The 100-Day Question: Will President Sirisena dissolve parliament and call the Rajapaksa bluff?

by Rajan Philips-April 25, 2015

If there is ever a time for political leadership to act in disregard of consensus, it is now. There was a time in Sri Lankan politics when that master rhetorician Colvin R. de Silva presaged the governing style of the SLFP-LSSP-CP United Front as one that would be "characterized not by consensus but by leadership." Dr. Colvin’s foretelling was in anticipation of the massive United Front election victory in 1970. It turned out to be ill-advised at that time. But it is thoroughly appropriate at the present time. In politics, consensus is the preferred means to a desired end, but it is not an end itself. President Sirisena has the power to act and dissolve parliament and let the people elect a new parliament to end the current political uncertainty in parliament and in the country. Will he do it? That is the 100-Day question. And there will not be much else to talk about the 100 Days if parliament does not pass the 19th Amendment on Tuesday, the day after tomorrow.

The 100-Day Question Will President Sirisena Dissolve Parliament and Call the Rajapaksa Bluff by Thavam Ratna

Nimal Siripala cheats on his party and the masses : proposes changes to 19th amendment like a roly-poly buffoon

(Lanka-e-News -25.April.2015, 3.30PM) The opposition leader Nimal Siripala De Silva , the notorious renegade who has by now proved his double tongued and double faced  hypocritical traits are unmatchable by any other of his ilk and bulk ,  had sent a letter yesterday addressed to the prime minister , falsely stating therein  that the SLFP has taken a central committee decision  (which decision was in fact not taken)  in order to deceive  the SLFP party itself , and the masses  with a view to subvert and suppress the proposed 19 th amendment  following MaRa JaRa policies despite having full knowledge that those are the very policies that precipitated a national holocaust under the last regime.

When the SLFP central committee met day before yesterday (23) , all the main media of the country of yesterday had publisheded committee decission to support the 19 th amendment.

Nevertheless , the shameless by birth  Nimal  Siripala alias Nimal Sillypala  notorious for readily sacrificing even his soul at the altar of unscrupulous power and gains , and considered as a best human illustration of the inverse relationship between mental capacity and physical bulk, had by sending a letter to the P.M. indulged in a most deplorable , despicable and deceitful  action. In the letter purportedly sent by the party had indicated , the SLFP central committee agreed  to support the 19 th amendment only if the changes to it advanced by the UPFA are accepted . However , it has come to light such a decision was not taken at day before yesterday’s  SLFP central committee meeting. 

Of course , if the changes talked about by Nimal Siripala are conducive to enhance the Democracy in the country and abolition of the evil executive presidency powers  , certainly those are welcome being not  detrimental to the country and the people  , but the changes to the 19 th amendment Nimal Siripala is proposing are not  however salutary . They are as obnoxious as his idiocy and degeneracy.

One such change to the 19 th amendment proposed is under section 46 (3) the president should be empowered to remove the prime minister .In other words , what  Nimala Siripala is proposing is , the president must have the power to remove the  P.M. even if the latter  commands greater support within parliament . Nimal Siripala despite being a lawyer has only demonstrated his characteristic mental instability  stemming from the inverse relationship between  his brain power and brawn power, though a rare  syndrome internationally ,is  widely prevalent among our local  gluttonous parliamentarians who fatten even on  the despair of the masses.  He cannot be blamed for making such proposals , it the  syndrome afflicting him which is precluding him from thinking sanely and sensibly . It is unfortunate the SLFP has an  opposition leader , who can only think  destructively and not constructively. It is a well and widely known fact that in the present constitution the repugnant  executive powers are incorporate d , the present president Maithripala Sirisena too clearly stated this executive presidency must be vested in the parliament   , and  the people also voted for this government because of this promise. In such circumstances , if this incorrigible bulk cannot understand this , he deserves no better place than that in front of a cart  as  a bullock ,for which his physical stature too is ideally suited ,to lead the cart along with MuRa, shoulder to shoulder.

The second amendment to the 19 th ,Nimal Siripala , the incorrigible bulk proposed was no better. Under the new 19 th amendment , a constitutional council was proposed to  be created ,and  the judges  as well as Supreme court  (SC) judges are to be appointed via that council. The members of the independent commission are also to be appointed by that council. In other words , the present  inordinate power of the executive president  to make appointments according to his whims and fancy is got rid of  , and the  powers to make such appointments will  now be  vested in the council.

Such constitutional councils will be ten in number. Those councils will function under a representative each appointed by the president ,P.M., opposition leader , speaker and the minority parties plus 5 independent professionals of the intelligentsia appointed by the P.M. and the opposition leader , which  will make  up the ten members of the council.

However , Nimal Sillypala now  says , the representative of the minority parties plus those 5 representatives (independent intellectuals) appointed by the P.M. together with the opposition leader   must be  six  MPs. In other words  what Nimal Siripala is insisting on is , MPs who robbed gold chains ,MP like Lakshman Perera the illicit  ethanol dealer and  MP like Wimal Weerawansa  who could not even pass grade nine and involved in forged passport frauds  should be permitted to select the judges , SC judges etc. 

Nowhere in the world would is there an opposition leader  as asinine as our opposition leader Nimal Sillypala .Truly speaking ,if only Nimal  Sillypala has a tail , no buffalo thief  will spare him for he is in form and features a buffalo .

Much more serious than what are revealed above is: when the SLFP central committee has agreed day before yesterday(23) that the 19 th amendment shall be accepted , Nimal Sillypala without any qualms deliberately , brazenly and blatantly lied in his letter to the P.M. that the central committee had refused to support  it.

When the national council met yesterday(24) ,president Maithripala and minister Rajitha Senarathne categorically stated , at the SLFP central committee meeting held yesterday , no such decision conveyed by Nimal Sillypala  was taken .

Why is Nimal Sillypala acting this clownishly  and hypocritically , and at whose instigation ?

Did the Medamulana highway robbers out of the Rs. 650,000 million loot collected from robbing the country pay a part to Sillypala ? How can such perfidious   thoughts cross the mind of the present opposition leader when he is  aspiring to become a president or P.M. in the future ? When   such are his despicable and deplorable thoughts , the ordinary masses are harboring suspicions that the same motives which prompted Tissa Attanayake (to commit the political suicide ) are inspiring him to act this way .In that case how many millions  is on offer to Nimal Sillypala is the next question ?

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by     (2015-04-25 10:39:31)

19th Amend. will create fresh opportunities – Perumal

by Dilrukshi Handunnetti

( April 25, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The controversial former Chief Minister of the United Northeastern Provincial Council, Varatharaja Perumal believes that Sri Lanka needs a Devolution Commission to look into the various aspects of power sharing and ensure the full implementation of the 13 Amendment to the Constitution in spirit and letter.

19th Amend. Will Create Fresh Opportunities – Perumal by Thavam Ratna

‘The Government’s Hobson’s Choice’ 

April 24, 2015, 6:00 pm

The then opposition was campaigning to abolish the Executive Presidency, as most of the Govigama Buddhist majority and even the Christian minority could not accept the reality that Premadasa had been elected as the Executive President of Sri Lanka. Virtually, all powers of the Executive Presidency had been conferred upon Ranasingha Premadasa, the first Non-Govigama Head of State. The opposition could not stomach such an insult. In answer to the campaign carried out in an utmost vicious manner, Premadasa responded by telling one of his admirers, the novelist and play-writer Simon Nawagaththegama, that "those very people, if they come to power and sit on the throne created by J. R. Jayewardene; they would far from abolishing it, strengthen it and usurp more power to themselves." Today, in hindsight, one could observe how wise Premadasa was.

‘the Government’s Hobson’s Choice’ by Thavam Ratna

Gota’s Flag: Desecrating The National Flag

By Hilmy Ahamed -April 25, 2015

Hilmy Ahamed

The racist discards of the Rajapaksa era have opened a new front in their chauvinistic march to create further ethnic turmoil in our nation by desecrating the National Flag. The protesters against the Sirisena government are now carrying a new National Flag that does not have the Orange and Green stripes that denote the minorities in the country. This was witnessed at the protests held both on Parliament Drive on 21^st April 2015 when Mahinda Rajapaksa was summoned by the Bribery Commission and the illegal protest in support of Gotabaya Rajapaksa on 23^rd April 2015outside the premises of the Bribery Commission. This flag was first seen in some protests against the Muslims and other minorities that were organized by the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) during the Rajapaksa regime.

The Flag carried by the protesters

The following is the justification for the design of the National Flag as recorded in a number of Government sites: “The National Flag of Sri Lanka has been designed with great care and purpose. It not only represents the country and her heritage, but is a rallying device that integrates the minority races with the majority race”.

The lion flag lost its significance after the British invaded Sri Lanka in 1815. It was the Union Jack, which was hoisted in its place.

When Sri Lanka gained her independence from Great Britain on February 04, 1948, it was the lion flag, which was hoisted once again.

The first Prime Minister of independent Sri Lanka, D.S. Senanayake, appointed a committee to advice the government on the design of a new national flag. The design approved by the committee in February 1950 retained the symbol of the lion with the sword and the bo-leaves from the civil standard of the last king of Sri Lanka, with the inclusion of two vertical stripes green and orange in color. The orange stripe represents the Sri Lankan Tamils, the green stripe represents Sri Lankan Moors, and the maroon background represents the majority of Sinhalese:

Desecrating the National flag is a serious offence that warrants criminal prosecution. Wikipedia explains the desecration of the national flag as:

“Flag desecration is a term applied to the desecration of flags or flag protocol, a various set of acts that intentionally destroy, damage or mutilate a flag in public. Often, in case of a national flag, such action is intended to make a political point against a country or its policies. Some countries have laws forbidding methods of destruction (such as burning in public) or forbidding particular uses.”  Read More

Who is the owner of the white tortoises caught at Hotel Hilton?

Saturday, 25 April 2015

Few days back the Wild Life Department caught three white tortoises illegally rearing inside a garden of Hilton Hotel Colombo. The hotel trade union pointed out despite taking action against the hotel premises a person working within the garden of the Hotel has been taken into custody.

The national organizer for the Hotel workers Union B.I Abdeen has sent a letter to the director of the Wild Life Authority revealing this. Despite questioning the hotel General Manager Manish Fernando Gayan Ravindra, the garden worker of the hotel has been taken in to custody and produced before the Fort Magistrate.

Hotel Workers Union emphasized this is a methodology the police and the Excise department follow when taking illicit liquor into custody. The Wild Life Department officers have acted similar of taking a henchman of the owner into custody instead of arresting the owner who produced the illicit liquor.

The Hotel General Manager should be aware of the rearing of the Tortoises in the hotel premises. He should bear the responsibility as the chief of the hotel. If possessing Tortoises is an offence the General Manager should be directly responsible. Therefore the law should be enforced against the General Manager not against the garden worker of the hotel.

There is no reason the Wild Life Department is not aware of this fact. However if there is any other hidden reasons behind this the Wild Life Department should bear the whole responsibility.

CID to investigate SLC-CSN broadcasting deal

Former Sri Lanka Cricket Officials are facing a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) investigation regarding the awarding of broadcasting rights to Carlton Sports Network (CSN) as irregularities had been proved by the three-member investigation committee appointed by the Minister of Sports and Tourism Navin Dissanayake.

By Yohan Perera  Published : April 24, 2015 

It had been proved that there had been a violation of tender procedure in the awarding of the rights to CSN, which did not allow for competitive bidding, for several tournaments.

Minister Dissanayake said a copy of the report would be handed over to CID for an investigation.

The three-member committee appointed to look into alleged corruption of sports bodies was chaired by Former Secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration Dharamasena Dissanayake, Former Deputy Treasury Secretary N. Pathmanathan and Ruzly Husean, who represented the private sector.

Citing this report, the Minister said his decision to appoint an interim committee to administer Sri Lanka Cricket was justified.

“I am being criticized for this move. The biggest joke is that those who have been in interim committees in the past are saying that such committees are bad,” he said referring to a meeting which had been organized by some ex-members of Sri Lanka Cricket Interim Committee, which he said is a conspiracy to disrupt cricket in Sri Lanka. He said some of the clubs will boycott this meeting that is to be held at SSC.

Also the report revealed a sum of Rs. 108 million spent for the development of a synthetic track at Sugathadasa Stadium had gone a waste as the track had been found to be in poor condition. The investigation had revealed that nothing had been done to restore this track. In addition a project of Rs 5.2 million to develop the stadium had been given to a contractor outside the tender procedures.

‘No Uthuru Mithuru’ accounts: Dullas to be arrested!

Saturday, 25 April 2015

The financial crime investigation division has uncovered a massive financial irregularity in the railway department during the period Dullas Daham Kumara Alahapperuma was the transport minister, and he is to be arrested soon, say police sources.

Dullas had awarded contracts without calling for tenders for repair work of the northern railway track under the ‘Uthuru Mithuru’ project. Neither the transport ministry nor the railway department had maintained accounts for those repairs. Top officials in the two institutions are surprised as to how funds had been given in that manner.

Almost all officials who had given statements to the FCID in this regard had said that they had merely followed the instructions of minister Alahapperuma. Former secretary to the ministry is also to be arrested.

Alahapperuma, together with 25 others, is also having Colombo chief magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya issued summons for them to appear before the court on May 08 on a charge of contempt of court.

Nepotism Continues: Foreign Ministry Tight-Lipped About Sonali Samarasinghe’s ‘Political Appointment’

April 24, 2015 

Sonali Samarasinghe, widow of Lasantha Wickrematunge, the slain Editor of the Sunday Leader, has been appointed as Sri Lanka’s ‘Minister Counsellor’ at the country’s mission in the UN Headquarters, New York, it has been reported in a website that is reputed to be run by persons politically aligned with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mangala Samaraweera. The website claimed that the appointment was approved by Cabinet on Wednesday the 22nd of April.

Sonali Smarasinghe

Samarasinghe earlier secured a diplomatic posting in the Sri Lankan High Commission in Australia. This was in the 2001-2004 UNP Government headed by Ranil Wickremesinghe. She was and is not a career diplomat.

The appointment comes in the wake of the Ministry recalling all ‘politically appointed’ diplomats following Maithripala Sirisena winning the Presidential Election on the 8th of January 2015.

Earlier this month Minster Mangala Samaraweera released the resultsof the long-delayed foreign service examinations.“This will enable the many vacancies currently in the foreign service to be filled through a transparent, professional and meritocratic process.” a foreign ministry official told Colombo Telegraph.

“The self-serving Rajapaksa regime not only posted political appointees to as ambassadors abroad, they also staffed the second and third tier of missions with their cronies. These incompetent individuals shamed Sri Lanka on the world state – even using embassies for illegal business activities,” she further said     Read More

Wimal’s multi-million Rupee House Transfers

by Manjula Fernando-25/04/2015

Former Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa had allegedly transferred houses worth millions built by a government-owned company under the Housing Ministry, for his close relatives and aides. The Financial Crimes Investigation Division of the police, following complaints received have initiated a probe into the case that involves public funds exceeding Rs.60 million, authoritative sources told the Sunday Observer yesterday.

The illegal transfer of houses has been reported by the new chairman and the board of directors of the state-owned Ocean View Development Company (Pvt) Ltd, of which the shareholders were the Housing Development Authority and the Urban Development Authority.

It is alleged that the massive corruption and fraudulent transactions had been carried out by the former directors of the company on the instructions of Wimal Weerawansa as the then minister.

Port City still in limbo

• Final decision on Port City only after cabinet sub-committee report, says Eran
• Deputy Minister says project is being reviewed from all aspects
• Port City Project commenced with an incomplete EIA
• Final decision will not be political, but based on expert assessment, says Deputy Minister

Deputy Minister of Investment Promotion Eran Wickramaratne

By Dharisha Bastians-April 25, 2015
The final decision on whether the controversial Colombo Port City project will go ahead will only be made after the Cabinet appointed sub-committee delivers its final assessment reports, top Government officials said yesterday.
Deputy Minister of Investment Promotion Eran Wickramaratne told journalists in Colombo yesterday, that there were “complex problems” with the Colombo Port City project, including the question of land sovereignty over some areas of the property.
However, he noted that most of the problems could be resolved through negotiations.
“We remain open to discussions with any parties involved in the project; we are looking at this with an open mind,” the Deputy Minister said.
Discussions had taken place at all levels about the project, including engagement with Chinese diplomats, Wickramaratne said.
“There is definitely a big problem with regard to the environment,” the Deputy Minister said, because the project had been commenced with an incomplete Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) mandatory for large-scale development projects in the island.
The EIA involved the study of 500 acres, but an assessment of impact for the entire area had not been conducted, Wickramaratne told a media conference.
“Ultimately the decision on whether or not the Colombo Port City project is feasible will not be a political decision. It will be a decision made by environmental experts,” the Deputy Minister explained.
There were even recommendations that international experts needed to be called in to assess the impact to Sri Lanka’s Western coastline, he claimed.
“This is going to take time. Once all the assessments are done and if the impact on the environment is going to be too great, the project will have to be stopped,” Wickramaratne asserted.
Despite claims by the Chinese company constructing the Port City that the daily costs incurred by the project’s suspension was about $ 380,000 per day, the Deputy Minister said there were several reasons for suspending construction.
“The former Government made a lot of decisions – and some of them were the wrong decisions. With an incomplete EIA, the costs to Sri Lanka in the long run would be much higher,” Wickramaratne asserted.
The Government was cognisant of the problems the project’s suspension had created, including the costs, he noted.
“If there are going to be disputes, there are dispute resolution mechanisms that can be used to deal with that,” Wickramaratne said.
No final decision will be made until the Cabinet sub-committee presents its final report.
“An investigation is underway. We have not called for an interim report on those findings. But this project is being reviewed by the Sri Lankan Government financially, socially, economically, environmentally and also legally. We have to be satisfied, this is our assessment,” he explained.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ajith P. Perera, who was also in attendance at the press briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday, said the subject of the Port City Project had never come up in the discussions during President Maithripala Sirisena’s recent visit to Beijing.

Chairman tries to save Johnny’s man

 

Saturday, 25 April 2015

Consmer affairs authority chairman Rumy Marshook is these days involved in a task which is outside the responsibilities of his institution, reports say. That is – he is making attempts to save one A.N.M. Sakir, a coordinating secretary to former consumer affairs minister Johnston Fernando.

This man had not paid more than Rs. five million of dues in transactions with Lak Sathosa. A case (BR 735/15) has been filed in the Kurunegala magistrate’s courts in this regard against Sakir, who is presently in remand custody.

Johnston has entrusted Marshook with the task of saving Sakir. Marshook is a former magistrate and ex-prisons commissioner. Marshook has discussed the case with two magistrate friends of his, reports reaching Lanka News Web say.

When LNW inquired from him, Marshook categorically denied any involvement. He said that as a former magistrate, he well knew the seriousness of interfering in a court case, adding that he would never resort to such an act.
Asked as to whether Johnston had asked him to mediate in saving his secretary, an excited Marshook said, “Johnston too, is an accused now. There are many charges against him. Do you think I will follow the advice of such a person at a time like this?”

Whatever he says, it is reported that Marshook is definitely involved in this matter on the advice of Johnston.

Devastating earthquake leaves Nepal in rubble, more than a thousand killed

People survey a site damaged by an earthquake, in Kathmandu, Nepal, April 25, 2015. Reuters

 2015-04-25

A powerful earthquake struck Nepal and sent tremors through northern India on Saturday, killing more than 1,300 people, touching off a deadly avalanche on Mount Everest and toppling a 19th-century tower in the capital Kathmandu.

[Washington Post, however, said the death toll had crossed 1,400, while unofficial sources say it could be twice or even thrice as much.]

There were reports of devastation in outlying, isolated mountainous areas after the midday quake of magnitude 7.9, Nepal's worst in 81 years, centred 50 miles (80 km) east of the second city, Pokhara.

As fears grew of a humanitarian disaster in the impoverished Himalayan nation of 28 million, an overwhelmed government appealed for foreign help.

Devastating Earthquake Leaves Nepal in Rubble, More Than a Thousand Killed by Thavam Ratna

Talking About Palestine

by Ron Jacobs

( April 24, 2015, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) The recent re-election of Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel was a resounding blow to the fantasy of a peace process in Palestine. His anti-Arab pronouncements in the last minute of the campaign were an indication of the true sentiments of the Israeli establishment and much of Israel’s Jewish population. Likewise, his easy rejection of those pronouncements after his victory was assured proved once again the meaninglessness of the so-called peace process. In other words, there really is no process working towards peace between Israel and Palestine. Indeed, the only process occurring between the two nations is one that is intended to wipe any fact of Palestine from human memory. If there is no history that mentions Palestine, then there will be no future that includes it. This is the intention of the Zionist project.

The fact of this intention is not new. Nor is the ongoing media relations attempt to pretend that the erasure of Palestine is not Zionist Israelis’ design. As Noam Chomsky and historian Ilan Pappe make quite clear in a new book of conversations and essays edited by human rights activist Frank Barat, erasing history is a weapon of the powerful. In terms of how this relates to Israel and Palestine—where the mediators in the “peace process” accept the same definitions as the Israeli government, “…the past becomes an obstacle to the so-called mediators, but the past is everything in the eyes of the occupied and oppressed people.” Similarly, when the US tells Iraq to forget about the US invasion and move on, it is an attempt by the more powerful nation to obfuscate its true role.

This new book, titled simply On Palestine, includes a series of dialogues between Chomsky and Pappe with Barat gently guiding the direction the dialogues take. Because the conversations took place in 2013 and 2014, the reality of Netanyahu’s continued rule does not exist. However, this makes very little difference and actually verifies the general veracity of the point being made: that Israel’s intent has always been to push the Palestinians out of their homes, their lands and history itself. As the dialogues make clear, this truth is present in the documents of and statements of early Zionist settlers and in more recent ones. Despite the varieties of Zionism that have existed historically and exist today, the intent of most of its adherents is that objective and that objective alone.

Chomsky makes an interesting point during the discussion about the right of a state to exist. There is no such thing, he states. To demand other peoples and nations to accept any nation’s right to exist is absurd and without precedent. Yet, this is precisely what Israel has demanded. In addition, now Israel demands that others recognize its right to exist as a Jewish state. As the book points out in terms of a comparison, Iran has named itself an Islamic Republic, yet that does not mean it can demand that it be recognized as such. Returning to Israel and Palestine, the Palestinians (from Hamas to the Palestinian Authority) have acknowledged that Israel exists as a geographical fact; however this does not require them to officially recognize that. As a comparative example, Washington did not even recognize the People’s Republic of China until 1979, thirty years after the fact of its existence.

Some readers of On Palestine will want to emphasize the differences between the two men, specifically in regards to their differences regarding the academic aspect of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. However, a more useful reading in reviewer’s mind would be one that sees this and other disagreements that arise in the conversations transcribed in the text as the beginnings of an attempt at synthesis between the various approaches that have arisen in support of the Palestinian struggle. As both men point out, the Palestinian groups that compose the national liberation movement itself are anything but unified. This therefore makes it more difficult for those supporters who are not Palestinian to come up with a single approach in their work, as well.

This book is a very accessible discussion of the issues surrounding the question of Israel/Palestine. It is a lesson in the politics and history of the conflict between the two peoples that by its nature includes philosophical inquiries into questions of nationhood and nationalisms, religion and ethnicity, imperialism and the struggle against it. Through the questions from Frank Barat, Ilan Pappe and Noam Chomsky provide the interested reader with an honest and profound discourse on all of the above. While doing so, the discussion broadens and deepens the context of this issue into an exploration on the meaning of history and politics as only these two intellectuals can. The inclusion of a few essays by each man at the conclusion of the text enhances the dialogue that precedes them.