Mawbima News

By H. L. D. Mahindapala –

The 100-day programme of the “My-three-pala-naya” had no plans to encounter the Nugegoda rally. Not so soon, at least. They believed they could sail smoothly into the imagined “ideal country” located, of course, only in mythical Maithripala’s Manifesto. But within 40 days the “My-3-planners” have been hit by a backlash that no new elected government had ever faced in electoral politics. It is Ranil Wickremesinghe who is feeling the heat of the increasing events going against his political ambitions. It is his Prime Ministerial seat that is at stake in the coming general election. Maithripala Sirisena has no such issues due to the fact he is ensconced safely in his presidential seat.

It is this turn of events that has created Wickremesinghe nervous. He is displaying signs of a panic-stricken, nervous wreck. He is hitting indiscriminately at anything that moves – from the Australian Prime Minister to editor’s who have criticized him. He has now summoned newspaper owners to meet him to hold the media in line with his future. He has even invited anti-Rajapaksa NGOs to this meeting, hoping to get their backing to suppress the press.

It is time that somebody started feeding him with valium sandwiches morning, noon and evening to calm his nerves. This champion of “free media” – don’t forget how he packed off Paul Harris, the correspondent of Jane’s Weekly and Day-to-day Telegraph for exposing his deal with Prabhakaran? – feels that the only way to manage the oppositional forces rising against him is to muzzle the media. To do this he has to cook up a plausible argument. Having promised the electorate that the media will be totally free he can’t be observed to have gone back on his word to suppress the opposition. He has to offer an excuse. And the excuse is : media is rousing communal feelings!

So has anybody seen the Bodu Bala Sena, or even Champika Ranawaka who raved and ranted against the Muslims and Tamils in his current tour of Australia just just before the presidential election, whipping up communal feelings after January 8 in the south? I was in the Monash University audience listening to Ranawaka predicting the finish of the Sinhalese with the Muslims and the Tamils taking over the nation within the next few decades with their powers of prolific procreation, cash and scheming politics. Even he is silent as if his mouth is stuffed with pittu now on the communal issue. Only Wickremesinghe has begun to see Sinhala-Buddhist communalists increasing in the newspaper columns. Obviously, he hasn’t read TamilNet and Tamils newspapers. He is quitehappy to appear the other way about Jaffna jingoism because it does not pose a threat to him. Only the alleged communalism of the Sinhala papers is noticed as a threat to communal harmony. Which is Wickremesinghe’s way of saying that raising Sinhala-Buddhist problem is a threat to him.

Apart from this, there are early indicators of Wickremesinghe cracking below escalating stress. As a manage-freak, with an obsession to gather all power into his hands, the perform load is bound to overwhelm him. There is no 1 else to blame except himself for painting himself into this tight corner. All of a sudden every thing has begun to get on prime of him and unsettle him.

Initial, he is the unelected Prime Minister with out a majority in the Property. His position is hanging in the balance with his major political partners in the SLFP threatening to challenge his authority with a no-confidence motion against a single of his most reliable partners, John Amaratunga. He wouldn’t have offered Police powers to anybody other than whom he can trust. Keep in mind Amaratunga is the loyal Police Minister who concocted the story of Army trying target Wickremesinghe soon right after he signed the deal with Prabhakaran – a ruse to leak the names of the deadly and elite LRRP forces for the LTTE to target them?

Second the function load is throwing him into a dizzy spin, with pressures from a variety of lobbies crowding him and pushing him into corners from which he can’t escape. His political IOUs are also coming home to roost. He is also struggling desperately to catch up with his 100-day time-table which he presented with President Maithripala Sirisena to the organization community to impress that the “My-3” team can achieve what they promise. With every single failure and falling behind his own time schedule he is beginning to look a lot more like a lame duck than a dynamic reformer.

Third, cracks are building within his personal ranks and his partners and he does not how to prevent these exploding forces from running out of control.

Fourth, in his koka-tath-thai-laya Manifesto he has bitten more than what he can chew. The rosy optimism of delivering promises on time is fading by the day. Ven Sobitha is now batting on the sidelines promoting the thought of postponing the delivery date to two years.

Fifth, he wants to type a national government ONLY with him at the head, with out giving too a lot power to the other parties, even though they are in the majority. His obsession with energy with each other with his paranoia is compelling him to poke his fingers into minute information in the administration which is spinning beyond his control incrementally. It is impossible for him be at the best overseeing the massive picture and micro-handle the specifics at the bottom simultaneously. Nor is he. at 65, that healthier or physically robust to carry that work
load.

Sixth, his gimmickry of presenting a “seeni-bola” price range has come and gone with hardly any effect on the electorate. He has currently lost two Ministers – Faizer Mustapaha and Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha (possibly). And counting. There is no new blood to give a shine to his regime. He has fallen back on the tired old fogeys that led to his fall the last time.

Seventh, he lacks the charisma of a leader who can win the self-assurance of the people or a credible mandate from the electorate. He is in a really vulnerable position of based on manipulating a couple of ith-thas (pawns) at the leading. He is now screaming his head off saying that he can decrease Mahinda Rajapaksa’s majority. Is not this one more sign of his becoming on the verge of a nervous breakdown?

Final but not the least, an election is hanging over his head like a sword of Damocles and he knows that there will be hardly any individual to pick up his severed head.

His anti-Sinhala-Buddhist paranoia too is unsettling him. His initial reaction is to summon Sinhala newspaper editors and accuse them of rousing communal feelings. He has blasted them as “suck-killi-yas who cleaned Mahinda Rajapaksa’s toilets”. Not stopping at that he has decided to have a go at the media owners. He aims to tighten his grip on the media from the top and summoned the newspaper owners.

The reality is that the media has been subdued sufficiently and the state media has been cowed down. The media that ttaked him aggressively when he was in the opposition has turned to play his type of music. The state media, as per usual, has turned 360 degrees to be the Master’s voice. For instance, an NGO apparatchik like Luxman Gunasekera has returned to The Sunday Observer to resume his anti-Sinhala-Buddhist campaigns.

The nervous and paranoid politics of Wickremesinghe is revealed when he first blasted the Sinhala editors and then followed it up with summoning the newspaper owners on far-fetched charges of rousing communal passions without having uttering one word about the most damaging racist attack coming from Northern journalists, academics, NGOs and politicos. The most provocative statement to disturb communal harmony was the anti-Sinhala resolution passed by the North Provincial Council resolution on February 10, 2015.

Not since the Vadukoddai Resolution was passed on May possibly 14, 1976 has such a vicious, twisted, racist attack been unleashed by the North on the South. It is to the credit of the Sinhala-Buddhists that they have restrained themselves and not gone on the rampage. When the Tamil leadership passes a resolution projecting the entire Sinhala race as murderers of Tamils and accusing the complete leadership, which includes Wickremesinghe’s blood relatives, as genocidal barbarians, it was his prime duty, as the Prime Minister, to defend the nation and its wonderful leaders.

Which prime minister in the globe would not defend his/her nation against such a sweeping denigration of its image? When, for instance, Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake, in passing made a remark that people in Sri Lanka had not died of starvation like those in India. Indira Gandhi reacted furiously and Dudley, becoming the gentleman that he is, apologized in parliament explaining that he did not mean to denigrate or insult India.

Envision, for instance, the reaction of India if any southern provincial council had passed a resolution condemning Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a genocidal murder for what he did in Gujerat? Regardless of whether accurate or not, is generating such an accusation in sensitive instances conducive for reconciliation or easing the tensions in between Indian and Sri Lanka? So is NPC resolution aimed at promoting reconciliation? Or is directed at confronting the Sinhala-Buddhists with the sole aim of destroying communal harmony? Isn’t Wickremesinghe’s silence a deliberate act of giving consent and encouragement to the anti-Sinhala-Buddhists who are vilifying the nation for their political gain?

If the Sinhala-Buddhists have been the type of genocidal killers as stated in C.V. Wigneswaran’s resolution would they have rescued 300,000 Tamils fleeing from the Tamil Pol Pot? Would 23,000 Sinhala soldiers have sacrificed their lives to liberate the Tamil young children from the gulags of Tamil Boko Haram? Why has Wickremesinghe been silent on this internationally considerable and nationally sensitive situation? And why was he swift to turn his wrath on Sinhala editors and threaten newspaper owners by summoning them? As opposed to this, why is he purring like a pussy cat in the lap of Wigneswaran and the NPC? Is it simply because he got their votes to get into energy? Is Wickremesinghe appointed to play the function of the Prime Minister or Prime Traitor?

Please note that the NPC resolution was sent to the UNHRC, demanding action against Sri Lanka primarily based on the accusations listed in resolution. Any Prime Minister, who has any respect for his folks, would react forcefully, being aware of the significant consequences that would flow from such grossly distorted and concocted lies. The silence of a prime minister on a essential issue like this is completely unacceptable by those folks yearning for peace and reconciliation.

At a time when Western leaders in liberal democracies are demanding from minorities threatening the values of the majorities total acceptance of the national way of life, language, and laws Wickremesinghe has no right to be silent when “his nation” (I hope he agrees?) is condemned as a genocidal state by an additional neighborhood which has benefited most from sharing the riches, benevolence and welfare applications of the nation.

It is inconceivable that Prime Minister Wickremesinghe can stay silent on a critical situation like this. His silence can only imply that his uncles and grand-relatives were all murderous barbarians as stated in the resolution. Apart from, Wickremesinghe as well was a portion of the leadership that is accused of getting genocidal murderers. The only missing part in the NPC resolution are the atrocities committed at Batalanda. Could this be the explanation why he is silent on the NPC resolution? Is it with this record that Wickremesinghe proposes to contest Mahinda Rajapaksa in the coming election and reduce his vote by 5 million?

More importantly, will the media owners cave in and go along with Wickremesinghe? They have a duty by the readers and not by Wickremesinghe who does not even have a mandate from the folks, or parliament to be the prime minister. To counter Wickremesinghe’s media offensive they can politely hand over a copy of the “My-3”s” Manifesto highlighting the segment on free media. They can even go further and cite the guidelines of the International Democratic Union of which he is a Vice President.

The most incontrovertible argument against Wickremesinghe’s demand for compliance on the grounds of communal harmony comes from the West which is waging a life-and-death battle to defend free media against Islamic fundamentalists. The appropriate of the media to express freely, even when communal harmony is threatened, is exemplified in the case of Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine which has inflamed passions on both sides. Employing the Charlie Hebdo stand to defend media freedom, even above communal harmony, the media owners ought to unmask Wickremesinghe’s fake hijab of taking cover behind communal harmony. He ought to not be permitted to import ISIS fanaticism duty free of charge. He can not market communal harmony by imposing his dictatorship only on the journalists of the south. He should begin with the NPC politicians 1st. He must begin very first by asking the NPC to apologize to the nation and withdraw its resolution. Communal harmony is a two-way procedure. It can not be attained by suppressing the media of the south.

The media owners need to not tolerate Wickremesinghe’s higher-handed action to study the riot act to them below the pretext of defending communal harmony. That is a bogus problem, as pointed out earlier. They need to attend and listen to him very carefully. If Wickremesinghe threatens them they can stroll out. For as soon as, they can be guaranteed that the people will be with them.

Couple of are surprised by accounts of corruption on Sri Lanka’s mega-projects such as highways, ports and airports. These were extensively rumoured at the time and hardly come as a surprise. But even as President Maithripala Sirisena struggles to implement the Senaka Bibile drug policy reforms in an attempt to reduce healthcare charges, emerging revelations from the Health Ministry cast shadows more than the transparency of a multi-billion rupee cancer remedy project inherited from the former government.

Anatomy of a Scam

The project appears to have had its origins in a proposal drafted by Drs Mahendra Perera (Board Chairman for Oncology) and Jayantha Balawardane (Senior Consultant Oncologist at the National Cancer Insitute, Maharagama), which was then submitted to the Sri Lanka College of Oncologists. Sensibly, the proposal known as for a transition from the outdated Cobalt-60 radiotherapy machines to much more modern day linear accelerators. It was adopted at the College’s annual general meeting and submitted to the Ministry of Health, now dubbed “Provision of High High quality Radiotherapy for Cancer Individuals in Sri Lanka with Higher Power Radiation”.

The Treasury then went on to make a provision of Rs 900 million for the project in 2014, Rs 2,750 million in 2015, Rs two,640 million in 2016 and a additional Rs 800 million for 2017. The total commit on the project? A hefty Rs 7,090 million. To place it in perspective, the worth of this single project (Rs 7 billion) is equivalent to the annual equipment spending budget for all 550 hospitals beneath the Ministry of Wellness for two years.

According to the Monetary Regulations, the process for making any procurement for the government is a public get in touch with for tenders, sometimes preceded by a prequalification procedure. In the present case, however, there was no prequalification approach. Neither was there a contact for tenders. Instead, a decision was created arbitrarily to make this enormous obtain from the UK branch of a Swedish business called Elekta. The local distributor for Elekta is Siyol International (Private) Limited, situated on the second floor of Bible Residence in Colombo 3. Incredibly, the decision to make this purchase from Elekta—in strict secrecy and flagrantly violating tender procedure— was regardless of the reality that there are at least four reputed international producers of healthcare linear accelerators. Elekta, even so, basically named its price and the Health Ministry paid up. According to market insiders, the costs being paid by the Ministry exceed industry rates by more than 50%, a rorting of the public purse and raising queries as to who the beneficiaries of this largesse are.

The UAE Deal

Elekta had been unheard of until the government of the United Arab Emirates was approached for the gift of two multimillion dollar brachytherapy units, for the Maharagama cancer institute and Teaching Hospital Kandy. Once again no tenders have been called. Instead, the gear was bought through Siyol with no transparency or competitive bidding. So cynical has the scheme grow to be that Siyol proudly lists “Coordinating with the UAE Embassy for the donation of 02 Nos Brachytherapy units” in its Corporate Social Responsibility report, as if this had been an act of charity. But the query remains: Who suggested Elekta and its agent Siyol without having any transparent procedure?

For the linear accelerator deal, nonetheless, Elekta and Siyol brought in a third organization, Philips Electronics (Israel) Restricted. Elekta had acquired the Radiotherapy Division of Philips Health-related Systems and now had an added front beneath which to do enterprise. Hans Barella, former President and CEO of Philips Healthcare Systems now sits on Elekta’s board. What is a lot more, functioning out of Israel indicates not becoming topic to the tedious anticorruption regulations of the European Union, or the draconian Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of the United States. The deal had by now reached astronomical proportions, with plans to supply 13 a lot more linear accelerators, together with a host of ancillary equipment. These contain eight Massive Bore Philips CT simulators at a value of US$ 15 million (Rs 2000 million) and nine IBT Bebig brachytherapy units for US$ 6 million (Rs 810 million). For its portion, Elekta (UK) would supply 13 a lot more linear accelerators at a mind-boggling Rs 3200 million. In all, the consortium would walk off with much more than Rs 7000 million in public funds. Amazingly for so huge a project, Philips (Israel) refused to give a detailed breakdown of fees even when requested to do so by the Well being Ministry (Image 1).

A Significantly-travelled Engineer

The technical specialist to sign off on the project was S.A.J. Karunatilaka, an engineer attached to the Wellness Ministry’s Division of Biomedical Engineering Solutions primarily based on de Saram Road, Colombo ten. Details now in the hands of Colombo Telegraph (see image two) show that this individual had been caught red-handed, creating as numerous as 15 secret, unauthorised overseas trips over the past many years. Whilst the sources of funding for these trips are as but unknown, the matter of locating out who paid for them is child’s play given that a schedule of the relevant flights has been obtained from the Division of Immigration and Emigration (see Image three). But, the Ministry of Well being has failed to interdict this officer, report him to the Bribery Commission or even investigate a lot of other multimillion rupee deals with which he was linked.

Documents the Colombo Telegraph has seen show that these deals consist of not only procurements for the Ministry of Wellness, but also for the Ministry of Larger Education, the Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Navy. These projects incorporate “Supply of Healthcare Equipment to the Health-related Faculties of Rajarata and Eastern Universities and the Faculty of Allied Well being Sciences of the University of Peradeniya” for the Ministry of Larger Education for Rs 750 million”, “Purchase of Single-Place Floor Mounted C-arm System” for the Sri Lanka Army for Rs 86.eight million, and a “Digital Radiography System” for the Sri Lanka Navy for Rs 65.9 million. Sources in the Army and Navy state that these deals are being separately investigated by them for improper procurement procedure.

All this begs the query, why was an officer found guilty of undertaking 15 foreign trips with no official approval, and blatantly utilizing undeclared sources of earnings, permitted to sit on such essential technical procurement committees? Why did the Secretary of the Ministry of Overall health not inform the Secretary of the Ministry of Larger Education and the commanders of the Army and Navy that S.A.J. Karunatilaka had been found guilty of critical misconduct in a formal ministerial inquiry? Was it so that these bargains could proceed with no further scrutiny?

The question also remains as to who it was that decided to subvert the government’s procurement process and award this enormous contract to a single supplier with no calling for tenders. Such a decision can have only come from extremely high indeed. Asked for a comment by Colombo Telegraph Dr Jayantha Balawardane denied ever asking that this procurement be produced from Elekta with out calling for open tenders. “We only requested high energy linear accelerators with associated equipments”, he said. “We have not requested or specified any certain brands at any stage in our proposal.” Asked why no tenders had been known as for this multibillion-rupee procurement, which clearly violated the government&#8217s tender process, Dr Balawardane stated “I am not involved in [this] process”, placing the ball squarely in the Ministry’s court.

Yahapalanaya on Trial

The query now ahead of Rajitha Senaratne, who presides over the ministry that President Maithripala Sirisena himself in a speech at Maharagama last week described as “the most corrupt ministry” in the country, is what action to take? Should this multibillion rupee scam be swept beneath the carpet (with the implication that the new administration as well, is complicit in it), or should a public inquiry take spot to find out why no tenders were called and on what basis the astronomical prices quoted by Elekta and Philips (Israel) were accepted as being reasonable. This, after all, is precisely the type of wasteful and extravagant excess the Widespread Candidate bemoaned publicly and swore to investigate and eradicate. That stated, will the government reside up to its guarantee?

© Colombo Telegraph- oooTiHa

The witness protection bill has been passed unanimously in the parliament today. The considerably delayed bill was approved by the Cabinet final July. It was first tabled before the parliament in 2008 but was deferred.

The bill was drafted by the Justice Ministry, and thereafter referred to the cabinet sub-committee on legislation for its recommendations prior to becoming presented to the parliament.

The contact for an Act for Protection of Witnesses has been created for the past handful of years, especially for the duration of the post-conflict period as it would create support conduct fair trials by way of striking a balance in the criminal justice method of Sri Lanka between the rights of the accused, the rights and entitlements of victims of crime and the entitlements of witnesses.

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By Ranil Senanayake –

Open Letter to the Government of Sri Lanka.

By means of :

Prime Minister Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe

Minister Hon. Rajitha Senaratne

Minister Hon Lakshman Kiriella

Dear Sirs,

On the Port City Assessment

I am writing this open letter to you all as I have doubts that you may obtain it through the layers of bureaucracy and entrenched interests that assistance the proposed ‘Port City’ project. A recent news report quotes a senior government spokesman stating that a “comprehensive review would look into every single aspect of the project, including its environmental influence.” Naturally a ‘comprehensive review’ will take a handful of weeks at least for a project this size and any selection taken in a couple of days would mean that no ‘comprehensive review’ has been undertaken and we are as soon as once again lulled into a state of false complacency whilst our nations future is dismantled.

It will be salutatory to have the names of the scientists who are on the ‘comprehensive review’ committee, as there is severe doubt of good quality of function by the ‘scientists’ who performed the initial EIA, which we the public have no access to as but. We trust that you will not continue the underhand, opaque transaction procedures of the last government and be tarred with the same brush, we trust that you will you give us the Government that you promised us, open and transparent. I as the only qualified Systems Ecologist in this nation, offer you my services to this nation and to you GRATIS in the defense of this nation, if you are to set up an independent Sri Lankan committee to investigate the EIA that allowed the “Port City’ to proceed.

As we, the public have not has access to ‘Environmental Influence Assessment (EIA) that has been done in regard to this project there are some serious issues that I would request you to take into account. These considerations are basic, they effect this nation far into the future and if not addressed could produce irreparable adverse consequences for the public of this nation. Could I list a couple of to illustrate the magnitude of the problem?

• Air Good quality. The pollution from the new city will be swept into Colombo city by the prevailing sea breeze. Will there be controls of the air quality in the new city, so that the residents of Colombo will not have to endure improved rates of emphysema, lung cancer and connected illnesses? How will be the requirements for air good quality from the new city be set and monitored?
• Water Quality. The new city will require huge quantities of fresh water for its use. Exactly where will this water come from? There is not enough surface water in the Kelani basin to supply such a quantity. Will the citizens of this nation have to compete with the new city for its fresh water ?
• Where will the energy to operate the new city come from? At the moment we are advertising harmful coal fired energy plants that have been demonstrated to bring ill overall health to our citizens, destroy our agriculture, poison our fishery and ruin our heritage. Will this new power requirements be met with more such disastrous power generation being foisted on our nation?
• Garbage and pollution. Who will deal with the garbage and toxic effluents that will be generated by the new city? Will Sri Lanka be utilised as the dumping ground for the new city? What waste therapies plans are in spot, recognized by the current EIA?
• Destruction of the land environment. The massive amount of rocks that will be used in filling up the sea has to come from our land. What will be the effects of this blasting and quarrying? We have already witnessed the earth slips and erosion at Koslanda and elsewhere by means of bad land use practices.

There are numerous other considerations including offshore sand transport, marine biodiversity and climate adjust impacts that must appear in a reasonable EIA. Therefore it is clear that any ‘comprehensive review’ will have to address these problems. To do much less will be to cheat the public. Hence we the public, await an open discussion.

Please do appear about to see the other equivalent difficulties designed without having consultation with the public, the Chinese Trans Canal project in Nicaragua is a case at point. Already a massive segment of the population are dissatisfied with the secrecy and political instability looms. Such secretive contracts, will often breed national discontentment.

Wishing your new government effectively in its endeavor to defend this nation and to bring us prosperity and nicely being.

Sincerely,

Ranil Senanayake

By Dayan Jayatilleka –

“…we’re going to speak these days about President Sirisena’s thoughts about how to move Sri Lanka away from 30 years of war with the Tamils…”– Secretary of State John Kerry, Feb 12, 2015

Offered that India is Sri Lanka’s only neighbor and that it is a large country and an Asian power, it is correct that Sri Lanka regards the management of its relations with India as the top priority. Consequently, it is suitable that the President Sirisena, preceded by the new Government’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera must make New Delhi their 1st location. President Sirisena is fairly appropriate to comply with this up with a visit to China in March.

However, the new Foreign Minister visited Washington DC, and certainly London, ahead of he visited Beijing. This is most unfortunate, given that Sri Lanka’s principal identity need to be as an Asian nation and that China is maybe the most essential Asian power and certainly a single of the two top Asian powers, with the other getting India. Given the multifaceted strategic partnership, assistance and solidarity that China has always and unhesitatingly extended Sri Lanka for decades, it would have been each sagacious and ethically appropriate for Foreign Minister Samaraweera to check out Beijing soon after his go to to our neighbor New Delhi and prior to his visit to any other capital, and most undoubtedly ahead of he visited Washington DC. His failure to do so and his check out to the UK and USA prior to China is a clear indication of the external relations doctrine of the new Cabinet.

I emphasize the term ‘the new Cabinet’, since I think that notwithstanding his occasional pronouncements during the elections, President Sirisena is naturally inclined to be a friend of China and to balance amongst India and China, rather than tilt to India, the USA or any emergent Indo-US axis. Nonetheless, the new Cabinet is emerging as an autonomous energy center, since President Sirisena has chosen not to exercising his Constitutional appropriate to chair Cabinet meetings, and it is the Prime Minister who does so.

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s welcoming remarks on the occasion of his meeting with Sri Lanka’s new Foreign Minister revealed two standard truths. Firstly, that even at its most friendly, the US has a slightly prejudiced, if not warped perception of Sri Lanka. Secondly that Foreign Minister Samaraweera is no Lakshman Kadirgamar, the man he succeeded throughout his first stint in the post beneath President Rajapaksa.

Speaking in Washington DC on February 12, 2015, Mr. Kerry concluded his remarks of welcome with the line “…we’re going to speak right now about President Sirisena’s thoughts about how to move Sri Lanka away from 30 years of war with the Tamils to a country that is inclusive and prosperous and peaceful.”

Earlier in his remarks, Secretary Kerry talked of the January 8th election as a “vote to move Sri Lanka in a new direction, to open up greater accountability…and placing with each other a government that will speak for and to the people…”

Mr. Kerry is a very intelligent man, and in any case the LTTE or Tamil Tigers are sufficiently nicely identified, for him to have been aware that Sri Lanka did not wage or experience “30 years of war with the Tamils” but with a separatist terrorist army or militia. So, either the US views the LTTE as getting representative of the Tamils or it thinks that Sri Lanka waged a war for 30 years against the Tamil community. Whichever it was, it is damaging, distorted, insulting and dangerous.

One can think about that had he faced a comparable welcome, Foreign Minister Kadirgamar would have, in his own remarks, gently but clearly set the record straight, rectifying the egregious error. He would undoubtedly not have let his nation and its contemporary history be misrepresented he would certainly not have taken it lying down.

For his portion, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera not only failed to diplomatically correct the utterly false perception of and unfair reference to our nation and implicitly its armed forces, he failed to mention the 30 years of war at all!

Secretary Kerry’s referred to the election as a vote to move Sri Lanka in a new path “opening up higher accountability”. This demonstrates that the hypocritical invocation of accountability hasn’t stopped and that it remains on the front burner of the US agenda on Sri Lanka. There is consequently a gap in between US expectations of Sri Lanka under the new administration, and the national, state and safety interests of Sri Lanka, not to mention the views of the majority of Sri Lankan folks.

Of course Secretary Kerry’ remarks were ironic in the intense since the individual who “moved Sri Lanka from 30 years of war”, was not President Sirisena but his predecessor President Rajapaksa, and that was 5 years ago. It is nice of Mr. Kerry to hope that President Sirisena would move us to a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka, but we’ve been peaceful and prosperous for five years, on President Rajapaksa’s watch.

Following her check out to Sri Lanka, Asst. Secretary of State Nisha Biswal and much more importantly, US National Security Advisor Susan Rice referred to assisting in Sri Lanka’s transition. At a single level, the US view rests upon an interesting inaccuracy since Sri Lanka is not genuinely in the kind of transition that the other countries named in their officials’ statements are or have been. Sri Lanka is not in transition from a military or any other type of dictatorship or autocracy. It was always a multiparty democracy in which competitive elections have been held. This time the Opposition won and there was a smooth transfer of power following a peaceful election. So Sri Lanka is not a transitional state or society. Nonetheless, the use of the term ‘transitional’ by the US official reflects the view that Sri Lanka is in some sort of a transition. This can only be a transition from one kind of external relations paradigm which was realistically oriented towards Eurasia, primarily but not only Russia and China, to a competing paradigm which incorporates Sri Lanka into the Western orbit, especially the US pivot to Asia and most concretely, the Indo-US condominium in the Indian ocean region.

The US usage of the term ‘transition’ with respect to Sri Lanka might have an internal dimension also, in that the new Government might restructure the state, transitioning it from a robust centripetal unitary state structure with a strong center and an executive presidency, to 1 which is essentially a parliamentary and quasi-federal program, much less able to resist centrifugal ethnic pulls from Tamil separatism and the neighboring South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and withstand external stress. Sri Lanka seems to be in transition to a State form and model that is significantly less able to safeguard national sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity. The US may possibly be pleased to assist in transition to such a looser, weaker State.

The new Cabinet is overwhelmingly a United National Celebration cabinet. The UNP under the leadership of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is officially a member of the International Democratic Union (IDU) which is a collection of rightwing parties headed by the US Republicans and the UK Conservatives. As such the UNP government is far more probably to be oriented towards a prospective US-India axis. The Foreign Minister appears to represent the view of the UNP dominated government, rather than of President Sirisena who is the new leader of the centrist-nationalist Sri Lanka Freedom Celebration (SLFP).

While it will be in Sri Lanka’s national interest that the Sri Lanka Freedom Celebration (SLFP) wins the upcoming parliamentary election and re-balances the country’s political equation, it is unlikely at the moment. This is simply because there is ideological and political confusion in the ranks of the SLFP. Correct now, the UNP has been offered the advantage by President Sirisena due to the fact he has appointed the UNP leader as Prime Minister and a predominantly UNP Cabinet, in spite of the truth that the UNP has not won an election nor has the assistance of a majority in parliament. It is ironic due to the fact President Sirisena is the new leader of the SLFP. But he has conferred an unfair advantage on the rival UNP by empowering it. He and former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga have further confused the SLFP by collaborating with the UNP and attacking ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa who won the majority of the Sinhala majority at the current elections, though he lost in the island as a entire. Mr. Rajapaksa won 58% of the 75% of the population who take place to be Sinhalese. The SLFP wants Mr. Rajapaksa’s recognition to win the upcoming election but the new SLFP leader appears determined to attack him politically. In this deliberate confusion, it is likely that the UNP will win. The only factor that could adjust that scenario is if ex-President Rajapaksa tends to make a political comeback at the parliamentary election by means of the SLFP or an successful new nationalist formation. If the SLFP wins, specially with a Rajapaksa element, then the foreign policy of the SLFP will be closer to that of the Rajapaksa years, though there would be greater balance in between China, India and the USA, and particularly amongst China and India. Nonetheless, if the UNP wins, foreign policy will continue its present shift sharply towards the US, the West and a Washington-Delhi axis.

India can play a very constructive part in the financial, political and diplomatic arenas. Just lately the elected semi-autonomous Northern Provincial Council of Sri Lanka’s Tamil majority location passed a Resolution with the outrageous and aggressive allegation that successive Sri Lankan Governments because Independence in 1948, committed “genocide” against the Tamil neighborhood. India can help Sri Lanka’s rehabilitation approach by assisting oppose trends towards political and ethnic radicalization and polarization. It can do so by creating it very clear to Sri Lanka’s and South India’s Tamil politicians that Delhi strongly opposes such a Resolution and will not countenance such anti-Sri Lankan and potentially separatist postures on the part of the Tamil politicians. India can also assure Sri Lanka of assistance for the island’s sovereignty in any work to counter moves by the UN Higher Commissioner for Human Rights to move forward with an inquiry into Sri Lanka’s successful war against separatist terrorism in 2009.

Problems of a tactical nature between India and Sri Lanka, such as the problems of illegal fishing and Tamil refugees, can be dealt with jointly. What may prove a lot more problematic are two strategic concerns, namely India’s concerns about Sri Lanka-China equation and Sri Lanka’s political handling of its Tamil Query.

By Sudat Pasqual –

Cricket News

International Cricket Council Chief Executive Dave Richardson has vehemently denied that he was referring to the administration of Sri Lanka Cricket when he mentioned that illegal actions was the most pressing concern that had to be addressed by the ICC. &#8220I recognize that thinking about the continuous outrageous conduct of the individuals heading SLC , it is natural to conclude that whenever we at the ICC refers to illegal actions, we are referring to the hierarchy Sri Lanka Cricket. Nevertheless, on this occasion I was merely creating a point about the significance of eliminating illegal BOWLING actions from the game. Illegal actions of SLC will be discussed at length at the next common meeting&#8221, Richardson concluded.

More Cricket

In a gorgeous development , the International Cricket Council has agreed to permit India to bring their personal drop in pitches for all their matches. ICC mentioned that India was effectively inside their rights to demand that they get to defend their title on wickets similar to the ones in the subcontinent. Indian bowlers have struggled on Australian and New Zealand pitches and if we don&#8217t permit them to bring their own pitches India probably won&#8217t make to the 2nd round the statement further explained. That would not be great for the game or the players in India. This makes it a win-win circumstance for India the statement concluded.

Sri Lanka Cricket News

The executive committee of Sri Lanka Cricket responded to Minister&#8217s contact for gentlemanly behavior from SLC administrators in the following manner

&#8221 Since forcefully imposed on our membership by the very first siblings of Sri Lanka, this Executive Committee has diligently followed long established practices of Intransigence at each opportunity. We are and will usually remain committed to bringing the greatest quantity of disrepute in the shortest amount of time tothis cash cow of a game. We have never seeked low-cost publicity by acting in a transparent or accountable manner. We are proud to say that not one particular amongst us is a gentleman. The final of these had been kicked out along with Arjuna Ranatunga. We declare to the globe that this committee will continue its path of destruction of all that&#8217s excellent and decent, such as people such as Kumar Sangakkara. The minister could force us to the fountain of decency and good governance, but he will NOT make us change our uncouth approaches. Thank you.&#8221

MP Watson Hadunhetti has declared that the Secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket Board has agreed to deposit $ 1 billion due in back taxes to Finance Minister&#8217s designated account at the Union Bank. After the transaction is confirmed the funds will be shared with the Minister of Sports and SLC Secretary&#8217s position will be merged with the workplace of the CEO. All’s nicely that ends properly

News of Mrs.Weerawansa

The ethically challenged and factually confused Mrs.Wimal Weerawansa was panic stricken and inconsolable when told that her passport was impounded. Mrs.Weerawansa was heard lamenting, &#8220I am practically out of edible underwear. Now Wimal will start going to these horrible massage parlors once more! I can&#8217t compete with these sophisticated bimbos. Oh my god!&#8221

Weerawansa vows to restrict food intake

Calling the therapy of Mohan Pieris as unjust, the designated imbecile of that Rajapaksa cabinet Wimal Weerawansa vowed to limit his caloric intake to 1,500 per meal till Pieris is created chief of anything. He said it was the very same amount consumed by him throughout the protest against the UN. This type of mean and tasteless behavior was expected of us, but I anticipated a lot more from our Tamils and the Muslim brethren.