(September 23, 2010, Colombo -Lanka Polity, Ajith Perakum Jayasinghe)Today, the 23rd of September is a crucial day for Sri Lanka.
The time frame given to the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader to appoint members for the five-member parliament committee will end today and the Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa will appoint the two Tamil and Muslim representatives for the committee in accordance with the powers vested in him by the 18th amendment to the constitution.
The Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe earlier appointed Tamil National Alliance MP M.A. Sumanthiran as his representative but the TNA rejected it on the basis it opposed the 18th amendment. The Opposition Leader said his strategy was to appoint representatives that reject the position so as to disrupt the smooth functioning of the parliamentary committee. It is understandable that his party has no MPs that he is sure of rejecting the position as he expects. He wants TNA to be his scapegoat but TNA does not.
The Prime Minister is in a struggle to save his position in the second term of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa that is to start in November. He will readily appoint any Tom, Dick or Harry asked by the President. But here it seems worse than that and the President appears advised the Prime Minister to keep mum. Therefore the Premier leaves his nomination vacant and the Speaker will have the chance to appoint the two nominees to represent Tamil and Muslim communities.
Who is the Speakaer? He is non other than the President's elder brother Chamal Rajapaksa.
The President handpicked the Prime Minister. The President hand picked the Speaker. The President hand picked the two Tamil and Muslim representatives. The Opposition Leader will not participate in the parliamentary committee.
The parliamentary committee has powers only to make observations to the appointments made by the President to the 'independent' committees. The President will hand pick the members for these committees and he may regard or disregard the observations of the parliamentary committee members he hand picked. Perhaps the observations may also be hand picked by the President.
(February 04, Colombo - Lanka Polity) The opposition supporters of Sri Lanka took to the streets in Colombo yesterday and demonstrated against the 2010 presidential result and the government steps to curb democracy and freedom of expression.
Police warned to take stern action against the street protests and rumors spread preventing the participation of many cautious activists.
However, tens of thousands of people marched peaceful from Lipton Circus to Hyde Park chanting slogans against polls rigging and suppression of freedom of expression without serious police intervention. The Hyde Park, the venue of the protest rally was filled with enthusiastic opposition supporters while the roads surrounding the venue were also blocked by throning crowds.
Almost all the leaders of the opposition coalition were seen on stage sans the leaders of the Tamil National Alliance based in Northern and Eastern Provinces. Left Front presidential candidate Dr. Wickramabahu Karunaratna that campaigned against both the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the opposition common candidate Sarath Fonseka also addressed the rally.
The crowds treated the defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka with a rousing welcome.
The opposition has not still substantiated their allegations regarding the polls rigging.
However, the 2010 presidential was the most corrupt election of the history given the level of manipulation of public property for supportive propaganda of incumbent and for slinging mud at the opponent. The Election Commissioner Dayananda Dishanayaka said yesterday that he was not happy about the pre-election scenario in which the public officials and media disregarded his directives.
The police cancelled the loudspeaker licence for the rally without valid reasons in an apparent unproductive bid to disrupt it.
The rally and the march was mainly organized by the leftist People's Liberation Front (JVP). Disciplined cadres of the JVP actively participated in the protest awakening the disgruntled supporters of the major opposition United National Party (UNP).
It was a successful launch of a mass movement to win back democracy in Sri Lanka.
(January 31, Colombo - Lanka Polity) The opinion builders linked to Sri Lanka government is lacking common sense as seen in many of the stories propagated by them.
This was seen in the story of arms deals of the former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka and in the bribery drama of government coalition MP Muzammil.
However, the story of Fonseka exposing Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on war crime charges was better written by Fredrica Janz, an experienced journalist.
Latest example is the story of opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka hatching a conspiracy to overthrow the government.
We are not experts in these subjects but any person with common sense can raise doubts. Following are the patches of this loosely structured story.
Why didn't Fonseka do this when he could do it more easily as the victorious commander-in-chief of the Army?
What is the relation between booking rooms in a star hotel and the conspiracy?
What happened to the 400 army deserters that were in the hotel rooms?
What happened to their weapons said stacked in a hotel room?
How did they escape with weapons while an Army contingent had surrounded the hotel?
The President said that there was a conspiracy to kill him and his family. Why the hell is the said perpetrator is still free?
Many more questions can be raised. This script is still being built up unfortunately by unsound writers.
Apparently, the government is applying severe pressure on the war veteran in democratic politics to make him decide to flee the country.
Victor finishes the defeated in savagery. In democracy, the loser also must have a chance to compromise or to continue the fight.
(January 29, Colombo - Lanka Polity) The post-war Sri Lanka has moved into a post-presidential Sri Lanka. Main stream media is highly defensive in reporting and some pro-opposition media outlets are facing severe challenges. 'Lanka-e-News' website was illegally sealed by a group yesterday, said the staff that went there to report to duty. Criminal Investigation Department visited the office of 'Lanka' newspaper run by People's Liberation Front (JVP) and the editor is asked to report for recording a statement regarding an article related to Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
Opposition presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka has sought asylum in foreign soil while claiming the government has blacklisted his passport. The government says he plotted to assassinate the ruling family. The plot described by the Director General of the Media Center for National Security seems very naive. Booking hotel rooms and arresting of several Army personnel said to be deserters do not provide gullible evidence. However, no legal action is taken. Why? 'I don't know why?' a famous Sinhala song says.
State media continues vilifying the opposition candidate. A term that can be coined to introduce this campaign is 'idiaminization' i.e. portraying Fonseka as Idi Amin. But this Idi Amin won the confidence of at least 40% of those who voted at the presidential.
We used the phrase 'at least' since Fonseka claims victory alleging government subtly manipulated the result. The major media in Sri Lanka today is gossip and a wide spread opinion is observed regarding rigging the election based on rumors spread island wide. The opposition leaders too repeat the gossip and no concrete fact is produced to prove the allegation so far. No authority either local or international is ready to admit the allegation that is not backed by concrete evidence.
Anyway, people will lose confidence regarding elections and democracy if the politicians allow the rumor to consolidate.
(January 27, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Excerpts of a letter by Gen Sarath Fonseka to Sri Lanka's Elections Commission, following his defeat in the presidential poll. The letter has been translated from Sinhala.
Dear commissioner of elections. Before and after handing over the nomination papers, President Rajapaksa's election campaign has made great use of state resources.
Further, there have been threats, intimidation and accusations levelled against me. Many of my supporters were intimidated.
The government engaged in a campaign abusing state media and state resources to accuse me of being a foreign agent and a traitor.
Further, 10 security force personnel provided to me as a result of serious threats to my life were withdrawn.
'Handcuffed'
They were allowed to stay until after the election after your intervention. However, after the results were announced, this morning they were called back to the army police unit.
When they left to report at the army police, under the orders of the head of the army police unit, they were arrested in front of the hotel I am staying in, handcuffed and ordered to kneel down on the street.
I have also received information that the government is planning to arrest me.
The army personnel who are stationed in front of the hotel also tried a few times to forcefully enter the hotel.
I humbly request you to order the inspector general of police and other appropriate authorities to take appropriate security measures to protect my life and to protect my freedom of movement
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(December 18, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Amidst Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse's blatant illegal misuse of public property in his run to elect for the second term, one of the major election monitoring movement has written to the Election Commissioner regarding the bias and partisan live telecast of the nomination day by the public television channels. The television channel did not give equal importance to all candidates and gave an unethical prominence to the President Mahinda Rajapakse.
The content of the letter is as follows: In Relation to the Live Telecast of Nomination Day for the 2010 Presidential Election The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) would like to strongly protest against the biased and partisan nature of the Nomination Day Live Telecast for the 2010 Presidential Election shown today the 17th of December 2010. The access and rights to telecast this important national occasion had only been granted to the State owned Rupavahini Channel. They have used this honorable occasion in a very biased and partisan manner currently. Although every Presidential Candidate should get an equal amount of importance during the Live Telecast of the Presidential Nomination Event only ONE candidate was given importance. Not displaying the names of some candidates and their picture next to their name while displaying the name and picture of select candidates was a glaring obvious example of this biased and partisan conduct. Furthermore, during the live telecast television presenters repeatedly mentioned the campaign slogan of one particular candidate. This biased and partisan reporting goes beyond the accepted norms and ethics of unbiased media reporting. CaFFE observes that the situation was made into a totally partisan scenario and this situation arose because the rights to the live telecast were given to only one television channel. It is essential that Election Department take responsible charge of the situation and ensures that no single candidate gets an irregularly high amount of media time in the future Presidential Election period. The situation has arisen again in which the requirement for a Competent Authority for State Media has once again been created by the partisan approach adopted the National State Television Channel of Sri Lanka when telecasting the nationally important nomination day. CaFFE would like to request you to look into this matter urgently.
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall – think of it, ALWAYS.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Executive Summary
This latest report from the University Teacher for Human Rights (Jaffna) documents the final chapter of Sri Lanka’s war 26-year war. Drawing on individual eyewitness accounts, it chronicles the relentless violence experienced by survivors of the conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam between September 2008 and May 2009, when the Sri Lankan government ultimately crushed the LTTE leadership and declared victory. What these survivors’ stories make clear is that for both parties, the key to military dominance lay not in brilliant strategies, but in an utter disregard for the lives of civilians and combatants alike, driven by their leaders’ single-minded pursuit of personal power.
Both sides treated truth as an enemy. Outsiders who could bear witness to these events were kept out or silenced; dissent on either side was crushed; the poor and powerless were treated as cannon fodder and in the case of Tamil civilians, ultimately locked up to prevent them from revealing what they had experienced. As the report notes, Sri Lanka’s “war against truth has grave implications for the future of democracy.”
But this report is more than a catalogue of war-time atrocities; it provides an analysis of the social and political underpinnings of the conflict that made atrocities possible, and that have historically shielded the people who committed such crimes from justice.
This report is a call to Sri Lankans of all communities to examine their history and take control of their present; to acknowledge the degeneration of the country and its democratic institutions, to demand justice for the crimes that have been committed in the name of fighting terrorism or securing Eelam, and to declare “never again.”
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It was bloody war and international norms were breached by both sides, which by trapping people in the conflict zone wrought large scale death and destruction.
The State systematically marginalised and restricted the operation of international organisations, subverting their efforts to humanise the conduct of the war and secure reduced casualties. It convinced the majority of people in the country (and many outside), that utter annihilation was only way to deal with the forces like LTTE. At the same time the Government blatantly lied about the real number of civilians trapped in the zone, and the number killed by their disproportionate use of force in the form of intense shelling and bombing.
The LTTE’s callous attitude towards the civilians, its forced conscription and the violent and coercive methods it used to prevent people from fleeing for their lives, further helped the government to successfully neutralise any criticism against their modes of operation.
Perpetrators must be brought to account.
It is also imperative for international human rights activists and organisations to go beyond mere condemnation of the way in which this war was conducted and recognise what it has shown us about the limitations of the present broader architecture of international Human Rights and Humanitarian mechanisms and institutions, which failed utterly to avert this disaster.
Social and political forces with narrow ethnic or religious ideological trappings continue to undermine democracy in most of the developing nations. These are not new phenomena; the world had seen many major religious crusades to wars between nations which in the modern era led to the creation of international institutions, conventions and treaties. The unequal economic and military power structures operating at a global level continue to undermine these institutions while allowing local actors to blame the external powers for their own failures.
In Sri Lanka, the political elite continues to fail the people, and whatever potential the country had to move towards a healthier path of development and prosperity has been continuously undermined by narrow electoral politics. The country is at a crossroads. Improvement will not be achieved by relying on the political elite in the belief that they will have at last to moderate self interest and address the many underlying social and economic issues which caused the war.
The callousness of Sri Lanka’s powerful towards their own people has been clearly shown in the persistent undermining of state institutions, the deterioration of which has been met with major armed resistance again and again. Today politicians continue to use this war, this monumental tragedy, for political capital in their narrow power game in the South, while the removed and insensitive Tamil Diaspora tries to further polarise people in their home country with their meaningless rhetoric and slogans of Transnational government.
There is only one way forward. An initiative to forge a broad multi-ethnic and multi-religious movement that challenges these narrow ethnic and religious agendas and Sri Lanka’s climate of impunity; that demands accountability for the grave and systematic violation of human rights that has for so long prevented Sri Lanka from progressing. This should be the priority for all those who desire to fight for social justice and human rights.
