Draft on new constitution in parliament next month ! Referendum will definitely..! Wijedasa’s views are not government’s ; conspiracy to fragment Malwatte chapter –P.M.

(Lanka-e-News - 23.July.2017, 6.10AM)     The preliminary draft of the new constitution will be tabled in parliament by end of August . Thereafter, that will be discussed at national level before the two third majority vote is obtained in parliament in its favor. A people’s referendum will definitely be held in that connection finally ,  the prime minister vowed when he met with the representatives of Citizen’s Front 

The preliminary draft was delayed because the proposals of the SLFP had not been received yet.  A referendum is imperative , and the P.M. therefore requested the Citizen’s Front to get ready .

This meeting was a sequel to a request made by  Citizen’s Front organization for  a discussion with the P.M. in connection with the criticisms leveled by Minister of justice Wijedasa Rajapakse the Trojan horse of the Rajapakses  who blabbered  , the brains  should be examined of the intelligent civilian leaders who signed for an advertisement of the Citizen’s Front  which appeared in a weekend newspaper titled ‘No, No, No to racism and religious hatred.’  Following this provocative  announcement of Wijedasa , two robed extremists made complaints to the IGP against the intelligent civilians . 

The Citizens Force sought  this discussion to learn whether the view of Trojan horse Wijedasa is that of the government . Wijedasa is by  now well noted as a tie coat , turncoat and cutthroat  who is selfishly trying to get the best from both sides while fanning  communal and religious hatred .

The Citizens Front represented by 20 of its members met with the P.M.  Friday (21) at 5.00 p.m. and the discussion lasted about 2 hours. 

The P.M. referring to the utterances of  Wijedasa made it abundantly clear the government does not identify  itself with Wijedasa’s views. The president and P.M. are not at all opposed to the notifications issued by the Citizen’s front pertaining to racial and religious reconciliation, and both of them fully approve those , P.M. emphasized.  

The government certainly appreciates the efforts of Citizen’s Front towards racial and religious reconciliation , and those are never underestimated . Moreover , as an organization that supported the government to be installed in power , at any time every measure will be taken to safeguard the organization  , the P.M. pinpointed.

When the Citizens Front exposed the deadly and explosive  moves of villainous Wijedasa (despite being a minister of the government) , which are contradictory to the policies of the government while taking  shelter under  various extremist  religious leaders including the Asgiriya chief prelate , the P.M. related an intriguing story…… 

Asgiriya prelate along with several political groups is conducting this political campaign to break the Malwatte chapter into two , and not for any other reason. Hence , it is important the Malwatte chapter shall be rescued. The P.M. recalling history said,  the Malwatte chapter did not surrender or kowtow even during the Vijitha era when the latter   had 80 temples of the country under it. Malwatte chapter  is remembered as having protected Buddhism and its independence in every crisis.

 (It is worthy of note , Asgiriya chapter has only as few as about 5 % of the  temples under it across the country   . It is only based on    the custody of the Dalada Maligawa - secured in turns, the Asgiriya chapter is making an inordinate exhibition of its powers) .

Responding to queries raised by the Citizen’s front regarding the postponement of provincial council elections , the P.M. after explaining the reasons in detail said, the PC elections will definitely be held before next January. Neither the president nor he is desirous of delaying the elections , he added. 

The P.M. went on to comment as follows:

No party has agreed with the system introduced by the former government.  Now that  it is not possible to completely eliminate that system, after the system is changed with the concurrence of all the parties , the elections will be held.

If elections are held at once without doing this , there is a possibility under that  system to lose our representation , and even a boycott of elections. That will be unwelcome in the present situation in the country. Though many are blaming the government for delaying the PC elections , we shall be holding the elections after all the parties come into an agreement.  Even if that  may not be 100 % what  we desired  , the elections will be such the votes can be used effectively. ‘

The Citizen’s front also questioned P.M. regarding the delays in filing action against the culprits involved in murders , perfidies and corruption , while pointing out these are of oft asked questions. They urged that one or two more courts shall be established to resolve this issue. Saman Rathnapriya of the Citizen’s Front said , this is about the fifth time   this question has been asked. The P.M. in reply said he would discuss with the president and find a solution. 

Gamini Viyangoda of Citizen’s front revealed this has been discussed with the president many times , and there is nothing new to tell him on this, and the  president has agreed with it , he noted.

The P.M. then revealed  , there is a shortage of judges. J.C. Weliamunna P.C. responding to this said , there is no such dearth of judges, and there are plenty of suitable lawyers in  SL for those  posts. In SL  there are enough lawyers even to supply to Fiji Islands. The P.M. anyway said, after discussing with the president  he would find a solution.

Answering the question posed with regard to the closure of the Corruption investigation Bureau , the P.M. replied , at the time the government came into power , there was at once a large number of complaints , this bureau was created to assist in the investigations conducted by other Institutions already in existence, but now that congestion is over. 

As most of the complaints received have been investigated and concluded , in the future the complaints received can be investigated as usual by the FCID , CID, Bribery and corruption commission . Hence the corruption investigation Bureau is now redundant , and unnecessary .

The Hambantota Port  agreement will be signed with China in about a month , and a new tax system based on new tax policy will be introduced in September , the P.M. announced. 

The Citizen’s front was represented by about 20 members including  Ven. Royal Pundit Dr. Dambara Amila Thera, Dr. Wickremebahu Karunaratne , J.C. Weliamuna P.C. , Gamini Viyangoda, Saman Rathnapriya, Lawyer Nimalka Fernando, Asoka Handagama, Ravaya editor – lawyer Chandragupta Thenuwara , Raja Uswetakeiyawa, Dharmisiri Bandaranaike and Lakshman Mendis .

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by     (2017-07-23 00:42:45)

People not Sangha must choose Constitution

Only in a theocracy is a constitution decided by the clergy

 Dr Ambedkar drew endorsement from the people, not swamis, imams, temples or mosques

"We the People . . . May (an abstract) God, (not a partisan clergy), protect our people"

by Kumar David-July 22, 2017, 5:35 pm 

It is satisfying when ideas come to fruition; case in point, the Single-Issue Common-Candidate suggestion struck gold in January 2015. Two months ago, I asked "Is this a Single Term Government?" and the phrase is now popular even in the Sinhala media. In 2015 when Jeremy Corbyn won leadership my prediction that support for Labour would surge has been spot-on and my post UK election forecast "Jeremy Corbyn: Britain’s next prime minister" is on track. The term duumvirate for the power apex in Lanka has found a buyer (free loader sans acknowledgement) and Dead-Left is selling well. Conversely, my plea for left unity has not won converts; the paradox of left sectarianism is that things that do not work in their theory, work in practice!

Anybody including a Nikaya is entitled to express and canvass views. Along with likeminded citizens I have the right to dissent. A three-quarter decent charter replacing JR’s iniquitous one will aid prosperity, unity and democracy. The stand taken by the Sangha Sabha on July 4 is lamentable and the fuller statement of Asgiriya a day or two earlier is inexplicable as it alleges provisions that, in fact, will not be in the constitution. The Island of July 4 under the prominent caption ‘Asgiriya Chapter Totally Rejects New Constitution’ reports: "The Asgiriya senior monks led by the Mahanayake declared that one of the objectives of the proposed new constitution was to make way for separatism and remove the foremost place given to Buddhism in the existing Constitution".

This beats me. All public discussions and reports have stated that the Chapter on Buddhism will not be touched. The Prime Minister declared this in parliament and not one of the Subcommittee Reports mentions anything of the sort. The Joint Opposition is deliberately spreading the fib that the intention of the drafters and the government is to help evil Tamils and the remnants (if any) of the LTTE to divide the country, destroy Buddhism and install Federalism. Goebbelsian lies; what else do Joint Opposition (JO), Mahinda Rajapaksa, his cohorts and corrupt SLFP Cabinet Ministers aligned to the President, indulge in? Some hope to split the government as the corruption noose tightens round their necks. All SLFP Ministers agreed to the abolition of the Executive Presidency and a referendum to enact a new constitution when they supported the 9 January 2016 resolution in parliament to set up a Constitutional Assembly and to hold a referendum. It is regrettable that Asgiriya is now deceived by Joint Opposition fiction.

Why on earth would a Sinhala-Buddhist Prime Minister and an overwhelmingly Sinhala-Buddhist government want Federalism when the TNA hasn’t asked for it and the majority of Tamils don’t want it? That may be thanks to the Wigneswaran Chief Ministerial experience. What forces are planning to undermine Buddhism, destroy the Sinhalese race and promote separatism? In faked up JO mythology and decrepit Dead-Left ideology it is global imperialism. Even Vasudeva and Vitarana know this is an inane fairy tale; the public isn’t that dumb. It would be a pity if the clergy, of any religion, buys this JO-Dead Left con. But the Island report adds "The Mahanayke told visitors that an objective of the new constitution was to destroy the existing Buddhist environment and do away with the unitary status of the country to please foreign powers". The only people who support a secular state are Marxists like this writer and enlightened liberals. Unfortunately, our number is small since cultural backwardness prevails in the country at large.

The report adds; "Most Ven. Gnanaratne thera warned that if the proposed Constitution sought to reduce the powers of the President it would have a negative impact on the unitary status of the state and pave way for the division of the country". This again is contestable. Whether the executive powers of a president are reduced or not has no effect on the unitary status of a country. The United States is explicitly federal but the executive powers of the President are enormous; they are only limited by the division of power between the three branches (Executive, Legislative and Judicial) and unaffected by US federalism. Federalism and an executive presidency coexist stably. Unity is ensured by prosperity, pluralism and democratic traditions (E pluribus unum) not by adherence to the Christian faith (the US Constitution is explicitly and aggressively secular) or a bogus status conferred on American English (Spanish is de facto an official language in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Florida and other States I don’t know about).

The Indian President is a toothless figurehead. The constitution does not define States as federal though the Supreme Court has held that, de facto, India is federal. But none of this, one way or the other, has had any bearing on unity and sovereignty. Separatist tendencies in the 1960s in Tamil Nadu died out when India emerged as a strong unified market and it became clear to even the dumbest Tamil that being an Indian was a better than revanchist hogwash. The dismal failure of Hindu India to offer a materially and culturally fair deal to Muslim Kashmir will aggravate tension till this alienation ends. An efficacious market, linguistic and cultural pluralism, and constitutional secularism unite a nation. JR-type Bonapartist executive constitutions and Mahinda-type dictatorial uses of executive powers do not.

No more procrastination: Table the draft Constitution

Prime Minister Ranil was at pains to explain at the BMICH a few weeks ago that constitutions must not be rushed; there needs to be patient consultation till the fullest achievable consensus is reached; a substantial majority of the people and all communities must accept it. He was supported by a visiting dignitary, a retired South African Deputy Chief Justice. But surely, we are long past that stage, this has been dragging on for two years; Lal Wijenayake led a monumentally large public consultation process; six subject-wise Subcommittees reported back months ago. The drafters are ready to submit a first version within weeks of getting clearance. A Steering Committee interim version has existed for months.

Procrastination allows the Joint Opposition, dissident SLFP Ministers and trouble makers to sow dissension, split the government and undermine the constitution. President Sirisena is adamant about one thing only, being irresolute; he is unflinching about being impotent;his knees jellify when the sangha snaps its fingers. No more time should be given for the directionless to stagger this way and that. Table the draft now! Let the Steering Committee, Constitutional Assembly and parliament do some work instead of warming their bums. With public education and vigorous campaign the Joint Opposition and its fellow travellers can be defeated in the public arena and a referendum can be won.

True, a degree of uncertainty accompanies such forecasts because of unforeseeable splits; but one must act, not be frozen into inaction. There are a few legitimate issues still to sort out - should have been ironed out long ago - but foot dragging will not bring consensus closer. The following need to be resolved expeditiously:

a) Will there be s second chamber (Senate) and how will it be constituted?

b) What will be the partition of seats between first-past-the-post and proportional? What will be the mechanism of proportional allocation?

c) How will the right of the centre to override devolved provincial powers during an emergency be worded?

d) The separation of powers between Governors and Chief Ministers is surely worth revisiting. This is not a partisan but a technical exercise to be resolved by discussion.

e) The creation of a Constitutional Court and the extension of the judiciary to set up Courts of Appeal sitting in the provinces are unlikely to attract controversy.

One big headache is President Maithripala Sirisena’s congenital indecisiveness (personally he seems a decent man) but look at what he has done! Prior to his election he swore before the nation to abolish the executive presidency, but then, within days, he signed an agreement with the JHU promising not to do anything that requires ratification at a referendum – a stark, blatant, glaring contradiction. His advisors on constitutional matters are as dim-witted as his henchmen on electricity policy.

Sri Lanka: Forgotten legacy of Sobitha Thero

 

No symphonies, only constitutional cacophonies

by Rajan Philips- Jul 23, 2017

( July 23, 2017, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Even the invocation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (Ode to Joy) in the opinion letters published in The Island last week was hardly going to moderate the shouting match that the constitutional reform process is turning out to be. There are no symphonies, only cacophonies of intemperate tone and temper that are beginning to fill up the media in opposition to the proposed constitutional changes. The unity government itself is divided on the scope of the constitutional changes. The two parties to the government, the UNP and the SLFP, which were united specifically to consolidate the requisite two-thirds majority in parliament, are divided over whether or not to go so far with changes as to require a referendum. Interestingly, may be not surprisingly, even the Joint Opposition has come disjointed on the constitutional question. Wimal Weerawansa and his National Freedom Front have decided not to further participate in the constitutional process, but the Rajapaksas and the rest of the JO have decided to stay on if only to see what mischief the UNP might be up to. The so called Leftists in the JO are also reportedly against boycotting the process as it would only alienate the minorities. Last, but not least, the TNA is back to its old refrain that the UNP and the SLFP must unite to reform the constitution. Easier said than done, even though what is said and what is to be done are quite obvious.

Much of the cacophony, however, is coming from outside parliament because there is nothing continuously going on in parliament on the constitution. The intervention of the Sangha has created a very non-agnostic distraction, the insistent certainty that no constitutional change is needed. While this has triggered a whole debate on the role of the Sangha, often more heated than enlightened, there has been a surprising omission of one name that is so central to the project of constitutional change – the name of Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero. It was Sobitha Thero who almost single-handedly mobilized public opinion in favour of constitutional change and created the momentum without which Maithripala Sirisena would not have become President promising to abolish the Executive Presidency, and Ranil Wickremesinghe would not have become the de-facto executive Prime Minister. The two men renewed their vows at the funeral of Sobitha Thero, and one would hope that the two remain equally committed to living up to the legacy of the late prelate.

How does the Sangha relate to the legacy of Sobitha Thero? Obviously, not everyone in the Sangha would have agreed with Sobitha Thero’s position on the constitution. But no one will disagree that there was no alternative Sangha position that countered Sobitha Thero’s stand at the January 2015 election. And the Thero’s call for constitutional change was one of the two cardinal premises on which that election was decided. The other of course was the call to expose and end corruption. Two years are a long time in politics and it may be that those in the higher echelons of the Sangha do not think much anymore about Sobitha Thero’s legacy, but it seems odd and strange that while ignoring Sobitha Thero one could also endorse someone like Galagoda Atte Gnanasara Thero of BBS notoriety. Let the legacy of Sobitha Thero suffer political injury, if it must, but does it deserve ex cathedra insult as well? That is a question that is best left to the organized supporters of Sobitha Thero to deal with.

Time will tell

Of course, the political blame is ultimately with the government. To my mind, the government made both strategic and tactical mistakes on the constitutional file. The government should have known that the ultimate Achilles Heel for any constitutional change was going to be not the Tamils and Muslims in Sri Lanka, not the Tamil Diaspora, or not even India or the West (or what is left of it after Donald Trump) – but the Sinhalese and the Sri Lankan south. While a whole lot of energy and resources were spent on consulting with the converted and developing constitutional details, proportionately insufficient effort was made in the south to maintain the momentum that was created in January 2015. When it comes to securing public acceptance of constitutional change or reform, the devil is not so much in the details as it is in the broad outline of change that resonates with the public mood.

There have been reports that the TNA leader, R. Sampanthan, was going to seek the audience of the Mahanayakas to make his plea for constitutional change. It is unfortunate that such efforts were not made earlier. NPC Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran in a recent press interview has blamed the TNA leadership and Parliamentarians for their inability to get across their message to the Sinhalese people. In the same interview, Mr. Wigneswaran has rejected the idea of a separate state. Perhaps, the TNA leadership could involve the Chief Minister to be their interlocutor in the south. Such a move would also positively isolate the Chief Minister from mischief makers in the north.

It is also inexplicable, or perhaps not, that the President and Prime Minister were not focused on keeping the Mahanayakas and the Sangha informed of the need for and the government’s plans to, reform the constitution. This failure is attributable, on the one hand, to the general inability of this government to target and address risks and problem areas promptly and consistently without letting them morph and magnify into unmanageable challenges. On the other hand, and more importantly, the government’s ethical flaws and lapses have hugely eroded the credibility that the people invested in it in January and August 2015. Unless these flaws are addressed and lapses reversed, the government cannot make a moral claim for implementing constitutional reform.

On the more practical side, the President and the Prime Minister are increasingly drifting apart on critical issues. And nothing is more critical than the constitution and corruption investigations. The President and the Prime Minister are giving marching orders to their respective parties to prepare not only for the overdue local government elections and upcoming provincial elections, but also for the next presidential and parliamentary elections. It is disappointing, if not betraying, that the President and the Prime Minister are not thinking about honouring the promises they made to the people in 2015, but are planning to win elections that are not due till 2019 and 2020. They were not elected in 2015 to prepare for the next election but to fulfill the mandate they were given before the next election. As things stand, they have little to show on the two critical files.

In December 2015, following Prime Minister Wickremesinghe’s Sujata Jayawardena Memorial Lecture in which he outlined the constitutional changes that the government was planning, I speculated in my Sunday column that time will tell whether the Prime Minister’s 2015 lecture will become a historical companion to JR Jayewardene’s 1966 lecture to the Ceylon Association for the Advancement of Science, and Dr. Colvin R. de Silva’s 1969 talk before the Socialist Study Circle at the CISIR auditorium. I wrote with much optimism, but developments since that time have done much to wash away that optimism. I can only hope that I was right then and I am wrong now. Time will tell.

Will the new Constitution become a mere dream?

BY GAGANI WEERAKOON-2017-07-23

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has pledged that the Local Government Elections will be held in January 2018 when civil society activists led by Puravesi Balaya met him at Temple Trees, Friday evening.

When they protested against government delaying elections, Premier Wickremesinghe has made it clear that the elections will be held in January.

While the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) is currently facing an internal crisis of securing unity within party and aiming to form a single-party government in 2020 and United National Party (UNP) on the other hand while mulling to do the same with the support of few Joint Opposition members, discussions to contest LG polls jointly are also being held at another level, informed sources said.

However, the government seems to face another challenge with pressure now mounting from various groups to go for a referendum. President Maithripala Sirisena will once again face the challenge of winning the hearts of his peers in the party with the SLFP clearly having a different opinion on the new Constitution. They, the SLFP, are against going for a referendum at once.

With Wimal Weerawansa led NFF Parliamentarians leaving the Constitutional Assembly, the delay in the Constitution making process has once again come to the limelight.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and several civil society organizations are mounting pressure on the President and the Prime Minister to make it compulsory that the new Constitution obtains a proper public mandate through a referendum.

JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that the new Constitution will have to use the current Constitution as the base , even though it was 'forced' on the people by then President J.R. Jayewardene in 1978 with his 5/6 majority in Parliament.

"Both 1978 and 1972 Constitutions were not passed through a referendum. Yet, the 1978 Constitution, based on which the new Constitution is drafted, has pointed out how a new Constitution should be passed in the event the need arises. It clearly says that such draft needs a two-third majority in Parliament and with a referendum. Therefore, we urge the government to make the Constitutional making process open to the public and go before people and get their approval," Dissanayake said.
He said because the Constitution is the main piece of legislation that determines country's rule of law, the public as the subject that is ruled by the Constitution has a right to decide whether they want rule to govern them.

"In any case, having it approved through a referendum is the most democratic way", he added.
Meanwhile, in a discussion with Prime Minister Wickremesinghe on Friday, Puravesi Balaya – a collective of civil society organizations – insisted that the new Constitution should face a referendum.

SLFP yet to give their proposals

"When we asked about the delays in drafting the new Constitution Prime Minister Wickremesinghe pointed out that the delay was mainly because the SLFP is yet to give their set of proposals in salient areas. However, he promised that a draft will be presented to Parliament by the end of August 2017. From our side, we put forward a condition that there is no need of a Constitution if it doesn't go through a referendum", Saman Ratnapriya of Puravesi Balaya said.

Prime Minister's response to the demand was that there is no change in their ideology that a new Constitution should get approved by a referendum.

President Sirisena also has pledged support for the idea of going for a referendum and has said that the social and political environment in the country for such an event should be created first through rigorous campaigning.

While it is said that President Sirisena did not get a mandate to go for a referendum, the civil society activists pointed out that the agreement they (49 civil organizations) reached with Presidential Candidate Sirisena, clearly stated that a new Constitution will be presented with the approval of people.

"This means it needs to be passed by a referendum. On the other hand while this agreement was in the public domain, another internal agreement was reached with a group led by Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thera. We do not know what's in it and based on that only some are saying that President Maithri does not have a mandate to go for constitutional amendments that gives rise to the need of a new Constitution being passed through a referendum", civil activists opined.

However, when contacted, SLFP General Secretary Duminda Dissanayake said that his party is of the view that the first phase of drafting the Constitution should avoid anything that would create the need for a referendum.

"First we must present a draft to Parliament without further delaying it and our party believes we should do so without going for a referendum. However, we can go for a referendum if the Supreme Court determines that there is a need for certain clauses be passed at a referendum", he added.
When asked as to why they are delaying in submitting proposals as alleged by the UNP, Dissanayake clearly said that they have actively participated in all meetings and have given their guidelines that are in line with the party principles.

Even though Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is confident of presenting the steering committee's draft to Parliament by end of August, it is learnt that clauses on devolution of power have not even been discussed. While, political parties have agreed to almost 80% of proposals on the electoral system, reaching a consensus on the Executive powers and devolution of powers remain untouched.
According to sources, majority of the political parties on principle have agreed to abolish executive powers being given to one individual, while few others are of the opinion that there should be a person who has executive powers – a President or a Prime Minister.

"We are hopeful that we will be able to reach some consensus on that issue as well. What we have failed miserably is on the matter of devolving powers. We have not reached any agreement on anything that has been proposed", sources said while noting that the situation is such despite the fact that nothing has been even talked about changing the status given to Buddhism in Constitution or changing the unitary status of the country, signalling things could get worse if these topics were also being discussed.

The invisible violence

Ben Emmerson,
UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism

by Sanjana Hattotuwa-July 22, 2017, 5:34 pm 

The visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, Ben Emmerson, was extensively covered in the mainstream media after a damning end of mission statement delivered in Colombo. The Special Rapporteur’s full report on his mission to Sri Lanka will be tabled in Geneva at the next session of the UN Human Rights Council sittings in March 2018. The statement went into some detail around on-going torture in Sri Lanka. Emmerson flagged "… extremely brutal methods of torture, including beatings with sticks, the use of stress positions, asphyxiation using plastic bags drenched in kerosene, the pulling out of fingernails, the insertion of needles beneath the fingernails, the use of various forms of water torture, the suspension of individuals for several hours by their thumbs, and the mutilation of genitals’.

The pushback against the UN and the Special Rapporteur in particular, from influential sections of government and other quarters was expected, almost immediate and unsurprisingly given more publicity than the concerns articulated in the original statement. Already forgotten by those who now vociferously deny and decry these allegations is the 17-page report to the UN’s Committee Against Torture in November 2016, prepared not by any NGO or arm of the UN, but by Sri Lanka’s own Human Rights Commission. In case its credentials are also questioned, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka was established by an Act of Parliament in 1996. This report also clearly flags the systemic use of torture and notes that ‘common methods…include, undressing the person and assaulting using the hand, foot, poles, wires, belts and iron bars, beating with poles on the soles of the feet, denial of water following beating, forcing the person to do degrading acts, trampling and kicking, applying chilli juice to eyes, face and genitals, hanging the person by the hands and rotating/and or beating on the soles of the feet, crushing the person’s nails and handcuffing the person for hours to a window or cell bar’.

All this in the land of the Buddha, over two years into the yahapalanaya government. One would expect as a consequence a thorough domestic investigation into these allegations, and corrective measures taken to abolish all inhuman and degrading practices. On the contrary, the immediate and to date only response from the President to the statement by Emmerson was to inquire as to how he got access to LTTE detainees. This is the same President, lest we forget, who was seen in public in July 2016 as part of a demonstration organized by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka against all forms of torture on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Sagala Ratnayaka, the Minister of Law and Order, was also present on this occasion. Photos of the demonstration show the President and the Minister sporting caps with ‘Stop Torture’ emblazoned, in all three languages. The optics then and the response now reveal a divide between what is overtly supported and in reality countenanced, between what is politically expedient and realistically doable given the pressure to maintain the status quo by the military, and inherently violent deep or dark state architectures.

It is easy to ridicule the President for a response in 2017 that is the polar opposite of what he stood for, literally, in 2016. But the nature and spectrum of official responses and reactions suggests that whenever the yahapalanaya government is held up to the same scrutiny as the previous government, it employs a tone of false equivocation - flagging the West and its failings as greater, or flagging the Rajapaksa regime’s human rights violations as more outrageous. The hypocrisy then isn’t so much with those who employ a critical gaze on Sri Lanka coming from the West or the UN, but the inability of the present government to countenance a degree of scrutiny largely if not wholly brought upon by the promises made by it to gain political authority and office. What is never really said, but implicitly suggested is that things like on-going torture are somehow more acceptable in a political context that is comparably more accountable and less violent than the previous regime. The benchmark then is not what is right or should be, but the worst of what we once were. It is akin to say celebrating a light, passing shower in a desert - nothing at all has really changed, but the slight dampness that’s short-lived is somehow projected as something that is refreshingly different to the norm, and indicative of a more verdant future.

We thus have a government that is adept at peddling the illusory, hostage to political and military realities that endure long after the end of the war, instead of a more principled political will anchored to accountability. No longer riding a wave of public support and approaching the twilight phase of its full term in office, the government’s willingness and ability to foster meaningful reform will diminish.

So, the window for systemic

reform is over.

What the government has now embraced as its political strategy is akin to what’s known as A/B testing in website development. Through this method, two versions of the same website are shown to those who visit. The visitors aren’t told what version they are looking at or engaging with. Depending on how effective one design is over the other, judged by how visitors respond to it, the final version of the site is deployed. Similarly, the government tells the international community, domestic constituencies, the sangha, military, the opposition, donors and others what they want to hear, all in parallel but not in concert. Hence, the obvious lack of any logical coherence from government on a range of key issues. Each party responds to what is told to them. This approach works to keep the patience of the international community from running out, the sangha at bay, the military happy, the donors interested, the opposition engaged and the voters distracted. What is engineered is a way through which though only the basic minimum is done around reform, it is projected as a great achievement. The general result is tokenism at its core, just with nice icing on it.

What then and what now?

Progressives embedded in government will want to pressure those higher-up, even they cannot influence by way of popular demonstrations in support of the January 2015 mandate. Civil society will be encouraged to lead the reform agenda, initially championed by government. The danger here is that through outsourcing, and ironically, the greater the success at highlighting the initial yahapalanaya promise, the more it stands the risk of being perceived as an agenda or set of initiatives alien to government, funded by change-agents perceived to be from the West, and the usual corrosive rhetoric that follows. The lack of political will from within government isn’t something that can be located outside of it, in civil society. Corrective measures are known. It is the political will that’s missing, or more accurately, the once pulsating promise of meaningful reform.

This isn’t just academic. The details reproduced above on the kind of torture detainees and prisoners undergo was deliberate. It forces readers to confront what is happening today, perhaps even right now, while you read this column. It is awful. It is violent. It is ugly. And it is allowed to continue. Even as a card-carrying Theravada Buddhist country, we seem to have confused and conflated ahi?s? - a cardinal precept of the dhamma, with hi?s? as an acceptable norm of governance. This harks back to what Hannah Arendt called the banality of violence. Torture in Sri Lanka is invisible. To highlight it is the crime, not the torture itself.

One reason why, so many years after war, we remain steeped in violence.

The United Nations’ ‘bad parenting’ record

Sunday, July 23, 2017

United Nations Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson QC’s warning to the Sri Lankan Government following last week’s mission visit to the country was certainly the most irascible that we have seen from a UN mandate holder in a while. After more than two years of the United Nations’ uncritically accepting sunshiny rhetoric from an administration that excelled in the art, aided and abetted by Colombo’s enthusiastic cheerleaders, this was a dash of icy cold reality.

Acknowledging faults at all levels

Unfortunately however, it has all the elements of bad parenting. A cossetted and pampered child used to getting its own way does not take kindly to an undiluted dose of sternness, which also has a tad unpleasant touch of hectoring to it. Instead of a measured and carefully nuanced engagement with this Government from the start, we have over-indulgence giving way to unexpected austerity. Certainly these are extremes that are not productive.

The Special Rapporteur’s preliminary media release on his visit has been greeted with glad cries by the Rajapaksa base and its fifth column supporters in the Government to support their argument that the country will not be ‘lectured to’ by outsiders. Quite apart from this, the dynamic that is created is also unfortunate. Sri Lanka’s laws, their enactment and implementation should be a matter primarily discussed and resolved domestically as part of the electoral contract that citizens entered into with this Government in 2015.

Instead of this, what we have is a sorry state of affairs where laws are drafted in secret and citizens are not taken into the process. We lurch from one crisis to another sheathed in a Colombo bubble in which the United Nations and the European Union (EU) is regarded with more gravitas than the citizens.

An electoral change is inevitable barring a miracle

So let us be quite clear. At the root of this sorry saga is an admixture of an appalling lack of sincerity both on the part of the Government and the United Nations in regard to core components of their mandated tasks. On the part of the Government, it is to ensure that enacted laws are properly implemented so as to safeguard citizens from abuse. An equally important factor of its electoral compact with the people is to make sure that draft laws conform to minimum legal criteria so as not to allow them to be misused.

On the part of the United Nations, it is to chart if member states are conforming to international standards. Where the draft Counter-Terror law is concerned, both have failed miserably. And civil society which should have stringently monitored and critiqued the Government has also been equally responsible. In retrospect and as repeatedly warned in these column spaces, the early abandonment of a critical role coupled with a co-opted silence in the face of the ‘yahapalanaya’ collation going off the tracks of its loudly trumpeted commitment to democratic norms has had disastrous impact. This should be minutely dissected at a later point of time when the consequences of this failure become even more starkly evident in electoral terms, which is inevitable unless a proverbial miracle occurs.

Indeed, the reasoning from the start appeared to be that the end justifies the means. So a Chief Justice who should have been dealt with through constitutional means is packed off though pure executive fiat, loudly cheered on if not initiated by the Bar Association and sundry other lawyers groups who appear to operate on a selective and partisan basis.

Equally a Counter-Terror draft law to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which should have been robustly and publicly discussed, is shrouded in mystery and drafted in secret.

Questions directed at the Special Rapporteur’s Office

As the less charitable may suggest, the Special Rapporteur’s waspish response was propelled in large part by Justice Minister Wijayadasa Rajapaksa’s reported outburst at the meeting that he had with the Special Rapporteur. This is a ministerial potentate who ill serves his portfolio at several levels, not the least of which is his anxious desire to ‘save’ the Rajapaksas from prison as he has not been shy to admit publicly.

But as the Special Rapporteur ‘dresses down’ the Government, pertinent questions need to be directed at its own Office and at the United Nations itself. What pray is the exact role that was played by them in this highly problematic drafting saga of the proposed Counter-Terror law? Put in pure and simple terms, were these agencies consulted or not during the process?

Were they consulted in whole, in part or not at all? If they were consulted, in whatsphere of the imagination did the horrendously overbroad reach of these proposed counter-terror offences escape their attention at the outset? If the Office of the Special Rapporteur was not consulted, should not insistence on consultation at the inception been a fundamental condition by the local UN office in Sri Lanka?

For Sri Lankans living under bad anti-terror laws for decades, this draft poses new horrors. This should have been the primary focus on the part of the Special Rapporteur. Over-broad offences, confessions to police officers as evidence and intrusive interferences into normal civil protections without judicial warrant which the media release notes, constitute just the tip of the iceberg. The Counter-Terror draft merits meticulous scrutiny by his Office.

Unhelpful dynamic for agents of change

Taken as a whole, it is important to note the link between routine torture and PTA torture. Torture in Sri Lanka is not limited to terror detainees. As shown in well documented studies, this is an interrogation method which is part of the overall law enforcement machinery.

In sum, the United Nations cannot shrug its shoulders when asked as to its role in the drafting saga of this obnoxious Counter-Terror document and point to the confidentiality of the matters. If it hectors the Government on these issues, then it must own up to the precise role that it played in bringing the debate to this highly counter-productive and combustive stage at which we find ourselves.

None of this is going to be particularly helpful for agents of change within the country.

Falling in line with UN

     

By Manekshaw-2017-07-22

Minister of Health and Cabinet Spokesman Dr. Rajitha Senaratne responding to the recent comments made by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism Ben Emmerson on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka emphasized the need of not antagonizing the United Nations.

Emmerson met the press in Colombo on the very day (15 July) Navy Commodore D. K. P. Dassanayake was remanded by the Fort Magistrate on the charge of aiding and abetting in enforced disappearances of 11 youths when the final phase of the North and East separatist war was in progress between 2008 and 2009.

Colombo Fort Magistrate on Wednesday (19) further extended the remand period of Navy Commodore Dassanayake till 2 August for further interrogations to be carried out on the enforced disappearances of 11 youth.

Therefore, the press briefing of the UN Special Rapporteur which had taken place simultaneously on the day Commodore Dassanayake was remanded had highlighted the UN's concerns over the delays in Sri Lanka implementing the Geneva Resolution and on the other hand the judicial process which is in place on dealing with human rights violations such as abductions and enforced disappearances with the arrest of Navy Commodore D. K. P. Dassanayake.

Minister Rajitha Senaratne speaking at the Cabinet media briefing last Wednesday announced that five of the abducted youths were about to leave for their higher studies to Australia and they were abducted merely for extortion.

The arrest of Commodore Dassanayake over his alleged involvement in the abduction of the youth being the tip of the iceberg, the involuntary disappearances of several thousands of others particularly of those who had surrendered to the Security Forces at the end of the separatist war still remain a mystery.

Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe was furious over the comments made by Ben Emmerson on the human rights situation in the island. The Justice Minister went on to say that the views expressed by the UN Special Rapporteur challenge the sovereignty of the country.

Ben Emmerson had expressed his views after collecting hard evidence following his visits to the Welikada Magazine Prison and the Anuradhapura Prison.

The UN Special Rapporteur also said that none of the people he met from the Government, Police or other State players denied the fact that there was the problem of systematic of torture in Sri Lanka.

According to Emmerson in a number of instances brought to his attention, these allegations had either been supported by independent medical evidence or accepted by the judiciary as the basis for excluding confession at trial.

Human rights situation

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) began to pay attention on the human rights situation in the country soon after the end of the separatist war and according to the Cabinet Spokesman and Minister Senaratne, it was the human rights violations committed during Mahinda Rajapaksa regime that had led to the regime's collapse and made the UNHRC to focus on Sri Lanka with the resolution co-sponsored by the country on improving the human rights situation in the country.

So Minister Senaratne very rightly said that criticizing the UNHRC for expressing its concerns on improving the human rights situation in the island will even damage the present Government's relations with international institution.
The UN Rapportuer during his visit to the island had concentrated more on the State torture endemic under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, denial of justice to detainees and on enforced disappearances.

However, there are still several human rights issues remaining unresolved in the war-torn Northern and Eastern Provinces.
Minister Senaratne at the Cabinet media briefing had admitted that in the present post-war period there was delay in delivering justice to the people directly affected by war over several humanitarian issues.

Minister Senaratne also admitted that political prisoners have not yet been released, remedial measures have not been found for the involuntarily disappeared persons and the lands of the Internally Displaced Persons were yet to be released.
Elaborating further on the enforced disappearances and the arrest of Navy Commodore Dassanayake, Minister Rajitha Senaratne even gave details on how five of the eleven youths abducted were taken to Trincomalee Naval Base and put in an underground prison.
So the details provided by Minister Senaratne on the abduction of the eleven youths even strengthen the evidence provided by the UN Special Rapporteur on extensive human rights violations in the island.
Rajitha Senaratne said that the hesitancy in complying with the UNHRC had only led to the downfall of the previous regime.
It was not only the previous regime even the LTTE after being a powerful militant outfit for three decades was totally annihilated for its ignorance of the international community's guidelines on entering the political mainstream by denouncing the armed struggle.

As the Special UN Rapporteur has said that he would submit his findings in Sri Lanka at the next UNHRC session in Geneva in March 2018, as it was pointed out by Minister Rajitha Senaratne falling in line with the UN with a diplomatic approach is the need of the hour for Sri Lanka to put its record straight with regard to human rights issues.

The Need For Practicality Coupled With Principle

By Emil van der Poorten –JULY 23, 2017

Emil van der Poorten

The fact that the dengue pandemic has reached the proportions it has, leading, among other responses, to the German government issuing a travel advisory for Sri Lanka does not appear to have “fizzed” on the current bunch of self-seeking politicians posing as those providing us with governance of some description.

Many years ago, after the use of Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, better known as “DDT,” as an insecticide was banned, I recall that chemical being used as a last resort in combating a pest that threatened Sri Lanka’s entire coconut industry.

Going back to the “sixties,” a leaf miner was accidentally brought in to the country with, presumably, orchid material from the Far East. It got into the coconut plantations in and around Colombo and proceeded to wreak havoc, spreading farther south and north from where it started.

The Coconut Research Institute headed by Dr. W. R. N. Nathanael and the Board of whose Chair was the much-respected Reg. De Mel took swift action to deal with what promised to be a huge problem. Pending a more permanent solution and buying much-needed time, they took the drastic step of de-foliating the trees by the simple expedient of cutting off their branches and spraying the affected trees with DDT.

Of course, in short order, the wheels were set in motion for a more permanent solution when a parasite which confined itself entirely to the coconut leaf miner was introduced, bred in vitro, and released into the affected areas. I distinctly remember how different the entire manner of “doing business” was in those days. To begin with, two obviously very qualified, scientists were brought down from India. They were lodged in part of a house off Havelock Road in Colombo which doubled as their “laboratory” and proceeded to breed the coconut leaf miner’s parasite in that space. They did so efficiently enough that, without a great deal of fanfare, the pest was completely controlled and life in the coconut-growing areas began to return to normal, with DDT returning to its “banned” slot.

Since the parasite which was introduced to control it couldn’t exist without the coconut leaf miner to feed on, it died out as well once the immediate problem was solved.

An interesting photograph was published on the front page of probably Sri Lanka’s most-read English Sunday newspaper recently. It showed a Thai expert examining a small Bromeliad plant which is an ornamental version of the common pineapple as a probable dengue-mosquito breeding place. In fact, Bromeliads have been identified as a prime breeding environment for the dengue mosquito (Aedes aegeptyi). The implications of this fact, given the extensive pineapple cultivation in the Western and North Western provinces, should be obvious. A footnote here could well be the fact that the Negombo hospital which serves a significant part of the pineapple growing area of Sri Lanka is unbelievably over-burdened with dengue patients, even more so that other similar facilities.

The fatalities resulting from dengue, not to mention, the enormous economic cost to the country in terms of (over-)utilized medical services and massive loss of productivity obviously calls for a drastic solution. Is it time that we began to fog the dengue mosquito areas with insecticides that have been found unacceptable in normal circumstances?

I would be failing in any effort at accuracy and objectivity if I did not refer to another factor that is seriously impeding efforts to deal with this scourge.

The “governance” of which we are now victims, little better than its predecessor and only distinguished from that scourge by the absence of white vans, continues to bedevil any efforts of dealing with day-to-day issues, leave alone something like the dengue pandemic.

If even a part of the effort that goes into to fattening their purses is expended in dealing with an issue such as dengue, some real progress may be made by our rulers. However, what we have is the disgusting spectacle of gallery-fetching initiatives to better publicise all kinds of hare-brained schemes such as that to tunnel under the Kandy lake to “avoid traffic congestion in Kandy town” when the preponderance of vehicles on the streets of Kandy are not passing through but carry people having business in that town. I would not accuse those propounding these ill-conceived schemes of the typical idiocy of people who have lost touch with the realities that the rest of us face on a day-to-day basis. I believe that the simple truth lies in the realm of rip-offs, commissions and other criminality that feasts off this kind of nonsense.

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