Religious fanatics at work at law and order minister’s electorate

- Sep 30, 2017

A group of Buddhist monks entered a Muslim businessplace near Nation’s Trust Bank at Deniyaya town on the 27th, threatened its owner and workers and closed down the place. The reason they cited was that a purse with a Dharma Chakra printed on it was on sale there.

The OIC of Deniyaya police intervened and the owner explained to him that it was not a Dharma Chakra, but an anchorage. The OIC accepted it and informed him that the place could be reopened.

The group of religious fanatics made this threat in the electorate of minister of law and order Sagala Ratnayake. If he cannot maintain law and order in his electorate, how can he expect to do so in the entire country?

We have been experiencing the activities of such extremist groups for several years now. But, the government has so far been unable to tackle them. Recently, a group of monks threatened and tried to attack a group of

Rohingya refugees staying in the country under UNHRC care. That was raised in parliament too. Ministers Mangala Samaraweera and Rajitha Senaratne stressed that such groups should be controlled, while deputy minister Ajith P. Perera said a black mark against the country was caused due to actions by certain extremists over this matter.

Such positive talk from the government side is welcome, but it is confined to talk only. The subject minister is keeping silent. Saying there are threats to the Sinhalese and Buddhism from other communities and other religions, these groups are taking the law into their own hands, and taking to the path of the Taleban and 969 group of Myanmar. They justify killings to protect Buddhism. How can such extremist groups protect a nation and a religion?

The Weeratunga-Pelpita ‘sil redi’ saga

by C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island-September 30, 2017, 8:01 pm

The ‘sil redi’ judgment against former presidential secretary Lalith Weeratunga and former Telecommunications Regulatory Commission Director General Anusha Pelpita continues to make waves. Indeed the discussion of this judgment is fully justified. This writer cannot think of another judgment at the High Court level which is fraught with such serious implications for the way the most important institutions and the public service in this country functions. The sil redi judgement itself says that no part of the money involved was taken by Lalith Weeratunga and Anusha Pelpita for their personal use yet they were sentenced to three years RI and a fine of two million rupees as well as an unprecedented fine of Rs 50 million each on the grounds that they had misappropriated Rs 600 million from the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) to be spent on sil redi to confer an advantage on Mahinda Rajapaksa at the last presidential elections.

The Weeratunga-Pelpita ‘sil redi’ saga.docx by Thavam on Scribd

Dealdasa decides to quit politics ; wants to make way for Rosie to take over !

(Lanka-e-News - 30.Sep.2017, 2.45PM)   If there was ever a politico  in the whole political history of Sri Lanka who earned the disrepute as the first minister  who was chased out from his portfolio with the full consent and concurrence of all the parliamentary members of his party and the leaders of his party (executive committee members) , it was none other than notorious corrupt turncoat cutthroat Wijedasa Rajapakse alias Dealdasa. It was very unfortunate though he was afforded an opportunity to resign honorably despite his villainies and perfidies , he did not seize that. 

Wijedasa who did not attend parliament since the   day   he was ousted had told his friends when they  met him , he would never ever contest elections again. Besides , he will even give up his M.P. post to make way for  the appointment of Rosie Senanayake . As  he is shy to be a backbencher , he is quitting politics , and he will be continuing with his businesses ,  he had added. (He has become a  multi millionaire businessman through his ‘illicit deals’ for which he was best noted while he was the justice minister). 

He has been compelled to arrive at this decision because following his expulsion from  his ministerial post until today , not a single member of his working  committee in  his electorate had come and met him nor given him even a phone call. In other words he had incurred their wrath and displeasure so much so that they had  rejected him in toto ! 

It is a pity though infamous Dealdasa was engaged in illicit wheeler dealer activities in collaboration with the equally corrupt Medamulana  Rajapakses while he was a minister , the Medamulanas who are noted for their  condom theory of ‘use and discard’ , have totally ignored him after  he lost his portfolio. 

This is a good lesson to all those politicos who are even just thinking of becoming a wheeler dealer. Like how Dealdasa who for a long time  even dreamt of becoming a prime minister met his waterloo , these crooked and corrupt politicos must now  realize they too can court the same disaster or even worse if they toe his line.   

Might we recall on 2016-11-18 ,Dealdasa  told in parliament when he a minister that Lanka e news editor is a pauper , and if some cash is given to him he would sling mud at anyone , and no matter where he is , he will get him down and throw him into jail. Sadly , instead  it is Dealdasa  who got thrown out lock stock and barrel. 

It is hoped others too who speak like him with an unbridled tongue will learn a bitter lesson from the Wijedasa episode. It is a Universally accepted fact every  evil you do recoils on you finally. How powerful and  mighty you may think you are , how clever or crafty you may be , one day sooner or later you will have to  answer for your evils and sins you committed . You cannot make somebody else to answer .

Neither unscrupulous Wijedasa Rajapakse nor ‘deathless’ Medamulana Mahinda Rajapakse can change or circumvent that natural law.

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by     (2017-09-30 09:33:21)

The attack on Rohingya: Shameful and surreal like far-right antics everywhere

by Rajan Philips-September 30, 2017, 7:54 pm 

Not enough, one might say about the condemnations that followed the shameful mob-monk attack on Sri Lanka’s Rohingya refugees who were under the protection of UNHCR in Colombo. It should not have happened in the first place. The fact it happened is a permanent shame and it cannot be washed away by any amount of condemnation. The police inaction showed that the police have learnt nothing and forgotten everything about their duty to protect the helpless regardless of their religion or ethnicity. To add insult to injury the refugees have been transferred to the dreadful Boosa camp, as the government cannot protect them in any other place in the country. The Minister of Health has described the monk who led the attack as an animal and a disgrace to Buddhism, which is Asia’s pride and Sri Lanka’s state religion. The Minister of Finance (and Media, another odd pairing) was unexceptionable in his condemnation. But other voices who should have added their timbre to the chorus, have strangely, or not so strangely, remained silent.

In fact, until the attack the chorus was mostly condemnatory of the Rohingya people and about their being unwelcome here, as Muslims, from one Buddhist country to another. Much grinding has been going on about the traditional ties between Sri Lanka and Myanmar. No one cares a hoot about the internal and external ties between Sri Lanka and the Muslims, which are live and real and not some page in history. The High Commissioner for Bangladesh in Colombo, Riaz Hamidullah, masterfully pushed back on the impertinent and insensitive traditionalist questioning by insisting that in a situation of humanitarian crisis nothing else matters. Not that he was wanting in speaking to, and he did that quite eloquently, the historical and political aspects of the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar and its spillover into Bangladesh.

The need of the hour, as the High Commissioner passionately pointed out, is to put an end to the humanitarian tragedy in northern Myanmar and address the plight of half a million Rohingya people who have been driven out of their homes in Myanmar into makeshift refugee camps in Bangladesh. Thirty one of them landed in Sri Lanka and were attacked by the country’s nationalist blacklegs. About 40,000 of them are in India, assembling there over forty years from the 1970s. And a Minister in the Modi government has called for the deportation of the entire Rohingya population in India. When human rights activists pre-emptively petitioned the Supreme Court as any deportation would be in violation of not only international law but also India’s long established, and pre-BJP, tradition of receiving displaced people, the government pulled out the ISIS terrorist trump card. Just like Donald Trump, the man.

What is at work here is not history or traditional ties, but the politics of primitive and intolerant religious chauvinism masquerading as opposition to ‘Islamic terrorism’. As the Indian commentator Subir Bhaumik noted, Rohingya have become "a favourite whipping boy for the Hindu right-wing to energize their base." Just like their leader, Prime Minister Modi, who during the 2014 election campaign, raised the spectre of illegal Bangladeshi migrants to enthuse his Hindu vote base in the eastern border areas. Those who attacked the Rohingyas in Sri Lanka and want them thrown out of the country are not at all representative of the majority of Buddhists, let alone being representative of the teachings and the ideals of the Great One. They are the scum of the earth, Sri Lankan earth at that.

At least the Sri Lankan government spokesmen have called the rascals out. There should have been more of them speaking out, as I noted at the outset. The silence of the Joint Opposition has been deafening. The Left – the old, dead, and new, has been silent too. The former President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has put out long and laboured statement in an attempt to vindicate himself in the Uma Oya debacle, blaming of all people the JVP for the tunneling project that is running the Uva region dry. What took him so long? His version of history has already been repudiated by more informed retired officials of the old Irrigation Department. But, why not a much shorter and more statesmanlike statement on how Sri Lankans should react to the crisis in Myanmar? Shouldn’t he remind his compatriots of the teachings of the Great One and their internal and external ties to Muslims? Why haven’t any of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s many advisers advised him to play a peacemaker’s role between Myanmar and Bangladesh? He is closer to the two countries than the distant Kofi Annan or other UN mandarin. This is what former heads of state do when defeated or retired, and not trying to topple the governments of their successors. But the former President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has seldom been a beneficiary of good advice.

The surreal part

As signs and omens go, the attack on the Rohingya refugees is part of a broader mix of worrisome signs and bad omens, not just in Sri Lanka but elsewhere. The surreal part is in the ‘disconnect’ between the ominous signs and the current socio-political context. The well-orchestrated attacks against Muslims and Christians in Sri Lanka have been raising fears every year about another July 1983. While another July 1983 could happen, the ammunition dump that blew up in 1983 is not at all part of the current context. The concerns now are more about mountainous garbage dumps. Yet, to modify Mao, complacency could be the enemy of national peace, with or without reconciliation. The slide into chaos bordering on catastrophe could be swift and without warning like landslides.

The surreal part is far clearer in the nuclear spat between the world’s two overgrown delinquents in North Korea and in North America. The threat of a nuclear exchange is more ominous than it ever was during the Cold War era. And it is surreal that a nuclear exchange could happen without any of the compulsions that characterized the Cold War situation. It would be a nuclear war about nothing: a Seinfeld comedy writ large and tragic on the global scale. The not so sudden success of the extreme right-wing Alternative for Germany Party (AfD) in the German elections, capturing close to a hundred seats as the third largest party and raising fears of Nazi re-emergence, is another surreal phenomenon. Because, there is no Hitler in Germany, and in Angela Merkel, the Germans have the safest hands in the world at their helm.

Chancellor Merkel’s social democratic critics took her to task for her apparent skill in "asymmetric demobilization." It means being bland and extremely inoffensive to the opposition and thereby avoid provoking the opposition base into fury and motivating them to vote. Put another way, Merkel’s style of politics puts opposition voters to sleep and enables her to win by default in a lower turnout. In fairness, it is not only her style of politics but also her performance as Chancellor that has given Angela Merkel a fourth term in office albeit with a dented majority. (For the benefit of Sri Lankan ‘Third Termers’ – the German Chancellor is a parliamentary leader and not a presidential head of state, for which two terms are the world’s norm.) But Dr. Merkel’s bland approach to demobilizing the opposition fell a bit too short of its mark in her fourth election. True to form and to her credit, she has promised to win back the disaffected voters who voted for AfD. In a sign of the maturity of German political leaders, the second largest Social Democratic Party has opted not to join the government but to stay fully in opposition as the main opposition party and deny the AfD a monopolising opposition space. And the AfD, more strongly based in states of the former East Germany, is showing signs of factional splintering under the weight of its own success.

If asymmetric demobilization did not work with the German far right, what will work elsewhere? Poor Hillary Clinton, who brought out a book on her historic election defeat even as Angela Merkel was recording her fourth victory, was pilloried in America for her inopportune turn of phrase during the campaign: the ‘basket of deplorables’ - to describe the monochromatic (as opposed to rainbow) coalition of Trump voters. According to some pundits, it even cost her the election. President Trump, on the other hand, is the master of asymmetric mobilization – deliberately energizing his base while ignoring all the duties and responsibilities and traditions of his office. He is hardly the man to serve America’s interests at the present time, and he is not at all the person the world needs as the leader of its most powerful country. At the same time, while the quirkiness of the American political system, not to mention all the allegations about Russian interference, has resulted in Trump being elected as President, the checks and balances of the system are also straining every bit to keep their extraordinary president extraordinarily checked.

Other countries may not have the same luxury of resources and institutions to minimize the damage caused by political choices. There can also be disappointments, such as in Myanmar with Aung San Suu Kyi. She was once the human-rights hero to the whole world, except for a handful of Sri Lankans who saw her as a western puppet against the military junta in a country with traditional Buddhist ties. Now, Ms. Suu Kyi is becoming known as a stubborn and autocratic political player. The Lady, as she is called, is now a special State Counsellor, who is de facto above the elected President, not answerable to parliament, and above any form of public scrutiny. Even gods will falter under the weight of such a conflation, even if it is not a formal concentration of power, especially in a country like Burma coming out of a total military dictatorship with hardly any institutional resource for good government. A clear symptom of her exalted isolation is the total absence of any exposure to the media in fourteen months after the national election.

She has been noticeably cold and taciturn on the Rohingya crisis, while the Myanmar media has been feeding its people with denunciations of the international media coverage of the crisis as, what else, fake news. From Trump in America to the government in Myanmar, any and every inconvenient truth is fake news. Time was when there were as many leaders as there were heads, while now is the time when there are as many truths as there are social media devices. All of this is not of any help in discerning how or in what way the Rohingya crisis will deteriorate, be resolved, or go into stalemate. But the pretext of using ‘Islamic terrorism’ as reason for targeting, attacking and deporting indigenous Muslims in South Asian countries will extract a huge price sooner or later. It will only foster ISIS finding new homes in countries west of Pakistan, which have hitherto remained isolated from Middle Eastern radicalism with hitherto ‘secular’ India providing a powerful geographical buffer. It will also lead to the unnecessary polarization of South Asia and the more easterly Asia into Muslim and non-Muslim countries. There is no ‘foreign policy’ thinking in contemporary Sri Lanka – for the country to play a positive regional role in preventing regional destabilization. Much of what goes on outside is beyond Sri Lanka’s control. But it has all the power to do everything it needs to prevent external events causing even more divisions among its ethnic co-existences.

Unruly Street ‘Wirathus’- A Bane To Sri Lanka

By Mohamed Harees –SEPTEMBER 30, 2017

Lukman Harees

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves

honored  by the humiliation of their fellow beings. —Mahatma Gandhi

The Rohingyans in recent times are fleeing a campaign of indiscriminate violence by Myanmar’s military, whose tactics are being widely condemned the world over as a form of ethnic cleansing. Entire villages have been burned to the ground, indiscriminately killed, tortured ,women raped leading to mass exodus to other countries seeking safety and security. Addressing the UN Security Council, UN Secretary General António Guterres quoted bone chilling accounts from those who had fled — mainly women, children and the elderly, and summed up the Rohingya Crisis saying: ‘this humanitarian crisis has spiralled into the world’s fastest developing refugee emergency and a humanitarian and human rights nightmare’. It is rightly being said that ‘of the scars which Rohingya refugees carry, the most difficult ones to heal will be those that violence has caused to their hearts & minds’. Despite this humane catastrophe, rogue monks and hate peddlers in Sri Lanka are attempting to mislead the peaceful Sinhala Buddhist people by painting the unfortunate victims as terrorists and perpetrators of violence against the Myanmar Buddhists.    

It was in this context that the brutality of the attacks on Rohingya refugees in Sri Lanka should be viewed. What happened in Colombo on the 26th September was both inhumane and sickening and totally incompatible with all norms of humanity and Buddhist principles. The government and even the Police knew that these refugees are under UNCHR custody and no plans were afoot to grant them asylum in Sri Lanka. In a repeat enactment of the unofficial policing drama seen during MR times, saffron clad hooligans and anti-Muslim hate peddler thugs (which included the ‘cardboard Sando’ Dan Prasad as well) led a mob that stormed a UN safe house broke down gates, shouted profanities and threats, pelted stones and entered the walled multi-storied compound as frightened refugees huddled together in upstairs rooms.

One of the ‘monks’ who stormed the building posted a provocative video on the social networking site filmed by his radical group as he urged others to join him and smash the premises. “These are Rohingya terrorists who killed Buddhist monks in Myanmar,” the monk said in his live commentary, pointing to Rohingya mothers with small children in their arms. The lawyer looking after the interests of these refugees told at a press interview that refugees have told him that a monk who came to the Police Station has threatened them with hand gestures that their throats will be slit and heads chopped off,which shows the lowest depth of barbarity, these so-called Buddhist monks who are expected to carry the peace epistle of the Buddha, have stooped to.

Police officers merely stood mum despite already knowing the background, thus giving the perpetrators the leeway to operate without fear or sanction.  Perhaps the refugees would have begun to relive their agony which they faced in Myanmar under Wirathu, the so-called ‘The Face of Buddhist Terror‘ (called as such by the ‘Time’ magazine). Government too dragged their feet in keeping the country informed about the correct position, although Ministers Rajitha and Mangala more in their personal capacity condemned this barbaric act by these saffron clad thugs calling them ‘animals’ and the apathy of the law enforcement authorities. Complaints have already been lodged against these culprits and also against the Police for their inaction, failure to arrest those responsible as well as their usual double standards in dealing with complaints made by Muslim victims. 

As we have seen in the past, the failure of the nation to take timely effective action against these anti- patriotic elements in the garb of Buddhist monks and raising emotional Sinhala Buddhist slogans has led Sri Lanka to 1983 style situations and it will lead to repeats if this trend is not arrested. Thus, it is imperative that we need to at least look beyond this Refugee episode and send a strong message to these thugs in robes that this type of thuggish behaviour will no longer be tolerated.

Wirathu incidentally not only carried out a well-orchestrated anti-Muslim hate campaign which led to killings, burning of villages and ethnic cleansing through 969 movement in Myanmar, but also exported his campaign to Sri Lanka during the MR regime time, creating a Sri Lankan Wirathu class in the process. His sermons were so toxic that even the Sangha Council in Maynmar banned him for a stated period, although his movement carried on their campaign regardless at the grass-root levels. Wirathu become the God father of the BBS in all aspects, who partnered with the Wirathu of Sri Lanka- Gnanassara ( I apologize for omitting the prefix like Ven and suffix like Thero when referring to these thugs in saffron clothing as I believe they do not deserve them),who under patronage from the higher ups in the MR government (which promoted Sinhala Buddhist supremacism and majoritarian attitudes), polluted the prospects of peace and unity in the Post –war period by systematically and strategically targeting Muslims branding them as the next enemy. Wirathu was ironically the guest speaker at the BBS convention in October 2014.  Other diehard Islamophobes such as Akmeemana Dayarathana of Sinhala Ravaya and Ithekande Saddhatissa of Ravana Balakaya become his partners in crime, both on the streets and anywhere they thought fit. All this drama made Post war Sri Lanka a hell on earth for the minorities – not just Muslims and Tamils, but even Sinhala Christians too.

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BBS HEAD GNANASARA GOES SCOTT FREE! SRI LANKA GOVT WITHDRAWS HATE SPEECH CHARGES!

30/09/2017

Sri Lanka government has taken  decision to  not proceed with the hate speech charges filed against  extremist Buddhist monk and the leader of the Buddhist Brigade ( Bodu Bala Sena),  Galabodaaththe Gnanasara.

Accordingly,  when the case against Galabodaaththe Gnanasara was taken up on 29th Sep 2017 the Crime Prevention Division of the Police informed the Colombo Magistrate Court it will not take any legal action against the thero and requested the court to stay the case.

Police had filed this case on the complaint made by UNP politician and member of the parliament Mohamed Mujibur Rahman that Gnanasara thero has made contemptuous  public statements on Allah, Islam and Muslim people. Acting on complaint Police arrested Gnansara thero on 21 June 2017 and  released him on bail on the same day.

Monk Gnanasara  is known for unleashing virulent hate attacks on Sri Lankan Muslims and a close ally of anti – Muslim Burmese Buddhist monk Wirathu.

Political analysts are of the opinion that without clear instructions from the political authority Police would not have made  decision to release Gnanasara of hate speech charges.  Impunity for hate crimes against religious and ethnic minorities is the norm in Sri Lanka.

In recent times one of the president Sirisena’s advisers Ulapane Sumangala thero has become the protector of Gananasara thero and said to be a close to some of the Sirisena’s lay advisers.

Siege on ‘Rohingya’ safe house

By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan-2017-10-01

All is not well for the 31 Rohingya boat people, who belong to a Muslim ethnic group in majority-Buddhist Myanmar, after they sought refuge in Sri Lanka in April this year. A group of Sinhala nationalist and extremist Buddhist monks marched to their residence in Mount Lavinia on the morning of 26 September and began calling on the Rohingya to step out of their apartment or else it would be attacked.

The mob wanted the Rohingya to leave the country immediately, labelling them as 'terrorists' who have been offered shelter in Sri Lanka. These Rohingya sought refuge after fleeing violence in their Rakhine State of Myanmar following a military crackdown on suspected Muslim militants.

The group of 31 includes 17 children, seven women and seven men, were rescued by the Sri Lanka Coast Guard while they were adrift in the northern waters.

Following a Court order, they were later housed at the Mirihana Detention Camp and thereafter handed over to the United Nation Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

The UNHCR later moved the group to a temporary safe house in Mount Lavinia that was subsequently traced by the monks and their supporters.

The group that gathered at the refugee abode also recorded the incident and it has been passed on to social media.

The monks described the Rohingya as 'pathetic' people who are not wanted in their own country.

 They said the government had entertained 'snakes' and kaalakanniyas who have come to destroy the prevailing peace in the country'.

On that morning, a young monk constantly kept calling other 'patriots' over the phone to join him to chase these kaalakanniyas who have murdered Buddhist monks in Myanmar. "India and Bangladesh rejected them but our fellows have given shelter," the monk told the people who gathered around him.
He was also looking for the owner of the house and asked whether he had no shame to house these 'terrorists'.

Some of the nearby residents also joined the monks saying that the Rohingya were brought to Mount Lavinia on the directions of influential persons.
An elderly official attached to the UNHCR arrived at the premises and tried to explain matters to those who had gathered but without success.

The situation worsened after the crowd recognized the UN official to be a local Muslim.

The mob yelled at the UN official saying "if the Muslims in Colombo come under attack it would be because of him as he had helped to shelter the Rohingya."

The monks asked the UNHCR official whether they were ruling the country and how on earth could these people who were without passports be allowed to stay in the country.
Police interference

The monks later called the area Police and complained about the Rohingya.

The Police also queried from the UNHCR official as to why the refugees were housed in a private building when they are supposed to be at the Mirihana Detention Centre. The Police officer also checked the NIC details of the UNHCR official.

The monks then went on to berate the Police accusing them of neglecting their duties.
However, later, a Police jeep arrived at the scene and the Rohingya were taken away to the Mirihana DetentionCamp.

However, hours later, the refugees returned to the same apartment. On hearing the news, the mob re-gathered, this time larger in number and led by several monks. They violently attacked the gates and the windows with stones. They accused the UNHCR of interfering in Sri Lanka's domestic affairs.

The thugs later scaled the walls of the apartment and tried to storm the building only to be prevented with the arrival of the Police.

The siege on the safe house alarmed the UNHCR High Commissioner who emphasized that the refugees are victims of violence and persecution and need international protection.

The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka also berated the Government for turning a blind eye on the series of attacks on Muslims. They noted that the attack on the Rohingya led by a prominent monk under the banner of the 'Sinhala National Front' was not probed and urged the Prime Minister to intervene and ensure that this type of vigilante action by Buddhist monks is stopped and the perpetrators brought to justice immediately.

Also, the Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera voiced his concern over the incident calling the perpetrators "a group of thugs in robes".

The Ministry for Law and Order on 28 September said three investigating Police teams have been deployed while the acting IGP said further investigations into the incident has been handed over to the Colombo Crime Division (CCD).

Currently, the Rohingya refugees are being held at the Boossa Camp in Galle until the UNHCR could provide them with a safe passage to another destination that is free of hatred.

The Rohingya refugees

Friday, 29 September 2017

It was most distressing to watch the news item on 26 September of the so-called protest by some unruly monks and coarse looking men in front of the supposed refuge of Rohingya asylum seekers. This place I believe is in the bustling Colombo suburb of Mt. Lavinia. The protest was held on a busy weekday, causing much inconvenience to the general public.

From what we can gather, these refugees, having escaped from harrowing events in their native Myanmar, were afloat on a small boat in Sri Lankan waters when they were detained by our Navy. The journey in the rough seas of the Bay of Bengal would have been testing, especially for the women and children who until now have lived in peaceful villages, occupied mainly in agriculture. Even on a straight line, the distance from Myanmar to Sri Lanka is approximately 1,400 miles. In the windy and choppy seas, a boat cannot sail on a straight line.

Legend has it that some 2,000 years ago, an errant prince and his companions were put on a boat and exiled from a land somewhere close to the starting point, perhaps present day Bengal. The father, the king, could not overlook the young man’s misdemeanours any longer. This was heavy punishment. Banishment over the ocean would mean never to see his son again. There were no reliable navigational aids then, and those in the water went where the wind and the waves took them.

It was a long and hazardous journey, and after a violent storm the young men were washed ashore on the sandy beaches of faraway Lanka, to face new adventures in the strange land. Those were happy days, before humans had invented inconveniences like national borders, passports and visas.

The indigenous to the island at the time had no appreciation of what this chance landing of strange men on their shore bode. In all probability, they had neither the will nor the capacity to do anything about it either. As they say, the rest is history.

In the intervening 2,000 years humans have evolved so much that we may well be another species. We do everything differently now. Technology has brought food, clothing and creature comforts within easy reach. Religions have mellowed us. Science and education have enlightened us. Laws have disciplined us. Our concepts have become larger and broader.

But then, we encounter incidents like that of 26 September and the whole assumption of an advancing civilisation comes into doubt. The primitive passions rise, the fanatic emerges and the savage takes charge.

These Rohingya refugees were victims of circumstances, penalised not for something they have done (especially the women and children), but for who they are. They did not leave their hearths and homes for economic betterment. If that was the reason to brave the Bay of Bengal, Sri Lanka would be a strange choice. It was a fear for their lives that emboldened them to embark on the dangerous voyage. They are human beings in distress.

This is not a situation for us to look at through eyes of politics or even particularities. These unfortunates have left behind ever thing they owned in order to save their lives. We need not look at the justice of the situation or the history of the problem. It does not matter what nationality, religion, politics or the colour the desperate refugees belong to. In such situations we do not ask for whom the bell tolls.

Sri Lanka should be proud to welcome them, give them succour and hope. True, we are a poor and over-populated country and cannot indefinitely support refugees on our soil. The country can work with the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) and other countries to find a permanent solution. Perhaps we can be a transit point for the refugees. But as long as they are here, we have a duty of care. The world should see that while we have our problems, we are not an ungenerous people and certainly not poor in human spirit. This is what being civilised is all about.

One cannot help but notice the few Buddhist monks at the protest, who stood out like sore thumbs. In the moral confusion of the day, it is not surprising that some of the clergy are pulled into matters far outside of a spiritual journey. We see several of them involved in political and other worldly matters; seeking rich and powerful patronage, succumb to the allure of creature comforts far above the average and indulge in the occult. The power of the “maya” is immense indeed.

We can only observe that Buddhism is one of the profoundest ‘philosophies’ to have emerged out of the Indian sub-continent. Not everyone who can claim perfect understanding of its deep and difficult message. But anybody could act in its name. That is a tragedy, and yet, like all things corporeal, a ‘maya’.

UN Safe House Attack: Dan Priyasad And 3 Others Arrested, Buddhist Monks Roam Free

OCTOBER 1, 2017

Notorious for spewing hate among the Muslim and Sinhalese communities, Dan Priyasad along with three others were arrested today by the police, in connection to the mob attack on the Rohingyarefugees at the UN safe house in Mount Lavinia on Tuesday.

Dan Priyasad | File photo

A statement from the police headquarters said that a total of six suspects have been arrested including a woman. The four arrested on Saturday were Liyanage Abeyrathne Suresh Priyasad alias Dan, however according to the statement; Priyasad was 51 years although he is believed to be much younger. The other three arrested were; Paneetha Niroshan Deepage, Nawalage Don Chinthaka Sanjeewa and Nanayakkara Godakandha Kankanamlage Gayan Madhushanka Seneviratne.

Incidentally, and despite video evidence, the leader of the Sinhala Ravaya, Akmeemana Dayarathanawho led the mob attack at the safe house continues to roam free.

Meanwhile, in a strange turn of events, the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) in a statement issued on its Facebook page said that the Rohingya refugees should be dealt with humanity. The BBS said that supporting Myanmar Buddhists, defeating terrorism and protecting the rights of refugees were all different subjects. “We should not mix them without proper understanding and knowledge,” the BBS statement said. The group requested everyone to respect humanity and look through Buddhist perspectives.

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Kurdistan referendum: Another flashpoint in West Asia

2017-09-29

In what could be a trigger for another major conflict in West Asia, Kurds in Iraq on Monday voted overwhelmingly for separation. More than 92 percent of the people – Kurds and non-Kurds in the autonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq – voted yes, delivering a powerful message to Iraq and its neighbours that the Kurds’ dream of finally achieving a state of their own will soon be a reality.

The Iraqi Kurds’ victory at the non-binding referendum was greeted with a virtual declaration of war by Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. The preparation for the war has already begun. If the separation takes place, it will cause a cataclysmic upheaval in West Asia’s geopolitics. The referendum will be remembered as another disastrous byproduct of the United States’ Iraq war. As though the millions of deaths, destruction and displacement were not enough, the US war for oil and military contracts is now set to drag the bloodied region into another dark period of uncertainty and violence. This is happening at a time when the region is just witnessing the end of a long haul battle against the Islamic State terror group.

There has already been a lot of bad blood between the Kurds and Iraq’s Arabs, both the Sunnis and the Shiites. It was with the help of the Kurds that the US troops first broke into Iraq in 2003 from the north of the country.  Being the Americans’ fifth columnists, the Kurds have, in the new federal constitution gained more political rights, much to the chagrin of the Iraqi Arabs. 

As though the millions of deaths, destruction and displacement were not enough, the US war for oil and military contracts is now set to drag the bloodied region into another dark period of uncertainty and violence

In terms of the US-guided constitution, the country’s presidency goes to a Kurd. The constitution recognises the right to return of those Kurds who have expelled from the oil-rich Kirkuk area during Saddam Hussein’s arabisation programme. It allows the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to conduct foreign relations and maintain its own security forces, known as Peshmerga, which played a key role in the defeat of the IS.  The region has its own President, Prime Minister and parliament.

In addition to these and many more constitutional rights, the Kurds have arrogated upon themselves the right to sell oil to foreign companies in contravention of Iraq’s laws. 
The only factor that has prevented them from declaring a separate state is their fear that their landlocked Kurdistan will not survive if the neighbours turn hostile.  Already Turkey has warned of an economic blockade if the Kurds declare their independent state. Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is livid that his request to Kurdish leaders to cancel the referendum has gone unheeded. The Kurds had committed a historic mistake, he said on Tuesday and warned that Iraqi troops would take over the region’s international airport at Arbil today if it is not handed over to the state before the deadline. Iraq yesterday called on international airlines to avoid the airport. Abadi also ordered the KRG to send all oil revenue to the centre. 

Abadi said he was ready for a dialogue for greater autonomy within Iraq’s constitution. 
But on Wednesday, a defiant Abadi told Iraq’s parliament, which is being boycotted by Kurdish members, that there was no question of using the result of the referendum as the basis for talks. “We will impose Iraqi law in the entire region of Kurdistan under the constitution,” he said, while parliament urged him to take “all necessary measures to maintain Iraq’s unity”.

The Pentagon, which maintains close military ties with Iraqi and Syrian Kurds apparently holds a different view that goes with the policy of Israel, the only country which has welcomed Kurdistan’s independence bid

Sensing the growing international apprehension over Kurdistan becoming a flashpoint for a region-wide conflict, KRG leader Massud Barzani in a referendum victory speech tried to allay the fears of Baghdad and neighbouring countries. He said the vote would not lead to an immediate declaration of independence and should, instead, open the door to negotiations.

Meanwhile, Iran extending its support to the Iraqi government, has, moved artillery batteries to the border with Kurdistan, while Turkey, armed with parliamentary approval for cross border incursion, has amassed tanks and troops on its border with Iraq’s Kurdistan. 

Turkey, Iran and Syria fear that an independent Kurdistan state out of Iraq could give a boost to Kurdish separatist movements in their countries. In Turkey and Iraq, Kurds make up 18 percent of the population; in Iran and Syria they are seven percent, in Armenia about 5 percent.  Overall, more than 32 million Kurds live in a contiguous region spreading over these five countries.  All these countries have attempted to de-Kurdise the Kurds. Saddam Hussein used military force and even chemical weapons to crush the Kurdish struggle for autonomy. In Syria, a Kurd cannot be given a Kurdish name. In Turkey, Kurds are not recognised as Kurds. They are called “mountain Turks”. It is illegal to use the Kurdish language in Turkish schools and public offices. 

For the past four decades or so, Turkey has been fighting a separatist war against the Kurdistan Workers Party or the PKK, which has been declared a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its Nato allies. 

In Iran, however, the Kurdish question has been, to a great extent, settled, with the Kurds integrating into the mainstream society. Teheran fears that an independent Kurdistan across the border would disturb this harmony and could turn the Iranian Kurds into a US and Israeli partner for an attack on Iran. Teheran has slammed the independent Iraqi Kurdistan as an ally of Israel. 

It is not clear what the US position on the Kurdish issue is. A US State Department statement said the US “is deeply disappointed” that the regional government held the vote but that the “historic relationship with the people of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region will not change.” It also reiterated its belief that the referendum “will increase instability and hardships for the Kurdistan region and its people”. 

But the Pentagon, which maintains close military ties with Iraqi and Syrian Kurds apparently holds a different view that goes with the policy of Israel, the only country which has welcomed Kurdistan’s independence bid. It is no secret that Israel wanted to balkanize every country in the region to weaken them and maintain its military superiority. In 2006, the Zionist friendly US Senate passed a resolution supporting the division of Iraq into three states – an Arab Shiite state, an Arab Sunni state and Kurdistan.  The resolution was moved by Joe Biden, who later became president Barack Obama’s vice president.

Kurds are an ancient people with Indo-Iranian roots. They follow Sunni Islam, though some of them are adherents of Shiism. The great Islamic hero Salahuddin al-Ayyubi (Saladin) who recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders was a Kurd. 

In 1920, two years after World War I ended, the creation of an independent Kurdish state emerged during the deliberations of the Treaty of Sèvres. Though the defeated Ottoman sultan agreed to the proposal, his Military chief Mustafa Kemal Ataturk opposed it, prompting the allied powers to launch a military campaign against Turkey. This war came to be known as Turkey’s war for independence. With the Turks’ victory in this war, the best chance the Kurds had to carve out an independent state disappeared. 

The Kurds have got another opportunity 97 years later. But it is unlikely they can achieve independence without a fight. 

Generations of uncertainty

Stateless Palestinian refugees in Egypt are banned from studying and working in several professions.

Pan ChaoyueXinhua

28 September 2017

Ahmad, a young merchant living in the Egyptian city of El-Arish, was nursing a recent heartbreak.

Less than a month ago, he asked for an Egyptian woman’s hand in marriage. He was rejected, he said, because he is a Palestinian carrying a refugee travel document.

Yet his family have resided in Egypt for the better part of a century.

Ahmad’s family is originally from al-Maghar in central Palestine. They were forced out when the village was ethnically cleansed by Zionist forces in May 1948, the month the state of Israel was declared.

The family were among the estimated 11,600 Palestinians who fled to Egypt that year. There the authorities issued them refugee travel documents but not citizenship.

Unlike refugees who ended up in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, Palestinians who fled to Egypt did not have access to relief services from UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees, as Egypt prevented it from operating in the country.

Vulnerable

Ahmad and his family have to renew their travel documents every three years. Their tenuous status leaves them feeling vulnerable.

“We face many problems,” Ahmad told The Electronic Intifada. “We are discriminated against when we have to present [our documents] to the Egyptian police or army on the road, and we are made to feel like settlers in Egypt with no rights.”

Their refugee status makes it difficult to travel outside the country.

Ahmad said that he and his family members have been prevented from performing the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, and thus fulfilling their religious duty.

“Three years ago, we were banned from attending pilgrimage. My mother and brother tried to travel this year to perform their pilgrimage, and the Egyptian authorities prevented them from doing so because they carry Palestinian travel documents,” Ahmad said.

“There are many complications when it comes to travel.”

That is not the only limitation borne from their refugee status.

“We are barred from owning property on Egyptian soil,” Ahmad said. “We have sidestepped this problem by registering our property under the names of relatives who hold Egyptian nationality, or reliable friends.”

But even when Ahmad wanted to set up natural gas service at his apartment, he said, “I had to register it under the name of one of our relatives who holds Egyptian citizenship.”

Subsequent waves of mass displacement of Palestinians by Israel have swelled the number of refugees in Egypt over the years. There were some 160,000 Palestinian refugees residing in the country as of 2014.

Israel has prevented Palestinian refugees from exercising their right of return from the lands and properties from which they were expelled.

“Golden age”

Marwan Mustafa’s grandfather came from Gaza to work in Egypt in 1962. Five years later, he was joined by the rest of his family in the wake of Israel’s seizure of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Syria’s Golan Heights.

Mustafa, a 29-year-old journalist, said Palestinian refugees in Egypt enjoyed better treatment during the years of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Nasser’s tenure, starting in 1952, is considered a “golden age” for Palestinians in the country.

“My father used to repeat a saying that Palestinians would hear in universities: Enroll the Palestinian, and if there is space left, enroll the Egyptian.”

Such treatment deteriorated after Nasser’s death in 1970. Palestinian refugees were cut off from public services such as education and healthcare after a Palestinian faction in Cyprus assassinated Yusuf al-Sibai – an Egyptian writer and culture minister who supported President Anwar Sadat’s normalization with Israel – in Cyprus in 1978.

A law enacted in 1981 restricted the participation of Palestinian refugees and other foreigners in the workforce through a regime of permits and quotas.

Palestinian refugees also have to pay extra fees for university education, and are banned from studying medicine, pharmacy, journalism, political science and economics.

Economic burden

Restrictions to access to jobs in the private sector force many Palestinian refugees in Egypt to work as truck or taxi drivers or as day laborers and street vendors.

The fee to renew travel documents and residency rights has increased over the years, causing an additional economic burden for refugees. Residency may be revoked if a Palestinian spends more than six months outside Egypt.

Palestinian refugees can obtain a Palestinian Authority passport from the body’s embassy in Egypt. But it’s next to useless.

“When I tried to apply for a visa to go to Turkey, the Turkish embassy asked for an online application because I was residing in Egypt,” Ahmad said.

But when he started the online application process, he was told to apply directly through the embassy because he doesn’t hold citizenship.

“When I went to the embassy another time, they asked me again for an online application because in their view, I should be treated like an Egyptian.”

It was yet another disappointment for the stateless young man. With restrictions on his ability to pursue a career and improve his situation, he is not marriage material. Unable even to travel, despair is a more likely companion, as for many in his position.

“I was stuck in a loop and in the end I did not apply for a visa.”

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Wants to Make Ex-Im Bank Great Again

BY MARTIN DE BOURMONT-SEPTEMBER 27, 2017

There’s a battle brewing between big business and the Trump administration over an obscure but important corner of U.S. trade policy, the Export-Import Bank. It’s an epic showdown between President Donald Trump’s desire to reinvigorate U.S. trade might, on the one hand, and his desire to dismantle the federal government, on the other.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to the Senate Banking Committee Monday opposing the nomination this spring of former New Jersey congressman Scott Garrett to run the Ex-Im Bank. As with other agencies — like the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency — Trump has picked people to run parts of the government who have spent years railing against those very agencies.

An outspoken critic of Ex-Im Bank, Garrett has described it as an agent of crony capitalism, corrupting the free enterprise system. During his tenure as a Republican congressman, Garrett repeatedly voted against renewing the bank’s charter. (Some conservatives say the bank offers a form of “corporate welfare,” while many trade experts say it underpins U.S. exports overseas.)

At any rate, the bank is all but paralyzed. With the Senate blocking appointments to Ex-Im’s board, it lacks a quorum to approve deals worth more than $10 million. That means about 80 to 90 percent of its activities are shut down.

“Mr. Garrett has failed to in any way publicly describe any change of heart towards Ex-Im to explain why he now wants to lead the organization that he spent so much of his career trying to shutter, nor has he committed to returning Ex-Im to a fully functional state,” Suzanne Clark, senior executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wrote in Monday’s letter.

Why does the fate of a government-run export bank matter? As Clark writes, the Ex-Im Bank, by offering credit and loan guarantees for American firms, helps level the playing field with foreign competition, most of whom get plenty of financial support from their governments.

Countries like China, Japan, India, Germany, South Korea, and more all use state-backed or other official forms of export support to make their firms more competitive overseas, notes Gregory Chin, an industrial policy expert at York University. Last Spring, for instance, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation — a public finance institution and an export credit agency — agreed to finance a $480 million deal with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking, allowing the Iraqi government to buy power equipment from Japanese companies.

With China expanding export credit as part of an attempt to wrest market share from the United States even in advanced manufacturing, said Kristen Hopewell of the University of Edinburgh, crippling Ex-Im would fly in the face of Trump’s plan to strengthen American manufacturing and make it more competitive.

Garrett “seems like a very perverse choice,” she said. “It’s hard to see it as anything but an act of sabotage.”

Moreover, the Ex-Im bank came to serve as a credit lifeline in the aftermath of the financial crisis, when the private sector was reluctant to provide loans for deals in foreign countries, said Caroline Freund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former chief economist for the Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank. That kept support for U.S. exports humming along even in the worst days of the credit crunch, giving the economy an additional shock absorber. But the fact that it’s a government agency handing out credit and loan guarantees paints a target on its back for many in the GOP.

“They want a feather in their cap for hitting away at welfare more broadly,” said Freund.

Some conservatives say the desire to rein in the Ex-Im Bank is all about supporting true free-market principles. Government support, whether through subsidies or export supports, distorts the market and gives the government an outsize role in the economy, they say.

If Garrett poses a threat to the status quo of the Ex-Im Bank, said Veronique de Rugy, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, a pro-free market think tank at George Mason University,
 that’s a good thing. Why should huge multinationals like Boeing and General Electric need the bank’s taxpayer-funded support?

“The Chamber of Commerce is an ally of the free market on taxes and regulation, but they don’t understand the profound distinction between being pro-free market and pro-business,” she said.

Photo credit: Spencer Pratt/Getty Images