Thailand: 2,000 Burmese migrants demand better bonuses, benefits at seafood firm

FILE - In this Sept. 3, 2013 file photo, migrant workers from Burma clean fishing nets aboard a trawler after a fishing trip in the Gulf of Thailand in Samut Sakhon Province, west of Bangkok, Thailand. Pic: AP

31st January 2017

MORE than 2,000 migrant workers at a major Thai seafood exporting company have called for bigger bonuses and better welfare benefits, a rare demand in a country that bars foreigners from forming trade unions, a rights group said.

Seven migrant workers from Burma submitted the request on behalf of more than 2,000 migrant workers to the government’s labour protection and welfare office and to Unicord PCL, a leading tuna processor, said the Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN), which supported the effort.

“We believe this negotiation will be successful and lead to a trickle-down effect where other employees will be empowered and feel confident to organise and collectively bargain to make demands of their employers,” said Andy Hall, co-founder of MWRN.

“They will realise the power they have as employees. Workers are powerful human beings.”

Thailand has come under fire in recent years for worker exploitation and abuses against its migrant labourers – the vast majority from neighbouring Burma.

SEE ALSO: Thailand’s overworked, underpaid women migrant workers numbers high – UN report

Many workers pay exorbitant agent fees to be smuggled into Thailand for dangerous and demeaning jobs, earning salaries below the minimum wage.

Thailand has pushed through policies in an effort to combat human trafficking and forced labour, particularly in its seafood industry.

The workers’ demands to Unicord – a subsidiary of the Sea Value Group – include increased bonuses and benefits, such as benefits for workers with no absences over a two-week stretch.

Their demands aim to match the benefits provided to workers by other major seafood processors in Thailand, MWRN said.

Officials from Unicord could not immediately be reached by telephone for comment.

A 2015 report by a Finnish advocacy organisation found that Unicord had improved working conditions since the group began monitoring the company in 2012, but said its workers paid high recruitment fees.

Unicord reduced the recruitment fees last year after 200 workers protested outside the factory, Hall said, adding that their success emboldened them to submit the current demands.

SEE ALSO: Coalition urges Thai govt to protect rights of migrants and human rights defenders

Chanintr Chalisarapong, president of the Thai Tuna Industry Association and senior vice president of Sea Value, declined to comment on the negotiation.

“They just submitted it. It takes time to do this. They called for a lot of things. We can’t comment right now. They (the company) are doing everything according to law now,” Chanintr said by telephone.

Jason Judd, the International Labour Organization’s programme manager focused on work conditions in the Thai seafood industry, said unions and civil society have repeatedly raised the issue of full organising and bargaining rights for workers in Thailand – regardless of their country of origin.

“Demands to improve wage protection, working conditions and working time by migrant workers are not uncommon, but we are hopeful that this new effort is one of several to advance dialogue between firms and workers in Thailand’s large food and agriculture industry,” Judd said by email. – Thomson Reuters Foundation 

Malaria drugs fail for first time on patients in UK

The patients had caught malaria when visiting Africa

By James Gallagher-31 January 2017

A key malaria treatment has failed for the first time in patients being treated in the UK, doctors say.

The drug combination was unable to cure four patients, who had all visited Africa, in early signs the parasite is evolving resistance.

A team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said it was too early to panic.

But it warned things could suddenly get worse and demanded an urgent appraisal of drug-resistance levels in Africa.

Malaria parasites are spread by bites from infected mosquitoes.

It is a major killer of the under-fives with one child dying from the disease every two minutes.

Between 1,500 and 2,000 people are treated for malaria in the UK each year - always after foreign travel.

Most are treated with the combination drug: artemether-lumefantrine.

But clinical reports, now detailed in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, showed the therapy failed in four patients between October 2015 and February 2016.

All initially responded to therapy and were sent home, but were readmitted around a month later when the infection rebounded.

Samples of the parasite that causes malaria were analysed at the Malaria Reference Laboratory at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Dr Colin Sutherland told the BBC News website: "It's remarkable there's been four apparent failures of treatment, there's not been any other published account [in the UK]."

All of the patients were eventually treated using other therapies.

But the detailed analysis of the parasites suggested they were developing ways of resisting the effects of the front-line drugs.

'Clinically challenging'

Dr Sutherland added: "It does feel like something is changing, but we're not yet in a crisis.

"It is an early sign and we need to take it quite seriously as it may be snowballing into something with greater impact."

Two of the cases were associated with travel to Uganda, one with Angola and one with Liberia - suggesting drug-resistant malaria could be emerging over wide regions of the continent.

Dr Sutherland added: "There has been anecdotal evidence in Africa of treatment failure on a scale that is clinically challenging.

"We need to go in and look carefully at drug efficacy."

The malaria parasites all seemed to be evolving different mechanisms rather than there being one new type of resistant malaria parasite spreading through the continent.

The type of resistance is also clearly distinct from the form developing in South East Asia that has been causing huge international concern.

Dr Sutherland says doctors in the UK need to be aware the drugs might not work and argued current treatment guidelines may need to be reviewed.

Prof David Lalloo, Dean of Clinical Sciences and International Public Health at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said more studies are needed.

"This is an interesting and well conducted study and again emphasises the incredible ability of the malaria parasite to rapidly evolve to become resistant to antimalarial treatment," he said.

"It is too early to fully evaluate the significance of these findings but the paper highlights the need to be constantly vigilant when treating patients with malaria and larger studies are certainly needed to explore this issue further."

Prof Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England, said: "This is a stark warning for the future of global medicine.

"We are in dire need of new drugs to keep pace with resistance, in low and middle-income countries in particular, the consequences of ineffective drugs are catastrophic."

Follow James on Twitter.

Vaddakkandal massacre remembered on 32nd anniversary

30 Jan  2017 The 32nd anniversary of the Vaddakkandal massacre was marked today at the Vaddakkandal Government Tamil Mixed School in Mannar.

At dawn on 30 January 1985, 200 Sri Lankan military personnel based in the Thallady camp moved into the Vaddakkandal village, killing at least 52 civilians.

Soldiers also entered the Vaddakkandal GTM school, killing at least 18 people, including the principal, other teachers and members of staff and students.

The event featured guests including politicians and religious leaders from all religious communities, as well as relatives of those killed in the massacre.

Sri Lanka: “Thirteenth (13th) Amendment no solution to our problem”

by our London Correspondent-Jan 30, 2017

( January 30, 2017, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) JVP MP Vijitha Herath visiting London on invitation for a Workshop of Westminster Foundation for Democracy, also met the Tamil and Muslim diaspora on 27 January 2017 at Trinity Community Hall, East Ham, London E12 6SG. He stated that the 13^th Amendment was no solution to the problem in Sri Lanka.

Both the Tamils and the Sinhala people should have equal economic rights. Both Languages are state languages, but there is no implementation of the Tamil language in many areas and as seen particularly in Police stations. As far as national unity is concerned, the JVP has always stood for united and not a divided country.

Our political stance all long has been to strengthen against separatism. We demand full devolution of power to all people, of whatever ethnicity or religion whether they are Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim.

By comparison he mentioned in the UK there were people of all national diversities, many backgrounds, but had equal rights before the law and lived together. Similarly, in Sri Lanka, we in the JVP categorically said in 1987 there was no need for giving any group of people separate status, that our experience after 38 years has shown that the 13^th amendment was no solution. That is the reality.

The basis of power in society is the economic power of the people and to achieve this objective we had to build national unity. The JVP has all along fought for the economic rights of all people of Sri Lanka. We want to give equal rights to all our people. It is important how to practically achieve it.

“We promoted our solution one month after the end of the war in 2009 to create the basic steps to reduce difference. It was to build up the North and the East of Sri Lanka. It was to change working practices. It was to give equal status to Sinhala and Tamil language as State Languages as well as to the medium of communication in the English language. The current government did not do that. There is small change”.

“We suggested other rights for the State Plantation workers’ rights. Children belonged and were classed as Indian Tamils. We wanted it changed to Tamil not classed as Indian Tamil as a first step. The CWC leaders were opposed to this for their own reasons”.

“We maintained that there should be established civil administration in the North and East provinces. As is seen, there is some change”.

“Our starting proposal was if we can take thorough steps in our society, there was no need to change the Constitution. We maintained that the new government must fulfil the main economic and social action of our society, take basic steps immediately, then the people won’t demand separate areas for Tamils and Muslims”.

He went on to state: “A separate State for any group of people, it can never happen.

We need to give equal rights on basis of economics and if we go beyond that there will be a problem.”

“We propose the giving of practical self government, give economic and political rights to the individual in the first instance. We’ve had so many talks about a change of systems. It is not the fault of the JVP in principle or programme. It is the fault of the present and past governments.”

During a question and answer session, Parliamentarian Vijitha Herath said that the JVP was not a nationalist party; we are opposed to separatism of any kind. We are opposed to separatist movements. During the 1998 insurrection we never took up arms against any Tamil or Muslim.

In answer to a further comment, he maintained that the JVP was never a racist party We are for individual rights and not for community rights per se. Community power must however, be protected, but we speak for all the people of Sri Lanka.

Comment

Members of Parliament of Sri Lanka are often invited to attend conferences in London, but of the eight recent visitors from various parties attending the Workshop at Westminster during 23 -27 January 2017, it appears the JVP representative was willing  to brave the wintry weather to meet with the Tamils and Muslim diaspora, along with the Sinhala group. There perhaps could be an easing if not an amelioration in the stand taken by both camps, with regard to the national question, in view of the current situation in Sri Lanka.

SRI LANKA: REPORT OF THE CONSULTATION TASK FORCE ON RECONCILIATION MECHANISMS IS TREACHEROUS – NWH

Image: Mrs. Manouri Muttetuwegama presented the report of the “Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms” to  chair of the SCRM Chandrika Kumarathunga.

30/01/2017

Issuing a statement the National War Heroes Front says that  report of the “Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms” (CTFRM) set up on 26.1.1916, & chaired by Mrs. Manouri Muttetuwegama is a most treacherous document. This is seen clearly and immediately by the fact that the report was fully endorsed and welcomed by both the TNA and the GTF. TNA is the political arm of the LTTE and GTF is an NGO once banned under the UN Charter for directly supporting the LTTE. The LTTE is, even as yet, categorized as the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world and it is still in the banned list of 32 countries worldwide.” The statement is singed the statement issued by the President of the National War Heroes Front Rear Admiral (Retired) Sarath Weerasekera.

Excerpts  from the statement follows:

It is a lowly and a contemptuous attempt, by CTFRM together with TNA and GTF, to seek punishment and bring discredit to the war heroes who survived. How much money has been paid officially /unofficially to the eleven members of the CTFRM by the separatist Tamil Diaspora is not known, for, no one with an iota of patriotism would present a report based purely on the evidence of people instigated by the separatist TNA.

The head of the UNHRC, Zeid Hussein, has also welcomed the recommendations of the CTFRM. … So a report which could bring a grin on to the face of Zeid Hussein would also be one of such nature, and hence should be rejected in toto.

The Report also says that people have no faith in the national judiciary and recommends a hybrid court on the basis of competence/impartiality. If our judges are competent enough to sentence people to death and if it goes unquestioned to date, they should be equally capable of taking decisions on accountability as well. Also if foreign judges are recommended on the basis of competency, in a hybrid court, the entire accountability process would be solely handled by the foreign judges themselves and our judges would be just sitting for namesake. …. If not the Manouri Muttetuwagama panel should be held for contempt of court for ridiculing and insulting our judiciary in the eyes of the world community.

The CTFRM has finally recommended measures to build confidence among the Tamils in North in order to meet their aspirations. The Northern Tamils comprise only 48% of the country’s Tamil population but there is no reference to the Tamils (52%) living amongst the Sinhalese in the South. Does that mean that the CTFRM is not concerned about the aspirations of the Tamils in the South or do they believe that their aspirations have already been met?

Anyone who betrays the country should be charged for treason. It is up to the Court to interpret and define treason. The important point to remember is that treason is an offense punishable by death. Unlike those who do not have any faith in the local judiciary we are fully confident that our judges are fully capable of defining Treason and punish accordingly.”

Protection Of Minority Rights Must Include Sexual Minorities: NPC Tells Government

January 31, 2017

According to the UN Human Rights Council, the legal obligations of States to safeguard the human rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people are well established in international human rights law on the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequently agreed international human rights treaties ratified by Sri Lanka, says the National Peace Council.

Issuing a statement today the NPC has called on the government to take steps to repeal those sections of the Penal Code and Vagrants Ordinance that can be used by those vested with state authority to harass people of a different sexual orientation and who are thereby denied their rights to equality and non-discrimination.

We publish below the statement in full:

Protection Of Minority Rights Must Include Sexual Minorities

As an organization that believes in equality for all and non-discrimination, the National Peace Council views the recent decision of the government not to proceed with legal reform that decriminalizes homosexuality as both disappointing and a setback to a culture of protecting minority rights in general. The presence of archaic laws does not reflect positively on either the Sri Lankan legislature or on the cultural enlightenment and tolerance of the population at large.

We reject the notion that same sex relations are criminal in nature or should be construed as such. Same sex relations are not due to modern decadence, or Western decadence as argued by some, but have been part and parcel of history from its very beginnings in all parts of the world, including Asia. There is a need for education campaigns to ensure that the thinking of society at large becomes more rational and less emotional on these issues.

According to the UN Human Rights Council, the legal obligations of States to safeguard the human rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people are well established in international human rights law on the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequently agreed international human rights treaties ratified by Sri Lanka.

We note that same sex relations are rarely if ever prosecuted in the Sri Lankan courts. However, a recent report on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender issues by Human Rights Watch details examples of discrimination and abuse experienced by those of a different sexual orientation.

Read More

UNP-SLFP UNITY BEYOND 2020 IS KEY TO NEW SRI LANKA--Jehan Perera

by Dr Jehan Perera-Monday, 30 January 2017

The formation of the Government of National Unity in the aftermath of the victory of President Maithripala Sirisena at the presidential election of January 2015 generated hopes of a rejuvenation of the polity and the unleashing of its full post-war economic potential. However, much to the disappointment of those who believed in the new government, the rift between the UNP and SLFP, which are the two main constituent parties of the government, appears to be increasing with the passage of time. At its root is the perennial quest of politicians and political parties for power, to gain it, keep it and not to lose it.

Despite the existence of a UNP-SLFP alliance at the present time a question mark hangs over the future of the alliance in 2020 when the next presidential and general elections fall due. The indications are that the UNP and SLFP are both planning to revert once again to their traditional roles as political foes to each other, with each seeking to defeat the other at any cost and monopolize the fruits of power. Past practices that these parties have used against each other include denying their opponents their civic rights afte legal and political procedures of doubtful integrity, and the fanning of ethnic nationalism to steal a march over the other.

The six chief ministers of provincial councils governed by the SLFP who met with former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, himself a former SLFP president, expressed the strong desire of the rank and file in the party for a rapprochement between both factions of the SLFP, one led by President Sirisena and the other by the former president. The hope of the SLFP party membership is that a reunification of the SLFP will enable them to defeat the UNP and other political parties at future elections. The concern of both factions of the SLFP is that if they go into the local government election process without unifying themselves they will be handing over victory to the UNP.

PROLONGED DELAY

The prolonged delay in holding the local government elections which are now two years overdue is most likely to be connected to the divisions within the SLFP which will disadvantage them and hand over the advantage to the UNP. The reason given by the government for the postponement of elections is that the Delimitation Review Committee, which delayed its own report had now handed over an incomplete report with many errors in it. After the report on their findings has been completed and handed over to the government, the government itself is complaining that the report is flawed and needs to be further revised. The perception that the government is seeking to avoid holding elections any time soon, is further undermining it.

Apart from undermining the government’s image as a democratic entity that is backed by the people, the rift between the UNP and SLFP is also leading to a lack of coherence in policy making. The government appears unable to progress on the three important economic initiatives it has undertaken. The Chinese investment in Hambantota Port and the industrial zone in the adjacent area are at a standstill. The Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) with India continues to be in a prolonged process of negotiation. The GSP Plus tariff concession by the European Union requires Sri Lanka to accede to international human rights standards and to international covenants it has signed. On each of these three economic issues President Sirisena has either been blocking or slowing down what the UNP has been proposing.

The issues on which President Sirisena has stepped in to intervene have their downsides. He has strongly opposed corruption in the government and refused to sign on to projects which appear to reek of it. The Chinese are seeking a 99 year lease which has implications for the country’s sovereignty as China is not just any other country, but an expanding world power that is a rival to India which is Sri Lanka’s closest neighbor. The controversy over ETCA with India reflects the larger concerns in Sri Lankan society about being swamped in an open economic relationship with India. On the other hand, there are also issues on which the President has intervened where his positive contribution is much less clear. An example would be the draft National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRAP) on which he has made strong comments and registered his opposition.

The President has come out publicly in favour of the government’s decision not to proceed with legal reform with regard to decriminalizing homosexuality. The presence of archaic laws does not reflect positively on either the Sri Lankan legislature or on the cultural enlightenment and tolerance of the population at large. In addition the President has not yet gazetted the Office of Missing Persons Act which was passed by Parliament in August last year. This was one of the transitional justice mechanisms promised by the government to the UN Human Rights Council in October 2015. This has eroded the government’s credibility especially amongst the Tamil people who suffered the largest amount of enforced disappearances and also the international community who expect the government to adhere to international standards.

PRESIDENT’S PROBLEM

The problem for the President is that he is unwilling to take policy decisions on controversial issues that would alienate the SLFP faction that is headed by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. Former president Rajapaksa’s speech at the Joint Opposition rally last week gives an indication of the thinking that prevails amongst this faction of the SLFP. He said there were plans to replace the present Constitution with a separatist one prepared according to the needs of LTTE sympathizers abroad and the so-called international community. He also said the present government was boasting that they had regained the GSP+ tax concession, but the EU would only grant the facility after they fulfilled its conditions, including legalizing homosexuality.

The best way for President Sirisena to break out of this type of backward thinking is to dispense with his need to obtain their support. At the present members of the president’s team complain that they are left out of key government decisionmaking perhaps due to the fear that they will oppose them for narrow political reasons. This suggests that the UNP and President Sirisena’s faction of the SLFP should cease to be political rivals. The agreement at the presidential election of 2015 was that the presidential candidate would contest under a common electoral symbol where the UNP and those in the SLFP who supported the president joined together. The agreement that followed the victory at the presidential election and general election of August 2015 was that the UNP and SLFP would cohabit for a minimum of two years which was later extended to five years.

Putting an end to the debilitating rift between the UNP and SLFP faction headed by President Sirisena requires that the agreement to form a government of national unity should be extended to beyond 2020. This suggests that the same agreement that prevailed at the presidential election of 2015 should be entered into when the 2020 elections fall due. If this agreement is reached, President Sirisena will become empowered to stop attempting the impossible task of obtaining the support of the SLFP faction led by former president Rajapaksa. Instead he can, and must, work as a full and equal partner with the UNP headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The UNP also needs to include the President and his team in joint decisionmaking. They need to work together, consult and decide together, in a manner where the two become one. This is the way out of divided and contradictory governance which is yielding too little fruit for the people who are impatient for fundamental and genuine change that will transform the country.

An open letter to SLFP General Secretary Duminda Dissanayke: Consultation on constitutional reforms

Jan 30, 2017

Hon. Duminda Dissanayake
General Secretary
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)

Dear Duminda,
I thought I must write to you openly when I learned through the mass media, that some SLFP seniors in government were unsupportive of serious constitutional reforms and accordingly had persuaded President Sirisena, as SLFP leader to direct that the SLFP engages in some dialogue and consultations on the proposed reforms. You may consider my views as part of this consultation and on my part, they are complimentary to my personal submissions to the LLRC during its public hearings and draws from my experience as the former Director General of Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation under President Kumaratunga and more recently as Chairman of the Resettlement Authority.

Consider the mandate of January 2015
I believe the context for the current process of constitutional reforms is the mandate received by President Sirisena in January 2015, which is clearly a mandate for reform. Those of the SLFP who were not part of securing that mandate, but now within Government, who were corrected by the sovereign voting public of our country, should be extra careful when opposing that mandate and defining the mandate is certainly not the purview of the defeated candidate former President Rajapaksa.

Public consultations of the constitutions have already occurred
You are no doubt aware that public consultations on the proposed constitutional reforms occurred throughout our country and there was opportunity for all stakeholders to make their submissions through this consultation process. It would be useful for the SLFP to not reinvent the wheel as it were but to study, incorporate and draw from the public consultations already held.

A democratic deficit
A vast majority of the period since the introduction of the first republican constitution of 1972 and continuing through the period of the current constitution of 1978, Sri Lanka has been governed under Emergency Regulations which have superseded the Constitution and thereby compromised and damaged constitutional governance and the rule of law in our land. While this situation may have been understandable in the context of our decades long civil armed conflict it becomes untenable in a period thereafter. The democratic deficit which Sri Lanka suffers from needs to be rectified through constitutional reform and the abolition of the executive presidency, the implementation of electoral reforms, the strengthening of individual and human rights, are all part of the efforts to address this democratic deficit.

Creating an inclusive state
It was former member of Parliament and LTTE suicide bomb victim late Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam, who perhaps best explained the rationale for constitutional reforms nearly twenty-five years ago, when he stated that we should rectify “the anomaly of having imposed a mono ethnic state on a multi ethnic polity”.

It is patently clear to all but the willfully blind, that Sri Lanka is a society polarized on ethnic lines, with state institutions and structures of governance that are non-inclusive and intolerant. The virulent demagogy surrounding the singing of the national anthem also in Tamil at last year’s national day celebrations, demonstrates both the mono ethno-lingual nature of state festivals in the past and how much we need to reform to be inclusive and tolerant. If the SLFP position is that the 13th Amendment should first be implemented fully, then there is no impediment to the executive decisions of immediately gazetting those provisions of the constitution not yet implemented.

Examine prior SLFP positions on devolution under President Kumaratunga and President Rajapaksa

The SLFP has had a rich tradition of seeking political solutions of inclusivity, diversity and tolerance going back to the Bandaranaike – Chelvanyagam pact more than half a century ago. More usefully and practically, it is incumbent upon the SLFP to learn from and incorporate the policies, politics and thinking of both the SLFP led PA and UPFA governments of President Kumaratunga and President Rajapaksa. Especially relevant in this regard are the various work, recommendations and policies of President Rajapaksa under his initiatives of the All Part Representative Committee (APRC) and its various working groups, all ably headed and led in the past by the old left leaders of DEW Gunasekera and Prof. Tissa Vitharane. If former President Rajapaksa is not standing by prior SLFP government positions on devolution including those of his own Administration, then such policy changes may well be construed as opportunistic and parochially motivated for extraneous reasons of temporary political self-interest by a person who promises to topple the government during the calendar year and need not be taken seriously.

Seriously examine Rajapaksa administration mistakes and avoid a return to the past

I would respectfully submit that a key requirement for the SLFP, before the next general elections due in mid-2020, is an open and honest examination of what went so badly wrong, especially during the second Rajapaksa term and seek not only remedial measures but also to chart a new course for the future rather than advocate a return to the past. The public perception and allegations of rampant corruption, mismanagement of the economy especially in mounting public debt on grandiose and ill-conceived projects, ruining our foreign relations with all our key trading partners, violating and abusing human rights with impunity, including press freedom, centralizing power in the executive presidency, subverting the judiciary and institutionalizing nepotism all contributed to ending the Rajapaksa presidency, sooner rather than later.

Finally, I admired your courageous and principled stand in supporting then Common Candidate Maithripala Sirisena during the Presidential Election of 2015. Your political foresight and maturity is a tribute to your late father and I can think of no younger leader better suited to hold the responsible position of SLFP General Secretary.

As you are aware, I currently serve as Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but please consider these submissions as done in my personal capacity.

I take this opportunity to wish you every success in your endeavours.

With best regards,

Harim Peiris

- Daily News-

‘Seven or eight war criminals in Sri Lankan army’ claims Fonseka

30Jan 2017

Former Sri Lanka Army commander Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka claimed that there may be “seven or eight” individuals in the armed forces who are responsible for war crimes, as he lashed out against Sri Lanka's former president for a loss of "discipline" in the army.

Mr Fonseka, who is now Sri Lanka’s Regional Development Minister, said that in Sri Lanka 200,000-strong army “there might have been seven or eight” individuals responsible for human rights abuses that blighted the final stage of the island’s armed conflict and called for them to be punished.

“If not, I don't think it is reality,” he told reporters after a meeting with Buddhist monks, adding that “any government institution would have one or two thugs, rapists and other miscreant”.

He went on to compare Sri Lanka’s armed forces to that of other countries, stating that perpetrators of war crimes could be found in other armies across the world.

“But they should not be shielded from punishment if they are guilty of any crime regardless of their status,” continued Mr Fonseka, who became Sri Lanka’s first and only five-star general under the current government. He has previously denied all reports that troops under his command committed war crimes and reiterated his commitment to defending the army.

Allegations of war crimes were only levelled against the Sri Lankan military after former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa “introduced politics into the Army” claimed Mr Fonseka.

Blaming the Rajapaksa brothers for a loss of “discipline” amongst the army, Mr Fonseka lashed out at the pair, stating,

"There was no threat of electric chair against the former President, but he instilled fear among the people by always talking about such a threat. It was we who commanded and fought the war, it was we who would have been sent to the electric chair, if actually there were such a threat.”

“If the former President was taken to the electric chair, that would be a disgrace even to that chair," he concluded.

See more from ColomboPage here, Daily Mirror here and The Island here.

MR’s opportune return

National Socialism

2017-01-31

Ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa will no longer be hiding behind his couriers of the joint opposition (JO). Last week, he emerged from the shadows of Abeyaramaya to boldly announce at a rally in Nugegoda that after coming to power, he would recover billions that have allegedly been looted by the incumbent government. His rally at Nugegoda was said to be a very expensive affair: going by the expenses incurred for the number of buses used to transport protestors from distant places to Colombo, their pocket money, ‘bath packets’ and generous flow of booze to keep everyone fired up, his financers had to foot a hefty bill. It was his second coming party, so it ought to be a grand one. It was not so much about the numbers in attendance, but the maximum effect and appearance. Otherwise, why would organisers pick a place that got overcrowded even for a Vesak Bakthi Geetha show? This Nugegoda joint overflows with just a couple of thousand people, causing maximum traffic jam, chaos and inconvenience so that the entire city feels the protest vibes. Unemployed graduates knew the trick and now the former president is putting it to good use. 

"Listening to xenophobic garbage in America and Europe, Mr. Rajapaksa at times looks like Mother Theresa, only that he was accused of white vanning in the past"

Time has never been better for Mr. Rajapaksa’s momentous return. Regressive populism has made a comeback with a vengeance everywhere. Demagoguery has become the standard form of politics. Bigotry, racism, xenophobia are no longer frowned upon. His art of politics has prevailed in more stable democracies, recently. Then, why not Sri Lanka? In fact, listening to xenophobic garbage in America and Europe, Mr. Rajapaksa at times looks like Mother Theresa, only that he was accused of white vanning in the past.
However, why Mr. Rajapaksa has got a new lease of political life is because the incumbent government has failed to live up to even the most basic promises it made: people think it is more corrupt than its predecessor, according to the latest Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International (According to CPI, Sri Lanka has dropped 12 slots in one year to 95).
The Rajapaksa regime was phenomenally corrupt, but compared to its predecessors, it was efficient. It did not negotiate for years to finally come up with some shoddy deal that could well be suspended again for a review. Instead, it entered into shoddy deals all at once, and completed the projects before their deadlines. Finally, at least you have some infrastructure put in place, even though at an inflated cost.
In contrast, the incumbent is plagued by the paralysis that was so commonplace in the two terms of Chandrika Kumaratunga administration. 

Then, Mr. Rajapaksa did not promise to end corruption. He thought it was perfectly normal. His relatives, goons, acolytes, cronies, all of them had an opportunity to get rich. Whereas, this government pledged to fight corruption, and haul corrupt doers to court and recover billions that have allegedly been siphoned from the country. However, now it seems to be doing a Rajapaksa, even more egregiously than the latter did. The level of high-level corruption blamed on the incumbent government such as the Central Bank bond scam would put Basil Rajapaksa to shame. The government has suddenly developed an unholy interest to dig into bond deals dating back to 2008, only after the mega bond scam that took place right under its nose was highlighted by the Auditor General. The government’s tactics are a ruse to distort and distract the public opinion on the bond scam, which is by far the mother of all scams that ever happened in this country. Thus, the problem is not just corruption, but impudence with which corruption is whitewashed.
President Sirisena has belatedly appointed a Special Presidential Commission to investigate the bond scam. Unfortunately though, he spent too long pondering over his action -- or perhaps waiting for the opportune moment, i.e. forthcoming local government elections, to score a point. However, by then, the damage will be done. Still, better late than never.
Also, Sri Lanka seems to be lacking laws to tackle sophisticated financial crimes, which the President himself implied when he revealed that the bond deal was being investigated under the civil law, whereas it ought to be treated under the criminal law. Sophisticated and politically-connected crooks exploit those loopholes to empty the government’s coffers. 

"The Rajapaksa regime was phenomenally corrupt, but compared to its predecessors, it was efficient. It did not negotiate for years to finally come up with some shoddy deal that could well be suspended again for a review"

There was a stock market mafia that thrived under the former regime; Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe even read in Parliament a list of names of individuals who were implicated in pump and dump deals in the Colombo Stock Market. As expected, no follow-up action was taken. Now we have a bond market mafia. Mr. Wickremesinghe would not be reading names for the obvious reason. However, that would not negate the existence of the problem. 

The election of President Sirisena and the unity government were once treated as a revolution. Revolutions, through the ballot or street protests, could only take a country so far. Sri Lanka at present may hold some distressing similarities with Ukraine, where several years back, mass protests toppled the pro-Russian Kleptocracy of Viktor Yanukovych, and brought to power the pro-European opposition. Now it appears that the latter is pilfering the State’s coffers more efficiently than its predecessor did, in addition to provoking a ruinous war with its powerful neighbour Russia. 

Corruption, both real and perceived, would erode the appeal of recent democratic gains and endanger the future constitutional reforms that are intended to address the national question. Some time back, TNA MP Sumanthiran prophesied that if any it would be corruption that would derail a new Constitution. His prediction is menacingly coming closer to become a reality. High-level corruption would swallow up all the goodwill of this government and create a vacuum that would be filled by opportunistic charlatans who offer very simple solutions to complex problems, and govern the country by sowing divisions. That is where Mr. Rajapaksa comes in. 

Follow Ranga Jayasuriya @RangaJayasuriya on Twitter 

AITSU says its trade union activist is missing



By admin-January 30, 2017

A trade union activist of the All Island Telecom Services Union (AITSU) is missing since 28 January, its President Nimantha Wijesuriya says.

He made the observation while speaking at a press conference held in Colombo on Monday. 

Wijesuriya went on to say they could not locate the whereabouts of AITSU’s Deputy President who was last reportedly seen riding a motorbike to his house in Pannipitiya. “The IGP, President and the Prime Minister have also been informed about this,” he said.

 Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) Manpower workers also resorted to a protest as they had not received a proper response regarding demands to provide permanent employment on 25 January.

 Wijesuriya also slammed the ‘dictatorship’ of the administration of the SLT, though the Minister has already issued a directive to address their issues.

No! To Nugegoda as a Nuremberg?

Nazi Party rally at Nürnberg, Germany, in 1933.© Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com

Tuesday, 31 January 2017

The crowd is large. The scenery is packed with stormtroopers. The energy of the rally is tangible. In the street, banners defy the breeze. On stage, speakers define the new world order. On closer inspection, it appears to be the old order of things thinly disguised as a change for the better.

In Nuremberg, under the National Socialist (Nazi) regime of the 1920s and ’30s, the aspiration was to usher in a Third Reich (the first two being the German states as the crucible of the Holy Roman Empire and a unified Germany under Bismarck). In Nugegoda, under pseudo-Nazis of a not-so-different dispensation, the ambition remains the same. To define national socialism as the need of the hour, to defy the powers that be, to employ demagoguery to devastating effect on a democratic republic. Nuremberg raised a clenched fist in the face of the peaceable Weimar Republic. Nugegoda cocks a snoop at the Wickremesinghe Regime.

Both Nuremberg and Nugegoda served or serve subversive purposes. One strove to create a near hysterical fervour for the National Socialist cause, fostering anti-republican feelings against an administration the Nazis saw as cowardly, slavish towards Germany’s conquerors, enslaved by a craven desire for peace within her borders. The other struggles to concoct a historical feeling for an ultra-nationalist ethos, forging anti-democratic sentiments that favour a former regime which presents the powers that be as compromised, strategically selling the family silver to foreigners, effete. 

Nuremberg

Nuremberg and its ultranationalist ethos led to the putsches that brought a megalomaniac to power in Nazi Germany and held Western Europe first and then the world at large in thrall from 1933-45. Nugegoda and its latent Nazism, inflammatory rhetoric, and volatile ideas convinced of self-righteousness, poises a good and gentle nation on the brink of a war of more than words spoken in the heat of an evening’s protest meeting.

Nuremberg was once about more than just goose-stepping Hitler-saluters high on Wagner, Nietzsche, and uniformed übermenschen panting for a very precise dispensation of power. It massaged Nordic symbols such as the SS runes and manipulated geometric emblems such as the Aryan Swastika to fuel the Teutonic imagination of a world that was, and could be once again, Germany’s. The devil had the best tunes, best lines, best uniforms. The devil’s bible had ugly and evil things to say about those upon whom the Norse Gods of Asgard and Valhalla had not bestowed their favour. The devil’s henchmen’s theologies led along a hard, cruel, violent path to Auschwitz, a Berlin bunker, an apocalypse for six million Jews, holocaustic ends for countless other social and sexual undesirables: gays, gypsies, the old, the sick, the weak…

Nugegoda

Nugegoda is similarly about more than just glib-tongued Hambantota-supporters high on Wimal, Namal, and sundry supermen wearing their panties on the outside for show to impress a gullible crowd. Time and again, the mass rallies at a major junction have mismanaged public time and money and massacred traffic to spew their venom and vitriol in a public space granted them by the Government’s grace.

True, these devils too seem to have the better beats, the better speeches, the better intentions. True to Nazi form, their scriptures have hard things to hurl at those for whom there is no grace in their holy writ. True to their character, these devils’ henchmen’s pulpit-pounding invokes hell-fire on an “effeminate government” and isolation in outer darkness for others who would betray their “effervescent gallantry”. Weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth await any and all who opt for the route governance has taken and support the alternative to autocracy that our erstwhile crazies once offered.

Nostalgia

Which, admittedly, we took them up on for a while. War ‘victories’ and triumphalistic propaganda which sprout the gospel of growth, development, and prosperity – with a will to power – are always popular. Until the attempts of the victors to become tinkerers with the people’s constitutional rights to life and liberty jeopardised their autocratisation project. However, the preachers at these rallies appear to be in denial about the rejection of the people who don’t attend their “Nugegoda as Nuremberg” protests. History’s memory is short. Hungry people – hungry for power, perks, positions, privileges, posterity’s smile – have a penchant to get nostalgic and grow maudlin about the way things used to be under Mahinda & Co. in the post-2009 years.

These historical amnesiacs would have us believe that the return of the king is a consummation devoutly to be wished. They highlight the painful shortcomings of the present coalition – bless their cotton socks – in ways that are hurtful to more than their targets, but the target audiences themselves who stand to gain more than pain from a Rajapaksa return to power in any form.

The pity of the matter is that the pulse of the people portends a rise in rhetorical temperatures at future such rallies, and the vim vigour and vitality of some short-sighted protestors can serve as rabble-rousers to a sleeping national conscience. An irony in all of this is that at a time when Government needs well-intentioned critical engagement with its plans, programs, policies – or flops, flubs, failures, and fiascos – it is the bad and the ugly rather than the good or noble who are stepping up to the mic.

A holocaust is awaiting the green light at the next junction if the series of such rallies grows from suburban disruption to national movement. Which is why government, good folks with the gift of foresight, and all citizens fair and true must step forward to put their foot down with a firm hand… to say “No!” to Nugegoda as our incipient Nuremberg.

Never again

The victors have a way of writing history that makes it memorable. Helpful to remember for those who are on the right (winning) side… Hurtful to those who would seek to disrupt the status quo of a hard-won peace. The meaning that Nuremberg had for a generation of Germans was critiqued and transformed into something of significance for the people of Europe and a watching world when the post-war trials of the Nazi regime were conducted at the most appropriate venue. Judgment at Nuremberg may have been a show trial critiqued by observers incensed by the managed spectacle put on by the triumphant allies. But it sent out a clear strong right signal that justice, though slow, would be done by the war-dead and the war-wounded and the war-abused.

Government in Sri Lanka needs to bring judgment to Nugegoda post haste in similar vein. One suspects that the affronted hotheads in the UNP for certain and perhaps among the naïve in the rest of coalition desire that justice of some sort be done. That arrests be made, criminal cases against the corrupt be expedited, big-name offenders from the previous regime be brought to book and made an example of, to deter such rallies from gaining normalisation momentum as acceptable dissent. Hope in such an otherwise natural course of action may be slim. Although it is hamstrung by its present dalliance with a party that is politically, characteristically, and temperamentally worlds and worldviews apart from it, the UNP will probably act – or not – out of a sense of self-preservation. So chances are Nugegoda will continue to be – and be allowed to be (to the chagrin of motorists and consternation of residents) – the locus of such politically volatile circuses; for the inflammatory rhetoric of Wimal, Welgama, & Co., will provide Mahinda’s machine with the gravitas the UNP hopes will rein in Sirisena.