreign Service officers, Sunday Times reported Prof. Peiris as saying.

Minister Peiris said he was making the recommendation to appoint Janathri “taking into consideration her educational qualifications and the possibility of utilising the special skills and experience mentioned in her bio-data in an effective manner for the Mission and the shortage of officers in the Foreign Service,” the Sunday Times report noted. The two year posting will take effect from the day she assumes duties, the Minister said.

However questions are being raised about the young girl’s appointment since her qualifications would entitle her to sit the official Foreign Service Examination and face the interview and get through to the diplomatic service the legal way.

Janathri has a double major in economics and in political science with a concentration in global and international affairs. She had originally enrolled at the University of Maine on full scholarship but transferred to Binghamton where she said the environment “eased me into a new culture.” Janathri’s sister is also studying in the US.

In the University magazine Pipe Dream, Janathri notes that her eventual ambition is to become an ambassador for Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s mission to Washington DC is almost entirely served by politically appointed diplomats. Before Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam, a veteran career diplomat was transferred to the US capital the mission was being headed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s cousin Jaliya Wickremasuriya. Chamithri Rambukwella, the daughter of Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella is also serving as a politically appointed diplomat in Washington.

Analysts and retired Lankan diplomats have noted the ironies of staffing the Washington Embassy with political appointees when Sri Lanka’s foremost international challenges emanate from the United States. “It is no wonder the Government then has to spend hundreds of millions of rupees on PR agencies and lobby firms. How on earth can political sons and daughters barely out of school and with no training have any idea how to navigate the waters in DC?” one observer noted.

The new appointment comes amid strong criticism from the Government about the hundreds of political appointees presently serving on Sri Lankan missions abroad.

GMOA to pursue four main issues

By Don Asoka Wijewardena-August 24, 2014

The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) at its General Committee Meeting yesterday (24) decided to pursue four main issues.

GMOA President Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya told The Island that the annual transfer lists of doctors and consultants to be in effect from 2015 was being prepared and the GMOA was confident that it would be ready soon. The second issue was the training of toxicologists by the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM).

Dr. Padeniya said due to a shortage of toxicologists in Sri Lanka, foreign expertise had to be sought when the DCD in milk food and harmful substances in agrochemicals were found. The services of toxicologists were absolutely essential to trace harmful substances in food items and fertiliser. The GMOA decided to discuss the issue with Health Secretary and then with PGIM Director Prof. Janaka de Silva.

Thirdly, the present Food and Drug Authority left much to be desired. It was 33-years-old and no amendments had been made to it, Dr Padeniya said.

Only a few Directors were there at the FDA, and it had not been doing any important work for a long time.

The attractive advertisements on TV for fast food had persuaded people to consume them and be affected by non-communicable diseases, Dr. Padeniya said.

He said that the GMOA had also decided to bring to the notice of Minister Maithripala Sirisena the importance of amending the Food and Drug Authority Act to make it cater to the present-day needs. It included granting more powers to the PHIs and Food and Drug Inspectors to conduct more raids on food outlets.

The fourth issue to be pursued, according to the GMOA President was the establishment of a Consultants’ Registry.

Sri Lanka Needs Bullish Treatment

For Manic Disorder

| by Rajasingham Jayadevan

( August 24, 2014, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka is acutely suffering from manic disorder since its military wresting control of the Eastern Province from the LTTE in July 2007. Sri Lanka is experiencing all the recognisable symptoms the ailment embody, and acute treatment of psychotherapy is needed to arrest the disease. The symptoms of manic attack are: overblown snobbishness, restlessness, sleeplessness, jabbering too much, conflicts in thoughts, agitated behaviour, risky pursuits and making meals out of unimportant issues.

Sri Lanka Needs Bullish Treatment for Manic Disorder by Thavam

CBSL Justifies Arbitrary Hiring US Lobbying Firms

August 25, 2014

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has released a statement justifying their arbitrary hiring of a US lobbying firm to white-wash the image of Sri Lanka and the Rajapaksa-regime against the backdrop of soured US- Sri Lanka relations and the ongoing UNHRC investigation on Sri Lanka.

Ajith Nivard Cabraal – CBSL Chief

The CBSL statement was released in response to an expose that was published on the Sunday Times political column few weeks ago, on the arbitrary course of action that had been taken by the CBSL in hiring the Liberty International Group LLC at an annual fee of Rs. 99 million, in violation of accepted protocol.

It has noted that the US firm was hired in order to implement a comprehensive overseas campaign to provide an accurate account of the Sri Lankan political and economic environment to the US and to counter the ‘extraordinary and vicious campaigns carried out by sections of the Tamil Diaspora in the US against Sri Lanka’.

Justifying their actions, the CBSL had said they have noted with ‘deep concern’ the well organized campaigns carried out by the Tamil Diaspora and the local and international media to convey inaccurate stories detrimental to Sri Lanka and have stated that if they are allowed to continue they could affect the image and economy of the country, particularly the foreign investments.

“It was in that context, that the Monetary Board decided to implement a comprehensive overseas campaign to provide an accurate account of the Sri Lankan political and economic environment to US leaders, think tanks, investors, business chambers and interested citizens to keep them abreast of the true situation in the country.”

The CBSL had also justified the cost of hiring the lobbying firms pointing out that Sri Lanka economy has grown in stature and character with exports of around 11 billion USD and imports with 18 billion USD. “In that background, investing a modest sum to create awareness in the world’s largest economy would undoubtedly benefit the Sri Lankan economy,” the CBSL has said.

Although it has acted arbitrarily without any collaboration with the MEA, it has stated it believes that their efforts have complemented and supported the activities of the MEA in countering the ‘vicious campaigns’ against Sri Lanka.

Out-of-court settlements with errant banks: Is financial services industry on a dying path?

Banks are at the receiving end-August 25, 2014

The reports coming from global financial markets are not good for banks at all. Banking regulators have renewed their war against whom they perceive as errant banks. The law enforcement agencies in their respective countries too have joined them as allies in this onslaught. This time it is not small banks which they have captured in their nets. It is big banks they have netted proclaiming ‘no bank is too big to jail’, the alternative version of the popular dictum ‘some banks are too big to fail’.

Out-Of-court Settlements With Errant Banks is Financial Services Industry on a Dying Path by Thavam

The Cruel Bite Of Conscience

August 25, 2014
By Shyamon Jayasinghe -

Shyamon Jayasinghe

On Prasanna Vithanage’s Movie: “Oba Nethuwa, Oba Ekka”

We ordinary filmgoers are often baffled by the multi-varied kinds and venues of film awards other than the Oscars and Cannes destinations. It appears that almost any film maker in humble Sri Lanka can find a berth at least (leave alone an award) to present his/her product at global level in some sort of festival and come home happy for all the massive effort. We are now being educated about Montreal Film Festival, Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Pusan International Film Festival, Singapore International Film Festival, Grand Prix at the Amiens Film Festival, Venice Film Festival and so on. It seems endless.

Prasanna Vithanage, born in 1962 and educated at DS Senanayake College, has made great strides in the Sinhala movie industry recording outstanding awards and not mere ‘also-ran’ status at most of the above festivals. Vithanage is both a pride and honour for us, Sri Lankans. His latest, “Oba Nethuwa, Oba Ekka,” (With You, without You) was first released in India this year. One of the best Sinhala movies I have seen is his “Ira Mediyama.”

In getting Indian collaboration and showing his movie in India Prasanna has shown a marketing prescience. The Sri Lankan market, saturated with cheap and shoddy melodramatic tele drama, is not the place to sell a serious movie. Movies are costly to produce and making them to deliver to the Sri Lankan cinemagoer is bound to be ill-fated. The Sri Lankan Film Corporation, set up originally to boost movie production, is a dead duck.

MONDAY, 25 AUGUST 2014

A communique issued by the JVP states a band of thugs of the UPFA has set fire to 14 election offices of the JVP and pasted posters of the UPFA candidate Shasheendra Rajapaksa.

The communique states:

“We express our disgust and condemnation regarding the attacks carried out by the government that is at the threshold of an election defeat.

During the past 48 hours 14 legally put up election offices of the JVP candidates for the Uva PC election have been attacked by thugs. The gangs of thugs that have attacked the offices have destroyed decorations and have set fire to them.

The attacks by the government escalate day by day and interestingly, most of these attacks have taken place in Monaragala District. Certain offices have been destroyed and pasting posters of Shasheendra Rajapaksa indicates that the attacks have been carried out by the government.

The well planned attacks carried out by the government, which is at the threshold of defeat, to sabotage the programme of the JVP that makes the people aware of the anti-social and undemocratic administration of the government should be condemned with disgust.

The JVP calls upon the people in this country, specially the masses in the Uva province, not to be intimidated by the sordid acts of the government but to come forward to defeat the violent, illegal politics of the cowardly government.”

The offices that were attacked are:

1. The office at JVP candidate Anura Kumara at Dambagalla Junction at Madulla

2. The election office at Burutha Junction at Buttala

3. The election office at the residence of Comrade P.P. Wijesiri in Monaragala town

4. Election office at Sella Katharagama

5. Kiriibbanwewa election office at Sevanagala

6. The election office at the residence of the candidate and Member of Pradeshiya Sabha Comrade S.P. Sirisena at Sooriyaara, Thanamalwila

7. 5 election offices on the road from Sevanagala to Thanamalwila

8. Election office at Haburugala, Sevanagala

9. Election office at Samajapura, Haburugala

10. Election office at Ranwaligama, Sevanagala

Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) in a media announcement had confirmed that election offices of opposition parties in Monaragala District have been attacked by thugs.

Sudath Silva’s devil dance worsens president’s bad luck!

Monday, 25 August 2014

The devil dance performced by president’s official photographer Sudath Silva to charm the president who has distanced from him these days has left the healthy president sick, say sources at the president’s office.

The president has sidelined Sudath Silva after several alternartive media has exposed frauds committed by him. The president has not let him explain by meeting him privately. Later, he has tried to explain to the president through other messengers, who had been told, “Do not try to speak for Sudath Silva. I know the person. Websites do not publish falsehoods. I may not totally believe what they publish, but I believe what our people overseas say. They have sold my name and done businesses. I will do to what I had done to Prasanna Hennayake (the previous photographer to the president).”

Frightened by the president’s response, Sudath Silva has held a devil dance through a well known astrologer in Negombo at a massive cost. Within days of the devil dance, the president has fallen ill, and Sudath’s friends have told him that the president has fallen ill due to the evil effect of the devil dance. Becoming worried, he went to Negombo again yesterday (23) and held another devil dance to invoke blessings on the president, say the sources.

Five cops assaulted

By Premalal Wijeratne-August 25, 2014

while on duty, on Saturday (23) night in three separate incidents. The attacks took place in the Urubokka, Kitulgala and Kandy areas, police said.

Police Media spokesman, SSP Ajith Rohana said the police had arrested three suspects over the reported incidents.
On 23 August, two policemen were assaulted at a fuel station in the Urubokka area, allegedly by retired military officials. Police had arrested one retired soldier while a retired air force officer, also involved in the assault, escaped. The injured police officers were admitted to the Urubokka, Heegoda Base Hospital.

SSP Rohana said another traffic police officer had been assaulted at D.S. Senanayaka Street, Kandy by a son a vehicle sales owner. The suspect had hit the policeman on the eye and the victim had been admitted to hospital. The suspect was arrested, he added.

Another incident was reported from the Kitulgala area, where a suspect had assaulted a police officer and escaped. The incident had occurred when two police officers tried to arrest a navy deserter. The suspect deserter had bitten the hand of one of them and escaped. However, the police arrested a person who helped the deserter to escape.

SSP Rohana further said in the past similar incidents of policemen being assaulted were reported. He stressed that stern action will be taken against those who attack police officers.

The world’s ‘new’ IFI

A brand new International Financial Institution (IFI) has emerged hot on the heels of and from among the debris, flotsam and jetsam of the 2014 Football World Cup in Brazil.

August 26, 2014

The World Cup was won by Germany, reinforcing the reality of German domination of, among other things, the ‘Beautiful Game’ and in other areas, personified by Angela Merkel’s political and economic domination of the ‘real’ power politic in Europe.
The leaders of the BRICS nations – Brazil, India, Russia, China and South Africa – who think of themselves as the new emerging powers, have met in the city of Fortaleza, Brazil, at the sixth BRICS annual summit, and agreed on forming the ‘New Development Bank’ with a capital of $ 100 billion and an Emergency Reserve Fund. Initially the Bank will start with $ 50 billion capital.

The world’s ‘new’ IFI by Thavam

The Islamic State ( Documentary)

( August 25, 2014, London, Sri Lanka Guardian)The Islamic State (IS), formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), permitted filmmaker and Vice News journalist Medyan Dairieh to have exclusive access to their operations for three weeks, allowing viewers insight into the horrifying inner world of jihadist militant extremists.

Devastating footage of executions and men lying beheaded in the street illustrates the severity of the threat of the Islamic State. Militants patrol the streets to ensure their religious standards are being upheld, and citizens are encouraged to report any transgressors, even if they are family members. One man is stopped and instructed to make his wife change the fabric of her veil, and although the tone is polite it is clear the requestor is telling, not asking. The influence of the enforcers is evident - prisoners who have dared disobey the IS laws are full of self-blame, accepting their punishments to be the will of Allah. Disobedience will not be tolerated by man or God.

Preaching centers serve as meeting grounds for fanatics young and old as they celebrate their faith by raising guns above their heads and sing songs of triumph over America and the European countries. As the borders between Syria and Iraq are crossed, IS fighters defend their growth, ever insistent that their actions are defended by the will of their God, even as women and children lay bloodied and dying before them.

Operating under Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a self-proclaimed descendant of the Prophet, followers are taught to surrender everything to him, be it their money or their lives. Interviews with young boys attending a Mosque service demonstrate the fundamentalist mindset that is being ingrained in the local children, who are as eager as their adult counterparts to enact what they believe to be God’s will through acts of violence and self-sacrifice.

It is the belief of the adults that their hardships bring them closer to their God and that the children are meant to be “the generation of the Caliphate” who will combat the Americans and their “infidel” allies. Those under fifteen are sent to Shariah camp to learn about their religion, while older teens are sent to military camp to train for combat; however, it is not uncommon for the younger children to already be practiced in handling arms and bracing for conflict.

The Islamic State is a stark, harrowing wake-up call to the realities of religious fundamentalism in the Middle East and the corruption of generations being raised to believe violence is the best defense of their beliefs.

Did God Promise Palestine To The Jews?

By Hameed Abdul Karim -August 25, 2014

Hameed Abdul Karim

For some reason or the other the Sri Lankan print media has, in recent times, taken a very pro-Israel stance. When they carry stories of the Middle East conflict from western agencies like Reuter, AFP or BBC it can be excused because such agencies are heavily biased in favour of Israel. But when editorials and articles by ‘readers’ appear frequently you begin to raise an eyebrow or two. It becomes worst when they papers refuse or deny the reader of a ‘right of reply’. Such is the case with The Island, once a progressive newspaper, but no it has joined the ‘mainstream’ carrying different stories and editorials whilst following the same pro-Israel and pro-establishment theme as other newspapers.

Such was the case with The Island when they ignored a ‘right of reply’ I wrote to an article that heavily promoted Israel and its myths. Here is what I said.

Dr. V.J.M. De Silva in his article titled ‘The Israeli Palestinian Conflict Some Random Thoughts’ (The Island, 12 August, 2014) quotes the Bible in support of Israel. The one that Dr. Silva cites is often quoted by Jewish and Christian Zionists or Evangelical Christians to support the colonial conquest of Palestine by European Jews. This so called promise to the Prophet Abraham (peace be on him) is found in the book of Genesis.

God’s Promise

The particular verse is found in Genesis 17:8 which says ‘And I will give unto thee (meaning Abraham) and thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan (Palestine) for an everlasting possession and I will be their God’. However, this is the only verse that Dr. Silva quotes like all Zionists. There are other verses in the same Bible that should be taken into account before we can draw any conclusions. This particular verse must be put to test in accordance with the Biblical verse that says ‘And if thou say in your heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken. When a Prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing the Lord has not spoken, but the Prophet had spoken it presumptuously: thou shall not be afraid of him’. (Deuteronomy Ch. 18: 21-22)

Let’s put Genesis 17:8 to the test with the verses of Deuteronomy quoted above.