Thousands rally over mounting debt in northern Sri Lanka

A rally in Jaffna on Tuesday.   | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Protesters in Jaffna slam government for inaction against microfinance companies that charge exorbitant interest rates

Meera Srinivasan
- FEBRUARY 27, 2018

Months after Sri Lanka’s Central Bank vowed action on mounting household debt in the war-affected north, thousands gathered in Jaffna on Tuesday, protesting against the government’s inaction.
‘Our home and country are indebted, what is the solution?; ‘Stop loans, give employment’ and ‘Strengthen people’s organisations’, read the banners held by participants, who marched from the iconic Veerasingham Hall — named after a former MP who pioneered the northern cooperative movement — to the office of the Government Agent (GA corresponds to the district collector in India).

Participants included members and employees of cooperative societies across the Northern Province and thousands of women, who are among the worst-affected by the high-interest, unregulated loans. After the civil war ended in 2009, a host of microfinance companies made credit easily available to those struggling to rebuild their lives.

Petition to agent

In its petition to the GA on Tuesday, the Jaffna District Co-operative Council sought a ban on unethical microfinance companies, an interest cap on “predatory loan schemes”, a two-year moratorium and the expansion of low-interest government credit schemes.

Speaking to The Hindu, Kanthiah Mahadevan, president of a Jaffna-based credit cooperative society and an organiser of Tuesday’s protest, said while many families in Jaffna receive financial support from a member earning abroad, it is the economically most vulnerable who are aggressively targeted by the companies. The interest rate is 28% on paper, but the actual interest paid adds up to 70%, he said. “The government must channel funds to the cooperative societies so we can lend at a reasonable rate of 10-12%.”

With no option of repaying the high-interest loans, many women take multiple loans to survive. “Collecting agents often harass them at their doorsteps, pushing many to the brink of suicide,” said Sarojini Pathmanabhan, secretary of the Northern Province Federation of Thrift and Credit Cooperative Societies.

Amid growing calls for government intervention to address the problem, Sri Lanka’s Central Bank said in October last year that it was considering measures, including a moratorium and an interest rate cap. Asked about the progress made, the apex bank’s Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy said an awareness campaign was being undertaken. A six-month moratorium came into effect a couple of months ago, but more people needed to be made aware of the option, he said. “We have not ruled out a cap on interest rate, but we would prefer it if the banks are responsive to the situation and take decisions to self-regulate,” he told The Hindu.

The central government has made a budgetary allocation of LKR 500 million for debt relief in 2018. “The allocation is welcome, but if the government does not take immediate regulatory measures, the development of the northern economy will be at stake,” warned Jaffna-based economist Ahilan Kadirgamar.

Northern Provincial Council calls for ‘international justice mechanism’ for accountability in Sri Lanka

27Feb 2018

The Northern Provincial Council has passed a resolution calling for an “international justice mechanism” headed by the United Nations in order accountability and “permanent peace” in Sri Lanka.

The resolution, passed earlier today, notes frustration with the Sri Lankan government stating that it has “not only failed to take meaningful steps towards implementing” a UN resolution on calling for a hybrid accountability mechanism, but that senior government leaders including the president and prime minister “have clearly and categorically proclaimed that they will not fully implement the Resolution”.

“This Council believes that without truth, justice and an equitable political solution, neither reconciliation nor permanent peace is possible in Sri Lanka,” read the resolution. “Therefore this Council calls upon the Member Countries of the UN Human Rights Council to refer the case to an international judicial mechanism headed by the UN”.

The resolution also called for Sri Lanka to ratify the Rome Statue as recommended by the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL). See the full text of the resolution below.

It comes after a report by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein last week criticised Sri Lanka, stating the "authorities have not yet demonstrated the capacity or willingness to address impunity for gross violations and abuses of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law". 

The failure to show major progress in emblematic cases strengthens the argument for "the establishment of a specialized court to deal with the most serious crimes committed by State actors in the context of conflict... staffed by specialized personnel and supported by international practitioners" his report added.

“HAVE WE ALL GONE COMPLETELY MAD?”OUTGOING RIGHTS COMMISSIONER ASKS INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

“When an elected leader blames the Jews for having perpetrated the Holocaust, as was recently done in Poland, and we give this disgraceful calumny so little attention, the question must be asked: have we all gone completely mad? was one of the far reaching questions questions posted by  UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein in is last speech to the council, yesterday.
His full speech fellows:

27/02/2018

Opening statement by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein

26 February 2018

Distinguished President of the General Assembly,
Distinguished Secretary General,
Excellencies,
Friends,

May I begin by welcoming the Security Council’s unanimous decision in relation to a 30-day ceasefire in Syria, which came after intense lobbying by our Secretary-General and others, and we applaud Sweden and Kuwait for their leadership in the Security Council on this. We insist on its full implementation without delay. However, we have every reason to remain cautious, as airstrikes on eastern Ghouta continue this morning. Resolution 2401 (2018) must be viewed against a backdrop of seven years of failure to stop the violence: seven years of unremitting and frightful mass killing.
Eastern Ghouta, the other besieged areas in Syria; Ituri and the Kasais in the DRC; Taiz in Yemen; Burundi; Northern Rakhine in Myanmar have become some of the most prolific slaughterhouses of humans in recent times, because not enough was done, early and collectively, to prevent the rising horrors. Time and again, my office and I have brought to the attention of the international community violations of human rights which should have served as a trigger for preventive action. Time and again, there has been minimal action. And given this is my last address as High Commissioner at the opening of a March session, I wish to be blunt.


Second to those who are criminally responsible – those who kill and those who maim – the responsibility for the continuation of so much pain lies with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. So long as the veto is used by them to block any unity of action, when it is needed the most, when it could reduce the extreme suffering of innocent people, then it is they – the permanent members – who must answer before the victims.

France has shown commendable leadership among the P5 in championing a code of conduct on the use of veto; the United Kingdom has also joined the initiative, now backed by over 115 countries. It is time, for the love of mercy, that China, Russia and the United States, join them and end the pernicious use of the veto.

Mr. President,

A few miles away, at CERN, physicists try to understand what our planet, and the universe or universes, are made of. What matter is, at the most basic level, and how it all fits together. To understand the physical world, we humans have long realised we must tunnel deeply, beyond molecular biology and geology; and go to those sub-atomic spaces for answers.

Why do we not do the same when it comes to understanding the human world? Why, when examining the political and economic forces at work today, do we not zoom in more deeply? How can it be so hard to grasp that to understand states and societies – their health and ills; why they survive; why they collapse – we must scrutinize at the level of the individual: individual human beings and their rights. After all, the first tear in the fabric of peace often begins with a separation of the first few fibres, the serious violations of the rights of individuals – the denial of economic and social rights, civil and political rights, and most of all, in a persistent denial of freedom.

There is another parallel with physics. Gravity is a weak force, easily defied by a small child raising a finger, but there is also a strong force governing the orbits of planets and the like. So too with human rights. Some States view human rights as of secondary value – far less significant than focusing on GDP growth or geopolitics. While it is one of the three pillars of the UN, it is simply not treated as the equal of the other two. The size of the budget is telling enough, and the importance accorded to it often seems to be in the form of lip service only. Many in New York view it condescendingly as that weak, emotional, Geneva-centred, pillar — not serious enough for some of the hardcore realists in the UN Security Council.

Yet like in physics, we also know human rights to be a strong force, perhaps the strongest force. For whenever someone in New York calls a topic “too sensitive,” there’s a good chance human rights are involved. And why sensitive? Because a denial of rights hollows out a government’s legitimacy. Every time the phrase “too sensitive” is used, it therefore confirms the supreme importance of human rights, and their effect as a strong force.

For no tradition, legal or religious, calls for or supports oppression – none. Discussions about rights are avoided by those who seek deflection because of guilt, those who shy away from difficult decisions and those who profit from a more superficial, simple, and ultimately useless, analysis. Better just leave it to Geneva, they say – and the crises continue to grow.

To understand the maladies of societies, grasp the risks of conflict, and prevent or resolve them we must — like particle physicists – work ourselves into the smaller spaces of individuals and their rights, and ask the most basic questions there. The most devastating wars of the last 100 years did not come from countries needing more GDP growth. They stemmed from – and ¡ quote from the Universal Declaration – a “disregard and contempt for human rights”. They stemmed from oppression.

Today oppression is fashionable again; the security state is back, and fundamental freedoms are in retreat in every region of the world. Shame is also in retreat. Xenophobes and racists in Europe are casting off any sense of embarrassment – like Hungary’s Viktor Orban who earlier this month said “we do not want our colour… to be mixed in with others”. Do they not know what happens to minorities in societies where leaders seek ethnic, national or racial purity? When an elected leader blames the Jews for having perpetrated the Holocaust, as was recently done in Poland, and we give this disgraceful calumny so little attention, the question must be asked: have we all gone completely mad?

Mr. President,

Perhaps we have gone mad, when families grieve in too many parts of the world for those lost to brutal terrorism, while others suffer because their loved ones are arrested arbitrarily, tortured or killed at a black site, and were called terrorists for simply having criticized the government; and others await execution for crimes committed when they were children. While still more can be killed by police with impunity, because they are poor; or when young girls in El Salvador are sentenced to thirty years imprisonment for miscarriages; when transgender women in Aceh are punished and humiliated in public. When Nabeel Rajab is sentenced to five years for alleging torture; or when 17 year-old Ahed Tamimi is tried on 12 counts for slapping a soldier enforcing a foreign occupation. When journalists are jailed in huge numbers in Turkey, and the Rohingya are dehumanized, deprived and slaughtered in their homes – with all these examples bedevilling us, why are we doing so little to stop them, even though we should know how dangerous all of this is?
It is accumulating unresolved human rights violations such as these, and not a lack of GDP growth, which will spark the conflicts that can break the world. While our humanitarian colleagues tend to the victims – and we salute their heroism and their selflessness – their role is not to name or single out the offenders publicly. That task falls to the human rights community, that it is our task. For it is the worst offenders’ disregard and contempt for human rights which will be the eventual undoing of all of us. This, we cannot allow to happen.

We will therefore celebrate, with passion, the 70 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which incarnates rights common to all the major legal and religious traditions. We will defend it, in this anniversary year, more vigorously than ever before and along with our moral leaders – the human rights defenders in every corner of the globe – we will call for everyone to stand up for the rights of others.

This is, in the end, a very human thing to do. Artificial intelligence will never fully replicate the moral courage, the self-sacrifice and, above all, the love for all human beings that sets human rights defenders apart from everyone else. As I close out my term as High Commissioner in the coming months, I wish to end this statement by saying it has been the honour of my life to have come to know many of these defenders; to have worked with them, and for them.
Thank you

Blooming Errors In Sampanthan’s Eelam-Bud Thesis – A Rejoinder

By Veluppillai Thangavelu –FEBRUARY 27, 2018

Veluppillai Thangavelu

In politics, Malinda Seneviratne is the junior sibling of Dayan Jayatilleka. They have many things in common. They both suffer from the majoritarian mindset and supremacist ideology. They see no merit in devolution/sharing of power. Both are allergic to the word ‘federal’ or ‘federalism’ because both think rather ingeniously that it will lead to separation.

Despite his faults, LTTE leader remains popular among the Tamils even now. He passionately believed in an independent Eelam and sacrificed his life and that of his family. He lived a simple life and was scrupulously honest, unlike the corrupt Sinhalese politicians. His life and death have no parallel in the long history of Tamils. Tamils are convinced LTTE leader opted for armed struggle in self-defence as a last resort because of state-sponsored terrorism by the SLFP and the UNP governments. Both treated the Tamils shabbily and suppressed their natural rights to peaceful life and dignity.

The victory against LTTE by the Sinhala army is a pyrrhic victory because the causes that led to the war remain unaddressed to this day.

Malinda and Dayan think that the natural rights of the Tamils depend on the magnanimity of the Sinhalese majority. But that is not democracy; democracy is rule by consent, not rule by a tyrannical majority. Though both Malinda and Dayan will rush to deny that the Tamils lived for centuries in a Kingdom of their own that co-existed with the Kotte and Kandyan Kingdoms which is a historical fact. Occasionally, the Kandyan Kingdom had even matrimonial relationship with the Jaffna Kingdom. 

A Chief Justice in the British Government, Sir Alexander Johnston wrote on 01.07.1827 to the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland as follow “…I think it may safely be concluded both from them and all the different histories which I have in my possession, that the race of people who inhabited the whole of the Northern and Eastern Provinces of the Island of Ceylon, during the period of their greatest agricultural prosperity spoke the same language, used the same written character, and had the same origin, religion, castes, laws and manners, as the race of people who at the same period inhabited the southern peninsula of India….”

The demography of the Eastern province has been drastically altered by large scale Sinhala colonization from the days of D.S.Senanayake. In 1920 only 4 percent of the population of the Eastern Province was Sinhalese. The Sinhalese settlements in the east were small and scattered, even though most of the east came under the umbrella of the Kandyan Kingdom after the fall of the Jaffna Kingdom. It is only in the past fifty years that there has been a substantial influx of Sinhalese settlements through state intervention.

The island of Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, was ceded to the British Crown in 1802 by the Treaty of Amiens of that year. The map of Ceylon attached to the Treaty of Amiens call the Arrow Smith Map of Ceylon depicts the Island of Ceylon as two (if not three) different countries – a Tamil country composed of the Northeast and a Sinhala country composed of the South West and central parts.

Sir Hugh Cleghorn wrote in June 1799 to the UK Government: “Two different nations from a very ancient period have divided between them the possession of the Island. First the Singhalese, inhabiting the interior of the country in its Southern and Western parts, and secondly the Malabars who possess the Northern and Eastern Districts. These two nations differ entirely in their religion, language and manners.” (Malabar meaning Tamil).

Hugh Cleghorn (1798 – 1800) functioned as the Chief Secretary to the First Governor, Frederic North (later Earl of Guilford). He organised the administration and the famous Cleghorn Minute is a classic of its kind. Before coming to Ceylon he was Professor of Civil and Natural History at the University of St. Andrews. He was the agent by whose instrumentality the Island of Ceylon was annexed to the British Empire.

The Cleghorn Minute of 1799 and the Arrow Smith Map of 1802 are official proof that the Island of Ceylon consisted of two separate countries.

But Sinhala-Buddhist extremists dismiss historical evidence with a wave of the hand. Today the Sinhalese population has multiplied many times due to state-sponsored colonization. The 4% Sinhalese in the eastern province in 1920 now stands at 23.15% almost six-fold increase.

When the Portuguese and Dutch invaded and occupied Ceylon, they continue to rule the Northeast as a separate entity due to territorial, language, religion and cultural differences. It is the British that for administrative convenience amalgamated the Northeast with the rest of the country in 1833 on the recommendation of the Governor Colebrook – Cameron commission.

Rightly speaking the Tamil people instead of asking for 50:50 should have asked for the restoration and reconstitution of the Jaffna Kingdom ruled by their ancestors. This they failed to do because of the deception of DS Senanayake who promised the Tamils and other minorities that no harm will befall the Tamils at the hands of the majority in an independent Ceylon!

On October 1945, D.S.Senanayake, the first Prime Minister of independent Ceylon, GAVE THE FOLLOWING SOLEMN PROMISE TO THE TAMILS and other minority communities `NO HARM NEED YOU (NON-SINHALESE) FEAR  AT OUR HANDS (SINHALESE) IN A FREE LANKA.

He was speaking in the State Council in October 1945 when all the Tamil members had unanimously voted for the acceptance of the Soulbury constitution in a White Paper.

‘Do you want to be governed from London or do you want, as Ceylon, to help govern Ceylon?  On behalf of the Ceylon National Congress (founded by Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam in 1919) and on my behalf, I give the minority communities the sincere assurance that no harm need you fear at our hands in a free Lanka’ he rhetorically asked.

Again addressing the State Council on November 8, 1945, D.S. Senanayake went on to reiterate “We devised a scheme which gave heavy weight age to the minorities; we deliberately protected them against discriminatory legislation; we vested important powers in the Governor-General because we thought that the minorities would regard him as impartial; we decided upon an independent Public Service Commission so as to give an assurance that there should be no communalism in the Public Service. All these have been accepted by the Soulbury Commission and quoted by them as devices to protect the minorities.”

Read More

Sri Lanka Shops, Mosque Damaged in Buddhist-Muslim Clash

FILE - Muslims stand next to a burnt shop after a clash between Buddhists and Muslims in Aluthgama, Sri Lanka, June 16, 2014.

COLOMBO — February 27, 2018 

At least five people were wounded and several shops and a mosque damaged in a clash between majority Sinhalese Buddhists and minority Muslims in eastern Sri Lanka, police said on Tuesday.
Renewed tension has been growing between the two communities since last year, with some hardline Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam and vandalizing Buddhist archaeological sites.

Sri Lanka Shops, Mosque Damaged in Buddhist-Muslim Clash.docx by Thavam on Scribd

‘Reconciliation need of the hour’

President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga at the premiere of the film “Thundenek” at the Regal Cinema yesterday. Picture by Sudath Malaweera

Sandasen MARASINGHE-Wednesday, February 28, 2018

President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday stated that incidents such as the one in Ampara on Monday were detrimental to the reconciliation process of the country.

The President said that such incidents stand as challenges to the government’s reconcilliation programme.

“While we launch the Sri Lanka National Policy on Reconciliation and Co-existance, we have to overcome these kinds of challenges in the process of reconciliation,” President Sirisena said.

President Sirisena was speaking at the launch of the National Policy on Reconciliation and Co-Existence Sri Lanka and the premiere of the film “Thundenek” at the Regal Cinema yesterday.

The President also stated under such circumstances, we have to commit ourselves and work hard to bringing about reconciliation and co-existence.

“But those who attempt to do good are mostly treated in a disdainful manner,” the President said. “This is the lesson espoused by our religious leaders as well.”

President Sirisena also said that the government had done a great deal of work during the last three years to bring about reconciliation in the country.

He added that the reconciliation process is a moral vision and it is very hard to inculcate this in the minds of certain people who work according to their personal agenda.

The President added that the launch of the National Policy was historic since the progress of a project lies behind policies, planning and enactment.

President Sirisena also appreciated the commitment of former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in her capacity as the Chairpersom of the Office for National Unity and Reconcilliation to adopt Sri Lanka’s first National Policy on Reconcilliation.

The Film “Thundenek” which is co-directed by Prasanna Vithanage, Vimukthi Jayasindara and Ashoka Handagama on the theme of reconciliation and co-existence had its premiere following the launch of the Sri Lanka National Policy on Reconcilliation and Co-Existance.

Copies of the National Policy were presented to the President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe by Office for National Unity and Reconciliation Director General M.S. Jayasinghe.

Will this coalition government ever learn?

 

Sunday, February 25, 2018

In the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s local government elections, a weary sense of resignation weighs heavier in the scales than lingering (if not hopeless) optimism. As President Maithripala Sirisena dons white and is back again to his accustomed role of preaching morality and the virtues of good living to the restive populace, the fire breathing persona in blue promising to spearhead a new corruption fight on the election platforms a month ago appears to have disappeared not with a bang but with the proverbial whimper.

Extraordinary failure of political competency

On their part, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his band of now not-so-merry men protest that the warnings given by the electorate earlier this month will be taken to heart. A senior ministerial committee of the United National Party will present recommendations for policy reforms which will be discussed with its coalition partner to ensure unanimity and then swiftly implemented.

These are mind numbingly familiar terms emanating from the lips of the Prime Minister, committees, policy reforms, so on and so forth. When these words are heard in the public mainstream, sardonic chuckles ensue. It is this palpable absence of public faith that the coalition Government must overcome. Both the President and the Prime Minister are put to the stern test in terms of delivering more than the endless stream of political rhetoric, now hinged apparently on the musical chair games of changing the Cabinet. Who in this Cabinet actually commands public confidence? What is the point of changing portfolios when the same discredited faces circulate in nauseatingly slow motion rather like that dreaded nightmare from which one wakes up in a petrified state?

From the cosy corners of Colombo, there is no point preaching good governance and the Rule of Law to a potato farmer in the Uva province whose family is starving or to desperate paddy cultivators in the North Central province stricken by drought. The utterly inept handling of the portfolio of Agriculture by President Sirisena’s protégé in the Cabinet says a lot for the determination (or the absence thereof) of both to redress the plight of their own constituencies. It was an extraordinary failure of political competency, more so given that public anger had been visible for months previously. So there must be concrete change in the way that the Government is run. But none of that is discernible so far. This is why the public await future action with resignation uppermost in its collective mindset and the Rajapaksa lobby salivates in the wings.

The return of the Rajapaksas

A good friend of mine who disagreed vociferously regarding the strong critiques featured in these columns after the ‘yahapalanaya’ victory was secured in 2015, based his fears on the possibility that ‘Mahinda may come back’, if public scrutiny of the coalition government was too harsh at the inception. My counter to that was that, if constant vigilance over the Government was not maintained, that would lead to precisely that same result. Three years later, that possibility if not probability has now reared its head in a ferocious show of defiance, surprising only the supremely naïve. And let us not forget that it was precisely in the honeymoon period of ‘the inception’ that the first bond fraud occurred at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). It says much for the manipulations of those in power that this fraud was engineered scarce before the bloom had faded from the promises held out at Independence Square that Sri Lanka will take genuine steps towards ridding itself of the horrors of a murderous, corrupt past.

Cynical power games continued, aided and abetted by once strident critics of the Rajapaksas who suddenly turned to purring cheerleaders of the coalition Government despite the fact that many points of controversy had uncanny similarities. One example was the Government’s effort to bring in a new counter-terror law which was worse than the existing public security and prevention of terrorism statutes. Even now, there is apparently a new draft that has been finalized but the public is kept in the dark while in all likelihood, this has already been shared with western missions. Is this how governance is conducted? Will this Government never learn?

A grotesque subversion of the right to vote

And this allegation of a lack of accountability in governance swings both ways. There are many who are of the view that the commonly known Commission of Inquiry into the Treasury Bond issuance at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) should never have been appointed and that in doing so, the President focused public attention on the UNP for which the coalition paid a high electoral price. But that is a misapprehension of the most serious kind. The logic therein is indeed akin to saying (absurdly) that an investigation should not take place in regard to a serious crime given the danger that the robber could be identified.

However the allegation leveled against the President that he took action in respect of this scandal only at a point that it became politically expedient for him to do so and that the act of appointing the Commission was part of a deliberate scheme to gain political capital out of the fiasco remains to be answered. In any event, the result of the February elections was an unequivocal reprimand to both parties that the public is not impressed by these political games. But how many electoral lessons are to be meted out to Sri Lanka’s irrepressible politicians, which they never seem to quite grasp?

In a grotesque subversion of the right to vote, the only thing that elections seem to accomplish these days is to allow the country to get handed over from one group of crooks to yet another, both of whom take turns at robbing the public coffers but get off scot free as they are safeguarded by each other. Each so-called ‘victory’ that is seemingly won at these elections is ephemeral. In January 2015, the rainbow revolution petered out into dismal quarrels though some strides in the improvement of the Rule of Law were evidenced. In February 2018, the strong showing of the Rajapaksas can only thrill those with lamentably short memories of what happened during that ‘decade of darkness.’
Where redemption lies

Right now, effective action based on the Commission of Inquiry report in to the CBSL Treasury Bond issuance is high on the list of imperatives for this Government. Two scapegoats disappearing into the murky depths of Sri Lanka’s criminal justice system does not suffice to meet the public call for justice. It is on this along with a range of other factors, that the ‘yahapalayana’ Government was rightly judged.

And it is on these legitimate points of concern that it must redeem itself, if redemption is yet achievable in the public domain.

Govt. must rise and shine to grassroots’ wakeup call

Ranil is the last Prince among politicians; let’s count our blessings in having him as the UNP leader and as Prime Minister

Although Mahinda Rajapaksa has won 200 or more councils, he has failed to secure a working majority in 169 of them.

2018-02-28

Sri Lanka has many firsts to its credit, not all are plus points though. It seems to be a world’s first that an attempt was made to oust a Prime Minister, also from his leadership of the UNP on the results of a Local Government Elections.

The actual percentages of the parties and what they polled are as follows:-

Mahinda Rajapaksa’s party which has other parties under its umbrella 44.6 %, UNP 32%, The SLFP and UPFA 13 %, JVP 6%, TNA 3%.
The political pundits sitting in their armchairs in Colombo talk about the Bond issue, but I disagree, it may have kept a considerable number of voters not voting in Colombo, despite which, the UNP managed to win well with a good majority.

But if corruption was an issue, would they have voted for Mahinda, whose Government is famed both here and the world over, for its rule of unprecedented rampant corruption?

Although Mahinda Rajapaksa has won 200 or more councils, he has failed to secure a working majority in 169 of them.

As a longtime UNP supporter, I think this is a warning signal and a wakeup call, that we as a party, must do more for our supporters, with creating employment, tackling the cost of living and so on.

I am aware that much has already been done in housing projects, education, health issues, reduction of the price of medicines, petrol, gas, increasing the salaries of Government Servants, giving back land in the North, but there isn’t enough publicity for all this and we have to improve our propaganda and PR machines and get them moving fast. 

I am aware that much has already been done in housing projects, education, health issues, reduction of the price of medicines, petrol, gas, increasing the salaries of Government Servants, giving back land in the North, but there isn’t enough publicity for all this and we have to improve our propaganda and PR machines and get them moving fast.

There is also the complaint that the corrupt politicians of the past regime, their siblings and their children, who milked the coffers of this country dry and some murder cases, remain unsolved in spite of the Government having been in power for three years.

These have to be speeded up fast and something done soon.

Any suggestions by MPs should be made behind closed doors, within the precincts of the corridors of power in the party. A public show of disunity is disastrous for any party or organization. 

This is not the first time, although some try to make it out to be a historical fact, that a Government in power has lost Local Government Elections.
Some UNP Ministers removed longtime supporters of the party, who have worked hard for the party after the last Parliamentary Elections and replaced them with their own cohorts. This has also resulted in displeasure.

Whilst I was on the working committee, I recall the Prime Minister telling all members that they should refrain from attacking the President on any issue whatsoever.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t reciprocated and high ups in the SLFP and UPFA kept on throwing mud at him; getting votes for their party, was probably their intention and reason for doing so.

The good that has come out of the mud slung at him by media Moguls and others, all trying to be king-makers, although some of them don’t even have Sri Lankan roots, is that he has gained public sympathy in a hitherto unknown fashion, and people from all walks of life are horrified and angry, at attempts to oust him from the party leadership and his post as Prime Minister

But this did not, in the end, bring them the votes, but went to Mahinda. The Prime Minister kept to his word of command to his MP’s and Working Committee and never hit back, however hard he was hit or hurt.

He is one who keeps his emotions under house arrest, which makes it all the worse, as those that do this suffer immeasurably inside, which is bad for health, which is why all his supporters are deeply concerned.

The good that has come out of the mud slung at him by media Moguls and others, all trying to be king-makers, although some of them don’t even have Sri Lankan roots, is that he has gained public sympathy in a hitherto unknown fashion, and people from all walks of life are horrified and angry, at attempts to oust him from the party leadership and his post as Prime Minister.

As a Christian, I believe that this has happened because ‘God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform’.

Anyone with an IQ over zero is aware how hard he worked at getting the GSP and regaining international confidence, which would never have been ours, without him as Prime Minister.

Political pole-vaulters who left the party when we were down and returned just before the Presidential Election when we were on a winning streak have no business whatsoever, to suggest changes in Leadership.

This is the view of many UNP supporters, who have stuck with the party right through the bad times. These long-jumpers were not there to fight against injustice, corruption and for freedom through the worst times for the party.

There must be more party discipline, to prevent MP’s airing their views publicly, to the media on these and other internal issues. No pole-vaulter has the right to be appointed as Leader in the future.

There are many young MPs who stayed with the party through thick and thin, and any future leader should be chosen from among them.

Any suggestions by MPs should be made behind closed doors, within the precincts of the corridors of power in the party. A public show of disunity is disastrous for any party or organization.

Instead of pointing fingers at the PM for defeat, I wonder if they realise that when they do, they point three back at themselves, they should spend more time in their electorates, tell the people what has been done and not spend so much time abroad or in the high spots in Colombo.

There have been others airing their views on corruption and blind loyalty to Leaders. Nepotism, favouritism, positions given to one’s kith and kin, taking money for positions given are also forms of corruption in any organization. Loyalty is a rare virtue and has to be admired, whatever the circumstances may be. It’s far better to show loyalty to a cause or a person than to be known as hypocritical, greedy or for betrayal, which has become the most uAnfortunate trademark of our time.
Those who throw mud at the PM wouldn’t have dared to do the same with MR, when they would have met with a fate even worse than death or being taken away in white vans, or with the late Presidents Premadasa or Jayewardene who would have had absolutely no qualms about kicking them out of the party.

Ranil’s is too much of a gentleman and takes everything with cool composure, in his gentlemanly stride.

He is the last Prince among Politicians. Let’s count our blessings in having him as the UNP leader and as Prime Minister.
No-one wants a return to those horrific times we experienced before 2015.

‘Oh God of Earth and Altar, bow down and hear our cry
Our earthly Leaders falter, our people drift and die.
From all, that terror teaches, from lies of tongue and pen.
From all the easy speeches that comfort cruel men. From sleep and from damnation,
Deliver us, Good Lord.’

Cometh The Hour, Cometh The Man

By Godwin Constantine –FEBRUARY 28, 2018

Dr. Godwin Constantine

The recently concluded local government election has created much controversy, expectations and assumptions regrading the present government. Most of the parties that are opposed to the Unity Government have regarded this election as a referendum of sorts and said that the results of this election reflected the lack of acceptance of this government by the masses. Hence there was a call for the government to stepdown.

The president who tolerated the high-handed work of the Prime Minister used this opportunity to look for a replacement. He has been looking for a suitable candidate for the Prime Minister’s post within UNP and SLFP. He is now experiencing the consequence of introducing the 19th amendment without much consideration during honeymooning with the Unity Government.

On the other side Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has completely disregarded his humiliating defeat and attributes the defeat to fertilizer crisis, Meetotumulla tragedy and the likes. However, the bond scam, failure to persecute the culprits of the previous regime, increasing cost of living and economic setbacks had been the main reasons for this major debacle of the ruling coalition.

This election results have undoubtedly established the popularity of the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa yet again. However, the percentage of votes polled by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) still remains less the 50% of total polled votes. There is nothing much to celebrate since the percentage of votes obtained by the SLPP is slightly less than that obtained at the last Presidential election by Mahinda Rajapaksa. The most important change that has taken place with this election is the emergence of SLPP as a major contender, with the blessings of the former President.  The SLPP has shifted the SLFP’s voter base in its favor at the grass root level.

There are only two main personalities in the SLPP at present. They are the chairman of the SLPP Prof GL Peiris and Basil Rajapaksa. The real winner of this election is Basil Rajapaksa. This victory of SLPP is going to affect Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) more than any other party in the future elections.  Today the jubilation of the joint opposition is due to the victory achieved by the SLPP. One cannot expect the SLPP which has secured a historic victory to windup and become part of SLFP for the next election. The future of the SLFP will depend on whether the SLPP will be willing to function under SLFP in future elections.

Since the time Mahinda Rajapaksa lost the Presidential election he and his group had been testing his popularity from time to time by organizing various meetings. These meetings showed that  Mahinda Rajapaksa remained popular amongst the masse and possibly become more popular as a result of growing discontent of the masses with the present government.  Though he was very popular it was of no consequence as he was not the leader of the SLFP. Hence there was a suggestion to form a new party under Mahinda Rajapaksa’s leadership, since the time he lost the Presidential election. However Mahinda Rajapaksa remained non-committal to the idea of forming a new party, probably fearing the worst case scenario of being marginalized from the history of SLFP.

After long period of speculation and expectation the news about the formation of SLPP emerged. Though it was expected that Mahinda Rajapaksa will be the leader of the new party Prof G L was appointed as the chairman of the new party (This strategy would have been adopted since it is easy to wash hands off the new party if it proves to be a failure.) Basil Rajapaksa became an active member since he had nothing to lose even if the new party is a failure. For Basil who could not secure an important position in the central committee of the SLFP this was a good opportunity to advance his career prospects in politics.

Since the SLPP has clearly dissociated it’s self from SLFP to contest the local government elections it is unlikely that the SLPP will join with the SLFP or work under SLFP in the forthcoming provincial elections. In a recent interview when Basil Rajapaksa was asked about the future plans of the SLPP he said “next we will have to face the Provincial Councils elections. Afterwards, we will have the Presidential or General election. We will face them according to a systematic plan”.

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Sirisena unrelenting in his efforts to change P.M. – More plots ahead ! UNP members ask why P.M. is giving in ?

(Lanka-e-News - 27.Feb.2018, 7.00PM) The despicable and detestable  efforts of president Maithripala Sirisena to oust Ranil Wickremesinghe from the post of Prime Minister (P.M.) is still continuing , and the president is seeking to accomplish that aim within a month if not in a fortnight  via even other means, based on confirmed reports reaching Lanka e news inside information division.

With this in view , the conspiratorial president is having discussions secretly with the UNP  group which is disillusioned with Ranil ,after summoning them . 

The next abominable  move of Sirisena is to steer forward a no confidence motion against the P.M. from among the UNP membership , and plans are afoot , thereafter to support that after  joining hands with the Mahinda Rajapakse Blue Brigand.

JVP M.P. Bimal Ratnayake who is currently on a tour of Britain, during the interview over the BBC revealed , they would not stand by the UNP in the proposed no confidence motion against the P.M.

Obviously , it was  part of the conspiracy of Sirisena to postpone  the SLFP cabinet reshuffle for a fortnight. 

It is a well and widely known fact going by  the local government election results , it is the SLFP group that  steeply dropped to a drastic 4 % which   should  first reshuffle its cabinet members , and not the UNP group which achieved   more than a 32%  (very much above the SLFP group). But because the P.M. has become a ‘yes’ man  to everything before the president (the con man) , and is not taking a firm stand ,  the UNP cabinet reshuffle  was done according to  the con man.  One example is Sarath Fonseka being not appointed as the minister of law and order despite countless requests.

Since the day the UNP government came to power , it was their aim and agenda to provide computer tablets free to students and teachers . Even this most salutary move for the welfare of the nation was opposed by president Maithripala.  The UNP members therefore are justifiably asking  , why is the P.M. silent and just waiting while the president is bullying the UNP?

It is the plan of Sirisena during his final phase   of his tenure of office to chase out the UNP  and after  joining with the Rajapakses (the den of thieves) to hand over  the P.M. post  to one of them . Thereafter with the props , prods and propulsion of those crooks and the corrupt,  to field himself as a presidential candidate. Incidentally ,Mahinda Rajapakse cannot contest the presidential elections again.

It is an indisputable truth   Sirisena who came to power on the first occasion on the votes of the UNP after gobbling the rotten hoppers of Mahinda at a pace faster than the eggs gobbling serpents.  Now it is even more clear ,  his  sole and whole aim   is  to come to power on the votes of SLFP/UPFA/ Flower bud parties .But  of course not before committing the biggest betrayal the world has ever known! 

Sillysena alias Sirisena thinks the failure of the Flower Bud to win over the minority votes is to his advantage .That is a wrong notion after   grave wrongs being committed on those who are pro good governance  and  still laboring under the belief that he is  the president of good governance of 2015-01-08 .

The  president by saying the executive presidency shall be retained , and by trying to  join with the Rajapakses he has only demonstrated without an iota of doubt he is a traitor , and a deadly  enemy of the people’s mandate, irrespective of what sophistries or defenses he advances to repudiate the valid charges mounted against him. Hence those who are hoping a good governance government can still be continued with such an unhinged shameless faceless president  , are laboring under a delusion ,and headed for  a monumental disaster. 

In  the circumstances it is imperative the country is rescued before it is too late from a faceless, policy-less , rudderless , clueless leader who is so mentally deranged that ,what he says in the forenoon  is not what  he says in the afternoon , and what he says in the afternoon is not what he says in the night.  In other words he has three policies which change like a chameleon changes colors.

Being most unscrupulous and hypocritical and so mentally deranged   ,  Sirisena is one who would sacrifice all the top priorities and aspirations  of the people , and  the paramount national interests at the altar of his own selfish self seeking aims,  agendas and ambitions as long as he can achieve  those regardless  of the solemn promises he made to the people and   what disaster strikes the nation . Therefore if the impending catastrophe is not averted , the UNP which lost 17 in the past will  lose 27 in the present  climate.

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by     (2018-02-27 13:36:48)