Security concerns: The SC said dangers to personal data originate from government as well as private players. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Capacity of non-state actors to invade the home and privacy has also been enhanced, says nine-judge Bench
AUGUST 25, 2017
The Supreme Court on Thursday urged the government to put in place a robust mechanism for data protection.
Noting that “informational privacy is a facet of the right to privacy”, a nine-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar, said dangers to personal data originate not only from the government but also from private players.
“The dangers to privacy in an age of information can originate not only from the state but from non-state actors as well. We commend to the Union Government the need to examine and put into place a robust regime for data protection,” Justice D.Y. Chandrachud wrote.
Legitimate aims of state
The court observed that the creation of a regime requires careful and sensitive balance between individual interest and legitimate concerns of the state. “The legitimate aims of the state would include for instance protecting national security, preventing and investigating crime, encouraging innovation and the spread of knowledge and preventing the dissipation of social welfare benefits,” the apex court observed.
The court said the introduction of a “carefully structured” data protection regime and its contours were matters policy matters to be considered by the Centre.
The court also took note of the Centre's move to constitute a committee of experts led by former Supreme Court judge, Justice B.N. Srikrishna, on July 31, 2017 to identify “key data protection issues” and suggest a draft Data Protection Bill.
The Office Memorandum of the Justice Srikrishna Committee notes that the “government is cognisant of the growing importance of data protection in India. The need to ensure growth of the digital economy while keeping personal data of citizens secure and protected is of utmost importance”.
Panel report
The Centre has undertaken in the court that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology would work with the panel and hand over all necessary information to it within the next eight weeks, after which the latter will start its deliberations. The Committee is expected to submit its report expeditiously.
The government has already indicated in the court that the committee would be framing a data protection Bill similar to the “technology-neutral” draft Privacy Bill submitted by an earlier expert committee led by former Delhi High Court Chief Justice A.P. Shah to the Planning Commission of India in 2012. No steps were taken on the recommendations of the Justice Shah Committee.
Up to 50in of rainfall expected as storm pours on to a city poorly prepared for inundation, prompting recommendation that residents should take to rooftops
Donald Trump will visit Texas on Tuesday, the White House said as tropical storm Harvey brought intense rainfall that threatened “historic” flooding in Houston, freeways turning into rivers and water rushing into homes in America’s fourth-largest city.
As coastal Texas cleaned up from Harvey, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Friday night before weakening, the storm shifted its attention inland. Amid predictions that as much as 50in of rain could fall, waters rose so high that people were advised to climb to their roofs rather than take refuge in attics, unless they had “an axe or means to break through”.
Heavy rains were predicted to linger for several days and the National Weather Service (NWS), issuing a flash flood emergency warning, said “catastrophic flooding in the Houston metropolitan area is expected to worsen and could become historic”.
More than 6.5 million people live in the region. Several deaths were reported. Early in the day Harris County sheriff Ed Gonzalez reported on Twitter that a woman and child had died in a submerged vehicle on Interstate 10. The deaths were not confirmed, because the location was unreachable. Texas governor Greg Abbott later told CBS he was “not capable at this time of confirming” the number of fatalities caused by the hurricane.
Texas coast battered by hurricane Harvey – video report
In an indication of just how high water was rising, officials advised residents to go on to their roofs and call for help if necessary, though 911 services were said to have been at capacity before dawn.
“Have reports of people getting into attic to escape floodwater,” Houston police chief Art Acevedo tweeted. “Do not do so unless you have an ax or means to break through onto your roof.”
On Sunday afternoon, the evacuation of the city’s Ben Taub hospital was delayed as the building was surrounded by waist-deep water. The George R Brown Convention Center was prepared as a shelter, with the first of a planned 1,000 people arriving.
At a press conference, Abbott said 3,000 national guard and state guard troops had been activated, and 500 vehicles and 14 aircraft put into service. There were 250 highway closures around Texas, he said.
Among hundreds of rescues, police evacuated two apartment complexes in the Greenspoint neighbourhood, saving more than 50 children. The US coast guard reported more than 300 requests for search and rescue in the Houston area. Five coast guard helicopters were working and New Orleans was asked to send more. Texas national guard soldiers aid residents in heavily flooded areas. Photograph: Handout/Reuters
At a press conference, Houston mayor Sylvester Turner said more than 2,000 emergency calls had been received and more shelters, which he called “lily pads”, would be opening. Turner defended his decision not to call for an evacuation ahead of the flooding, citing likely traffic gridlock. “If you think the situation right now is bad and you give an order to evacuate,” he said, “you are creating a nightmare.”
The NWS said the Houston area had received 24.1in of measured rain in 24 hours, sending water levels soaring in the bayous that meander through the core of the city. Some areas were expected to receive as much as 7in of rain in an hour.
Speaking to CBS, Trump homeland security and counterterrorism adviser Tom Bossert said: “We’re going to see continued rain, upwards of 30in. I don’t think people understand what 30in of rain [is] … I’ve been around dozens and dozens of major disasters and hurricanes, hundreds of disasters. I’ve never seen 30in of rain.”
Later, NWS meteorologist Patrick Burke said rainfall totals would end up around 40in or more for Houston on average, but some isolated spots would hit or exceed 50in, or more than 4ft. That would exceed all state rainfall records.
Abbott told CNN he had asked Trump to add Harris County, which covers Houston, to the federal disaster declaration signed on Friday, releasing funds.
The president spent the morning tweeting his thoughts from Camp David, from where he took part in a cabinet meeting. “Wow,” he wrote. “Now experts are calling #Harvey a once in 500 year flood! We have an all out effort going, and going well!” He would visit Texas, he added, “as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption. The focus must be life and safety.”
Harvey made landfall on the Texas coast on Friday night with 130mph winds, the most powerful hurricane to hit the US since 2004, and wrought destruction on Corpus Christi and the small towns of Rockport and Port Aransas. At least one person died in Rockport and more than 300,000 lost power. The storm weakened to a Category 1, then tropical storm status. But rotating bands of rain began to pummel the Houston area, some 200 miles north-east. The Valero Houston Refinery is threatened by the swelling waters of the Buffalo Bayou. Photograph: Nick Oxford/Reuters
Houston is one of the country’s most flood-prone cities, with thousands of homes on floodplains and next to bayous and creeks. The city endured severe storms in 2015 and 2016 that caused loss of life and widespread damage. Harvey’s effects are likely to be worse.
The city is also home to large oil industry facilities, dangerously vulnerable to flooding. On Sunday, Exxon Mobil, Petrobras and Shell said they were shutting refineries in the area and Chevron Phillips said it was shutting its Cedar Bayou petrochemical complex.
Bakeyah Nelson, executive director of Air Alliance Houston, said in a statement such shutdowns would release pollutants, and added: “Harvey is also a threat to the air we breathe.”
The NWS issued 37 tornado warnings for Houston on Saturday and 35 on Friday and small tornadoes damaged structures. More warnings came early on Sunday but water was clearly the primary threat.
On Sunday, the water outside Sheila Thurau’s west Houston townhouse rose sharply, to knee height.
“It’s over the pavement,” she said by phone. “It’s just one sheet of water from a hedge on one side of the road to the other side.”
A couple of hours later, the 90-year-old British-born widow was set to be rescued by boat. “There are people swimming down the street,” she told her daughter, with the phlegmatic attitude for which her homeland is known. “I’m fine. I can swim.”
From his 13th-floor apartment near downtown, Damien Balais told the Guardian his usual, enviable view of parkland on the banks of the Buffalo Bayou had gone.
“It’s basically a lake,” he said. A cemetery had flooded. Highways were completely submerged.
“Bridges across the bayou are nearly all covered,” he said, adding that the flood was “super high”, a line of tree-tops poking out above muddy water.
Everyone has their favourite sounds- a ball on a cricket bat on a summer’s afternoon, birds singing, waves breaking on the beach, the coffee pot perking on the stove, children playing scoobydoo. Mine are the quiet sounds of the English Lake District- William Wordsworth’s:
“A flock of sheep that leisurely pass by one after one; the sound of rain and bees murmuring; the fall of rivers, wind and lakes, smooth fields; white sheets of water, and pure sky.” Noise is less and less sweet sounds. It is cars and trucks, airplanes and builders, canned music in cafes, a symphony playing an atonal concerto. Some pop music makes so much noise that pure sounds no longer exist. Noise is the excreta of technological civilization. One study predicts that exposure to loud music will cause 50 million Americans to suffer heavy hearing loss by 2050. Ex-president Bill Clinton has long worn a hearing aid because in his youth he enjoyed loud music. Noise can make us ill- not just hearing loss (as I have from starting a dance club for Caribbean youth in an abandoned factory in London), but also high blood pressure, disturbed sleep and even heart disease. An article in a German trade union newspaper claimed that “noise sickness” tops the industrial ailment list. Noise is a pollutant. It produces a large amount of stress and strain for bodies and minds already taxed by a high-pressured economic system. Noise is the silent political issue that grates on many people’s nerves. In a poll 45% of the German population said they believe that protection against noise is more important than building new roads. Tens of thousands of people who live near London’s Heathrow airport have for years managed to stymie successive government plans to build a new runway. The government this year approved the plan, but still it has to face the possibility of mass demonstrations that can seriously hinder the work.
Noise can make us ill- not just hearing loss (as I have from starting a dance club for Caribbean youth in an abandoned factory in London), but also high blood pressure, disturbed sleep and even heart disease
We are a long way from the hoped-for day when national political figures will ride to power quoting Wordsworth’s poem, “On Westminster Bridge”: “The city now doth, like a garment, wear the beauty of the morning, silent, bare.” But that does not mean that battles can’t be won on a smaller scale than defeating a plan at a big airport for more noisy flights. Campaigners on the busy road where I used to live managed to close it to night time traffic. Lake District lovers, aghast at a new main road through Grasmere sending shock waves up the fells have struggled to make sure the mistake is not repeated. A friend of mine in central Copenhagen, whose balcony gives her a view of one of the peaceful canals, complains to me about the noise from the street below. Too many cars, motorbikes, tourist buses and delivery vans destroy what at first sight seems beautiful and tranquil. Since 1994 Denmark has had noise control legislation and many streets are now pedestrianised. Copenhagen is flooded with bicycle riders- cars and their noise in the inner city have been significantly reduced. But still the legislation is far from enough. Although noise is never likely to compete with other political issues such as unemployment and nuclear weapons in North Korea, political leaders, whatever their stripes and spots, are amenable to pressure. Classless in its impact, hurting rich and poor alike, protestors and agitators are pushing at an open door. Many of the changes required have been tried and tested somewhere.
* Gothenburg, Sweden: There are restrictions on the through passage of motorists and lorry drivers. Trams and buses have been given a reserved right of way and priority at signals. This makes public[JP1] transport more attractive to motorists in a car. The result: a reduction of noise in the main shopping streets. * Switzerland: The driving of heavy trucks at night and on Sundays is prohibited. * Britain: As long ago as 1973 parliament passed a law allowing owners of buildings to seek compensation for property that depreciates in value because of new public works that cause noise, vibration and dust. In 2008 a woman was sentenced to 90 days in jail for violating a court order not to play loud music that had disturbed her neighbours eleven times. (But why did they have to wait until the eleventh time?) * The US and Britain: In 1976 they modified their noise regulations to require older aircraft to comply with the noise limits required for new aircraft.
Put these examples on Facebook, demand MORE, and distribute your demands far and wide to places where, as the poet Jeni Couzyn wrote: “Under the screech and hiss of progress, creeps an army of emptiness”. Could we once again hear the sheep and the rain, the wind and the coffee pot, the sound of the bat on the ball and children playing? Lots of sounds, not noise.
The writer has been a foreign affairs columnist for the International Herald Tribune/New York Times for 17 years.
It could be up to California voters to make the state the first in the nation to allow for the use and sale of psilocybin, the mind-altering component of magic mushrooms.
On Friday, Kevin Saunders, a candidate for mayor in the Monterey County town of Marina, filed the California Psilocybin Legalization Initiative[3] with the state attorney general's office. The initiative would exempt people 21 and over from state criminal penalties for using, possessing, cultivating, transporting, and selling psilocybin.
Filing an initiative is just the first step[4]. The measure must be submitted for public comment for 30 days and then given a circulating title and summary by the attorney general's office before it is approved for signature gathering. If and when it is approved, campaigners then have to gather some 365,880 valid voter signatures to be placed on the November 2018 ballot.
Saunders told the Los Angeles Times[5] that psilocybin helped him get over an addiction to heroin a decade ago. "I think we're seeing something that could literally heal our brothers and sisters," he said. "We're talking about real cutting-edge stuff."
Using the initiative process, California became the first state in the nation to legalize medical marijuana in 1996. And while it wasn't the first state to legalize marijuana via the initiative process—Colorado and Washington led the way in 2012—the state legalized recreational marijuana via an initiative last year.
The initiative and referendum process has been criticized[6] as inflexible, circumventing planning, and relying on an uninformed electorate, and it is also open to criticism as a tool for corporate interests[7]. But it has proven invaluable for advancing the cause of drug reform in the face of state legislatures resistant to change.
All eight states that pioneered pot legalization did it through the initiative process. No state has yet legalized marijuana through the legislative process. And the pioneering medical marijuana states all did it through the initiative process as well. After California approved it in 1996, it was five years before Hawaii became the first state to okay it legislatively.
California is now poised to once again break down the walls of prohibition—this time with natural psychedelics.
Phillip Smith is editor of the AlterNet Drug Reporter and author of the Drug War Chronicle.
For months relatives of the forcibly disappeared have been protesting on the streets across the North-East, demanding to know the whereabouts of their loved ones. Despite years, sometimes decades, of various government mechanisms and pledges, their search for answers continues.
In this series of interviews conducted since May 2017, Tamil Guardian goes behind the protest to the individual stories that make up this unyielding movement of Tamil families of the disappeared.
Abirami
“People said that she had been loaded onto a bus,” says Abirami’s mother as she sits on a tarpaulin sheet in Kilinochchi. “Just like that she’s missing.”
Srimathy is one of the dozens of mothers outside the Murugan Temple searching for their disappeared children. They have now been protesting for more than 150 days on the roadside. Srimathy is searching for her daughter.
Abirami was just 22 years old during the final stages of the armed conflict on the island.
An aspiring musician and the eldest in her family, the highly achieving student had passed all her A-level exams. “She is sharp,” says her mother. “We still have all her certificates.” Abirami is a talented singer Srimathy adds, and was set to study music at Jaffna University. “She could sing well… She had an interview and she got university admission.”
But the massive Sri Lankan military offensive launched in mid-2008 shattered those plans. As the army moved into the North-East, Abirami and her family became trapped in the fighting. Alongside countless others, they had been repeatedly displaced and finally penned into Vadduvakal in Mullaitivu. The town overlooksNandikadal lagoon.
In May 2009, it was the scene of unimaginable carnage. The region just south of the second government declared No Fire Zone (which was repeatedly shelled by the army regardless) bore the brunt of Sri Lankan military bombardment. Thousands had been indiscriminately slaughtered.
“When we were travelling during the war we got separated,” says her mother. It was in those final few moments when she last saw her daughter. In the mass of people scrambling to avoid artillery fire, Abirami was separated from her family. “It was loud and there was shelling,” recalls Srimathy “We were there till the war finished”.
“There were so many people,” she adds. “So, we were separated like that.”
With thousands of other Tamil civilians Srimathy and the rest of her family marched across Nandikadal lagoon into government held territory. Witnesses described having to walk amongst hundreds of bodies strewn along the road towards the bridge and bodies floating in the water.
It was once she crossed that she received news that her daughter had been spotted in Menik Farm – a 700-hectare site that was once the world’s largest camp for internally displaced people (IDP). At one point, the camp housed close to 300,000 people. Made up of seven different zones, each section was enclosed by barbed wire and tightly guarded by military personnel.
Above: file photograph - Menik Farm camp in 2009. Below right: Satellite imagery of Zone 4 of the camp, the last place Abirami was seen.
“People from that camp came and told us that my child was there in Zone 4… someone I know told me,” Srimathy continues.
The camp was infamous. A UN report described how a lack of basic medical supplies food, water, housing and sanitation had left inmates at the camp riddled with diseases. “The material conditions in these closed camps amounted to violations of the rights to health and to an adequate standard of living,” said the UN Report of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL). The Times reported that at the time 1,400 Tamils were dying every week at the camp.
Human rights abuses were also rampant. The Sri Lankan military continued to arbitrarily arrest and torture individuals. The absence of UN staff or NGOs inside the different sections of the camp after dark prevented any kind of independent monitoring. Woman in particular were vulnerable to sexual abuse by Sri Lankan security forces.
Srimathy rushed over to Zone 4 of the sprawling camp as soon as the Sri Lankan security forces allowed her.
“By the time we could go give a letter and figure things out, she was no longer there,” she says. “People said that they saw her being loaded onto a bus.” That was the last she heard about Abirami.
One of Srimathy’s younger sons got ill and passed away soon after. It has been over 8 years since Abirami’s disappearance. Srimathy is no closer to knowing the whereabouts of her disappeared daughter.
“We want our child,” she cries.
“We are living in the belief that they are alive.”
Lanka News Web revealed how IGP Pujith Jayasundara is trying to get SSP Mevan Silva appointed as director of the CID in an article titled ‘IGP’s plot to sabotage CID investigations’. We have received information about a conspiracy by this Mevan Silva to arrest ‘The Sunday Leader’ editor Lasantha Wickrematunge to serve wants of the Rajapaksas.
In 2007, Mevan was serving at the CID, whose director at the time was Sisira Mendis, today the head of the national intelligence service. The then Rajapaksa regime found Lasantha a big headache for them. Gotabhaya wanted to take revenge from him for having exposed corruption by the Rajapaksas through the newspaper. The CID was tasked with gathering information that could be used for that.
Digging up Lasantha’s information, Mevan found that ‘The Sunday Leader’ owed nearly Rs. three million to its printing paper supplier, which was around two months overdue. He informed both Mahinda and Gotabhaya about that.
Delighted by the news, Gotabhaya said this could be used as an excuse to arrest Lasantha, and ordered that the supplier be summoned. Mevan went to meet the supplier and questioned him. If the supplier did not complain, the police had no duty to perform there. Lasantha’s non-payment of the due would have been a matter for the Fraud Bureau, not the CID. But, those did not matter for Mevan, as the want was of Gotabhaya.
The supplier told Mevan that there had been delays in the payments previously too, but that he knew that he would definitely get the payments. Mevan threatened him and took him to the CID. Under duress, he lodged a complaint against Lasantha.
Based on that, Lasantha made submissions to courts and obtained a search warrant. In the meantime, Lasantha got to know about this conspiracy, and immediately paid the due to the supplier.
Mevan went to the newspaper office with his search warrant and with a team of officers to arrest Lasantha. Showing his police powers and that of the Rajapaksas, Mevan told Lasantha that he had come to arrest him. When asked for the reason, Mevan boastingly said about the payments due to the printing paper supplier. When Lasantha showed him the bills to prove that he has made all the dues, Mevan tried to hide his shame by using the search warrant and trying to search the place. Being a lawyer, Lasantha objected, and Mevan had to go back empty handed.
In business, dealings for credit is a normal thing. So are delays in payments too. However, that was how Mevan worked to appease the Rajapaksas by threatening a businessman, forced him to lodge a complaint and misled the courts. His only ability is to satisfy his bosses. Even today, politicians in both the ruling and opposition sides who are under investigation by the CID want Mevan appointed as its director, so that they could cover up the investigations against them.
However, all DIGs in one voice say that the best person for the job is SSP Shani Abeysekara. They know the history of Mevan and oppose him as the CID director. However, IGP Jayasundara has sent the name of Mevan only to the police commission. We know that there are persons in the commission who work outside the authority of its chairman to serve the wants of others. We are keeping a watch on the commission’s decision.
Justice delayed is justice denied Saturday, 26 August 2017
William Gladstone said in the frequently-used adage in legal circles that “justice delayed is justice denied,” which is applicable to the justice system worldwide.
We inherited English legal principles of presumption of innocence and application of Rule of Law which means to act according to the existing law, expected to be just and fair, and equality before law are some of the main guiding principles of our legal system, which the world has rated high despite isolated black marks common to the world in all jurisdictions.
Young Tamil artists from across Europe last month remembered the 1983 pogrom against the Tamils, Black July with an exhibition at the City University in London.
The exhibition, which was organised by the Tamil Youth Organisation UK, featured artists from the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark.
In a move that hopefully would expedite inquiries and the prosecution of cases involving allegations that some of the former regime’s VIPs plundered hundreds of millions of dollars from public funds, the government yesterday appointed Thalatha Athukorale as Minister of Justice in addition to her present portfolio of Foreign Employment. Ms. Athukorale who won the woman of the year award this year, took over the Justice Ministry after a dramatic fortnight during which the former Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe came under severe criticism from his own United National Party. The two main charges against Mr. Rajapakshe were that he was mainly responsible for the long delay in the prosecution of major corruption cases and the violation of the principle of collective responsibility in the Cabinet. Two weeks ago, the Cabinet, after long delay and discussion, had approved the controversial multi-billion rupee Hambantota Port deal with a big Chinese company. A few days later, Mr. Rajapakshe publicly criticised the deal as a sell-out of the country’s resources and said that if given the opportunity, he would cancel the deal. UNP ministers and backbenchers were furious. They initially wanted to move a no confidence motion against Mr. Rajapakshe, but Prime Minister and Party Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was not in favour. But on Monday, the UNP’s decision-making Working Committee and the Parliamentary Group unanimously adopted a resolution calling for Mr. Rajapakshe’s resignation or expulsion from the Cabinet. Later, the Prime Minister met President Maithripala Sirisena to notify him of the UNP decision and on Wednesday the President wrote a letter to Mr. Rajapakshe informing him that he was being expelled from the Cabinet.
Upto then, Mr. Rajapakshe had remained silent. But after receiving the letter, he spoke out and told the media that his conscience was clear and he was ashamed to be in a Cabinet that was violating Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and virtually selling out hundreds of acres of Sri Lanka’s land to China. Referring to the charges of delaying the prosecution of big corruption cases, Mr. Rajapakshe said the Attorney General’s Department was not under him and his crime was that he did not interfere in the working of an independent department. He said he would remain as an independent MP. But critics specially Minister Rajitha Senaratne and Deputy Minister Ajith P. Perera said Mr. Rajapakshe had delayed prosecution specially in the Avant Garde case because that company’s chairman Nissanka Senadhipathy was his close friend. They said the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had submitted to the AG’s Departments 101 files containing substantial evidence relating to big corruption allegations against former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his family members, top officials and close associates. Prosecutions had been launched in less than 20 cases.
Minister Senaratne and other government leaders have pointed out that it took an average of about 10 years for a High Court to hear and give a verdict in a case of murder or other major crimes. Therefore they have been asking that one or two High Courts be assigned to hear these major corruption cases so that trials-at-bar could be held in the morning and the evening. Thereby the cases could be completed in three to six months. They point out that in the case of the killing of Judge Sarath Ambepitiya, a trial-at-bar was held and the suspects were found guilty within six months. The former Justice Minister had claimed that a constitutional amendment would be needed to set up a special High Court or courts to hear corruption cases. But government leaders and legal experts have challenged his claim. Whatever the political manoeuvres or manipulations, what is clear is that there is widespread public criticism of the delay in proceeding with the cases. If justice hurried is justice miscarried, then it is also true that justice delayed is justice denied. Therefore we hope the new Justice Minister coordinating with the AG’s Department, the FCID, the CID and other agencies will act effectively to ensure that justice is done.
“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others, at whatever cost.” ~Arthur Ashe
Just in two short weeks the Yahapalanaya claimed its second victim. One may never know whether the political initiators of the Yahapalanaya movement would be happy about this outcome. There are advantages as well as disadvantages in a political process that entails the ouster of two leading members of the Cabinet of Ministers, a forced resignation in one case and a complicated firing of the other. The man who resigned, or forced to resign, Ravi Karunanayake, did so in consonance with the traditions of a parliamentary democracy while the one who was fired came out swinging against those who fired him.
Whatever opinions or verdicts politicians of the involved parties may present, we should be able pass judgment and ascertain the plusses and minuses that would eventually accrue to the government. More than Maithripala Sirisena, the President, it was Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Prime Minister who was intricately enmeshed in both cases. Ranil is not only the Prime Minister of the country; he is also the leader of the United National Party (UNP). Both Ravi Karunanayake and Wijeyadasa Rajapaksheare among the leaders of the UNP.Ravi Karunanayake’s resignation and the issues related to his ouster have already been extensively discussed and written about in the media. But Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe’s ouster is different in that the firing occurred after a wide discussion had taken place in the highest decision-making body of the UNP. The Working Committee of the UNP decided, almost in unanimity, that Wijeyadasa should be removed from the Cabinet. The grounds were his criticism of the government’s decision regarding the Hambantota Project which is a breach of collective responsibility of the Cabinet, along with undue delays related to the numerous probes and investigations into the former regime’s bigwigs’ corrupt practices. While the accusations and allegations against Ravi K were of the nature of financial corruption, Wijeyadasa R had even more telling issues associated with his conduct as Minister of Justice. And those allegations were even more significant as far as the UNP members were concerned. Allegations about the lackadaisical fashion in which the probes into the Rajapaksas, the former First Family consisting of Mahinda, Shiranthi and Namal and Basil and Gotabaya etc. and their cohorts feature very prominently in the minds of the ordinary members of the UNP, leave alone its leaders in the present government. The allegation about Wijeyadasa R’s involvement with the notorious Rakna Lanka Company and its obscenely corrupt dealings dating back to the former regime and its Secretary of Defense cannot be swept under the carpet.
Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe had somewhat a fairly unimpeachable reputation about his financial integrity. Enter Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, it all changed. The veneer of purity was removed. The man who was once the Chairman of Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), a man who crossed over from the Rajapaksa’s grip to the Opposition and then joined the UNP is now standing accused of safeguarding that very regime and on top of that the revelation by Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka about his unholy alliance with the Head of Rakna Lanka have now tarnished his name and reputation. It certainly is no allegation one can ignore. A picture is worth a thousand words- that is an old saying many an editor of a newspaper would throw at his trainee journalists. It could not have been truer; especially when Wijedasa Rajapaksa’s unholy alliance was exposed a few months ago Wijedasa looked almost naked and guilty of untold misdeeds. He simply cannot afford to throw stones at others, for his habitat is utterly vulnerable, more vulnerable than a house of glass.
Corruption by those elected or appointed to public office assumes significance in a country like Sri Lanka because its economy runs on borrowed money with heavy interest payment obligations in dollar terms.
by Siri Gamage-
( August 26, 2017, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Suddenly, corruption has come centre stage again in Sri Lankan politics, at a time when the yahapalana government led by the UNP and supported by the official SLFP is completing two years. Corruption and anti-corruption were the main talking points of the election platforms in 2015. They were the focus areas of civil society organisations such as the one led by Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha prior to the election. In a society where there is less accountability on the part of politicians elected or appointed to parliament and the wheels of justice are unjustifiably slowly, the majority of people go after mythical figures invented nationally and provincially, i.e. Gods, to seek justice, rather than the courts.
The window of opportunity opened up at the last election was a god send to express the people’s true feelings based on negative experiences that the system of governance allocated to them. Little had they realised that the rulers they elected had only change of colour and nice words to fit the times pretending to be people’s heroes for a few weeks, rather than charismatic figures like Anagarika Dharmapala or Ariyarathne, genuinely concerned about the plight of the disadvantaged, the country and nation. The people’s worst fears are coming true after two years of a national unity government and many media contributions in recent months have highlighted this. The latest saga in this unfolding political drama or palace conspiracy is the one related to Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe.
The critical question emerging from this saga is whether he was a protector of the corrupt in the previous regime because the Attorney General’s Department did not expedite cases about which files have been submitted by investigating bodies, or an anti- corruption crusader and protector of the independence of the judiciary as he claims after his sacking by the President? The public will examine this closely in due course. Suffice it to say that the credibility of an anti-corruption crusader emerges if the person so claiming has a track record of doing so. Though his reference to several cases for which he appeared pro bono and secured results involving state property may be noteworthy, the argument about non-interference in the judiciary as an excuse for not expediting anti-corruption cases hangs in thin air in the eyes of the public. His detached approach to this issue until his sacking must have been adopted with the blessings of the hierarchy in the yahapalana government. Otherwise, how could a single minister adopt such a stance for two years on his own, when the whole country or at least 6.5 million of voters and their representatives were demanding action?
Thus, this saga reflects a deep-seated malaise within the yahapalana government rather than the failings of one individual, particularly when viewed in the light of the bond scam and the Ravi Karunanayake saga. In Sri Lankan politics, and for that matter even in Australian or American politics, there is this tendency to characterise failings in terms of individuals. But we need to realise that these topics in Sri Lanka reflect systemic failures rather than the faults of one individual. How can one minister assure the independence of the judiciary without the backing of his Cabinet, and be charged about non-interference and undue slowness in expediting of justice on an individual basis? Cabinet unity applies in this case also. If the Cabinet -the executive – had really wanted action, it could have decided so a long time ago and the subject minister is bound by such decisions.
Corruption by those elected or appointed to public office assumes significance in a country like Sri Lanka because its economy runs on borrowed money with heavy interest payment obligations in dollar terms. The money borrowed for various projects by the government, not only augment the budget bottom line, but also spreads around like hot cakes among those who control such money. It has come to a ridiculous situation that nothing significant can be done in Sri Lanka without borrowed money. This seems to be the modern disease we have inherited and one national characteristic of the patriotic nation. But what happens to such borrowed money and those accumulated by way of taxes is the crucial question? How much of it actually goes to the work or projects, and how much is spent on consultants etc, are topics in everyday conversations among middle class literati who have some insights on this aspect.
When the payments for interest and paying back borrowed money become difficult, a situation arises for the sale or lease of public assets to foreign entities. As a country caught up in a debt trap, Sri Lanka is facing numerous difficulties at this time. However, because the political culture remains the same with self-serving norms and practices that nurture the families of politicians, bureaucrats and managerial class that support them, running the country has become less feasible. This is because the system has to cater to the needs of a political and managerial class whose desires and lifestyles are extravagant and costly, in some cases bordering on corruption on the one hand, and the needs of the majority who demand yahapalanaya by way of socially just and effective economic and welfare policies. A government caught up in an internationally driven debt trap can’t do both. When one side of the scale goes up (with the cost of luxury cars etc.), the other side goes down. Keeping a balance is not easy even by a compassionate President, whose hands are tight in terms of the political forces he has to deal with.
If we are to break free from the existing debt trap, the government needs to do more than pursuing corruption cases and sacrificing a couple of ministers temporarily. An economic strategy based on first principles to combat the disease needs to be developed. Simultaneously, a national social strategy to combat dependence on foreign project money needs to be developed. When I was a schoolboy in the far south in the 50s and 60s, there was the concept and practice of Shramadana to cut wells for water, build roads, temples etc. This practice needs to be revived. Why not try to build at least one section of the Central expressway with local talent and funds together with Shramadana? Most of all, there needs drastic reform in the political culture without which other goals cannot be achieved (Sarath Fonseka was vociferous about this before he joined UNP). The extravagant lifestyles and accumulation of wealth by politicians, their associates and families, need to be controlled, before they do so rather than pursuing justice after the event, especially when the wheels of government and justice grind very slow when it comes to pursuing those who have charges of corruption. This brings us to the point about legal reform –another sorry story in the country for the last 70 years.
The Wijeyadasa saga is not the beginning or end of this national conundrum, even though the way he was sacked is amusing to many. Theatrics in politics raise imaginations and the curiosity of the voters momentarily, but the show goes on till the drama is concluded. The condition we are experiencing today has far deeper ramifications unless addressed by the more alert segments of society in a systematic way, and develop strategies to combat the ill effects as well as causes with equal attention. Most likely Wijeyadasa will reemerge in politics in another way after a few weeks or months. But the large majority who don’t belong to the political or managerial classes will still struggle to meet ends in a system which is unduly biased towards the needs and desires of a few rather than the many.
It is hard to find many examples in political exits at high levels that wear the bearings of being lame-legged, dull, and unexciting.
I have met this gentleman, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, while he was in Melbourne about two years ago and I have been impressed by his extraordinary clarity of mind, fluent word-flow, and relaxed delivery all of which bundled together made Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe (WR) a most agreeable political personality – rather rare among the whole lot of rotten guys in Parliament today.
WR had something of the class of the old brigade represented by Colvin R. De Silva, N.M. Perera, Leslie Gunawardena, etc. On the other hand, he lacked something crucial for integrity that those gentleman par excellence did possess.
What an anti-climax to roll out of the team charge! I can see some antecedents that led WR to take this hurried step. The Sarath Fonseka elevation and the Rajitha Senaratne annoyance had been among the uppermost in Wijeyadasa’s neocortex. However, a mature mind would know how to emotionally manage oneself against obstacles like that.
Politics is a long waiting game and only individuals who have the qualities of resilience can get on top of the situation. Ranil Wickremesinghe comes to my mind as just an illustration of that behavioural principle. It is sad that WR lacked that and that he succumbed to his hapless situation.
What an inglorious capitulation! Not in keeping with the high quality of this man. He said one thing and then said another that left his audience wondering whether WR was groping for excuses.
Hambantota issue
The Hambantota issue was the immediate cause. WR simply should have apologised on this instead of trying to defend himself with the poor brief. Having acceded to the Hambantota Cabinet decision, WR tried to back out urging it was a sell-out. He, clearly, becomes guilty of violating cabinet responsibility. There is no defence possible there.
Second, Hambantota was no “sell-out,” at all. It had been a lease and such leases are common strategies that governments all over the world do adopt given the failure of better options. In the country I live (Australia), a year ago the port of Darwin was given on lease to China and nobody raised a cry – because Parliamentarians here are cognitively superior to the ones in Sri Lanka.
Darwin was an economic strategy. Likewise, one can see that Hambantota was one such. First, how are we to payback the massive loan debt? WR sheds crocodile tears for the people but does he want the people to pay for these loans?
Second, China has a better prospect of managing the port profitably than we can ever have. China could manage that and the surrounding region and ensure significant trickle -down- flows in employment and income to the Hambantota people. WR says there isn’t a difference between a lease and a sell-out. There is, as the buyback of a lease is bound to be more cost-effective.
As a matter of legal fact, no property belonging to a country sold to a party of another country can ever represent an irrevocable sell-out for the simple reason that the country of location has the option of acquiring the block of land. The block may be sold but not the country and the block ultimately belongs to the country of its location.
Former Minister Wijeyadasa seems to be rejecting any idea of privatising land belonging to the Government and he deems such act as a “sell out of national assets”. This, again, isn’t so. Lee Kuan Yew privatised large blocks and gave them out for development to the private entrepreneurs and the latter did a marvellous job-bringing in enormous trickle effects to the economy of Singapore.
In Sri Lanka, we have large blocks of vacant and unused land belonging to the CGR and CTB. It is a wise policy to privatise them for suitable investment projects. WR says he stopped CTB land given once on this basis. Wasn’t that a foolish act?
Delay in finalising court cases
The unexplained and inordinate delay of finalising court cases of those of the previous regime suspected of theft, abuse, and murder had also been a sore point, especially among the UNP Working Committee and the population-at-large.
True, the Minister of Justice cannot be held fully responsible. On the other hand, WR never made one submission that explains the issues with regard to the delays – some of them obvious instances. The perception had been that WR acted as a barrier.
Avant-Garde
WR’s speeches in Parliament a year-or-so ago defending one accused, Gotabaya, and the Avant-Garde man, Senadhipathi, did not go down well. They were insensitive moves on his part. Pictures of WR and Senadhipathi enjoying each other’s private company went viral on social media. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe should have been more sensitised and empathetic to such moves. He should have acted proactive. That is political skill.
Much has been reported about the positive side of Avant-Garde. The newly-appointed Navy Commander, Vice Admiral Sinnaiah, released some key information in an interview to a newspaper on Thursday, stating that Avant-Garde was originally a concept of the Sri Lanka Navy and he explained how the Navy ran that profitably while it was given away to the private company headed by Senadhipathi. Now, there you are: A ‘national asset,’ sold to a private firm!
The Navy Commander also points out how the decline in profits now after the re-takeover is due to the fact that some of the activities were separated out of the Navy. Said the Navy Commander: “The Avant-Garde operation is just a theory. This was a Naval operation and plan. You have to be very clear that Onboard Security Operations (OBS) was brought up by the Navy at the end of the war. After the war when the SL Navy went to various countries, especially the UN, they asked us whether we were capable of going out there and defeating the Somali pirates because we were the most robust small boat fighting team in the world. The SL Navy is ranked No. 1 as the most experienced and robust teams.”
However, the real slump of the former Minister’s defence came when he shifted from defence to attack mode by stating that his dismissal was done to cloak the “bond scandal”. The insinuation is that Ranil Wickremesinghe would also get caught. This ‘forecast’ of a case that is sub-juice isn’t right.
Furthermore, all we have up to now is the COPE investigation report and that exonerates the Prime Minister over this issue. COPE even states that had Mahendran followed the PM’s advice, this problem would not have arisen. Besides, on his own admission in his defence statement he had no authority over court investigations. How, then, could he have authority over the Presidential Commission? (The writer can be reached via sjturaus@optusnet.com.au.)
“People said that she had been loaded onto a bus,” says Abirami’s mother as she sits on a tarpaulin sheet in Kilinochchi. “Just like that she’s missing.”
“People from that camp came and told us that my child was there in Zone 4… someone I know told me,” Srimathy continues.
Justice delayed is justice denied 
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