By
Madura Ranwala
Parish priest of Weliweriya, Rev. Fr. Lakpriya Nonis yesterday told The Island that there were gunshots embedded in a concrete post and a wall of his church.
Fr. Lakpriya said: “MP Sudarshani Fernandopulle visited the church yesterday (6) and inquired what had actually happened last Thursday. So, we told her how people had been attacked even after they had run into the church and the adjacent convent premises to seek refuge.”
By
Dharisha Bastians
“…A soldier when answering to his conscience not only has the right, but also the duty, to disobey an unlawful order. It is one of his privileges of serving a democracy, as it is one of his burdens, that he must answer for his own actions.” – Assassinated Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, at the convocation of the Kotalawela Defence Academy, 3 October 2000.
pic by: Dharisha Bastians
When Lt. General Daya Ratnayake assumed office as the new Army Chief last Thursday (1) morning, he could have had no inkling what the evening would bring. The new General, a war veteran and respected soldier, made a few poignant remarks at his installation ceremony held at Army Headquarters Colombo.
“The Army has come a long way not only in structure, numbers and military hardware, but also in professionalism and reputation. Sustaining the image and its dignity, gained through unparalleled sacrifice, is therefore the most sacred duty of every serving member. Unlike most Armies, emerging from protracted and bloody conflicts rejected by the masses, our Army continues to receive the respect and gratitude of the Nation we served, a fact that we should never forget,” he said in his first speech as Commander of the Army.
by
Rajasingham Jayadevan
The darker side of the composer Isai Gnani Illaiyarajah has never been reported in the media. Having experienced his ruthless double-cross, I write this piece with the view to create greater awareness of the deception practiced by the much boasted Tamil music composer from Tamil Nadu.
Ilaiyaraja at Rogers Centre, Toronto, February, 16, 2013
‘Isai Gnani Illarajah is coming to London for an unforgettable show joined by a troupe of amazing singers and musicians including Chinmayi, Yuvan Shankar Raja, SP Balasubramaniam, Karthik and many more, this will be a truly magical experience for Tamil music lovers in the United Kingdom’ – states Thamarai.com.
by
N Sathiya Moorthy
Unprecedented floods, damage and destruction across north India, starting with Uttarkhand a few weeks ago, may have been behind the national media ignoring the more recent rain havoc in south India. In Tamil Nadu’s Cauvery delta, the IAF had to be called in to rescue at least four marooned. Promptly, Tamil Nadu has withdrawn a petition before the Supreme Court, seeking the constitution of the ‘Cauvery Management Board’ (CMB), as per the final award of the Centre-appointed Cauvery River Water Dispute Tribunal, under law. In doing so, Tamil Nadu has reserved the right to move the court in future on the CMB issue, if and when required.
In neighbouring Kerala’s Idukki district, 13 persons were buried in rain-induced landslips. Unacknowledged, Idukki district and its population are also at the centre of another of Tamil Nadu’s water rows with neighbouring States. This one involves increasing the water levels in the British era Mullaperiyar dam to the original 152′ against Kerala’s reservations and opposition. Despite the court-appointed technical committee clearing Tamil Nadu’s demand, Kerala, like Karnataka, has resisted all efforts at giving the former ‘what is due to it under the law’.
By Prof.V Suryanarayan
The Pakistani political leader Khan Abdul Wali Khan (son of Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan) was asked few years ago by a journalist: “Are you a Pakistani, a Muslim or a Pathan?” Wali Khan replied that he combined all three. The journalist persisted and asked Wali Khan what his primary identity was. Khan responded, “I am a Pakistani for 30 years, a Muslim for 1400 years and a Pathan for 5000 years”. The multiple identities of South Asians, an intrinsic feature of the socio-cultural profile of the region, have made the study of nation-building an exciting and fascinating exercise.
Political scientists use the term state and nation as synonymous and this semantic confusion has caused incalculable harm. The contemporary world consists of states, not nation states. A study of the world’s 132 states in 1971 found that only 12 (9 per cent) could justifiably be called nation states in the sense that the territorial limits were coterminous with the distribution of a particular national group. The comment made by Massimo d’ Azeglio, with special reference to Italy after unification, holds true of most of the South Asian and Southeast Asian countries, “We have made Italy, now we must make Italians.”
by Dasun Edirisinghe
University teachers yesterday demanded that Army Commander Lt. Gen. Daya Rathnayake and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa resign from their posts over ordering the army to fire on innocent civilians who were protesting against the contamination of their well water allegedly by a factory.
By
Saman Indrajith
Politics is an unhurried journey where one should move with prudence and patience. But, Dayasiri Jayasekera failed to realise this truth, UNP and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament yesterday.
Making a special statement, the Opposition Leader, quoting Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Nhit Hanh said, “We all have only a little time on earth and we should move slowly. Dayasiri failed to realise this.”
Wickremesinghe rejected in toto what former MP Dayasiri Jayasekera had said in Parliament on July 24, prior to resigning from his seat to contest the elections to the North Central Province on the UPFA ticket.
By
Vishnuguptha
“Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse. All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul.”
~ Victor Hugo
In the ancient world, rulers ruled by dynastical power. Family-rule ruled the waves and power flew downwards from the parent generation to that of the children. The question of succession was never an issue, provided the ruler had children of his or her own. Even in the event there were no children to succeed, succession from brother to brother or to a close blood relation was never questioned by the subjects.
This was so in the West as much as it was so in the other parts of the world- Asia, Africa or the Middle-East. Successor’s sole qualification for the throne was ‘accident of birth’; blood relationship to the throne became the one and only prerequisite for an heir-apparent.
This tendency was even more evident and manifestly present in the East, especially in South Asia; India and Sri Lanka in the ancient times and which region now includes Pakistan and Bangladesh as well. South Asia is in fact the mother of all regions where ‘accident of birth’ disorder has been dominating the succession process almost without a break. In the West, however, with the exit of monarchical powers from statecraft and politics and the advent of universal franchise that empowered folks who were thereto considered ‘ordinary’ and ‘mundane’, people began choosing their own masters and rulers.
by
Tariq A. Al-Maeena
A body comes into existence. If nurtured well, this body grows and matures into a healthy being. Along the way however, steps have to be taken to ensure the continuous growth and development in a manner that will produce very little setbacks for a healthy and productive life. These necessary steps are what are called “maintenance”.
The same philosophy could very easily apply to all around us. Not just to humans, but to the vast infrastructure around us.
by
James Ross
Rajihar Manoharan
In July, the Sri Lankan government unexpectedly announced that it had rearrested 12 police officers for the infamous ‘Trinco 5’ killings.
On January 2, 2006, five ethnic Tamil students were shot execution-style at the beachfront in the eastern town of Trincomalee.
One might have thought that this would be welcome news for Kasippillai Manoharan, whose 20-year-old son, Ragihar, was among those killed. But Manoharan has little reason for hope.
(Text of Public Appeal arising out of concern over the recent incidents at Weliweriya and Balummahara in Gampaha District that is Initiated by a Group of Sri Lankans including former Ambassadors Tamara Kunanayakam, Dayan Jayatilleka,Javid Yusuf and UPFA Parliamentarian Rajiva Wijesinha)
************************
To sign the Appeal “Justice for Weliweriya – Time for Indignation!” please send your signatures to benari2012@gmail.com
******************************
“Some party hack decreed that the people had lost the government’s confidence and could only regain it with redoubled effort.
If that is the case, would it not be simpler
If the government simply dissolved the people and
elected another?” – Attributed to Bertolt Brecht, “The Solution” [“Die Lösung”] (c. 1953)
The shooting of unarmed civilians in Weliweriya and Balummahara by army soldiers equipped with T-56 assault rifles, armoured vehicles, and bullet-proof vests, is of unusual gravity for the consequences it will certainly have on the confidence placed by the ordinary citizen on those in power.
What confidence can people have in a State that uses live ammunition against its own unarmed citizens, whose peaceful protest for drinking water cannot by any stretch of imagination be compared with participation in hostilities in an armed conflict situation? They were only exercising their fundamental democratic right to organise and to protest. Their demand was for the basic right to clean drinking water and closure of the export-oriented glove-manufacturing factory Venigros Ltd owned by Dipped Products PLC, a subsidiary of Hayleys Group allegedly responsible for contaminating ground water by disposal of dangerous chemicals. The company must also assume responsibility for the tragedy if it failed deliberately to take timely action to respond to the legitimate concerns of the people.
by
Jayantha Dhanapala , Danesh Casie Chetty and Tissa Jayatilaka on behalf of Friday Forum, the Group of Concerned Citizens
(Text of a Press release Issued by the FRIDAY FORUM on August 7th 2013)
The unflattering publicity Sri Lanka has received internationally in the lead up to and after the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva in March 2013, and the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) meeting in London in April, is indicative of a significant failure of the Sri Lanka Government to exploit the opportunities of peace and reconciliation opened up by the end of the conflict. This failure is exacerbated by the deficiencies of its current foreign policy. Direction, depth, consistency and coherence are conspicuously absent in a series of ad-hoc decisions implemented by a staff riddled with mediocre political appointees at all levels.
In the globalized multi-polar world we now live in, we are called upon to interact pragmatically with other states, international organizations and non-state actors. In order to maximize the benefits of such an interaction, we do need to pursue a foreign policy that is balanced, principled and based on enlightened self interest.
It was, by and large, such a balanced, pragmatic and sagacious foreign policy that enabled Sri Lanka in the first three decades of post- Independence history, to exert an influence in the international arena disproportionate to her size despite a pro-Western tilt in the early stages and other inadequacies.
BY
SANJAYA
Although Government authorities are downplaying the details about civilian casualties in the Weliweriya violence where soldiers of the 58 division and crack commando regiments launched a barbaric attack on unarmed civilians protesting against pollution of drinking water by emission of acid from a factory manufacturing gloves ,informed sources say the number of deaths and injuries is much higher than what is being officially stated.
Pic by: Dharisha Bastians
It is alleged that the death toll is at least over seven whereas the official count is only three so far.Apparently the Govt is releasing details about deaths one at a time on a staggered basis without publicising the actual figures simultaneously.
By
Dr.Vickramabahu Karunaratne
The Gampaha shooting exposed the government. Clearly the government has allowed the Multi-National Companies to exploit our land and people with disregard to environmental hazards and the existence of human beings.
Protest near Fort Railway Station-pic courtesy of: twitter.com/azzamameen
It was necessary for them to open fire at students and young people, in order to allow the products of a factory to be sent to the harbour.
Continue reading ‘Gloves are made in Weliweriya With the Blood and Sweat of Our People While the Soil Gets Charged with Acid’ »
(text of Press Communique Issued by the Centre for Policy Alternatives)
6th August 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka: A Bill titled “The Twenty First Amendment to the Constitution”, a Private Member’s Bill presented by the Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thero, M.P. of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), was placed on the Order Paper of Parliament on 18th June 2013. The proposed Bill, if passed by Parliament would have the effect of repealing Chapter XVIIA of the Constitution, which was introduced by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) filed a petition in the Supreme Court on 24th June 2013 challenging the constitutionality of this Bill.
by
Saman Indrajith
Security forces personnel had to open fire on mobs of protesters at Weliweriya in self defence, to protect public lives and properties and to bring the situation under control, the government told Parliament yesterday.
Leader of the House Irrigation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, responding to a series of questions raised by UNP and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe on the Weliweriya incident, said that the government had taken every possible action to sort out the problem of drinking water and acted patiently and flexibly. Authorities had held rounds of talks with agitators, he said. “Unfortunately, even after the demonstrators had been dispersed there had been some other groups who remained at the venue of demonstration. They hurled stones and petrol bombs at security forces personnel.
by
Saman Indrajith
The lives of innocent school children and youth who had been killed or injured in the Weliweriya army crackdown, on a demonstration, could not be valued in terms of money. The Government should take action to expeditiously pay a satisfactory compensation to those who had been killed and injured, Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday.
Making a special statement in Parliament, Wickremesinghe said that there were a number of methods to disperse a public demonstration or a protest.
By
Meera Srinivasan
Before I could begin talking to him, Perumal Chandrasekaran had a question for me: “Do you know that we exist?” he asked matter-of-factly.
A 38-year-old Tamil of Indian origin, Mr. Chandrasekaran was waiting at a lawyer’s chamber near the Magistrate Court complex in Kandy for consultations on a land issue facing plantation Tamils. “We are among the most neglected sections here [in Sri Lanka]. India or Tamil Nadu has done nothing to help us,” he said.
by S Venkat Narayan
NEW DELHI, August 6: Bollywood star John Abraham has refuted rumours that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa secretly invested in his upcoming political spy-thriller Madras Cafe.
Talking to reporters in Chennai, Abraham said: “It’s not true that President Rajapaksa secretly financed my film. Viacom 18 Motion Pictures is the producer of my film. They would feel bad about these rumours. Therefore, I’m clarifying again that it has not been secretly financed by anyone other than my producers.”
By
Dr. M.A.Mohamed Saleem
For months Srilanka has witnessed orchestrated anti-Muslim campaigns. Some Buddhist-clergy, self proclaimed saviours of true Buddhism, branding as Bodu Bala Sena, Sinhala Ravaya and Ravana Balakaya are instigating Buddhists, particularly the youth, into a state of frenzy that manifests in hate rhetoric against the Muslims, desecrating their belief systems and places for congregational worship. Stereotyping and targeting with the intent of causing social disharmony, although unacceptable in any cultured society, the anti-Muslim exuberance in this country is flourishing as the perpetrators feel encouraged to perform under the watchful eyes of the law enforcement agencies that have no qualms about Muslims being picked as targets.
By Harrish Thirukumaran
Part II:
A Cultural Namibian Dinner: Braai
Thereafter, we headed back to Wadadee where we were preparing the dinner for a braai. Initially, it was seen as an opening/welcoming braai interpreted as a kindly gesture to bring us into Namibia.
The Braai grill
Overall, a braai was like an African-style barbecue, where at the house the cook mainly Tickey used a special stone-fire grill where he cooked the meat on the top rack and corn on the bottom rack. Certain meats they had were recognizable ones back in North America such as ribs, chicken, and beef.
By
Mike Andree
One of the chief witnesses for the prosecution, who had identified Duminda Silva as the person who ordered the others to shoot at Premachandra, retracted the statement he had made to the CID, when the Baratha Lakshman Premachandra killing case was taken for inquiry before Colombo Magistrate Priyanwtha Liyanage on Friday.
At the commencement of the inquiry, President’s Counsel Hemantha Warnakulasuriya, appearing for the 11th suspect, Duminda Silva, said that on the last occasion witness No. 105, called by the Prosecution, was not tendered for cross-examination, which had resulted in an injustice to his client. He said he had interviewed the Attorney General and explained to him that there were two (02) sets of witnesses whose statements had been recorded by the CID, which completely contradicted each other over the manner in which Bharatha Lakshman was shot.
By Srilal Miththapala
I have been writing regularly in various journals, since of late, highlighting the plight that is befalling the Yala National Park. I am very thankful to all the editors of the popular newspapers who have given adequate publicity to my ‘crusade’.
There has been good supportive feedback from many sources, but there have been a few criticisms also, that there is no solution suggested by me in some of my more recent articles. On the contrary, I have clearly outlined some of the possible solutions that can be speedily implemented in some of my earlier articles(‘Yala – ruined by its own popularity’?)
Hence, due to the interest level shown, and the topical nature of the subject, I have collated some of the earlier writings related to the possible solutions, herein.
Fundamentally, all the problems really boil down from three issues, which are in some way inter-related.
Continue reading ‘Yala National Park:Increasing Problems and Possible Solutions’ »
Bleeding for water – Text of Editorial in “The Island” of August 2, 2013.
Thursday’s brutal crackdown on a group of protesters in Weliweriya has left us in a state of shock and dismay. Armed to the teeth, the police and the army acted as if they were fighting a war of sorts. They first targeted the media personnel on the scene, betraying their true intention in the process; they were not there to prevent violence but to perpetrate it. One protester was killed 30 others were injured.
People who asked for clean water were left bleeding. Theirs was a legitimate grievance—the contamination of groundwater due to effluents from a rubber product factory. The government claims they took to the streets in spite of its efforts to solve the problem. But, the question is whether the people would have reacted in such a manner, risking life and limb, if they had been convinced that a solution was in sight.
There is no way the government could justify the Weliweriya crackdown. The same goes for brutal police/military attacks on peaceful demonstrations in the former war zone and other parts of the country. Lamentably, this kind of high octane performance is absent on the part of the government where extraordinary measures are necessary to ensure public safety.
Continue reading ‘Blinded by the Arrogance of Power Govt is Riding for a Fall –The Island’ »
By
Dharisha Bastians
Keeping the pressure up on the alleged military attack on a civilian demonstration in Weliweriya, the main Opposition United National Party yesterday demanded that the Government reveal who ordered soldiers to fire into the crowd and pledge that such atrocities would never be permitted under its watch again.
The United National Party’s Gampaha District Member of Parliament Karu Jayasuriya charged that the Government had attempted to politicise the issue in order to mask the killing of three civilians in the small town where residents were protesting for clean drinking water.
He said that while on several occasions, protesting villagers had asked Opposition politicians to stand beside them at the demonstrations, the request had been turned down because the Government would then view the issue from a political lens.
The “Ceylon Today”newspaper has published a news item retracting its earlier news story about the Bodu Bala Sena’s Gnanasara Thera claiming troops were deployed in Weliweriya by the Defence Ministry on instructions given by him. The newspaper says its news story was based on a “misconstrued translation and regrets any inconvenience caused to the Defence ministry and Bidu Bala Sena.
The Ceylon Today news story was reproduced on this blog under the heading” Defence Ministry Deployed Troops to Weliweriya on the Instructions of Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera of the Bodu Bala Sena”. The news story written by Ashan Paranahewa was attributed to “Ceylon Today”.
The news item published by Ceylon Today regretting the earlier news story is reproduced below –
By
Norman Palihawadana
Sarala Jayaratnam, wife of slain Police Inspector T. Jayaratnam, yesterday said that she had appealed to the police top brass to consider giving her husband a posthumous promotion and a pension according to his new rank which the police had so far failed to do.
By
Susitha R. Fernando
Judge Warawewa
One of Sri Lanka’s most widely respected and best known judicial personalities, retired High Court Judge W. T. M. P. B. Warawewa was outspoken not only during his judicial career but still speaks out strongly on social justice, judicial independence and democracy. Continuing his role in creating a just and fair society, Justice Warawewa has expressed strong views at several public forums. He recently headed the Public Tribunal to inquire into the huge tariff hike on electricity.
In an interview with the Daily Mirror Justice Warawewa explained why he decided to enter politics after his retirement and what his vision and goals were. He also shared his views on other issues like rule of law, good governance, party politics and the rampant corruption.
EXCERPTS :
Q: Why did you decide to enter party politics and what would your vision and goals be in restoring democratic principles, good governance, rule of law, human rights and accountability?
(Summary of views expressed by UNP Gampaha District MP Karu Jayasuriya at a press Conference convened by him relating to the incidents of violence at Weliweriya in the Gampaha district)
This press briefing is convened as a representative of the people of the Gampaha District, regarding the incidents at Rathupaswela, on behalf of the people subjected to suppression.
· Already the government and the state media have attempted to give a political twist to the incident.
· Hon. Minister Dallas Alahapperuma has told a media conference held at the headquarters of the Sri Lanka Freedom party, “Although this is an issue regarding water, this was hijacked by a political group”.
· But we appear here for the people not for any narrow political gain.
By
Silan Kadirgamar
Reflections On The History Of Jaffna College
One recalls an event in 1953, the annual dinner of the Academy. Three formal annual dinners took place in the college those days. These were that of the Alumni, the Academy (the literary association of students in the university entrance classes) and that of the Undergraduates’ Union. Distinguished chief guests often from the South graced these occasions.
The dinners consisted of four or five courses with six speeches – the toast to the College, toast to the association and the toast to the guests with the respective responses. For students these were hilarious and memorable occasions, several dressed in full suit and tie for the first time.
The speeches were humorous and of a high order. Alcohol prohibited in the college the glasses raised was filled with Machado ginger beer. In the dinner term the students in their wisdom and at times by consensus elected the most competent public speakers in English.
In 1953 the chief guest was Senator Sir Chittambalam Gardiner. In proposing the toast to the college the then principal of the Palaly Teachers Training College raised a question in all seriousness as to what right we had to call the college Jaffna College with an exclusive right to the name Jaffna. Mr. Lyman Kulathungam, senior Vice-Principal was to respond but the president of the academy Rajakumaran, took upon himself to reply to this particular comment. He plainly told the gentleman (as tapping of the tables and loud cheers filled the air) that the College was the first institution of a collegiate status in Jaffna when founded in 1872 and that we do take legitimate pride in this. All the other educational institutions were schools and over a period of time achieved collegiate status.
By
Ashan Paranahewa
General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera, said it was under his guidance that the Defence Ministry deployed military troops to Weliweriya last Thursday.
“It was I who sent them there after observing the situation in the area. Though the demand by the villagers was extremely justifiable when observing the situation, I figured that things could turn bad as the villagers were politically misled by a group.
by Vasuki Nesiah
Neelan Tiruchelvam
(Text of 14th Neelan Tiruchelvam memorial lecture titled “The Law,This Violent Thing” Delivered by Dr Vasuki Nesiah, Associate Professor of Practice, New York University on Sunday, July 28 at the BMICH, Committee Room B.)
In 1999 I was a graduate student in the United States. That summer I returned to Colombo to work with Neelan at the International Center for Ethnic Studies (ICES). As was the case for many young people who went abroad for their studies but returned to Sri Lankain the summer, for me ICES was a magnet. ICES was our institutional summer home, but it was also much more. Neelan had created a utopic place that provided intellectual community and political camaraderie. Our conversations leapt from Tamil poetry to Swiss federalism, from ethnographies of Baila to the Habermasian public sphere, from caste discrimination to free trade zones.
Continue reading ‘Tamil Epics “Silapathikaram” and “Manimekalai” like Neelan Tiruchelvam Stand in Contradistinction to Insular and Illiberal Expressions of Tamil Nationalism’ »
By Dinouk Colombage
Grieving over the death of 17-year-old Akila Dinesh, the victim of an alleged army shooting to quell their protest against their supply of water being contaminated due to effluents being discharged by a factory in the area, residents in Weliweriya have accused the Army of firing live bullets to disperse unarmed civilians, leading to mayhem in the town of Weliweriya on Thursday (1).
A resident in the area, Gihan Illesinghe, was at the scene of the protest on Thursday evening. Speaking of the incident, he said the Army had fired at them, perhaps to scare them and prevent them from protesting. “I cannot understand why the Army had to be deployed as we were unarmed and it was a peaceful demonstration. Once they arrived on the scene, the tension increased and it was inevitable that something unfortunate would happen,” he said.He also said when the riot police arrived with water cannons, many protesters started to react.
By
T.M.K.Samat
SRI LANKA cricket is entitled to feel a sense of well being following its 4/1 success over South Africa in the just concluded five-match ODI series. It should be noted however that the South Africanshave never won a series on the island’s shores, last week’s loss being the third since the Proteas first visit here back in 1993. In their previous visit, in 2004, fate had,in fact,dealt the visitors a harsher blow than it did in this time – a 5-nothing thrashing at the hands of Marvan Atapattu’s team.
So, why this feel-good factor over what is an achievement of routine, really? As well, on this tour the South Africans were without three of their leading lights: no.3 Kallis, opener Smith and paceman Steyn – pretty much the equivalent of a Sri Lanka ODI eleven sans, Sangakkara, Dilshan and Malinga.
By
Nirmala Kannangara in Weliweriya and Rathupaswala
Sri Lanka Army has come under severe criticism for firing live bullets to disperse a crowd that was staging a protest demanding drinking water at Weliweriya on Thursday.
The army is further accused of not allowing the people to take the critically injured to the hospital after the shooting.
The clash following the protest killed one person while injuring over 15 including media personnel. The Weliweriya incident reminded of the Katunayake Free Trade Zone shooting incident that killed Roshen Chanaka and the Chilaw Fishermen agitations over the price hike of kerosene oil.
Kalanthai Peer Mohammed Interviewed by R.Venkatachalapathy
Over the last year, agitations by radical Tamil Muslim groups have effectively influenced the Tamil Nadu government’s policies. In September 2012, the Tamilnadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK) and Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath (TNTJ) protested against the film, The Innocence of Muslims, and laid siege to the U.S. Consulate in Chennai. In early 2013, in the face of similar protests, Kamal Haasan’s Vishwaroopam was first taken off the screens and exhibited only after cuts were made. Last week, a scheduled lecture by the Islamic scholar, Prof. Amina Wadud, at the University of Madras was cancelled in the face of threats to disrupt the meeting. The award-winning Tamil writer, commentator and observer of Muslim politics and culture Kalanthai Peer Mohamed tells historian R. Venkatachalapathy that it is worrying that Tamil Nadu’s Muslim community does not have representatives who can articulate the moderate viewpoint.
by
Taylor Dibbert
Russia has granted Edward Snowden temporary asylum. Unsurprisingly, the Obama administration is infuriated. It’s also somewhat embarrassing for an administration that had advocated so strongly (in public and private) against this.
White House spokesperson Jay Carney has already mentioned that Mr. Obama may renege on his commitment to meet President Vladimir Putin this September. (The visit coincides with the G20 which will begin on September 5th in St. Petersburg).
Is that it? Surely the White House must be contemplating more than that…right?
By
Ranga Jayasuriya
courtesy: hiru tv
On Thursday, before the Army turned its guns on the public, a senior military official, who was commanding the troops there, delivered a stern message to the media crews, which had been covering the protest.
“Get out. Don’t take photos. You are not wanted here,” he said in an intimidating voice. The soldiers, armed to the teeth, stood next to him. Hours later, a contingent of battle hardened troops, who once formed the ‘fabled’ 58 Division, went berserk in the town, killing one teenager and wounding 30 others.
by
Vishnuguptha
“Politics is not predictions and politics is not observations. Politics is what we do. Politics is what we do, politics is what we create, by what we work for, by what we hope for and what we dare to imagine.”
~Paul Wellstone
No report reaching this writer has revealed of any survey or opinion poll, scientific or otherwise, that has been done so far on the forthcoming Provincial Council elections in the Wayamba, Central and Northern provinces scheduled for September 21 this year. The absence of any forecast or prediction, therefore, is bothering the Colombo pundits and club-dwellers who are more interested in these polls and predictions than the average villager who lives in these provinces.
Yet it is most appropriate that somewhat detailed an analysis of the past performances of the political parties in these three provinces is performed and an attempt made to ascertain whether any realistic forecast could be made prior to the elections, not as a tool to influence the prospective voters in the districts, namely, Puttalam, Kurunegala, Maha Nuwara, Matale, Nuwara Eliya, Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Vavunia, Mannar and Kilinochchi in the respective provinces, but as an endeavor to discover the mindset of the voter and whether any manifest trend is in evidence of the way the voter has been behaving.
by
Tisaranee Gunasekara
pic courtesy of: hiru tv
“We asked for water tanks; they sent army tanks”
A woman resident of Weliveriya (BBC – 3.8.2013)
They had every reason to feel confident and safe, to expect consideration and justice.
They were almost exclusively Sinhalese and predominantly Buddhist. They would have supported the military wholeheartedly (quite a few would have kith/kin in uniform) and rejoiced in the defeat of the LTTE. Many would have done the victory-tour, eating shellfish in Jaffna, worshipping at Nagadeepa, laying flowers at the monument to their war heroes and inspecting Vellupillai Pirapaharan’s bunker. Most would have voted for the Rajapaksas, believing that their present was safe and their future assured in the ‘caring’ hands of the Tiger-vanquishers.
When they realised that the water from their familiar wells had turned toxic, they would have believed that ‘their government’ will succour and protect them. After all, they were not asking for devolution or land/police powers. They wanted free pipe-borne water – a just request given that they were not responsible for releasing pollutants into the waterways. They also wanted the closure of the factory believed to be responsible for contaminating their groundwater.
Continue reading ‘They Never Thought “Our (Sinhala) Govt” Would Order “Our (Sinhala) Boys” to Shoot at “Us” the (Sinhala) People’ »
By
Vyshnavy Velraj
A 19 year old youth injured in the clash between security forces and a group of protesters in Weliweriya last Thursday (01), succumbed to injuries last night (03) while receiving treatment at the Colombo National Hospital, Deputy Director of the hospital Dr. Siril de Silva told Ceylon Today Online.
Special Report From Dharisha Bastians in Weliweriya
Bloody boot prints, now chalked off by police forensic teams mark the side doorways to the St. Anthony’s Parish in Weliweriya.
The Church walls are pockmarked with bullets. Lampshades in the Parish garden have been shattered. Near the grotto at the back of the church a large black pole lies on the grass.
Residents in this Western Province town claim the military cracked down a demonstration demanding clean water using brutal force on Thursday night.
by
Prof. O. A. Illeperuma
In the most recent episode where well water in the Weliveriya area got acidic brings about several pertinent questions as to the safety of the water people drink from their wells. It is important to understand the complexities of how well water can get affected from a factory which is relatively far from the inhabitants.
By
Namini Wijedasa
pic courtesy of: Derana Videos
I can’t sleep. For two days in a row, I woke up at 3 am. The first time, I didn’t know why I was awake. Today, it’s much clearer. Those moving images of armed soldiers and battle-tanks mowing down defenceless villagers at Weliweriya haunt me.
In my mind, the events keep merging: What I saw happen at Weliweriya from amateur television footage; and what I imagine might have happened in the North, during those final, anguished months of the army’s war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Civilians had perished in that battle. In Weliweriya, too, there was a battle. It was even more disproportionate than the war in the North. In Weliweriya, there were no armed fighters—terrorists—to retaliate, in any form, against advancing troops. If they could kill with such careless abandon Sinhala villagers in the South, demonstrating for clean water…
by
Ashokamitran
Amid much seemingly casual chatter on private Indian TV channels, a piece of truth is revealed. It is from the low-key regional language quiz shows. “Who is the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize?” Gandhi, Nehru, Abdul Kalam feature in the answers. A feeble voice says C.V. Raman. “Can you tell us for what he won the prize?” No answer. It is possible that they haven’t even heard of Rabindranath Tagore. In a matter of 60 years, the name of the creator of Gitanjali and scores of other works of great literary and humanitarian value did not even occur to the contestants, who are a representative cross-section of 21st century Indians.
Students from southern India, studying for competitive examinations, memorise the names Rabindranath Tagore and Gitanjali.
by
Gnana Moonesinghe
Former Supreme Court Judge, C. V. Wigneswaran
At long last, after an interminable wait, four years since the end of the war, the people of the North have been given the opportunity to exercise their right to elect their Provincial Council, their representatives. The gazette notification has given the Elections Commissioner the go ahead to make arrangements for the conduct of a free and fair election.
The process was moving at its usual pace. Much to the surprise of all, the Northern Provincial Council election has all too unexpectedly got ‘transposed’ into something more dynamic than a mere routine election. The tenor in the process received a lightening change with the nomination of Justice Wigneswaran as the chief ministerial candidate by the Tamil National Alliance. His appointment comes in the wake of a spate of “indecent and criminal behavior of some of the elected local government members”. The sheer weight in the numbers and frequency of such occurrences has come into the public domain and cannot be wished away; government has declared that investigation will be undertaken. Many of the errant members are known to be from the SLFP, causing further embarrassment to the administration. The damning observation is that the ‘accused’ persons did not take to criminal activities after election to office but that they had come with a history of anti- societal activities within the definition of criminality and that they were nevertheless selected to contest the elections. It is imperative for the healthy functioning of democratic process to adopt more stringent criteria for the selection of candidates for public office.
Continue reading ‘Will Justice Wigneswaran open a new perspective for Tamil Politics?’ »
by
C.A.Chandraprema
Many reports have been written about how unjustifiable force was used to disperse protestors in Rathupaswela in the Gampaha district who were protesting the contamination of the ground water in their area. The cause of the protest undoubtedly had merit. Residents in about ten villagers in the Gampaha district had noted a sudden increase in the acidity in the ground water in the area which they thought was due to industrial effluents being released into the environment by a latex rubber glove manufacturing company (Dipped Products subsidiary Venigros) in the vicinity. Every now and then we hear stories about villagers rising up in protest against environmental pollution caused by industrial establishments. As such, there is the possibility that the suspicions of the villagers were well founded.
But then there are parts of this story that do not tally. The Rathupaswela water acidity problem came out of the blues and has no history. Usually, if a factory was polluting the environment, we would be hearing about it for months, if not years and our provincial correspondents would have reported the matter. Provincial correspondents of newspapers are usually the first persons to hear about such things. But strangely, nobody had even heard of Rathupaswela until this issue suddenly burst upon the scene. Dr M. Ranasoma of Dipped Products Ltd, said that there was never any problem in the past about the factory causing contamination of the ground water in the area.
By
Kishali Pinto Jayawardene
When will Sri Lankans take matters into their own hands and teach this arrogant if not foolhardy Government some sharp and telling lessons in just rule?
Incredibly shocking pattern of events
This week, one innocent teenager died and more than twenty five civilians were injured as a result of the army shooting at unarmed protestors at Weliweriya who were demanding that water contamination in their area, allegedly by a factory, be stopped. Proportionate and restrained civilian law enforcement is now firmly a thing of the past. Inhumane assaults by soldiers of protestors, journalists and even those who were merely caught up in the unholy melee have been recorded despite the army’s denials.
By
N. Sathiya Moorthy
Across the world, it is CIA still! Nearer home in neighbouring India, it is ISI everywhere and in everything. In the rest of South Asia, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), commonly known as ‘RAW’, has been the whipping-boy for everything that has gone wrong with domestic politics in individual countries. Imagine India’s might, both inside and outside the South Asian neighbourhood, if even a percentage of what is being attributed to the external intelligence outfit were to be true!
It is a sad commentary on the imaginative skills of self-styled ‘Sinhala nationalists’ that they should brand Justice C. V. Wigneswaran, the TNA’s chief ministerial nominee for the Northern Province, as a ‘RAW agent’. According to news reports, they also protested against India outside the Indian High Commission in Colombo. Sudden wisdom seems to have dawned on them only after the TNA named Wigneswaran for the chief minister’s job. They are only belittling their own great nation by branding a Tamil jurist of their Government’s choice, thus.
by
Dr.Devanesan Nesiah
I was GA and District Secretary Jaffna at that time, and was not directly a victim of the pogrom, but was very much involved with the care of around 60,000 victims who moved into Jaffna in the days and weeks following the pogrom. But that is not all.
My story starts earlier, around 1980, during the time that I was posted to the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration. I had an unexpected visit from Prof. A. J. Wilson and Dr Neelan Tiruchelvam. I did not know it then, but the pogrom was already in the making.
The objective of the visit of Wilson and Neelan was to inform me that the island-wide District Development Council (DDC) elections were likely to be held soon, and that I was likely to be posted as the Government Agent and District Secretary of Jaffna immediately after those elections.
(Text of a statement issued by the Sri Lanka Journalists Trade Union)
Journalists from several media institutions were subjected to a brutal assault while covering a protest by villagers seeking clean drinking water in the Weliweriya area in Gampaha.
The protest by villagers in Rathupaswela demanding clean drinking water was attacked by military personnel supported by the police last evening. A person was killed while many others including media personnel were injured in the attack.
Journalists and camera crew who were covering the protest were prevented from covering the clash between the villagers and the security forces by masked military personnel.
By
M.A.Sumanthiran M.P.
M.A.Sumanthiran M.P
On 30th July 2013, President Mahinda Rjapakshe, at a breakfast meeting with the editors is reported to have categorically declared that he will not devolve land and police powers to the provinces. It was further reported that he stated that the delegation of these powers has not been implemented since the introduction of the Provincial Council system and it is not necessary to give it any consideration now.
When the President refers to land and police powers, what is he referring to? He is referring to provisions in the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, the supreme law of our land, which by the specific provisions of the 13th Amendment categorize land and police power as subjects under the purview of the Provincial Councils. He is in effect stating that these provisions of the Constitution have not been given effect since 1987 and that he has no intention to give any effect to it now.
BY
DR DAYAN JAYATILLEKA
GOVERNANCE, LEGITIMACY & THE ETHICS OF VIOLENCE
pic by: Dharisha Bastians
The ancient Chinese, most notably Confucius, used to call it The Mandate of Heaven. Rulers may rule successfully only so long as they respect and enjoy the Mandate of Heaven.
The last war started when the terrorist Tigers deprived Sinhala farmers of water by shutting off the supply at Maavilaru. The war came home to the South when the same army that was deployed to liberate Maavilaaru was brutally and stupidly deployed against unarmed Sinhala protestors demanding potable water for their daily consumption.
In doing so, the regime has irreparably gashed the social contract. Credibility and legitimacy are leaking through that gash.
By
SANJAYA
Brutal military force was unleashed in the Weliweriya area of Gampaha on people engaged in a protest demonstration against pollution of water by acidic contamination caused by a glove manufacturing plant.
Pic courtesy of: twitter.com/azzamameen
One person was killed and at least 46 people injured due to firing by the military.Two journalists were also injured.Eight Police and four military personnel also sustained injuries.Unofficial reports said one mote person had succumbed to his injuries while four others were in a critical condition
An unofficial curfew was declared and a black out of power has been enforced in the area.Telephone transmission was curtailed.Transport along the Colombo-Kandy road was also halted.
Military personnel are currently scouring the area going from house to house in search of the leaders who organized the protest demonstration.According to beleaguered residents the military has virtually besieged the area.
By
Dharisha Bastians
* Gota says villagers were provoked by political elements
*CCD to conduct inquiries into allegations of army attack on protestors
* Residents claim security forces stormed Catholic church where demonstrators took refuge
* Blood stains and bullet marks visible at St. Anthony’s parish Weliweriya
* Ground water test results due in 10 days: Minister
* Opposition Leader tours area, expresses concern
Residents and authorities yesterday traded blame for the breakout of a mini war in the Gampaha District late Thursday night after a protest by residents in the area demanding clean water took a deadly turn.
At least one person was killed and dozens injured in the clashes that erupted between demonstrators and troops deployed to clear the New Kandy Road in Weliweriya town on Thursday night. Twelve security forces personnel, including the Officer in Charge of the Weliweriya Police Station were also injured in the clashes.
Continue reading ‘Mini-war in Weliweriya a “Needless Confrontation” Caused by “Elements with Vested Interests” Alleges Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’ »
Representatives of all political parties in the Gampaha District have joined to give a permanent solution to the acute water problem facing the people of Rathupaswala, Minister for Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa said.
He said short and long term solutions were found today (2) with immediate effect to end the crisis which affected 12 villages near Weliweriya, Gampaha.
Continue reading ‘Basil Rajapaksa Convenes All Party Meet to Find Short and Long Term Solutions to Weliweriya Water Crisis’ »
While castigating those responsible for the unfortunate incident which took place on Thursday in Weliweriya, leading to the loss of a life, top government Ministers yesterday said a certain group seeking political mileage triggered the tensed situation.
Addressing an SLFP press conference at the party Headquarters, SLFP Treasurer and Youth Affairs and Skills Development Minister Dullas Alahapperuma stated a certain group driven by political motives created an unnecessarily chaotic drama resulting in a tragedy.
by
Chaminda Perera
New Army Commander Lt. Gen. Daya Ratnayake yesterday appointed a Board of Inquiry headed by Ajudant-General Major General Jagath Dias to probe the Weliveriya incident. According to Army Spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasuriya, this Board of Inquiry consists of 5 senior officers of the Sri Lanka Army.
People asked for water, Govt. gave them bullets: Karu
The Government responded with brute force to a simple human request by innocent villagers in Gampaha for clean drinking water, UNP Gampaha District MP Karu Jayasuriya said yesterday.
(reproduced from srilankamirror.lk)
Two people have died from the brutal attack made by the security forces to the people who were protesting in Waliweriya demanding solutions for the drinking water problem.
Nearly 30 people are receiving treatments at Gampaha and Wathupitiwala hospitals.
Army states another body of an unidentified person is lying on a place near Waliweriya town.
BY
DR DAYAN JAYATILLEKA
WELIWERIYA, GAMPAHA: BLACK THURSDAY 2013
pic courtesy of: twitter.com/azzamameen
Who deployed troops, clad in flak jackets (body armour) and armed with T-56 assault rifles to confront and disperse a crowd of protestors blocking a highway? Who was the ultimate decision-maker? The protestors were not armed, certainly not with lethal weapons. Therefore, no real harm could have come to soldiers in body armour. A ‘clash’ between lethally armed soldiers and protestors with stones and slippers is not a clash that warrants in any way, the use of lethal force.
The crucial question must then be posed: who gave the order for a military unit armed with deadly force to be deployed against an unarmed civic protest, in a situation where the normal law prevails and a state of Emergency has not been declared because it was manifestly not warranted? What was the chain of command responsibility? Why was the task not left to the riot police? The question of who gave the order to shoot and for what reasons is a secondary one.
Continue reading ‘Who Deployed Military Units with Deadly Arms Against Unarmed Civilians Protesting on a Highway?’ »
by
Tisaranee Gunasekara
“Imagine a garden with a hundred kinds of trees, a thousand kinds of flowers, a hundred kinds of fruit and vegetables. Suppose, then, that the gardener….knew no other distinction than between edible and inedible, nine tenth of this garden would be useless to him. He would pull up the most enchanting flowers and hew down the noblest trees and even regard them with a loathing and envious eye”. – Hermann Hesse (Steppenwolf)
The discovery of the Higgs boson was a watershed event in the journey of science . In the pantheon of scientists who paved the way for that momentous moment Abdus Salam occupies a pre-eminent position. Prof. Salam was Pakistan’s only Nobel Laureate. India rejoiced in his towering achievements (he was born in pre-Partition Punjab) but Pakistan did not. The local police inspector was the highest state official present at his funeral.
Prof. Salam was an Ahmadi-Muslim. In 1974, Pakistan introduced a constitutional amendment decreeing the Ahmadis to be non-Muslims. Prof. Salam was a theoretical physicist of global renown, but for Pakistan he was nothing more than a pariah, a heretic.
The persecutory-marginalisation of Prof. Salam is symbolic of how religious fundamentalism warps the national mind and debilitates the national will.
by
Vishnuguptha
“Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.”
– Joseph Story
In the immediate aftermath of the defection of the Kurunegala District Parliamentarian, Dayasiri Jayasekara, from the ranks of the United National Party (UNP), the chaos that ensued caused many heartburns and uncertainties among the lamenting diehard UNP supporters. Those whose loyalties were unshakeable have been shaken; some might have felt thoroughly let down or betrayed and some may have decided to bid goodbye to political activism altogether, especially those who claim birth and dwelling in the Kurunegala District.
Jaffna District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) female candidate, Ananthi Sasitharan, said she decided to contest the polls at the upcoming elections in the Northern Province, to find redress for the thousands of women and children who had been affected by the nearly three decades long war.
Ananthi Sasitharan, wife of the former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Trincomalee District political wing leader, Elilan, articulated her decision, addressing the media, soon after she filed her nomination papers to contest for the Northern Provincial Council, along with the other Jaffna District candidates. Ananthi is one of the three women candidates representing the TNA in the district.
(Text of open statement released by group of eminent Chennai residents protesting the cancellation by the University of Madras of a scheduled lecture by US Islamic Scholar Amina Wadud)
As residents of Chennai, we are shocked and outraged at the last-minute cancellation of Islamic scholar Dr. Amina Wadud’s lecture at the University of Madras on July 29, 2013, organised by the JBAS Centre for Islamic Studies on the topic “Islam, Gender and Reform”.
The decision to cancel her lecture was taken by the University Vice-Chancellor Mr. Thandavan in response to a text message sent by a police-officer stating: “Police cannot allow this (the lecture) considering law and order. Please take action to suspend/cancel the programme.” This morning’s newspaper (The Hindu, July 31, 2013, ‘Islamic scholar claims voice through social media’) reported that police had “cautioned” the VC about “possible violence by protest groups”. Ostensibly “Muslim groups” had threatened to protest Dr. Wadud’s programs in the city, claiming that she was a puppet in the hands of the U.S. government and “anti-Islam”.
A day after she was forced to call off her visit to the city and prevented from speaking at the University of Madras, US Islamic scholar Amina Wadud sharply questioned the capitulation of intellectuals to fringe groups and voiced her disillusionment with the country.
Dr. Wadud was scheduled to speak at the University of Madras, interact with select media at the US Consulate and give a talk at the Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed College For Women, mainly on issues concerning gender and Islam.
All it took for American Islamic scholar Amina Wadud’s programme in the city to be cancelled were a few phone calls to the police and to the event’s organisers, and the mere threat of a protest.
“I received a text message that said we have to suspend or cancel the lecture, as many groups were contemplating a protest. When I called number I received the text from, it was answered by someone who said he was at the Triplicane police station,” said P.K. Abdul Rahiman, head of the Centre for Islamic Studies, University of Madras, where one of Dr. Wadud’s lectures was to be held.
by
N Sathiya Moorthy
It is an irony of our times that the State that caused linguistic consolidation of free India should now be divided on a premise that has since been consigned to the nation’s post-Independence history. Andhra Pradesh was born after ‘Potti’ Sriramulu gave his life in a fast-unto-death. The States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) that was a product provided for merging the erstwhile Nizam’s State into Andhra Pradesh, giving a go-by to the commitment at the height of the ‘Hyderabad Police Action’ that the latter could wait until after 1960 decide on the same.
Today, Telangana is becoming a reality, though the locals themselves may have forgotten the history that goes with it. Instead, the decades-old premise since has been based on perceived economic imbalance between what today is dubbed ‘Telangana’ and the other two regions of united State of Andhra Pradesh. Questions however have been flagged if residual Andhra Pradesh would retain the same name, or would it be rechristened ‘Seemandhra’, borrowed from the names of Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra regions.
The Nandadasa Kodagoda Memorial Trust has organised the 16th Prof. Nandadasa Kodagoda Memorial Oration on Friday the 2nd of August 2013 at 5.30 p.m. at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo 7.
Sri Lanka’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva and Sri Lanka’s former Ambassador to France and to UNESCO Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka will speak on “Sri Lanka and the World: Contemporary Challenges”.
This year’s lecture will be delivered in Sinhala.
**********************************************************
“Sri Lanka and the World: Contemporary Challenges”
By Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
Friday, August 2 at 5.30
*********************************************************8
Prof. Nandadasa Kodagoda Memorial Oration
At the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute
Colombo 7.
The event is open to the public.
by
Maheen Senanayake
Eran Wickramaratne
Quintessential banker (former) and silent activist, I have observed from afar Eran Wickramaratne for his silent pursuit of a brand of politics that is appealing to the intellectual and petit bourgeois and inspirational to the working class. The few debates we have been privy to on mass media are succinct, to the point and devoid of clouding of issues. He appears to have a vision and a touch of professionalism rarely seen on the Diyawanna. His cordial manner and sharp grasp of matters of a diverse nature is refreshing; yet for those accustomed to the vociferous ferocity of the traditional politician, perhaps too soft. But make no mistake, his approach has much merit and as we discussed many issues way into the night, his overarching grasp of issues and his ability to dig deep makes him a man to watch, a politician to listen to and most importantly a glimmer of hope as we will find out below.
Q: What is your view of the economy?
Continue reading ‘COPING with COPE -A message of hope – An Interview with Eran Wickramaratne M.P.’ »
By
Dharisha Bastians
“Is there no woman here? …Is there no man in this land? Is there no honest man or only the sort of man who nourishes and protects the sons of his own blood? Is there no god in this country? Is there no god in this country where the sword of the king is used for the murder of innocent strangers?” – Kannahi’s lament outside the Madurai court from the 3rd Century Tamil epic, Silapathikaram as referenced by Dr. Vasuki Nesiah, delivering the 14th Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Lecture
There was a poignancy about the Black July commemorations this year that has been absent for decades since the ethnic riots of 1983.
Memory of those black days 30 years ago have been stirred over the last seven months, as whispers of communal violence sweep across the island, from Anuradhapura to Tangalle, striking familiar rhetorical chords and inspiring quiet yet ever-present fear for the country’s Muslim population, set against the deafening silence of the rulers. It is this same silence that consumed a nation in communal violence, tore a society apart and set the country on course for nearly three decades of bloodletting and civil strife in 1983.
By
Upul Joseph Fernando
Recent weeks saw the emergence of two new political trends in two different camps that are indicative of diverse repercussions yet to be assessed. One was the unanimous decision of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to nominate former Supreme Court Judge, C.V. Vigneswaran as its chief ministerial candidate, having successfully ironed out the differences of opinion that prevailed among the contending parties until the final moment.
By
Charles Haviland – BBC News in Batticaloa, eastern Sri Lanka
There are not nearly enough jobs despite reconstruction work in mainly Tamil Batticaloa-pic: Charles Haviland
On a beach in the midday breeze fishermen stitch their nets and smoke, waiting for the wind and weather to turn favourable.
But by night such beaches have witnessed something different: the departure of boats crammed with people seeking new lives in Australia.
Since the civil war ended in 2009, thousands of Sri Lankans, especially Tamils, have fled the country from points around the coast.
But Canberra recently introduced much tougher immigration rules and has forcibly deported planeloads.
Those the BBC met are scared and do not want to be identified.
Continue reading ‘Tamil Speaking “Boat People” of Batticaloa who see no way out are Jobless, Penniless and Stigmatised’ »
by
Kath Noble
An awful lot of effort is being put into bringing the killers of Khuram Shaikh to trial. The British aid worker died in Tangalle in December 2011, having been set upon by a group of men at a party in the hotel in which he was staying. His girlfriend was raped.
Of course the people who did it should be punished. His brother is doing what is both right and natural in using every opportunity to press the Government to move ahead with the investigation. And his MP, Simon Danczuk, should be congratulated for taking his job as a representative of the British people seriously – in addition to speaking and writing about the case, he has now visited Sri Lanka a number of times, most recently last week as a member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association delegation.
It is also virtually guaranteed that they are correct in thinking that without this pressure, very little would happen. The main suspect is the Chairman of the Pradeshiya Sabha – a member of the UPFA.
But what is everybody else doing?
By D.B.S. JEYARAJ
Canagasabapathy Viswalingam Wigneswaran was named by the Tamil National Alliance(TNA) on the Ides of July as its chief ministerial candidate for the forthcoming Northern Provincial Council election.
The decision made by the premier political configuration of the Sri Lankan Tamils was welcomed widely by many shades of political opinion as a wise choice that would benefit the community in particular and the country in general.CV Wigneswaran as he is generally known is a former Supreme court judge who will turn 74 on October 23rd.
By
Shamindra Ferdinando
President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said that he had faced far more serious situations than the prospect of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) winning the forthcoming first Northern Provincial Council polls scheduled for late September.
Addressing newspaper editors and electronic media heads at Temple Trees, President Rajapaksa said that the government was ready to cooperate with former judge C. V. Wigneswaran in case of the TNA’s victory at the September polls. The situation was not as bad as it looked, President Rajapaksa said, ruling out the devolution of police and land powers under any circumstance.
By
Menaka Indrakumar
Two Ceylon Today journalists were manhandled by Malaka Silva’s bodyguards as they were covering the incident where Malaka Silva was assaulted at the premises of a leading shopping mall in Colombo on Monday.
The duo had followed Malaka to the private hospital when they were confronted, threatened and manhandled by the bodyguards till the police had come to their rescue. The journalists – Kasun Ganewatta and Gayantha Wanasinghe – were at the Tower Hall when they were informed about the assault on Minister Mervyn Silva’s son. The journalists rushed to the scene to cover the incident. “When entering the shopping mall, we were informed that Malaka Silva was admitted to a private hospital,” Kasun said.
Public Relations Minister Mervyn Silva yesterday allegedly walked into Hayleys Group’s Venigros Ltd in the Gampaha District and ordered its closure endangering 600 jobs and key supplies for exports, to the cheer of residents accusing the factory of a major pollution scandal.
By
SANJAYA
Public Relations Affairs Minister Mervyn Silva’s son, Malaka, was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Nawaloka Hospital after being attacked with a sharp instrument, at the Odel clothing store car park, in Town Hall, around 4.15 p.m. on Monday July 29th 2013.
The minister’s son who has been embroiled in many fisticuffs and night club brawls over the years, had been coming out of the restaurant at the ODEL shopping arcade with his foreign girlfriend around 3:15 p.m., when he was attacked. A gang of 12 had pounced on him and, struck him on the head with glass bottles while also attacking him physically.
by
Prof.Rajiva Wijesinha M.P.
(This article was written originally to be translated into Tamil and published in the Tamil Fortnightly newsmagazine “Samakaalam”.)
The last couple of weeks have seen momentous changes. Basil Rajapaksa has been to Delhi and Shivshankar Menon to Colombo, reminding one of the very successful manner in which relations between the two countries were conducted during the conflict. Even before the visits, the President announced the long delayed elections to the Northern Provincial Council, a move that Basil Rajapaksa is reported to have described as ‘a big victory in democratization’.
Given that Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had come out swinging as it were against the 13th Amendment and Provincial Councils, this would suggest that the new situation represents a defeat for him, and a resurgence of moderation. But it would be a mistake to think that the viewpoint represented by Gotabhaya is either negative, or that it has been negatived.
After all, it should be remembered that he was part of the troika (along with Basil and Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunge) who were responsible for relations with India during the conflict period, and he was at that stage perhaps the Sri Lankan in whom the Indians had the greatest confidence.
By
Manekshaw
‘Daya Master’ – pic courtesy of frontline.in
The names of several former bigwigs of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from the North, including its former head of the media unit, Daya Master, had come up as potential candidates of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) for the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), following the government’s announcement to hold Provincial Council polls in September.
Other names to surface as potential candidates were Subramaniam Sivagami alias Thamilini, the former political wing leader of the LTTE’s women wing who was recently deemed ‘rehabilitated’ and ‘integrated into society’ and Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP), the former international coordinator of the outfit. Rumours abound that the UPFA would be fielding these ex- LTTE ‘big guns’ in the NPC polls in a manner similar to how S. Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan and V. Muralitharan alias Karuna, were brought into the political scene and given prominence in the Eastern Province.
by
Ananth Palakidnar
pic courtesy of: tnainfo.com
The chief ministerial candidate of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) at the Northern Provincial Council polls, C.V. Vigneswaran, has appealed to the Northern voters to vote for the TNA and help the Alliance register a landslide victory, to enable it to implememt the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
Former Judge of the Supreme Court, C.V. Vigneswaran, filed his nomination as the chief ministerial candidate of the TNA at 12:21 p.m. at the Government Secretariat in Jaffna, yesterday.
Soon after filing his nomination, he addressed the media and said the voters in the Northern Province should show their solidarity by making the TNA victorious at the forthcoming Northern Provincial Council polls.
By
Wasantha Rupasinghe
In the face of opposition from India, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has shelved, at least for now, proposed changes to the 13th amendment to the constitution aimed at reducing the powers of the country’s provincial councils.The amendment was introduced in November 1987 under the Indo-Lanka Accord signed between the two governments, as a means of disarming the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The devolution of limited powers at the provincial level was to establish a power-sharing arrangement between the island’s Sinhala and Tamil elites.
Having defeated the LTTE in 2009, the Sri Lankan government is attempting to wind back the powers granted to the provincial councils, including over police, land and the merger of adjoining councils. At the same time, Rajapakse is exploiting the issue to whip up anti-Tamil chauvinism as he seeks to ram through International Monetary Fund demands for austerity.
By
Sulochana Ramiah Mohan
A six-member Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) delegation representing the UK Parliament visited Sri Lanka last week, on the invitation of the Sri Lankan Government. However, they were disappointed that neither President Mahinda Rajapaksa nor Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, could meet them.
According the British High Commission, a meeting with the Defence Secretary was scheduled, but due to a ‘busy diary,’ the meeting had to be called off.
The Coalition promises it will “turn back” asylum seeker boats in Australian waters where it is safe to do so if it wins the next election.
Professor Ben Saul ~ pic courtesy of: sydney.edu.au/
With Australian border patrols said to be at “breaking point” with the numbers of boat arrivals, the asylum debate has reached a heightened pitch in intensity.
But what are the facts? Can the Coalition legally turn back boats? Can boats be towed back out of Australian waters? Or intercepted in international waters?
The Conversation spoke with Ben Saul, Professor of International Law, Sydney Centre for International Law at the University of Sydney, to gain a sense of the legal ramifications of a potential “tow back” or “turn back” policy.
By
Paul Toohey
SHE was sold a cruel lie by the people smugglers. She would be travelling on a luxury ocean liner from Indonesia to Australia. They showed her photos of the ship that would transport her, her beautiful son and her brother to their new life in Australia.
It was a superb vessel, with three storeys of cabins.
“I believed them,” she says.
She had dreamed of nothing else but being with her husband, who had escaped to Australia four years earlier on a boat to build a new life in Perth for his wife and unborn son, their first child.
He had left Sri Lanka when she was five months’ pregnant.
He had cut up photos and built a montage that depicted his family together, as one. He had never seen his son. He never would – at least, not alive.
(Text of a Press Release Wriiten by Jayantha Dhanapala and Rev.Jayasiri T.Peiris on behalf of Friday Forum,the group of Concerned Citizens)
This week we remember with deep regret, shame and sadness, the Black July of 1983, now chosen to be forgotten in history. Many factors paved the way for the incidents that took place during the 1983 Black July. We remember the intensifying hate campaigns, the terrorism and the ever increasing tensions between the ethnic groups that preceded black July and the thirty year war this led to. During this long period of hate and war citizens of this country were subject to terror and unimaginable destruction was caused to life and property.
It is consequently important that we should be of one mind and collectively learn from the lessons of this evil and traumatic experience so that similar mistakes will not be repeated now or in the future. It is regrettable that in spite of the destructive war, many seem to have failed to learn lessons from this sad period in our history and continue to promote hatred among different ethnic and religious groups.
Continue reading ‘Lessons from Black July for Law and Order and Tolerance – Friday Forum’ »
By
Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha M.P.
Chanaka Amaratunga died tragically on the 1st of August 1996. Almost nine years previously he had penned the Liberal Party statement on the Indo-Lankan Accord, which still stands as the most intelligent assessment of that seminal episode in modern Sri Lankan history. It was a ringing assertion of principle and moderation at a time when dogmatic opponents of the Accord were suggesting that disaster had struck us, as though a remedy was not urgently needed for the disasters the country had been going through for years.
The relentless erosion of democracy – with the referendum that postponed elections, the political arrests and torture and murder that were widespread (Ananda Sunil for example, and the state sponsored murders in Welikada in 1983), the intimidation of Judges of the Supreme Court who delivered unwelcome judgments or statements (which the West delighted in during those Reagan days, when ‘our bastards’ were protected whatever they did) – and the ruthless suppression of moderate Tamil opinion had led to violence that was corrosive. Though it is now argued that the Indians prevented what would have been certain victory over the Tigers in 1987, that was certainly not assured, nor could it have led to lasting peace and reconciliation, given the deep resentments in the country at the time, in the South as well as the North.
By
Nalaka Gunawardene
“I’m everything you lost. You won’t forgive me. My memory keeps getting in the way of your history.”
So wrote Agha Shahid Ali (1949 – 2001), Kashmiri-American poet, in a famous poem called Farewell where he grappled with memories and histories that were both intertwined and warring.
This has been a week of reminiscences, mostly unpleasant or outright horrific, relating to Sri Lanka’s worst communal riots of July 1983. People from across the ethnic spectrum have recalled, in public media, a range of emotions they experienced –from trauma and anguish to shame and helplessness. This mosaic of collective memories is part of the legacy of Black July.
By
Ranga Jayasuriya
Last week, during an embassy luncheon, this columnist happened to have a chat with a diplomat who, has recently arrived in Colombo for his posting. “Political columns in your (Sri Lankan) newspapers are informative,” he told me. I replied that it was because newspapers sell for political news and that we hardly have inspiring business news that would tickle public attention, which most emerging market economies do have. Hence political news makes the staple of newspaper coverage.
But, Sri Lanka has a vibrant press, he quipped. I reminded him that we are ranked fourth from the bottom in the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Impunity Index, and are classified as ‘not free’ in terms of press freedom by the Freedom House.
By
Dilrukshi Handunnetti
Dayasiri Jayasekara
Former Kurunegala District Parliamentarian, Dayasiri Jayasekara, who quit Parliament and the United National Party (UNP) last week to contest the forthcoming North-Western Provincial Council election under the ruling coalition’s banner said, he had no regrets about leaving a political party that had no future.In an interview with Ceylon Today, Jayasekara said it was a misconception to believe only the Centre was capable of delivering and expressed a strong desire to work at the provincial level and did not rule out the possibility of becoming the next Chief Minister of the Province.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q: Your exit from the UNP was speculated for at least a couple of years. Did you decide to quit when you have the opportunity to run for Chief Minister’s post?
A: For everything there is a time and a reason. I stayed the course for 13 long years before deciding to quit. I am too young and too interested in being able to contribute to this country’s developmental process, of being able to drive positive change at national, provincial and district level, to continue to bury myself in the UNP. It has no future as it has no prudent leader. There is no hope for people like us there.
I did not quit with the intention to becoming the Chief Minister as some speculate, though I now want to dedicate myself completely, to winning this election for the UPFA. I have a proven track record. The President will do me justice.
By
Shamindra Ferdinando
Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Sampath Vidanapathirana and seven of his associates will be shortly indicted, in the High Court of Colombo, for the 2011 Christmas Eve killing of British national Khuram Shaikh (32) and rape of his partner, Victoria Aleksandrovna Tkacheva (23).
Authoritative sources told The Island yesterday that the suspects would be charged on ten counts including murder, attempted murder and unlawful assemble. The Attorney General has given the green light for non-summary proceedings against them.
by
Ranga Jayasuriya
Crossovers in Sri Lankan politics are cyclic. In 2001, during an earlier bout of pole vaulting, the former military spokesman turned then ruling People’s Alliance Parliamentarian, Sarath Munasinghe, was asked by a scribe whether he would be among a group of ruling party parliamentarians rumoured to be planning to cross over to the opposition.
Munasinghe denied and pledged his allegiance to the government passionately, and said “not even my dog will go to the UNP.”
A week later, when incentives appeared to be too irresistible, he cleared the fence. A government MP later told the House, tongue in cheek, that, General Munasinghe had bolted to the UNP, having chained his dog and left it at home.
Last week, there had been another crossover of one-time UNP firebrand, Dayasiri Jayasekara. Even before he announced his defection, President Mahinda Rajapaksa told a public event that a ‘singing elephant’ is joining the government; a reference to Dayasiri’s reputation as a reality TV star.
By Dasun Edirisinghe
The SLFP-led UPFA has finalised its nominations lists for the forthcoming polls to three provincial councils, a party source said yesterday, adding that the selected candidates had signed their papers at the Presidential Secretariat.
The source said that former UPFA North-Western Provincial Council member Ananda Sarath Kumara, who is alleged to have forced a female teacher, at the Nawagaththegama Novodya School, to kneel down, had not received nominations.
By Udaya Gammanpila
Justice C. V. Vigneswaran
Justice C. V. Vigneswaran may have been well known among the legal community, but until two weeks ago not many knew him, except perhaps the Sinhala nationalists. He garnered their attention because of the harsh sentiments expressed in the speech he made at the ceremonial sitting as a new Supreme Court Judge in 2001, on extremism and against the Sinhala community.
This compelled legal luminary, S. L. Gunasekera, to publish a response in the mainstream newspapers. Now, he has become the leading newsmaker in the country, courtesy the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) naming him as their Chief Ministerial candidate for the North. Unless, there is a miracle performed or blunder committed by the government, the TNA will secure victory at the Northern Provincial Council election. Hence, the Chief Ministerial candidate of the TNA is essentially the Chief Minister of the North.
By
Vishnuguptha
“Everybody is damaged goods. Everybody got bumps and dents, ja? But sometimes two people fit together, and the bumps go into the dents, and you have a whole thing like a potato.”
― Paul Quarrington
It is dreaming season again for Ranil Wickremesinghe, the leader of the United National Party (UNP). With the nominations for the Wayamba, Central and the Northern provinces already scheduled to be closed on July 31, 2013, the UNP leader and his coteries have begun their prediction game in earnest. And they believe that the UNP would receive at least 45% of the vote in the Wayamba, a hard-fought victory in the Central Province and a decent showing in the Northern Province. This, Ranil thinks, would catapult him to be the ‘joint-opposition’ candidate in the forthcoming Presidential Elections, contesting under the UNP banner. But the unfortunate part of this is that it is only an illusion, an illusion in which Ranil and his cohorts have been dwelling in for the last eighteen years. Defeat after defeat, the Party has been rotting away in the Opposition benches in Parliament, Provincial Councils and Pradesheeya Sabhas.
By
Tisaranee Gunasekara
“….for what may seem
Terrible or bizarre, when once our eyes
Have had time to acclimatise,
Becomes quite commonplace.”
La Fontaine (Selected Fables)
For 12 years the semiotics of Nazi Germany shaped Victor Klemperer’s existence. As a German Jew, he witnessed how the Nazis turned the language of Goethe, Schiller and Heine into a tool; and experienced, at first hand, the diabolical results of the consequent transformation of German society and the German mind.
The Nazis would take a familiar word, give it a new meaning by implication, and use it intensely and extensively until it sank deep into the public mind and caused noxious changes in the public consciousness: “If someone replaces the words ‘heroic’ and ‘virtuous’ with ‘fanatical’ for long enough, he will come to believe that a fanatic really is a virtuous hero, and that no one can be a hero without fanaticism. The Third Reich did not invent the words ‘fanatic’ and ‘fanaticism’; it just changed their value…. ”
An analogous process is at work in Rajapaksa Sri Lanka. It was evident in renaming the Fourth Eelam War a ‘Humanitarian Operation (with Zero Civilian Casualties), the giant internment camps ‘Welfare Villages’ and the Witch Trial of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranaike an impeachment. It is evident in the deliberate fanning of the flames of ethno-religious racism, in the whipping up of ant-devolution hysteria, in the transformation of Gen. Fonseka from Patriotic Hero to Arch Traitor.
The latest manifestation of this toxic process of psychological and moral transformation is the case of Dayasiri Jayasekara.
By
Megara Tegal
As crimes continue with impunity, attacks against mosques around the country have become more obscene and portentously fatal. The latest attack occurred in Mahiyangana on 18 July, when a mob of masked individuals attacked the Mahiyangana Masjidul Araba mosque while a group of Muslims prayed in the house of worship.
Continue reading ‘Mob of Masked Men Launch Hurtful “Pork Attack” on Masjidul Araba Mosque in Mahiyangana’ »
by Meera Srinivasan
Hema Perera – pic: The Hindu
Returning to my home-office from a meeting or a press conference, I’d got used to find steaming hot tea in a flask and a plate of sandwiches waiting on my dining table.
They were from the “lady downstairs”. I already knew about her before I moved to Colombo four months ago. My predecessors had told me about her. I thought they were exaggerating a landlady’s warmth and affection for her tenants, until I got here.
Continue reading ‘Hema Perera: Loving Land Lady with Warm Hearted Affection For her Tenants.’ »
By M. A. Sumanthiran – Member of Parliament, Tamil National Alliance
For the past 30 years, July 23, 1983 has been remembered in Sri Lanka as ‘Black July’. It marks the tragedy and horror of thousands of Tamil people being attacked by rioting mobs acting with impunity. Hundreds of Tamils were killed and thousands of homes and businesses destroyed. Many Tamil people who survived these attacks fled the country, fearing they would never be able to see their home again. The repercussions of these brutal actions are still felt by the Tamil people in Sri Lanka and abroad. The ’83 pogrom is widely seen as a trigger to Sri Lanka’s civil war.
The importance of remembering such atrocities cannot be underestimated. It is only remembrance of such tragedy that will, one hopes, ensure that such horrors will never again take place. It is only such remembrance that will ensure that action is taken to prevent Sri Lanka ever having to face yet another ‘Black July’.
It is, however, most unfortunate that we, as Sri Lankans, have not seemed to come very far from ‘Black July’. Instead of dealing with, and eradicating the root causes of the conflict, we seem to be intent on exacerbating them.
Today, more than four years after the end of a bloody war, reconciliation amongst Sri Lanka’s peoples is still very far away. In fact, sadly, 30 years later, not much has changed.
Continue reading ‘Remembering the Tragedy and Horror of “Black July” Thirty Years Later’ »
By
N.Sathiya Moorthy
It is sad and unfortunate that even years after the forced exit of the LTTE, the government is unwilling to bury it in the past, and move on. The recent media discourse, limited or otherwise, that there could not have been elections in the North or the East if the LTTE were around, may have achieved nothing more than keeping memories of what the government calls the ‘terror outfit’ alive – if not kicking.
It is equally unfortunate that ‘Tamil nationalists’ and the TNA should be talking about possible malpractices in the upcoming Northern Provincial Council polls, as if they had no role in, or benefit from the LTTE-manipulated parliamentary polls of 2001.
Without having the courage to stand up and apologise to the nation (as a whole) for this, and the LTTE forcing the Tamil boycott of the presidential polls of 2005, the Tamils cannot expect their futuristic charges on this score to stick against this government, or any other, nearer home in particular. For ethnic mistrust to evaporate and mutual trust to emerge, both sides have to contribute to reconciliation and accommodation. Just because the international community is sympathetic to the Tamils, based also on imbalanced and incomplete information about the past in particular, it does not flow that they alone could get away with it.
by
Camelia Nathaniel
The Sunday Leader reliably learns through senior CEB sources that the Sampur coal power plant that was to be constructed through a joint venture between India and Sri Lanka has hit several snags, casting doubts on whether the Indians are in fact having other interests in this location.
When open proposals were called for the setting up of a private coal power plant in Puttalam, where the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) could purchase power, the most profitable proposal that was selected was tendered by India’s National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) company.
However it seems that a conspiracy had been launched in order to hand it over to China’s CMEC Company that had also submitted proposals but had not been selected for the contract.
By
C.A.Chandraprema
Two events that occurred last week highlighted the strange position that the present government finds itself in – politically it is unassailable but administratively, it’s teetering on the brink of imminent collapse.
Kurunegala district parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekera’s crossover from the UNP to the government last Wednesday came as no surprise. He and the leadership of his party were working at cross-purposes from the very moment he entered politics from the Kurunegala district in 2001. When he got the highest number of preference votes in the district getting over double the number of votes of his nearest rival, Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, he became a target of the leadership who would have preferred Akila to be number one.
Now with Dayasiri gone, Akila does become the number one candidate in the Kurunegala district – he got about 50% more votes than his nearest rival Gamini Jayawickreme Perera who is unlikely to contest another parliamentary election due to his advanced age.
by
Shamindra Ferdinando
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa urged the northern electorate to shun those who had been overtly and covertly supportive of the LTTE terror project for personal gain as well as due to fear, particularly since the launch of the Norwegian-led peace initiative in February 2002.
Whatever the Opposition propagandists and a section of the international community say in the run-up to the first Northern Provincial Council polls scheduled for late September, he said those who had been trapped on the Vanni front in early 2009 couldn’t be deceived as they knew none of those shedding crocodile tears for war victims today opposed them being used a human shield.
By
Kishali Pinto Jayawardene
This week’s dire warning by the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) that Sri Lanka’s public and state banking sector would collapse if loss-making public bodies are not made duly accountable deserves immediate and imperative public attention.
Serious warnings and general despair
COPE has called for the re-capitalization of the country’s national carrier as well as the gloriously unnecessary Mihin Lanka, (the sole purpose of which was to satisfy the egoistical whims of this administration), both of which have incurred gargantuan losses. It has also recommended that other loss-making enterprises be liquidated.
Yet it was not as if this warning comes as any surprise. It is also not as if the warning would be heeded by this government. In a private conversation last month, a senior public official with decades-long experience in Southern provincial land administration confessed to a looming uncertainty over the ability of the state coffers to pay the salaries of public servants in the forseeable future. ‘Will we have to privatise public administration? I cannot get persons of good education to even apply for public sector positions as no one trusts the state sector to deliver’ he said despairingly.
Areas surrounding the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport have been declared a free port in the latest bid to attract business to this multi-billion rupee venture. There will be exemptions from customs duty, exchange control and import-export regulations, in terms of an order signed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa as Minister of Finance and Planning.
The order for declaring the MRIA premises as a bonded area along with its boundaries in Thammennawa Kurudana of Thammennawa in the Hambantota Divisional Secretariat area has been made by the Department of Trade and Investment Policy, under the Customs Ordinance.
A part of the development plan for MRIA is to set up a tax-free industrial zone within the area allocated for the airport.
The 14th Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Dr Vasuki Nesiah, Associate Professor of practice, New York University today- Sunday, July 28 at 6 p.m. at the BMICH, Committee Room B. The lecture will be chaired by Dr Radhika Coomaraswamy.
by Dilrukshi Handunnetti
Madeline Albright – pic: Courtesy of World Economic Forum
A report co-authored by the former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, and former Presidential Special Envoy to Sudan, Richard S. Williamson, has urged the United States to strengthen its work in implementing the doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), and critiqued the international reaction to Sri Lanka during the final stages of the conflict.
The report released on Monday (22) at a symposium titled ‘The United States and R2P: From Words to Action’ at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, noted the international community held a ‘mixed track record’ when applying the principle when mass violence was likely to take place.
Referring to Sri Lanka it said: “Despite the high number of civilian casualties, the international community did little beyond issuing statements of concern. The UN Security Council, High Commission on Human Rights, and the General Assembly held no formal sessions on Sri Lanka during this period. In Sri Lanka, both the government and the rebels can be faulted for failing to protect civilians.
M A Sumanthiran MP speaks in remembrance of Black July, the anti Tamil progrom and riots of July 1983. The TNA parliamentarian made the remarks ahead of a session on July 23, 2013 regarding Sri Lanka Electricity Board Amendment Bill
He describes the dark period in Sri Lankan history which has split the individual and collective living experience in this country:
By Dasun Edirisinghe
Former UPFA North-Western Provincial Council member Ananda Sarath Kumara, who is alleged to have forced a female teacher to kneel down before him on June 14, was yesterday re-remanded till August 08 by Anamaduwa Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake, for violating bail conditions.
By
Goolbai Gunasekara
So we may now look forward to another King George after the many we have had in the past. I had hoped that with all the unusual and glamorous names in British History, Kate and William might have been a trifle more adventurous.
Alas they have not. So let’s take a look at some of the more exciting names for which they could have opted.