Who is Stefan A. Halper, the FBI source who assisted the Russia investigation?

Stefan A. Halper, the informant who assisted the FBI's Russia investigation during 2016, is drawing the ire of President Trump and House Republicans. (Jenny Starrs /The Washington Post)

By Robert Costa, Carol D. Leonnig and Shane HarrisMay 21 at 8:22 PM

Stefan A. Halper, the FBI source who assisted the Russia investigation and is at the center of a standoff between congressional Republicans and the Justice Department, is a well-connected veteran of past GOP administrations who convened senior intelligence officials for seminars at the University of Cambridge in England.

In the summer and fall of 2016, Halper, then an emeritus professor at Cambridge, contacted three Trump campaign advisers for brief talks and meetings that largely centered on foreign policy, The Washington Post reported last week.

At some point that year, he began working as a secret informant for the FBI as it investigated Russia’s interference in the campaign, according to multiple people familiar with his activities.

The Post had previously confirmed Halper’s identity but did not report his name following warnings from U.S. intelligence officials that exposing him could endanger him or his contacts. Now that he has been identified as the FBI’s informant by multiple news organizations, including the Wall Street Journal, New York magazine and Axios, The Post has decided to publish his name.

Halper, 73, declined to comment. The FBI declined to comment.

Halper’s contacts with Trump advisers around the start of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation have come under scrutiny in recent weeks by House allies of President Trump. Late last month, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) issued a subpoena to the Justice Department requesting all documents related to the FBI informant.

Stefan A. Halper taught at the University of Cambridge in England from 2001 to 2015. (bdsklo/iStockphoto)

In recent days, Trump has seized on the reports about Halper’s role in the Russia probe, suggesting in tweets that the FBI improperly spied on his campaign. There is no evidence to suggest Halper was inserted into the Trump campaign, but he did engage in a pattern of seeking out and meeting three Trump advisers.

On Monday, the conflict was defused — at least temporarily — with the announcement that White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly plans to convene a meeting between top law enforcement officials and GOP congressional leaders to “review highly classified and other information” the lawmakers have requested about the source.

[White House plans meeting between intelligence officials and GOP lawmakers on FBI source]

Halper’s connections to the intelligence world have been present throughout his career and at Cambridge, where he ran an intelligence seminar that brought together past and present intelligence officials.

In 2014, Halper, along with Richard Dearlove, the former head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service, sponsored a session of the seminar that drew Michael Flynn, then director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who would go on to serve as Trump’s first national security adviser.
As the Russia investigation intensifies, President Trump has fluctuated his stance on the FBI's credibility and independence since the start of his presidency. (Joyce Koh/The Washington Post)

Halper taught international affairs and American studies at Cambridge from 2001 until 2015, when he stepped down with the honorary title of emeritus senior fellow of the Centre of International Studies, according to a spokesman for the university.

Since 2012, Halper has had contracts with the Defense Department, working for a Pentagon think tank called the Office of Net Assessment. According to federal records, ONA has paid Halper more than $1 million for research and development in the social sciences and humanities.

The funds did not go solely to Halper, who hired other academics and experts to conduct research and prepare reports, according to U.S. government officials.

“He thinks well. He writes critically. And he knows a lot of people whose insights he can tap for us as well,” one U.S. government official said.

Halper’s first wife was the daughter of the prominent former CIA analyst Ray S. Cline, who worked alongside President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and mentored Halper, introducing him to associates in the intelligence and political worlds, according to numerous people familiar with their relationship.

After earning his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1971, Halper quickly ascended, serving on the White House domestic policy council for President Richard M. Nixon and then in the Office of Management and Budget before being tapped as an assistant to President Gerald Ford’s chief of staff. According to a document from Ford’s presidential library, part of Halper’s job was assessing domestic political candidates, such as Jimmy Carter, for high-ranking staffers in the West Wing.

Halper later worked for Sen. William Roth (R-Del.) before joining the George H.W. Bush campaign in 1980 as national policy development director and then working for the Reagan-Bush campaign as national director of policy coordination. In the Reagan administration, he served as deputy assistant secretary of state for politico-military affairs, according to his biography.

After the 1980 race, Halper was caught up in a scandal concerning alleged political spying. Aides to Reagan, including Halper, were accused of having spied on Carter’s campaign and obtaining private documents that Carter was using to prepare for a debate. Some Reagan White House officials later alleged that Halper had used former CIA agents to run an operation against Carter. Halper called the reports at the time “absolutely false” and has long denied the accusations.

Between 2000 and 2001, Halper contributed more than $85,000 to George W. Bush’s first presidential bid and the Republican National Committee, according to campaign finance records. Most friends describe him as a moderate Republican who is hawkish on China and deeply committed to U.S. institutions, having worked for years inside and around the federal government.

Late in his career, Halper emerged as a vocal critic of President George W. Bush’s interventionist foreign policy. During classes at Cambridge, he often raised questions about Bush’s decisions and embraced a traditional Republican approach to foreign policy that emphasized long-standing Western alliances and limited foreign intervention, as witnessed by a Post reporter who studied under Halper in 2009. A book he co-wrote with Jonathan Clarke, “America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order,” was critical of the Bush administration’s approach to the Iraq War.

Halper has spent considerable time focused on China over the past decade, publishing “The Beijing Consensus: Legitimizing Authoritarianism in our Time” in 2010 that warned of China’s attempts to build an economic and industrial presence in Africa and elsewhere as a threat to global stability.

“Stef” — as Halper is called by people who know him — was also widely known at Cambridge as a gregarious gatherer of students and academics at his apartment in the city, along with his wife. He frequently hosted dinners with visiting students and scholars from around the world where — over wine and cheese from the local market — he would share colorful stories about his work for American presidents and the U.S. government and stir debates about the issues of the day.

Devlin Barrett, Tom Hamburger, Ellen Nakashima and Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.

Of a rogue man in the American White House

American people’s role in helping Trump ascend to the office of White House, making an anarchist to anything seems like a non-starter as the world has a good laugh, albeit through gritted teeth at President Trump’s incompetence.

by Anwar A. Khan-May 22, 2018

May 22, 2018

( May 21, 2018, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) International news reports say US President Donald Trump allows no one near to him. He curls up in bed in his private bedroom and he is the first president to sleep alone since Truman and watches cable TVs endlessly while devouring hamburgers. This is clearly a man utterly out of his depth, a man considered even by his own staff to be dimwitted. His day-to-day affairs are chaotic. Staffers have called him a “moron” and “a fool”, while Rupert Murdoch his idol, slammed down a phone after talking to him calling him an idiot.

There is so much more. Trump is experiencing a death of a thousand cuts, as the news reports go by.

Trump’s main policy is destruction, but the whole world must be more than resistance to stop him. Democratic supporters like to believe their politicians are brighter, more truthful, simply more prepared to lead—and Donald Trump is hardly the first right-winger to snatch power while defining him against this smarter-than-thou liberalism.

GW Bush was mocked as a frat boy who basically inherited the White House thanks to his family connections—and then his administration invented the permanent war and gave away so many hundreds of billions of dollars in tax revenue that the federal government couldn’t function. Ronald Reagan came off as a dopey B-movie actor merely playing the role of commander in chief—and then he set the terms of political debate for a generation. No one should presume that Trump’s cartoonish ignorance will continue to constrain his presidency.

Trump has surrounded himself with people who are as plainly unqualified for their jobs as he is. The disregard for expertise is too much to him. And yet none of this dooms Trump’s agenda, which is fundamentally one of destruction. It is disturbingly easy to break stuff, and incompetence is a powerful tool. That’s especially true now, when so many of the systems that govern American lives—schools, infrastructure, housing, immigration—are already collapsing from neglect. It is hard to imagine they will survive his era intact; some must come into it saved.

Hence, the progressive imperative is not only resistance, but creation in the face of destruction. Not everything Trump wants to destroy needs saving: The free-trade deals and neo-con foreign policy he once decried have made the world poorer and less safe. Americans do well to end both. But on just about everything else, they need to rebuild.

Trump will continue to defy prediction, because he has no strategy beyond compulsive reaction, any goals beyond self-aggrandizement. But one thing is sure. His administration’s incompetence has already broken fragile systems. So, the Americans have both an obligation and an opportunity to build better ones.

He is a dangerous, selfish, bigoted racist and one may surmise that the majority of USA wishes that he is not the president of their country. But the worst stupidity is that they have him their president.

The European leaders, I mean America’s vassal states – Britain, France, Germany… are discussing drawing up a new arrangement to convince the US president from axing the 2015 deal as it does not prevent Iran’s ballistic missile programme. In fact, they are good for nothing and most observers believe that they will finally serve the interests of their master Donald Trump, the trouble-monger or the war-monger. It is now most clear that Trump’s un-civilised behaviour will spark dangerous chaos across the Middle East, the Korean peninsula and elsewhere of the world.

American people’s role in helping Trump ascend to the office of White House, making an anarchist to anything seems like a non-starter as the world has a good laugh, albeit through gritted teeth at President Trump’s incompetence. This also indicates that incompetence people elected an incompetent president for them.

Trump, as he has stood now, is against humanity. Trumpism, is of course, part of a larger phenomenon of authoritarian populism. This is a backlash against the values responsible for the progress that anyone can enjoy. It is a kind of counter-enlightenment ideology that Trumpism promotes. Namely, instead of universal human wellbeing, it focusses on the glory of the nation; it assumes that nations are in zero-sum competition against each other as opposed to cooperating globally. It ignores the institutions of democracy which are specifically implemented to avoid a charismatic authoritarian leader from wielding power, but subjects him to the restraints of a governed system with checks and balances, which Donald Trump seems to think is rather a nuisance to his own ability to voice the greatness of the people directly. So, in many ways all of the enlightenment forces American people have enjoyed, are being pushed back by Trump. But this is a tension that has been in play for a couple of hundred years. No sooner did the enlightenment happen that a counter-enlightenment grew up to oppose it, and every once in a while it does make reappearances.

It is just a simple matter of arithmetic. You can’t look at how much there is right now and say that it is increasing or decreasing until you compare it with how much took place in the past. When you look at how much took place in the past you realise how much worse things were in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. We don’t appreciate it now when we concentrate on the remaining horrors, but there were horrific wars such as the Iran-Iraq war, the Soviets in Afghanistan, the war in Vietnam, the partition of India, the Bangladesh war of independence, the Korean War…which killed far more people. And if we focus on the present, we ought to be aware of the suffering that continues to exist, but we can’t take that as evidence that things have got worse unless we remember what happened in the past. So, we must stop war and prevent it from re-occurring in the days to come. We want peace everywhere in the world.

If you are a gang member, know this: you think you are targeting us. Well, people are targeting you. They will find you. They will devastate your networks. They will starve your revenue sources, deplete your ranks, and seize your profits. They will not concede a single block or single street corner to illegal gangs anywhere in the world.

In short, the world is witnessing the most dangerous man in the American White House. Donald Trump is trying to create bedlam, destructions and deaths in many places of the world, but no people of the world should permit him to do so.

-The End –

The writer is a most ordinary senior citizen of Bangladesh

China uses educational facilities as an instrument of soft power

Sri Lankan monks explore possibilities of studying in China Photo Tang Lu

In 1990, Harvard Professor Joseph S. Nye, called such an approach to building up support as the use of “soft power”. The aim of “soft power” is to create, in another country, a favourable impression of the “power” in question, modifying the impact of military or economic might.   

2018-05-22

Soft power involves the use of non-coercive means such as economic and technical aid, education, culture and communication.  

Educational institutions are key instruments of soft power. Following the example of the Soviet Union and Russia, resurgent China, aiming to be respected in the world as a benign and responsible power in the face of Western skeptical propaganda, is using its gargantuan educational facilities to recruit, and perhaps influence, foreign students from across the world, especially those in its backyard and on the Belt and Road path girdling the earth.   

In 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a boost to this movement when he said: “We should increase China’s soft power, give a good Chinese narrative, and better communicate China’s message to the world.”

Chinese universities, being mostly State-owned, do not lay stress on making money and are eminently affordable

To familiarize foreigners with Chinese thought and culture, China opened the first Confucius Institute (CI) in 2004. And by January 2018, there were more than 500 CIs across the world, including one in Colombo University. The CI is a non-profit organization. It also provides Mandarin language courses, cooking and calligraphy classes.   

Mounting Foreign Student Population   

Chinese official statistics show that in 2017 students from 204 countries were studying in 935 Chinese higher education institutions located in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. These included 75,800 graduate and doctoral students, an increase of 18.62% compared to 2016.  

In 2017, 489,200 foreign students were studying in China, marking an increase of over 10% for the second consecutive year. The number of degree students reached 241,500 (49.38% of the total), up 15.04% year on year. A growing number of foreign students have been going for a Master’s or PhD across a widening range of disciplines.   

By end 2017, China was the most popular destination for international students in Asia. Most students came from South Korea, Thailand, Pakistan, the US, India, Russia, Japan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and Laos, in that order.   

The number of students from ‘Belt and Road’countries accounted for 64.85% of all international students in China. In absolute numbers they were 317,200. This was an increase of 11.58% over the earlier year.   

By end 2017, China was the most popular destination for international students in Asia

The above statistics are significant because China’s Belt and Road infrastructure projects in various parts of the world are creating jobs for students with knowledge of the Chinese language or students who have studied in China. Students are now enthused to study Chinese and in China because of this.   

Reasonable Cost   

The high fees charged by profit-making Western universities are a deterrent to students from developing countries. But Chinese universities, being mostly State-owned, do not lay stress on making money and are eminently affordable.   

The average tuition fees in public universities in China range from US$ 3,300 to US$ 10,000 per year. Fees for an English-medium degree course are from US$ 2,200 to US$ 4,500 per year. On an average, foreign students spend around US$ 4,000 for accommodation and about US$ 2,000 for other living needs per year.   
There are American and British universities with campuses in China. But these are costly. Tuition fees here start from US$ 8,000 and go to US$ 15,000 a year. A few like Beijing University charge US$ 17,000 a year.   

An MBBS student’s total expense (including living expenses) per year in China is US$ 7,500. But in the UK, it would be US$ 30,500 and in the United States, US$ 35,000. Even Indian private colleges charge more - US$ 14,700 a year.   

Role of Scholarships   

Scholarships offered by the Chinese government have allowed an increasing number of foreign students to pursue higher education in China.  

In 2017, 58,600 foreign students from 180 countries were awarded Chinese government scholarships, accounting for 11.97% of the total. 88.02% of the recipients were degree students (51,600); 69.57% (40,800) were post-graduate or doctoral students, marking an increase of 20.06% compared to 2016. However the number of self-funded students was 430,600, accounting for 88.03% of all overseas students.  

48.45% of foreign students were enrolled for liberal arts degrees. Those majoring in engineering, management, science, art and agronomy increased by 20% year on year.   

Liu Dong, Director of the Cultural Section in the Chinese Embassy in Colombo, said that the Chinese government offers Sri Lankans 80 scholarships in addition to many other full or partial scholarships offered by the Confucius Institute and Chinese provincial governments.

Hard Sell By Guangxi Province   

Recently, the “Study in Guangxi” Education Exhibition in Colombo, drew a steady stream of Sri Lankan students. 25 higher educational institutions from Guangxi Province offered a wide variety of courses in the liberal arts, 

Recently, the “Study in Guangxi” Education Exhibition in Colombo, drew a steady stream of Sri Lankan students

management, technology, science, medicine, Chinese language, tourism and teaching.   

Qin Ping, Deputy Party Secretary of the Working Committee of Higher Education Institutions of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said that over the past five years, the number of international students in Guangxi has grown at an annual rate of 20 percent.   

In 2017, more than 14,000 international students from 118 countries were studying in Guangxi, among which more than 12,000 students were from Asia. The number of Sri Lankan students going to Guangxi has gone up to 100 from 35 in 2012.  

In a hard sell, the stalls at the Guangxi exhibition were staffed by smiling and communicative Chinese youth, eager to answer questions put by the students. The well-lit displays showed beautiful campuses set in verdant surroundings.  

Besides beating the drum about the high quality of education the institutions offer and that at an affordable price, the brochures made it a point to say that the campuses provide foreign students with good living conditions, thus addressing a major concern of students from developing countries who are unfamiliar with China.  

Meets a Felt Need   

The response from Sri Lankan students was good because there is a tremendous shortage of institutions of higher learning in the island. As the Additional Secretary of the Higher Education Minister Madhawa Devasurendra said, Sri Lankan students who qualify for university admission far outnumber available seats.   

In 2017, more than 14,000 international students from 118 countries were studying in Guangxi

Those who fail to make it to the university either opt out of higher learning or go for expensive degrees and diplomas offered by teaching shops which prepare students for exams conducted by Western Universities and colleges of varying quality and credibility.   

Has China’s Bid Been Effective?  

Natalie Hong’s 2014 study of EU-China education diplomacy found that 50% returned from China with a positive impression, while around 40 % returned with an unchanged impression.   

The score would improve if the Chinese mix with the foreigners more, giving up their insularity and prejudices and also learn to speak English.  

David Shambaugh, writing in Foreign Affairs in 2015 said that China’s tightening authoritarian political system was the biggest obstacle to the positive image the country.   

“So long as China’s political system does not enable free human development, its propaganda efforts will face an uphill battle,” Shambaugh wrote.  

Rights groups: Three more activists arrested in Saudi crackdown

The activists, mostly women who advocated for equal rights and driving, were smeared by state-linked media as traitors.

As of June 24, women will be allowed to drive for the first time in the kingdom, 'in accordance with the Islamic laws' [File: Reuters]

2018-05-22

Saudi authorities have arrested at least three more women's right activists, widening a crackdown on campaigners a month before the kingdom lifts its ban on female drives, according to human rights groups.

The government on Saturday announced the arrest of seven people, identified by rights groups mostly as women who have long campaigned for the right to drive and to end the kingdom's male guardianship system.

On Tuesday, Amnesty International told news agencies that the number of people detained had risen to 10, including at least seven women. Human Rights Watch (HRW) confirmed that total.

"Despite international outcry and calls for the release of these activists, they still remain detained for their peaceful human rights work," said Samah Hadid, Amnesty International's Middle East director of campaigns.

"Saudi Arabian authorities cannot continue to publicly state they are dedicated to reform, while treating women's rights campaigners in this cruel way."

There was no immediate comment by Saudi government officials.

Male guardianship

The Saudi government has previously said that those arrested had suspicious contacts with foreign entities and had offered financial support to "enemies overseas". It added that it would identify others involved.

State-linked media have circulated the names of those imprisoned, publicly labelling them as traitors and "agents of embassies".

The arrests took place just a few weeks before the driving ban is to be lifted on June 24, as promised by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The 32-year-old prince had earlier in the year embarked on an extensive trip in Europe and the United States, painting a picture of a reformist Saudi Arabia that will relax some of its conservative laws as part of his Vision 2030 plan.

The country's 32-year-old crown prince has widely been credited with being behind the kingdom's lifting of the driving ban, part of a wider set of reforms being implemented as part of the Vision 2030 plan.

However, the country's guardianship system remains in place, under which a male family member - usually the father, husband or brother - must grant permission for a woman's study, travel and other activities.

Saudi activists claim that the guardianship issue is at the core of the fight for women's rights.

According to HRW, nearly 30 activists and dissidents have been convicted in Saudi courts since 2011, many of whom received sentences of up to 15 years

Central Americans flee homes in record numbers: 'The level of violence is brutal'

• UNHCR counts 294,000 asylum seekers and refugees in 2017
• Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala the main source countries

Members of a caravan of Central Americans wait at Tijuana on the Mexico-US border. The boy at right is holding a Honduran flag. Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images

Tom Phillips -Tue 22 May 2018 

The UN has reported an alarming spike in the number of asylum seekers and refugees fleeing violence and persecution in Central America, urging the international community to take steps to meet the region’s “huge” needs.

The number of asylum seekers and refugees who had abandoned the region increased from about 18,000 in 2011 to 294,000 at the end of last year, the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, announced. That number grew 58% last year alone.

The UNHCR said the number of Central American applications for refugee status had also risen sharply. Of the 350,000 applications between 2011 and 2017, 130,500 – nearly 40% – were filed last year.

Francesca Fontanini, a Mexico-based UNHCR spokeswoman, said those being displaced were largely seeking shelter from rampant gang violence in what is one of the world’s murderous regions.
Central America was last year home to four of the world’s 50 deadliest citieswhile Washington’s controversial deportation of Central Americans has been blamed for exacerbating the problem.
“The people who are coming are saying that the level of violence is brutal – they are basically confined to their own houses because there is a lack of freedom. It is very dangerous to go to school, to go to church, to move around,” Fontanini said. “They are living in very traumatized and violent circumstances.”

Fontanini said most of those seeking shelter were Hondurans and Salvadorans but the number of Guatemalans had been rising since last year. Mexico’s role in the refugee crisis was also changing.
“We cannot talk any more about Mexico as a country of transit. It is definitely a country of destination as well,” said Fontanini, pointing to the number of asylum claims which rose from around 9,000 in 2016 to 14,000 last year.

Fontanini said the complexity of the problems facing Central American nations such as El Salvador and Honduras meant there was no short-term fix that would end the flow of asylum seekers: “So we need the states who are receiving these people to invest in longer-term solutions.”

Blitz on sweet treats sees slow start

By Nick Triggle-21 May 2018

The sugar hit in puddings, biscuits and chocolate has not been cut despite a government crackdown on sweet treats.

Public Health England has set a target of reducing the sugar intake from a host of popular foods by a fifth by 2020.

Its first year update shows progress in yoghurts and breakfast cereals, but not in other areas.

PHE said it still represented a good start, although it expected faster progress in the coming years.

On average, the public consume more than twice as much sugar as is recommended.

PHE chief executive Duncan Selbie said: "Tackling the obesity crisis needs the whole food industry to step up, in particular those businesses that have as yet taken little or no action."

• Sugar targets set for cakes and chocolate
• Britain 'needs to go on a diet'
• Soft drink sugar tax starts, but will it work?

If progress is not made, ministers have made it clear they will consider legislation.

But Tim Rycroft, of the Food and Drink Federation, said sugar reduction was "challenging - it can't happen overnight".

"Sugar reduction has considerable technical challenges," he said.

"Sugar plays a variety of roles beyond sweetness in food, including colour, texture and consistency.

"It is for these reasons that we have long said that the guidelines are ambitious and will not be met across all categories or in the timescale outlined."

How does sugar-reduction target work?

PHE has identified 10 types of products in which it wants to see sugar levels reduced.

The latest update covers the 12 months up to the summer of 2017, effectively the first year of the programme.

A target of 5% had been set - but sugar levels have been reduced by just 2% in the products for which PHE currently has data.

This data, from retailers and manufacturers, covers all of the 10 groups of foods except two - breakfast pastries and cakes.

Food items sold in cafes and restaurants are also excluded from this current data, although they will be included in the future.

The tactics: Cutting sugar and portion size

The measuring of sugar levels is based on the amount per 100g (3.5oz) of all products, within the 10 categories, sold.

So, to hit the target, industry must not only produce lower-sugar alternatives but also persuade consumers to buy more of them, in terms of weight, than of the products within the categories that retain higher levels.

The big supermarket chains have cut the amount of sugar - known as reformulation - in many of their own-brand cereals, ice-creams and yoghurts.

And big brands such as Muller have followed suit. The sugar content of its bestselling Corner strawberry twinpot has been cut by a fifth, to 12.6g per 110g.

Meanwhile, Nestle has cut sugar in Kit Kats and Milkybars, adding extra milk - and, in the case of Kit Kats, cocoa - to retain their weights.

But other companies have relied on making their higher-sugar products smaller so - counterbalanced by heavier lower-sugar products - they will carry less weight in their overall sugar-per-100g calculation.

Costa Coffee teacakes have reduced in size. And Lidl has reduced the size of some of its chocolate bars by nearly a third.

The third tactic relies on industry changing the habits of shoppers.

For example, Rowntree has launched lower-sugar versions of Fruit Pastilles and Randoms. And others have promoted healthier options more heavily.

Which companies have failed?

PHE has provided anonymous information on the 20 brands that sell the most products with high sugar levels:

• 33% have seen a fall in sugar levels
• 56% have seen no change
• 12% have seen an increase

While PHE is not naming these brands, the report did provide some individual company information by the different food groups.

Some companies, such as Marks and Spencer, did not give PHE permission for its figures to be used, and in some categories data was not comparable between the two years.

But there was some interesting variation in performance. Tesco and Morrisons for example saw falls in the sugar levels of all yoghurts sold, but Waitrose and the Co-op had not.

Whereas for sweets, Waitrose saw the biggest improvement out of the 10 biggest supermarket chains, while Morrisons saw the worst.

But in an appearance before MPs on Wednesday, PHE bosses came under fire for not naming and shaming companies.

Health committe chair Sarah Wollaston said it seemed "a bit of a shame" given some companies had made progress and some had not.

Is this part of the sugar tax?

GETTY IMAGES

No. The sugar levy is a separate policy applied to high-sugar drinks. That came into force in April.

This sugar-reduction programme is aimed at popular foods that account for a quarter of calories consumed by children.

The drinks targeted by the sugar levy account for another 5%.

And a separate calorie-reduction programme has been launched targeting foods such as pizzas, burgers and takeaways, which account for another 20%..

PHE has also announced on Tuesday that the sugar-reduction target will be extended to those drinks not covered by the sugar tax.

These include milk-based drinks and juices.

MEANINGFUL POWER SHARING ONLY PATH TO LASTING PEACE – M.A. SUMANTHIRAN MP

Pic: Thilak Perera

by Manjula Fernando-20 May, 2018

On the ninth anniversary marking the end of the conflict, TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran in a wide ranging interview with the Sunday Observer, calls for a speedy resolution of issues affecting the people of war-battered Northern and Eastern regions, along with action on abolishing the Executive Presidency and completing the Constitution making process.
Excerpts from the interview:

Q: Are you positive that the Constitution making process can be completed within the current term of the government?

If the final draft can be brought to the constitutional assembly within a month, certainly before the end of this year, the process can be completed. As far as the TNA is concerned, we are still hopeful the process can be successfully completed.

It is just not hope, this is something inevitable, if the country is to have a future, this opportunity must be seized by all political parties. All parties have committed to the process and we cannot abandon the process now.

Q: Who or what is the biggest stumbling block in this process ?

Lack of political courage on the part of the two main political parties is the main stumbling block. Even the local council election result upheld the January 2015 mandate. Collectively, the votes for the two parties far exceeded 52%. So, if they really put their hearts and minds on this project, it can be carried forward. The reluctance seems to be over the referendum that is mandatory for a new Constitution. But we think a referendum is certainly winnable and this is a make or break project for the country as a whole.

Q: But compromises on contentious issues like the Executive Presidency and the electoral system will not be easy ?

Executive Presidency is a matter everyone at some point or other had vowed to abolish including Mahinda Rajapaksa, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Maithripala Sirisena. It was the first promise made by the common opposition candidate. All of them made this promise as election pledges, to win elections. That was the winning formula.

The President must keep to that promise, the UNP which is the party that brought in the Executive Presidency has taken a policy decision to abolish it. We have discussed the concerns of devolution without the Executive Presidency at the steering committee. Our own suggestion is not to abolish the Executive Presidency in toto, but retain some powers in the President with regard to the provinces. Because there seems to be a fear that if you widely devolve power to the provinces, there is no strong centre.

So as a counter to that we have proposed, there will have to be a President under the new Constitution who will retain some powers with regard to the provinces, like in India. In India the President will do that on the advice of the PM.

But what we have recommended is on the recommendation of the Governor, the President can take over the administration of the provinces on certain limited grounds. Of course that decision can be reviewed by a Constitutional Court and so on.

But in extreme urgency, if there is a threat to the unity of the country, the President can act on his own. That is a matter that has been agreed upon. Therefore, in pure theory it won’t be a total abolition of the Executive Presidency. Hence, adjustments are still possible.

There is another contentious issue - the SLFP says the President must be directly elected by the people. Some minority parties also say they must have this.

The TNA thinks it must be a President who is elected by Parliament because if the executive powers are taken away, to have a President directly elected by people would run counter to that. The President can claim a mandate directly from the people. But that is also negotiable. I think a negotiated compromise on that is still very possible.

Q: There seems to be a huge public outcry lately against the abolishing of the Executive Presidency - the Government seems to have taken aback by this?

I don’t know if it is correct to say there is a huge public outcry. The Government has received a people’s mandate to abolish it. The country has repeatedly voted for it. Perhaps there is lack of communication to the masses on the real ill effects of the Executive Presidency. It seems to be the case that once in office every President forgets the promise to abolish that office.

Q: Nine years after the war ended, what is the priority for Tamil people?

Livelihoods and shelter are basic necessities. That cannot be second to any other priority. Along with those will come a final political settlement. Non-resolution of the ethnic issue has been the reason for the three decade long violence in this country, all the displacement, loss of life and the country suffering economically. Those issues cannot be underestimated. So long as it remains unresolved other issues will keep aggravating. Hence, it needs to be addressed.

Q; The call for constitutional reforms, a political settlement - aren’t these mere political slogans. Instead, don’t you think the ordinary people want to live in peace with easy access to livelihoods, better living standards and shelter?

If they were not that important, they wouldn’t have sacrificed their lives in their hundreds and thousands and carried on with an agitation that has spanned over three decades or longer.

Q: There is a lot of talk lately about the resurgence of Tamil nationalism in the North and the East. Given the route Tamil nationalism took the last time, do you see this as a dangerous road?
That is one of our fears. Tamil nationalism by itself is not a negative thing. We are all Tamil Nationalists. But that does not mean we articulate for a separate state. That call for a separate state does not exist now from the people. But they don’t want to live in this country like second class citizens. They have lived in this country as long as anybody else has. That recognition is necessary.

The non-recognition of that status of the Tamil people beginning from the 1972 Constitution resulted in the agitation becoming an armed conflict. Now with the experience of how that affected our people, we hope that our youth will never return to violence to resolve issues. But that’s our hope.
Our fear is that when another generation comes about which has no memory of the sufferings of our people during the war time it’s anybody’s guess as to what they will do. The situation also changes, today is not 1970s. In the 1970s the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora was inconsequential. Now, there is a very strong diaspora whose economic might is said to be equal or greater than even the state of SL. Dreams of a separate state are in the minds of the diaspora because those are the people who fled this country through violence. And so if this issue is not resolved and youth become radicalised, it won’t follow the same path that we trod 40 years ago.

Q: As the main Tamil party in the North and the East, how can the TNA steer the people away from ultra-nationalist sentiments and towards a more constructive approach to have their demands met?

We are trying our best to keep them away from violence. We openly advise our youth. But whether we will be successful in the long run I don’t know. We try to keep them within the non-violent agitations. At present even such action is not encouraged because we are engaged in a process of negotiations.

If all our best efforts fail and there is an unreasonable denial of our rights, then what the next generation will do is anybody’s guess.

Q: Recently you mentioned that the Tamils would launch a non-violent protest against the Government soon unless it got a move on addressing Tamil grievances. What does this mean - that the TNA would launch a 1961 type satyagraha and general strike?

Yes. That’s the idea, a non co-operation movement which is totally peaceful and non violent, in keeping with Gandhian principles. Having participated in a process, fully committed to a united indivisible country, making serious compromises, if the Government and others are not ready to accommodate legitimate aspirations of the Tamil people in the country, that will be the only alternative left for us. We are also conscious of the fact that to keep our youth from returning to violence, we must ourselves launch a non violent campaign and get them involved.

Q: In the local government elections the TNA lost some ground to more nationalist Tamil parties in the North and the East. Do you think the Government’s delay in meeting the aspirations of the Tamils is eroding the people’s confidence in Tamil moderates like yourself? Do you think this will affect your political future?

It is not that we have lost some ground, we have lost a lot of ground. Between August 2015 and now our vote base has halved. At the Northern provincial council elections TNA bagged 80% of the total votes. But this time it dropped to 35%. That is a huge set back. That is a reflection of the disenchantment the people feel with the TNA, which has been viewed as an appendage of this government for the past three years. We would not say nothing has happened. People are conscious of the progress on the ground but its slow pace makes it look as if it is not moving at all. And the constitutional process being delayed brings to their mind the previous broken promises. People ask why you think that anything will be different now.

Q: You have acknowledged that a great deal of land has been returned to landless Tamil people in the North and the East over the past three years. What more do you think the military and the Government can do to bring normality to the region nine years after the war ended?

The Government needs to release all the civilian lands. These lands have not been used for anything and have become jungles. After nine years since the war ended there is absolutely no justification to hold these lands any longer.

They should also release political prisoners. We consider them as political prisoners, because their objective was political. Most of them have spent a good deal of their life in prison. Most have been there longer than 10 years.

The political objective for which they are supposed to have committed crimes does not exist any longer. Their numbers are very small 17 or so.

The concerns of the disappeared should be addressed too. We recognize the Office of Missing Persons has been established. But their work must be carried out in earnest. We must know what happened to the thousands who went missing. These are absolutely important areas. Of course livelihoods opportunities and work opportunities must be given due recognition. No development has taken place in that area for the past 30 years. There must be special attention given to North and the East as regions.

Q: Occasional news reports originating from India talks about efforts being mooted to revive the LTTE. What are the chances of any LTTE revival in the North and the East? How would Northerners today respond to such an eventuality ?

I don’t think there is any prospect of an LTTE revival. But as I said, the dream of a separate state for Tamils is not something that has vanished from the minds of the people, so if that is to go away, and people are to be satisfied that their aspirations are realized within one country, then there must be serious changes made to the governance structure of this country. Reviving the LTTE is, may be such slogans are popular in Thamil Nadu in a kind of romanticized folklore of Tamils, brave and thing. But there is no appetite for such things here in the North.

Q: Events to commemorate the war dead, is being readied in the North and the East and the student unions have warned the politicians not to politicize these events. Your comments?

Well it’s a political event and I think newly elected representatives of the people participating in such event should not be frowned upon. But the concern of the students is to avoid politicising these events or politicians trying to gain an undue advantage.

That is a valid concern. I don’t think a commemorative event for the dead must ever be used by politicians for their narrow political objectives.

But unfortunately, politics is very much apart of the preparation for this event, and that is one reason why I have out of disgust decided to stay away from this event.

Q: On the other hand the military has said the civilians who died in the war can be commemorated but not the terrorist cadres or LTTE leader Prabhakaran. What is the TNA’s stance on this ?

I disagree, an LTTE cadre is also a family member of various people. Anyone should have the right to mourn the death of their family member, even Prabhakaran. A commemoration of the dead cannot be distinguished in that way. I don’t agree with the Army on this.

Q: But given that the LTTE is still a banned organization in Sri Lanka, can such commemorations be allowed?

That’s true. But that does not mean the dead person ceases to be a member of a family.

Q: You entered politics officially only after the war ended. Do you feel sometimes that you fight the same battles, Tamil politicians fought before the ethnic issue exploded into a full war?

Yes, I seem to have picked up that battle from the early 1970s because in between there was a violent phase. I was not involved in that at all except as a lawyer appearing in human rights cases. But with regard to political objectives it is actually back to the 1970s.

In the 1970 general election the Federal Party in their election manifesto told the Tamil people not to vote for anybody who stood for separation of the country, but vote for those who vote for a federal arrangement. We are back to square one.

Almost 40 years later I seem to have picked up from there to bring about a more meaningful power sharing arrangement so that Tamils can exercise political power at least in their areas where they live as the majority community.