Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Shylock’s Error & The Resolution Of Conflicts

By R S Perinbanayagam –February 21, 2017

Prof. R S Perinbanayagam

“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best” ~ Otto von Bismarck

I had written this short essay some time ago and was not quite sure where to publish. After reading Prof.Laksiri Fernando’s recent essay “An Appeal To Tamil Political Leaders On The ‘New Constitution’” I have concluded it should appear in Colombo Telegraph.

Drama is founded on conflicts of one kind or another. It typically begins with the presentation of various characters who soon find themselves in a situation of conflict and as the drama precedes this conflict is developed and leads either to a resolution or to a tragedy. Insofar as drama is based in conflict, it is possible for others to learn something about conflict from various dramas.

One of the most sociologically interesting plays in the world of theater is Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Its focus is on the ethno religious conflict of western civilization: Jews versus Christians. In addition, it presents a crisis in European thought and culture about money and usury: the Catholic Church prohibited the lending of money at interest while the emerging trading circles among the Catholics needed credit for the conduct of their businesses. The coming of Protestantism eventually solved this problem – but the conflict between Jews and Christians endured.

In addition to these features about the play, there is another one that is of particular interest: the style and manner with which Shylock conducted his conflict with Bassanio and the cost he had to ultimately bear. If one considers the structure of the play as it develops, it will be seen that Shylock, from a position of moral strength from the very first movement of the play, to legal and political power and strength in the middle, ends up losing all.

In the opening movement, Shylock makes his famous speech declaiming the humiliations that he received from Antonio

Signior Antonio, many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my moneys and my usances:
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gabardine,
And all for use of that which is mine own.
Well then, it now appears you need my help:
Go to, then; you come to me, and you say
‘Shylock, we would have moneys:’ you say so;
You, that did void your rheum upon my beard
And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur
Over your threshold: moneys is your suit
What should I say to you? Should I not say
‘Hath a dog money? is it possible
A cur can lend three thousand ducats?’ Or
Shall I bend low and in a bondman’s key,
With bated breath and whispering humbleness, Say this;
‘Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last;
You spurn’d me such a day; another time
You call’d me dog; and for these courtesies
I’ll lend you thus much moneys’?

Even at this juncture, Antonio the Christian is unrepentant: He says:

I am as like to call thee so again

To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too.

Even in the midst of a monetary exchange — a transaction — Antonio’s attitudes remain true to type. He does not want the money transaction as one between friends, but as between enemies. Insofar as the transaction between enemies – tribal and personal –it was morally worthy of Shylock to ask for the extraordinary bond: no interest will be charged but if there is a default, a pound of flesh will be taken instead. The mythic associations of this are clear enough: allusion to human sacrifice, no doubt practiced in Judaic society at one time – vide the story of Abraham and Isaac and God’s command, etc. There is a nice symmetry between the overbearing arrogance, incivility and bigotry of Antonio’s attitude and Shylock’s exorbitant demand.

In what I will call the second movement of the play, Shylock is still on good ground: the bond has been forfeited and the sanctity of the law demands that it be fulfilled:

Shylock: An oath, an oath: I have an oath in heaven: Shall I lay perjury upon my soul? No, not for Venice.

The central episode here is the trial and it begins in an ironic note. The judge says to Antonio:

I am sorry for thee. Thou art come to face a strong adversary, an inhuman wretch; incapable of pity, void and empty of any dram of mercy.

Words that apply well, indeed better, to Antonio and his ilk for their treatment “The Jew”. It is here that the play reaches a fulcrum. Portia enters the courtroom as a lawyer and both she and Bassanio offer to pay double the money owed. What should Shylock do? What could he have done? He is after revenge for untold humiliations, not only against him, but against his tribe as well. He could demand the forfeit of the penalty and execute Antonio or he could relent now that his point has been made and take the money. The demands of tragic drama, the exigencies of character and situation created within the paly as well as the humiliations his people had suffered ensures that he rejects the money and opts for blood. In the end the Christians in turn do not show any mercy to the Jew: they deprive him of ducats, daughter and religion too by forcing him to become a Christian.

Image: Sri Lanka FM Samaraweera will address a side event on ‘Developments in Sri Lanka’ on 1st March.(c) s.deshapriya.

22/02/2017

There are 13 side events planned during the 34 session of the Human Rights Council on the situation in Sri Lanka. The 34th session of the HRC will start on 27the February and end on 24th March.

Sri Lanka will be one of the case studies of the side event organised by the OHCHR on Transitional Justice.

There are three African organisations who have booked rooms for side events on Sri Lanka. Those are Tourner la Page and Association of World Citizens; or on three established “African” organisations focusing on Sri Lanka (or South Asia): Association Solidarite Internationale pour l’Afrique; International Association for Democracy in Africa and Society for Development and Community Empowerment.

Many Tamil diaspora groups want to establish that the HRC resolution 30/1 has failed and to demand that Sri Lanka be referred to the International Criminal Court. They want UNHRC process on Sri Lanka to end and UN General Assembly to take over and to refer Sri Lanka to ICC. A few INGOs too may likely to support that position although such a eventuality is highly unlikely.

The Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN and Other International Organizations in Geneva has now made a public invitation to a briefing on ‘Developments in Sri Lanka’. This side event will be held on Wednesday, 1 March 2017 form 1500 to 1600 hrs at the Room XXI of the Palais des Nations.

Leading civil society figures of the Consultation Task Force established by the Prime Minister will arrive in Geneva in the coming days to engage in human rights advocacy. Some of them accompanied the TNA spokesperson M.A. Sumanthiran to Geneva last week in order to lobby diplomatic missions re the Sri Lanka situation.

It is estimated that more than two dozen activists and politicians from Sri Lanka will attend the HRC 34 session.

The draft time table issued by the OHCHR: HRC34-1st draft NGO side events calendar

Army spies arrested over Lasantha Wickrematunge murder

Five arrested military intelligence officers are suspected of killing prominent anti-establishment newspaper editor.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was the chief editor of the Sunday Leader [File: Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP]

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

Maj. Gen. Karunasekara summoned to CID!

- Feb 21, 2017

The CID has summoned Amal Karunasekara, then a colonel and Army intelligence chief and now a retired major general, in the coming days to record a statement, as the next step in its investigation into the abduction, detention and assault of ‘The Nation’ co-editor Keith Noyarh in May 2008.

The retired officer has been summoned on the basis of the revelations made by the Army intelligence officers presently in remand custody over their role in the incident. Soon after Noyarh was abducted, Maj. Bulathwatte, who had led the abductors, informed Karunasekara about the incident. Karunasekara in turn informed the then national intelligence chief Kapila Hendavitharana, who notified the then defence secretary Nandasena G. Rajapaksa, it has come to light by the analysis of telephone conversation data. Gota directly spoke to Bulathwatte and gave him instructions.

On the attorney general’s department advice, the CID has nicely build up the circumstantial evidence, which is adequate to arrest the ex-defence secretary without a warrant, but it could not happen due to yet another political deal, lawyers say. Gota is doing his best to prevent his arrest, say sources close to him.

Gota directly involved in Keith Noyarh abduction, assault!

3 Army intelligence men arrested!

IUSF ‘s face of terror unmasked ! 8 Peradeniya students abducted and tortured for not participating in anti SAITM protests ! -15 terrorizing students remanded

(Lanka-e-News -21.Feb.2017, 9.15AM) 15 raggers of the Inter University students federation (IUSF) were arrested by the Peradeniya police when they conducted a raid on a house. This group had held 8 freshers of the Peradeniya university captive for a whole night in a rented house after abducting the victims from the Peradeniya University premises , and while they were being tortured by the raggers , the police had been able to arrest the suspects ,who were remanded until the 2 nd of March after being produced before Kandy additional magistrate Rangani Gamage .

Because these 8 freshers had not participated in the protests staged against SAITM , they were subjected to this torment and torture by the raggers.

The victims of the torture are students of Peradeniya University agriculture faculty , and the raggers are supposed to be second year students , but according to the police there could be outsiders too in that terror group. Hence a certificate has been requested from the University to confirm that the suspects are University students in fact.

The least number of students who attended the anti SAITM protest is of the agriculture faculty , and are first year students.

Following a complaint made by the University administrator in charge of discipline to the police that the students have been abducted , the Peradeniya police conducted the raid on the house at about 2.00 in the early hours of the morning yesterday. Even at that time the 8 victims were being tormented by the senior students of the IUSF .

This house situated at Hindagala Megoda, Kalugama , Peradeniya where this torture was being inflicted had been taken on rent for two months only. If a University student is to take a house for his lodging , that house should have been taken on rent for at least a period of one year .Therefore ,in this case this house has not been taken for that purpose , and it has been exclusively used for the illegal ragging and torturing activities of the IUSF mafia , according to the Police.

The victims of ragging had been ruthlessly assaulted so much so that they had to be hospitalized. Two of the students are still in hospital taking treatment.

Attempts are being made to camouflage these terror activities , and describe those as part of ‘ragging’ of freshers , though it is very evident it is not , and are actions aimed at taking revenge on the victims because two months have already elapsed since the University opened . The police sources also revealed ,the victims who suffered at the hands of the seniors are scared to disclose the truth to the police .

On the same day , two girl students had been made to kneel down and forced to march on their knees , as a result of which their knees have sustained injuries .The students or their parents have not lodged a complaint with the police out of fear.

Meanwhile , Lanka e news reported a day ago that the students too while learning in the University are also being taught how to make a fast buck via venal and sordid activities at this young age itself , by payments being made to each student who gets remanded at the rate of Rs. 100,000.00 to Rs. 200,000.000 . In addition , the convener of the IUSF is paid Rs. 1 million each time he gets himself remanded.

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by (2017-02-21 03:54:08)

FCID’s Unintended Consequences; Resulting In Bureaucratic Quagmire!

By Vishwamithra1984 –February 22, 2017

“In a free society, the ‘vision thing’ is left to private individuals; civil servants are kept on a tight leash, because free people understand that a ‘visionary’ bureaucrat is a voracious one and that the grander the government…the poorer and less free the people.” ~Ilana Mercer

A lackluster, sluggish and thoroughly uncreative bureaucracy has been waiting for an excuse. And they got it- FCID. For the most inexcusable delay in getting things done, the Sri Lankan bureaucracy which was merely a ready, willing and handy and convenient tool in the hands of politicians in the standard (or sub-standard) of the last regime of the Rajapaksa’s, has become one of the most powerful yet caustic and encumbering forces in the present government, not as a positive driver of policies, nor as an exemplary force in government administration upon which hundreds of thousands of general masses depend, but as an authoritative, negative force in obstructing the general movement of businesses directly or vicariously related to government.

As per Wikipedia, ‘Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) is the law enforcement agency of the Sri Lankan government. It is tasked within Sri Lanka for financial crime investigations and law enforcement; it is a subsidiary agency of Sri Lanka Police Service’.

Apart from drilling fear and shame into the minds of corrupt politicians, FCID has also been responsible for creating a very apathetic and negative sensation in the present crop of civil servants, if we can call them such, a crop of bureaucrats that is primarily accountable for the circulation of a narrative that the current government led by President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is gipped with its own ineria of impotence and not capable of getting ‘things done’. However, it must be mentioned here that major part of the blame surely belongs in the laps of the Cabinet of Ministers too. While not making an iota of excuse for the political machinery of the current government, a more severe part of the blame must go to the officials who are charged with the actual execution of the jobs. Not that the last regime of the Rajapaksas had a more solid and energetic set of bureaucrats. They had this same lot. But what was absent from that past regime is what is embedded within the concept of ‘Yahapalanaya’, good governance. Here again, I must say that there isn’t any tangible evidence of Yahapalanaya to write home about.

Instead of beginning the day with a positive mindset- discovering an excuse to win, finding an excuse how to do the job, our civil servants are apparently bogged down in a pit of unwillingness to learn how to do a job! They are not here to solve issues relating to atomic research, nor are they engaged in rocket science, though some in the Ministry of Science and Technology may be. But as a vast majority of our present bureaucracy has not realized the truism that if you fail, never mind, do it again and again and again until you get it right and moving. Every man’s lifelong ambition is an expression of that eternal yearning, find an excuse to excel.

But in what context is this excellence needs to be attained? Whether the context is positive or negative, the action taken within that context has to be shaped and molded to produce positive results. No SLAS seminar or workshop would teach that primary mindset of an officer who needs to have to execute a job. If all they have is what they have inherited from their parents, teachers, friends and associates, then the game is lost, the whole enchilada is rotten and uneatable. The professional training would lend one the objective material in order to do a job; it may lend the training how to proceed from A to B in a given context. But it would not lend the inner strength that one has to use to turn that training into results. What is missing from beneath the so-called efficient exterior is that inner strength, that creative mindset, that craving to exceed excellence. And that is indeed sad and tragic.

Keith Noyahr’s assailants should be brought to book - EDITORIAL

2017-02-21

Nine years later, in two separate incidents five army personnel were arrested during the past few days for the inhuman assault on former Daily Mirror Deputy Editor and The Nation Newspaper Associate Editor Keith Noyahr on May 11, 2008. This follows similar arrests of Army intelligence officers after the defeat of the former regime at the presidential election on January 8, 2015 for the brutal killing of former Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickramatunga, the disappearance of Lanka e-news journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda and the attempt on the life of former Divaina and Rivira Editor Upali Tennakoon among others.

Noyahr and Tennakoon are still living whereas Ekneligoda’s fate is still unknown. Hence, only the two of the four former senior journalists can throw some light as eyewitnesses in identifying the assailants, who had attacked them in case they are among those arrested. Tennakoon and his wife have already identified several of those arrested as being among those who attempted to kill him. Noyahr, who is domiciled in Australia is yet to identify any of his assailants whether they are among those arrested.
When Ekneligoda went missing in 2009 many pointed fingers at an individual who was a minister in the previous regime as well as in the present. Breaking his silence after more than five years, even a former close buddy of that minister, after breaking ranks with him soon after the present government assumed office, called for an investigation into the fate of the web journalist for obvious reasons. But when the CID tracked several Army intelligence officers in connection with the case, the Opposition including that the former buddy of the said minister suddenly found the stripes of an LTTE cadre in the journalist. Some of those who accused the minister had also described the turn of events as a conspiracy against the war heroes who fought the LTTE in defence of the Motherland.

Upali Tennakoon cannot be described as a LTTE sympathizer, just because he had identified security forces personnel who made an attempt on his life. Throughout his journalistic career, he has been a Sinhala nationalist and a strong adversary of separatist forces. Nobody can justify the assault on Tennakoon just because the suspects are Army personnel, who may have personally dedicated and sacrificed their youth in the battlefront. For than matter even Noyahr was also a respected journalist who had never sided with or sympathized with the LTTE or any other secessionist elements.
There clearly seems to have been a far cry between the collective efforts of the security forces in fighting the separatist forces and some of the illegal actions of individual soldiers which had been carried out either for personal gains or on orders of higher ups with vested interest. During the well-known Chemmani case or Krishanthi Kumaraswamy rape and murder case nobody was able to justify the crime merely because the culprits were Army personnel with the entire country standing against them.

Validating our point further, during the previous regime 12 STF personnel were arrested in connection with the famous “Trincomalee five case” or the cold blooded killing of five students on the Trincomalle beach on January 6, 2006. Besides, the leaders of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government said the service rendered by former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka in defeating the LTTE cannot be offset by his personal actions and he was cashiered without even his pension and his medals, when he politically challenged President Rajapaksa as the then common opposition’s presidential candidate.
Needless to say that the security forces including the police and the Civil Security Department must be respected and given the due credit for their unparalleled dedication and sacrifice during the war against the dreaded LTTE. However, those arrested for attacks on the journalists including former Daily Mirror Deputy Editor and The Nation Newspaper Associate Editor Keith Noyahr should be brought to book.

India will not press for merger of north, east Sri Lankan provinces: Jaishankar

Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar. |AFP

By P.K.Balachandran-20th February 2017

COLOMBO: India will not be pressing Sri Lanka to merge the Northern and Eastern Provinces to form a single Tamil-majority, Tamil-speaking province as envisaged by the India-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987, the Indian Foreign Secretary S.Jaishankar told the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) here on Monday.

He was reacting to a demand made by the leader of the Eelam Peoples’ Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) Suresh Premachandran, that India should honor its promise to keep the North and East united. It had even said that it would not allow a referendum to be held on the issue. When the united province was de-merged in 2006 by a Supreme Court order, India did not protest saying that it was for the Sri Lankan government to appeal against the judgment. India had clearly lost interest in the issue. Its interests lay elsewhere in Sri Lanka.

Jaishankar told Premachandran that much water has flown down the bridge since 1987 and as the situation has changed it will be better for all concerned to make use of the various windows of opportunity which have opened up recently with the change of regime in Colombo and secure the rights of the Tamils.

He argued that it would not be wise to hold every other matter hostage to one issue - the merger of the North and East.

However, he added that India would not mind if the Tamils kept the issue alive and kept it on the table for talks with the Sri Lankan government.

Premachandran had highlighted the issue of the merger of the North and East partly because it had been the main theme of the Ezhuga Tamil rally held recently in the Eastern town of Batticaloa. Premachandran is a key member of the Tamil Peoples’ Council which organized the rally.

The merger of the North and East is considered important by the Eastern Tamils because it helps them face the Muslims who tend to dominate them economically and politically. If the East were to be merged with the North, the Tamils will be in an overwhelming majority and can run the province as per their wish, and also bargain with Colombo more effectively for more powers.

But the Muslims are opposed to the merger as their proportion would be reduced from 35 % to 12%. At any rate, successive Sri Lankan governments have been against a merger as they fear that a strengthened and united Tamil province will be in a better position to secede from Sri Lanka. It was to destroy the unification of the North and East wrought by the India-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987 that some Sinhalese and Muslims, enjoying tacit government support, challenged the merger in the Supreme Court and got a favorable verdict in 2006.

Premachandran pointed out that India has a moral responsibility to ask the Sri Lankan government to re-merge the North and East as it is part of the India-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987. If the Accord is still valid, every part of it should be deemed to be equally valid and implemented, he argued.

He recalled that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had solemnly promised that the merger would remain and that the proposed referendum would not be held. He also recalled that the EPRLF had fully cooperated with India on the implementation of the Accord, and like the Indian Peace Keeping Force, had lost many men in the fight against the LTTE which opposed the Accord. India has a moral responsibility to keep its promise and persuade the Sri Lankan government to re-merge the North and East, Premachandran said.

Court finds film activist guilty for showing Sri Lanka war documentary without approval

Activist Lena Hendry is seen outside the courtroom after the film censorship case decision in Kuala Lumpur February 21, 2017. ― Picture by Choo Choy May

BY KAMLES KUMAR-Tuesday February 21, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 — Activist Lena Hendry has been found guilty by the Magistrate Court today for allegedly screening a documentary on the Sri Lankan civil war without the approval of the Censorship Board.

Magistrate Mohd Rehan Mohd Aris found the Pusat Komas programme manager guilty of censorship charges after the defence failed to prove reasonable doubt on the prosecution’s case.

He did not hand out any sentence after Hendry’s lawyer New Sin Yew requested for a written submission to be handed in.

“He found her guilty but he has fixed sentencing for another day. He wants a written submission by first of March,” New told reporters after the case today.

New added if convicted, Hendry would face up to three years’ jail or a fine not exceeding RM30,000, under Section 6(1)(b) of the Film Censorship Act, 2002.

Mohd Rezan also set March 22 for the next hearing and for the sentencing to be done. The prosecution was represented by Nor Akma Farhan Aziz.

Hendry meanwhile said she was disheartened by the decision and said it was done without any proper evidence against her.

“I’m very disappointed, I don’t think so there was any proof. The conviction was based on the lawyer’s allegations,” she said adding that her legal team would be filing for an appeal.

The High Court in September last year reversed the acquittal of Hendry, who was charged in September 2013 under the Film Censorship Act 2002 for screening No Fire Zone without approval from the Censorship Board, and ordered her to enter her defence.

She was alleged to have screened the documentary without authorities permission at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Chamber of Commerce Hall on July 3, 2013 at 9pm.

China's 'New Silk Road' Is Derailed In Sri Lanka By Political Chaos And Violent Protests

TOPSHOT - Sri Lankan police tryo to hold back demonstrators during a protest against the proposed sale of a stake in a loss-making port to a Chinese company in Colombo on February 1, 2017.Protesters led by the leftist Peoples Liberation Front, are opposing plans to sell an 80 percent stake in the $1.4 billion deep sea port of Hambantota to China Merchants Port Holdings Company. Image: ISHARA S. KODIKARA/AFP/Getty Images.

Wade Shepard -

FEB 21, 2017

It was supposed to be a great new catalyst of transportation, manufacturing, and trade that would be used to stimulate growth in Sri Lanka’s remote Hambantota district. The dream was for Sri Lanka, China, and other nations to join together in the building of a new international city that would rise up from the southern jungles that could complement booming Colombo, a 250 kilometer driver to the northwest. Instead, Sri Lanka found itself with an array of cash-hemorrhaging, half-developed infrastructure projects that are on the verge of becoming white elephants, large amounts of international debt, and a highly unstable political and social social situation.

It is now looking as if Sri Lanka's biggest partner in the Hambantota endeavor, China, is pulling back from what seems to have become an all out fiasco. While a deal was supposed to be formally signed on January 7th that would have seen China take over an 80% share of the struggling Hambantota port for 99 years in exchange for $1.1 billion of much needed debt relief, this agreement has now been put on indefinite hold due to internal political strife and violent public demonstrations.

Sri Lanka began building this strategically-located deep sea port in 2008 with over $300 million in Chinese loans, which the country has subsequently struggled to repay. This was partly due to the poor economic performance of the port itself, which was originally intended to be run in tandem with a nearby industrial zone. However, this part of the project was never built.

Prevailing logic states that a bulk cargo port without a corresponding industrial zone is like a bicycle with one wheel — it just doesn’t go. So regardless of how much development occurred on the port itself, the bulk of maritime traffic would continue passing it by for lack of a reason to go there — i.e. a manufacturing area where they could drop off and pick up raw materials and other cargo.

The Chinese takeover of the Hambantota port and 15,000 acres of land for the accompanying industrial zone was meant to be a way for the project to be taken to fruition amid Sri Lanka’s dire financial situation. Instead, the country erupted in protest and political controversy.

In January, as news of the impending transfer of 80% of the Hambantota port to the China Merchants shipping company became known locally and speculation that villages and farms would be requisitioned to build the industrial zone became rife, violent protests broke out in the region. The melee brought the issue to the national forefront, and trade unions and some opposition politicians led by Mahinda Rajapaksa — Sri Lanka’s former president who originally began the Hambantota development — began making things very difficult for these deals to actually happen. Eventually, a lawsuit intending to stop the impending debt-for-equity transfer was filed by a Sri Lankan legislator against the current government.

Sri Lanka responded to the heat by delaying the signing of the port and industrial zone deals, much to the chagrin of China, who had previously promised to invest $5 billion in the Hambantota area within the next five years.

China’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Yi Xianliang, claims that while President Xi Jinping and himself are prepared to exercise patience with Sri Lanka, investors may not be so accommodating. According to the ambassador, he had already rounded up over ten big Chinese companies who would be willing to invest $3-5 billion in Hambantota over the next two or three years, if it wasn’t for the political strife on the ground.

Rationale for mandatory credit allocations: A counter view

By Joan de Zilva Moonesinghe-Tuesday, 21 February 2017

“Whatever ‘name’ is given to a just social system, nevertheless not its name but its content is what is important, andcalls for a ‘strong juridical framework’, that is, a legal framework, to orient the economy toward the total good of mankind.”

Rationale for mandatory credit allocations A counter view.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

Let’s start RTI with Namal!

Feb 21, 2017

Namal Rajapaksa, who had played games from Temple Trees with the powers of his ‘proud’ father, was left consigned to Hambantota because the people who had abhorred the family games of the Rajapaksas had dethroned them. The main reason for that was the father, who was having too much of conceit, without giving a second thought, had sought power for a third time, but two years prematurely. Dethroned and back to earth, the ‘proud’ father was the ‘shadow prime minister’ for some time and has now elevated himself to be the ‘facebook president’. The Rajapaksas had a unique talent to make things disappear without a trace and bring things to existence from nowhere. That covered from living beings to hoarded treasures, and various playacts were given to the people, from the economy to the law degree of Namal.

We still remember how Namal tried to be a ‘normal Rajapaksa’ by clinging onto a window at the old home after losing Temple Trees which his ‘proud’ father had to leave in a hurry even before the final results were out. He had his reasons to become so. That ranged from the murder of his bosom friend Wasim Thajudeen to the billion dollars that surfaced from Dubai banks. Anyway, due to whatever a ‘mercy deal’ he has struck with the ‘Yahapaalanaya’ has now begun to work and after two years he is again back to his old tricks. That mercy from somewhere allowed them to come in procession and throw stones at the foundation laying for the Hambantota port industrial park. Our story begins on the following day.

Despite him being the cause for sending more than 50 people to prison for having insulted the judiciary by disregarding a previous court order, Namal got up early next morning and started a question and answer session through facebook. However, he was rendered speechless due to most having questioned his law degree. Almost 80 per cent who had joined in through facebook questioned him over his law university, his lecturers and the manner he sat for the law exam. Namal only answered the very few who had commented about his fair skin and goodness, and stopped the Q & A session, leaving us to find answers ourselves to the questions posed. As far as Lanka News Web knows, Namal had no answers to give on that day.

People have dreams. It is human nature to make attempts to realize those dreams. That applies to Namal too, and we do not question that. But, the question is his having deceived the entire country and the world in order to realize his dreams. And, we question the existence of voters who can be misled by the likes of Namal whose policy is nothing but deception, and Namal’s attempts to gain power once against with the help of those ‘blind’ voters. He may utter patriotism and motherland from the head downwards throughout the day, but he had gone to the white imperialist England to study law. It was said at the time that he was studying at Bristol University. Sometime later, it became Wales University. And in the end, it was City University in London. It is Namal who knows best about these changes.

Exam fraudsters have their own terms to describe what they do. Impersonating at an exam is called ‘placing a horse’. For the whole duration of Namal’s law education, it was said that Indika Karunajeewa did all of his law studies. Indika is the son of the late W. Karunajeewa, former People’s Bank chairman. It was an open secret that Indika was appointed the first secretary at the Sri Lankan high commission in London in order to do Namal’s law studies. No one would know better than Namal himself that it was Indika who did all the theses and assignments to be submitted to the university.

We too, have some questions to ask from Namal:

1.   From which university did Namal obtain his law degree?
2.   Is that institution recognized by the Legal Education Council?
3.   Who has Namal’s personal file?

Some time ago, it was said former chief justice Mohan Peiris had taken Namal’s file away. Anyway, such things cannot be kept hidden, as the right to information act is now in force. Information can be obtained even from England under the freedom of right to information. Now, what we have to ask Namal is – Will you tell the truth, or shall we come out with the truth? That is for nothing. That is on the basis of his having attempted to become the crown prince. That is Namal inherited from his ‘proud’ father of how to ‘place horses’ at the law college.

That goes as follows:
Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was Mahinda Rajapaksa’s friend since their youth. For friendship, no boundaries are relevant. When Mahinda was the president and Jeyaraj a minister under him, it was ‘Mahinda’, not ‘sir’ for him. He never found it difficult to have a meeting with Mahinda. But, being by nature a person who becomes vain with power and forget those who helped him, Mahinda found that to be belittling. One day, Jeyaraj went to Temple Trees and had to wait 2 ½ hours to see him. After losing his patience, Jeyaraj left after telling the PSD men, “Tell him that the person who wrote for him at his exam wanted to see him.” That was the day Jeyaraj, who had close connections with the LTTE, became destined to be a victim of a suicide bombing.

If Namal still had the powers, Indika too, should have followed Jeyaraj by now. Anyway, enough is enough that Namal misled the country about a law he does not know. What remains to be done is to get to know the truth, through RTI, about Namal’s law degree and the record marks he has obtained.

P.S.
The other important thing here is that had Namal obtained a degree from any university of Great Britain when his father was in power, the Sri Lankan public would have had to listen to and watch nothing but about that degree for a month or so. The ‘proud’ father would have chartered a flight or two and led his family members and et al, together with all the media in the country, to London. May be, the London graduation would have been shown live over Rupavahini or ITN. That much can be guessed by what had taken place on the day Namal took oaths as a lawyer. The ‘proud’ father got the entire judiciary to dance to his tune to such a level that he got the then CJ Shirani Bandaranayake and other Supreme Court judges to stand up and shake hands with his lawyer son. After blatantly violating the rule of natural justice and sending Bandaranayake home and appointing his bootlicker Mohan Peiris in her place, can Mahinda issue statements now to the media about independence of the judiciary? When looking at how Mahinda behaves against SAITM for whose beginning he was responsible, it is not him who should be beaten up, but the people who surround him and egg him on.