MR visits Yoshitha Having obtained special permission

BY BUDDHI PRABODHA KARUNARATNE AND RATHINDRA KURUWITA 

2016-02-01

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited his son Yoshitha Rajapaksa, who was remanded on Saturday, after obtaining a special permission from the government.
According to law, no one is allowed to visit a person in remand custody on Sundays. Rajapaksa had requested permission from the Minister of Prison Reforms, D.M. Swaminathan to visit his son and the Minister had given permission, after informing Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Prisons Spokesperson T. N. Upuldeniya told Ceylon Today.

After obtaining approval, former President Rajapaksa and his son MP Namal Rajapaksa arrived yesterday to visit Yoshitha. Meanwhile Minister Arjuna Ranatunga has also visited the prison to see his brother Nishantha Ranatunga who was also arrested with Rajapaksa.
Upuldeniya added that prisons officers have taken measures to strengthen the security around the Welikada Prisons Complex, housing Yoshitha Rajapaksa, son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Speaking further he said more barriers and gates along with more prison guards were deployed to strengthen the security around the Welikade Prisons Complex.

Yoshitha Rajapaksa, Nishantha Ranatunga and three others were remanded on Saturday (30) by Kaduwela Magistrate's Court over the alleged financial irregularities in Carlton Sports Network (CSN).
Meanwhile, Upuldeniya has also said that more than 800 vacancies in Sri Lanka Prisons Department need to be filled by this year. Therefore examinations were carried out for the applicants for the relevant vacancies of 800 prison guards along with 100 prisons executive grade jailors, and they are soon to be interviewed, he added.

You Can Arrest Us, But You Cannot Wipe Us Out – Mahinda Rajapaksa

January 31, 2016

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa proclaimed that even if his entire family was arrested, including himself, no one can wipe out the history created by the Rajapaksa’s since 1936.

In a picture message uploaded on his official Facebook page just minutes after his son, Yoshitha was remanded for allegedly committing financial irregularities at the Carlton Sports Network, Rajapaksa said, “Arrest my entire family, and if that is not enough arrest me, but the temper of steel history left by the Rajapaksa’s since 1936 cannot be wiped out.”

The picture message depicted Rajapaksa feeding his now remanded son, Yoshitha cake during a birthday.

In a separate post, also on his Facebook page, Rajapaksa said that it is the parents who suffer the most when misfortune befalls a child.

Namal, Rajapaksa’s eldest son in a picture post uploaded on his Facebook and Twitter pages which showed Mahinda Rajapaksa in tears soon after the court verdict, said; “The man who wiped off the tears of an entire country, is today in tears.”

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On mad monks and chaotic government

Sunday, January 31, 2016 
Several wickedly problematic tragi-comedies are playing on Sri Lanka’s political stage right now, none of which are to the benefit of the country.

Why was no deterrent action taken earlier?

The spectacle of mad monks running amok in the Homagama Magistrate’s Court abusing the magistrate, the lawyers and the wife of disappeared journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda during an ongoing court hearing this week was unprecedented, assessed even by the abysmal non-governance that prevailed during the Rajapaksa decade. No doubt, this was a well orchestrated drama. But the question remains as to why the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe coalition did not take steps last year to bring the monks of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) and their unruly leader to heel?

This would have been perfectly possible given their notorious history of incitement to racial hatred, including during the Aluthgama communal disturbances in 2014. The Government did not need new laws for this purpose. As pointed out previously in these column spaces, the Penal Code and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Act (ICCPR Act, 2007) sufficed. But without actually employing what was available to send a clear message to saboteurs, wholly unwarranted amendments were sought to be made to existing laws. The amendments were then postponed on the floor of the House in considerable disarray after public protests that the clauses replicated provisions of the dreaded anti-terrorism laws.

In the meantime, a Presidential audience was granted to the BBS monks who thereafter became emboldened enough to cause a stir in the Homagama court premises. And therein hangs the tale of what exactly ails the ‘yahapalanaya’ (good governance) administration that was so bravely voted in by determined Sri Lankans last year. True, the paralysis of basic administration is no doubt deliberate in some respects, fuelled by saboteurs of the previous regime. But along with dangerous tolerance shown to rampaging monks, incoherent leadership prevails across the board, from limping anti-corruption efforts to a reconciliation initiative which remains mired in confusion worse confounded.

Glimpsing a worrying obduracy

In recent days moreover, President Maithripala Sirisena’s responses to Sri Lanka’s democratic dilemmas appear to have become obdurate. In interviews given to overseas news channels (BBC and Al Jazeera) the President indulges in rhetoric which is eerily reminiscent of his predecessor in presidential office. Quite apart from the categorical rejection of a ‘hybrid’ war crimes tribunal which is unsurprising, he sidesteps the question of crimes committed during the end stages of the war. And in dismissing allegations by Ekneligoda’s widow that officers of the army high command were obstructing investigations into the disappearance, he asserts therein that even charges leveled by the court in this regard were ‘wrong.’ Certainly if an ordinary citizen had made these claims in public, it would have amounted to an affront to the court.

Meanwhile, brushing aside charges of nepotism, the explanation is that his brother’s appointment as Chairman of Sri Lanka Telecom did not amount an exercise of state power, that other relatives had (only) been appointed to ‘insignificant’ posts and that his son sitting as a member of the Sri Lanka delegation inside the hall of the United Nations General Assembly was unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

Given the singular nature of the Rajapaksa Presidency which threw basic governance to the four winds during its decade in power, it was inevitable that some lingering traces of the disease would remain. But President Sirisena’s carefully rehearsed excuses in this regard strike a discordant note, quite apart from being astoundingly asinine in their basic logic or lack thereof.

Concrete action needed, not allegations

Neither are there any reassurances forthcoming from President Sirisena’s partner in governance. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe engaged in his own theatrical dramatics in Parliament on Thursday with scorching criticism directed at Sri Lanka’s mainstream media. True to previous such outbursts, the Prime Minister named and shamed some journalists of having a racist agenda and being ‘collaborators’ with the Rajapaksa regime.

In principle, the Prime Minister’s concerns may be valid. There is undoubtedly much that is wrong where the integrity of the Sri Lankan media is concerned. However the same is true of the judiciary, lawyers, academics and professionals. We must not forget that the media is but a reflection of society itself. Thus, the degeneration that all sectors of Sri Lanka have been subjected to during previous decades has been profound.

That said and while noting a regrettable loss of decorum on the part of the Prime Minister in naming individuals of little repute who must be delighted at being so honoured, the use of parliamentary privilege for these ends is not a good precedent. Even more seriously, he alleged that an editor had intervened during the previous administration to ‘silence’ a journalistic colleague. The Prime Minister is duty bound to identify the editor concerned rather than make allegations under the cloak of privilege.

Distinctive fault lines becoming clearer

In any event, we may justifiably look askance at politicians lecturing the media on integrity. The Prime Minister faulted the media for not having stood up for judicial independence. He may well be right. But what did his 2002-2003 UNF government do in response to the scandalous allegations against the Sarath Silva Court when they came into power? Despite making this one of their campaign promises, they miserably reneged on that promise and played political games until the very last moment when they filed an impeachment motion which was adroitly foiled by then President Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Predictably, former President Mahinda Rajapakse and his supporters have cried foul that the Prime Minister’s outburst is a threat to free media. This is rich coming from those who took the state of the media to a new low during their decade of darkness. We may disregard this with the contempt that it deserves.

But in sum, it seems as if the ‘we are with the people’ veneer is wearing somewhat thin on the part of those in power who look increasingly besieged by their own ambitious promises. The signs are not propitious as we face daunting challenges ahead. The fault lines of the Government in dealing with these challenges are becoming distinctively clearer.

This must remain a matter of intense public concern.

Patriotism Vs Racism

• From Hitler’s Swastika To Sinhale’s Distorted Lion Flag

by Wimalanath Weeraratne- Sunday, January 31, 2016

Someone said that patriotism in Sri Lanka is sacrificing one’s neighbour to salvage your motherland! Sri Lanka has seen the ugly head of racism and Sinhalese chauvinism trying to make a comeback during the recent past. One would ask whether Sri Lanka would head back to a tribal past, a primitive society based on ethno-religious lines, instead of pursuing on becoming an advanced, developed nation?  Undoubtedly, sections of the country want an archaic, feudal system re-imposed, taking Sri Lanka even beyond Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.

I had the chance to speak to several three wheeler drivers and vehicle owners who had the Sinha Le sticker. It was not strange that many had nothing to do with racism, in fact several said they had it because they thought the sticker looked nice. There is nothing wrong in loving one’s own race. However, loving one’s race at the cost of another is highly detrimental.

One who loves his or her own race should not show off but should take a ‘noiseless’ approach. Although there are many who have a great love for his or her own race or religion, a majority does not showcase this to others. Unfortunately, a majority of those who show off their love for their race, resort to violent tactics. Such persons are either retards or hypocrites in my belief. They claim that their country is at siege from foreign conspirators and their local collaborators.

Sinha Le                                                       Read More »

Bigotry’s abbot goes beyond the pale of legal redemption

Sunday, January 31, 2016

He may not have realised it yet, perhaps it may take some time for the light to shine through his burly, black, boorish brawn, but Bodu Bala Sena Chief Galagodaatte Gnanasara Thera is, no doubt, the darling of the foreign missionaries who use his mug to portray the ugly face of Buddhism.

Arrested Body Bala Chief Gnanasara Thera arrives in his Benz to face the music: Will he get his comeuppance this time around?

Neither may he have fathomed it yet, but he is also the pin up boy of the Tamil Diaspora who use his racist acts as the choreographed steps and his hate filled words as the heady music to dance their Eelam Rhapsody upon Lanka’s grave.

The more he attacked the Muslims in the name of singlehandedly protecting Buddhism in Lanka the more he became a Buddhist Ayatollah. The more he denigrated other races and other religions and threatened violence upon them, the more he turned Buddhism’s disciples to a fundamentalist Buddhist Taliban, ever ready to stain, without qualms, Buddhism’s saffron robe with blood.

The more he freighted his shabby doctrine to hot spots brimming with communal tension as he did when he went to Beruwela in June 2014; and the more he opened his sewers’ sluice gates, like he did at that same venue, and gave his pent up racist spittle and bigoted foam free flow and decreed the ‘final solution’ to the Muslims as their ordained punishment if even one Sinhalese was touched; the more he gave fodder to Eelamists the world over to nourish and sustain their utopian dream and justify to the world why it was impossible for the Tamils to live without fear in Lanka as equal citizens, with a majority race determined to exercise its racial superiority and allow no place in the sun for the minorities, be they Tamils or Muslims,

But fifteen years ago it was this same monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara, now meteorically raised to the heights of national infamy, who, whilst driving a car in a drunken stupor, knocked down a man who had to be rushed to hospital with a smashed leg. He was convicted for drink and driving, in the Colombo Magistrates (Road Motor Vehicle) Court in case No 6315/2000, including the charge, amongst nine, of not reporting the accident.

For one who claims that his every act is done in the name of the Buddha Sasana and that every adverse reaction to it is levelled against the Buddha Sasana, and that if there is any matter to be settled it must be settled then and there, Gnanasara Thera is quite averse to discussing the incident and told a television interviewer two years ago that it will be a waste of time to talk about it and to skip the subject which would otherwise take twenty minutes talk time to explain.

After remaining as a blessed nonentity for the nation’s good during the turbulent war years, he graduated to the big league when peace had dawned to raise the lion’s tail of Sinhala patriotism against a new racial foe, the Muslims; and launched the Bodu Bala Sena in a lavish ceremony from the BMICH under the Rajapaksa regime’s patronage with the declared aim of subjugating the Muslim minority through waves of terror.

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Will Rajitha undermine the account details which Anura demanded?

 Jan 31, 2016

Health minister Rajitha Senarathna avoided answering the question raised by the chief opposition whip Anura Dissanayake last 27th when announcing cabinet decisions, about the country’s elite group of people’s account details containing billions of rupees supposedly alleged to be deposited in a bank in Dubai.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake questioned the Prime Minister to inform the factual current situation to the parliament, about Rajitha Senarathna’s the continuous statements about these accounts. Leader of the house Lakshman Kiriella on the following day said that the Prime Minister would answer the question, but he did not. During the cabinet decision media communiqué when a journalist raised a questioned Rajitha Senarathna said the investigations have been handed over to the central bank of America and the required information reaching is getting late.

 

However in many occasions minister Rajitha has spoken publicly about these illegal bank accounts. During the cabinet decision announcement on February 14th minister exposed that more than one billion US dollars deposited in a private bank in Dubai by a member of an elite political family and another three people related to this family.

 

One members bank account had US dollars 1.086 billion, a businessmen cum a MP have US dollars 500 and a former secretary and a chairman of an institute have US dollars 1.8 billion deposited in a joint account. Meantime Rajitha Senarathna’s son Chathura Senarathna said that he saw from his eyes the 420,656 million rupees illegally hidden by the Rajapaksa son’s in the foreign banks.

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera too once told that illegal money is being deposited in bank in Dubai but expressed his displeasure how these information’s were revealed to the media before investigations.

 

However nobody able to reveal about these with credible evidence so far. Therefore JVP leader Anura Kumara questioned about this in the parliament last 27th.

 

Reports reaching us conform that Sri Lanka lost the opportunity of fetching information about these illegal pelf deposited in a bank in Dubai. In spite of revealing information’s to the media, taking irregular actions and failing to lead stealthy investigations, the Sri Lankan government lost opportunity to get information’s to retrieve the money back.

 

Police inside information emphasized, minister Rajitha, in spite of revealing stealthy information’s before formal investigations, about these Dubai bank accounts and other criminal charges, the investigation team have suffered serious setbacks. Before disclosing about the CCTV footage of the murder of the rugby player Wasim Thajudeen, Rajitha Senarathna said that he saw the murder recorded in the CCTV cameras. However so far no such visuals have been located and if there was such a doubt is created with the investigation team, was an opportunity given for the those criminals to destroy the evidences.

 

Political analysts say serious doubts have been erupted about this. Meantime so far no investigations have started against Rajitha Senarathna about the allegation leveled against him about the ownership of eight ships belong to the latter from the Rajapaksa era. Although a complaint has been made currently to the Commission to Investigate Bribery & Corruption but so far no credible steps have been taken.

 

Political analysts say that it would be problematic that the President and the Prime Minister continue to keep Minister Rajitha Senarathna as the cabinet spokesperson for the amount of allegations leveled against him and for presenting false information’s.

Funds given to extremists during Rajapaksa regime

SUNDAY, 31 JANUARY 2016

Funds were released to an extremist organization for its activities from a secret account in the Ministry of Defense during the period Mahinda Rajapaksa regime ruled the country. This has been revealed by state intelligence services.

It was discussed at a meeting held between government authorities and officers of the state intelligence services regarding dangerous and instigating campaigns that have emerged in the country at present.

A senior officer in charge of intelligence services has told media questioning about or getting information regarding the account has been prohibited.

The officer said the CID that investigated the murders and mayhem committed by an extremist organization in Beruwala area in 2014 has sent the files including their observations to the Attorney General for future action.

It is reported that information regarding powerful people of the previous regime who were behind the extremist organization has been revealed to intelligence services. Meanwhile, weekend newspapers had reported that persons in a motorcade held by the extremist organization were entertained at UPFA Parliamentarian Pavithra Wanniarachchi’s residence at Pelmadulla.

Academic boycott of Israel takes off in Italy

An image from a January 2014 jobs fair at Israel’s Technion, which featured numerous arms companies to which the university has close ties. Hundreds of Italian academics are urging a boycott of Israeli institutions, in particular Technion. (Source: Facebook)

Stephanie Westbrook-

31 January 2016

There have been major breakthroughs in Italy for the campaign to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

More than 200 academics from 50 Italian universities have signed a call for the boycott of Israeli academic institutions until Israel complies with international law.

This is the first time a significant number of Italian academics have taken a public stand in support of the Palestinian-led campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).

The move comes just months after Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi lashed out at the BDS movement as “stupid and futile” in a speech to the Israeli parliament.

The Italian scholars join more than 1,500 of their colleagues in the United Kingdom, Belgium, South Africa,Ireland and Brazil who have endorsed similar pledges in recent months.

The scholars endorsing the Italian call, which echoes the pledge signed by UK academics last October, are committing to refuse invitations from Israeli academic institutions and not to act as referees or participate in conferences funded, organized or sponsored by Israeli institutions.

Consistent with the guidelines set out by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), which targets institutions not individuals, the academics clarify that they will “continue to work and cooperate with [their] Israeli colleagues individually.”

They also reiterate the anti-racist nature of the boycott campaign.

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The United States Should Admit It No Longer Has a Middle East Policy

If the current — and future — U.S. administration wants to battle the Islamic State, save Syria, and keep ties with Israel, it’s got to ditch the Cold War playbook.

BY STEPHEN M. WALT-JANUARY 29, 2016

Do you know what the United States should do in the Middle East? The answer to that question used to be pretty obvious, but not anymore. For most of the past half-century, U.S. leaders knew who their friends and enemies were and had a fairly clear sense of what they were trying to accomplish. No longer. Today, there is greater uncertainty about U.S. interests in the region, more reason to question the support it gives its traditional partners, and no consensus on how to deal with the dizzying array of actors and forces that are now buffeting the region.

One thing is clear: The playbook we’ve been using since the 1940s isn’t going to cut it anymore. We still seem to think the Middle East can be managed if we curry favor with local autocrats, back Israel to the hilt, constantly reiterate the need for U.S. “leadership,” and when all else fails, blow some stuff up. But this approach is manifestly not working, and principles that informed U.S. policy in the past are no longer helpful.

Things used to be so simple — and no, that’s not just nostalgia talking. During the Cold War, for example, the central elements of U.S. Middle East policy were reasonably well understood. First and foremost, the United States sought to contain and, if possible, reduce Soviet influence in the region. It also wanted to make sure Middle East oil and gas continued to flow to world markets and that Israel survived, although the dysfunctional “special relationship” that now exists did not begin to emerge until the late 1960s.

To achieve these goals, from 1945 to 1990 the United States generally acted as an “offshore balancer.” In sharp contrast to its military deployments in Europe or Asia, Washington didn’t station large ground forces in the Middle East and kept its overall military footprint low, relying instead on a variety of local allies and clients. In particular, the United States backed conservative Arab monarchies in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the Persian Gulf; had a close relationship with Iran until the 1979 revolution; and saw Israel as a strategic asset mostly because it kept defeating the Soviet Union’s various Arab clients. Indeed, a string of defeats and rising economic problems eventually convinced Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to abandon his Soviet patron and realign with Washington. The United States also played a balance-of-power game in the Gulf: Ronald Reagan and Bush 41 tilted toward Iraq during its war with Iran, and then Bush turned against Iraq when it invaded Kuwait in 1990.

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‘Eyewash’: How the CIA deceives its own workforce about operations

Aerial of C.I.A. headquarters in Virginia. (Carol M. Highsmith/Getty Images)

By Greg Miller and Adam Goldman-January 31

Senior CIA officials have for years intentionally deceived parts of the agency workforce by transmitting internal memos that contain false information about operations and sources overseas, according to current and former U.S. officials who said the practice is known by the term “eyewash.”

Agency veterans described the tactic as an infrequent but important security measure, a means of protecting vital secrets by inserting fake communications into routine cable traffic while using separate channels to convey accurate information to cleared recipients.

But others cited a significant potential for abuse. Beyond the internal distrust implied by the practice, officials said there is no clear mechanism for labeling eyewash cables or distinguishing them from legitimate records being examined by the CIA’s inspector general, turned over to Congress or declassified for historians.

Senate investigators uncovered apparent cases of eyewashing as part of a multi-year probe of the CIA’s interrogation program, according to officials who said that the Senate Intelligence Committee found glaring inconsistencies in CIA communications about classified operations, including drone strikes.

[Read :Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s interrogation program]

 Alleged al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah (Obtained by The Washington Post)

At least two eyewashing cases are cited in the classified version of the committee’s final report, according to officials who have reviewed the document. In one instance, leaders at CIA headquarters sent a cable to the agency’s station in Pakistan saying operators there were not authorized to pursue a potentially lethal operation against alleged al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah. But a second set of instructions sent to a smaller circle of recipients told them to disregard the other message and that the mission could proceed.

“The people in the outer levels who didn’t have insider access were being lied to,” said a U.S. official familiar with the report. “They were being intentionally deceived.”

The CIA’s mission regularly involves carrying out operations that are designed to deceive foreign governments and other adversaries. But officials said that eyewashing is fundamentally different in that it is aimed at an internal audience — sowing misinformation among the agency’s rank and file.

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India to build satellite tracking station in Vietnam that offers eye on China

People watch as India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D6) blasts off carrying a 2117 kg GSAT-6 communication satellite from the Satish Dhawan space centre at Sriharikota, India, August 27, 2015.REUTERS/STRINGER/FILES

BY SANJEEV MIGLANI AND GREG TORODE

Mon Jan 25, 2016

India will set up a satellite tracking and imaging centre in southern Vietnam that will give Hanoi access to pictures from Indian earth observation satellites that cover the region, including China and the South China Sea, Indian officials said.

The move, which could irritate Beijing, deepens ties between India and Vietnam, who both have long-running territorial disputes with China.

While billed as a civilian facility - earth observation satellites have agricultural, scientific and environmental applications - security experts said improved imaging technology meant the pictures could also be used for military purposes.

Hanoi especially has been looking for advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance technologies as tensions rise with China over the disputed South China Sea, they said.

"In military terms, this move could be quite significant," said Collin Koh, a marine security expert at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. "It looks like a win-win for both sides, filling significant holes for the Vietnamese and expanding the range for the Indians."

The state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will fund and set up the satellite tracking and data reception centre in Ho Chi Minh City to monitor Indian satellite launches, the Indian officials said. Indian media put the cost at around $23 million.

India, whose 54-year-old space programme is accelerating, with one satellite launch scheduled every month, has ground stations in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, Brunei, Biak in eastern Indonesia and Mauritius that track its satellites in the initial stages of flight.

The Vietnam facility will bolster those capabilities, said Deviprasad Karnik, an ISRO spokesman.

QUID PRO QUO

But unlike the other overseas stations, the facility will also be equipped to receive images from India's earth observation satellites that Vietnam can use in return for granting India the tracking site, said an Indian government official connected with the space programme.

"This is a sort of quid pro quo which will enable Vietnam to receive IRS (Indian remote sensing) pictures directly, that is, without asking India," said the official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

"Obviously it will include parts of China of interest to Vietnam."

Chinese coastal naval bases, the operations of its coastguard and navy and its new man-made islands in the disputed Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea would be targets of Vietnamese interest, security experts said.

Another Indian official said New Delhi would also have access to the imagery.

India has 11 earth observation satellites in orbit, offering pictures with differing resolutions and areas, the ISRO said.

Indian officials had no timeframe for when the centre would be operational.

"This is at the beginning stages, we are still in dialogue with Vietnamese authorities," said Karnik.

Vietnam's Foreign Ministry confirmed the project, but provided few other details.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing that Beijing hoped the facility "will be able to make a positive contribution to pushing forward relevant cooperation in the region". China's Defence Ministry said the proposed tracking station wasn't a military issue.

Vietnam launched its first earth observation satellite in 2013, but Koh said it was not thought to produce particularly high resolution images.

BLURRED LINES

Security experts said Vietnam would likely seek real-time access to images from the Indian satellites as well as training in imagery analysis, a specialised intelligence field.

"The advance of technology means the lines are blurring between civilian and military satellites," said Trevor Hollingsbee, a retired naval intelligence analyst with Britain's Defence Ministry. "In some cases, the imagery from a modern civilian satellite is good enough for military use."

Sophisticated military reconnaissance satellites can be used to capture military signals and communications, as well as detailed photographs of objects on land, capturing detail to less than a metre, Koh and other experts said.

The tracking station will be the first such foreign facility in Vietnam and follows other agreements between Hanoi and New Delhi that have cemented security ties.

India has extended a $100 million credit line for Hanoi to buy patrol boats and is training Vietnamese submariners in India while Hanoi has granted oil exploration blocks to India in waters off Vietnam that are disputed with China.

Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has shown a greater willingness to step up security ties with countries such as Vietnam, overriding concerns this would upset China, military officials said.

"You want to engage Vietnam in every sphere. The reason is obvious - China," said retired Indian Air Force group captain Ajay Lele at the New Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.

Both India and Vietnam are also modernising their militaries in the face of Beijing's growing assertiveness, having separately fought wars with China in past decades.

Australian-based scholar Carl Thayer, who has studied Vietnam's military since the late 1960s, said the satellite tracking facility showed both nations wanted to enhance security ties.

"Their interests are converging over China and the South China Sea," he said. 

(Additional reporting by Megha Rajagopalan in Beijing and Ho Binh Minh in Hanoi; Editing by Dean Yates)

Beijing takes a gamble on Vietnamese leadership struggle

Nguyen Phu Trong, left, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. Pic: AP

by Alistair Denness-31st January 2016

The current General Secretary of the Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, successfully secured a second term this week, after a fiercely contested leadership campaign. His main rival in the contest for party leadership was the incumbent Prime Minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, but far from being a typical run-of-the-mill leadership challenge, this was a battle which would provide the vision for Vietnam’s future direction: whether as a socialist-cum-capitalist nation firmly ensconced within the heart of Southeast Asia’s efforts to branch out onto the world stage; or as a continuing hard line communist state and vassal of Beijing.

Vietnamese politics are complex, maintaining an uneasy alliance at times between party and state. Sitting at the head of a National Assembly, the highest government institution, the position of Prime Minster is ostensibly the nation’s foremost – ahead even of the State President and National Assembly Chair. In truth, however, it is the General Secretary of the party who calls the big shots. The PM might lead the nation in its day-to-day running but if the General Secretary decides a course of governmental action does not coincide with party policy, then he can ensure that it hits a fairly hefty brick wall. And with radical plans afoot to bring Vietnam into the international fold, at least in terms of part liberalizing its economy, this explains why Dung was so eager to contest a position which, to general appearances, seems the inferior.

Political pundits had invested much faith and optimism in Dung’s accession to the post of General Secretary. Although Trong had the full backing of the Communist old guard, there was a definite feeling that change might be in the air, with the support of the nation’s youth and business community firmly behind Dung. Partly this was due to Dung’s efforts to liberalize the economy, but equally so what that liberalization meant for Vietnam’s relationship with China. Dung’s pursuit of membership in the Trans Pacific Partnership, (TPP) for instance, which it is predicted will increase Vietnam’s GDP by $36 billion, changes the direction of the nation’s economic loyalties. With the TPPvery much a part of US policy, Hanoi has shown, under Dung’s leadership, that it is not wholly averse to following Washington’s lead rather than following in the traditional policy of extending its loyalty to Beijing.

In recent years, the relationship between China and Vietnam has been rather bumpy, and Dung’s courtship of China’s rival is a reflection of this. Tensions over territorial disputes stretch back decades, but have most recently have arisen over what Vietnam considers illegal drilling operations in nearby waters. Beijing made some attempt to pacify the consequent ire, but then, right in the middle of the congress, towed another massive exploration rig right into the middle of disputed territories. No coincidence, many observers claim, in what is an obvious attempt to rattle a few sabers and influence the outcome of the 12^th National Congress in favor of Trong’s pro-Chinese faction.

This is not the first time that China has been accused of exerting influence upon the proceedings. On the 23^rd December, members of the party Central Committee landed in Beijing for five days of meetings with senior Chinese leaders, purportedly to discuss bilateral ties. The official reports, however, vary considerably from unofficial sources, as well as those of independent observers, who claim the meeting’s true purpose was to discuss Chinese dissatisfaction with a pro-US Dung government and alternative leadership that Beijing might be happy to deal with in future. Beijing, it seems, has never quite forgiven Dung for his heroic verbal assault on the unequal relationship that China expected from its southern “ally”.  And its gamble on attempting to influence the future leadership of Vietnam could have seriously backfired, much as it has in the Taiwan elections, where the electorate has shown with its ballot slips that it refuses to be influenced by its cross-straits neighbor. Not only might it have been left bereft of a significant ideological ally in the region, but a clear signal would have been sent to the rest of the world that Beijing’s influence in the region, as a friend, mentor and sometime aggressor to the Southeast Asian nations, was waning.

Despite the optimism of those observers who expected Vietnam to follow through with its early promise, it became swiftly apparent that Dung, and those whom he represented, was not to have it his own way. Before the congress had even begun, events unfolded in a way that left the Prime Minster out in the cold, sidelined by the communist old guard through exclusion from the list of candidates. A last minute challenge was mounted by Dung, but it was, alas, to prove futile. Long standing party regulations on the matter forced him to retire from the contest, leaving Trong home and dry in pursuit of the party’s crown jewel. Furthermore, Dung is now officially off the scene, having reached the compulsory age of retirement; even though Trong, several years his senior, has somehow managed to extend his position of authority for another term.

Beijing may believe it has got precisely what it wanted from the congress, but would do well to reassess its relationship with Hanoi. Dung has indeed been forced off the scene, but the current zeitgeist is very much a legacy of what the former PM brought to the nation’s door; the TPP is still going ahead, as is the newly formed ASEAN Economic Community. Consequently, certain liberalizations are being necessarily introduced as part of those agreements – liberalizations which are more likely to evolve than simply be maintained. Most importantly, however, with the majority of Vietnam’s youth firmly in favor of a less servile relationship with China, it may simply be a matter of waiting for the old guard’s numbers to thin to the extent that a new Vietnam is able to take shape. China’s influence may still be intact for the moment, but it has far steeper challenges ahead.