Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Development can be framework in which institutions are strengthened

By Jehan Perera-December 30, 2019, 9:02 pm

The new government under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa can be seen to be doing many new things. These can contribute to the betterment of the country and the people. Most recently the president paid a surprise visit to the Department of Motor Traffic. This is a government agency where delays and corrupt practices can occur as indeed they do in other government institutions. During the course of his visit the president stressed on the need to provide prompt and accurate service to the public. He said, "It is very important that institutions such as the Department of Motor Traffic, which serves a large number of people in the country, set an example to others. When delivering their service all the officials should firmly resolve themselves to prevent any fraud or corruption."

This most recent foray into the way government is conducted follows other positive actions, such as issuing the directive not to put his photograph in government offices, which is a symbolic affirmation of the importance of institutions as against the individuals who temporarily manage and guide them. He has also made an effort to ensure that top management positions in state institutions are occupied by those who have the requisite skills and qualifications. By such actions which show his interest in the day to day problems of people, the president is demonstrating that he is committed to the development of the country and is determined to transform the government service into one that serves the needs of the people.

Although the World Bank has categorized Sri Lanka as an upper middle income country, this is hardly a cause for satisfaction for the vast majority of people who do not enjoy such a lifestyle. The bandwidth of upper middle income countries is a per capita income of USD 4000 to 12000 per year and Sri Lanka is at the 4000 level. Satisfaction about the country’s economic performance is also mitigated by the high income inequalities that make most people observers as against being consumers of the fruits of development. The new shopping mall, One Galle Face, will be comparable to similar malls in South East Asian countries, except that most of those who currently throng it are sightseeing for the most part rather than shoppers.

NEW HOPE

In this context, much hope will be pinned on President Rajapaksa that he will be a leader who, with his military background and administrative experience, will give rational leadership in the South East Asian tradition to bring development and prosperity to the nation. It is important to note that most of these countries also have ethnically mixed populations which they needed to weld together for developmental purposes. In countries like Malaysia and Indonesia there were civil wars in which tens of thousands perished. In Singapore, the political leadership took and continues to take exemplary action to ensure that no community feels discriminated against and feel included in sharing the fruits of development in an equitable manner. Sri Lanka also requires such strong and rational leaders.

Ten years ago, Sri Lanka was able to end its civil war with the present president as one of the chief architects of that success. It is said that the worst peace is better than the best war as in war killing is legitimized and therefore containing excess becomes much more difficult than in a time of peace where killing is not legitimate. It is important therefore that the wounds of war should heal in an environment in which the causes of war are being dealt with through rational government policies. Unfortunately, the two issues of language and devolution of power, which fed into the mindset of grievance and division are coming to the fore again. In particular there is a need for the continuation of the policy on the national anthem set in 2016 that the national anthem would be sung in both Sinhala and Tamil languages in keeping with the earliest post-independence practice in 1949 at the inauguration of the Independence Memorial Building at Torrington Square of singing of national songs in both languages.

As the country heads to a new year the hope would be that the new government that came to power after the Presidential Elections of November 16 will continue to govern the country in a manner that meets the hopes and aspirations of Sri Lanka’s multi ethnic and multi religious population. President Rajapaksa’s pledge on taking the oath of office where he said he would be the President of all Sri Lankans, and not only of those who voted for him is too valuable to lose. However, his repeated statements that development would be prioritized in resolving the ethnic conflict and that strengthening the system of devolution of power is not going to be the answer is a matter of concern. The assertion by government leaders that the national anthem will not be sung in Tamil at the forthcoming Independence Day celebrations has also caused concern, though this is now being reconsidered.

CONSTRUCTIVE ASPECTS

The new government has presented itself as having a vision that will strengthen national unity and protect the country’s sovereignty in a manner that would speed up the development process. The vast majority of people would applaud such sentiments as development would give them a better standard of living and quality of life. However, it is also important to note that development does not need to be viewed as being in opposition to devolution of power and to language rights. Both devolution and language need to be harnessed so that they contribute to development. Development is an overarching concept. Giving priority to development would mean that any decisions taken with respect to political, economic or social action should be with the purpose of speeding up the development process.

There is no doubt that if Sri Lanka did not experience the internal conflicts, the riots, insurrections, wars and terrorism it did during the past six decades we would have been in a different place in terms of development. Leonard Wolfe, the British civil servant who wrote the classic "Village in the Jungle" and who loved the country envisaged Sri Lanka to be the "Switzerland of the East" at the time of Independence. Therefore, national reconciliation needs to be a priority along with development. In fact, development can be the great unifier as it is meant for the good of the people. Development can be used as a tool for reconciliation by using the institutions that currently exist, including provincial councils to identify the specific priority needs and aspirations of the people in the different provinces.

The challenge for the government is not to see development as being in opposition to the devolution of power which is an important value to the ethnic minorities. The President has said that the issue of devolution has been debated for 70 years without a positive outcome and that he is not prepared to go beyond what the Sinhalese ethnic majority feels comfortable with. The challenge would then be to begin to identify those aspects of devolution of power that the Sinhalese people find acceptable for their own lives at the community level and which also contribute to development. These are matters that need to be discussed with the political parties and representatives of the ethnic and religious communities, in keeping with the plural nature of Sri Lankan society, prior to concretising them as policy decisions.

FINIS – SANJANA HATTOTUWA

28/12/2019

Almost exactly five years after starting this column. I will end it before it is ended. The non-publication of the column a week into the new Presidency was a reminder that the space enjoyed by writers to critique political power from January 2015, is now under threat. One must be empathetic with publishers and Editors. A columnist is easily replaced, and once gone, soon forgotten. Loss of advertisements. revoked licenses, vandalised or destroyed presses and the whipping up of widespread public anger or agitation against critical content. no matter how factual. are much greater problems, best avoided. The decision to stop writing is also personal, as much as it is inextricably entwined with the political moment.

My Editor of five years. Manik de Silva, is currently the country’s oldest and most senior person to hold this office. What started as a professional relationship, and years ago, a formal interview for public TV on an erstwhile talk show I hosted, has morphed into a much closer association between your writer and his Editor. Manik is – to a point of fault – measured in tone and expression, capturing with great economy a sentiment others would need more time, words and patience for. In these years I have written to the Sunday Island, continuing the good fortune I’ve had with all my Editors over two decades of public writing, Manik’s edits were. in the rare instance I noticed, stylistic and grammatical in nature – never censorious because of political sensitivity or sensibility. Some columns resonated personally to a degree that moved him to send an email to me on the merits of what I had penned. I have no email from him about pushback I am sure lie must have got in response to some of what I wrote, even at a time and in a context where the critique of President or government wouldn’t have resulted in censorship, or far worse.

After enjoying the quality of this relationship, and the space it provided for unbridled expression. unrestrained capture and unquestioned framing. Manik’s impending retirement is as good a reason as any to stop this column. A good Editor becomes for long-term columnists a symbol and Ambassador of a publication’s core audience and its values. Bereft of this literary weathervane, firewall against more violent pushback and the certainty of reasoned feedback, writers are at a significant loss to pitch and project writing intended for public consumption. What then soon and irrevocably results in is a quality of writing that is timid, and thus, entirely unappealing – words meant to fill a page. Finally, new Editors are rarely adventurous. Coupled with all publishers now navigating new topographies of political allegiances, it is just too much of a burden to keep lines in the sand in mind when penning a column. I would much rather stop writing when it becomes more a burden than pleasure than continue in some formulaic manner just for the sake of doing it.

Writing on the 13th of December 2015, I ended my first column by noting that “silence is not an option” and that “a critical gaze can only help cement, well beyond [the yahapalanaya] government, what so many of us on January 9 [2015] at Independence Square, witnessed with hoarse wonder, and hopeful eyes”. The column was openly critical of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government, at a time when many were drunk on the dregs of what was the former government’s dalliance with global admiration. The sheen was beginning to wear off, and to blame were those elected into office then – not those who are, in 2019, back in control. A week later. I looked at public governance and how new approaches to very complex, systemic problems in other countries could inspire more effective and efficient government in Sri Lanka. In the final column that month, I looked at how a prominent UNP MP took it upon herself to mete out her own brand of justice to someone accused of an extra-marital affair with one of her staff members. I noted then that “the litmus test of Sri Lankas democracy isn’t around dealing with crimes against humanity or war crimes. It is anchored. to seeing the violence that pervades governance for what it is, and resolutely rejecting it”.

In close to 260 columns since then, I’ve tackled violence, democracy, policy, governance, foreign relations, the social and religious fabric, media reform, literacy, social media’s regulations and evolution. web content, political communications, election campaigns, new forms of propaganda, computational manipulation of public conversations, various manifestations of hate. incitement to violence, crafty media and political architects placing at risk our democratic institutions. new threats to governance and a disparate selection of political developments from a unique vantage point observing – at a wider and deeper scale than most – often damning and occasionally delightful digital, discursive dynamics and designs. Never a dull week, in five years. Columns that have resonated the most have been those I’ve thought would be the least appreciated, or resonant with a wider public. In time, I gave up trying to guess what the reaction to what I penned for Sunday would be – it was never what I expected, and often, pleasantly surprising. At Keells or more randomly at shops, lobbies and once – quite bizarrely – in a remote, foreign cafe over a coffee – readers have offered their take on what I’ve noted. I’ve been the most dismissive of those who have agreed with me, and have had far more memorable conversations with the thrust and parry of wit with those who care enough to talk with me about what they think I get wrong, noting why.

But I fear the space for this is also diminishing apace. A new culture, inspired by the tone, timbre and thrust of recent political campaigns, foments and celebrates immediate reaction over thoughtful response, emotion over intellect and telegenic fever or froth over more reasoned, principled or civil engagement. All this requires writers to be far more tolerant of and oblivious to insidiously engineered public anger. threats and violence that’s digital in nature but now never far from sudden or sustained physical expression. A decade ago, I would have revelled in the possibilities for creative expression faced with both a context and culture hostile towards criticism of governance, government and goons. Now, faced with the formidable challenge of finishing up doctoral research and associated writing, the added burden of having to deal with shrill, inane or asinine content and commentary – sadly now the norm on social media – is just too much.

Stopping this column isn’t to suggest I will stop engaging with political dynamics. There are other forms and platforms for critical reflection and the resistance to authoritarian and majoritarian revanchism. Dissent is now a weed to newly cultivated political terrains. Reclaiming the need and space for its growth will not be easy, quick or effective if just pegged to ways already roundly discredited in the public imagination, and chiefly by those projected as somehow the voice of the UNP, TNA or JVP. Critical columnists who are utterly convinced of their enduring ability to shape public conversations risk the ignominy of irrelevance, even as they continue to be published in the manner they have. A few allowed to write, under a regime that knows the limited resonance and travel of their ideas, risk becoming convenient examples paraded by the government on how vibrant the freedom of expression in Sri Lanka is whenever more sinister violence is meted out against a critical individual or institution. Strategic, carefully framed engagements with those opposed to as well as, very importantly, entirely partial to the new political dispensation and its attendant optics requires a different modus operandi. Columns may not be the way to cement traction to critical ideas.
A more personal and private approach, fomenting long-term relationships with disparate groups based on the value of reasoned debate, in turn anchored to evidence and data, is where I will be increasingly found.

I have, since December 2015, endeavoured to present what I have discovered, write on what has troubled me and explain what I have studied. The failure to capture attention or communicate is my own. Any success in kindling the Imagination, even if it has been to oppose me on principle, is entirely to Manik de Silva’s credit — allowing me, as he has countless others over many decades in journalism — the space to grow in the public gaze. and fora brief moment in time, enjoy’ the privilege of writing to inform, interest, inspire and influence. For this, I am grateful to him.

And for patiently reading me, over all these years. I remain in your debt.

– The Island

TNA to campaign in South?

Suspending to sing the national anthem in Tamil is denying our Sri Lankan nationality - Sumanthiran : We will execute Sumanthiran from Nandikadal - Magalkande Suddantha

(Lanka-e-News -30.Dec.2019. 11.35 PM) The government's decision to discontinue the singing of the national anthem in Tamil is another sign that the Tamil people are being treated as an ethnicity rejected by the Sri Lankan nationality, said TNA media spokesman M.A. Sumanthiran. Instead of attempting to promote reconciliation and communal harmony in the country, the present government has taken a step that is contrary to these efforts, Mr. Sumanthiran said.

Sumanthiran expressed these views to the media regarding the decision taken by the present government to stop singing the national anthem in Tamil.

The National Anthem was sung in Tamil for the first time in 2015 for the Independence Day celebrations. Mr. Sampanthan and I attended the ceremony. Decades later, we participated in a National Independence Day Celebration on behalf of the Ilangai Tamil Arasu Kachchi Party.

Many events happened during the ceremony. In addition to singing the national anthem in Tamil president Maithripala said that the brutal war has ended. When many people were celebrating the war president Maithrapala said it was a brutal celebration.

Today, the situation has changed and there is a reverse process taken towards reconciliation. Restricting to sing the national anthem in Tamil is one of the reasons, government's actions have changed. These are not actions to promote reconciliation.

The government's order not to sing the national anthem in Tamil means that the Tamil people should not sing the national anthem. If the Tamil people were asked not to sing the national anthem, we will be happy not to sing. It has been decades since the introducing of the republican constitution that nationality was rejected from the Tamil people.

It is because our legitimate democratic demands are not accepted that we are staying rejected from the national life. When there is a change in this policy the political powers of the Tamil people should be increased. It is only then we can live as a nation with equal rights. We see the government's order banning the singing of the national anthem in Tamil as another symbol of our removal.
(A report written by F. Aslam of Lankadeepa)

Note Below

Meanwhile Magalkande Sudantha the underworld monk who is appearing as the official media spokesperson of Gotabaya’s racist regime said if Sumanthiran is not ready to work for the requirement of the Sinhala people that the country’s security forces are ready to execute Sumanthiran at the Nandikadal Lagoon. Sumanthiran is a physical science BSc graduate from the Madras university, postgraduate degree in electronics at the Monash university of Australia and an attorney at law of the Sri Lanka law college who is serving as the presidents counsel whereas Magalkande Sudantha is a thief and an empty boaster who robbed an expensive mobile belong to a senior police officer and got caught when the latter was working as a sergeant in the police and later became a monk.
Following is the video of Magalkande Sudantha

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by (2019-12-30 13:21:49)

More protests against illegal sand mining in North-East

29 December 2019

Tensions around illegal sand mining in the North-East persist following controversal confrontations in villages such as Thottaveli in Mannar this month.

Tamils in Mannar and Jaffna took to the streets on Friday to protest the issue and condemned local authorities' and police failure to stop the perpetrators.

See also: Sri Lankan police protect sand miners and threaten protesting priest and villagers

(Photos: above - Jaffna; below - Mannar)

Local groups across the North-East have accused Sri Lankan police of ignoring or aiding illegal actual perpetrators while using the issue as an excuse to crack down on communities.

Don’s Diary IVa: A Week In Jaffna

By Mahesan Niranjan –DECEMBER 30, 2019

Prof. Mahesan Niranjan

Last two weeks, I travelled in Sri Lanka, participating at two conferences at the Universities of Jaffna and Peradeniya. This is the first of a two-part diary of random events and thoughts. Previous diaries can be read here and here.

Thursday: Straight after a workshop in Winchester, I take a bus to Heathrow giving me just two hours before the flight takes off. Much is said about the management of Sri Lankan airlines, but one cannot complain about their generosity with on-board service: I ask for a gin and tonic, she offers me two. Perfect. A fellow traveller sitting across the aisle is a Buddhist monk. Cabin crew greet him with immense respect, bending, kneeling and addressing him in very polite language (oba vahanse – ඔබ වහන්සේ etc.). To serve food, they spread a clean white cloth across the table. Buddhist monks are people who have detached themselves from our usual bonds of family and ownership. They live by alms given by random people. In return, we offer them respect, recognition of an elevated place on their trajectory to nirvana that we ourselves are not courageous enough to reach. Fair enough.

But after dinner, the monk who had detached himself from all earthly bonds made some purchases from the duty free trolley. He opted to pay by American Express. “Unfortunately we don’t accept Amex,” the stewardess was profoundly apologetic. “Never mind,” says the Robed One. Out comes a Mastercard. Is this what Siddhartha Gautama had in mind, I wondered.

Friday: I reach a friend’s place in Colombo in the afternoon. Over dinner and a couple of shots of arrack, we catch up on local gossips. I am deposited safely in an overnight bus to Jaffna. Comfortable bus, I get a good few hours of sleep. In the middle of the night, the bus makes a brief stop somewhere in the Vanni. The arrack has worked its way through. I ask where the toilet was. The kiosk guy points at a footpath outside. It is dark, and I cannot see the toilet. To the left I get foul smell, less so to the right. OK, I got it. Pressure on the bladder helps tolerate sensation on the nostrils. This is a curse when travelling in Sri Lanka. Public places do not have clean toilets. It helps me plan though. Before eating or drinking anything I ask myself where I would be when the stuff wants to come out at the other end.

Saturday: At 4.00 AM, the bus drops me off at the junction near the railway station from where it is a short walk to the hotel. I take a shower and get to work, reading through 32 posters to be presented at the workshop. I was to be one of the assessors. The event was beautifully organized by the Jaffna Computer Science department. On arrival the guests are offered a tray with holy ash and sandalwood pottu (பொட்டு ) for your forehead. I politely decline, such religious symbolism not to my taste.

The poster session from undergraduate students was rather good. After agreeing the winners with my co-assessors, I do a small experiment. I log into my home university and pull out 32 pieces of work from my own undergraduates and compare the quality distributions. I find them very similar. That is an impressive place to be in ten years since the end of the war for a young academic department. I know mine is not an unbiased judgement, given the staff there are my friends and I am an external examiner for that Department. Even then, it was a good show.

“What can we do to improve further?” is a question often asked in these situations. “The technical content of the work is good,” I respond, “but the students need to be more articulate in explaining their work.”

In response to the question “why?” the answer I often get is “Cantilever Sir told me to try this.”

[Note protocol demands “Sir” has to follow the name. For a lady teacher, it would have been, for example, “Curvature Madam told me so.”]

“How would you fix it?”

I give bold answer. “Just knock off a fifth of your curriculum and replace it by English lessons, spoken and written.” Better command of English would open many doors that are closed to young people there at present: access to wide archive of knowledge, greater confidence to debate their ideas and to communicate what they have achieved.

“But will it work?” I hear you ask. No is the answer. There will be objections from senior members of the community there. “Your suggestion is coming from a colonial mind set,” will be their response – a sickening drawbridge mentality.

Sunday: I was invited to a graduation party, of staff and students. Great food. Graduates spoke of their campus experience and future plans. Staff spoke with messages of congratulations. There was some singing, too, but it was quite clear that those in the gathering have trained their vocal chords to write Java programs. Towards the end of the event the students reacted in a way I had not seen happen in the past. They approached the staff one by one, kneeling before them, touching their feet as a gesture of offering respect and receiving their blessings. I was deeply uncomfortable seeing this and looked away. Two of the more adventurous students approached me. “Won’t work on me,” I warned, “I play football. Anything spherical near my feet I kick a good 30 yards!” I stand up, shake them by their hands and wish them well.

Just before the end of the party, I grab the microphone and congratulate the staff and students. I made it a point to record my delight at seeing the group of staff working as a team with a common goal, something unusual in the context of Jaffna as anyone observing political developments there would note. Fragmentation is the norm.

I take that opportunity to ask the graduating students a favour. “Tell me about this practice of ragging,” I ask. “Write to me with ideas on why this ugly practice persists in the public university system and how you think it might be dealt with.” Ragging is an initiation ritual, supposedly a welcoming one, organised by senior student already on campus. What started as gentle humour during times of my parents at university, grew to bullying and harassment during my time, and now features violence and sexually explicit torture. Students have been scared to enrol, some have left the universities and a few have taken their own lives. A student I met on a previous visit had told me he was hard of hearing in one year due to ragging. Slapped. Burst ear drum. The situation is desperate. The senior-most bureaucrat in the system, the Chair of the University Grants Commission, recently made a passionate plea regarding this menace. See his speech here. “But come on,” I feel like saying to him, “what is your solution? Is anyone taking responsibility for failing to curb this all these years?”

A few of the students wrote to me: “Students want to show their superiority to their juniors. So they use ragging as a medium of it.” “Seniors always wanted juniors to obey them and to create an image that they are powerful.”

Why this need for superiority, seniority, obedience and respect in what ought to be a collegiate environment of curiosity, learning and the pleasure of discovery? Why perpetuate such hierarchy by constantly hiring junior faculty mostly from an institution’s own graduates? Is it because senior people in the system expect recognition of superiority and obedience from junior folks acknowledging the image of being powerful? Is this what gets passed down in the form of respect for the teacher by falling at their feet to receive blessings? Is it then a small step that junior-most members already in the university (students in their second year of study) seek someone beneath them to boss over?

I have no answers, but I am uncomfortable with hierarchical relationships. The addressing of people as Sir and Madam for respect, to start with. So I refuse to be called “Sir”.

“I say, don’t call me Sir,” I say to a student. The response is the same as I have heard on previous visits: “OK, Sir, I won’t call you ‘Sir’, Sir!”

In the afternoon, my friend and I drive to the island of Karainagar, where my roots are. There is a navy check point at the entrance to the village. With a few questions, they wave us through. They were polite and pleasant, but it wasn’t clear what they were checking. National security works in mysterious ways.

The sunset from the causeway was beautiful and we stop photograph. The very same sunset my grandfather and his great grandfather would have seen, for we can trace back six generations on my paternal ancestry, farming the same piece of land in the village. The environment of that arid land is harsh and the soil not very rich, yet one’s sentimental attachment to roots is strong when the history runs a century and a half and you have been thrown out of that land for some reason. I certainly left the place by choice, seeking and finding greener pastures. My sentimental links are easily satisfied by an occasional visit and a selfie.

But not everyone can claim such luck though.

My friend Abdul is one such. His family have farmed the same piece of land for six generations on the West Bank in Palestine. One hundred and fifty years of recorded family history. Then came a knock on the door. Someone claiming an even longer history to the land. Two thousand years. It says so in the book. 2000 being a mightier number than 150, Abdul and his family got thrown out. Abdul himself, being good at calculus, escaped from that environment and made a decent life for himself elsewhere, but his extended family are living under squalid conditions of an open prison. The new arrivals claim national security as the reason for evicting the helpless people. Their first harvest of olives were from the trees Abdul’s grandfather planted, which they consumed with no sense of guilt.

We have examples closer to home, too. Of 2000 proving to be mightier than 150 in the interest if national security. But we, Sri Lankans, are not good at recognizing these for we are skilled at closing our eyes, shutting our ears and burying our eyes in the sand. All in the interest of our national security.

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Dangerous ethnic politics in monopolising the national anthem

31 December 2019

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the election to the highest political office in the land without the help of the Tamil voters. But on the day of swearing-in, he pledged to be the president of all citizens of the country. His first month in the office has thrilled his supporters and reassured many of his detractors. Mr. Rajapaksa, not a traditional politician, performed better than his elder brother, the former president Mahinda could have, whose proclivity to cult making that he eschewed through his first presidential decree.

He has sought to revitalise the ill-performing public service with a more proactive, but less publicity-seeking approach, making ad hoc visits without TV cameras. His government has so far handled adroitly the foreign relations, including a controversial Swiss claim that one of its local staff members had been abducted.

But, now, his government seems to think that Sri Lanka can be governed without Tamils – or at the expense of Tamils. Public Administration Minister Janaka Bandara Tennakoon has announced that the Tamil version of the National Anthem which was sung since 2016 would be dropped from the independence day ceremony this year.

“We only have one national anthem.There is no reason to sing it in two languages. This creates unnecessary divisions among communities,” Sunday Times quoted him as saying.
The government has not denied, though Co-Cabinet Spokesman Ramesh Pathirana said, that the issue had not been discussed in the Cabinet.

Minister Tennakoon might be enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame in the news waves. But surely, he has not fully grasped the gravity of his folly.
Singing the national anthem in Tamil is not causing ‘unnecessary divisions’. It is unifying the communities, it gives Tamils a sense of belonging in the country. What is causing divisions is depriving them of that opportunity, further more, five years after they were happily singing it in the language that is most intimate to them.
Other fellow travellers have resorted to equally lopsided logic.

One for that matter, Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara says each time the national anthem is sung in Tamil, it is violating the constitution.

However, legal clarity on the issue was established long ago. After the national anthem was sung in both languages at the independence day celebration in 2016, three fundamental rights petition were filed before the Supreme Court challenging the decision. Later, on November 16th, the same year, after considering submissions by the Attorney General and the intervenient petitioners, a three-judge bench comprising then Chief Justice Priyasad Dep, Justice K.T. Chitrasiri and the late justice Prasanna Jayawardena refused leave to proceed and dismissed the petition, upholding the right to sing the national anthem in Tamil.

The Attorney-General argued that Articles 18 and 19 of the constitution recognises both Sinhala and Tamil as the official languages and national languages of Sri Lanka and that singing the national anthem in Tamil did not violate the constitution.

Another half-baked assertion is that the national anthem in India is sung in one language, and hence Sri Lanka should follow suit. The national anthem in India is written and sung in Bengali, a minority language, not in Hindi, one of the two official languages at the national level.

A better explanation of the government decision is that it is resorting to appease insular Sinhala Buddhist fringe nationalism that had always stood behind Mr. Rajapaksa’s presidential campaign.

Most vocal advocates of this ideology are borderline bigots (if not full-blown ones), whose notion of Sri Lanka is antiquated and out of place. Their appeasement comes at the expense of the minorities. The first step seems to be reversing even the most well-meaning measures of ethnic integration. Both bigotry and political opportunism are at play.

That is a dangerous gambit. Sri Lanka had paid dearly for previous blunders of the similar kind.

If this one is successful, it would be remembered as another devious deed that pushed the Tamils to a corner and harvested another generation of Tamil resentment. It also throws a lifeline to the vitriolic anti- Sri Lankan campaign of fringe Tamil nationalism

As my fellow columnist D.B.S. Jayaraj rightly noted last week, it is the moderates of both sides who feel agonised by the decision. Extremists on both sides are celebrating deep down in their hearts. Fringe nationalism and extremism of all kinds are mutually reinforcing. Sadly though, the main opposition UNP has other pressing priorities. In fact, defending its two former ministers who are now facing legal action is a lot more difficult than defending the commonsensical logic of singing the national anthem in both languages. That the country’s main opposition party is a meek and self-serving machination that hesitates to speak up for a community that voted for it overwhelmingly would further erode the trust of Tamils in the Centre.

There will also be unexpected externalities of this short-sighted decision. This would harden the public opinion in Tamil Nadu, where the political parties have aired concerns. Mr. Modi who is under siege over the Citizenship Amendment Act might take heed. Moderate sections of the diaspora would also feel the reconciliation process is being undone by the current administration.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa can do a lot better. He should use his political capital to leapfrog economic development, modernize education system and provide clarity and ease for investment. However, the mandate of the sort of Mr. Rajapaksa could turn sour sooner than expected. Look no further than Narendra Modi’s India. Mr. Modi won a gravity defining second term win in the General elections in May this year. He had all that it takes to implement long-overdue economic reforms and prop up an already slowing economy. Instead, he sought to give a shot at advancing the Hindu nationalist agenda. It worked, until Mr Modi and his home minister Amith Shah miscalculated public mood and introduced the Citizenship Amendment Act with its overt anti-Muslim bias.

India is now in turmoil. Mr. Modi is more likely to be remembered as the man who blew up India’s economic opportunity than the business-friendly go-getter who he projected himself as.
President Rajapaksa is facing a similar dilemma. If he resorted to monopolise the national anthem, that may not bring crowds to the streets at the moment. But it would fuel a toxic ball of resentment, and somewhere down the line, it would explode.

Iqbal Athas – Journalist Who Exposed MiG Deal Turns Gota Propagandist

DECEMBER 30, 2019

Inexplicably the journalist that first exposed the 2006 MiG-27 deal, Iqbal Athas has turned propagandist for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa even after he recalled the horrific threats to his life and being forced to flee Sri Lanka as a result of exposing the shady aircraft purchase as recently as January this year.

Iqbal Athas

In 2006 Iqbal Athas exposed the irregular procurement in the Sunday Times causing ripples in the defence establishment then headed by Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. By his own admission in a speech made at a public forum in January 2019 the senior Sunday Times Journalist said that the FCID had commenced its investigation into the 2006 MiG 27 procurement by the Sri Lankan Government, based on his own initial statement to the newly established police division with a mandate to investigate financial crimes and corruption. In his speech in January the former defence reporter spoke at length about how the defence ministry then led by Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the state media called him a traitor and explained how he had to flee the country overnight on a tip of shortly before Lasantha Wickrematunge the editor of the Sunday Leader who followed up the MiG deal story was murdered.

“There was more disturbing news just two weeks before Lasantha Wickrematunge was murdered. A very highly placed source asked me to get out of the house that very night. I flew to Thailand. I had spent long stints there living in an apartment cooking food, washing clothes and working online. The next morning, my driver who was alerted, saw a man with an oversized bush shirt moving outside my house in a motorcycle. When there was strong blowing, the bottom part of the shirt went up. There was a pistol on his waist. The driver noted the registration number. I checked it on a secure phone from Bangkok. The registration plate belonged to a lorry.

When the so-called Yahapalanaya government came to power, they set up the Financial Crimes Investgation Division (FCID). I made a statement to them in early 2015 and investigations began,” Athas said during his speech at the Kadirgamar Institute earlier this year. He also spoke of how crowds were mobilized to protest outside his house, with some of them demanding his arrest.

But in his current political columns featuring weekly in the Sunday Times, long considered the newspaper of record in Sri Lanka, Athas who authors the column as the newspaper’s political editor fawns over the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration almost outshining the state controlled newspapers in heaping praise on the new President and harshly criticizing the previous Government and its failures. This week the column went so far as to “advise” the Government that the failure to control the prices of essential items that have skyrocketed in recent weeks could result in the public mood turning against the President and his new Government. The column hastens to add that the price hikes had occurred through no fault of President Gotabaya. The senior journalist in penning his column also heaps criticism on Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s critics and political opponents making blatant accusations with little or no basis about grand conspiracies to discredit his new hero’s Government.

Athas who was strongly defended by media rights groups and international NGOs when his life was in danger from the Rajapaksa Government in 2007-2009 has also recently been disgustingly critical of NGOs and civil activists referring to them as “NGO wallahs” and accusing them of working to discredit Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Government in order to ensure they keep getting donor funding.

Long time readers of the Sunday Times political column have been stunned about the position the newspaper has taken week after week since Gotabaya’s election as President. “There’s no information in the Times political column anymore. The columnist is just pushing a line and lately the line is entirely pro-Government. It is quite odd. Perhaps like the Times no longer feels safe enough to criticize the Government,” said one long time reader of the ST political column. It is unclear if the position is fully backed by Sunday Times Editor Sinha Ratnatunga whose editorials have taken principled positions that do not reflect the sycophancy of the large spread that is published alongside. Ratnatunga also continues to publish senior lawyer and columnist Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena’s articles which have remained strongly critical of high handed moves by the new administration and its attempts to dismantle state systems for political gain. Sources told Colombo Telegraph that Athas has cultivated a strong personal friendship with PC MM Ali Sabry the head of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s team of lawyers and another Muslim politician strongly aligned to Gotabaya.

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Tuesday, December 31, 2019

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Masters of Money: Marx (3/3 BBC) .avi

தமிழோசை*සංදේශය BBC SINHALA

Nimalka Fernando speech

தமிழோசை

*සංදේශය
BBC SINHALA