Global South’s rising economic clout and socialism’s relevance 

June 17, 2015

A cleaner wipes the sidewalk outside a shopping mall in Beijing on June 17, 2015. AFP
However, it is important that the economic performance of these countries of the South is referred to as ‘growth’ and not ‘development’. But these terms are not interchangeable; they do not refer to identical realities. Generally, growth refers to the quantum of goods and services produced by a country annually while development denotes economic equity and redistributive justice, along with growth, within a national economy. In fact, ‘development’ currently also implies environmental sustainability. 

In a world that has come to believe that it is some time since the ‘epitaph’ to socialism has been written, it would seem highly incongruous to broach the issue of its contemporary relevance. Yet, it could be argued that it would be quite premature to write-off socialism as entirely inapplicable to the material ills of our times. These dilemmas present us with the challenge of thinking analytically rather than superficially and for those who take up this challenge the ‘socialist alternative’ offers itself as a continuing viable development option.

It is a truism that the global economic power balance has shifted to the South or the developing world from the North or the First World, consisting of mainly the Western industrialized powers. In fact, economic growth in the South, over the past 30 or so years, has been phenomenal. The BRICS, for example, or Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, are seen as being in the forefront of global economic advancement or growth. For instance, in 2007, BRICS’ contribution to global economic growth outstripped that of the US for the first time, 30% to 20%. Interestingly, BRICS represent those regions of the world which were referred to as the Third World or the developing countries in the Cold War years. Apparently, the South seems to have turned tables on the North, in economic terms at least.

However, it is important that the economic performance of these countries of the South is referred to as ‘growth’ and not ‘development’. But these terms are not interchangeable; they do not refer to identical realities. Generally, growth refers to the quantum of goods and services produced by a country annually while development denotes economic equity and redistributive justice, along with growth, within a national economy. In fact, ‘development’ currently also implies environmental sustainability.

Accordingly, a country could be said to be experiencing ‘growth’ but not ‘development’. There is an important distinction here which should not be glossed over by both the’ expert’ as well as the layman. Confusing these core concepts could lead to a distortion of reality.

However, in terms of economic growth and output, the present and the future undoubtedly belong to the South. It is estimated that by 2050, Brazil, China and India combined would account for 40 percent of the world output in purchasing power parity terms. The UNDP assessed that between 1980 and 2010, developing countries had increased their share of world merchandise trade from 25 per cent to 47 per cent and their share of world output from 33 per cent to 45 per cent. The Free Trade Area of China and ASEAN set up in 2002, is reportedly the world’s largest with a population of 1.7 billion and GDP of USD 2 trillion.

While these somewhat randomly selected data establish the growing economic strength of the South, it is of considerable importance that global growth is powered, in the main, by almost the totality of what is considered the developing world. For example, besides the more well known BRICS, there are formations such as, IBSA, or India, Brazil and South Africa, CIVETS, comprising Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa and MIST, consisting of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey, which are at the heart of growth. Besides being a wide cross section of the ‘Third World’ of yesteryear, these groups are the proof of how effectively developing countries are integrating their economies with each other, diversity of geographical location and physical distance notwithstanding. The trade to output ratio of most of these countries is high and this is evidence that these states not only engage with each other but do so also with the international economy to a considerable degree. That is, economic liberalization or market openness has stood these countries in good stead, from the growth viewpoint.

The UNDP’s Human Development Report for 2013 points out that the countries referred to above are also notable from the Human Development standpoint. That is, these countries are spending considerably on the development and empowerment of their human resources. Foreign trade and Human Development are found to advance together.

The above is adequate evidence that the states concerned are proactively engaged in the development process to a degree because their concern with their polities is not confined to the generation of economic growth only. There is a measure of concern for the well being of the people as well.

But how much concern is sufficient concern in the Human Development context? In the churning out of billionaires China is said to be second to only the US. India, which has just pipped China as the fastest- growing ‘BRIC’ has a phenomenal number of the world’s poor within its borders. How equitably, and at what pace, is wealth being distributed among the 'ordinary people' in these countries, their economic output or growth notwithstanding?

This is just one poser of crucial importance that very many fast-growing Southern economies raise. While there is growth here of exhilarating proportions, the same could not be said of redistributive justice, which is central to social peace.

It is these vast wealth and income disparities that raise the continuing importance of socialist planning. The latter process, however, is not synonymous with a state’s mechanical disbursement of welfare measures among the people. There need to be well thought out state programmes which envisage the continuous employment of the people in development projects, for example, which would prove beneficial to the people as well as the country. In other words, a degree of active state involvement in running the economy cannot be avoided. However, a balance must be struck between state intervention in the economy and the latter’s liberalization.

The growth process, it must be noted, does not automatically, as it were, lead to the people’s empowerment. This task must be undertaken by governments which should evolve the relevant mechanisms for the continuous employment of the people and their gradual empowerment. Southern governments may be doing some work in this direction but these efforts do not seem to be sufficient. Strong measures need to be in place to ensure that excessive wealth earned by the ‘super rich’ is taxed and used for the benefit of the people. Besides, stringent measures need to be in place to guard against corruption in public life and the accumulation of ill-gotten wealth. These are urgent tasks for the South. The socialist vision just cannot be written off.

White gunman kills nine at historic black South Carolina church

A suspect which police are searching for in connection with the shooting of several people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina is seen in a still image from CCTV footage released by the Charleston Police Department June 18, 2015.

A suspect is arrested as police respond to a shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina June 17, 2015.

CHARLESTON, S.C. | BY HARRIET MCLEOD

A 21-year-old white gunman with a criminal record killed nine people at a Bible-study meeting in a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, in an attack U.S. officials are investigating as a hate crime.

Law enforcement officials on Thursday caught alleged gunman Dylann Roof, local television reported. The rampage came in a year that has seen months of racially charged protests across the United States over killings of black men.

A man who identified himself as Roof's uncle said he had recently been give a .45-caliber handgun as a birthday present by his father and that the 21-year-old had seemed adrift.

"The more I look at him, the more I'm convinced, that's him," Carson Cowles, 56, told Reuters in a phone interview, adding that law enforcement agents were present at Roof's home. "If it is him, and when they catch him, he's got to pay for this."

The victims, six females and three males, included Reverend Clementa Pinckney, who was the church's pastor and a Democratic member of the state Senate, according to colleagues.

The U.S. Department of Justice opened a hate crime investigation into the shooting.

Roof sat with churchgoers inside Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church for about an hour on Wednesday before opening fire, Police Chief Gregory Mullen said.

He reloaded five times even as victims pleaded with him to stop, a relative of Pinckney's said. Sylvia Johnson, a cousin, told MSNBC that a survivor told her the gunman reloaded five times during the attack. Pinckney tried to talk him out of it, she said.

"He just said, 'I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country," Johnson said.

Demonstrations have rocked New York, Baltimore, Ferguson, Missouri and other cities following police killings of unarmed black men including Eric Garner, Freddie Gray and Michael Brown.

A white police officer was charged with murder after he shot an unarmed black man in April in neighboring North Charleston.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which researches U.S. hate groups, said the attack illustrates the dangers that home-grown extremists pose.

"Since 9/11, our country has been fixated on the threat of Jihadi terrorism. But the horrific tragedy at the Emmanuel AME reminds us that the threat of homegrown domestic terrorism is very real," the group said in a statement.

(Additional reporting by Emily Flitter in New York, David Adams in Miami, Letitia Stein in Tampa, Florida, Randall Hill in Charleston, S.C., Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Bernadette Baum and James Dalgleish)

A suspect which police are searching for in connection with the shooting of several people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina is seen in a still image from CCTV footage released by the Charleston Police Department June 18, 2015.

Is the Islamic State on the Rise in Gaza?

Hamas is fighting a group that’s even more radical and violent than it is.

BY GREGG CARLSTROM-JUNE 17, 2015

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Iyad al-Buzm leaned forward against his lavender desk and tried to sound reassuring. “Gaza is perfectly safe. You can walk anywhere at three in the morning,” said the spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry. “There is no Islamic State in Gaza.”

A few hours later on June 11, sirens went off in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, announcing the third barrage of rockets fired by Palestinian militants in less than two weeks. A group inspired by the Islamic State quickly claimed responsibility and promised more attacks. The rockets in the most recent attack fell short, but two previous rockets cleared the border and landed around Ashkelon. None caused any damage.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has grown fond of comparing Hamas with the band of jihadis, which now controls much of Iraq and Syria. After his September speech at the United Nations, in which he called Hamas and the Islamic State “branches of the same poisonous tree,” an exasperated Yonit Levi, the anchor of Israeli Channel 2’s main news bulletin, was caught on camera exclaiming, “Dear God, it’s 45 minutes of ‘ISIS is Hamas, Hamas is ISIS!’”

Lately, though, Hamas is fighting the Islamic State — or at least groups trying to emulate it.

For roughly six months, extremists have waged a slow but steady campaign of bombings and assassinations in Gaza. Their numbers are small, and casualties have been low, but their recent actions threaten to erode the fragile cease-fire with Israel. Hamas has clamped down hard, arresting dozens of people in frequent raids.

Worryingly, these new radical groups are finding support from within Hamas itself, among rank-and-file members who want to go back to war with Israel. Earlier this month, police killed a militant at his home in northern Gaza. The man, Younis al-Hunnor, turned out to be a longtime member of the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, before he decamped for a radical group.

The defections are further fracturing a ruling party that’s already divided about whether to head back to war. The group’s comparatively moderate political leadership is negotiating a long-term truce with Israel, which could offer five years of quiet in exchange for a major easing of the blockade, even as the military wing busily prepares for another conflict.

“80 percent of the people who are joining these movements are from one of the resistance factions,” said Abu Ibrahim, a mid-level member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s military wing, the other prominent Gaza faction that has seen defections to the Salafi groups. “They’re angry that the factions didn’t continue the war. They have this idea that we should have no agreements with Israel.”

Hamas came to power after winning parliamentary elections in 2006, and though it has fought three wars against the Jewish state, it has also shown a willingness to negotiate with Israel. This made it a target for militant Salafists, ultraconservative Muslims who see Hamas as too secular and too soft on Israel. For several years, they targeted Hamas members and bombed Internet cafes, video stores, and other “immoral” establishments.

In August 2009, the confrontation come to a head when the leader of al Qaeda-linked Jund Ansar Allah declared an “Islamic emirate” in the southern city of Rafah. Hamas gunmen stormed his mosque, killing him and dozens of supporters. Other Salafi groups got the message, and the violence subsided.

takfiri’ problem before,” said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas official, using a term for extremists who accuse other Muslims of apostasy. “This is not a new phenomenon.”" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">“We’ve dealt with this ‘takfiri’ problem before,” said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas official, using a term for extremists who accuse other Muslims of apostasy. “This is not a new phenomenon.”

But there is one key difference: The older militants, well-known to Hamas, are not involved in the recent violence. Instead, a slate of shadowy, new groups has emerged.

The most active group calls itself the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, named after a prominent Iraqi jihadi from the early days after the U.S.-led invasion. It claimed responsibility for the three recent rocket attacks and issued an ultimatum that threatened more strikes unless Hamas releases Salafi prisoners.

Other small, shadowy groups have attempted to wreak havoc in Gaza itself. A group calling itself the Supporters of the Islamic State in Jerusalem assassinated a Hamas security official outside his home last month and mortared a Hamas training camp. Another sent death threats to liberal activists in December. Unknown attackers also bombed the French consulate in Gaza City twice last winter.

None of these militants have yet sworn formal allegiance to the Islamic State, and the leaders of the self-proclaimed caliphate have not acknowledged an affiliate in the besieged Palestinian territory. But their statements arepeppered with songs produced by the Islamic State’s media wing and other imagery associated with the group.

Diplomats worry that these groups might start kidnapping people, either for propaganda value or to use as bargaining chips in exchange for jailed comrades. Abductions are rare in Gaza: The last one happened in 2011, when Salafi militants murdered Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni. Still, the United Nations raised its threat assessment in Gaza earlier this year. Many aid workers are barred from walking the streets, restricted to offices and hotels.

“Everyone knows we have this sort of ideology in Gaza,” said Dunya Ismail, a feminist activist who was among those threatened in December. “But this is the first time it [has] happened with an Islamist movement that was unknown.”

Despite the breezy assurances of Hamas officials like Buzm, the Palestinian movement is anxious. Police have arrested dozens of Salafists and bulldozed a mosque in Deir al-Balah that was being used by an extremist cleric. Militants who fire rockets are arrested within 24 hours, according to police who took part in the raids.

The Information Ministry has pressured local journalists to downplay the story, and preachers and media outlets affiliated with Hamas have recently publicly attacked the takfiri ideology.

Barhoum and Buzm both stressed that the militant groups are small. Indeed, both Israeli and Palestinian security sources say they have a combined strength of fewer than 1,000 men — no match for the roughly 35,000 fighters under Hamas’s command. None of these groups will be in a position to take over Gaza any time soon.

However, these factions appear to have settled on a strategy that could be equally destructive for Gaza. They are trying to bait Israel and Hamas into another war, hoping that their occasional rocket launches will eventually provoke a heavy Israeli response and force Hamas to get involved.

So far, neither side is taking the bait. Hamas has sent messages directly to Israel asserting that it is still committed to the cease-fire. And while Israel holds Hamas responsible for maintaining order in Gaza, its response to the rockets has been purely symbolic: The air force waits several hours before launching retaliatory airstrikes on training camps in Gaza, giving Hamas ample time to evacuate its personnel and avoid casualties.

Gen. Sami Turgeman, head of the IDF’s southern command, said recentlythat Israel would not go back to war over “a small number” of rockets.

Turgeman visited Nahal Oz, a kibbutz on the Gaza border, last month. It was a ghost town during the war, as residents fled rockets and mortars; more than a dozen families still have not returned, preferring to relocate elsewhere. So his message was unusual, given the setting: “Israel and Hamas have shared interests,” he told local officials. “There is no alternative to Hamas as the sovereign in Gaza.… and the security situation would be much more problematic [with another group in charge].”

Still, Hamas is walking a fine line by trying to maintain order in Gaza without angering the public or seeming to do Israel’s bidding. One group accused Hamas of killing Hunnor, the radical killed by police force, “to satisfy the Jews.”

In a mosque in Beit Hanoun, a city in northeastern Gaza, a Salafi imam predicted that the radical groups would continue to find new recruits. The preacher, like most Salafists, is apolitical; he proudly offered a copy of a book he published last year denouncing the Islamic State as un-Islamic. “They reduce all of society to religion, and they do this by taking the blood of Muslims with the hands of Muslims,” he said of the jihadi group.

But he acknowledged that many in Gaza disagree. A recent poll found that 14 percent of Palestinians there believe the Islamic State “represents true Islam,” compared to 8 percent in the West Bank.

“The culture is such that there are no groups or political factions with legitimacy here,” he said. “Groups like [the Islamic State], they can rise in a situation like this, where the crossings are closed, the [smuggling] tunnels are gone, the economy is dead … if the situation doesn’t change, we will have a battle here.”

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Merkel accuses Greece of breaking pledges despite 'unprecedented help'

German chancellor tells Bundestag the Greek government failed to honour commitments made with lenders to implement structural reforms

Angela Merkel addresses parliament in Berlin on Thursday. Photograph: Wolfgang Kumm/DPA/Corbis

Kate Connolly in Berlin-Thursday 18 June 2015

Angela Merkel has delivered an unusually sharp rebuke to the Greek government, accusing it of failing to implement necessary structural reforms while insisting a last-minute deal was still possible to keep it in the eurozone.

In a parliamentary speech she said that although Greece had received “unprecedented help from its partners”, it had failed to honour commitments it made to lenders. She quoted from agreements Athens had signed earlier this year, saying they had been broken.

In an atypically rowdy session of the Bundestag on Thursday, with Merkel receiving both applause and jeers as she spoke, the chancellor stressed thatGermany would like to see Greece stay in the eurozone.

“It remains the case that Germany’s efforts are concentrated on keeping Greece in the eurozone,” she said. By praising countries such as Spain, Portugal and Ireland, which she said with the help of other partners and their own efforts, had got “back on their feet”, she expressed her disapproval of Greece’s attitude.

“These countries used their chances,” she said. “In the economic and monetary union, self-reliance and solidarity go hand in hand.”

But she said a last-minute deal which would help Greece to secure an agreement with its creditors, the EU, the IMF and the ECB, was still a possibility. “I’m still convinced where there’s a will, there’s a way,” she said. “If those in charge of Greece can mobilise the will, an agreement with the three institutions is still possible.”

Gregor Gysi, of the far-left Die Linke (the Left party), accused Merkel’s grand coalition of “total failure” in its handling of the Greek crisis. “You are endangering the euro ... and with that European integration,” he told parliament. Gysi said the Greek government had inherited a financial “mess” from his social democrat and conservative predecessors, but had nevertheless managed to repay a total of €7bn (£5bn) of debt to creditors.

“The Greek government is prepared to save – but just not there where you would like them to,” Gysi said, pointing a finger at Merkel and her finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble.

If Greece defaults, Germany, as the biggest contributor to the EU’s financial bailouts, stands to lose billions of euros.

Hong Kong Votes Down Beijing-Backed Election Plan

Outcome deals setback to Beijing’s attempts to integrate Hong Kong with mainland China

Pro-democracy lawmakers celebrate outside the Legislative Council in Hong Kong on Thursday, after the Hong Kong government’s Beijing-backed electoral reforms were defeated. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

By ISABELLA STEGER in Hong Kong and  CHUN HAN WONG in Beijing- June 18, 2015

HONG KONG—China’s Communist Party was subjected to an embarrassing lesson in democracy, as its offer of direct elections for the chief executive in Hong Kong was voted down.

After a year of turmoil and deepening divisions in the city over a proposal critics derided, it wasn’t a surprise that the election blueprint was rejected, but the optics of its demise added to the insult for Beijing.

Hong Kong Votes Down Beijing-Backed Election Plan by Thavam Ratna

UNHCR warn number of refugees reaches record high

A new UN report says one in every 122 people is either a refugee or seeking asylum. It says if this number of people were a country, it would be the world's 24th biggest.

THURSDAY 18 JUNE 2015
More people have been forced to flee their homes because of war, conflict and persecution than at any time ever before, according to the new report from the UN refugee agency.

UNHCR Warn Number of Refugees Reaches Record High by Thavam Ratna

China’s most unpopular invention? WHO approves disposable circumcision device

The ShangRing.

By Asian Correspondent Staff Jun 18, 2015

Meet the ‘ShangRing’, a new Chinese-made circumcision device that was this week approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the ongoing global fight against HIV/AIDS.

The product brochure states: “Since 2006, the ShangRing has been safely used to circumcise over 600,000 male adults, adolescents and young boys in both China and Africa.”

The WHO, whose ‘prequalification’ of the product effectively gives the green light to international organisations to use it, says that circumcision can reduce the risk of HIV infection in men by 60 percent.

The device uses two concentric rings that clamp together to remove the foreskin with “minimal bleeding”. The brochure does not explain why the average adult male would choose to put themselves through this procedure.

As the Wall Street Journal reports: “It’s unclear how widely used the newly green-lighted Chinese products will be. Elected adult circumcision, though it may prevent the spread of disease, is rare due to cultural norms and fear of pain, health experts say.”

Even the device’s inventor Shang Jianzhong did not part with his foreskin voluntarily, but had to have it removed because of an illness.

The China Daily reports: “Shang always laughs when he recalls the circumcision he had 13 years ago to treat an ailment, but the 60-year-old’s experience was far from humorous.”

Traditionally, circumcision is not commonly practiced in China, so this is a product that may not be flying off the shelves, within its borders at least.

Rampant fraud at medical schools leaves Indian healthcare in crisis

MEDICAL MAYHEM: India has been rocked by a series of recent medical scandals. These women underwent sterilization surgery last November at a government-run camp where a doctor operated on 83 patients in less than three hours; at least a dozen died. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee

• By Andrew MacAskill, Steve Stecklow and Sanjeev Miglani-Filed June 16, 2015

Patients pretending they are sick and doctors posing as faculty members are routine. The ramifications of India’s broken medical-education system are being felt beyond the country’s borders.

MUZAFFARNAGAR, India – Last December, Dilshad Chaudhry travelled with about 100 of his fellow villagers by bus to a local Indian medical-school hospital. They’d been told that foreign doctors were coming to tour the facility, and check-ups would be free.

Video: India’s chronic shortage of doctors

Rampant Fraud at Medical Schools Leaves Indian Healthcare in Crisis by Thavam Ratna

800 years of the Magna Carta and Human Rights today

• by Ruki 
• - on 06/17/2015 

To me, the essence of Magna Carta is limiting the sovereignty and powers of the rulers (King at that time) and moving towards reaffirmation of sovereignty and freedoms of the people. It is about rule of law, due process and equality of everyone before the law. This is particularly relevant to us in Sri Lanka today, as it was early this year, that we as Sri Lankan people, expressed our resistance to tyranny of one ruler (and his family) and reaffirmed our faith in rule of law and due process. But like the Magna Carta, our victory is far from being complete.

Magna Carta was not a gift from an oppressive ruler, but a result of a resistance by persons who felt victimized by what they perceived as unjust rule. There have been other attempts to limit powers of rulers before the Magna Carta. But the Magna Carta has caught the imagination of those within and outside the UK, even till today. It was not just one document, but a process, during which the agreement that was Magna Carta was withdrawn, discarded, openly flouted and fresh attempts made to revise and resurrect it. There would have been compromises as to the contents. This process is also part of the spirit of the Magna Carta.

At that time, the Magna Carta would have been revolutionary, with clauses such as “no free man shall be seized or imprisoned…except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land”. But it was was far from being perfect, with key clauses referring to “free men”, and restricting freedoms to women and peasants. It didn’t appear to have covered freedom of expression and religion.

Today, the spirit of the Magna Carta has gone beyond the shores of UK and found its way into modern day domestic and international human rights law, which has sought to affirm rights of all persons and communities. States have agreed on limits of state sovereignty to some extent through international human rights treaties and declarations, and mechanisms to monitor and report on implementation. International human rights treaties are perhaps advanced versions of Magna Carta, where rulers have agreed what they should do and not do to people within their territories, whether their own citizens or non citizens.

Magna Carta would have been an irritant to rulers of that day, likewise, human rights appears to be an irritant to rulers today. This is probably why, as we try celebrate the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, governments openly flout their legal, political and moral commitments and agreements towards human rights. At the domestic level and also international level. Today, I read that President Basheer of Sudan was allowed to leave South Africa, avoiding arrest for mass atrocities. The South African government appeared to have turned its back on its legal and moral obligations to execute the arrest warrant on Basheer from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which it’s own courts ruled was binding on them to implement. Also this morning, a British friend expressed fear about withdrawal of the British Human Rights Act, and UK’s potential withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights, despite these having been a bulwark that has helped many victims of violations to seek redress. For example, this was the framework which had enabled the House of Lords to rule that the indefinite detention of foreign nationals was unlawful.

These are ominous signs to continue the spirit of the Magna Carta. We should be careful about romanticizing the Magna Carta, which is a historical document and process, not a preventive or redress mechanism for victims of violations today. So today, we should look at the Magna Carta critically, recognize its limits, and focus on asserting its empowering and liberating spirit through a contemporary human rights culture. This includes legal and institutional frameworks at domestic and international level, with strong enforcement mechanisms. And importantly, a spirit of public outrage and resistance to tyranny of the powerful, whether it’s dictatorial and corrupt political leaders, brutal militant groups or exploitative economic forces.

(This is the unedited version of a blog post written by the author on request of the Deputy British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, for her blog. An edited version was published here.)

The 19A: Centrepiece Of Good Governance

By Jayantha Dhanapala –June 17, 2015 

Distinguished members of the Diplomatic Corps, Ladies & Gentlemen,

On behalf of His Excellency Maitripala Sirisena and my colleagues in the Presidential Secretariat, I have great pleasure in warmly welcoming you to this afternoon’s briefing on the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka. It is just over a month since this important Constitutional amendment was formally certified by the Speaker of our Parliament although it was passed on 28 April. In a 225-member legislature this revolutionary piece of reform was adopted with 212 voting in favor, one against, one abstaining and 10 being absent. We undertake this task out of a conviction that the significance of the amendment should be conveyed to you in the context of the revitalization of democracy in Sri Lanka since the Presidential Election of January 8th this year.

My colleagues and I will describe the Amendment from different perspectives all of which is intended to accomplish a task of transparency fulfilling the obligation to acquaint the international community – of which Sri Lanka is a responsible member – of a fundamental change in our system of governance and in our constitutional architecture. We are in our 60th year as a member of the United Nations Organization and a founder member of the Non-Aligned Movement apart from being a member of a number of international and regional organizations with their interlocking obligations to a shared set of universal values. The adoption of the 19th Amendment is thus symbolic of Sri Lanka’s re-integration with the mainstream of democratic countries reaffirming the sovereignty of Parliament and complying with the Latimer House Principles of the Commonwealth at a time when, appropriately, Sri Lanka holds the Chair of the Commonwealth.           Read More

Date of no confidence motion against Ravi confirmed: will parliament be dissolved before that ?

(Lanka-e-News- 17.June.2015, 7.30PM) The date for the debate on the no confidence motion that is being brought forward by a majority of UPFA  M.P.s against finance minister Ravi Karunanayake has been fixed for  6 th  of July .If the no confidence motion is taken for debate on that day , because the UPFA wields the majority , the government can be defeated without doubt. If that happens , the minority party the UNP will not be able carry on the government. In the circumstances , if the government is to be saved , what t president Maithripala can do is dissolve parliament ahead of 6 th July. 

The proposed no confidence motion steered by  the UPFA rogues and rascals who were booted out  by the people on the 8 th of January by ballot  has driven president Maithripala into a deep quandary.

Though   president Sirisena the ‘gentleman’ is opposed to no confidence motions, the ‘thieves on behalf of thieves’ team of the UPFA of which he is the leader ,is   bringing forward no confidence motions unrelentingly , which implies that despite the fact that Maithripala Sirisena is the leader of the SLFP and UPFA , he is a mere figurehead , and has no control over them.

It is significant to note that  even after  the UNP has made an official request three days ago  to the president to dissolve parliament , Sirisena has not made an official statement in that regard until now , implying that he is not ready to dissolve parliament right now. This attitude only creates the impression in the minds of the people that Sirisena  and none else is behind the no confidence motion that is being steered forward by the ‘thieves on behalf of  thieves’ team. 

The people are also compelled to draw the reasonable inference that Maithripala Sirisena is hand in glove with the ‘thieves on behalf of thieves’ team after having wickedly  forgotten that it is the UNP party members who made supreme sacrifices even risking their lives to make Maithripala the president of the country. 

It is also the consensus among the people that by appointing ex premier Dimu Jayaratne who placed the first signature for the attempted  no confidence motion against the prime minister , as president’s advisor after a few days , Sirisena has proved that it is he who was behind that no confidence motion.

Miathripala Sirisena who came to power on the blood, sweat and toils of the main opposition UNP force ,  after becoming president  and taking over the leadership of the defeated SLFP (the main party of the UPFA)  is even at the moment brazenly,  blatantly and iniquitously  engaged in activities that are most hostile and hurtful to the force that moved heaven and earth to install him in power by  working indefatigably day and night. Sirisena is now after abandoning his solemn promises to the people and instead of resolving their  burning issues is toiling day and night only to install a UPFA government in power.

Any politician wants to be the leader of the party in order to finally become the leader of the country, and not for any other reason. Hence it is being justifiably questioned by the masses , for what other maniacal reason did Maithripala after becoming the leader of the country , the highest in the hierarchy at a time when he was not  a party leader,  grab again the leadership of the party afterwards? .

It is no issue if that is the  party which served as the launch pad for Maithripala to come to power .On the contrary that is a party that was earnestly awaiting to bury Maithripala and his family six feet under ground .Hence, taking over a leadership of such a party subsequently , and seeking to betray and play false the main force that elevated him to the present position of country’s president is unpardonable and unconscionable  unless Sirisena the ‘genetleman’ has gone  raving mad owing to his unjustifiable ingratitude  and loss of equilibrium on the side of sane and sensible thinking. 

When Maithripala addressed the nation at Dalada Maligawa , Kandy after becoming the president he loudly exhorted , ‘get accustomed to riddance’. But afterwards when he began  grabbing  the leadership of the party  discarded by the people , is he ‘getting accustomed  to grabbing’ instead , the very  masses are questioning.

Maithripala Sirisena the ‘gentleman’ on SLFP platforms made loud announcements that he did not enter into any pact with the UNP ,only to please and bolster the spirit of the SLFP ers while not realizing he was simultaneously and shamelessly defecating on the graves of the two UNP members who sacrificed their lives for him during  the presidential elections .

With the attempted no confidence motions against the prime minister and the finance minister , Sirisena the ‘gentleman’ has made a betrayal of his so called  policies. The masses are therefore compelled to remind him ,”Maithri the gentleman , either be Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde, don’t  be both . If it is ‘no confidence’ it should be ‘no confidence.’ If it is ‘confidence’ it should be ‘confidence’ .You cannot mix up both , please understand it . Either be a friend or an enemy. Being both is sheer hypocrisy.”
   
Maithripala Sirisena by now must understand, his true face even if it is  hideous cannot be masked any longer and hidden from the masses. Please therefore honorably dissolve parliament before the masses take to the streets .Otherwise you may have to dissolve it amidst great humiliation and disgrace. 

Leaders who relied on lip service and hypocrisy alone to succeed have bitten the dust .No matter how friendly you are with ‘Mr.  procrastination’ and using him  to serve your fell foul agendas , please take note that the masses who defeated  the den of thieves, of  which group you are now the leader are certainly going to throw  them out lock, stock and barrel again for sure.

The people’s revolution of 8 th January cannot be reversed however hard anyone may try against it. 

By Wimal Dheerasekera 
Translated by Jeff

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by     (2015-06-17 14:33:45)