Sunday, February 17, 2019

Electronic waste is recycled in appalling conditions in India

shutterstock_437500573-940x580 — People search for recyclable material at a dump site. Source: Shutterstock

@polymer808- Feb 15 2019

ELECTRONIC waste is recycled in appalling conditions in India

The world produces 50 million tonnes of electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) per year, according to a recent UN report, but only 20 percent is formally recycled. Much of the rest ends up in landfill, or is recycled informally in developing nations.

India generates more than two million tonnes of e-waste annually, and also imports undisclosed amounts of e-waste from other countries from around the world – including Australia.

We visited India to examine these conditions ourselves, and reveal some of the devastating effects e-waste recycling has on workers’ health and the environment.

SEE ALSO: What a load of rubbish: The impact of the Philippines’ sachet economy

Indian e-waste

More than 95 percent of India’s e-waste is processed by a widely distributed network of informal workers of waste pickers.

They are often referred to as “kabadiwalas” or “raddiwalas” who collect, dismantle and recycle it and operate illegally outside of any regulated or formal organisational system. Little has changed since India introduced e-waste management legislation in 2016.

We visited e-waste dismantlers on Delhi’s outskirts.

Along the narrow and congested alleyways in Seelampur we encountered hundreds of people, including children, handling different types of electronic waste including discarded televisions, air-conditioners, computers, phones and batteries.

Squatting outside shop units they were busy dismantling these products and sorting circuit boards, capacitors, metals and other components (without proper tools, gloves, face masks or suitable footwear) to be sold on to other traders for further recycling.

Local people said the waste comes here from all over India.

“You should have come here early morning, when the trucks arrive with all the waste,” a trolley driver told us.

Seelampur is the largest e-waste dismantling market in India. Each day e-waste is dumped by the truckload for thousands of workers using crude methods to extract reusable components and precious metals such as copper, tin, silver, gold, titanium and palladium.

The process involves acid burning and open incineration, creating toxic gases with severe health and environmental consequences.

SEE ALSO: Thailand joins global war on plastics, e-waste

Workers come to Seelampur desperate for work. We learned that workers can earn between 200 and 800 rupees (AU$4-16) per day. Women and children are paid the least; men who are involved with the extraction of metals and acid-leeching are paid more.

Electronic waste. Source: Shutterstock

Income is linked to how much workers dismantle and the quality of what is extracted. They work 8-10 hours per day, without any apparent regard for their own well-being.

We were told by a local government representative that respiratory problems are reportedly common among those working in these filthy smoke-filled conditions.

Delhi has significant air and water pollution problems that authorities struggle to mitigate. We were surprised to learn that the recycling community does not like to discuss “pollution”, so as not to raise concerns that could result in a police raid.

When we asked about the burning of e-waste, they denied it takes place. Locals were reluctant to talk to us in any detail. They live in fear that their trade will be shut down during one of the regular police patrols in an attempt to curb Delhi’s critical air and water problems.

As a result of this fear, e-waste burning and acid washing are often hidden from view in the outskirts of Delhi and the neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, or done at night when there is less risk of a police raid.

Incidentally, while moving around Seelampur we were shocked to see children playing in drains clogged with dumped waste. During the drier months drains can catch fire, often deliberately lit to reduce waste accumulation.

After our tour of Seelampur we visited Mandoli, a region near Delhi where we were told e-waste burning takes place.

When we arrived and asked about e-waste recycling we were initially met with denials that such places exist.

But after some persistence we were directed along narrow, rutted laneways to an industrial area flanked by fortified buildings with large locked metal doors and peephole slots not dissimilar to a prison.

We arranged entry to one of these units. Among the swirling clouds of thick, acrid smoke, four or so women were burning electrical cables over a coal fire to extract copper and other metals.

They were reluctant to talk and very cautious with their replies, but they did tell us they were somewhat aware of the health and environmental implications of the work.

SEE ALSO: How are Asian countries tackling plastic pollution?

We could not stay more than a few minutes in these filthy conditions. As we left we asked an elderly gentleman if people here suffer from asthma or similar conditions. He claimed that deaths due to respiratory problems are common.

We also learned that most of these units are illegal and operate at night to avoid detection.

Pollution levels are often worse at night and affect the surrounding residential areas and even the prisoners at the nearby Mandoli Jail.

We had the luxury of being able to leave after our visit. It is devastating to think of the residents, workers and their children who spend their lives living among this toxic waste and breathing poisonous air.

Field trips such as this help illustrate a tragic paradox of e-waste recycling in developed versus developing nations. In Australia and many other advanced industrialised economies, e-waste collection is low and little is recycled.

In India, e-waste collection and recycling rates are remarkably high.

This is all due to informal recyclers, the kabadiwalas or raddiwalas. They are resourceful enough to extract value at every stage of the recycling process, but this comes with a heavy toll to their health and the environment.

This article was co-written by Ms. Alankrita Soni, UNSW Alumni & practising Environmental Architect from India.

By Miles Park, Senior Lecturer, Industrial Design, UNSW. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Nigeria’s election today

2019-02-16

Nigeria is a veritable factory of sophisticated novelists. It was no surprise that Ben Okri won the British Booker Prize that goes annually to the best novelist of the year.

Considering that high-class novel writing in English only began in Nigeria in 1958 with Chinua Achebe’s famous work, “Things Fall Apart”, now a classic, it has come a long way in a short time. Will Nigeria move at a similar speed with its economy and banish poverty as it once promised to?
Read Ben Okri’s vivid capture of poverty in his novel, The Famished Road, where the words are illuminated as if they had been thrown up in the air, then descend, sparkling like diamonds and rubies: “Everywhere there was the crudity of wounds, the stark huts, the rusted zinc abodes, and the rubbish in the streets, children in rags, and the little girls naked on the sand playing with crushed tin-cans….The sun bared the reality of our lives and everything was so harsh it was a mystery that we could understand and care for one another or for anything at all.”

He initiated the plans, recently fulfilled, for a modern railway from Lagos to Kano in the far north. He reformed an almost un-reformable oil industry where money was siphoned off by pirates, corruption prevailed and the oil companies spilled oil on farmers’ land

Okri’s prose is no longer quite accurate. When he published that in 1991 Nigeria was, as the IMF says, a “less developed country”. Today with an income per head per year of over a thousand US dollars it’s a lower medium level country. It has the biggest national income per year in Africa, followed by South Africa and then Egypt.

There hasn’t been a better president since Olusegun Obasanjo, who ruled from 1999 to 2007. Aided by high oil prices he revamped agricultural policy, drastically reformed the police and the army, tackled bribery head on and sought through the British courts to regain looted money. He sorted out the poor management in Lagos’s airport and docks. He supported good governors of states -- including the dynamic mayors of Lagos, Bola Tinubu and then Babatunde Fashola and Akinwunmi Ambode, when the city’s garbage collection, roads, public transport, land reclamation and health services were fast upgraded and public safety much improved. Obasanjo also supported the governor of Cross River State and the mayor of Calabar who, along with their predecessors, have made it into a slum-less garden city with a high income per head. He initiated the plans, recently fulfilled, for a modern railway from Lagos to Kano in the far north. He reformed an almost un-reformable oil industry where money was siphoned off by pirates, corruption prevailed and the oil companies spilled oil on farmers’ land. He talked into peace the armed insurgents who badly affected the Niger Delta area, the location of the best oil fields, by offering the fighters cash in hand and the possibility of retraining in various skills. (Nevertheless, the oil business still suffers from large-scale corruption, witness the present London court case where the big bank, JP Morgan Chase and Co, is being prosecuted for facilitating the misappropriation of funds amounting to 875 US million dollars. Separately, Nigeria has filed a 1.1 billion US dollars claim against the oil companies Shell and ENI, to “recover the very significant sums loss to corruption and unlawful activity”. (Shell has already been found guilty in an earlier case.)

Okri’s prose is no longer quite accurate. When he published that in 1991 Nigeria was, as the IMF says, a “less developed country”. Today with an income per head per year of over a thousand US dollars it’s a lower medium level country. It has the biggest national income per year in Africa, followed by South Africa and then Egypt

After Obasanjo came the well-meaning, reform-reminded Muslim, Umaru Adua, who died after three years on the job. Next came his vice-president, Goodluck Jonathan, who presided over the corruption of his cronies. However, he did step down at the end of his term, thus cementing Nigeria’s democracy. Now the incumbent is Muhammadu Buhari. He too has been seriously ill and away for months in London for treatment. Fortunately, his vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, has capably pushed reform forward.

Next week is the election. Buhari is standing for re-election against Obasanjo’s vice president, Atiku Ahubakar, who is widely seen as corrupt and not a great supporter of democracy. (I once saw him at a rally -- during one of my dozen visits to Nigeria -- when a photographer got too close and he ordered his bodyguards to beat him up.)

Buhari, by Obasanjo standards, has not been a driving force for reform. His virtue is that he is not corrupt. His major fault is that he’s allowed the army to commit atrocities in the fight against Boko Haram, a nihilistic, extreme Islamic, movement that has terrified much of the north. It began in 2002, at first very slowly. Although now it has retreated it’s still strong enough to turn villages up side down.

Oil prices have been very low but are climbing again. Buhari is the favourite to win. Let’s see with extra oil revenue if he can put Nigeria back on track and match Obasanjo’s record

The economy is projected to grow at only 2.3% this year, well below what it was in Obasanjo’s day, 7 to 8%.

Oil prices have been very low but are climbing again. Buhari is the favourite to win. Let’s see with extra oil revenue if he can put Nigeria back on track and match Obasanjo’s record. Otherwise, with its mushrooming unemployment, big parts of Nigeria may head downward, back to the way Ben Okri described it.

For 17 years Jonathan Power has been a foreign affairs columnist for the International Herald Tribune. He has been to Nigeria over a dozen times, beginning in the early 1980s. See his website: www.jonathanpowerjournalist

Arab world's first female interior minister hails 'point of pride for women'

Raya al-Hassan is one of four women taking cabinet jobs in new Lebanese government

New ministers (left to right): Violette Safadi, Raya al-Hassan, May Chidiac and Nada Boustani Khoury at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut. Photograph: Dalati Nohra/AP

Reuters in Beirut-Sun 17 Feb 2019

The Arab world’s first female interior minister has hailed her appointment as a “point of pride for all women”.

Raya al-Hassan is one of four women to take cabinet jobs in the new Lebanese government, a record for the country and three more than in the last government, in which even the minister for women was a man.

“There are a lot of female interior and defence ministers in the world and they have proved their efficiency,” Hassan said. “It might be a new phenomenon for Lebanon and Arab countries, but hopefully it will be repeated and not be unique.”

The three other women in the 30-strong cabinet are in charge of energy, administrative development and the economic empowerment of women and young people.

Though Lebanon is widely held to be liberal by regional standards, with women playing a prominent role in public life, some of its laws continue to uphold a patriarchal social code.

Much Lebanese civil law, including personal matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance, is applied according to religious sect and in some cases treats women differently to men.

“You can’t keep up with the international community and say you have a civilised state when all the world is working on gender equality and Lebanon is still living with the old male patriarchal mind,” said May Chidiac, the new administrative development minister.

Lebanese politics continues to revolve around men. The complex sectarian power-sharing system has helped entrench former warlords and the scions of political dynasties – all male – who dominate the government and the parliament.

“Lebanon is a male-dominated society and though women reached very important positions, when we talk about politics, especially parliament and government, their presence was modest,” said the women and youth minister, Violette Safadi.

“I think we broke this barrier.”

China surveillance firm tracking millions in Xinjiang: researcher

FILE PHOTO - Security cameras are installed at the entrance to the Id Kah Mosque during a government organised trip in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China, January 4, 2019. Picture taken January 4, 2019. REUTERS/Ben Blanchard

Cate Cadell, Philip Wen-FEBRUARY 17, 2019

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese surveillance firm is tracking the movements of more than 2.5 million people in the far-western Xinjiang region, according to a data leak flagged by a Dutch internet expert.

An online database containing names, ID card numbers, birth dates and location data was left unprotected for months by Shenzhen-based facial-recognition technology company SenseNets Technology Ltd, according to Victor Gevers, co-founder of non-profit organization GDI.Foundation, who first noted the vulnerability in a series of social media posts last week.

Exposed data also showed about 6.7 million location data points linked to the people which were gathered within 24 hours, tagged with descriptions such as “mosque”, “hotel,” “internet cafe” and other places where surveillance cameras were likely to be found.

“It was fully open and anyone without authentication had full administrative rights. You could go in the database and create, read, update and delete anything,” said Gevers.

China has faced an outcry from activists, scholars, foreign governments and U.N. rights experts over what they call mass detentions and strict surveillance of the mostly Muslim Uighur minority and other Muslim groups who call Xinjiang home.(tinyurl.com/y9zzouss)

According to its website, SenseNets works with China’s police across several cities. Its Shenzhen-listed parent company NetPosa Technologies Ltd has offices in a majority of Chinese provinces and regions, including Xinjiang.

SenseNets and NetPosa, as well as the Xinjiang regional government, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.

The Chinese government has ramped up personal surveillance in Xinjiang over recent years, including the construction of an extensive video surveillance system and smartphone monitoring technology.

Gevers said the foundation directly alerted SenseNets to the vulnerability, in line with GDI.Foundation protocol. He said SenseNets did not respond, but that it has since taken steps to secure the database.

Reporting by Cate Cadell and Philip Wen; Editing by Mark Potter

Melting Himalayan glaciers: a big drop in a bucket that’s already full

shutterstock_600146429-940x580 — A man stands with his arms in the air near the Gangotri glacier Gaumukh, the Ganga river source. Source: Shutterstock

@Dr_IsoTony-Feb 10, 2019

A NEW REPORT has warned that even if global warming is held at 1.5℃, we will still lose a third of the glaciers in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region.

What does that mean for rivers that flow down these mountains, and the people who depend on them?

The HKH region is home to the tallest mountains on Earth, and also to the source of rivers that sustain close to 2 billion people. These rivers supply agriculture with water and with sediments that fertilise soils in valleys and the floodplain.

SEE ALSO: Tackling climate change on a human level

Some of these rivers are hugely culturally significant.

The Ganges (or Ganga), for instance, which flows for more than 2,525km from the western Himalayas into the Bay of Bengal, is personified in Hinduism as the goddess Gaṅgā.

The Ganga River at Rishikesh, as it exits the Himalayas. Source: Anthony Dosseto

When it rains, it pours… literally

Before we get to the effect of melting glaciers on Himalayan rivers, we need to understand where they get their water.

For much of Himalayas, rain falls mostly during the monsoon active between June and September. The monsoon brings heavy rain and often causes devastating floods, such as in northern India in 2013, which forced the evacuation of more than 110,000 people.

Full Video - Uttarakhand Flood 2013 Live Video

But the summer monsoon is not the only culprit for devastating floods. Landslides can dam the river, and when this dam bursts it can cause dramatic, unpredictable flooding. Some of those events have been linked to folk stories of floods in many cultures around the world. In the Himalayas, a study tracking the 1,000-year history of large floods showed that heavy rainfall and landslide-dam burst are the main causes.

When they melt, glaciers can also create natural dams, which can then burst and send floods down the valley. In this way, the newly forecast melting poses an acute threat.

The potential problem is worsened still further by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s prediction that the frequency of extreme rainfall events will also increase.

SEE ALSO: Climate change in Asia: Why collective welfare comes before individual rights

Come hell or high water

What will happen to Himalayan rivers when the taps are turned to high in this way? To answer this, we need to look into the past.

For tens of thousands of years, rivers have polished rocks and laid down sediments in the lower valleys of the mountain range.

These sediments and rocks tell us the story of how the river behaves when the tap opens or closes.

Rock surfaces tell us where the river was carving into its bed. Source: Anthony Dosseto

Some experts propose that intense rain tends to trigger landslides, choking the river with sediments which are then dumped in the valleys.

Others suggest that the supply of sediments to the river generally doesn’t change much even in extreme rainfall events, and that the main effect of the extra flow is that the river erodes further into its bed.

The most recent work supports the latter theory. It found that 25,000-35,000 years ago, when the monsoon was much weaker than today, sediments were filling up Himalayan valleys.

But more recently (3,000-6,000 years ago), rock surfaces were exposed during a period of strong monsoon, illustrating how the river carved into its bed in response to higher rainfall.

Sediments laid down in Himalayan valleys support agriculture, but also tell us the ancient story of rivers that carried them. Source: Anthony Dosseto

So what does the past tell us about the future of Himalayan rivers? More frequent extreme rainfall events mean more floods, of course. But a stronger monsoon also means rivers will cut deeper into their beds, instead of fertilising Himalayan valleys and the Indo-Gangetic plain with sediments.

SEE ALSO: 4 Sinking Asian cities that could be drowned by climate change

What about glaciers melting? For as long as there are glaciers, this will increase the amount of meltwater in the rivers each spring (until 2060, according the report, after which there won’t be any meltwater to talk about). So this too will contribute to rivers carving into their beds instead of distributing sediments. It will also increase the risk of flooding from outburst of glacial lake dams.

So what is at stake? The melting glaciers? No. Given thousands or millions of years, it seems likely that they will one day return.

But on a more meaningful human timescale, what is really at stake is us – our own survival. Global warming is reducing our resources, and making life more perilous along the way. The rivers of the Himalayas are just one more example.

By Anthony Dosseto, Associate Professor, University of Wollongong. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Most hip and knee replacements 'last longer than thought'

By Philippa RoxbyHealth -15 February 2019

Eight out of 10 knee replacements and six out of 10 hip replacements last as long as 25 years, says a large study from the University of Bristol.

This is much longer than believed, the researchers said, and the findings will help patients and surgeons decide when to carry out surgery.

To date, there has been little data on the success of new hips and knees.

But this Lancet research looked at 25 years' worth of operations, involving more than 500,000 people.

Hip and knee replacements are two of the most common forms of surgery in the NHS, but doctors often struggle to answer questions from patients on how long the implants will last.

'May last even longer'

Nearly 200,000 of the operations were performed in 2017 in England and Wales, with most carried out on people between 60 and 80 years old.

Dr Jonathan Evans, orthopaedic registrar, lead study author and research fellow at Bristol Medical School, said: "At best, the NHS has only been able to say how long replacements are designed to last, rather than referring to actual evidence from multiple patients' experiences of joint replacement surgery.

"Given the improvement in technology and techniques in the last 25 years, we expect that hip or knee replacements put in today may last even longer."

As the ageing population grows, and life expectancy rises, this becomes even more important, Dr Evans added.

Wendy Fryer likes goes cycling and plays table tennis

Wendy had a hip replacement 17 years ago

Wendy Fryer, 80, had a hip replacement 17 years ago and it has completely changed her life.

"I was in agony beforehand, It was horrendous," she said.

"I used to cycle to work but had to stop. But the very next day after the operation, it was like magic, the pain had gone."

She still plays table tennis and badminton regularly, and also enjoys cycling and walking.

"The worst thing you can do is become a couch potato," Wendy says.

How long do they last?

Hip replacements: 89% lasted 15 years, 70% lasted 20 years, 58% lasted 25 years

Total knee replacements: 93% lasted 15 years, 90% lasted 20 years, 82% lasted 25 years

Partial knee replacements: 77% lasted 15 years, 72% lasted 20 years, 70% lasted 25 years

The researchers, writing in the Lancet, looked at reports from joint replacement registries in six countries which held at least 15 years of data - Australia, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden.

They did not look at data from the UK, because its record of patients does not go back far enough, but the research team said their findings mirrored results from smaller studies of UK patients.

According to the study, when hip and knee replacements do fail it tends to be because of infection, wear and tear and, more rarely, because they have broken.

This means patients require revision surgery which is more likely to fail.

'Active patients'

John Skinner, from the British Orthopaedic Association and a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, said using more implants with better survival rates would mean fewer repeat surgeries in the future.

"This is great news. Orthopaedic surgeons are working to provide hip replacements that will last, as our population ages and lives longer."

He said it was known that 95% of hip replacements lasted at least 10 years. NHS advice says they last at least 15 years.

"Initially patients had joint replacements at the very end of their arthritic journey, just before they lost the ability to walk and became wheelchair dependent.

"We are now so confident in hip replacement surgery that we can offer it to younger, more active patients, to relieve their pain and keep them active," Mr Skinner said.

Saturday, February 16, 2019

Rally in Jaffna for end to violence against women

15 February 2019
A march took place in Jaffna on Thursday with demonstrators calling for an end to all forms of violence and aggression against women.

Protestors marched from Tirunelveli to Jaffna University, bearing placards that called out violence and discrimination against women in political, economic, social and cultural spheres.

SRI LANKA POLICE ABDUCTED, TORTURED, KILLED TWO BUSINESSMEN AND BODIES BURNED.

Image: Two businessmen ( SLM)

16/02/2019

Two businessmen Manjula Asanka and Raseen Chinthaka from from Boossa, Galle district has been abducted b the police and they have tortured and killed Sri Lanka media reports. ;ater their bodies have been burned. Sinhala weekly Ravaya reports a group of Southern Province police officers were involved in this murder, according to a letter received by the families.

The Sunday Times web page provides a detailed report:

Ratgama abductions: Senior DIG transferred

Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) for Southern Range Ravi Wijegunewardene has been transferred to Police Headquarters, as CID detectives are probing the abduction and alleged murder of two persons.

Police sources said last night that he may face arrest together with a group of other police officers over the incident.

According to initial findings, Manjula Asela Kumara (33) and Rasin Chinthaka (31) had been picked up by persons in Police uniforms at around 10.30 a.m. on January 23. They had been handcuffed and taken away.

Public protests began in the Ratgama area after the abduction and demands were made for a full investigation. It continued yesterday.

According to a complaint, the Ratgama Police had at first refused to entertain a complaint. They had only done so after four hours. Another complaint had been lodged based on an anonymous letter received by the wife of one of the businessmen. The letter said that the abduction was reportedly carried out by a special police unit which functioned directly under the senior police officer.

The anonymous letter had alleged that one of the abductees had been badly assaulted leading to his death. Thereafter, the second person had been killed to ensure that the story did not leak out. The bodies of the two are yet to be discovered.
ST

TNA for UNHRC resolution seeking more time for Lanka

2019-02-16

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said yesterday it would stand for a fresh resolution to be moved by some western countries asking for more time for Sri Lanka to implement the provisions of the previous UNHRC resolution.

The United Kingdom announced earlier that a resolution would be moved at the next month's session of the UNHRC in this regard .

Asked for comments on this, TNA MP M.A.Sumanthiran said his party would see it not as an extension of time but as an extension of international oversight.

Therefore, he said the TNA would support the main move. (Kelum Bandara)

Thoughts On Constitutional Crisis In Sri Lanka

By Upul Jayasuriya – FEBRUARY 16, 2019

Upul Jayasuriya PC

Constitution in which ever the part of the world, I don’t think would be in a crisis. After all it’s a piece of paper. It is those who seek to interpret and enforce or seek shelter under the constitution that will be in a crisis.

Let me Quote from Dr BR Ambedkar the Chairman of the Constitutional drafting committee also known as the father of the Indian Constitution. “However good a constitution may be, if those who implement the constitution are not good it will prove to be bad, however bad a constitution may be if those who implement the constitution are good it will prove to be good.”

Sri Lankan Republican Constitution was drafted and promulgated in 1948 was better known as the Soulbury Constitution. This was replaced by the 1972 Republican Constitution removing the allegiance to the queen of England. That was pioneered by Dr Colvin R De Silva one of the greatest legal luminaries Sri Lanka produced during the time of Mrs Bandaranaike. Thereafter 1978 Constitution was promulgated by President JR Jayawardena. Those who pioneered the 1978 Constitution were Mark Fernando, HW Jayawardena QC and Lilith Athulathmudali who was later assassinated by the LTTE. One could say that was the creation of a monstrous Executive Presidency which had wide powers even to dissolve the government after one year of the forming of the government after an election. This was how President Chandrika Kumaratunga dissolved Parliament after three years of the election in 2004. Only exception to that rule was if there was an impeachment entertained in the order book then there could no dissolution until such time the same is voted.

19th Amendment

Since 1978, it has had 19 amendments……..! Of the amendments most pivotal was the 19th amendment. It had many salient features. One of its major hallmark was the limitation of the powers vested with the Executive President. This amendment was voted for by all parties including the group led by The deposed President Mahinda Rajapaksa. It was historical. The bill was presented by the President himself. It was voted for by 223 members of Parliament out of 225 the total number of MPs. Up to this moments many successive Presidents vowed to Remove or reduce the Executive powers, no meaningful action had been taken by Executive or the Parliament except of course the 19thamendment that came to be tested in the recent past.

It was a sincere effort taken in the right direction. The President’s name will be emboldened in the history having reduced his own presidential term from 6 years for which he was mandated by the people in 2015 to 5 years. That was an unparalleled effort and step taken to democratize the governance, with all humility by President Maithripala Sirisena. The prerogative that was enjoyed by all the Presidents arbitrarily, in appointing the judges to the superior courts, namely the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. With the 19thamendment the said arbitrary power that was once vested with the President was transferred to the Constitutional council represented by all parties and 3 eminent members of the civil society.

During the tenure of Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapaksa presidential prerogative of appointing judges who were unsuitable to hold the coveted position in the apex court was abused in desecrating the temple of Justice.

I as the President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka between 2013-2015, whilst addressing the Ceremonial Sittings of several judges tore apart the appointing process and the will of the executive, hell bent to thrust a subservient and a dependent judiciary. When my good friend Mohan Peries was appointed after illegally removing Shirani Bandaranayake as the Chief Justice, Sri Lankan Bar represented by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka headed by me refused to recognize Mohan Peries as the Chief Justice. He was my good friend. My son was understudying Mohan Pieries’s wife. That was of no concern. I defied the personal relationships and I invited Dr Shiranee Bandaranayake who has been illegally restrained from functioning as the CJ, to my customary convocation upon my accepting duties as the President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka ignoring the de-facto Chief Justice Mohan Peries in 2013. When I did that that there was hell broke loose…..

With so much of frustration set in, I had to steer the BASL on thin ice with caution. On one hand there was a draconian government of Rajapaksa with killer instinct and on the other, a judiciary holding pujas to the executive and hell bent to suck up the government. I took the risk and decided to discharge my duties my way,….. come what may…… I was vocal in courts and outside courts. My criticism and tong lashing was painful to some and welcomed by those who stood by the principles.

In one of my speeches at a ceremonial sitting of the Supreme Court I had this to say. This was in reference to a judge called Sri Skandaraja President of the Court of Appeal who was overlooked 5 times in his due promotion to the Supreme Court simply because he held, in a divisional bench that removal of Chief Justice Dr Shirani Bandaranayake was illegal. He was a heart broken man and died as the President Court of Appeal with the burst of a blood vessel.