Ceylon Today Editorial

A new age of wonders and cruelties

13 September 2016

Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) recently announced the data compiled for the first half of 2016 regarding complaints on internet and computer related criminal offences and incidents. According to the CERT the number of complaints received regarding social media related incidents from the beginning of this year, till the month of August stands at 1,570.

Out of these most of the complaints are regarding offences related to social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. The complaints are diverse as are the individuals who have committed them, from account hackings to impersonation to spreading false information and malicious use of intellectual property (i.e. photos and videos) are among the complaints received by CERT.

The data released by CERT are inconclusive because the data that were provided were regarding complaints made during the last eight months of this year. Therefore, successful conclusions are hard to come by with incomplete data. Such action would be futile and not worth one's time.

However, the general public has access to data from previous years which can draw a pretty basic picture of what has happened.

Last year, CERT has recorded 2,967 cyber crime activities out of which 2,850 are social media related incidents. In 2014, the overall incidents reported stands at 2,368 while 2,250 are social media related. In 2013, the overall number of cases/complaints stands at 1,275, out of which the majority (1,200) are social media related cases. In 2012, the number is 1,150 so on and so forth.

Sri Lanka's Computer Crimes Act came into operation in 2007 following a proposal made by the Information Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka due to the increasing digitization of the country and most of its citizens. Come 2007, a considerable number of individuals in Colombo owned personal computers with access to a dial-up internet or in some cases a better one. This led to an obvious increase of criminal offences which were committed through the abuse of this new found 'Hail Mary on a Harley Davidson'- internet.

The following year, 2008, was the first time CERT commenced gathering complaints and requested the public with regard to internet related incidents. In 2008, they have recorded a total of 49 cases in general. By 2011, that number has increased by 96% and stands at a staggering 1,469 complaints.

The numbers do not lie. And it proves that computer and internet related crimes have been steadily and exponentially increasing with each and every passing year. However, the increasing number of complaints also shows that the general public is becoming more and more aware of these offences and how they can be addressed. The general populace are aware of institutions such as CERT where they can lodge complaints in order to avoid future attacks or even the Sri Lanka Police which is capable of identifying the perpetrators of such an attack.

With technology we have attained a new age of wonders and cruelties. With so many ways of getting what we want, regardless of the moral implications, we have become creatures dependent of modern technology, slaves of the techno babble. Shackles have been replaced by wires and cables while blindfolds are replaced by computer and mobile phone screens that pour out nonstop nonsense.

Technology has become our new god whom we worship without intending to do so. Yet some of us are aware. We are aware that technology is not our master but otherwise.

Daily Mirror Editorial

OMP AND THE HAMBANTOTA DISAPPEARANCE

13 September 2016

Police are under fire after the disappearance of a 20-year-old youth who was arrested by the Hambantota Police in connection with a theft of paddy from a paddy store in the area. The incident has resurfaced the memory of the brutality of a section of the police which was invariably evident sometime ago. 

According to the youth’s relatives who openly talked to the media, the youth along with several others had been arrested by the police along with several others for allegedly stealing bags of paddy from the store and now he is missing. A man told the media that he was also arrested and locked up in the Hambantota police station. He said the missing youth had been with him in the police lock-up. The man said the youth was taken out of the cell by policemen as he had wanted to answer a call of nature. Later the police personnel claimed the youth had escaped from their custody. 

People who are knowledgeable about the goings on in police stations know that suspects in the police lock-up are not sent to the toilet unaccompanied. At least one policeman accompanies the suspects to the toilet and it is very dangerous for a suspect to escape while somebody is watching him out because the policemen might alert their colleagues guarding the station who are armed.Therefore if the police version is to be accepted it is quite incomprehensible as to how the youth escaped without the knowledge of the guards and what efforts the police had made to recapture the fleeing suspect.

After the Yahapalanaya government came to power last year with the promise of ushering in democracy which included the ending of disappearances of people, ending impunity for crimes and police brutality. However, the government was embarrassed several times by the unfair treatment of people and brutality on the part of the police. The arrest of a 17-year-old student without a slightest evidence his involvement in the killing of five-year-old Seya Sadewmi of Kotadeniyawa in September last year, the brutal assault on the HNDA students at the Lipton Circus in Colombo in the following year and the death of a youth during a clash between the villagers and the police in Embilipitiya were three cases in point. 

The parents of the youth gone missing from the Hambantota police station had publicly expressed fear that the youth might have been beaten to death since the other person who claimed that the missing person was with him in the police lock-up told the media that he was severely beaten by the police. It is a serious matter and might have a great impact on the government’s efforts to portray a picture before the international community including the UNHRC that it has departed from the past in respect of human rights.

There is a general notion in society that never would a suspect reveal his involvement in an offence unless pressured to do so through especially physical pain inflicted on him. The notion that no one can be killed or made to disappear after being taken into custody by the police or armed forces seems to be far fetched when considering this latest incident. 

Authorities have transferred the Hambantota Police OIC and several police personnel to another police station after this incident. This very action points to some involvement of the police in the disappearance of the youth. The transfer of officers cannot be taken as a remedy for the incident; rather it should it be an action facilitating the investigation into the disappearance. It is ironic to note people going missing while the government is taking action to establish an Office of Missing Persons (OMP) to trace the people who had disappeared in the past.

Daily News Editorial

Premier sets the record straight

13 September 2016


Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Saturday speaking at the UNP’s 70th anniversary celebrations raised an issue that occurred just over a decade ago that may have been erased from the memory of many. The Premier recalled the circumstances under which the Presidency was snatched from his grasp as a result of a pact entered into by UPFA Presidential candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa with LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, whereby the latter was to engineer a polls boycott in the North.

However, the thrust of the Premier’s speech was aimed at demonstrating the hypocrisy of Rajapaksa who right along had been accusing the UNP and its leader for being pro-LTTE. The means adopted by Rajapaksa, the super patriot, who had no qualms in entering into deals with Prabhakaran in order to win the election, was hidden from the public until it was exposed by one of the actors who was involved in the deal, after having fallen foul with the former President. Sripathy Suriyaarachchi is his name. The UNP too stands guilty of failing to expose this hypocrisy, letting the Rajapaksas get away with their glib accusations.

The Premier stressed that he too could have made deals with the LTTE in order to come to power but such treacherous acts were beyond him. He would rather lose the election than winning by treachery. In the end the Premier said Rajapaksa, the patriot, won with the help of Prabhakaran while he lost. The whole sordid deal was laid bare in parliament by the late Sripathy Suriyaarachchi who also named the other actors involved, including Basil Rajapaksa, a newspaper publisher cum wheeler dealer and LTTE top ranker Emil Kanthan.

None of the modern day patriots, particularly those in holy robes, who never miss an opportunity to yet link the UNP with the LTTE have seen anything unseemly or unpatriotic in the Rajapaksa- LTTE deal. To this day, nary a word has been said in this respect by Ven Muruttetuwe Ananda, Bengamuwe Nalaka or Elle Gunawansa, all epitomes of patriotism and champions of the Sinhala race. Is it that they see nothing wrong in Mahinda Rajapaksa colluding with the separatist LTTE in order to queer the pitch of another Sinahla Buddhist leader, just so long as they have their man at the helm? Their hypocrisy is also bared by the fact that they saw nothing wrong in Karuna Amman, responsible for the attack on the Sri Dalada Maligawa and butchering of a bus load Samaneras in Arantalawa, being made a Cabinet Minister by Rajapaksa. These so called patriots who are weeping buckets of the alleged ill treatment of our war heroes were also mum when the war winning Army Commander was unceremoniously thrown behind bars and treated like a common criminal. Where were the likes of Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera when the war heroes were condemned to sell vegetables and made to do domestic chores in the homes of the Rajapaksa siblings? It is time to call their bluff and expose the duplicity of these imposters.

The government, or at least Premier Wickremesinghe, who but for the Rajapaksa machination that deprived him of the Northern vote, would have been President, should reopen this whole sordid saga and get to the bottom of the affair. There was talk sometime ago that Emil Kanthan who acted as go between to Prabhakaran would be arriving to give evidence in court on the matter. No stone should be left unturned to expose all those involved. Premier Wickremesinghe lost the election by a mere 180,000 votes. The Northern electorate had nearly 500,000 registered voters and there is little doubt that the overwhelming majority of northerners would have voted for Wickremesinghe as per the voting pattern in past elections.

Mahinda Rajapaksa should be confronted with this episode whenever he accuses the UNP of being pro- LTTE. All these years Rajapaksa has been able to getaway in this fashion but the time has come to remind him of his treacherous act and lay bare his dubious patriotism. The UNP should also tell the people of the party men and leaders who had fallen victim to the LTTE. This will certainly clear all doubts to claims of UNP collusion with the LTTE. The Tiger label had stuck for too long on the party without efforts being made to set the record straight. The UNP as a party had lost the most number of leaders to LTTE bombs. President Premadasa, Lalith, Gamini, Weerasinghe Mallimarachchi. G.M. Premachandra readily come to mind. Yet it had been branded as a party sympathetic to the LTTE courtesy Opposition propaganda which had not been countered effectively by the party, while ‘super patriots’ such as Wimal Weerawansa had no qualms in sitting alongside Karuna Amman in the Cabinet. Premier Wickremesinghe has hopefully set the ball rolling for others in the party to follow suit in effectively negating the false and damaging accusations that have been made against it by persons who have no right or proprietary to level these accusations.

The Island Editorial

The Cardinal has shown the way!

13 September 2016

 

How civilised a country is can be measured by the manner in which it disposes of its garbage. Successive governments have boasted of numerous grand plans to develop Colombo. The previous administration yuppified it at an enormous cost to the public purse, but most of its chronic problems remains unaddressed, solid waste disposal, drainage and traffic congestion being some of them. Facelifts have passed for city development.

The Rajapaksa administration used to brag that it had managed to rid Colombo of wayside garbage heaps. True, that was no mean achievement, but what it actually did was to shift Colombo’s problem elsewhere! The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) has been committing, with impunity, a serious offence for which the ordinary people get prosecuted—irresponsible garbage disposal.

The despicable practice of Colombo’s waste being transported to densely populated suburbs has been going on for decades with no government caring to put an end to it. The CMC has turned Bloemendhal and Meethotamulla into hellholes, causing the people in areas adjacent to its garbage sites, to rise in protest at last. A group of Buddhist monks have reportedly threatened to stage a fast unless the CMC stops dumping waste at Meethotamulla.

Now, the CMC is planning to dump Colombo’s waste in Ja-Ela, consequent to a court case over the Meethotamulla garbage dump. Previously, it was toying with the idea of transporting rubbish from Meethotamulla all the way to Puttalam. It looks as if neither the CMC nor the government were keen to find a permanent solution to the garbage issue.

Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has vehemently opposed the government move to create landfills in Ja-Ela. He deserves public plaudits. He can rest assured that he will have all right-thinking persons on his side. Residents of Ja-Ela protested yesterday against the proposed garbage dump, which will make their lives as miserable as those of their Meethotamulla counterparts.

What needs to be done urgently is to solve Colombo’s garbage problem once and for all and not to keep shifting it here and there. The city ‘stepfathers’ have let the grass grow under their feet all these years without making a serious effort to set up facilities to recycle municipal waste, which can be turned into a goldmine if properly managed. "Where there’s muck there’s brass," a wag says.

If the CMC had embarked on a garbage recycling project a few years ago the problem of Colombo’s waste being thrown into its suburbs wouldn’t have arisen; it would perhaps have been able to recycle waste from other local government bodies as well.

The government tells us the CMC will be tasked with maintaining the road network in the Colombo Port City to be built. Does it want the jewel in the crown of its Megapolis project also ruined?

What is bad for Meethotamulla cannot certainly be good for Ja-Ela. Municipal waste is sure to contaminate not only waterways in the area but also groundwater, on which many people are dependent. It will also cause health hazards. What have the people of Ja-Ela done to deserve this kind of punishment?

Politicians and CMC officials have sought to justify the dumping of garbage in other areas on the grounds that they have no other way of disposing of it. But, they mustn’t be allowed to make the public suffer owing to their inefficiency and failure. They have been able to circumvent the problem at the expense of the people in the outskirts of Colombo, all these years, and the time has come for them to grasp the nettle. The only way to jolt them into making a serious effort to manage municipal waste properly is to bring pressure to bear on them to find ways and means of doing so.

The Cardinal has shown the way!