Indian politician Dr. Subramanian Swamy said former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa should be given the Bharat Ratna award for freeing Sri Lanka and India from the LTTE terrorism.
“Just as we have awarded Bharat Ratna to Mandela for freeing his people we should award MR for freeing his people and Bharatiyas from LTTE terror,” Swamy tweeted.
By
B Sivakumar and D Govardan
No other political prince in India would have waited so long for the coronation. And when it happened on Tuesday, 21 days after his father M Karunanidhi passed away, Stalin sought to accept the DMK crown with humility and hope, promise and poise.
Elected unopposed as DMK president at the party’s general council meeting, Stalin opened his acceptance speech with the admission that he would not be a match for his father. In fact, he indicated that he could be different from Karunanidhi. “We are not against (God) believers,” he said, signalling a willingness to steer the party beyond rationalism, for wider acceptance in changed times.
While S Duraimurugan was elected treasurer, Stalin ensured that his ascension had the blessings of his extended family, notwithstanding his older brother M K Alaigiri’s whimper of protest.
By
Anbarasan Ethirajan of BBC News in Mannar
Experts in northern Sri Lanka are trying to identify the remains of dozens of bodies in a mass grave in the country’s former war zone.
So far the skeletal remains of more than 90 people have been unearthed in the north-western town of Mannar.
The mass grave is the second biggest found in the north since the end of the conflict in 2009.
The 26-year war between troops and separatist Tamil rebels left at least 100,000 people dead, and many missing.
A court ordered detailed excavations at the site – a former co-operative wholesale depot near the main bus terminus – after human remains were found by workers digging foundations for a new building earlier this year.
“The entire area can be divided into two parts. In one segment we have a proper cemetery. In the second part, you have a collection of human skeletons which have been deposited in an informal way,” said Professor Raj Somadeva, a forensic archaeologist from the University of Kelaniya near Colombo, who is leading a team of experts at the site.
(text of a Press Release Issued by the Tamil National Alliance Media Office on 28.08.2018)
The Meeting of the Presidential Task Force on the Development of the North and East took place yesterday (27.08.2018) at the Presidential Secretariat. The meeting was presided over by His Excellency the President.
Several ministers and government members of Parliament and Government Officials participated at the meeting. All the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Members of Parliament headed by Hon R Sampanthan the Leader of the Opposition and the Tamil National Alliance, including Hon Mavai Senathirajah Leader of the ITAK, Hon Selvam Adaikkalanathan Leader of the TELO and Hon Tharmaligham Siddarthan Leader of the PLOTE and all other district Parliamentarians other than Hon M.A. Sumanthiran Jaffna District, and Hon. SivashakthiAnanthanVanni District were present. Mr. Sumanthiran is out of the country.
Mr. Sampanthan Thanked the President for inviting the TNA to the meeting and stated that he would raise some fundamental issues. He stated, that 16 out of the 18 Tamil members of Parliament from the North and East are from the TNA and the TNA has more members from the North and East in Parliament than all other political parties put together. The democratic verdict of the people of the North and East should be respected.
By
The Sunday Observer” Political Editor
It came like a bolt from the blue.
All of a sudden, the concerted preoccupation of the Rajapaksa proxy Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and Joint Opposition camp is to push the theory that the former President, twice elected and once defeated in presidential elections over a decade, can contest a fourth time in 2019.
It has been three years since the 19th Amendment was enacted, restoring term limits on the executive presidency. In all this time, the JO, whose members voted overwhelmingly in favour of enacting the 19A, never contested the 1978 constitutional provision that ‘no person who has been twice elected to the office of President by the people, shall be qualified thereafter to be elected to such office by the people’ [Article 31 (3)].
But the latent realisation dawned on the SLPP leadership after a technical legal argument put forth by renowned jurist and former secretary to the Ministry of Justice, Dr Nihal Jayawickrema. Dr Jayawickrema wrote a lengthy legal analysis pointing out that neither Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa nor Chandrika Kumaratunga were barred from contesting the presidency again by provisions in the 19A. His arguments, discussed elsewhere in this newspaper (See interview on Page 10) rests on the premise that the 19A created a new office of the president by repealing and replacing Article 30 of the constitution, instead of merely changing a word in the relevant section to shorten the presidential term, from ‘six’ years to ‘five years.
By
Meera Srinivasan
Sri Lankan authorities have excavated nearly 100 skeletons at a mass grave in Mannar, located in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, where state armed forces and Tamil rebels clashed in a 30-year civil war.
According to local media reports, some locals living in the Tamil-majority province, whose relatives went missing during and after the war, have raised concern about the bodies possibly having links to the many enforced disappearances reported in Mannar.
By
P.K.Balachandran
The port town of Trincomalee in Eastern Sri Lanka is known for its scenic beauty eminently qualified to be featured in the National Geographic Channel.
But historically,it has been noted for something very different – its strategic value as a naval base.
Trincomalee’s military value had been grasped by world powers from the time of the Portuguese in the 17th Century. The Dutch, British, French, Indians, Americans and the Japanese have eyed it in succession.
As on date, India, US and Japan are making a beeline to Trincomalee and trying to convince the Sri Lankan government to accept their presence “in Sri Lanka’s interest,” citing a potential maritime security threat to it from expansionist China. This stems from the worry that China could threaten the present free and rule-based international maritime commerce in the “Indo-Pacific region.”
In August, Trincomalee saw the USS Anchorage of the US Seventh Fleet with Marines on board drop anchor there to hold “humanitarian” exercises with the Sri Lankan Navy. Coinciding with the first ever visit by a Japanese Defence Minister to Sri Lanka (including Trincomalee), the Japanese sent a destroyer Ikazuchi to berth there.
Asked why this is happening now, Sri Lanka’s leading maritime security expert, Adm. Dr. Jayanatha Colombage, said that with the Chinese exclusively ensconced in Hambantota port with a 70% stake and a 99 year lease on it, and having a container terminal at Colombo port also, the only port of value still available in Sri Lanka is Trincomalee.
China, through top level diplomatic channels, has asked from the Sri Lankan government if a “discomforted neighbour” was behind the protests in Jaffna against the housing project funded by Beijing, Asian Mirror learns.
This comes in the wake of the public resistance to the Chinese-funded project to build 40,000 houses in the Jaffna district.
By Manopriya Gunasekara
The Special High Court yesterday issued summons to Former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and five others to appear before the Court on 10 September over misappropriation of funds to erect the D. A. Rajapaksa statue in Weeraketiya, Madamulana.
The case, heard as the second in the Special High Court,was filed under the Public Property Act by the Attorney General.
By
Dr Reeza Hameed
The Nineteenth Amendment has once again become the subject of controversy, and its current focus concerns the provision in the Nineteenth Amendment that disqualifies the same person from being elected as President for more than two terms.
The two-term limit is not a constitutional innovation. A provision imposing a term limit was in the Constitution as it was originally enacted in 1978 but it was repealed by the Eighteenth Amendment enacted during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tenure as President. It was re-introduced by section 3 of the Nineteenth Amendment which inserted the following new paragraph as Article 31(2) of the Constitution:
“No person who has been twice elected to the office of President by the People, shall be qualified thereafter to be elected to such office by the People.” (emphasis added).
This prohibition was reinforced by section 21 of the Nineteenth Amendment which added Article 92(c) of the Constitution which disqualified a person who “has been twice elected to the office of President by the People” from being elected to the office of President thereafter. This is identical to the paragraph that existed as Article 92 (c) of the 1978 Constitution before it was repealed by the Eighteenth Amendment.
It has been argued, nevertheless, by some, including Professor G.L. Peiris and ex-Chief Justice Sarath Silva, that these provisions do not disqualify Mahinda Rajapaksa from seeking a third term. Mahinda Rajapaksa has already served two terms as President but if this argument holds, then he would be eligible not only to run for a third term but also a fourth.
By
D.B.S.Jeyaraj
The rise and growth of “political families” is a common occurrence in Sri Lanka. Ever since the Island known formerly as Ceylon gained limited forms of representative democracy through the Legislative and State Councils during British rule, the practice of members of the same family seeking posts through elections became widely prevalent. The advent of Parliamentary elections coupled with freedom from colonial bondage saw the political dynasty phenomenon gain further mileage. Political families began proliferating at multiple levels from local authorities to the supreme legislature.
Family politics is now a familiar feature of Sri Lanka’s political landscape cutting across race, religion, caste and creed. A perusal of a list of Sri Lankan political families in alphabetical order starting from the Abdul Majeeds of the East and going down to the Yapa Abeywardenas of the South would reveal that ethnicity is no bar to political family bandyism in Sri Lanka.
Continue reading ‘“Medamulana Mahinda” and the Political Rise Of “Ruhunu Rajapaksas”’ »
By P.K.Balachandran
The United States and Japan have both cast their eyes on the Eastern Sri Lankan port of Trincomalee to counterbalance the presence of the Chinese in Hambantota in the South and Colombo in the West and its growing clout around the Bay of Bengal.
The Trincomalee harbor was meant to be a major Allied logistics base. By the end of the 1930s, the British had built 101 giant oil tanks to supply ships and aircraft. During World War II, on April 9, 1942, a Japanese Kamikaze (suicide) aircraft had crashed into one of the tanks which was reduced to a molten mass. More than 700 civilians were killed in that air raid.
In the 2000s the Sri Lankan government handed over the tanks to the Indian Oil Corporation to be used in collaboration with the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation. However only some tanks were refurbished and are now being used.
But India has plans to refurbish more tanks to serve an emerging market in the Bay of Bengal area and South East Asia. Japan has the same intention. But the US appears to be more interested in the strategic value of the Trincomalee port, vis-à-vis an increasingly belligerent China.
Senior Army officer Major General (retired) Chagie Gallage had revealed that it was former Army Commander Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka who ordered to take the LTTE uniform off Velupillai Prabhakaran’s dead body.
Prabhakaran’s dead body was found from the Nandikadal area on the morning of May 19, 2009, following heavy gunfire.
Gallage was a Brigade Commander during the final phase of war and was in the battle field when the LTTE leader’s body was recovered.
No ‘politics’ was discussed at the meeting between President Maithripala Sirisena and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the latter’s residence in Medamula this morning, a highly placed source close to the former President told Asian Mirror.
The discussion took place afer Sirisena paid last respect to the former President’s deceased brother, Chandra Rajapaksa, at the former President’s personal residence this morning.
Former Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa and former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa also welcomed the President and joined in the brief discussion.
President Maithripala Sirisena visited the Medamulana residence of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa this morning to pay last respect to Chadra Tudor Rajapaksa, the younger brother of the former President.
Sirisena was first greeted by former Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa. Then former President Mahinda Rajapaksa also joined him.
By
Lakmal Sooriyagoda
The Attorney General (AG) yesterday filed indictments in the Permanent High Court-at-Bar against former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and six others including former Chairman and members of the director board of the Land Reclamation and Development Corporation (LRDC).
This is in connection an incident that the D.A. Rajapaksa Museum and Memorial in Medamulana was built using LRDC funds amounting to Rs.81.3 million.
The indictments were filed against seven accused former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, LRDC Chairman Prasad Harshan de Silva, Bhadra Udulawathi Kamaladada, Sudammika Keminda Artigala, Saman Kumara Abraham Galappatti, Devage Mahinda Saliya and Srimathi Mallika Kumari Senadheera.
Sri Lanka’s government may have set a record in the history of Westminster parliamentary system by voting Friday to defeat a crucial de-limitation report it had commissioned and introduced in the House.
Minister Faiszer Musthapha also voted against the “Report of the Delimitation Committee for the Delimitation of electorates in Provincial Councils” which he himself introduced in the legislature to clear the way local elections.
MPs voted 139 against and none in favour.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on Thursday turned down Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran’s request to boycott the meeting of the Presidential Special Task Force on Northern Development which is scheduled to be held on August 27.
TNA Parliamentarians at a meeting held at the Opposition Leader’s office under the patronage of TNA leader R. Sampanthan on Thursday insisted that they should participate in this meeting to ensure development of the Northern Province.
by Saman Indrajith
Minister Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka railed against police Special Task Force (STF) Commandant Senior DIG M.R. Latheef making a controversial statement in Parliament yesterday.
The minister used the time allocated to him in the Parliamentary debate to speak on the recent arrests of his political supporters, trying hard to convince that those arrests were made based on fabricated and false evidence.
The irked minister heaped a series of accusations on Latheef as well as several other STF officers even naming them. He allegedly linked Latheef’s brother-in-law to the Cocaine consignment discovered at the Orugodawatte Container yard in 2016.
By Saman Indrajith
Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama informed Parliament that the Attorney General had said that there was no need to present the Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement to Parliament.
The Minister said so when Ministers Lakshman Kiriella and Arjuna Ranatunga contradicted each other in Parliament yesterday while speaking on Cabinet approval for the Sri Lanka-Singapore FTA.
Petroleum Resources Development Minister Arjuna Ranatunga, in response to a supplementary question by UPFA MP Bandula Gunawardena, said that he had not seen the FTA with Singapore yet. MP Gunawardena requested the minister to oppose the liberalisation of petroleum sector under the agreement and save the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation from privatisation.
By
Kavindya Perera
Colombo Chief Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake yesterday recalled the notice issued on former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had been ordered to appear before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court on 7 September, as a suspect in the case where he is alleged to have misappropriated State funds to the tune of Rs. 90 million in the construction of the D.A. Rajapaksa Museum at Weeraketiya.
Magistrate Dissanayake recalled the notice when the said case was called for hearing through a motion filed by the FCID.
By
D.B.S.Jeyaraj
Muttuvel Karunanidhi, known to the Tamil-speaking world as “Kalaignar” (artiste),passed away at the age of 94 in Chennai on 7 August. Karunanidhi had been Chief Minister of India’s Tamil Nadu state for a total of 19 years. Hewas Chief Minister of Tamil Nadufive times from 1969-71, 1971-76, 1989-91,1996-2001 and 2006-11. No other Tamil Naduchief minister has been in office for so long.
Another record was that of being party leader for nearly 50 years. He was the undisputed leader of the DravidaMunneraKazhagham (DMK) since 1969,leading the party through thick and thin for 49 years. The Dravidian patriarch was first elected to the State legislative assembly in 1957 and has not lost an election he contested personally since then. Few Indian politicians can boast of such an unbroken record.“Kalaignar” Muttuvel Karunanidhi was no ordinary politico but a veritable political institution.
Kalaignar and Nadigar Thilagam
‘Spotlight’ however does not intend to beam on Karunanidhi’s politics at this juncture.As is well known this column focuses on films, film personalities and film related matters. This column however would be focusing on“Kalaignar” Karunanidhi’s immense contribution to Tamil movies in a cinematic career spanning more than six decades of his life.
Continue reading ‘“Kalaignar” Karunanidhi Made Lasting Imprint On Tamil Cinema as a Film Script Writer’ »
by
D.B.S.Jeyaraj
The recent release and box-office success of the Telugu biographical movie‘Mahanati’ (Great Actress) has created a great deal of interest inthe famous South Indian actress Savitri. The bio-pic simultaneously released in Tamil as ‘Nadigaiyar Thilagham’ (Doyenne of Actresses) is about yesteryear actress K.Savitri who was known as Savitri Ganesh after she married Tamil romantic actor Gemini Ganesan also known as R. Ganesh and Gemini Ganesh.
Maya Sundari (1967)
Savitri ruled the roost in Telugu and Tamil filmdom for nearly 15 years in the fifties and sixties of the last century and was hailed as the finest actress of her time. The actress was extremely popular with Tamil and Telugu audiences during her time and enjoyed what could be termed as a cult following at the peak of her career.
The titular role of ‘Mahanati/Nadigaiyar Thilagam’ denoting Savitri is played by a young actress Keerthy Suresh who is of mixed parentage with a Malayalee father and Tamil mother. The key role of actor Gemini Ganesan/Ganesh is played by Dulquer Salman the son of Malayalam Super Star Mammooty. The film has evoked much curiosity about the real life romance between Savitri and her actor husband Gemini Ganesan. Although the couple had separated in later life, theirs was a love story that captivated film fans of an earlier era.
In recent times I have been requested by many Rasikas and admirers of the Gemini-Savitri duo to write about the real life romance of these two great reel life actors.This week’s ‘Spotlight’ therefore focuses briefly on a glamorous romance that began with great sweetness but sadly soured at the end.
Continue reading ‘The Sweet and Sour Real Life Romance of Reel Actors Savitri and Gemini’ »
Former Chief Justice Sarath Silva may have openly violated constitution by presenting himself as legal counsel for ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksa who was questioned by police in connection with the abduction of journalist Keith Noyahr.
Official sources noted that the police Criminal Investigation Department (CID informed the Mount Lavinia Magistrate that Silva was present as part of the legal team of Rajapaksa when he was questioned at his Wijerama Mawatha home on August 17.
by
Lakdev Liyanagama
Three and a half years after he was ousted from power, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was the focus of attention last week. Although some of the reasons for the publicity Rajapaksa generated may not have been to his liking, other events may have reignited presidential ambitions for the country’s fifth Executive President.
Rajapaksa hit the headlines when officers of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) recorded a statement from him last Friday regarding the abduction and assault of the then Deputy Editor of The Nation, Keith Noyahr.
Noyahr was abducted and assaulted on May 22, 2008 in Dehiwala. In the hours after his abduction, Karu Jayasuriya, who was the Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs in the Rajapaksa led government, was alerted by Noyahr’s colleagues. Jayasuriya telephoned Rajapaksa to inform him. Hours later Noyahr was released by his abductors, battered and bruised but alive to tell the tale.
Noyahr has since left the country and is now domiciled in Australia. However, investigators have pieced together the jigsaw relating to his disappearance and visited Australia to interview the journalist. Several army personnel including former Military Intelligence Director and Chief of Staff of the Army, Major General (Retired) Amal Karunasekara are in remand custody over Noyahr’s abduction and assault.
Previously, investigators had recorded Speaker Karu Jayasuriya’s statement regarding his intervention. The interview with Rajapaksa was a natural follow-up on that. The CID forwarded Rajapaksa’s statement to the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Plans are afoot to start a United National Party breakaway party under the leadership of the party’s former General Secretary Tissa Attanayake, Asian Mirror reliably learns.
Although the new party will not align itself with the SLFP or the Joint Opposition, it will pressurise the government to protect the interests of the UNPers.
“It is now clear that we cannot wage that battle while being in the party. It is time to step out of the party and exert pressure on the party leadership,” a stalwart of he movement told Asian Mirror.
By Colonel R Hariharan
The passing away of Muthuvel Karunanidhi, 94, last of the leaders groomed in the Dravidian stable of rationalist godfather “Periyar” EV Ramasamy Naicker, leaves a huge void in Tamil Nadu politics. The leader, endearingly called Kalaignar (pronounced kalainyar, meaning gifted scholar) by his party cadres, was a man for all seasons. The rise of “Mu Ka” (his initials in Tamil) as he is known in political circles in the state, from backwoods of Tamil Nadu to the helm of the state as chief minister five times is a testimony to his political leadership and team work skills.
A man gifted with creative ability to write fiction, drama, poetry, political articles and movie scripts, he skilfully blended propaganda in his flowery oratory to build the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). His carefully worded speeches and writings often had a political barb, indicating his mindset.
He followed his mentor CN Annadurai when he founded the DMK in 1949, calling for secession from India to create an independent Dravida Nadu, comprising the four southern states. However, the huge popular support to the government during the 1962 Chinese invasion made the DMK abandon its ideas on secession.
By
Kishali Pinto Jayawardene
The three years during which Sri Lanka breathed (or was it gasped?) in freedom’ seems to be the rather messily translated refrain which the United National Party at least is trumpeting to all and sundry as this month (August 2018) notes three years of the National Unity government being voted into power.
No call for fireworks and jubilation
On its part, the other coalition partner, the remnants of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and President Maithripala Sirisena is markedly silent in its celebration of this anniversary, in equal parts sullenly and awkwardly so.
Certainly there is no denying that this three year passing is not a marvelous thing of fireworks and wild jubilation. As images crowd the nation’s eye of a solemn President with minimum fanfare and little cost, pledging to the nation at Independence Square that he will lead the people from the crushing decade of Rajapaksa misrule in January 2015, even the cynical and jaded among us, took a step back.
Used to hearing politicians make promises and break them with impunity, we caught ourselves believing for just a moment that perhaps this was going to be a break from the past. Those first six months had their disappointments but as a new Government took control just months later and even with all its flaws, a 19th Amendment reversing the ills of the 18th Amendment in some part was passed, there was still some reason to hope, even with increasing skepticism as the case may be.
(Text of Editorial Appearing in “The Island” of August 21st 2018 Under the Heading “Why this hullabaloo?)
Mahinda has set the cat among the pigeons, as is his wont. He has got his backers in the Joint Opposition (JO) to say he can run for President again. This argument is not of recent origin, though. It has been there since the introduction of the 19th Amendment. Some JO legal experts have held that the term limit therein cannot have retroactive effect, and Mahinda can contest a presidential election again. However, this is the first time the JO has gone public with its contention. Never a dull day in this land like no other!
Minister of Higher Education and former Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, PC, has shot from the hip. He declared, on Sunday, that Mahinda was disqualified from seeking another presidential term. The 19th Amendment debarred a twice elected president from contesting a presidential election again, he maintained. He also issued a dire warning that any presidential candidate who furnished false information as regards his or her eligibility to contest would be committing an offence punishable by a three-year jail term. But JO stalwart Dinesh Gunawardena is convinced otherwise. He says the 19th Amendment is flawed and Mahinda can contest a presidential election again.
In a letter to President Maitripala Sirisena with regard to the imprisonment of Bodu Bala Sena general secretary Ven. Galagodaathte Gnanasara Thera, the Mahayanayake of the Kotte chapter of the Siyam Nikaya, the Most Ven. Ittapane Dhammalankara Thera has highlighted several points including the one that if monks who speak on behalf of the people and the country were imprisoned, it would pose a challenge to the entire Bhikkhu community.
By
Manopriya Gunasekera
The Presidential Commission to inquire into allegations of large scale frauds and malpractices in SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering Ltd and Mihin Lanka (Pvt) Ltd has issued notices to four persons including former Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and former SriLankan Airlines Chairman Nishantha Wickremesinghe to appear before it.
By Shamindra Ferdinando
Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Chairman Prof. G. L. Peiris will soon move the District Court, seeking a clarification as regards President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s eligibility to contest the 2019 presidential election.
Prof. Peiris revealed his party’s plan, yesterday, at a media briefing at the Nelum Mawatha Office of former President Rajapaksa.
Former External Affairs Minister Peiris said in terms of the Article 125 of the Constitution, the District Court could refer the matter to the Supreme Court for a ruling. According to him, the Supreme Court will have to make its ruling known to the District Court within two months.
Acknowledging that only the Supreme Court could interpret the Constitution, Prof. Peiris said that if necessary he was ready to go before the District Court in his capacity as the SLPP Chairman.
By
Shavini Madhara
Making a statement on the abduction and assault on Nation Newspaper Deputy Editor Keith Noyarh in 2008, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa informed the CID that he could not remember if there was a journalist called Keith Noyarh at the time of the alleged assault incident, the prosecution informed court yesterday.
Senior State Counsel (SSC) Lakmini Girihagama appearing on behalf of the CID made this revelation when the magisterial inquiry into the assault and abduction of journalist Keith Noyarh came up before Mount Lavinia Additional Magistrate Lochana Abewickrama. She also submitted the Court that the CID officials had recorded a statement from former President Mahinda Rajapaksa last Friday (August 17) regarding this incident.
Filing a further report in the Court, SSC Girihagama said the former President in his statement also stated that he could not remember whether he received a telephone call from the then Minister and incumbent Speaker Karu Jayasuriya regarding the incident.
By
Meera Srinivasan
Sri Lanka’s former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who served two consecutive terms in office from 2005 to 2015, appears keen on a third, despite a legislation barring him from contesting.
“There is an opinion that I can contest again, we need to find out if I am eligible,” he told reporters, on the sidelines of an event at a Colombo suburb on Saturday.
19th Amendment
Among other things, the 19th Amendment to Sri Lanka’s Constitution, passed three months after Mr. Rajapaksa was unseated in January 2015, revived a clause in the 1978 Constitution that said: “No person who has been twice elected to the office of President by the People, shall be qualified thereafter to be elected to such office by the People.”
By Shamindra Ferdinando
The Northern Province Governor Reginald Cooray has denied allegations that he was planning to construct two Buddhist temples in one-time LTTE stronghold Kilinochchi soon after the dissolution of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) run Northern Provincial Council later this year.
Cooray, a former MP said so in response to Northern Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran’s recent declaration in Jaffna print media that the Governor’s Office was making arrangements to build two temples.
Northern Governor Cooray has challenged retired Supreme Court Judge Wigneswaran to reveal the locations where the alleged constructions were to take place.
By
Amali Mallawaarachchi
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is not qualified to contest the upcoming Presidential election, Higher Education Minister Wijeyedasa Rajapakshe said yesterday.
He said that according to the provisions of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, a former President is barred from contesting any Presidential election.
The provisions stipulate that no President can hold the Executive Presidency for more than two terms.
He pointed out that some groups are trying to establish a notion that former President Rajapaksa could contest in the coming Presidential Election based on certain legal arguments.
Minister Rajapakshe further said neither former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga nor Mahinda Rajapaksa are allowed to run for a third term as the 19th Amendment to the Constitution does not allow so.
Prof. G.L.Peiris, a former Sri Lankan Minister for Constitutional Affairs who is currently one of the leaders of the Joint Opposition (JO), has said that there is no constitutional bar against any person being President of Sri Lanka more than twice, even though the 19 th.Amendment (19A) enacted in 2015 says that a person cannot be President more than twice.
Resolving the apparent contradiction, Peiris told newsin.asia that the clause in the 19A which put a cap on the number of times a person can be President, refers to the post of President as defined by the 19A and not to the post of President as defined in the constitution which existed before 19A.
by
Jayadeva Uyangoda
Political discussions in the country at present are largely dominated by questions around two themes: which individual will win the next presidential election and which political party will win the next parliamentary election.
These are no doubt important questions, but there is a more serious political question about what will happen to Sri Lanka’s democratization agenda in the years to come. Political and social activists, who have made direct contributions to regime change in 2015, are particularly preoccupied with the latter question.
They are also quite worried about the indications that Sri Lanka is moving in the direction of another phase of direct assaults on democracy.
The recent reports that plans are afoot in some quarters to profile citizens into two categories as patriots and traitors on the basis of psychiatric indicators, however bizarre they may sound, actually smack a little bit of Nazism.
By
Spectator
The General Secretary and de facto head of the radical nationalist organisation, Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), Galagoda-aththe Gnanasara thero was recently sentenced to nineteen years imprisonment by the Court of Appeal, to be completed in six years. This follows a previous six-month prison term imposed on him by the Homagama Magistrate’s Court.
While the former sentence was for charges of contempt of court, the latter was for threatening Sandya Ekneligoda, the wife of missing journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda at the Homagama Magistrate’s Court where a Habeas Corpus application for the journalist was being heard. Hot on the heels of Gnanasara thero being sentenced, reports are emerging that he may be the beneficiary of a presidential pardon.
While these reports are unconfirmed as yet, there are certainly moves to appeal to President Maithripala Sirisena for a pardon. Ministers Champika Ranawaka and Rajitha Senaratne have said so. The chief prelate of the Kotte Sri Kalyani Samagri Dharma Sangha Sabha, Iththepane Dhammalankara thero has said he would be writing to the President, requesting a pardon.
Clearly, the pressure is mounting and, it remains to be seen whether, with presidential and general elections a little over a year away, President Sirisena would yield- as he did to the railway employees- or stand his ground and uphold the rule of law.
By
Kishali Pinto Jayawardene
Core elements of the fifty-six page decision handed down by the Court of Appeal this week sentencing General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara to six years rigorous imprisonment for contempt ‘in the face of the court’ constitute a stern warning to unruly individuals (monks or laymen) attempting to interfere with the processes of court.
An eminently rigorous sentence
If it was thought (and indeed, it would have been, judging from the openly insulting behavior of the BBS and its representatives during the court proceedings at the Homagama Magistrate’s Court), that the judiciary would not respond with the appropriate severity, then those misapprehensions may now be laid to rest.
In fact, observing the markedly subdued reactions of those representing the accused monk who had deposited himself in hospital at the time of the sentencing as they presented themselves before television cameras on Hulfsdorp, it appears that the decision has had a markedly salutary effect, almost immediately.
by Anurangi Singh
Prosecutors are mulling leading evidence from journalist Keith Noyahr who was abducted and tortured in May 2008 via video conference, under provisions of the Witness and Victims Protection Act, Sunday Observer reliably learns.
As the investigation into Noyahr’s abduction allegedly by a military intelligence group led by Major Bulathwatte nears conclusion, and links top officials serving in the Defence establishment in 2008, the necessary legal framework and logistics are being effected to ensure Noyahr does not need to set foot on Sri Lankan soil to testify, authoritative sources told the Sunday Observer.
If the plan works out, Noyahr will give evidence from Canberra, Australia. A senior prosecutor could also be flown out to assist with the case and lead the journalist’s evidence when the case goes on trial, the sources said.
By Zhang Kun/China Daily
Archaeologists from the Shanghai Museum embarked on a 40-day excavation mission to Sri Lanka on Monday.
The group will be working in ancient ruins in Jaffna alongside representatives from the Central Cultural Fund and a local university in Sri Lanka.
Chen Jie, head of the archaeological team from the Shanghai Museum, and his colleagues had previously made two visits to Sri Lanka – last July and in March this year – to conduct preliminary research and establish the joint archaeological group.
Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa told the CID Friday that he was unable to recall two crucial telephone calls which investigators link him to the abductors of news editor Keith Noyahr 10 years ago.
The former leader was questioned for the first time in connection with the May 2008 abduction and torture of Noyahr, a news editor of the Nation weekly at the time, after a testimony by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, a then minister in the Rajapaksa regime.
Jayasuriya had said that if not for the intervention of Rajapaksa, Keith would not have been freed by his abductors who had tortured him. A short while after Jayasuriya sought Rajapaksa’s help, Noyahr was freed by his abductors.
Investigators believe a group of military officials behind the abduction of Noyahr was also responsible for the assassination in January 2009 of another newspaper editor, Lasantha Wickrematunga who was fiercely critical of the Rajapakse regime.
By
Veeragathy Thanabalasingham
The government will complete three years in office today (17), marking a milestone of sorts when the two traditionally rival political parties, the United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), set aside their differences and came together to form the National Unity Government. There was plenty of goodwill on this day three years ago, with many thinking of it as a historical opportunity to work together in a politically amicable climate towards finding meaningful solutions to the problems faced by the people and the country, especially the long drawn national question.
Today, exactly three years on, that goodwill has been smashed to smithereens and all sections of the Sri Lankan population are deeply disheartened by the government, and the inability of the elected members of the two parties to put their differences aside and work towards the common good of the country, nor address any of the serious problems faced by the people. Instead, what the people have been subjected to is juvenile handling of serious issues which have served to further amplify people’s hardships.
Lest one forget, President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe came to power promising they would create a new political culture that would transcend party politics, only to immerse themselves in the very same politics, the main cause of the failure of the Sri Lankan polity to make any progress, especially politically. The juvenile manner in which the two leaders have been undermining each other politically ignoring the fact they are the leaders of the same government, would be high comedy if not for how it has been destroying the country.
By
Bindu Shajan Perapaddan
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the only non-Congress leader to have completed a full term as Prime Minister, breathed his last at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences on Thursday evening. The 12-time Parliamentarian was 93.
“Unfortunately, his condition deteriorated over the last 36 hours and he was put on life support systems. Despite the best of efforts, we have lost him today. We join the nation in deeply mourning this great loss,” an AIIMS bulletin said.
Mr. Vajpayee was admitted to the AIIMS on June 11 with a kidney tract infection and chest congestion. The BJP leader, who was diabetic with one functional kidney, suffered a stroke in 2009, weakening his cognitive abilities.
By
Kelum Bandara
Some legal experts are of the opinion that there former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is not debarred from contesting the Presidential Election for the third time, it is learnt.
These legal experts believe though the 19th Amendment barred anyone from seeking the Presidency for the third time, it did not have retrospective effect.
Sri Lanka’s chief of defence staff Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne gave half a million rupees in cash to help the main suspect in the abduction and murder of 11 children escape arrest, the Colombo magistrate was told Wednesday.
Colombo Fort Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne ordered the bank of Ceylon to provide details of a navy account from which 500,000 rupees had been given to Hettiarachchi Mudiyanselage Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi alias Navy Sampath last year to escape the police net.
“There is incriminating evidence against Admiral Wijegunaratne’s role (when he was navy commander) in allowing the accused to evade arrest,” the police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) told the magistrate.
Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s youngest son Rohitha travelled from Tangalle to Tanzania to propose marriage to his sweetheart on top of snow-covered Kilimanjaro, another sibling said.
Second son Yoshitha was the first to announce the engagement yesterday atop the highly romantic setting on the highest mountain in the African continent.
By D.B.S.Jeyaraj
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena reportedly sent two special representatives early this week to India with a letter to the ailing Dravidian Tamil political patriarch Muttuvel Karunanidhi wishing him a speedy recovery. Karunanidhi known widely as “Kalaignar”(artiste) has been leader of the Dravida Munnera Kazhagham (Dravidian Progressive Federation) since 1969 and served as chief minister of India’s Tamil Nadu state for a total of 19 years. The nonagenarian “Kalaignar”Karunanidhi who celebrated his 94th birthday on June 3rd has held office as Tamil Nadu chief minister five times from 1969 -71, 1971-76, 1989 -91,1996-2001 and 2006-11. Karunanidhi was admitted to the Kauvery hospital in Chennai last week due to a urinary tract infection and steep decline in blood pressure. He also underwent some tracheotomy procedural changes to help him in breathing.The latest medical bulletin issued by the hospital stated that Karunanidhi’s vital signs have gradually normalised, but he woould continue to be hospitalised due to the overall decline in his general health given his age(94).
Karunanidhi’s health has been on the decline since 2016.The silver tongued orator renowned for his powerful speeches over the years has been “silenced” due to a speech impairment.His movements too are restricted and has to be pushed around in a wheel chair. Still he has been receiving and meeting dignitaries and also visiting the DMK part office “Arivaalayam” (Temple of Knowledge) from time to time. Karunanidhi still remains the Party leader, a post he has held for more than 49 years. While Karunanidhi remains as “De Jure”DMK leader, his son MK Stalin functions as “De-Facto”DMK leader and heir apparent in his capacity as “Seyal Thalaiver” or Working Leader.
Indian news reports said that former Sri Lankan Cabinet minister and Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) Parliamentarian Arumugan Thondaman along with CWC stalwart and Uva Provincial minister Senthil Thondaman visited the Kauvery hospital at Aalwaarpaettai in the Tamil Nadu capital of Chennai where Karunanidhi is currently recuperating.After visiting Kauvery hospital Arumugan and Senthil Thondaman also called on M.K. Stalin the son and political heir of Karunanidhi who is the “Seyal Thalaiver” (working leader)of the DMK and handed over the “get well soon”letter sent by Maithripala Sirisena.The indian media described the two Thondamans as special emissaries of the Sri Lankan president.
Continue reading ‘Dravidian Patriarch “Kalaignar” (Artiste) Karunanidhi and the Cinematic Politics of Tamil Naadu’ »
by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
Sri Lanka’s finest Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was assassinated in Colombo by a suspected sniper of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) a decade ago. His death was mourned by the nation at large as a tremendous loss to the country. The void caused in Sri Lanka’s foreign affairs sphere after the demise of this great statesman was never filled properly.
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I have written extensively about Lakshman Kadirgamar in the past. I shall therefore rely on some of those writings in compiling this commemorative article about him.
Let me begin on a personal note. My late father though older than Lakshman was a contemporary of his at Law College in 1954. I was born in 1954 and apparently Lakshman K was at the hospital to see the new babe. He also came for my baptism and there was a yellowing group photo of Law college students with Lakshman also included in the family album.
My father lost touch with Lakshman in the sixties but always spoke highly of his brilliance. He also said that Lakshman though inarticulate in Tamil was deeply concerned about Sinhala being made the sole official language, the 1956 and ’58 violence and the suppression of the Satyagraha campaign in 1961. My father never accepted the Tiger accusation that Kadirgamar was oblivious to the Tamil plight.
Tamil national question
I made contact in 1994 with Lakshman Kadirgamar in my professional capacity as a journalist due to the efforts of the late Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam. I was then editing my own Tamil weekly in Toronto. Kadirgamar had become a Cabinet Minister and was taking a keen interest in helping resolve the national problem.
Continue reading ‘Life and Times of Lanka’s Finest Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar’ »
by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
Death has become a mere word. The number of deaths is a simple statistic.Life is “nasty, short and brutish”. Even in such vile atmospheres where life and death are fast becoming meaningless a single man’s or woman’s death too cannot have any meaning. Yet there are people whose deaths diminish all of us. Their departure leaves us sad and shattered. The loss is not to the nearest and dearest alone but to all of humanity.
Ketheeswaran Loganathan
The death of Ketheeswaran Loganathan called generally as “Ketheesh” was one such instance. One more person capable of rising above hatred and insanity in present day Sri Lanka is no more. With his departure one more Tamil who wanted his people to live with equal rights in a united Lanka and champion that cause in the face of danger has been done away with. Only a few of us are left now.
Ketheeswaran or Ketheesh was of Jaffna origin (Thunnalai South) but born and bred in Colombo. He studied at St. Thomas’s College Mt. Lavinia and Loyola College, Madras before proceeding to the USA for higher studies. He was the scion of an elitist Tamil family.
His father was the legendary banker and economist Chelliah Loganathan. There was a time when Loganathan , General Manager of Bank of Ceylon was regarded as a powerful financier wielding much influence in Sri Lanka.The bank’s lending policies caused much controversy.Buddhika Kurukularatne in his eminently readable Sunday column refers to a description of Loganathan by the journalist par excellence Denzil Peiris. “Like a Sea Street chettiar, Mr. C. Loganathan sits in his York Street office with his greasy fingers on the national economy.”
Novelist Sir VS Naipaul, who won the Nobel Prize in literature, has died aged 85, his family have said.
Sir Vidia, who was born in rural Trinidad in 1932, wrote more than 30 books including A Bend in the River and his masterpiece, A House for Mr Biswas.
His wife Lady Naipaul called him a “giant in all that he achieved”.
She said he died at his home in London “surrounded by those he loved having lived a life which was full of wonderful creativity and endeavour”.
Geordie Greig, editor of the Mail on Sunday and a close friend, said his death leaves a “gaping hole in Britain’s literary heritage” but there is “no doubt” that his “books live on”.
Obituary: VS Naipaul
It is universally agreed that Sir Vidia Naipaul was a great writer of the English sentence; a master stylist and story-teller with a cold, clear eye for the ironies, tragedies and sufferings of mankind. But here all agreement stops.
For his many supporters, his fiction had merciless comic clarity and his travel writing a terrifying honesty – refusing to glamorise or idealise the developing world.
They hailed him as a towering intellect – delivering an original, scorching critique refreshingly devoid of political correctness: attacking the cruelty of Islam, the corruption of Africa and the self-inflicted misery he witnessed in the poorest parts of the globe.
For his numerous critics, Naipaul’s writing was troubling and even bigoted. They recognised his literary gifts but saw him as a hater: an Uncle Tom who dealt in stereotypes, paraded his prejudices and bathed in loathing for the world from which he came.
Certainly, he gave cause for their grievance. “There probably has been no imperialism like that of Islam and the Arabs”, he once declared. He was scornful of the Caribbean, wrote that Africa would revert to the ‘bush’ and often veered towards unapologetic misogyny.
“I read a piece of writing and, within a paragraph or two, I know whether it is by a woman or not,” he told one interviewer. “I think (they are) unequal to me.” Women were narrow and overly sentimental, he declared. Jane Austen, especially, did not come up to snuff.
His fellow Nobel Prize winner, Derek Walcott, was scathing. Naipaul wrote beautiful prose, he said, “scarred by scrofula” and “a repulsion towards Negroes… a physical and historical abhorrence that, like every prejudice, disfigures the observer”.
The academic, Edward Said, bridled at the attacks on Islam – saying he found it hard to believe any rational person would attack entire cultures on such a scale.
In person, Sir Vidia could be affable. But, just as often, he was as haughty, irascible and quickly provoked to bile. He enjoyed epic feuds with friend and foe, acted unspeakably to women and gloried in a general lack of sensitivity to all who crossed his path.
When Salman Rushdie went into hiding after The Satanic Verses, for instance, Naipaul described the fatwa as “an extreme form of literary criticism.” Then he threw back his head and laughed.
Trinidad
Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was born in rural Trinidad on 17 August 1932. The island of his birth was a complicated post-colonial patchwork of racial tensions and subtle hierarchies.
His grandparents had been labourers: part of the great nineteenth-century Indian diaspora who had settled in the Caribbean. The young Vidia was raised as a Hindu, part of a displaced community within a plantation society. It was a blend of histories, customs and ethnic identities which later formed an important part of his work.
Naipaul’s father, Seepersad, was a journalist for the Trinidad Guardian who revered Shakespeare and Dickens. He would read the great works of European literature aloud to his children – giving the young Vidia an burning ambition for writing, a “fantasy of nobility” and a “panic about failing.”.
He attended the Queen’s Royal College, proving himself an able student. On graduating, he won a government scholarship giving him entry to the Commonwealth university of his choosing. In 1950, he arrived in Oxford.
Image copyright Meager Image caption Naipaul suffered from loneliness and depression during his time at University College, Oxford. He found it less than intellectually stimulating.
Depression
University College was a time of poverty and terrible loneliness. Isolated and unsure of his future, Naipaul became severely depressed. On an impulse, he took a trip to Spain where he quickly ran out of money. There was a frustrated suicide attempt when the gas meter ran out.
His saviour was his father, with whom he kept in touch by letter: a correspondence Naipaul later published as Letters Between a Father and a Son (1999).
He harboured little affection for his homeland, describing Trinidad as an “unimportant, uncreative, cynical… dot on the map”. But nor did he warm to Britain either, finding it a second-rate country of “bum politicians, scruffy writers and crooked aristocrats.”
He moved to London with his new wife, Patricia Hale – who he had met at college. His father died and Naipaul found himself in yet another small, isolated world – this time as an aspiring writer. “I became my flat, my desk, my name.”
With a growing emotional and physical detachment, he began to write about his childhood. His first three books – The Mystic Masseur (1957), The Suffrage of Elvira (1958) and Miguel Street (1959) – were set in the Caribbean and published in quick succession.
To support himself, he churned out book reviews and made programmes for the radio. “I was,” he said, “an accomplished hack.”
Masterpiece
Then came his undoubted masterpiece. A House for Mr Biswas took more than three years to write and, by the time of completion, he knew much of it by heart. But beneath the masterful comic writing lay such a series of raw emotions, he barely ever looked at it again.
It was a sprawling, Dickensian family chronicle about one man’s dreams of independence. Mr Biswas was from Trinidad, continually striving for elusive success. He marries into an overbearing family but, without a house, cannot be the author of his own destiny.
He struggles to build it; casting off his decaying relations, creating his freedom and establishing self-respect. Above all, it was the writer’s attempt to come to terms with his own identity and the pivotal figure in his life: his father.
Biswas represented Seepersad while the character’s son, Anand, stood for himself. About their relationship, Naipaul wrote barely disguised self-analysis in the form of fiction – with sharp sentences and a merciless pen:
“Though no one recognized his strength, Anand was amongst the strong. His satirical sense kept him aloof. At first this was only a pose, an imitation of his father. But satire led to contempt… It led to inadequacies, to self-awareness and a lasting loneliness. But it made him unassailable.”
The book was a sensation, published to global acclaim in 1961. But Naipaul felt exhausted and done, for now, with writing literature. He spent the next few years travelling in the Caribbean, India and Africa – describing what he saw and reaching for a greater understanding of his own, displaced identity.
Global traveller
His writings offer a personal notion of history as a series of tragic and haphazard upheavals, leaving “half-made” developing worlds in their wake. An Area of Darkness (1964) chronicles India. Naipaul has only contempt for westerners looking to the sub-continent for a spiritual awakening.
Instead, he saw only ugliness and a smug refusal to recognise the horror of the “narrow, broken lanes with green slime in the gutters, the chocked back-to-back houses, the jumble of filth and food and animals and people, the baby in the dust, swollen-bellied, black with flies, but wearing its good-luck amulet”.
In Africa, he took up a writer-in-residence fellowship at a university in Uganda – writing The Mimic Men (1967): a novel charting the struggles of Ranjit ‘Ralph’ Singh to balance his personal life and political ambition. Combining elements of both fiction and non-fiction, it satirised, as the title suggests, West Indian efforts to mimic the behaviour of their former European masters.
He travelled widely about the continent, often depicting its life as bleak and its people primitive. In A Free State (1971) won the Booker Prize with its portrayal of a violent, post-colonial continent attracting young, idealistic whites in search of sexual freedom.
A young American, Paul Theroux, often joined him on his journeys. Years later, Theroux discovered a book he had given Naipaul in a second-hand bookshop. Offended, he published Sir Vidia’s Shadow, a book depicting his former friend as “a grouch, a skinflint, tantrum-prone, with race on the brain”. The result was an epically bitter 15-year feud.
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Naipaul’s career saw bursts of stunning creativity laced with long periods of writer’s block. Highlights included The Loss of Eldorado (1969), Guerillas (1975) and A Bend In The River (1979) – a picture of post-colonial Africa spiralling into hell.
Its first line captures Naipaul’s belief that the world is what man makes it; responsibility for its failings impossible to escape: “The world is what it is”, he wrote. “Men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place it it.”
He swung his gaze on Islamic fundamentalism in the Believers (1981). One New York Times writer observed that it bore an antipathy to the religion so naked “that a book taking a comparable view of Christianity or Judaism would have been hard put to find a publisher” in America.
In his later years, he entered an autumnal phase with The Enigma of Arrival (1987) and A Way in the World (1994), combining personal experience (though denying it was autobiographical) with the broad historical sweep of post-war migration from developing world.
Nobel Prize
A knighthood followed. And In 2001, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Academy compared him to Joseph Conrad and extolled his ability to “transform rage into precision.”
He rarely gave interviews, loathing journalists. On the rare occasion he did, he invariably proved great copy: gaily describing Tony Blair as a “pirate” whose “socialist revolution” created a “plebeian culture”, dismissing Dickens as a writer who died of “self parody” and skewering EM Forster as a man who knew nothing about India “but the garden boys whom he wished to seduce.”
Sir Vidia Naipaul will be remembered as a magical craftsman of English prose. He also believed the novel is “dead”.
He leaves behind a complex, challenging library of work which – despairing of the limitations of fiction to describe reality – occupies a space between imagination, travel-writing and autobiography in his attempt to capture the complexities of the modern world.
He saw himself as a lone, stateless observer; free of ideology, politics and illusion. To his champions, he had few equals.
For the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, Naipaul represented third-world people “not with sugary magic realism but with their demons, their misdeeds and horrors – which made them less victims and more human.”
But to his detractors, Naipaul was essentially political; bearing witness against the post-colonial world with great writing but shielded from criticism by virtue of being ‘one of them’.
Courtesy:BBC
By
Lucien Rajakarunanayake
There is diversion in the politics of the Joint Opposition, moving away from the defeat of the Yahapalana coalition and plans for the coming presidential and general elections, to the demand for the office of Leader of the Opposition.
The big debate in parliament this week was over declaring the JO’s leading member in parliamentary business, Dinesh Gunawardena, as Leader of the Opposition. The JO is not a registered party in parliament, though a group with at least 70, in a house of 225 members.
Dinesh Gunawardena could certainly be a good Leader of the Opposition, with his experience in parliament as an MP and Minister, and his personal and political background. His personal suitability apart, there is the political reality of the JO. The leader of the JO is none other than Mahinda Rajapaksa, functional leader of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), former Prime Minister and Executive President, and the mover and shaker of the JO today.
Is it not strange the JO does not call for Mahinda Rajapaksa as Leader the Opposition (L/O), but keep pushing for Dinesh G?
By Saman Indrajith
Speaker Karu Jayasuriya yesterday said the status quo would remain as regards the post of the Opposition Leader in Parliament. It is currently held by TNA Leader R Sampanthan.
Making a special announcement at the commencement of sittings yesterday, the Speaker said that his final decision was that the constitutionality and Parliament tradition did not warrant any change in the post of the Opposition Leader.
Jayasuriya, however, assured that he would allocate more time and grant more space in Parliamentary committees for the Joint Opposition in keeping with the number of MPs within its ranks.
By
Gopalkrishna Gandhi
(Author,Scholar and Diplomat Gopalkrishna Gandhi who served as India’s High Commissioner in India is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and Rajaji)
“Jakkirathaiya irunga,” he said in Tamil, over which his command was legendary. “Take care” is how the phrase would translate. But in the way he said it, laying stress on the double ‘kk’, I could see he meant to say, “Take every care.” This was on August 13, 2000. I was on my way to Colombo to join duty as High Commissioner.
A federal mind
Calling on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi would have been on the wish list and task list of any Indian envoy on her or his way to Sri Lanka. But, for me, this was not just about protocol. Nor was it about politics, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) then being a crucial presence in the National Democratic Alliance government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was about plain common sense, sheer self-interest. There was no way I would present letters of credence in Colombo without finding out what Tamil Nadu’s senior-most and completely wide-awake leader thought about the island nation’s travails, the present and future state of its Tamil population and that of the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam’s supremo, Velupillai Prabhakaran. To go to Colombo without the ‘input’ — to use a crassly opportunistic expression — of a veteran of Tamil Nadu’s political chemistry would be absurd. What I needed and was to get from him was the insight, as knowledgeable as it was detached, of ‘one who knew’. The hinterland of any foreign policy is ground knowledge of the roots of that policy in the soil of its origin.
It was not easy, even for one on ‘relevant’ official duty, to get an appointment with the Chief Minister. He had his hands more than full with the complexities of Tamil Nadu’s polity, where facing the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and its charismatic leader J. Jayalalithaa meant being alert 24×7; where running a government of which he was the alpha and the omega meant working harder than the mind and body could take. And where, to make matters more complex for him, explaining to the people of Tamil Nadu how and why India-Sri Lankan relations were a foreign policy matter and foreign policy was the prerogative of the Union government was just about impossible. He was on the cusp of India’s federal dilemmas.
A lesser politician could have played politics on that fluid crest, just to remain ‘on top’. But, as the direct successor-in-office to C.N. Annadurai (CNA) who had given up secession as the DMK’s policy goal, he was going to do nothing of the kind.
by
K. Venkataramanan
It is the misfortune of some leaders that public perception, based on their recent actions and political positions, tends to overshadow their long history of engagement with an issue. It is so with M. Karunanidhi, who was an outspoken champion of the cause of the Sri Lankan Tamils for five decades, but whose perceived “inaction” in the final days of the civil war in the island nation in 2009 stuck to his reputation during the sunset of his life.
A. Amirthalingam, SJV Chelvanayagam & M. Karunannidhi-pic courtesy of: The Hindu
To his legion of supporters, Mr. Karunanidhi was ‘Tamil Inaththalaivar’ or, ‘the leader of the Tamil race’. He wore the appellation with some pride in the prime of his political career, but not many believed in it in the end. Much of the hatred and disdain that he suffered came after May 2009, the month that saw the demise of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, its leader V. Prabhakaran and Mr. Karunanidhi’s own reputation as a lifelong supporter of the Tamil cause.
It was somewhat unfair as he was not only a friend of many Sri Lankan Tamil leaders, but also commanded much respect from Tamil federalist politicians. He was one of the few Indian leaders who had empathy for the plight of the Tamils across the Palk Bay, as well as deep understanding of the political problem underlying the ethnic conflict.
While many may differ with him for advocating a separate Tamil Eelam, he had made it amply clear that he primarily stood for a just solution for the Tamils.
By S.S.Selvanayagam
Firebrand Buddhist monk Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero, known for his hard-line approach, was jailed yesterday for six years after being found guilty of contempt of court over his conduct during a court hearing regarding the case of missing journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda.
Gnanasara Thero, the Secretary General of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS),was found guilty of four charges filed by the Attorney General’s Department for his behaviour. He was convicted on four counts of contempt of court, receiving terms of four years each on the first and the second counts, six years on the third and five for the fourth, all to run concurrently.
In 2016, Gnanasara Thero interrupted a court hearing over the abduction of the journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, in which military intelligence officials were accused. The monk, disagreeing with the proceedings of the Court, shouted at the presiding judge and lawyers as the accused military men were refused bail. The same day, he also threatened the wife of the missing journalist, Sandhya Eknaligoda.
By
Dharani Thangavelu
Muthuvel Karunanidhi, former chief minister of Tamil Nadu and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president, is dead, the Kauvery Hospital in Chennai announced today. “With deep anguish, we announce the demise of our beloved Kalaignar Dr M. Karunanidhi on 7. 8. 2018 at 6.10 pm. Despite the best possible efforts by our team of doctors and nurses to resuscitate him, he failed to respond,” said the statement from the hospital.
“We profoundly mourn the loss of one of the tallest leaders of India and we share the grief of the family members and fellow Tamilians worldwide,” it added.
At 4.30 pm Tuesday, a statement from Chennai’s Kauvery Hospital, where the five-time Tamil Nadu chief was being treated for the past 11 days. “Despite maximum medical support, his vital organ functions continue to deteriorate. His condition is extremely critical and unstable,” said a statement from the Kauvery Hospital on Tuesday evening, 4.30 pm.
Meanwhile, an internal circular from Tamil Nadu DGP T K Rajendran directed the police to be on high alert. “Please direct your strength (ADSP, DSPs Inspectors, SIs and ORs) available in each district/city to report immediately in uniform before the respective commissioner of police or district SPs for urgent law and order bandobast duty.” It also added: “Zonal IGPs concerned shall utilize the manpower within the zone depending upon the requirement.”
By
A.S.Panneerselvan
(This Article originally published in “Frontline Magazine”was Reproduced on this Blog on June 9th 2017.It is Being posted again due to its current timeliness)
THE 1957 elections to Parliament and the State Assemblies constituted a defining moment. It established the democratic credentials of a country newly liberated from colonial rule; it was the first round of elections after the linguistic reorganisation of the States; and it was the first indication that the Indian National Congress could no longer invoke the freedom struggle to win popular support as people started evaluating governance.
It was the year two brilliant orators, one in Hindi and the other in Tamil, entered Parliament and a State Assembly, respectively: A.B. Vajpayee made his Lok Sabha debut and M. Karunanidhi entered the Legislative Assembly. At a deeper level, these two politicians represent two contending and confronting ideas about India. Vajpayee represents a homogeneous, uniformed, monolithic imagination of India. Karunanidhi represents a heterogenous, varied, multi-tiered and multilayered imagination of the country.
By
D.B.S.Jeyaraj
One of the darkest chapters in the sphere of Sri Lankan ethnic relations was the widespread anti-Tamil violence that occurred thirty – five years ago during the fourth week of July in 1983. Although the tragic history of post – independence Sri Lanka records that the Tamils of Sri Lanka were subjected to mass –scale mob violence in the years 1956, 1958, 1977, 1981 and 1983, the anti-Tamil violence of July 1983 was the most horrible of them all. It remains etched in memory even after 35 years as “Black July 1983”. I have written about the dark happenings of July 1983 extensively in the past. However I intend re-visiting the events of “Black July” briefly in these columns to denote the 35th anniversary of the terrible pogrom.
When writing about “Black July” one is conscious of the negative connotations in using the colour “black” to describe something bad and evil and the colour white for pure and good. In this age of “political Correctness” these usages have been challenged and debunked as insidious vestiges of racism. Wittingly and unwittingly these usages keep promoting racist stereotypes of colour.Nevertheless it is difficult to adopt such a politically correct stance in the Sri Lankan context as the description “Black July” has pervaded national consciousness. Avoiding such references to Black July would be particularly impossible in writing about the violent events of July 1983.
Continue reading ‘“Black July”: Thirty-fifth Anniversary of 1983 Anti-Tamil Pogrom.’ »
by
Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka
In a speech to the Inter-Religious Forum on the 35th anniversary of the anti-Tamil violence of Black July ’83, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga made an impassioned plea for either a new Constitution or a Constitutional Amendment to resolve the long-standing ethno-national question. The enterprise is flawed and fraught.
1. Even if one assumes for the sake of argument that a new Constitution may be desirable or even ideal, this does not prove it is necessary, still less imperative.
2. It is almost certainly not the case that what CBK deems desirable or necessary is in fact politically feasible.
3. In her effort to achieve the ideal or the desirable, she may counter-productively reinforce the political, social and ideological tendencies she is seeking to combat, and wreck the laudable goal she is striving to achieve.
CBK’s ‘The Package Reloaded’ will give rise to a far more virulently nationalist regime than that of her immediate successor.
By
Camelia Nathaniel
The Cabinet has approved a proposal made by President Maithripala Sirisena to declare the holy shrine of Our Lady of Madhu a sacred area. The President visited the Madhu Shrine on Sunday.
This is a most welcome measure for Roman Catholics in the country.
Madhu is a mystic jungle shrine dedicated to Mother Mary and venerated not just by the Catholics of this country, but by members of all religious faiths. It is situated in a remote area in Mannar.
For more than 400 years, Catholics as well as non-Catholics have gathered around Our Lady of Madhu and it is believed that this holy shrine has miraculous powers which have served the spiritual needs of Sri Lankans from different walks of life, ethnicities, religions and different areas of the country.
By
Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka
Here’s a news flash; the political solution to the Tamil question exists and has been around for a while. Thousands died in two civil wars to proclaim and defend that solution. Vijaya Kumaratunga and K Pathmanabha were martyrs to that cause. And yet, those who should cherish the cause they were martyred for and the survival and entrenchment of that democratic reform act as if it didn’t happen.
While the political solution exists, Sri Lankan politics is increasingly divided into two camps: One camp consists of those, mainly neoliberals and liberal-leftists who ignore the existing solution for which rivers of blood flowed, and try to leap over it to something they regard as more advanced—and in so doing, run the risk of effacing what has been achieved. The other camp consists of neoconservative and ultranationalists who seek to ignore, bypass and bury the existing solution—thereby running the risk of opening the gates to a far looser and more radical restructuring of the state.
There were two civil wars that swirled around the political solution. Northern extremism lost that war but are still trying to fight it by other means, vaulting over the existing reform and making for a loose federalism transitional to separation. Southern ultra-nationalism which lost the civil war is trying to reopen it and paralyze and dismantle the reformist solution that exists.
Why is there so much aversion to the existing reform? The secret lies in two contending ideas of Sri Lanka; of what Sri Lanka is or should be.
By
Pramod De Silva
It is now exactly 31 years since the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was signed in Colombo on July 29, 1987, between Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene amidst political turmoil in Colombo and military advances in the North.
The Accord was signed “Attaching utmost importance to nurturing, intensifying and strengthening the traditional friendship of Sri Lanka and India, and acknowledging the imperative need of resolving the ethnic problem of Sri Lanka, and the consequent violence, and for the safety, well-being and prosperity of people belonging to all communities of Sri Lanka”.
India always took a keen interest in the ethnic conflict and related developments in Sri Lanka, mainly because of the Tamil Nadu factor. The Tamil populations in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka’s North shared the same linguistic, cultural and religious heritage and it would have been naive to suggest that the Central Government in New Delhi as well as the Tamil Nadu administration would take no interest in developments in Sri Lanka.
By Frances Bulathsinghala
The July 1983 anti-Tamil riots is a watershed in the recent history of this country, and 35 years later, with a three-decade war over and thousands killed, we are still left asking ‘Quo Vadis Lanka?’
This writer was seven years old when Colombo went up in flames on a seemingly ordinary July day. As a child, I did not know that 13 members of the government military had been killed in an ambush by the then fledging rebel outfit, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Neither did I know then that, twenty years later, I will be covering Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict and the 2002 peace process as a journalist. All I knew was that I was travelling in a school van with four Tamil female teachers wedged in our midst. I remember that these teachers were shaking in fear and trying hard to look nondescript with their pottus removed from their forehead.
To recall now the carnage of that afternoon is like bringing forth a horror movie. Our van was travelling to Panadura, about 25km outside Colombo. The driver drove through flames and often nearly lost his nerve every time mobs asked us to halt, demanding if there were any Tamils in the van. Several times along the way, the driver was asked for petrol. Thankfully, this petrol being used to burn people alive I did not see, as my mother forced me and the other children travelling in that vehicle to ‘sleep’.
Having in July 1983 mourned the deaths of 13 soldiers, by 2003, Sri Lanka had mourned thousands of its youth.
Covering the 2002 peace process for a national newspaper as a staff journalist and for a couple of South Asian publications as a correspondent, I recall the many interviews with parents of cadres, with female cadres and with rebels of diverse ranks, and being amazed at how some of them had grown up in the South and come to the North only after July 1983.
By
Vishwamithra 1984
“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”
~Aung San Suu Kyi
Ceylon Civil Service, later transformed into Sri Lanka Administrative Service, has been a dignified public service.
‘It functioned as part of the executive administration of the country in various degrees until Ceylon gained self-rule in 1948. Until it was abolished on 1 May 1963 it functioned as the permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees that supported the Government of Ceylon’ (Source: Wikipedia).
Among the great men who peopled this strikingly distinct public service were Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam (The first Ceylonese Civil Servant), Shirley Amarasinghe, Raju Coomaraswamy, Sir Richard Aluvihare, M J Perera, G V P Samarasinghe, Bradman Weerakoon, M D D Peiris and Mahi Wickremaratne.
Outside the Civil Service per se, there were some outstanding public servants, who contributed immensely to the enrichment of the public life of the nation. Amongst them were Dr Wickrema Weerasooria, Lal Jayawardene and Warnasena Rasaputra.
All these gentlemen were not devoid of politics. They certainly would have had their personal political thinking and even might have had their personal biases right throughout their careers.
Yet, they did not go before the television cameras and openly canvass public opinion on behalf of their masters.
That is the legacy, in addition to their splendid work as public servants, which they left behind- a total apolitical demeanour before the public.
By
Amali Mallawaarachchi
The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna has no future other than relying upon the Rajapaksas, Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando said yesterday. Fernando expressed his disappointment over the political sycophancy displayed by the Pohottuwa party towards the Rajapaksa family.
Minister Fernando also criticised former Minister Basil Rajapaksa for saying that they will abolish the anti-corruption special high court when they regain power. “How irresponsible are they to say this? They are saying that when they come to power, they will abolish these establishments. These high courts have not been established to take revenge.”
DMK chief M Karunanidhi, being treated for fever due to urinary tract infection, was shifted to a private hospital from his residence here early today (28) due to dip in blood pressure and is now stable, the hospital said.
The 94-year-old leader was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of Kauvery Hospital around 1:30 am.
A bulletin issued at 8 pm said “former Chief Minister Karunanidhi’s health condition continues to remain stable with ongoing active medical support.
He is continuously being monitored and treated by the panel of expert doctors in the ICU.”
Earlier the hospital said he was admitted after his blood pressure had dropped.
(Former Cabinet Minister and Sri Lanka Podu Jana Party Chairman Prof.G.L.Peiris has written a letter to the External Resources Division of Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry Seeking Factual Information About the Moragahakanda Kaluganga Multi-purpose Development Project.The full text of the letter is as follows)
The Director General,
Department of External Resources,
Secretariat Building,
Colombo 01
Dear Sir,
Factual Information Regarding ‘Moragahakanda Kalu Ganga’ Multipurpose Development Project
I wish to invite your attention to the remarks made by His ExcellencyPresident Maithripala Sirisena at the ‘Moragahakanda Kalu Ganga’ multipurpose irrigation project ceremony held on 23rdJuly 2018.As a citizen of Sri Lanka and alsoas Chairman of the Sri Lanka PodujanaPeramuna (SLPP) and Former Minister of External Affairsof the Government of Sri Lanka, Iam keen to know the factual position regarding the implementation of ‘Moragahakanda Kalu Ganga’ multipurpose project in the backdrop of these remarks. His Excellency the President declared to the public at thisceremony that the project implementation and financing was not done by the Department of External Resources and that the benefit of having access to water,particularly to the people in poverty-stricken districts, had been denied by the previous government.
By
Meera Srinivasan
The geopolitical contest between India and China in Sri Lanka is no secret, but it has never been as blatant as was seen in developments last week.
Cabinet spokesperson Rajitha Senaratne, in a recent media briefing, spoke of Sri Lanka having to “balance” the two powers, in the context of China holding a majority stake in the southern Hambantota port, and a proposed joint venture giving India a 70% stake in running the nearby Mattala airport.
Sri Lankans were hardly surprised by Mr. Senaratne’s comments, which simply reflected Colombo’s challenge in this “balancing act” with its immediate neighbour and a willing lender. How this played out at the Cabinet meeting the previous day is more significant.
By Steve James
Britain’s House of Commons Standards Committee has suspended Ian Paisley, Jr., Member of Parliament for the North Antrim constituency in Northern Ireland, for 30 days from September 4. Paisley was found to have committed “serious misconduct” by actions “of a nature to bring the House of Commons into disrepute.” Paisley is only one of three MPs to be suspended for this length of time since 1949.
The move imperils the fragile British government of Theresa May, dependent as it is for a parliamentary majority on Paisley’s party, the right wing pro-Brexit Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Paisley has even been suspended from the DUP itself, “pending further investigation.”
He is also likely to be the first sitting British MP ever to face a recall by-election challenge. Under the terms of the Recall of Parliament Act, recall petitions must be available for his constituents in North Antrim to sign for six weeks. If 10 percent of voters favour a recall by-election, it must be held unless a general election is less than six months away.
The standards committee found that Paisley failed to register two lavish holidays paid for by the Sri Lankan government. According to the committee, the 2013 trips involved “business-class air travel, accommodation at first-class hotels, helicopter trips and visits to tourist attractions for Mr. Paisley and his wider family.”
By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham
Many articles appeared in the newspapers week to mark the 35th anniversary of the communal pogrom of July 1983 in Sri Lanka, commonly known as’ Black July’ riots. It was the illustrious editor and political analyst of international fame, the late Mervyn de Silva who coined the term ‘Black July’ in his now defunct magazine ‘Lanka Guardian’.
The anti -Tamil violence that spread all over the island three and a half decades ago was a watershed in the history of Sri Lankan politics, and in the relations between the Sinhalese, the majority community, and the largest minority community, the Tamils.
Nothing could ever again be the same. It was not merely the enormity of the violence that astonished everybody, but the fact that it had really happened.
The number of those who were killed in the violence that spread over more than a week was estimated to be in the region of 3,000, while there was no proper estimation of the damage to property.
By
Daniel Alphonsus
MYTH 1: Chinese lending is commercial.
FACT:Since 2012 most Chinese lending is concessionary.
In the last five years Sri Lanka’s loans from China EXIM Bank, amounting to 3.1 billion dollars, were all concessionary – fixed at 2%.Sri Lanka also borrowed 400 million dollars from China Development Bank in 2014 at near commercial rates (roughly between 3-5% ).
For context, Sri Lanka’s borrowings from international markets are more expensive, generally over 5%. On the other hand,China’s concessionary finance is still a fair bit dearer than World Bank, ADB or JICA loans. For example, interest payments on the one billion dollar Hambantota port cost about 25 million dollars per year while interest for the JICA funded 1.7 billion dollar LRT is expected to cost 17 million per year. This difference is not minor. Over the years small annual payments can add up. So far, Sri Lanka has paid 31 million dollars in interest alone for the 200 million dollar Mattala airport.
by Shamindra Ferdinando
Wartime Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on Thursday (July 26) told Colombo-based senior Tamil print and electronic journalists that countrywide economic empowerment was the key to post-war stability.
Rajapaksa stressed the pivotal importance of economic empowerment of all communities, particularly those who had been denied of opportunities due to the conflict.
Chairman of the civil society organization Viyathmaga, Rajapaksa said so when the Tamil media sought his views on a gamut of issues, ranging from the status of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution enacted consequent to the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord to the government responsibility in respect of squatters.
By
Sarath de Alwis
“When words lose their meaning and their capacity to bind those who use them, neither democracy nor the rule of law can long survive.” ― Jurisprudence scholar Austin Sarat
This essay is about the exposure in the New York Times and the two responses from former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Political Leaders claim the power and the prerogative to alter reality to fit their purpose and serve their interests. Their public pronouncements are marked by their contempt for facts as such, and facts depend in their opinion , entirely on the power of the person who fabricates it.
This essential bit of wisdom is borrowed from Hannah Arndt’s seminal work“Origins of Totalitarianism” .
Oxford Dictionaries are the global leaders in the business of language usage. The editors of this respected repository of English usage observe the convention of deciding on what they call “The Word of the Year’. It is a word or expression that has attracted the greatest interest over the preceding 12 months.
When taken in the context of events in Sri Lanka, it seems, the distinguished editors of the Oxford Dictionaries are extremely percipient and accurate.
by
Anurangi Singh
The case filed regarding two attempts to assassinate Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian, M.A. Sumanthiran will be taken up tomorrow, July 30 at the Colombo High Court to serve indictments on the suspects.
In January 2017, Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) reported to the Killinochchi Magistrate’s court that they had apprehended five suspects in connection with plotting the assassination of the Member of Parliament from the Jaffna District. The suspects, Karalasingham Kulendran, Gnanasekaralingam Rasmadan, Murugaiya Thawendran, Welayudan
Wijeyakumar and Lewis Mariyanagam Ajanthan were apprehended by the TID in 2017.
By
Kishali Pinto Jayawardene
There is little doubt that the findings of United Nations Special Rapportuer on Countering Terrorism, Ben Emmerson on the sorry fate of Sri Lanka’s justice system, particularly in regard to the continuance of a ‘culture of impunity’ are significantly troubling.
‘A fate worse than death’
Reporting to the Human Rights Council earlier this week, the Special Rapportuer reflected on a recent visit to Sri Lanka with angst. He expressed serious apprehensions that ‘the most senior judge responsible for terrorism cases in Colombo informed the Special Rapporteur that in over ninety per cent of the cases he had dealt with so far in 2017, he had been forced to exclude essential evidence because it had been obtained through the use or threat of force’ (at paragraph 25). It was also pointed out that the National Human Rights Commission’s (HRCSL) view was that ‘torture in custody was widespread, systemic, institutionalised and formed a major priority in its work.’
A particular focus was that Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) pre-trial detainees languish in prison for years without being actually tried for an offence. According to the Emmerson report (at paragraph 15), reflecting statistics provided by the Office of the Attorney General, ‘out of 81 prisoners at the time in the judicial phase of their pretrial detention, 70 had been in detention without trial for over five years and 12 had been in detention without trial for over ten years.’
As he rightly notes, such lengthy administrative detention without judicial review violates rights. The risk of torture in these cases is correspondingly higher with eighty per cent of of those arrested under the PTA in late 2016 complaining of torture and physical ill-treatment (at paragraph 25).
By
Javid Yusuf
For a considerable period of time, the world associated Sri Lanka with tea. After the advent of Sirimavo Bandaranaike as the world’s first woman Prime Minister, Sri Lanka was identified with the Bandaranaike name. From 1996, when the country won the Cricket World Cup, Sri Lanka has been synonymous with its achievements in Cricket.
Today, two decades after that pinnacle of achievement, we are struggling to stay at the top in the game which has unified the country, with the feats of our cricketers doing us proud. When Arjuna Ranatunge gently deflected the ball past slips to score the winning run in Lahore that famous day, all Sri Lankans stood up and cheered the team which, by sheer teamwork and the amazing leadership of the Sri Lanka skipper, achieved the impossible, comprehensively defeating the mighty Australians.
However, days after the victory, things began to unravel within the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) administration. Ana Punchihewa who had been at the helm of SLC, when it achieved its greatest success, found himself deposed from that position.
Very few raised the unfairness of such a change whereby, the head of the administration, at the time of victory, was replaced. And from that day onwards it has been ups and downs in the administration of SLC, with a scramble for positions within the Controlling body.
Continue reading ‘Urgent Need to Restore State of Cricket To Its Former Glory in Sri Lanka.’ »
A Kuwaiti woman bit a woman customs officer and assaulted four others at the Bandaranaike international airport Friday when she was prevented from smuggling in a pet dog without quarantine.
The 32-year-old woman and her 29-year-old male partner went on the rampage attacking customs agents after they were told that their dog could not enter the country without following quarantine rules.
By
S.Venkat Narayan
Political leaders cutting across party lines made a beeline on Friday for the residence of Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the 94-year-old ailing patriarch of the Dravid Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Chennai, the party’s working chief and his son M.K. Stalin said his father’s condition is improving.
By
Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka
“That is my inspiration, that Pakistan should have that kind of humanitarian state, where we take responsibility for our weaker classes. The weak are dying of hunger. I will try my best – all of my policies will be made to raise our weaker classes, for our labourers … for our poor farmers…” –Imran Khan
Imran Khan’s victory in the Pakistani elections is of enormous and positive significance for all of us in South Asia. His win is of course in keeping with the global trend of the triumph of populism over the political establishment and old political parties being eclipsed by relatively new ones or ‘third force’ parties. Imran is usually described as ‘populist’, while his party the PTI is classified as ‘centrist’ and his own personal views on issues of religion is defined as ‘liberal’. That is a welcome combination that we have yet to see in contemporary Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan politics and politicians as well as aspirant political leaders, from the Opposition and the Government, have much to learn from Imran Khan. If they want to know how to win given the global Zeitgeist, they must know which policies and profile to adopt and which are bound to fail. In this sense, Imran Khan provides an example for politicians throughout South Asia—an example of what wins elections and which kind of leader the people turn to in these troubled times.
While Imran Khan will be a first-time Prime Minister, and he was known to an earlier generation as a star of world cricket, he is in no sense a novice to politics and social issues. Holder of an Honors degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford, Imran retired from cricket, put into practice his concern for the poor by starting a cancer hospital in which 70% of the patients were poor and treated for free. He went on to build a second and follow it up with a university, both of which gave weightage to the poor. After building the cancer hospital, Imran went on to form his political party the PTI in 1996, which has finally won “after 22 years of struggle” as Imran said. He was twice elected to Pakistan’s Parliament.
In a long televised address claiming victory, Imran rolled out his policies and made solemn promises to the Pakistani people. What struck me was the stark difference between his discourse and those of Sri Lankan politicians and political aspirants today.
By the Avocado Collective
Corruption is a luxury cruiser sailing exclusively outside Europe and non-Anglo waters, it seems, somehow finding safe harbour only in our parts of the world.
So it’s no surprise the recent New York Times (NYT) article, ‘How China Got Sri Lanka to Cough up a Port,’ muddies four distinct issues: Mahinda Rajapaksa’s alleged corruption, Sino-Lanka economic ties, alleged Chinese expansionism, and Magampura Port’s viability.
The NYT allegations and selective facts are blatant: Their estimates of ship arrivals to Hambantota use 2012 data, rather than the over-10-times higher 2017/18 figures. Imputations of China funding the Rajapaksa campaign repackage a now-buried tale first published by Lanka’s State-owned Daily News in 2015. A key informant for the piece is a recently-appointed Editor-in-Chief of state-owned Sunday Observer. Another, is the disgraced former Finance Minister of the doomed Yahapalanaya project.
Meanwhile, the former Government (now Opposition) denies being funded by China, and the current Government (former Opposition) denies pressure to “cough up” Magampura Port by China. So where does this all this back-and-forth respiratory rasping leave us? Cough-cough!
We need a historical and geopolitical clearing of the throat here. Let’s contextualise Hambantota’s erased history of suffering, the counter-hegemonic role played by China in the global economy, and Sri Lanka’s need for industrialisation.
By
Dimuthu Attanayake
TNA Legislator M.A. Sumanthiran, recalls being 19 years old when communal violence rocked the capital city in July 1983. Packed off to Jaffna where the Government thought Tamil families residing in Colombo and other parts of the south would be safer, he recalls an arduous four-day journey in a small cargo ship, with no food provisions on board. The memory of the communal riots has left a lasting legacy – the feeling that such attacks could happen at any time, because they were Tamils. Sumanthiran explains in a poignant interview with the Sunday Observer this week, as the country marks 35 years since horrendous violence was unleashed against people of his community
On the Morning of July 25, Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarian Mathiaparanan Abraham Sumanthiran, was a 19-year-old student preparing for his A/L Examinations. As a result he was at his home in Campbell Place, Dehiwala to pursue his studies. He recalls mobs arriving in broad daylight, carrying swords, poles and torches alike. These mobs were transported in vehicles and dropped off at different locations. “They had the electoral register in hand, they knew where the Tamils were, and they just went to these houses,” he says.
At the time there was a Buddhist temple down his road. The Viharadhipathy from this temple walked to the top of the road and stopped the mob, who then set fire to the first house, before leaving, the prominent Tamil legislator recalled in an interview last week. A second mob, which reached the lane from the bottom of the road in the afternoon, proceeded to attack several houses. Again, the monk appeared to stop them, Sumanthiran said. “Our house was left unscathed, but some people arrived again in the evening and threatened saying they will be back in the night. This compelled us to leave our house and take refuge in the house of then Chairman of the Insurance Corporation, Chanaka De Silva, who was my father’s boss,” he says.
by Thiru K. Thirukumaran
Here we are again at another anniversary of the pogrom in Sri Lanka known as ‘Black July’.
The violence was a harbinger that dissipated Tamil life in the city of Colombo especially, and to the generation of that my father. It escalating a brutal war along with triggering an island-wide mass migration of Tamils for 30 plus years is history.
My father’s generation was an important component and formed a significantly affluent presence in the other ways also diverse as Tamils living in Colombo. The generation of my father, having been born in the north during pre-independence Ceylon or shortly thereafter, then notably in vast numbers moved to Colombo. There they built their professional education/career/entrepreneurship, family, indulging in the arts and spiritual part of their enriched lives. And they are diminishing in number in the capital city nowadays.
Continue reading ‘The countdown of generational first-hand stories: ‘Black July’ 35 years later’ »
By
P.K.Balachandran
Over the past year, as India kept making a bid to acquire the Mattala airport in South Sri Lanka, which is universally derided as the “World’s Emptiest Airport” with little or no traffic, many have wondered why New Delhi wants to buy into a failed enterprise with little or no perceivable prospect of turning the corner.
Some said it was a vain move to “match” and “checkmate” China’s growing influence in Sri Lanka. Many wondered if India can ever go to war with China over some military activity by the latter in Hambantota when, nearer home in Doklam on the Bhutan-China border, it scrupulously avoid going to war and settled the matter diplomatically and quietly, only letting the media spew fire and brimstone.
By
Dr.Sudharshan Seneviratne
(Text of Speech delivered by Sudharshan Seneviratne (Emeritus Professor. University of Peradeniya) at the 58th Annual General Meeting of the Sri Lanka Library Association. Colombo on June 29th 2018)
Thank you for extending an invitation to share quality time with custodians of knowledge and information to our nation. It is also my privilege to dedicate this talk to the memory of the late Ian Goonatilleke, dear friend, intellectual and librarian par excellence. Each time I walk in to the central library at the University of Peradeniya memories of Ian, his smile, warmth and argumentative dialogues are yet embedded in my mind to this day.
The professional organization of librarians in Sri Lanka, founded in 1974, is now the apex body for the Library and Information Sciences. It is a relatively young organization but a critical cog keeping memory alive. Sadly, memory loss seems to be part of our national psyche at present. Memory as a vital role is echoed in the words of the late Sivanandan as he inscribed the prophetic words, “When memory dies, a people die”.
Academics, researchers, concerned citizens, students and children, the world over, are indebted to the professional Librarians. You are entrusted with the noble profession of protecting, preserving and sustaining repositories of information and knowledge to humanity. Protecting knowledge is an integral component, so essential to any civilized culture. The SLLA that has rendered a valued silent service preserving and curating information through their skills as an asset to humanity under trying and challenging circumstances. They have relentlessly engaged themselves enhancing their commitment and professionalism to face transformations and demands of the present Millennium and globalization.
By
Jayatilleke de Silva
Last week was one of hope and despair. Hope because a group of academics came out boldly in defence of the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) who was unjustly accused of being “an agent of the Tamil Diaspora”, “an LTTE agent” and ‘a traitor”.
Despair was on account of the emotionally charged and politically motivated attack on the academics, the Chairperson of the HRCSL and all citizens who differ in their opinion. That is shown in the rejoinder sent by Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera turned politician sent to the media.
The Chairperson of the HRCSL Dr. Deepika Udagama has in a press interview clarified the position of the HRCSL in this regard. The two statements –one by Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera and the other by Dr. Deepika Udagama stand out clearly in contrast. The former is emotionally charged, politically motivated, unrestrained and far from polite while the latter is an unemotional intellectual and restrained response. The two statements differ even in their tone and language, the latter being more decent and diplomatic than the former.
By
Dr.Nirmala Chandrahasan
The speech by the former State Minister of Children’s Affairs Vijayakala Maheswaran has been magnified in the media as a call by her for the return of an LTTE administration to maintain law and order and secure the safety of women in the North.
I have used the term outburst because the content of the speech is not in the form of a considered statement and is more in the nature of an emotional outburst. The sexual abuse and murder of a six-year-old child and another incident mentioned by the ex-Minister had evidently put her into an emotional state where she hit out at her own Government’s inability to maintain law and order and made her mindful of an earlier period when discipline was strongly enforced, and she suggested the revival of the LTTE as the panacea.
My objective, however, is to point out that she and others like her seemed to have missed the elephant in the room, which is the community in which these crimes are being committed and the need to try and reform this community. In this instance for example the crime itself was not committed by outsiders but by the child’s own 22-year-old relative. While the police, no doubt have a responsibility to maintain law and order, they cannot be expected to be in charge of or control the moral values and behaviour of the larger community in which these crimes take place. Vijayakala also refers to widespread drug use and alcohol imbibing prevalent in the north and refers to politicians as bringing these items into the society.
Obviously all these factors are interconnected with the prevalent sexual abuses and assaults as well as gang violence and robberies.
By
Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka
Sri Lanka won the cricket World Cup once, but never again. We started down the slippery slope almost the morning after we had reached the zenith of achievement. That was because we dismantled the winning combination which included Ana Punchihewa and Davnell Whatmore. The most crucial mistake we made was in the succession. The captaincy should have automatically devolved upon the vice-captain, who was one of the world’s best batsmen at the time; perhaps THE best. That was Aravinda de Silva. He was allowed to captain only sporadically.
The same mistake is being made by the Sri Lankan Opposition. In a situation in which the captain and commander-in chief of the national opposition, ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, cannot run for Presidential office, the obvious front runner in the choice of candidacy should be the vice-captain. There can be no question as to who the vice-captain is because the country’s citizenry sees it every night on TV news, whenever there is footage from the center of the nation’s political life, the parliament. And that man, that vice-captain, is Dinesh Gunawardena.
Now the obvious question arises as to why, though I had been mentioning Dinesh’s name for years, I had suggested Gotabhaya as candidate at one time—and why I no longer do so. I did not push early on for Dinesh though I kept dropping his name, because I remembered what another political family had done to a worthy successor who was outside the family. My father, Mervyn de Silva, was perceived as even closer to the SLFP’s Deputy Leader and the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Maithripala Senanayaka, than he was to Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike. I therefore had a ringside seat watching the rise and fall of Maithripala, a left of center populist who had progressive views on foreign policy and was supported by the Left within the coalition. When Mrs. Bandaranaike’s civic rights had been removed and she was unable to contest the Presidential election of 1982, Maithripala, if given the SLFP candidacy, might have won. Instead he was overlooked, and double-crossed by his political ally Anura Bandaranaike. Hector Kobbekaduwa, a distant cousin of the Bandaranaikes, was chosen instead, but he too was backstabbed by the Bandaranaikes as was his ally and Mrs. Bandaranaike’s son-in-law Vijaya Kumaratunga himself.
By
D.B.S.Jeyaraj
Filmmaker Sanjeewa Pushpakumara is a bright star in the cinematic firmament of Sri Lanka. His second feature film ‘Davena Vihagun’ (Burning Birds) is currently being screened in Sri Lanka. The film completed in 2016 has been shown at several international film festivals over the past two years.
Just like Pushpakumara’s first film ‘Igillenna Maaluwo’ (Flying Fish), his second feature film too has earned much kudos internationally. The jewel in the crown was the Grand Prix award for Best Film at the 15th International Film Festival and Forum on Human rights (FIFDH) in Geneva.
Continue reading ‘Sanjeewa Pushpakumara’s “Davena Vihagun” (Burning Birds) is an Authentically Realistic Film’ »
By
D.B.S.Jeyaraj
The 21 km long Puthukkudiyiruppu – Oddusuddaan road progressing through the hinterland of North – Eastern Mullaitheevu district, links Puthukkudiyiruppu on the A- 35 Paranthan – Mullaitheevu highway and Oddusuddaan on the A -34 Mankulam – Mullaitheevu highway. It was along this road that a trusted deputy of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) supremo Veluppillai Prabhakaran was killed by the deep penetration squad of the Sri Lankan armed forces on September 26th 2001. Vaithilingam Sornalingam alias “Col”Shankar the founder-chief of the tiger air wing was killed by a claymore mine hung on a tree as he was driving his two-seater four wheeler pick up vehicle alone. The killing caused shock waves amidst LTTE circles as it demonstrated the fact that the armed forces were capable of infiltrating the heartland of tiger – controlled territory and inflicting lethal damage.
The time was around 4.45 am on Friday June 22nd 2018 when a three-wheeler proceeded northwards along the 21 km Puthukkudiyiruppu-Oddusuddaan road towards the direction of Puthukkudiyiruppu. The blue three-wheeler bearing the No NP JY 8007 was signalled to stop at the Paeraaru Junction by four Policemen attached to the Oddusuddaan police station. They were Sgt Niranjan and Constables Ekanayake, Thinesh and Ratnayake.It was simply a random check to ascertain whether the driver had proper identification and authorisation documents. Initially the vehicle drove up speedily as if it intended defying the Police signal. However it suddenly screeched to a stop.
Continue reading ‘Seizure of “Tiger” Arsenal in Oddusuddaan Revives Fears of Another LTTE Revival Attempt’ »
By Namini Wijedasa
The Human Rights Commission’s (HRC) Chair Deepika Udagama this week denounced what she said were sinister efforts to interfere with the work of her institution and to bully it into adopting specific positions.
In recent weeks, the HRC–and, in particular, its Chair–was targeted by nationalist politicians. The attacks were so inflammatory that the Prime Minister’s office issued a statement on Thursday underlining that the HRC was appointed under the country’s constitution to function as an independent entity. It is a serious issue, it held, to publicly threaten the HRC’s Chairperson.
Dr Udagama, who specializes in international human rights law, was also backed by civil society groups.
They decried statements “akin to death threats, violence and hate speech” against her, in particular by Rear Admiral (Rtd) Sarath Weerasekera, former Director General of the Civil Defence Force. After personally criticizing the HRC’s chair, he called for the death penalty to be imposed on “traitors”.
“I think it’s very important to point out that we are not opposed to criticism,” Dr. Udagama said, in an interview with the Sunday Times. “That’s a fact of life, especially in human rights work. But these (attacks) are of a different nature because you can clearly see a motive to delegitimize the Commission through the prism of ethnic politics and patriotism.”
By
Mark Townsend
The UN has been sending alleged war criminals to act as peacekeepers in conflict zones, a confidential report claims.
The document, seen by the Observer, and sent to the UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations last month, claims that senior Sri Lankan officers accused of war crimes have been deployed to UN operations in Mali, Lebanon, Darfur and South Sudan.
Drawn up by the South-Africa based International Truth and Justice Project, the 41-page document, marked confidential, claims a cohort of senior Sri Lankan commanders who have been deployed to UN operations were involved in alleged abuses during the final phase of war with Tamil rebels in 2009.
By
M.A. Sumanthiran
(This article is an excerpt of a keynote speech on April 3, 2018 at the Research Congress, Inaugural session of the Post Graduate Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Peradeniya)
The topic given to me is about constitutional reforms and the constitution making exercise from a Northern perspective, and looking at it from a Northern perspective, I think this whole exercise is nearing a century, and we still haven’t resolved it.
If I had to take our minds back to the time this whole exercise began in the early 1900s – the attempt at independence, or at a different status to this British Colony, was being explored. The Ceylon National Congress pursued that. But it was in 1911, Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam started a separate movement called ‘The Tamil League’. So there started a division in the polity of this island. Not that this island had been always one single unit. It was only in 1833 after the Colebrooke-Cameron Reform Proposals that the island was made one administrative unit for administrative convenience. Until 1833 it was administered as three different units. As you in Kandy know, Kandy ceded to the British the last in 1815. Prior to that, the other two kingdoms at different times had fallen to the different colonial conquerors. But after the British took over the whole island in 1815, it was decided by the British that this island must be administered as one unit.
I have often wondered how it would have been if they’d made a different decision. They could have made two different decisions. One, they could have decided to continue as three separate units. Or, they could have decided to annex the island of Ceylon as part of the Empire in India. Both were quite plausible. But they decided to rule Ceylon as a separate entity. So this decision could have gone either that way, or, if there was no Colebrooke-Cameron proposal they could have continued as three separate units.
So it’s due to an accident of history, or rather a decision made in St. James’ Court, that we became one unit in modern times. Be that as it may, in 1926 the idea of a constitution for Ceylon, as it was being discussed, received a new idea from the Oxford returnee, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike. He wrote six letters to the Ceylon Morning Leader newspaper then, arguing that the best model for Ceylon was a Federal Arrangement. He was the first proponent of the Federal idea publicly like that. I have read those six letters. In one he even says that the model of the federal arrangement must be that which is extant in Switzerland. And as you know, Switzerland is actually a confederation. Twenty six Cantons and power is devolved more in Switzerland than in any other federal arrangement. He did not stop with writing six letters to the newspapers. He went to Jaffna and delivered a lecture – just as I’m doing today here in Kandy, coming from Jaffna – he went to Jaffna and delivered a lecture promoting Federalism. He tried to sell the idea of Federalism to Jaffna in 1926, all in the same year. Of course Jaffna was not ready to accept it.
Sri Lanka is firm on executing convicted drug dealers, and will brook no opposition President Maithripala Sirisena said as civil liberties groups and several European countries warned against resuming hangings.
The work on resuming the death penalty will go ahead whatever the opposition there is, a statement from President’s office quoted him as saying.
A meeting of prison, judicial and legal officers had been called for next Tuesday to discuss execution.
A committee will then be appointed who will decide on the persons to be executed and the dates, he had said at the foundation laying ceremony of a hospital which will specialize on kidney diseases, gifted by China.
By Ajita Kadirgamar
Cities are home to all citizens — men, women, children, the elderly and the differently- abled. This past week I attended a presentation and panel discussion on ‘Women-Friendly Cities Challenge’ hosted by the National Chamber of Commerce and World University Service Canada (WUSC) with support from the newly- formed non-profit Stand By Me LK. Originally launched in 2006, the Women Friendly Cities United Nations Joint Programme shares wise practices from all over the world to help make cities more women-friendly.
The term ‘women-friendly cities’ was not properly defined at the outset, in my opinion, which led me to raise my hand.So, by definition “Women-friendly cities are those cities where all the residents of that particular city can equally benefit from the financial, social and political opportunities presented before them.”
Continue reading ‘Can The Cities In Sri Lanka Be Regarded as “Women -Friendly” Cities?’ »
By
Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana
UNESCO has warned that it will remove the world heritage status given to Sinharaja, Dambulla and Galle Fort if they are not preserved properly, National Heritage Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe told Parliament.
The minister made this statement during a heated argument on the proposed demolition of the Mahinda Rajapaksa pavilion at the International Cricket Stadium in Galle.
“We have decided to demolish the pavilion because UNESCO has mentioned that unauthorised structures in the Galle Fort are not removed. However, we will not demolish the entire stadium,” he said.
By
Kishali Pinto Jayawardene
The fact that the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) had accepted sponsorship from tainted primary dealer Perpetual Treasuries for the holding of the 2016 Law Asia conference led to incredulous responses in some quarters when this fact was initially disclosed some weeks ago.
Before long however and in the nature of all things in this country, this was allowed to gently slip by into the ether of forgetfulness, even as the incumbent in the post of the President of the Bar sought to pass the disclosure off with an airy shrug and the explanation that this sponsorship (accepted prior to his term) was nothing extraordinary and that the funds were legally accounted for.
Integrity of the funding
But make no mistake that this explanation is, by itself, quite extraordinary, quite apart from the very fact of the sponsorship. The main issue here is not the legal accounting of the funds or indeed, who signed off on the acceptance thereof and conflicts of interests arising or not as the case may be. And at no point was an allegation made that the fund had been swindled by the Bar. The question is far more minimalistic.
It concerns the integrity of the funding being given in the first instance and the suspect connections of the man behind the sponsorship, now led out periodically in handcuffs for court hearings.Regardless of protests therein, it must surely be accepted that this was no ‘ordinary scam’, this was no ordinarily deviant businessman and certainly, this was not like any other sponsorship quite apart from the question as to whether the funds were solicited/canvassed or accepted along with other sponsors.
By Namini Wijedasa
A year-long effort by the Airline Pilots Guild of Sri Lanka (APGSL) to secure details of salaries, allowances and other benefits of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Head of Human Resources and the Chief Commercial Officer of SriLankan has borne fruit, with the details being released to the Right to Information Commission (RTIC) this Tuesday.
Also released were the cost of personal flying training of the CEO; agreement for the wet lease of one of SriLankan’s A330 aircraft to Pakistan International Airlines (PIA); agreements cancelling leases on A350-900 aircraft taken by SriLankan from Aercap; and minutes of board meetings that discussed and approved the purchase and lease of several A350 aircraft.
The RTIC had directed SriLankan to redact what is sought to be withheld on the basis of commercial confidence sections of reports commissioned by the airline from aviation specialists Nyras Ltd, SeaWorks Training and Consulting, and Seabury Consulting. These will be submitted to the Commission to be scrutinised for conformity with the RTI Act after August 21, 2018. The RTIC will make its assessment by September 11.
By
M.A.Sumanthiran
(Text of Speech by M A Sumanthiran, MP in Parliament on 20th July 2018 in Response to recent allegations made regarding Experts Panel Report of Constitutional Assembly Steering Committee)
I have obtained permission to make a personal explanation in view of certain statements made in this House yesterday while I was not here, with regard to the work of the Steering Committee of the Constitutional Assembly. As everyone knows, there were ten experts appointed to advise the Steering Committee, and all of these appointments were made unanimously by the Constitutional Assembly. That Panel of Experts was requested by the Steering Committee, on the 16th of November 2017, to submit a document to facilitate the Steering Committee to prepare a Draft Constitution. It is the Steering Committee that is tasked with the preparation of a Draft Constitution according to the Resolution adopted by Parliament unanimously, and the Panel of Experts was asked to submit a document to facilitate that process.
Hon. Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne and I, as Co-Chairs of the Management Committee, were tasked with coordinating some of the work of the Secretariat. In January this year, at the meeting of the Panel of Experts, it was decided that different groups that were appointed will make first drafts of certain chapters and then the whole Panel of Experts will meet together and discuss it and finalize the document. One expert was asked to consolidate everything together, having got all of these reports from these different panels by the end of January. By the end of January, the work had not been done by any of the panels and therefore, that expert was asked to make a first draft.
As you all know, if you are preparing a document, ten people can’t sit together, hold hands together and write the document. Generally one or two make a first draft and the others then discuss it and agree. This process went on for a long time and around May, six experts had agreed on one document. But, with regard to the information that was required by the Steering Committee, there was another process that was ongoing and that document was not ready.
Nevertheless, in May, the Steering Committee gave the Panel of Expertsonemonth’s time – they wanted two weeks’ time – but the Steering Committee gave them one month’s time to present this document. But even at the end of two months thereafter, it was not ready and at the Steering Committee meeting held two days ago, two documents were presented by the Panel of Experts. One of those documents was by six of the ten experts. The other document was by two of the experts. The other two did not subscribe to either document.
By
Lucien Rajakarunanayake
There were no Members of Parliament from the Medamulana Raja Pavula when the New York Times report of China funding the last Mahinda Rajapaksa presidential poll was debated in Parliament this week.
The quorum bell had a weird and crooked ring when it failed to gather enough members to continue the debate on an issue the Joint Opposition was largely avoiding. What was worse was that the Government, elected on a pledge to fight and eliminate the corruption of the Rajapaksa Regime, could not find enough members – just 20 – to form a quorum for this debate.
Mahinda Rajapaksa was in Singapore. Had he gone there to meet Arjuna Mahendran, who as Governor of the Central Bank stopped the initial inquiry into this Chinese company payment to the national presidential poll? There is plenty of the stuff of corruption that MR and Arjuna Mahendran could share, the related corruptions running into mountains of millions. Those absent included former Speaker and brother Chamal, and son Namal Rajapaksa.
(Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, who has been nominated as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Russia, participated as a panelist at the international conference on “21st Century, Towards the New Humanism” on 23rd January 2012 at the Russian Centre for Science and Culture.Dr. Jayatilleka’s speech was delivered during the first session chaired by Mr. Hans d’Orville (Assistant Director-General for Strategic Planning of UNESCO)
Speaking on New Humanism Ambassador Jayatilleka emphasized on the need to place the human being at the center: “[…] humanism is the closest we can get to universal good, to a universal idea. Humanism puts the human being at the center. And placing the human being at the center means to recognize that above all else, beyond national, ethnic, political, civilizational, religious, systemic, and ideological differences, one thing unites us and that is that we are all human.”
In his full speech at the Russian Centre in Paris, Dr. Jayatilleka said:
“My thanks to the Russian Cultural Centre but also to UNESCO. I am particularly thankful to the Russian Cultural Centre because Russian culture, as Ambassador Ion de la Riva said with reference to Russian literature and Tolstoy in particular, is profoundly humanistic. I would also like to make the point that Russian political ideas have had a strong streak of humanism. We think of Herzen, we think of the Decembrists and we understand that a progressive, rational, radical humanism was very much part of Russian ideas.
A Sri Lankan deported by Australia even though his partner had refugee status there was charged upon his return with illegally leaving his home country.
Thileepan Gnaneswaran, who was separated from his wife and 11-month-old daughter, arrived in Colombo Tuesday along with another 17 who had also their asylum applications rejected by Australia.
“They were taken before a magistrate and released on personal bail,” a senior police official told AFP.
“They were charged under the immigration law for leaving the country from a place other than an approved port.”
By
P.K.Balachandran
Sri Lanka’s Tamil leaders are pulling in different directions on crucial issues of common concern to the Tamils of the island.
The Chief Minister of the Tamil majority Northern Province, C.V.Wigneswaran, is stubbornly adhering to his position that a political solution of the Tamil question should precede economic development.
Giving priority to economic development schemes while going slow on the search for a political solution is like putting the cart before the horse, he says.
Wigneswaran recently wrote to President Maithripala Sirisena saying that he does not want to be part of the Task Force on Economic Development of the North and East, because the Committee is packed with Central government officials and ministers. Local elected representatives, barring himself, have been kept out.
Wigneswaran slammed the Cental government for drawing up economic development schemes without prior consultations with the provincial administration and elected representatives.
But the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) led by R.Sampanthan has been silent on the actions and utterances of the Northern Chief Minister though he is part of the TNA.
Debunking what seems to be fake news circulating in social media, former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa said former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had not issued any statement on the Joint Opposition’s Presidential candidate for 2020.
Amidst continuing controversy over the proposed implementation of capital punishment to curb the narcotic trade, the Catholic Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has said that the resumption of judicial execution should be the last option, if at all.
The Sri Lankan Church Leader said that the Holy Father Pope Francis has not accepted the death penalty which is also his own position invariably.
The following is the full text of the statement:
CLARIFICATION
My attention has been drawn to reports and comments appearing in the print and social media concerning an interview I have given on the decision by His Excellency the President and the Cabinet, to introduce a limited application of the death penalty to certain types of prisoners, whose activities are detrimental to national security, safety and the concerns of the future generations.
Unfortunately, especially in the English language media, the interview given in the Sinhala language and which appeared in the Lankadeepa newspaper of 13th July 2018 has not been correctly studied and presented and thus the public seems to have thought that I am in favour of the death penalty in general.
A Democratic Unionist MP in the UK is facing calls to quit after a watchdog recommended his suspension from the House of Commons for failing to register two family holidays funded by the Sri Lankan government.
Ian Paisley had already apologised for what he said was his “unintentional failure” to register the hospitality, which he estimated was worth £50,000.
Politicians from across the political divide in Northern Ireland have called on the high-profile MP to stand down.
The 30-day suspension recommended by a parliamentary watchdog on Wednesday could force Paisley to face a by-election.
Members who are suspended from the Commons for more than 10 days are open to a recall petition.
A by-election would be triggered if 10% of the electorate in Paisley’s North Antrim constituency sign that petition.
If rubber stamped by Parliament, the suspension will also mean Prime Minister Theresa May will be shorn of one of the 10 DUP MPs propping up her minority government during a period that could see a number of crucial Brexit votes in the House of Commons.
Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald said Paisley should do the “honourable thing” and quit.
“I think the charges made against him and findings against him are very serious,” she said.
“I would imagine his constituents in North Antrim, and certainly public opinion across Ireland, would expect that having been sanctioned in the way he’s been sanctioned then he should do the honourable thing and step down.”
The SDLP said Mr Paisley’s position was “untenable”.
Party Assembly member Colin McGrath said a 30-day suspension was not enough.
“The SDLP will be seeking a recall petition to dismiss Paisley from Westminster, and should this trigger a by-election in North Antrim, Paisley should not challenge the seat again,” he said.
Alliance Assembly member Paula Bradshaw also urged Mr Paisley to consider his position.
“Mr Paisley has let both himself and his constituents down, calling into question his personal integrity and the ability of voters to trust him,” she said.
Leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice party Jim Allister called on Paisley to refund the Sri Lankan government the money it spent on hosting him, accusing the MP of “serious and shameful” breaches of Parliament’s code of conduct.
The sanction was outlined by the House of Commons Standards Committee following receipt of the findings of an investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.
The committee said Paisley, son of late DUP founder the Rev Ian Paisley, had committed “serious misconduct” and his actions “were of a nature to bring the House of Commons into disrepute”.
The report, which said the cost of the hospitality may have been “significantly more” than Mr Paisley’s £50,000 estimate, said the Sri Lankan holidays in 2013 included business-class air travel, accommodation at first-class hotels, helicopter trips and visits to tourist attractions for the North Antrim MP and his wider family.
The trips also included meeting with Sri Lankan governmental figures.
The threshold for registering such hospitality in 2013 was around £660.
In March 2014, Paisley wrote to the then prime minister David Cameron to lobby against a proposed United Nations resolution setting up an international investigation into alleged human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.
The committee noted that in his letter, the MP did not declare the financial benefits he and his family had received from the Sri Lankan government during the previous 12 months.
Amnesty International Northern Ireland director Patrick Corrigan said: “The real outrage at the heart of this scandal is an MP attempting to have the United Kingdom government oppose a United Nations investigation into the horrific war crimes committed in Sri Lanka.”
The watchdog also recommended that Mr Paisley should now register the holidays with the parliamentary authorities.
The recommendations will need to be approved by the House of Commons before being confirmed.
Mr Paisley is due to address the House on Thursday.
The story was first reported by The Daily Telegraph in September 2017, in a report which estimated the cost of the hospitality at £100,000.
A statement issued by Mr Paisley’s lawyer on Thursday said: “My client has apologised unreservedly at the outset for his unintentional failure to register the hospitality he received.
“While accepting the decision of the House Standards Committee, he nonetheless continues to take issue with the sensationalised report in the Daily Telegraph.
“Legal proceedings are being considered.
“No further comment will be made until Mr Paisley has addressed the House on Thursday.”
A DUP spokesman said: “The party has noted the House of Commons Standards Committee’s report on Ian Paisley MP. These matters will now be considered by the party officers.”
Courtesy:Asian Mirror
(Text of a Press Release issued by the Media office of the Tamil National Alliance)
The Visiting Belgium-Sri Lanka Parliamentary Friendship Group met with the Leader of the Opposition and the Tamil National Alliance today at the office of the Leader of the opposition in parliament.
Briefing the delegation MrSampanthan highlighted that the present Sri Lankan Constitution is not enacted based on consensus. The processes of enacting a new Constitution which recognizes the multi-ethnicity and pluralistic nature of this country has begun and the draft Constitution will be placed before the steering committee on this Wednesday.
A British legislator faced suspension Wednesday for failing to disclose free luxury holidays he and his family received from the then government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa in exchange for backing Colombo at the human rights council.
Ian Paisley Jr of the Democratic Unionist Party was suspended from 30 sittings of the House of Commons, or for nearly two months, in a move that further reduced Prime Minister Theresa May’s majority at a critical time for her shaky government.
He was found guilty of breaking Westminster rules over luxury trips worth over 100,000 pounds (22 million rupees) at the cost of Sri Lankan tax payers in 2013.
By S .S. Selvanayagam
The Court of Appeal yesterday reserved for 8 August its judgment on the alleged offence of Contempt of Court against Ven. Gnanasara Thero.
The Bench comprised Justices P. Padman Surasena (President/CA) and Arjuna Obeysekera.
Senior Counsel Manohara de Silva with Anusha Perusinghe appeared for Ven. Gnanasara Thero. Deputy Solicitor General Rohantha Abeysuriya appeared for the Attorney General as Amicus Curiae.
(Text of a media releae issued on behalf of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa by his media secretary Rohan Welivita on July 18th 2018 under the heading “Alert regarding false Media Release”)
It has come to our notice that a forged document purporting to be a media release issued by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been circulated in the social media yesterday, ie., the 17th July 2018.
This forged media release purports to announce that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has officially selected Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to be the presidential candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna.