How a U.N. Drone Crashed in Congo and Was Promptly Forgotten

An FP special report from the front lines of the flailing U.N. effort to use drones to save lives in a war-ravaged stretch of eastern Africa.

BY SIOBHÁN O'GRADY-SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

NYIRAGONGO TERRITORY, Democratic Republic of the Congo — On a cloudy October morning last year, an unarmed United Nations drone on a surveillance mission over eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo crashed and burned in farmland just north of the city of Goma. Local residents quickly gathered at the crash site, where U.N. officials later retrieved some of the drone’s pieces, including its black box, radar, and camera system. But its engine and tail arm — clearly emblazoned with U.N. insignia — stayed in a resident’s home in the poor territory for months, and other debris remained untouched in a field whose owner could no longer afford to farm.

How a U.N. Drone Crashed in Congo and Was Promptly Forgotten by Thavam Ratna

Brotherhood delegation urges UN to push Egypt on human rights 

Members of the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing tell UN officials the human rights situation in Egypt 'has gone from bad to worse' 

Then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay spoke about Egypt in 2011 in Geneva (AFP) 

Sunday 13 September 2015

In a recent visit to state members of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, called on the UN to establish a commission of inquiry into Egypt’s human rights situation.

The delegation, which included representatives of the Egyptian Revolutionary Council (ERG) and a legal team of international lawyers, also submitted a 47-page report, prepared by the FJP’s legal representatives, ITN Solicitors, to member states and NGOs detailing recent human rights violations in Egypt.

“Our strategy is to ensure that everyone is aware of the humanitarian situation on the ground in Egypt, even if the Sisi regime turns a blind eye to the international community,” Yahya Hamed, a former minister of investment in the government of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, told Middle East Eye.

“We will continue to put pressure on the regime by disclosing to the world what his happening.”

The visit is a follow-up to the HRC's periodic review of Egypt’s human rights situation in November last year. The review is a tool which the UNHRC uses to assess the human rights records of all 193 UN member states every four years.

During the review in November, several global powers, including the US and the UK, strongly condemned Egypt's human rights record. 

"Steps taken by Egypt have resulted in violations of freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, deprived thousands of Egyptians of fair trial guarantees, and undermined civil society's role in the country," the US’s UN Human Rights Council representative, Keith Harper said at the time.

Egyptian officials at the review defended the country's record, insisting that the country had been abiding by the rule of law and international treaties despite wave of attacks on its security services. Ibrahim Heneidi, a politician who headed the delegation, said Egypt's new constitution, approved last year, was "a true victory for human rights and freedoms".

'Bad to worse'

The UN working group eventually gave the country 300 recommendations to improve its human rights record, including suggestions related to the country's controversial protest and NGO laws, media freedoms, freedom of association and the use of the death penalty.

This March, Egyptian officials accepted the majority of the UN recommendations, but rights groups said at the time that violations had only worsened.

The FJP delegation in Geneva last week agrees: The situation in Egypt, says the group's report, “has gone from bad to worse” since the review. 

ITN Solicitors detailed human rights violations by Egypt including the use of the death penalty, torture and forced disappearances, unfair trials, and the stifling of freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly.

The delegation held discussions with European, African and Asian member states of the UN Human Rights Council as well as various NGOs, Hamed said.

“Most delegations we engaged with understand the risk Egypt and the rest of the region are facing under the current Egyptian regime. This was not under negotiation; it is widely understood and accepted,” he said.

Egypt has a long history of human rights abuses, many of which are seen to have been key grievances behind the popular protests that succeeded in removing president Hosni Mubarak in January 2011 after more than 30 years in power.

While periodic human rights abuses continued, Egypt enjoyed a relative period of improvement following Mubarak’s fall and leading into Morsi’s election in June 2012. Morsi has himself been criticised for trying to crack down on rights and freedoms, but Human Rights Watch has documented what it describes as a serious increase in violations since he was forced from power last July.

Since his overthrow, Egypt has undergone the “most dramatic reversal of human rights” in the country’s history, HRW said in 2014 when the organisation released detailing the involvement and responsibility of Sisi, along with Minister of Interior Mohamed Ibrahim and the head of police special forces in the mass killing of protesters in Egypt during July and August 2013.

The product of a year-long investigation, the report called for the matter to be investigated by the UN, as well by as the Egyptian authorities, and urged that those responsible face justice.

Sisi's anticipated visit to British Prime Minister David Cameron has allegedly been delayed because of security reasons. Senior Egyptian officials could face arrest for crimes against humanity if they take up a UK government invitation to come to London, human rights lawyers told the Guardian on 13 August. 

- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egyptian-delegation-visits-un-body-discuss-human-rights-situation-928586375#sthash.UEoE4fUz.dpuf

Muslim Migrants: A Blowback & Shame

By Ameer Ali –September 12, 2015

Dr. Ameer Ali

With hundreds of thousands so far, of Syrians, Libyans, Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, flocking into Europe in waves, the receiving countries are caught in a painful dilemma. While natural feelings of human compassion and love compel them to accommodate as many migrants as possible and cater to their immediate needs the host nations are also facing on the other hand the prospect of a political backlash from ultra-nationalists and xenophobic extremists. Using rising resource-cost as a possible argument there may be ceilings placed on the volume of intake. Such limitations though understandable will not close the door for illegal human traffickers.

In spite of this dilemma Europe should face the undeniable truth, i.e., these immigrant waves are a blowback for Europe’s via NATO’s collusion with the American super power to invade, bomb and destroy parts of the Middle East and South Asia, all in the name of a never ending war on terrorism and exporting democracy. Terrorist attacks continue to shatter peace in Iraq and Libya while sectarian fights and proxy wars make democracy a distant dream if not an illusion.

This meddling with the Middle East by the Western powers goes right back to the break-up of the Ottoman Empire and to the creation of artificial nation states with scant regard to the religious, ethnic and tribal sensitivities of the people concerned in the region. Kings and Sultans were picked from families of minority groups and planted as head of states to rule over the majority. Mostly through hereditary succession or army coups rulers were changed but always with the approval of their foreign backers. Even elections when they were held as in Egypt for example it were a farce.

Some of these parvenus who got elected eventually became dictators and tyrants lacking any legitimacy from the majority of citizenry. Pure economic and hegemonic interests made the Middle East a hunting ground for the West and Europe has been in the thick of it. The millions of refugees that are congregating at the border of Europe is the blowback of the Great Game.Read More

Refugee crisis: Germany introduces border checks

Germany introduces temporary controls along its Austrian border in an attempt to reduce the number of asylum seekers arriving in the country.

SUNDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2015

An Austrian rail company said that Germany had stopped letting trains enter its territory from Austria, whilst a senior government official warned that the country was reaching its limit to help with the refugee crisis.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the measures were necessary for security reasons.

"At this moment Germany is temporarily introducing border controls again along (the EU's) internal borders. The focus will be on the border to Austria at first," said Mr de Maiziere.

"The aim of these measures is to limit the current inflows to Germany and to return to orderly procedures when people enter the country."

Refugees welcome?

Germany's announcement is in stark contrast to its rhetoric just one week ago, when the country threw open its borders and waived EU asylum rules that require migrants to register in the first EU state they reach.

Austrian rail company OeBB said that trains between Austria and Germany had been suspended. Tens of thousands of people, most of them refugees from Syria, have crossed Austria by train on their way to Germany since the two countries opened the route last weekend.

"No more trains will run from Austria to Germany," a spokeswoman for OeBB said. "The Germans will not take over any trains."

Meanwhile, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in a newspaper interview on Sunday that Germany was now reaching its limit as thousands of refugees continue to stream across its borders every day.

"It's true: The European lack of action in the refugee crisis is now pushing even Germany to the limit of its ability," he said in an interview published on the Der Tagesspiegel's website.

The German government is expecting 800,000 new arrivals this year. On Saturday around 13,000 arrived in Munich alone.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban - who has been criticised by parts of Western Europe for his country's handling of the migrant crisis - welcomed Germany's introduction of temporary border controls.

"We have great understanding for Germany's decision and we'd like to express our solidarity," he said in comments to German newspaper Bild.

Pressure for Social Media 24/7 Linked to Teen Anxiety & Depression

DISPATCH TIMES

BY NEWSMEDIAON SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

Teens who feel a round-the-clock compulsion to participate on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter may pay a price in lost sleep. It also resulted to higher anxiety and depression levels as well as lower self-esteem.

Night-time social media use was a “significant predictor” of poor sleep quality, even after taking anxiety, depression and self-esteem into account. “This means we have to think about how our kids use social media, in relation to time for switching off”. However, until the data and conclusions are published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, the research should be considered preliminary.

Still, Cleland Woods stressed that the use of social media itself is not a negative activity.

In this recent study, researchers collected and analyzed information from 467 teenagers who were given questionnaires regarding their night-time specific social media use.

Sleep quality, self-esteem, anxiety, depression and the subjects’ emotional investment in social media were also measured.

The pressure to be constantly available and respond 24/7 on social media can cause depression, anxiety, and reduce sleep quality for teenagers, according to a new study.

Around 90 per cent of adolescents are estimated to have a presence on social media, and those who stay glued to gadgets well into the night are most at risk of developing emotional problems, the study found.

Scott Campbell, an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Michigan, made the point that teenage engagement with social media “is not all bad”.

This is perhaps easier said than done, especially for today’s young people, British Asians included, who rely on social media to stay connected to the world around them.

More and more researchers are analysing the correlation between using social media and the impact on our psychological and physical health. “And that’s not just for teens”.

In a separate study commissioned by the National Citizen’s Service youth program, it was found that most girls seek solace from social media when they are worried or anxious, rather than talking to their parents.

To better understand the reasons for the link between social media use and wellbeing, the team says further research is required.

Call to probe Sri Lanka war crimes

REUTERSA Sri Lankan man walks on a road past a mine field near Vavuniya, 254 km north of Colombo. REUTERS/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds

By Shihar Aneez-September 11 2015

Colombo - A documentary made by a British film maker has called for an international court to probe alleged war crimes committed during Sri Lanka's 26-year conflict, just days ahead of a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) meeting on the issue.

The documentary 'Sri Lanka: The Search for Justice' said despite the election of a new government in January, there had been no justice for ethnic minority Tamils who bore the brunt of abuses in the final phase of the war which ended in May 2009.

The film, made by journalist and director Callum Macrae, called for an international court, rather than a domestic process, to try to dispense justice - something the United States recently said it would support, if credible.

“Most of the Tamil victims believe that a purely domestic judicial process would be nothing less than a victor's court,” Macrae said in the 30-minute film, which featured interviews with survivors who witnessed abuses on the Indian Ocean island.

“Instead, they hope the international community and the members of the Human Rights Council will accept the need for a process under international jurisdiction they can trust to be fair and impartial,” he said.

The film includes footage of Tamils trying to escape military attacks in the former rebel-held area, blood-soaked bodies of people killed in attacks, and thousands of displaced people fleeing into a so-called “No Fire Zone”.

The new government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena, who is backed overwhelmingly by ethnic minority Tamils and Muslims, has promised a domestic probe with international standards to address abuses and reconciliation.

But the documentary said this would not be acceptable to many Tamils as “many senior officials in the new government and state forces who say they can be trusted to set up such inquiry (are) themselves accused of direct complicity of the crime.”

Government officials were not immediately available for comment. But former president Mahinda Rajapaksa's administration had repeatedly rejected alleged rights abuses and refused to cooperate with a UN probe.

A UN panel has said that tens of thousands of civilians were killed in 2009 in the final months of the war. At that time government troops advanced on the ever-shrinking northern tip of the island, controlled by Tamil rebels fighting for an independent homeland.

The panel said it had “credible allegations” that both Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger rebels carried out atrocities but said the government was responsible for most of the deaths.

Protesters in Jaffna demands release of Tamil political prisoners

12 September 2015

A protest was held in Jaffna town today, calling for the immediate release of Tamil political prisoners, some of whom have languished in prisons for months and years without charge. Tamil politicians and family members of those detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act took part in the protest organised by members of the Northern Provincial Council. TNA MP Dharmalingam Siddharthan, NPC agriculture minister P Aiyngaranesan and NPC councillors Gajatheepan and Sugirthan also took part in the protest.

Govt. gets UN probe report

Saturday, 12 September 2015

• Mangala to view report before speech at UNHRC on Monday
• UN report likely to be public early next week
• Foreign Minister to present Govt. blueprint for accountability in Geneva
• US-sponsored collaborative resolution expected to endorse GoSL plans, subject process to review

By Dharisha Bastians 
in Geneva
The Government of Sri Lanka has received an official copy of the UN probe report on alleged war crimes, scheduled for public release during the 30th Session of the UN Human Rights Council which kicks off next Monday (14).
Authoritative sources told Daily FT that the GoSL received the report by the end of this week. The report is likely to have reached the Government by Friday (11), Daily FT learns.
Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera will see the contents of the highly-anticipated report before he is scheduled to address the Council on its opening day, 14 September, during the session’s high level segment.
Minister Samaraweera is expected to use the speech to lay out his Government’s plan for reconciliation and a domestic accountability mechanism that he hopes will be endorsed by the Council.
The Government blueprint for accountability will include a permanent office for missing persons, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and trials of major cases through the establishment of a Special Prosecutor’s Office, Daily FT authoritatively learns. The UNHRC has adopted three resolutions in Geneva calling for accountability in Sri Lanka, with the resolution in 2014 finally setting up a UN investigation into whether war crimes were committed during the final stages of the conflict.
The United States is expected to float a resolution at the end of the Council’s September session in collaboration with the Government of Sri Lanka, US Assistant Secretary for Central and South Asian Affairs, Nisha Biswal said during a visit in Colombo recently.
Spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for the Human Rights in Geneva, Rupert Colville declined to comment on whether the report had been transmitted to the Sri Lankan Government late this week. The Daily FT also reached out to Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mahishini Colonne for confirmation of the Government’s receipt of the report, but there was no comment at the time of going to print. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) report is expected to be made public early next week, the sources said.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein will officially present the report to member states of the Human Rights Council on 30 September. The contents of the reports will by then be in the public domain.GoSL...
The UNHRC adopted a resolution in March 2014, requesting the UN High Commissioner to undertake a “comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties in Sri Lanka”.
The resolution which was sponsored by the US and co-sponsored by a host of other UN member states called on the OHCHR to obtain assistance from relevant experts and special procedures mandate holders or special rapporteurs to establish the facts of the alleged violations and crimes.
The OISL mirrored the timeframe used by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), set up by the Sri Lankan Government.
“The period of the investigation is that covered by the LLRC, that is, from 21 February 2002 until 15 November 2011, when it presented its report to the President of Sri Lanka. The OISL will also take into consideration any contextual and other relevant information that may fall outside this time-frame which may provide a better understanding of events or which may be pertinent regarding continuing human rights violations,” the OHCHR said in its official terms of reference on the Sri Lanka probe.

Modi's Lanka war crime fix

Charu Sudan Kasturi- Saturday , September 12 , 2015

Sirisena New Delhi, Sept. 11: Sri Lanka's Tamil leadership has asked India to support an international probe into alleged war crimes on the island at a key UN meet this month, forcing the Narendra Modi government into an uncomfortable choice between a traditional ally and a new friend. India has traditionally preferred only domestic investigations into human rights abuses, especially in its neighbourhood. It is also desperate to stand by the government of Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, elected in January, which has attempted a shift away from the pronounced pro-China tilt of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Colombo is adamant that it will only agree to a domestic probe. But three days before Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe arrives in New Delhi for his first overseas visit since taking office, the umbrella Tamil National Alliance (TNA) today made it clear Modi risked belying expectations of the country's Tamils by supporting Colombo. "We expect the international community, and that includes India, to support an international investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka," Leader of Opposition in the Sri Lankan parliament and TNA chairman R. Sampanthan told The Telegraph in an interview over the phone from Colombo. "Our experience with past domestic inquiries suggests that they can't be truly independent." Sampanthan's clear rejection of a domestic probe comes after days of differences within the TNA - a grouping of four main parties - with some demanding an international probe, and others willing to accept an inquiry conducted by Sri Lankans. The UN Human Rights Council is expected to meet later this month in Geneva to discuss a report on progress made by Sri Lanka on combating human rights violations after the end of the country's three-decade civil war in 2009. Sirisena has already told the UNHRC he wants to personally attend the session. Wickramasinghe, traditionally a friend of India, is expected to discuss the UNHRC report and resolution with Modi during his three-day trip here starting Monday. Both Sri Lankan and Indian officials had indicated Wickramasinghe might also nudge Modi to use India's influence with the TNA to persuade the grouping to agree to a domestic probe. Their hopes were based at least in part on differences between some TNA leaders who said they would visit Geneva to attend the UN conference and demand an international probe, and others who appeared more reconciliatory. But 82-year-old Sampanthan today said the TNA had come to a firm position on the UN session. "Yes, the new Sri Lankan government is coordinating more with the international community, but it is the TNA's clear position that an international investigation is necessary," Sampanthan said. Accepting an international probe into Sri Lanka's human rights record would be very difficult, if not impossible, for the Modi government, former Indian high commissioner to Sri Lanka Nirupam Sen said. Such a precedent could trigger similar demands for investigations in Kashmir, something India is wary of. But there's also a second reason why India does not support international probes in its neighbourhood. "This is an area where we want to strengthen our influence," Sen told this newspaper. "Why would we want an international presence instead?"

Sri Lanka: It’s Time to Turn Promises Into Action

In order to help ensure that Colombo fully commits to reform, sustained engagement from the United States and other members of the international community is more important than ever.

BY TAYLOR DIBBERT-SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

The United National Party’s (UNP) recent parliamentary election victory has renewed the mandate for reform in Sri Lanka, although the policy changes that the post-war country still needs are complex and variegated. In order to help ensure that Colombo fully commits to reform, sustained engagement from the United States and other members of the international community is more important than ever.

Sri Lanka It’s Time to Turn Promises Into Action.odt by Thavam Ratna

he leaps of joy in dirty politics

Swearings in are yet going on, and the taking office time has now arrived.

September 12, 2015, 11:46 am
I’m not sure of the public interest in the now frequent photos and TV spots of new and old ministers taking up office – signing a first paper not of any known importance - in the company of one’s spouse, party colleague/s, blessings by the clergy and lamp lighting, too. In fact, it’s really old hack, and the only media interest I can see is in the long line of these non-events, considering the endless train of Cabinet, State and Deputy Ministers. I can now see this stretch out to ministry secretaries, too – another huge number to follow.

I’m looking at the possibility of extracting some excitement from these non-events, based on the anti-people drama behind most of these appointments that are now being celebrated, with the people’s verdict being kicked into the wild; to give glory to those kicked out of electorates, with ugly records of jiggery-pokery in politics and governance, and downright corruption in society.

It will be interesting to see a new minister, or even an old, one taking up a new office, creeping up to one’s desk from under the carpet, in the same manner the person crept from under dirty carpet of his or her political party to grab the new job on offer. Such a person should be seen dusting the dust and dirt off one’s clothes, the thick and smelly stuff of many years, before sitting down and taking up what will soon be a very dirty pen, to sign the first document of a foul entry to office.

One wonders whether there will be a spouse ready to stand by smiling at such an office taking event. Yet, one must not forget that all these crooked and dirty politicians now lining up to sign fresh papers, are known for the determined push of their spouses, to bring them to the dirty positions that saw them rejected by the people.

I can well imagine another crooked and crafty politico, once crying out to rise again with Mahinda, now not wanting to be seen anywhere near even a mirror image of the same Mahinda, doing a good long jump into the new office room, bestowed with the powers of the dirty abundance of good governance. The spouse would also have done a family-political leap, and there will be a friend or two who are also well trained in the skills of a political leap frog to the joys, comforts and profits and power. The paper, signed by the new pen, will be the beginning of another record of the iniquitous aspects of governance, definitely against the needs of the people.

The crawler can never be left out of these ceremonial signings. Crawling and creeping is the very stuff of such politicians, who have now, or once again, been raised to an office from where power can be wielded, much against the will and the needs of the people. The taking of office ceremony of a crawler will see the guests looking at the floor to see from where there will be the rise, to grab the chair and creep on to the seat of power. There will be no surprise at seeing the spouse too crawl or creep behind, with all promise of private secretarial position, of personal and political profits that will surely follow. This will be another step in the path of political sycophancy that will continue with whole dishonuorable intent, following the assurance given by the President that this government will not be defeated. What a great crawl to make, especially after mighty kick out by the people at the polls.

There are certainly many more of the dishonest, dishonourable, deceitful, double-dealing and shifty politicians, including the one who will be with tears of joy flowing and wet his new table with the tears of political deceit; and the pen is taken up to sign a document that will begin a journey of tearless fraud and corruption.

One must not forget that political patricide – "apuchcha mala" (father is dead) who rapidly saw the rebirth of the father in the next round of politics, and still abandoned the reborn father to jump on to the other side where power called; for another term of nefarious politics and governance. His taking office should look more of a funeral than a ceremony, with him signing new papers in a coffin – while the spouse and all others are overjoyed.

The irony in much of this is that all of these crooked entries to unelected office will have the blessings of their respective clergy, complete with the chant of prayers, verses and stanzas of wisdom, shown to have hardly any impact in the netherworld of crooked politics.

Will they even have a moment to give thanks to their defeated leader, who enabled them through defeat, to jump, crawl and creep to their new positions, and to the political sycophancy and chicanery they learnt under him?

National Government Not The Answer For Sri Lanka

By S. I. Keethaponcalan –September 12, 2015

Dr S.I. Keethaponcalan

Elections are generally problematic in Sri Lanka. More often than not, they are marred by violence, malpractices and abuses. Thanks to the signals sent out by the new government that came to power in January 2015, and the assertiveness of the Election Commissioner, the country managed to conclude a free, fair and largely peaceful election for parliament on 17 August 2015.

The election was closely contested, the primary contest was between the United National Front (UNF) and the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. Rajapaska, who was defeated convincingly in the January 2015 presidential election, was trying to come back to power through parliament, and he had the support of mostly Sinhala-nationalist constituencies.

Although no party managed to win a clear majority of 113 seats in the national legislature, the UNF emerged as the clear winner with 106 seats. In fact, the party has 107 seats as one of its allies, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), which contested under the UNF symbol of elephant won a seat on its own (with its symbol of a tree) in the Eastern Province. This puts the UNF only six seats short of a simple majority, which could have been achieved with crossovers from the UPFA, as several of the UPFA members, it is believed, are eager to join the new government. Meanwhile, the UPFA, which won only 95 seats, had absolutely no possibility of forming a government as the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) could not support the UPFA in general, and Mahinda Rajapaksa in particular. These two parties were instrumental in bringing Rajapaksa down in January; they were not prepared to bring him back to power.

Against this backdrop the idea of a national government was mooted between the UNF and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) – the predominant partner of the UPFA.Read More

Probes on fraud, corruption will continue: PM

2015-09-12 
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that investigations into allegations of corruption and fraud against ministers and MPs of the Rajapaksa regime would not be stopped despite some of them being appointed ministers of the present government.

Responding to a question raised by Parliamentarians of the United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) at a workshop held for the new Parliamentarians on Thursday at the Parliamentary Complex Mr. Wickremesinghe had said that those who had plundered the wealth of the people would not be spared and no one would be allowed to use their portfolios as shields to cover up their misdeeds or escape punishments.

The Prime Minister asserted that the institutions set up to take action against those who had been involved in corruption and abuse of public properties would be strengthened and a Bill that would bring the FCID and the Bribery Commission in par with similar institutions in the US and UK would be introduced in Parliament on September 22. (Anjula Maheeka Weerarathne)
- See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/87049/probes-on-fraud-corruption-will-continue-pm#sthash.bWruv1aC.dpuf

A case for meliorist politics

September 12, 2015,

Politics is an essentially Machiavellian pursuit in which interests count with hardly any moral constraints. But the full quote makes Bismarck, though a consummate Machiavellian politician, a meliorist of a conservative order. That is hardly surprising because in the modern age practically all of us are meliorist since we believe that the world can be made a better place through human effort. It is a belief in progress as the modern religion, the subject of the great book Progress and Religion (1929) by the Catholic cultural historian Christopher Dawson.

By Izeth Hussain

I have had an interesting exchange of views with Hermes in the The Island, as a consequence of which I feel that an article expounding the basic case for meliorist politics would be useful. The exchange of views arose out of my use of Bismarck’s famous aphorism "Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable – the art of the next best". I combined that with the principle that in politics the choice usually is not between the good and the bad, but between the bad and the worse – which echoed a couplet from a poem by Cecil Day Lewis. Understandably what I wrote could give the impression that I was advocating a Machiavellian politics in which only interests and no principles count, and a wide tolerance has to be shown towards morally outrageous behavior in politics.

Actually I was advocating meliorist politics. "Meliorism" means "the doctrine that the world might be made better by human effort", according to my Concise Oxford Dictionary. A brief excursus into the etymology of that word would be useful. I find from the Internet that American dictionaries seem to always associate that word with an optimistic view of human nature; with the conviction that there is an in-built propensity in human beings to improve the world. That association is not there in the definition of the word in the Concise Oxford Dictionary. Two different world views are implied. The American definition of the word reflects a belief in the modern religion of progress, while the English one accords with the traditional outlook that the world cannot be much improved. Probably Bismarck, who was of a deeply conservative temperament, would have agreed with the English definition because in his famous aphorism he goes on to say that politics is "the art of the next best". Obviously he was not too optimistic about what could be done through politics.

In my earlier articles I, like everybody else, quoted Bismarck’s aphorism in its truncated form "Politics is the art of the possible". That certainly suggests that politics is an essentially Machiavellian pursuit in which interests count with hardly any moral constraints. But the full quote makes Bismarck, though a consummate Machiavellian politician, a meliorist of a conservative order. That is hardly surprising because in the modern age practically all of us are meliorist since we believe that the world can be made a better place through human effort. It is a belief in progress as the modern religion, the subject of the great book Progress and Religion (1929) by the Catholic cultural historian Christopher Dawson. In this connection the case of the novelist Thomas Hardy is instructive. His novels for the most part projected a pessimistic view of life and his last novel was so bleakly misanthropic that it outraged Victorian England. But in his advanced old age he declared that all along his politics had been "meliorist". The case of Bismarck, for that matter, is also instructive. He believed that politics was the art of the possible in which he had to strive for the "next best", but in unifying Germany, making it a great power, and creating the first modern welfare state, he attained the very best for Germany. The reason was that as a true son of the modern age the meliorist drive was very powerful in him.

However, while all of us are meliorist today, there are two different kinds of politics. In one there is a vision, an ideal, an ideology, and a program of action that goes with it. That is the "grand narrative" as the post-modernists call it, designed to cure all ills and establish an ideal society. We might call that ideological politics. It has been in abeyance since the collapse of Soviet communism, as it came to be recognized that the attempt to establish utopia inevitably leads to horrible dystopias. Today the only practitioners of ideological politics are the Islamist fundamentalists who, wherever possible, have established Hell on Earth. To ideological politics I would oppose what I call meliorist politics. There is an implicit ideology behind it, the ideology of modernity, more specifically what might be broadly called liberal democracy. There is no specific program associated with it, together with the illusion that its implementation will lead to ideal societies. It works on the following basic principle: identify what can be improved, and try to take effective action to improve it. Its purpose is to ameliorate the human condition, not to establish the ideal society. Meliorist politics is down-to-earth and pragmatic, and it can lead to magnificent achievements as in the case of the Germany of Bismarck whose modern-day avatar is Lee Kuan Yew.

I will now apply the basics of meliorist politics to the present political situation in Sri Lanka. The present Government is the outcome of the January 8 Revolution which had an implicit ideology behind it, the ideology of modernity, more specifically liberal democracy. It is in opposition to the Sinhala Buddhist ideology, more precisely racist neo-Fascism that constitutes the mass appeal behind the Rajapaksa forces. In practice it has to concentrate on three areas, the first of which is the economy. It has to achieve growth with equity, eschewing the gigantism that went with Rajapakse’s dictatorial tendencies, best exemplified by the gigantic idiocies of Mattala Airport and Hambantota Port. In the area of democracy it has to firmly entrench it, so that we will not lapse again into the neo-Fascism of Jayewardene and Rajapaksa. A special emphasis has to be placed on good governance. The third area is the ethnic problem, for which the Government has to find a political solution. The Government may fail in that area, but it has to be seen at the very least to be earnestly trying to achieve a political solution.

Meliorist politics would require that above all the Government be judged by its fidelity to that program, in pursuit of the objectives of the January 8 Revolution. It would not be too fussy about the means used to achieve those ends, even if they smack of the Machiavellian, because politics is the art of the possible. The first essential of the Government is to retain power, and the second is to command an adequate Parliamentary majority to be able to carry out its program. Some hard inescapable realities have to be borne in mind. The UNP scored a clear victory but it can form a stable Government only with the help of cross-overs – which would make unavoidable a compromise of principles smacking of the Machiavellian. It was a clear victory but also a narrow one, which means that the appeal of the Sinhala Buddhist ideology remains formidable. A noteworthy fact is that the extremists in the form of the BBS and the JHU have been trounced. Paradoxically it would mean that the Sinhala Buddhist ideologues would be able to widen their mass appeal.. All these factors dictate a politics of compromise to enable the Government to further the January 8 Revolution.

The Government has engineered Parliamentary cross-overs which certainly entail a compromise of democratic principle, but thereby it has established a stable majority enabling it to carry out its program. It has used the National List to bring in dubious elements and worse, and even made them Ministers, but they are expected to be more dependable than the worthies who have been left out in the cold. They therefore strengthen the prospects for a stable Government. And a jumbo Cabinet has become the necessary instrument to establish a stable Government, without which it will not be possible to further the January 8 Revolution. We are witnessing politics as the art of the possible, but with a meliorative intent. It is the kind of politics that led to the mighty achievements of Bismarck and Lee Kuan Yew. (izethhussain@gmail.com)