Friday, October 26, 2018

Sri Lanka: Draft Counter Terrorism Act Needs More Revisions

There are ideological, organizational and subjective factors behind insurgency, organized political violence and terrorist movements.

by Laksiri Fernando- Oct 26, 2018

( October 26, 2018, Sydney, Sri Lanka Guardian) There are apparent improvements in the draft Counter Terrorism Act (CTA) in comparison to the exiting Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). However they are far short of preventing possible abuse of power on the part of the police, or the security forces, and safeguarding the necessary rights of the suspects until proven guilty or even thereafter.

The prevention of possible abuse of power on the part of the police or the security forces would not depend merely on the niceties of a legislation, particularly in a country like Sri Lanka. Police reforms, more stringent recruitment procedures, human rights education, strict supervision (judicial and other) and counter balancing institutions are necessary to make a police service more humane and accountable.

If such conditions were in place prior to the eruption of insurgencies or terrorism in 1971, again in the period of 1987-89 in the South, or the emergence of particularly the LTTE terrorism in the North between 1981 and 1983 period, major catastrophes in the form of civil wars could have been curtailed, if not avoided.

Police Action Can Exacerbate Terrorism

There are ideological, organizational and subjective factors behind insurgency, organized political violence and terrorist movements. However, these factors can be exacerbated or even given political legitimacy, if the police and the security forces act arbitrarily, excessively, inhumanely when the suspects are apprehended and detained. This is not merely a theory, but a common observation before 1971, and again and again thereafter.

Vidyodaya University was a major centre of JVP activities in late 1960s and early 1970s before the insurrection brokeout, where I was first teaching. There was a new police post in front of the main entrance, and many occasions the JVP students and others were apprehended and treated very badly, to say the least. Those students also indulged in violence against the rival student groups. Nevertheless, the police repression throughout the country could be considered a major reason for the JVP to target around 100 police stations in the hurriedly organized insurrection in April. This is confirmed by research.

There was a similar situation in late 1970s and early 1980s in Jaffna and in the North. In March 1981, I was part of a MIRJE mission (Movement for Inter-Racial Justice and Equality) to investigate the situation. There were credible evidence of brutal police atrocities against youth,who were suspected of involvement in militant movements at that time. The movements soon turned into terrorism, perhaps confirming their ideology.

Although there was no apparent ethnic angle to the police repression initially, soon it changed. A police officer whose name came prominent during our survey, later joined an extreme Sinhala nationalist political party after retirement.

No one can exclude the possibility of resurrection of terrorism again in the North or the South. In the South it did emerge twice. Therefore, the need for some special legislation or provisions cannot be denied. Terrorism is also an international phenomenon. However, counter terrorist legislation should not allow room for atrocities by the police or the securityforces that could exacerbate terrorism. Even otherwise, there should be protection of life, dignity and rights of the suspects, other than punishing them for the crimes if proved guilty.

Justification for Special Legislation?

There can be a justification for special legislation or provisions on terrorism offenses because of Sri Lanka’s past, and the international situation, however that should be clear in the legislation as to what it includes and also what it excludes. This does not appear very clear in the proposed draft in Part 1.

Particularly when it says, ‘acts compelling wrongfully and unlawfully the Government of Sri Lanka to do or abstain from doing any act…by way of causing serious obstruction or damage to essential services or supplies…or causing obstruction or damage to or interference with any critical infrastructure or logistic facility associated with any essential service or supply’ it is not an acceptable definition.

Under such a definition, trade union or student protests and action could be defined as ‘terrorism,’ in addition to political protests and action. It is argued that even the existing PTA does not have such a broad definition (Nirmala Chandrahasan, The Island, 22 October).

Although the draft subsequently says the ‘acts conducted by any person in good faith and in the lawful exercise of a fundamental right shall not amount to an offense’ under terrorism, that cannot be considered as a proper exclusion. The reference to ‘fundamental rights’ gives very little protection as to who could be arrested and detained on the pretext or reason of terrorism.

Australia is a country that has (fairly) clearly defined terrorist acts in the Criminal Code Act (1995) as follows.

‘A terrorist act is an act, or a threat to commit an act, that is done with the intention to coerce or influence the public or any government by intimidation to advance a political, religious or ideological cause, and the act causes: (1) death, serious harm or endangers a person (2) serious damage to property (3) a serious risk to the health or safety of the public, or (4) seriously interferes with, disrupts or destroys critical infrastructure such as a telecommunications or electricity network.’ (Australia’s Terrorism Laws, Attorney General’s Department).

The definition or interpretation is clear emphasising actual or intended harmful terrorist acts as death, damage to property, risk to public health and safety, and disruption/damage to infrastructure.

The definition also excludes the following very clearly: ‘a terrorist act does not cover engaging in advocacy, protest, dissent or industrial action where a person does not have the intention to urge force or violence or cause harm to others.’

Therefore, if there is no intention to use force, violence or cause harm to othersor the democratic processes in the country, it is not a terrorist act. This clarity apparently is not there in the proposed Counter Terrorism Act, at least at this stage.

Rights of Accused

Under democratic rule of law, an accused or a suspect should have certain rights to protect his life, dignity and integrity. This should also be the case in respect of terrorist suspects, until proven guilty or even thereafter. To my experience, terrorists are also normal human beings except for their ‘ideology and actions.’There can be a strong prejudice or stigma attached to when a person is accused or suspected as a terrorist.

Given Sri Lanka’s past, the current international circumstances and prevailing tense political conditions inside the country, radical youth and members of minority ethnic or religious communities are particularly vulnerable to mistaken or false accusations. On the other hand, violent political tendencies are endemic in our society emanating in various quarters.

Under the proposed act, any police officer, member of the armed forces or a coast guard can arrest a person suspected of terrorism without a warrant. It is highly questionable whether members of armed forces or coast guards would have necessary law enforcement skills in arresting terrorist suspects.

It is also not clear whether the suspect could be kept under his/her custody or handover to the area OIC. There are apparent contradictory provisions. This has to be clarified with a time limit. Under prevailing provisions, such a suspect has to be produced before a Magistrate within 48 hours, but unfortunately it is not the Magistrate who issues the detention order, but a DIG. While the initial detention order is for two weeks this could be extended up to eight weeks after reporting to the Magistrate and with his/her not so clear consent.

Critics have argued that during the investigation period, although the suspect is produced before a Magistrate, that judicial officer has only nominal supervision and the total care is under the DIG concerned, probably the DIG in charge of the Terrorism Investigation Division. In recent days, we have seen what kind of people who would be in charge of such positions.

What is most lacking in the present process of inaugurating a new CTA, in place of the much criticised present PTA, is a proper public discussion. Earlier the proposed CTA was available from the following link: ( Click Here)

But now it is not available even hampering the present discussion that I have started.

A Balance Sheet?

Human Right Watch (HRW) has given a qualified signal for the new draft legislation saying “The draft Counter Terrorism Act of 2018 (CTA) represents a significant improvement over the previous proposals to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), although several problematic provisions remain.”

There are ten areas where improvements have been suggested. However, the question remains whether the parliamentarians would improve the human rights protection or worsen the situation, when it comes to the debate and the committee stage. The best option for the government is to propose a more improved version quickly taking into account the suggestions and improvements proposed by the critics, including the HRW.

There are clear concerns expressed by intellectuals from the Tamil community (Nirmala Chandrahasan, RajanHoole etc.) and others (Ruki Fernando etc.). While it is understandable that the minority communities (both ethnic and religious) still have greater stakes or risks even in a new or improved legislation, the suggestions however should not be too idealistic or impractical.

RajanHoole has validly asked, after tracing Sri Lanka’s notorious record of ‘detention without trial’ and other conceptual matters, “Should this not give us pause to think whether we really need anything more than the Penal Code on our statute book?” One middle way, or a way out, could be to make the counter terrorism legislation a part of the normal Criminal/Penal Code of the country, like in Australia, with much more precise definition of terrorism,specifying what it includes and what it excludes.

Then the law enforcement procedures,including arrest, detention, questioning, defense, legal assistance and trial, could confirm or closer to what is available in the Penal Code of the country without giving arbitrary or excessive powers to the police officers, armed force personnel or coast guards. Of course this is on the premise that our present Penal Code is decent, democratic and civilized!

While my present submissions are sketchy and preliminary, two other proposals can be (1) strengthening of the Magisterial supervision of the arrested suspects for terrorism from day one (meaning within 24 hours) and (2) strengthening of the role of the National Human Rights Commission in overall supervision and intervention including going before the higher courts, if the fundamental rights of the suspects and detainees are apparently violated.

Kumara Welgama: Righteous Anger, Or Sour Grapes?

By Uditha Devapriya –OCTOBER 26, 2018

Uditha Devapriya

Political splits are inevitable. They happen and are easy to predict. The reasons for those splits, however, are difficult to ascertain. More often than not, feel-good, self-righteous, chest-thumping statements about democracy and good governance are made to the public. The public, for their part, believes these to be the causes for those splits, when the reality may be different. After all, who can now deny that the ruckus over good governance was a cover for the personality clashes that led to the defections of so many parliamentarians? Who cannot now trace Duminda Dissanayake’s decision to defect from the Rajapaksas to the Rajapaksa’s acts of snubbing his father?

The bottom line is that when it comes to defections like this, there are always distinctions made in public between righteous anger (provoked by the excesses of a ruling coalition) and sour grapes (provoked by the ruling coalition snubbing them). Such distinctions go a long way in painting the defectors as decent, just, and untainted by scandal. When, of course, the truth may be completely different.

The Joint Opposition is more than three years old. The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna is now almost two years old. The latter was an offshoot of a party, established in 2000, that had failed to garner much support: the Sri Lanka Jathika Peramuna. The definitive precursor to the Pohottuwa, the SLJP had made waves as a political party with its own platform and manifesto, even campaigning at the 2015 election alongside a plethora of small time, independent candidates. Wimal Geenage, the leader of the party, who was probably (though we can never be sure) installed as a Rajapaksa Proxy at the elections (for the record, he emerged last, with a grand collection of 1,826 votes or 0.02% of the total number), raised speculation as to who would “take over”. When G. L. Peiris took over with the Joint Opposition, the SLJP’s logo, a cricket bat, was changed to the now instantly recognisable flower bud. Much like Sarath Fonseka filing nomination papers from an unknown party linked to the Democratic United Front, then, the SLPP was a product of an unknown party, of vague political affiliations.

It was also a product of a shifting array of ideologies. Broadly, these are of two types. On the one hand, there are those who wish to see Mahinda Rajapaksa return. On the other hand, there are those who wish to see the Rajapaksas return. Yes, there is a clear difference. The one has hedged its bets on the man behind the movement, the other on the culture of nepotism he is said to have institutionalised during his term. No, it’s not easy to distinguish between the two. Where would Mahinda Rajapaksa be without his family, after all, and where would that culture of nepotism be without him?

When the SLPP was begun, the Rajapaksa Restoration Project centred on Mahinda. Supporters wanted Mahinda to come back. Gotabaya and Basil, while not on the sidelines, were not a primary concern. The reason was obvious: Basil had, in popular opinion, had a history of shifting political loyalties (he abandoned the SLFP during the eighties), and Gotabaya held a dual citizenship. For them to win big, a massive campaign had to be launched to market their “winnability”, Gotabaya on the basis of his term at the Urban Development Authority and Basil on the basis of his skills in “getting things done” outside Colombo (an ability that once earned him the unlovely sobriquet “Mr 10 Percent” from Chandrika Kumaratunga).

Kumara Welgama is not the first politician to harbour reservations about the trajectory of the SLPP in this respect. If rumours are true, such reservations have been harboured by other party firebrands, even the likes of Wimal Weerawansa and Gamini Lokuge. But Welgama is the first to come out publicly with his disenchantment.

The statements he has made at rallies organised by the SLPP are revealing. He has claimed that he would not be supporting a candidate other than “a democratic leader”, that this extends even to the Rajapaksa family, and that the candidate the party fields in 2020 will have to be “at least a Pradeshiya Sabha member”. That last insinuation makes it clear that he is not happy with Gotabaya Rajapaksa becoming the candidate. The reasons he gives are, while not vague, nevertheless complicated: he is for freedom and democracy, he is against nepotism, and he opposes racism.

The racism charge fits in neatly with the UNP’s image of Gotabaya as a Muslim bashing opportunist, an image borne more than anything else out of a photograph taken of the man and Gnanasara Thera together. The nepotism charge and harangue against the man’s democratic credentials (or lack thereof) fit in neatly with the UNP’s white van rhetoric against his family. In other words, Welgama is subscribing to the propaganda those opposed to the SLPP, a party he ostensibly represents, is churning out to protect what little “vililajjawa” they have. For what reason?

Two notorious judges who compromised the prestige and honor of judiciary to be promoted by a president an enemy of good governance!

(Lanka e News -24.Oct.2018, 12.45PM) It is by now a well and widely known fact president Pallewatte Gamralalage Maithripala Yapa Sirisena while being the leader of the ruling government has all along been playing deceitful games shamelessly to the detriment of his own government which in fact has also been militating against the nation and the country .

His latest betrayal and underhand move was when he did a complete 180 degree turnaround to take measures completely antagonistic to good governance government in breach of his promises and turning his back on the mandate of the people . That is , moving heaven and earth to form a caretaker government on the sly with the same crooks of the Blue brigand who were thrown out lock , stock and barrel on a people’s verdict.

It is unfortunate Lanka e News which espouses and exposes the truth is once again saddled with the task of revealing the unsavory news regarding the most unscrupulous , unreliable, policy -less , shameless and rudderless leader .This news report relates to the traitorous anti good governance president recommending names of two judges to the Constitutional Council (CC) for appointment to the Supreme court and Appeal Court benches, while it is a well known fact these two corrupt judges became most infamous by virtue of the fact they unashamedly gave decisions most partial and biased during the corrupt nefarious decade of the Rajapakses. In fact their professional disrepute stank a mile .

Two vacancies in the SC…..

Deepali Wijayasundara ,currently a notorious appeal court judge who delivered a biased judgment against Sarath Fonseka has been recommended for the Supreme Court (SC )bench , while Sarojini Weerawardena presently another despicable High court judge is one who flagrantly violated the Judicial Service Commission circulars to make the court premises a ‘bana preaching parlor ’ during court sessions ,and provided relief to all the crooks and the corrupt .These are the two infamous judges recommended by president Sirisena best noted for making the worst selections for high posts. Of course their seniority is no issue , but the truth of the matter is , these are the two dishonorable corrupt judges who went out of the way to aid the crooked Rajapakses to override the rule of law and trampled justice during their period.

Deepali Wijayasundara the ‘chooti nangi’ of Mahinda…

Unbelievably , it was the then president Mahinda Rajapakse who was invited to sign as an attesting witness at the wedding of the daughter of Deepali though this was absolutely against sacrosanct judicial traditions . Mahinda addresses Deepali as ‘ Chooti nangi’

After signing . Mahinda gifted Rs. one million by check to the bride. After the wedding he also sent a brand new unregistered Benz car to Deepali’s house.That car was driven by a Commando forces captain of the presidential security division to her house. Is there a more appropriate term to describe these other than as ‘bribes’ (for the services rendered in the past and the future by the judge then ) ?

It is to be noted these were gifts given while the trial of Fonseka’s ‘white flag ‘ case was on going , which means it is a most serious offense. Finally along with another scoundrel of a judge Razik a dissenting judgment was delivered against Fonseka sentencing him to jail. The only judge of rectitude and integrity who dissented was justice Warawewa.

After the judgment was delivered against Fonseka , Deepali was appointed as appeal court judge ignoring 7 other judges who were most suitable for that position by MR.

Moreover Deepali is cast In the same mould of the racists . She is an out and out racist .This was well demonstrated in the Raviraj murder trial. She disdainfully and unfairly discarded in a day the petition of appeal filed by the relatives of the deceased against the court decision delivered at midnight . The petitioners were permanently denied the right to file an appeal against the verdict .

Kusala Sarojini..

Kusala Sarojini is not second to Deepali when it comes to personification of evil. The Sil cloth scam case was first heard by Kusala . She precluded the arrest of the accused , the former presidential secretary Lalith Weeratunge . This was because he was her ‘Lalith uncle’ . In fact it was a duty incumbent on her not to hear a case where the accused have close links with her. She should have withdrawn . Finally the decision putting Lalith Weeratunge and others behind bars was delivered by an impartial judge Gihan Kulatunge , after Sarojini was transferred to another area.

As Lanka e news revealed earlier. Sarojini is not a judge but a ‘fudge ‘ and fraud who flagrantly violated Judicial service commission circulars and invited all the crooks and the corrupt for a ‘bana drama’ within the court premises when courts were in session which is an unpardonable offence. In any other country such judges alias frauds would be behind bars not on benches .

Interestingly , good governance government president Sirisena did not name these two judges to the higher courts when he just became the president. However now, since he has done a 180 degree turnaround and his mental balance too has undergone a change -lost its equilibrium he has named them for the higher courts .

According to reports reaching Lanka e news inside information division , it is Nanda De Silva the most infamous former chief justice cum lickspittle of Rajapakses who has met the president to recommend these two judges to the higher courts.

It is a universally known fact that Nanda Silva is the chief justice who has earned the rare inglorious distinction as the worst Chief Justice SL had ever known. Despite the fact such a CJ can only recommend crooked judges of his caliber , president Sirisena alias Sillysena who has no gray matter at all had followed his advice without batting an eyelid.

Lanka e News a few days ago disclosed , president Gamarala is now taking advice from Lalith Weeratunge and Sarath Nanda Silva.

However the pro good governance masses are still having a glimmer of hope that the Constitutional council will have the spine and strength to reject these names proposed by a president who is right now toiling hard to undo everything that benefits the nation . This choice of judges being another of the mentally deranged president’s loony decisions, the pro good governance masses are earnestly anticipating the CC to live up to the confidence and trust they are reposing in it when it meets next Thursday.

Chandrapradeep

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by (2018-10-24 08:06:16)

Detention without Trial: Necessity or Debilitating Addiction?

By Rajan Hoole-October 24, 2018, 12:00 pm

Detention without trial has so prominently been part of our lives, particularly from the 1970s, that we have become inured to it. No doubt it is external pressure that has driven us to think about it afresh and the government to set about the task of replacing the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act with another Counter Terrorism Act. The latter has received qualified approval from the Human Rights Watch: "The Sri Lankan government has finally addressed the torture-tarred Prevention of Terrorism Act, but the proposed law needs stronger human rights protections."

That means the government could get away with it for a couple of years. But is that adequate for us who live in this country, we who must ensure that each one of our fellow citizens enjoys the full measure of dignity and self-assurance that is his or her due? The State’s right to detention without trial demeans us all, and once we give someone else the facility to play with our lives, it makes us more prone to become manipulators for personal ends. That is the legacy survival under terrorism had left us.

Should this not give us pause to think whether we really need anything more than the Penal Code on our statute book? A glance at the draft CTA would suggest that the answer is no. The more serious crimes in the Penal Code have been replicated in the draft as acts of terrorism. Something so lengthy and platitudinous does not augur well for the Majesty of the Law. We are told that a person might be rewarded with leniency in sentencing by publicly denouncing terrorism and for expression of remorse. A change of heart in a criminal is welcome and personal, but must we demean him by turning him into a supplicant?

The British Experience

Our long and eventful association with Britain has left us with mixed feelings, but it would be to our loss when we refuse to learn from their experience. What made Britain great was her strong tradition of personal liberty. In Walter Scott’s great novel Old Mortality, set in the context of the 17th Century persecution of Presbyterians by Charles II; Morton, in refusing to answer the questions of Colonel Claverhouse, who holds discretion over his life, says:

"I will not. I will know whether I am in lawful custody, and before a civil magistrate ere the Charter of my country [Scotland] shall be forfeited in my person… I desire to know what right he has to detain me without a legal warrant, Were he a civil officer of the law I should know my duty was submission." It is this spirit that uplifts a nation.

The tradition was reiterated by Justice Blackstone in his Commentaries of 1765 - : "Of great importance to the public is the preservation of this personal liberty, for if once it were left to the power of any, the highest, magistrate to imprison arbitrarily whomever he or his officers thought proper, (as in France it is daily practised by the Crown), there would soon be an end of all other rights and immunities."!

Britain did not have emergency legislation on its statute book during the one hundred years since the end of the Napoleonic wars until DORA (the Defence of the Realm Act) in 1914, which was repealed soon after the First World War in 1918. It was followed by the Emergency Powers Act of 1920 in anticipation of the coal miners’ strike, in order to maintain essential supplies. But it aroused such misgivings that the Act included the particular commitment that it shall not be an offence to take part in a strike; and existing procedures in criminal cases shall not be altered.

With the onset of World War II in August 1939, the British Parliament passed the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act, which paved the way for detention without trial:

"2 (a) Make provision for the apprehension, trial, and punishment of persons offending against the Regulations and for the detention of persons whose detention appears to the Secretary of State to be expedient in the interests of the public safety or the defence of the realm…"

Most of its provisions, including detention without trial, expired after the end of the war on 24th February 1946, in both Britain and the Colonies.

Ivor Jennings and personal liberties

Jennings, in October 1940, five months before he left England to become the first Vice Chancellor of the University of Ceylon, wrote a paper in the Modern Law Review on the Emergency Powers Act. He acknowledged the historical role of ‘Whigs and dissenters’ in securing personal liberties and expressed his satisfaction that the war regulations did not entirely take away the role of the Judiciary and Parliament in safeguarding these.

For instance, when speedy response to criminal action is required of a court exercising delegated power in certain volatile conditions, its actions remain justiciable. Jennings says:

"This is a real restriction, because it is not provided that the power may be exercised when somebody in office is "satisfied" that the conditions exist. The conditions must really exist: that is, when the ordinary courts are open it will be possible to challenge the decision of the special court by prerogative writ or order on the ground that the Order in Council was invalid by reason of the non-existence of the conditions."

This spirit strongly contrasts with that of our Public Security Ordinance (PSO) passed on 16th June 1947 during the last 19 days of the Ceylon State Council, which has deceptive similarities to the British Emergency Powers Act. We need to look closely at the PSO because all repressive legislation in the coming decades flowed from it.

PSO – A clear deviation from British tradition

We have in 5 (1) and (2) of the PSO:

"… make such regulations … as appear to [the Governor-General] to be necessary or expedient in the interests of public security and the preservation of public order and the suppression of mutiny, riot or civil commotion… authorize and provide for the detention of persons …"

This closely follows Article (2) the British wartime Emergency Powers Act above. We now come to the crucial difference.

PSO 8 "No emergency regulation, and no order, rule or direction made or given thereunder shall be called in question in any court."

PSO 9 "… no suit, prosecution or other proceeding, civil or criminal, shall lie against any person for any act in good faith done in pursuance or supposed pursuance of any such provision."

No British Act or Regulation dealing with emergency powers, to my knowledge, sanctions acts done ‘in good faith’. PSO 8 is contrary to what Jennings said about the PSO’s parent, the UK Emergency Powers Act.

To accept acts ‘done in good faith’ at face value is to demolish the supremacy of the law and open the door to unlimited impunity. In British law, "In so far as acts go beyond strict necessity, they will then be punished unless an Act of Indemnity is passed, which, as Dicey says, amounts to Parliament legalizing illegality" (David Dyzenhaus, Legality in a Time of Emergency).

The ‘good faith’ doctrine carried over from the PSO to the PTA, now appears in the CTA, as also detention without trial (CTA Articles 27 – 31).

PSO challenged in Parliament

Four months after Independence, Dr. N.M. Perera moved a resolution in Parliament on 7th July 1948 to repeal the PSO. He reminded the House that J.R. Jayewardene had told the State Council a year earlier that public opinion in the country was not sufficiently awakened and it would be dangerous not to have a provision of this nature on the Statute Book in case of an emergency. Perera charged that the PSO was a measure by those who were fascist at heart to intimidate the workers and prevent them from getting their full trade union rights.

D.S. Senanayake responded with what Pieter Keuneman pointed out was the Prime Minister’s variation of the old English adage ‘Prevention is better than cure’, that ‘Precaution is better than cure’. Senanayake promised to come back with amendments to the PSO ‘that would bring the law into line with the English law’. (That never happened.) Both Jayewardene and A.E. Goonesinha promised that detention without trial, which made possible the detention during the war of elected representatives, N.M. Perera and Philip Gunawardana, would go from the PSO. That too never happened.

The main problem with such legislation is that there is invariably a generalised target group as we have seen. Jayewardene alleged in Council, in July 1947, that, "These speeches [by strikers in Galle Face and elsewhere the previous month] clearly indicate a direct incitement to the people to shoot, to kill. They have shouted in their speeches that the Board of Ministers should be ousted from office."

This was bordering class war. Other speakers in Parliament pointed out that incitement to violence could have been prosecuted under normal law.

The Liberation Movement that has challenged the CTA Bill has observed, "The nature of Terrorism legislation in any form is that it allows the State to cause mistrust and suspicion amongst its citizens."

1947 and the Legacy of Conflict

The Government armed itself with the PSO in 1947 under cover provided by ebbing British rule; and in June 1948 armed itself with the Trade Unions Amendment Bill. Both should be seen in the context of the Citizenship Act of August 1948. The Government must have been alive to the prospect of the latter triggering off a combined strike of the Plantation Unions and other unions taking their cue from government sector unions, particularly the GCSU, whose activists were educated and articulate. The Trade Unions Bill made affiliation or federation of any government sector union with other unions, private sector or public, illegal.

The PSO came in the aftermath of the strike of 5th June 1947, which Senanayake put down harshly. Leslie Goonewardene reflected in his Short History of the LSSP, that the result of the strike was ‘not just a defeat, but a smash-up’. That partly explains how the minority Government got away so easily with the Citizenship Act. A great part of the blame lies with Tamil politics.

Historically, the rightful role for a party representing a minority is to defend and strengthen personal liberties and individual rights for all. This is where the Tamil parties failed. Communal representation, the Tamil Congress’ 50 – 50, was a mistaken goal. Placed in a quandary of isolation, the Tamil Congress voted with the Government on the Trade Unions Bill and cooperated with the Government on the Citizenship Bill. Although Chelvanayakam redeemed himself on the latter, it was too late.

The Tamils had burnt their boats. Their drift into national self-determination and separatism was a tragedy. Today their public and academic life is dominated by intellectual ciphers. A return to personal liberties requires courage. The primary goal should be to rescue the country from mediocrity and its fate of citizens as supplicants. A political settlement should flow from that.

Abduction of two in 2009:-Lt. Commander arrested, remanded

Shavini Madhara-Thursday, October 25, 2018

Navy Intelligence officer Lieutenant Commander Sampath Dayananda was arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) yesterday.

This is over the alleged abduction of two persons in Wellampitiya in 2009. He was remanded till today by Acting Magistrate K.S.A. Amaradiwakara.

The CID had filed charges against five persons including Sampath Dayananda for charges including abducting and disappearing of two persons in 2009.

CID’s Organized Crimes Division Unit OIC Nishantha Silva told court that the officer was arrested over the alleged abduction and disappearance of Vadivelu Yoganathan and Rathnasami Paramanandan.

The investigators filing a B report before court said the abductors had taken away the mobile phone, jewellery and cash of the victims at that time.

Loganathan’s vehicle was found at the Welisara Navy Camp dismantled into72 pieces.

Considering these submissions, the acting Magistrate fixed hearing for today (25).

Ammo deal with underworld - Major, two soldiers arrested

LEON BERENGER- OCT 25 2018

The Second in Command of an Army camp in Ampara and two other soldiers were arrested today (25) for allegedly supplying nearly 3,000 rounds of live ammunition to underworld operatives, Police said.

They said the suspects had supplied a total of 2,958 rounds of live Type 56 ammunition to a group that was arrested at Siyambalanduwa on Sunday (21).

The Second in Command, described as an Army Major, and the soldiers were arrested from the Army camp in Ampara in which they were serving, Military Spokesman Brigadier Sumith Liyanage said.
He added that the ammunition was stolen during transhipment between an Army camp in Welioya to Ampara.

A fourth suspect described as an Army Captain is alleged to have struck the deal with the underworld operatives and is currently evading arrest, he said.

He further said that the source of the ammunition also remains a mystery since there are no shortages listed in the armoury ledgers.

According to him, the Major is the Second in Command of the respective Army camp while the soldiers include a driver and an assistant.

He added that Military investigators were probing the incident further to ascertain the extent of the activities of the suspects and whether more persons are involved.

The Military is working closely with the local Police in this regard, he added.

The arrests come barely five days after a group of underworld operatives including two women were arrested at Siyambalanduwa along with 2,990 rounds of live ammunition.

The group pretending to be on a fun trip was arrested by the Police who were acting on a tip-off.
Among those arrested was a person identified as ‘Laddu Roshan’ – described as a close accomplice of underworld figure ‘Kosgoda Sujee’.

Initial investigations had revealed that the ammo was handed over following instructions from another underworld figure known as ‘Jayalath Sudda’, who is currently serving time at the Galle Prison.

Ranil Currently Meeting UNP MPs At Temple Trees: UNP Maintains Appointment Of MR As PM Illegal

OCTOBER 26, 2018

UNP Ranil Wickremesinghe is currently meeting UNP Parliamentarians at Temple Trees to decide the party’s future course of action.

Speaking to media, several Cabinet ministers representing the party have said President Maithripala Sirisena‘s move to appoint Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new Prime Minister is “illegal and unconstitutional”.

“All UNP MPs in and around Colombo who could make it to Temple Trees here now. What the President has done is illegal. What democracy is this Mr. Sirisena?” State Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva tweeted from Temple Trees.

“The appointment of President Mahinda Rajapaksa is unconstitutional, and therefore not legal. This is a breakdown of Democracy the very thing we all fought so hard for,” Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, Sagala Ratnayaka said.

Meanwhile , Minister Mano Ganesan said the Tamil Progressive Alliance, which has six MPs in the House, is also holding a crisis meeting separately.

Humour as a panacea for the bane of politics

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE THEATRE: Sri Lankan playwrights and producers are stepping up to the plate to help civil society develop a social conscience. Lit fests are also increasingly prone to discern the nexus between power, culture and policymaking

Friday, 26 October 2018

Today your columnist will stray a tad bit off the well-trodden path. To make a foray into the realm of three types of the ‘funnies’. Where the sun is always shining on our blessed isle. If there is a cloud on the horizon – why, we’d find that slightly amusing too. In the subdomain of humour as a sweetener, if not in the real world of bitter-pill politics.

Stand-up

First, I was fortunate enough to have booked a balcony seat on which to park my fundament for Freddy 3: A New Hope. In this, the stand-up franchise’s third outing, maturing impresario Feroze Kamardeen took the mickey out of Colombo’s flops, flubs, failures, fiascos, and petty foibles in his now-customary rib-tickling way. No cow was sacred enough for StageLight&Magic’s dramatic showman & co. to touch with a bargepole – just because one was available. For poking fun at the country’s pressing problems, which no one dares bell much less neuter, is proving to be a possible vehicle for ‘speaking truth to power’ and nudging Sri Lanka in the direction of much-needed sociopolitical transformation.

While the full inane spectrum of our sick, tired and corrupt society’s idiosyncrasy came in for some stick, it was the lack of a carrot for political transgressors that makes this oeuvre most appetising to aficionados of theatre and politics. Because ludicrous realpolitik and religion taken to ridiculous extremes more recently threaten to undermine Sri Lanka’s new social contract with herself, this irreverent poking of fun at venerable figures (ranging from ex-presidents and media magnates to judges in a certain community’s marriage and divorce courts) was timely and welcome. For this relief, many thanks – well said, Fred!

There was something for everyone with the slightest grievance to a serious axe to grind. Most entertaining was the traditional forgetfulness of leading lights, which took a severe lampooning – “mata mathaka nae, aney”. This was a tonic simply because their selective amnesia is irritating enough in real life and frustrates the course of law and order to say nothing of justice. The tendency of powerful vested interest groups such as the GMOA to hijack the public interest saw their high jinks being presented as a civic form of terrorism. Also the ethnic chauvinism and particularistic exceptionalism that sets the country ablaze time out of mind was critically engaged with creativity and sensitivity.

If stand-up snaps and bites like this, it borders on being satire; and its fits like a glove does Sri Lanka’s need to look at itself in the mirror – and laugh through the tears and grimaces. So Freddy is both cathartic and insidious as a tool for critical engagement with the civil, social and political powers that be. More power to it, as long as its producers and players can continue to prioritise passion for reform over a recipe for profits.

Parody

The effect that a few smiles can make on the polity and their elected representatives alike was also evidently on the minds of the organisers of the Annasi & Kadalagotu Literary Festival this year. Again, there was a broad spectrum of topics, which I will not touch on in this column. However, there were two sessions that stood out for me – at least in terms of tickling the fancy of a politically-savvy readership.

The first of these – a politico-driven seminar on ‘Literature in Governance’ moderated by the amiable Malinda Seneviratne – soon descended from the sublime to the ridiculous. For starters, there was a veritable Babel of tongues with the politician-panellists being invited to speak (and, in turn, respond to audience questions) in any language amenable to them.

To audiences who had turned up ignorantly expecting this lit fest – which is a viable alternative to the distant, expensive, hard-to-get-seats-at Galle Lit Fest – to be interesting, understandable, and rendered in the Queen’s English, it was a double blow. The proceedings were plain only to the speakers of one vernacular, while many disgruntled members of the audience slunk away to other sessions simultaneously occurring at that colonial vestige by the western ocean. Clearly, in literature as in legislature, a savvy curator for the larger project is needed – on top of smart moderators or MPs!

Be that as it may, I was able to salvage something from this session, subtitled ‘The Politics of Writing’, which had undergone a sea-change into something rich – I use the term ironically – and strange: the role of culture in governance. Between the passionate intensity of one former state minister prone to anecdotal recourse in making his case, and the more measured discourse of two others – it was chillingly clear that to the state, culture is a sort of panacea for a plethora of problems. Surely one can have no quibble with the position that books make folks think and prolific policy-makers write. However one cannot forget that fiery personalities write inflammatory literature – Mein Kampf comes to mind – and that even modern democratic states regrettably tend to douse communal fires by pouring petrol or propaganda on troubled waters.

Caricature

If the outworking of literature can be defined as ‘discussion based on understanding’, then one can only despair at the misunderstandings that (the new literacy of an illiterate at worst or semiliterate at best) social media milieu introduces into the mix. Here, as elsewhere in the public domain, the best lack all conviction. And it is into such an arena that contemporary cartoonists ride like some poor lonesome cowboy who’s a long way from home. But like the once-popular Lucky Luke of comic strip yore, they’re often champions of social justice and advocates of all that is egalitarian and equitable. It also helps that they’re easier to understand than recondite columnists such as perhaps yours truly?

So from Gihan De Chickera’s lone stand (Awantha Artigala, double billed with his colleague, was a no show; and more’s the pity: because a dialogue between these two would have been tremendous fun and insightful to boot) I garnered some food for thought – and comfort or consolation. The role of a cartoonist as a journalist, for one: as critic, commentator, and curator of personal as much as national sentiment. Feel like hell? Essay in often graphic form your inner emotions at the demons of external reality in a picture that’s literally word a thousand words. The imperative of critical cartoons to ‘punch up’ rather than down, so that weak or marginalised segments of society are spared oppression by the very Fourth Estate set up to safeguard and defend their rights! And ‘the inherent Sri Lankan ability to see humour in everything’.

Perhaps we didn’t go off at too much of a tangent? After all, while laughter is often prescribed as being the best medicine, I’d rather reflect on sobering realities with no balm for our socio-political woes except the reflections of artists like cartoonists. They claim not be funny people at bottom. And that seems an appropriate place to be these days…

(Journalist | Editor-at-large of LMD | Writer #SpeakingTruthToPower)

Mahinda Rajapaksa assumes duties as the New Prime Minister of Sri Lanka

( October 26, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) By making one of the most interest political steps , Former President and Parliamentarian Mahinda Percy Rajapaksa has assumed duties as new Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.

However, Incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe who has just concluded his official visit to India has objected this move and reaffirmed that he is still the Prime Minister of the country and he will not accept this “unconstitutional” step by the President Maithripala Sirisena.

Meanwhile, crackers are sparking across the Island specially in the most Sinhalese dominating areas and people are celebrating the surprised political moment.

More Details to Follow;

I Am Addressing You As PM Of Sri Lanka: Ranil Makes Confident Statement Despite Sirisena’s Sacking Letter

OCTOBER 26, 2018

Making a special statement to media from Temple Trees, the official residence of the Prime Minister, UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said he was still the Prime Minister of the country with a clear majority in Parliament.

Wickremesinghe

Wickremesinghe made the statement minutes after President Maithripala Sirisena sent him a letter, formally informing that the UNP leader has been sacked from the Prime Minister’s post.

“I am addressing you as the Prime Minister of the country. When a No-Confidence Motion was presented against me, I showed I commanded the support of a majority in Parliament. I still command the same support in the House,” Wickremesinghe said, speaking to media.

“Parliament will decide who the legitimate Prime Minister is. The Speaker will convene Parliament according to Standing Orders. We will resolve this matter in Parliament,” Wickremesinghe said ruling out the possibility of seeking the opinion of the judiciary.

Wickremesinghe reiterated that everyone who supported during the No-Confidence vote still stood by him.

“Convene Parliament. You will see the support have,” he said confidently, stating that he had discussed the current situation with other political parties.

Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera, speaking to media after Wickremesinghe, requested the Speaker to convene Parliament even on Sunday, to allow the UNP to show its majority.

Co-Cabinet Spokesman Rajitha Senaratne, speaking at the same press conference, requested the military and the Police to work with the duly appointed legitimate government to maintain law and order.

GOVERNMENT ALLEGATIONS AGAINST COLOMBO HINDU CORRESPONDENT VIOLATES MEDIA FREEDOM – FMM

24/10/2018

The allegations against the Hindu correspondent Meera Srinivasan by the government and its supporters regarding her reportage about a statement made at the cabinet meeting go beyond the right of reply and have become a threat violating the media freedom and freedom of expression, the Free Media Movement observes.

The Hindu newspaper has published a news report, under the by-line Meera Srinivasan, as President Maithripala Sirisena at a cabinet meeting had made a statement that RAW is engaged in activities to assassinate him. This news was denied by the President’s side. At the same time, the Hindu newspaper has maintained that this news was confirmed by four ministers. In the meantime, while addressing a meeting, the General Secretary of the United People’s Freedom

Alliance (UPFA) Mahinda Amaraweera, said four ministers are having connection with the RAW through this correspondent and providing information.

Free Media Movement feels that this baseless allegation against a Colombo based foreign correspondent is an act of bullying and draw the attention of all concerned to respect the right of a journalist to conceal the source of information. This matter being so important for the safety, especially of foreign correspondents, Free Media Movement requests all parties to act more responsibly.

C. Dodawatte, Convener
Dileesha Abeysundara, Secretary

Sirisena ‘s RAW story only ends in evil fallouts..! India is going to be provoked -Thomas submits 20 page document to court..!!

By Former officer of State intelligence service of the forces

(Lanka e News -25.Oct.2018, 4.10PM) The suspect Maseli Thomas the Indian national who was arrested in connection with the conspiracy to murder Sirisena and Gotabaya , made a written submission running into 20 pages when he was produced before the Fort magistrate Ms. Lanka Jayaratne on the 23 rd. In that document written in his own handwriting , more pages gave graphic details of the harassment he suffered at the CID.

One CID officer has physically and mentally tormented him to get the statement recorded to suit the requirements of the officer , the document states. He had further said , the torment was so fierce it could have led him to death. Before the magistrate he had wept and urged her to send him anywhere even hell but not back to the CID.

The torture and torment inflicted by the CID had been so cruel that the magistrate immediately took action. She at once summoned the deputy director of the CID to court on the same day.

Truths exposed by Lanka e News proved in open court.

With the Indian national being produced in open court , whatever that were revealed by Lanka e news so far began to be confirmed one after another. It was only LeN which exposed that Namal Kumara was one who deserted the Air Force. In open court that was confirmed on the 23 rd..

Not only in the Air force but even in the other armed forces it is a common practice to send the educational certificates when new recruits are enrolled, to the examinations department for verification. The examinations department however does not respond in a night. It takes a considerable length of time to verify.

The examinations department lethargy is such , by that time the new recruits have undergone training and been appointed. Namal Kumara is one of them who had forwarded a forged certificate to the Air Force. When action was to be taken against him under the Air Force Act , he deserted the service and fled away.

Namal had taken a loan of Rs. 300,000.00 from Commercial bank ,Warakapola. In his loan application he had stated his employer is presidential task force for drug prevention , president’s office , Colombo 01. The letter confirming the details was signed by none other than the director of presidential task force Dr. Samantha Kumara Kithalawarachi.

Kithalawarachi confirmed Namal was working under him but he never signed Namal’s service certificate. That means Namal has probably furnished to the bank a phony service certificate like the educational certificate he produced to secure the job in the forces. No matter what , Lanka e news revealed all the truths about Namal Kumara well ahead.

Sirisena’s hidden hand that emerged through Namal Kumara’s lawyer

There is one more thing that confirms the exposures made by Lanka e news further …Maithri Gunaratne the lawyer appearing on behalf of Namal was one among the 22 hooligans who went to jail for attacking Sri Kotha with stones. What’s more! guess who was made the presidential advisor ? That advisor was Shiral Lakthileke was made the advisor who staged a march from Matara to Colombo saying ‘Ranil can’t’ only to get thrashed , and who tried to shoot himself in the middle of the road. It were Maithri Gunaratne and his father who shot themselves on the main road.

Even before the ink could dry after accepting the presidential appointment, Sirisena took these villainous scoundrels on to his laps, and mollycoddled them . Though Sirisena was parading as a man of integrity and rectitude who can be trusted , in action he could only demonstrate he was in fact the greatest masquerader of all times.

It is significant to note it is the presidential secretariat that created a so called presidential anti corruption force for Namal Kumara . It is they who bore all the responsibilities .Namal who called himself as its operations director drew salary from the presidential secretariat. Namal ‘s lawyer is also a Sirisena’s lackey. Those who are holding media briefings on behalf of Namal are none other than Shiral and Kongahage who are also Sirisena’s lackeys’. All of them are Sirisena’s ventriloquist dummies. It is the discarded group of 16 that is blowing Namal Kumara drama out of proportion.That group is also Sirisena’s lackeys..

The Sirasa TV channel too is Sirisena’s dummy. They are concocting all the mythical stories at Sirisena’s behest.

Gota’s group is adding fuel to the hell fire . Weerawansa the uneducated crook unable to do anything better , and is now washing pots and pans at Sirisena’s house is playing the drums. Therefore it is very obvious this whole melodrama is targeting the year 2020 ,and a Sirisena-Gota production.

Are the FR of the Indian national withdrawn ?

The Indian national Thomas Marseli is 52 years old , and had been suffering from a psychiatric illness for which he was taking treatment since 1992.In 1997 following a sudden accident his mental condition aggravated. Though he is married , his wife has deserted him. In fact Thomas should be in a mental asylum and not in CID detention.

It may be asked , if he is insane , how could he write a 20 page document? Physical and mental pain are common to all. Hence , though he is psychologically unwell he can write.

Based on the 20 page document submitted by Thomas on 23 rd , it is clear somebody in the CID is leaving no stone unturned to incriminate him in charges with which he has no link at all. In the CID there are Mahinda’s ‘lackeys’ ; Gota’s lackeys; ‘Sirisena’s lackeys ; Ranil’s lackeys . That is everyone without exception.

Why was Thomas a psychiatric patient tortured within the CID ? Who are those who inflicted that ? are pertinent questions. Now it has become clear that the statement made by Sirisena at the cabinet meeting without any evidence at all that ‘ RAW is conspiring to kill me’ is the cause. Was Thomas subjected to torture to make him the witness they desired ?

… to the extent of provoking the Indian people

The submissions made by Thomas before court on the 23 rd are most grave. It is very evident his fundamental rights have been violated .This can hence lead to strained diplomatic relations and provoke the Indian people. On the 23 rd , in court the underwear was torn asunder of Namal Kumara of so called presidential task force for drug prevention. This Namal Kumara who is a pawn of Sirisena –Gota duo is the worst scoundrel of that group of rogues . He is an ace corrupt fraudster, and an accomplished liar . Ajith Pathirane the lawyer for DIG Nalaka exposed all these in graphic detail with evidence in court.

The identity card RB 317217/ produced by Weerawansa.

It is a universally known incontrovertible fact Wimal Weerawansa of the ‘pick pocket brigand’ is a specialist in forged birth certificates , identity cards and passports . He is one who made forged birth certificates , identity cards and had no qualms about robbing another man’s wife - a woman five years older than he. During that period it was Gotabaya who advised and assisted Weerawansa to make forged birth certificates , identity cards and passports .The registration of persons department and the Immigration and emigration department were under Gotabaya . In the circumstances , there is nothing surprising if Weerawansa and Gota had got together and made a RAW identity card for an Indian national who is mentally unfit.

However even a child is aware no member of the international intelligence service in the world is issued an identity card that identifies him / her as so and so.

Trying to stage Rambo show with Freddie Silva as hero….

After financial misappropriation cases being brought before the special courts Gotabaya is like a cat on hot bricks as he is well aware his fate is written on the wall. When the trial begins elusive Gota will have to do something to stop his shitting in his pants . Thanks to the former Director General of the Bribery commission ,who made it known to everyone what a coward is Gota who trembled and was panic stricken when he was put on the dock in court .

Even president Sirisena who has got the ‘dog mark’ tagged on to him after losing his popularity which is now at a meager 4 % owing to the corruption , frauds and rackets of his and his family coming to the open, is also against a blank wall . Two individuals facing the same sentence together whose fate lines are matching is a common occurrence in the world. Weerawansa is the publicity secretary of the Sirisena- Gotabaya‘show’ . Rather than getting his neck wrung by trying to make a ‘greatest show on earth’ , it is better for Sirisena to have a sense of proportions and eat rice on a banana leaf .

In short ,what Sirisena and Gotabaya duo is trying to stage is the ‘Rambo ‘ show but with Freddie Silva (fomer Sri Lankan comedian) as the hero.

Sooner than later all these comedians who are trying to portray themselves as great heroes are going to end up as zeros , when they meet their waterloo.