Announcement of presidential election on ‘World Toilet Day’

World Toilet Day quiz: are you an expert  on the loo?

WEDNESDAY, 19 NOVEMBER 2014

The gazette announcing the presidential election to be with the

auspicious time for President Mahinda Rajapaksa would be issued today (19th), the World Toilet Day, say reports.

Speaking at the protest rally held by the People’s Movement for Democracy (PMD) under the theme “No third term for Mahinda! No illegal presidential Elction” in Colombo yesterday (18th) the Leader of the JVP Anura Dissanayaka, giving a political interpretation regarding this, said, “Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa is getting ready to make the whole country stink by announcing the presidential election on the World Toilet Day that falls tomorrow.”

World Toilet Day

Rajiva Wijesinghe too wants to leave govt.

WEDNESDAY, 19 NOVEMBER 2014

It is reported that National list MP Prof. Rajiva Wijesinghe plans to leave the UPFA government.

Prof. Wijesinghe had forwarded a proposal to the government regarding the breakdown that exists in the diplomatic service and frauds and corruption carried out by members of the government.

Prof. Wijesinghe has told media that he would not support Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa at the upcoming presidential election and also he would leave the government if the government doesn't respond to his proposal.

Operation launched to harass senior JHU members

 Wednesday, 19 November 2014 

The government it is learnt has commenced an operation to harass senior members of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) following the party’s decision to quit the government.

Lanka Herald learns that among the accusations being framed to be leveled against senior JHU members are corruption, fraud and even murder.

JHU Chairman, MP Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thero told the media that the party was aware of moves by the government to frame various charges against the JHU seniors and that the party was ready to face any challenge in order to bring victory to the JHU’s policies.

JHU General Secretary, MP Patali Champika Ranawaka also said that the party was aware of the obstacles they would have to face after deciding to quit the government.

“We know that various charges will be framed against us. We are not afraid. If we were, we wouldn’t have decided to resign from our portfolios and quit the government,” Ranawaka said.

UPFA MP to cross over

 Wednesday, 19 November 2014 

Gampaha District United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) MP Wasantha Senanayake is to cross over to the opposition after making a special statement in parliament.

Senanayake it is learnt will make a statement in parliament before the third reading vote on the 2015 Budget.

He will sit in the opposition and join the United National Party (UNP).

Lanka Herald learns that Senanayake will be appointed by the UNP to head the Polonnaruwa District and to the party’s Working Committee.

The UPFA MP has already cleared his political office in preparation to make the cross over.
- LH -

Power corrupts

Editorial-November 19, 2014

Power corrupts as Lord Acton has famously said. But, it is not only political power that corrupts; the public supply of electricity also does. The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is a glaring example. Even some ministers have shed light on its crooked power deals.

Now, it is reported that the participation of 25 CEB engineers at a recent conference organised by the Association of the Electricity Supply Industry in East Asia and the Western Pacific, in South Korea, has cost the public Rs. 20 million. They are also reported to have undertaken to hold the next conference here at a cost of Rs. 500 mn. But, the CEB claims it has no funds to replace old transformers!

This country should be proud of its engineers and scientists. IGP N. K. Illangakoon has recently paid a glowing tribute to the Colombo University School of Computing for designing advanced software at a very low cost to enable the police to match fingerprints of criminals within minutes. Local engineers now undertake the construction of expressways and other such tasks. It is a pity that some of their colleagues who claw their way to high positions in the state service thanks to their remarkable ability to clean politicians’ boots and sandals with their extra-large tongues continue to bring their profession into disrepute. While the police are acquiring new technologies to catch criminals rogues in the garb of state officials get away with their criminal waste of public funds and corrupt deals.

Corruption and wasteful expenditure have eaten into the vitals of all state institutions like a cancer. Even the local government politicians who are not qualified to be employed in the public sector even as labourers go on foreign junkets at the expense of the ratepayers. It was only a few moons ago that we condemned a politician’s demand that the Kalutara Urban Council be declared out of bounds for journalists because the media had revealed that public funds were being spent generously to send councillors on pleasure trips to Bangkok every year.

Spendthrift CEB worthies do not have to be careful with funds. For, they can always increase the revenue of their institution by jacking up electricity tariffs. Thankfully, they have been made to behave in view of the upcoming presidential election.

One may not grudge state officials the pleasure of seeing the world, but the problem is that it is the public who have to foot the bill. Let them spend their personal funds for that purpose.

The government never misses an opportunity to boast that it has expanded the public service which its predecessors tried to prune. But, the question is whether it has any strategy to tackle problems such as wasteful expenditure, dereliction of duty, inefficiency, callousness and various malpractices such as bribery and corruption that most government servants are notorious for.

No government has made a serious effort to liberate the CEB from the clutches of corrupt officials whose rackets have resulted in high power tariffs for the public and losses for the state coffers. No less a person than Minister of Power and Energy Pavithra Wanniarachchi recently revealed in Parliament a coal racket. Such deals are exposed from time to time, but no follow-up action is taken and the corrupt go scot free. We bet our bottom dollar that nothing will come of the promised probe into the coal scandal.

The practice of state officials going on overseas junkets on various pretexts and organising mega events which do not benefit the country at the expense of the taxpaying public should be brought to an end immediately. Strangely, these issues are not taken up in Parliament where many a lawmaker talks the hind legs off a donkey on frivolous issues.

A Chat-Compartment In “Yarldevi”

By Somapala Gunadheera -November 19, 2014

Somapala Gunadheera

It is my belief that one of the main reasons for the frictions between the North and the South is limited chances for the two sides to meet face to face. As the first Chairman of the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority of the North, I organized tours for groups from the North to come down South and meet their countrymen in 1998. The first to come was a group of school children who had come on top at the AL exam. When the participants arrived by boat at Trincomalee, they looked tense and scared. Little wonder, as they were not sure what the reaction of the LTTE to their tour would be and as they were about to meet a people painted to them as a ‘nasty lot’.

But the children relaxed as they were taken round right down to Kataragama, meeting the President and their counterparts and visiting Parliament, civil society institutions, sites of historical interest, places of worship and courts of law. They were followed by a group of leading farmers nominated by the Divisions. The reception the children received was so warm that at the end of the tour, they had confided to a Tamil assistant of mine that they were surprised to find that the Sinhalese were such a friendly and hospitable people. Such was the opinion of the farmers as well. Both groups were echoing my own impression after I had spent some time in Jaffna as a public servant in 1956.

Those whose duty it is to integrate the nation after its recent turmoil should lose no opportunity to create fora, wherever possible, for the communities to come together to discover one another. The ‘Yarldevi’s much advertised run appears to be such a valuable opportunity. The train has bridged a gap imposed between the people for over two decades and made it possible for them to come face to face literally. Thousands of commuters now travel up and down daily to and from Jaffna, sitting together for more than seven hours. They kill that time incognito and incommunicado, anxiously waiting for the end of the journey. The time they waste yawning, is a massive opportunity for integration. Purposeful action to utilize this coming together should be taken fast so that the prospect created by the expensive investment on the rail track to Jaffna, is not wasted.

The Railway Department which appears to be overjoyed by the massive income it is earning from ‘Yarldevi’ can make the run gainful to the entire nation by devising ways of making the travellers to communicate with one another on the run. This process can start by initially identifying one bogie as the ‘Chat Compartment’. A compartment consists of about 10 rows of double seats separated by a passageway.

Normally these seats face the same direction. This was the arrangement of seats when I went to Jaffna recently. The seat arrangement limited my contact to the lady sitting next to me. She had been born and bred in Jaffna but now she was settled in Colombo. The lady was going up to attend a funeral service for one of her relatives. I found that the double seats could be adjusted to face each other easily by turning a knob, thereby making cubicles of four seats each. On my return, I got the double seats so arranged and enjoyed the company of three Tamil travellers throughout the journey.

All that the Railway Department has to do is to make cubicles of four seats in the ‘Chat Compartment’ and allocate each cubicle to a mixed set of Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims who wish to travel together. That arrangement will give about 40 persons of the three communities a rare chance of communicating with one another. This arrangement will make acquaintances of at least 40 passengers of the respective communities on each trip.

As the train makes two trips up and down a day, the possible introductions add up to 160 per day. More ‘Chat Compartments’ can be allocated as the demand increases, with the result that over a period, millions of citizens would be routinely put in touch with their countrymen whom they would not have met otherwise. This would undoubtedly start an imperceptible linkage between communities that would have a tremendous impact on integration in the long run, next to learning one another’s language.

It is unfortunate that the restaurant van of ‘Yarldevi’ is not yet functional. Availability of refreshments on the run should make more and more people come across others and make friends with them. Resourceful civil society organizations like lion clubs, religious associations and NGOs that are committed to national integration, particularly those operating beside the track,  can make a contribution to this venture by taking turns to supply refreshments to the ‘Chat Compartment’ through a Caterer. That would certainly lengthen the queue for reservations for travel together and if the operation is imaginatively handled, very soon the entire Yarldevi would be transformed into a Train of Friendship.

Will Mahinda's 'Indian fishing' trump card boomerang?

Will Mahinda's 'Indian fishing' trump card boomerang?

 2014-11-18 

It was reported in the media last week that President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Indian Premier Narendra Modi discussed the issue of the five Indian fishermen convicted by a Colombo Court for drug offences and sentenced to death.Though there were rumours earlier that Modi telephoned Mahinda, New Delhi reports indicated that it was Mahinda who had telephoned and expressed the desire to speak to Modi. Mahinda is reported to have told Modi that he was prepared to grant presidential amnesty to the five fishermen. Despite these developments between the two leaders, the Indian High Commission in Colombo is readying to appeal against the High Court verdict to the Court of Appeal. The Mahinda-Modi telephone conversation appears to have embarrassed the Indian High Commission here. Even in the past during the rule of the Congress Party in India, Mahinda's Government had issues with the Indian High Commission in Colombo.

During the previous Congress regime in India, the then Opposition Leader Sushma Swaraj visited Colombo and Mahinda hosted her to dinner. The then Indian High Commissioner, Ashok K. Kantha accompanied Sushma everywhere she went during the visit but Mahinda did not invite him for that dinner. The reason was the differences Mahinda's Government had with Kantha. And, Mahinda thought that it was Kantha, who incited the then Indian Government against his administration. Mahinda met Kantha rarely. He also lodged complaints against Kantha through certain channels but New Delhi placed its confidence in Kantha. Mahinda extended a separate invitation to Sushma to get Sushma away from the pressure from Kantha and his officials to turn her towards him (Mahinda).

Drive a wedge
Information flowing from New Delhi indicates that the Modi Government may be of the view that Mahinda's Government was using the convicted fishermen's issue to drive a wedge between the Indian Government and the Indian High Commission in Colombo. The following report in The Hindu may contain some truth to that effect: "President Mahinda Rajapaksa is ready to pardon the five Indian fishermen sentenced to death in Sri Lanka if the Indian High Commission in Colombo does not proceed with an appeal against the sentence, Sri Lankan Minister, Prabha Ganeshan told The Hindu on Tuesday. "The President said he could pardon and release the fishermen in two or three days, but a Court appeal would drag the case up to six months," Ganeshan, who met the President to pledge support in the upcoming elections, said. President Rajapaksa, the MP said, wanted him to convey this decision to the High Commission. When contacted, officials at the High Commission confirmed having received the call from Ganeshan, Deputy Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology. The officials said they would decide the next step on Wednesday. The sudden development came on a day when an appeal was filed against the death sentence in the Colombo High Court. Ganeshan said President Rajapaksa had told him he had already discussed the pardon with Prime Minister Modi and that the High Commission was 'unnecessarily spending huge sums of money on the appeal.'

Adopting a tactic
Mahinda's Government may be adopting a tactic to win over Modi's Government by trying to offer a presidential amnesty to the convicted Indian fishermen. The Colombo Government wants to show that, while it was extending its cooperation to resolve the fishermen's issue in an amicable manner, it was the Indian High Commission that was confusing the issue. Earlier, before Mahinda went to New Delhi to attend Modi's swearing- in ceremony he released all Indian fishermen in custody to display his goodwill. India held a different view in that respect. It viewed that Mahinda's Government was capturing Indian fishermen knowing there would be problems in Tamil Nadu and then releasing the fishermen as a favour to New Delhi to resolve the Tamil Nadu uprising.

Be that as it may, Modi seems to be following a silent policy on Sri Lanka. Though such silence looked favourable to Mahinda's Government, Modi's silence also seems to disturb Mahinda's Government. Though the Congress led Government of
Dr. Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi often spoke of the Sri Lankan Tamil problem and issued statements, Modi adopts a silent attitude on Sri Lankan issues. Some say that Modi is buying time till the next Tamil Nadu elections. They feel that Modi may be getting ready for a 'high jump' on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue close to Tamil Nadu elections. It may be a 'high jump' that could surprise the Colombo Government. Mahinda will need Modi when the UNHRC submits its probe report on Sri Lanka next March. Then Modi will weigh the Chinese submarines, fishermen crisis and the Sri Lankan Tamil issue to make decisions.

Fishermen on death row freed

The five Indian fishermen are seen with Indian High Commission officials in Colombo after their release on Wednesday. Arrangements are being made for their early return to India, officials said. Photo: Special Arrangement.

MEERA SRINIVASAN-November 20, 2014

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa commutes sentence of all five

The five Indian fishermen on death row in Sri Lanka on drug-trafficking charges, walked free on Wednesday, after President Mahinda Rajapaksa used his executive powers to commute their death penalty.

The five have been released into the care of the Indian High Commission before being sent back to India, an official said. It is learnt that they will serve no further jail term in India. President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s decision on the release appears to be a commutation of the fishermen’s sentence to the term already served.

The gesture, described by the Indian High Commission here as humanitarian, ended three weeks of uncertainty over their fate, after the Colombo High Court sentenced them to death on October 30. It follows intense diplomatic activity, which saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking to Mr. Rajapaksa on November 9, and several behind-the-scenes talks.

The five fishermen — Emerson, P. Augustus, R. Wilson, K. Prasath and J. Langlet, all hailing from Tamil Nadu — were apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy in November 2011. Three Sri Lankan fishermen were also sentenced to death with them.

In addition to New Delhi taking up the Indian fishermen’s case through diplomatic channels, an appeal was filed on their behalf in the Colombo High Court on November 11.

While the diplomatic negotiations were on, the President’s office announced that the withdrawal of the appeal by the Indian side was a pre-requisite for any decision on the release.

The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a party of Buddhist monks, has been consistently voicing concern over drug smuggling and the government’s inability to curb it. The JHU (National Heritage Party) on Tuesday quit President Rajapaksa’s government, protesting the reluctance to implement constitutional changes.

A Chinese naval base for Sri Lanka?

A Chinese naval base for Sri Lanka?

 Nov 19, 2014  Ramesh Irugalbandara

The Namibian, citing reports in the Chinese media, says that China is planning to establish 18 naval bases in strategic locations that included the port of Hambantota in Sri Lanka.

Another one of these naval bases is due to be established in the Walvis Bay in Namibia and this was confirmed to The Namibian newspaper by Namibian Ministry of Defence spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Monica Sheya.

The Namibian reports that China plans to build replenishment, berthing and maintenance bases in foreign countries through mutually beneficial and friendly consultations.

When News1st inquired about the matter, Director of the Media Centre of the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development, Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasuriya denied claims that a Chinese Naval base is to established in the Hambantota.

A complex international political order emerges

November 19, 2014, 12:00 pm 

This handout released by G20 Australia on November 16, 2014 shows the official G20 Summit "family photo" taken on November 15 and signed by G20 leaders on November 16. G20 leaders, which collectively comprise 85 percent of the world economy, wrapped up their annual summit on November 16 in Brisbane with agreement on a wealth of issues, primarily economic. AFP PHOTO/ G20 AUSTRALIA/ Andrew Taylor

Surviving leader of the erstwhile Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, while reflecting on developments in the Ukraine, has voiced the apprehension that the world was reliving Cold War type tensions and divisions. Some of those among us with strong recollections of the Cold War decades may tend to agree with Gorbachev but they need to cast a more searching glance at the Ukrainian theatre and outside it before venturing to comment on his thought-provoking observation.

A Complex International Political Order Emerges by Thavam Ratna

Norwegian doctor vows to defy Israeli ban to enter Gaza

15/11 22:56 CET

A Norwegian doctor has vowed to defy an Israeli ban on entering Gaza.

Dr Mads Gilbert, who denounces the occupation of Palestinian territories, was refused entry in October.

Israeli authorities imposed the ban indefinitely, citing security reasons.

The Norwegian foreign ministry in Tel Aviv said it would challenge the ban.

Dr Gilbert has been treating Palestinians in Gaza for 15 years. He spent 51 days there during the conflict between Hamas and Israel this summer.

He believes his reporting of the medical situation in the territory has angered Israeli authorities.

In the medical journal The Lancet, he described the scenes he witnessed this summer as the worst he had ever seen.

Inside Islamic State’s oil empire: how 

captured oilfields fuel Isis insurgency

Coalition air strikes have not stopped the militant group from earning millions of dollars a week from its 

 Erbil refinery in Khabat. Isis controls about half a dozen oilfields and has tapped into trading networks across northern Iraq. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Islamic State has consolidated its grip on oil supplies in Iraq and now presides over a sophisticated smuggling empire with illegal exports going to Turkey, Jordan and Iran, according to smugglers and Iraqi officials.

Inside Islamic State’s Oil Empire How Captured Oilfields Fuel Isis Insurgency by Thavam Ratna

Egyptian police fire tear gas, arrest 25 people commemorating 2011 protests

Riot police walk in front of graffiti depicting Bassem Mohsen, 20, who was killed in the 2011 Egypt uprising, along Mohamed Mahmoud street during the third anniversary of violent and deadly clashes near Tahrir Square in Cairo November 19, 2014.

CAIRO Thu Nov 20, 2014 

(Reuters) - Police fired tear gas and arrested 25 people on Wednesday in central Cairo where hundreds had gathered to commemorate dozens of protesters killed by security forces in 2011, Egypt's interior ministry told state news agency MENA.

The rally was a rare sign of defiance against strict protest laws imposed by the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who has also allowed military courts to try civilians in a crackdown that began with Islamist supporters of ousted President Mohamed Mursi.

Activists had planned a march in streets near Tahrir Square on the anniversary of the deaths of 42 people three years ago when Egyptians demonstrated against the government that took power following an uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

A security source said the detainees would be released "soon", but a decree passed last month means they could be tried in military courts for blocking the road.

In Alexandria, four people were arrested, including leading activist Mahienour el-Massry, according to the "Free Mahienour" Facebook page. The page said those detained were not protesting. It gave no more details on the arrests.

Authorities in Egypt's second biggest city were not available to comment.

Massry was sentenced to two years in prison last year for protesting outside a court trying two policemen accused of killing a man whose death in 2010 helped to ignite the uprising against Mubarak.

She was released in September following an international outcry against her sentence.

(Reporting by Shadi Bushra and Ali Abdelatti; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Law and Disorder in Mexico

The disappearance of 43 college students only proves what everyone in Mexico already knows: The authorities are not to be trusted.

• BY DANIEL WILKINSON-NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Mexico's attorney general, Jesús Murillo Karam, says his office has finally solved the crime that has riveted his country for more than a month: the disappearance of 43 college students at the hands of police in Iguala, a small city in the southern state of Guerrero. In a news conference on Nov. 7, Murillo Karam announced that three gang members had confessed to killing the students and burning their bodies, leaving only ashes and bone shards on the bank of a river below a municipal dump outside a small mountain town called Cocula.
Law and Disorder in Mexico by Thavam Ratna

Police storm religious leader's compound to find six dead

Supporters of controversial Indian guru Sant Rampal display his photograph during a protest in New Delhi, India, Tuesday. Pic: AP.

Police detain a supporter of Satguru Rampalji Maharaj, a self-styled ''godman'', during a protest outside the ashram of Rampal in Hisar in Haryana November 18, 2014.

NEW DELHI Wed Nov 19, 2014

(Reuters) - Police on Wednesday deployed water cannon and a baton charge in storming the hermitage of a self-styled religious leader who is facing murder charges, discovering six bodies in an operation to evacuate thousands of his followers.

Local media reported Wednesday night that Satguru Rampalji Maharaj has been arrested.

Police brought out 10,000 people, many held against their will, from the hermitage of Satguru Rampalji Maharaj, a controversial guru who is based in Haryana, 170 km northwest of the capital New Delhi.

Thousands were still holed up in the sprawling compound, which suffered huge damage after police breached a human chain of men, women and children in a bid to arrest the 63-year-old Rampal.

"The godman was using his devotees as a human shield," senior police officer S.N. Vashist told reporters.

Police officials said the bodies of five women and one infant had been found. There were no bullet marks or injuries on the dead and they did not die in the rescue. Their bodies will be sent for postmortem examinations.

Tensions rose last week after a judge ordered Rampal's arrest over a 2006 murder case, in which he is accused of telling supporters to open fire on villagers, killing one and injuring six.

The guru has ignored more than 40 summons to go to court. His followers had said he was not in the 12-acre (5-hectare) walled compound, but receiving medical treatment at an undisclosed location.

Rampal heads a sect that worships the 15th-century poet and mystic Kabir, who is known for a message of tolerance that is followed by people of varied faiths.

Some of those evacuated told police they had been held against their will for days, and given little food or water.

"We are trying to restrain the use of force because we know that many followers are being compelled to fight by Rampal," said Vashist. "He is trying to avoid arrest in every possible way."

(Reporting by Tanya Ashreena; Writing by Rupam Jain Nair; Editing by Douglas Busvine)