Doctors confirm 200-year-old diagnosis

HUNTERIAN MUSEUM AT THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS

By James Gallagher-26 December 2016

Doctors have confirmed a diagnosis made more than 200 years ago by one of medicine's most influential surgeons.

John Hunter had diagnosed a patient in 1786 with a "tumour as hard as bone".

Royal Marsden Hospital doctors analysed patient samples and case notes, which were preserved at the museum named after him - the Hunterian in London.

As well as confirming the diagnosis, the cancer team believe Mr Hunter's centuries-old samples may give clues as to how cancer is changing over time.

"It started out as a bit of fun exploration, but we were amazed by John Hunter's insight," Dr Christina Messiou told the BBC News website.

Mr Hunter became surgeon to King George III in 1776 and is one of the surgeons credited with moving the medical discipline from butchery to a science.

He's also rumoured to have given himself gonorrhoea as an experiment while writing a book about venereal diseases.

His huge medical collection is now housed at the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons.

It includes his colourful notes describing a man who arrived at St George's Hospital, in 1786, with a hard swelling on his lower thigh.

"It appeared to be a thickening of the bone, it was increasing very rapidly... On examining the diseased part, it was found to consist of a substance surrounding the lower part of the thigh bone, of the tumour kind, which seemed to originate from the bone itself."

Mr Hunter amputated the man's leg and he recovered briefly for four weeks.

"From this time he began to lose flesh and sink gradually, his breathing more and more difficult," the notes continued.

The patient died seven weeks after the operation and an autopsy discovered bony tumours had spread to his lungs, the lining of the heart and on the ribs.

Bony growths had spread to the patient's lungs-CHRISTINA MESSIOU

More than 200 years later, the samples fell under the gaze of Dr Christina Messiou.

She said: "Just looking at the specimens, the diagnosis of osteosarcoma came very quickly to me and John Hunter's write up was amazingly astute and fits with what we know about the behaviour of the disease.

"The large volumes of new bone formation and the appearance of the primary tumour are really characteristic of osteosarcoma."

She went to get a second opinion from her colleagues at the Royal Marsden in central London.

And in an out-of-hours session at the hospital they used modern day scanning technology to confirm the centuries old diagnosis.

Dr Messiou, whose speciality is sarcoma, told the BBC: "I think his diagnosis is really impressive and in fact his management of the patient followed similar principles to what we would have done in the modern day."

But she says the exciting stage of the research is still to come.

They are now going to compare more of Hunter's historical samples with contemporary tumours - both microscopically and genetically - to see if there are any differences.

Dr Messiou told the BBC: "It's a study of cancer evolution over 200 years and if we're honest we don't really know what we're going to find.

"But it would be interesting to see if we can link lifestyle risk factors with any differences that we see between historical and current cancers.

"So we've got big ambitions for the specimens."

Writing in the British Medical Journal, the Royal Marsden team apologised for delay in analysing the samples from 1786 and the obvious breach of cancer waiting times, but point out their hospital was not built until 1851.

Follow James on Twitter.

Federalism addresses minority rights: Prof. R. Sivachandran

2016-12-30

Prof. R. Sivachandran, a Central Committee member of Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), in an interview with the Dailymirror by email, advocates the Federal structure of government for the North and East. The ITAK is the dominant ally of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) at the moment. Expressing views at the time a constitution-making process is underway, he says powers cannot be devolved under a unity form of government as in today, fulfilling the aspirations of the Tamil people. Excerpts of the interview. 

Q. There is a strong demand for Federalism from your end. What do you exactly refer to by a Federal solution?
What we mean is two tiers of government. Each acting directly on their citizens. A formal distribution of legislative and executive authority and allocation of revenue resources between the two orders of government. That includes some areas of authority for each order. The provision for the representation of regional views within the central policy-making institutions is also sought in this exercise. 

Here, a chamber consisting of regional representatives at the centre to prevent unreasonable encroachment by the centre on regional powers is sought. In a Federal structure of government, a balance has to be maintained. Neither level of government should become dominant. One cannot dictate to the other on decision-making. One should not be legally subordinate to the other.

Devolutionary Federalism should redistribute the powers of the State among its entities that obtain autonomous status within their field of responsibility. The goal is to achieve unity among diverse and pluralist society. This system has been proved to be efficient and congenial, and it restricts the powers and promotes participatory democracy. The people far from the capital city will have greater access to wielders of power. A regional government will be able to focus on the particular concerns of the given area and act according to the wishes of people. It provides for shared rule at the centre and self-rule in the regions with dignity for people. 

Q. What are the reasons for you to reject a unitary constitution?
The unitary constitutions which have been made since independence have denied equal rights to minorities. In fact, they have taken away the rights and privileges enshrined in the Constitution made by the previous colonial rule. Post-independence unitary constitutions of Sri Lanka have unfortunately been partisan documents drafted by the successive governments to suit their needs and to toe political agendas. These home-grown unitary constitutions were rejected by the minority communities. These are not consensus and all-inclusive documents at all. 

Q. There is an argument that power should be decentralised and not devolved. What are your views?
Decentralisation of power has been followed for a long period of time in Sri Lanka. In the local context, this has not satisfied the needs and aspirations of the people distantly located from the capital. Under decentralisation, some central government powers of decision-making are exercised by officials of the very same central government located in various parts of the country. This lacks participation of people and their elected representations. Therefore, decentralisation is not an effective and efficient system to meet the needs of the people who are far from the capital. 

Q. How do you support your argument that the North and East are the exclusive home of Tamil speaking people?
There is no doubt that the North and East are the homeland of Tamil speaking people from time immemorial -- where their language, religions, culture and distinct traits followed for centuries. This has been accepted by the colonial rulers too. In the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, it is said the North and East were historical habitation of Tamil speaking people. The words ‘exclusive homeland’ can be changed to ‘homeland.’ Before the settlement of people from other areas of the country through the state -sponsored colonisation schemes since the establishment of the Galoya Scheme in 1930s and other colonisation schemes, Tamil speaking people were the predominant majority in the North and East. The general trend of the world is to demarcate regions on the basis of their linguistic identity. This is applicable to the North and East as well. Tamil speaking people are the majority in the North and East, and they have a legitimate claim for their homeland as the Sinhala people in other provinces of Sri Lanka. 

This sub-natural consciousness has been forced upon Tamil speaking people by discriminatory legislations introduced by the successive regimes after independence. If equal rights and privileges are given to all the communities throughout the country, all citizens, irrespective of their race and religion, feel Sri Lanka as their homeland. 

Q. What are your views on the 13th Amendment to the Constitution?
The 13th amendment provided for the establishment of Provincial Councils (PCs). The PCs enjoy legislative power over subject matters specified in the Provincial Council and concurrent lists. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution and Provincial Councils Act.No.42 of 1987 did not meet the aspirations of the Tamil people, but they hoped comprehensive power devolution would evolve. This amendment is a starting point for further devolution of power. In short, people have easy access to government services after the establishment of Provincial Councils.

Councils
As the Provincial Council system functions under the unitary system, powers of the Provincial Council are restricted.
The following matters should be considered for further democratisation of the Provincial Council system; The Governor should be made a nominal head; Subjects matters under the concurrent list should be assigned to either Provincial Councils or the Central government. It means it should be abolished; Provincial Public Service should be vested in the Board of Ministers. The national Public Service should be vested with the Cabinet of Ministers; The powers relating to State lands. Police are devolved subjects. They have not been given to the Provincial Councils; The Chief Minister of the Province should be allowed to establish the Chief Minister’s Fund and negotiate direct foreign aid projects in the Province. 

The 13th amendment made Tamil also an official language of Sri Lanka. There has not been much progress in implementation despite our efforts made. In practice, the Tamil Language has been relegated to the position of a provisional language. Language rights of the Tamil speaking people should be ensured. Bilingual administration in the specified Divisional Secretariats should be implemented. 

Q. How realistic is a political solution in keeping with the aspirations of the Tamils under the current political development?
The majority of citizens voted for a change at the Presidential election in January 2015. They voted to preserve democracy and to uphold human rights and good governance. Finding a solution to the ethnic issue is a long-felt need. This issue has affected every sector in the country. The formation of a government by the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) with minority parties has created a conducive condition to find a political solution with that can be reached. 

We do not think any citizen advocates separatism. The minorities want a sense of security, peace, equal right with Sinhalese. Some politicians’ mislead the masses by saying Federalism is separatism. Politicians should not work for their political agenda. They should work for the well-being of the people. The politicians and leading personalities in the civil society should explain to the people how ethnic problems have been solved in developed and under-developed countries after devastating wars. Aspirations of the Tamils can be achieved under an undivided Sri Lanka. If politicians act as statesmen, it is not a major issue.

WE SHOULD FIND A PERMANENT AND LASTING SOLUTION TO THE NATIONAL QUESTION IN 2017

by R. Sampanthan.-30/12/2016

I extend my greetings and best wishes for the New Year to all the citizens of Sri Lanka.
2017 will be a crucial year in the history of our country. Our expectation, is that we should find a permanent and lasting solution to the national question. The new Constitution in the New Year, should bring about this achievement.

While acknowledging diversity in our communities in several aspects, my appeal to all the people in this country is that we should strive hard to not let such diversity become a barrier to building a prosperous and peaceful country for our future generations.

I call upon all political parties, religious leaders, civil society and the people of this country to join hands in working together to build a prosperous and peaceful country. Let us not miss this golden opportunity in the coming year.

I wish you all a happy and a prosperous New Year.

R. Sampanthan
Leader of the Opposition – Parliament of Sri Lanka
Leader Tamil National Alliance

 Sri Lankan plantations managed by RPCs – 2017

Friday, 30 December 2016

The Prime Minister

We salute Ranil Wickremesinghe for his calculated and dedicated efforts in intervening genuinely, to uplift the ailing industry. However, we regret that we are unable to say the same regarding the President as he seems to have ignored the sector amidst many communications directed to him. We anticipate this attitude may be changed for better in the coming year. All responsible citizens learned professionals, decision makers must understand the negative and social impacts the plantations industry could engender on the national economy as a whole if left unattended to. We need the assistance of the scholars (OPA) to take a lead in this gigantic task. We thank the media for all the support extended to us in the last season. The same assistances may be continued in the seasons to come as well.
Owners, managers and employees
This is not the opportunity to waste everyone’s time by criticising the current state of affairs of the industry. However, we believe that the industry today remains a ‘world class case study’ for mismanagement and is being killed due to poor quality decision making. Wrong and unsustainable policies set by the successive governments since the initial nationalisation of the plantations too are to be blamed, to begin with.

We feel sorry as we believe that some of the owners of the RPCs are being fed with garbage by the heads of certain RPCs at times. Blindfolding the superiors with sinister motives attached to these strategies is not short supply in the plantation culture right from the very inception. May be it has gone high tech during present times amplifying the impact.

Quick hiring and firing are absolute needs of the industry mainly to improve discipline on plantations managed by RPCs, and we hope new laws will come into play just like heavy fines proposed for traffic offences.

If you are disciplined then there is nothing to be scared about. When it comes to discipline on plantations the only formula that works is usually known as the ‘benevolent dictatorship’. You will realise the validity of this concept even to date, if you refer back to the golden era of plantations in Sri Lanka or pre-nationalisation era in short. However, this kind of punishments should be first levelled against those deserving corporate employees of certain RPCs through the already available powers under the companies’ act 2007. This act is a tiger with teeth.

That’s why the most famous quotes are still in existence in planting that suggests ‘the best manure to plantation field is shoe leather’. Without MBWA (management by walking about) even a President of a country will not be able to manage for results. In Sri Lankan culture, the results are known only when the report card is delivered following the term test or the general elections as known by all.

Decision makers at all levels of certain RPC managed plantations, have failed to capture the much spoken ‘change’ affecting every business in the world primarily undertaken to make profits. We don’t think that we have investigated into the root cause analysis of these RPCs adequately in the last season. As pointed out in the past, if mismanagement has led to financial frauds depriving the salaries and benefits to the employees and taxes due to the state/public, such personnel must be removed from their seats along with all those henchmen aided and abated them to steal the national wealth and to build castles for themselves; rob Peter to pay Paul.


Employees

Surprisingly, most managers managing plantations do not know how the plant is growing. They cannot explain the scientific process of photosynthesis. It’s an outcome of wrong recruitment. No other country that has plantations recruits other than agriculture or science graduates into plantation manager positions. Even to become a Plantation Field Officer, some plantation companies overseas are looking for a basic science or agriculture degree.

When these young, dynamic and eminent personalities climb up the ladder to take up higher positions, they are given different sets of skills objectively so that they could handle their jobs without becoming a burden to the business. This applies to other categories of employees such as the Staff and Workers alike. Due to the lack of this facility some are on piggy back on employees. Demotivation impacts the bottom-line.

So the dire need of application of HRM principles should come loud and clear when planning the industry related issues in the new season. We can learn how HRM has been effective from all those RPCs that are doing extremely well under the same harsh conditions in here even now. The actual reason behind their success is that they are ‘change enabled’ and the losers are not.


Product

Long life is the expectation of every consumer except suicides. It’s antioxidants in tea that perform this need of the long life of the consumer. But without address this need all are expecting buyers to give us gold in exchange of meaningless tea. So we have to wake up and respond to this reality in the new season. If we address this issue it will lead to so many highly important process improvements in black or green tea production. The cost can be brought down if LTP machine is used like in African countries. LTP was available in Sri Lanka before Kenyans started using it. Both Manthri Delvita and Patrick Panabokke are still living to speak this truth, loud and clear. Do we have to manufacture refuse tea to throw out at the end? Will we have skilled tea pluckers for a long time in the future? Why are we blind to available alternatives?

‘Smart’ Plantations

Plantations can be turned around easily due to their rich asset bases and energy banks. These are social entities that resemble country within a country. The system is so unique that the manager of a plantation could be very much compared with a president of a country. But the systems in place in most plantations are much outdated and a hindrance to his performances, starting with the underdeveloped IT and ICT to compete with the modern world. We are appreciating the work done already by Harin Fernando but a more systematic approach is needed for the industry in the coming season.

Plantations must be looked at land-based investment opportunities rather than business entities that are making raw materials for the developed world to make super profits. Every Plantation may require a website that works well with digital marketing and an electronic payment gateway. Every plantation is capable of making a finished product and the revenue generated out of sales must come back to the plantation thus giving them the benefit of their labour. Currently, this Most RPCs currently do not make use of IT/ICT, Marketing, Engineering, Finance, HRM and scientific Operational professionals. This is why we need to have CEO positions of the RPCs filled with MBA graduates who know how to use the strengths of other professionals. We need to have the level playing field to compete with our competitors in other parts of the world.

   Mobile phone planting is not about using IT/ICT to manage crops instead intensive walking around the fields with eyes widely opened.

We have given comprehensive proposals detailing how to resurrect the industry to the Navin Dissanayake. He has given the Planters Association its deserving place. We presume that he is slow but steadily progressing without rocking the boat too much.

The state has to make certain decisions in terms of policy fast, because time is money today. We expect the state to increase the retirement age to 65 years of all private and state employees in 2017. This decision alone will help lot more quality and competent Planters to get back to the industry whilst the existing talent to remain in their much-needed positions.

   We are well aware that the New Year is full of challenges. The prevailing situation is not only applying to Sri Lankans but to the whole world. This is the time we got to stick together. Our dream is a faster journey towards the $ 10 billion dream by 2020 the planters have set for the industry. We need the support of the state to make it happen. We are open for discussion at any time. All planters, staff and workers are ready to shoulder these challenges.

(The writer can be can be contacted through: desilva_lalin4@yahoo.com).

Sri Lankans in UK protest against new constitution

30 Dec  2016

A group of Sri Lankans living in the UK held a protest in London last week, demonstrating against any proposed changes to Sri Lanka’s constitution.

The group waved Sri Lankan flags and brandished placards in Sinhala and English.

Organisers of the demonstration said, “The patriotic Sri Lankans accused the Government of trying to bring on a federal Constitution in substance with a unitary label at the front to hoodwink the Sri Lankan people through the back door as per the wishes of the TNA and the US, UK, EU, Canada etc”.

The protestors also rallied against the current government’s apparent mistreatment of the Sri Lankan security forces and denounced a proposed trade agreement with India.

Whilst many of the placards held by demonstrators were in Sinhala, a few were also written in English.

The placards in English read – “Do Not Touch The Constitution, Stop Constitutional Change, Stop Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, Do Not Appease Tamil Tiger Terrorists, Tamil Eelam Is In Tamil Nadu Not Sri Lanka, We Do Not Need The Indo-Lanka CEPA-ETCA.”

NEED TO REFORM STATE INSTITUTIONS TO ENSURE JUSTICE TO ALL IN THE NEW YEAR

30/12/2016

The need for the reform of state institutions to suit post-war conditions has become highlighted by a pattern of recent incidents. During the past year the rise of inter-religious tensions particularly in the North and East was marked, with an increase in hate speech, acts of physical violence and illegal constructions. Those who engaged in such acts did so as if they enjoy impunity which is not in the interest of national reconciliation and ethnic harmony. The responsibility of the government is to ensure that the Rule of Law is applied at all times whether it concerns those who occupy positions of religious or secular leadership. The police need to be trained to be pluralist and secular in their outlook and to take action whoever may break the law. The National Peace Council calls for all state institutions to be reformed to be in consonance with the requirements of a post-war multi ethnic and multi religious society.

There is also the need to wean the security foces away from the impunity associated with war time dealings with the civilian population.

The need for security sector reform was evident in the break-up of a strike by port workers. While he strike was costing the port, and the country, greatly in terms of their credibility as an economic hub, the manner the security forces dealt with the strike was not appropriate. The strikers were physically dispersed by the security forces, with the service commander himself leading the charge and striking out at journalists also. The National Peace Council believes that the security forces need to be provided with retraining so that they deal with civilians in a manner that is appropriate for peace time. This is especially the case when the North and East continue to remain areas with a high military presence.

Making the case for state reform more clear was the recent failure of legal proceedings to ascertain the identity of those who assassinated an opposition Tamil parliamentarian in 2006. This was a case of a jury trial before the courts in which the accused were members of the security forces all drawn from the Sinhalese community, the jury itself was all Sinhalese, while the victim was a member of the Tamil community. The security forces are today routinely described as war heroes by government leaders for having won the war. The all Sinhalese jury decided that the prosecution had failed to prove its case. The issue is whether the judicial system can ignore the factor of ethnicity. Therefore the National Peace Council reiterates that state institutions, including the judicial system, need to be reformed to ensure justice in the context of a multi ethnic and multi religious society. We trust that in the New Year the government will show the necessary leadership and take constructive actions that will meet the expectations of all the people who have rallied around it in the hope that it will improve life in the country for all.

– National Peace Council

Whether Raviraj was killed or suicide ? – Chameera Perera

 Dec 30, 2016

Few days after the verdict in the former Lawmaker Nadaraja Raviraj’s assassination case Colombo based civic rights activists expressed that they are not satisfied with verdict.

In a press conference held at CSR in Colombo on Dec. 29, Co-convener of Left Circle Chameera Perera said that government should expose that what’s really happened to former Tamil politician Raviraj.

 

“Raviraj was shot dead in a day time. There were several witnesses for his assassination.”

 

He said, “Government should tell that whether Raviraj was killed or suicide?”

 

“We can remember that former government told that Rugby player Thajudeen was died due to an accident. Therefore government should deliver justice to victims.”

 

Civic rights activist Saman Ratnapriya and Journalist Anura Bandara Rajaguru expressed their views at the event.

 

“We demand government to from a set up for special courts for murder cases,” said Saman Ratnapriya, civic rights activist and trade union leader.

 

Meanwhile TNA sources reported that Rairaj’s assassination case would be file an appeal against the verdict.

 

Lawrence Ferdinando

Adaptation – Part V

By Ranil Senanayake –December 30, 2016

Dr Ranil Senanayake

Preparing for the future by looking back.
Understanding the issues and options before us.

In the Climate Change conference in Paris in 2015, the Sri Lankan Presidential Delegation issued a position paper. It stated:

“We are aware that the critical Ecosystem services such as; production of Oxygen, sequestering of Carbon, water cycling and ambient cooling is carried out by the photosynthetic component of biomass. This is being lost at an exponential rate, due to the fact that these Ecosystem Services have not been valued, nor economically recognized.”

The real need of restoring and maintaining forests in sensitive parts of our mountains as an adaptation strategy is clear. There are disturbing trends in terms of water availability, temperature stress and violent episodic climate events. Today we are becoming painfully aware of such stresses as we face crop losses through drought. This country was once poised ideally to face such changes, the safety net against drought years was the rain producing forested mountains with a ring of 30,000 reservoirs around it. That insurance changed radically with the advent of colonialism and the stumbling ‘consumerist led development’ that was its natural child, which followed. Today, caught in the full force of ‘economic development’ it is a race to the bottom, where the very last of our land, stripped of forests and topsoil, will be offered to ‘industrialists’ and ‘investors’ looking for places where environmental safeguards are disregarded. They will be looking to ‘invest’ in countries where the spewing of toxins and poisons as a result of their activities, are not matters of concern. Is this the level of concern that the politicians have for their children?

To escape from this downwards spiral, Ii has now become obvious that there is a need to change the way we treat our land. An example is the mountain landscapes planted with tea on worn out soils, requiring loads of chemical inputs to keep it productive. This should give way for a more meaningful type of land use. In fact the current statistics of tea production seem to indicate the liability of maintaining these areas with high external inputs. Applying chemicals that are known to be toxic to soil microorganisms, is a sure way to keep us trapped in fertilizer dependency, Building back the forested mountains and living soils, is a pre requisite to restoring the water functions of the mountains. The water his collected, flows into the reservoir system to become the filtered and stored within the watershed. However, the current activity of planting timber monocultures as the ‘replacement’ for our lost forests, will never contribute to maintaining the water cycle the way that our mountain forests used to.

The need to ensure a clean aquifer can be addressed if this massive reservoir system is revamped to provide storage and water filtration functions. The current practice of dumping wastewater and garbage into the water bodies needs urgent address if the maintenance of water quality is to become a national goal. Deep well groundwater extraction is a non-sustainable. Deep water aquifers are often fossil or are only very slowly charged with deep infiltration of rainwater, which can never be replaced at the rates that deep well extraction demands. This has led to land collapse over certain wells and intrusion of salt into others. Thus the focus of public water access into the future, must be on the surface waters and shallow aquifers. The handing out of ‘water licenses’ needs strong safeguards and public scrutiny.

But to accomplish these tasks, it requires political will, but above all it requires capital for implementation.

The economic potential to accomplish these tasks can be gained if we recognize the value of the water storage and filtration system. By retrofitting our landscapes to adapt to the coming climate changes, we will be ‘adapting’ to the coming changes, a stressed aim of the Climate Change Convention. This will render finances for projects to ‘store’ and ‘filter’ water by restoring the traditional reservoir system. The restoration of the mountain forests will be easy if we capitalize Ecosystem Services. One easy way will be to look at the existing, capitalized Global Carbon Programs, such as REDD etc. etc. and to recognize the additional value in ecosystem services through the same investment that they are putting into Carbon.

Another will be to move from tree planting to tree maintenance, where one pays not for getting a tree planted, but for maintaining the living leaves on that tree. Such a move will ensure that the planter cares for the tree, as he or she will receive a financial benefit at the end of every year depending on how healthy the tree is. It will change the current statistic of 60%-80% losses in the first three years for current public tree planting programs.

Muslim women’s lib and liberal Islam — Part 3

Were the Muslims who lived before the enunciation of the Divine Law un-Islamic?

by Izeth Hussain-Dec 31, 2016

( December 30, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A point to be noted and emphasised is that the hadiths came to be questioned not only after the four schools of law – those of Abu Hanifa, Shafi, Malik, and ibn Hanbal – were adopted as integral parts of orthodox Islam. They were questioned by one of the four legists whose systems were given canonical status. Abu Hanifa, whose school of law is the most widely prevalent in the Islamic world, did not use the hadiths at all as one of the bases of his system, because he regarded only 17 of them as authentic – according to Morteza Mutahhari in his book Jurisprudence and its Principles. That means that Islamic law can be formulated without any recourse to the hadiths. The corollary of that would be that any law can be regarded as Islamic provided that it is consonant with the spirit of Islam as enunciated in the Koran.

I come now to the third source of the Sharia on which I wrote as follows in my seminar paper: “The third source ijma (consensus) was regarded by Iqbal as perhaps the most important legal notion in Islam. Evidently, that was because he had in mind not the ijma of the ulemas (religious scholars), but of the people, in accordance with Shafi’s view and the hadith ‘My people will never agree upon an error’. The ijma of the people might usually have been conservative, but all the same, and whatever the ulemas and the rulers may decree, the ijma of today will have to change with the ijma of tomorrow. The Muslim liberal apparently saw in ijma a potential for change, in combination with Ijtihad (independent reasoning)”. On the fourth source of the Sharia, namely qiyas (analogical reasoning) I will not say anything as it is not relevant to my argument in this article.

The above part of this article gives in broad outline the liberal critique of the sources of the Sharia. I will now give indications of how that critique views the Sharia as a whole. I quote from my seminar paper: “The above observations on Islamic jurisprudence raise questions about the validity of the Sharia as Divine Law. Liberal Muslims also raise common sense questions about the Sharia. The so-called ‘closing of the gate of Ijtihad’ means that there was consensus in the Islamic world on the canonical status of the four legal schools of Sunni orthodoxy. Iqbal points out that there was no written law up to the time of the Abbassids, and before the closure of the gate of Ijtihad there were nineteen schools of law. Were the Muslims who lived before the enunciation of the Divine Law un-Islamic?”

The following is a further quotation from my paper: “The liberals would argue that the founders of the four schools never claimed infallibility, or that they had formulated an eternally valid Divine Law. Iqbal asked ‘Did the founders of our schools ever claim finality for their reasoning and interpretations? Never’. So far from claiming finality, the Hanafites seem to have fully acknowledged that laws have to change with time and place and changing circumstances. Santilana in the Legacy of Islam, 1931 edition, quotes the Hanafites as saying, ‘The legal rule is not unchangeable, it is not the same as the rules of grammar and logic. It expresses what generally happens, and changes with the circumstances which have produced it’ “.

I will now provide some details about the actual practice of the Sharia in the predominantly Muslim countries. A reader has sent me an article which points out that only about 80 of the Koranic verses amounting to 6,236 are about specific legal injunctions. The article cites Professor Jan Michiel Otto of Leiden University in Holland who divided legal systems in predominantly Muslim countries into three categories. The first has classical Sharia systems under which the sharia has official status or a high degree of influence on the legal system. The important point is that the countries in this category are in a minority in the Islamic world. The second category, mixed systems, is the most prevalent: the Sharia covers family law while the secular courts cover everything else. The third category consists of secular systems in which the Sharia plays no role at all. The Professor mentions 17 countries in this category, including Turkey. That might seem surprising because the Ottoman Empire of Turkey prided itself on the strict observance of the Sharia, far stricter than in the earlier Arab Empires. Probably Kemal Ataturk after 1922 identified the Sharia as one of the factors that kept Turkey in a backward condition and decided to jettison it. The paradox is that Turkey has remained an intensely Islamic country, its present leader Erdogan is basically a fundamentalist, and yet it has no place for the Sharia. The details in this paragraph serve to show that in the greater part of the Islamic world the Sharia is practiced only to a limited extent, and sometimes not at all.

Before proceeding further I must declare that I am not unmindful of the fact that the intellectual brilliance shown in the formulation of the Sharia, and the profound Islamic humanism informing it, has earned encomiums from eminent non-Muslim scholars of the order of Ostorog and Hamilton Gibb and in our time Weeramantry. It remains however that the Sharia is today virtually a term of opprobrium among non-Muslims. The reason is that its perversely selective practice in a few parts of the Islamic world has projected an image of the Sharia as a legal system that is characterised by barbaric brutality and the subjugation of women. Saudi Arabia, which has its own peculiar notion of a Sharia that absorbs pre-Islamic practices, affords the spectacle every Friday of decapitated heads rolling in the dust.

As an example of the subjugation of women I pointed out in my seminar paper of 1990 that Pakistani women who complained of rape and could not prove it were brought to trial for adultery because in making the rape charge they had confessed to having engaged in sexual intercourse outside marriage. I quote: “The case of Safia Bibi is most interesting for revealing curious psychological processes at work among some Muslim traditionalists. A blind girl, Safia Bibi who complained of rape and could not prove it, was brought to trial for adultery and jailed. She escaped lashing only because she was pregnant. The case acquired international notoriety, the judgment was reversed, and Safia freed”.

My main purpose in this article has been to establish that there is no such thing as the Divine Law, and the provisions of the Sharia cannot, therefore, be regarded as immutable. That has been shown not only at the theoretical level but by the practice of law in the predominantly Muslim countries for over a thousand years. That means that we can have wide latitude in reforming Muslim personal laws in Sri Lanka. I take as just one illustrative instance the problem of child marriage. It is outrageous that the marriageable age in Sri Lanka should be as low as 12 years whereas it is much higher in the predominantly Muslim countries in South Asia, and also in India which has a huge Muslim population.

In the first part of this article I stated that I would focus also on the underlying reason for which the reform of Muslim personal law has proved to be so difficult: the reform movement started by Jamaldin al Afghani in the nineteenth century has been checked first by conservative Muslim despots and since the 1970s by the spread of Wahabism. That is a complex subject that requires a separate article. In the meanwhile, I will bring some facts to the notice of the reader. Extremist Muslims are estimated to be no more than 0.05% of the world’s Muslim population of more than a billion and a half. Wahabism that is not of an extremist dangerous type is certainly more widespread. But orthodox Islam still prevails among the great majority of the Muslims, and that orthodoxy is much influenced by liberal Islam. In fact, in recent years there has been a revival of the movement for liberal Islam. It will prevail.

 (Concluded)

Justice minister and his secretary contradict each other : Wijedasa’s boorish conduct shakes judiciary to its foundation !

(Lanka-e-News -30.Dec.2016, 7.20PM) The minister of justice taking the side of two accused who are on bail in cases in which they have been granted bail taking no account of the court directives , and the minister justifying those actions has been frowned upon by  the legal circles  , and is being reckoned, by the senior legal luminaries as demeaning and undermining the courts 

The minister of justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakse who met the two robed extremist monks Ampitiye Sumane and Galagoda Aththe Gnanassara Theras at Mangalarama , Batticaloa where Ampitiye Sumana Thera resides , on 23 rd December , had after falling at their feet released a press release justifying the hooliganism and violence of these two monks . This irresponsible conduct of a most responsible minister of justice (acting like a minister of travesty of justice)  has incurred the displeasure and disillusionment of the legal luminaries and the judicial sphere.

Sumana and Gnanassara are two hooligan monks who  tore the court order and threw them away, and are out on bail. Therefore they  are not acquitted  , and are still accused in the cases heard in the courts against them . Unbelievably , it is these two monks who are a disgrace to the Buddha Sasana and desecrating the saffron robes worn by them who were paid homage to by the minister of justice (or its travesty?) when he went to Batticaloa to fall at their feet , and justify their rowdy conduct. 

The behavior of the minister is all the more reprehensible because , despite being the minister of justice and therefore one who ought to respect judicial values and institutions has instead acted most boorishly and outrageously  in a manner that runs counter to the instructions contained in the  letter written by  the secretary  to the ministry of justice . 

Ampitiye Sumana recently in a devilish rage  despite being a monk in saffron robes scolded the grama sevaka of Batticaloa , a government officer in filthy language . He insulted and angrily said ‘ you are a Tiger’ in public while using the foulest  words. 

In this connection , the secretary to the minister of justice has sent a letter to the Attorney General inquiring why no legal action is being taken against Sumana Thera . Besides , even while the police have filed action against this culprit , the minister of justice instead of holding aloft the judicial values , law and order of the country  as a most responsible minister has by  visiting Sumana Thera and falling at his feet justified the hooliganism, most  vituperative abuses  and criminal conduct of Sumana Thera.

Consequently , the entire judiciary including the legal circles and the judicial sphere are most rudely shocked over this boorish conduct of the minister , let alone dismayed and disillusioned. Moreover the minister of justice (or minister of  travesty of justice?) has directly brought pressure to bear on the magistrates who are hearing the cases of Sumana  and Gnanassara  the accused. Though the minister may say to save face ,because he is  minister of Buddha Sasana also , he met these two culprits  ,he cannot escape from the grave criminality he has committed owing to his wrongful conduct thereby  demeaning and undermining the entire judicial sphere  

A legal luminary residing in Britain speaking to Lanka e news said , if the minister of justice has gone and met the criminals who are on bail , he must tender his resignation the very following  day. This minister rubbing his muzzle  on the ground before them when  meeting  the culprits after going there for personal reasons ;  and his efforts to secure an abortive Interpol warrant against LeN editor alone are enough reasons for the minister to resign honorably if any honor is still remaining in him. 

Poor minister in spite of being the minister of justice has only betrayed his ignorance of the basic principle  of the law that  nobody is above the law including himself even if he wears the saffron robe (for hypocritical or deceitful reasons). 

---------------------------
by     (2016-12-30 14:07:58)

Racist politics cost $200 billion, death and destruction

Yet monster of racism begins to raise its ugly head and the country, many fear, is heading towards yet another disaster. 

By Latheef Farook -December 30, 2016

Two hundred billion US Dollar is a colossal sum of money especially for a tiny country like Sri Lanka though blessed with the best of natural wealth and a literate population. Converted even at the rate of Rs 145 it would be around 29,000 billion rupees.

Had this national wealth been utilised to develop and modernise the country by improving education and health care facilities, develop infrastructure, launch industrial and commercial ventures, create jobs, eliminate poverty and raise living standard this island today would have become “Paradise” in all respects.

It would have also been a shining example to the entire third world as it was during the time of our independence in February 1948. 

Unfortunately this large sum of money was wasted on fighting an unnecessary ethnic war which was the direct consequence of destructive racist politics of all shades of mainstream political parties.

India’s former National Security Adviser and Foreign Secretary, Shivshankar Menon had disclosed in his book “Choices: Inside the Making of India’s Foreign Policy” that the estimated cost of this three decade old war was around US$ 200 billion. This estimate does not include the “opportunity cost” to Sri Lanka which was once the fastest growing and the most open economy in South Asia.

According to him the deaths, between 1983 and 2009, stands at between 80,000 to 100,000 people- combatants from both sides, lost their lives. Among them were 30,000 to 50,000 civilians, 27,693 LTTE cadres, 23,790 Sri Lankan army personnel, and 1,155 men of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF).

The final stages of the war had created a little over 300,000 refugees or Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). The war had also left 1.6 million land mines in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

But the real casualty of the war was Sri Lanka’s composite society, something that the LTTE and Sinhala chauvinism are “equally responsible for”, stated Menon who had given complete details about the loss and destruction to the country covering almost every possible area.

The LTTE was militarily defeated in May 2009.

Deaths and destruction would certainly make any one to shed the cancer of chauvinism and racism, learn from the past mistakes and seek means to reconcile the devastated   communities to move ahead for a better future for all.

Unfortunately for the country and its suffering minorities Mahinda Rajapaksa government abandoned the wounded and battered Tamils. To the shock of everyone he turned his attention against the island’s helpless and voiceless Muslims who also suffered immense during the war.

In fact this is what the chauvinists always claimed -“first we will deal with the Tamils and then take of the Muslims”.

Thus in the hour of glory Rajapaksa government unleashed unprecedented violence against the devastated Muslims for no valid reason. While the world is moving ahead under the global economic changes sweeping all corners of the world, here in the island few hundreds of Sinhala racist began to take the country back to Dark Age.

Rajapaksa government turned a blind eye when Anti-Muslim Sinhala racist outfit Bodu Bala Sena, BBS, attacked   mosques, religious schools; Muslim owned businesses, their traditional dress code and, in short, threatened their very survival as a community.

Rajapaksa government stooped to such low that it even allowed the BBS to invite to a red carpet welcome usually extended to heads of state, Myanmar’s convicted criminal Ashin Wirathu, butcher of Muslims, to declare war on Islam and Muslims.

During Rajapaksa’s corrupt, criminalized and commercialized autocratic regime, law and order virtually collapsed, economy was in doldrums, people lived in fear and on the whole there was an atmosphere   of fear.

It was under such circumstance that President Maithripala Sirisena won the 8 January 2015 presidential elections and defeated the dreaded Mahinda Rajapaksa.

There was great hope among people of all communities in the country as President Sirisena came with the slogan of restoring law and order, ensure freedom ,move towards communal harmony and clean up the country of crime and corruption. 

Thus overnight the situation changed. There was fresh hope everywhere. With the carnage fresh in the minds people, quite rightly, expected that they could look forward to a peaceful and better future. 

However it didn’t take long for everyone to realise the shocking reality.

Within two years today we are back to square one with President Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe refusing to fulfil their promises. Those accused of large scale corruption and crimes are free and, instead of bringing them to book, the government seems protecting and guarding them.

Most people are fed up.

On top of all comes the vicious and violent campaign against Islam and Muslims spearheaded by the very same BBS General Secretary Galabodaatte Gnanasara Thero. He remained subdued after the new government came to power only to raise his ugly racist head again to poison Sinhalese minds against Muslims to create a July 83 type anti Muslim violence to suit his local and foreign masters’ agenda.

Under normal circumstance, where there is rule of law, he would be in custody for his   hate campaign including his role in the Aluthgama-Dharga Town and Berwala attacks on Muslims.

The tragedy is that the government refuses to take action against his extremely dangerous and destructive path and his lawless activities. Instead he is protected and the Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapaksa himself says that the government cannot arrest him. The country is shocked that Minister Wijedasa started speaking BBS language antagonizing the minorities especially Muslims

It was under such political environment he participated at a meeting of heads of religious leaders summoned by president Sirisena.

People are confused. Their hopes are dashed. They do not know where to turn to.

This anti-Muslim campaign has all the ingredients to turn the island into a killing field from which it may unlikely to recover for decades in view of the existing local and global political environment. 

The often raised question is who are these racists? From where did they emerge? Who is financing   them? Why no legal action against them? Isn’t it time that the government step in and save the country from yet another potential communal carnage? So far all appeals from the Muslim community and the mainstream Sinhalese community to stop this hooliganism have fallen in the deaf ears.

Today these racist rabble rousers are law unto themselves. They openly violate laws, harass and humiliate Muslims claiming that the government has agreed to their agenda.  

In this climate of hate and fear, Muslims living under siege. They feel that they were abandoned by the government and betrayed by their own politicians. Their appeal to the government to contain this ethno religious fascism seems to falling on deaf ears. Muslims’ now appeal to Muslim   parliamentarians to leave the government and stop humiliating the community.

Judging from developments since the end of the war in May 2009, one could conclude that no lesson was learnt and, many fear, that the country is heading towards yet another disaster. Ends

Sri Lanka: Indian oil company detains CPC workers in Trino

( December 30, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) “Three officials including an engineer of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) sent to inspect 16 oil tanks in the Trincomalee oil tank farm were detained by IOC (India Oil Company) personnel yesterday” local media in Colombo reported today.

According to the report published by The Island, “a CPC official that the inspection had been ordered in the wake of the Cabinet deciding to take back 16 oil tanks.”

Trade union sources told the media that the CPC had intervened to secure its employees’ release along with their vehicles. They had been held for several hours, sources said, adding that the CPC wanted 16 out 99 tanks for its use. The CPC intended to take them over in stages and was in the process of finalising project when IOC personnel intervened, sources said.

IOC told CPC that inspection couldn’t be carried out without approval from the government of India.

Meanwhile, the Head of Indian Oil Company in Sri Lanka, Shyam Bohora, contacted for comment, said the CPC had given the names of four officials, but five had turned up. “We did not detain anyone. When our officials in Trincomalee found that there was an extra person, they told the CPC officials to ensure that all names be provided in future. Then, the CPC officials went and lodged a complaint with police. All them have since returned to Colombo.”

Ex-Personal Assistant Says Champika Ranawaka Tortured Him Because He Didn’t Let Him Have His Girlfriend

December 30, 2016

Serious accusations have been levelled against Minister of Megapolis and Western Development Champika Ranawaka and his character, with a man claiming to be the former minister’s personal assistant accusing Ranawaka of harassing and even mentally torturing him, because he refused to share his foreign girlfriend with the minister.

Addressing a press conference, Harsha Bandara Thilakasiri said that he had been working for Ranawaka from 2000 to 2016 and had closely associated with the minister. “My girlfriend is a foreigner, and due to her business related work I had to introduce her to the Minister. Since I introduced her to him, he kept asking her from me and I flatly told him she is not a prostitute.”

According to Thilakasiri, because he refused to share his girlfriend, the minister in turn was furious and plotted in various ways to harass and abuse him as well as even forcefully admit him to the National Institute of Mental Health in Angoda, claiming he was suffering from psychological issues.

“A group including UDA Working Director Chandana Ranasinghe, SI Herath from the Cinnamon Gardens Police, and the minister’s personal driver Pradeep De Alwis came and took me by force when I was staying at a friend’s house in Ratmalana. They said they were taking me to the Minister’s official residence, but instead they took me to Angoda and admitted me at the hospital there. I was kept by force for over a month and they even gave me electric shock treatment for 10 days and then they released me,” he told the press conference.

“After that I continuously received threats including death threats. They even called and threatened my father saying if I disclosed anything about the minister then I will have to languish in jail,” Thilakasiri.

He said that as he couldn’t tolerate the continuing threats and so he lodged a complaint at the Piliyandala Police on November 16, 2016. “But the police didn’t take any action against my complaint, instead they went finding for my girlfriend, who had no involvement in this, and the police tried to influence her and forcing her to give a statement saying that I am mad, which she refused to give. They had even gone the next day and shouted in a very unacceptable manner outside her house. The police had even threatened the domestic helper working at my girlfriend’s house,” he said.

Thilakasiri urged the Minister to let him and his girlfriend live peacefully without making their lives difficult. “I don’t need to disclose any wrongdoings of the minister. I only want him and his henchmen to stop harassing us and let us live our lives peacefully,” he added.

Meanwhile, posting a video on his Facebook page, Ranawaka denied the allegations leveled against him by Thilakasiri and said his aid was sacked because the man was suffering from psychological problems.

Read More