Aung San Suu Kyi Is in Power. So Why Is She Ignoring Her Country’s Most Vulnerable People?

BY RICHARD COCKETT-JUNE 9, 2016

As Burma’s new government gets down to business, one thing is increasingly clear — there won’t be much to look forward to for the country’s one million or so Rohingya people.

The West has rejoiced at the election of a new government dominated by the National League for Democracy (NLD) and headed, in effect, by the party’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize winner. But for the Muslims of western Rakhine state — described by the United Nations as the “most persecuted minority in the world” —Burma’s new era is already turning out to be a disappointment. There is almost certainly worse to come.

The Rohingya have endured decades of harassment, marginalization, and ethnic cleansing at the hands of Burma’s old military regimes (and the local Rakhine people), amounting, some argue, to genocide. Everyone knew that Burma’s new leader, Suu Kyi, has also been ambivalent towards their plight. She has refused to even call them by their own name, for fear of offending the country’s often Islamophobic Buddhist majority in the run-up to last November’s general election, which she won by a landslide. But surely Burma’s first civilian government since the 1960s would be better than the murderous, kleptocratic rule of the generals?


Maybe not. First came the news, in mid-May, that the Burmese foreign ministry (now headed by Suu Kyi) had asked the American embassy not to use the term Rohingya on the spurious grounds that it was “controversial” and “not supportive in solving the problem that is happening in Rakhine state.” The Americans refused. The request was utterly disingenuous. The Rakhine people might indeed prefer to call the Rohingya “Bengalis” (implying that they are illegal immigrants from what is now Bangladesh), but this is an essential part of the exclusion of the Rohingya from the mainstream of Burmese life that constitutes the problem in the first place.

Prompted by the visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Suu Kyi returned to the theme on May 22, saying that her government would be firm about not using “emotive terms” like Rohingya or Bengali. Yet, as has been pointed out, she has never asked anyone — chauvinist Buddhist monks, soldiers or legislators — to refrain from using the term “Bengali.” The Rohingya will also have been disappointed that President Obama recently relaxed sanctionsagainst Burma as a reward for its shift towards democracy, without mentioning the fact that nothing has changed in the authorities’ mistreatment of the Rohingya.

Furthermore, it is evident that the Rohingya will be excluded from the formal “peace process” that the new government intends to take up with the rest of the country’s ethnic minority groups, such as the Kachin, Karen, Chin, Shan and more. This process, inherited from the last government of President Thein Sein, is an attempt to find a lasting resolution to the civil conflicts that have plagued the country virtually since its independence from Britain in 1948. Suu Kyi has called for a second “Panglong-style” peace conference, invoking the memory of an agreement her father, General Aung San, negotiated with indigenous ethnic groups in 1947 before he was assassinated.

The recent peace process, however, has involved only those groups defined as indigenous peoples under the terms of the controversial, military-inspired 1982 Citizenship Act. The Rohingya are not citizens under that act, and they have never been included in any such process.

In all likelihood, the new government will simply try to park the Rohingya issue, which is viewed as marginal.Burma’s new president, Htin Kyaw, has set up a grand-sounding “Central Committee for Implementation of Peace and Development in Rakhine State,” which consists of 27 officials, including the members of the cabinet and representatives of the Rakhine state government, to be chaired by Suu Kyi herself. But the Rohingya fear that this is merely a bureaucratic device meant to postpone taking any firm decisions, and they also worry that they may not even have any input into the committee. Meanwhile, the government will get on with drawing up the federal-style constitution that is needed to satisfy the political aspirations of other ethnic minority groups. There is a lot of sympathy among members of Suu Kyi’s party, the NLD, for the suffering of the Karen, Kachin, and others over the past decades. So the party can be expected to negotiate in good faith with these groups, who are also represented institutionally at the higher levels of the NLD. There is very little sympathy, however, for the Rohingya among party ranks — the NLD is only marginally less riddled with Islamophobia and prejudice against the Rohingya than the last military government. Neither do the Rohingya have any voice or representation in the NLD.

Indeed, for the first time in recent years, since last November’s election there is not a single Muslim legislator in the entire country, despite the fact that the Muslim population of Burma numbers up to three million. Suu Kyi knows that that there is no political constituency in Burma for helping the Rohingya, just as she also knows that they do not have an armed wing (as most of the other ethnic groups do), so their capacity to make life difficult for the authorities has always been correspondingly less. In other words, apart from the demands of her own conscience, Burma’s de facto leader has little domestic incentive to do anything at all for the Rohingya.

The risk is that pushing the issue to the margins will have a devastating effect on the already desperate situation of the Rohingya. Separated from the rest of the population in refugee camps, or cooped up in their villages, their movement is tightly restricted. They have been cut off from their former sources of livelihood and live under an apartheid system in their own land. Ambia Preveen, a Rohingya doctor working in Germany, estimates that 90 percent of the Rohingya are denied access to formal healthcare. A recent study of poverty and health in Rakhine state by Mahmood Saad Mahmood for Harvard University shows vast disparities between the Rohingya and the Rakhine: There is only one physician per 140,000 Rohingya, but in the parts of Rakhine state dominated by the Rakhine, there is one doctor per 681 people. Acute malnutrition affects 26 percent of people in the Rohingya-dominated area of northern Rakhine state, whereas the figure is just 14 percent in Rakhine-dominated areas, and so on.

If the Rohingya give up on any prospects of change from this new NLD government — and well they might — then they will probably take to the boats again, as they did last year, fleeing in the thousands to other Muslim countries in South-East Asia. They will risk drowning in flimsy craft provided by unscrupulous human traffickers, and the crisis will merely spread abroad once again.

What can be done? Since there is no domestic imperative to help the Rohingya, it’s up to countries like the United States and Britain to exert all the pressure that they can on Suu Kyi’s government over this issue. The Western powers have helped enormously in rebuilding the NLD as a functioning political party, in providing Suu Kyi and her ministers with technical expertise and practical advice, and in beefing up the institutions, such as the national parliament, that have been at the fore of the democratic transition. Given this leverage, it must be made clear that the one million Rohingya are an essential part of that new democracy, and that even if they are not technically “citizens” under the present constitution (one which Suu Kyi herself rejects, albeit for different reasons) the government will be judged by how far it protects and gradually includes them. And even if the NLD balks at giving the Rohingya citizenship — as the United Nations, for one, has demanded — it could at least repeal repressive legislation passed by the last military government, such as the four so-called “Race and Religion Protection Laws.”

Passed in 2015, these laws were inspired by the nationalist, sectarian monks of the Ma Ba Tha movement, and are aimed squarely at restricting the personal freedom and choices of Burma’s Muslims. If enforced with any vigor, these laws could provoke even more tension, especially between the Rakhine and Rohingya. The NLD stood against these laws when it was in opposition. Now it is in power, the party should repeal them, sending a clear signal that the new government is genuinely concerned with the human and civil rights of all those who live in the country, and that the Rohingya are part of the wider reform process.

But the country’s other minority ethnic groups, as do the Rohingya themselves, also have a role to play.
The latter have long been isolated from their fellow minorities, politically as much as geographically, and this has added to their marginalization.Although the plight of the Rohingya is now well advertised outside Burma, little is known about them in their own country. Rather than investing all their hopes for change in the international community, the Rohingya should now take the initiative to build bridges with the Kachin, Karen, Mon, and others, who have also suffered at the hands of the Burman-dominated central governments, to strengthen their political position and to make their case more visible.

It is in their interest of these other groups to overcome their own prejudices against the Rohingya, as the latter bring considerable international goodwill, diplomatic support, and potentially money, to the negotiating table. As much good as the international community can do, real change will not come until the political dynamics of the Rohingya issue change within Burma itself.

In the photo, a Rohingya woman sits with her children in their temporary shelter next to the Baw Du Pha internal displacement camp on May 17 in Sittwe, Burma.

Photo credit: Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images

Indian men given life for gang-rape of Danish tourist

Policemen escort men convicted for the gang rape of a Danish woman, at a court in New Delhi, India, June 9, 2016.

REUTERS/ADNAN ABIDI

A man convicted for the gang rape of a Danish woman tries to hide his face as he is escorted by a policeman at a court in New Delhi, India, June 9, 2016.REUTERS/ADNAN ABIDI

Fri Jun 10, 2016

Five Indian men were sentenced to life in prison on Friday for raping a Danish tourist in the heart of New Delhi's tourist district in 2014, in a case that reignited worries about sexual violence against women in India.

The men, all in their twenties, were found guilty by a Delhi court on Monday for robbing and raping the 52-year old Dane at a secluded spot close to New Delhi railway station.

"All the five convicts have been sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment for their offences,"

additional public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava, told Reuters at the court.

The Dane was walking through an area of narrow lanes near Delhi's Paharganj district, a tourist area packed with backpacker hotels, on the evening of Jan. 14, 2014, when she asked a group of men for directions to her hotel.

The men then lured the woman to an area near New Delhi railway station where they raped her and robbed her at knife-point, the prosecution said in its chargesheet.

India was shaken into deep soul-searching about entrenched violence against women after the fatal gang-rape in December 2012 of a female student on a bus in New Delhi.

The crime, which sent thousands of Indians onto the streets in protest against what many saw as the failure of authorities to protect women, encouraged the government to enact tougher jail sentences for rapists.

Police accused nine men of attacking the Danish woman in 2014. Three are juveniles being tried in a separate court while a fourth died during the trial.

Lawyer D.K. Sharma, representing the five convicted men, said his clients would appeal against the verdict.

(Reporting by Suchitra Mohanty; Writing by Tommy Wilkes; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

NHS baby death probes 'not good enough'

Michelle Hemmington says of her son, Louie: "I relived his death every day"

9 June 2016

There are too many poor quality investigations into babies who die or are severely brain damaged during labour, a review says.

The warning by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists comes as it publishes its preliminary report into how problems during labour are investigated.

More than 900 cases have been referred to the programme.

Of the 204 investigations reviewed, 27% were found to be of poor quality.

The review has also been looking at the number of cases where parents have been involved in the investigations - nearly three-quarters of the 599 reviewed did not involve them in any meaningful way.

Ministers said the findings were "unacceptable". The final report is due in 2017.

The inquiry, Each Baby Counts, has been set up to ensure lessons are learned when something goes wrong.

The aim is by 2020 to halve the number of babies who die or are left severely disabled.

Out of 800,000 births after at least 37 weeks of pregnancy, in the UK in 2015, there were:

• 655 babies classified as having severe brain injuries
• 147 neonatal deaths (within seven days of birth)
• 119 stillbirths

In all cases, the babies had been healthy before labour began.

The report says all investigations should be robust, comprehensive and led by multi-disciplinary teams, including external experts and parents.

'Emotional cost'

Prof Alan Cameron, vice-president of the RCOG and a consultant obstetrician in Glasgow, said: "When the outcome for parents is the devastating loss of a baby or a baby born with a severe brain injury, there can be little justification for the poor quality of reviews found.

"The emotional cost of these events is immeasurable, and each case of disability costs the NHS around £7m in compensation to pay for the complex, lifelong support these children need."

Judith Abela, acting chief executive at Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, said it wanted a more effective review process involving parents.

"Parents' perspective of what happened is critical to understanding how care can be improved, and they must be given the opportunity to be involved, with open, respectful and sensitive support provided throughout," she said.

Health Minister Ben Gummer said the findings were "unacceptable".

"We expect the NHS to review and learn from every tragic case, which is why we are investing in a new system to support staff to do this and help ensure far fewer families have to go through this heartache," he said.

Safe care

Louise Silverton, director for midwifery at the Royal College of Midwives, said she supported the move to get all investigations carried out to the same high standard, but this was not always easy.

"All healthcare professionals must, of course, be rigorous in their practice," she said.

"However, they are often working in systems that do not support best practice, and the safest and highest quality care as well as they should.

"Each one of these statistics is a tragic event, and means terrible loss and suffering for the parents.

"We must do all we can to reduce the chances of these occurring.

"This report shows that this is not the case and improvements are needed as a matter of urgency."

Michelle lost her son Louie in 2011. She was nine days overdue when she went into labour.

She says she was left in a hospital bath for two and a half hours because there was no bed for her and told it was "a bad day to have a baby" because it was so busy.

Up until then, she thought she was in the safest place she could be, but then she began to get a little concerned.

"I was in labour, but I didn't see anyone for more than five hours" she says.

"By the time I saw a midwife, my gas and air had run out."

Her baby became distressed and his heart rate was monitored - but when a new midwife came on shift, she told Michelle not to panic and did not consult a doctor.

When Michelle finally gave birth to Louie, after a further hour and a half's delay, he was taken straight to be resuscitated.

Thirty-five minutes later, she was told he had died.

The cause was hypoxia - due to lack of oxygen, something she says could easily have been avoided.

Michelle says: "It lives with you forever. I think of Louie every day. I'm not the same person I was before he died.

"There's always a sadness there - it never goes. Everything is tainted by his death."

British citizen tortured and under arbitrary detention in Sri Lanka

 09 June 2016

Reports of the arbitrary detention and torture of a British Tamil citizen that arrived in Sri Lanka to visit his mother have now been confirmed.

Mr Velauthapilai Renugaruban was beaten and forcefully arrested by two men who entered his family home in Jaffna on 2^nd of June. The men informed the family that they had come to arrest Mr Renugaruban on suspicion of assisting LTTE activities in the UK. Neither an arrest warrant nor identification was provided by the two men, who dragged him out of the house and took him away in a van. 

A day after Mr Renugaruban was arrested, two men alleging to be representatives of the British High Commission, visited the detainee’s mother at her family house in Jaffna, advising the family to confess that they were LTTE members so to help them negotiate Mr Renugaruban’s release. When asked for identification the two me failed to produce documents. 

In response to the detention, Mr Renugaruban’s family approached the British government and human rights activists, who inquired into the case. Upon contact, the president’s advisor and Governor of the Eastern Province Mr Austin Fernando managed to locate the detained British citizen and confirm that he was in Sri Lankan police custody. Shortly after the inquiries made by international officials, Mr Renugaruban was produced in front of the Jaffna Magistrates Court and is now officially detained until 17 June under charges of an alleged assault incident. The commander of the Sri Lanka’s Security Forces stationed in Jaffna, Major General Mahesh Senanayake, is confirmed to have contacted Mr Renugaruban’s family and warned them to not take this case any further. 

Mr Renugaruban was kept in Jaffna prison and temporarily admitted to Jaffna hospital on 7^th June suffering torture inflicted injuries. He sustained deep cuts to his face and blunt trauma swelling around various parts of his body. 

Mr Renugaruban’s sister, Ms Velauthapilai Lalitharuby, was a former journalist that worked in Liberation Tamil Tigers of Tamil Eelam controlled region of the Vani during the armed conflict. She currently works as a human rights campaigner and volunteer at the International Centre for Prevention and Prosecution of Genocide (ICCPG) in the UK.

See  letter from a lawyer commissioned to represent the family here.

In a similar incident last month, an independent researcher Mr Pushpatharan Puthirasigamani, who works for the UK based Tamil Information Centre (TIC) was abducted and severely tortured by Sri Lanka’s intelligence outfit before being deported the UK. During his detention he was asked to provide details of witness and volunteers in the UK that where working with organisation documenting human rights violations.

Sri Lanka: Lack Of Public Interest, National Interest & Forward Vision In Deceptive & Divisive Politics

By S. Narapalasingam –June 9, 2016

Dr. S. Narapalasingam

The population of Sri Lanka is expected to reach 25 million by 2042. It was 6.657 million in 1946, the last census before independence in 1948. It is unimaginable how the 25 million will live, if the present muddled conditions in Sri Lanka continue in whatever form. The governing system created after independence has thwarted national unity and the steady economic and social advancement of the island nation that would have facilitated all citizens to co-exist amicably as children of one motherland. The lack of political will to take the right decisions at critical times, when opportunities came to settle national issues (the ethnic problem is now correctly recognised as a National Problem) is also a negative feature of the political culture that emerged after independence. The behaviour of politicians based on their desire to seek power for helping themselves and their families and friends has done immense damage to the society. The title of this article aptly reveals the main reasons for the mess in the country, which the present United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) government is trying to oust.

Decisions taken for narrow political or personal gains, disregarding the wide public or national interest became more visible with the astonishing rise in corruption and fraud in government, which shockingly is still of no concern to many voters as seen from the continuing support given to corrupt politicians. The huge amounts lost unscrupulously have been a burden to the public in the short and longer term. In this background, the call for good governance last year was responded positively by concerned voters. Apparently, the continuing malpractices contrary to the expected principles of good governance have disillusioned the advocates. Recently, many have conveyed their utter disappointments publicly. One positive feature of the visible change in the political system since early 2015 is the accessibility of such articles in both the print and electronic media.

The murky situation created by the failures to take timely actions to deal effectively with national problems helps the ‘patriots’ to exploit it for their own advantage. This senseless politics, influenced by narrow short-term interests of deceptive politicians must not be tolerated by the civil society. Not only the egocentric politicians but also many voters backing them are responsible for the uncertain future of the nation that emerged peacefully as one unified independent Ceylon in 1948, after centuries of foreign rule. It was the British colonial government that brought the entire island under one central administration. The way it functioned after independence was very different, causing many national problems.

Deceptive promises

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I hated 'Sinhala Only Act': CV



2016-06-09
I boycotted Sinhala language as I hated the Sinhala Only Act, NPC Chief Minister C.V Wigneswaran said.


"I stopped learning Sinhala as I disliked the implementation of the Sinhala Only Act. Hence, I explain our political shortcoming to the Sinhala media in my own broken Sinhala. If I had learnt Sinhala language properly I could have responded to any politician in fluent Sinhala," he said after declaring open the Kalaimagal statue in Kokkuvil Hindu Primary School in Jaffna yesterday morning built at a cost of Rs.700,000. 

He said if meaningful reconciliation was to take place one had to learn the other’s language.

 "Our people who go to Norway learn their language. Similarly, those who go to France learn French but sadly we ignore the Sinhala language. I started to learn Sinhala in 1955 and stopped learning when the Sinhala Only Act was implemented in 1956. Now I am talking to the Sinhala media about our shortcoming in broken Sinhala," he said.

 "Our Sinhala brethren have started to learn Tamil as a compulsory language. Sinhala officers fluent in Tamil will be sent to the North and East very soon. Hence, we have to be cautious. Those who are not fluent in Sinhala language will be sidelined. Therefore forget politics and nurture your knowledge in Sinhala, NPC Chief Minister C.V Wigneswaran said.

Family receives death threat for alerting GS officer on SL military exploitation of natural resources

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 June 2016, 22:07 GMT]
A family has been forced to seek security with its relatives and friends in Koara'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) DS division of Batticaloa this week after a two-member squad of ‘unknown’ persons, who came in a motorbike on Sunday (05 June) issued death threats to the family alleging it for passing information to the Village (GS) Officer about illegal logging and related military trade taking place at the interior jungle outlet of Kudumpimalai, 63 km northwest of Batticaloa city. On 01 June, Shanmugam Guru, the GS officer who was trying to investigate the exploitation was told by the armed persons in civil clothes that they belonged to SL military. When the GS officer asked to document their permit and identity, he was taken to nearby camp and brutally assaulted. The GS officer was told not to interfere in ‘military matters’. Now, a family has received death threat from ‘unknown’ persons. 

On Thursday last week, GS officials and the workers of DS Secretariat in Kiraan boycotted their duties demanding immediate action against the military that attacked the civil officer. 

On Sunday, two ‘unknown’ persons, who came in a motorbike, threatened Mrs Moothathamby Iladchumy, the mother in the family from Kaanaanthanai village, stating that the remaining members of the family would be shot and killed if it continued to pass information to anyone about illegal logging and related activities by the military, the villagers close to the family told TamilNet. 

The family had already lost one of the sons, who was a member of the LTTE, the sources further said. 

The SL military, occupying the interior village, is involved in colonisation and Sinhalicisation with an active role played by almost all the departments of the SL State, from Archaeology, Forest, Wildlife to Tourism, also deploying extremist Buddhist monks in the project of demographic and structural genocide against the nation of Eezham Tamils. 

The occupying Sinhala soldiers are also running a military trade, cutting and selling trees to businessmen from South. 

Recently, some social and environmental activists at the grassroots have organised self-mobilising awareness committees, which have been tasked to report on illegal exploitation of natural resources and other misconducts to GS officers. 

The SL military has been monitoring the mobilisation through its intelligence and paramilitary operatives. 

The family of Mrs Iladchumy has sought security with their relatives and friends after the incident and remains tight-lipped and is afraid of talking to media, the sources further said. 

The so-called ‘home-guards’, a Sinhala paramilitary deployed in seizing the lands, also carry weapons and engage in illegal activities with the backing of the occupying Sinhala military. 

A large area of pasturelands has been seized by the Sinhala settlers in Maathava'ani and Mayilaththanai, that also come under the supervision of the same DS division and the GS officer, who was subjected to brutal assault on 01 June. 

 The location of newly established checkpoints of the Sri Lanka Army at Allai-oadai and Maavaddavaan junction [Photo: TamilNet]

PRC Report On Constitutional Reforms: Some Reflections On Diversity

By Lukman Harees –June 9, 2016

Lukman Harees

“If, by the mere force of numbers, a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution – certainly would, if such a right were a vital one.” ~  Abraham Lincoln (First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861)

The Report prepared by the Public Representations Committee on Constitutional Reforms (PRCCR) led by Lal Wijenayake has now been released, putting together an array of written and oral representations received from the public. Indeed, the public consultations reflected an important feature of a mature democracy: people engaging in discussions and debates on issues of national importance. As per this comprehensive report, people strongly felt that the time is opportune for democratisation of the State and national reconciliation that it should be done immediately and if it fails at this moment, the country will not get such an opportunity again. This assertion is indeed very relevant and thought provoking as we tend to forget the bitter lessons in history and tend to walk down the same path which earlier led us to the virtual near-dismemberment of our motherland along racial and religious lines. As a prelude to promoting national reconciliation, it is important to clearly stress that the ‘multi-ethnic , multi religious’ character of our nation, thereby taking the wind off the sails of majoritarian protagonists who keep banding Sri Lanka as the Land of the Sinhalese and others are only guests.

In a recent Colombo Telegraph article, learned writer Malinda Seneviratne has observed that enshrining the fact that ‘Sri Lanka is multi ethnic and multi religious in the Constitution’ may be a case of stressing the obvious and even be absurd as stressing that ‘Sri Lanka is an Island’ and opined that having multi-laws tend to affect the process of national reconciliation. It should however be borne in mind that stressing ‘that Sri Lanka is diverse in such terms does not mean to dilute the potency of the majority community in any manner; it merely underlines the fact that majoritarianism will not and should not become the guiding principle in statecraft. It should not be a matter of two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner as the process of democracy is commonly understood to be. No space whatsoever should therefore be left for those attempting to raise such majoritarian cries to draw inspiration from the Constitution to make Sri Lanka a monolithic state, in order to dilute the minorities’ place in Sri Lanka and relegate them to second class status. Minorities whether Tamil or Muslim citizens or any other, should be able to enjoy their rights based upon the said premise or basis of being equal citizens of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious Sri Lanka and not as a matter of benevolence afforded by the majority race.

                                        Read More

PORTUGUESE BURGHERS IN SRI LANKA

10/06/2016

1. “We have only a few hundred families in our population. I think across both Batticaloa and Trincomalee, we’d number about 13000 people – the Portuguese Burghers.

Very few in our community went abroad during the war. Despite all the difficulties, we wanted to stay back. For nearly 500 years, we have preserved a unique way of life. We are proud to be descended from our Portuguese ancestors. But at the end of the day we also identify as proud Sri Lankans and Batticaloans. We don’t want to be anywhere else.”

2. “We have both dark and light-skinned members in our community. A few people even have light coloured hair or eyes. We tease them for having cat-eyes.

My wife for example has light skin and brown hair. Mostly however we look like any other Sri Lankan with black hair and black eyes.

We differ from our Tamil and Muslim neighbours only in our unique traditions, culture and language. 

For centuries, we have kept the Portuguese language alive in our midst among some families (not all) amidst much difficulty. In school, we study in the Tamil medium. We also learn Sinhala and English to be able to communicate with others across the country. All the other three languages are exercised daily in various situations so we become proficient in them. Only Portuguese is not exercised daily unless we take care to do so by speaking it consciously within our own homes and with other community members.

Over time we have lost the ability to read and write Portuguese. We can only speak it and even this is a struggle to keep alive in our community currently. Some people have let it go and have become completely Sinhalized or Tamilized, at least in terms of their language usage.

Recently some native Portuguese from Portugal visited us. They told us that they couldn’t completely understand our language. We appeared to be speaking an ancient form of Portuguese. I guess the language had evolved in their own country while we had been at pains to keep it unchanged over here.”

‘3. Are there any similarities between the Portuguese you speak and Sinhala or Tamil? “It’s actually a very different language but some words are the same. I think that’s probably because some words were introduced to native languages by the Portuguese – for example Kadira for chair or Mesa for Table in Tamil. It’s the same with a slight difference in pronunciation in our Portuguese. Then for shorts, we say Kalsa, while the Sinhalese call it Kalisam. There are similarities like these.”‘

‘4. “Ours is a Jolly community, very happy-go-lucky. We are constantly singling, dancing and merrymaking. Our grandparents used to say that our burgher homes’ cement floors wore out much faster than our staid neighbours’ because we would have music, wine and dance every weekend, at each others’ homes.”‘

5. “My fingers are permanently bruised by playing the violin so much. We are the originators of the Baila music form in Sri Lanka.

We still retain our unique forms of music and dancing with songs in Portuguese, which get played for days at every wedding.”

6. “According to folklore passed down to us, we lost the country to the Dutch due to our carelessness and merrymaking. Our elders used to exclaim every time they saw us being lazy ,’This is why we lost the country, thanks to this attitude of devil may care, we ne’er do wells.’

We had forts and sentries in place to guard the country – but the story goes that there was a Tamil Koothu (musical play) happening one day and our ancestors wanted to attend. So they left a few sentries in place and went to see the play. The sentries wanted to see the play too, so they snuck away one by one – so when the Dutch came sailing round, they found only a very few sentries on guard and easily took over.”

7. “I often visit the fort in the evenings, originally built by my ancestors, then demolished and rebuilt by the Dutch.

I imagine them walking about on the same ramparts some five hundred years earlier, that I walk about on now, and wonder what their thoughts and feelings were.

Some University students at the Eastern University have studied us from time to time – but we never received any documentation from them on all that they recorded from us, or learnt about us.

We have not yet had our community researched in depth from a sociological or anthropological perspective. I wish we could afford to hire professionals to do that for ourselves as a community.

We need some kind of documentation on our roots, heritage and history, to pass on to our children. I am learning and documenting what I can, in my own small way now. We need our culture, identity and way of life preserved.

Our people are musically gifted. 75% of previous generations could all play the violin, harmonium or rabbana (drum) in our own unique style. Now however, the art is dying out and only a few of us are taking the trouble to learn. We have never been professionally recorded either but I saw that someone had uploaded a youtube clip of our music, claiming it to be their original work.

In this video, you can see one of our community uncles singing in Portuguese. This is called Vatha Baila which has caught on amongst the Sinhala community too. Basically at weddings, we are allowed to talk, sing and toast the bride and groom only in Portuguese. As a measure of our fluency in the language, in vatha baila, one person will sing witty repartees at another person and that person would then have to respond – all in sing-song, in Portuguese.

Its one of the methods we use to keep our language alive in our community.”

Image Courtesy: Magin Balthazaar

– form the face book Humans of Northern Sri Lanka

A home-grown remedy for Sri Lanka’s revenue crisis?

MICK MOORE on 06/08/2016

Featured image courtesy The Nation

Sri Lankans sometimes like to claim perverse records for their country. You will likely have heard the proud assertion that ‘Sri Lanka has the highest suicide rate in the world’. Fortunately, that is not true. But here is a genuine perverse record, of which few people are aware: Sri Lanka holds the world record for the longest and largest unplanned decline in government revenue collection. Over a quarter century from 1989, the ratio of government revenue collection to GDP fell by a half, from 21% to 10.4% (in 2014). The country really does have a revenue crisis. In recent years, the government has cut back severely on spending of all kinds, including on education. More urgently, it is now having to pay a higher rate of interest on the money it borrows because, with such large debts and low tax collections, borrowers are getting worried that it might be unable to repay its loans when they become due.

Happily, the current government has taken a number of emergency steps to try to raise more tax revenue, and some have succeeded. In the current financial year, the ratio of revenue to GDP might come back up to 12.9%. That is however still an extremely low figure for a middle income country with a fast-growing economy. It is not big enough. The population is ageing fast. Within a decade, there will be a growing number of old people who have few savings and no way of paying for their own health care. If the government does not raise additional revenue, it will be unable to step in and save its own citizens from a rather miserable old age.

It will have escaped no one’s notice that, while the government has achieved some success in raising additional taxes over the past 18 months, this has come at considerable political cost: rapid and humiliating policy reversals when ill-prepared proposals have met strong opposition; and continual protests against those revenue-raising proposals that are implemented – like the VAT increase and the additional charges on motor vehicle imports.

There is no easy solution to this problem. Taxes are never popular. They are however less unpopular in some places than others. In some countries – but rarely in Sri Lanka – voters are prepared to support taxes because they understand the broader benefits they can bring.

Resistance to new taxes is particularly high in Sri Lanka. One reason is that there is little tradition of informed public debate about either taxing or spending policies. Voters receive little reliable information about how the government raises its money or how they spend it. It is difficult for them to judge any claim that the government makes about the need for new revenue or about the distribution of the tax burden. How many people realise that total revenue collection has declined largely because the tax burden has been lifted from the rich while remaining on the poor? At the same time, spending on programmes that benefit the poor has steadily declined. The fiscal system has become heavily biased against the poor.

If voters were more informed about taxes and tax policies, they might become more willing to support progressive revenue raising policies. But it is not just ordinary voters who need exposure to informed debate. The same is true of the people who more directly shape government tax policy: Ministers, MPs, politicians and the staff of the Ministry of Finance and other economic ministries. Who says so? Among others, the distinguished authors of the 1968 Taxation Enquiry Commission. Here is their judgement on the quality of tax policymaking at that time:

“We believe that the right approach to the tax system of any country is an overall, integral, 

interdisciplinary approach under which each problem is studied from many angles – fiscal, economic, administrative, social, legal. We have failed to see in the tax system in Ceylon follow such a co-ordinated approach. On the contrary the tax system seems to have developed to satisfy the requirements of the moment rather than to fulfil the long-term policy objectives of government. The tax system also appears to have been at times the plaything of pressure groups, each seeking to achieve disjointed and often contradictory goals” (p. 50).

They explain the reason:

“We think that the basic fault lies in the lack of a centralised policy-making body responsible for taxation. The Treasury which has hitherto performed this function in addition to its numerous other duties is unsuited to undertake this task. It has neither the time nor the training staff nor the requisite organisation to fill this role. …. we have been given to understand that tax policy is considered by the Treasury usually once a year at Budget time and that too in a few hurried consultations with departmental heads. …. The task of revenue administration is at present left in the hands of several independent departments, the activities of which, though closely interrelated, not coordinated” (pp.50-51).

The Commission made two recommendations to overcome these problems. One was the creation of a Directorate of Revenue, under the authority of a Director-General of Revenue, to coordinate the various revenue raising departments. The second was the creation of a Permanent Taxation Commission to advise the Minister of Finance on tax policy issues on a continuing basis. The members would be senior economic officials and “two others not excluding members of the public” (p.57).

Every Taxation Commission that has reported since 1968 has endorsed some variant of these very sensible proposals. They have never been accepted by government. The quality of the tax policymaking process is no better today than in 1968. The difference is that Sri Lanka now has a real revenue crisis. It is time to put the 1968 proposals back on the table. They will not help to solve the revenue crisis in the short term. It will take time to appoint a Commission and even longer for the work of the Commission to have a positive impact on the ways in which the media present taxation issues, the ways in which Members of Parliament understand them, and the ways in which civil society organisations campaign about them. But the revenue crisis is not going to go away. Even if the government manages to raise sufficient additional revenue on a sustainable basis to assure potential lenders that it can repay loans, the longer term problem of the public spending implications of an ageing population will remain. And the tax system needs to be made more fair. It will be very hard to make the changes needed without at least some support from public and expert opinion. Informed debate would be the best way of generating that support.

Govt set to abolish strict foreign exchange regulations


June 10, 2016
Sri Lanka on Thursday announced plans to lift six-decade-old restrictions on foreign exchange flows and allow free transfer of money in and out of the island, to encourage investment in the struggling economy. 

The island tightly controls foreign currency transactions under a 1953 law that does not allow the free repatriation of capital, in an effort to protect its modest foreign reserves.

 Under the present strict rules, exporters must bring back their foreign earnings within a short period of time or face penalties. Analysts say the policy deters investors. 

“We can remove exchange controls before the next budget (in November),” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in parliament. 

“We are strong enough to do that. We have that confidence.

” Last week, Sri Lanka received the first tranche of a $1.5 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to shore up the island’s economy, left reeling after a spending spree by the new government. 

The premier said Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves were expected to double to $12 billion by the end of this year thanks to loans and grants from China, India and Japan. 

The island also plans to raise about $4.2 billion with two bond issues, Wickremesinghe said. 

The announcements came during a parliamentary session in which the opposition moved a no-trust resolution against Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake accusing him of arbitrarily raising taxes. Earlier this month, Karunanayake sharply raised taxes on cars shortly after announcing an increase in the island’s value added tax from 11 to 15 per cent.

 But the no-confidence move was defeated by 94 votes in the 225-member assembly, where the ruling party commands a two-thirds majority. 

Soon after President Maithripala Sirisena’s government came to power in January last year, the finance minister led a spending spree to implement election pledges of higher public sector salaries and reduced taxes. 

However, the country soon found itself in a balance of payments crisis. 

The IMF noted last week that Sri Lanka’s economy was under strain from an increasingly difficult external environment and has warned Colombo that it should increase tax collection. 

Sri Lanka enjoyed blistering economic growth rates averaging more than eight per cent for two years after a prolonged civil war ended in 2009. 

But the pace of expansion has since slowed, falling to 4.8 per cent in 2015, down from 4.9 per cent in the previous year, according to official data. -Agencies Source: AFP 

Ranil takes jab at JO; says no Confidence motion is warranted only against MR 

President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe chat in Parliament yesterday during the debate on the no confidence motion against the Finance Minister 

Friday, 10 June 2016

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday threw the  ball back in the court of Joint Opposition urging them that the no confidence motion was more warranted against former President and Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa for bankrupting the country and not against the incumbent Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake.

The salvo by Premier was fired at the Joint Opposition during the vote on the no confidence motion against the Finance Minister which was taken up in Parliament yesterday. The motion was defeated convincingly by the National Unity Government by a majority of 94 votes. President Maithripala Sirisena was present during the debate.

Having described the no confidence motion as an obscenity (kunuharapayak) which should be soundly defeated, Premier said what was needed is a no confidence motion against former President Mahinda Rajapaksa who was also the Finance Minister.

“It is the former President who violated the provisions of the Fiscal Management Responsibility Act and not the present Finance Minister,” Wickremesinghe said joining in the debate.

In a lighter vain, the Prime Minister said that the former President should be suspended by the House for a week for violating finance regulations, and sent off to Uganda. 

Despite much noise by the Joint Opposition, MP Mahinda Rajapaksa was absent during the debate and the vote yesterday.

The Premier said the no-confidence motion can be broken into three sections. 

“ The first, he said was against the Minister for misleading the country and mismanaging the economy. The second was quoting a newspaper article and the third was about debt not being accounted during the Rajapaksa regime. “Why didn’t you take this to Finance Committee? You could have challenged Minister Karunanayake to prove it? Your problem would have been sorted in case he was unable to prove it. The IMF in its report certified the contingent liabilities, which were not found before. All-in-all Mahinda Rajapaksa as former Finance Minister violated the Fiscal Responsibility Act by withholding the facts from the Parliament. I suggest that we suspend MP Rajapaksa from parliament for a week and send him to Uganda,” Wickremesinghe quipped.

The Prime Minister also said that the Treasury was empty when the new Government took over on 8 January last year. “An early election was held because (former Finance Ministry Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera) said there was no way to take the country forward as the country was going bankrupt.

Premier also said  “Allowing to move a no-confidence motion signifies the democracy in this country. Were you able to bring such before? Since 2005 President Mahinda Rajapaksa was holding to it and no room was provided. Only after Maithripala Sirisena became the President did we get the opportunity to bring a no-confidence motion against the finance minister. I invite you to join the UPFA and work with the Government rather than teaming up there in the back,” Wickremesinghe said.