மனித உரிமை ஆணைக்குழுவினர் இராணுவம் வசமுள்ள கேப்பாபுலவு மக்களின் காணிகளை பார்வையிட்டனர்

 by Priyatharshan on 2017-02-20

கேப்பாபுலவு பிளக்குடியிருப்பு மக்கள் தமது சொந்த நிலங்களை கையகப்படுத்தியுள்ள   விமானப்படையினர் அதனை விடுவிக்க வேண்டுமெனக்கோரி அதனை விடுவிக்க வேண்டுமெனகோரி  இன்று 21ஆவது நாளாகவும் தொடர் கவனயீர்ப்பு போராடடத்தில் ஈடுபட்டு வருகின்றனர். 

இந்த நிலையில் இன்றைய தினம் இலங்கை மனித உரிமைகள் ஆணைக்குழுவின் குறித்த போராடடக்களத்துக்கு வருகைதந்து மக்களின் பிரச்சினைகள் தொடர்பில் கேட்டறிந்ததோடு இராணுவத்தால் கையகப்படுத்தப்பட்டுள்ள மக்களின் நிலங்களையும் பார்வையிட்டனர்.

இராணுவ  மக்களின் காணிகளில் எந்தவிதமான இராணுவ கட்டமைப்க்புக்களும் இல்லாததை அவதானித்த  ஆணைக்குழுவின் மக்களின் பயன்தரு மரங்கள் மற்றும் வீடுகள் போன்றன அழிக்கப்பட்டிருந்ததையும் பார்வையிட்ட்னர்.

இதனை தொடர்ந்து மக்களிடம் கருத்து தெரிவித்த மனித உரிமை ஆணைக்குழுவின் இந்த மக்களின் அடிப்படை வாழ்விட உரிமை மீறப்பட்டுள்ளமை தொடர்பில் தாம் ஆராய்வதாகவும் தம்மால் மேற்கொள்ள கூடிய நடவடிக்கைகளை மேற்கொள்வதாகவும் தெரிவித்தனர்.

முல்லைத்தீவு கேப்பாபுலவு பிலக்குடியிருப்பு மக்கள் தமது சொந்த நிலத்தை கையகப்படுத்தியுள்ள  விமானப்படையினர் அதனை விடுவிக்கவேண்டுமென விமானப்படை முகாமின் முன்பாக  கொட்டும் பனியிரவையும் சுட்டெரிக்கும் வெயிலையும் கொட்டும் மழையையும்  பொருட்படுத்தாது சிறுவர்கள், குழந்தைகள் முதியவர்கள், இபெண்கள் என  அனைவரும்  கடந்த 31.01.2017 தொடக்கம் தொடர் கவனயீர்ப்பு போராட்டம் ஒன்றை முன்னெடுத்துவருகின்றனர்.

கேப்பாபுலவு பிலக்குடியிருப்பு கிராமத்தில் 84குடும்பங்களுக்கு சொந்தமான 50ஏக்கருக்கு மேற்பட்ட காணிகளை கையகப்படுத்தி விமானப்படைத்தளம் அமைத்துள்ள விமானப்படையினர் அதனை பலப்படுத்தி வேலிகள் அமைத்து மக்கள்  செல்லமுடியாதவாறு தடைகளை ஏற்படுத்தியுள்ளனர்.

இந்த நிலையில் கடந்த மாதம் 31ஆம் திகதி காணிகள் அளவிடப்படும் எனவும் காணிகளுக்கு சொந்தமான மக்கள் அனைவரையும் அப்பகுதிக்கு வருமாறும் கேப்பாபுலவு கிராமசேவகர் அறிவித்தல் விடுத்திருந்த நிலையில் அப்பகுதிக்கு வருகைதந்திருந்தமக்கள் நாள்முழுவதும் வீதியில் காத்திருந்த போதும் அதிகாரிகள் எவரும் காணிகள் அளவிட வருகைதந்திருக்கவில்லை நீந்த நிலையில் ஆத்திரமடைந்த மக்கள் அன்றைய தினம் முதல் தாம் தமது சொந்த நிலங்களில் காலடி எடுத்து  வைக்கும் வரை போராட்டம்  தொடருமென கூறி தொடர் போராட்டத்திலீடுபட்டு வருகின்றனர்.

அத்தோடு இன்றும் பல பிரதேசங்களில் இருந்து மக்களும், சிவில் அமைப்புகளும் வருகைதந்து மக்களுடன் கலந்துரையாடியதோடு பல உதவிகளையும் வழங்கி சென்றதோடு  மக்களுக்கான ஆதரவும் பல்வேறு வழிகளில் அதிகரிப்பதை அவதானிக்க முடிகின்றது. 

இந்தப்போராட்டக்   களத்தில் உள்ள மாணவர்கள் வீதி ஓரத்திலேயே தமது பாடசாலையில் வழங்கப்பட்ட  வீட்டு வேலைகளை செய்வதோடு அனைவரும் இணைந்து தமது  கல்விநடவடிக்கைகளை மேற்கொள்வதனை அவதானிக்க முடிகின்றது.

மேலும் இன்றும் ஆசிரியர்கள் இணைந்து போராட்ட  களத்திலே உள்ள மாணவர்களுக்கான கற்பித்தல் நடவடிக்கைகளையும் உளவள ஆற்றுப்படுத்தல் செயற்பாடுகளையும்   மேற்கொண்டனர்.

போராடத்தில் ஈடுபடும் மக்களுக்கான உணவு  மற்றும் இதர உதவிகளை அயல் கிராம மக்களும் இளைஞர்களும் சிவில் சமூக அமைப்புகளும் வழங்கி வருகின்றமை குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.

Schoolchildren across North protest in solidarity with Pilavu

'We want our land'

20 Feb  2017 Tamil school students across the North protested outside their schools on Monday morning in solidarity with the land return protestors at Pilavu and Puthukudiyirippu. The children called for the people of Pilavu's lands to be returned so that their peers could return to school. Read More

‘Social Justice To All’ – Far From Reality; Elusive To The Majority

Lukman Harees

By Lukman Harees –February 20, 2017

“The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right he claims for himself” ~Robert G. Ingersoll

The World Day of Social Justice, which falls on February 20th, annually reminds a rapidly polarizing world that society must be based on social justice, a respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms—and on the right to social protection for all. Social Justice is at the core of the global mission to promote development and human dignity. The adoption by the ILO of the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization was just one recent example of the UN system’s commitment to social justice. The Declaration focuses on guaranteeing fair outcomes for all through employment, social protection, social dialogue, and fundamental principles and rights at work. The failure to actively pursue social justice is not without consequences. From the comprehensive global perspective shaped by the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, neglect of the pursuit of social justice in all its dimensions translates into de facto acceptance of a future marred by violence, repression and chaos.

It is relevant to quote what Leonardo Boff, Brazilian Theologian & Human Rights Activist (1938) said, which aptly sums up the state of the world today. ‘Today social justice represents one of the most serious challenges to the conscience of the world. The abyss between those who are within the world ‘order’ and those who are excluded is widening day by day. The use of leading-edge technologies has made it possible to accumulate wealth in a way that is fantastic but perverse because it is unjustly distributed. Twenty-percent of humankind control eighty percent of all means of life. That fact creates a dangerous imbalance in the movement of history’.

Social justice is based on notions of equality and equal opportunity in society. It focuses on the full and equal participation of all citizens in economic, social and political aspects of the nation. Social justice can also refer to advantages and disadvantages distributed in a society. It derives its authority from the codes of morality in each culture and differs from culture to culture. United Nation’s objectives of social justice policies include social, economic and cultural rights, including right to an adequate standard of living; right to work and equal pay for equal work; right to education; and right of minorities to enjoy their own religion, language and culture. Social justice is required, desired, and talked about for human dignity, peace, and progress, but at the same time it is so widely missing in the management of societies in the present world. The likely reasons for the absence of this social justice is the formation of social structures, cultures, and life styles based on wrong founding elements.

In today’s context, human rights has been engraved in people’s minds to such an extent, that there is a common misconception that human dignity can only be achieved through human rights alone. This is however not true as there are other conduits as well especially in the contexts of other non-Western cultures. Two scholars Naim and Deng states, ‘Concepts of human dignity can be expressed by many terms: social justice, dharma, human rights. The particular form in which the international community, under Western influence, has chosen to express human dignity, however, is the concept of human rights’. Social Justice is thus referred to in the present context as ‘the Neglected Offspring of the Modern Human Rights Movement’. Social Justice is also one of the conduits through which human dignity can be achieved. What must however be borne in mind is that these conduits are not mutually exclusive, but complement each other in achieving the ultimate goal: to bring the dignity to the people.

In the modern context, those concerned with social justice see the general increase in income inequality as unjust, deplorable and alarming. It is argued that poverty reduction and overall improvements in the standard of living are attainable goals that would bring the world closer to social justice. However, there is little indication of any real ongoing commitment to address existing inequalities. In today’s world, the enormous gap in the distribution of wealth, income and public benefits is growing ever wider, reflecting a general trend that is morally unfair, politically unwise and economically unsound. Injustices at the international level have produced a parallel increase in inequality between affluent and poor countries.

Indivisibility of Rights and Social Justice in UDHR ! Real or Fictional?

UDHR adopted by UN included civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights in an integrated account of human dignity. Then the two foundation Covenants, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) translated UDHR principles into binding international law, almost 20 years later. The two Covenants were a clear manifestation of the ideological debates of the time with the Western countries insisting on freedom, and civil rights while the eastern countries insisted on economic and social rights. They were however adopted simultaneously thanks to a consensus between all the United Nations Member States, which recognised both approaches. Since 1948 and despite proclamations to the contrary, the two sets of rights have been essentially separated ,with the result that civil and political rights have taken Centre stage in the program of human rights globalization. Civil and political rights are still frequently referred to-and in a hierarchical sense, are believed to be-“first generation” rights. Economic, social and cultural rights are considered to be “second generation” rights.

At the domestic level too, the great majority of legal provisions protecting human rights (whether constitutional, legislative or judge-made) address civil and political rights rather than economic, social and cultural rights. This preponderance is most marked regarding Western human rights charters and laws in both civil code and common law jurisdictions. Thus, since the courts of the West have produced the bulk of the case-law on domestic human rights protection, the dominance of civil and political rights is further entrenched.

Read More

President retracts his illegal order not to arrest criminals of the Navy amidst lawful pressures !

-Conspiracy hatched in Gota’s house

(Lanka-e-News -20.Feb.2017, 7.45PM) It is a well and widely known fact that President Maithripala Sirisena for the second time on the 7 th ordered the CID not to arrest  the criminals of the Naval force  who brutally killed innocent children after committing extortion . This was however exposed by Lanka e news and Ravaya . Following this exposure and amidst pressures , the president has given another order  to the CID to arrest the Navy criminals retracting his former directive.

The group including ex Navy Commander Vasantha Karannagoda who had got frightened following the latest directive , have met the Mahinda Rajapakse group  during whose reign these brutal crimes were committed , on the 14 th , and implored them to rescue the Navy criminals .

The discussions in this regard was held at Gotabaya’s residence . Among the participants in this criminal discussion were : Gotabaya Rajapakse (main villain) , most notorious ex Chief justice Sarath N. Silva, Dallas Alahaperuma, ex legal officer of the Navy Shaveendra  Fernando  , ex Navy Commander Vasantha Karannagoda, lawyer Balasuriya  and three others.

Shaveendra Fernando and Sarath N. Silva have  said , as they have friends in the Attorney General’s (AG) department , they would do everything to usurp the laws , and somehow rescue the criminals (Shaveendra was also a lawyer in the AG.’s department earlier.)

Dallas the bankrupt politico on the other hand  said ,because  the officers of the Navy are to be arrested , he would see to it that the situation is taken full advantage of by fastening the label of war heroes on the criminals ,  to provoke and incite the public to take to the streets against it. ( On an earlier occasion  , another political opportunist Dilan Perera echoed the same sentiments , it is now clear on whose side he is)

While these accomplices and criminal minded scoundrels are conspiring to rescue the  criminals , already the court has been informed in the twin murder of Ramanathan and Loganathan that the Van belonging to murdered  Loganathan which was  engaged in airport hires was subsequently used by the Navy .   In this twin murder in which  the owner of the van and his driver Loganathan were killed by the Navy officers after  abducting the victims, and also collecting extortion monies , the court has already  given an order following submissions made to court , to arrest the Navy officers ,  Navy Sampath, Dayananda and Guruge ,and be produced in court .

There is also information supported with evidence , in addition to this twin murder , the same Navy team of criminals killed 10 students ( truly the number of victims is 38 , but there is palpable evidence in regard to ten victims only) who had successfully completed the GCE adv. Level exam and were on the verge of entering Universities .Among these innocent victims were Sinhalese , Tamils and Muslims. All of them were abducted like in the other murders ,and killed after collecting extortion monies.

In these most ghastly heinous crimes , even to conspire to obstruct the criminal investigations and avert arrests of the criminals is a grave crime. Hence the conspirators should also be arrested irrespective of  their status and rank.

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by     (2017-02-20 14:38:49)

TNA APPRISES INDIAN FOREIGN SECRETARY OF SLOW PROGRESS OF RECONCILIATION IN SRI LANKA

Image: The Indian foreign Secretary and TNA delegation discussed issued related to  reconciliation in Sri Lanka. (TNA photo)

20/02/2017

At the meeting with  visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Dr. Jaishanker today the TNA delegation apprised of some pressing issues faced by the Tamil people including the lack of progress in relation to the release of lands held by the military in the North and East, disappearances, and Tamil political prisoners today.

Dr. Jaishanker who is on a offcial visit to Sri Lanka  met with the TNA delegation today (20 Feb.) at the Indian High Commission in Colombo.

The TNA also updated Dr. Jaishankar about the new constitution, stating that the process had now stalled. The foreign secretary assured the TNA that he would raise these issues during his meeting with His Excellency the President and the Honorable Prime Minister.

The TNA delegation, led by its Leader and the Leader of the Opposition Hon. R. Sampanthan, comprised of Hon Mavai Senathirajah, Hon M.A. Sumanthiran, Hon. Selvam Adaikkalanaathan, Hon. 

Dharmalingham Siddaarththan and Mr. Suresh Premachandran. Also present with the Foreign Secretary was the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Mr. Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the Joint Secretary and other officials.

TNA meeting Indian Foreign Secretary Dr. Jaishanker ( TNA photo)

A state in disarray

Uditha Devapriya-2017-02-21

Pier Paolo Pasolini, the most controversial film-maker to emerge from post-war Italy, had an interesting comment to make about protesters. Apparently he'd observed the May 1968 protests in France and the tussles which university students and the Police had waded through against each other.

A state in disarray.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

‘Burn Jaffna to the ground’ – A look through CIA reports

‘Burn Jaffna to the ground’ – A look through CIA reports

JR Jayewardene discussing the military assault on Jaffna with a commander.

20 Feb  2017

A set of recently declassified CIA reports reveal how Sri Lanka’s former president J R Jayewardene attempted to garner military support from the United States and position himself as a moderate dedicated to solving the island’s ethnic crisis, even as the Sri Lankan army was committing large scale human rights abuses in the North-East.

Declassified documents from the CIA show how despite regarding himself as “South Asia’s elder statesman and a political moderate” the Sri Lankan president “had twice ordered his forces to take Jaffna” as part of a massive military assault on the peninsula.

“Burn the place to the ground,” Mr Jayewardene admitted he had instructed his forces.

The military however, refused, he revealed in an hour-long meeting with Peter Galbraith, a staff member for the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in 1988. Facing stiff resistance from Tamil militants in the peninsula, military commanders went against the order “on grounds of unacceptably high casualties,” leading to the failure of Sri Lanka’s ‘Operation Liberation’.

Sri Lankan troops prepare for the assault on Jaffna

The documents provide a detailed insight from an American perspective into the tumultuous events of the time and shed light on their assessment of the Sri Lankan president.

Following the Black July riots of 1983, hundreds of thousands of Tamils had been displaced and the ethnic conflict on the island had intensified, with the Sri Lankan military on the offensive in the North-East. Mr Jayewardene, who undertook a more Western-centric free market approach to the island’s economy by devaluing the rupee, liberalising imports and reducing government subsidies, was keen to further garner US support. One document stated how for years the president had been “trying to embroil the United States in Sri Lanka’s affairs”. Even during the 1983 pogrom, he had “requested US security assistance, including weapons, small river craft and advisers” as well as suggesting “a friendship treaty” between the two countries.

The Sri Lankan president gives a gift of an elephant to US president Ronald Reagan during his state visit to Washington.

His invitation to meet then US President Ronald Reagan in Washington in 1984 was lauded by Sri Lanka’s state media. Senior US defence officials had already visited the island several times, but according to US Embassy reports, Mr Jayewardene saw his state visit “as an integral part in his general policy of rehabilitating Sri Lanka’s tarnished international image,” after reports of human rights abuses committed against Tamils had begun to regularly reach headlines across the world. “The island’s largely government-directed press has already begun to describe the Washington trip as an “honor” to the government and people of Sri Lanka, marking it a “turn around in the slide of our reputation as a country”,” said one recently declassified document.

US military aid to Sri Lanka that year was $350,000 stated the reports and Mr Jayewardene was likely to use that trip to push for further military support, as he had done in a visit to Beijing earlier that year. Under his tenure, the United States had already expanded the ‘Voice of America’ relay station north of Colombo, but he was desperately searching for even closer co-operation. Previous requests for increased military support had been turned down noted one report, referring to a specific call from Sri Lanka for AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships that had been rejected.

“We would like the people of America to understand us,” he said in a speech in Washington. “In the long history of Sri Lanka, there have been difficult periods. There have been murders; there have been assassinations; there have been riots; there have been good deeds and bad deeds”. Last July we had one of those bad periods,” he said, referring to the Black July riots which saw thousands of Tamils killed by government-backed mobs. “But in time to come, it will be forgotten.”

With the Cold War still raging, Mr Jayewardene sought to cast the ethnic problem on the island as one of a Marxist insurgency. “The terrorists are a small group who seek by force, including murder, robberies, and other misdeeds, to support the cause of separation, including the creation of a Marxist state in the whole of Sri Lanka and in India, beginning with Tamil Nadu in the south,” he declared. American intelligence agencies seem to have bought in to aspects of the argument, with one entire report on the impact of Marxism on the Tamil insurgency agreeing that the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) posed the “most serious long term security threat to the government”, with their call for an “island-wide revolution in Sri Lanka as well as establish a Marxist Tamil state”.

Despite this, it seems US intelligence services urged caution when it came to publicly backing the Sri Lankan president. “Increased identification with Jayewardene at this time could damage US prestige in the region and in parts of the Third World,” said one assessment. “It could be perceived by other small ethnic groups as acceptance by the United States of the use of repression against minorities.”

A deeper analysis of the Sri Lankan president’s motives and actions was also conveyed in the dozens of released documents. Mr Jayewardene “portrays himself as a communal moderate, but in his long political career he has played both sides of the ethnic fence”, said another assessment, noting that his government had “implemented increasing repressive antiterrorism measures in the Tamil-dominated north”. Sri Lanka's Prevention of Terrorism Act, put in place by Mr Jayewardene in 1979, remains in place today. Current Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe served as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time.

Indeed, Mr Jayewardene's visit to Washington was criticised by human rights groups with adverts slamming the Sri Lankan government appearing in Washington and New York newspapers. His comments to the London-based Daily Telegraph, where he infamously said that if he was to “starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy”, had not been forgotten.

Sri Lanka's Minister of National Security Athulathmudali meets with troops in the mid 1980s.

Yet, commercial exports of small arms and ammunitions still flowed to Colombo, reaching a total of $855,000 in 1985, and US military assistance to Sri Lanka the following year including “a small training program for 15 Sri Lankan officers” with a $144,000 budget. Sri Lanka continued to push ahead with military spending, more than doubling the defence budget, expanding recruitment and reaching out to countries such as Israel, Pakistan and the United Kingdom, who through a private company trained Sri Lanka’s notorious Special Task Force (STF). With this massive expansion of the security forces, human rights abuses also increased. “Composed largely of young Sinhalese with hardline views,” Sri Lankan soldiers would “draw little distinction between insurgents and Tamil civilians, leading to attacks on civilians” said a CIA report. “US Embassy sources assert the STF is behind most of the violence against Tamil civilians in Eastern Province,” it continued. “These sources report a common STF tactic when fired upon while on patrol is to enter the nearest village and burn it to the ground.”

Victims of the 1985 Kumudini boat massacre, one of several such killings to take place across the North-East, as the Sri Lankan army ramped up operations.

Sri Lanka’s intensified war efforts would make little headway militarily or politically concluded the Americans, stating despite the proliferation, the security forces were “incapable of waging a successful counterinsurgency campaign against Tamil separatists”.

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka pushed ahead with its intense military campaign and continued its economic blockade of Jaffna. As the humanitarian crisis in the peninsula worsened, India’s central government found itself under increasing pressure to intervene. Its initial attempt to send an aid flotilla with 40 tonnes of food and medical supplies to Jaffna was blocked by the Sri Lankan navy vessels, leading to the Indian Air Force air-dropping supplies over the town in Operation Poomalai in July 1987. The Sri Lankan president was incensed.

The issue of Indian involvement had already stirred up a Sinhala backlash from the south. Some years earlier, Mr Jayewardene had told a visiting US Senator that he found India’s role in the conflict to be “reprehensible”. “I have never seen J R as deeply emotional or agitated over what he considers to be an egregious assault by India in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs,” read a report of the 1984 meeting with US Senator Charles Percy.

Sri Lanka though faced a military stalemate. ''The military promised us that victory was always around the corner,'' a top aide to Mr Jayewardene was quoted as saying. ''They never delivered, and finally we stopped believing them.” With pressure from India mounting, the Sri Lankan president entered the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in July 1987.

The Sri Lankan president “stressed, though with obvious bitterness, that none of his outside friends would help him,” read one document written after the deal was signed.

The accord, which paved the way for Indian troops to enter the island, was deeply unpopular in the Sinhala south, stoking fears of an Indian invasion of the island – a notion that persists today. The signing of the deal provoked such fierce protests and criticism that a Sri Lankan soldier attacked Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi with his rifle during a ceremonial guard of honour in a visit to Colombo later that year. For his part, Mr Jayewardene was accused of a “betrayal” of Sinhalese interests and a group called the Patriotic People's Movement labelled him a traitor. Weeks after the deal was signed the group claimed responsibility for an assassination attempt on the president, where hand grenades and bullets were fired at the Sri Lankan cabinet as it met in parliament.

Even through the massive Sinhala backlash, pressure from the Indian government forced Colombo into the accord - a move that the USA backed. The international community was geared into pressuring Colombo into accepting that there was no military solution for the conflict, and the Sri Lankan president found that American support in particular was lacking.

He ended up telling the Americans that he “had no choice but to make a deal”.

The Sri Lankan president signs the Indo-Lanka Accord alongside Indian Prime Minsiter Rajiv Gandhi in July 1987

Read the reports at the CIA Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room here.

Economic lethargy: Rajapaksa will be sorely missed!

A few years back under the former regime, it was not a nice spectacle when slum dwellers in Colombo were evicted by gun-toting soldiers to make room for development activities. Decent people were right to feel outraged. However, many of those folks might not have noticed it yet. But, this government’s manifest indecisiveness in economic development is becoming far more disastrous than its predecessor’s highhandedness.   

2017-02-21

Running a country is not about having big ideas. It is about implementing at least some of them. One can smell vacillation in implementation of development policyalmost everywhere in the country. Most large scale development projects are held up,annual economic growth is below 5 per cent for a third consecutive year, a balance of payment crisis is looming and Sri Lanka is reportedly going to miss the repayment of loan instalments on the Hambantota Port.   
Each of the large scale development projects (or seemingly normal sized projects) is either getting delayed or has been proved a hoax. The inauguration of an export processing zone in Hambantota turned into a mini-riot, and generated a load of bad publicity, the last thing the country needs as it is vying for foreign direct investment. The government says the mayhem happened because of misinformation. It could have known what was in store when the surveyors who were sent to demarcate the land were chased away by villagers. The government could have planned accordingly; instead it went ahead of the inauguration to seek cheap political publicity and created a right royal mess.   
And a related agreement to lease 80 per cent of the Hambantota Port to China Merchant Port Holdings and another 15000 acres for the export zone to the same company is now stuck in a legal wrangling. The Joint Opposition has filed a FR petition challenging the framework agreement. The Chinese are holding up the deal until the court decides and have insisted it’s either both the port and the land (for the economic zone) or no deal. Which in a way is understandable, as the increasingly outspoken Chinese ambassador in Colombo( who could well be personifying mercantilism in the Chinese economic expansion) says, ‘without an export zone, what are we going to export’.

"No country is altruistic, but since our much-hyped and anticipated FDI inflow from the West and America did not materialize China, the world’s largest trading nation, could offer us a ladder up in manufacturing"

No country is altruistic, but since our much-hyped and anticipated FDI inflow from the West and America did not materialize (and will not materialize), China, the world’s largest trading nation, could offer us a ladder up in manufacturing. The projects such as the Hambantota Economic Zone offer a huge economic potential to that end. Sri Lanka cannot find a replacement for the economical imputs on the scale and technological sophistication that the Chinese would bring in. Letting that opportunity to be squandered simply due to inflated grievances of subsistence farmers and cattle herders is a crime committed on 20 million people in this country. That is where, though to admit it may sound politically incorrect, Mr. Rajapaksa’s method of social control has its logic.   
Then there is SAITM. The Court of Appeal has ordered that its medical students be granted provisional registration by the Sri Lanka Medical Council. Instead of upholding the court verdict, the government is vacillating, while university students of the Inter University Students’ Federation, driven by an agenda of the fringe hard left and an antiquated world view are invading roads in Colombo every other day. The courts are the last resort of civilized means of dispute resolution. It is when the courts are weakened and made ineffectual by the government or by those who choose to intimidate a legitimate government, that other brutal extra judicial means of defending the status quo, as we witnessed in the 80s and the first decade of this century, gradually find their practical logic. Rather than mollycoddling the detractors, the government should enforce the rule of law. However, the government’s losing control is not just a function of a feisty opposition. There is an emerging credibility deficit in the government. The proposed lease of 80 per cent of the Hambantota port to the China Port Merchants overlooking a rival bidder who offered what appeared to be a better deal itself is a suspect, which may explain why the agreement is now challenged before the court. A much hyped Volkswagen plant became an embarrassment. A multi-million dollar tyre factory by a Rajapaksa confidante has now run into trouble and land clearing for construction has been suspended on the orders of the President, who like many others has smelled a rat. The problem is that most of those multi-billion-rupee agreements, which entail many billions of tax concessions have been negotiated in secrecy, with the President and the Cabinet oblivious to their content. The UNP’s age old reputation for crony capitalism does not reassure the skeptics. Also some of those who handle country’s coffers are not paragons of virtues. That may explain the president’s belated decision to head an apex committee that would scrutinize key economic and development agreements before they are being entered into.   

"This government dismantled Mr Rajapaksa’s structure, but could not come up with a functioning replacement. Nor does it appear to have the political will to go the extra mile to do that"

So the government’s dilemma is primarily two fold. First, its ability to implement its development policy has been severely constrained by the inherent social, cultural and petty political defects that plague our society. To give the man his due, Mr Rajapaksa made use of an effective multi-dimensional strategy -- which involved both coaxing through compensation at market value, coercion through the use of legitimate law enforcement and subjugation through not so legitimate other means- to navigate this often anti-developmental social structure. This government dismantled Mr Rajapaksa’s structure, but could not come up with a functioning replacement. Nor does it appear to have the political will to go the extra mile to do that.   
Second, people are increasingly coming to believe that it is corrupt and incompetent. Corruption in this country, or anywhere else in the world, is not just about reality, but, also about perception. Even where the government is innocent or it thinks so, the lack of transparency would not help. 
One may hope that the government would probably get over from its corruption problem (or perception). However, if its current state of affairs is any proof, it is a long way from addressing its other core problem which would make it a byword for developmental incompetency.Irony of this is people could well feel a nostalgia for the Rajapaksa era.   

Follow RangaJayasuriya @RangaJayasuriya on Twitter  

Lawyers for Democracy issues statement following appointment of R. Kannan as High court judge

(Lanka-e-News -20.Feb.2017, 9.45PM) Lawyers for Democracy issuing a statement in connection with the controversial appointment of Ramanathan Kannan as high court judge had insisted that all parties including politicians must act with responsibility and view this appointment in the  right perspective…….

We have carefully followed the public debate on the appointment of Mr. Ramanathan Kannan as a High Court Judge, particularly the exchange of communications and statements made by various groups and politicians. We are of the opinion that all parties must act with responsibility on this appointment. Having examined the facts we wish to state the following:

1. Appointments to higher courts have not been limited to career judges in democracies including in Sri Lankan. It is a healthy practice to appoint as judges of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and High Courts from and among the career judges, and suitable individuals from the official and unofficial bar. There have been several appointments of private practitioners to the High Court from 1974 onwards, one of the recent appointments being that of Mr. Paramarajah during Chief Justice Sarath Silva’s tenure of office, one of the reasons being the lack of Tamil-speaking judges as is the case of Mr. Kannan’s appointment.

2. Following the traditions, upon a nomination by the President of the Bar Association, Mr. Kannan's name has been proposed to Hon President who had then referred same to the Chief Justice for the concurrence of the Judicial Service Commission.   Upon the relevant recommendation from the Attorney General, the JSC had, on 5th January 2017, given its concurrence. Mr. Kannan had been in the official bar for a considerable period before reverting to an active private practice.  

3. During the tenure of the present President Maithripala Sirisena and the present Chief Justice, 23 individuals have been appointed to the High Court of which as much as 21 had been from   and among the District Court judges. Only one appointment each has been made from official and unofficial bar.  

4. In our view, when appointing a practicing lawyer to the higher judiciary, views should be obtained only from the President of the Bar Association and not from its committees such as the Bar Council or the Executive Committee. If the whole Bar Council or the Executive Committee is involved there will be canvassing and open debate, compromising the nominee’s independence.   The practice has always been for the President of the Bar Association to make such recommendations, whenever suitable candidates are proposed.  

5. It is unfortunate that insinuations are made by politicians that Mr. Kannnan had been proposed by a political party. We have made inquiries and are satisfied that there is no truth in these allegations.  We also understand that, contrary to claims, Mr. Kannan has never applied to join the judiciary earlier.

6. We are disturbed by the irresponsible reaction of the Judicial Services Association by going to the extent of making public statements and boycotting their support for the Bar Association in conducting its annual elections. Such decisions will go against the healthy relationship between the Bar Association of Sri Lanka and the Judges of the minor judiciary. Such actions will also undermine the independence of the judiciary.

In view of the above, we urge the public not be mislead by false statements made by interested parties. We also urge the members of the Judges Association representing minor judiciary to act with responsibility. 

Lal Wijenayaka, K.S. Ratnavale & JC Weliamuna

Conveners
On behalf of Lawyers for Democracy

Bar Association issues the statement earlier as follows (Click the thumbnail)

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by     (2017-02-20 16:35:38)

Lost in Translation: Shortfalls in the implementation of Sri Lanka’s official languages policy

Featured image courtesy Sharanya Sekaram

AMALINI DE SAYRAH on 02/20/2017

The Official Language Act of 1956 replaced English as the official language of then-Ceylon with Sinhala, failing to give recognition to the Tamil language. It was only three decades later, in the 1987 13th Amendment to Article 18 of the Constitution, that both Sinhala and Tamil were granted recognition as official languages of Sri Lanka. In 2009, a further twenty years later, Gazette 25 laid down the National Language Policy, stating regulations that state offices and government departments had to offer services in both languages.

Though this policy is in place, shortfalls in implementation mean that individuals and communities across the island face various struggles with daily life and basic administration.

On International Mother Language Day, which falls on February 21, it is vital that we recognise how an issue as seemingly small as language inequality can hinder an individual’s daily life, access to services and search for justice.

Click here to view this immersive story, compiled using Adobe Spark, or scroll below:

Assault on journalist Noyahr: army personnel suspended

February 20, 2017

The service of the army personnel including a Major who were arrested and remanded on the charges of abducting and assaulting journalist Keith Noyahr have been suspended, it was reported.

Five army personnel were remanded by the Mt. Lavinia Magistrate’s Court over the incident earlier. 

Noyahr, the former Deputy Editor of an English weekly newspaper, was abducted on May 22, 2008. A day later, he was dropped off near his residence, badly beaten up and bruised. He spent days in the hospital after the attack before he left the country.

P.M. gives answers to conspiracy to topple govt. : Who is spending for protesting students? If our youths unite against it what will be the result?

(Lanka-e-News -20.Feb.2017, 8.00PM) The unreasonable odious protests based on unreasonable demands that are being staged even without abiding by  the court verdict , while also joining hands with the defeated and discarded crooks and criminals are a clear conspiracy to defeat the government . Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who was silent hitherto  in this regard , yesterday (19) responded most effectively  thus  …..

 ‘It is not these sporadic protests by a few  that matter , what would be the result if all our youths unite and create a more powerful and potent force against these villainous  protestors ? The outcome needs no  elaboration , the P.M. added. We are always  ready to provide jobs, create avenues of income , and usher in a bright future . But if there are  any  groups that  are scuttling our plans , we are also having answers to give for that ,’ the  P.M. said when addressing a massive gathering during a meeting with the public in Hammathagama

The protests that are being staged under the pretext of SAITM is clearly a conspiracy vis a vis  these recent incidents…

It is a crucial  question , who is spending  for the  University students who  haven’t  the wherewithal and are ‘living on’ (because no fees is charged for education)  People’s Mahapola scholarship aid    ? Who provided the funds for these impecunious  University students for three days to come to Colombo by vehicles is a crucial issue.

These students  cannot afford to travel by bicycle let alone , motorcycle, three wheeler , Van or Truck.  Even paying the bus  ticket fare is a burden for them .Hence , it is baffling how these students who are impecunious , suddenly travelled  in motor cycles, Three wheelers , Vans and trucks , and how they got them . Perhaps  these were obtained on daily rental.

For instance , to hire a three wheeler based on present market rates  in order to cover  such a long distance  , a sum of around Rs. 6000.00 per day has to be spent inclusive of meals and fuel. If 50 three wheelers  were used for travelling  , the total amount that has to be spent on the three wheelers would be around Rs. 300,000.00. Mind you that is only for one route. If it is for three days and  five routes are involved , the amount necessary to meet those travelling   expenses is Rs. 4.5 million.  The students who are surviving on the Mahapola scholarship cannot afford to meet  that expense.

The evil forces that are hoping against hope to topple the government;  looking for escape routes from punishment in jail; and  to continue  their old illicit businesses with impunity , are seeking to use the young students as pawns in their treacherous and criminal games. Need we furnish  more evidence than these to demonstrate that monies are being spent in the evil  direction and lawlessly. 

The other example that  illustrates  the evil manipulations behind the student demonstrations against the emergence of private Universities in SL relates to  a self serving selfish  agency. This evil  force which   dispatches students abroad has also made the student protestors  on the streets their pawns .

 According to reports reaching Lanka e news inside information division , a sum of Rs. 100,000.00 to Rs. 200,000.00 is paid to a student who is taken into custody  by the police or gets remanded ( to female students a bigger amount is paid) .The  convener of the IUSF is paid Rs. 1 million each time he gets remanded. Whether the student gets the full amount to his hand or some intermediary too plucks a tidy sum from that is not sure. In any event these monies have been collected citing the ground  these monies are for legal expenses. 

The majority are not with these protests: A majority of University students , doctors and  masses  did not participate.  

The Prime Minister’s announcements made on the 19th are most pertinent and paramount in the present backdrop , and at a time when the people  defeated and despised forces are day dreaming of seizing power by cashing in on  the student demands . 

The Prime Minister made the above comments on the 19 th when inaugurating the water supply project  under the Netherlands aid . This project will provide water to 200,000 people of Hemmaththagama 

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by     (2017-02-20 14:54:59)