Ceylon Today Editorial

PRODUCE THE CONSTITUTION AS A COMPLeTE DOCUMENT!

29 November 2016

 

The new Constitution that was promised by the United National Front for Good Governance when coming to power, earlier last year is still yet to be produced as a complete document. However, regardless of its lack of appearance, like the omnipresent devil that seduces into committing our daily quota of sins, has already reared its ugly head and scared several sections of our country.

During the latter part of last week, several members of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) visited the Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy in order to obtain blessings and also met the Chief Prelates of the Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters who had advised the present SLFP members to be done with the new Constitution immediately.

We share the same sentiments with our religious leaders as we believe that the longer it takes, the more the paranoia and fear towards the new Constitution also rises. As mentioned before, the Constitution has already gained a bad reputation due to several misplaced comments which were given unsavoury and unnecessary attention by the media.

Major changes to the Constitution of Sri Lanka are still in the pipeline, with the government encouraging citizens to submit their own suggestions for constitutional amendments that seek to, among other things, abolish the Executive Presidency, change the electoral system, and bring about meaningful and lasting reconciliation.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka has seen numerous amendments throughout the years, the latest and most important of which was the 19th Amendment. This Amendment, that was passed following Common Candidate Maithripala Sirisena taking the control of the nation's power seat, sought to dilute some powers of the much maligned Executive Presidency and establish a Constitutional Council that could set up the long overdue Independent Commissions.

Adopting a new Constitution will requires a two-thirds majority in Parliament followed by an islandwide Referendum as well. The abolition of the Executive Presidency is one of the major priorities in the new Constitution – something that every President since Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga promised but failed to deliver, for various reasons (some valid - like the impending war- and some not so much).

Another contentious issue that is expected to be taken up is the country's electoral process: Sri Lanka currently uses a proportional representation system where each contesting party is allocated a number of seats from the quota for each district.

This quota is calculated according to the proportion of the total vote that party obtains in the said district. A mixed electoral system that combines proportional representation and first-past-the-post voting has been in the national discourse for some time now and will likely be adopted going forward.

Although the details are unclear at present, one of the more crucial changes will be one that seeks to establish a pluralist Sri Lankan identity that will hopefully provide a lasting solution to the ethnic issue.

Regardless of the government's attempt to stop all speculations surfacing in order to barricade and hinder the process. One such speculation is that the new Constitution would recognize the country as a secular country – where the religion and the State become separate.

This proposal which was made by two individuals of the public, as reported later, became the butt of speculation and eventually the battle cry for hate mongers who claimed that the current government has finally started showing their true colours by endangering the Sinhala Buddhist sovereignty which was given full priority by the nation's governing body since the dawn of time.

The hate went out and spread to the ignoramus racists who prefer to be recognized as nationalists and eventually the rest of the populace of the country. What started out as a mere public proposal – the mole hill – in the end became a mountain due to the unnecessary speculation.

Yet, this is not the one and only tattle tale that has spread suspicions with regard to the new Constitution. There are so many others. The only way to stop all this drama is to finally take some quick steps in drafting the Constitution.

It may be easier said than done, we know. But once the draft becomes available in the public domain, it will be easier to refute all baseless and false allegations against it. It will be the ultimate sucker punch to the naysayers. This is why it is necessary and essential at the same time.

Daily News Editorial

A welcome suggestion

29 November 2016

The proposal made by Southern Province Governor Hemakumara Nanayakkara for a common commemoration day where ALL those who died during the 30 year war was remembered no doubt would be welcomed by moderates across the ethnic divide. The Governor was responding to a call by Northern Provincial Councillor M.K. Sivajilingam to commemorate “Great Heroes Day” or Mahaveerar Day, a practise followed by slain LTTE leader Prabhakaran to commemorate dead members of his outfit.

Nanayakkrara told journalists at a media briefing that all sides lost their loved ones during the war. “Whether it were soldiers, civilians or LTTE combatants, lives were lost and people can commemorate the dead”, the Governor said.

Coming from Nanayakkara, who was at one time a hard line nationalist, it is hoped, will have a sobering effect on those with a similar bent to look at things from a different perspective and be accommodating.

Sivajilingam's bone of contention was that if the JVP has reserved a day in the year to commemorate their dead, why not for the LTTE. But as is always been pointed out, the LTTE is still a proscribed organisation while the ban against the JVP was lifted a long time ago with the outfit today even represented in parliament. But, now that the Governor has been forthright in this connection, it is worthwhile for the authorities to ponder on this question and be a bit more liberal. After all, not all the LTTE combatants were volunteers. A sizable segment among its cadres were conscripted and had to do the bidding of the leaders. Among the LTTE youth who were killed by the forces there would no doubt have been those who were similarly conscripted and sent to the battlefront as cannon fodder. A good many of them also died at the hands of the LTTE for straying from the path chosen for them. Hence there can be nothing wrong in permitting parents and relatives to commemorate their dead.

But there can be no question of marking the event under the tag “Mahaveerar” which implies the commemoration of Prabhakaran and his bloodthirsty band of terrorists. As stated by Minister D.M. Swaminathan; “If someone in your family has died, it is common to remember them. You can pray for their souls and that's about it”. But the problem with persons like Sivajilingam is their desire to resurrect the memory of Prabhakaran under the guise of commemorating the dead. Here again is a parallel with the JVP whose “Martyrs Day” event is merely a cover to eulogise Rohana Wijeweera.

One could say that the JVP too, particularly during it second uprising, committed acts of barbarism. It not only killed, but even mutilated its victims who were tied to lamp posts. It went to extremes, where even Buddhists monks were beheaded. Countless number of innocent civilians, local government politicians, artistes and government ministers lost their lives at the hands of the outfit. The government too got into the act and paid the JVP with the same coin matching the barbarism it unleashed. Yet, it is today permitted to commemorate its “martyrs”, with all things forgotten. Perhaps Sivajilingam's grouse may be based on this thinking.

Be that as it may, the present government did the right thing by toning down the war heroes commemoration event in the South. Instead, it has decided to have a commemoration of all the war victims, across the ethnic divide, on the lines suggested by the Southern Province Governor. Prior to that, the war heroes’ commemoration was used as a cover for the self aggrandizement of a few, while the real war heroes who fought it out on the battlefield were relegated to the background. The event also had all the ingredients of triumphalism where a particular ethnic group was made to feel a vanquished race. Hence the change in tone is to be welcomed. It will also assist in the reconciliation effort that is now being pursued in earnest.

Probe this planned bus strike

A section of the private bus operators are poised to strike, in protest against the proposed minimum fine hike to Rs. 2,500 and the 25,000 to be fined for specific road offences, it is reported. However President of the Private Bus Owners’ Association Gemunu Wijeratne said his Association has refused to join the strike since the fines have yet to be approved by parliament. The whole affair, on the face of it, appears to be a political battle between rival bus unions. It is well known that Gemunu Wijeratne is a sympathiser of the government and even contested the 2010 general election from the UNP, albeit unsuccessfully. The bus associations which are planning the strike are mostly based in the Southern Province from where the SLFP, or Joint Opposition, derives its support. Earlier too the battle between the two factions took on political overtones with Gemunu coming for some heavy flak from the rival unions. Hence the government should investigate if the unions planning the strike are backed by a political grouping and take appropriate action if that be the case. The travelling public, on no account, should be made to suffer due to political rivalry by private bus operators.

The Island Editorial

The identikit circus

29 November 2016

 

Police have released to the media another sketch of a suspect allegedly responsible for killing The Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunga in January 2008. There seems to be no end in sight to the process of identikits being publicised and public assistance sought to apprehend the killers of Lasantha.

There is reason to believe that the government and the police are not so keen to go all out to solve the crime. For, they have stopped short of doing what must be done to ascertain vital information about the killers of journalists, including Lasantha.

Former Rivira editor Upali Tennekoon and his wife Dhammika, who courageously grappled with an armed assailant and saved her husband’s life, in January 2009, came here a few months ago and identified the suspect arrested and produced before court.

Upali and Dhammika saw the assailant only briefly while struggling for life, but there is a senior journalist who suffered at the hands of a group of abductors for long enough to figure out who had ordered his abduction. In May 2008, the then Associate Editor of The Nation Keith Noyahr was abducted near his home and taken to a hideout where he was tortured and grilled for hours. So, being the experienced journalist that he is Keith must have been able to guess from the kind of questions he was asked and what his abductors discussed among themselves who was behind that operation. Keith is now living in Australia, where he fled, fearing further attacks here. Why the police have not contacted him, requesting his assistance to nab those who harmed journalists is the question.

The government has taken the trouble of tracing some Australian citizens and securing their help to arraign one of its bêtes noires, Udaya Gammanpila, on charges of a financial fraud. It has also launched a worldwide search in a bid to trace its opponents’ offshore accounts. Strangely, that kind of high octane performance is conspicuous by its absence on its part when it comes to investigating the Lasantha assassination.

It is also puzzling why the CID has not yet sought former UNP MP Joseph Michael Perera’s help to bring the killer/s of Lasantha to justice. In 2008, Perera as the then Chief Government Whip, making a special statement in Parliament, called for the arrest of the members of a special army unit which, he said, operated under the then Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka and carried out attacks on journalists. The CID got cracking on the Thajudeen murder and made some high profile arrests. Why has it ignored Perera’s revelation?

The present-day leaders who benefited from Lasantha’s newspaper which promoted their interests should prove that they are not a bunch of hypocritical ingrates by having his assassination properly probed.

We think the police are purposely barking up the wrong tree to have the public believe that they are doing something about the killing of journalists. The Rajapaksa government stood accused of ordering the Lasantha assassination and other attacks on journalists and, therefore, it is only natural that the Joint Opposition is silent on the issue. The UNP is wary of ordering action against the suspects it once named in Parliament as the killers of journalists because they are now within its ranks. The TNA, which leads the ‘pro-government Opposition’, has a history of turning a blind eye to tens of thousands of atrocities committed by the LTTE against civilians and its silence on the killing of journalists is understandable. The JVP also finds it difficult to live down its ugly past and is, therefore, wary of flogging the issue of politically motivated assassinations. The government has media rights groups eating out of its hand; and their bark is worse than their bite!

Police act like a gypsy’s monkey which turns somersaults when its master tugs at the rope tied to its waist and then goes into slumber thereafter. So, the identikit circus, as it were, is likely to go on until other issues crop up and eclipse the ‘investigations’ into the attacks on journalists.