Friday, December 15, 2017

Bangladesh: Bringing to memory of our fallen intellectual heroes

We never enter the time of remembrance without our mind being flooded with our martyred intellectuals. We cannot forget the heart-wrenching pain of their near and dear ones as they watched helplessly as the best sons of this soil were so brutally murdered

by Anwar A. Khan-Dec 14, 2017

( December 14, 2017, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) Louis D. Brandeis said, ”Those who sacrificed lives for our independence… valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.” Patriotism is an emotional attachment to a nation which an individual recognises as their homeland. This attachment, also known as national feeling or national pride, can be viewed in terms of different features relating to one’s own nation, including ethnic, cultural, political or historical aspects. Intellectualism denotes the use, development, and exercise of the intellect; the practice of being an intellectual; and the Life of the Mind. And the fallen great patriotic intellectuals in 1971 are the real life of our minds. In the view of Socrates, intellectualism allows that “one will do what is right or best just as soon as one truly understands what is right or best”; that virtue is a purely intellectual matter, since virtue and knowledge are familial relatives, which a person accrues and improves with dedication to reason. Our fallen intellectuals could really fathom what was right or best for our people.

The bloods of these honourable patriots’ are still warm in our veins. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the supreme sacrifices of these great sons of this sacred soil.

We never enter the time of remembrance without our mind being flooded with our martyred intellectuals. We cannot forget the heart-wrenching pain of their near and dear ones as they watched helplessly as the best sons of this soil were so brutally murdered in the 2nd half of 1971 just before Bangladesh was liberated from the cruel clutches of the Pakistani Military Junta and their local henchmen, especially the Jamaat-e-Islami goons. They went through a war of unsurpassed sacrifices by laying down their lives to the cause of creating the country, Bangladesh. When we put all the sufferings and deaths of every war together, these cannot touch the weight, suffering and sacrifice of their supreme sacrifices. Their battle deserves their own recognition “lest we forget” and the world forgets. They as it is unconscionable to consider forgetting the sacrifice and death of our great intellectuals and civilian lives, it is even more so, a grave travesty and dishonour to their services and sacrifices, to forget. Today, we are speaking of our great patriots; our great intellectuals.

They are the patriots in the truest sense of the word. Thomas Campbell said, “The patriot’s blood is the seed of Freedom’s tree.” The bloods of these honourable patriots’ are still warm in our veins. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the supreme sacrifices of these great sons of this sacred soil. Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched and won. This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the braves like our great intellectuals who embraced their martyrdoms.

Great people have great minds and great thoughts. Majority of the great people not only achieved their goals but also they have left their precious words and sayings behind for others to follow and to give them a path of success. If we read their teachings and words from the depth of our heart, we shall come to know that they have given us formulas to live a successful and meaningful life. Our fallen intellectuals are our constant inspirations. December 14 is ‘the Martyred Intellectuals’ Day in our life. It is an important day for us in Bangladesh. It is a day to give thanks, to pay tribute and to remember those who gave their lives during our glorious Liberation War in 1971 to protect our country. In reality, we should be thankful every single day of the year, but the December 14 is the official day where we all come together to honour our fallen patriotic intellectuals.

Their journey forced us to live in the present – we didn’t want to miss any part of the beautiful landscape of this land going by out the window. They are on our mind as we drive through this beautiful land of Bangladesh. We are thankful that these noble souls gave us the strength and inspiration to take this long nine months of hardships to liberate the country from cruel Pakistani Army and their local brutal henchmen especially belonged to the fearsome criminal outfit, Jamaat-e-Islami. We are honoured to remember the many brave men and women who have given their lives throughout the history of our great nation – those who made the ultimate sacrifices to protect us from harm. We salute all those now alive and we raise our prayers for their safety and blessing.

As we remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifices for the freedoms we enjoy every day, we think of how they have followed in the footsteps of patriotism. Please hold our fallen heroes in the strong arms of the Almighty. Cover them with your sheltering grace and your presence as they stand in the gap for our protection. We also remember the families of our patriots. We ask for your unique blessings to fill their homes, and we pray your peace, provision, and strength will fill their lives. May the members of our patriotic intellectuals be supplied with courage to face each day and may they trust in the Lord’s mighty power to accomplish each task.

The defeated cohorts of the Pakistani military knew very well that the most effective way of crippling the nation that was about to be born was to liquidate its best sons.

Noted educationist Prof. Dr. Rebecca Haque said, “Mourn a cold, dark, bloody day in distant December. Dawn, dusk, dew, and nightfall. Silent death squads knocking at the door, targeting noble names on the assassin’s hit-list. Lament the loss. Weep the tears. Cry for the slaughter of the illustrious sons of the delta. Wail at the memory of the dead desecrated in the ditch. Feel the agony of grief. Our teachers and our seers, taken from us to the sequestered pit. Freedom on the horizon and the marching Mukti Bahini carrying the flag of liberation could not save them from the savage ambush. On the fourteenth of December, raise your arm to salute, to remember the martyred intellectuals. Murdered with such diabolical, secret strategy to cripple the new nation. Dare to shout. Dare to accuse. Dare to punish the craven killers. Your Nation asks this of thee: do not flinch, seek justice.” The nation observes the Martyred Intellectuals Day on December 14 as much with a deep sense of loss as with the rekindling of the spirit that went into the making of Bangladesh.

The defeated cohorts of the Pakistani military knew very well that the most effective way of crippling the nation that was about to be born was to liquidate its best sons. So, some brilliant teachers of Dhaka University– where almost all the progressive movements in the history of the country had been initiated – were targeted. “The killers of the infamous Al-Badr belonged to Jamaat-e-Islami wanted to deprive the nation of the services of the intellectuals who represented the core values that the emerging nation stood for. True, the killers succeeded in physically eliminating the top intellectuals, but their ideas and beliefs still inspire the nation to remain on the right track. The martyrs of December 14 will ever shine brightly in our memories.”

The killers have clearly been defeated. The nation has rejected obscurantism and religious extremism. It is a very positive development that those who perpetrated the crimes against humanity are now facing trial, at least some of them. Justice delayed is not always justice denied! The nation is looking forward to the day when all the killers of the intellectuals will be tried and punished. It is a bit disquieting to watch some people questioning the rationale behind this delayed trial of the war criminals. They must not forget that the crimes committed in 1971 against the people of this country cannot be condoned. We cannot forget and forgive the criminals responsible for one of the worst genocides in recorded history.

The intellectuals were killed as part of an evil design which was finally foiled by our victory 48 hours later. The best way to pay homage to the martyrs is to make sincere efforts to translate their dreams into reality. They had a dream of a progressive and exploitation-free society where nobody would be discriminated against. Also they were the torch bearers of the spirit of Bengali nationalism that set the entire nation on a warpath in 1971 to win our freedom. So, let us live up to their expectations in perpetuity. Let us not remember on a particular day only the men and women whose keenness of intellect and the power of conviction gave them a very special place in society. The day of remembrance should always be a part of our consciousness and existence.

Our goal is to never let people forget the sacrifices made for our freedom and to take care of the families of our fallen heroes now and in the future. A full scale special tribute for the brave and gallant are to be performed by us on the Mourning Day for the fallen martyrs; because they marked the most decisive battles of the entire nine months long journey of Independence War in 1971. In that period, slowly broke down the Pakistani forces resistance and ultimately into a full surrender.

These fallen soldiers, we honour on this day, made the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good of mankind. The ruthlessness of the Pakistani Military Junta was evident throughout the history. These patriots had to unselfishly sacrifice their lives for the country’s peace and stability. They fought a good battle and their blood that flows from all the way to the whole Bangladesh territory, nurtures our democracies and strengthens our nations in fighting oppression and foreign dominance. History is such as the victory of Bangladesh side narrows the gap between our nations that may be geographically far apart but brings us closer in pursuit of democracy, human dignity, peace and security.

And we shall gather on the morning of 14 December, 2015 not merely to lift up the memories of our fallen comrades, but to read the names inscribed on these walls and support one another in strength as well as in grief. These kind-hearted and patriotic intellectuals were truthful and meant what they said for the cause of our valiant people. For every fallen hero, a life; and a reminder of the grief of loved ones left behind. The day we received the message of their brutal murder we could not come to grips with it and even today we cannot digest it. It is a tragedy for the country and a tragedy to the human fraternity and they have left a big vacuum.

They were like shining stars of strength and loving devotion that many of us will continue to be guided by throughout our lives. Our love is deeper than the solar system and wider than eternity. Their death occasioned the sad loss of intellectual giants who radiated an unfailing commitment and devotion to the struggle for freedom. They were known as thinkers who could easily speak in simple language and socialise with ordinary people. They were true compatriots and pure-blooded democrats. They were an embodiment of what Bangladesh stands for. These were great intellectuals who harboured the noble qualities of dedication, sacrifice and discipline. They are the persons who showed immense empathy to human suffering, and compassion for the poor and oppressed. They personified humility, dignity and sophistication.

Throughout their lives they continued to inspire all of us with the certainty that we would triumph in the end. On 14 December, 2017, we shall mourn the passing of our great sons. We salute our comrades and friends, and intellectual leaders in the struggle of our movement and fellow members of a generation that has given so much to the shaping of our country. In the memory of our martyred intellectuals veteran freedom fighter late Syed Shahidul Haque Mama said, “Our country has been blessed with some quite outstanding persons. We give thanks to Allah for their quite substantial contribution to our struggle and to the transformation that has happened and is happening in our country.” In all their work, they distinguished themselves as scholars, disciplined cadres, builders and teachers. They built and sustained a tradition of excellent political journalism and theoretical writing.

Great Bengali heroes have encountered barbaric murders; they will go down in the annals of history as men of immense integrity, intellectual capacity; unrelenting in their determination to follow their own destiny, and on behalf of the voiceless, but always gentlemen of stature. Their loss is a national loss. We are all indebted to them for leading us in a way that is most worthy of emulation. Their lives and times were a celebration of a life lived to the fullest. In the era of democracy, they were a constant reminder of the need to speed up service delivery to improve the lives of our people.

We should vow not to stop our fighting till the last butcher is perished from our sacred land. We must destroy their financial base and confiscate their properties to compensate the same to the families of war victims.

They were like shining stars of strength and loving devotion that many of us will continue to be guided by throughout our lives. Our love is deeper than the solar system and wider than eternity. Let us never forget that it is “love that shines brighter than the morning sun.” We can now remember this famous poem :

“We honour them by promising them our best
That we will stand for that which is righteous and true
The freedom of mankind and the red, the white, and the blue
A story to be told of that which is not yet
We will begin by promising not to forget
Those who fell on the battlefield and those who came home
Those who gave all and that all gave some
May God make us worthy of the story that’s been told
May our story be that we have made their cause our own.”

There is no better epitaph we can leave on the tombs of our martyred intellectuals than the words of Armand Hammer, “A person first starts to live when he can live outside himself. Life is a gift, and if we agree to accept it, we must contribute in return. When we fail to contribute, we fail to adequately answer why we are here.” Noted Historian Prof. Dr. Muntasir Mamun has said, ”Bangabandhu had united the nation. Gen Zia had divided it. It is tough to unite a nation. But it is easy to divide. Zia did it. We hope the new generation will be able to be united once again. There will be no anti-liberation element in the country. The entire nation, imbued with the spirit of Liberation War, will stand in unison.” He further has said, “Unfortunately the political forces in Bangladesh are now divided as anti-Liberation and pro-Liberation forces. There is no nation in the world where anti-Liberation forces exist. But in Bangladesh, it exists. There will be politics in Bangladesh. But there will be no anti-Liberation politics. Everybody will have to pro-Liberation. You will find no country in the world, where any political party upholds the spirit of defeated forces. They support crimes against humanity. You will not find it anywhere else. Khaleda Zia questions the genocide. You will not find any such politician in other countries.”

Ciao. But before that, we wish to salute our martyred intellectuals on the 46th anniversary of their brutal slaughtering by the war criminals and their killing outfits, Al-Badr and Al-Shams in connivance with the brutal Pakistani Military Junta. We should vow not to stop our fighting till the last butcher is perished from our sacred land. We must destroy their financial base and confiscate their properties to compensate the same to the families of war victims. One hundred ninety five war criminals of the Pakistani Army shall be tried in the International Crimes’ Tribunal to award due punishment to these perpetrators to let the whole world know of what magnitude of crimes they committed to our people during our glorious Liberation War in 1971.The martyred intellectuals will thus live on through the love in our hearts.

-The End-

Chinese tourists raid Danish supermarkets for infant milk powder

Arla Foods' milk powder is stacked in a supermarket in Copenhagen, Denmark December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Julie Astrid Thomsen

Julie Astrid Thomsen-DECEMBER 15, 2017

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Following a string of food safety scandals, Chinese tourists visiting Copenhagen have this year stocked up on Danish-made organic infant milk formula, prompting some supermarkets to limit the number of cans each customer can buy.

More conventional exports are strong too. Arla Foods, one of Europe’s biggest dairy companies, says Chinese demand for premium products and high food safety standards in Denmark have helped it almost double its sales to China this year.

Food safety has been an important issue in China since a 2008 scandal killed six infants who had been fed milk powder that had been adulterated with the toxic melamine, normally used to make plastics.

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Politics is a game played by corrupt elements

By Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne-2017-12-14

We hear the noise from all sides that politicians are corrupt and all are bandits of one kind or the other. The explanation is that is the nature of the game. Politics is a game played by corrupt elements. It is as simple as that. The telling line is this: 'Power consists of making others play your version of their reality'.

Accordingly all politicians are automatically in a trap. One is not free to break out of this; hence they all become corrupt – that is the end of history. However, in this country in the past there were politicians who did not rob in any way, but spent their own money to serve the policies of their Government. This was true for all kinds of politicians; liberals, conservatives and Samasamajists. Even the most conservative politician did not take public money for private expenditure. Today things have changed. Now, one has to subjugate others so that others play the game as you wish. Even the moral law of end justifies the means cannot be applied. Because this definition of power can have applications outside the classical associations of power, i.e. the State, the military, use of force, visible subjugation and hierarchies. Authoritarianism is not only about keeping people out of decision-making processes, imposing arbitrary laws and creating and forcing people to practise a culture of impunity. There is also a soft and non-intrusive kind of control which persuades a different kind of inhabitation, claiming that is the cultured way of living.

However, is it not false to say that there is no god or a vile set of big bad men out there plotting the dimensions of common living, but society does get structured in ways that are more likely to produce the outcomes preferred by the powerful? The structures as well as those located in arm-twisting positions within them, not only define the parameters of resistance for the most part, but act in a fascistic manner arousing racism and religious sectarianism. Of course rupture is not impossible, but remains to be done by positive intervention. While laws and guns can obtain obedience, the more insidious instruments of subjugation are those which are so 'goes-without-saying' that few will even question why or how they came-without-saying. There are hidden appreciations and assumptions that creep in. It is also called taking things for granted, in the worst sense of that term.

We inhabit realities which we believe or are led to believe are not only unchangeable but are proper or at least the best they could be. Or do not we throw our hands up in aristocratic resignation, convincing ourselves that even our best efforts would not change anything; because they come from heroic ancestors. I am not saying that all conformities are enslaving; a certain code of ethics, for example, can be necessary, one could argue, to maintain 'social coherence and keeping separation and break up', out.

A conscious choice

It would be quite alright if it was a conscious choice, but for the most part people are ill-informed and less given to reflecting on the 'things-as-they-are'. It is one thing to make sure one doesn't step on tyranny's foot because one knows the consequences.

But it is quite another to give that foot a wide berth because 'that's-how-it-should-be'. If one takes some time to analyze the last 100 acts, i.e. from the expression that materialized on face at a given moment to choice of sari and the use of certain words to address others, one will know that we inhabit 'rule-universes' as though it was second nature to do so in the ways we do.

Not all authoritarians and dictators arrive with a big placard and comprehensive communications. Nor do they come with a campaign claiming tyranny and demanding acquiescence on this account. The use of one word instead of another, the choice of voice over silence or vice versa in specific moments, the preference for this friend's company and not that of that friend's, none of these things are totally innocent although we might brush such claims off as 'nonsense'. The most pernicious of tyrannies are not those which we do not have the strength to resist but those which we embrace on account of ignorance and greed for higher connections. While laws and guns can obtain obedience, the more insidious instruments of subjugation are those which are so goes-without-saying that few will even question why or how they came-without-saying.

It is also called taking things for granted, in the worst sense of that term. We inhabit realities which we believe or are led to believe are not only unchangeable but are proper or at least the best they could be. Or we throw our hands up in resignation, convincing ourselves that even our best efforts would not change anything. Let us repeat. Not all authoritarians arrive with a big placard and a comprehensive communications campaign claiming tyranny and demanding acquiescence on this account. The use of one word instead of another, the choice of voice over silence or vice versa in specific moments, the preference for this friend's company and not that of that friend's, none of these things are totally innocent although we might brush such claims off as 'nonsense'.

The most pernicious of tyrannies are not those which we do not have the strength to overthrow, but those which we embrace on account of ignorance and fear of heritage.

Govt.’s accession to Optional Protocol of Convention against Torture: Implications and dangers

By C. A. Chandraprema-December 14, 2017, 9:45 pm

The decision to accede to the Optional Protocol of the International Convention against Torture, and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment was taken by the yahapalana Cabinet on 14 November 2017. The decision was implemented soon afterward on 5 December and it will come into force from 4 January 2018. Despite the gross inefficiency that this government has demonstrated in the day-to-day running of this country, they have demonstrated incredible in efficiency in implementing anything that gives the Western powers a handle over Sri Lanka’s internal affairs. The latest move made in this regard is acceding to the Optional Protocol of the Convention against Torture. In order to understand why acceding to the Optional Protocol of the Convention against Torture is inimical to Sri Lanka one has to understand what the Convention against Torture is about.

Bottom of form

The International Convention against Torture has the undeniably laudable objective of preventing torture which is defined as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him information or a confession or punishing him for an act he has committed or is suspected of having committed." Who can object to such a laudable objective? However, the Convention against Torture restricts its application only to State actors and to public and military officials. No non state actors are affected by its provisions. This is a serious limitation in a country like Sri Lanka, which has had terrorists groups controlling parts of the country and significant parts of the population. The Convention against Torture has the effect of acting as a stricture on the armed forces while the terrorists were exempt from its application.

In this era of terrorism one would think that the most effective way of preventing torture would be to make the International Convention Against Torture applicable to anybody who has another person in his power – regardless of whether the person exercising power is a state actor or not. Ideally, the Convention Against Torture should apply even to a plane hijacker who has people in his power even for a few hours. What happens because of lopsided laws like the Convention Against Torture is that the armed forces of the State will get hauled up for the graver offence of torture while a terrorist who does the same or worse will get hauled up if at all, only for a lesser offence like ‘assault’ and that too only in instances when crude physical torture has been used. Physical torture that leaves no marks or psychological torture by terrorists will never even make it to a charge sheet.

Under the provisions of the Convention against Torture, every member state is required to make torture a separate criminal office which will apply only to the police and armed forces and other forces of the state. To make things worse, the Convention specifically states that "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be cited in mitigation of any violations. Furthermore, the provisions of the Convention against Torture give foreign countries that are member states of the Convention the power to arrest former or serving state officers suspected of committing torture in any other member state. What this means is that officers of the state will be hunted not only by their own government but the governments of foreign countries as well whereas terrorists will not be hunted either in Sri Lanka or overseas for committing torture.

Torture is never used

by terrorists

Acolytes of Pottu Amman can never be brought to justice under the provisions of the Convention against Torture. Sri Lanka acceded to the Convention against Torture in January 1994 at the tail end of the UNP government. Sri Lanka should never have acceded to this Convention at that moment in time. However, the unfortunate reality is that most nations sign these international conventions without thinking through their implications properly. The most celebrated instance in this regard is the 1998 arrest of the former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet under the provisions of the Convention against Torture to which Chile had acceded to in 1987 when he was in power.

The substantive requirements of the Convention against Torture are fairly pedestrian and are matters that any civilised society and especially a democracy will practice as a matter of course without having to enter into an international convention. The parties to this Convention are required to ensure that all civil and military public officials having custody of persons be educated about the prohibition on torture, and to keep under systematic review interrogation rules, and practices as well as arrangements for the custody and treatment of persons subjected to any arrest, detention or imprisonment, to investigate any complaints of torture, and to ensure that the complainants are not intimidated and that the legal system provides redress to victims of torture as an enforceable right and finally that any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in legal proceedings. One could loosely say that such provisions were in operation in the Sri Lankan legal system one way or another even before the Convention against Torture was signed. The Convention against Torture also envisages the setting up of a Committee against Torture made up of representatives of member states to investigate allegations of torture in member states. All member states are required to co-operate in such investigations. The Committee may designate one or more of its members to make a confidential inquiry and to report back to the Committee and this may entail a visit to the country concerned. Once the Committee has completed the inquiry, their findings and their observations will be submitted to the state party concerned. The proceedings will be confidential and the Committee will include a summary of its findings in their annual report only with the agreement of the member state concerned.

There are two important provisions in the Convention against Torture to which Sri Lanka has mercifully not acceded. A member state has the option of declaring that it recognizes the competence of the Committee against Torture to receive and consider communications by one member state that another member state is not fulfilling its obligations under this Convention. Fortunately, Sri Lanka had not acceded to this provision which would have given foreign countries a direct handle over Sri Lanka’s internal affairs. Acceding to this particular provision would have enabled a foreign state to write directly to SL saying that there are allegations that SL is not fulfilling its obligations under this Convention and SL will be obliged to explain things to that foreign country. If the foreign country is not satisfied with the answer provided by SL, it can take the matter before the Committee against Torture and the Committee in turn can set up an ad hoc conciliation commission to resolve the matter.

Any dispute between two or more member states concerning the interpretation or application of this Convention which cannot be settled through negotiation shall, be submitted to arbitration. If the arbitration does not work the next step is to take it to the International Court of Justice!

Hogtying law enforcement

agencies

One can only imagine what would have happened between 1994 and 2009 if SL had acceded to this provision. There is a similar provision where a member state has the option to declare that it recognizes the competence of the Committee to receive and consider communications from individuals in member states who claim to be victims of torture. In such instances the member state would have to submit an explanation to the Committee and the Committee in turn can convey its views to the member state concerned. Though there is a proviso saying that the Committee can consider such communications only if the individual concerned has exhausted all available domestic remedies, there was an exception to this rule which said that the Committee can consider such applications if the remedies are ‘unreasonably prolonged’ or ‘unlikely to bring effective relief to the person concerned’. Had Sri Lanka acceded to this provision in 1994, the LTTE would have been able to bind the armed forces hand and foot with complaints to the Committee against Torture.

The potential negative effects of the Convention Against Torture were mitigated to some extent by the fact that the SL government did not make the two declarations mentioned above which would have enabled other countries to sit in judgement over Sri Lanka and for individuals in Sri Lanka to be able to make complaints directly to the Committee Against Torture. The enabling legislation passed at the end of 1994 to make the provisions of the Convention against Torture applicable in Sri Lanka were also more realistic than the Convention itself. Act No: 22 of 1994 made torture a separate non-bailable criminal offence punishable with a prison sentence of between 7 to 10 years and a fine. Most importantly, its application was not restricted to officers of the state but to citizens of Sri Lanka and non-citizens who are within the jurisdiction of Sri Lanka. The enabling Act also provided for the extradition of a foreigner suspected of committing torture outside the jurisdiction of Sri Lanka to his own country or another country asking for his extradition etc. The question now is what the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture to which Sri Lanka has just acceded requires us to do. The primary objective of the Optional Protocol is to establish a system of regular visits undertaken by independent international and national bodies to places where people are deprived of their liberty, in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. For this purpose, a Subcommittee of the Committee against Torture is to be established. Each member state is also expected to set up at the domestic level one or more national preventive mechanisms. The members of the Subcommittee of the Committee against Torture will serve not as representatives of their countries but in their individual capacity to ensure independence. Members of this Subcommittee will visit member states and make recommendations to the relevant governments. They are also supposed to maintain direct, and if necessary confidential, contact with the national preventive mechanisms and offer them training and technical assistance.

Member states that accede to the Optional Protocol are expected to give the Subcommittee access to places of detention and provide unrestricted access to all information concerning the number of persons deprived of their liberty and the places of detention and unrestricted access to all information referring to the treatment of those persons as well as their conditions of detention; as well as the opportunity to have private interviews with the persons deprived of their liberty without witnesses, as well as with any other person who the Subcommittee on Prevention believes may supply relevant information. Furthermore, the Subcommittee is to have the liberty to choose the places it wants to visit and the persons it wants to interview. Objection to a visit to a particular place of detention may be made only on urgent and compelling grounds of national defence, public safety, natural disaster or serious disorder in the place to be visited that temporarily prevent the carrying out of such a visit.

Unrestricted access for foreign powers

The existence of a declared state of emergency as such shall not be invoked by a State Party as a reason to object to a visit. No authority or official shall order, apply, permit or tolerate any sanction against any person or organization for having communicated to the Subcommittee on Prevention or to its delegates any information, whether true or false. The Subcommittee will communicate its recommendations and observations confidentially to the State Party and, if relevant, to the national preventive mechanism. If a member state refuses to cooperate with the Subcommittee the Committee against Torture may, make a public statement on the matter or publish it in the report of the Subcommittee on Prevention.

The national mechanisms that are to be set up under the Optional Protocol have to be granted functional independence and the necessary resources by the member states. These national mechanisms are to have unrestricted access to places of detention and information and exercise all the powers the international Subcommittee is entitled to. Moreover, the national mechanisms are to have the right to have unrestricted contacts with the Subcommittee of the Committee on Torture, to send it information and to meet with it and no sanctions can be applied to anybody who provides information, whether true or false to the national mechanism. Thus by acceding to this Optional Protocol, what we have done is to agree to give a body functioning under the Office of the UN Human Rights Commissioner unrestricted access to all places of detention in Sri Lanka and to provide them with all such information regardless of the situation prevailing in the country and to set up local mechanisms which can maintain direct links with the international Subcommittee and feed information to foreign parties without any restriction.

The question is whether we need foreign parties to be nosing around in Sri Lanka and maintaining fifth columns in this country at this point in time? The hasty accession to this Optional Protocol shows that if these foreign powers are unable to get in through the front door, they will enter through a window or even a chink in the roof. A special fund set up within the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights of the UN finances the activities of the Subcommittee of the Committee on Torture. This special fund is financed through ‘voluntary contributions’ made by governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. Western governments provide funding to UN bodies that is tied to particular projects. Needless to say the Sri Lankan project will receive plenty of funds. This is the first physical intrusion into Sri Lanka that the foreign powers have managed to make since the yahapalana government came into power.

Previous attempts to bring in foreign judges, investigators and prosecutors fell by the wayside due to stiff public opposition. The attempt to use the Office of Missing Persons as an entry point also failed because the provision that would have given the OMP unrestricted power to enter into agreements with foreign parties was dropped also due to public opposition. Now the government has signed this Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture to give their foreign masters an opportunity to intervene directly in Sri Lanka.

Conviviality vs Censorship: On Media Freedom in Sri Lanka

Featured image courtesy Reporters Sans Frontieres

DAISY PERRY-on 12/14/2017

Under the Presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa between 2005 and 2015, government brutality and censorship towards the media in Sri Lanka reached new levels. This was to the extent that in the Reporters Without Borders’ Index of Press Freedom it was ranked 165 out of 170 countries in 2015 (up from 115 in 2005) of the most dangerous countries to be a journalist. Furthermore, in 2014 the island was declared the fourth most dangerous country in the Committee to Protect Journalists’ global index of journalists murdered with impunity.

Conviviality vs Censorship On Media Freedom in Sri Lanka.docx by Thavam on Scribd

LeN editor reveals a wealth of information in the interview with a British Broadcasting channel (video)

(Lanka-e-News - 14.Dec.2017, 11.45PM) A discussion was held between Lanka e news editor Sandaruwan Senadheera and Kalpa Palliyaguru of Sinhala broadcasting channel that is operating from Sheffield, Britain. The video footage of the discussion is at the end of this report.

The editor who made a statement for the first time after the second ban imposed on Lanka e news revealed graphic details of how Lanka e news came into being ; who is the main accomplice in Ekneliyagoda murder ; why the source of information cannot be revealed; how common candidate Sirisena who should be a Butterfly metamorphosed into a Bat ; the background to the current LeN ban ; the future of Flower bud group , and many other issues.

Video footage is hereunder

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by (2017-12-14 21:52:19)

Media freedom – the other side of democratic midnight

Friday, 15 December 2017

Last week I challenged the powers that be to walk the talk on media freedom. Because it had become increasingly obvious that only murder and mayhem separated the present dispensation from the previous regime.

Once in power all politicians feel the sharp thorn of the Fourth Estate’s disrespect. It is the same independence of spirit they encouraged and endorsed when they were in opposition. There is only the signal difference that where once the military jackboot of a government grown fat on the spoils of war stamped out all dissent with ruthless efficiency, a far more effete administration that has succeeded it in more ways than one – but is no less annoyed at a refusal of some segments of the press to pursue peace without honour – merely grouses in private, grumbles in public, and mutters maybe not so idle words about media conspiracies.

Media freedom – the other side of democratic midnight.docx by Thavam on Scribd

The Children Of The Children: The Culture Of Envy

By Uditha Devapriya –December 15 2017

It’s convenient now and then to root our collective, national incapacity for something, anything, in our (real or imagined) feelings of cultural inferiority. Not just convenient, but also justifiable, given our harrowing trysts with colonialism. But what is convenient and justifiable emotionally and in terms of rhetoric isn’t always what is true and what should be true. That is why we have to move on, though not at the cost of forgetting what decades and centuries of black-and-white exploitation left us with: a ramshackle economy which never took off thanks in large part to the inability of the colonial (and post-colonial) bourgeoisie to transform it into an industrialised society. Our bourgeoisie are modernists only when it comes to their ability to emulate superficially the Occident. They’ll probably be surprised to learn that Anagarika Dharmapala, whom they vilify using all sorts of expletives and what-not today, was more of a modernist than them.

I believe that a firm engagement with history, its pluses and minuses, its flattering and less than flattering facets, is what makes for the blooming and nurturing of a cultural sensibility. In Sri Lanka that sensibility never really endured for long, considerably owing to the fact that we are, after all, still a post-colonial society. Our filmmakers and artists are wont to describing our society as post-war, but in this they are only partly correct: neither the war, nor the efforts made at building bridges after the war, can conceal the inexorable culture of apathy on the one hand and elitism on the other hand which our bourgeoisie continues to stand for. And affirm. The emergence of an alternative education system in the late 70s and 80s is, I rather suspect, a good indication of that culture. For the fact of the matter is, and I am being quite blunt here, that the rise and proliferation of private, international schools was a vague result of the emergence of a swabasha education sector after 1956. The one necessitated the other through English.

It has been said of the Israel that its founding fathers (and mothers) were idealists, while those who were chosen to lead it after their demise were the realists. I suppose the same can be said of other incidents in history, including the founding of the United States, with the truism that ideals are always tempered by disenchantment. The aborted project that was 1956, which we can trace to the writings of Dharmapala and also, faintly, in the Buddhist Renaissance brought about by the Theosophists, empowered one generation, a generation who were already vassals to an education system which privileged entrance to the Civil Service as the only mark of distinction in society that mattered. The irony is that our elite sent their children to Oxford and Cambridge for the sole purpose of entering that Civil Service, and not for anything that was nationally, economically, productive. (Part of the reason why P. de S. Kularatne returned to Sri Lanka to act as Principal at Ananda College was his realisation that the British were less interested in the Civil Service he himself hoped to enter than his own countrymen.)

The rift which existed before 1956 was largely economic but also determined by language, specifically English. In his book on the LSSP, Working Underground, Regi Siriwardena observes that in colonial society the latter sometimes overrode the former to such an extent that even the middle class, bereft of privilege and occupying an intermediate position between the haves and have-nots, were able to rise socially. A revolution, cultural or political, is decided at the outset by this intermediate class, who enjoyed the benefits of a median position without the inhibitions and deficiencies that visited the elite and the multitude equally. Siriwardena became our foremost critic, translating our cultural sphere to the patrons of the Lionel Wendt and our English Departments despite his inability to wield Sinhala, the language of the 1956 revolution, properly. But this intermediate position wasn’t filled only by those who spoke and wrote in English. It was also filled by the rural and the urban Sinhala Only bourgeoisie. They would elect Bandaranaike as the idealists, while their children would become the realists.

The dichotomy between the ideal and the real in our cultural and political spheres this point reveals is important because, carried away by the world of social empowerment that the Bandaranaike government promised would open to the Sinhala Only bourgeoisie, the idealistic elders educated their later-to-be pragmatic children in the vernacular, forgetting, or choosing to ignore, the fact that what transpired in 1956 was the substitution for the hitherto existing class discrepancies of a more insidious form of elitism. The social rifts which prevailed until then were bottled up, repressed in fact, until what resulted was a culture of envy (as I pointed out last week). A key element of this new culture of envy was the inability of those who had been promised rice from the moon to comprehend the alternate space that the English intelligentsia carved for themselves here. The latter lacked the numbers, but what they lacked in numbers was compensated for by their sway over policy. They became, in short, the policy elite: Michael Young’s technocrats.

And in seeing the hegemony that these new elites and their offspring wallowed in, the empowered ones found themselves quickly to be disempowered and disarmed. They were the insurrectionists who had felt betrayed by a largely obsolete left movement. They attempted to abort elected governments in 1971 and 1988, the former largely drawn from our universities and the latter from the rural, political South. (It’s interesting to note here that many of those who led the 1971 insurrection, and were later rehabilitated, remained JVP’ers while partaking of the NGO sphere that invaded the country in the eighties. Some of these former insurrectionists have today become apologists for whatever government spouts their rhetoric of federalism and devolution.) Being largely rural and pragmatic they would have realised the follies of their elders who had elected for swabasha in 1956. Being insurrectionists they would have confused the follies of their elders for an excuse, on their part, to discern each and every organ of the State – including the judiciary and the education sector – as an arm of a rightwing status quo.

LG Elections For better local planning NOT for power play

2017-12-15

Nominations for Local Government (LG) elections have been set for Monday, December 18 to Thursday, December 21. Before delimitations and carving out of new Wards and LG bodies, 335 LG bodies had 4,116 Councillors elected.

All LG bodies were reduced to local political power bases, taking over petty political work of the party bosses.

The Yahapalanaya Government extended the term of 234 LG bodies till May 2015 and then allowed them to stand dissolved all through two years and seven months, while the rest totalling 101 that were to have their terms end between July and October had their terms extended until end December 2015 and stood dissolved till now for two years.

Elections will now be held to elect 8,365 Councillors for 341 LG bodies in early February 2018 after over a two-year lapse.

During the year 2015 December LG bodies were allocated Rs.7, 744.2 million (7.7 bn) according to information in the “Performance Report 2015” of the Ministry of PC and LG.

This is without accounting for the cost of salaries, fuel, and telephone charges etc., the Mayors, Deputy Mayors, Chairmen and Councillors of LG bodies.

That cost was calculated to be around Rs.02 billion. With more than double the number of Councillors and an increase of LG bodies, it would easily mean, the Taxpayers from 2018 will have to spend at least double that amount to have elected LG bodies from 2018 onwards.

Sadly, there were no public agitations anywhere in this country demanding immediate elections for LG bodies during the past two years. The reason was, people never felt, nor experienced they were without their elected LG bodies, all through these years.

In modern democracies, Municipalities even take responsibility for administration of primary and secondary schools within the national education system.

All LG functions and services that were there continued without any disruption, though without elected Councillors. LG body offices with their staff went about routine work as efficiently or inefficiently as they always did. In plain language, LG body offices functioned as usual.

This begs the question, “Why then deploy 300,000 public officials spending over Rs.04 billion rupees as detailed by the Chairman of the EC at a media briefing, to have LG bodies elected?”

The answer that I subscribe to as well would be, it is a democratic right to have elected LG bodies, the third tier in our governance structure, the people should not be denied of.

These funded projects don’t want to understand that people have no choice in electing “clean” candidates from dirty nominations

Yet it does not answer the major question, “for what purpose, at what public cost?”
There certainly is a “purpose” to have elected representatives in governance structures from parliament through PCs to LG bodies that are constitutionally established with mandates and powers clearly defined. That is to plan, design and implement socio-economic and cultural development programmes to benefit the individual, community and social life, at all three levels
of governance. The Pradeshiya Sabha Act No.15 of 1987 defines the Powers of a PS as”…charged with the regulation, control and administration of all matters relating to public health, public utility services and public thoroughfares and generally with the protection and promotion of the comfort, convenience and welfare of the people and all amenities within such area” and that includes “public spaces” as well.

Today, even the educated urbanites keep electing Councillors who are mainly errand boys of parliamentarians of the area. During Rajapaksa’s time, he turned them into a network of everything unwanted and evil

The Act also says, PSs have established “…with a view to providing greater opportunities for the people to participate effectively in the decision-making process relating to administrative and development activities at a local level.” An opportunity that was never allowed to the ratepayer.
Urban Councils differ only in that they are for “every urban area declared to be a town by Order under Section 2” of the Urban Councils Ordinance No.61 of 1939 as amended by Urban Councils (Amendment) Act. No 21 of 2017.

So are Municipalities constituted under the Municipal Councils Ordinance No.29 of 1947 as lastly amended by Act No.57 of 1979.

Most, unfortunately, elections don’t provide such opportunity to elect a Council that is capable of “protection and promotion of the comfort, convenience and welfare of the people and all amenities” and people don’t demand such development programmes at elections. Not even at parliamentary elections, for that matter.

The perception in society including that of the educated urban middle class does not include LG bodies as elected governing bodies that should deliver at the local level for the welfare of its people.
LG bodies are not called for to plan local area development to meet their mandate. People are never allowed to “participate effectively in the decision-making process relating to administrative and development activities at a local level” though the Act says they should.

In modern democracies, Municipalities even take responsibility for administration of primary and secondary schools within the national education system. They also provide efficient and quality subsidised out-patient health services.

In the past after the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) took over Tramcars from its private operator the Boustead Ltd. in 1944 and then replaced Tramcars with an expanded Trolley bus service in the early 50s, the CMC provided a reasonably priced, quick commuting service that was popular within its city boundaries. Even after 1958 January when the Bandaranaike Government took over all private bus operations under the State-owned CTB, the Colombo municipality operated trolley buses as the popular mode of commuting within the city, until M.H. Mohamed as then Mayor, scrapped the service in 1964 instead of solving issues that led to a strike.

Over the decades, all LG bodies were reduced to local political power bases, taking over petty political work of the party bosses.

LG bodies were thus reduced to bear basic responsibilities of providing approval for building constructions, allotting shopping space in markets and levying ground fees from traders at weekly market fairs like the “Sunday fair”, collecting domestic and other solid waste and dumping them somewhere and owning cemeteries. Therefore, even without an elected Council, the Secretary or the Commissioner was able to and can continue to attend to those basic services with his or her staff.
The need to have LG bodies elected to plan and design local development with efficient services is no more seen as necessary by the people.

Today, even the educated urbanites keep electing Councillors who are mainly errand boys of parliamentarians of the area. During Rajapaksa’s time, he turned them into a network of everything unwanted and evil. The most suited qualification for nominations to an LG body, especially for the Chairmanship or Mayoralty, became the ability to play the role of a “thug” throwing about political power. Such was promoted as local power nodes with backups from numerous projects like “Maga-neguma, Gama-neguma,” etc.

They were also delegated powers to represent political power at the Centre in interfering with the police, hospital services, divisional secretariat work etc. Bottom line was that the ordinary innocent voter was made dependable on these political rags.

It was such unbridled local power that saw Tangalle PS Chairman involved in a rape and murder case. The Akuressa PS chairman accused of a long list of juvenile rape. The Deraniyagala PC Chairman and his goons found guilty in the gruesome murder of Noori Estate Superintendent.

In 2014 March, Chairman of the Wilgamuwa PS and his predecessor was arrested while transporting marijuana in the official vehicle.

The Kahawatte PS Chairman is one of the accused in a shooting incident during the 2015 January presidential elections along with Deputy Minister Jayasekera and a PC member. And this list is too long to be included in a half page article.

These are the types, both mainstream political parties nominate for LG elections. There are no preliminaries conducted to choose the right nomination list that could effectively and efficiently run an LG administration.

Political leaders are least worried about whom they nominate, as long as they could muster adequate votes. That often comes with caste considerations too, the political leaders are never shy about accepting. The only outcome these political leaders are after, is a show of political strength. They thus have turned LG elections into a national level power struggle, the worst that could happen for LG elections.

Today what we hear about all nominations that are ready and the wait for auspicious times, are all lists that can cater to the power struggle between the UNP and its partner faction of the SLFP with President Sirisena and the Rajapaksa factor. They would blast each other on election platforms on issues totally irrelevant to LG planning

and development. They would end up with accusations and allegations on previous and present corruptions, the Sinhala Buddhist supremacy, betraying of “war heroes” and compromising on power-sharing leading to “separatism”, none that relates to what LG bodies should attend to once elected. Yet issues they believe could give them votes to control more LG bodies than the others.
The media and those Yahapalana apologists too are counting numbers in this equation, wholly ignorant as to why this country would spend 04 billion rupees for LG elections. It is this insanity that should be challenged in social discourse. This, for now, is no priority with foreign-funded NGO leaders who tinker with what corrupt political leadership offer. With the media, they create a social opinion that can never demand “good candidates” from wholly corrupt political party leaders who nominate their
own stooges.

These funded projects don’t want to understand that people have no choice in electing “clean” candidates from dirty nominations.

“Clean candidate” in this horrible setup is only a misleading slogan. It is thus time the people leave them aside and demand political parties run primaries in selecting candidates for LG elections. Obviously, this is not possible at this time for this LG election. But, if this is not sounded out loud, we can certainly go about as we are, without these most unwanted groups collected by political party leaders taking control of local governance at a heavy cost to the people.