International participation is necessary where state is part of the problem

Minister Marapana delivering Sri Lankas’ statement at the UNHRC. Dr Sarath Amunugama, Northern Province Governor, Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha and Ambassador Azeez are also in the picture

By Jehan Perera-March 25, 2019,

As anticipated, the latest UN Human Rights Council Resolution on Sri Lanka, 40/1 of March 2019, was a rollover of Resolution 30/1 of 2015. Sri Lanka was given its second two-year extension, the previous extension having been given in March 2017. The latest extension contains appreciation for what Sri Lanka has achieved since it committed itself to implementing the pledges made in October 2015. The resolution recognizes and welcomes "the strong role played by democratic institutions in Sri Lanka in the peaceful resolution of the political situation that arose in Sri Lanka from October to December 2018 … the establishment of the Office on Missing Persons in September 2017 and the appointment of its commissioners in February 2018, and the assumption of its work to fully implement its mandate" and notes other steps taken "including the progress made towards establishing an office on reparations and the submission to cabinet of a concept paper on a bill to establish a truth and reconciliation commission."

The new element that has come into this UNHRC-led process of reform is the UN High Commissioner’s report which has made three particularly strong recommendations to the government. These are in addition to Sri Lanka’s obligations contained in the co-sponsored resolution. This report calls for the establishing of a fully-fledged office of the UN Human Rights High Commissioner to be set up in Sri Lanka to monitor and support the implementation of the government’s commitments to the UNHRC in terms of Resolution No 40/1. It also calls for the setting up of a hybrid court to look into war crimes allegations and for the international community to apply the principle of universal jurisdiction to Sri Lankans accused of crimes such as torture, enforced disappearance and war crimes.

Most of the other recommendations also focus on issues of accountability and justice. These include publicly issuing instructions to the security forces that torture, sexual violence and other human rights violations are prohibited, and will be investigated and punished; and order all security forces to immediately end all forms of surveillance and harassment of human rights defenders, social actors and victims of human rights violations; and to develop a full-fledged vetting process, respecting due process, in order to remove from office security personnel and other public officials involved in human rights violations; apply stringent screening procedures for units and individuals applying to serve in United Nations peace operations; and support the Human Rights Commission, including by ensuring that it receives adequate resources to fulfil its mandate effectively and support the independent commissions, fully respect their independence, and take into account their recommendations.

STRONG RESPONSE

In his strong response to the UN Human Rights Commissioner’s report, Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana, has used his legal expertise to challenge the UN claim that 40,000 civilians were killed on the Vanni east front in the final phase of the war between January and May 2009. He used the disclosure made by Lord Naseby in the House of Lords, on Oct 12, 2017 to dispute the UN claim. He said "the considerable unevenness in the standards of proof applied to the Government of Sri Lanka, compared to those applied to the unsubstantiated allegations made by Sri Lanka’s detractors is problematic and confounding. In this context, the Mannar graves referred to in para 23 of the High Commissioner’s Report and elaborated earlier is a case in point. While this report may have been compiled over several months ago, at the time of its release, a determination on the dating of the remains had already been made based on forensic evidence. We do not see this important detail included in the report. Moreover, the report presupposes "other mass graves might be expected to be found in the future".

The Foreign Minister added that an assumption of this nature in a public report, on a matter of this magnitude and seriousness, is not acceptable, and may even cast a doubt as regards other assertions in the report. In addition, in explaining the relatively slow progress of the Sri Lankan judicial system and in a bid to counter the demand for new laws and foreign judges in a hybrid court he said, "On the contrary, the judicial system in Sri Lanka is adequately equipped to deal with complex crimes. Criminal investigations pertaining to cases referred have been taken congnizance by the investigating agencies to be conducted under established legal procedures and are periodically being monitored in terms of the judicial process. Any complex criminal investigation is time consuming. The acknowledgement in paragraph 20 of the report that ‘victim tracing procedures’ require thorough assessments in multiple areas and takes time, is an indicator that establishes the said assertion. It also negates the alleged inability of the Sri Lankan criminal justice system to deal with the nature of allegations and complexity of crimes."

However, this response appears to have set off a similar legally proper response on the other side of the divide. TNA parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran said in parliament that "it is only through the participation of foreign judges can independence be assured. In a matter where the contesting parties or the warring parties include on one side the state of Sri Lanka and on the other side a militant group that had the objective of dividing the country, the state of Sri Lanka cannot be an independent arbiter and it is because of an independent judicial mechanism that nobody can complain about, that we have asked for participation of foreign judges." He said that the TNA prefers a hybrid judicial mechanism, "but if the government, despite all of these written commitments, and the fact that it is possible under the constitution to do so, does not do it, then I think it is important that I today announce to the government and to the country, that we will take steps to move Sri Lanka to the ICC or some other entirely international judicial mechanism."

UNBIASED MECHANISM

The importance institutions such as the UN Human Rights Council is that they are international and multi-state institutions to which appeals can be made by those who are being victimized by their own governments and state institutions and have only limited recourse domestically to justice because the problem is with their own state. When a government is involved in conflict with groups within the country it becomes a part of the problem. It is difficult for anyone or any institution that is part of the problem to find a just solution to that problem. It is particularly difficult for a state to take action to ensure accountability for human rights violations that may have taken place by its own agents, especially where the legal principle of command responsibility may apply and reach the higher levels of the state. In those circumstances those who are being victimized will need to seek recourse from those who are outside of the state and governmental structures.

It is not only with regard to the Tamil conflict that those who are fighting for the rights of victims have felt it necessary to take the fight to Geneva and to the UN Human Rights Council which has been specially set up by the international community, including Sri Lanka, to deal with these issues. When the judicial and legal system within a country are not working as they should due to resistance from within the country by state and governmental authorities, the only alternative left is to look to the international community and to its human rights protectors. During the JVP insurrection in the latter part of the 1980s the present Leader of the Opposition and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who at that time was a spirited young MP, went on more than one occasion to the human rights forums of the UNHRC in Geneva to make an appeal before them for redress to ease the sufferings of the victims of the terror of that period.

Instead of an engagement based on legal polemics it would be better for the outstanding issues to be settled by all national parties and national institutions who become part of the solution. We have to find a mechanism in which those who take the decisions are widely and generally acknowledged by all parties to be ethnically and politically unbiased. The applicable principle would be that those who have to live with the consequences of the decision should be the ones who make the decisions, which is the strongest case for the national ownership of the transitional justice process. International members could point to the best answers drawing from international experience. The government needs to act with integrity and performs its duty through strengthened national institutions which are supported by the participation in them of international experts who may be judges, prosecutors and investigators who act as advisers rather than as decisionmakers which seems to be the sticking point.

Outgoing: “Ginnen Upan Seethala” and “According to Matthew”

 

• There’s nothing in Ginnen Upan Seethala that can strictly be called “accurate”
• Ginnen Upan Seethala lacks the two most distinct trademarks of the Sinhala biopic
• “According to Matthew” is not a masterwork, and its best parts grow from Koch’s spontaneity

26 March 2019 

Ginnen Upan Seethala is that rare work: it combines history and fiction so much that we can’t draw a line between the two. Purists and activists from the time in which it is set will no doubt object to its depiction of that history, but even accounting for the omissions and the distortions, there’s no doubt that Anuruddha Jayasinghe’s film has set a precedent. I just wish Jayasinghe didn’t go overboard by (falsely) claiming it as “the first Sinhala film to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.”  

Most directors romanticise history so much that we don’t identify with the characters in front of us – we worship them. It doesn’t matter if you get the perfect actor to play the role, it doesn’t matter if in every other department, from the music to the editing, you’ve attained perfection; if the people at the centre of the story are presented as the heroes they were not, the audiences, who are not as dumb as the critics think they are, tend to spot out the slightest mistakes. Jayasinghe is smart: although he romanticises history, he gives us the payoffs. Consequently, we overlook those mistakes.  

Those who were not born to the 80s, after watching the film, might come out thinking that Wijeweera was a misunderstood radical hero whose political machinery went out of control and resulted in the carnage that later consumed him. Jayasinghe, a (former?) JVP activist himself, draws a line between the political arm and the military wing of the party, for instance, depicting the Deshapremi Jathika Viyaparaya as an outfit that the JVP couldn’t control. This distinction, sustained throughout the film, is vital to the director’s clean-shaven portrait of the protagonist.  

To be sure, the DJV was not independent of the JVP and the JVP did not abstain from participating in the carnage that pitted them against the State. And Wijeweera was not an innocent in the dark either. But the image that Jayasinghe paints of Wijeweera - a revolutionary who loved his family and was committed to his wife and children, an idealist who was averse to breaking revolutionary precepts, a straight talking and yet intelligent man who could speak five languages – is so different that we (who didn’t live through the eighties) end up being entranced by the images. There’s nothing in Ginnen Upan Seethala that can strictly be called “accurate”, but then again there’s very little in filmmaking like this on which we can use that term.  

The performances keep the film together. In his depiction of Wijeweera Kamal Addaraarachchi deliberately loses himself. You don’t see, hear, or feel Kamal in the role: not that drawn out accent, not those exaggerated gestures, not that casual strut. The real Wijeweera was (I am told) of a more remarkable build, at odds with Kamal’s thin frame, but that’s possibly the only dissimilarity between the actor and the man. In everything else, Kamal enmesh

es himself in his part; even that frown of his, which in other films he’s been in normally signifies distrust and arrogance, seems to suggest passionate, yet restrained commitment here.  
Some of the sequences are haunting, because they’ve been shot well (for a local film); the last scene, of military vehicles driving through the rain at night, leaves quite an impression. But certain sequences could have been shortened, and others, like the meeting between Wijeweera and Felix Dias Bandaranaike, don’t go anywhere. There are also none of those epic visuals you see in local historical works; the cameraman, Dhanushka Gunathilake, ensures that the images don’t transcend the complexity of the characters, so that even the scenes at the estate, while breathtaking, don’t push to a corner the people at the centre of the unfolding drama.  

Ginnen Upan Seethala (mercifully) lacks the two most distinct trademarks of the Sinhala biopic (and the Sinhala film in general): the slowed down South Indian soap opera sequences that are supposed to unearth the drama and the conflict in the plot but actually says nothing, and the overblown background music which takes us away from the story. Ariyawansha Dammage, the writer, has kept us transfixed to the plot, and not the ancillary, inessential details. For that reason, the “history” that emerges from the movie convinces us regardless of its authenticity.  
It’s a sombre story, and in a way it’s sentimental too. But Jayasinghe does not ask us, “Could it have turned out differently?” Instead he asks us, “Why didn’t it turn out the way he wanted?” It’s a question we could have asked of those radicals who inspired Wijeweera. In his time, a revolutionary was called a “Che Guevarakarayek.” Today we no longer talk about Guevara, even though we tattoo him on our bodies and wear t-shirts sporting his face; today we talk about Wijeweera, and Ginnen Upan Seethala, even if it doesn’t delve into the movement he founded, talks about him well.  

Chandran Rutnam’s According to Matthew talks about the titular character too, but in a rather different way. Based on Ravindra Fernando’s excellent account of the murder case, the film, screened on Sunday, March 17 at the National Film Corporation, prods and tests the audience; by the end of the story, we have given up. I believe this is what Chandran intended, which is why even though the antihero/villain emerges as the wrongdoer in the movie, it’s not quite how we expected him to.  

The best parts of According to Matthew are those in which Alston Koch forgets that he’s an actor playing the role of a murderous Anglican priest. It’s in the implication, the hint, the suggestion of wrongdoing and criminality that Koch’s rendition comes out convincingly. The archives don’t tells us whether the man was responsible for the death of Fr. Basil Jayewardene, but the film suggests that it may well have been so. Koch is at his vilest here when he thanks the Lord for the position he inherits from Fr. Basil, after the latter’s passing away. His voice is so charmingly putrid it puts us off even before we actually see him talk.  

It’s easy to play around with a priest’s motives in a movie like this, and Chandran does it as much as he can. His Fr. Peiris is not just a forever Bible-quoting fanatic, but also an accomplished exorcist. Koch, however, loses the thread in both: he quotes too many passages from the Holy Book (which the real Peiris may have done) and he actually dispels a spirit from a possessed woman (which the real Peiris may have said he did, but didn’t do). The latter scene, almost straight out of Hollywood, comes close to becoming a confrontation between God and Devil; the purpose, in a nutshell, is to entertain. Audiences are obviously getting what they paid for.  

We know why Peiris did what he did: to get the woman he lusted after. What we don’t know, and what Chandran (wisely?) leaves out and blanks, is why Dalrene Ingram conspired with him to get rid of her husband and his wife. The choice of the actress must have had something to do with it, since Jacqueline Fernandez’s very presence precludes preparation or explanation: she does what she does because she falls in line with the Father’s wishes, regardless of her own feelings. Fernandez’s Dalrene is sexy, eloquent, but utterly incapable of autonomy; Chandran attributes the crimes to Peiris, so what the other’s contribution to them was, we are not really told.  

According to Matthew is not a masterwork, and its best parts grow from Koch’s spontaneity. Whenever he musters up his strength and becomes an Elmer Gantry-like evil preacher, he loses that sense of conviction which he conjures up effortlessly in those scenes for which he and the director don’t prepare us. When Peiris comes up to his sleeping wife and declares that “there is something wrong with you”, we’re jolted; we’re jolted even more when she sees his bleeding hand (“A stigmata,” he explains to her and the doctor, the latter of whom dryly replies, “It needs bandaging”).  

The other performances patch up the holes in the story. Unlike A Common Man, where the acting was either stellar (as with Ben Cross, Ben Kingsley, and Fredrick-James Koch), bad (as with that female reporter), or disconcerting (as with Dushyanth Weeraman’s not-so-memorable cameo as a hacker), the characters come alive in here. The diction is more than passable; it’s almost perfect (not only with the Burgher and the foreign players, but even with the local players: Bimsara Premaratne as Eunice Peiris’s wife, and Ryan Wijayaratne as Steven, his cricket-playing protégé).  

As for the ending, it’s abrupt and in a way predictable; the final scene, of Dalrene collapsing on the floor into hysterics and of Peiris staring into space, doesn’t quite satisfy. But Chandran probably didn’t intend the film to be a masterwork: it doesn’t play to the gallery and it also doesn’t force audiences to understand the film on the director’s terms; the murder sequences are spelt out for us, going as far as showing us the antagonist syringing the poison in to the insulin. Chandran neither mollycoddles nor confuses us, simply put. “All I want in a good film,” he told me once, “is a good story.” According to Matthew may well be the best story he got so far.  

The Role Of Ranil Wickremesinghe In Sri Lankan Politics

The Colombo-centered urban elite family background, the Royal College education and the law degree obtained from the Faculty of Law of the University of Colombo are some of the extra advantages that influenced Ranil Wickremesinghe’s political career.

 

by Indi Akurugoda-MARCH 24, 2019

Policy-oriented politics and tactical political diplomacy are still distant concepts in the Sri Lankan political arena. Yet the Sri Lankan politics is full of fake promises, ethno-chauvinist influences and religious extremism. These have resulted in misguiding the public opinion towards obtaining short-term popularity and fulfilling opportunistic political aims. Against a context of several selfish, opportunistic and anarchist political leaders, a significant number of people in Sri Lanka expect Ranil Wickremesinghe to follow a path of cheap popularity and political opportunism. Fortunately, he has never followed such path to mislead people during his 41 years long-term political career. He has never tried to be in power against the public opinion. However, he is yet a world recognized diplomat; a patient, mature and outstanding political leader in Sri Lanka.

The current Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe, celebrates his 70th birthday on March 24, 2019. There is no other political leader who faced difficulties, blames and challenges like him. Not only of his opponents, but also, he has confronted severe blames and unbearable criticisms of his own party members. Finally, at the end of all political storms and disasters, all had to say that “Ranil is right”. This article is not to exaggerate Ranil’s character, but to analyze his significant political role in Sri Lankan politics.

The Colombo-centered urban elite family background, the Royal College education and the law degree obtained from the Faculty of Law of the University of Colombo are some of the extra advantages that influenced Ranil Wickremesinghe’s political career. The new moves to distract from the traditional governing structures, promote the liberal high technological trends, establish a multi-cultural society, encourage social reconciliation, good governance and democratic principles, and to drive the youth towards vocational training and international level future career development led Ranil to become a special political character in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, most of the people in the Sri Lankan society are still unable to understand the complex mixture of Ranil’s specialties.

Ranil used Buddhist ideology to answer his opponents logically and non-violently. When the President ousted Ranil Wickremesinghe, and appointed a new Prime Minister on October 26, 2018, Ranil’s choice was to fight democratically using his patience and Buddhist philosophical answers to avoid unnecessary conflicts. During the 51-day political crisis, the strong, steady and unshaken characteristics of Ranil Wickremesinghe fueled the democratic struggle in front of every disaster and undemocratic decisive action of the President and his supporters.

When the President Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated on May 1, 1993, the occurred instability of the country had been handled smoothly by Ranil Wickremesinghe. The United National Party (UNP) was divided at the moment into two factions based on the impeachment against the President Ranasinghe Premadasa. Ranil Wickremesinghe protected the leader and the UNP during such impeachment. In 1994, when Chandrika Bandaranaike became the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe left Temple Trees immediately, even though many UNP MPs wanted him to remain in power to form a minority government. In 1999, Gamini Dissanayake re-joined the UNP and faced an intra-party election with Ranil Wickremesinghe to obtain the opposition leadership and the UNP Presidential candidacy. Although Ranil defeated from the intra-party election, he supported Gamini without complaining. However, even the UNP members saw these trends as weaknesses of Ranil.

In 2001, Ranil became the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka while the President was Chandrika Bandaranaike. This resulted in a confusing situation where the President and the Prime Minister were from two opposite parties. However, Ranil led the ceasefire agreement with the LTTE requesting the assistance of the international community. This was the most successful long-term ceasefire that the LTTE was unable to avoid or get rid of. In conflict resolution and peace studies this example is being used as a successful move by a government to resolve a long-lasting armed conflict. Even the LTTE leader Prabhakaran stated that they have trapped in an international snare of a “cunning fox,” Ranil. Consequently, the severe internal factions of the LTTE, which led to the defeat of the war, emerged during such long-term ceasefire. It seems that this point is being intentionally ignored by political analysts.

In the 2005 Presidential election, Ranil defeated by a narrow margin. The whole blame of the UNP’s defeat had placed on Ranil but he remained in silence. He gave up the opportunity of the UNP Presidential candidacy twice to provide opportunities for common candidates. When some of these common candidates criticized him, he remained silent. This tolerance never could be maintained by an immature and inexperienced politician. The people who criticize Ranil will never be able to understand him. His work is based on the mind and not on the body. The lack of knowledge about Ranil Wickremesinghe is not an excuse to reject him. He still plays a prominent and a strong role in Sri Lankan politics.

Dr Indi Akurugoda, Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Policy, University of Ruhuna

Northern governor says OHCHR report based on 'gossip websites'

25 March 2019

The Colombo appointed governor of the Northern Province today claimed the report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was based on information from "gossip websites". 

“Most of the citations have been extracted from gossip websites. I can reveal the digital platforms but it is inappropriate as it could bring undeserved popularity to such public domains," Governor Suren Raghavan was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying. 

Suren Raghavan appointed Northern Governor Jan 2019

Raghavan, who was part of the president appointed delegation which travelled to Geneva charged with seeking a withdrawal from the resolution further claimed the UN High Commissioner had said there were 'mistakes' in the report compiled by her own office and reiterated the state's rejection of the prospect of a hybrid court. 

"The report articulated that the mass grave in Manner was where those who disappeared during warfare had been buried. However, we showed the Carbon dating report from the Beta Analytic Institute of Florida which revealed the skeletal remains found in the Mannar mass grave dated back to a period between 1499 and 1719 AD," Raghavan added. 

"Nevertheless, the Sri Lankan delegation clearly expressed its stance that there was no necessity to bring foreign judicial personnel or to set up a hybrid court to hear cases in Sri  Lanka. Our court system is independent and impartial. This became evident when the Supreme Court (SC) delivered the verdict against the Head of State during political turmoil that prevailed in October 2018."

Raghavan's remarks echoed those of the former minister and fellow delegation member, Sarath Amunagama, who last week claimed the report was an "atrocious lie", "methodologically incorrect” and contained "totally unwarranted statements”.

His comments come less than a day after Sri Lanka's ministry of foreign affairs agreed to the co-sponsoring of a roll-over UN resolution, which the president, Maithripala Sirisena said he wanted stopped. 

The report, released earlier this month, concluded Sri Lanka had made "virtually no progress" on the investigation of war crimes, and also raised several other issues, including concerns over on-going reports of abduction, torture and sexual violence, institutional failures within the criminal justice system, ongoing harassment of human rights defenders since 2015 and the military’s continued occupation of civilian land.

Read more:  'Virtually no progress' in Sri Lanka on war crimes investigations says UN human rights chief's office

Related Articles: 

21 March 2019 : UN passes resolution on Sri Lanka, granting two year extension

18 March 2019 : Sri Lanka should not co-sponsor resolution says opposition leader

17 March 2019 : Sinhala leftist party slams government for ‘treachery’ over UN resolution

06 March 2019 : Sri Lankan president withdraws support for UN resolution

ENHANCING AGRICULTURAL YIELD AND EARNINGS

Fr. Augustine Fernando (Diocese of Badulla)-Monday, March 25, 2019

When you fly from Europe over some desert Arabian lands to Sri Lanka and see how green and eye-catching the whole island is, you indeed realize what a blessed inheritance our land has been to us.

Independence dawned during our high school days. Then we entertained dreams of achievements and success. Industries were hardly begun. Agriculture that seemed so natural to us sustained us. Tea, rubber and coconut plantations brought in the much needed income including foreign exchange of which we had a good balance. The optimistic situation also gave so much hope as possibilities of improvements emerged. Prospects of increased production and harvests of paddy and cultivation of sugar cane forecast not only possibilities of self sufficiency in rice and sugar and satisfaction for the masses of people but also foreign exchange earnings through exports of our agricultural products.

SUCCESS AND FAILURE IN AGRICULTURE

After D. S. Senanayake, Dudley Senanayake, M. D. Banda and Gamini Dissanayake, those who prepared the ground for agriculture seem to have had no consistently workable plans for years on end.
Paddy has been cultivated in Sri Lanka from before 100 BC. Water collecting reservoir tanks were ingeniously built for agriculture and Sri Lanka had been known as the granary of the East. After Independence lands in Gal Oya and Mahaweli areas were opened and new irrigation systems established. Now it is cultivated in over 800,000 hectares of land engaging 1.8 million farmer families. And we produce 95% of our requirements. We need to increase the yield to feed an increasing population.

A vision for agriculture should embrace all that is cultivable on our soil and the provision of nutritious agricultural products to our own people and to those beyond our shores who would buy our produce.

All the governments that have exercised power after 1956 have had a preponderance of ministers of low intellectual calibre. They could not visualize the possibilities nor were they disposed to listen to qualified professionals and experts nor were they capable of innovation or creativity in the financial allocations, use of the natural and human resources, research and communication of appropriate data to the farmers. Evidence of lethargy, inefficiency and incompetence of ministers are directly related to their undisciplined upbringing, low intellectual calibre and lack of sufficient education.

The political parties and their leaders do not visualize the production needs of the country in any sector of activity when they choose and appoint their party organisers and candidates for elections who when elected become managers of public affairs directly intervening in the major public work projects that need to be carried out.

Corrupt politicians and trade union leaders who become manipulators have had no proper education and anything of the competencies required to organise and direct the production of a multiplicity of agricultural and industrial commodities of good quality to meet the vital needs of a demanding market. They do not have any idea of nor are they concerned about the costs of production, just and fair incentives given to producers and the saleable price of products. So, they and the corrupt bureaucrats under them collude in various procurements and deals that adversely affect and raise the costs of production to make prospective consumers in the country and abroad reluctant purchasers.

STATE OF TEA

At the time of Independence, Ceylon Tea was known throughout the world for its unsurpassed quality and flavour. Introduced into Sri Lanka in 1867 by James Taylor who came here 1852, tea is now grown on 190,000 hectares of high land and directly and indirectly employs nearly 215,000 employees on tea plantations and gives further employment to almost 800,000 more. It brings an income of over 1.5 billion dollars annually.

Even though all our producers want to benefit from the prestige of Ceylon Tea all those dealing with tea have not paid due attention to preserve its good name as they have undermined it through selfish, shameful and short-sighted trade practices that has cast a dark shadow over the prestige of Ceylon Tea in a manner very disadvantageous to the long term good of the whole tea industry. Selfish tea exporters should be taken to task and severely dealt with.

The then SLFP government nationalized the plantations, broke them into fifty acre plots, established state plantation bodies, packed them with their political stooges incompetent in their exalted positions and ruined the plantations.

SLFP and Marxist coalition policies drove the tea planters to pioneer tea planting and production in other countries that have now become our competitors. Selfish dealers with political patronage have also degraded the tea they have exported, lost the confidence of buyers abroad and caused irreparable damage to the good name of Ceylon Tea. Sri Lanka that was the undisputed leader exporting quality Ceylon Tea has descended to fourth place.

RUBBER AND COCONUT

Our production of quality rubber enabled us to procure rice from China when R.G. Senanayake signed the Rubber-Rice pact as long ago as in 1952 and a UNP Government established a long-lasting friendship with the Chinese people that has been of mutual benefit to Sri Lanka and China. Dr. N. M. Perera was praising the sensibility of the then UNP government’s policy decision even when a big power, the United States was against it. Coconut plantations were maintained evenly and while the producers earned a fair return on their investment, the consumers got their coconuts and coconut oil and oil based products at a reasonable price.

Even though rice production has been vastly improved over the past few decades, we are not yet able to give the farmer a fair and encouraging price for his produce and the consumer his staple food at a reasonable price, all because of inefficiency, incompetence and corruption on the part of ministers and the so-called democratic socialism’s bureaucracy.

VEGETABLES, FRUITS, SPICES and FLOWERS

Sri Lanka has the capacity to produce a variety of good vegetables, yams, luscious fruits and her fragrant spices that has made her known and famous from ancient times. Today, exotic flowers too are grown for export. All activities connected with cultivation need to be systematically done and products brought up to standards of export quality and cared for by honest men managing the development of exports. But mediocre politicians interfere in everything. One such minister after gallivanting abroad, indulging himself returns and submits a voucher for a big sum for payment that needs approval by the top man managing export development. In view of the corrupt minister’s illegal request, rather than accommodate himself to it, the top executive prefers to resign rather than approve wasteful expenditure. Such ministers cannot develop Sri Lanka; they should be barred from politics or investigated and banished to jail. However, they get fixed in high governing positions.
Sixty years ago, Italy and the countries of the Mediterranean would have been a good market for our fruits and vegetables. It is only now that a Fruit, Vegetable Producers, Processors and Exporters Association has got engaged with Noberasco an Italian family enterprise that has come to invest in the production of fruits for the Italian market.

There is news once again about an entrepreneur wanting to invest in dairy farming. Blowing hot and cold over development of dairy farming has been going on for a long time. At least now, it should be pursued to a successful end for the mutual benefit of Sri Lanka and the investor concerned.
Management, conservation and productivity of our agricultural land have to be maintained and improved. More research needs to be done. Ministers of Agriculture and bureaucrats seem to be interested only about the maximum they could personally get out of investments in the agricultural enterprises during their five year term of office and that too from various commissions and even on leases and rents on buildings taken by the ministry that are sometimes left unused!

Providence has endowed Sri Lanka with a fertile cultivable land, enough and more water for people’s use, to irrigate the lands of the hardworking farmers dedicated to cultivation, and even produce energy and power. We have failed to harness sufficiently the water productively but let it cause damage through floods and inundation. Uncultured, uneducated and uncouth politicians were congenitally short-sighted. They not only used farmers but also the management of water and manure for their political ends. How long ago did our ministers and top bureaucrats visit Israel to learn of their innovative methods of agricultural production and dairy farming? Did they learn anything after spending much money on travel and lodging in luxury hotels? Their intellectual capacity and managerial understanding was so puerile that their conception and sense of power was like a knife in the hand of a monkey. Their selfishness made the issues more complex and even intractable that ultimately the country was led to bear the tragic consequences of their foolish policy decisions.

MENACE OF WILD ANIMALS

It is also common knowledge that over 35% of the paddy, vegetables and fruits produced in Sri Lanka are eaten by various wild animals. The vegetables and fruits that we try to grow are eaten by monkeys. Though monkeys are a menace to cultivators, they seem to find some sort of camaraderie in highly influential comrades in every Cabinet who would let the farmers’ cultivations be consumed by them rather than find ways to eliminate destruction of vegetable and fruit production by selling the monkeys, snakes and other wild animals to earn much needed foreign exchange. 

CB bond scam Former CB Deputy Governor, PTL Chairman, 3 directors behind bars

• Mr. Samarasiri and PTL directors arrested at their residences while Geoffrey Aloysius arrested in Colpetty

By Darshana Sanjeewa -26 March 2019 

The CID yesterday arrested former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank P. Samarasiri, Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL) Chairman Geoffrey Aloysius and three of its directors in connection with the Central Bank bond scam that took place in 2015, Police Spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

He said Mr. Samarasiri and PTL directors Pushpamitra Gunawardena, Chitta Ranjan Hulugalle and M. Surendran were arrested at their residences last morning while Geoffrey Aloysius, the father of Arjun Aloysius, was arrested in Colpetty a few hours later. 

They were arrested on the instructions of the Attorney General (AG). SP Gunasekera said they were arrested as part of the ongoing investigations on the bond issue. 
On February 4, 2018, the CID arrested PTL owner Arjun Aloysius and its CEO Kasun Palisena. Mr. Aloysius is the son-in-law of Arjuna Mahendran who was the Central Bank Governor at the time of the auction in question. However, Arjun Aloysius and Kasun Palisena were released on bail earlier this year by Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne after being in remand custody for more than eleven months.   

Earlier, the police said a notice had been issued through the Interpol against former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran in connection with the investigations being carried out by the CID on the Central Bank bond scam prior to the arrest warrant issued by the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court. 

Mr. Mahendran has been charged with criminal breach of trust for allegedly providing confidential information of the Central Bank to PTL, a primary dealer connected to Mr. Aloysius.   

• On February 4 last year, the CID arrested PTL owner Arjun Aloysius and its CEO Kasun Palisena
• Arrested on instructions of AG as they were part of ongoing investigations on bond issue
• Mr. Mahendran charged with criminal breach of trust for allegedly providing confidential information of CB to PTL

Ranil Wickremesinghe 70 Years On – A Kindly Reflexion On His Leadership Style

By Shyamon Jayasinghe –MARCH 25, 2019

Shyamon Jayasinghe

“Take him with his deficiencies…he is the best political leader we have today. The fact of his lapses only points to the fact that we are all in an imperfect world. Take him out of the scene and Sri Lanka will be the poorer for that.”

No Actor

Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, is the most unfairly maligned political leader in Sri Lanka. At the same time, he is the most underestimated or underrated. Ranil is also the least flamboyant of leaders. He goes about in his normal shirt and trouser unless on special occasions where he puts on a simple coat and tie. He wears no satakaya because he isn’t interested in trying to act. He is no actor and it is unlikely he would ever be a stage or movie star.

Charisma?

Such characters don’t typically gather charisma-that mystical appeal quality that Max Weber introduced to our vocabulary about authority and leadership. This has been one of the common criticisms of Ranil’s leadership all through the years. On the other hand, charisma is not a stable basis of authority for any leader fo it is derived out of a public subjective faith on the leader. Maybe the leader is inspiring and such faith rests on this inspiring quality. Historically, it is shown to be a fragile basis and once – charismatic leaders soon lose hold on the public imagination. The consequence is that the charisma fades away and the leader has little else to lean on to keep his herd of followers. Weber argued that a process he described as routinisation is the only way a charismatic political or religious leader can continue to have a following and he cited the example of Prophet Muhammed. The prophet’s teachings became institutionalised or ‘routinised’ and his commands became law cemented by tradition and custom. Hence, Islam survived and prospered.

Legal-Rational Style of Leadership

It is no easy task to ensure such phenomenon in the field of competitive politics.

The once charismatic political leader will have to lean back on having his authority being given the aura of legitimacy. Max Weber described this as another style in leadership and he called it the legal-rational style of leadership based on commonly acceptable law. In practical terms it is a democratisation of leadership.The former charismatic leader  is now the head of a democratic process.

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4-day work week: A solution to many problems?

Tuesday, 26 March 2019 

A three-day weekend every week and only four days of work a week. The idea would seem too good to be true for many. But this is an idea that is being experimented in the West and some companies have already started out on a four-day work week. How about adding two extra hours a day in return for a three-day weekend?

The Japanese clothing store Uniqlo tried this in 2015 where employees work 10 hours a day but only for four days a week. People generally think a five-day work week was the norm but in the West, it used to be six-day work weeks with only Sundays off. Only in the 20th century when businesses like Ford changed to a five-day work week, did it gradually change. If the world can change from six days of work a week to five days, why can’t it change to a four-day work week?


Where are we?

The world is still in an experimental stage when it comes to a four-day work week concept but experiments around the world have shown a lot of benefits. Studies have shown that industries such as finance, recruitment, education, accounting and training are easier to move to a four-day work week.

The most recent experiment was done by a New Zealand firm called Perpetual Guardian. Perpetual Guardian has concluded that the experiment was a resounding success and has adopted a four-day work week. The experiment found that with a four-day work week, the employees were more focused and productive and were able to better manage work life balance.

The trial was studied by the University of Auckland and it concluded that work remained up to standard, stress decreased and team work and work engagement increased. In Perpetual Guardian’s case, it was four days a week with eight hours a day. So they were working for 32 hours instead of 40 hours and still the work was up to standard.

Last year, Sweden experimented a six-hour work day. The study of the experiment showed that workers were happier, healthier and more productive. The online retail giant Amazon experimented with a 30-hour work week with reduced pay though. France tried a 35-hour work week from the 1980s but did not forbid working over 35 hours so employees worked more as overtime. After the 2008 recession, the Government loosened up the law but still offers tax breaks for companies which keep to the 35-hour work week. In 1974, when the British Government introduced a three-day work week following a power shortage, a national survey showed a 5% increase in productivity.


A changing world

British billionaire Richard Branson stated recently that he believes the key to success is a three-day work week and it could become a reality. In a world where artificial intelligence and humans work together, more and more work is being done by machines. We are also living in a world where stress is high and burnouts are becoming common as people work longer. This is leading to many social problems where people spend less time with their families.


Work-life balance and family time

The study on the New Zealand company’s trial shows that there was a 24% increase in employees saying their work life balance improved. Research shows work life balance is important for job satisfaction and by being off work more, employees are better engaged with their work while on it.

Though, office hours are nine to five in Sri Lanka, people tend to leave to office much earlier and come home much later due to traffic and other issues. This has resulted in families rushing off from home in the morning and getting back home late at night burned out. As more women are also working, parents get little time to spend with their children on weekdays. And as weekdays give little breathing space for household work, the household chores are pushed to the weekend leaving very little time for family even on weekends.

As children also leave to school early, why not make work 10 hours a day where work is 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. but only four days of work?


Helps the environment and our trade deficit

With Colombo’s traffic problem, most people take two hours to commute to and from work a day and many others take much longer. This is 10 hours a week of travelling for work. If a four-day work week is implemented, people will travel only eight hours a week for work.

We could see a 20% reduction in work related travel time. This can significantly bring down the consumption of fossil fuels helping the environment. Importing crude is a major strain on Sri Lanka’s trade deficit and foreign exchange reserves. If work related travel is reduced, then less oil is needed to be imported.


Valuable time for other activities

With the five-day work week, many people feel constrained by time. With traffic taking at least two hours for an employee to and from work, in reality employees are working 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. or where they live even further away, they are out of their homes, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

If you consider travelling to and from work as part of work, then most people work well over 10 hours a day. Giving them a four-day work week can help them spend time to pursue further education and improve their career prospects. It can help people pursue any long-term projects they would want to do and a longer weekend can help employees with entrepreneurial ambitions to start a smaller business on the side.


Conclusion
A four-day work week will be a gradual but steady change in the coming years as automation is taking over many things humans spent time to do at work. Certain industries like finance and education are more prone to change than others.

A four-day work week helps reduce traffic and pollution and allows people to spend more time to better educate themselves and do any long-term projects they would have wanted to do. More importantly, it can give them more time to spend with their family. After all humans work to provide for their family but should it come at the expense of time that could be spent with their family?

Editorial: Alternative avenues

Skulls Keera Ratnam.jpg

24 March 2019

For almost a decade, Tamil victims have looked to the UN Human Rights Council in their pursuit of justice. However, after years of resolutions followed by an extension, alongside lack of any progress on accountability, events at Geneva this week brought another deep disappointment. A day after the Sri Lankan government expressly told the Council it had no intention of creating an accountability mechanism with foreign judges as originally promised, yet another resolution was passed giving Colombo two more years to do just that. Sri Lanka’s foreign minister was blunt. Sri Lanka will not allow an international justice mechanism. The international community can be under no more illusions. If Sri Lanka cannot deliver the justice that victims demand, then other avenues must be explored. Else, as the UN human rights chief herself warned, further violence and instability will follow. 

Addressing the Council this week, Sri Lanka struck a defiant tone, in a sharp contrast from the government’s 2015 approach. Its foreign minister sent a clear rebuke to the High Commissioner’s critical report and to those in the international community who had told the victims to keep their faith in both Colombo and the Human Rights Council process. He categorically denied war crimes had taken place, contrary to numerous international reports, and was blunt in his rejection of an internationalised accountability mechanism. As Sri Lanka's delegation reiterated, this is not simply the opinion of a single leader, rather, as they have said in public and in private, this is government policy. 

The frustration of the Tamil people is palpable. Faced with continued military occupation of land and the daily overwhelming presence of soldiers across the North-East, including perpetrators who remain unpunished for mass atrocities, the Tamil people have been unequivocal in expressing their exasperation at the lack of progress. Large scale protests across the North-East, led by the families of the disappeared, civil society groups and university students, as well as in the diaspora, have demonstrated the widespread consensus that only an internationalised mechanism, free from Sri Lankan interference will provide Tamils justice. Even those within the TNA, who have spent the past four years staunchly advocating for patience and trust in Colombo, have now warned of taking Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court if a hybrid court is not established, being forced to rethink their position in the face of the overwhelming swell of public demand. 

Though many member states expressed concerns about Sri Lanka’s lack of progress on accountability, the time for soft diplomacy is now truly over. The implications of a UN body failing to enact tangible consequences for Sri Lanka, despite the state repeatedly refusing to fulfil commitments it had made, go far beyond the island. It undermines the UN Human Rights Council and the United Nations as a collective. As subsequent mass atrocities in Myanmar and Syria prove, the international community must show that rejecting calls for accountability will bring more than just seemingly empty rhetoric. With elections set to take place later this year amid a resurgence of Sinhala nationalism, the international community must not lose sight of the gravity of the crimes that took place a decade ago as well as the reports of ongoing torture and sexual violence. In an island where impunity for those atrocities goes unchecked, the concerning possibility of renewed violence remains. 

Steps towards building an internationalised criminal justice mechanism are crucial. If action cannot come through the Human Rights Council then states must act through other channels. Universal jurisdiction needs to be applied with more rigour around the globe to ensure those accused of the gravest of crimes cannot go unpunished. Whilst Sri Lanka continues to have those accused of these crimes in positions of authority, such as Shavendra Silva who was named by the UN High Commissioner in her statement, military to military relations cannot continue unchecked. Member states should not be allowing their troops to conduct shared military exercises with war criminals. Sri Lanka's security forces must face more stringent vetting or be barred altogether from partaking in UN peacekeeping exercises. And targeted sanctions, the kind that Sri Lankan leaders claimed to have warded off by co-sponsoring a UN resolution in 2015, must now be carefully reconsidered.

Rule based ordervs balancing against China: Eschew the latter

26 March 2019

Four Royal Australian Navy ships and around 1000 defence personnel have arrived in Colombo and Trincomalee for Australia’s largest -ever military exercise with Sri Lanka.Colombo is the first stop of a regional mission, Code named Indo-Pacific endeavour 2019 (IPE 19); ships will travel to India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore before returning to Australia.  

The latest engagement is a highlight of Canberra’s growing interest in regional defence cooperation in the wake of China’s rising military and economic clout and expansive geo-strategic claims and dwindling American influence and prestige in the region under Donald Trump.   

In Sri Lanka, the Australian and Sri Lankan defence forces will work together on disaster assistance planning, naval maneuvers, and military training activities to improve cooperation, familiarity, and inter-operability during their week long security engagement.  

The ADF personnel will also visit several Sri Lankan military training establishments during their stay. “This is our first stop in the IPE19 mission, it is an important stop given the history Sri Lanka holds in the Indian Ocean in the present time and, I believe, the future,” said Air Commodore Richard Owen, Commander of the Joint Task Force. “We would like Sri Lanka to have us as a strategic partner in the Indian Ocean,” he said.  

Recently, Sri Lanka has been attracting quite a bit of attention from regional and extra- regional powers, ranging from the USA, Japan, Australia, Korea and India. There are two main reasons: its strategic location astride to shipping routes in the Indian Ocean where PLA Navy is increasingly active as well as China’s expanding geo-economic foothold in the island.   
The government in Colombo flaunts new defence and diplomatic ties asa triumph of its foreign and domestic policy. Its Navy has received a several gifts of decommissioned coast guard cutters, and patrol boats from America, Japan, and Australia as it aspires for a more active constabulary role in the Indian Ocean region. Also joint military exercises with foreign partners have grown in number and quality.Sri Lanka also held its annual field military exercise, Cormorant Strike IX-2018 in September, last year with 100 foreign observers and participants. The United States marines and US Naval Special Warfare forces had conducted regular military training exercise with their Sri Lankan counterparts. Japanese Maritime defence forces held a joint military exercise with the Sri Lankan Navy in October last year.  

The West leaning the UNP government has historically been friendlier towards the West than the SLFP. The foreign policy realignment under the UNP came after considerable international isolation during the Rajapaksa era. It of course helped Sri Lanka mend its ties with the West and redeem its international image.   

However, the Western interest in Sri Lanka is much more than due to that its new government restored rule of law after the arbitrariness of the Rajapaksa regime; or its key protagonists think it is posh to rub shoulders with Ms Samantha Power.  

Western interest in Sri Lanka is first and foremost driven by their systemic imperatives, dictated by the rise of China and fear and uncertainty it caused in rival powers. Australia’s defence whitepaper of 2009 identified China as a military threat, its 2016 whitepaper did so in a rather measured tone. On both instances, it drew ire from China. The 2016 whitepaper also recommended a large scale military modernization, including acquisition of a fleet of world’s most advanced conventional submarines, and anti-submarine frigates, to keep a tab on growing PLA Navy military assets in the region, and its expansive claims in the South and East China Sea.   

America has been assertive in countering China’s claims in the South China Sea and early this month flew bombers over the disputed waters twice and conducts regular freedom of navigation exercise in the disputed waters.  

Pacifist Japan, over which China has unresolved historical grievances and contested claims for islands has stepped up its military cooperation with India. In addition to the annual Malabar naval exercise that India holds with the USA and Japan, Tokyo is also exploring to hold joint ground troops exercise with India.

  
Sri Lanka is desiring for an enlarged regional role as an upholder of rule- based order of the international system. It is generally argued that the interests of small states are better served when the rule based order is upheld and respected. Its distinctive values, norms, laws, and institutions that are designed to inform and govern state conduct generate a degree of certainty and reduce anarchy of international system. In the absence of this rule based order, the alternative is as 4th century BC Athenians said, ‘strong does as he pleases, and weak suffer as they must.’  

The problem with China is that despite its stated commitment to the rule based global order ( and being the country that had most benefited from it over the three decades) in practice, China’s adherence is selective, arbitrary and is only when it serves its interests, be it in the South China Sea, intellectual property rights, access to foreign firms to local market etc.  
The dilemma that Sri Lanka would face is that the line of demarcation between being an upholder of rule based order and being party to a Western led evolving soft balancing strategy against China is blurry. It is not always easy to say for sure where the former ends and the latter begins. This is compounded by the absence of realist oriented foreign policy making, a historical lacuna in Sri Lanka’s foreign policy, which is regularly being dictated by personal, political and ideological interests of ruling elites. Whereas successful countries conduct their foreign policy to advance the self- interest of their respective states. 

 
It is natural for China’s rise to create reactions in the international system, that would lead threatened states to form overt and covert alliances and to resort to internal means of propping up their military capacities. The Evolving US, Japan, India, Australia defence cooperation is an example.   

However, small states can also benefit from the systemic opportunities created by the power transition to the East, and rise of China. That requires their leaders to identify the core- national interests and place a calculated bet on the present and future trajectory of the international politics. Betting against China is not the most rational choice for Sri Lanka.  
In a more common sensical assessment, the western interest in Sri Lanka is largely due to the first mover advantage, China acquired by building roads and taking a stake in the Hambantota port. Other states have rushed to Colombo since then for their absence would mean they will miss out on Sri Lanka.   

China’s initial inroads effectively helped Sri Lanka diversify its foreign policy relations

Thus, China’s initial inroads effectively helped Sri Lanka diversify its foreign policy relations. However, still, given its vast economic clout, China reigns over the rest in terms of its contribution, both present and potential, to Sri Lanka’s economic progress. There is a symmetry of interests in China’s belt and road initiative and developing world countries’, including Sri Lanka’s national imperative to address infrastructure backlog. Several on-going infrastructure projects such as Colombo Port City, Hambantota Port and EPZ could offer Sri Lanka an opportunity of life time to give a shot at prosperity.   

Therefore, no moralistic or egoistic yearnings to be seen, even remotely, in a Western balancing initiative against China can justify the huge opportunity cost such a fallacy would entail. Chinese officialdom is exceptionally thin skinned and oversensitive to breach of Chinese sense of political correctness. In fact, the government ministers confide that unusual delay in obtaining Chinese loans and lengthy bargaining over investment projects are not so subtle means of Chinese response to the government’s less than ideal treatment of Beijing.   
It is alright for Sri Lanka to seek a greater role in upholding rule based order. Though in practice, such noble intentions would be scaled down by lack of power. However, Sri Lanka should know where to draw the line. It should eschew any role in balancing maneuverings against China, because that is not worth its cost.