PM slams mischievous media spin ; Malwatte Chief Prelate denies opposing new constitution

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe displaying the front pages of newspapers that misleadingly carried the Malwatte Mahanayake Thera’s picture. Pictures by Saman Mendis

Thursday, October 19, 2017

The Chief Prelate of the Malwatte Chapter rejected media reports which mischievously suggested that he opposed any Constitutional reforms, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said today at a media briefing.

The Most Venerable Thibbotuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Mahanayake Thera told the Prime Minister that privately-owned newspapers and TV networks misled the public into believing that he objected to a new statute being formulated.

The Prime Minister was addressing the media after accepting a report on ‘Constitution for Peoples’ Governance - A youth led programme to promote public support for a new constitution, public opinions and recommendations’ by the Sri Lanka College of Journalism and three other organizations, at the parliamentary complex.

After seeing the headline news items in the Lankadeepa, Divaina and the Daily Mirror, the Prime Minister said he contacted the Chief Priest who assured him that he had not made any comments opposing the reform process.

“The venerable monk said he did not make such remarks nor was he in the country at the time,” Prime Minister Wickremesinghe told reporters in parliament.

He challenged editors of the private newspapers which front paged the misleading report today to explain their reasons and also publish his (Prime Minister’s) comments in full in their publications.

“You have carried falsehoods about the Malwatte Chief Prelate at a time when he was not even in the country,” the Prime Minister said pointing to reporters from the newspapers he identified as having carried the mischievous reports.

“Can you give an assurance that you will give the same prominence to my comments on this issue,” the Prime minister asked the reporters, but none offered a response.

He said they could telephone their editors to get their reasons, but again no one accepted the challenge.

The Prime Minister noted that views of the Most venerable Malwatte Chief Prelate on Constitutional reforms was well known.

The Chief Prelate told Dinesh Gunawardena, a stalwart of the Joint Opposition earlier this month, that he believed in the honesty and the integrity of both Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena.

“When the two leaders ruling the country have given such an assurance there is no point in questioning its validity,” the Malwatte Chief Prelate told Gunawardena.

The monk told firebrand MP Gunawardena that a new Constitution was yet to be drafted and it was only at discussion stage and urged the opposition to constructively participate in the process to ensure peace and stability in the country.

The Prime Minister said he was not opposed to newspapers giving space to dissenting voices, but it was unfair by the public to distort facts and mislead readers.

He said the Daily Mirror, Lankadeepa and the Divaina newspapers had front paged the report with photos of the Malwatte Chief Prelate giving the impression that the remarks they carried were from him.

However, the Prime Minister said the basis for the newspaper report appeared to be a press conference given by the Diyawadana Nilame (chief lay custodian of the Temple of the Tooth).

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, who started his career as a journalist before Lake House newspapers were nationalised in 1973, also offered a journalism lesson to the offending newspapers.

“If the press conference you reported was given by the Diyawadana Nilame, should you not use his photograph rather than the picture of the Malwatte Chief Priest who is out of the country,” he asked.

A relaxed Prime Minister asked reporters from the Daily Mirror, Lankadeepa, Divaina and television networks Hiru and Derana to check with their editors and explain why they decided to give a twist to the Diyawadana Nilame’s press conference to give a false impression that it was the view of the Malwatte Chief Prelate.

The lay custodian had referred to a decision of a Kaaraka Sangha Sabha (Working Committee of monks of both Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters) which had preceded the latest announcement of the Malwatte Chief Prelate earlier this month supporting efforts of the President and the Prime Minister in bring about political reforms.

Priming the pump to make your MP jump

School admissions: Let there be accountability

 Friday, 20 October 2017

Here’s a radical idea. What if – instead of liking it or lumping it as you do for years on end – the voter could hold his or her Member of Parliament accountable for their performance? Not just at election time. But in-between those ‘too-few and too-far in-between’ visits to the polls! And in a way that would keep your MP on track, honest as far as reasonable, and their parties transparent to the viewing public…

Well, I hardly know how to break it to you but that’s the idea of a democracy anyway. At least in theory. The problem is the practice has fallen between the cracks since time immemorial.

Congratulate

With that said, I sense one must congratulate Colombo-based think tank Verité Research for its proactive attempts to make an honest House out of our Elected Representatives. A while back, with their innovative platform manthri.lk, they pioneered the novelty of providing the public with pertinent information as regards their respective MPs. And the gen supplied was both eye-opening and mind-boggling. I won’t bore you with the gory details in these precious column inches (stop thinking about your member, would you, dear) – but a quick visit to manthri.lk’s portal will offer you a popper which once you pop you can’t stop. It’s quite a surprise to see how many of our elected representatives actually attend parliamentary sittings – and something of a shock to note how few use their allotted time meaningfully enough to moot ideas worth sitting up and taking notice of… other than to murmur, “Wherever did we find these chumps?”

And now, not one to let a good thing go idle, Verité has upped the ante by partnering with a software company. To identify the MPs’ respective political parties’ track records. As regards promises made on the halcyon campaign trail and those lost in the hiatus between polls. That endeavour too is an admirable enterprise. Made all the more exhilarating by the abysmal performance of both parties. Again, I won’t inundate you with the good, the bad, and the ugly; but it’s all there in plain sight on manthri.lk – go figure.

Consternate 

What’s that, give us the big picture? Very well, then, here it is (courtesy Verité Research):

• The UNFGG headed by the UNP has kept or is on track to keeping only 25% of its promises at its term’s halfway mark
• The UPFA led by the SLFP have fared worse with only 20% ‘on track’ or ‘complete’
• Some major promises which have had ‘no action’ to date include new campaign-finance laws (UNFGG) and intra-party democratic rules (UPFA), both of which are key to democratic governance 

Despite some successes by both coalitions – e.g. the UNFGG’s private-sector minimum wage, restoring GSP+ tax concessions and removing the EU fisheries-export ban; the UPFA’s estate-worker wage increase, setting up a national sustainable-development plan, creating a national economic advisory council, etc. – it is painfully evident that both horses have promises to keep and miles to go before they sleep. There are perhaps three ways short of consternation to interpret these results.

#1 Promises are harder

to keep than make

In the heat of the moment, under pressure to offer a credible mandate that would rid us of a fearsome beast, the coalition of coalitions was once constrained to name sun, moon, and stars as election promises. Later, parts of their parties would become decidedly cagey about some constitutional amendments held out as sweeteners to a polity weary of corrupt authoritarianism. Once in office, they discovered that delivering overpromised results was easier said than done. Not ashamed to admit incompetence, Good Governance had to bide its time at the pleasure of what it was pleased to call political opposition and procedural obstacles. That is why it fell short.
(This is the CHARITABLE view.)

#2 Promises are meant to be made… and then broken

In the cold press of things, while biding its time in the political wilderness under a regime that said “l’etat, c’est moi”, the then political opposition and the dissidents in the ruling party cottoned on to the scheme that seemed most worthy of them. To unleash, on the campaign trail, a veritable welter of maudlin wails and saccharine hand-outs; which would, once in office, they knew, be honoured more in the breach than the observance. Not willing to confess its complicity in the excessive promises made under realpolitik, the alliance of unlikely partners once it came into power (er, service) was pleased to present its hamstrung state with regard to delays in expediting justice among other matters as par for the course in island politics. That it fell short at all must not come as a surprise. Nor must it be a shock that the woods (though lovely) are still dark and deep. Or that enemies become friends and friends enemies in the grander schemes of executive ambitions.

(This is a CYNICAL view.)

#3 Promises make the public believe

in democracy

Things are neither hot nor cold. There is no such beast as democratic-republicanism, despite the sops of 19A, 20A, RTI. Nor has the new political culture eventuated quite as we expected. Rather it is a managed spectacle taken forward by collusion at the highest levels on what has artificially been created as two sides of the same political coin. Genuine reform by way of legislative and constitutional change is minimal. It has been more than offset by revelations of wrongdoing in both camps. Good Governance has fallen by the wayside, stunned by the hand grenade of bond scams, and how deep the rot goes. Show trials engineered by executive diktat have embarrassed other previously sea-green incorruptible leaders and their cohorts. The public had previously been gulled into accepting the usual suspects into cabinet ranks in a shameless ploy to perpetuate the same old criminally culpable culture in parts for the well-being of the seemingly above-board whole.

(This is an uncharitably cynical CONTRARIAN view.)

There is a third view, which also begins with a C. But see if you and your MP can pass the test at higher than C-level first. Else we’re all sunk. So here’s hoping you aim to get an A or at least B.

THE FORM ORDER EXAMS

(To be taken while listening to House music. Pl note … Candidates are strongly advised against writing on both sides of the paper at the same time; or attempting to cross the floor at any time in-between.)

A. Essays.

1. The vital signs of life in any body politic are practical ways to measure the performance of your Member. Evaluate/Assess. (That is, if you can keep your mind off unhealthy associations between the word ‘Member’ and the fact that your MP is probably a d***head anyway.)

B. Short Answers.

1. Can you spot an honest MP in the House? (Congratulations, but 25 out of 225 is hardly a pass mark, dears.)

2. Will tracking the performance of our elected representatives make their parties any the more transparent than they already are? (Cynics, sceptics, and other armchair commentators or satirists on the coffee klatsch and cocktail circuits may answer by doodling on their napkins or popping hors d’oeuvres dismissively as they speak.)

C. MCQ.

1. If you’re charitable, why is it that the coalition government hasn’t kept 75% of its promises?

a. The law’s delays

b. The law’s an ass – and it’s making a monkey out of us

c. Unforeseen procedural delays which could and should have been predictable

d. No one knew it would get this tough, so we’re compelled to ascribe it to incompetence

2. If you’re cynical, why is it that Good Governance has become a standing joke rather than a standing order halfway into its term?

a. The usual suspects are practising realpolitik subtly – sans vileness and violence

b. It’s the baboon that climbs up the banana tree – the higher it goes, the more its mores show

c. Excuse me, your slip is showing – between cup and lip there’s many of these

d. No one understands what ‘new political order’ means anyway

3. If you’re contrarian and subscribe to the view that it’s all part of a managed spectacle between the powers that be and powers that once were, how do you think it’ll all end?

a. After the polls – local, regional, national, whatever, it’s Hobson’s choice all over

b. Bread and circuses are all the masses need… ergo bond scams and commissions

c. It will never end – the show must go on

d. Darned if I or anyone else in the Democratic Republic really knows

4. Bonus Question: full marks no matter what answer you pick… quick – what word does MP at the end of it complete?

a. Bump

b. Chump

c. Dump

d. Frump

e. Hump

f. Jump

g. Lump

h. Pump

i. Rump

j. Stump

I’d smile too. If it wasn’t so sad. Or I mad. And the Verité event to launch the MP-tracker cum party-promise pooper-scooper was a case in point. That evening hosted a veritable constellation of active political voices on the main stage. Every major party was represented. However no one was willing – or able – to bell the cat, or the elephant in the room…. the fourth C: Corruption. To wit: why the campaign trail-blaze hasn’t set fire to the culprits yet? Hm. Hearts have their reasons of which reason knows nothing. Human nature never changes as much as political cultures rarely do. Be that as it may, if either set of carpet-baggers in the coalition of coalitions keeps their promises as regards corruption – and puts away the criminally corrupt cabals that once ruled the roost demonstrably and arguably still do – I’ll take a running J-U-M-P into the lake by the august House. No doubt your MP will be but six short steps behind me.

(A senior journalist, the writer was once the Chief Sub Editor of The Sunday Leader, 1994-8, and is ex-LMD, having been its Editor, 2004-8. He has made a career out of asking questions, and not waiting for answers.)

School admissions: Let there be accountability

2017-10-20

Parents of affected school children were on Monday successful before the Right to Information (RTI) Commission in obtaining the name lists and numbers of school children admitted to Grade One of Visakha Vidyalaya in 2014. An information request had been filed by parents, including several senior doctors, to the Commission asking for the information.

The appeal was heard before RTI Commission Chairman Mahinda Gammanpila and Commissioners Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena, S.G. Punchihewa and Selvy Thiruchandran.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror, the parents said the information released on Monday also contained instructions and letters issued by the Ministry of Education to Visakha Vidyalaya directing certain children to be admitted at the time. The Ministry had refused to release the requested information when the parents had appealed. The parents then went to the RTI Commission. The Commission order was issued after the Visakha Vidyalaya Principal appeared before the Commission and provided the information.
The parents also said that during consideration of the request, the Commission had pointed out the Designated Officer (DO), the Education Ministry Secretary Sunil Hettiarachchi, had acted completely contrary to the RTI Act and Regulations. He had rejected the appeal sent to him by the parents but his rejection had not specified the grounds on which information may be refused though the Act requires him to do that. He had unreasonably delayed to respond to the parents’ appeal though he was required to respond within three weeks. They alleged that the Ministry Secretary had responded-if at all to refuse the information-only when they had appealed to the Commission.
The DO had also not presented himself or sent the relevant responsible officer of his Ministry for the appeal hearing. The affected parents complained that in these situations and regardless of whether the information is released or not from another public authority, the RTI Act gave the Commission the power to initiate a prosecution in the relevant court, where upon conviction, a penalty of a fine and/or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years may be imposed under law.

President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and other National Unity Government leaders often boast that the RTI Act is one of the most progressive Acts implemented since January 2015. Therefore we urge the Government to take action against the Education Ministry Secretary for blatantly violating this important Act and ensure that other DOs comply fully with the provisions of the RTI Act.

In addition this case might also help to tackle one of Sri Lanka’s most serious social problems-controversies over the so-called large scale “donations” demanded by schools for admission of children. Social justice and civic action groups say they see this “donation” as a glorified bribe. This week’s case needs to inspire other parents also to get written information from the school as to how and for what purpose these donations are used. There needs to be openness, transparency and accountability.

Another morally damaging aspect of this is that when the children grow up and learn that their parents gave a glorified bribe to get them admitted to school they may be tempted to think that if this is what is happening in schools it may not be wrong for them to indulge in this vice, when they go into their professional careers.

Therefore on an overall basis with the National Government having an allocation of more than Rs. 100 billion for education next year, Sri Lanka needs to reconsider the payments of this so-called donations for admission of children and workout some other way of avoiding this form of corruption, not only in the school but of the children’s character.

One way might be to put more resources and commitments into the successful implementation of the policy of making the nearest school the best school “Langama Pasala Hondama Pasala”.

This may take a few years but if the education, school authorities and parents work proactively to turn the promise into a reality, then overall we may also see a major reduction in corruption and fraud that have ravaged society and led to the plunder of billions of rupees from public funds.  

Keith Noyahr Abduction And Torture Case Concluded – Charges Awaited

OCTOBER 19, 2017

The investigation into the abduction and torture of Keith Noyahr has been concluded by the Criminal Investigation Department, Colombo Telegraph learns. Keith Noyahr, the former Deputy Editor of the Nation newspaper was abducted and tortured in May 2008 and later released when appeals were made to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Karu Jayasuriya, by the Managing Director of Nation newspaper Krishantha Cooray.

The badly beaten Noyahr being rushed to Hospital

The CID recorded statements from eight suspects, all from the Army Intelligence and zeroed in on the torture chamber in Dompe in the course of the investigation. All involved including Prabhath Bulathwatte, the Major who had taken the torture house belonging to a female companion of his were remanded and bailed out. Extensive records of telephone conversations were obtained by the CID which led to the suspects.

The Attorney General’s Department is expected to file charges soon.

Read More

Former Colombo JMO Prof.Ananda Samarasekara surrenders to Colombo Magistrate court

Thursday, October 19, 2017 

Former Colombo Chief Medical Officer Prof.Ananda Samarasekara surrendered before Colombo Magistrate court a short while ago in connection with the alleged loss of body parts of late Wasim Thajudeen.

On October 2 CID sought a warrant for the arrest of Prof.Ananda Samarasekara over the alleged role in the cover up of evidence when conducting the first post mortem on Thajudeen’s body.

Prof. Samarasekara had filed a Fundamental Rights petition in the Supreme Court seeking an interim order preventing CID from arresting him in connection with the alleged loss of body parts of late Wasim Thajudeen.

Sri Lanka Police chief battles HQ women

By Our Police Correspondent-Oct 19, 2017 

ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka's Inspector-General Pujith Jayasundara has scuttled a charity drive organised by women at the police headquarters in the latest in his growing list of controversial moves.

Jayasundara stopped trucks transporting food and dry rations that were due to be distributed among low-income families at Ambanpola on Thursday. The Seva Vanitha (women) unit of the police headquarters had organised the event.

Senior DIG, Nandana Munasinghe is reported to have been admonished by Jayasundara who had questioned why his (Jayasundara's) photo was not included with the food parcels that were to be distributed.

Munasinghe's wife was reduced to tears when Jayasundara ordered her husband to stop the event. Police headquarters in a statement on Wednesday night said the event was cancelled "due to unavoidable circumstances."

The conversation between Munasinghe and Jayasundara was reported in a popular Sri Lanka-focused website operating out of Britain.

Sources at the police headquarters said Jayasundara was livid that he was not getting any publicity from the charity event organised by women of police headquarters to mark the 151st anniversary of the department.

Jayasundara is already in trouble after taking on a senior minister of the government and criticising him publicly in front of hundreds of officers of the CID last week.

Jayasundara accused the minister of leaking a video of him roughing up staff who had failed to comply with his order to meditate in April.

The leaked video showed Jayasundara flying into a rage and lifting the lift operator by his collar and making intimidating gestures towards a police woman.  The police chief on Friday denied he threatened to rape her and insisted that all he said was: 'kelawanawa' (I’ll fix you).

Both the President and the Prime Minister as well as Speaker Karu Jayasuriya were extremely unhappy with Jayasundara's conduct and had already put him on notice.

Speaker Jayasuriya, who is the chairman of the Constitutional Council which suggested Jayasundara for the top job in April last year, had also asked the IGP to stop making a fool of himself.

He was upbraided for attempting to sing on a public stage during a nationally televised ceremony.

Since then, he had stopped singing, but earlier this month, got a Deputy Inspector General to sign a play list chosen by him and broadcast over Rupavahini. (COLOMBO, October 19, 2017)

DIG follows footsteps of IGP, assaults OIC!

Oct 19, 2017

DIG in charge of southern and Uva provinces Frank Fernando floored and assaulted the OIC of Badulla police computer unit recently.

Later, he has told his driver, “We can floor them and beat at them up like footballs. They will not hit back.”

The DIGs are following the footsteps of the IGP, against whom no action has been taken six months after he assaulted the elevator operator at the police headquarters. Juniors cannot be saved from their seniors, and it has become quite difficult to save the general public from the police.

Implications of Provincial Police Departments

By Faizer Shaheid-2017-10-19

Law enforcement agencies are the most crucial element in maintaining law and order in any country, not just in Sri Lanka. In almost all countries, the primary force of law enforcement is the Police. Should the Police be mediocre, the nation fails and criminals will rule. So, it does matter to Sri Lanka how the Police enforce the law, and how any changes will affect the country.

Sri Lanka always had a singular and united Police Department, which operated under a common banner. This continued up until 1987 when the Prime Minister of India at the time, Rajiv Gandhi, coerced Sri Lanka into signing the Indo-Sri Lanka Pact and purported to devolve the Police Force. Following the 13th Amendment which was forced upon Sri Lankans by Gandhi, the Ninth Schedule to the Constitution segregated the powers of the country into three, namely, the Provincial List, the Reserved List and the Concurrent List.

The Provincial List contained the powers to be held by a Provincial Council and it also included legislative powers over Police and Public Order. However, despite significant debate and demands, especially by the Northern Provincial Council, such Police powers are yet to be devolved.
Under the present Constitution

Law and Order is contained in the Ninth Schedule and set out comprehensively under Appendix I. It states that public order and exercise of Police powers will not include national defence, national security or the use of any armed forces under the control of the Government of Sri Lanka.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) is to head the Police Department, and there is to be a National Division and a Provincial Division. The IGP, together with Deputy Inspectors General (DIGs), Superintendents (SPs) and Assistant Superintendents (ASPs) are to form a part of the National Division, while the Provincial Division is said to include DIGs and all other ranks below. A Police Officer would be entitled to be promoted to the National Division. All recruitments are to be made by a National Police Commission. There must also be a Provincial Police Commission which will comprise three members who will administer the recruitment of Police personnel to the Provincial Divisions. The three persons are to be the DIG of the Province, a person nominated by the Public Service Commission of the Province and a nominee of the Chief Minister of the Province.

The DIG is appointed by the IGP after consulting the Chief Minister of the Province. If they can't agree on a decision, the National Police Commission will take control and will make an appointment after consulting the Chief Minister. The cadre of officers are also to be fixed by the Provincial Administration, with the approval of the National Police Commission. This fixation is performed after having due consideration of the area of the Province, population and other related criteria.
The Members of the National Division and the Provincial Division must wear the same uniform and insignia of rank. Each of the Police Officers will have to follow the command of the DIG of the Province. However, maintenance of law and order will have to be performed in consultation with the Chief Minister of the Province.

This may change under two circumstances. Firstly, upon declaration of emergency, the President assumes all powers of the Chief Minister of the Province. Secondly, if there is a grave disturbance within the province, without declaring an emergency, the President can direct the Provincial Police Division with the consent of the Chief Minister. In a state of emergency, the IGP takes charge and directs the Police Force as he thinks suitable to contain the situation.

Any investigation that is to be investigated by the Provincial Police can then be taken over by the Criminal Investigation Division (CID). However, such a transfer of an investigation can only happen at the discretion of the Chief Minister. Even if the IGP feels it necessary to transfer an investigation to the CID, he must consult the Chief Minister. Under the present Constitution, the National Police Commission has only limited discretion. Offences against the State, offences relating to the security forces, offences relating to elections, offences relating to currency and stamps, offences against the President, an offence of a public officer or a judicial officer or an elected representative or an offence relating to public property would all fall under the purview of the National Police.

Further to that, the National Police will be mandated to investigate offences compromising national security, or any offence on a subject included in the Reserved List. They will also have discretion to investigate if the crime is multi-provincial or of international nature.

Despite the far-reaching implications of the Thirteenth Amendment, especially in devolving Police powers, certain parts were refuted and denied by successive Governments. Particularly considering the dangers of secession. The North has repeatedly insisted on having the Thirteenth Amendment fully implemented, yet the dangers of this nature are foreseen.

The North has often proudly displayed their separatist tendencies, and have not quite deviated from their standpoints. Even after the conclusion of the war, under the Mahinda Rajapaksa reign, the North demanded the full implementation of the Thirteenth Amendment, but it failed to materialize. Not even after the downfall of the last regime.

If the North was capable of commanding a Police Force, they could as easily rule over their own land. The moles within the Police Force will be aplenty and national security would be compromised. The ability to control law enforcement within a separate state would have been easier if the LTTE had control of the Police Force in the province. Thus has been the prevailing fear for the past thirty years since the enactment came to force.

New Constitution

The interim report of the Steering Committee of the Constitutional Assembly, which was earlier leaked, had contained intentions to have an Independent National Police Commission and a Provincial Police Commission. They did not contain a comprehensive list of powers but did specify separate Police forces for each province.

The recommendation for a separate Police force for each province does not appear in the Steering Committee report that was officially released. However, there has been increased speculation that the recommendation has not been completely withdrawn. Concerns have been raised that the current terminology in its exact form can be retained and given effect to in a subsequent Constitution.
It is expected that the powers contained under the Provincial List and the Reserved List in the Ninth Schedule of the present Constitution should be carried forth into the new Constitution, while the Concurrent List is to be split and distributed to the State and Provincial Councils.

Therefore, Appendix I of the Ninth Schedule on maintenance of law and order, which is currently inoperative, will be enforced under a new Constitution.

Granting of Police powers instils the same fears of secession as was prevailing under the Thirteenth Amendment when it was enacted. However, under the present circumstances, secession could be far easier. If Police powers are to be devolved to Provincial Councils in the manner prescribed in the Ninth Schedule of the present Constitution, any faction controlling the Provincial Council will have a certain amount of control over the Police Force. Particularly considering the amount of influence vested in the Chief Minister of a Province in relation to appointments and promotions.

A Provincial Police Force will choose people from within the same province to carry out the tasks. There is every possibility of political influence, and it is completely possible that right minded Police Officers may be side-lined while those who grant political favours to politicians will be gifted with promotions. Over a few years, the entire Provincial Police Force will turn into a State-sponsored set of goons for the Chief Minister of a Province, who will dictate terms as he pleases.

It is far worse if a political faction has separatist tendencies. Granting of Police powers to a Provincial Council that has power to make insubordinate law and powers to control State land and distribute it as it pleases will almost inevitably declare a separate State for the separatists. Especially if the Government wishes to unite the North and East as a single Province. Then it would make secession so much easier.

Conclusion

The Government plans on a model to have maximum devolution within a unitary State. However, although maximum devolution appears to be truthful, the recommendations of a new Constitution spell many foreseen dangers - A provincial Police force, insubordinate law making powers and in particular and the obvious moves to once again merge the two provinces that was once declared an independent Tamil Eelam. The new Constitution now appears to have all the ingredients necessary to cede the North and East to separatists.

(The writer is a Political Analyst and an independent researcher of laws. He holds a postgraduate degree in the field of human rights and democratization from the University of Colombo and an undergraduate degree in Law from the University of Northumbria, United Kingdom)

OIC guilty of sexual assault relieved of duties

By Sanchith Karunaratna-October 19, 2017 

The Officer In Charge of the Rattota Police station was relieved of his duties following an alleged sexual assault on a female Gramaniladhari Officer earlier this year.

The decision was made by the Inspector general of Police Pujith Jayasundara yesterday (18), following a request made by the National Police Commission.

A complaint was lodged to the National Police Commission in April, against Inspector Kapila Senarath Dissanayake who was serving at the Ududumbara Police station at the time for sexually assaulting a female gramaniladhari officer in Ududumbara.

It has been reported that the OIC was relieved of his duties following an investigation into the complaint that was lodged against him.

The Police Officer, who was arrested in connection to the incident on October 11, was produced before the Teldeniya Magistrate’s court where he was released on bail.

Mahanama Samaraweera centenary remembrance

Oct 19, 2017

A function to mark the centenary remembrance of Mahanama Samaraweera, father of finance and media minister Mangala Samaraweera, took place in Matara today (19) under the auspices of speaker Karu Jayasuriya.

Mahanama Samaraweera was first elected to parliament in 1952 on the Communist Party ticket. In 1956, he was appointed the justice minister. He represented parliament until 1965, and also held the home affairs, local government and housing portfolios.

Palestinians fear media crackdown could signal return to direct Israeli military rule

Arrest of journalists in the West Bank is latest attack on PA's authority, Palestinians say

Israeli security forces are seen during clashes with Palestinians near the Jewish settlement of Beit El in July (AFP)

Thursday 19 October 2017

RAMALLAH, Palestine – Israel’s closure of Palestinian media companies in the West Bank on Wednesday has stoked fears of a return to the old form of Israeli occupation, not experienced since before the Oslo Accords established Palestinian autonomy.

In 1994, Israel transferred civil and security jurisdiction to the Palestinian Authority in the large cities and towns across the West Bank, accounting for 40 percent of the land.

But it withdrew the security jurisdiction after the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000.

Over the past year, Israel has been gradually confiscating large parts of the civilian jurisdiction of the PA, in a clear shift of the way it views the PA and its role in any forthcoming negotiations, following the collapse of all attempts to revive the peace process.

Israel has turned the Palestinian Authority into an authority with no authority

- Mohammed Ishtayeh, presidential aide

Palestinian officials say Israel is building a shadow government in the West Bank, based at the Israeli army headquarters of The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) in the Beit El settlement, located no more than a mile away from the Palestinian presidential headquarters in Ramallah.

“Israel has turned the Palestinian Authority into an authority with no authority,” Mohammed Ishtayeh, an aide to president Mahmoud Abbas, told MEE.

The media production companies shut down was carried out by COGAT, which has the power to cancel any permits the PA issues. Yoav Mordechai, the coordinator of COGAT, accused them of “constant incitement against the state of Israel”.

Before the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, Israel controlled the Palestinian media and press through a military censorship office in Jerusalem.

The military censor officer examined all media stories before they were published, with the power to simply delete any story they did not approve of.

But after 1994, the Israeli censorship office halted its work in areas under the PA administration, and exercised power only over the media in occupied East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed, and considers its "eternal" capital.

The return of direct Israeli intervention in the Palestinian media sector is widely seen by Palestinians as a return of military censorship in a new form, and at the same time a return of the occupation in its old form.

Ali al-Jarbawi, a professor of political science at Birzeit University, said Israel had reduced the Palestinian Authority’s responsibilities to the extent that it could no longer be called a self-rule government.

“Israel is turning the Palestinian Authority from a self-governing authority to a contractor," Jarbawi said, adding that the PA had a limited role and diminishing jurisdiction.

“Israel withdrew the transfer of powers to PA, and revived the Civil Administration to play its role,” he said.

An employee of Trans Media inspects a satellite in the West Bank city of Hebron following the closure of the media office by Israeli forces on 18 October 2017 (AFP)

The Israeli authorities have recently increased the number of civil administration staff in the West Bank, to meet its growing operations, local media have reported. 

Upon its establishment, the PA exercised wide autonomy, with presence at external crossings and full security in the cities and towns of areas A and B.

It also enacted legislations and laws, had an airport in the Gaza Strip and began building a sea port.  

But Israel has now fully stripped it of security authority, and much civil jurisdiction.  

Many Palestinians view the latest Israeli actions as the final part of Israel’s political plan for the West Bank – limiting the role of the PA to little more than a municipal authority.  

"Israel annexed Jerusalem and cut off and besieged Gaza, and now it is annexing most of the West Bank," said Jarbawi.

The Oslo agreement has collapsed, Israel is tightening its grip on all aspects of life in the West Bank 

- Ali al-Jarbawi, politics professor, Birzeit University

"The Oslo agreement has collapsed, Israel is tightening its grip on all aspects of life in the West Bank and withdrawing the powers of the PA and transferring them to the civil administration," he said.

Mohammed Khader, a professor of law at Birzeit University, said that flaws in the Oslo agreement allowed such actions to happen today.

“Oslo itself was ratified by a military order that set the working rules with the PA in a way that gave the upper hand to the Israeli military,” he said.

“Israel has been ruling the occupied Palestinian territories by military orders, even after the Oslo agreement,” he added.

"Israel gave PA the power to run services and license local activities, but kept the upper hand in closing down PA-licensed projects like media offices or media outlets or sport clubs."

The 'shadow government'

COGAT is a unit that subordinates to Israel’s defence ministry, and has been led by Major General Yoav Mordechai since January 2014.

Founded in 1981, the COGAT is responsible for ‘implementing the civilian policy within Judea and Samaria and towards the Gaza Strip, in coordination and cooperation with officials from defense and government offices in various fields”, according to its webpage.

It also liaises and coordinates with the Palestinian Authority in security related matters.

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Israeli forces close Palestinian media offices in West Bank raids

COGAT was responsible for providing infrastructure services to Palestinians, such as water, electricity, issuing permits, and prior to 1993 the Oslo Accords which transferred these civil responsibilities to the PA. COGAT diminished its employee numbers but kept control of security in the West Bank and Gaza.

After the 2000 Intifada, Palestinians approached COGAT mainly to apply for visiting permits to enter Israel through designated aisles in checkpoints on the ground of trade, pilgrimage and health matters.

Last August, COGAT recruited a number of employees after the PA threatened to stop cooperating with Israel in security matters.

Nazi genocide survivor “felt in exile” in Israel

Adri Nieuwhof 19 October 2017

Jacques Bude survived the Nazi genocide because he was saved by Belgians as a child. His parents were deported and murdered in Auschwitz.

A retired professor, Bude supports the call for a boycott of Israeli universities complicit in the violation of Palestinian rights.

He lectured in social psychology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, but prefers to identify as a “deserter from the Israeli army.”

As a 16-year-old, Bude was taken in 1949 to Israel from an orphanage for Jewish children in the Belgian port of Antwerp.

Two years later, after evading military conscription, he fled Israel. Today, he expresses admiration for young Israelis who refuse to join the army.

When Bude spoke to The Electronic Intifada at his home in Brussels, it was the first time he had told a journalist about his experiences.

To understand his position on Israel, Bude says, you have to know that “my parents were deported when I was 8. They were murdered in Auschwitz.”

“If I had remained with my parents I would be dead,” Bude says. “Not one child of my age from Belgium came back from deportation.”

Bude says he was saved by the social worker at the factory where his father worked: “She took me to farmers who hid me during the war. You should not look at me for some mythical identification with the Jewish community. My community is Belgium.”

Bude’s father emigrated from Poland to Belgium in about 1929 to work in the steel mills. “We spoke Yiddish at home,” Bude recalls of his childhood in the city of Liège. “My parents had a very modest income, were illiterate and did not speak French. In no way could they have escaped the Nazis.”

After years in hiding, Bude was moved after the war to the orphanage in Antwerp.

In exile in Israel

“In 1949 all the children from the orphanage were taken to Israel by the Zionist movement,” Bude recalls.
“I was 16 and didn’t want to leave Belgium. I wanted to go to school,” Bude says. “My father taught me the importance of education.”

According to Bude, the school director found a family to take him in, “but the day before we were leaving he said it was impossible.”

“I should have run away, but I was a child,” Bude says now, recalling that he felt a determination to come back to Belgium if Israel didn’t suit him.

“I did not want to stay right from the start,” Bude says without hesitation when asked how he felt on arriving in Israel. “It was horrible. We were put in some kind of derelict place, it must have been an agricultural school from the Palestinians, right next to Gaza. Everything was scarce, the only things that were not scarce were weapons.”

But coming back was not a simple matter, as he would have had to complete three years of military service in order to obtain an exit visa.

In the decade after the 1948 Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by the Zionist movement, Israel doubled its Jewish population by bringing in hundreds of thousands of people.

But while Zionism marketed this population transfer as a liberation and the fulfillment of a dream, it was anything but for the young Bude.

“I really felt in exile,” he says. “I was destroyed by German militarism and I came to Israel and again encountered militarism.”

“We had to speak Hebrew, but Yiddish is my mother tongue,” he recalls. “They were insulting me and my parents because we were not Zionists.”

“We had not defended ourselves and were in a way held responsible for the killings,” Bude says, describing the attitude he encountered towards survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide.

“They were real racist militarists,” he says. “Don’t expect much nuance about Jewishness and Israel from me. For me, Israel is founded on ethnic cleansing. And if I identify with somebody, it is the Palestinian kid.”

Stolen homes

Bude left the orphanage in Israel where the Belgian children had been transferred and was hiding from the army in Ashkelon, the name Israel gave the Palestinian city of al-Majdal after thousands were driven from their homes in 1948.

“All the houses were empty. I lived in one of these houses,” he says. “I never saw Palestinians.”
He recalls an incident when there was a rumor that there were Palestinians in the market, “and we ran there to see.” That handful of Bedouin women selling produce “were the only Palestinians I saw.”

“The story that Israel was an empty land is completely false,” Bude says, recalling the empty Palestinian homes he saw in al-Majdal and “the well-kept orange plantations in the surroundings.”
Bude worked at one of those plantations, trying to earn money to leave the country.

“They gave me a Mauser gun with ammunition,” he recalls. “I was a kid of 17 and had to protect a plantation which was stolen from the Palestinians. It was now exploited by Jews.”

“I was sent there so the Palestinians wouldn’t come to steal fruit,” he says. “It was shoot to kill! To kill the person who comes to ‘steal’ what belongs to him! I would never shoot anyone.”

Bude eventually did get home to Belgium. He bought a passport on the black market, but still needed papers showing he had done his military service. In the end a cousin who had come to Israel earlier and fought in the army, lent him his papers, which Bude used to get out.

“The duty of memory”

Though Bude spent only two years in Israel, that time had a profound influence on the rest of his life, and he cannot help but relate it to what his family suffered during the war.

“To me a Jewish Israeli militarist ultra-nationalist – which is what they are – is like a German ultra-nationalist,” he says. “A right-wing general, Jew or not, is a right-wing general.”

“When I hear Jewish state, I hear Aryan state,” he says, making a juxtaposition many would find difficult to stomach.

But in drawing a parallel, Bude does not claim experiences were the same. The Nazi ideology “led to the genocide of the Jews, the Roma, the Sinti, homosexuals and the mentally disabled,” he says. “It is the worst dehumanization that happened until today. It was industrial and they went all the way. They dehumanized them completely, to a pile of hair and gold.”

“So the duty of memory is to say never more dehumanization,” Bude explains. “If we say ‘never again,’ we have to decide where we stand and condemn it.”

“I am against ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, which is a form of dehumanization,” Bude says. “I am not against the existence of Israel but in Israel the overwhelming majority vote for these policies so I can say the Israeli people failed heavily, like the German people then.”

“The best of the best”

Bude supports many Palestine solidarity groups. His message for Palestinians is simple and somber: “Try to stay alive.”

He has declined invitations to visit the occupied West Bank because it would be too hard.

“If I go there, the only thing I could say to these children is despise the soldiers that occupy you, the settlers that come and sit on your land,” he says. “Not the Jews, but the people who do this to you.”
“You have to, to remain a human being,” he adds. “If I didn’t despise the people who killed my parents I would have become crazy.”

“But most of all with my past, I can’t go,” Bude says. “If I see a soldier, and even more if I know that he is Jewish, I think I will explode.”

Bude recalls that before the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, resistance fighters tried to kill the Jewish chief of the ghetto police – a collaborator with the Nazis. In this history, Bude hears an echo too.

“If I would go to Palestine, I would tell them that the Palestinian Authority is the same thing,” he says. “They are the administrators of the ghetto. So if there is another intifada it should be of course against the Israelis, but also against the PA.”

Resistance, whatever form it takes, is not a duty that belongs only to Palestinians, according to Bude.
Asked how he feels about Noa Gur Golan and Hadas Tal, both recently jailed for refusing to go to the army, Bude says, “Many young people leave Israel, but these young women are the redeemers of the nation. They are the best of the best to me.”

US supported mass killings of half a million Indonesians in 1965

Islamist groups holds banners during an anti-communist protest outside parliament building in Jakarta, Indonesia, September 29, 2017. Source: Reuters/Beawiharta 

By Max Walden | 19th October 2017

NEWLY declassified documents have reaffirmed that the United States government knew about and provided support for the killings of an estimated 500,000 to a million Indonesians in 1965-66 by the Indonesian military and affiliated vigilante groups.

Described by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as “one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century”, the 1965 massacre was sparked by an attempted coup in September of that year by a group of left-leaning generals and Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) leaders.

Documents published on Tuesday by George Washington University’s National Security Archive, in an “unprecedented collaboration” with the National Declassification Centre, show that the US government had “detailed knowledge” of the mass killings that targeted communists, leftists and ethnic Chinese across Indonesia in the wake of the failed, so-called Sept 30 movement.

General Suharto in the days after the Sept 30 Movement. Source: National Security Archive

They detail that the US embassy in Jakarta was recording the names of executed PKI members and “actively supported” the army’s efforts to annihilate the communist party in Indonesia – at that time the third largest in the world. A further million alleged communists were imprisoned.

SEE ALSO: Indonesia: Activists arrested as backlash stirs over bid to probe anti-communist massacres

Amid the Cold War, this event saw the ousting of Sukarno and ascendency of right-wing General Suharto who would come to rule the country for 32 years.

Rights groups including Indonesia’s Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Watch and Indonesia’s Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) have long pushed for the declassification of US files.

Poster for Joshua Oppenheimer’s acclaimed documentary, The Act of Killing. Source: Final Cut for Real

The release of some 30,000 documents this week also came after US Senator Tom Udall filed a resolution to then-President Obama after he watched American director Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentaries about 1965, The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence.

One cable from a US consular officer in Surabaya dated Nov 24, 1965, noted the “slaughter” of thousands of PKI members across East Java by Ansor – the paramilitary wing of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which remains the largest Muslim organisation in Indonesia.

The officer reported cut throats of victims, dozens of bodies floating down local rivers, and the murder of 15,000 people in a single village. Killings in the region had the “colouration” of being a “Holy War: Killing of infidel” allowing executioners passage into heaven, it said.

Alleged communist female prisoners at the Adi Sucipto prison camp in Pontianak, Indonesia in June 1971. Source: Peter Schumacher / People’s Tribunal 1965

Historians and activists have long documented the role of the United States in the atrocities in Indonesia. Tellingly, the US declined to participate in the International People’s Tribunal for 1965 in The Hague, Netherlands led by civil society groups in November 2015.

The Tribunal’s final report found that: “The US gave sufficient support to the Indonesian military, knowing well that they were embarked upon a programme of mass killings and other, criminal conduct for the charge of complicity in crimes against humanity to be justified.”

“The clearest evidence of this was the supply of lists of names of PKI officials when there was strong presumption that these would facilitate the arrest and/or execution of those named.”

The documents released by the National Security Archive this week also demonstrate US awareness of anti-Chinese propaganda and violence, including a concerted campaign to blame the September 30th movement on Communist China and of the targeting of Indonesian-Chinese businesses in Surabaya by paramilitary groups.

SEE ALSO: Human rights: Does Indonesia’s Jokowi walk the talk?

“The US government now needs to release the remaining documents, not only for the historical record of one of the 20th century’s worst atrocities, but as a long overdue step toward bringing redress to the victims,” said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch this week.

People stand at the excavation site of a mass grave from the 1965 massacre in Wonosobo, Indonesia. Source: International People’s Tribunal 1965

The 1965 massacres remain a hugely taboo topic in Indonesia, demonstrated last month by the siege of a community legal centre in Jakarta by ultranationalist and Islamist groups for hosting an event for victims of the massacre.

While the Indonesian Human Rights Commission’s released its findings from a four-year investigation into the killings in 2012, the Attorney General’s office has never accepted the report. There is yet to be any legal redress for victims or their families.

“The US government can help the Indonesian government shine a light on the 1965-66 massacres,” said Kine. “Meaningful accountability for those heinous crimes – including the role of the US government – requires full-disclosure and declassification of all relevant official information.”