A top government official alleged that he suspects a mafia working to block renewable energy sources in the country.

Renewable Energy Sources In The Country A Necessity

by Ifham Nizam - Monday, February 27, 2017

• Mini hydro plants may have a negative impact for the surrounding biodiversity, particularly the fauna and flora
• Sri Lanka dreams of becoming an energy self-sufficient nation
• Shallow reservoirs are not unlike paddy fields which are known to contribute substantially to methane emissions, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide 

Keerthi and Ravindra

A top government official alleged that he suspects a mafia working to block renewable energy sources in the country.

Chairman of the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA) Eng. Keerthi Wickramaratne who is an ardent nature lover and works for the betterment of the environment firmly denied that they had given any approval for mini hydro plants that would have a negative impact for the surrounding biodiversity, particularly the fauna and flora.

He also said that they are often puzzled as to how fish enter areas after a project commences. He warned that they would investigate such matters.

He stressed that nobody likes to disturb the environment while adding that initial construction does have some impact where they have clearly been instructed to strictly adhere to instructions, keeping in mind that sustainability comes first. He also emphasized that renewable energy is the only option to overcome power cuts and blackouts.

Wickramaratne was optimistic that the only way out of this issue was to make a gradual switch to renewable sources of energy. He stressed that with assistance from developed countries, a switch to renewable energy was a possibility. “Computerised systems and other costs will arise, but switching to renewable sources was a positive move. He said that in this regard Germany has come forward to assist Sri Lanka in the future projects.

“Solar and wind power were the best options for renewable energy sources in Sri Lanka; solar power is a good option. If we increase the use of solar power then costs will decrease, while in the long-term it will be cheaper and most importantly, environment-friendly” he said.

However, Wickramaratne said storage of solar power might be a problem due to various issues. He also noted that offshore sea currents were a viable option “But we have not yet developed it to be used as a renewable energy source,” he added.

Power and Renewable Energy Deputy Minister Ajith P. Perera says power cuts would have to be imposed if mini power plants don’t contribute to the power generation. Responding to recent allegations by a group of environmentalists, he said that small hydro power plants being built in Sri Lanka severely damage the environment and biodiversity. According to him, the power requirement of Sri Lanka is 4000 megawatts and small hydro power plants provide 300 megawatts to the national grid.

Ministry of Power and Sustainable Energy Secretary, Dr Suren Batagoda said that mini hydro power plants are one of the best resources and best options to Sri Lanka especially in keeping with the government renewable policy initiatives. “These projects are definitely beneficial to our country. If not, we would not have any fuel and we would have to rely on wind, solar and hydro power. Our dream is to become an energy self-sufficient nation. Of course, there is a certain amount of environmental damage done during the construction phase. Therefore, we have suggested the CEA identifies all sensitive waterfalls and gazettes them. Thereafter the remaining waterfalls could be utilized for the projects. The only issue is that people are not working together. Sometimes the developer is trying to find money and there is minimum coordination between the people and the developers,” he said.

The government should be cautious when implementing hydro power projects in the near future, warns a senior environmentalist.

Dr. Raveendra Kariyawasam, Ecology Management, Centre for Environment and Nature Study told The Sunday Leader that though the government has given the prime focus on renewable energy especially stressing the importance of clean energy, the adverse impact to the environment should also be taken into consideration. He stressed that small hydro power plants cause damage to the ecosystem. A study carried out by the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom showed that small hydropower plants has caused damage to ecosystems, destroying aquatic fauna and flora. “There are many other studies showing the damage caused by small-scale hydropower plants and the Ministry Agriculture and Environment. They must pay heed and conduct thorough assessments before granting approvals and must work hard to revive aquatic ecosystems already destroyed,” he further said.

He also noted that as a tropical country, Sri Lanka has enough sunshine and wind. These are the ideal renewable energy sources that the government must exploit. He also said that the belief that ‘small’ hydropower systems are a source of clean energy with little or no environmental impact is driving a growing interest in mini, micro, and pico hydropower systems that can generate from less than five kilowatts up to 10 megawatts of energy.

Hydropower may appear to be the cleanest and most versatile of renewable energy sources, but experience shows that optimism about its potential can be misplaced. Hydropower uses water to generate carbon-free electricity. Fossil-fuelled power plants and coal power plants, nuclear power plants produce gases and/or ash emissions in to the air. After 1950 hydropower became popular in many countries including Brazil, China, Sri Lanka, India, and Malaysia. Many small and large-scale dams have been built through natural waterways. In Sri Lanka, Randenigala, Rantambe, and the Victoria dam are some examples of this.

“When building the above mentioned dams the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) made many outlandish claims including that there would be a surfeit of electricity in Sri Lanka such that we would be in a position to export the excess to India through the Kanya Kumari. Of course, this never happened and people understood this to be another falsehood of the government, he said. Successive governments have a record of false claims with regard to the effectiveness of ‘development’ projects that seem to achieve nothing and in many cases have destroyed extant national assets and the environment.

The GOSL has accelerated micro hydro projects using many catchment areas and inviting private companies to build and operate hydro power plants and sell the electricity to the national grid. This is called Energy Trade.

He said that one such example of the dire consequence due to the installation of hydro power in Sri Lanka is our experience with the Laxapana waterfall. The construction of a private hydropower plant above 200 meters of this waterfall has degraded the ecosystem in the area and is currently facing a threat of completely drying up as the explosions made during the construction work has made the rocks of the waterfall loose.

The banks of the Maskeliya River that supplies water to the waterfall have also collapsed due to these explosions. It seems that in searching for solutions to the growing energy demand the GOSL and its partners are paying scant attention to the environmental degradation their activities cause, he said.

Egypt’s Aswan High Dam has become an iconic symbol of these kinds of projects and highlights the detrimental environmental impacts it has engendered. “Projects like these fundamentally altered river ecosystems, often fragmenting channels and changing river flows. Natural lakes take hundreds of years to evolve from oligotrophic (low in nutrients) to eutrophic (rich in nutrients) status. But man-made reservoirs underwent this transition within a few years, degrading water quality, harming fisheries, bringing siltation and invasion by weeds, and creating environments suitable for mosquitoes and other disease vectors”, a study has shown

In a report on the Environmental Implications of Renewable Energy Sources, the International Energy Agency (IEA) notes: “Small-scale hydro schemes (SHS) tend to have a relatively modest and localised impact on the environment.

These arise mainly from construction activities and from changes in water quality and flow on ecosystems (aquatic ecosystems and fisheries) and on water use”. According to the International Energy Agency, the world has not experienced any major problems from ‘small’ hydropower plants simply because the world has used them economically to earn money without thinking about the ecological impact.

The same situation is arising in Sri Lanka; the private companies are involved in energy trade. The government institutes such as CEA and other responsible officers and institutes make EIA and all legal documents to them; continue ecological degradation without proper pre or post environment assessment.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) and other research institutes have identified many ecological impacts of micro hydropower in the world. Constructions of micro or macro plants can badly affect aquatic ecosystems. Interrupted water flow, barriers to animal movement, water loss from evaporation and loss of biodiversity from the sacrificed portion of rivers amount to a few of the devastating results.

With smaller dams, storage is an increasingly important problem that may require the construction of more low-head systems than anticipated. Reservoirs silting up or becoming overloaded with nutrients are other common problems.

According to the IEA, methane generation occurs largely where water and sediment meet, and this means that a shallower water body is likely to release more methane per unit area than a deeper water body. Shallow reservoirs are not unlike paddy fields which are known to contribute substantially to methane emissions, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

The IUCN in its report on small-scale hydropower plants said in 2012 that the ecosystems were under threat

MR’s name was used following directive from PDD


February 27, 2017 

The decision to issue the controversial gazette on a bond auction with the name of the former President was taken following a directive from the Public Debt Department (PDD), the Govt. Printer has apprised the Commission of Inquiry. 

This was mentioned as Govt. Printer G.K.D. Liyanage was summoned before the CoI to provide a statement on Monday.

 The statement was recorded to resolve the issue that has erupted regarding the date of the specific gazette notification issued under the present government on the Treasury bonds.

 The Govt. Printer has made the observation when Additional Solicitor General Yasantha Kodagoda had questioned her in this regard.

 While referring to the extraordinary Gazette Notification No. 1895/19 with respect of the bond auction scheduled on 27, February 2015, she has stated that the gazette was issued on January 1, 2015. 

She has further stated that contents regarding the gazette were however provided by N.G.Y.C. Weerasinghe of the PDD in written on 18 November, 2016. The PDD had then informed to go ahead with the name of the former President since 1 January, 2015 was previously selected as its date, Liyanage has said.

 The Ministry of Finance on Sunday alleged that the Central Bank, during the previous government has issued all Treasury bonds in violation of the provisions of the Registered Stock and Securities Ordinance.

Public debt turns private privilege!

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake with Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy during yesterday’s press conference – Pic by Lasantha Kumara  

​

• Over Rs. 5.7 trillion bonds given through private placement; three banks get 68% 
• Ravi K challenges MR to go before court so public can learn full details of bond transactions 

By Uditha Jayasinghe -Tuesday, 28 February 2017

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake yesterday challenged former President Mahinda Rajapaksa sue the Government on the contentious gazette detailing bond transactions during his time in power as it would reveal questionable private placement deals worth billions.  

Detailing some of the findings of bond transactions made from 2005-2015, Karunanayake noted that of the Rs. 7.2 trillion in bonds over 80% were issued on private placement.

As much as 68% of these private placements went to three institutions, namely Commercial Bank, Hatton National Bank and Seylan Bank.

“Private placements were well before we came. The highly dubious situation is private placements are given to whom? There have been three institutions that have received 68% of the private placements and these were all during the period of the previous Government. You all are going after what happened during our time, which was at a public auction. That was nothing at all.”

The Finance Minister paid kudos to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for returning the public action system to bond sales and insisted the Government had worked to make the process more transparent. However, he emphasised that instances of private placement and irregularities of gazette publications resulted in a “travesty of justice of the whole system” and strongly advocated an overhaul of the Central Bank.

“This is why we say the Central Bank needs a complete overhaul.”    

“This is why I have been saying in the past that things are not working in a professional manner. The new Governor is trying to change that but there has been a residual that has been coming in from the past that goes unchecked and this is what has led to this distortion many a time. What has really happened is one thing, what has been reported is another and what should have happened is completely different!”

When questioned about whether the Government was attempting to deflect attention from the allegations of insider trading swirling around former Governor Arjuna Mahendran and primary dealer Perpetual  Treasuries linked to his son-in-law Arjun Aloysius, Karunanayake stressed the Presidential Commission would be allowed to continue their work.

“If the bonds issued to Perpetual Treasuries are proved to be illegal them we will not pay it,” he said. “You all talk only of that but this is much, much worse. Anything that happened was at a public action. These private placements are much worse and this is what we want revealed.”  

Use 119 to make complaints over sexual harassment

2017-02-27

Women and girls can use 119 Police Emergency hotline number to make any complaints over sexual harassments; especially on public transports, the Head of Child and Women Bureau, Ms. L.R. Amarasena said today.

She said that women and girls are often silent in case of sexual harassment in public transport because they need to reach their destination soon without getting involved in any legal activity against the harassment, while travelling.

“Hotline number 119 is always available for immediate help and women and girls can speak out and seek support from the Police for any emergency case,” she said while launching of Public Campaign on sexual harassment against women on public transport at the United Nations (UN).

Although, she said that bystanders could intervene to prevent when they witness or become aware of incidents of harassment.

“We can see that women witnesses are often a step back without providing evidence of harassments on public transports but woman can play a vital role to make safer environment for another woman by stressing their voice over such incident,” she said.

According to the UN Policy Brief about sexual harassments on public transports in Sri Lanka they had identified ninety per cent of women and girls had experienced sexual harassments in buses and trains. (Yoshitha Perera)

Government’s failure to thwart impediments to women surfaced by UN

Feb 27, 2017

The officials of the United Nations committee on the elimination discrimination against women CEDAW have accused our government in not taking adequate steps to curb hindrances, sexual abuses and assault made to our women

In this regard the members of the United Nations frontline specialist committee had on the 22nd of February in Geneva had expressed displeasure to the Sri Lankan representative group had expressed discontentment. It is reported that this is the second occasion in a matter of three months that a Sri Lankan representative group had been embarrassed.

The secretary to the ministry of women’s and child affairs Chandrani Senaratne and representative group had arrived in Geneva on the 22nd February to meet the officials of the CEDAW to furnish facts on the subject of prevention of hindrances, abuses and assault. At this meeting instead of tabling the future plans of the government in this regard the delegation had conveyed to what action had been completed in the recent past. The officials of the CEDAW had questioned on this. In that instance the CEDAW had not been convinced on the answers furnished in regard to the steps taken concerning the welfare of women. Instead of a long term proposed list of law enforcements the Sri Lankan delegation had been requested to formulate a time framework to bring about required results.

It is learnt that the UN committee had come to know that the armed forces are conducting women sexual slave camps which has attributed them to question our delegation on this issue. This had been revealed to them by a report submitted to them via the International Truth and Justice Project-ITJP project.It has been categorically stated that the Sri Lankan forces have established that women who are under detention are deployed for sexual slaves. This has been further proved when the statements of three such slave women had handed over to the ITJP.In the statement it has been reported that four such sexual slave camps had been housed. A Major, a Lieutenant Colonel and four other security personnel have been arrested for keeping women as sexual slaves. It is reported that this report had been made after statements from 65 women subjected to this hindrance have been recorded by the ITJP.Out of them 48 women have been arrested during the Rajapaksa regime and the rest during the present regime had been forcibly retained in these camps.

The Sri Lankan delegation in reply to this offence and query in regard to the Northern and Eastern women who were subjected to sexual abuse had said that in this regard the President Maithripala Sirisena has already strictly cautioned and advised the related sectors. Nevertheless the authorities of the UN committee had said that justice has not been meted out to those women.

Sri Lanka prison bus shooting kills seven

Gunmen sprayed the bus with bullets and then escaped-REUTERS

27 February 2017

At least seven people were killed when gunmen in Sri Lanka opened fire on a prison bus outside Colombo.

Police said five inmates and two guards died in the attack near the town of Kalutara. Nine others are in hospital.

The bus was transporting a prominent underworld suspect and other prisoners to court.

Police say the shooting resulted from a feud between two gangs. The gunmen escaped after spraying the bus with bullets.

SRI LANKA POLICEImage caption-Aruna Udayashantha had been accused but not convicted of several murders

Among those killed was Aruna Udayashantha, alias Samayan, who police say was a major underworld figure.

The BBC's Azzam Ameen in Colombo says the shooting is the single deadliest of its kind in Sri Lanka for years.

There have been a number of shootings targeting prison buses.

Another suspected gang leader was injured in a prison bus shooting in the capital last March.

Police set up roadblocks after six people were killed in two separate incidents on that day, AFP news agency reports.

Political signatures that stay and go away

Uditha Devapriya-2017-02-28

Politics has as much to do with the past as with the present. That's a given. Natural. Nothing out of the blue there. It also has to do, however, with forgotten pasts and forgotten enmities, with people who come together for the flimsiest and the most expedient reasons and with people who go their own separate ways because of the ideals they espouse. Again, nothing out of the blue there.

We do not remember those who live, we remember those who died. That is why politicians who have long gone are remembered more fondly than those who are among us. That is also why, when dead politicos and stars are cherished by those who purport to stand what they stood for, there is always some healthy scepticism which greets it. This week's column is not about those dead politicos only, rather about their proverbial descendants who believe (sincerely or otherwise, we cannot tell) they are continuing what they stood for.

As a follower of Sri Lanka's post-independence history, if I were asked to name the two most important political shifts which transpired after 1948, I would mention S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike's Swabasha revolution and the entry of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) into our political landscape. Between 1956 and 1971 and between 1971 and 1988, there were a great many years, years in which loyalties changed, friendships soured, and the constituent parties of an entire regime backtracked on the national question. When Bandaranaike proposed the Banda-Chelva Pact, for instance, the Old Left were in arms against it, if not loudly then covertly, and when Dudley Senanayake proposed a similar agreement, the SLFP and (again) the Old Left opposed it.

Political hodgepodge

The JVP was born out of this confusing political hodgepodge. As Gamini Samaranayake points out in his book Sri Lankave Viplaveeya Vyaparaya (2002), the 1971 insurrection proved for the first time that State coercion could be used, brutally and violently, to set down a potential revolution. It also proved that Sri Lanka's political landscape was not adequate, that a new party questioning the Leftist credentials of an increasingly armchair socialist government was needed. While this column is not about whether the JVP was successful in pulling off its coup in this respect, it is about another, more covert revolution that its traditional ideological foe, the Old Left, indulged in, which I would consider as the third most significant post-1948 political shift.

When the 1971 insurrection unfolded the bloodier, more violent side to revolutionary politics, the constituent Left parties in Sirimavo Bandaranaike's government were busy badmouthing the JVP. No less a figure than Dr. Colvin R. de Silva implied that behind the party stood the CIA, fresh from its imperialist projects in South-East Asia (most prominently, Indonesia) and only too willing to unseat a democratically elected government to placate the West's anti-Communist sympathies.

Echoed in that indictment was a feeling of hurt, a feeling that in doing what it did the JVP had gone beyond the Old Left in its commitment to the Marxist principles of justice, welfare, equality, and equity. How do we know this? The fact that it was AFTER, and not BEFORE, the insurrection that Sirima Bandaranaike's regime spearheaded its most ambitious 'leftist' programmes (the Land Reforms Act being one of them). In other words, the JVP had questioned the credibility of the Old Left, and the Old Left (which was aging too fast) needed leverage to retain that credibility. When they passed the Land Reforms Act, of course, they would not know that five years later they would leave the government and leave ground for J. R. Jayewardene and the United National Party (UNP) to attack Sirima Bandaranaike and her cronyism.

Old Left

What happened to the Old Left after 1977, I have tried to chart in an earlier column ('Whither the withering State?'). With the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was forced to resort to the same donor agencies it had earlier shirked. Prof. Susantha Goonatilake in his book Recolonisation: Foreign Funded NGOs in Sri Lanka singles out the Communist Party, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), and the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party (SLMP) for distorting the Left-Right dichotomy by letting go of their allegiance to the Left. While I am not interested in Prof. Goonatilake's well researched allegations against these parties, I am interested in the political shift they brought about when they let go of their leftist avatar.

It is pointless to write about the Old Left without bringing up the SLFP. It was the SLFP that brought the LSSP and the CP to the mainstream political process, in 1956 and in 1964. The rifts that would later tear these parties apart were, if at all, minimal and not that discernible back then. Nevertheless, they were there, insidiously if not subtly, and the main rift was between the Govi-Sangha sympathies of the Philip Gunawardena faction and the Kamkaru-Lawkika sympathies of the NM-Colvin faction. The latter was more cosmopolitan, more secular, and less rooted, while the former was so culturally sensitive that Prof. A.V.D.S.

Indraratne, speaking at the Philip Gunawardena oration in 2015, argued that the man brought Marxism to the peasants, an unparalleled feat here.

The rift was accentuated with the entry of the NGO sector. It explains, to a considerable extent, why those who followed these factions went their own, separate ways: why Philip Gunawardena's son formed a nationalist movement (the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna) that did more for Mahinda Rajapaksa's resurgence in 2004 than some of the constituent parties which deserted him later on. Gunawardena was an old warhorse, whose eventual shift away from Leftist politics signified a shift in the LSSP to parliamentary politics (under N. M. Perera).

Colvin's cosmopolitanism

His legacy, in other words, was not to continue after 1977, at least in terms of its ability to shape and nurture the SLFP. That was a task largely left to those who followed Colvin's cosmopolitanism, who emerged from the university system and other institutions as intellectuals and political activists. They were responsible for the usurpation of the Left movement in the country. Such usurpations call for protesters and successors, those who seek to separate the turncoats from the movement. These were to be found with Rohana Wijeweera and the JVP.

Meanwhile the Old Left floundered. They were treading on manifestly unfamiliar territory, branded and hated by both sides of the political divide: by Tamil extremists because they were not pushing hard enough for a federalised Sri Lanka, and by Sinhala extremists because they were perceived (not unfairly, one can add) of pandering to extreme variants of Tamil separatism. That is why they needed a figurehead to affirm their legitimacy, because as Prof. Liyanage Amarakeerthi rather austerely pointed out in his critique of nationalist literature (Unlearning what Gunadasa Amarasekara taught us with a sense of gratitude), the NGO sector could never (hope to) reach the "monolingual masses."

In the end, they got that figurehead. They got Vijaya Kumaratunga.

Vijaya was not a politician. He was a star and a very good one at that. He felt the pulse of the people because he WAS the people. Most importantly, he was not reviled by the Sinhala nationalists because he pandered to the myths and ideals they evoked whenever they saw him onscreen. Unlike that other giant of the cinema who crossed over to politics, Gamini Fonseka, Vijaya didn't mind being a populist. In the end, Fonseka became the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, staying away from the stains that politics besmirches those who take to it. A similar fate could or could not have met Vijaya. We do not know. We do know, however, that he was the man the Old Left wanted.

Sinhala chauvinism

He was not the nationalist those who praise him cut him out to be. He was opposed to the war and to the racialism it was kowtowing to. He was for a united Sri Lanka at a time when 'united' was synonymous with 'unitary' and not 'diversity' (that is, in political parlance). He was opposed more than anything else to Sinhala chauvinism and was thus allied with MIRJE, the ICES, the Marga Institute, and all those other outfits which were preaching the gospel of devolution. Speaking in a television interview, I believe right after he visited Jaffna (the only politician from the South who did so until then), he made his stance clear: what was being fought was a Jathivadi Yuddaya, which could end only if power was devolved to the periphery.

Now economically this made sense in the eighties, but whether or not it makes sense today (with the mess our economy has got into), we know that Vijaya, by saying this, was transforming the party founded by his father-in-law from a nationalist outfit to a federalist outfit, transforming 1956 to 1988 (the year he was killed and his death legitimised the federal-speak the Old Left had solidified). As a moderate nationalist, I neither subscribe to nor oppose federalism, but I am aware that what Vijaya did, which the political historian has been afraid to touch, was bring about the third most potent political shift this country saw after 1948. I cannot emphasize on this enough.

Fortunately or unfortunately (I can't tell which), the same Left that had floundered before Vijaya's arrival floundered after his death. The United Socialist Alliance (USA), which had him as its articulator and figurehead, included the LSSP, CP, NSSP, PLOTE, EPRLF, and SLMP. Of these, the PLOTE and EPRLF would be bloodily eliminated by the LTTE, while the NSSP and LSSP would separate and the CP would pass away into a void. These were constituent parties, and they did their part, but without Vijaya they were nothing. In other words, Vijaya was all of them, but they were not Vijaya. The moment he died, he empowered the outfits that had sponsored his party and the ideology they propagated. As had been the case before, those other parties merely became the instruments of these outfits.

Terrible time

The late eighties was a terrible time, so terrible that those who did not live through it have no authority to speak of the carnage it unveiled. The dichotomies that had cut out one political movement from the other dissolved, to the extent that the Old Left, the traditional foe of the UNP, covertly affirmed the Indo-Lanka Accord: the same Accord that J. R. Jayewardene was bullied into signing. Jayewardene was, whether or not you agree with his economic policies, a mild nationalist, quite differently to the breed of culturally castrated ideologues in the LSSP and CP. Not surprisingly, when the government of the day used brutal force against those who protested the Accord (the JVP included), the Old Left stayed quiet. I am not alone in saying this: a perusal of Prof. Susantha's book (referred to above) would confirm my indictment.

History does not paint a pretty picture of these parties, which is why Prof. Susantha's book merits more than a passing reference.

He points out how sections of the Old Left were involved in paramilitary groups which were affiliated to the government and were involved in extra-judicial killings. We have it from Rohana Wijeweera himself that the NSSP was allegedly being trained by Tamil militants ("The Sunday Times", 13 November 1988). That is not the only allegation that Prof. Susantha alludes to, but owing to spatial constraints I will not list the others out. Suffice it to say, then, that while the "Spent Left" (I am tired of calling it "Old") was superficially opposed to the government, it was not opposed to the brutal force and propaganda which were deployed to implement the Indo-Lanka Accord.

What happened next? The personal rivalries and familial tensions that ran riot in the SLFP were echoed in Chandrika Kumaratunga's decision to quit it and join her husband's party, the SLMP. The SLMP was housed by the likes of Ossie Abeygunasekera, who'd later join the UNP. It was a party that was doomed to pass into the political wilderness unless Kumaratunga returned with her stalwarts to the SLFP. That is of course what happened, and what transformed the party that had earlier stood for the Pancha Maha Balavegaya into a federalist outpost. It is this, and not just Vijaya Kumaratunga's entry into our political landscape, that compels me to write that his entry left behind a political signature which has since remained as potent as it was when it first emerged.

Ideological shapers

To put what happened next pithily, the likes of Ossie Abeyagoonasekera, Felix Perera, and later Rajitha Senaratne and Dilan Perera became the ideological shapers of the SLFP, when after 1994 Kumaratunga turned it into the biggest champion of devolution and federalism, more so than the UNP (whether under J. R. Jayewardene or Ranil Wickremesinghe). Not for no reason was the Old Left referred to as a set of three-wheeler parties, and like all three-wheeler parties, when the Pied Pipers in the SLFP led the way, they followed even though the economic policies their government authored were against their Marxist principles. All they could do, in this context, was to keep shut, warn the people against voting for the UNP, and refuse to co-sign the SLFP's "centrist" policies. Small wonder, then, that they have since become insignificant. And unpopular.

So has all this been for the better? I would say yes. If those who have not lived through the Bheeshanaya have no right to comment on the brutality it unleashed, those who have not lived through 1983 have no moral right to trivialize the aspirations of the ethnic minority. The eighties was a different time altogether, certainly bloodier than today and indicative of how far a State could go to crush dissent. The year 1983 had what those who wanted a separate state wanted: a covertly organised attempt by the government to target their community. The scars it caused still haven't been healed, which is why the entry of the SLMP was needed to placate the marginalized ones.

That does not, however, make up for the politics that the Old Left stood for. It was composed of what Dayan Jayatilleka once referred to as Mulsidagath Aragalakarayo (culturally uprooted revolutionaries). This in itself is not a bad thing, but it is a bad thing when considering what they indulged in later years.

Pulse of the people

They did not feel the pulse of the people or for that matter the people's mandate. They were content in subverting the democratic process to achieve their aims. They were not just concerned about changing the mindsets of our politicians, but those politicians themselves. In other words, they were keen on dismantling the legitimacy of a government to promote their crass, minoritarian objectives. Fortunately for us, they did not succeed. They could not, both because the people knew who they were and because of the likes of Nalin de Silva, Gunadasa Amarasekara, S.L. Gunasekera, and (closer to the present) Gevindu Cumaratunga.

Vijaya Kumaratunga left us 29 years ago. He was killed by the JVP, which entered the democratic process and Parliament thanks to his widow. They cohabited for a brief time with the Old Left, then left knowing quite well that the government was kowtowing to mild separatism. Whether or not they knew Mahinda Rajapaksa the populist, they were correct in supporting the man in 2004, along with the descendants of the Old Left who were not culturally uprooted (I am talking about Dinesh Gunawardena here, though there were and are others).

So to wrap up: Vijaya was a humanist, a great man, and a refined populist, but it is my belief that those who used him failed abysmally to retain the popularity they enjoyed when he was alive. His death was a death knell for them. Predictably, they ended up being the parvenus they always were.

And you know what? I for one am not complaining.

udakdev1@gmail.com

Essays Of A Lifetime By Professor Carlo Fonseka

By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole –February 28, 2017

Prof. S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole

There was a time when science was just one endeavor among many for the great scientists of the world. For example, Isaac Newton was a true polymath – a celebrated master of astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, physics and theology¹. Another polymath was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, more popularly known by his pen name Lewis Carroll. He was an Oxford mathematician, Anglican theologian, musician, author, publisher and political scientist to whom is attributed the electoral system of proportional representation which is presently the subject of raging debates in Sri Lanka and a matter of personal interest to me as I labour at the Election Commission in Sri Lanka.

Science now, however, is so specialized with small incremental advances that there are few polymaths today. Carlo Fonseka (MBBS (First Class), University of Ceylon; Ph D, University of Edinburgh; Emeritus Professor of Physiology at the University of Ceylon (now Colombo)) is exception – engaging in medicine, management of public bodies, theology, music, left-wing politics and many other things, and bringing these to the public through op-ed pieces, and radio and television talk shows.

‘Essays Of A Lifetime‘ By Professor Carlo Fonseka – Publisher: S. Godage & Brothers (Private) Ltd (2016)

The book under review consists of a collected volume of Fonseka’s selected writings and speeches over a lifetime on diverse topics such as medicine, science, philosophy and ethics, religion, economics, politics, education, the arts, the biographies he has written and his travel experiences. The selection has 34 essays written between 1971 and 2014. Of particular note is the first chapter, appropriately titled ‘To err was fatal’1, wherein his honesty Fonseka details the five deaths he attributes to his erroneous interventions, where it is clear that he is being too hard on himself. Recent studies in the US showing that ‘iatrogentic damage (defined as a state of ill-health or adverse effect resulting from medical treatment) is the third leading cause of death in the US, after heart disease and cancer’² prove Fonseka to be the incorrigible iconoclast he is for speaking of truths that other doctors are not comfortable with.

The book has been positively reviewed before³ as is natural for one from a much-loved public personality. I do not wish to detail the book and take away the thrills of reading it. What I will focus on is Fonseka the man. For that is relevant to understanding what he writes and benefit from the lessons his life offers to us.

Fonseka graduated in medicine from the University of Ceylon and earned his doctorate from the University of Edinburgh. His doctoral work on how the pituitary gland puts out growth hormones has become the stuff of textbooks. Two of his papers have each been cited over 100 times.

Greatness in life involves the ability to communicate. Almost all great men evince this truth. Most successful men in Sri Lanka are no exceptions and products of the church and her schools which gave them their skills. To cite one striking example, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was a product of Anglican education. Most public spokesmen of the LTTE were Tamil Christians although for its membership the LTTE was rarely able to draw from Christians.

Likewise, Fonseka is a complete product of the Roman Catholic Church and her St Joseph’s College, Colombo. His versatility with the English language is such that I have met a doctor who a generation later preserves his handwritten notes on physiology that he took down as Fonseka lectured, as a monumental work of literature. Around the year 2004, we shared the same office while being members of the University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka and, in the absence of his secretary, I had the pleasure as his friend of typing his articles as he dictated. They were always perfect on the first go. (Unfortunately, the privileges of high-up government service had then prevented him from learning the computer. It now appears that he has become computerate, though not to the degree that he is literate.)

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With nothing we come, with nothing we go - EDITORIAL

2017-02-28

As we enter March tomorrow, instead of focusing on the cliché of Ides, we need to reflect deeply on inter-religious unity in diversity and how the power of liberative spirituality could empower the country and the people to face four main issues among others.  

In Sri Lanka and worldwide, these have been identified as poverty alleviation, the battle against climate change, the peaceful resolution of conflicts and a sustainable development strategy which is eco-friendly and all-inclusive.  
At present, after more than decades of the globalised capitalist market economic system, the gap between the rich and the poor has widened to obscenely monstrous proportions. The world social justice movement Oxfam’s latest report reveals the catastrophe that eight super-billionaires own more wealth than half the world’s population of some 3,750 million. All religions would acknowledge that the root causes of this are selfishness, self-centredness, greed and the acquisitive instinct that drives people to become rich fools.  

Our major religions tell us that this earthly life is transient and impermanent. With nothing we came, with nothing we shall leave. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Unfortunately even highly-qualified and intelligent people appear to forget this reality and build more barns or secret bank accounts instead of experiencing the spiritual liberation of generously sharing what the have with  impoverished and oppressed people.  
If money, wealth and possessions are giving us security or success in life, prestige or power, then we are worshiping false deities instead of following the religious teachings of love and compassion, mercy and justice, sharing and caring for others, especially the oppressed people. All major religious tell us that from our inner selfish nature emerge the vices or the desire for personal gain or glory, power or cheap popularity or the accumulation of wealth, which in Sri Lanka is described as bahubhandawadaya.  

If there is no gradual and conscious inner liberation from this selfishness and its related vices, then to speak of other freedoms – including the freedom of the country – would be meaningless or hypocritical.   
Political leaders especially need to be aware of this, as must religious, social and other leaders. Only then could they give sincere servant leadership instead of domineering or authoritative leadership where the people are used and their resources abused for the personal gain of political leaders, their families or even dynasties. 
In the battle against climate change all religions and ethnic communities could come together to find eco-friendly solutions to a multitude of environmental crises. Sri Lanka at present is going through its worst drought in about four decades. If political, religious and other leaders set a good example, then most civic-conscious citizens will also co-operate in conserving water and electricity, obtaining solar panels to generate electricity from the sun, installing rainwater harvesting equipment and other measures.  

Another vital area for inter-religious dialogue and co-operation would be a commitment to non-violence and a peaceful resolution of conflicts through a consensus on the middle path. This is another basic teaching in all major religions but there could be serious questions about the extent to which the teaching is practiced, especially by some leaders.   
The National Government has announced an eco-friendly, all inclusive economic strategy intended mainly to provide about one million productive jobs and bring about a more equitable distribution of wealth and resources. But the progress so far has been painfully slow with controversy arising over many big development projects and the joint opposition making political capital out of it, ridiculing one of the projects as a hoaxwagon.   
President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe need to go beyond the talk and ensure that government politicians are not doing business again. They need to stop wasteful expenditure, luxuries or extravagance and turn around to the hallowed principle of alpechchathawaya – a simple, humble and honest lifestyle.

Turkey jails German journalist on terrorism charges

German Chancellor Merkel said she was disappointed by detention of Deniz Yucel, who was charged with 'spreading terrorist propaganda'

Protestors calling for the freedom of journalist Deniz Yucel, Berlin, 19 February (Reuters)

Monday 27 February 2017

A court in Istanbul on Monday ordered provisional detention of a correspondent for the German newspaper Die Welt, a move that drew a stern rebuke from Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The newspaper said Deniz Yucel, 43, a dual citizen of Turkey and Germany, had been charged with spreading terrorist propaganda and inciting hatred.

He has been held since 18 February in connection with news reports on an attack by hackers against the email account of Turkey's energy minister.

The minister, Berat Albayrak, is a son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Die Welt said the emails also pointed to efforts to control Turkish media groups and manipulate public opinion via fake social media accounts.

In a statement, Merkel called the court's decision "bitter and disappointing".

"The government expects that in handling Yucel's case, Turkey's justice system will keep in mind the significant importance of press freedom in all democratic societies," she added.

"We will continue to insist on a fair and legal treatment of Deniz Yücel and hope that he will soon regain his freedom."

Germany's foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, was even more harsh in his assessment of the case, saying it showed in "glaring light" the differences in the two countries in evaluating freedom of press and freedom of opinion.

Relations between Berlin and Ankara have been strained by a series of disputes since the failed coup attempt to oust Erdogan in July 2016.

Turkey has since clamped down on the press, arresting hundreds of journalists without trial.

About 170 media outlets have been closed and nearly 800 press cards cancelled, according to journalists' associations.

More than 100,000 people have been sacked or suspended from Turkey's police, military, civil service and private sector since the failed coup. Ankara says the measures are necessary given the security threats it faces.

N. Korean spy agency found running arms operation in Malaysian suburb

Members of the youth wing of the National Front, Malaysia's ruling coalition hold placards during a protest at the North Korea embassy, following the murder of Kim Jong Nam, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 23, 2017. Source: Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha

27th February 2017

IT is in Kuala Lumpur’s “Little India” neighbourhood, behind an unmarked door on the second floor of a rundown building, where a military equipment company called Glocom says it has its office.

N. Korean spy agency found running arms operation in Malaysian suburb.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd