Against Devolution

Almost two million Muslims in India are doing well enough without any devolution on the basis of ethnicity. Why should that model not succeed in Sri Lanka?

by Izeth Hussain

( September 30, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka’s article Chandrika’s call for federalism in the Island of September 17 is written with his customary verve and the kind of brilliance that is usually described as coruscating but unfortunately it could also read like an ill-tempered diatribe against the former President CBK, for which reason it may not be taken with all the seriousness that it merits. That would be a pity for two reasons. One is that the article addresses the most important question facing the nation today: whether the state should be unitary, federal or quasi-federal. The other is that the article brings out important data, and its arguments are sound, indeed devastating, in challenging conventional wisdom on federalism. It should be required reading for everyone who is really concerned about the future of Sri Lanka.

Some time ago I turned completely against the idea of devolution as the necessary nostrum for our ethnic ills. It is generally agreed that systems of devolution are difficult to operate if there is hostility on one or both sides and there is no sense of a common ground allowing a spirit of mutual accommodativeness. That would certainly apply if racism is a factor in the situation. For long it was assumed that at the core of our ethnic problem was Sinhalese racism and that a solution would ensue once that was surmounted. We never thought of Tamil racism as a serious factor in the problem. To my vast surprise I came to realize in the course of exchanges in the Colombo Telegraph with Tamil Islamophobic racists that Tamil racism is even worse than that of the Sinhalese. I cannot believe therefore that the way to a solution of the ethnic problem can lie through devolution on an ethnic basis. I must make a couple of clarifications before proceeding further: I believe that not the majority but only a segment of the Tamils are racist; I believe also that the Tamils, like other ethnic groups, can ameliorate or even eradicate their racism. However the crucial point is that the racism of even a minority of the members of an ethnic group can queer ethnic relations and make the smooth functioning of a devolutionary system difficult or impossible.

I have in mind a full-length article stating my conclusions about Tamil racism based on my exchanges with Islamophobic Tamil racists over a long period. Here I will deal with comments on my last article, After the attack on Ambassador Ansar, by just one of them, Backlash, who can be regarded as having a broadly representative character. He writes, “This notorious anti-Tamil to whom the LTTE and the Tamil Lankan nation are the same, is naturally against Sinhalese and Tamils coming together”. I have provided details in the past to show that I have been among the most pro-Tamil Sri Lankans, not one of which has been refuted by Backlash or others, but facts don’t matter in the least to the Tamil racists. Nor have I suggested in any way that the LTTE and the Tamils are the same or that I am against the Sinhalese and the Tamils coming together.  He writes “Therefore he counsels GOSL ‘no serious dialogue is possible with them’. He is satisfied (Tamils) are impervious to reason and they are devoid f a (sic) a moral sense”. Backlash is lying blatantly in that last sentence. I referred to Prime Minister Wickremasinghe’s offer to send a team for discussions with the LTTE clone, the We Tamil movement, and this is what I wrote, “Probably he understands quite well that no serious dialogue is possible with a LTTE clone. I have found that out in the course of my own protracted exchanges with the Tamil Islamophobic racists. Two things have become clear: one is that they are impervious to reason and the other is that they are devoid of a moral sense”. It is clear of course that I am referring to the “Tamil Islamophobic racists” and not to the Tamils as a whole, but Backlash deliberately misinterprets me as targeting the Tamils as a whole. He himself is clearly impervious to reason and is devoid of a moral sense, an example of racism’s terrifying potential to dehumanize and bestialize – to which I referred in my article.  

A further example of dehumanization and bestialization is to be found in the following, “He cannot control his wish to see every Tamil dead in the world. For here are his own words ‘extirpate from the face of the earth’. While he has a choice of many gentler words the man chooses a word that calls for the weeding out and complete destruction of a non-existent LTTE (read Tamils)”. He ends with the following sentence, typical of many of his performances in the CT columns: “What an aging deranged moron we have to share the planet with”. His total disregard of facts, which has to be expected of someone who is impervious to reason, is shown by his characterization of the LTTE as “non-existent”: he must most certainly be aware of the US Government’s report of some weeks ago on the LTTE’s continuing activities. And of course he has engaged in bare-faced lying by making it out that I have called for the extermination of all Tamils whereas I have called for the extirpation of only the LTTE and its clones. The case that I have made out for that extirpation – not physical extermination – is surely reasonable. We have a much better chance of moving towards a political solution than ever before. The LTTE that has a horrible record of having brought unparalleled disaster for the Tamil people in 2009 could want to redeem itself by aborting every attempt at a political solution in the hope of establishing Eelam somehow someday. The peace process requires that extirpation.

The reader may well wonder why I bother with someone like Backlash whom I evidently regard as a lunatic. There are several reasons one of which is that he is an ethnolunatic, not just a lunatic. The latter can be put away in an asylum and be prevented from harming others. The ethnolunatic on the other hand can be sane and whole in every way except in inter-ethnic relations and cannot be put away. He can hold high positions in business, the professions, and the State, and he can wreak havoc for the rest of humanity, as has happened pre-eminently in Sri Lanka and a few other places. The ethnolunatic should, if possible, be extirpated as soon as he is detected.

The second reason is that Backlash is almost certainly the servitor of a LTTE clone. His favorite metaphor for my writings is “verbal diarrhea”. That means that every weekend my articles throw him into a paroxysm of rage which has him screaming shxt, shxt, shxt!!! But, unless he is a peculiar sort of masochist, why should the poor man torture himself by persisting in reading me week after week, month after month, year after year, and even decade after decade – at least once he faulted me over details in an article written by me around twenty five years ago! The obviously plausible explanation is that he is the servitor of an institution, and that institution is a LTTE clone such as the We Tamil group: the latter too – by its attack on Ambassador Ansar – showed the characteristics of dehumanization and bestialization, the consequence of imperviousness to reason and absence of moral scruple.

The third reason is that Backlash has a representative capacity, not of the Tamils as a whole but of a significant segment of it. It should be noted that his attacks on me have never been faulted by any Tamil. They echo his views or similar views. Part of the explanation could be through fear that the LTTE clone behind him might murder them for daring to express dissent. Surely an exaggerated fear considering that some time ago Dr Devanesan Nesiah wrote in the Island that he agreed with ninety five percent – or was it ninety nine per cent – of what I wrote, after which he did not come to  grief. It is a noteworthy fact that when I came under attack by a notorious Sinhalese racist the majority of the Sinhalese readers were in vociferous support of me: most of them were of the view that that Sinhalese racist was utter scum and that I would be degrading myself by responding to him. But most of the Tamil readers expressed enthusiastic support for that Sinhalese racist! Such details point to the fact that Backlash and the LTTE clones belong to the lunatic fringe. The problem in Sri Lanka however is that on both sides of the ethnic fence the lunatic fringe has a way of sliding into the center, and that indeed has been at the core of our ethnic tragedy for decades. I have to conclude therefore that the Tamils, even more than the Sinhalese, are totally unfit for devolution on an ethnic basis.

I hope to focus on two points in further articles on devolution. One is that the success of federalism in other countries is totally irrelevant to the problem facing us. What we have on our hands is not a purely indigenous Tamil ethnic problem but an Indo-Tamil ethnic problem in which India has been calling the shots. Consequently many of the Sinhalese have an ineradicable fear that devolution will lead ineluctably to Eelam. The Tamils have kept on compounding that fear by their idiotic insistence on their non-existent right to self-determinism that includes the right to establish Eelam. The second point is that the alternative to devolution is democracy. Almost two million Muslims in India are doing well enough without any devolution on the basis of ethnicity. Why should that model not succeed in Sri Lanka?

Indian Concern & JR’s Daily Telegraph Interview

By Rajan Hoole –October 1, 2016

Dr. Rajan Hoole

Count Down To July 1983 – Part IV

Jayewardene had another problem. He and his prime minister, Premadasa, had badly mismanaged their relations with India. The problem arose from a pro-Western shift in Sri Lanka’s foreign policy, their openly canvassing for ASEAN membership for Sri Lanka and also some very imprudent personal remarks about Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay. On 19th July the Indian Government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi formally expressed its concern to Colombo about recent developments in Jaffna and the measures taken by the Sri Lankan Government to deal with the situation there. The Government owned Daily News of 21st July carried the headlines: “Colombo reacts angrily to Indian meddling”. With prodding from the Government, editorial writers went to town with titles like, “How come Big Brother?” (Daily News 22.7) and “Big Bully” (Sun 22.7).

In the meantime, Indian Foreign Secretary Mr. Bajpai, clarified to Bernard Tillekeratne, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner, that India was merely conveying its point of view to Sri Lanka about the Emergency Regulations, which allowed the disposal of corpses without inquest. He added that they were watching developments in Jaffna, which could have repercussions in India. It was all in polite, diplomatic language that could not be faulted. Tamil militants had been sheltering in India during the 70s, and there is no evidence that the Indian Central Government was encouraging them. In fact Kuttimani had been deported in 1974 to face imprisonment in Sri Lanka. It was only after Prabhakaran’s and Uma Maheswaran’s Pondi-Bazaar gunfight in May 1982 that things changed.

It ought to have been an occasion for calm reflection. But the Government’s anger also signified that it had gone too far in building up the momentum in a particular direction. Take the statement made by Prime Minister Premadasa in Parliament on 28th June and those by other leaders given in the next section: “The SLFP has decided on a division of the country and they speak of the North and East. This must stop because ours is a unitary state. When you say that Sinhalese people are killed and you say that their passions are not roused then that is a myth. There are people who want to loot and attack the Government.”

Premadasa then asked the SLFP to join the Government in crushing terrorism.

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With the West sneezing extremism, can Sri Lanka and others avoid catching cold?

 

by Rajan Philips-October 1, 2016, 8:39 pm

One would have thought that the old wisecrack needs to be reversed. The West may not be just sneezing, but has already got the cold, even worse, a bad fever of extremism. And that the worry would be if others can avoid the infection. Not so fast, says the wag, as there is quite a bit of Sri Lankan and South Asian sneezing and coughing going around, and we don’t need infection from the West to make matters worse. Jaffna’s Chief Protestor has signalled his periodical awakening from his chronic administrative sleep with the new "EzhugaThamizh" (linguists use ‘zh’ instead of ‘l’ for a unique Dravidian letter and sound) slogan. "Pongu" relates to the liquid state of matter, Ezhuga could be Freudian. Southern Chief Ministers are weighing in, or rising up, and the SLFP’s two-timing (between Mahinda and Maithri) Nimal Siripala seized on the sneeze from Jaffna to bark out a cough of his own on the inviolability of being unitary.

South Asia’s two big boys, India and Pakistan, are getting tired of not fighting for 45 years and are spoiling for a war. Sabre rattling and ‘surgical strikes’ are going on along the disputed Kashmiri border and the two countries are also in a spat over the 2016 SARC conference that is to be hosted by Pakistan. The sub-continent, home to the largest concentration (20%) of the world’s poorest, doesn’t need a 21st century ‘beggarly war’ – to paraphrase WB Yeats. The last time India and Pakistan fought, the US was Pakistan’s useless ally, while India and Russia cemented a strategic partnership for security. Now, India is getting closer to the US, while Russia is starting military co-operation with Pakistan. International relations are becoming more bi-lateral and less multi-lateral, and based on opportunistic considerations than universal principles or values. But there are no opportunistic considerations for India and Pakistan to co-operate. Thanks to them, South Asia stands out in world trade as the region with the least intra-regional trade. Only Sri Lanka’s GMOA – imagine when doctors become trade experts, can feel happy about it. For the suffering people of Syria, there is no solace either in bilateral (US-Russia) or multilateral ceasefire efforts.

The West, or quite a portion of it, is becoming a "basket of deplorables", to extend Hillary Clinton’s description of Donald Trump’s support base in America. But Trump is continuing to turn America inside out, bowels and all, despite the bully being stood up-to and beaten by ‘the girl’ in the first presidential debate. In Britain, Jeremy Corbyn and his storm troopers have resoundingly captured the Labour Party for the second time in one year, despite elderly fears that Labour may have lost the country for more than a political generation. The once united kingdom, worries The Economist, is on track to become a "one-party state." Right-wing nuts and xenophobics are waiting for the only sane Western political leader left, Germanys’ Angela Merkel, to fall on their racist sword and perish. France, the land of modern revolutions, could go fascist this time before anybody else. Hopefully, I am not painting too grim a picture. But it is hardly pretty.

New Age of Extremes

"Age of Extremes" is the title Eric Hobsbawm gave to the last of his historical tetralogy, covering the period from 1914 to 1991 and calling it "The Short Twentieth Century". Accomplished academic and eminent Marxist historian, Hobsbawm’s four volumes spanned world history over 202 years, the first three covering what he called the "long nineteenth century": The Age of Revolution (1789-1848), The Age of Capital (1848-1875) and The Age of Empire (1875-1914). The Age of Extremes saw revolutions, two world wars and many national wars, the end of empires and the birth of new nation-states, the short-lived League of Nations and the longer lasting United Nations, the Great Depression and the response of social safety nets, and the contending forces of capitalism and socialism which provided a politically polarizing dynamic to a technologically unifying world. The long nineteenth century and most of the short twentieth century were dominated by Europe, but, in Hobsbawm’s assessment this domination was over by the end of the latter period. The world that was ‘Eurocentric’ in 1914 ceased to be so by 1991.

The world of 1914 and that of 1991 differed in two other respects, according to Hobsbawm. It became "a single operational unit" gradually elbowing out territorial nation-states and national economies. Marshall McLuhan’s "global village" concept is nowhere near its full realization, but there is no mistaking the general direction of the changes over the last hundred years. Globalization is more pronounced in economic affairs, and Hobsbawm insightfully contrasts the difficulties that state and public institutions and collective organizations go through in adjusting to globalization, as opposed to the relative ease with which private human beings are adjusting to the internet world, global travel and even globally extended families and kinships. A more worrisome change, in Hobsbawm’s view, "is the disintegration of the old patterns of human social relationships, and … the snapping of the links between generations … between past and present." The assertion of individualism in society in its extreme form has created the phenomenon of "a-social individualism", devouring communities of their traditional roots and ties and religious constraints.

It is possible to see the extensions of these changes and their consequences into the twenty first century and the new age of extremism. It is not only that the world is no longer Eurocentric, it is also that the old imperial patterns of migration have been reversed with the West being the recipient of new arrivals. Immigration has become the flashpoint in almost every western society, with the possible exception of Canada. Anti-immigration cry was the tipping point in Britain’s Brexit vote and is the singular reason for the emergence of Trump phenomenon in the US – the quintessentially immigrant society. Anti-immigration is also the reason for the growing electoral strengths of right-wing leaders and their parties across Europe. Like Trump in the US, Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far right Front National, is within striking distance of potentially winning the 2017 presidential election in France. Her counterparts in other European countries can all feel their political boats rising with the tide of anti-immigrant feeling.

Although on surface anti-immigration would appear to be a white vs non-white issue, there are multiple nuances beneath the surface. In Britain, the anti-immigration backlash targeted primarily the East European migrants benefiting under EU’s free movement policies, and it is not only the old-stock Englanders, but also many older Asian and African immigrants, who are opposed to the East European migrants. In the US, Donald Trump hates the Muslims and Mexicans, but is happy let Asian Americans stay because they are "great" and "hard working", some of whom will not hesitate to return the favour. Muslims, of course, get special treatment everywhere. In the US, Black Lives do matter in their own special way, given their historical circumstances.

There is more to it than just race and colour in the makeup of anti-immigrant sentiments. The differential impacts of free trade and globalization on local jobs, and growing inequality within countries are as much a reason for the rise of extremism as are reasons of race and bigotry. It is true that governments everywhere have neglected the people who have been badly affected by global changes, while allowing the beneficiaries of these changes especially in the (non-productive) banking and financial sectors to do as they please, without rule or regulation, and often at the expense of ordinary working people. The anger and the backlash of the ordinary people are perfectly understandable, and Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have come to personify this anger in ideologically different ways.

While the immediate reasons for anger are new, there is not much new about the political responses to them. Brexit and Trump and their politics are no different from the ugly manifestations of fascism and Nazism during the twentieth century. What is new is that they are happening in Britain and the US, and it could happen in France. Germany, this time, thanks to Merkel could be different. What is also different is that unlike in Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy, the political institutions in Britain and the US could democratically survive Brexit and even a Trump presidency, respectively. That in fact is the reasoning behind traditional Republicans who are determined to vote against Hillary Clinton, whose victory would give the Democrats a third consecutive term. That is something a diehard Republican cannot stand, and so they justify a vote for Trump, because a Republican Congress and the Supreme Court can put Trump in his place. This is simply playing with fire.

To the eternal credit of Bernie Sanders, he showed the progressive alternative way. He lit up the US for almost an year with his call for revolution that will put Wall Street in its place and put money where majority of the people need services – health, education, housing and social insecurity. After a heroic run in the primary, he stepped back and not only acclaimed Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee, but is also actively supporting her. As a seasoned politician, he understands that in the US system presidential elections are not the place for protest votes. One can only hope that the movement he started will have some effect in the presidential, congressional and state elections this year, and will continue to systematically press for progressive changes even after the elections. There is no easy way out of extreme situations.

Hobsbawm and Keuneman

In the light of references I have made in this article to Eric Hobsbawm, it wouldn’t be inappropriate to end this piece by mentioning his friendly connection to Sri Lanka and South Asia. Hobsbawm was a contemporary of Pieter Keuneman at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, and they were both active in the university Communist Party branch. Hobsbawm who passed way in 2012 at the age of 95, gives the following description of Keuneman (1917-1997), in his autobiography (2002): Interesting Times – A Twentieth Century Life: "Pieter Keuneman, a dashing, witty, and remarkably handsome Ceylonese (the island was not yet Sri Lanka) who lived in Pembroke in some style, was a great figure in University society – President of the Union among other things – not to mention the lucky partner of the ravishing Hedi Simon from Vienna (and Newnham), with whom I vainly fell in love. (After we graduated Pieter and I rented a tiny house together in the now no longer extant Round Church Street a few yards from the house where Ram (Ephraim Alfred Nahum) was to die.) Although both were devoted party members, I do not think anyone would have predicted that this debonair socialite, who first introduced me to the poems of John Betjeman, would spend most of his life as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka."

But those who knew Pieter Keuneman and his politics would not be surprised as to why and how, he and other frontline Sri Lankan Left leaders, took to politics the way they did and stuck with it to the end with their honour intact and a legacy to be proud of. Other communist contemporaries included India’s Mohan Kumaramangalam and Indrajit Gupta. The former went on to become a national political figure in India and a Minister in Indira Gandhi’s government until his tragic death in a plane crash at the Delhi airport in 1974. Gupta went on to become the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India. The long nineteenth century of modernism was when non-Europeans were drawn into European modernity, not as "volunteers", as Talal Asad memorably put it, but as "conscripts". During the short twentieth century, the Left in Sri Lanka and India contributed to the ending of European domination of the world, not by trying to retrieve pre-colonial social conditions, but by projecting their indigenous genius onto contemporary history. There is no other way, no matter how much work remains unfinished. To paraphrase Marx, no one can become a (pre-colonial) child again without becoming childish.

Vandalising Buddist Shrine at K'kulam: CJ steps down from Bench


2016-10-01 09

Chief Justice K. Sripavan yesterday declined to be a member of the Bench hearing the fundamental rights petition on the vandalisation of a Buddhist Shrine at Kanagarayankulam in Mankulam.

 The Bench comprising the Chief Justice, Justices Buwaneka Aluvihara and K.T. Chitrasiri directed the petitioner to re-issue notice on the respondents indicating the date for support on October 24 for granting of leave to proceed.

 The petitioner Dharshana Weraduwage had filed a fundamental rights petition seeking a comprehensive strategy to protect and foster the Buddha sasanaya against any future mischief, attack or threats.

It came in the backdrop of the incident of vandalism of the Buddhist shrine room.

 Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, Law & Order and Southern Development Minister Sagala Ratnayake, Buddha Sasana and Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapakshe, Northern Province Governor Reginald Cooray and the AG for President Maithripala Sirisena were cited as resposdents. 
Deputy Solicitor General Viraj Dayaratne appeared for the Attorney General. 

The petitioner said this was not in any way an isolated incident and over the past few months or even before, there have been many constant demands of the removal of Buddhist Temples, Buddha Statues and shrines located especially in the Northern Province.

 He is asking Court to rule that no one can be allowed to interfere negatively or act against the affairs of the Buddha Sasana except as provided for by the Constitution. 

He is seeking Court to direct the respondents to take immediate action to investigate the incidents reported and to re-build, restore and refurbish all movable and immovable properties of the Buddhist Shrine. (S. Selvanayagam)

The Malaise Of The Medicos Requires Major Surgery 

By Shyamon Jayasinghe –October 1, 2016

Shyamon Jayasinghe

“In a pure and holy way, I will guard my life and my art and science” ~ Hippocratic Oath

We do not know what really transpired between President Maitripala Sirisena and the powerful GMOA in the meeting today (30/9). But the doctors seem to have come out of it in a mood of satisfaction. Sirisena would have, presumably, managed the irksome gang with more soft talk; leaving an escape gate for the GMOA which had got tragically locked over the issue of demanding “good schools,” for their kids. Had they met the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, they would have got a mouthful. Remember how our Prime Minister had spoken unreservedly against them on the floor of Parliament when the doctors dared to leave their stethoscopes and fight the proposed ETCA trade deal with India, instead. That was the first indiscriminate and half-witted move by the body known as the GMOA.

The reason is simple: they were invading into a non-relevant territory taking upon themselves the onerous task of Parliament to do just that. It was plain and simple trespass by the Medics. They should have left that for good old Dinesh who has been an effective Rotweillor in that august assembly. On the other hand, even Dinesh is waiting for the Bill to arrive in Parliament. Nobody has yet seen the proposed legal deal as it is in the process of production. Our Medics appear to be in possession of extrasensory perception powers. To oppose the ETCA on principle is ridiculous in these times of international trade agreements. The Medics haven’e heard of the science of economics and the hopelessness of protection in the context of opening markets happening all over the world. An economy simply cannot afford to lock itself from such developments and retract into protectionism. It would have been better for the doctors to train their own kind to confront competition. Having observed how one doctor had reportedly amputated on the wrong foot of a young woman there is a case for such internal betterment.

Having tripped once, these doctors tripped badly again. This time it was a worse and quixotic action to demand from our legislators that their kids be given favoured treatment of entry to “good schools.” Why? Because they are doctors. It was disaster this time because that was an intrinsically unpopular move. Medics should have realised that they had to work in a social environment that is given to them. Lakhs of parents keep coaching their hapless kids from even Kinder upwards to try and get the fellows through the Year Five SelectionTest. Even the nurses and attendants in the very hospitals the doctors work spend their hard-earned money and the tips they receive for tutioning their kids. In Sri Lanka, since entrepreneurship is lacking, education is the only catalyst for moving out of a wretched underclass. What happened to the brains of the GMOA personnel that made them so insensitive to possible popular backlashes? When the ego flies sky-high one mentally escapes reality. Suddenly, lo and behold we found the learned men and women of the GMOA losing their sense of presence in a society and acting in a different universe.

Besides the countless poor folk in towns and villages, what about other peer professionals? The Engineers, Science researchers, administrators, accountants, educationists and the long list? Why didn’t it sound a pure act of selfishness for the doctors when they kept demanding and threatening for privileged status while the other professionals had to grin and bear? I understand these doctors received a flood of anonymous letters and scurrilous pamphlets from the public who could not bear the culture shock of observing doctors flexing their muscles against the government over this unethical demand? Did you see the images of these medics squatting on the floor of the office of the Minister of Education. They were all over Facebook and we had nonstop laughter. Men and women of the medical profession may think they have medicine for all ills. There isn’t medicine for folly.

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A Deputy Minister to Bribery Commission?

 Oct 01, 2016

The internal sources of the Bribery and Corruption Investigation Commission have revealed that a Deputy Minister of the government who had been quizzed by them and  who is ought to be arrested is the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nimal Lanza. Several complaints against him had been made to the commission.

It is reported that Nimal Lanza has alleged to have accumulated a large sum of wealth during a short period and hence he has been accused under the money laundering Act.

In this regard the officers of the Bribery and Corruption Investigating Unit had quizzed him for a number of hours at length..

The news that a Deputy Minister would be taken into custody very soon had been said by the Deputy Minister of  social welfare and empowerment Ranjan Ramanayake

Ranjan Ramanayake had quipped this while speaking at a media briefing held at the UNP headquarters, Sirikotha on the 27th instant.

Some ‘then’ and ‘nows’ of the president’s UN visit

by Saman Indrajith-October 1, 2016, 8:52 pm 

The UN General Assembly held its 71st session in New York from Sept 13 to 26 providing a platform for world leaders to discuss international issues of mutual importance besides having bilateral interactions.

President Maithripala Sirisena represented Sri Lanka at the General Assembly. His unprepared address was made in the Sinhala language and was his second address to the UN. He highlighted several issues including the end of the war and Sri Lanka’s way forward towards reconciliation.

In addition, he had the opportunity to meet large number of world leaders. All those meetings could be termed positive as their outcomes have the potential of benefiting the country in realizing its targets. Many world leaders congratulated him for the progress made in the last 20 months and expressed the wish that the good work of strengthening democracy and good governance continued.

It too early to engage in a cost-benefit analysis of participation in the general assembly where representatives from the UN’s 193 members meet to discuss international issues and prepare the policies necessary to combat the world’s most pressing concerns. We are yet to get details of the bill footed by government coffers but it was a relatively low cost affair.

‘Low’ is relative to what was spent on previous participation by Sri Lankan Presidential delegations to the UNGA. When President Mahinda Rajapaksa attended his last UNGA, his delegation stayed at the Waldorf Astoria. The hotel was selected with the objective of a meeting with American President Barack Obama who was staying there.

Despite much effort, Obama’s staff did not play ball and Rajapaksa had to be satisfied with traditional photo-op with the US President granted to all heads of state participating at the UNGA. Sirisena was luckier than his predecessor as Obama congratulated him during the luncheon hosted for heads of state by UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki moon.

Obama said the positive transformation taking place in Sri Lanka at present is an example to the world and assured his fullest support for these developments. Ban commented positively the same day on Sirisena’s commitment to good governance and reconciliation. 

He took the opportunity to convey his gratitude to the Government of Sri Lanka and the President for the warm welcome and hospitality extended to him by the Government and people when he visited Sri Lanka recently.

Sirisena did not need to park himself at the Waldorf Astoria for those opportunities. He stayed at Loews Regency in Park Avenue of Manhattan which cost relatively less than what his predecessor spent.

Lankan expats living in New York know the cost of the splurges during the previous regime. How much Lankan delegations coming to the UN spent each year is no secret. They had observed that more than 20 SUVs had been rented – at a cost of 45 dollars an hour, during the last visit of President Rajapaksa to the UNGA with almost all key members of the delegation assigned individual vehicles.

These were only partly used as most delegates going shopping, to parties or functions preferred to go as groups in a couple of vehicles with rest parked by the hotel with the drivers napping! They were all paid for by the hour.

Some prominent delegates including the Rajapaksa sons had rooms booked in the delegates’ hotel; but they stayed with friends living elsewhere while hotel rooms that were paid for remained empty.

Both last and this year only six cars had been rented for the Lankan delegation including the President, the ministers, officials and others. Lankans in New York were duly impressed by the thrift of the incumbent against past profligacy when a $ 30,000 bottle of champagne was uncorked to celebrate some trivial gain during Rajapaksa’s last visit to the UNGA.

The story goes that an inner circle member suggested the bubbly and another ordered the most expensive at the Waldorf bar. When the bottle arrived it had been found that the upmarket hotel could slake the thirst of the celebrants with only a $ 30,000 bottle at such short notice. They could have done better if they knew earlier. In the event the embassy supplied credit card to cover the president’s bills lacked the credit limit for such extravagance and Sajin Vass Gunawardena settled it.

It is customary for the visiting head of state to host his delegation, said the expatriates who knew how things used to be done. He appreciated the incumbent taking his delegation this year to an inexpensive but adequate Indian restaurant for lunch. This compared well with past splurges which cost government coffers hugely.

The UN visit saw the depositing of the Paris Climate Agreement Ratification Instrument on Sept 20 at the UN Headquarters in New York. This was important as this year’s UNGA was on the theme ‘The Sustainable Development Goals: a universal push to transform our world’, with particular focus on Goal No 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

UNSG Ban Ki-moon hosted a special event to encourage countries to ratify the agreement. According to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change, 29 parties had ratified the agreement, accounting for 40.12 per cent of global emissions. Sri Lanka was among approximately 30 countries to deposit their instruments of ratification, inching closer to the 55 per cent necessary for legal enforcement when the agreement takes effect and becomes legally binding on those countries that had joined.

"We have no time to waste, and much to gain. To build further momentum, I have asked leaders to come to New York with their instruments of ratification or to publicly commit to joining the agreement before the end of 2016," said the UNSG. 

China and the U.S., the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gas, announced their plans to formally ratify the agreement in a joint statement earlier last month. The Paris Agreement will go into effect 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, bring forward their legally binding documents of ratification for review.

"I am hopeful and optimistic that we can do it before the end of this year and before my term as Secretary-General of the United Nations ends," said Ban.

Sri Lanka: Floating Armory Scandal — Even “Selfies ” were taken inside the Court!

Question is, will that be a landmark case for the current government’s anti-corruption mission or we are just ahead of a couple of episodes which will achieve nothing but making a mockery of justice.

by Our Correspondent

( October 1, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The story already went viral but there is something else behind the screen. All eyes are on the country’s judiciary when the Magistrate Court started the litigation on one of the most important and corrupted businesses in the country’s history. Avant Garde, a private entity on the maritime service and security, headed by a person who served in the Sri Lankan Army.

Therefore, Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption and bribery body filed a case against the company; hearing of the case was on yesterday. Gihan Pilapitiya, Chief Magistrate in Colombo granted bail to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, former defence secretary, Nissanka Senadipathi, Chairman of Avant Garde Maritime Services,three former Navy Commanders, and few more retired security personals. One suspect, who was much involved in bending the law of the country is on the run and fled the country, therefore the defendant lawyers have informed the Court about her absence.

According to the report, “the seven were held on charges filed by the Bribery Commission, of allegedly causing the Government a loss of Rs. 11.4 billion, by allowing Avant-Garde Maritime Services (Pvt.) Ltd. to operate a floating armoury.”

“Rajapaksa and six others out of eight were released on a cash bail of Rs.200000 each, and two sureties of Rs.10 million each. They were also banned from travelling abroad,” news story published in various outlets of Colombo, elaborated.

However, this is not the complete story. True, total numbers of suspects including three former Navy Commanders are eight. But strangely, one of the three accused retired navy commanders was not mentioned in anywhere. Neither photographs nor videos published, even many news stories excluded his name. Strange, isn’t it?

Somathillaka Dissanayake, Retired Admiral, the man who is equally responsible for making the Sri Lankan Navy as a fragile, weakened and reckless entity is the prime suspect of this “illegal” arms deal. Sources reveals, his daughter is still working in the Avant Garde. It was his tenure, this notorious arms deal company flourished. Immediately after the retirement, he jumps into the Avant Grad for one million as monthly salary and other unlimited as well as unaccountable benefits.

Meanwhile, it’s amusing to see most of the suspects came to the Courtroom with their medals “grabbed” during the service and showed before the country the true colours of their medals. They sat together and many photographs and videos were taken. Some of them even published on social media during hearing of the case.

This selfie man might have thought, that is his home where the litigation’s hearing is taking place!

One lawyer has even taken a selfie during the litigation which is strictly prohibited in anywhere in the world. But, in Sri Lanka, those lawyers’ behaviour entirely differs from the principles of rule of law. Isn’t it time to take necessary and appropriate actions to ensure the ethics and norms of the Judiciary? The country is hailing the strength of the Bar Association, Judicial Service Commission and other initiatives established to monitor the service quality. This selfie man might have thought, that is his home where the litigation’s hearing is taking place.

Meanwhile, Gotabaya Nandasena Rajapaksa, former Defence Secretary had taken out his medals holding coat on the moment before stepped into the jail. Subsequently, after seen what Gota did, his sister in law’s confidante former navy Commander Jayanath Colombage did the same. It was much more than that, he even took out the tie and came out from the courtroom like a pet who was released from a cage.

All suspects were released on bail. In fact, they knew it in advance.

Question is, will that be a landmark case for the current government’s anti-corruption mission or we are just ahead of a couple of episodes which will achieve nothing but making a mockery of justice.

Over to you, your honourable leaders of good governance! Show the people you have balls!

What ‘Maga Neguma’ accountant revealed to FCID!

Oct 01, 2016

The FCID is investigating the irregularities that had been committed under the then economic development minister Basil Rajapaksa during the previous Rajapaksa regime.

A former accountant was summoned and questioned by the FCID in order to assist in the investigation. When he was asked to explain the voucher payments he had made on the instructions of the ex-minister, the accountant fainted and collapsed. Suspending his questioning until he recovers fully, the FCID summoned the present accountant at Maga Neguma.
 
Explaining to her as to what had happened to her predecessor when questioned, the FCID told her not to be frightened and to tell only what she knew without any fear. Promptly, she took a document out of her handbag and handed it over to FCID officials. That document said she was resigning from her position with immediate effect. When FCID officials explained to her that she had not reason to resign, she told them amidst tears, “I do not want to undergo what the previous accountant had to undergo. That is why I am resigning today. That is because what had happened then is still continuing. Therefore, I cannot pay for others’ sins. Ministers who did the wrong will change sides and escape. In the end, we the officers who obeyed their orders will have to waste our time in the remand custody and in courts. What happened then is happening without a change today too.”

Minister Sumedha G Jayasena Sold Duty Free Permit Jeep And Intimidated Her Buyer Using MSD Officers

October 1, 2016 

Information has come to light how Minister Sumedha G Jayasena is alleged to have abused her privileges as a Parliamentarian by selling her duty free vehicle permit, and subsequently using a member of the Ministerial Security Division (MSD) to intimidate the buyer of her duty free vehicle, who had evaded payment.

Minister Sumedha G Jayasena

According to a police complaint lodged to the OIC of the Monaragala Special Investigation Unit, Jayasena had said that on February 5, 2004, a person by the name of Mohammed Jemeel Mohammed Afan had visited her and asked her if she was interested to sell the Jeep she purchased from her duty free permit granted to MPs, when she had said that she wanted to sell the vehicle for Rs. 2,200,000, Afan had assured that he can sell the vehicle, which was a Tata Jeep for more than that. Subsequently, the middle man had brought a man by the name of N. W. B. Sirisena, and had said he was the buyer. The contract was signed for Rs. 2,050,000 and Rs. 1,000,000 was paid, while the balance amount was to be paid after the documents were changed to the new owner’s name.

The vehicle was given to the new owners after the advance was paid. However, the issue cropped up when despite changing the documents to the new owners name, the middle man and neither the new owner of the vehicle had paid the balance. An annoyed Jayasena had then sent members of her security staff to obtain the balance money for the vehicle, however, Asaf had continuously avoided Jayasena and her MSD personnel and she had then resorted to seek redress by lodging a complaint with the police.

According to the police report, despite the fact that Jayasena herself had abused her parliamentary privileges by selling the vehicle she purchased from the duty free car permit given to her, the fact that Asaf had avoided paying the full amount for the vehicle is a punishable offence.

In 2004, Jayasena was the Minister of Social Services and she is also the incumbent Deputy Minister of Sustainable Development and Wildlife under the current unity government. She is a member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

Jayasena’s duty free vehicle permit incident came to light recently when Public Interest Rights Activist and lawyer, Nagananda Kodituwakku submitted a complaint against Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), Dilrukshi Wickramasinghe to the Chairman of the Commission. In the complaint, Kodituwakku alleged that Wickramasinghe was abusing her position at CIABOC and was not investigating MPs who were abusing their tax-free permits . In July, Kodituwakku told the Supreme Court that MPs were making as much as Rs. 25 million by selling their duty free vehicles.

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UN-legalised illegal wars: Remains party to wars and war crimes

2016-10-01

In the closing days of the Second World War five countries -- the United States, Soviet Union, France, Britain and China – met in Washington between August and October 1944, to establish the United Nations in place of the League of Nations.   

In drafting the charter these five powers structured the organisation to ensure they retained their power to continue to shape the destiny of the world to suit their political and economic agendas. Finally, when the UN officially came into existence on October 24, 1945, the hope was that member-states would settle their disputes by peaceful means and make the world a better place.   

However, within two years, the UN lost its credibility, died a premature death and international justice collapsed when US President Harry S. Truman blackmailed the UN to pass a resolution on November 29, 1947 to establish the State of Israel on Palestinian lands. In violation of all legal and moral principles, the Palestinians -- the sons and daughters of the soil -- were massacred, terrorised and kicked out at gun point to refugee camps in neighbouring countries while those who remained were made second class citizens in their own land.  

Thus began the big power manipulation of the UN. In the subsequent years big powers used the UN as their tool to wage wars, to destroy countries and kill millions of people, throwing many million Muslims into refugee camps.  

Later following its June 1967 war of aggression, Israel occupied Sinai and Gaza from Egypt, West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan and Golan Heights from Syria. The United States and its European allies helped Israel to consolidate its hold on these occupied lands.   

In the eight-year long Iraq-Iran war more than a million people were killed besides the destruction of the two countries. Only the weapons industry of war mongers benefited. Where was the UN then?  
The situation became worse since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1989. In 1990 US engineered the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and precipitated the Gulf crisis. Here the US hijacked the UN and UN resolutions became sacred.  

Between the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990 and the beginning of the US attack on Iraq on January 17, 1991, the UN Security Council passed twelve resolutions in quick succession. These resolutions only authorised the use of force to eject Iraqi troops from Kuwait. However by passing this, the US bombed and destroyed Iraq, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Another UN resolution divided Iraq into three no-fly zones.  

In the case of the genocide of the Tutsi minorities in Rwanda by Hutu majority in 1994, there were reports that the UN had advance knowledge, but failed to save around 800,000 Tutsis who were slaughtered.  

In the following years, the US, backed by Britain, France, Russia and other countries, induced the UN to pass resolutions to impose crippling sanctions, especially on Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya and Afghanistan (all Muslim countries), for not implementing UN resolutions. These sanctions caused death and immense sufferings to people.  

The US-led UN embargo on Iraq specially had a devastating effect on Iraq including the death of more than half a million children. When asked whether death of half a million children justified the embargo, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said: ‘It was worth it’.   

There are more than sixty UN resolutions on Israel which committed more than 60 massacres of Palestinians since the 1930s. But none was implemented. Since the establishment of the United Nations, hundreds of resolutions have been passed disapproving the annexation of territories. These resolutions are still gathering dust in the UN archives.   

In their drive to cleanse the Balkan of Muslims, Serbs massacred more than 300,000 Bosnian Muslim men, women, and children and displaced at least two million who were driven out from their homes to take refuge in the nearby jungles. The screams and tears for help of innocent Muslim men who were slaughtered like animals in the presence of their family members did not appear to have melted the hearts of UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali, the US and European leaders -- the so called champions of human rights.  

Serbs committed genocide on 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica and dumped their bodies in mass graves from July 12 through July 18 in and near the UN declared “safe area”.   

Dutch peacekeepers, assigned by the UN to protect them, handed Muslim men over to Serbian troops knowing very well that they were to be slaughtered. The silence of the West and the UN gave Serbs open licence to continue their slaughter of Muslims who were as blue-eyed white men as the rest of the westerners.  

The UN also committed war crimes by imposing arms embargo and depriving Bosnian Muslims of the right to defend themselves, but gave a free hand to the well-armed Serbian aggressors to commit mass murder, torture, rape, destruction and eviction of Bosnian Muslims from their homes.   

The then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated that, “The massacre of Srebrenica Muslims would haunt the UN forever”. Admitting that the UN had failed and calling for genuine reforms to break the hegemony of the victors of World War II in the Security Council, Kofi Annan, in February 2006 called for sweeping changes to the UN to suit the needs of the time.  

“The victims had put their trust on international protection. But we, the international community, let them down”, said a message from the then European Union foreign policy Chief Javier Solana. “This was a colossal, collective and shameful failure.”  

Exploiting the September 11 tragedy in New York and Washington, US President George Bush Junior turned to UN resolutions to legitimize his aggression, first on Afghanistan, and then the invasion of Iraq. Even here the US got the relevant UN resolutions passed by blackmailing smaller nations, while most Arab dictators -- known scoundrels -- struck under-the-table deals with the US and left the Afghans and the Iraqis to face missiles and bombs.   

The UN resolutions also facilitated British-France-led US-Israeli backed invasion and destruction of Libya -- an oil rich country where the peaceful people enjoyed a very high standard of living. In the same way almost all wars waged during the past three decades under various pretexts by US and Israel together with their European partners were legalised by UN resolutions.  

Citing Micah Zenko ,a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, columnist Shenali Waduge pointed out in a recent article that, “The United States has dropped an estimated 23,144 bombs in the Muslim-majority countries of Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015 alone.   

According to UN reports there are around 60 million refugees caused by these wars legalized by the UN. What crimes have these innocent victims committed to deserve this punishment?  
Today the UN has become a tool for US-British-France and Russian destruction of Syria causing death, untold misery and sufferings on the Syrians. Once again UN miserably failed to protect the Syrians.  

No world leader ever summoned up courage to criticise these US-led war crimes except the outspoken former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed and Africa’s legendary freedom fighter Nelson Mandela. Mahathir Mohamed challenged the credibility of the UN, condemned the selective use of the veto power in the Security Council, and warned the world body against the resurgence of imperialism and “puppet regimes”.  

Striking at the very heart of the UN problem, Mahathir said, “The UN’s organs had been “cut out, dissected and reshaped so they may perform the way the puppet masters want. The uni-polar world dominated by a democratic nation is leading the world to economic chaos, political anarchy, uncertainty and fear”.  

Now in the disputed region of Kashmir, UN passed numerous resolutions since 1947 on a plebiscite and the right to self-determination of Kashmiri Muslims. However, they remain discarded. Once again since July 8, 2016 India unleashed its latest atrocities on Kashmiris fighting for their freedom. The UN remains a silent spectator. In his farewell speech to UN, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon simply ignored the conflict by urging India and Pakistan to turn to dialogue.  

The question is why no accountability for the US, British, French, Russian, Israeli, Saudi and Egyptian war crimes? This is the new world disorder created by war mongers.  

Thus the UN, established with the slogan of peace to make the world a better place, has ended up as war mongers’ tools and are collaborating with war mongers to turn many countries into wastelands and killing fields  
In this chaotic international scene what is in store for humanity is unpredictable.