China rails at ‘hegemony’ as U.S. vows to continue sea patrols

Adm. Harry Harris Jr., left, chats with Fan Changlong, vice-chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, before their meeting at the Bayi Building in Beijing on Tuesday. (Andy Wong/AP)

By Simon Denyer-November 3 at 12:15 PM

BEIJING – China criticized U.S. “hegemony and hypocrisy” on Tuesday after a top U.S. admiral vowed to continue naval patrols in the South China Sea.

On a visit to China, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command, Adm. Harry Harris Jr., defended last week’s decision to sail a U.S. naval destroyer close to a Chinese-occupied island in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, and reiterated that such patrols would continue — despite Beijing’s intense displeasure.

Harris, speaking at the Stanford Center at Peking University during a long-planned visit to China, tried to play down the dispute by stressing deepening cooperation between the two nation’s militaries, including joint participation in regional military exercises and a coordinated naval search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 last year.

“Some pundits predict a coming clash between our nations. I do not ascribe to this pessimistic view,” he said. “While we certainly disagree on some topics — the most public being China’s claims in the South China Sea and our activities there — there are many areas where we have common ground.”

The United States and its regional allies have become increasingly concerned about China’s efforts to build artificial islands on rocks and reefs in the South China Sea, and to construct airstrips and surveillance equipment on those islands. In April, Harris said China was building a “Great Wall of Sand” there. Last week’s action by the USS Lassen was designed to show that the United States would not tolerate any interference with freedom of navigation in nearby waters.

 

Harris said Monday he continues to have “personal and candid conversations” with Chinese military leaders about tension in the South China Sea. He also described China’s claims to almost all of the South China, encompassed by its “nine-dash line,” as both “ambiguous” and a challenge to the “rules-based international order.”

But he tried to characterize last week’s mission by the U.S. destroyer as routine and something the U.S. Navy carries out all over the world.

“Our military will continue to fly, sail and operate whenever and wherever international law allows. The South China Sea is not — and will not — be an exception,” he said. “I truly believe that these routine operations should never be construed as a threat to any nation.”

A Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details, said the Lassen had also sailed past four islets or reefs held by Vietnam or the Philippines last week before it went past the Chinese-held Subi reef.

However, the attempt by Harris to defend U.S. actions met a fierce rebuttal from China, with foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying accusing the United States of “plain provocation."

With 100,000 ships passing through the South China Sea safely every year, it was a “false proposition” to argue freedom of navigation was threatened, she said.

The United States has been strengthening its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region and holding frequent military exercises with China’s rivals, while hyping the threat from China, Hua told a daily news conference.

 

Washington cites the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea as justification for its actions in the region, a treaty it has not even joined, she added.

“This kind of behavior of using the international law if it favors itself, while discarding the law if it’s not, and treating international law as a tool to further its own political interest, is typical hypocrisy and hegemony,” she said.

“China strongly urges the United States to stop all its wrong words and deeds and not take any dangerous and provocative actions that threaten China’s sovereignty and security interest,” she said.

Craig Whitlock in Washington contributed to this report.

U.S. Navy alarmed at Beijing’s ‘Great Wall of sand’ in South China Sea

China says U.S. destroyer sailing close to Chinese-built island a threat to peace

For some Filipino fishermen, the South China Sea dispute is personal

UN urged to investigate genocide in Burma

FILE - In this Friday, May 15, 2015, newly arrived migrants gather at Kuala Langsa Port in Langsa, Aceh province, Indonesia. More than 2,000 Rohingya refugees have landed on the shores of Indonesia's Aceh province, as well as in neighboring Malaysia. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara, File)

by Daniel Maxwell-3rd November 2015 

HUMAN rights organization, Fortify Rights, has urged the UN to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate claims that the decades-long persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Burma, also known as Myanmar, has been an act of genocide.

The call for action coincided with the release of a report by the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) at Yale Law School which has analyzed the state sanctioned persecution of the Rohingya from a legal perspective. The 78 page report, ‘Persecution of the Rohingya Muslims: Is Genocide Occurring in Myanmar’s Rakhine State?’, documents and applies the law of genocide to the Burma government’s human rights abuses against the Muslim-minority.

The Rohingya Muslims have lived for centuries at the crossroads between South Asia and Southeast Asia. Their homeland, Arakan, had previously been a part of the British-ruled Indian subcontinent. When Burma and India won their independence the Rohingya found their homeland between the boarders of these hostile nations. Since military rule took grip of Burma in 1962, the Rohingya have been portrayed as a threat to national security and their human rights have been systematically eroded.

This new report by the Allard K. Lowenstein IHRC details how the Rohingya have been subject to forced displacement, forced labor, religious persecution, marriage restrictions, population control, arbitrary detention, violence, physical assault, sexual assault and murder under the military led government. The report also focuses on the plight of the 140,000 Muslims detained in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) Camps where access to adequate food, humanitarian aid, sanitation and education is withheld. It is believed that the government in Burma has deliberately created these conditions with the intention of weakening the population to the point of extinction.

The plan of the government is to finish our people, to kill our people, but they cannot kill us all by the bullet.

As one Rohingya man, explained to Fortify Rights: “The plan of the government is to finish our people, to kill our people, but they cannot kill us all by the bullet. What they can do is deny us food and medicine, and if we don’t die, then we’ll opt to leave the country. [In these cases] the government has used a different option to kill the people. We must understand that.”

This legal analysis from the U.S. came the same week as a report from the U.K. drew similar conclusions. The report by the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) at Queen Mary University of London, ‘Countdown to annihilation: Genocide in Myanmar’, argued that genocide has been taking place in Burma for the past three decades and the recent escalation in state-sponsored stigmatization, discrimination, violence and segregation was threatening the very existence of the Rohingya.

With national elections due to take place in Burma on November 8, these accusations come at a crucial period in the country’s transition from military rule and despite the Rohingya not having a voice at this historic juncture, the outcome of these elections will largely determine the future of the ‘most persecuted people on Earth’.

The plight of the Muslim minority could improve if a newly formed government is sympathetic to their plight, heeds the international community’s concerns and helps facilitate an independent human rights investigation into the persecution of the Rohingya. However, if the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) join with other ultra-nationalist parties and manage to retain power, conditions for the Rohingya are expected to deteriorate even further and their very existence will be under threat.

Turkey: journalists and political rivals arrested as Erdoğan crackdown widens

Magazine editors accused of coup plot and Gülenists detained in wake of Justice and Development party’s resounding electoral victory

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (left), gestures to supporters at a polling station in Istanbul. His Justice and Development party secured a sweeping victory in the elections. Photograph: Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images

Kareem Shaheen in Ankara-Tuesday 3 November 2015

The Turkish government has resumed a crackdown on journalists and political rivals of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan just two days after a major electoral victory for his party that will see it return to single-party rule.

Police officers and bureaucrats loyal to an exiled cleric based in the US are among dozens of people who have been arrested by Turkish authorities in an ongoing move against a group whose members have become bitter rivals of the president.

Two senior editors at an opposition-aligned magazine were also detained on Tuesday and accused of plotting a coup after the front cover declared in the aftermath of the election “the start of civil war in Turkey”, a reference to anger in the predominantly Kurdish east and south-east where relations with the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party are tense.

The magazine, Nokta, said in a statement on Twitter that the editor-in-chief, Cevheri Güven, and managing editor, Murat Capan, were detained after police raids on their offices in Istanbul and charged with “attempting to overthrow the government by force”.

Earlier, dawn raids targeted figures allied to a wide-ranging movement that pledges allegiance to Fethullah Gülen, a preacher who is set to stand trial in absentia for allegedly working to topple Erdoğan.

The prosecutor’s office in the western city of Izmir said it ordered the arrest of 57 people believed to be members of the “Gülenist terror group”.

The raids were the latest move in a campaign against the group that once maintained a pervasive presence in the judiciary and security services and helped orchestrate the prosecution of numerous military officials accused of plotting to overthrow the AKP-led government in the past.

Security services last week seized a company with supposed ties to Gülen that operates a number of media outlets including Bugün TV, which hosted several opposition politicians in the run-up to the November elections, including Selahattin Demirtaş, the leader of the pro-Kurdish HDP party.

The raid on the TV station, which remained on air during a standoff with police, dramatically illustrated the break in ties between Erdoğan and his former Gülenist allies.

Although the raid was officially described as part of an investigation by a court-appointed board into alleged financial crimes by the parent company, insiders say the crackdown is fuelled by a feeling of betrayal within the president’s party towards Gülen’s faction.

Gülenist officials were believed to have been involved in the Sledgehammer trials, which alleged that members of the Turkish armed forces had plotted to overthrow the AKP-led government, as well as the Ergenekon affair trials, in which hundreds of individuals were arrested and charged for allegedly belonging to a clandestine ultranationalist organisation that supposedly had ties with the military and security services and was bent on overthrowing the government.

The split with Erdoğan broke into the open in 2013 and 2014 after news emerged of a corruption investigation targeting AKP members and the president’s inner circle.

Erdoğan described the investigations as essentially a coup attempt and accused Gülen of infiltrating the security forces and judiciary; the president later carried out a purge of police officers. Prosecutors in Turkey last year charged Gülen, who has been living in Pennsylvania since 1998, with leading a criminal organisation.

Security forces separately imposed a curfew in the majority Kurdish town of Silvan in the south-east, following airstrikes against the outlawed separatist group the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) in Iraq on Monday.

The PKK said in a statement it expected the war with the government to escalate after the elections.

Following attacks in the summer against activists, including Kurds, that were blamed on Islamic State, the government used the violence that erupted to crack down on the PKK, essentially ending a peace process that had led to a ceasefire in 2013.

Turkish government officials said the PKK had broken the ceasefire rules, including by fighting alongside Syrian Kurds across the border. Ankara believes Syria’s Kurds want to create a de facto state on Turkey’s southern border.

Critics contend that the government sought to crack down on Kurdish militants in order to attract nationalist votes in the snap elections, in which the AKP gained about 5 million votes.

How cockroaches could save lives

3 November 2015

Cockroaches are often associated with dirty kitchens and grimy bathrooms - scuttling away as soon as you enter the room and turn on the light. But pest controllers aren't the only people interested in them - these insects are inspiring research into antibiotics, robots and mechanical limbs, writes Mary Colwell.

How Cockroaches Could Save Lives by Thavam Ratna

We Are Winning the Fight Against Big Soda and the Health Catastrophe It Has Created

Soda and other food corporations will spend fortunes to influence political processes, but we can still win.

We Are Winning the Fight Against Big Soda and the Health Catastrophe It Has Created

 

By Marion Nestle-October 15, 2015

The following is an excerpt from the new book Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning) by Marion Nestle (Oxford University Press, 2015): 

In December 2011, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg announced some excellent news. After years of city interventions to improve diet and physical activity patterns, the prevalence of obesity among New York children had started to decline. With this evidence that the city’s public health measures were having the desired effect, Bloomberg appointed a task force to recommend further actions.

We Are Winning the Fight Against Big Soda and the Health Catastrophe It Has Created by Thavam Ratna

To Promote Reconciliation and Accountability, We Need to Take All Our People on this Journey – R. Sampanthan

By R. Sampanthan, (MP,TNA).-02/11/2015 

Mr. Deputy Chairman of Committees, we are discussing through this Adjournment Motion the Resolution adopted at the 30th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Promoting Reconciliation.  This is the fourth Resolution relating to Sri Lanka adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in consecutive years; the others being in 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively.

To Promote Reconciliation and Accountability, We Need to Take All Our People on This Journey – R. Sampantha... by Thavam Ratna

Cross-Ethnic Pain: Remembering Crimes Against Journalists

Inside Sandya Eknaligoda's home----------Sandya Eknaligoda

On the living room table at Sandya Eknaligoda’s home lies a slim volume of Sherlock Holmes’ detective stories. The book is perched atop a set of hymn sheets, from a service for Sandya's husband, Prageeth. The juxtaposition is tragic - you can picture Sandya's son leafing through the pages, picturing Arthur Conan Doyle's tweed-jacketed hero uncovering the villain who so abruptly took away his father.

Cross-Ethnic Pain Remembering Crimes Against Journalists by Thavam Ratna

Need to safeguard multi-ethnic majority by 

keeping all sides in mind

by Jehan Perera-November 2, 2015

The 25th anniversary of the Muslim expulsion from the north was observed last week through a number of events, including in the north. The most high profile commemorative event took place in Colombo with a panel discussion held under the aegis of the SLMC and its leader Minister Rauff Hakeem. The key speakers were political leaders from all communities and included Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, Resettlement Minister D M Swaminathan and TNA parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran. There were also prominent civil society representatives who spoke on the occasion including law lecturer N Selvakkumaran of Colombo University, independent researcher Mirak Raheem and Shreen Saroor who represented the voice of the displaced northern Muslim community.

The strong sense of goodwill that permeated the discussion was manifested by TNA parliamentarian Sumanthiran’s pledge that he would speak up louder on the issue even though he has spoken loudly about it in the past. The government representatives in their speeches made it clear that they wanted to heal the wounds of war and repair the damage to the victims to the extent possible. Minister Samaraweera addressed the "post-independence failure to build a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka that is united and undivided both on the map and in its citizens’ hearts and minds." He referred to the notion of majoritarianism that made a majority community unwilling to accept a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society in which the majority will not discriminate or oppress the minority.

The narrow defeat of the Rajapaksa government in January was by a multi ethnic and multi religious majority. This was repeated more convincingly in August and bodes well for the future, but it is a victory that needs to be protected. As pointed out by Minister Samaraweera the eviction of the Muslims of the north was a manifestation of a majoritarian mindset in which there was a "belief that the power of the numerical majority was a justification for violating the rights of individuals and minority groups." This is a weakness that Sri Lankan society, manifested in both the north and south, that needs to overcome both through a long and never ending process of education at all levels of society and also through the establishment of a state that applies the Rule of Law equally to all.

SUREST GUARANTEE

At the current juncture Sri Lanka faces many serious challenges including on the economic and international fronts. The economy is heavily burdened and is the primary concern of most people who are struggling every day to meet the challenge of balancing their budgets. But for Sri Lanka to be stable and peaceful, which is the pre-requisite for economic take-off, it is necessary to preserve and grow the multi-ethnic and multi-religious majority both in Parliament and outside in the society at large. This will be the surest guarantee that the country will never again descend into inter-community conflict on the scale that occurred in the past. In order to ensure this, it is important to each and every community and the individuals that comprise it feel that the Sri Lankan state is treating them equitably as members of their communities and equally as individuals.

At the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Northern Muslim expulsion, Minister Swaminathan gave a pledge that the government would ensure that all Muslim families who lost their homes in 1990 would be compensated. He said that the government would build them pre-fabricated houses with furniture, which shows the intention of the government to compensate them on the most generous terms and speedily. While the sentiments of goodwill came through clearly the question is whether this proposal has been rigorously considered, both in terms of financial costing and other implications. There also appears to be lack of clarity over the number of those who still remain displaced. Minister Samaraweera referred to a figure of around 80 percent of the original 75,000 displaced Muslims continuing to remain displaced. However, Minister Swaminathan made an assertion that based on figures given to him by government departments in the North, there were only 2800 families that remain displaced.

While the costs of providing pre-fabricated and furnished houses for 2800 families may have been budgeted by the government as being affordable, the cost of providing this same facility to 10,000 families will be significantly more. The number may be still larger as there will have been the natural increase in the number of households living displaced after 25 years as children form their own families and require separate houses. The discrepancy in numbers cited by the two ministers brings into question what definition of displacement is being used. Many displaced Muslim families have gone back to their original places of residence to register themselves with the government authorities in those areas. Their applications to reclaim their lost properties may have been accepted. But this does not mean they are no longer displaced. They may not have been able to come back to reside in their original places of inhabitation from which they were expelled.

HOLISTIC RESPONSE

Shortly after the end of the war when I went to Jaffna, I met with several displaced Muslims who had been urged by their political leaders to go back and claim their properties, but who were finding it very difficult to restart their lives. There was no enabling environment for that. Colombo University’s Selvakkumaran referred to this reality when he said "There should be genuine programmes to promote mutual respect and understanding between these people and those who are living there. The return of the displaced people should not be seen and viewed by those who are living there as an intrusion into their lives or livelihoods." He also pointed to the need for "provincial council and its administration as well as local authorities" to take meaningful steps to ensure "provision and establishment of infrastructure facilities such as schools, mosques and places for engaging in trade and vocation."

There is also another important factor that needs to be kept in mind. This is the sense of relative deprivation that may arise if one set of deserving people are given good quality houses while those in neighboring communities do not get similar benefits. The northern Muslims were displaced from areas where other war-affected people also live. Those people who belong to the other communities must not feel that they are being left out or left behind to live in poorer quality housing. Civic activist Shreen Saroor pointed to the divisions within the Muslims themselves between those who had been displaced and those who were not displaced. If the sentiments of neighboring communities are not considered in the resettlement process, it could set in motion the possibility of new inter-community and also intra-community conflicts. Even if they are not provided with the new pre-fabricated houses, their areas could be provided with the same level of infrastructure support referred to by Selvakkumaran above.

One of the important messages to come out of the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Muslim expulsion was by independent researcher Mirak Raheem. He pointed out the larger context in which the expulsion of the northern Muslims took place. A few months previously in June, 600 policemen of Sinhalese ethnicity had been separated out and executed by the LTTE after they had been ordered to surrender by the Sri Lankan government that was desperately trying to sustain the ceasefire with the LTTE. This was followed a few months later by the army entry into the Vantharamoolai welfare camp where some 40,000 displaced Tamils were staying in, and 158 were taken out never to be seen again. All communities in the war-affected areas became victims and today they all await justice. It is therefore important that the government response to the injustices faced by the different communities, and by each and every individual, should not be ad hoc, but should be well planned and cohesive. Goodwill is the necessary first step, and is the welcome hallmark of the present multi-ethnic and multi-religious government, but it needs to be cohesive and holistic in approach, and one in which all aspects are taken into consideration.

Over 7,000 Acres of Tamil Land Occupied by Sri Lanka’s Military Finds Jaffna Secretariat

02/11/2015

Statistics produced by the Jaffna District Secretariat found that at least 7393 acres of land Tamil in Jaffna was under occupation of Sri Lanka’s military forces.

Following a survey conducted in September, the Jaffna District Secretariat found that Sri Lanka’s army occupied the land of 10,359 civilians, whilst the navy and police occupied the land of 136 civilians.
Tamil Guardian

Pass resolution regretting expulsion of Muslims by LTTE: TNA

November 2, 2015  11:03 am

MA Sumanthiran, MP and Spokesman of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), has suggested that the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) pass a resolution regretting the en masse expulsion of Muslims from the Northern Province by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in October-November 1990.

Sumanthiran made this suggestion at a function here earlier this week to mark the 25th anniversary of the infamous expulsion of 70,000 to 90,000 Muslims.

“Just as it passed a resolution condemning the genocide conducted against the Tamils, the NPC should pass a resolution condemning the en masse expulsion of Muslims by the LTTE which amounts to ethnic cleansing. If the NPC does not do it, the world will not take the Tamils’ contention that they had been subjected to genocide, seriously,” Sumanthiran said.

“The Tamils cannot condemn the misdeeds of the Sinhalese majority while ignoring the misdeeds of the Tamil majority,” the  Jaffna district MP further said.  

Asked if he plans to take up the matter with the NPC, which is dominated by the TNA, he said: “ I am not a member of the NPC. I have given my view. It’s for them to carry it forward.”

Between October and November 1990, Muslims were asked to leave in less than 24 hours. Each person was allowed only LKR 150 to LKR 2000 and a single change of clothing. All other properties were confiscated. Of the displaced, 20,000 continue to live in squalid camps in Puttalam, north of Colombo.

Resettlement of the returnees has been problematical in Mannar district. While some resident Tamils have questioned the returnees’ claims, the Central government had designated some Muslim farms as “forest land”.

The Lankan military also occupies some Muslim farmlands. According to Hilmy Ahamed of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, during the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, some forest land had been cleared to settle 3500 Sinhalese families from Hambantota and Suriuyawewa.

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera has said that the justice and reconciliation mechanisms to be set up by the Lankan government following the September 30 UN Human Rights Council’s resolution on Sri Lanka, will address the grievances of the displaced Muslims. (Courtesy – NIE)

Restoration of Muslim-Tamil relations in North

By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole-

November 2, 2015

Saturday 31 Aug. witnessed the gathering of a few hundred persons at Trimmer Hall at 3:30 PM. The event was chaired by Ahilan Kadirgamar for The Forum for Tamil Muslim Relations.

Proclaimed the banner on the stage, "Forum for Tamil Muslim Relations – Justice, Equality, Relations," drawing our attention to the need for concerted efforts at justice for the displaced Muslims and help to resettle them. Senior Lecturer Dr. Ms. S. Krishnakumar of the University of Jaffna read out a statement by the Women’s Forum on Tamil Muslim Relations which will go into a book. Kadirgamar and other speakers lamented how the return of the displaced refugees to their original homes had been abysmally slow. Many had been living as refugees for 25 years, i.e., almost a generation, and their return to Jaffna was a return to a strange place for their children who see their areas of refuge like Puttalam as their real home now. Out of an estimated 8,000 refugee families originating from Jaffna, 2,200 have registered their desire to return, and out of these, only 600 are living in Jaffna amidst difficulties.

How wide the gulf has grown was seen when Ms. A. C. Jancy, the Principal of Khatheeja Girls’ School, described in her speech in perfect Tamil, how a Tamil had asked her if she spoke Tamil. It reminded me of an incident in my own life of how separate communities living together can be so ignorant of each other. In Nigeria in 1979 or so, I was invited to a function at the home of a former Hindu Mayor of Jaffna. All were seated on the floor for their lunch just like at Tamil Christian functions. Yet, just for me, a table was laid out with cutlery.

What moved me to write this piece was TNA Parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran’s speech which responded to that by Professor S. H. Hasbullah of Peradeniya University who asked for an official response from the Tamil National Alliance to the enormity visited on the Muslim people. Mr. Sumanthiran made some points I have rarely heard expressed by elected representatives of the Tamil people. What he said needs to be placed on public record and widely heard. He said, among other things, that

* The Muslims are a separate people with their own traditions and way of life

* Tamil attempts and assertions to declare Muslims who are Tamil speaking as Tamils like the Tamil-speaking Hindus and Christians who comfortably call themselves Tamil, are wrong. It is for Muslims to say who they are and choose what to call themselves.

* He is an MP from the Federal Party which in its constitutions loudly proclaims the right of Muslims to self-determination

* When the Muslims of the North were asked to vacate within 48 hours leaving behind their homes and all their hard earned savings and property, it was indeed ethnic cleansing.

* It is self-serving rhetoric to shout for the army to vacate the lands they occupy and make way for displaced Tamils to return, when we ourselves will not lift a finger to help Muslim refugees return to their homes in Jaffna.

* We Tamils cry about genocide over what happened in 2009, but so long as we Tamils deny that what was done to Muslims was ethnic cleansing by us, no one will listen to us.

* Justice and the right to assurance of non-recurrence for Tamils must go hand in hand with the same for Muslims.

That far greater attention than given now is needed to settle the problems of the refugees once and for all was clear from things said and unsaid at the meeting. After speaker M. A. C. Moubin described how before their exodus, Muslims were taunted at school by derisory phrases like Choni and Kaakaa, another Tamil speaker instead of showing any sympathy denied that and asserted how well Tamils had treated Muslims and what happened was an aberration. As one who schooled entirely in Jaffna at mission institutions, the fact that I never had a Muslim classmate till I went to university, shows how well Muslims were treated and what little access they had to good schools, and that Tamils have much to gain by being exposed to Sri Lankan institutions. Not only did my world expand through new Muslim friends after I moved South, but I also witnessed in the South far worse descriptions of Muslims by my new Tamil friends such as Mukkaal (three quarters) which were outside the genteel speech of mission schools. Denying how badly Muslims were treated is to pour oil on fire, and takes us back to our more primitive origins.

The Sri Lankanness of these problems was forcefully made by Mr. C. Maliyadde (Director General of the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation at the Presidential Secretariat), who had come all the way from Colombo at the insistence, he said, of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. He was accompanied by his colleague Ambassador D. Casie Chetty. Mr. Maliyadde said that if we substituted Hambantota for Jaffna and Sinhalese for Muslim, the same problems can be seen elsewhere and that we should treat this as a Sri Lankan problem and seek a common solution. The point is very valid in that we do need each other to expand our horizons and vision. Yet, it needs to be balanced with the fact that Tamils and Muslims have a history of atrocities against them and preservation of identity is not only a cultural right but also affords safety. Hitting the balance will take political commitment, astuteness and daring as done by Mr. Sumanthiran

The evening showed on the positive side that much needs to be done as seen from the fact that only one TNA MP was present and no Chief Minister or provincial minister. Many who should have come and thrown their weight behind the problems faced by Muslims if they really cared, instead sent excuses to be read out. Worse, in the city of Jaffna where there are hardly any Muslims after the evil visited on them on 30 Oct., 1990, there were more Muslims than Tamils present at the function. The Jaffna Muslims are therefore indeed still alone and Tamils need urgently to do something about it.

The evening ended with a short, moving skit by Red Face Performing Group highlighting how returnees are sent from pillar to post as they seek to register themselves and claim what is only theirs.

Paradox in Central Bank’s monetary policy: 

Not everyone approves of the policy direction


Monday, 2 November 2015
IMF’s Resident Representative for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Dr. Eteri Kvintradze

Wrong monetary policy direction of the Central Bank
The IMF’s Resident Representative for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Dr. Eteri Kvintradze, a former Deputy Minister of Finance of Georgia Republic, opined in a recent seminar at the Postgraduate Institute of Management or PIM that Sri Lanka’s monetary policy should be “forward-looking”.

Paradox in Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Not Everyone Approves of the Policy Direction by Thavam Ratna

Prairie Awards To Wijewardene Clan For Fostering Lankan Journalism

By Shelton A. Gunaratne –November 2, 2015

Dr. Shelton A. Gunaratne

Prairie Awards to Wijewardene Clan for Fostering Lankan Journalism; Focus on Ranjith S. Wijewardene (Part 1)

A ‘Chip’ Off the ‘Old Block’

Am not I a child of the same Adam…
a chip of the same block, with him?
— Bishop (of Lincoln) Robert Sanderson’s Sermons (1621)

[Note: In this essay, I use this old saying “a chip of the same block” to mean someone who resembles his/her parent, especially in character. In Buddhist thinking, however, no namarupa can be identical because of bhava (becoming) that engenders the three marks of cyclic existence: anatta (no selfness), anicca (inconstancy) and dukkha(unsatisfactoriness).]

MOORHEAD, MN — Although Ranjith Sujiva Wijewardene, 78 (b. 30 June 1937), is only a couple years older than I, the dynamics of the Five Aggregates that make up him and me, which the Buddhist theory ofpaticcasamuppada (dependent co-arising) says conditioned our respective state of dukkha(unsatisfactoriness) in our current bhavacakra (wheel of becoming), invariably worked out in his favor. Thekarma (intentional action) etched into his sankhara (dispositions) aggregate apparently had a great impact in shaping his namarupa by scuttling many of the defilements that afflict most of the hoi polloi.

The proverb “like father, like son” fits well with Ranjith’s obsession with newspaper business. While his father Don Richard Wijewardene (DRW) dominated Lanka’s journalism and newspaper publishing industry in the first half of the 20th century, Ranjith and his cousin Upali Wijewardene (1938-1983), son of Don Walter, the youngest brother of DRW, dominated the island’s newspaper scene in the last two decades of the same century with the launching of two successful publishing houses to compete with the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd. (ANCL), the venerable publishing company that DRW had meticulously built up, only to be taken over by the state in 1973 as political vengeance.

In retrospect, however, from Ranjith’s current perspective, “The takeover was not all political vengeance. Revenge must have been sweet, but there was much cold calculation between 70 and 73 as to who would control ANCL eventually. This contention kept the wolves from the door, until the Dudley Senanayake funeral in April 73.”

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