Sri Lanka government bars media acces to IDPs to cover up the faults

(December 06, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Sri Lanka government has decided to postpone opening of the IDP camps and the newly resettled villages in the island's Northern Province to media and NGOs in order to cover up the weaknesses in the way the people are treated, analysts say.

Although the tension on IDP camps in Vavuniya have ebbed with recent resettlement and  granting of permission for the IDPs to go out of the camps temporarily, there are allegations that the government has resettled some IDPs in temporary mini camps and many IDPs have not given the promised facilities for resettlement.

Foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama declared in a BBC interview Tuesday that the media now had full access, prompting a flood of requests from reporters to travel to the former war zone in the north.However, AFP reported that restrictions on visits to the northern district of Vavuniya where the government maintains its camp complex remain in place despite them being declared "open" on Tuesday.

"The restrictions on journalists to visit displaced people in camps have not been relaxed yet," Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told reporters.

Pressed for a date when the camps would be open to the media, the minister said: "We are trying to lift the ban on media access, but it will take time."

"The media is not allowed to go into the camps," the defence ministry's media centre chief Lakshman Hulugalle said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said they had also been denied accesss to the camps and there had been no relaxation of the restrictions despite Bogollagama's announcement.

Interesting excerpts from Sri Lanka's opposition Presidential candidates interview

(December 05, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Here are some interesting excerpts from the interview given by Sri Lanka's opposition presidential candidate ex-Army chief Sarath Fonseka to India's Outook.com.

I’ve realised that this executive presidency was doing a lot of damage to the country, a lot of damage to the principles of democracy. It’s good to have a powerful head (of state) provided he doesn’t abuse the powers. But this particular executive presidency leaves enough room for any president to abuse power. Besides, I haven’t seen any infrastructure development in this country in the last few years. Some of the roads and bridges that were built had been planned by the previous government. The war can’t have been a reason for stopping development.

We didn’t spend more than four per cent of the GDP.

The policy of being non-aligned will continue. In the last year or so, our relations with western nations have been strained. They have spoken about allegations of war crimes. We have to ensure that all doubts are cleared. We must clear our name...how to do it is a matter for us to discuss with them. We have to do the right thing.

I wonder if someone was drunk that night (October 15), telephoning all over the world about this. If I’m the head of state, I can’t be worrying all the time about how I can keep my army (in check)...if the state can’t trust its own army, then it will not be able to do its job.

I wonder if someone was drunk that night (October 15), telephoning all over the world about this. If I’m the head of state, I can’t be worrying all the time about how I can keep my army (in check)...if the state can’t trust its own army, then it will not be able to do its job.

I will not be able to speak of a solution right away. There will be consultations among the political parties in the opposition fold. I’m for 13-plus because we need to move beyond the Indo-Lanka accord (1987)...the best solution would be the one which is acceptable to all communities.

Read the full interview

Sri Lanka's internet subscription one for every 100

(December 05, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Internet subscribers are estimated at 1 for every 100 people (in 2007), up from 0.2 in 2000, says a recent World Bank report.

The World Bank launched its Information and Communications for Development 2009: Extending Reach and Increasing Impact report in Colombo on Friday.

The World Bank points out that the penetration of broadband services contribute to economic growth.

"For every ten percentage point increase in the penetration of broadband services, there is a 1.3 percentage point increase in economic growth," said Tenzin Dolma Norbhu, a World Bank ICT policy specialist at the launch of the report.

The report estimates that fixed broadband subscribers made up 31.3 percent of total internet subscribers (in 2007), with international internet bandwidth at 118 bits/second/person.

Sri Lanka's state-owned department stores emerge as a competitive market force

(December 05, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Sri Lanka's state-owned department store chain Lak Sathosa and Coop City have emerged as a competitive market force.

Sri Lanka Minister of Trade, Marketing Development Cooperative and Consumer Affairs Minister Bandula Gunawardhana says that the the turn over of the country wide chain of 132 Lak Sathosa branches last month was Rs. 765 million. He said that it will be increased to Rs. one billion by the end of the year.

The Ministry has planned to expand the Lak Sathosa department store network to 150 this year.

The neo-liberalist United National Party government that was in power since 2001 to 2004 had planned to sell out this department store chain to private sector. Minister Bandula Gunwardhana was in the cabinet that took the decision to Cooperative Wholesale Establishment. However, he later crossed over to the government of the President Mahinda Rajapakse and revived the network.

Sri Lanka's prominent musician Amaradeva 82 today

(December 05, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Today is the 82nd birthday of Sri Lanka's prominent Sinhala musician Wannakuwattawaduge Don Amaradeva. He was born on December 5, 1927 in Moratuwa, Sri Lanka in a traditional craftsmen family as Wannakulawattawaduge Don Albert Perera and later adopted a Sinhala name instead of Western name.

As a vocalist and a music composer, he has created a number of masterpieces in Sinhala music. The most striking feature in his character is maintaining his personality as an artist that has not bent before the politicians for personal gains unlike his contemporary artists in Sri Lanka.

Amaradeva has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Philippine Ramon Magsaysay Award (2001), Indian Padma Sri Award and Sri Lankan "President's Award of Kala Keerthi" (1986) and Deshamanya Award (1998). He has also represented Sri Lanka in many forums including the UNESCO 1967 Manila Symposium, and composed the melody for the Maldives national anthem, Gaumii salaam, at the request of British Queen Elizabeth II in 1972.

Sri Lanka President criticizes open economy and Western culture

(December 05, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Addressing the annual prize giving ceremony of Sanghamitta College, a leading girls' school in Southern Province capital Galle, Sri Lanka President said that the future generation should determine to sort out the ill effects of the open economy and Western culture to defend themselves from them. He also said that certain persons behold the country based on foreign attitudes and added that the education system that aimed at producing locals that think like imperialists was accountable for this. 

Sri Lanka President said that certain politicians are in the need of portray the nation as the world's worst country despite it has many good people that perform good deeds.He emphasized that there was no place like in heaven anywhere in the world and everybody has duty to work for a better society understanding the social differences and injustice. 

The President has called for an early presidential to extend his term by eight more years trading the war victory this year. However, he is facing a sharp competition as his ex-Army Commander is contesting the presidential as the opposition common candidate. Government politicians argue that Fonseka is backed by Western states that want to topple Rajapakse regime.

Fonseka in India, triggering speculation

(P.K.Balachandran, Express Buzz. December 04)

The joint opposition candidate in the Sri Lankan Presidential election, Gen.Sarath Fonseka, is currently in India on a short visit.

Informed sources told Express that the General turned politician was on a religious pilgrimage. He reportedly went to Mumbai and might perhaps go to Bodh Gaya in Bihar..

As to whether he would make a dash to New Delhi for a pow wow with the Indian leaders is not known. He had however made a request to the Indian High Commissioner Ashok K.Kantha, for arrangements to meet Indian leaders in New Delhi.According to reports, Fonseka is expected back in the island on Friday. 

Importance of India to Fonseka 

Fonseka has been showing a tendency to reach out to India in many ways. His remarks that he was very close to the Indian military and that he loved everything Indian, were meant to curry favour with India, a country which the Sri Lankan opposition believes is tilted towards the Rajapaksas.

It is known that India has reservations about him given his extremist majoritarian (Sinhalese) nationalist views. But since becoming a candidate he has been singing a totally different tune, which must intriguiing New Delhi as much as it does people here in Sri Lanka.

An UNP source said that Fonseka was so worried about the denial of adequate security to him by the Rajapaksa government that he had gone to consult the Indian authorities on the security that he ought to have.

Fonseka was reportedly disturbed by the Attorney General’s uncompromising attitude in the Supreme Court when his petition on inadequate security came up for hearing. He was mollified only when the court set an early date for the Attorney General to come up with a formal assessment of the security requirement.

As for the Indian leaders, they would certainly like to open a line of communication with a top- of- the- line Presidential candidate put up by a major political party like United National Party (UNP). They would also like to hear him first hand on the devolution of power to the Tamils ,whether he was serious about his statement made in Sinhalese, that he was prepared to go beyond the Indian-inspired 13 th amendment in this regard, and whether he would indeed abolish the Excutive Presidency.    

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