Ceylon Today Editorial

Ranil Remembering JRJ on his Birth anniversary in Jaffna

19 September 2016

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe paid tribute to his mentor J.R. Jayewardene in Jaffna at the opening ceremony of the new building complex of the Jaffna Government Secretariat last Saturday (17). September 17 was the 110th birth anniversary of the first Executive President of the country late J.R. Jayewardene.

The Prime Minister while paying tribute to late J.R. Jayewardene recollected the arduous task he carried out in introducing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution along with signing the Indo-Lanka Accord.

The Jaffna event on Saturday could also be described as a gathering of Old Royalists. Late J.R. Jayewardene being a prominent Old Royalist, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Northern Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran and Minister D.M. Swaminathan are also Old Royalists.

Along with these three prominent Old Royalists, there was another Old Royalist who was also present at the event and it was none other than former Minister and the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) Leader Douglas Devananda. Devananda being a Past Pupil of Jaffna Central College, studied even at Royal College for a brief period. So despite their political differences the distinguished guests at the Jaffna event on Saturday possessed one thing in common of being Old Royalists.

C.V. Wigneswaran being a 'fire brand' on the Northern political scene emphasized the need of devolving powers extensively through the Provincial Councils when the new Constitution is drafted.

Responding to Chief Minister Wigneswaran, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe recalled the arduous task faced by J.R. Jayewardene in annexing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

It was not only late Jayewardene but even the Tamil United Liberation Front Leader late Appapillai Amirthalingam and his colleagues such as Dr. Neelan Thiruchelvam along with several other leading Tamil moderate politicians stood by the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. Ranil Wickremesinghe said that J.R. Jayewardene faced an uphill task in annexing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. According to the Prime Minister the political forces in the South were dead against the 13th Amendment and they even threatened to kill J.R. Jayewardene.

On the other hand even the Tamil moderates led by A. Amirthalingam and the Tamil militants who entered the political mainstream accepting the 13th Amendment were also threatened by the LTTE which had vehemently opposed the implementation of the 13th Amendment and the Provincial Council system.

Amirthalingam, V. Yogeswaran, Dr. Thiruchelvam and a large number of Tamil militants including the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) Leader K. Pathmanabha who were opposed to the LTTE for its stance against the 13th Amendment were brutally assassinated by the outfit.

The Eelam War II was virtually considered as a war against the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in preventing the implementation of the 13th Amendment. Therefore, the Tamil political leaders had to pay a heavy price for their stance on implementing the 13th Amendment.

It was not only the Sri Lankan Tamil leaders even the former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was also brutally assassinated by the LTTE for signing the Indo-Lanka Accord and sending the Indian Army to ensure the successful implementation of the 13th Amendment.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe while referring to the difficulties faced by late J.R. Jayewardene in annexing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution also referred to the acceptance of 13th Amendment by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and pointed out that Rajapaksa even mentioned that he would implement the Amendment with more powers as Thirteenth Plus.
With the end of the war in 2009, Mahinda Rajapaksa was more inclined towards showing him as a war hero and not as a successful political leader.

Following the end of the war in 2009, if Mahinda Rajapaksa had initiated the political measures immediately to implement the 13th Amendment as he had mentioned in the manner of even going beyond the Amendment, the people in the North and the East would have appreciated him as a statesman, for his part in ending the war as well as finding a political solution to the Tamil question. However, considering the war victory as granted to continue with his political dynasty had finally led to Rajapaksa's downfall from the country's political scene.

By remembering late J.R. Jayewardene's role in introducing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe had reiterated the significance of the Amendment, in Jaffna. So, giving due importance to the 13th Amendment in the proposed new Constitution could be the precise tribute to late Jayewardene and to other veteran Tamil politicians who made an immense sacrifice in finding a political solution to the Tamil question with the implementation of the Amendment.

Daily Mirror Editorial

Time we tell mea culpa

19 September 2016

The International Day of Peace is observed around the world on September 21. The United Nations General Assembly declared September 21 as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of Peace, both within and among all nations and peoples.

The theme for this year’s (2016) Day of Peace -“The Sustainable Development Goals: Building Blocks for Peace” was adopted by the United Nations at its summit of the world’s leaders in New York in September 2015 and calls on countries to begin efforts to achieve these goals over the next 15 years, that is by 2030.

For us in Sri Lanka, just emerging from the shadow of war, the ‘Day of Peace’ is of special significance. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the 17 Sustainable Goals –No poverty, zero hunger, good health and well being, quality education, gender equality, clean drinking water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work, industry innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities sustainable cities and communities, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace justice and strong institutions and partnerships for the goals; as a shared vision of humanity and a to do list for the people and the planet.

In short the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target ending poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring prosperity for all. It aims to eliminate the causes of conflict and provides the foundation for a lasting peace. The SDGs grew out of the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the UN in the year 2000.

The eight goals targeted to be achieved, by the end of 2015 were: Reducing poverty, hunger, disease, gender inequality and improving access to safe water and sanitation. According to the UN Millennium Development Goal Country Report 2014, out of a total of 26 indicators, Sri Lanka was unable to attain only two of them.

Whereas the MDGs had only eight goals to be achieved within 15 years, the new SDGs have 17 goals to be achieved by 2030 and its aim is to bring about PEACE, not merely an end to war.

Since 1971, Sri Lanka has seen three armed conflicts –one of which lasted over two and half decades and all of which were crushed militarily.

However, the end of war did not bring peace in its aftermath. The causes behind the conflict still remain. They are merely dormant. Problems of poverty, hunger, disease, gender inequality and inadequate access to safe water and sanitation still remain. We still have many roads before us and many challenges to face...

The violent conflicts cost us over two hundred thousand young lives. They were not limited to a single community. They brought death, destruction and misery to hundreds of thousands of children, made widows of unknown numbers of women and orphans of undocumented numbers of children.

The first victim of war is the loss of morality and justice. It came to such a sad pass that at one time criminals and gangsters ruled the roost in this country. We Sri Lankans cannot afford any more violence or another war. This country and its people need PEACE.

While the State has a major role to play in achieving the goal of peace, the Government cannot do it on its own. Every Sri Lankan needs to play an active role if we are to achieve the elusive peace by 2030. The Sustainable Development Goals provide us in Sri Lanka another opportunity to achieve the peace which has eluded this country and its people.

The challenge posed by the SDG requires developing an effective awareness raising programme to ensure people understand why each of us needs to actively participate and become partners in the programme. We have to learn to forgive... and learn from past mistakes. We have to understand that all communities, irrespective of whether they be Sinhala or Tamil, Muslim, Christian, Hindu or Buddhist all have had a hand in creating conditions, which led to the mayhem which overtook this land at different times.

So, far very little has been done in this field and the public at large have little awareness of the goodwill of the other. To successfully meet these challenges the Government needs to develop plans to be implemented within specific time frames, set up efficient systems for data collection and monitoring progress.

Mechanisms need to be set up to evaluate success/failures and to put us back on track if targets are not being met. It is also important to identify inequalities among groups or regions and action initiated to minimize such inequalities.

Daily News Editorial

Premier’s recipe for protecting Buddhism

19 September 2016

JO firebrand Wimal Weerawansa's visit to the Malwatte prelate to apprise the latter of the imminent danger to Buddhism, among other things, if the new constitution is introduced has drawn a response from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The Premier speaking at an event in Jaffna over the weekend, while reiterating that the preeminent place accorded to Buddhism will be in tact in the proposed new constitution, went on to state that it was now the government's turn to take special measures to protect Buddhism.

Tongue in cheek, or not, implied in the Premier's remark was the damage that is being caused to Buddhism at present by those in the forefront of the campaign to protect Buddhism. No, the Premier was not thinking about conversion of Buddhists by fundamentalist Christian sects. What he meant was the damage being caused to the religion by the unbecoming conduct of certain members of the Sangha and their political backers.

The Prime Minister went onto recall how former President Mahinda Rajapaksa threatened to cause a schism in the Malwatte chapter if the prelate went ahead with a religious event to invoke blessings on the former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka who was being incarcerated. This, by the very elements who are seen almost on a daily basis visiting temples with the inevitably malwattiya and pontificating to the people on the need to protect Buddhism from alien forces and on the shabby treatment meted out to the members of the Sangha who are thrown behind bars.

Premier Wickremesinghe had very good reason for having said what he did. Today, sadly, those whose prime responsibility it is to steer the faithful on the correct path, banishing from their minds, thoughts of hatred, greed and revenge are the very ones who stand accused for bringing disrepute and casting a slur on this noble and great religion by their unbecoming conduct that is an insult to the saffron robe. The street demonstrations, shindigs inside court houses, the intemperate language used by some members of the Sangha to harangue the government, Bhikkhus involved in treasure hunting are but examples of the damage that is being caused to Buddhism in the eyes of members of other faiths. Is it any wonder, the Premier, whose family's links to the historic Kelaniya Rajamaha Viharaya is only too well known responded the way he did?

One recalls a member of the Sangha, known for his hard line nationalism and visceral hatred towards the present government addressing hardcore criminals and rapists that are languishing behind bars as pathalaye pinwattu (the blessed of the underworld). There was also the infamous episode of a Bhikkhu who led the mob during the Black July riots to set fire to Tamil homes and establishments being made Chairman of the National Police Commission by the Rajapaksa regime. Not only that. Our Sangha was also made to suffer indignities, of all places, in the August Assembly of Parliament, when a notorious politician caused a JHU MP to be hospitalized as a result of a physical attack to a sensitive area in the monk’s anatomy.

All these incidents have no doubt caused consternation among genuine followers of Buddhism in this country. The regard and respect that our Sangha were held in the past is certainly is on the wane with the bad examples on public display.

No doubt politics has taken its toll even on the Buddhist clergy. True, members of the Sangha have been active politically from the distant past and it is the Sangha who were in the vanguard to usher in the 1956 social revolution in this country. The first blot on the Sangha in post independence Sri Lanka was when a member of the Buddhist clergy was convicted and paid the supreme price for the assassination of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike.

A lot of water has flown under the bridge since then, with Bhikkhus now in the thick of politics and leading pan nationalist movements. In the process they have done much harm to the Buddhist religion by their conduct and utterances which does not accord with the core teachings of Buddhism which is ahimsa, mettha, karuna and the pursuance of the middle path. The extremism practiced by some members of the Sangha could also influence similar mindsets among the populace especially the youth. The attack on several places of Christian worship in the recent past, led by members of the Buddhist clergy, could have been similarly influenced.

Sri Lanka is perhaps the only democratic country where clergy of the majority religion take such an active part in the cesspit of politics and with such gusto at that. While one might have expected this to be a salutary development, in that it would promote moderation in local politics, the opposite is true in Sri Lanka. Here, monks instead of conducting themselves exemplarily are increasingly showing militant tendencies. Hence, it would not be a bad idea, if as the Premier said, for the government to take some initiative to protect Buddhism in this country from coming into further harm by the acts of certain political Bhikkhus.

The Island Editorial

Picking a good president

19 September 2016

Sri Lanka and Singapore are as different as chalk and cheese, and what is good and feasible anent the latter may not be so in respect of the former in many respects. But, there are certain areas where the former can emulate the latter. Much has been said about the need for Sri Lanka to adopt the Singaporean economic model, and the purpose of this comment is not to try to add to the ever burgeoning corpus of the how-to-be-another-Singapore treatises or disquisitions. Instead, we venture to argue that Sri Lanka has a lot to learn from the city state as regards how to cleanse politics.

We reproduce today an article from our Asia News Network (ANN) partner, The Straits Times, on a report issued by Singapore’s Constitutional Commission (CC), proposing how to tighten the eligibility criteria, ensure minority candidates are elected from time to time, and refine the role of the Council of Presidential Advisers.

The aforesaid article reveals an interesting observation the CC has made: "… Candidates for presidential elections have no policy agenda to advance. There is little, if any, need for the vigorous contest of ideas that takes place during a parliamentary election. The CC is reported to have proposed rules to "restrict or exclude acts that might inflame emotions, cause divisiveness or encourage invective" so that campaigning is conducted "with rectitude and dignity as befits the office and comports with the unifying role and purpose of the presidency".

The very opposite of this is true of Sri Lanka’s presidential elections which reek of unspeakable acts that inflame emotions, cause divisiveness or encourage invective and are never conducted with rectitude and dignity. The last two presidential election campaigns were characterised by hate speech with the main candidates vowing to incarcerate each other as first thing upon being elected. Following the 2010 presidential polls, the winner had his contender who threatened to jail him, thrown behind bars, sacked the then Chief Justice, did his damnedest to neutralise the democratic opposition, abused his parliamentary majority to make bad laws and launched a political witch hunt against his opponents.

The winner of the last presidential race, unceremoniously sacked the then UPFA government with a two-thirds majority in Parliament and appointed the UNP leader who had only 46 seats Prime Minister! He claimed he had asked for a popular mandate for that. If the president can act in such a manner upon being elected, there is no need for parliamentary polls, as we have argued in this space previously. He went on to ‘vapourise’ the Chief Justice and, after the last general election, manipulated Parliament to enable his allies to secure the key posts in the Opposition as well. His raison d’etre seems to be having all his bêtes noires jailed.

All elected Sri Lankan presidents have resorted to what may be described as ‘executive terrorism’ to keep the other branches of government under his or her thumb and frighten his or her political opponents into submission. Power hungry and consumed with hatred, all of them missed the opportunity to rise above petty partisan politics and become statespersons.

It is hoped that the politicians who often rush to Singapore for medical care, sharing spoils on the sly, holidaying, shopping and, most of all, hatching plots to effect regime changes will care to learn from that country how to serve the people.

A fish is said to rot from the head down. The same is true of governments. Hence, the pressing need for any nation desirous of arresting the deterioration of national politics to find ways and means of ensuring that its people make a wise choice in choosing the right person to helm the ship of state! The Singaporean example is worthy of emulation.