Disappearance of 11 youth:-Magistrate rules:CID should remain in the probe

Lakmal Sooriyagoda-Friday, February 23, 2018

The Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court yesterday rejected a request made by the defence that investigations pertaining to former Navy Spokesman Commodore D.K.P. Dassanayake and nine others be transferred from CID to any other police station.

Making an order in this regard Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne announced that a decision to transfer a police investigation from one police unit to another is vested with an Assistant Superintendent of Police or any other higher ranking police officer.

In this case, former Navy Spokesman Commodore D.K.P. Dassanayake and nine others are accused of aiding and abetting the abduction and disappearance of 11 youths in 2008 and 2009.

Meanwhile, the Magistrate issued an order directing Rear Admiral Ananda Guruge to be present before CID on March 5 to make a statement regarding the investigations into disappearance of youths.

The defence had made an application to change the investigative agency; namely, CID and transfer the investigation to “any other Police Station”.

Defence counsel submitted to court that there were contradictions in the statements recorded and the CID is acting partially against the Navy Officers. Filing written submissions against defence’s request, Counsel Achala Seneviratne appearing for the aggrieved party informed court that there is no ground to transfer the inquiry out of the CID.

The written submissions further stated that the Navy continuously obstructed the investigations, but thanks to the professionalism and independence shown by the CID to withstand pressure, the investigations progressed successfully. Two remanded suspects were ordered to be further remanded till March 8.

The missing persons had been abducted by an unidentified group at Dehiwala, Battaramulla and Wattala in 2008 and 2009.

Bizarre Politics Continue – Cascading Down Towards Disaster

By Rusiripala Tennakoon –FEBRUARY 22, 2018

Rusiripala Tennakoon

Talks about the continuing of the National Government, and Cabinet reshuffles in the offing has caused much perplexity and a confusion about the direction of the Government. During the heat of the election campaign President was clearly heard ascertaining that he would not continue to govern with corrupt elements. Several other spokesmen on behalf of the SLFP and UPFA announced qualifying it further that they plan to form a government of their own which was clearly understood as parting of ways with the UNP. The election result with the new born SLPP leading to a clean sweep in the Local Government bodies, has apparently awaken both President and Prime Minister from their slumber and forced them to face the reality.

While both of them were not seriously interested in continuing a Unity government the result of the LG elections have compelled them to realign their individual plans much to their own dislike. So it appears that hurriedly worked out makeshift solutions are put into place without much pondering over the possible adverse consequences on the one hand and without putting on the thinking caps to decide on more palatable solutions without falling into pitfalls. This is more important to the President’s wing since the UNP standing on its own has suffered the most ignominious defeat. There appears to be some fishing in troubled waters on the part of the UNP exactly similar to what they hurriedly accomplished during the 100 days government in constitutionalizing several restraints on the incumbent President.

Due to this hurried operation to hang on to power in the middle of growing Public demand and pressure for the removal or resignation of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe many opportunities available for safer and saner decision making will be blocked. And it is another display of  mastermind tactics to go the way UNP wants by bill and coo actions.

A cabinet reshuffle is a façade to stop the President from using his powers under the constitution to completely change the assignment of subjects and functions and the composition of the cabinet of Ministers available to him under article 43(3). If the President chooses to exercise this power then the current cabinet in its entirety will stand dissolved.

Then when this happens according to Article 46(2) the office of the PM will fall vacant because PM continues to hold office only when the cabinet of Ministers continue. But due to the UNP red herring the President will be prevented from exercising his powers. It is the President according to our constitution who can decide on the subjects, functions and composition of Ministers. He was publicly heard stating that the management of the economy which was under the UNP wing was unsatisfactory. One reason for this may be the shamble that the UNP created in the Ministry of Finance by dividing that into 5 ministries.The people may not be so much interested in UPFA doing it alone but they certainly are interested in a system of cabinet with functions  correlated cohesively to be in place. It is a pity that this opportunity is lost to the President.

There is no dispute to the fact that it is the PM whoever is selected who will select the individual MPs for the various portfolios and advice the President according to Article 44(1) of the constitution. Hence in the present context this cabinet reshuffle is a hoax  to reappoint those who have been up to questionable deals and wanting in proper performance standards and competences. We respectfully call upon the President to view this matter seriously.

The UNP no doubt played a dynamic front line role in electing the President. No one who associated with that will want UNP out as a party from the coalition government. But people  as well as the Party will need a change in the Party leadership or at least in the Premiership for obvious proven reasons. The Party appears to be slogging looking for somebody to bell the cat although there is no division of opinion among them regarding the issue.

SLPP clamors for fresh elections

They must look at things more realistically. There is what is called a constitution. And according to it there cannot be early elections before the Parliament is dissolved according to the provisions  under article 70. Perhaps professor GL has not seen it! So as the only other alternative possible to see whether they can succeed is  for someone who came to parliament under UPFA now belonging to Pohottuwa bring a private motion to parliament seeking  its dissolution. If it succeeds god will save the king! Otherwise GL will have to show how he intends to get the parliament dissolved without hood winking the public.

Some MPs want Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa to be made the leader of opposition. As this idea is coming after the victory of pohottuwa it can be construed that they are also asking for the recognition of SLPP in the parliament. For that to happen Mr Rajapaksa and many others will have to forego their parliamentary seats to which they got elected under UPFA.

Read More

France and Sri Lanka: The dangers of cohab politics

2018-02-23

Sri Lanka’s political crisis following the February 10 local polls election setback for the ruling coalition has brought to surface the vagaries of political cohabitation peculiar to the presidential cum parliamentary governments or hybrid governments.

Political cohabitation is a form of governmental arrangement between the executive president and a rival party prime minister. The French call this arrangement La cohabitation -- and it is in France that cohabitation became a political concept after the Fifth Republican Constitution was adopted.  Cohabitation is quite contrast to co-rule or a political system called diarchy where two rulers exercise equal power or play well defined and agreed upon roles.  Cohabitation is also different from constitutionally defined power-sharing arrangements as seen in the Northern Ireland power sharing deal where the Protestant first minister and the Catholic Deputy First Minister wield equal powers. In countries such as Iraq and Lebanon, power sharing is exercised on ethnic basis, with the presidency, the premiership and the post of Speaker being distributed among leaders of different ethnic groups. 

In the absence of clear constitutional provisions, cohabitation governments are usually associated with political instability.  This is because the president and the prime minister are often engaged in a political cold war to undermine each other.  Often, cohabitation governments crumble under political manipulations, even if constitutional safeguards exist to check moves by the President or the Prime Minister to weaken each other. 
In Sri Lanka, cohabitation became a political reality for the first time in 2001, when the then President Chandrika Kumaratunga dissolved parliament and called for general elections, only to see her rival Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party polling 45.62 percent of the registered votes and winning the elections. Kumaratunga grudgingly swore in Wickremesinghe as prime minister. But the President felt uncomfortable sitting with her rival party leader and ministers at Cabinet meetings which she presided as the head of the Cabinet. Being a leader of a political party and her executive powers pruned by the prime ministerial rule, Kumaratunga planned to dissolve the Government at the very first opportune moment that came her way.

Unlike in France, where the Prime Minister is the head of government and as powerful as the president, in Sri Lanka, the then prime minister was, constitutionally speaking, a virtual Mr. Nothing. The only constitutional mechanism at the disposal of the then Prime Minister Wicrkremesinghe was parliament’s control of finances to cut off funds to the President. But the President had the power to dissolve parliament after parliament completed one year. Yet by getting the Speaker to entertain a petition to impeach the president, the premier could have prevented the president from dissolving parliament. Wickeremsinghe, however, rejected his party seniors’ advice to impeach the president, probably because he was too much of a gentleman politician or he believed if a general election was held, his party could win.  

In retrospect it appeared that Kumaratunga had outfoxed Wickremesinghe. She dissolved parliament, disregarding a pledge she gave in writing to the Speaker that she would not dissolve parliament as long as the Prime Minister commanded the confidence of the majority in the house. This was power politics of Machiavellian type. 

The constitutional provision with regard to the dissolution of parliament underwent a progressive change with the passage of the 19th Amendment in April 2015. Under this amendment, the President can dissolve parliament only after parliament completes four years and six months of its five year term. The amendment, among other things, also curtails the president’s power to remove the prime minister.

Notwithstanding the 19th Amendment’s checks on the presidential powers, President Maithripala Sirisena appears to take an upper hand in the present crisis engulfing the cohabitation government, which, unlike in France, is also a coalition government, sometimes called a national unity government by two rival parties which coexist despite regular conflicts. The fact that the prime minister’s party lacks a clear majority in parliament and that its public standing has taken a beating due to its failure to fulfill its campaign pledge to bring in good governance have enabled the president to call the shots and shoot down proposals from the prime minister’s party – proposals which if implemented could make the premier popular.

Sri Lanka’s cohabitation politics smacks of political skullduggery. Our politicians are even averse to bipartisanship for a national cause such as finding a solution to the national question. The collapse of the 2011 Liam Fox agreement between Kumaratunga and Wickremesinghe and the 2006 memorandum of understanding between the United People’s Freedom Alliance and the United National Party only confirm that our politicians give more priority to party politics than to national causes.

The recent events probably indicate that President Sirisena also awaits the Kumaratunga moment to stab Wickremesinghe in the back, though it was Wickremesinghe’s party that catapulted him to the president’s office.  This is nothing uncommon in cohabitation politics.  It happens even in France which tried out the first cohabitation government in 1986 with Socialist President Francois Mitterrand as president and the right wing Republican Party leader Jacques Chirac as prime minister. Mitterrand kept the portfolios of foreign, defence, nuclear strategy and European Union affairs while Chirac took charge of the economy and domestic affairs. In this arrangement, Mitterrand often interfered when the government was in a difficult situation.  As a result, the prime minister took all the flak and became unpopular while the president’s star was on the ascent.  Well, in Sri Lanka, too, this is happening. The SAITM issue and the controversy surrounding a brigadier attached to Sri Lanka’s High Commission in London are cases in point, where the UNP is seen as the villain and the president the trouble shooter and patriot.

France’s first cohabitation experiment lasted only two years. Mitterrand dissolved the government in 1988 and his party won the subsequent presidential and assembly elections. France also had cohabitation governments in 1993 and 1997. Of these cohab governments, the most acrimonious was the 1997 arrangement where Chirac was the president and the socialist politician Lionel Jospin was prime minister. Chirac alluded to the period as ‘political paralysis’.  

The French experience shows, that after every cohab government, the president’s party wins the next election. In Sri Lanka, however, President Sirisena’s opportunity has been usurped by the Joint Opposition’s de facto leader and former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.  Only Sirisean is to be blamed for this state of affairs, because he failed to take effective control of his party and crack the whip on dissidents when he was seen to be powerful. If he had done that, he could have by now become a formidable candidate for the 2020 presidential election, with the cohab government’s prime minister taking the blame for failures. 

In this regard, the premiership appears to be disadvantageous to Wickremesinghe, unless he believes that holding on to the post will enable him to execute a well-thought-out plan to outfox his rivals.  But the issue is his rivals also have big plans for 2020 polls.

Sirisena who roared like a lion ‘with the 96 members can form separate govt.’ reborn as pavement dog !

(Lanka-e-News - 22.Feb.2018, 11.30PM)  UPFA general
secretary Mahinda Amaraweera who claimed that they have  resigned from the consensual government on 18 th night , and who sought to form a separate government together with the rogues of the Blue Brigand only finally bit the dust most humiliatingly . Now in his characteristic uncouth policy-less faceless style said in Parliament today , the UPFA has not left the consensual government ,in another attempt to curry favor with it again after realizing the odds are heavily against his group of unscrupulous villains. 

This unscrupulous somersaulting shameless political scoundrel gave this reply when Anura Dissanayake questioned , whether the consensual government is still there  ?

 ‘We have not withdrawn from the agreement of the consensual government between the UPFA and SLFP that was passed in parliament . We are still in that ,’ said Amaraweera thereby making all   those present to roll with laughter at his expense over his self degrading utterances. 

Anura Dissanayake pointed out  , the agreement passed on 2015 -09-03 on the basis that the consensual government will last only for two years , has now continued for  2 years four months after the term had terminated .Hence , if the cabinet that has expanded and the consensual government are to continue , that resolution should be renewed. 

The P.M. in his reply said , the number of members of the  cabinet was increased in accordance with article 46(4) of the constitution , and as nobody of the consensual government had left it , that article still applies. 

No matter what , at the end of the day , it is a pity it is president Maithripala Sirisena the leader of the UPFA and the  SLFP who lost his entire prestige and repute so much so to fall to the level of a two penny half penny president . The rare specimen of a president Sirisena who had by now proved he is not only faceless , policy -less and rudderless ,changed his hypocritical colors even faster than a chameleon . What he says in the night is not what he says  in the morning . Giving full freedom and flexibility  to his  pliant double tongue , before the recent elections he exclaimed wearing a Lion’s mask , ‘if the 96 UPFA members are aligned with him , a SLFP government will be formed.’ He even said with Peacock pride ‘ instead of walking in front of a pack of dogs it is better to trail behind a troop of Lions’

After the recent elections when Sirisena who is an epitome of ingratitude  tried to send out Ranil  who was mainly responsible to put  Sirisena on the pedestal of president,  the 96 UPFA members stood alongside Sirisena .

The Alliance group which was with Rajapakse said , if Sirisena is forming a separate government , they would support Sirisena alias Sillysena unconditionally without accepting ministerial portfolios.  Lo and behold ! Sirisena who roared like a lion but spoke unlike a  lion with a double tongue then to boast he would form a separate government and show, is today in a state worse than a dog that sleeps on the pavement . Pariah dogs barking at thoroughbreds is not uncommon, and Sirisena did exactly that before he met his Waterloo.

His own secretary Amaraweera retracting his own words , now stammers to shamelessly  say , ‘ we did not leave the consensual government’. Is Amaraweera wearing anything to cover his bottom half is a matter for conjecture. 

---------------------------
by     (2018-02-22 19:39:42)

Who now has the last laugh?

By N. Sathiya Moorthy-2018-02-23

Only the 'blindest' of the blind would pretend that the local government (LG) election results should not upset the 'national unity government' experiment, and SLFP President Maithripala Sirisena and UNP Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe should continue, as if it were business as usual. It would have been so if they had stuck together still, but not in the way these 'well-wishers' would have wanted but in the way the duo had brought down the image of their 'national unity' Government in the esteem of the very people who had campaigned for them hard without political benefits for the self, and their voters, who did not anyway get anything in return, even if they had hoped and/or aspired for it.

And who are these 'well-wishers', or what is their motive(s)? They could be the 'international community' (read: West), Sri Lanka's very own self-styled/self-confessed (?) 'liberals' (read: 'Colombo Seven' elite), and busy-bodies representing the nation's second-largest industry after the 'war industry' earlier, but possibly the single-largest industry, post-war. The reference is to the NGO/INGO outfits, who have branded phraseology to convince anyone on anything on any issue of their choosing, and also at any time of their choosing.

Grant it to their grit and determination, their never-say-die attitude and approach to the mission on hand. They did not want Mahinda Rajapaksa then, they do not want him now, but for once they (too) cannot wish away the pointers from the nation-wide LG poll results.

If they had been keen on the longevity of the 'coalition' Government, they would have done their bit very long ago – or, be seen and heard as doing the same very long ago. As is their wont, they do not get to see, or do not want to see, better still, not seen as seeing and hearing whatever the rest of the humanity sees and hears, until they want it, and have chosen their target, time and issue. Today, they do not still want Mahinda R back, whatever be the verdict of the Sri Lankan population, they have not wanted Maithri S on the latter's term, they wanted (only) the 'economic liberal' of the UNP/Ranil kind. But when things take their own Third World ways (including the exposure that the Central Bank Bonds scam got – not that the scam per se, was/is unacceptable – they are at their wit's end).

Last supper

It is on this score that Mahinda R too seems to be meeting his detractors halfway through – or, possibly the whole hog. He too wants Maithri out of the way. Going by media reports, Mahinda would rather 'believe Ranil's one word than Maithri's seven signed documents'. It is his experience possibly flowing from his 'last supper' with Maithri, when the latter had reasserted his loyalty to the then leader, even when cornered with facts, but would cross over the very next morning, to contest and defeat Mahinda, in the days and weeks to follow.

Victory can do things to the victor more than to the loser. The Tamil victims of the war, and more so the 'war crimes' (whether they still feel that the war itself was the crime?), and also the Muslim victims of BBS attacks, both oral and physical, were focussed and determined to have Mahinda, or the Rajapaksas, out of what they considered was the harm's ways. Like Maithri and Ranil, they too had their way(s). Rather, they were the ones who made the way for the other two to take, and take strides.

Against this, Mahinda was still in the victor's world. Whether or not the war victory blinded his eyes to the prospects of peace and a political settlement post-war, he definitely was blinded to the realities of the moving moss around him. Maithri's moves were known even 18 months prior to when he actually stuck, but Mahinda would not know, nor possibly would he have believed it, if known.

Taking big leaps

Today, when the LG polls victory is his, Mahinda wants to settle scores first with Maithri than to take big leaps, forward, or attempt to do so – and/or, be seen as doing so, or attempting to do so. Going by reports, he would rather want Maithri's Party Presidency first than the nation's Prime Minister's post.
Rather, he at least seems convinced than some of Maithri's SLFP-UPFA members that the President does not have the power to sack the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, in this era of 19th Amendment.
Yet, man still proposes and God disposes. Whether it was Mahinda's decision to advance the Presidential Polls to January 2015, if only to beat the inevitability of the anti-incumbency that he saw mushroom just three or four years after the war victory, or that of those that planned the Maithri candidacy for 2015, they could do only so much.

Mahinda wanted a third term, got the Constitution amended to facilitate his contest - but as TNA's R. Sampanthan said, at the time, it was for Sri Lanka's voters to decide. And they decided against him.
Ahead of the twin polls of 2015, those that planned Maithri's elevation, did not think of the 'day after' or the UNP's inherent compulsions to go it alone in the Parliamentary polls. When that happened, they did not have the time, inclination, or energies (not to speak of the strategy) to counter it, if only to keep Mahinda out. In a way, the people kept Mahinda out of power, even in the second, parliamentary polls of that very year.

Even today, by voting Mahinda massively in the LG polls, the voter has sent in a message - not to ensure that Mahinda returns instantly, but to tell the duo that they would not mind, if it came to that, and it is for the latter to decide, here and now.

Who then is the real victor - or, who does not have, or is anyone at all laughing, whether first or last?
(The writer is a Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, the multi-disciplinary Indian public-policy think-tank, headquartered in New Delhi. email: sathiyam54@gmail.com)

Something happened out there, but what’s going on in here right now?

Friday, 23 February 2018 

I have a confession to make. Yours truly has really lost track of what’s happening in the arena we call national politics. There was an election, you say? Well, that much I know, being a journalist (self aware nod). There was a falling out among star-crossed political bed-mates? Say, you don’t have to be an astrologer to have seen that coming – although some jilted lovers seem to have seen stars. There was a flurry of political, legislative, and constitutional high-jinks in which the fate of an entire nation (to say nothing of an arranged marriage) hinged on trivia such as what constitutes a coalition and how its component parts are composed, defined, identified?

Something happened. Sundry analyses since that fateful ballot – Sri Lanka’s third-largest since 1978 – have evaluated outcomes and ramifications until political assessments are de rigueur for any self-respecting armchair theorist and de trop for a fed up voter. However a bird’s-eye view behoves a believer in hindsight who’s about to burden you with his own perhaps less than insightful perspective, albeit one influenced more by Immanuel Kant than Genghis Khan.

Major Surge 

A former strongman’s proxy party was the cat-o’-nine-tails that a disenchanted polity used to crack the whip on Good Governance gone wrong. The local government poll for over three hundred wards in effect became a referendum on national level leadership over three years. Proof positive that MR is by far the most popular politician on the post-war landscape was provided for metropolitan pooh-poohers who had written him off as yesterday’s news. However corrupt and criminal his cabal may have been perceived to be, a combination of factors saw a resurgence of favour for his populist and nationalist views.

Minor Setback

The alliance is still intact. Their mandate of 2015 stands unabridged. However its constituent parties of alliance partners per se may interpret the slap in the face supplied by a disenchanted polity, there is still space to manoeuvre for the coalition of coalitions to survive as well as stymie the threat of a potential resurgence of post-conflict ethno-nationalism. Therefore all the President’s mien had to be was repentance of his own chauvinism of late, and he could make amends with his Prime Minister’s party to ward off the enemy at the gate. Here was a wobble necessitated by a long put off poll, which was readily steadied by putting temporary animosities behind in the larger national (not forgetting partisan) interest.

Machiavellian Strategy

There are as many beneficiaries of this princely hypothesis as there are main players. One usual suspect sees the former President as the brains behind a trap to let MS overreach himself as regards a desire to control the SLFP and shoot himself in the foot. Some stalwarts who seem sanguine about weathering defeats snatched from the jaws of victory attribute the Machiavellianism to the old fox’s young master tactician our ubiquitous Premier. Other less convincing theorists have the incumbent head of state playing a shrewd game of cat and mouse with both UPFA and UNP, but getting the timing of his slightly premature presidential bid a tad tight around the globules. These defenders of their respective champions are penning hagiographies perhaps, not histories?

Managed Spectacle 

However nice one might be to one’s duly elected national leaders or no matter how nasty they turn out in the end, there is only normal or natural surprise to be expressed in response to the supposition that it’s all smoke and mirrors. In a nutshell: the LG poll was bound to be an unavoidable road-bump… so go for it at full throttle and with all courtesies suspended, manufacture a split to engage one’s electorate, test the temperature of the water, and if it’s boiling hot perhaps a. call a snap presidential poll… or b. bounce back after the dust settles. The one thing that militates against this theory is the very real anger and animosity that the principal parties concerned manifested towards one another in the aftermath of the electoral fiasco. His choler at his PM’s party being as corrupt as that of his former president’s was as clear as his usually phlegmatic countenance being constrained to beg his cohorts not to attack his president.

My Suspicion

Therefore, let me be less than lucid as usual by interrogating the usual suspects – not with the hermeneutics of suspicion as usual, but the less charitable paradigm of human nature, and one in which no is either hero or hopeless horror. Political cultures don’t change overnight, even with the keen agency of constitutional amendments or the instrumentality of sea-green incorruptible agitating for Augean stables to be cleansed. Could it be the case that underneath the veneer of venality on the one hand and the patina of sophistication on the other, all men – with due respect to the masculine trinity of main players in these polls – wear the mask? Can we willingly suspend belief for a brief moment in the interim between Cabinet being ruled on by Speaker and Coalitions being Safe and Sound once again to consider that human nature – not plans, policies, principles, programmes, prognostications or other political paraphernalia – account for the pig’s breakfast confronting a choleric polity today?

The Acid Tests

(A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum. It all makes sense if you willingly suspend disbelief and interrogate the usual suspects with the hermeneutics of human nature rather than sophisticated political theories that betray more about the essayers than their subjects.)

A. Essays

A man is the measure of all things. Analyse the outcomes and ramifications of the LG poll in the light of MS, MR, and RW being men – well, rather than party machines or political movements. Full marks if you can forgive them for their cupidity, stupidity, etc.

 B. Short Answers

i. If you were to vote for a party machine at the next presidential poll, which party would be that machine?

ii. If you were to vote for a political movement at the next parliamentary poll, which movement would you regard as being the best party political vehicle in the larger national interest?

C. Multiple Choice Questions

1. A coalition is:

a. A coming together of diverse people who are better off staying separate in the first place if it’s the national interest you’re worried about (but see 1c. also)

b. Business-minded money launderers, et al. masquerading as political movers and shakers

c. The elephant in the room that won’t go away since the Original Old Elephant went away after leaving us with his legacy (see also 2b. below)

2. A constitution is:

a. A legal paper that is often overruled by verbal agreements with folks whose word we can’t trust

b. An irritant to those who can’t quite decide to be or not to be the elephant in the room

c. The gubernatorial guarantee of a has-been

3. A cabinet is:

a. Always bulging at the seams, it seems

b. Bigger and bossier than ever before, because braggarts and bullies must be bought over

c. Whatever the Hon. Speaker says it is, honey!

4. Fill In The Blanks

i. A former president seemingly making a comeback by proxy is ___ (a strong man, his codpiece filled with fishy bits leftover from a previous regime/a straw man, his headpiece filled with regrets that he hearkened to astrologers instead of essayists)

ii. The prez and his prem will ___ (do or die/go the distance/kiss and makeup nicely because it was never a rift in the lute)

iii. The more things change, the more they ___ (stay the same/make merry/make more money)

iv. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, ___ (shame on you/good for you/good for nothing/good governance is a good for nothing shame)

5. True(T)/False(F)

1. A major surge in popularity for MR means that his proxy is perhaps sitting prettiest at the next presidential poll. (T/F/sitting bull…)

2. It is only a minor setback for a stultified marriage. (T/F)

3. The Machiavellian strategies attributed to their political heroes or paymasters is only in the minds of the respective essayists – the players concerned are as lost as their polities, and still floundering to make sense of it all while trying to stay in power at the top of their game. (T/F)

4. This is all smoke and mirrors, anyway. Now that the necessary road-bump has been spectacularly manoeuvred, the mask falls and the hostilities can cease as their hypocrisies have no survival value. (T/F)

5. My suspicion is that personal motives rather than political mastery explain the peculiar behaviour of presidential, premier, and proxy leaders at and after the LG polls. (T/F)

One more thing

I am a journalist. I know nothing. And that is a good place to start. But if that is where we all end, there’s something terribly wrong with the bigger picture. In our beginning is our end. After all has been said and done by all and sundry, there is still that nagging nauseating feeling that nothing has really changed at the end of the day. Things fell apart, the centre barely held, and we’re back to square one for the moment. However much dogs may have barked and beggars thrown stones, the caravan continues to the dawn of nothingness. Therefore let us gird our loins for a beast slouches to Bethlehem to be born again. I don’t have to be an astrologer to tell you that the writing is in the stars and on the wall about who the king of kings is going to be. If there is no honour left between gentlemen thieves and patriarchal braggarts, it’ll be the charismatic schoolyard bully’s best friend who makes head cop again.

Oh one last thing. The public interpretation of political motives ranges from the enlightened to the self-interested as far as the individuals we elect goes. The only thing we can count on in the end is not their political savvy or their party strategy. But the sense of sub-enlightened self-interest that characterises the good, the bad, and the ugly today. For in the end nothing much happened, nothing really changed, and truly it was ever thus that the more things change the more they remain the same for better or for worse.

A senior journalist, the writer is Editor-at-large of LMD. He has little civics and less constitutional knowledge, but he does have some insights into human nature, being something of a psychologist. 

Corridors of Power at Dhaka Art Summit 2018

GROUNDVIEWS- 02/22/2018

Corridors of Power, the critically acclaimed collaboration between constitutional theorist Asanga Welikala, architect Channa Daswatta and the Founding Editor of Groundviews, Sanjana Hattotuwa, was invited by world renowned curator Sharmini Pereira to be a part of the Dhaka Art Summit 2018’s One Hundred Thousand Small Tales exhibition.

As noted in the programme, the Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) is an international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture connected to South Asia. With a core focus on Bangladesh, DAS re-examines how we think about these forms of art in both a regional and an international context.

Corridors of Power is the first ever installation of its kind, anchored to governance, to be invited to part of a leading international art show. One Hundred Thousand Small Tales amongst many others, also featured Anoli Perera, Chandraguptha Thenuwara, Jagath Weerasinghe, Kannan Arunasalam, Lionel Wendt, Muhanned Cader, Stephen Champion and T. Shanaathanan.

The installation showcases to the world a critical frame of inquiry around constitutional rule and governance, encouraging active citizenship and a process of critical inquiry around things many citizens don’t usually think about. Anchored to Sri Lanka’s tryst with constitutional revision, amendment and evolution, Corridors of Power, in its merging of theory, architecture, 3D modelling, virtual walkthroughs, sketches and blueprints, offers a new, engaging and intersectional toolset to interrogate constitutional governance in any country.

Corridors of Power was a finalist in Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas selection in 2017.

Photos by E Molin and J. Hewaarachchi, kindly provided by the curator.

''I ll sue Sirisena and Harsha'' - Dr Neville Fernando

(Lanka-e-News - 22.Feb.2018, 11.30PM ) On the 16th I met Sirisena and told him no uncertain words that he has no power to tell me to handover SAITM to SLIIT

He has no power to say that the profit making entity owned and managed by Dr Neville Fernando and family will cease to exist and allow his brother Dudley to make billions and put up a palace in Nuwara Eliya.

Under the 19 the amendment I will sue Sirisena and Harsha for RS 8 billion for infringing my right to gainful occupation.

From 2008 when I established SAITM the gmoa and the then registrar Nonis tried their level best close down SAITM as it was a threat to their business of sending students abroad and charging between RS 500,000 to 1millon each

They also mislead students. Last year Nonis owned agency advertise d that their foundation course was accepted by Russian Universities for admission to their MD course.

This was promptly denied by a Rector.

Last year he also advertise d that with a  BA in Psychology students would be admitted to a university in Batangas and get a MBBS in four and a half years and eligible for SLMC registration.To my knowledge only five years degree is registrable.

Members of the gmoa also send students to Russia. At the end of the course they send Russian qualified doctors to coach them to sit the Act 16 exam on their return to SL.

They charge extra for this .

On their return they are given tuition in Wellawatte where they are charged RS 25,000.

But only 6 percent pass the Act 16 and then repeat the exam paying RS 20,000 to the SLMC

which has become the trade union office of the gmoa.This money in the SLMC is used for unknown activities.The funds have not been audited by the Auditor General for the last several years 

Who is the President of the gmoa.?  This is the man who got only 30 marks at the  MD part 1 while the pass mark was 50 and got the PGIM to lower the pass mark so that he was able to go abroad for PG training.

On his return he continued to draw the foreign country allowance for 6 months without reporting to the government

To admit his son to Royal College he gave the house owners name as the father of his son virtually accepting that his son is a bastard and wife having an extra marital relationship.

This is the moral standard of the gmoa

Now they control the SLMC.

What can you expect from them?

Rajitha showed that he was not scared of the gmoa but like miss Muffet who was eating curd and whey ran away he saw the gmoa spider and gave them duty free cars and other perks.

I want SAITM which I established in 2008 with my money.

In 2008 I had RS 1.8 billion in my bank today I am in debt to BOC to the tune of RS 2.5 billion.

Is this the profit that Harsha de Sllva with his PhD and Sirisena who has not been inside a university as a student are talking about.

My wife and I get nightmares considering the plight of 900 innocent students who had faith in me enrolled at SAITM.

We do not have a full night's sleep.

I will get the two idiots to pay for making my students, my children and my wife and myself suffer like this at a time when I should be relaxing with my feet on the table.

I have no money to pay RS 50 million as salaries for  this month thanks to the two idiots  who remind me of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza fighting windmills

(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote
Don Quixote - Wikipedia
https://goo.gl/search/Don+Quixote
Don Quixote, Novel by Miguel de Cervantes)

Dr Neville Fernando
Chairman SAITM

---------------------------
by     (2018-02-23 00:05:09)

Lasantha killing: Ex DIG makes confidential statement

2018-02-22

Former Senior Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Hemantha Adhikari yesterday made a confidential statement regarding the murder of former Sunday Leader Editor late Lasantha Wickrematunge before Mount Lavina Magistrate Mohamed Mihail.

The statement was made in the Magistrate’s Chamber.

When the case was called, on previous hearing (February,16), the CID informed Court that former Senior DIG Hemantha Adhikari, who held previous investigations into the murder of Mr Wickrematunge, had volunteered to make a statement to the Magistrate regarding the murder.

Earlier, the Court had impounded the passports of former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Jayantha Wickewmaratne, former DIG Prasanna Nanayakkara and former Senior DIG Hemantha Adhikari following submissions made to the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court by the CID regarding the investigations follows into the murder case.

The CID had arrested former Crimes OIC Mount Lavinia Tissa Sugathapala and former DIG Prasanna Nanayakkara on alleged concealing of evidence into the investigations of the former Editor’s murder.

Both suspects were ordered to be remanded till March 02 by Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court. (Yoshitha Perera)

Sri Lanka moves up in global corruption rankings, but shows slow progress: TISL

February 22, 2018

Sri Lanka has failed to show significant improvement in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2017, released by Transparency International, the global movement against corruption. 

The index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. Sri Lanka has moved up 4 places from 95th to 91st, far more importantly its CPI score has only risen by two points from 36 to 38, representing the slow rate of progress. 

Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL), the local chapter of the global movement, said it is concerned by the fact that Sri Lanka’s current CPI score of 38 is the same score that prevailed in 2014. 

Speaking on the country’s performance in CPI 2017, TISL Executive Director Asoka Obeyesekere said, “A close analysis of Sri Lanka’s positioning in the CPI from 2012 to 2017 shows that despite the institutional strengthening of anti-corruption agencies following the 19th amendment, consistent failure in implementation has led to very limited progress”. 

Sri Lanka has failed to show any significant progress in its CPI score year on year for the past 5 years – an increase or decrease of 6 points or more represents a significant change. Obeyesekere added, “it would seem that the anti-corruption drive has limited momentum. Citizens still face corruption when trying to avail of essential public services, ranging from waste collection to school enrollment. Therefore, the limited change in the perception of public sector corruption (CPI) reflects the limited change experienced by people in their everyday encounters with the state.” 

Udayanga Weeratunga on the run

February 22, 2018 by

Sri Lanka’s former Ambassador to Russia Udayanga Weeratunga, who is a wanted suspect to Sri Lanka has fled from the house he was staying in Dubai say reports.

When Udayanga Weeratunga attempted to leave Dubai on the 4th he was detained by Dubai authorities and was questioned. A team from Sri Lanka left to Dubai to bring him to Sri Lanka but they had not been given permission to bring him here as no red notice had been issued against him.

He had been released but had been prevented from leaving Dubai. When the CID got the Interpol to issue a red notice against him, Udayanga Weeratunga had been recalled to the crimes department in Dubai.

However, he had avoided presenting himself before Dubai Police and had fled the house he had been staying. After this move he has been declared a wanted criminal by Sri Lanka, UAE and Interpol.

Dubai Police has named him a wanted criminal and has banned him from leaving the country.

Udayanga Weeratunga has been named a suspect in connection with the purchase of four Ukrainian-built MiG-27 and defrauding US$ 7 million and is wanted by the FCID for questioning.

The MIG aircraft seller had told investigating officers that he received only US$ 7 for the deal. However, Sri Lanka Air Force has paid US$ 14 million through its account in Bank of Ceylon.

The transaction has been approved by the former Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Mr. udayanga Weeratunga was only a mediator say sources.

The relevant agreement had been signed by the Air Force, the marketer and representatives at the Air Force Headquarters and the official residence of Mr. Udayanga Weeratuna as an Ambassador.

Udayanga Weeratunga is also wanted in connection with the investigations being carried out on a murder of an employee of the Sri Lanka embassy in Russia.

Silwan, a Palestinian community torn apart by Israel's dig to find 'lost city'

Israel is creating a 'City of David' attraction in East Jerusalem - but the work is destroying homes above the excavation sites

Mohammed stands near the cracked walls in his Wadi al-Hilweh home (MEE/Lubna Masarwa)

Mustafa Abu Sneineh-Lubna Masarwa-Thursday 22 February 2018 07:00 UTC

SILWAN, East Jerusalem - Manal and Mohammed stand in the front room of their house in Silwan, pointing to the yawning cracks zig-zagging the walls. Their home has stood for decades, like many in this Palestinian district south of Jerusalem's Old City - but the cracks are something new.

They work 7am to 9pm every day. No one ever gave us warning about this digging

- Mohammed, Silwan resident

They began to appear when Israel started digging tunnels under the streets to create a new tourist attraction, and find evidence of the three-millenia-old "City of David".

It is a search many people, including some Israelis, say is based on no evidence, but has literally shaken the foundations of the people living above.

Manal and Mohammed live in the Wadi al-Hilweh area of Silwan, and say their home is simply falling apart, and recount how a chunk of wall fell on their three-year-old son's head while he was playing.

"When we go to his grandparents' house he doesn't want to come home. He calls it the 'tumbledown house'," said Manal.

Antiquities agency workers in the tunnels under Silwan (AFP)

Mohammed said the digging and drilling has been almost continuous for three years. "They work from 7am to 9pm every day. No one ever gave us warning about this digging."

Many residents of this close-knit neighbourhood point the finger directly at Israel. It has been developing tourist and archaeological sites in the area since 1995, which Palestinians say are an attempt to find evidence of Jewish history that would legitimise illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.

The Israel Antiquities Authority is excavating sites in Wadi al-Hilweh, which is close to al-Aqsa mosque and the wall of the Old City. Ir David, an Israeli settler foundation, is sponsoring the excavations, linked to the new "City of David" attraction.

Its completion, including a Roman-style "avenue" built over streets that have been home to generations of Palestinians, would cement the position of the 450 illegal settlers currently living in Silwan, and doom the 10,000 Palestinian they live beside under heavy guard.

Al-Aqsa mosque, the southern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem and roofs of Palestinian houses in Wadi Al-Hilweh as seen from "City of David" panorama point, 4 February (MEE/Mustafa Abu Sneineh)

And every resident spoken to by Middle East Eye had the same story - almost without fail, the digging starts at 7am and continues for 14 hours, almost every day, and the results have been catastrophic for their homes and their community.

Basem Siam, another resident, said the digging was akin to an earthquake hitting the area. "Window panes shatter, walls crack, floors move and sink. The digging started 10 years ago," Siam said.

He added that most families from Wadi al-Hilweh had been forced to leave their houses due to their collapsed houses.

Siam said that like many remaining in the area, he has no choice but to stay. Where would he move to, and who would take his place? 

"If I go and live in the West Bank, I would be risking my residency status in Jerusalem," he said.

If these houses collapse, the Jerusalem municipality won't give us permits to build new houses.

- Fuad Mokhtar , Silwan resident

Fuad Mokhtar, a shop owner in Wadi al-Hilweh, said glasses of water on tables shake from the strength of the digging. His house, and that of his neighbour, were "hanging in the air... It is only a matter of time before these houses collapse".

Mokhtar set up his shop after dropping out of the building industry, which forced him to travel and spend time away from his house.

"I did this because of the fear that one day I will come back from work and find settlers occupying my house - something that happened to some of my neighbours."

He added that everyone in Wadi al-Hilweh was facing pressure from the Israel authorities to leave.

"They use the stick and carrot policy. Since the City of David opened, life in Wadi al-Hilweh has become unbearable. If these houses collapse, the Jerusalem municipality won't give us permits to build new houses."

"City of David" gift shop (MEE\Mustafa Abu Sneineh)

Stalling in courts

Soon after digging started in Wadi al-Hilweh, a group of neighbours hired a lawyer and went to court against the Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel Nature and Parks Authority and Ir David Foundation.

Khaled al-Zier's home was destroyed by Israel three times for "building without a permit", and he was compelled to move with his family into one of the nearby caves. Israeli police arrested him multiple times for being vocal about the crisis faced by Wadi al-Hilweh.

Zier said the lawyer was working on a case against the digging but believed Israeli authorities were delaying the final decision to allow time to finish excavations.

He said that he and his neighbours were constantly chasing lawyers and engineers.

"Some UN observers have been and reported what is happening to us, but we haven't seen any results."

Sami Khurshid, a lawyer for the Palestinian residents, told the same story: "The Israeli authorities are refusing to let a surveyor into the tunnels and underground spaces to produce a professional report to use it in court," he said.

Khurshid represents 15 families who own eight properties. 

He said that in 2017 the Jerusalem Municipality forced three families to leave on the grounds that their houses are in danger of collapsing.

"We asked the municipality to refresh the houses, but it refused. The response was they did not know the cause of the damage to houses, and house refurbishment was not their responsibility."

A spokesman for the municipality said: "Claims that these structures were harmed because of excavations or digging of any sort is patently false."

The spokesman added that one building in the area had been condemned due to water damage, unrelated to the excavations, and the residents had been evacuated for their saftey.

'Zionist nationalism'

A tour guide, an Israeli Jew who wished to remain anonymous, said he believed the "City of David" had no religious importance to the Jews.

"All of what you see here is nationalism. If you are a Zionist nationalist, this place will be important for you."

Tourists visiting "City of David" won't see any Palestinians, said the guide, who is also an archaeologist.

"Most of the tour is underground, and its aim is to give the tourist a sense of the Jewish pilgrimage from Birkat al-Hamra or 'Shiloah Pool' in the south of Wadi al-Hilweh, where the worshipper will purify himself before he ascends to the Western Wall."

The entrance to the tunnel that runs underground Wadi al-Hilweh houses, 4 February (MEE/Mustafa Abu Sneineh)

Tours go underground through the ancient water channels of Silwan, and into 400m of what was once a Roman sewerage network.

Above this tunnel, the Israeli antiquities authority is planning out a road mimicking the Roman avenue, connecting the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem to Birket al-Hamra in the south of Wadi al-Hilweh. It is this road that will undermine the Palestinian houses of Wadi al-Hilweh.

Once in the tunnels, the scene is of a building site: scaffolding, buckets and bags for emptying soil; the thuds of heavy machinery and the rasp of electronic saws.

Inside the tunnel that runs underground Wadi al-Hilweh houses, 4 February (MEE/Mustafa Abu Sneineh)

"To complete the excavation, the area was closed off to Palestinian residents, and later became a ticketed tourist site," said the Israeli guide.

It costs 44 Shekels ($13) for half a tour that ascends from Birket al-Hamra to the Western Wall through the tunnel. 

Emek Shaveh, an Israeli archaeological NGO, said in a report that these tunnels "create an underground Jewish-Israeli city and turn... settlers into its natural inhabitants and the Palestinian residents... into a temporary presence".

The guide said the excavation have not found one single artefact from King David era, which dates back 3,000 years.

What has been found are artefacts from various extinct empires, mainly Arab and Muslim, which have controlled Jerusalem over the centuries.

Artefacts have also been found from the period of the Second Temple, which dates back to the first century BCE, an important period of history for Jews.

But beyond that, nothing.

Regardless, Israelis continue their relentless search for their lost city, while the city of Palestinians above is slowly consigned to the history books.

A cracked wall in one of Wadi al-Hilweh houses (MEE/Lubna Masarwa)