The Left and Ranil – economics

Conditional support and a Transitional Programme

PM and delegation in Chongqing

by Kumar David-August 20, 2016

 

This column has consistently approached Ranil’s economic outlook and programme with the acceptance that it is a frankly capitalist strategy. At this stage most people are not interested in all sorts of left-right theoretical debates or even questions of class equity; they simply want to know "Will it work; will the strategy that RW is pursing bring growth; will it promote economic strength?" They say, yes fairness and spreading the butter more evenly are good things, but right now they are terribly worried that the economy will decline, there will be belt-tightening and their personal living standards will decline. This is why I invested most of my column inches to pointing out certain critical deficiencies in RW’s approach even judged as a capitalist growth strategy. I will summarise the critique briefly at the end but I don’t want to be distracted from the theme of this piece so early.

The theme is about the Left movement, though somewhat enfeebled, and its relationship with the present UNP-SLFP (S&R) alliance government and in particular the economic programme on which RW is striking out these days. There are three categories of the Left from the perspective of these concerns: (i) the pro-government or in-government groups (the Jayampathy-Wijenayake LSSP Majority group or LMG and Bahu’s wing of the NSSP), (ii) in-the-middle parties including JVP and Siritunga’s United Socialists and (iii) Joint Opposition IJO) members (Dead Left) or fellow travellers of the JO like Peratugami (Frontline). An interesting case is the Communist Party; DEW is distancing himself from the JO because of its flagrant racism (which Vasu and Vitarana seem to revel in) and the CP may support the proposed new constitution depending on its provisions. A section of the CP linked to people like Dr Michael Fernando has already entered into in alliance with LMG and Bahu’s group.

There are two crucial irons in the fire that will shape the attitude of all three categories not just to the government but to the whole evolving scenario. These are the new constitution and in sync with it the national question and secondly Ranil’s economic breakout. The motives which will stir the left on both issues will be similar; firstly what are the actual contents of policies, second the transitional aspect – that is to say to what extent will it be a stepping stone. A third is narrow and personal interets as is common to all things, not just politics. The third concern is well illustrated by the certainty that Vasudeva and Vitrana will under no circumstances diverge from the Mahinda Rajapaksa leadership whatever his fallacies. Thus they will vote against the new constitution since MR is priming the JO for this objective. (Will MS expel SLFPers who vote against the constitution from the Party? That’s an interesting one since so far he has always backed down when confronted; but to do it on this matter will be suicidal).

What is the principled stand the left should take on the Constitution since we know that it will be a far from perfect charter? For example it will not be secular; the unenlightened mumbo-jumbo about the special place of Buddhism will be retained. The country will be declared unitary though this may, I hope be cleverly undermined in other provisions which de facto devolve power to regions and minorities. There is argument about whether reference to social, economic and welfare (healthcare and education) should be explicit. There is little doubt several progressive provisions will be enacted, there is also no doubt given the strength of petty-bourgeois chauvinism there will be undesirable stuff and a lot of omissions.

How should the left respond? What Colvin and the LSSP-CP did in 1972 is wrong. What the ultra-left did in damning the 1972 Constitution out of court is also wrong. The left should explained how several provisions were undesirable but that it would still vote for the constitution since voting against it was destructive. OK Colvin was trapped into a compromise as drafting minister it but that constraint did not apply to the rest of the party and certainly not to those outside Parliament. The LSSP-CP singularly failed to tackle the problem in the way that I am certain Lenin would have. What had to be done was to frankly and openly lay out the negatives; what had to be done was to explain to the people the negative side not hide it; above all what had to be done was to seize upon the opportunity to expand and advance the consciousness of the masses as they lived through the post-constitutional processes. Perhaps most criminal of such failures was mishandling the Tamils.

This way of approaching things at every step is to develop the consciousness of the people. In fact partial and imperfect measures are more important not as half-way steps in the right direction but as opportunities to advance people’s understanding and political consciousness. This is what Trotsky meant by the ‘Transitional Programme’. It was less important as a transition in getting something done; it was far more important as an educational process taking the movement towards what Trotsky was won’t to call a more revolutionary consciousness. One important feature is never hide limitations of erstwhile partners. The left was reluctant in 1970-75 to tell even its own cadres the truth about how reactionary leading sections of the Coalition regime were. So when unceremoniously kicked out in 1975, the cadres of the left parties, the working class and the broad pro-left mass movement were nonplussed, confused and disoriented. Had the LSSP and CP taken note of Trotsky’s thesis on preparing consciousness, people would have been prepared for what was to come and the left stronger when in 1975 than in 1970.

This is a rather long introduction on method since it has a bearing what my topic for the day is; how should the left approach Ranil’s economic strategy. Support what can be supported and oppose what needs to be opposed but in no way become an apologist for the UNP nor lose one’s left identity by failing in essential criticism. Do not identify with what is still a capitalist, not a social-democratic regime. Note my calculated use of ‘still’ because I do not rule out the possibility of the R&S government being pushed in social-democratic directions by the sheer weight of economic crisis. (On economic issues it is R&S not S&R). Before I probe that a little further let me repeat the point in a different style because it deserves emphasis. Do not make the loss of identity mistake that the LSSP-CP made with Mrs B’s government and the Dead Left made with Mahinda; the mistake is fatal, in both instances the left ended up dead.

These are two top of the agenda current issues to which my observations above pertain; the new constitution and Ranil’s economic initiatives. Though Jayampathi and Lal Wijenayake are involved in and playing leading roles in preparing the draft constitution the left is also well aware that on several issues it will fall short of what we wish for. To repeat myself the ‘unitary state’ will be retained, secularism will be eschewed and the ‘leading place of Buddhism’ will be retained and it not clear how the reference to socio-economic guarantees will be incorporated. In the prevailing political circumstances it is beyond dispute that the left must support the new constitution despite anticipated shortcomings, but the crucial question is how we will face up before the people at large and the minorities on these points. We must not make the mistake that the left made in 1972; we must not hide the shortcomings; we must explain how are support has to be seen within the ‘transitional’ perspective as explained previously.

The left must not lose its identity and submerge itself into an amorphous political alliance. If we do this correctly we can achieve three objectives; participate in the enactment of a constitution that on the whole and on balance we support; take the understanding (the political consciousness) of the people one step forward; and thirdly, if and when Jumpy and Lal get kicked out by the rightwing in the government we can go out stronger, not weaker in the mass arena.

A similar way of thinking must regulate the left’s approach to Ranil’s economic strategy. Critical support is not the terminology that quite gets what I am driving at across but I guess may sound like that. Yes the new approach to regional economic cooperation is right; yes agreements with India, China, Singapore etc is desirable in principle, and yes the thrust to enhance the efficiency of the sate machinery and state owned enterprises is correct. Yes it is correct to enhance state revenue; but rescinding announced impositions on the rich, on property owners and on car import duties while imposing a VAT shock on the populace at large is not what one will call examples of intelligence. The duty free vehicle import bonanza bestowed on Members of Parliament who are selling them for between Rs 8 and Rs 20 million is deeply and morally flawed. One can and must be ‘critical’ of such things as part of a ‘critical support’ orientation.

But there are deep and fundamental flaws in the Ranil-Charita-Manik-Eraj-Harsha way of thinking about economic involvement with the outside world. Read their perspectives again and again with care, what is their strategic direction and perspective? A financial hub, more trade agreements, and pouring ever more concrete into high-rise towers in the Port City (or whatever its current pseudonym). In principle and in theory the inclusion of activities of this nature within a strong economic growth strategy is fine, but where is that real growth strategy? Have you heard Ranil or his other acolytes (or are they the real decision makers?) speak of production of goods, of manufacture, of agricultural output; have you even heard them speak of services which will contribute to the productive side? An example of the latter would be converting the white elephant Mattala into an aircraft-maintenance and repair and service hub, for which there is scope. But no, in respect of Mattala the teams thinking cannot get beyond the second airport, a service economy concept. It seems to me that there is deep inbuilt hostility, or at least a latent inability on the part of the aforesaid team to thing of economic growth as anything beyond financial services, trade (not production) and pouring concrete on real estate.

Ranil wants one million jobs; does he want one million pen-pushers in pretty saris and white shirt and tie or people who get their hands on a job and do practical economic activities? Rani9l wants free trade agreements on all sides, but if the productive side does not expand what in pluperfect heaven is he going to export. Even to export brinjals one needs to grow more brinjals!

All is not yet lost. Chongqing seems to have been an eye opener for the PM. He seems to have seen how China prioritised the real economy and built transport systems and commercial, trade and financial services around a booming real economy. The left’s transitional programme must be to explain to the people the incredible one-sidedness of the government’s economic ‘growth’ (sic!) strategy.

National Unity Government after one year

Photograph courtesy Ada Derana

HARIM PEIRIS on 08/21/2016

August 19th was the first anniversary of the National Unity Government elected after the last general elections and several political issues have dominated the recent news, especially the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) Act and the recent removal by the President as SLFP leader of Joint Opposition SLFP members from their posts as party organizers. Losing their posts were JO stalwarts Kheliya Rambukwella, CB Ratnayake, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Gamini Lokuge, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana and Jagath Balasuriya. Dallas Allaperuma and Bandula Gunawardena have announced their intention to resign, a wise move to do so, before they are also likely removed.

The most underlying feature of the Sirisena / Wickramasinghe Administration is that it is a unique unity experiment between the two major political parties which have alternatively governed this country since independence the United National Party (UNP), led by Prime Minister Wickramasinghe and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led by President Maithripala Sirisena. What this has done, is pushed the third placed Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to the official opposition position for the first time since 1977 and more importantly created a very broad based government which has over two thirds support in Parliament and consequently able to carry through on a reform agenda, as demonstrated by the unanimous decision of parliament to be a constitutional assembly which will institutionalize and codify all reforms through a constitutional for Sri Lanka.

The German Experience

The practice of the two largest parties in the country and in parliament coming together to form, what might be termed a “grand national coalition” is not an unusual, phenomena in the world and while not common, is also found in other places. The best example would be Germany, where the Christian Democrats of Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Social Democratic Party, the two largest parties in that country have been forming grand national coalitions now on several occasions and likely to do so again in federal German elections due next year. The parties govern together and then separate to contest the elections. The parties are well established with their own ideologies, the Christian Democrats essentially the conservative right of center party and the Social Democrats as their name implies are left of center. Similar experiences exist in other countries with parliamentary democracies too, mostly in Europe.

Asserting control the slow and steady way

President Maithripala Sirisena has his own style and at times challenges Machiavellian orthodoxy for achieving and increasing control. Right after the presidential elections in January 2015, a shell shocked SLFP abandoned the defeated Rajapakses and moved over to President Sirisena. The nay Sayers existed even then but President Sirisena choose the less travelled path of refraining from taking drastic action against his political detractors and as party general secretary Minister Duminda Dissanayke said recently quietly watched and slowly took action. What has been occurring has been a slow but steady process of asserting control and slowly marginalizing the SLFP faction opposing his administration and supporting the joint opposition of former President Rajapaksa.

A new political formation and local government polls

The political strategists of the Joint Opposition, who regularly vow to come to power very soon, in much the same way as the old leftist firebrands used to promise that the revolution was around the corner, in the iron curtain era gone by, are staking their hopes on a new political formation led by former President Rajapaksa and contesting the local government and perhaps some provincial polls due next year. The strategy has a few serious weaknesses. Firstly, Sri Lankan politics is very unkind to third forces in general and breakaway factions in particular. The JVP despite a very clear and distinct leftist identity has struggled to pose a democratic regime change challenge to the government securing only seven seats at the last election. The most significant previous breakaway from a main party was the Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayke led breakaway from the UNP, styled the Democratic United National Front (DUNF). It contested the first provincial council polls held after it was formed and secured 13% of the popular vote nationally, a remarkable performance but nonetheless had no staying power and is no more today.

Why the JO which essentially lost two elections last year with President Rajapaksa leading the fray believe that they would be third time lucky is unclear. One definition of lunacy is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. The Rajapaksa message has not changed, strident ethno-nationalism with barely disguised racism will not produce any local government victories. Local government elections are not elections which change governments and hence always difficult to generate enthusiasm for voter turnout among opposition supporter. Further the first provincial council election due is the Eastern Province in mid-2017, an election in which the generally minority bashing, strident majoritarian nationalism of the Joint Opposition does not carry any appeal. The Muslim electorate of the Eastern Province would hardly be unaware that since last year’s January 8th election, there has not been a single act of mob violence against mosques or places of minority religious worship. From a perspective of political violence, it also demonstrates remarkable command and control over violence, that an election result could stop political violence in its tracks. Sri Lankan democracy has been the winner, one year on for the national unity government.

(The writer is Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The views expressed are personal.)

ARTICLE 16 OF THE CONSTITUTION, THAT MAKES MUSLIM WOMEN SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS, MUST GO! – WAN

( A group of Muslim students visiting Galle Fort ©s.deshapriya)

Statement by Women’s Action Network.-

20/08/2016

Constitutional reforms pointless, if fundamental rights does not apply to all citizens equally.

It is a hopeful time for Sri Lanka as a country that is seeking justice, fairness and progress for all. It is encouraging to note that the constitutional reforms process has been broadly consultative and has engaged the public from the grassroots all the way to national level. It has given Sri Lankans the opportunity to articulate their perspectives publicly and engage in a process that has multi-generational impacts for many years to come.

Fundamental rights is central to the constitution and if the new Constitution cannot guarantee equality and equal protection under the law for all citizens then all efforts towards constitutional reform would be futile. The reforms process must ensure a constitution that is supreme under normal circumstances. Thus the concern emerges regarding Article 16 of the 1978 Constitution, which makes all written and unwritten laws in existence before the promulgation of the constitution valid and operative despite inconsistencies with fundamental rights.

 As the Women Action Network – a collection of activists and human rights organizations across the island, we wish to draw attention to the significant impact Article 16 has on Muslim women in relation to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) of 1951.

Article 16, by upholding the MMDA sans reforms, renders Muslim women second-class citizens by not guaranteeing them equal protection under the law. Muslim women, including victims of child marriage, have articulated very strongly to the Public Representations Committee on Constitutional Reform that the constitution must guarantee that their human and citizenship rights are not violated in the name of ‘cultural and religious rights’ and that every woman and girl in this country should enjoy equality and basic human rights regardless of religion or ethnicity. This includes either the removal of Article 16 in the new constitution, or amendments that allow Constitutional supremacy above discriminatory customary laws.

For decades, Muslim women and groups working closely with victims have been advocating for reform to the MMDA and the Quazi court system. Women’s groups documented numerous cases of injustices faced by Muslim women under the MMDA enabled by discriminatory provisions within the Act such as lack of minimum age of marriage and agency to consent to marriage, unequal process of divorce for men and women, polygamy without conditions, arbitrary process of compensation, to name a few. Multiple cases of child marriage have been documented all over the island in Muslim communities, which is enabled by the MMDA and Article 16. In addition to case data, information from marriage registration, maternal units in hospitals and research on child marriage shows both child marriage and child pregnancies are prevalent, with the lack of legal protective mechanisms as a key contributing factor. Data collected of registered Muslim marriages from four DS divisions in two Eastern districts indicates over 143 cases of underage marriage in 2014 and over 118 cases for the first few months of 2015 alone.

Muslim women around the country have also articulated in multiple forums that they are discriminated against by the sub-par Quazi court system, which is significantly different from the civil court system and doesn’t allow for affected persons to have legal representation. Women are often mistreated by incompetent Quazis and the jurors of the courts; not given equal treatment as their husbands; are unable to express their side without fear of being verbally abused, threatened and humiliated in courts throughout their case processes. It is notable that the Quazi court system, while being a government sanctioned system funded by tax payer money, prohibits women from holding any position of authority, either as marriage registrars, Quazis, jurors, or Board of Quazi members and thus is marked by systemic gender discrimination (MMDA Section 8,12,14,15).

What good is a ‘special’ family law if it violates rights of the women of a said community rather than protect, promote and guarantee rights? For the answer, one must merely ask the number of 15 – 18 years old Muslim girls who are forced to go to Quazi courts after being forced/coerced into marriage, or who are abandoned due to polygamy around the country.

The opposition to the amendment or removal of Article 16 has come primarily from conservatives who want to maintain the status quo by claiming to have the best interest of the Muslim community at heart. The arguments put forward by said groups include that the MMDA is based on Shariah and cannot be reformed; however the Sri Lankan MMDA is a combination of multiple imports of versions of Shariah law and local customs, and also includes anti-Shariah provisions such as the recognition of kaikuli (dowry) which is forbidden in Islam. Others claim that the Muslim community is under threat from anti-pluralist elements and as such the MMDA must be protected; however protection in the constitution for minorities does not mean that discriminatory family laws are allowed to supersede the constitution merely to guarantee cultural/religious rights at the expense of equal right of women.

 The new rights-based constitution must guarantee that Muslim women have equal legal status and protection under the law. Making the constitution truly supreme by removing or amending Article 16, will provide space for the Muslim community to reform the MMDA to be equitable and address contemporary issues of the community. There are different approaches to addressing Article 16, but leaving it unchanged is not an option. If Sri Lanka is to become a progressive nation that treats all its citizens equally then progressive realization of women’s rights is of paramount importance at this time. No citizen whatever his or her religious or ethnic status should be left behind.

Book Review: Sri Lanka – Lost Evenings, Lost Lives

Tamil Poems of the Sri Lankan Civil War

(Edited, translated and introduced by Lakshmi Holmstrom & Sascha Ebeling, UK, 2016.)

by Prof. Charles Sarvan

( August 22, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) This bilingual anthology of fifty poems is by the very nature of its subject (ethnic conflict) political, and yet it would be inaccurate and unfortunate to describe the volume as a political work. It is about the experience of politics: politics as experienced not by the makers of history but by those who endure it; politics not as an abstraction but as something personally felt by ordinary, sentient, human individuals. As several of these poems attest, whether we are interested or not in politics, it affects us. Indeed, tragically, often the victims of politics are the poor and the innocent. I suggest that poets do not go searching for a theme: the subject chooses and compels them through personal experience. And “experience” here includes what the poet has seen, been told or read. ‘Tamil Poems’ does not mean poems by Eelam poets only, and there are several works by Indian Tamil poets. Many chose to write under a nom de plume.

If of the three traditional genres of Literature (Poetry, Drama, Fiction), Poetry is the most literary, it is also the most difficult to translate. Apart from other qualities, poetry being associated with song, is mnemonic: we remember lines from poetry and song but rarely from prose. In translation (particularly when, as with the present collection, it is into another language that is completely different) inevitably much is lost. And it is not only musicality but cultural connotation. Literature emerges from, and in turn reflects, a specific way of life, a culture; when translated (trans-ported) into a foreign language and culture, rich nuances of significance can be lost.

While a poem must stand on its own, background information can throw a different light, enhance appreciation. For example, in Nuhman’s ironic poem, ‘Buddha murdered’ (p. 25), the Buddha and his teaching have to be obliterated in order to burn down the Jaffna Library. On 1 June 1981, in an act of barbarism, the Library which housed well over 90,000 works, one of the biggest in Asia, was destroyed including irreplaceable ancient manuscripts and scrolls.

Similarly, Rashmy’s ‘The inscription of defeat’ (pp. 129-131) requires some knowledge of the history of the ethnic conflict, and of the LTTE leader. However, Lost Evenings, dealing primarily with violence and its impact – death and destruction; sorrow, pain of body and soul – attempts to transcend specificity and be universally comprehensible. It must be admitted that, as George Orwell wrote in his essay ‘Writers and Leviathan’ (1948), though we have “an awareness of the enormous injustice and misery of the world”, our response to literature can be coloured by “loyalties” which are non-literary.

The translators give a brief outline of events during the course of nearly thirty years of war: the savage 1983 pogrom, “the brutal intervention of the Indian Peace Keeping Force”, the increasing violence of the Tamil Tigers, and so to “the last terrible months of war” (p. 9). The poems are given in chronological order of publication and so parallel; arise from, and reflect, this history.

The irruption of brutality destroys what was once normality in Nuhman’s poem, ‘Last evening, this morning’ (pp. 17-19). Last evening, we popped into a bookshop, idly watched the crowds at the bus terminal, took in a film and then cycled home. This morning, bullets pierce bodies, the terminal is deserted, the market shattered.

And this was how we lost our evenings   

                                              

we lost this life.

It’s when we fall ill that we realize how wonderful it is to be free from pain and disability – a normality otherwise taken for granted. And so it is that when violence irrupts into an otherwise placid pattern of life. (I recall several years ago being asked in Jaffna by a man in genuine puzzlement: “All we want is to be allowed to lead our lives as we want. Sir, why don’t they leave us alone?” He thought it was a simple wish and, therefore, a fair question.)  Jesurasa’s poem, ‘Under New Shoes’ is a ‘meditation’ based on Jaffna’s old Dutch fort. Three hundred years have passed since the imperialist, occupying, Dutch left; colour (now not white) and language (now Sinhala) have changed but for Tamils “the same rule of oppression” (p. 21) continues.

The compulsion to communicate with a loved one makes the persona of Urvasi’s poem, ‘Do you understand?’ (pp. 29-31) write a letter though there’s no address to send it to. (A poignant work, it recalled Ezra Pound’s beautiful rendering of the Chinese poem, ‘The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter’, available on Google.) Urvasi’s persona includes in her letter what one could call home details: the jasmine is in bloom; the small puppy runs in circles, its tail raised; I dust your books. But a different reality (menace) throbs beneath the lines: they haven’t come to interrogate me – as yet!

‘I Could Forget All This’ by Cheran (pp. 33-4), a post-1983 poem, remembers ghastly sights such as a thigh-bone protruding from an upturned, burnt-out car; a socket empty of its eye, and a pregnant Sinhalese woman carrying off a cradle from a burning Tamil house. (One thinks of what has been described as the shortest story ever written in English. It consists of six words: “For sale, baby shoes. Never worn.”) Cheran concludes with a powerful use of symbolism. But 

How shall I forget the broken shards 

                             

and the scattered rice      

                                                    

lying parched upon the earth?

A related poem is ‘Oppressed by Nights of War’ by Sivaramani (pp. 45-6) showing what happens to children in a time of protracted and “total” war: children their childhood destroyed. Biographical information heightens our response to Captain Vanathi’s ‘My Unwritten Poem’, a work that repeatedly urges the addressee to complete what she couldn’t accomplish. Vanathi was killed in action shortly afterwards, and this is her last poem. The year is 1991, and there is still the belief that all their suffering and sacrifice will not be in vain: As you walk freely in an independentTamileelam, I and the thousands of other martyrs will smile with joy (p. 57): her poem will then have been written. Metaphorically, freedom is the poem that must be ‘written’ (achieved).  It is indeed strange, very strange, to read these lines in the present context.

The editorial note to Aazhiyaal’s poem, ‘Mannamperis’, explains that Tamil Koneswari Selvakumar was gang-raped by Sinhalese soldiers who then killed her by exploding a grenade in her vagina (p. 75). But the poem, broadening outward, encompasses other instances of “man’s inhumanity to man”. During what in Sri Lanka is known as the Insurgency (the violent uprising of Left-leaning young men and women against the government) Padmini Mannamperi, a Sinhalese beauty-queen, was raped and killed by members of the Sri Lankan army (April 1971). The editorial note does not elaborate that, in an avowedly Buddhist and conservative country, Padmini was stripped naked and forced to walk down the street; that she was buried even before she was dead. One thinks, for example, of William McGowan’s Only Man Is Vile: The Tragedy of Sri Lanka (New York, 1992). It may be added that, whatever the sins and crimes of the Tamil Tigers (and they were several and grievous; destructive and, as History shows, finally fatal) there is no record of them ever indulging in rape or in the sexual humiliation of women. On the contrary, women enjoyed an unprecedented degree of emancipation; of equality. See for example.

The theme of exile finds expression in poems such as ‘The Lizard’s Lament’ by Solaikkili (pp. 67-69); ‘Identity’ by Aazhiyal (p. 99); ‘Goodbye Mother’ by Jayapalan (pp. 105-107) and in ‘Photographs of Children, Women, Men’ by Cheran (pp. 149-151). In the last mentioned poem, documentation is demanded of the refugees but all they carry are “burning tears”, and memories of murder and ethnic cleansing. Estrangement, to a greater or lesser degree, awaits the first-generation refugee. As Doris Lessing wrote, once you leave your first home, you have left all homes forever.

But to leave behind the one room   

                                        

where you have lived all your life…  

                                         

that is tragedy.         

   

(Solaikkilli, ‘The Lizard’s Lament’, p. 69)

2009 marks the year when the Tigers were totally annihilated, and the poems following reflect this reality.

 Indian poet Ravikumar in ‘There Was a Time Like That’ (pp. 119-121), using the refrain “There was once a time”, reflects on a time when things were very different, both in Sri Lanka and in Tamil Nadu. Latha in ‘Empty Days’ (p. 147) writes that “the last little fragment of land that was ours” is lost; our people and their dreams destroyed. There is not a sign that they ever existed. The persona in Sharmila Seyyid’s ‘Keys to an Empty House’ (pp. 143-5) has only her memories and the keys to her father’s house: the little house itself has been totally destroyed. But though the triumphant enemy celebrate; dance and mock “our overflowing tears” (Cheran, ‘Forest Healing’, p. 133), the father in Jesurasa’s poem, ‘The Time Remaining’ (p. 123), comforts his son: Life has destroyed our dreams; your path forward may now seem blocked but your time will come.

To go on would strain the Editor’s allowance of space, and I leave it to readers to come to terms, each in her own way, with these poems. To learn the ‘facts’ of the 30-year conflict, one turns to history books and articles, biased or objective. But if one wants to gain something of an insight into that experience, one turns to Literature.

If I may conclude on a personal note, I never met Lakshmi Holmstrom but we corresponded; I considered her a friend, and write this introduction with deep regret at her passing. Finally, I thank Aruni, my niece, for presenting me with a copy of Lost Evenings, Lost Lives.

People protest against the proposed Gannoruwa power plant

Aug 22, 2016

It is reported that against the proposed hydro power plant to be built across the Mahaweli river in Waratenna area in Gannoruwa  the people have protested considering the environmental hazards faced in the afternoon of the  21st instant. The protest had been carried out in close proximity to the vicinity of the proposed project on the main road.

It is reported that of this project is allowed to get underway a number of environmental hazards would have be faced as predicted by various environmentalists a number of times.

 

It is learnt that a number of times the authorities had attempted to construct this hydro power station but with the protests of the residents the proposed project had not got underway. The related private Company had not been allowed to get the proposed project under way.

 

In the event this project gets underway owing to explosions caused by breaking the rubble would cause tremor resulting in damaging the existing buildings was what the protestors had focussed on. In this regard although the institutions responsible had forecasted the damage the authorities of the government had not responded to them. The residents had said that was the very reason they had made such protests.

 

The protestors had walked from the vicinity of the proposed project along the road to near the bridge and protested for about an hour.

Yet another cutie of Namal who extorted Rs. 1700 million trailed- Police after Rishni Weeraratne !

(Lanka-e-News -21.Aug.2016, 11.30PM) Yet another cutie Anushika Rishni Weeraratne of Namal Rajapakse who collected extortion monies to the tune of over Rs. 1700 million ! from various businessmen of this country on behalf of Namal has  now come under the surveillance of the investigators of crimes. Having got wind of this , she is running behind ministers of the government of good governance , in a desperate and determined  attempt to  circumvent the laws based on reports reaching Lanka e news inside information division.

Rishni is the sister of Iraj Weeraratne . Rishni received a well deserved hooting welcome from the students when  she went to Balika Vidyalaya to campaign along with Namal during the last presidential elections. 

Anushika Rishni is the daughter  of Prithiraj Weeraratne. The latter about a decade ago  began a celluloid tape in the name of 'Number 17' , which led to introduction of  new innocent actresses into prostitution by providing lodging in brothels.

It is Rishni Weeraratne who organized all the ‘events’ of Namal Rajapakse from Carlton super seven tournament  to St. Kist Island party. The aim of the Rajapakses  via this party  was to  get the commonwealth games to Sri Lanka in 2018  . It is said that she is   the Director of several  establishments including  ‘Red Cherry’ and ‘Il Noise Entertainment’ launched by her.

She fulfilled her father’s desires by serving  as the procuress to the artistes of sleazy dark alleys of foreign countries supposed to be  singers and actors who were got down to Sri Lanka in connection with the ‘events.’ Though she was incapable of doing anything worthwhile , she still held the post of Director of the ‘Thaaruniyata hetak’ organization of Namal Rajapakse.

During that period , while saying ‘ this is a Namal Rajapakse task’ to businessmen she had extorted  large sums  of money in slabs of  Rs. 2.5 million , Rs. 3.5 million and Rs. 5 million from the  businessmen , according to reports . The sum demanded had been decided by herself. The businessmen who fell victim and made disbursements in fear at that time are now furnishing  evidence.
 
It has now come to light , via  these events (tamashas) alone  a colossal sum of Rs. 1.7 billion had been collected during the time when Namal and his clan indulged in selfish  mirth and merriment  while enjoying joy rides  in the ‘train’ of fun and frolic  along with the other culprit -the ex governor of Central bank.

Upon hearing that the first and second cuties of Namal were  being arrested , Rishni has got panicky when   her own rackets also  got    exposed. She is now trailing behind ministers of the good governance government for favors through intermediaries  in order to circumvent the laws.

According to a report reaching Lanka e news , one minister had inquired from her , ‘ didn’t  you know , when you sleep with the dogs , you must wake up along with the fleas ?’ Perhaps , the minister  who asked this was not aware ,  to daughters of families that  have slept with the ‘dogs’ from the time of their parents, fleas are hardly a matter  concern.
 
In any event , based on the speech of Maithripala at Matara , the masses must issue a warning to the powerful middle-aged politicos whose every part stands erect  from top to toe before cherry complexioned cuties !

…..‘If you put your hand in the wrong place and get involved, be careful..!’

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by     (2016-08-21 22:02:48)

Sri Lanka airline suspends drunk pilot in Frankfurt

Flight UL554 was held up at Frankfurt airport for more than 15 hours on Friday as staff scrambled to find another captain for the Airbus A330. Photo: DPA

21 Aug 2016 

Sri Lanka's national carrier has suspended a captain who failed a breathalyser test just before he was due to fly 274 passengers and crew from Frankfurt to Colombo, the airline said Sunday.

"Upon receiving the results (of the test) SriLankan Airlines took immediate steps to suspend the services of the said captain and took alternative measures to operate the flight to Colombo," the airline said in a statement.

An airline source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Flight UL554 was held up at Frankfurt airport for more than 15 hours on Friday as staff scrambled to find another captain for the Airbus A330.

The crew raised the alarm after noticing that the captain was visibly drunk, the source, who has direct knowledge of the matter, told AFP.

The airline said an internal investigation was underway into the incident and it would cooperate with any probe by German authorities.

The cash-strapped airline is due to stop its flights to Frankfurt from October as it slashes routes to European destinations.

Story continues below…

The Redundancy Of “Naming Names”

By Emil van der Poorten –August 21, 2016

Emil van der Poorten

I have been, probably justifiably, taken to task for not specifying the names of those I’ve made thinly-veiled reference to in a recent column.

Unfortunately, for practical reasons driven by journalistic practice in the country, I do not find it possible to deviate from that practice.

As one who is compelled, from time to time, to deal with the permanently nose-to-tail nature of Kandy traffic, I continue to take strong exception to being poisoned by the result of the never-ending traffic jams that are a feature of this metropolis.

We have had a couple of ludicrous suggestions from a man who, obviously, if the current situation is to be understood, has the power, to the extent that human beings can wield such authority, to at least alleviate this state of affairs and CHOOSES NOT TO DO SO.

It is one of the less well-kept secrets of the hill country that a man who, literally, bought two elections to continue as the custodian of the most sacred of Buddhist relics simply calls the shots in this regard. His reason for ensuring the (air-conditioned) comfort of his official residence is that he doesn’t want the peace and quiet of that abode to be disturbed by the peregrinations of the hoi-polloi compelled to live in Kandy and to travel back and forth to a UN-declared Heritage City and Sri Lanka’s acknowledged hill capital. Up to the time that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam launched their very ineffective attempt to blast the Dalada Maligawa, traffic moved freely up and down what was then Malabar Street without let or hindrance.

Since the advent of the monumental corruption of the Rajapaksa regime (MR1) when “anything went” as long as you were prepared to pay obeisance, literally and metaphorically, at the feet of our plump potentate from the South, it suddenly became almost a capital offence to object to this new routing of traffic.

About six years ago, the last time Kandy’s air pollution index was checked, it was determined to be something like four times as high as Colombo’s. It is anybody’s guess as to what a similar comparison would yield today.

What is the reason for this state of affairs? ONE man deems it his privilege to live in quiet, air-conditioned comfort which hardly fits into the whole business of example in the matter of Buddhist practice.

Bad enough? Think the next step. The Minister deliberately involving himself, on more than one occasion with this controversy comes up with “solutions” that would place the term “ludicrous” up there with the efforts of his hairdresser to restore this particular Minister to the time of his (misbegotten) youth.

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MR’s Seychelles Visit Cost Over Rs.100 Million

 Aug 22, 2016

Two official visits undertaken to the Seychelles by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa cost the government over Rs. 100 million. A report on the two overseas visits was handed over to the government last week by the Sri Lankan High Commission in the Seychelles.

In 2013 Rajapaksa led a delegation to the Seychelles which included his son, Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa. The cost for that tour is estimated at Rs. 50 million, according to information communicated to the government, sources told The Sunday Leader.

Sources also said that Rajapaksa had in 2014 visited the Seychelles for a second time with a 97-member delegation. Rajapaksa had travelled to the Seychelles in 2014 to declare open the Sri Lankan High Commission, Sri Lanka Insurance and a Bank of Ceylon Branch. However the Sri Lanka Insurance branch closed while the Bank of Ceylon Branch is facing issues in the Seychelles, sources added.

The delegation, which accompanied Rajapaksa, included six Ministers, security officers and others, including the then Minister Wimal Weerawansa’s wife and a few guests.

In the Seychelles the delegation had rented 68 vehicles and 68 mobile phones. Sources said that the mobile phones were not returned but were brought to Sri Lanka. The entire entourage had used three chartered flights to travel to the Seychelles and also hired three luxury boats to travel between the islands.

According to the report submitted to the government, the 2104 visit to the Seychelles had also cost approximately Rs. 50 million.

The report is said to have been given to the Foreign Ministry. However when contacted Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mahishini Colonne said she was unaware of such a report. The government had said recently it was investigating the expenses for foreign trips by the former regime, including that of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

- thesundayleader.lk

Black activists owe no apology for charging Israel with genocide

Solidarity with Black people in the US cannot be conditioned on silence over Israeli racism.Keiko HiromiPolaris

Darializa Avila Chevalier and Khury Petersen-Smith-19 August 2016

August opened with a major development in the struggle against anti-Black racism in the US and beyond.

Activists from more than 50 organizations came together in the Movement for Black Lives and published theVision for Black Lives, which identifies key aspects of the oppression of Black people and puts forth solutions to the systemic violence and oppression that target Black people in the United States. This statement proposes a set of demands for activists to advance that address racialized poverty, police violence, environmental racism and myriad other issues that plague Black communities in the United States.

While the vision inspired activists in the US and around the world, not everyone was excited. The Vision for Black Lives statement was immediately met with a slew of criticism from Zionist organizations and publications.

The criticism focused on how the statement declares solidarity with the movement for Palestinian liberation. It is unsurprising that organizations such as the Jewish Community Relations Council — in this case, the Boston Chapter — reacted with hostility to the vision for its solidarity with Palestinians. The organization states that it is committed to building support for Israel. What is a little striking is the JCRC’s rejection of the entirety of the Movement for Black Lives because of its stance on Palestine.

Since the state-sanctioned murder of Trayvon Martin in 2012, the 2014 Ferguson uprising in response to the police murder of Michael Brown and the countless other Black lives lost to police violence, a movement has coalesced around a rallying cry that should be uncontroversial: Black lives matter. This latest stage in the struggle for Black freedom has transformed the conversation around racism in the US and is forcing people to take a stand on what the Vision for Black Lives accurately names a war on Black America.

In its response to the vision statement, the JCRC has virtually nothing to say about the main issues that the statement addresses: rampant police violence, economic devastation and other realities of the racist nightmare for Black people. Instead, it focuses on a small, though important, portion of the statement.

Tepid

The JCRC’s response does say that “we recommit ourselves unequivocally to the pursuit of justice for all Americans and to working together with our friends and neighbors in the African-American community, whose experience of the criminal justice system is, far too often, determined by race.” This, the one line in JCRC’s statement that addresses anti-Black racism in the US, is tepid at best.

It is also a lie. A previous line says that JCRC “cannot and will not align ourselves with organizations” that use the word “genocide” to characterize Israel’s violence, indicating that the organization’s “commitment” to anti-racism is actually highly equivocal.

An anti-racism based on the premise that its proponents agree with JCRC’s embrace of Zionism is not anti-racism at all.

That Zionist organizations are willing to reject the current battle for Black lives raging in the United States when its activists find common ground and solidarity with Palestinians simply reaffirms what we already knew: Zionism is racism. Because the very principle of Zionism dictates that Jewish people be granted greater privileges by the State of Israel than its non-Jewish subjects, the result is necessarily a system of apartheid and inequality.

This comes at the expense of other groups, particularly Palestine’s non-Jewish indigenous inhabitants. Systematic dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, along with other forms of brutal violence by Israeli police and military, are the daily practices of the Israeli state. This is only possible through the racist dehumanization of the Palestinian people.

It follows, then, that US organizations committed to Zionism as a core principle will only make a limited commitment to anti-racism here.

JCRC’s statement accuses the Vision for Black Lives of seeking “to isolate and demonize Israel singularly amongst the nations of the world.” This is simply false; the Vision for Black Lives statement identifies a number of oppressive regimes backed by the US and projects carried out directly by the US military to oppress people abroad.

There are, however, many Israeli practices that are extraordinary — even among the world’s imperial states. These include its systematic arrests and “trials” of children in military courts and its use of 19th century practices and language regarding the colonization of Palestinian land. After all, where else in the world today does a government talk openly of “settlements” and “settlers”?

Israel also maintains an apartheid regime with distinct laws and services that only apply to Jewish people. While we have no illusions that the US or South Africa are countries of equality, at least similar white supremacist laws in these places were defeated by freedom struggles decades ago.

Superficial?

The Vision for Black Lives’ characterization of Israel was a basis for other organizations and publications to disagree with the document. The Anti-Defamation League, which characterizes the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel as anti-Semitic, issued a response to the vision that, unlike the JCRC, acknowledges the existence of mass incarceration and other oppressive realities for Black people in the US. But the ADL opposes the document for referring to Israel as an apartheid state, which it calls a “gross mischaracterization.”

The head of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, also argues that “it’s repellent and completely inaccurate to label Israel’s policy as ‘genocide.’”

Similarly, writers with +972 Magazine took issue with the language that the vision uses to describe Israel’s violence toward the Palestinians.

The progressive English-language news site based in Israel, which features writers who advocate for the human rights of Palestinians, greeted the vision warmly, with writer Amjad Iraqi explaining that “Black activists have delivered a powerful message to the Palestinian people: you are not alone in your struggle.” +972, however, has published three separate posts (including Iraqi’s) that argue that the vision is wrong for characterizing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians as genocide.

In the most extensive article on the subject, Dahlia Scheindlin argues — with incredible condescension — that the authors of the Vision for Black Lives should retract their use of the word. Unable to believe that Black activists looking at the same facts as her could rationally draw different conclusions, Scheindlin attributes the charge of genocide to describe Israel’s practices to “a rush job and a superficial form of groupthink.”

Though the Vision for Black Lives’ primary purpose is not to call attention to Palestine, the platform actually presents some key facts and arguments to justify its use of the terms “apartheid” and “genocide.”

For example, the vision statement notes that Palestinian homes are routinely bulldozed to make way for Israeli settlements and that Israel has more than 50 laws on its statute books that discriminate against Palestinian citizens of the state. The United Nations has defined the crime of genocide as including a deliberate policy to impose conditions of life on an ethnic, racial or religious group to bring about the group’s total or partial destruction. By seriously examining the situation, it is entirely reasonable to argue that Israel is trying to destroy the Palestinian people and is therefore committing the crime of genocide.

Neither the ADL nor any of the +972 Magazine bloggers who take issue with the platform respond to this context.

They argue, instead, that Black Lives Matter activists should not use the word “genocide” because it is divisive and that Jewish readers take offense. But with growing criticism of Zionism within the Jewish community, not all Jewish groups responded the same way.

No strings attached

Jewish Voice for Peace responded both to the vision, and to Zionist organizations’ opposition to it, by declaringthat the group “endorses the Movement for Black Lives platform in its entirety, without reservation.” IfNotNow, a Jewish youth group formed in response to Israel’s 2014 attack on Gaza, and JVP’s Jews of Color Caucus, haveissued similar statements of support.

Greenblatt of the ADL describes the characterizations of Israel as an apartheid state and calls for support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as “offensive in tone,” while Scheindlin calls on the Movement for Black Lives to “correct” the “genocide language.” Sheindlin states that “adopting slogans of certain activists” contributes to “the inevitable and understandable emotional turmoil” and that, therefore, “many now question the level of partnership and support that so many Jewish actors are eager to provide.”

Scheindlin argues, and Greenblatt suggests, that the horrific truth of Israel’s US-backed practices should be obscured in the name of tactfulness. We reject this logic entirely; the pursuit of justice should be guided by that alone, even if it makes those unwilling to acknowledge the full depths of injustice uncomfortable.

After all, there is nothing tactful about the act of genocide.

It may come as a surprise to see the ADL and +972 Magazine writers on the same side of this question.

The ADL, while purporting to defend civil rights, contributes generously to anti-Muslim and anti-Arab racism in the US and abroad and allies with the very US urban police departments on the front lines of the war against Black America. Indeed, in 2015 it commended the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department for participating in an ADL training — just shy of the first anniversary of the department’s repression of the Ferguson uprising.

The ADL characterizes any critique of Israel as anti-Semitism. +972 Magazine, on the other hand, regularly publishes criticisms of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, publicizes egregious acts taken by the Israeli military and covers Palestinian protests with sympathy.

Both camps seem to take for granted, however, Israel’s constitution as a Jewish state, one that continues to uphold the legal privileges of Jews over the rights and equality of non-Jews. Many of the +972 bloggers criticize the worst violence of the Israeli military and police forces without acknowledging that the state’s reason for being, as a country that exists for Jewish people first and foremost, makes it incompatible with equality for Palestinians — or any non-Jews.

The Vision for Black Lives proposes a movement that seeks to end global racism — with its mutually devastating effects on Palestinians, Black people in the US and around the world. In their responses to that movement, some of these organizations and individuals are saying that the value they see in Black lives is predicated on their support for, complicity in, and toleration of the crimes the State of Israel commits against the Palestinian people.

While we understand the nuanced differences between these various arguments we are responding to, and that not all of them disavow the entirety of the vision statement, we find the many points of commonality that are of great cause for concern. They have shown that their support for our liberation is conditional; that so long as we, as Black people, remain silent or reserved in the face of ethnic cleansing, we may have a right to live free of fear and oppression.

That is not the meaning of liberation. Our freedom cannot be bought at the expense of another’s oppression. Claiming solidarity to us so long as we remain silent on the oppression of our Palestinian sisters and brothers is insulting.

As the Dream Defenders recently stated in their response to this Zionist backlash, “True solidarity does not come with strings attached.”

And in these heavy days of racist violence in the US and Palestine, we are inspired to see more people and organizations making the connection. We will continue to do our parts to build the struggle for Black lives and to support the fight for Palestinian freedom.

We will build on efforts like the 2015 Statement of Black Solidarity With Palestine, and various delegations of Black activists to Palestine and Palestinian activists to the US that foster solidarity between both movements for the mutual benefit of each — and the liberation of all oppressed people.

Darializa Avila Chevalier is a 2016 graduate of Columbia University, where she was an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine and Mobilized African Diaspora. She helped launch the boycott, 

divestment and sanctions campaign Columbia University Apartheid Divest. She lives in New York.

Khury Petersen-Smith is one of the co-authors of the 2015 Statement of Black Solidarity With Palestine.

 He lives in Boston.