Ceylon Today Editorial

THE MISSING JEWEL IN LANKA’S CROWN
07 December 2016

 

As Goethe once said it with firm conviction and a truly deep insight into the darker side of human nature:"Patriotism corrupts history".

Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, the other day, suggested in a proposal to President Maithripala Sirisena that the Gazette of 1818 issued by the then British colonial government – in which Sinhala heroes of that era who were quite brutally put to death by the British were described as 'traitors' – be annulled and that those heroes be, by another Gazette notification be pronounced as National heroes.

Ironically enough, every year on Poppy Day, which falls on 26 December just 3 weeks away – Britain will once again quite irrationally – to our minds – remember, among others, the British men who were killed by the defending soldiers of the Kandyan King when the UK remembers its fallen dead. Rajapakshe's proposals holds solid substance in this context, for if the Brits think their invading hordes who invaded us and used swords and guns to slaughter Sinhalese men, women and children in their thirst to expand the British Common Wealth, then all of Sri Lanka surely have the right, nay the honour, to celebrate the bravery with which those blithe Kandyan youth and elders gave their lives to protect what was then the Kandyan Kingdom.

In a queer lack of logic, former British Colonies, including Sri Lanka, don't seem to be interested in putting right the flawed records of history, nor seek, nay demand, an apology and compensation from the UK, whose leaders had the audacity to come to Colombo and demand a war crimes tribunal to probe allegations of war crimes against Lankan leaders and soldiers. That can by all means be done but only AFTER A SIMILAR TRIBUNAL SET UP BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY PROBES THE BRITISH WAR CRIMES committed IN SRI LANKA and compels the UK to make appropriate compensation for the destruction done to Sri Lanka during the years of their invasion, killings, conquest and rule.

May we now editorially propose to the government that it also holds a fittingly huge public Poppy Day ceremony at which those heroes suggested by Minister Rajapakshe be ceremonially remembered and installed in an appropriate National Hall of Fame. It would be fitting if the British High Commissioner in Colombo is at hand that day to make a public apology for British atrocities committed during their years in Sri Lanka.

Back in 2012, the then British PM David Cameron ironically sported the Red Poppy to remember England's war dead. The mercenary minded make a rip-off making and selling little papier mache Poppies to cash into the remembrance day.

It's becoming ever clearer that the poppy symbol and the whole concept of remembrance, is being appallingly debased. Right-wing hate groups hijack the poppy symbol in order to raise funds to bankroll their extremist activities; politicians like Theresa May and David Cameron wear the poppy symbol whilst hawking weapons or callously dismissing the plight of dead soldiers; and right-wing hacks hound people for supposedly not showing sufficient respect, despite their publications' recent histories of stealing the private personal details of dead British soldiers! The Brits do not remember and salute the thousands they killed here, the Sinhalese war heroes. Funny that: The aggressor remembered and glorified. We too, honour the British men and women who gave their lives not just for the UK, but for the entire free world in WW2. By that same token, all Sri Lankans must also begin remembering their war heroes who were put to death by the invading British forces in the then Ceylon.

Visiting the Hiroshima War Memorial earlier this year US President Obama said "Seventy-one years ago, on a bright cloudless morning, death fell from the sky and the world was changed." In that war, Japan was the aggressor who triggered the US bombing of Hiroshima. But in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, death came stealthily from the seas in the form of British soldiers. And they called our heroes traitors.

As Goethe said it succinctly, "Patriotism corrupts history"...and Britain's ugly and flawed take on what the true meaning of patriotism means bequeathed to us a corrupted version of history that says our heroes were traitors. It is this aberration of history that Rajapakshe wants remedied and the President would do well to do that and rewrite the truth into our chronicles and thus ensure that those great names feature high on the list of our national heroes.

A nation's culture lies in the hearts and soul of its people said Gandhi. This is a huge fact of our culture that has lain dormant in the heart and soul of this nation for far too long ...and 200 years is a long, long time.

Rajapakshe has given voice to the nation's soul cry.

Daily News Editorial

End of an era in Tamil Nadu

07 December 2016

Jayalalithaa Jayaram, who passed away on Monday night, was one of the region’s most flamboyant, popular and controversial politicians. Jayalalithaa, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, was revered in her home State and even neighbouring states as “Amma” (Mother). Her death at the age of 68 has proved to be unbearable to most people in Tamil Nadu.

Jayalalithaa first gained fame as an actress who was often paired with the legendary M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) in Tamil movies. Kollywood audiences of the 60s and 70s rushed to see movies such as Rahasya Police, Chandrodayam, Kannan En Kadhalan, Thedi Vanda Mapillai, Mattakura Velan, Oli Vilakku, Love Scent, Neerum Neruppam and Raman Thediya Seethai which featured the duo in the lovers’ roles. She would eventually appear in more than 140 Tamil and regional language movies including one Hindi movie.

Some years later, when MGR entered politics, he urged Jayalalithaa to follow suit. The rest, as they say, is history. “MGR has been a great influence in my life, I don’t deny that. But now I am my own person,” she once said. Elected to the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 1989 she took over the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Khazagham (AIADMK) party, becoming the first ever woman opposition leader. A year later she became chief minister for the first time. As head of the AIADMK, she was elected as chief minister of Tamil Nadu on four occasions, overcoming convictions and jail terms to return to office, most recently in May this year. Her nemesis in Tamil Nadu was Muthuvel Karunanidhi, also from the Kollywood Community, who headed the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDK) and became chief minister five times.

Jayalalithaa was essentially a national figure in India and was well known in the wider region. While most Indians would struggle to name the chief ministers of the other 28 States, everyone, even nursery schoolchildren, knew who Jayalalithaa was. Her words and actions were watched closely across the Palk Strait in Sri Lanka too, given the demographics of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province and linguistic and cultural similarities to Tamil Nadu. Jayalalithaa was once a fierce critic of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and urged the Centre to seek the capture and extradition of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran to India for his role in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. She in fact played a major role in India’s decision to ban the LTTE in 1992. However, in the wake of the Sri Lankan Security Forces’ victory over the Tigers in 2009 and an increasingly hostile attitude towards the Sri Lankan government by certain sections of the Tamil Nadu political spectrum, Jayalalithaa too joined the bandwagon and even called for a referendum in Northern in Sri Lanka to ascertain the opinion of the local population on ‘Tamil Eelam’. However, subsequent Tamil Nadu polls results indicated that the Sri Lanka issue had not made a dent in electoral fortunes on either side, with the local populace preoccupied with issues such as abject poverty.

Even the fiercest critics of Jayalalithaa would unhesitatingly admit that poverty was one issue she strove to tackle. She championed the cause of the rural and urban poor by introducing subsidised “Amma” food canteens, providing free laptops to thousands of school pupils and launching other populist schemes like giving away food mixers and grinders to families. Many publicly funded projects in Tamil Nadu were named after her.

However, her detractors saw her anti-poverty campaign as a façade to cover up her lavish lifestyle and higher, national political ambitions. Corruption allegations were not far behind. In 1996, she served one month in jail, having been charged with receiving financial incentives in a scheme to buy more than 40,000 colour televisions for local villages. In 2014 she was sentenced to four years in jail after being convicted of using her position to amass a huge property portfolio, expensive jewellery and luxury cars. She became the first Indian chief minister to be removed from office. Eight months later, the conviction was overturned and within days she was reinstated as Chief Minister. She swept to power again in this year’s elections. “I did not have a coalition and I placed my faith in God and built an alliance with the people,” she said. “I have total faith in the people and the people have faith in me.”

That was never in doubt at any time. A larger than life figure, she was often accused of building a personality cult. But there is no denying that the people of Tamil Nadu genuinely loved her across party, communal and religious lines as seen by the huge crowds that lined up outside the Apollo Hospital in Chennai. O. Panneerselvam, the fierce loyalist of Jayalalithaa who succeeded her as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, has a huge task ahead of him to usher in a new era for the State whilst taking her vision forward. Sri Lankan authorities too must make use of this opportunity to cultivate better ties with Tamil Nadu.

The Island Editorial

‘Curiouser and curiouser’

07 December 2016

 

That the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government is going hell for leather to throw some members of the Rajapaksas clan behind bars is only too well known. Its leaders made various allegations against their predecessors before the last two elections, but they have so far failed to prove at least a single charge. This does not mean the leaders of the previous administration are paragons of virtue. Public perception is that the previous administration was one of the most corrupt regimes in the post-Independence era and one cannot but endorse that widely held view.

Crooks who amassed a great deal of ill-gotten wealth under the last government are still free because the present-day leaders have failed to get their act together; they have only launched Gestapo style probes to achieve their political objectives. Haste, especially when it is politically motivated, is counterproductive in netting rogues responsible for the theft of public funds. The self-proclaimed champions of good governance including many crooks who had crossed over from the Rajapaksa government, made a solemn pledge to bring the corrupt elements of the previous administration to justice within days of forming a government; now, they are faced with the uphill task of making good on its promise to bring back USD 18 billion which, people were told, had been stashed away in offshore accounts by their opponents and trace ‘the golden horse’, which is said to have been brought here all the way from Buckingham Palace.

Curiously, the Attorney General’s Department has withdrawn indictments against former Minister Basil Rajapaksa, who was arraigned on a charge of misappropriating Divineguma funds to print millions of almanacs in the run-up to the last presidential polls. One is intrigued.

The AG’s Department has always had the dubious distinction of being in a mighty hurry to act against Opposition activists to please powers that be and it apparently does its damnedest to live up to that reputation! It is like the proverbial gypsy’s monkey, which somersaults when its master tugs at the rope tied to its waist. Those who expected this circus to end after the change of government last year are disillusioned and disappointed.

The withdrawal of the indictment against Basil et al bolsters the argument in some quarters that the AG’s Department cannot be expected to act properly on the basis of the recent COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) report on the Central Bank bond scams to bring the culprits to justice; a shrewd lawyer can drive a coach and horses through the report which is not technically perfect. On the other hand, the AG’s Department, which examined a file on the bond scams, referred to it by the CID before the last general election, decided that there were no grounds for criminal charges. Worse, the file has been shelved!

The question is how wise it is to consult the Attorney General again on the same issue. Madness has been defined as doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result! Hence, the call for a special presidential inquiry into the COPE findings, with a senior sitting judge as its head, must be heeded. The issue at hand is too serious to be left entirely to the AG’s Department.

The Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) and the AG’s Department must act responsibly without rushing to humour their political masters. Justice delayed is, no doubt, justice denied. But, it is also true that justice hurried is justice buried. It is thanks to the inefficiency of the police and the AG’s Department that the conviction rate remains as low as four percent in this country. President Sirisena stirred a hornets’ nest when he, a few weeks ago, named the FCID as one of the institutions which worked according to a political agenda. But, he has told the truth!

State prosecutors who cannot file an indictment properly are not worth their salt. The AG’s Department must stop wasting the precious time of the judiciary and causing an erosion of pubic faith in the legal process.