The Maxwell Paranagama Report:Transiting from Rajapaksa palanaya to yahapalanaya

October 24, 2015, 7:44 pm 

The Presidential Commission to Inquire into Complaints of Missing Persons was set up by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 15 August 2013 under the chairmanship of retired High Court Judge Maxwell Paranagama. In the one and a half years that it functioned under the Rajapaksas, this was just another commission of inquiry like the many that had preceded it. Indeed one could even say that this was even more low profile and less controversial than most of the commissions that preceded it. But after the change of regime in January 2015, this placid and relatively obscure existence was rudely shattered. Controversy first erupted not with regard to the Commission itself but in relation to the group of eminent foreign advisors, advising it on the law of armed conflict. Pro-yahapalana activists demanded the sacking of Sir Desmond de Silva the head of that advisory panel.

The Maxwell Paranagama Report Transiting From Rajapaksa Palanaya to Yahapalanaya by Thavam Ratna

Robert Blake pushed for US resolution against Lanka at UNHRC

By Namini Wijedasa-Sunday, October 25, 2015

In a wide ranging interview, Human Rights Watch Asian chief Brad Adams says that under Mahinda Rajapaksa, there was only “victor’s justice”, whereas today there appears to be “justice for all communities”

Many in the United States administration had resisted the proposal for a resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council but Robert O. Blake, former US Ambassador in Colombo, pushed it after he was promoted to Assistant Secretary of State, an international rights advocate said this week.

Brad Adams in Colombo: “You can’t put every soldier that committed every crime on trial. It would never end.”

The US might even have given up calls for justice had Sri Lanka’s former Government shown genuine commitment to reconciliation, said Brad Adams, Executive Director of Human Rights’ Watch’s (HRW) Asia Division, in an interview with the Sunday Times. He was in Colombo for meetings.

There were different elements in the US Government. “Some people never liked this process, did not want a resolution, were worried about what India thought, were worried about what China thought, and were worried about the Chinese role,” Mr Adams revealed.

“There were people in the US who were looking at it only from the prism of China. Is this going to weaken the US Government’s relationship with Sri Lanka and empower China and its role?”

There were others who thought any effort would be a waste of time. A minority wanted a resolution in the UN Human Rights Council.

“The person who was responsible for the change in US policy was Bob Blake, who was Ambassador here,” Mr Adams said. “He really wanted to give the Rajapaksa Government time.

And only when he realized that they were lying to him, not just about justice, but about reconciliation…I think if they had done the reconciliation side well, the justice side would have been given up by the US. They would have taken reconciliation.”

“They would have said, ‘Let’s move forward, the (Sri Lankan) Government’s moving forward. It’s been working on community relations, it’s investing in Tamil communities, it’s taking the army out of Tamil areas, it’s not stealing their land, it’s creating political institutions that will allow them to be properly represented’,” he continued.

“I think Bob Blake and the US Government would have just let the past be the past.”

But Mr Blake realized he was being lied to. “And that put the justice question back on the agenda for him,” Mr Adams said. “When he became Assistant Secretary of State and he was in a stronger position to do something about it on a policy level, he pushed this through very hard. So it’s all very complicated. I think he felt it’s not good to lie to people. They lied to him.”

Mr Adams said that the discussion about the end of Sri Lanka’s war would have changed dramatically had the “white flag incident” not happened.

He said liquidating the LTTE leadership and thereby ensuring that they were not available for prosecution was “a terrible historical mistake made by the previous Government”.

The LTTE should have been put on trial, he maintained. “It would have shown that they (Government) were the just party,” he said.

“That justice could have been done and be seen to be done. Frankly, I would have loved to have seen the Tiger leadership on trial because it would have brought a lot of facts about what they did, in detail. They (Government) chose to kill them instead.”

Any judicial process that is now set up in Sri Lanka will necessarily have to take up a finite number of cases. That was the experience of other countries.

“You can’t put the whole country on trial,” Mr Adams said, explaining that there would be a capacity issue. “You can’t put every soldier that committed every crime on trial. It would never end.”

No fair observer would say the LTTE does not deserve at least half of the blame for the war, he averred: “I wish we could see them. I wish we could see their leadership in the dock. And, by the way, we called for that. We were never taking sides.”

“We always called out the LTTE, to the point that I was threatened by them,” Mr Adams said. “We had threats to our office. I would speak at public forums in London where I was living and members of the Tamil diaspora would come and scream at us and threaten us.

It was only in late 2008, when we started criticizing the conduct of the war, that the Government went from praising us.”
“The Rajapaksa administration loved Human Rights Watch and other groups because of our criticism of the Tigers,” he said.

“I was embraced by your diplomats and by Government ministers. Mahinda Samarasinghe would say, ‘Thank you Mr Adams, you’re doing great work’. And then they didn’t like the fact that we then used the same principles to look at what they were doing.”

There was significant interest in the end of the war—as opposed to three decades of conflict—because it was “extremely political in Sri Lanka”. “We didn’t make it political, but it was Sri Lanka which made it political,” Mr Adams said.

“It polarized the country.” Parties had different views about the efficacy of the offensive. There were disagreements about the conduct of the war.

“When so many civilians were killed, there was a controversy about what to do about it,” he continued. “The Rajapaksa Government refused to accept it.

They kept saying for years there was ‘zero civilian casualties’ so it was laughable and when you say things that ridiculous, it invites controversy. If they had been a responsible Government, they would have accepted there were a lot of casualties.”

Mr Adams said the LTTE leadership was awful: “Even at the worst times of the war, I started by saying how awful I thought the Tiger leadership was. They lost all credibility.

I no longer cared about their political demands because of the way they were operating. You couldn’t take their political demands and separate them from what they did and I used very strong language all the time about them being totalitarian.

Not authoritarian, not repressive, but a totalitarian (group) that intended to brainwash and control their entire population whatever way Prabhakaran wanted to go. It will be a disaster if people forget.”

Mr Adams warned there was no system that will be able to address all concerns of all victims. What proved important in a lot of countries was for people in charge of either side to take responsibility, to admit; to organize compensation ceremonies and memorials so that victims who are not getting individual justice felt like there is recognition of what happened. Studies in other countries have shown this helps.

Under Mahinda Rajapaksa, there was “victor’s justice”. “The worst thing that happened since the end of the war was that only one side, the winner’s side, of the story,” Mr Adams reflected. “The justice process can sometimes lead to multiple stories being told.”

“This Government seems to understand the need for reconciliation,” he said. “So it’s not just victor’s justice. It’s justice for all communities.”

An effort to grant public amnesty for soldiers with war crimes!

Oct 25, 2015

A senior government minister said that the government is in the search of any space available to give a public amnesty for the members of the army alleged for war crime charges under the domestic mechanism made by the Sri Lankan Government according to the unanimously passed Human rights proposal at the UNHRC.

During a function held in Colombo President Maithripala Sirisena said that he will not allow anybody to destroy the honor received by the war victory. He said that as the president, commander of the three armed forces, minister of defense and as the main public protector he would protect the honor of the army.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasignhe too has given an idea to create a “Compassion Council” for the group alleged with war crimes allegations.

Religious leaders are appointed to this compassion council and if any members of the security forces are proved with committing war crimes the compassion council would act to give an amnesty for those.

Meantime the government has decided to give legal aid to the groups who are charged with war crimes. Under this situation there is a very insignificant possibility to give punishment for the members of the security forces.

Provincial council and Palath Sabah deputy minister Karunarathna Paranavithana said there is no impediment to Sri Lanka from the Geneva proposal and some allegations are targeted individually and not commonly aimed at the army.

However political analysts pointed there is a greater risk of following a bad precedence when giving amnesty for an alleged member
of the army for violating human which would hinder the trust of the aggrieved people in the north kept with the current government.

Meantime if the current Good Governance in fear of Sinhala Buddhist
racist so called opinions and abstain establishing justice to the
affected party the country would face another defeat in political
terms.

‘The Department’ Under Siege – The Future Of The Attorney General

by Saliya Pieris- Sunday, October 25, 2015

The last few months have seen an unprecedented attack on the integrity and reputation of ‘the Attorney General’s Department’. Yuvanjana Jawaharlal Wanasundera Wijayatilake PC, one of the most non-controversial persons to hold the office of Attorney General, and his Department is under siege, notwithstanding the fact that he was in the aftermath of the presidential elections credited with quietly thwarting efforts of the former regime to declare a State of Emergency just as the results were being declared.

‘the Department’ Under Siege – the Future of the Attorney General by Thavam Ratna

A Rs 1.35 trillion hole in the Budget

Finance Minister urges China to adjustterms of loans

In the hot seat

by Kumar David-October 24, 2015, 7:54 pm 

The government has tabled estimates of expenditure for 2016, the first reading of the Budget, and a short summary dated 9 October is available on the Finance Ministry website (Appropriation Bill for year 2016 approved by the Cabinet of Ministers). A deficit of Rs 1.35 trillion (million-million) is expected; at 11.8% of GDP this is appalling! The number is so large that it is more comprehensible in dollars - $ 9.51 billion at Rs 142 to a $. The job of finance minister Ravi Karunanayake and the government in the second reading on 20 November, the always much awaited Budget Speech, is to lay out proposals to bridge the gap.

A Rs 1.35 Trillion Hole in the Budget by Thavam Ratna

Murders and unidentified bodies proliferation lately –to wipe out evidence of Rajapakse era murders.?

Pillayan’s secretary too arrested over double murder

(Lanka-e-News -25.Oct.2015, 4.45) With the on going investigations which are being conducted  successfully into the raging murders during the brutal Rajapakse regime (which has now been discarded by the people) , there have proliferated mysterious murders at various places across the country .Consequently the attention of the security divisions is now sharply being focused on these murders .

 A chief of the security division speaking to Lanka e news said ,during the Rajapakse era , a number of murders were committed based on political revenge and family vendetta with the knowledge and at the behest of those in the high echelons of the brutal ruthless regime. Now with the commencement of  investigations  into these crimes , copious information is being unearthed . So ,these recent spate of murders can be a plot to destroy evidence by liquidating witnesses , and the bodies found at various places can be those of witnesses , he added.

The security chief elaborating on this revealed , it has been decided , in future in order to safeguard the lives of the witnesses , the latter  are to be held in custody on a detention order. 

Unidentified dead bodies had been discovered at Amparai on 18th March, at Bambalapitiya on 19 th April, at Marawila on 12 th May , at Mirigama on 9 th June, near Kaduwela bridge on 20 th June, at Wadduwa  on 24 th June, at Moratuwa on 29 th June, at Diyawanna on 27 th July, at Marawila again on 26 th August (torso only) ,at Ramanayake mawatha on 18 th September, at Katugastota (a rugby trainer) on 10 th October, and at Malabe Thalahena on 12 th October .

Meanwhile, after the arrest of Pillayan , a plethora of information had surfaced  in regard to murders for which he is responsible.Based on Pillayan’s evidence , his party secretary Poobalasingham Prashanthan ex M.P. was arrested by the Kathankudy police day before yseterday (23). There are charges against him of entering a house Aalaiyadi, Kathankudy and killing two individuals on 13 th December  2008.
 

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Yahapālanaya Has Betrayed The Muslims

By Hilmy Ahamed –October 25, 2015

Hilmy Ahamed

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe nexus Government that the Muslims voted overwhelming (believed to be over 95%) to cause the astonishing regime change from the decade long rule of Mahinda Rajapaksa has totally betrayed the Muslim community by ignoring the plight of the Northern Muslims. These unfortunate Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were forcibly evicted from their homes in 1990 by the fascist Liberation Tigers of Thamil Eelam (LTTE) with 48 hours notice and in the case of the Jaffna Muslims, it was just a mere two hours notice.

Deed of Muslim ownership of land adjoining the Uppu Aru issued under the seal of king Edward the Seventh

As we remember yet another anniversary this October of the brutal eviction and displacement of the entire population of the Northern Muslims once more, there seems to be no redress to the plight of this unfortunate patriotic citizens who refused to betray the Sri Lankan nation by siding with the LTTE’s Eelam quest. It is 25 years since this tragedy dawned on the unsuspecting Northern Muslims. Why is it that no government in power since 1990 has offered a reasonable solution to the Muslim IDPs, while all other war affected are being adequately addressed. The Tamil population with the support of the Government, the Tamil National Alliance, the International Community and the United Nations Mechanisms seems be heading in the right direction towards their full resettlement. 1055 acres of land that was under armed forces control has been returned to them in Sampur in the Trincomalee district. The Geneva process and the Sirisena-Wickramasinghe administration’s resolve to address the war affected through an internal mechanism does not seem to extend to the Northern Muslims. While addressing the suffering of the Tamil population needs to be appreciated as they suffered for over 30 years under the LTTE brutality and the domination of the Sri Lankan armed forces, it is regrettably that the Northern Muslims who sacrificed their lives by being patriotic Sri Lankans, are not offered any reasonable consideration by the Sri Lankan state or the international community. It is unfortunate that even the Muslim political leadership has been divided over this issue due to their political rivalry. In the absence of state or the international community’s support for their resettlement, even Muslim initiatives to seek financially support from Muslim nations for their resettlement has been challenged by some extremist Buddhists. The Sri Lankan civil society, who would have screamed at the drop of a hat if this had happened to another community, is silent on the Muslim resettlement to say the least. Is this due to Islamaphobia, or is it due to the politics of the land.

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Kidney disease causing CIC fertilizer consignment!

Oct 25, 2015

The CIC company, which imports and distributes agro-chemicals, has imported a consignment of fertilizer containing a banned heavy metal in breach of regulations pertaining to the importation of chemical fertilizer.

This consignment has a very high content of cadmium, the Sri Lanka Standards Institution has found.

According to international quality regulations, the cadmium content should not exceed five per cent, and CIC claimed the content to be 2 pc.

However, after it became known that the fertilizer contained 23.7 pc of cadmium, authorities seized the consignment.

The WHO says cadmium is a key contributor to kidney disease, and that it enters human body through the use of substandard chemical fertilizer. Therefore, the WHO has had to issue international quality certificates for the use of chemical fertilizer from time to time.

The Fertilizer Secretariat is the institution which deals with the quality of imported fertilizer here.

Several attempts to contact the Fertilizer Secretariat were unsuccessful.

However, the agriculture minister appointed a committee on October 23 to investigate this fertilizer consignment.

IPS’s SOE 2015 has delivered a strong message to Govt. which it cannot ignore: ‘Reform or Perish’ 

Monday, 26 October 2015

Fine advice on the need for reforms by IPS

The Institute of Policy Studies, better known as IPS, has just released its Sri Lanka: State of the Economy 2015 with a sub tagline ‘Economic Reforms: Political Economy and Institutional Reforms’.
The release of the IPS report on the economy is timely due to two reasons. One is that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is about to announce the new Government’s economic policy and he could consider drawing on the IPS report when outlining the government’s economic reform agenda. The other is that it highlights the urgent need for economic reforms which had been kept in abeyance by the previous Government sowing the seeds for an implosion of the economy from within. It, therefore, calls upon the Government to introduce the necessary economic reforms urgently and immediately.

IPS’s SOE 2015 Has Delivered a Strong Message to Govt. Which It Cannot Ignore ‘Reform or Perish’ by Thavam Ratna

If Britain can cozy up to China, why can’t Sri Lanka?

2015-10-26
ast week saw a curious event of pomp and funfair-and political realism-that highlighted how far the States would go to maximize their benefits, even at the expense of their allies. Britain rolled out the red carpet for Xi Jinping, the Chinese President who rode in a gilded royal carriage to the Buckingham Palace with the Queen seated alongside, and was hosted in a series of banquets and signed trade deals running into billions of 

dollars, including a 30% investment in a new British nuclear power plant. Since the United States, Britain’s old ‘special friend’ is hedging against the rising (and increasingly assertive) China, the British cozying up with the Middle Kingdom would not go down well in Washington. That is in addition to all the righteous concerns of human rights that were put on hold in the rush for China’s gold.  

If Britain Can Cozy Up to China, Why Can’t Sri Lanka by Thavam Ratna

Rs. 20 million office building for minister John

Oct 25, 2015

The tourism ministry is planned to be shifted to a newly-built building at Park Street in Colombo, with the ministry getting a Rs. 20 million allocation for the monthly rent for the 20,000 square feet facility, according to reports.

Ministry officials are strongly objecting and dejected about this wasteful expenditure. They point out that the income of the entire ministry stood at between three to four billion rupees, and there are many buildings owned by the ministry. Therefore, it is a national crime and an insult to the good name of the present regime to spend such a sum on a building.

Reliable sources say the minister has got the money for the building allocated without cabinet approval, but by abusing his official powers.

He can get Rs. 20 million out of the ministry money allocated without cabinet approval. The chairman of the Tourist Board, too, can get Rs. 10 million allocated without cabinet approval.

The sources say further that the middleman in this deal is Amaratunga’s son-in-law, former Commercial Bank chairman Dinesh Weerakkody.

At present the tourist ministry is located in two places, at the Tourist Board building in Kollupitiya and at the Insurance Corporation building.

Even UNP ministers are dejected that topmost government officials had rejected their calls for a Rs. 5 million payment to find a building for their use, while keeping silent on this wastage of public money through the mediation of persons like Weerakkody, who were closest allies of the former Rajapaksa regime.

Reports say these ministers are to raise this with the government hierarchy and to lodge their protest against this deal to discredit the government by getting closest allies of the previous regime.

Mahinda Rajapaksa and Stephan Harper lost re-election bids due to racist policies 

Monday, 26 October 2015

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. History looks at this colossus with awe. A personification of supreme sagacity. Many are the wise cracks attributed to him. On democracy he famously said “is the government of the people, by the people for the people”. How many of today’s leaders truly believe and practice democracy this way? He also said “nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power”.
It may sound a trifle strange, two gentleman separated by vast stretches of geographic terrain, having ruled their respective nations for just under 10 years, animus for each other well-known along with their strategic dislike for Muslims ousted just about the same year and quite comprehensively too. Uncomfortable as it may seem, they had to countenance surprising electoral defeats not because they had underperformed or got marginalized electorally. They were rejected for their notorious wedge and polarizing politics. The strands went far and beyond the threshold. People power showed them the red card.
Just because a politician manufactures and uses racist policies, does it make him a racist? Absolutely not. Democracy a proven political process has survived the vagaries of time and retained somewhat of its lustre, at least in the huge compendiums preserved in libraries and places of learning. It’s the person who’s got dissolute, not the process. This is a tragedy. 
The process does not get corrupt on its own. The person has to introduce the corruptive pill. Once the filth is set in motion, wholesale putrefaction is unleashed. There is no special need to explain putrefaction to Sri Lankans, their nostrils have huge degrees of tolerance. When we the people cannot bear the stench any longer, another bunch of well packaged pollutant-prone blokes are elected. They may temporarily contain the malodour until such time they introduce their own quota. Delusion always gets the better of the mistakenly empowered voter. This is a vicious cycle that will most likely continue till the descent of Jesus son of Mary. 
 

Why is faith in democracy fast eroding?
Why is faith in democracy fast eroding? Why is democracy becoming exclusionary? Why is democracy demeaning, dispossessing, demonizing, disempowering and destroying especially minorities and other vulnerable groups? It’s no doubt on average richer than non-democracies. Despite democracy’s enduring appeal it’s still causing disillusionment and division, why? I don’t have the answer.
Toxic rhetoric, shrill warnings, ill-founded appellatives are no longer third world imports. The West has its own share that too of the hybrid genre. In Canada marketing specialists with a notoriety for wedge politics are hired for big bucks just to hammer at fellow Canadians for electoral advancement. Deriding people’s belief with offensive language has become mainstream strategy. All in the name of power and democracy. Now I understand what Abraham Lincoln meant by character. What is certain and obvious is that early practitioners of democracy had character, at least most of them.
 

Sri Lanka
In the January 2015 Sri Lankan presidential election Maithripala Sirisena was declared the winner after receiving 51.28% of all votes. Subsequently Sri Lanka’s ruling United National Party (UNP) won the country’s Parliamentary election in August 2015. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s centre-right party won 106 of Parliament’s 225 seats. 
In both elections the minority vote undeniably played the role of a game changer. Most frontline political leaders and analysts have downplayed this fact to this date. How can leaders convince people to embrace democracy and empower themselves when acknowledgement is either non-existent or procrastinated?
The majority Maithripala Sirisena received at the 8 January presidential election was 449,072 votes. The Northern and Eastern Provinces with its pre-eminent Tamil and Muslim areas gave Maithripala Sirisena a majority of 654,521 votes. Basic arithmetic proves beyond any reasonable doubt how the actual electoral vote castings had been disbursed. Mahinda Rajapaksa lost despite garnering the highest number of Sinhala voters. The Tamils, Muslims and Christians who had become open victims of nasty wedge politics with attendant violence aimed at them overwhelmingly voted for the Opposition candidate.
 

Canada
meanwhile, 19 October 2015 was a historic day for Canada. “Canadians from all across this great country sent a clear message. It’s time for change in this country my friends, real change,” said the new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Montreal. “A positive, optimistic hopeful vision of public life isn’t a naive dream. It can be a powerful force for change.” 
The election ushered in a new era for Canada as Trudeau was swept to power on a vow to change how Canadians were governed and a commitment to end what he branded as the Conservatives’ divisive style of politics.
Trudeau, according to almost all political pundits, created a record and that too by playing the game strictly according to the book unlike his opponent Stephen Harper. Preliminary results had the Liberals at 184 seats, comfortably more than the 170 seats needed for a majority government in the expanded 338-seat House of Commons. It’s a stunning rebound for a party that had been knocked down to 34 seats in the 2011 election and left for dead.
In the days preceding to the election Justin Trudeau made the following controversial yet impressive speech at the McGill Institute. “To me, pluralism means diversity, and diversity is at the very heart of Canada. It is who we are and what we do. We do it better than anyone else on earth. So well, in fact, that we often take it for granted. So let’s remind ourselves: Canada is the only country in the world that is strong, not in spite of our differences, but because of them. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I believe the root cause of our success is a uniquely Canadian idea of freedom, of liberty. That’s the idea I want to develop with you tonight.”
Continuing he said: “First, I want to argue that Canadian liberty is all about inclusion. We have had deeply regrettable moments. But the history of this country is one in which we are constantly challenging ourselves and each other to extend our personal definitions of who is a Canadian. This is a good and important thing. It is good for us, good for our country, and important to the world.”
 

Trigger for fear
South-western Sri Lanka a couple of years ago witnessed a fatal mob attack. Muslims were explicitly targeted. It was one of the largest and most deadly in recent years, wounding 80 Muslims and killing four with unprecedented loss to property. It was carried out by the BBS – a militant Buddhist organisation led by Buddhist priests and their erstwhile supporters with complete state patronage. This was considered poetry by some political analysts for the Sinhala heartland. 
Numbers for Mahinda Rajapaksa would start to clink, like that of a cash register. This was the pathological rationale of the day. Designing to destroy and draw blood had become electoral strategy in this day and age of enlightenment, how strange?
The counterparts in the West aren’t any less different either. Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was not subtle about his use of cultural differences as a trigger for fear during the election campaign. His government pressed its case against a Muslim woman fighting to wear her niqab during her citizenship ceremony — and lost. It unveiled a “barbaric cultural practices” tipline for Canadians to report on their neighbours. 
Recently a four months pregnant Muslim hijabi was attacked while going to pick up her daughter from school. The niqab controversy reappeared after the federal government said it would appeal a court decision allowing for Muslim women to wear the face covering during their public citizenship oath ceremony. 
 

Inclusive politics
In this day and age it’s all about inclusive politics. Pitting fellow countryman against each other for parochial electoral distance is frowned upon. The 2015 general election in Canada taught all political parties a great lesson on what constitutes “Canadian values”. We Canadians are ready to show the compassionate, inclusive Canada. Come join us.
We also urge the Sri Lankan leadership to join hands in friendship. Justin Trudeau is man for all occasions. He is smart, handsome, dynamic, compassionate and committed to true and entrenched Canadian values. Grab the opportunity to do business with him. Reach out to Canada, reach to the Sri Lankan diaspora in Canada. Build a truly inclusive Sri Lanka with progress and prosperity for all Sri Lankans.
Sirisena, Wickremesinghe, get hold of the man and get to know him better. Meet him at the next Commonwealth conference in Malta and strike a lasting relationship with the bloke. Sri Lanka needs Canada and vice versa. Seek Canada’s help to build Sri Lanka. She is the epitome of magnanimity.
“I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better” – Abraham Lincoln.

The Sri Lankan Obsession With Superlatives & Superiority

By Emil van der Poorten –October 25, 2015

Emil van der Poorten

It is said that first impressions are the most vivid and I can, certainly, recall the tone and content of my early contact with the language that was spoken on radio or tv or appeared in print for either the purpose of selling some product or in the dissemination of information when I returned to Sri Lanka about a decade ago.

Having found the North American, particularly the USA, claims that the product being spoken of was top-notch in every way and having reached the point when such rhetoric made one want to puke, there was an expectation that laid-back Sri Lanka would be haven from such basic boastfulness.

Did I have a surprise coming!

It seemed like anything and everything we, in Sri Lanka, said or did was “the greatest.” The boxer who gave that particular word credibility and new meaning was that black fighter from Louisville, Kentucky who, during his transition from Cassius Clay to Muhammed Ali, applied that sobriquet to himself and repeated it, seemingly, ad nauseam. At first, it was taken as simply promotional hype and, given the often-bizarre conduct of the man who kept repeating it, was simply taken as an eccentricity and did, at worst, prove the time-worn contention that there is no such thing as bad publicity. However, the difference was that Ali did prove that he could “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee,” backing his boast every foot of the way with his balletic foot movements and lightning fast fists.

I sometimes wonder whether modern Sri Lanka’s predilection for repeating the mantram of “we are the greatest” harks back to its taking of the World Championship of Cricket in 1996. The fact that the competition had, overshadowing it, the spectre of terrorist violence which led to some of the premier competing countries refusing to compete on Sri Lankan soil out of fear for their lives, appears to have deliberately been downplayed and when, referred to at all, has been preceded or followed by the accusation of lily-livered cowardice on the part of the opposition, that accusation being picked up by more than the usual proportion of the international media as a result of it being uttered by no less a person than the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. The dapper and debonair Lakshman Kadirgamar whose public persona, as projected to the western media in particular, was, if not the epitome of all that was bright and sophisticated, certainly was more worldly and intelligent than many who preceded him and certainly streets ahead of those who followed him in that ministry!

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President’s Office gets Rs 9.6 b less

Oct 25, 2015

The Appropriation Bill 2016 has slashed financial provisions for the office of the incumbent president by a whopping Rs. 9.6 billion, allocating a mere Rs. 2.3 billion as compared to the Rs 11.9 billion allocated to the same office by the UPFA Government last year. The estimated expenditure for the President’s office for 2016 is Rs 2.3 billion

(Rs. 2,392,075,000) which is less than Rs. 9.6 billion allocated to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s office in the 2015 Budget.

According to the Appropriation Bill 2016 presented to Parliament by the Leader of the House, Minister Lakshman Kiriella, on Friday (October 23) , the government’s estimated expenditure for the next year is Rs. 1,941 billion ( Rs.1,941,450,438,000) with the lion’s share of Rs. 306 billion (Rs. 306,657, 824, 000) being allocated for the Ministry of Defence. The Appropriation Bill 2016 will be the first full budget of the National Unity Government, as it had previously presented an interim budget on January 29 under its 100 Day Program. The 2016 Budget will be delivered by Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake on November 20.

The debate on the second reading of the budget will last for 12 allotted days from November 21 and the vote on the second reading will be taken on December 5. The Committee Stage Debate will continue for 12 days from December 7 and the third reading vote will be taken on December 19.Of the government’s total expenditure for 2016, Rs. 1,314 billion will be recurrent expenditure and Rs. 626 billion will be capital expenditure.

The estimated allocation for the Ministry of Education for 2016 is Rs.185.9 billion (Rs.185,976,030,000), which is a fourfold increase compared to the UPFA Government’s allocation of Rs. 47.6 billion in the 2015 Budget. Large allocations have been made for the Ministries of Local Government and Provincial Councils (Rs. 237 billion), University Education and Highways (Rs. 171 billion) Public Administration and Management (Rs. 156 billion), Finance and Planning (Rs.107 billion) and Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine (Rs. 174 billion).
- http://www.sundayobserver.lk/-

350 bulbs each worth Rs. 150,000 at Premadasa stadium given for Rajapakse night race missing! Is Nishantha punishment immune ? Where is the committee report ?

(Lanka-e-News -25.Oct.2015, 4.55)  Like those who get themselves elected to official positions of the Sri Lanka (SL) cricket board , those appointed to its sub committees too are drooling at the sight of the colossal funds flooding the cricket  board , and are therefore eager to pilfer them at the first opportunity.Even those who resigned or have been dismissed  are once again moving heaven and earth to creep back. They are averse to giving up on their appointments , and never want to be away from putting their fingers into the succulent pie.These are well and widely known incontrovertible unassailable truths  in Sri Lanka’s cricketing arena.

The former minister of sports Naveen Dissanayake appointed a cricket sub committee to search and detect the perfidies and deceitful activities of those who became office bearers via  elections, and through sub committees . 

Lo and behold ! unbelievably those appointed to that sub committee were also  equally bad or worse ! For instance Jayananda Warnaweera ,who functioned as a member of that sub committee was suspected of match fixing by the ICC , but before he could be sacked , he resigned and saved face. Another member , Prakash Shaffter , who whenever  there is a cricket test tournament ,  somehow gets a test match to be played at the Saravanamuttu Oval playground which is his  club’s playground. At the expense of the cricket association he gets his club’s playground refurbished .

Nusky Mohomed another member- his obsession and interest  is to get all the purchasing orders worth many millions of rupees of cricket gear to his sales center . Kushil Gunasekera is an NGO weed .  His eagerness is to  boost his establishment’s  popularity at the expense of the cricket association.

Of course the disrepute of Nishantha Ranatunge is so well known that it  reverberates  even beyond the skies. Not only in  the COPE report even in every disgraceful  report his infamous  name is mentioned purely for most  sordid reasons.

The three member COPE committee report that was handed over to the sports minister Dayasiri recently too spotlights  them well and thoroughly. Because of the close ties between Nishantha and Dayasiri , the latter is keeping the report hidden without making it public.

Like birds of a feather flock together , these  rogues gather to rob the country together .It is Mahindananda another corrupt ex minister and  bosom pal of Nishantha who gives counsel on this matter to Dayasiri. It is a widely known fact that even riight now there are  on going investigations against Nishantha at the FCID (Financial crimes investigation department), Bribery commission and the CID. Despite this , Nishantha has started his canvassing for the post of chairman , cricket board at the next election.  Upali Dharmadasa , another Rajapakse lickspittle and lackey is backing him.

As always with pro Rajapakse stooges , there are grave charges against Dharmadasa mentioned in the three member committee investigative report ,of undertaking a tender to refurbish the Ketharama cricket stadium flouting proper tender procedures . He is accused of cheating in a colossal sum of many million rupees by giving the tender illegally to his company.

In addition ,there is another group collecting illicit commissions and benefits through other methods in many millions within the cricket association while  working as employees drawing  a salary uninterruptedly without serving any  useful purpose.Among them are officers in the higher echelons , as well as  cuties employed serving the lascivious interests  of frustrated players . That being the oldest profession in the world , those in it are most powerful .In a partnership company , usually sleeping partners are less powerful , but here at the cricket asociation sleeping partners are most powerful. When the players crow cock a doodle do , and officials crow any diddle will do ,their sleeping  partners groan  any cock would do. 

On top of all these ,an individual very close to Nishantha Ranatunge , a high rung officer by the name of Carlton ; a chief of a popular marketing division ‘Three idiots’ ; a human resource chief : an engineer :and a chief of tournament tours are cheating on and gobbling up massive funds with gay abandon via  tournament tours and sponsorship. These individuals who are receiving a montly salary are owning super luxury BMW  and VESEL vehicles.Nishantha Ranatunge in particular changes vehicles much more often . It is being whispered that he does not change even his jockstraps that frequently. He owns houses and lands in and around Colombo worth billions of rupees. He has  also purchased  properties abroad , based on reports.

It is learnt that when it was exposed that there were match fixing and charges were leveled against SL and Indian players during the SL premier legaue tournament , Nishantha had covered it up. One such incident involves Suresh Raina at Dambulla stadium ..

Most notorious Nishantha removed 350 bulbs of  high wattage and each valuing Rs. 150,000.00 from the Premadasa playground  to be used for the night races of the sons of Mahinda Rajapakse during the latter’s reign. Later , only five of those bulbs had been returned. 

Nishantha ‘s bungling , blundering and duping are  unending . Nishantha  recruited Vajira Dissanayake , an unqualified incompetent individual as an IT officer who had no knowledge or eligibility regarding trade or media . In spite of it  he was promoted as Trade and communication chief. As he failed to submit an audit  progress report on the souvenirs and promotion program, and because he fraudulently altered a bill for Rs. 6000.00 to Rs.16000.00 , he had to be interdicted recently. 

Dissanayake is one who takes part in Nuwara eliya races as a jockey , and  provides horses .Under the sports Act of this country , nobody who is engaged in gaming or wagering can hold an  official post and receive a salary from a sports body.Yet to Dassanayake that prohibition was no bar.

While he was under interdiction , a very strange  intriguing inquiry was conducted against him …
A manager of human resources who is a very close friend of the accused Vajira Dissanayake had brought in a lawyer who is also supposed to be a bosom pal of Vajira, to conduct the inquiry. Employees of the cricket association point out this was like holding an inquiry against the crook  before the  mother of the crook who is the judge. 

Meanwhile , Vajira’s  secretary is also facing the  same charges of fraudulent bill alteration . Yet two superior officers who have run dry of their fluids  simply by  drooling over women , coming forward in her defense are trying to  give  her a promotion instead of taking penal action.  On an earlier occasion ,  during a Test match at Galle , a SL cricketer was caught red handed with her in a hotel away from the playground . Though the player  faced punishment she escaped somehow. It is rumored her partners run dry but never  she.

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by     (2015-10-25 11:35:29)