India’s influence on presidential election

Surviving at the cross-roads makes Lanka vulnerable to great powers 

July 21, 2018, 6:10 pm

Bucket-shop odds-tracker for anti-poropaya presidential nominee RW-3/1 (favourite), Karu-5/1 (runner-up), Mangala-8/1 (trainer shown) Anura-30/1 (rank outsider), Sajith 7/1 (third place), Paksa-slayer SF-15/1

Kumar David

Lankans boast that their country is located at an Indian Ocean cross-point and strategically placed between East and West. "Our position is hugely important; India, China and America are falling over each other to buy our favours" we preen like pimps. But every coin has two sides and the other side of this one is that the rest of the world tells a small country how to behave in matters that affect their interests. India and China have abiding concerns, the former more than the latter, in ensuring that we ‘behave’ ourselves in strategic matters and in making sure that an out of control dictator inimical to their interests does not surface. Who the next president of Lanka will be and our political stability if they approve, and destabilising him/her if they do not, are contingent on great power considerations. The first step is the choice of candidate.

There was no concern of ‘moral hazard’ regarding the sovereignty of a puny nations when nuclear weapons or missiles were at issue in Cuba in 1962 and North Korea in 2017-18. Ditto for us; a Chinese naval base in Lanka will be so repugnant to India that it will intervene or destabilise the offending regime. Likewise one can imagine sovereign actions of a Lankan government that could trigger Chinese or American responses. Indian or American trade or financial disruption will starve or cripple us, respectively, within months; if China gets tough on debts we will be bankrupt within two years. It is still early days so we can only speculate in broad outline how externalities may affect our electoral future. I will first comment on how the US can influence our presidential election, if it wishes to, and then move on to present to you some interesting correspondences I have been engaged in.

The background assumption is that America, to the extent that it bothers at all, will have a preference for the UNP and Ranil over the Rajapaksas. This is for the reason that from long ago the UNP was pro-business and pro-West and in the JR days in the 1980s a participant in the now discarded neo-liberal experiment. More recently, the US is not and cannot be pleased with Rajapaksa swaggering into the global ‘Chinese camp’. What the Americans can do to muck-up the works for the Rajapaksas is to craft delays if Gota attempts to renounce US citizenship. Gota can move the courts and heaven and earth but the State and Justice Departments can spoke legal wheels to delay a determination beyond nomination date. I am not aware whether Gota feels enthused to rediscover his love for his land of birth, so we have to wait and see. US Tamils need to be on the alert and move the courts to block any attempt by Gota to surrender US citizenship. My point is that the US has room to put a spanner in the works if it feels bloody minded.

India the regional giant

The interesting thing is that Modi, notwithstanding his sizable domestic political clout has been more reluctant to project Indian power over Lanka than his decades ago predecessors Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. Indira played on the international scene more than the domestic, Modi is the reverse. Except the iconic Nehru and controversial Indira, he is India’s sturdiest post-independence leader. His primary agenda is domestic; balancing between populism to help India’s poor and alleviate their deprivations, and the need to maintain rapid economic growth which requires class compromise. But come 2019-20 Delhi will get interested in the little drop at the tip of its southern extension.

Recently, I have been engaged in lively e-mail exchanges with about a dozen people and here is an input from someone called Rudolph who has an inside seat in domestic politics and international exposure, but also has a soft corner for the left:-

QUOTE: "You guys are crazy to think any left candidate will survive this mad world of SL politics. You are also ignoring the role of China and India in the final selection of the candidate be it RW, MS or a Rajapaksa. The BJP never liked RW for being part of the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord and because of his direct ties with the US. MS is yellow-livered; Indians listen to CBK because she is a rougher. Anyway Modi will not be able to sell RW to the domestic audience. Mattala is an empty gift to India to balance what RW did by coming to a deal with China."

"The Indian choice is crucial and it will be a very short campaign as the candidate will be selected in agreement with RW and CBK from a hurriedly established short list. Mangala and Karu may have a chance at that stage. If Sirisena wanted to play a political role he could have overridden RW but he chose to play a game to destroy the UNP and all chances for RW." END QUOTE

I asked what made Rudolph think that Mangala and Karu were in the loop, to be told: "Karu has made himself a Maduluwawe Sobitha reincarnation. He venerates the late monk in public and is getting hunky-dory with liberals and NGOs. In an internal seminar in parliament Ariyaratna openly asked him to lead the country. Mangala lost ground earlier but, he has now been made a Deputy Leader of UNP and is CBKs favourite. She will play a role eventually with foreign countries".

That CBK favours Mangala, despite the fact that he undercut her in 2005 and supported Mahinda, does not surprise me, but I inquired again why in Rudolph’s opinion, India is fed-up with Ranil right now. The explanation was: "The reason Indians dislike him is that he is playing a hawkish game with China via Singapore and is upsetting Indian plans for SL. Another reason is that being an unvarnished market-capitalist, he prefers China money to Indian Rupees".

I don’t expect anyone to agree with all this at face value, but what is important is that it initiates a discussion of a neglected - by all sides - aspect of discourses about the next election; the importance of foreign, that is Indian, Chinese, US and to a lesser degree European influences, in Lanka’s internal decision making. I do not share the view that India has decided to dump Ranil but am interested to learn that a knowledgeable person is of this view. I also feel that Washington will plump for Ranil over Karu, Sajith or Mangala, whatever that brain dead imbecile Trump may tweet. As for the domestic morons who wring their hands and weep "Aiyo how bad for outsiders to interfere in out sovereign affairs", I respond: "Grow up stupid, get real! Welcome to the real world!"

The mechanisms by which India can influence the choice of a UNP candidate are palpable. Apart from CBK and a small group loyal to her in the SLFP, there are the Upcountry parties which have strong ties to India, business houses (not only Tamil or Colombo based) which are pressure points, and social connections to the High Commission or Delhi or Madras. In addition, whether Mattala provides India with another pressure point I don’t know. How China can pressurise the UNP on candidate selection is unclear though many politicos have been invited to the Middle Kingdom and wined and dined. China’s stranglehold on Sri Lanka is the economy; that is the mountain of debt that the Rajapaksa rogues wrote into the nation’s balance-sheet. This is an elephantine problem which goes far beyond pigmy concerns like candidate selection in either UNP or poroppaya.

Muddying these waters is uncertainty about Provincial Council elections dates. If they are today my sense is that poroppaya will win the South, Sabaragamuwa and Wayamba PCs and I think the NCP, but electoral alliances may have an effect in the last case. A UNP alliance will win the Western and maybe the Central provinces while Uva will be shared. The North and East will go to Tamil and Muslim parties. Psychologically, this will be a setback for the UNP. On the other hand, a delay of PC elections is likely if the government argues that time is needed to change the electoral system and to enact a new constitution requiring a referendum. I would be amazed if this cowardly government and its PM and President could deliver a constitution so that strategy would be an election delaying scam only. Major constitutional change entails moving beyond 13A and including something for the Tamils. If yahapalana is capable of defying racist monks, Sinhala chauvinists and the Mahinda-Gota cavalcade of proto-fascists and delivering a new constitution, well, I am a monkey’s uncle!

A more purposeful government would have prosecuted mega-crooks; Basil for one would be savouring hira-bath or the salubrious comforts of Merchant’s Ward at state expense. This botch led to shipwreck on February 10. Unless a family member is put behind bars and others threatened with the same fate Mahinda has no incentive to cut a deal. This lily-livered government won’t do that; instead it has squandered a useful political weapon in its armoury; turning SF and his pack of hounds loose on the family.

Sri Lanka – A Nation Torn Between Chronic Political Corruption & Inadequacy Of Public Activism  

By Mohamed Harees –JULY 23, 2018

Lukman Harees

‘A Gura not heeding good advice; it does not matter whether he travels on the higher plane or the lower plane ’ goes a popular Sinhala adage. In the context of  the political corruption cesspit, Sri Lanka has fallen into, this adage quite deservingly applies to its’ people too, who despite repeated advice continue to mourn after getting deceived regularly by sending a different set of political actors at each election to represent them based on idle promises; knowing subconsciously that they all are the products of the same underlying corrupt political system and culture. From one ‘Bangalawa’ to another, the political leadership changes hands and the ultimate result has always been the continuation of the system of exploitation and corruption, hidden under different laudable political slogans; at times marketed with some cosmetic changes. It is therefore nothing but insanity to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. Yes! every nation then gets the government it deserves as philosopher Joseph de Maistre once said. So, does Sri Lanka!

While many of us may not be governance specialists; we can however equally relate to the impacts of good and bad governance. It needs no rocket science for ordinary citizenry to realize that good governance (GG) in Sri Lanka is still a distant dream. It was in 2015 that this catchy slogan came into public prominence which ultimately led to a downfall of a powerful government which till then was held in  high regard in the light of the ‘war’ victory. Many civic anti-corruption groups cautioned the general voting public to avoid sending the corrupt and those with adverse criminal track records to seats of power. Ven Sobitha Thero spearheaded this campaign to raise public awareness ; however both the public did not heed this advice and the government which came to power on the GG bandwagon also had the last laugh by brining such shady characters through the national list route. Three and a half years later, people are belatedly seeing through this deceit, with their long felt aspirations for GG being utterly frustrated. But, without a nationwide will and lack of public activism to the required level, to change the political culture, the corrupt political class will always triumph.   

True! if social media and ‘coffee shop’/ train conversations are anything to go by to gauge the mood and feelings of the people, there is widespread disappointment about- far beyond just political names – of the democratic and electoral political system itself whereby they express their will and change governments through the ballot at regular intervals.  In fact, the whole drama enacted through this (then) popular GG fallacy when Maithri/Ranil initially came into power fell apart, when those entrusted by the people to catch the thieves ultimately ended up thieving themselves through the famous CB scam. People were further treated to Thamashas and entertainment for the next few years, with many few high placed politicians in the former government , prosecuted charged by the FCID/ Bribery and Corruption Commission, ended up having a short lived gala time either in the Prisons or the prison hospital ( a luxury not afforded to the ordinary folks accused of even much-much less graver crimes); other cases are still waiting to see the light of the day being put on the back burner. Meanwhile, the cancer of corruption appear to have pervaded beyond the political arena, into the entire gamut of public and judicial service too, judging by many shocking revelations from public spirited whistle blowers, who are unfortunately being given the ‘achchu’ treatment by respective professional bodies to suppress the truth from coming out into the public domain.    

It was recently, that the nation was treated to another round of revelations;  this time emanating from overseas, from a leading newspaper in the US- the NYT, which revealed in a comprehensive article dated 25th June 2018, the massive extent of corrupt deals involving MR, when ‘China was getting Sri Lanka to cough up a Port’ as the headline suggested, presenting a stark illustration of how China and the companies under its control ensured their interests in a small country hungry for financing  like Sri Lanka. It was left for an overseas newspaper to reveal details of these shady deals, and as it was pointed out, apart from putting a debt trapped Sri Lanka at the mercy of their Chinese slave driver, these mega deals  had international implications as well. NYT echoed ‘Mr. Rajapaksa was voted out of office in 2015, but Sri Lanka’s new government struggled to make payments on the debt he had taken on. Under heavy pressure and after months of negotiations with the Chinese, the government handed over the port and 15,000 acres of land around it for 99 years in December. The transfer gave China control of territory just a few hundred miles off the shores of a rival, India, and a strategic foothold along a critical commercial and military waterway. The case is one of the most vivid examples of China’s ambitious use of loans and aid to gain influence around the world — and of its willingness to play hardball to collect.The debt deal also intensified some of the harshest accusations about President Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative: that the global investment and lending program amounts to a debt trap for vulnerable countries around the world, fueling corruption and autocratic behavior in struggling democracies’. The inherent corrupt deals have been subsequently coming out through glaring revelations made both in and out of Parliament even providing details of cheque numbers paid to MR and Co. as well. Unfortunately the debate on the NYT article do not appear to have elicited  much interest, judging by poor Parliamentary attendance- another waste of  public money. Meanwhile, many foreign activists have been citing Sri Lanka as a prime example while advising their countries against falling into the Chinese debt trap; examples being Malaysia and Kenya to cite two of them.    

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Colonial Christian mentality of nationalist Sinhala Buddhists

Common law of divorce in Sri Lanka is Roman Dutch Law; divorce can be claimed on three grounds, adultery, malicious desertion and incurable impotency at the time of such marriage

T Tuesday, 24 July 2018

here was an article published under the name Cat’s Eye titled ‘Divorce law in Sri Lanka: Fostering animosity, not relationships’ on 11 July (http://www.ft.lk/columns/Divorce-law-in-Sri-Lanka--Fostering-animosity--not-relationships/4-658793).

While agreeing with the writer/s, the intention of this article is to investigate this issue in a different point of view. Law of a country is based on the values and cultural traits of that country. In Sri Lanka during the colonial period certain values and cultural traits were imposed on us and the present society is ignorant of this fact. To start the discussion on marriage and divorce law, the best evidence could be given by Robert Knox.



Robert Knox

Robert Knox has written a book, ‘An Historical Relation of Ceylon,’ published in 1681 in London describing his experience in captivity in Ceylon from 1660 to 1679 during the time of King Rajasinghe II in Kandyan kingdom. In Chapter VII of Part 3 under the title ‘Of their lodging, bedding, whoredom, marriages and children,’ Knox stated as follows:

“Where their houses consist but of one room, the children that are of any years always go and sleep in other houses among their neighbours. Which please them better than their own. For so they come to meet with bedfellows, nor doth it displease the parents, if young men of as good quality as themselves become acquainted with their daughters, but rather like well of it…….So that youth are bred up to whoredom. Indeed here are no publick whores allowed by authority……but in private few or none can exempt themselves.”

“To fetch wood out of the woods to burn, and to fetch home the cattle is the woman’s work. If they cannot have their opportunities at home, now they appoint their meetings, while the husband stays at home holding the child.”

“It is a law here that if a man catch another in bed with his wife, he may, be it whatsoever, kill him and her, if he please.”

“In some cases the men will permit their wives and daughters to lye with other men. And that is, when intimate friends or great men chance to lodge at their houses, they commonly will send their wives or daughters to bear them company in their chamber. Neither do they recon their wives to be whores for lying with them that are as good or better than themselves.”

“They do not matter or regard whether their wives at the first marriage be maids or not. And for a small reward the mother will bring her daughter being a maiden unto those that who desire her.”

“But their marriages are but of little force or validity. For if they disagree and mislike one the other; they part without disgrace.”

“Both women and men do commonly wed four or five times before they can settle themselves to their contentation. And if they have children when they part, the common law is, the males for the men, and the females for the women.”

“In this country each man, even the greatest, hath but one wife; but a woman often has two husbands. For it is lawful and common with them for two brothers to keep house together with one wife, and the children do acknowledge and call both fathers.”(eka geyi kema)

Knox’s English mentality based on his cultural traits could not digest the liberality of the sexual relationships prevailed at that time in Ceylon. Therefore, he said that this was nothing but whoredom. It is interesting to note that there was no importance given to chastity of women prior to the marriage.

Sharing their wives and daughters with the noble visitors shows that the extent they have liberalised their sexual relationships. Divorce also was very liberal since there was a disagreement they part without disgrace. Now all of us view the relationships maintained by our ancestors in the same surprising and condemning way Robert Knox looked at them.


Niti Nighanduwa

During the Kandyan era Niti Nighanduwa was written describing the code of Kandyan law. Harishcahndra Wijayatunga who did a critical analysis of the book believed it was written under the Kandyan kingdom prior to 2 March 1815 at Senkadagalapura between 1769 and 1815. In addition to Diga and Binna marriages and eka geyi kema, there was a marriage type called associated marriage- samagi vivaha – described in Niti Nighanduwa where few men marry few women and they live altogether.

Regarding the divorce the law was very liberal. Either the husband or the wife can disengage from the marriage bond. At the marriage the ownership of the properties of the husband and wife were kept separately with them. The wealth earned by both would be divided equally at the time of disengagement.

If the disengagement of the marriage is executed by one party then that party does not have any right of the assets of the other party. However if there are children and if they are not independent father should maintain the children. If the disengagement is on the wish of the husband and if the wife is pregnant at that time he should maintain the wife for six months but if the husband wants to keep the marriage and the wife wants to disengagement she is not entitle for the maintenance.

Niti Nighanduwa gives a detailed account of the family law prevalent during that time.

Kandyan Marriage and Divorce Law
Inhabitants of the Kandyan districts which were not colonised until 1815 were governed by Kandyan law in marriages and divorces at present. According to Kandyan Marriage and Divorce Law, the dissolution of the marriage can be granted on any of the following grounds.

• Adultery by the wife after marriage
• Adultery by the husband coupled with incest or gross cruelty
• Complete and continued desertion by the wife for two years
• Complete and continued desertion by the husband for two years
• Inability to live happily together, of which actual separation from bed and board for a period of one year shall be the test
• Mutual consent 

These provisions go in line with the social behaviour described by Knox. However the law is less liberal compared to the provisions of the Niti Nighanduwa and more liberal compared to the Roman Dutch law.

Present divorce law in England and Netherlands

In England and Wales divorce is allowed on the ground that the marriage has irretrievably broken down. The Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 specifies that the marriage may be found to have irretrievably broken down if one of the following is established:

• Adultery
• Unreasonable behaviour
• Desertion (two years)
• Separation- agreed divorce (two years)
• Separation – contested divorce (five years)

In the Netherlands there are three types of formal union: marriage, a registered partnership and a living together agreement. They all apply to both heterosexual and same-sex couples. Divorce is always on the legal grounds of ‘irretrievable breakdown of the marriage’.

There is generally no requirement to define or prove this. It is, however, possible for the other spouse to contest the divorce claim in the proceedings before the District Court or the Court of Appeal. Although, in general the Dutch judge will grant the divorce request since it is typically not accepted to force marriage without possible dissolution.


Roman Dutch Law

Common law of divorce in Sri Lanka is Roman Dutch Law. Divorce can be claimed on three grounds, adultery, malicious desertion and incurable impotency at the time of such marriage. The Cat’s Eye article mentioned the third point simply as impotency but according to the law it should be prevalent at the time of the marriage and it should be incurable. Therefore as pointed out in the article it is extremely difficult to get a divorce under the Common Law of Sri Lanka. However this law is drastically different to the divorce law described in Niti Nighanduwa and present Kandyan Divorce law.

Roman Dutch law was introduced and may be modified by the Dutch and English colonial masters respectively. The values of those cultures prevalent at those times would have been reflected in the laws introduced by them.

Marriage was viewed as a sacred act by the Christians. Christian marriage is a union between a man and a woman, instituted and ordained by God, for the lifelong relationship between one man as husband and one woman as wife. This expectation of the life long relationship was being reflected in the Roman Dutch divorce law. Those societies were changed tremendously after the period they colonised Sri Lanka and those changes are reflected in the present divorce law of England and the Netherlands.

The tragedy is that we Sri Lankans think that the values, prevailed in the Europe during the Victorian era (Queen Victoria 1837-1876) and the pre-Victorian era which were imposed on us by the colonial masters, are our values prevailed in this country for 2,500 years. We fight to preserve those values against the imported Western culture. Those Western cultures were changed a lot from the Victorian values to suit the modern era. Ironically the current Western culture and values of marriage, divorce and sexual relationships are closer to the culture of marriage, divorce and sexual relationships during the Kandyan era of Sri Lanka.

At the end of the article of Cat’s Eye the writer/s ask the following questions in relation to the reformation of the existing Roman Dutch Divorce law:

“It is more interesting to understand where the resistance lies to this long-standing reform agenda. Is it the political leaders held hostage by conservative, patriarchal or religious views? Is it the legal profession itself? Or is the political and legislative system of this country engaged in anything but meeting the expectations of its people?”

People by and large do not expect these reforms since reforms would go against their perceived cultural values. Majority of them are Sinhala Buddhists and most of them are nationalists. These Nationalist Sinhala Buddhists trying hard to preserve the colonial Christian values thinking that those are their age old values. What an irony?

Vijayakala’s outburst and Elephant in the room

 2018-07-23

he speech by the former State Minister of Children’s Affairs Vijayakala Maheswaran has been magnified in the media as a call by her for the return of an LTTE administration to maintain law and order and secure the safety of women in the North. 

I have used the term outburst because the content of the speech is not in the form of a considered statement and is more in the nature of an emotional outburst. The sexual abuse and murder of a six-year-old child and another incident mentioned by the ex-Minister had evidently put her into an emotional state where she hit out at her own Government’s inability to maintain law and order and made her mindful of an earlier period when discipline was strongly enforced, and she suggested the revival of the LTTE as the panacea. 

My objective, however, is to point out that she and others like her seemed to have missed the elephant in the room, which is the community in which these crimes are being committed and the need to try and reform this community. In this instance for example the crime itself was not committed by outsiders but by the child’s own 22-year-old relative. While the police, no doubt have a responsibility to maintain law and order, they cannot be expected to be in charge of or control the moral values and behaviour of the larger community in which these crimes take place. Vijayakala also refers to widespread drug use and alcohol imbibing prevalent in the north and refers to politicians as bringing these items into the society. Obviously all these factors are interconnected with the prevalent sexual abuses and assaults as well as gang violence and robberies. 

There is a perception among a section of society that there is the sense of a general malaise in this community where many young people in the urban centres particularly, prefer to be dependent on the remittances of hardworking relatives abroad rather than undertake some gainful employment themselves. Combining with this is lack of interest in education and instead the urge to go abroad to western countries where they imagine an easier life is possible. The interest in education and learning which was the hallmark of the Jaffna man is sadly less evident.

"Vijayakala also refers to widespread drug use and alcohol imbibing prevalent in the north and refers to politicians as bringing these items into the society"

I would say that these are all features of a society which is still coming out of the trauma of a 30- year war, the theatre of which has been the northern and eastern provinces. Presently, the Tamil- speaking people feel excluded from the body politic. They feel that they have no part in the administration of the Country. A visit to the Central Ministries in Colombo would strengthen this view not only because of the paucity of Tamil-speaking officers in these Ministries but also because of the indifference to matters concerning these provinces.

"The Police should be able to function in the Tamil language, receiving complaints and writing down statements in the Tamil language"

This sense of not having a role to play leads to the general malaise in the society and makes the young people feel that they have no future in this country. This is also what makes some sections of the people recall the LTTE administration favourably as in the case of Vijayakala. Because, during this period, whatever the hardships and strict discipline enforced, the Tamil people were at the centre of the administration. Their concerns, language and culture were given importance. 

This is what lies at the back of Vijayakala’s cry ‘what has this government done for us except give back some lands of ours they had taken?’. So if this Government is to win the confidence of the people, they must actively engage with the people. Whether it is Reconciliation or Rehabilitation, the people must be given a participatory role. It should not be a top down bureaucratic exercise. The official languages policy must be actively enforced so that Tamil citizens of the Country can at least receive communications from their government in their own language. There must be symbolic steps taken as for example the National Anthem must be always sung in both languages when the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation closes its services at night. In Singapore, for example, the broadcasts are in all four languages of the citizens, including Tamil.

"Whether it is Reconciliation or Rehabilitation, the people must be given a participatory role. It should not be a top down bureaucratic exercise"

Institutions such as the Provincial Council and Tamil-speaking people with executive power in  the central government such as Vijayakala should also be playing a positive role. The Minister in charge of Children’s Affairs could have initiated programmes to raise awareness of child protection, instead of merely railing against the government of which she herself was a State Minister. Of course she could not change the community single-handedly but other responsible bodies like the Provincial Council and religious institutions also have a responsibility towards it.

"If the Community feel the Police are not proactive enough, why not encourage youth; especially young women to join the Police force?"

They could also undertake campaigns against these abuses and focus attention on these aspects of the communities lives. Inaugurating more cultural activities, public lectures on educational and other matters and distance education through the TV and the internet could also be tried as a means of weaning people away from their addiction to drink and drugs. If the Community feel that the Police are not proactive enough, why not encourage young people, and especially young women to join the Police force? 

In Tamil Nadu, for example, Police stations run by Policewomen alone (All Women Police Stations had been instituted by the late Chief Minister Jayalalitha and have proved very successful as women feel more comfortable reporting sexual crimes at these police stations). The requirement of a pass in mathematics at the O/Levels for constables which is, I understand, a stumbling block for would-be recruits is due to the lack of Mathematics teachers in the schools. This could be rectified by giving exemptions for candidates from certain districts for a stated period , while also providing more mathematics teachers to schools in the rural areas. It must be recognized as a policy that the areas which were war affected be given certain concessions till they can be brought up to the required standards. A major requisite for maintaining law and order in the Province is to improve the existing Police services. The Police strength has to be brought up with the recruitment of more recruits from the province, as well as streamlined removing indiscipline and corruption from the ranks. The Police should be able to function in the Tamil language, receiving complaints and writing down statements in that language.   

There is another aspect of the speech which merits analysis. Vijayakala’s outburst also brings out her perception and probably that of others in the community as well, as to what is the best form of governance and what constitutes law and order in a society. It is here that I feel apprehension because she seems to imply that law and order and security of people in general, is best maintained under a dictatorial or authoritarian form of governance. Hence she shows nostalgia for that aspect of the era when the LTTE-controlled several parts of the North and East, and calls for the return of such an administration. 

It is well known that the LTTE maintained a strict discipline and close watch over the people under their control. For that reason women as well as people in general were able to move around freely without fear. Armed gangs would have been given short-shift, and crimes such as sexual abuse and harassment would receive summary justice. However, Vijayakala prefers not to remember that there were many young girls and boys in the rural villages in the north and east especially in extremely poor and depressed class villages who were taken away from their weeping parents forcibly and made to fight in the war only to die as cannon fodder. 

A Court in the Netherlands in 2015, used the evidence compiled by a Dutch female tourist about Tamil girls in the Eastern Province abducted and forcibly conscripted as child soldiers, while on their way to tuition classes, to convict five persons collecting money for the LTTE. Abduction itself is a crime and conscription of children to fight in a war is a war crime. Furthermore in such a society, there are no checks and balances. All dissent is severely punished. For this reason, so many Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (Federal party) MPs, including their late leader Appapillai Amirthalingam were mercilessly gunned down because they took the view that a negotiated settlement, and non-violent methods were the way to solve the ethnic problem and win Tamil rights. Dissent of any kind against the views of the fuhrer is something that is not to be tolerated in such a disciplined society. 

In a similar view expressed in the South, none other than the Anunayake of the Malwatha Maha Nikaya, a chief Buddhist prelate has urged a would-be Presidential candidate to be a ‘Hitler’. Obviously this fascination with authoritarianism and dare I say ‘fascism’, although hopefully confined to a few at present, runs on both sides of the ethnic divide. Hitler, it must be remembered got rid of his political opponents - both Christian Democrats as well as Communists, burnt the Parliament (Reichstag) and carried out a policy of ethnic-cleansing under which six million Jews, Slavs, Gypsies and several other communities (considered vermin) were systematically executed, gassed to death or worked to death in concentration camps. His plans to enlarge the boundaries of the fatherland and to rule the world brought about the World War II and the ultimate destruction of Germany which came to be divided between the four allied powers who had won the war. The Germans underwent terrible suffering, especially those on the eastern front who had to face the advancing Soviet Red Army which had many wrongs to repay.        

The Tamils of the north and east have had their share of death and destruction due to the war. Even today we have with us the war widows whom Vijayakala refers to solicitously. But would she want to see a repetition of this same scenario when she calls for the return of an LTTE administration. The Germans, after Hitler, rebuilt their country with sheer grit and determination, to become the powerhouse of Europe under a Federal and Democratic Constitution. This could be an example that Sri Lanka and the North-East Tamils could well emulate rather than indulging in nostalgia for earlier authoritarian or fascist regimes.

Daham Gamarala is a drug addict ! Gets caught to president father within bunker – No wonder Sirisena wants to execute heroin dealers !

(Lanka e News -23.July.2018, 11.00PM)  The reason why president Pallewatte Gamarala is stubbornly seeking to introduce capital punishment against drug dealers unheeding any advice  to the contrary  has by now come to light ! It is solely and wholly  because his only son Daham Gamarala is  addicted to drugs, based on reports reaching Lanka e news inside information division.

It is a well and widely known fact the  bunker that was built at  the underground of the president’s palace during the nefarious corrupt decade of Rajapakses , was used by his son Namal Rajapakse and youths  (Namal ‘s friends) secretly for  their nefarious activities during the Rajapakse  era .  It is in this same bunker Daham Gamarala had now got caught red handed to his father Pallewatte Gamarala the president when he was  reveling and rejoicing taking forbidden  drugs (in the form of pills) with his friends after throwing a party .

Clash  with Ravi Waidyalankara…

Some years ago when Daham was smoking ganja (cannabis) and enjoying with his friends in a hotel in the Eastern province , following his involvement in a fracas , his nefarious activities came to light  for the first time  through the media. The  violence  erupted when  Daham and his friends tried to molest   the wife of   assistant DIG Waidyalankara when they  were also in the same hotel on a holiday.

Pallewatte Gamarala who was a minister at that time convened a media briefing and concocted all the lies in his son’s defense while blaming the media for tarnishing his name. Unbelievably , the  same Gamarala however went to see injured Waidyalankara who was in hospital following the assault ,and tendered his apologies on behalf of his ganja smoking misbehaving son Daham.

Daham who was addicted to ganja from that time later changed his addiction to ecstasy drug. When Daham was taking this drug earlier too , an officer of the PSD detected it , and informed father president Gamarala . The latter did not believe it until Daham got caught to him red handed recently within  the bunker of the presidential palace while taking drugs .

Warning issued by Chandrika…

Even previously Daham Gamarala after taking drugs had created violent scenes in several night clubs he regularly visited. The president of course has naturally done everything possible only to suppress those incidents.

According to reports reaching Lanka e News  soon after  Pallewatte  Gamarala became the president , ex president Chandrika Bandaranaike had intimated to Gamarala that his son is  wayward and  a frequenter of night clubs , and to take immediate remedial action. Gamarala instead of heeding the advice had flown into a rage and turned bitter towards  Chandrika . He therefore  took no measures to rectify his son’s wild ways and vices .  Sadly ,now  it has gone out of control , and Daham has become a drug  addict.

The mental disorder (acute depression)  of the president too has become threefold worse after learning of this latest incident . It is thereafter his closest lackey and NGO crook Shiral Lakthileke who is now notorious for leading the president on the inexorable road to perdition had given his two penny half penny advice. Following that advice the president has decided to execute  the drug dealers.  The president who did not care two hoots for the children addicted to drugs of  other parents this long , has now got panicky only when his own son has fallen into the pit.  

If Daham is caught sleeping with a whore , are all the whores going to be executed  ?

9 countries including the European Union have addressed  a joint letter to the president and pointed out that it  has been proved the crimes in the world cannot be curbed via  capital punishment which is to be re introduced in SL after 40 years , and therefore not to opt to implement the death penalty.

It is a pity after coming forward to establish good governance ,  death penalty is to be implemented which  from the standpoint of civilized states  is a retrograde move  . In addition , the media reports also highlighted  that the European Union had warned , the GSP plus concession which was granted to SL to rescue it from the economic abyss might be withdrawn .

When  president Gamarala said loudly yesterday (21) that no matter who says what , the drug peddlers shall be executed   casting aside all the counseling proffered to him against his recalcitrant attitude and short sightedness, it is now obvious this is because , his own only son is addicted to drugs.

If this myopic  president is determined to execute  the drug dealers  because Daham his son was caught taking drugs , then surely his  giving orders to execute every whore too  he catches sleeping  with Daham , will not  be a  matter for surprise.

In these circumstances, the time is now ripe for the UNP to seriously think as a civilized party to  run a successful  government building and strengthening  its diplomatic relationships with the advanced countries ,  while ridding themselves of  the consensual alliance and  leaving the  unhinged  moronic president  to court the disaster  they are fast headed.

By a special correspondent of Lanka e News inside information division.

---------------------------
by     (2018-07-23 17:58:42)

Sri Lanka: Enforcing the Death Penalty

“The man’s spinal cord will rupture at the point where it enters the skull, electro-chemical discharges will send his limbs flailing in a grotesque dance, eyes and tongue will start from the facial apertures under the assault of the rope and his bowels and bladder may simultaneously void themselves to soil the legs and drip on the floor”.

by Dr Nihal Jayawickrama-Jul 22, 2018

( July 22, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The reports in recent newspapers that President Sirisena “will commence signing death warrants”, and that the prison authorities had been requested to send him nineteen names of prisoners in death row who are dealing in the drug trade while in prison, raise serious legal issues of a national and international nature. These issues have apparently been ignored by members of the Cabinet who enthusiastically endorsed the President’s desire to have nineteen persons hanged. This is yet another example of populist, emotion-driven, decision making at the highest levels of government that pays scant regard to empirical evidence and to obligations imposed by law, both national and international.

The constitutional obligation

The last judicial execution took place in 1976 when I was Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Justice. Then, as now, the Constitution prescribed the procedure to be followed when an accused person was sentenced to death by a trial court. Article 34 of our present Constitution states that, following the imposition of such sentence, the President shall cause a report to be made to him by the trial Judge. He shall forward such report to the Attorney General for his advice. Thereafter, the President shall send both reports to the Minister of Justice who will make the final recommendation whether the sentence should be carried out or whether it should be commuted to life imprisonment. When the President acts on that advice, and makes the appropriate order, the case is closed.

The procedure followed when Mr Felix Dias Bandaranaike was Minister of Justice was prescribed in a ministry standing order. If either the trial Judge or the Attorney General had recommended that the sentence should not be carried out, the Minister advised that the sentence be commuted. If the trial Judge and the Attorney General had both recommended that the sentence be carried out, a senior assistant secretary examined the case record and the investigation notes for one of three elements: (i) evidence of premeditation (ii) excessive cruelty in the commission of the murder (iii) any other material that “shocks the conscience”. If one of these elements was present, the Minister advised the President to let the law take its course. The executions ceased in 1976 when “Maru Sira” was found not to have been judicially executed. On 22 May 1977, the fifth anniversary of the Republic, President Gopallawa commuted the sentences of everyone on death row: 144 men and three women. Thereafter, President Jayewardene and his successors in office commuted every sentence of death. None, unfortunately, initiated legislative action to remove the death penalty from the statute book.

Legal issues

If the present Minister of Justice had conscientiously performed her constitutional duty, and if the President had acted according to the policy followed by his predecessors for 42 years, there would be no prisoners today under sentence of death. They would all be serving life sentences. A prisoner serving a life sentence cannot now be hanged. On the other hand, if there are prisoners still lingering in death row, nineteen among them cannot now be identified for hanging (as reported in the newspapers), because that suggests that the reporting procedure in respect of them, as required by the Constitution, has not yet been performed. If that be the case, and since the President has already publicly declared his desire to have them hanged, any recommendation submitted by the Minister to give effect to the President’s desire will surely be challenged in court as having been influenced by irrelevant considerations. The Minister would not have brought to bear her own independent judgment as required by the Constitution but would instead have been influenced by the President’s publicly declared desire and, indeed, by the Cabinet decision too.

Another issue arises from the reason publicly declared by the President for his desire to have the prisoners hanged, namely, that they have been engaging in the drug trade from within the prison premises. That cannot be the basis for an execution order. None of them have yet been indicted or convicted of the offence of drug trafficking from within prison premises. A prisoner has first to be charged with that offence, convicted and sentenced to death by a court, had his appeal dismissed, and then recommended for execution by the Minister of Justice before the President can sign his or her death warrant. Any other course of action will constitute extra-judicial murder.

Empirical evidence

There is now an international commitment to abolish the death penalty. This is not only because of the desire to respect the dignity of the human being and the sanctity of human life, but also because the global empirical evidence demonstrates beyond any shadow of doubt that the death penalty does not serve as a deterrent. The most effective deterrent to crime is the certainty of detection. Competent policing, efficient prosecution, and expeditious trial– none of which appears to be evident in Sri Lanka today – should be the primary objective of the government. If, in the absence of such deterrent, an individual proceeds to a life of crime, the progress that humanity has made through the centuries now demands that that individual be afforded an opportunity for rehabilitation, for reform, for repentance, for hope, for spiritualty, so that some day he or she may be able to enjoy those fundamental rights and freedoms which others outside the prison walls enjoy, but which are only possible if his or her right to life is not extinguished.

The international consensus

The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights requires that no one shall be executed and that each State shall take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty within its jurisdiction. In 1983, the Council of Europe abolished the death penalty in peacetime, and in 2002 abolished the death penalty in all circumstances, including wartime. Similar instruments have been adopted by the states parties to the American Convention on Human Rights. In 2014, the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights developed a protocol on the abolition of the death penalty. More than 160 of the 193 member-states of the United Nations have abolished the death penalty or introduced a moratorium, either in law or in practice. They include all the countries of Europe including Russia, nearly all the countries of Africa, and all the countries of South and Central America and Canada, as well as Australia, New Zealand and much of the Pacific.

If Sri Lanka now breaks its 42-year moratorium on executions, it is inevitable that economic concessions granted by the European Union including GSP+ will be withdrawn. Assistance from abroad in the investigation of crime may not be forthcoming. Requests by Sri Lanka for the extradition of persons awaiting trial or already tried and convicted will probably be refused by other States because of the unpredictability of the sentencing policy of the Government. Many beyond our shores who truly and faithfully adhere to the philosophy of life based upon tolerance and compassion as expounded by the Buddha will stand aghast as the Government of the only country in the world whose Constitution requires the State “to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana” addresses a human being confined to a prison cell and tells him or her: “You are beyond the pale of humanity. You are not fit to live among humankind. You are not entitled to life. You are not entitled to dignity. You are not human. We will therefore annihilate your life”.

The unseen reality

When President Sirisena sits at his desk and picks up his pen to sign a death warrant ordering the Commissioner of Prisons to hang a human being by his or her neck until he or she is dead, I would entreat him to read to himself the execution of the death penalty as described by Professor Chris Barnard:

“The man’s spinal cord will rupture at the point where it enters the skull, electro-chemical discharges will send his limbs flailing in a grotesque dance, eyes and tongue will start from the facial apertures under the assault of the rope and his bowels and bladder may simultaneously void themselves to soil the legs and drip on the floor”.

If that has had no effect and the deed has been done, the members of the Cabinet who authorized the President to revoke the 42-year old moratorium, and the Roman Catholic Cardinal and Buddhist monks who cheered him on, should perhaps reflect on the following words of a former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of South Africa:

“The deliberate annihilation of the life of a person systematically planned by the state as a mode of punishment is not like the act of killing in self-defence, an act justifiable in the defence of the clear right of the victim to the preservation of his life. It is not performed in a state of sudden emergency, or under the extraordinary pressures which operate when insurrections are confronted or when the state defends itself during war. It is systematically planned long after – sometimes years after – the offender has committed the offence for which he is to be punished, and while he waits impotently in custody, for his date with the hangman. In its obvious and awesome finality, it makes every other right, so vigorously and eloquently guaranteed by the Constitution, permanently impossible to enjoy. Its inherently irreversible consequence makes any reparation or correction impossible, if subsequent events establish, as they have sometimes done, the innocence of the executed individual or circumstances which demonstrate manifestly that he did not deserve the sentence of death.”

Gaza truce holds after Israeli air strikes across Palestinian enclave

Israel fired at Hamas military targets after one of its soldiers was killed on the Gaza border

A Palestinian man was injured and taken to the al-Shifa hospital after being injured by an Israeli air strike in Gaza (AFP)

Saturday 21 July 2018 

A ceasefire called by Hamas on Saturday continued to hold following a wave of deadly Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip on Friday.

The strikes was sparked by the death of an Israeli soldier shot dead by Palestinian militants near the Gaza border. 

Israel did not confirm the deal announced by Gaza's rulers, which went into effect around midnight Friday reducing fears of a broader conflict.

But the Israeli army said tanks struck a Hamas observation point east of Gaza City on Saturday morning, saying it was in retaliation for an attempted border infiltration in northern Gaza.

There were no reports of injuries in the strike, and there was no major Israeli bombing campaign overnight or mortar fire from Gaza towards Israel.

"With Egyptian and UN efforts, we reached [an agreement] to return to the previous state of calm between the [Israeli] occupation and the Palestinian factions," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement early on Saturday.

A senior Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP the deal involved "the cessation of all forms of military escalation" including Israeli air strikes and Hamas mortars and rockets.

The source said that balloons and kites attached with incendiary devices, which Palestinians have been floating over the border for months to spark fires inside Israel, were not included in the agreement.

Israeli politicians have been calling for a fierce response to the kites and balloons, which have caused damage amounting hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Israel's army and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office both declined to confirm the truce.

"All we can say is that there have been no incidents or Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since the last wave of air strikes on Friday night," a military spokeswoman told AFP.

Temporary reprieve

On Friday, three Hamas militants were killed as air raids sent fireballs exploding into the sky over Gaza, while Israel said rockets had been fired towards its territory. 

A fourth Palestinian was shot dead in protests near the border.

The United Nations urged all sides to step "back from the brink" of war after months of increasing tensions.

The Israeli soldier, shot dead along the border in southern Gaza, was the first to be killed in and around the Palestinian enclave since a 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.

Friday's flare-up was the latest as demonstrations and clashes on the frontier since March have seen at least 149 Palestinians killed.

In response, the Israeli army said they struck 60 Hamas sites, including weapons manufacturing sites, a drone warehouse and a military operations room.

This came only a week after the most severe exchange of fire between Israel and Palestinian fighters in Gaza since the 2014 war.

Jason Greenblatt, US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace envoy, laid the blame for weeks of increasing tensions solely with Hamas.

"Hamas works relentlessly to destroy Israeli lives (& Gazans suffer as a result of Hamas)," he tweeted while offering condolences to the soldier's family.

Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008, most recently in 2014.

Israel has tightened its already crippling blockade of Gaza in recent weeks as it seeks to pressure Hamas to end the incendiary kites and balloons.

Hugh Lovatt, Israel-Palestine fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank, told AFP another round of conflict remained highly possible.

"The ceasefire is crucial and shows neither side wants war, but it's only a temporary reprieve.

"Unless it can be consolidated and translated into a more permanent agreement that includes an easing of Israeli restrictions then we will continue to witness ever more frequent flare ups."

Reconstruction at a snail’s pace in Gaza

Rami Hamouda’s family remains displaced four years after their home was destroyed during Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza.

 Abed Zagout

Sarah Algherbawi- 19 July 2018

Every morning Rami Hamouda visits the place where his home used to be. His children play football in its grounds as Rami sits nearby, hoping for a call on his mobile phone. He wants to hear when work on reconstruction will start.

The Hamouda family lived in Beit Lahiya, a city in northern Gaza. Their home was totally destroyed by Israeli forces in July 2014.

Four years later, the family is living in a temporary accommodation and lacks basic furniture. “We use cardboard boxes for arranging our clothes,” said Rami, 42.

Consisting of four stories, the building hosted 22 people, spread between six apartments.
In 2016, Gaza’s ministry of public works approved plans to reconstruct the building. Yet the job has not yet begun. Rami calls into the ministry’s headquarters at least once a month. Each time he is told that the file is still pending.

Rami’s sister Samah has struggled to cope with the cramped conditions in which she has lived since the building was bombed. “I have no privacy,” Samah, a 28-year-old kindergarten teacher, said.
“The missile that destroyed our house didn’t only destroy the walls,” she added. “It also destroyed our childhood memories, the lovely moments we had inside that house. Everything was gone in the blink of an eye. The psychological damage it caused will never be healed.”

Approximately 12,000 homes were destroyed by Israel when it attacked Gaza in the summer of 2014.
Following the offensive, an international conference – presented as an initiative to raise money for rebuilding Gaza – was held in Cairo. Governments taking part in the event pledged to donate a total of $3.5 billion. By March this year, less than $2 billion of that sum had been paid out, according to World Bank data.

Lack of funding has meant that the Gaza authorities frequently do not have money to begin repair or reconstruction work. Only 53 percent of all homes that were totally destroyed in 2014 have been rebuilt, Gaza’s public works ministry has calculated.

“How can I afford rent?”

The Shujaiya neighborhood in Gaza City became synonymous with a massacre committed by Israel in July 2014.

Ibrahim Jundiya’s home was severely damaged by Israeli shelling at the time of the massacre.
He and seven other members of his family still live in the home. That is despite the fact just one of its rooms is fit for habitation.

The Gaza authorities had previously given Ibrahim, 44, some money so that the family could find rented accommodation. “I was broke and I used the money to pay some bills,” he said. “They didn’t give us any further money.”

Firas Jundiya, 9, outside his family’s damaged home, in which they still live.
 Abed Zagout

Ibrahim earns about $6 a day working as a driver. “What I make from my work doesn’t cover my basic expenses,” he said. “How can I afford to pay rent?”

Gaza’s public works ministry has sent engineers to assess the extent of the damage inflicted on the Jundiyas’ home. The engineers estimated that it would cost $20,000 to repair.

“Until this moment, I didn’t get a single dollar,” said Ibrahim. “The ministry keeps telling us that this is because donations have been frozen and due to the lack of a budget for reconstruction. It seems that we’ll have to continue living in this room.”

The situation has placed his family under considerable stress. “It feels really weird to live in a house like ours, especially at night,” said his 16-year-old son Abd al-Rahman. “It’s very scary. It feels like you’re in a ghost house.”

Naji Sarhan, a representative of Gaza’s public works ministry, acknowledged that “the reconstruction process is going very slow for several reasons.” The reasons include Israel’s siege on Gaza, delays in international donors delivering on aid pledges and divisions between the Hamas-run administration in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, both of which are under Israeli occupation.

Aid is strictly monitored under the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism. Nominally an international body, it has been established in such a way that Israel has a veto on whether any item may enter Gaza. Israel is also given personal details on every aid recipient.

That allows Israel “to control the [reconstruction] process,” Sarhan added.

“Exhausted”

At times, Israel has imposed restrictions on the entry of basic building materials such as cement. In recent days, the Israeli government has announced that it has placed new limits on the importation of commercial goods to Gaza.

Ibrahim Filfil lost both his home and his carpentry workshop because of Israel’s 2014 offensive.
Forty people were employed in his business, which was located in al-Tuffah, a neighborhood of Gaza City.

Ibrahim Filfil hasn’t been compensated for the loss of his carpentry workshop as a result of the 2014 war.Abed Zagout

The reconstruction of Ibrahim’s home – also in al-Tuffah – has not yet begun. And he has not received any financial compensation for the loss of his business.

Ibrahim, 52, is the father of 11 children. The family is now living in a friend’s house.

“I was a businessman and was in a very good economic situation,” he said. “Now I’m waiting for the rebuilding of my house and for a tiny financial compensation. I never expected that I would have to go through this.”

Ibrahim and his wife Wafaa had hoped to organize a major celebration for when their eldest son Mohammed got married. Mohammed wed last year but their current circumstances meant that the party had to be much smaller than they wished. Mohammed is still living with his parents in their friend’s house.

“The tension has made my husband exhausted,” said Wafaa. “He rarely sleeps well. My husband was very calm and patient before this happened to us. Now he’s always angry.”

Sarah Algherbawi is a freelance writer and translator from Gaza.