Syria: Assad casts doubt on anti-Islamic State coalition

WEDNESDAY 26 AUGUST 2015
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says he would consider a coalition against Islamic State, but this would be unlikely to include those backing rebel groups in his country.

Russia, an Assad ally, has proposed that Syria joins Arab countries that support rebels fighting against his rule in an effort to defeat IS, which controls vast swathes of Syria and Iraq.

In an interview broadcast on Tuesday, Assad said the Syrian government would not reject an alliance, though it made no sense that states which backed "terrorism" would now fight "terrorism". He was referring to countries, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which have supported insurgent groups hoping to topple him.

President Assad told the Lebanese TV station Al-Manar, which is controlled by his Hezbollah allies: "A small possibility remains that these states decided to repent, or realised they were moving in the wrong direction, or maybe for reasons of pure self-interest they got worried that this terrorism is heading towards their countries and so they decided to combat terrorism.

"We have no objection. The important thing is to be able to form an alliance to fight terrorism."

250,000 deaths

Syria's four-year civil war has resulted in an estimated 250,000 deaths and shattered the country. It has also led to an exodus of people to neighbouring countries, with many making their way to Europe to escape the violence.

Saudi Arabia has ruled out any coalition with Assad, blaming him for the rise of IS and calling for his removal from power.

Support from Russia, Iran and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah has been vital to Assad during the conflict.

In his interview, President Assad said he was confident Russia and Iran would continue to back him, despite Barack Obama's recent comment that both countries recognise his regime is under threat.

The west's nuclear deal with Iran in July has been followed by diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the conflict in Syria.

After deal, North and South Korea try to work together — but for how long?

South Korean soldiers patrol along the coast of the western island of Yeonpyeong, South Korea, which borders North Korea, early Aug. 26, 2015. The South Korean military has reduced its military alert position since North Korea lifted the quasi-war state of its armed forces following the two Koreas' agreement the previous day on defusing tensions after four days of intensive inter-Korean talks. EPA/YONHAP (Yonhap/EPA)

By Anna Fifield-August 26

SEOUL — When you have an alcoholic in the family, South Korean President Park Geun-hye recently told advisers, you can hide all the bottles and take him to rehab. But you can’t make him quit until he is ready to quit.

Here, the alcoholic in the family is Kim Jong Un.

After Deal, North and South Korea Try to Work Together — but for How Long by Thavam Ratna

Serbia and Kosovo in cooperation deal

EU announces step towards normality in relationship that has remained volatile since war that was followed by majority ethnic Albanian region breaking away

 Federica Mogherini announced a ‘landmark’ deal between Serbia and Kosovo. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet/EPA

Agence France-Presse in Brussels-Wednesday 26 August 2015

Serbia and Kosovo have reached a “landmark” agreement in several key areas, according to the EU, in a major step towards normalising ties after their war in the 1990s and Pristina’s eventual unilateral declaration of independence.

Prime ministers Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia and Isa Mustafa of Kosovo struck a deal in areas including energy and telecommunications, said European Union policy chief Federica Mogherini, who is brokering the talks.

“Today’s outcome represents landmark achievements in the normalisation process,” said Mogherini, a former Italian foreign minister.

“Solutions such as those found today bring concrete benefits to the people and at the same time enable the two sides to advance on their European path.”

The agreement comes two days before a major summit grouping leaders of western Balkan nations and Mogherini, amid concerns over a huge flow of migrants through the region, and also over Russian influence.

 US soldiers from the Nato peacekeeping mission in Kfor, which has remained in Kosovo since 1999. Photograph: Armend Nimani/AFP/Getty

Serbia and Kosovo have been at odds over Pristina’s 2008 unilateral declaration of independence. Belgrade has refused to join the United States and most of the EU in recognising Kosovo as an independent state.

The 1998-1999 Kosovo war ended when Serbian armed forces withdrew from the territory following an 11-week Nato bombing campaign.

In 2013 Pristina and Belgrade signed an EU-brokered agreement to normalise ties which enabled Belgrade to start EU accession talks a year later.

The agreement on Tuesday involves setting up a judicial structure in northern Kosovo acceptable to both the minority ethnic Serbs and majority Kosovars, who are ethnic Albanians, the EU said.

It also includes energy matters and a plan to boost Kosovo’s telecommunications system. The deal further covers use of the disputed Mitrovica Bridge.

11 Home Remedies For Your Varicose veins

 February 3, 2015

Varicose veins are not only disgusting to watch, but they can also be very painful. It is the women who are often seen with these dilated veins, even though men can suffer from these too. When you have varicose veins, it means that blood circulation is hampered, causing the veins to get clogged. Varicose veins are more than just a cosmetic problem and while some people turn to surgery to treat them, there are self – care measures that you can try to eliminate the problem.

Chili Pepper

Chili peppers contain properties that can be helpful in decongesting your clogged veins. In return blood circulation is improved. Many specialists to their patients with varicose veins actually recommend the consumption of chili peppers.

Garlic

You can use garlic as a substitute, if you are not a big fan of chili peppers. Garlic can help reduce the inflammation brought about by poor blood circulation in your veins. Many experts advise patients that if they cannot consume garlic to at least insert it into their daily diet. You can use it as a cream, if you are still not used to eating garlic. Add a bit of alcohol and mince some garlic cloves. Apply the solution four times a week on your veiny legs.

Apple Cider Vinegar

In order to reduce the inflammation, you don’t have to consume apple cider vinegar. All you have to do is to moisten a clean cloth or a towel with this vinegar and place it on top of your varicose veins. For a few minutes, leave the cloth there. You can also massage the areas, but start from the bottom part and move your way upward. Make sure that you’re not applying too much pressure, when you massage the affected areas.

Aloe Vera

Aloe Vera has a cooling effect, which is known to relieve people from pain. The hot version though can be used to treat your varicose veins. Apply the gel to the veiny areas and leave them to stay overnight.

Treatment Recipes

You can also make your own recipe or you can follow these two recipes for varicose veins treatment:

1. Leafy Recipe: You need chamomile leaves, laurel, two liters of water and mint. Boil these ingredients and let them steep up for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes the solution can be applied on your varicose veins. You can also put the solution in a tub or basin where you can easily soak your feet. If you add sodium bicarbonate it becomes even more powerful. Be warned though that this recipe can cause urticarial in some patients.
2. Creamy Recipe: Have Aloe Vera gel ready along with carrots and apple cider vinegar. Put these three in a food processor or a blender and mix them until you see you have created a thick homogenous paste. Apply the paste for about 30 minutes and rinse it off with cold water after.

Other Solutions

Here are more home remedies you can use to treat varicose veins:

1. Essential Oils: Use essential oils when massaging your legs that have varicose veins. Make sure that you start with your feet and move upward instead of the other way around. Always be gentle and move in a circular way. It is recommended that you massage yourself at night before you sleep.
2. Green Clay Ointment: Prepare a paste or ointment using green clay and mix it with a bit of water. When ready, apply the ointment to your legs or feet and leave it there overnight. You can wash it in the morning with warm water and unscented soap.
3. Chestnut Bark Tea: Boil 50 grams of chestnut bark for about 10 minutes to make a tea in one liter of water. Drink the hot tea, which helps reduce swelling.
4. Immersion Baths: Relax in a tub with water, sea salt, one cup of apple cider vinegar, and of course. Soak your legs in the tub, and keep them soaked for about 20 minutes. While you are doing this remedy, you can massage your legs.
5. At the end, be sure that you are eating a balanced diet. Many people who are overweight or obese get varicose veins. You can prevent this by eating lean protein, such as fruits, healthy foods and. vegetables.

Litmus Test

 24 August 2015

With the conclusion of Sri Lanka's parliamentary elections last week, the island has reached an important juncture. In the North-East, the Tamil National Alliance swept the polls on a clear platform of self-determination through federalism and an international mechanism of accountability for the massacres of Tamils. In the Sinhala south, the UNP promise of a future without the corruption of the Mahinda Rajapaksa era, secured enough seats to confine the former president to the opposition benches.

The southern electorate has endorsed the UNP’s offer of a commitment to ending nepotism, tackling corruption and embracing the rule of law. Pledges to implement such democratic reform across the island are undoubtedly welcome. However, on issues that the Tamils have deemed central - such as demilitarisation of the Tamil North-East, international accountability for mass atrocities and a durable political solution - there was little to differentiate between the resistant policies of the UNP and Rajapaksa’s UPFA. Indeed, as campaigning reached fever pitch, parties across the Sinhala political spectrumemphasised their opposition to key Tamil demands, and outbid each other's Buddhist nationalist credentials. The UNP, whose government oversaw the massacre of over 3000 Tamils during the 1983 pogrom, repeatedly emphasised Sinhala Buddhism nationalist sentiments that are at odds with its proclaimed liberalism. Thus, as with President Sirisena’s victory in January, the UNP’s victory was not the Sinhala electorate rejecting Rajapaksa’s Sinhala supremacism or his refusal to entertain Tamil grievances, but a distaste for the culture of corruption and nepotism that had become pervasive under his rule. That Rajapaksa's campaign had an appeal that ultimately won him and his allies enough parliamentary seats to deny the UNP a simple majority, is an affirmation of the sway that his distinctive brand of nationalist authoritarianism still holds across the south.

In the North-East, Tamils decisively backed the TNA platform, with its promise of immediate action and tangible results on Tamil demands, including a federal solution by 2016. Through its legacy, the Tamil National Alliance is inextricably linked to Tamil nationalism. The party’s leaders are well aware of this and, as they have done in all past electoral campaigns, emphatically foregrounded fundamental issues of nationhood, homeland and self-determination, knowing the centrality of these to popular Tamil sentiment. Indeed, the TNA’s advocacy for a federal solution echoes the same call by the TNPF, a party that doggedly advocated for the recognition of the Tamil nation, recently articulated in the slogan ‘two sovereign nations in one country’. As the successful campaign of even the UNP’s candidate in Jaffna demonstrated, only a Tamil nationalist platform can hold mass appeal in the North-East.

It now beholds the TNA to honour the overwhelming support and trust placed in the party by the Tamil people.  TNA leader Sampanthan’s pledge to uphold the people's mandate for a political solution and address their immediate needs without any delay must be swiftly followed through. Moreover, it is now an opportune moment for the TNA to embrace the island-wide yearning for good governance and seek those qualities within its own party. The party should work to be transparent in all its dealings, especially on such key issues such as accountability and a political solution.

In order to see long term stability on the island the international community will, as ever, play a key role. Despite some reforms enacted by the government, which have been welcomed by many, outstanding immediate issues such as demilitarisation of the North-East, resettlement in original homes, the indefinite detention of political prisoners and accountability for the disappeared in the North-East, are barriers to the hope of reconciliation. Whilst the UNP-led government is an improvement from Rajapaksa’s rule, through its active engagement with Sri Lanka the international community must ensure that the new government does not follow Sri Lanka’s succession of governments that have a long history of broken promises. Indeed, Sri Lanka’s new leaders already boast that, Rajapaksa’s removal alone suffices for trade preferences to be restored and cordial relations with its international partners - despite reports of ongoing rights abuses and continuation of militarised repressive policies in the North-East. International engagement going forward should be conditional on progress on these key issues which are central to producing lasting and equitable peace and stability in the island.

Ultimately however, accountability for the mass atrocities of 2009, will remain at the core of fulfilling any hope of a sustainable future for the island. How the new Sri Lankan government responds to the upcoming United Nations report into mass atrocities committed during the final stages of the armed conflict, will be the true litmus test of its liberal credentials. The report, which is expected to state tens of thousands of Tamils died predominantly at the hands of state forces, must be accepted in its entirety and an international mechanism with prosecutions, as clearly espoused for by the victims must be pursued. Neither Sri Lanka’s ongoing ethnic conflict nor the long standing impunity, can be tackled whilst such egregious crimes, for which Sri Lanka’s apex political and military leaders hold command responsibility, remain unpunished. The next few weeks will make amply clear if the promise of a different Sri Lanka without Rajapaksa in power has any justification.

Missing Persons Commission: Second Interim Report to MS on Friday

( Waiting for justice: Family members of missing Tamils speaking at a UNHRC side event)

25/08/2015

The second interim report of the Presidential Commission to Inquire into Complaints on Missing Persons will be handed over to President Maithripala Sirisena on Friday, by Commission Chairman Maxwel Paranagama.

Meanwhile, a highly placed diplomatic source told Daily Mirror the government should present the Paranagama Commission report in Geneva to counter the allegations levelled at the Sri Lanka government and the armed forces personnel by pro-LTTE groups.

Mr. Paranagama said the first interim report was handed over to the President on April, 10 and that the government had taken steps to implement its recommendations.

The three-member Commission appointed by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa on August 15, 2013 was mandated to Inquire into Complaints on Missing Persons and ascertain their fate, responsibility and whereabouts from 1983 to May 2009 and to ascertain the crimes allegedly committed during the last stages of the war with a view to accountability and responsibility.

“We handed over the First Mandated Interim Report in April and the Second Mandated Interim Report will be handed over to President Sirisena on Friday. It will mainly deal with the issues of the violation of the International Humanitarian Law or War Crimes allegedly committed by both parties and the recommendations to prevent a repetition,” Mr. Paranagama said.

For the second mandate the Commission was advised by a panel of foreign experts including Sir Desmond De Silva.

However, it is learnt that certain groups had petitioned President Sirisena against Sir Desmond De Silva to discredit him and the Paranagama Commission.

The Commission conducted public sittings in Kilinochchi (twice), Jaffna, Mullaitivu (twice), Batticaloa (twice), Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee (twice) and Ampara. The Commission had received in excess of 20,106 complaints inclusive of about 5,200 complaints from the relatives of missing security forces personnel.

The Commission had heard oral evidence on nearly 1,440 complainants during public sittings in Northern and Eastern provinces.

Mr. Paranagama said the suspects named before the Commission during the public hearings had been referred to the Attorney General for appropriate action.

The Commission has said that at least four different groups including Sri Lanka’s security forces and the LTTE were responsible for the disappearances of hundreds of persons during the war against the rebel group.

The interim report reveals that the LTTE was responsible for 60% of the forced disappearances in the North while the security forces were responsible for 30%. Other armed groups had been responsible for the rest.

“Based on the inquiries conducted thus far, accountability and responsibility by these parties vary from district to district,” the report said.

The evidence on these complainants were analyzed for further investigations through an independent investigative team. On reported cases of disappearances and abductions by security forces, the Commission has reported them to the attorney general for appropriate action.

Other members of the Commission are D.B.P. Suranjan Vidyaratne and Mano Ramanathan. (Sandun A Jayasekera)
– DM

US pledges support for Sri Lanka


2015-08-25
The United States today pledged to support Sri Lanka in its endeavor to bring about reconciliation, uphold democracy and the rule of law as long Sri Lanka continued to take courageous and positive decisions on these matters.

This commitment was given by the high-powered US state delegation led Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Nisha Biswal and Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, Tom Malinowski after meeting Sri Lanka’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera and Justice Minister Wiedasa Rajapakshe this morning.

Ms. Biswal said the US had already informed it would provide one million US$ as assistance for education and resettlement in Sampur.(Yohan Perera and Darshana Sanjeewa) - See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/84807/us-pledges-support-for-sri-lanka#sthash.D9xyqr5A.dpuf

Sri Lanka’s Pipe Dream

By M H M Faizer –August 26, 2015 

M.H.M Faizer

When JRJ swept into power he had a vision for Sri Lanka – a liberalized economy. To a great extent this dream was converted into a reality. Similarly Premadasa’s ‘Village Awakening’ program was realized to a good extent too! MR‘s determination to Liberalize Sri Lanka was well accomplished! When MS took over there was no such proclamation – and hence no dramatic performance – fair enough since an impending general election was anticipated in the next three months to follow after his win. The subsequent general election was won by the ruling party and the ruling party have just announced its intention of governing the affairs of the Country through a so called National Government – an arrangement where the Government will join hand with the opposition parties in running the country.

Whether a National Government or any other form ,the Government must announce its core vision – like Economic Liberalization of JR, Village Awakening from Premadasa and Peace thru War by MR.

The second mistake has already happened – the Jumbo size Cabinet of almost 50 Ministers!! In addition there will be State/Junior Ministers as well! India with 1.2 billion population has only around 27 Union Cabinet Ministers , 13 Independent State Ministers and 26 State ministers (Junior Ministers).The ratio of Cabinet ministers to population in India is around 1:48 million – that is, there is one Union Cabinet Minister for every 48 million people. Given Sri Lanka’s population and already announced number of Cabinet Ministers the ratio is expected to be around 1:1/2 million, that is, there is one Cabinet Minister for every half a million people. Statistically speaking, our cabinet is 96 times oversize vis a vis India in terms of the population parameter. A critic may calculate these ratios for countries like Singapore ( 19 Cabinet Ministers for a population of 5.5 million) and Maldives ( 18 Cabinet Ministers for a population of just 4 lacs ) and argue that Sri Lanka is in a favorable situation. This is not an argument since any country will need a critical minimum number to cover the basic subjects such as Finance, Defence, Education etc. What should be avoided is to create Ministers and Ministries for the sake of keeping a member happy and under control. For example we have even had Ministers for Sugar and Botanical gardens in the recent past.                                      Read More

UNP, SLFP at odds over media ministry! 

Aug 24, 2015

The UNP and the SLFP are at odds over the media ministry in the appointment of the cabinet, reliable sources say. There is confusion after president Maithripala Sirisena laid down an unexpected condition that the ministry should remain under the SLFP.

There had been plans to bring the media ministry under Galle district UNP MP Gayantha Karunatilake, who was the subject minister during the 100 day period, but the president’s condition has created trouble.

The sources said it was Sirasa Media Network’s owner Killi Maharaja who had pressurized to keep the media ministry under the SLFP. His intention is to get his henchmen appointed to all key positions in the ministry and exert pressure against the UNP. As all his plans have come to nothing, he wants to grab hold of the media ministry at least in order to destroy Ranil Wickremesinghe.

A similar chaotic situation has arisen with regard to the education ministry. Await details…

Fuss over National Lists warranted or not?

Tuesday, 25 August 2015

An unnecessary fuss is being made about the National List. Hopefully, the evidence presented below will reduce the temperature a little.
Article 99A of the Constitution clearly permits what all three parties have done: appoint defeated candidates who were included in the nomination papers for districts but were not included in the National List nominations.
When the fuss started, some objected to appointments outside the list even without bothering to read the relevant Constitutional provision. When Article 99A was brought to their attention, they said it’s unethical and should not be done.
Where were these protests when the UPFA, then headed by Chandrika Kumaratunga appointed Mervyn de Silva, a defeated candidate, through the National List in 2004? The CPA was unsuccessful when it went to court to challenge the appointment of Ratnasiri Wickramanayake, who was neither a defeated candidate nor a member of the National List that was submitted on nomination day. I can’t recall this kind of fuss being made over that patently unlawful act.
On the specific issue of appointing defeated candidates through the National List mechanism, it is clear that the Constitution permits it and that there is precedent. Those who protest overmuch appear to ignore the simple fact that the National List and district nominations all came from the same source on the same day. Sri Lankan political parties lack inner-party democracy, so they are equally legitimate or equally illegitimate.
There seems to be a strong belief among the critics that parties and party leaders should have no role whatsoever in deciding who gets to sit in Parliament. This has little basis in the actual practice of democracy in the real world.
From 1960 to 1965 Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister was Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who did not face the hustings until 1970. She appointed herself to the Senate and along with several other members of that appointed body (Sam P.C. Fernando, A.P. Jayasuriya, M.P. de Z. Siriwardene) ruled the country. Dr Manmohan Singh who was India’s Prime Minister from 2004 to 2014 had never been elected by the people. He was a member of the appointed Rajya Sabha.
More recently, Arun Jaitley was the BJP’s candidate for Amritsar. He was defeated in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. But Prime Minister Modi considered him a key member of his governing team. He was appointed to the Rajya Sabha. As a Rajya Sabha member he was appointed as Minister of Finance (and as Minister of Defence at the outset).
Perhaps the critics want examples from the West. The entire Cabinet of the United States government is unelected. The UK has an unelected House of Lords from which Cabinet members can be drawn. In addition, there are constituencies in the UK that are so loyal to specific political parties that being given the nomination from such an electorate is the same as being elected to Parliament (Colombo West and Attanagalle were equivalents in Sri Lanka when we had first-past-the-post elections).
In all these cases, the political party decides who gets into Parliament outside the direct electoral process. Indirectly, the appointments derive their legitimacy from each party’s electoral mandate.
If all who serve in Parliament are appointed by political parties, there would be a problem. The 1978 Constitution in its original form gave too much power to political parties. The individuals they placed at the top of the district lists were guaranteed to enter Parliament. 
That was remedied by the introduction of the now discredited preferential voting system. But to have every single person in Parliament elected takes away too much power from political parties. That was probably why the 14th Amendment also introduced the national list, Sri Lanka’s equivalent of the House of Lords or the Rajya Sabha that would allow the ruling party to assemble the right kind of Cabinet and the opposition to assemble the appropriate front bench.
Governing is about compromise. It is about balance. The shrill and uninformed opposition to the UPFA, UNF and JVP appointing some candidates who had not, like Arun Jaitley, succeeded in winning through the hustings is unfair and irrational. It is time the critics let those with the electoral mandates get on with the business of governing.

Hon. Karuna Amman – The One Even Above The God

By V. Kanthaiya –August 25, 2015

“The fate of Premini was terrible. The dusky woman with attractive features was taken to another camp and raped first by Sinthujan himself. Thereafter it was a horrible gang rape with TMVP cadres taking turns to sexually assault her. Fourteen cadres raped the poor girl. Premini was heard to shout and cry at the start. Later she merely sobbed and whimpered. Premini was taken out before dawn by TMVP cadres to the jungles. She walked without crying or showing signs of emotion said one ex – TMVP cadre. She was apparently hacked to death and thrown into the bushes.” – First Anniversary: The tragic fate of TRO employees abducted by Karuna cadres, by D.B.S. Jeyaraj, 4 February 2007.[i]

I know a mother whose son went missing. She is from Neerveli, Jaffna. The pain is gruesome. It is not something like your loved one getting killed, where you have no choice but to accept the reality and come over the grief and move on. But having someone from your family missing (enforced) is terrible. It just leaves you some questions. First whether your loved one is alive or not? If alive, where is he/she? Is he/she being treated well or being tortured? To whom you should complain to get him/her back? In an enforced disappearance, it is not only the victim who suffer, but also the entire family.

The mother I met was struggling with the uncertain reality. She still believes that her son should be alive somewhere in this country as the dozens of astrologers she had sought advice told her that her son is still alive somewhere in the southward direction from her home. That’s the only hope she has got and that’s the only thing which still drives her in her search for the missing son. Every time the phone rings, she said, she hopes it is from her son or someone who knows about her son’s fate. It is over five years since her son went missing. There are thousands of mothers like her in our country.

An interesting fact in all or most of the enforced disappearances is that the victims’ relatives know who the captors were. They can identify whether it is the police or the military or the Karuna Group or the EPDP or theLTTE. And most of the times, they know which camp the captors came from, sometimes they know the individuals involved in the enforced disappearances. However, so far not a single suspect of enforced disappearance was brought to book, needless to say about how many were punished by the court of law. So many mothers have openly complained to the LLRC and the president’s Commission investigating the enforced disappearances that their sons were abducted by Karuna Group.[ii]

Well! Leave the security forces of this country. They are above the law and can never be punished for their crimes. But why the legal system of this country could not take any action against the paramilitaries for their crimes against Sri Lankan citizens and the humanity as a whole? Is it because these murderers did not leave any trace of their barbaric acts? In fact, most of the abductions by Karuna Group were done in broad daylight, in public places. In an instant, they stopped a bus and pulled out their victim and assaulted his mother who tried to save her son. [iii]

So, is it because these criminals are on the run and have hidden somewhere? No. They live right here, right in front of us, with their families. Not only that, they laugh, they dance and appear on TV shows and speak about how they helped to win the war and eradicate terrorism in this country, and of course, despite the number of abductions, murders, rapes, and extortions they have done they are called ‘Honourable’.

In November 2013 (for the CHOGM), Mr. Rauff Hakeem made a comment to the press about Karuna which is as follows;

‘Karuna’s presence here is symbolic, for it provides some idea about the LTTE fighting cadres’ willingness to embrace peace’[iv]

Read More

SLMC entered parliament through UNP

Unfortunate liability on the community

By Latheef Farook-August 25, 2015

The 17 August 2015 parliamentary elections brought Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, SLMC, and its more than half a dozen splinter groups to the end of the road as most of them entered parliament through UNP  Muslim votes. This happened more than a quarter century of SLMC’s wheeler dealer politics of taking the community for ride with long list of lies, deception and hypocrisy for positions and perks.

SLMC Entered Parliament Through UNP by Thavam Ratna

Lucky rejects

Editorial-August 24, 2015, 8:02 pm 

We withdraw two of the three hearty cheers we gave the UNP last week for its much-advertised decision against appointing defeated candidates as MPs though the National List (NL). Now, we learn that it, too, has smuggled into Parliament a political reject via the NL. Regrettably, that mistake is the proverbial smidgeon of cow dung in the UNP’s pot of milk!

However, what really takes the cake is the appointment of defeated UPFA candidates as NL MPs. They are the rejects of the rejected party! And, their appointment to Parliament cannot be countenanced on any grounds. Worse, they are going places at the expense of the eligible candidates on the UPFA NL.

During Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tenure as president, the then Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake used to raise the hackles of civil society outfits, especially women’s rights groups and trade unions. They accused him of riding roughshod over university teachers and students whom he called the names of various animals, insulting former President Chandrika Kumaratunga and mismanaging the seats of higher learning. They considered him a total misfit and the people rejected him on August 17. But, President Maithripala Sirisena has arbitrarily brought him in as an MP through the NL! Those who made a hue and cry about the way he behaved as a minister are now acting like the three proverbial monkeys; they hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil. Why don’t they demand to know whether President Sirisena believes that the likes of Dissanayake can help him with his yahapalana or good governance project better than the UPFA NL candidates such as D. E. W. Gunasekera and Prof. G. L Peiris?

Leader of the National Movement for Social Justice Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera and Head of the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections Keerthi Tennakoon have condemned the appointment of political rejects as MPs. But, they, too, have chosen to find fault with the Constitution which provides for such action rather than the persons responsible for making those despicable appointments. Both of them have called for rectifying the flaws in the Constitution as a solution. One is intrigued. What is constitutional is not necessarily ethical and/or moral as is common knowledge. When previous Presidents including Rajapaksa made use of the constitutional provisions that were antithetical to democracy the champions of good governance tore into them—and rightly so. Such undemocratic acts cost Rajapaksa dear politically.

But, when the incumbent President unflinchingly uses the draconian constitutional provisions to further his interests, the campaigners for good governance blame the Constitution and not him! They used to float like butterflies and sting like bees when Rajapaksa was at fault, but today they are floating like bees and stinging like butterflies, so to speak! Is it that they cannot bring themselves to inveigh against their heroes who have been found to have feet of clay?

Meanwhile, some UPFA activists have started dashing coconuts at devales in protest against the appointment of defeated candidates as NL MPs. They are wasting their time, energy and, above all, precious coconuts! The powers that be these protesters are seeking the intervention of local deities to tame, get protection from presumably more powerful gods in India. They visit the abodes of those deities from time to time and make valuable offerings. Therefore, the UPFA protesters ought to repose their faith in the Sri Lankan public and present their case to the latter in a convincing manner by flogging the issue hard if they want results. After all, God is said to help those who help themselves.

Lucky are the rejects who are in the good books of their political masters promoting good governance.

Welcome to Sri Lanka, a land like no other!