Sri Lanka Guardian

Pakistan’s army bombardment in Bugti areas

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:53:00 +0000

Number of causalities reported & houses set on fire

| by Our Correspondent in Balochistan

( January 29, Balochistan, Sri Lanka Guardian) Pakistan’s military has started a brutal operation in Bugti areas of Balochistan.According to the reports Pakistan military is conducting a wide operation with the help of Gunship helicopters and fighter jets in Sui,Gopat,Pirkoh,Uch and adjacent areas.The ground troops has besieged the entire civilian population of the area.The military indiscriminate firing on civilians,followed by the hours of shelling on villages by the gunship helicopters ,while fighter jets heavily bombarded the some parts.As a result high number of causalities reported.

Three including a woman have been killed,while more than 15 Baloch villagers critically injured.The military is not allowing the locals to shift the injured one to the hospital for an immediate medical treatment.More than two dozens houses/huts of local pesants set on fire by the barbaric army.The sources confirmed that Pakistani forces also abducted more than dozen people from different parts during the operation, and their whereabouts are still not known.

Meanwhile the Baloch Republican Party’s (BRP) central spokesman Mir Sher Mohammad Bugti said in a statement that the occupying forces have intensified military operations in Balochistan after the concerns expressed by the American State Department on genocide of the Baloch nation and human rights violations by occupying forces in Balochistan.

He said, the occupying forces have made certain areas of Balochistan including Dera Bugti, Kohlu and others no-go zones for media and human rights organizations. He said the world will know the truth of genocidal policies of occupying forces if the media is allowed to freely operate in Balochistan.

He said previously the forces conducted a similar operation in Kohistan Marri region of Balochistan where the human rights were barbarically crushed by occupying forces of Pakistan.

He appealed to the international community, European Union, International Media and Human Rights Organizations to practically intervene in Balochistan instead of mere lip service

Rajapakistan: Gota purchased the Citrus Hotel in Hikkaduwa

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:20:00 +0000

( January 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has invested part of the monies earned by him in the leisure sector. The monies have been invested through his close friend, millionaire businessman “Money Laundering” Dilith Jayaweera and MP Duminda Silva’s brother, Chairman of the ABC Media Network, Raynor Silva. Dilith Jayaweera and Raynor Silva have purchased the Citrus Hotel in Hikkaduwa. The hotel was declared open by Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa.The Defence Secretary is also looking at setting up several luxury hotels on the Eastern coast. The government therefore has taken measures to sell him some land in the coastal areas of the Eastern Province at dirt cheap prices. Lands Minister Janaka Bandara Tennekoon has also objected to this illegal land grab.“Money Laundering”Dilith Jayaweera has also purchased several super luxury hotels in Colombo. He has also purchased the up market shopping complex, Liberty Plaza in Colpetty as well.

Further ,a powerful minister of the Sri Lankan government currently on tour outside Sri Lanka has revealed to Ravaya the amazing details behind the sudden ups and downs of the Sri Lankan stock market that took place during the last two years.

According to this minister a huge ransom of US $ 850.00 Million paid by KP to save his life was invested in the Sri Lankan stock market through Dhammika Perera & Nimal Perera, Ashok Pathirage, Dilith Jayaweera and Raynor Silva, thereby creating a huge artifical boom in the stock market.The idea had been not to profit through the stock market but to launder the dirty money. Recently they withdrew the money, giving legitimacy to the dirty money but creating this slump in the market.Further to this business tycoon Harry Jayawardena has established a fund with the blessings of Mahinda Rajapaksa from the money generated from petroleum deals. Harry Jayawardena has been entrusted with the task of seeking assistance of Daewoo Keang Nam Enterprises, the South Korean businessgiant to create a good rapport with Ban-Ki-Moon. He is also trying to promote a working relationship between Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Clinton Foundation.Sajin Vaas Goonawardene has been entrusted with the assignement of contacting Pranabh Mukerjee through Reliance Industries Limited, India and Tony Blair through Land Rover of UK. Sajin Vaas Goonawardene is in constant contact with Land Rover agent in Sri Lanka, Sheran Fernando. It is believed that Sajin Vaas used the same avenue to establish a relationship with late Gaddaffi, which made it possible for Namal Rajapaksa to meet Gaddaffi in Triploi a few months back.Nirupama Rajapaksa’s husband Thiru Nadesan is entrusted with the task of contacting politicians of Tamil Nadu and Thiru Nadesan has been already compensated with the award of the contract to build the Colombo Outer Circular Road. He has been granted permission to add a 300 percent mark-up on the cost of the project as usual.

Rajapaksa sons among top 15 Shareholders Of Ascot Holdings

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:17:00 +0000

( January 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) President Rajapaksa’s two elder sons, Namal and Yoshitha, are listed among the top fifteen shareholders of Ascot Holdings PLC according to the company’s interim financial statements. According to this list, Y.K. (Yoshitha) Rajapaksa owns 100,000 shares and L.N. Rajapaksa (Namal) 92,000 shares as at Sept. 30, 2011. Nimal Perera, financial advisor to Dhammika Perera and on the boards of companies controlled by him, is also in Ascot’s Top fifteen list with 269,200 shares. Total assets of the company as at September 2011 were Rs. 1.25 billion and liabilities approx. Rs. 600 million. The directors of the company are Messrs. V.P. Malalasekera, Chairman, Rohan Iriyagolle, N.D. Gunaratne, N.A. de Mel, Chanaka de Silva and D.J. Gunaratne.

Rapp here next week

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:52:00 +0000

| by Dharisha Bastians

( January 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, Stephen J. Rapp will be in Sri Lanka next week for high level discussions with the Sri Lankan Government including the Sri Lankan President.

Stephen J. Rapp

A US Embassy Spokesman in Colombo yesterday confirmed that Ambassador Rapp will be in the island during the week of 5 February for meetings, but said his schedule was still in the process of being prepared for the visit.

An External Affairs Ministry Spokesman, however, denied knowledge of the high profile visit.

However, diplomatic sources confirmed that Ambassador Rapp would receive an audience with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and several other high ranking government officials during his visit to the island.

According to highly placed government officials, the government and External Ministry officials are presently deep in ‘strategy mode’ in a bid to decide how approach Rapp’s visit and the questions it poses for Sri Lanka.

Stephen J. Rapp is the Obama Administration’s point man on war crimes issues and ‘coordinates the deployment of a range of diplomatic, legal, economic, military, and intelligence tools to help expose the truth, judge those responsible, protect and assist victims, enable reconciliation, and build the rule of law,’ according to the US State Department website.

Ambassador Rapp’s visit comes ahead of the UN Human Rights Council Sessions due to commence on 27 February, on the sidelines of which several countries including the US, Britain and the EU want Sri Lanka to agree to substantive talks on the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission findings and recommendations.

Alleged war criminal appointment - a ministerial power struggle

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:40:00 +0000

Sri Lanka Guardian Special

| by Our Special Correspondent in Colombo

( January 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) According to information provided to the Sri Lanka Guardian, the effort to nominate the alleged war criminal Major General Shavendra Silva was a major tussle between the External Affairs and the Defence Ministries in Colombo.

External Affairs Minister Prof. G L Peiris was adamant that Shavendra Silva should not be appointed but Defence Secretary Gotabay Rajapakse was insistent he should be appointed. Thus violating the ministerial protocols, the President’s brother Gotabaya Rajapakse instructed Shavendra Silva to go for the job.

External Affairs Minister Prof G L Peiris’s argument was that appointment of Shavendra Silva will create more problems for Sri Lanka internationally, as its image has been tarnished heavily already with his appoint to the UN body.

Shavendra Silva on the advice of Gotabaya Rajapakse ignored his line of superiors in the External Affairs Ministry and went ahead and asked the other contenders to step aside and they too obliged.

The source informed that smart bond bags containing US dollars were pushed through to get the contenders to withdraw.

When the appointment was confirmed Defence Secretary is said have beeen overjoyed and phoned his brother President Mahinda Rajapakse to confirm his achievement. He is said to have accused Prof G L Pieris of unfriendly, uncooperative and incompetent. The President is said to have praised his brother for his amazing achievement.

Rajapaksa Dilemma: Kumaran Pathmanadan (KP) OR the 13th Amendment.

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:27:00 +0000

KP the mass murderer should be punished for his crimes of supplying deadly weapons to kill innocent people and for the murder of former PM Rajiv Gandhi, Sri Lankan President Premadasa, Minister Ranjan Wijerathna and Presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake and bombing of Dalada Maligawa. To achieve this President Mahinda Rajapaksa should hand over this ‘mass murderer’ to the Indian Authorities without any delay.

l by Upasiri de Silva

“Thanhaya jayati soko – thanhaya jayati bhayam,
Thanhaya vippamuttassa – natthi soka kuto bhayam”
“From greed arises grief, from greed arises fear, for him who is free of greed, there is no grief and no fear" (Dhammapada)

(January 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Lord Buddha’s point of view, Thanha is the strongest bond which binds us to pleasurable sensations in the hope of making them permanent. If not corrected quickly this bond of desire steadily is able to completely take over your life – both your thoughts and your actions becomes irresponsible and unrealistic, leading eventually to a very demented state of mind that stop all progress towards any spiritual fulfilment. In a majority Sinhala Buddhist country, where Buddhism is the religion of the majority of Sri Lankans, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who publically announced that his house hold is run by his wife according to the Christian religious guidelines, at a meeting with then Bishop Malcolm Ranjith (now Cardinal) in 2005 while apologising for criticizing the Christian religion at a election rally, has discarded this Buddhist point of view and selling the country to the highest bidder and now the North and the East to keep the illegally earned money and the two LTTE ships handed over to Rajapaksa’s by KP and the LTTE remnants, (now called the World Tamil Federation-WTF).

If President Mahinda Rajapaksa agreed to grant “devolution of powers” to the Tamil constituents in the North and the East as forced by the Indian Government, without handing over KP , the mass murderer, for the murder of then Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi, then Rajapaksa brothers may be able to keep the illegally earned money and KP. If they do that, then they are trying to create grief and that grief will bring them fear for their lives. The agreement Rajapaksa brothers entered with KP is to look after KP and provide a safe haven for him to live in Sri Lanka without any fear of arrest by the RAW / FBI, so the LTTE Chief and the WTF will provide every thing within their powers to help Rajapaksa family to rule Sri Lanka for many years. Will this dream of Rajapaksa’s come true?

But, India is not allowing Rajapaksa brothers a free ride but seek the arrest and deportation of KP to India to face charges of conspiracy to murder, the then PM of India, Rajiv Gandhi and employing a Tiger leaders (men and women) to assassinate Indian PM, in Indian soil. If Sri Lanka fails to hand over KP, then they must agree to settle the North and East problems and discuss all requirements with the TNA and introduce ‘devolution of powers’ in the North and East to Tamil and remove the Army, Air Force and the Navy from their land to the satisfaction of the Indians and TNA Authorities.

Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.

The Indo –Sri Lanka Accord signed on July 29, 1987 is now seems to be VOID due to the fundamental breaches created by the Indian government in a forceful and deliberate manner. “Fundamental breach is the failure by one party to perform a primary obligation under the contract so that the other party is deprived of substantially the whole benefit that he or she was to have received under the contract”. Indian government purposely failed to up-hold and breach many other clauses but their failure to uphold the Cl. 2.16 (a) to (e) to take necessary steps to ensure that Indian Territory is not used for activities prejudicial to the unity, integrity and security of Sri Lanka. Since the signing of this agreement and the Indian forces were forced out by the LTTE, and for the last 20 years of the 22 years they provided material help to LTTE by supplying fuel, arms and medicine and also allowing those Tamil Politicians of the TNA to denounce Sri lanka and support the LTTE to continue their Terror activities.

Now this Accord is not worth the paper it has written, and there are no legal or other considerations to implement the Amendment 13, after we completely annihilated the LTTE terror outfit, which was a major requirement at the time of signing the Accord. In 1987, Indian government took this decision to force Sri Lanka to submission as the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was trying to take his revenge for insulting his mother Srimathi Gandhi by then President J.R.Jayawardena, of Sri Lanka, according to very reliable sources.

What is 13th Amendment?

The 13th Amendment enacted by the Parliament of Sri Lanka and certified on 24-05-1988, says: To make provisions for the establishment of a Provincial Council for each Province; for the establishment of a High Court for each Province and to make Tamil an Official language and English the link language. [ This refer to using TAMIL as the official language in all NINE (9) provinces NOT only in the North and the East ?]

This Amendment 13, if critically analyse according to the law of the country it will prove that the use of Sinhala, the main official language in the country is excluded as the language of the Provinces and for the Court system and all other official work should be executed by using Tamil and the link language (only if required) the English.

Many will argue that as long as Sinhala is the main Official Language (Tamil is also now an official language) why should we worry about the use of Tamil in the North and the Eastern Provincial Councils or any other provinces. If Sinhala and Tamil are both recognise as official languages in Chapter IV Article 18 and 19, of the Constitution, why it is necessary to include “exclusively“ Tamil as an Official language and English as the link language in this Amendment

But this Amendment clearly establishes Tamil as the language of the Provinces as well as the High Courts. Now the Governor, Major General Chandrasiri or any other Governor of any other Province should be able to work in Tamil. If the Old Vadukkodai school boys take charge of the Provinces, then what Prabakaran was fighting for 32 years by killing 80,000 people, 6700 service personnel’s, 25,000 wounded service personnel’s and many other innocent Sinhala and Tamil citizens loosing their limbs and lives including their assets going for waste, and the Vadukkodai boys will establish their Eelam and raise the Eelam Flag. Those who supported the implementation of the amendment 13 like LTTE buddy Minister Rajitha Senaratne MP, Prof. Vitharana, Ambassadors and all others crying for the rights of the poor Tamils in the IDP Camps can be happy of their achievement.

13th Amendment was introduced by ‘using brutal force’ by the Indian Government as instructed by the then PM Rajiv Gandhi, to take revenge from the then President of Sri Lanka J.R.Jayawardena (JRJ) for shouting at Rajiv Gandhi’s mother, former PM of India Indira Gandhi, because she was trying to prevent JRJ removing the civic rights of the world’s first woman Prime Minister Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranayake.

JRJ.s action proved Lord Buddha’s words –‘Thanhaya jayati soko’ and his foolish words and the greediness to hold on to powers has brought grief to all Sri Lankans irrespective of any political party, and today the present President is trying to introduce devolution to North and East to please the Indian Government as their greediness doesn’t allow them to hand over KP to the Indians for the murder of Rajiv Gandhi.

Revocation of 13th Amendment will bring real peace to Sri Lanka.

President Rajapaksa should use the 2/3 majority in the Parliament to bring an Amendment to repeal the existing 13th Amendment to bring real peace to Sri Lanka, as most Tamils in the North and the East and the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims in the other districts will rejoice if this 13th Amendment is repeal from the Constitution.

As this agreement entered between Sri Lanka and India is functioning in eight (8) [this includes the Eastern PC] districts other than the Northern District even though it was breached by the Indian Government at the inception by not adhering to the laid down principles in Contract Law, the Sri Lanka government should repeal this 13th Amendment from the constitution without even consulting the Indian government, as there is no law to discuss repealing of Amendments in our Constitution with neighbouring countries. By repealing this amendment 13, the central government can take over all the work load handle by these PC’s and allocate the functions to central government to function in a better and cost effective manner. The cost of maintaining PC members will end with decentralise services as before.

Once the 13th Amendment is out TNA or any other party will not demand any devolution of powers, and the full control of the country will be with the central government.

India must not interfere.

When any, sane, intelligent and educated persons analyse the action of the then Prime Minister of a great country like India, trying to teach a lesson to the President of a neighbouring country, by training a Terror outfit, and imposing condition to devolve power seems to be a ridiculous act. Anybody with a good knowledge in (Contract) Law will understand that the hastily prepared Indo – Sri Lanka Accord is poorly written and not meeting the ‘rule of the law’ and many conditions in that accord is unilaterally forced on the Sri Lankan government.

This agreement or the accord was forced on the Sri Lankan President to create separate ethnic provinces –North and the East – for the Tamil people, even though the Cl 1.1 of the accord is to preserve the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. But, the Cl 1.4, 1.5 and the rest of the clauses up to 2.14, has infringed and violated the expectations included in Cl.1.1. Clause 2.15, create a fundamental breach of this agreement as the conditions discussed from 4.5.1986 to 19.12.1986 is excluded as an annexure or attachments and not forming a part of this agreement. In general terms this agreement or the accord is a hastily prepared document without any consultation with the GOSL Legal people and as such the Government of India should withdraw this agreement in good faith to strength the traditional friendship of Sri Lanka and (as the animosity created by the former President has now forgotten), allow the present President Rajapakse of Sri Lanka to settle the ethnic problem in the country without creating ethnic enclaves in the North and the East.

As the greatest Democracy in the Asia, India must set and example and leave Sri Lanka alone to mind her internal disputes the way the people of Sri Lanka thinks fit.

KP should be punished for his crimes.

If Sri Lankan government fails to hand over KP to India through the INTERPOL, then the Sri Lankan government is violating the International agreement with the INTERPOL. If Sri Lanka expecting to be good neighbours with India, under the 1977 Executive law, Sri Lanka is bound to abide by the above International agreement, as well as to keep India a friendly neighbour, to settle the North and the East Tamil issues.

The money he handed over to the Rajapaksa family US $ 850 million and the cost of the two ships should be utilised to establish housing for the IDP’s and develop the North and the East, as this money was contributed by the Tamils Diaspora to the LTTE under threat to their lives to save their kith and kings back home.

If President Rajapaksa decided to keep KP and hand over the North and the East to TNA under ‘devolution of power’ as forced by the Indians then they are committing a serious problem for the continuation of their power base. If President Mahinda Rajapaksa can remember (he was a student at that time) how Sir John Kothalawela lost the 1956 Election as he was photograph while turning the iron rods to roast a calf at a barbeque, was flashed in all the Daily papers during that time.

Conducting Business At Airports

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:01:00 +0000

l Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne

The Hong Kong International Airport is very clean, modern and impressive. It offers a huge array of services that are enjoyed by travelers who are entering and leaving Hong Kong.

Nature of the Modern Airport

(January 29, Montreal, Sri Lanka Guardian) More and more, airports are evolving from being basic aeronautical infrastructures into complex multi functional enterprises serving the travelling public while at the same time catering to their commercial needs and those of others who visit the airport. Such enterprises include duty free shops, specialty retail and brand name shops, restaurants, hotels and accommodation, banks, business and office complexes, leisure, recreation and fitness centres just to name a few.

For instance, Hong Kong’s international airport, has more than 30 high end designer shops. Singapore’s Changi International pampers the human’s physical fitness cravings and the continuing need for entertainment by hosting cinemas, saunas and even a swimming pool in the airport itself. Frankfurt has the world’s largest airport clinic having the facilities to serve 36,000 patients annually while Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County has a 420 bedroom hotel in its main concourse. Munich airport has its own hospital while Amsterdam Schipol has a Dutch master’s gallery. Beijing has quite a few banks carrying on business within the terminal building while Stockholm’s Arlanda airport solemnized marriages and officiated over 450 weddings in 2008 in the vast chapel located within the terminal.

All this is of course due to the fact that the average air traveller is more affluent than the non traveller (they have higher incomes, typically three to five times the average) and a busy airport has scores of them continuously flowing through the airport. This has prompted airport managers to re structure their operational management. For example, many airports have established separate real estate management and property units and divisions to capitalize on their landside commercial activities and enhance real estate values. One of the foremost in this area is Aeroports de Paris which established its real estate division in 2003 to manage landside commercial activities coming under the purview of the airport both in Paris and Orly. Some others have aggressively put in place free trade zones, customs free zones, golf courses, child and day care centres, factory outlet stores and fitness centres. Amsterdam Schipol has also done the same in developing its real estate potential to build large office complexes, meeting and entertainment facilities logistics parks, shopping and other commercial activities.

Beijing Capital International Airport, which built its Terminal 3 for the 2008 Olympics, is coming up as one of the busiest airports, and is going ahead with building its Capital Airport City, which will provide shopping, entertainment, education, sports and leisure activities while accommodating activities related to commerce, finance trade and housing. Dallas Fort Worth (US) has concentrated its activities in the field of real estate development as a profitable adjunct to its traditional airport activities. Hong Kong airport’s SkyCity is a colourful and fabulous project, which will contain a million square meters of retail, exhibition, business, office and hotel complex very near to the terminal. This complex will also accommodate cinemas and mini theme parks.

Yet another spectacular development is the airport city of Kuala Lumpur International Airport which will be commercially held together by its large Gateway Park. This Park will host office complexes retail stores, an automotive hypermarket and leisure venues which will cater to the aviation and non aviation market in the city. In Seoul, Incheon International Airport would have its own mega complex in its “Winged City” which provides for large business areas, shopping and tourism districts, housing and medical services for airport workers and residents.

While still in Asia, Suvarnabhumi, the Bangkok International Airport, has an entire airport city within the boundaries of the airport that houses an international business centre, international conference and exhibition complex, shopping malls, car parks, hospitals, restaurants and a large entertainment centre.

It is clear that what these airports are doing is merely anchoring their strategically placed airport resources and potential on a metropolitan commercial business district (CBD) formula to create employment and generate revenue. This is a highly lucrative and eminently strategic commercial practice among the major airports of the world that are aware of the trends with regard to passenger movements in their terminals.

Who are the Airports’ Clients?

Airports are a complex, big business. The first element in the airport business equation is the customer and it is therefore a good starting point to determine who the customers of the airport are. It is incontrovertible that airline passengers generate the bulk of the concession revenue and that the airlines who bring them would normally generate most of the rental or lease income. However other market groups are by no means inconsequential.

Airport employees who work for airlines, the airport authority, the concessionaires and other enterprises within the airport premises form a substantial customer category although their modus vivendi in purchasing goods and services, particularly from the concessionaire stores could be different from those of the passenger. While the former would look for convenience in buying goods in house during their work breaks without having to travel to the local stores and supermarkets in their neighbourhoods, the latter would buy gifts to take home. A good example of an airport which caters to the airport employee is Frankfurt Airport which has released the statistic that employees working at the airport spend approximately 15 per cent of their net household income at the airport’s shops and service facilities.

Airline crews are another category of customer, particularly at larger airports where crew movement is prolific. Their needs are mostly work related and they may look primarily for clothes stores, dry cleaning, shoe repairs, hair-dressing salons and tailors in addition to some goods that are in demand for airport employees. Another category of customer is the person who goes to meet and greet an arriving passenger or one who goes to drop off a passenger. The meeter who comes in early and finds himself with time on his hands until the arrival of the flight in which the passenger whom he meets is travelling, could well stroll around and purchase goods that he needs or is attracted by. The same goes for the person who accompanies a departing passenger and hangs about until the passenger is admitted to security clearance. A prime attraction in this regard is the restaurant as well as other catering outlets.

Airport shops would usually have much longer opening hours than other shops offering goods and services to local residential areas, which could in turn attract visitors to the airport who would come in for the convenience of shopping after hours. Although not as significant as the ones already mentioned, this category of customer could include local residents who are attracted to the airport by the convenience of late shopping hours at airport shops, unlike those of their neighbouring supermarkets and shops. Today’s airport, in its typical form, is primarily a commercial entity and operates as a business oriented entity. Most airports provide retail shops and parking facilities not only for airline passengers and their visitors but also to residents of the area. They are, in this sense, as much profit centres as are such retail outlets as K‑Mart and Walmart. In addition, there are also airport free zones which are bonded areas, adjacent to the airport premises which, as the name suggests, are duty free areas promoting industry and other commercial activity.

Are Airports Public Places to Conduct Open Business?

We have discussed various aspects of the airport business and law. One factor remains to be discussed and that pertains to the approach of the airport executive to the public who uses the airport. Does a passenger consider the airport private premises that only permits him to embark or disembark and airport? Could the public consider the airport a public place where they could conduct their own private business? Or solicit contributions? The 1992 case of International Society for Krishna Consciousness v. Lee where a regulation of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owned and operated three major airports in the New York City area and controlled certain terminal areas at the airports, prohibited repetitive solicitation of money in the premises of the airport terminal but did not prohibit such activity on the sidewalk outside the terminal building, the members of a religious sect who solicited contributions in the terminal building were brought to court.

It was observed by the court that the First Amendment historically protected various kinds of “speech,” including the charitable solicitation of money and the distribution of literature. The Hare Krishna movement, which requires that its members solicit money and distribute literature, had routinely turned to airports as one place to beg and proselytize simultaneously. The court further observe that travellers making their way through the airports were likely to be confronted not just by Krishna groups but by a host of other individuals either seeking funds or pressing a spiritual agenda or both. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey beginning in the 1970s attempted to ban these activities. The Krishnas, however, had been successful in defending themselves in every other federal jurisdiction save the federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan, whose judges had sustained the Port Authority's ban on begging but overturned another provision that prohibited the distribution of literature as a violation of the First Amendment.

The key issues before the Supreme Court involved the question of whether an airport could be construed as a public forum under the First Amendment. The Court's precedents in this area held that such a forum, like a park or a street corner, had greater protection from government interference than did a so-called non-public forum. If an area was designated a public forum, then government had to prove a compelling state interest in order to regulate speech there; if the area was a non-public forum, then government could regulate speech as long as its actions were reasonable.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's opinion for the majority of the Court held that airports were not public forums. Airports were subject to special security requirements and their terminals were meant to serve travellers and employees, not the public at large. Therefore, the Port Authority had the power to make whatever reasonable regulations it thought necessary to avoid congestion and disruption to passengers seeking to board planes, claim luggage, or purchase tickets. It was also held that The Port Authority's ban on solicitation is reasonable. Solicitation may have a disruptive effect on business by slowing the path of both those who must decide whether to contribute and those who must alter their paths to avoid the solicitation. In addition, a solicitor may cause duress by targeting the most vulnerable persons or commit fraud by concealing his affiliation or short-changing purchasers. The fact that the targets are likely to be on a tight schedule, and thus are unlikely to stop and complain to authorities, compounds the problem. The Port Authority has determined that it can best achieve its legitimate interest in monitoring solicitation activity to assure that travellers are not interfered with unduly by limiting solicitation to the sidewalk areas outside the terminals. That area is frequented by an overwhelming percentage of airport users, making petitioner's access to the general public quite complete. Moreover, it would be odd to conclude that the regulation is unreasonable when the Port Authority has otherwise assured access to a universally travelled area. While the inconvenience caused by petitioner may seem small, the Port Authority could reasonably worry that the incremental effects of having one group and then another seek such access could prove quite disruptive.

The dissenting judges, led by Justice David H. Souter, argued that an airport was undeniably a public facility and that solicitations could not be banned inside or outside of it. Justice Souter argued that the airport lounge was the modern-day equivalent of a city park and that his colleagues should treat it as such.

All this leaves one to conclude that the fundamental premise of airport business law is that airport builders and managers look at airports as business enterprises that contribute to efficient air travel. The terminal is used to enable passengers and freight to connect with aircraft for their transportation on departure and to connect with ground transportation on arrival. As such airport business law must take into account elements that are not exclusively related to the carrying on of a business, but also those principles that are essential for the safer, secure and efficient running of an airport.

Martyr's Day Thoughts Of An Indian

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:43:00 +0000

When Mahatma Gandhi passed away, it was said that future generation would find it difficult to believe that such a person ever lived in the world. But, no one thought that it would happen so soon within 65 years, when some of the people who have seen Gandhiji and lived in his time are still with us.

l by N.S.Venkataraman

(January 29, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Mahatma Gandhi passed away on 30th January, which is observed as Martyr's day in India every year.

Mahatma Gandhi is a name well remembered in India but Gandhian philosophy is a concept that is almost ignored now.

There are some people who carry Gandhi in their name and benefit themselves by such name , but there is nothing in their activities to indicate that they are conscious of Gandhian philosophy or they adhere to it.

There are some other people who call themselves Gandhians but readily advocate un Gandhian method of hatred and violence to achieve the cause that they espouse.

Public fasting has become the order of the day and is being used as coercive tool for political or selfish purposes and in the process the Gandhian method of fasting and satyagraha stand ridiculed.

Ministers and politicians garland Gandhiji’s statue on his birth anniversary and Martyr’s day as a matter of routine but none of their political and administrative decisions have the stamp of Gandhian principles.

The latest incident of killing of a trade union leader and the factory executive in Regency Ceramics in Andhra Pradesh , amongst many other similar incidents in other parts of the country in recent times, only go to prove that violence for achieving any cause has become common in India , which is a totally un Gandhian approach to the issues.

While the name Gandhi still stands tall as icon figure in the country, the adherence to the Gandhian methods have diminished in the life of average Indian. Obviously, the country is practicing Gandhian philosophy in vacuum.

In short, today’s India has let go the advantages of having Mahatma Gandhi born and lived in the country.

Where does India go from here? If India would continue to ignore Gandhian philosophy and practices, it would lose its identity in the comity of nations.

Sri Lanka’s GDP dilemma

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:19:00 +0000

| by FS

( January 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka is the world’s second-best performing economy in the world after China, we are told. According to Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, an IMF study has showed that Sri Lanka was the second-best performing economy in the world, growing at a rate of over 8 %. He also told reporters this week that Sri Lanka is growing this year by 8 % when other countries have reduced growth rates.

However many economists, following these comments, have been ‘Googling’ the web but unable to trace any such report or study from the International Monetary Fund. IMF officials here were also unable to provide any clues to this so-called study.

On the face of it however, Sri Lanka’s GDP growth is comparable to the best in the world. According to the tradingeconomics website (www.tradingeconomics.com), China, which by 2050 will overtake the US as the world’s largest economy, grew by 8.9 % in 2011 and India by 6.9 %. Others – mostly Sri Lanka’s main buyers of garments and other products – slowed down considerably with Canada’s growth being 3.4%, Germany-Australia-France in the 2 to 2.5% range while the US grew by 1.5 % and the UK by a marginal 0.7%.

Qatar on the other hand grew by over 30 % average in the first three quarters of 2011 while Argentina’s GDP’s was also over 9 % and Turkey at 8.2 %, slightly lower than Sri Lanka. So would this make Sri Lanka the fourth-best performing economy (after Qatar, Argentina, China and Turkey)?

Figures however can be deceptive since for all its growth statistics proudly touted by the government, there are serious economic management issues, problems that have been raised repeatedly in these columns and also by the Sunday Times’ columnist on economic issues, Dr Nimal Sanderatne.

Credit however must be given to Governments during the 30 years of conflict for continuing basic services like health, education and food needs in the North and East even in areas that were controlled by the LTTE. In some countries which also faced similr raging conflicts, supplies were either cut off or reduced to cripple militant groups but which ultimately affected civilians.

The sustenance of basic public services and Sri Lankans being resilient enough to sustain an economy and quickly adjust to a post-war situation is what led to the conflict-areas being able to grow faster than in any other country that recovered from a conflict. The same applies to the national economy where the service sector, particularly services (telecommunications and tourism) responded quickly.

Yet in terms of growth, are we just papering the economic cracks and lulling the population into a false sense of belief that everything is hunky-dory?

Take for example the main conditions on which the IMF’s $2.6 billion bail-out package was given in July 2009: reducing public debt to GDP ratio, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and the Ceylon Electricity Board breaking even by end 2011, and a flexible exchange rate policy. None of these has been fulfilled, according to economists. Exchange rates are managed by the Central Bank and not pegged to the market leading to President Mahinda Rajapaksa announcing 3 % devaluation in the last budget following concerns raised by exporters. While this was relief to exporters, it has caused uncertainty in the money markets with a ‘will-the-Treasury-intervene-again’ kind of perception. Interest rates are also not in line with market trends.

Problems persist. The spat between the Treasury chief Dr P.B. Jayasundera and Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, sometimes spilling out in public, has unnerved investors. Both institutions need to work together not against each other as seen with figures on the national economy being contested by either party.

The disastrous expropriation bill, the deadly pension bill and the conduct of examinations were all issues. Badgering the media for not reporting their views (Government) and those views alone without objectivity is not the answer to an economy that is best-performing where many of the underlying problems are either covered up or hidden from the glare of the public.

Government deals are repeatedly under question and unconvincing answers bordering on arrogance, provided. The main growth sectors are services and construction and dependence on remittances from Middle East migrant workers while agriculture (although production has improved in the North and the East) and industries are yet to take off.

In the real economy, people are not feeling the benefits of this growth. Cost of living is rising.

Opposition legislator Eran Wickremaratne raised a valid point, recently. Speaking at a Colombo discussion on the ‘economic perspective in post-war reconciliation’, he said while there should have been a grand recovery plan for the conflict areas, a Marshall (like) Plan happened in the South with a new cricket stadium convention centre, airport and seaport.

“Such a development should have taken place in the North or at least in both regions,” he said, adding that the ‘Feel Good factor’ is being promoted vigorously while oil pricing are going up and debts (national and people’s) are rising. There are huge challenges in law and order, governance, transparency and accountability.

Militarization of the economy, he says is similar to what happens in China and Pakistan.

That’s true - the Army in setting up a commercial company to handle private contracts, the Navy is ferrying tourists on whale and dolphin watching tours and the Air Force has a commercial flying service to Jaffna.

An economy must take in all these social, economic and political factors into consideration in its growth path. Being pleased and, on the other, complacent by positive growth figures is not going to help anyone, mainly the people of Sri Lanka.

The 'whitewash' of the LLRC's recommendations

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:04:00 +0000

| by Kishali Pinto Jayawardene

( January 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is quite amusing to see the government and all its men using the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation (LLRC) as a barely inadequate fig leaf to cover its total lack of adherence to the substance of the Commission's recommendations.

Unacceptable excuses for delay in implementation

Here and overseas, we are being told that the LLRC report was not quite the 'whitewash' that it was expected to be. But why should the relative triumph of the LLRC in (at least) focusing on the grave Rule of Law crisis in Sri Lanka accrue to the credit of the government when, not only has one month passed since the public release of the LLRC report with no concrete action regarding the implementation of its recommendations but also even the LLRC's interim recommendations pending for over a year have not been implemented?

In late 2010, the country was informed by the state media that President Mahinda Rajapaksa will implement the interim recommendations of the Commission but this promise remained in the air since then. It must be recalled that the LLRC itself drew attention to the non-implementation of its interim recommendation in its final Report and expressed severe dissatisfaction.

This is the core of the matter. Mere statements by the government that it will implement the LLRC recommendations will not do. It is nonsense to maintain that time is needed for this and that the government must, in the words of its favourite spin masters, confer with its constituent partners to determine the trajectory of the implementation process.

Immediately implementable recommendations

As discussed previously in these column spaces, there are some recommendations that can, (most demonstrably), be implemented immediately. The disarming of those holding weapons illegally in the hunting grounds of government politicians in the South as well as the paramilitaries in the North and East is one obvious example. Among many other similar examples are systematically improved access of family members to detainees, stringent safeguards being observed in arrests and detentions, punishment of those who abuse their powers, the ceasing of enforced disappearances as well as showing political will to investigate acts of extra judicial executions and disappearances. But on all fronts, the situation has either remained static or has worsened.

Meanwhile, the LLRC's 'strong' reminder that the recommendations of the 2005 Udalagama Commission in relation to the killings of Tamil and Muslim civilians in Mutur and Trincomalee in 2006 be implemented is of particular note. This would mean that President Rajapaksa needs to make the report of the Udalagama Commission public, by necessary inference. In any event, there is no precise reason as to why this Report is being kept (literally) shrouded in secrecy. This only invites speculation that its contents are damaging to the government.

And has the Attorney General indicated any renewed prosecutorial zeal in respect of the Mutur and Trincomalee killings? These questions may be purely hypothetical and may, in fact, invoke justifiable hilarity on the part of some but they nevertheless, need to be asked.

Necessity for right to information laws

Moreover, what about the LLRC's recommendation that Sri Lanka enact right to information legislation? It is manifestly difficult to see how the government can justify delay on this recommendation by what can only be categorized as typically lame excuses.

There is indeed already a right to information Bill drafted some years back with the consensus of policy makers, the Legal Draftsman's department, the media and civil society, which was revised during this administration by its then Justice Minister. This can be enacted into law by the Rajapaksa government at a moment's notice given the strength that it commands in Parliament. Its outright refusal to do so can only be traced to its contempt for restoring good governance and its insistence on carrying forward the present culture of unprecedented abuse of the law, corruption and majoritarian dominance.

Some months back, when the debate as to the enactment of the Right to Information law was being reignited, some commentators in the private media quite shamelessly argued that this would lead to national security concerns, blithely ignoring the fact that the draft law itself contained adequate safety measures to prevent this occurring.

Other countries in this region itself have not allowed such absurd objections to hinder the passing of right to information legislation but have balanced these concerns with the fundamental right to information. Sri Lanka should be the leader in this regional process, given its democratic history. Instead, it lags far behind. The absence of such information laws may be to the benefit of corrupt politicians in this country but do we not feel even the slightest concern when our rights are so clearly trampled upon and treated of no account? In any event, the LLRC's calling for a legislatively secured right to information as being essential to the reconciliation process should at least, give pause to objectors who would like to trot out the improbable line that this is somehow highly dangerous to national security.

Childlike belief that games can continue

The point remains that in the absence of concrete action on this and many other fronts close to thirty days into a new year, how can the government hide behind the LLRC Report, however much the state media or state controlled journalists in the private media may delight in referring that Report as evidence of the bona fides of those in power? Obvious prevarication in respect of the implementation of its recommendations by the government, which was compelled in the first instance to constitute the LLRC in the face of mounting criticism here and overseas, only reflects its almost childlike belief that these games can continue without inevitable repercussions.

This attitude is encouraged by the cynical attitudes of many who should know better. It is due to this cynicism that this administration was able to chip away at Sri Lanka's democratic institutions to the extent that they are now rendered useless. For example, many were blasé if not openly cynical about the now defunct 17th Amendment to the Constitution and its intention of depoliticizing the governance process.

The thrust of the propaganda war that preceded the demolition of the 17th Amendment and the passing of the 18th Amendment was that the country had survived despite a crippling conflict even before the 17th Amendment. Further, it was said that the creation of a Constitutional Council with nominees of political parties and politicians was not the best way to remedy existing deficiencies. The truth of course, was that the working of the 17th Amendment depended more on the democratic spirit and the public demand for better governance, all of which now we know to be sad illusions in this country. Naturally when the 18th Amendment and the abolition of Presidential term limits took place, what emerged was not a great roar of protest but a whimper of dissent. This is our civic identity or lack thereof, rendered bare in all its ugliness.

Proving the skeptics right

As guarded as it was in many respects, the LLRC Report yet remains the first step that this country has taken in recent times towards accountability for victims, reconciliation between ethnicities and the restoration of the integrity of Sri Lanka's constitutional institutions. But government spokesmen who try to use this Report to cover the government's own perfidy, albeit with admirable aplomb, must be clearly reminded that the LLRC can become a 'whitewash' in more ways than one. Indeed, the most dangerous way of becoming a whitewash is not through a wholly unsatisfactory report coming out but if the government chooses to ignore recommendations made to the benefit of the country.

Certainly if we proceed in this manner of denial and prevarication, the skeptics will be proved right in every sense of the word. And as predicted, all the energy and resources put into the 'whitewash' of an LLRC would have been for nothing.

All hail the young dramatists of Labuduwa

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 03:24:00 +0000

| by Gamini Weerakoon

( January 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) While Sri Lanka’s literati were paying their ‘salaams’ to the visiting literati and glitterati at the Galle Lit festival, our ‘Salaams’ go to a group of intrepid schoolboy actors of a school at Labuduwa, not far from Galle town, where the international literary festival was held.

The school, Labuduwa Sri Dhamma Vidyalaya a ‘national school’ with around 3000 students on roll was drawing close to end of term and the teachers were busy correcting term examination answer scripts while students were asked to engage themselves in productive activities such as staging of dramas. The plays were being enacted by different groups and the grand finale was to be the end of term concert. The principal of the school E. K. Premasiri who has been its head for the past five years had not known anything about the contents of the dramas—he was busy engaged with his principal’s duties and on the final day he was invited as the chief guest for the event. A weekend report quoted the principal: ‘One of the items on the programme was a short drama. I saw a student dressed in a national costume with a satakaya (the red band wrapped around the neck of President Rajapaksa and his brothers) coming on stage and kissing the floor. He was addressed as the ‘nayakathuma’ (honourable leader).

History enacted

The scene enacted on stage needed no interpretation to any man, woman or child on this island. All channels on local TV, front pages of newspapers had it and radios blared when President Rajapaksa returning from abroad after the ‘historic victory’ came down the gangway of his plane, went down on his knees and worshiped the soil.

The principal being the son of the soil got the message that would be carried about the play and his prompt reaction was to resort to what the Sinhalese recommend in moments of danger, ‘Soodanang Sareere’ (Save your skin). He felt that the President may have been insulted and promptly informed the Provincial Director of Education Kithsiri Gamage about the incident and on the instructions of the Director of Education informed the Akmeemana Police asking for an inquiry into the incident. All this shows that a joke can be a very serious thing – even end of term frolics of schoolboys. True dramatists would say that these students deserve a special award for their daring and their sense of political realism quite in contrast to those bakthigee singers called to perform before VIPs.

The Plot thickens

According to the newspaper report a teacher in the same school who was against the principal had coached the students to enact a play mimicking the president, got it videoed and sent it to higher authorities.

The job of a school principal is no longer the pleasant one it once was, educating the young to be responsible citizens. The principal had also made an enemy when he refused a government MP’s attempts to have 11 children nominated by him admitted to the school, However the Sinhala principle of ‘Soodanang Sareere’ had come into play, once again.

The President had been mimicked and the safest thing in these circumstances for others concerned was ‘Soodanang Sareere’—‘save your own skin’ What a tragi-comedy this schoolboy comedy has been. Sri Lanka’s dramatists should move to protect the principal whose students have shown bravado and social realism not go punish them. It would detract from the intellectual airs that Galle town is attempting to clothe itself with.

Pus Vedilla

The sensible thing to do in this instance would have been to find out whether President Rajapaksa had indeed taken the cameo of the schoolboys’ as an insult. Quite unlikely. The other day the front pages of daily newspapers – as usual – there was a blown up picture of the president. This time he was attempting to smother his laughter while watching the comedy Pus Vedilla at the Lionel Wendt. The play is the talk of the town where on this rare occasion the playwright had taken quite a lot of pot shots at His Excellency and His Excellency appeared to have enjoyed himself thoroughly. Whether the wily Rajapaksa was guffawing at shots taken at his political opponents, Ranil, Sajith etc., or not we give him the benefit of the doubt because it was well known that he was under heavy fire in Pus Vedilla and he braved the occasion. Political leaders being satirised in the media every week and even every day is a common feature in most democratic countries. India’s NDTV has a devastating political satire where Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and BJP leaders are torn to shreds but there appears to be much rapport between this TV channel and these Indian leaders because they do not shy away from this channel.

In this country political satire in drama, literature and even journalism is rare. The president has been taken off the only TV satire which featured him, (for the sake of survival of the dramatists?) and only some minions of the ruling party and most of the Opposition leaders are lampooned. Tolerance of humour confers credibility. If the Rajapaksa government lacks credibility in the shores beyond us, a primary reason is the lack of a sense of humour among our political leaders. Vicious and uncouth attacks are the order of the day rather than good hearted banter.

In the days before TV, politicians were less exposed to the public but they did convey their humorous disposition to the people. D. S. Senanayake’s confessions of his foibles were widely appreciated.

As a young boy at S. Thomas’ when he went home from his boarding school, his father had asked for his position in class. ‘Third’ he had said quite proudly but when his father perused the report further he had found that there were only three boys on roll in the class!

In the late sixties when this writer joined the Observer, DS, had died but journalists had amusing stories of their encounters with the Father of the Nation. On a morning when only two reporters had turned up, the News Editor wanted to check on some matter regarding the prime minister’s schedule for the day and asked a reporter—the horse racing correspondent to check with the PM’s office but since the office had not yet opened, the racing correspondent was told to ring up Temple Trees.

The racing correspondent was unfamiliar with making such official inquiries and asked someone who picked up the phone: ‘I say, what are the Old Bugger’s movements today?’ A deep-husky voice had answered: ‘Old Bugger speaking’. The racing correspondent dropped the phone and fled but the Father of the Nation had not minded him being called ‘old bugger’ Another anecdote still recalled at the Orient Club is about the newly elected Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike walking into the washroom of the club and seen Sir John Kotelawala whom he had resoundingly trounced, buttoning up. On seeing the PM Sir John had in an exaggerated hurry buttoned up, when the PM had said: ‘I say Lionel’ (Sir John was Lionel to his friends) ‘you appear to be scared’. Sir John had replied; ‘Why not, you nationalise everything big you see!’ (It will be recalled that soon after his victory Bandaranaike commenced his socialist programme by nationalising the biggest business establishments, the bus companies). W. Dahanayake who also became the prime minister was a lovable politician with a tremendous sense of humour. This former school teacher’s memorable limerick about Solomon Bandaranaike is still recalled; I do not love thee Banda dear, The reason why is very clear, I do not love thee Banda dear, Because you change from year to year.

Space does not permit us to write about the humour, wit and tolerance of human foibles of J. R. Jayewardene and Dudley Senanayake. A good sense of humour is a part of the Sri Lankan political heritage. The wit and satire of Tamil leaders like G. G. Ponnambalam and E. M. V. Naganathan are still passed down generations by oral tradition.

The words of Erica Jong, America writer and poet is good advice for all politicians in power: Humour is the most serious tool we have to deal with impossible situations. We wish the young thespians of Sri Dhamma Vidyalaya and its principal, the very best.

Militarization, Dynasty and Democracy

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 03:17:00 +0000

| by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“Buying the army off tends to be a good insurance policy for would-be dictators”.

Christian Caryl (Foreign Policy – 24.1.2012)

( January 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Some walls should never be built; some should never be breached.

Many of Sri Lanka’s most devastating ills emanated from our habit of building unnecessary walls, and demolishing necessary ones.

Our school-system, marred by de facto segregation, is structurally incapable of creating Sri Lankans. Most schools are ethnically/religiously uniform; as jealous preserves of a single community they reinforce our primordial identities.

Consequently, many children spend their formative years without any association with their ethnically/religiously different compatriots. Most of them would carry their ignorance and its offspring, prejudice, into adulthood.

S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, in his quest for power, turned the state into the property of the majority community. His widow removed the wall between the state and the majority religion (that the architect of the 1972 anti-secular constitution was the same man who in 1956 warned of the danger posed by ‘Sinhala Only’ to national unity is a sad demonstration of the degeneration of the once principled Lankan left). It took a war and the threat of an Indian invasion to remove the linguistic-bias; the state-religion nexus might lead to an even greater catastrophe, ere saner counsel prevails.

The Rajapaksas, in the pursuit of their dynastic agenda, are bringing down another wall vitally necessary for the very survival of democracy. By letting the armed forces into civil spaces, they are causing the steady militarization of almost every aspect of Lankan life. The result is a society in which the jackboot-print is becoming ever more pervasive.

Human rights and the Rule of Law are among the first casualties in any war; their restoration is a sine-qua-non for a lasting peace. A military accustomed to the power of the gun and being a law unto itself, needs assistance to adapt to peacetime conditions. Helping the military to deal with psychological problems (such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) is another necessary task. The Rand Corporation conducted a path-breaking study on the psychological damage caused to US military personnel who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to its report, “unlike physical wounds of the war, these conditions are often invisible to the eye …. (They) affect mood, thoughts and behaviour; yet these wounds often go unrecognised and unacknowledged” (Invisible Wounds of War). The Report argued that providing scientific (‘evidence based’) care is a “cost-effective way to retain a ready and healthy military force for the future”.

Post-war, a mammoth military is a financial burden and a politico-social danger. A system of voluntary retirement, based on the ‘golden handshake’ model’ (combing a monetary grant and the pension with skills training) could have been a fair solution to this problem. A generous retirement scheme may have had many takers since poverty and unemployment are the two main reasons most youth join the military. A programme to treat the ‘invisible wounds’ caused by the war is another neglected necessity. The recent spate of violent incidents involving serving military men (including rape and lethal attacks on superiors, comrades and family members) signals the danger of allowing these ‘invisible wounds’ to fester through denial and neglect.

It is this numerically intact and psychologically unreconstructed military which is being enmeshed with society.

A largely mono-ethnic/religious military (with a Sinhala-Buddhist ethos) becoming enmeshed in an ethno-religiously pluralist society is an especially combustive development.

Their Common Rampart

According to a WikiLeaks cable, “Basil and Gotabhaya appear not to get along very well… (But) Basil often relies on Gotabhaya to provide the necessary ‘muscle’ to get things done” (Colombo Telegraph – 7.1.2012). The Rajapaksas have their separate and competing power-projects; expanding the role of the military into civilian spaces might be the only way Gotabhaya Rajapaksa can prevent his eventual eclipse by his other ambitious relatives. But militarization is of seminal importance to the larger Rajapaksa project as well. The Rajapaksas would know that voters are fickle beings and the SLFP is unreliable; thus they need an entity which can guarantee their power even after they lose their current popularity. The military is expected to be the Ruling Family’s supporter and protector of last resort, its impregnable rampart against SLFP discontent and voter anger, in lean times.

In return, like in other actual and nascent tyrannies, the military is being encouraged to create its own economic/business empire. The plan to set up a separate company by the army to carry out ‘development and construction at cost’ is a case in point. The argument that such practices are saving public-funds is a specious one since far greater amounts of public-funds are being spent on maintaining a gargantuan military totally apposite with peacetime needs.

Furthermore the military involvement in infrastructure projects negates a key economic benefit of public works – that of employment and income generation. This could have a particularly pernicious impact in the North where the military involvement in construction projects is depriving local people of much needed jobs. The resultant exacerbation of local resentment and discontent cannot but be non-conducive to peace and stability.

A militarised society discourages critical thinking and dissenting outlooks. As Victor Jara, who as a young man was a conscript in the Chilean military, explained, “…I remember having to polish an officer’s boots or do the cleaning in his house and I thought it very natural…indeed, I thought it almost a privilege to be called upon to do it, because it meant that I was a very disciplined bloke who could be trusted to do the job properly. But looking at it now, without innocence, I think it was a conditioning – it conditions the servility of the private, just as it conditions the superiority of the officer” (Counterpunch – 28.8.2008). Such conditioning in unquestioning obedience is inimical to democracy but vitally necessary for tyranny. Since Sri Lanka has a volunteer military, the Rajapaksas are using programmes such as ‘Leadership Training’ (for university entrants in military camps) to condition Lankan society in these pro-authoritarian attitudes.

The myth of humanitarian operation justified, ipso facto, everything which was done to win the war. The notion of a perfect military – a military which is incapable of doing wrong because it is incapable of doing wrong, is a part of this myth. That fallacious notion is now being expanded to include developmental-attributes such as total efficacy, absolute incorruptibility and unlimited capability, to justify the steady militarization of the administration and the economy. The underlying assumption is that civilian officials are inept and corrupt, and thus unworthy, unlike the pure and efficient military. This romanticisation of the man in uniform is a key psychological premise of military rule.

There is a folk tale of a Buddhist monk who summoned a demon to build a temple wall. The demon, having fulfilled his task, began hounding the monk demanding more chores. The pithy Sinhala saying ‘Yaka bendagaththa wage’ (like having a demon as indentured-servant) stems from this tale. Bringing the military into civilian spaces and feeding its ambitions is a dangerous game. When a military’s perception of its own role changes, once it becomes an autonomous agent and a propertied-caste, what prevents it from intervening in politics, to defend its own interest, even against its one-time masters?

Minister Krishna’s visit and Indo - Lanka relations

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 03:03:00 +0000

( January 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) "The Indian government is committed to work with the Sri Lanka government for consolidation of peace, prosperity and development of this country and enrichment of our bilateral ties," This was indeed a very auspicious note which Minister Krishna struck on this his second visit to this country.

Minister S.M. Krishna - File Photo

The minister has gone on to state "I think it goes without saying that Article 13 plus should be implemented in a very visible manner - implementation of the assurances given to the people of Sri Lanka and during the talks we have had," he said on his way back home. "We are looking forward to the implementation of the Article 13."

Krishna had said he was reassured by President Rajapaksa that he was committed to implementing the amendment to end the ethnic crisis. A foreign diplomat stationed in Colombo has stated that the President has stated this before and even spoken in terms of ‘13 plus’ when what most of the people of this country are demanding is not 13 plus but 13 minus - wanting police powers and the subject of land excised from the 13th Amendment. Their position has consistently been that the 13th Amendment which is based on the powers devolved to States in India —- (almost all of them being bigger than countries in Europe), was foisted on this country which is the size of a local government district in Uttar Pradesh or Rajasthan and wholly unsuitable for our small country.

The people of this country support decentralization but are allergic to any form of Devolution and Federalism and this need to be understood by the Indian establishment. It is seen as a step towards separation; whatever maybe the experience of India we need to relate to the local perception. The Indian establishment must know that the Tamil politicians even today are softly peddling "their right to self determination" even though there are more Tamil people living in the south than in the north.

India which played the role of midwife at the birth of Bangladesh must know the ephemeral nature of our world particularly as she is seized herself with issues such as Kashmir, and the states of North-east India; India must also not also forget the 20 million Muslims living in their country (the population of our country) and of the rise of Islamic radicalism that has given rise to Islam phobia in non-Islamic countries. We too need to be concerned now that it has been revealed that there were 160 Muslim clerics overstaying their visas (why so many?). Were they preaching hope, love and moderation, or hatred and intolerance as some of them are said to have been doing elsewhere and setting countries on fire?

As stated earlier, India should not be seen as encouraging any form of Federalism for that would give rise to aspirations of autonomy and statehood; we have many examples not only from Eastern Europe, not to forget Kosovo and Chechnya but also South Sudan and nearer home, Timor which was a part of Indonesia – leave alone the aspirations and ambitions of the states of North East India and Tibet of course

There is no question that the Tamil people who are also our people must live in dignity as equal citizens, enjoying equality of opportunity as our president himself recently stated; they should also be deciding on their destiny at all levels of government. But as to whether empowering them and all Provincial Councils with police powers is what is required is debatable; to put it mildly, it is ‘DANGEROUS’ for the security and unity of the country and the well being of our people.

Yes the Tamil people must be brought into the mainstream and must be in the cabinet of ministers and should hold national ministries; and we could also have a second chamber. But is this the answer to the problem? There is no doubt in my mind that the government should remove land and police powers from the 13th Amendment and then implement 13A and introduce the principle of subsidiarity where decisions are made at the lowest level at which they could be made. After that the government must see whether it makes for participatory democracy for that is what we really want.

We should also change our electoral system of the country which is a caricature of one and breeds corruption; we must also ensure that conniving politicians of the TNA do not seek to make the Provincial Council a stepping stone to setting up a separate state. We need to bring in legislation against sedition in all its forms and manifestations. As stated before there are more Tamil people living in the south amongst us than in the Northern Province, so their interest must also be factored in —- this is an absolute imperative.

The other imperative is that we should shrink our little country. The Northern Province must be brought within a few hours from Colombo – we most urgently need a highway. For a start Jaffna should be reachable in an hour and half from Anuradhapura; Vavunia, which is just a half an hour drive from A’pura and Mannar should be an hour and half away on a highway from A’pura. There should be a new highway to the East too. This would physically unite the country in a manner as never before.

Minister Krishna and India should take care not to send the wrong signal to the world that it supports any form of self-determination for that has been the demand of the LTTE and their supporters the TNA. As it is, India too has had Tamil Nadu seeking to cede – that situation changed with the attack by China in 1962 but Tamil nationalism is such that if Eelam became a reality that would certainly have given an impetus to Tamil Nadu to seek the status of a nation state.

Considering the fact that India has almost 20 million Muslims, as many as our entire population, and Muslim extremism in West Asia, spreading to other parts of the Muslim world, India cannot afford to be complacent. We too in this country pray for a stable India which by 2020 would be a developed country and perhaps a Super Power. There are however many countries who would not wish India well and hope that she too breaks up; but as far as we are concerned we hope that she grows from strength to strength but of course that she does not interfere in the internal affairs of our country (over 1,200 Indian soldiers died as a result of the last intervention).

The Indian establishment probably sought to ‘Bhutanize’ our country, judging by the terms of the "letters" President Jayewardene was required to exchange with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The people of our country will not forget that it was India and Indira Gandhi who armed and trained Tamil militants and let them loose on our country and transformed a low intensity conflict into a terrorist war which almost destroyed Sri Lanka. It has only now been saved after 30 years of terrorism and war by the leadership given by President Mahinda Rajapakse and his brother Gotabhaya, for which the people are grateful no doubt.

Our people have a blood relationship with India and we do hope that India lives up to our expectations and respects our independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity at all times.

Misspoken, Mistaken, and Misunderstood 13th Plus ?

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:56:00 +0000

| by Gomin Dayasiri

( January 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The recent utterances attributed to the Government display its indecisiveness on the 13th Amendment and its incapacity to rectify a miscommunication, which caused a misinterpretation that led to a misunderstanding.

The selection of a faulty phrase in the course of a discussion was pounced on by the Indian Foreign Minister Krishna to carry home an offering that sounded sweet to India. Not that he replayed it mischievously- the words and phrases amounted to indeed what he heard and repeated. But that was not what the president truly meant.

The difference lies in the oft-repeated 13 plus of the past with the designed 13 plus of the present. Sadly the nuances were not conveyed to the Indian foreign minister properly. It’s a 13 plus and minus situation - to be accurate less than more to be precise. 13A is such crap it matters not whether it is more or less.

The need was for a clarification that should have been made public - which never came. So sloppy is the government it knows not what to say or do and when in trouble conveniently says or does nothing. This gives rise to unfavorable conjecture. Such is the guidance offered by their voodoo advisors?

It is stupid to please a few people momentarily by making conflicting and contradictory statements creating distrust permanently among most people. Credibility means much. Lose it and then don’t expect Sri Lanka’s word to be taken seriously across borders. This is most harmful at a time goodwill is paramount to the national interest. Naturally India would not like being served with what tastes like fudge.

Double barrel talk can skew the esteem of a nation. Nixon’s White House in an attempt to cover Watergate had to utilize the phrase ‘misspoke’; George Orwell in his day referred to it as ‘Mis-speak’ or ‘Un-lies’ and more recently Hillary Clinton expanded it by saying "if I misspoke that was a misstatement". The cumulative effect is such statements carry the laundry label of toxic untruths.

The preferred option is to lay the cards on the table as the president once did by asserting that police and land powers cannot be vested in the provincial councils. This was a message transmitted up front to India. India did not raise any objection. It is not India’s business to interfere in the governance of Sri Lanka - something it often does. Mystical India with its mysterious ways strives to be misunderstood in the region opening doors for China to enter.

Then why hold out to the Indian foreign minister that the devolution package will be based on a 13 plus formula? It’s more than a marketing error. Without a reservation it obviously includes police and land powers on a plain reading as set out in the constitution. If it is not in the pipeline it’s unfair to take India for a ride. After the president makes such an assertion, the foreign minister cannot be blamed having to resort to verbal gymnastics at a press conference to overcome a thorny situation.

Under no circumstance, in the interest of national security and to safeguard sovereignty, can police and land powers be devolved. The UPFA government knows it, having extended the writ of the central government to all corners of the island after banishing a terrorist outfit.

If terrorism raises it head, and it can happen if police and land powers are conferred, the personal security of the leadership will be more in peril than the sovereignty of the nation. Therefore for their own survival - personal and political - police and land powers will never be devolved under a MahindaRajapaksa regime.

Even if the TNA leadership cries for it till their dying day it will remain non-negotiable in the national interest. It requires another J.R. Jayewardene to indulge in infamy. Ranil Wickremesinghe will not commit such a treacherous act.

The president to his credit will never sell the country after regaining it unlike Ranil Wickremesinghe who holds an invisible power of attorney for the West. The president is not in the league of hurrah boys in a hospitality tent unlike some of his ministers from the Left who shift positions in their policy to acquire portfolios. Police and land powers remaining with the center is an attribute of Rajapaksa’s political career.

How safe are their constituents if the chief ministers go berserk with armed men at their beck and call? It’s best it remains in the hands of the head of the executive because all presidents have acted with responsibility in exercising police powers. The lands that for years were safeguarded as State lands would be distributed amongst friends and relations of provincial politicians. Land sales at dubious prices will become prolific. Not that such practice is unknown in the central government but it is more in check as the media spotlight is permanently focused on it.

In the North with land at the disposal of the chief minister, in the event of another insurrection no premise will be available to house the military in security zones. Land will be at the mercy of hostile forces. The army will be compelled to do amphibious maneuvers in absence of land.

Then why deliver an ambiguous message to India? Stupidity has no end. If India finds us speaking with a forked tongue there is greater likelihood of a hostile reaction.

If the recommendations on legitimate Tamil grievances in the LLRC report are addressed without delay, police and land powers will become a non-issue. With the LLRC report in hand non-implementation of its recommendations can give rise to a call for international judicial intervention again.

The issue of the Senate is another misspoke of Keheliya Rambukwella. The LLRC recommended a chamber for ameliorating minority grievances speedily. The Senate abolished by the 1972 Constitution was not revived by the 1979 Constitution which instead introduced the concept of appointed MPs’ to Parliament through the National List.

The Senate is another vehicle that will act as a rest room for servile political sycophants resulting in the wastage of public funds. It will not serve to ameliorate any of the minority grievances or align the center with the periphery. With such stupid substitutes, the Government alienates the minorities and assists the TNA in hindering national integration.

The president was an achiever in the first term but that form has deserted him in the second.

"A Historic Injustice"

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:48:00 +0000

A Response to Nihal Jayawickreme’s article

| by S.L. Gunasekara

( January 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I read with interest, Nihal Jayawickreme’s article about the statements in my book Lore of the Law and Other Memories about the historic injustice that was perpetrated on T S Fernando and the rectification of that injustice which brought T S Fernando to the pinnacle of the judiciary. This was not least because Jayawickreme was brought up in his uncle T S Fernando’s house and because he was the political appointee in the post of Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Justice at the time of the creation of the short lived Court of Appeal of which T S Fernando was appointed President and hence the ranking member of the judiciary.

S.L. Gunasekara

Jayawickreme does not dispute the facts:-

a) that in 1953 H.N.G. Fernando was the Legal Draftsman and T.S. Fernando the Solicitor General;

b) that as Solicitor General T.S. Fernando was the "one down batsman" for appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court and indeed Jayawickreme says that T S Fernando expected to be appointed to the next vacancy in that Court which was expected to arise in December of that year;

c) that as Legal Draftsman H.N.G. Fernando "never had a look in" as far as being appointed a Judge of that Court was concerned;

d) that T S Fernando went abroad and H.N.G. Fernando was appointed to act in T S Fernando’s post as Solicitor General;

e) that thereafter H.N.G. Fernando was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court before T.S. Fernando and finally Chief Justice which I have contended [and is not denied by Jayawickreme] was a post to which T.S. Fernando should otherwise have been appointed; and,

f) that finally the Court of Appeal was created as the Apex Court of the land while Jayawickreme was Permanent Secretary and T S Fernando who was about 66 and hence past the retiring age for a Judge of the Supreme Court at the time which was 63 appointed the President of that Court and hence the ranking judge of the land superceding the then Chief Justice H.N.G. Fernando.

Jayawickreme first joins issue with my contention that the appointment of H.N.G. Fernando as a Judge of the Supreme Court ahead of T.S. Fernando was politically motivated in that the then UNP Government had a preference for H.N.G. Fernando over T.S. Fernando and, after a cryptic reference to the fact that H.N.G. Fernando was a "regular" at the Orient Club and "probably had powerful friends in Government", contends that it "appeared at the time to have been have been more personally inspired than politically motivated". The starting point of H.N.G. Fernando’s accession to the Bench having been his appointment to act as Solicitor General, Jayawickreme recounts an alleged happening in T.S. Fernando’s house in about July 1953 when H N G Fernando allegedly came there and told T.S. Fernando that while the Government wanted to appoint him to the next vacancy in the Supreme Court [i.e. the vacancy which T.S. Fernando expected to fill] but that the then Attorney General had "ruled" that H N G Fernando as Legal Draftsman was not eligible for appointment since Judges of the Supreme Court should only be appointed from the judiciary or the official or unofficial bar, and requested him to take leave for a few months to enable him to act as Solicitor General and qualify for appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court. Jayawickreme then says that H.N.G. Fernando proceeded to offer T S Fernando an `inducement’ to comply with his request in that he had "proceeded to explain that he had already spoken to the American Ambassador who had assured him that the State Department would be happy to invite T.S. Fernando to visit the United States for three months `to study the American legal and judicial systems’ ", and that it had been the wish of his father V.M. Fernando that he too should be a Judge of the Supreme Court.

In brief, what Jayawickreme says is that H.N.G. Fernando came to T.S. Fernando’s house in search of the very job to which T.S. Fernando aspired, and requested him to take leave so that H.N.G. Fernando may act for him in his then current job to qualify him for that job for which they both aspired and even offered him a `bribe’ which he (H N G Fernando) had procured from a bureaucrat of a foreign country in the form of a three month holiday in that country, and that T.S. Fernando accepted that `bribe’ which resulted in H N G Fernando being appointed to act for T.S. Fernando and thereafter a Judge of the Supreme Court in May 1955 one year before T.S. Fernando.

I for one, have far, far too much regard and respect for the memory of both H.N.G. Fernando and Jayawickreme’s uncle T.S. Fernando to believe, on the ipse dixit of Jayawickreme, that either of them would have acted in the wholly cheap and dishonourable manner in which Jayawickreme claims they acted. Hence my belief that T.S. Fernando being superceded by H.N.G. Fernando was politically motivated remains unchanged.

As for what Jayawickreme claims were the alleged ambitions of V.M. Fernando for his son H.N.G. Fernando which H.N.G. Fernando is alleged to have conveyed to T.S. Fernando, they are, to my mind, wholly irrelevant to the issue, and in any event, if that be so, it is difficult to comprehend why H.N.G. Fernando who had initially been an acting Crown Counsel, albeit briefly, chose to join the `dead end’ in the form of the Legal Draftsman’s Department.

Jayawickreme does not end his litany of accusations against H.N.G. Fernando there. He proceeds to say that in August 1966 JR Jayewardene visited T.S. Fernando who had been his classmate at Royal College and told him that the then Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake was willing to appoint T.S. Fernando Chief Justice on the retirement of the then Chief Justice Sansoni so that both he and H.N.G. Fernando [H N G Fernando having been four years younger than T.S. Fernando] could serve as chief Justice provided H.N.G. Fernando was agreeable. While Jayawickreme does not reveal what, according to him was T.S. Fernando’s response to Jayewardene, he goes on to say that JR Jayewardene returned a few days later to say that H.N.G. Fernando was willing to make way "but only if Justice T S Fernando would make that request to him personally" and that T S Fernando replied saying that "the appointment of the Chief Justice was a matter for the Government and that, as a Judge, he did not propose to make any request of any one in that regard".

This narrative of Jayawickreme is to my mind, scarcely credible and gives rise to several questions that admit of no rational or plausible answer.

Firstly, if JR Jayewardene’s concern for his former class-mate T.S. Fernando was such as to cause him to visit T.S. Fernando twice in 1966 [the second time as a `messenger’] about the appointment of the successor to Chief Justice Sansoni which would never have been necessary if the `one down batsman’ had been appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court before the Legal Draftsman from his `dead end’ post, albeit after he had acted for that `one down batsman’ and thereafter been appointed Commissioner of Assize and an Acting Judge, how is it that Jayewardene did not, evidently, think of his erstwhile classmate or do anything to help him when his right to being Chief Justice was undermined 11 years earlier while he [JR Jayewardene] was a powerful Cabinet Minister holding the most important portfolio of `Agriculture and Food’.

Secondly, how was H.N.G. Fernando’s consent necessary for the appointment of T S Fernando as Chief Justice when that appointment was one that the then Government had to make at its sole discretion.

Thirdly, is it even scarcely credible that a man of the caliber of H.N.G. Fernando would have stooped so low as to play a game of `one upmanship’ in the manner of a common or garden politician by insisting on "his friend, colleague and neighbour" T S Fernando making a request of him personally in respect of an appointment which was not his to make.

Fourthly, having regard to the principled stand which Jayawickreme says T.S. Fernando took on JR Jayewardene’s second alleged visit, how is it that T.S. Fernando did not take a similarly principled stand when, according to Jayawickreme, H.N.G. Fernando offered T.S. Fernando a `bribe’ from a foreign country to take leave.

Jayawickreme next joins issue with me in respect of the establishment of the extremely short-lived Court of Appeal of which T.S. Fernando was appointed President which I contended was engineered by Jayawickreme to rectify the historic injustice done to his uncle T S Fernando by saying that my contention was "simplistic", in that he concludes his article saying "It would be simplistic as S.L. Gunasekara appears to have done to attribute the abolition of appeals to the Privy Council and the creation of our own Court of Appeal to the desire of a nephew to `correct a historic injustice’ done to his uncle".

There was nothing whatever that was "simplistic" about my assertion, and I did not in any way attribute the abolition of appeals to the bunch of foreigners known as the Privy Council to the desire of Jayawickreme to correct that "historic injustice". The abolition of appeals to the Privy Council was something that had to happen with Sri Lanka becoming a Republic. That would have necessitated the creation of a Court of Appeal to be our second Court of Appeal if and only if the Government of the day had determined as a matter of policy that there should continue to be the right of a second appeal. The fact that there had, evidently not been such a determination is evidenced by the passage of the Administration of Justice Law No. 44 of 1973 [certified on the 14th November 1973] which provided for one appeal only and abolished the Court of Appeal with effect from the 1st January 1974. The Court of Appeal, it must be remembered had its inaugural sitting with much fuss and fanfare less than two years previously on the 9th March 1973!!! Further the 50 or so appeals that Jayawickreme says were then pending before the Privy Council could well have been transferred to the Supreme Court to be heard by benches of five or more judges thereof. Such a transfer would have saved the foreign exchange which was incurred on appeals to the Privy Council without also incurring the utterly unnecessary wastage of public funds and the time and efforts of public servants by the creation of a Court of Appeal which had an existence of less than two years and was probably the shortest lived `Apex Court’ in any part of the world. It must be observed that Appeals to the Court of Appeal which were pending at the time of the abolition thereof were transferred to the Supreme Court in terms of section 53(1) of the Administration of Justice Law No, 44 of 1973 and heard by benches of five or more Judges of the Supreme Court.

If the policy of the then Government was that the right to a second appeal should remain, it could not possibly have provided for only a single appeal by the Administration of Justice Law which it enacted about nine months after the establishment of the Court of Appeal. Jayawickreme, let us not forget was not a Permanent Secretary appointed from the public service, but a political appointee thereto in the same way in which the UNP’s twice defeated candidate for Kotte, Anandatissa de Alwis was appointed Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of State in 1965. Jayawickreme was hence very much a part and parcel of the political apparatus that constituted the all powerful Government from 1970 to 1977. He would thus have been privy to the Government’s plans and intentions.

Jayawickreme says that he disagreed with the policy of having only a single appeal which was introduced by the "new Minister" Felix R. Dias Bandaranaike as well as to doubling the number of Judges of the Supreme Court. If so, it would follow that that Minister [who took office on the 20th January 1972] went ahead with the implementation of those policies, disregarding the views of the political appointee Jayawickreme on both such vitally important matters, and that despite that rejection of his views, Jayawickreme did not resign in protest but remained in office to the bitter end.

We must also note that a previous statute pertaining to the Administration of Justice, namely, the Criminal Justice Commissions Act No 14 of 1972 to which assent was given on the 18th April 1972 was entirely at odds with Jayawickreme’s claim to an abiding belief in the need for a second appeal. That Act provided for the appointment of Commissions consisting of not more than five Judges of the Supreme Court [i.e. two, three, four or five Judges] to hear and determine certain criminal cases and were empowered to pass even sentences of life imprisonment after conviction in trials/inquiries in which the Commissions were empowered to admit and act upon even evidence that is inadmissible under the Evidence Ordinance. It also provided in section 25 that there should not be even one appeal, application for revision or writ or any other challenge to any finding or sentence of such a Commission. However, we did not, to the best of my recollection, find Jayawickreme protesting or resigning from the post to which he was a political appointee.

All this clearly militates against the acceptance of Jayawickreme’s contentions about the background to the creation of that short lived Court of Appeal and the appointment of his uncle T.S. Fernando to the post of President thereof. These events lead to but one irresistible inference, namely, that that Court of Appeal [which did not exist for even two years] was created purely to oblige Jayawickreme, the political appointee to the post of Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Justice by correcting a historic in justice done to the uncle T.S. Fernando.

Howard Nicholas, Marx and our own understanding of Marxism

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:33:00 +0000

| by Dr Vickramabahu Karunaratne

( January 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Howard Nicholas spoke at The Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, about his book on Marx’s Theory of Price & its Modern Rivals. It was humorous and witty to those who knew something about Marx and bourgeois economics. The limited audience was glued to the speaker as if he was conducting a spiritual Bhavana class. No body could say that he was making a revolutionary speech on behalf of Marx and his scientific discovery. It was a proper bourgeoisie meeting, held in Colombo 7, with ministers and bankers nodding their heads. Strangely enough I was expecting some thing like this to happen long time back, when I studied the Marxian explanation of value in the market economy. Because Marx’s theory of value is not really a theory, but a scientific discovery. Through systematic investigation of the working of market economy, he found how the system imparts a value to an item for sale, a commodity. He understood the generalised market economy and how exchanges are made and how prices are fixed. It is not a good or bad way to estimate values of an item nor is it the only way to fix a value. In previous pre capitalist societies the value was fixed in different ways. But the value or the price in a market economy is worked out automatically through the labour time input. Bourgeoisie could not accept that due to class interest.

The truth of role of labour

Hence the theories of classical economics are theories cooked up to cover the truth of the role of labour. It is easy to say that the prices are fixed by the demand in the market, because it appeared to be so. But irrespective of demand the producer has to fix value after making the item, to balance the expenditure. Howard says in the preface “To be perfectly frank, in the early phases of my post-doctoral studies I was not entirely certain of either the scientifc rigour or superiority of Marx’s theory of price, or that I had much to add to what had already been said about this theory.” As long as the bourgeoisie was powerful the muddle continued and clearly Howard got this space to come out with his understanding of Marxian explanation of price mechanism, because of the continued crisis of market economy. Time has come for every body to face the truth.

I remember the arguments put forward by Champika against the Marxian theory of value about twenty years back. Champika, then a fresh graduate from Moratuwa University worked as an assistant lecturer in the Open University. He claimed Marx has proposed a way to estimate price of an item without considering the culture and traditions within the human society. Hence it is not a universal theory of value nor is it applicable to our society. Obviously, Marx did not invent a mechanism to fix a value to an item in any absolute sense. In fact he did not construct a formula to fix value in general. On the contrary he investigated the market economy and found out how it imparts a value to an item in the market. Thus he discovered the formula for the price for a commodity. He did not put forward any ethical argument to defend it. Nor is it a product of class ideology. That is the reality and it did not make the capitalists happy, because it exposed the share of labour power in the produce. It is wrong to assume that this formula can be used to estimate the price of any artifact. Value of family silver or the grandmother’s gold pendent cannot be estimated in this manner as those are not commodities. Similarly love and affection cannot be valued as commodities. However Eric Fromm argued that love and affection have become commodities in the market economy. One falls in love after unconsciously estimating the labour power and the capital of the other person. That means market economy determination has entered the unconscious of the human. Collapse of the market may bring to the surface how much one truly cares for the other!

Howard explains “The present work has had a very long gestation. It was born out of my PhD studies in the late 1970s and early 1980s in which I attempted to understand Marx’s theory of money and the role it plays in his explanation of business cycles. As with so many who have undertaken PhDs. Once completing this study it dawned on me how little I really understood of the subject. With hindsight this should not have been surprising given the sheer scope of the endeavour, my own ignorance of the subject matter at the time, and the relative paucity of writings in this area, including those by Marx. Perhaps the real benefit of the study for me was the questions it raised in my mind rather than the answers it provided me with. In attempting to answer some of these questions in my post-doctoral research work, I kept being drawn to the theory of price, Marx’s theory of price, as the necessary point of departure for a fuller understanding of not only his theory of money and role it played for him in the cyclical movement of the capitalist system but, more fundamentally, its importance for his general explanation of the latter. Hence, the present work.” Let us make use of this precious work.

New 'state' further muddles Somali waters

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:16:00 +0000

| by Abdulkadir Khalif in Mogadishu

( January 28, Mogadishu, Sri Lanka Guardian) As if Somaliland didn't have enough troubles already. A self-declared state, its sovereignty has remainde unrecognised by any international country or organisation, despite two decades of lobbying.

File Image

That is why a meeting that took place last December 16 appears to have galled so much. Ironically held in Taleh district which is on territory disputed by both Somaliland and yet another semi-autonomous state, Puntland, the "conference" saw the birth of another "state", further complicating what is already a tangled situation.

There, a spokesman announced that another new country called Khatumo State of Somalia had been born. And on December 20, three co-presidents were selected to run the affairs of the new authority.

"At the end of the conference partaken by representatives from [disputed] Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC) regions, Khatumo State of Somalia was instituted," said Mr Aden Abdullahi Shuriye.

"The three co-presidents will each serve six months in a rotating presidency," he added, while the new authority would have six starting ministers.

The new leaders were then sworn in on January 19.

"We are simply unchaining our regions from Somaliland and Puntland," said Dr Ali Khalif Gallaydh, a former prime minister of Somalia and one of the promoters of the Taleh conference. "We want to shape our own destiny."

Scathing opposition

As expected, Somaliland officials were scathing in their opposition to the conference.

"The conference taking place at Taleh is a menace to Somaliland’s struggle to gain recognition for its self-determination,” Mr Faysal Ali Warabe, the leader of Somaliland’s opposition political party, UCID, told the media.

Mr Warabe termed the organisers of the conference as "spoilers" for Somaliland's long sought-after recognition of its declaration of independence.

Information minister Ahmed Abdi Habsade insisted that his region would never accept the formation of another authority opposed to Somaliland.

Observers agree that the rift would only widen.

"Warabe and Habsade clearly demonstrated that the gathering at Taleh was salt being rubbed into Somaliland’s wounds, particularly given its long-sought [bid for] international recognition,” said Mogadishu politician Ali Fidow Nur.

Somaliland considers the disputed SSC regions as part of its jurisdiction which covers the territory of the former Somaliland British Protectorate that gained independence from Britain on June 26, 1960 and joined southern Somalia when it attained independence from Italy on July 1, 1960.

Former British Somaliland and the former Somalia Italiana formed the Somalia Republic on July 1, 1960. But in May 1991, groups in the north-western territories declared independence from the rest of Somalia following the collapse of the feared rule of General Mohamed Siyad Barre in Mogadishu.

Unionist terms

Khatumo spokesman Shuriye said that the delegates to the conference at Taleh district were composed of traditional leaders, community elders, civil society, Diaspora and other interested parties who then picked a name for the new authority.

“Khatumo State of Somalia was chosen because of its historical importance of the name Khatumo,” said the spokesman, without further elaborating.

The new authority is unionist and accepts the auspices of Transitional Federal Government that is seeking to rule the whole of Somalia from its base in Mogadishu, the capital.

Puntland, which also seeks jurisdiction over the SSC regions, has not issued a statement in regards its position to the newly formed state. But it has always disagreed with Somaliland over the three areas.

Puntland is a semi-autonomous state and its leaders believe that the people in the SSC regions share close clan linkage with the people in its regions.

It thus already looks like Khatumo State of Somalia is not going to have a smooth path.

On December 15, a day before the new authority was declared, a violent confrontation took place between loyalist Somaliland forces and militias loyal to the Taleh group.

'Invaders'

Twelve people died and 20 others were injured, including unarmed civilians in Buhodle district, the capital of Cayn region, some 1,300 km northwest of Mogadishu.

Mr Faysal Farah, a militia leader in Buhodle, claimed that his militants had inflicted casualties on what he called the "invading" Somaliland forces.

"We killed many of their soldiers and repelled them from the town," he said while admitting that he had lost four men and eight others been wounded.

In Mogadishu, the National Security Council, chaired by President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed held a hasty meeting, terming the confrontation at Buhodle town as unfortunate and calling for dialogue between the warring parties.

Leaders have urged the transitional government to support the people in the disputed areas. "The TFG leaders should support the people in the SCC regions," Al-Haji Abdi Mohamed Ali, an MP, told the Africa Review.

Delegations from the competing sides have since then kept descending on Mogadishu looking for TFG support, but it is apparent that the confrontation over the new "state" will continue well into this year, muddling an already convoluted situation.

Source: African Review

Need for a task force on PM’s media strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:54:00 +0000

| by B.Raman

( January 28, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) I have been a strong critic of the media shyness and media silence of the Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh. I have written many articles on it and suggested a more activist media strategy marked by a more articulate MMS.

Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh - File Photo

2. I have also been drawing attention to the technology lethargy of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), characterised by its hesitation to use the latest media technologies and particularly the social media outlets for interacting vigorously with our netizens.

3. I have been highlighting the unsatisfactory state of the PM’s interactions with citizens as well as netizens and comparing unfavourably his reticence with the more outgoing media policy of even the Chinese leadership, though China is not a democracy.

4. After discussions with a wide spectrum of political, bureaucratic and media observers and experts, I have realised the difficulties faced by the PM in working out a media strategy in his colours and to suit his image and interests.

5. These difficulties arise from the fact that Dr.MMS is not a PM in his own right. He owes the Prime Ministership to Mrs.Sonia Gandhi, the Congress (I) President, who renounced her right to be the Prime Minister after the 2004 elections and nominated DR.MMS to the PM’s chair.

6. This cramps his style of functioning whether in policy-making or public projection of himself either directly or through the media. All the time he has to be cautious to avoid any articulation or action that could be misread in the party as an attempt to outshine Mrs.Sonia Gandhi.

7. Dr.MMS is a shy, reticent person. His shyness and reticence are more pronounced when he is in India than when he is travelling abroad. The dangers of a misinterpretation of his articulation or action are more in India than when he is abroad.

8. This constraint will continue to inhibit and stunt his media strategy so long as he is in office without a political base and authority of his own. This has to be kept in mind while analysing his media strategy.

9. The best media strategy is through direct and frontal interactions with the media---whether print or TV or journos of the new media such as online publications. A direct and frontal projection of himself and his policies will increase the risks of misunderstanding with Mrs.Sonia Gandhi.

10. Despite this, Dr.MMS and his media advisers have to find ways of enabling him to indulge in such direct interactions without a clash of perceptions and personalities with Mrs.Sonia Gandhi. Unfortunately, there has been a reluctance even to discuss available options in the light of the political constraint faced by the Prime Minister.

11. Unless this exercise is taken up and a via media found which would enable the PM to enhance his media and public image without endangering the political authority of Mrs.Sonia Gandhi, I do not see the likelihood of any qualitative change in the PM’s media strategy.

12.The tweet-toeing of the PMO ---not the Prime Minister himself--- into the world of netizens shows a welcome realisation of the need to take advantage of the social media outlets for providing corrections to the PM’s public and media image.

13. Such corrections could be welcome, even if not total if the PM himself takes an active interest in his interactions with netizens. The apparent fact that his tweet connectivity will not be direct, but will be through his Principal Secretary, to be assisted by Shri Pankaj Pachauri, the new media adviser, will reduce the value of the attempted twitter connectivity of the PMO.

14.For a person holding the office of the Prime Minister, Twitter will not be totally shackle-free. As Shri Rajagopalan, the perceptive journalist pointed out in his intervention during a good debate anchored by Ms.Sunetra Choudhury of the NDTV on January 27, the Prime Minister has to be all the time careful to see that he does not step on the toes of the Parliament in his Twitter interactions, if there are any. Otherwise, he may unwittingly commit a breach of parliamentary privilege.

15. Making the Principal Secretary co-ordinate the Twitter strategy without the PM directly getting involved would provide a safety valve, but it would reduce any value-addition to the PM’s media strategy.

16. Instead of experimenting piecemeal as the PMO seems to be doing now, the PM should appoint a high-power task force headed by Dr.Sanjaya Baru, his first Media Adviser, to suggest a comprehensive media strategy, which would address all these factors.

Cuba: Looking Back and Ahead

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:33:00 +0000

One Hundred and Fifty Years of Revolution

| by Saul Landau and Nelson P. Valdes

( January 28, Havana, Sri Lanka Guardian) In 2012, the White House will focus on the most important of international and national issues: the re-election of the President. US-Cuba policy will fall into “Next Year’s” box – or the year after that. The National Security staff reverts to its familiar positions on relations with that troublesome island: ignorance and arrogance.

Fidel and Che - File Photo

Few Americans even in the Foreign Service know the Cuban revolution began in the 1860s as a war of independence against Spain.

Spain prevailed in the 1860s war, as did Cuban slavery until 1886. Unlike the 1776 war for independence, the struggle in Cuba confronted a major social issue, which US Founding Fathers had finessed – until Civil War in 1861.

In January 1959, after almost 100 years of on-and-off combat the 26th of July guerrillas marched into Havana as winners of the decisive round. The revolutionaries carried another ancestral platform: social justice and equality.

Cubans knew well how Washington had acted as their destiny blocker. By 1898, Cuban “independentistas” had almost defeated Spain. The United States intervened to thwart that goal. Washington imposed the Platt Amendment on Cuba’s constitution, giving itself the right to intervene in Cuban affairs, and a naval base in Guantanamo – now a prison and torture chamber. The United States intruded several times in the 20th Century to alter the island’s fate, including in events following the 1933 overthrow of the Machado dictatorship: to prevent revolutionaries from acquiring sovereignty.

That political-military exercise led to the Fulgencio Batista era (1934-1958) – in which the new US-trained and bonded military held sway.

In 1958, however, Washington lost confidence in Batista’s ability to stop social revolution, and began plotting unsuccessfully with a clique of high military officials to replace Batista with a junta – ala 1934.

The revolutionaries’ victory in 1959 changed Cuba’s destiny. In 1960, after consolidating power, they made “Patria o Muerte” the national slogan, referring to the long-sought goal. 1930s revolutionaries joined the 1950s rebels in a unity program: build a proud, healthy and literate nation, bound by ideals of social justice, equality and sovereignty.

Cubans were offered the chance to become actors on the stage of their own history. Millions left their homes to teach literacy, or joined militias, and voluntary associations to transform the island from dependency and underdevelopment into healthy development.

Cuba’s revolutionary tradition assumed that a sovereign nation would use its resources to benefit its people. Rich soil and industrious workers would provide everyone with a decent living standard. Poverty, most assumed, derived from foreign or domestic exploitation.

Early laws restricting landlords and large foreign and Cuban property owners allowed the government to distribute resources and services to the population, which won more legitimacy for the revolutionaries. But Cuba’s accumulated wealth would prove superficial compared to its needs.

Over the first decades, children of illiterate Cubans earned PhDs, and became doctors and soldiers who volunteered to go abroad to help change destiny in Africa and Latin America. Others volunteered for arduous tasks of construction and agriculture. By the mid 1970s Cuba had become literate and healthy.

To accomplish the overwhelming tasks of development revolutionary leaders had accepted Soviet help. This uneasy, but convenient marriage from 1972-1985 included adopting the Soviet economic and administrative models.

For Cuba the deal meant soft loans, technical assistance, secure supply lines and a high-paying market for its products. While most third world countries transferred capital to developed countries, the Cuba-Soviet agreement reversed the pattern, permitting the island to have sovereignty, social justice and relative equality. Cubans also became world renowned artists, writers and athletes.

For the Soviets Cuba became a legitimizing instrument to maintain credibility among third world peoples, playing a broker-like role for Soviet positions at third world meetings.

On July 26, 1989, however, Fidel Castro warned of the impending demise of the Soviet bloc. Cubans had to prepare. The enemy 90 miles away loomed as a constant threat to the revolution’s goals.

In 1991 the Soviet Union died. Without Soviet aid and trade, could Cuba’s economy survive? The unthinkable alternative, surrender to Washington, led Cuban leaders to design the “special period” — a daily juggling for survival. Euphoria prevailed in Washington. Scholars announced “the end of history,” capitalism had won – well, if one ignored the cyclical disasters. Computers and the Internet would remake the world. China and Vietnam had already abandoned communism — in all but name. Cuba remained the “Jurassic state”.

Without even major trade partners, Cuba’s leaders at first relied on abstractions: national honor, patriotism and shared sacrifice, hardly adequate weapons to fight a 32% GNP drop in one year.

Circumstances dictated that Cuba earn money from foreign tourists, who required a service oriented labor force – including prostitution. Cuba permitted remittances, which created inequality. Working Cubans earned less than non-workers who got rewarded by family members abroad.

Cuba began earning dollars for doctors’ and educators’ services abroad. In turn, this reduced the breadth and quality of education and health care at home.

Living standards fell. Theft, black markets and corruption tied to bureaucracy grew. Those too young to experience the days of subsidized consumption became pessimistic – even cynical – and desperate about their future. Complaining reached theatrical height. As leaders repeated old slogans teenagers passing below signs of Che Guevara reading “Como el Che,” would often say “Si, asmático.” Some opted for rafts to Florida.

Meanwhile, the revolutionaries maintained political power and withstood two decades of counter revolutionary efforts from abroad. By 2001, Cuba’s economy and administrative structures had begun to fall into dysfunction. Corruption levels became intolerable; the once exciting revolutionary script sounded trite.

When Hugo Chavez became President of Venezuela, he provided Cuba with aid and political alliances. Additionally, Latin America accepted Havana as a full partner, ending Cuba’s isolation

Recently, Cuba’s Communist Party reviewed the economy. A new script began to emerge as a series of guidelines (lineamientos). Changes have begun to affect property rights, domestic trade, employment practices, and investments.

In 2012, Cuban leaders could forge a new mission, to remake Cubans as the inspiration – if not saviors – of human life on the planet. Part of Cuba’s population still vibrates with desires to act on the world stage with a script the world’s people need.

Imagine Cuba leading a green revolution for survival! They have the science, experience and organization. Will the leadership pass the torch to those who have the energy and will to carry it out?

Saul Landau’s WILL THE REAL TERRORIST PLEASE STAND UP plays at Smith College, Feb 16. Counterpunch published his BUSH AND BOTOX WORLD

Nelson Valdés is Professor Emeritus at the University of New Mexico and director of Cuba-L.

Militarization of North and East

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:20:00 +0000

Most Serious Problem Faced by People in the North-East on a Day to Day Basis is that of Militarisation

| by M.A. Sumanthiran

So if you believe North and South, East and West are connected – if you know the history of this country – you must also know that what threatens the lives, livelihoods and way of life of people in the North – East will also come to threaten the lives, livelihoods and way of life of people in the South.

Today, the most serious problem the people in the North – East face on a day to day basis is that of militarisation. The military controls all aspects of individual, social and professional life. But perhaps the most destructive practice is the running of commercial enterprises by the military. From barber saloons to bars, and restaurants and hotels to tourist services – the military’s presence is strong.

Speech given in Sri Lanka's Parliament

( January 28, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Honorable Deputy Chairman of Committees, Thank you for this opportunity to speak on the Defence Ministry’s vote on the Budget for 2012.

With your permission, may I begin with the quotation from John Donne?

I quote “Perchance he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that.”

(John Donne (1572-1631), Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII: Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris)

The allocation for Defence continues to grow each year, even after the war has ended and for this year and next year the budgetary allocation reaches 230 billion rupees. There are reasons for that. And those reasons will reveal a greater threat to this country, than what it faced anytime before in its history.

The tragedy, though, Mr. Chairman, is that the country, blinded by triumphalism and euphoria, is unable to see it yet. I wish to suggest to you today a way of discerning what awaits the country as a whole.

In the aftermath of war, much is being said about ‘uniting’ the country. We are also keen that this country be united, and that all its peoples live in harmony. As President Obama often says “E pluribus unum” – out of many, one. But one of the natural corollaries of unity is that when one is affected, all are affected. You cannot strike my brother, and not hurt me. You cannot take away my sister’s liberties, and not take mine. If we are all connected, we will all rejoice together, and suffer together.

The people of the North – East had the worst excesses of the State thrown against them. They have been deprived of food, medicine, shelter, water and most importantly – their own dignity. They have been denied full and equal access to their citizenship right of this country. The rights that have been taken away from the people of the North – East – those peoples of this country who are numerical inferior – those liberties cannot be taken away from the Tamil people and the Muslim people and not be taken away from the Sinhala brethren.

This country’s history is littered with examples of the rights taken away from the peoples of the North – East, then also being taken away from those in the South –perhaps not in equal measure, but with unerring certainty.

The Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) is a good example of this. This was devised to control Tamil youth. It was then used to decimate communities in the South. His Excellency, The President himself, and our own Ambassador to Geneva were bitter opponents of the same PTA that is being used with impunity today. Here is what Ms. Tamara Kunanayakam had to say about the PTA in 1987 at the Human Rights Council: and I quote “Most of the threat arrests, the victims which, by and large, are Tamils, are effected under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and Emergency Regulations.

It may he noted that the Prevention of Terrorism Act has been described by the International Commission of Jurists as an ugly blot on the statute book of any civilised country.” She went on to say, and I quote “no longer can the government of Sri Lanka divert the attention of those genuinely concerned by the human rights situation in that country by references to separatism and terrorism. It must, as we said earlier, address itself to the root causes that have given rise to violence and violations that characterise Sri Lankan society today.” What prophetic words!

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, His Excellency the President himself showed us by example how one should go about complaining to the UN bodies when human rights of the citizens in this country are violated with impunity. He complained about the disappearances of the youth in the South to the UN Working Group. This fact is recorded in the legal annals of this country, in the official law reports, and I would like to read from [1992] 2 Sri Lanka Law Reports at page 223:

“In September 1990, the petitioner went to Katunayaka Airport to board an aircraft bound for Geneva, where the 31st session of the working group on enforce involuntary disappearance was being held from 10 to 14 September.

At the Airport, the 1st respondent disclosing the fact that he was an assistant superintendent of police, informed the petitioner that he wish to examine his baggage for fabricated documents which were likely to be prejudicial to the interest of the National Security and which were likely to promote feelings of hatred or contempt to the government.

The petitioner refused to permit the search and wanted to contact a lawyer. The 1st respondent did not object to this. The petitioner then spoke on the phone to Mrs. Srimavo Bandaranayke the leader of the opposition and there after threw the bags at the 1st respondent and asked him to examine them.

The 1st respondent examined the bags and recovered 533 documents containing information about missing persons and 19 pages of photographs and issued a receipt for them which was counter signed by the petitioner. The petitioner however refused to make a statement to the police.”

And so, we saw the spectacle of the PTA being used against the southern youth of this country. As one who entered the legal profession around that time, I too have had the personal experience of seeing how this draconian piece of legislation was used against the Sinhala people as much as it was used and continues to be used against the Tamil people of this country.

One important reason for the lack of professionalism in our Police force is the PTA. The Police no longer possess the ability to investigate crimes. All they have to do is to extract a confession from a suspect when the chances of him getting out on bail is almost nil. I can confidently say that more than 95 per cent of the PTA convictions are based solely on self-incriminating confessions that are made admissible under the PTA.

I appeared for a husband and wife who had been charged under the PTA for failing to give information to the Police, another offence which is found only in the PTA, about a supposed LTTE operative. The TID as usual, had extracted confessions from them to this effect. But that supposed LTTE operative, who had also been arrested, somehow resisted and did not make any confession about his supposed LTTE activities.
And so he was released; but this respectable couple still had to face the charge.

On the day of the trial that supposed LTTE operative came to court as a free man to watch the proceedings, in which two people were charged and convicted for failure to give information about him to the Police! That is how ludicrous the provisions in the PTA are.

Thanks to the September sessions of the UN Human Rights Council, the Emergency was withdrawn with effect from the 30th of August this year. But the very same emergency regulations have been re-introduced through the PTA! The situation is worse now. At least previously the validity of these regulations depended upon the extension and vote in this house month after month; now its forever, although clearly the regulations are ultra vires even the PTA and the Supreme Court dismissed two Petitions challenging this, without giving reasons. It was quite obvious though that they really had no reasons but only instructions.

The impunity and the gun culture that prevails in the country was brought to sharp focus just last month, when two advisors to HE were involved in a shoot-out in the Colombo District itself. The advisor on Trade Union matters died and the Member of Parliament who monitors this Ministry was quickly shipped out of the country to prevent arrest.

If this can happen in Colombo, one can imagine what happens in the North-East. The grease yakka saga and the sudden increase in robberies in Jaffna now, are all designed and choreographed to keep tension going and to justify the continued presence of the large military in the North-East.

Mr. Deputy Chairman, The business and investor community today is reeling after the passing of a Bill enabling expropriation of property. This is a most serious development and our party opposed the Bill in the strongest of terms. The rich were not the only ones affected. But before the passage of the Takeover Bill, the poor and marginalised, most notably in Colombo had their houses demolished in broad daylight. But this came as no surprise to us. What is called expropriation now has been happening in the North – East for many decades. People’s private dwelling houses have been taken away, they have been forced onto the streets – or IDP camps – and this happened with impunity.

To date the private dwelling houses that the army occupies extends to 1000. We should not for a moment delude ourselves into thinking that the South is insulated from the North, that the West is insulated from the East. In Ponnalilai, in Jaffna, the people of the area are not allowed to go to their own homes. But tourists from the south are permitted to go into that area. In Madagal, In Keppapulavu, in Mullikulam, and the list continues. All of these areas the military occupies and therefore the people of the area cannot go back and resettle.

Today, the Sinhala media is under severe threat. Many brave Sinhala journalists are in exile, other have been killed. Prageeth Eknaligoda continues to be missing, despite former Attorney General Mohan Pieris’ recent irresponsible assertion that he is in a foreign country.

This too came as no surprise to us. In the years during the war, as many as 12 Tamil journalists were killed. Many were forced into exile.

Others were imprisoned and convicted. One such was one Mr. Tissainayagam – who was convicted under no other law than the very PTA against which our own President and his colleagues lobbied against, which such eloquence and passion. After the conviction of Mr. Tissainayagam there has been yet another conviction and the judge concerned has now received the due promotion.

On the 16th of June this year an election related meeting at Alaveddy in Jaffna at which five Members of Parliament of the TNA were present, was attacked by 30-50 soldiers and officers of the Sri Lanka army, in full uniform and carrying automatic weapons. I made a complaint at the Tellipalai Police immediately, but was forced to make it in Sinhala, a quarter century after Tamil was also made an official language.

To this day, the only action taken by the Police is to file an information at the Mallakam Magistrates Court saying that unidentified men in army uniform attacked a TNA meeting. Can there be a bigger joke than this: that so many pretenders are able to run around in such a heavily militarised area in army uniform and armed to the teeth? What is the point in allocating such a colossal amount to the Defence Ministry if the assialants in Alaveddy cannot be apprehended?

If this can happen with such impunity in the presence of MPs and then for over six months no action is taken, can one imagine the levels to which respect for the rule of law has fallen in the heavily militarized North-East.

Today I wish to challenge the government on this: bring the offenders involved in this crime to book if you are serious about your assertion that it is only ‘a few’ individual soldiers who are involved in excesses and that you take prompt action to punish them. I can tell you that you will not do it, for the simple reason that, in this case, as in most, the orders came from the very top and these are not isolated incidents for which some individual soldiers are responsible. I challenge you again: prove me wrong if you can.

I mentioned the Alaveddy attack only because it had assumed prominence due to the presence of 5 Members of Parliament but what about the attack on Hon Sunil Handunetti in Jaffna? What about the attack on Hon Suresh Premachandran’s Secretary? What about all those dastardly acts of slaughtering dogs in the run-up to the Local Council elections? The list is long and has come to the recent abduction of two JVP activists in Jaffna on Human Rights Day. What then is the point of allocating such a colossal amount to the Ministry of Defence if this is the state of the rule of law in the most militarised part of the country?

So if you believe North and South, East and West are connected – if you know the history of this country – you must also know that what threatens the lives, livelihoods and way of life of people in the North – East will also come to threaten the lives, livelihoods and way of life of people in the South.

Today, the most serious problem the people in the North – East face on a day to day basis is that of militarisation. The military controls all aspects of individual, social and professional life. But perhaps the most destructive practice is the running of commercial enterprises by the military. From barber saloons to bars, and restaurants and hotels to tourist services – the military’s presence is strong.

I recently met a gentleman from one of the chambers of commerce in Colombo, who recounted a story to me. He had met a labourer on the A9 near Mankulam, who had asked him the price he paid for a Thmbili that he was drinking. This gentleman had told him that he paid Rs.40.00, to which the labourer had said that it only costs Rs.20.00 in Vavuniya, and that if the local people are allowed to sell this they would sell it for Rs.30.00 and make a 50 per cent profit.

But the army sells it for 100 per cents profit and will not let them engage in trade. This has completely decimated the livelihoods of people in those areas. People would otherwise have run the local barber saloon, or set up their little shops on the side of the A9 highway are rendered unemployed and destitute. If there is one certainty in this country, it is that you cannot compete with the military.

But it is not just livelihoods – the entire economic structure of the North has been undermined. Because labour and overheads are free of charge when the military gets involved in business, pricing become distorted and competition is quashed. The military is an external, artificial factor that further disturbs economic equilibrium in an already disturbed land.

It does not require a prophet – only a student of recent history – to predict the trajectory of the Sri Lankan economy in the coming years. And we have seen warning signs in the last few years. From security companies to hotels and restaurants to selling vegetables – the military is unmistakeably becoming interwoven into the fabric of the country’s economy.

As we consider the subject of defence, consider the voices of those from the North – East. Heed their warning. In their history, you will see your future; unless we dramatically change the way we run this country and say enough is enough. Civilian rule will be a matter of the past. Civilian rule however flawed and inefficient, however chaotic and unwieldy, should never be surrendered to the oppressive dictatorship of military economic rule.

By calling the Army out each and every single district in the country on the 6th of each and every month by gazette, the President in effect declares a no confidence motion against the police and its ability to maintain law and order on a monthly basis.

We have forgotten the fact that the correct and right place for an army in a normal society is behind barracks. The country cannot live in a perpetual state of military siege. The army needs to be retrained and sent back to civilian life. The military is a hammer in the toolbox of state policy – it is a very powerful hammer – but not every problem is a nail.

I appeal to every right-thinking member of the government today: do not condone the continued militarisation of our country. It is patent that this is continuing to ruin the social fabric of the North-East and therefore will soon eat away all that is precious in our democratic tradition in the South too. This is already happening.

Don’t be fooled by the effeciency with which Colombo is being beautified. That is NOT the job of the military. The longer you take to protest the militarisation of the North-east, the more difficult it is going to be for you to take a stand against forces that are already at your door step that will completely annihilate the precious democratic way of life of the entire country.

One way in which you can do that today, is to speak up against this mamoth allocation for the military in the budget for 2012. You have an opportunity to speak up against this trend that I am speaking about.

You can vote against the allocation today. You have a wonderful opportunity to say enough is enough. We will not allow the militarisation of the entire country. You have it with you. Don’t throw it away. You may not get another chance next year. Such is the speed of take-over of all aspects of civilian life of the country.

Honorable Deputy Chairman of committees, I wish to say a few words with regard to reconciliation. What I want to say is that true reconciliation is always victim centered.

True reconciliation must listen to the voices of those who have suffered. True reconciliation is never prescriptive by any government. Recently there was the first National Conference on reconciliation. The word ‘reconciliation’ doesn’t fit that conference. 22 people spoke, except 3; all were from the majority community. I’m told that the first list of 16 persons were entirely from the majority community. What is the reconciliation? With whom are you trying to reconcile? With yourselves? If you are serious about reconciliation you must listen to the voices of those whom you want to reconcile. If you continue with this trend, this is just another ruse that the government is using and Sir, I was saying – listen to the voices that have suffered. Nobody can gainsay the fact that it is the people of the North and the East who have suffered more during this war. You can’t say otherwise. What is the mechanism that the government has instituted to listen to the voices of those people?

You had elections and they spoke very clearly, you had elections in staggered fashion for three times this year and at every turn, they spoke to you very clearly and elected the TNA as their representatives. If you want to talk to the representatives of the people and that you must do, if you are serious about reconciliation, you must to listen to what the TNA has to say on behalf of the people.

If in this house itself you manifest your inability, your unwillingness, to listen to the people’s representatives from the north. That says what you will do in time to come as well.

My appeal to you is you cannot achieve reconciliation by merely shaking hands with some people – one or two individuals – and making them ministers or deputy ministers in your Cabinet.

That is not reconciliation. Your contempt for the rule of law is seen by the fact that there are deputy ministers in your cabinet who have committed serious immigration offences, pleaded guilty to them and served sentences in other countries and have come back only to be made deputy minister here.

You have ministers in your Cabinet who are proclaimed as persons who are being sought after the law for murder and abduction of children and there has been proclamation to that effect and they remain, still remain as ministers in your Cabinet. If that is the attitude that you can win over some criminal elements from the Tamil society, keep them with you and then show the world that you have achieved true reconciliation, Sir that will not sell.

You have to achieve true reconciliation with the people, with actual people, not with persons who have been discarded and who have been proclaimed as persons who are being sought after and are unable to even go to the neighbouring country. No true reconciliation will ever be achieved by getting a few criminal elements and making them ministers. The only way, if you are really seriously interested in winning over the hearts and minds of the Tamil people of this country, you must (interruption).

The moment you touch a raw nerve, the moment I say achieve true reconciliation by a genuine process, everybody gets so upset and are disturbing. So that is indicative of the path that the government is treading today, which is in the opposite direction to reconciliation. I’m appealing to you please turn around, leave all those criminal elements out, come and join with the people and the people will respect you for that.

Sir, before I conclude the speech, I will make this appeal once again. As I said to the ministers: you have an opportunity today, I appeal to the members in the government ranks, you have an opportunity today, to say: enough is enough, no further militarisation of the country, North-East or even the South and West. That is in your hands today. You choose to ignore what I say: our history will be your future and I hope that sensible minds there will listen to this today.

I said if you really want reconciliation with the people who have been trodden under the jack boot of the army, who have been mercilessly ill-treated, who are still living under tarpauline sheets, because there are no houses that are being built for them, who have to see the spectacle of the multi-billion dollar roads and bridges that are being built by the side, but they have no roof over their heads, who still hold pictures of their loved ones going from street to street, from junction to junction, from town to town, looking for their loved ones who are missing. You treat them the way you are treating them today, you will never achieve reconciliation. If you are sincere about reconciliation, if you really want this country to be one, there is only one way, and that way is to listen to the voices of those people, grant them the right that they are entitled to as a People, and then in one country we can live together as brothers, as equals with dignity.

Even after we have repeatedly told you as the representatives of the Tamil People, we are willing to live with the Sinhala People, with the Muslim People of this country but as equals, not as second class citizens but as equals entitled to and enjoying our right as a People. But if you continue to ignore that there is no way in which you will achieve reconciliation.

HR groups condemn proposed appointment of alleged war criminal to U.N. peacekeeping group

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:14:00 +0000

( January 28, Washington DC, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lankan and international news outlets have reported that Shavendra Silva—a former military general in the Sri Lankan army who stands accused of war crimes and torture—has been selected for a position in U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations.

This appointment is outrageous on many levels, according to a coalition of human rights groups including SPEAK Human Rights and Environmental Initiative, the UNROW Human Rights Impact Litigation Clinic at American University Washington College of Law, the Center for Justice and Accountability and the Center for Constitutional Rights. Silva played a central role in the Sri Lankan Army’s brutal military campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which caused up to 40,000 civilian deaths and incalculable suffering, and violated fundamental principles of international humanitarian and human rights law. While the Sri Lankan government has proclaimed its success in carrying out a “humanitarian operation” during the armed conflict, a U.N. Panel of Experts appointed by Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon concluded that there are credible allegations that the Sri Lankan Army committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Panel of Experts report, submitted to the Secretary General on April 12, 2011, discusses the responsibility of the battalion that Silva commanded – the 58th Division of the Sri Lankan Army – in these allegations.

Silva’s appointment is also inappropriate in light of Sri Lanka’s record in U.N. peacekeeping operations. In 2007, Sri Lankan peacekeeping troops were deported from Haiti for allegedly committing crimes of sexual violence against Haitians, including underage girls.

An individual considered for the Special Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations should be capable of demonstrating leadership on peace, unblemished by the allegations made against Silva. If confirmed, Silva’s appointment to the Special Advisory Group would send an appalling message to the world: accused war criminals are legitimate authorities on peace. Therefore, it is imperative that the world call on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to reject or rescind any proposal to appoint Silva to the Special Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations in the interest of human rights, justice, and accountability.

Needed: An Academic Spring

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:04:00 +0000

| by Shanie

"Of College labour’s, of the Lecturer’s room

All studded round, as thick as chairs could stand,

With loyal students,

faithful to their books,

Half-and-half idlers, hardy recusants,

And honest dunces—of important days,

Examinations, when the man was weighed

As in a balance! of excessive hopes,

Tremblings withal and commendable fears,

Small jealousies, and triumphs good or bad—

I make short mention; things they were which then

I did not love, nor do I love them now." – William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

( January 28, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) There seems to be nothing that the Ministry of Higher Education touches that, to put it mildly, does not end in controversy. From the (mis)handling of student demonstrations, booing of the Minister by the students, the agitation by the university teachers and non-academic staff for a reasonable wage, subjecting all new entrants to compulsory training in military camps, compelling all universities to employ a Defence Ministry-backed security firm, accreditation of the new private medical college and now to the fiasco over university admissions and z-scores, the Ministry has been at sixes and sevens. The Minister himself is perhaps not totally to blame. His senior officers and advisors must take a large share of responsibility for the chaos that prevails in the administration of higher education. The problem that Minister Dissanayake faces is that he does not have the proper advisors. Past Ministers have had respected academics serving in their Ministries, not businessmen turned bureaucrats.

File Photo

There should be no place in the educational system for sycophants and others with private agendas. Politicisation has affected almost all public institutions in our country, including the justice system in our country. Surely, it is not too much to ask the academics in our universities to begin the process of return to professional and academic standards within the university system. It will be catalyst for other professionals to follow.

The University Grants Commission consists of academics well respected in their time within the university community. The administration in all our Universities is also by respected academics. That is, before they attempted to play ball with politicians. They must know that they owe a duty by the institutions in which they serve to safeguard the academic freedoms and the academic standards that have been built up in Sri Lanka’s university environment over the past nine decades. In a recent open letter to the university community, the well respected former diplomat Jayantha Dhanapala, writing on behalf of the Friday Forum, spoke of the need for an "Academic Spring". He appealed to all academics in the university system to seriously reflect on what was happening within their institutions and to exercise the legitimate powers and responsibilities given to them under the Universities Act. ‘Some university academics have spoken of an "academic spring" and a resurgent commitment to academic autonomy and independence. We hope that this will attract the support of a wider constituency in the university community. Your engagement and interest is critical to prevent an irreversible decline in the public education system of this country. The future of university education and that of future generations of young people lies in your hands.’

Heavy-handedness is counter productive

In the same letter, Dhanapala wrote: ‘Current developments seem to be preventing Universities from giving leadership in the important task of nation building through peaceful and vigorous articulation of divergent and counter opinions. What is needed as we face the current challenges of development in a post conflict period is intellectual freedom in our universities. If such freedom is eroded and democracy and good governance undermined in institutions of higher education, it could in turn have repercussions on the young people of our country. Dissatisfaction amongst youth which fostered the insurrections of 1971 and 1988/89 in the South, and the 30 year armed conflict in the North, could manifest itself again with disastrous consequences.’

The fears that Dhanapala expressed is seen in mounting student protests. It was horrifying to see television images of the Police and heavily armed Army taking positions, in anticipation of unarmed student protests at the Galaha Junction in Peradeniya, as if they were preparing for a bloody battle. Student protests will keep mounting if the government’s response is going to be so heavy-handed. It is counter-productive and has the potential to bring the teachers and parents also on to the streets. Politicians will see conspiracies behind every action that challenges their authority. Unfortunately, the Police and the university administrators have become so servile that they are unable to call the stupidity of the politicians. We have had student protests in the past too. But the Police then, some of whom were student agitators themselves in their day, handled such protests in their own professional way and prevented the protests from escalating into a major conflagration. The senior ministers in the government, including President Rajapakse, will know that the popularity of a government can easily plummet if the grievances of any section of the population are only met with intimidation and force.

The z-score fiasco

In the latest furore over Z-scores, its creator Professor Thattil has pointed out the system adopted for z-score calculation for the current intake was wrong. Many other academics have agreed with him that the pooling of the mean and variance in subjects conducted under two different syllabi was wrong. The Dhara Wijayatilake committee apparently did not go into this aspect of the controversy as it was outside the purview of their mandate. Their mandate was to inquire into errors in district and island rankings. Another panel of experts looked into errors in the computation of the z-scores. The response of Minister S B Dissanayake to Professor Thattil has been to deny that Thattil was the creator of the z-score scheme. Professor R P Gunawardane who was the Secretary to the Ministry when the z-score system was adopted has now confirmed that it was indeed Professor Thattil’s formula that was adopted among several others that were submitted.

One news site has used parliamentary language to refer to the Minister’s denial of Professor Thattil’s contribution as a terminological inexactitude. After Professor Gunawardane’s statement confirming Thattil as the author of the z-score formula, Minister Dissanayake now says he had wanted Thattil on the experts committee formulating the z-score method for 2012 admissions but his appointment was opposed by the Examinations Department and the UGC. Minister Dissanayake says he was helpless as he could not override their decision! The then Commissioner General of Examinations, now no longer under the Minister, has stated that his department did not oppose Thattil’s appointment. He did not oppose or approve of Thattil’s or any other appointment because he did not know the names of the appointees until the appointments were done and their names published. So is this again a case of a terminological inexactitude by Minister Dissanayake?

Some students would have been penalised as a result of the wrong pooling of mean and variances method employed in the calculation of the z-score this year. Many academics, including Prof R P Gunawardane, feel that the method employed by the UGC’s expert committee was fundamentally flawed. Sadly, our culture will prevent the UGC and the members of that experts committee from admitting that error. It will be unfair by students for them to be penalised for an error in the calculation of z-scores by depriving of university education. It will be in the interests of all concerned of the z-scores are re-computed using the Thattil formula without pooling of the mean and variances in the two different populations. All those who qualify using the new formula should also be admitted, in addition who have already been notified of their selection. This will no doubt lead to pressures on the university system but that seems the only fair way out of this fiasco. The universities will have to find ways of meeting this additional intake.

The Private Universities Bill

The Cabinet has decided to withdraw the ‘Private Universities’ Bill, apparently at a cabinet meeting where Minister Dissanayake was absent. The university community, students and teachers, did not object to private entrepreneurs setting up private educational institutions. These have been taking place over the last several years. These institutions prepare students for degree-level examinations held by foreign universities. There can also be no objection to an overseas university opening a branch here. It will possibly provide access only to the affluent and the quality of the degrees offered will depend on the quality and academic reputation enjoyed by that university here and abroad.

But the furore over the Malabe Private Medical College is really over the quality of the medical degrees on offer and the diversion of state resources to a private institution. Sri Lanka ranks among the lowest in the world in respect of government spending on education. The state university system in our country is starved of adequate financial resources and the university community rightly feels that the public universities are being side-lined, either deliberately as a matter of policy or through the incompetence of the Ministry of Higher Education and its bureaucrats at at all levels.

Investment in education is an investment for the future. Our country has had a long tradition of learning dating back to the pre-Christian era. Professor Siriweera refers to the numerous pirivenas that functioned from the Anuradhapura Period onwards as great centres of learning. It is this tradition which was built on by the educationists and Ministers of Education in the past that has enabled Sri Lanka to have an enviable reputation for high educational standards as well as to enjoy one of the highest literacy rates in the world. The Kannangara reforms of the nineteen forties provided free and quality education in selected schools throughout the country. The founding fathers of the University College and the University of Ceylon contributed to the excellence of tertiary education in Sri Lanka in those early years. Let no one destroy what has been so painstakingly built up over the years.

Tibetan protests spread in western Sichuan, police fire again killing one more Tibetan

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 02:55:00 +0000

| by B.Raman

( January 28, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Protests by Tibetans have spread in Western Sichuan, resulting in one more incident of firing by the local police causing the death of one more Tibetan.

Photo Source: AFP

2. According to my sources, there have been three incidents of Police firing since January 23,2012, resulting in the deaths of 12 Tibetans, but the Chinese authorities have admitted only three deaths in three incidents. They have strongly denied reports of larger fatalities.

3. The latest incident of police firing has been reported from the Barma township, where one Tibetan youth died on January 26 when the local police opened fire on protesting Tibetans. The Barma township is located in the Zamthang (in Chinese, Rangtang) county in Ngaba. The Tibetans were protesting against the arrest of Tharpa, another Tibetan, by the police for disseminating anti-Beijing leaflets along with the Tibetan youth (Ugyen), who was killed in the subsequent firing. The death of Ugyen led to nearly 10,000 Tibetans from the nearby areas of Dzitoe and Dzime rushing to Dzamthang to join the protest against the arrest of Tharpa and the death of Ugyen.

4.On January 26, there were also reports of protest and solidarity demonstrations by Tibetans of Qinghai’s Golog (in Chinese, Guoluo) Tibetan prefecture.

5.According to Radio Free Asia, funded by the US State Department, Chinese security forces have become more aggressive in containing the protests, with two Tibetans reported killed by official Chinese media in protests in the Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture on Monday and Tuesday.

6.The Police have tightened security in Lhasa, the capital of the so-called Tibetan Autonomous Region, after one incident of anti-Beijing leaflet dissemination near the Jorkhang temple.

7.Chinese micro-bloggers have been reporting movement of trucks carrying police reinforcements to the affected areas in Western Sichuan and cancellation of the Chinese New Year leave of police personnel posted in the Tibetan areas of Western Sichuan.

( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com Twitter : @SORBONNE75 )

How Ron Paul could win

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 02:51:00 +0000

| by Paul Craig Roberts

( January 28, Washington, DC, Sri Lanka Guardian) In the Soviet Union common criminals were punished less harshly and received better treatment than political prisoners. A person who had committed a violent crime had more rights than someone who expressed criticism of the government and could be portrayed as having acted against the government. We now have the same situation in the US.

In a recent case the Supreme Court overturned the sentence of a drug dealer who was convicted on the basis of a warrantless 28-day search by having a GPS device affixed to his car. In other words, a common criminal still has privacy rights under the Constitution, but not US citizens who are suspected of vague and nebulous “terrorist support.”

Both Republicans and Democrats have demonstrated disregard for the civil liberty protections guaranteed by the US Constitution. Among the visible candidates for president, only Ron Paul has respect for the Constitution. As it is now possible for the executive branch to take away the life and liberty of a US citizen without due process of law, the Constitution is for all practical purposes lost. Tyranny looms, and Ron Paul is the only candidate who stands against tyranny.

This is why I have written that Ron Paul is our last chance and encouraged his libertarian handlers to be flexible enough for the electorate to elect Ron Paul. I agree that Ron Paul, if elected president, would be hamstrung by the Establishment, but the other candidates offer no hope whatsoever.

What is at stake is not libertarianism, but the US Constitution. Unfortunately, not many libertarians see that. Neither do many progressives. If truth be known, Americans are too divided and in opposition to one another to be able to unite against tyranny.

In previous columns I explained how Ron Paul could appeal to low income Americans, to elderly Americans, and to those Americans concerned about illegal immigration. I suggested that Ron Paul endorse Ron Unz’s proposal to raise the minimum wage to $12 per hour as a way of turning the jobs taken by illegal immigrants into a more livable income for Americans. I suggested that Ron Paul should acknowledge that people who have paid a payroll tax all their working lives have private property rights to Social Security and Medicare benefits.

A number of libertarians replied, as I knew they would from my long years of association with them, with their standard dogmatism that the minimum wage causes unemployment and that Social Security and Medicare are government programs not private property. They were blind to Ron Unz’s point that low wages cause unemployment among Americans who are unable to live on the wages, and, thus, cause an inflow of illegal immigrants who take the low wage jobs.

I don’t need to repeat my suggestions as the columns are available on my web site. I will, however, point out that the fact that Medicare and Social Security are intergenerational transfers does not mean that they are not private property. Consider your homeowner’s policy. If your neighbor’s home burns down or a person’s home in a distant location, the insurance company draws on the pool of funds created by policy holders’ premiums in order to compensate the person who lost his home. The damaged homeowner is not simply compensated from his own paid-in premiums. If more homeowners are elderly than young, it is an intergenerational transfer when a young homeowner’s home burns down.

Like Medicare, private health insurance is a transfer payment as premiums from the healthy support the care of the sick. Private medical insurance could also be an intergenerational transfer. Premium are adjusted for age, but generally speaking, the young are more healthy than the old.

For Ron Paul to further broaden his base, he also needs to add to my previous suggestions his endorsement of regulation to protect the environment and to protect private savers from fraud and irresponsible debt leverage by private financial institutions.

Libertarians claim that the best way to protect the environment is to have it privately owned. If streams, oceans, and underground aquifers were privately owned, the owners could sue polluters such as the oil companies, the mining companies, agri-business, etc. Thus, private property would protect the environment. Whether this would work or not, we are a long way from such private ownership, and many private economic activities are destroying common environmental resources.

The list is endless. The World Wildlife Fund reports that Asia Pulp & Paper is destroying the last remaining Sumatran tigers by clear cutting the tigers’ last remaining refuge in order to produce toilet paper marketed in the US under the Paseo and LIVI brand names. “Feel the Power! Buy our product and flush a tiger and a rain forest!”

The National Defense Resource Council reports that under an Obama regime and state of Utah plan, massive coal mining will be permitted adjacent to Bryce Canyon National Park. Three hundred heavy diesel trucks per day will travel down the scenic two-lane highway to supply China with dirty coal.

The Obama regime has granted Shell Oil tentative approval to begin drilling off the coast of the Arctic Refuge, the main on-shore birthing ground for polar bears.

Defenders of Wildlife reports that Shell Oil is pushing to open Bristol Bay to oil drilling, despite the danger to fisheries and wildlife and despite the fact that the long-term value of the renewable fisheries far exceeds the short-term value of nonrenewable fossil fuel extraction in the area.

In the Powder River Basin in Montana, coal companies are mobilizing to destroy the water resources and ranchers in the eastern part of the state.

All of these are current hot ticket items with progressives, environmentalists, and ranchers. Obama is vulnerable. He has put the tar sands pipeline on hold, but many believe he will approve the environmentally destructive project once he is re-elected.

Air, water, wildlife, and fish in the sea are not private property and have no protectors. They are being destroyed by the lack of regulation. Moreover, private property has not protected forests from being clearcut or soil from being depleted of its natural nutrients. The chemical farming with which agri-business has replaced natural farming has polluted America’s aquifers, streams, lakes, rivers, and the Gulf of Mexico, which has extensive dead areas from chemical fertilizer run-off.

As Herman Daly and other environmental economists have made clear, the world is running out of sinks into which to dump its wastes. The external costs of unregulated activity are mounting. Once a threshold is crossed, the environment is ruined. The drive to maximize short-run profits is a great source of ruin. The external costs associated with maximizing short-run profits can exceed the value of the private output.

A candidate committed to saving the Constitution, environment, private savings, protecting the security of the elderly, opposing war, and boosting the incomes of the worst off, which has the added benefit of reducing illegal immigration, is a candidate without equal in the presidential election.

We will not have such a candidate, because libertarian sectarian dogmatism will prevent it. Libertarians will be pure to the end and take the Constitution and the rest of us down with them.

Team spirit, communications and the ethnic theory

noreply@blogger.com (Sri Lanka Guardian) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:50:00 +0000

| by Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne

( January 27, Montreal , Sri Lanka Guardian ) Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers – The Story of Success has a chapter which he has entitled The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes. Gladwell suggests that the ethnicity of the pilots and first officers in the cockpit of an aircraft may have an impact on the safety of flight and cites the famous example (among others) of the crash of the Colombian airliner Avianca flight 052 in January 1990. Here the first officer, in his communications with the air traffic controller had indulged in what was called “mitigated speech” which downplayed or sugar coated critical information that was needed both by the pilot and by the air traffic controller. Gladwell quotes an expert, Earl Weener, a former chief engineer for safety at Boeing who said: “The whole flight deck design is intended to be operated by two people, and that operation works best when you have one person checking the other, or both people willing to participate. Airplanes are very unforgiving if you don’t do things right. And for a long time it’s been clear that if you have two people operating the airplane cooperatively, you will have a safer operation than if you have a single person who is simply there to take over if the pliot is incapacitated”.

Let us analyse what happened to the Avianca flight. The aircraft was dangerously low on fuel and needed immediate landing. The Captain instructed the first officer to tell air traffic control “We are in an emergency”. The First Officer relayed the following message: “That’s right to one-eight-zero on the heading and, ah, we’ll try once again. We are running out of fuel”. This does not, by any means, tell ground control that the aircraft had an emergency. The phrase “running out of fuel” does not convey the grave emergency at all. After a period of silence in the cockpit (which was extremely unusual for an emergency) the aircraft slammed into an estate in Long Island town of Oyster Bay. Seventy three passengers perished.

The first officer mitigated his communication to the air traffic controller because he wanted to be polite, presumably because he held the controller in high esteem. Another aspect to the disaster was that Klotz (the first officer) who was Colombian, expected his pilot to take the decisions Gladwell says: “Klotz sees himself as a subordinate. It’s not his job to solve the crisis. It’s the captain’s. Then there’s the domineering air traffic controllers at Kennedy Airport ordering planes around. Klotz is trying to tell him he’s in trouble. But he is using his own cultural language, speaking as a subordinate would be, to a superior. The controllers though, aren’t Colombian. They are low-power distance New Yorkers. They don’t see any hierarchical gap between themselves and the pilots in the air. To them, mitigated speech from a pilot doesn’t mean the speaker is being appropriately deferential to a superior. It means the pilot doesn’t have a problem”.

The high power distance of Colombians is not dissimilar to that of Asians. We tend to “Sir” our supervisors even if they are just one grade above us. While there is nothing ignoble about being deferential to one’s superiors, such an attitude could effectively preclude teamwork and result in lost opportunity to optimize expertise and provide competence. If “Sir” is regarded as a god like figure, the worth of the subordinate is a foregone conclusion. I work in an environment in the Western world where my clerks and administrative assistants, who are in the general service category, address me by my first name. This makes us work as a team effectively and check ourselves for verification and correctness in our communications with States. Of course, I take the decisions but if I am wrong, they do not hesitate to point it out to me. I do the same with my superiors.

The first measure which should be taken in ensuring team work is to create a positive work environment where each employee feels valued. Listening to one another and honouring the other’s point of view is the most effective way to have a common base of equality in a team. In the Avianca instance the first officer, due to his ethnic and cultural background, did not expect his captain to seek his point of view. There did not exist in the cockpit environment a feeling of respect for every individual.

The second measure is to build mutual trust. Inasmuch as trust is the basic tenet for all relationships, it should not be on a one-way basis, as was in the case of Klotz who trusted his captain to take the decisions, thereby relinquishing his own responsibilities of saving the aircraft and passengers. Trust is about doing what you say you are going to do and being who you say you are. It's about showing one’s peers and team mates in everything one does that one is reliable, responsible and accountable, and that they can rely on that person for consistency. That was certainly not what Klotz did with his captain.

What the captain of the Avianca flight did not do was to make his first officer feel that he played an important role. The captain did not encourage an environment of cooperation. Rather, he created an environment of competition where Klotz felt he was the inferior and weaker member of crew. The effective leader lets each member of staff know he is a valued part of the team, and that will create a work environment where staff members will respect each other for their unique contributions. This essentially requires the leader to create team spirit by demonstrating that he is open to communication from everyone.

Another aspect of good communication and leadership in the work place is approachability, where the boss demonstrates that he is available to hear any point of view and give credit for success of staff. Above all the boss should always take responsibility. For example, in the Avianca disaster, the captain should have taken over if he was not satisfied that the gravity of the emergency was not being relayed appropriately by the first officer to ground control.

At the end of the day there is no established magic formula for effective communication except for best practices as discussed. However, it is prudent to shed inhibitive cultural nuances if we are to perform at our optimum, particularly in the face of potential disasters. An anonymous writer says of Sri Lanka: “ Man is a cultural animal and culture and man has mutual influence for both. However, the western colonial invasions influenced this balance and in Sri Lanka, we are still seeing the post colonial effect of artificially created cultural segments and their desire to retain power against the will of the common people”. He goes on to say: “ That is why leaders like R Premadasa and Mahinda Rajapaksa who immerge from the common people find enormous opposition from the media and political power base of the comprador society and allied INGO agents. It is a part of continuous struggle due to differences in cultures represented by the common people Vs the privileged sectors of the society”.

Whether this antiquated situation should still hold sway in a globalized society is a matter for debate.