Is Sarath Fonseka having discussions to join the government?

(July 07, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Sri Lanka's Sinhala nationalist daily newspaper the Divaina reported today that an opposition party leader is discussing with a powerful government Minister to join the government.
The news story is written by a well-informed journalist Piyasena Disanayaka who has close links with political elite. He has not pointed out any name but says that a senior UNP MP is brokering the deal and having a dialogue with a senior Minister following informing the matter to the President.

Sri Lanka parliament has only three opposition parties. They are the United Nationalist Party (UNP) led by the Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) led by R. Sambanthan and the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) led by ex-Army Commander and defeated Presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka.

Wickramasinghe and Sambanthan have never indicated they are in a need to join the government. The journalist points out that both the UNP MP and the party leader are facing immense difficulties. Fonseka is now in custody and facing a series of judicial procedures in court martial and civil courts regarding corruption and conduct. His son-in-law is evading arrest and last week a court confiscated his bank accounts with Rs. 15 million.

The government has isolated him and targeting him individually with the aim of pushing the war veteran to kneel down before his former bosses. He has had ample pressure to understand that he will not have solace until he surrenders.

Now Fonseka has applied to register his own political party.

The brokering MP can be guessed Puttlam district MP Palitha Range Bandara who is facing threats from a local leader of his own party that severely beat him physically, immediately following the April general election. His house was also burnt down by government politicians and he is in a position that he cannot come out of the mess by being an opposition MP. He recently met the President and held secret talks.


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Sri Lanka finds out an enemy in (Ban Ki-)Moon

(July 07, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity
)Many Russians feel real psychological comfort in feeling surrounded by the enemy. For politicians, it can also be used as a means of evading responsibility. I remember a conversation I had with a journalist some time ago, who reported listening in on a cabinet meeting with Fidel Castro at a time when Cuba had long been the subject of an American naval blockade. According to this story, Fidel is supposed to have pointed out of the window at the silhouettes of American war ships scattered across the horizon, and said: “if they went, we’ll be forced to make them out of cardboard”.
-Alexei Levinson, Sociologist, senior researcher at the Levada Center, Moscow

The position of The Enemy of Sri Lanka government is vacant since Tamil rebel leader Velupillai Prabakaran was assassinated on May 18, 2009 in the battlefront in Vanni. Although the Tamil Ealam struggle tries to appear as it is not over, the government supported by former deputy leader and the international leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) looks confident to tackle the threat of the half-hearted Tamil Diaspora.

The government's attempts to depict Tamil Diaspora as a formidable enemy was not successful not because it was not a  non-enemy but simply because it is not discernible to the majority Sinhala polity to get them mobilized. It seems not tangible to them. The leaders in Tamil Diaspora do not have attractive names. The persons like Rudrakumaran have meek appearance in photos. Other Tamil heroes are so timid that they are afraid even to pose in photo.

The government could have saved their man Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP, the self-proclaimed successor of Prabakaran out in the Tamil Diaspora. KP had a substantial personality to create a fear psychosis locally. Unfortunately, he lost it following the Malaysian apprehension saga in which he was brought to Sri Lanka like a chic.

A low intensity guerrilla warfare could have been a better alternate for a mighty enemy like Prabakaran, if there was one. The government could have tried one themselves. A new Prabakaran could be fictionized, may be one like Osama Bin Laden. A fictitious enemy is better since it can take any shape unlike a real one.

After all, here comes Ban Ki-Moon, the General Secretary of the United Nations. This man, or better say, this position is not a new found enemy. Many a rogue state previously have used him (never her so far) as an enemy to manage internal politics.

Sri Lanka government or the ruling Rajapaksa family has meticulously planned the violent protest before the UN office in Colombo on July 06. The President has sent his 'political' son (his words) Wimal Weerawansa to lead the mob. Even the man's attire is significant. A short-sleeved bush coat with close resemblance to military fatigue. with Lenin-style cap.

The hullabaloo the organized mob created before the UN office created powerful images. However, it is yet to be seen if the penetration is enough for an emergence of a wave of protest that can undermine the social repercussions of the issues like the loss of European Union's GSP Plus, the warnings from US regarding its GSP, broken promise of Rs. 2500 pay hike, ballooning cost of living and more taxes etc.

The government cannot continue providing support and infrastructure like people, transport etc. If Wimal is the contractor, he will have to form a sustainable protest movement within a short period of time. Wimal will not like the JVP be contracted again although it is the best option for the government. The JVP has already taken the Ban Ki-Moon's committee for an island wide poster campaign.



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Has Karuna or the government of Sri Lanka right to retain the houses built by displaced Muslims in Puttlam?

(July 05, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity)"If the Muslims displaced from Jaffna needed to resettle in their home town again, they would have to return the permanent buildings they have constructed (in the long term refugee camps they lived)."

Vinayagamurthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman, ex-Eastern Commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) 'terrorist' movement and now the Deputy Minister of Resettlement said to Sri Lanka’s Sinhala nationalist Divaina newspaper yesterday.

In 1990, the LTTE, in which Karuna Amman was a leader, ethnically cleansed the Muslims out of Jaffna and other areas in Northern Province that was under their rein.

The Deputy Minister said that 36,963 Muslim families were displaced from Northern and Eastern Provinces and 16,196 families of them have been resettled now.

What an irony the same terrorists that ousted these Muslims from their homes and robbed their belongings are now resettling them. But the Tamil racist minds appear to exist unchanged for the worse united with the Sinhala chauvinism.

These Muslims displaced almost two decades ago and lived in these places for a generation. Their lives are now inseparably entangled with the social fabric of the areas they have been living for decades. They built these houses amidst so much hardship. Don't they have a right to those houses? They have inalienable rights for houses they lived in Jaffna. Can the government or the ex-LTTEers lay conditions for them to retain their property?


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Can Sri Lanka monk party get Russia and China to veto Ban Ki Moon?

(July 04, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) In the present international political context especially related to Sri Lanka, anything seems possible. Sri Lanka once managed to defeat a proposal supported by mighty nations to investigate war crimes during the last phase of war at the Human Rights Council of UN. It is somehow eluding any punitive action of the international community regarding the human rights violation and war crime charges leveled against it.

The powerful nations are too busy to think of the repercussions of their carelessness on the downtrodden nationalities and classes. They simply cannot imagine the magnanimity of the anti system triumphal mentality of the backward political elements of this island. Following is a news story that depicts the phenomenon.

Sri Lanka's Sinhala Buddhist monk-led political party Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) says it has decided to urge Russia and China to use veto power not to let UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon to contest for a second term.

Moon’s first term ends in December 2011 and needs the blessing of the five veto power holding nations to vie for a second term, said a Sri Lankan Sinhala newspaper Lankadeepa that quoted a senior spokesman of the JHU.

JHU has decided to hold a march to Russian and Chinese embassies soon and to hand over letters to the Ambassadors of the two nations urging them to use veto to deny Moon a second term, said the newspaper.

The JHU spokesman said to the newspaper that the request is made from these two nations since they have already protested the UN General Secretary’s panel to advise him on Sri Lanka’s accountability issues.

Will these countries use veto against Ban Ki Moon? There is ample time to wait and see. But the pressure on Ban Ki Moon will work on him and his panel.



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Blaming in Sinhala and apologizing in formal English in Sri Lankan politics

(July 04, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Sri Lanka government may tender an apology to the United Nations (UN) over comments made by government Minister Wimal Weerawansa urging the public to surround the UN office in Colombo and prevent the staff from leaving the premises in protest over the UN panel appointed by UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said responding to a question posed by a journalist from Innercitypress at a media briefing at the UN Headquarters in New York on Saturday.

He said that the UN has received some indications that an apology might be in order.

Sri Lanka government coalition party National Freedom Front (NFF) leader and Minister of Housing and Construction Wimal Weerawansa vowed last week to launch a fast unto death unless the panel appointed by the UN General Secretary to advise him on Sri Lanka is not dissolved.

Weerawansa also warned the UN that a protest would be held before the UN office of Colombo.
He urged the Sri Lankan people to surround the UN office in Colombo and keep its staff hostage until UN chief Ban Ki Moon would decide to dissolve the three-member advisory panel he appointed on Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, Maithripala Sirisena, the General Secretary of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and senior Minister accused several unnamed Western countries for conspiring against the island nation.

In an exclusive interview with the state-owned Sinhala daily The Dinamina on Friday, the Minister said that the countries that tried to trap Sri Lanka amidst war are speaking against it. He also said that there is a massive conspiracy behind the revoke of GSP Plus tariff concessions by European Union.

Commenting on the panel appointed by the UN Secretary to advise him on the war crime charges against Sri Lanka, Minister Maithripala Sirisena said that the UN Secretary’s move would be a failure since UN is not him but the member nations.

The Minister pointed out that Russia, China, India and the non-aligned nations have come to the rescue of Sri Lanka. “Those who speak about the human rights of Sri Lanka, avoid speaking about war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the Minister charged.

The problem that remains with these vociferous Ministers is their inability to build up as leaders in an environment of diplomacy due to the sheer backwardness in aspects such as class, culture and language. To hide these weaknesses, they always revert to ethnic extremism their clan knows too well. They do not bother about the troubles their immediate bosses have to undergo since they actually want to see them in trouble. Otherwise, how can they climb up in the power ladder?

They wield their tongues freely in Sinhala language while their leaders have to rent English professors like Rajive Wijesinha to write letters of apology in Queen's English. What an irony! 


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The stenching local government politics of Sri Lanka

(July 03, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Politics in local governmental bodies of Sri Lanka was for respected elites of the towns and villages one time. The payments made by the local councils, if there was any, was not the living of these leaders. Instead, many considered politics in local governments a social service.

Now, that phenomenon is history. Today, the local government is also gone to the same dog or a bitter one the other aspects of local politics have gone.

We have a nice story that depicts the pathetic story of local government of Sri Lanka.

Palindanuwara is a newly established local government body centered around a peripheral semi-town called Baduraliya. There is no place called Palindanuwara but in folk stories related to a local ruler named Weediya Bandara that lived in the 15th century.

The inaugural Chairman of this 'historic' Pradeshiya Sabha is a self-proclaimed war hero. But many a residents of the area know him too well as a former Army deserter that was loitering before entering into politics from the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance.

This man is now in remand. Why? He was taken into custody for assaulting the driver of a fish lorry of state-owned Fisheries Corporation and causing damage estimated Rs. 40,000 to state property.

His action was a backlash to selling fish in Baduraliya Sunday fair at prices cheaper than that of the tendered fish vendors of the Pradeshiya Sabha.

The representative of people of Palindanuwara Pradeshiya Sabha was against the government that was selling fish at reduced prices to the consumers of Baduraliya area.

He deserved arrest and remand. But do you know what his fellow councilors and other hooligans do after that? They transported several huge stenching garbage heaps in Pradeshiya Sabha vehicle and dumped them in places people gather in the town. The garbage heaps were stenching the town the whole day with no presence of any authority to remove it.

Either Palindanuwara or Colombo, this is local government politics in Sri Lanka today. The people that were covering their noses are still not aware that this stench is from the political deformation they made their heroes to create for them and that present ruling family brought to a culmination.


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MPs be careful! Speeches in Sri Lanka parliament to go online immediately

(July 02, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Once in a blue moon, the ruling party of Sri Lanka also moots some commendable proposals. For example, a proposal has been mooted by the ruling party suggesting that the speeches delivered by the parliamentarians should be released online immediately.

The proposal has been submitted to the Speaker by the Chief Government Whip Dinesh Gunawardhana on behalf of the ruling party.

The proposal is pending approval of the Speaker.

Parliamentary speeches can be read in hansard but they are not immediately released and also are not easily accessible for the public. No credible online source is available regarding the speeches delivered in parliament sans media reports that have been subjected to severe editing.

Making parliamentary speeches online will also make the MPs more careful and prepared regarding the speeches they make in the parliament. If you make a sloppy statement, it will go online immediately and will follow the searches under your name.

One time reputed scholars now speaking in the parliament like ignorant peasants or urban villains, possible to match and to be comprehensible to the other lot in the House may also have opportunity either to polish or blemish their names.

Many a MP, both government and opposition, do not deliver speeches with any kind of value during the whole period they should be representing their constituencies. Some even do not attend parliamentary sessions regularly and report to duty once in three months to avoid vacation of post.

Recently, a large group of councilors of all three major parties including Marxist People's Liberation Front (JVP) members lost their posts in the Western Provincial Council due to absence for three months. But all were in an unprecedented unity to bring a new law to safeguard their positions.

For most of the MPs, even for the radicals like the ones in JVP perceive the membership of the parliament as only a chance to have a package of perks and benefits.

Parliament should not be a mere talk shop. It is the place from where the laws are derived. Its members are law makers, although many in the present context have no idea regarding this basic principle of democracy.
Therefore, be careful of your tongues men because you are to go online.



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