New Book: Embattled Media Evolution, Governance and Reform in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s Media Law and Policy

Edited by William Crawley, David Page & Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena

( February 10, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) With essays by Sri Lanka’s leading media practitioners, foreign correspondents, senior editors, lawyers, legal analysts and media academics including Amal Jayasinghe, Sinha Ratnatunga, Tilak Jayaratne, Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena, Gehan Gunatilleke, Jayantha de Almeida Guneratne, Nalaka Gunawardene, Ameen Izzadeen, Namini Wijedasa, Sarath Kellapotha and S. Raguram.

New Book Embattled Media Evolution, Governance and Reform in Sri Lanka by Thavam Ratna

Revisiting Reconciliation And Winning At Diplomacy

By Heshika Deegahawathura -February 10, 2015 

Heshika Deegahawathura

The Setting

At the 67th Independence Day celebrations, the newly elected President of Sri Lanka, Maithripala Sirisena, delivered the state speech centered on reconciliation and progress. As it stands a few wheels are turning in the international arena vis-à-vis Sri Lanka. Firstly, a United Nations inquiry, into the alleged war crimes that occurred in the final phases of the war, is set to be released in March. Secondly, US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Nisha Biswal, met with Sri Lankan foreign minister Mangala Smaraweera this past week. In a few days’ time, Minister Samaraweera is scheduled to meet Secretary Kerry in Washington DC.

How does all this connect? How can Sri Lanka be prevented from sliding down an irreversible path of foreign intervention in internal affairs? In preventing such, how can we, the people of Sri Lanka, strive to attain sustainable peace from within Sri Lanka? The answer lies in understanding the US State Department’s mindset and in building a framework for true reconciliation.

Understanding Kerry and the US’s take on Sri Lanka

In December 2009, as Chairman of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee, then Senator Kerry endorsed a report titled “Sri Lanka: Recharting US Strategy after the War”. Three points made in the report should be highlighted. Firstly, then Senator Kerry along with Senator Lugar stated that “the [Sri Lankan Government] faces many challenges in transitioning to peace, and the international community can help”. The report goes on to say that “real peace will not come over night to Sri Lanka and cannot be imposed from the outside”. Finally, as a recommendation, the report insists that steps should be taken by the US government to “promote people-to-people reconciliation programs to build bridges between the Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim communities.”Read More

Rebuilding Institutions in the Transition from Soft Authoritarianism

by Jayadeva Uyangoda

February 9, 2015, 7:10 pm 

A political goal that warrants sustained attention of the new Sri Lankan government as well as the democratic reform constituencies is the rebuilding of public institutions of democratic governance, accountability, autonomy, and checks and balances.

Rebuilding Institutions in the Transition From Soft Authoritarianism by Thavam Ratna

Action required for promoting openness in the 100-day reform process and the consolidation of constitutional democracy

10 February 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) welcomes the general direction of the government’s 100-day reforms programme that is currently underway. After decades of intolerable battering, Sri Lanka’s democratic procedures and institutions are badly in need of reform and rejuvenation. In terms of broad principles, we unhesitatingly support the abolition of the executive presidential system, the re-establishment of the Constitutional Council and the independent commissions, freedom of information legislation, and the reform of the parliamentary committee system. We are also of the view that further reforms must follow in the next Parliament to consolidate democracy and pluralism, including major changes to our framework of devolution and power-sharing, and the protection of fundamental human rights.

100-Day-Action Required for Promoting Openness in the 100-Day Reform Process by Thavam Ratna

The odalisques of the Maharaju still haunting inside the health ministry

Tuesday, 10 February 2015 

The woman appears in the picture wearing a white sari is the damsel worked until 9th of January as a doctor in the parliament medical centre during the Rajapaksa era. Ms. Nimali Munasinghe being a junior doctor, nobody knows how she directly got appointed at the parliament medical centre bypassing the normal transfer procedures applied in the government medical service despite going through a hard training period? When a doctor close to her inquired about this she has given the following answer “I don’t know, Padeniya brother called Namal

brother and got me transferred here”. Further she has made her daughter to call the Maharaju as the “Loku appuchchi”.

The new miracle is that how she has got an immediate transfer to the health ministry and flourishing there. The question lies how can she couch herself in an air conditioned room inside the health ministry bypassing the compulsory difficult training period given to all government medical practitioners? We feel sorry about the child. Despite the misconducts of the parents the child too is deployed to misconduct.

Mr President, Hang Him Or He Will Hang You

By Granville Perera -February 10, 2015

President Rajapaksa’s attempt to re-enter high office through parliament spells doom for the fragile coalition that has evolved after the Presidential elections of 2015. Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe probably doesn’t command the majority in parliament as is evident from the 114 signatories to the John Amaratungano confidence motion presented by the UPFA. This probably is the beginning of the end of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinge’s short-lived premiership and dissolution of parliament is inevitable. A section of the SLFP and leftist parties of the UPFA would propel Mahinda Rajapaksa to make his bid for the next premiership.

Remember, President Rajapaksa is a street fighter who would not rest until he has finished you off, for being the traitor that he considers you to be, for eating his hoppers and betraying. You may both be rural boys, but the game he would play is no Elle. He knows to play only with fire when you would, at the most consider throwing a pebble.

President Rajapaksa cannot live without the pomp and pageantry of high office that he got used to during the last 10 years. He had 3000 crack commandos guarding him not because he genuinely felt the threat to his life, but like every dictator, this was his form of intimidating everyone around him. From a lovable character to a monster, is what he turned out to be during his two-term presidency, and it is not just for himself that he amassed such brutal power and wealth, but also for his entire family. The greedy Basil Rajapaksa amassed all the wealth for the family, the violent Gotabaya Rajapaksabecame the most feared killer, the playboy Namal Rajapaksa had all the young chicks under his Nil Balakaya to fill his modern day harem and the trigger hungryYoshitha Rajapaksa adorned the naval ribbons, medals, badges and pins which no other mortal could have worn in his rank and the little Chicchi brat who drove around in illegally imported best brand motor vehicles in races where no one else should win. 10 years of such pleasure cannot be given up, not because of a usurper from Polonnaruwa as he considers you to be. What he failed in his attempted coup would be achieved in the next election, unless you ensure that Sri Lanka will not have the repeat of his curse.Read More

Bali Nine, Capital Punishment and Sri Lanka’s Policy Ambiguities

by Laksiri Fernando

( February 10, 2015, Sydney, Sri Lanka Guardian) As Australia is stunned and saddened by Indonesia’s adamant decision to go ahead with the execution of two young Australian convicts of drug trafficking, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, without listening to many appeals, it is shocking to hear from the new Minister of Justice in Sri Lanka, Wijedasa Rajapaksa, whom I considered in high esteem as a rational person before, that Sri Lanka would reinstate capital punishment (if necessary) to curb crime in the country.

Bali Nine, Capital Punishment and Sri Lanka’s Policy Ambiguities by Thavam Ratna

EPF should exit banking sector and Central Bank should leave private banks in private hands

EPF should quit the banking and financial sector as fast as possible and the Central Bank should leave private banks in the hands of the private sector. That is in line with good governance in central banking

 February 9, 2015 -Monetary Board acquiring private banks through EPF
The latest reports filed by private banks and a few financial sector non-bank institutions with the Colombo Stock Exchange reveal that the Employees Provident Fund or EPF owns shares up to the maximum limit of 10% of the issued share capital of banks and a significant portion of the shares issued by other non-bank institutions.

EPF Should Exit Banking Sector and Central Bank Should Leave Private Banks in Private Hands by Thavam Ratna

Tiran tries to reunite with Mangala!

Tuesday, 10 February 2015 

Mawbima owner Tiran Alles is trying to reunite with external affairs minister by meeting him in Great Britain, where the minister is on tour. Arriving in London yesterday (08), minister Samaraweera was met by Tiran and his business partner there Basnayake.

From the time Samaraweera arrived there, the duo gave repeated calls to his phone, but he did not answer. It is his habit not to answer telephone calls. But, not discouraged, Tiran got through to him through the mobile phone of his personal aide Sameera. That was followed by their meeting last night in Central London.

The aim of the meeting was to prevent the CID’s coming after Tiran in connection with his facilitator role in the fake agreement that has sent Tissa to remand prison. However, Mangala did not promise him anything. Since, Tiran is a long term friend of his, the minister met him.

The wife of Sameera, minister Samaraweera’s personal aide, works in a company owned by Tiran. He intentionally employs that woman in order to balance Mangala. The minister refrains from using telephones in order to escape from his friends and relatives. Anyway, we respect him for his lone struggle against crony politics.

The Unheard Voices Of The Tuna Fishermen Of Sri Lanka

By Rahul Aryasinha -February 10, 2015

Rahul Aryasinha

Sri Lankan fishermen have been accused of being involved in illegal fishing activities in unauthorized territories including Marine Protected Areas. As a result we have just lost 74 million Euros worth of fish exports per year to Europe. Now the Sri Lankan authorities are working on amending the fisheries act and taking steps to comply with EU regulations to curb illegal fishing activities. Why were these fishermen involved in illegal fishing activities in the first place? Even prior to the European ban, the most important stakeholders of this industry – the fishermen and boat owners, were facing daunting challenges and in many cases were failing to operate profitably. The EU ban has only exacerbated an existing unfavorable condition.

Technology versus hearsay

For the fishermen and the boat owners every single trip out at sea has turned into a gamble. All though the sole income for both parties depends on a successful catch of tuna, minimal catches have resulted in low profits for boat owners as well as for the fisherman who work on a profit sharing basis. Many of these boat owners are liable to financial institutions on a monthly basis and endure the inconvenience of not being able to honor timely payments. Having no scientific knowledge on where to find fish the conventional fisherman mainly rely on word of mouth. Facing low income and at times even a loss they are forced to do whatever it takes to catch fish and save the day. At this point the fishermen start poaching in restricted territories and many times they target marine protected reserves. When these fishermen get caught poaching they face even worse economic burdens in the form of fines to get the detained vessels and the crew members released. With all these risks involved in illegal fishing, why do our fishermen still take the risk of fishing in restricted or protected areas? Secondly why do our fishermen practice unsustainable methods of fishing such as ring netting that kill thousands of juvenile pelagic fish, ultimately depleting fish stocks and risking the future of the fishing industry?Read More

Can Partisan Upheaval Sustain Asia’s Growth Model?

Tim Ferguson 

Can Partisan Upheaval Sustain Asia’s Growth Model?

This story appears in the February 2015 issue of Forbes Asia.

If Asia has evolved a superior alternative to contentious democratic government, you might be fooled by recent outbreaks of popular will. The latest came in early January in Sri Lanka, where the strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Chinese patrons were surprised in a snap (and presumed sure) election by an opposition fronted by one of his ex-ministers, Maithripala Sirisena.

The victory may be seen hopefully as not just a rejection of Rajapaksa’s crony-led (and China-financed) growth push but as an affirmation of civil rights neglected by the rejected regime. Thus in Colombo we witnessed the very thing that supposedly Asians had overcome: bumpy dissent impeding the thundering wheels of progress. (But also, to Rajapaksa’s credit, a quick transition.)

Maithripala Sirisena (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

We don’t know where Sirisena actually will go with his stunning win. There was some backtracking on the China divorce, for example. His camp says encouraging words about a freer economy (here’s an interview with his premier, behind a Wall Street Journal paywall), but the political culture is rooted in centralized power. Likewise, there’s uncertainty in the other transformational electoral results of recent months, in Indonesia and India. President Joko Widodo took power in Jakarta pitted against a majority in parliament and swiftly moved reforms, including an end to fuel subsidies. But despite a personal image as being free of graft, he’s since become mired in his own party’s tawdry legacy when making key appointments. Meantime, Narendra Modicarries the hopes of millions of enterprising Indians at home and abroad, but his changes have been procedural, and some in his party put Hinduism first and foremost.

So there is unlikely to be definitive evidence to refute the democracy doubters with powerful economic growth. South Korea has had spirited political contests for 27 years now, and despite those freedoms (some say speech has been curbedof late) and lots of investment in “human capital,” it still lacks for entrepreneurial oxygen apart from a few notable exceptions. Japan? Well… Recovery there lags behind the big political turn.  On whose shoulders should blame for sputtering Thailandbe placed, the current coup government or the elected bunch that preceded it?

All the while, the democratic–sometimes chaotically so–Philippines continues to sport Asia-Pacific’s most surprisingeconomic growth numbers, at 6.9%.

The contrariwise case has long been China, with its amazing expansion. Who needs free partisan speech when a huge middle class can finally emerge to enjoy the more material fruits of life? Now, as even the estimable Chinese output engine slows, Xi Jinping has positioned himself as the country’s most unchallengeable autocrat since Mao. We can all continue to keep score on the results–in GDPs, yes, and also in the rest of what amounts to human satisfaction.

Ukrainian rebels advance on key town of Debaltseve

Pro-Russian separatist fighters advance on Ukrainian troops outside the town of Debaltseve, with some reports that the rebels have encircled the area.

TUESDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2015

Seven Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 23 wounded in fighting in Ukraine's eastern regions in the past 24 hours, the Kiev military said on Tuesday morning.

A spokesman said government forces had come under attack from the rebels on 87 separate occasions since Monday with fighting particularly intense around the town of Debaltseve, a major rail and road junction northeast of the rebel-held city of Donetsk.

Overnight from February 10 to 11 there was an increase in attacks by the enemy on Ukrainian positionsKiev spokesman Anatoly Stelmakh

Debaltseve has been the scene of intense fighting for more than a week.

There are reports that rebel fighters have encircled Debaltseve and cut off a key supply road but government forces insist that fighting over the road was ongoing.

Russian exercises

Meanwhile, around 2,000 Russian troops have started exercises in southern Russia, the Russian news agency Interfax reported on Tuesday.

On Monday US President Barack Obama said that prospects of a military solution to the Ukraine crisis are were low because of the strength of Russia's military.

Speaking at a joint news conference in Washington with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Obama said it was clear Russia had violated "just about every commitment they made at the Minsk agreement" and that Russian aggression had only reinforced international unity.

"We agreed that sanctions on Russia need to remain fully in force until Russia complies," he said. "We are making it clear again today that if Russia continues on its current course... Russia's isolation will only worsen, both politically and economically."

More than 5,000 people have died since fighting began in eastern Ukraine according to the UN, although it fears the real figure may be "considerably higher".

Egypt appeals court judge condemns al-Jazeera three trial

Judgment says no evidence trio helped Muslim Brotherhood, claims testimony was given under duress were not investigated and queries terrorism charge

 From left, Baher Mohamed, Mohamed Fahmy and Peter Greste at their trial in 2014. Photograph: Heba Elkholy/AP

Patrick Kingsley in Cairo-Tuesday 10 February 2015

A Cairo appeals judge has issued a damning appraisal of last year’s trial of three al-Jazeera English journalists, a month after he quashed their convictions and sent their case to a retrial that will begin on Thursday.

The initial trial failed to provide conclusive evidence that the defendants had helped the banned Muslim Brotherhood or promoted the group in the media, wrote Judge Anwar Gabry, the deputy head of the court of cassation, Egypt’s highest court of appeal.

Gabry said that the initial trial also failed to investigate claims that the defendants had produced testimony under duress, and as a result “the court of cassation is unable to show how right or wrong the verdict is”. His judgment also questioned whether the journalists should have been accused of terrorism, since their alleged crimes were not violent.

The news will not affect Peter Greste, the Australian ex-BBC correspondent who was deported to Australia last week after 400 days in jail following international pressure to secure his release.

But it is a boost for his Egyptian colleague, Baher Mohamed, who remains on remand, has no foreign passport to secure his release by deportation, and whose only hopes of freedom lie in a retrial. His family welcomed the appeals court judgment, which they hope might lead to the case being thrown out entirely at the retrial.

“I’m optimistic because the reasons listed by the cassation court strongly criticised the sentence,” his father Hazem told the Guardian. “As soon as I read them, I was so optimistic, and I thought they could be released in the first session.”

But he acknowledged that Mohamed’s lawyer had expressed caution.

Mohamed and Greste’s third AJE colleague, their Canadian bureau chief, Mohamed Fahmy, still hopes to be deported like Greste in the coming days. Fahmy gave up his Egyptian passport in December, on the understanding that he would sent back to Canada if he did so.

But a deportation failed to materialise, leading his family to criticise the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, for failing to secure his release. This criticism has drawn wider support in Canada, with the hashtag #HarperCallEgypt trending on Canadian social media in recent hours.

Mohamed Fadel Fahmy @MFFahmy11

Follow

Lesson learned! If you are a Canadian abroad and got into trouble, you are on your own. #HarperCallEgypt #FreeAJStaff #shame

12:56 AM - 10 Feb 2015

The three journalists were first arrested in December 2013, and sentenced to several years in jail in June 2014 on charges of terrorism and spreading false news, alongside several students they had never met before the case.

Internationally, their fate was seen as an infringement of the right to free speech. Inside Egypt, government supporters saw them as a legitimate target, due to the support AJE’s Arabic sister channels gave for the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned opposition group.

Additional reporting: Manu Abdo

Nepal sets up panels to probe war crimes amid cries for justice

Bikash Shrestha, 13, who lost his father Bhuvan Shrestha during the decade-long civil conflict between the previous government and the Maoists, holds a placard while participating during a sit in protest demanding for justice near the Singha Durbar office complex that houses the prime minister's office and other ministries in Kathmandu June 6, 2011.

BY GOPAL SHARMA-KATHMANDU Tue Feb 10, 2015

(Reuters) - Nepal set up two commissions on Tuesday to investigate long-simmering allegations of human rights abuses and disappearances during the Himalayan nation's decade-long civil war, a government minister said.

State forces and Maoist rebels alike have been accused of grave war-time abuses, including unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests, disappearances, rape and torture, during the years of conflict which ended under a 2006 peace agreement.

Both sides pledged to look into the crimes within six months after signing the peace deal.

But subsequent governments failed to investigate the accusations, fearing doing so would derail a tenuous peace between politicians and former rebels, leaving alleged perpetrators to rise through the military and political ranks.

"This matter had been entangled for more than eight years," law minister Narahari Acharya told reporters on Tuesday in Kathmandu after a cabinet meeting during which the panels were set up.

Acharya said a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, modelled after the one set up in South Africa after the end of apartheid, would investigate abuses committed during the conflict.

A second panel, the Commission on Enforced Disappearances, would investigate the disappearances of more than 1,300 people still missing eight years after the end of the conflict.

Acharya said the panels had two years to finish their work.

Last month, New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned Nepal for failing to keep promises of post-conflict justice and accountability, saying political parties were seemingly "intent on ensuring ongoing impunity" for crimes.

Despite the long wait for action, advocates for victims' rights were less than optimistic on Tuesday that the panels would deliver justice.

Human rights lawyer Hari Phuyal said a flawed provision in the legislation under which the commissions were set up could be used to let perpetrators off the hook by employing ambiguous wording which could be used to grant amnesty.

Suman Adhikari, a victims' rights campaigner whose father was killed by rebels in 2002, said the panels were set up without consulting victims.

"I don't think these commissions will be able to heal our wounds," Adhikari said.

Dev Bahadur Maharjan, another campaigner who says he was tortured by security forces, said victims had appealed to the Supreme Court against the legislation. The case is due to come up for hearing on Thursday.

"The commissions have been set up under a law which was passed with a consensus among political parties who have no intention to give justice for us," Maharjan told Reuters.

(Editing by Krista Mahr and Robert Birsel)