Philippines' Duterte likens himself to Hitler, wants to kill millions of drug users

 Philippines president likens himself to Hitler

By Karen Lema and Manuel Mogato-Sat Oct 1, 2016

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte appeared to liken himself to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler on Friday and said he would "be happy" to exterminate three million drug users and peddlers in the country.

His comments triggered shock and anger among Jewish groups in the United States, which could add to pressure on the U.S. government to take a tougher line with the Philippines leader.

Duterte recently insulted President Barack Obama and in a number of remarks he has undermined the previously close relationship between Manila and Washington.

In a rambling speech on his arrival in Davao City after a visit to Vietnam, Duterte told reporters that he had been "portrayed to be a cousin of Hitler" by critics.

Noting that Hitler had murdered millions of Jews, Duterte said, "There are three million drug addicts (in the Philippines). I'd be happy to slaughter them."

"If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have ...," he said, pausing and pointing to himself.

"You know my victims. I would like (them) to be all criminals to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition."

Duterte was voted to power in a May election on the back of a vow to end drugs and corruption in the country of 100 million people. He took office on June 30 and over 3,100 people have been killed since then, mostly alleged drug users and dealers, in police operations and vigilante killings.

Duterte's comments were quickly condemned by Jewish groups.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Digital Terrorism and Hate project, called them "outrageous".

"Duterte owes the victims (of the Holocaust) an apology for his disgusting rhetoric," Cooper said.

The Anti-Defamation League, an international Jewish group based in the United States, said Duterte's comments were "shocking for their tone-deafness".

"The comparison of drug users and dealers to Holocaust victims is inappropriate and deeply offensive," said Todd Gutnick, the group's director of communications. "It is baffling why any leader would want to model himself after such a monster."

United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said any use of "the Holocaust and the suffering of the Holocaust in comparison to anything else, frankly, is inappropriate and needs to be rejected." He said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had made clear that the fight against illegal drugs must be done "in accordance with human rights standards."

State Department spokesman Mark Toner called Duterte's remarks "troubling."

"America's ... partnership with the Philippines is ... based on a mutual foundation of shared values and that includes our shared belief in human rights and human dignity," Toner said.

"President Duterte's comments are a significant departure from that tradition and we find them troubling."

A White House official stuck to a strategy of stressing long-standing ties with Manila, saying, "We continue to focus on our broad relationship with the Philippines and will work together in the many areas of mutual interest."

EX-PRESIDENT'S WARNING

Two days before the Philippines election, outgoing President Benigno Aquino had warned that Duterte's rising popularity was akin to that of Hitler in the 1920s and 1930s.

Duterte has been scathing about criticism of his anti-drugs campaign and has insulted the United Nations and the European Union, as well as Obama, at various times in recent weeks.

On Friday, reacting to critical comments on his war on drugs by U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy and Benjamin Cardin, Duterte said: "Do not pretend to be the moral conscience of the world. Do not be the policeman because you do not have the eligibility to do that in my country."

He also reiterated there will be no annual war games between the Philippines and the United States until the end of his six-year term, placing the longstanding alliance under a cloud of doubt. It also may make Washington's strategy of rebalancing its military focus towards Asia in the face of an increasingly assertive China much more difficult to achieve.

Still, U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter, speaking before the latest remarks from Duterte, said Washington had an "ironclad" alliance with Manila.

A senior U.S. defence official, also speaking earlier, told reporters that the United States had a long enduring relationship with the Philippines regardless of who was president.

Murray Hiebert, a Southeast Asia expert at the Center for International and Strategic Studies think tank in Washington, said Obama was "taking the long view" in dealing with Duterte. Obama leaves office in January.

Malcolm Cook, a senior fellow at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, said the U.S-Philippines alliance was not necessarily at risk, but Washington could seek to focus on ties elsewhere in the region.

"We are all in some sense becoming, by necessity, desensitised to Duterte's language," he said.

"Diplomatically, the U.S. would say they'll continue to work with him and the alliance is strong. But it's whether they'll continue to strengthen that alliance or not."

(Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Yeganeh Torbati in San Diego, Marius Zaharia in Singapore, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Jeff Mason in Jerusalem, and David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Toni Reinhold)

Turkish media boss quits after email 'scam' fuels press freedom fears

Leftist hacker group RedHack released a series of emails last week implicating a number of senior officials in controversial dealings

Front pages of Turkish newspaper on 3 June reacting after German parliament labelled the World War I massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide (AFP)

 

Friday 30 September 2016

The head of one of Turkey's largest media groups quit on Friday after hackers released what they said were emails showing him yielding to editorial pressure from members of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's inner circle.

In a statement announcing his resignation, Mehmet Ali Yalcindag of Dogan Media denied that the emails leaked on social media this week had come from him, and vowed to take legal action.

He described the act, carried out by the leftist RedHack group, as an "ugly scam".

The group's titles include leading newspaper Hurriyet, broadcaster CNN Turk and mainstream television channel Kanal D. Yalcindag's resignation comes amid concern about pressure on the media in Turkey, particularly since emergency rule imposed after a failed July coup gave authorities sweeping powers.

More than 100 journalists have been detained since the attempted coup of July 15, when soldiers commandeered tanks and fighter jets in a bid to seize power.

Wider purges have seen some 100,000 police, soldiers, judges, and civil servants sacked or suspended on suspicion of links to the secretive network blamed for the coup.

Yalcindag said he was resigning to prevent damage to the reputation of parent company Dogan Holding, one of Turkey's best-known family conglomerates, with interests ranging from media and real estate to energy and retail.

"I have decided to leave this post, which I have occupied with dedication and care since the beginning of this year, to prevent the allegations directed at me from harming the reputation of the Dogan group," he said.

The alleged emails released by RedHack included correspondence supposedly between Yalcindag and Erdogan's son-in-law, Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, in which the Dogan executive appears to show willingness to adjust the editorial line of Dogan brands to appease the government.

Officials in Albayrak's office declined to comment.

Dogan Holding shares dropped as much as 3.6 percent on Friday, after falling around 3.5 percent on Thursday.

"In the technical inspections on my personal computer, it was uncovered that these e-mails were not sent by me, and were not sent through my computer. This is an ugly scam," Yalcindag said in his statement.

'Charlatans'

In the latest media closures following the coup, Turkey has ordered 20 television and radio stations shut down, including one that airs children's programmes, on charges that they spread "terrorist propaganda".

Prominent journalist Ahmet Altan, who is also a popular novelist, was detained for trial last week.

He is accused of participating in the coup by sending out subliminal messages to the troops who tried to seize power.

Officials reject the notion that the actions are a bid to stifle dissent, saying the extent of the crackdown is justified by the gravity of the threat to the state. Those found not to have links to the coup will be released, they have said.

Dogan Holding has long had a tense relationship with Erdogan and the ruling AK Party.

In May, Dogan was suspended from state tenders after Erdogan accused its head, Aydin Dogan, of being a "coup lover" and described its media columnists as "charlatans".

In 2009, Dogan Media was fined $2.5 billion for unpaid taxes, in what government opponents saw as an attempt to crush media criticism of Erdogan, following its coverage of corruption allegations against members of his inner circle.

Following the tax bill, founder Dogan was forced to sell the group's Milliyet and Vatan newspapers, the Star TV channel, and other holdings.

In a statement shortly after Yalcindag's resignation, Aydin Dogan, honorary president of Dogan Holding, said the unity of the Dogan family would not be affected.

"Mehmet Ali Yalcindag resigned from his post to prevent any misunderstanding," he said. "Since the start of the year he carried out his work and duties successfully. I respect the sensitivity shown my Mehmet Ali and thank him. The Dogan Media Group has for 40 years tried to engage in independent and objective broadcasting based on universal standards.

"We have been committed to our republic and democracy and within that framework have defended our nation and state".

Inside FARC’s Postwar Jungle Camp Finishing School

BY EMILY WRIGHT-SEPTEMBER 30, 2016

YARI PLAINS, Colombia — At dawn in a jungle clearing in southern Colombia, rebels wearing pixelated fatigues, berets and Lenin badges form up in a loose parade before the start of their school day. They belong to the country’s largest and oldest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which reached a peace agreement with the government last month after more than 50 years of civil war — morning military training has thus been replaced by classwork.

After a shout of “Viva Colombia!” the guerrillas, ranging in ages from 18 to 59, disperse into improvised classrooms formed by camouflage tarpaulins stretched between trees. There is some awkwardness when they put down their guns and pick up the textbooks that are the key to the new phase of their struggle.

“We are going into a new type of battle, and politics requires just as much training as war,” said Paula Sáenz, 26, a group monitor at the FARC’s Isaias Pardo school, which was set up in 1984 to train the movement’s top command. Sáenz, whose job is to turn her fellow fighters into party operatives, says the FARC’s aspiration to conquer the hearts and minds of their countrymen will collapse “if we don’t understand the issues that the country faces or how to get across our political message.”

After more than 50 years of fighting, and four years of tense negotiations, the FARC and the Colombian government signed a peace agreement on Sept. 26 in the colonial city of Cartagena, Colombia. The deal will be put to a public referendum on Oct. 2, after which the group hopes to cease its existence as a Marxist guerilla movement committed to overthrowing the state and begin a new life as a leftist political organization prepared to compete in elections.

The Isaias Pardo school is at the center of the group’s current preparation for civilian life, but the FARC’s emphasis on education is nothing new. “Our motto has always been ‘first you arm a guerrilla’s mind, then you put a gun in his hand,” said Frankie, 29, as he made notes in his cartoon-covered textbook. “If you don’t prepare a guerrilla ideologically, culturally, and politically, he won’t know what he is fighting for, and just as easily as he can fire that way, he could fire back this way.”

Unassuming and timid, Frankie left school in the city at age 13 after a pulling a knife on a teacher who was about to hit him, and sold candy and recycled trash on the streets of Bogotá before joining the FARC one year later. He said most FARC guerrillas had little or no education when they joined the movement. 

According to government figures, more than 1.5 million Colombians are illiterate; that’s more than 3 percent of the population. “I’ve had to teach people who arrived at the FARC and didn’t even know how to spell their name,” he recalled. “In the villages where they lived, if they worked they couldn’t study, and if they studied they couldn’t eat.”

FARC recruits would go through two years of basic education in literacy, ideology, and the movement’s command structure at local training camps. Their military training– courses in explosives, intelligence, and sniper shooting –was typically preceded by classes in reading or writing. Those recruited for the top command would be sent to schools like the Isaias Pardo Mixed School in the Yari Plains jungle camp, one of a handful of national training camps.

The FARC has now developed a “pedagogy for peace” curriculum to create a new cadre of political leaders. 

Unit commanders from across the FARC’s eastern bloc have marched for hundreds of miles to attend the Isaias Pardo school’s nine-month course. Frankie walked for five weeks from the north across the Cordillera mountains; Paula came from the southwest, trekking through dense jungle.  

“The [Isaias Pardo] school has always had a strong ideological component grounded in Marxist-Leninism from the beginning,” explained Victoria Nariño, 34, who joined the FARC’s urban guerrilla 12 years ago after studying social sciences in Bogotá and has been the camp’s main professor for the past nine months. “But since the peace accords began, the military training has disappeared and political training has intensified ahead of the huge, transcendental step — from armed fighters to civilians — that we are about to take.”

The daily routine begins at dawn with national and international news headlines and circulares — updates from the central command at the negotiating table in Havana. “Listening to news on the radio is such a ritual for us like praying is for Christians,” Victoria explained. “We do it everyday.” In the morning twilight the guerrillas drink tinto — sweetened coffee — to stay awake and keep warm. Banners emblazoned with the faces of the FARC’s leadership and other Marxist figureheads hang from the eaves of the large hut where they gather for lectures under a roof made of plastic sheeting and palm leaves.

In rough rows of eight, rebels sit on benches or stools crafted from logs. Their guns are always by their side, placed on the dirt floor or hanging from tree branches just outside the shelter. They spend most of their time immersed in left-wing political theory and cultural history: classes in party structure, philosophy, history and political economy. They discuss supply-side economics in terms of crops: plantains, coffee, and yuca, the starchy root vegetable typical of the Andes. The work by historian Renán Vega on social movements in Colombia — class struggle, unions, and the fight against state terrorism — was recently added to the curriculum.

Ahead of the plebiscite on the peace accords, the FARC will have to convince a skeptical public that they can indeed do peaceful politics. It is unclear at this stage whether the FARC will form its own political party or — more likely — join efforts with other leftist groups, especially in rural areas where they have their strongest support base.

Recent polls have swung between approval and rejection of the FARC’s political future, reflecting deep polarization in Colombia. If the deal passes in the referendum, the FARC still has to contend with vehement opposition. According to an Ipsos poll, 79 percent of respondents said FARC leaders should not be allowed to participate in politics, even though they would be allowed to under the accords.

For Kristian Herbolzheimer, a conflict resolution expert with Conciliation Resources, an international nongovernmental organization which has consulted with negotiators in the Colombian peace process, the integration of the FARC into the democratic sphere will be the biggest test to the peace process. It bodes well that the group has already shown a willingness to moderate its ideology. “They have accepted private property, foreign investment, and abiding by a constitution and a legal framework they have been fighting against for decades,” he said.

Herbolzheimer also noted that FARC negotiators in Havana had shown flexibility on their initial demands and won significant concessions on land rights and retribution — original objectives of the insurrection — as a result. But the FARC’s commitment to disarm and enter formal political channels is a “fundamental but insufficient condition,” he said. “The main question is how existing political parties will respond and engage with a new political player.”

Meanwhile, in the jungle camp, Frankie and his fellow guerrillas still follow the motions of armed insurgency: Armed lookouts stand guard among the bushes, listening for unexpected sounds, their eyes scanning the darkness for an enemy that is no longer searching for them. Many still dig trenches beside the huts where they sleep — a precaution from the days of heavy bombing raids.

But there is also a growing spirit of ease. Frankie emphasized that the movement has always been a “military-political” organization. “The political agenda only took a hit when the fighting got really tough during Plan Colombia years,” he added, referring to a U.S.-backed military campaignagainst the rebels that began in the late 1990s. In October 2015, the FARC announced it had stopped military training and was now actively preparing its fighters for legal politics.

Today, many students at the camp spend long stretches of their afternoons reading for pleasure in hammocks tied between their caletas, the wooden and palm beds they sleep on. Novels and short stories that “lift the revolutionary spirit” are circulated in the camps, with Mikhail Sholokhov’sOne Man’s Destiny being a camp favorite. On the few available laptops, Charlie Chaplin films among more typical Hollywood fare.

The guerrillas at the camp say they are more interested in grassroots activism than state politics. “Everyone is expected to carry their political militancy with them even if they don’t aspire to office,” explained Victoria. “In addition to being a farmer, I might be the chairman of the community action group of my village and affect change that way, from the bottom up,” she said, listing actions against multinational companies and extractive industries.  

Days before the announcement of the peace deal in September, Carlos Antonio Lozada, FARC’s urban commander who is now preparing to lead his organization into politics, arrived at the camp to answer rebels’ concerns about the process of demobilizing as a military group. He answered a wide range of questions in the school’s main lecture shelter.

After the plebiscite on Oct. 2, the FARC will move to 23 U.N.-monitored concentration zones to begin the demobilization and disarmament process, and they will remain there for up to six months. Lozada assured rebels that their families could visit them in these areas and that the group was still negotiating to allow the children of FARC members to live with them during this period. He also explained that FARC members who committed or ordered atrocities but confess to their crimes will avoid serving their sentences in jail, instead performing “community service” projects and acts of reparation.

His audience seemed confident they will eventually enjoy political success outside of big cities. “We already have a lot of popularity in our areas,” said Frankie. “We have relied on that support base and would have been defeated long ago if it didn’t exist.” In the Yari Plains region, there are few traces of the central government. Bridges and roads have been constructed by the FARC and the local population tends to see the guerrilla organization as their most dependable form of local government. Many locals doubt the central government’s capacity to make good on promises of investment in infrastructure and development projects. They also tend to see the FARC as preferable to the organized paramilitary groups, which were born from a botched demobilization process in the early 2000s of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a federation of right wing paramilitaries, and are growing in power.

Among the guerrillas at the Isaias Pardo school, violence from these paramilitary forces is considered the biggest threat to the peace process and their personal safety. The previous FARC attempt to enter peaceful politics in the 1980s was undone by similar groups. Close to 3,000 party members, including two presidential candidates, were murdered and many of the remainder fled the country. In a break from her duties as class monitor, Paula Sáenz said that paramilitaries beat her uncle to death in front of her when she was a child and forced her family to abandon their home. “Paramilitarism is not the ghost everyone wants it to be; it’s real and every guerrilla is terrified it is coming to kills us just like before,” she said.

In the school, students, divided in their squadrons that will later become political cells, spend much time discussing both the fine print of the peace agreement and broader questions about their future lives. Many know they will soon begin work as farmers, and wonder what they will do for food while they wait for their crops to grow. Eliodoro Suarez, 58, one of the camp’s veterans, explains they will receive a minimum-wage salary from the government following demobilization. “That is an answer we can work with,” says Miller, 43, his assault rifle lying across his lap. “Crops don’t grow overnight.”

The vast majority of the FARC’s rank-and-file is on board with the peace deal. Only one unit, the 200-strong Armando Ríos First Front in the southern central province of Guaviare, has said it will not disarm but continue to fight. The FARC quickly responded by rejecting the unit from the movement as military airstrikes against it began.

Paula Sáenz said she understands that many of the FARC’s fighters see little alternative to returning to war if their comrades start disappearing or being murdered. But she says she trusts the FARC’s promise that the movement will not raise its rifles again. “We were born without these guns so we can’t say they define us” she said, wrapping her textbooks in plastic to protect them from the jungle humidity. “It might be difficult to leave them behind, but it is the path to peace.”

For now, there is a spirit of optimism in the Isaias Pardo school: The future brings the possibility of political rebirth. And while the model of armed struggle may be ending, Sáenz insists the FARC will remain. “No one is going to fight for 50 years, hand in their gun and say, ‘Give me $17, and the story ends here.'”

Photo credit: LUIS ACOSTA/AFP/Getty Images

Gandhi: ‘My life is my message’

Each of us has a choice. We can stand aside in the great fight for survival in which humanity is now engaged. Or we can be involved. What is your choice?

by Robert J. Burrowes

( September 29, 2016, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) As most of the world ignores or hypocritically celebrates the 147th birthday of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on the International Day of Nonviolence on 2 October, some of us will quietly acknowledge his life by continuing to build the world that he envisioned. When asked for his message for the world, Gandhi responded with the now famous line ‘My life is my message’ reflecting his lifelong struggle against violence.

Gandhi’s life was dotted with many memorable quotes but one that is less well known is this: ‘You may never know what results come of your actions but if you do nothing there will be no results’.

Fortunately, there are many committed people who have identified the importance of taking action to end the violence in our world – whether it occurs in the home or on the street, in wars, as a result of economic exploitation or ecological destruction – and this includes the courageous people below. These people have identified themselves as part of the worldwide network, now with participants in 96 countries, committed to ending violence in all of its forms. I would like to share their inspirational stories and invite you to join them.

Christophe Nyambatsi Mutaka is the key figure at the Groupe Martin Luther King  which promotes active nonviolence, human rights and peace. The group is based in Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in central Africa. They particularly work on reducing sexual and other violence against women.

Also based in Goma, the Association de Jeunes Visionnaires pour le Développement du Congo  headed by Leon Simweragi is a youth peace group that works to rehabilitate child soldiers as well as offer meaningful opportunities for the sustainable involvement of young people in matters that affect their lives and those of their community.

Given the phenomenal suffering in the DRC, which has experienced the loss of six million lives and the displacement of eight million people due to the long war driven by Western corporations keen to exploit the country’s mineral wealth, Christophe, Leon and their colleagues are testimony to the fact that committed people strive in the most adverse of circumstances.

Tess Burrows in the UK is an adventurer (including parachutist, mountaineer, cyclist and marathon runner), peace activist, author, speaker, healer, and ‘most importantly a mother and grandmother’. In her words: ‘I am dedicated to the pursuit of World Peace and the healing of the Earth.’ Tess has written several books and, if you are looking for inspiration, I suggest you try these: ‘Cry from the Highest Mountain’ (describing a climb to the point furthest from the centre of the Earth), ‘Cold Hands, Warm Heart’ (describing a trek across the coldest, driest, windiest place on Earth: the Geographic South Pole), ‘Touch the Sky’ (describing her climb of Mt Kilimanjaro, in Africa’s heartland, pulling a car tyre which included peace messages from every nation on Earth and embodying their desire for everyone to pull together to promote peace) and her latest book ‘Soft Courage’. Her video ‘Climb For Tibet‘ won’t bore you either! The funds raised from sales of the books and donations have, among other things, built six schools in Tibet and supported a Maasai community tree-planting project in Africa. Tess collects messages of peace from individuals and speaks them out from ‘far high places’. So far, this has included the North and South Poles, the Himalayas, Andes, Pacific and Africa. You can be part of her next Peace Climb in Australasia by writing your personal message on her website  where you can also check out her books. Be warned however, this website will exhaust you!

Recently, on the International Day of Peace, the Afghan Peace Volunteers and Borderfree Street Kids in Kabul, mentored by Dr Teck Young Wee (Hakim), reached out to the visually impaired and blind students at Rayaab (Rehabilitation Services for the Blind Afghanistan). They brought MP3 players as gifts to 50 visually impaired students. The students will use the MP3 players to listen to recorded school lessons and educational programs. Rayaab is an Afghan non-governmental organization run by Mahdi Salami and his wife Banafsha, who are themselves visually impaired. If you want to see photos from this day, and to watch an extraordinary three minute video, you can do so at ‘To Touch a Colourful Afghanistan‘.

Kristin Christman in the USA continues her tireless efforts to make our world more peaceful by seeking to understand the deeper drivers of conflict while offering practical steps forward. She is currently working on a book based on her monumental ‘Taxonomy of Peace: A Comprehensive Classification of the Roots and Escalators of Violence and 650 Solutions for Peace‘ A recent rather personal article offers insight into her approach: ‘Make serving in war an option, not an order‘  and illustrates how violence is ‘built-into’ society.

Ghanaian Gifty A. Korankye has just developed a new website titled ‘Daughters of Africa‘.  Explaining why, she writes: ‘Over the years I watched women go through unbearable pain …. Our daughters go through FGM in their puberty…. The humiliation we face when we lose our spouse, all in the name of customs and tradition.’ Determined to help address the issues that plague many African women she wants to give them the chance to be ‘a useful voice to our communities’, to share the success stories of African women and African-American women in business administration, the entertainment industry and elsewhere in order to share learning from their journeys and to ‘help mentor our young generation’. She invites African women to write to share their stories and work together to find solutions. ‘We can do it because we are daughters of Africa.’

So what about you? Do you believe that ending human violence is possible? Even if you believe that it is not, do you believe that it is worth trying? As Gandhi noted: ‘The future depends on what we do in the present.’ What will you do?

In essence, working to end human violence and to create a world of peace, justice and ecological sustainability for all life on Earth might not be what gets you out of bed in the morning. But if it is or you would like it to be, you are welcome to join those of us who are committed to striving for this outcome by signing the online pledge of ‘The People’s Charter to Create a Nonviolent World‘.

And if you subscribe to Gandhi’s belief that ‘Earth provides enough to satisfy every [person’s] needs, but not every [person’s] greed’, then you might consider participating in ‘The Flame Tree Project to Save Life on Earth‘  which he inspired as well.

Each of us has a choice. We can stand aside in the great fight for survival in which humanity is now engaged. Or we can be involved. What is your choice?

The bottom line is this: What will be the message of your life?

Robert J. Burrowes

Biodata: Robert J. Burrowes has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of ‘Why Violence?’ http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence His email address is flametree@riseup.net and his website is at http://robertjburrowes.wordpress.com

How the Pill messes with women's minds

By JILL FOSTER FOR THE DAILY MAIL -20 October 2011

Bizarre as it sounds, it was an almost-empty carton of orange juice that nearly put an end to my relationship.

Arriving home from a hard day at the office, tired and dehydrated, I reached into the fridge for the carton, poured out its contents — and the tiniest, meanest dribble of liquid fell into the glass.

What can only be described as murderous rage surged through my body. I hurled the glass across the kitchen, sending it smashing into tiny pieces against the wall.

At

At breaking point: Taking the Pill can make some women become angry and emotional (posed by model)

My boyfriend came racing into the room to find me wailing that life wasn’t fair and I hated everything... including him.

We had a blazing row and I stormed out of the kitchen. Looking back, I’m astonished the poor boy was still in the house when I sheepishly returned an hour later. Especially when for weeks I’d been irritable and moody, barely wanting to touch him, let alone sleep with him. 

But stay he did. Robin is now my husband and he still refers to that moment as ‘the time you went a bit psychotic’. He also admits it’s the closest he’s ever come to ending our relationship.

That was more than ten years ago and what saved us was the fact we both knew my behaviour wasn’t normal. My mood swings and uncharacteristic tearful outbursts were, we decided, down to the Microgynon contraceptive Pill I’d started taking several months earlier.

Days after I stopped taking it, I returned to my (relatively) sane, easygoing self. 

Since then, I’ve never experienced anything like it, but I’ve often wondered how many other women have had similar episodes. 

The Pill, which celebrated its 50th birthday last year, revolutionised how we think about sexuality and relationships. Not only is it more than 99 per cent effective, if taken correctly, there’s evidence it reduces the risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke. 

'The Pill sent me crazy. One minute I'd feel fine, the next I'd be crying'

Today, three-and-a half million women in Britain — one in three women of reproductive age — use it. And last year a four-decade study of long-term Pill takers, published in the British Medical Journal, found they may live slightly longer than those who don’t take it.

We all know the physical side-effects — nausea, weight gain and an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis — but little is said about the psychological risks. 

Last week, however, scientists at Stirling University claimed the Pill affects women’s choice in men. The study showed women taking it tend to choose reliable, caring and steady men, rather than adventurous, dashing and dangerous types. 

The theory is the hormones in the Pill — oestrogen and progestogen (an artificial hormone like the female hormone progesterone) — guide women away from macho types who might not stay put to help bring up children. 

Final proof, perhaps, of what many of us have long suspected — the Pill affects us mentally, too.

Hormone changes: One in three women of reproductive age in Britain take the Pill, but for some, could it be doing more harm than good?

Yet, despite the findings, doctors remain unsure whether the Pill can change a woman’s behaviour.

‘It’s established that oestrogen and progestogen alter the brain’s nerve circuits, but to what extent that affects mood is hard to tell,’ says endocrinologist Professor Saffron Whitehead at St George’s Hospital, South London. 

‘We know oestrogen acts on the limbic system in the brain, which is linked with moods — but scientists aren’t sure where moods come from. All we know is hormones affect our brains.’

Certainly, more women are asking their GPs for alternative contraception after experiencing dramatic mood changes on the Pill. 

Angeline Brunel, 33, a call handler from Glasgow, has vowed never to go back on the Pill after trying several brands in her early 20s. 

‘When I started seeing my ex-boyfriend I went to my GP and got the combined Pill, a brand called Cilest. Within days, it was affecting me emotionally,’ says Angeline, who now lives with her husband Thomas, 32, and four-year-old daughter Madeleine. 

'I don't like putting hormones into my body, but I use the Pill for birth control, as it's so convenient'

‘It sent me crazy. One minute I’d feel fine, the next I’d be crying. All I can liken it to is the feeling of being pregnant, but more emotional.  

‘I went back to the doctor and he was very dismissive. He said: “You’ve just read about those side-effects on the packet. That’s why you’re feeling like that.”’

After registering with a new doctor, Angeline was prescribed a second brand of Pill, called Yasmin, but found it just as disturbing. 

‘I was studying and found I couldn’t focus on my work. I’m sure I was suffering from depression, as I was so unpredictable to live with and would pick arguments or cry at the drop of a hat. Not long after, my boyfriend and I broke up. I’m convinced the Pill was to blame.’

Angeline says many of her friends now take a non-hormone-based method of contraception. 

‘I’m in my 30s and I don’t know anyone who is still on it. We all tried it in our 20s and a few of us had quite bad reactions. But at that age, you’re not aware of other options.’

Sarah Marshall, 31, an executive assistant from North London, was prescribed Ortho Tri-Cyclen (a U.S. brand, as she was living in the States at the time). 

‘I went on the Pill in my early 20s. Initially, I was delighted that my cycle became so regular. But then every month, three days before my period, I’d get angry and upset. 

‘One time, my sister and I shared a four-hour car journey. Suddenly, I became hysterical and started crying. When she asked me what was wrong, I didn’t know. It was four hours of total madness.’

Sarah, who is married to Ken, 35, a film producer she met six years ago, stuck with the Pill for two years before returning to her GP.

‘My doctor told me it can take a while for some women to find the right Pill and that I might be suffering from side-effects, as it was a high oestrogen Pill, which can make some women emotional. 

Side effects: Experts say any mood changes that occur as the body adjusts to the Pill should wear off within a few months

‘He put me on Yasmin, but that made me vomit every morning. For the past ten years, I’ve been on Synphase, which is the right mix of oestrogen and progestogen for me. I don’t like putting hormones into my body, but I use the Pill for birth control, as it’s so convenient and isn’t permanent; so when we want to start trying for a family we can.’

The anecdotal experiences of women who have struggled with the Pill is, admittedly, convincing, but what of scientific proof? 

One of the few academic studies into the emotional effects of the Pill was conducted in 2005 at an Australian university. Using a medically respected questionnaire, researchers found Pill takers had an average depression rating of 17.6 compared to 9.8 in non-users. 

Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, who led the study, said: ‘Since this study, we have been looking at the varying moods between users of different types of Pills. We found women taking Pills with lower doses of oestrogen had significantly worse moods than those using higher-dose Pills or women not using a Pill at all. In fact, their scores were indicative of mild clinical depression. 

‘Conversely, women using pills with a higher dose of oestrogen had better moods than women not using a contraceptive Pill at all.  

‘This suggests different oestrogen doses in oral contraceptive Pills can have differential effects on mood.’

However, this study is neither completed nor published. 

For years, women have reported suffering from reduced libido while taking the Pill. A study of more than 1,000 women at Germany’s University of Heidelberg found the Pill dramatically reduces levels of desire and arousal during sex.

Yet many GPs remain sceptical. Dr Diana Monsour, consultant in gynaecology and reproductive health in the North-East, says: ‘Emotional effects for most women on the Pill do not happen. Our moods vary and it’s too easy to blame the Pill if we’re feeling low. Any scientific evidence in this area is very woolly, indeed.’

So, what is the official guidance for those in doubt? 

Lynn Hearton, of the Family Planning Association, says: ‘Any mood changes that occur as the body adjusts to changing hormone levels from the Pill should wear off within a few months. 

‘For the majority of women, the benefits of the Pill far outweigh the side-effects.’

That’s as may be. 

But as I — and many other women who have had a bad experience on the Pill — believe, suffering a crippling emotional fall-out once a month is a heavy price to pay.

Political justice is not enough to rebuild Sri Lanka

* Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

For Sri Lanka, gender equity will be fundamental to a stable, peaceful and equitable future

by Timothy Ryan-Wednesday, 28 September 2016

The civil war that raged for 26 years in Sri Lanka was always about more than political grievances. The politics were rooted in economic and social disenfranchisement of the Tamil minority by the Sinhala majority. A government policy adopted in the mid-1950s that declared Sinhala to be the country’s only official language may have been the spark that started the fire, but the impact over decades was a systemic marginalization in all sectors of politics and the economy that fueled Tamil grievances and a quest for a separate state.

With the end of the war in 2009, many commentators pointed out that the war was over but the conflict was not. While this has become a cliché, the reality is no less true, seven years on. Rebuilding Sri Lanka's economy, especially in the war-torn Northern and Eastern provinces, is paramount for the country not only to thrive politically but also economically. The language policy, long since rescinded, institutionalized both economic and political discrimination.

A healthy, more equitable economy is key to any society emerging from a war as bitter as Sri Lanka experienced, and is crucial to mitigating future conflict. A critical element to address discord is equal treatment under the law. Yet there is rising concern that, across a broad range of issues, this equality has yet to be realized. Women in any society are intrinsic to a vibrant economy and important stakeholders in post-conflict transitions. For Sri Lanka, gender equity will be fundamental to a stable, peaceful and equitable future.

A recent study by the Solidarity Center titled, "Workers in Post-Civil War Jaffna: A Snapshot of Working Conditions, Opportunities and Inequalities in Northern Sri Lanka," points out the challenge not only to providing opportunities to grow the economy but also to promoting the basic labor rights that are essential to a well-functioning industrial relations atmosphere and a sense of equitable development.

For instance, here are some telling findings: In Jaffna, 81 percent of workers across a range of professions have no written contract spelling out their working conditions, much less have an opportunity to engage in collective bargaining. Even more workers, 85 percent, were not aware there was a legally stipulated minimum wage, which in Jaffna is now 10,000 Sri Lanka rupees, or only about $69 a month.

Not surprisingly, widespread wage discrimination is disadvantaging women in the region.  Survey results demonstrate that the region’s female workforce experiences gender-specific consequences born of poor working conditions, weak enforcement of legal provisions and non-conformity with international labor standards.  Nisha Thellipalai, a volunteer at the Center for Human Rights and Development, a Sri Lankan nongovernmental organization, recounted one survey interviewee’s report that she “responded to a job advertisement which exclusively solicited female respondents. The tasks in the advertisement were not for traditionally gendered work, but the employer replied matter-of-factly that they would only hire women because women don’t have to be paid as much as men.”

The survey also found that 81 percent of workers work more than five days a week, in violation of national law, and the majority of people working extra hours were women.

Sri Lanka is one of the rare developing countries in the region that has had in place, by law, a pension and social safety net for workers. These two funds are called the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) and the Employee Trust Fund (ETF), and employers are statutorily obligated to contribute to both. The study in Jaffna revealed that for more than two-thirds of workers, their employers are simply not paying into the funds.

This set of conditions in Jaffna, and by extension the Northern Province, creates an incredibly precarious situation for workers who are hoping to earn a livelihood that can sustain them and support their future. It also points to the distinction between enforcement and equal treatment under the law for the north and other parts of the country. While implementation of the labor code is problematic countrywide, unions outside of the north and east have a tradition of challenging employers and the government in court to ensure the law is fairly applied and provides some measure of remedy. But despite having island-wide unions in the public sector—for the postal service, telecommunications and health sectors—workers in the north and east still seem to lose.  Union activists point to unequal distribution of funding for the public sector, effectively disadvantaging government services for the population.

The remedies are not difficult to identify, as outlined by the report.

First, trade unions, NGOs and international development partners can play a pivotal role in sensitizing the government and business community to their obligations under national and international labor standards, while also raising awareness among workers about their rights. Second, support for unions to conduct worker outreach, which had been severely curtailed during the war, will improve the effectiveness of dialogue among workers, employers and government.

Third, the Sri Lankan government should fully adopt and promulgate the International Labor Organization's (ILO) Decent Work Agenda to promote inclusive growth, poverty alleviation, shared prosperity and basic minimum standards of living. The Decent Work agenda is obligatory for ILO member countries such as Sri Lanka. And that is no accident: The ILO was founded, following World War I, “to pursue a vision based on the premise that universal, lasting peace can be established only if it is based on social justice." The agenda is all the more important because its elements are fundamental to lasting peace and stability in the country.

Finally, given the wage and hour disparities between male and female workers, trade unions, NGOs, and international partners should pay particular attention to raising rights awareness among women workers and support targeted outreach to women who can become leaders in gender equality and non-discrimination against all workers.

“After the survey I learned a lot that I did not know before,” said Sritharan Easwari, president of the Northern Women Society, who helped conduct the survey. “We all hear about injustice and exploitation at the workplace, but it is deeper than that. Myself and other women believe that these women’s issues in the workplace can be tackled effectively by forming a union. These problems can be solved if we work together.”

 Tim Ryan is Solidarity Center Asia director.

Office Of Missing Persons Sri Lanka: Deceptive & Futile

By Thambu Kanagasabai –September 30, 2016

Thambu Kanagasabai

The Office of the Missing Persons [OMP] expected to function shortly has been welcomed as a positive step from various quarters towards reconciliation after the war. However, a close scrutiny and analysis of the legislation governing it reveals the deception and futility underlying most of the provisions in The Act.

Sri Lanka ranks second in the list of countries after Iraq to record the largest number of disappearances with unofficial estimated numbers of about 90,000 since 1980s. Out of these disappearances, enforced or involuntary disappearances are reported to be around 65,000.

Enforced Disappearances always involve state officials and/or security forces. They happen when a person is illegally arrested and detained in undisclosed centres where torture and other ill-treatment including killing and disposal of the dead takes place. The arrest and detention is carried out violating all rules and procedures including court process.

The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, [WGEID c/oOHCHR] in its report on July 08, 2016 after staying in Sri Lanka from 09 – 18 November 2015, has plainly made the following damning statement: “Enforced disappearances have been used in a massive and systematic way in Sri Lanka for many decades to suppress political dissent, counter-terrorism activities or in internal conflicts and many enforced disappearances could be considered as war crimes or crimes against humanity if addressed in a court of law.” The UN working Group received 12,000 cases of enforced disappearance related to Janatha Vimukkti Perumuna [JVP] uprisings and during the armed conflict between Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [LTTE} and the Sri Lankan government forces from 1980 to 2010.

File photo

Missing Persons include those who are arrested, or surrendered or summoned for inquiry and detained by the security forces during the war. These persons finally suffer disappearances mostly by killing and are generally untraceable. About 19,000 persons were reported to the Paranagama Commission as confirmed missing.

The Sri Lanka parliament passed the Office of the Mission Persons Act No. 14 of 2016, coming into effect from 26th August 2016, the government introducing the Bill in accordance with an undertaking given under the UNHRC resolution of October 01, 2015.

Due to international pressure and United Nations concerns over the hither to unresolved cases of enforced disappearances and missing persons, the Office of the Missing Persons Bill was passed in undue haste, ignoring the protests and concerns of affected parties who demanded prior consultation and consideration of their input as called for in the UNHRC Resolution in October 2015.

Read More

‘Eluga Tamil’ and the constitutional litmus test

Friday, 30 September 2016

• Nationalists are mobilising in the North and the South against a constitution building process that will soon step out of the shadows

In an ironic twist, last Saturday marked an epoch in the lifespan of two nationalist movements in the island’s north and south.

In the capital Colombo, the Jathika Hela Urumaya used its 13th National Convention at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium to shed its saffron image, with Omalpe Sobitha Thero stepping down as party leader. When it first won seats in the 2004 parliamentary elections, the JHU was a party dominated by monks who rode a wave of sympathy in the wake of Soma Thero’s death in 2003. Rabidly nationalist in the first 10 years of its existence, the JHU began a process of political evolution in 2014, when it backed the common candidacy of Maithripala Sirisena against Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose presidency had afforded them ministerial positions and driven their ideology into the political mainstream.

Over the past year as it ruled in coalition with the UNP, a party it has consistently been at cross purposes with, the JHU has been in quiet transformation. The Sinhala nationalist party has softened its positions on the ethnic question and even accountability. In August, the party sent a senior representative to an event to commemorate victims of enforced disappearances, who hailed the recent passage of the Office of Missing Persons Act. Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe said that while the JHU believed that the past was best forgotten, the party understood that families of the missing from all ethnic communities would feel differently.

At its convention last Saturday (24), the JHU appointed Deputy Minister Karunaratne Paranavithana co-chairman of its party, to further bolster its progressive credentials.

With the exit of Theros Omalpe Sobitha and Athuraliye Rathana, the JHU is now within the decisive control of the party’s strongman and Presidential confidant Champika Ranawaka. For some time now, the suave and articulate JHU politician has been fashioning himself as a ‘pragmatist nationalist’, setting himself apart from the pro-Rajapaksa bandwagon and Sinhala chauvinist groups like the Bodu Bala Sena and Ravana Balaya. It has long been suspected that Minister Ranawaka harbours lofty political ambitions, and that this recent shift towards centrist politics is part of a larger strategy to make give him broader political appeal.

Less clear is whether the JHU General Secretary has truly shed his ultra-nationalist ideology as he embarks upon this political transformation, or whether those inclinations will remain dormant until he wields effective control over the state apparatus one day.

Champika and the constitution 

The timing of his reinvention is interesting, with political parties in hectic negotiations to hammer out a deal on the new constitution. A key facet of those negotiations is devolution, or power sharing proposals aimed at resolving an ethnic conflict that has spanned 60 years.

Minister Ranawaka is part of the 21-member steering committee that will ultimately present the new constitutional proposals to the Constitutional Assembly that was established by resolution of Parliament earlier this year. If he opposes the new arrangements being proposed, Ranawaka will no doubt use the lobbying power he enjoys with the most senior sections of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration to dilute a power sharing deal or overly enthusiastic proposals to abolish the presidency, which the JHU has historically never favoured. In this endeavour he will prove more effective than the Rajapaksa lobby which is fairly certain to oppose the new proposals tooth and nail.

Ranawaka will seek to influence the process as a powerful insider, by using his access to President Maithripala Sirisena. To make President Sirisena waver on the more problematic parts of the new constitutional proposals, would put the support of the SLFP for the new draft in question almost immediately. Without SLFP support, the draft constitutional proposals will not cross the two-thirds majority hurdle at the Constitutional Assembly in the first instance and will result in the dissolution of the Assembly and mark the end of the road in this attempt to finally set things right, 68 years after independence.

On the other hand, if the JHU in its fresh avatar backs the draft constitutional proposals, power sharing arrangements and all, its evolution would be complete and Ranawaka’s launching pad for the next phase of his political career, as the less severe nationalist alternative to the Rajapaksa coterie, will be ready.

Northern dimension

In the North the ongoing deliberations on a new constitution have also provoked a response. Last Saturday, the Tamil People’s Council (TPC) under the chairmanship of Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran held the Eluga Tamil (Rise Tamil) rally, which was aimed at raising awareness about ongoing militarisation, state-sponsored Sinhala ‘colonisation’ of the North, the need for an international investigation into wartime atrocities committed against the Tamil people, the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act and a political solution based on a federal model.

The rally was backed heavily by the Tamil National People’s Front led by Gajen Ponnambalam, TNA constituent parties EPRLF led by Suresh Premachandran and PLOTE led by Dharmalingam Siddharthan, and also received tacit support in the run up to the event from Douglas Devananda’s EPDP. 

Mobilising for weeks, these parties managed to bring large crowds on to the streets of Jaffna, where organisers asked shops and businesses to shut down to allow people to participate in the demonstration. Thousands of Tamils marched through the streets of Jaffna to a park in Muttraveli for a public meeting. In what appeared to be a deliberate twist, the meeting reflected the mood and décor of the Pongu Tamil (Awaken Tamil) celebrations organised by the LTTE between 2001 and 2004.

Rallying point

For most of the organisers the Eluga Tamil rally last weekend was meant to be a rallying point for Tamils of the North, irrespective of political affiliation. The idea was to muster a large enough crowd to ensure Colombo and Tamil representatives negotiating on their behalf on issues including transitional justice and the constitution with the Government in the capital, sat up and took notice. The mass mobilisation worked and even by conservative estimates the rally drew a crowd of more than 8,000 people, a significant number in the electoral district of some 500,000 registered voters.

To draw crowds in Jaffna, the TPC and its allies had to ensure they did not take a hard line against the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), the largest party in the TNA. In the August 2015 parliamentary election, ITAK polled nearly 70% of the vote in the five districts of the North. According to Tamil political analysts, any indication that the rally was part of an attempt to split the TNA would have jeopardised the organisers’ chances of drawing public support for the rally. Rather the TPC and fellow organisers were tapping into the sections of the community that supported a pan-Tamil unity position to lobby Colombo on the issues concerning Northern Tamils. For this reason, many of the speakers who took the stage, including Chief Minister Wigneswaran, who remains a member of ITAK even though he opposes many of the party’s positions, steered clear of attacking the TNA leadership for not backing the rally and took pains to explain that the demonstration was not an attack on ITAK or the TNA leadership.

Political observers explained this softer approach with the argument that keeping the TNA together was an important value in Tamil politics and none of the parties on the Eluga Tamil dais wanted to be responsible for promoting a split in the alliance.

Standing under an umbrella as he delivered his speech at the rally last Saturday, the Chief Minister said their differences with the TNA were “minimal”, explaining that their disagreements were mostly about timing.

A question of timing

For some time now, Wigneswaran has argued that the constitutional process to deliver a political settlement could not come before accountability had been effectively addressed. The assertion laid bare a sharp division within the TNA, with party leader R. Sampanthan promising the Tamil people on the campaign trail in August 2015 that they hoped for a negotiated settlement on Tamil rights and political autonomy before the end of 2016.

The Chief Minister has changed tack somewhat, now arguing that it was impossible to hold meaningful negotiations on the constitution until the North was completely demilitarised and the Prevention of Terrorism Act repealed. Much of the subtext of the Eluga Tamil speeches laid emphasis on the constitution-making process. Speakers at the rally called the process secretive and warned that the Tamils would not know what proposals were being negotiated until the last moment.

The message emerging from the rally and its specific timing speaks to a section of the Tamil polity led by and backing the Chief Minister getting increasingly jittery as lawmakers in Colombo get closer to reaching consensus on draft constitutional proposals that will offer a political solution to longstanding Tamil grievances. The provocative nature of the slogans used to promote the demonstration – specifically the decision to lead with claims of Sinhala colonisation and the erection of Buddha statues – created the impression that Eluga Tamil’s true aim was to disrupt a delicate process of reconciliation and constitution-making by rousing nationalist sentiment in the South.

While most of the process of negotiation on the draft constitution has taken place in the shadows, it is now widely expected that the Steering Committee led by the Prime Minister will present its Interim Report to the Constitutional Assembly by November this year. While draft constitutional proposals could be appended to the Interim Report by this Committee as set out in the resolution passed by Parliament in March this year, it is more likely that the report will set out the broad framework of the new constitution, including the contours of the devolution proposals.

Once the broad contours of the power sharing arrangements are laid out, the TNA will go back to the people in the North and East to explain that as Sampanthan promised in 2015, the process is now in motion.

Political relevance

Naturally, this would put the Chief Minister-led TPC in a bind as it struggles to discredit the TNA for its ‘disconnect’ with the issues of people on the ground in the Tamil dominated regions.  In the year since the TNA swept the parliamentary polls in the north, the charge by the party’s political opponents, and increasingly its own Chief Minister, is that the Tamil party’s Colombo-based lawmakers had lost touch with the growing resentment and frustration of the Northern people.

This argument would be turned on its head should the TNA campaign in favour of the new constitutional proposals and return a ‘yes’ vote with a fairly large majority in the North and the East. And the underlying reality in the aftermath of the Eluga Tamil rally is that the alliance will begin to disintegrate at the very inception of an electoral or referendum process. The TPC remains an unelected body with no popular mandate. The TNPF led by Ponnambalam failed to win a single seat in the 2015 parliamentary election, polling slightly lower than even the wildly unpopular UPFA in the North. EPRLF is led by Premachandran, who was also defeated in the August 2015 election. That leaves PLOTE and Siddharthan, who will almost certainly back the TNA in any electoral contest, not only because his electoral fortunes lie with the Tamil alliance but also because he is a believer in the process Sampanthan has put in motion, as the only chance at a political settlement for the next 20-30 years.

Under the circumstances, it is extremely unlikely that even the TPC will oppose the new constitutional proposals outright at a referendum, where it is almost certain to be roundly defeated. To lead a ‘no campaign’ on the constitutional referendum would be to pit itself directly against the TNA and the electoral powerhouse in the North that is ITAK, and in this the Chief Minister for all his heroics as the true saviour of the Tamil people will be vulnerable without a party machinery to back his position.

Nevertheless, the Eluga Tamil demonstration caused consternation in moderate Tamil circles, where it was seen as a culmination of extreme Tamil nationalism that has been sweeping across the North over the past few years. Gajen Ponnambalam’s hardline TNPF, which has been attempting to capture the political space in the North since the end of the war, the Tamil Civil Society Forum, which claims to be apolitical but pushes an extreme nationalist agenda and constituent members of the TNA like the EPRLF that want the party to adopt tougher positions, have found a home with the Tamil People’s Council led by the Chief Minister. The protection of Chief Minister Wigneswaran, who won a thumping mandate from the Tamil people in 2013, offers these politicians, who have failed badly at recent elections, a space to create a political forum for themselves, says Political Economist and researcher Ahilan Kadirgamar.

Together, none of the parties backing the Chief Minister were able to win a single seat in Parliament, Kadirgamar says, indicating that they do not have much support from the people. “Their electoral base is very thin – comprising mostly of the professional classes within Jaffna and the Jaffna-based media. As a result, they are projected in a much bigger way than they really are. This is largely as a result of their control of the local media which is generally supportive of them,” Kadirgamar said.

Together these forces constitute a type of middle class base for the TPC that the Tamil Diaspora relates to, he explained.

Support for the rally was also largely concentrated in the peninsula other observers said, with very little interest in Eluga Tamil in the Wanni and the Eastern Province.

Leverage in negotiations?

Chief Minister Wigneswaran and his fellow travellers may believe that mass demonstrations to raise awareness and hype about the mostly legitimate concerns of Northern Tamils will give Tamil political representatives leverage in their negotiations on devolution and accountability with Colombo. But reactions to the demonstration in the South have been predictably severe.

Almost one week after the rally, Wigneswaran’s statements continue to dominate the headlines, with nearly every political party in the South strongly opposing his positions and condemning the Chief Minister for trying to create ethnic tension. Far from strengthening the TNA’s bargaining position then, Eluga Tamil has pushed even progressive sections of the Government that are sincere about delivering a political solution into a corner, forcing them to take positions against demilitarisation and federalism; greatly diminishing the chances of hammering out a meaningful power sharing arrangement that will address minority grievances especially in the North and East.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister’s antics have unleashed a wave of nationalist hysteria in the North that will need to find an outlet.

Something very similar happened in Vaddukodai in May 1976. When moderate Tamil leaders led by S.V.J. Chelvanayakam and Appapillai Amirthalingam adopted the Vaddukoddai Resolution at the first Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) national convention, calling for the constitution of the separate sovereign state of ‘Tamil Eelam’, a Tamil youth insurgency was already on the rise. The resolution was also intended to be a clarion call to young Tamils. Youthful passions, already stirred by liberation struggles for statehood in other parts of the world in that era, found impetus in the Vaddukoddai resolution which called on the Tamil youth in particular to “come forward to throw themselves fully in the sacred fight for freedom and to flinch not till the goal of a sovereign state of Tamil Eelam is reached”. The resolution led to the launch of the Tamil militant struggle; a struggle that now had the blessings of the elder statesmen of the Tamil polity.

At the time, TULF leaders may have believed the militant youth insurgency in the North could be effectively used as leverage for negotiations on greater self-rule for the Tamil dominated provinces with Colombo. What transpired of course was a markedly different story. The militancy intensified. Prabhakaran’s LTTE would violently wipe out or subsume all other militant groups to become the main Tamil guerrilla group fighting Government forces. As the organisation grew increasingly brutal, Tamil political moderates became their first targets for assassination. One by one, the LTTE wiped out the Tamil political leadership, nearly all of them erudite cultured statesmen whose brilliantly articulated arguments for Tamil political rights were silenced by a far more brutal negotiator, one who perceived the moderates to be conceding too much.

After Vaddukoddai, the ‘boys’ Tamil political leaders had nurtured and inspired by their fiery rhetoric and impassioned appeals would silence the community’s moderates for three decades. Only once the LTTE was finished could the renaissance begin for moderate Tamil leadership. Sampanthan, who has watched the Tamil struggle come full circle, has decided to trust that moderate positions will win the day. He knows, perhaps better than anyone else alive today, what devastation the inflaming of passions in the North by movements like Eluga Tamil can bring.

Strange parallels

For independent researchers like Ahilan Kadirgamar, these parallels seem clear. Until last Saturday, the extreme nationalism taking shape in the North had been limited to rhetoric and resolutions in the Northern Provincial Council. Kadirgamar says the move to bring people on to the streets the way the Eluga Tamil demonstration did, allows the right wing political movement to take on a different dynamic.

In the Northern Province, where unemployment rates are high and alcoholism rampant, young people are constantly seeking an alternative political movement to engage with. Kadirgamar says the inability to offer an alternative socio-political vision to engage the youth is an abysmal failure on the part of the TNA and ITAK or the Federal Party.

“When you take 8,000 people on to the streets, it gives a message to the youth. This is worrying because this group has no strategy or game plan going forward but it is mobilising street protests. By failing to give proper direction to the youth you are unleashing something you can’t control,” Kadirgamar told Daily FT.

In addition to fuelling extreme Tamil nationalism, Kadirgamar says movements like Eluga Tamil led by the TPC also create anti-Muslim and anti-Sinhala feeling among the population and takes away from the possibility of rebuilding relations between the communities.

And quite clearly when such sentiments and movements take root in the North it strengthens Sinhala chauvinists in the island’s south.

Today, the Bodu Bala Sena will rally in Vavuniya, where a significant Sinhalese population is resident, to oppose positions taken by Wigneswaran last Saturday, particularly those that target the Sinhalese minority living in the Northern Province. Bodu Bala Sena rallies, recent history has demonstrated, have a tendency to go badly awry. Some political observers predicted the development soon after the Eluga Tamil rally last weekend.

“Sinhalese nationalists and Tamil nationalists are friends. They are objective allies. They need each other,” says Kadirgamar.

Researchers like Kadirgamar blame the TNA/ITAK and the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe led Colombo establishment for failing to use the political space that has opened up since the fall of the Rajapaksa regime. Rather than create a discourse and debate about reconciliation and a political solution in the North, the issues are limited to a group of experts negotiating in Colombo, the Political Economist told Daily FT.

The entire focus in Colombo is the prevention of a Rajapaksa resurgence, says Kadirgamar. Even Government members admit that fears that extreme Sinhalese nationalists led by Rajapaksa will scuttle the process to bring about peace between the communities and a political solution to end decades of ethnic strife, has driven the constitution-making and reconciliation processes into the shadows.

Kadirgamar says this is an ineffective strategy.

“It’s leaving the space wide open for extremists to capture and tap into resentment and frustration,” he said.

Over the next few months, Sri Lanka will step into a crucial phase of its constitution building process. For the better part of six months that process has flown under the radar but barring any complications details of the negotiations will be made clear within the next two to four months.

The TNA is confident it will win support for the proposals it has played a major role in negotiating in a referendum. If the national coalition of the SLFP and the UNP hold, it should be able to carry the south.

Nationalist mobilisation in the north and the south is a reaction to these developments. A settlement on the national question will threaten the political survival of both groups, so nationalist movements on both sides of the ethnic divide will launch a virtually suicidal fight to the death to scuttle the enactment of a new constitution.

The most sustainable solution moderates in the north and the south can offer to counter this devastating brand of politics taking shape in post-war Sri Lanka is a constitution that upholds the rights of minorities and marginalised groups, effectively decentralises political power and delivers equality and social justice for all.