Friday, January 20, 2017

Executive Presidency: Forty years of deception ET TU?

2017-01-20

The Central Committee of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) headed by President Maithripala Sirisena had last week decided to continue with the Executive Presidential system of governance in future and nominate President Sirisena, the very person who promised to abolish that very system during the last Presidential Election as its candidate at the next Presidential Election.

This is a clear indication that how simply, openly and arrogantly politicians tend to deceive people who had voted them to office.

The President’s promise to scrap the system was not a secret. It was such an important pledge he had given to the country and so widely discussed during the 2015 January Presidential Election that one could describe that election as a referendum on the system.

The Government formed by President Sirisena from the inception was called “Yahapalanaya” (Good Governance) Government as he had given a series of promises towards democracy including the abolition of executive Presidency. The coalition of political parties that was formed on the eve of the 2015 August Parliamentary elections were also called the United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG). The first Constitutional Amendment that was to be introduced by the Yahapalanaya Government in April 2015 was meant for the doing away with the Executive Presidency, but later the decision was changed just to trim some of the powers vested in the President, as the legal experts had advised to hold a referendum if the government wanted to totally scrap the system
One can even argue that Maithripala Sirisena was able to win the Presidential Election mainly due to his promise to abolish the Presidential rule as the highhanded administration by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had been hated by many in the country then. However, after all these the party led by Maithripala Sirisena had now the audacity to tell the people that not only was he ready to breach his promise but also was going to contest the next Presidential Election.

In a way, if one takes into account only the last Presidential election ignoring the situations prior to that, he would not blame the SLFP for taking this decision to continue with the Executive Presidency, as the party was fighting not only for the original Executive Presidency at the last Presidential Election, but also striving to maintain that system strengthened further with the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.

However, the case with President Sirisena is different. Despite being the SLFP leader now, how can he agree to the party’s decision to further maintain the system, after pledging the country otherwise?
SLFP Ministers in the UNP led Government such as Dayasiri Jayasekara Wijith Wijayamuni Zoysa, Dilan Perera and S.B. Dissanayake argue that the President, though elected to the office as a candidate of another party, had to abide now by the party decision.

It seems to be a tricky situation for the President, if he in fact had not had prior knowledge about the decision. He has to abide by the party discipline on the one hand and by the mandate he had been given at the election on the other. However, he is maintaining a deafening silence on the matter.
Can the President go back on his words just because his party requests him to do so? Interestingly, at one point the party itself attempted to prevent him from coming to office. It is no secret that the President had gone into hiding on the Election Day, until the results were announced.

He had told many a times after the election that had he been defeated by the UPFA, the coalition led by the SLFP, he would have been six feet under the ground. On the other hand, having well known that the party leader had pledged the country to abolish the current system of governance, how could the SLFP decide to field him as its candidate at the next Presidential election, if it respected the people’s mandate?

If the President was not a party to this decision, one can even infer that there was a conspiracy to defeat him at the next election by making him tarnish his own image through this decision.
Almost all the SLFP members of Parliament were behind former President Mahinda Rajapaksa even during the Parliamentary Elections that were held seven months after the President Sirisena’s election. President had to remove the two General Secretaries of the SLFP and the UPFA, Anura Priyadharshana Yapa and Susil Premajayantha who were currently holding Ministerial portfolios, on the eve of that election, as they were working against him.

The SLFP rank and file except for a small group that supported the President at the Presidential Election did not have any reason to shift allegiance from Mahinda to Maithri.

Besides, what is puzzling is the President’s silence on the matter.

He is not a child to be hoodwinked. He showed his political acumen during the last general election, in spite of some of his speeches being censored by the Chairman of the Election Commission. Political parties in Sri Lanka usually do not take decisions against the wishes of their respective leaders.

Therefore another inference that can be made is that the President, after changing his stance on the executive Presidency is attempting to portray it as a decision by the party, and not initiated by him. As the Rajapaksas are attempting to recapture power mainly to defend themselves from the allegations of corruption and crimes, the President also might be planning to shield himself in the future as well with the executive powers he is currently wielding.

The two main political parties in the country cannot justify their change of mind in respect of the Executive Presidential system of governance as they have done so either way
several times.

The UNP which introduced the system to the country through the Second Republican Constitution in 1978, came forward to scrap it in 1994, when the then party leader Gamini Dissanayake pledged support to Prime Minister Chandrika Kumaratunga to do so. Then the party ridiculously staged a huge demonstration in 1997 demanding President Kumaratunga to keep her promise to rid the system while maintaining that it would not do so when it comes to power in future.

The UNP had changed their stance again in 2014 when they wanted a strong slogan to defeat President Rajapaksa.

The SLFP which opposed the current system of governance till 2010 shifted its stand when President Rajapaksa further strengthened it with the 18th Amendment to the Constitution in that year. Then the party went back to its original position under President Sirisena before it decided otherwise last week for the second time.

All in all, both main parties have hoodwinked the masses in this matter for nearly forty years.

Sri Lankan Economy: Year in Review 2016

Underpinned by solid growth and boosted by medium-term fiscal support, the Sri Lankan economy rode out a difficult year in 2016, though government measures to curb spending and boost revenue may impact investment and expansion in the coming year.

by Oxford Business Group-Jan 20, 2017

( January 20, 2017, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) According to IMF estimates issued at the end of October, Sri Lanka’s economy was forecast to close out 2016 with GDP growth of 5%. A similar rate of expansion is forecast for 2017, rising to 5.4% by the end of the decade.

International assistance

A flat growth trajectory and the need to fund economic reform prompted the Sri Lankan government to broker an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with the IMF, which authorised the provision of $1.5bn in loans over a three-year period.

Under the terms of the EFF, which came into effect at the beginning of June, the government committed to a programme of fiscal consolidation, revenue mobilisation, public financial management reform, state enterprise reform, a transition to flexible inflation targeting, and reforms to the trade and investment regime.

As part of these ongoing measures, the government plans to utilise public-private partnership models to bring efficiency and attract investment to some state-owned enterprises (SOEs), particularly in the tourism, financial services and utilities sectors. According to a report issued by local think tank the Advocata Institute in May, SOEs account for up to 80% of domestic debt.

The IMF released the second tranche of the EFF funding, worth $162.6m, in November after reporting that Sri Lanka had made progress in meeting the terms of the agreement despite challenging circumstances. The report also said that while international reserves were below comfortable levels, overall fiscal performance had been encouraging, with macroeconomic and financial conditions beginning to stabilise.

Budgetary tightening

The government has moved to meet the criteria of its IMF agreement by increasing taxes and reining in spending.

Tabled in mid-November, the budget aims for a deficit of 4.6% next year, compared to an estimated 5.4% in 2016. The government predicts that the gap will be narrowed via a 27% increase in tax revenues and by easing the pace of recurrent spending growth.

Among the measures to be enacted this year are higher levels of corporate and withholding taxes, a 10% capital gains tax to be introduced in April, a hike in value-added tax from 10% to 15%, and an increase in tax payable on earnings from funds, dividends, treasury bills and bonds from 10% to 14%.

While some of this new revenue will be used to scale down the deficit, the 2017 budget also foresees an increase in capital expenditure, with outlays next year of LKR798bn ($5.3bn), up from LKR500bn ($3.3bn) in 2016.

Even with measures introduced to reduce the deficit, the government will enter 2017 with a high debt burden, according to a mid-November report by ratings agency Fitch, with 2016 year-end debt expected to be around 76.5% of GDP.

Borrowing under the 2017 budget will also rise, with the government expecting to tap international markets for LKR353bn ($2.4bn), equivalent to 2.6% of GDP, up from the 2016 total of LKR275bn ($1.8bn) or 2.2% of GDP.

Divested securities

Pressure on the Sri Lankan rupee and concerns over tax reforms to be implemented in the coming year saw investors divest government securities in the fourth quarter.

In the five weeks to November 16, foreign investors sold LKR37.1bn ($247.8m) worth of securities, with the outflow also linked to speculation of a rates rise by the US Federal Reserve.

Following the budget release investor concerns also spread to the Colombo Stock Exchange, whose main index dipped to 6242.68 points in late November, its lowest level since early April. The index has shed 2.77% since the budget was handed down, reflecting uncertainty over the impact of some of the government’s proposed measures.

Risks of a potential shift in investor sentiment were flagged by Fitch in February, when it downgraded Sri Lanka’s long-term foreign and local currency issuer default ratings from “BB-” to “B+”, assigning both a negative outlook. These risks could be mitigated by a greater degree of stability in policy and in tighter fiscal controls and reforms, the agency said.

Rates raised

While average inflation remained below the 4% target in 2016, to help tackle point-to-point inflation – which peaked at 6.4% in June – the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in July upped both its standing deposit facility rate and standing lending facility rate by 50 basis points each, to 7% and 8.5%, respectively.

This was the second rate hike of the year, with the regulator having raised its lending rate from 7.5% to 8% in February.

Following the rate increases, growth in credit to the private sector from commercial banks decelerated to 27.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) in August, down from 28.5% a month previously. Most recent figures show that in October, private credit was LKR79bn ($526.8m) – a 22% decrease y-o-y – with total private credit granted in the first 10 months of the year hitting LKR594bn ($4bn).

With the aim of bringing y-o-y expansion down to below 20%, in December the IMF called on the central bank to remain poised to raise rates further if credit growth did not show signs of further deceleration.

The Background Of Road Accidents In The Post-Mullivaikkal Scenario

By Parani Krisnarajani –January 20, 2017

Parani Krisnarajani

It has become customary for the Tamils to pay a hefty price to comprehend certain truth. The recent gruesome murder of two students of the University of Jaffna by the police force of the genocidal government of Sri Lanka has to be seen in that light.

When we exposed the dirty hands of the government in all the road accidents that took place post Mullivaikkaal diligently, with an eye to justice for the past seven years, none headed our findings. On the contrary it was viewed with ridicule and was pushed aside as mere exaggerations. But the loss of two students has come as a rude shock to the Tamil psyche and the Tamils now have begun to see this incident in the light of the above truth. We watch this scene with an admixed emotion of grief and sorrow.

Thamizhini’s ugly death served as a wakeup call for us to understand the nature of cancer deaths in the post Mullivaikkaal scenario. It was only after this incident that we started seeing the deaths caused by Injections of poison and so called other natural deaths as a conspiracy to annihilate our race. The protests that erupted and a dialogue that was initiated in the aftermath created an action mechanism aimed at addressing this issue earnestly, began taking shape.

It is precisely at this moment, after the gruesome murder of the two students, a dialogue has been set in motion among the Tamil society for the need to analyze the road accidents and the systematic annihilation our race faces in the hands of the genocidal establishment of Sri Lanka.

Should I feel happy for this development or feel emotional is something we simply could not come to terms. Because my continuous research on this subject made me identify 73 heinous methods employed to systematically annihilate our race in the aftermath of the Mullivaikkaal debacle. At a time when we, the victims, have identified these precise dangers, if we are not evolving a mechanism to fight such attempts, what does future have in store for us?

Let yourself bring this situation before your eyes for a moment. We shall face a systematic total annihilation in the garb of disease, accidents and such other 73 identified methods. And our sheer ignorance would have left us counting the dead in the name of disease and accidents. What a shame!

We cannot talk to people who consider that genocide is all about having people killed in a war. Convincing them is not our business either.

The Sinhalese government is employing innovative methods of Genocide in Tamil Eezham. While it is true that a Government with a genocidal intention has this character ingrained in it, the Sri Lankan Government has always been a step higher when it came to executing it. We need to frame an understanding that the UN and western powers are not just responsible for the past destruction but they are hand-in-glove to the genocidal attempts that continue till today.

So it is imperative that we the victims have to first devise a framework that can safeguard us. Later the working of this framework can bring to fore the truth, the sinister agenda of the killings, and can help in devising an international framework in getting us fair justice.

January 20, 2017, 8:13 pm

Since about the year 2000, chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu) also called Chronic Renal Failure has been reported to occur in North Central Province (NCP). Now it is reported in 11 districts There are some families in which both parents have died of CKDu and the children are helpless. The families of the CKDu patients have become destitute as it is mostly the bread winners of the families who are affected. Hence, taking immediate action to control CKDu is of paramount importance. It is because of the gravity of the problem that President Maithripala Sirisena in 2014 appointed a task force to take necessary action to take preventive and welfare measures to the benefit of the affected community.

CKDU is considered to be of multi-factorial origin. A review by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) (ref. IWMI Working Paper 158) indicates that no specific substance/compound has been proved to cause CKDu. Research studies carried out to-date suggest that consumption of contaminated water is the main cause of this disease. Therefore, it is important to provide pure water to all CKDu affected and surrounding villages.

Hence, the Task Force (TF) appointed by the President need to have an affective programme to supply good quality water to those in the CKDu affected areas. To achieve this objective it is necessary to know the number of the affected people in the different DS divisions. According to the website of the Presidential Task Force, in 2015, there were approximately 70,000 CKDu patients. At a meeting held recently the President of Sri Lanka has said that there are 400,000 CKDu affected patients in the country.. No one for certain knows at least the approximate number of CKDu patients in the country and its distribution..However, one of the recommendations of the International Expert Consultation on Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology held in Colombo, in April 2016, was to establish community-based disease surveillance to understand the burden, geographical distribution and time trends of CKDu in Sri Lanka. It is the responsibility of Presidential Task Force (PTF) to initiate this study.

During the last few years, some professionals have proposed numerous activities to prevent/control CKDu. For example there was a proposal to remove the topsoil in NCP. Someone suggested to stop the farmers from cultivating in those regions, at least till there is some remedy. There was also a proposal to move these people to other areas, at least till the problem is sorted. How impractical and unrealistic these proposals are? Some agrochemicals including Glyphosate (G) have been banned, although there is no clear evidence that G causes CKDu. Banning of this herbicide it is claimed has caused the plantation sector a loss of around Rs 5 billion last year.

Prevention of CKDu is important. Hence, various strategies have been implemented to prevent occurrence of CKDu. These strategies are mainly aimed at providing good quality water. When some promoted Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants to provide good quality water, some others were saying that it is expensive and the water from RO plants lack nutrients. Rainwater harvesting was suggested and some were of the opinion that rainwater like RO water lack nutrients and expensive. With the present drought in all these 11 districts, CKDu will affect more people, While all these arguments/discussions are going on thousands of people in 11 districts are seriously affected.. Those concerned, specially the PTF need to see that appropriate actions are taken as early as possible to assist the long suffering patients. Finding solutions to the CKDu problem based on available knowledge, must receive the highest priority by the Presidential Task Force. The International Expert Consultation on CKDu held in Colombo, in April 2016 made 17 recommendations but no action appear to have been taken by the Presidential Task Force to implement these recommendations.

Dr C.S. Weeraratna

csweera@sltnet.lk

Trade Union Leaders urges government to make permanent in service for SLT Manpower Workers

Jan 20, 2017

Leaders of SLT Manpower Workers and Trade Unions jointly called a press conference and urged government to take immediate action to make permanent in service for SLT Manpower Workers.

Addressing the Media at CSR on Jan. 19, Trade Union Leaders said that if the government failed to solve this problem they will join the protest march to be hold at 2.00 pm on Jan. 24th for strengthen the struggle of SLT Manpower Workers.

“It is very clear that no victory has ever been achieved without a struggle. We join with their struggle until their victory,” said Anton Marcus, Convener and General Secretary of the Free Tarde Zones

Talking to Lanka News Web W. A. D. N. N. Wijesuriya said that over 2100 Manpower Workers demand government to make permanent in service for them.

Lawrence Ferdinando - Colombo.

SRI LANKA OFFICIALLY REFUSES TO GO GAY

Although awareness and activism concerning LGBTIQ rights have increased over the years, the views of the state (apparently) refuse to budge. Image courtesy Equal Ground

Contrary to popular belief, decriminalisation of homosexuality is not among the conditions for GSP+. Image courtesy thirdforcenews.org.uk--The mindset of a majorly conservative Sri Lanka appears to remain unchanged. Image courtesy Reuters

Himal Kotelawala-20/01/2017

Gay rights is in the news again, what with the Cabinet notoriously rejecting a move to decriminalise homosexuality in the country. Social networking sites were abuzz with the news yesterday, with members of the public ‒ those with an online presence at least ‒ showing mixed reactions to the controversial yet unsurprising decision by the Yahapalana Government.

A provision under women’s rights in the draft Human Rights Action Plan seeking to end discrimination based on sexual orientation met with criticism from some members of the cabinet, culminating in a decisive vote against the proposal. Some of these ministers have reportedly gone as far as calling it “yet another surreptitious attempt to recognise homosexuality.”

Legalit

Here’s what the law has to say on the matter:
Section 365A (as amended in 1995) of the Penal Code states:

“Any person who, in public or private, commits, or is a party to the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any person of, any act of gross indecency with another person, shall be guilty of an offence, and shall be punished with imprisonment of either the description for a term which may extended to two years or with fine or with both and where the offence is committed by a person over eighteen years of age in respect of any person under sixteen years of age shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term not less than ten years and not exceeding twenty years and with fine and shall also be ordered to pay compensation of an amount determined by court to the person in respect of whom the offence was committed for the injuries caused to such person.”

To say that the above clause is vague would be an understatement. Homosexual conduct has been grouped into an unhelpfully broad category of ‘gross indecency,’ leaving it open to interpretation to anyone with an agenda. Attorney-at-law Dushantha Kularathne, however, told Roar that homosexuality in Sri Lanka is definitely an offence, but conceded that it is indeed open to interpretation.

“[Homosexuality] is prohibited in Sri Lanka. There was an amendment to the Penal Code made in 1995 making it an offence. Any homosexual act between men ‒ it was expanded to include women, too ‒ is an offence,” he said.

Homosexuality, among other things, comes under “unnatural offences” or acts of a sexual nature that go against nature, as per section 365 of the Penal Code. According to Kularathne, however, no cases have been reported of anyone actually being prosecuted for being gay.

“It’s open to interpretation, but unfortunately, our courts of law have so far not interpreted it. When a person is arrested for something like this, those are sorted at the magistrate court level. For one thing, [such allegations] are highly difficult to prove, so what they would do is say ‘this is an offence of sexual abuse’ or something to that effect and they will stop at that. They might not go ahead interpreting the entire thing. As I understand, there are no reported cases of this nature,” he told Roar.

In other words, the law exists but it’s not implemented? Not exactly, says Kularathne.

“I can’t say that it’s not implemented. It can be implemented. It’s just that our courts of law and our police officers don’t go up to the extent of implementing it as it is ‒ as it’s set out in the law,” he said.

When asked for any examples, Kularathne said that although he has not heard of anyone been prosecuted solely for being gay, there have been cases in high court for unnatural offences that included acts of a homosexual nature carried out without consent.

“But with consent I have not seen a single case to date. That is very unlikely to happen. Those sort of prosecutions never happen,” said Kularathne.

“Not that it cannot happen ‒ it can,” he hastened to add, “but not to my knowledge.”
GSP+

There had been reports to the effect that one of the conditions imposed by the European Union in granting the much publicised GSP Plus status is that Sri Lanka should take steps to decriminalise homosexuality in the country. Some members of the Government ‒ reportedly from the SLFP ‒ have expressed their displeasure at this, ultimately leading to this week’s official decision by the powers that be. These reports, it turns out, may have been misleading.

According to Research Director at Verité Research, Gehan Gunatilleke, the EU never imposed such a condition.

“This is not a GSP+ condition. There are only 15 GSP+ conditions and decriminalisation of homosexual conduct is not one of them. This is a common misconception, and I’m frankly alarmed by the rate of misreporting on this matter,” Gunatilleke told Roar.

Decriminalisation of homosexual conduct, he said, is one of the 58 actions points considered by the EU-SL Working Group on Governance, Rule of Law and Human Rights, which meets periodically to discuss issues.

“There is only a tangential relationship between the Working Group and the GSP+ process. These action points are to be considered and implemented over time. But non-implementation does not result in denial of GSP+,” he added.

Status Quo

In the wake of the Cabinet’s decision to vote against decriminalising homosexuality, a fresh ‒ if rather feeble ‒ campaign has started online to increase public awareness on the need to recognise gay rights. A profile-pic campaign on Facebook launched in response to the news, expressing solidarity with the country’s small but increasingly vocal gay population, is slowly but surely gathering momentum.
However, as is often the case with online petitions and other forms of slacktivism, whether or not this exercise will succeed in actually changing the mindsets of the majority of conservative Sri Lankans remains to be seen. As things stand now, loving a person of your own gender ‒ though largely tolerated ‒ remains illegal in the paradise isle.

roar.lk

Students attacked with tear gas & water cannon

January 20, 2017

The police attacked a protest march by university students held in Colombo yesterday (19th) to protest against SAITM private medical degree shop with tear gas and water cannon.
Seveeral students were injured when police attacked the protest march organized by Inter University Students Federation.

Bigger Is Not Always Better

By Ranil Senanayake –January 20, 2017

Dr Ranil Senanayake

With mega cities and mega economic zones, the current crop of politicians seem to follow the ‘bigger is better’ philosophy of consumerist economics. They are the ‘Wannabe’s’ of Sri Lanka, those who want Sri Lanka to be like Singapore or Dubai or New York. They wanna-be anything but Sri Lankan. They would change our culture, our values, and our environment and compromise our nationhood, just to become more like some other country that has attracted their personal attention.

We are told that they have to create megapolises and mega economic zones in order to get the money to pay the for loans taken for our ‘development’, at the same time taking out more loans to continue their ‘development’ agenda. The medicine that they propose might be much worse than the illness. With some politicians promoting ‘industrialization’ without any thought of what type of industries they propose, we are back to an era of inviting ‘robber barons’ into our land.

In a horribly polluted planet, countries with responsibility towards their citizenry are pushing out their polluting industries. It is not difficult to guess where the displaced polluting industries will go to. They will move to countries with loose environmental standards or with corrupt rulers, They will get those rulers parrot the formula of industrialization and come in as the ‘investors’ who will save us by providing jobs.

The ultimate act of betrayal of a nation is for its leaders to sell the birthright of its citizenry. Access to clean land, access to clean air, clean water and safe food is our birthright. So far this ‘development’ process has almost completely restricted public access to the shore along our southern coast, it has reduced the quality of air in our urban centers to the point of being a health hazard and has rendered 90% of the streams with drinkable water to be unusable today. For how long more can we afford to continue the madness?

It is not that the current rulers are unaware of the dangers. It was in February 1978 that the Daily News published this article:

The Meaning of Development

‘Development and progress, are words that we are very familiar with, and rightly so. As a nation all our hopes and aspirations are centered around the promises attendant on this processes. However, recently there have been some questions on the values of “development” and as in every controversial issue the battle lines have been drawn. The combatants are, as is usual in these affairs, mostly from developed countries and the people of developing countries more often than not, are mere witnesses to these esoteric exchanges. I do not intent to imply that these arguments are not valid; rather I would like to draw attention to the fact that often both points of view have the references deeply rooted in ‘developed’ or western technological thought.

Development in the context of the correct usage of the world certainly seems wedded firmly to Western technological thought. Whether we use it to describe an economic order or a social order, the roots are the same. The word development carries other connotations in the context of present usage. It suggests that the country to be developed is some way inferior to the model to which it aspires to become. The point here is: inferior by whose standards? To an industrialist from a western country, a poor village in the third world does indeed need to be developed. A view, that will more often than not, be held by the rulers of the same country. At this junction a quote from Richard Gott (CDN 26.1.78) seems pertinent.

“With the formal ending of colonial rule in all three continents of the Third World, political independence was granted a tiny elite trained not to question the framework within which the world economy operated”

It is this elite that laid the foundation for education in those countries, thus the value system operating and transmitted was certainly not endemic by any means. With this perspective in mind, lets us attempt to look at ourselves.

We in Sri Lanka are continually talking about development. I believe that in the end this merely means an increase in industry and consumerism. It most certainly could not refer to a cultural or a philosophical development.

For a country in which a major part comprehends philosophical concepts that are addressable only by a minority of scholars in the West, must certainly, in comparative terms, be more developed. An argument could be made “Do we not need to be developed in our agriculture?” Does an agricultural system that does not rely on any form of energy subsidy other than biological energy need to be “developed”, so that, its productivity becomes reliant on external fossil energy?

Sobitha Thero’s Rs 20M worth vehicle missing?

By Admin-January 20, 2017

Police are investigating the alleged disappearance of a luxury car worth around Rs 20 million, which had been used by the late Most Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero.

The Police Spokesman’s Office said that the Mirihana Police Station is conducting an investigation based on a complaint lodged by Ven Udathalakande Ariyarathana Thera of the Kotte Naga Vihara and a group of laymen.

According to the complaint, the vehicle has been missing for the past four months.

Facebook job for ex-president!

Jan 20, 2017

Ex-president, MP Mahinda Rajapaksa has found a new job. That job does not pay. It is a voluntary one. When he was the president, he always used to berate his three boys, “What the hell? All the time, you keep staring at and pressing on the mobile phone. If I ask something, you answer while staring at the mobile phone.” Ironically, senior Rajapaksa too, become one of them now.

He wakes up at 5.00 am, and until a cup of Kenda or coffee arrives, what he does in the living room is to go to facebook. When the Kenda arrives, he takes it with one hand and drinks without looking at it, while holding the mobile phone with the other. Then, he goes jogging with the phone in his track bottom. Every ten minutes, he stops and takes a look at facebook. He laughs to himself. Now, the PSD men too, are used to this. They too, are mostly on the phone. After returning from the jogging and having the breakfast, madam Shiranthi arrives. The two, without a word, keep staring at their phones while gulping down what is served. A word or two may be exchanged, but that too, is about something on facebook.

The three boys are worried by this behaviour of their parents. Their questions are answered by the senior Rajapaksas while staring at their mobile phones. Recently, the boss told Namal, “I was ruined by facebook. Now, I have discovered how I could come out of this.” Namal did not reply, but madam Shiranthi said, “We will still be OK had you kept pressing on the phone, instead of squeezing on that charm ball.”

People who come to see Mahinda too, are in a dilemma due his facebook addiction. Even when something important is being discussed, what he does is to press on his mobile phone. If a call comes, he answers it and immediately cuts it off. He likes to be left alone. What Mahinda and Shiranthi do most of the time of the day are to sit on either end of the sofa and visit facebook. On January 01, when the three boys came and worshipped him, Mahinda said, “This i-phone is too small. Get me a better one with a bigger screen.” The trio looked at each other. “They ruined me through facebook. I too, will ruin them through facebook,” was what he said while starting work for the new year. This is not a joke, Mahinda is a man with a funny sort of talent. Very soon, a website edited by him can come into being. The man says that he will topple the government in 2017. Don’t take him for a joke. The animal is dangerous.

'No longer realistic': Turkey admits u-turn on policy to rid Syria of Assad

Deputy PM says facts on the ground have changed dramatically, in reverse of long-stated policy on Syrian president

A woman waves Turkish and Free Syrian flags as an aid convoy to Aleppo organised by IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation prepares to leave on 14 December, 2016 in Istanbul (AFP)

Friday 20 January 2017

Turkey can no longer insist on a resolution of the conflict in Syria without the involvement of President Bashar al-Assad, as the situation on the ground has changed dramatically, Turkey's deputy prime minister said on Friday.

"As far as our position on Assad is concerned, we think that the suffering of (the) Syrian people and the tragedies, clearly the blame is squarely on Assad. But we have to be pragmatic, realistic," Mehmet Simsek told a panel on Syria and Iraq at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"The facts on the ground have changed dramatically, so Turkey can no longer insist on a settlement without Assad, it's not realistic," he said.

Denial

But Simsek's office denied that Turkey had made a u-turn in policy towards Assad.

"Deputy PM Simsek’s response to a question was clear and he said that Assad is the cause of the tragedy in Syria; that it would be impossible to buy into a solution that includes Assad; the United States failed to carry out its responsibility and that Iran and Russia changed the reality on the ground.

"The area that now needs to be focused upon is a ceasefire and the protection of peoples’ lives," said a statement by the Simsek's office on Friday.

"However, the Sputnik news agency tried to distort the minister’s remarks by using it out of context and alluded that he said 'Turkey will no longer insist on an Assad-free agreement'," added the statement.

"The minister never made such a comment; this is how Sputnik chose to interpret it."

Turkey has long insisted that Assad must go for sustainable peace to be achieved in Syria. But it has become less insistent on his immediate departure since its recent rapprochement with Russia, which backs the Syrian leader, and ahead of peace talks planned in Kazakhstan next week.

Ceasefire

Ankara has supported various rebel groups fighting Assad in Syria, and is currently leading operations against the Islamic State group in al-Bab, north of Aleppo.

Bassam Jaara, a Syrian opposition activist, tweeted his reaction: "Turkish deputy prime minister: ‘It is not realistic for Ankara to insist on settling the conflict in Syria without Assad!’ With friends like these you don’t need enemies."

President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman said last week that Turkey still believes a united and peaceful Syria is impossible with Assad, but wants to proceed "step-by-step" and see the outcome of the peace talks in Astana.

Syria expert Charles Lister throws in his two cents

Turkey and Russia brokered a ceasefire in Syria which has largely held in the run-up to the Astana talks, a process which follows the defeat of the Syrian opposition in the northern city of Aleppo last month.

The shift in Turkish policy comes after Erdogan said on 29 November that Turkey was fighting in Syria "to end the rule of the cruel Assad, who has been spreading state terror".

The Kremlin demanded an "explanation" from Erdogan over his comments, resulting in a backtrack by Turkey.

"The aim of the... operation is against terror, not against anyone or any country,” Erdogan said on 1 December.

"No one should have any doubts or take our statements to mean something else."

In September 2015 Erdogan had suggested he was open to Assad being part of a temporary transition process befoe backtracking.

Turkish soldiers killed in Syria

Five Turkish soldiers were killed in an attack in northern Syria blamed on the Islamic State group, local media reported Friday, quoting the Turkish military.

Another nine soldiers were wounded in the bombing in Al-Bab, where Turkish-backed rebels have suffered heavy casualities in a weeks-long bid to retake the town from IS, the private Dogan news agency said.