Sunday, March 11, 2018

Building A “Third Force”

By Emil van der Poorten –MARCH 11, 2018

Emil van der Poorten

It is the belief shared by all non-racist, non-xenophobic Sri Lankans that, particularly after the most recent outbreak of mayhem provoked by simply being “different,” an alternative to the two main political configurations is needed and urgently so.

I have deliberately omitted consideration of the People’s Liberation Front (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna or JVP) as an alternative because its persistent adherence to a discredited set of political beliefs and its deification of Rohana Wijeweera, its leader until he was “terminated with extreme prejudice” as the old Central Intelligence term had it. The latter, in particular, makes it totally unacceptable to people of the so-called Cultivator caste (Govikula) in Sri Lanka who believe, rightly or wrongly, that they were targeted for extermination by the Wijeweera-led JVP at the time of the second Sri Lankan insurrection at the end of the ‘eighties purely and simply because the JVP leadership and rank-and-file saw them (the Goviyas) as opposed to what the JVP stood for by virtue of their being established in feudal and post-feudal Sri Lankan society as superior by virtue of a significant majority of the Sinhalese belonging to that caste, while the JVP leadership and cadre belonged to two of the so-called ”Depressed” castes.

The primary challenge in trying to build a new political entity in a country such as Sri Lanka whose fundamental political culture has been changed by the J. R. Jayewardene-led United National Party beginning in the latter part of the 1970s, is the financial demands of such a venture. Beginning with their first insurrection in the 1970s, the JVP sought to meet this need by holding up banks and individuals. Simply put, it didn’t work and, given the fact that the Sri Lankan political establishment, irrespective of its political hue, has armed forces equivalent to the Russian army at its command is less than a pipe-dream!

I would suggest that one route to raise the funds that are required to establish any kind of new political organization could come from the kind of electronic fund-raising that has emerged in the United States of America ever since the urgency of dumping Donald Trump and all he stands for became apparent.

Sri Lankans have the reputation of being technologically savvy beyond the norm of so-called developing countries. The fact that mobile phone usage, with all the attendant gizmos that go with that means of communication, is well above the average, even for the more economically-advanced countries, could be the, until now, hidden clue as to where this can begin. “Texting” is no longer exotic and, particularly with younger people, has become a major part of the routine of their daily lives.

That fact needs to be exploited and an initial group of “believers”, no matter how small, needs to get the ball rolling. The numbers of recruits could grow exponentially if enough effort is put in by those first engaged in the task.

While the preceding description might seem simple enough, the over-riding reality of the Sri Lankan political culture must not be lost sight of: the moment that any such dissident movement, no matter how peaceful and democratic, is showing signs of success the forces of repression will mobilize themselves. And make no mistake, those forces cut across all the phony political divisions trotted out for those who’d like to believe that some sort of multi-party democracy prevails in Sri Lanka.

If the forces for change can expand rapidly enough, the very nature of that growth is going to make it difficult to contain by the hegemonists backed by a very, very large armed force to which it will feed privileges that prevent it from making common cause with the suggested agents of change.

Families of M.G. Kumarasinghe and Samsudeen Abdul Basith say Not in our sons’ name!

BY Kavindya Chris Thomas, reporting from Digana-2018-03-11

Two men, separated by several kilometres, two villages and distinguished by their respective religions and ethnicities, faced unnatural similar circumstances during this week of bedlam in the Central Province.

Historians may observe and record the contemporary occurrences that led to the week-long racial tension and violence in the Kandy suburbs this month, thus rendering these two insignificant lives as mere footnotes in the historic records that would one day be used to understand and would be scrutinised, in order to answer why things happened, the way they happened. However, it should be noted that despite all the obstacles that stood in their way, the lives of M.G. Kumarasinghe and Samsudeen Abdul Basith, came together in their untimely deaths, becoming the inopportune scapegoats of politically motivated racial tensions that kept the Kandy under siege and lockdown for almost a week.

M.G. Kumarasinghe, 43, was a resident of Ambala, Medamahanuwara who was transporting goods for the private company he was working for then. On 22 February, close to midnight, the vehicle he was driving at the time got involved in an accident near Teldeniya with a three-wheeler carrying four individuals. According to Kumarasinghe's cousin, a police officer attached to the Teldeniya Police, it was around 1:30 a.m. on 23 February when he received a call from Kumarasinghe, who said that he had been assaulted by four individuals who were in the three-wheeler. Kumarasinghe's assistant was also assaulted.

"He came to meet me at the Police station and he told me the story. I saw that he was bleeding from a head injury. I urged him to lodge a complaint and to get medical attention, both of which he refused. He left saying, he had to deliver the goods in his vehicle. Not even an hour had passed when I received another call from him. This time he could only get through, Aiye mata... and then I heard him collapse. I rushed to his depot and found him inside his vehicle, unconscious. The security guard at the depot was an eyewitness to the assault but he didn't even check on how he was. His assistant had also left. I scolded the security guard and was able to find a three-wheeler to take Kumarasinghe to the hospital. At the hospital, the night doctor decided that the situation was bad and sent us to the Kandy General Hospital in an ambulance."

Kumarasinghe never regained his consciousness. He passed away on 3 March. The violence started the very next day.

Who did it first?

No one knows yet who threw the proverbial stone first. Different factions would say it was their rivals who started the assaults, burning shops and overall pillaging. Official investigations would reveal names but rumours and accusations will run rampant, facing no obstacles. But in the end, no matter who did what first, people died, homes were ruined and lives were scarred. Those who survived will never be the same again.

Kumarasinghe's family is one such group of survivors who will never be the same again. The lives of his father, H.D. Gunasena and his ailing mother, depended on the sole income earned by Kumarasinghe. On top of that, Kumarasinghe was the father of two schoolgoing children – now fatherless – and his wife, now a widow. His extended family, as he was the sole breadwinner for the wife's family as well, is done and gone. Their survival is now in the hands of whoever who will help them.

It would have sufficed if it was only his family that was left in the mournful wake of Kumarasinghe's death. But during his lifetime, he had touched many of the hearts of his village. Being a devout member of the village temple, he together with the chief monk, had been a great supporter to everyone in the village, including the small Muslim community there. His family, on numerous occasions during the interview with Ceylon Today, reminisced his donations to the temple and mosque which Kumarasinghe held as a priority, above the wellbeing of his own family.

Kumarasinghe's father: "The fights, the violence is not what we wanted. Those things would not bring my son back. First they wanted to carry my son's body around the town, parading it during their protest. We did not want that because we knew he would not want that to happen. My son was not associated with any politics. He only helped the people in this village."

On 6 March morning, the body of 28-year-old Samsudeen Abdul Basith was discovered inside a shop in Kengalla, Pallekele. Basith was inside the shop when the rioting mobs set the shop ablaze.
Samsudeen Mohamed Fazil is the eldest brother of late Basith. Speaking to Ceylon Today, he recounted what happened to his brother.

"On Monday (5 March) I asked my parents and two of my brothers to go to a safe place without staying inside the house. Basith called me and said that they were stuck inside the house. They couldn't leave, there was no back door to the house and the mobs were out on the street. Later, I came to know that our house and our shop were ablaze. I attempted to so many times to reach my house but I couldn't. Once the mobs stopped me and the other time the STF did not let me through, despite my constant crying saying that it was my house that was burning. I thrice tried to reach the area.

"Subsequently, I came to know that my parents had managed to escape. One of my brothers sustained burn injuries and we heard that he was in hospital. We had no idea about our younger brother and we thought he was at the hospital too. I accompanied my father to see our burnt house and looked for our belongings. That was when we discovered our younger brother's remains inside the washroom of our house.

Cause of death

Police said the initial coroner's report had stated that the death had occurred due to asphyxiation and inhalation of Carbon Monoxide. Nevertheless, the death was the unintentional result of the riots and will be handled as homicide.

Basith, similar to Kumarasinghe, was a people's man. Before the riots took his life, he led a peaceful life with the residents of his village, helping not only the village mosque (that was also vandalized and partially destroyed) and had donated to the village hospital and temple. The parish priest of the Digana Catholic Church recalled the numerous occasions when Basith had offered assistance to church activities. He was not attached to any political or religious group but in every sense a man of the community in which he was born. He was also the sole income earner of the family, taking care of his ailing mother and father with preacher brothers. In the wake of his death, it is not just his family that is left to suffer but the community as well, which saw him as a kind hearted and loving soul.

Two parallel lives that only interlined and overlapped once, that being their death, might be a note of insignificance in the large scheme of things. But agenda driven politics and racial hatred made martyrs out of the two individuals, as it has before and will do in the future, thus resulting in violence that neither would have liked to see. Therefore, while history would not care for such trivialities, the story of Kumarasinghe and Basith, whose peaceful lives were corrupted by outside forces in their deaths should be a tale of caution. The violence is over for now, but the lesson should be carried on further. Tell your children of our crimes, remind them of the violence of our generation, so that they will not commit the same mistakes of slaughtering
innocents.

An unhappy Lanka and an unfortunate people

Sunday, March 11, 2018

Some months ago, I happened to have a chance conversation with a fellow traveller en route when returning to Sri Lanka. Highly educated in the engineering sciences, he hailed from Mawanella (a town close to Kandy) and after a while, the exchange turned to a discussion on how his village had changed with the passing of time.

Coming into being of hostile communities

‘I remember when we were children,’ he said ‘our Muslim neighbours and their children would treat our houses as if it was theirs and we did the same with them. We celebrated during festivals but not only that, the pace of ordinary life was punctuated with constant interactions. But now it has all changed. Everywhere we see people dressing more conservatively and there is a clear difference now in the way the communities live. They are distanced and more hostile. We are also separated and we do not want to engage with them.’

That passing exchange summarised in a nutshell, the breakdown of community relations in one village and symbolising a similar breakdown all over this unfortunate country with the passing of the decades.

It is from this gradual paralysing of trust that a single mundane sequence of action and reaction between a few human beings, which would ordinarily have been just one of many other similar incidents on a given day, spiraled into the communal violence that took place in Kandy within the space of one short but calamitous week.

Duty to enforce law and order

My conversationalist was only cognizant of the ‘hostility’ of the ‘other’ in that exchange. But as I tried to point out to him at the time, that was just part of the problem. The entrenching of the Sinhala Buddhist majority mindset has played a devastating part in the deficit of trust between communities in this land. That must be acknowledged as a core truth.

And as pointed out in these column spaces last week, the Government’s duty to enforce law and order in these situations must be properly exercised. There is little point in the President and the Prime Minister visiting the affected or the Government trumpeting the fact that ‘Kandy has returned to normal.’

This week was a good reminder of how fragile the balance is where community relations are concerned in villages and towns all around the country. Both in Ampara and in Kandy, the law enforcement authorities should have been far quicker and more effective in their initial responses.

Abstaining from superficial solutions

What the Government needs to recognise is that superficial solutions to community grievances is like a bandage that does not treat the aching and festering wound. This is true in other respects as well. Where Sri Lanka’s Tamil communities are concerned for example, the long awaited Office of the Missing Persons (OMP) has finally been established but Sri Lanka’s ‘disappeared’ from the North to the South need far more than reparations or indeed, to be told categorically that their loved ones are not among the living any more.

It is the failure to realise this fact that has resulted in a morass of unfulfilled promises out of which the OMP emerged three years later. But the OMP’s agonising gestation and contested process of coming into being has dramatically reduced the confidence of victims in the mechanism.

Great incoherence in reforms

To put the matter in context, it must not be forgotten that pronounced doubts arose even at the point at which the OMP Bill was passed into law. In a column that I wrote at the time titled ‘Cheers in Colombo, apathy in Jaffna’ (August 28th 2016)I questioned the manifest reluctance of the Government to address the problems of flawed justice institutions and pervasive systemic impunity which undermined the legitimacy of Sri Lanka’s proposed transitional justice reforms of which the OMP is one.

At that time, I referred to ‘the phenomenon of great incoherence in government’ in the formulation and strategising of transitional justice reforms which words have unfortunately now been proved to be prophetic. A compartmentalised transitional justice ‘package’ which leaves systemic impunity unaddressed was bound to falter as indeed it did. The callous ignoring of the criminal justice process in the emblematic cases of gross human rights violations such as the executions of Tamil students in Trincomalee and the Tamil/Muslim Action Contra L’ Faim aid workers in Mutur during 2006 were examples in point.

Meanwhile experiments with new counter-terror legislation became unmitigated disasters. This was what best summed up the indictment of ‘great incoherence in government’ as each embarrassment succeeded the other.There was no national effort to bring about local consensus to effect changes in laws, practices and policies that guard against enforced disappearances. Useful strategies in that regard would have been reforms in the criminal justice system and the strengthening of the legal remedy of habeas corpus which is the most powerful weapon to deter enforced disappearances.

A perilous future

Indeed as extensive studies in Sri Lanka have stressed, the remedy of habeas corpus is largely unfamiliar to both lawyers and judges. With the setting up of the OMP, a long standing demand that an independent body mandated with the task of investigating all cases of disappearance has now come to pass. That must be celebrated, warts and all. Reforming law and practices in order to deter enforced disappearances, (including a Habeas Corpus Act), and ensuring a well-balanced counter terror law are two vital accompanying steps that must now be taken.

Helpless and hapless human beings should not be permitted to vanish into the legal ‘black hole’ of the enforced disappeared any longer in Sri Lanka. That is the very minimum that needs to be ensured.

In the meanwhile, this country is heading towards an uncertain future as the communal violence of this week demonstrated. This is undoubtedly unfortunate.

Sri Lankan Academics Abroad Condemn Violence Against Muslim Community: Open Letter

Featured image courtesy Reuters

VASUKI NESIAH- 03/11/2018

We write to condemn ongoing violence against Sri Lanka’s Muslim community, especially the brutal attacks perpetrated over the past week. We are outraged that the government has failed to act speedily and decisively to stop the violence and bring those responsible to justice. The government must act firmly to prevent more destruction and bloodshed.

The scale and nature of recent attacks on the Muslim community are the result of years of successive regimes in Sri Lanka pandering to chauvinist nationalists. Targeted and organized attacks against Muslim communities in Ampara, Teldeniya, and Kandy are not isolated incidents, but must be seen within a longer history of attacks on Muslims in Sri Lanka, including wartime violence by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) against northern and eastern Muslims. After the end of the war, majoritarian attacks against Muslims living in the East and South have escalated. In May 2014, Sinhala Buddhist nationalists attacked and burned the Muslim-owned store, Fashion Bug, and its head offices in Colombo. In June 2014, Sinhala Buddhist nationalists again carried out anti-Muslim riots in Aluthgama, Beruwala and other areas in the Kalutara District. In 2017 alone, there were 20 documented incidents of violence against Muslims, including the September 2017 attack on a UNHRC shelter housing 31 Muslim Rohingya refugees in Colombo. Sinhala Buddhist monks led this last attack in direct violation of international human rights treaties on the protection of refugees, which Sri Lanka has ratified. In some of these instances, members of the police and security forces were present, but did nothing to halt the perpetrators or protect the victims. While some civil society organizations in Sri Lanka have condemned these orchestrated acts of violence, the government has failed to hold the responsible political and religious figures to account. Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), for example, openly propagates hate speech against Muslims, and promotes xenophobia, racism, and bigotry. Such actors do not operate in a vacuum; the ‘inaction’ of political authorities and the police against them is in fact an active intervention, encouraging groups like the BBS and Maha Sona Balakaya to act with impunity.

We, members of the Sri Lankan diaspora and Sri Lankans living abroad, from all of the country’s diverse communities, stand in solidarity with our Muslim sisters and brothers. We believe that declaring a state of emergency and curbing free media and social networks are not sustainable solutions to issues of equal rights and the protection of minorities. In the long run, such measures will only expand the repressive powers of the state. The government must take swift action to bring those responsible for anti-Muslim violence to justice. We call on the government to hold accountable law enforcement and political authorities who have reneged on their responsibility to protect all members of the Sri Lankan community. We also call on the government to move on long-term questions of constitutional reform that can lay the foundation for a future of peace with justice and security for all its citizens, including minorities.

Vasuki Nesiah, New York University
Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham, Colgate University
Mythri Jegathesan, Santa Clara University
Kanishka Goonewardena, University of Toronto
V.V. Ganeshananthan, University of Minnesota
Qadri Ismail, University of Minnesota
Sharika Thiranagama, Stanford University
Sonali Perera, City University of New York
Kitana Ananda, City University of New York
Sanjeevi Nuhumal, Haverford College
Kathleen Fernando, Kenyon College
Kanchana Ruwanpura, University of Edinburgh
Pradeep Sangapala, University of Alberta
Arjun Guneratne, Macalester College
Amarnath Amarasingam, University of Waterloo
Arjini Nawal, Harvard University
Neil DeVotta, Wake Forest University
Nihal Perera, Ball State University
Sandya Hewamanne, University of Essex
Nira Wickramasinghe, Leiden University
Nalin Jayasena, Miami University
Prashanth Kuganathan, Columbia University
Shiyana Gunasekara, Johns Hopkins University
Sukanya Emmanuel, Cornell University
E Valentine Daniel, Columbia University
Varuni Wimalasiri, Bournemouth University
Dinidu Karunanayake, Miami University
Vidyamali Samarasinghe, American University
Mahesan Niranjan, University of Southampton
Nethra Samarawickrema, Stanford University
Dilshanie Perera, Stanford University
Myra Sivaloganathan, McMaster University
Namika Raby, California State University
Geethika Dharmasinghe, Cornell University
Sudesh Mantillake, University of Maryland & University of Peradeniya
Eshantha Peiris, University of British Columbia
Devaka Gunawardena, University of California, Los Angeles
Themal Ellawala, Clark University
Shobhana Xavier, Ithaca College
Nalika Gajaweera, University of Southern California
Ashwini Vasanthakumar, King’s College London
Yalini Dream, University of San Francisco
Mihirini Sirisena, University of Edinburgh
A.R.M. Imtiyaz, Temple University
Deborah Philip, City University of New York
Tony Anghie, University of Utah
Tanuja Thurairajah, University of Zurich
Sammani Perera, Miami University
Achinthya Bandara, Texas Tech University
Kasun Gajasinghe, Montclair State University
Upul Wickramasinghe, University of Durham
Thushara Hewage, University of Ottawa
Tariq Jazeel, University College London
Kanya D’Almeida, Columbia University

THE WAY WE ARE : AN ESSAY IN DESPONDENCY WITH AN APPEAL

11 March, 2018

Another week of political chaos and uncertainty has just passed. There was something new in it – Government paralysis for a few days. When two Ministers publicly admitted that the police had been inactive in controlling rioters in the Kandy District that was no ordinary news. There were also media reports, not just rumours that even the army and the STF that were deployed after the declaration of emergency, were just onlookers of mob violence against Muslim citizens.

Another July 1983 was in the making. With unprecedented public condemnation of racial violence, and amidst belated assertion of its authority by the government, Sri Lanka seems to have managed to escape another countrywide bloodbath. Let us hope that the beast has been beaten back.

Amidst this generalized state of chaos, there was also a widely shared feeling of despondency, and a sense of betrayal. With a deep sense of sadness, we citizens also watched the President and the Prime Minister of our Republic performing their public duties in discordance and disunity. We passed a couple of days last week with a strange feeling in the air that the country was bereft of leadership.

What is this sense of betrayal? How did it come about?

It is a sense of betrayal rooted in the collective failure of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to abide by, and to be faithful to, the mandate they were given by the people in January and August 2015. The Government’s continuing disregard, throughout the past three years, of its duty to protect the Muslim citizens from the well-organized attacks by Sinhalese racist groups, is only one side of this sad story of betrayal.

The events in Ampara and Kandy are not accidents, or isolated incidents. They are part of a new political chain of organized ethnic majoritarian violence, evolved in the aftermath of the defeat of Tamil insurgency. When the leaders of the present government were seeking a public mandate at the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2015, they promised the country’s ethnic minorities that their life, property and freedom would be secured. It was not an accident that President Sirisena’s electoral victory in January 2015 was largely made possible by the ethnic and cultural minority voters.

Look at what has happened to our leaders when they began to wield state power?

They gradually began to isolate themselves from all the constituencies who elected them to power. Our President began to surround himself by the very forces and individuals who did everything to defeat him at the Presidential election. Within just a few months in office, he allowed himself to be alienated from his own natural allies. With future political agendas in mind, he became inexplicably cautious in dealing with the Sinhalese majoritarian groups that unleashed repeated violence against the Muslim citizens. That gave the wrong signals to saffron-clad activists that they were guaranteed immunity from legal consequences for their terrorist behaviour.

Similarly, President Sirisena’s extra cautious approach to criminal cases involving members of the armed forces sent out wrong signals to the judiciary as well. It not only belied all his rhetoric about restoring human rights, providing relief to victims of state violence and initiating a process of transitional justice. It has even paralyzed, as we have been regularly hearing, the judicial process in some of the major cases of grave political crime. Now, a new pattern of justice appears to have been set in Sri Lanka – it is in the realm of Presidential discretion to derail the course of justice in order to please his occasional constituencies. It is quite understandable that the President has to balance the conflicting demands for national security and human rights protection. But, he does not have to do it by ignoring his own human rights commitments.

Then, let us look at the record of our Prime Minister.

If we believe in the report of the Presidential Commission on the Central Bank bond scam, it is the Prime Minister who became the first Government leader to defy with utter contempt the good governance mandate of January 2015. The bond scam began in March 2015, within three months of a regime that sought a popular mandate to inaugurate a new culture of governance free of corruption and mass stealing of public wealth. Voters trusted Wickremesinghe’s promise of restoring ethical governance on the belief that he was different from those who treated political power licence to indulge in organized robbery of public wealth. But in power he set out to prove that he is yet another ordinary politician who treated the public clamour for clean government only as an effective electoral slogan.

This brief background commentary enables us to place in context the present state of Government paralysis in the country. Deviating from their electoral mandate of January 2015, President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe are now locked in a power struggle which has personal and political roots. They are inextricably intertwined too. The personal dimension of the power struggle highlights the total breakdown of trust between these co-leaders of the government.

It has heightened the political dimension of it, with two key themes dominating their thinking and action at present.

The first is about taking the upper hand in the balance of power within the ruling coalition. The second is who should run for, and win, the next presidential election towards the end of 2019. The intensity of this war of attrition became so public and even bizarre during the appointment of the Cabinet Minister of Law and Order that the new Minister is on record saying the most unthinkable in a parliamentary democracy: the MP was unaware until he reached the President’s office that he was to be sworn in as the Minister.

The betrayal felt by Sri Lankan citizens is particularly intense because the irresponsible actions by the two leaders have brought to a premature end that promising and rare historical moment for Sri Lanka’s democratization, peace-building, ethnic reconciliation and peace, and overall progress in an atmosphere of political openness, justice and fair play. There is no way now to retrieve the political agenda that brought these two leaders to power. There is no possibility of reviving that political coalition either.

To build such an agenda and broad coalition afresh tragically requires another phase of grave defeats and setbacks in which our citizens and communities will have to again suffer, and suffer in violence. As the recent events show, Sri Lanka is on the path to such a phase of setbacks, thanks primarily to our two leaders.

Can Sri Lankan citizens expect from their President and the Prime Minister to do some joint thinking and then take collective action, even at this belated hour, to arrest a catastrophe – sorry for the big word --in the making?

Economy suffers with few people acting on the slogan ‘Sri Lanka is ours and not theirs’

A man walks past a damaged house in Digana last week - Pic by Shehan Gunasekara
Behaviour like low level animals

Monday, 12 March 2018

The slogan that is being shouted in an angry loud voice by a minority section of Sri Lanka’s majority Sinhala Buddhist population conveys a non-negotiable message to minorities in the country. It says: ‘Sri Lanka is ours and ours only. All others who wish to live here should do so according to our terms. So, take it or leave it’.

Economy suffers with few people acting on the slogan ‘Sri Lanka is ours and not theirs’.docx by Thavam on Scribd

The Government Is Clueless How To Serve The Country Better – Politics Religionized & Religion Politisized

By Lacille de Silva –MARCH 9, 2018

Lacille de Silva

“All men are my children. As for my own children I desire that they may be provided with all the welfare and the happiness of this world and the next, so do I desire for all men as well” -Emperor Asoka.

Emperor Asoka had embraced Buddhism after a gruesome war. He had undergone a change histrionically and had ruled the country thereafter while adhering to Buddhist principles, wisely and justly. He had encouraged all citizens to respect the freedom to follow their own beliefs and religions and to refrain from criticism of the viewpoints of others. He had also counselled that everyone should essentially increase the “inner worthiness”. He had adopted a paternalistic view on administration and had considered that it was his duty to serve for their greater good.

He had looked upon the citizens’ welfare and had used state resources for cultivation of medical herbs, digging of wells, rest houses, planting fruit trees along public roads etc. He had ensured as a ruler to guarantee respect for life of humans and flora and fauna. His only aim had been to treat all living beings including nature with compassion, love, understanding, kindness while ensuring peaceful co-existence. He had banned cruelty to animals and hunting certain species of animals. He had reformed the judicial system too, to ensure fairness, to prevent abuse and extremes. He had also established a Department separately to look after the interests of different religions and for the purpose of encouraging the practicing of religion.

Our leaders abuse political office for private gain. They think differently and act deviously because they are rotten apples with awful characteristics and preference towards criminal activity. PM a few months ago in Parliament said that his wife gets a higher salary than him and hence he would not hesitate to support the proposals to increase salaries of parliamentarians and provide vehicles to carry out their work in electorates. Media revealed countless examples of politicians with defective morals and penchant for criminal activity. And how they acted contrary to the pledges. They were voted in 2015 to run a responsible government.

In Japan, in 1976, the then PM Tanaka Kakuei had been involved in a corruption scandal. Tanaka was found guilty for accepting cash-stuffed boxes as kick-backs, which had been delivered to his private residence, for pushing through a deal to purchase a few aircrafts built by Lockheed. Kanaka thereafter was compelled to resign and he had been subsequently convicted. In late 1980s, Prime Minister Takeshita Noboru, who had accepted donations etc., was forced to resign and had been dealt with by the law.

In Sri Lankan context, due to the culture of impunity, politicos who have been accused of massive scandals, murder etc., have not been dealt with by law for decades. There are similar turncoats who have benefited having obtained even ministerial posts too. Such crooks hold on to position shamelessly, refuse to even stepdown unlike in other countries. They even safe-guard their political opponents. The judiciary, police, prosecutors have been rendered powerless. They therefore cannot effectively enforce laws to curb corruption. Politicos continue robbing the State mercilessly and is unstoppable.

They abuse politics, position etc., to remain in power. They have not spared the religion too. Religion has also been exploited, dragged in and injected deceitfully to divide the people craftily and venomously. They do so to remain in power because they need power at any cost. Religion does not cause any threat at all if they only use the guidelines of religious teachers for ethical and moral governance as in the case of Emperor Dharmashoka. Unscrupulous politicos drag ethnicity and religion to advance their personal political gain. Any religion that promotes murder, mayhem, hatred, violence, duplicity, thievery and harm is not a religion.

In politics too, there are directions that should be strictly observed by the rulers, according to the Buddha. Emperor Asoka unlike the present day politicos observed such rules with altruism. Similar rulers both in India and Sri Lanka have proved beyond doubt that if you have good rulers you could ensure religious peace, tolerance and love. Machiavellian type of Sri Lankan politicos have thrown the rules in to the deep blue sea. Present political culture therefore has been appallingly polluted by such lowly leaderships over the last few decades. They have miserably failed to honour social and moral obligations as politicians. PM Wickremesinghe is no exception. He had failed to run governance as an altruistic leader. He said in Parliament that 43% live below the poverty line (less than 2 US $ a day) and that bulk of our people live in misery. We need humane political leaders with an iron fist to run governance, who feel the pulses of the citizens.

How to take forthwith actions to prevent ethnic tensions in Sri Lanka

Foot dragging in such matters can prove lethal as 1983 proved. Responses must be immediate and decisive. There are always criminal elements in the woodwork ready to seize opportunities for looting, arson and destroying rival businesses.

by Manik de Silva - Mar 11, 2018

( March 11, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The communal rioting this country was hit with a few days ago has thankfully been contained but the message is loud and clear that we have learned very little from July 1983 that resulted in a civil war that dragged on for nearly 30 years costing Sri Lanka dearly in lost lives and treasure setting back the country’s development by decades. We also lost many of our best and brightest who quit this country for good. In the first place the government response was slow to the early warning from Amparai where unrest was reported over wild rumors, established to be totally false, that an effort was afoot to feed the majority community with infertility drugs in food packets.

Then there was an incident in the Kandy district where four three-wheeler passengers had savagely beaten-up a truck driver who had prevented them from overtaking him. The victim died a few days later and the fat was in the fire with extraneous forces moving in to set off a racial conflagration attacking Muslim homes and businesses. It was most unfortunate that the assault victim was a Sinhalese and the attackers Muslim. If both parties belonged to the same community an everyday road rage incident which is not uncommon could not have triggered the damage that resulted.

Foot dragging in such matters can prove lethal as 1983 proved. Responses must be immediate and decisive. There are always criminal elements in the woodwork ready to seize opportunities for looting, arson and destroying rival businesses. There are also dangerous forces in the sidelines with their own agendas and the sooner they are dealt with, the better. Unfortunately, sane voices from within the Buddhist clergy, such as that of Ven. Galkande Dhammananda of the Walpola Rahula Institute whose statement we run today, did not get the notice they deserve. Yet we must be happy there was a protest by Buddhist monks in Colombo on Friday drawing attention to the lunacy that had already gained traction but as stated by perceptive commentator Tisaranee Gunasekera in her monthly column in this issue of our paper, the Buddhist hierarchy was eloquent in its silence when the rioting was occurring very close to their seat in Kandy.

Damage control measures are no doubt now ongoing. On Friday religious leaders, representing the main religions practiced in Sri Lanka, spoke out under the auspices of the Congress of Religions denouncing recent events and stressing the need for the government to do everything possible to bring perpetrators to justice. Speakers included the Mahanayake of the Kotte Sri Kalyani Samagri Dhamma Sabhawa, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and Hindu and Muslim leaders. The Internet, effectively used for negative purposes at the early stage of the rioting, was positively employed with posts of Buddhist monks offering solidarity to their Muslim brothers during Friday prayers.

Police was quoted saying the main instigator, described as a person known for anti-Muslim activism, and some 145 others were under arrest. Time will tell us whether there is sufficient evidence to successfully prosecute them. The prime minister is on record that those who had lost their lives and property will be compensated. He was due to visit Digana yesterday.

We are glad that State Minister Harsha de Silva announced in parliament on Friday that the social media blockade was due to be lifted yesterday. He was right in his assertion that it is difficult to control social media as news spreads extremely rapidly in today’s context.

There’s hardly anybody in the country without access to a mobile phone. De Silva said that the government was forced to impose what he called a ‘temporary’ blockade to stop the spreading of malicious and inflammatory news given the situation that was prevailing. The public is well aware of the widespread abuse of the Internet for collateral purposes but it is also familiar with the dangers of regulatory excesses by rulers. Given the danger confronting the country a few days ago with wide dissemination of incendiary material, there would have been few serious complaints against the government’s action, especially as it was enforced only for a couple of days.

Dr. de Silva suggested the appointment of a presidential commission to probe the genesis of recent events. Mr. Bandula Gunawardene of the Joint Opposition has called for a parliamentary select committee to probe this matter. The president announced yesterday that a commission comprising three retired judges will be appointed to probe the breakdown in law and order and also recommend compensation. Three people died and 20 were wounded in the disturbances. It has also been reported that 11 mosques were damaged or destroyed and over 200 Muslim-owned homes and businesses had been damaged/destroyed in four days of rioting.

The former president is very well aware of the cost of the 2014 anti-Muslim violence at Aluthgama to his re-election bid in 2015. There was no doubt that elements within his regime had links with extremists groups and there was an effort to mitigate this factor during the recent local elections where the former president scored a stunning victory. Rajapaksa well knows that the minorities played a major role in toppling him from his presidential throne in 2015. Some of his supporters favor a strategy of using this as a device to win more support from the majority community but whether they will push it to an extreme is an open question.

How much economic damage had been caused by the unfortunate rioting which was widely publicized abroad remain to be accurately assessed. There have been reports of cancellation of some tourist bookings and fears expressed that foreign portfolio investment on the Colombo Stock Exchange will be affected. How these will pan out remains to be seen. But there is little doubt that a great deal of damage has been done in a few days of unthinking violence.

( The writer is the editor of Sunday Island, a Colombo based weekly newspaper, where this peice first appeared.)

ORGANISED GROUP BEHIND UNREST - PM

Monday, March 12, 2018

An organised group had been behind the recent unfortunate incidents which occurred in the Kandy area, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said.

“Police have already received vital information about it. I have directed the Law and Order Minister and the IGP to conduct an urgent investigation into the matter and take necessary action about it,” the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister was speaking at a special discussion convened at the Kandy Kachcheri on March 10, regarding the unrest which occurred in Kandy recently.

The Prime Minister said he convened the meeting to discuss measures to pay compensation to people for the properties damaged during the clashes.

“Several factors should be taken into consideration at the discussions, including assessment of compensation payments, payment of compensation for lives lost and the programme of work to rehabilitate damaged business places,” the Prime Minister said.

According to latest statistics, 465 places of worship, houses, vehicles, business places and other institutions had suffered damage during these incidents. Of them, 87 had suffered total damage and 196 partially damaged, while another 182 suffered minor damage.

The Prime Minister said the police had already investigated the recent unrest in Ampara and Kandy.

What ought to be done was to prevent a repetition of such ugly incidents in the future,” the Preimer said.

He said investigations would not be confined to the appointment of a Commission only. The Government would go ahead with its duties and responsibilities without waiting until the Commission announced its decisions.

The Prime Minister said investigations were also underway about certain social websites which instigated the Kandy incidents. Two students of two leading Colombo schools have also been identified during Police interrogations.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said incidents of this nature would not recur only if punishments were meted out to the wrongdoers. If this was not done there world be a repetition of such incidents. As such the law should be strictly implemented against the wrongdoers, irrespective of their status of position.

The Prime Minister who said that these ugly incidents had tarnished the country’s image internationally added that it would take another two to three years to minimise the damage caused.

The Prime Minister said this had badly impacted on the tourism industry too. A majority of tourists visited Colombo while an equal number visited Kandy too. Although they hoped for an increase in the influx of tourists, there was doubt as to whether they could achieve that target.

“The Government had already held talks on moves to increase tourists visiting Kandy and the surrounding areas,” the Premier said.

“There would be problems if our march forward together as Sri Lankans was harmed. We should act in a manner that would not jeopardise that collective march forward. The Maha Sangha and other religious dignitaries should visit the trouble spots and educate the people. The Maha Sangha and clerics of other religions had already joined forces to assist this endeavour,” the Premier said.

The Prime Minister who said that these clashes also dealt a major blow to the sacrifices made by our War Heroes who helped end the 30-year terrorist war and unite the nation, said the declaration of a timely curfew for the entire Kandy district enabled them to restrict the incidents to only four Divisional Secretariat areas without allowing it to spread to other areas in the district.

The Prime Minister said that even though there had been shortcomings on the part of certain Police officers in enforcing Law and Order, the Police service as a whole had performed a commendable job in bringing the situation under control and he wished to thank them for it.

“The Armed Forces too had done a commendable service in this connection. Similarly, the public servants, Provincial service employees, Local Government employees, members of Civil Society, religious organisations and the Maha Sangha, as well as dignitaries of other religious too had rallied round to bring the situation back to normalcy.The government wished to thank every one of them for the assistance rendered,” the Prime Minister added.

Ministers Ranjith Maddumabandara, Lakshman Kiriella, Rauf Hakeem, M.H.A. Haleem, State Minister Ruwan Wijewardene, Parliamentarian Lucky Jayawardana, Central Province Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake, Secretary to the Prime Minister Saman Ekanayake, Service Chiefs and several other state officials attended the discussion.

Devils’ Force sets Hill Capital alight

By Leon Berenger in Digana, Kandy-2018-03-11

The silent tears fall on smouldering embers but it cannot douse the flames of hatred which engulfed the hill station town of Digana that witnessed a bloody cycle of ethnic violence where the minority Muslims was targeted at the beginning of this week. It all began with hate speech and provoking statements on the so-called social media following the death of a trucker and another individual both belonging to the majority Sinhalese community.

The trucker died almost 9 days after he was allegedly assaulted over a road rage incident, by a group of Muslim men under the influence of liquor, while the other person died after a grenade he was carrying in his possession accidentally exploded.

These two incidents provided the perfect ammo for extremists in the area to unleash mayhem in the area taking the police and other law enforcement agencies by total surprise and within 24 hours the once peaceful town of Digana and the suburbs was burning out of control.

The marauding mobs were well organized and their targets had been previously identified.

Some 75 shops and households belong to Muslims were either damaged or put to the torch and two mosques were vandalized as well as the violence was allowed to go unchecked until the authorities declared a state of emergency and the Kandy region was placed under a dusk to dawn police curfew.
As tension among the two communities ran high, thousands of heavily armed soldiers and personnel from the tri forces were deployed throughout the area along with riot control police.

The area resembled a battle ground as armoured cars and other military vehicles thundered along the narrow village streets in a show of force and to discourage and further violence as jittery residents put up shutters and opted to remain indoors.

The dusk to dawn curfew seemed to have worked and the violence was contained but the tension remained high as preparation were been made to bury the individual who was killed in the grenade explosion.

Devils' Force

However, at the end of the day the funeral was completed in this tiny village of Pujapitiya in Ambatenne amidst a massive police and military presence without any incident.

As investigations into the violence began, a man identified as one Amith Weerasinghe, a resident of Naththaranpotha in Kengalle was allegedly behind the mayhem.

Weerasinghe presides over an extremist group known as Mahasohon Balakaya or Devils' Force operating from a plush office in Kengalle that is in the neighbourhood of Digana and is known to have a following throughout the country.

This group, investigators say started hate messages and other texts on social media with false claims that a Buddhist temple had been attacked by Muslims and screamed for revenge. The fake news also claimed that a Buddhist priest had also been slain.

In the most recent development, two teenagers were arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Friday for spreading racial hatred.

The suspects were picked up at Homagama and Colpetty. If convicted they face a jail term of seven years under the prevailing state of emergency regulations, Police Media Spokesman Superintendent (SP) Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Investigators have also found out this same group had been previously involved in similar campaigns in several parts of the country with the aim of whipping up racial hatred while targeting a particular community.

According to investigators this group is also believed to be funded by certain Lankan expatriates while there are also serious allegations in the involvement of local politicians.

In the meantime, Weerasinghe of Mahasohon Balakaya was arrested along with some 100 of his followers including 10 ring leaders who were allegedly involved in the violence and they are currently being held without bail.

Meanwhile, local residents lashed out at the authorities for failing to curb the activities of this so-called extremist group even allowing it to operate from the heart of the town with name boards and everything else. "This group and their activities were known to the police and even to the governments both present and past but nothing was done to outlaw them and this is the end result", Chairman of the local mosque Ahamed Shibly said as he led the faithful for Friday prayers.

He was speaking amidst the ruins of a mosque in Digana that had been vandalized and partly torched by the mobs in broad daylight earlier in the week, so much so that, the faithful were forced to hold Friday prayers on the road.

Having said all that the Chairman of the mosque does not harbour any hatred against those responsible for the attack except to add that the law must take its course and the suspects must be punished accordingly.

Attackers were

mainly outsiders

He also added that the local villagers were not a part of the mobs and that these people were outsiders and many of them had their faces covered to apparently prevent identification.

However, he said that there would have also been local involvement to a lesser extent and that explains those who had their faces covered. "Nonetheless, I cannot confirm this", Shibly concluded.
J. M. Niyaz is a successful trader in the town of Kengalle and he has lost everything to the violence.

"Some 90 per cent of my customers are Sinhalese and it is with their help that I am a success story but all that has vanished in a moment of madness. The rioters were not from the neighbourhood, most of them were youngsters, they all had one thing in mind, and that was to destroy Muslim homes and facilities.

The mosque across the road was not spared and even copies of the Quran were torched.

Interestingly the main suspect behind the violence was known to me and my family from his infancy since he is an immediate neighbour.

I even use to carry him as a toddler but somewhere down the line he has been radicalized. This is very sad, it should never have been the case", he added.

Even as he speaks the smell of rotting meat and poultry products emanates into the atmosphere since his electricity supply has been disconnected and therefore the refrigerators are not in operation.
Down the road at the next shop a group officials from the Divisional Secretariat are inspecting the damages for evaluation prior to providing compensation payments.

Their task is complicated and difficult because some places and equipment have been completely burnt out and they will have to depend on what the claimants declare.

Meanwhile, the Government for its part is on damage control mode providing safety assurances to the citizenry and compensation payment at the very earliest.

As a precautionary measure, the Government also beefed up security in other known hot spots in the South and elsewhere in the country where there is a sizeable concentration of Muslims while lawmakers from across the political divide took to the floor of the House to blame the Government for failing to contain the violence. United National Party (UNP) MP Mujibur Rahman said that he is ashamed to be a part of the Government and blamed President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and even the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundera for failing to heed to his warnings. He told Parliament that he had warned on the possibility of communal violence but no one was prepared to listen and now the rest is history.

Meanwhile, the left-leaning Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP) blamed Muslim politicians saying that they were not doing enough to control extremism in their community. JVP MP Bimal Ratnayake said there is extremism in the Sinhala, Tamil and even the Muslim communities and called on the political leaders to address this issue at the very earliest. Joint Opposition (JO) MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara alleged that a top Minister was affiliated to this so- called Mahasohon Balakaya and that he would reveal his name to the country as soon as possible.

He further claimed that this particular minister had instigated the recent communal clashes and even the name of this extremist group was suggested by him.