Ceylon Today Editorial

WALKING WITH THE ENEMY

07 May 2017

On 7 November last year we witnessed a turn for the worse in the Opposition's brand of politics. At their behest, disabled soldiers who threatened gate crashing into the Presidential Secretariat, demanding a pension, compelled the Police as the situation threatened to escalate, to resort to the use of water cannon and tear gas to disperse them.

Interspersed between the disabled soldiers, obviously stalwarts of the movers and shakers in the Opposition were dissident Buddhist monks and pro-Opposition social political lackeys posing off as social activists. When ever did soldiers need monks and lackeys to draw their chestnuts out of the fire? When did they lose their manhood?

Some of them, having received their pension demand on President Sirisena's orders, were seen at Opposition May Day rallies, a sad commentary on the total lack of morality in Opposition ranks whose leaders seem disposed to stoop to the lowest level, turning the nation's disabled servicemen against the government of the country. That's the same as fostering a treasonable mutiny. Let us not fool ourselves into thinking that the men who orchestrated that de facto mutiny have also been busy brainwashing personnel who are still in uniform.

Immediately after that shameful incident, we wrote saying that politics just took a nasty turn. We said the Opposition would get its foreign funding and finance a slew of trade union and other forms of aggressive political action to destabilize and topple the government.

Tragically, we have been proved right.

The government needs to keep extremely close tabs of what's happening in the services because this will not be the first time that disgruntled politicians with inflated egos, now badly bruised, have sought to use the forces to topple a government. Let's not be stupid or naïve and throw up our hands in feigned horror at even such a suggestion. Let's face reality and take adequate precautions to preempt lawlessness exploding all over the nation before it's too late. Let's not forget that the majority of suspects wanted for a dozen murders of journalists and politicians, of aid workers and students, wanted for disappearances, are all servicemen including a very senior Police official and senior Army and Navy personnel. Let's not forget that the Welikada jail massacre was carried out by Army men. Most of these disgruntled elements with more than one axe to grind against the government are roaming free and at the beck and call of their former masters now driven insane at their loss of power. Let's not forget even for a second that the men who lead the Opposition forces are the men under whose watch the worst pillage and murders and abductions and disappearances were carried out.

Before and since November last year there's been a score of times when the GMOA, IUSF, trade unions and the floor of the House have been used to diabolically derail the government's entire mechanism in a bid by the Opposition to grab power. Its leaders have said so openly. The trail of destabilization left by them all over the nation bears testimony to the fact that the Opposition does not intend facing another election, no matter how profusely they clamour for LG elections. We said that the clamour about Hambantota being given to the Chinese was just a dry run staged to later justify what they knew was coming: handing over Trincomalee to India! In this too we have been proved absolutely right.

Within SLFP ranks in the government are fifth columnists, moles of the Opposition. While they hold top Cabinet portfolios and sat with the President on the May Day platform in Getambe, many knew that their voters were at Galle Face.

The enemy without and the enemy within...they are the same, both biding their time to pull the government down.

The government must know that there cannot be any rain without thunder. It needs the integrity to so rule...or be kicked out of office! And that will only unleash an unprecedented reign of terror that will dwarf the evil we experienced for ten years of the previous regime.

Sri Lanka could then be on the brink of a major and unprecedented crackdown on the forces of evil which threaten democracy.

President Sirisena and PM Wickremesinghe find themselves in the crossfire between permitting the freedom of expression and on the other hand doing something about the abusive expression of that freedom which traduces every democratic principle embodied in the exercise of democratic freedoms.

An immutable truth in life is that one remains indecisive in the face of evil at one's own peril.

The President will be well advised to bear in mind the truism that "when two are not agreed, they cannot walk together."

To try to govern by handing portfolios to your enemy's sycophants can prove very destructive.

The Nation Editorial

The online battle : True vs False

07 May 2017

There is information everywhere. We live in a world where information is at our fingertips, and all it takes is to press a few buttons on a mobile phone.

The problem in today’s world is that there is too much information everywhere. But that is not the actual problem. The real problem is identifying what is true, and what is not. At a recently held discussion on World Press Freedom Day in Jakarta, a representative of Facebook had stated that fake news were in fact financially-motivated.

The said social media while discouraging fake news on its platform has now commenced a test project on third party fact checking to detect fake news.

While social media has been a platform for many good deeds, especially during times of disasters, it has also misled people through various fabricated news and information. Even though the individuals should be blamed for sharing such uncorroborated articles, the platform receives the brunt since it is through such media the people receive the said information.

Ever since the emergence of social media, people have been exposed to content, both good and bad. The worrying factor is that there is no filtering mechanism that could identify authentic news from false information.

Last week, several individuals had shared stories pertaining to youngsters committing suicide as part of an online challenge.

Some of these incidents were alleged to have been reported in Sri Lanka. However there has been no official information about these reports yet.

There was no clear information on the authenticity of these reports, and authorities too found it difficult to zero in on the source of such reports.

While such reports may be true, there have been numerous instances where the public have been misled by uncorroborated, unverified information.

We are in a situation where it is difficult to differentiate gossip sites from news sites, and where gossips become the news simply because they get more clicks on the internet. Even though operators of the relevant social media platforms have now taken steps to address the culture of fake news, is it a tad bit too late?

On the other hand, the individuals who re-share these articles too should act with responsibility. These articles may sound sensational or sensitive, but the individual should be mindful of the consequences of sharing such information in public domain.

One does not have to be a media person or a journalist to understand the gravity of uncorroborated articles and their impact on people. Any person with a sound mind would think twice before sharing such content.

Yes, people do have the right to get information. But not all information is true, and not all stories are factual.

The issue is there is no one or no entity that could be held responsible for false news being published on public domain.

So, the next time you click on the ‘share’ button, think twice.First whether it has been corroborated, the second on the repercussions.

Sunday Times Editorial

Let the Buddha’s message radiate from Lanka!

07 May 2017

More than two millennia ago, India gave to Sri Lanka its greatest gift – the gift of the Dhamma. The ‘Doctrine of the Middle Path’ pronounced first by India’s greatest son, Gautama the Buddha at a Deer Park in Saranath and brought to this island by the son of the great Emperor Asoka. It changed the lives of the island’s inhabitants for ever more, and this nation was to henceforth be known as the ‘Dhammadvipa’, the land of the Dhamma.
As time went by, Buddhism faded away from where it had originated. Foreign invaders burnt and destroyed ancient seats of learning like Nalanda and it took a British army engineer, Sir Alexander Cunningham to excavate the lost Buddhist civilisation in India marked by Asokan pillars and a Sri Lankan, Anagarika Dharmapala, at the latter part of the 19th century to revive Buddhism in the land of its birth.

Forming the Maha Bodhi Society of Bodh Gaya in 1891, Dharmapala galvanised Buddhists around the world, when half the world was colonised, to regain the sites associated with the life of the Buddha. Today, thousands of pilgrims visit the Holy Land of India and the Indian Government honoured the Sri Lankan by issuing a postage stamp to commemorate his 150th birth anniversary three years ago.

The visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Sri Lanka next week to participate in the celebrations to mark the United Nations International Day of Vesak is therefore significant, and for more reasons than one. Though heading a strong Hindutva Government, Modi himself has made an extra effort to reach out to Buddhists in India. He represents the constituency of Varanasi, which has a large Muslim and Hindu population; it is where the River Ganges flows and is in close proximity to Saranath.

Despite his party’s pro-Hindu posturing, Premier Modi is at pains to shed his reputation of yesteryear as a religious zealot and rather, portray himself as a moderate national leader, showing as he does, like the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, a great deal of affinity towards Buddhism.
Regrettably, his visit to Sri Lanka is being shrouded in some veils of controversy. Some political elements are preparing for a protest campaign, just as much as some Hindu extremists in India are protesting his visit for a Buddhist celebration. Premier Modi seems to be treading the ‘Middle Path’.

The controversy within this country is not entirely without reason. India’s foreign policy during the days of Indira Gandhi’s stewardship was one of unleashing the ‘Panikkar Doctrine’ (which advocated Sri Lanka being an autonomous unit within the Indian federation) and Indian expansionism back in the 1970s. This saw India change its policy of ‘pancha seela’ to direct intervention, changing the dynamics of regional politics. India ‘midwifed’ the birth of Bangladesh, nurtured terrorist groups in Sri Lanka and undermined parliaments in Nepal, eventually earning the wrath of all its neighbours.
As far as Sri Lanka was concerned, all the goodwill of centuries through the Buddhist links to India was blown away, as New Delhi at the time pursued its hegemonic foreign policy. The internal compulsions of coalition politics forced India to bend backwards to keep the southern state of Tamil Nadu content and allow the state’s politicians to dictate India’s Sri Lanka policy at the expense of good bilateral relations with its closest, oldest and dearest southern sovereign state.

Eventually, Ms. Gandhi’s son Rajiv was murdered on Tamil Nadu soil by the very group Indira’s India used to destabilise Sri Lanka. What you sow, you shall reap.One cannot, however, live in the past, as they say and countries too must move on. Former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, the one who in recent times was responsible for United Nations General Assembly Resolution 54/15 that paved the way for the UN’s recognition of the Day of Vesak – having got several non-Buddhist countries like Spain, the Philippines, Ukraine, India, Pakistan and the Maldives etc., to support the resolution, referred to relations with India as being of “irreversible excellence”.

The current leaders of both India and Sri Lanka seem keen to move forward, and re-establish those age-old bonds lost by India’s adventurist past where clearly Sri Lanka was the aggrieved party. That is a tall task for these leaders. It is not easy for the majority of Sri Lankans not to be suspicious of India, especially when Sri Lanka’s own northern politicians keep running to India for help on a regular basis and the former Government believes India had a role to play in its ouster in 2015.

The visits of Premier Modi and the newly democratic Nepal’s lady President, Bidhya Devi Bandani, must herald a new beginning of cooperation and partnership for the South Asian region. The regional grouping, SAARC has not had the desired impact on the livelihoods of the peoples of the eight countries that make up the association up until now.

As for the UN Day of Vesak celebrations, this is the first time Sri Lanka is hosting the event despite it being its former Foreign Minister who spearheaded the resolution. One can only hope these celebrations will not be limited to celebrations alone. The intellectual discourses that are to be part of these celebrations must lead to substantial follow-up action. In the past few weeks, we have pointed out the need for Sri Lanka to look towards the states of Western India for closer links, both in the Sinhala language and Buddhism as well as in strengthening economic links.
Sri Lanka is greatly respected in the Buddhist world for having preserved the sublime teachings of the Buddha in its purest form, despite centuries of foreign colonial rule. The country’s noble sons gave their lives to safeguard this heritage.

It is the bounden duty of the State to protect and foster Buddhism, both in Sri Lanka and overseas, for which it must have designated schools to train Dhammadutha (missionary) monks to articulate the Dhamma in foreign languages. Equally, it is the duty of the senior head monks of all the different Sects to bring about greater discipline among some sections of the Sangha (Order of Monks).

There has to be greater emphasis on Pirivena (monastic) education and less on monks attending regular universities and participating in unruly street demonstrations; many of them leaving the monkhood after obtaining their degrees leaving behind a bad name for the Sangha.
Let next week’s International Vesak celebrations be homage to the Buddha and his message of the Middle Path, non-violence, compassion and loving kindness to all beings, including animals.

Sunday Observer Editorial

Vesak & India

07 May 2017

It is an annual festival usually marked by Sri Lankans with piety and simple community observances, the most active perhaps being the sightseeing of creations of religious imagery – thoran and lantern art. As post-war stability is succeeded by slow but steady economic growth, the festive ‘Vesak zones’ are proliferating island wide along with increasing religious activity by the faithful.

This year, Vesak in Sri Lanka is especially momentous. Firstly, the United Nations’ official Vesak celebrations are hosted by Sri Lanka, this year, with Government-supported official festivities and religious observances in a special program with diplomatic participation by Buddhist majority countries and by the United Nations.

Secondly, and equally importantly, Sri Lanka hosts Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as chief guest at the UN Vesak celebration and, also, for a bilateral summit meeting between Sri Lanka and India.

Bharath, being the historic font of Sri Lankan spirituality, has always been a source of vitality for our island society even as political rivalries on both sides of the Palk Strait punctuated our mutual history with wars, palace coups and invasions. Our bilateral intimacy, deriving from the reality of geographical proximity, may now be limited mainly to culture and economics. But this solid foundation mutually propels us toward greater political collaboration and shared responsibilities as modernity knits the entire South Asian region together with growing shared interests and common challenges.

Indeed, except perhaps, for the divisive fall-out from colonial legacies, the South Asian Sub-continent is geo-physically, culturally and, economically, more attuned toward integration than most such global sub-regions, even though, ironically, some of those other sub-regions (e.g. ASEAN) are progressing faster towards integration.

Mr. Modi, being the most overtly religious of all recent Indian government leaders, is perhaps better positioned than most of his secular predecessors to respond to the angst of some Sri Lankans over the looming cultural immediacy of our giant neighbour. Recent geo-political tensions between India and Sri Lanka mesh a legacy of violence in our mutual history, including political interventions, together with the overarching, persistent, bilateral socio-economic interdependence and, the dynamic of market competition. Whatever the rivalries and bitter mutual experiences, the socio-cultural intimacies override.

Buddhism came from India, while an even older popular religiosity, including local Shaivism, is indigenous to the original human communities that straddled the Strait. Even the European colonial legacy, including its triage, draws us together with our neighbour. Sri Lanka further benefitted when the pressures of the combined Indian peoples’ freedom struggle prompted a full scale British colonial withdrawal from South Asia. The bilateral relationship has grown, even if interrupted on occasion by geo-political manoeuvres of both sides of the Strait.

Today, Delhi and Colombo are once more exploring friendships after a bout of estrangement during the Rajapaksa regime. And, there is much un-finished business.

Most urgently, a comprehensive economic collaboration agreement is needed to exploit the bilateral relationship’s huge potential in this era of rapid globalization. As the world divides itself into new market regions and new concentrations of global economic power, both countries stand to gain, Sri Lanka more than India, in the greater combining of economic and value chain advantages in competition with other regions.

Markets can be shared for mutual benefit in the global economy, ranging from coordinated manufactures exports, to travel and tourism, to industrial and scientific research, to pooling of energy, and, to sharing of climate change burdens. Even without a comprehensive economic agreement, Sri Lankan business has begun matching Indian business in cross-border direct capital investments. The conclusion of ETCA will only further open up such opportunities and more.

Ever a popular personality, Premier Modi’s high visibility here at celebrations closest to the hearts of Sri Lankans, will complement the already existing popular bonding between the Sri Lankan and Indian peoples inspired by personalities in cinema and sports.

And as Buddhism re-establishes its primacy of the social spirit on this island, the old fears of ethnic submission and spiritual subversion should be allowed to fade away as social confidence overcomes insecurities. This is the spiritual foundation needed for long term harmony between communities and for the healing of the wounds of war. More importantly, the recovery of religious stability and concomitant spiritual strength should enable a more non-competitive attitude between religious communities and ensure a genuine religious and ethnic equality and co-existence that goes far beyond mere constitutional legalities.

Vesak can bring all this and more.

SAITM again

Barely two weeks after major negotiations between the various interested parties had brought some calm to the imbroglio over SAITM, an attempted trade union confrontation with the government reminded the public that certain political interests behind some of the agitation continues to foment that agitation. Clearly, they are only interested in agitation and not resolution.

The one-day token strike, attempted by some trade unions brought together by the GMOA, may not have had the intended impact in terms of disruption of public life. But, the strike served to confuse the issue leaving the general public once again uncertain whether or not this problem of a strictly standardised professional medical training was on the way to being resolved.

Two weeks ago, the multilateral negotiations between the various interested groups were concluded with some broad agreement on a way forward. A statement was made on this in Parliament by the Government.

It is up to the Government to move swiftly along the agreed tracks so as to leave no further room for such manipulation of popular concerns for narrow political interests.

Sunday Island Editorial

Revisiting Athulathmudali murder investigation

07 May 2017

 

Nearly 25 years after his killing, a book titled Lalith Athulathmudali Assassination – The Whole Truth by Prof. Ravindra Fernando was launched last week. Among the speakers at this event was Dayanthe Athulathmudali, Lalith’s brother, who cogently urged that the investigations into this case which remains unsolved in the sense that nobody has been charged for the murder and there has been no conviction, be resumed as in the Lasantha Wickrematunge and Thajudeen cases. This is an eminently reasonable suggestion and the Attorney General, Jayantha Jayasuriya, who was chief guest at the book launch, should seriously consider it. Where the Wickrematunge and Thajudeen matters are concerned, the incumbent government has a vested interest in pursuing them in the hope that these crimes can be fathered on their political opponents. Whether water tight cases, sustainable in a criminal prosecution in court, can be built on either of these cases remain open questions. However that be, what has emerged up to now clearly indicates that whoever the killers were, all kinds of cover-up attempts had taken place and this is a serious slur on both the law enforcement and criminal justice systems in this country.

Lalith Athulathmudali was a frontline politician swept into national prominence by the UNP landslide of 1977. It was common knowledge that he, Gamini Dissanayake and Ranasinghe Premadasa all hoped to succeed the ageing J.R. Jayewardene as president. Premadasa won the prize. Ironically, all three were assassinated, presumably by the LTTE, which had single mindedly pursued a strategy of eliminating the Sinhala leadership of the country and those like the late Lakshman Kadirgamar who stood in the way of their achieving a separate state. Chandrika Kumaratunga narrowly escaped assassination at the hands of a suicide bomber in December 1999, losing an eye when a bomb was exploded near the Town Hall while she was addressing the final rally of her party while seeking re-election as president. Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali, like President Premadasa, were less fortunate.

Professor Ravindra Fernando who has deeply researched the Athulathmudali killing has concluded that the LTTE was responsible for the assassination. He says that all the forensic and scientific evidence and the statements of some eyewitnesses do not dispute that the alleged assassin, whose body was found at Mugalan Road, killed Lalith. He surmises that the suspect, shot by Athulathmudali’s bodyguard, could have run or slowly walked to the place where his body was found. There he had leaned against a wall of a cooperative building, proved by the bloodstains found there, and realizing there was no escape swallowed the cyanide capsule he swallowed. "I hope my considered opinion will clear the doubts that many have about the assassination of Lalith," the forensic medicine professor has written.

Given the enmity between President Premadasa and Athulathmudali who engineered the impeachment motion against Premadasa, there are many who suspect a Premadasa hand in the killing. President Premadasa himself admitted as much saying "assassinate me if you wish but don’t assassinate my character" before he was murdered by a suicide bomber a few days after Lalith’s killing. The Special Presidential Commission headed by Justice Tissa Bandaranayake pointed a finger in that direction but its findings did not successfully stand the test of judicial examination. The final conclusion, as it stands, is that Athulathmudali was killed by the LTTE. Whether the concerned authorities would wish to revisit the case in the face of some doubts that will not down remains to be seen.

The doctors’ strike

Tens of thousands of patients across the country had to once again bear the cross of being denied medical assistance on account of Friday’s strike by government doctors. Ironically, when government doctors have a dispute with the government, it is the sick who must pay the price. Although cosmetic gestures like providing emergency services and making some special arrangements at children’s hospitals are routinely made on these occasions, the fact is that very large numbers are severely inconvenienced and must suffer in silence. The well to do can and do receive medical attention in private hospitals, dispensaries and other facilities providing paid health care. But the poor, dependent on services provided at government hospitals at taxpayer expense, must do without. As far as we know, the doctors don’t even suffer a pay cut for absenting themselves from work because of a strike. Governments inevitably shut their eyes to this because imposing pay cuts would trigger further confrontation.

It is well known that the continuance of SAITM (South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine), a private fee levying institute graduating doctors, is the bone of contention. Some SAITM graduates, denied registration by the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) challenged this action in the Court of Appeal and won their case. That judgment is being canvassed before the Supreme Court by the SLMC. It is not yet clear when the case will be heard and a final determination made. Meanwhile the government has agreed to take over the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital, attached to SAITM to ensure the availability of patients for students’ clinical training. This hospital has up to now attracted insufficient numbers of patients for this purpose. It was the GMOA that prevented the use of two government hospitals, on payment, for giving the necessary clinical training to the students. SAITM, no doubt, is a profit making private enterprise owned by Dr. Neville Fernando and his family. They have agreed to quote the owning company on the Colombo Stock Exchange so that the ownership could be broader based. Whether investors will buy into it is another question.

The GMOA president has fallen flat on his face by failing to inform the channel services that he would not be engaging in private practice while his association was on strike. That enabled film star Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake to get an appointment with Dr. Padeniya, have the fee debited to his credit card and make an issue of double standards on television. The fact is that government doctors are a specially privileged group allowed private practice denied to other government servants. Many of them make a killing on private practice, sometimes during hours they should be in government hospitals, and whether or not these earnings are honestly reported for income tax purposes is a moot point. Leaving aside the immorality of doctors striking, there are disturbing indications of other unions, totally unrelated to medicine, making common cause with the GMOA and trying to head the country towards anarchy. Will the government be able to prevent this is the question on everybody’s mind. Decades ago, Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike’s 1960 government brought striking doctors to heel by threatening to confiscate their property. They scuttled back to work post haste.