Myanmar's Reward for Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingya

ISIL threatens Asian country with retaliation for its brutal treatment and extermination of Rohingya Muslims.

Tim King-Jan-05-2017 23:44

(SALEM, Ore.) - Myanmar's problems with ISIS are a microcosm of the worldwide picture, literally a snapshot of what is to come from years of nations persecuting people for being Muslim when political leaders themselves do not possess even the smallest understanding of Islam or the people who comprise the world's newest monotheistic religion.

Now the government of Myanmar is threatened by one of the world's largest terrorist networks due to its reprehensible treatment of the country's ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority and few who know the facts could disagree that this is an unsurprising, even warranted reaction from the Islamic State.

Like Sri Lanka, these Buddhists are often far from peaceful, in fact segments of the population are murderous. Sri Lanka's Sinhalese Buddhist government murdered more than 160,000 Hindu/Christian Tamils in 2009. Myanmar's ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims didn't go as succinctly as Sri Lanka's and it is bringing a much-feared backlash.

Myanmar, or Burma, is a Rakhine Buddhist country in Asia that was colonized by the British, then spent decades under a military "junta" or dictatorship. It's most famous citizen is Aung San Suu Kyi, who is supposedly a beacon of light in this strange place. She has done absolutely nothing for the Rohingya, totally refusing to speak out on their behalf when she is regarded as a figure of repressed democracy.

The focus of this Buddhist hatred in Myanmar, the Rohingya Muslims, are a stateless people who the United Nations deemed were the most persecuted people on the face of the earth.

Buddhist Terror

While religious bigotry and hatred has always been an aspect of Myanmar's Buddhists, it came to a head in 2012 when Rohingya Muslims were accused of raping and murdering a Buddhist woman.

Photos of a woman's dead body were splashed across newspapers and within 24 hours, a dozen Muslim men, not Rohingya, were pulled from a bus and killed in the streets by a mob in supposed retaliation, many hours from where the alleged rape/murder even took place. So began the Genocide of Rohingya in Burma at the hands of Rakhine Buddhists.

The United States on the other hand, used the events of 9/11 to boost and further hatred of Muslim people even though the alleged hijackers hailed from Saudi Arabia, a US ally.

Along with its lapdog the United Kingdom and a handful of other sheepish allies, Americans attacked and razed large parts of Afghanistan in retaliation for the attacks, even though the Taliban had not the slightest thing to do with the events of 11 Sept. 2001. Then came the annihilation of 1.5 million Iraqi people in a war based on possession of weapons of mass destruction, which we all now know never existed.

That wasn't enough of course for the Western military powers led by the US; the next target was Libya, a nation where people had free education and über cheap gas, and then Syria, a country that fell under tremendous bloodshed due to the region's most radical Daesh (ISIL) combatants being funded by American assets.

Partially through online media and partly due to the accusations of US President elect Donald Trump in the 2016 US election, the US support of ISIL found its way to the forefront of the nightly news, leaving most Americans scratching their heads, totally unclear of their own nation's alliances or motives.

Then of course there is the famous Obama quote, called a "flub" by the US President's advocates, "But the fall of Ramadi has galvanized the Iraqi government. So, with the additional steps I ordered last month, we’re speeding up training of ISIL forces, including volunteers from Sunni tribes in Anbar Province."

Many of us predicted the outcome long ago... there are radical segments of Islam that would like to see the US fall off the map, and they hail from two aspects of Sunni Islam: Wahhabi and Salafi.

They define the ultra conservative aspects of Islam with the very worst practices and have little if anything to do with the goals of less radical Islamic nations such as Iran, which has not attacked a country outside of its borders for more than 300 years.

Bloody Persecution

The crimes against Rohingya people in Myanmar are heavily documented. As I covered the conflict through email and social media correspondence, I worked with people who had been on the ground in Burma.

Mosque after mosque was razed, sometimes with children inside. Entire Rohingya villages were burned and destroyed along with their inhabitants. One of the most striking images of the thousands documenting the attempted extinction of the Rohingya people, shows Buddhists riding on mopeds with machetes in their hands, with Rohingya blood dripping from the blades.

I also documented flagrant sex abuse and torture, both of which are repression and murder techniques in Burma.

Militant Buddhists in this Asian nation actually wear shirts with swastikas to represent Buddhist superiority, and these symbols are not to be confused with more innocent versions of the swastika connected to India, these are actual Nazi swastikas.

The gut wrenching, torturous years of Myanmar's presumably sanctioned attacks against the peaceful Rohingya are coming home to roost as ISIL now, simultaneously recruits from the Rohingya, and threatens the government of Myanmar over its persecution of Rohingya, which it denies in spite of the endless documentation of what has taken place.

In fact Myanmar's persecution of Rohingya is defined by it's President Thein Sein's defense of the idolized Buddhist militant leader Wirathu, whose organized hatred of Rohingya has greatly emboldened the problems facing these battered people.

His brand of terrorism toward Muslims and Christians is so overwhelming and negative that he was placed on the cover of Time Magazine in all of its regional editions except the USA.

Time's July 2013 magazine placed Wirathu's face of the cover with the title, "The Face of Buddhist Terror" while the US version had an image of three people painting a wall titled, "How Service Can Save Us".

I see this as one of the single most blatant examples of American media's "dumbing down" process in modern history. People in the USA live in sheer ignorance due to this very practice. ISIL is coming to Myanmar and in this case, they are serving in an entirely different role.

Lessons From Fidel For 2017 & After

By Sarath de Alwis –January 5, 2017

Sarath de Alwis

In a recent missive, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka has offered some ‘Lessons from Fidel for the Lankan Left.’

Let us first unravel the term ‘left’. The ‘left’ comprehends ‘oppression’ and identifies the ‘privileged’. The ‘left’ also understands the nature of ‘power’. Demolishing power dynamics is the task of the ‘left.’

In these confused times, terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ are best defined in context. Who uses them? For what purpose? Where are they being used?

The playwright and sharp-witted history scholar Allen Bennett explains what contextualising does. “Putting something in context is a step towards saying it can be understood and that it can be explained. And if it can be explained then it can be explained away.”

The wave of idolizing, idealizing, derision and damning of Fidel Castro after his death, confirms what Frederic Nietzsche asserted with brevity. ‘There are no facts, only interpretations.’

Castro led a revolution that ousted a brutal Dictator. The American Mob owned Havana’s vice industry and American corporates owned the island’s Sugar industry. Castro with his revolution ousted Batista the overseer of plantations and pimp of the Cuban brothels.

Fidel commemoration in Sri Lanka | Photo via JVP Facebook

In 1959, hardly three months in power, the new Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro addressed a group of students and faculty members of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton.

Castro told his audience that he was neither a theorist nor a historian or chronicler of revolutions. His knowledge on the subject of revolution was the sum total of his engagement with a revolution that took place in the island of Cuba in close proximity to the United States. He told his avid listeners – the left of center elite intellectuals gathered at Princeton that the Cuban revolution had debunked several myths propagated by the Latin American Right: that a revolution was impossible if the people were hungry, and that a revolution could never defeat a professional army equipped with modern weapons.

At Princeton, Castro remembered Batista the cruel overseer of plantations and degenerate pimp of Havana brothels. He saw himself as the product more in line with the American Revolution of 1776 than either the French Revolution of 1789 or the Russian revolution of 1917. The two later upheavals had been driven by “force” and “terror” wielded by minorities. The groups that took power in France and Russia “used force and terror to form a new terror.”

Hannah Ardent too had been in the audience. It was Arendt’s first year at Princeton, after she became Princeton’s first woman to be awarded a professorship. In her 1964 essay ‘Revolutions – Spurious and Genuine’ she wrote that the Cuban Revolution, “even though we don’t yet know the outcome” was most certainly a revolution.

In ‘Critique of Political Economy, Marx tells us “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence that determines their consciousness”.

That said we must agree that Cuba has spectacularly managed to maintain universal repute as an ‘alternative model of development with a ‘society that builds the welfare of its citizens on the twin pillars of health, and education, driven by the principle of equality’.

Rafael Rojas one of Cuba’s renowned scholars of Latin American History has described Castro’s encounter at Princeton in his 2016 book Fighting over Fidel – The New York Intellectuals and the Cuban Revolution.

Professor Rojas says that Fidel in his remarks in 1959 ‘situated his ideology well within the scope of a democratic American humanism shared by the United States and Latin America. The two regions, despite their cultural specificities, did not constitute “different people,” he assured his audience.

He had also assured his American audience that elections would soon be held in Cuba and political parties would also be allowed. However it was first necessary ‘to implement a social transformation in order to eradicate unemployment and illiteracy and to construct schools and hospitals.

The United States, Castro suggested, could assist in social development of Cuba by implementing friendly policies and by rejecting any fear of communism. An authentic social revolution on the island would make democracy a “real” process and ward off the communist danger. “I advise you not to worry about Communism in Cuba. When our goals are won, Communism will be dead.”

I am still reading the book that is focused more on left wing intellectuals affected, dejected and influenced by the Cuban revolution. I do not know at what point Fidel decided to turn from emancipator to Marxist Leninist dictator. Our Utopias are often shaped by events beyond our control. Early in the revolution Fidel was taken hostage by the hemispheric hegemony of the United States. In the bleak years of the cold war, he made his choice. After Gorbachev it was too late. The obstinacy of an old man was the lot of the Cuban people.

The struggle to understand Fidel Castro has not ended but his relevance has reached the end.

In fairness to Fidel Castro it has to be said that his authoritarian governance was not for personal aggrandizement. It was not to enrich himself, his family or his cronies. It was his simplicity that sustained a messianic charisma among his people. Towards the end, he may not have commanded the same admiration. It seems that his state apparatus retrained the same loyalty.

This writer shares the birthday 13th August with Fidel Castro. There is a compelling reason for this commentary. I spent my 20th birthday on 13th August 1962, watching from a window of a youth hostel in West Berlin, the communist regime erecting the wall overnight dividing Berlin the city of Rosa Luxembourg who told us the essence of socialist democracy. “Without general elections, without freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, without the free battle of opinions, life in every public institution withers away, becomes a caricature of itself, and bureaucracy rises as the only deciding factor.”

I watched parliamentarian Sunil Handunneththi – Chairman of COPE with an undoubtedly razor sharp mind romanticizing Fidel Castro’s achievements in health care and education for the people of Cuba on a TV program. [Derana 360º]. That triggered alarm bells.

The JVP – the alternative to the establishment needs to discover scientific socialism. Marxism is a science. Fidel Castro is a brand. The two should not be confused.

I am completely in agreement with Dr. Dayan Jayatileka on Castro brothers and Rajapaksa brothers. Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa are the closest we have to Fidel and Raul Castro. I would even go further. Our duo are infinitely better than their Caribbean counterparts.

Fidel combined Latin machismo, Catholic dogma and Communist rhetoric with Raul as enforcer of regime discipline. Mahinda combined Sinhala machismo, Buddhist scripture and progressive rhetoric. Gota was master enforcer of regime discipline.

Fidel in the sixties, faced the same dilemma faced a decade later by our comrades Colvin and Doric with plantations. Castro opted to collectivize the sugar plantations. What is Fidel Castro’s legacy? Sugar was the sole source of economic sustenance of Cuba when he took over. At the time of his death Sugar remains the only source of economic sustenance of the land he liberated from his dictator predecessor.

The Afro Cubans remain time warped and trapped as their ancestors were in the ‘Sugar’ conundrum ‘wounded and shattered like the cane of the fields and like cane are ground and crushed to extract the juice of their labour’ with one difference. They have accesses to a doctor and all can read and write. Cuba still relies on Sugar and hopes to promote tourism.

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Give peanut to babies early - advice

By James Gallagher-5 January 2017

Babies should be given peanut early - some at four months old - in order to reduce the risk of allergy, according to new US guidance.

Studies have shown the risk of peanut allergy can be cut by more than 80% by early exposure.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said the new guidance was "an important step forward".

However, young children should not eat whole peanuts, because of the risk of choking.

Allergy levels are soaring in the US and have more than quadrupled since 2008.

It is a pattern replicated across much of the Western world as well as parts of Asia and Africa.

Parents are often wary about introducing peanut and in the past have been advised to wait until the child is three years old.

The new guidance says:

• Children with other allergies or severe eczema should start on peanut-containing foods at between four and six months old, with medical supervision
• Babies with mild eczema should have peanut-containing food at about six months old
• Those with no eczema or allergies can have peanut-containing food freely introduced

Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said: "We expect that widespread implementation of these guidelines by healthcare providers will prevent the development of peanut allergy in many susceptible children and ultimately reduce the prevalence of peanut allergy in the United States."

Michael Walker, a member of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, said: "The guidelines are based on sound medical research carried out in the UK.

"UK parents should consult their GP, bringing attention to the guidelines if necessary, before attempting peanut allergy prevention in their infant themselves."

Prof Alan Boobis, from Imperial College London, said: "The previous view that delaying the introduction of allergenic foods decreases the risk of food allergy is incorrect and... if anything, the exclusion or delayed introduction of specific allergenic foods may increase the risk of allergy to the same foods, including peanut."

The advice to parents in the UK is still being reviewed and Prof Boobis advised parents to follow NHS guidelines for now.

Follow James on Twitter.

International participation in hybrid court can be phased out

By Yusuf Ariff-January 6, 2017 

The government-appointed Consultation Task Force (CTF) recommended a “hybrid court” to prosecute allegations of human rights violations due to the lack of trust and confidence on the part of victims and also because of capacity issues, CTF secretary Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu said.

In January 2016, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed the CTF to seek national views on reconciliation mechanisms.

Comprising civil society members such as activists and academicians, the CTF held island-wide consultations on the Sri Lankan government’s proposed reconciliation mechanisms  — Truth, Justice, Reconciliation and Non-Recurrence, Office of Missing Persons, Office of Reparations and a Judicial Mechanism with Special Counsel.

The consultations were conducted independent of government intervention.

Releasing its report on January 3, based on public hearings and discussions across Sri Lanka, the team recommended a “hybrid court” with both local and foreign judges to prosecute war crimes.

Dr. Saravanamuttu stated that in terms of the submissions received they had submission that were for a domestic mechanism only, an international one only and those for a hybrid.

“The argument there with regard to hybrid is that because of the perception of the judicial system in the country there wasn’t sufficient trust and confidence on the part of victims, particularly in the North and East but not exclusively, in an entirely domestic mechanism.”

“So because of the lack of trust and confidence and also because of capacity we have recommended a hybrid and said that once the trust and confidence has built up again and once the capacity issues have been resolved, the internationals can be phased out,” he said.

When inquired as to whether these recommendations can be implemented given the concerns voiced especially over the participation of foreign judges, he said that the task force was set up by the Prime Minister and that its mandate was to find out the people’s opinion on the basis that those opinions would feed into and inform the design, the structure, the powers, the functions of the mechanism.

“So now we have got our report. We have handed it over. It is up to the government to take into account and into consideration what is contained in the report.”      

SRI LANKA: ZEID RA’AD WELCOMES CONSULTATIONS TASK FORCE REPORT

CTFRM handed over final report to former president Kumarathunga.

05/01/2017

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has welcomed the report published by the Consultations Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms earlier this week.

The UN High Commissioner welcomed the recommendations in the report especially pertaining to the implementation of a hybrid Court with the inclusion of local and foreign judges.

The Consultations Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms in its report recommended including at least one international judge on every bench hearing alleged war crimes charges.

Publishing the final report on public views and suggestions on the proposed structure and scope for the formation of a reconciliation mechanism, the Reconciliation Task Force recommended including key international standards pertaining to courts hearing alleged war crimes cases.

However the government reiterated its stance that international judges will not be included in the country’s judicial processes.

Speaking at the weekly Cabinet media briefing yesterday Co-Cabinet Spokesman Minister Rajitha Senaratne said the government will not consent to a the inclusion of foreign judges adding even the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights consented to the government’s decision that all benches will comprise local judges.

However High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein taking to his twitter account said he has always urged the creation of a hybrid Court in the island.

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein in a report released in September 2015 highlighted and urged the creation of a hybrid special court in Sri Lanka.

The report said due to the levels of mistrust in State authorities and institutions by broad segments of Sri Lankan society, the establishment of a hybrid special court, integrating international judges, prosecutors, lawyers and investigators, is essential.

The UN High Commissioner said purely domestic Court procedure will have no chance of overcoming widespread and justifiable suspicions fuelled by decades of violations, malpractice and broken promises.
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‘War crimes’ probe mechanism:Task force calls for full foreign participation

‘All perpetrators of atrocities including Indian Army accountable for their actions’

Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike receiving the report prepared by the Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms from leader attorney-at-law Manouri Muttetuwegama at the Presidential Secretariat on Jan. 3. Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, Hindu Affairs Minister Swaminathan and Reconciliation State Minister Fowzie look on.

By Shamindra Ferdinando-January 5, 2017, 9:54 pm 

The Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms (CTFRM), headed by attorney-at-law Manouri Muttetuwegama, has called for full participation of foreign judges and other personnel including defence lawyers, prosecutors and investigators in transitional justice mechanism to address accountability issues.

The eleven-member committee stressed that foreign participation was required as those who had suffered during the conflict had no faith in local judiciary, which lacked expertise to undertake such a task.

The UNP-SLFP administration appointed the group early last year in keeping with the understanding reached with the international community.

Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein declared in Colombo in February 2016 that the judiciary here was incapable of undertaking the process. He questioned the integrity of the local judiciary.

Addressing the media at the Government Information Department, Secretary to the group of activists Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu said that particular recommendation had been made in accordance with the Geneva Resolution adopted in Oct, 2015. The Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) underscored the full participation of foreign personnel while emphasizing the pivotal importance of a proper selection process for both local and foreign judges and other personnel.

In addition to Muttetuwegama and Dr. Saravanamuttu, Gamini Viyangoda, Prof. Sitralega Maunaguru, Dr. Farzana Haniffa and Mirak Raheem expressed views. Prof. Gameela Samarasinghe of the Colombo University was also present though she didn’t address the media.

Muttetuwegama said a constitutional amendment would be required to pave the way for the participation of foreign judges. However, the government should take tangible measures swiftly to bring relief to those who had lost their loved ones fighting against the state. Muttetuwegama called for the restoration of LTTE cemeteries bulldozed by the military and memorials. The buildings put up in those places should be demolished, she said.

Dr. Saravanamuttu said foreign participation could be temporary. According to him, foreign presence could be gradually phased out once the process had won the confidence of the victims and other stakeholders.

Raheem denied the assertion that only Tamil speaking people from the war-ravaged Northern and Eastern Provinces demanded foreign participation and expertise. Raheem, also of the CPA said how transitional justice mechanism could immensely benefit from foreign participation in the process.

The Geneva Resolution called for foreign judges including those from the Commonwealth.

Acknowledging that President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and several other top government spokespersons had repeatedly ruled out foreign judges,the civil society members said the recommendations hadn’t been made in consultation with the government. They were responding to a query regarding the extreme difficulty in having foreign judges on a judicial mechanism here.

Muttetuwegama called media conference after having handed over the final report and executive summary on the countrywide public consultations undertaken on behalf of the government to former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga at the Presidential Secretariat on January 3.

Dr. Saravanamuttu said the government hadn’t sought to influence them in anyway and the report hadn’t been prepared in consultation with the administration. He said that as their recommendations pertaining to a range of contentious issues were now in public domain, it would be the responsibility of the government to respond to them. "The ball is now in the government’s court."

Members of the task force said that there hadn’t been any difference of opinion among the 11 members in respect of the report including its findings.

Asked by The Island whether Muttetuwegama’s inquiry also focused on Indian intervention here leading to deployment of the Indian Army here and atrocities committed by the foreign army as well as the raid on the Maldives undertaken by members of another Tamil group in Nov. 1988, Raheem said that all those who had committed atrocities should be held accountable. Raheem said that India, too, was certainly accountable for crimes committed here.

India deployed its Army (July 1987-March 1990) in accordance with Indo-Lanka agreement here.

Raheem said that some politicians, too, had been implicated along with the armed forces, police as well as intelligence services.

Dr. Saravanamuttu acknowledged that they hadn’t received a guarantee from the government that the recommendations would be implemented.

Muttetuwegama said that if a government elected by the people failed to address the long standing grievances of those who suffered during the conflict they would never be compensated in the future.

Viyangoda mentioned the events leading to the passage of Geneva Resolution in Oct 2015 and the government reaching an understanding with Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to initiate investigations into accountability issues. He asserted that the government would come under pressure to address issues in line with the Geneva Resolution.

Our Stand on Wilpattu Issue

Jan 05, 2017

Many Muslim leaders in Colombo called on the government to intervene and solve the Wilpattu issue without any further delay and ensure national reconciliation. 

Among them were Muslim civil society leaders, parliamentarians, academics and the clergy.

 

Addressing a press briefing at Renuka Hotel titled “Our Stand on Wilpattu Issue” organized by the Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum on 5 January, they alleged that latest Wilpattu controversy is based on a political agenda and adding that even during the three decades of conflict in Sri Lanka, Muslims continuously sided with the government but today, sadly, they are being targeted by the very-side that they once supported.   

 

Minister of Rehabilitation, Resettlement & Hindu Religious Affairs M.L.A.M.Hizbullah, Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen, State Minister of National Integration and Reconciliation A. H. M. Fowzie, Colombo District MP Mujibur Rahman, and President of Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum N. M. Ameen, and Leader of National Unity Front Azath Salley, were among those who addressed the 5 January press briefing.

 

Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen said that the latest controversy over Wilpattu resettlement is another “attack on the Northern Muslim IDPs.” “There are no Muslim families living within Wilpattu reserves. The areas being talked about are out of the boundary of the reserve and legally taken” he said. Explaining as to how Muslim people are found in these areas, Minister Bathiudeen said: “Muslims who have been living in Maruthamadu GS Division in Museli Divisional Secretariat were among those who were forcibly expelled from North by LTTE. They were victims of ethnic cleansing in these areas. While they are displaced and living elsewhere, on 2012 October 10 the then government issued a gazette changing the name of Maruthamadu GS Division to Villathikulam. This gazette acquired 2800 Hectare of forest land to Forest Department using GPS and lands belonging to IDPs were also in this acquisition. Later, Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) allocated about 208 Hectare of lands back to IDPs and the latest issue is created around some of these LLRC allocated lands incorrectly showing them as illegally used. This is an attack on the Northern Muslim IDPs. I request the government to resolve this issue.”

 

“Minister Bathiudeen is one of the displaced Northern Muslim IDPs” said Colombo District MP Mujibur Rahman, and added: “Various people with their own agendas are saying that the resettling in LLRC land to be an attempt of illegal jungle clearing. This is not true and is against the government’s reconciliation process. Therefore we call the government to resolve this issue without delay.”

 

Minister Bathiudeen, who is also the Leader of the ACMC, was one of the displaced Northern IDPs fleeing Vanni with his family in October 1990. 

 

Is Regime-Change Alone The Answer?

By Chrishmal Warnasuriya –January 6, 2017

Chrishmal Warnasuriya

Two Years On Since Our ‘Silent Revolution’

Soon we will celebrate the 2nd anniversary of our Peoples Revolution of 8th January 2015, one which this writer himself described as “our third independence” in its immediate aftermath; having played at least some minor role in overthrowing a manifestly despotic, fearfully oppressive and overtly nepotistic regime that was said to be insuperable at the time. Therefore it is prudent and our duty to look-back and critically evaluate what we have (or have not) secured with that change; as that common saying goes these days – sathutui da den (are you happy now)?

A resounding “YES” is the answer for the basic freedoms we have managed to secure, which is evident in the thousands of voices springing up daily, both as collectives or individuals under the common theme of “civil society”; many who were too fearful to speak-up during that period of “white vans” but who have now found a democratic way of expression. However is that freedom of speech and expression alone sufficient? Do we allow several political cronies who were carried to office on the shoulders of the common man to now shirk their responsibilities by simply showing us that “freedom-candy” and continue in the same corrupt bandwagon of merry-men; with absolutely no difference in the management (or mismanagement) of the State and its resources to that of the previous lot? This is a question that we must collectively answer!

I, Myself & Me – Personality Variables Superseding Public Need

In the scientific study of foreign policy and global politics, we are confronted with a theory by James Rosenau that role variables of leaders in smaller or developing countries play a significant part in the behaviour of nation-states. This can be seen in our comparative political history too, as for instance between the statesmen in premier SWRD or President JRJ who opted for less “limelight” in their affairs to the more PR oriented tenures of Presidents Premadasa or Rajapakse; the latter pair predominantly playing to the “populace gallery” in managing the State where they were much loved by the masses.

These personal yearnings of leaders for attention, to garner credit for themselves for duties owed by the Institution are not only common to politics but unfortunately, filters down to the very root of most of our civil interactions. At the village level, in a temple or church (I’m more comfortable discussing the latter) even men of the cloak, from junior priests to Bishops would much rather be surrounded by sycophantic “yes-men” who will never dispute anything and thereby miserably fail to manage the Institution, where they could have delivered much better results had they worked with constructive critics with knowledge and erudition. The same is true for schools, principals or headmasters or any other such Institution; these same ego-centric desires have reached up to national level politics.

In such a backdrop, we need to question whether changing a regime alone without addressing these fundamental questions, by simply changing faces within the same old cancerous system without a conscious effort to cut-out that self-centredness of those assuming public office; will deliver to us the service standards commonly accepted as a benchmark by tax payers in any developed nation.

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Troubles engulf Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition

05th January 2017 

Both Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe are in denial in the face of a growing perception that their SLFP-UNP coalition is losing support due to inconsistent policies, internal contradictions and drastic actions taken by a coterie without due consultations. Following the recent resignation of Minister Piyankara Jayaratne and a claim by the Opposition led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa that ten more will quit, Sirisena assured anxiety-ridden UNP MPs that his party, the SLFP, will not scuttle the government. He banned his partymen from having any truck with Rajapaksa’s faction which goes as the Joint Opposition and Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. UNP leader and PM Wickemesinghe has pooh-poohed Rajapaksa’s boast that he will topple the government this year as a pipe dream.

But such posturing has not changed public perception that the regime is inherently weak and divided. Its reluctance to hold polls for local bodies for the past year and a half is cited as proof. Sirisena has also challenged Wickremesinghe’s decision to give 80 per cent stake in the Hambantota harbour to a Chinese company and grant 15,000 acres of land on a 99-year lease. Since coming to power, Sirisena has overturned a host of taxation proposals and opposed the hauling of military officers on corruption charges.

But Sirisena’s firefighting has not shored up the image of a regime seen as directionless and indecisive. While issues such as high taxation and rise in prices have alienated the majority Sinhalese, the lack of concern for commitments made have alienated the minorities, whose en masse support had enabled him to win the presidency. The Tamils feel wartime issues have not been addressed. Return of seized lands is tardy and there is no sign of the promised provincial autonomy. The Muslims feel radical Buddhist monks are being deliberately encouraged to abuse them. 

Beginning of a new Peoples’ Movement targeting large-scale membership - Basil Fernando

Jan 05, 2017

I have had the privilege of witnessing the birth of an initiative to create a people's movement not affiliated to any political party, which targets a minimum of one million memberships. It will be entirely locally funded and independent. The new movement springs from the initiative of Victor Ivan, a veteran journalist and the Founder Editor of weekly paper Ravaya.

An invitation made by him has found quick response and, in many parts of the country, local support groups are being formed rapidly. The spontaneous response received from people from many walks of life, i.e. professionals, activists of many sorts, and the ordinary folk, is amazing.

The aim is to cause a PUNARUDDAYA, an awakening and enlightenment in the thinking among the people, as a stepping-stone for achieving changes needed in the country. The improvement of positive social attitudes, by standing up for the eradication of the influence of caste is one of the central aims of this new movement. Caste discrimination has been enriched in both Sinhala and Tamil communities for over a thousand years. Mental, psychological, emotional, and spiritual habits pervade, despite some changes that have taken place in recent decades. An over-all capacity building for self criticism is envisioned as the basic step to developing critical thinking and eliminating prejudices based on myths, such as belief in birth charts (Kendraya) and various practices based in astrology. Primitive forms of thinking are widespread and much of publication space in the media is taken up by ventures promoting backward thinking. People need to liberate themselves from such mind-numbing thinking patterns that paralyze their creative capacities. All forms of racial discrimination, and other kinds of discrimination, such as sexual and religious discrimination, which retard the peoples’ capacity to build bonds of love, friendship, and belonging, need to exposed and negated. These are essentials in creating a free nation.

The second basic aim of the new movement is a fight for modernizing the State mechanisms of democracy and justice. All these institutions have suffered a great fall due to ill-founded constitutional experiments that happened in the last few decades. As a result of such institutional failures, a situation of anarchy is in the making. People need to understand these problems and be equipped intellectually to play an active role in their societies to ensure their own betterment. The reform of justice institutions is essential to overcome the situation of anarchy.

In the past, there had been a blind belief that gaining political power is the only way to achieve changes. However, this belief has been belied over and over again. Experience of other countries show, change of mentalities of the people themselves is a precondition to any positive changes. When this is absent, people become victims of powerful political forces and become losers in the end.

Peoples’ initiatives are often high jacked by political parties, as many experiences in recent decades show. The Mother Front, which emerged in protest of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances that happened in the late eighties, was high jacked by the opposition political party led by Mahinda Rajapaksa and used for his own self promotion: There are fears that peoples recent intervention to change the government has not resulted in bringing about desired changes.

It is necessary to learn from these experiences, so that these are not repeated again. A peoples’ enlightenment is the only foundation on which a truly democratic movement can be built.

I have expressed my complete agreement with these aims and promised to support this new movement. Local partners will also be encouraged to join this initiative.

State Minister Eran Wickramaratne Defends Right To Steal Public Funds

By Nagananda Kodituwakku –January 5, 2017

Nagananda Kodituwakku

The whole nation is surely very angry about the manner the MPs and Cabinet of Ministers defraud public funds through various means, including the selling of their tax-free car permits to motorcar dealers. The intended purpose of issuance of these permits was to import a vehicle absolutely tax-free and use it to discharge the office of the MP effectively and efficiently and not to abuse it for improper purposes.

However, now it is proven fact that these permits are being abused to defraud over 33 millions rupees of public funds for each vehicle and already over 27 such vehicles have been registered in the RMV in the name of private individuals who are not entitled to enjoy this tax-concession granted only to MPs. I request the readers to check the names in the list and see how many ministers are there and the readers will see Mahinda Rajapaksa’s brother and the former Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa and many more people, who talks morality in public and practice completely the opposite, deceiving the people at will.

In his campaign for the office of the Executive President, Sirisena, pledged the citizenry to adopt a policy based on corrupt-free administration. Attending the World Anti-Corruption Summit held in London sometime thereafter (on 12th May 2016) he declared that his government is was committed to combat all forms of corruption, an extract of which is reproduced below: ‘… Corruption is one of the factors that promote political violence and other forms of human rights abuses. Sri Lanka went through such a stage during the previous administration.

The people reacted strongly against corruption by changing the corrupt administration by the power of the ballet in January 2015 at the Presidential election and again at the Parliamentary election in the August 2016…’ ‘…We were elected to office on the policy platform of democracy, good governance and rule of law. Therefore, we consider our prime duty is to root out of corruption from the country. We are happy that the summit proposes to establish an International Anti-Corruption Centre, all of us as leaders need to act collectively to strengthen our own law enforcement agencies to track the corrupt and recover the proceeds of corruption…’

In fact the Minister of Finance, Ravi Karunanayake himself condemned this abuse in his maiden budget speech on 20th Nov 2016 as follows:

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