Udaya Gammanpila – He wants Sri Lanka to be like the Pope!

The Erudite scholar of the Hela Urumaya, Udaya Gammanpila a provincial councilor of the Western Provincial Council made some very interesting remarks at the just concluded Sri Lanka Economic Summit held at the Cinnamon Grand a few hours ago. In a panel discussion held under the Moderator, Mano Tittawella, he likened Sri Lanka to the Pope.

He said that in the 15 century the two world powers were neighbors. They were Portugal and Spain, and both Catholic Countries. Being superpowers in their day, there inevitably comes a time when they have disputes which need resolution. In steps the Pope to mediate between the two countries to amicably settle their problems without having to resort to war.

In the same vein, Sri Lanka must stake its historic strategic advantage of location, namely the hub of the East, currently grabbed by Singapore and Dubai and like the Pope take the leadership in being the honest broker in disputes between India and China. He maintained that in the not too distant past when disputes arose within the Asian giants, we intervened to help when India and China went to war and resolved their differences and similarly did the same when India and Pakistan engaged in hostilities.

It is an important observation which had passed my conscience. If we are able to have good relations with India and China, where we have their trust, we will be able to reestablish our place in the world by being able to broker any disputes between the two as long as the world has the confidence that we have resolved our current standoff dispute with India.

This is a great opportunity to take back the space available for this role. First we MUST resolve our Northern dilemma and come to an amicable settlement of the grievances that our northern brothers have. The govt. has shown no sign of being really serious about this resolution, and so the pressure must be put hard on the govt. to stop dithering and start acting like statesmen to resolve the problem.

Thanks to Udaya, he is now the Pope of Sri Lanka, ideally suitable to join in this brokerage business, having coined the phrase, where POPE and Sri Lanka will be synonymous as an honest broker of Super Power rivalries, now that the manufacturing super power China meets the Service super power India and Sri Lanka determines who does what, when and how!!!

MA Sumanthiran MP – Flays the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) for its cowardice

At the just concluded Sri Lanka Economic Summit hosted by the CCC at the Cinnamon Grand, MA Sumanthiran MP was quite scathing in his remarks about the inaction of the CCC to the threats of Ghotabaya Rajapakse towards the Editor of the Sunday Leader as published by the Sunday Leader last Sunday.(July 8^th 2012)

He suggested that if that threat to a journalist in words unbecoming of a civilized human being should have elicited a response from a reputable chamber such as the CCC. It was a matter that they should have issued a statement denouncing such action by arguably the most powerful person in the Government, who is liable to prosecution. (The President has immunity from prosecution while in office including for murder)

So it was under that shameful cloud that the prestigious CCC Economic Summit ended a few hours ago. It is shameful that the members and especially the attendees who represented the cream of the Sri Lanka Business Community could only sit and listen and would not even DARE GIVE HIM A CLAP for that statement.

Does it show the fear of our business community for the power of revenge the Govt. can exact from them? Or rather does it show that the Business Community is in cahoots with the Govt. engaging in nefarious activities and bribery themselves, as it is also a crime to give a bribe as much as take one?

It is an important lesson to people who constantly preach good governance to be exposed, NAKED by a young and professional MP from Colombo, to show their true colors. I hope it is a challenge matched by a reasonable response by the CCC collectively or at least in the private capacity by individuals in a mea culpa, bemoaning the Chamber’s impotence when faced by constant harassment by the Government to come clean and express their honest opinion in the presence of the breakdown of law and order.

Let it be a lesson to civil society that the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce representing all the important private sector businesses in Sri Lanka, is inept in expressing an opinion on subjects they constantly theorize about, but fail to practically castigate the State when their trust is broken. It is enough of badgering by the State to get the Private sector act together saying that the State has done their bit. Has the State really kept their side of the bargain? 

Another kick in the stomach for local services – a charge of Rs100,000!!! Local news site to be registered and charged, foreign ones free!

A slap for local news service providers, compulsory registration, a charge of Rs100k and annual fee of Rs50k imposed on news websites. The govt. must realize that web sites emanate from everywhere. To charge local ones is against all civilized norms. No country on earth does this. Whatever methods used to bar foreign sites, the users of the internet can access them and therefore get information, however distasteful it is to the dictatorship.

These web sites give talented local people employment and are able to show creativity and express opinions. Freedom of expression is now effectively suppressed as these sites are done for love and not for money. When each person who places these bans does it for money they do not understand when someone works for principles and not for profit. Those who ban the web sites do it for money and not for the love of the country. In short they are hired guns or hit men, doing the donkey work of their masters.

This difference is lost on our populace as they do not understand how a site, all of which look alike on the net, needs to be registered and others not!

This will only move the same content providers overseas, making a mockery of the whole principle of registration and charge. When you make a web site that does not do it for profit, pay a registration, you effectively force it to shut down, or to look for sponsors to make the payment. The moment a sponsor gets involved the independence of the site is compromised.

The govt. therefore forces the site to sometimes get sponsorship from parties that have agendas that do not promote the independence of media freedom, which effectively makes a mockery of the whole exercise.

Needless to say it is foolish to do so, as no one in their right minds will want to register something that does not require registration. The govt. will force the domain registry to deny the web address, thereby removing their independence to manage domains. All this amounts to unnecessary controls that are hard to enforce, easy to shut down, saying they are not registered, when they do not need to be. After all what is a News web site? Technically this blog is also one. It is ridiculous that we are muzzled because we talk sense and those websites that spout nonsense mainly owned and run by the govt. do not get the same treatment. They must also be covered by the same.

Wijedasa Rajapakse – Wishes he did not have to take on the JHU!

The personal attacks, the vitriol and the unabashed hate of a supposedly Buddhist party is one reason if one was looking for it, to prevent Clergy from entering Parliament. They have left no stone unturned to make sure that this bill is not even brought into debate. Their character assassination and their reprehensible behavior in their quest is so un Buddhist, that any true followers of the faith will not permit them to get away with this level of hate

The debate on TV was asked for from the JHU as they are able to marshal all the hate mongers in the name of religion, which if they have their way will be clear evidence of discarding their beliefs into the dustbin. It does not do the name of Buddhism any good. People in my opinion watching the program will clearly leave the faith. That is a huge indictment of the values placed by this group, when much of the country is facing quite a lot of hardship.

It is not likely that the Bill will become law even if it is presented, as it is not open to a free vote. A vote of conscience. I am sorry about that. The President has decreed that this bill is bad as the JHU is one of his men from the party, and he has taken their side.

When an opportunist does not use his upstairs, that is if he had anything there, and orders his troops to do as he says, they succumb to the fear of offending and then follow a pied piper into the lake and drown. People must learn to use their common sense. The only reason this proposal was brought into parliament or about to be, is because clergy in parliament have made a bad name for politics. So the credibility of the religion due to a few, has taken a hit. The Mahanayake Prelates, I am sure do not approve of this either but they are reluctant to offend other members of the clergy.

It is therefore unlikely that they will pronounce judgment on this issue, just hoping to sit it out. I believe they must take an active role, intervene and put a stop to the fight as it is giving Buddhism a bad name.

I believe that parties that bring hate to the political debate should be banned and actually all religion based parties too. However as the inclusion of Priests into it has brought hate via clergy to a belief that decries any type of hate, it must be obvious that they should not be in parliament as the next thing we know is a mass exodus out of Buddhism due to their bad example!! 

What would they have to say to that? A western imperialist plot, I bet!

What in essence is the real story of the Vavuniya prison incident? - Exclusive

Vavuniya prison housed some hard core LTTE fighters who were considered inappropriate for rehabilitation. The LTTE prisoners had formed their own little clique inside the prison, where even the jailors were unable to go into their area, and where they had effectively taken control of a section for a while, months in fact. Most of the jailors were tamil speaking and possibly ethnic Tamil and therefore were either sympathetic to them or bought out by money or threatened with harm or a mix of the above. Anyone who runs a prison and does not want trouble knows that a group such as this is best controlled by giving into certain demands. One only has to look into the history of IRA prisoners in British jails for examples of how they had their own sections and ran their show there!

Nevertheless they behaved as they owned the place. So when instructions came from the LTTE high command in the Diaspora, with whom they were in constant touch through satellite phones, to resist using a transfer of a prisoner to the South as an excuse, they took control of the whole prison. Of course their masters in the Diaspora just wanted to use their ex-troops like cannon fodder in a far greater PR game in the West, they had in mind.

Knowing full well that the SL authorities will come in hard on the prisoners, the Diaspora were hoping for a publicity triumph hoping for a prison massacre. Orders came from the top to use whatever means, but not KILL to take over the prison and restore order. After all it was a huge blunder to let this happen, when the Govt. maintains that they are firmly in control of terrorism wherever it may occur! The IGP took personal charge of the op.

So once the prison was stormed and taken over by the security forces with a very professional plan cleverly executed, there was simmering resentment that these few prisoners were able to create riot and should be taught a lesson. Using the existing prisoners who resented the special treatment the LTTE ones were able to get through their dominance as mentioned earlier. A new squad of prison guards who had replaced the others who had refused to join had been brought from the South. The conditions were ripe for revenge.

These prisoners, 32 in number were thrashed black and blue with all kinds of implements, a familiar modus operandi in Sri Lankan prisons and police stations to exact confessions and revenge. (not at all a race based reaction)

The prison was emptied and the beaten up prisoners were transferred elsewhere including Mahara prison in the Gampaha district. One prisoner in Mahara who was so badly beaten, was recommended by a doctor to be transferred immediately to the Ragama hospital, but that was delayed and when finally done 24 hours later, succumbed to his injuries. 

Of course there are many others also injured and possibly one other in hospital arising from these beatings. I wonder if the Govt. will permit an independent body to examine them. I rather think not due to the adverse publicity it will receive.

The TNA has pounced on this incident and have engaged the foreign diplomats in explaining racial abuse and violence and have given them a dossier. I hope these diplomats go and see how police extract confessions every day in police cells to realize this is not a case of racial, but pure human rights abuse by the police when they feel slighted or made fools of. It is purely called REVENGE.

The BBC has also taken up this story today and spread it around the world that the body of the dead man will not be handed to the parents to be taken to Vavuniya for burial citing a security threat and have only permitted cremation in Colombo. It is obvious that the authorities do not want to release a badly beaten up body, as abuse will be obvious, but to be fair to them the LTTE Diaspora and local TNA taking this up as another incident of HR abuse against Tamils for their own PR leaves the usually bumbling Sri Lankan government in a quandary.

It will be interesting to see how the story plays out in the coming days as each side tries to take political advantage over the death of a prisoner, who was a LTTE fighter!

I let the reader decide on the best way out of the mess!

News has gone to the DOGS – is it that they decide SL Airlines roster?

We have enough going on in this Paradise Isle to be too worried about our national carrier’s schedules being altered to accommodate a puppy on a flight back from Europe. Why is so much fuss made about a puppy when it is quite normal for puppies to travel in aircraft all around the world as they are more able to adapt to conditions than adult dogs? If what the Sunday Leader reports even has a grain of truth we have a serious problem with abuse of power. http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2012/07/08/gota-goes-berserk/

         

It is further of interest to the reader that the Gossip9 website has had to delete a hilarious story in Sinhala (news in Sinhala somehow is more important in that it has a far wider reach) about the puppy and the shenanigans of the Defense Secretary in the height of absurdity. No doubt he does not want his true colors to be seen by all, as his pettiness will be laid bare for all to see through the veneer of respectability. I do not know if the removal of the story is due to the threat of closure or a direct threat to the people involved, but is another case of paranoia!

There is no point in my going over the gory details of ‘rulers pique’ but to note that in Banana Republics, tin pots think they are something more than!

This event has not happened yet, and we have yet to see what is in store for us on Friday the 13^th when this canine is supposed to be carefully carried on a lap back to the isle in aisle.

It is bad enough that this country has to suffer, with the Leader using the state airline as his personal fleet, when it costs millions of lost revenue to reserve aircraft for junkets of sycophants to tag along for purposes even the junkies have no clue about. Now other family members are also attempting to jump on the bandwagon for a few favors too, raising the ire of the pilots union to the fore, which is how the matter appears to have come to light.

In a country when the rule of law is two tiered and applied only to mere mortals, and ruling classes have no law, it is difficult to resort to constitutional checks and balances as there aren’t any. When too much power is vested on one individual, power in the wrong hands can wreak havoc in the country, undermining all levels of justice and fair play. The citizens become slaves to masters determined to milk the system for their personal benefit. It takes a lot of courage for the people to first appreciate what is going on under their very noses and secondly do something about it.

Let us hope that the perpetrator in question, no less than the Defense Secretary realizes that he still has time to reclaim the moral ground and desist from such unnecessary action in order to bring a pooch, as the little fellow can come on its own none the worse for wear. Trust me I have done it many times with no problem, so why should it be any different for him?

Does he realize that at least 2500 pets, mainly Dogs and Cats are transported by air each and every day, very safely and without incident, unaccompanied!

The Diplomats after the Diyatalawa seminar are now on a North and East junket

There was a gathering in Diyatalawa of Sri Lankan heads of mission from their stations, all over the world, this past weekend at the Officer Training Academy, to give them a grounding on how to tackle the misinformation menace of the well funded and connected Global Tamil Diaspora, that appears to be on a concerted campaign to spread misinformation in their host countries about the situation within Sri Lanka as it pertains to the Tamils. I must congratulate the Government on arranging this much needed event, and I trust a good strategy to counter their propaganda has been set in place.

The President addressed this gathering in his usual confidence that they go and clear the air, and take back the space we have lost to the LTTE to counter all the mis-information that has been spread.

There are two opinions on this issue, using the adage “it takes one to know one” we are comparing the two worst examples of misinformation campaign on earth. The past masters at this are the Tamil Diaspora and The Rajapakse Administration. The modus operandi of both is the same. Just as in the war where the tactics of deep penetration units of small groups of between 5 and 10 were used to infiltrate LTTE areas, just as they did into Govt. areas and caused havoc, the Govt. has learnt that it is the same formula that must apply to stay in power for as long as they like.

The Rajapakses have clearly learned well from Prabarkaran and his ilk in the art of deception.

Whilst the Diaspora spread disinformation amongst Tamils who live overseas about the real plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka, and then follow that up with lobbying their host governments about the situation in Sri Lanka, the Govt. of Sri Lanka spreads misinformation within the local population, to instill fear and stay in power. Fortunately the overseas embassies in Sri Lanka are able to balance this out and relay the true picture to their principals back home, often setting the record straight. We have seen the fruits of that in the deportations of Asylum seekers back to Sri Lanka.  It is not so easy for the opposition bereft of many of the resources available to the Government to do the same with the populace at large within Sri Lanka.

The real problem the Diplomats must grapple with is that they represent a Govt. that has lost credibility and so when countering LTTE propaganda, their task is made so much more difficult, if not impossible. To compound matters the Govt. is taking these Ambassadors on a field trip to the North and East today and tomorrow, to show them their development of the area, but that is all on the exterior. This is a well orchestrated and stage managed one, just as delegations to China are stage managed by the authorities.

The diplomats will shown the roads and the infrastructure with gleaming new buildings and the rebuilding of the railway line to KKS. They will not be shown who is working there, they will not be privy to the activities of the forces that by mere presence in number, continue to intimidate the local people. In short it is what the state wants them to see!

Only if diplomats are able to talk to the Tamil people in Tamil, without minders or eavesdroppers, will they know the true ground situation. They will then go back to their posts, and repeat what they have been told, and the host Governments which have better information on the same tour, as their diplomats have also gone there, interviewed local people and got other facts, will be able to counter what the diplomats say with more accuracy.

We are subjecting our diplomats to embarrassment. This administration is being very cynical of their own representatives, sending them like lambs to slaughter in the diplomatic sense.

Please do not give them a brainwashing course. Let them see some reality and the limitations of infrastructure when dealing with people’s personal freedom. Even if you have the best roads in the country, if the people do not have access to funds to go on them, what good are they. We need to know what aspects must be given priority. The whole development of the North and East have not taken the most important and graded the development in that way.

Remember we have chosen the best representatives of our Country who have been sent overseas to present our case in all the major capitals in the world. We then give them a lot of misinformation to go back and preach. We fall into the same trap the Diaspora have fallen into. If we show them the truth, they will be better able to balance fact from fiction, and give the country the benefit of the doubt. The leaders are only making a mockery of themselves again to the world, in this fruitless exercise. It can only be fruitful if there is an honest debate and an honest picture encompassing all the grievances one might have with regard to life in the North and East. So let us get real.