The Violent Death Of Two Tamil Students: Accident; Isolated Incident; Or Symptoms Of Systemic Violation?

By Surendra Ajit Rupasinghe –October 29, 2016

Surendra Ajit Rupasinghe

As usual, there are conflicting presentations and interpretations being made in relation to the recent incident where two Tamil students riding on a motorbike had died in Jaffna. One version is that the Police had shot and killed one of them and that the other had died when the motorbike had subsequently crashed into a wall. In that case, the Police officers on duty, charged with the duty to protect and serve, would be responsible for serious violation of the law, taking the lives of two innocent civilians. This version is supported by the claim that the autopsy report had indicated a bullet wound found on the body of one of the students. The other version officially given by the Police authorities is that they had died due to an accident, where they had crashed into the wall. As usual, special investigations are to be conducted to ascertain the truth of the case. If it is somehow proven that they had been shot at by the Police officers resulting in their death, that in itself would be illegal- and criminal. But more importantly, if this is the case, then the fact that the Police Authorities at the very top of the pyramid had tried to cover it up constitutes an even worse crime against the people. It simply would add another piling case of rampant criminal injustice and abuse of power by the Police and to the litany of criminal injustice committed against the Tamil people. If there had been even an attempt at a cover up and a case of repeated criminal impunity, and If justice is to be made into another glaring travesty, on trial would not just be the two police officers but the judicial system, the system of law enforcement, the Ranil-Sirisena Regime and the State itself.

Who is to be held accountable for the death of these two students? The issue of accountability, truth and justice hangs in balance in this case, as much as accountability, truth and justice for violation of human rights related to the war. Every human life matters. The scale and magnitude does not matter as much as the issue of whether the targeting of Tamil civilians and the criminal culture of impunity still prevails. Let us try to analyze the issue at hand. This is important since there is a reputed pattern of police brutality in general and a damning culture of cover up and impunity by the State that corrode all sense of justice, rule of law and civilized decency, that has long since ravaged the political landscape in the Land of Lanka. The important question remains, what is the ultimate structural source, the generative causes, of the culture of impunity, along with such recurrent cover-ups that have cumulatively contributed towards a generalized breakdown of the rule of law and erosion of elemental democratic norms, accompanied by a cynical disregard for the value of life, and a resulting profound loss of faith in the institutions of governance?

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COPE report; new hope instead of bioscope

 2016-10-29

During the past two years, the national government has come in for severe criticism by opposition members, civic action groups and the people for its failure to take legal action against those involved in the Central Bank’s multi-billion rupee bond scam.  

An important step was taken yesterday. Amid conflicting and contradictory statements, the parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) presented a much awaited 55-page report to Parliament. Headed by the outspoken Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna frontliner Sunil Handunnetti, COPE in a unanimous report said there was substantial evidence to indicate that the Central Bank’s former Governor Arjun Mahendran was responsible for the questionable transaction of billions of rupees in public funds. COPE also pointed a clear finger of involvement at the Perpetual Treasuries company headed by Mr. Mahendran’s son-in-law 
Arjuna Aloysius.  

COPE chairman Handunnetti told Parliament yesterday, he was recommending that legal action be taken against those responsible. He said the allegedly plundered public funds should be recovered while new laws should be enacted to ensure that such alleged rackets did not take place in the Central Bank in future. 

Responding positively to the COPE report, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he was recommending to Parliament that the report be submitted to the Attorney General for necessary action. The Prime Minister said the COPE report provided proof of the transparency and accountability of the national government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena and himself. The Prime Minister said previous governments had taken little or no action on earlier COPE reports which had alleged serious misdeeds by top politicians and officials. The Leader of the House and senior Minister Lakshman Kiriella said that about 30 earlier reports by COPE had ended up in the wastepaper baskets of the Rajapaksa regime.  

The Joint Opposition leader Dinesh Gunawardena insisted that a parliamentary debate be held on the COPE report before the budget was presented on November 10. Parliament is not scheduled to meet again till then but government leaders said the proposal for the debate could be considered at a meeting of party leaders.  

On Thursday joint opposition members alleged that Mr. Mahendran had flown away to Singapore the day before the COPE report was presented to Parliament. But the Prime Minister clarified the situation saying Mr. Mahendran had informed him he was going to Singapore to attend a wedding and assured he would be back within a few days. The premier lashed out at joint opposition members, saying they were tight lipped about former diplomat Udayanga Weerakone who was flying around the world though he was wanted in connection with an alleged multi-million rupee racket over the purchase of Mig aircraft during the Rajapaksa regime.  

It is the fervent hope of most people that the Attorney General will act urgently and effectively on the COPE report to ensure that no one in future is allowed to plunder public money directly or by 
subtle means.  

 For the past 10 years, specially billions of dollars in public funds are known to have been plundered by VIP politicians and officials in addition to the huge debt burden to which all the people have been plunged. We hope the Attorney General and the main investigative bodies such as the Financial Crimes Investigations Division (FCID) and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) will also expedite action to prosecute those allegedly involved in mega frauds. If found guilty they must be punished and action taken to recover the billions they have plundered even if the money is hidden in some secret bank accounts abroad.  

October 29 will be a historic day if it means the start of an era in which politics will no longer be a business tainted by corruption and fraud. Those elected to the highest legislative body, provincial and local councils need to be aware from now that they have come forward and been elected to serve the people and give to the country, not to grab from it. President Maithripala Sirisena from the day he was elected has repeatedly stressed he is the chief servant leader of the people. In future those who want to do big business and earn millions need to find some other jobs instead of seeking election to Parliament, provincial or other local councils. If that is the ultimate result of yesterday’s COPE report, then there is hope for a new era and politics will no longer be bioscope.  

Who will guard the guards, when the wardens ward off the law for friends?

 Friday, 28 October 2016

SIT IT OUT, NOT QUIT IT!? – Concur or conquer, the machinery of state as in CIABOC as much as the engine of legislative oversight per COPE must be paramount over petty politicking and personal agendas. Pity, then, that agents of change have opted to step down citing seemingly valid reasons; rather than battle our nation-state’s present backsliding into adversarial politics, bureaucratic impasses, and canny politicos prioritising partisan agendas over a genuine opportunity to transform national political culture

Everyone is in favour of law and order, good governance, and all that jazz. That is, until the long arm of the law in one form or another fingers one’s friends, one’s family, or one’s fan club. Thus, the President is – in precept, at least – a fan of the CID, the FCID, and CIABOC. That is, until members of his fan club – a highly (shall we say) ‘influential’ former bureaucrat and some ex-service chiefs whose favour supports a major electorate – are unceremoniously hauled up before the awful majesty of the law. Thus, the Prime Minister – to all appearances, in principle – is fully supportive of legislative efforts to COPE with corruption. That is, until a parliamentary committee headed by an erstwhile stalwart points the finger of culpability squarely at (shall we say) ‘friends’ of the establishment in high places. Political cultures may be thought capable of transformation into rich and strange variations of their former selves; but human nature is rarely – if ever – subject to such change.

Anyone who is anybody with the faintest stirring of the political impulse will have their favourite theory about how and why this awful farce over what is lawful or not is being staged. Some speculate that ‘staged’ is probably the right interpretation, with this managed spectacle being presented for public consumption to stave off closer inspection of what really ails the republic these days. Others contend that behind the façade of the high drama, there are real or serious issues which portend cracks in the always cosmetic countenance of the coalition. Some say that the Central Bank bond scam will scuttle the coalition sooner than later; others feel that the ties which bind the post-honeymoon strange bedfellows will hold.

Someone who is nobody ventured that the world of coalition politics would end in fire. Another somebody thought it had already died in ice. From what I’ve tasted of democratic-republicanism’s fiery incarnation in 2015, I hold with those who favour fire. But if realpolitik had to perish twice, I’d say that for destruction ice is also great and would suffice.

The rot

Beneath the bubbling surface of speculation and rumour-mongering at the ‘Denmark’ of our democracy today (the COPE report being still MIA from the public domain at the time of writing), the rottenness of corruption has been seeping into the soul of the nation-state for decades ever since independence. The pre-open economy epoch may, broadly speaking, be represented as flawed in terms of being castist, statist, elitist; while the post-liberalisation era might be seen as the root of many evils such as crony capitalism, systemic bureaucracy/waste/mismanagement of state resources, emergence of a military-political complex that – together with complicit corporate interests – has made corruption endemic, or native/normal/natural for any government.

On the one hand, there is the ‘united’ ‘national’ ‘front’ of elites, hangers-on, and capitalism- and business-oriented political DNA that operates relatively democratically. There is equal opportunity for everyone in the old-boy network to make a small, decent, clean buck off the bottom of work done or projects completed. With no fuss and bother! And certainly no murder or abductions (at least these days) if partners in crime fall out. On the other, there is the ‘united’ ‘populist’ ‘freedom’ ‘allegiance’ of ambitious politicos, their family and friends, and a few fans among amoral captains of commerce and industry that works rather more repressively. You have to be related by blood. Not business or buddy-ness. And if you cross the regime you go missing. Or worse, dead…

Of course, this is a crude caricature of the ubiquitous political culture that has been with us since before the flood, when bipartisanship ruled the roost of parliamentary politics. Today, there is hardly any real difference between those who subscribe to the ‘UNP’ model of making political capital out of capitalist politics or the ‘UPFA’ example of how to run a country into the ground while making hay as long as the sun shines. In fact, there shouldn’t be. For, when it comes to corruption – no matter how decent/clean your ten percent off the floor is, or how dirty/cupidity-driven your thirty percent off the top is – the impact on the national interest is the same qualitatively if not quantitatively. At least in terms of the theory which holds that corruption – in its hydra-headed form: graft, grand larceny, petty bribery, cronyism, white-collar crimes such as trading on insider information – is the cancer of a vital socioeconomic status quo.

That is the common understanding as far as a healthy nation-state goes. But the pity of the matter is that this understanding and acting in accordance with its demands goes nowhere nearly far enough.      

The resignations

As far as understanding of corruption goes, its ostensible champions have quite possibly gone too far.

The first Bribery Commissioner since time out of mind with any bang for her buck has quit… evidently stung (in many ways) by the President’s pointed observations about how the prosecution of financial crimes committed by previous holders of high office is politically expedient. And therefore politically expedited? Some, in the opposing political camp, might allege that she threw in the towel rather than be in the hot seat when the findings of a certain parliamentary committee would make the possibility of prosecuting a ‘political friend’ too much to COPE with. Other, equally determined defenders as her detractors are keen to sully her untried by fire reputation, steadfastly maintain that there is no way she could meaningfully continue to hold such a key office when the political champion of the state’s anti-corruption drive passed such pointed remarks against her praxis. Little, if any, mention is made in polite but powerful government circles about the pointed agendas of her true political masters. Although that redoubtable watchdog whose bark is worse than its bite – the JVP – is bound to mutter something under its breath about that angle in the House, sooner or later.

Speaking of vociferous watchdogs: The one mild but can-be-firm if the need-would-heed its call stalwart has also kicked himself off the high chair of a parliamentary oversight committee tasked with a Herculean labour. That he evidently did so in high dudgeon at the unconscionable interference of the major government party in seeking to prevent him from hammering the last nail in the Central Bank bond-scam coffin makes the saga go from scandal to imbroglio. Again those tender-minded defenders of the faith would rally to Sunil Handunnetti’s side, citing his impeccable handling of the COPE agency and claiming that his resignation in the face of interference is warranted. Other more tough-minded philosophers may essay a suggestion that his quitting is a mere bagatelle. Opening up the opportunity to defenders of the Governor-primary dealer combine to whitewash or water down COPE’s verdict with a lesser charge, perhaps, of say criminally negligent incompetence rather than criminal culpability. As to which of these camps is correct in its intuition about the COPE Chairman’s resignation, the jury’s still out. It ever was.

The ramifications

There are possibly worse ramifications for the republic than gadfly MPs who appear to run with the rabbit while ostensibly hunting with the hound. Media engagement – perhaps especially social media commentary, where suspects are indicted or vindicated at the click of a mouse – has majored on relatively minor issues such as guilty or not; good governance or bad; the ugly itty bitty nitty-gritty of who’s who and what’s what.

Maybe a major concern might be better represented by what this means for the romance that has been realpolitik for a year plus the span of a pregnancy. Are the partners in this marriage of convenience slowly but surely growing estranged by external factors such as an illicit relationship outside the written code of coalition politics (to pose the question poetically)? Can the bond between these partners with a purpose remain strong when one party is pushed by the other into a forgotten corner while the other party is pulled by the desire to forgive its friends for their now longer alleged misdemeanours but not passover their political opponents with equal grace? Will the President stop playing the injured, offended, party and cease and desist from grandstanding in order to make avail of this opportunity for statesmanship he has been offer on a golden platter? Would the Prime Minister refrain from sulking in a miffed silence and use his vaunted silver-tongued technocratic skills to manoeuvre the nation-state out of these perilous seas? Has the government seriously considered sacrificing a culpable friend to a probably richly deserved fate… rather than risk sinking the ship of the republic for the sake of salvaging, well, only they know what remains of the tatters of their reputation for integrity and above-board dealing? (I think now that the hyenas have loudly denied any wrongdoing in terms of a possible cover up, the official denial by such tatterdemalion henchmen has only confirmed their culpability in the eyes of the public’s now fully justified hermeneutic of suspicion.)

Perhaps the irony is not lost on the cynical parties of the first part. The shameless favouritism! The unscrupulous side business that certain well-placed cronies of the financial powers that be seem to be doing under the radar while their less savvy cohorts face the courts of public opinion as much as parliamentary oversight! The sheer barefaced baldness of a leadership challenged by the indiscipline of its lackeys and lovelies (to continue the marriage metaphor)! – those are a resurrected avatar of the very ghosts of our sordid past that these, our erstwhile champions of transparency and accountability, once strove to lay to rest. It remains to be seen who, which, what, of the present gremlins in the machinery of state will – if at all – being the undoing of a good (if not great) idea… the notion that our former coconut republic, once run aground by cruel and greedy nutcases, could with some sincere and significant effort be restored to a semblance of democratic-republicanism by government acting responsibly in tandem with civil society.

But civil society in the main seems as silent as the grave. There are graver issues, which perhaps merit its consideration and make for a meaningful silence that must give ‘good governance’ itself pause. Will crony democracy, thus, have the first essay into rule by law and the last hurrah on the restoration of law and order to grind old enemies into the ground? While personal friends and partisan favourites escape gaol, their just desserts, and the full weight of justice that is clearly not yet transformational – leave alone transitional?

Blur at end of Lanka’s economic tunnel

Global depression-economics is not subsiding

 

by Kumar David-October 29, 2016, 5:47 pm

There are some encouraging indicators, some perfectly hilarious ones and dark clouds on the global economic horizon. It is budget season but I leave a critique of revenue and expenditure to others. In any case, in previous years they have altered so much and so often during the year that healthy misgiving rather than supposing stable policy is wiser. So let’s relax and get to the humour first. Prime Minister Ranil is a jovial chap; did you hear that at some Asian economic forum he intoned with straight face that Deng Xiaoping (DXP) learnt reform at the feet of JR Jayewardene? Thankfully, RW remembered that the eighteenth century was not the twentieth and refrained from claiming that one Karl Marx learnt dialectics also from Uncle Junius. Phew; that was a close shave!

DXP’s economic reforms were as different from JR’s neoliberal capitulation to the IMF as the Middle Kingdom differs from base earth. (Did you know "Middle" in Chinese hubris refers not to the centre of the world, but to a land suspended halfway between heaven and earth? Hence the Emperor is the Son of Heaven). DXP’s motives had bollocks to do with neo-liberalism; it was about the power and leadership of the state in managing an opening to foreign capital in the first instance since there was no credible domestic capitalist class, and then prodding local entrepreneurs and emerging capitalists. His memorable aphorisms: "It does not matter if the cat is black or white so long as it catches mice" and "It is good to get rich" were intended to encourage investment. Unlike Uncle Junius’ Lanka, China morphed to state-capitalism where dynamism and innovation of capitalism and its worst side (inequality and corruption) unhappily coexist. The ace in the Chinese economic system is supremacy of the state. I said "economic system" which complements the monopoly of state power vested in the grip of the Party. Chop-sticks differ from soup spoons as much as DXP’s game plan does from JR’s or any previous economic gimmick in Ceylon/Lanka.

Ranil sees some light

This disposes of Ranil’s humorous gifts. But it has to be conceded that the guy can think on his feet. Let me digress to politics for a moment and give him credit for the dexterity with which he has damped out the rash outbursts that President Sirisena has become prone to. The First-Son behaves like a thug in a nightclub, no different from his predecessor, but his security detail has to take the rap. The Head of State abuses the Bribery Commission, inadvertently or by intent forcing the resignation of its head. In another eruption the President plays Sherlock Holmes instructing the police: "Don’t dig here, look there, search this person, ignore that one".

This is so much askance with how a president should conduct himself that there must be something more than meets the eye. Mea culpa; I have in the past spoken highly of President Sirisena; sceptics now fault me. More important is a point I have often made; the stability of this government is predicated on the steadfastness of the Ranil-Sirisena relationship. Sirisena is now sailing dangerously close to the rocks, oblivious that the rocks are close to the dungeons? To judge from reports, Ranil seems to be retaining his composure in an effort to pacify his ally’s maithri less angst.

Having given Ranil a pat on the back for adroit handling of Presidential shenanigans let me return to economic policy. For months I have implored the state to intervene, lead and participate in economic policy. This is where DXP was right and Uncle Junius out of his depth. If the nephew wants to do a DXP but imagine he is doing a Junius, who cares so long as in practice it is a Deng. The matter of substance is this: Is Ranil shifting gear to a dirigisme mode? Dirigisme is a term that means a high degree of economic direction setting by the state. There are encouraging signs that RW may have begun, or has been forced by events to see the light; but it’s too early to be sure.

The signs cannot be ignored. First is his declaration that DXP got it right (forget the Uncle Junius fairy tale addendum) and second is his more nuanced understanding of the Singapore model, which in so far as the economy is concerned, is a state-led not a neoliberal model. RW’s sidekicks Malik and Eran are emitting somewhat modified utterances from worship of a mythical free-market and genuflection to domestic and global capital. The PM’s admission "We have nowhere to turn except India and China" is as telling as it is true. In the final part of this essay I will explain why the capitalist west cannot help developing countries even if it wished to. The Philippine president has reached the same conclusion.

But the point is that if Lanka’s industrial development leans on these two giants it cannot evade being influenced by their models.

These models are not airports in the wilderness, highways to nowhere and towers pointing at an empty blue sky. If we engage in production and establish joint economic zones, then Chinese and Indian influence on our development philosophy will be significant. The former model as is well known is state led public-private, but don’t reduce Modi’s model to mere abdication to capitalism. Of course the private sector is powerful in India, but "Make in India" is a state-led initiative. IT-cities and railway, highway and sanitary facility upgrading are state led. A mix involving capitalism and the public sector, with the state setting clear goals, is the right approach for transitional bourgeois states like Lanka. This is the blurred light at the end of the tunnel which the government seems to be groping towards. Keep your fingers crossed.

Global capital’s protracted recession

The health of global capitalism is parlous. British economist Michael Roberts calls it the Long Depression in The Long Depression, Haymarket Books, Chicago, 2016. I like the terms New Depression or Wobble-U Shaped Depression and have illustrated the wobble in a booklet published by the Ecumenical Institute for Study and Dialogue in 2010. Whatever the name it is important to ask what to expect in the medium term. The rest of this piece leans on my booklet and Roberts’ book. I plan to get across a broad brush summary since the difficulty Western capitalism encounters in investing in developing countries is germane to my case.

The 2008-2010 Great Recession is the longest and deepest capitalist slump since the war. The forerunner credit-fuelled boom collapsed and investments plunged. Government debt hit the roof since trillions had to be spent bailing out a string of bankruptcies, crashing banks, insurance giants and iconic companies. The titanic debts the US and other OECD are now up to neck in were NOT incurred to mollycoddle the unemployed or shore up desperate working class and wilting middle class families. No these debts WERE incurred to rescue drowning finance capital, busted dot-coms and failing firms. This nightmare scene is straight out of Kapital III.

The Volume III storyline does not end there. It says a prolonged crisis will drag on after an upheaval such as this till war, ruin or an erosion of the productive powers of society - a great blood-letting - prepares a wasteland on which capitalism can rise again. The prolonged depression since 2008 with no recovery in sight is haunting confirmation. GDP growth in OECD countries has mostly been stuck below 1% (US is best at 1.75%) and firms are not investing for fear that risks are too high. Easy money that central banks spew out is used to buy back shares, ignite stock-market asset bubbles or hoard money. Productivity gains outside IT and investment outside the hot-money finance sector remain abysmal. Interest rates are held at near zero – in some cases real interest and even nominal ones are negative – by central banks terrified of bursting asset bubbles and the ensuing market turmoil if they advance rates even fractionally. Consequently there is disinflation (inflation less than signalled by economic health) or actual deflation in Japan and some European countries. Moderate inflation is a sign of investment and growth when capitalism is ticking along at a healthy sprint.

This then is the depressed scenario across Europe, Japan, the US and South America. The disease has spread to four of the five BRICS countries – India is the exception. China, so far, has caught only influenza, not life threatening pneumonia. Why did global capitalism (USA, Germany, UK, France, Greece, Japan, Italy, Spain, the list goes on and on) come to this pass? The explanation must be generic. Apologies trotted out by bourgeois economist fall flat. Greenspan says he did not see it coming; Nobel Prize winners the late Milton Friedman, Robert Lucas, Eugene Farma and Ben Bernanke are speechless. The Keynesians are up the gum tree, Friedman’s monetarist acolytes glum, their propositions all contradicted and negated. It would take me too far afield to summarise and dismiss their drivel, but what I am saying is not new; this critique is now customary among intelligent commentators.

There is one thesis empirically validated by six decades of data that stands. It is the falling rate of profit theory and dovetails the observation that the organic composition of capital rises in periods of expansion such as from 1945 through the Golden Age called the post-war boom. [Organic composition is the ratio of capital asset-value to productive profit-earning labour cost, but this is not the place to pursue this discourse]. The crucial point for the purposes of this essay is this. It is not the fault of this or that person, not Bush nor Obama, not Alan Greenspan or Janet Yellen. It is inevitable, an outcome that cannot be negated by Trump, Hilary or Theresa May. The syndrome has to run its course; hence we in Lanka are not going to get much succour from global capitalism and have to learn to play ball in an uncomfortable international amphitheatre.

Bring Arjun, officials before the law - COPE

Oct 29, 2016

The COPE report into the controversial bond issue was presented to parliament last Friday by its chairman Sunil Handunnetti. The report recommends legal action against former CB governor Arjun Mahendran and CB officials. The COPE investigated the controversial Rs. 13.5 billion bond issue on 27 February last year

The report says in the beginning that there is evidence and information that leads to justifiable suspicion that Mahendran had intervened in the bond issue. Towards the end, the report accuses him of being directly responsible.

Giving its recommendations, COPE says there is justifiable suspicion that confidence in the CB has been breached due to its conduct in the bond issue, in which it has not shown full transparency in certain dealings.

COPE observes that one of the primary dealers, Perpetual Treasuries, has earned very big financial profits from the bond issues.

The recommendations of punishment includes that legal action be taken to recover the losses incurred to the state and the public from the responsible CB officials and other institutions.

A post-review is required to ensure that the punishment and other recommendations are implemented.

Parliament should directly intervene and inquire into in order to ensure that the steps, checks and balances to prevent repetition of incidents of this nature, as is its main responsibility towards financial administration of the state.

The CB and other related institutions should implement a mechanism to ensure same.

The COPE report also recommends to the executive that a team of observers be appointed to supervise and post-review the issuance and awarding of financial tenders of the CB.

An institution with legal powers should make an extensive investigation into Perpetual Treasuries having earned an improper profit and take steps to prevent a recurrence.

The CB has a responsibility to speedily investigate if the state or the bank has suffered a financial loss from the bond issue.

Also, a clause of guidelines should be included in CB and other documents that priority should be given to state financial institutions capable of fulfilling unexpected financial requirements of the state.

A post-review of how the CB provides funding to meet financial requirements of the state should be done through a mechanism that will look into the primary and secondary market activities.

The state debt management department’s handbook should be updated with immediate effect, including provisions to give priority to state institutions capable of supplying finances to the state through bond issues.

Also, there is a need to put a mechanism in place and to amend the financial commission act and other related regulations to ensure transparency and safeguard trust in the CB in such transactions.

COPE also recommends an open dialogue in parliament on the report.

The dramatic bond issue: How COPE went beyond bioscope

• After some 18 months of strenuous debate and the UNP’s defence of former CBSL governor
• But footnotes added by UNP MPs as riders

 Sunday, October 30, 2016

JVP parliamentarian Sunil Handunetti, taking the centre stage as COPE chairman in probing the Central Bank bond scam is seen here at the Parliament complex corridor carrying the final draft of the widely awaited report. Pic by Indika Handuwela

By Our Political Editor

At no time before has the United National Party (UNP) used its might so strongly in Parliament to try and block what it perceived was a report not to its liking.

The first occasion was in June last year. The previous Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) had completed its probe on the controversial Central Bank bond issue of February 2015. Its then Chairman, Communist Party’s D.E.W. Gunasekera was to table the report but the seventh Parliament was dissolved on June 26, 2015 by President Maithripala Sirisena. The Committee, like all other appointed parliamentary committees, became defunct and the report was rendered invalid. That report had already made some adverse findings on the Central Bank for the handling of the bond issue of 2015.

Yet, the 19-page 2015 COPE document which was not official, had received wide play in the media. The Sunday Times was even reported to the Speaker for breach of Parliamentary Privileges by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on charges that it published the contents of that report. The report made indictments on the then Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran and his son-in-law Arjun Joseph Aloysius. It said that Governor Mahendran and Perpetual Treasuries Limited, a company held by his son-in-law Aloysius (who resigned two months before the transaction) but was still co-owner of the holding company “had a related party transaction.” However, President Sirisena did not grant an extension of service to Mahendran as Governor when his term expired in June last year amid high drama. The President had wanted the Deputy Governor appointed but the Prime Minister was insistent that Mahendran continue; then, there was a name sent from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) when the President was adamant he would not extend Mahendran; that name was sent back asking for more names and eventually the current holder of the post, Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, was chosen as the compromise choice. Mahendran was thereafter inducted to the PMO and was a member of official delegations that travelled abroad with the Prime Minister and was introduced to heads of state in the glare of television cameras.

The dramatic bond issue How COPE went beyond bioscope.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

COPE report tells who robbed, who covered up: Handunnetti

2016-10-29 09

COPE Chairman and JVP MP Sunil Handunnetti, in his note with regard to the report on the Central Bank bond scam, urged the people, students and professionals to study it in-depth to understand who plundered public wealth and who covered up for them.

He told the House after presenting the report that COPE was assigned the arduous task of conducting inquiries into the irregularities in the controversial bond controversy. He said it was a highly responsible and complex task as Chairman and that it was more of an issue concerning the public finance administration of the country.

"There was a discussion in the public domain whether it would be possible to expose the fraudsters and bring them to book and whether a proper report would be presented to Parliament," Mr. Handunnetti said.

He said though the task was complex and challenging, COPE was able to finalise the report with a novel political experience.

"Sovereign rights of the people are implemented through Parliament. Inquiring into the bond issue is the exercise of such rights of the people," Mr. Handunnetti said adding that the finalisation of the report was a historic moment and a victory for those who clamoured for an anti corruption drive.

A total of 15 MPs from the JVP, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) from the government and the joint opposition have signed the report which was submitted separately without footnotes while the report with footnotes was signed by the nine MPs from the United National Party (UNP). (Kelum Bandara and Yohan Perera)

The Danger in Distorted Education: Sri Lanka’s History Curriculum

Photograph courtesy Sister Hood

SHAMARA WETTIMUNY on 10/29/2016

Photo from Puvath.lk

Seven years since the conclusion of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka, there is an opportunity to build bridges between divided communities. In this context, education is key to meaningful reconciliation.

Education is a tool that can create religious and ethnic tolerance, and build inter-faith co-existence. The role of education systems in constructing counter narratives to tackle radicalisation and extremism is well documented. This article examines Sri Lanka’s history curriculum in light of global lessons on the role of education in either fostering or undermining co-existence. It argues that Sri Lanka’s history curriculum needs serious revisiting, as it perpetuates the ‘othering’ of minority communities.

In June 2016, the Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) convened a debate on the ‘Prevention of Violent Extremism through Education’ at the UN in New York. At the event, Anusheh Bakht, a GEFI Youth Advocate, observed that school curricula were often used as political tools to ‘perpetuate a certain belief system to guide thinking’.

Germany provides a good example of the impact mass education can have on behaviour and attitudes of future generations. In 1933, fascist Germany overhauled its education system, in order to create a new generation of committed Nazis. Adolf Hitler understood that moulding the youth was central to his goal of creating a Thousand Year Reich. Accordingly, history lessons recalled glorious wars of conquest in the 1800s, and propagated the ‘stab in the back’ myth to account for Germany’s defeat in the First World War. Biology lessons preached the superiority of the Aryan race; and ranked Jews as sub-humans (‘untermenschen’). Before long, the Nazis re-categorised Jews as ‘lebensunwertes’ or ‘unworthy of life’. Such selective accounts of human worth, history, and knowledge were reprehensible, as they actively encouraged prejudice. Furthermore, when sanctioned and organised through the state’s education apparatus, such narratives became deeply entrenched in the fabric of society. Historians such as Ian Kershaw argue that such indoctrination of the youth muted opposition to the increasing marginalisation of German Jews in the 1930s.

In Sri Lanka, notwithstanding the linguistic and religious segregation of numerous schools, the content of textbooks and syllabi is concerning. According to Sasanka Perera, the legend of battles between ancient kingdoms documented in the Mahāvamsa promotes Sinhalese-Tamil antagonism, and suggests ‘a long and bloody tradition’ between the two races.[1] Thus the reproduction of this version of the past in the Sinhala Grade 6 history syllabus is highly problematic. It claims that the Sinhalese King Dutugemunu defeated the Tamil, ‘foreign’ ruler Elara in a war to protect Buddhism, to ‘reunite the country’ and ‘liberate the country from foreign rule’ (see Figure 1).[2] By contrast, the Tamil Grade 6 history syllabus cites Elara as a leader that ruled ‘with justice’ (see Figure 2).[3]

How do the Sinhala and Tamil, Ministry of Education-sanctioned, textbooks carry such opposing interpretations of history? Moreover, historians continue to debate the motives behind Dutugemenu’s war. According to R.A.L.H Gunawardana, Dutugemunu’s campaign against Elara was not a ‘Sinhala-Tamil confrontation’ but one of many battles ‘against several independent principalities’.[4] What then, is the correct version public schools should teach?

Figure 1

Figure 2

The Mahāvamsa chapter[5] that documents Dutugemunu’s campaign also describes the remorse Dutugemunu experienced. Buddhist monks consoled him[6] when Dutugemunu confessed to the slaughter of millions during his campaign for Anuradhapura, saying: ‘only one and a half human beings have been slain here by thee… Unbelievers and men of evil life were the rest, not more to be esteemed than beasts’.[7] It is shocking that so many lives can be compressed into merely one and a half persons; the rest dismissed as no worthier than ‘beasts’. Should we use the Mahāvamsa – which dehumanises minorities – as a source for the history we teach our children?

R.A.L.H. Gunawardana emphasises the ‘role the study of the “remote past” has played in shaping mass consciousness, and thereby in the moulding of the present’.[8] Historical narratives are integral to many Sri Lankan identities and the understanding of their positions in society. Moreover, such interpretations of history are often used to support incorrect political claims and justify injudicious political decisions.

We must be wary of the tendency for narratives taught as part of school curricula to eventually become accepted as historical fact.[9] This further entrenches distorted interpretations of Sri Lanka’s past, and hardens interracial mistrust. Therefore, in the current context, if reconciliation is ever to be meaningful, should we not start with schools and curricula, and prevent the propagation of a history that is designed to mislead and divide?

Shamara Wettimuny has an MSc and BSc in International Relations and History from the London School of Economics. She currently works at Verité Research, a Colombo-based think tank. The views expressed in this article are her own.

[1] Perera, Sasanka, The Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka: A Historical and Socio-political Outline(2001) at 14.

[2]National Institute of Education, Sri Lanka accessible at http://nie.lk/Grade6_sinhala.html.

[3]National Institute of Education, Sri Lanka accessible at http://nie.lk/Grade6_Tamil.html.

[4]Gunawardana, R.A.L.H., ‘The People of the Lion: The Sinhala Identity and

Ideology in History and Historiography’ [1979] 5(1) & (2), The Sri Lanka

Journal of the Humanities 1-36, at 15.

[5]Mahāvamsa, 25:67-70.

[6]Mahāvamsa, 25:104.

[7]Mahāvamsa, 25: 109-112.

[8]Gunawardana, R.A.L.H., at 36.

[9]Gunatilleke, Gehan, Confronting the Complexity of Loss: Perspectives on Truth, Memory and Justice in Sri Lanka (Law & Society Trust: 2015), at 10.

Sri Lanka aims to reduce drug supply and use to minimum by 2020

October 29, 2016

Minister of Law & Order and Southern Development Sagala Ratnayake says the Sri Lankan government believes that the most effective approach to the illegal drug problem would comprise of comprehensive, balanced and coordinated strategy.

“Our ultimate goal should be to make the Indian Ocean a drug free zone,” he said, addressing the high level meeting of interior Security and Internal Affairs Ministers of the Indian Ocean Region to Counter Drug Trafficking at the BMICH today (29).

He stated that the overall goal of the government of Sri Lanka in relation to the drug problem is also an ambitious one to reduce the drug supply and drug use to minimum levels by 2020. 

This goal will be pursued relentlessly by all drug law enforcement agencies, the government agencies directly involved in drug demand reduction including provincial and local administrations and other agencies which have a potential for contributing to the end objective and NGOs and the private agencies as well, he said. 

“The government will adopt a broader approach to drug abuse control within the context of human development focusing particularly on the links between drug abuse, poverty reduction, crime prevention and improving health.”

“The government believes that the most effective approach to the drug problem would comprise of comprehensive, balanced and coordinated strategy and in such a strategy supply control and demand reduction will reinforce each other,” Ratnayake added. 

He stated that a high sense of shared responsibility will be the norm. “I am pleased to confirm that my government has the political will and commitment to eradicate the drug menace and control drug trafficking through Sri Lanka. And it is not by words alone but also by deed.”   

He said that the President himself leads the programme while the Prime Minister is “deeply involved in this entire mission.” 

He stated that Sri Lanka is also working hard on laws. “Some of the laws in Sri Lanka are old, they don’t cater to the current needs. We’re working hard on bringing in new legislation to be able to counter organized crime, drugs and also new laws on terrorism.”

“We are totally committed to eradicate drugs.They have become the most serious challenge faced by our societies today. 

“Unless we take steps to stop the menace of drugs now, all of us will face with a disaster of unprecedented magnitude.”

The harm caused to the people, especially the youth by drugs is a serious problem, he said.  

Coping With A Changing Climate

By Ranil Senanayake –October 29, 2016 

Dr Ranil Senanayake

A recent report issued by the UN Development Program, the Global Environmental Facility and the Government of Australia, evaluating the preparedness of Sri Lanka to deal with Climate Change pointed out the a lack of “awareness about climate change impacts on the livelihood among farmers and local government officials, especially those engaged in water management and agriculture extension”. This is not the first warning; we have had plenty of time to deal with this need. An article titled; Climate Change’ published in 2011 asked of the outcome of the Durban meeting that our climate change experts went to:

“While awaiting to hear of the brilliant contributions that Sri Lanka has made to the just concluded United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), conference in Durban, the view from Durban is somewhat clouded. The global polluters are demonstrating extreme disdain of accepting any responsibility they have to the rest of humanity who share a common atmosphere with them. The unilateral move by Canada in withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol, a move endorsed by the fossil energy industry, demonstrates how much public interest has been eroded from political enclaves.

The UNFCC itself is a lame duck, it is still unable to recognize or identify the difference in value of carbon originating from biotic sources and fossil sources. This fact is commonsense; that while a diamond, petroleum, a lump of coal, piece of wood or piece of fruit is comprised of carbon, they are not the same, and they have different values. So in burning them up we have to recognize the value (cost) of each. The carbon dioxide that emanates from them by burning is also different. The carbon dioxide from biotic carbon will always have the carbon isotope C14, while carbon dioxide from fossil carbon will never contain C14. In time, the differences are in millions of years. This much is common knowledge, most high school children are already aware of these facts. Then why has the UNFCC chosen not to ‘see’ that there is a value and temporal difference between biotic and fossil carbon cycles? A cynic might say that many are in the pay of the energy industry. But, what about our Sri Lankan scientists who attended Durban? Surely they will never sell out to the energy industry! Perhaps they have already identified these fundamental structural flaws within the UNFCC and we might see this stand reflected in their reports.

In the meanwhile, apart from the innumerable conferences and workshops that we could have, what should we do in Sri Lanka? This question has come sharply into focus with the news that Russian scientists have discovered hundreds of plumes of methane gas, some over 1,000 meters in diameter, bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean. Methane is about 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. Dr.Igor Semiletov of the Russian Academy of Sciences stated in a recent interview “ Earlier we found torch-like structures like this but they were only tens of meters in diameter. This is the first time that we’ve found continuous, powerful and impressive seeping structures, more than 1,000 meters in diameter. It’s amazing.”

All this points to the need for immediate action. Landscapes are slow to respond to rapid changes. The effect of the increase in storm force was apparent all last year. By now we should have had some national adaptation strategies. Yes, there has been a plethora of conferences around the subject, but what do I do if my drinking water runs out? What do I do if there is salt intrusion into my field? How do I deal with sudden windstorms? If the years spent on discussing adaptation had borne any fruit, we would now be seeing public education programs on climate change preparedness by now. “

Sadly, today, in 2016 we have the UNDP stating that in Sri Lanka there is a lack of “awareness about climate change impacts on the livelihood among farmers and local government officials, especially those engaged in water management and agriculture extension”

It is now patently clear that we will face a scarcity of food as the global temperatures rise. Chlorophyll, the primary material of life begins to denature as the 39degree threshold is passed. We are already witnessing 40 degree plus temperatures in many nations with the probability of exposure times increasing (fig 1). Should we not have been conducting tests on heat resistant crops or adaptive landscapes ?

Compounding the hypocrisy that is being foisted on us. There is the spectacle of Sri Lanka signing the Paris Accord to keep global temperatures under control by limiting out carbon output while gleefully promoting the construction of mega cities with no concern of their carbon footprint. When we consider that for every ton of concrete we emit 800 kgs of CO2 and every ton of steel is responsible for 1.2 tons of CO2, who has reported on the increase in CO2 emissions by this giant city building exercise? If the climate change secretariat has failed to account for both the construction and operational CO2 costs of construction in Sri Lanka, we would be cheating in our international obligations.

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Theater company tackles social injustice in Gaza’s streets

Salem, in red, faces discrimination from his teacher and fellow students in a classroom scene from In the Rectangle of Doubt. Mohammed Asad-Children watch In the Rectangle of Doubt being performed in Beit Hanoun.Mohammed Asad

Rafat al-Aydeh, artistic director of Theatre Day Productions, aims to hold performances in “every street in Gaza.”Mohammed Asad

Mousa Tawfiq-27 October 2016

The scene is unexpectedly fraught.

In a classroom in Gaza, new students have been asked to say where they live. It is ordinarily a simple enough question, but one student stumbles. It soon becomes clear that he is Bedouin. The attitudes of teacher and peers change almost immediately.

The scene comes from a new play that is unusual in more ways than one: It publicly confronts audiences in Gaza with social ills that are rarely so openly portrayed and, for the first time, according to the organizers behind the performance, does so in the format of street theater.

For the past several months, Palestinians in Gaza have been able to catch In the Rectangle of Doubt on public streets or in local institutions, a departure from the more familiar street-performing clowns or puppeteers. And unlike such performances, what Theatre Day Productions is trying to accomplish is altogether more ambitious.

“We wanted to raise people’s awareness of social problems with real street theater,” Tania Murtaja, the external relations officer of the non-profit theater company, told The Electronic Intifada.

The format, she explained, is very effective in connecting with audiences, necessary when confronting people with problems in their midst. And discrimination against Bedouins was chosen as the topic of the play after months of brainstorming and research.

“We noticed the discrimination against the people of Um al-Nasser,” said Murtaja, referring to a Bedouin village in the far north of the Gaza Strip where residents maintain distinct traditions and customs. “So we went there, brimming with questions about their lives and experiences.”

The show

The show is mobile and has traveled around the Gaza Strip. First, a technical team of four arrives to set up the stage. Then music — traditional recordings of Bedouin songs, with their distinctive rhythms and melodies — is played to gather an audience.

The play itself revolves around the story of Salem, a young man who has suffered discrimination and is invited to talk about it on a TV program, the eponymous (to the play) In the Rectangle of Doubt. This conceit allows the character both to verbally relate and perform different situations he has experienced.

Among these situations is the classroom scene confronting new students. All the students answer without hesitation, when the teacher asks where they live, but Salem stays silent. Then:

“From where I live, if I look west, I see the sea. If I look north, I see the Israeli border fences. But if I look south, I see a huge wastewater pond. And if I look east, I see nothing but streets.”

The teacher understands immediately. “You live in Um al-Nasser,” he asserts, and from then, no matter how diligently Salem works, the boy is dealt with differently.

Thus the play traces the life of Salem and the obstacles he meets, obstacles that actors discuss from the stage with the audience after the play is over.

Months of preparations

The actors — six in all — have meticulously prepared, both from teaching in the village and by creating their own show.

Eighteen drama sessions were organized in Um al-Nasser’s two schools.

“We focused on teaching the children how to express themselves through theater. At the end, we had simple performances played by children themselves,” said Murtaja.

Children were allowed full freedom to choose their own ideas for their short performances, Murtaja said, while female actors with the theater company spent time with the women of the village.

“Our role was to put their ideas into an artistic frame.”

For four weeks, the actors lived in Um al-Nasser. They ate, talked and played together.

“I was very curious,” said actor Said Khawalda, 27. “And I’ve been enthused by them. They have their own history, dreams and traditions.”

After the drama sessions, a group of children from the village was invited to perform, with the actors, on stage.

“It was an amazing experience. It was their first time to stand on a stage. And we got many ideas for our play from them,” Khawalda said.

Theatre Day Productions then took another eight weeks to write and rehearse its own play before it debuted in Um al-Nasser itself in August. The comments of the residents of Um al-Nasser proved invaluable.

“We worked hard, with the people of Um al-Nasser, to show their real situation,” said Khawalda.

No street unturned

“When I joined, 20 years ago, we dreamed of one day performing in every school in Gaza,” said Rafat al-Aydeh, the artistic director of Theatre Day Productions and director of In the Rectangle of Doubt. “Now we have branches in the West Bank, we have street theater and very talented actors with the flexibility and skill to perform in streets.”

In early October, the company performed in Beit Hanoun, a town on the northeastern fringe of the Gaza Strip. The audience there was fully engaged, laughing, clapping and cheering along with the performance.

Children flocked to the play.

“We were playing in the area when we heard the sound of the play,” said Omar al-Masri, 12, who ran to see what was going on with his cousin, Yazan, 11. “It’s our first time watching a play and we liked it, especially the music and the funny actors.”

But older generations came too.

Walid Abu Ouda, 60, said this was the first time he had seen anything like it. “I’ve been coming to this club for years. It’s my first time to see such meaningful activity. We got the message and I’m sure it will influence us.”

The concept of street theater is alien to many Palestinians, but as in Beit Hanoun, al-Aydeh said audiences generally had responded well.

“We’ve performed 35 times, on streets, in clubs and high schools. We will keep performing until we’ve covered every street in Gaza.”

Al-Aydeh said the group was already looking into new directions for the play.

“Our passion inspires us to keep working. We are planning a new episode of In the Rectangle of Doubt with new social challenges.”

Mousa Tawfiq is a journalist based in Gaza.