Ceylon Today Editorial

Will the government accept Karuna's Challenge?

16th October 2015

 

Novelist Alan Moore wrote, "The people of the country shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people." That is what we have heard and learnt. However, we cannot say the same of what Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman meant, when he blatantly challenged the Yahapalana Government to arrest him, if they were to find any allegations against him.

Karuna Amman had bravely challenged the authorities to try and arrest him; which was followed by him saying that he doesn't fear the government and what they have in store for individuals like him. Basically, what he did was accuse the current Yahapalna Government of exacting political revenge from those who stood in protest of them and that the government is slowly removing their opponents one by one.

Karuna Amman is no angel nor sinner turned saint, no matter what he wants you to believe.

Whenever his very name is recalled, the precious lives of 600 unarmed police officers who were done to death after surrendering to the LTTE in the Eastern Province, comes to our mind. That happened during the tenure of the late President Premadasa on 11 June 1990. The 25th death anniversary of these police officers, who 'rode into the valley of death' were commemorated and remembered last June, but no government has yet addressed this dastardly act. Twenty five years have come and gone, their generations are dead and gone, but the souls of those 600 police officers still moan the lack of justice meted out.

Although, the then Opposition the Sri Lanka Freedom Party continued to criticize the then government's inactivity regarding this case and the inability of the authorities to arrest the perpetrators of this horrendous act of terrorism, what they did when they grabbed the seat of power is rather ironic. The entire country knew, when this mass murder was reported in 1990, that it was perpetrated by the LTTE and the 'top commander' of the Eastern Province was Karuna Amman. In 2004, the 'Terror of the East' and former bodyguard to the LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran- effectively number two in the terrorist outfit, broke away from Tigers and fled into the welcoming hands of the (ironically) SLFP. After the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa promised him security from the now infuriated remains of the LTTE, Karuna Amman was ceremoniously baptised as a Vice President of the SLFP back in 2009.

Karuna Amman is smart and winsome in his manipulative tactics. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to slither his way into the mainstream politics of the country, from his beginnings as a terrorist. His promotion to the Minister of National Integration in 2009 is a clear show of charm and opportunistic tendencies. Karuna Amman created history in the SLFP by becoming a Vice President. Similarly, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan, who was also a terrorist became the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province. This wolf turned sheep also held the entire Eastern Province at gunpoint when he was wearing his terrorist overalls.

After a decade Pillaiyan was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department, over the assassination of former Tamil National Alliance MP Joseph Pararajasingham: a true Tamil democrat. He was gunned down during the Christmas Mass at St. Michael's Church in Batticaloa, right after he received Holy Communion. The authorities took ten years to arrest the alleged perpetrator behind this vile crime. Would we have to live another ten years, commemorate the golden death anniversary of the 600 police officers to see the arrest of the criminals behind that crime?

Karuna Amman's challenge should not be ignored. If the authorities honestly probe the murder of the 600 policemen, Karuna Amman could be questioned because there are undeniable and recorded evidence as to who gave the order to execute those policemen. With the promise of establishing the Independent National Police Commission, after the Constitutional Council's recommendation of those eligible to hold the membership of the Commission, the immediate resolve to commence investigation into political assassinations is undoubtedly necessary. This would, we believe, hasten crucial investigations without political interference of any sort.

A government elected by the people for democracy and protection of the populace should not be afraid to probe the heinous crimes committed by men and women of a ruthless terrorist outfit such as the LTTE that massacred men and women irrespective of race and religion. With allegations surrounding Karuna Amman and his acts allegedly committed under terrorist guise in the past, the nation awaits with watch dog attention, to see whether the Sirisena- Wickremesinghe Yahapalana Government is brave enough to meet the challenge of Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman.

Daily Mirror Editorial

Waist not, want not

16th October 2015

Yesterday was World Food Day with the year’s theme being ‘social protection and agriculture: Breaking the cycle of rural poverty’. It spotlights the link between ending hunger and food insecurity by enhancing social protection, a key tool in breaking the cycle of poverty.

Education, healthcare and financial support are all forms of social protection which play a major role in ensuring direct access to food or the means to buy it. According to the 2015 State of the Food Security in the World report, social protection programmes play a critical role in the progress of developing countries in achieving hunger targets related to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – which recently adopted “zero hunger” as one of the aims.

Yet, around 73% of the world’s population has no access to adequate social protection – and the majority of these people live in the rural areas of developing countries, with many dependent on agriculture for a living.

 The World Food Programme (WFP) has exposed some staggering realities which advocates of the globalised capitalist market economic system need to see as a clear warning that unbridle capitalism -- which promotes selfishness and greed -- will destroy itself. The WFP says that on planet earth one in nine people do not have enough food to lead an active, healthy life – that means around 795 million people. In the African continent one person in four is undernourished, poor nutrition causes nearly half of all deaths (45%) in children under the age of five – which is around 3.1 million children every year.

In a world that is moving towards more gender equality WFP has some good news for women. Not so much for the fashionable social elite who still focus on beauty parades and fashion shows, but for the down to earth and hard working rural women. WFP says that if women farmers had the same access to resources as men, the number of hungry in the world could be reduced by up to 150 million. Great news indeed.  According to the Global Hunger Index, 52 countries are suffering from serious or alarming levels of hunger, of which the Central African Republic suffers the greatest level of hunger.

In Sri Lanka after about 40 years during which we allowed our country to be flooded with imported junk food, fast foods and processed rubbish, President Maithripala Sirisena this month launched a major national campaign to grow within two years the nutritious food we need in our own country. We hope all parties, religious groups and the private sector will also support the National Government’s initiative to produce our own food, be Lankan and buy Lankan and end our dependence on artificial or counterfeit imported food and food-like substances.

 On Thursday, the Daily Mirror focused attention on the need for Sri Lanka to go green with the initiative with the mission to save Mother Nature, starting with green schools as in Singapore. An equally important initiative is for good locally grown nutritious food and we are glad that a major step has been taken by Royal College.

The massive national project, aptly titled ‘Heartbeat,’ is led by Royal’s UNESCO Club and the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA). ‘Heartbeat 2015’, with the vision of promoting healthy living by school students will include educational sessions and a walk on October 24 by representatives from Colombo schools, the President, the Prime Minister and several Cabinet Ministers, most of whom are past pupils.  Students will be educated on the subject of drinking clean water, eating healthy food and eliminating the use of tobacco, alcohol and other substances. Principals of some 130 schools and head prefects will also be invited to take part in this programme whereby eventually the children will teach their parents on good food, nutrition and living practices.

This is urgent and important because, as revealed by the GMOA president Dr. Anurudda Padeniya, about 30% of our people are today afflicted by obesity and prone to non-communicable diseases such as chronic heart and lung diseases, cancer and diabetes. Fat lot have we achieved in an era where children are dying before their parents.

Daily News Editorial

MR's Media Secretary in cuckoo land

16th October 2015

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's first appearance yesterday before an inquiry panel following his defeat, failed to generate much excitement. Summoned before the Special Presidential Commission to Probe Serious Acts of Corruption to answer queries pertaining to alleged financial misdemeanours at the ITN, the lawyers representing the former President raised various technical issues. As a result, sittings of the Commission was put off for today, for a ruling on the matters raised.

However, what was interesting was the media release issued subsequently by the former President's Media Secretary seeking to exonerate Rajapaksa from the doings at the ITN during the Presidential Election campaign. One of matters under probe by the Commission was the appointment of Mr. Anura Siriwardena as the Chairman /CEO of the ITN when the position was not vacant. The media release states that the appointment was not made by the former President, but officially by the Secretary to the Treasury, since the Treasury owns the majority of the shares of the ITN.

Is the Media Secretary asking the public to believe that in all government institutions, corporations, Boards etc. which had the Treasury holding a majority shares, heads were appointed by the Treasury Secretary? Was it not under Rajapaksa, who was also the Finance Minister, that the Treasury functioned? Was there any official in the Treasury who was more powerful than the President (read head of the Treasury) to make appointments to institutions where the Treasury had a majority shares, on his/her own? Were all the appointments to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which was mired in controversy also made by a Treasury official, bypassing Rajapaksa, the President cum Finance Minister?

Going by the argument of the Media Secretary, all Heads of Government bodies under the Rajapaksa regime were appointed by other state controlled bodies which one way or another had a controlling interest in these bodies. Going by this argument the Chairman of Lake House whose majority shares were held by the Public Trustee was appointed by the Public Trustee himself or an officer designated by him. Rajapaksa had no say in the appointment. Neither did the Media Minister. Taking this argument further the Central Bank Governor, the Director General of Customs and Ports Authority Chairman were all appointed bypassing the former President based on the simple requirement that these institutions were under the control of the Treasury or another State body. Who is going to believe this yarn?

During the Presidential election campaign, the ITN Chairman himself presided over programmes that vilified the Common Candidate. Nay, the ITN also stooped to the lowest depths by airing pogrammes with doctored scenes which cast aspersions on the personal character of the Common Candidate. Is the Media Secretary asking the public to believe that the ITN Chairman will go to such lengths to promote Rajapaksa if his appointment was strictly made by the Treasury Secretary? True, the Treasury Secretary may be the appointing authority. But only OFFICIALLY.

The Media Secretary, to another matter under investigation by the Commission, namely, the loss of Rs 86 lakhs suffered by the ITN, due to the money being returned as a result of non airing of the advertisements of the Common Candidate, blandly states that this was an internal administrative matter. This is overlooking the fact that as the Finance Minister it is the responsibility of the former President to ensure that the Treasury (which holds majority shares) receives all the money due to it. By dismissing this loss in cavalier fashion, the Media Secretary has indeed badly compromised his boss. This also shows Rajapaksa in poor light and a reflection of the cavalier approach he has shown towards matter of finances in respect of other transactions as well, justifying the current allegations leveled against him and his siblings.

It is the contention of the Media Secretary that a Presidential candidate of a major political party cannot possibly supervise the advertising campaign carried out on his behalf and that campaign advertisements are given to media organizations by the advertising firm retained by the candidate's political party. He goes on to state that the candidate or his political party very often has no direct contact with the media organisation over advertising. He (the Media Secretary) has again unwittingly compromised his boss by using the term VERY OFTEN. This indicates that there can be times when the candidate can have direct contact. For, no self respecting advertising firm on its own will, while the voting is in progress on the day of the Presidential election, would get the electronic media institution concerned to announce repeatedly that Sajith Premadasa had decamped and joined the Rajapaksa fold.

But the most hilarious of all is the attempt made by the Media Secretary to drag in the Common Candidate into the misdoings of the ITN, during the campaign. He says that all matters relating to the campaign are not the responsibility of the candidate but of the relevant political party or alliance. He says: "when it was proposed within the SLFP that President Mahinda Rajapaksa should contest for the Presidency for the third time, it was the present Chairman (President Sirisena) of the party who seconded that proposal".

Hence President Sirisena too is culpable for all the misdemeanours, the mudslingings and calumni heaped upon himself courtesy the ITN, going by this logic.