Why Did Army Officer Not Mention Details Of Others Involved In Lasantha’s Murder?

October 19, 2016 

A private mobile phone operator has been ordered to furnish all call and SMS history details of the retired army officer, Illandarige Jayamanne who committed suicide last week claiming that he had murdered founder editor of the Sunday Leader Lasantha Wickrematunge.

After initial investigations revealed that the phone records of the 51 year old retired Army officer had been erased, the CID which is investigating the case has ordered that all phone records of the army officer be submitted for further investigation.

Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundera has instructed his officers to also obtain assistance from the Forensic and Scientific Investigation units in the case.

On October 14, theretired Army Officer committed suicide in his house in Kegalle. In the letter, the retired army officer requested authorities to release Army Intelligence officer Premananda Udalagama from remand as he had nothing to do with the assassination of Wickrematunge.

However, Jayamanne’s suicide note has raised suspicion, specially in the manner it was written and also why he had failed to name the others who were involved in the case, as at least two motorbikes followed Wickrematunge on the day he was killed.

The suicide note written by Jayamanne, ostensibly in his hand writing according to evidence given by his son is strange at best.

“The letter is written to save the neck of the army intelligence officer Premananda Udalagama, and that is the sole purpose. Whilst he confesses to the murder he says only one other line. Udalagama was not responsible. Strange. It is common knowledge and has been reported repeatedly quoting witnesses that Lasantha was murdered by the Malagala school on the 8th of January 2009 by four motor cyclists wearing black and helmeted. So, Jayamanne mentions that Udalagama was not one of them. He was one. Who were the others???? The retired army officer is silent on that. Is that consistent with someone feeling remorseful? No.” a source closed to the Lasantha’s murder investigation told Colombo Telegraph.

“It is also strange that one powerful person is away from the country when such strange incidents occur. It gets murky. Finally, even if one was to accept the contents in the suicide note as authentic, jayamanne was first an army intelligence officer. So is Udalagama. Are we to accept them as war heroes ? Armed service officers who won the war should not be prosecuted? Even for cold blooded murder??? Or should they, one by one be encouraged to commit suicide?” the source questioned.

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President should follow the people’s Mandate-Citizens’ Organizations Collective

Oct 19, 2016

Leaders of citizens’ organizations collective yesterday (Oct. 18) expressed their view on President Maitripala Sirisena’s recent controversial speech.

Daily newspaper reported that Maitripala Sirisena expressed his extreme displeasure and disgust at the dragging to court of the former defence secretary and three former commanders of Navy, without informing him, in case filed by the Bribery Commission.

Addressing the media conference held at Centre for Religion and Society  (CSR) Saman Ratnapriya said that President should not forget the hopes of 62 million voters

“He has a duty bound to follows promises given to the nation during his presidential campaign.”

Left Centre convener Chameera Perera and Private Bus Owners Association chairman Gamunu Wijeratne also spoke out.
 
 
 Photo : Lawrence Ferdinando

‘No adverse results from CBSL’s Rs. 

16.5bn repayment plan’

By Hiran H.Senewiratne-October 19, 2016, 6:58 pm

The Central Bank has announced plans to repay Rs. 16.5 billion owed to nearly 12,000 depositors of four insolvent financial institutions, before liquidating them. This will not have an instant impact on the national economy, Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Asoka Handagama said

"This money will be distributed over eight years, Handagama told The Island Financial Review in an exclusive interview yesterday.

He said that this repayment package will help to keep banking sector stability, "if not the repercussions will be severe for the entire banking sector."

According to the Central Bank, three of the four finance companies are, The Standard Credit Finance Ltd., City Finance Corporation Ltd. and Central Investments and Finance Plc. All three companies got into a chronic financial position in 2008 and 2009 due to fraud and mismanagement of funds and therefore did not have assets to pay off depositors.

The fourth, Entrust Securities Plc, a company with a primary dealer license to trade in government securities reportedly got into a chronic liquidity and insolvency crisis during the latter part of 2015, as a result of the fraudulent use of funds placed by customers for investment in government securities.The Central Bank on January 4, 2016 suspended Entrust’s Board of Directors and vested its operations in the National Savings Bank to protect investors."The Monetary Board reviewed the lack of progress so far and took cognisance of the fact that there was no further room to revive these companies to enable them to repay depositors and investors in the foreseeable future. Given the long delay involved so far, the Monetary Board approved the company resolution plans submitted by the Department of Supervision of Non-banking Financial Institutions to repay deposits and investments annually commencing from 2017 over a reasonable period of time with a fair interest rate during this repayment period, the Central Bank said in a statement.

In the case of the three finance companies, repayment will cover Rs. 4,868 million of nearly 11,878 depositors. In the case of the Entrust, investments secured with government securities amounting to Rs. 3,100 million belonging to 107 investors will be settled in the coming weeks. In respect of unsecured investments in Entrust amounting to Rs. 8,508 million belonging to 24 individuals and entities, government securities will be allocated and be repaid under the repayment plan to be implemented with the managing support of Seylan Bank Plc, the Central Bank said.

Selective schools vs. nonselective schools debate in UK and lessons for Sri Lanka

Children on their way to school. Selective and non-selective schools cannot coexist, unless we find some way of linking these schools and giving all families the hope that the Government is giving their children every chance to flourish in a knowledge economy – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

Wednesday, 19 October 2016

It is significant that the key policy initiative of Theresa May, the post-Brexit Prime Minister (PM) of UK, is an education reform proposal. The proposed reforms are a response to the pro-Brexit vote in UK. In her own words “When the British people voted in the referendum, they did not just choose to leave the EU. They were also expressing a far more profound sense of frustration about aspects of life in Britain and the way in which politics and politicians have failed to respond to their concerns.”

She notes that their frustration is about the lack of opportunities for their future generations in a globalised knowledge economy, and sensing that the Brexit constituency is particularly unhappy with the non-selective schools or comprehensive school concept, Theresa May proposes to expand access to selective schools.

Removing selectivity in school admissions is a pillar of the education polices of the Labour Party of UK. It is an egalitarian concept which has reduced and capped the number of the selective ‘Grammar’ schools in UK from 100,000 or more to less than 200 today. The notion is that schools should be non-selective and every school has to offer a quality education.

Arguing that non-selectivity has distributed a low quality education for all, Theresa May seeks to increase the number of selective ‘Grammar’ schools. In response to Labour Party’s arguments that children from well-to-do families do well in 11-Plus exam, the qualifying exam equivalent to Sri Lanka’s Grade V scholarship examination, Theresa May’s proposal include measures for inclusiveness that the Labour will be hard pressed to oppose.

This newest attempt by UK to increase access to selective-schools deserves a close look by Sri Lanka policy makers too since the admission to ‘popular schools’, our own ‘bastardised’ version of Grammar schools, is an issue that is foremost on everyone’s mind here in Sri Lanka.

The selectivity policy initiatives in UK can be grouped according to four distinct periods: namely, 1948-1964 (Conservative-led halcyon days of selective ‘Grammar’ schools); 1964-1979 (Labour-led capping of Selective schools); 1979-1997 (Thatcher-conservatives-led period when capping continued but deregulation introduced); 1997-2015 (Largely Blair-Labour led period where capping was entrenched and non-selective schools promoted); and 2016 and beyond (Post-Brexit reforms to expand selective schools).

1948-1964

The initiation and rise of the Grammar school concept is attributed this period. The 11-Plus examination was used to select students to attend more academically intensive schools known as the Grammar schools. The ‘11’ refers to the school entry age, so most pupils are 10 years old when they sit the exams. Pupils who passed the 11-plus exam were destined for university and better jobs, while those who failed went to secondary modern schools and trod a path towards less celebrated professions.

The system covered the whole of England until the mid-1960s, when the Labour government ordered local education authorities to start phasing out grammar schools and secondary moderns. They replaced them with a comprehensive system - where children of all abilities were to be taught together in the same schools. This phasing-out happened at different paces, and a handful of local authorities decided to keep a few selective schools.

Interestingly, a parallel selective school system known as the Central School system was initiated by our own Dr. C.W.W. Kannangara in 1943. However, by mid-1960, England had nearly 1300 Grammar schools while Sri Lanka’s number was limited to 52 – at two per each of the 25 districts plus two additional ones, reflecting differences in economic capabilities.

1964-1979

The 1964 manifesto of the Labour Party promised to abolish selectivity in admissions to schools and the policy was gradually implemented, culminating in the power given to Secretary of Education to ask local education authorities (LEAs) to move to non-selective (i.e. comprehensive) secondary education.

In Sri Lanka, during this period our own version of Grammar schools (i.e. Kannangara Central Schools) declined, not due to policy decision but, economic constraints. Free education was available to all through other schools, but economic constraints led to the decline of those other institutions as well. In his book ‘Education in Ceylon before and after independence: 1939-1968,’ educationist J.E. Jayasuriya noted that:

“It was the undoubted intention of our legislatures that a good education should be available as a matter of right to every child born in this country. It was not their intention that a good education should be given free to a minority of children, while a bad education should be given free to a large mass of children, but this is the reality of the situation even twenty-five years after the introduction of the free education scheme.”

The ideal was to go beyond selective Kannagara schools to non-selective but quality schools for all, but reality fell short of the ideal.

1979-1997

With the election of Mrs. Margaret Thatcher as PM in 1979 and the continuation of Conservative Party domination during the 1979-1997 period, there was no attempt to remove the cap on Grammar Schools. Mrs. Thatcher’s policies were largely geared towards deregulation and making the delivery of education more efficient and effective. In Sri Lanka too, the J.R. Jayewardene and his Party led Government of 1977-1989, brought in a free-market economy, but in regard to education policy, the efforts were made to quality education for all continued.

1997-2015

In 1997, Tony Blair led Labour Party came to power in a UK with a large majority and with the provocative three priorities of the new Government being education, education and education. In 1998, Labour Party ruled out the creation of any new grammar schools, and limited any expansion in selection within other types of schools.

In contrast in Sri Lanka, President Chandrika Bandaranaike’s ascent to power did not mark distinct changes in economic policy, but more choices were made available to parents during this period by allowing the establishment of ‘International schools’ through the Board of Investments. The Central Schools could not be sustained and popular school emerged in their place, through indirect support from influential past-pupils or parents wishing for entry for their children. These developments carried both positive and negative implications.

On the positive side, emergence of international schools and quality schools outside of a declining Central school system gave more choices to parents. However, level of inequity too arose due the fact that entry to these emerging popular schools was available only partially to deserving students who gained high marks in the Grade V scholarship examination. Past-pupils and influential professionals and Government officers received a larger portion of places in these schools for their children, for these parents’ direct or indirect support for these schools.

2015 and beyond in UK and Sri Lanka

By 2015, England there were only 163 grammar schools and more than two-thirds of England’s 150 local authorities had none at all. As Theresa May noted in her introduction to her education initiative, restriction on selective schools is a restriction on the choice of low-income families:

“The debate over selective schools has raged for years. But the only place it has got us to is a place where selection exists if you’re wealthy – if you can afford to go private – but doesn’t exist if you’re not. We are effectively saying to poorer and some of the most disadvantaged children in our country that they can’t have the kind of education their richer counterparts can enjoy. What is ‘just’ about that? Where is the meritocracy in a system that advantages the privileged few over the many? How can a meritocratic Britain let this situation stand?”

The Theresa May proposal puts inclusivity requirements on Grammar Schools that are to be established.

“Selective schools have a part to play in helping to expand the capacity of our school system and they have the ability to cater to the individual needs of every child. So the Government will make up to £50 million a year available to support the expansion of good or outstanding existing grammars, but these new grammar schools will be asked to “establish a good, new non-selective school; establish a primary feeder school in an area with a high density of lower income households to widen access; partner with an existing non-selective school within a multi-academy trust; or sponsor a currently underperforming non-selective academy.”

Lessons for Sri Lanka

The system of ‘popular schools’ in Sri Lanka emerged through the efforts of the middle class to serve their needs. The Government conducts a scholarship examination annually to award scholarships to students for their secondary education. Since the Government implicitly recognises these popular schools as ‘selective’ schools by publishing cut-off marks for these schools, the real prize for acing the scholarship exam is the ability to qualify for 200+ plus ‘popular’ schools, with 20 or so of these coveted most.

However, the truth of the matter is that these schools already have their own primary schools, the students of which get to move on to grade 6 in these popular schools without qualifying in the Grade V scholarship exam. This phenomenon is a gross violation of the aspirations of 300,000 plus children who sit for scholarship examination every year, but the solution is not to throw the baby out with the bath water.

It is time policymakers gradually increased the number of places available in these schools for scholarship holders and/or enforce conditions like Theresa May’s conditions to ensure that these schools partner with other non-selective schools to serve low-income students who achieve reasonable scores in the scholarship examination but do not get entry to these popular schools. Another proposal is to add entry points at age 14 and 16 also.

In sum, selective and non-selective schools cannot coexist, unless we find some way of linking these schools and giving all families the hope that the Government is giving their children every chance to flourish in a knowledge economy.

INDEPENDENT COMMISSIONS ARE IGNORING POLITICAL REALITIES – RAJITH KEERTHI

( Rajith Keerthi with Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe)

19/10/2016

Resignation of Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe, DG, Bribaary Commission and After.

There was a time when we believed that history had entrusted two Sri Lankans, Maithripala Sirisena and, with important roles.

One symbolized the aspirations for good governance while the other represented our desire to rid the nation of bribery and corruption.

But now,it seems that one incident has diminished them both and there are those who wish to see one or both relegated as relics of our political history.

The forces which stood behind both Sirisena and Wickramasinghe are now uneasy on where they stand. 

After the election of Sirisena, which was a surprise to some although not to us, there arose the need for a figurehead for the battle against corruption. And Wickramasinghe was entrusted with the job and we stood with her and ACF and CaFFE were two of the first few organizations which worked with Wickramasinghe’s bribery commission. I told her once that Sri Lankans think of her as Chandi Shyama, a character in a Sinhala cinema that symbolized toughness against injustice. An ardent fan of old school Sinhala movies, Wickramasinghe knew who Chandi Shyama was.

Now Chandi Shyama has sent her resignation letter to the President.

A few minutes after President Sirisena made the controversial speech at the Foundation Institute, criticizing the commissions appointed by the 19th amendment, I forwarded her a link to the video and told her that she is right in the middle of this controversy.  Wickramasinghe  was out of the country and she was slow to realize the gravity of the situation. After two lengthy phone conversations on 13 October, she texted me ‘I just realized what you said only now. OMG’.

What has led us all here is a complicated story of political maneuvering and intrigue, which needs to be told.

The President believes that Wickramasinghe is a part of a campaign to undermine his authority. My personal opinion is that Wickramasinghe became the victim of political manipulation, who used her working style to their advantage.

After President made his controversial speech, there were moves, explicit and implicit, pushing her towards handing over her resignation. Although I advised her not to, I was also keenly aware that, by the time she handed over her resignation, she felt as if she had no other option. The biggest and main allegation against her is that the Bribery Commission charged those alleged of irregularities at Avant Garde Maritime Company with ‘attempts of bribery’ instead of charging them using the firearms ordinance.

The second allegation is that she has failed to properly investigate the two treasury bond scams, the biggest alleged financial irregularity under the UNFGG government.

Meeting between President and Prime Minister

During the meeting between President Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe last week, a number of issues including the unsystematic and random corruption investigations, perplexing choices and the lack of transparency was discussed. It was obvious that the lack of a process and procedure has created a serious crisis. When the power of selecting what cases should be investigated is given to a single person, there is a possibility that he or she would lose sight of the political sensitivity of the decisions taken.

As I have mentioned earlier I don’t think the President should have openly criticized the commissions. That was a mistake on his part. My attempt here is only to illustrate the events which led to this outcome.

ACF has lodged 225 complaints with the Bribery Commission. This is the highest number of complaints lodged by one organization. On December 28, 2015 we were informed of the progress made on 94 of those cases. However in the last 10 months, we were only informed the progress of three cases only. Baffled by this development, we wrote to the Commission on three separate occasions, 23 March 2016, 2 June 2016 and 20 July 2016 to find the latest on the complaints we lodged. Our letters were unanswered.

We were also angered by what happened to one of the key witnesses to the case against former presidential aid Gamini Senarath. This important witness was tortured by the police and ACF had to intervene to assure his safety. ACF has filed 225 cases and there are hundreds of witnesses to these cases. How were we to assure the safety of these men and women who were shaken by what happened? We then had to turn, once again, to the people and hope that they would shield us. But not everyone could do that.
 
Investigations with a process or procedure

The fact  that there were no processes or procedures when it came to determining what complaints should be given priority to, allowed some to handpick cases and ignore others. It was obvious for most that some of the most politically sensitive cases were handled with a certain bias. None of the cases we considered important were even considered worthy of preliminary investigations. Thus ACF did not submit a single complaint from 1 march to 23 September 2015. (On 23 September we submitted 14 cases along with the irregularities regarding the purchase of coal. I never expected the coal case to be ven considered.

Below are the complaints, that everyone considered important, except the commission.

1.    The complaint lodged by Minister Mahinda Amaraweera against the former Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka
2.    Four complaints pertaining to the Minister of Finance
3.    Complaints against Gotabaya Rajapaksa concerning the MIG deal, Avant Garde and the D.A. Rajapaksa Foundation
4. Complaints against Gamini Senarath

Let me illustrate the the unsystematic nature of the investigations with one example. ACF has lodged complaints of irregularities at Lak Sathosa on 28 December 2015 and 10 April 2015. The complaints hinted, and our allegations were later proven by investigations by Auditor General, that irregularities amounting to Rs 18 billion has taken place at the institution. However without taking these complaints, the commission charged former Chairman of Lak Sathosa Nalin Fernando over non payment of Rs 19 200  for a vehicle he had hired. The complete loss for the institution by the actions of Fernnado was Rs 31 000. He was arrested and remanded for a week. But the cases that allege that Rs 18 billion has been misused have not been taken up.

Political sensitivity – Mahindananda example

There are a number of allegations against former presidential aid Gamini Senarath and former minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage regarding their assets. If the main criteria for selecting what cases should be investigated first, is the scale of the irregularity allegations against Senarath should have been taken up first. But he has not been subjected to such inspection. A senior SLFPer told me that a case against Aluthgamage was only filed after he held discussions with a group that are linked to the President. I am not sure whether its a coincidence or not, but anyone can see that its easy to give apolitical spin to what transpired. (Note – I have no objection of filing a case on the carom boards as it should have been done).

Arrest of Thiru Nadesan

On 17 October, the Police Financial Crimes Investigation Division arrested Nadeshan. Except for the ACF no other organization continuously agitated for such. The media maintained a policy of silence on even his name. Yet, within hours of his arrest, he was granted bail. We had previously uncovered that a critical factor in this crisis involved Nadeshan and we were surprised that he was not questioned with regard to the land in Malwana.

Before the President made his contraversial, and unnecessary, speech, he has not once attempted to intervene in the affairs of the Bribery Commission. It is also true that she never kept the President upto date on the work they are doing as she considered that was how an ‘independant’ commission shoudl eb have. However she maintained a dialogue about thier investigations with the Prime Minister’s camp (note – not with Ranil Wickremesinghe personally).

On the other hand, the gap between the CIABOC and the media expanded. No one knew what she was up to and there was no means of providing information to the media.

Social expectations have collapsed with the resignation of Dias Wickramasinghe, a figure much loved by a majority of the people in this country and upon the institution which she represented, upon which much hopes were hinged on. In particular, there is much disillusion among the employees of the CIABOC. They served out of their own volition and accord and they liked working there. They were committed and dedicated. They were satisfied working there. On the other hand, the investments made regarding their future were immense. The preparation of school syllabuses, working with Provincial Government bodies, and work towards the prevention of bribery taking place, were some of the main such investments. All of this will definitely be undermined at least temporarily.

The President possesses no powers to intervene in independent commissions. Such should never be the case. But is is also not an exaggeration to say that the bribery commission acted sitting on an ivory tower, ignoring the political realities on the ground. Unfortunately that is how the police and public service commissions behave as well.

Yet, it is a responsibility of the independent commissions to prepare procedures, processes and systems to prevent such allegations from being leveled by the Executive or from any other faction of the Executive.

However, if such does not take place, and as long as officials are allowed free reign to select investigations as per one’s whim and fancy, the political leadership will have room to revolt against such.
-Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon is the Executive Director of CaFFE and CHR-Sri Lanka

FCID serving political agendas? If not , why Dilan the ace crook even confirmed by Auditor General not arrested? -12 grave charges of frauds against him.!

(Lanka-e-News -19.Oct.2016, 7.20PM) We are herein revealing an incident which makes one wonder  whether the allegation made by the president recently that the Institutions conducting investigations are working according to political agendas  are indeed true.

The Auditor General on   2015-06-16 in his report revealed that Dilan Perera the notorious minister during the nefarious decade of Rajapakses  has committed as many as 12 frauds , and based on that report a complaint was duly  lodged with the FCID on 2015- 06 23 , yet , unbelievably so far no investigation has been launched into it.

The ref. No. of the Auditor General’s report is  IS/INV/PC/GDE/2015/04. According to that report , it is no less a person than the chairman of  the SLBFE Nandapala Wikremeratne (lawyer) who has made the complaint on 2015-06-23 

The  12 glaring  frauds committed by Dilan Perera are as follows :

1.A fraud in a sum of Rs. 9,119,909.00  was committed  via the walks staged at Colombo, Gampaha and Hambantota under the guise of advertising  foreign employment . 

The most shocking part of this fraud is the daylight   robbery of Rs. 900,000.00 committed via balloon purchase which truly did not take place.  Though it was said balloons to the value of Rs. 925,309.00 were bought , not a single balloon was in fact purchased. Besides , the approval of the Director Board was also not obtained  for this walk. In other words it was a cold calculated fraud perpetrated by  Dilan to rob public funds. 

2.Payment of Rs. 1,693,600.00 after making fake documents
By saying an Insurance scheme  is to be propagated , this sum was released to Ravanaella Food and catering Co. who were to supply food  to those participating (800 participants)  in the meeting .Though the caterers did not supply the meals , through blank invoices the monies were claimed and paid to the caterers . The latter had later deposited those monies to the account of Dilan Perera Foundation. 

3.By saying a pinkama is to be given at Haliela on behalf of the migrant workers  , a fraud in a sum of Rs. 3.5 million was committed citing the reason , a pirikara pooja has to be conducted with the participation of 1115 Sangha members and 1500 ‘Kiriammas’. 
No such pinkama was in fact conducted  at Hali ela .. This fraud was committed by producing  fake documents and bills.

4.Saying relief is to be provided to the families of the migrant workers who fell victim to landslides in December 2014 in Badulla district , a fraud involving a sum of Rs. 3,962 , 410.00 was committed. 
This robbed sum was wasted  fully on  the presidential elections . No family was provided relief.

5.A sum of Rs. 9,157 600.00 defrauded citing the Hali ela Sampath Headquarters  foundation laying ceremony .
No such ceremony ever took place. Out of that defrauded amount, Rs. 8 million was wasted on Dilan’s political meetings.

6.Under the pretext of empowering the migrant workers organization , salaries and allowances were paid in respect of staff vehicles.

7.Payment of Rs. 7,524,910.00 to Bohoon Trust Co. Ltd.
A sum of Rs. 6,373,622.00 had been paid in excess. 

8.When making  payments on leases , a loss of Rs. 20 million was incurred through advance payments made.
These disbursements have been made without the approval of the Ministry board , and even before the ownership had been transferred legally.

9.Under the pretext of distributing school books and instruments sets , a sum of Rs.  9,543,552.00 was misappropriated . 
The monies  were  fraudulently used for Dilan’s political activities.

10.Saying relief is to be provided to families of the migrant workers who fell victims to landslides at Miriyabedda , a sum of Rs. 1 million was collected , and out of that only Rs 1 ,69,190.00 was spent towards that. 
After spending   another sum of Rs. 10,000.00 on fuel , the entire balance had been wasted on Dilan’s political activities supported by fake bills .

11.Spending Rs. 5,53,700.00 towards  “Migrant workers piyasa”
This was an absolute unalloyed fraud supported by fake documents.

12.A fraud of Rs. 6,61,500.00 committed after preparing spurious documents , under the guise of educating the migrant workers. 

These are clearly flagrant violations of financial regulations and procurement guidelines code; misuse of state assets during elections ; wrongful use of  the services of State officers for elections ;  forgery - preparing forged documents  ; and committing  financial frauds ,according to the Auditor General.

The Auditor General has recommended that these crimes shall be investigated under the Bribery Act, Public property Act, and money laundering Act.

The chairman of the SLBFE lodged his complaint with the FCID based on these  recommendations.

A copy of the complaint is herein. It can be read by magnifying the image below .

This scoundrel of a corrupt crooked minister who must answer for all these grave crimes,  at the last presidential elections campaigned and worked with absolute commitment to steer the most  brutal corrupt Mahinda Rajapakse to power , while  none voted to elect  Dilan to parliament. Thereafter , grabbing a free (Pinnadi) ministerial portfolio like a beggar , it is this same shameless  confirmed crook who is castigating the leaders of Civil Organizations who gave their unstinted and unwavering support to the government of good governance , and questioning ‘is this good governance?’

In the circumstances , if the FCID is not working  according to political agendas , it must immediately arrest Dilan Perera based on these glaring and monumental crimes , begin  investigations and file cases , it is  then and only then  it can prove  it is the president in his recent speech who blundered by making the allegation the investigating Institutions are serving political agendas. That will clearly bring to the open  who is truly  protecting Dilan Perera . By that the FCID can also  prove who is truly behind the maneuvers  to protect criminals , and clear its own name. 

By Chandrapradeep.

Translated by Jeff

---------------------------
by     (2016-10-19 14:31:04)

Dilrukshi going, going, GONE

* President accepts CIABOC DG’s resignation 

by Zacki Jabbar-October 19, 2016,

President Maithripala Sirisena had not taken a decision on the resignation letter submitted by the Commisison to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe, the government said yesterday morning.

Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne told the weekly Cabinet Press Briefing at the Information Depatment, that theirs was a national unity government and decisions were taken in consultation with constituent parties.

He said that since Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was in Brussels on an official visit, the President would await his return to decide on whether or not to accept Dilrukshi’s resignation.

However, later in the day, authoritative sources said that the President had accepted the resignation letter of Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe. Wickramasinghe submitted her resignation to President Maithripala Sirisena on 17 October.

The Bribery DG submitted her resignation letter on Monday following Sirisena criticizing the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) and the

Criminal Investigation Department for having allegedly exceeded their scope and pursuing political agendas.

The President subsequently met the Prime Minister and Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayake to clarify the comments he had made. But that was before Dilrukshi had submitted her resignation letter.

The FCID comes directly under the Prime Minister’s office.

Free Chopper Rides – duplicity of Eastern Governor Austin Fernando 

Oct 19, 2016

Recently people of the country were aghast find that nothing much has changed with Yahapala government coming to power. As a reply to a question raised in parliament by Joint Opposition MP Udaya Gammanpilla, State Minister for Defence Ruwan Wijewardena tabled in parliament a list of those who  money to the Sri Lanka Air Force for using its helicopters. The bomb shell caused lot of concern in many quarters.

With the list becoming a public document many tried to criticize it by trying to show that it is wrong. Despite criticism careful examinations show that there is nothing wrong with the list tabled by State Minister Wijewardena. The only shortcoming is in the listing the foreign leaders. Helicopters are provided to foreign leaders on the request of the Foreign Ministry, Prime Minister’s Office or Presidents Office. In any event the cost has to be paid to the Air Force. In the list details of the foreign leaders are given but not on whose request it was made. But the amount due is still outstanding. It is the duty of those who requested the helicopters to pay for it.

One of the officials who have abundantly used free helicopter rides is Eastern Province Governor Austin Fernando. He is the only ex-official as all others in the list are politicians.  A former civil servant and the most disgraceful Defense Secretary ever, he has the habit of advising government servant all and sundry to ‘always keep your back straight and work’ , ‘never bend the rules’, and ‘never be afraid to do the correct things’ Investigations carried out by Lanka News Web shows that he has been abusing the system throughout and using the Government Agent-Gramasevaka connection he has taken it to a higher level.

Fernando was aligned to the UNP and was doing politics even while being a civil servant. His apparent loyalty was rewarded when he was appointed Defense Secretary in the 2002-2004 UNP government. It was under his watch the worst betrayal happened in post-independent Sri Lanka, the ‘Millennium City’ intelligence operation was exposed to the media resulting the assassination of over seventy intelligence officers by the LTTE. He is infamous for taking apples to LTTE Peace Secretariat head Pulidevan and bragging about it. After the fall of the UNP Government he wrote a book on the Norwegian led Peace process called ‘ My Belly is White’ in 2008. Investigations carried out by Lanka News Web reveals that Fernando went to give a copy of the book to President Kumaratunga in July 2008 to her official residence at Independence Square. During the discussions he was very critical of Ranil Wickramasinghe’s handling of the government and the peace process and led the fact that she took over three ministries and thereby got rid of the UNP and saved the country. He has also told that Wickramasinghe ‘is dictatorial’ ‘does not listen to anyone’, ‘as Defence Secretary he was never consulted’, ‘cannot work with him’ and ‘he can never lead the country’.  So much for his loyalty to Wickramasinghe and the UNP.  

Though he was involved with the UNP the coming of Yahapalana government gave him a new lease of life. It was he who went to Presidential Secretariat and tinkered with the appointment of Secretaries to Ministries. He changed the list and appointed many of those he favoured. He got himself appointed as an Advisor to the President in addition to UNP given post of Eastern Province Governor. He was interfering in the workings of the government so much that on one occasion he was told sternly by Prime Minister Wickramasinghe, in the presence of President Sirisena, to be in the Eastern province and do the job of the Governor without being in Colombo all the time. After Wickramaisnghe left he told the President that Wickramasinghe does not know how to talk. Under Yahapalana government Austin Fernando managed to get one of his daughters (he has only two daughters) appointed to Sri Jayawardenapura hospital and the others daughter’s (who is living in UK) husband to the Sri Lanka High Commission in London.  

One of the reasons for the now famous sudden outburst of the Eastern Province Chief Minister to berate the Naval officer was that he was not given a helicopter ride by Fernando to the function  while Fernando travelled by helicopter from one function to the other while the Chief Minister had to come by car. Fernando has forgotten that his role is a ceremonial role and the actual administration is carried out by the Chief Minister. According to Air Force sources Austin Fernando is a pain as he is always asking for helicopters rides for him and his family. There have been occasions when Fernando has arranged helicopter rides to Trincomalee and back for his daughter working at J’pura hospital and her family. When then other daughter and the family members visited Sri Lanka last year Fernando organized helicopter rides for them to travel to Trincomalee and back. It is as if he is on par with the President and the Prime Minister.

Austin Fernando is portraying to be a good government (although now retired) servant while acting to the contrary. He is continuously abusing the system while pontificating how a officials should act. People likes of him are causing irreparable damage to the Yahapalana Government and unless he is curtailed he will become a law unto himself.

HC remands Tissa Attanayake until December 5

October 19, 2016

The Colombo High Court today remanded former General Secretary of the United National Party (UNP) Tissa Attanayake in case against him for allegedly preparing fraudulent documents, Ada Derana reporter said.

The former Minister has been ordered to be remanded until 5 December. Earlier, the Colombo High Court had issued a notice on Attanayake to appear before the Court today.

The Attorney General indicted Tissa Attanayake over the case on September 09. The former UNP General Secretary had been accused of forging the signatures of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena in a letter.

Attanayake, who defected from the then opposition and was made Health minister for less than three weeks, is accused of fabricating the document to discredit the President and the PM. Attanayake has said that the purported document was received by him the day he assumed duties as health minister.

Unravelling Of A Don(ald Trump); A Bizarre Turn Of US Elections

By Vishwamithra1984 –October 20, 2016

“The world keeps ending but new people too dumb to know it keep showing up as if the fun’s just started.” ~John Updike, Rabbit Is Rich

“This is not something we can ignore…this is not something that we can sweep under the rug…the shameful comments of our bodies…it’s cruel and it’s frightening…and the truth is it hurts”, no person has articulated the disgust, danger and degradation of one candidate of the United States Presidential Elections more accurately and so succinctly than Michelle Obama, the First Lady of the nation. A telling indictment of a man who pretends to be the lover of all women, the speech Michele Obama delivered in Manchester, New Hampshire, one of the so-called swing States in the upcoming US elections, has moved many a mind, swayed many a heart and sure to galvanize many a voter. A political oration with an apolitical theme, appealing to the very core of every woman, girl, man and boy, was indeed a fresh wind in a desert of barren ideas and infertile rhetoric.

Evisceration of the phenomenon called Donald Trump without mentioning his name even once was a masterful craftsmanship on the part of the speechwriter who they say is the First Lady herself. America, an allegedly sophisticated democracy, has fallen into the gutters; the defenders of world’s freedom and liberty have been exposed as mortal sinners of the worst kind and gutter-politics has taken over the psyche of the media and punditry of America. By every measure Donald Trump has declared himself unqualified to lead America in the 21st century but his worthiness as a temperamentally fit person to lead a nation that is arguably the sole super power in the world has been bared open. This is where the reasonableness of the American voter counts. With all conventional wisdom and traditional values thrown out the door, Donald Trump is running a campaign of a radical bigot. His bigotry has exceeded the frontiers of the reasonable thinking of reasonable men and women.

Although one might attribute a more than deserving judgment to the latest revelations and indiscretions on the part of the ‘Don’ some years ago, if there is any one single reason for the Republican Party to lose in the upcoming elections is the party itself. The Republican brand has been damaged beyond redemption long year ago. In an increasingly diversified demographic dynamic, the Republican Party, instead of embracing the fast-multiplying numbers of the non-white ethnic groups in the United States of America, by choosing Trump, it has dug itself in a bottomless pit from which any extrication seems impossible. The core of the Republican Party is white; its core economic principles are of anti-social justice genre, its base is fundamentally archaic and appealing to the base instincts of those pilgrims who arrived at the ‘Brave New World’ two and a half centuries ago and with his slogan “Make America Great Again” the Don is essentially making a patently discriminatory political thought process which means ‘Make America White Again’.

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Bob Dylan’s embrace of Israel’s war crimes

American folk-rock legend Bob Dylan performs in Tel Aviv, on 20 June 2011, in defiance of a Palestinian call for boycott. Abir SutanEPA

Michael F. Brown-18 October 2016

Controversially, musical genius Bob Dylan received the Nobel Prize for literature last week.

Even some critics who acknowledged his musical brilliance have argued that awarding a musician was a step that too dramatically expanded the definition of literature. What few dispute is that his music inspired millions in the midst of the anti-war and civil rights movements.

But there is also a less pleasant, less known side to the artist, particularly his views on Israel, Meir Kahane and the Jewish Defense League.

In 1983, in The New York Times, Stephen Holden described Dylan’s album Infidels as “a disturbing artistic semirecovery by a rock legend who seemed in recent years to have lost his ability to engage the Zeitgeist.”

Holden asserted that a “stomping, hollering rhetorical tone infuses the two most specifically political songs, ‘Neighborhood Bully,’ an outspoken defense of Israel, and ‘Union Sundown,’ a gospel-blues indictment of American labor unions.”

“The lyrics suggest an angry crackpot throwing wild punches and hoping that one or two will land,” Holden added.

With its opening lyrics parroting Israel’s own narrative of being the blameless, perpetual victim of Arab violence, “Neighborhood Bully” came just a year after Israel’s bloody invasion of Lebanon that would claim tens of thousands of lives:

Well, the neighborhood bully, he’s just one man
His enemies say he’s on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run
He’s the neighborhood bully

The invasion of Lebanon was a calamitous war, widely opposed even in Israel where it was likened to the US quagmire in Vietnam.

Yet Dylan sang these words exonerating Israel even after the world had witnessed the horrifying massacres of Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps by an Israeli-allied militia during the occupation of Beirut.

Today, the lyrics read like a prelude to the racist nationalism embodied in the politics of today’s Israeli leaders, including Benjamin Netanyahu, Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali Bennett.

Deeper into the tune, Dylan betrays an ignorance of the enormous support given by the US government to Israel, notably the huge influx of military support provided by the administration of President Jimmy Carter shortly before the release of the album.

That funding continues to this day with the record-breaking $38 billion in military aid over 10 years recently negotiated by the Obama administration.

Yet Dylan sings:

He got no allies to really speak of
What he gets he must pay for, he don’t get it out of love
He buys obsolete weapons and he won’t be denied

Kahane

The equal rights backed by Dylan in the US seemingly have no place in his politics regarding Israel and its neighbors.

Dylan’s challenge to power in the US is transmuted into an embrace of Israeli militancy because of a flawed sense of reality, perhaps one learned from Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) and later of the racist Kach party in Israel.

Dylan’s relationship to Kahane and the JDL is not entirely clear, but was explored by Anthony Scaduto in The New York Times in 1971.

“Dylan’s interest in Israel and Judaism led him, over a year ago, into an unexpected relationship with Rabbi Meir Kahane and the Jewish Defense League,” Scaduto wrote.

The singer reportedly attended several JDL meetings and may have given money to the organization.

Already in 1971, Scaduto wrote, “Dylan’s enthusiasm for the militant Jewish organization has brought down the wrath of some in the radical movement.”

Scaduto detailed this just four years after the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Syria’s Golan Heights and Egypt’s Sinai had begun: “To many young radicals, including Jewish kids, Israel is simply another one of those fascist states propped up by a fascist American Government, and Dylan’s fervent support of Israel and his over-publicized contacts with the JDL are to them a further indication that he has sold out to the political right he condemned.”

Rejecting Palestinian struggle

Dylan’s drift away from the anti-war movement over the course of the next 45 years – and his clear embrace of Israel after its invasion of Lebanon – led to no surprise when he rejected the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement’s call for him not to play Israel in 2011.

The right of return for refugees, the end of the occupation and equal rights for all Palestinians – the BDS movement’s key demands – would not have resonated with the man who wrote “Neighborhood Bully.”

Ironically, both Dylan and Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters performed at the Desert Trip musical festival this month.

Today, however, it is Waters who is politically relevant, with his support of the BDS movement and Black Lives Matter, his blasting of Donald Trump’s racism and his love and support for children wearing “Derriba el muro” T-shirts – Spanish for “take down the wall.”

In front of an audience of tens of thousands of festival-goers in Indio, California, Waters gave a shout-out to Students for Justice in Palestine:

Roger Waters shouts out California chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine before 85k+ at #DesertTrip pic.twitter.com/zhqn3x6YxO

— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) October 17, 2016

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Dan Cohen @dancohen3000

Roger Waters shouts out California chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine before 85k+ at #DesertTrip

3:11 AM - 17 Oct 2016

Both Waters and Dylan are now in their 70s; one has grown over the last 50 years in his willingness to embrace urgent contemporary struggles for freedom and equal rights. The other has stepped back from vital political engagements and yet been rewarded with a Nobel Prize.

Today it is no longer Dylan who best embodies the spirit of one of his best known lyrics:

Yes, and how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?