Friday, September 16, 2016

119 police emergency service commences in Tamil language too ! One more issue resolved !

(Lanka-e-News -13.Sep.2016, 11.30PM) The popular 119 (one one nine) phone communication system of the Police available to provide emergency service to the public was commenced in Tamil language too , and its inaugural function was held recently at Vavuniya DIG ‘s office.

In addition , a scheme was launched to take measures to overcome issues of language handicaps of Tamil people in the Tamil areas when seeking assistance of the police inside and outside the police stations .

IGP Poojitha Jayasundara who inaugurated the scheme said , if the police can communicate in whatever language that is requested , that would build confidence and trust of the public in the Police .Besides the police will command respect. The Police are able to provide the necessary opportunity to the Sinhalese , Tamil or any community when they appear at a Police station to communicate in the language they wish , he added.

The language handicap the Tamil residents faced when communicating with the police has been to a great extent minimized , said S. Sivagnanam , the chairman of the Wanni citizen’s Committee when speaking to Lanka e news.He pointed out , unlike more than in the past , now opportunities are available to the Tamil people to lodge their complaints in Tamil language and deal with the police in Tamil in many matters.

In order to create a climate of national harmony and reconciliation ,language is a very important common denominator . The Police service shall be improved so that it will live up to the country’s expectations , and is of maximum service to the people , the IGP observed.

The IGP also made a request that the police should fully understand the people in order to avert in the future , the unfortunate conflicts that erupted in the country in the past.

The foundation stone for the construction of a children’s park in Vavuniya by the Police was laid by the IGP.

Dinasena Rathugamage
Translated by Jeff

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by (2016-09-13 22:53:04)

Road to Nandikadal or Road to grab power

2016-09-14

Last week a function was held at Ananda College, Colombo, to launch the book Road to Nandikadal by Major General Kamal Gunaratne. Neither the President, nor the Prime Minister or any Member of Parliament or Minister of this government had been invited for this function. Only former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had received invitations.

The Major General presented the book to Mahinda Rajapaksa. During Mahinda's Government, if a Major General invited only the Opposition and presented a book he had written, only to the Leader of the Opposition, the Major General would have been branded a Tiger and the stars of the Major General would have been removed and there was a chance he would even have been deprived of his pension.

What, Mahinda Rajapaksa did to Sarath Fonseka and the Majors General, who supported Fonseka, was the same. A certain group was sent to prison, while another group was sent home on compulsory leave. The main accusation Mahinda and others made against Fonseka was having relations with politicians of the Opposition, while still in the Army official uniform. They said it was a disloyal act and took Fonseka to the Military Court and punished him. The offence that Fonseka had committed was speaking to politicians of the Opposition on the telephone. A large number of Army personnel were imprisoned because they had connections with Fonseka, and were taken to Military Court saying it was an act of treason. However, this government has not made any accusations against Major General Kamal Gunaratne for having connections with Mahinda, Gotabaya and others who are engaged in a conspiracy to topple the present Maithri-Ranil Government.

Major General Kamal Gunaratne is a fearless war hero who rescued the country by putting his life at risk. There is no doubt about that. However, Mahinda and Gotabaya have used Major General Gunaratne not to the Road to Nandikadal but for the Road to Power to ensure that they can come back into power. From the speech of Major General Kamal Gunaratne and the words of the compere, it was apparent that a huge effort had been made by Gotabaya to show that the launch of Major General Kamal Gunaratne's book was an Army rebellion against the Maithri-Ranil Government. Major General Kamal Gunaratne said at the function that even though there were a number of top Army officials who had been invited, who had trained together with him and travelled in the bus with him only one top Army official attended. Also, even though they thought that this function had been organized by the Army, he said they rejected it. The compere of the function said that he thought that the Army Band would be present but the Army had rejected that as well.

If the Major General had invited political leaders without party differences to the function of launching his book, most definitely top Army officials would have participated in it. At the same time if he had not invited any politicians and held the function only with Army leaders they would have participated too. This function could have been organized by the Army too. The Army Band too would most probably have participated. However, from the speech of the Major General itself, it was quite clear of the unwillingness of the Army leaders and Army to join the agenda of Mahinda or Gotabaya in acquiring power again. What Gotabaya and others would have wanted was to get top officials of the Army to participate in this function and to get the Army to organize the book launch and to show the country that the Army is with him and to create a conflict between the Maithri-Ranil Government and the Army, most probably. In his speech the Major General said it was unfortunate that the friendship between Mahinda, Gotabaya, Fonseka had been lost. It was the Rajapaksa family including Mahinda, Gotabaya who broke the friendship between Mahinda, Gotabaya and Fonseka. It was Mahinda and Gotabaya who refused the request by Fonseka to let him remain in the post of Army Commander for a while after winning the war and removed him and tried to appoint him as the Secretary to the Ministry of Sports. It was Mahinda and Gotabaya who requested protection from the Indian Army saying that there was an Army conspiracy, while Fonseka was Army Commander. If the Major General said that losing the friendship between Mahinda, Gotabaya and Fonseka was unfortunate, during the time that Mahinda was President, the Major General would have had to retire without his stars as well.

General Involved In January 8th Coup Attempt To Be Sent To New York As UN Military Attache

By Taniya Raymond –September 15, 2016

In Colombo newsrooms there is a don’t ask don’t tell policy on the coup attempt on January 8th. Colombo Telegraph and several newspapers reported on it back then in 2015, but now nobody wants to talk about it. We almost live in denial that it happened. Well, it did. It happened. There’s clear evidence as reported by several newspapers and (most high ranking state officials with access to this information) that troops were moved into camps in Panagoda and and a compound in Mattakkuliya to attempt a military coup. Forget the media, our Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera himself, in a press conference, stated that there was a military coup attempt that night.

Maj. General Sumedha Perera

It was hard to believe then, that the democracy we have lived in was soon to be pulled from under our feet and we were going to be in history books with Thailand, Myanmar and dozens of African nations for being victim to a military coup. But today, what is hard to believe is that we don’t talk about it. And nobody responsible for it was/ nor is being prosecuted. How can something so big simply slip our mind? I won’t lie, for a journalist, someone who’s supposed to be responsible for keeping up with this kind of crucial information, it had slipped my mind too. It didn’t occur to me until I received a news with a familiar name on it. The news was about the new nominee for the post of military attache’ to the UN mission in New York, a post once held by Channel 4 documentary star Shavendra Silva. The name of the new nominee read Maj. General Sumedha Perera. This name sounded so familiar. I immediately had a flashback of the names of those involved in last year’s military coup attempt. But I was in denial; it wasn’t possible that the government would do such a thing. They wouldn’t betray us so openly. I went back to our folder on the Jan 8th events and looked through it very carefully. This was the same Sumedha Perera who led the Gajaba troop to Colombo for the coup.

When Gotabaya Rajapaksa was an officer in the Sri Lankan Army his regiment was the Gajaba regiment. When he became the Secretary of Defence, he took Gajaba under his wing, and built a strong personal army of loyalists from the regiment. For those who don’t recall the details for the coup attempt, here’s the gist in a few words: the coup attempt on the night of the January 8th 2015 election was organized by Gotabaya loyalists. On the night of the presidential election Gajaba battalions of several thousand troops were dispersed to colombo from Gajaba Regiment Saliyapura camp in Anuradhapura. The commander of the Gajaba regiment Major General A K S Perera curated the dispersal of these troops.

(Lanka-e-News -13.Sep.2016, 3.00PM) Air Vice Marshal Kapila Jayampathy was appointed as the new Air force Commander by president Maithripala Sirisena on the 11 th evening.

His predecessor infamous Gagan Bulathisnghala a most corrupt fraud was appointed as Air Force Commander during the nefarious decade of the Rajapakses despite the fact Gagan was a commander who ought to be in jail for all the offences he committed.

Though Gagan made a request to extend his service , the president discarding the request , appointed the new Commander.Though Gagan nursed hopes that his extension in service will be granted , the president taking a correct decision packed him off on the 11 th without an extension.

In addition , Gurusinghe who was carrying on duties as Gagan’s chief of staff was also dismissed at the same time , and a new officer has replaced him.

Accordingly , the new Air Force Commander will be assuming duties on today 13 th .

May we recall ,because Lanka e news was exposing in detail all the rackets and corruption of Gagan within the Air Force , accessing Lanka e news within the Air force was banned by him. By alleging that via phone Lanka e news face book page was logged , officers were punished by him. We did not expose these details hitherto because innocent officers we feared innocent officers will be punished by him on the allegation that they had ties with us.

It is the people’s plea that an immediate probe be launched into the corrupt and crooked officers including Gagan of the Blue Brigand who indulged in frauds and malpractices during the nefarious decade of the Rajapakses. It is the belief and hope of the people that Jayampathy will have the courage and backbone to pursue that action. (if necessary we can provide a list of all the corruption beginning with Gotabaya’s MiG jet transaction)

The low rung officers and soldiers claim in unison , if Jayampathy cleans up the Air Force which was contaminated to the maximum by his corrupt and cooked predecessor for so long , it will be a victory that would not only take him on a plane to new heights but even to the heaven , for the merits he would accrue on that account.

The president Maithripala Sirisena who appointed Gagan Bulathsinghala as the Air Force Commander at that time owing to the exigent circumstances surrounding the president’s sudden rise to power , having understood the mistake he made then , rectifying that at opportune moment , is most appreciated and admired by one and all . The people are profusely thankful to him. This move of the president is most salutary and stands out most conspicuously vis a vis the efforts taken by the Prime Minister to save the corrupt Governor of the Central Bank , and the spurious drama that was enacted to keep the governor back in his post .

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by (2016-09-13 11:00:38)

Fear of ETCA: Is it Davids fearing to fight Goliaths?

Tuesday, 13 September 2016

Small fellows can beat big fellows through proper brain power

Malcolm Gladwell’s 2013 book ‘David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants’ is about how small fellows should fight with big fellows for a decisive win at the end. Big fellows are naturally feared by small fellows. Given a chance, a small fellow would avert confronting a big fellow. If there is no alternative, he would fight a big fellow, but with a shaken mind and trembling limbs. But Gladwell has shown that this need not be the case. He has documented in his book many stories from recent history from all over the world how small fellows had been successful in winning against big fellows in battles. All that is needed, according to Gladwell, for a small fellow to succeed is a good strategy. The human mind could do wonders when physical bodies fail. This was amply elaborated by Sinhala writer Munidasa Kumaratunga in his children’s book ‘Heenseraya’ which every adult in Sri Lanka today would have read when they were in school many years ago. In Heenseraya, the giant elephant is brought to its knees by a small chameleon by using not a big force but a strategically designed trivial force.

Professionals and businessmen up in arms against ETCA in India

A recent discussion on TV1’s Face the Nation on the Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement, commonly known as ETCA, (available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kMnK5XgtVs&feature=youtu.be ) showed that the professional and business leaders in Sri Lanka have forgotten the subtle message conveyed in Kumaratunga’s Heenseraya, a book which they may have enjoyed as children.

Two professionals, one representing the medical profession and the other the IT area, and a third, an industrialist, announced their objection to signing ETCA with India. One of the reasons given by them is based on the fear that big India will swallow small Sri Lanka though this agreement.

This writer and an economics professor too participated in the discussion as facilitating panelists.

The possibility of medical quacks coming from India

The medical profession was represented by Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya, President of the 18000 member strong Government Medical Officers’ Association or GMOA. Dr. Padeniya, though a firebrand trade union leader to some, presented his case in an unusually calm but an authoritative voice. He said at the outset that he was not anti-Indian. His worry about ETCA was that it would open the gates for Indian medical professionals whose qualifications have not been properly assessed to flood Sri Lanka’s healthcare field. According to him, a nation’s health is too precious to be left in the hands of such quacks. This is a grave situation, according to him, since Sri Lanka has not defined who a medical specialist is.

He said that GMOA is opposed to ETCA because it has been planned and executed by the Government without following proper procedures. Those procedures involved five steps: examining the success or failure of existing trade agreements, having a national policy to protect important sectors before venturing into signing new agreements, introducing a mechanism to assure that no harm is done to the areas which are to be opened for trade under trade agreements, independent assessment of the benefits to be derived from the proposed trade agreements and, finally, making the whole process transparent and assigning the accountability to parties who are involved in designing and implementing trade agreements.

With respect to the existing Indo-Lanka Free Trade Agreement or ILFTA, he said that it is a failure since Sri Lanka’s trade gap with India has risen phenomenally after the operation of the agreement. To support his claim, he submitted raw import and export data published by the Central Bank.

Dr. Padeniya further said that no medical specialist would choose India for serving his compulsory internship to update knowledge and learn of good medical practices. They would always choose better countries in the West.

The claim that Sri Lanka’s IT specialists are good

It was President of the Society for IT Professionals Kapila Perera who spoke on behalf of the country’s IT professionals. He said that his society opposes ETCA because, as also feared by Dr. Padeniya with regard to medical profession, Indian IT men and women would invade Sri Lanka’s limited IT market if the floodgates are opened through the proposed agreement. In his view, Sri Lanka’s IT professionals are quite good and there is no need for foreign IT men and women to come and challenge them.

Hence, to protect the IT industry from the imminent Indian invasion, ETCA with India should not be signed by the Government. He also said that he had no objection, if a trade agreement that covers the services sector as well is signed with a country that stands superior to India. He did not name any country, but the obvious candidates would be Israel or Ireland which are far superior to India with respect to the provision of IT service.

‘ETCA is the first step of long term objectives of Indians’

Industry was represented by the Patron of Ceylon National Chamber of Industries Samantha Kumarasinghe. In his opinion, ETCA is simply the old Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement or CEPA in a new name.

Kumarasinghe did not say so, but ETCA has a long history. Its predecessor, CEPA, was negotiated during 2002-04 after the governments of India and Sri Lanka had found that the existing Indo-Lanka Free Trade Agreement or ILFTA had promoted trade between the two countries significantly. ILFTA had elevated India to Sri Lanka’s No.1 source of imports and to No.4 destination of exports. However, due to protests by certain sections of industry and business, CEPA never saw the lights of the day. Hence, a redesigned ETCA is now being promoted by both the Indian government and the Sri Lankan government in place of the shelved CEPA.

Though the Government had announced that certain sectors would be exempted from ETCA, Kumarasinghe maintained that that would not have any effect. That was because Sri Lanka has already consented to WTO conditions and therefore, any restriction to such conditions through a bilateral trade agreement would not have effect in law. What Kumarasinghe meant was that the claim made by government politicians that protection would be afforded to critical sectors by taking them out of ETCA has no meaning. Hence, ETCA is a dangerous animal and that animal should be caged forever, according to Kumarasinghe.

In a booklet he had published in Sinhala under the title ‘The Future of Sri Lanka in the face of Indian Economic Invasion’ earlier, he has summarised the reasons for his objection to ETCA. He has declared in the booklet that “It is my conviction and firm belief that we should, as true Sri Lankans who love their motherland, preserve the heritage of Sri Lanka dating back to 5000 years for posterity”. He has further opined that when one observes critically the processes which India has been conducting in Sri Lanka, one could clearly see that India’s long term objective has been to paralyse Sri Lanka’s economy and through that strategy, to run the country by establishing a puppet government subservient to Indian interests. In this wider Indian strategy, according to him, ETCA is the first step of doing so.

Fear of Indians is the common bondage of professionals

There is one common link that has bound these and other professionals and industrialists who are opposed to ETCA together. That is, though the majority of them openly maintain that they are not anti-India, the action of all of them amply demonstrates that they fear Indians. Accordingly, they fear Indian physicians, Indian IT men and women, Indian engineers, Indian architects, Indian artistes and so on.

That fear is understandable and they are not the only people who have the fear of others. One has to just listen to the Republican Presidential hopeful in USA, Donald Trump, to understand this. He has simply echoed the common fear of the majority of Americans of everything and everyone foreign: Mexicans, Indians, Chinese, Europeans, etc.

Or else, one should try to understand the sentiments expressed by British voters in the recently held referendum in the UK about whether or not Britain should exit EU, tag-lined Brexit. At this referendum, a little more than a half of the British voters had expressed their fear of Europe by voting for Brexit. That has happened despite the British academia, mainstream media, leading politicians and intellectuals trying to alleviate their fear by putting sound judgmental power into their heads.

Even Indians who are being accused by Sri Lankans of being invaders have shown their fear of other nationals in the neighbouring countries – Nepalese, Bhutanese, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis.

Thus, it appears that the brains of Homo sapiens have been hardwired to fear the unknown and it is not easy for governments or national leaders to erase such fears from their minds.

The real cause of fear comes from virtual professional services

The real fear will come to Sri Lanka’s professionals not from the Indian professionals crossing the border and competing with them in the job market in person. In today’s advanced information and communication technological world, except the low level floor workers, skilled professionals need not be present in person in a country to provide their services to an employer in that country.

Accordingly, an IT man or woman in India can make available his services to an employer in Sri Lanka and vice versa without leaving his home. They need to make physical presence at their employer occasionally only when periodical review of their work is being done or receiving instructions when a major project is started. Similarly, other professionals too, including those in the medical profession, can provide their services to those in the rest of the world without crossing borders and being domiciled in a foreign country.

They are known as ‘virtual professionals’ who have been pretty much popular among large corporate employers, multi-national corporations and small start-up businesses. A virtual professional could provide his services in his individual capacity or as a firm of supplying such services. All that is necessary is to enter into a proper contractual arrangement and meeting the quality standards that are imposed on the virtual professional by such contracts. Even today, unknown to Sri Lanka’s Society for IT Professionals or other IT organisations, Indian IT men and women provide their services to Sri Lankan customers for web development, maintenance of web sites and writing software programs. This is happening without ETCA.

Every professional field is being captured by virtual professional services

In almost all the professional work, this has become a global industry today. This writer recalls when a stock-broking company was set up in Sri Lanka in 2010, macroeconomic research was outsourced to a team of virtual economists domiciled in New Zealand. The reason? There were no good macroeconomists who could do the job on time within the country.

What matters to an employer who hires a virtual professional is not the nationality of the person. Rather, he is interested in the quality, discipline, wide world outlook and ability to deliver on time. If the domestic professionals are not good at that, nothing can be done to protect their jobs. Even professional jobs as high as the Chief Financial Officer or CFO are now available on the virtual hiring platform (available at: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-12-19/news/45377498_1_smes-clients-startups).

A virtual assistant is another mode where these virtual professionals offer their services to prospective clients (available at: https://ninjaoutreach.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-virtual-assistants/ ). The virtual assistant guide under reference has identified seven areas where virtual assistants provide their services online to customers. They are: general virtual assistant work that involves the work of a general clerk or an office assistant, web designing, work relating to audio and video development, graphic artistry, script and content writing, search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) and general project management.

To support and keep the system going, professional employer organisations, known as PEOs, have been set up to assist anyone looking for a professional service from outside his own country (available at: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/8117-best-professional-employer-organizations.html ).

In the case of healthcare services, telehealth is now gaining ground and those in the medical profession in Sri Lanka would find a formidable competitor in virtual physicians (available at: http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/physicians-and-telehealth-it-time-embrace-virtual-visits?page=full ).

Prepare Davids to battle with Goliaths

These are the causes of real fear for Sri Lanka’s professionals and it is taking place irrespective of whether there is ETCA or not. Even the governments cannot stop the spread of such virtual services. All the governments can do is to strengthen the legal framework in the respective countries to compel the virtual service providers to stick to their contractual obligations.

In such a world, the obligation of Sri Lanka’s professional leaders is to prepare their membership to successfully compete with virtual competitors on one side, and train them to gain access to the growing virtual market on the other. That would be the way for them to use their energy and resources in a more productive way. That is how Davids should battle with Goliaths today.

Thus, the professionals’ fight against ETCA on the fear that it would open floodgates for Indian professionals to inundate the country’s job markets appears to be futile and irrelevant.

Weerawansa warns Mahanayakes about constitutional Trojan Horse of the NGOs

By Cyril Wimalasurendre-September 13, 2016

KANDY: National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa MP yesterday called on the Mahanayake Theras of Malwatte and Asgiriya and alerted them to a "highly dangerous Constitution" drafted by a Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) which would be presented to Parliament by the end of the year.

The NFF leader urged the prelates that early steps be taken to advise the political and government leadership that they should not pass a new Constitution that would be harmful to the nation and the country.

Weerawansa accompanied by a team of his colleagues called on the Most Venerable Warakagoda Gnanaratana Mahanayake Thera of Asgiriya at Sri Dalada Maligawa and the Most Venerable Tibbatuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Mahanayke Thera of Malwatte at Malwatte Maha Vihara.

The MP told the prelates that a new Constitution to replace the existing one was drafted on the directions of Geneva to satisfy separatist groups.

Weerawansa said that there was communalism present in the north and that all Sinhala students had not returned to the Jaffna University.

A large number of new bills would be presented to Parliament detrimental to the integrity of the country and harmful to the nation.

He later told the media that a million handbills would be distributed in the country on the dangers of the Constitution that would be tabled in Parliament by the government.

In addition his party would launch a propaganda campaign to educate the people about the dangers of the draft Constitution and other obnoxious laws in the offing, the NFF leader said.

Most Venerable Tibbatuwawa Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Mahanayake Thera of Malwatta Chapter told NFF leader Weerawansa that both President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had pledged that the new Constitution would not harm the nation, country and Buddhism.

The prelate further said that he could not comment on the matter as the new Constitution had still not been tabled in the House.

The prelate of Asgiriya Most Venerable Warakagoda Gnanaratana Thera said he would discuss the matters presented by the NFF leader with Karaka Sangha Sabha and make a statement.

NFF Parliamentarian Weerakumara Dissanayake and its members of the Central Provincial Council Nimal Piyatissa and Nimal Premawansa were present.

SRI LANKA: Gayashan is still missing

by Basil Fernando-September 14, 2016

Gayashan still remains missing following police detention at the Hambanthota Police Station

Thanks to media interest, the matter is being discussed all over the country. The Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundera is reported to have spoken with the father of Gayashan, promising that he would do everything in his power to find the young man, or take serious action if something has happened to him. Despite this, there is still not even a clue about what happened to Gayashan.

There are several aspects of this case that are worth considering, particularly in the context of Sri Lankan police commemorating the 150th Anniversary of its existence. In fact, age-wise, the Sri Lankan police is much older than that, as it was started immediately after the British captured the Maritime Provinces. The year of founding is therefore 1795.

As the institution is that old, it is worth considering whether many of the things that are known to have happened in Gayashan’s case should have happened at all.

It is now well established that the reason for the arrest was related to the theft of paddy bags, from a storage house in the area. Three young men were arrested, and they were coerced to accept responsibility for stealing these paddy bags, despite them, in fact, vehemently denying any such theft or involvement.

Surely, officers belonging to an institution as old as this one should have been given at least the elementary training necessary to investigate a matter that is, at best, a petty theft. Why did these officers, who are all mature men, decide so easily to do this “investigation” in the manner that they did? If this question is asked from any common person from any part of Sri Lanka, it is quite certain that the common answer would be that “this is what they do all the time”.

Surely the hierarchy of the police are quite aware of this common practice, of harassment of the ordinary folk by their police throughout the country, year after year. They know that this is what has happened for over 200 years. Still, neither has a finger been moved to stop this nonsense, nor have the persons who hold authority over them, the parliamentarians, the Ministers, given the slightest thought to ask whether one can ever build a nation when the police are engaged in this kind of sheer silliness.

The next stage is even more shockingly trivial. The young men are taken to a safe place inside the Police Station itself and then they are severely beaten up. For what? To get them to confess and admit to something that they claim that they have never done. Now, according to the law of Sri Lanka, as contained in the CAT Act No. 22 of 1994, each of these policemen who directly or indirectly participated in this torturing, have committed a grave crime, deserving a punishment not less than 7 years rigorous imprisonment and Rupees 10,000 as fine.

Here, again, there is a stark incongruity. The alleged stealing of a few bags of paddy, even if these young men have done it (there is no proof of it at all), is only a petty crime. What the police officers have done according to the Sri Lankan statutes is a grave crime. Surely, if logic has any place in policing in Sri Lanka, these officers, their superiors, and their masters should see this incongruity.

But perhaps, because logic has nothing to do with all this, no one is able to see, that this is what sheer madness is. And as we have stated before, this madness is not something that affects the police occasionally, it happens all the time, in all the police stations, throughout the country.

In terms of supervising each of these police stations, there are two persons with socially important positions. One is called the Officer-in-charge of the police station (OIC) and the other is called the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP). Officers who hold such ranks throughout the country see the kind of madness that is seen in this case, everyday. And they approve it as the proper function of policing.

Again, we may ask why they have distanced themselves so much from reason and logic, let alone the law.

Even as the IGP has talked to the father, promising that he would do all that he can, there is no report at all about these police officers who have violated Sri Lanka’s law relating to torture and ill-treatment, arrest, and production before court. Only thing that has been done is to transfer these officers to some other police station. And we are expected to believe this is an ominous act of punishment. Again, if you go back to the earlier incident, three young men suspected of alleged petty theft are severely tortured but the policemen, who committed the graver crime of torture and ill treatment, are only transferred.

Even in this instance, we could ask what has the IGP done to the relevant ASP?

After all, it is the ASP who is the immediate supervisor of the Police Station. His functions are laid down in the departmental orders and these orders have also evolved over more than a century.

The fact is, no ASP has ever been taken to task for not doing the job that he is supposed to do, which is to supervise the police station. If, even in a small company, the supervisor fails to do his or her job, he or she would be sacked. But, if a senior police officer fails to do their job, there is no punishment.

Again if you go back to the original incident, alleged theft of a few bags of paddy leads to arrest, detention, torture, and disappearance. But when a senior police officer fails to do his job, there is no punishment.

What is the scale that is applied here about “right and wrong”? Surely, that scale is not usually applied in the rest of the society. It simply goes to show, what the society considers rational and what has come to be regarded as rational within police stations are indeed very different.

Now we can go into the ultimate consequence.

One of the young men, i.e. Gayashan, last seen being carried by police officers after they beat him, is now missing. The police officers claim that the young man, in that condition, fled, implying that he fled so fast they could not catch him. If the young man ran so fast, and the policemen in their boots ran fast behind him, surely there must be a lot of footprints around the area. A detective or even a police dog following the footprints could have surely found out something about what happened to this young man.

All this happened eight days ago, and the Sri Lankan police, even with the involvement of the Inspector General of Police, are unable to solve this rather small problem. And this same police are given the great task of protecting the whole nation?

Added to all this, the parents and relatives of Gayashan are taking all the precautions possible to protect his twin brother, because they are afraid that the police will catch hold of the twin brother and claim that they have found the missing Gayashan!

If that were to happen, it is likely the twin brother will also be beaten up, to force him to confess that he is Gayashan. Now this is the way local people have understood the police and the way the police mind works. As always, ordinary folk with their common sense understand the social absurdities that others refuse to see.

Again, we see an incongruity, bordering on lunacy. But those who hold authority do not want to open their eyes and see such a state of absurdity.

Now, this week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice announced the appointment of many Committees, to look into all forms of human rights abuses in the country. These Committees are an addition to a large number of other commissions.

We are made to believe that these committees and commissions will bring us our deliverance.

Are we to merely see the same circus being performed again and again?

The answer lies not only in how the problem of the disappearance of this boy is resolved. It also lies in how the sheer irrationalities mentioned above will be addressed, or will remain unaddressed.

VAT Is Increased To Payback Rajapaksa’s Rs. 1.3 Trillion Loan: Rajitha

September 14, 2016

To find the necessary finances to payback former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Rs. 1.3 trillion loan, the Yahapalanaya government says it is compelled to slap the public with an additional four percent Value Added Tax (VAT).

Rajitha

Cabinet spokesman and Minister Rajitha Senaratne said that that the 15 percent VAT which will come into effect soon will however be imposed only for a period of nine months, after which the government will take steps to simplify the tax.

“This is temporary,” he claimed.

Senaratne also said that both the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have come forward to lend the government US$ 6 billion to payback Rajapaksa’s loan.

He claimed that the previous government had obtained loans through various state banks and now this government had to figure ways to pay off these loans and hence they are compelled to burden the public by increasing taxes.

Meanwhile the 15 percent VAT will also be imposed on private health services other than diagnostic tests, dialysis and OPD services. The amended VAT bill was approved by the Cabinet yesterday. Earlier, the government presented the VAT bill in Parliament however the Supreme Court ruled it as null and void as the government had not followed due process when presenting it to Parliament.

4, including ex-OIC of Chunnakam police, to be arrested!

Sep 16, 2016

The attorney general has instructed the CID to immediately arrest the then OIC of Chunnakam police Inspector Priyantha Bandara, a sergeant and two constables in connection with the death of a Tamil suspect in 2012. At the time, Chunnakam police claimed the man, a known criminal, had escaped from custody and jumped into a tank. However, the inquest revealed signs of assault and injuries in his body.

At the request of the relatives of the deceased, the courts handed over the investigation to the CID. After the CID informed the AG that there was evidence to believe it was murder, the AG’s department officials studied the evidence and instructed that the suspect policemen be arrested immediately and produced before courts.

Isn’t there anybody on this soil to chase this crook of the soil who is soiling the public service ?

-Are the spineless officials encouraging the public to take the law into their hands?

(Lanka-e-News -13.Sep.2016, 11.30PM) Stories are doing the rounds about a most infamous scoundrel of a State officer and a State Institution that are not adhering to the directives of the Public Service Commission and Public administration ministry.

The Institution is the Railways department , and the crooked corrupt officer is its Additional General Manager , Hemantha Gamage who is already facing charges of robbery of State property.

When this rascal was the Charity Commissioner in the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) , this schemer did a most ‘charitable’ act on 2005-12-11 . That is , this despicable scoundrel had robbed the110 sewing machines meant for distribution among the public under the charitable scheme. Blessed is the giver is the common adage , but here is an instance of a ‘giver’ who is most cursed. These unique examples can only be witnessed in Sri Lanka ! In a way Sri Lankans are lucky because in any other country the citizens have to travel many thousands of miles to witness wonders , but as regards Sri Lankans the worst and most cursed wonders are right in their midst .

Following the discovery of the robbery ,Kiribathgoda police filed a case No. S 8654/5 in court 5 , Hultsdorf based on charges of robbery , for possessing robbed goods etc.

This case was later taken up by the Supreme Court under case No. SG/ 4687/ 9 , and is still being heard.

It is a glaring fact that when a government servant has committed robbery while in service , he cannot continue in service , yet this rascal and rogue is still continuing saddled comfortably in various high posts in the state service with the patronage and protection of a higher official Dadalage whose close crony and lackey is culprit Gamage. Mind you he had even secured promotions ! His last post is additional General Manager , Railways department .

After the advent of the good governance government these rackets came to light , and a complaint was lodged with the Public Service Commission (PSC) . Thereafter the PSC on 25 th August under a directive No. PSC/BP/6/2006/SLAS/1-1 ordered the Public administration ministry to serve interdiction order on Gamage with immediate effect. The Public service ministry’s reference No. of Gamage is DP/01/596/2005/01 .

It is anyway a wonder of wonders how this culprit is still in service even today (13) despite express and explicit orders to interdict him! It is therefore a crucial question, if the order of the PSC is not being implemented by the Public administration ministry; and if the additional General Manager is also not abiding by it , are these an index and encouragement to the people that they should take the law into their hands ?

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by (2016-09-13 22:57:46)

Suicide bomber hits mosque in Pakistan, killing at least 20

Muslims pray to celebrate the Eid al-Adha holiday at a mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Sept. 13, 2016. (B.K. Bangash/AP)

By Aamir Iqbal and Pamela Constable September 16

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A suicide bomber detonated a deadly blast Friday inside a crowded mosque in Pakistan’s tribal area near the Afghan border, killing at least 20 people marking the end of a Muslim festival, a government official said.

The Reuters news agency, citing a regional official, said the death toll had risen to at least 25, but the report could be confirmed independently. The government official added that least 23 people were wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the tribal areas are strongholds of various militant groups that include one faction blamed for recent assaults in the area.

The attack came a day after a woman was killed in the same area, the Mohmand district, after militants threw grenades and opened fire at the house of a pro-government tribal elder, officials said.

The government official, citing reports from local tribesmen, said a suicide bomber entered a village mosque while more than 300 worshippers were attending weekly prayers just after noon. Shouting “God is great,” he detonated the explosion, the official said.

The attack came just after the final day of Eid al-Adha, a Muslim festival that includes animal sacrifices and several days of celebration. The Friday prayers were a final ritual after a busy week of feasting and family gatherings.

Naveed Akbar, the federal government’s assistant agent in the semi-autonomous tribal agency, said Friday that the suicide bomber “and his facilitators” appeared to have timed the attack to create a “high casualty ratio” since Friday prayers are the most heavily attended of the week.

Officials said they suspected that Jamat ul Ahrar, a splinter group from larger Pakistan-based extremists, was responsible for the attack. The group had claimed it carried out the killing of a Mohmand tribal elder earlier last week.

The same group also claimed responsibility for a recent suicide bombing that killed 14 people outside a courthouse in nearby Mardan, and also for a massive bombing outside a hospital in the southern city of Quetta in August, which killed more than 70 people, most of them lawyers.

The Pakistan army launched a massive operation two years ago against the Taliban and other armed militant groups in the country’s border tribal areas. Many of their fighters were driven into Afghanistan and took up arms against the Kabul government, some in alliance with Islamic State militants.

Constable reported from Islamabad, Pakistan.

SitRep: Pentagon Braces For Russian Cooperation; Japan and U.S. to Patrol South China Sea

BY PAUL MCLEARY, ADAM RAWNSLEY-SEPTEMBER 16, 2016

In circles. If one thing became clear Thursday, it’s that few in Washington know how they’re going to pull off the recent ceasefire deal with Russia. But there’s a sense that the Pentagon and State Department are scrambling to iron out all of the known unknowns by Monday, when the deal hits the one-week mark and the two sides are supposed to start talking.

Defense officials have so far refused to offer much of a hint as to how they’ll share information with their Russian counterparts should the agreement hold, or when they’ll even start talking to the Russians, (though one defense official gave FP some preliminary details of how they think the information sharing will take place.) On Thursday, both State and Pentagon spokesmendeclined to offer much information, insisting that plans are in flux as everyone watches events in Syria.

End transmission. We know this much: the Pentagon is trying to figure out how and when to move drones and intel analysts around in order to step up airstrikes in Syria — and monitor the terms of the ceasefire. The AP tells us that U.S. defense officials “will need to take assets from other parts of the world, because U.S. military leaders don’t want to erode the current U.S.-led coalition campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.”

But in order for American forces to begin talks with the Russians, Defense Secretary Ash Carter first must submit a waiver that overrides a law passed by Congress banning any military-to-military contacts between the two nations. Some on the House and Senate armed services committees thought the Pentagon should have submitted a waiver last fall when U.S. civilian defense officials began talking with their Russian counterparts.

Where it matters. But none of this matters if the guns in Aleppo and elsewhere don’t fall silent. Reports from the critical supply route into the besieged city, Castillo Road, Friday morning were confused. The Russians, Syrians, and some monitoring groups say the Syrian army has started to pull back from the road, but the anti-Assad rebels say they haven’t seen any movement. Another report says Russian troops have deployed along the road that goes right into the rebel-held neighborhoods of Aleppo, but that fighting has broken out near Damascus, in what would be a serious violation of the ceasefire.

What we do know is this, however. The regime in Damascus looks to have finally allowed U.N. aid trucks held up in Turkey to enter Syria, according to the latest. The 40 U.N. trucks are hauling wheat flour for more than 150,000 people, and are expected to arrive late in the day Friday. The Syrian Observatory on Human Rights said Friday, however, that a series of violations of the ceasefire have killed a number of civilians, including airstrikes in Deir Ezzor that left 23 dead.

Open society. Despite an ugly public discourse on the place of Muslim Americans in American society stoked by the campaign of Republican nominee for president Donald Trump, there are thousands of Muslims serving their country across the Defense and State Departments. FP’s John Hudson spoke to a few prominent Muslim-American officials in government working on critical national security programs, and found that despite the rhetoric, and some heartbreaking personal stories, their commitment hasn’t waivered. Hudson writes, “those who did speak to Foreign Policy pointed to an irony: The public discourse in America surrounding Islam has never been more disparaging, but due to concerted efforts by the Defense Department to accommodate a diverse workforce, there’s never been a better time to be a Muslim at the Pentagon.”

“I cannot think of a single time at the Pentagon when I felt anything but completely supported by my leadership and peers,” said Jasmine El-Gamal, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who advised Carter and three previous Obama administration secretaries of defense on Middle East policy.

Your shot of 2016. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Thursday that the whole ceasefire rests on the back of the Russians. “Whether or not this works is really up to the Russians,” she told reporters after a campaign rally in North Carolina. “It is up to whether or not Vladimir Putin decides that it’s time to do what the Russians can do to bring this conflict into a period where there can be the beginning of political discussions, a hoped-for protective zone for people who are under relentless assault from the air, and a commitment to going after the terrorist groups that pose a threat to everyone.”

Good morning and as always, if you have any thoughts, announcements, tips, or national security-related events to share, please pass them along to SitRep HQ. Best way is to send them to: paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or on Twitter: @paulmcleary or @arawnsley

Japan

Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada says Japan will conduct joint patrols in the South China Sea with the U.S. Navy in order to help train its forces, CNN reports. Inada told at audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that the patrols would also include working with and providing aid to neighboring countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines. China’s neighbors have grown increasingly concerned at its aggressive assertion of territorial rights in the South China Sea.

Philippines

In a series of recent speeches, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has proposed ending cooperation between the Philippine military and U.S. special operations forces against Islamist militants, buying weapons from Russia and China, and canceling joint patrols of the South China Sea with the U.S. Navy. However, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook took the long view in a press conference on Thursday, according to Defense News, referring to the Philippines as “a longtime ally” and emphasizing that Manila and Washington have one of “most enduring relationships” in the region. Cook said that, regardless of Duterte’s rhetoric “these are issues that can be resolved and worked out.”

Russia

American prosecutors are working to build a case against hackers tied to Russian intelligence and suspected of hacking into various Democratic party organizations and prominent public figures. Reuters reports that the Department of Justice is looking to see if it can muster the evidence to support an indictment. Officials tell the wire service that the Russians have stepped up the pace of breaches and leaks, promoting competition between Russian intelligence agencies.

Technology

For the record, Defense Secretary Ash Carter would like you to know that Pentagon will never give robots their own license to kill. On his way back from Austin for the opening of the Defense Innovation Unit (Experimental), Carter told reporters that “whenever it comes to the application of force, there will never be true autonomy,” according to Breaking Defense. Humans, Carter said, will always be “in the loop” — meaning that a meatbag will always have to green light any decisions to use lethal force.

America’s military enjoys its longstanding air superiority, but staying master of the skies is increasingly difficult in an era where small, cheap drones are proliferating. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking to help the military keep track of small, unmanned systems with what it’s calling the Aerial Dragnet program. Aerial Dragnet will seek to map the movements of small drones here in the United States with the goal of eventually transitioning a functioning program to the military.

Snowden’s Twitter fight

The House Intelligence Committee released its own assessment on the damage from the revelation of files leaked by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, sparking a tweetstorm from exile himself. The assessment alleges “tremendous damage” from the Snowden revelations and accuses him of being “a serial exaggerator and fabricator” who lied on his resume, was reprimanded by his superiors, and never attempted to use existing whistleblower channels before releasing an untold number of classified documents to journalists.

Snowden responded on Twitter to the release of the report, calling it “artlessly distorted” and “a serious act of bad faith.” In response to the House panel’s charge that he began mass downloads of classified material shortly after being reprimanded for a dispute over software updates, Snowden said his downloading was authorized activity carried out by a program he wrote and used with senior managers’ permission.