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Editorial

Pay, perks and the National List

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The ninth Parliament was formally opened by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday and all but handful of the 225 new MPs have now taken their oaths. The UNP remains divided about who will take its single slot. Veteran senior John Amaratunga has staked a claim while others believe that the position should be reserved for the yet-to-be-appointed new leader. There is a very public tussle going on for the prize between two well known Buddhist monks of the Apey Janabala Pakshaya (Our People’s Force Party) with a third layman lurking on the wings. The party’s secretary who had nominated himself for the place has disappeared and is not to be found. Social media was abuzz a few days ago with a Youtube recording of this monk alleging that he was running away from a kind of thuggery that would have done the underworld proud. Where the saga will end remains to be seen. A couple of other newly elected MPs, including one with a High Court death sentence hanging over him, were ‘no shows’ but one new MP arrived with a prison escort from jail where he is remanded on a murder charge. As a party leader, Pillayan as he was known in his LTTE days, made a speech congratulating the new speaker. He said he was able to be present for the inaugural session in the face of great difficulties. He had learned that the process would have to be repeated every single time for him to attend future sessions and he wanted the speaker to protect his privileges.

Readers may recollect a previous occasion when the secretary of a left wing political formation nominated himself for the single national list position won by his group. This group, comprising remnants of the old left wiped out by JRJ’s 1977 landslide, had unanimously agreed that the highly respected and accomplished Dr. Colvin. R. de Silva should take the slot. But he was terminally ill at the time and could not take his oaths. Colvin’s passing left the place vacant for several months before the party secretary of the day nominated himself for the vacancy. This is the way the game is played in what is formally proclaimed as the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. We have set out this background in the context of the reality that membership of Parliament confers on both the elected and unelected MPs pay, perks and benefits of a sort that is clearly unaffordable in a country like ours. That, plus the illegitimate earnings easily possible, obviously attracts undesirables. Older readers might remember a cartoon by W.R. Wijesoma at the time the Sirima Bandaranaike government hosted the Non-Aligned Conference in Colombo in 1976. A group of visiting delegates were depicted at the entrance of their posh hotel watching the opulent limousines drawing up under the porch; one tell the other: “It’s hard to believe that this is a poor developing country.” That applies also to benefits heaped on our legislators forgetting what is made on the ‘fringe.’

Now that the government is committed to abolishing 19A and drafting a new constitution including changing the system of elections, the time is right for seriously considering whether we need as many as 25 National List MPs in our 225-member legislature. Time was when our Parliament had 101 members, 95 elected and six appointed to “represent unrepresented interests.” These included the (disgracefully) disenfranchised plantation Tamils, Burghers, Malays and the then remaining British interests in the country. Both Mr. S. Thondaman (Snr.) of the Ceylon Workers Congress and his bete noir, Abdul Azeez of the Democratic Workers Congress held these positions depending on who formed the government. But today’s 25-strong National List is absolutely unconscionable. It was stated that its purpose was to bring persons of repute and ability to Parliament but we can offhand think of only the late Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar who filled that bill. After the 2015 general election President Sirisena appointed a clutch of defeated MPs on the National List. He attempted to justify those appointments claiming that the SLFP from which party he defected, despite fielding them as candidates, had worked hard to ensure their defeat. What is galling about the National List is that it confers patronage opportunities to party leaders who did themselves no credit in choosing many of the candidates run by both sides at the last election.

There is a public demand that at least this time round, the powers-that-be dispense with the practice of distributing duty free vehicle permits to legislators. It is too early yet for any public pronouncement on this subject to made by those who matter right now. Given the size of the mandate and the flush of victory still on their faces, making enemies of your parliamentarians by making unpopular pronouncements makes no sense whatever. But that decision must be taken when the time is right. Doing the right thing entails many pitfalls, as President Premadasa learned when the impeachment motion hit him. That was a time hew set bloodhound on MPs selling their duty free vehicles on ‘open’ papers. Given the kind of customs duty charged on imported vehicles, we do not need to labour over what these permits are worth. The people are very well aware of the kind of bucks that have been made hawking them. Apart from legislators, various others ranging from higher level public servants, university teachers, government doctors and many more benefit from this confetti thrown around with gay abandon for a very long time regardless of the hardships ordinary people suffer on a daily basis. The inevitable covid virus-related economic downturn is yet to hit the nation’s solar plexus as hard as it will. When that time comes, it will present an opportunity for our leaders to demonstrate their caliber by themselves making the sacrifices they will ask of those who voted them into office.

 

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Editorial

Gesture of solidarity

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Thursday 25th February, 2021

Nothing could be more reassuring and uplifting in times of trouble than a true friend’s presence. Sri Lanka has only a few generous, altruistic friends, and Pakistan certainly is prominent among them. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit, albeit brief, could not have come at a better time for Sri Lanka, a badger facing a pack of growling mastiffs in Geneva; what it needs most at this juncture is moral support.

Many are the nations that have proffered loads and loads of unsolicited advice to Sri Lanka on how to protect democracy and human rights. But none of them helped remove the scourge of terror, the gravest threat to democracy and humankind. Pakistan stood unwaveringly behind Sri Lanka during the latter’s war on terror and helped the latter in numerous ways. It was the multi-barrel rocket launchers Pakistan rushed here in the aftermath of the fall of Elephant Pass garrison, in 2000, that enabled the Army put the brakes on the ‘unceasing wave’ of the LTTE. Otherwise, the Tigers would have laid siege to Jaffna with ease, forcing the Army to withdraw its troops. (Some countries even offered ships for ferrying soldiers to Colombo!) Today, Sri Lanka is free from political assassinations, massacres, child conscription, etc., as LTTE terrorism has been neutralised. If it had given in to pressure from the Western bloc and spared the LTTE’s military muscle, thousands of lives would have been destroyed during the last 12 years or so.

There were calls, in some quarters, for PM Khan to take up the issue of ‘forced burials’ with Colombo. They were obviously aimed at creating a media feeding frenzy and thereby giving the anti-Sri Lankan campaign in Geneva a boost. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have their own way of sorting out problems; never do they resort to megaphone diplomacy. But, the fact remains that mandatory burials have hurt the Muslim community beyond measure mostly because those who die of COVID-19 are allowed to be buried in other countries including those notorious for their antipathy towards Muslims. Some prominent Sri Lankan medical experts are of the view that the burial of pandemic victims should be permitted, provided the health regulations in place to prevent the spread of the pandemic are strictly followed. Prime Minster Mahinda Rajapaksa, as a sensible leader, must have gone by expert opinion including that of the Sri Lanka Medical Association, when he said in Parliament recently that the burial of COVID-19 victims would become an option. Sadly, he was overruled.

It is significant that the Head of State of a prominent Islamic nation has been to Sri Lanka while the pro-LTTE groups are exerting a considerable pull on a section of the Muslims community who courageously stood up to LTTE terror and thwarted Prabhakaran’s efforts to extend his control over the Eastern Province. Some of the Muslims who became the target of a hate campaign following the Easter Sunday carnage have joined forces with the pro-LTTE political groups masquerading as crusaders for democracy, in the Eastern Province, which is of pivotal importance to the countries that seek to counter increasing Chinese presence here. This is something Sri Lanka and its Islamic allies such as Pakistan should take cognizance of.

Meanwhile, there are many areas where Sri Lanka and Pakistan can partner to realise their full potentials as developing nations. Besides trade, commerce and investment, they can concentrate more on agriculture, construction, science and technology, education, medicine, tourism, etc. PM Khan’s ‘Global Initiative on Debt Relief’ is something that Sri Lanka, as well as other nations in the Global South, should fully support.

There are some issues that Sri Lanka and Pakistan should address jointly. One of them is the narcotic trade, which has affected both countries badly. Drug cartels have established a supply route via Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which has become a narcotic transit point of sorts.

It is a pity that the Sri Lankan Parliament did not have the honour of being addressed by PM Khan, a brilliant orator and trusted friend.

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Editorial

Should SL follow UK?

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Wednesday 24th February, 2021

The Gash reports are in the news again. They are the diplomatic dispatches filed by Lt. Col. Anthony Gash, who was the Defence Attache of the British High Commission, Colombo, on the final stages of Sri Lanka’s war on terror. The UK, which leads the Sri Lanka Core Group in Geneva, has suppressed the Gash reports, whose revelations run counter to the claims, on which the war crimes resolution against Sri Lanka is based.

Surprisingly, Sri Lanka has not done enough to bring the Gash reports to the notice of the UNHRC. One should not be so naïve as to believe that facts will make either the so-called Core Group or UNHRC chief Michelle Bachelet change their minds. Their agenda is determined by the US, which uses human rights as a bludgeon to beat the nations that refuse to do its bidding. But placing the Gash reports before the UNHRC will help unmask the Core Group members and the US.

The UK is not alone in suppressing facts. The US, too, has chosen to ignore the facts that Lt. Col. Lawrence Smith, who was its Defence Attache in Colombo, during the final phases of the Vanni war, placed before an audience at an international defence seminar in Colombo in 2011; he disputed the claim that the Sri Lankan military had committed war crimes. He would not have said so without evidence to support his claim.

Old habits die hard. The UK and the US have a history of falsifying reports to suit their geo-strategic interests. They produced fake intelligence dossiers to justify the invasion of Iraq although the British intelligence had found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction in that country. They have adopted the same method in their war crimes campaign against Sri Lanka. Gash has said not more than 7,000 persons, including LTTE combatants, died in the war zone between 01 January and 18 May 2009. This number is in sharp contrast to the claim by the then UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s Panel of Experts that more than 40,000 people perished during the final phase of the war. None of the UN experts were here during the war, unlike Gash and Lawrence, but the UK and the US have chosen to ignore facts their military experts have furnished. Why should the UK and the US have defence attaches at all in their foreign missions if they do not take their military experts’ views seriously?

What Lord Naseby managed to secure in the UK was a redacted version of the Gash reports. The UK has got redacting reports related to wars down to a fine art. In 2016, it released the Chilcot report on the Iraqi war. What observers have found interesting about that inquiry is it took longer to conclude than the war. What was released after a protracted delay was a heavily redacted version of the report, but it contains enough evidence to prove that the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair, together with US President at that time George W. Bush waged an illegal war and, therefore, were responsible for war crimes.

Having taken upon itself the burden of protecting human rights and ensuring that crimes do not go unpunished in the developing world, the UK should set an example. Before levelling war crimes allegations against others and calling for action thereon, shouldn’t it bring Blair to justice for invading Iraq and causing deaths of millions of civilians, including more than 500,000 children, in an illegal war for oil?

Anything Westminster goes here. It is the considered opinion of the defenders of democracy that Sri Lanka should emulate the UK in protecting human rights. What if Sri Lanka takes a leaf out of the UK’s book in handling alleged war crimes? In November 2020, the British Parliament passed a bill to prevent ‘vexatious’ prosecutions of military personnel and veterans over war crimes allegations. This law seeks to grant the British military personnel, who have committed war crimes, an amnesty to all intents and purposes. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has ascertained evidence of a pattern of war crimes perpetrated by British soldiers against Iraqi detainees, some of whom were even raped and beaten to death. Curiously, the ICC said in December 2020, it would not take action against the perpetrators! Too big to be caught?

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Editorial

The rape of forests: Govt. in the dock

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Tuesday 23rd February, 2021

The government has apparently achieved what it set out to when it issued a gazette removing the peripheral forests from the purview of the Forest Department and placed them under the Divisional and District Secretariats, purportedly to promote traditional agriculture. Its supporters are encroaching on thousands of acres of forest land with absolute impunity. Nobody takes gazettes seriously, and the government is also not keen to deal with noncompliance; the declarations of maximum retail prices, and minimum purchasing prices are a case in point. They are flouted blatantly. But the gazette pertaining to the peripheral forests took effect immediately! Such is the high-octane performance on the part of the government when it wants to help its supporters.

We have argued, in this column, previously that the government entrusted the District and Divisional secretariats with the task of looking after parts of forests because administrators are scared of ruling party politicians and do the latter’s bidding. We reported, the other day, that a Divisional Secretary had accompanied a group of government supporters who grabbed land in the Somawathiya National Park. The public service is full of such servile officers, and what is in store for the country’s forests is not difficult to imagine.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, speaking at a Gama Samaga Pilisandarak event, last Saturday, faulted the Forest Department, the Wildlife Department, the environmental authorities and others for being involved in a tug of war, which, he said, had rendered the public confused and helpless. True, these institutions work in silos, and not all their personnel are honest and conscientious, but the real problem is not their rivalries; it is that public administrators are helping the ruling party backers grab forest land, and the government is doing nothing about it. If the government is really desirous of ensuring coordination among the state outfits responsible for protecting the environment, it should bring all of them under one umbrella, vest them with more powers and give teeth to the existing laws.

There are some sand deposits inside the Somawathiya sanctuary, according to environmentalists, and what prevents government politicians and their associates from exploiting them is the absence of a road. This is why some ruling party worthies are trying to pressure the Wildlife Department to permit cattle grazing inside the national park. When cattle and cowherds enter the forest, footpaths appear with the passage of time, and these tracks can be used by the politically-backed racketeers to access the sand deposits.

What is reported from the Somawathiya National Park is a textbook case of irony; perhaps, it also represents, in microcosm, the fate that befell the country after the successful conclusion of its war on terror. When the LTTE was around, nobody dared enter the national park for fear of terrorist attacks, and the place was safe, thanks to the absence of human activity. The present-day rulers liberated the area from the clutches of the LTTE more than a decade ago, but, unfortunately, the liberators are now supporting those who destroy the sanctuary.

The President has called for action against those who encroach on forests on the pretext of engaging in traditional agriculture. Defence Secretary General (retd) Kamal Gunaratne has said that he had found that some Divisional Secretaries were issuing licences to clear forest lands and the practice had to be stopped. We have published pictures of some land grabbers responsible for the rape of the Somawathiya sanctuary. They can be identified and hauled up before courts.

Now that both the President and the Defence Secretary are convinced that some errant state officials and encroachers responsible for destroying forests have to be stopped, the question is what prevents them from going the whole hog to have the racketeers brought to justice forthwith. For those who pride themselves on having killed Prabhakaran, stopping the destroyers of forests should be child’s play.

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