Open Letter to Pope Francis: Sri Lankan President’s Efforts to Use Your Holiness to Prolong Authoritarianism

Open Letter to Pope Francis: Sri Lankan President’s Efforts to Use Your Holiness to Prolong Authoritarianism

[ You have become a political symbol supporting authoritarian regime]
By Sunanda Deshapriya-01/12/2014 

I write this open letter to you as a Sri Lankan journalist and human rights defender in self-exile, pained by the fact that Your Holiness has knowing or unwilling contributed to restrict the democratic rights of Sri Lankan people, to challenge an emerging dictatorship at a most critical time in our country’s history. I’m just one of the more than a hundred human rights defenders, journalists and other Sri Lankans who had to leave the country to save our lives during the Rajapakse presidency. Several Catholic priests were also compelled to leave for similar reasons.
Open Letter to Pope Francis Sri Lankan President’s Efforts to Use Your Holiness to Prolong Authoritarianism... by Thavam Ratna

The Way Ahead May Be Tortuous

By R.M.B Senanayake - December 1, 2014 |

R.M.B. Senanayake

The President has called for an election two years before the end of his term. His rival was unexpected and is a person from his own party- the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. The Common Opposition candidate talks about the violation of democracy and points out that with the passing of the 18th Amendment an elected dictatorship has been established and that the prospect of a free and fair election are remote judging by the conduct of other recent elections. The President’s large posters and cut-outs even if not illegal are certainly not moral, say the people who are concerned about the need for a free and fair election. The MPs who have defected and those others of the JHU and the SLFP voted for the 18th Amendment and even for the arbitrary impeachment of the former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake. Why did they do so? Were they so ignorant about the perils of entrusting absolute power to one individual? Were they men without any moral conscience? How has their conscience changed or has it really changed?

Lack of understanding of human nature

Had they read political science or studied world history they would have been aware of the nature of political power. As “The Federalist of the Founding fathers of the American Constitution wrote “what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. The great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others”. The Papers argued the necessity for ‘checks and balances’ on the exercise of power by each organ of government- : the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. What happened by the 18th Amendment was to remove all such checks and balances. The Constitution had provided already for the absolute immunity of the President unlike in the U.S and French Constitutions where it was limited to matters arising from the exercise of executive power and not to any private criminal acts of the President. As it is the President can get away even with murder for he has absolute immunity. This absolute immunity removes the President’s accountability to the Judiciary for any crime or violation of law. The Romans raised the question” who is to guard the guardians? The political scientists and statesman’s answer was the system of checks and balances..Read More

Common cry!

 December 2, 2014

• UNP, SLFP members and 36 oppositionparties and groups sign MoU to scrap Executive Presidency

• I pledge to protect the trust the people have placed in me. I promise to fulfill this commitment – Maithirpala

•  Time to end the Rajapaksa journey: Ranil

•  ‘Will not be spectators after election – will agitate until promises are kept’: Sobitha Thero tells Common Candidate

•  ‘Maithripala is a man with political vision’: CBK

By Dharisha Bastians
Common Candidate Maithripala Sirisena yesterday formally pledged to abolish the executive presidential system by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with major opposition parties across the ideological spectrum to lock in their support for his election bid.

Common Cry! by Thavam Ratna

Rs 450 Million per Govt MP and Opposition MPs Who Cross Over

[ Desperate to hold on to power huge amounts being allocated]

30/11/2014

The Sri Lanka Government is to allocate funding for over 150 special development projects using the carry forward allocations of the earlier 2014 budget, top government sources said.

High level government authorities have issued a directive to immediately allocate Rs.450 million per head as development funds to selected parliamentarians. The sources, who declined to be named, said that the allocation (Rs. 450 million each) would also apply to MPs who cross over to government ranks.

While this emergency allocation is part of the 2014 budget’s unutilised money for around 80 expenditure proposals, the money allocated for these projects have been already utilised for other urgent work and may now have to come from a subsequent, supplementary vote in Parliament next year. Tax revenue has also fallen short of targets adding problems to the 2014 budget allocations.

The sources said that the authorities have been informed to be ‘flexible’ in deciding the special projects in which MPs will use these funds.

According to the Finance Ministry budget progress report, out of 112 proposals made in the (ongoing) 2014 budget, only 32 have been fully implemented so far. 80 proposals are yet to be implemented.

These 80 proposals (and funds allocated) will be carried forward for next year along with 77 new proposals made in the 2015 budget, a senior government official said, adding that under these circumstances allocating money for over 150 special development projects will not be an easy task.

In the 2014 budget a sum of Rs. 96,950 million had been allocated for 59 new projects and now a part of this money could be diverted to implement the proposed development projects that would be devised on the lines of the “Eka Gamakata Eka Vedak” one infrastructure development per village programme being implemented by the Economic Development Ministry.

Treasury officials are grappling with the preparations of 2015 budget circulars, gazette notifications, closing of cash books for the year 2014 and settlement of accounts in accordance with the operations circular as the budget estimates and financial allocations for 27 proposals had been amended during the budget debate in Parliament.

Better Times And Worst Of Fears

By S. Sivathasan -December 1, 2014

S. Sivathasan

Can hopes of better times and thoughts of the worst subsist? Prospects for a good life were wished for and openly expressed in Sri Lanka. But ever since a good consensual opposition candidate was announced fears that were latent among the powers that be, surfaced and stalked the land. They have now reached desperate proportions. What sparked them? The possibility of a regime change becoming more real after a winnable candidate in Maithripala Sirisena came to the fore. With multi party endorsement he is on the threshold of victory. A realignment of forces is seen as spelling disaster to those entrenched for long.

Office is an Opportunity

In a healthy democracy an electoral victory is an opportunity for serving the country. A second win was a doubling of opportunity for the incumbent President. Retirement thereafter was what the framers of the constitution in their wisdom prescribed. The limitation after the second was to save the people from having more of the same or worse in the third. This limitation in the US remains untouched over the centuries. Chile has laid down a single term for the President. In Sri Lanka the first term was uneventful as the national question was never resolved. Destruction unlimited visited upon one ethnic entity pleased the other. In the wake of that pleasure and accompanying euphoria a second term came the President’s way. How did the need for a third term arise?

In the two terms making nine years, the people in their mass have encountered and experienced everything unbecoming of a President. Voters of every political hue and from all ethnicities were and are resolved on regime change. Growing disillusionment in the first term has turned into uncompromising antipathy. Complete alienation of Tamils in the first instance, now pervades the whole of the polity. What originated years back has escalated to illimitable proportions. When a rule becomes unrighteous it takes tyrannical forms. In this country it has assumed all the features of a well riveted sordid hand. Hence the people’s resolve to overthrow it. But the UPFA seeks asininely to entrench itself further.

Read More

Give Tamils equal rights, Venkaiah tells Sri Lanka

  

M. Venkaiah Naidu

 December 1, 2014 

Union Minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs M. Venkaiah Naidu said on Sunday that the Sri Lankan government should give equal rights and opportunities to the Tamils by establishing a constitutional mechanism.

At the launch of a State-level membership drive of the BJP here, he said those faulting India’s policy towards Sri Lanka should remember that the island nation, or for that matter other neighbours such as China, could not be antagonised.

Mr. Naidu said it was welcome that after the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sri Lanka unconditionally released five Indian fishermen sentenced to death, and the spirit had to be continued.

He said a system for speedy release of fishermen detained by the navy of either country for allegedly crossing the maritime boundaries, by accident or deliberately, would help to establish lasting relations between the two countries.

Keywords:

Rajapaksa’s Patriotism Vs. Citizens’ Patriotism

By Hema Senanayake -December 1, 2014

Hema Senanayake

The Citizens’ Power (Purawasi Balaya) is an organization of artistes, academics and civil society activists. They will be holding a public rally on December 02nd at Hyde Park in Colombo. Among speakers there will be Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero, Common Opposition Candidate Maithripala Sirisena, Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, TNA National List Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran, Democratic Party Leader and former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, Mano Ganeshan of the Democratic Peoples’ Front and a host of other academics and activists. I felt writing something brief about a good citizen. 

A good citizen is a patriot. As Theodore Roosevelt defined that patriotism means to stand by the country; it does not mean to stand by the president; it is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country; it is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country; in either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.

By this definition, in this moment of history one might feel that it is unpatriotic not to oppose the President as he fails in his duty to stand by the country and its democratic values and laws by enacting 18th amendment to the constitution.

As one of former U.S. presidents intimated you are a good citizen if you do your job well. If you love your children you are a good citizen. If you feel that you want to raise your children good, you are a good citizen. If you love your parents and take care of them when needed, then you are a good citizen. If you feel happy when our cricketers do well in the World Cup and other matches you are a good citizen. If you feel proud when our scientists do well here and abroad you are a good citizen. If you are concerned with environment, you are a good citizen. If you feel bad when injustices are done to others, you are a good citizen. Put all these traits together then you become a wonderfully good citizen. Still you have one more thing to do in order to be a good citizen. That is to participate actively and wisely in the electoral process. It is your civic duty. In other words you should willingly and enthusiastically exercise your citizen’s power, the power of franchise.Read More

Restraining divisiveness of forthcoming polls

By Jehan Perera-December 1, 2014, 

The continuing defection of government members away from President Mahinda Rajapaksa's election campaign is an indicator of the formidable nature of the challenge faced by the government. The President has a reputation for being able to take on any challenge. However, what he is seeking to do is unprecedented. No President in the past had the opportunity to contest the elections a third time. The Sri Lankan voter has had an earlier tradition of not returning an incumbent government to power at elections. This only changed with the presidential system that concentrated power in the hands of the President and enabled ruling parties to muscle themselves back to power.

Restraining Divisiveness of Forthcoming Polls by Thavam Ratna

Constitutional Reforms are meaningless unless opposing views are tolerated

December 1, 2014 

Wear the same tie as the boss but don’t agree to his unlawful orders

Bank of Ceylon’s retired General Manager Sarath de Silva, addressing the Sri Jayewardenepura University’s Public Administration Alumni Association last week, left an important piece of advice with his audience. He said that public servants should wear the same V-cut tie as their boss but should learn not to blindly agree to everything which the boss says if they have reasons to disagree on ethical or legal grounds.

Constitutional Reforms Are Meaningless Unless Opposing Views Are Tolerated by Thavam Ratna

Sri Lankan General To Be Arrested In South Africa For Crimes Against Humanity

December 1, 2014 

A retired Sri Lankan army general allegedly responsible for a spate of extrajudicial killings in the Tamil dominated Northern Province in the mid-1990′s has come under the scrutiny of activists and international lawyers in South Africa, Colombo Telegraph reliably learns.

Gen. Srilal Weerasooriya

General Srilal Weerasooriya is believed to have arrived in South Africa on November 30, 2014 to attend a conference hosted by the Association of Military Christian Fellowships, in which Weerasooriya is leading organiser.

Lawyers and activists are particularly concerned over Weerasooriya’s involvement in the Chemmani mass graves – a mass grave in which victims of a spate of killings by the military targeting Tamil civilians were dumped.

A recent decision by the Constitutional Court of South Africa affirmed the responsibility of the state in prosecuting crimes against humanity in Zimbabwe, under South Africa’s universal jurisdiction laws. A team of lawyers and activists are believed to be pressing for the arrest and trial of Weerasooriya in South Africa for alleged crimes against humanity. The move comes in the aftermath of an informal fact-finding process that lasted over two years, in which evidence linking Weerasooriya to the Chemmani mass murders was systematically documented by activists and lawyers.

Related story

NEWS RELEASE: ZIMBABWE TORTURE CASE-VICTORY IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

30 October, 2014

Johannesburg – In a ground-breaking judgment, the South African Constitutional Court has unanimously ruled that the South African Police Service (SAPS) must investigate crimes against humanity perpetrated in Zimbabwe in 2007.

The so-called ‘Zimbabwe torture case’ was brought by the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) and the Zimbabwean Exiles Forum (ZEF) to compel South Africa to abide by its domestic and international legal obligations to investigate and prosecute high level Zimbabwean officials accused of crimes against humanity.

“South Africa’s highest court has set an important precedent: South Africa will not be a safe haven for perpetrators of the world’s worst crimes” said Nicole Fritz, SALC’s executive director. “The judgment represents a clear appreciation for the role of international criminal law and its importance to our domestic justice system.”

In 2008, ZEF and SALC submitted a dossier of evidence to the South African National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and SAPS, which detailed state-sanctioned torture in Zimbabwe. SALC and ZEF hoped the authorities would initiate investigations but turned to the courts after SAPS and the NPA refused to investigate.

In May 2012, the North Gauteng High Court set aside the decision of the NPA and the SAPS not to initiate an investigation into state-sanctioned torture in Zimbabwe. The High Court ruled that the South African authorities had not acted in compliance with their obligations and held that the decision was unlawful and unconstitutional.

On appeal, at the Supreme Court of Appeal in November 2013, the Court agreed with SALC and ZEF and ordered the authorities to investigate the crimes against humanity detailed in the dossier. SAPS alone launched an appeal at the Constitutional Court which ruled that investigations must be initiated.

“After eight years of legal wrangling, we are thrilled that victims of torture in Zimbabwe now have some prospect of seeing justice served,” said Gabriel Shumba, ZEF Chairperson, “But the case doesn’t just hold out promise for victims of torture in Zimbabwe. Should it be reasonable and practicable for South African authorities to investigate international crimes committed elsewhere – for instance, the Democratic Republic of Congo – potentially the victims of those crimes might approach South Africa’s investigating authorities for assistance.”

Having exhausted all legal appeals, all eyes will turn to the SAPS who have been ordered to commence investigations.

SALC and ZEF were represented by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), Wim Trengove, Gilbert Marcus and Max du Plessis.

For more information:

Nicole Fritz, Executive Director SALC, Office + 27 10 596 8538; Cell +27 82 600 1082; NicoleF@salc.org.za

Angela Mudukuti, SALC International Criminal Justice Project Lawyer, Office + 27 10 596 8538; Cell +27 76 762 3869;AngelaM@salc.org.za

Gabriel Shumba, ZEF Chairperson: Cell +27 84 664 9798