India says will shake up trade tariffs to compete globally

A man walks past steel rims and parked cars at a dock yard at Mumbai Port Trust in Mumbai November 17, 2014.

BY MANOJ KUMAR AND RAJESH KUMAR SINGH- Wed Apr 1, 2015

(Reuters) - India plans to pull its tariff regime closer in line with global norms to prepare for new regional trade pacts being negotiated by advanced economies, the government said on Wednesday.

India has not been invited to join pacts such as the U.S.-led 12 country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and is “not in a position to join,” partly because its tariffs are not competitive, a top official said at the unveiling of a new five year trade policy.

"If the country is to stand up to these agreements, it’s important that we start to address these issues," Trade Secretary Rajeev Kher said, adding that India’s access to markets was likely to erode when such pacts take effect.

Kher said India needed lower tariffs for intermediate goods to help it further integrate with global supply chains, and that these industries would have to come more competitive. He did not give more details.

Regional trade pacts are being promoted by advanced economies after years of failure to negotiate a global agreement under the World Trade Organisation.

TPP would link a dozen Asia-Pacific economies by eliminating trade barriers and harmonising regulations in a pact covering two-fifths of the world economy and a third of all global trade.

China, which is not part of the TTP negotiations, is pushing for a separate trade liberalization framework.

"They have been explicit about the fact that there are these mega agreements that we are not invited to - as a response to that they are trying to fix things internally," said Akshay Mathur, head of research at foreign policy think tank Gateway House.

Kher said India was interested in a third grouping known as RCEP that combines Southeast Asian nations and six others -Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea.

"India expects to be a major beneficiary of the ASEAN Plus six trade pact for which negotiations are likely to be completed by year end," Kher said.

Experts say the viability of that grouping may depend on India’s progress in easing domestic regulations and external barriers that constrain economic activity.

India aims to raise its exports to $900 billion by fiscal year 2019/20, the government said in a statement.

In the first 11 months of the fiscal year to March 2015, merchandise exports stood at $286.58 billion, down from $314.4 billion in the previous year.

(Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Malini Menon and Clarence Fernandez)

Holding Out the Hat for Syria

Four years since the crisis began, aid organizations are struggling to drum up funds for suffering Syrians. 

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON-MARCH 31, 2015

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait — There was a brief moment last summer when senior U.N. officials thought things might get ever-so-slightly better in Syria. After three years of deadlock, the U.N. Security Council in July 2014 approved a resolution authorizing humanitarian aid to be transferred over several border crossings into Syria — without permission from Damascus.
Before, the United Nations had been forced to work with President Bashar al-Assad, who had refused to let aid convoys traverse crossings controlled by the rebels. With the Security Council resolution, Assad’s government couldn’t stop aid from moving into the beleaguered country.

But Syrian officials responded by opening doors for aid, letting relief flow more freely into the country. “The [Syrian] government was very against the resolution and they wanted to demonstrate that it wasn’t necessary,” U.N. Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos told Foreign Policy.

The reprieve didn’t last. Within weeks, the Syrian government reversed course, clamping down on aid groups’ already extremely limited access. U.N. agencies were allowed to use the newly authorized border crossings, but other entryways into government-controlled areas soon closed. As for approval from Damascus, that got tighter too: while before the United Nations had to alert the Ministry of Social Affairs, now it also had to clear all supplies with the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Today, the United Nations and other international relief agencies can no longer work directly with local governorates to dole out goods.
“The administrative procedures of the government are becoming more and more limiting,” Amos said.

Nearly a year after that fleeting victory, the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria has continued to exceed even the most dismal predictions. As donor countries gather in Kuwait on Tuesday to pledge relief funds, the situation in Syria today inspires usually diplomatic officials to use words like “savagery” and “grotesque.” A plethora of players — but most importantly the Syrian government and the Islamic State — are severely restricting humanitarian access.

Even if all the channels were open, the resources wouldn’t be enough. Relief agencies have only 8 percent of the $7.5 billion that the United Nations estimates it needs this year to provide basic relief to the 12.2 million Syrians in need inside the country, and the 4 million refugees who have fled across its borders. Within Syria, the situation is particularly acute: 4.2 million of the needy are in difficult-to-reach areas, and 440,000 are trapped in besieged areas where nothing — not food, not fuel, and rarely people — gets in or out.

This is the “new normal” with which the United Nations and other relief organizations are struggling to cope. They scramble for ways to dance around regulations and rely on the bravery of locals to deliver relief. “Many [Syrians] see that death has become much better than living in such conditions,” Hesham Yusuf, representative of The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), said in Kuwait on Monday.

What went wrong with aid for Syria is similar to what went wrong with the conflict itself: politics. With the parties on the ground deadlocked, statements of concern and commitment abroad did little to help. The July 2014 cross-border Security Council resolution, for example, was meant to improve aid access — but thanks to Damascus’s intransigence and the rise of the Islamic State, relief groups have seen the opposite effect.

“We have been in discussion with several non-permanent U.N. Security Council members, and they asked us what other resolutions we need,” said Andy Baker, regional program manager for the Syria crisis response at Oxfam. “We told them: We don’t need any. We need you to implement the ones we have.

”Meanwhile, the daily drumbeat of atrocities has had a numbing effect, particularly for Western publics. Syria may be the costliest humanitarian crisis in U.N. history — but it has raised pennies in the United States. The international NGO World Vision, which works with the U.N.-coordinated aid operation, is just one of the organizations that has struggled to sell the crisis to donors: It has raised $2.7 million dollars in private donations for the Syria crisis over the course of four years — less than half of the $5.9 million it raised in the first week after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

If there is one silver lining, it is that regional countries in the Gulf have increasingly stepped up to fill that gap. Kuwait last year pledged $500 million and the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia each pitched in $60 million. By early Tuesday, Kuwait had again pledged $500 million, the United Arab Emirates $100 million, and Saudi Arabia $60 million. The United States also pledged $508 million, bringing its total contribution since the beginning of the conflict to $3.7 billion.

Kuwait is particularly important because it doesn’t just pledge — it writes checks. Then, it makes sure everyone else who promised does the same, says regional U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs spokesman Iyad Al Hassan. He says 90 percent of the pledges from last year’s Kuwait-hosted conference have materialized — and the remaining 10 percent probably have too, and simply haven’t been reported. That’s an “unprecedented development,” he says.

Yet as delegations gather in Kuwait, Syria finds itself in the familiar position of being perceived as the second-most-urgent regional crisis. In the time the United Nations has been coordinating relief for Syria, its funds and staff have also been faced with putting down Ebola, mitigating typhoons and earthquakes, and containing conflicts in Libya, Iraq, and now Yemen.

“Yemen is a tragedy for Yemen, but it’s also a tragedy for Syria, because it’s one more thing that is higher on the list of priorities,” says Oxfam’s Baker. “And of course now is the time to jump on the crisis before things spiral out of control, as they did in Syria.”

The Syrian crisis isn’t going anywhere, which is part of the problem. In just four years, the conflict has spawned a new generation of jihadist fighters, and a new level of atrocities. It has kept 4 million Syrian children out of school, according to Baker, and sent countless more into subsistence work. Syria’s tragedy has sent a flood of migrants into Europe on rickety boats led by human traffickers.

All this is why, aid workers here say, donor governments are likely to keep giving — it is the only way to contain the growing contagion effect. Arguments about human suffering don’t draw donations, but the fear of terrorism and illegal migrants cause pocket books to open up. With ideas for how to end the fighting falling short, aid is all anyone has left.

“The repercussions of Syria are catastrophic, and they will increase if there is not a minimum of assistance to the Syrian people,” said the OIC’s Yusuf. “The repercussions will be dire for all of us.”

RAMI AL-SAYED/AFP/Getty Images

Record number of migrants expected to drown in Mediterranean this year

In the first quarter of 2015, nearly 500 migrants have drowned, ten times as many as in the same period of 2014, leading to fears of a record death rate this year 

A motor boat from the Italian frigate Grecale approaches a boat overcrowded with migrants in the Mediterranean. Photograph: Italian Navy/AP

Patrick Kingsley in Cairo-Wednesday 1 April 2015 13.00 BST

A record number of migrants will drown in the Mediterranean this year if the current death rate remains unchecked, after 10 times as many migrants lost their lives during the first three months of 2015 as during the equivalent period in 2014.

At least 486 asylum seekers have drowned in the Mediterranean since the start of the year, compared with 46 in the first three months of 2014, according to preliminary figures supplied to the Guardian by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The death toll has risen sharply even though the number of migrants arriving in Europe by sea has remained roughly the same. It suggests that the EU’s decision not to create a like-for-like replacement of Mare Nostrum, a full-scale Italian rescue operation that folded last October, has neither curbed the number of attempts to cross the sea, nor fatalities along the way.

The rate of deaths far outstrips the rate in early 2014, leading to fears that the total number of drownings in 2015 will eventually surpass last year’s total of 3,419, which was itself a record. A quarter of the way into the year, the 2015 death toll has already almost overtaken the total annual estimates from 2012 and 2013, which respectively reached 500 and 600.

An IOM spokesman said it was impossible to say definitively what had caused the rise. But civilian coastguard patrols are struggling to fill the void left by the navy frigates that led operations for Mare Nostrum, said Flavio Di Giacomo, IOM’s spokesman in Italy.

Of the 170,000 migrants rescued in 2014, roughly half were saved by the Italian navy. Its ships were able to rescue hundreds of migrants at a time, provide them immediately with medical treatment, and also remain at sea for longer, cutting down rescue-response times. By contrast, the coastguard vessels that have been tasked with picking up the slack in 2015 are much smaller, and have to return to port sooner.

“There are many reasons for these shipwrecks, so we can’t say that this 486 would have been 40 or 50” if Mare Nostrum was still operational, said Di Giacomo. “But it is true that last year Mare Nostrum involved these big navy ships that were able to intercept and rescue many migrants at sea, while now some [migrant] ships are not able to be rescued because the Italian coastguards arrive too late.”

The EU-funded Operation Triton, which was introduced after the closure of Mare Nostrum, also intercepts migrant ships. But its primary function is to patrol Europe’s maritime borders, rather than rescue stricken vessels, and as a result only operates within 30 miles of the European coast. Unlike Mare Nostrum’s ships, which frequently sailed within reach of the north African coast, Triton is consequently unable to reach boats that encounter trouble closer to their origin in Libya.

This decline in capacity worries Matteo de Bellis, a researcher on European migration for Amnesty International who recently returned from a fact-finding trip in the Mediterranean. De Bellis said: “Clearly we are very concerned because, while there is still a big number of people prepared to take this very dangerous trip, we don’t see sufficient resources put towards patrolling the high seas and engaging in rescue operations. When you receive an SOS call from a distressed vessel, having a ship that is only one or two hours away – rather than 15 hours away – makes all the difference.”

Though the rate of smuggling trips dropped slightly in March, the number of migrants who have reached Italy by sea since January is still roughly the same – at just over 10,000 – as last year’s figure. A spokesperson for Frontex, the EU’s border agency, said that more Syrians seem to be leaving Turkey for the Greek islands, a shorter voyage made by another estimated 10,000 people so far this year. Numbers are expected to rise much further once the peak smuggling season begins in a few weeks, with migrants saying that the increased maritime dangers are of less concern than the unrest they are trying to escape.

Abu Osama, a Syrian civil servant who fled with his family to Cairo in 2013, plans to sail illegally next week to Italy from Egypt, another common launch-pad for asylum seekers. He says xenophobia, poverty, and a low-level insurgency mean he is unable to get the fresh start in Egypt that he hoped for after being tortured in Syria.

“There’s no other choice,” said Osama, who was arrested as he tried to leave Egypt in a previous attempt last year. “We see the situation here in Egypt. Just last week we had three explosions in this area. The security service comes searching for people. When I first came to the local supermarket, the shopkeeper realised I was Syrian, so he started shouting at me. Even the officer at the passports office treats us in a very arrogant way – he acts like he’s disgusted with us. So we just want to get out of this atmosphere. We’ve already suffered a lot.”

The EU is expected to announce a review of its migration policies in early May. Anticipating the review, a UN special representative said this week that Europe needed a wholesale rethink about its piecemeal approach to migration, calling it “one of the great issues of our time”.

Amnesty hopes the review will include the reintroduction of a full-scale rescue operation funded by all European states, rather than just Italy.

Amnesty’s De Bellis said: “We really need them to prioritise saving lives on the high seas, otherwise this summer will bring us a number of victims that is comparable to last year, or even greater.”

Health And Beauty Benefits Of Dry Skin Brushing

Health And Beauty Benefits Of Dry Skin Brushing

by Carla Hernandez - Mar 30, 2015

Wouldn’t it be awesome to not need to moisturize your body? Can you imagine having smooth skin naturally, just relying on diet and simple body care techniques? It’s definitely possible. Six years ago I had the flakiest, driest skin. I constantly had lotion or heavy duty moisturizers with me to keep my skin from cracking. Of course, diet changes and healing my body internally was crucial to addressing the root cause, although during this process I supported my goals of having clear and smooth skin by implementing skin brushing on a daily basis. This got me my results quicker, with added health benefits I wasn’t even aware of at the time.

What is Dry Skin Brushing:

Dry skin brushing is a simple two minute routine that can help you make your body healthier (inside and out), while keeping your skin looking and feeling smooth and sexy.

How? The skin is the largest eliminative organ, meaning that it’s a major release of toxins.  It is estimated that one- third of all body impurities are excreted through the skin in the form of perspiration, including Uric acid; metabolic waste product found in urine. If the skin is not constantly exfoliated and sloughed, dead skin cells, uric acid and other toxins in the body have a harder time escaping via this pathway, making your internal detoxifying organs (liver, kidney, lungs and bowels) work harder.

Health Benefits of Dry Skin Brushing:

The benefits of dry skin brushing affect both the internal and external body.

Stimulates the Lymphatic system:

Think of this as your body’s garbage disposal transport, from your tissues to your blood stream. Yourlymphatic systemcarries toxins and waste products around your body to eventually remove them via detox organs. Your lymphatic system is only stimulated and works through movement. The more sedentary one is, the less efficient it is. This is when one can become more prone to inflammation and sickness when it becomes too congested. Dry skin brushing stimulates your lymphatic system helping to move junk through and keep it moving, in turn keeping you healthy.

Exfoliates the Skin:

Exfoliation is the skins best friend. It does everything from removing dead skin cells, smooths the texture, which enhances it’s appearance and clears pores. This allows anything you put on it afterwards to be absorbed better and therefore it’s purpose is more effective. It also stimulates hormone and oil producing glands which can help provide natural moisture to the skin.

Stimulates and Increases Circulation:

In other words, going back to the lymphatic system support, increasing circulation increases metabolic waste management and elimination.

Fights Cellulite:

If no other reason intrigues you to begin dry skin brushing, this one should! How is this possible you say? If you look at cellulite as a build-up of waste this makes perfect sense. The act of brushing these essentially hardened fat deposits softens them, reducing their appearance.

Small Investment with Multiple Benefits:

I have found skin brushing to be a small investment in both time and money when you look at not only what the benefits are above, but also the mental relaxation it provides. The act of brushing your skin literally tingles your body and leaves you with a calm sensation that just makes you feel good.

How To Dry Skin Brush:

You’ll want to invest in a natural bristle brush about the size of your hand or slightly larger. This gives you more control and coverage. If you choose, you can purchase one with a longer handle to reach all parts of your body. Although I recommend using a natural bristle brush, you could alternatively use a loofah mitt, or course bath gloves.

You may want to begin with a less stiff brush until the skin adjusts to coarser brushes. Brush gently to start, then increase pressure to be firm but not painful. Skin will look slightly pink in color, but shouldn’t appear red. Sensitivity of the skin will vary with every individual, as well as different parts of the body.

To begin brushing, start at the soles of your feet, pressing the brush against your body in upward strokes. Direction should be south to north in this order: feet, legs, hands, arms, the back, abdomen, chest and neck. I don’t recommend doing your face, as your skin is more delicate in this area. Always brush toward your heart, as this will best support circulation and your lymphatic system.

I recommend dry skin brushing daily. Although the time does not really matter when you do it, I personally like to before showering or an epsom salt bath.  I also recommend adding it to your morning routine as it’s a great way to wake your body and get waste moving internally that occurred from detoxing during the night.

The Best Way to Silky Smooth Skin:

As you know, healthy skin doesn’t come from just one act of care, but multiple factors. Although the nice thing about dry skin brushing is that you can literally see results within the first few days, however, results will be that much better and prolonged if you also take into consideration what you’re putting inside and on your body. In addition, I always recommend investing in a shower filter, as tap water contains chlorine and other contaminates which can dry out and irritate your skin. Lastly, if you’re not taking high quality fish oil, this can make a big difference for a lot of people struggling with dry skin. I’m a fan of krill oil, as this has a higher absorption rate than normal fish oil with less toxicity concerns and works as a powerful antioxidant, astaxanthin, shown to help prevent and reverse sun damage to the skin.

Sri Lanka Naval officers detained over Tamil politician murder

A National Anti-War Front protest in Colombo over the assassination of Tamil MP Nadarajah Raviraj, in November 2006. — File Photo: Sriyantha Walpola

COLOMBO, March 31, 2015

Three Sri Lankan Navy personnel, including two officers, have been detained by the police here under the anti-terrorism Act for the alleged murder of a popular Tamil lawmaker in 2006 that snowballed into a major human rights issue for the then government.

Nadarajah Raviraj, 44, was gunned down in his car along with his police guard as he left his residence here in November 2006.

Raviraj was a popular Tamil politician with an ability to communicate with the Sinhala majority and was a rising star in the main Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance.

A former mayor of Jaffna and a lawyer by profession, Raviraj openly spoke out against the conflict between the military and LTTE in the country’s north and east.

Police spokesman A.S.P. Ruwan Gunasekara said that the three Navy personnel are now being questioned over the 2006 murder.

“These three officers are being detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. They are being questioned over Raviraj’s killing, as well as killing the police officer who was present with the MP when he was shot. The detained suspects are also being questioned on the abductions and disappearances of several young men,” he said.

The murder which happened at the height of the government’s military crackdown on the LTTE had became a major human rights accountability issue for the earlier Mahinda Rajapaksa administration.

Sri Lanka under former President Rajapaksa was subject to three consecutive UN Human Rights Council resolutions, the last of which mandated an international inquiry on alleged rights abuses committed by both government troops and the LTTE.

The Rajapaksa government had resisted the investigation dubbing it as a violation of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.

The incumbent administration of President Maithripala Sirisena is also opposed to an international investigation but has agreed to a credible domestic probe with international technical assistance.

Proof of secret camps Prime Minister Wickremesinghe denies exist

31 MARCH 2015

Despite Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's public denial, credible reports have emerged to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the Sri Lankan military still operates secret camps in the north, where surrendered ex-Tamil Tiger rebels and those who were made to disappear during and after the war, have been held and tortured to-date.

Relatives and families of four such people who are currently held in these secret camps in the Wanni for a prolonged period have reported this matter to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and sought its help to get their loved ones released.

The reports of the operation of secret camps have come at a time when Prime Minister Wickremesinghe during his three-day official visit to the North late last week publicly denied claims made by Jaffna District Parliamentarian of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Suresh Premachandran in this regard.

"After we took over the government, there are no secret camps. I cannot speak for the time before that," Mr Wickremesinghe said in Jaffna on Friday (March 27).

Keppapulavu secret camp

Balananthini Viswanathan has filed a writ application in the Mullaitivu district court demanding the court to help releasing her husband Chelliah Visvanathan who had surrendered to the army during the final days of the war in May 2009 and gone disappeared since then.

She claims that her husband has been held in an army camp in Keppapulavu, a fertile village in the Mullaitivu district. After the war, the military has taken over this village denying access to about 350 native families displaced by the war.

Her writ application is set to be taken up tomorrow in the court.

About 50 held in Keppapulavu secret camp

Another ex-LTTE cadre, who had also surrendered to the army in May 2009 has contacted one of his relatives from this Keppapulavu secret camp and informed that about 50 people were being held in the camp.

The JDS withholds the details of this person and that of his relatives for safety reasons. 

Meanwhile, a mother whose son was made to disappear in 2011 said that her son Ravindran Mayuran has been brought to the Mancholai hospital in Mullaitivu late last month for a urinary treatment.

According his mother Rosemalar, some family relatives have met Mayuran and spoken to him at the hospital on February 27 around 10 am, thinking that he has been released from the military custody. But when she went to the hospital on the following morning to visit her son, she was told by the doctors that no one in that name has been treated or admitted to the hospital.

The JDS reliably learns that the military personnel who brought 27-year old Mayuran to the hospital have warned the hospital administration not to maintain any record with regard to his admission or treatment at the hospital.

Mullaitivu secret camp

According to Rosemalar, Mayuran has told the relatives during the brief meeting that he has been held and tortured in an army camp in Mullaitivu. He has also said that he has been badly affected and often falling ill due to excessive torture.

Mayuran, a father of one, from 8th Division Manthuvil in Mullaitivu was first taken away from Arunasalam Welfare Centre in Chettikulam Manik Farm area in May 2009 by the military for interrogation. He was held and interrogated in Nelukkulam, Vavuniya Chinna Mankulam and Welikanda military detention camps.

He was released on 16 November, 2010 at a function at Vavuniya Tamil Maha Vidyalayam and was living with his wife and child at Kadirgamar Welfare centre. He used to go out and do some odd jobs to look after his family.

On 2nd February, 2011 he was made to disappear again while returning from work. The family has informed the ICRC and was waiting to know his whereabouts. It is under this circumstance that he has been met by some relatives and neighbours on February 27 while waiting for a urinary treatment at the Mancholai hospital. He had to end his conversation with them abruptly after noticing that he was being closely monitored by those who brought him to the hospital.   

Jegatheepan Devaraja who was made to disappear in April 2009 has been seen by her cousin sister travelling in a military truck. The 27 year old boy from Mullaitivu was seen wearing a dress similar to the army. This has now been informed to the ICRC.

The native of Keppapulavu has been forcibly resettled in a jungle area east of Keppapulavu in September 2012. The 59 Division of the army has set up a massive camp in Keppapulavu, which includes a government school.

MP Suresh Premachandran has demanded the new government in parliament and outside to conduct a thorough investigation into the credible reports of secret camps.

The Ideal V. Practical In Electoral Reforms

By Sujata Gamage -March 31, 2015

Dr. Sujata Gamage

Electoral reform logjam broke loose when MPs agreed to an increase to the size of the parliament from 225 to 250. The idealists are up in arms. What is the ideal size of the parliament? What is the ideal mix of representation? They are asking now. These are good questions, but, unfortunately that bus left long ago, as far back as 2007.

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reforms was constituted in 2003 and they issued their Interim report in 2007. Interestingly the final report was never published, but, I have posted a scanned copy on my personal Web site. If anybody bothers to read the document, it shows the committee grappling with difficult questions. For example, there is a dissenting opinion by the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and Ceylon Workers Congress where they challenge the report extensively but offer constructive suggestions at the end.

In trying to meet multiple demands something has to yield. If it takes an increase to bring about changes, it is worthy increase I think. The number 250 need not be a done deal either. A delimitation commission can be given a charge to consider the other alternatives such as 235, 240 and 245. We can also ask the question what can be done with 250 do that cannot be done with 245 and so on. Those are little questions indeed.

We do need people who can look at the bigger picture. Do we want a soviet like government where for example, local councils would be smaller and closer to the communities and the chair and vice chair from each represent the communities in the provincial councils. The parliament would be small. It would leave local issues to local governments and provincial issues to provincial governments. Nice theory, but, has anybody thought of the political and policy tools through which we achieve such? If other countries achieved such significant changes how did they do it? How did we achieve big changes in the past? If anybody wants big changes , I suggest they use their time to do the research and prepare for the big policy moment which may strike.

We did have big policy moment in our country when we changed from a majoritarian FPP system of elections to a PR system in 1978. We are now getting ready to move into in a mixed system of the two, and it is a given, politically. It is not a bad move either. The world is moving from majoritarian systems or PR systems to mixes of the two.

Is this a time for anything bigger? I doubt it. We are more than three-quarters way through our policy window of 100 days. It is not a time for big policy thinking. Our focus would be indeed to do the little tweaks to changes that have been on the agenda for years. Two particular tweaks come to mind.

How much FPP and how much PR?

Those who talk about 50:50 solution do not ask a key question. What if 50 people from one party contest in 50 electorates in a FPP system and other 50 come from a PR of the votes cast, where are you going to find the people to fill those 50 PR seats? Which question leads us to our next tweak opportunity.

Who will fill the PR seats?

The obvious answer is a list submitted the by the party. That is indeed the norm in mixed methods or 100% PR systems. However, in Sri Lanka we have had disastrous results with elections to District Development Councils in 1982 where the lists were stuffed with friend and family. Have we grown up as a country since then? I doubt it. Awarding PR seats to the best runners-up as from FPP races in proportion to the votes garnered by them as proposed in in the 2007 report of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reforms is still the best alternative.

Innovations through tweaking

Innovations do not come not from arm-chair theorizing but trying to tweak within limitations. Tired of the debate over how much FPP or how much PR we asked ourselves why not use 100% PR, more or less, to decide how many seats each party is getting. Then use the FPP winners and the best runners-up to fill the seats. WE call this this system PSC-NZ combination because the first part comes from New Zealand and the second part from the PSC. More on the PSC-NZ method later.

Jayampathy on 19th A, electoral reforms and 100-day program

President’s Counsel Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne expressed the importance of abolishing the executive presidency and electoral reforms under two different constitutional amendments. Dr. Wickramaratne, who is involved in constitutional reforms, expressed his candid views about the 19th Amendment, electoral reforms and the 100-day program. He is also a member of the National Movement for Social Justice and a dissident of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP). 
Following are excerpts:

March 31, 2015

Q: What are your remarks about the 19th Amendment? 
A: The 19th Amendment that was gazetted has now been presented to Parliament. In the meantime the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the second set of changes to the 19th Amendment. They have shared it with leaders of other parties and it has also found its way to the newspapers. I am satisfied with the 19th Amendment read together with the changes proposed by the Cabinet.

Jayampathy on 19th a, Electoral Reforms and 100-Day Program by Thavam Ratna

Heritage & Nationalism: A Bane Of Sri Lanka

By Jude Fernando -March 30, 2015

Jude Fernando

“Those who control the past control the future. Those who control the present control the past” -George Orwell

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there”- L.P. Hartley.

The current practices of archeology and their complicity with rebranding of archaeological heritage as national heritage have contributed to the ethnic tensions, civil war, injustice, inequality, and violence in the Sri Lankan society. The pretense that archaeology is an apolitical profession is a form of complicity with these social ills. In many societies, archaeological knowledge was the historical basis for nation builders and their antagonists (e.g. separatists/sub nationalists), who reclaimed or plundered their antiquity, and reshaped it to support discriminatory social, economic and political practices. Sri Lanka is no exception.

Formerly a Tamil village known as Kokachankulam located in Vavunia North has been renamed as Nandimitragama

Nation building and archeology are intimately related. According to Randall McGuire “nationalists muster archaeology both to prove their myths dispassionately and to reveal and reconstruct an “authentic” objectified heritage.” In most societies archeology evolves and becomes institutionalized within the political and cultural parameters set by the nation-building priorities set by the state. Under these circumstances archeology is politics by other means. Denying the political nature of archeology is a form of self-deception.

Good governance (Yaha Palanaya), as a political response to pernicious social and political consequences of nation building, will elude us unless we are prepared to radically change the current mindset about the relationship between country’s archaeological heritage and culturally distinct collective identities and landscape. People’s entitlement for freedom, equality and justice should be the driving force behind the reasons for our search for archeological knowledge and how we chose to act upon it. Archeology fails to make a positive contribution to the society while it is a prisoner of the ethnonationalist politics of the state. Under such circumstances archeology becomes complicit with political and cultural practices that use archeology not “necessarily always to better understand the past, but to use the past to legitimize the present.” The point here is not that the past “literally speaks to the present,” but rather, “when the past is used to legitimize the present, we insist that it is saying what we want to hear, even if the thoughts we are imputing to the past may have been alien to it.”^[1]           Read More   

Sinhala Colonization In The North Sped Up

India’s Key to Sri Lanka: Maritime Infrastructure Development

To surpass China in Sri Lanka, India needs to pursue proactive and dynamic diplomacy.

By Nilanthi Samaranayake-March 31, 2015

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent trip to Sri Lanka highlights New Delhi’s reawakening to the strategic position that Sri Lanka holds in India’s neighborhood. Since 2008, India has watched as China built port facilities, highways, and other major infrastructure in Sri Lanka.
India’s Key to Sri Lanka Maritime Infrastructure Development by Thavam Ratna