Archive for the ‘Constitutional Reform’

THE CHALLENGE BEFORE THE UNP

Ranil Wickremasinghe made, I think, what he thinks is a speech of statesman-like prophesy, not to mention dignified grace in the face of political cuckoldry, when Parliament reconvened this week following the reshuffle farce. In this he warned of dark times ahead, where “We will witness in the coming weeks an increase in the violation of human rights, deterioration of good governance, spread of corruption, undermining of democracy, and the rising cost of living.” For all our sakes, and for the sake of democracy in Sri Lanka, we hope that Mr. Wickremasinghe sees his role as more than a mere Cassandra – with the Apollonian gift of prophesy but without the power to persuade – in the face of the insufferably Agamemnon-like hubris that increasingly characterises the Rajapakse presidency. A perversity of Sri Lankan electoral politics has cast Mr Wickremasinghe and President Rajapakse in paradoxical roles. Mr. Wickremasinghe, as his record shows, is keen on government by technocratic elitism and…

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The Sham of Independence Without Human Rights Protection

Two days before our independence tamasha, an event with deep significance and bearing for the independence, integrity and unity of this country took place.  It is unfortunately a part of a series of connected incidents. On Friday 2 February, Mudiyapu Remedias, Attorney at Law and Legal Advisor to the National Human Rights Commission, (HRC) Jaffna office, lodged a complaint with the Commanding Officer, Jaffna that he was badly assaulted by a group of Sri Lankan army soldiers that morning .   Mr Surenthirajah, the Coordinating Officer of the National Human Rights Commission, Jaffna office has already complained to the Jaffna Police of death threats.  In the Remedias case, the assault took place after Mr Remedias presented his HRC credentials to the soldiers and in the Surenthirajah case, Mr Surenthirajah states in his complaint that a member of a “political party” made armed threats against him.  Two other Coordinating Officers of the Jaffna HRC office have sought asylum in Canada on account…

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Denial and polarisation

Originally published in Himal Southasian, February 2007. The undeclared Eelam War IV in Sri Lanka shows no signs of abating. The Ceasefire Agreement, whatever is left of it, is enervated and made more irrelevant daily. Violence in the north and the east increased dramatically in 2006. Thousands continue to be displaced – unable to return to their homes, starving, without access to basic human necessities or redress against repeated human-rights violations. Many more have fled Sri Lanka to South India, bringing back memories of the exodus of refugees in the late 1980s. In Colombo, a draconian government with scant regard for human rights uses the continuing intransigence of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as an excuse to clamp down on civil society, NGOs and the media. Legislation enacted in 2006, most notably the anti-terrorism regulations, has stifled democratic rights and civil liberties. Many peace rallies around the country have been routed by thugs and goons affiliated to current members…

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THE OSLO DECLARATION: REPORTS OF ITS DEATH ARE NOT GREATLY EXAGGERATED

The Morning Leader (31st January 2007) carries a report of the first press conference given yesterday by the Hon. G. L. Peiris M. P., the new Minister of Export Promotion and International Trade, since he crossed over to the government. In this he is reported to have, to put it tartly, rubbished the significance and import of the Oslo Declaration of December 2002, which he was instrumental in producing. The Declaration appeared to articulate the framework of a politically negotiated constitutional settlement around an asymmetrically federated, united Sri Lanka. Stressing that constitutional concepts such as federalism are ‘mere words’ which have ‘no clear definition and are indistinct at best’, he states that effectively what he and other actors in the peace process of 2002 – 2004 were doing was ‘brandishing words.’ He therefore argues that what is needed is ‘a practical solution’ to the ethnic conflict, for which he and his former UNP colleagues would support the government. Needless to…

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Myanmar (Burma) luvs Lanka

I don’t know much about Burma, or Myanmar as it’s now known… but according to today’s Daily Mirror: The Myanmar (Burmese) government yesterday assured its support to Sri Lanka in the fight against terrorism and reaffirmed it would never allow any group or individual to use its territory to engage in any hostile activities against neighboring countries, including Sri Lanka. According to various other reports (PBS, BBC, CIA), Burma is a territory that’s run by a military dictatorship which also has many business interests, including illegal logging, trading in drugs, and human trafficking. There was an election once – back in 1990. But the military didn’t like the way 80% of the people voted, and placed the leader of the winning side, Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest. The following year, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. There are many different peoples who call Burma home, but the majority population dominates over the minorities. The military is accused…

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SAM THE INIMITABLE

Rajavarothayam Sampanthan M.P. (TNA/ITAK, Trincomalee District) gave Sri Lankans a wistful and even poignant glimpse of the ghost of parliamentary democracy a fortnight ago, when he delivered an incisive exposition of the arguments for the merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces in the debate on the de-merger in Parliament. The speech was a three-fold argument that contains a masterful restatement of the historical dimensions of the merger. It also critiqued the reasoning of the Supreme Court’s decision, the gravamen of which was a mooted procedural flaw in the original merger, as well as the domestic and international political considerations applicable to the issue. The latter included the undertakings of the State under an international agreement, the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987, the consequence of which was the Thirteenth Amendment, a pivotal re-arrangement of Sri Lanka’s constitutional architecture. The result of Mr. Sampanthan’s dispassionate yet pungent speech is that the State emerges as both pusillanimous and menacing at the same time….

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Crossing over into chaos

That Sri Lanka faces a serious crisis of governance is evinced by the crossing over of 16 of UNP MPs to government ranks in January 2007. Bi-partisanship, once again, fails in Sri Lanka. Despite the initial euphoria resulting from the MoU between the SLFP and the UNP signed in October 2006, it was unsuccessful as a basis for bi-partisan trust-building and collaboration and only resulted in an enervated and supine UNP unable to dissuade the government from interventions that in the interests “national security” have grossly undermined human security of all citizens in Sri Lanka and exacerbated the human toll of violence since the signing of the MoU. Conversely, the President, despite assurances made to the Leader of the Opposition to the contrary, has shown a marked disdain for a principled approach to bi-partisanship. Luring by the promise of sharing the spoils of power, he has essentially ridiculed the early promise of the inter-party MoU and raised the ugly sceptre…

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Insight into Governance from the Arrest that did not happen

From Morning Leader – 3rd January 2007  The story that the editor of the Sunday Leader was to be arrested on account of that paper’s reportage on the proposed  construction  of a presidential bunker and the subsequent reportage that presidential  intervention ensured that the arrest did not take place, provides an insight into governance and the Rule of Law in Sri Lanka which could well continue into 2007.   That such a bunker will not now be built, has also been reported. The details of the incident are well known.  The immediate backdrop to it is the promulgation of new emergency regulations effectively reactivating the Prevention of Terrorism Act – regulations which the government assured were formulated to deal with terrorism and would not be used to stifle freedom of expression.  However, in the wake of the incident the government has stated that the media and media persons are by no means immune from the effects of these regulations.  The original…

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BETWEEN SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS, THE HAPLESS MR. VITHARANA

At the empennage of ghastly and gruesome 2006, the Majority Report of the Experts Panel was dismissed in these pages as inadequate, predictable and hesitant. In the light of what has gone on since then – the Minority Report, the JVP’s withdrawal from the APRC, the escalation of conflict and human misery – amidst the loathsome baying of the jackals of supremacism (crescendo, fortissimo), however, it would appear that that was too harsh a judgement to pass. Indeed on that same occasion, the Majority Report was construed, in its best light, as a broad statement of principle around which the saner political forces of the South could coalesce. As appears from the excerpts published in the Morning Leader today, Tissa Vitharana has had the courage of his convictions to adapt the proposals of the Majority Report. The essential elements, in terms of values, guiding principles and proposed institutional arrangements of the Majority Report have been preserved, while some of its…

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Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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