Given its number of C-sections, Bangladesh’s maternal mortality rate should be about 30 deaths per 100,000 live births, however in reality it’s almost six times that. Source: Eduardo Lopez / Shutterstock
Women work as day labourers in a potato field in Rangpur, Bangladesh. Source: Shutterstock/Mohammad Saiful Islam
IN THE waiting rooms of Dhaka’s private hospitals, women with swollen bellies trawl through gossip magazines and bask under blissful air-conditioning. When the time comes, four out of five will eventually give birth surgically rather than naturally.
These mothers, from the wealthiest echelon of society, are a major factor behind the rapid growth of the C-section industry in Bangladesh.
The word “rapid” is no exaggeration either. In 2004, just four percent of babies were born via a C-section in Bangladesh. Ten years later, it had surged to 23 percent. Many experts believe it is beyond 30 percent today.
Wealthy mothers are choosing to have caesarean births in record numbers, and often when there is no medical reason. Some don’t want to experience the pain of childbirth. Others are following the dubious or misleading advice of doctors.
In fact, new findings released by Save the Children today reveal at least six out of every 10 caesarean births in Bangladesh are medically unnecessary, or more than 570,000 per year.
The out-of-pocket cost of unnecessary C-sections to patients is estimated at US$315 million per year, or US$552 per operation, according to the analysis.
Having a C-section when there is no medical reason puts mothers and babies at needless risk, increasing the likelihood of infections, excessive bleeding, organ damage and blood clots as well as increasing the recovery time for mothers.
Natural births on the other hand, enable mothers and babies to have physical contact sooner, with breastfeeding beginning earlier. When babies travel through their mother’s birth canal, they also receive a measure of good bacteria which is believed to boost their immune system.
Many other countries have experienced caesarean booms too, including Thailand, Sri Lanka and the United States. Where Bangladesh differs is that its boom has not corresponded with a matching reduction in maternal deaths as it should.
Given its number of C-sections, Bangladesh’s maternal mortality rate should be about 30 deaths per 100,000 live births, however, in reality, it’s almost six times that.
This means while wealthy mums enjoy the luxury of medical choice, most mothers at the other bookend of Bangladeshi society, known as the “ultra poor”, cannot afford or even access specialist care if something goes wrong.
The few who do are often forced to borrow money from friends and relatives or sell household possessions to cover the costs, leaving them in crippling debt that not only takes years to repay, but can compromise their children’s education, health care and nutritional intake.
This disparity of opportunity is stark, but there are other elements at play here too. One major concern in Bangladesh is the poor regulation of the medical sector, leaving doctors almost entirely unaccountable for their actions.
As a result, more and more doctors are recommending C-sections over natural births, which are about eight times more profitable and a much shorter procedure, regardless of whether it’s needed.
There are also issues with newly qualified doctors not having the skills or confidence to deliver babies naturally and instead opting for surgery. Poor quality control mechanisms within Bangladesh’s medical sector fuel these problems.
Underlying all this is a major shortage of accredited midwives, who not only support natural child birth but help reduce the burden faced by busy doctors. Across the country, there are just 2,500 midwives, barely a tenth of the 22,000 recommended by a recent health sector review.
Save the Children is among those working to turn the tide and improve access for all to quality healthcare in Bangladesh while reducing the number of unnecessary C-sections. Part of that work includes running a midwife training programme in partnership with the UN Population Fund to help address the shortage. We’ve also turned to public campaigning, teaming up with the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research in Bangladesh and other like-minded organisations to launch, “Stop Unnecessary Cesarean Section”.
The campaign urges the government to introduce policy and regulatory frameworks to ensure mothers are fully informed of key information before they choose to have – or not have – a caesarean operation. We’re also calling for improved record keeping, reporting and monitoring of caesarians, along with better ethical standards and more accessible public information. It is a multi-pronged approach to a complex and often political issue that has for too long been hampered by poor regulations, vested interests and financially driven agendas.
Now it’s time to wrestle back control and better protect what is arguably the most important moment in a person’s life.
** Dr Ishtiaq Mannan is Save the Children’s deputy country director in Bangladesh, a qualified public health physician and an expert in newborn, maternal health and health systems.
A close relative of tobacco has been turned into a polio vaccine "factory"
By James Gallagher-15 August 2017
Plants have been "hijacked" to make polio vaccine in a breakthrough with the potential to transform vaccine manufacture, say scientists.
The team at the John Innes Centre, in Norfolk, says the process is cheap, easy and quick.
As well as helping eliminate polio, the scientists believe their approach could help the world react to unexpected threats such as Zika virus or Ebola.
Experts said the achievement was both impressive and important.
The vaccine is an "authentic mimic" of poliovirus called a virus-like particle.
Outwardly it looks almost identical to poliovirus but - like the difference between a mannequin and person - it is empty on the inside.
It has all the features needed to train the immune system, but none of the weapons to cause an infection.
Leafy factory
The scientists hijacked a relative of the tobacco plant's metabolism to turn its leaves into polio-vaccine "factories".
First, they needed to create new instructions for the plant to follow.
The starting material was the genetic code for making the outer surface of poliovirus.
It was enhanced by combining it with material from viruses that naturally infect plants.
The new instructions were then put into soil bacteria, which were used to infect tobacco.
The infection took hold, the plants read the genetic instructions and started making the virus-like particles.
Infected leaves were mixed with water, blended, and the polio vaccine was extracted.
The virus-like particles prevented polio in animal experiments, and an analysis of their 3D structure showed they looked almost identical to poliovirus.
An image of the virus-like particle, made by Diamond Light Source's electron bio-imaging centre
Prof George Lomonossoff, from the John Innes Centre, told the BBC News website: "They are incredibly good mimics.
"It's a very promising technology,
"I would hope we get vaccines produced in plants in the not too distant future."
The research is funded by the World Health Organization, as part of efforts to find replacements for the polio vaccine.
Polio - which can cause permanent paralysis - is a thing of the past for most of the world, but the infection has not been eradicated.
And using weakened poliovirus in current vaccines poses a risk of the virus regaining some of its dangerous traits - called vaccine-derived poliovirus.
Dr Andrew Macadam, principal scientist at the UK's National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, said: "Current vaccines for polio are produced from large amounts of live virus, which carries a threat of accidental escape and re-introduction.
"This study takes us a step closer to replacing current polio vaccines, providing us with a cheap and viable option for making virus-like particle-based vaccines."
Great potential
But this technology is not limited to polio or even just to vaccines.
As long as researchers have the right sequence of genetic code, they can make a vaccine against most viruses.
And they have also used plants to make antibodies like those being used in cancer therapy.
Plants are also being investigated as a new source for the winter flu jab.
Currently, it is grown in chicken eggs and takes months to develop.
Prof Lomonossoff told the BBC: "In an experiment with a Canadian company, they showed you could actually identify a new strain of virus and produce a candidate vaccine in three to four weeks.
"It has potential for making vaccines against emerging epidemics, of course recently we had Zika and prior to that we had Ebola.
"It's highly responsive, and that's one of the great attractions of the technology."
The plants have the advantage of growing quickly and needing only sunlight, soil, water and carbon dioxide to grow.
It means it could be a cheap and low-tech solution to vaccine development.
But there are still issues to resolve, including making vaccine on a large scale.
Another issue is whether there is any risk from using plants to make the vaccine - does the tobacco-relative mean there is nicotine in the vaccine?
Dr Tarit Mukhopadhyay, a lecturer in vaccine development at University College London, said: "The initial results look impressive.
"However, there are very few plant-based vaccine manufacturers and almost no licensed human vaccines that are currently produced in plants."
Denis Murphy, a professor of biotechnology at the University of South Wales, said: "This is an important achievement.
"The challenge is now to optimise the plant expression system and to move towards clinical trials of the new vaccine."
Sencholai Massacre victims were remembered this morning at the site of the original Sencholai school in Vallipunam, Mullaitivu.
The event was organised by a local remembrance organisation and was attended by families of the victims as well as several TNA parliamentarians and Northern Provincial Council members.
The government has put on a bold face on the resignation of Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake by making the argument that it is demonstrating good governance in practice. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in Parliament that the former Foreign Minister had set a good precedent by resigning from his portfolio. He said no member of the previous government had resigned no matter how serious the charges leveled against them were. It has not been the tradition in Sri Lanka for those holding public positions to resign when faced with a conflict of interest or to take responsibility for what has gone wrong. The Prime Minister said his colleague’s resignation to allow for impartial investigations into his role in the Central Bank bond scam showed the government’s commitment to good governance. He did not speak of the weakening of the government, even as its two constituent parties took different stands on the political survival of the former Foreign Minister.
However, in the subtext of the political commentary is the reality of deep seated political rivalries between the personalities and machineries of the UNP and SLFP which form the two main constituent parties of the Government of National Unity. Those who have put the most amount of pressure on the former Foreign Minister to resign have been from the SLFP component of the government, including President Maithripala Sirisena. This is seen by the UNP component of the government as a measure to weaken them and gain political mileage with the general public. Although the government leadership is putting on a bold face, the price it is going to pay due to the resignation of Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake is bound to be steep. After he was shifted out of his previous job as Finance Minister, again at President Sirisena’s insistence, he made a strong effort to master his new role as the country’s face before the international community.
It is noteworthy that President Maithripala Sirisena who has been vacillating on the issue of the international human rights commitments made by the government to the international community seemed to be getting activated in a positive direction after Minister Karunanayake took over the reins of the Foreign Ministry. The presidential assent to the Office of Missing Persons, which is one of the most important of the human rights commitments made by the government to the international community, came during his brief watch as Foreign Minister. Prior to that for over eight months the president had delayed putting his signature to the law that had been enacted in parliament. Apart from Ravi Karunanayake’s undoubted capabilities as a minister, he was also the assistant leader of the UNP, which is the main constituent party of the government. He continues to hold this position.
SUDDEN FIASCO
The former Foreign Minister had been a source of strength and support to the leader of the UNP, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe during the period when former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s grip over the country seemed unassailable and the blame for it accrued to the Prime Minister as the then leader of the opposition. Minister Karunanayake also played a leading role in winning the support of the Ven Maduluwave Sobitha Thero, the most revered Buddhist monk in his electorate, and in the larger society, who took leadership over the civil society movement against the human rights violations of the former government. It is a sign of the times that this very civil society movement is now planning a public demonstration on August 15 to demand that the government live up to its commitments without faltering and without politicizing them for its own partisan advantage.
The decision of Foreign Minister Karunanayake to resign has helped to avert a further loss of public credibility for the government which was elected to power on a platform of good governance and anti corruption in 2015. The general public, especially those who voted for the government in the hope that it would change the political culture of the country, and put an end to corruption, have been feeling badly let down by the government. Although the government leadership sought election in 2015 on a platform of good governance and anti corruption, there is much to be desired in their performance. Many of those from the previous government who were accused of sky high corruption continue to remain without substantial legal charges against them and even have the temerity to mock those in the government as having made false allegations against them merely to win the elections.
President Sirisena has been one of the main critics of his own government when it comes to its failure to crack down on corruption both in the previous government and in the present one. As a result he has been able to maintain his reputation to some degree as a political leader who is serious about dealing with the problem of high level corruption. But these actions of the President are not being supported by others in the government, and have undermined the unity of the government and created ill feeling and mistrust within it. Prior to the resignation of Foreign Minister Karunanayake, several members f the government from its SLFP component publicly stated that they too would vote with the opposition if there was a vote of no confidence in parliament against the minister. These are all signs of the weakening of the government.
WEAKENING GOVERNMENT
Another sign of the weakening of the government is the fiasco over the proposed 20th Amendment to the constitution. What is especially disturbing about this constitutional amendment is that it has made is appearance when the government is coming close to finalizing its draft new constitution which is expected to be a model of good governance. Unlike its distinguished predecessor, the 19th Amendment, which was passed soon after the new government took office and which restricted the powers of the presidency, the 20th Amendment shows little idealism. In summary, the bill proposes that elections to the provincial councils will be postponed until such time as all provincial council elections can be held on a single day. It also gives to the central authorities, the power to run the provincial councils which stand dissolved until such time as the elections on one day are held. Such a transfer of power from the elected provincial councils to the central authorities would be a negation of both democracy and of the practice of devolution of power.
The provincial council system was originally established in 1987 to deal with the escalating war against the Tamil militancy led by the LTTE. Even though the effort to draw the Tigers in to the envisaged political solution was not successful, the democratic Tamil parties have sought to utilize it to as a building block to progress to a greater sharing of power while respecting the existing unitary constitutional framework. It is in this context that the tampering with the provincial councils, by postponing the elections to them, and by further reducing their devolved powers even temporarily, needs to be viewed with the utmost concern. With both the SLFP, which is the second of the two main constituent parties of the government, and the Marxist inspired JVP, deciding to oppose the bill on the grounds that postponing of elections is unacceptable, the likelihood of getting the 2/3 majority in Parliament is remote.
The 20th Amendment may be seen as a pragmatic but unprincipled measure to contain the political rivalries of the UNP and SLFP as two main constituent parties of the government, and to prevent the mutual tension between them from degenerating into open confrontation. The desire to postpone elections is due to the concern that it will be difficult to remain together in the government if the two parties contest each other on the ground. This is the contradiction that has dogged the government from the time of its first election victory in January 2015. At that election the President and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe were on one side. They were the underdogs who won together contesting the election under one common electoral symbol (the Swan) rather than their two separate party symbols (the Elephant and the Hand). If the Government of National Unity is to continue, and the promises it made are to be kept, it is necessary that the President and Prime Minister rise above the political rivalries of their respective political parties, and look upon the challenges they face as national issues and not as partisan political issues.
“This Country as a whole has transitioned from a low to a middle income Country. But the Northern Province has not. It is still a low income area.This must be remembered,” says Northern Province Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran.
C.V. Wigneswaran – Northern Chief
Addressing the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) at Chief Minister’s Ministry Conference Hall, Kaithadi today, Justice Wigneswaran said:”Let us not forget that still an Army of 150000 is stationed in the North using our arable lands, official buildings, using our natural resources including drinking water. They are a source of fear and annoyance especially to our fishing communities since they openly get down fishermen from the South to resort to illegal methods of fishing in our waters depriving the locals of their livelihood.”
We publish below Justice C.V. Wigneswaran’s speech in full:
Hello everybody! We are indeed happy to have all of you representing many an arm of the UN with us today. We are aware that you all are presently working on the UN Sustainable Development Framework (UNSDF) 2018-2022. In fact our present Provincial Council will be in their last year when your Project under the UNSDF comes into being in 2018.
We would expect you to explain to us the difference in scope and content between the UNDAF (2013- 2017) and UNSDF (2018-2022). We were aware that Mahinda Chintanaya was mentioned in the UNDAF documents. You may be aware that the People of the Northern Province rejected that Chinthanaya. We were almost exclusively elected at the Provincial Council Elections having rejected the Mahinda Chintanaya whatever that meant. We were the dominant force in bringing about the change of Government on the 8th of January, 2015. It is because our perceptions were not taken into consideration by the then Resident Representative that we had differences of opinion with Mr. Subinay Nandi who felt we need to be an appendage of the Central Government, carrying out what the Central Government wanted. We were not prepared to do so. In fact I have pointed out to Ms. McCauley the close resemblance between us and the Irish people! We are glad that she heads the UN Family in Sri Lanka now.
We had told Mr.Nandhi that many matters that needed consideration by the UN at that time were not considered by him. I find you have mentioned yourself in your documents referring to “Leveraging theUN’s unique strengths in Sri Lanka” about addressing the perception that the UN has not been a neutral actor in Sri Lankain order to improve its standing as an “honest broker” between the Government, the donor community and civil community.
A few matters we were interested at that time as appropriate subject matter for inclusion in the Peace Building Matrix were demilitarization, rehabilitation of ex combatants, providing of sustainable livelihoods for widows and women headed families and the providing of environmentally sustainable and economically productive human settlements for our poorest of the poor specially in the Wanni.
This Country as a whole has transitioned from a low to a middle income Country. But the Northern Province has not. It is still a low income area.This must be remembered.
Let us not forget that still an Army of 150000 is stationed in the North using our arable lands, official buildings, using our natural resources including drinking water. They are a source of fear and annoyance especially to our fishing communities since they openly get down fishermen from the South to resort to illegal methods of fishing in our waters depriving the locals of their livelihood.
Sri Lanka has led the way to female liberation or gender equality in Asia in important ways, and has had an early start in comparison with other South Asian countries. Yet, gender equality remains a distant dream for the majority of its women.
With economic development, spread of higher education, and a rise in awareness through the phenomenal growth of the media, particularly social media, significant changes are taking place. But the road to gender equality is still long and hard.
Notions of the value of women and their place in society are still dictated by a male oriented tradition. To add to women’s woes, rapid technological changes have thrown new obstacles on the path to progress.
However, the beginning of the movement toward gender equality was encouraging. Sri Lanka or Ceylon as it was called earlier, was the first British colony to get universal adult franchise. Two women became members of the first elected State Council in 1931. And this was just 11 years after American women got the vote.
Another landmark was set in 1960, when Sirima Bandaranaike became the first woman Prime Minister in the world. She was Prime Minister for three terms, from 1960 to 1965; 1970 to 77; and 1994 to 2000. As a Prime Minister she brought to Sri Lanka socialism, a new brand of nationalism, and non-alignment in international affairs. She took the lead in mediating between India and China when the two went to war in 1962.
In 1993, Sirima’s daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga, became the first, and to date the only, woman Chief Minister of a Sri Lankan Province. In 1994, she became the first directly elected woman Executive President of Sri Lanka winning by an unbeaten record of getting 60% of the votes.
Economic contribution
Over the years, women have been contributing very substantially to the economy of Sri Lanka. Being the overwhelming majority of workers in the tea plantations, women have had a big role in securing foreign exchange for the country. Tea accounts for only 2% of Sri Lanka’s exports now, but for decades earlier, it was the principle item of export.
The garment industry, which accounts for $ 5 billion of the country’s total export earning of $ 10 billion, is female worker-based.
Remittances from Sri Lankans working abroad amount to $ 6.3 billion per annum. And out of the 1.7 million Sri Lankan remitters, 36.7% are women.
Poor representation
However, despite the head start Sri Lanka has had in participatory democracy, its women are yet to get their due share of power and influence in the country.
For all the enlightenment provided by universal adult suffrage, free schooling, and their higher proportion in the island’s population, women are a minority in the nation’s work force. Sixty-four percent of women in the 15 plus age group, who should be active in the labour force, are “inactive” according to the Census and Statistics Department. However, there are bright spots – women outnumber men in the professions. According to the Labour Survey, women are 63.65% in the professions.
Women’s participation in politics is extremely limited even 86 years after the introduction of universal adult franchise. In the first 1931 State Council, women were 3.4% and in the existing parliament they are 5.7%, a very negligible improvement. In the Provincial Councils their presence is lower at 4% and at the local government level it is rock bottom at 1.9%.
Basically there are two reasons why women have kept out of politics. Firstly, it is thought that politics is “dirty”, “violence prone” and “unfit for decent women” because men rivals could indulge in “shaming” their women rivals. The battle to get preferential votes results in men of the same party indulging in intimidating their women rivals in a sexist way.
In 2016, a law was passed to give 25% reservations to women in the local bodies. But efforts are now being made to dilute it on the plea that there are “practical difficulties” in implementing the provision.
Among the Tamils of Sri Lanka, women tend to avoid public life although LTTE Leader Prabhakaran had brought thousands of women to fight his battles, making them commanders of female regiments. Many were sent on suicide missions.
But these very women, who were hailed as heroines during the war, are not accepted fully by post-war Tamil family, society and politics. Tamil society is still very tradition-bound and patriarchal. In the 38-member Northern Provincial Council there is only one lady – Ananthy Sasitharan.
Women and technology
In a recent seminar on Women and Technology organised by Internews, several other problems faced by women were brought out. Savindri Talgodapitiya, Director, Fields Travel Company, pointed out that the male-dominated business world segregates women by using terms like ‘women entrepreneur’. They are treated as a different species, grouped in a different and excusive organisation and are rarely admitted to the higher echelons of business organisations.
When the media interviews a woman entrepreneur, the questioner needlessly brings in her marital status, her family life and how she manages to juggle family responsibilities with business – areas which will never be touched when a male entrepreneur is interviewed.
Even sportswomen are treated in the same way to their annoyance. When the captain of the recently successful Indian women’s cricket team, Mithali Raj, was asked to name her “favourite male cricketer”, she promptly silenced the questioner by asking: “Would you ask a similar question to a male cricketer?”
Tehani Ariyaratne of the South Asia Women’s Fund explained how various women’s groups in Sri Lanka, India and Nepal used social media and smart phone apps to spread news, initiate discussions and organise activities which help rural and underprivileged women of all age groups come out of their traditional reserve, shed taboos, express themselves on women-related issues and organise themselves for action. She mentioned the Batticaloa group ‘Minimini’ among the successful initiatives in Sri Lanka in the area of women’s liberation.
Ariyaratne pointed out that governments in the South Asian region sometimes reduce women’s rights in the guise of protecting them and their families. The accepted view in government circles is that women workers’ migration is an evil and should be restricted and curbed. But this affects the woman’s right to work and work anywhere she wants to, even migrating to another country.
That female migration is not an unmitigated evil, and that it is desired, is evident in the fact that many women are repeat migrants, going from one contract to another over years. This is because the money they earn has helped raise their standard of living back home. Ariyaratne said that Government should ensure women’s “safe migration” and not curb or ban their migration.
Paba Deshapriya of ‘Grassrooted’ spoke of online and social media violence against young girls. An increasing number of school boys from Colombo’s elite schools, persuade their girlfriends to take pictures of themselves in the nude for their exclusive viewing. The girls respond for the sake of love. But some unscrupulous boyfriends circulate these on social media platforms and make money even selling them for Rs. 20,000 or even $ 1 per picture. Then they blackmail the girls and get them to send more.
More than 70 girls had come to Grassrooted’s office with complaints of such cybercrimes, not only from Colombo but from Jaffna too, Deshapriya said. The Police sometimes make it difficult to pursue these cases because they ask for a “fresh photo” to be taken for verification purposes, Deshapriya said. Case studies show that the perpetrators of such crimes are not rank outsiders but known people.
H.K. Manique Gunaratne of the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon, who is visually challenged, described the difficulties faced by disabled women as they are doubly handicapped – as women and as disabled persons.
A living example of a person who is a full-fledged working women despite her vision impairment, Gunaratne sought equal treatment and the grant of equal opportunities for disabled women. With a little help in terms of providing the right technology, a disabled woman can function as well as an able bodied woman or man. Gunaratne works on computers which have the right technology uploaded. Even smart phones have technologies which will enable a visually impaired person use the available applications, she said.
53 Tamil schoolgirls and 3 teachers killed by Sri Lankan Air Force bombs in the Sencholai Massacre of 2006 were remembered today in Vallipunam at an event organised by the Tamil National People’s Front.
The remembrance event took place amidst heavy rain in Mullaitivu, at the site of the original Sencholai school.
Parents of the schoolgirls killed in the attack lit flames of remembrance at the event.
MP Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne P.C. during the course of an interview had stated: "We must go for a referendum if we are to introduce a new Constitution. For example, if we want to change even a comma in Article 83 of the Constitution, we must go for a referendum"(Ceylon Today, August 11, 2017). Article 83 requires 2/3 approval of Parliament and approval by the People at a referendum in order to abolish the executive presidential system and introduce a NEW Constitution. The two "official" reasons offered as justification for abolishing the Executive Presidential system are: (1)The belief that the Executive Presidential system concentrates too much power in a single individual, and (2),that it was an election pledge to the People. Instead of abolishing the Executive Presidential system in its entirety,the 19th Amendment in its original form provided the Government an opportunity to seriously derogate the powers of the President if the Government was prepared to subject the Bill to a referendum. The fact that the Government was reluctant to face a referendum at that time, but is now prepared to go for a referendum as stated by Dr. Wickramaratne, must mean that the scope is wider than the two "official" reasons offered above, for public consumption.
It is therefore clear that since the Government is now prepared to conform to the full provisions of Article 83, the opportunity would be exploited to the fullest, and to radically transform the structure of the Sri Lankan State. One radical transformation would be to dismantle the role of the Executive powers of the President in the Provincial Councils through his representative the Governor, and devolve Executive power to Provincial Councils; a fact that was clearly evident from the Sub-Committee Reports. Therefore, in the immediate background of alarming disclosures connected with the Bond Scam,the People are entitled to know the real and honest reasons for a NEW Constitution, in the knowledge of the huge credibility deficit that exists with regard to election pledges.
Before embarking on the task of preparing the draft of a NEW Constitution,two fundamental questions need to be raised relating to the need for a 2/3 majority by Parliament.
1.Does the Government have a mandate from the People to repeal the existing Constitution and replace it with a NEW Constitution?
2. Would not the needed 2/3 approval by Parliament come at the cost of violating the Franchise and hence the Sovereignty ofa section of the People?
TWO THIRD APPROVAL of PARLIAMENT
The current assumption is that if the present Parliament approves provisions in a NEW Constitution with a 2/3 majority,one requirement of Article 83 would be fulfilled. The question arises: How legitimate would such anassumption be considering the present formation of the Parliament in which the UNP has 105 members, the UPFA has 95 members, the TNA has 16 members, the JVP has 6 member with a few individual members making up the total to 225 members. Consequently, no political party has a clear majority. Under the circumstances, the present formation of the Government is that of a Minority Government.
It is therefore abundantly clear that the People of Sri Lanka did NOT give a mandate to any political party to institute any changes that would drastically alter the political structure of the State. Therefore, leaving aside the unethical aspect, would it be constitutionally legitimate for political parties or sections of political parties to form coalitions and attempt to amend or introduce a NEW Constitution? When answering this question a fact that should be borne in mind is that some members of Parliament who would be part of the 2/3 majority that would be voting for a NEW Constitution, could very well be members who were rejected by the People at the 2015 General Election.
A 2/3 majority under such circumstances would amount to going far beyond the boundaries authorized by the People. The question that needs to be asked is under what provision of Sri Lanka’s Constitution, or of what provision of any International Law could a Government made up of a coalition where no political party of the said coalition has a majority to form a Government, be permitted to repeal and replace a Constitution without a clear and unequivocal mandate from the People in the form of an outright majority to implement such a radical transformation?
Article 83 has two components: One is the need for 2/3 approval of Parliament and the other is approval by the People at a referendum. Both components need to be legitimate, each on its own merit. The need for both components to be independently legitimate is reflected by the fact that only those very few Articles in the Constitution that entrench the core values of the State have to comply with both components.
On the other hand, if minority parties in Parliament get together and forge a 2/3 majority, the ONLY safeguard is the decision by the People at a referendum. This single safeguard was certainly what was intended in Article 83. Therefore, the need for the 2/3 approval should at least be the product of a Majority Government with the support of other parties for the approval to be legitimate. Since this is not the case with the present formation in Parliament, it does not have the legitimacy to clobber together the 2/3 majority needed by Article 83.
According to Dr. Wickramaratne, "Today, the people clamour to have the executive presidency abolished" (Ibid). That is obviously his own interpretation. If in fact the issue of abolishing the Executive Presidency was a major concern of the People they would have given a positive mandate to the party that made such a pledge. The fact that no political party was given such a mandate means that what the Government is planning to do is not lawful, because it does NOT have the mandate to undertake such a radical and transformative task as changing the structure of the State without it being sanctioned by the People.
VIOLATION of FRANCHISE
The two major political parties that contested the August 2015 election were the UNP and the UPFA. Neither secured an outright majority. Consequently, the type of Government Sri Lanka currently has is a coalition made up of the entirety of the UNP and a minority of the UPFA, while the majority of the UPFA consisting of 52 members out of a total of 95 are NOT part of the coalition. Such an arrangement would undoubtedly compromise the Franchise and hence of the Sovereignty of the voters who voted for the 52 members of the UPFA that are NOT part of the coalition. This is what makes the formation of the present Government unlawful and a direct affront to the fundamental principles of representative Democracy.
Other countries too have experienced minority Governments. For instance, in U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Government is a minority Government because it failed to secure sufficient seats in Parliament to form a Government. This outcome has caused it to look for a coalition partner to form a Government, or in the least, a partner who would support them in Parliament. Similarly, countries such as Canada and Australia too have experienced minority Governments. And when faced with such a predicament they look for a coalition partner to form a Government.
In all these instances where the formation of coalition Governments were inevitable, the entirety of each party in the coalition committed itself to the formation of a legitimate Government, without violating the Franchise expressed by the People who voted for the parties in the coalition.
The difference between the coalition formations in these countries and the coalition formation in Sri Lanka is that ONLY a minority of the partner UPFA is part of the coalition Government, while the majority of the UPFA remains outside without an official status. Consequently, the majority of those that voted for the UPFA remains unequal before the law. This is in violation of a Fundamental Right; a right that has gone unchallenged since this Government came into power.
CONCLUSION
The present formation of the Government is unique in the history of representative Democracy. It is unique not because all the political parties in the present Parliament are minority parties, since similar minority formations exist and have existed in other countries as well. However, when coalition Governments are formed with minority parties, the entirety of each party forming the coalition are legitimate partners of the Government in order to preserve the sanctity of the Franchise of the People who voted for each partner of the coalition. What is unique about Sri Lanka’s coalition is that it is made up of the entirety of the UNP and a minority of the other member of the coalition (the UPFA), while the majority of the UPFA remains outside the coalition and the Government.
This unique formationof the coalition makes a 2/3 majority invalid for two reasons. Firstly, a coalition formation made up of minority parties does not have a legitimate mandate to repeal an existing Constitution and replace it with a NEW Constitution and secondly, the Franchise and hence the Sovereignty of the majority of the UPFA that is not with the Government and therefore excluded from the coalitionis compromised, thereby violating the Fundamental Right of Equality before the Law.
On the other hand, it would be legitimate for a coalition Government made up of minority parties to pass laws that require ONLY SIMPLE MAJORITIES provided ALL members that constitute the coalition are recognized as members of the Government so formed. In view of the uniqueness of the coalition in Sri Lanka even such a concession would not be legitimate. However, under no circumstances would it be legitimate for a coalition Government of minority parties to amend or revise any provisions in the Constitution that would require special majorities such as a 2/3 majority.
Despite the stated claim that the NEW Constitution is meant to abolish the Executive Presidential system on the grounds that it was a pledge made to the People, the real reason is to dilute the Executive powers of the President through the Governors in the Provinces and transfer Executive powers to the Provincial Councils. The result would be to devolve Executive and Legislative powers to the Provinces; powers that are typically characteristic of Federal Arrangements. All of this is to be achieved by conforming to provisions of Article 83 of the Constitution that require a 2/3 approval of Parliament and approval by the People at a referendum.
The flaw in the strategy is that the 2/3 approval of Parliament has no legitimacy for the two reasons cited above. For a 2/3 majority to have any legitimacy, at least one party in the coalition should have a minimum of 50%+members in Parliament if the sanctity of Article 83, which isthe ONLY Article that entrenches the core values of the Sri Lankan Nation and State is to be honoured. Since such a condition does NOT exist the present Parliament does not have the mandate and therefore lacks the legitimacy to repeal the existing Constitution and replace it with a NEW Constitution.
It has now proved that the first autopsy report of the Founding Editor of The Sunday Leader newspaper, Lasantha Manilal Wickrematunge had been issued to mislead investigations, similar to that of former Havelock Sports Club Captain Wasim Thajudeen.
On Thursday, August 10 the second postmortem report of Wickrematunge was produced before the Mt. Lavinia Magistrate which stated the cause of death was due to stab injuries with a blunt weapon. It has now confirmed how the then JMO, Colombo South Hospital Dr. K. Sunil Kumara, tried to mislead the investigation claiming the cause of death was due to cranio cerebral injuries following a discharge of firearms.
“Since the JMO report contradicts with the Government Analyst’s report, and also with the medical report of Professor Mohan Silva who performed the emergency operation on Wickrematunge that there were no traces of any gunshot injuries, the CID in September 2016 made a request to Mt. Lavinia Magistrate, Mohammad Sahabdeen seeking an order to exhume Wickrematunge’s remains to obtain a second post-mortem report. The remains were exhumed on September 27, 2016 under the supervision of Colombo No. 2 Magistrate,” Senior Attorney at Law and Former President, Bar Association, Mt. Lavinia, Athula S. Ranagala who appeared for Wickrematunge family interests told this newspaper.
A copy of Dr. Sunil Kumara’s JMO report, which this newspaper is in possession states as thus, “I, Dr. K. Sunil Kumara, Consultant Judicial Medical Officer do hereby affirm,
“The deceased was admitted to Ward No: ASU (Accident Service Unit) of the Teaching Hospital Colombo South on 08-01-09.
“The deceased was found to be dead when brought to the Colombo South Teaching Hospital. “I have held a post mortem external examination on the body of the above-named deceased.
“From the history obtained from the previous medical records of this case and the statement of the police station who states that there were no grounds to suspect foul play in regard to the death, I am of the opinion that the cause of death is due to Cranio Cerebral injuries following a discharge of a firearm”.
According to Ranagala, it is questionable as to how the JMO came to a conclusion that the death was due to gunshot injuries when there were neither entry nor exit bullet wounds on Wickrematunge’s body.
“If there were no exit bullet wounds then the bullet should have been in Wickrematunge’s body. Without taking an X-ray, how could this JMO come to a conclusion that he died of gunshot injuries. Had he ever visited the place of the incident and spoken to the people to find out whether they heard any gun firing? Had he checked the vehicle the deceased was driving and the scene of the crime whether there were bullet cases. I understand that he now says that the JMO report was written based on the bed head ticket (BHT) where there was a note that he has died due to gunshot injuries. Do the government hospitals need JMOs who write the post mortem reports based on the BHTs,” Ranagala said.
Meanwhile, a retired high ranking defence sources, who wished to remain anonymous, said that unlike in Wasim Thjudeen’s case, it wouldn’t have been so difficult for the team of JMOs to ascertain Wickrematunge’s cause of death as if the death has occurred due to bullet injuries; the damage to the skull is very clear unlike stab injuries where the skull could have sustained cracks around the damaged area. Even a medical student can identify the difference between a gunshot damage and stabbed damage although the then Kalubowila JMO could not,” the defence sources said.
He further said how puzzling it was the way the former Kalubowila JMO in his six-page post mortem report describes about the death. “Until the last page where the doctor gives the cause of death, the JMO has never mentioned any firearm or gun powder involvement in the murder but suddenly on the last page he had come to a conclusion that the death was due to a wound following a discharge of a firearm. The first few pages say that the death was due to an assault, stab or from a fall,” sources added.
By 
14 Aug 2017
