DEMOCRACY AND POLITICS – A REVIEW

Part II

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Pre-capitalist relations perpetuated and absorbed by the colonial masters and their policy of divide and rule laid a basis for a power struggle between the Sri Lankan elite for political power. Political independence was not accompanied or followed by economic independence and the majority of the population remained poor and under-privileged.

This situation was used by the politicians to interpret the cause of poverty and deprivation of the poor as due to privileges enjoyed by the other communities. They found communalism a profitable media to attract voters and subsequent reforms in the electoral system and type of governance basically catered to the aspirations of the majority to the disadvantage of minorities. The Indian and Pakistani Citizenship Act, the Sinhala Only Act, repeal of Section 29 of the first Constitution, the special status afforded to Buddhism are examples.

Authoritarian power

Political parties were considered the medium through which representative democracy would be established. Experience has proved that it has been a failure due to several factors. Communal policies pursued by them is one such factor. It prevents national unity and promotes discord. This factor was further strengthened by the appearance of parties based solely on race and religion.

A fundamental weakness among almost all political parties is the lack of inner party democracy. In fact, party constitutions were also altered to bestow on the leadership authoritarian power. In fact, it had become a sine qua non under the Executive Presidency. The relative absence or under-representation of women and youth in party leadership is another weakness common to many parties. This has given Parliament a look similar to a Senior Old Boys/Pupils Club.

The system of first-past-the post voting often resulted in the elected MPs getting few votes than the total received by his or her opponents taken together. Proportional representation was later introduced to offset this anomaly. However, the mandatory bonus seats for the party that received the highest poll in each electoral district as well as the high cut-off point of 12.5 percent for eligibility for representation negated the positive benefits of the new system. This led to a situation of a two - party system getting entrenched in power. Lowering of the cut-off point to 5 percent subsequently led to a far greater representation of the popular verdict by accommodating smaller parties. Instead it has given rise to a phenomenon in which rival coalitions vie for power, enhancing the king-making role of smaller parties.

Bribery and corruption

An ugly consequence of this situation was the practice of bribery and corruption on a large scale to entice the small parties to join ruling coalitions and individual MPs. Even legislation was passed to encourage or facilitate defections and cross-overs from one side to the other. The ultimate degeneration caused by it is seen these days during the present Constitutional impasse.

Today political parties have become few representatives of their sympathizers and have developed into a Mafiosi defending and promoting the personal interests of the leader or leaders. Thus, even during a democratically convened election they campaign not on policies and principle but on the need to maintain a particular leader at the helm of State. (concluded)

All the presidents’ mien

OUT WITH THE USUAL SUSPECTS: From have-been tyrants to would-be statesmen, the usual suspects are lining up for the Great Game. The introduction into the fray of a former speaker, an erstwhile strongman bureaucrat and his parliamentarian sibling may have thrown a spanner into the works of the abolition movement?

Monday, 21 January 2019

I’m conflicted about the presidency we have. Do we need it like a fish needs a bicycle, or a baboon needs a parliament? Has the opportune time come for stakeholders as diverse as civil society led by a free media movement, conscientious objectors to executive decisions and the JVP, to push 20A through the House – and get rid of it, once and for all? Have would-be statesmen done tinkering with it to meet their petty, partisan or personal agendas?
Whatever the answers are, there are evidently no shortage of takers come the next presidential election. In the right hand corner, predictably enough for the conservative element in our polity, there’s Ranil Wickremesinghe. The sea-green incorruptible who’s probably less deserving of his reputation as Mr Clean than the general public suspect. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I’ll break out the bubbly when the bond scam is laid to rest – together with Lasantha Wickrematunge’s ghost.


Trio, triad, trinity

And now, from out of left corner, come not one, nor two, but three skeletons at the feast from an erstwhile regime. And all of them bearing the once loved now dreaded surname of Rajapaksa.

Chamal, the most statesman-like of them, arguably, is the least likely in my book to pull a rabbit out of a hat. Basil, the Ronnie Biggs of our time, may have his eye on the main chance and another big heist – all at the same time (if his promise to put an SLPP president in the hot seat in 2019 is anything to go by, taken in tandem with the JO’s agitation on his behalf).

Gotabaya, the dread bogeyman of irritating minorities and errant dissidents alike, brings both an admirable fervour to the task of nation-building and a despicable disregard for individual rights in favour of state prerogatives – while loudly denouncing the treatment meted out to him individually by the US’s national security concerns.


Pretty presidential pickle

So not to put too fine a point on it, Sri Lanka is in a pretty pickle at the next polls – the usual suspects all lined up, and no leaner cleaner faces to be seen for a country mile. And I haven’t even mentioned a certain political personage averse to the cavalier hurling of bras, the purchase of booze by the fairer sex and a tendency to go nuts on the national carrier’s taste in snacks (and don’t get me started all over again on the fiasco of the great coup that wasn’t!).

How does the average Sri Lankan feel about this white elephant? (I mean the executive, not the incumbent. But hell yeah, him too! Sorry.)


How the hell, O hoi polloi?

On the one hand, the hoi polloi in tandem with certain minority demographics probably feel it is their last best hope in terms of being a bastion against the fall of night. Of course, they forget Dambulla, Aluthgama, Gintota, Digana and the rest of the Kandy District if they’re pinning their hopes on a president being able to forestall the forces of Ragnarok – where, despite the best efforts of the shining ones, darkness falls. On the other, there are the common or garden liberal democrats who think that we would do far better under a prime ministerial system of governance. And if it’s to be an executive premier, who better than the chief architect of a constitution being created for just that very purpose?

Republican rabble

In the middle of the road are rabble. Ranging from one end of the spectrum, where true republicans still believe in the overarching good of a head of state above the heads and shoulders of parliamentary democracy at one end; to the scurrilous appealers pleading for the release of that felonious monk at the other.
Well, we know what happens to those who hog the middle of the road. If they’re on foot, they get run over. And the poor souls inveigling the president to release the venereal – sorry, venerable – saffron brigadier are looking pretty pedestrian indeed.

Plebes, patricians, proletariat

So, do the rest of us – plebeian and patricians alike – need an executive presidency? I suspect that Maithripala Sirisena, savvy about wreaking national havoc but not quite a savant at reading the political entrails, desires to retain it; assuming he has a halfway decent chance at it, all over again.

The Rajapaksa clan, being evergreen brothers in arms, would each like a stab… perhaps in each other’s back… if the conspiracy theory that Gota, Basil and Co. are being fielded as spoiler candidates to split the blue votes is true at all.

But surprise, surprise, the increasingly outspoken M. A. Sumanthiran – a champion of many demographics of minorities – would see it gone. So would Ranil, he says: statesmanship tasting like sour grapes in his noble mouth.

Thou and I

That leaves you and me, gentle reader. Forget the felonious monk and his notorious ilk. They’ll always have a prime minister whose arm to twist on some day, in order to let the demons out of hell. Focus on the best of the rest of us who have had it up to here with presidential privilege.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had it up to here… and not recently, either, having been in favour of it since every mother and her son – who was the last? CBK? MR? MS? – came in on the ‘promising to abolish the presidency’ platform.

It’s time now. The political stars are aligning, in conjunction with the people speaking. A constellation of eminent persons has concurred. It only remains for a galaxy of not-so-bright players to be conquered by the proletarian (read JVP) impulse.

“Ecrasez l’infame,” as true blue and green republicans – to say nothing of their red brethren – would have it: Erase the vile thing! It has sat there and rotted too many leaders from within for too long, for all the good it has done this republic.

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

Maithri’s love for Duterte comes under fire

BY GAGANI  WEERAKOON

President Maithripala Sirisena, displaying his determination to prevent any chances of bridging the gap between him and UNP, appointed a Presidential Commission of Inquiry to investigate into the Acts of Corruption and Frauds that have been allegedly committed in State institutions during the period from 15 January 2015 to 31 December 2018.

The Gazette notification in this regard was issued as President Sirisena was on a State visit to the Philippines.

The responsibility of this Presidential Commission is to summon public complaints, information and other details and to swiftly conduct an impartial and comprehensive investigation into allegations against individuals who held or remain in political positions as well as against the public servants and officers of the statutory boards, who held or remain in those positions, regarding serious losses or damage caused to State assets and revenue as a result of the acts of corruption, frauds and criminal breach of trust, criminal misappropriation of property, cheating and abuse of power or authority, State resources and privileges, committed by those individuals during this period at the State institutions.

The Commission also identifies persons who were responsible or those who are currently responsible in accordance with the regulations and laws and to collect evidence on those offences or acts.

Retired Supreme Court Judge Upali Abeyratne was appointed as the Chairman of this Presidential Commission and other members are retired High Court Judge Sarojani Kusala Weerawardhana, retired Auditor General Pasdun Korale Arachchige Premathilake, retired Ministry Secretary Lalith R. De Silva and retired Deputy Inspector General of Police M.K.D. Wijaya Amarasighe.

Instructions have been given to handover the first report within three months and the final report consisting of conclusions and illustrations should be submitted to President Sirisena, within six months.

Birds of a feather

President Sirisena met the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, on Wednesday (16) at the Malacañang Palace. Five Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were signed during bi-lateral discussions between the two countries’ delegations.

The Sri Lankan delegation signed agreements pertaining to fields such as security, tourism, agriculture and education. The two nations had also exchanged ideas on the setting up of a new economic council to further solidify social and economic relations between Colombo and Manila.

Previously, in his message at the Palace guestbook, Sirisena said that he hopes his “historic State visit will lead to stronger bonds of friendship, enhanced understanding and re-invigorated cooperation for the benefit of our two peoples.”
President Sirisena left for the Philippines on the morning of 15 January, for a five-day State visit at the invitation of the Philippines President.

During his visit to the Philippines, the President is expected to further strengthen political, economic and cultural ties between the two countries.

President Sirisena who vowed last year to “replicate the success” of the Philippines’ drug war heaped praises on President Rodrigo Duterte’s crusade again, saying it is an example to the whole world.

In his toast during a State banquet in Malacañang, Sirisena said that Duterte’s drug war is also a personal example to him. “The war against crime and drugs carried out by you is an example to the whole world and to me personally. Drug menace is rampant in my country and I feel that we should follow your footsteps to control this hazard,” he said.

Duterte’s war on drugs has drawn global condemnation for the mounting deaths linked to it. Official Police data put the death toll from drug operations at a little over 5,000, but Human Rights groups say this figure is significantly lower than the actual number of killings.

As expected, Human Rights groups have expressed alarm at President Maithripala Sirisena for praising Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his ‘bloody war’ on drugs as an “example to the whole world”, Reuters said today.

Despite international condemnation of a crackdown that has killed thousands of Filipinos, visiting Sri Lankan President Sirisena told Duterte during a banquet this week that he wanted to “follow your footsteps to control this hazard”.

Carlos Conde, Philippines researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said Duterte’s campaign was “a human rights calamity that no country in the world should even try to emulate”.

“No ‘drug war’ that treated the drug problem purely from a crime perspective has ever succeeded. What they have wrought are untold suffering and the further destruction of the rule of law and the diminution of human rights,” he said.

The Philippines Government has consistently refuted that and said the crackdown, which started in July 2016, was being administered lawfully.

Philippines Human Rights group, iDefend, said that if Sirisena was serious about following Duterte’s lead, he should be ready to face scrutiny by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, which has started a preliminary examination into alleged crimes against humanity by Duterte.

“We warn Asian leaders not to emulate the Philippine model but adopt a humane, evidence-based public health approach to the drugs issue through a rights-based governance that strengthens, not erodes democratic institutions,” iDefend spokesman Judy Pasimio  has told Reuters.

Shameless act  

It is in the midst of this that CCTV footages of prison inmates at Angunakolapelessa Prison being harassed get released to the Media and the public adding fuel to Sri Lanka’s already tainted human rights record.

Leaked CCTV footage from the Angunakolapelessa Prison revealed that on 22 November 2018, Prison Police personnel, led by the Prison Superintendent, chased unarmed and unresisting prisoners in remand custody, got them to crawl and walk on their knees, continuously attacked and assaulted them with batons and in one instance, even kicked a detainee.

The Committee for Protecting the Rights of Prisoners (CPRP) lodged a complaint with the Prisons Commissioner General, the Human Rights Commission and the Justice and Prison Reforms Ministry, over the alleged assault.

Previously, on 15 January, the CPRP lodged a complaint with the Criminal Investigation Department with CCTV camera footage- based evidence of the aforementioned incidents (warning also of the likelihood of the CCTV evidence being deleted and erased).

The video taken from the newly established Prison which the Government has described as the super Prison, the most luxurious of the country’s institutionalized correctional facilities found within the rehabilitation based penal system, shows Prison personnel (a minimum of 25 to 30) led by the Prison Superintendent, the latter dressed in civvies, chasing unarmed and unresisting (with no provocation too) remand prisoners, who were only moments ago asleep and clutching their bed sheets, blankets, pillows and sarongs, into an open yard in one corner of the prison fortified from outside of the high barb-wired Prison wall by a guarded watchtower. The remand prisoners are then attacked and assaulted with batons with the Prison Superintendent also dealing blows and clubbing them.
The officers then get the detainees to kneel with their hands held high above their heads and to move forward on the gravelly and sandy path on their knees and to even crawl on all fours, all the while continuing to beat them on the soles of their feet, upper (necks, shoulders) and lower backs, hands, and the frontal upper torso.

Minister of Justice and Prison Reforms Thalatha Atukorale on the Government’s position on the incident regarding the assault of prisoners at the Angunakolapelessa Prison expressed regret if mental hurt was caused to the families and relatives of the detainees (according to the Minister also including convicts and those who have filed appeals) who were assaulted.

Apart from the three-member committee, (comprising two Prisons Department officers, and a representative of the Ministry) that is presently conducting an inquiry at the Prison and whose report is expected before 21 January, a second committee (comprising a Ministry representative, a representative from the Presidential Secretariat, and a representative from the Ministry of Public Administration) has been appointed, whose report is expected by 25 January.
Further, while the entire prison is covered by closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, the room from which the CCTV camera security system is operated has been sealed, the Minister added.

She further said how the CCTV footage with regard to the incident was leaked to the media would also be looked into and disciplinary action would be taken against those responsible. She opined that the confidential footage should have been brought to her or the Justice and Prison Reforms Ministry Secretary’s notice prior to being given to the media in the event, no action was taken by the relevant authorities.

She observed that based on the reports, not only would she take action sans regard for position and status, but added that if such incidents recur, she would even resort to changes within the Prisons Department top brass in order to restore normalcy.

Speaking at length about the sequence of events leading up to the incident on 22 November 2018, she rejected the claim that on 21 October a protest had occurred at the Prison because detainees being brought back to the Prison after being produced in Courts and prisoners’ visitors had been strip searched, describing it as untruthful.

Explaining further about the claims made about the Special Task Force (STF) searches, she added that on the contrary, the searches were conducted in a disciplined, decent manner.

“In fact, if we are to find out how certain detainees smuggle drugs into the Prison, we would have to do more than strip searches. Therefore, to this end, we have purchased new equipment in the short run. Angunakolapelessa was placed by me under complete STF protection. But they can’t go inside the Prison. They are only stationed at places where detainees and visitors are searched. Male STF personnel search males while women STF personnel search women.
 This Prison has become a place most successful in terms of drugs being found. It was certain Prison officers who pushed the detainees to this mischief and a chaotic situation was created by this protest. On 26 October, we identified seven Prison officers responsible for this and transferred them as part of disciplinary action. As we removed them on the same day, we cannot be held responsible for what ensued, which is that the transferred officers had in turn been given transfers to where they wished. Four, including a woman warden, a sergeant and two Grade II jailors are in another prison.”

In the lead up to the events on 22 November, Minister Atukorale said that on 14 November, a suspect (for allegedly abducting an underage girl) produced at the Embilipitiya Magistrate’s Court, who attempted to jump off the Court roof and escape, had been arrested while on 16 November, a convict who received the death sentence for his part in the infamous 1999 Hokandara murder case, was beaten to death with a rock (so that the brain matter had spilled out) by two murder convicts including one who received the death sentence for his part in the Rita John murder case and on 20 November, a suspect had consumed a cleaning chemical and attempted to escape when produced before the Prison Hospital doctor.

She also noted that Courts had previously warned the Prison officers over delays in producing detainees in Courts, delays which she attributed were done purposefully by the detainees in order to inconvenience the Prison officers.

The CPRP on Friday (18) said they would raise the case of the assault of detainees by Prison officers at the Angunakolapelessa Prison on 22 November 2018 at the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva, Switzerland in March.

The CPRP lodged a complaint in this regard at the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL). The CPRP will also lodge complaints with the UN in Sri Lanka and the National Authority for the Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses.

Election Year

By last week, two of Rajapaksa brothers declared their willingness to contest the next Presidential Election.

Former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa who said he is ready to contest believes that the US could block individual rights as far as the matter of dual-citizenship was concerned as it is something personal.

He said this in response to journalists at the Special High Court premises when they asked him about renouncing his dual citizenship and reports that he may not be allowed to do so.

He said he could either cancel or keep the dual-citizenship as it was something personal.

“It is something personal to me. As a personal matter, I can either get it removed or keep it. No one should make it an issue. No man can be kept tied. The US hails itself as the father of liberal democracy. So, can they obstruct individual rights for any reason? They can’t,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hambantota District UPFA MP Chamal Rajapaksa speaking to the media said that he too is ready for the forthcoming Presidential Election. He said further that Gotabaya Rajapaksa says that if the people are ready, he is also ready to contest for the Presidential poll. If I am also suitable for the post of President, I am also ready for it.

However, United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Parliamentarian S. B. Dissanayake said picking the presidential candidate is never a priority, forming a strong political front to fight the United National Party (UNP) should be the current priority.

“Given the unpredictable political context, it is impossible make an exact prediction of who will contest the upcoming presidential election, so, let the leaders like our President Maithripala Sirisena and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa decide that. We have two people who contested the presidential election and won, they are experienced leaders, and they know how to navigate us towards 2019 presidential election,” he said.

He said parties such as Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), Communist Party of Sri Lanka, Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU), National Freedom Front and Democratic Left Front should make a strong alliance because UNP is infamous for election fraud.

“It will take time to create a strong front; we have time. No presidential candidate has been picked yet. Some say that it will be current President Maithripala Sirisena but our President has not announced such a thing so far,” added Dissanayake.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe-led UNF Government appears to have taken a precautionary measure to avoid approving any Cabinet paper or taking any drastic decisions that could end in ‘controversies’ during this year.

This was revealed when Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne addressing a special media briefing at the Temple Trees, soon after the Cabinet Meeting. He said: “We will not be approving any controversial Cabinet decisions during this period because this is an Election Year.”

He was responding to a journalist’s query on the ‘crucial meeting’ he had with former Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara on a health-related project proposed by the latter. It was said that the meeting between the two went for almost two hours, but the Minister denied this saying it went for little over 10 minutes.

“I told him in a discussion that such a project would need Cabinet approval. But this isn’t the time for such decisions. Because we won’t be taking any controversial decisions during this period as this year is an election year. So, I told him that we can do the project when we form our next Government after the Elections,” he added.

He added that unlike before, he and President Maithripala Sirisena are in two different political camps.

“There are certain political differences between me and the President. Both of us came from the same side, but now I am on one side, whilst he is on another side.

 But I will give good competition from my own side without any fear or doubt. When the President asked me about this decision to bat for different sides, I clearly told him that because he is now with Pohottuwa camp which tries to create factions in the camp where I am, I will also give my full strength to break and defeat his camp,” he added. 

The Time Is Now

By Gamini Seneviratne –JANUARY 21, 2019

Gamini Seneviratne

Much has been written about a “coup” supposedly attempted by the President against a democratically elected government. The short answer to market capitalism and to its more useful instruments (which include, I should add, communalism, drug trafficking – including ‘prescription drugs’, money laundering as well as the mass media), has been given by my colleague, Mahalingam “Jolly” Somasunderam in his column last week. As he phrased it in his inimitable style, spiced too with lively referencing, “An Orwellian Replay: As Elections Were Not Held, Democracy Has Been Saved” just about sums up the foundation of Ranil Wickremesinghe’s claims to any authority whatever. I doubt any Lankan would contest the resulting wipe-out of all his and other goons in parliament.

The speaker and those who were on the divisional bench of the supreme court cannot act as though they are unaware of context in any matter placed before them: it’s possible of course that such ignorance is a precondition for achieving bliss though not that of Nirvana. (It’s hardly possible to confer caps to those titles which seem to seek to confer distinction on those who occupy such positions by the act of donning the horse-hair, or maybe some Chinese synthetic, wigs that are relics of British colonialism. But, even for such a mind set it would take slavishness of a particularly low order to invite a Member of the extended and mostly dysfunctional “Royal Family” to “Independence” celebrations here. An earlier manifestation of the illegitimacy of those who have run this regime was the gift of a super luxury holiday to the most despised Prime Minister in decades in Britain, Tony Blair and his greedy family: a crime compounded by Blair giving a lecture at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute.

I first saw Ranil Wickremesinghe some 40 years ago at his parents’ place in Thimbirigasyaya. His father, a newspaperman of long standing, wished to make a change in our dependence on Reuters et al and to launch our own news agency, Lanka Puvath. I had been shoved into ‘the Pool’ by the UNP and was available to undertake what he had in mind. Esmond Wickremesinghe was briefing me on all that when Ranil came in and seeing his father slunk along the wall and out of the room. Poor chap.

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Sri Lanka: Sirisena to import Duterte’s war on drugs

by Jaymee T. Gamil-Jan 21, 2019

Jan 21, 2019

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena spent the last day of his five-day state visit to the Philippines at the Philippine National Police  headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City, getting tips on the Duterte administration’s bloody campaign against drugs which he has consistently praised and expressed intent to emulate in his country.

Sirisena once again expressed his admiration for the government’s antidrug campaign in a closed-door briefing in Camp Crame with Dangerous Drugs Board chair Catalino Cuy, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año and PNP chief Oscar Albayalde on Saturday.

In the same boat

While the Sri Lankan president was mum about the thousands of deaths that have become the defining feature of the Duterte administration’s drug war, he acknowledged that, like in Sri Lanka, police officers in the Philippines get killed in the government’s campaign against drug traffickers.

In a statement on the visit on Saturday afternoon, the PNP also cited Sirisena as saying that the reason only few world leaders take such an aggressive stance against illegal drugs was that politicians fear “threat to their lives” while some “have found a lucrative economic support system with their involvement in illegal drugs.”

‘Whole of gov’t approach’

In an interview with reporters after the visit, Albayalde said the Sri Lankan delegation expressed interest to emulate the Philippines’ “whole of government approach” on fighting illegal drugs.

The PNP quoted Sirisena as saying that Sri Lanka had become a major transhipment point of illegal drugs in the international drug market, which was what the Sri Lankan government hoped to address with tips from Philippine law enforcement agencies.

The Sri Lankan government also invited the heads of Philippine law enforcement agencies to Sri Lanka.

Puppets, Pawns and Presidents

Sanjana Hattotuwa-January 19, 2019, 8:12 pm 

Sirisena, Wickremesinghe, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his brother Chamal and Karu Jayasuriya. The last week saw media frame prospective candidates for an office that the incumbent said, nay, swore on 9th January 2015, he would never seek re-election to and would be the last to occupy. Evidence of Sri Lanka’s sickeningly bankrupt political culture is again to be found in how, leaving aside unequivocal promises four years ago, even the catastrophic events of late 2018 and its entrenchment have not resulted in any meaningful measures to abolish the Executive Presidency. While the government continues bizarrely, blindly and blithely with business as usual, the names paraded as Presidential aspirants offer some interesting insights.

Early last week and soon after Chamal Rajapaksa noted he, too, was open to throwing his hat into the circus, I noted flippantly on Twitter, with two images that juxtaposed him and his brother Gotabaya, that this was classic A/B testing. A technique used in marketing, A/B testing at its simplest is the projection, production or promotion of two or more alternatives, with reactions or responses to each acting as signals around what is an intended or desired outcome. Websites do this all the time, invisibly. From search results to changes in the design and layout, leading websites are in constant A/B testing mode - refining rendering based on context and a multitude of other factors with the aim of retaining audiences, increasing consumption or converting visits to purchases.

In the political domain, what we are seeing is a parallel process - quite brilliant I may add - of first proposing the most heinous and horrendous of candidates so as to engineer a public mood swing away from them, and on to those who would if first proposed, be roundly dismissed. In other words, the very real fear of the worst candidate being elected as Executive President, and the clear licence that office affords for madness to mutate, may guide the public towards alternatives who are in fact no more decent, democratic or liberal, but aren’t overtly tainted as architects of extra-judicial murder, abductions, war crimes and violence. Proposing some of these names ensures, thus, the mere illusion of choice and is designed the ensure the validation and continuation of the status quo.

That said, there is genuine reason to fear a serious Gotabaya Rajapaksa bid for the presidency. Viyath Maga is already a platform that connects many, from a range of disciplines and backgrounds, who can be transformed into central nodes of a political campaign. The problem is evident in a close study of social media engagement. Soon after a leading Prelate’s recommendation last year that Gotabaya needed to become Hitler to sort out Sri Lanka’s issues - one that, important to record, the individual concerned embraced and never once decried or denounced - social media engagement pegged to around eighty pages I track on Facebook unsurprisingly showed a brief period of heightened production and engagement. However, compared to Namal and Mahinda Rajapaksa respectively, over time, Gotabaya failed to maintain anything close to that sudden peak in popularity. As this column has previously noted, the most rabidly racist and communal content - by order of magnitude - is to be found in the constellation of pages around Gotabaya Rajapaksa. This ranges from imagery and photography, to content and commentary. The degree of frothing, fear-mongering, fascist nationalism promoted and prevalent on these pages does not mirror any other cluster I monitor, save for around one hundred extremist Sinhala-Buddhist sites I keep tabs on. The projection to a larger constituency the interactions I monitor at scale and over time on these and other pages isn’t simple or easy. As an indication however of dynamics that can, at the very least, be proxy indicators for public sentiment and support, the patterns and trends within and amongst these clusters can be extremely revealing. And what it suggests is that, quite apart and aside from external concern and anxiety, the resistance to a Gotabaya candidacy clearly comes from within the SLPP, and in fact, from within the family.

The arc of succession clearly bends towards the paternal instincts of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Tellingly, neither Gotabaya nor Chamal’s announcements have, to date, got any recognition from Mahinda, much less endorsement. Recall the widely-shared telegenics and photography around the opening of the SLPP headquarters in May last year. Gotabaya, Chamal and Mahinda made it a point to be photographed together - smiling, holding hands, standing shoulder to shoulder. Mahinda made it a point to note that Viyath Maga was only a name, and was essentially a vehicle to carry forward his populist chinthanaya. And yet, all that public posturing died down quickly. Unexpected events several months thereafter didn’t benefit Gotabaya or Chamal. Gotabaya wasn’t part of, or featured heavily in Jana Balaya. And in the middle of all this, Basil Rajapaksa - by many accounts a brilliant political strategist yet without any social media footprint - is also silent. Tainted by violence, scandal and under active investigation for the misappropriation of funds, three of the four brothers are bound together in an unholy alliance that secures their freedom, immunity and impunity only if one or more of them have access to or regain political power. Chamal Rajapaksa’s announcement is interesting in this regard. However, like Basil, with a near zero social media footprint, his appeal to and traction with the SLPP’s core constituency is a great unknown. His allegiances towards and relationship with each brother are also unknown.

Quantitative analysis aside, the qualitative nature of content produced and promoted by social media clusters anchored to Namal, Mahinda and Gotabaya are, counter-intuitively, only rarely in harmony. Further, even when they do in concert promote an idea, message or mission, it is in opposition to the UNP or an external party. There is very little evidence, in other words, of a unified, pan-Rajapaksa campaign or strategy that endures beyond the purely episodic. And if all this wasn’t complex enough, add to the mix what was noted by Dilith Jayaweera in an interview published four years ago, around his relationship with the Rajapaksas. Jayaweera, who leads the country’s premier political communications outfit by far, handles the official accounts of Mahinda, Gotabaya and Namal. Well defined signatures of collaboration and coordination abound in many other unofficial pages and accounts pegged to these three individuals. Jayaweera knows full well the challenges noted here, and a whole lot more besides. And that is precisely why the study of what’s not present in, framed by or promoted on each respective social media cluster or official account is so fascinating to study, as probable, prescient indicators of political intent.

The elephant in the room, no pun intended, is the UNP. Much if not all of the political dynamics noted above inhabits or grows in and because of a vacuum created by Wickremesinghe. Nothing - absolutely (insert expletive of your choice) nothing - seems to wake the party up from its somnambulism. Not electoral defeat. Not constitutional crises. Not a hostile President. Not friendly advice. Not data. Not evidence. Not experience. Not electoral signals. Not civil society. Not well-known enemies of democracy entrenched in state institutions.

Four years ago the government’s central challenge around this time was around the delivery of a 100-day programme that was overly ambitious and bound to disappoint. This year, citizens should completely give up any vestigial hope in good governance. At the same time, we need to ask ourselves how best to sustain the kind of government that allows us all to best realise our democratic potential.

All bets are off around the configuration, late 2019, that emerges as the custodian of that shared dream.

Behind the bars of Angunakolapelessa Super Prison 

• Angunakolapelessa houses some of the most notorious criminals
• CPRP  to meet UN officials tomorrow
• The report of the  first committee of inquiry was due to be submitted yesterday
• The assault occurred while the country was plunged in a political crisis

2019-01-22

While we are fed with stories about rehabilitation and prisoners paying their debt to society over crimes they committed, inmates are being subjected to crimes against humanity on a daily basis inside the prisons.

Angunakolapelessa Prison was established to provide remand prisoners and also convicted prisoners with facilities that meet international standards. But what happened instead was one of Sri Lanka’s prisons  making international headlines last week. This was after a leaked sensational CCTV video footage, recorded on November 22, 2018, about a happening inside Angunakolapelessa ‘super prison’. The footage revealed how unarmed prisoners had been assaulted by prison officials using batons. 

The leaked CCTV footage of the first Sri Lankan prison,  equipped with CCTV cameras, created a controversy. Not only were the inmates beaten, they were also made to crawl on their knees with their hands held high above their heads. In the video, inmates were seen running out of their ward with pillows, bed sheets and mats. Around 30 prison officials along with a person in civvies, who was later identified as the Prison Superintendent, were taking the inmates out of the ward and assaulting them. In certain frames of the video the person in civvies is seen kicking some of the inmates. 

The video clip consists of footages from two camera fitted at different angles in the morning and afternoon of the same day. The assault occurred in November last year, while the country was plunged in a political crisis and under the disputed premiership of Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Protests against alleged strip searches

Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners (CPRP), during a press conference held last week in Maradana, made public the video footage. CPRP Secretary Sudesh Nandimal Silva urged the authorities to take immediate action regarding the assault.

Before holding a media conference, the CPRP had already lodged a complaint with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and handed over a DVD copy of the visuals to them, demanding a criminal inquiry and prosecution of the prison officials involved in the assault.

According to Silva, the inmates who protested on 21 October 2018- against the alleged strip searches of prisoners’ by visiting members of the Special Task Force (STF)- were assaulted by the Prison officials on November 22.

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Before holding a media conference, the CPRP had already lodged a complaint with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and handed over a DVD copy of the visuals to them, demanding a criminal inquiry and prosecution of the prison officials involved in the assault

The total number of inmates at the Angunakolapelessa Prison is 1,200. Around 400 inmates had reportedly supported the protest. The Government had deployed STF members on October 17 for the protection of prisons, and this initiative had commenced from Angunakolapelessa Prison.

The move to deploy the STF at the Angunakolapelessa Prison, to which institute many notorious convicted inmates were transferred from Welikada Prison, was shrouded in controversy. This was due to the alleged involvement of the STF in the 2012 Welikada Prison incident, which brought death to 27 inmates.
However, the Government has said that the STF had been deployed to ensure the protection of prisons for several reasons including preventing the use of drugs inside prisons. CPRP’s Nandimal Silva said that visitors had complained to the inmates about the alleged strip searches and showed they weren’t willing to return to the prison as long as the STF searches continued.

Refuting claims that the STF had been allowed inside prisons, the Prison Reforms and Justice Minister Thalatha Athukorala, during a press conference, said that the STF are involved only in maintaining security outside of the Prisons and not inside.

In a reply to the allegation regarding strip searches, the Minister said when looking at the ridiculous and shocking means of how visitors of inmates bring narcotics into the prison, this strip search method is also not effective enough.

“Angunakolapelessa Prison is one of the prisons in Sri Lanka with a slim possibility of narcotics being available within. That is because of the tight security methods I have recommended,” she said.

Prison Superintendent and the assault

The Prison Superintendent had allegedly pulled up the inmates regarding some incidents. The inmates had launched the protest against this Superintendent too, Chairman of the CPRP Attorney Senaka Perera said. 

“The Prison Superintendent became emboldened after the 26 October 2018 political crisis. Thus, what took place on 22 November 2018 is an act of revenge,” Perera further claimed. 

He alleged that Prison Superintendent A.W. Siridath Dhammika, Chief Jailor Pradeep Wasantha Kumara, Jailors A.D.S. Samaraweera, Ajith Kumara, Shelton and Abeygunawardena, P. Gamage of the Stores, Storekeeper Indika, Guards Udayantha, Rasika Chandana, Prabath, Kumara and Hewanayake, were among those involved in the said attack. 

Attorney Perera also speaking at the press briefing, said that if the legal actions against those who were involved in the assault is delayed for any reason, they would go to Court to have the criminal law enforced in connection with this case.

A special team from Colombo had been also sent to investigate and observe the situation at the Angunakolapelessa Prison in last October. Subsequently, Prisons authorities had moved out nine inmates, involved in the recent protests.

Meanwhile, Minister Atukorale believes that corrupt prison staff in Angunakolapelessa Prison had instigated the prisoners to protest by letting them out of their cells and even allowing them to climb upon a tower to demonstrate.

Recent prison violence 

The new high-tech prison complex built on 65 acres of land in Angunakolapelessa houses some of the most notorious criminals. Many of them were transferred from Welikada Prison.

It was revealed during the ministry press conference that several incidents prior to November 22 (2018) had already created unrest within the prison.

 The chain of incidents that had taken place inside the Angunakolapelessa Prison before the November 22nd assault is as follows.

1. November 14 - A prisoner, accused of an abduction case involving an underaged girl, attempting to escape from the roof of Embilipitiya Magistrate’s Court

2. November 16 - The convict of the Rita John rape and murder case who is on death row stoning the convict of the famous Hokandara six murders case Senaka Sanjeewa alias Ukkuwa to death.

3. November 20 - An inmate, who consumed a liquid chemical, used for cleaning, attempting to escape when he was being treated by a doctor
Prison officials had also been critisized by Magistrates about the delay in producing suspects to the courts.

4. November 22 - Two groups of remand prisoners brutally attacking a suspect with two iron poles. 

This incident happened on the day of the much talked assault. “The inmates had removed these iron poles from a door. A team of prison officials had gone to the scene and taken the injured inmate for treatment. After that, the inmates hadn’t allowed the officials to leave the ward. They had attempted to hold the officials captive.The alarm was raised that a revolt was taking place and prison officers who rushed to the spot had taken the inmates out and punished them. These scenes were depicted in the video that was shown in the leaked CCTV footage,” Minister Atukorale said.

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“The Prison Superintendent became emboldened after the 26 October 2018 political crisis. Thus, what took place on 22 November 2018 is an act of revenge

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Ministry, CID, HRSCL 

On the day of the video was made public, Minister Atukorale instructed the Prisons Commissioner General to appoint a three-member committee to provide a report regarding the incident prior to today, adding that further action would be taken based on it. Prisons Commissioner (Administration/Intelligence and Security Divisions), H.M.T.N. Upuldeniya is heading the committee.

Nevertheless, this committee was rejected by the CPRP, criticising that the incident which had taken place inside a prison should not be investigated by a committee headed by a Prison Commissioner. In a letter to the Minister, the CPRP said Prison Commissioner Upuldeniya, who is also the Spokesman of Prisons Department, had earlier ruled out any human rights violations or brutality inside prisons.

Not even 12 hours had passed after the letter was sent when another investigative team was appointed on the instructions of the Minister to probe the assault of prisoners. The report of the second committee is expected to be handed over to the Minister before January 25.

The members of the second team comprise Senior Assistant Secretary of the President’s Secretariat, PM Nanayakkara, Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration and Disaster Management, Mrs. BMMM Basnayake and Senior Assistant Secretary, Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Mrs. GDA Swarnalatha.

The first committee of inquiry appointed on the instructions of the Minister to probe the incident has already commenced making inquiries into the incidents at Angunakolapelessa Prison and the Committee’s report was due to be submitted yesterday.

Meanwhile, Southern Province Governor Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon also writing to Minister Atukorale and the media, had requested details regarding the said incident and also called upon the public to assist in identifying those responsible for the said assault.

The move to deploy the STF at the Angunakolapelessa Prison, to which institute many notorious convicted inmates were transferred from Welikada Prison, was shrouded in controversy. This was due to the alleged involvement of the STF in the 2012 Welikada Prison incident, which brought death to 27 inmates

HRCSL fully aware of assault 

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) issuing a statement said that when it learned of the incident, the Commission visited the Prison, obtained statements from prisoners, and requested the Superintendent of the Prison to produce those alleged to have  been assaulted for examination by the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO).

The Commission has also requested the Superintendent to provide medical assistance to inmates ,who required such assistance.

The Commission has undertaken a number of follow-up visits in December, 2018 to obtain further statements of prisoners, monitor whether prisoners were produced before the JMO had also monitored their general well-being.

In early December 2018 the Commission summoned the Commissioner-General of Prisons and the Superintendent of Angunakolapelessa closed the prison so that inquiries could be carried out regarding the incident. During these inquiries the Commission reiterated the need to adhere to the constitutional provisions on freedom from torture and pointed to the Convention Against Torture Act No 22 of 1994, which criminalizes torture.

Inquiries are continuing and the Commission expects to issue its recommendation soon, the HRCSL said.

Inquiring into video leak

Following the video leakage, the authorities have sealed off the CCTV control room at Angunakolapelessa Prison to prevent the records being accessed.
She also said that the  release of footage to the media instead of complaints being made to the Ministry was of concern and would be investigated.  She criticised members of the CPRP for releasing the visuals to the media and creating a controversy, without handing them over to the ministry.

She also warned that whoever leaked the visuals would be found and action taken against them. “Whoever leaked the CCTV visuals, has to be the working of someone inside the prison. We will conduct an inquiry to find out who it was,” the minister said.

There can be cases where members of the prison staff take revenge on the inmates unleashing cruel punishment. Appointing committees are not enough in such cases

Appointing committees isn’t enough

The Daily Mirror spoke to Former Human Rights Commissioner and currently working as the Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Technology Jamaica, West Indies Prof. Prathiba Mahanamahewa to seek his opinion on the violation of human rights of inmates in Angunakolapelessa incident. 

He said that as this incident has already made a black mark on Sri Lanka, the country would have to face the repercussions in the upcoming sessions of United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

He opined that appointing committees isn’t what a Minister of Prison Reforms and Justice, who is considered the guardian of inmates in the prison, should do during such incidents. He said the minister should resign immediately.

He explained how rights of prisoners are protected in international and local laws.

“Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which came into force in 1976, clearly states that no person’s rights regarding liberty should be deprived and their humanity and dignity must be protected. Prisoners are also human beings therefore their rights must be protected even when they are facing trial or even after being sentenced.”

He also spoke about the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners which were introduced in 1955. It says punishment of inmates cannot be carried out by the prison staff or the prison commissioner in a prison. 

“In 2015, Mandela Rules were included in these minimum rules. Mandela Rules clearly state that the remand prisoners are people whose liberty and rights are deprived of, therefore any cruel or inhumane punishment on them is a violation of their human rights,” Prof. Mahanamahewa said.

As per the Article 11 and 13 of the Constitution of Sri Lanka (1978) says prisoners should be free of torture, he said.

“There can be cases where members of the prison staff take revenge on the inmates unleashing cruel punishment. Appointing committees are not enough in such cases. The video shows how the unarmed inmates were assaulted with batons. If the inmates have done something wrong, punishment can only be carried out by the courts,” he further said.

HR Commissioner suggested that continuous human rights and prisoners’ rights awareness programmes should be conducted for the benefit of all prison staffs in Sri Lanka so that officials do not repeat these types of incidents in future and to improve prison management strategies in Sri Lanka.

Justin Trudeau’s pack of lies about BDS

Ali Abunimah Power Suits 18 January 2019

I spoke to The Real News about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s renewed attacks and smearsagainst the BDS – boycott, divestment and sanctions – movement for Palestinians rights.

During a town hall meeting at Brock University in Ontario this week, one questioner asked Trudeau to retract his previous smears that the BDS movement is anti-Semitic.

Instead, the Liberal Party prime minister doubled down, claiming that the anti-racist BDS movement targets Jews.

Trudeau asserted “that anti-Semitism has also manifested itself not just as targeting of individuals but it is also targeting a new condemnation, or an anti-Semitism against the very state of Israel.”

Trudeau’s refusal to distinguish between Jews and Judaism on the one hand, and Israel and its state ideology Zionism, on the other, is, I told The Real News, itself an anti-Semitic move.

The prime minister also repeated the claim that “Jewish students still feel unwelcome and uncomfortable on some of our college and university campuses because of BDS-related intimidation” – a frequent smear by Israel lobby groups aimed at criminalizing Palestine solidarity activism by students.

I told The Real News that Trudeau was spouting a pack of lies about the BDS movement and echoing Israeli government talking points.

While he is claiming to defend “Canadian values,” I said that Trudeau is actually smearing Canadians, including Jewish Canadians, who fully support Palestinian rights.

Trudeau is taking his cues from Canada’s powerful Israel lobby – indeed in his answer Trudeau cited as one of his sources his “friend” Irwin Cotler, one of Canada’s top pro-Israel propagandists.

Canadian and US Israel lobbyists greeted Trudeau’s latest pandering with glee:

View image on Twitter

CIJA@CIJAinfo

#BDS is not only fuelled by hatred, but is counterproductive to peace. Its' obsessive campaign against exclusively one country and one community can only be described as #antisemitic. Watch his full statement here: https://bit.ly/2FxfNng 

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5:31 PM - Jan 16, 2019

WATCH: Canadian PM @JustinTrudeau say “I Will Continue to Condemn the BDS Movement” #BDSFail https://t.co/15kdxawhEn

— Adam Milstein (@AdamMilstein) 17 January 2019

So did Gilad Erdan, Israel’s minister of strategic affairs who is leading Israel’s covert efforts to try to sabotagethe BDS movement, including by spying on and smearing citizens in democratic countries merely for exercising their free-speech rights:

Thank you Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau, my friend, for so clearly explaining the anti-Semitic nature of the #BDS movement and condemning those who seek to delegitimize and demonize the State of #Israel! pic.twitter.com/8u7Ea6bSSR

— גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) 17 January 2019

However, as opinion surveys show, Trudeau is out of step with a majority of Canadians who view BDS tactics as a reasonable way for Palestinians to pursue their rights in the face of the complicity and inaction of the so-called international community.

Watch my interview with Gregory Wilpert of The Real News above.