Daily News Editorial

A timely overture

17 February 2017

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's appeal to all Lankan “asylum seekers” in Australia to return home with no questions asked would we welcomed by all those who lay great store in the country's honour and dignity. Sri Lanka earned a blackened image for itself as another country of Boat People in the same way as the Cambodians who fled their country to escape the Khmer Rouge in the late seventies. Though the Lankan exodus was nowhere near the same magnitude, it was nevertheless a slur that the country could have well done without.

True, a majority of those who fled were Tamils, in the aftermath of the ethnic war, fearing persecution at the hands of the state or majority reprisals. This was also the time of the dreaded White Van where Tamils were said to have been abducted for ransom with the full knowledge of a powerful defence official. There were also the “Economic Refugees” who fell victim to human smugglers and rounded up at the other end to be banished to Australia's off shore islands for a vetting process. These “asylum seekers” are still being held in these islands pending deportation.

Like the Premier said, these unfortunates, who braved the rough seas, risking their lives, some fleeing persecution while others seeking the pot of gold, had entered the Australia illegally and liable for punishment. But the Premier had chosen to overlook the offence and invited them back to the country with the promise to ‘forgive and forget'.

Not just in Australia, we have had ‘asylum seekers’ who were streaming out of the country in their thousands at the height of ethnic war who have now settled down in Western countries which were more accommodating than Australia. A good many of them were professionals and skilled workers, lost to the country. These are the people who today form what is known as the Tamil Diaspora. On an earlier occasion Foreign Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera wanted to invite the members of this diaspora, as a gathering, in Sri Lanka, a move that was viewed with a jaundiced eye by the nationalist elements of the Joint Opposition who forget that even former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in the first flush of the war victory, invited ALL Sri Lankans domiciled in the West to return to the country to help rebuild the nation.

President Sirisena too has time and again made overtures to the Lankan community living abroad to return and be partners of the development process. However a climate conducive for the return of these Lankans should be created if the country is to avail itself of their skills and expertise once again. The current spate of strikes and the resulting dislocation of public life is certainly not going to inspire these Lankans to return to their motherland. Nor will the chauvinistic slogans and nationalist rhetoric beckon these people to come back. If even they are to consider returning, the government should make it worth their while. This could be done by offering them attractive terms in the professions and the many fields that require the special skills of these folk.

One should also consider the fact that the older generation of the Tamil minorities fled the country due to a sense of discrimination they harboured after Sinhala Only became official government policy. Their progeny too may be of the same mindset. This is why we should at least now try to end this senseless rabid nationalism that is being practised by some which will not only put off those willing to take on the President's offer but also drive away others from the country.

To her credit, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga strove to undo her father's legacy while she was at the helm of affairs, going to the extent of even attempting to introduce a constitution which was all but Federal in name. Had such a spirit been nurtured following her departure from office the Tamil minorities living abroad would certainly have been encouraged to return to their roots.

GL’s selective amnesia

The General Secretary of the newly formed “pohottuwa” party Prof G.L. Peiris has lashed out at the government accusing it of trying to interfere in judicial appointments. His grouse is the undue appointment of a High Court judge bypassing those with seniority. Peiris has from time to time displayed this tendency of selective amnesia.

The former law professor was a powerful Minister in both the CBK and MR governments when the country's judiciary was plagued with scandalous appointments. Peiris was not concerned about seniority when Sarath Silva was elevated to the post of Chief Justice bypassing the more senior Mark Fernando. Neither did he give a tuppence for seniority, when he, on his personal initiative, brought his student, Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake, from nowhere to be planted as a Supreme Court Judge. Peiris also had no qualms when Mahinda Rajapaksa overlooked Appeal Court President the late Justice Sri Skandaraja for appointment to the Supreme Court, all because the latter gave a judgement in favour of the selfsame Shirani Bandanayake in the infamous impeachment matter. So much for seniority talk.

Ceylon Today Editorial

Sri Lankan refugee

17 February 2017

This newspaper's lead story yesterday was Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe's appeal to Sri Lankan asylum seekers in Australia to return to the island with the promise that they won't be persecuted.

'...Come back. All is forgiven....,' he's said, on his recent tour to Australia.

Refugees from Sri Lanka, first entered the country's lexicon after the events that took place in the country's political and economic landscape 40 years ago in July '77, in a watershed general election held then. Prior to '77, 'Sri Lankan refugees' was not there in the English vocabulary.

From an economic perspective, the change of government in '77 saw the transformation of the island's landscape, from an inward looking, closed, conservative and protectionist economy, to an outward looking, open and a liberal economy.

On the political front, a landmark event also took place in the country's then, short, 29-year-old history of independence.

It also saw, for the first time, the then minority racist political party, the TULF, belonging to the country's minority Jaffna Tamil community, the island's single largest ethnic minority group, which predominates the country's Northern Province , who, together with their Tamil brethren in the East, form the single largest ethnic group in the Eastern Province, being successfully elected to Parliament as Sri Lanka's main opposition party, having had contested on the separatist ticket from those two geographical areas of Sri Lanka.

There was then no Sixth Amendment to the Constitution, a law which was passed 'too little, too late,' after the horrors of July '83, making separatism an offence, an action akin to closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Nonetheless, July '83 was a turning point in the country's history, adding fuel to the fire that was the island's refugee syndrome, which, however, had its beginnings after the events that overshadowed the country's political and economic landscape in July '77.

The gigantic irrigation schemes in the South that were started by the government which was elected to power in Colombo in July '77, virtually cut off the need for the South, where, 'coincidentally' the bulk of Sri Lanka's majority Sinhala population, some 75-77% live, of having to depend on the North for their subsistence.

Sri Lanka was then suffering from double digit unemployment and if the lowly agriculture sector now supports 30% of the country's employed population, it may have had been as high as 40% then. But with agriculture, particularly in the North, suffering from the vast irrigation projects launched in the South, that, further fuelled unemployment in the North, providing fodder for the separatist political groupings in the North who were overtly and covertly supporting the armed Tamil terrorist groups from that area of the island.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's then Opposition Leader Appapillai Amirthalingam, a Jaffna Tamil leading the then separatist TULF Party, supported by Indira Gandhi's India which was hostile towards Colombo, continued to espouse separatism, while arousing Sinhala passions by condoning Tamil separatist terrorist actions of political murders, destruction to State assets, robberies of State banks and the killing of members of the Security Forces and the Police, where those terrorists were provided a safe haven in Tamil Nadu (TN) by Gandhi's stooge, M. G. Ramachandran, the then TN Chief Minister.

That may have been the beginning of the lexicon, 'Sri Lankan 'refugee', entering the English vocabulary, albeit from a distorted and perverted sense, and not afterwards.

In that context, Sri Lanka's 'refugee' community, leading from the events that took place after July '77 and up to and following July '83 and subsequently July '87 (the second JVP uprising in the South), comprises three elements.

Those are, primarily, at the beginning, terrorist elements, followed by economic elements and lastly, bona fide political refugees suffering from the horrors of the North-East wars and the events that took place in the South in July '83, coupled with the second JVP insurrection of July '87.
'July' has also dominated Sri Lanka's political and economic landscape in the past 40 years, beginning with July '77, running up to July '83 and ending up in 'July '87, which also saw the enforcement of the dubious Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord.

Even prior to July '83, thousands of Tamils, especially those of Jaffna descent, sought refuge in, the then, West Germany, aided by the liberal policies practised by the Bonn Government.

But the guess in everybody's lips then, was that those refugees from the North, and, probably from Trincomalee in the East as well, generally, identified by the Jaffna Tamils as those belonging to their 'community' as opposed to the Batticaloa Tamils from the East, more often than not allegedly looked down upon by them, in reality being economic refugees, no different to a sizeable chunk of the so called refugee community in Australia, especially after the transformation of the island's political landscape on 8 January 2015.

The Island Editorial

Rathana Thera’s karma

17 February 2017

 

Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) big guns fought quite a battle to oust President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2015. Today, they have ganged up against Ven. Athureliye Rathana Thera. They say he, as a UNP National List (NL) MP, has no right to remain independent in Parliament and must resign forthwith. Interestingly, Rathana Thera as well as other JHU heavyweights endorsed defections from the Rajapaksa government to bring the present administration to power! Now, his erstwhile chumps are all out to hound him out of Parliament for breaking ranks with them and the UNP-led coalition. Karmic forces at work!

We don’t intend to get involved in the JHU’s internal dispute, but those who are demanding Rathana Thera’s resignation have apparently ignored some arguments anent NL appointments. The fact that the NL mechanism is blatantly abused by some party leaders has led to the belief that all NL MPs are beholden to their political bosses for their appointments. This may be so in the case of political rejects catapulted to Parliament through the NL. The UNP has gone so far as to appoint Sarath Fonseka, who contested from a different party and suffered an ignominious defeat, as an NL MP. It is antithetical to all democratic norms for politicians rejected by the people, in whom sovereignty is said to reside, to be appointed NL MPs and Cabinet ministers.

However, there is a school of thought that the MPs appointed from a party’s NL, presented to people at a parliamentary election, are justified in arguing that they, too, have been elected, to all intents and purposes, in that the voters have endorsed their nominations.

One may also argue that a considerable number of supporters of Rathana Thera voted for the UNP at the 2015 general election because he was one of its NL nominees. On the other hand, all prominent SLFP and UPFA politicians who defected from the Rajapaksa government and threw in their lot with Maithripala Sirisena and subsequently contested the parliamentary polls on the UNP ticket were returned. Champika Ranawaka, Rajitha Senaratne and Navin Dissanayake are some of them. The UNPers were grateful to them for their contribution to the 2015 regime change, which enabled the UNP to make a comeback. Therefore, Rathana Thera may argue that he, too, could have won like Ranawaka if he had contested the last general election as a UNP candidate.

Moreover, the late Ven. Sobitha Thera and Ven. Rathana Thera were among the leading campaigners who helped defeat the Rajapaksa administration. The UNP had suffered many electoral defeats until then because it opposed the war and was seen to be subservient to separatists. The two monks helped the UNP leaders effectively counter the Rajapaksa government’s malicious propaganda and regain lost ground. Rathana Thera may, therefore, argue that he is not indebted to the UNP or anyone else for his NL appointment and has a right to remain independent in Parliament.

Ven. Sobitha Thera died crestfallen because he felt cheated by the yahapalana leaders, who unconscionably used his social position, popularity, integrity and credibility to rebrand and remarket themselves and make their political project attractive to the public. They wouldn’t have had any peace of mind if he had survived his illness and bounced back; perhaps, they would have ditched him in such an eventuality. Rathana Thera has got the so-called karapincha (curry leaves) treatment—he has been used and discarded—because he has had the courage to voice dissent without being railroaded into submission.

Whether the JHU’s efforts to oust Rathana Thera will reach fruition or not remains to be seen. But, we believe that the Thera has, as a politician, set an example for others to follow in Parliament. The past one and a half decades or so have seen many lawmakers defect and join other parties either for dosh or positions. There has been a proposal to ban crossovers by way of a remedy. But, such action will only put an MP in a constitutional straitjacket and pave the way for the dictatorship of party leaders in that they will be able to suppress dissent ruthlessly and reduce their parliamentarians to mere putty in their hands. A way out may be to make it mandatory for the MPs who decamp to remain independent.