Burmese government signs draft ceasefire deal with rebel groups

Agreement paves way for further peace talks with ethnic armies, but fighting in the north continues

 Members of the Burmese government and ethnic armed groups attend peace talks. Photograph: U Aung/Xinhua Press/Corbis

Associated Press in Burma-Tuesday 31 March 2015

Burma’s government and 16 ethnic armed groups have agreed the wording of a draft nationwide ceasefire agreement aimed at ending decades of civil unrest.

Though it was lauded as a significant step – the opposing sides have been tussling over words and rights to natural resources for months – the continued fighting between the army and small rebel groups along the northern frontier highlight the challenges ahead.

“I’m really happy that the two sides have finally agreed on a single draft,” said President Thein Sein, who briefly attended the signing on Tuesday. “This opens the door for political dialogue and also further peace talks.”

Minutes later, representatives from the government and 16 ethnic armed groups, including the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), signed the draft accord.

The details have not been released and it remains unclear when the final ceasefire deal will be signed.

The United Nations called the draft agreement “a historic and significant achievement” and a first step towards larger political negotiations.

“Today’s agreement is a signal that new levels of trust, confidence and cooperation are possible between former enemies and that the seeds of change in Myanmar are beginning to sprout,” Vijay Nambiar, the UN special adviser onBurma, said in a statement.

Burma stunned the world by opening up politically and economically in 2011 following elections that most rights groups say were neither free nor fair. Although Thein Sein started steering the country from half a century of dictatorship towards democracy, early reforms have either stalled or begun regressing.

That has raised the stakes of getting ceasefire deals with all ethnic armies, one of the president’s biggest pledges. Many ethnic armies have been fighting since Burma gained independence from the British in 1948, and experts say continued civil unrest is slowing development in one of south-east Asia’s poorest countries.

The KIA has been one of the most stubborn holdouts, and its signing of the draft accord is significant.

But fighting that started last month between rebels and the government in the Kokang region of Shan state continues, complicating ongoing talks. Tens of thousands of people have fled across the border to China. 

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army, also in Shan state, has been refusing to sign the agreement.

Buddhism's right-wing face in Myanmar

Monk accused of fuelling anti-Muslim violence says he's defending his faith 

By Nirmal Ghosh, Indochina Bureau Chief in Bangkok

By Nirmal Ghosh, Indochina Bureau Chief in Bangkok-Mar

 30, 2015

EIGHT years and three months in a Myanmar jail did nothing to soften, let alone change, U Wirathu, the notorious monk who has become the face of right-wing Buddhist nationalism in the country.

While he has a quick and infectious grin, his expression becomes serious and his eyes blaze when he speaks of serious matters - like how Muslims are a threat to Buddhism and his role is to protect the faith.

Buddhism's Right-wing Face in Myanmar by Thavam Ratna

The Lewd Anti-Lee Kuan Yew Video That Got a Singaporean Teenage Blogger Jailed

BY ELIAS GROLL-MARCH 30, 2015

In the days following the death of Singaporean founding father Lee Kuan Yew, he has been described as a pragmatic leader who transformed an East Asian backwater into a hub of commerce and a development miracle. What has gone less emphasized is that he did so by embracing a naked kind of authoritarianism.

Those values are now on stark display as authorities in Singapore crack down on expressions of dissent that deny its founding myth: the fundamental greatness of Lee Kuan Yew. On Sunday, police in Singapore arrested a teenager, Amos Yee, for a video he posted — and later removed — in which he harshly criticized the now-dead strongman.

“Lee Kuan Yew, contrary to popular belief, was a horrible person and an awful leader to our country,” Yee, whom media reports alternately describe 16 or 17, says in the video. “He was a dictator but managed to fool most of the world to think he was democratic.”

Yee’s video, a humorous confessional filmed in what appears to be different parts of an apartment, attempts to puncture the hagiography that has been built up around the late Singaporean leader. To make his case, Yee compares Lee to Jesus. “They are both power-hungry and malicious but deceive others into thinking that they are compassionate and kind,” Yee says. “Their impact and legacy will ultimately not last as more and more people find out that they are full of bull.”

This weekend, tens of thousands of Singaporeans lined up to bid farewell to Lee, who has been lying in state. As that period of mourning comes to an end, the arrest of Yee is a powerful reminder that the harsh political system that he put in place will outlive him. According to local media reports, Yee will be charged with “with deliberate intention of wounding the religious or racial feelings of any person,” the circulation of an obscene object, and making “threatening, abusive or insulting communication.”

It is unclear what the obscene object in question is, but one now private page on Yee’s blog bears a URL describing the former Singaporean leader performing a specific, quite lewd sexual act on former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — a thought one wouldn’t want to visualize or that the Singaporean authorities would look too kindly upon.

Indeed, Yee argues in his video that Lee spent far too much time cultivating relationships with foreign leaders and that his efforts to develop Singapore led the country down a path of materialism and a work culture that has left its people deeply unhappy. “The biggest flaw of Lee Kuan Yew to our nation is that he honestly thought that money and status equated to happiness,” Yee says, citing statistics showing that Singaporeans both work extremely long hours and suffer high rates of depression. “So no matter how rich the country he made is or how many world leader ****s he sucked, it doesn’t mean a thing.”

Though he has made the video private on his own YouTube account, Yee’s video has been reuploaded and is available to view here. Warning: It contains a fair bit of profanity.

Heavy rains trigger flood fears in Kashmir; 17 dead

Police stand amidst the rubble after a hillside collapsed onto a house at Laden village, west of Srinagar, March 30, 2015.

SRINAGAR, INDIA | BY FAYAZ BUKHARI-Tue Mar 31, 2015

(Reuters) - Heavy rains and a landslide in the Himalayan region of Kashmir killed 17 people, police said on Tuesday, as authorities continued working to rescue stranded villagers, with unseasonal rains raising fears of flash floods in the mountainous north.

Fifteen peopele were killed when a hillside collapsed onto a house in Ledhan village, about 40 km (25 miles) from the capital Srinagar, before dawn on Monday. Army and police used shovels and diggers to search for those missing."We are still searching for one more person who is still buried," said Fayaz Ahmad Lone, a local police superintendent.

Police said two other people died in flash floods in another part of the state.Hundreds of people fled their homes as Kashmir's main rivers began to swell and weather forecasters predicted further downpours in the region that was struck by devastating floods seven months ago.

India is experiencing more extreme rainfall events as the global climate warms, according to a study of 50 years of data by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.

The past month has been the wettest in more than a century, and damage to crops has been blamed for a spate of farmer suicides in recent weeks.

(Writing by Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Malini Menon and Simon Cameron-Moore)

Surviving Climate Disaster In Africa's Sahel

By Thomas C. Mountain- 31 March 2015

For over 30 years the great Sahel Desert region in Africa has been a harbinger of the coming climate disaster our planet is facing and surviving such has become a national priority here in Eritrea on the eastern end of the Sahel.

Remember Michael Jackson and the great Ethiopian drought and famine of the early 1980’s? That was just the beginning. In 2003 and 2004 where in Eritrea next door to Ethiopia suffered the first two year drought in history, followed in 2008 and 2009 by another back to back drought.

Including the failure of the rains in 2013 Eritrea suffered 5 years of drought in a single decade. This isn’t climate change, this is climate disaster and science tells us that the world should be preparing for even worse things to come.

Thanks to the mainly western countries contribution to rising CO2 levels heating up the planet droughts will test the very ability of our species to survive, something we here in Eritrea know all to well.

After the droughts of 2003 and 2004 the government here initiated a major water conservation plan that along with reforestation and soil conservation is a template for other countries to use to prepare for the climate catastrophe being predicted.

What this means is that everywhere possible micro dams, dams and major water reservoirs are being constructed to capture the rains that do fall and use them to irrigate our fields, beginning to break the age old dependence on rain fed agriculture.

Disastrous drought interrupted by record breaking floods is what is being foretold by scientists and the only way to survive these man made disasters is recognizing what needs to be done and then busting ass to see it gets accomplished.

This may explain why Eritrea’s President is away from his office for weeks at a time overseeing the construction of major water reservoirs around the country. And all this hard work being lead from the very top has paid off for when the rains failed in 2013 we here in Eritrea had enough to eat while in much of the rest of the Sahel hundreds of
thousands starved to death.

Water conservation is critical but so is reforestation and soil conservation, for without trees to help absorb the water and hold the soil in place and terraces to catch the soil the floods wash away our water reservoirs will fill with silt and undo all our hard work.

As a result our school children spend a month every summer planting trees and communities alongside the national service army regularly schedule work days to build stone wall terraces to trap the soil run off.

Colonialism and deforestation go hand in hand everywhere for forests are the natural sanctuary for rebels fighting their colonial masters so whether in Haiti or Eritrea cutting down trees became a weapon against insurgency by our western colonializers.

When the Italians began to colonize Eritrea in the 1880’s over 30% of our country was forested. By the time Eritrea won its independence on the battle field in 1991 less then 2% of our forests remained. This man made environmental holocaust left Eritrea very little in the way of reserves to survive the CO2 driven climate disasters we have since faced and forced our leaders to sacrifice a lot of other development projects that would have raised the standard of living for our people in our need to prepare for worse disasters to come.

Some years back the Eritrean President was ridiculed in the western media for calling for ten years of grain reserves being kept in storage, but today his plan is making all to much sense. Only time will tell if all our hard work will be enough to prevent the worse climate disasters foretold from wreaking havoc on this country but what choice do we have?

Hopefully Eritrea’s efforts will provide a role model for other countries around the world and help prevent untold suffering by our brothers and sisters internationally.

Thomas C. Mountain has been living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006.
He can be reached at thomascmountain at gmail dot com or when off in the field and away from the internet, which is much of the time, via mobile at 2917175665.

Eat spinach to stay sharp: Two helpings a day knocks 11 YEARS off your brain age

By FIONA MACRAE, DAILY MAIL SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT-30 March 2015

• Pensioners who regularly ate spinach and other leafy greens stayed sharp
• Just 1-2 helpings a day gave them brainpower of people 11 years younger
• It is thought that vitamin K, folate or vitamin B9, and the natural colourings lutein and beta-carotene were behind the protective effects

It has long been known as the vegetable that gave Popeye his bulging muscles. But spinach may also be good for the brain.

A study found that pensioners who regularly ate spinach and other leafy greens stayed sharper for longer.

And there was no need to eat bowls and bowls of the stuff.

Men and women who had just one or two helpings a day had the brainpower of people 11 years younger.

People who ate one or two helpings of spinach a day had the brainpower of those 11 years younger

The US researchers said that something as simple as eating more greens could help protect against the onset of Alzheimer’s.

It and other forms of dementia affect more than 800,000 Britons and, worldwide, the number of sufferers is predicted to treble to 44million by 2050 as the population ages.

With existing drugs of limited use and search for a cure ending in disappointment time and time again, some doctors argue that changes to diet and lifestyle offer the best hope of staving off the disease.

The researchers, from Rush University in Chicago, quizzed 950 men and women about their diet.

The volunteers, who had an average age of 81, then did a battery of mental tests every year for up to ten years.

The brains of those who ate leafy green vegetables, such as spinach and kale, aged more slowly, the Experimental Biology conference in Boston heard.

The effect was big, with the slowing of cognitive decline equivalent to 11 years, on average.

It is thought that vitamin K, folate or vitamin B9, and the natural colourings lutein and beta-carotene were behind the effects.

Researcher Dr Martha Morris said: ‘Losing one’s memory or cognitive abilities is one of the biggest fears for people as they get older

‘Since declining cognitive ability is central to Alzheimer’s disease and dementias, increasing consumption of green leafy vegetables could offer a very simple, affordable and non-invasive way of potentially protecting your brain.

‘With baby boomers approaching old age, there is huge public demand for lifestyle behaviours that can ward off loss of memory and other cognitive abilities with age.

‘Our study provides evidence that eating green leafy vegetables and other foods rich in vitamin K, lutein and beta-carotene can

help to keep the brain healthy to preserve functioning.’

She now wants to find out just how these nutrients nourish the brain.

In the meantime, those who don’t like spinach can also get their vitamin K, lutein and beta-carotene from carrots, tomatoes and peppers. 

Those who don’t like spinach can also get their vitamin K, lutein and beta-carotene from carrots, tomatoes and peppers, say the researchers

Reconciliation requires the full commitment of a Sudu Nelum Movement

By Jehan Perera-March 30, 2015

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, during his recent visit to Jaffna, reiterated a statement he made at a media conference in Colombo that the government would deal with issues of the past through a truth and reconciliation process. He said that former President Chandrika Kumaratunga would lead the process and that it would be supported by South Africa whose advice was being sought.  The Prime Minister’s announcement in the capital of the Northern Province, which was the main battleground of the three decade long internal war, demonstrated his decisiveness on a controversial issue, even in the run up to anticipated general elections.   The pressure from the international community with regard to human rights and war crimes issues has continued despite the change of government, which is why the new government is focusing on a truth and reconciliation process at the outset. 

The selection of the former president to lead the reconciliation process brings to it a champion who, in the 11 year period of her presidency, showed her ability to take on any political challenge without backing down.  She did not give up on publicly upholding the importance of Tamil and minority rights even after her peace initiative with the LTTE was rejected.  Although she was forced to wage a high cost war which yielded mixed results in terms of regaining territorial control, she will be remembered for her valiant effort to build the political foundations for peace through political reform.  She was also able to win elections while holding to her position that a political solution was necessary.

Former President Kumaratunga’s great contribution to the unification of the Sri Lanka polity came through her two-pronged strategy of meeting the LTTE’s challenge.  While waging war, she gave political leadership to the "Sudu Nelum" (white lotus) movement which was a mass-based educational campaign that was intended to enable each ethnic community to understand each other’s political aspirations and engaged in mutual accommodation.  This educational campaign was politically led by the present foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera, and took place through seminars, workshops and street drama, among other methods in which top university academics wholeheartedly participated. 

POLITICAL BACKING

The Sudu Nelum educational campaign was complemented by the ‘Devolution Package’ which was co-designed by two leading scholars, Prof G L Peiris representing the government and Dr Neelan Tiruchelvam on behalf of the Tamil polity.  President Kumaratunga gave her full political backing to the devolution arrangements which were also supported by the founder leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress M H M Ashraff.  These leading members of government took the biggest political educational movement in the country’s history to the people in the face of the deadly opposition of the LTTE, which assassinated Dr Neelan Tiruchelvam, and also of Sinhala nationalists.

The success of the Sudu Nelum movement came from the involvement of the top political leaders who provided a political vision and also actively sought the involvement of civil society to take the message to the general population.  The mass educational campaign that reached down to the community-level through small groups meetings and roadside skits also reached national audiences through the mass media  and enabled more and more people to recognize that the root causes that had led to the war needed to be politically resolved.  Even as the war continued to rage public opinion polls began to show that upwards of 70 percent of the people supported the devolution of power as the foundation on which a peaceful and sustainable solution could be built.

The truth and reconciliation process that the prime minister has committed the government to is meant to look at the unaddressed issues  of the war’s end phase, the loss of life, the destruction of property, and the fate of those who went missing, and whose absence is preventing large numbers of families to find closure even five years after the end of the war.  The government’s choice of South Africa to assist in this process is a judicious one.  South Africa is a non-western country and one that is an acknowledged leader in the world on the issue of truth and reconciliation, having itself overcome great challenges and achieving a success that hardly anyone thought possible.  In addition, South Africa has shown a commitment to assist Sri Lanka, continuing to offer their assistance although the previous government blew hot and cold on their offer.

CONNECTED CONCEPTS

The experience of South Africa is important as its truth and reconciliation process was a holistic one and not simply one of ticking boxes in a plan put on paper to score a pass mark with the international community.  It was a genuine effort to reach reconciliation at all levels of society.   It was intended that all the people should get to know the truth, to repent and to forgive so that the future could be a shared one even while the past was acknowledged.    There was no attempt in South Africa to say that accountability and reconciliation were on different tracks.  They were both on one track as acknowledging what happened in the past and taking responsibility for it is necessary to build trust for the future that the violations of the past will not happen again.

The truth and reconciliation process needs to a well-engaged one in which all the parties participate and cooperate.  The process can neither be forced upon nor opposed by any major party if it is to be successful.  One potential problem with a truth and reconciliation process, and one that is domestic as the Sri Lankan government insists, is that the Tamil polity suspects that it is a way for the government to evade accountability for what happened in the past.  Statements by some government leaders that accountability and reconciliation are two separate concepts add to their concerns.  The present is built on what occurred in the past, and therefore accountability for what happened in the past cannot be separated from achieving reconciliation in the present. 

Sustaining reconciliation in the longer term, and ensuring it for the future, calls for a political solution that addresses the roots of the conflict.   In South Africa, the truth and reconciliation process followed the achievement of a political solution.  Therefore in Sri Lanka, the truth and reconciliation process, which is a transitional one, needs to be tied up with the development of a just and mutually acceptable political solution, which is what will give stability to society.  The Tamil polity’s willingness to cooperate in the truth and reconciliation process will be increased to the extent that they feel it is tied to a just and sustainable political solution.  It will be important for the government to show how a domestic truth and reconciliation process is linked to the pursuit of a just political solution, in a manner that resembles what the Sudu Nelum movement once sought to do.

Prime Minister’s Visit To Jaffna & The 13A

By Sumanasiri Liyanage -March 30, 2015

Sumanasiri Liyanage

Much acclaimed three day visit of the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, to Jaffna and the Northern Province has, in my opinion, raised a substantial issue with regard to good governance. This visit happened immediately after the troika’s (President Maithripala Sirisena, the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the former President Chandrika Bandaranaike) visit to Jaffna to attend the ceremony of handing over of 425 acres of land owned by the people in Kankasanturai, Myleddy and Palaly. Although this was, as I reiterated in this column, a much delayed exercise, the new government should be commended at least for taking first step in resettling people in their own land from which they were forcefully displaced for 30 years. We believe the rest of the land in Jaffna and Sampur will be handed over to their legal owners in the due course without much delay. Handing over ceremony was well attended and the dignitaries included the President Maithripala Sirisena, the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the former President Chandrika Bandaranaike together with the Chief Minister of the Northern Province, C. V. Wigneswaran. What we had witnessed in the subsequent three day visit of the Prime Minister was a conspicuous absence of the Chief Minister of the Northern Province in any of the newspaper frames published in the Colombo newspapers.

It was not clear why the CM and the Provincial Council members of the NPC were absent in any of the meetings attended by the PM. Was it because they were not invited by the PM’s office? Or was it because they decided to boycott those meetings following the remarks made by the PM over an Indian TV channel? NPC sources said the invitation sent to the Council on the Prime Minister’s visit was “not properly delivered”. However, a couple of weeks ago, the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe was reported to have said that “I don’t discuss Jaffna with Wigneswaran. I discuss with the TNA in Parliament.” He also said that he would not talk to the CM when he visits Jaffna. However, it is interesting to note that the TNA parliamentarians were present at the meeting. The Secretary General of TNA, Mavai Senathirajah, spokesman Suresh Premachandran and E. Saravanabavan participated in the functions attended by the PM.

The issue that I seek to raise in this article is of fundamental nature and not about the technicality of the invitation procedure. Commenting on the absence of the CM and NPC members, Minister Maheswaran said Chief Minister Wigneswaran and the NPC Councillors should not have snubbed Wickremesinghe as the purpose of the visit was to address the humanitarian issues in the North. This statement and the statement previously made by the Prime Minister demonstrates the total misunderstanding on the issue of devolution and the arrogant attitudes of the center politicians. The UPFA government introduced and implemented uthuru wasanthaya (Northern Spring) program as a step to reconstruct the war-torn area. Of course the program had many structural weaknesses such as over emphasis and prioritizing big infra-structure program while neglecting small irrigation, village roads etc. Notwithstanding these weaknesses one of the principal drawbacks of the uthuru wasanthaya was that it was designed to implement by the central government. Prime Minister and the Minister Maheswaran should know that if the intention is to address humanitarian issues, what is needed is not the mere participation of the NPC but the full responsibility of implementing them by the NPC. If the Prime Minister thinks that he can address the issues in the Northern Province by talking to the TNA members marginalizing and sidelining the elected NPC and its Chief Minister, I would submit that he is making the same error what the previous UPFA government arrogantly did. It is imperative to note many of the issues that he sought to address in his three days visit are devolved subjects or the subjects in the concurrent list.

Northern Province has always had special relationship with Colombo even in colonial days. A former GA to Jaffna, Neville Jayaweera in his book mingling history with insights informed us one aspect of this special relationship. He writes: “I said that one of the duties of the GA Jaffna was to receive visiting High Commissioners and Ambassadors in his office or Residency. It was a convention special to Jaffna, from a long way back, and did not normally devolve on the GAs of other districts. I believe the convention was established from as far back as the mid 1880s, long before even Colombo had any foreign embassies on its soil.” He added: “I believe that this convention was later endorsed by the Ministry of Defence and External Affairs because of sensitive political circumstances prevailing in Jaffna”. (Jaffna Exorcising The Past and Holding the Vision: An Autobiographical Reflection on the Ethnic Conflict)Conventions are often times stronger than laws. This specificity of Jaffna and the North suggests that some kind of constitutional asymmetry has to be introduced and well respected in implementing the 13^th Amendment until new constitutional design is agreed upon.

The Government in Colombo has always attempted to weaken the 13^th Amendment by changing laws, using lacunas in the Amendment and mere using powers of the central government. Hence, the chief administrative officer of the province, the Provincial Secretary has been sidelined since the late 1980s giving more powers to the GAs who come under the central government. It appears that the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in his three days visit to Jaffna and the North adopted the same practice. It is necessary to add that such a practice based on supremacy, arrogance, and authority has nothing to do with good governance. Ending his three day visit to north, the Prime Minister revealed that he would appoint a special officer from the prime minister’s office to look after the North. This begs a question. What is devolution for? What is the special capacity and capability the PM’s office has over the CM’s administrative mechanism to govern the north?

*The writer is the Dean, Faculty of Management and Finance, SANASA Institute of Business and Development Studies – e-mail: sumane_l@yahoo.com

External commitments weigh on Rupee stability

By Paneetha Ameresekere-2015-03-30

Ceylon Finance Today: The exchange rate (ER) last week closed virtually flat at Rs 133.50/55 to the US dollar in two way quotes in one week forward bookings in interbank trading, unchanged over its previous week's close, as Sri Lanka's external commitments and demand appeared to have got the better of Avurudu remittances and exporter conversions, which inflows were earlier expected to take the pressure off the rupee.

The ER in the previous week, i.e. in the week ended Friday, 20 March had closed at Rs 133.60 in one week's forwards and Rs 133.85 in two weeks forwards, with traders as at the following weekend, however, preferring to trade on one week forwards on thin volumes to close the week, market sources told Ceylon FT.

Such developments come in the backdrop where the latest position of Sri Lanka's external finances revealed that the authorities moved external spending closer to the US dollar one billion mark by dipping in to the country's foreign reserves to prevent depreciating pressure on the rupee.
CBSL's latest weekly economic indicators (WEI) showed that CBSL on a net basis spent US$ 72.6 million from the country's foreign reserves last month (February) to defend the rupee, thereby taking such spend in the last six months to February 2015 to a grand total of US$ 956.7 million.

Nevertheless, that has not prevented the rupee from depreciating. Statistics maintained by Ceylon FT showed that in the 30 week period since end August 2014 to date, the ER has depreciated by between 2.5% to 2.6%, or by Rs 3.27 to Rs 3.35, having had closed end August 2014 at Rs 130.20/23 in two way quotes in interbank 'spot' trading.
Further, such expenditure from the island's foreign reserves excludes Government of Sri Lanka's (GoSL's) foreign debt servicing commitments, which are also met from the country's foreign reserves. The country's foreign reserves as at end February stood at US$ 7.4 billion according to latest CBSL data, a decline of US$ 1.8 billion or by 23.8% from a recent peak of US$ 9.2 billion, achieved six months ago, i.e. as at end August 2014.

The depletion of those foreign reserves is as a result of the aforesaid actions.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's foreign debt servicing commitments in the 12 month period ending on 29 February 2016, is envisaged to increase by 2% or by US$ 115 million to US$ 6.02 billion, compared to its foreign debt servicing commitments of US$ 5.9 billion in the 12 month period ending on 31 January, 2016.
Ceylon FT's Tuesday's (24 March) lead story under the heading 'CBSL delays releasing key FX data' highlighted the delay in CBSL's WEI showing such latest data.

Nevertheless, three days later on Friday (27 March), CBSL's WEI made such data available.
WEIs are generally released every Friday of each week. Meanwhile, CBSL functioning under the previous regime made available details of CBSL's intervention in the foreign exchange market in the previous month, on the first Friday of the following or new month itself, but the present regime has been releasing such data only on the last Friday of the following or 'new' month, and not on its first.

Proposed Constitutional Amendment Needs Improvement: Article 19

March 30, 2015

Article 19 welcomes the proposed inclusion of a right to information provision as the Sri Lankan Parliament amends the country’s Constitution. However, the London based freedom of expression watchdog urges Parliament to make sure that constitutional rights are available to all, not just citizens.

Article 19’s Executive Director Thomas Hughes

“It’s encouraging that the Sri Lankan government is serious about protecting the right to freedom of information and is joining the other countries of South Asia in having a full constitutional provision. However, the proposed provision only protects this right for citizens, so we urge the government to change the proposal to ensure that the right is available to all,” said Thomas Hughes, Article 19 Executive Director.

“According to international law human rights belong to all, not just those with citizenship. Rules restricting rights so that they only apply to citizens have been used elsewhere to prevent marginalised and economically disadvantaged people – many of whom cannot afford or are prevented from becoming citizens – from exercising their rights,” he added.

“Given that the Sri Lankan government is amending the Constitution, it should make sure that the provision on the right to freedom of expression is expanded to apply to everybody, not just citizens” he concluded.

The proposed amendment creates a new article (Article 14A of the Constitution) which states: ‘every citizen shall have the right of access to any information’. It goes on to say that for any organisation to be able to request information, over three-quarters of its members must be citizens. This provision unnecessarily restricts the right to information to those people with citizenship of Sri Lanka.

The Constitution also currently limits the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association and belief so that they are only protected for its citizens. However, freedom of expression and the right to information are fundamental rights for all. This is recognised by numerous international instruments, including:

• the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
• the regional charters of the African Union, the Organization of American States, the Council of Europe, and the European Union.

In addition to this, the UN Human Rights Committee clearly stated in its General Comment 34 in 2011 that these rights apply to everyone.

Under international law, all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated. No fundamental and universal right can be applied solely to citizens. Therefore, constitutions that give rights only to their citizens are in contravention of international legal standards.

Central banking 18: Governor and board members are trustees and not owners of the central bank

March 30, 2015

A central bank can earn its living by printing money
A central bank is a unique species. It does not have to work in order to earn its existence. This is because it has been given a power which no one else in society has. That power is to have all the resources it wants just by assuming a liability through a mere book entry.
For instance, suppose it wants to lend to the government by buying a Treasury bill. All it has to do is to debit a Treasury bill holding account in its books and debit that account and credit the value it has lent to the government to the government’s deposit account which it maintains in its books.

Central Banking 18 Governor and Board Members Are Trustees and Not Owners of the Central Bank by Thavam Ratna

The 19A Allows Private Broadcasters To Legally Skew Elections!

By Wijayananda Jayaweera -March 30, 2015

Wijayananda Jayaweera

The new clause 26 of the proposed constitutional amendment allows private broadcasters to ignore the Election Commission’s media guidelines if the broadcaster informs the EC in advance of its intention to support a particular a political party of its choice. The first version of this text even allowed the state broadcaster to take a partisan position during the election, but now the new text has limited the partisan broadcasting only to private broadcasters. Irrespective of this change what this provision allows is a totally ill advised practice which has all the potentials to undermine the conduct of a free and fair elections. The need to go into such operational details about election related media functions in a constitutional text is also unheard of.

Let me explain as to why this provision is an ill conceived one.

I have no quarrel if a national newspaper takes a public stand to support a particular candidate or a political party during an election. The newspapers are published entirely by private enterprises without utilising any commonly owned public resources for its sustenance. The readers who wants to reinforce their own electoral positions would free to purchase the newspaper which publicly support their preferred political position or the candidate.

But broadcasting is a completely different matter. Theoretically, each and every person of Sri Lanka can establish his or her newspaper, but scarcity of broadcast frequencies allows only few privileged persons to own and operate the broadcasting services. Therefore, allowing private broadcasters to become partisans during an election is certainly an abuse of that privilege. The private broadcasters, though are organised as private enterprises cannot operate without use of the spectrum, which is clearly a public property. The spectrum is allocated to both public and private broadcasters, under a licence, on the understanding that they have to provide must carry services in the public interest. A fair and comprehensive coverage of the election is one of those must carry services which should be provided by broadcasters, irrespective of their ownership type.

This would mean that all broadcasters should give due weight to the coverage of major parties during the elections with appropriate coverage to other parties and independent candidates with significant views and perspectives, thus enabling the voter to make a well informed decision.

Allowing private broadcasters to become partisan broadcasters during elections would skew the election results because it engages far more significant financial interest and much more powerful messaging from the powerful groups. A biased article in a newspaper is simply not the same as biased manifested through TV. After all choice of media doesn’t work in the same way. If I am a right wing supporter I only buy and read right wing newspapers, so my choices are respected. But since TV is essentially an entertainment medium I watch the entertainment shows I like, whatever channels they are on. Thus, allowing private TV channels to take sides during an election will be a great disadvantage to those parties and candidates who cannot retain the support of private broadcasters. This will create a very uneven playing field for the contestants who are not supported by private broadcasters.

None of the existing private broadcasting institutions are owned through a transparent and justifiable licencing process. Thus they are not really accountable to the audiences and there is no independent oversight authority to see that broadcast media functions in the public interest. On top of that, the proposed exemption which allows private broadcasters to ignore the guidelines established to ensure a fair coverage of elections, would make it even constitutional to skew the elections through partisan broadcasting by the powerful.

Election is a time in which voters are expected to make well thought out informed decisions, largely based on the political experiences reflected through news media. Allegations of media bias are very common at election time and usually they are difficult to either prove or disprove. But it is essential to have a system of checks and balances particularly for broadcast media to look out for and correct any imbalances in coverage. Were the camera shots and angles manipulative? Were the questions balanced? Were the significant viewpoints covered? Were the opinion polls credible and professional ? etc?

We know that the more commercialised a particular media system is, more likely it is that politics will be framed as a game rather than issues. This kind of framing requires less interest and knowledge from the audience. It is precisely for that reason why we need media guidelines which would compel the private broadcasters at least during the election times to engage their audiences more as citizens than mere consumers.

Can we really assure a fair and honest coverage of electoral politics if we make it entirely legal for the private broadcasters to become partisan and ignore the Election Commission’s media guidelines?. It is true, that in the US the first amendment disallows regulating media behaviours during elections, regardless of any objectionable or irresponsible election coverages they may do. But in all other established democracies obligation of fair, impartial and non partisan approach to election coverage is ensured across all type of broadcasting media through guidelines on election coverages issued by an independent Election Commission.

Therefore, we should request the legislators to withdraw the proposed exemption which exclusively allows private broadcasting services to become partisan broadcasters during the elections, which is totally unwarrented and undemocratic.