Ceylon Today Editorial

IS THERE A RIP OFF? TAMIL RESETTLEMENT STINKS

14 September 2016

Deeply agonizing human issues persistently cling on to us. Such as the Tamil resettlement scam. Read on.

Politics is not called a cesspit and the last resort of the scoundrel as mere off-the-cuff remarks.

Those who lived in Valikamam North are to be settled in Keerimalai and a few others are to be resettled in the Myliddy areas. Let's remember that vested interests cut deals with those in power to grab comparatively better lands on which their original homesteads were located.

Let's not forget that Tamil politicians too come under either or both of the categories given above....As Churchill had it "Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year....and to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen." We are telling you, now, why things are happening the way they are.

Let us quote a report on Lakshman Kadirgamar's ancestral property in Jaffna: " The former Minister who inherited the land from his mother, was a strong critic of the LTTE and considered Sri Lanka's best Foreign Minister of all time. Minister Kadirgamar's brothers have also extended yeoman service to Sri Lanka, as military officers of rank and eminent lawyers.

His son's petition against the Government's acquisition of his personal property .... will join several other petitions filed by some 2,000 land owners in the Northern Province alleging acquisition of their traditional lands by the Government. The struggle for land has been a root cause of the ethnic issue since the 1950s.

We do not know how many Muslims are among the resettled nor do we hear a word from the combined Muslim leadership in Parliament, except when it's time for them to campaign for votes to get back into Parliament.....even if it means resettling them by driving out the wild animals from nature parks!!..

Let's take the blinkers off and look at what's happening in the South where the poor get kicked out from lands which show a track record of three generations of their ancestors, on the pretext that the land was wanted for 'Urgent public projects' as this paper highlighted in a recent scam in Slave Island exposed by Ravi Ladduwahetty. If marginalized Muslim and the poorer sections of the Muslim community can be sold a dud steer under both Yahapalanaya and MR-Palanaya as badly as it was done under Prabhakaran Palayanaya, it's about as clear as a summer sky that the Tamil refugees of today can also expect a fast one pulled on them and white-washed by Tamil politicos.

The track record tells us that successive governments, in cahoots or not, with Tamil and Muslim political leaders who kept silent or absented themselves from Parliament, used, turned, twisted or introduced retrograde legislation to acquire land for either real development purposes, for ensuring security of sovereignty or for outright militarization that flies in the face of all pretentions to human rights, while extending high security zone perimeters.

As food for thought, especially, to Tamil leaders and to make politicians in Colombo wiser in the ways of politics and in human affairs, may we submit a quote from Wikipedia, and those who can read between the lines can be called the blessed ones.

Wikipedia on the Cherokee lands: "In March 1883, Kansas cattlemen incorporated under the laws of Kansas to form the The Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association.[They negotiated a five-year lease for the entire outlet for $100,000 per year, payable semi-annually in advance. At the end of the five years, the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council put the lease up for bid, hoping to get a better price. The Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association eventually got the bid for $200,000 per year, but the lease was nullified by Congress, which then authorized purchasing the land for $1.25 per acre. Having previously rejected a bid from the cattlemen to buy the land for $3.00 per acre, the Cherokee protested in vain that the government price was too low. President Benjamin Harrison forbade all grazing in the Cherokee Outlet after 2 October 1890, which eliminated all profit from leasing the land. After that, the Cherokee sold off the land at prices ranging from $1.40 to $2.50 per acre. The Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association would disband in 1893, the same year the Outlet was opened to non-Indian settlement. [LETS CALL THEM FOREIGN INVESTORS]

Actual payment did not occur until 1964, when the Cherokee finally settled their claims against the US Government for the actual value of the Cherokee Strip land opened to settlement in 1893. This amounted to about $14.7 million, which was paid to the original allotment holders or their heirs. The tribe also received an additional $2 million in accrued interest".

Daily News Editorial

JO’s selective patriotism

14 September 2016

Court rulings have come to be belittled in this country as of late. There was the infamous case of the Ven. Galagodaatte Gnanasara creating a shindig at the Homagama Magistrate's Courts sometime back and was taken into custody along with a host of unruly bikkhus who similarly misbehaved in the hallowed precincts of the court. Their objection; the arrest and trying of a military intelligence officer allegedly responsible for journalist Pradeep Ekneligoda's disappearance and murder.

Not long after that we had a whole host of Joint Opposition heavyweights coming out of court houses, on bail, with triumphant raise of manacled hands, taken into custody for alleged murder and large scale corruption, in clear defiance of the court rulings. No less a personage than Namal Rajapaksa took upon himself the liberty to mount a vehicle to deliver a broadside at the country's rulers, moments after being granted bail in a money laundering case, outside the court premises. Here too the courts were made to look feeble and a helpless spectator to the goings on under its very nose.

Now comes the news of a move by the Joint Opposition to pay the compensation money amounting to Rs. 2 million, ordered by court to be paid by a former army major, found guilty of shooting dead an LTTE cadre when he attempted to flee a camp under the major's watch, to the relatives of the dead LTTEer. The compensation was to be collected beginning yesterday opposite the Dharmapala statue in Homagama under the benign watch of JO frontliner Bandula Gunawardena. The JO has appealed to the public to contribute lavishly towards the project so that a war hero won't unduly be penalized.

The court would necessarily have found the military officer guilty, based on the material placed before it and after taking into consideration all the evidence. Hence, there can be no reason for the JO to act the way it is doing unless it wants to seize on the opportunity for cheap political gain. The opportunity has also presented itself to buttress its (JO) claim that the government was on a witch-hunt against war heroes.

While the concern demonstrated for the war heroes by Gunawardena and his ilk in the JO is gratifying indeed, why pray was this same milk of human kindness nowhere to be seen when the son-in-law of the former war winning army commander was constantly hounded and his offspring driven into exile. Did Gunawardena and his lot, now going overboard to ensure that the military officer concerned was not penalized at all and that they (JO) would do whatever it is in their power to ensure this war hero will not go to jail due to default in payment of this compensation, ever give a thought to the welfare of the jailed army commander who led from the front in the battlefield that brought us victory, while he was wasting away in a prison cell for two long years?

Up to date none of the charges against Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka has been proved and the case against him and his son-in-law is at a dead end. On the other hand, the investigation arms have unearthed sufficient evidence against the military intelligence officer now in custody. Nay, a whole network of military and police personnel had been very active, either being directly involved in the murders that are now being priced open, or engaged in cover ups.

Bandula Gunawardena and co. should accept the fact that military personnel, by virtue of being responsible for the elimination of terrorism cannot be above the law. They too should answer for their crimes like any other citizen arraigned before courts for criminal acts. There cannot be a different law for the armed forces and police, some of whose crimes are now gradually coming to the surface, going by the results of the myriad investigations now on. The newspapers often report of murders and robberies committed by ex soldiers (It was reported recently that a serving military officer was among those arrested for treasure hunting). Is Gunawardena and members of the Joint Opposition asking the law to look the other way because of the contribution made by these men towards the cause of defeating terrorism?

Name board parties as political allies

It is reported that seven more political parties had expressed their willingness to throw in their lot with the Joint Opposition and that their representatives had met with Basil Rajapaksa to communicate their decision. However, glancing at the list of these seven parties one cannot help thinking that they are mere name boards, bereft of any voting strength. There is the Liberal Party of which the public are aware of only one member while there is also a party by the name of Muslim Ulema Party, whatever that means. On top of that, the list also includes a party bearing the title Green Party. Is the JO trying to impress the electorate by bringing what are called political parties with zero following into its fold?

The Island Editorial

Yahapalana kick

14 September 2016

 

President Maithripala Sirisena has recently lamented an increase in the consumption of beer among women over the years. His disappointment is understandable. He has evinced a keen interest in creating a sober Sri Lanka and his unwavering commitment to that cause should be appreciated by one and all.

President Sirisena, as the Health Minister of the Rajapaksa government, took on the powerful tobacco and alcohol companies against numerous odds. Given the wealthy multinationals’ influence and determination to torpedo his efforts, with the help of some powerful politicians of the day, many thought he was trying to square a circle. But, he intrepidly squared up to the commercial giants. He can justifiably preen himself on pictorial warnings on cigarette packets.

That Sri Lankan males greedily chugalug all the alcohol in the world, as if there were no tomorrow, is only too well known. They claim to be too busy to do marketing for their wives, take their children to school or even do minor household chores. But, they don’t mind waiting in winding queues near wayside liquor outlets to quench their thirst. It is doubtful whether these alpha males have money, energy and time left to do anything else. They are beyond redemption. As regards the alleged increase in liquor consumption among women, the President must have based his assertion on statistics available to him. But, we wonder whether those statistics are reliable. For, it has been proved under the present government that a person does not have to consume alcohol, at all, to get intoxicated.

One may recall an accident at Rajagiriya, where an Opposition MP loyal to the government rammed his SUV into a wayside lamppost a few moons ago. All those who rushed to the scene confirmed that the parliamentarian was sozzled to the gills and could hardly stand erect. The police insisted that he was drunk and a medical officer certified that he smelt of liquor. If he had been an opponent of the government he would have been remanded and arraigned on a charge of destroying public property; courts would have been opened at midnight to ensure that he was sent to remand prison before daybreak. But, he got away with that serious offence and claimed that if there had been a smell of liquor lingering around him it may have been because he was embraced by a tippler in the aftermath of the mishap.

So, the drunkenness of women which has disturbed our good President may not necessarily be due to their consumption of beer or any other form of firewater. They may be getting drunk because their naughty husbands and boyfriends addicted to rotgut hug them frequently under the influence of liquor. Women are not to be blamed. It is those irresponsible males who should be faulted for that. They must be whipped with a stingray tail or maduwalige.

Meanwhile, we want to make a contribution to the government’s campaign to bring down liquor consumption. President Sirisena and others, pontificating on the virtues of temperance, can easily slash the national liquor consumption by about ninety percent overnight. It only has to popularise the so-called Rajagiriya Method. In other words, there is absolutely no need to serve liquor at weddings, business gatherings, funerals, shindigs etc. A single person can heat his liver and give a bear hug each to others who attend such events so that all of them can get drunk at no cost without running health risks. However, this method is not without some danger. Those who get intoxicated in that manner may drive their vehicles up wayside lampposts and trees. But, the fact remains that there is an element of risk in everything we do in life.

Cheers!