Lanka Citizen

By Predarika Loosenz, reporting from Colombo, Sri Lanka

Allied Press, 14 November 2005

Senior journalists and editors shed bras and ties and sarongs and
saris as they crawled naked out of the virtual offices of the well-
known e-news service Emp TV (EmpT Vision Ltd.) in Colombo early Monday morning.

The knickerless protest began after the ‘muckraking’ newswire joined Reuters, AFP and AP in publishing fake push-polls and pop-up stats, claiming the neo-liberal candidate ahead in Thursday’s Presidential election.

“We decided to leave our genitals on our desktops, and pixel in
question marks ‘????’ where our desires once parked overnight,” said Imeena Ibn a’ Hussar, a veteran yonimediacentric and art-
exhibitionist, heading on her kneecaps to her fave Colombo 3 wet spot.

“We are exposing our own delicacies to the westwinds because Empire TV bummed out by not exposing the financial forces out to funk the island.”

World Raid Organization Meeting

Ibn a’ Hussar was referring to the “KOWTOW IN KOWLOON” next month in Hongkong, where the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Meeting will remove all local decision-making power from representative parliaments around the world, and turn them into capitalist rubber-stamp machines like imperialist legislatures in London, Ottawa and Washington. The neo-lib candidate’s shadow trade minister has promised to sign the sell-out accord in Pali, in keeping with the Sri Lankan elite’s characteristic of diversion from the mathematics of the real world.

No media of any weightage has reported on this heavy upcoming WTO December event, and great hopes were placed on Emp TV’s supposedly maverick news service to detail the massive sellout of sovereignty.

Last week, leading CEOs such as Charles Holliday of Du Pont, US, Jan du Plessis of British American Tobacco, UK, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe of Nestle, Switzerland, Andrew N. Liveris of Dow Chemical Company, US, Henry A. McKinnell, of Pfizer Inc., US, Gerard Mestrallet of Suez, France, Mikio Sasaki of Mitsubishi Corp., Japan and 45 other pirates wrote a letter threatening governments across the world, with serious repercussions by multinationals and banks if they did not sign the accord next month.

Upset about Pirate Fee Media Sellouts

The broad daylight butt-naked protest by Emp TV workers taking over the airlessness of Colombo’s ritzy World Trade Centre was virtually aimed at the editorial policy of Emp TV, the island’s premier alternative news service.

“Look, there is an EL NINO of resistance sweeping the world again,
from Korea to Southern Africa to Venezuela and Bolivia, and we must not falter.”

The defrocked journalists said Emp TV’s policy amounted to open
support for the neo-liberal presidential candidate in the upcoming
election. Many platitudinous journalists, along with NGOists, who
made their grand entry into the middle class off the last
dispensation are now supporting the rightist candidate. “A lot of
money has been poured in to buy their silence or their complicity,
usually couched in high philosophy.”

“Media-run elections have been made touchstones of capital’s version of ‘democracy’ because this media obtains huge amounts of bribes aka advertising contracts for such astro-turf or ‘fake grassroots’ spectacles,” said media-analist U.B. Nickerlos. “It is a good excuse to sell pulp and paper, ink, paint, plastic, pixels, soundbytes etc.
and not to mention a good dose of discredited capitalist economics.”

The Emp TV boondoggy-style uprising is possibly the first naked e- picket in internet history, leading to an almost total shutdown of
the island’s information highway during the a.m. rush hour, as dawn websurfers gawked at a dozen preening pettifoggers popping up at them on their way to their early morning wank-sites.

The protest is unusual for modern-day writers, who are seen as
quicker than most of their predecessors to genuflect at the ordure of crumbling capitalism: As Lenin noted a hundred years ago, “if you don’t aim at the banks and monopolies, your writing in the modern world is mere whitewash.”

Said veteran satirist Illucion Lajakarionandon Singho, “We do not
want to be hacks like Reuters and AFP stringers who just repeat neo- liberal hackitudes over and over again: such as ‘blessed are the paisa-makers.’” He was referring to a recent paid-advertisement by the Pope’s chief brown cleric here, sponsored by a private born-again insurance corporation owner, supporting the neo-liberal candidate.

“The role of advertising agencies also needs to be exposed,” noted
Illucion Singho, who refers to the internet, as the ‘Pimpernet.’

The island nation’s 5th Executive Presidential Election is being
mainly psychographed by leading Washington and London public-
relations agencies who have worked in tandem with the US State
Department, stage-managing electoral ‘pastel revolutions’ across
Eastern Europe. They have lent (at exorbitant interest rates) their
support to the neo-liberal candidate in Sri Lanka’s upcoming
presidential elections, despite his lucky-13 previous losses in
earlier elections.

The assassination of the beloved Foreign Minister of the outgoing
President was seen as the first neo-lib shot fired to ensure the
election of its candidate.

Pop-up Conomics

All the private/pirate media outlets have joined in a fear campaign
claiming the choice is neo-liberalism or tribal war. Ads promising
bribes such as free CIC fertilizer have been popping up on old
movies, cartoons and MuzakTV as recommended by their ideological media-guide and new CIA-replacement, the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED). NED already has its claws full trying to manipulate the 9 elections slated for South America in 2006 alone. The Sri Lankan election is to be a timely template for them.

Emp TV, a multi-planetary installation rumoured to have 25 stolen
satellites known as ‘Dahas-As’ roaming the heavens at any given
instant, was charged with accepting “earthly gratuities and
promissory notes in the here and after,” in exchange for a suspect
brooding silence during the island nation’s 5th, and possibly last,
Executive Presidential election.

Said another veteran photo-opportunist, Manic del Wanna-B, “Emp TV’s stance must’ve been adopted with the hope of gaining legal entry into the slave marketplace after years of popular brigandage.”

“We believe that in this perilous hour, a news service like Emp TV
should state clearly their position, rather than flutter their petals
coyly in the void like some cloying choirboy behind the altar of
human sacrifice.”

Vikings Ahoy!

Emp TV has also been accused of accepting money from the smiling yet greying Lion-Prince Pixel Jr., on behalf of high-heeled tanned
Vikings in t-shirts wielding sharp kronas and guilders, in the form
of paid advertisements purporting to purvey peace.

Several other popular ‘alter the native’ newspapers such as “The
Rave” have fallen in the last year, said U.B. Nickerlos, “to the
largesse of the valkyries of valhalla, who are the latest front group
for the oil-sukking Krackerfeller Korporation, kurrently waging mega-war in Iraq (or ‘New Iowa’) and Afghanistan (or ‘New Alabama’).”

Presidential Election: Sole Representation and the
Disenfranchisement of Tamils in the North and East

The Sri Lanka Democracy Forum (SLDF) condemns the election violence, intimidation and the consequent disenfranchisement of Tamil citizens by the LTTE in the North and East. The elections in the North and East were held in a climate of fear as the LTTE, through its front organizations, called for a boycott of the elections. This directive was backed by violence on the days leading up to and on Election Day, as LTTE cadres on motorcycles beat and chased away voters and tyres were burned as road blocks to intimidate civilians. LTTE cadres appointed by the New Left Front as
polling agents (normally used in elections to challenge fraud and can only be appointed by a party with a candidate in the elections), were used by the LTTE to intimidate voters inside polling booths and to identify voters who could then be targeted for retribution. On the day before the election, there were at least five grenade attacks on the offices of the EPDP in Jaffna, a political party supportive of
presidential candidate Mahinda Rajapakse. Two days before the election, cadres from the LTTE’s cultural wing brought a youth, twenty-two year old Dinesh, to the grounds of Kokkuvil Hindu College and tied, tortured and beat him to death in public view.
Grenade attacks and killings were also reported in the East on Election Day. The Jaffna Government Agent and the chief election officer for the Jaffna District stated that only 1.5% of the eligible voters cast their votes.

The 2005 presidential election in the North is very similar to the 2004 parliamentary elections when, once again, Tamils living in the North were denied their democratic rights. In this regard, the low voter turn out in this election is no different from the 90+% of the votes, which the LTTE manufactured in the 2004 elections for its proxy the TNA through violence, intimidation and massive fraud. Indeed, as John Cushnahan of the EU Election Monitoring Mission noted after the elections in 2004, the elections in the North and East were the “anti-thesis of democracy” and the “primary source of the violence was the LTTE who were determined to ensure that the
TNA would emerge as the sole representative of the Tamil people.”

After three and a half years of a much-violated Ceasefire Agreement, democratic space in the North and East has been greatly diminished, not only in terms of electoral politics, but also in terms of the rights to life, freedom of expression and freedom of
association. Indeed, the very basic civil and political rights necessary for democratic space and engagement have progressively been curtailed during a time of peace. During yesterday’s elections, yet another opportunity for the people of the North and East to voice their concerns on fundamental political and economic issues, as well as the peace process, was taken away from them. And, underlying and justifying this constant silencing of Tamil and Muslim voices is the LTTE’s claim to “sole-representation”.

SLDF calls on all political parties and civil society actors in Sri Lanka, foreign governments, multilateral institutions such as the United Nations and the European Union, and the Donors involved in the peace process in Sri Lanka, to publicly denounce the intimidation and violence that kept Tamils from exercising their democratic rights during yesterday’s presidential elections. Fundamental to this will be a refutation of the LTTE’s claim of sole-representation, which has been antithetical to democracy in both name and practice. Finally, given the LTTE’s attacks on democracy and the rights of Muslims and Tamils, any resumption of peace talks should be
inclusive with participation of independent delegations from the Muslim community and other Tamil parties. [SLDF Press Release]

by Wijitha Nakkawita

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, from the nuclear political family of Giruwapattuwa, yesterday reached the highest elected office in the country, that of Executive President. He followed the footsteps of the earlier generation of Rajapakses which produced the ‘Lion of Ruhuna’ D. M. Rajapakse, who was followed by not less than seven members elected to the State Council and the Parliament from this southernmost electorate of the country.

Rajapakse, who also celebrated his 60th Birthday yesterday, will take oaths as the 5th Elected Executive President of the country, at the auspicious time of 1.20 p.m. today, before Chief Justice Sarath N.de Silva at the President’s House.

He polled 50.33 percent of the votes polled at the election and was announced duly elected President by the Commissioner of Elections, Dayananda Dissanayake yesterday (18).

He also becomes the first Head of State and Government to be elected from the Ruhuna (Southern Province), since 1948. Despite little cooperation from some of the highest ranking members of the SLFP, and not being the leader of the party, he yet steadfastly protected and stood by the SLFP when others left the party at the time it was in dire straits. The common people of the strong SLFP districts gave him a massive mandate as in the case of the Southern Province repaying him for his party loyalty.

courtesy The Island

by Shamindra Ferdinando

Incumbent Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse’s creditable performances in SLFP/PA strongholds including Attanagalle, once nursed by President Chandrika Kumaratunga have silenced his critics. An influential section of the SLFP attacked Rajapakse over his hotly disputed electoral pact with the JVP accusing him of sacrificing the identity of the party (SLFP), for personal benefit, a charge vehemently denied by Rajapakse.

If anyone really believed that the Rajapakse-JVP pact was going to be rejected by the SLFP, it did not show in the final results. Rajapakse secured the Gampaha district with an overwhelming majority of 114,934 votes by polling a staggering 596,698 votes. A clandestine bid failed to discourage voters from helping Rajapakse to secure Attanagalle by a majority of 19,222 votes.

The Gampaha district leader and Prime Minister nominee Anura Bandaranaike returned from a long overseas official cum private visit in the last leg of the campaign but attended just a few meetings. Once he rapped Sripathy Sooriyaarachchi, MP, for organising a meeting in support of Rajapakse without his approval, much to the chagrin of colleagues. Both President Kumaratunga and Foreign Minister Bandaranaike refused to appear on stage with the JVP thereby placing the organisers in an awkward position. Insiders said that the presence of a cohesive party machinery in the Gampaha district would have given Rajapakse a far better lead over Wickremesinghe. UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya who led the Gampaha district failed to impress.

As part of the efforts to throttle Rajapakse’s campaign, a transparently vindictive bid was made to deny state-run print and electronic media coverage to the incumbent PM. “It was an unprecedented bid,” an official acknowledged, referring to covert efforts to jeopardise the campaign. The forces arrayed against him were influential and almost succeeded in scuttling the campaign, political sources said referring to backstage moves to finalise a deal between an influential section in the SLFP and the UNP, of course in the unlikely event of a Wickremesinghe victory.

In an unprecedented case of co-operation, they targeted Rajapakse over what the UNP termed as the helping Hambantota scam and JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe’s controversial call to dissolve the army if it could not preserve the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. An ex-servicemen’s association backing Wickremesinghe’s bid carried Bandaranaike’s remarks in TV advertisements targeting Rajapakse over Amarasinghe’s hotly disputed statement. Bandaranaike is also on record saying that he was never consulted before Rajapakse released his manifesto, Mahindachintanaya.

Rajapakse suffered another setback when former SLT chief Thilanga Sumathipala quit his campaign to take over as the chief UNP organiser for Anuradhapura. His appointment came shortly after former party General Secretary Sirisena Cooray took over the North-Central province, comprising the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa districts. Despite aggressive campaigning by them, Rajapakse easily secured the province.

Rajapakse suffered his biggest defeat in Nuwara Eliya where Wickremesinghe secured a stunning 150,878 votes over Rajapakse who barely managed 99,550 votes. National List MP Navin Dissanayake, who led the district in the absence of colleague S. B. Dissanayake, imprisoned over a case of contempt of court is also a benefactor of the CWC’s sterling performance. If Rajapakse succeeded in securing the CWC’s support he would have been able to inflict an unprecedented loss on Wickremesinghe.

Rajapakse also survived a major attack over the mishandling of the tsunami relief work, particularly in the Hambantota district. The PM did extremely well in the southern province. He secured all four electorates, Beliatta, Mulkirigala,Tangalle and Tissamaharama in the Hambantota district with a lead of 90,206 votes. Contrary to expectations, Sajith Premadasa fared badly despite being the most active MP in the entire southern province.

Rajapakse loyalists admitted that the PM benefited from the LTTE’s unforeseen decision to boycott the poll in the northern and eastern provinces. Although a significant number of Tamils exercised their franchise in the east, the LTTE crippled the poll in the north with hardly anyone crossing entry and exit points at Muhamalai and Omanthai to cast their votes cluster polling booths.

courtesy The Island

The Island- Editorial

The Lion of Giruvapattu couldn’t have cherished any gift more than what he was given on his birthday yesterday. He, with decades of experience as a parliamentarian, minister, Leader of Opposition and Prime Minister, becomes the fifth executive president to rule this country. Congratulations!

Not only has he won the presidency but democracy has triumphed. Thursday’s election is being described as very peaceful. Sri Lanka is beginning to show signs of evolving into a mature democracy albeit with delay.

A human rights activist, lawyer and, above all, man of the people, Mahinda Rajapakse comes from a well known political family connected with the SLFP since its inception. The secret of his success has been his devotion to the party which his father co-founded with S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike. Mahinda inherited the famous kurahan saatakaya from his famous paternal uncle who tirelessly strove to popularise kurakkan of Ruhuna as a staple food. It has today become a symbol of the common man’s cause and is often mistaken for a socialist symbol because of its colour.

What characterises Mahinda as a leader is his courage to stand up for a cause and be counted. An indefatigable party man to the core, he has always remained loyal and faithful to the SLFP despite numerous difficulties, intra party machinations and backstabbing, which would have driven a lesser person out of the party a long time ago. He is one of the few politicians who risked life and limb by campaigning against Presidents with dictatorial tendencies in the past. Jana Gosha, Paada Yatthra, Human Chain were some protests he led from the front to mobilize the people to fight for their rights, especially during the 1988-93 period. The foundation which he and a few others had thus laid for protecting democracy stood Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga in good stead when she returned to the party fold and went on to become President.

Mahinda, who is a good team player, is known for his willingness to consult and listen to others before making crucial decisions. He achieved the feat of unifying warring political forces which didn’t see eye to eye on almost anything and forging an alliance with them to ride to power—he has got the JVP, the JHU and Vasu’s party, three combustible entities in his camp.

However, what is most difficult in politics is not so much getting elected but living up to people’s expectations by honouring pledges thereafter. Now that the people have elected him President, he has to start delivering on promises promptly. He has given a bagful of pledges.

The executive presidency is a strange mould which completely changes leaders who get into it. We put democrats in and take dictators out. Whether this will be true of Mahinda, too, remains to be seen. What is expected of a leader who rises to the highest elected office of the land is that he should also rise above partisan politics and become a truly national leader commanding the respect of one and all including those who didn’t vote for him. He has to carry them all with him, an uphill task no doubt but he must prove he is equal to it if he is to achieve the much talked about nation building.

The ethnic question is already staring him in the face. He will have to unveil his plans as to how he is going to deal with the problem which has defied remedies for two decades. Before the election, he offered to go to the Wanni and meet the LTTE leaders himself. President Kumaratunga pooh-poohed the idea and asked him whether his intention was to have some tea with the LTTE leaders. He appears to believe in bypassing third parties and approaching the Tigers direct.

An honourable peace is what he has promised. This will require all stakes holders being involved in the peace process. Will the LTTE be amenable to that? Or, will a solution that the LTTE agrees to, be acceptable to his two main coalition allies, the JVP and the JHU?

He must be mindful of the fact that the people didn’t swallow his election manifesto hook, line and sinker. They have expressed cautious optimism by giving it only pass marks—a little over 50 per cent—not a credit or a distinction. The bigger the majorities, the cockier politicians tend to get, the people may have thought. They have conveyed a message. Let it be heeded if he is to avoid the pratfalls his predecessors had.