‘Commission agents’ cash in on billion-rupee bid to supply medical gloves to govt. hospitals -Industry players express concern

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BY SURESH PERERA-April 7, 2018, 10:31 pm 

A one billion rupee tender floated for the supply of surgical and examination gloves to government hospitals has raised concern amongst industry players over allegations that ‘commission agents’ acting as ‘third parties’ have found favor despite a Cabinet decision that procurements should be made directly only from local manufacturers.

"This is atrocious as a pair of gloves purchased from manufacturers at Rs. 28/50 is supplied to the Health Ministry at around Rs. 40/-," they asserted.

This translates into a profit margin of Rs. 11/50 per pair when the average markup a direct manufacturer would maintain is around three to four rupees per pair, they noted.

With millions of pairs of gloves procured through bids from time to time, there are big bucks involved due to the hefty profits on consignments, they said.

The accepted procedure in terms of the government determination is to restrict bids strictly to Sri Lankan maunfacturers to secure fair pricing, coupled with encouraging local industries, but the situation has boiled down to doubling the margins of ‘commission agents’, industry souces charged.

A certain supplier who acts as a ‘third party’ has bulldozed his way in an attempt to take the cake on the basis of a close rapport as a "classmate" of a senior health official, they claimed. "Instead of opting for local preferences to ensure a more competitive pricing structure, what we see now is unacceptable third party involvement in bids".

The government stepped in earlier to halt the import of gloves to make a substantial saving by resorting to local purchases, but the way ‘commission agents’ are now allowed to run the show, imports are more cost effective, they pointed out.

Secretary to the Health Ministry, Janaka Sugathadasa, was unavailable for comment. However, a senior official acknowledged that there are a "lot of issues".

Asked about ‘commission agents’ staking a claim notwithstanding mandatory provision only for direct procurements through bids from local manufacturers, he declined comment on specific issues, but admitted that "things were not progressing the way they should".

Health Minister, Dr. Rajitha Senaratne has insisted that local manufacturers of gloves be given exclusive preference in procurements in adherence with the Cabinet decision, but apparently pressure exerted from various quarters has made steering the process more difficult, officials said.

The Health Minister is trying to drive some sense into the whole process, but external interference has turned out to be a force to reckon with, they asserted.

In this backdrop, industry players have sought fresh bidding on the tender, which has now been floated, to ensure a level playing field.

"We are keeping our fingers crossed that the Minister will intervene to be just by all genuine direct manufacturers, industry officials said.

A Plea To Our Muslim Brethren; Please Look In The Mirror

By Sarath Gamini De Silva –APRIL 7, 2018

Dr. Sarath Gamini De Silva

Yet another episode of violence against a group of citizens of this land, the lost paradise, has come to pass. No dictates or other forms of explanation can justify the violence imposed on a group of unarmed civilians that we have been witnessing sporadically in the recent past. An incident best labeled as road rage or one where the absurd suspicion of a pill to sterilizethe majority community has been cleverly manipulated by a group of people waiting to create chaos. This was possible because of the background of suspicion perpetuated among the Sinhalese majority over the years. After bringing the offenders to book, all efforts should be taken to prevent such irrational harmful behaviour in the future.

World over in any communal conflict, the majority community is routinely blamed for injustices to the minority who are universally considered the underdogs. However, it is time to stop and see the ground situation that is conducive to such violent behaviour of one community against the other.

Should the majority community bear the full burden of responsibility for such conflict?

Isn’t the minority community at least partly responsible for this unfortunate situation?

The World Scenario

We are inundated with news regarding violence caused in the name of Islam everywhere. From public beheadings of non Muslims by the IS in conflict areas, Jihads and Fatwas declared by religious authorities to kill those blamed for blasphemy, suicide bombings and large scale murders in many parts of the world, and enforced conversions to Islam appear to be commonplace. Hardly a day goes by without some news of such violent acts somewhere in the world reaching us. It is reported that many are trained in schools (Madrasses) for instigating such violence, all in the name of Islam.

We see pictures of refugee immigrants from Muslim countries arriving in the West forcefully demanding special treatment. They even ask for implementation of their own Sharia law in areas where they are in large numbers. They strive to keep a separate identity in keeping with their faith while all others are happy to visibly integrate with the rest of the population in the host country.

This should be seen in the background of several leading Muslim countries where our migrant workers go, refusing even to allow artifacts depicting Lord Buddha or Hindu gods to be brought in.

The news reaching us indicates the adverse impact on the established social fabric in Western European countries like Belgium and UK due to the activities of the Islamic movement. Laws have been passed recently in several countries like France and Australia banning the Islamic dress covering the face in public places, and to promote better integration of Muslims with the rest of the society. Countries like Japan and China have long established ways of restricting the adverse influence of fundamentalist Islam.

We recall in history how countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Iran and Maldives have had their Buddhist heritage all but decimated by the enforced advance of Islam. How the Bahmian Buddha statues, a world heritage site of much historical value, were summarily blasted by the Islamists brought horror to non Muslims world wide, is etched indelibly in our recent memory.

In the modern day we do not know of any other faith showing such a degree of intolerance to non believers.

One may argue that all this is done by a small minority of extremists while the vast majority of Muslims in Sri Lanka and elsewhere do not condone same. We are told that the Quran (I confess I have not read this holy document) teaches compassion and love for fellow human beings but we see little evidence of that in practice. Unfortunately none of the so called moderate Muslims amongst us have publicly condemned such violence and other forms of intimidating behaviour in the name of Islam. Their silence is naturally interpreted as collusion by others as well as by the extremists. Compliance with their intention of creating an Islamic state in the entire world is thus accepted by default.

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 Necessary measures taken to control underworld killings - IGP

Sat, Apr 7, 2018, 09:55 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Apr 07, Colombo: Inspector General of Sri Lanka Police Pujith Jayasundera says necessary measures have been taken to control the number of killings reported from various parts of the country.

IGP Pujith Jayasundara made this remark while participating in a function held in Colombo today.

Meanwhile, extensive investigations have been launched into four individuals who had connections with to leading underworld leaders, Maddumage Lasantha Chandana Perera alias Angoda Lokka and Makadure Madush.

The four supporters of the organized criminal gang leader Angoda Lokka have been arrested by the Mirihana police during a raid. The raid was conducted by a team of officers from the Special Criminal Investigation Unit of the Mirihana Police.

Among the suspects are Dileepa Madhushan Mahanama alias Mana, Thushara Nuwan, Brandgampala, Nadeeshana Sepala Dahanayake alias 'Ran Kella', and Shashika Dinesh Pushpalal, a former Navy sailor.

The suspects were taken into custody during the raid conducted on a tip-off that Harsha Chathuranga Perera alias Pethiyagoda Sanka is living at the address 344, Himbutana, Angoda.

During the raid, police also discovered 2 kilogram of Kerala ganja, a foreign manufactured live hand grenades, a revolver that can use local made T-56 bullets, and a gas mask in the possession of the suspects.


The first and second suspects will be detained by the police unit for further interrogations and the third and fourth suspects will be produced before the court at Hulftsdorf tomorrow.

Sirisena: Headless-chicken or back-stabber?

UNP and Allies versus the Rajapaksas abetted by underling Sirisena 

Who is the scumbag, one of these or the elephant not in view? You decide.

Kumar David-April 7, 2018, 10:04 pm

The dramatist personae for this column are a fainthearted, past his use-by-date, snob, a conspiratorial, deranged grama sevaka, and behind them the looming shadow of a resurgent ogre of despotism. A line-up worthy of Macbeth; the foolish Thane of Glamis, his wicked soul-mate and witches stirring a pot; ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair; hover through fog and filthy air’.

A no-confidence resolution has been carried in parliament against President Maithripala Sirisena. You say, no I got my facts wrong! You say a no-confidence motion (NCM) against Prime Minister Ranil was roundly defeated. You see, we are both right; you report facts, I want to talk politics. Sirisena suffered a greater defeat than the Opposition which sponsored the NCM; he was the conniver, not behind the scene, but openly on the front rank. Hence, in a sense it was his head not Ranil’s that was on the block! It has rolled. Let’s get this straight, Sirisena seems to be deranged and scampering like a headless chicken, but there is logic to his madness. There is no avoiding the obvious; he has made a deal with the purveyors of fog and filthy air and delivered his part of the deal. And which racist scum-bag said "The TNA should not participate in the NCM"?

A Rubicon has been crossed. Let us cut through the fog, put aside intrigues and delineate the new landscape. The next two years will be a contest between two formations. On one side the Rajapaksa clan with a Sirisena underling, together with the Joint Opposition and the Dead Left in tow. The other side will be the UNP, minority communities and minority parties (TNA, Muslims, Ceylon Tamils, Upcountry Tamils) and smaller conglomerations of Sinhalese such as Champika. The forms of this alliance will alter event by event - presidential elections will not be the same as parliamentary no-contest pacts. On the big picture, however, the two alliances are stable. The JVP will remain in a permanent state of confusion and bewilderment.

If my reading that Sirisena has, on behalf of the opposition, taken on the job of bringing this government to disarray is correct, then his target will be to drive the UNP to defeat in 2020-21. When in a governing coalition one partner is a fifth column, an agent of the enemy, and when that agent is none other than the President, then Lanka is in hitherto uncharted waters. Even if he is a damp squib on the mass political scene, a President by virtue of his constitutional office has considerable scope to create havoc and the power to use and abuse the military. Sirisena is attempting a constitutional coup for ends he lacks parliamentary support or backing in the body politic to carry through.

The outcome of the NCM is not the end but only the beginning of a new phase that will stain the next three years. Whether Ranil survived or not would not have mattered; any alternative UNP PM would have been driven to crisis. The NCM’s objective was not replacing Ranil; it was to pave the way for a Rajapaksa return with Sirisena as hopeful job-hopper. A dangerous new phase, a period of intense instability with the initiative in the hands of the Opposition after February has commenced – the JO blunted this plus to a degree by NCM’s 122-76 defeat. Today’s UNP consists of a bunch of amateurish johnnies-come-lately who have no clue what’s going around their ears or before their eyes. This is the most unintelligent UNP leadership of all time and I would love to see it in the dustbin except that the alternative is the Rajapaksa bandwagon.

To be perfectly fair one must put Sirisena’s case fully and fairly. Has Ranil made himself so toxic that the President had no option but to remove him by any possible constitutional means? Disagreement on policy does not give the President this option if the UNP holds a governing plurality in parliament. But if the President was concerned about moral turpitude, intervention was justified. I believe that Ranil could not have been ignorant of Mahendran’s corruption but preferred to look askance. Political pundits think they know why. The UNP was not rich and the grama sevakaya did not have two kopeks to scratch his bottom with before January 8. It is alleged that Mahendran lent funds to match a small fraction of the Rajapaksa loot and RMB donations. It is then alleged that the scam was the way in which repayment was engineered. If this be true it does pose something of a moral dilemma.

A return of Mahinda Rajapaksa for a third term would have been a greater evil, immeasurably greater. Nevertheless, if you do believe Sirisena was concerned about moral hazard, despite being the main beneficiary, you could contend that his attempt to remove Ranil was justified. Though he would have known where the funds for his election campaign came from, the point here is a supposition that, before a stink was raised in public, he was not aware of how reimbursement was being arranged. I will leave you to weigh up these probabilities and to fret over the moral dilemma, but I repeat that in my view the return of Rajapaksa would have been a greater evil than the bond scam.

To push on, Ranil survived the NCM but he is now damaged goods; the UNP is a party with no vision. The Ranil-Mangala-Malik economic strategy likes in ashes; it was from the beginning out of date old-fashioned liberalism (not globally defeated neo-liberalism); it can be sharply contrasted with Modi’s imaginative populist ‘digital capitalism’, or Xi Jinping’s modernising, party-state led, mixed economy. I have given up writing "they should do this" and "they should do that" columns because nobody reads, and in any case the exertions of this government are now futile. Consumed by internal strife, it can achieve little on the development side in its two remaining years in office. It can at best make as many hand-outs as possible as an election winning strategy. Amen!

Not only have yahapalana’s economic prospects evaporated, a house divided against itself can have no vision or ambition. Most think Trump is a nutter, but Make America Great Again is a vision that has sold and there are a lot of (mainly nutty) specifics to go with it – walls, trade wars, pacts torn up, allies humiliated, defeat at the hands of short-man Putin and fat-boy Kim, etc. Visionary jokers have jokes to tell and sell. The now-UNP however is in Tamil a pachchathani party; history will not include it even in a footnote. Its sole achievement is that in participated in the leadership of the January 8 Movement to restore democracy. That was my only objective at the time and a common candidate was a handy but disposable stepping-stone. Others, bless their souls, expected more.

Intelligent UNPers (yes, there are a few around; I know some) are dismayed. "What a chance we have thrown away, what an opportunity squandered; we should have made big breakthroughs in the first year; it’s too late now". Mahinda, for his part, is brimming with ambition, vainglorious may be, but enthuses supporters and entourage. The Opposition’s defeat in the NCM by a large majority gives the UNP a brief breathing space but I have no confidence it will take opportunity by the forelock and build on it. I will plug my thesis of a Third Alternative from time to time but space does not permit comment today.

Are Ministers of various rank who declared that the head of the machine (PM) was unfit, still going to remain part of government and enjoy their perks? Of course they will! Maybe it is only in Sri Lanka that one finds Ministers and MP’s so unprincipled and opportunist – just a rhetorical remark, it goes on in other places as well. Do you watch Dharshana Handungoda on Sinhala TV? On NCM day he spent 15 minutes telling viewers which MP had been bought for how much (prices range from Rs25 million to Rs80 million) for voting this way or that; (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTQQghXbKIg) – Brilliant! He had no qualms naming names of payees and payers.

UNP decides leadership shouldn’t be changed immediately

2018-04-07

The United National Party (UNP) Working Committee and the Parliamentary Group which met today had decided that the party leadership should not be changed immediately, Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake said.

However, he said it was decided that other positions of the party should be changed.

Meanwhile, a special committee has been appointed to take decisions with regard to the appointments of new office bearers of the party.

The 11 member-committee has been given more powers than both the Working Committee and the Parliamentary Group.

Navin Dissanayake, Ajith P. Perera, Harin Fernando, Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, Eran Wickremeratne, Ruwan Wijewardene, Mangala Samaraweera and Ranjith Madduma Bandara are some of the members of the new committee. (Yohan Perera)

The Prime Minister – Irremovable

By Rusiripala Tennakoon –APRIL 7, 2018

Rusiripala Tennakoon

According to Mr. Shaymon Jayasinghe, an Australian citizen, there is no provision in the Sri Lanka constitution to remove or replace the Prime Minister once appointed. Whatever is spelled out by interpretations of the constitution, there is no doubt that the entire democracy would be shocked by his revelation that there is no provision for the removal of a person from a position by the appointing authority.

Before we examine the veracity of the isolated constitutional aspects highlighted by Shayman, let us for a moment consider the ethics of good governance and established democratic principles underlying the position, as stated by him viz: “However it is possible that he may lose the VNC brought in by the JO. Whatever may happen the move does not inflict terminal damage on the PM incumbent”.

What a sad state of affairs. In a democratically elected parliament, a group of duly elected MPs exercise a legal right and a parliamentary privilege to bring a no-confidence motion against the conduct of another parliamentarian on specific allegations leveled against him. The Parliament accepts and passes the motion with a majority. But, alas! According to Shayman, that parliamentarian can continue regardless of the outcome because according to the constitution “he need not quit his role as Prime Minister”.

Such sadistic and unholy views and observations will make our country a laughing stock in the democratic world. In particular Shaymon should bear in mid the high degree of respectful democratic practice followed by the politicians in the country where he lives, Australia. We are aware that even a person convicted for a major crime will look for ways and means of saving his neck from the gallows. Human nature. But a person elected by the people to hold a position on their behalf, if resorts to hang on to such positions despite, “whatever may happen” seeking refuge under legal provisions there could arise many repercussions. We have seen this happening recently in several countries. Only a few people like Shaymon would advocate such a policy irrespective of serious consequences to the country, people and the political image.

In the current incident, the charges leveled against the Prime Minister are directly pointed and related to him. The CBSL Bond Scam is now a matter, clearly decided upon by :

1. A private lawyers committee privately appointed by Ranil Wickremesinghe

2. Two COPE sittings appointed by the Parliament of Sri Lanka

3. A Presidential Commission of Inquiry which has submitted a report after a lengthy public investigation/inquiry.

The issues raised and the allegations leveled are specifically referring to some involvements established beyond doubt and others admitted by the PM himself. Because it is public knowledge I do not wish to dwell on such here. But if Shaymon wishes to enter into any debate or controversy, such details can be produced in most authentic manner as we have covered this episode in detail from the beginning.

The writer is attempting to show a distinction between a VNC against the PM and a NC against a Minister. According to him, however much a passed VNC is politically damaging to PM, he cannot be removed.

Perhaps people living overseas are exposed to information and events concerning politicians in all capacities where voluntary self-decided actions have saved the need for VNCs than us in Sri Lanka.

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Not even close! UNP stands solid. SLFP unravels. And politics post-vote

Rajan Philips-April 7, 2018, 10:03 pm 

"Our Party is like ‘amoeba’, we have had many opinions on this and we have accommodated them all."
- SLFP Minister Vijith Vijithamuni Soysa, media interview after the NCM vote.

The much ballyhooed No Confidence Motion against the Prime Minister has come and gone. In the end, it was not even close. The 46 vote victory for the Prime Minister is a massive blow to the small minds behind this silly sideshow.104 of the 106 UNP/UNFMPs, including the former Minister of Justice, stood solid in voting against the No Confidence Motion (NCM). With the TNA venturing to take a stand and not sit on the fence, and joined by the SLMC and the EPDP (now TNA’s local government ally in the Peninsula, against third generation Ponnambalam side show in Jaffna), the no-vote swelled to the impressive 122 votes. On the yes side, 54 JO MPs were joined by the JVP (6) and 16 two-timing SLFP ministers and deputy ministers. The real story of the day was the 29 MPs who abstained or kept away from the vote. 23 of them are SLFP ministers, deputy/state ministers and MPs. One of them, Minister Sarath Amunugama, had already dismissed the NCM effort as a "silly side show." Three other Ministers, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Ranjith Siyambalapitiya and Vijithamuni Soysa, gave a revealing media interview after the vote. It was there that Minister Soysa delivered the SLFP-deprecating quip that I have quoted above.

While embarrassed by the 16 SLFPers who voted for the NCM, the three ministers were quite critical of the Joint Opposition for launching the NCM diversion without formally consulting the SLFP or its Central Committee, and without any plan as to who will replace Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister. The latter was also the concern of the former Minister of Justice Wijeydasa Rajapakshe.The SLFP ministers contended that the NCM was not at all about the bond scam, or even about the Prime Minister, but all about splitting the SLFP. In their view, it is illogical to be part of a government and to vote for a no-confidence motion against the government. As for their 16 colleagues who voted ‘illogically’ for the NCM. However, Minister Soysa conceded that no disciplinary action was possible against the ‘dissenters’ because President Sirisena had made it a free vote for the SLFP group.

It was the President who decided to sit on the fence and allow a free vote for his MPs. Until then he had been jumping from one side to the other and found neither side overly receptive. He tried in vain to find an alternative to Ranil Wickremesinghe from within the UNP. On the other side, the President didn’t realize he and his SLFP mediators were being taken for a ride by the SLPP. In the end, he chose to sit on the fence and allow a free vote. A free vote is no less illogical and now the President has to deal with ‘his ministers’ who voted against ‘his government’. There is nothing new in all this, except that the post-vote statements by the three SLFP ministers confirm what many have been surmising about the rise and fall of the no confidence motion.

The rise and fall of no-confidence

When the JO neophytes and small minds within and outside of parliament produced their NCM baby, the more experienced MPs in the JO were incredulous. The idea of the NCM started among a few UNP MPs who wanted to get rid of Ranil Wickremesingheas leader of the UNP. The SLFP was supposed to join them and the JO/SLPP was expected to bring up the rear to get a majority vote for the NCM. The JO stalwarts were perplexed as to how they ended up carrying the no-confidence baby while no one from the UNP or the SLFP was anywhere to be seen it. Fingers have been pointed at Udaya Gammanpila and Wimal Weerawansa in the JO parliamentary group, and they were joined by the gang of Ranil-haters outside parliament and who are gung ho about getting Ranil not only out of the PM’s chair, but also out of politics altogether.

The small minds were ready to try any method and at any cost. Already, they had tried, with the President going along with them, from keyhole surgery to Supreme Court intervention to plain bullying to get rid Ranil. Nothing seemed to work, so the neophytes and the small minds appropriated the no-confidence idea. One of them even blamed the better advisers of President Sirisena for scuttling the more clinical methods for removing Ranil, and forcing on them (JO) and the country the messier no-confidence way out. The small minds can only blame themselves for thoroughly misreading the signals from the UNP and overestimating the loyalty to the Rajapaksas within the (Sirisena faction of) the SLFP.

There is no question that many in the UNP were jolted by the local elections debacle and they wanted leadership changes to stem the Party’s slide in popularity and to prevent the erosion of its political base. The threat of a no confidence motion was the means to force the current UNP leadership to carry out fundamental party reforms. That did not mean that the UNPers were actually going to vote against their own party in parliament to get rid of its leader. The two-timing SLFPers, on the other hand, saw in the no-confidence threat their ideal instrument to get rid of Ranil, and reunite Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena. In their reckoning, if they can accomplish these two goals they are politically secure for the rest of their lives. Their scheme must have run aground without everybody in the SLFP going along with it.

This is now borne out by the three abstaining ministers speaking out after the vote. Having gone too far, even hurling insults and innuendos at the Prime Minister and asking him publicly and at cabinet meetings to step down and avoid the no confidence vote, the likes of Dilan Perera, Susil Premajayantha and others, all of whom are graduates of the School of Impeachment (of CJ Shiranee Bandaranayake), could not dissociate themselves from the NCM project. At the same time, they did not have the abilities to carry forward the project. That should not be surprising given their record as non-performing ministers over the last twenty years.

The JO small minds then took over the project. To their credit they managed to get almost all the JO MPs to sign the no confidence motion. But only five among the two timing SLFPers were prepared to sign on to the NCM. And no one from the UNP, despite making noises, would cross the party line to add their signature to the NCM. Yet, the small minds and the two timers, hoping against hope that a good majority if not all of the SLFP and a good number of defectors from the UNP will vote for the NCM, decided to persist with the NCM project. This was much to the chagrin of seniors like Dinesh Gunawardena and the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa himself. Realizing the difficulty of making the UNP to break ranks and of forcing the SLFP to close ranks, the small minds behind the NCM decided to cajole those who were likely to vote against Ranil Wickremesinghe, and to castigate others who were likely to vote in support of him. The TNA fell into the second category and became the target of much public warning about the dangers of supporting the Prime Minister – both for the UNP and for the Tamils. Nothing worked.

The final tally of 126 Nays and 76 Yeas virtually divided along the results of the last (2015) parliamentary election, with the exception of the JVP. The outliers are the SLFPers who abstained on the vote. Their own logic should have persuaded them to vote against the motion. But they came across better than the SLFPers who voted for the motion, and certainly more than a few cuts above Nimal Siripala de Silva who characteristically managed to seat himself straddling the fence. Technically, he is assured of being in cabinet, again.

The JVP took a principled stand but it showed its lack of parliamentary smarts in not moving an amendment to the NCM. The amendment would have included as one of the reasons for the NCM, the present government’s failure to show any results in the investigation of corruption and crimes that were committed prior to 2015. This was the JVP’s criticism of the no confidence motion, but it did not follow through with a formal amendment. It shows the deterioration in parliamentary skills after four decades of presidential rule.

A JVP amendment may have got only the six JVP votes, 70 or more nays, and 122 or less abstentions. But it would have dramatically demonstrated that only six of our MPs are prepared to stand unequivocally against government corruption, past and present. Contrast that with the recent and successful parliamentary upheavals against corruption in South Korea and in South Africa. In both countries the legislature and the judiciary have combined to literally cause the heads of state to roll. Brazil is a different case where the fight against corruption is fractured along ‘class lines’ between those who are successors to the old military-civilian establishment, and the trade union forces that brought in democratic governance after decades of military rule.

Post-vote politics

It is neither clear nor certain if the defeat of the no confidence motion will create a new momentum to go after corruption without fear or favour or partiality. There has been no clarion call against corruption from either side of the government. After the vote, the Prime Minister, humbled and thankful, was at his vagueness best promising to fulfill the 2015 good governance promises. He is again talking motherhood about a development agenda. The President gave a lecture to the media on the interpretation of the local government election results and is now busy fighting a rearguard action to save his ministers who voted for the NCM, against the UNP’s insistence that they be removed from cabinet, as they should be. It is more than likely the renewed Sirisena-Wickremesinghe partnership will keep spinning the same old circles.

The JO/SLPP has never targeted corruption as a political weapon. How could they when they were the sole target of corruption allegations? That was until Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe gave them the bond scam on a platter. Still the Rajapaksas studiously avoided protesting too much about the bond scam, and the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa quid pro quo became the most talked about secret in town. The smelly stuff hit the fan when President Sirisena decided to singularly expose the bond scam while allegedly protecting members of the previous government and the former first family from facing legal action for their infractions.

The findings of the Commission of Inquiry on bond transactions became the JO/SLPP’s fodder for the local elections and the text for the no confidence motion against the Prime Minister. The Joint Opposition is not going to bother about corruption anymore, except howling for Arjuna Mahendran’s head. Worse, the two major parties have reportedly taken corruption to the local bodies that have been in a deadlock with no party having an absolute majority. The ‘hung’ councils and the doubling of the total number of island-wide local councillors are testament to the governing skills of our parliamentarians who produced the new local election laws. On the other hand, rather than working with plural councils, the party hierarchies have apparently directed the bribing of local councillors to take control of the ‘hung’ local bodies. So what is going to change?

One effect of the no confidence motion has been to make the reforming of the United National Party, a national pre-occupation. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the lightning rod for all political blame, has been pilloried for everything that is wrong with the UNP, even by the political opponents of the UNP. But no one seems to be keen about pointing fingers for the unravelling of the SLFP. Have the Rajapaksas no responsibility for the withering state that the SLFP is currently in? The Indian political commentator Urmila Phadnis used to describe the SLFP as a ‘movement party.’ While in power, the Rajapaksas turned it into a ‘state party’. After their defeat, they have divided the party into two, taking away the bulk of the SLFP and turning it into a ‘new electoral party’. The rump of the party is left as a state party under President Maithripala Sirisena.

All in all, there is little basis to envision pleasing prospects but plenty of ground for gloomy prognosis. One silver lining is that public action can bring pressure on this government and more public action is necessary to yoke this government to work on a tight agenda of limited priorities over the remainder of its term. Left to itself the government will be all over the map expending everything and achieving nothing. In 2015, the people rescued the country from the fire to the frying pan. Now they face the risk of the country falling back into the fire.

The Fall of the No-Confidence Motion Against the Prime Minister

Featured image courtesy VCG Photo

ASANGA WELIKALA-04/05/2018

It was fairly clear even before yesterday’s debate that the Prime Minister would not easily be defeated on the no-confidence motion, given the configuration of party representation in the current Parliament. The motion relied on generalities instead of specific charges, on perceptions rather than concrete evidence, and it was given what life it had more by divisions within the Government than any real capability of the Opposition to inflict defeat. All these factors contributed to the motion’s lack of credibility, but the fact that it was regarded as seriously as it was, is testament to how badly the Government has lost control over the political narrative after only three years in office.

The strategy of attempting a no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister personally, as opposed to the Government as a whole, was also legally implausible, if the intention was to oust the Prime Minister from office. The latter’s constitutional security of tenure has been considerably strengthened following the changes made by the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 2015. Not only has the presidential power of dismissal been completely removed, but unlike other Ministers, the Prime Minister now ceases to hold office only by death, resignation, on ceasing to be a Member of Parliament, or if the whole Government is brought down by a defeat on the throne speech, the budget, or vote of no-confidence. Without express constitutional sanction, therefore, it follows that a vote of no-confidence in the Prime Minister alone would not have been legally enforceable, even if a court made bold to interfere in a matter within the exclusive cognisance of Parliament. As the maxim of interpretation has it: expressio unius est exclusio alterius (the express mention of one thing excludes all others).

That said, it could have been extremely politically damaging, and possibly even fatal, if the Prime Minister had lost the vote of confidence last night. It may have settled nothing, but it would have generated further instability in a country that needs nothing of the sort. But since outright defeat was not a possibility, and in the event the Prime Minister has won the vote by a considerable margin of 46 – notably assisted by the absence from the House of 26 SLFP members (including Ministers and senior party officials) – the entire exercise has been futile and misconceived. The Prime Minister’s majority held, and instead it was the President’s parliamentary group – from within the ranks of which the ingenious no-confidence stratagem originated – that fragmented rather ignominiously.

The root cause of the current crisis lies at the moment in late 2017 that the President, for reasons best known to himself and his advisors, chose to abandon the platform and mandate upon which the ruling coalition was elected at the presidential and parliamentary elections of January and August 2015. The President’s desertion of that progressive majority in the pursuit of a nationalist constituency that would never vote for him is wholly perplexing in its unconscionability. It has been publicly stated by respected commentators that this deleterious influence comes from some in his circle of advisors (recalling another Latin legal maxim, noscitur a sociis: we know a man by the company he keeps). He was quite predictably humiliated by the electorate for that course of action in the local government elections in February. Rather than learning lessons from that experience, and recommitting to the reform mandate and coalition that are most likely to secure his place in history, the President has sadly persisted in efforts to undermine his own Government and Prime Minister. His questionable conduct in machinations surrounding the unsuccessful no-confidence motion – including through manifest incomprehension of the limits of his constitutional powers – indicates that he would likely continue down this path of self-destruction, even though he now demonstrably lacks the authority to unite even his party, let alone the country. Since his decision to depart from his mandate and his allies in 2017 – as heroically flawed as courageously right his 2014 decision to defect from the Rajapaksas – the President has been frittering away what pitiful political capital he has left by accumulating setback after setback. But he shows a mulish determination to pursue this path, and to take the country down with him. It is a matter of conjecture how many further opportunities the President intends to seize upon to make an embarrassing display of how unfit he is for presidential office.

For his part, the Prime Minister has brought much of the present travails down upon himself, by his unassailable insouciance, his inability to nourish crucial political support bases, his unwillingness to communicate with the public, and his inexplicable over-reliance on a coterie of incompetent cronies. After a promising start, the Government’s governance and constitutional reform mandate has been entirely dissipated by complacency, indiscipline, uncommunicativeness, and a lack of purpose and urgency. The period of his stewardship has all but destroyed the UNP’s reputation for economic competence. As the intellectual senior partner in the duumvirate at the head of the government, however, the Prime Minister must take full responsibility for the present pass, and for the widespread cynicism and disillusionment about democratic reform that this has bred. The monumental perils of repeatedly scorning the hopes of millions of Sri Lankans for reform, peace, order, and good government, should not be lost on the Prime Minister, one of the few parliamentarians possessed of the capacity and experience to understand these dangers in the context of our tragic post-colonial history.

With hopes crushed and expectations laid low by exactly the substandard culture of parochial politics that the majority of Sri Lankans uniting across ethnic and religious divides hoped to fundamentally change in that nation-building moment of 2015, we now have a Government that is in office but not in power. As was seen in the local government elections, the electorate will punish the self-indulgence of division and infighting within government. And that would only be an electoral windfall for the anti-reform forces that are waiting in the wings, with malicious relish, to take us back to the discord and the authoritarianism of the past.

Editor’s Note: Also read “A question of confidence in Yahapaalanaya – The Unfinished Mandate” and “The No-Confidence Motion and its Political Stakes” 

Wanni Hathpaththuwa

By Helasingha Bandara –APRIL 7, 2018

The consequential lull of the recent presidential and parliamentary elections may have been the cause of the lapse of my attention to Sri Lanka affairs for the past two years. The raging debate on the no-confidence motion on which the future of Sri Lanka impinged, has rekindled that interest. I have read a few good articles on that issue in the past couple of weeks.

Being inspired or offended by the use of ‘Wannihamy’, as the name of a certain commentator, I decided to write this piece. The purpose of the write up is not to analyse his/her comments per say or meant as a personal attack on him/her, but to draw attention to the authenticity of the name which has enormous sentimental value to me as I hail from Wanni Hathpaththuwa and belong to the people who bore such names.

After the early 70s such names were no longer fashionable and parents of that era selected different names for their children, to avoid bullying by their peers and society in general as such names had become old fashioned, rustic, obsolete, rather rural, and remote. Before this trend most men of the Wanni Hathpathuwa were, Wannihamys, Appohamys, Ranhamys, Menikhamys, Suddahamys, Kapuruhamys, Hethuhamys, Kirihamys, Mudalihamys and so on. If the commentator has adopted it as a nom de plume, it could be either with some connection to the people of Wanni Hathpaththuwa or with great sarcasm.

If mockery was the intention, here is some factual information and self-assertions to enlighten likeminded people. I have no knowledge as to whether Hamu preceded Hami or the reverse. Whichever the order, the name belongs to a clan with warrior mentality who ruled Wanni Hathpaththuwa. My heritage taught me those facts when I was a young man in my twenties. I am no historian to explain things with such accuracy like A. Suddahamy who wrote the book “Demala Hathpaththuwa Nam Wu Hathpaththuwe Rata” which contains specific facts to support my knowledge that was passed to me by my parents and relatives. Darshanie Ratnawalli may be able to add some factual insight into the history of Wanni Hathpaththuwa and its rulers.

Wanni Hathpaththuwa is a real place that exists in Sri Lanka although the term ‘Wanni’ is used for different areas with different connotations. The modern North Western province was the old Sath koralaya: Demala Hathpaththuwa, Wanni Hathpaththuwa, Devamedi Hathpaththuwa, Dambadeni Hathpaththuwa, Weudawilli Hathpaththuwa, Hiriyala Hathpaththuwa and Katugampola Hathpaththuwa. Demala Hathpaththuwa which includes both Kumara Wanni Hathpaththuwa and Raja Wanni Hathpathuwa is the only one out of the seven that was separated later as the Puttalam District where as the rest of the six Korales still remain within the Kurunegala District. The subject Wanni Hathpaththuwa has Nikaweratiya as its capital while belonging to the Kurunegala district. Wanni was once defined by Kandubodagama Seelananda Maha Thero, the then chief prelate of the Yapahuwa Raja Maha Viharaya, as a derivation of the term Warnaneeya (meaning praiseworthy). Considering its natural beauty and the heroism of its people, shall we call it Warnaneeya Wanni Hathpaththuwa?

For the most part of history during monarchic rule, Wanni Hathpaththuwa had remained an autonomous principality for its geographical location, dry weather and people who were known as aggressors, difficult to deal with and who had refused to pay royalties to the central kingdom. The Europeans kept away for the same reasons as well as the mosquitos. It has always been ruled by the Wanni Unnehes, Wanni Hamus/mys or Wanninayakas. In this respect Wanni Hamys, Unnehes or Nayakas had been the rulers and thus the royalty. They had represented the Wanni Hathpaththuwa at royal occasions at the kandy palaces on invitation by the king despite refusing to pay royalties to the king.

Let’s look at more recent times and analyse these Wanniyars. Semasingha Nawarathna Wanninayaka Mudiyanse became Hulugalle Maha Adhikarama, the great adigar of Hulugalla who was Mahaadhikarama for the whole country for some time. His descendants include Kavisena Herath (grandson), Ranjani Herath (great granddaughter, wife of Jayarathna Herath, a former minister of Parliament) and H.A. J. Hulugalle (former editor of Ceylon Daily News). Hulugalla is a small village about six kilometres from Nikaweratiya, an adjacent village to where I was born. Hulugalla is the name of the tank below which Semasingha Nawarathna Wanninayaka Mudiyanse built his house and adopted the name Hulugalla. We must be historically related as it happens that my mother’s name starts with Semasingha Nawarathna and extends to Situ Bandaralage Kumarihamy. It cannot be a coincidence. Hulugalla is one of the famous five rock tanks built by King Mahasena: Hulugalla (sulu gala or small rock), Magalla (maha gala or large rock), Kirindigalla (rock full of Kirindi trees), Madagalla (rock in the mud), Atharagalla (rock in between) and all of them are situated in or around Wanni Hathpaththuwa.

In addition to the names of Wanni suffixes they are all Bandas (Herathbanda Wanninayaka, a former Minister, Ukkubanda Wanninayaka, a former Finance Minister, Herathbanda Aberathna, former Minister, Puncibanda Jayasundara former Treasury Secretary), Mudiyanses (Mudiyanse Tennakoon of Podiputha fame), Dissanayakas, Abesinghas, Wijekoons, Semasinghas, Nawarathnas and Tennakoons. It is appropriate to add some famous Bandas to this list as a myth buster. They are Tikiribanda (Rajasingha 1, the greatest warrior of the modern Sri Lanka history) Dingiribanda (Former President), Kiribanda (Former Speaker/Sports Minister), Dingiribanda (Mohottalage Dingiribanda, former Minister), Dingiribanda Welagedara (former Minister) Punchibanda Meedeniya (of Irangani Meedeniya/Serasingha fame), Ranbanda Madugalle, Ranbanda Senavirathna, etc.

My assertion is that people from the old British colonies have the subservient mentality to assume that those who know English are better than others. This is more prevalent among the people who directly benefited from foreign rule and held various positions under the colonial masters. Other people, particularly people in Europe and those who have learnt without the influence of the colonialists, do not attach any greater importance to those who can handle the English language. English is just another language and is not rocket science. Anyone can learn it given the right opportunity. Possessing the knowledge of it does not make any difference to a person’s real value in terms of honour, respect, dignity and contribution to society. My attempt is not to undermine the status that the English language holds as an international Lingua Franca nor is it to underestimate the benefits one can reap if they know English. Simply to point out that the ability to handle that language does not make anyone a better human being in any sense.

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