Lanka Citizen

For its defeat at the Presidential Election, the UNP has no one to blame but itself. It unwittingly engineered its own defeat by making a highly unnecessary move, which triggered a political avalanche. It all began with the UNP’s call for a presidential election at a time the electorate had taken it for granted that the next presidential election was due only in 2006.

President Kumaratunga’s popularity was on the wane and her actions were doing more harm than good to the UPFA government. The JVP had broken ranks with it over the controversial P-TOMS. President Kumaratunga stood accused of furthering her personal interests at the expense of her government through a deal with the LTTE. The government was becoming unpopular by the day (as evident from the erosion of its vote base in most of electorates and the increase in the UNP vote despite Ranil’s defeat at Thursday’s election).

The UNP should have allowed her to continue until next year. Either it was cocky that it could successfully face an early presidential poll or it may have thought that by stepping up pressure on the government to call a presidential election, instead it would be able to get a general election from a badgered CBK desperate to take a warring Opposition off her presidential back. This, some believe, was the card up Ranil’s sleeve, when he chose to foot it out from Devinuwara to Colombo through the tsunami hit southern littoral.

In politics, as in life, nothing is so certain as the unexpected. The JHU, which is adept at stealing others’ thunder–remember how it stole the show at the Donor Conference in Kandy and eclipsed the JVP in the protest against P-TOMS–made a master move. It took the battle for the presidential election to courts. And the rest is history.

Another mistake the UNP committed was to make Prime Minister Rajapakse the underdog in the race, by siding with President Kumaratunga who was slapping road blocks one after the other on his way. For the well organized and obviously well funded UNP propaganda blitz the state media still under President Kumaratunga’s control was no match. Propaganda, if it is to be effective, should be positive and subtle, but the UNP campaign was far from that. The outcome was that Mahinda projected himself as the victim of a conspiracy and a great deal of sympathy accrued to him as a result.

The most negative aspect of the UNP campaign was the attempt to drag religion into it. In these columns we have likened some propagandists to that legendary monkey which in good faith tried to kill a mosquito on a sleeping king and cut him to death in the process. Such tactics as were employed by the UNP propagandists were na`EFve and counterproductive. In a society where politics has attained the status of a major religion, simply because the clergy ask the people to vote for a particular party, they are not going to do so. If so, the JHU would have captured state power last year as all the candidates in the fray were Buddhist monks.

Moreover, the UNP, possibly due to the wrong advice, pinned its hopes on the northern vote–it was said to be looking at something like 450,000 votes–which it sought to gain by appeasing the LTTE. It didn’t realise that the LTTE’s claim of having over half a million votes at its disposal was highly bloated. True, the LTTE delivered 650,000 votes to its proxy, the TNA last year in the North and the East. But it did so through large scale rigging.

The heavy presence of polls observers from the EU, which is considering a total ban on the outfit made the LTTE wary of mass rigging. Had it supported Ranil openly and allowed the Tamil people to freely exercise their franchise, it would have exposed its real strength as well as the actual number of people living in areas under its control. That kind of exposure is detrimental to its interests. So, a polls boycott was the only option. It was not a matter of the LTTE not loving anyone or loving anyone less; it was a matter of the LTTE loving its cause more.

The UNP by wooing the Tigers, on the other hand, antagonized the Southern electorate, where the JVP through its Ali-Koti theory generated a massive protest vote to compensate for the loss of votes due to CBK pulling in a different direction.

In the end, Ranil failed to secure either the northern or the southern vote and fell between two stools. He should have heeded the saying: A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

The CWC and the SLMC may have delivered some votes but the UNP’s obsequiousness to them and the deals struck between them in a hurry alienated a vast number of voters in the south. And some of those failed kingmakers are now said to be trying to crown themselves by leaving Ranil and throwing in their lot with Mahinda.

Ranil is more a victim of a badly planned strategy than an individual loser. The UNP, thanks to its miscalculations and blunders, snatched defeat from the jaws of what might have been its victory. And the defeat has been debited to Ranil’s account. However unfortunate it may be, there is little he can do about it.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Political sources said that to gain the upper hand. The sources speculated that the UNP and an influential section of the ruling coalition discussed a power sharing arrangement in the event of a Wickremesinghe victory. This was part of the strategy to isolate Rajapakse and the JVP, the sources said. “They almost succeeded,” a well informed politician said claiming that the denying the state media to the incumbent Prime Minister was key to this plan. The threat of the dissolution of parliament, too, affected Rajapakse’s campaign, he said, claiming that the UNP expected Kumaratunga to jeopardise the premier’s chances at her last address to the nation which was not to be. The Island learns that at one point there was a move to prevent the deployment of polling agents to represent Rajapakse. “This would have facilitated the opponents’ strategy.”

UNP sources dismissed the notion that there would be a leadership change in the event of Wickremesinghe losing Thursday’s poll. Speculation is rife that there were two factions with one faction planning to have the imprisoned MP S.B.Dissanayake as its General Secretary. The other faction is believed to have chosen a former party strongman as its General Secretary.

courtesy The Island

JVP exposes UNP fabrication

[17th November,2005 - 11:00 S.L.T)

The JVP in a communiqué issued with the signature of its Information Secretary Mr. Wimal Weerawansa has announced that the news item carried by ‘Hiru FM’ radio, a few other radio channels and web sites sympathetic to the UNP and Thinakkural and Weerakesari newspapers stating that its leader Mr. Somawansha Amarasinghe had left the country is a total fabrication.

The fabricators had even used a false flight number to confirm their falsehood. The communiqué emphasizes that none of the leading members of the JVP had left the country but are actively engaged in the victorious campaign of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse.

The JVP has called upon the voters of this country not to be mislead by the falsehoods spread by a gang of media men of the UNP made delirious by the inevitable defeat of their party candidate, but to rally to make Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse’s victory a decisive one.

courtesy Lankatruth

this fabricated news about Somawansa Amarasinghe leaving the country was published by the the official UNP website as well.
(Ed- LC)

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by Nalin Swaris

After he was baptized, the Gospels tells us, Jesus was “led by the Spirit out into the desert to be put to the test by the devil”. Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights. He was spiritually strengthened but physically weak. It was when the pangs of hunger were most acute that the devil came to him. Knowing that Jesus had become spiritually powerful Satan told him: “If you are the Son of God command these stones to turn into bread” But Jesus told Satan: “Human beings do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”. Satan then took Jesus to the holy city and set him on the parapet of the Temple and asked him to throw himself down in the full view of assembled devotees to test the literal truth of a Jewish religious text that God would send his angels to rescue him. Jesus replied “Do not put the Lord thy God to the test”. Thereafter Satan took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour and promised all that would be his, if he fell down at Satan’s feet and worshipped him”. Jesus replied quoting the scriptures, that “one must do homage and serve one’s Lord and God alone”. Having exhausted his wiles Satan left Jesus, Matthew tells us, but Luke adds “to seek another opportune moment”.

The Perils of Leadership
The narrative of Jesus being taken from place to place by the devil must not be taken literally. They are symbolic of the subtle meanderings of the mind which conjure up fantasies of power and grandeur to entice and ensnare men or women called by divine or human election to be leaders of their fellows. Leaders could mislead their ignorant and helpless people. The people fall into the snares of leaders, religious and political whose external show of wealth power and glory make them fall down in adoration before these princes of this world. Leaders pretend they can provide instant solution to a people’s problems not just by turning stones into bread but into rich cake. An empty magic show is presented as a miraculous performance. The new Magi come bearing their fake myrrh for socially created ills. The new Magi obscure with frankincense smoke the worship of the Golden Calf. The Hidden God of the New Israel Marx observed is Capital. Soren Kierkegaard the Danish existential theologian denouncing the ease with which the once feudal Christian Churches had come to terms with the capitalist order of things called the new Christianity “bourgeois religion”. Thrown back to the most primitive form of religion - totemism - people believe that their fates are ruled not by powerful human actors but by mythic Bulls and Bears. The Stock Exchange is the new Temple where blessing are bestowed and curses rained down.

The World is on Fire
Karl Marx used a metaphor of primitive religiosity when he described a culture where everything, earth, wind, water and fire and all beings - a man’ skills or a woman’s sensuality are reduced to their vendibility and can be interchanged in terms of their monetary value, as “The Fetishism of Commodities”. Six century centuries ago at the very dawn of mercantilist culture in North East India the Buddha raised alarm: “The World is on Fire – ablaze with what? Ablaze with the fire of Craving – the Eye is burning, the Ear is burning, the Nose is burning, the Touch is burning, the Mind is burning. Burning. Burning!”. The Ad industry inflames the senses by creating artificial fears and desires. Instant fixes for synthetic wants. The religious reflex of this materialist culture is the quick fix and instant prosperity offered by right wing neo Evangelicals whose global leader is George W. Bush. The Buddha used a most appropriate metaphor for Craving - Fire. Fire is the only one of the four elements that can sustain itself by consuming everything it touches. Deny it fuel and it dies. Nibbana like the Sinhala ‘nivanna’, means ‘putting out - the Flame of Craving. The prophet of neo liberal economics Francis Fukuyama, a ‘secular’ theologian, sees the End of History – as the time when Globalisation will be all in all and the ‘Last Man’ will be satiated by “an immense accumulation of commodities - a consumer Paradise. It is interesting that the goal of neo liberal free market economics is projected as the triumph of the ethos of consumerism – a condition in which humans exist to consume - bringing forth a new type of human being whose “gods” as St. Paul decried, “are their bellies”. The Free market socio economic system conspires to triumph not by military or economic compulsion alone. It must create A New Human Being – with a new personality structure. The aim of the new globalizing culture is to create an unthinking, conforming human being who will succumb uncritically to norms values and tastes dictated by the mass media. It seeks to subvert indigenous cultures and break the ability to resist, to create a mindless one dimensional human being.
The Free Market is a secular religious myth which calls for an act of faith. It does not exist anywhere on this planet. All continental European economies are rationally regulated economies. When born-again Buddhist Ranil W., speaks of his special relationship with born-again Christian George W., he is doing so at a time when George Bush’s credit even in his own country is fast declining. When Wickremesinghe says he will speak to ‘Bush mahattaya’ and get the textile quota restored he belies the very first article of his real faith. For what sort of ‘free market’ is it where poor nations of this world have to beg for quotas to export their textiles? Under such a dispensation even the most pretentious local textile magnate lives a precariously dependent existence. They are, as Marx put it “existences with licences”.

Free Market or Fair Markets?
George W. Bush ran into stormy weather - as if it were the lashings of hurricane Beta - when he tried to tout his idea of a Pan American Free Trade Zone (FTAA) to Latin American Heads of State a fortnight ago. Unlike Mr.Wickremesinghe and his ‘Heritage’man Milinda Pinto Moragoda or his then Minister of Commerce, the Latin American Heads of State refused to behave like well domesticated poodles. Cut the crap they in effect told Bush effect and stop asking us to open up our markets while you protect yours. He arrived in Buenos Aires with more than 2000 US agents, and a free market Plan. He was forced to leave with his tail between his legs. As tens of thousands protested outside against the Bushmania of free market economics, the tone for the fiery debate on the FTAA was set by the host of the summit President Kirchner of Argentina. He fearlessly declared opposition to international financial institutions, the Washington Consensus, the idea of privatization and the free market as a panacea, of agricultural subsidies for the farmers of USA and protectionism of US industries through quotas, and the proposed FTAA: “Simply signing an agreement will not lead to an easy and direct road to prosperity”, he said, adding that the US, with its “role as first global power”, needed to consider its policies towards the region as they “not only provoke misery and poverty, but also add to institutional instability”. Kirchner finished by saying “our poor, our excluded, our countries, no longer accept that we have to keep talking in a low voice”. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez applauded Kirchner, saying, “It was a valiant speech. He is inviting us to say things openly.” Chavez and Kirchner, along with Uruguayan president Tabare Vasquez and Brazilian president Luis Inacio “Lula” da Silva, formed the counter-bloc to the US’s attempts to push forward talks on the FTAA in its current form. All these leaders knew how WB-IMF policies imposed on them using military dictatorships had brought their countries to bankruptcy and spawned immense misery among the masses Venezuela’s President Chavez was the main speaker at the 40,000-strong rally in the Buenos Aires football stadium on November 5. On the stage together with other radical celebrities was Hebe Bonafini the working class leader of the Mothers of the Disappeared Movement in Argentina (whom I have had the privilege of meeting in Amsterdam) . Chavez told the wildly cheering crowds: “FTAA has been defeated by the peoples of this continent, and today, in Mar de Plata, it is time to bury the FTAA. The next thing we will bury is capitalism.” Diego Maradona in clear homage to his absent hero Fidel Castro reflected the mood of the people when he said, while embracing Chavez, “Argentina has its dignity! Let’s throw Bush out of here!”

In a poll carried out by Public Opinion, Markets and Services (OPSM), 75% of Argentines showed sympathy for Chavez. The poll also recorded that six out of 10 Argentines were against or strongly against the presence of Bush in Argentina.

Nicodemus by Night
Today the oxygen of critical thought has been sucked up by a mafia of neo-liberal intellectuals and hustlers who are acting as the hired agents of the West and using their immense resources to promote a basically anti-national agenda. The insidious plan to further this end is to promote the cause of a separate state controlled by the One Party Dictatorship of the LTTE - under the guise of federalism and to plunge this country into multi polar violence inviting Western punishment and intervention. Hence their constant intimidation that if one does not capitulate to the LTTE despite its blood drenched path of killings, ethnic cleansings, political assassinations, abductions for ransom, abductions of children to be transformed into socio-pathic killers, there will be war and that those who oppose the LTTE will have to bear responsibility for it, As if foreign funding is not enough the wealth of the slick local corporate sector is also being poured into to ensure the defeat of Mahinda Rajapakse.

Jesus declared that he came to proclaim Good News to the poor and the oppressed. In the Gospel of Luke we read that a rich man named Nicodemus, drawn to Jesus’ message but too embarrassed to be seen with him by day in the company of the poor, came at night to seek instruction from him. The message of Jesus was that there can be no lasting peace without social justice. In a perverse bouleversement of Jesus’ declaration: “You cannot serve God and Mammon”, American dollar bills carry the logo “In God We Trust”. The new religion has successfully cloned God and Mammon. Today Nicodemuses and the representatives of Jesus and the Buddha relish in each others’ company by day and by night and jealously guard their common interests.

It is extremely saddening that a message of the Archbishop of Colombo with a photograph of his Lordhip was lent for a full page Ad with the incendiary title “Christians Awake!”. It also carried a self promoting photo of the business tycoon – who paid for the AD - contemporary Sri Lanka’s most highly profile convert from Buddhism to Roman Catholicism. The Ad implicitly urges Christians to ready themselves for a New Crusade to defend their sacred rights in case Mahinda Rajapakse and his supporters win the elections.

A victory for Mahinda Rajapakse will not resolve all our problems. But it will open a new space for looking afresh at our national malaise. Whoever wins we cannot leave our lives in the hands of politicians. An independent and vigilant citizenry is indispensable to ensure they fulfill the promises they make. Globalisation is not an eternal ‘yatharthaya’ as tuition master Bandula Gunawardene would have us believe. “It is a monster, but a dying monster”, says reknowned Chilean economist Dr. Manfred Max Neef winner of the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize. What became of Latin America countries yesterday can be our lot tomorrow, if we choose politicians subservient to the West and are tantalised by the globalizing and soul destroying American consumerist culture. Man does not live by bread alone. There are values in life that are more precious than monetary value.

courtesy The Island

Ranil not trustworthy - Rajiv

by Rajiva Wijesinha

Liberal Party President Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha speaks to Sunday Observer staffer Ranga Jayasuriya on why Liberals disagree with UNP policies on the economic and ethnic fronts.

Question: The Prime Minister is leading a broad electoral alliance which consists of groups and individuals representing different political ideologies. Don’t you think that this would one day lead to inner contradictions within his alliance, if he is elected?

Answer: Not at all. The whole point of a coalition government in any country is to work on areas where you can work together and try to compromise on areas where you don’t agree and obviously not to take radical measures, where you remain to disagree. And from the way the manifesto is formed, I think it is clear that this can be done.

Another point is the manifesto is drafted by Nivad Cabraal, who we know is quite a liberal on economy.

If you look at the manifesto, where there are certain commitments on non-privatization of public ventures, which we would quite like to be considered, but i think that is an area where compromise is acceptable.

Q: What are Liberals chances of being heard in a future Rajapakse Adminstration, given the fact that Rajapakse got some radical parties like the JVP and the JHU in his electoral alliance?

A: We don’t bargain, our principle is that when we support someone, and when there is limited choice, we go for the one who is better.

To bargain we do not have an electorate, and we have always adopted a principle which, I think the JHU did this time as well, that is if there is a choice between two people and one is better than the other you have to support him. And in a globalized world , I think the liberal party could be significant.

Q: Mr Rajapakse has rejected federalism in favour of the Unitary state. Liberal’s position?

A: I don’t think it is, particularly an important point. The important point here is devolution. Its form is irrelevant.I think we agree on devolution and specially, devolution of power to the most important unit, citizen. I don’t know wether this is done partly after discussions with us.

That is basically the principle we have always advocated which is the basis of devolution which is subsidiary.

There can be three forms of devolution.

One is the devolution with regard to the national policy at the Centre. The second is with regard to regulations and decision making on issues at smaller units. We need to have smaller units which are empowered. The third is the day to day administration of routine matters where decisions have to be made and problems have to be solved at a very smaller unit. Our Provincial Council is probably the best for that.

And whatever structure we will have, whether it is federal, unitary, you must have certain powers attached to the central government, for example defence, currency, international agreement. You must make sure that regions are represented in the centre. One of our tragedies is that for many years no representatives from the Northern or Eastern provinces or the Badulla District has occupied a senior decision making position.

What we really need is something akin to be the Upper House system, where there is a greater weightage for more rural areas.

Q: If Rajapakse rejects federalism, doesn’t it amount to a future government backtracking its predecessor’s commitment to the Oslo and Tokyo declarations?

A: As far as we can see, we had a situation where two people decided on the two ends of the line and the government moved almost to the other end of the line to appease the LTTE. That was clear not only through the SHIRAN structure, and also through the ISGA offered by Ranil, which he claimed to be the starting point, hinting that he is prepared to go further.

Mahinda’s point is that he is prepared to discuss anything, but that has to be started at either end and move towards the middle.

We really have to assume not that he is refusing to negotiate, but he is saying we have to start from positions where we negotiate on equal terms.

Q: The UNP is considered as a better representative of liberal ideas in Sri Lanka than the SLFP…?.

A: I think that is a false idea. Liberalism has a basic assumption that the private sector is the engine of growth and freedom and as much as possible has to be allowed for economic activity by citizens. But unlike libertarianism, which says the State should do nothing except providing security, liberals have a very strong role for the State, even in the economy, but a small one, for instance the vital factors where the state involvement is essential, things like ensuring a level playing field, ensuring competition ensuring that all citizens can participate in the freedom that government gives you.

Unfortunately Ranil’s own philosophy, I think has been libertarian rather than liberal. Ranil says “I am concentrating on economy, if economy grows everything will be taken care of itself”. That is not always true.

Liberals’ point of view is that you follow the idea of economic growth, you make sure that true private activities causes it to grow , but you adopt a state policy which ensures that the weakest do not suffer.

The way this is worked out in practice is that state intervention is designed to facilitate not to subsidise, because by facilitating, you strengthen the weakest, you have to target and support the worst off and you have to empower them. Amongst the most important aspects in a liberal philosophy are things like education and infrastructure development in the areas which don’t have it.

It is useless to say let the investor decide where he invests, because then all will invest in the western province.

Another thing which convinced us that the man (Ranil) could not be trusted was that the very clear declaration that democracy might not be suitable. There he advocated South Korea under a military dictatorship or Vietnam as a communist country as model states. Liberals are not going to do that. I don’t know why people assume Ranil as liberal.

I am worried, a libertarian can easily move towards authoritarianism.

Q: You earlier said you were one who voted for Ranil last time in good faith, but now regretted the decision. Don’t you think that there are some salient achievements of the Wickremesinghe administration at least on the peace front?

A: No. At that stage anyone would have got it (ceasefire). It was absolutely clear at the end of 2001, the LTTE was in a very vulnerable position due to global feeling against any kind of terrorism in the back drop of the 9/11 attack .

The LTTE also had lost a lot of cadres and needed time for training and the third is the Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol unit, which inflicted heavy damage on the Tigers.

So the LTTE ceasefire was forced. And peace dividends should have been invested in the North- East, and the private sector should have been used to invest in the North-East. Instead of that, Ranil entrusted all the authority in the hands of Bradman Weerakon who proved totally incompetent. Anton Balasingham’s letter was a stunning indictment of total lack of humanitarian work, which is true.

Ranil effectively destroyed what I would call the effects of ceasefire in terms of winning hearts and minds.

The second point is under the guise of the Ceasefire, he allowed the Tigers to strengthen immeasurably. It was a boost to the LTTE.

Q: Liberal Party is more a think tank than a political party. So what kind of proposals do you have for Rajapakse.

A: I think we need to have strong constitutional reforms. we already have given proposals on two major areas: one is electoral reforms and the other on some of the principles involving devolution. If you are to have devolution, you should maximise the part of people. If there is democracy, one would be happier to give powers to the smaller unit. No one wants to give power to an authoritarian unselected regime.

We are also working on some proposals on education reforms and some aspects of regional development and issues dealing with minorities.

Q: How do you feel now, having interacted with the Prime Minister and put your party’s strength behind him?

A: I am happier with our choice now than when I first proposed to support him at our Executive Committee.

courtesy Sunday Observer

If our electorate chooses to elect an “Arthika” President over a “Jathika” president, as some advice them to, it will prove that we are a “jathiya” which gives priority to “bada” over “rata-jathiya”. The latter signifying what we value above and beyond the mere “bada wada genima.” A university Professor who takes his profession not simply as an “arthika” means to live a jolly good life but more as a vocation which proves to us that we humans are capable of seeing ourselves as more than “arthika” animals, would agree that a man without a strong sense of “jathiya” even if it is the idea of being an American rather than a Sri Lankan, would be lost to this world. It is clear that the founding fathers of the USA, a country which today has turned out to be the nation living more for its “bada-kata and enga,” the pleasures of eating drinking and merry-making rather than promoting the excellence of being human, would not have meant the Americans to place the “arthika” before “jathika”.

It is one thing to evaluate the merits and demerits of the policy agendas of the two presidential candidates, but it is an entirely different thing to suggest that we place our economic needs before those of our nation, or the collective or common life as Sri Lankans. We may not agree about what we consider the priorities of the nation and how we would like them to be resolved, but an ordinary peasant brought up in a Buddhsit culture could enlighten us that man does not live for “bada wada genima” but that we need to satisfy our “bada” in order to do the things we value more as human beings, to engage in a “pinak dahamak” activities that bring us merit.

Economics, as historians would tell us, does not make man excellent. But it is the common world we create that gives us a sense of continuity and stability. Giving priority to economics over politics, in Sri Lanka since 1977, has created a small elite of crony capitalists who are eager to make colossal profits at the expense of the larger masses as well as of the nation. One cannot expect good governance from a political leadership based on crony capitalists. Truly good governance can occur only if there is room for active participation of public in political life. Are our political party leaders willing to make room for the public? Then only we will have a “jathiya” which not only does not give priority to “bada wada genima” but also looks after the deprived sections of its community without selling off the “jathiya” for a few dollars.

It is only the strong sense of such a “jathiya” that will be able to restore to Sri Lankans a sense of a strong identity that will enable them to withstand the recurring Tsunamis unleashed by the globalized modernity.

We need to remind ourselves that human beings have excelled throughout history by being able to value freedom above the “arthika” aspect of mere existence.

Kusum Kumarage

courtesy The Island
http://www.island.lk/2005/11/12/opinion2.html

“At that time [1994] Sri Lanka was a killing field, the government was practising state terror against those who were their democratic opponents as well as some violent organisations. It was like a police state. Full stop. I think the biggest thing we did was that they were able to breathe freely under our regime, which means everything.

From an Interview with The Hindu – 07.11.2005

“According to Tamil sources, the LTTE may well be waiting for the emergence of a clear picture of the election scene in Sinhala-dominated South Sri Lanka. In case the gap between Wickremesinghe and Rajapaksa narrows, and the support of the Sri Lankan Tamils of the Northeast becomes critical for one or both of them, the LTTE may try and strike a deal. Votes could be traded for crucial concessions.

As one Tamil politician said, the LTTE may try to extract a promise that efforts will be made to get the European Union’s travel ban on it lifted. A promise to discuss its controversial proposal for an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) may also be pressed for.

But given the present delicate political situation, in which Sinhala nationalistic feelings are running high, neither Wickremesinghe nor Rajapaksa will dare to enter into any deal with the LTTE.”

P.K. Balachandran, Hindustan Times

Such racism [of Ranil] is inexcusable, even in a young man. It contrasts sadly with the response of his uncle, Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe, Chairman of the Civil Rights Movement, who was as critical of the abuses of the Jayewardene government, as he had been of those of the previous Bandaranaike government. In the days when now reawakened Christians like Lalith Kotelawala were silent, perhaps still making the money under Jayewardene’s new economic dispensation that they can now spend so freely, Lakshman Wickremesinghe was a voice of civilized pluralism.

Finally, we should note that he still continues with associates who are tainted by their activities during that time. Gone are Gonawala Sunil, and Kalu Lucky, who led the attack on the houses of Supreme Court judges, shortly after Ranil had signed the register at his wedding. Ranil is now more sophisticated, and he has instead Tilak Marapana, whom he made Minister of Defence, in preference to more able and experienced politicians.

UNDERSTANDING THE PAST
Prof.Rajiva Wijesinha

The papers this Sunday carried various advertisements featuring Lalith Kotelawala, designed evidently to stampede people into voting for Ranil Wickermesinghe at the forthcoming election. The most frightening contains of what seems to be a Tamil youth being tormented, beneath which, next to a smilingly cherubic Kotelawala, is the caption ‘Cast your vote wisely, so that we may not be dragged back to another monstrous war’.

Above the picture is the headline ‘Do those who sow the seeds of racism, wish to take us back to the past?’ The advertisement, along with one featuring a letter from the Archbishop of Colombo – which one hopes was not designed for the use to which Kotelawala has put it – has been placed by a ‘Society for Love and Understanding’.

Ironically, assuming understanding was really intended, the picture was taken during the July 1983 riots by Chandragupta Amarasinghe, who was working at the time for the ‘Aththa’ newspaper. The ‘Aththa’ was in the forefront then of exposing what the government was up to – which led to it being banned when, a week after the riots, the government accused the Communist Party, Vasudeva Nanayakkara’s NLSSP and the JVP of being responsible and proscribed them.

The irony of this was that previously, in his speech on television on July 28th, J R had declared that the riots had occurred because the Sinhalese had been persecuted beyond endurance. Jayewardene’s response therefore to the sufferings of Tamils was that he had been too soft on separatists, so he would now take measures to proscribe any parties that advocated separatism.

However, perhaps because of the further rioting that broke out the next day, the horror expressed internationally, and wiser counsel amongst those of his cabinet who were not associated with Cyril Mathew, the following week the government changed tack. Now, though not actually condemning the riots that their leader had attributed to patriots previously, they attributed them to leftist parties. Though later the proscription on the CP and the NLSSP was lifted, the JVP remained underground. They had evaded arrest, as had Vasudeva, understandably given that twice running prisoners had been massacred in jail. Thus the involvement of the JVP in the democratic process, which they had adhered to since J R released them from prison in 1977, was halted.

Further ironies abound. In those days Ranil Wickremesinghe, whose cause Kotelawala seems to be espousing so anxiously, showed by his pronouncements that he was still on Mathew’s wavelength. Wiser heads such as Premadasa and Athulathmudali had by now rejected the chauvinist approach. However, in an interview given to the ‘Daily News’ in early August, Ranil declared that what had happened in July 1983 to the Tamils was not so bad as what Sinhalese had suffered previously due to the policies of the Bandaranaikes. To quote from the article – ‘The governments of the Bandaranaikes aimed at the areas where Sinhala entrepreneurs operated. During the second and third Bandaranaike regimes, when manufacturing industries were encouraged, the bulk of the licences except for a few exceptions went to non-Sinhala ventures. Compensation was not paid to Sinhala ventures that were nationalised. To make matters worse a capital levy was imposed as was a ceiling on incomes. Enterprising Sinhala entrepreneurs like Upai Wijewardene and Buddy Wettasinghe went abroad to make their mark and returned only after the current UNP government assumed office.’

‘Mr Wickremesinghe opined that the tragedy that had now struck the non-Sinhala trader due to the machinations of an extreme political party as a result of their factories and business places being burnt down, was nothing compared to the tragedy imposed on the Sinhala entrepreneur by the Bandaranaikes since 1956. With capital being provided and know-how and expertise being available, the destroyed establishments could soon recover. The Sinhala businessman was stripped of his wealth, not paid any compensation and was sometimes driven to suicide and insanity.’

Such racism is inexcusable, even in a young man. It contrasts sadly with the response of his uncle, Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe, Chairman of the Civil Rights Movement, who was as critical of the abuses of the Jayewardene government, as he had been of those of the previous Bandaranaike government. In the days when now reawakened Christians like Lalith Kotelawala were silent, perhaps still making the money under Jayewardene’s new economic dispensation that they can now spend so freely, Lakshman Wickremesinghe was a voice of civilized pluralism.

In his last pastoral address, he deals also with the issues raised by Ranil, and provides a rebuttal of the excuses that had been proferred for the attacks on Tamils. He criticizes those who thought ‘that the enforced departure of indigenous Tamils from the professions, government services, universities and schools and of Tamils of Indian origin from retail trade and other occupations in South Sri Lanka was justified…. Because they feel that the undue advantage which the indigenous Tamils had in relation to the percentage of the population, and which the Tamils of Indian origin had in the internal trade, especially within the Sinhala areas, were not justified, they are not willing to condemn the methods adopted to get rid of them.’

Bishop Wickremesinghe’s conclusions were firm and forceful – ‘The arguments that have been stated so far point to one basic moral fact. It is that the massive retaliation mainly by the Sinhalese against defenceless Tamils in July 1983 cannot be justified on moral grounds. We must admit this and acknowledge our shame.’

Ranil Wickremesinghe, though Lakshman’s nephew, was incapable of acknowleding error, but rather played down the enormity of what had happened. Of course it is conceivable that he has changed, but Kotelawala’s advertisement, in bringing back the past, without looking at the realities of that past, forces us to think about how history could repeat itself.

And it makes one wonder about the moral perspectives of someone who, well into his thirties, could adopt the Cyril Mathew perspective. It would suggest that Ranil’s acquiescence in Tiger excesses during his Premiership also arose from joining a bandwagon. This does not bode well for the future, given also his recent somersault into populism after the doctrinaire disciplinarianism of his fiscal policies during his last period of government.

Finally, we should note that he still continues with associates who are tainted by their activities during that time. Gone are Gonawala Sunil, and Kalu Lucky, who led the attack on the houses of Supreme Court judges, shortly after Ranil had signed the register at his wedding. Ranil is now more sophisticated, and he has instead Tilak Marapana, whom he made Minister of Defence, in preference to more able and experienced politicians.

It was Marapana who served the government when they were covering up the massacre of Tamils in Welikada on July 25th and also on July 27th. To cite from the article by Rajan Hoole on the event, which is measured but damning -

‘in came Mervyn Wijesinghe, Secretary, Justice, with Mr Tilak Marapone, Deputy Solicitor General, and Mr C R de Silva, Senior State Counc\sel, ‘offering their assistance to this court’. As recorded by Wijewardene. It was hardly the kind of assistance to be rejected. We know how they led the evidence. Why were the counsels who were representing the victims and survivors not called?…..

An incident during the inquest, which began in the evening and lasted through the night until the 27th morning, is revealing. The AJMO, Dr Salgado’s assistant, a Tamil, Dr Balachandra, was taking photographs of the bodies during the post-mortem examinations as was normal. There was alarm among the minor staff that a Tamil was taking photographs for use as propaganda. A jail guard came in alarm and informed DSG Tilak Marapone about it. Marapone telephoned Dr Salgado from the prison to find out what was going on. Salgado assured him that the camera and the film were his, and it was he who had asked Balachandra to photograph the bodies. The proper thing was for Marapone to have informed the Presiding Magistrate if he thought something objectionable was going on. Such overbearing conduct by the Attorney General’s department to the cost of the judiciary is now endemic to our system…..

The Magistrate conducting the inquest should normally have handed over the bodies to the next of kin. That had become awkward or difficult. At this point Detectvie Superintendent Hyde Silva applied for possession of the bodies for disposal under Section 15A of the Gazette Extraordinary of 18th July 1983; Deputy Solicitor General Mr Marapone, presumably representing the Attorney General, said that he had no objection to the request. Magistrate Wijewardene perused the Gazette and agreed that it should be allowed in law. The relevant section, however reserves such authorization for Secretary, Defence, and not the Attorney General…..

The flames from the pyre leapt up against the glimmering dawn, as the dead were turned to ashes. However, unknown to the army officer, those above him, and the highest in authority, the ghosts of these victims were to haunt this land for a generation and more, denying it any prospect of peace.’

Lalith Kotelawala was conspicuously silent in the eighties when the seeds of racism were sown, and watered so assiduously by government action and inaction, at a time when a true Christian like Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe gave up his life for democracy and pluralism. It is to be hoped that Bishop Oswald Gomis will remember his great Christian predecessors, and not allow his name to be taken in vain by those who would pervert the past for their own ends.

courtesy Lanka Academic Network.

Political events in Sri Lanka are meanwhile overtaking the international peace initiative. Inevitably, there are varying opinions as to which of the two candidates will win November’s election. But it is quite clear that in any case, Sinhala ultra-nationalists have become a powerful political force that, as we have argued before, both Sri Lanka’s minorities and the international community will be compelled to confront them on the road to peace. The battle lines can already be discerned. The Co-Chairs have reiterated their commitment to a federal solution to end Sri Lanka’s protracted conflict. But Mahinda Rajapakse’s campaign hinges on his opposition to any ‘division of the country.’ Whereas to the international community and the island’s minorities, federalism is not division, to the Sinhala ultra-nationalists bearing him aloft, it most certainly is. Even if Ranil Wickremesinghe wins – an increasingly unlikely proposition – the Sinhala nationalists will yet undermine the peace process. The ignominious fate of the Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS) is likely to befall every advance in the peace process.

The international community has played an unwitting role in the ascendancy of the Sinhala nationalist forces in Sri Lanka. There is no compelling reason for these extremists to heed international sentiment, even when in power. In the recent past, donors have unilaterally and collectively breached the aid conditionality they themselves imposed. And whereas little aid has reached the hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the Northeast, the south continues to benefit substantially, not only from aid flows but indirect benefits such as investment flows. In other words, with their political constituency reaping the substantial benefits of peace already, why should Sinhala leaders compromise on the ethnic question?

This week the hardline monks of the JHU – now reversing the argument the Tigers have been expanding their military during the ceasefire – declared that southern leaders are over-estimating the potency of the LTTE. A new war could be won in short order they argue. The Tamils – and we suggest the international community, too – should brace themselves. It is inevitable that Sri Lanka will attempt a military solution again.

Editorial, Tamil Guardian, Sep 21 2005

http://www.tamilguardian.com/beta/news_details.asp?newsid=234