Netanyahu: Bar-Ilan 2-state speech no longer relevant in today's reality

Prime Minister's Office later denied that Netanyahu backtracked on his 2009 speech, in which he expressed support for creating a 'demilitarized Palestinian state.'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking at Bar Ilan University in June, 2009. Photo by Avi Ohayon 

By Barak Ravid-Mar. 8, 2015

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Sunday that the “Bar Ilan speech,” from June 2009, in which he expressed support for creating a “demilitarized Palestinian state that would recognize the Jewish state,” is no longer relevant, in light of the current reality in the Middle East.

Netanyahu’s statement was published by the Likud campaign in response to questions from journalists. The questions were submitted to the Likud campaign in the wake of a statement that appeared this weekend in a weekly Shabbat pamphlet that contained the stances of each political party on creating a Palestinian state.

"The Prime Minister announced that the Bar-Ilan speech is null and void," read the message in the pamphlet, continuing, "Netanyahu’s entire political biography is a fight against the creation of a Palestinian state."

Following the publication, Likud clarified on Sunday that the statement was written by Tzipi Hotovely, who was expressing her personal opinion, and not the party’s stance on the issue.

Later on Sunday, however, following additional questions from journalists about the statement, as well as recent revelations of concessions that Netanyahu apparently made during negotiations with the Palestinians, the Likud election campaign published a statement that was very similar to the one made by Hotovely in the Shabbat pamphlet.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that [in light of] the situation that has arisen in the Middle East, any evacuated territory would fall into the hands of Islamic extremism and terror organizations supported by Iran. Therefore, there will be no concessions or withdrawals; they are simply irrelevant."

Later on Sunday, the Prime Minister’s Office said in response that Netanyahu made no comment to that effect. “Prime Minister Netanyahu has made clear for years that given the current conditions in the Middle East, any territory that is given will be seized by the radical Islam just like what happened Gaza and in southern Lebanon,” the PMO said in a statement, adding that such a scenario is particularly likely “in a reality in which the Palestinian Authority is in an alliance with the Hamas terrorist organization.”

On January 6, Netanyahu commented on the Bar-Ilan speech in an interview with Amit Segal and Yonit Levi on Channel 2. Netanyahu said then that the Bar-Ilan speech was still relevant, “but that the Palestinians have emptied it of any relevance,” by pursuing unilateral action in the International Criminal Court in The Hague. “The conditions that they currently want make it simply irrelevant,” said Netanyahu then, adding, “there is no partner for peace.”

During the 2009 election campaign, and after he was elected in April that year, Netanyahu said that he supported “economic peace,” but did not express support for creating a Palestinian state.

Following significant pressure from the United States, however, two months after the election, in June 2009, Netanyahu changed his long-held position and expressed support for creating a demilitarized Palestinian state, on the condition that it would recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

Saudi Arabia accused of blocking criticism of human rights record

Sweden’s foreign minister, Margot Wallström, has said the kingdom stopped her addressing an Arab League meeting

 Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Egypt, Ahmed Kattan, at a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo. Photograph: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters

A look at the writings of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi – sentenced to 1,000 lashes

Sweden’s foreign minister has reportedly accused Saudi Arabia of blocking her speech at an Arab League meeting to stop her highlighting human rights cases such as the imprisonment of a blogger for insulting Islam.

Speaking in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Monday, Margot Wallström told the TT news agency: “The explanation we have been given is that Sweden has highlighted the situation for democracy and human rights and that is why they do not want me to speak.

“It’s a shame that a country has blocked my participation.”

An Arab diplomat confirmed to Agence France-Presse that Riyadh had stopped her making the speech.

Wallström had been invited as an honorary guest to the Arab ministers’ meeting in praise of her government’s decision to recognise Palestine in October.

She has rarely mentioned Saudi Arabia publicly but in January criticised its treatment of blogger Raif Badawi, who had been sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail.

“One must protest against what are nearly medieval methods” of punishment, the minister told TT.

Sweden has a decade-long arms deal with Riyadh which is due for renewal in May.

The deal has come under fire within Wallström’s Social Democrats, and is categorically opposed by coalition partners the Green party.

Addressing the UN human rights council in Geneva last week, Wallström said her “feminist foreign policy” aims to “strengthen gender equality, improve women’s access to resources and increase women’s representation”.

Federal employees who worked during the 2013 shutdown can join this lawsuit

Russia can’t afford to pay state employees

By Josh Hicks March 9 at 6:00 AM

The Justice Department on Monday will notify more than 1 million federal employees that they can sue the government for not paying them on time during the partial shutdown of 2013.
Federal Employees Who Worked During the 2013 Shutdown Can Join This Lawsuit by Thavam Ratna

​China’s Real Inconvenient Truth: Its Class Divide

Solving China’s air and water pollution will require addressing the gap between rich urbanites and rural peasants.

BY RACHEL LU-MARCH 6, 2015

HONG KONG — China is talking about its pollution problem, but its equally serious class problem remains obscured behind the haze. Smog leapt to the forefront of Chinese national discourse after the Feb. 28release of Under the Dome, a 103-minute-long documentary quickly hailed as China’s version of the Inconvenient Truth. In the film, which immediately went viral on social media and garnered 150 million online views within days before being censored, investigative reporter Chai Jing explained the root causes of air pollution that has ravaged so much of China in the past few years. But there’s a sharp class angle to the pollution question that Chai’s documentary did not engage. While smog is the most visible problem afflicting the middle class in mega-cities like Beijing and Shanghai, China’s other half — the rural and poor population — often suffer a nasty pollution paradox: They face health risks from their air and water, but also depend on polluting industries for their livelihoods.

As with many subjects, Chinese social media chatter about pollution reflects a middle-class bias

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. As of March 6, on Weibo, the popular microblogging platform, a search for the term “smog” yielded more than 197.2 million results, “air pollution” turned upmore than 43.9 million, while “water pollution” and “soil pollution” were only mentioned 15.8 million and3.5 million times, respectively. The latter two are less of a concern for the opinion leaders and ordinary users on China’s social media, most of whom live in cities with water treatment plants and work in jobs unrelated to agriculture. Shocking photos of water pollution in China are not greeted with the same outrage on China’s social media asphotos of smog obscuring central Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Tap water in China is not directly potable, but for the most part, urban Chinese don’t think about carcinogens when they turn on the faucet. Occasionally, large Chinese cities have water pollution scares — in April 2014, an oil leak contaminatedtap water in Lanzhou, a city of 2.4 million in northwestern China, for example — but supply is usually restored in a matter of days.

Meanwhile, water pollution and soil contamination plague China’s rural population. Zhong Hongjun, a researcher at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, wrote on Weibo, “Low-income groups in less developed areas bear most of the cost of water and soil pollution, whereas urban middle class and low income groups share the cost of air pollution.”Under the Dome alluded to these problems when it included a short clip of Chai’s 2004 interview with the local environmental protection agency (EPA) director in Shanxi province, who told her that at the time, 88.4 percent of rivers in the province were polluted and 62 percent were no longer useable. In 2014, according to a survey by the national EPA, 60 percent of China’s groundwater was considered “bad” or “very bad.” Villagers who still rely on wells may find their water sources completely contaminated by nearby factories, but have little redress.

Concerns about urban smog have accelerated the relocation of heavy polluters to rural areas, where the local population may be less empowered to resist. For example, in 2005, Shougang, one of China largest state-owned steel manufacturers, movedits main production facility near the center of Beijing to a small town on Bohai Bay, 150 miles from the capital, in response to worries about about air pollution ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In 2014, large cities like Harbin andHangzhoushifted factories out of their city centers to alleviate public concerns about smog. In a 2011 report, China’s national EPAhighlighted the transfer of heavy pollution from urban centers to rural areas, and admitted that there was insufficient monitoring of pollution in rural areas. The central government announced in November 2014 it plans to deliver safe drinking water to 298 million rural residents in 2015, but experts believe that target might be impossible to meet.

At the same time, worries about urban air have also caused factory closures in rural areas where many peasants work. In early 2014, a local newspaper in Hebei province, where the average disposable income was half that of Beijing’s, reportedthat the authorities had shut down over 1,200 coal factories and demolished 18 concrete plants to address the smog problem. In Luquan, a small town on the outskirts of Hebei’s provincial capital, 11 companies were shuttered in 2013 and more than 800 low-skilled workers lost their jobs. A man named Zhang Baoshan told a reporter that villagers like him once relied on the concrete plants near their homes to make $300 to $800 a month, but many had since been laid off. On March 2, iLabor.org, a platform dedicated to studying issues related to laborers in China, posted a story of nearly 100 migrant workers being dismissed by a clothing manufacturer in the southern city of Dongguan, without advance notice or remuneration, because of EPA enforcement actions.

At one point in Under the Dome, Chai showed a map of northern China, with smog from coal-burning industrial plants in Hebei province drifting easily to Beijing. “The air has no walls,” Chai appealed to the audience. “We are all breathing the same air, suffering the same fate.” That’s not entirely true. The experiences of workers of a steel plant in Hebei steel are decidedly different from those of white-collar office workers in the capital. Chai’s film began a valuable national conversation about air pollution — its dangers, its causes, and its possible solutions. But it left the crucial issue of class almost untouched.

Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

Jeyakumary to be free on 10th!

Sunday, 08 March 2015 

Balendran Jeyakumary, who is being detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, will be released on the 10th, say our sources.

The Attorney General’s Department has advised that she be freed, a very reliable source told Lanka News Web.

Jeyakumary and her daughter, 13-year-old Vipushika, were arrested in Kilinochchi on 13 March last year on the charge of harbouring a suspect wanted by the police. She is being detained without any charge being filed against her.

Following her arrest by the TID, she was first kept at the Boossa detention camp, and was later sent to remand prison.

Campaign Free Jeyakumary has been demanding her release.

Beyond Genocide

by Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy 

- on 03/08/2015 

When I heard that the Northern Provincial Council had passed a resolution on Genocide, I put my “head in my hands” again- something I did often during the previous regime. I asked myself, have we gone back to the beginning after all this violence and heartbreak? Tamil politics led by lawyers ( I am a lawyer so this is not said in contempt) has always emphasized legal concepts and theories even if they are far removed from the reality that Tamil people face in their day-to-day lives. We went from “nation” to “separate state”, now we are “two nations in one country”, and suddenly we have sprung the Genocide card which is one of the most difficult international crimes to prove because of its complete reliance on the “intent’ of any government in question.

Why are we going there? Well some Tamil nationalist lawyer has suddenly woken up to the fact that if we use the “G” word then there is a legal case for a separate state. This of course is a delusion of theoretical lawyers. In the modern world separate states are only created at the height of humanitarian intervention and only if a big power wants it- see Bangladesh, East Timor, Kosovo. The fact that nobody came in 2009 and nobody would have come without India’s consent, should make any right thinking Tamil realize that we have been on a wrong trajectory from the beginning. Most people both nationally and internationally had come to that conclusion even without the outrageous, embarrassing nonsense of the attack dogs of the last government. Accountability for war crimes and human rights violations is a completely different frame of action than the claim for a separate state- at least in the Sri Lankan case.

Separate states can be created in peacetime but that is a different process altogether and has nothing to do with genocide. In this the real guidance comes from the Canadian Constitutional Court that argued that creating a separate state hurts the home country as much as the new country so any such separation must be negotiated- or in legal parlance, it casts the duty to negotiate and cannot be done without the consent of both sides. Such a scenario is very unlikely in Sri Lanka.

Since Bangladesh was created, Sri Lankan Tamil politicians lived in hope that India will intervene and save them. Then after our “sole spokesman” Mr. Prabhakaran assassinated the Indian prime minister- a real stroke of genius in our march to collective suicide- we then thought the UN would come to save us like in East Timor and Kosovo- though in both those cases the European Union was in the forefront. So thousands died on the banks of a lagoon while our extremist leaders and an out of touch diaspora waited to be saved by the international community. Anyone knowing the dynamics of the Security Council and the way great powers behave would have known that this was never a possibility. The world might have tried to lessen the suffering of people by providing humanitarian assistance or negotiating surrender but there was not going to be any intervention to create a separate state. This frame of “we have always been victims and we need to be saved” is deeply ingrained in the Tamil political psyche.  This is not to say that the Sri Lankan state is innocent. Having worked on human rights since 1977, terrible, mindboggling things have been done over the last three decades by the Sri Lankan state and the security forces- but playing the perpetual victim, especially at this time will get us nowhere.

What the Tamil community needs (and I have been to Jaffna) are politicians who move away from rhetoric to adopt a practical, problem-solving mind-set. We as a community have had enough of all this name-calling- genocide, traitor, nation- all that is just unnecessary hyperbole at this time in our history. There are so many problems that have to be solved through discussion and dialogue that affect people in their every day life for eg:-what is the “credible mechanism” on accountability going to look like? Can we draw up a time table and a plan working with the governor, and the military for the release of land, release of detainees and a rearrangement of army camps and find solutions acceptable to everyone? These involve discussion and dialogue, not unilateral declarations.

We have to work on a political solution. Even the TNA has agreed that it has to be within a united country. For the first time you have a broad coalition of parties in government or supporting the government. For the first time they may not need to out radicalize the other. This is the perfect time for a political solution. However the spadework has to be done by our politicians. The JVP and the JHU must be convinced and the trust deficit has to be overcome. Our best legal minds, without thinking of genocide, should be trying to talk to their counterparts in the South and begin discussions about a possible resolution

Finally, war widows, ex combatants, disabled people in the North, and unemployed youth are all crying out for help.  Northern society is in complete disarray with high rates of violence against women, drugs and alcoholism.  Livelihoods and economic empowerment programmes do not exist in most places and if they do, they are unimaginative and only convey minimal skills. The earlier government built roads but we have to deal with economic and social issues from education, psychosocial support to community level infrastructure. The present Governors of the North and the East are experienced civil servants. Now is the time to draw up a development plan for the north as well as for the east with priorities and timelines so that one can effectively spend the devolved budget or any international assistance that may be offered.

Two generations of Sri Lankan Tamils have been lost, fighting for a separate state, playing victim and waiting to be saved. We have to move on. I suggest we go back to the father of Tamil rights consciousness during colonialism-Periar. He called for a self -respect movement, not a nationalist movement. That is what we need in Sri Lanka. After years of war and battering, cowering from the violence, intimidation and surveillance by the security forces, the LTTE or Tamil paramilitaries, speaking in whispers and small clusters always wary of an informer, let us take this opportunity of a democratic opening to remake ourselves. Let us regain our self -respect and our self-confidence, stand tall, look our Sinhalese and Muslim brothers and sisters in the eye, start acting as their equals and begin to build lasting partnerships.

Mothers of disappeared end symbolic hunger strike in Nallur
 08 March 2015

Photographs Uthayan

Mothers who had been protesting by Nallur temple, demanding that the Sri Lankan government returns their missing children to them, ended their symbolic three day hunger strike on Sunday, reports Uthayan.



Breaking their fast with fluids given to them by local priests, protesters pledged to continue demanding to have their loved ones returns to them.

TNA spokesperson, MP Suresh Premachandran supports protesters

Carrying photographs of their children and placards asking where they were, the mothers began protesting on Friday. See more here.

A similar symbolic hunger strike was held simultaneously by mothers and fathers in Kilinochchi. See more here. 

Mothers launch hunger strike on March 6 outside Nallur temple.  Photograph @Uthayarasashali

The protest, which includes a symbolic hunger strike, is the latest in a series of protests across the North-East.

'இணைந்த வடக்கு கிழக்கில் தீர்வுகாண இந்தியா உதவ வேண்டும்'

பிரதமர் நரேந்திர மோடியின் விஜயத்தை முன்னிட்டு சுஷ்மா ஸ்வராஜ் இலங்கை சென்றுள்ளார் 

7 மார்ச் 2015

இரண்டு நாள் விஜயமாக இலங்கை வந்துள்ள இந்திய வெளிவிவகார அமைச்சர் சுஷ்மா ஸ்வராஜை சந்தித்து பேச்சு நடத்தியுள்ள தமிழ்த் தேசியக் கூட்டமைப்புத் தலைவர்கள், இனப்பிரச்சனைக்கு வடக்கு-கிழக்கு இணைந்த பிரதேசத்தில் அர்த்தமுள்ள அதிகாரப் பரவலாக்கலுடன் கூடிய அரசியல் தீர்வு காண்பதற்கு இந்தியா உதவ வேண்டும் என்று கோரியிருக்கின்றனர்.

அடுத்த வாரம் இலங்கை வரவுள்ள இந்தியப் பிரதமர் நரேந்திர மோடி-யின் விஜயத்திற்கான நிகழ்ச்சி நிரல் உள்ளிட்ட விடயங்களைக் கவனிப்பதற்காக சுஷ்மா ஸ்வராஜ் இலங்கை வந்துள்ளதாக அதிகாரிகள் தெரிவித்திருக்கின்றனர்.

இலங்கை ஜனாதிபதி, இலங்கை வெளிவிவகார அமைச்சர் உள்ளிட்ட அரச உயர் மட்டத்தினரைச் சந்தித்துப் பேசிய அவர், தமிழ்த் தேசியக் கூட்டமைப்பின் தலைவர்களையும் ஸ்ரீலங்கா முஸ்லிம் காங்கிரஸ் தலைவர்களையும் சந்தித்துப் பேச்சுக்கள் நடத்தியிருக்கின்றார்.

தமிழ்த் தேசியக் கூட்டமைப்பின் தலைவர் ஆர்.சம்பந்தன், நாடாளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர்களான மாவை சேனாதிராஜா, எம்.ஏ.சுமந்திரன், சுரேஷ் பிரேமச்சந்திரன், செல்வம் அடைக்கலநாதன் ஆகியோர் இந்தச் சந்திப்பில் கலந்து கொண்டனர்.

புதிய அரசாங்கம் மீள்குடியேற்ற நடவடிக்கைகளை மேற்கொள்வதாக தெரிவித்துள்ள போதிலும் அதற்குரிய நடவடிக்கைகளை இன்னும் எடுக்கவில்லை என்று கூட்டமைப்பினர் இந்திய வெளிவிவகார அமைச்சரிடம் எடுத்துக் கூறியுள்ளனர்.

மீனவர்களின் பிரச்சனையைத் தொடர்தவதற்கு அனுமதிக்க முடியாது என்றும் அதற்கு உடனடியாகத் தீர்வு காண வேண்டியதன் அவசியம் பற்றியும் இந்தச் சந்திப்பின் போது வலியுறுத்தப்பட்டிருக்கின்றது.

தமிழ் அரசியல் கைதிகளின் விடுதலை, காணாமல்போனவர்கள் விவகாரம் என்பன குறித்தும் இந்தச் சந்திப்பின்போது இந்திய வெளிவிவகார அமைச்சருக்கு எடுத்துக் கூறி உரிய நடவடிக்கை எடுப்பதற்கு இந்தியா அழுத்தம் கொடுக்க வேண்டும் என்று கோரிக்கை விடுக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

அதேவேளை, இனப்பிரச்சினைக்கு தீர்வு காண்பதற்காக வடக்கு கிழக்கு இணைந்த பிரதேசத்தில் அர்த்தமுள்ள அதிகாரப் பரவலாக்கலுடன் கூடிய அரசியல் தீர்வு காண்பதற்கான நடவடிக்கைகளை இந்தியா முன்னெடுத்து உதவ வேண்டும் என்றும் கோரியிருப்பதாக சுரேஷ் பிரேமச்சந்திரன் தெரிவித்தார்.

இலங்கை வெளிவிவகார அமைச்சருடன் நடத்திய பேச்சுக்களின் போது, இலங்கைக்கும் இந்தியாவுக்கும் இடையிலான கப்பல் சேவையை ஆரம்பிப்பது பற்றி விவாதிக்கப்பட்டு உடன்பாடு எட்டப்பட்டிருப்பதாகவும், இலங்கை வருகின்ற இந்தியப் பிரதமர் இலங்கை அரசாங்கத்துடன் இதற்கான ஒப்பந்தத்தில் கையெழுத்திடுவார் என்றும் இலங்கையின் வெளிவிவகார அமைச்சின் அதிகாரி ஒருவர் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.

இலங்கையில் பணியாற்றிய போது உயிரிழந்த இந்திய அமைதி காக்கும் படையினருக்கான நினைவிடத்திற்கு விஜயம் செய்த இந்திய வெளிவிவகார அமைச்சர் அங்கு மலர் வளையம் வைத்து அஞ்சலி செலுத்தியுள்ளார்.

19th Amendment for Democratic Transformation

The presidential system is not completely abolished returning to a complete parliamentary system. However, the proposed system cannot also be called a semi-presidential as the powers of the president is not that significant which could trample on parliament or the rights of the people. There is no separation of powers between the legislature and the (political) executive like in a presidential or a semi-presidential system, as the government is firmly anchored in the popularly elected parliament. In that sense, the proposed system is primarily a parliamentary system.

by Laksiri Fernando

( March 8, 2015, Sydney, Sri Lanka Guardian) The proposed 19^th Amendment, a draft of which is now available for discussion, will definitely be a watershed in democratic transformation in Sri Lanka and vindicates the mandate given by the people to the newly elected President Maithripala Sirisena and his UNP/SLFP/JHU coalition government. 

19th Amendment for Democratic Transformation by Thavam Ratna

Whither Sri Lanka?

By Sandra Fernando -March 8, 2015

Sandra Fernando

So Sri Lanka has had a presidential election and a peaceful transition of power. To the folks all round the world who are gobsmacked, here’s a little news: we always have peaceful transitions of power. Go back over the history of our elections: when power has changed hands, it has always been done quietly. If Colombo doesn’t like the change of power, then we hear loud assertions of vote rigging. When Colombo likes the change of power, then we hear loud firecrackers. It’s just that the watering holes where Western journalists pick up their information are so full of Colombo. They should attach themselves to the packs of election monitors and get out into the country and see for real what’s really going on. Now there’s a revolutionary idea!

What about the run up to elections? Wasn’t there a lot of election violence in that process? Well, one of the election monitors says that we need to define the term “election violence” because, currently, everything can be complained about. Even neighbours disagreeing loudly over the wall is projected as election violence.

What about the bundle of ballot papers found somewhere after the elections? It was after the elections: who cares? But wasn’t it going to be used the wrong way? Well, the counting centres all have party representatives in them. If something unusual, extraordinary or downright unethical occurs, it is the privilege, nay the responsibility, of the party rep to query it, complain to the Returning Officers, tell the journalists and so on. There are 15 million voters in this country. A little over 12 million used their franchise in January. The Election Commissioner’s office would have had to arrange for one ballot sheet per voter regardless. So there are always ballot papers to be destroyed after an election. Someone could just get blank sheets, dump them somewhere so they can be found, be reported to the police and make it to the papers. If, as we say in Sri Lanka, they’re jobless, then they can fill out the papers as well. Then we have “election fraud” – if the party reps are that incompetent.Read More

Constitutional reforms and timely cautions

Sunday, March 08, 2015

As we ready ourselves for a package of reforms in yet another stage of our profoundly unhappy history of constitution-making, particular cautions appear to be timely.

Cynicism in regard to constitutional changes
Sri Lankans are generally cynical regarding matters of the Constitution. The reason for this is simple. Unlike across the Palk Straits for example where the Indian Constitution was conceived of by visionary thinkers who had the interests of their teeming multitudes at heart, at no point did Sri Lanka’s Constitution, (in its various displeasingly political avatars), actually work for the benefit of the people.

On the contrary, strengthening a Leviathan State has invariably been rigorously planned and meticulously executed by our constitution-makers. Attempts to pull back state power, on the other hand, have always been timorous, giving little in actual fact but appearing to give much.

Even during rare moments, solid progressive strides such as the 17th Amendment to the Constitution were defeated not through some piffling problem with its substance but as a result of a diabolical meeting of corrupt political minds. Then as now, much euphoria preceded the enactment of that constitutional amendment. Its ultimate negation was purely to the reluctance of politicians to give up their powers. Given the distasteful tug and pull of political power play that we see even after January 2015, can we honestly say that our political culture has changed in that regard? That much must be explicitly questioned.

Need for the Presidency to live up to its mandate
So, regardless of whatever constitutional convulsions taking place in Parliament, the hearts and minds of those who voted in the South and in the North for change in this country must be won elsewhere than in the dry arena of legal theory. The Sirisena Presidency must engage in firm handling of the reins of State to address the growing unease among the citizenry and the lessening of that euphoric post election optimism.

To be clear, this assessment is informed and compelled by the very nature of the vote for this President. This was no ordinary displacing of one Government and replacing it with another. Rather, for the first time in years, the inveterate skepticism of Sri Lankans regarding their politicians was transformed to heady expectations that after suffering such ravage under a decade of Rajapaksa-rule, things might be different. These expectations have not been defeated but they are certainly becoming progressively muted. 

So while it is refreshing to see the President embodying a vastly different persona to his predecessor in the simplicity of his Office, a distinct responsibility rests on him to justify the people’s mandate. Where the North is concerned, an isolated visit to the Northern electorates will not accomplish this end. As a necessary first step and under Presidential direction to the Government if needs be, a thorough review must be undertaken of all detainees languishing in indefinite detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). The legal question is very clear. PTA detainees must either be charged or released. This is due process of law in its most basic form. It is unpardonable that this state of terrible limbo regarding PTA detainees should continue. 

Why the reluctance to displace immunity wholesale? 

Where the South is concerned, pushing constitutional reforms through in Parliament must be taken with that proverbial pinch of salt. These are antics that we have seen before. The important element here as to how these reforms will be practically implemented. As much as there is many a slip between the cup and the lip, there is a good distance between the worth of a law in theory and its actual implementation.

From the drafts of the proposed 19th Amendment being circulated informally, it appears that the current provisions relating to the immunity of the President have been revised only to the limited extent of being open to challenges on fundamental rights violations during office in terms of Article 126 of the Constitution. If so, the reluctance to strip away immunity intoto is bewildering. Why has this same relaxation of immunity not been extended to the filing of writs under Article 140 of the Constitution, given also the close link that exists between the two jurisdictions as judicially affirmed?

Certainly this fond holding on to superior status can bedevil the best of us. For instance, it was a matter for immense wonder that members of the first Constitutional Council established under the 17th Amendment, including generally well regarded jurists, deliberated with much seriousness at one point on the need to have legal immunity for their decisions. When this thinking was challenged in public in these column spaces and elsewhere, the Council’s jurists beat a hasty retreat. But the question remains as to why immunity is upheld in any manner whatsoever when the very basis of the Rule of Law is that all are amenable to the law?

The proposed 19th Amendment needs to be dissected in detail elsewhere. Suffice it to be said for now that its proposals must be taken in an informed spirit of caution rather than wild jubilation, similar to what should be our preferred response to that other (in) famous executive order declaring a Sri Lankan Chief Justice as if ‘he had never been.’

Avoiding electoral punishment in time to come
All this is also not to make any comparison between what we had now and what we had earlier. Such comparisons are nonsensical. What this country underwent under the Rajapaksa Presidency was abuse of power in the ugliest and most monstrous sense of the word. It is ridiculous indeed to engage in these comparisons for we fall into the heresy of expecting less from those currently in power on the spurious explanation that ‘well, anyway, they are better than what existed before.’

Let it be firmly said that it was not on this dangerously lopsided measuring scale that Sri Lanka tilted towards the dark horse challenger in the Presidential elections. And on its own part, this Government and this Presidency also must not measure themselves on this basis.
This mistake can only invariably translate itself to electoral punishment in time to come.

How a Cabinet ceases to be effective as it grows

by R.M.B Senanayake-

March 8, 2015, 7:02 pm "Our ministers do not take the responsibility for the financial management of their ministries. If they do, they should resign when some fraud or malpractice is exposed in parliament as in Britain." 

There is much discussion about the size of the Cabinet. Should it be 20, 30, 40 or even more? Are there any objective criteria in this regard? It is helpful to ask what the role of a minister is. A minister according to the British- American tradition of governance is to involve himself in policy making in the ministry he is in charge of. The detailed supervision of the Department is the function of the Head of the Department under the general supervision of the Permanent Secretary. We got rid of the concept of a Permanent Secretary and now each new government appoints complete outsiders as secretaries to ministries. They may lack administrative experience which, despite all that is taught in our local universities about management, can be best learnt only on the job.

How a Cabinet Ceases to Be Effective as It Grows by Thavam Ratna

Sabotage activities begin to mar the people’s victory – MR uses Govt. officers for his conspiracies

(Lanka-e-News- 08.March.2015, 11.00 PM) Mahinda Rajapakse who has by now been proved beyond any doubt as the most crooked corrupt ruler Sri Lanka (SL) ever produced in its whole  history ,  and one who was  rejected wholesale by the heroic people who threw him out lock, stock and barrel based on their conviction that he is  the most brutal , barbaric and despotic leader who ever trod this planet  , is again trying to rear his villainous head again, it is learnt.

 Wimal Weerawansa the equally crooked and corrupt stooge who is as unscrupulous as he , is leading a set of similar crooked lickspittles of Mahinda who are despicably attempting to bring Mahinda back to parliament  through  sly and stealthy routes . This campaign is to begin at village level by holding pocket meetings after summoning Mahinda to participate  in the meetings.

This campaign was unofficially launched at Ruwanwella and Bandaragama electorates last week. The most notorious corrupt politicos of Mahinda’s erstwhile government , ex minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, H.R. Mithrapala ,Y .G. Padmasiri . Kumara Welgama  and Nirmala Kothalawela, attended the  meeting at Ruwanwella. 

Similar meetings are to be held  in the villages and their vicinities  Island wide with a view to re build the power of the crooked corrupt Rajapakses and his family , according to reliable sources. In the future similar meetings are to be convened at Maharagama , Homagama and Kaduwela . Cartwheel family Dinesh Gunawardena , Bandula Gunawardena and Geethanjana Gunawardena have together already made preparations in pursuance of this plan.

Besides ,to every meeting which is attended by Mahinda Rajapakse , the chairperson of the relevant local bodies of the relevant  areas are to be summoned. By these maneuvers  , moves are afoot to attract wide  publicity to the program  at ground level .The ‘Mawbima’ publication of Tiran Alles , the Divaina of Welgama ancestry ,  and Rivira that belongs to Ravi Wijeratne - these print media Institutions are in the ready to assist in this direction ,as well as the electronic media , Sirasa , Derana , Swarnavahini  which had for some time with the support of the journalists of the various  regions , have taken action to provide the necessary publicity to Mahinda Rajapakse , sources say.

Meanwhile, the secretaries of the  various districts where Mahinda Rajapakse is holding meetings are also to be made to participate in them while pretending  these actions are primarily aimed at  looking into the  needs of those districts. These are being manipulated through the officers of the administration network under   Gamini Senarath the ex chief of the presidential secretariat under Rajapakse rule who is monitoring  these operations,it has come to light.

It is also revealed that most sinister and cunning methods are being employed  under this Gamini Senarath’s  manipulations to most craftily give effect to   the Rajapakse political sabotage activities while masquerading as being done by the government in order  for the saboteurs to win the popularity of the people. 

One instance illustrating  such conspiratorial  activity enlisting pro Rajapakse government officers was : while the SL foreign minister was making his speech in Geneva , a lady and daughter , Tamil nationals were arrested at Katunayake airport sans valid reason when they arrived from France. This is considered as a part of those  conspiratorial plans.

By T.Jayakumar -Translated by Jeff 

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by     (2015-03-08 20:23:32)