The ‘Emperor’ on logs:the murky business of making cars out of imported used parts

by Rajan Philips-May 7, 2016, 8:26 pm 

It is literally a case of the Emperor hoisted on logs. But the Emperor in this instance is not a king or a former president, but the name of the car produced by assembling imported used car parts for the domestic market. A private company began this business in 2003 after getting the coveted BOI (Board of Investment) approval for producing an initial quota of 2025 car assemblages. About 400 Emperor cars were produced and sold but the owners who bought them ran into road blocks in not being able to legally register their vehicles. The matter went to courts and has since become a football involving the Courts, the cabinet of Ministers, the Attorney General, the BOI, the Commissioner General of Motor Traffic (CGMT) and the Police. It is a strange game of football in that nobody wants to kick any ball, except the courts which have to deal with it whenever the matter comes before them, and the police who pounce on the Emperor whenever the poor contraption hits the roads. In the last week of April the private company making these vehicles took the matter to the Supreme Court alleging contempt against the CGMT for refusing to abide by an earlier court ruling and register the Emperor cars. In addition, about 60 buyers of the vehicles are also said to be launching another fundamental rights application alleging that the government’s refusal to register the vehicles is a violation of their rights as citizens and consumers.

The court motions were reported in last week’s Sunday Island, and I found the news report to be possessed of real public interest in contrast to the political fuss that was going on about measuring whose May Day was bigger! The last word on the size of meetings and the substance of speeches fittingly belongs to Dr. Colvin R de Silva whom I once heard perorate at a New Town Hall meeting: "the size of an audience has never affected the substance of my speech or the manner of its delivery." Where substance gets lacking size becomes the main political prop, and crowd size seems to have become the mainstay of the Rajapaksa loyalists. Yet, for all their predictions and assertions the Rajapaksa, rather the Joint Opposition (with due disregard to the disgraced former Media Secretary) rally is said to have been much smaller than the show put up by the UNP, and also a little smaller than the SLFP’s ‘decentralized’ Provincial May Day rally in Galle. That said, good sized political rallies are not going to help the Sirisena-Wickremasinghe government positively differentiate itself from its Rajapaksa predecessor. People are looking for real differences in government actions and in results. Specifically, in the context of the Emperor fiasco, what action is the government going to take and what result is it planning to achieve?

The Emperor question: To register or not to register

The Emperor saga begins in April 2002, when the Board of Investment gave approval to Vehicles Lanka (Private) Limited to make cars out of imported used car parts purportedly from Japan. Some news reports called it a Sri Lanka-Japan joint venture, although there was no inter-governmental involvement and I have not come across references to any specific Japanese partner. The business was described as a Rs. 500 million venture, located in Panagoda, Homagama. Later it has transpired that the vehicles were assembled in the company’s factory in Minuwangoda. But before any assembly could begin, the BOI recanted and then reversed its recantation on the approval it had given.

There was understandably furious opposition from the Brahmins of car imports, the venerable Ceylon Motor Traders Association (CMTA). The Association threatened legal action against the upstart new kid in car business. Allegations were made and denied about "budded vehicles" (used cars brought in two halves, welded and sold), the safety of car users and other road users, and negative environmental effects. In July 2002, three months after the first BOI approval, CMTA lawyers wrote to the then BOI Director General and Chairman, and got no reply. They then wrote to the Minister of Enterprise Development, Industrial Policy and Investment Promotion (long winded as usual), and managed to get a statement from the Ministry Secretary raising questions and concerns about the Emperor business. Apparently based on that statement and other representations, the Investor Facilitation Committee directed the cancellation of the BOI approval. This was in January, 2003, with committee acting more in oversight than facilitating. Six months later, on the 2nd of June, Vehicles Lanka, the makers of Emperor, went to the Supreme Court as a matter of fundamental rights. Nine days later, on June 11, 2003, the BOI reversed its revocation of the initial approval. So the Emperor was re-approved. And the approval stands as of today is the contention of Vehicles Lanka. But much oil, used or not, has spilled between 2003 and the current court proceedings.

To give some context and faces – 2002 and 2003 were the years of the short-lived but hyper-peace-active UNP government. The BOI chief at that time was Arjuna Mahendran, now the Governor of the Central Bank. He was characteristically charming in explaining the first BOI approval: "The BOI wrote to the Transport Ministry for advice. But the Ministry remained non-committal. So we went head and granted approval for the project." Whether future Central Bank events were then casting their BOI shadows, it’s not for me to say. And there were other faces. The minister I referred to earlier was none other than GL Peiris, then happily ensconced in the Wickremesinghe cabinet. And the Chair of the Investor Facilitation Committee, that recommended the rescinding of the BOI approval, was the redoubtable R. Paskeralingam.

That was also the period of uneasy cohabitation of an SLFP President and a UNP Prime Minister. The cohabitation ended dramatically with the President sacking three important UNP ministers in October, 2003, and then sacking the whole government by dissolving parliament in April 2004. Inadvertently, President Kumaratunga set the stage for the Rajapaksa presidency to take over Sri Lanka in November 2005. Amidst all the political turmoil, the Emperor assemblage remained unborn. But it was soon reborn and has been stuck in controversy ever since. The matter went to courts again after the Commissioner General of Motor Traffic stopped first, allowed and then stopped the registration of the assembled vehicles. Even the Supreme Court ruling authorizing registration has not been enough to change CGMT’s reluctance to allow registration. The Rajapaksa cabinet, that included Law Professor GL Peiris, took a curious decision and asked the Attorney General to review the Supreme Court decision. Then country knows what happened when matters were referred to the AG’s Department during the days of the emperor. The lawyers for Vehicles Lanka are now arguing not only contempt of court by the government but also illegality. Three judges of the Supreme Court are set to begin full hearing on June 13, 2016.

To its credit, when the matter first came before it, the Supreme Court appointed an independent Experts Committee – comprising representatives from the Ministry of Finance, Customs, Environmental Authority and the University of Moratuwa. While authorizing registration, the court also directed Vehicles Lanka to start using only imported new parts within three years. Curiously, or not so curiously, the BOI did not do anything of the kind. There should have been a comprehensive technical and policy review before approving a venture of this kind. And old habits are continuing unabated. While the Emperor was being put on logs, the BOI has been announcing other assembly ventures over the years. I have come across four such announcements after 2008. The latest was the announcement of the plan for a Volkswagen assembly plant in Kuliyapitiya. It is not clear whether the assembly would involve used or new parts from Germany. And more to follow, according to the BOI, from Toyota and Nissan in Japan.

The Emperor story is an illustration of total government failure at every step – from the first BOI approval to the current stalemate, and spanning three different governments and as many Presidents and Prime Ministers. The failure involves the intersection of several policy areas, regulatory frameworks, conflicting interests, hapless bureaucrats, and political appointees and their social connections. At the apex of the mess is the cabinet of ministers, and crushed at the bottom are the unsuspecting citizens who purchased the Emperor cars. Who will give them redress? On the other hand, times are getting tough for vehicle importers. Their Association has announced a six month moratorium on imports due to the falling rupee and rising VAT. But the BOI is merrily announcing more assemblies with imported parts. And the political leaders are pre-occupied with measuring crowd sizes.

Panama Papers: Source breaks silence on Mossack Fonseca leaks

May 07, 2016

He starts the statement by citing "income equality" as a motive.

The Panama Papers have shown how some wealthy people use offshore firms to evade tax and avoid sanctions.

The papers belonged to the Mossack Fonseca law firm. It denies any wrongdoing and says it is the victim of a hack.

The papers were investigated by hundreds of investigative journalists, including from the BBC, who worked in secret with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) for months.
The documents have revealed the hidden assets of hundreds of politicians, officials, current and former national leaders, celebrities and sports stars.

They list more than 200,000 shell companies, foundations and trusts set up in tax havens around the world.

The John Doe statement came shortly before US President Barack Obama delivered an address on the economy, in which he cited the Panama Papers as highlighting the problem of corruption and tax evasion.

He said the US would require banks to identify those behind shell corporations. Mr Obama said his administration's actions would allow it to do a better job of making sure people paid taxes.

'Immunity'

Although the name John Doe is used, the gender of the source has not been revealed.

In the statement, The Revolution will be Digitized, John Doe starts by saying: "Income equality is one of the defining issues of our time."

He adds: "Banks, financial regulators and tax authorities have failed. Decisions have been made that have spared the wealthy while focusing instead on reining in middle- and low-income citizens."

He goes on to say: "Thousands of prosecutions could stem from the Panama Papers, if only law enforcement could access and evaluate the actual documents.

"ICIJ and its partner publications have rightly stated that they will not provide them to law enforcement agencies.

"I, however, would be willing to co-operate with law enforcement to the extent that I am able."

But he adds: "Legitimate whistleblowers who expose unquestionable wrongdoing, whether insiders or outsiders, deserve immunity from government retribution."

'Sordid acts'

Responding to speculation about his or her identity, John Doe's statement says: "For the record, I do not work for any government or intelligence agency, directly or as a contractor, and I never have.

"My viewpoint is entirely my own, as was my decision to share the documents with Suddeutsche Zeitung and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), not for any specific political purpose, but simply because I understood enough about their contents to realise the scale of the injustices they described."

John Doe says that global judicial systems have "utterly failed to address the metastasizing tax havens spotting Earth's surface".

He says: "I decided to expose Mossack Fonseca because I thought its founders, employees and clients should have to answer for their roles in these crimes, only some of which have come to light thus far.

"It will take years, possibly decades, for the full extent of the firm's sordid acts to become known."

Panama-based Mossack Fonseca says it was hacked by servers based abroad and has filed a complaint with the Panamanian attorney general's office.

It says it has not acted illegally and that information was being misrepresented.

Mahinda’s & Wimal’s mud factory

SATURDAY, 07 MAY 2016

The Ashok Leyland bus fraud of the SLTB by former Minister of Transport Kumara Welgama was exposed by the Leader of the JVP and Chief Whip of the Opposition Anura Dissanayaka in Parliament recently.  In the SLTB fraud committed by Kumara Welgama 1000 buses were bought paying Rs.one million more for each bus.

Mr. Anura Dissanayaka was involved in exposing this massive fraud and Mr. Kumara Welgama’s brother Nimal Welgama came forward to protect Mr. Kumara Welgama. Nimal Welgama, the owner of ‘Divaina’, received various privileges from the corrupt Mahinda Rajapaksa regime.

Mr. Nimal Welgama was appointed Chairman of Telecom during Mahinda Rajapaksa regime and a large amount of money was pumped to ‘Divaina’ newspaper through advertisements. He was also a member of the Monetary Board of the Central Bank and could get advertisements of the Central Bank to ‘Divaina’ newspaper.

Mr. Nimal Welgama is an accused in a case regarding forcibly possessing assets belonging to late Mr. Upali Wijewardene. He is vengeful that the corrupt Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated at the general election.

Mr. Kumara Welgama, a main activist of Mahinda – Wimal gang that is bent on bringing Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa to power again has given instructions to supporters in ‘Divaina’ newspaper to create vicious slanders against Mr. Anura Dissanayaka who could be an obstacle for the joint opposition.

Manoj Abeydheera, connected to the editorial board of ‘Divaina’ newspaper has fabricated the slander with support from Wimal Weerawansa to gratify his masters. The whole article is a fabrication and the mudslinging campaign has been launched after several days of discussion between Wimal Weerawansa and Manoj Abeydheera.

Toddlers burn to death in Gaza blaze blamed on power cuts 

The bodies of the three children surrounded by members of Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades prior to their funeral on Saturday (Mohammed Asad/MEE) -Nida’a al-Hindi, the mother of the three children, is comforted by a friend (Mohammed Asad/MEE) 

The children's room. Neighbours knocked a hole in the wall in an effort to save them (Mohammed Asad/MEE)-Mourners attend the funeral of the three children on Saturday (Mohammed Asad/MEE)

Mohammed Omer-Saturday 7 May 2016

AL-SHATI REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza - The toddlers' bed stands in the middle of the ash-scorched and smoke-stained room. Next to it lie the bodies of Yousra, aged three, Rahaf, aged two, and Naser al-Hindi, six months old, who all burnt to death here.

The three bodies are distorted and unrecognisable. A few scorched toys are scattered around them while their heartbroken father, Mohammed al-Hindi, looks on in shock, hardly able to accept they are really his children.

Walking through the once colourful small apartment in al-Shati, one of the poorest refugee camps in Gaza, it is almost impossible to tell which room was once the kitchen, the bedroom and the toilet because everything has melted into one.

When the building caught fire late on Friday night, no one living nearby was able to break in, with neighbours eventually smashing a hole through the wall in a failed attempt to rescue the children.

The deaths of the children has enraged local residents who believe that the fire is a cruel consequence of the impact of the decade-long blockade by Israel and Egypt and a local power struggle between Hamas and Fatah which has made living conditions increasingly intolerable.

The incident has also reminded Gazans of the case of a family in the eastern city of Shejayeh who were burnt to death in a fire caused by a candle three years ago.

Mahmood Dhier, 32, his wife Samar, and their four children, Mahmoud, six, Nabil, five, Farah, four, and Qamar, four months, all died in the blaze. 

According to the mother of the children, Nida’a al-Hindi, the fire started when a candle fell onto a mattress and set the room alight as the three toddlers slept. Al-Hindi has two older children who survived the fire.

The family had spent Friday afternoon at the beach at Gaza’s fishing harbour before returning home hungry and exhausted, al-Hindi said.

She lit the candle in the children’s room before going off to find some food for them to eat. By the time she had returned with macaroni and milk and prepared the food the three younger children were asleep while her oldest son Muhannad was also inside.

Al-Hindi then went to sit outside with her other son, Ali.

“My son asked me to sit outside with him for a bit, as he is frightened of the rats running inside the bedroom,” she told Middle East Eye, wailing and sobbing as sat beside the bodies of her children on the floor of a makeshift morgue at Gaza's Shifa hospital.

Moments later, she heard Muhannad screaming “Mum, Mum!” and ran back inside, not knowing what was going on.

“I found him burning and my three other children burning, too,” she said. “Nasser was burning in front of my eyes, but I could do nothing to save him.”

The only one she could save as the fire took hold was Muhannad. “I dragged him to his feet, otherwise, he would be dead now,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief.

'Let me kiss them for the last time!'

At the hospital, al-Hindi had begged to be allowed to see her children.

“I know they are burned, let me kiss them for the last time, before you bury them!” she screamed, her pain beyond words.

She was taken to see them but only after the bodies had been wrapped in Palestinian flags and prepared for burial, their names written on the flags in red ink.

While the deaths of the children may have been a tragic accident, locals here believe such incidents are an inevitable result of the impossible pressures under which Gazans have been living as a consequence of blockade, which has been exacerbated by the battle for control of the strip between Hamas and Fatah.

Most Gazans have no option but to rely on candles for light because power cuts currently leave them without electricity for up to 18 hours a day.

Much of their anger is directed towards the Gaza Electricity Company, which has failed to deliver reliable supplies despite last year banking profits $13.6m.

Others blame the shortages on the 'blue tax' on fuel imposed by the West Bank-based Fatah-run Palestinian Authority on industrial fuel imported into Gaza to power the strip's only electricity plant.

Last month, the United Nations reported that Gaza's power plant had been forced to shut down because of the PA's gradual reduction in an exemption on the fuel tax which had previously been in place.

Prior to its closing, Gaza's plant had provided close to 30 percent of the enclave's electricity requirements, even operating at only 50 percent capacity.

The remainder of Gaza's required electricity is bought mostly from Israel but also from Egypt, according to the UN, although power lines from Egypt into southern Gaza are currently not working.

While both Ismail Hanyieh of Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have pledged to provide medication, support, apartments and salaries for families, many here consider a United Nations warning that Gaza could be unlivable by 2020 to be optimistic.

“It is already unlivable and we are in 2016,” Mohammed Al-Jamal, a 36-year-old local man, told MEE, referring to the deaths of the three children.

Locals told MEE that the family had been living in an apartment that was unfit for human habitation, something also suggested by the fire department who said the entrance was too narrow to bring water hoses into the bedroom.

But residents also criticised the time it had taken for firefighters to arrive, with al-Hindi claiming it had been more than hour before they reached the scene.

Back at the house nothing is left intact. All of the children’s toys and clothes and other family possessions have been destroyed.

“On the top of the cupboard were my daughter’s school bag and new boots bought by her grandma for her first school year in September,” said al-Hindi as friends and relatives tried to comfort her.

“My children died hungry. Yousra was so hungry but by the time I got her macaroni, she was asleep already.”

Media promote Israeli distortions as civilians dodge airstrikes in Gaza

Relatives of Zaina al-Amour, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike, mourn during her funeral east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on 5 May.Ramadan ElaghaAPA images

Rania Khalek-7 May 2016

In recent days, has Israel launched a series of aggressive military actions in the besieged Gaza Strip, killing a Palestinian woman and injuring several other people, including three children.

And like clockwork, mainstream Western media swooped in to throw the narrative in Israel’s favor, brushing aside Israel’s relentless violations of the Gaza ceasefire and its killings of dozens of civilians in the besieged territory.

But first, the facts.

Israel started it

As is almost always the case, the Israeli military initiated the latest round of violence with ground incursions into Gaza as part of a supposed mission to destroy cross-border tunnels.

This is the same pretext Israel used to justify its ferocious military assault on Gaza in the summer of 2014, which killed 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians, 551 of them children.

The independent inquiry commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council into the 2014 assault found that Hamas “tunnels were only used to conduct attacks directed at IDF [Israeli army] positions in Israel in the vicinity of the Green Line [the Israel-Gaza boundary], which are legitimate military targets.”

Despite this, Israel continued to whip up fears – often aided by pliant outlets such as The New York Times – about Palestinian “terror tunnels” leading into kindergartens, as a way to justify Israel’s cruelty towards Gaza.

The Israeli army claims to have located such a tunnel in recent days based on information it says it extracted from a captured member of Hamas.

It is also possible that Israel is using this as an opportunity to test out anti-tunnel technology it has been developing with a $120 million grant from the US administration of President Barack Obama.

Hamas insists the tunnel Israel discovered is old and predates the 2014 war.

The Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz cited senior Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk, explaining that Israeli forces had been attempting to “set new facts on the ground 150 meters inside Gaza which he said ‘compelled resistance forces to intervene.’”

The Israeli army said that Hamas fired “more than five mortar rounds at forces during operational activities adjacent to the security fence with the Gaza Strip.”

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America Loses Its Man in Ankara

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was Washington’s behind-the-scenes ally in Turkey’s fight against the Islamic State. Now what happens?

 BY JOHN HUDSON-MAY 5, 2016

Davutoglu was seen as a reliable U.S. ally and voice of sobriety inside a government turning increasingly authoritarian under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He was widely considered a deft diplomat who was far more tolerant of the Kurds — America’s proxy ground force against the Islamic State — than his president.

“We could work well with the prime minister,” Gen. John Allen, the Obama administration’s former point man in the fight against the Islamic State, toldForeign Policy. “His successor may be a very different matter.”

Current and former State Department officials also said Davutoglu’s close working relationship with U.S. diplomats would be missed. State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner described Davutoglu’s sudden departure as “an internal political matter for Turkey” and declined to comment further.

For nearly two years, the United States has sought to focus Turkey’s attention on the Islamic State as the Sunni extremists tear through Syria and Iraq. But under Erdogan, Ankara has instead remained far more worried about its generational battle with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK — a separatist group that both Turkey and the United States have declared a terrorist organization.

The United States depends on Turkey to stanch the flow of Islamic State fighters across its border with Syria and wants continued military access to the Incirlik Air Base — a move Ankara only granted less than a year ago. Turkey, meanwhile, relies on U.S. airstrikes to shrink Islamic State insurgents and push them further from its backyard.

Still, the two capitals bitterly diverge over America’s support for Kurdish fighters in Syria.

After a brutal and bloody four-month battle, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) wrested control of the Syrian border town of Kobani in early 2015 from the Islamic State. In doing so, they gained newfound respect from the West and since have been considered by Washington as the most effective ground force against the militant group.

But the YPG is also linked to the PKK, and therefore Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish fighters a national security threat. Erdogan’s distrust of Kurdish militants only grew after a March bombing in Ankara that killed 37 people and was initially blamed on the PKK. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a breakaway faction of the banned Kurdish organization, eventually claimed responsibility for the attack.

The disconnect has come to a head at the Manbij pocket, a major border crossing that foreign fighters have used to pass into Syria from Turkey.

Barak Barfi, an expert on Kurds at the New America think tank, said Turkey wants to prevent Kurdish fighters from controlling Manbij.

“Ankara wants to make the Manbij pocket a safe zone — free of Kurdish control and a launching pad to take down the regime,” Barfi said. But the United States sees the Manbij pocket as a “stepping stone” to retake Raqqa, the Islamic State’s capital in Syria.

Disagreement over the Kurdish fighters devolved into a bruising public spat earlier this year when Brett McGurk, who now heads up the State Department’s campaign against the Islamic State, met with YPG members in Kobani. After photographs of the meeting surfaced, Erdogan lashed out at the United States for siding with Turkey’s enemies.

“How can we trust you? Is it me that is your partner, or is it the terrorists in Kobani?” Erdogan said.

In Davutoglu, the United States had an interlocutor who harbored a much more moderate approach to the Kurds. Though he was a weak prime minister and enjoyed little power or autonomy, he was an important channel for many U.S. officials to convey their thoughts and concerns.

“Davutoglu’s exit will mean there’s fewer voices within the government willing to provide more pragmatic views on the Kurds to Erdogan,” Andrew Bowen, a Washington-based expert on Turkey and Syria, said. “Whether Erdogan ever listened? It varied.”

With the prime minister out of the picture, Ankara may show even more resistance to U.S. collaboration with Kurdish fighters in Syria, said one U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Turkey could also backtrack on progress it has made in closing its border with Syria, the official said.

Davutoglu’s departure has largely been attributed to his differences with Erdogan on economic policy, expanded presidential powers, and pretrial detention for dissidents. On Thursday, Davutoglu sought to downplay those differences. He will leave office May 22.

“I feel no reproach, anger, or resentment against anyone,” Davutoglu told reporters. “No one has ever heard any word from me against our president and never will.”

But the two politicians tussled over many issues, including resolving the country’s protracted dispute with its Kurdish minority — an issue on which Davutoglu was far more dovish.

Last month, Davutoglu told Turkish newspapers that the government was considering opening negotiations with the PKK, as long as its fighters disarmed. Shortly after his words were published, Erdogan openly rebuked the notion, saying the total defeat of the PKK was the only option forward, Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper reported. That resulted in Davutoglu pulling a complete reversal on April 5 and repeating Erdogan’s position that peace talks were not under consideration.

Erdogan’s current refusal to engage with Kurdish groups breaks from his previous efforts in making peace overtures. But experts say his failure to broker a lasting cease-fire has soured him on future talks.

Erdogan’s “current views on the Kurdish issue stem less from his core beliefs than from the embarrassment he is experiencing in not being able to quell the violence,” Barfi said.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will replace Davutoglu at an upcoming meeting, 

Turkish officials told Reuters. Erdogan is expected to install a successor who is less opposed to altering Turkey’s constitution — a move that would strengthen the presidency at the expense of the parliament.

That has worried longtime Erdogan critics who fear the next prime minister will be a loyalist who does little to deter the current president’s tendencies to quell dissent and curtail free speech.

“Erdogan will replace Davutoglu with a loyalist of his choice,” said Aykan Erdemir, a former Turkish MP and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “We can expect him to take full control of Turkey’s domestic and international affairs, including ongoing negotiations with the U.S. and EU on Syria, Turkey’s EU membership process, and rapprochement with Israel.”

Still, major changes to the U.S.-Turkish relationship are unlikely to come as a result of Davutoglu’s ouster, given Erdogan’s monopoly on power.

“Erdogan has been the mover and shaker and the real decider in Turkish politics on major issues like Syria,” said Aaron Stein, a resident fellow of the Atlantic Council.

Likely successors include Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus, Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, and Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, Erdogan’s son-in-law.

FP chief national security correspondent Dan De Luce contributed to this report.

Photo credit: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

'This is not a reality show,' Obama tells Trump

BY JEFF MASON AND GINGER GIBSON- Sat May 7, 2016

U.S. President Barack Obama warned on Friday that occupying the Oval Office "is not a reality show," in a swipe at outspoken Republican candidate Donald Trump who is vying to replace him in the White House.

Fighting with Obama is a battle Trump would likely relish as he tries to rally support within his own party. During hard-fought Republican primary campaigns, the billionaire delighted in responding to attacks from rivals and found that his support grew when he lashed out at his opponents.

Asked about Trump at a media briefing in the White House, Obama called on the press and public to weigh past statements by the Republican but did not point to any specific issues or remarks.

"This is not entertainment," Obama said, a reference to Trump's television background. "This is not a reality show. This is a contest for the presidency of the United States," he said.

Some top Republican leaders - U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan among them - are still expressing wariness about Trump, who became the party's presumptive nominee this week when two Republican rivals dropped out of the White House race.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination, posted on Facebook that he will not vote for Trump - one of the sharpest slights yet against the New York real estate mogul by a senior Republican.

"Donald Trump has not demonstrated that temperament or strength of character. He has not displayed a respect for the Constitution. And, he is not a consistent conservative. These are all reasons why I cannot support his candidacy," Bush wrote, adding that he would not vote for likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton either.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, who made an unsuccessful bid for president, joined a growing list of Republicans who are refusing to support Trump and he announced on Friday he will also skip the Republican convention in July. Mitt Romney, who won the Republican nomination in 2012, is also refusing to support Trump.

But Trump on Friday won the endorsement of another former Republican presidential nominee, Bob Dole, who lost to Bill Clinton in 1996.

For Trump, finding unifying enemies like Obama and Hillary Clinton could help rally Republicans back to his side ahead of the Nov. 8 general election.

Obama is likely to be the feature of much of Trump's criticism in the general election. Republicans have sought to paint Clinton as an extension of the Obama administration who would continue all of his policies.

Since effectively securing the nomination on Tuesday, Trump has begun testing themes to attack Clinton, Obama's former secretary of state.

On Friday, Trump took aim at Clinton for her use of a private email server while in office. Clinton has said she did not send or receive information marked as classified. The FBI is investigating whether laws were broken.

"The email scandal should take her down but I don't think it's going to because I think she's being protected by the Democrats," Trump said on "Fox & Friends," a television news program that attracts a large conservative viewership.

CLINTON "BAD ON JOBS"

Trump tried to cast Clinton as weak on the economy, which is sure to be one of the main policy issues as the election approaches.

‘Asia’s Trump’ Rodrigo Duterte leads as Philippines election campaign draws to a close

Presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte answers questions from the media in Manila, Philippines. Pic: AP.

7th May 2016

A BRUISING presidential campaign is drawing to a close in the Philippines with a last-minute attempt by the president to unify candidates against a front-running mayor perceived as a threat to democracy virtually collapsing.

After crisscrossing the archipelago nation for three months, five presidential candidates led by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte will converge in the vote-rich capital Saturday for their final rallies ahead of Monday’s vote. Thousands of police have been deployed to maintain order.

On the eve of the end of campaigning, President Benigno Aquino III made a desperate call on candidates to agree to an alliance to defeat the brash Duterte, who has been likened to U.S. Republican front-runner Donald Trump for his controversial remarks but has topped pre-poll surveys on a pledge to wipe out criminals and corruption.

Duterte’s 30-point lead in surveys can be overcome if his trailing rivals — mainly former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Sen. Grace Poe — join hands, Aquino said, implying that some of them should back out and support a single aspirant.

Under the Philippine electoral system, a candidate who gets the most votes is proclaimed the winner, even if no one gets a majority.

Poe, however, refused an invitation by Roxas, who has been backed by Aquino, to meet and discuss an arrangement where she would be forced to back out. Vice President Jejomar Binay also stated he would not step aside. Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who has trailed far behind in surveys, has also vowed never to surrender.

Duterte’s camp said calls for an alliance against him “reeks of stench of defeat.”

“It’s an admission that a victory by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has virtually become inevitable,” said the mayor’s national campaign manager Leoncio Evasco Jr.

A longtime mayor of southern Davao city, the 71-year-old Duterte courted controversy with his profanity-laden speeches, vulgar jokes and devil-may-care irreverence but has successfully tapped into public insecurities with a bold promise to wipe out crime and corruption in three to six months if he is elected.

Aquino, business executives and church leaders felt that he crossed the line when he joked about wanting to have raped first an Australian missionary, who was gang raped and brutally killed by inmates in a 1989 jail riot.

When the Australian and U.S. ambassadors sniped at his joke, Duterte asked them to shut up and expressed openness at the possibility of severing ties with major Western allies if he wins the presidency.

He also has threatened to close Congress if lawmakers try to impeach him if he wins next week and has said he would allow Marxist guerrillas to play a political role in his government.

A senator has threatened to immediately try to impeach Duterte if he becomes president.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV has filed a corruption complaint alleging the mayor hired non-existent employees and kept a huge amount in a joint bank account with his daughter that he did not declare publicly in 2014, as required by law. Duterte has denied any wrongdoing.

Additional reporting from Associated Press

Exclusive: U.S.-funded Somali intelligence agency has been using kids as spies
A 15-year-old al-Shabab defector stands in early April in the Elman Center, a facility in Mogadishu that rehabilitates former child combatants. The boy and several others said they were forced to work as informants for the Somali intelligence agency. (Kevin Sieff/The Washington Post)

A group of boys sits in a class at the Elman Center on April 6. The majority of the boys were forced to work as informants for the Somali intelligence agency, some for as long as four years. (Kevin Sieff/The Washington Post)

A 15-year-old al-Shabab defector stands in early April in the Elman Center, a facility in Mogadishu that rehabilitates former child combatants. The boy and several others said they were forced to work as informants for the Somali intelligence agency. (Kevin Sieff/The Washington Post)

 By Kevin Sieff May 7

MOGADISHU, Somalia — For years they were children at war, boys given rifles and training by al-Qaeda-backed militants and sent to the front lines of this country’s bloody conflict. Many had been kidnapped from schools and soccer fields and forced to fight.

The United Nations pleaded for them to be removed from the battlefield. The United States denounced the Islamist militants for using children to plant bombs and carry out assassinations.

But when the boys were finally disarmed — some defecting and others apprehended — what awaited them was yet another dangerous role in the war. This time, the children say, they were forced to work for the Somali government.

The boys were used for years as informants by the country’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), according to interviews with the children and Somali and U.N. officials. They were marched through neighborhoods where al-Shabab insurgents were hiding and told to point out their former comrades. The faces of intelligence agents were covered, but the boys — some as young as 10 — were rarely concealed, according to the children. Several of them were killed. One tried to hang himself while in custody.

The Somali agency’s widespread use of child informants, which has not been previously documented, appears to be a flagrant violation of international law. It raises difficult questions for the U.S. government, which for years has provided substantial funding and training to the Somali agency through the CIA, according to current and former U.S. officials.

A CIA spokesman declined to comment on the issue. But in the past the U.S. government has supported Somali security institutions — despite well-known human-rights violations — citing the urgent need to combat terrorist groups such as al-Shabab.

[Somalia’s president says al-Qaeda-backed rebels are ‘resurgent’]

The child informants were used to collect intelligence or identify suspects in some of the world’s most dangerous neighborhoods, according to their accounts.

“They took me sometimes in a car and sometimes on foot and said, ‘Tell us who is al-Shabab,” said one 15-year-old who said he was held by the intelligence agency. “It’s scary because you know everyone can see you working with them.”

Read More

Take Action: Stop logging company tax evasion

2016 May 4

The Panama Papers have helped expose how politicians, criminals and corporations around the world hide their cash and avoid taxes. In Papua New Guinea foreign owned logging companies are using some of the same tricks.

Papua New Guinea is now the world’s largest exporter of tropical timber, but it was recently revealed that most logging companies pay no corporate tax.

Meanwhile the government is slashing spending on vital services, including rural health, because of insufficient revenues.

We are calling on the Treasurer to launch an immediate investigation into the logging industry and its tax record - but we need your help!

Research by the Oakland Institute has exposed how most logging companies declare losses year after year, allowing them to avoid paying a 30% tax on their profits. This deprives PNG of hundreds of millions of Kina in much needed revenues.

It is clearly illogical for a company to stay in business if it makes loses year after year, but not only do these companies remain in business they are actually expanding their logging operations.

In total more than one-third of PNG is subject to some form of logging company control. This is because in recent years new areas of forest have been opened up using a mechanism called Special Agriculture and Business Leases. A Commission of Inquiry into these land deals found most of the leases are unlawful, but, despite three years of promises, the government has not cancelled any of them.

All over the country, local communities are being deprived of their resources while their government turns a blind eye to the deceptive practices of the forest industry and police forces that often work on behalf of logging companies.

Now there is substantial evidence of tax evasion and financial misreporting.

Please call on the Treasurer to investigate financial reporting by the logging industry and the government to cancel the SABL leases.

The Gig Economy

by Victor Cherubim-May 6, 2016

( May 6, 2016, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Employment on demand, satisfaction on call, happiness on tap, these and many other modern conveniences, if we want to call them as such, are what will be on offer to many around the globe, aided by encroaching technology.

We comfort ourselves with these approaches, instead of confronting the real reason of what makes for work and leisure. One reason is that money as a compensation for work has lost its value. The search is on for a deeper understanding of work and leisure.

“The future of work, does not involve work, “so researchers state. It is driving profound changes for our future. Not only will the nature of jobs, the skill needs continue to change, but soon with near automation, human error will become a thing of the past.

Collaborative Machines

We already see in some parts of the developed world collaborative machines, referred to as “Cobots” working together, side by side with human labour on the factory floor.

The average worker is earning $11.80 per hour in the United States, £7.40 in U.K. Barclays Capital estimates that the Cobot market could grow from just over $100 million in 2015 to a staggering $13 billion in 2020. At the present this new working class is used to feeding parts into the assembly packaging line on the automotive industry factory floor, whether it is located in Germany or in the U.S.

This “gripper technology, “supplemented by “Machine Learning,” and A.I. or “Artificial Intelligence,” will one day, inevitably help to rectify the weakness of using machines solely as replacement for man. This is because human labour will still be needed strangely for more productivity, being more dexterous, with a “greater feeling”. A “Cabot” we are told cannot put together a gear motor with dexterity, as a human at present. So we are back to man with feeling?

The Change is in the making?

Coupled with Gig economy and Collaborative machines, there is a new generation of young who have grown up since the Millennium, with a different mindset to work and leisure.

The state of the Gig economy no longer allows for aspirations of being or belonging. This is because millennial young (those born after 2000) have different ideals than their parents. Gone are the days when they moan about their lack of possessions. They are the “Generation of the Dispossessed.” They share a different value. They take advantage of the freedoms of the so called “Sharing Economy.” They wish to share themselves, their photos (selfies), ideas, creations and opinions.

In the Gig Economy, you can work from anywhere, each day, one day in London, the next week in San Francisco. There is no workplace. There is no assigned desk or a file. They can work from home, at work on a bean-bag and in the cafetaria, or they can job hop around the world. Some have even started “home-swap” between two members of their team. They are the “Loose Generation.” They swap living spaces, work assignments with one another.

This Generation

When we hear that this generation will not be able to ever own their homes because of the difficulties of putting a deposit and buying a flat or a home, we elders may worry, but they hardly worry, because the Gig Economy is not about ownership. It’s about “experience.”

For a Gig Generation that does not want to be tied down with “stuff, “this does not mean they dislike possessions. It is more that “sharing is caring.” It is a coping mindset.

Life is permanently changing

Life for this generation of Millennials is permanently changing. This is understandable from their perspective. The world is changing and they too are changing.

Those of us parents and others belonging to a different world, find it difficult to fit into their thinking. But that is the reality of life.

How can we position ourselves for the Gig Economy of the Future?

If you ever want or wish to work less, we have to understand that there is a choice open. If you want to travel the world, you need not be burdened with possessions. You must be able to feel at home in London or in Lisbon?

You need to fit in with the times, and not make time fit in to your programme. The days are gone when offices were programmed with workers, dressed with enviable glamour.

The Industrial Revolution brought workers from their homes to cities in search of work. Technology today is driving work out to the world. The cost benefit to workers and their employers far outweigh living expenses, wages, other statutory enhancements or entitlements?

Looking forward for solutions, not backwards for reasons, is the new world of work.