Ceylon Today Editorial

APOCALYPSE ROUND THE CORNER?

26 February 2017

The nerve agent that was used to kill Kim Jong-nam, half brother of North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-un, who has summarily killed several of his relations and top military men on mere suspicion of betrayal, is among the most deadly chemical weapons of mass destruction ever developed. Identified only as VX, the nerve agent kills in a couple of minutes. It's banned by the UN as a chemical weapon of mass destruction. Needless to say the killing has sent shockwaves ripping through every political capital in the world

But how much of a stockpile does Korea have? Experts say it's relatively easy to manufacture.

Jong-nam fled Korea to escape an assassination by his brother. That Jong-nam had no other enemies points the finger directly at Jong-un...and hence raises fears of assassins sent out to world capitals by him with the same lethal VX to take out world leaders.

VX is so dangerously and rapidly effective that only a few countries, including North Korea, failed to destroy their stockpiles of the killer nerve agent under a UN Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993.

Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins University Centre for Health Security has said that the frighteningly lethal nerve agent can easily make an entire area non-usable by any life form.

"It's heavier than other nerve agents, so it settles on an environment and can be persistent on the ground. If it was used in larger quantities, it could make an area non-usable," he has said.

Global intelligence services have all confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin's friend President Assad of Syria has huge stockpiles of chemical weapons in Syria. The specially re-fitted US MV Cape Ray has docked in Spain en route to Syria where, when opportune, it will take out to sea an estimated 560 metric tonnes of chemical weapons, some of which has been reportedly used by Assad already against rebels. VX is among that stockpile, experts say.

VX has the consistency of motor oil that attacks the nervous system and causes convulsions, seizures and paralysis before death.

"It's probably the most sophisticated nerve agent that has been developed," says Charles Duelfer, a former US intelligence officer and weapons inspector and former head of the fact-finding mission that looked for weapons of mass destruction – including VX – in Iraq.

Saddam Hussein is believed to have used VX against Iranian forces in the Iran-Iraq War, and then again in a 1988 massacre of Iraqi Kurds that killed 50,000 people, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo also used VX for targeted assassinations.

No one knows for how long Kim Jong-un has been having VX. If his brother's assassination is traced back to him, the assassination could have been a dry run to see how quickly and efficiently any world leader opposed to Jong-un could be taken out on an airliner, in public places or just added onto a bullet head to hit a target at medium to long range.

This possibility has sent shockwaves through all world capitals, especially because Jong-un has successfully test-fired a nuclear missile that can hit Seoul in minutes. But VX carried in artillery rockets? The thought is petrifying!

Experts say the toxin "was almost certainly produced in a sophisticated State weapons laboratory, despite being banned under an international treaty. North Korea never signed that treaty, and has spent decades developing a complex chemical weapons programme that has long worried the international community".

South Korea, the US, EU and Japan will be deeply worried especially because it's not known whether they have a ready response to a possible large VX attack by Jong-un.

Experts in Malaysia have begun studying trace amounts of VX found on Kim's body in a bid to find out from whom the North Koreans learned to make VX.

This means that Jong-un can easily target anyone he pleases in any country in the world...AND THAT INCLUDES SRI LANKA.

All of this makes us ask what possible precautions we can take in the event of such an attack in Colombo or elsewhere in Sri Lanka? As easily done as in Malaysia, after all!

Let's not forget the string of power outages we experienced last year...all of them as easily possibly done by hacking into the national grid as the Russians and Chinese have hacked into the Ukrainian and US national grids, respectively. At the opportune time, any of these three nations could create unprecedented global havoc bringing industry, commerce and domestic life to a total stop now that they have made their trial runs and found that they work perfectly.

Add VX and we have apocalypse now!

If Putin can dismiss Assad's use of chemical weapons and help him crush pro-democracy rebels, the VX stockpiles in Syria can be frightening for NATO.

Weekend Nation Editorial

Keep big matches to the field

26 February 2017

It is the season of big matches once again. It’s a season of celebrating the history, tradition, and rivalry between schools that have been battling it out for supremacy of the Gentlemen’s game each year.

Cycle parades, trucking and all sorts of processions adorn the main roads of Colombo as the days draw closer.

Sri Lanka boasts of the second, longest running domestic cricket tournament in the form of the much hyped, much celebrated, Royal-Thomian encounter. The Battle of the Blues as it is popularly known is next to the England’s Eton-Harrow encounter which started in 1805.

However, even the Eton-Harrow encounter had to be halted during the World War 2, which was not the case with the Royal-Thomian matches.

Over the years, many schools have come into being part of the big-match culture of Sri Lanka. Several schools have developed a healthy rivalry over the years by having their own big match fixtures. Fixtures such as the ‘Battle of the Maroons (Ananda vs Nalanda), Battle of the Saints (St. Peter’s vs St. Joseph), Battle of the Hills (Kingswood vs Dharmaraja) and the Battle of the North (St. John’s vs. Central College) have become part of the big match culture over the years.

However, the worrying factor here is the emergence of a sub-culture of sorts in the form of gang mentality. Gang mentality is highly prevalent among students who are often part of small cliques.

Most of the time, you see this groups chatting away in several places near their tutorial or in some public places.

However, you never know when these cheerful camaraderie of youngsters would turn violent. That’s how fragile and unpredictable these cliques are.

This was what happened recently when students of three popular schools in Colombo clashed causing damage to property while injuring several others. Several of the students were arrested following the incident.

Students should be loyal to their alma-mater. But, the loyalty should not be shown through street fights. Creating chaos in the name of a school only brings disrepute to the institution, to the students, and to their families. That is a display of a lack of good breeding, inability to settle disputes amicably and aping the underworld culture of “have gun, will fight”.

The school-brawls that was mentioned above led to calls for the banning of big matches in the country, where the proponents have linked matches with alcohol, violence etc. They opine that big matches is the fountain from which emanates all that is bad warranting prohibition. While these calls could be considered absurd in the context of its popularity and following, one cannot brush away the fact that big matches, and the days running up to the event, serve as breeding grounds for violence between student factions.

Blaming big matches as causes for violence and tension is absurd. Sri Lanka has enough and more examples to show how grown-ups, including those in the corridors of power, have behaved before the eyes of the public.

Meanwhile, in yet another disturbing development, several international schools pulled out of the International Schools Athletic Championships (ISAC) due to an anonymous letter which warned of bomb attacks during the event.

What was worse is that the letter was allegedly signed by students of a leading international school.

On one side, the letter could have been a hoax or a prank. But look at the impact it has created. It had resulted in several schools pulling out of an event at the last minute. The money, the planning, and the effort put in for the event, all for vain.

If the letter was in fact sent by a group of students, then it is a matter to be concerned. The students may not have been serious about it, but the damage is irreversible But this is exactly why we need a level-headed and rational-thinking generation of youngsters to take control of the country.

Why do they need to fight to prove their loyalty to the schools? Are not there better ways to show your love and respect to the hallowed institutions?

Are these institutions failing in their duties to instill discipline, goodwill among students and enhance their social capacity to deal with ?

What about the parents. Parent affection is displayed by bringing the child to school and picking up, even painting or colour washing schools, pressurizing teachers to favour one’s children, carting the child day in and day out to tuition classes, but, sorely neglecting the counselling of one’s child, instilling in them the sense of fair play and respect for their own mates irrespective of school. These are some issues that elude most parents today.

No parent or teacher is in control over the students when they are between the gates of their schools and homes. The students themselves are responsible for their own actions. However, if these actions cause public nuisance, then they not only tarnish their own reputation, but also that of the school’s.

Sunday Times Editorial

Win-win solution for migrant worker issues

26 February 2017

Last Sunday’s front page lead story in this newspaper on the risk to foreign employment due to the 2017 Budget by raising the minimum wage for skilled labour seems to have caught the eye of Parliament. The Minister in charge of Foreign Employment confirmed the fact that her ministry was rather perturbed that it had not been consulted, and wanted the proposal reversed.

Foreign remittances of workers and others overseas have become the single largest foreign exchange earner and are now the mainstay of successive Budgets of successive Governments which have been unable to generate sufficient finances on their own but go on a spending spree nevertheless.

US dollars 7.2 billion (Rs. 1.1 trillion) is what foreign remittances bought in to this country in 2016. The fact that Sri Lanka is facing a debt crisis of huge proportions is an open secret. Desperate for foreign investment that has otherwise dried up, and the rupee on a slippery slope against the US dollar, the Government’s predicament is somewhat understandable.

In this desperation, however, to try and tap even more from the reservoir of foreign remittances by upping the minimum wage of migratory workers — they seem to almost to count the chicks before they are hatched — is to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. What the Government must endeavour to do instead is to lobby more aggressively in the manner of ‘collective bargaining’ with other countries providing expat labour, especially in West Asia so that adventurist exercises like what the Government seeks to do don’t come a cropper in the long run by other countries snapping up the jobs Sri Lankans can have. The end aim should be getting a better deal for all concerned.

The Government must play the role of a trade union demanding better wages and working conditions from the employer, mindful also that West Asian and Gulf countries are facing their own economic slumps with oil prices dropping in recent times and wars in the region.
Only last month did the Abu Dhabi Dialogue – an initiative by the United Arab Emirates having stakeholders highlight the potential of contractual labour mobility to benefit workers in West Asia and the host country, meet in Sri Lanka. Known as the ‘Colombo Process’, the exercise is a tribute to employer-employee relations and an exemplary milestone in migratory contractual labour mobility.

New laws and regulations and transparent recruitment mechanisms were highlighted along with achieving the migration-related target of the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals as part of its work plans. Bangladesh has urged that the deliberations of the ‘Colombo Process’ be conveyed to the Global Compact on Safe and Orderly Migration Policy in New York.

It need not be all horror stories coming from West Asia and the Gulf. There may be commendable moves initiated to dissuade Sri Lankan women from going as housemaids to some of the countries, and promoting skilled workers to go for foreign employment rather than as mere labourers. But without providing the training facilities for those skilled labourers who are in short supply, the Government is putting the cart before the horse in fixing minimum wages. That will only prevent more Sri Lankans from finding jobs abroad triggering a drop, not an increase, in revenue to the state purse.

With Sri Lanka now in the chair of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue and the ‘Colombo Process’, one would hope for a more enlightened approach on a win-win basis for Sri Lanka’s golden goose — the long suffering migrant workers without whose remittances this country would be in even deeper economic troubles.

Talks behind closed doors

As if synchronised, visits this week by US Congressmen, a senior Indian diplomat and members of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, are no better a pointer to the geopolitical interest in Sri Lanka.

The Government has not thought it necessary to let the people know what these visits were all about. Keeping them below the radar, the Government seems to believe that what the people do not know, is not happening. Or that the plebs need not know what their leaders do. It was only the President’s Media Unit that at least issued a bare-bones release on some of the visits. The result; widespread speculation, intensifying suspicion, but the Government seems to care little.

What the discerning public receive are the official release from the Indian side and reports published in the Indian media (often reproduced locally) on the Indian Foreign Secretary’s visit. The Chinese would rather stay below the radar saying the visit was to discuss the entire gamut of China’s recent investments in Sri Lanka, but the corridors of power are buzzing with the talk that it was another reading of the ‘Riot Act’ to Sri Lankan leaders to hurry up and sign the controversial agreement for the Hambantota Port Development Project, now stalled by public protests and a pending court case.

Even if the Sri Lankan Government maintains a deafening silence, the unusually loquacious Chinese ambassador has recently spoken in public on the status of these negotiations, suggesting what is best for Sri Lanka, when a case is being adjudicated before the country’s Supreme Court. Acting in the manner of a Viceroy, the envoy who is invited to brief Cabinet sub-committees nowadays, is certainly not going to be summoned by the Foreign Ministry to be cautioned about diplomatic conduct. On the other hand, with the new US Administration changing course on two issues that country championed for decades – free trade and free speech, it may be China wanting the mantle – at least abroad.

Recent reports indicate that several countries have begun reviewing rapidly expanding Chinese investments around the world on the basis of “national interest”. Some projects have been cancelled in Australia and Germany on these grounds. Beijing is also imposing a certain amount of controls on the outflow of its capital.

The Hambantota port and Colombo’s ‘Financial District’, which is the port city, may fall into the category of strategic interests to China rather than of commercial value, but what Sri Lanka must guard against is that in its negotiations, secret as they are, don’t run counter to our own long-term national interests; and that they are not merely seen from the prism of overcoming an immediate debt problem that the previous Sri Lankan Government foisted on the people.

From all accounts, the Indian Foreign Secretary has given a telling message that the 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord is outdated in some aspects and the demand for the North-East merger is now passé. Whether the contentious issue of poaching in Sri Lankan waters by Indian fishermen, causing irreparable harm to the Sri Lankan economy was ever discussed is anybody’s guess. With a pro-active disclosure policy under the new Right to Information Law in operation on the one hand, the acute deficiency in letting the citizens know the outcome of all these discussions with these key overseas players on the other, is not just unfortunate, it is not in the public interest.

Sunday Observer Editorial

Public safety at sea

26 February 2017

The boat tragedy that occurred in the seas off the Kalutara coast last Sunday draws attention to a number of aspects of public safety at sea. At a time when the country’s tourism industry is beginning to exploit the potentials of our coasts and seas, the tragedy must be seen as a powerful warning to get our acts together even as we seek to reap the benefits.

Judicial proceedings are under way to ascertain the exact causes of death and injury and to pinpoint human culpability. But, various dimensions of what happened in our normally beautiful coastal waters off the Katukurunda beach point to different aspects of human safety.

The cause of the tragedy was the capsizing of the small multi-day fishing boat which was carrying over 40 pilgrims. The seas at the time were calm with little or no waves. Most indications are that the immediate cause of capsizing of the boat was the craft’s top heavy state with far too many passengers on board.

In fact, in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, one pilgrim related to news media how he made his family disembark from the boat because he felt that there were already too many people on board. His sensibility may have saved his life and of his loved ones, but, clearly no sense had impacted on the minds of the unfortunate other passengers and boat crew.

The over-crowding of the boat points to the need for stricter regulations on the use of such craft for various purposes. The government’s enforcement of current laws to ban the use of fishing craft for passenger ferrying may be seen only as an intermediate measure. After all, even in countries where regular ferry services are a major local industry, capsizing or sinking due to overcrowding is common.

Much of our coastal communities yet lack the resources to allow for the development of dedicated coastal passenger ferry services that can then cater to seasonal needs like the transport of pilgrims by sea or annual boat processions for religious festivals. It may be inevitable that the lack of passenger boats may compel people to use fishing boats for the occasional pilgrimage.

In these circumstances, what is required is the applying of strict rules on passenger limits and the enforcement of such rules without favour. In addition to strict limits to numbers, on board accommodation design, passenger comfort and, safety inside the vessel also needs to be regulated and standardised. This should include the compulsory provision of life jackets to all passengers.

There are other aspects that need to be addressed with regard to public safety at sea. Boat crews need to have minimum swimming skills and life saving skills as part of their competence to operate such small scale ferry services. The sea worthiness of such vessels should be regulated. Furthermore, the sea-going range of such small vessels should be strictly regulated.

Today, with tourism, both domestic and foreign, booming, all these standards and facilities need to be introduced without delay.

Appointment of a High Court Judge

A minor furore broke out last week over the appointment of a lawyer to a provincial High Court with wild charges of constitutional violation, political favours and ethnic bias being flung hither and thither.

The judge concerned had been a practising lawyer at the unofficial bar in one of the country’s most prominent judicial areas of Batticaloa.

Sober examination of the issue throws a reassuring light on the facts and circumstances.

Such appointment of lawyers to the judicial bench is not uncommon and has occurred in many parts of the world where democratic judicial systems function. It has happened before in Sri Lanka too.

A recent similar appointment in this country was made during the tenure of Chief Justice Sarath Silva. In this case, too, the rationale was to redress the paucity of Tamils on the bench.

After decades of disruptive war and ethnic conflict, there has been the inevitable decline of minority professionals holding office in many institutions. At this time of reconciliation, the redressing of such imbalances is a matter of priority.

What is critical is the observation of proper procedure in such appointments. In the appointment in question, even as the relevant professional bodies themselves have recognised, all such procedure and formalities have been observed.

The competence of the individual is recognised. The President, in making the appointment has consulted with all requisite officers and obtained their concurrence.

The only criticism seems to be emanating from political sources and these sources are well known for their penchant to raising inter-ethnic suspicions unscrupulously and solely for their own political advantage. It is noteworthy that during the tenure of some of these politicos there were many such appointments to officialdom of people with no competence whatsoever. And, the citizenry well remembers the flagrant violation of procedure and protocol in the making of these appointments.

Sunday Island Editorial

Corruption and the courts

26 February 2017

 

We have today run three of the concluding paragraphs of the Indian Supreme Court judgment on the Sasikala case on our front page today as we believe that there are many things for us in Sri Lanka to learn about how India tackles corruption among politicians.

There is no need to labour the point that corruption among politicians is as bad here as in India. India being a huge country, the scale of corruption there must necessarily be much greater than in this small island of ours. But the fact that the various investigative agencies were able over a period of many years to gather reams of material to convict both Jayalalithaa, Sasiskala’s mentor and her protégé who may yet ascend the chief ministerial throne in Chennai is a matter of no small import. True, the Karnataka High Court overturned the original court verdict but the Indian Supreme Court has delivered the final judgment and Sasikala is in jail.

Sil redhi (paid for by the taxpayers) is small change compared to the goodies like rice cookers, television receivers and what not gifted to Tamil Nadu voters at election time. UNPers earned the appellation of buth gottas for the practice of giving a packet of rice, often accompanied by a bottle of arrack, to their supporters when their assistance to win elections became necessary. Now buriyani packets and something to wash it down with is standards issue, along with T-shorts, caps and saris in party colours. Sil redhi was a new one. This matter is now subject of a court hearing and the final verdict will be a judicial determination. There has been testimony that millions of rupees of funds belonging to the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission had been paid on ‘orders from above’ to pay for the cloth that appeared to have been distributed as a vote gathering sweetener.

It was in the post-1977 period that corruption and commissions went sky high. That phenomenon was directly related to the growth of public expenditure with several gigantic schemes like the Mahaweli diversion and many more taking off. The money supply of the country multiplied not tenfold but hundredfold - maybe more. There will be people who will remember that the National Savings Bank whose interest rates some decade earlier were at lower single digits paid as much as 22 percent at a time that the rupee was depreciated very steeply against hard currencies like the dollar and the pound sterling. Huge contracts were awarded and huge commissions were ‘earned’ – if that is the right word to use. Robbed seems more appropriate. Politicians, bureaucrats and various agents representing foreign suppliers made mega bucks on the various schemes. These additional costs, as they must, eventually trickled down to the taxpayer where the buck always stops. US President Harry Truman once famously said "The Buck Stops Here" meaning the presidency. That buck of course was of the ‘passing the buck’ variety, not hard cash.

Though Sasikala maybe in jail serving a four year term, and also faces a 10-year ban from politics, her nominee has taken office as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. She commands the loyalty of the majority of the State Assembly and like some of our drug barons in prison she would be able to pull the strings manipulating many affairs of government. Older readers may remember that here in Sri Lanka many decades ago political parties nominated MPs found guilty by a Bribery Commission to stand for re-election and the voters re-elected them. The gratifications that may have been taken then would have been small change by today’s standards. As one of those MP’s said, they were small santhosams for the "work I have done." Such work may have been securing a transfer or helping somebody to get a job. There was one MP, found guilty of bribery, who was expelled from Parliament during the 1965 Dudley Senanayake government. We cannot remember any other such cases.

Today a whole host of functionaries of the previous regime are under investigations and many of them have been hauled before the courts and placed in remand. How successful these investigations will be and whether hard evidence that can ensure conviction has been unearthed in an open question. Just like people by and large are very well aware that corruption was rampant during the Mahinda Rajapaksa years, they are equally aware that the situation is no better now. Witch hunting allegations are legion and questions are being asked whether those in office today are immune from investigation. We do not know whether the various investigating authorities do their work in a chronological order so that the older cases come up first. But there is a clear perception that there are attempts to protect those who belong to the ruling establishment or has its patronage. The alleged bond scam matter though is now subject to an inquiry by a Special Presidential Commission in what appears to be a tussle between the two constituents of the ruling National Unity Government.

Investigating Jayalalithaa and Sasikala over a period of nearly 20 years, despite various compulsions of coalition politics, is no mean achievement. So also the judgment of the original trial court which though reversed by the High Court of Karnataka, has now been affirmed by the Supreme Court of India. President Sirisena has chosen to go public about how a former chief justice had seen him not once but twice pleading to be retained in office and promising judgments desired by the rulers. We have had another chief justice apologizing for a wrong judgment. He continues to publicly consort with politicians to the detriment of the institution he once headed. India has no such problems with its highest court enjoying the greatest respect of the people. Given the proportions corruption has assumed in our country, perhaps a degree of judicial activism in this area is desirable.