Sri Lanka regime's ugly game in between India and China

(June 14, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) 'Though the Tiger is no more and Lankan Tamils are cowed, Indian Tamils and Diaspora Tamils together can still pose a formidable challenge to Colombo. And their capacity to do so will remain so long as the problems of the Lankan Tamils are unresolved."
-Thisaranee Gunasekara evaluating the outcome of the IIFA-2010 Bollywood award ceremony held in June in Colombo.

Sri Lanka President visited India following the IIFA debacle and the Hindustan Times had to report "The Pro-Tamil group's protest against visit of Sri Lankan president Mahenda Rajkapsa turned violent on Saturday (June 12) when suspected pro-tamil activists blasted railway tracks, just before a passenger train was to enter Perani railway station in Villupuram district, some 70 km south of Chennai in the wee hours."

This news creates a picture of a Tamil struggle in which the Sri Lankan part appears relatively peaceful amidst miserable conditions of the war-affected community while the Indian section looks getting more militant than before in addition to its successful lobby politics that made the IIFA a great disaster for Sinhala chauvinist Sri Lanka government.

Tamil struggle poses to envisage in a broader spectrum of a struggle of world Tamils for a state. Being the heart of the Tamil polity, the Tamil Nadu with its 70 million Tamils naturally becomes the epicenter of the new struggle.

In a time the capitalist world is facing its worst economic crisis in the history, it is natural that the struggles against the system may restructure aiming outcome amidst a possible world crisis.

India is a nation threatened by a number of nationalist struggles seeking restructuring of geo-politics. Therefore, due to clearly understandable reasons, India cannot give way to the rise of the new wave of Tamil nationalism in Tamil Nadu.

One way of curtailing the trend is to find a sustainable solution for the ethnic problem of Sri Lanka. The island nation is the melting pot of the Tamil nationalism.

Thisaranee Gunasekara says "In a speech to a group of businessmen, on the first anniversary of the defeating of the LTTE, (Sri Lanka Army Commander) Gen. Jayasuriya said that “it is up to the government and the people now to fund the root cause of the problem and give a proper solution… I believe in the end a proper solution is needed” (The Straits Times – 11.6.2010).

"Unfortunately his words are likely to be unheeded, if not scorned. The Rajapakses will not deliver a political solution, because they do not believe in the existence of an ethnic problem, as the President himself had stated, publicly, time and time again. Disbelieving in the existence of an ethnic problem, they, logically, do not see the need for a political solution."

However, The Hindu reported Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said on Saturday that there are positive signals from Sri Lanka on finding an amicable and acceptable solution to the issue of Tamils, who are fighting for equal rights.

But Thisaranee Gunasekara contradicts this idea. She says "Not only will the Rajapakses not deliver a political solution; even the restoration of normalcy or a real improvement in the living conditions of the North-Eastern Tamils is unlikely to happen, except marginally and minimally. The fact that the 2010 budget sets aside Rs.201 billion for defence but only Rs.2 billon for resettlement demonstrates the very low priority accorded by the government to Tamil wellbeing. It also reveals the regime’s inability/unwillingness to see the nexus between development and security. Given such a militarist mindset, reconciliation is but a mirage, a delusion spun occasionally by the state media, for purposes of propaganda."

Thisaranee points out that Sri Lanka will swing like a pendulum between India and China to manage the situation and eventually the island nation can be the battleground of the cold war between the two super powers. But one point she forgets is that India is more important to China than Sri Lanka and another 1987-like scenario can re-emerge.

In 1987, J.R. Jayawardane, who was playing in between India and Western super powers keeping all its eggs in the West's basket was eventually betrayed to India by the West that he venerated and kept his all trusts. China never bothers about the ethnic problem of Sri Lanka. She will not wage war against India once India attempts to use its powers to solve the problem. The possibility of China advising Sri Lanka one day to give way to India is very high. In such context, it will be the end of the road for the game of the Rajapaksas.

Wihat is this game? It is none other than playing in others' soft corners permanently hoodwinking the world and sustaining the misery of the minorities of the island. Rajapaksas should be defeated in this game if Sri Lanka as well as the world polity needs to progress.

What Dr. Dayan Jayathilaka has to say is different. "When we antagonized India we could not win the war, but when we correctly managed relations with India, we won the war. If India had opposed us or not supported us, we may not have been able to win or withstand the Western moves to stop the war. There is a saying that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Every relationship is reciprocal. Sri Lanka has to reciprocate for India’s support," he says.

"We must bear in mind that we still need that support because, though the hot war has been won by us, a cold war continues against us in the global arena.

"We need India’s support to balance off those who are hostile to us or are influenced by the pro-Eelam trend in the Tamil Diaspora. India is our buffer with the USA. Delhi is under pressure to take a stand hostile to us, or to stop supporting us. That pressure comes from Tamil Nadu but not only from Tamil Nadu...from India’s civil society as well as some of India’s Western friends. If India stops supporting us, not even the Non Aligned Movement will defend us fully, because they take their cue from respected Third World states such as India." Dr. Dayan Jayathilaka adds.

In this context, the progressive elements of Sri Lanka must try their best to manage the conflicts as subtly as they can to achieve better results for the polity.

It should be understood that the attempts of a section of Sri Lankan business community and the left forces to mobilize people against India citing 'aggressive' nature of proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) etc. are indirectly promoted by the ruling elite to maintain their chauvinist base of the politics. Progressive forces of the Lankan polity should work to broaden the purview of the polity to enhance their ability to grasp the better and sustainable outcome instead of narrow, quick popularity.


You may also like to visit our Sinhala Blog W3Lanka

Basilian neo-liberalism, Mahindian nationalism and high level Sovereign Rating Committee of Sri Lanka

(June 12, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has initiated a programme to take the necessary steps to upgrade the country’s sovereign rating.

The significance of this move is that the government has moved further in the Basilian doctrine of neo-liberalism and it has appointed top officials of Indian company and and a local agent of a multi national consortium into this committee. This is a move against Mahindian nationalist and national economic policies that frequently denied Indian and Western multi national penetration of local economy.

Reportedly, this has annoyed local business leaders. After all, the two companies Nestle and IOC does nor or negligible very little to change Sri Lanka's performances according to these ratings, they point out.

“As announced in the Central Bank Road Map 2010 and beyond, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) will take the necessary steps to upgrade the country’s sovereign rating from the current B+ (stable)/B(positive) to an investment grade of BBB- or higher over the next four year period,” says the Central Bank.

Central Bank says that towards this end, a carefully designed, forward looking and effective strategy will be implemened with the participation and co-operation of the all stakeholders, country authorities, private sector business leaders, chambers and rating advisors.

Central Bank announces that it has now appointed the following high level Sovereign Rating Committee, which will make regular reviews on the developments of the economy and convey these improvements to the rating agencies through rating advisors to upgrade the country’s rating level.

Mr K G D D Dheerasinghe, Deputy Governor, CBSL (Chairman)

Mrs J Mampitiya, Assistant Governor, CBSL (Deputy Chairman)

Mr K D Ranasinghe, Chief Economist & Director of Economic Research, CBSL

Mr C J P Siriwardena, Superintendent of Public Debt, CBSL

Mr. U.R. Seneviratne, Deputy Secretary to the Treasury

Mr C N Wijayasekera, Additional Superintendent of Public Debt

Mr. Ashroff Omar, Chief Executive Officer, Brandix Lanka Ltd

Mr. David Saudan, Managing Director, Nestle Lanka PLC

Dr. Anura Ekanyake, Chairman, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce

Mr. Upali de Silva, Secretary General, Sri Lanka Banks’ Association

Mr. Dilith Jayaweera, Managing Director, Triad Advertising

Mr. K.R. Suresh Kumar, Managing Director, Lanka IOC Ltd





You may also like to visit our Sinhala Blog W3Lanka 

Will state capitalism be a solution to global crisis of the capitalism?

(June 10, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) We reproduce this column written by Dr. Wickramabahu Karunarathna to LakbimaNews since it is one of the very rare occasions the leftist activists of Sri Lanka attempt to address the core political issues rather than the day to day economic struggles.

As far as we have understood, Dr. Wickramabahu seems to say that state regulation of the capitalist system will be inadequate to overcome the global economic crisis. He does not provide a clear answer regarding solution though he implies socialism will be inevitable. After all, socialism is yet to be defined in the modern context, as we perceive, the veteran Marxist can clear the issue if we are wrong.

On the other hand, is state control of the capitalist economy so new? Capitalism thrived through national states and even in the age of global capitalism, the state control is still predominant even in the developed countries although it is theoretically expected the market will regulate the system itself.

More or less, the extreme control of the market by state through price control, prohibitive tariffs, tax reliefs and state enterprises has become Sri Lanka's present day practice. The government is trying on one hand to liberalize market more through Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with India while it is trying to accumulate a bigger share of capital through measures like acquiring the stake of Emirates of Sri Lankan airline on the other hand. It can be an innovative move of the economic pundits of the unconventional Rajapaksa regime. Who knows what miracle they will perform? They are the people who crushed the elusive Tamil Tigers in a war that no one expected would be able to be so blatant and disregarding of human rights.

The global crisis, which we are experiencing right now is the deepest and the most widespread crisis, since the 1930s by any reckoning. It has changed the attitude of pundits of global capital. The glory days of free market are gone with the crisis. Then, we were told by writers, artists and academics that “Greed or desire is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.” In fact the founder of modern psychology, Freud saw all human behaviour as motivated by drives or instincts, which in turn are the neurological representations of physical needs. On the one hand these instincts perpetuate the life of the individual, and on the other the life of the species. Thus he became a guru for those who wanted the free market economy to rule the human life. Many have accepted the idea that humans are just naked apes and the man is just a hunter. Market is the modern hunting ground. However, all these optimistic Neanderthal thinking has been slowly abandoned for more realistic ways for capitalism. It is the path of compromise and social peace.


Desire dominated
New thinkers promoted by the International Monetary Fund, now argue that it is wrong to forget the institutional foundations of markets and to equate the free market with unregulated markets. Furthermore, they argue that whatever market monitoring that was there, was insufficient to guard against opportunistic behaviour, of unregulated, profit-seeking individuals taking risks by which they stand to benefit and others to lose. In other words man has to come out of desire dominated thinking, to care for others. Big banks and multinational companies too should remould their ethical frameworks. All this time the global capital arranged its affairs with least regard for ethical structures put forward by Mohamed, Jesus or Buddha. Of course the system preached that it is involved in a messianic mission to save religion from blood thirsty terrorists. But within the market mechanism there was scant regard for ethical thinking. Now the global capital is searching for truth and benevolence.


In an earlier analysis of the global crisis Daron Acemoglu, one of the new IMF thinkers, states: “A deep and important contribution of the discipline of economics is the insight that greed is neither good nor bad in the abstract. When channelled into profit-maximizing, competitive, and innovative behaviour under the auspices of sound laws and regulations, greed can act as the engine of innovation and economic growth. But when unchecked by the appropriate institutions and regulations, it will degenerate into rent-seeking, corruption, and crime.” I am glad to hear that the beast has to be controlled! However, the position today is that the desire is natural and it is the duty of the society to control. I thought Buddha said more or less the same thing. According to him the desire makes the human, an alienated person. The determination of desire by care will remove this alienation. The path for that nirvana is the collective, democratic praxis; the path of sanga. No, I am wrong; capitalism even with state control cannot get that far.


State capitalism
So we are in the middle of state capitalism as a temporary way out of this debacle of cyclic crisis. In spite of new terminology and man made confusion, the global system has entered the stage of state capitalism. I have nothing more to add than to quote from one of my teachers Fredric Engels. “In any case, with trusts or without, the official representative of capitalist society - the state - will ultimately have to undertake the direction of production. But, the transformation - either into joint-stock companies and trusts, or into State-ownership - does not do away with the capitalistic nature of the productive forces. ... It is, rather, brought to a head. But, brought to a head, it topples over. State-ownership of the productive forces is not the solution of the conflict, but concealed within it are the technical conditions that form the elements of that solution.”

Is China behind CEPA protests in Sri Lanka?

(June 07, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to visit India since tomorrow and the bilateral talks are expected to focus Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement (CEPA) that was supposed to be signed two years ago but stalled.

Two weeks back, several hundreds of protesters took to the streets against CEPA claiming it would hugely benefit the neighboring country by forcing the domestic industry into appalling risks. A high profile lobbying is underway against the trade pact which is yet to be made public.

Many highly educated, including doctors and engineers who were part of the recent protest along with businessmen expressed their fears that the island could be dominated by cheaper and skilled Indian services at the expense of the domestic industry.

However, Jose Roy writing to www.toboc.com says "this argument is unfounded as India’s educated unemployed were largely jobless because their reluctance to work for less or in remote places. Moreover, Sri Lanka being a country less than half the currency value of India would not have to panic about the products or services from India going cheap rather can ensure superior quality which could help the country build its economy on a firmer footing."

The Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (ISFTA) signed in 1998 and which is effective since March 1, 2000 has been able to boost trade between both nations significantly with near equal opportunity for the Sri Lankans. The ISFTA that is confined to the trading of only goods pushed country’s exports by manifold from $55.7mn in 2000 to $516.4mn in 2007. Interestingly, the part of the business community lobbying against the CEPA hail the ISFTA.

On the contrary, in 2002, the traded volume between China and Sri Lanka totalled about $350mn, of which China's exports accounted for $340mn providing room for Sri Lankan exports at about a meagre $10mn. Although Sino-Lankan trade witnessed tremendous growth over the years with bilateral trade crossing $2bn in 2009, imports from China remained predominately greater than the efflux. However, an anti-Chinese lobby is almost invisible possible because China is not involved in internal politics of Sri Lanka.

The conservatism of a part of Sri Lankan business community regarding CEPA is highly controversial. But the worst is Sri Lanka's leftist People's Liberation Front (JVP) and some other elements disgruntled due to the rise of Mahinda Rajapaksa through Sinhala nationalism in which they had kept all their eggs might try to rouse anti-Indian sentiments among the masses investing in CEPA protests.

These elements may use the opportunity for raising funds and mustering broad-based support for an anti-Indian campaign that may ultimately lead to a racist movement against any attempt to bring a solution for the ethnic problem through negotiations.

Frustration led them in previous occasions as well to similar disastrous racist tactics to grab power that caused havoc to entire nation. The JVP uprising between 1987-89 and the toppling of the democratically elected United National Party government through a premature election called manipulating draconian powers of the executive presidency they themselves despised in 2004 are examples. The damages incurred to the Sri Lankan polity in these vicious circles are immeasurable.

The business community members that protest the CEPA must be considerate of this kind of adverse effects of their protests that might ultimately lead to disastrous effects on the nation.

We, as leftists, do not believe in the conservatism in the name of safeguarding national states economies. It is the task of the capitalists to move in the path of market liberalization. Socialists must fight against the capitalist system for the rights of the down trodden masses. However, we believe that the forward march of the human socio-economic systems must not stop at nation state. Therefore, safeguarding national economies and state apparatuses should not be in the agendas of the leftists. Socialism, though not clearly defined, is an advanced social system, one beyond the fullest potentials of the capitalist system, that has nothing to share with the backward nation states.

CEPA is not leftists' subject. However, leftists must evaluate the situation vis-a-vis their aim of socialism. Socialism will be a reality only in a context labor has achieved the freedom of mobility that capitalism has already achieved.

Lankan war was corporate one, says Arundhati Roy

(June 05, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) The war in Sri Lanka was not just a war of the Sri Lankans against the Tamil people, according to writer-activist Arundhati Roy. "That was a corporate war. All the large Indian companies are now heading to Sri Lanka to make more money," Roy said on Friday. "The political parties of Tamil Nadu were the only ones who could have stopped the genocide in Sri Lanka, but they chose to stand by silently. A similar thing is happening in central India where tribals are resisting the takeover of natural resources by corporates."

Roy was speaking at a Convention on Operation Green Hunt and Genocidal attack on tribals by Indian State' organised in the city on Friday by the Federation Against Internal Repression. She said the resistance in central India was a fight against injustice and not a rebellion against the state as the government says it is. "The government is on the side of the corporates who want to take over the lands, forests, rivers, the traditional homes of the tribals. Operation Green Hunt follows the Bush doctrine of you are with us, or against us," she said. "Anyone who resists this corporate takeover, whether Gandhian, tribal or Maoist, is branded a terrorist," she said.

Turning her attention to the environmental impact of development, she said there was no ecological way to mine bauxite. "You can never mine bauxite and then turn it into aluminium without destroying the ecological balance of the mountains. The tribals have lived in harmony with the forests and nature for centuries," she said.

For over five years, some of the poorest, most marginalised people in the country have held off some of the world's largest multi-national corporations, she said, referring to tribals and adivasis across the country. "Every institution in this country has been corrupted but the spirit of our people remains strong," she said.

The people's struggles were not against democracy but the ways in which the mechanisms of democracy function. "You're a Gandhian if you protest on the road, and a Maoist if you resist in the forest. How can someone without food go on a hunger strike? To do Gandhian resistance, you need an audience, and there is no audience in the forest," she said.

-Times of India

Whose success is IIFA? Sri Lanka government or Tamil nationalist lobby?

They will miss photo opportunity
with many Bollywood stars

(June 03, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Eleventh ceremony of Indian International Film Academy Award (ITFA), the Indian equivalent of the Oscars, is to be held in Sri Lanka since today.

However, the event in Colombo is similar to a wedding without bride and bridegroom, when paraphrased according to Sinhala folklore.

Many of the Bollywood super stars have boycotted the awards ceremony although they have used other words to describe their absence.  With this, inevitably marred by politics, the 11th IIFA has become the most controversial awards ceremony of entire world in the recent history.

Selecting Colombo as the venue for IIFA was initially a success to the Sri Lankan government. Sri Lanka had hoped to repair its battered international image and revive its tourist industry by hosting the IIFA. Indian government assisted Sri Lankan authorities to sort out the matter as a goodwill gesture to help the nation trying to mark its presence emerging from the debris of three decade war.

But since the venue was announced in April, the Tamil nationalist lobby in South India made the event a success for them using it to raise voice against Sri Lanka government over the woes of the Tamils battered by war in the northern and eastern parts of the island reinforcing the war crime charges haunting intermittently against Mahinda Rajapaksa regime in international politics.

Top Bollywood stars that have pulled out from the IIFA 2010 are too shiny to be absent and the ceremony sans them will definitely be less glamorous posing a threat to the organizers that the event can be an economical loss.

Most damaging of all is the apparent withdrawal of Amitabh Bachchan, the IIFA’s brand ambassador and patriarch of Bollywood’s first family, who met Sri Lanka’s President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, in Colombo in April to help promote the event.

Although the “Big B” has yet to officially announce his absence, industry sources say he will not attend the ceremony for the first time in several years following protests from Tamil groups outside his residence in Mumbai.

His latest postings on his blog and on Twitter say that he is busy shooting an advertisement to promote tourism in the Indian state of Gujarat.

His son, Abhishek Bachchan, and daughter-in-law, Aishwarya Rai, will also be absent officially because they are tied up with promoting their forthcoming film Raavan, according to Indian media reports.

Mani Ratnam, the director refused to show the film in Colombo parallel to the ceremony citing its production work is not yet finished. But, it is well known that Mani, a Tamil, is willingly or unwillingly giving in to the Tamil nationalist lobby.

Eventually, Raavan, the pre-historic king of Lanka who abducted Sita will surrender and play in Rama's side.

Shah Rukh Khan who had been due to captain a team in a celebrity cricket match in Colombo announced his absence in a recent posting on Twitter, saying: “…dont think i will be able to come for iifa..too much work here, will miss Colombo.”

Two people were killed when a Khan concert in Colombo was bombed in 2004, and he vowed at the time that he would not visit Sri Lanka again.

Others likely to be absent include Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor, Imran Khan and Aamir Khan, according to Indian media reports. Last minute attempts could be observed to prevent Salman Khan playing cricket in Sri Lanka in the cricket match of the cricketers and the film stars scheduled to play tomorrow at Sinhala Sports Club grounds.

Tamil film stars such as Rajnikanth, Kamal Haasan, Mani Ratnam, Vijay, Ajit and Surya are also thought to be staying away.

Namitha, a star of Tamil cinema, issued a statement saying she had turned down an invitation to perform at the ceremony. “How can I attend even after knowing the existing problem? It is the Tamil people who made me what I am today,” she said.

Some second tier stars, including Vivek Oberoi, have already arrived in Colombo for the event, including many of those nominated for awards. “Come to Colombo,” Mr Oberoi told reporters in Colombo today. “I don’t believe in boycotting the awards. Bollywood films are about building bridges, not putting up walls against people.”

Applying more pressure, the South Indian film industry bodies met hours ahead to reiterate their threat to prevent the release of films featuring actors and technicians who attend the awards ceremony in Colombo. “We expect the Bollywood film industry to respect the sentiments of Tamils and refrain from participating in the event,” said L. Suresh, secretary of the South India Film Chamber of Commerce.

The SIFCC is backed by the Film Employees Federation of South India, the Tamil Nadu Theatre-Owners Association and Tamil Nadu Producers’ Council.

South India is a big market for Bollywood after all than Sri Lanka where authorities have restricted the countrymen's access to Indian audio visual art.

Law makers worried as ordinary citizens hopeful with Sri Lanka's reduction of import duty on motor vehicles

(June 01, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) The reduction of duties on motor vehicle imports has pushed the law makers of Sri Lanka to exhaustion, sources say. The axe came as most of them were preparing to import cars for reduced taxes. Earlier the MPs could import a car once in five years totally duty free but now the government has planned to impose a tax of around 15%.

it is open secret that most of the MPs either ruling party or opposition sell their vehicle permits to a handsome easy income that ran into several millions of rupees. With the reduction of taxes bt 50%, the MPs also lose half of their quick bucks from vehicle permits.

The government reduced the excise duty on imported vehicles by 50% and removed a 15 percent surcharge on all imports while reducing duty on electrical appliances since June 01.

With effect from yesterday, a car such as an Indian-made Maruti, which had attracted excise duties of up to 183% of its value, would now be charged a duty of 90%, Director General of Fiscal Policy S. R. Attygala said.

Cars attracted over 300% in excise duties, import duties, value added taxes, port and airport development levies and national security levies.

The government hopes the tax cuts will pick up the imports and help revive revenues which had suffered due to high taxes last year. The trend was out in the open in Colombo Bourse in which the share prices of companies importing motor vehicles were upbeat.

The finance ministry in a report issued under country's fiscal responsibility law in February said excise taxes on motor vehicles alone which had been 18 percent of the total in 2007 had fallen to 3 percent by 2009.

In 2007, the government had raised 17.4 billion rupees in motor vehicle excise duties. In 2008 car excise had fallen to 11.06 billion rupees and in 2009 to 3.25 billion rupees.

In November 2007 Sri Lanka had registered 26,100 new vehicles including 2,300 motor cars. In November 2008 only 20,500 vehicles were registered and car registrations had fallen to 965.

In November 2009 vehicle registrations had stabilized at 19,300 but cars had plummeted further to 329.

How Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa can stop war crime charges keep haunting

(May 30, Colombo - Lanka Polity) In a recent interview with Al Jazeera, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa displayed how weary he is over the allegations against his government regarding the war crimes during the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE).

The President perturbed by the repeated questioning by Al Jazeera correspondent Fouziah Ibrahim, lost his temper and asked why Al Jazeera repeatedly harassed Sri Lanka with war crimes charges just because the country defeated terrorism, while sparing countries like the USA and Britain.

On May 27, Sri Lanka's Minister of External Affairs, G.L. Peiris, who was on a public relations tour through the United States, left a scheduled meeting with journalists at the National Press Club Thursday morning without speaking.

It is learnt that he was advised not to meet media at the National Press Club that recently awarded the organization's 2009 International Freedom of the Press Award to slain Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickramatunga, editor of the Sunday Leader.

Meanwhile, Amnesty international website says, "One year after Sri Lanka's civil war came to a bloody end, the evidence that both parties to the conflict committed serious human rights violations, including war crimes, continues to pile up. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Crisis Group and the US State Department have compiled extensive reports on the human rights violations that were committed by both the Sri Lankan army and the armed Tamil Tigers. To date, not one single individual has been held accountable for the crimes committed."

During a talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Minister Pieris stubbornly refused to answer a question of a representative of an Amnesty International that questioned about the human rights impact of the most recent presidential commission of inquiry (established in 2006) into several high level human rights cases, including the execution style murder of 17 aid workers of the French organization Action Contre la Faim (ACF). The question was on how many individuals were actually tried as a consequence of the work of the commission, or why the findings that were sent to the President have not been made public to this day.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has to understand that the pressure on his government over war crime charges will last until when or if he will change the sense of euphoria of his rule following war victory into a more down-to-earth policy especially towards Tamils.

Although he defeated the Tamil militancy in Sri Lankan soil, he is yet to apprehend the full potential of the powerful Tamil Diaspora which is far beyond his simplistic version of a people that want to extend their stay in green pastures of developed West as he suggested in the Al Jazeera interview.

The Tamil Diaspora is too well able to keep the fires of the campaigns on war crime charges against him burning within the framework of Western democracy subtly manipulating the numerous international human rights organizations and even the UN. No power has ever undermined the mandate of these organizations to appear for human rights and the Rajapaksa's are far inadequate to do so. The ability of the Tamil Diaspora to sustain the lobby is free from their internal divisions.

If he is unwilling to deal with the mighty Tamil Diaspora, what he can do to regain the due respect for his defeat of terrorism is to establish good relationship with at least the local Tamils whose lives are in complete disarray as a result of war. The President and his government are in the vision that rapid economic growth facilitated by infrastructure development and private sector engagement will demoralize the Tamil nationalist sentiments.

Even for this, he needs some kind of meaningful power sharing with the leaders of local Tamil community. The undeclared 'Give Nothing to Tamils' racist Sinhala chauvinist policy that is masterminded by the ultra nationalist elements in his government will not lead him anywhere.

Power sharing with Tamils is a taboo subject among many of the Sinhala nationalist elite. Rajapaksa is in a powerful position and he can break it, if the pragmatic leader, as identified by Velupillai Prabakaran in his Mahaviru speech in 2005, can see beyond his nose tip, the time is ripe for reforms since the Sinhala racists have lost to him.

Development plus power sharing will make him really closer with local Tamils, not in the superficialway of meeting and talking with them when he visits north and east, as he said to Al Jazeera.

This is the only way available for him to widen the gap between the local and Diaspora Tamils. Only then, he will be able to actually delegitimize the din of the war crime charges against him. Sheer rhetoric against Diaspora Tamils will lead him nowhere.


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Sri Lanka President's move to levy tax from MP's vehicle import permit is a sham

Hummer H2 off roader valued at over US$ 55,000
without duty in Sri Lanka for a VIP son

(May 28, Colombo - Lanka Polity)  Sri Lanka President has proposed to levy a tax of 18% to 20% from the parliamentarians privileged so far to import vehicles once in five years.

This proposal appears outwardly as a progressive move although it actually increases the amount of taxes the politicians can evade. On the other hand, it will also provide an argument for the rulers to rationalize increase of taxes.

The cabinet approved to increase the maximum value of a motor vehicle imported by MPs from $ 35,000 to $ 45,000.

An MP can import a vehicle that is close to the market value of Rs. 20 million in Sri Lanka. It is a public secret that many MPs sell the licence to import a vehicle tax free and pocket a handsome income scot-free.

Average citizens of Sri Lanka have to pay more than 100% tax for motor vehicles. In some instances the tax is close to 200%.

High taxes on buses cause lack of development in Sri Lanka's public transport.

Bloody funny politics of Jaffna

Jaffna Mayor

(May 23, Colombo - Lanka Polity) 
I know the gravity of my crimes and how serious they are.
-WANDA BARZEE, speaking Friday in court, where she was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the 2002 kidnapping of then 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart.

Fifteen years for kidnapping a child! In Sri Lanka, you believe, especially in the Northern Province, this is not a crime but a part of normal life. Yes, even in the post-Prabakaran period.

Sometimes, you even elect child killer suspects to represent you. T. Illango, Sri Lanka's ruling coalition Deputy Mayor of Jaffna is an example. He was arrested along with several others for alleged complicity in the abduction and brutal murder of a 17-year-old school boy in a botched ransom bid. He was later given conditional bail and told to appear in courts every Monday.

Later, he was found outside the Magistrate Chavakacheri Magistrate T. J. Prabhakaran's house armed with a pistol along with one of the suspects involved in the abduction and murder. Now he is in remand for threatening the Magistrate.

Meanwhile, the Mayor of Jaffna, Ms. Patkunaraja Yogeswari, a mother too, placed an advertisement in a local newspaper calling for the dropping of the charges against Deputy Mayor T. Illango. Jaffna Chief Magistrate A. A. Anandaraja has severely reprimanded the Mayoress for interfering in judiciary matters.

It is bloody funny to see how things happen in liberated Jaffna under the democratic rule of the Colombo government.

Disaster capitalism and Sri Lanka government's moves to resettle Colombo flood victims

(May 20, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Sri Lanka Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resource Development has taken swift action to identify land to resettle the dwellers of canal banks in Colombo city. Most of these canal side dwellers are displaced now due to floods.

While the Minister of rrigation and and Water Resource Development is attending in the World Health Assembly in Geneva, the Secretary of the Ministry Ivan de Silva says that the land is being identified now on the instructions of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He said that the President instructed the officials to find them land close to Colombo city.

Perhaps the President might have understood that these people had dwelled in the city for a long time and their livelihoods are connected to it. Most of the people of these low income groups render a yeoman service in city cleaning and other services hard work is needed. Nice words of the President we have to wait and see the realization. Hope the 30,000 plus families now in camps will not be chased away when they go back to their houses once the floods recede.

Colombo Municipal Council Chief Engineer said recently that the sudden flow of water due to downpour is beyond the capacity of drainage channels of the city. The drainage system of Colombo city was constructed by British colonial rulers in 1910 and it has been used with slight improvements.

The unauthorized slum dwellers on canal banks actually contribute to pollution and blockade of water flow in canals while living in most unhealthy conditions. They are needed to be resettled in better places with better livelihoods for them.

But, the government has to really show that it is going to uplift their lives. This should not be another action similar to the uprooting of Colombo payment hawkers without providing them alternative to make a living.

Sri Lanka government is busy in its attempts in making Colombo city attractive for tourists and foreign direct investors. In this process, the government has forgotten the basic fact that Colombo is a traditional native place of diverse communities. Colombo is not only buildings and roads. Colombo residents and other people are also a part of Colombo. Developing Colombo should be developing its people too. Real city beautification is beautifying the lives of the city dwellers, especially the poor masses, whom the government always claims to be representing.

In her book THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world-- through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.

"At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq’s civil war, a new law is unveiled that would allow Shell and BP to claim the country’s vast oil reserves…. Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly out-sources the running of the “War on Terror” to Halliburton and Blackwater…. After a tsunami wipes out the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts.... New Orleans’s residents, scattered from Hurricane Katrina, discover that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be reopened…. These events are examples of “the shock doctrine”: using the public’s disorientation following massive collective shocks – wars, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters -- to achieve control by imposing economic shock therapy. Sometimes, when the first two shocks don’t succeed in wiping out resistance, a third shock is employed: the electrode in the prison cell or the Taser gun on the streets." (http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine)

Beware! Talks about resettling Colombo canal bank dwellers that are now displaced due to floods can also be a move of this disaster capitalism.

He was legendary Volleyball Sira of cricketing Sri Lanka

No action photos for media
Only this one with his son

(May 18, Colombo - Lanka Polity) W.L. Siriwardhana of Gampaha, who was known as legendary ‘Volleyball Sira‘ bade farewell to Sri Lanka.

Mr. Siriwardhana was the captain of Sri Lanka’s national volleyball team for 12 years in 1950s and 60s. He was renowned in the Asian region as a gifted dasher. He was popular among Sri Lankans as much as the brilliant cricketers were among cricket fans. However, he was not among the sportsmen the President Mahinda Rajapaksa recently awarded for their lifetime achievements. His funeral was also unattended by political bigwigs.

Volleyball is still the national game of Sri Lanka although it never reached to professional level.

Volleyball is a sport Sri Lankans can play anywhere in the island with low capital cost since the equipments and standard courts do not cost a fraction of expenses for a game like cricket.

Cricket is the most popular sport in Sri Lanka although less than thousand people play standard cricket. Few turfs are available even in Colombo except what are available the international cricket grounds. Most of the outstation schools and clubs play cricket on matting made of coir string. Tennis ball cricket that is played by the majority of the ordinary cricketers is far below cricket standards.

Most Sri Lankans do not play any kind of cricket although they are ardent fans of the game. Most of these fans are not healthy people since they do not play or exercise at all. One of them died in a heart attack recently when Sri Lanka beat India in a thrilling match to enter the semi-finals of T-20 World Cup.

Sports must be promoted as a human exercise and not as a way having sheer thrill or betting if a nation needs healthy and fit populace.

Sri Lanka can promote volleyball among people easily if it really needs it to be made the national sport. The chairmanship of Sri Lanka Volleball Federation itself reflects the pathetic situation of the national sport. The federation has failed to seek a powerful person to lead it.

Present Chairman Dilan Perera is a Deputy Minister of the government and he laments he has been denied a cabinet portfolio despite his presence in the parliament since 1994. Sri Lanka's national sport is also like him.

Sri Lankan village woman Kawamma the real miracle of Somawathi

(May 17, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Kawamma, a 79-year-old village woman and a mother of three from Wariyapola in Sri Lanka’s Northwestern Province, is the real miracle of Somawathi, a Buddhist temple in the Eastern Province. However, she is an ordinary village woman apparently uneducated.

More than 800,000 devotees flocked in this forest-locked temple to see the body rays of Lord Buddha from the dagaba in the temple on May 09th. Torrential rains and heavy traffic jam caused a stampede in which at least three persons were dead. Over 25 persons were hospitalized and some were missing for days.

Kawamma lost contact with her group of devotees and finally lost in the jungle and survived there for eight days until two Muslim fishermen that were fishing in Mahaweli River at Sungawila found her.

She had bruises in her body but she was healthy, Police said. Police admitted her in the hospital. She said to media that she did not eat anything but drank water from puddles and roamed chanting Buddhist ‘Gatha’.
The woman told the police she survived in jungle without any food for eight days drinking only water. She is a resident of the address Netiya, Malagane, Nuwarakanda, Wariyapola in the Kurunegala district.

Tamil Diaspora fail to find a sick bed for slain LTTE leader's mother

(May 13, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Seventy nine years old Parvathi Velupillai is a partly paralyzed, diabetic, hypertension patient. she, the widow of a late junior public servant of Sri Lanka that hailed from an ordinary family of Velvetithurai, Jaffna was (would you believe?) a threat to national security of mighty India, that boasts about the forth biggest Army of the world.

This woman lived with her husband for nearly two decades in India without being a security threat before 2002.

She is the mother of the slain leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) Velupillai Prabakaran. While the Sinhala polity celebrates the killing of her son an year ago, ending a three decade of bloody war, this sick woman has been admitted to Velvetithurai hospital in Jaffna with a minor paralysis in her body, said a medical officer of the hospital.

Mrs. Parvathi was brought to India from Malaysia for treatment few weeks back but India denied her entry on the basis she was a threat to national security. Later, with the intervention of the Tamil Nadu government she was offered conditional visa to admit into a hospital in Chennai.

Indian media reports said Parvathi's party rejected India's offer for conditional visa to visit Tamil Nadu for her treatment.

However, former Jaffna district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M.K. Sivajilingam, a close relative of Prabakaran’s family said that she was admitted to the hospital of her home town on the request of the family members.

India gave refuge to a young Prabakaran in her soil when he was a busy young man organizing a violent movement for national liberation of Sri Lankan Tamils. The war in Sri Lanka led to a massive outflow of Tamils to developed West and a Tamil Diaspora was formed. It pumped blood to the LTTE that played a vibrant role in global politics although it was a banned terrorist organization in many countries.

Sri Lankan Tamils were always on the lookout for the good of the international community to save them from the Sinhalese they branded as evil-minded and hell-bent on hunting the Tamils. For them, Sinhala polity was a single unit of oppressors. Their strategy forced them not to look beyond that. There were some good individuals among Sinhalese, but the polity is wicked to them as a whole, they propagated.

Now, their slain leader Prabakaran's paralyzed mother cannot actually find a hospital bed from the societies they thought they would find good someday.

Eventually, it is Velvetithurai, her village by the sea in Jaffna peninsula that is now a military colony guarded by Sinhala soldiers, seems to be the place where she can lay to rest one day as same as many thousands of other Tamil men and women did without leaving tombstones.

Once and for all, Tamils have been disillusioned another time by the so-called saviors in the international community and the Tamil, Sinhala polities sit face to face once again with eyes full of hatred. Following three decades of war, we have again come to the starting point. There is no one to save us. We the Sri Lankans have to find a way to share this country respectfully without fighting.

Weddings in Buddhist temples and Christianization of Buddhism

New couple under a bo tree

(May 12, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Piyumi Boteju is a beautiful actress of Sri Lanka. She took the hands of a young man recently and she made a topic for us not because of her wedding but because of the venue it was held.

The wedding took place in Gangaramaya, a famous Buddhist temple in Colombo. Buddhism deals mostly with the spiritual side of the life and the Buddhist temple normally is not a place where weddings take place.

But in recent times, some young Buddhist couples tend to register their weddings in temples and some of them lobby for Buddhist monks vested in legal powers to register marriages, a power that the Christian priests possess.

This is the Vesak month the Buddhists commemorate the birth, enlightenment and passing away of Lord Buddha. It is interesting to see that the Buddhists send Vesak cards as same as Christians, make Sal Uyana, an equivalent of a Christmas decoration and sing Vesak 'carols'. The day following the Vesak full moon day is a holiday in Sri Lanka and many Buddhists feast on that day like Christians do on Christmas.

This 'Christianization' of Buddhism began in late 19th century under the patronage of Henry Steel Olcott of Buddhist Theosophical Society. One can study the ancient Sinhala literature to see how different the way the Buddhists followed religion before this cultural reform.

Weddings in temples are a culmination of this 'Christianization of Buddhism' movement.

Apart from the shifts in the traditional sects, some Buddhist monks have even imitated the evangelist Christian sects when they created a new kind of religious centers called Asapu in Sri Lanka.

Inter religious cultural transfer is common and Sri Lanka's Christianity too is immensely influenced by Buddhism.

But the problem here is that the Buddhist leaders blatantly imitate Christian values while criticizing West and sowing hatred against the minority religions in the country.

Original Buddhism is far different from what is now worshiped by most 'Buddhists' in Sri Lanka. During Vesak, it is good if Buddhists can focus to rediscover Buddha, leaving behind this hubbub of religio-business and chauvinist ethno-religious projects that go in the name of Buddhism in contemporary Sri Lankan society.

Stampede in Somawathi of Sri Lanka and Lord Buddha's ban on miracles

(May 11, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Sri Lankan W. Podi Appuhami, a 70 years old farmer of Welimada went to Somawathi in a goods transport truck to see the ancient pagoda emanate the light rays of Lord Buddha came home as a dead man. Media says that the man was killed when he fell from the lorry.

Forty two years old M.P. Lionel Samarawickrama of Galewela and 53 years old M. Karunawathi of Rajagiriya were dead in heart attacks at Somawathi. Media want to say that they were not killed in a stampede. But they could not be taken to a hospital due to traffic jam and torrential rains.

A stampede is a sudden, frenzied rush or headlong flight of a herd of frightened animals or people. The incident that took place in Sri Lanka's Eastern Province Somawathi is none other than a stampede although some elements are in need of hiding that reality. At least 25 people were injured in this stampede. Some are still disappeared.

This kind of accidents are rare in Sri Lanka. During war, people did not gather in such large numbers such as around 800,000 in more than 30,000 vehicles in a remote Buddhist shrine that is situated inside a forest reserve. This place is forest-locked and totally inadequate in facilities for such a huge crowd. The devotees were lured their by persons that publicized they would show the devotees the rays of Lord Buddha's body emanate from the pagoda there.

In Sri Lanka, there is a group of business minded persons that are disguised as monks that perform false miracles and attract crowds. They earn millions of rupees in hours by selling books, magazines, cassettes and CDs etc. to the crowd and even evade tax payments. The other religious businessmen that provide venues for these miracle performers also profit in various ways such as till and commissions from small businesses that sell various goods to the devotees.

These persons subtly manipulate media for their lucrative business and one can observe that they have already started false propaganda to hide themselves from the actual crime they committed and to mislead devotees further even before the dead persons were buried.

Many Buddhists that flock to see miracles do not know that Lord Buddha banned performing miracles for personal benefit.

Six years after attaining the supremacy, Lord Buddha stayed in Rajagahanuwara in the rainy season. By this time, a nobleman in the city that met with a Sandalwood trunk that came floating in a river made a bowl out of it. He placed it on a very tall post and challenged the monks in the city to perform miracle and take it. As all the other monks failed, a Buddhist monk called Pindola Bharadwaja took it.

When Lord Buddha came to know this incident, he banned performing miracles for personal benefit.

What motives of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa push him towards a 'Truth Commission'?

(May 07, Colombo - Lanka Polity) After winning a second term as President and consolidating power through a general election, Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to appoint a committee to probe any right abuses committed during the decade-long war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) and to compensate the victims and their families who suffered during the conflict that killed nearly 100,000 people.

The President will shortly appoint a commission to report on the 'Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation' with regard to the difficulties and troubled times that Sri Lanka had to undergo due to the terrorist inspired, maneuvered and created conflict situation in recent years, the government media unit announced today.

The commission outwardly appears as a Truth Commission that can lead to a genuine post-war reconciliation if it proceeds in a genuine path. But it is not an international commission of eminent persons. Still there is no guarantee about the ethnic balance of the commission. The guarantee of the safety of the witnesses is something unachievable in the present context of Sri Lanka. Yet, the Sri Lankan government needs to ensure accountability for serious violations, an absolutely vital precondition for genuine reconciliation and lasting peace. Let us wish the proceeding of the commission may find solutions for these basic issues. But, does Sri Lanka have capacities for a commission of this nature? Why does it not go international?

In the present context, President Mahinda Rajapaksa is so powerful that the international community will not consider penalizing him. Instead, they can help to build up a productive mechanism for a true reconciliation process. The President needs to understand that reconciliation cannot be imposed. It should generate on its own. He can facilitate it efficiently to achieve positive outcome.

Last May, President Rajapaksa promised UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to investigate allegations of laws-of-war violations.

Western governments and right groups have accused Sri Lanka military of war crimes during the final phase of its bloody offensive with the LTTE in which the military crushed the rebel outfit and all of its senior leaders last May.

This commission seems a result of US pressure. In October, the US Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues Stephen Rapp called on the Sri Lankan government to "develop an accountability process that respects the interests of all."

In November, the publication of the State Department report compelled Rajapaksa to appoint a six-member committee of "experts" to "examine [its allegations] carefully." The committee's only mandate was to provide recommendations to the president in December (later postponed to April), and its members appeared not to be independent-minded.

Now that committee has gone and a new committee appears before the world that has all reasonable doubts on such moves of Sri Lankan rulers. Once the President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed an International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) to probe a number of serious violations of human rights. But the IIGEP ended with no productive result and the conclusion of some members of the group that the government lacked the political will to hold accountable the perpetrators of these egregious crimes.

However, we think that it is not fair to be totally pessimistic regarding the fresh move of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa since it is a move for his benefit in the present context than one that can cause damage to him as it could happen before April 08 general elections.

The President is using the present political stability and outward return of normalcy in the country as an opportunity to mend ties with the Western governments that were traditional allies of Sri Lanka and also to emerge in international politics as a recognized leader that defeated terrorism.

The Commission in assessing the 'Lessons Learnt' from the recent conflict phase will search for any violations of internationally accepted norms of conduct in such conflict situations, and the circumstances that may have led to such actions, and identify any persons or groups responsible for such acts, the government announced.

The government says the findings will help to ensure that there will be no recurrence of such tragic conflict in the future. The words alludes a general amnesty although it is not directly connoted.

The Commission comprises seven eminent Sri Lankans that live in the country and abroad. They will evaluate the nature of compensation to be granted to the victims of the conflict or their dependents.

It will also make recommendations for the reconciliation process among the communities, reconstruction, and rehabilitation and recommend the legislative and administrative measures that may be necessary in order to prevent such situations in the future.

The Terms of Reference for the Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation are to be Gazetted in the next few days.

Sri Lankan Tamil journalist Tissainayagam released; his friends unhappy

(May 05, Colombo - Lanka Polity) We hail the Presidential pardon to English writing Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam who was sentenced to twenty years by a Sri Lanka court for charges framed under draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). This move can lead to building up of national harmony and promotion of democracy.

Tissainayagam was sentenced to twenty years rigorous imprisonment by a motive to teach a lesson to the pro-Tamil nationalist media. President Mahinda Rajapaksa provided amnesty to him a year after the victory in the war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) to show how democratic his rule is now and to mend the friendship with the Western countries that were traditional allies of Sri Lanka. This action looks directly linked with the government's attempt to regain G.S.P. Plus tariff concessions from European Union.

Amidst war, a number of journalists that criticized the military project of the government were killed and some were harassed and detained. After the war, another set of journalists that were supporting ex-Army Commander and Presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka's power project were either arrested or intimidated.

Few social activists of Sri Lanka were bold enough to take part locally in the international campaign to get Tissainayagam freed. The organizers of the meeting held in Colombo last year to protest the sentence and to urge the release of Tissainayagam were in utmost difficulty to find a venue for the meeting. Even the administration of the Jayawardhana Center where the meeting was held eventually wanted to cancel the event. Journos were scanty among the around one hundred participants of activists of this event. Tissainayagam's elderly father delivered a marvelous speech, I remember.

The fate of Tissainayagam also opened doors for  a flow of money for some NGOs appearing to fight for press freedom and democracy.

Some mean characters that were holding the positions of these organizations stopped all media activities they were engaged in, if there was any, and began to find avenues to migrate to Western European countries that are socially better developed. Some of Tissainayagam's political friends were so organized that they were able to get the entire families migrated manipulating the news stories they themselves got planted in friendly media.

There are some others that fled the country actually to get rid of their wives and children. Some persons were responsible for swindling huge sums of money from the accounts of the organizations for press freedom.

Some of these thieves are now writing sensitive poetry while the majority of them do nothing except greedily devouring the newfound fantasies. The major thing they were not doing while they were in Sri Lanka also was non other than writing to media.

Most probably Tisainayagam will also migrate out of Sri Lanka with his family possibly to join the lot above mentioned. But we think Tissainayagam still can do a service to his community he fought for if he remains Tissainayagam. He will be like jailed for life if he will be caught again in another unscrupulous project of some of the artful dodgers he was in association earlier.