Labourer whose blasphemy death sentence was overturned has been transferred to Karachi Pakistani security officials stand guard as the supreme court hears an appeal against the acquittal for Asia Bibi. Photograph: T Mughal/EPA
Pakistani authorities have moved Asia Bibi, a Christian woman recently acquitted of blasphemy charges, to a new “secure area” and are barring her from leaving the country, a close friend and rights campaigner has claimed.
Bibi, who spent eight years on death row, was transferred from a location near the capital to a house in the southern port city of Karachi, her friend Aman Ullah told the Associated Press. She and her husband are locked in a single room in a house where the door opens only “at food times”, he added.
Canada has offered her asylum and she wants to join her daughters there. Pakistani authorities have said she is free to travel, but Bibi, 54, says she is being prevented from going.
“She has no indication of when she will leave,” said Ullah, who added that Bibi was frightened and frustrated. “They are not telling her why she cannot leave.” He spoke to her by telephone, after the threats from extremists angered by his assistance to Bibi forced him to flee the country on Friday.
Ullah has been liaising with diplomats over the case, and he says they were told Bibi’s departure would only come “in the medium-term”.
Publicly, Pakistani authorities insist that Bibi is free both inside Pakistan, and to leave it. “She is living with her family and given requisite security for safety,” the information minister, Fawad Chaudhry, told the AP in an email.
He said the government was responsible for taking “all possible measures” to protect her and her family, adding that “she is a free citizen after her release from jail and can move anywhere in Pakistan or abroad.”
Violent Islamists have threatened to track her down and kill her, some even suggesting that they will pursue her abroad if she leaves.
A farm labourer, Bibi was sentenced to death in 2010 in what swiftly became Pakistan’s most infamous blasphemy case. She had been accused by Muslim villagers of insulting the prophet Muhammad in a row over a cup of water. She always insisted she was innocent.
Blasphemy is a highly inflammatory issue in Pakistan, where even unproven accusations of insulting Islam can spark lynchings. Human rights activists say blasphemy charges are frequently used to settle personal scores.
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who many nations have recognized as the country's rightful interim ruler, speaks during a meeting with students in Caracas, Venezuela February 8, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is pushing the U.N. Security Council to formally call for free, fair and credible presidential elections in Venezuela with international observers, diplomats said, a move that prompted Russia to propose a rival draft resolution.
Moscow and Washington have been at loggerheads over a U.S.-led campaign for international recognition of Venezuelan opposition leader and head of the country’s elected National Assembly Juan Guaido over President Nicolas Maduro. Guaido last month declared himself interim head of state.
Diplomats from the 15 Security Council members met privately on Friday afternoon to discuss the U.S.-drafted resolution, seen by Reuters, that would express “full support for the National Assembly as the only democratically elected institution.”
Russia, China, Equatorial Guinea and South Africa last month blocked the Security Council from issuing a statement with the same language. But the same four countries failed in a Russian-led bid to stop the council from publicly discussing Venezuela, at the request of the United States, on Jan. 26.
During talks on the U.S. draft resolution on Friday, Russia - which has accused Washington of backing a coup attempt in Venezuela - proposed an alternative text, diplomats said.
The Russian draft would express “concern over the attempts to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction.” It would also express “concern over the threats to use force against the territorial integrity and political independence” of Venezuela.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said military intervention in Venezuela was “an option.”
It was unclear if or when either draft Security Council resolution could be put to a vote. A council resolution needs nine votes and no vetoes by the United States, Britain, France, Russia or China to pass.
HUMANITARIAN AID
Nearly 50 countries globally have recognized Guaido, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday, and are calling for a free and fair presidential election. Maduro cruised to re-election in May last year amid low turnout and allegations of vote-buying by the government.
The U.S.-drafted resolution expresses “deep concern” that the presidential elections were neither free nor fair.
The Russian draft resolution “supports all initiatives aimed at reaching a political solution amongst Venezuelans ... including the Montevideo Mechanism, through a genuine and inclusive process of national dialogue.”
European and Latin American leaders gathered on Thursday in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo to discuss a plan to solve the deepening crisis in Venezuela, while urging the global community to back away from direct intervention.
The U.S. draft resolution also addresses facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid for Venezuela, after the United States sent food and medicine to the country’s border and accused Maduro of blocking its delivery with trucks and shipping containers.
Maduro’s government has denied that there is a humanitarian crisis, blaming economic problems on sanctions. Venezuela is struggling with hunger, preventable diseases and hyperinflation forecast at 10 million percent in 2019.
There is no mention of humanitarian assistance in the Russian draft resolution.
Reporting by Michelle Nichols in Washington; Editing by Mary Milliken and Matthew Lewis
New study shows the humble honeybee can use symbols to perform basic maths including addition and subtraction. Source: Diyana Dimitrova/Shutterstock
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THE humble honeybee can use symbols to perform basic maths including addition and subtraction, shows new research published today in the journal Science Advances.
Despite having a brain containing less than one million neurons, the honeybee has recently shown it can manage complex problems – like understanding the concept of zero.
Honeybees are a high value model for exploring questions about neuroscience. In our latest study we decided to test if they could learn to perform simple arithmetical operations such as addition and subtraction.
Addition and subtraction operations
As children, we learn that a plus symbol (+) means we have to add two or more quantities, while a minus symbol (-) means we have to subtract quantities from each other.
To solve these problems, we need both long-term and short-term memory. We use working (short-term) memory to manage the numerical values while performing the operation, and we store the rules for adding or subtracting in long-term memory.
Although the ability to perform arithmetic like adding and subtracting is not simple, it is vital in human societies. The Egyptians and Babylonians show evidence of using arithmetic around 2000BCE, which would have been useful – for example – to count live stock and calculate new numbers when cattle were sold off.
This scene depicts a cattle count (copied by the Egyptologist Lepsius). In the middle register we see 835 horned cattle on the left, right behind them are some 220 animals and on the right 2,235 goats. In the bottom register we see 760 donkeys on the left and 974 goats on the right. Source: Wikimedia commons, CC BY
But does the development of arithmetical thinking require a large primate brain, or do other animals face similar problems that enable them to process arithmetic operations? We explored this using the honeybee.
How to train a bee
Honeybees are central place foragers – which means that a forager bee will return to a place if the location provides a good source of food.
We provide bees with a high concentration of sugar water during experiments, so individual bees (all female) continue to return to the experiment to collect nutrition for the hive.
In our setup, when a bee chooses a correct number (see below) she receives a reward of sugar water. If she makes an incorrect choice, she will receive a bitter tasting quinine solution.
We use this method to teach individual bees to learn the task of addition or subtraction over four to seven hours. Each time the bee became full she returned to the hive, then came back to the experiment to continue learning.
Addition and subtraction in bees
Honeybees were individually trained to visit a Y-maze shaped apparatus.
The bee would fly into the entrance of the Y-maze and view an array of elements consisting of between one to five shapes. The shapes (for example: square shapes, but many shape options were employed in actual experiments) would be one of two colours. Blue meant the bee had to perform an addition operation (+ 1). If the shapes were yellow, the bee would have to perform a subtraction operation (- 1).
For the task of either plus or minus one, one side would contain an incorrect answer and the other side would contain the correct answer. The side of stimuli was changed randomly throughout the experiment, so that the bee would not learn to only visit one side of the Y-maze.
After viewing the initial number, each bee would fly through a hole into a decision chamber where it could either choose to fly to the left or right side of the Y-maze depending on operation to which she had been trained for.
The Y-maze apparatus used for training honeybees. Source: Scarlett Howard
At the beginning of the experiment, bees made random choices until they could work out how to solve the problem. Eventually, over 100 learning trials, bees learnt that blue meant +1 while yellow meant -1. Bees could then apply the rules to new numbers.
During testing with a novel number, bees were correct in addition and subtraction of one element 64-72 percent of the time. The bee’s performance on tests was significantly different than what we would expect if bees were choosing randomly, called chance level performance (50 percent correct/incorrect)
Thus, our “bee school” within the Y-maze allowed the bees to learn how to use arithmetic operators to add or subtract.
Why is this a complex question for bees?
Numerical operations such as addition and subtraction are complex questions because they require two levels of processing. The first level requires a bee to comprehend the value of numerical attributes. The second level requires the bee to mentally manipulate numerical attributes in working memory.
In addition to these two processes, bees also had to perform the arithmetic operations in working memory – the number “one” to be added or subtracted was not visually present. Rather, the idea of plus one or minus “one” was an abstract concept which bees had to resolve over the course of the training.
Showing that a bee can combine simple arithmetic and symbolic learning has identified numerous areas of research to expand into, such as whether other animals can add and subtract.
Implications for AI and neurobiology
There is a lot of interest in AI, and how well computers can enable self-learning of novel problems.
Our new findings show that learning symbolic arithmetic operators to enable addition and subtraction is possible with a miniature brain. This suggests there may be new ways to incorporate interactions of both long-term rules and working memory into designs to improve rapid AI learning of new problems.
Also, our findings show that the understanding of maths symbols as a language with operators is something that many brains can probably achieve, and helps explain how many human cultures independently developed numeracy skills.
Much has been made lately of language in a recently enacted New York state statute that permits abortion up to the time of birth if necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother. New Jersey has had the same provision for two generations via a regulation of the Board of Medical Examiners.
Sadly, when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the new legislation into law two weeks ago, he did so in a joyful and celebratory atmosphere. What moral person could find joy in this?
The joyless debate over the issue of how late in a pregnancy is morally or legally too late for abortion was crystalized when the Virginia General Assembly was prepared to vote last week on legislation nearly identical to New York’s, only to have that legislation inadvertently sabotaged by one of its most ardent supporters, Gov. Ralph Northam, a pediatric neurologist.
When Gov. Northam was asked on a Richmond radio show how the law would address a baby’s surviving an abortion procedure in the ninth month of pregnancy and his cold and startling answer was that the proposed legislation would permit the mother and the physician to let the unwanted baby passively die, outrage ensued, and the legislation was defeated by one vote.
That outrage was soon diverted to Gov. Northam’s fitness for office, not over his abortion comment but because his medical school yearbook page showed a photo with a person in blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan garb — together depicting horrid, hateful, hurtful imagery reminiscent of an awful white supremacist-dominated time in American history that took bloodshed to erase. This shocking revelation and the defeat of the proposed Virginia legislation changed the public debate from letting babies who survive abortion procedures die to ridding the Virginia government of a potential, likely or former white supremacist.
Gov. Northam at first apologized, not for supporting legislation that would permit the passive deaths of unwanted babies but for his youthful blackface-posed photo. Then, on second thought, he denied that the photo was of him. Then political hell broke loose among Democrats who want him out of office.
But the issue remains and cannot be buried by the firestorm over the governor’s 35-year-old yearbook page: What is the legal status of a baby who survives a late-term abortion procedure? Here is the back story.
In January 1973, the Supreme Court issued two abortion decisions on the same day. The better known of the two, Roe v. Wade, has been the fulcrum for political, legal, moral and religious debate as fierce as any this country has seen since the abolitionist movement challenged slavery in the era before the War Between the States.
Roe established that the fetus in the womb, notwithstanding human parentage and the possession of all the genomic material needed to develop into a full postnatal human, is legally not a person. This echoed another Supreme Court decision, Dred Scott v. Sandford, which was in the abolitionist era and effectively denied the personhood of African-Americans.
The personhood of a human fetus is not a mere academic question. If the fetus is a person, then it is protected from abortion by the Fifth and 14th amendments to the Constitution, which command the government to protect equally the lives of all people. But Roe did not stop with the personhood issue. It also decreed that the states may not regulate abortions in the first trimester of a woman’s pregnancy, may regulate in the second trimester only for the health of the mother and may prohibit or permit abortions in the third trimester.
Yet here is the kicker, which has been below the Roe radar screen while 55 million babies have had their lives snuffed out in the past 46 years. Roe decreed that all states must permit abortions at any time in the pregnancy if necessary to save the life or preserve the health of the mother. Pregnancies that threaten the life of the mother are extremely rare, thanks to modern medicine. However, thanks to Roe’s little-known companion case, Doe v. Bolton, the phrase “the health of the mother” can mean the physical, mental, psychological or emotional health of and (inexplicably) the age of the mother.
Stated differently, under Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, if a mother satisfies a physician that she would suffer emotionally if she were to carry her baby to term or is too old to be a mother, in all states in the union, she can have an abortion at any time in her pregnancy — even at the end of the ninth month.
Now, back to the question put to Gov. Northam. Suppose the baby is not butchered in the womb but survives and is delivered alive. When the Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell was confronted with this, he used his scalpel to stab babies to death. At his murder trial, at which he was convicted, the prosecution presented evidence to show that if he had passively allowed the born-alive babies to choke or starve to death, he would not have committed a crime.
Physicians are taught from day one, “First, do no harm.” What physician could let a baby die?
The dirty secret of abortion law is that mothers and abortion physicians may legally let unwanted babies born alive suffer and die with impunity. What about personhood? Isn’t a living baby a person entitled to the equal protection of the laws? Under the natural law, yes. Under the Constitution, yes. Under Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, no.
No society that permits the active or passive killing of people because they are unwanted can long survive. No society that defines away personhood has any claim to knowing right from wrong. Whose personhood will the government define away next?
And this largely explains the sharp rise in total cases in Europe, from 25,863 in 2017 to more than 82,000 in 2018.
Vaccination rates for measles, mumps and rubella in Ukraine fell sharply over a number of years during its conflict with Russia, reaching 31% in 2016 - among the lowest in the world.
By the end of 2017, the percentage of children in Ukraine who had been vaccinated had significantly improved, to about 90% but, the WHO says, this now needs to be sustained to protect the population from further outbreaks of measles.
'Gaps at local level'
Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO regional director for Europe, said: "The picture for 2018 makes it clear that the current pace of progress in raising immunisation rates will be insufficient to stop measles circulation.
"While data indicate exceptionally high immunisation coverage at regional level, they also reflect a record number affected and killed by the disease.
"This means that gaps at local level still offer an open door to the virus."
The WHO says the 2018 surge in measles cases followed a year when European countries achieved their highest ever estimated coverage for the second dose of the measles vaccination - 90%.
The percentage of children receiving the first dose of the vaccine also increased, to 95%.
The former TNA MP Chandranehru and LTTE political head Kousalyan, as well as the LTTE cadres who were killed with them in an ambush by Sri Lankan paramilitaries were remembered in Batticaloa on Thursday.
The group were attacked by gunmen, at the time thought to be Sri Lankan soldiers but later linked to Karuna’s paramilitary, on February 7, 2005, while travelling back to the East from Vanni after a meeting about tsunami rehabilitation efforts.
07 February 2019
At the time Kousalyan became the most senior LTTE official to be killed after the signing of the ceasefire.
Remembrance events were held by Tamil youth in Valaichenai and by the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) in Moonkilaru.
This is a very complicated issue. The facts presented here are for readers to ascertain to clear the doubts about Ravana’s language and his social status. Though Ravana was a Hindu, there is a general impression among the Sinhala people that they were from Ravana’s descendants. However, the history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka began with the arrival of Mahinda when he met King Devampiyatissa preaching non-violence. Buddhism saw its introduction in Sri Lanka about 2,500 years back. Prior to this period there were some clans namely the Nagas, the Yakkas, the Rakshas and probably Devas (rulers) who have inhabited Sri Lanka. There was no caste system but their divisions attributed to their profession. The Nagas were worshippers of serpents while the Yakkas were worshippers of demons. As such it is difficult to ascertain their religion. Ramayana epic points out that though Ravana was a mythical king and a Shiva devotee, his mother had a thorough knowledge of the culture of activities involving demons. There are other views that the Sinhala race originated with the arrival of Prince Vijaya and his 700 men, when his boat was drifted from Orissa to a place called Mantai in the upper North-west of Sri Lanka where he and his men met the queen of Sri Lanka (Queen Kuveni) and eventually married her. Queen Kuveni is alleged to be from the Yakka clan. There are similarities between the people of Orissa and the Sinhala people of Sri Lanka in respect of dress, food, customs, etc.
When the name Ravana is mentioned it goes to the period when the great epic Ramayana was composed by sage Valmiki during the period of the Indus Valley Civilization. Ravana was a great devotee of Lord Shiva. During that period Shaivaism was in existence in the Kashmir region and in Gujarat where Lord Shive was worshipped. In fact, Kashmir was a Hindu kingdom when India was referred to Bharatham. However, the most ancient Hindu scripture Rig Veda mentions of Rudra instead of Shiva. This was an incident about 7,000 to 9,000 years ago during which period there were land masses in place of some straits throughout the world. Accordingly, the strait between Rameshwaram in South India and Talaimannar in Sri Lanka is a distance of about 21 miles and the depth is about 200 feet. This should compared with the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska, the distance of which is about 18 miles and the depth is about 180 feet. This was the situation about 9,000 years back. During this period, the land mass in place of the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska as well as that of the strait between Talaimannar and Rameswaram (Thanuskodi) which with the passage of time would have submerged in sea because of a deluge. It also said that a huge land mass known as the lost continent of Lemuria or Kumari Kanda or ‘Kadal Konda Thennadu’ could have submerged in sea, probably at the same period. The lost continent of Lemuria stretches from Eastern Africa to Indonesia within which Sri Lanka could be a part of it. Moreover, Sri Lanka is known as ‘Siva Poomi’ in Tamil i.e. the land of Lord Shiva. There were five Eswarams (temples for Lord Shiva) in Sri Lanka But today only four Easwarams (Thirukeswaram, Munneswaram, Koneswaram, Naguleswaram) are seen but the fifth Easwaram known as Thondeeswaram in the South Sri Lanka was submerged in sea. It is said that Ravana visited all these four Easwarams as per Ramayana.
The period of the Indus Valley Civilization saw the a deep study of Hinduism through its ancient scriptures like the Vedaswhich demonstrated that the structure of society was classified as Four Orders of Human Beings known as Varnas, namely, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras, all of which were based on Gunas. The composition of Ramayana during the Indus Valley Civilization focussed on Rama’s good deeds and Ravana’s evil actions having taken into account of Varna system. The Vedas were timeless and never mentioned of caste discrimination, but spoke of Varna system. Varna systems are God-created while castes are man-made. Varnas are based on Gunas (qualities) whereas castes can be amended to suit the changing needs of society. Varnas were never constituted by birth. Since Hinduism maintains that a person is at liberty to engage in activities that he is capable of, he is assigned or allowed to do that job according to his skill. This has nothing to do with caste.It is very unfortunate that vested interests have propagated that caste is by birth because of their spiritual monopoly. It is these vested interests who created and developed the ideas of inferiority and superiority among the people, which paved way for discrimination between various groups of occupations. This is how the the Varna system turned into a caste system. This is a misconception. Just because one child is selfish and mischievous, it does not mean that the mother should be blamed. Likewise just because a few brahmins had interpolated some misconceptions into the Hindu laws with the view to consolidate their prestigious position, it does not mean Hinduism is flawed. Its liberality of accommodating everyone within its fold is what matters. Even I was ashamed of my ignorance, when the oppressed class of people were prevented from entering in our temple by other people. The Hindu Missions with broad outlook should come forward to reconstitute the caste system into Varna system in keeping with the teachings of the Vedanta gradually and restore Hinduism to its past glory.
It is also said that Ravana was a Brahmin in terms of spiritual matters but his method of treating his subjects was of much concern because of his egoism
There is a probability that four Varnas would have prevailed in Sri Lanka tooduring the period of the Indus Valley Civilization, given the fact there was a mass land between Talaimannar and Rameswaram or the strait would have been shallow. The Varna system prevailed in each and every clan of every State in India including Sri Lanka. One ponders whether Ravana was living during the existence of the lost continent of Lemuria or Kumari Kandam.
The usage of Tamil or Sanskrit by the priests at these Shiva temples implied that Ravana may have been fluent both in Tamil and Sanskrit, though Ramayana was composed in Sankrit. Upon a consideration of Ravana’s association with the sages especially with sage Agasthiyar in addition to his being a musician.
Ravana’s influence saw its influence even in Indonesia. Indonesian currency still bears the image of Lord Ganesha and Ravana has been worshipping Lord Ganesha. In some villages of Indonesia, Ramayana is played as drama. As such, it is difficult to ascertain what happened in Sri Lanka prior to the introduction of Buddhism in Sri Lanka as well as it is difficult to ascertain the language in force as well as the language spoken by the Nagas and the Yakkas. However, Buddhism firmly stood its ground in Sri Lanka as well as in Burma, Thailand, Japan, Tibet, China, etc. In Sri Lanka though Buddhists follow Buddhism, they also worship Maha Ganapathy, Muruga and Pathini, and Vishnu, some of which were worshipped by Ravana. Likewise in India though Ramayana was composed in many languages, generally the names of people are almost similar and common in every State throughout India and in Sri Lanka.
Moreover, there are places in Sri Lanka with names like Sita Eliya, Ravana Ela, etc after Ramayana. Moreover, there is a place called UNAWATTUNA just a few miles south of Galle. When Ravana lit the fire on Hanuman’s tail, a piece of fire had fallen at this place while flying and it was called UNAWATTUNA as the people called it a burnt soil.
resident Sirisena has openly rejected the UNP Government’s proposal to form a National Government with a single member of the Sri Lanka Muslim Council (SLMC) in Parliament. Reporting on the speech made by the President at the Independence Day celebrations, the DM Online web reported the same morning, “….it was not correct to form a National Government just to give more Ministerial portfolios” as having been said by the President. Meanwhile, in a lame bid to shed the green shawl, TNA Spokesperson MP Sumanthiran had told a media briefing in Jaffna on Independence Day, that the TNA was vehemently opposed to the undemocratic attempt by the UNP to establish a National Government.
As reported on Tuesday by the news website Sri Lanka Mirror, Sumanthiran had told media, the TNA opposed such a move before and would do so again. The TNA stand on a National Government as reported in the website is that a National Government should be established by the two main political parties and a political solution to the national question should be reached by them. The two main political parties as perceived by the ITAK leadership in TNA are the UNP and the SLFP, which is a total political error in today’s context.The UNP is one main political party, not because it is the largest single party in Parliament, but because it retains a sizeable percentage of the Sinhala constituency, even when they are miserably defeated at elections.
In 1956 April, they retained 27.9 percent of the votes though reduced to 08 seats as against 14 seats the LSSP won with only 10.4 percent polled. The SLFP was that in 1977 July elections when it was reduced to eight seats from 91 in 1970, but polled 29.7 percent in 1977. The SLFP retained such status up to the 2015 August election. While the UNP with 106 seats polled 45.7 percent, the SLFP with its allies led by Rajapaksa polled 42.4 percent winning 95 seats. During the past 42 months, all that has changed. The SLFP has not only lost their numbers in Parliament but could not retain a decent share of the votes polled at the last February LG Elections. While the UNP managed to retain 29.4 per cent, slightly more than it polled in 1956, the SLFP could poll only a dismal 12.1 percent as against the SLPP led by its de facto leader Rajapaksa that polled 40.5 per cent. This is the political reality now. Today the two leading political entities are the UNP and the SLPP. No more is the SLFP the second biggest.
Though Sumanthiran is a total newcomer, what the ITAK leadership with Sampanthan should know from their 69-year history is that the two major Sinhala political leadership in Parliament could agree and compromise on political solutions as in 1957 with the B-C Pact and in 1965 with the D-C Pact. But it is the Colombo Sinhala Buddhist campaign outside Parliament, that decides the outcome. Sinhala leaders have always reneged on all promises at all times during the past 71 years, since the British left. The ITAK leadership should know, mere compromises with leaders of major political parties cannot resolve political issues of Tamil people. That can only be resolved with the consent of the Sinhala moderate majority. Thus, it is the moderate Sinhala constituency outside Parliament that can and should be engaged with. The Tamil people have a story of their own to tell the Sinhala South. That has to be told by the Tamil people and not throughproxiesto the South to achieve political consensus.
In plain language, it is the Sinhala South the Tamil leadership should engage with. They have not and do not. This, in fact, is what the emerging alternate Tamil leadership, the TPA leader Wigneswaran is also missing out on. His statements made exclusively to the Northern people, who are politically abandoned by the TNA and extreme slogans of appealing to the UN Secretary-General will not provide answers to any of the issues the Tamil people want to be resolved. It is this major political blunder in alternate Tamil politics that tries to be rhetorically “better and more Tamil” that allows TNA to continue with their political demand for a National Government with the two major political parties in the South. A failed experiment though. It is not only the TNA that has been completely stumped out by the changing scenario but the UNP too. During the marathon debate to have the 19th Amendment passed before midnight, a UPFA member in Parliament during the Committee Stage debate said the UNP’s proposed “National Government” as mentioned in the draft would have to depend on an SC ruling for its definition.
PM Wickremesinghe then told Parliament it could be defined as the Unity Government between the two largest political parties in Parliament. Sadly today, the second largest party in Parliament cannot muster the numbers the ad hoc Joint Opposition (JO) can, under Rajapaksa. That is the reason why Rajapaksa is now the Opposition Leader. Thus, on PM Wickremesinghe’s definition of a National Government, there is no more a second largest party in Parliament the UNP can tie up with to form a National Government. It is this inability to have a major Sinhala party as a partner for a National Government that exposes the UNP in their bid to have a National Government with the SLMC that has just one single MP from Batticaloa district.
"Today the two leading political entities are the UNP and the SLPP. No more the SLFP
It is the Colombo Sinhala Buddhist campaign outside Parliament that decides the outcome"
As very aptly said by the President, this proposal the Leader of the House Minister Kiriella has given notice on was nothing but an attempt to accommodate more Ministers and Deputy Ministers. Such is the democratic fraud played out on the people. The biggest fraud in society though is the role played by the foreign donor funded NGO activists in Colombo, who project themselves as civil society. This is their recent history. These funded groups organised continual protests in Colombo during the October boomerang only to have the UNP Government back with Ranil Wickremesinghe as PM. A decision made by the powerful diplomatic lobby in Colombo too. They said democracy cannot be compromised with. Their high moral slogan was Not Ranil, but Democracy. They alleged MPs were traded for millions of rupees and dollars for Rajapaksa to gain a 113 member majority in Parliament.
Yet, they did not say there was trading to stop MPs from crossing over as well, a common sense assumption in such immensely corrupt Parliamentary politics. Trading either way or both ways, all those were allegations of mega corruption, even beyond the Central Bank Bond Scam. The Bond Scam is now accepted as an almost proven fact with no leading figure in this Government left as Mr Clean with many other allegations too on corruption. Yet, it is this Parliament with the UNP Government the donor-funded civil society groups wanted to continue with democracy as they define. Their next journey with PM Wickremesinghe was when he lashed out at media calling some, black media. They marched into selected private media houses to teach them media ethics, least bothered how the Government handles State-owned media and exposed themselves again as Semi Government Civil Society. Their democracy doesn’t include PC Elections as they know the UNP and the foreign diplomatic lobby in Colombo do not want PC elections this year before the Presidential Election.
Their form of democracy prefers to target President Sirisena on “release of land to legal owners in Kepapulavu and Vanni with deadlines attached” and makes certain the Wickremesinghe Government is left out with no responsibility on that issue. With that same myopic interpretation of democracy which reversed the pet slogan “Not Ranil but Democracy” into “Not Democracy but Ranil”, these semi Government civil society campaigners are completely silent on the “National Government” the UNP wants to establish with the SLMC. The UNP leadership needs to provide more perks and privileges to their men and women to keep them satisfied till the end of the year. Thus, the UNP leadership has kept these Colombo men and women off the roads on PC elections and the National Government. That keeps Colombo urban life satisfied and silent and the media speculating on dud coins as possible Presidential candidates. Possibilities the media keeps the urban middle class guessing upon are, a Rajapaksa though not Mahinda, a pious and a less noisy Sinhala Buddhist icon and if that is not enough, another with a father’s heritage and then an untiring leader who anyway keeps going.
None from a corrupt free, democratic political party, if there is any and with a track record that can guarantee effective democracy, clean governance and a manifesto for socio-economic development. With such hollow and bankrupt politics what matters, who comes and who goes? Except that the Colombo civil society Reps would not want Rajapaksa, but any other to rob, ruin and rule this island like a Panamanian island and call it Democracy-whatever they mean by the word democracy.
Pakistani security officials stand guard as the supreme court hears an appeal against the acquittal for Asia Bibi. Photograph: T Mughal/EPA
Emma Graham-Harrison-
resident Sirisena has openly rejected the UNP Government’s proposal to form a National Government with a single member of the Sri Lanka Muslim Council (SLMC) in Parliament.