Sri Lanka Guardian

(September 08, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The DNA Member of Parliament and former chief of the army, General Sarath Fonseka addressing a news conference regarding the 18th amendment a short while ago said 'it's a dark day for democracy".He said that seven members of his party will be voting against the 18th amendment today.

"This legislation is the last nail in the coffin of democracy", he said referring to the amendments.

The MP added that the DNA will continue its struggle on behalf of the people even though it has only seven members.

He added that it is regrettable that the main opposition party is not clear in its position on the constitutional amendment.

There are several opposition MPs who have crossed over due to personal gains", he alleged.

Fonseka said he too had been approached by intermediaries of the President who have urged him to ask the President for a pardon but said he would never do that. Read more...

" The slow deliveries of food, delays in water supply and the continuous danger of rising flood levels result in public infuriation with the government, which can easily develop into an inclination or even an affiliation with the radical militants."
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by Darja Merkina

(September 08, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka Guardian) The current floods are having a detrimental effect on children’s health due to the potential outbreak of endemic waterborne diseases. The UN Office for the Co-Ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) spokesman, Maurizio Giuliano, has confirmed that 3.5 million children are affected by endemic watery diarrhoea and dysentery. The shortage of clean water and malnourishment further enhances the chances of contracting endemic skin diseases such as scabies, conjunctivitis, endemic respiratory infections such as pneumonia and mosquito-transmitted diseases such as malaria.

The children require sustained medical treatment as their immune systems are weakening every day. According to a report by the World Health Organisation 3.7 million children under the age of five years in the flooded areas are expected to contract severe diarrhoea and around 80,000 are expected to be born malnourished within the coming six months. Despite efforts of the international health organisations to cope with this situation, the authorities have been delaying the supply of food, shelter, medical treatment and most importantly clean water.

Furthermore, the WHO report states that children at risk of contracting waterborne diseases and children, who have already contracted such diseases, need immediate attention by the health authorities. However, the authorities appear less and less able to assist those in need and the 759,952 children, which require intravenous fluids as they are too sick to take the food orally, will face health issues, which may then result in the contraction of lethal diseases such as cholera and severe diarrhoea. A vicious circle will result, which will only be halted if more efficient aid comes internally.

Nevertheless, instead of attempting to improve the internal aid infrastructure, the irrigation department’s bribes to increase the provision of water to courses soar. Thereby the officials are creating an artificial shortage of water and contributing to the destruction of cash crops in flood affected regions. The Chairman of the Sindh chapter of the Farmers Organisation Council (FOC) Javed Ali Junejo blamed the authorities for the resulting famine due to the deliberate inadequate supply of water to the agricultural areas.

Most importantly, the supply of clean water to the flood-stricken regions is essential in order to prevent deadly waterborne and communicable diseases. Efforts by the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) have been made to fly over clean water from India and the installation of Spanish water purification equipment is in progress. These developments have been appreciated by the people, who previously have been drinking unclean water; however, this help is insufficient to cover the needs of the flood victims. The government has been highly criticised for not being able to provide quick and efficient help to the flooded regions. Oxfam's country director in Pakistan, Neva Khan said that communities desperately needed clean water, latrines and hygiene supplies, but the resources currently available covered only a fraction of what is required.

( Photo:Actress Angelina Jolie meets internally displaced people at the Kandaro II flood victim relief camp during her visit to flood affected areas and relief camps supported by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), in Nowshera, Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, September 7, 2010. Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency, called on Tuesday for constant and long-term assistance for Pakistan to help it cope with its worst ever floods that have wreaked havoc on the impoverished country.Photo by : Reuters)

The slow deliveries of food, delays in water supply and the continuous danger of rising flood levels result in public infuriation with the government, which can easily develop into an inclination or even an affiliation with the radical militants. The people are helpless and are blaming the government for having abandoned them and most importantly, the most vulnerable members in their families, their children.

The impact of the fury of the people will be felt by the whole Pakistani population. On the one hand, it no longer seems improbable that a military may coup take place. Recently, fears have been expressed that the army might overthrow President Zardari. The editor of the weekly Friday Times, Najam Sethi, said: "The powers that be, that is the military and bureaucratic establishment, are mulling the formation of a national government, with or without the PPP (the ruling Pakistan People's party). I know this is definitely being discussed. There is a perception in the army that you need good governance to get out of the economic crisis and there is no good governance."

On the other hand, looting and people turning against each other in this desperate situation spurs the increase of lawlessness. "The immediate risk is one of food riots," said Marie Lall, an Asia analyst. "There is already great resentment in Swat and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where people had to be cleared during the government offensive. Now there is the threat of social unrest as various factions, families and ethnic groups compete with each other in the event of a breakdown in government." In this desperate situation, children are most severely affected by the lawlessness, where the principle of the "survival of the toughest" is the only existing principle.

In any event, social unrest or military intervention will shift the focus away from the children, who despite having survived the immediate effect of the flooding, are now facing an even higher risk of dying from the endemic waterborne disease. Therefore, it is important that the internal political situation is kept separate from efforts to tackle the humanitarian effects of the disaster. Just as the opposition leader Sharif said in a joint news conference: "Politics at this time is haram (forbidden by Islam),"

(The writer is currently enrolled in the LLB Law with Honours Degree at the University of Aberdeen.Her interest in the protection of human rights has been further enhanced by the involvement with the Asian Human Rights Commission where this article originally published.) Read more...

(September 08, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Jayanphathi an owner of a printing press situated in Maligawatta, Maradana, Colombo has missing . This printing press is said to used by the opposition , to print posters for their protests today (08 September)have gone missing since last night. Three family members, wife of Jayampathi, and two of her brothers have been arrested and kept at the Mirihana police . They have been told that they will be kept in custody till Jayanpathi surrenders to the police station.

"A compliant has been filed about this situation to the police," Nanda Muruththetuwega the lawyer and opposition party organiser in Kalawana, Ratnapura, told the Sri Lanka Guardian.

The arrests are to suppress any discussion on the 18 th Amendment to the constitution which is now before the parliament. A vote on it will be taken to night. Opposition is boycotting the debate as a mark of protest.

Read more...

The 8th September will mark the end of an historical period and begin that of a dark dictatorship

Statement by Asian Human Rights Commission

(September 08, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka Guardian) Today, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka will be passed by a fast-track-procedure which has effectively disallowed public participation and discussion. The opposition has announced that it will boycott the proceedings as mark of protest and it has also declared 8th September (today), as a 'black day' for Sri Lanka.

The amendment was referred to the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, without allowing time for filing of objections by the public. However, within that short space of time, several lawyers appeared for a few interested groups who filed objections. The Supreme Court sent its decision to the speaker of the house stating that the amendment can be passed with a two thirds majority. This means that no referendum is needed. The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka does not have the power of judicial review. This power was removed by the 1972 Constitution. It only has a limited power to state whether any bill presented to Parliament is incompatible with the Constitution. The Supreme Court is not obliged to give its reasoning for any decision under this jurisdiction or explain why it rejects the objections by parties which are opposed to the proposed law.

The decision of the Supreme Court is suicidal

The essence of the 18th Amendment is remove any and all checks and balances to the power of the president and the limitation of two terms for the incumbent president which is internationally considered an absolute limitation within a liberal democracy. Such a limit cannot even be removed by a referendum. Under the present constitution the very least that the Supreme Court should have done was to refer the matter to a referendum and by not doing do so it has violated one of the most important legal safe guards against dictatorship. This will pave the way to the removal of the foundations of constitutionalism itself and the result is that authority of the Supreme Court will lose its constitutional basis. The Supreme Court has willingly abandoned its own position, rights and authority. In the future it will be a puny institution subordinated to an all powerful president.
Parliament will also lose its authority
The opposition has called on members of parliament to oppose this amendment as they will otherwise be voting to abandon their own powers, authority, rights and privileges. The 18th Amendment, once passed, will place the parliament under the president. It will exist in name but, like an amputated limb, it will only be a phantom parliament. It will be a façade without real power.
8th September.--.A Day that will change everything
The political and the legal system will be changed for the worst with the passing of the 18th Amendment. The final erosion of liberal democracy will be completed tonight.

A period of state violence and the supremacy of the security apparatus
From this day on the dictator will be able to assert his power with little or no restraint. It will be the beginning of a waking nightmare for every citizen of Sri Lanka. Individual and property rights will be trampled with absolute impunity.

A Nation deeply in debt embraces a dictatorship
Sri Lanka is mired in debt and now the dictator will use his power to repay these debts off the backs and sweat of the people. What misery that will lead to is unpredictable at this point in time. But, when the catastrophes come, as has happened in other countries which have followed a similar course, it will be no surprise.

The fight for democracy now depends on the way in which Sri Lankans find their own way of taming the dictatorship and creating limits on its power. Read more...

Within a few days of arriving, Sri Lankan police arrested Sivasakthy on charges of terrorism. The accusation stated that a bank card in her name was used in a financial transaction linked to the Tamil Tigers. She has been in remand prison in Colombo ever since.( Photo: Manonmany Selvajara, Selvaraja Sivasakhty's mother.)

by Gaston

(September 08, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Sri Lankan Civil War might have ended in May 2009, but some still have not woken from the nightmare. The LTTE, more popularly known as the Tamil Tigers, lead a campaign of terrorism and guerilla warfare against the Sri Lankan government for nearly 30 years to create an independent Tamil state in the North and East of the island. The conflict took the lives of tens of thousands both in the Sinhalese majority as well as in the Tamil minority population, and some people became helpless victims of this power struggle.

One of the people still trapped in the war’s net is Selvaraja Sivasakthy. She grew up in a prosperous Tamil family around Jaffna, surrounded by seven older sisters and brothers, who nearly all married and moved abroad. In May 2008, in an arranged wedding, Sivasakthy was married to the son of a prominent Tamil family from Canada. Her mother, widowed since 1997, payed her hefty dowry, and the union was sealed in Singapore, since the new husband’s family was not allowed to return to Sri Lanka due to alleged ties to the Tamil Tigers. Before moving with her in-laws in Canada, all Sivasakthy needed to do was return to Sri Lanka to finalize her immigration papers.

Within a few days of arriving, Sri Lankan police arrested Sivasakthy on charges of terrorism. The accusation stated that a bank card in her name was used in a financial transaction linked to the Tamil Tigers. She has been in remand prison in Colombo ever since. Sivasakthy’s 71 year-old mother has payed large sums to lawyers, who took her money, suggested her daughter plead guilty, and never provided any further services. She has now spent everything the family ever had to get her daughter out of prison. Recently she was forced to pawn her last pieces of jewelry to pay for a small apartment she needs to rent in Colombo to be near her daughter. Sivasakthy’s brother, the only sibling left in Sri Lanka, developed a serious mental illness from the stress of having his sister arrested. He is now unable to work, and his ailing mother must take care of him.

As for the new husband in Canada, according to a family friend, he took the dowry, had the wedding annulled, and returned home. He is now re-married, and wants nothing to do with Sivasakthy and her family. Sivasakthy’s siblings in Europe and North America do not want to return to Sri Lanka for fear of arrest. Only one of her brothers in Canada sends money occasionally to support his mother.

The Gate-Keeper at Welikada Prison Women’s Ward recommended Sivasakthy’s case to JusticeMaker Fellow, Harshi Perera, from the organization Janasansadaya (The People’s Forum). As part of her project for JusticeMakers, Harshi provides legal aid to women who have been waiting in remand prison for longer than necessary and need assistance to bring their cases before a judge. To gather more information on the circumstances surrounding Sivasakthy’s arrest, she tracked down her mother and brother in their Colombo apartment.

The three room apartment is completely devoid of furniture. Only a few piles of clothing in one room betray the human occupation of this space. Sivasakhty’s mother unrolls a mat on which she sits with her son and Harshi. She holds in her hands the only thing that bares witness to the family’s former prosperity – a large leather-bound album from Sivasakthy’s wedding. Obviously no expenses had been spared for the celebration. On these pages, the beautiful young bride, decorated with silk and flowers, flirts with the camera. The elderly woman stares blankly as she flips the pages, and her son, sitting next to her, rocks his body in silence.

Photo: Harshi Perera meets with Selvaraja Sivasakhty's mother and brother

(September 08, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) One of the paramilitary groups, Ealam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), operating in Jaffna with the blessings of the Defence Ministry is said to be involved in heavy handed activities against those whom have been implicated by the complainant.

The EPRLF has established a network of secret offices in Jaffna and are acting like police stations to entertain complaints from the people.

They go to the extent of finding out the relatives of the accused and harass them to pay compensations to the complainant. In some instances, they have phoned their relatives living overseas and have demanded large sums as compensation for the complainant.

A Bonn based Tamil family was contacted by an official of the EPRLF and was asked to pay some undisclosed sum to settle a family dispute in favour of the complainant. They have been threatened of dire consequences if they did not settle the sum.

In another incident involving a family based in Paris, they have been demanded to pay a sum to the accuser over a violent family dispute. The family members said, the accuser had damaged the properties of his in law and had used his influence with the EPRLF to get them to act on his instructions.

Both victims said that their relatives in Jaffna are scared to complain to the Police fearing retribution from the EPRLF cadres. Read more...

(September 08, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) President Rajapakse’s government claiming to liberate the Tamil people who were caught up in between the clutches of the LTTE, and the atrocities of the Sri Lankan army including the bombings of civilian hospitals by them, called the “humanitarian operation” in the final days of the war, lured more than 300,000 thousand Tamil people from the war affected zone to move into areas controlled by the government. Little did they realise that this “liberation” meant that they were to be confined within razor wires only to experience another other facet of Sri Lankan State terrorism. Far from being free, much to their consternation, they were to experience the worst form of human indignity within these camps euphemistically called welfare villages. The idea was to identify, torture and kill those suspected of LTTE loyalties. In keeping with the former Army Commander Fonseka’s statement to a congregation of Buddhist priests in the US that at least 10,000 more of such persons were yet to be identified and killed, many are missing, some poisoned at the very early stages and some paying the supreme price for being the relatives of suspected terrorists. Hundreds have been summarily executed. Numerous women of all ages have been raped and children, killed or taken to be slaves in the homes of army personnel or influential persons in the south with no hope of any freedom.

Around 7000 persons are still in custody most being severely tortured to this day said to be in the process of being rehabilitated. The idea is to weed out the suspected militants and leave the rest to perish being part of the process of “being finished off” reminiscent of the Nazi “final solution”. 40,000 civilians are still in the camps still surrounded by barbed wires virtually imprisoned. With no foreign NGOs allowed in and no witnesses, thousands of Tamils are shown to be released to go back home but when they reach their homes they are chased away by the security forces back to the camps from where they went, a drama that depicts their never ending trauma and suffering.

Besides the tremendous physical agony and the painful inconveniences there is also the enormously serious long and short term psychological impact on the IDPS. Dr Daya Somasunderam of the department psychiatry at the University of Jaffna in his well researched scholarly paper on: “Collective trauma in the Vanni- a qualitative inquiry into the mental health of the internally displaced due to the civil war in Sri Lanka” (July 2010), states: “The narratives, drawings, letters and poems as well as data from observations, key informant interviews, extended family and focus group discussions show considerable impact at the family and community. The family and community relationships, networks, processes and structures are destroyed. There develops collective symptoms of despair, passivity, silence, loss of values and ethical mores, amotivation, dependency on external assistance, but also resilience and post-traumatic growth…… Considering the severity of family and community level adverse effects and implication for resettlement, rehabilitation, and development programmes; interventions for healing of memories, psychosocial regeneration of the family and community structures and processes are essential”….and further in his conclusion : “However, instead of using the historic opportunity for national reconciliation, the repressive ethnocentric approach without dealing with the underlying grievances in the long term will only alienate the minorities once again. Apart from the political implications, the contest of the different discourses at stake and the need of the Vanni IDP trauma for healing; if not social justice, the whole national reconciliation process at least needs some acknowledgement of what happened. If there is no healing of memories, merely a repression, the untreated collective trauma could well turn into resentment and rekindle cycles of violence once again…..” In no way can these observations be dismissed lightly. It is not like the flippant use of terms like “humanitarian operation”, “liberation” etc.

At the beginning of the incarceration immediately after the war and thereafter, the world was told at various media interviews that land mines were being removed as if the people leaving their homes had mined their own houses before they left, being out of their minds, and whereas, while on their way to the camps from all directions no mines had exploded. The story of de mining was a myth to help contractors on both sides to make money and to stall the process of resettlement. Then we were told that the elusive electricity and water services were being connected to their new homes. What is real is that thousands of pre fabricated homes for the Sri Lankan army personnel are being constructed with Chinese aid in the Tamil homeland with its face being transformed to appear to be traditionally Sinhala Buddhist. The Tamil IDPs, if they are lucky, will get the residue of these. If the IDPs are lucky to return to their home environment they will not be able recognise their former habitat completely transformed to look a Sinhala Buddhist village. Those displaced from the Muttur and Sampur areas in the east a few years ago still remain displaced.

In May 2010, in an interview with Al Jazira TV, President Rajapakse, besides his other blatant lies, stated that by the end of the current year all IDPs would be resettled in their own homes. It is becoming increasingly evident that the government can tell all kinds of lies in regard to Tamil affairs and get away with them, an indictment on the Sri Lankan sense of justice and integrity, emanating from the very top. A month later, Suresh Premachandran, an outspoken Tamil parliamentarian, stated at a televised interview that the provision of dwellings to the displaced Tamils both in the North and the east was negligible with little or no assistance given and absolutely no houses built in the Vanni area and that people including children and the sick were living under trees in some areas. They obviously are not enjoying a prolonged picnic. Premachandran also stated that any progress in regard to resettlement especially in the high security zones in Muttur (east) and Jaffna (north) was at a complete standstill.

New Delhi’s claim that the assistance to the Tamil IDPs is being monitored is an absolute lie. The corrupt Indian polity with their hypocrisy and ruthlessness, intensified by a centre with a weak backbone, loving the Sri Lankan Tamils to death have come forward to provide housing and their maintenance to tens of thousands of displaced Tamils in the north and the east after having helped the Sri Lankan State to massacre tens of thousands of Tamil civilians during the first five months of 2010.

With Chinese influence or rather aggression in the Indian ocean increasing, India not to lose any more time and favour, though far too late, has been desperate to build a buffer against any further Chinese advance and find the helpless Tamils a convenient friend and scapegoat. The other motivation is the appeasement of the Tamil Nadu government so that they could in turn keep their people happy while keeping the corrupt leadership in power. The Tamil people should not should not be bamboozled or deceived any more by Indian machinations. We recommend that they should, however, accept any favour that comes their way but should not be swayed by feelings of sentiment. The Sri Lankan government, on the other hand, claiming that the Tamils are their own citizens , seem to think that the Indians are obligated to help the Tamils because of their cultural affinity and would try to milk every cent out of them. Given the corruption on both sides there is also a lot money to be made in this game. Incidentally, the magnitude of Indian corruption could show its face at the conduct and the success of the Commonwealth games in Delhi which the rest of the world watch with trepidation. It would be recalled that the Indian Foreign Secretary who while being the Indian Ambassador in Sri Lanka formerly was flirting with Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism, has now developed a surprisingly inordinate love for the Tamils.

To digress a little, for the Chinese, with their increasing influence and power in the region, their interest in Sri Lanka is strategic, economic and hegemonic diplomacy. For them the Sinhalese and the Tamils are faceless entities as long as their interests are satisfied. In Myanmar, the military junta is able to sustain themselves because of Chinese assistance and in return China’s strategic interests are fulfilled, while democracy and Aung Sans Suu Kyi despite the overwhelming landslide in their favour can wait for another day, and in Sri Lanka by no stretch of imagination is there any democracy.

The question that has arisen in many Tamil circles is whether the Tamil people should show their backs to the Indians and turn to support the Chinese as the new strategy, with their children learning Chinese (Mandarin) developing to be a world language) to be taught in schools. Furthermore, the plague of Brahminism will no longer haunt the Tamils. They should be pragmatic in turning to the winning side that will bring them more benefits, not wasting their time with India. This was also the view that the late N. Shanmugadasan, a former leader of the Ceylon Communist Party (Peking Wing) and intellectual, advocated in the 1960s and the 1970s as a remedy for the redress of Tamil grievances.

If the Tamils now languishing are to be continued to be used as pawns in the diplomatic games between India and Sri Lanka, it has to be presumed, that they are being considered for a slow and painful final solution to be “finished off’ with Indian complicity as was done in their massacre between January and May 2010.

(Writer is a editor of the Eelam Nation) Read more...

by Nalin de Silva

(September 08, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) According to a news item published in The Sunday Island of Sept. 05 the Indian Army Chief General Vijay Kumar Singh has said that ‘the Sinhalese should be "more large-hearted" and help the Tamils in Sri Lanka’s North East provinces to quickly rebuild their lives, shattered by the three-decade-long bloody civil war that ended in May last year’. The General has said, "I feel that all Sri Lankans should move on by burying all the bitterness and antagonism that existed all these years because of the civil war. The Sinhalese should become more large-hearted and help their Tamil brethren to quickly rebuild their civil-war-shattered lives." This statement by the Indian Army Chief is very mischievous to say the least. It implies that the Sinhalas are not large-hearted enough and it is an accusation against the Sinhalas. The Indian Army chief like many other Indians and some locals as well still live in the past and refers to a North-East that is neither a province nor a district of Sri Lanka. The Indian Army Chief as well as the others have to be educated on this and have to be reminded that though there is a North Western province there is no North-East or North Eastern province in Sri Lanka. It is true that the Tamil leaders, of course with the help from Indian leaders, in the past propagated not only the myth of a North-West but even a Tamil homeland in that so-called part of the country. The infamous Indo-Lanka accord referred to the combined area of the Northern and Eastern provinces demarcated by the colonialist English as late as 1889, as the traditional inhabitants of the Tamils, though Tamil Nadu qualified for that term, and the Indian Army Chief may be still under the illusion that such homeland exists.

General Vijay Kumar Singh is certainly not the first Vijay to come to this country from India or its predecessors Bharath and Dambadiva and we welcome him though he will be going back to India very soon unlike the first Vijay, who is supposed to have founded the Sinhala nation with his seven hundred men according to legend as well the great chronicle. Even the first Vijay was referred to as Vijay Kumar or Vijaya Kumara(ya) in Sinhala and moreover he belonged to the Sinha dynasty. Thus in a way we could have called the first Vijay or the accepted great- great ancestor of the Sinhalas as Vijay Kumar Singh or Vijaya Kumara Sinha and we have more reason to welcome the Indian Army Chief into our midst. However, when the present Vijay Kumar Singh accuses the nation supposed to have been founded by the first Vijay Kumar Singh we are more than perplexed.

The Sinhalas, especially the Sinhala Buddhists, have been accused of treating the Tamils as second class citizens, but the Indian General may not know that when challenged to mention the grievances or the injustices of the Tamils their leaders have no answer. The so-called grievances are nothing but the privileges lost by the English educated Tamils enjoyed over their counterparts among the Sinhalas. The English governors were behind these privileges granted to the Tamil elite and the latter were able to project the loss of their privileges as injustices to the Tamils in general.

The general wants the Sinhalas to be more large-hearted and wants them to "help their Tamil brethren to quickly rebuild their civil-war-shattered lives". I am not an expert on military affairs but as far as we are concerned there was no civil war in this country during the last three decades or so. If there was a civil war what were the two groups involved in it? Certainly, there was no civil war between the Sinhalas and the Tamils. Would the general say that there is a civil war in Kashmir or against the Maoists in the eastern and north eastern parts or shall we say the Northeast of India? Why use terminology with respect to Sri Lanka that is not used in India or in the other countries.

There was a terrorist group among the Tamils and they had been brainwashed to believe that there were injustices against the Tamils by the elite Tamil leaders and who were driven to the arms by the elite. Some if not most of the weapons and ammunition, including Theoretical ammunition came from the west and the state had to defeat the terrorist outfit that was hell bent on establishing a separate state in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. The operations by the armed forces against the terrorists cannot be called a civil war and if that was the case one could ask whether the so-called civil war started after the IPKF came to Sri Lanka. If there had been a civil war even before the IPKF came to Sri Lanka how does one define the role of the IPKF? What peace did they keep in Sri Lanka and why were the LTTE as well as the Sinhala majority opinion opposed to the IPKF? If the General Vijay Kumar Singh wants to call the operations by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces against the terrorists a civil war then he should answer the above questions first and also we would like to find out from him whether there were civil wars in Sri Lanka in 1971 and from 1987 to 1991 when the JVP was active with their weapons though not sophisticated as those used by the LTTE.

The General must have red on Uthuru Vasanthaya and Nagenahira Udanaya and together with Hambantota District it is the northern and eastern provinces that are developed at an accelerated phase. The Sinhala people are large-hearted and are happy to see that the government spends so much money on developing those two provinces. The Tamils who were displaced internally during the operations have been already resettled in the areas they lived and the rehabilitation programme has been very successful.

The General could compare that situation with the underdevelopment of the Sinhalas in the up country even after more than sixty years of independence. The land that was taken over by the English has not been given back to the people but the English had displaced them internally of course in order to settle down Tamils who were brought from South India by the English. It was a case of externally displaced Tamils displacing Sinhala people internally under the auspices of the English and nothing has been done to rectify that situation. Then we have the case of Sinhalas and Muslims displaced from Jaffna by the LTTE and they have still not gone back to Jaffna. It is in Sri Lanka where Tamil is an official language and students can read for a degree in the Tamil medium. The students in Sri Lanka can submit theses for their postgraduate degrees in the Tamil medium and I am not sure whether this could be done in any other country. I do not want to remind the General the conditions of the Buddhists in India the land where Prince Siddhartha was born and attained Buddhahood. Read more...

by Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

(September 08, Singapore City, Sri Lanka Guardian) The ongoing visit by the much-decorated chief of the Indian army provides an occasion for an objective perspective on Sri Lanka’s military achievement as well as the reactions to it. The Lankan military victory and our military have earned the respect of military professionals the world over. If they haven’t been exactly hailed or has sometimes been "damned with faint praise", the responsibility accrues not only to the propaganda of the hostile but the wild exaggerations and embellishment of the Sri Lankan cheering squad. If Sri Lanka’s military performance and achievement is to be recognised, applauded and immortalised for what it was, it must not be depicted as what it was not. The achievement must be regarded objectively. This requires de-limiting and identifying its dimensions, contribution and applicability.

While it is indubitable that every serious military machine in the world took note of this or that aspect of the war and some would definitely have studied it more deeply, the chorus of congratulations offered to the Sri Lankan state have been short lived. Neither the states engaged in anti-terrorist warfare, nor anti-state movements with a history of engagement in asymmetric warfare have made any sustained analyses and commentaries on the war. From the anti-terrorist side one can think of only two think pieces, the Indian Defence Review one that has been recycled by the publishers and in the Lankan media and a significant essay by Robert D. Kaplan, followed by an interview. (The latter has been subject to reasoned criticism by Prof Michael Roberts and security studies researcher Sergei De Silva Ranasinghe).

Kaplan’s point was very simple, and goes a long way in explaining why even Western conservatives, neo-conservatives and military establishments have been wary of praising, let alone embracing, the Sri Lankan model: the attitude to the media; the controls, the disappearances, the killings, the justificatory propaganda. No Western military, no military of a developed or advanced liberal democracy could or should conceive of functioning along such lines, says Kaplan.

Both the relative silence that has accompanied the Sri Lankan military victory internationally and the parochial braggadocio that has followed it locally are unfortunate and counterproductive. The best recent example of the latter was last Sunday, in a long piece by a retired army officer, Lalin Fernando which was a counter-critique of a critique I had made of Prabhakaran and the LTTE from a comparative historical perspective. He accuses me, in the very title of his piece, of "Trivialising the Victory of May 2009". His opening criticism of me is that I do not hold, as he does, that the Sri Lankan victory was "unique". "...the question arises why after over one year he [DJ] propels himself to propagate his theory that the victory of 2009 was not all that unique. It appears to be a stubborn attempt to take away the lustre of what was SL’s epic victory."

Though I readily assert that it was exceptional in its own way and had its specificities which must be studied, I do not state that the Sri Lankan victory was "unique", for three reasons. (a) It is a demonstrable fiction. (b) It goes against my own writings and numerous lectures at Sri Lankan military academies (including to select audiences of our Special Forces and US Green Berets), before (not "over one year" after) the war broke out, in which I pointed to the successful, inspiring examples which proved that we could in fact win the war. (c) While it may be quite in order for a retired military officer writing to the Sri Lankan papers to assert this claim to uniqueness, I would have seemed an ignoramus if I were to have made this claim, for instance, at last Sunday’s brunch discussion hosted by Singapore’s President that we seniors of the National University of Singapore’s think-tanks had with Lord Patten, Chancellor of Oxford University (Oxford and the NUS being partners in the International Alliance of Research Universities).

The Sri Lankan military victory was commendable enough for it not to be passed off as unique. It is not ‘unique’ because in recent years (leave alone the long annals of military history) there were at least three outright victories of state forces over powerful irregular armies engaged in asymmetric warfare, of which two were more relevant to Sri Lanka than the third. I refer firstly, to the victory by Russian forces under the Presidency of Vladimir Putin, over the Chechen militia, with its fanaticism, ferocious mountain fighters, veteran jihadi foreign volunteers, deadly female suicide squads (the Black Widows) and terrorist outrages in Moscow itself. Putin’s forces smashed the Chechen separatist terrorist formations after Russia had failed to do so in two earlier wars and had also made the mistake of entering an appeasing ‘negotiated (non)settlement’ under weaker, pro-Western political leaders. The Sri Lankan military victory is not ‘unique’ also because of Angola, where after decades, the government forces succeeded in decapitating the UNITA (built up and equipped by the West and apartheid South Africa) by killing its legendary (Chinese trained) leader Jonas Savimbi. The third, though slightly less relevant recent military victory by state armed forces against a strong insurgency was that of the Algerian state under President (former foreign minister) Abdelaziz Bouteflika, which crushed the Islamist terrorist militias.

Lalin Fernando takes umbrage at my evaluation of Velupillai Prabhakaran, complaining that "DJ says that VP was ‘not a master strategist….. like Fidel, Ho Chi Minh’... DJ says that any comparison of Prabakaran with Castro is like comparing ‘[a] Hobbit with an Olympian’. Did he get the order of names right? He goes on to state that the ‘LTTE was the world’s top terrorist but not the world’s best guerrilla formation’, without defining the difference."

Finally Fernando bares the heart of his argument and historical evaluation, constructing the silliest of syllogisms, as follows: "The courage, daring, resolve, endurance and initiative of the LTTE was second to none amongst terrorists, insurgents and guerrillas in history. That is what makes the SL victory famous. ... Castro has a place amongst the best insurgent leaders of the 1950s. VP has one amongst the best in the world in history. That is why the victory of May 2009 is momentous, tremendous and yes thrilling and those who won it famously. [Sic]"

While I have made the point that Prabhakaran was indeed "second to none among terrorists", I have contested, resorting to many comparisons and examples (e.g. the Hezbollah), that he holds the same status among guerrillas and insurgents. Fernando’s bundling of ‘terrorists’, ‘insurgents’ and ‘guerrillas’, with the implication that they are all really the same, tells us at least two things about him. He cannot tell the hugely basic difference between the Nicaraguan Sandinistas and the LTTE or the Vietnamese NLF (Viet Cong) and al Qaeda, or Che Guevara and Bin Laden.



He is utterly unaware of the doctrinal debate among leading political and military professionals in the USA precisely between "counter-terrorism" and "counter-insurgency" strategies in Afghanistan!

As ancillaries of Fernando’s ignorance we have remarks on Mao, Leonidas and Fidel Castro, which seek to counter my own assessment that Velupillai Prabhakaran was not in the same league as strategist or leader. Fernando writes "However it is true that VP did not revert to guerilla war like Mao when his conventional war attempt was failing... When the LTTE were surrounded by the SL Army in Mullaitivu their position was unlike that which faced Mao‘s force of 200,000 surrounded by the 700,000 Nationalist Army of Chiang. Mao’s great escape with a ‘Long March’ of 6,000 miles left him with only 8,000 of the 100,000 who started the trek".

The Long March took place before Mao got to Yenan and it is indeed to Yenan that Mao marched, after the urban insurrections were defeated in 1927. In 1945 when he abandoned Yenan, Mao’s forces were way over the 200,000 mentioned by Lalin Fernando, and ran into the millions, organised into several armies! If Mao was able to abandon the extensive Red base of Yenan after a decade of control and 28 years of warfare, while Prabhakaran didn’t want to or couldn’t do likewise, there was something wrong with the latter.

In Fernando’s version of Thermopylae, King Leonidas and the 300 Spartans faced an opposing Persian force of "180,000 infantry and cavalry (not ‘several hundred thousand’ as DJ states) of the invading Persians..." However, the revered ancestor of modern history writing, Herodotus (thought to have had access to official Persian Empire records) gives a total figure of 2.5 million military personnel, accompanied by an equivalent number of support personnel. His near-contemporary Simonides says four million while Ctesias says 800,000. Even the most wildly conservative of contemporary ‘revisionist’ scholar estimates puts the Persian combatants in the battle at no less than a quarter million. Taking all this into account I used the figure "several hundred thousand" which is very low, but way too high for Lalin Fernando. In the admittedly difficult choice I have to make between Herodotus and Fernando, I’ll stick with Herodotus over the home-grown.

Fernando reserves much of his literary powder and shot for Fidel Castro’s military stature, scorning it as infinitely inferior to that of Prabhakaran, let alone the latter’s nemesis the Sri Lankan army brass. To show this up for the arrant nonsense it is, I quote from ‘AFTER FIDEL’ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002) by Brian Latell, the CIA’s topmost Cuba analyst for decades, and hardly a Fidel fan or consumer of Cuban propaganda:

"With the exception of Israel, no other small country has tallied as many stunning battlefield victories as Cuba has. Not even the Israeli military has ever exhibited the long-range force projection capabilities that Cuba’s did in the 1970s when tens of thousands of troops were dispatched first to Angola and later to Ethiopia, both many thousands of miles from Cuban shores. It was Fidel to be sure, who was the grand strategist of those interventions ...he was sharp and in command during the Bay of Pigs, moving Cuban forces around the island like chess pieces. He made all the strategic decisions during Cuba’s military interventions overseas."

In order to make his absurd argument, Fernando ironically canonizes Prabhakaran ("among the best in the world in history") to a degree that no Tiger spokesman living or dead, has attempted! For its part, the Sri Lankan military achievement is sufficiently superb not to require tall claims and which erode, not enhance our credibility. The lily needs no gilding. Read more...

(September 07, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The DNA MP and Former chief of Army General Sarath Fonseka told Parliament that during his tenure as Army Commander for four years , 200 kilograms of gold had been unearthed from the Vellamullivaikkal area in the Mullaitivu district , during operations there.

Speaking during extension of the emergency Mr. Fonseka said even larger stocks of gold had been recovered after he stepped down as commander, but no one knows what happened to that gold.

He added that K.P alias Kumaran Pathmanathan also had access to a lot of money the whereabouts of which are still unknown.

“KP had said in an interview that he and the Defence Secretary think alike. So we can read a lot into that comment”, he said.

The former army commander said if KP revealed such sentiments when the war was on going, then the lives of 5,000 soldiers could have been saved.

“People like Karuna and Pilliyan who helped us during the war have been sidelined now and KP has become the favorite”, he added. Read more...

"The younger generation will one day curse you. If you ever want to escape from that very strong bad Karma, please protest on 8th September, 2010 during the time the Sri Lankan parliament passes the first wave of a series of political tsunamis in modern Sri Lankan history."
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by Thrishantha Nanayakkara

(September 07, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Minister Wimal Weerawansa who is doing a wonderful job in keeping the patriotic masses warm for president Mahinda Rajapakse yet again came on TV to throw another googly. He came up with a brilliant idea to mesmerize Sri Lankan voters with a wave of promising constitutional reforms, with the 18th amendment at the forefront and some other reforms with a "senate" (very American), and electoral reforms in the following waves. However, he didn't explain why the 18th amendment that removes the two-term limit on the presidency is very urgent and why it should be passed first. I asked a 16 year old boy who might vote in the next presidential election what could be the reason. He instantly said, "by that time voters of our age would not know that there was a two-term limit on the presidency. So, all what they will see is the great promise of an American democracy in the next set of reforms". People have already forgotten that this removal of two term limit was not in the Mahinda Chinthana second edition. Instead, the drums were beaten on urgent need to strengthen democracy by giving more powers to the parliament, and the need to reform the electoral system.

Therefore it is clear that Mahinda Rajapakse and his lieutenant Mr. Wimal Weerawansa have already begun to compose their Mahinda Chinthana third edition that includes things that must be done to complete the patriotic mission with usual keywords like strengthening Sri Lankan democracy, ensuring sovereignty, its territorial integrity etc.

I predict today what these duo will do next. First, Mahinda Rajapakse will drag his feet on the next set of reforms till the third presidential election. Then Wimal will come up with his usual patriotic poems to instill a fear psychosis in you that a constitution that allows a president to enjoy an unlimited number of terms in office should never be trusted in the hands of their opponents who happen to be traitors, without the next set of reforms that are in the Mahinda Chintana third edition. Therefore, the only secure way forward for the country will be to elect Mahinda Rajapakse, who happens to be the unchallenged patriotic mega star of the millennium to power with a clear mandate to bring in the next set of reforms to the constitution. They may even get Ranil Wickramasinghe to make few clear blunders during the campaign to consolidate their argument. In fact recent lethargic behavior of Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe casts serious doubts in me as to whether this statesman has also become a victim of some sort of Rajapakse strategy to win opponents. With this I am not at all recommending Sajith Premadasa as an alternative.

Unless the opposition finds a way to nurture a new set of educated, energetic, sensible, and wise frontier of leaders by such time, the result will be clear. You will be imprisoned voters with no choice. Your fear psychosis will tell you "the known devil is better than the unknown", because the only devil you know by that time will be Mahinda Rajapakse, and your rational mind will urge you to get the rest of the reforms to the constitution done through him.

By this time, Sri Lankan economy would have grown to an acceptable level and there will be another risk in defeating Mahinda Rajapakse which automatically means his family. That is none other than the fact that a fair chunk of the Sri Lankan economy will depend on the success or failure of the Rajapakse family. The profitability of of their ventures will hang on political power. One example is the Micro Car company, whose biggest customer is the Government itself. By the time General Suhartho was ejected from power in Indonesia, nearly 30% of Indonesian economy belonged to Suharto family. If not Wimal, somebody else who is known for economics and finance will put forward the logic that the country's economy will be at great stake if Mahinda Rajapakse is defeated. You, the peace loving voters who also care for the economic stability will vote like prisoners. The constitutional reforms promised in the Mahinda Chinthana 3rd, 4th, 5th editions, will keep tightening your prison gates till your younger generation loses their voting rights altogether.

The younger generation will one day curse you. If you ever want to escape from that very strong bad Karma, please protest on 8th September, 2010 during the time the Sri Lankan parliament passes the first wave of a series of political tsunamis in modern Sri Lankan history. Read more...

18th Amendment through American Eyes

by Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” - Lord Acton, 1887

(September 07, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka Guardian) The 18th Amendment will fundamentally transform Sri Lanka’s political system, stripping away the façade of democracy. The 18th Amendment will end presidential term limits, eliminate the Constitutional Council, increase the Executive’s control over appointments, and give the President the power to regularly attend and address Parliament. Its effect will be to remove vital checks on Executive power and further undermine Sri Lanka’s imperfect democracy.

Presidential term limits are critical to democratization. The concept of Executive term limits has been a part of discussions of democracy since its inception in ancient Rome and Athens. Without term limits, an individual and party may accumulate tremendous power. Incumbency advantages allow them to increase and preserve that power perpetually. The incumbent may rely on popular support, regime tactics, and opposition fragmentation to stay in office and set the country’s agenda ad infinitum.

The consequences extend beyond the immediate issue of individual accumulation of power over a lifetime. As power becomes concentrated with a single individual and party, the range of views within the party decreases and opposition parties weaken and fragment, diminishing the representation of diverse views in democracy. The weakening of opposition parties undermines electoral choice, as voters have fewer alternatives to the party in power. Government and politics stagnate.

Political party alternation is crucial to the development of a democracy. Political party alternation is more likely when the opposition faces a successor rather than incumbent, both because the successor does not enjoy incumbency advantages and because the opposition is more likely to unify when facing a new candidate.

Political party alternation, or turnover, is not just a symbol of democracy – it is essential to advancing democratization. Each successful turnover is a demonstration of democracy that increases legitimacy among domestic stakeholders and internationally. Awareness of the potential for turnover also makes officials and political parties more responsive to citizens and more likely to attempt to collaborate and reach consensus with other political parties. Following a turnover, the average improvement in Freedom House scores based on political rights and civil liberties among 20 electoral authoritarian regimes was 0.9 on a 7-point scale. By contrast, there was no improvement in these scores in the three years preceding government turnover in these countries.

In the absence of a Presidential term limit, corruption will increase within and outside of government. As an Executive and ruling party accumulate power, they become more likely to abuse that power. Parties are less vigilant in rooting out vice and officials are more prone to corruption when they perceive little threat of removal or electoral repercussion. Conversely, without the potential for political turnover, businesses and other non-governmental actors have a greater incentive to invest in bribing and corrupting government officials, whose positions are more likely to be long-term and secure.

The end of term limits will preclude institution-building, policy reforms, and training integral to the development of stable democracy in Sri Lanka. Incumbents will have decreased electoral imperatives and become less likely to generate new platforms and policies or improve existing institutions and infrastructure. With a single party remains in power and little turnover among government employees and appointees, relatively few Sri Lankans will acquire the knowledge and experience necessary to become part of democratic government.

The 18th Amendment will also expand the power of the Executive to make appointments, eroding the independence and power of other government actors and branches. The President will only have to seek the opinion of a five-member council comprised of the Prime Minister, the Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition, a Member of Parliament nominated by the Prime Minister, and a Member of Parliament nominated by the Leader of the Opposition when appointing officials to the Election Commission, the Public Service Commission, the National Police Commission, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, the Permanent Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption, the Finance Commission, and the Delimitation Commission. These far-reaching changes in the appointment process will affect agencies and actors responsible for essential human rights infrastructure and the provision of basic services and have the potential to destabilize or interrupt services.

"The 18th Amendment will destabilize the Sri Lankan political system. Its effects will only grow with time. The Amendment removes essential limits on Executive power and cripples the Judiciary while reducing the independence and influence of the Parliament; further, it ensures political stagnancy and precludes progress."
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Changes to the appointment process within the 18th Amendment present a special threat to the independence of the Judiciary. The President’s expanded appointment powers will extend to the selection of the Chief Justice and the Judges of the Supreme Court, the President and the Judges of the Court of Appeal, the Members of the Judicial Service Commission, other than the Chairman, the Attorney-General, the Auditor-General, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, and the Secretary-General of Parliament.

Additionally, the 18th Amendment’s expansion of the President’s privileges with regard to Parliament will compromise the autonomy of Parliament. The prerogative to address Parliament and acquisition of full Parliamentary privileges will significantly increase the President’s influence on the Legislative branch, reducing the separation of powers.

Imagine the uproar that would be incited if a President of the United States ended presidential term limits and that individual and political party aggregated political power while the opposition deteriorated. If the President suggested reserving the right to appoint members of all government agencies and judges without any accountability to Congress, there would be widespread outrage. If then the President began to attempt to more actively influence Congress and participate in its function, Members of Congress would protest being subjected to interference.

Presidential term limits are a fundamental feature of modern democracy. In the United States, the 22nd Amendment states that a President can only be elected to two four-year terms; any President who serves more than two years of a predecessor’s term can only be elected once. Although the 22nd Amendment was not passed until 1951, it only reified the two-term limit US Presidents self-imposed historically. Only Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President preceding and during World War II, served more than two terms. The last of the major modern democracies to set term limits, France, did so in 2008.

The majority of transitional democracies and electoral authoritarian governments also have term limits. Over the past few years, attempts to end term limits in Colombia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ukraine, and Zambia have failed, with courts and critics citing the necessity of term limits to democracy.

Moreover, the prerogative of the Executive to address the Legislative body is specifically addressed in the Constitution in both the United States and France, among other democracies, because of its influence on the separation of powers and integrity of the Legislature.

The 18th Amendment will destabilize the Sri Lankan political system. Its effects will only grow with time. The Amendment removes essential limits on Executive power and cripples the Judiciary while reducing the independence and influence of the Parliament; further, it ensures political stagnancy and precludes progress. Political scientist Samuel Huntington proposed a “two turnover” rule: only after two successful political turnovers could a democracy be declared stable. By passing the 18th Amendment, Sri Lanka is regressing, destroying what democratic framework is in place rather than improving it.

( The Writer:-Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza is an American writer and political consultant. She is currently a Luce Scholar with the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. She contributed to 40 More Years: How Democrats Will Rule the Next Generation, by James Carville, and was the Deputy National Press Secretary of the Democratic National Committee during the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Rebecca graduated from Harvard College with honors in Government. Photo Credit:Maltz, Gideon. “The Case for Presidential Term Limits.” Journal of Democracy - Volume 18, Number 1, January 2007, pp. 128-142. ) Read more...

by Sunalie Ratnayake and Sanath Jinadasa

(September 07, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) In a concise epoch, much succinct than one could have ever imagined, or may have ever anticipated, especially since the second dubious re-entry to the throne in January this year (2010), in his dogmatic kingdom, has the manifestation of President Percy Mahendra Rajapakse’s (a.k.a Mahinda Rajapakse’s) ardent ravenousness for interminable supremacy / power been stripped before the entire nation. The proposed 18th Amendment to the constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka by all means is undeniably, characteristically, enormously, the absolute reverse of democracy, transparency and integrity. It shall, by all means, never fall into the category of exaggeration, as far as truth and characteristics are concerned, that the proposed 18th Amendment to the constitution is nothing but a psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of affluence, power and omnipotence, not quite dissimilar to the psychosomatic condition encompassed by the once LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) leader Velupillai Pirapaharan. The sinister proposals are a mere icon of the obsession with flamboyant, profligate contemplations in the minds of the Rajapakses, and a means of placing same into action, in perpetuity. Nevertheless, though the ultimate effect of the aforesaid proposals are being designed for grandiose obsessions to be executed of the ruler, and his probable successor, they have been deceitfully planned for future instigation, in the most unfathomable and guarded manner.

The convergence of the elimination of the presidential term limit, together with the cessation of the 17th Amendment, two of the proposal’s main constituents evidently reveal a despotism, in which Percy Mahendra Rajapakse could effortlessly hold the presidency for life, and in due course, the aforesaid office could be outshined by his preferred aspirant, most likely one lengthened from his infinitely branched family tree, from which a significant number of members, by now, hold all possible administrative designations, plus the crafted opinionated designations in aspects of awkward family profitability.


With deep apprehension, do we assert the fact that it certainly is persuasive that the 18th Amendment to the constitution bill seek out the removal of grave constitutional restraints, as far as presidential power is concerned, thus the transformations, with no skepticism whatsoever, are radically paradoxical as per constitutionalism and liberal democratic values. Moreover, the same shall unfavourably, hastily and harmfully cause excruciating affect, as per the sovereignty of the people of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. What is more, we repulsively wish to strike a chord, of the fact, that this predetermined, and by all means devious project of the ruling schemers are divergent to the optimistic promises in the “Mahinda Chinthana,” as well as the “Mahinda Chinthana Idiri Dekma,” thereby forming an even larger contrary to the mandates bestowed by the citizens of Sri Lanka, in the 2005 and 2010 presidential elections.

It is more demeaning to observe, as per the brazen mannerism conducted by the ruling regime, with it‘s “Maha Rajano” standing tall, with nothing but a cold-blooded, exceedingly self-centered keenness to obtain the required two thirds majority in Sri Lankan parliament, in order to pass the 18th Amendment to the constitution in legislature, evidently to the favour of him, and in his equally gluttonous bevy, by merely paying currency in lump sums, and candidly buying off, yet unashamed, ungrateful, cowardly, weak-willed, spineless opposition officials, undesirably elected to the house by the Diyawanna-Oya, by non others than innocent citizens, who had been taken for yet another hideous ride, not too long ago, at the recent parliamentary elections held in April this year (2010). Be the marginal parties as it may, what more could we expect from the main opposition, which encompasses a leader who throughout his political history failed in many an avenue, including the simple, yet somber inability to keep his team together. Besides, in terms of such a drastic and absolutely perverse revolution , as per the constitution, especially one that would cause adverse effect on the masses, isn’t it reasonable to seek the approval of the people of Sri Lanka, preferably via referendum, prior to any further proceeding ?

The harshly and constantly condemned 1978 constitution, belonging to late President Junius Richard Jayawardene, as per it’s authorship, soon after being passed and implemented, also through a two thirds majority in the then parliament, to the knowledge of us all, resulted in the construction of a constitution structure, where the president was placed above law, thus, downgrading the judiciary and the parliament towards a secondary position. In president Jayawardene’s own words, it was a constitution, where the only unfeasibility was turning a man into a woman and vise versa, attesting the power ad nauseam, inculcated within same. It indeed is quite apparent that, had this constitution not been formed, and constitutional changes had not taken place over the years, Sri Lanka’s ensuing history would have been poles apart at an enormous rate. Alas, instead of defeating the unrelenting dilemmas created, ever since the inception of the 1978 constitution, the present government lead by Percy Mahendra Rajapakse has taken a treacherous and dappled path, in which idiocy by it’s all possible means has climaxed way beyond the idiocies of the 1978 constitution. In fact, the proposed 18th Amendment to the constitution has only reduced President Jatawardene’s constitution to a mere comic story.

Getting back to the initial crucial element of the proposed 18th Amendment to the constitution, in aspects of substantiation, the term limit abolition of the executive presidency itself, is maneuvering Sri Lanka outside the possibilities of the uninterrupted safeguarding of the preeminence of the law. A characteristic, attribute or mark of presidential systems includes the burden of term limits, the apparent raison d’être for which is the avoidance of constitutional totalitarianism, by preventing or disallowing one person to hold office in time with no end, yet subject to periodic democratic election. In the milieu of the disproportionate powers granted upon the executive presidency, the somewhat extensive six year term, twelve years in combination of two terms, the nonappearance of fixed terms, and all-inclusive personal legal protection, jointly with futile checks and balances represented in the governing system, launched by the 1978 constitution, the constraint to two terms that any one individual may hold that office, presuppose even superior significance. As stated earlier, it is this very preserve, a dreadfully critical, yet basic preserve that the present government of Percy Mahendra Rajapakse is in quest of abolishing.

Now, let us focus on the subsequent or second key element, as per the proposed 18th Amendment to the constitution, which is the negation of restrains in presidential power established by the 17th Amendment. Been endorsed in the year 2001, with the facilitation of an exceptional cross-party consensus in Sri Lankan parliament, the 17th amendment was instigated in view of de-politicizing key areas of governance. The 17th Amendment did not alter the constitution’s basic composition, and leaving this basic structure of the constitution intact, obviously meant that the executive presidency too was unharmed. However, the execution of the 17th Amendment was indeed an elongated, traumatic campaign for reform, carried out by the country’s strident forces of democracy, which also, by and large included civil society. This established vital bureaucratic restraint, in terms of exercising presidential power. Yet, as expressed above, the basic structure of the constitution, including the executive presidential system remained integral and intact. Thus, the implementation of the 17th Amendment never managed to realize it’s potential to the degree of it’s expectant establishment at the first place. Taken the aforesaid evaluation into greater consideration, it is also evident that the 17th Amendment never reached it’s expectations, not in terms of installation, but in terms of implementation, purely due to the successive presidents’ stubbornness cum narrow-mindedness. Therefore, what sense does it make, in terms of the justifications moving forward, as per it’s nullification ? Isn’t the same, unimpressive by all means ?

Moreover, as per preserving Sri Lanka’s legal framework, and as per it’s citizen’s safeguard, within it’s framework of law, that is however, if at all, the true meaningful essence of law prevails in same, given the present circumstances alone in the island, there shall be no prospect for that particular purpose. The destiny of Sri Lanka’s average citizen, in terms of seeking auxiliary protection, is but a dream, in the wake of the nightmare of a proposed 18th Amendment to the constitution.

Once been known as the pearl of the Indian ocean, “pearl,” unquestionably meaning being “precious,” and in worth mentioning history, having been the most thriving island in many an aspect, in the entire South Asian region, sadly yet truthfully, and being parallel to our conscience, also being fervently hopeful that the island’s present rulers including the president too may have one (a conscience), we have to admit the fact, let alone accept same, that we have been an ill-fated nation in the recent and farthest past. Taking the recent history into consideration, we have been a nation that has abundantly experienced countless human disappearances, subject to well known cataclysmic agendas of interested parties, under the watchful eye of all past regimes, not forgetting to mention the relentless and noteworthy number of increased disappearances and cold blooded atrocious murders, in most instances, the same been conducted on broad day light, at times, on so called high security zones as well, and the same acts of barbarism being carried out, not only in the island’s north and east, but also the south, needless to articulate, under the vigilant eye of the present day Rajapakse regime as well.

Not that we as a nation have not experienced brutality in ancient history as well. A history spanning deep into the eras of the kings ; kindly note that here we are drawing attention to the eras of the authentic kings of our nation, and not the present day over rated plastic ones. A ruler having grown a heavily dyed mustache on his face does not necessarily meet the criteria of him being a king or Maha Rajanan, but apparently may be called so, by the bootlickers under his wing, so let both parties, the former and the latter have their provisional moments of contentment by doing so, for such childish acts are not of much importance, given the daunting gravity of the present circumstances in the land like no other.

Not that we have not experienced catastrophes and brutality by means of wars with potential enemies, as well as abundant betrayal of our very own people, all throughout history, and not that just a little over an year ago that we did not manage to overcome a nearly three decade long civil war, with the internationally acknowledged most ruthless terrorists in the world, namely the LTTE, noteworthy in mentioning, a triumph that indeed saw daylight, visibly due to the grand and impressive guidance of a Commander In Chief Percy Mahendra Rajapakse, the unreserved brilliance of it’s core architect the then Army Commander (Rtd) Gen. Sarath Fonseka, all notable contributions by every single commander of the remaining armed forces, and never forgetting ever, the myriad and the most bona fide, yet unsung heroes, our dear and brave soldiers who by and large sacrificed their lives, arms and limbs, also, their families out there, and the entire civil society of Sri Lanka, who stood tall and strong, in the presence of the mammoth sacrifices having been made throughout the past three decades, in spite of their ethnicity, religion, customs, social backdrop or what not, in terms of attaining fruitful results in a cause, common and critical, that was eradicating the LTTE, once and for all. Such realities can never be erased, nor can they be forgotten, in terms of Mother Lanka’s most recent history.

Be that as it may, mother Lanka’s present regime has also kept record after record, not only in terms of tactfully terminating the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world, with the palpable facilitation of all the aforesaid masses, but also by illegitimately detaining, incarcerating and most recently stripping the world’s best army commander (Rtd) Gen. Sarath Fonseka, who led the troops into an extraordinary war victory just a little over an year ago, of his rank, honours, medals, and also brazenly ceasing his pension. Therefore, it is evident that the Rajapakse regime is capable of revenge in many a mode, both constructive and apathetic. Comprehensible revenge of course, over the entire nation’s once enemy, the LTTE, but also the shockingly disgraceful revenge towards a distinguished member of it’s own squad, purely in terms of illimitable hunger for power and politics.

Reversing to the focal point of this critique, it was apparent that the 1978 constitution did bring dreadful devastations in aspects of mass forced disappearances in Sri Lanka’s north, east and the south, needless to exclaim, making them equivalent to the world’s worst case scenarios. When the then constitution was accountable for such tragedies of such demoralizing nature, what can we expect from the proposed 18th Amendment to the constitution, which by the proposals alone, has observably been capable to shrink the 1978 constitution into a mere shaggy dog story. What mode of comfort, we as law-abiding citizens of mother Lanka could expect, in terms of forced disappearances, extrajudicial murders, illegal detentions, elevated abuse of power, and the list may go on and on ? It is us, the citizens of Sri Lanka, who shall ultimately pay the loathsome price of disgust, thus suffer for the rest of our lives and times, as far as the consequences of these so called amendments.

Moreover, taking a further closer look at the proposed 18th Amendment bill, as far as details are concerned, it does lay bare predictable fundamental changes to the independent commissions, notably the Elections Commission and the National Police Commission. This is in addition to the abolition of the Constitutional Council and proposed proxy with a strikingly feeble Parliamentary Council. The President shall be sanctioned in appointing members to the independent commissions, as well as to do away with them, unswervingly undervaluing the aforesaid entities into mere presidential add-ons. Such insurrection as per the liberty of the Independent Commissions would facilitate absolute subjugation of the public service, the judiciary and the media to the self-control of the all-powerful President.

A majority of the most central powers bestowed by the 17th Amendment on the Elections Commission, essential to the integrity of the electoral procedure shall also be subject to elimination. The absolute composition and the rationale of the National Police Commission would be subject to modification, thus dismantling and reassembling the central mechanism of political independence, as well as the professionalism of the Police force, thus the new Commission to be, simply executing a role of an administrative complaints body.

What’s more, particularly having experienced the present regime for the past five years, and knowing the ultimate force of the trap, or the depth of the perforation, that one may subject to be maltreated upon, or rather, the ultimate price that one may have to pay, once he or she has provoked the Rajapakse brothers, the 18th Amendment shall all the same, enable the President to make or break vocations, which simply ultimately lead to lives in general, of such victimized individuals, and needless to say with absolute penalties affixed as per same.

Likewise, the swift act of construction of proposals, as per the 18th Amendment to the constitution corroborate yet another feature in par with the Rajapakse hypothesis. That is non other than to secure themselves, along with their hangers-on, from the possibilities of being prosecuted, in the presence of rule beyond boundaries, that is foreign intervention. It is not a misapprehension to state that, fearsome thoughts of the somewhat recent eventual fate encountered by once an exceedingly influential and revolutionary President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, may have even slightly tickled the conscience of the Rajapakses’ for it is a plain fact, that those who have committed grave misconduct in life, shall eternally live with fear. We are convinced of the fact of the awareness of the Rajapakses’ by now, of the simple unwritten law of extreme power being equivalent to extreme fear.

For if not, in a post war environment, such as that of ours in Sri Lanka, amongst the key aspirations should be a constitutional settlement that would wholeheartedly address the challenges of unity, diversity and ethnic reconciliation, in order to ensure unqualified peace, and thereby structuring the assurance of the future stability in post war Sri Lanka, a critical factor that is not indicated even on a margin of the proposed 18th Amendment to the constitution.

All these fanatical conducts of the Rajapakse regime is nothing, but trying their level best, and of course succeeding at a rate, in the presence of infinite power in hand, some noteworthy luck, endorsement of some betrayers, sadly those belonging to our own throng, and a number of people who are, by al means numb to the ill-fated factors taking place under the same sky that they share with the emperor. However, what needs to be accentuated is that the Rajapakses’ together with their bootlickers are making hay while the sun shines, dishonorably cheating a noteworthy number of innocent Sri Lankan citizens, as per their own rights as citizens, particularly due to their lack of knowledge on what truly is taking place, ultimately leaving them with chilling shadows, not only for lifetimes, but possibly for generations to come. The Idi Amin dictatorial technique of the Rajapakse supremacy seem to be working far too well for the emperor, his siblings and his squad, especially given the aforesaid reality, which is lack of knowledge of the innocent masses.

As the proposed changes to the constitution being perceptibly fundamental, in seriously affecting the approach in which the sovereignty of Sri Lanka’s citizens is exercised, we once again wish to emphasize the importance in furnishing opportunities for possible dialogue cum deliberation, and sternly condemn the absence for such an opportunity, in aspects of the people of the country to express their view, for which they have the unqualified right, at least in terms of referendum. It’s disgusting to learn that the present regime has elapsed such crucial rights of it’s citizens, the same citizens who substantially, yet not wholly was instrumental in bringing the present regime into power on a second term.


In the presence of shameless, spineless, disloyal members of opposition parties, who would not only deceive the rights of the country’s citizens, but would even literally go as far as to the discreditable level of trading their own mother, in exchange of power and money, the Rajapakses effortless road to tyranny is not only smoothly tarred, but carpeted in crimson as well. Likewise, in a society with a majority settling for unresponsiveness, the crimson carpeted path of the yet unofficial dictators would eventually be studded with gem stones as well, thus adding glitter to the self-centered agendas, and their feasible implementation by the present day Rajapakses, as well as those probable successors, in the years to come.

We can only support a leader, as long as he walks straight. The moment he proliferates, and enforces dictatorial schema, as headstrong citizens with an absolute awareness and conscience, which is utterly clear, we no longer can stand with a dictator, nor can we give into a creepy and ambiguous dictatorial regime, would it be of the Rajapakses or any other.

The writers Sunalie Ratnayake & Sanath Jinadasa could be reached at sunalie.secretandbeyond@yahoo.com and sanath.secretandbeyond@yahoo.com Read more...

(September 07, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Tamilnadu has set an example by forming Tamilnadu Coastal Security police stations and effectively monitoring waterways security, Vice-Admiral Anup Singh, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command, today said. He called on Tamilnadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi here today and discussed about the security of Tamil fishermen, who ventured close to the Sri Lankan waters.

Addressing mediapersons after meeting the Chief Minister, Vice Admiral Anup Singh said, ‘we had deliberations on the security of fishermen and also reviewed the coastal security in general,’

Heaping laurels on Tamilnadu for forming Tamilnadu Coastal Security police stations, the Vice Admiral said they are very effective in monitoring the security in waterways.’

The need for forming such a system was strongly felt after the recent attack on Mumbai by terrorists who landed in the city through water.

We have taken up the issue with various State governments. However Tamilnadu has set an example by forming one, he added.

Such forces would help monitor safety and security at medium and small ports. Dwelling on the issue of the safety of Tamil fishermen, he said, ‘the Chief Minister discussed in detail about the safety of the Tamil fisherfolk. Also the need to prevent Lankan counterparts from entering our waterways was spoken about’.

It may be recalled that recently the Director General of Police Letika Saran said that 30 more marine police stations have been proposed in the State for augmenting coastal security, in the second phase of the programme.

Detailed proposals for setting up the stations along with the locations identified for their establishment have been forwarded to the Union government for sanction, Letika Saran said the State had 12 marine police stations now. Read more...

(September 07, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A UNP MP for Kurunegala district who was offered the Deputy Health Ministry post to support the constitutional amendments has declined the offer, but another UNP in the same district has agreed to support the amendments.

The MP, Ashoka Ranjan Abeysinghe who was the former Deputy Mayor representing the UPFA crossed over to the UNP and won the elections.

The other MP of the UNP who has decided to support the amendments is Nimal Wijesinghe. However he has not been offered any positions. Read more...

Statement on the Proposed 18th Amendment to the Constitution

(September 07, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) We, the undersigned academics attached to different universities in Sri Lanka, call upon the government to re-consider the proposed 18th Amendment to the Constitution for the reasons set out below.

Constitutional reforms, like elections, go to the heart of what it means to be a democracy in the modern-day world. Any changes that are introduced to a country’s constitution should be undertaken after due deliberation and consultation while having at its centre, the will of the People. In a pluralistic society such as Sri Lanka, ascertaining the will of the People can be a time-consuming and complex exercise. While the will of the People must be given due consideration, the essential features of a democracy, such as the rule of law, accountability of the government and transparency must be preserved and promoted through any constitutional reform.

By choosing to amend the constitution through an urgent bill the entire process of reform has been expedited, if not short-circuited, and no room has been left for any kind of public debate let alone public consultation. Under a Constitution that explicitly recognizes the “Sovereignty of the People” that process is not acceptable, especially when no convincing reasons have been given as to the need to expedite this process. Indeed, the most distressing aspect to this whole process is the lack of interest in government ranks on the need to raise awareness, let alone build consensus, among the general public on the need for such urgent reform.

The substance of the proposed reforms is also problematic. History provides many examples of the need to limit not only power, but also access to power. The limit to the number of terms that the head of the executive can hold has emerged as a best practice, through those bitter lessons. The introduction of the Parliamentary Council instead of the Constitutional Council is not satisfactory as it contains no clauses to promote accountability on the part of the President in whose hands come to be concentrated the power to make several key appointments that promote governance, accountability and due process of law.

This is the first attempt at constitutional reform in the post-war era of our country. We hope that it would therefore signal a break from the constitutional reform experiences of the past, where powerful executive Presidents “reformed” the constitution to serve their personal political agendas.

We therefore call upon the government to re-consider their decision to introduce constitutional reforms in such a hasty and ad-hoc manner and to open avenues for greater participation and consultation before setting in motion a process that is of utmost importance to the political culture of Sri Lanka.

C. R. Abayasekara (University of Peradeniya), Suresh De Mel (University of Peradeniya), Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri, (University of Colombo), Priyan Dias (University of Moratuwa), Asoka N. I. Ekanayaka (University of Peradeniya), Avanka Fernando (University of Colombo), Hans Gray (University of Moratuwa), Dileni Gunewardena (University of Peradeniya),Janaki Jayawardane (University of Colombo), S. I. Keethaponcalan (University of Colombo), Amarakeerthi Liyanage (University of Peradeniya), Dinesha Samararatne (University of Colombo),Vasanthi Thevanesam (University of Peradeniya), Ruvan Weerasinghe (University of Colombo), P. Wickramagamage (University of Peradeniya), Carmen Wickramagamage (University of Peradeniya) Read more...