Trump’s Indonesian Business Partner Is Knee-Deep in Dirty Politics

Hary Tanoesoedibjo is a sketchy billionaire with ties to pro-Islamist politicians — and the ear of the next U.S. president.

BY KRITHIKA VARAGUR-DECEMBER 22, 2016

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Hary Tanoesoedibjo is a billionaire reality TV impresario with a rich dad, over a million Twitter followers, a love for Vladimir Putin, a trail of tax avoidance allegations, and outsized political ambitions. It’s no wonder he’s Donald Trump’s biggest business partner in Indonesia — and now it seems his closest political ally.

Tanoesoedibjo, whose name is commonly shortened to Tanoe, plans to join Trump in building two “six-star” luxury resorts in West Java and Bali. The former will include a theme park, Trump’s first golf course in Asia, and a brand-new toll road linking the resort to Jakarta. It would be a lofty revamp for the present Lido Lakes resort and conference center, a fusty old hotel amid rice fields.

Their partnership comes with some eyebrow-raising footnotes. The pair formally agreed to cooperate in a September 2015 memorandum of understanding (MOU), when Trump was among the bumper crop of Republican presidential candidates; for now, the U.S. president-elect is remaining coy about his exact plans to divest his holdings. Meanwhile, Tanoe created his own political party last year: the United Indonesia Party (Perindo). The party plans to field candidates for office, Tanoe among them, in the near future. And the existing Indonesian politicians who are closest to Trump and Tanoe, Setya Novanto and Fadli Zon — the speaker and vice speaker of the House  of Representatives, respectively — have warm relations with the Islamist radicals who have been organizing mass protests in Jakarta this fall against a Christian governor.

“Out of all Indonesians today, I would say that Hary Tanoe is probably the one who has the greatest access to Trump, and the only one who has dealt with him in a substantial way,” said Dino Djalal, a former Indonesian ambassador to the United States. “What I know is the present government does not have access to the Trump camp. Many Indonesians have access to the Hillary people,” such as Kurt Campbell, who served in Clinton’s State Department as the assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs. “But with Trump,” he continued, “we just have no idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone called Hary Tanoe and said, ‘Hey, help us out here.’”

Some praise the knowledge Trump has gleaned through this relationship. “Trump understands Indonesia through its products,” said Airlangga Hartarto, the Indonesian minister of industry, whose constituency includes the site of Tanoe’s Lido resort. “Indonesia’s resources have always had a close bearing on government policy. Since 1967,” when General Suharto seized power.

“In Indonesia, the business relationship between Tanoe and Trump is well-known, and it will most likely extend to politics,” said Arbi Sanit, a political analyst at the University of Indonesia. “Trump will use Tanoe as a tool in dealing with Indonesia, and because they are mixing politics with business, he may be used as an informal ambassador.” Like Trump, said Sanit, Tanoe has also tried to pivot to national politics — albeit with little success so far — but that could change soon. “The ‘Trump effect’ could fast-track his political fortunes if their investments work out, due to the general support for American business in this country,” he said.

Although Trump has gestured toward moving his holdings into a blind trust, he has been vague about the details. In Indonesia, members of Tanoe’s MNC Land group, which oversees real estate developments, say they haven’t been instructed to change anything since the American election.

“Nothing has changed for us since Trump’s election,” said Syafril Nasution, corporate secretary of the MNC Group. “MNC signed our MOU with Trump in 2015, so we’re still proceeding exactly as planned.” Both projects, said Nasution, will stretch until at least 2018, well over half of Trump’s first term. Trump’s press team could not be reached for comment.

Tanoe, who’s worth $1.09 billion according to Forbes, has a murky financial record. “Probably nobody, local or foreign, does business of this scale in Indonesia without paying bribes,” William Liddle, professor emeritus of political science at Ohio State University and a specialist in Indonesian politics told Reveal News. Earlier this year, Tanoe was implicated in a tax evasion scandal with a telecommunications company that he used to own.

Trump’s connection with Tanoe doesn’t only tie the president-elect to local corruption — it also implicates him in his local partner’s unsavory and potentially destabilizing politics.

Tanoe has flitted between three political parties in just five years, and ran for vice president on Suharto-era military general Wiranto’s presidential ticket in 2014. His brief tenure in Wiranto’s Hanura party coincided with a surge in the polls for the party, thanks to his high media profile. Tanoe runs the country’s third-largest television station as well as the Miss Indonesia pageant.

The “biggest risk” of the Trump-Tanoe relationship, Sanit argues, is that it could boost Tanoe’s upstart populist party. The United Indonesia Party’s platform runs counter to the moderate liberal consensus helmed by current President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, which “counterbalances the ideology of radical Islamism through robust nationalism.” Tanoe’s party doesn’t stand for anything specific, beyond Tanoe himself, said Sanit, so much as it stands against the current administration. In that, it matches Trump’s enthusiastic middle finger to the American establishment during his campaign.

“I’ve heard whisperings that Hary Tanoe is trying to position himself as a broker between Jokowi’s and Trump’s administrations,” said Wayne Forrest, president of the American Indonesian Chamber of Commerce, “although I’m doubtful that Jokowi would accept such an arrangement. It would be more classic Jokowi to watch and wait how things pan out.”

But unlike Trump, Tanoe can’t represent the resentful ethnic majority of his country. He is a Chinese Christian, a long-aggrieved minority that has become newly anxious with the racially charged campaign to unseat Jakarta’s Chinese Christian governor.

And yet, Tanoe is comfortable working even with people complicit in attacks on his own community. Tanoe is acting as a bridge between Trump and some of Indonesia’s sketchiest politicians, Setya Novanto and Fadli Zon, the speaker and vice speaker of the House. They are longtime Tanoe supporters who made a bizarre public appearance with Trump in New York in September 2015.

Zon is a tacit supporter of the Islamic Defenders’ Front (FPI), the hardline Islamist group that organized massive rallies against Jakarta’s ethnic Chinese governor this fall, and which engages in various cultural offensives like banning Santa hats from Indonesian malls.

“Before each of their big rallies, FPI leadership met with Fadli Zon, who warmly embraced them,” said Indonesian journalist Made Supriatma. “Like many politicians, he’s more than happy to ally with reactionary groups that target officials from divergent parties.”

“Yes, I supported the rallies,” Zon told Foreign Policy, speaking at Parliament. “[Protest leader] Habib Rizieq came to Parliament before the rallies and we received him. I support his right to freedom of expression,” he said.

“There’s no doubt that Tanoe brokered that meeting,” said Djalal, referring to the 2015 meeting with Trump in New York. “That’s the only way Novanto and Zon could have met with Trump in New York.”

The pair got into hot water when they returned to Jakarta and were summoned for questioning over the ethics of the Trump meeting, although they took a laissez-faire attitude to their hearings, and the allegations eventually just faded away. In December, Novanto was caught trying to extort $4 billion from a mining company and resigned his post. But then his replacement was also ousted for ethics violations, so last month, Novanto was reinstated as House speaker.

Given Trump’s frequent and bigoted attacks on Muslims and Islam, Zon, Novanto, Tanoe, and Trump seem like unlikely bedfellows. But Zon was unconcerned about Trump’s onetime promise of a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslim immigration to the U.S.

“Of course, if you scrutinize what he says word by word, it can’t realistically be done. I think it was just campaign rhetoric. I don’t think he’ll do what he said,” said Zon.

Photo Credit: ED WRAY/Stringer

THE MOST POWERFUL MOMENTS OF PHOTOJOURNALISM IN 2016

Artsy Editorial.

By Molly Gottschalk.-29/12/2016

In September of this year, Facebook censored—and quickly reinstated—the iconic 1972 photograph of a nude, nine-year-old girl fleeing a napalm attack in Vietnam. The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph is a defining image of the horrors of the war and a catalyst for Western opposition. Throughout history, images such as Napalm Girl, as the image has come to be known, have emerged as powerful emblems of major news events and social and political movements, giving a voice—and often a face—to struggles or injustices that words sometimes can’t muster.

THE MOST POWERFUL MOMENTS OF PHOTOJOURNALISM IN 2016.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

Burma: Malaysian NGOs to send aid flotilla to restive Rakhine state

Rohingya from Burma make their way in an alley at an unregistered refugee camp in Teknaf, near Cox's Bazar, a southern coastal district about, 296 kilometers (183 miles) south of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Pic: AP

30th December 2016

AN aid flotilla carrying food and emergency supplies for Rohingya Muslims will sail from Malaysia for Burma’s (Myanmar’s) troubled Rakhine State next month, the Malaysian organiser said on Friday.

The flotilla, organised by a coalition of aid groups, has yet to receive permission to enter Burma, sparking fears of a confrontation with security forces that could worsen Burma’s already-frayed ties with predominantly Muslim Malaysia.

Malaysia has been an outspoken critic of the Myanmar government’s handling of a violent crackdown in Rakhine, which has killed scores of people and displaced 30,0000 Rohingya, amid allegations of abuses by security forces.

SEE ALSO: Nobel laureates call on UN to end violence against Rohingyas in Burma

The Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organisations secretary-general Zulhanis Zainol said the flotilla’s organisers had applied for permission to enter Burma through its embassy in Kuala Lumpur, but had yet to receive a reply.

“Even if we do not receive a response, we will continue to sail as we believe this is an important humanitarian mission,” he said.

Burma’s presidential office denied it had received a request and said it would not accept the flotilla’s arrival without prior permission.

SEE ALSO: Malaysia: ASEAN should lead Rohingya crisis resolution, current progress ‘rather slow’

“If they are looking for trouble, we will not accept that,” Zaw Htay, spokesman for the presidential office, told Reuters.

“No non-Myanmar citizens can enter our body of water without our permission. If they do, we will respond – we will not attack them, but we will not receive them.”

The flotilla, departing from Malaysia on Jan. 10, would be carrying 1,000 tonnes of rice, medical aid and other essentials for the Rohingya population.

Earlier this month, Malaysia urged the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to coordinate humanitarian aid and investigate alleged atrocities committed against Rohingya Muslims. Both Malaysia and Burma are members of the 10-nation grouping, which has a long-standing policy of not getting involved in each other’s internal affairs.

An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 Rohingyas, displaced by previous violence, live in Malaysia.

Burma has previously said access to Rakhine for humanitarian assistance would be open, but certain Rohingya communities have remained off-limits to aid agencies on security grounds. – Reuters

Bill Gates: world faces decade at risk from antibiotic-resistant bugs

Philanthropist says he believes ‘better medical tools’ will come, but until then the world is vulnerable to a pandemic

 Bill Gates said: ‘I cross my fingers all the time that some epidemic like a big flu doesn’t come along in the next 10 years.’ Photograph: Kamil Zihnioglu/AP

Damien Gayle-30th December 2016

People across the world, particularly those in developing countries, face a decade at risk from pandemics spread by antibiotic-resistant bugs, the billionaire Bill Gates has warned.

Gates, who made his fortune with the Microsoft Windows operating system before becoming a philanthropist, said the success of antibiotics had created complacency that was now being exposed by the rise of microbial resistance to the drugs.

“I cross my fingers all the time that some epidemic like a big flu doesn’t come along in the next 10 years,” Gates told a special edition of Radio 4’s Today programme guest-edited by Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England.

“I do think we will have much better medical tools, much better response, but we are a bit vulnerable right now if something spread very quickly like a flu that was quite fatal – that would be a tragedy and new approaches should allow us to reduce that risk a lot.”

Gates said it was crucial for wealthier countries to step in to help the developing world fight disease, both for humanitarian reasons and for their own health security.

Although mistakes were made, criticism of the World Health Organisation (WHO) during the Ebola crisis in west Africa was unfair, he said, because it was not funded or staffed to do all the things that observers wanted it to do.

International cooperation had led to the eradication of smallpox, and was on the verge of eradicating polio, he added.

“The cooperation that we have seen, I think, needs to intensify,” Gates said. “It’s the only way that global problems like epidemics will get solved and so [for] all the people who are negative on WHO, the message to take away from that is not that that kind of multilateral cooperative effort is doomed and the money is not well spent, rather that we actually need to broaden their capacity. We actually need to dedicate ourselves to this global cooperation.”

In September the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, warned that antimicrobial resistance was a “fundamental threat” to global health that risked making high quality universal healthcare impossible.

It is estimated that more than 700,000 people die each year from drug-resistant infections, though it could be much higher because there is no global system to monitor the figures. There has also been difficulties in tracking death tolls even in places where they are monitored, such as the US, where tens of thousands of deaths have not been attributed to superbugs, according to a Reuters investigation.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported in November that illnesses resistant to so-called last-line antibiotics – drugs kept in reserve for use against pathogens that have proved resistant to all other antibiotics – were on the rise in the continent.

Without them, some infectious diseases could become untreatable and some forms of major surgery would again become perilous.

Davies said Britain’s health service was well placed to handle a flu pandemic, although it would still take as long as six months to “produce enough vaccine to start putting it into people”. She was less optimistic about how resilient the rest of British society would be to an outbreak.

“It’s not just the NHS,” she said. “It’s how would our social care system cope with people who aren’t ill enough to be in hospital but need extra support? It’s how would our economy cope if a large proportion are too ill to work? When we have a just-in-time ordering policy for delivery of food, petrol, whatever.

“And if you think about the issues that could happen here if we had a recurrence of the 1918 type flu, then what would it be like in middle- and low-income countries where they don’t have the health systems to look after the patients?”

The Top 10 Drugs People Are Overdosing and Dying On in the U.S.

The overdose death toll keeps rising.

By Phillip Smith / AlterNet-December 21, 2016

As the wave of heroin and prescription opioid use sweeps across the US, leaving an ever-growing pile of bodies behind, the folks at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are digging into the data. In a new report on the 2014 numbers, they rank the drugs most often reported in overdose fatalities.

That report put the number of drug overdose deaths that year at 47,055, jumping 23% in four years. 

Heroin and prescription opioids accounted for 61%, but the use of the stimulants cocaine and methamphetamine also killed thousands, and a few thousand more died from benzodiazepines such as Xanax (alprazolam) and Valium (diazepam).

[The CDC just released 2015 overdose death figures, and they show more of the same. Overall overdose deaths jumped another 5,000 to more than 52,000, with heroin and prescription opioids accounting for 63%. But this latest report doesn't provide a breakdown on deaths by drug categories like the report on 2014 does.]

Here, in rank order of deaths, are the 10 drugs Americans are ODing on:

1. Heroin—10,863
2. Cocaine—5,856
3. Oxycodone—5,435
4. Alprazoloam—4,217
5. Fentanyl—4,200
6. Morphine—4,022
7. Methamphetamine—3,727
8. Methadone—3,895
9. Hydrocodone—3,274
10. Diazepam—1,279

This CDC report didn't include alcohol overdose deaths, but if it had (and the CDC has the numbers), booze would have come in at number 10, with 2,200 overdose deaths a year. 

The CDC identified two main causes of the continuing increase in drug overdose deaths: A 15-year increase in prescription opioid deaths as a result of misuse and abuse and a more recent surge in heroin deaths. The former can be associated with the loosening of restrictions on opioid prescribing and the introduction of Oxycontin in 1996, while the latter can be associated with the tightening of restrictions on opioid prescribing in the face of a rising prescription pain pill death toll.

The 2014 death figures reveal changing trends in death-risking drug use as well. Compared with just four years earlier, heroin deaths more than tripled and fentanyl deaths more than doubled, while prescription pain pill ODs actually declined and the benzos stayed relatively stable. But meth deaths had nearly tripled, and cocaine deaths increased by about 25%.

The CDC isn't too pleased about the situation.

"The increasing number of deaths from opioid overdose is alarming," said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. "The opioid epidemic is devastating American families and communities. To curb these trends and save lives, we must help prevent addiction and provide support and treatment to those who suffer from opioid use disorders. This report also shows how important it is that law enforcement intensify efforts to reduce the availability of heroin, illegal fentanyl, and other illegal opioids."

Frieden's final recommendation, though—more drug war—seems to ignore that this entire phenomenon is occurring precisely under a regime of intensive drug law enforcement that has been going on for more than 40 years. Why more of the same would change the outcome is a question that remains unanswered. 

Phillip Smith is editor of the AlterNet Drug Reporter and author of the Drug War Chronicle.

SRI LANKA: ARTICLE 16(1) – REPEAL IT OR CONTINUE TO RENDER MUSLIM WOMEN AND GIRLS AS UNEQUAL CITIZENS

Hyshyama Hamin and Hasanah Cegu Isadeen.

28/12/2016

In November, we completed ‘Unequal Citizens: Muslim women’s struggle for justice and equality in Sri Lanka’ – a one-year study that sought answers as to why the reforms to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) was many decades overdue. In light of the constitutional reforms process, the study also led to the inquiry about whether or not as a result of our religious affiliation and gender – we and our sisters in faith were equal before the law, as others. The answer, as we found out is a resounding ‘no’, and the reasons are many.

Not only are Sri Lankan Muslim women subject to personal laws that deny us equality in an integral aspect of our lives – marriage and family, but there are also no constitutional guarantees and safeguards of our fundamental rights of equality and non-discrimination in these very aspects.

The events and widespread discussions of the past few months around the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) of 1951, has made it clear that the status quo with respect to MMDA is untenable. There are serious shortcomings in provisions of the law, procedures and implementation. There are also serious consequences of these shortcomings in creating a culture of discrimination that has adversely impacted on the rights and wellbeing of women and girls within the Muslim community. The struggle of Muslim women for reform of the MMDA against heavy odds has been led by few committed activists, admirable and long suffering but also riven with limitations.

But the legal discriminations do not end there. Since 1978, Article 16(1) of our Constitution has prevented those affected by the MMDA- women and men – from being able to seek redress against discriminatory aspects of the law and has rendered Muslims less than equal as citizens. In other words, if our rights were in any way violated by said personal laws to which we are compelled to abide by should we choose to marry another Muslim, there is no constitutional redress or remedy.

We are in essence denied protection of our individual rights as citizens, simply because we belong to a certain faith group.

So how can this be resolved? What was clear from the study were certain aspects of politics, law making and societal understanding the needs to come together in ensuring that the struggle for equality and justice for Muslims in Sri Lanka is not in vain.

Sri Lankan government has the right and the primary responsibility to address and intervene on MMDA related issues.

For everyone who argues that the MMDA is only up to the Muslim community to decide and debate upon – let us not forget that the Quazi court system was established, administered and is funded by the State and tax-payers money of citizens, Muslim and otherwise. Therefore the Sri Lankan government has the primary duty to address issues and inequalities faced by Muslims under the MMDA. It has the foremost responsibility to ensure that State laws protect the rights of citizens and is not in turn causing discrimination and injustice on the basis of gender and religion.

Abd Allāh Ahmad Naʻīm the author of ‘Islamic Family Law in A Changing World’, which studied the implementation of Islamic family law in 38 countries, wrote that transformation of Islamic family law has been happening to different extents. In the vast majority of countries in which it applies – “The law is enacted in statutory form by the State, rather than being derived from traditional sources of Sharia… Moreover, whether a judgment is based on statute or a selection by a judge, it is legally binding and enforceable only by the authority of the State”.

Ahmad Naʻīm also argues that, “…it is better to recognize openly that this field (Islamic law) like all other law, derives its authority from the political will of the State”. Thus implying that the realm of personal laws if and when mandated by the State becomes the responsibility of the same to address the consequences of the law and to reform, amend or rescind where necessary.

Reforms to the MMDA are critical and long overdue. However as our study shows, it is highly unlikely that 1) consensus will be reached any time soon on all aspects of the MMDA, procedures and Quazi court system 2) the reforms recommended to the MMDA will actually address all the grievances experienced by Muslim women and girls, and 3) that MMDA reforms will be harmonized to ensure that the Act does not infringe fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.

Therefore it is imperative that in addition to pushing for progressive reforms to the MMDA, it is equally, if not more important to ensure that the new Constitution protects rights of all citizens, regardless of when or whether or not reforms takes place.

Ensuring equality in the Constitution and allowing for judicial review

The ongoing constitutional reforms process has opened many doors of discussion about individual and collective rights. This is particularly poignant with regard to debate about fundamental rights, personal laws and Article 16(1). While there are many myths regarding Article 16(1) that is prompting few individuals to question whether it should be repealed or retained, what is fundamentally clear is that Article 16(1) is not a positively articulated clause that protects 600+ laws including personal laws. Rather it is a negatively articulated clause that protects discriminatory provisions in these over 600 laws, including the MMDA, granting impunity if provisions in these laws violate fundamental rights.

Therefore in principle for anyone and everyone who believes in equality and non-discrimination for ALL citizens of Sri Lanka – Article 16(1) has to be repealed.

There have been extensive calls for repeal of Article 16(1) tracking back to district level consultations organized by the Public Representations Committee (PRC) since early 2016. Both men and women activists, advocates and affected persons particularly in the North and East have testified and given statements before the commissioners calling for a review of the MMDA. Calls have also included the option to marry under the General Marriage Registration Ordinance (GMRO) – which also discriminates against Muslims by exempting Muslim couples from marrying under the ordinance should they choose to do so.

Consequently, it is imperative that the Constitution grants full equality and protection of fundamental rights to all its citizens, regardless of ethnicity, gender, religion or sect, in order to ensure a standard set of basic rights for all.

What use will a new Constitution and Bill of Rights be if a segment of the population are denied unconditional protection of their fundamental rights?

Repeal of Article 16(1) is particularly imperative for the Muslim community, which has been the target of hate speech and violent rhetoric in the recent past. Muslim citizens understand intimately the struggle to be treated as equal citizens as all others and the importance of having our rights protected in this regard. Therefore repealing Article 16(1) and demanding full protection of our fundamental rights should be an essential demand to this struggle for non-discrimination. To ask the State for our right to be free from discrimination, while being complacent and even soliciting the denial of protection of fundamental rights by continuation of Article 16(1) – is hypocrisy of the highest order.

The new Constitution must address discriminations, heal the crevices that have formed amidst citizens and propel Sri Lanka forward. It cannot leave anyone behind, especially not the most marginalized. To do so, is to render the entire process meaningless and futile. To do so is to knowingly perpetrate injustice for decades to come.

– Access full study of Unequal Citizens here:  www.mplreforms.com

Original image caption: Sri Lankan muslim women and children, made homeless after two days of anti-muslim riots in Sri Lankas tourist region of Alutgama, take refuge in a makeshift camp at Beruwala, about 58 kms south of capital Colombo on June 18, 2014. The main Muslim party in Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), demanded a UN probe into one of the worst religious riots as President Mahinda Rajapakse toured the violence-hit resort region. AFP PHOTO/ Ishara S. KODIKARA

A Long History Of Tamil Persecution

By Deirdre McConnell –December 29, 2016

Deirdre McConnell

The history of the persecution of the Tamil people is long. Colonisation of Tamil land by the Sinhalese goes back nearly 200 years. For more than 70 years, there has been systematic denial of other economic, social and cultural rights; and of civil and political rights. Discriminatory legislation disenfranchised Tamils (1948), denied them equal rights in language (1956) and education (1971). The 1972 constitution abolished the right to appeal to Privy council; abolished section 29 of the 1946 constitution which intended to protect numerical minorities; renamed the island Sri Lanka, rather than Ceylon, (favouring Sinhala concepts), and gave Buddhism foremost place over other religions practiced on the island. This last, secured the ability of Buddhist clerics, alongside Sinhalese politicians to maintain Sinhalese control. A distorted version of buddhism, which demonises Tamils (who are mostly hindu, though there are Tamil muslims and christians too) inculcated belief that Sinhala Buddhists are racially superior to the Tamils. This ideology influenced and influences the policies and actions of successive governments of Sri Lanka up to the present day.

Non-violent resistance: With each wave of racist legislation Tamils protested with dignified satyagraha protests (non-violent civil disobedience in the Ghandian manner). However these were crushed with hostile and repressive measures taken by police and army on the direction of the government. In the 1950s and 60s Tamil politicians proposed political solutions. However, agreements for peace based on a quasi-federal system devolving certain powers to the Tamils in North and East signed by Sinhala leaders (prime ministers) and Tamil leaders (parliamentarians) to resolve the political turmoil, were unilaterally abrogated by the prime ministers then in power. Between the failed agreements of 1957 and 1965 over 500 Tamils were killed.

By this time and over the next decade, the Tamil non-violent movement, Tamil civil society and their political parties started to consider it time to exercise their right to self-determination. They had been consistently denied the right to freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development as provided for in international law in article 1.1 of the ICCPR and ICESCR.

Self-determination: In the July 1977 elections the Tamils voted overwhelmingly for their desire for self-determination to be defined by external self-determination. The government responded by introducing the Sixth amendment to the constitution prohibiting peaceful advocacy of independence. The rest is history. Further persecution of the Tamils included the burning down of Jaffna library in 1981, destroying over 95,000 irreplaceable ancient Tamil texts and manuscripts. By now an armed resistance movement was forming to defend Tamils. During the July 1983 pogroms in which over 3,000 Tamils were brutally killed, Tamils were identified by their names, electoral lists or the fact that they could only speak Tamil and not Sinhala. The International Commission of Jurists reported that this victimisation and dehumanisation of Tamils was of genocidal proportions.

Since then acts of state violence have continued, in what became a genocidal war. Rape as a weapon of war has been used systematically against Tamil women. The UN Working Group on Disappearances reports that Sri Lanka has the second highest number of disappearances in the world. The Prevention of Terrorism Act – PTA is used to facilitate torture; sexual violence against women; disappearances and extra-judicial killings and to entrench impunity. It allows confessions made under torture to be admissible in court. Over years international HR organisations have condemned the PTA, calling for its abolition.

Mullivaighall 2009: Since the massacres of 2009, which cost between 70,000 and 140,000 Tamil lives, the EU and many countries have actively taken up the issue. Channel 4 media has documented war crimes and crimes against humanity committed at the end of the war. Careful documentation of interviews and courageous testimonies by victims has led to widespread awareness of the dire situation of continuing torture; violence against women; land-grabbing – and militarisation, Buddistisation, Sinhalisation of Tamil homeland in the North and East.

International scrutiny: The report of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) issued in September 2015, identified a pattern of persistent and large scale violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. The Resolution agreed by consensus in the HRC of the same month, was co-sponsored by Sri Lanka itself. This resolution urges implementation of the recommendations of the OISL. Yet the government is attempting to convince the international community that all is well now, and that there is no need to implement the recommendations.

The victims need justice not denial: 11 previous presidential commissions of inquiry produced no fruitful outcomes for the victims. The present ‘Office for Missing Persons’ is deeply structurally flawed and victims fear it will be fruitless. There has been no significant land releases or detainee releases. The consultative task force of NGOs say they have no help from government media to disseminate their ideas on transitional justice, and language discrimination continues. Memorialisation of the dead has been criminalised. Hindu temples are destroyed, and Buddhist ones erected even where no Buddhists live. The government promised to reduce military spending but has increased it. It is a deeply militarised state, both judge and jury of its own acts. Recently media have exposed the fact that new legislation the government is proposing to replace the PTA, is no improvement, it is actually worse not better.

Read More

Sri Lanka: 2016 —The year of National Security Rhetoric

Let’s say goodbye to 2016, and let’s warmly welcome 2017 as the matter of responsibility to ensure the public safety and establishment of social life beyond the mere rhetoric of national security unlike in the last year!

by Nilantha Ilangamuwa-Dec 29, 2016

(December 29, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Just few more days left to start a fresh year but same people, same attitudes, same dysfunctionality in most of the governmental institutions; same failures than achievements in the public sector. The indicators are that the Culture of habitual plundering of State resources continues with some politicians and their stooges. With the little belief that is left in us let’s say Happy New Year!

Sri Lank1.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

Govt. goes for $ 1 b Foreign Currency Term Financing Facility

Dec 29, 2016

The Government yesterday announced a maximum of $ 1 billion Foreign Currency Term Financing Facility (ETFF) to meet import expenses of development projects specified in the 2017 Budget.

The facility is expected to be raised at a fixed or floating rate linked to the $ 6 month LIBOR with a maturity period of three years or more.  The Request for Proposals from local and international banks and investment houses was issued by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs on behalf of the Government. Proposals from credit rated banks and investment houses are to be submitted to External Resource Department by 20 January 2017. They can submit proposals in multiple of $ 50 million, up to a maximum of $ 1 billion, on a standalone basis or collectively.  

 

A Reuters report said Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake in the 2017 Budget announced Rs. 567 billion worth of infrastructure investment, 47% higher than what the Government had allocated for this year.

 

The Government has also planned to borrow a maximum gross foreign borrowing of Rs. 450 billion next year, 17% lower than this year’s Rs. 540 billion.

 

“The timing is fine for the moment as the global market has priced in the recent policy rate hike,” Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chief Economist Anushka Wijesinghe was quoted saying.

 

“In the event the U.S. Federal Reserve tightens the interest rates again, any foreign borrowing could be risky.”

 

Sri Lanka last raised $1.5 billion via a dual-tranche international sovereign bond issuance successfully in July. This was handled by the Central Bank and comprised of $ 500 million 5.5-year and $ 1 billion 10-year International Sovereign Bonds. That marked Sri Lanka’s 10th US Dollar bond issuance and the first dual-tranche offering.

 

Orders totaled $ 2.5 billion for the 5.5-year tranche and 3 billion for the 10-year tranche. Both the 5.5-year and 10-year tranche were priced well inside the initial price guidance of 6.125% area and 7.125% area, with a coupon of 5.750% and 6.825% at par, respectively. After the issue closed, the Central Bank said the success was a testament to investors’ continued confidence in Sri Lanka and their positive sentiment on the economic outlook of Sri Lanka.

 

Driven by high quality institutional accounts globally, both the 5.5-year and 10-year tranche attracted orders from over 200 accounts each. The 5.5-year tranche saw allocations of 35% to the US, 37% to Europe, and the remaining 28% to Asia. By investor type, the split was 85% to fund managers, 8% to insurance and pension funds, 3% to banks, and 4% to private banks. The 10-year tranche saw allocations of 62% to the U.S., 28% to Europe, and the remaining 10% to Asia. By investor type, the split was 91% to fund managers, 7% to insurance and pension funds, 1% to banks and 1% to private banks.

 

Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank acted as the Joint Lead Managers and Book runners of this successful transaction.

 

daily FT

The curse of the (Old) Left

The curse of the (Old) Left

Posted by Uditha Devapriya-Thursday, December 29, 2016

It’s easy to get caught in rhetoric. Easy to make others believe that rhetoric represents the truth. Ideologues can sometimes get swayed by the lure of the moment and convince everyone, and by that I mean everyone, of the veracity of their arguments. The truth tends to get distorted, contorted, and eventually coated with enough sugar to appeal to both sides of the political divide. Sure, along the way words are made up and tossed around for the sake of attaining solidity in rhetoric, but all in all, it’s nothing more and nothing less than marketing.

I suppose capitalism doesn’t need rhetoric to win anyone over. It’s been marketed enough for what it is not that people don’t need argumentative skills to convince us to their side. All they need is a conveniently structured myth, paraded as dogma. As Fernand Braudel noted, after all, capitalism was never based on free market economics as its supporters claim it was: governments and policymakers distorted the market and monopolised it for the sake of (quick) profit. In the United States the unemployed are referred to as bums and rent-seekers, but if we go by Braudel’s theory, the real rent-seekers are those distorting the market while parading themselves as champions of Milton Friedman and Adam Smith: namely, fat-cat managers and executives.

It’s a different story when it comes to the Left. In this interminable, interconnected world we are supposed to consider as globalised, there’s no place “left” for the champions of Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, and all those other hoorah-boys of Marx. They have no marketers and like all impoverished ideologues, they need money. Even if it meant that they join up with the ruling class they were supposed to shun, they abandoned principles. In the end, they failed.

Why though? Because they rubbished tradition and culture, and rubbished them to the extent of forgetting their relevance when appealing to the voter.

For a while in Sri Lanka, this worked. Then came the SLFP, which to my mind represented the biggest blow to the Left in this country, simply because it shed the cosmopolitan face of socialism while being parading around as a socialist movement, which it was not (as Regi Siriwardena pointed out, it appealed to the infantile village bourgeoisie, which unlike their urban counterpart were chauvinistic and anti-Tamil). With no other option in sight, the (Old) Left became content in planning out their Revolution from the sidelines. As Denzil Peiris observed, 1956 was not a vote for the Left. It was a vote for Bandaranaike. The two were not the same.

That’s when things went downhill. The Left had agitated for equal rights, parity of status, and language privileges for all, not just the (ethnic) majority. The government was in no mood to entertain such idealistic policies and it certainly did not need Marxists for its sustenance. For the next two decades therefore, except for the likes of Philip Gunawardena and N. M. Perera, who managed to drive their policies through the government of the day, the Left floundered. The birth of the New Left in the form of the JVP was inevitable, as inevitable as the later substitution of race for class by the Old Left.

I’ve pointed out elsewhere that with the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Old Left was preyed on by forces not even remotely sympathetic to the principles of Marxism. They became, as we all know, the biggest funders of key representatives of the Left, who not only legitimised through silence the witch-hunt against the JVP (which stood against the Indo-Lanka Accord), but also made use of the JVP’s absence to crystallise into a policy elite that, regardless of the aspirations of the majority of the country, called the shots in the government of the day.

I’ve always wondered whether we need the Old Left anymore. It’s a spent force, for starters. Sure, we had the most promising Trotskyite party in the world, but that was before Trotsky was assassinated and before people began realising the inherent deficiencies of an ideology that subsisted, regardless of Philip Gunawardena’s attempts at making it more palatable to the village peasantry, on cosmopolitanism.

To be fair by the likes of Gunawardena though, the stalwarts of the LSSP then were no blue-eyed idealists flirting with federal-speak and Eelamism: unlike their descendants, they knew the aspirations of the majority enough to counter chauvinist demands from (self-appointed) representatives of the minority. They were, in short, principled, so principled that their kith and kin didn’t merely side with their cause but went on to create their own ideology which privileged the country before Marxist utopias (yes, I am talking of Dinesh Gunawardena here).

Just the other day I was talking with a playwright, a nationalist and a deeply secular one at that. He had a habit of calling a spade a spade. We were talking about the ethnic conflict and how ideology had tried to address grievances in a way politics could not. He was adamant that the conflict had been ballooned beyond proportion. He contended that the Sinhalese, despite their less than favourable history, had little to no rights in parts of the country where certain minorities held sway, and argued quite cogently that even in a secular society (which he was in favour of), numerical realities must be taken into account.

That’s when he brought up the Left. He quoted Colvin R. de Silva’s forever-quoted quote on the minority question, “One language, two nations; two languages, one nation.” Colvin’s proposition was to equalise Tamil with Sinhala, which to this playwright seemed a mild version of G. G. Ponnanbalam’s infamous 50-50 thesis. I couldn’t resist telling him then and there, “The Left has played around with words so much that even today, federalists and devolutionists draw from their rhetoric when defending calls for separatism.” He agreed.

I then said, “The Left has become a curse to this country.” He replied, “It always was.”

Now this playwright isn’t someone you could call a chauvinist. He was, for one thing, a firm believer in a secular constitution, with the obvious caveat that secularism is meaningless without first accounting for numerical and ethnic realities. He was no fan of the Left, obviously. His stance on Colvin’s careless and crass position on language rights was summed up by what he said next: “That was an irrational and mischievous thing to say. It privileges language as the only differentiating factor in a society when clearly there are other more dangerous such factors.” The Left, he implied correctly, had abandoned these other factors in its quest for appearing holier-than-thou on the ethnic question, to the separatists and their side of the debate of course.

I am less ruffled by this, however, than by the hypocrisy of the Left in terms of how it views its own principles. You come across self-proclaimed leftists praising the United National Party (I kid you not) for handling the economy well, and inserting caveats that it should do better if it is to achieve social equity. Mind you, these are the same pundits who berated the previous regime for its lumpen, anti-proletarian economic policies (policies that, inter alia, rescued the Transport Board and several other state institutions from the mess they were thrown into by the regime that preceded it, a regime these pundits supported unconditionally because of its commitment to federalism).

They were out on the streets shouting “Down with the State!” but surprisingly hear and see no evil when it comes to the present regime. They claim “Better than the last one we got!” but that is not adequate. Given the mess the government has got itself into thanks to a President who can’t say one thing without contradicting it days later, I can only conclude that the only if not main reason for their support for the present regime is the (perceived) affirmation of devolution, federalism, and 13-plus by key spokespersons in it.

In itself, there’s nothing wrong with this. A world where only nationalism reigned supreme would be quite dull indeed. Hypocrisy, however, is another kettle of fish altogether. So is dishing out federal-speak in the name of ameliorating interethnic disparities.

These pundits forget if not marginalise the nauseating measures taken by the government against the majority (regardless of ethnicity) and concentrate on achieving their self-proclaimed Utopias. They’ve idealised the ethnic and the religious and think they can do away with the social, forgetting that the former are but constituents of the latter.

No one is saying that ethnic minorities haven’t been targeted. They have been. For centuries and for decades, they have been on the receiving end of a State that used them, again and again, for the sake of expedience. Their rights have been downed legally and illegally. The machinery of the State has been used to whip up hatred against them. Despite that, however, I believe we’re concentrating on the wrong priorities.

We’re confused about what we want for them. We’ve caved in to ideologues who preach the gospel of multiculturalism without accounting for numerical, social, and ethnic realities. We’ve forgotten the simple but stark fact that it’s misconceived to create a cosmopolitan society if we have to wave good-bye to cosmopolitanism in the North and East. That, ladies and gentlemen, is not tenable by any stretch of the imagination.

In short, we’re so entranced with achieving a pluralistic society that we say, “I don’t care what the f*** your ethnicity is, I’m Sri Lankan”, forgetting that extremists from the North are more concerned with ethnic purity than coexistence. “What is wrong with telling about who we are?” queries Chief Minister Wigneswaran, even as politicians from the South campaign on the premise that coexistence can only operate if the Sinhalese stop affirming their identity and even as the good CM refuses to see the irony in his statement. The Left, through mischievous errors of commission and omission, has conveniently erased reality from rhetoric.

The Old Left, going by that, continues to be a curse to this country. Always were, always have been. Time we told them to stop fudging around with history, hence. Time we told them to concentrate on the social and economic. And time we told them to shut up and move on.

Uditha Devapriya is a freelance writer who can be reached at udakdev1@gmail.com

New Constitution & Contestation Of North East Merger

By Aboobacker Rameez – December 29, 2016 

Dr. Aboobacker Rameez

Universities are a place of intellectual discourse and debates on thoughts and findings. It fosters an environment of critical thinking and skills necessary to build a profound understanding of the discipline and the existing thoughts. It also serves as a touchstone of the community to spur them to engage in crucial issues relevant to the community.

As such, a group of academics gathered at a place in our University-South Eastern University of Sri Lanka yesterday and engaged in a discourse on the proposed new constitution and the contestation of North East merger, a topic that has become a talk of the town in popular discourses of media. Unlike Mahinda era where we found it difficult to organize such a discussion of contemporary issues at the University since our head of the institution at that time did not permit us to do so, because he felt permitting such discourses in the university would compromise his position, we have now full academic autonomy to engage in such discourses in our University, thanks to the Yahapalanaya government that ushered in January 2015 and appointed a learned professor as the Vice Chancellor of University.

Eastern Province is model of pluralism

Interestingly, majority of the members who gathered there felt that the existing set up, that is, the de-merger of North East would be ideal to not only Muslims, but to Tamils too. In fact, the separate provincial councils, as everybody knows, have proved to be a successful episode so far, for it provided opportunity for members from Tamil as well as Muslim community to occupy the post of Chief Minister in both provinces. Most importantly, the Eastern Province which is diverse both ethnically and religiously has had Chief Ministers from both Tamil and Muslim communities previously. Moreover, the Eastern Province representing 37 % Hindus, 35% Muslims, 23 % Buddhists, and 5% Christians respectively has become a living example of multi-religiosity and pluralism that provided a space for diverse communities to exist and live amicably over the years. It is indubitable that education and health resources coupled with employment opportunities in the province are shared equitably in the province over the years. Thus, they felt that the North East will have to remain as a separate province.

Controversy in allocation of resources

Majority of the members contended that allocation of resources such as state lands, forests, wildlife, and water will become a contentious issue, if North East were merged. There is a danger of it being misappropriated by the central government in the event of North East merger. As we all know, Wattamadu land and Wilpattu wildlife sanctuary have been a hot issue in the popular debates in recent times. Under such circumstances, not only Muslims, but Tamils living in the North East will also be seriously affected.

While Tamils and Muslims are currently entangled in a number of issues in terms of administrative set up and educational administrative divisions in various districts in the Eastern province, the proposed attempt of North East merger will exacerbate those issues further, pitting Tamils against Muslims in the NE. For instance, there is a long tussle percolating in the administrative divisions in Kalmunai of Ampara district, where Tamils have been bargaining for a separate Divisional Secretariat in Kalmunai area, as they feel reluctant to work under an administration largely dominated by Muslims in Kalmunai DS division. Interesting question raised by a member in the forum that how can the TNA parliamentarians request for the support of Muslims in the North East for the merger of two provinces, while they themselves are not happy to work with Muslims in Kalmunai administrative division and struggle for a separate DS administrative divisions for Tamils. These are contentious issue that require solutions via a healthy discussion.

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