Colombo, November 18 (newsin.asia): The United States on Monday congratulated the people of Sri Lanka on their democratic presidential election and said that it looks forward to working with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
In a statement released by the US embassy here, Washington said: Sri Lanka has continued to show the strength and resilience of its republic with a free, fair, and transparent presidential election befitting Asia’s oldest democracy. We commend the Elections Commission, civil society and government authorities for promoting a peaceful election.”
We are ready to continue our work with the new President and with all the people of Sri Lanka in supporting the country’s sovereignty through heightened good governance, expanded economic growth, the advancement of human rights and reconciliation, and in fostering an Indo-Pacific region where all countries can prosper.”
Lawyers of Rayynor Silva, Chairman of HIRU TV, sends letters of demand to MP Mangala Samaraweera and two others for recent defamatory comments made against him and his family demanding 1 Billion rupees each.
China on Monday congratulated the newly-elected Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, saying Beijing is ready to work with the new leadership for high-quality” cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the ambitious intercontinental connectivity project launched by President Xi Jinping.
The Rajapaksa family, including the new president and his elder brother, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, are considered close to Beijing. It was under the elder Rajapaksa’s presidential reign between 2005 and 2015 that Beijing emerged as a key economic ally and major investor of the war-torn country.
Sri Lanka has successfully held the presidential election, which is a major agenda political agenda at home. We are pleased to see that and offer our sincere congratulations to Gotabaya Rajapaksa on his success,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Geng Shuang, said on Monday.
China and Sri Lanka are strategic cooperative partners with sincere mutual assistance everlasting friendship,” he said.
We stand ready to on the basis of respect, equality and mutual benefit work with the new leadership and the government for high-quality BRI cooperation and greater progress in bilateral ties to bring more tangible benefits to two countries and their people,” Geng said at the regular ministry conference.
Rajapaksa was the defence secretary – during his elder brother’s presidency – at the end of the civil war with Tamil rebels.
China at the time was one of the main suppliers of arms and ammunition for the Sri Lankan army.
Since the end of the civil war in May 2009, Beijing has emerged as Colombo’s key investor in infrastructure across the country, a development New Delhi has monitored closely.
China has repeatedly denied that its massive loans to Colombo have pushed the country into a debt trap. Chinese officials have said Beijing, on the contrary, is helping Colombo out of that trap.
Quoting a report by the Lankan Central Bank, state news agency Xinhua reported last month that by the end of 2018 Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt volume was about $52 billion, $6 billion of which was from China, making up only 11.5% of the total debt.
P. B. Jayasundera has been appointed as the Presidential Secretary to the newly-elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
He served as an Economist, Economic Adviser and the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and the Treasury from 2009 until 2015 during the tenure of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The UNP has decided to hand over the government to the new President.
The decision has been taken following a special meeting of UNP Parliamentarians chaired by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe this afternoon
However, party presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa was conspicuously absent in this discussion.
In addition to the UNP ministers who resigned yesterday following the defeat of their candidate, Ministers Patali Champika Ranawaka and Ashok Abeysinghe have also tendered their resignations today.
Meanwhile, Omalpe Sobhitha Thera reiterates that the Prime Minister should follow suit his Cabinet ministers and leave room to appoint a new Cabinet.
The Thera was addressing a media briefing held in Embilipitiya today.
Your victory as well as that of the country is a foregone conclusion. I
am repeating, you will be definitely starting with at least 65 lakhs the
minimum that is what the SLPP UPF and SLFP got at the 2018 Local Government
Elections as I see. Looking at the present trend no one should be surprised
even if it exceeds 70 lahks.
(This is a copy of an email sent to Gothabhaya on 14.Oct 2019)
Extremely Important
Whoever opens this note please bring it to
Mr. Gotabhays immediate attention.
Dear Mr President Elect;
Gothabahaya Rajapaksa
Dr SudatH Gunasekara Former Permanent
Secretary to Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranayaka the late Prime Minister and President Sri Lanka Administrative
Services Association (1991-1994)
14.11.2019.
Dear Mr. President Elect.
With congratulations in advance and my heartfelt well wishes as I have already indicated in my previous
mails to you, your victory as well as that of the country is a foregone
conclusion. I am repeating, you will be definitely starting with at least 65
lakhs the minimum that is what the SLPP UPF and SLFP got at the 2018 Local
Government Elections as I see. Looking at the present trend no one should be
surprised even if it exceeds 70. Lahks.
This will get enhanced
unexpectedly by gains from UNP. JVP and New votes and even with Tamil and
Muslim votes we never got last time. I don’t think you should have any doubt
about that.
I am writing this note to you to make a
suggestion to draw your immediate attention to work out the majority in
Parliament with a target of at least 125 majority for you to enable to appoint
MR as the PM immediately after you swear in as the President to complete this
unprecedented mammoth victory in the
political history of this country.
Already you have solid 93
+Wijedasa and Ratana Thera. That is 95 as I see from outside. Even Vasanta
Senanayaka might vote with you. That makes it 96. But going by past experience
he is very unpredictable. So the bear Minimum you need is only 18 more
members. You need to get this number
from the disgusted UNP MPP as the TNA 16 will always stand with UNP and even
the 6 JVP might go with the UNP as they have done in the past 5 years. But
again as you can’t afford to take a risk we have to have a solid majority. So
that even last minute crossings we still have 115. Whatever it is worth, I
suggest you have a target of 125 in the House So that you will definitely have
more than 115.
Please remember how you collect
another 15 Members is immaterial. Because the end justifies the means, as in
this case you are doing it in the broader interest of the whole nation. The
intention is absolutely good. It is bona fide. Therefore practicing a bit of
Machiavellian tactics could be fully justified, although, I don’t agree with his
concept of statecraft fully, as an Asian. I have no doubt that you must have
already made some arrangement to entice them to join you to get the required
majority.
What is more in this instance
is by appointing MR as the PM you are ending a four and half years of absolute
anarchy in this country and restoring political stability and also ending
uncertainty in all fields. This will also enable you to have a people friendly
new and trimmed Cabinet in place of the present set of thieves and tormentors.
If we fail to do that, obviously, then we will have to tolerate Ranil and his
pack of pole cats and skunks and their
ominous odor for another four months until we wipe out all these undesirables
in one shot, in and island wide political landslide at the next General
Electio.
Congratulations and
well done. It is with enormous pride that we accept you as the 7th
President of Sri Lanka. Your conducted an exemplary campaign which culminated
in your getting elected as the President of our beleaguered Motherland, Sri
Lanka.
I am sure your
election will see the end of dirty politics as we know it today. Those who threw
mud at you bit the dust the day before yesterday – on 16 Nov. The unpatriotic UNP is well-nigh done and
finished! The decisive loss Sajith Premadasa at the Presidential Election shows the bankruptcy of his approach to
alleviating poverty and in general of
the mudslinging, corrupt UNP politics in Sri Lanka. His personal loss at
Hambantota magnifies his political incompetency manifolds!
A decisive chunk of
the votes that Sajith Premadasa received were from Tamil Racists TNA and Muslim
Extremists of all hues in the North and East. Their racist demands before the
elections you rightly threw in the wastepaper basket and from the voting
pattern it is clear that they are yet to learn how to coexist. Reconciliation
is a two-way street and it is apparent from the voting pattern they know little
of it!
These mono-ethnic
concentrations in the North and East constitute a clear and present danger to
the existence of Sri Lanka. If Tamils and Muslims can live, work and prosper in
the Sinhala majority South, equally it must be true for the Sinhalese in the
North and East. The ethnic imbalances must be corrected in a way that is good
for all Sri Lankans. Continued development of the road and rail network, the
airports and the Internet will put an end to this isolation and mono-ethnic
sickness. We have to forge a unified nation based on mutual respect and not on
‘dog-eat-dog’ mentality. The wholesale buying and alienation of land for
worthless Rupees and political patronage should be stopped to prevent
mono-ethnic enclaves all over the Island.
Now that you –
nation’s beloved GOTA is in the driving seat the long 5 year political drought
is over and all well-meaning Sri Lankans can ‘go to work’! The nation lost
valuable 5 years of progress and in the process ended up poorer. The
selfishness of Sirisena and his lackeys, the traitorous agenda of Ranil and his
cohorts to make Sri Lanka a Failed State brought untold miseries to the average
man and woman. Internationally the nation was compromised on many fronts –
political, economic and security.
Investors left the island in droves for they did not have any confidence
on a state that robs itself! The final nail in the coffin was the much tooted
mostly one sided agreements to be inked with the USA. The long-awaited end of
Jadapalanaya that came into being on that unfortunate date in Jan 2015 is now
over and hopefully for good!
Let the Law and Due
Process take place in handling corruption and frauds. All those who are
responsible for the Bond Scams and other similar scams must be allowed to be
brought in before the law and dues extracted of the stolen wealth. The nation
waited with utmost patience for the last
5 years to see justice. Apparently, Sirisena locked the Presidential
Inquiry report of the Bond Scam and other Presidential Commission reports well
away from the reach of the Law. These reports made with people’s money must be
available for public scrutiny.
Making Sri Lanka a
failed state was Ranil’s main agenda given to him by his masters in the
Christian West. The Central Bank Bond Scams, planned well ahead of the Jan 2015
Presidential Elections, the resulting high Bank Interest Rates, higher
taxation, pauperizing of the farmers and other agricultural industries put paid
to the economy that was running over 7% per annum and now brought down to 1.6%
per annum. The food security was compromised by the numerous pressures brought
in against the farmers. The export markets were destroyed by the dilution of
Sri Lanka brand products with imported look alike trash.
All these and others
were aimed at making Sri Lanka a failed state as well as a country highly
vulnerable to foreign sanctions. No country in the world prospers by destroying
the well-being of the indigenous farmer. Most developed countries protect their
farmers with many subsidies, soft loans and outright protection when deemed
necessary. In these countries, the farmers are usually rich! It was countries
that were self-sufficient in their food supplies that made way of the
industrialization of their economies. The Industrialization of Japan only took
place after they became self-sufficient in their rice supplies in the 13%
cultivable land in their possession. To this day the Japanese farmer is a
highly protected entity! The extent of Ranil’s treachery know no bounds!
The responsibility of
forging a new nation is on your shoulder. The patriotic business community, the
farmers, the small-scale entrepreneur and the youth of our nation are on your
side. It is up to you to harvest this potential for the good of the nation. You
rightly promised to bring in just the right combination of economic factors
including lowering of taxes and in some cases their outright elimination. The
poverty alleviation measures and others measures you have brought in your
manifesto will sensitize and spur the nation into production mode. Once the
land is made secure and safe, investors will flow in to take advantage of what
Sri Lanka can offer to the world. It is the tourist industry that can bring the
quickest results to our failing economy for an excellent tourist infrastructure
is already in place – waiting for the customers!
It is time for the
SLFP and UNP to wither away. They are slowly but surely outliving their
usefulness and use by date. The division of the majority Sinhalese between these
two selfish and impotent political parties led to making racial and religious
minorities the kingmakers of Sri Lanka. These Shylocks continue to ask for the
proverbial ‘pound of flesh’ in return for their ‘favors’. Their tactics and
antics bled the nation ever since the beginning of the 20th Century
and then after Independence for the last 70 year and during the 30 year Tamil
Racist Terrorist War. The role of the TNA as the main Opposition Party in the
Parliament should be an eye-opener for what their intentions are. The end results are Easter Sunday Bombings
and the 13 demands from the TNA and the voting pattern we witnessed on 16 Nov.
It is with a sigh of
relief that we notice that you were able to come to power without giving into
the extremist demands be they racial or religious. The well thought out leaving
of the extremist elements from your campaign team augurs well for the future of
Sri Lanka. This is a good start and it is time to build on these strengths for
there are many in the UNP and the SLFP who wish well for Mother Lanka and who
are aware and understand the danger of balkanizing Sri Lanka. Balkanizing
simply means unending war and enmity across a divided land across disputed
borders and water rights. Closing ranks of the patriots is the only way ahead
for Sri Lanka! At the present moment a
meeting of Sri Lanka lovers can now only happen under the Pohottuwa umbrella!
National Service for
all youngsters. This is a measure that will allow building the character of our
youth as well as their racial and religious integration. This is the foundation
of patriotism and a strong and faithful military. Taking our immediate past
history a strong military is a sin quoi non for Sri Lanka
It is extremely
important how we handle India. They have justifiable security concerns
regarding their Southern Flank. Only way Sri Lanka can meet their concerns and
be interference free is to have a strong military and Intelligence services.
Sri Lanka should be a major force for the protection of the Southern Sea Lanes
as well of the South Indian Ocean. Hambantota Harbour lease with the Chinese
must be re-negotiated if at all it is possible at this late hour. It was with
the intention of making Sri Lanka a playground for competing powers that Ranil literally
sold this valuable asset to the Chinese. One can easily see how the Indians and
the US are maneuvering in Sri Lanka to get a piece of the action. Sri Lanka
will have to be very smart if we are to remain a free and peaceful nation. This
responsibility is now on your shoulder. We also must develop strong bonds with
other Buddhist Nations in Asia – Myanmaar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China
and Singapore – for we have much in common on all fronts including security and
the well-being of our age old cultures.
Sri Lanka must be made
governable. The traitorous lowering of the minimum voting percentage to 5% (
from 12.5%) in order to curry favor with
the Muslims by myopic Premadasa Sr has made the political institutions in Sri
Lanka ungovernable. This must be corrected.
Rabble rousers who lost even their deposits including the JVP have no
place in main stream politics. Perhaps they have a role in trade union activity
but no other. The behavior of the JVP in main stream politics have not been of
any benefit to the political process for their political representation is
minimal and do not represent the needs of the nation by any stretch of
imagination.
We do not live
forever. Making way for succession is an important part of your work. It is of
utmost importance that the future that you intend to build for our beloved
Motherland is left in secure hands – most importantly and not necessarily in
the hands of the Rajapakse nephews. They must come to prominence on their own
steam and not on the shoulders of fathers and uncles!
Nepotism though not
right is not necessarily wrong either. Otherwise we would not have you as our
beloved President now. Sri Lanka needs leadership material and we are seriously
short of good leaders. When found they must be cherished and not vilified. This
is the reason tens of thousands still throng wherever the Rajapakses go. Ever
since you started working as the Defence Secretary and was performing well, I
knew you were Presidential material. I have been proven right today and I am
happy for that! A lot depends on how you lead the nation in the coming months
and years!
We are a grateful
nation. By and large majority of us do not forget easily nor are ungrateful. Have
no second thoughts – it is a grateful nation that is bringing another Rajapakse
to power today!
We wish your
presidency well. We wish you continued good health and long life. Have strong
faith in the tenets of Buddhism and May you govern the nation with Dasa Raja
Dharma!
May the Triple Gem
Bless you and May All Gods guide and protect you in all your future
endeavors.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned
two Army officers accused of war crimes in Afghanistan and restored the rank of
a Navy SEAL platoon commander who was demoted for actions in Iraq, a move
critics have said would undermine military justice and send a message that
battlefield atrocities will be tolerated.
The White House said in a statement Trump granted full pardons to First
Lieutenant Clint Lorance and Major Mathew Golsteyn, and ordered that the rank
Edward Gallagher held before he was convicted in a military trial this year be
restored.
For more than two hundred years, presidents have used their authority
to offer second chances to deserving individuals, including those in uniform
who have served our country. These actions are in keeping with this long
history,” the statement said.
A Pentagon spokesperson said the Department of Defense has confidence in
the military justice system.
The President is part of the military justice system as the
Commander-in-Chief and has the authority to weigh in on matters of this
nature,” the spokesperson said.
In recent weeks, Pentagon officials had spoken with Trump about the
cases, provided facts and emphasized the due process built into the military
justice system.
In 2013, prosecutors accused Lorance of illegally
ordering the fatal shootings of two men on motorcycles while on patrol in
Afghanistan’s Kandahar province. He was found guilty of two counts of murder.
Last year, Golsteyn, an Army Green Beret, was charged
with murdering an Afghan man during a 2010 deployment to Afghanistan.
Gallagher, a decorated SEAL team platoon leader, was
accused of committing various war crimes while deployed in Iraq in 2017.
In July, a military jury acquitted him of murdering a captured Islamic
State fighter by stabbing the wounded prisoner in the neck, but it convicted
him of illegally posing with the detainee’s corpse. That had led to his rank
being reduced.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on honesty and transparency
in healthcare prices inside the Roosevelt Room at the White House in
Washington, U.S., November 15, 2019. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
Golsteyn received word of his pardon from Trump, who spoke with him by
telephone for several minutes, Golsteyn’s attorney Phillip Stackhouse said in a
statement.
Our family is profoundly grateful for the president’s action. We have
lived in constant fear of this runaway prosecution,” Golsteyn was quoted saying
in the statement.
The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the president’s action.
With this utterly shameful use of presidential powers, Trump has sent a
clear message of disrespect for law, morality, the military justice system, and
those in the military who abide by the laws of war,” Hina Shamsi, director of
the ACLU’s National Security Project, said in a statement.
In May, Trump talked about how he was considering
pardons for U.S. troops charged with war crimes, a move he acknowledged would
be controversial but that he said was justified because they had been treated
unfairly.”
The overwhelming majority of pardons are granted to
people who have already been convicted and served time for a federal offense.
But presidents have occasionally granted pardons
preemptively to individuals accused of or suspected of a crime.
The most famous such case was the blanket pardon
President Gerald Ford bestowed on his predecessor, Richard Nixon, after Nixon’s
resignation during the Watergate scandal in 1974.
Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Sandra Maler
and Daniel Wallis
Sri
Lanka re-reversed a regime change orchestrated in January 2015 which spiraled
Sri Lanka towards a wave of catastrophic changes unbeknown to most, outcomes
which will be felt only as the new administration now takes over. The election
is one that will enter history books for several reasons and resonates the
resilience of a proud nation grappling to preserve their history and heritage
protecting the islands every inch of turf. As we enter the closure of 2019 and
look ahead to 2020 it has a lot of promise in store but there are some factors
that needs to be laid out openly and some messages that need to get drilled
into the minds of people.
Gotabaya
Rajapakse has become the 7th President of Sri Lanka and will be
taking oaths on 18 November, the birthday of his elder brother Mahinda
Rajapakse in Anuradhapura – the first citadel of Sri Lanka & where sacred
Sri Maha Bodhi is enshrined. The two brothers will enter history books. Poland
had twin brothers who were both President & Prime Minister! Mahinda
Rajapakse served as President, Prime Minister, Opposition Leader and likely to
be Prime Minister again all in a space of 5 years! Without a doubt they will be
envied by many which sadly stands out as reason for most of the ill-feelings
towards the Rajapakses.
Why
has the Rajapakse’s received the wrath of many? For the West it is obviously
the elimination of their pet LTTE on which West was riding to exert influence
over Sri Lanka politically and economically. The co-partners UN/NGO nexus with
their local stooges played a pivotal role in driving a steady anti-Rajapakse
wave that ignored its development and post-2009 programs to divert attention
against Rajapakse, though within camp, too, they had numerous shortcomings
which should have been immediately addressed. These in fact became golden
opportunities used during the regime change campaign.
UNP
just blew the chance it was given with a string of corruptions, mismanagement
and treacheries some of which are unforgiveable. The manner they have allowed
public sector personnel to be a law unto themselves is unacceptable. Today some
of these treacherous secretaries who have helped sign treacherous bilateral agreements
have fled the nation while others have helped tweak the law to the advantage of
the enemies. These treacheries now need to be investigated and culprits duly
served justice. Their crimes are no small ones.
We
have seen a very significant campaign unfolding. The outgoing President left on
a controversial note surrounding a prison pardoning. The UNP without fielding
its own candidate once more opted to field a candidate under the infamous swan
symbol. It placed its trust in a plethora of parties and individuals that were
the team that brought the outgoing President to power. That victory came with
the same minority bloc vote while also breaking the Sinhala vote and winning a
bonus in anti-Rajapakse votes.
The
SLPP candidate was finally named Gotabaya Rajapakse whose candidature was more
of a problem to the competition than those proposing to vote for him. Gotabaya
was a victim of political/diplomatic/NGO victimization via courts both in Sri
Lanka & overseas with a $ funded campaign that did not stop at anything to
tarnish his image and raise doubts about his candidacy via an unbelievable fake
news campaign that even made a joke out of the US State Dept by changing the
spokespersons dress and dubbing her and no action from US raises eyebrows as to
whether they were aware of it!
The
MCC agreement together with the exposure on the immunities that were to be
given to ACSA and SOFA & US Peace Corps raised alarm bells among the
nationalists as to what would become of Sri Lanka & the Asian region if it
becomes the base for military maneuvers and manipulations which Sri Lanka
wished to play no role in antagonizing its traditional friends. The Maha Sangha
and nationalist organizations played a pivotal role in carrying the message to
the masses that made the majority realize that the election required them to
rise to defend the sovereignty & territorial integrity of the nation.
For
Sajith campaigning meant solidifying the UNP bloc vote and garnering as many
bloc vote via the minority leaders who were all part of the UNP team. The
campaign did not require any national policies for it was only meant to appeal
to and satisfy the bloc votes. The assurance of TNA’s 13 demands was always a
question that many watched to see how far Tamils aligned to TNA separatism and Muslims
to Muslim fundamentalism. The voter map sadly established that answer. The
result destroyed 2 myths – May 2009 showed that the War” can be won and
November 2019 election victory showed elections can be won without North East
votes.
What can we make out of the North &
East votes?
Ethno-religious
political parties has become a bane and divider of people. The people are
misled by these leaders who use minorities as their pawns for personal
bargaining for themselves. However, the elders cannot destroy the youth by them
shouldering divisive politics and separatist notions brainwashed into their
minds by their political leaders. Gotabaya Rajapakse’s political campaign will
go down as one of the cleanest with no posters and encouraging tree planting as
well as drawing youth into a future of hope. He stuck to policy and explaining
how policy will be implemented. There was no character assassinations or
mudslinging on his stages except to alert people of impending dangers to the
Nation & its people. The Youth in particular were promised a better and
brighter future.
The
Tamil & Muslim youth cannot be disassociated from these programs by their
elders nursing separatism & fundamentalism. Therefore, the new government
must adopt new methods to embrace the youth and children to integrate and leave
the separatist elders to take their hatred and revenge to their grave. The
youth deserve far more than hatred to be passed from their elders. These are
long term efforts but worth every effort.
India
was one of the first to extend congratulatory message to the new President. It
is to India’s own advantage that they develop genuine and non-bullying methods
of diplomatic relations in realizing the threat to peace with West entering
Asia’s shore. The Indian Ocean Rim as a Zone of Peace is something that India
needs to work with Sri Lanka on and ensure Sri Lanka does not end up another
Middle East or Africa. Asia’s future is development not wars and India must
realize that this is a priority that requires a trilateral approach with
India-Sri Lanka & China’s inclusive diplomacy. Russia must also play a
pivotal role. The world should no longer be a militarized zone but one with
shared development dividends for mutual benefit. No country can force Sri Lanka
to disassociate with countries that have been Sri Lanka’s friend in times of
need both in the past & present.
The
West will no doubt re-strategize and return to the UN to again bring in
tremendous pressure upon Sri Lanka using their usual chorus of ‘war crimes’ ‘human
rights’ ‘law & order’ state of democracy vocabulary. This is where Sri
Lanka needs to place patriotic diplomats to handle Sri Lanka’s diplomacy to Sri
Lanka’s advantage on international platforms and not have representatives working
for the enemy. We do not need any more PrasadK’s in foreign service. A shake up
of the foreign ministry is a must.
GR
has a vision and we saw that from his work as Defense Secretary but a single
man cannot rebuild a nation – it is a clarion call for all citizens to step
forward as citizens disassociating from petty party politics. From the results
in key pro-UNP belts it is clear that they had put country first and that is a very
noteworthy sign that people can change thinking of the country and it should
give hope to minorities too that they need not live wearing the mask of a minority
with the mindset that they are marginalized but instead think of becoming a
stakeholder and partner in development & sustainability. People have been
victims of mind conditioning – to make demands alone without asking what they
have contributed to society and the nation to make demands – what they have
reciprocated to make unfair demands. It is time they should pose these questions
to themselves. Reconciliation is no one way street – without reciprocity and
without duty it does not hold water.
The
academics – professionals, public & private sector will play a major role
in the future. Let 2020 begin with a set of goals that look forward to
rebuilding the nation with hope – with prosperity where new programs will leverage
every level of society a level above what they were. The drastic and dangerous
legislative changes made by politicians and public officials need to all be
revisited and corrected as an immediate action. Any new changes must come with
open discourse to ensure that the interests of the country and people and
future generations come first.
We
must also mention the nationalists that have always stood as pillars and
guardians of Mother Lanka. They have known when dangers loom and come forward
to alert and avert the dangers. If not for their silent and vocal contribution
the President would not have got close to 7million votes – a first for any
President contesting an election and a first for a non-politician to obtain. The
volunteers and expats who arrived to vote for the first time on behalf of their
birth home deserve much gratitude. No paid campaign could have matched how they
contributed to this victory – so many unsung heroes and heroines cannot be made
but they did a major contribution to this victory.
Sri
Lanka must streamline the national security first – shortcomings, negligence,
and disregard for national security enabled innocent people to die while
allowing fundamentalisms to take shape. These must be nipped in the bud as we
do not wish to walk into another 30 years of death and destruction.
Gotabaya
Rajapakse extended the leaf of peace to all and it is those that rejected who
must now come forward and attempt to retake that leaf of peace with good
intention as Gotabaya Rajapakse is after all the President of all. The
minorities must learn to live in an inclusive society and it is good to rethink
how they have voted. The result showcased where the extremism lay and that is
not healthy for the Youth and it is the Youth that matters.
In
Gotabaya Rajapakse, we have a straight forward leader – therefore the citizens
must also lean to bat straight. The floating voters and youth vote realized
this and made their voice clear. Mudslinging has a short life span and people
realized that they needed a future of policies and not character assassinations.
The divine powers have
always guarded this nation and this time Sri Lanka has been very fortunate.
To everyone planning to gang
up again and torment the new leadership – our kind appeal to you, please leave
this nation to breath a bit, allow us the solace to rethink how Sri Lanka
should progress, we have not harmed any nation or its security and we never
will, all that we ask from the world is to leave us alone to gather our broken
pieces and put it all together on our terms and sort out our differences
amongst us and by us because like in any home, only we know how to put the
puzzle back together again.
Please give us a little room and non-interference into our internal affairs.
MEDIA RELEASE Mahinda Rajapaksa Leader of the Opposition
The candidate of the Sri
Lanka Podujana Peramuna, Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the Joint Opposition,
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has won a decisive victory at this presidential election. I
request all our party activists and supporters to celebrate this victory
peacefully and without causing inconvenience to anyone. The people have voted
decisively in our favour at this election because of disaffection with the
conduct of this government over the past five years. Therefore it is our duty
by the people of this country, to conduct ourselves in a manner that will not
inconvenience anyone.
We will be initiating
a programme of action to deliver justice to all those who have been subject to
persecution and harassment by this government over the past five years. I
salute the people of Sri Lanka for decisively defeating the 2015 style attempt
made to once again purloin the mandate of the people through backroom deals with
various chauvinistic ethnic and religious groupings organized around narrow
political agendas. The time has now come to put an end to this dangerous game
of promoting religious and ethnic chauvinism for political purposes.
This presidential
election differs from all previous presidential elections, because of the
complications in the system of governance brought about by the 19th Amendment.
After the new President takes oaths, we will be studying the provisions of the
19th Amendment to the Constitution and planning our immediate
programme of action accordingly. We now have an opportunity to give a sense of
direction to this country which has been drifting rudderless for five years. As
stated in our candidate’s election manifesto, it will be necessary to
rebuild the economy from the bottom upwards and to introduce constitutional and
legal reforms to achieve this objective.
We will keep the
people informed about further developments in this regard in the coming days.
In the face of the unequivocal people’s mandate delivered at this election, we
believe the government will abide by parliamentary traditions as appropriate in
such circumstances.
Victory to the
motherland and to the patriotic people of Sri Lanka!
By Noor Nizam – Peace and Political Activist, Political Communication Researcher, SLFP/SLPP Stalwart and Convener – “The Muslim Voice” – 17th., November 2019.
The election of HE.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa to the office of the 7th., President of Sri Lanka on the
16th., of November 2019 is a happy day for those Sri Lankans who love their
“Maathruboomiya”, Mother Sri Lanka, be they Sinhalese, Tamils,
Muslims, Malays or Burghers.
The section of Muslims who voted HE. Gotabaya Rajapaksa to become the 7th., Executive President of Sri Lanka feel honoured to be partners in the victory of the majority community who have voted HE. Gotabaya Rajapaksa to make it happen, by the grace of God almighty.
The Muslims of Sri Lanka wish the new President of Sri Lanka, Excellency Gotabaya Rajapaksa the very best and pray God Almighty to bless him in all his endeavours throughout his tenure in office to achieve success and to serve the people of Sri Lanka as promised.
Those Muslims also
wish to express our special and sincere thanks to HE. Mahinda Rajapaksa, Former
President and Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the SLPP for his dedicated
support and guidance extended to Excellency Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the campaign
trail which has enabled the final results Sri Lankans who love their
“Maathruboomiya” had waited for to happen and will begin to enjoy the
results from today.
Those Muslims also wish to express our sincere thanks to Mr Basil Rajapaksa, Former Hon Minister and the National Organizer of the SLPP and the architect of the new party that made all this happen politically. Our thanks also go to all members of the Campaign Team, Viyathmaga Team and Eliya Team and all the supporters and politicians who worked tirelessly since HE. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was officially named as the presidential candidate of the SLPP by HE. Mahinda Rajapaksa. “The Muslim Voice” is proud to have been a member of that group.
Night raids and aerial strikes have led to
mounting civilian casualties in Afghanistan,” says a detailed report recently
issued by the Human Rights Watch. The report reveals that CIA-backed Afghan
strike forces have once again made the lives of innocent Afghan citizens a
hell. Night-time raids into homes in remote villages, forced disappearances,
attacks on healthcare facilities and summary executions are the tools being
used against the local people. In civilized societies such cruelties are termed
as ‘atrocities’ and ‘war crimes’. The report has referred to at least 14 such cases
across nine provinces over the last 2 years. Analysts are of the opinion that the
basic reason behind this brutal behaviour of the Afghan troops is that most of
them got their professional training from the officers of the US Army and of
the US intelligence agencies. The training masters have taught them to show
little concern for the local civilians’ life. That is why this training has
made them callous and merciless to their own people. They don’t hesitate in
shooting them direct in their heads when they are in their custody during the
night raids.
is
the title of an article written by Mohammed Harun Arsalai and Mohsin Khan
Momand jointly penned down an article with the title ‘Civilian Deaths in
Afghanistan Keep Climbing.’ The article was published in the Nation USA last
August, 2019. The article narrated the murder story of Syed Wali who ran one of
the only two shops in Sarkot village of Eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar
Province. Wali sold sugar, soap, and cigarettes to everyone in town, including
the region’s local Taliban members. A shopkeeper nowhere could stop anyone from
doing purchases from his shop particularly when there are no other shops in the
area. The article says that ‘The US-built’ National Directorate of Security
(NDS) one night raided the Sarkot village and stormed the shopkeeper’s house.
The officers in the raiding party blamed Syed Wali of doing business
transactions with Taliban and before he could give them any answer, he was shot
in head. And this way the story of Syed Wali’s life reached a pathetic ending.
Another
incident of the same type was recently narrated by the Guardian also. The paper
said, On 11 August this year, troops from one of the CIA-backed units
accompanied by at least one US soldier and a translator – served as judge, jury
and executioner for 11 men in Kulgago, a village in the south of Paktia
province. Four were executed in the family compound of Dr. Ulfatullah, a
pharmacist who lost two sons and two cousins.” According to media reports the
young men in Kulgago were targeted as insurgents but the facts are otherwise.
Shafiullah and Hayatullah were the government employees and they were working
as teachers in the Education Ministry of Afghanistan. A witness said talking to
the media-men, The Afghan soldiers who swept through Kulgago village one late
August night shot three of Dr. Ulfatullah’s relatives carefully, a single
bullet through their left eye, faces otherwise untouched as blood pooled below
their bodies on the floor of the family home. However the last killing was less
precise, and left the face of university student Ansarullah badly disfigured
and deformed.”
Reports
say that most of the time, the victims of the Afghan soldiers belong to the
Pashtun tribes as most of the Taliban are Pashtun tribesmen. The foreign
invaders know it very well that the Pashtuns would always remain a threat to
their hegemonic designs as they are the hardest ones to be defeated. So the Afghan
soldiers are being ‘misused’ in the process of making the Pashtuns weaker. The
recent episode of harassing the Pakistani diplomats in Kabul is also a part of
the same ‘Kill Pashtun Movement’ as the Trainers have convinced the Afghan
authorities that Pakistan and Taliban are the two sides of the same coin. It
means wherever the freedom fighters are fighting against the foreign occupation,
they would be linked with Pakistan; be it the Indian Held Kashmir, the
Khalistan, the Nagaland and even Assam. This blame game is not fair; most of
the time the freedom movements are indigenous.
In
principle, on paper, yes we have reached an agreement — that it is done but it
is not final until the president of the United States also agrees to it,” said Zalmay
Khalilzad, the American special envoy to Afghanistan talking to the Afghan
channel ToloNews, just two months back. He further revealed that the United
States would pull 5,400 troops from Afghanistan within 135 days of signing an
agreement with the Taliban and this pulling out
would be the start of the expected gradual withdrawal of all 14,000
United States troops that could end America’s longest running war. Khalilzad
had been leading nearly a year of talks with the Taliban. People were expecting
something marvelous coming out of these talks but still the political scenario
in Afghanistan is not very hopeful and encouraging; it is rather frightening
and depressing.
Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama announced that he would retire from active politics at the end of the Parliamentary term.
Addressing a letter to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today (17) expressed his gratitude for giving him the opportunity to serve the country as a Cabinet Minister and informed of his resignation from the ministerial post.
The People of our country have elected Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the Executive President of Sri Lanka and I wish to respect that mandate,” Samarawickrama said.
Referring to his tenure of office, Samarawickrama stated Sri Lanka’s exports of goods and services have increased by over 50% and that the country has received FDIs totalling to USD 5.6 billion which amounts to 31% of the FDIs received during the past 40 years.
Furthermore, the value of projects approved by the BOI during this period amounts to UDS 36.4 billion and the envisaged employment is 94,000,” Samarawickrama added.
UNP Parliamentarian Kabir Hashim has announced his decision to step down as the chairman of the party and his ministerial portfolio.
MP Hashim has been in office as the Minister of Highways & Road Development and Petroleum Resources Development.
Former wartime Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected as the President of Sri Lanka in the 7th Presidential Election that took place yesterday (16).
Following his massive victory, several parliamentarians of the UNP stepped down from their positions in the party, including the NDF presidential frontrunner Sajith Premadasa, who had been serving as the deputy leader of the UNP.
In the meantime, Parliamentarians Mangala Samaraweera and Harin Fernando also informed that they would be resigning as Minister of Finance and Minister of Telecommunication, Foreign Employment and Sports.
Colombo, November 17 (AIR): Following the victory of Gotabaya Rajapaksa iof the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) in the November 16 Presidential election, party chief Mahinda Rajapaksa said that the incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party (UNP) must step down.
Gotabaya had defeated the UNP candidate Sajith Premadasa convincingly. Gotabaya is to be sworn in as new President on Monday.
His brother, party chief and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa hinted at a change of government in the wake of the result. In a message, the former President said that in view of the unequivocal people’s mandate, the SLPP believes that the government will abide by parliamentary traditions as appropriate in such circumstances.”
Gotabaya’s party had made it clear before the elections that they would expect the incumbent government under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremsinghe to step down in event of an SLPP victory.
The former President also said that the Presidential election will be seen as referendum ahead of the Parliamentary election due next year.
Meanwhile, at least four ministers, including Finance Minister Mangala Samarweera, have resigned after the defeat of Sajith Premadasa.
Prime Minister Wickremsinghe said in a message that a decision on the next general election will be taken after discussions with the parliament Speaker, party leaders and government MPs.
Gotabaya received around 6.9 million votes against his main rival Sajith Premadasa who got around 5.56 million votes in the final vote count announced by country’s Elections Commission this afternoon. Gotabaya received 52.25 percent of total valid votes.
He is the younger brother of former President Mahinda Rajapksa and served as Defense Secretary in the final stages of the war against the LTTE.
In a message, Gotabaya called for a new journey” for Sri Lanka adding that all Sri Lankans are part of this journey. He said he is the President of not only those who voted for him but for all Sri Lankans and that is the greatest honor in his life.
He got overwhelming support in the majority Sinhalese-dominated areas of the country. But Premadasa received wide support from minority Tamil and Muslim areas in the North and East.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa secured over 52 per cent of votes cast in Sri Lanka’s presidential election.
NEW DELHI: As Gotabaya Rajapaksa prepares to take over as Sri Lanka’s seventh Executive President on Monday, SNI Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale, who has known and interacted with the President-elect while reporting on Eelam War IV (2006-2009) and in subsequent years, brings out some fascinating and little known facts about the man who will lead the island nation for the next five years:
Gotabaya joined the Sri Lankan Army in April 1971 as a cadet officer.
He was commissioned in the Signals Regiment and sent for the Young Officers’ course to Rawalpindi in Pakistan.
On his return, his first posting in the SL Army was Palaly in northern Sri Lanka.
In October 1974, Gotabaya opted to move to the infantry, joining the Sinha Regiment. Later, he was tasked with raising the Gajaba Regiment and commanded the 1st Gajaba Battalion.
In 1983, he completed the Staff Officers Course at the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington, near Ooty, in India.
Then Lt Col (now Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka), commanding the 1st Sinha Battalion and Gotabaya, as Commanding Officer of the 1st Gajaba Battalion, launched a combined operation to rescue Sri Lankan Army soldiers from the besieged Jaffna Fort, surrounded by the LTTE.
The current Commander of the Sri Lankan Army, Lt Gen Shavendra Silva, has served under Gotabaya in the 1st Gajaba Battalion as a young officer.
Gotabaya quit the Army in November 1991 and migrated to the United States.
He returned to Sri Lanka to help his elder brother Mahinda’s election campaign in 2005 and stayed on to become Defence Secretary and play a pivotal role in Eelam War IV to end the Tamil insurgency in Sri Lanka.
November 17 (newsin.asia) – Ministers from Sri Lanka’s ruling United National Front (UNF) government began resigning from their portfolios on Sunday after the ruling presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa lost the presidential elections.
Minister of Sports, Telecommunications and Foreign Employment, Harin Fernando, was one of the first Ministers to hand in his resignation saying he had decided to step down respecting the people’s mandate. Fernando said he was also resigning from his positions in the United National Party (UNP) which is the largest party in the UNF alliance.
Minister of Digital Infrastructure and Information Technology, Ajith Perera in a statement said he too had handed in his resignation respecting the mandate of the Sri Lanka people.
Several more Ministers are rumored to have sent in their resignation letters after Sajith’s defeat and it is likely that Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe will also hand in his resignation letter later today.
President-elect Gotabaya Rajapaksa will take his oath as the new president of Sri Lanka on Monday morning in Anuradhapura, his party the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) said in a statement.
Thereafter Rajapaksa is expected to form a caretaker government.
SPUR (Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka Inc) Reg: A 003 0777 M PO Box 4066, Mulgrave, VIC 3170, Australia Tele/Fax: (03) 97957143 Email: ranjiths@spur.asn.au Website: www.spur.asn.au
Attn NEWS EDITOR-SBS
.Dear Editor, Your following news item re above -link is given- is completely baseless and overturns the code of conduct by fabrication and allowing only one side to voice as its opinion
1 Except for Tamil Tiger terrorists and their fellow travelers and some NGO spokesmen who are following closely the terrorist’s dictates no accepted source have directed any charges or proved any charge against Mr. Gotabaya R about the violation of HR or recommitting of war crimes.
2 What
the biased sources have stated, HAVE NOT BEING PROVED BY ANYONE.
3 It was under Gotabaya’s as the Defence Secretary that he liberated about 20 million Sri Lankans from the yoke of the Tamil Tigers who were waging war with the SL Govt, killing unarmed civilians, exploding bombs in the city centers., freeing the child soldiers who were kept by force by the Tamil Tigers.
4 If you happen to go through your library you will find/see that the SL Govt forces under the directive of Gotabaya R freed 280,000 unarmed civilians from the Tamil Tigers who kept them by force and they were protected and looked after by the defense forces under Goatabya.
5 The defense forces further rehabilitated over 50,000 Tamil fighters and ushered speedy economic development program in the Tamil majority areas,
5 Therefore, the belief that Goatbaya R, if elected will act nullifying the freedom, etc IS WRONG AND IT IS INCORRECT and your sources point of views represents the general tendency of Asylum seekers who will always direct complaints about their country of origin as they want to continue living in Australia as economic refugees.
We
request you to RECTIFY THE ABSURD SITUATION CREATED by the news story and to
consult and give publicity views of all sections of Sri Lankans when airing
controversial topics as it is the more ethical and logical way.
Ps. I
send herewith the details of Sri Lankan origin Population figures in Australia as
you should take this into account when discussing Sri Lanka and we are willing
to help you if you need contacts
Hope you are well. I am not sure whether
you have time to read my message, but I hope you read it one day.
I am one of the silent majority who wish
and pray that you win with a majority tomorrow. I left my motherland when I was
23 years old, but I still love the country I was born 60 years ago.
I never had the opportunity to vote in my
motherland, but I always wish to see that my country will prosper and the
innocent people will have an opportunity to live peacefully no matter what
their background or race.
I know that you have a clear vision to lead
this country for the next 5 years. Hope and wish that you will have good health
to lead this country for the next generation. I know that you have an agenda to
help the youth especially kids who cannot continue their education after year
12 exams, and unable to enter University. The country can prosper with a good leader,
and I truly believe that you have a dream for this beautiful nation, and people
around you will support you wholeheartedly for your vision.
Please promote tourism like Vietnam where
we visited villagers on a group tour and we saw how they promote local
creations and allow people with talents to perform for tourists to make some
money. Our motherland is rich with natural resources, and poor people should
get some opportunity (creating local jobs) to earn a living not big
corporations.
My last wish is to build up the economy you
need strong characters with qualification and knowledge and not people who
shout and embarrassed you. You ran an excellent campaign and will reap the
rewards tomorrow.
Minister Sajith Premadasa, who contested at the forefront in the
Presidential Election 2019 from New Democratic Front (NDF), has
announced his decision to step down as Deputy Leader of the United
National Party (UNP) with immediate effect.
Minister Harin Fernando, taking to his official Facebook account
today (17), published a special statement from Minister Premadasa.
Accordingly, DNF contender has conveyed his wishes to the seventh
President of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who contested in the
Presidential race and currently leading the election results.
It is my privilege to honour the decision of the people and
congratulate Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa on his election as the seventh
President of Sri Lanka,” Premadasa said in his special statement.
Premadasa says the country has witnessed the most peaceful
Presidential Election in the history of its independent republic. This
was a result of the democratic gains and institutional reforms that have
taken place over the last five years that empowered an independent
elections commission and restored the rule of law, Premadasa said
further.
He appealed to the incoming President is that he would take this
process forward and strengthen and protect the democratic institutions
and values.
Premadasa expressed his gratitude for those who assisted him in his
presidential bid and the people who stood by him through his political
journey.
The complete statement of Minister Sajith Premadasa is as follows:
At the conclusion of a hard-fought and spirited election campaign, it
is my privilege to honour the decision of the people and congratulate
Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa on his election as the seventh President of Sri
Lanka.
I express my heartfelt gratitude to all of our citizens who voted for
me, in all corners of the island. I am humbled that you placed your
faith in me. Your support has been a fountain of strength throughout my
twenty-six-year-long political career. I also wish to place on record my
gratitude to all those who worked tirelessly on my campaign. My family
and I will never forget your sacrifice and dedication.
We have just witnessed the most peaceful presidential election in the
history of our independent republic. This was a result of the
democratic gains and institutional reforms that have taken place over
the last five years that empowered an independent election commission
and restored the rule of law. My appeal to the incoming President is
that he take this process forward and strengthen and protect the
democratic institutions and values that enabled his peaceful election as
the 7th President of Sri Lanka. I also urge Mr. Rajapaksa to ensure
that the post-election environment is peaceful and that no citizen or
NDF party supporter is persecuted or harmed for their role in supporting
my candidacy.
For 26 years, I have been an active politician in this country.
During that time, I have made every effort to serve the people, in my
home district of Hambantota and wherever and whenever they needed my
assistance. It has been my privilege to serve as Housing Minister in
this Government for five years, prioritizing the creation of a
home-owning society by 2025. I hope the people understand that these
were sincere, heartfelt efforts to uplift the lives of my fellow
citizens.
In light of today’s decision by the electorate, I have decided to
step down as Deputy Leader of the United National Party with immediate
effect.
In the coming weeks, in consultation with all those who supported my
presidential bid, the people who have stood by me through my political
journey and my loved ones, I will reflect on the future of my political
career and where my life will take me hereafter. Bound to the people of
Sri Lanka, I remain their faithful servant, today and always.
We are now awaiting the results of what will hopefully be Sri Lanka’s last presidential election. There are 35 candidates contesting this presidential election with a ballot paper over two feet long for a position that has no power at all. Today, Sri Lanka’s supposedly executive presidency has less power than the nominal President in India. In India as in Sri Lanka it is the President who has the power to summon, prorogue or dissolve parliament. The Indian president is constitutionally required to act in accordance with the advice of the Cabinet. However no court of law can inquire into whether he was in fact acting in accordance with the advice given to him by the Cabinet.
After the 19th Amendment in Sri Lanka, the President is barred from dissolving Parliament at his discretion before the lapse of four and a half years. Prior to the 19th Amendment, a great part of the President’s power lay in the fact that his actions could not be challenged in courts. However the 19th Amendment has made it possible to challenge actions taken by the President by way of a fundamental rights application. In October last year, the President dissolved Parliament and the governing party went to courts and got the dissolution annulled. With the restriction on the dissolution of Parliament, one of the key powers that made the President the main repository of political power in the country has been done away with.
According to Article 43 of the Constitution as amended by the 19th Amendment, it is the President who will determine the number of ministries and the subjects and institutions that are to be assigned to those ministries. He may, only if he deems it necessary, consult the Prime Minister in doing so. However, when appointing individual MPs to hold these ministries, the President is mandatorily required to consult the Prime Minister. After the Cabinet is formed in this manner, the President may at any time change the assignment of subjects and functions and the composition of the Cabinet. Article 43 is silent on the question whether the President is required to consult the PM when he changes the assignment of subjects and functions and the composition of a Cabinet that has already been formed.
Presidential powers removed
However, the wording of Article 43(2) seems to suggest that in appointing MPs to be Ministers, the President cannot avoid consulting the Prime Minister whether it be before the Cabinet is appointed or afterwards. Certainly when it comes to removing ministers who have been appointed, Article 46(3) which was introduced by the 19th Amendment states that they can be removed by the President, only on the advice of the Prime Minister. Logically you can’t replace a minister without removing the incumbent. Hence Articles 43(2) and 46(3) taken together means that the President can neither appoint nor remove a Minister without the Prime Minister’s approval.
Before the 19th Amendment repealed and replaced Chapter VIII of the Constitution, under the old Article 47, the President could sack the Prime Minister at any time he wished. When the PM ceases to hold office, the Cabinet also stands dissolved. However after the 19th Amendment, under the new Article 46(2), the Prime Minister ceases to hold office only if he (a) resigns his office by a writing under his hand addressed to the President; or (b) ceases to be a Member of Parliament. There is now no provision for the President to be able to sack the Prime Minister. The only way that a prime minister can be removed upon a new President taking office is to prove that the PM does not have a majority in Parliament.
Before the 19th Amendment, it is the President who made all the important appointments such as Supreme Court and Appeal Court judges, the Attorney General, the IGP, The Elections Commissioner and The Inspector General of Police. Today, the President cannot make any important state appointment except in mandatory consultation with the ten-member Constitutional Council. With regard to certain positions like the IGP and AG, and judges of the higher judiciary, the President has to make the recommendation and get it approved by the Constitutional Council. When it comes to making appointments to the independent commissions such as the Elections Commission and the Public Services Commission, the Constitutional Council that makes the recommendation for the approval and appointment by the President. Either way, it’s the Constitutional Council and not the President who plays the pivotal role in making these appointments.
Before the 19th Amendment, all Presidents held various portfolios under the old Article 44(2) which stated that the President may assign to himself any subject or function and will remain in charge of any subject or function not assigned to a Minister. However this provision no longer exists in the Constitution. Though there is this theory that the President may be able to retain the defence portfolio citing Article 4(b) which states that the President exercises the executive power of the people including defence, the fact is that up to the 19th Amendment the president’s power to assign to himself any portfolio he wishes was derived not from Article 4(b) but from the old Article 44(2) which has now been repealed.
After the 19th Amendment, the President still remains the head the Cabinet, yet he is barred from holding any portfolios and functions more like the Chairman of the Cabinet. President Sirisena holds the Defence, Mahaweli and Environment portfolios only by virtue the transitional provision in Section 51 of the 19th Amendment which enables him to hold those three specified portfolios. This transitional provision ceases to operate with his retirement. When Sirisena bows out, those three portfolios will have to be given to ministers recommended by the Prime Minister. After the 19th Amendment, the President has no power worth talking about. He cannot wield any real power and do anything in his own right. The real power lies with the Cabinet of which the president is also a member.
The President has powers over the appointment of the commanders of the armed forces, ambassadors, provincial governors and ministry secretaries. Though some think that the President will be able to run the country through the ministry secretaries bypassing the Ministers, the way President R. Premadasa is supposed to have done during his ‘one man show’, this will not be possible because Article 52(2) of the Constitution states very clearly that the secretary to a ministry shall exercise supervision over the departments and other institutions in charge of the Minister subject to the direction and control of his Minister.
If President R.Premadasa was able to run a one man show by controlling all the ministries through the ministry secretary, that was only because the President could at that time sack both the minister and his secretary at any time. So at that time the minister dared not protest even if the President was dealing directly with his secretary behind his back. Today however, the President cannot sack a minister unless it is on the recommendations of the Prime Minister. What we have under the 19th is not really a President but a quarter of a President. Even the Prime Minister is a quarter of a Prime Minister because the only claim to power that he has is being the effective appointing authority of ministers. Thus with a quarter of a President and quarter of a Prime Minister, we have half an executive with the other half lost in a constitutional limbo.
We all have to hope that the voting public would have voted in their numbers for Gotabhaya Rajapaksa at this election because it is only he together with his brother as Prime Minister and the synergies they have with the rest of the political grouping they represent that will be able to restore a semblance of a proper government to this country. The dyarchy created by the 19th Amendment is tailor made to foster confusion and conflict between the President and the Parliamentary government – each elected separately by the people and each having a claim to be exercising the people’s sovereignty.
Any attempt to remedy this by amending the Constitution to recreate a J. R. Jayewardene style Executive President will encounter such resistance that it will politically destroy the person or political party that attempts any such thing. Such an attempt will be counterproductive and will not be worth the effort. The only feasible option will be the abolition of the executive presidency and the creation of a parliamentary form of government which we hope will take place before 2025 so that this becomes the last presidential election we have. Because the present proportional representation system has produced a clear majority in Parliament for the party that wins a general election only on two occasions in 1989 and 2010, reform of the electoral system has been seen as a necessary precursor to the abolition of the executive presidency.
Working majority in Parliament
As far as electoral reform goes, the most feasible system was recommended by the Parliamentary Select Committee headed by Dinesh Gunawardene over a decade ago. However, the implementation of this system will require a fresh delimitation of constituencies and Dr. Sudantha Liyanage, who designed the system adopted by the Dinesh Gunawardene PSC envisages a deadlock at the delimitation stage because many existing electorates will have to be merged to reduce the present 160 electorates to 140. What this means is that we are saddled with the district based proportional representation system for the foreseeable future and adjustments will have to made within the existing framework. The three main requirements are firstly, to ensure that the winning party gets a working majority in parliament, secondly to do away with the preference vote system and thirdly, to have an MP to represent each constituency.
The question now is to achieve those objectives within the existing district based proportional representation system. One quick fix solution proposed to the problem of ensuring a working majority for the party that wins parliamentary elections, is to take about 12 seats out of the national list and to give them to the winning party as bonus seats. The system proposed by the Dinesh Gunawardene Committee also had five bonus seats from the national list allocated to the winning party. At the parliamentary elections of 1994, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2015 the winning parties got 105, 107, 109, 105 and 106 seats respectively inclusive of the national list seats.
So it was a case of being short of anything between four to eight seats to have the 113 seats that will provide a working majority. At the elections mentioned above, the number of national list seats that the winning party was entitled to was 14, 13, 13, 13, and 13 respectively. Hence even if 12 seats are taken out of the national list and given to the winning party as bonus seats, that number would include about six to seven seats that the winning party was entitled to anyway, and the number of seats the winning party finally gets as actual bonus seats, could be as low as five or six.
This could lead to a situation where even after getting the 12 bonus seats, the winning party may still not get a working majority of 113 seats. In this context, there is perhaps a solution which this writer would like to suggest. The national list was only an afterthought which came with the Fourteenth Amendment. In JRJ’s original 1978 Constitution, there were supposed to be only 196 MPs in Parliament, and no national list. My suggestion is that the national list be abolished altogether leaving only 12 bonus seats for the winning party after the fashion of the 1948 Constitution, which had provision for the appointment of six MPs by the party that forms a government after an election. That would reduce the number of MPs in Parliament from the present 225 to 208 (196 elected MPs + 12 appointed MPs).
It is important to specify that the 12 bonus seats will be given to the party that wins the most number of seats at the parliamentary election, and not to the party that manages through various horse deals to cobble together a government after an election. The 1948 Constitution, with only 101 MPs in Parliament, gave the party that forms a government six bonus seats. So to have 12 bonus seats in a Parliament of 208, is not excessive. If the number of MPs is reduced to 208, the number of MPs necessary to form a stable government will be 105. An examination of the election results of the past 30 years will show that after 196 MPs are elected from the districts, an additional 12 bonus seats would enable the winning party to have a working majority.
It is, of course, impossible to totally eliminate the possibility of the winning party falling just short of a working majority. The idea would be to ensure that hung Parliaments are the exception rather than the norm. As things stand today, winning parties without a working majority is the norm. The national list has earned a bad name and abolishing it will be welcomed by the public and even by elected MPs. One difficulty in abolishing it is that over the years, every political party has got accustomed to nominating a few critically important people to Parliament through the national list. The winning party will have the 12 bonus seats to which such persons can be appointed. However, in the absence of a national list, the parties in the opposition will have no way of appointing MPs to Parliament.
Shifting responsibility to political parties
Perhaps, the way to deal with this may be to draw inspiration from the original 1978 Constitution and give the political parties unfettered authority to appoint whoever they like to one or two seats won by that party in each province. Under the present electoral system, each province is allocated four seats in Parliament. When these seats are apportioned to the various electoral districts in the province, they become the district bonus seats that everyone is familiar with. Even though the popular belief is that each district has only one bonus seat, some districts have two bonus seats.
To illustrate this by way of an example, the Colombo district is entitled to17 seats going by the number of registered voters in the district. With the bonus seat, the Colombo district should have 18 seats. But it actually has 19 seats because it has got two bonus seats. The four seats allocated to the Western Province are distributed as one bonus seat each for the Gampaha and Kalutara districts and two for the Colombo district. In the Central Province, after Matale and Kandy have been allocated one bonus seat each, the Nuwara Eliya district has got two bonus seats. Likewise, the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa electoral districts in the North Central Province have two bonus seats each because the NCP has only two electoral districts.
If each electoral district was to have only one bonus seat, there would be only 22 bonus seats for the 22 electoral districts in the country. But in reality there are 36 bonus seats which works out to 14 extra seats. If the political parties are allowed to fill one or two seats they win in each province as the party deems fit, that may meet the need of political parties to accommodate politically important individuals in Parliament. Of course such dignitaries may have to make themselves useful in the election campaign in the relevant province and especially in the district concerned so as to justify their appointment to Parliament.
If J.R.Jayewardene’s original plan was to give the political party complete authority over appointing MPs to Parliament after an election, surely there is nothing wrong in allowing political parties to appoint just one MP at their discretion and that too only in the districts that have this extra seat over and above one bonus seat per district?
One way to solve the issue of having constituency based representation and achieving the objective of eliminating the preference vote system, could be to adopt a modified version of the system originally envisaged by JRJ by giving the political parties the power to nominate candidates to Parliament. All political parties still appoint their electoral organizers on the basis of the existing 160 electorates or polling divisions as they are now known. The appointment of an electoral organizer by a political party could become a more formal affair where the letter appointing a person as an electoral organizer is accorded some legal validity while political parties retain the entitlement to change their organizers at any time as they deem fit.
These electoral organizers become candidates at parliamentary elections with their names appearing on the party nominations list. Candidates can be nominated to Parliament by their party on the basis of the percentage of votes that each electoral organizer/candidate obtains within his constituency to bolster the overall performance of his party in that district. This will eliminate the need for the preference voting system and the need for candidates to canvas for votes throughout an entire district. Since the number of MPs that a political party will get in a district will be decided on the basis of the proportion of votes it polls, and not on the number of constituencies it wins, every electoral organizer will have to be given constituencies of a uniform size with a specified minimum number of registered votes so as to give him a fair chance of obtaining the proportion of votes that would get him a seat in Parliament.
Dividing or combining the existing electorates to make up constituencies for their organizers will be the responsibility of each political party. Under such a system, it could well be that a candidate who has won the constituency allocated to him by his party may not be elected an MP if his party’s allocation of seats according to the proportion of votes won in the district runs out before it comes to his turn. He would then be the next on the list to be appointed to Parliament on the death or resignation or expulsion of an MP elected on his list. If one gives it careful thought, there is in fact a way in which J.R.Jayewardene’s original parliamentary electoral system could be adapted to meet present day requirements.
Even as the Yahapalan government goes through their last gasps, it merits reflecting on the complex web of deceit and deception that they spun on Sri Lankans to grab power and stay in power, in a hope to prevent Sri Lanka’s history being so slurred, ever again.
In January
2015, unseating a regime that had ended a thirty year old terrorist war dubbed
an unwinnable war”, and maintaining the peace for five years thereafter without even the slightest whiff of terror ,
while at the same time ushering in
unprecedented development, would to say the least be a daunting
challenge.
This
development had seen Colombo seeing a
visionary transformation from a city wanting even in garbage disposal to one so
beautiful that enabled Sri Lanka to be named the year’s top tourist destination twice by Lonely planet and once by CNN, that
had seen a pot hole driven road network to being transformed to one good as any,
any where in the world , & had seen after decades of vacillation opening
of equally world class motor ways, & had seen the building up of ports and airports that within
a few years is seeing the most powerful nations competing with each other to
gain influence over, & had seen the building of a port city in Colombo to
be an international financial centre equal to Singapore & had seen the building of a new eastern
terminal in the Colombo harbour equipped
to service modern mega ships that dock
and tranship most goods to the eastern coast of India thanks to the shallow palk strait, &
had seen the compete electrification of the entire country an achievement not
even remotely achieved by their mighty South Asian neighbours, & had seen
growth rates of over 7% on the trot for several years second only to China, &
that had seen the per capita of it’s citizens income double ad even treble to
the extent that it was elevated from a Low Income Nation” to a Middle Income
Nation” .
To meet
this daunting challenge , it would appear that the budding Yahapalanites” had
taken a leaf from the Tiger book of web
of deceit and deception” that enabled them for decades, to garner western
support for their terrorist war claiming it to be a freedom struggle.
The
strategy for the Jan. 2015 election,
therefore was to neutralize the war achievements through claiming that these were achieved through violation of human rights and the development was achieved through bribery and corruption in the form of
unacceptably high commissions for politicians in power. Though these allegation had virtually no evidence in
support, following the doctrine of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s minister of
propaganda, that any lie would eventually be believed if repeated frequently
enough, they kept bombarding these unmitigated lies to the electorate through
media, especially social media, that eventually saw them achieve their election
victory in 2015.
They are
repeating the ploy in Nov 2019, but the electorate and their opposition are
probably wiser now
In 2015 ,they
also cleverly exploited the presence of many members of the Rajapaksha family
in positions of power, presenting it as family rule ” cleverly ignoring that all of these
Rajapakshas were in these positions
because they were mandated by the people with huge majorities .
Once in
power Yahapalanites continued their denigration of the war victory culminating
in arguably the most treasonous and despicable act in Sri Lanka’s proud history
of over 2500 years. This they did when they joined the US in sponsoring a
resolution at the UNHCR accepting that the allegations of human rights
violations during the war victory were
credible” , and asking for an investigation into these allegations , to be
conducted with the participation of foreign judges. Such offering of the
Ranaviru for slaughter for the crime of rescuing their nation from terror, mprobably has no equal in the entire history
of the human race. This is in stark contrast to UK Premier Theresa May defiantly
announcing that she would never subject her soldiers for any kind of inquiry
into their actions in Iraq and a similar pronouncement by the US President.
This sin of
the Yahapalana has been compounded for
the past five years through by passing many opportunities to extricate it self
from this crime for eg by , tabling the
Paranagama commission report that clearly established that there were no war
crimes committed by the security forces, or by tabling the more recent
revelations of Lord Naseby in the British House of Lords through the
information he gathered including communications from the British High Commission in Colombo that
revealed the civilian casualty rate was of the order of five thousand
& not the forty thousand quoted in the UNHCR resolution, or by
simply withdrawing it’s sponsorship of this resolution , which would then lapse
as the other sponsor, the US, is no longer a member of the UNHCR , which
they left two years ago denigrating it as a cesspit of political intrigue”, a
reality that had struck home to many like me well before it did to the US
President.
One would
fervently hope that the new President Gotabaya Rajapaksha would correct these
wrongs at the earliest opportunity.
The
harassing and imprisonment of Ranaviru on flimsy grounds, dismantling the
intelligence and internal security apparatus that the Mahinda Rajapaksha administration
was not merely an act of omission. This was also an act of commission as
Yahapalana sees this as a threat to their agenda which was destabilisation of
internal security that would pave the way for US boots to hit ground in Sri
Lanka as provided for in the ACSA agreement. The Easter Bombings were equally
both a result of omission as well as
commission, as it was being engineered by some in Yahapalana to create a
Sinhalese backlash that would have provided the conditions for actioning the
ACSA as above. The PM’s first call after the explosions that, there were
international forces involved and we may need foreign assistance to cope” also
lends support this belief. Thankfully, the prompt and mindful response of the
clergy of all denominations enabled this part of the web of deception to be
foiled. Equally, the agitation there from has at least seen the deferring of
the other two agreements with the US, the SOFA and MCC, being deferred at least
till after the election. It has seen the
failure of the strategy of sign before
election and debate after election” , stratergy. However, even to attempt so is
a contemptuous insult to the intelligence of the Sri Lankan people .
On another
aspect, the PM has also attempted to absolve himself of responsibility for the
easter bombing because he was not an invitee to the national security meetings.
This happened since the SLFP pulled out of the Yahapalana in October 2018 and
the spat between himself and the President. If he the PM was responsible, he
would have at least raised this in cabinet or parliament or if he had any shame
would have resigned his post and gone for a general election as the President
and opposition wanted, when it became
clear that his minority government was compromising it’s responsibility to the
country. That he had no shame, was evident to any body who saw him being mercilessly admonished
by the President in full view of the nation on TV, at their first meeting after
his reappointment .
Having come
on a holier than thou -Yahapalana”,
canard , the deception by violating the constitution started from the their
very first act after installing the Yahapalana President . This was when
a new Prime Minister was appointed, while the previous prime minister with
Parliamentary Majority was still in office . However , this was just a taste of
much worse to follow which happened in February and March in the form of the
two Bond Scams”. Perhaps, the crowning ignominity of the Yahapalana actions in this saga was
the attempt on the part of it’s Prime Minister to shamelessly attempt to
reinstall the disgraced governor of the central bank to the same post once
again , stopped only by the firmness of the President. Even to this day he
continues to abscond, though clearly a close associate of the PM. How much more Ayahapalana” one can be, or
deceitful one can be, is beyond any ones
imaginations.
Having won
the 2015 election on the strength of
allegations of a fortune of 18 billion
dollars being embezzled by the former
President and his family and of their ownership Lamborghini cars and helicopters , Yahapalana
has failed to establish a penny of this
despite the use of all of the state resources for four and a half years.
Despite the establishment a FCID to effect a highly politicised investigation
against the Rajapaksha family, as confirmed by several of their senior legal
and administrative employees, not one case has even gone to court.
Having
condemned the Colombo port city project and stalled its construction for two
years they are now back building on the same model at an enhanced cost and two
years behind schedule . Having condemned the Hambantota harbour the first act
of Yahapalana in January 2015 was to stop the first revenue
earning activity of the harbour, the bunkering(refuelling of ships) activity
that started in June 2014 .The implication is that ships who form Europe would
carry enough fuel to go to Singapore, could carry considerably less fuel and
more cargo, win , win for both SL and Ships with Singapore being the looser.
One would be excused for wondering whether this may be the reason for the
bunkering still not being restarted and whether the secrecy behind the clause in the trade deal with Singapore is related.
In January
2015 there were three daily flights to Mattala.
The first action of Yahapalana was to
stop all flights, store paddy in the hangers despite damaging the sophisticated
equipment and denigrating it to be a
loss making airport. With such management ,what else could one expect. With the
longest runway in SL Mattala is the only airport capable of landing A 380 double decker planes , in South Asia. With
at least four of them flying over
Mattala every night on their way from Australia and NZ to the Middle East, and
vice versa, and paying $2000 per trip ,
for emergency landing rights, Mattala is earning it’s keep by simply being there . With
visionary and energetic leadership the potential for securing a passenger drop
off from at least one of those flights
exists. This could be a boon to get the airport cracking , and for
increasing tourism targeting south SL
from down under, a difficult place to get to SL from. It would also be a boon
to returning home Sri Lankans.
Instead of
developing these new constructions to
make them more revenue earning, Yahapalana once again deployed their strategy
deceit claiming a debt trap” to discredit their predecessors for political
gain. Had the previous regime been in place, in the same capable and visionary
hands these constructions would by now
be paying for themselves. We never heard the terms debt traps” during the
previous regime. Debt Trap” , a US
coined term is music to US ears giving a handle to displace China from
SL to serve US interest and another handle for Yahapalana to deceive SL.
Even in
their dying moments the deceit in relation to Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksha’s
eligibility to contest is truly mindboggling and shameful. First the claim was
he will not be able to renounce his citizenship as there are legal case in US,
then it was that it would be months before he is cleared even if application
for renunciation is submitted. Even when the certificate of loss of US
citizenship was displayed on TV, the same claim
continues to be made even till the very end . They appear to have gone
to the extent of even attempting to confuse the voter by fielding another
candidate Namal Rajapakse whose name would be next to Gotabaya Rajapakse .
Despicable complex web of deceit and deception” was a description used on LTTE
misinformation campaign of ten to twenty years ago, which I followed on
international media for years and countered regularly. I thought it would be an
act never to be beaten From what I have seen in the last five years from
Yahapalana, it would appear to me now that , I was wrong then.
