Are we losing the grips of our culture

Pressures to replace our cultural knowledge, prescriptions and practices with those imported from elsewhere are increasing in the name of fancy labels, promoters, and incentives.

by Dr Siri Gamage-Jul 16, 2018

( July 16, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Culture is what defines us. We are embodiments of our culture. Our way of life is defined by cultural prescriptions, values, norms and customs that have been internalised during our years of growing, learning, working and living. Culture is a framework of knowledge, wisdom, ritual and accumulated prescriptions for this worldly (and other worldly) issues that human kind face universally and in specific localities. Irrespective of the changes that we face due to external influences, generally fundamentals of culture remain intact. For example, among the Australian Aborigines (the indigenous people) after 200 plus years of invasion, colonisation and displacement, main elements of their culture remain to this day. They express these through art, storytelling, dance, poems, rituals etc. Cultural fundamentals are held intact primarily by the elders and passed down to the younger generations against many odds. Indigenous peoples around the world struggle with endurance to preserve their cultural heritage. Contacts with other cultures, especially those that are dominant due to the power of modern dissemination methods, can alter aspects of one’s own culture in substantial ways. In this context, cultural conversions or inversions also take place leading some people to change their whole identity over time-manifestly or latently.

Cultural knowledge and associated practices continue in some form and shape against many odds in the face of colonisation, modernisation and now globalisation in countries like ours. They correspond to indigenous modes of treatment for varied illnesses, farming and agriculture, fishing, architecture, governance, education and learning, trade, travel, interaction with and preservation of environment, universe, religion, literature, art, dance, music, and the broader region surrounding us. In some fields, the cultural knowledge and cultural practice have passed down from the older generation to the younger generation on trust, hence it was a family affair. However, due to exigencies of life – continuity of such family and kin based transfer of cultural knowledge and practice was disrupted leaving a significant gap and a loss to the society. Our libraries and archives house some of the written cultural knowledge pertaining to various fields. For example, Peradeniya University library houses an ola leaf collection. However, it is the slow rate of their use and absorption by the emerging generations for everyday living that is under a cloud.

How far can the cultural knowledge and practice continue in the face of external influences being felt in society in the name of neo colonialism, neoliberalism, modernisation and globalisation today? Is it worth preserving and using cultural knowledge and associated practices (and public rituals) when we are supposed to be governed by reason, science, logic and technology? (remember the idea of scientific cabinet?) Do our formal education systems (in schools and universities contribute to the preservation, use and transfer of cultural knowledge and practice or do they in fact contribute to the demise of such knowledge and practice? Are traditional educational methods sufficient to maintain these in current contexts? Do our government policies promote or hinder cultural knowledge transmission and adoption for everyday use? Is it necessary to look at science and technology as competing paradigms of thought and action compared to our traditional cultural knowledge and practice or as complementary sources of wisdom? It is not possible to answer all these questions in a short article. For the time being, it is sufficient to raise these questions for further discussion and reflection.

Increasingly, with the expansion of neoliberal, free market economic policies and projects, both in the developed and developing countries people are realising the adverse effects of such policies and projects on their lives and the impact they can have on children and grandchildren. Furthermore, they are beginning to realise the devastating effects these policies and projects have on our continuing cultural knowledge, practice and scripts. While a few have become billionaires and another few have materially progressed, a large mass of people is falling behind in trying to find an income to meet their daily needs. Against heavy advertising and marketing of what we need (and what we don’t need) by conglomerates of multinational business houses to our living rooms, and while our incomes are being eaten out by these consumer goods and services, the stability we experienced in life and community living in our own way is being taken away step by step making us highly vulnerable-materially and otherwise. Corporate world has opened up spaces for emerging young professionals together with its facilitator, the State but this world is about competition, consumption and production of surplus for the owners of multinational corporations more than anything else.

Pressures to replace our cultural knowledge, prescriptions and practices with those imported from elsewhere are increasing in the name of fancy labels, promoters, and incentives. Career oriented professionals are playing key roles in such promotions in their own fields in collaboration with their foreign counterparts until later in life when they realise the careers they led did not provide the satisfaction of life on an enduring basis.

Westerners and Easterners engulfed by the magic world of globalisation, mobility and competition are living this conundrum as to whether their traditional cultural prescriptions are the right path or the consumerist culture bestowed on us can lead us to a promised land in terms of ultimate happiness, serenity and fulfilment.

Intercultural contact is an important element in contemporary life. I am not suggesting that we become cultural exclusives or adopt a nativist attitude in our dealings with other cultures. We need to be open to other knowledge and knowledge practices, learn their prescriptions and even apply where they are suitable. But we need to realise that all knowledge is cultural and specific to the historical, geographical, economic and social context-not necessarily universally applicable without modification. Modern science claims to be universal but recent critics have pointed out that it is not so at least in terms certain aspects. If we take the example of Buddhism, we can see how it is adapted to suit different country and cultural contexts in various parts of the world over millennia. One danger in such adaptation is that many tend to translate foreign knowledge to one’s own language and audiences without critical analysis and interpretation. This happens in the teaching of social science disciplines in universities also.

It is important to adopt a critical and comparative approach to our cultural knowledge, practices and prescriptions because uncritical use of these can lead to myth building, blind faith and imitation. However, even to do so, such knowledge, practice and scripts have to exist in the first place – not only in the minds of academics and researchers but also in the society as a living phenomenon.

Language is the vehicle of transmitting cultural knowledge and associated practices plus prescriptions. In formerly colonised countries, there is a tendency to understand one’s own culture through the language of the coloniser rather than one’s own language because of the importance placed on the former as international languages. There are positives and negatives of such a trend. The way culture is constructed in an alien and dominant language can lead to certain biases and distortions compared to the way the same is constructed and described in indigenous language/s. Ability of those who do not speak or write in the indigenous languages to comprehend the core meanings of a given culture and its embodiments can be limited. On the other hand, over time indigenous constructions of cultures can have various biases and distortions. Debates about the complexities of translating knowledge available in one language to another is familiar to many of us especially if we look at the manner knowledge of Buddhism was translated from Pali to Sinhala. However, we don’t seem to adopt a critical attitude when translating Western disciplinary knowledge to our languages in our learning institutions. Instead, very often translations alone are acceptable as true and higher knowledge and streamed into the educational processes.

My worry is that in the face of a higher value placed on anything and everything foreign in formerly colonised, now neo-colonial and neoliberal countries such as Sri Lanka, we seem to be moving fast to denigrate and delete our cultural knowledge, practice, and prescriptions with both hands and embrace the consumerist culture, practices and prescriptions plus western disciplines without question. I wonder if this trend is being sufficiently researched by our social scientists? Are there any educational and policy making bodies taking enough interest in such matters? Opening of two growth corridors along the Colombo-Galle highway and Colombo- Kandy highway may have detrimental effects on the sources of our cultural knowledge, practice and scripts. Dismemberment of our cultural heritage and knowledge etc. and replacement of these with imported cultural knowledge, practice and scripts can make us no bodies not only in our own land but also in the wider world. It can make our identity bereft of any epistemological, philosophical or aesthetic foundations to rely on. Such a situation can lead to the emergence of fake truths and practices as well as those who promote the same –young and old for a penny.

Losing faith in redemption

by Jehan Perera-July 16, 2018, 8:59 pm 

The government has commenced launching its Gam Peraliya, or rapid rural development programme, and is also about to commence prosecutions under the fast track anti-corruption courts it has established to fulfil its election time promises. The extent to which these two initiatives will capture the public imagination and win hearts and minds remains to be seen. The general public discourse, at the present time, is decidedly unfavourable to the government. With 16 months to go before the next presidential election, the hope that the government can be redeemed remains low. The prime complaint against the present government is that it is like a bullock cart that is being pulled along by an ox and a buffalo who are not in synchrony.

The fact that nationally significant events, such as the ones that the government has initiated, are attracting less emotion and interest in popular debate than Hitler, the LTTE, and the death penalty, is a tragedy of the present time. Those who are leading this debate include religious leaders who are expected to be the bearers of universal values that have humanized society over the ages. It is doubly tragic that they are variously putting forward the view that Hitler, the LTTE, and the death penalty, are solutions to the problems besetting the country.

Maithripala Sirisena has stated that the death penalty should be implemented for drug dealers. The issue of the death penalty being reintroduced has come to the centre stage of the public debate, not only in Sri Lanka, but also internationally. This has led the Office of the President of the Philippines to commend the government of Sri Lanka for its plan to replicate the "success" of the Philippines’ war on drugs. The Philippines government statistics show that 4,354 persons, accused of dealing in drugs, died, while 147,802 have been arrested in 102,630 anti-drug operations, since July 2016.

Under President Duarte, of the Philippines, drug dealers are not being provided with the due process of the law, prior to being executed. They are being shot in the streets or after being apprehended by the police and para military forces. The closest that Sri Lanka has come to this in recent times is with the white van abductions that were employed to eliminate suspected LTTE members, during the time of the war, and also political opponents of the government.

CUSTODIANS OF VALUES

The Sri Lankan government has come in for criticism from human rights groups, both within Sri Lanka and internationally, for announcing its latest stance on the implementation of the death penalty. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has called on the government to abolish the death penalty entirely like over one hundred other countries in the world have done. In deference to this criticism, the President seems to have relented and has taken the position that only those who have been sentenced to death and are in prison but who continue to ply their trade, from within their prison cells, will be subjected to the death penalty.

The government is not of one mind on the issue of reintroducing the death penalty, which has not been practiced since 1976. Minister Ajith Perera reflected the government’s ambivalence on the issue when he said that carrying out the death sentence will not stop crimes and added that this is a reality he learned through his experience as a lawyer and a lecturer at the police training school. He said "I have learned though my experience that crimes cannot be stopped by imposing the death sentence but we will support President Maithripala Sirisena in his decision to impose the death sentence on those who are charged with crimes pertaining to drugs."

The basic flaw in the government’s understanding is that it seems to be thinking that by eliminating individuals it can get rid of the problem. However, it has been pointed out that those behind bars are often not the leaders or financiers of the drug cartels. There will always be replacements for those individuals who are executed. Instead of executing individuals, some of whom might be innocent or have been framed, it is necessary to reform the criminal justice system that permits those in prison cells to be in communication with their cartels outside. Religious leaders, in particular, who are the custodians of a society’s higher values, need to take the lead in this regard.

HARDNESS OF HEART

Many years ago, during the time of the war, in 1998, when the LTTE controlled large swathes of territory in the north and east, I visited the north of the country and stayed at the residence of the Bishop of Mannar, Rayappu Joseph. He was often misunderstood as an LTTE supporter on account of his strong views on Tamil rights and the legitimacy of the Tamil cause. But he was also one of two Catholic bishops who mediated between the government and LTTE during the period of President Chandrika Kumaratunga to bring peace to the country through peaceful means in accordance with the religious precept that all human life is sacred and should be safeguarded and not destroyed.

One of the books in the Bishop’s House, that I happened to come across, was a long letter to the people of the United States, written by the Catholic Bishops of that country. It was on the cold war the US had with the Soviet Union which was continuing and there was the ever present threat of nuclear war. The bishops were aware of the antipathies the Soviet Union aroused in the American people. In fact President Ronald Reagan had just described the Soviet Union as the "Evil Empire." But, as religious leaders, the Bishops felt obliged to keep raising in the realm of the political debate, truths that ought to ground their involvement in political affairs.

Therefore, they pointed out that "the Soviet people and their leaders are human beings created in the image and likeness of God… we do warn against ‘hardness of heart’ which can close us or others to the changes needed to make the future different from the past." Not even five years after the US bishops wrote this letter, their predictions began to come true. Change began to occur within the Soviet Union. The call for the imposition of the death penalty reflects a hardness of heart that is not in consonance with the belief that all human beings can change, and do change, and can be redeemed, even as Karuna Amman of the LTTE was, with a war-changing result.

As in the case of the death penalty, the debates on Hitler and the LTTE focus on the effects rather than the causes. Hitler has been promoted as an appropriate model of leadership for Sri Lanka at this time when the government is compared to a bullock cart with an ox and buffalo leading it. The return of the LTTE is being proposed as a solution to the rape and murders taking place in the north. It is one thing when less educated and more emotional people offer such solutions to the problems facing the country. Cry, the beloved country, when leaders of the polity and religion offer such solutions. Those who think differently cannot be the silent majority; they need to stand up and be counted.

("Cry, the beloved country" was the title of a classic novel written about apartheid in South Africa by Alan Paton in 1948. Writings of this nature, and the thoughts underlying them, subsequently saw the emergence of leaders of the caliber of Nelson Mandela who took the helm, albeit four decades later)

Clowns or Murderers: Our Hobson’s Choice

Featured image courtesy DBS Jeyaraj

“There is no Viyath Maga; it is just a word for a programme. Clearly this is a carrying forward of Mahinda Chinthanaya…”

TISARANEE GUNASEKARA-07/15/2018

Mahinda Rajapaksa (4.7.2018)[i]

The news was sensational, yet it was downplayed. The chief incumbent of a temple in Ratnapura strangled a police sergeant to death. The monk has been absconding after being charged with sexual abuse. The sergeant went to the temple to hand over the summons. He went alone and unarmed; after all, he was going to a temple to meet a monk.

The sergeant’s screams alerted the neighbours who called 119. When a police team rushed to the temple, the monk greeted them with a hand grenade.

What if this incident happened in a kovil, a mosque or a church? What if a Hindu, Muslim or a Christian religious figure strangled a policeman to death with his bare hands and tried to lob a grenade at a police team? The media would have talked about nothing else for weeks. Politicians, especially those subsisting on patriotism, would have howled about resurgent Tigers, Islamic terrorists or Christian conspirators. Questions would have been asked about how the grenade was procured and what its procurement portends for national security. But a monk was the culprit, so reportage was muted, and there were no cries of alarm or condemnation. The chief prelates, who make it their business to interfere in secular matters beyond their competence, are yet to say a word about the horrendous incident and what it signals about the current state of Sinhala-Buddhist monkhood.

The suspect monk is now being questioned by the police. Hopefully, after a speedy trial, he will join the 15 other monks serving prison sentences for various crimes including murder. According to the prisons’ chief, there are also 10 monks in the remand prison.[ii]

As President, Mahinda Rajapaksa thought persecution was prosecution and replaced due process with witch hunts. Now he thinks prosecution is persecution and sees witch hunts in due process. Addressing a religious ceremony in a temple in Matara last month, the former president depicted monks serving jail sentences as victims of persecution. “These days I think it is important to learn how to turn the robe into a jumper, the way things are going. This is a time when 40-50 Buddhist monks are locked up in jails. We have a great responsibility as Buddhists to protect…” From one that falsehood he moved seamlessly into another one, this time about the reason for the dearth of new entrants to monkhood. “Those days there are nine ten children in a family. Now there’s one or two, maximum three. So our race is systematically vanishing. There are economic difficulties. There is also the programme carried out by the government, a very koota (insidious and evil) programme to reduce population.”[iii]

Rajapaksa is a master at dog whistling. In that brief statement he alluded to a conspiracy by the current government to eviscerate the monkhood and destroy the Sinhala nation. The caption (by the pro-Rajapaksa channel Derana) says it all – Our race is nearing extinction – Mahinda Rajapaksa. Never mind that the ratio of Sinhalese and Buddhists in Sri Lanka has increased consistently from 66.91% and 61.53% in 1881 to 74.9% and 70.1% in 2012. Never mind that there are only 25 monks behind bars and they are there because they have been accused or convicted of crimes. His audience wouldn’t know the facts and wouldn’t care anyway. His lies fit in with their manufactured reality. (They wouldn’t even wonder why Mahinda Rajapaksa has only three children and his even more patriotic brother Gotabhaya just one child. Surely the absence of nine or ten offspring couldn’t have been due to economic reasons or the kootadoings of the current administration? Incidentally, why has no Rajapaksa sibling or offspring entered the monkhood?)

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration is a government of and by clowns. There are a million and one truthful, factual accusations that can be made against the administration, starting with its abysmal failure to improve the living conditions of ordinary Lankans. There is no need to resort to incendiary lies, the kind which enabled Black July, 35 years ago. And, yet, incendiary lies rather than facts and figures constitute the bedrock of the Rajapaksa comeback strategy. Are they creating an anti-democratic mindset in the country so that the rapid dismantling of democratic rights and freedoms will have public support?

A Crime Wave?

Vendaruwe Upali Thero (who advised Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to become ‘even a Hitler and correct the country) is not the only one suffering from Hitler-mania. A tweet by a self-declared Christian (I will refrain from mentioning his name as he has apologised for his praise of Hitler) says “Looking at the killings in Sri Lanka, I sometimes wonder who is in charge… The situation is reaching serious levels.”

The question is where did this gentleman ‘look’ to conclude that the ‘situation is reaching serious levels?’ Not facts and figures certainly, because according to statistics there are less murders today (and less grave crime) than there were during the Rajapaksa years.

Year	All grave crimes	Murder
2010	57.381	742
2011	54,156	703
2012	Complete data unavailable	Complete data unavailable
2013	55,128	586
2014	50,804	548
2015	40,188	474
2016	36,937	502
2017	35,978	452

The data[iv] also shows a decline in other grave crime categories as well, including rape and child abuse.

Sri Lanka is not crime free or violence free. But it is less crime-prone and less-violent than it was four years ago. A fake news pandemic – and not facts on the ground – is responsible for the idea that we are living in an unprecedentedly lawless and bloody time. The aim is political and partisan – exacerbate the ‘feel bad factor,’ and manufacture a pre-emptive justification for dismantling democratic rights and freedoms under a future Rajapaksa government.

Sometimes memory is an eel. The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government has forgotten its solemn promises to the electorate – the inane plan to build a third airport in Polonnaruwa being the latest case in point. Perhaps in tandem, the electorate has forgotten what life was like under the Rajapaksas. Even such causes celebres as the serial killings of Kotakethana in Kahawatte, the slaying of Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, and the brutal murder of British tourist Khuram Shaikh and the gang rape of his Russian fiancé are no longer remembered. Equally forgotten are the level of impunity enjoyed by Rajapaksa loyalists – such as Mervyn de Silva; or Julampitiye Amare, who had more than 100 arrest warrants against him, including for murder and rape, yet strutted about in Tangalle resplendent in military fatigues and toting a T56.

Forgetting is an integral component of the Rajapaksa comeback project. The past must be remembered as a time of law, order and discipline; let the present be imaged as a time of chaos and anarchy. After all, if Lankans remember what the past was really like, a majority of them would not want to return there.

Crimes today are more brutal, often sickeningly so, but this too is not a post-Rajapaksa development. That tendency began during the war years. As a police spokesman said in 2012, “….the murders committed in recent times have become more gruesome…. They cut and chop without a care. Sometime back rape was not followed by murder, however now rape is followed by murder.”[v]

The Rajapaksa paradise was a land of crime and impunity, violence and indifference, a place where strong abused, weak endured and everything insalubrious was kept under wraps. When a soldier stationed in Jaffna murdered two of his comrades and killed himself, the Rajapaksa regime responded by imposing a news-ban. When asked about the ‘rape problem’ in Sri Lanka, the then ambassador (and Rajapaksa first cousin) Jaliya Wickremesuriya smilingly told The Washington Times, “…oya rapes this and that not taking any place in Sri Lanka… We have very disciplined people in Sri Lanka… Like any other country, we have, like couple of cases.”[vi]

That statement about a couple of rapes was made in 2012. In 2010, three children were raped/abused per day. 1169 child rape cases were reported in 2011 – a rate of over three a day. In the first six months of 2012, over 700 cases of child rape/abuse were reported – a rate of four a day.[vii] The Rajapaksa government’s only solution was a rape-marriage law which, if approved, would have enabled the rapist to escape prosecution by marrying his underage victim. In a related development, the then Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa (who is being touted as a kinder gentler alternative to brother Gotabhaya) said, “My opinion is that nobody can make men responsible for the violence against women. Women are responsible for it…” [viii] Little wonder, rape proliferated during the Rajapaksa years, far more than before or since.

That was how the crime-fighting Rajapaksas fought crime.

‘Rajapaksas go together’ – One Family, One Path, One Goal

“Rajapaksas always go together. We don’t have divisions like others,” Gotabhaya Rajapaksa claimed after Mahinda Rajapaksa reminded his audience that Viyath Maga was Mahinda Chinthanaya by another name. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa can win only if he is anointed by brother Mahinda and assisted by brother Basil. Whatever their personal or other differences, the Rajapaksas are united in a joint enterprise to regain lost power – One Family, One Path, One Goal.

They might succeed, thanks to the infantile conduct of the current administration.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the newly elected president of Mexico had a key campaign slogan. “I will not fail you. I will not disappoint you. I will not betray the people.”[ix]

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe has done all three. They have forgotten most of their promises and are walking back on some of the implemented ones, such lifting the ban on Glyphosate. After much procrastination, the government banned female genital mutilation (FGM) in Sri Lanka, but might succumb to pressure from conservative Mullahs and re-permit this atrocious and harmful practice. The government gave up pursuing socially liberal policies fearful of antagonising traditionalists; it gave up on the environment to please multinationals. It succumbs to any bully, from the GMOA to the Chinese.

Today’s Sunday Times carries pictures of four of the cheques issued by the China Harbour Engineering Company, effective corroborating The New York Times Story. Even more worryingly, it reveals that the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) carried out an investigation about the matter in 2015, and managed to identify those who cashed the cheques. Then ‘the onetime top official of the CBSL’ i.e. Arjun Mahendran ‘halted the probe unceremoniously.’ Another chance to clean up the Augean Stable that is Lankan politics was wasted. When this government is buried under the avalanche of its own mistakes, a fitting epitaph would be, And they did nothing.

Three and half years out of power, the Rajapaksas remain unchanged. Violence, verbal or physical, is their first resort. Retired admiral Sarath Weerasekara has threatened the head of the Human Rights Commission, Dr. Deepika Udagama by calling her a Tiger. When the New York Times piece about Chinese contributions to the presidential campaign coffers of Mahinda Rajapaksa appeared, some SLPP parliamentarians responded by issuing veiled threats against the two local journalists associated with the piece – Dharisha Bastians and Arthur Wanaman. That response was a reminder of what awaits the media, and Sri Lanka, if the Rajapaksas return to power, especially under a President Gotabhaya, the man who once said, “If they harm me, it is the country they harm.”[x]

Clowns or murderers, such is the choice before the country currently. Weimer Republic was a pretty broken down place, but Hitler’s Thousand Year Reich (which mercifully for everyone ended in just 12 years) was a hell beyond even the most sadistic of human imaginings.

---

[i] Ada Derana – 4.7.2018

[ii] Sri Lanka Mirror -19.6.2018

[iii] Ada Derana – 22.6.2018

[iv] Police Statistics

[v] The Sunday Leader – 1.12.2012

[vi] Groundviews – 6.1.2012

[vii] The real figure may be significantly higher; over 20,000 cases of child abuse may have happened in the first half of 2012, according to the National Child Protection Authority.

[viii] The Republic Square– 12.3.2014

[ix] New Yorker – 3.7.2018

[x] Sri Lanka Brief – 26.10.2011

Two Governments In One, Several Oppositions, Switching Alliances At Will; Democracy At Its Best?

By Raj Gonsalkorale –JULY 15, 2018

Raj Gonsalkorale

“The dissemination of democratic norms from the advanced countries of the West to the rest of the world has been perhaps the most significant benefit of globalization. Yet not all is well with democracy. Today’s democratic governments perform poorly, and their future remains very much in doubt. In the advanced countries, dissatisfaction with government stems from its inability to deliver effective economic policies for growth and inclusion. In the newer democracies of the developing world, failure to safeguard civil liberties and political freedom is an additional source of discontent ” –Dani Rodrik, Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The rest of the democracies in the world perhaps should take a lesson from Sri Lanka. We have two governments in one, a President who is at times part of the Opposition and at times, part of the government., two leaders in government who keeps up a charade of unity but in reality have launched their own campaigns for the next Presidential election, some ministers within the dual government at each other’s throats, a splintered Opposition with the official Opposition as per the Constitution of the country disposed to “look after the interest of our people”, meaning the Tamil community of the North, and not others, a political grouping with 70 seats in Parliament functioning as the unofficial Opposition with one foot in one party and the other in another. 

Did the voters give a mandate for this circus? The Sinhala idiom “Labu gediya asse thoile” aptly describes the status quo in regard to our democracy

The only party that has some legitimacy here is the UNP as they supported the common candidate in the last Presidential election as the UNP, they contested the general election as the UNP, and they are in the government as the UNP, whereas Maithripala Sirisena was the common candidate at the Presidential election with Mahinda Rajapaksa as the official SLFP candidate. The SLFP contested against the UNP during the general election without its own chairman’s support but with Mahinda Rajapaksa as the SLFP/UPFA leader . 

Who has a mandate that has some legitimacy from a voter point of view? What was the mandate of the people, assuming it matters to our politicians? 

What is the legitimacy of the government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena? Why has someone not gone to courts to seek a ruling on mandates, as after all, the Constitution is about interpreting the people’s mandate and giving legitimacy to that mandate. 

If this mess at the top is the example set by our political leaders, surely, the people, including the next generation will follow suit. Public officials will do the minimum in order to keep their jobs as anything more than that could land them in trouble with one side or the other of the twin government (in one).There is evidence now that this indeed is the case.

Dani Rodrik’s contention “In the advanced countries, dissatisfaction with government stems from its inability to deliver effective economic policies for growth and inclusion. In the newer democracies of the developing world, failure to safeguard civil liberties and political freedom is an additional source of discontent” needs some debate.

Firstly, from a Sri Lankan context, should we regard ourselves as a newer democracy of the developing world? From a time line aspect, we are a relatively new democracy although compared to several democracies in Asia as well as Africa, and other regions, we are not entirely a newer democracy. Are we a developing country, well yes, we are, periodically. Are we happy and content with the government and their ability to deliver effective economic policies for growth and inclusion? Most people in Sri Lanka today are likely to say NO. What about civil liberties and political freedom? Some would argue that civil liberties have been impinged from time to time, although at least currently, political freedom is akin to freedom of the wild Ass judging by the nature of the status quo.

Considering all this, should there be a discussion and even a debate on the relevancy and effectiveness of democracy and the peoples mandate in and for Sri Lanka? We could remain silent and pay a greater price than what we are paying today and complain about the leaders who we deserved in the first place! 

If governance based on a mandate from the peoples forms the corner stone of democracy, then Sri Lanka has no democracy as people did not vote for a circus but for a stable, legitimate government. The UNP received the highest number of seats in Parliament at the last general election, although not a majority and the legitimate course of action President Sirisena should have taken should have been to ask the UNP leader to form a government and seek a vote of confidence in the Parliament. That is the Westminster tradition which we are supposed to be emulating.

The vociferous Civil Society groups, vociferous before the elections, who some have labelled as the Chardonnay Club, were silent when the very democracy they were trying to free from the previous government who they labelled as authoritarian and corrupt, was being usurped to serve some political end. This same Club has been silent throughout the journey of the current, some would say, illegitimate government, and their record of corruption. They were silent about the US government, and none other than the then Secretary of State John Kerry’s admission about the US $ 500 million spent in Sri Lanka to effect the regime change in 2015. They and some sections of the media have got a dose of their Chardonnay now, after 3 years, to express shock and horror about an unproven and so far unsubstantiated revelation about the Chinese government spending a mere (in comparison to the US government investment) contribution to re-elect the Rajapaksa administration. One interference has been admitted by the giver and it cannot be condoned, while the other, denied by the alleged giver, cannot be condoned if there is any truth in it.

Should there be an objective, dispassionate discussion on these issues? Surely the answer should be a YES. A discussion is needed to inform ourselves and others about what needs to be done to address how we could avoid mistakes in the future. We also need to discuss whether the mess we are in is what some unseen hand wanted in the first place. Those who succumbed to foreign pressure and money should look around the world and see the ample evidence we are witnessing today the legacy of chaos, suffering and hardships in many parts of the world where such external interference, in the name of freedom and justice, has brought upon the people of those countries.     

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Panama Papers exposed leaders, criminals, celebrities... - EDITORIAL 

2018-07

ormer Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz were arrested by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials upon their arrival in Lahore on Friday night (13 July), and subsequently whisked away to Islamabad on a chartered flight..   In July 2017, just when Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif was a year away from becoming the first premier to complete a full term in office, he was ousted. The country’s Supreme Court disqualified him from office and referred the issue of his family’s offshore assets to anti-corruption authorities.  

Former Prime Minister Sharif was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison and fined $10.6 million on corruption charges linked to revelations in the 2016 Panama Papers regarding Sharif’s family’s properties overseas.  In April 2016, an International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ (ICIJ) probe based on files leaked from Panamanian offshore provider Mossack Fonseca revealed details of 11.5 million secret files of 140 politicians from more than 50 countries connected to offshore companies in 21 tax havens.   

Following investigations after the documents were leaked, Pakistans Anti-Graft Court also sentenced Sharif’s daughter Maryam and his son-in-law Safdar.  
Sharif was sentenced after failing to explain how his family acquired luxury flats in London. The leaked documents showed the Sharif family owned apartments through off-shore companies.   
 However Sharif is not the only world leader to be exposed by the ICIJ documents. The documents revealed current and former world leaders in the data include the Prime Minister of Iceland, the President of Ukraine, and the King of Saudi Arabia and a host of others  
Iceland’s Premier Gunnlaugsson was the first political casualty of the Panama Papers -- forced to step down after people took to the streets demanding his resignation.  

Then-British Prime Minister David Cameron’s late father was among those identified in relation to investments set up by Mossack Fonseca. The British PM’s office said the family’s tax affairs were a private matter.  The leak also uncovered a suspected money laundering ring involving close associates of Russian President, Vladimir Putin.  
A close friend of President Putin was put at the top of the offshore empire worth more than $2 billion which has made this circle extremely wealthy. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the reports were aimed at discrediting the Russian President. He also claimed the journalists involved were “former officials from the (US) Department of State, the CIA and other special services”.  The list does not end here, hidden in 11.5 million secret files of 140 politicians from more than 50 countries connected to offshore companies in 21 tax havens.   

Sri Lanka too, found mention in the Panama Papers and there was speculation names of major political players and or other corrupt individuals would be revealed by the government which was elected to power on an anti-corruption ticket.   
Deputy Minister of Public Enterprise Development Eran Wickramaratne, said at that time, the names of Sri Lankan politicians and companies featured in the Panama Papers and revelations would soon be made.   

Addressing the Media at the Government Information Department on April 7, he said the ‘Panama Papers’ exposure may help divulge important information regarding local politicians and their friends and relatives whose accounts were circulated through banks in Seychelles and Dubai earlier.  
However, despite two long years having passed, we have yet to hear of Sri Lankan politicians or corporates having been investigated regarding revelations made in the Panama Papers.    Nor is it surprising that, Sri Lanka’s then Central Bank Chief Arjuna Mahendran -- infamous for his role in the country’s billion $ bond scam scandal -- in an interview carried in the ‘Daily Mirror’ saying “...the authenticity of the so-called leaks was doubtful and therefore, couldn’t reveal any names of individuals, due to privacy laws...  

As a colleague put it, Sri Lanka’s politicians are incorruptible..., our officials are not tainted by corruption, none of our business leaders or corporates is corrupt.   
We are an incorruptible people...  
The lyrics in ‘Lankawe ape Lankawe’, sung by the popular group ‘Gypsies’ in their famous sataire come to mind:   “Where do you find honest and audacious people?... in Sri Lanka... in Sri Lanka”  
“Let the Americans and the British come and learn from us...”
Despite the ‘writing on the wall’ staring us in the face, we Sri Lankans like to make out that we are pure and Lilly-white, like the national dress leading politicos love to don.   

EU warns Sri Lanka over death penalty

16 Jul 2018

COLOMBO: EU ambassadors warned Sri Lanka on Monday against ending its 42-year moratorium on capital punishment and said the island risked losing trade concessions if it went ahead.

Last week President Maithripala Sirisena said repeat drug offenders would be hanged as part of his administration's new crackdown on narcotics.

"The diplomatic missions have requested the President to maintain the moratorium on the implementation of the death penalty and to uphold Sri Lanka's tradition of opposition to capital punishment," the EU ambassadors said in a joint statement.

The communique was supported by their colleagues from Canada and Norway.

Police believe the Indian Ocean island is being used as a transit point by drug traffickers. More than a tonne of cocaine seized in recent years was destroyed by police in January.

The main Welikada prison said it was advertising this week for two hangmen to carry out the first execution in 42 years after refurbishing the gallows.

Diplomats said they expected Sirisena to roll back the decision, but should the island go ahead it would loose preferential access for its exports to the 28-member EU bloc.

"If Sri Lanka resumes capital punishment, Colombo will immediately lose the GSP-Plus status," an EU diplomatic source told AFP.

This refers to its generalised system of preferences (GSP Plus) - a favourable tariff scheme to encourage developing nations to respect human rights - restored by the EU in May 2017 after a seven-year hiatus.

Sri Lanka was denied GSP Plus status in 2010 after failing to meet its rights obligations. The Sirisena administration reapplied after coming to power in 2015.

EU diplomats have estimated that Sri Lanka gains an estimated 300 million euro (US$350 million) advantage annually thanks to the GSP-Plus system.

Prison spokesman Thushara Upuldeniya said there were 373 convicts on death row in Sri Lanka, including 18 for serious drug crimes.

Death sentences are still handed down for crimes including murder, rape and drug-related crimes, but the last execution was in 1976.

Nearly 900 people are currently in prison after been sentenced to death, although many have had their sentences commuted to life or are appealing.

Source: AFP/ng

Female tops drug convicts death penalty list – claims Justice Minister

 JUL 16 2018

Minister of Justice and Prison Reforms Thalatha Atukorale stated that a woman was the first on the list of convicts for drug trafficking when she had considered the list to be sent across to the President for his approval ahead of carrying out the death penalty.

She noted that that alone was clear proof as to what extent the current plight to which the society has sunk.

Atukorale added that when the current regime had assumed power, the country had already become a haven for drug trafficking while certain officials were also involved in the lucrative illegal trade.

She asserted that during the previous regime, the underworld had thrived with State patronage but the current regime will do its utmost to eliminate such trades.