The New Republic

By Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader of the United National Party and the Opposition

Sunday, November 09, 2014

The Republic of Sri Lanka established by the 1970 Constituent Assembly is based on two legal instruments. Firstly, the Constitution of the Republic of Sri Lanka enacted by this Constituent Assembly; Article 12 (1) of this 1972 Constitution reiterated the validity of Ceylon Independence Act 1947 passed by the UK Parliament. Secondly, the Republic of Sri Lanka Act 1972 enacted by the UK Parliament with the consent of the Government of Sri Lanka. This Act amended the Ceylon Independence Act 1947 by substituting “Sri Lanka” for “Ceylon”. Under the provisions of this Act:
The New Republic by Thavam

The Opposition’s platform and why Mahinda is winning

November 11, 2014 

I suppose it takes the Sri Lankan Opposition to make the slogan of a common candidate, a source of fissure and the search for unity a source of division. But that’s Sri Lanka, or rather, that’s the Sri Lankan Opposition. It would be fun to have good old CBK as common candidate though I doubt that even the Sri Lankan Opposition is going to do something that corny.

CBK would be an entertaining, hard-hitting public speaker on a broad Opposition platform. As candidate though, she’d be able to achieve something really difficult: Poll far fewer votes than even Ranil Wickremesinghe. Not many could match that, unless you count the good Rev. Sobitha.  CBK is that out of sync with the zeitgeist.
Chandrika can peel off some SLFP MPs but she cannot break the SLFP voters away from Mahinda Rajapaksa. She may have a few barons but not the SLFP serfs, who are accustomed to loyally serving whichever ‘royal’ family runs the party. In any case, the SLFP grassroots actually like and respect Mahinda Rajapaksa much more than they do the deposed queen.
Rajapaksa will be re-elected
President Rajapaksa will be re-elected this time, despite economic disaffection and even if the entire electoral process were to be freely observed by, say, the Commonwealth, because of the factor of ideological and cultural hegemony (to use Gramscian terminology), i.e. the impression and impact he has made he has on the nation’s consciousness.

While that hegemony is mightily disseminated and reproduced by the State’s ideological apparatuses, that factor of agency is not the secret of his ideological-cultural hegemony. The secret of that hegemony is that he has a mode and message, a demeanour and discourse that are organic (if one may lapse again into Gramscianism)—far more so than that of the Opposition parties, jointly or singly.
This doesn’t mean that there is no significant discontent over economic and governance issues. What this does mean is that Mahinda Rajapaksa’s mode and message succeeds in transcending or deflecting this disaffection away from himself, in the popular consciousness. His image and discourse constitute Kevlar body armour.
This isn’t magic. If electoral change could be read off from economic disaffection, most of the world would have leftwing or left of centre governments, but the status quo is protected by thicker walls of consciousness and it takes enormous ideological and cultural labour and resultant political re-positioning to translate economic disaffection into regime change.
Emergence of an antibody
In Sri Lanka there is a half-successful experiment the Opposition could have built upon but will not. That is the almost scientific process of the emergence of an antibody that has been going on for 14 years in Hambantota, where young Premadasa has faced the Rajapaksas as electoral opponents in their own heartland, held his own and even raised the UNP’s percentage to the cost of the Rajapaksas’ own.
That is nothing less than the generation of an effective antibody from within the Rajapaksa ideology. Now as in medicine, an antibody does not a serum make—much more work has to go into it to fashion the necessary synthesis to prevail over the dominant organism. But it is the indispensable basis for an effective serum.

The so-called joint Opposition has chosen to ignore this sustained if limited success story of Hambantota. Instead it has chosen to foreground a platform of constitutional change. The contrast with Mahinda’s appeal could not be starker. His appeal is profoundly social and personal at one and the same time. The Opposition’s pitch is neither. Mahinda’s vibe is one of strength and warmth. The Opposition’s platform is bloodless, disembodied, top-down. Mahinda is organic (as is Sajith Premadasa). The Opposition platform is dis-organic.
Presidential system
The Opposition’s platform is also easy to dismantle. When a party that introduced and had enjoyed presidential office for 17 years ( the UNP), and is run by someone who is a failed presidential candidate twice over (Ranil), is joined by a two term ex-President (CBK), in denouncing the presidential system and pledging its abolition, it comes across as a clear case of sour grapes rather than enlightened reform.
As for the pathetically-illogical counter argument that the Presidential system was okay until the abolition of the term limits and the independent commissions, surely the remedy is to reintroduce the term limits and the independent commissions, abolishing the 18th Amendment, rather than the presidential system itself.
The people have no stated or manifested problem with the presidential system. What the Opposition fails to get is that the masses like and trust their elected presidents much more than they do the Parliamentary representatives. The people are not going to transfer power from the presidency to a probable bickering bunch of Parliamentarians. Nor are they going to risk the whip hand in a divided Legislature being held by the fickle TNA and SLMC.
The people do have a problem with bad governance, cronyism, nepotism and economic hardship. The Opposition’s manifesto does not foreground these issues and suggest a credible solution.
Mahinda is closer to the sentiments of the people than is the Opposition. He strikes a more positive chord. He resonates. By contrast, the Opposition’s platform is pretty much a Colombo civil society construct. That, and not the 18th Amendment, is why he is going to win.
The parliamentary election could however, be a different ballgame, especially if the UNP is under a different leadership; an organic one positioned in the centre-space between the alternatives of Mahinda’s conservative nationalist-populism and the JVP’s radical populism.
(Dayan Jayatilleka was Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva from 2007-09, and until recently, Ambassador to France. He is the author of ‘Long War, Cold Peace: Conflict and Crisis in Sri Lanka,’ Vijitha Yapa Publishers, 2013.)

Movements With Common Purpose And Hope For Democracy In Sri Lanka

By Athulasiri Kumara Samarakoon -November 10, 2014

Athula Samarakoon

One healthy sign we can observe in the depleted democratic polity of Sri Lanka at present is that many of the opposition political parties, and even some in the ruling alliance, have begun to think and act beyond the self-interests of their respective parties. They have begun to show more interests in fighting to change the suppressive political conditions that more or less affect the life in a functioning democracy. Meanwhile the civil society initiatives such as the Movement for Social Justice also created forums for such political parties and civil society elements to come together and discuss ‘what is to be done?’ in order to create a possible change. Obviously, the existing conditions of political oppression and the degradation in the socio-economic life of the ordinary people have provided much necessary objective grounds for the intellectuals and the civil society to think of the importance of democratic social movements in reshaping the political and social future of the country today.

The emerging shifts in the thinking of the political parties, civil society elements and oppressed masses have tended to create foundations for larger social movements against anti-democratic tendencies and economic exploitation of the poor under lawless conditions and rampant corruption. Some of such notable movements which have dedicated their efforts for redefining the democratic system in the country include the Movement for Social Justice, People’s Movement for Democracy and Pivithuru Hetak (Pleasant Tomorrow).  Previously the University lecturers under FUTA and the lawyers also led a huge campaign against the lawlessness and deteriorating welfare conditions of the people and now they also have joined one or many of these movements to fight the tyranny.

Some might argue that these movements were initiated by a certain individual or a political party and do not look like ‘movements’ of larger scale participation of masses. But, such arguments certainly would miss to identify the most valuable feature of them, ‘the objective’; that in their objectives these movements have a common, social and political goal which takes them beyond the narrow party interests and strategies of ‘securing power by any means’. More or less under the existing political and economic conditions, it is increasingly understandable that the political parties have only a very limited role to play in re-defining the conditions in the economy and the political system, unless they contribute for larger social movements representing larger social aspirations for better life, democracy and justice.  Therefore there is a larger scope for the social movements for democracy which penetrates class, caste, party, race and ethnicity to do more for the society under the current conditions.Read More

Political banners in police stations unlawful; refrain from giving wrongful orders – Gen. Fonseka warns

(Lanka-e-News- 10.Nov.2014, 9.30 AM) General Fonseka bemoaned , police stations Island wide are carrying banners that Mahinda Rajapakse is contesting the upcoming Presidential elections and in support of him ,while Mahinda Rajapakse himself has announced his candidature. He warned these actions are unlawful ,and charged that the police department is being totally politicized. Gen. Fonseka therefore warned the police to duly abide by the laws.

Gen. Fonseka made the above comments when Lanka e news inquired from him regarding the Mahinda Rajapakse banners and politicization of the police, since the responsibility of the security under a future Alliance Front government may have to be shouldered by General Fonseka .

‘The police officers of the state who should ensure peace and order cannot under any circumstance be a part of politicization of the department . Hence the display of banners in police stations , and giving such orders are absolutely unlawful . The future common opposition that is to take over the country’s reign is most specially keeping a watch over these officers and their activities ’ Gen. Fonseka asserted , while issuing a warning to the police department to steer clear of stooping to such actions.

Based on information reaching Lanka e news , these banners have been supplied to the police department by the Mahinda Rajapakse elections publicity unit. Every police station Island wide had been supplied with three such banners each, and even the instructions leaflet pertaining to how they should be displayed have been issued with them .

It is the secretary to the ministry for safeguarding peace and order , Mahinda Balasuriya who had issued these instructions . The IGP on the other hand who is the highest in the police hierarchy had however not issued any such order.

The SSPs of the divisions are currently travelling around to make sure these banners have been displayed duly according to instructions , and Balasuriya had called for reports in that regard, sources say.

The bottom line - aren’t public funds meant to maintain the police force being robbed to keep himself -the President of the country ,unlawfully on the pedestal? Isn’t this worse than robbing Peter to pay Paul? Whither Sri Lanka ?

How different is Rule by Law from Rule of Law?

November 11, 2014 

Is the Law supreme and the Ruler subject to the Law, or is the Ruler supreme? From ancient times, China has been ruled by law. The Emperor’s edicts were enforced very strictly, to the very letter of the law, literarily and in spirit, in word and deed, by an efficient Confucian bureaucracy, with scant regards for fundamental human rights. The more accountable and transparent Rule of Law was not heard of.

How Different is Rule by Law From Rule of Law by Thavam

Eligibility For A Third Term: From The Horse’s Mouth

By Manel Fonseka -November 10, 2014

I was looking through some of my old articles and came across a press cutting with an interview by JR Jayewardene.

An amendment to the 2 term period requires a 2/3 majority in Parliament PLUS a Referendum. The “old fox” himself said so.

This is clearly the intention behind the relevant Constitutional article and who should know better than JR himself since his own brother was probably its principal framer.

In an interview with Sunday Island Editor Rohan Abeywardena on 15 Dec 1991, responding to the question:

“Why did you not contest in 1988?’,

JR replied:

“Under the Constitution of 1978 a President  can be elected for two terms only. Under the Law creating the Presidency my first term was deemed to have commenced in 1978.

“Thereafter in 1982 I was elected for the second term. If I had acceded to the request of my Party, and many of the Members of the Opposition, and contested the Presidential election in 1988, it would have meant a third term for me, and would have needed an amendment to the Constitution, by a two-thirds majority, and also the sanction of a Referendum. I thanked my sponsors and declined to accept their offer. Moreover, as a cricketer I was aware that in cricket, there are only two innings given to a side, and there is no third innings.”

I rest my case

Poll advanced to Jan 2, common candidate CBK or Ranil

By Our Political Editor-Sunday, November 09, 2014

Presidential election date changed to facilitate Pope’s visit, but final decision from the Vatican soonMangala re-emerges as kingmaker with threat to quit UNP; Malik Samarawickrema plays key role in common front moveChandrika returns to the national scene; President calls Karu to congratulate himPremadasa continues to rock UNP; insists it must be Wickremesinghe or himself for the presidency

Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga evades photographers as she arrives at the Kotte Naga Viharaya for a crucial meeting with Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera. Pic by Shantha Ratnayake

As presidential election fever continues to mount, a series of dramatic and significant political developments were the major highlights this week.
n The date of the polls has now been advanced to January 2 instead of January 8 next year. This is to give more time for preparations for the three-day visit of Pope Francis to Sri Lanka beginning January 13 next year. The UPFA Government believes this will influence the Vatican to keep the visit on schedule.

Poll Advanced to Jan 2, Common Candidate CBK or Ranil by Thavam

Did Karu send suicide bomber to Fonseka? ask UNP MP!

 

Sunday, 09 November 2014 

A definite decision on a common candidate that was about to be taken has become impossible after a meeting Democratic Party leader, former Army commander Sarath Fonseka, had with UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday (07), a UNP MP who is working day and night to see that a common candidate contests the presidential election, told ‘Lanka News Web.’

Around the middle of the week, the UNP leader gave his consent to a common candidate although very unwillingly, due to the intense pressure he was getting from every side, but after the meeting with Fonseka, he has returned to playing the old tune, said the MP.

At the discussion, Fonseka has said adamantly that he would never support Karu Jayasuriya, as he had avoided a meeting at Hyde Park around a year ago after promising to be present there. He has also said that he would not support Chandrika Kumaratunga either.

Commenting on this, the UNP MP said, “We can gauge the political maturity of Mr. Fonseka if he cannot forget for the sake of the common masses of a bad feeling due to an absence at a meeting. Fonseka is behaving in such an angry mood as if it was Karu who had sent the suicide bomber to kill him. The other thing is that had Karu gone to that meeting, the UNP would have taken disciplinary action against him. Fonseka does not remember that after he lost the presidential election and his hotel was surrounded by the Army, Ranil telephoned Mahinda Rajapaksa, told him that both of them are winners, and went to sleep. Here, Fonseka is playing a different game.”

Investigating this matter further, we found that businessman MP Tiran Alles is behind this change of stance of Fonseka. Alles has promised Fonseka’s wife and two daughters that he would see that the court case against Danuna Tilakaratne, husband of the eldest daughter, was withdrawn. In return, he has asked Fonseka, through his wife and daughters, that he made a statement that he would support Ranil, and no one else, at the presidential election.

Accordingly, Fonseka is involved in a difficult attempt to find whatever fault he could find against Karu. Similarly, he will find some fault or other against former president Kumaratunga too, within the next few days.

Sri Lanka: Wijeweera’s 25th Death Anniversary

| by Our Political Editor

( November 10, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The grand scheme for politics in Sri Lanka, in the period popularly termed as “the second uprising of JVP”, was not determined by the JVP or its leader, Rohana Wijeweera. It was the grand master of political manipulation, J.R. Jayawardene, who designed the scheme within which Wijeweera got trapped.

Wijeweera’s family

When JR won the election in July 1977, he spent his first year masterminding a scheme to uproot Sri Lanka’s parliamentary democracy. This scheme he called the 1978 Constitution. When he freed JVP prisoners – including Wijeweera – from jail, he knew there would be other ways destroy them.

Immediately after release, JVP promised to stay within the “democratic framework”. Little did they realize that the 1978 Constitution had altered the parameters of democratic discourse.

JVP got deluded by its immediate popularity, which merely manifested in large attendance at meetings. Wijeweera contested JR in the elections. Following the election, when SLFP failed to file an election petition in courts, Wijeweera signed the papers, which were initially prepared for the signature of SLFP leaders. Then the game began.

Security forces started assassinating some JVPers and JVP took the decision to go underground. From their hiding places, they began to carry out attacks on some of their opponents. In this way, they played into the hands of the great schemer, who wanted to solve other problems by pursuing JVP.

When his second term began, JR knew his period of popularity was over. He feared the electorate. He did not have an election when the time of the Parliament had expired. He instead had a referendum. He had to somehow keep his absolute majority. He knew the only way to derail the electoral process was through terror. For that he needed an enemy.

JVP was made the enemy. JVP fell into this trap, through acts of terror against their leftist opponents, trade union leaders from other parties, and some police officers. Now JR could make his use of terror appear as a defence.

Thus, number of years passed, during which time everybody forgot about forcing an electoral challenge against the President, and were instead preoccupied with coping with the terror. JR achieved what he wanted, i.e. to entrench the 1978 Constitution and displace parliamentary democracy tradition.

By the time Wijeweera was killed, terror had replaced electoral politics, in its genuine sense. And, this situation continues to date. Even today, 25 years since the death of Wijeweera, JR’s constitutional scheme remains.

'Sri Lanka has not implemented death penalty since 1976'

Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, currently in Chennai, said he had explained this to the families of the five Tamil fishermen awarded the sentence by a Colombo court recently.

C.V. Wigneswaran, Chief Minister of the Northern Province in Sri Lanka, interacts with the press at the Chennai Press Club on Monday. Photo: M. Prabhu

November 10, 2014 

In what could be a major relief to the five Tamil fishermen who have been awarded death sentence by the Sri Lankan High Court on drug trafficking charges, the country’s Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran said his country had not implemented death sentence since 1976.

Mr Wigneswaran, who was a former Judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, said in Chennai on Monday that even though death sentence was still part of the law it had not been implemented since 1976.

He said the families of the five fishermen also met him in Chennai and had sought his intervention to cancel the death penalty. “I explained to them that death sentence was not strictly implemented in Sri Lanka,” he told reporters.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M.A. Sumanthiran, a Constitutional and human rights lawyer, said that in Sri Lanka, if a person possessed more than two grams of heroin he would face death sentence.

"There were instances of death sentences awarded to those involved in smuggling of narcotics. But the sentences were not implemented,” he said.

5 Tamil fishermen on death row in Sri Lanka to be transferred to India

YAHOO NEWS INDIA

November 10, 2014

CHENNAI: Sri Lanka will transfer all the five fishermen, who had been sentenced to death on the charge of drug trafficking, to India, a CNN IBN report said quoting BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.

This will come as a huge relief to the fishermen and their families. Television reports said that the deadlock was broken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the issue, according to a tweet from Dr Swamy.

The fishermen will be transferred to an Indian jail, reports said.

"Namo and Rajapaksa spoke on the phone yesterday & agreed to process papers & transfer 5 fishermen convicted to Indian jail. I am vindicated!" the tweet read.

The case dates back to 2011 when the five fishermen set out to fish from Rameswaram and were apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy on the charge of possessing narcotics.

A Sri Lankan court had recently sentenced the five fishermen to death in the case.

The Indian fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan navy in 2011. The fishermen have time till November 11 to appeal at the Lankan Supreme Court.

India's Ministry of External Affairs had said that the Indian government will challenge the order in the upper court.

Spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin was quoted by CNN IBN as saying, "We will take up this matter. Judgment is passed by the lower court. We will challenge this case in the upper court."

Earlier, the executive director of Sri Lanka's Institute of Policy Studies, Dr. Saman Kelegama, had called for a bilateral settlement between New Delhi and Colombo on the issue of the death penalty given to five Indian fishermen in a drug smuggling case.

"This is a thing that is concerned with both the countries. So, we have to bilaterally settle this issue of fishermen crossing maritime border and fishing in each others' territory," said Dr. Kelegama.

"Neighbours always have problems, be it in South Asia, Latin America or wherever. So, this is a typical problem between two neighbours," he added.

Dr. Kelegama said the fishermen row has created a conflict between India and Sri Lanka.

The Colombo High Court had earlier on October 30 held five Indian fishermen, who were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy in 2011 on charges of smuggling drugs, guilty of drug trafficking.

The arrest of the Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy has been a major topic of debate between the two nations.

Former Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa had earlier written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to pressurize the Sri Lankan authorities to free the fishermen detained in that country.

Jayalalithaa had in her letter to the Prime Minister insisted on laying down a time-bound action plan in a bid to achieve a long-term permanent solution to the problem, reports said.

Meanwhile, BJP's Tamil Nadu chief Tamilisai Soundararajan said that the Indian High Commissioner was in touch with the fishermen.

"The government is taking legal steps to release the fishermen. And also on humanitarian grounds, our High Commissioner to Sri Lanka has met them personally and has assured them they can talk with their relatives, given some clothing to them when they requested that they have to meet relatives and was assured that arrangements will be made," said Soundararajan. (ANI and agencies)

'Boko Haram suicide bomber' kills 48 in school attack

MONDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2014
Dozens of Nigerian boys are killed and 79 injured by a suicide bomber dressed as a student at a school assembly.

Angry locals blocked the entrance to the boys' school in Potiskum, Nigeria after the bombing during morning assembly.

'Boko Haram Suicide Bomber' Kills 48 in School Attack by Thavam

Bomb blasts in Afghanistan kill at least 10 policemen

Three separate explosions hit Afghanistan Monday as Taliban claim responsibility for two of the attacks

November 10, 2014 7:38AM ET

Three separate bomb explosions in Afghanistan on Monday killed at least 10 policemen, a day after a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself in Kabul's police headquarters, killing one person, police officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for two of the attacks. Seven policemen were killed in the eastern province of Logar province when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the provincial police headquarters, Reuters reported. 

In Nangarhar province, also in the east, three policemen were killed in the city of Jalalabad by a bomb planted in a rickshaw, officials said. It was not clear who was behind the third blast, which took place in Kabul and was caused by a bomb planted in a flower bed near a university, wounding three people.

Taliban violence has increased as foreign troops have withdrawn, leaving Afghan security forces to fight alone or with limited air support. The police and army have suffered heavy losses as a result. A top U.S. commander in Afghanistan recently said the casualty rate among Afghan government forces was "not sustainable."

This year alone, more than 4,600 Afghan soldiers and police have been killed in the fighting, according to U.S. figures.

The Taliban were ousted from power in 2001 by U.S.-led forces and they have been fighting ever since to oust foreign troops and the U.S.-backed government, even as most foreign forces are pulling out by the end of this year.

The Taliban also claimed responsibility for Sunday's suicide bomb attack on police headquarters in the capital that killed a senior officer. 

Al Jazeera and wire services 

To counter rise of Islamic State, Jordan imposes rules on Muslim clerics

Hundreds of protesters gather for a demonstration to protest alleged police brutality and the death of a local in a recent house raid, in Maan, Jordan on June 25, 2014. Tens of the marchers unfurled black banners in support of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in what marked the second public showing support of the Islamic State in the kingdom in less than a week. (Taylor Luck/For The Washington Post)

By William Booth and Taylor Luck November 9 at 8:26 PM

ZARQA, Jordan — Several hundred robed Muslim clerics recently packed themselves into an auditorium to hear the minister of Islamic affairs issue their new marching orders. The meeting was mandatory.
To Counter Rise of Islamic State, Jordan Imposes Rules on Muslim Clerics by Thavam

Kerry pushes for Mideast peace, donors pledge $5 billion for Palestinians

 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (C) talks with Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh (front 3nd R) as they gather for a group photo with other Gaza Donor Conference attendees in Cairo October 12

BY MATT SPETALNICK AND STEPHEN KALIN-CAIRO Sun Oct 12, 2014 

(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called on Sunday for a renewed commitment to achieving Middle East peace, saying a lasting deal between Israel, the Palestinians and all their neighbors was possible.
Kerry pushes for Mideast peace, donors pledge $5 billion for Palestinians by Thavam