Saturday, March 31, 2018

The 25 Percent Quota & Women In Sri Lankan Politics

By Hansani Bandara –MARCH 30, 2018

Hansani Bandara

The Ceylonese State Council Election of 1931 allowed all Sri Lankan citizens to participate in the democratic process through ‘universal suffrage’. Since then, Sri Lankan women has had the constitutional freedom and right to vote and participate in political activities and the country even went on to elect the world’s first female Prime Minister.

Despite the statutory freedom, women’s participation in Sri Lankan politics has been one of the lowest in South Asia. In fact, only four percent of the seats in provincial councils and 1.9 percent in local governments have been held by women up until 2012; and Sri Lanka was ranked 180th out of 190 countries in the IPU ranking of female representation in parliament as of June 2017.

Passing the Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Act No. 1 of 2016 sought to address this by introducing a mandatory quota of 25 percent for women through a one-third increase in the total number of seats at the local government level, i.e. Pradeshiya Sabas, Urban Councils and Municipal Councils. This measure was believed to be one that was progressive in terms of promoting gender equality.

The Local Government Elections which were held on the 10th of February also marked the inaugural implementation of the statutes that were introduced by through the above mentioned act. In theory, it meant that 25 percent out of the elected candidates had to be women and that these candidates would be guaranteed of seats in local governments.

However, there had been numerous hurdles along to the road, with uncertainty looming over fulfilling the mandatory 25 percent quota for women councilors. Prior to the elections, incidents were reported from around the country where women candidates were marginalized.

The Programmes and Research Technical Advisor of the Women and Media Collective Kumudini Samuel, at a pre-election press briefing, has reportedly said that, “even though 60 percent of the seats under the first-past-the-post system are contested through a ward, only 10 percent of these seats are open to women. Here too, women have to depend on men to put them on the ward list. Moreover, in many districts competent women were being overlooked when giving nominations, allowing the wives and relatives of politicians to contest. Incidents were reported in the Northern and Eastern Provinces where female candidates and their families were openly threatened by their male counterparts and religious leaders.

Following the elections, the Elections Commission had to hold back-to-back meetings with leaders of political parties to iron out the practical difficulties of this requirement, as it was said that at least 10 councils out of 340 would have to run without the 25 percent minimum representation of female councilors when constituted. The Election Commission stated that there were no legal means to appoint female members to these councils as the political parties had either not won more than 20 percent of votes each and were not obligated to appoint female members, or had no more female members to appoint.

Despite statements from many women’s rights activist groups and female members of local governments, to not default on implementing the law, the authorities faced serious barriers when it was time for the theories to be put into practice.

Fifteen dengue deaths upto March end

Nadira Gunatilleke-Saturday, March 31, 2018

A total of 14,000 dengue cases and around 15 dengue deaths had been reported up to March 28, Epidemiology Unit epidemiologists said.

According to epidemiologists, the highest number of dengue cases, 2,165 had been reported from the Colombo district while the second highest number, 1,471 had been reported from the Batticaloa district. The third highest number of dengue cases, 1,304 had been reported from the Gampaha district.

The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) reported a total of 596 dengue cases during the same period.

Other parts of the Colombo district recorded a total of 1,569 dengue cases.

The total number of dengue cases reported from the Western Province is 4,425, epidemiologists said.

Meanwhile, medical experts and consultants advise the public to seek medical treatment without delay for any type of fever without applying home remedies. All fever patients need rest and they should not attend work or school.

“All patients with a fever should take only Paracetamol. All the other medications, especially Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAID) such as Ibuprofen cause Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DHF) which can become fatal, medical experts added.

Why Is The Police Commission So Inefficient ?

Especially the senior cadres of the commission and the senior police officers seem to be frustrated over the actions and intermediation of IGP Pujith Jayasundera

During these instances the Police Commission hadn’t provided redress to the grievances of those affected

Everybody was puzzled as to how it was illegal to take into custody a lorry that was transporting timber without a permit

The Constitutional Council so appointed establishes the Police Commission in accordance with clause number 155 of the Constitution

As far as the law is concerned the Commission is answerable to the Parliament and not to the Minister

Therefore the present Police Commission takes decisions regarding matters that cover grades above ASP

Law and Order has become the most controversial subject the Yahapalana Government has had to deal with for the past three years. Very recently A. Ranjith Madduma Bandara took over as Minister-Law and Order.

When handing over this Ministry, which till then came under the purview of Ranil Wickremesinghe, to Bandara the Premier gave specific instructions to the new Minister to compile a report on the National Police Commission and its working.

Friday, 30 March 2018 01:06

The Premier had stated that the commission in the past had been gearing up only when there were shortcomings, which was due to the absence of a practical methodology. This statement by the Premier had led to a dialogue among legal experts on the Constitution and the legality of the Minister concerned having power to investigate into the affairs of an independent commission.

However notwithstanding these factors there were many articles written on probing and exposing the activities of the Police Commission. Such articles on several occasions hitherto had failed to attract the attention of the commission. This revealed the lackadaisical attitude of the commission towards public complaints.

This investigation is based on the situation that has arisen regarding the internal activities of the Commission which are now challenging its existence as an independent institution.

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution empowers the Constitutional Council to appoint members to all other Commissions. The Constitutional Council chaired by the Speaker includes the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition as ex-officio members. On the recommendation of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, five members (two of whom are Parliamentarians) are appointed by the President. A Member of Parliament, not belonging to the political parties or independent groups which represent the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, but accepted jointly by other parties in the Parliament and appointed by the President is also included.

The Constitutional Council so appointed establishes the Police Commission in accordance with clause number 155 of the Constitution. Accordingly the Police Comm

ission consists of seven members appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council.

From the members appointed, one should be a retired police officer in the rank of a Deputy Inspector General of Police. The chairman of the Police Commission is appointed from among the members of the commission by the President on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council.
The present Chairman of the Police Commission is P.H.Manatunge. The other members include Prof. Siri Hettige, Attorney Savithri D. Wijesekera, B.A. Jeyanathan, Y.L.M. Zavahir, Thilak Collure, and Dr Frank De Silva.

The complaints that are received by the Police Commission includes Public Complaints on injustices caused to citizens by the police and injustices caused to the members of the Police Force by the Police. Even on an earlier occasion these writers had highlighted the same subject with regard to the injustices caused to the public. During these instances the Police Commission hadn’t provided redress to the grievances of those affected. This time the report is on the injustice suffered by an Inspector of Police owing to a delay in the investigations regarding his appeal.

The Sub Inspector was acquitted of charges made against him. From that day the DIG concerned started taking revenge on the Sub Inspector

THE GRIEVANCE OF A 'COP'

He had joined Sri Lanka Police as a Sub- Inspector and served in a number of police stations. On being promoted as an Inspector, and while serving as the OIC of a police station in the South, he had taken into custody a lorry transporting Timber without a permit. This was following a tip-off he had received.

This incident was followed by a call from a DIG who had ordered him to release the stock of timber. As the investigations had already commenced under legal provisions, he had rejected the particular order and informed the incident to a Senior DIG, who in return instructed him to take appropriate legal action. Accordingly the suspects were produced in courts.

Just a few days passed and the Sub Inspector was arrested by a team of police officers on charges of illegally taking into custody a lorry transporting timber. Everybody was puzzled as to how it was illegal to take into custody a lorry that was transporting timber without a permit. The owner of the lorry had shown a permit later which appeared to have been obtained after the lorry was taken into custody.

The Sub Inspector was produced in courts and during the hearing the evidence proved that the Sub Inspector had taken the lorry into custody legally. The Sub Inspector had mentioned in his statement that he had obtained confirmation from the officers at the Divisional Secretariat that a permit hadn’t been issued for the lorry to transport timber at the time of the arrest. The Sub Inspector was acquitted of charges made against him. From that day the DIG concerned started taking revenge on the Sub Inspector. He was deprived of promotions and under the tenure of the present IGP he was demoted to the grade of Inspector from the grade of Chief Inspector. All these maneuvres were made even without a basic inquiry. He lodged a complaint with the Police Commission and his appeal was held back for more than one and half years. The reason given for this was that the IGP’s report hadn’t been received. Meanwhile the IGP had taken steps to frame bogus charges and terminate his services from the department of police. The police officer concerned took steps to make an appeal. This too dragged on for more than one and half years. However he didn’t give up. Despite being frustrated he continued in his pursuit of resorting to legal avenues. After two years he returned to his job and was reinstated in the post of Chief Inspector. The administrative authority had ordered that the officer be assigned the post of ASP. However he has not received the increments that he was denied of.

He had made another appeal in this regard and one year has lapsed without him receiving a reply. It is not worth when a period spanning one to two years of an individual’s life is filled with anguish. Such individuals await in vain hoping for a response; something that would never see the light of day. Who is to blame in this regard? Why have commissions if the grieved parties are forced to waste time?

This is only one story, but there are many similar episodes kept in abeyance for want of space.

The Police Commission meets regularly every Thursday. The appeals taken up at the last meeting were postponed

MOTIVE DERAILED

What we are trying to infer is that the motive behind the establishment of the Police Commission appears to be derailed, humiliating the members of the police. Especially the senior cadres of the commission and the senior police officers seem to be frustrated over the actions and intermediation of IGP Pujith Jayasundera in the decision making of the Police Commission. The IGP isn’t a member of this commission and therefore he has no voting power at the meetings of the commission. He has the right to attend the meetings as outlined by the Constitution Council. According to internal sources the IGP is appearing to be misusing this right to attend the meetings.

The quorum at these meetings is four. Decisions are taken based on the majority vote and at any crucial time the individual who chairs the meeting has the right of a decisive vote. Internal sources also reveal that though the IGP has no vote his behaviour underscores there was interference on his part in voting in arriving at certain decisions.

This has resulted in the delay of responding to appeals. The Police Commission meets regularly every Thursday. The appeals taken up at the last meeting were postponed. They had said that the appeals would be subject to further reconsideration. The main reason was the non-submission of reports by the IGP in relation to these appeals. Few examples are: Number 2885/91/29 June/2017 SI G. Wilfred Silva, number3367/112/09th November/2017PC 46919 H.M. Gamini. Ranasinghe, 3504/115/30th November/201/PC C.M. Ransinghe, number 2475//89/ 20th June/2017 SI S.M.S. Sisira, number 2485/89/20th June/2017 Police Inspector U.W. Senevirathne, number2574/91/ 29th June/2017 PC S. Nimal Shantha, number 2892/100/24th August/2017 Police Inspector Sivaraman Shivakumar, number 3208/107/ 04th October/2017 and 3705/119 SI K.L.G. Pushpakumara Perera.

AUTHORITY VESTED ON THE IGP

The Police Commission could confer on a committee its powers and authority on disciplinary matters and transfers or promotions of Police Officers in grades identified by the commission according to the Constitution. Therefore the present Police Commission takes decisions regarding matters that cover grades above ASP. This authority is again vested with the IGP by a Gazette notification. This limits the number of appointments and promotions that now come under the ambit of the Commission to about 3000 out of a number of above 80,000.

From among them 3000 senior police officers who are second only to the IGP made an appeal to the Commission to take over the administration of the Police Department. The Police Special Investigation Unit established to inquire into the wrong doings of police officers has now become a cat’s paw, used by interested parties to facilitate their own private agendas. This fact was stated before the Commission by senior DIG’s themselves. Even then it appears that this Commission is yet to understand its priorities. Therefore it’s evident that a group of senior officers are contemplating complaining directly to the Constitutional Council shortly.

They are also getting ready to bring to the notice of the Council, the telephone calls that are being made to a senior person of the Commission, by a powerful Minister.

Meanwhile a group of permanent employees of the Police Commission had also addressed a petition to the Auditor General, requesting for a justifiable investigation on the administration and finance control of the Police Commission. They allege that the Commission appointed under the 19th amendment to the Constitution had failed to achieve its objectives and charge that the Commission has now turned into a white Elephant, devouring public funds.

The Police Special Investigation Unit established to inquire into the wrong doings of police officers has now become a cat’s paw, used by interested parties to facilitate their own private agendas

MONEY WASTED ON RENT

They further charge that by unnecessarily renting out a number of rooms at the BMICH, a colossal sum of money is spent monthly as rent. Some rooms obtained on rent are used only for short periods of time. At the time of the establishment of this Commission, in 2015, there were only 25 staff members. The staff now exceeds100. The appeal boards are also in an unsatisfactory state. It’s apparent at a glance that most of these appeals are likely to get rejected as many have lapsed and some of the victims have left the service.

It’s evident that the powers of the commission, its objectives and in setting out operations had all gone haywire. As far as the law is concerned the Commission is answerable to the Parliament and not to the Minister. The Annual Reports of its working are compiled on that basis. Our sister paper had on many occasions pointed out the serious lapses of the Commission, but they failed to wake up the authorities from deep slumber.

It’s pertinent to mention that UN Activists on a recent tour to the island held a press briefing and stressed that the Police Commission is not stable. Ose Guvera, a member of the group, emphasized that arbitrary detentions and torture by the police should have drawn the attention of the Commission and they should strengthen the procedure in conducting investigations into such matters. This newspaper is only striving to depict only a single profile of the Police Commission.

The above foreign activists collected much details during their stay, which lasted 11 days, in the island, and expected to present their findings to the UNHRC at their sessions scheduled for September.

If the authorities are really keen on this matter they have another five months to pull their socks up!

‘IGP was summoned and instructions were given’

According to Media spokesperson of the Police Commission

G.D. Liyanarachchi the delay in receiving reports from the police was a matter that has been present for some time. “We directed the attention of the Police Commission to this issue. Accordingly we sent reminders from time to time. Finally we summoned the IGP and after a discussion suggested a definite date before which the relevant reports should be sent. We discussed this matter with the DIGs too. We will continue to strive in obtaining these reports from the IGP without any delay” said Liyanarachchi.

NO REPLY TO THE INFORMATION SOUGHT

Many individuals claim that when requests are made to obtain information from the Police Commission that there is no reply. With the intention of obtaining veracity, we too directed a request for information from the Police Commission to which too there wasn’t a reply. When an inquiry was made over the phone the reply was that the request has been received. After having waited for nearly a month, another inquiry was made, to which the reply was that if information had not been received the grieved parties should make an appeal. An information officer’s duty is to reveal the information and not to hide it. If they are unable to provide the information requested for they should accept this inability in writing. But it appears that it is not relevant to the Police Commission. An appeal was submitted in writing to the mentioned officer of the Police Commission, but there was no reply till this edition went to print.

Operating a profitable railway in Sri Lanka

Situation analysis

Friday, 30 March 2018

Sri Lanka Railway has been running at a loss all the time. As per data available, even in 2015 the Railway made an operational loss of nearly Rs. 7,000 million. Railway is a transport system that is far greener than the road transport, able to carry more passengers and cargo at a far lesser cost. Thus the important thing is to find that mechanism which will enable the Railway to at least make an operating profit.

Passenger rail transport has burdened the Government with high losses year after year with no end to it in sight. There are various news items where it is stated that Railway is thinking of increasing the fares by 15%, while elsewhere the GM Railway has stated that there is no such plan to increase fares. Still if a solution can be found to cover the direct operating costs and also contribute to the overheads and other fixed costs including the relaying of lines for increasing efficiency and to provide a much more comfortable transport experience, then it is worthwhile looking into same. Of course I do not for once say that this is the best or the only alternative, but yet is based on successful operation of rail transport in other countries, using online booking system and revenue management.

Passenger rail
The key components of passenger rail as I see are:

Multiple legs in one journey.
Multiple classes of travel, in inter-city trains with First, Second and Sleeper Service and also the premium products.
Advance purchase and use of IBE and PGW.
Purchase at point of transport.
Check-in not possible as with air transport.
Tickets are not train specific in economy class and are thus open for any service.

Though these are the key aspects, with our railway there is no Internet Booking Engine (IBE) or payment gateway facilities. Bookings can only be made 30 days prior to departure date and no online facilities other than with mobile network support of Mobitel, Etisalat and landlines with SLT. The present 30 days’ prior restriction does not help railway to improve its cash flow. On the other hand, even though there are links to SriLankan Airlines and Tourist Board sites, yet there is no lateral integration with hotels or any Homestay products, which can enable railway to capture more of the tourist traffic.

Currently I note that there are more than 16 intercity trains operating to many destinations from Colombo, Jaffna, Kandy, Anuradhapura, etc. with First and Second Class compartments.
Passenger mix
With growth in tourism and post 2009 where many tourists have opted for public transport, you will find often the First Class to places like Jaffna, Anuradhapura, Kandy, Nanu Oya, etc. often filled with foreign tourists.

As an example if one takes the first class rail fare on return basis to Jaffna, it is Rs. 3,000 for all, be they foreign tourists or Sri Lankans. The distance by train from Colombo to Jaffna is about 397km. However, in Britain from London to Manchester by Virgin Rail, a distance of 308km, the web only rate for a return first class ticket is GBP 149 off peak while anytime fare is GBP 242 in first class. The lower fare at current exchange rate is Rs. 33,078 and anytime fare would be Rs. 53,724.A journey by train from Frankfurt to Munich in Germany also has various ticket prices. On midweek days, it can cost Euro 128.80 or Rs. 24,987 for a return ticket and there are different booking patterns.

Also it has to be noted by Railway authorities that tourists make travel plans to Sri Lanka from UK and Europe three to six months or even earlier. Of course given the digital booking operations of OTA some tourists may book even closer to the actual travel date from the host country to Sri Lanka.
Rail passenger psychographics

Locals prone to ticket always closer to departure, at best may be, two to three weeks before travel.
Tourists on the contrary may buy even four to six months before departure in high season as they book air tickets and accommodation very early in high season.
Due to this reason the EMSR (Expected Marginal Seat Revenue) value will be higher in the First and Second Class.
High season for inbound tourism, January, February, March, July, August and December.

Britain for example has a GDP per capita income of $ 43,620 while that of Sri Lanka the per capita GDP is $ 3,905. Despite this very high income, for a first class return ticket from Colombo to Jaffna they need to pay only $ 19.23. I am not saying even for one moment to have a discriminatory pricing structure for foreigners, but to have the mechanism in place to not only maximise revenue but to improve the cash flow to the Railway coffers. This will enable not only foreigners but even locals to buy online and not keep running to railway stations.

The present booking system either at station or by phone is open for abuse. I have noted this myself when travelling to Nanu Oya in February 2016.
Way forward for

railway passenger

revenue optimisation
The solution is right there and that is the use of an Internet Booking Engine (IBE) with a payment gateway. All the first class and second class seat inventory can be put in separate buckets with different seat pricing and availability well in advance.

For example, if there are two First Class coaches to Jaffna then there are 88 seats. These can be apportioned to separate inventory buckets with different price structures to be booked and paid online. The higher fare for booking at any timecould be say for example$ 100. There can be other prices such as $ 80, 60, 40, etc.

For example, under the present pricing structure, if all the 88 seats are sold, then the total income is Rs. 264,000 for return journey. With differential pricing in a nested structure, it can bring Rs. 960,960 income to Railway, a 264% increase over the present pricing strategy. Also prices can be adjusted depending on the seasonality of tourism and inventory in seat buckets adjusted based on how advance sales are taking place. In addition to huge increase in revenue, Railway will also make sales well in advance of the travel date, thereby improving the cash flow.

The same pricing and inventory strategy can be adopted even for economy class travel in intercity trains with a certain mass of seats being made available to local people.
Conclusion
The solution to the loss-making railway is not through across the board fare increase where the citizens of our country will be put under the pressure of increased costs, but adoption of an online booking system where buyers can buy online and make payments well in advance so that Railway can optimise the revenue.

Such a pragmatic approach can easily reduce the losses and even make profits so that the Government need not keep funding the lossmaking venture just as with our national airline with taxpayers’ money.
(The writer can be reached via

Sugath_ras@sltnet.lk.)

Neo-populist wave sweeps the West

Populist earthquake redraws Italy’s political landscape

Kumar David-March 31, 2018, 8:17 pm

"In democracy, citizens first exercise the powers of sovereignty, and the powers will be abased and afterwards lost if they are committed to an unwieldly
multitude".

(Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire, Ch. II; Edward Gibbon)

For long I have described neo-populism as a 21st Century phenomenon both in the capitalist West; and elsewhere as the progressive capitalism of Modi or the semi-fascist peril of a return of Rajapaksa. If we use the term neo-populism too widely for the far-right (Hungary’s immigrant demonising Fidez, Austria’s FPO, Holland’s PVV and Germany’s AfD), loonies like Trump, ‘Big Tent Centrists’ like Italy’s Five Star, France’s Macron, and left populists like Spain’s Podemos, then we empty the concept of content. Therefore, today I will confine myself to a broad discourse and just one example.

I delineate modern neo-populism by three characteristics; ethnic or nationalist extremism, cultural backwardness, and economic populism. If I use the Rajapaksa undertaking to give it local context; it is ethno-centrist (Sinhala-Buddhist), culturally regressive cum anti-elitist (anti-modern cum anti-Western) and haphazardly economic-populist. Two additional features worth mention in the local case are great-leader besotted and home to corrupt politicos.

Though we identify great-leader infatuation and domicile of corrupt-politicos as markers in the Rajapaksa case, these are not universal in the West where neo-populists cannot, generically, be termed corrupt. Ethno-centrism is universal; "no immigrants, blacks, Muslims"; "We are the people" (Germany); "Take back control (Brexit), "Make America Great again", etc. The great leader feature though not universal goes back well before Rajapaksa decided to ride again, to Il Deuce, Mein Fuhrer and Peron. Trump-populism is pompous. The fading libido of jaded lecher and convicted tax-fraudster Silvio Berlusconi, against whom there are 20 trials still pending, has resurfaced. A pompous leader, even if sordid, is a frequent but not universal adornment of populism’s paraphernalia.

Ethno-centrism, anti-modernism, cultural backwardness, rejection of internationalism, and anti-elitism, need some further comment. Fear of waves of immigration - sudden large-scale ethnic mingling with those of a different colour or faith and fear of cultural dilution - has been the largest psychological factor driving masses of people into the arms of the far-right in Europe. The simplistic left-liberal stance of open borders, welcoming all men as citizens of the world, or the lesser version of throwing borders open to all who are oppressed in their homes, has proved infeasible. As the Danish labourer said to the Australian aid-worker "Why don’t you take them to Australia?"

I despise brown skinned Lankan emigrants who gripe about discrimination in the West but had no qualms in oppressing and disenfranchising Upcountry Tamils as kalathonis, though they had been here for generations. Still the truth is that racist and religious intolerance in America and Europe, though nowhere near as bad as bigotry among my compatriots, is the biggest single factor in the rise of neo-populism in those countries. It is not only cultural differentiae; claims for social services and housing, food-stamps and willingness of immigrants to work for less worsens unemployment and erodes wages. Stories, true or false, of Somalians collecting social-security in two or three different places, Armenians taking over neighbourhoods and variations on Donald Trump anti-Mexican bigotry is standard fare in the US. Vox populi, vox dei, so, where there is strong public sentiment, immigration limits are needed however squeamish liberals and left feel. Would the liberals and the left rather have a neo-populist backlash?

This is a bitter retreat: a concession to cultural primitivism, anti-modernism, religious mumbo-jumbo and prejudice. But it is an unavoidable retreat. Fortunately, European and American neo-populisms are not anti-Wi-Fi, do not preach that men can booze themselves silly but women not permitted to buy a bottle of beer, or that halal meat is infected with quotations from the Koran. For that you need the political cave-men of the Joint Opposition, a constitution-violating president and a bunch of looney BBS monks. We, of course, have all that.

Italy, one nation or two?

I will devote space to last month’s Italian general election to bring into focus some features of exploding Twenty-first Century European neo-populism. One should minimize names and numbers since details obscure the big picture but it won’t be possible to do so altogether.

League: An alliance of the right-extremist Northern League (NL) of Matteo Salvini and Berlusconi’s mainstream conservative Forza Italia (FI). The driving ideology of this coalition is right neo-populism like France’s National Front and Dutch, Austrian, German and other excrescences. The alliance won 37% of the vote – the largest of any group and secured 265(P)/137(S) seats – P for parliament S for senate. It gained 138(P)/20(S) seats. Both NL and FI have their base in prosperous northern Italy and are strongly anti-left and anti-immigrant.

Five Star Movement (M5S): Led my Luigi Di Maio (who has not so much as run a bakery or sillara kadey before!) came out as the largest single party securing 33% of the vote and 227(P)/112(S) seats. Its gains were 114 (P)/58 (S). Known as a Big Tent it is what in Sinhala we call an achcharu. It has no particular ideology but its base is in poor Sicily and less developed southern Italy. It is not rightist or racist. M5S’s founder was stand-up comic Beppe Grillo whose motto is "va fa un culo". (My Editor’s thick red-pencil often denies you access to delectable profanities admixed with my rich profundities).

The rise of both NL and M5S is stunning. Imagine 70% of Italians voted for populists! The two populist outfits won 20 million votes between them; the Democratic Party secured only 7 million. Nobody apart from these three did any better than Lanka’s snivelling sects, the JVP included. Calling the JVP a trifle is harsh but deserved condemnation.

Democratic Party: Led by outgoing Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, the DP is Italy’s traditional social democratic centre. The once powerful Italian Communist Party vanished into the shadows when the Soviet Union disappeared but it was one of the four minor parties in the DP led centre-left coalition which secured a mere 22% of the popular and 122(P)/60 (S) seats. It lost 227(P)/65(S) seats. Seat changes, up and down, seem huge but unsurprising in a first-past-the-post system.Why the electrifying rise of populism? What does the clash of two populisms spell for Italy? The first question is easier. May I first blurt the compulsory party line? "Global capitalism is bust; it evokes hopelessness in the population". Let’s rub in the numbers: 70% voted for populists – right neo-populists in the North, ‘Big Tent’ achcharu populists in the South. Hope was the one commodity in short supply; collapse of faith in establishment parties and traditional economics drove millions to strange new places. Recall Trump’s base, Brexit and Germany’s AfD surge? Emmanuel Macron is a less evil variant of the same exasperation of the masses.

They said the global left was finished a decade ago; now liberalism too is finished. Isn’t it time to build a defensive coalition on a social-democratic programme (social equity and political democracy) and a broad economic programme? Observe that both variants of Italian populism paid little heed to Italy’s ailing economy, failing competitiveness within Europe, and its giant debts.

Over in our neck of the woods Sinhalese and Tamils, and Buddhists and Muslims gouge out each other’s eyes and tear out jugulars. In Italy though they speak the same language, worship the same graven idols in their churches and belt out the same Neapolitan golden oldies, the split between industrialized north and deprived south is stark. It will eventually threaten national unity. The stats are bleak: the economy of the South shrank 7% in 2001-2016 but Italy as a whole grew by 1%; 700,000 people from the south emigrated north or abroad; youth unemployment in the South is 45%. So, M5S swept nearly every FPP seat in the South, but got almost nothing in the North; the League vice-versa. The Leagues flat-tax (23%) proposal is rejected in the South as a gift to rich Northerners and the M5S’s minimum wage demand finds little support in the North. One nation united by a common language, faith and culture; divided by economic inequality!

Neo-populism, a menagerie of strange bedfellows

Bet you can’t answer this one. Who said "(the) global power structure has robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth and put money in the hands of a handful of large companies and political entities"? If you said Marx, Lenin or Castro you couldn’t be more wrong.

Actually, modern neo-populism has no ideology. Come on; grant that Macron, Putin, Modi and Trump (whose only ideology is narcissism) have no guiding creed in the sense of left vs right, socialism vs capitalism or liberalism vs state. So, what fuels the common neo-populist surge? Data for America alone answers the question. Millions are out in the cold; 40 million live below the poverty line, add those just above, those without hope and the ideologically ultra-right, and there you have the Trump Base – the 30% ever faithful. In North and South Dakota, Alabama and some other states nearly 40% live below the official poverty line. Sustained inequality and iniquity of political-economy explain the surge of Twenty-first Century neo-populism, as it does inter war fascism.

Oh, and that quotation you got dead wrong; that was Donald Trump in Davos in January 2018. In Davos, super-rich CEOs and Heads of grand governments weep for the poor. And we deplete the ocean when we overfish; and we destroy the earth when we ravage its climate; and we foster neo-populism when we alienate the people. It would all be a circus were it not so depressing.

Locals share their memories at Stephen Hawking’s funeral

Huge turnout at service, as those who knew him reminisce about the great physicist

Stephen Hawking: crowds line streets of Cambridge for physicist's funeral – video

Jamie Doward-Sat 31 Mar 2018 18.35 BST

Rain had been promised but, as with many of the gloomiest predictions made for the young Stephen Hawking, the threatened deluge did not come.

Indeed, despite the solemnity of the occasion, the Cambridge funeral of a man who throughout his life seemed to command as much admiration from the lay public as from his academic peers was something of a celebration.

The crowd, waiting to pay their respects to a man who died at the age of 76 but had not been expected to live beyond his 20s, broke into spontaneous applause as shortly after 2pm Hawking’s coffin was carried aloft into the church of St Mary the Great, a stone’s throw from Gonville and Caius college where he had been a fellow for more than half a century.

Among those paying their respects was Carl Green, 42, from Peterborough. Standing with his young son, who had discovered Hawking through his numerous appearances in The Simpsons, Green had been waiting since 10am.

“He was such a great person,” Green said. “I really wanted to be here to see him have a great send-off.”

Like many in the multicultural crowd, which stretched along both sides of Cambridge’s famous King’s Parade, Green admitted he knew little about Hawking’s work, but admired the physicist’s character, in particular his refusal to be defined by the motor neurone disease that eventually robbed him of voice and movement.

Crowds gathered as the funeral procession passed through the streets of Cambridge. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

Laragh Jeanroy, who was at school with Hawking’s daughter, Lucy, was another paying her respects. What would be her abiding memory of a man she had come to know through those most normal of social events – barbecues and birthday parties?

“Given he was someone who was so physically limited, it would be how he managed to communicate and get on with things and how it did not stop him expressing himself and his sense of humour,” she said.

Others admitted to having been drawn by the sense of spectacle. As befits a man who seemed as comfortable with celebrity as he was with the cerebral, Hawking’s funeral drew a starry crowd. The actors Eddie Redmayne – who played Hawking in The Theory of Everything, a film about his life – and Simon Russell Beale, a former student of Gonville and Caius, were in attendance. So, too, were the model Lily Cole and Queen guitarist Brian May.

Eddie Redmayne arrives at the church. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Justina Vemmatumaid, 30, from Lithuania, had come with her parents, who live in King’s Lynn, Norfolk. “He achieved so much,” she explained. “I have seen the film with Eddie Redmayne. It’s important to be with the people, to be in the moment at events like this.”

Large numbers of Chinese and Japanese media were also present, testament to Hawking’s truly global reputation. One Chinese journalist, Amanda H, said: “Hawking is the person for all human beings, not just Britain.”

Many in the crowd were local and had a Hawking story of their own, often involving his nonchalance when it came to negotiating traffic with his electric wheelchair.

“He was a great man,” one woman said. “You’d always see him around. The last time I saw him he came into the cinema to watch Beauty and the Beast with his family.”

Catherine Pritchard used to help Hawking when he came into Heffers bookshop, just up the road from St Mary the Great, in the mid 1980s. This was when he was losing his voice but had yet to start using the electronic synthesiser with which he became so associated.

“He was such a character and he had such a sense of humour,” Pritchard said. But she saw something else in him, too. “He had this look in his eyes, like he had things to say. I could see that he had a power about him. It was not physical, not like someone who works with their hands. But there was a real power there.”

Pritchard recalls being woken by her parents in the dead of night when she was around three years old to see the train taking Churchill’s body to his funeral. “I can still smell the steam from the train,” she said. “This was a man who had been in the last cavalry charge and had lived to see the atomic age. Hawking’s life is similar, in terms of the transition it has seen.”

And, like Churchill, Hawking was a protean character. Several in the crowd were paying their respects in wheelchairs and were keen to talk about how he had been an inspiration to them. Others mentioned his championing of stem-cell research, his support for the NHS and his acute environmental concerns.

After the applause subsided and the service began inside the church, the subdued crowd braving the drizzle seemed a little hesitant, a little lost. It did not want to disperse immediately. It was aware that it had been witness to something important. Something lingered in the absence. But then, as Hawking famously helped explain, even black holes emit radiation.

In one entrance to Gonville and Caius, some of the crowd had left small bouquets of flowers. A note attached to one bouquet, from a woman called Sue, seemed to speak for them all: “Goodbye, Stephen – the universe will now shine with its brightest star.”

Dozens gather on Gaza border as Palestinians mourn 'heinous massacre'

PA declares national day of mourning, one day after at least 16 people killed and more than 1,400 reported wounded by Israeli security forces

Relatives of Abu Amshah mourn during his funeral in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip (Reuters)

Saturday 31 March 2018

Dozens of Palestinian youths gathered by the Gaza-Israel border on Saturday, though the area remained mostly quiet, a day after deadly violence broke out in one of the biggest Palestinian demonstrations there in years.

In the southern Gaza Strip, residents said Israeli troops fired warning shots towards a crowd of youths, some of whom burnt tyres. Health officials said thirteen people were wounded and an Israeli military spokesman said he was checking the details.

Hundreds also gathered on Saturday in Northern Gaza to pay their respects to at least 16 Palestinians killed and hundreds wounded during Friday's violence.

Images posted online showed hundreds of mourners carrying the casket of some of the slain Palestinians through the streets of Gaza City as relatives were pictured weeping and crying for their loved ones.

The Palestinian land will always belong to its legitimate owners and the occupation will be removed

-Mahmoud Abbas spokespeman

Israeli security forces killed at least 16 Palestinians, injuring more than 1,400 people who had mobilised as part of the annual Land day protests, according to the Palestinian ministry of health.

The ministry also noted that at least 773 Palestinians were wounded with live ammunition.

Dr Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesperson for the ministry, said that "most the dead were aged between 17 and 35".

He also told the Guardian that the remainder of the wounded, some of whom were in a critical condition, had been "shot with live ammunition".

The Israeli army was unable to confirm how many live rounds were fired by its snipers after claiming to know where "every bullet landed in Gaza".

Mark Regev, Israel's ambassador to the UK, defended Israel's response on Saturday saying it was proportionate and blamed Hamas, which controls Gaza, for Friday's violence.

"We can’t allow our border to be porous, we can’t allow the Hamas activists to tear down our fence and enter Israel," Regev told the BBC. "We would be putting our people in danger."

Hamas confirmed in a statement on Saturday that five of the 16 people killed by Israel on the Gaza border were members of its armed wing.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared Saturday a national day of mourning, and a general strike was called across the occupied West Bank. Clashes were also reported in the West Bank city of Hebron between Palestinian protestors and Israeli soldiers.

In New York, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an "independent and transparent investigation into these incidents".

“This tragedy underlines the urgency of revitalizing the peace process aiming at creating the conditions for a return to meaningful negotiations for a peaceful solution that will allow Palestinians and Israelis to live side by side peacefully and in security,” Guterres' office said in a statement.

In Brussels, the European Union's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also called for "an independent and transparent investigation" into Israeli security forces' use of live ammunition.

Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the UK's opposition Labour Party, condemned Israel and said in a tweet that the "killing and wounding by Israeli forces of civilians demonstrating for Palestinian rights in Gaza is appalling".

Tens of thousands of Palestinians had gathered on Friday along the fenced 65km frontier, where tents were raised for a planned six-week protest pressing for a right of return for refugees and their descendants to what is now Israel. The Israeli military estimate was 30,000.

Families brought their children to the encampments just a few hundred metres from the Israeli security barrier with the Hamas-run enclave. Football pitches were marked out in the sand and scout bands played.

Hundreds gathered to pay respects to slain Palestinians across Gaza city (Reuters)

But as Friday wore on, Israeli soldiers on the other side kept watch from dirt mound embankments and shot at the protesters as violence broke out. The United Nations on Friday called for an independent and transparent investigation into the deaths and injuries of Palestinians on Israel's border with Gaza.

The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, described Friday's violence as a "heinous massacre" at the UN. He said that Palestinians expected the UN Security Council to "defuse this volatile situation" and to "shoulder its responsibility".

A senior UN official also told the Security Council on Friday that the situation in Gaza "might deteriorate in the coming days" and called for civilians to not be targeted.

Nakba day protests

The six-week protest is scheduled to culminate on May 15, the day Palestinians commemorate what they call the "Nakba" or "Catastrophe," when hundreds of thousands fled or were driven out of their homes in 1948 when the state of Israel was created.

Israel has long ruled out any right of return, fearing an influx of Arabs that would wipe out its Jewish majority. It argues that refugees should resettle in a future state the Palestinians seek in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza. Peace talks to that end have been frozen since 2014.

Abbas's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdainah, said: "The message of the Palestinian people is clear. The Palestinian land will always belong to its legitimate owners and the occupation will be removed."

Israeli military spokesman Brigadier-General Ronen Manelis said Hamas was using the protests as a guise to launch attacks against Israel and ignite the area. He said violence would likely continue along the border until 15 May.

"We won't let this turn into a ping-pong zone where they perpetrate a terrorist act and we respond with pinpoint action. If this continues we will not have no choice but to respond inside the Gaza Strip," Manelis told reporters in a phone briefing.

Additional reporting by Chloe Benoit in Hebron.