The Story Is Falling Apart, Fast!

By Niresh Eliatamby –JUNE 4, 2019

When a dozen suicide bombers massacred 260 innocents on Easter Sunday, the nation was stunned. The attack had come out of nowhere. Within hours, the President, Prime Minister, State Minister for Defence and the Opposition Leader all emphatically announced that they had had no warning from anybody about the impending calamity. The top brass of the armed forces also seemed all at sea.

But that story is fast falling apart and into the realms of children’s fairytales, now isn’t it?

The IGP’s revelations in court documents that the Police Department had been prevented for more than a year by the State Intelligence Service from continuing investigations into international terrorist groups operating in Sri Lanka, is only the latest shocker. The SIS reported directly to the President. 

The IGP, who says he passed on the information of the impending attacks to all his senior officers, also complained that he had not been allowed to attend meetings of the National Security Committee since last October, the same story that the PM and the State Minister have repeated.

A few days earlier, the head of the National Intelligence Service told a Parliamentary Committee that he had forwarded warnings by Indian Intelligence to the Ministry of Defense (which is headed by the President), and the Police (which also comes under the President). He also noted that he spoke about the matter at a National Security Council meeting in early April, but claimed that the matter had not been given due prominence.

However, the heads of the armed services and their own intelligence chiefs were supposedly at that meeting, so they did get to know of this warning, which is not the story we had heard up to last week.

So to recap, we have so far heard from top officials in the police and intelligence that the following people had some knowledge of the threat, more than a week before the attacks – the Defense Ministry, the IGP, all the top brass of the police, heads of the two main intelligence services, heads of armed services, heads of the armed forces’ intelligence wings, and goodness knows how many others including the father of a Cabinet Minister!

Meanwhile, a plethora of politicians and clergy of many faiths are charging that the terrorist groups were aided and abetted, or at the very least shielded from investigation, by several Provincial Governors, Chief Ministers, etc.

The only people who don’t seem to have known anything about the dastardly plot were the general public, including clergy, churchgoers, hotel staff and tourists. That’s because we were deemed unimportant and unworthy of being told by all those who knew. Oh, and of course the President, PM, State Minister for Defence and the Opposition Leader say they didn’t know, of course!

The President’s story of ignorance does seem rather shaky considering that so any top officials directly under him knew of the plot. But perhaps he is telling the truth. After all, this is a President who is never ashamed to state that he knew nothing about many things, until he read it in the newspapers. Even news of the Easter Sunday attacks were not communicated to him by any of his officials, but he was told by an acquaintance in Singapore, he said!

As for the PM, State Minister and Opposition Leader, well right now there’s no one saying that they were told. But one must admit that it is extremely strange that they didn’t know, considering how many people did know!

Other recent revelations included the claim by the Head of National Intelligence that there had been no meetings of the National Security Council, which is supposed to meet every fortnight, for more than three months. In fact, when they would have been expected to meet 26 times last year, they had met only eight times, he said. Little wonder that the PM and State Minister weren’t invited to attend since last October, if the meetings were non-existent! 

What has been made abundantly clear now is that both our TID and various intelligence services were well aware of the extremist and violent group known as NTJ, and actually had investigations on it spanning more than a year. This included surveillance of NTJ safe-houses and collection of detailed data on members of the NTJ, including some of the suicide bombers.     

In this work, our agencies would receive vital assistance from Indian intelligence, which made it very clear that this was an international plot, even though the Sri Lankan aspect of NTJ was homegrown. Our intelligence agencies could also have called for assistance and information from dozens of countries that are actively and covertly fighting IS, Al Qaeda and other global terrorists.

 

In fact, a fact that everyone on the National Security Council was abundantly aware of is that the Sri Lanka Army has been actively fighting against IS in the Saharan nation of Mali for more than a year now, as part of the 15,000-man United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Mali (officially known as MINUSMA, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali). This impoverished Saharan nation is known mostly for the town of Timbuktu, which is one of its largest cities.

MINUSMA has gained a reputation as the most dangerous United Nations peacekeeping mission in the world at present with nearly 200 peacekeepers killed. Just a few months ago, on 25th January 2019, two of our Sri Lankan soldiers paid the supreme sacrifice when they were killed in action in an ambush blamed on the IS proxy organisations ISGS (Islamic State in Greater Sahel) and Islamic State in West Africa (Boko Haram), that are fighting terrorist wars in Mali, Nigeria, Chad, Niger, and Burkina Faso. Another three Sri Lankan soldiers were wounded.

The SLA contingent in Mali has over 200 soldiers, including several women observers, from a large number of regiments including  Sri Lanka Light Infantry (SLLI), Sri Lanka Armoured Corps (SLAC), Sri Lanka Engineers (SLE), Sri Lanka Signal Corps (SLSC), Mechanized Infantry Regiment (MIR), Sri Lanka Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (SLEME), Sri Lanka Army Service Corps (SLASC), Sri Lanka Army Ordnance Corps (SLAOC), Corps of Engineer Services (CES) and members of the Sri Lanka Army Medical Corps (SLAMC).

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Held to Ransom: Capturing Fallout of a Fast Unto Death

Featured image courtesy Sri Lanka Tweet

GROUNDVIEWS-06/04/2019

On May 31, Parliamentarian Athuraliye Rathana Thero began a death fast in front of the Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy. His demand: the resignation of Minister Rishad Bathiudeen and Governors Azath Salley and M L A M Hisbullah from their posts.

On June 3, crowds began gathering at the Dalada Maligawa. General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena, Gnanasara Thero issued a deadline of 12 pm for Athuraliye Thero’s demands to be met.

As tensions rose, Governors Hisbullah and Salley resigned from their posts and the monk called off his fast.

However, by the end of the day, 9 Muslim MPs resigned from their portfolios, although they said they would continue to sit as backbencher MPs. The action was said to be taken in order to facilitate investigations into the Easter Sunday bombing attacks.

Groundviews compiled initial reactions from politicians, lawyers and civil society on Twitter. Click here to view the Twitter moment, or scroll below:

Sri Lanka Pres @MaithripalaS has accepted the resignation of Governors Azath Salley & MLAM Hizbullah, @PMDNewsGov announced. Athuraliye Rathna Thero has been staging a fast unto death in Kandy demanding their & Minister @rbathiudeen' removal. https://t.co/vY1X89uU2v #SriLanka

— Saroj Pathirana #lka (@sarojpathi) 3 June 2019

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Demonisation and criminalisation of religions

Without a functioning justice system, both the Government and civil society are defenceless against rampant crime and corruption and development is likely to stagnate – strengthening the rule of law, however, makes no sense if political will is lacking – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

“If a person foolishly does me wrong, I will return to him the protection of my boundless love. The more evil that comes from him the more good will go from me. I will always give off only the fragrance of goodness.” (Lord Buddha)

 Tuesday, 4 June 2019

Like the air pervading the whole planet, nationalism is both omnipresent and impalpable. It interpenetrates the psyche and the minds of every individual. This behaviour can be seen as both conservative and as a revolutionary force, threating the status quo.

Over the past years, rising nationalism is seen everywhere and in everything, from the time of election of Mahinda Rajapaksa to the establishment of Maithripala Sirisena as president of this country.

The end of nationalism has been predicted multiple times by historians and scholars. However, neither is there an inevitable tide of nationalism that is engulfing the world, nor is nationalism universally in decline. Despite shared dynamics and integration, Sri Lanka remains too diverse to be caught up in a single torrent of nationalism, because of the tolerance of Buddhism and true Buddhists in this country.

Buddhism is humanistic, in that it rejoices in the possibility of a true freedom as something inherent in human nature. For Buddhism, the ultimate freedom is to achieve full release from the root causes of all suffering: greed, hatred and delusion, which clearly are also the root causes of all social evils.

It is the belief of great minds among the Buddhists is, that they believe that world peace can only be achieved if we first establish peace within our minds. Buddhists believe people can live in peace and harmony only if we as Buddhists abandon negative emotions such as anger in our minds and cultivate positive emotions such as love and compassion.

The Buddha does not link violence with mimeticism – hysterical neurosis.

He does warn against thinking of human relationships in terms of rivalries to be won or injuries to be avenged, and he urges his followers not to imitate the example of those who wrong them.

But the President and his people, who seem to be proclaiming that they are the defenders of Buddhism, seem to be doing everything to the contrary; in that they are conspicuously, offensively and blatantly involved in anything and everything that is evil and quite perverse and quite adverse to Buddhist teachings – they are no better than those who promulgate extremism and terrorism under the guise of the religion of Islam.

It is no wonder we can see an unholy alliance between the two evils. Both parties seem to be recklessly determined on demonisation and criminalisation of both religions.

This attitude clearly shows a defiant disregard for danger or consequences to the people of this country where their main aim is to grab power by hook or by crook. Malicious behaviour without any attempt at concealment by the leaders and their supporters – openly and blatantly violating every law and every form of human decency.


SLFP and SLPP

Let us take a look at the current scenario: We have here two parties – the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP – Pohottuwa) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). One is the evil party, and the other is the stupid party, respectively. And the President seems to be very proud to be a member of the stupid party. Frequently, the two parties get together to do something that’s both evil and stupid. And that is called bipartisanship.

Political corruption is an essential characteristic of organised crime. The two go hand-in-hand, organised crime tries to buy political influence and to provide space for or eliminate blockages to their illegal practices. This relates to bribery of police, judges, politicians and whatnots and infiltration of these offices of government by organised crime, commonly referred to as State Capture.

State Capture is defined as the efforts of a small number of firms or such groups as the military, ethnic groups and kleptocratic politicians, to shape the rules of the game to their advantage through illicit, non-transparent provision of private gains to public officials.


Rule of law

Attempts to remove and actually removing honest professionals to appoint dishonourable and incompetent people at the highest echelons of our political and justice systems have severely undermined the rule of law in Sri Lanka.

The World Justice Project defines ‘rule of law’ as ‘the process by which the laws, in a democracy, are enacted, administered, and enforced is accessible, fair, and efficient’. This means that the level of a country’s democracy is determined by its adherence to the basic principles in which all people – regardless of their economic, political or ethnic status – are subject to equal legal rules.

This principle is critically important for the success of any country. It provides a clear national system that is to be applied fairly to every group and person. Without this, the system will increasingly lose credibility and public trust.

Criminality and instability will increase, putting everyone at risk. Our justice system is the cornerstone for ensuring the rule of law functions in an effective and healthy way.

Over the past few years, the conduct of various top prominent officials in our country, has severely and gravely undermined this constitutional principle and the very foundation of our democracy. Following careful consideration of the hard evidence placed before various courts, a number of judges and luminaries in the judiciary have independently questioned the integrity and conduct and behaviour of some of our most senior so-called ‘responsible’ officials.

Our people actually rely on the individuals who occupy these eminent and distinguished positions, to exercise their considerable powers in tackling organised crime and corruption. However, quite the contrary, it has emerged through various court cases and legal processes they seemed to use their powers to protect various individuals facing serious criminal allegations.

Our investigation and analysis seem to point to a hidden network of profoundly dishonest individuals within the Government and the justice system, who have either been appointed by top-level politicians, or are acting with the primary purpose of protecting certain powerful people from criminal sanction, rather than in the public interest.


Current status 

Today we see and are experiencing corruption and organised crime, drugs, fraud, money-laundering and racketeering, by all accounts, have increased substantially since the incumbent President came to power.

A malfunctioning law enforcement provides a suitable breeding ground for organised crime. Where criminals of brands and types are firmly rooted; Police and the justice system become weakened by bribery and intimidation.

We should perceive the prevalence of organised crime and political corruption as an important indicator of the presence or absence of the rule – where no rule of law exists, poverty eradication is purposeless, superfluous and meaningless.

Without a functioning justice system, both the Government and civil society are defenceless against rampant crime and corruption and development is likely to stagnate – strengthening the rule of law, however, makes no sense if political will is lacking.

Great spiritual leaders and philosophers have said that wisdom takes us above the basic instincts. It doesn’t let us be reduced to mere puppets in the hands powerful manipulators for our instant gratification. Wisdom gives our mind the power to differentiate between justified and unjustified and act accordingly.

Experiencing the bright and dark, both faces of life, are we filled with love, kindness, compassion, and non-judgment toward others and also ourselves.

Winding up with these words of wisdom from a person no less than Chief Seattle: “You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin.

Teach your children what we have taught our children – that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. This we know.

“The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family.

All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself...” (Chief Seattle – c.1786 – 7 June 1866, was a Suquamish and Duwamish chief – Blake Island, Washington.) 

History of ‘Fasts-unto-death’

Nationalism is nothing but a glorified form of Tribalism - J. Krishnamurthi

 

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

When a government begins to help racial or religious emotionalism merely because it is a harsh and loud-noised demand made on it, and then obstruct in the management and enforcement of law and order for the benefit of its favourites or to win the praise of a crowd, however out of management it may be, adversity is certain.

Buddha declared that extreme fasting runs contrary to the Dhamma or Buddhist path. While relatively short- term, controlled fasts are sometimes undertaken as a support to meditation in all three major Buddhist traditions, but there are no clearly defined rules are in place.

Ultra-nationalists ‘fast unto death’ six decades ago

Threats and intimidation to end their lives if the demands are not met is nothing new to Sri Lanka. Fasting unto death by politicians and ultra-nationalists during the ‘Sinhala Only in 24 hours’ of the Bandaranaike days of 1950s when lawyer politician K. M. P. Rajaratne, and Prof J. E. Jayasuriya, a Peradeniya University Don, both extremist Sinhala Only campaigners went on hunger strikes or fast unto death demanding drafting of legislation for Sinhala Only with no concessionary clauses for use of Tamil language even in Tamil speaking regions. They selected the steps of the old Parliament for the disgraceful act that led to Prime Minister Bandaranaike to abrogate or delete that all important clause in legislation. The university students claimed both were sipping thambili. Later Maha Sangha sat on the lawns of Rosemead Place residence of PM, ably supported by JR and Dudley of UNP, demanding the abrogation of Banda-Chelva Pact that proposed regional autonomy in use of Tamil language forcing our man to destroy the pact.

Most of fasts to death since then have not been considered seriously.

Athuraliye Rathana Thera

The Chief Prelates of the Malwathu Asgiriya Chapters wrote to the President and Prime Minister, yesterday. “We request that these demands be met to reinstate the prestige and the security of the land for the security and well-being of the public, the issue should be resolved before Thera’s health state deteriorated”.
Governors M. L. A. M. Hizbullah and Azath Salley had resigned from their posts, making way for Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thera to call off his fast unto death, expecting Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to take necessary action on Minster Rishad Bathiudeen. National list parliamentarian (UNF) launched his fast in the Sri Dalada Maligawa precincts in Kandy on May 31, challenging the appointments of Minister, and Governors Hizbulla and Salley. The two Governors submitted their letters of resignation. The Thera broke fast and was rushed to the Kandy General Hospital for treatment. Many including Archbishop of Colombo, His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Buddhist monks and politicians called on the Thera. His Eminence Cardinal said that Rathana Thera was fasting for the rights of those affected by the Easter bombings; he appealed for proper investigation into the Easter Sunday attacks and that it had not been exposed who backed them.

Wimal Weerawansa and Ban Ki Moon

In 2010 Wimal Weerawansa staged a ‘fast unto death’ on a platform erected opposite the UN headquarters in Colombo demanding the abolishing of the UN committee appointed by the Secretary General of UN Ban Ki Moon, to probe alleged war crimes committed by our military during the final stages of the war. Later as it was revealed by his former JVP buddies, Weerawansa had been fed with lemon biscuits and saline. Medical opinion is that a healthy person could go avoiding food for about a week on a saline drip. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his boss and mentor offered him a glass of thambili to end the drama.

Thevarapperuma on ceiling fan heroics

Controversial politician the Deputy Minister for Internal Affairs and Cultural Affairs, Palitha Thevarapperuma attempted suicide after staging a fast unto death before the Educational Office at Matugama, for refusal by the authorities of a school to admit some students. He even attempted to hang himself on a ceiling fan. His protests produced results with students being admitted.

Thevarapperuma then gave up his fast but collapsed and was rushed to hospital. However the ‘heroic’ attempt of this minister was not accepted by some authorities for he was charged in courts for unlawful entry to the school along with his supporters and mothers of the children all of whom were arrested and remanded.

Thileepan’s death fast

About 9,000 Indian troops were in Sri Lanka under Rajiv Gandhi-JRJ Pact to enforce the peace. It was September 15, 1987. Amirthalingam Thileepan 23, began a fast unto death demanding that all Tamil political prisoners be released, that police stations remain closed in the mostly Tamil north and east, that resettlement of the majority Sinhalese in Tamil-dominated areas be stopped, that a Sinhalese civilian militia be disarmed.

He had been a leader of the political wing of most powerful Tamil separatist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. On September 27 after refusing to eat food or drink water for 12 days, Thileepan was compelled to end the fast in the environs of the famous Nallur’s Kandasamy Temple.

 The young Tamil leader, sacrificed his life in a bid to achieve freedom for his people. As hundreds of people prayed and watched, 12 days of complete fasting, without even water, wilted away the life of a gallant young man who sacrificed himself for the sake of his people. The sight of this young brave man wilting away, have left an unforgettable mark on the mind of all self-respecting people. There were no doctors examining him every two hours and no ambulances on call to rush him to hospital.
Students of Universities attempted for fast unto death on several occasions in the recent past. With the minimal impact they could create, the nation will hardly take note of their fast. A hunger strike, a non-violent pressure in which partakers fast as an act of political protest, usually with the objective to attain a specific purpose, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers take liquids but avoid solid food.

blown up distress

Symbolic acts such as the sacrifice link acts of violence to religion and terrorism, suicide terrorism, or martyrdom has throughout history been planned and perpetrated by brainwashed factions with both religious and political motivations. Suicide terrorism or martyrdom is, inexpensive, efficient easily organised, and awfully difficult to counter, delivering utmost damage for slight cost. The appalling nature of a suicide attack also attracts public interest. Venerating the culture of martyrdom payback the terrorist groups and inspires more natives to join the group. Retaliation against suicide attacks enhances the group’s sense of victimization and dedication to adhere to principle and policy. This process provides to encourage martyrdom, and so suicide intimidation, self-sacrifice.

Violent protests and so-called ‘non-violent’ remonstration

Like terrorism this type of submissive confrontation cannot prosper without huge publicity. Today, protests receive fantastic media interest particularly passionate electronic media coverage.

Twenty to 25 protesters gather at a convenient point after contacting the regional media, TV channels engage a single reporter to cover all channels in remote places as well. Harsh words and action voice cuts delivered in ten minutes demonstrations and all disperse, but get wide publicity.

Fanatical patriots, ultranationalists, extremists and those suffering from tribal-mentality, both the educated and not-so-educated, are vulnerable and could easily be enticed to risk their life, for a ‘cause’ which they believed sacred; Somarama was brain-washed by Buddharakkitha to assassinate a Prime Minister.

“No government worthy of being representative of a large mass of people can afford to take any step merely because it is likely to win the hasty applause of an unthinking public. In the midst of insanity, should not our best representatives maintain sanity and bravely prevent a wreck of the ship of state under their care?”—Mahatma Gandhi 
  
PS -Title of last week’s column should read “…Dutch Missionaries” instead of “…Methodist Missionaries” –We regret the error.
   
kksperera1@gmail.com

BBS and gang on one bank, ISIS-backed Islamic fundamentalists on the other… Sri Lanka’s rudderless drift …

“Action cures fear. Indecision, postponement, on the other hand, fertilize fear.’’
 ~David Joseph Schwartz 

5 June 2019

When a ship is drifting without being steered and manned by an able and professional Captain, it is bound to go astray; its survival in stormy seas is doubtful and its crew, the rest of servicemen and passengers are in danger of losing their very lives and the temporary ‘gala’ they enjoyed have disappeared into the mist of the ashen and all-consuming waves that seem to have enveloped the ship. It’s not a good story to tell your young ones. 

The current administration assumed office in 2015, President in January, Prime Minister and the Cabinet in August. A whole lot of water has gushed under the proverbial bridge since then. The President’s departure from the norm and his maniacal conduct since then has turned the country upside down. The effects of this behaviour on the part of our Chief Executive has brought to light some serious deficiencies a holder of such a pivotal and fundamental office of power should not possess. He has proven to be just another politician: indecisive, self-centred and bordering on being dishonest. An extremely bad report card for any individual to carry. Yet the people seem to have come to terms with such disagreeable circumstances. What other option do they have? 


The President has let down the side totally and that letdown has generated a chain of circumstances and effects that are unquestionably injurious to the socio-economic-political fabric of our very living; our very core of moralities, ethics and scruples which set us apart from the immoral, unethical and dishonest was being challenged; twenty five years of power and glory as Minister and President and then assuming the non-existent role of ‘lone arbiter of constitutional affairs of the country’ has plunged the nation into a status of laughable proportions. 

If such a person is given charge of navigating the national voyage on unpredictable and ferocious seas, the ship is bound to get, not only drenched in uncontrollable waves of water, it would certainly be heading into the unknown depths of anarchy and chaos. That is what happens to a country when it is being led by an uneducated and untutored mind. Our country was more than once led by men and women of uneducated and untutored minds; each time it happened, she showed symptomatic reflections of a nation which was not so keen on the nuanced aspects of democratically sophisticated polity. 

The arbitrary election of the ‘common man’ has decimated the dignity and honour of such a position and Maithripala Sirisena is a personification of a man who should not be President of the country

With the dawn of the ‘common man-politics’ in 1956, the notion of the ‘common man’ was taken literally; its rhetorical insinuations were ignored and the ‘commoner’ became one who had not had any formal education, judicious capabilities of the averagely-educated and discerning abilities of a human being under trying circumstances. Our current President reflects all these adverse qualities of the human being. Being able to be elected or as ranked high on the scale of the modern notion of ‘electability’, does not automatically qualify a person as a capable government leader. Leading a nation requires not only the skills of electability, it demands the person of an aura of dignity, an immense capacity to bear the burdens of decision-making ability under the most trying conditions and duress. The arbitrary election of the ‘common man’ has decimated the dignity and honour of such a position and Maithripala Sirisena is a personification of a man who should not be President of the country. 

If the President is of such qualities, one would expect his chief mate, Prime minister to be of some value to the office of government-handlers. Unfortunately, it is of least significance to the people of the country. In addition to being at the bottom of the ladder of electability, PM Ranil Wickremesinghe has proven to be dangerously oblivious to the looming dangers of ethnic violence, societal discord and political chaos. 

For Sirisena and his Party, (SLFP/UPFA) to be in power for an unbroken period of twenty five years, there is one prerequisite that has to befulfilled- the UNP has to be out of power for the same period. That indeed has been more than sufficient for its leader to be branded a ‘loser’. Our Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe cannot help but wear that shameful badge wherever he goes. One major component of the shame goes to some of his close lieutenants too. Holding ‘pandam’ (singing praise) to the leader without being constructively critical in matters of national and Party affairs does not only reflect collective subservience on the part of the subordinates, it also reflects a conspiratorial blocking of openness and transparency. 

Ever since assuming office of Premiership, Ranil has been drifting towards a lackadaisical form of governance. His selection of the Cabinet is below average. Trust in the younger members of Parliament was totally absent. For instance, when DS Senanayake selected his first Cabinet in Independent Ceylon, he selected the youngest members, Dudley, his own son and JR Jayewardene as Minsters of Agriculture and Ministry of Finance respectively. The most important portfolios were given to the youngest members. Then again in 1977, when JR assumed office as Prime Minister, he too appointed young Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali as Minster of Irrigation, Power and Highways and Minister of Trade and Shipping respectively. All these young ones, Dudley, JR, Gamini and Lalith went right to the top. That not only shed light on the abilities and drive of those who were promoted as Ministers but more so on the vision and foresight of the leaders, DS and JR.

 
It is, they say, not ‘cricket’ to compare Ranil with DS and JR. But the historical examples so set by his predecessors cannot be disregarded as not-so-important. On the contrary, they are crucial in one’s understanding of office one holds at any given time in history. Ranil has proven to be a very poor student of history. 

Engineered in the midst of this background, release of Gnanasara from prison by a ‘decree’ of President Sirisena now seems to be an outcome of a carefully strategized ‘politricks’. This is playing into the cruel and blood-soaked hands of ISIS-backed Islam fundamentalists in Sri Lanka.Gnanasara’s reputation and his appeal to average Sinhalese Buddhists is indeed blood-curdling. An alleged ruffian clad in the saffron robe, Gnanasara is now engaged in the same pastime he is so used to, and the political advantage that a crueller politician could draw Gnanasara’s pseudo patriotic postures is limitless. Unfortunately, Ratana Thera, elected on the UNP-ticket to parliament and the other megaphone of pseudo-patriotism, has fallen victim to the Gnanasara brand of patriotism which is bordering on outright racialism and tribalism which are more easily embraced by a great majority of Sinhalese Buddhists in the country. 

Legend says that when Prince Gamini (Dutu Gamunu before he became King Dutu Gamunu), as an extreme expression of dissatisfaction of his father Kávan Tissa’s appeasing attitude towards the Northern Tamil King Elara, was once found to be cuddled up in his bed by his mother Vihara Maha Devi, asked as to why he was so cuddled up, Prince Gamini replied: ‘Mother, on the North are Tamil pariahs and on the South is the violent Indian Ocean, how can I stretch my limbs and sleep?’ To telegraph our history from second Century B.C. to present day: On one bank is Gnanasara and his marauding ‘un-Buddhist’ gangs and on the other are ISIS-backed Islam fundamentalists. What can the poor people who are in the middle can do? They are being led by two leaders, President Sirisena and PM Wickremasinghe, who have chosen to play politics instead of practising patriotic governance. Self-centred politicking has cost us dearly in the past and it’s being repeated today. 

Gnanasara is now in the limelight, again. It is dangerous; Gnanasara’s appeal has its own inherent magic to draw into itself the attention of many an unthinking devotee; it has its own intrinsic enchantment to galvanize a placid populace into an army of riotous and unruly thugs. The government is in the middle and seems to be totally helpless and impotent. How can we stretch our limbs and relax? Indecision is our enemy number one. 

The writer can be contacted at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com   

Hemasiri Fernando & Venerable Rathana

By Hema Senanayake –JUNE 4, 2019

Hema Senanayake

Venerable Mawarelle Baddhiya humiliated Hemasiri Fernando, the former secretary to the Ministry of Defense, for telling the foreign media immediately after April 21st suicidal bomb attacks on luxury hotels and churches that the Ministry of Defense would not provide security to hotels as those were profit making ventures and must look after their security by themselves. Venerable Baddhiya rightly denounced his comments as stupid (“Mugdha”). Why he denounced it so forceful and with bitter verbal attack?     

Because Ven. Baddhiya might have had a strong conviction even though he is not an economist that Sri Lanka’s prosperity and the future of younger generation is very much depended upon the inflow of non-credit based foreign currencies. In this regard, tourism industry and foreign direct investments are two important economic activities which activities are in turn depend on the government’s promise on security in general. Acceptable level of peace and calmness have to prevail in the country if we wish foreigners to visit our country and make investments. Possibly, this is the kind of understanding Ven. Baddhiya has had when he condemned Hemasiri Fernando for uttering those words that would out rightly discourage the tourist industry and foreign direct investments. I respect Ven Baddiya for that.

Yet I have a small problem. A couple of days ago, Venerable Athuraliye Rathana, M.P. made a similar or far damaging statement, surround by unpatriotic goons, staying on the road, in front of the Teaching Hospital in Kurunegala. He said that henceforth it was not the Cabinet that governs the country but it was them who governs the country from the street. Now, let me ask a very simple question from Venerable Mawarelle Baddhiya. Will the foreign tourist and foreign investors come to a country if the country is governed by goons from the street? How do you rate Ven. Rathana’s above statement? Is it stupid (“Mugdha”)?  

Ven. Rathana went further step. He started to fast unto death (hunger strike) in front of the sacred Temple of tooth relic. His demands are directly related to governance; he began to govern from the lawn in front of the Temple of tooth relic. If Asath Sali and the Governor of Eastern Province are ISIS agents they must be dealt with severely, their removal would not be just enough. Unfortunately, Ven. Rathana is not demanding the law enforcement agencies to act impartially. Instead he actively tries to govern the country from the “street.”  

Many presidential hopeful “rascals” are talking about their plans, security, economy, education, math education, artificial intelligence and about everything that we can think of and even on things that average citizens cannot understand. But I would say that all those plans and promises would not be realized if the above said parameter which is the non-credit based inflow of dollars is ignored. Those presidential hopefuls are not talking about it. And they do not concern about it. If they do they must begin addressing it, right now even before the submission of their respective nominations. If they do, then they must ask Ven. Rathana to stop those nonsenses. 

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‘Yahapalana’ Myth Vs. Reality: From Good Governance To No Governance

The trends present a serious failure of governance. The ‘Yapahalana’government’s ability to deliver services, even at the very basic level, be it in the realm of economic, social justice or security has come to be seriously questioned.

 

by Chamindry Saparamadu-2019-06-04

 

Few months back, I asked my facebook friends what ‘Yahapalanaya’ meant to them. Posed at a time when the regime still had faint hopes of continuity, I was quite intrigued by the diverse range of reactions received, more negative than positive, which prompted me to share my own take on the ‘good governance’ performance by the ‘Yahapalanaya’ regime.

 

 

 

‘Good Governance’, although globally contested and aligns a western form of governance constituted the core platform on which the ‘Yahapalana’ government was elected. The term has been variously defined in international development literature and encompasses two main components ie efficient service delivery and democratic decision making. Democratic decision making,at a minimum,entails elements of transparency, participation and inclusivity in decision making processes.

 

The ‘Yahapalanaya’movement, at the time of elections in January 2015,made many pledges. Apart from those relating to constitutional, legal and institutional reforms, there were also several others – the promise of technological advancement through free wifi and google balloon, employment opportunities through the creation of 1,000,000 jobs, economic prosperity but above all, reconciliation and peace, all of which, turn out, at the end of four years, to be a plethora of partially or unfulfilled promises. Hence, a serious erosion of the legitimate expectations of the people.

 

If I look at delivery of economic progress, well-being and security of the people, as indicators of service delivery, I can only note the epic failures the regime is associated with.

 

The country has witnessed a deepening crisis with slower growth rates and ever increasingcost of living underpinned on policyconfusion and incoherence. The GDP growth rate steadily dropped from 5 % in 2015 to 4.4% in 2016 and to 3.3% in 2017 .A study released by Verite Research Sri Lanka highlighted that of the 2018 Budget promises, as little as 8% pledges were honored by mid- 2018.

 

From Volkswagen hoax to google balloon and free wifi to rural development through Gam Peraliya, what the public has seen is a journey through a fantasy land in hope than reality. For all its failures, the regime seems to easily find a scapegoat, be it in the so-called debt trap created by the Rajapakse regime or the monetary policies of the Trump administration.

 

When I raised these issues earlier on, many of my Colombo friends said ‘oh but there is greater freedom now as there are no white vans’. Is freedom and security our privilege anymore? I recall a recent conversation I had with a youngster from Colombo suburbs – he looked at me in surprise when I explained to him that there is greater freedom now in the absence of white vans – he asked me if I am aware of the rising level of under-world criminality in society. His answer convinced me that violence has permeated to different levels of societythat is not captured in thediscourses of those enmeshed in the so-called white van rhetoric.Needless to say that the serious security lapses that came to light with the terror attacks we experienced recently convinces us that security of life and personal freedoms are not so much a choice anymore. These lapses have very seriously undermined the state’s ability to provide basic security, both public security and national security.Instead of owning and being responsible for its own failings, the passing of responsibilities and exonerating oneself by the government leaders is all what could be seen. And as a result, non-political figures such as the Cardinal Malcom Ranjith and the Army Commander seem to have more legitimacy among the people in these times of distress.

 

The trends present a serious failure of governance. The ‘Yapahalana’government’s ability to deliver services, even at the very basic level, be it in the realm of economic, social justice or security has come to be seriously questioned.

 

Has decision making processes shown better progress?

 

At a recent workshop on ‘Implications of Culture for Constitution Building’ held in Colombo, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, very eloquently shared her experience being part of the public consultation process preceding the Constitutional Reforms process under the ‘Yahapalana’ regime. She highlighted how superficially public consultations were approached and the lackadaisical treatment ofthe recommendations of the Public Representations Committee by the framers who already had the structure and the framework for a new Constitution in mind. Law making processes have been anything but transparent or participatory as was saw from the manner of passing of the Amendment to the Provincial Council Elections Act in 2017. Introduced as a Bill to increase women’s representation in Provincial Councils, was later passed by Parliament after dubiously expandingsame during the Committee stage to include electoral reforms to the election of Provincial Councils. The introduction of a new electoral system was used by the Government to justify postponing elections to Provincial Councils and placing them under the purview of the Governor, when their term expired. As a consequence, the terms of eight out of nine Provincial Councils have long expired by now with elections not even contemplated in the near future, making these representative bodies dysfunctional.

 

The public has also witnessed the contestations surrounding the making of bilateral agreements. The most prominently featured in the public domain are the ECTA and the Singapore Free Trade Agreement. While not being totally rejectionist of bilateral agreements, the concerns are with regard to the negotiation processes which have been tainted with secrecy and exclusivity andas such, contravenes the rhetoric of transparency associated with the Yahapalana government.

 

The regime’s attitude towards transparency and openness is amply evident from the dual approach it adopts towards access to information. While guaranteeing the people’s right of access to information through the 19th amendment to the Constitution and RTI legislation during the euphoria of commitment to democratic reforms, the scrupulous attempts to restrict this very same right is evident in the exclusion of RTI in almost all subsequent legislation passed by Parliament after the RTI Act, namely theOffice of the Missing Persons Act No. 14 of 2016, the National Audit Act No. 19 of 2018 and the Office for Reparations Act No. 34 of 2018.

 

A logical assessment of such leads me to believe that ‘Yahapalanaya’ has failed substantially on the core elements of efficient service delivery and democratic decision making. Instead of practicing good governance, it appears that what has transpired has been only a means of good elite governance. I have to say then in concluding that ‘Yapahalanaya’, a term which cannot now be referred to with any level of seriousness, remains simply a political rhetoric, a confusion andjust an ideological construct that has not been able to perform even the basic functions of a modern state.

 

References;

 

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=LK

 

https://www.veriteresearch.org/2018/10/16/budget-promises-33-broken-neglected-or-undisclosed-only-8-on-track/

How Facebook fights false news

Tuesday, 4 June 2019 

Facebook was built to connect people and give them the power to build community. Around the world, we’ve seen Facebook used to bridge language, cultural and socioeconomic barriers, and give small business owners new economic opportunities. But we also know that connecting people can have unintended consequences.

Misinformation and false news are harmful to any community and make the world less informed. We take our responsibility to deal with Misinformation and false news very seriously and remain invested in this responsibility across the globe including in Sri Lanka. We want to empower people to decide for themselves what to read, trust, and share. We do so by promoting news literacy and informing people with more context. To give people more control, we encourage them to tell us when they see false news. Feedback from our community is one of the various signals that we use to identify potential hoaxes.

We are also working to empower our community in Sri Lanka on how to spot false news in order to make more informed decisions. Last year, we launched our Digital Literacy program in Sri Lanka in partnership with Sarvodya Fusion. Under this continuing program, 20,000 secondary school students are being trained on how to use the internet safely and responsibly.


Third party fact checking 

In addition to our own efforts to reduce the spread of misinformation on Facebook, we’re scaling our partnerships with third-party fact-checkers, who are working on combating misinformation and false news in Sri Lanka. Last week, we announced our partnership with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to fact-check content on Facebook in Sri Lanka.  AFP is a global partner and certified through a non-partisan International Fact-Checking Network.

When our fact checkers rate something as false, we rank those stories significantly lower in News Feed. On average, this cuts future views by more than 80%. The information from fact-checkers helps improve our technology, so that we can identify more potential false news faster in the future. This multi-pronged approach also roots out the bad actors that frequently spread fake stories. It dramatically decreases the reach of those stories. And it helps people stay informed without stifling public discourse. Other Features on Facebook, such as Context Button, give people more information about the publishers and articles they see, such as the publisher’s Wikipedia entry. Related Articles, displays articles from third-party fact-checkers immediately below a story on the same topic. If a fact-checker has rated a story as false, we’ll let people who try to share the story know there’s more reporting on the subject.

This is some of the most important work being done at Facebook. And we know we can’t do it alone —we work with NGOs and other civic society organisations to alert us on fake news spreading on the platform. The informal network that we have built over the last few years has led us to identify and reduce the distribution of any content that violates our community standards guidelines. We also work extensively with trusted partners on the ground who know the pulse of the community and who have extensive networks and local relationships.


Removing accounts and content that violates our policies

Although false news does not violate our Community Standards, it often violates our policies in other categories, such as spam, hate speech or fake accounts, which we remove. Over the past year we’ve learned more about how networks of bad actors work together to spread misinformation, so we created a new policy to tackle coordinated inauthentic activity. We’re also using machine learning to help our teams detect fraud and enforce our policies against spam.


Getting ahead together 

The issue of misinformation and false news will always be a work in progress. Even with these steps, we know people will still come across misleading content on Facebook and the internet more broadly. Facebook is committed to helping Sri Lanka and its communities and we are doubling down on countering misinformation on our platform. We are committed to working with the community, our partners in civil society and news publishers in Sri Lanka to ensure that we keep people safe on Facebook.
(The writer is Head of Public Policy – South Asia, Facebook. Das is a graduate of Loreto College, University of Calcutta, and has done post-graduate studies specialising in international relations and political science at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Das is based in New Delhi.)

Muslim ministers resign but continue to back govt.

June 3, 2019, 10:52 pm 

All Muslim ministers in the UNF-led government resigned, yesterday. They had done so to allow the government to bring about reconciliation and conduct an impartial investigation into various allegations, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Leader, Rauff Hakeem told the media at Temple Trees.

The decision had been taken after a lengthy discussion with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and others, Hakeem said.

Hakeem requested the government to have an investigation conducted by the CID into the allegations and take legal action within one month if there was ample evidence.

The Muslim community and the politicians who represented them had fully cooperated with the authorities to ensure the safety of the country following the Easter Sunday Bombings, and attacks on Muslims had to be condemned, Hakeem said.

Although they had resigned from their ministerial posts, they would not resort to any action that would weaken the government, Hakeem said, adding that they would protect the government as backbenchers.

The Muslim community expected them to do so, Hakeem said. Muslims were extremely worried about and scared of the developments during the last several days and it was not fair to vilify the entire community for the actions of a few, he added.

Hakeem said he did not believe that any solution could be reached through parliamentary select committees and there had to be an immediate CID investigation into the allegations at issue.

UNP General Secretary Kabir Hashim said that it was hurtful that there were allegations that they had attempted to hamper investigations into terrorist activities. He said they had, therefore, given up their ministerial portfolios.

Our apologies, it was a false positive

5 June 2019

Dunuwila is an Instagramer’s paradise. The tiny village in the Central Province is nestled at 820m above sea level. It took me a 90 minutes to get here from Kandy through utterly beautiful winding, narrow mountain roads.

There is hardly any 4G coverage here. Most of villagers still carry old analogue phones. I was here the day before the terrible Easter Sunday Attack, attending an Avurudhu Uthswaya. There were no selfies, Facebook updates or live feeds from here. It was as if time had rewound a few years.

But there is a terrible past in this village, one that is linked with all things to do with mobile accessibility. This is the home village of the Sinhala driver whose wanton murder after a traffic accident by several Muslim youth led to the racial violence in the Central Province in March 2018. Looking back, those events were a dark foreshadow of what lay ahead.

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• Social media was blamed as root cause for spreading hatred and igniting violence
• Fake news always an issue, it is not a new phenomenon but spread instantaneously with social media
• Many countries block social media when protests turn violent and uncontrollable

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Despite the lack of accessibility and smart phones, Dunuwilla is not immune to social media. When I spoke with the family of the murder victim and Muslim families who live close by they blamed social media as the root cause of the spread of hate and igniting riots.

On April 20 there was no sign of what lay ahead less than a day later, how racial harmony as we knew it would be shred apart within a matter of a few minutes. What was clear though was, even in parts of the island where accessibility still remained a few weak bars on the mobile phone, concerns over social media were very clear.

“Most people don’t use smart phones here, they don’t have the income to do that, but you ask them about social media, every one will tell you it is dangerous,” Shashika de Silva, a rare youth who was using a smart phone said. Many don’t really understand the intricate workings of social media. But what has been driven into them is the chorus of evil tales on social media. They believe them.

Last week I was speaking to a group of Sri Lankan journalists on the possible trauma impact of coverage like the post Easter Sunday Attacks. Most in the room did not have any understanding about how trolling worked and what you should do not to give such accounts momentum. Neither did they fully understand how fake accounts function, especially how they work like leeches to gain traction through interaction with the very accounts they attack.

Everyone is trying to figure out how social media works on the fly. Its importance however cannot be underestimated. When parliamentarian Ven. Arthuriliye Rathana launched his hunger strike, his supporters used a Facebook page as the main information hub.

In that niche where I operate, media, there seems to be action on debunking fake news, one news agency has such an operation and several volunteer ones as well. One big issue here, whoever is running these efforts needs to get a grasp of how the belly of the Sri Lankan news-beast works. Fake news was always an issue, it is not a new phenomenon. The only difference is that it can now spread instantaneously with social media.

If anything, government action to block social media has set a precedent not only here but elsewhere as well. Indonesia followed suit blocking social media when protests turned violent in Jakarta last month after the elections. Malawi was another. With public authorities either incapable, unenthusiastic or both to figure out how to detect fake and inflammatory content, the best option seems to be to block.

Even social media sites appear to have become over compensative in their efforts to do the same. Something that at least Facebook seemed not to be interested in at all before the March 2018 riots despite local researchers alerting it.

Two weeks back a Sri Lankan new website got blacklisted on Facebook. No links from the site could be uploaded. The operators were not informed of the reasons that led to the action. The only thing they could think of was the last story they uploaded dealing with the use of President Maithripala Sirisena’s Facebook account’s live feature.

There was no response from Facebook, other than acknowledging that the operator’s complaint’s had been received. Several days later the site was cleared and Facebook told the operator – “it looks like the site was blocked from a false positive. We are glad to advise that the URL has now been unblocked” – among other details and invited him to take part in a survey. In other words, an over enthusiastic or hyper critical Facebook moderation measure, human or otherwise, made a mistake.

The author is the Asia-Pacific Coordinator for the DART Centre for Journalism and Trauma, a project of the Columbia Journalism School Twitter - @amanthap

Sri Lanka: The meat in the sandwich? Nero fiddles while a major conspiracy is unfolding

The current super power, the US, uses tactics of intervention that leads to instability and domination in order to have control of resources while the aspirant, China, relies on interventions that does not create instability to have control of resources

• Oil is the root of all evil?

Tuesday, 4 June 2019 

The undisputed current super power and the undisputed emerging super power appear to be adopting diametrically opposite strategies for the former to remain the super power and the latter to emerge as the next super power.

Aspiration towards superpower status is essentially about control of resources through different means in order to further enhance, but as a minimum, retain an existing way of life from a materialistic point of view. Power is the aphrodisiac that many leaders seek to drive them to dominate others and leaders at different levels in society acquire varying degrees of power, and the collective of these leaders are the wheels that drive a country towards a super power ambition.

Throughout history, there have been super powers relevant to the geographical and resource context of particular periods of history. Super powers have come and gone and history records their rise and fall as natural phenomena arising from human frailties of individuals and the collective. Past empires however depended on conquest and direct rule of areas conquered to sustain their status and domination.



The super powers

Today, domination appears to be achieved through tactics that seem to rely on opposites, instability or stability. The current super power, the US, uses tactics of intervention that leads to instability and domination in order to have control of resources while the aspirant, China, relies on interventions that does not create instability to have control of resources.

To add to the confusion, the US employs dual approaches where they intervene through partnerships as they do in Saudi Arabia where they do not advocate democracy as a precondition, and as they did in Iraq, where democracy was a precondition. One country is stable and the other is in chaos. China on the other hand has no preconditions relating to modes of governance and the countries where they have intervened for resources have not become unstable on their account. Why is this so and why create instability to have control of resources? Why shouldn’t partnerships be used rather than insidious underhand tactics? The experiences of Saudi Arabia and Iraq are good examples of the opposites. The Saudi royalty which thinks that allowing women to drive motor vehicles is an advancement in human rights and democracy, is partnered by the USA without any qualms about human rights violations in that country.

But, they treated Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi differently. Why couldn’t the US have a partnership with Saddam Hussein and avoid the death of a million Iraqis and the destruction of a beautiful country? Isn’t the preacher duplicitous here? Why didn’t they do the same with Gaddafi?

Perhaps there is more to this strategy than what meets the eye and besides the desire to control resources, there is another objective behind the strategies adopted.

Creating instability within a country has flow on effects within a region and onto the world at large as well. Instability invariably leads to the need to strengthen security within a country and within other countries in a region.

The question that should spring to our minds is whether there is a need to strengthen security if a country and/or a region was at peace, and therefore stable.

The world’s biggest industry, the arms and ammunition and defence/war machinery industry does not want peace. Why should a peaceful world invest in arms and ammunition and war machinery?  So it stands to reason that this industry wants instability and conflict within countries and in regions for their survival and profitability.

Where there is no conflict, they will create conflict, and where there is stability, they will create instability. The greater the conflict and instability, the greater the volume of arms and ammunition and defence/war machinery sales to theatres of such conflict.

If one ponders the region that has the biggest investments in arms and ammunition and war machinery and all that is needed for ‘defence’, it is the Middle East. Why is there so much conflict in the Middle East? Simple. They have oil. The resource that is akin to Gold. If they had dates rather than oil that area would have been conflict-free.

Regional conflicts and instability precipitates countries that create these conflicts to invest more for defence in their own countries, thus providing flourishing business for companies engaged in the manufacture of such defence capabilities. So, why not create conflicts?


Current status in Sri Lanka

This brings us to Sri Lanka and the recent incidents that have escalated conflicts. From a geopolitical sense, the region encompassing Sri Lanka and India has become tense. Countries like the Maldives, Bangladesh and beyond Myanmar have become tense. China’s engagement in Sri Lanka has created tension. Why Sri Lanka? Well, we are in the Maritime Silk route, the sea corridor for China to move resources from Africa to China.

We are, along with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, key strategic locations in this corridor and the Hambantota Port is a pivot strategic point in this corridor. If this sea corridor is blocked, China will choke as their much-needed resources will cease to each their vital industries. Who would wish to intervene in the smooth flow of these resources and create dents in China’s march towards super power status? Surely we don’t have to second guess here!

Sri Lanka has become the proverbial meat in the sandwich, or as per the pity Sinhala idiom, the ‘Girayata ahuwuna puwak gediya’. China on the one hand, the US on the other, and India as the other interested party, are pushing levers from time to time and crunching Sri Lanka, slowly but surely to keep us as a compliant minnow rather than an independent one.

In an earlier article, the author suggested that Sri Lanka should have a foreign policy based on a tri-nation compact, meaning a China, India and Sri Lanka compact. India being closer to the US than China, would keep the balance in the compact and keep Sri Lanka relatively stable, and the subcontinent region stable. An arrangement of this nature is needed in the context of the reality of tensions arising from rivalries between the super power aspirant and the current super power.

However, will such a compact ever come to pass? “Not on your nelly”, one might say, as it would be counterproductive to the intentions of the driver of all tensions and instability in the world, the arms, ammunition and war/defence machinery establishment.

The Islamic fundamentalist incursions into Sri Lanka and the recent bombings and anti-Muslim incidents have been viewed from the context of the USA’s self-interests not being heeded by Sri Lanka. A stable and China friendly Sri Lanka is not in the interests of the US. Sri Lanka should have learnt lessons from the past.

As much as India was responsible for the spawning of the Tigers and thereby the LTTE, to destabilise the country in the wake of Sri Lanka’s tilt towards the US in 1977 when India was in the Soviet Union-led socialist club, a new subcontinent order of a China/Sri Lanka strategic spot in the Maritime silk route in the Indian Ocean, was not going to be an acceptable arrangement for the US.

The script for this drama, ideal for making an Oscar-winning movie, seems to have progressed as follows. Exporting Wahhabism and even more fundamentalist Islamic practices to Sri Lanka was seen as the ideal mode of entry into Sri Lanka, allowing it to germinate and grow with fertiliser in the form of large tranches of funds from Saudi Arabia.

The first phase was to drive a wedge between Sri Lankan Muslims and Sinhalese people who got on quite well despite their differences. Many Muslim areas appeared to look like places in parts of the Middle East. Cracks were appearing in the country’s social and societal equilibrium.

Amongst the fodder for the expanding extremist cancer were the Sri Lankan minor workers employed in Saudi Arabia. The tentacles were spreading, with moles in key institutions in the country and activists, professionals and academics placed in strategic places to further the broader agenda of making Sri Lanka unstable.

Politicians were bought over and excessive powers were handed over to Muslim politicians in exchange for votes and funding for political campaigns. Vast sums of money were spent to oust a political regime and a leader, who, with warts and all, was a Sri Lankan nationalist and not a lackey of any world power.

A leader who defied the odds and gave leadership to defeat the mighty LTTE, and any intentions external powers had of controlling the country was ousted.

A simpleminded low level government official who rose up the political ladder mainly on account of his simple mind and incapability of being a threat to anyone, was hoisted to the highest position in the land in order to make sure the holder of the highest position was not a threat to the conspiracy that was being hatched and executed. The number two in the national leadership was a safe bet for the US and hence was the person needed to remove road blocks in the way of the conspiracy.

Military intelligence apparatus was decommissioned or heavily downgraded by a national leadership who were either inept or complicit or both. The cancer that was spreading went undetected although some information trickled in, but halted at the national level deliberately or through a complete lack of any sense.


What next?

The stage was being prepared, slowly but surely, to allow the cancer to grow up to a point when it could take effective control of the body to create convulsions that would render a once peaceful and stable country to shambles.

The target chosen were Catholics as an attack on them would resonate with the intentions of a global phenomenon like ISIS. A limited retaliatory attack on Muslims was stage managed as a pointer to interreligious disharmony that could get worse.

An attack on Buddhists during the first stage of the conspiracy would have deflected the international flavour that would come from an attack on Catholics. The Pope expressed his shock and horror and that made headlines. Would an attack on Buddhists have gotten internationalised?

Having achieved the first milestone in the overall strategy of destabilising Sri Lanka, an attack on Buddhists has to happen in this script in order to show total discord in the country amongst religious groups.

A country plunged into helplessness is then helped by the Good Samaritans who come in with their military and establishes themselves as the real powers behind the throne. The aspirational super power decides to cut its losses and moves out of Sri Lanka. The super power has its latest satellite. Sri Lanka limps on.

The once proud nation which once defeated the military outfit of the world’s deadliest terrorist group, and which had emerged as the number one tourist spot in the world, is now a cowering, subjugated nation where Buddhists have to live as second-class citizens. Muslim extremists have the upper hand and the country has become a staging post for Muslim extremism to India.

The story ends. The Oscar has been won. A sequel will follow.