Doubting the intelligence, Trump pursues Putin and leaves a Russian threat unchecked

The Washington Post examines how, nearly a year into his presidency, Trump continues to reject evidence that Russia supported his run for the White House. (Dalton Bennett, Thomas LeGro, John Parks, Jesse Mesner-Hage/The Washington Post)

By Greg Miller, Greg Jaffe and Philip Rucker-Dec. 14, 2017

In the final days before Donald Trump was sworn in as president, members of his inner circle pleaded with him to acknowledge publicly what U.S. intelligence agencies had already concluded — that Russia’s interference in the 2016 election was real.

Holding impromptu interventions in Trump’s 26th-floor corner office at Trump Tower, advisers — including Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and designated chief of staff, Reince Priebus — prodded the president-elect to accept the findings that the nation’s spy chiefs had personally presented to him on Jan. 6.

They sought to convince Trump that he could affirm the validity of the intelligence without diminishing his electoral win, according to three officials involved in the sessions. More important, they said that doing so was the only way to put the matter behind him politically and free him to pursue his goal of closer ties with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin.

“This was part of the normalization process,” one participant said. “There was a big effort to get him to be a standard president.”

But as aides persisted, Trump became agitated. He railed that the intelligence couldn’t be trusted and scoffed at the suggestion that his candidacy had been propelled by forces other than his own strategy, message and charisma.

Told that members of his incoming Cabinet had already publicly backed the intelligence report on Russia, Trump shot back, “So what?” Admitting that the Kremlin had hacked Democratic Party emails, he said, was a “trap.”

As Trump addressed journalists on Jan. 11 in the lobby of Trump Tower, he came as close as he ever would to grudging acceptance. “As far as hacking, I think it was Russia,” he said, adding that “we also get hacked by other countries and other people.”

As hedged as those words were, Trump regretted them almost immediately. “It’s not me,” he said to aides afterward. “It wasn’t right.”

Nearly a year into his presidency, Trump continues to reject the evidence that Russia waged an assault on a pillar of American democracy and supported his run for the White House.

The result is without obvious parallel in U.S. history, a situation in which the personal insecurities of the president — and his refusal to accept what even many in his administration regard as objective reality — have impaired the government’s response to a national security threat. The repercussions radiate across the government.

Rather than search for ways to deter Kremlin attacks or safeguard U.S. elections, Trump has waged his own campaign to discredit the case that Russia poses any threat and he has resisted or attempted to roll back efforts to hold Moscow to account.

His administration has moved to undo at least some of the sanctions the previous administration imposed on Russia for its election interference, exploring the return of two Russian compounds in the United States that President Barack Obama had seized — the measure that had most galled Moscow. Months later, when Congress moved to impose additional penalties on Moscow, Trump opposed the measures fiercely.

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In-flight sexual assaults often unreported; airlines need to step up

Passengers walk with their luggage towards the departure gates at Sydney International Airport in Australia, October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Steven Saphore/Files

Jamie Freed, Aditi Shah-DECEMBER 14, 2017

SINGAPORE/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - When a 17-year-old Bollywood actress took to social media this week alleging she was sexually assaulted on an airplane, she appeared to catch the airline industry off-guard.

Her allegations - denied by the man accused of the assault on a domestic Vistara flight in India - triggered online outrage and prompted a rare police investigation.

The incident, coming shortly after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s sister Randi, a Silicon Valley executive, said via social media that she had been a victim of sexual harassment on an Alaska Airlines flight, highlights a risk to airlines: they need to do more than just respond once an incident goes public and their brand comes under fire.

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“It’s a global issue and every country has to deal with the fallout,” said Saj Ahmad, a London-based analyst at Strategic Aero Research. “Being prepared to address passenger concerns rather than being reactive to social media complaints will arguably help address these problems in real time.”

Most people Reuters contacted about in-flight sexual misconduct, against passengers and crew - including airlines, flight attendant unions and airline training consultants - said incidents are vastly under-reported.

Last year, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), airlines globally reported just 211 instances of “inappropriate sexual behaviour”. That’s among 3.8 billion passengers on more than 40 million flights.

In a statement, IATA said fewer than half those cases were reported to the authorities, which is why there are so few police investigations.

“Victims are required to press charges, the airline can’t do that for them,” said Taylor Garland, spokeswoman for the U.S. Association of Flight Attendants. “We believe under-reporting occurs.”

Andrew Herdman, director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, said the IATA data needs to be viewed with caution “as event descriptions are not always standardised” and there are “significant variations in the level of voluntary reporting by airlines.”

“With regard to incidents involving sexual harassment, ranging from verbal intimidation to actual physical assault, these are relatively rare, but always taken seriously,” he said.

CULTURE OF SHAME

Among nearly two dozen major airlines contacted by Reuters, only Japan Airlines Co Ltd gave actual figures on incidents of sexual harassment on its flights: around 10-20 a year, with police called in on some cases.

Suhaila Hassan, head of cabin crew at Malaysia-based budget airline AirAsia Bhd, said there had been no reported cases of passenger-on-passenger harassment, though there were occasional instances of cabin crew being harassed.

She said it was possible some incidents were not reported to the airline. “That could be the case because of the culture. People feel shy and embarrassed if revealed,” she said.

The airlines’ comments fit with broader studies that estimate three of every four sexual harassment incidents in the workplace in United States go unreported.

In Asia, there’s less of a culture of public discourse on sexual harassment.

“We tend to have a culture where ... people don’t generally speak up,” said Jason Tan, a former Singapore Airlines flight attendant who works as a consultant training cabin crews in Asia and the Middle East. “Victims tend to suffer in silence.”

ElsaMarie D‘Silva, a former flight attendant at Jet Airways, now runs a website crowdsourcing cases of sexual harassment and abuse. She said cases are under-reported in India because of the associated shame and a culture where the onus is on the victim to prove the allegations.

“The time has come for Indian aviation to take this more seriously,” she said.

CREW TRAINING

Most airlines train their cabin crews to deal with a broad category of “unruly passenger incidents” - ranging from physical abuse and obscene behaviour to verbal threats and tampering with aircraft equipment.

“Crews are trained in these incidents, but to a limited extent,” said Philip Baum, managing director of Green Light, an aviation security training firm and consultancy. “Most cabin crew security courses around the world are completed in one day. Some take two days. There are so many scenarios, you could spend a week just going through all the types of unruly passenger.”

According to IATA, a third of almost 10,000 unruly passenger incidents reported last year involved intoxication. Just 2 percent were of inappropriate sexual behaviour.

“While such incidents are rare, our crew are highly trained to manage any situation which may be dangerous or threatening,” said a spokeswoman for European budget airline easyJet.

American Airlines recently decided to provide “enhanced” training in sexual harassment matters as part of a broader diversity and inclusion drive, a spokeswoman said, declining to give further details.

And United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz this week told the carrier’s over 90,000 employees there was “zero tolerance” for sexual harassment of customers or staff, according to a memo on the airline’s website, but he did not specify any extra training.

A survey by the U.S. Association of Flight Attendants this year found a fifth of cabin crew respondents had experienced a passenger-to-passenger assault while working on a flight.

The union has expressed concern that policies related to passenger sexual misconduct are rarely highlighted. More than half those surveyed said they had no knowledge of specific policies.

The same appears to apply in India, too, said Satvik Varma, a New Delhi-based independent litigation lawyer.

“There’s no lack of regulations,” he said. “What we’re grappling with here is a lack of implementation and a lack of knowledge of these regulations.”

Reporting by Aditi Shah and Jamie Freed, with additional reporting by Alana Wise in NEW YORK, Zeba Siddiqui and Euan Rocha in MUMBAI, Maki Shiraki in TOKYO, Joyce Lee in SEOUL, Byron Kaye in SYDNEY, Mi Nyugen in HANOI, Liz Lee in KUALA LUMPUR, Cindy Silviana in JAKARTA, Jeffery Dastin in SAN FRANCISCO, Alistair Smout in LONDON, Alexander Cornwell in DUBAI, Victoria Bryan in BERLIN, Allison Lampert in MONTREAL, Nallur Sethuraman and Tanvi Mehta in BENGALURU, and Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Ian Geoghegan

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Indonesia court rejects bid to outlaw extramarital sex

Indonesia's constitutional court rejected a petition to bar all consensual sex outside of marriage on Dec 14, 2017. PHOTO: THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

DEC 14, 2017

JAKARTA (AFP) - A bid to make all sex outside marriage illegal was rejected by a top Indonesian court on Thursday (Dec 14), in a ruling that surprised many as concerns grow about rising intolerance in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country.

Five out of nine judges on the Constitutional Court in the capital Jakarta narrowly rejected the push to criminalise extramarital relations, including gay sex.

The unsuccessful petition would have affected both unmarried heterosexuals and gay people, who cannot marry in Indonesia. It comes several months after the arrests of a group of men accused of holding a “gay party” and a wave of anti-LGBT rhetoric.

“This is a victory not only for LGBT communities, it’s also a victory for common sense,” said gay rights activist Hartoyo, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

“We live together as a nation and we must respect our differences,” he added.

The court had been hearing a judicial review filed by Islamic activist group the Family Love Alliance that sought to alter the criminal code. It argued that the influence of the gay community has been spreading, particularly since the United States legalised same-sex marriage, resulting in what it called “moral degradation”.

 

 

Activists believe the US decision triggered a backlash in Indonesia, including government ministers publicly making anti-gay statements.

“Of course I’m sad... We know exactly the magnitude of this problem – extramarital affairs and same-sex relationships,” said a weeping Euis Sunarti, who was one of the applicants behind the criminalisation bid.  “Many people will be disappointed with this ruling.”

‘SEEMINGLY IMPOSSIBLE’

In its decision, the court said it had no authority on the matter since passing new laws was the job of Indonesia’s Parliament.

“The Constitutional Court cannot intervene in the politics of the penal code,” it added.

But last month, the same court ruled that Indonesia’s native faiths should be recognised by the government. That ruling challenged a law requiring millions of followers of religions other than six officially recognised faiths to leave the line for religion blank on their national identity cards, limiting their access to public services, including education and medical care, as well as employment opportunities.

Still, some observers were surprised by the court’s decision on Thursday.

“Just when you think this country is rotten, it pulled (off) the seemingly impossible. Hope is here,” writer Alexander Thian said on Twitter.

Indonesia’s justice system is notoriously corrupt and has been criticised for favouring religious-based arguments over legal reasoning in the past.

GAY SEX VIGILANTES

Sex is only illegal in Indonesia for both homosexual and heterosexual people if it involves a minor.
However, gay sex is a crime in the conservative province of Aceh, which upholds sharia law, with those caught facing up to 100 strokes of a cane.

Aceh, on Sumatra island, began implementing Islamic law after being granted special autonomy in 2001, an attempt by the central government to quell a long-running separatist insurgency.
This year, two men having sex were caught by a group of vigilantes who raided a boarding house in Aceh.

In May, police arrested a group of men holding a party in two hotel rooms in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-biggest city.

Some of the men were watching gay porn and performing “deviant sexual acts”, police said, charging some under Indonesia’s tough anti-pornography law, which can result in long jail sentences.

Outside Aceh, Indonesia’s current laws on homosexuality are more liberal than some of its neighbours, however.

In Singapore, sex between men remains illegal, a holdover from colonial rule that is not strictly enforced.

In Malaysia, sodomy is a criminal offence and can result in imprisonment, corporal punishment, and fines.

Indonesia has often been praised for its moderate inclusive brand of Islam. Still, the diverse archipelago’s sizeable religious minorities – mainly Christians and Muslim minority Shiites and Ahmadis – have been increasingly targeted in recent years.

6,700 Rohingya Muslims killed in one month in Myanmar, MSF says

At least 730 young children among people shot, burned or beaten to death in Rakhine state between August and September

A Rohingya woman and child walk through the Jamtoli refugee camp in Bangladesh. More than 640,000 Rohingya people have fled Myanmar. Photograph: Tracey Nearmy/AAP

Poppy McPhersonin Bangkok-Thursday 14 December 2017 13.08 GMT

More than 6,700 Rohingya Muslims, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in the first month of a crackdown that started in August in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state, according to Médecins Sans Frontières.

The figures released on Thursday by the humanitarian agency are believed to be a conservative estimate and far exceed Myanmar’s official death toll of 400.

“The numbers of deaths are likely to be an underestimation, as we have not surveyed all refugee settlements in Bangladesh and because the surveys don’t account for the families who never made it out of Myanmar,” said Dr Sidney Wong, MSF’s medical director.

The majority of the people killed (69%) were shot, while others were burned and beaten to death. “We heard reports of entire families who perished after they were locked inside their homes, while they were set alight,” said Wong.

More than 640,000 Rohingya people have fled Rakhine since August. Soldiers, police and local militias burned hundreds of Rohingya villages to the ground, and they are also accused of gang-raping women and children, as well as slaughtering civilians indiscriminately.

Western countries have condemned the violence as ethnic cleansing, an allegation Myanmar strongly denies. Officials in the country have laid the blame on “extremist terrorists” belonging to a new Rohingya militant group. A Myanmar government spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.

Some of the worst violence is believed to have occurred in Tula Toli, in a village in Maungdaw township, where survivors say residents were rounded up on riverbanks and shot as they tried to flee. The Guardian has seen videos taken by villagers showing the corpses of children washed up on shores.

Survivors believe thousands may have died in that village alone.

The high death toll tallies with reports from numerous journalists and human rights groups.
“The latest report adds to a long list of harrowing accounts that Human Rights Watch has collected from Rohingya refugees who fled the campaign of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in northern Rakhine state,” said Rich Weir, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch.

“The numbers should shock the conscience of the international community and stir them to action. Those responsible must be held to account and sanctions must be imposed on those who are behind these atrocities,” he said.

Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed to send Rohingya people back to Rakhine, in a deal that has been criticised by human rights groups as premature and lacking safeguards for the persecuted minority.

“Currently, people are still fleeing from Myanmar to Bangladesh and those who do manage to cross the border still report being subject to violence in recent weeks,” said MSF’s Wong. “With very few independent aid groups able to access Maungdaw district in Rakhine, we fear for the fate of Rohingya people who are still there.”

Myanmar insists the reports of mass murder and rape are fabrications invented by the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people now living in squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Two Reuters journalists investigating the events were arrested this week. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were detained while carrying maps and documents relating to the region, after meeting police officers for dinner in Myanmar’s commercial capital of Yangon.

The US embassy called the detentions “highly irregular”. The Myanmar military has filed charges against the journalists under the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum prison term of 14 years.

Haemophilia A trial results 'mind-blowing'

Father-of-two Jake Omer was born with haemophilia A

By James GallagherHealth -14 December 2017

British doctors say they have achieved "mind-blowing" results in an attempt to rid people of haemophilia A.

Patients are born with a genetic defect that means they do not produce a protein needed to stop bleeding.

Thirteen patients given the gene therapy at Barts Health NHS Trust are now off treatment with 11 producing near-normal levels of the protein.

Jake Omer, 29 from Billericay, Essex, was on the trial and says he feels like he has a new body.

Like 2,000 other people in the UK, his body could not make clotting factor VIII.

A minor injury used to cause severe bleeding. He remembers losing two front teeth as a child and bleeding for days afterwards.

Even the impact of walking would lead to bleeding in his joints and eventually cause arthritis.

Jake has needed at least three injections of factor VIII a week for most of his life.

But in February 2016, he had a single infusion of gene therapy.

Image copyrightJAMES GALLAGHER

Image captionJake Omer: 'Like a new body'

Jake told the BBC: "I feel like a new person now - I feel like a well-oiled robot.

"I feel I can do a lot more. I feel my body allows me to do more.

"I don't think I would have been able to walk 500m without my joints flaring up, whereas now I think sort of two, three, four-mile walk - I could quite easily achieve that."

The first time he knew it had worked was four months after the therapy when he dropped a gym weight and bashed his elbow.

He started to panic, but after icing the injury that evening, everything was normal the next day.

'Transformational'

The therapy is a genetically engineered virus.

It contains the instructions for factor VIII that Jake was born without.

The virus is used like a postman to deliver the genetic instructions to the liver, which then starts producing factor VIII.

In the first trials, low doses of gene therapy had no effect.

Of the 13 patients given higher doses, all are off their haemophilia medication a year on and 11 are producing near-normal levels of factor VIII.

Prof John Pasi, who led the trials at Barts and Queen Mary University of London, said: "This is huge.

"It's ground-breaking because the option to think about normalising levels in patients with severe haemophilia is absolutely mind-blowing.

"To offer people the potential of a normal life when they've had to inject themselves with factor VIII every other day to prevent bleeding is transformational."

An analysis of the first nine patients on the trial was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Larger trials are now imminent to see if the therapy can truly transform the lives of patients.

It is also uncertain how long the gene therapy will be effective.

Liz Carroll, the chief executive of The Haemophilia Society, said: "Gene therapy is a potentially game-changing treatment.

"Despite world-leading treatment standards in the UK many still suffer painful bleeds leading to chronic joint damage."

However, she warned there was a wide variation in who responded to therapy, which still needed to be explained.

Gene therapies are likely to be spectacularly expensive. However, the current cost of regular factor VIII injections is about £100,000 a patient per year for life.

Jake says the therapy should help him live a full life with his family: "It's going to allow me as my boys grow up to be more active with them, to kick footballs about, to climb trees, to hopefully run around the park with them, not be someone who has to worry."

Follow James on Twitter.

Debate on six subcommittees to be followed by final report to CA

New Constitution making process on track

Dr. Jayampathy

By Shamindra Ferdinando-December 13, 2017, 10:46 pm 

The Steering Committee of the Constitutional Assembly would prepare its final report, containing constitutional proposals following a debate on recommendations made by six sub committees that dealt with fundamental rights, judiciary, law and order, public finance, public service and centre-periphery relations, Steering Committee member and MP Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne told The Island yesterday.

Dr. Wickramaratne said comprehensive reports submitted by six sub committees to parliament several months back had to be debated. The House debated the Steering Committee’s Interim report presented to the Constitutional Assembly on Sept 21, 2017.

Answering a query, Dr. Wickramaratne said that it would be the responsibility of the Steering Committee to prepare the final report also taking into consideration the debates on the interim report as well as the sub committee reports. "The final report will be submitted to the Constitutional Assembly comprising members of parliament," Dr. Wickramaratne said.

The final report will be submitted to the Constitutional Assembly together with the draft Constitution for approval of the Constitutional Assembly.

Parliament last Monday (Dec 11) concluded sittings for 2017. House will meet again on January 23, 2018.

Asked whether the debate on sub committee reports would take place after the new year, Dr. Wickramaratne said that he couldn’t comment on that though he was certain those reports were to be discussed.

The Constitutional Assembly on April 5, 2016 named 21-member Steering Committee chaired by PM Wickremesinghe.

According to Dr. Wickramaratne, Steering Committee had dealt with matters covered in Chapter 1 and 2 of the 1978 Constitution, sovereignty, nature of the state, religion, form of government, electoral reforms, land and devolution.

Except the five-member National Freedom Front (NFF) parliamentary group all other political parties with parliamentary representation remain in the Constitutional Assembly.

The NFF quit the committee after having failed to convince the Joint Opposition (JO) members, Dinesh Gunawardena and Prasanna Ranatunga to quit the Steering Committee. Deputy leader of the NFF and Anuradhapura District MP Weerakumara Dissanayake and its National Organiser Piyasiri Wijenayake have since switched their allegiance to President Sirisena.

Dr. Wickramaratne emphasised that the constitution making project was on track.

Political sources said Speaker Karu Jayasuriya had in no uncertain terms rejected UNP MP and Steering Committee member Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe’s claim that the Constitutional Assembly was unconstitutional.

Response To Dr Nalaka Godahewa’s Speech At The UNHRC In Geneva

By Lionel Bopage –December 12 2017 

[Part 9 of this series was published on Monday, the 11^th of December 2017]

Conclusion

Successfully addressing the national question lies in attaining genuine equality of opportunity and equity of access between peoples of different ethnicities. The existing national inequality is a consequence of historically conditioned economic inequalities and the national perceptions such inequalities generated. A major condition required for the solution of the national problem is to give effect to equality of all citizens in a practical sense, as enshrined in the country’s constitution. Many countries including Sri Lanka have proclaimed such political and judicial equality, but that proclamation in itself is insufficient to resolve the national problem. Those proclamations as provisions of the constitution need to be concretely and effectively enforced through subsidiary legislation and regulations.

In October 2015, Sri Lanka co-sponsored a resolution and pledged at the UN Human Rights Council to undertake human rights reforms to address the burning question of transitional justice. It promised to establish four transitional justice mechanisms including a special court with an independent investigative body with prosecutorial powers, an office on missing persons, a mechanism to establish the truth regarding claims of alleged war crimes, and a mechanism to guarantee non-recurrence and reparations. So far, the government has established only the Office of Missing Persons. Yet, the government has failed to improve the human rights situation, reform the police and security sector, and release political prisoners, and returned only a fraction of private lands the military has acquired during the war.

Furthermore, international experience shows that economic backwardness of a country cannot be simply done away by adopting modern technology or developing a knowledge economy or by encouraging foreign investments alone. It needs profound social transformations that encompass radical changes in peoples’ attitudes, their well-being and quality standards of the education they receive. Disregard for this policy has witnessed aggravated social and national problems in many developing countries in Asia, Africa and the Americas. Oppressive regimes have made use of such situations by spreading and fortifying various forms of ethno-religious nationalism, fanaticism, chauvinism, pseudo-patriotism and superstition.

Globally, neo-liberalism has led to reviving nationalist and religious preconceptions by spreading bourgeois nationalism and pitting diverse peoples against each other. Attempts at spreading or whipping up ethno-religious nationalism are an integral part of their strategy. The main purpose of such attempts is to divert the attention of working people from their class positions, to differentiate national and class attitudes, and to present bourgeois class interests as the national interests of the whole society.

Torture is found to be endemic throughout Sri Lanka. Those arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) even after the end of the war, have provided accounts of torture and mistreatment, forced confessions, and denial of basic rights such as access to lawyers or family members. For example, following the discovery of suicide vests in the north, security forces reportedly arrested 11 men in April and May this year, but many of these arrests went undeclared. Their families reported that security forces had abducted them and only under pressure security forces admitted to holding them under the PTA. The UN special rapporteur on torture has called for the repeal of the PTA expressing particular concern about the detainees held under it.

Meanwhile, spokespersons for the regime continue to issue contradictory and confusing statements regarding their UN commitment. The government had to withdraw several drafts of the new Counter Terrorism Act (CTA) as these drafts apparently expanded police powers and failed to meet international standards[1]. The Cabinet approved the third draft of the CTA last May, for which no parliamentary vote has yet been set. The new Bill will not protect one from wrongful, prolonged detention without charge. What constitutes a “terrorist act” remains vague and its scope could be extended to also include peaceful political activity in the name of threatening the unity, territorial integrity, sovereignty, national security or defence of the country.

To enable each community to make full use of the proclaimed political and legal rights, economic and cultural inequalities among communities have to be eliminated. For this to occur, positive discriminatory measures may need to be adopted implementing measures of practical assistance to the people who have been under oppression, such as developing their productive capabilities and capacity. A long-term and persevering struggle against the vestiges of national oppression is needed to eliminate economic inequality. One cannot expect an overnight solution to issues like these as some theorisers advocate.

The main political parties, when in opposition, have almost always included in their election manifestos that when they achieve power they will work towards a solution to the national question through consultations and negotiations. But when they come to power, like the current government, and make some attempt to negotiate or propose alternative solutions of their own, the new opposition, abetted by the extreme nationalists, obstruct such attempts.

Even in the Presidential election manifestos presented by the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa (Dr Godahewa’s leader) in 2005[2] and 2010[3], he pledged to negotiate on constitutional matters by consulting political and civil society organisations and individuals to build consensus. In 2015[4], his election manifesto pledged to convert the Parliament into a Constituent Assembly; appoint a Citizens’ Advisory Council, present a draft constitution to the Parliament and submit it to a referendum for peoples’ approval. The same manifesto also pledged to bring constitutional amendments to the executive presidency, electoral system, rule of law, and good governance. Even this manifesto pledged to appoint a fully powered committee, led by a retired magistrate, to urgently act on prisoners detained under the PTA – with the aim to either file cases against them or release them expeditiously. In addition, it pledged to complete the returning of buildings and lands the military acquired during the armed conflict to the original owners.

It is too early to pre-judge the level of devolution that would have been offered by the government, but the draft Constitution presented by Professor G L Peiris under former President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s constitutional reform programme in 2000, was the broadest and the most effective constitutional proposal placed on the table in our country’s history. The devolution offered in the Professor G L Peiris version went much beyond the scope proposed in the current interim report. And yet, G L Peiris and his party now oppose any devolution of power even to the provinces. Their henchmen also talk about causing death to anyone advocating power devolution to peripheries, despite some powers being already devolved to the existing provincial councils. Another even talk about bombing the Parliament in a jovial mood!

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Challenge to the Tamil status quo

By N. Sathiya Moorthy-2017-12-13

For those familiar with the island's post-war Tamil politics, it should actually come as a surprise that EPRLF's Suresh Premachandran did leave what was until then the four-party Tamil National Alliance (TNA). In doing so, he has also double-timed perceived ally, Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) founder Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, to tie up with TULF veteran, V. Anandasangaree, with his 'Rising Sun' symbol, which refuses to rise electorally without the TNA.

In the past years and elections, the EPRLF along with PLOTE (People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam) and TELO (Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization) used to try and arm-twist the major 'Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi' (ITAK), or 'Federal Party' partner to concede more seats than the latter would like to settle for. Knowing full well that they had no time to register a new party with the Election Commission (EC) and seek a common candidate, together and separately, they would talk about the urgent need for making TNA an electoral entity independent of the ITAK and independent of the party's 'House' symbol, which has better traction with the Tamil voters, especially in the North.
Not to show up the Tamil community to be seen as a divided house, the ITAK leadership would yield partial ground, for the others to feel vindicated and even victorious. Together, they would then go on to sweep the North and the Tamil areas in the East, against an even less credible Eelam People's Democratic Party of former Minister, Douglas Devan for TELO and PLOTE to take his line of defiance, though they were after all expected to pretend to defy the ITAK-TNA leadership until the latter would be 'moved' enough.

The formal exit of the EPRLF has meant that there are more seats for the other three to share. Even more precisely, there are more seats for the PLOTE and TELO to demand from what was now 'residual seats' from the ITAK, which might have hoped to retain most of them for itself. For TELO thus to pretend walking out and its Secretary-General Sri Kantha to declare that they are walking out of the TNA was as farcical as it could have been.

Dominant, domineering

It is sad that the dominant TNA political leadership has been taking the Tamil people for granted, as much as the LTTE and the pre-war TULF used to do in their time. Truth be told, the TNA has been the domineering political element in Tamil polity and society, without having any sense of duty, responsibility or accountability to the people who have been voting them post-war.

It is the kind of duty, responsibility and accountability that they want the Central Government in Colombo to have towards their people. If the Northern Provincial Council and administration are known for anything since coming to power with Justice C. V. Wigneswaran in 2013, it is for avoidable controversies, both of the constitutional and political kinds – at times within the TNA, and not for any achievements or dedication to the war-ravaged people, whom they all claim is theirs and theirs alone.

The irony is striking. Though the EPRLF, for instance, talked about ideologies and policies as the reason for its parting of ways with the TNA, no one believed it. While threatening to leave the TNA, TELO did not talk about ideology or policies, or even programmes, but only about seat-sharing. The TNA itself is in the news, either when some foreign dignitary deigned to visit Jaffna or meet up with party leaders, again as routine as their own poll-eve political demands have become over the past decades.

There are no takers, no readers for the internecine wars within the Tamil polity and society, which at last count may have more political parties and leaders than the post-war scenario could afford. It is ego-centric and not ideology-driven – or, continues to be so, even after war and violence, loss and destruction - as each one of them separately would want one to believe.

Enemy within

Sad but true, but the Tamils do not need an enemy from outside of the community. Beyond a point, for them to continue blaming the Sinhala polity and the Sri Lankan State would be a travesty of the truth. The enemy is within and has always been so. It was so ever since Independence, but no Tamil seemed to have ever paused to evaluate and judge.

Given time, a new-generation leadership devoid of war and war-time involvement, which TNA's Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, wanted to promote for the future, in Justice Wigneswaran and M. A. Sumanthiran, could well come from outside of the TNA. They could question the status quo and challenge the status quo leadership more effectively. After all, the TNA in power in the North has not done anything worthwhile for the Tamil people of the future, especially those in the East, to be enamoured of a re-merger of the kind that the party wants, but none else seem to talk or even think about!

(The writer is Director, Chennai Chapter of the Observer Research Foundation, the multi-disciplinary Indian public-policy think-tank, headquartered in New Delhi. Email: sathiyam54@gmail.com)

CEB unions threaten strike over several demands

2017-12-13

Following a discussion with officials of the Power and Renewable Energy Ministry today, the CEB Joint Trade Union Alliance said it would take action if its demands were not met by tomorrow.

Speaking to Daily Mirror, Joint Trade Union Alliance General Secretary Ranjan Jayalal said the Ministry Secretary accepted its demands.

"Ministry Secretary accepted our demands and said the final decision will be taken after the matter was discussed with the minister tomorrow. Also, the annual allowances and bonuses of non-executive employees have been curtailed. However, several officials have allegedly increased their allowances. The hunger strike launched by CEB employees will continue until their demands are met. The union will not resort to an indefinite islandwide strike because it could inconvenience the ongoing GCE O/L exams. However, in the event our demands are not met, we will certainly launch the strike after the exams are over,” he said.

When contacted Power and Renewable Energy Ministry Director (Development), Sulakshana Jayawardena, he confirmed that the ministry officials met with the trade union leaders.

"A solution to their demands will be provided tomorrow, after consulting the minister," he said. (Thilanka Kanakarathna)

The Humanities Under Attack!

By Nandaka Maduranga Kalugampitiya –December 12 2017 

The academic departments and programmes in Sri Lankan universities with a humanities focus have constantly been criticized, over the past four decades, for their alleged failure to be productive spaces that are relevant to society. The charges levelled against those departments and programmes are primarily based on the (mis)conception that they fail to be ‘scientific’ in their outlook. They are often seen as spaces that produce individuals who are misfits and who fail to take part in the productive processes in society. The academics in those departments and programmes are often seen as armchair-scholars who are out of touch with ever-so-dynamic social realities, regressive (non)thinkers who resist change, and individuals who uphold their supposedly old-fashioned and outdated modes of knowledge production to the detriment of the future of their students. The students of such departments and programmes, in general, are viewed as a group of hapless souls for whom the humanities were the restricted choice. The whole situation surrounding the idea of the Humanities in the Sri Lankan context is basically (mis)understood to be one that is in dire need of some sort of a messiah.

The current discourse on the humanities not only in the Sri Lankan context but also across the globe, particularly in all-important western centres of knowledge production, indicate that quite a number of institutions and individuals have offered to play the role of this much-needed messiah. The proposals made by such institutions and individuals with the supposed intention of salvaging the humanities include calls for streamlining the disciplines with a humanities focus with the rest of the disciplines, particularly those with a “scientific outlook”. Some of the proposed ways of accomplishing this goal include reorganizing the body of knowledge into smaller, isolatable segments that could be mastered within short periods of time; incorporating technology into the learning process irrespective of whether that necessarily enhances the learning process; redefining the research approaches and methods used in the Humanities along the lines of the scientific, if not scientistic, methods that place a high premium on the principle of objectivity; and redefining the pedagogical process so as to ensure that the products of the process conveniently fit into predefined slots in the broader socio-economic fabric. In this context, any kind of knowledge that cannot be put to immediate practical use is increasingly being viewed as knowledge that is not worth pursuing.

The widespread obsession with the idea of science that defines the current discourse on the humanities is disturbing for a couple of reasons. The overwhelming superiority that natural sciences enjoy in the current academic discourse worldwide has ensured that the idea of science is always understood in relation to the natural sciences. This understanding projects science, in its current form, as the only pathway to truth. However, Arjuna Parakrama’s work on the genealogy of the concept would show that the current understanding of ‘science’ is limited and also narrower than the meanings that the concept has had over the past, while Aleksei Losev has already established that what constitutes science at any point in time is a form of myth.  Irrespective of whether one would want to agree with such analyses and theoretical positions, there is no question that the issues that they raise are too big to be ignored. In a context where such analyses and theoretical positions are possible in spaces that come under the humanities, the fervent call for the disciplines with a humanities focus to model themselves after the natural sciences is not only grossly misguided but also disturbingly self-limiting, as such a move invariably entails weakening the existing modes of thinking that could provide critical insights into the very idea of science. 

 

A closer look at the relationship between what is termed science today and global capitalism shows that ‘sciencification’ of knowledge is crucial for the maintenance of the global capitalist world order. (This is a claim that warrants a detailed discussion of its own.) In such a context, education is reduced to a process whose main, if not only, aim is to empower students with certain skills and tools, which they can use to get things done in the world of work. This conception of education is disturbingly limited and limiting, as it takes the world of work as a given and ends up justifying/legitimizing the global capitalist world order. One could argue that this is yet another theoretical claim that fails to take into consideration the blatant reality that everyone needs a job. There is no question that everyone needs a job, but to tailor academic programmes with a humanities focus primarily, if not entirely, to suits the needs of global capitalism is to turn a blind eye to the noble responsibilities that the humanities disciplines have historically been entrusted with.

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LeN ban not imposed by media ministry but by a ‘higher force’ - Mangala discloses ! (video)

(Lanka-e-News - 13.Dec.2017, 1.05PM)  Minister of media Mangala Samaraweera revealed in Parliament on the 9 th that the media ministry has nothing to do with the ban imposed on the Lanka e news website within the country , and that a ‘higher force’ is responsible. 

The minister gave the afore -stated answer in response to a lengthy question raised by the opposition chief whip and JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake regarding the Lanka e news ban during the budget debate session on expenditure . 

Dissanayake pointed out  , It was the present media minister who went to  courts during the Mahinda Rajapakse era against prohibition of registration of websites , and while there are opportunities  to access Lanka e news website under the minister’s era  ,  why  is the minister remaining silent now , he questioned. 

It was then the  media minister revealed ‘ a higher force is in operation.’ 

In any event , the media minister at a conference recently  said , websites cannot be obstructed  and he is still reading the Lanka e news daily. 

This higher force he referred to is  none other than the chief , around whom the barking and snarling  ‘pariah dogs’ are clustered boosted by the assumption   that an international website can be blocked,  and are self - fattening  -eating  the crumbs falling off the mouth of  this ‘higher force’ while illegally depriving the rights of over two million viewers  of the website as well as  making the UNP ministers to turn dumb. Unbelievably this  is the  ‘higher force’ that  gets panicky and maniacally rattled when he the  culprit  is warned , exposed and urged by Lanka e news to go along  the straight virtuous  path . 

It is a pity, uncouth ,uncultured ,uncivilized Sillysena is  stripping nude daily and shamelessly before the forces which propelled him to power, while  falling prey to his barbaric brutes who imagine  the  internet  can be forbidden .

Hereunder is the video footage of the verbal exchange between Mangala Samaraweera and Anura Dissanayake 

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by     (2017-12-13 07:37:48)

Crossover Season has begun

By Faizer Shaheid-2017-12-13

The Sri Lankan political arena has plunged into utter disarray, and there has been no form of discipline even in the party ranks. Political parties have become mere taxi rides for politicians to travel to their intended destinations. If one party does not work, then another should suffice as long as it carries him or her on their political journey. The flaw in the system has given way for many a turncoat to prevail.

In the last few days, Sriyani Wijewickrama, a Parliamentarian belonging to the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) who sat with the Joint Opposition crossed over and pledged her support to President Maithripala Sirisena. Not long afterwards, three prominent members of the Jathika Nidahas Peramuna (JNP) including Deputy Leader, Weerakumara Dissanayake, National Organizer, Piyasiri Wijenayake, and North Central Provincial Councillor, P.B. Kumara joined President Sirisena. Even the former General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), Hasan Ali, had decided to cross over to the newly formed United People's Alliance (UPA) led by Rishad Bathiudeen.

This trend of crossing over at the time of elections has prevailed for many long years, and the issue has more often been considered almost insignificant in law. Of course, legal provisions exist in the Constitution permitting political parties to expel the membership of persons from parties, thereby expelling them from Parliament itself. However, over the years this provision has been rendered redundant.

It was fairly commonplace prior to the 1978 Constitution to cross over at opportune moments. For example, when D.S. Senanayake crossed over from the Ceylon National Congress (CNC) to form the United National Party (UNP), and when S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike crossed over to form the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), they were monumental crossovers that changed the course of political history each time. However, the 1978 Constitution decided to lock the legs of those who wished to cross over.

The Constitution on expulsions

The Constitution expressly recognizes that where a Member of Parliament belonging to a political party ceases to be a member of that party, that person shall cease to function as a Member of Parliament. This is expressly stated in Article 99 (13) which reads:

'Where a Member of Parliament ceases, by resignation, expulsion or otherwise, to be a member of a recognized political party or independent group on whose nomination paper, his name appeared at the time of his becoming such Member of Parliament, his seat shall become vacant upon the expiration of a period of one month from the date of his ceasing to be a member.' An exception is provided in a proviso to Article 99 (13) where if that Parliamentarian challenged the expulsion in the Supreme Court within a month of being expelled, then the expulsion will only be valid if the Supreme Court rules that the expulsion is valid.

Case law

When the issue of crossovers was rare and only just commenced following the enactment of the 1978 Constitution, the power of a party to take disciplinary action against a party member was duly recognized. Therefore, enormous weight was laid on Article 99 (13). This was seen in the case of Gamini Dissanayake vs. M.C.M. Kaleel and others, where eight dissident Parliamentarians of the UNP including Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali filed individual action challenging their expulsion from the party.

Justice Kulatunga, hearing all eight petitions jointly in the Supreme Court, stated, "the right of a member of Parliament under Article 99(13)(a) is a legal right and forms part of his constitutional rights as a Member of Parliament. If his complaint is that he has been expelled from the membership of his party in breach of the rules of natural justice he will be ordinarily entitled to relief and this Court may not determine such expulsion to be valid unless there are overwhelming reasons warranting such a decision." The aforesaid case remains the first and only time that an expulsion was upheld by a Court of Law under Article 99 (13).

However, the rules established in Gamini Dissanayake vs. M.C.M. Kaleel were expounded and expanded, which gave enormous weight to the exception to the rule of expulsion. The rules were broadened enormously. For example, in the case of Thilak Karunaratne vs. Bandaranaike Courts considered whether the party had understood the consequences of a decision to expel a certain member. In Galappaththi vs. Bulegoda, the Courts considered the rule of Audi Alteram Partem or whether the party had given adequate opportunities for the party expelled to show cause. The issue of procedural impropriety began playing an important role in determining the decision of the Courts. This was strongly emphasized in the case of Sarath Amunugama vs. Karu Jayasuriya in the year 2000. Procedural impropriety became the ground that every case of expulsion was pleaded on, and those who petitioned the Court were victorious each time.

Further issues in respect of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which was introduced in 1988, introducing the Preferential Voting System and the National List, became evident in the case of Basheer Segu Dawood vs. Ferial Ashraff. In this case, where a Member was picked to the National List from a coalition party, the Courts determined that the Member could not be expelled as he belonged to a party other than the coalition party.

However, the case that left the area of expulsion wide open was the case of Ameer Ali vs. SLMC in 2006. In this case, Chief Justice at the time, Sarath N. Silva quashed the expulsions and determined that an expulsion may not be valid unless overwhelming reasons warranted such a decision.
Post 2006

While many cases of expulsion have since emerged, not a single case has emerged successfully. Even in fairly open and shut cases such as the defection of Karu Jayasuriya and clan to the government in 2007, the expulsion was expunged.

The idea of expelling members of a political party reached a point of absurdity, especially when proving to Courts that proper procedure was followed in determining an expulsion. Even when Maithripala Sirisena crossed over to the Opposition to take on his own party member in the 2015 Presidential Election, the entire party knew that it would be completely redundant to expel him and other dissident Parliamentarians from the party. Being so, the members were merely suspended.
This is the reason why Sirisena was able to return to the SLFP and claim leadership after emerging victorious at the Presidential Election. He could not be sacked from the party no matter what.
In that political backdrop, crossover politics has become an increasingly common phenomenon. No person has much regard for party based politics anymore, unless in pursuit of political office. Only those that aspire to be the topmost leaders of the country such as a Prime Minister or President would usually aspire to align themselves with political parties. That mentality has changed too since Maithripala Sirisena emerged as President from a different party altogether.

Crossover politics today

When Sirisena crossed over in late 2014, the crossover game had just commenced. Each time a politician crossed over, they became a cog in the wheel for Sirisena and there was nothing their original party could do to stop them. In particular, if a candidate had emerged from a coalition party, then there is very little that the main constituent party could do to expel them as was seen in the case of Basheer Segu Dawood vs. Ferial Ashraff.

Therefore, when the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) joined hands with the UNP to form a government, each of the Parliamentarians who openly decided to sit in the opposition could not be stopped. Despite backers of Maithripala Sirisena claiming that the dissident Parliamentarians were graciously given permission to sit in the opposition, the truth is that even the ruling party knows that little to nothing can be worked out to earn an expulsion for the disruptive Parliamentarians.

Although the dissident Parliamentarians had openly formed a new party and campaigned against President Maithripala Sirisena and sat in the Opposition, only empty threats could be made against them. The threat of disciplinary action was only meant as a form of political coercion, which the SLFP had eagerly employed effectively at the beginning, however, the Maithripala Sirisena led SLFP has lately run out of steam and nobody appears to be taking them seriously. The UNP appears to be side-tracking the SLFP, while the Joint Opposition seems to be ignoring them. Even the people have begun to believe that the SLFP has become a laughing stock. With almost all the trump cards pulled out, President Sirisena has only little to show if he is to earn some form of victory at the forthcoming Local Government Polls. Therefore, he has resorted to the traditional election time crossover politics to establish some form of momentum in his favour.

Conclusion

Although people do tend to be fooled from time to time, repetitive tactics tend to reveal the inner motives of those who have conned the people into electing them as leaders. Nonetheless, with lacklustre expulsion laws, crossover politics will always be a trending one to create hype and to capitalize on each person's gains be it politically or otherwise, and many will always fall for this democratic tomfoolery.

(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)
faizer@live.com