The truth is that this technology really began to take off right at the
beginning of my presidency” Barack Obama (Obama speaking on drone strikes to Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic
interview, 21 Dec 2016)
Following the 4/21 Easter Sunday attacks in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s civil aviation
authority discovered a drone belonging to extremists, then banned drones owing
to the security situation in the country.
From pizza delivery in New Zealand to assassinations in the Middle East,
autonomous machines, especially drones, are transforming our skies. They have
already influenced our daily lives. We will see more mind-bending, life-saving
and life-threatening applications of the autonomous technology in the years to
come. Swarms of drones will work together to paint the exterior of your house
in just a few hours, heat resistance drones will fight forest fires with
hundreds of times the current efficiency of firefighters and other drones will
perform search and rescue operations in the aftermath of natural disasters. In
‘AI Superpowers,’ Dr. Kai Fu Lee explains that China will almost certainly
take the lead in autonomous drone technology…Shenzhen is the home to DJI, the
world’s premier drone maker.” China will surpass the US in Research and
Development budgets for autonomous technology and there is a clear danger in
the competition. While drones could help humans, they could also bring
destruction to our lives.
On September 14 this year, two drone strikes on Aramco facilities in Saudi
Arabia destabilised global oil markets. The attack conducted by Houthi rebels
from Yemen knocked out more than half of crude output from the world’s top oil
exporter in Saudi Arabia. It cut output by 5.7 million barrels per day. While a
Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes on Yemen’s northern Saada province,
Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the drone attack and sent a clear
threat to Saudi Arabia that their targets “will keep expanding” in
the future. The world’s third-largest spender for military, with a staggering
$67.6 billion defense budget, couldn’t prevent the drone strike by the
financially tied rebels.
In a similar drone attack on January 10, Houthi rebels assassinated Mohammad
Saleh Tamah, the head of Yemen’s Intelligence service, during a military
parade. The drone carried between 70 and 100 kilogrammes of explosives, which
detonated while flying over the main stage of the military parade.
On August 4 last year, Venezuelan head of state President Maduro was targeted
by two drones which exploded while he was addressing a group of soldiers at a
military event in Caracas. He survived unharmed.
Small scale terrorist outfits and extremists now have clear access to
technologies that magnify their ability to wreak havoc. In Sri Lanka, the 4/21
Easter Sunday bombers used bitcoin transfers to obtain a drone and used it for
pre-attack information gathering. There is no guarantee that the next set of
attackers will not have access to drone technology or tools of cyber warfare.
According to Collin P. Clarke from RAND corporation: This trend will likely be
further exacerbated by subsequent technological developments, with the ability
of individuals and small groups to cause wide-scale disruptions to
society—through cyberattacks or the use of drones.”
The technology has assisted the replacement of human suicide bombers. It is
more accurate, can travel far and is relatively cheap to stage a high-profile
strike. According to Wim Zwijnenburg, a senior researcher on drones at PAX, the
drones used by Houthis may have cost $15,000 or less to build. The investment
of a human suicide bomber will be replaced by autonomous machines.
Nations under high security threat and which have faced ISIS attacks should
ramp up coordination among intelligence agencies, civil aviation, customs, air force
intelligence, police, and other authorities to counter future attacks.
Proposals put forward by air intelligence in Sri Lanka are still not fully
implemented, and the government needs to give these proposals top priority to
ensure public safety.
The 4/21 threat has faded from security discussion with the upcoming
presidential elections taking the centre stage. It was unfortunate to hear from
the president at the parliamentary oversight committee on September 11 that
not a single regulation has been fully implemented after the 4/21 attack and
it’s been five months.” The fake news act, the Madrasa regulation act, the
Burqa ban, and SIM card regulations, to name a few.
The State has to be extra cautious when introducing such regulations into
society. It must be prepared for indirect consequences, which may further State
problems. For example, the SIM card regulation proposed by the Telecom
Regulatory Commission to limit SIM cards to two per person will not resolve the
problem. Rather, it will affect the telecommunications market. Instead of
limiting the purchase of SIM cards, which will be an unfruitful exercise, the
authorities should focus on ‘profiling and cross-platform intelligence
sharing.’ Even on regulating Madrasas, there is no guarantee that it will be
possible to monitor what will be taught, since syllabuses are not unified.
Courses offered by Arabic colleges in the Arabic language are taught across
1,675 centres in 24 districts in the country. There is no serious oversight of
Madrasas, though they have mushroomed around the country in recent years.
While the government struggles to introduce new regulations to improve national
security, it is vital to keep in mind future possible threats. Security lapses
will damage economic infrastructure, increase security costs, disrupt markets
and spread fear in a manner not so different from the Middle East.
Asanga Abeyagoonasekera is the director general of the National
Security Think Tank of Sri Lanka (INSSSL) under the Sri Lankan Ministry of
Defense. The views expressed here are his own. This article was initially published
by Hudson Institute Washington DC. http://www.southasiaathudson.org/blog/2019/10/17/aerial-fears
Primary Industries and Social Empowerment Minister Daya Gamage yesterday informed the Presidential Commission that the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) had decided to store paddy at Mattala Airport after the airport officials had given them permission to execute this decision in 2015.
During the testimony given at the Commission on the decision to store paddy at the Mattala Airport in 2015, he stated that if the airport officials were against that decision the government would have arrived at some other solution to store the paddy.
The complaint made to the Commission mentioned that there was valuable equipment in the premises where the PMB stored paddy and by storing paddy inside the buildings, damage of approximately Rs.5 million was caused.
However, the Minister informed the Commission that during this particular period the government had faced a problem due to a sudden increase in the paddy cultivation.
There was an increase of 23% in paddy cultivation in the Ampara District in 2015. People in the Ampara District cannot store that quantity of paddy in their houses because of wild elephants,” the Minister said.
The Minister said that he had also been in a committee appointed by the government to find a solution for this matter. I don’t know who it was, but someone from the committee had decided to store paddy at Mattala Airport and accordingly we needed permission from the airport officials. We also obtained their approval,” he informed the Commission.
Minister Gamage also stated that the airport officials have to inform the PMB if there had been valuable equipment at the place where paddy was to be stored.
We only used one place at the airport and I believe that it is a place which was created specifically for stores because at the Bandaranaike International Airport there is a similar place for stores,” he said.
However, the commissioners informed the Minister that the PMB should have followed certain safety measures when storing paddy at the airport without causing damage to equipment.
Earlier, police officers attached to the PCoI visited Mattala Airport and observed certain damages to the premises, including the damages caused by rats mainly to the panel rooms attached to the main switches of the airport.
It was also reported that the PMD had paid Rs. 835,132 per month as rent to the Airport and Aviation Services Ltd., for storing paddy and the paddy was stored for six months.
Presidential hopeful of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Gotabaya Rajapaksa says, under his administration, he would appoint the presidential commission that His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith had been requesting for, to uncover the persons responsible for the Easter Sunday terror attacks.
He made these remarks addressing a public meeting held in Negombo last evening (19).
Rajapaksa also vowed to restore the disrupted security measures and to make the country a safe haven again.
Attending a public meeting held in Ragama, Rajapaksa claimed that the incumbent government failed to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks despite receiving all the necessary information on the date and the venues where the attacks would take place.
Another rally supporting Gotabaya Rajapaksa was conducted in Kiribathgoda, which was attended by Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the presidential candidate of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Gotabaya Rajapaksa have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) a short while ago.
The agreement regarding the upcoming Presidential Election was inked by Gotabaya Rajapaksa and SFLP General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara during a ceremony held at the Western Province Aesthetic Resort.
UPFA Parliamentarians Mahinda Amaraweera, Nimal Siripala de Silva and several other SLFP members along with the chairman of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Prof. G.L. Peiris were present at the ceremony.
Addressing the event, MP Jayasekara said for the first time in Sri Lanka, a professional is running for president upon the request of the national forces of the country.
The people have a feeling of revulsion toward the politicians, Jayasekara said, adding that they are also looking for a new leader who can pave a new future for the country.
SLFP’s General Secretary pointed out that this MoU signed with Gotabaya Rajapaksa also includes all virtues of the lone battle carried out by President Maithripala Sirisena to establish democracy, to wipe out corruption & fraud, to crack down on drug menace and to protect the nature.
Addressing the gathering, presidential hopeful Gotabaya Rajapaksa said he would not undermine the trust that the SLFP has on him even after they form a new administration in the future.
Rajapaksa said there is no need for baseless fear that the agreement between him and the SLFP would affect the party’s policies and the identity.
Meanwhile, MP Amaraweera said the SLFP has supported the SLPP’s presidential hopeful with 1.5 million votes.
On October 9th, the SLFP confirmed that it will support Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the Presidential Election. The following day, the SLFP and SLPP signed an MoU.
The 13 demands put forward by five Tamil political parties in the north want marks a watershed in northern Tamil politics. The five political parties involved in the process were the Ilangei Thamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), Peoples Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) ), the Eelam Peoples’ Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) faction led by Suresh Premachandran and the Thamil Makkal Koottani led by C.V.Vigneswaran. A sixth political party, the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) led by Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam participated in the process but did not sign the final document. Nevertheless the political parties that released the 13 demands represents the majority of the Tamil voters of the north and east at this moment and this list of demands can be said to mark a turning point in the Tamil politics of the north. The 13 demands translated into English by Tamilnet, are as follows:
=New constitutional processes that uphold unitary system of rule should be rejected. The Tamil national question of Ilangkai [Ceylon] must be resolved through a federal framework with the realisation that Tamils constitute a nation with distinct sovereignty and that nation is entitled to the Right of Self-Determination under International Law
=Comprehensive and independent investigations must be carried out through the International Criminal Court/ Criminal Tribunal on the allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed during the final war
=The Prevention of Terrorism Act must be repealed
=Unconditional release of all Tamil Political Prisoners
=Justice must be accorded through international mechanisms to those who have suffered due to enforced disappearances of their kith and kin
=The state forces stationed in the Northern and Eastern provinces must be evicted from the private and crown lands which were utilized by the Tamil people before the war; those areas must be released; and the resettlement process should be accelerated
=The ongoing state-sponsored ‘Sinhalisation’, ‘Buddhicisation’ and Sinhala colonisation in the Northern and Eastern provinces must be stopped forthwith
=The jurisdiction of Mahaweli Authority, which is functioning as an authority to create Sinhala only colonies in the Northern province under cover of diverting the Mahaweli river towards the North, must be abolished. Furthermore, all Sinhala colonization schemes being taken forward in the Eastern Province under the so-called Mahaweli Development Programme must be terminated
=All the recently introduced Sinhala colonization schemes under the Moragahakanda Irrigation Programme in Vanni must be stopped forthwith
=Encroachment of lands and places of worships through government departments including the Archaeology, Forest and Wildlife conservation departments must be immediately stopped. The lands, which were appropriated through Gazette notifications by the above-mentioned departments, must be de-gazetted
=The legal impediments faced by the Ceylonese living abroad in making direct investments and obtaining lands to develop the war-affected Northern and Eastern provinces and to provide job opportunities to the youth, must be removed
=Preference must be accorded to those who hail from the Northern and Eastern provinces in public and private sector employment in the North-East
=Declare North-East as War-Ravaged Region and create a Joint Mechanism, which should handle the development assistance and place it under the guidance and disposal of the elected representatives of the people in the North-East
Sheep’s clothing abandoned
Tamilnet had its own take on these 13 demands. According to them, the original document in Tamil had the further proviso that those among the above the demands, which must be immediately addressed, should be resolved within three months from the day the new president assumes office. One weakness in the 13 demands noted by Tamilnet was that it fails to specify the mid-term and long-term demands and that it was unclear which issues should be addressed first by the future SL President. Similarly, they said that the lack of clearly stated conditions creates the loophole for meaningless promises such as a presidential candidate coming up with the vague assurance of setting up a Presidential Commission to look into the demands within three months and the TNA could ask Tamils to vote for a particular candidate based on the meaningless promise of looking into the ‘consensus’ document of the Tamil parties.
However, Tamilnet stated that the process was a good starter and educative, especially to the new generation of Tamil students in the North and East. The process of formulating these 13 demands had been initiated by the university student community in the North and the East. The fact that the younger generation had a hand in getting the political parties together may have far reaching consequences for the future. We seem to have returned once again to the situation in the early 1970s, when young activists began driving the nothern political agenda and the Tamil politicians became mere passengers at first and later victims of the political trends they themselves had started. It is now 10 years since the war ended and even after a gargantuan tragedy of that magnitude, the Tamil politicians of the north were not able to change track.
If the agenda before 2009 was Eelam through war, the agenda after 2009 became Eelam through politics. It is remarkable how quickly the Tamil National Alliance moved into the new phase. The war ended in May 2009 and by the end of that year, the TNA had embarked on its new project in collaboration with other political parties. The strategy of winning Eelam through politics was to help a southern political party to capture power and through that southern political party to usher in a new constitution which divides the country in the manner required by the TNA. Of course in a situation where this will have to be done with the cooperation of the southern political parties, the ultimate aim will have to be appropriately disguised to make it palatable to the other parties in the endeavor. This was why the TNA pretended to give up their call to do away with the unitary state. This was why they suddenly began to show an interest in constitutional issues such as the abolition of the executive presidency that evoke interest in the south.
Just last month, M.A.Sumanthiran was tweeting in favour of abolishing the executive presidency. The only hope the TNA had of making the southern political parties and constituents swallow their federal constitutional proposals was if they were adequately sugar-coated in long standing constitutional demands among the southern constituency such as the abolition of the executive presidency and electoral reform. Less than four weeks ago, the TNA was still wearing this constitutional sheepskin of not being opposed to the unitary state and being interested in abolishing the executive presidency until they suddenly discarded it for the usual stripes last Monday with the publishing of these 13 demands. It may be the case that events in the north and east have started moving with a momentum not of the TNA’s making.
The TNA’s claim to be unopposed to the unitary state was always a canard. What they were trying to pull off was to leave the label of unitary intact while having a federal state in substance. The constitutional proposals that were tabled in Parliament by the Prime Minister in January this year were in actual fact drafted by the TNA. What this draft constitution would have created would have been nine semi-independent states. The President in Colombo regardless of whether he was the executive president or a nominal president, would have been irrelevant to the TNA because they would be having a virtually independent state in the north and east. The draft constitution even had a provision to merge the north and east which meant that at the end of the constitutional reform process, the Tamils of the north and east would have a unitary state while the Sinhalese would have a federal state!
Eelam through a pliable
Sinhala puppet
The demand to create a federal state through reform of the constitution, was just a feint to create a separate Tamil state in the north and east. Earlier, the demand for a separate state was direct and violent. After 2009 it became non-violent and gradual. But the ultimate objective was always the same. No one can blame the TNA for not being consistent. The TNA’s strategy of helping a southern political party to capture power and then obtaining their constitutional demands as a quid pro quo began working only in 2015, but it worked only up to a point. A tame government was brought into power and a federal constitution was drafted and even tabled in Parliament. But nothing happened after that. After five years, the TNA has nothing to show for their pains. Today the Tamil people of the north and east do not have even the development and material assiatance that they got from the Rajapaksa government.
As a consequence, between the Parliamentary election of 2015 and the local government election of 2018, the TNA has suffered huge reversals electorally. As we pointed out last week, at the 2015 Parliamentary election, the TNA got 207,577 votes in the Jaffna electoral district on a 61% total voter turnout and 127,185 votes in the Batticaloa district on a 69% voter turnout. But at the 2018 local government election, the TNA’s vote in the Jaffna electoral district had gone down to 136,152 and to 80,622 in the Batticaloa district in a situation where the voter turnout had increased to 70% in the Jaffna electoral district and 76% in the Batticaloa district. In other words, more people had turned up at the polling booth, but less were voting for the TNA.
This was why the TNA was waffling at this presidential election without declaring their support for any candidate before getting a written pledge that their demands would be met. They would not be able to justify asking the Tamil people to vote for another presidential candidate without guarantees that their demands would be met. It was then that the northern Tamil students came up with with this joint declaration which the main constituent party of the TNA, the ITAK has also signed. The 13 demands are such that no southern political party can accede to them. The TNA’s policy up to now was to keep their ulterior motives hidden and to try and achieve their objectives through stealth and strategy. As it turns out, the TNA was free to drive policy in the north and east for a period of less than a decade. Before 2009, they were being instructed on what to do by Tamilselvam. Now they are being instructed on what to do by nameless, faceless students.
One cannot blame the Tamil students either. On the one hand organizations like the TNA hold out certain hopes to the Tamil people and then prove themselves to be completely inept at achieving those aims. The TNA brought President Sirisena into power and drafted a new constitution. But when the Prime Minister presented the draft of this constitution to Parliament, he promptly disowned it saying that it was not his draft but one prepared by a panel of experts. When this draft was taken up for debate in Parliament this July, there was scant interest in it on both sides of the political divide. The TNA parliamentaians ended up talking more to themselves than to anyone else. The federal constitution making process was a complete fiasco.
Even though the constitution making process had failed, the TNA continued to be supportive of the UNP because they did not want to see the Rajapaksas returning to power. If Ranil Wickremesinghe had been the candidate, the chances are that the TNA would have continued to back the UNP on the grounds that their 2015 experiment failed because Sirisena was the President and that if RW had been the President, they would have been more successful. However, when Sajith became the candidate, the TNA wanted a written guarantee that their demands would be met. Without such a written guarantee it would not have been possible to market Sajith in the north as the Sinhala politician who was going to meet Tamil aspirations.
By publicly announcing the fact that they want a written pledge from whoever they are going to back at this election, the TNA has made it virtually impossible for anybody to give that pledge. Electoral dynamics will ensure that the moment the TNA announces that they have entered into a written agreement with a candidate, that candidate is going to lose votes in the South.
It was in this situation of stalemate that the several constituent parties of the TNA and the Vigneswaran group joined up to issue the 13 demands at the behest of the students. The issuance of the 13 demands marks the unraveling of the dream of appointing a Sinhala puppet who will deliver Eelam to the Tamils. This is now a new situation. The only political parties in the north which will be able to openly back a Presidential candidate in the south will be the groups and political parties that have already announced their support for Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and the SLPP, because they have not subscribed to the 13 demands. The parties that have endorsed the 13 demands will have to ask the Tamil people of the north and east to vote according to their conscience. The TNA has already created anti-Rajapaksa feeling in the north and east. Besides, the swan symbol is familiar to the Tamil people as the symbol of the anti-Rajapaksa camp. It will be interesting to observe the dynamics of the northern and eastern Tamil vote in a situation where the TNA and its offshoots are not canvassing openly for the UNP candidate but the groups associated with the SLPP are openly backing Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
Keeping the Rajapaksas out
Its not that the TNA will remain neutral at this election. The TNA’s aloofness at the presidential elections in 2019, is very similar to that of the JVP’s aloofness in 2015. They may refuse to openly endorse a candidate but they will support a candidate on the sly nevertheless. There is little doubt that at this election, the preferred candidate of the TNA and even its offshoot the Vigneswaran group, is Sajith Premadasa. Pictures have already emerged of TNA Parliamentarian S.Sritharan distributing leaflets promoting Sajith Premadasa. However, there is an issue that both the TNA and the Vigneswaran group will have to think over carefully. If the people of the north and east overwhelmingly vote for a southern presidential candidate and the latter gets elected on the basis of the Tamil voters of the north and east, how is that to be turned into the advantage of the TNA and the Vigneswaran group in a situation where neither group has endorsed the winning candidate?
The UNP candidate can always turn around and say that the Tamil people voted for him unconditionally because they had confidence in him and that he owes nothing to the Tamil political parties in the north. In fact such a vote will buttress claims that are already being made that while the Tamil politicians in the north demand Eelam and devolution, the Tamil people in the north do not desire any such thing. What they want is to lead normal lives like the other communities in the country. If the TNA and the Vigneswaran group abdicate their position as the self appointed leaders of the Tamil people and allow the people to do as they like, that will also undermine their already wobbly position further. If they fail to openly express support for a southern candidate and are therefore in no position to make demands on that candidate if he gets elected, the TNA’s power over the center would be seriously undermined. They will have to support the candidate of their choice at least on the sly as the JVP did, if they are to wield any kind on influence over the candidate who receives the majority of the northern Tamil vote.
If the TNA supports Sajith on the sly without getting any commitment from him or endorsing his candidacy publicly, and see that he is elected, Sajith will be President for five years and the TNA will for five years be able to savour the joy of keeping Gotabhaya Rajapaksa out, but will not be able to make any demands on Sajith and will be stuck in a permanent limbo. That is the conundrum that the TNA and its offshoots are faced with. The question here is: what is the TNA’s agenda? Is it keeping the Rajapaksas out or meeting the aspirations of the Tamil people? Even in a situation where the TNA openly canvassed for President Sirisena at the 2015 presidential elections and helped the UNP government to maintain a majority in Parliament, the TNA could not get Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to endorse their draft constitution.
How then are they to have any influence on Sajith or get him to even look at their draft constitution if they passively allow the Tamil people to vote for Sajith of their own accord and without any guidance from the TNA? In contrast to the TNA and its offshoots, the Tamil political parties of the north and east that are supporting Gota, do so openly and are canvassing for him and will be able to claim the reward they expect if he gets elected. If the TNA’s rivals are active while the TNA is paralyzed and unable to decide either way, it will confirm the accusation made by their rivals that the TNA had led the Tamil people into a cul de sac. So this election has made it imperative for the TNA and its offshoots to think hard and to ask themselves the existential question, – what are we, and what are we doing?
Latheef Farook (‘Foreign power influence and impact on
presidential election’/ The Island, October 16, 2019) asserts that a number of
countries ‘including China, India, United States, its European allies
especially United Kingdom and France, Russia and Israel’ ‘competing to control
the Indian ocean’ (he identifies these countries collectively as a new global
anti-Muslim ‘axis’) ‘have entered Sri Lanka in view of its strategic
importance’. While his broad subject is what the title indicates, his specific
thesis seems to me to imply a warning that the success of a pro-Mahinda
Rajapaksa candidate at the forthcoming presidential election is going to be
unfavourable to local Muslims because, in his opinion, what he calls the global
campaign against Muslims made its entry into Sri Lanka under the previous MR
government. This is a very simplistic generalization made on the basis of
woefully inadequate evidence, hence devoid of meaning, to say the least!
The names of the countries and the order in which they are listed
here reveal the writer’s pro-Islamist and anti-nationalist bias (something
obvious to readers who are familiar with Sri Lanka’s current political scene
and its relation to foreign power interests in the region). In my opinion,
these countries may be safely described as economically and/or militarily
powerful ones. But I don’t know whether all of them are equally interested in
Sri Lanka for strategic reasons. Neither do I subscribe to the view that there
is a global anti-Muslim campaign as such. It is a quixotic claim. Can
Latheef suggest any convincing reason/s why global Muslims should attract
special hostility from other nations as he seems to claim? Islamic extremists
do excite disagreement, fear, and anger among people of other faiths and among
moderate Muslims themselves through their dangerous fanaticism.. But not all
Muslims – the overwhelming majority – are extremists. There certainly is this
global problem of religious extremism involving Islam.
Be that as it may, three of the countries named are heavily
involved in a partly cooperative and partly competitive or even adversarial
regional engagement with each other that entails important economic and
national security implications for themselves, and most critically of all, for
Sri Lanka as a small independent sovereign state: these three powers are, of
course, India, China, and America. It can be said in retrospect that Sri Lanka
has been reaping both good and bad outcomes from its interactions with these
powers. Probably, the greatest benefits have come from China over the seven
decades since independence, and both good and bad results from America.
Meanwhile, a politically and economically stable and
independent Sri Lanka that is secure from external aggression and internal
division is a sine qua non for its close neighbour (and Big Brother) India’s
own stability. An unwelcome offshoot of the inevitable interplay between Sri
Sri Lanka and the superpower presence in its neighbourhood is the unnecessary
foreign intervention (sometimes amounting to interference in its internal
affairs) that transforms itself into a conducive background for the divisive and
destabilizing forces of separatism and religious extremism, both drawing
sustenance from abroad. These evils would be easily manageable for Sri Lanka
but for the cover that forced mediation intentionally or unintentionally
provides for them.
But here I would like to refute categorically two manifestly false
claims that Farook makes in support of his main point. These are: (1) the
alleged coming of ‘Islamophobia’ to Sri Lanka in the wake of the Easter
Sunday attacks and (2) the establishment of relations with Israel and the
permission of connections between the Hindutva Movement in India – as part of a
global anti-Muslim ‘axis’ composed of the countries mentioned above -, and the
so-called ‘racists’ in Sri Lanka (presumably, BBS monks) against Muslims, as
Farook complains.
About (1), for want of time and space, I will not say more than
the following: Latheef Farook may be unaware that the so-called Islamophobia
has been well and truly debunked by both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars. There
are numerous books and articles written about the subject by Muslim, ex-Muslim,
and non-Muslim researchers into the global Islamist problem. The internet
provides an easily accessible interface for proponents and opponents of the
construct of ‘Islamophobia’ to advance and exchange their arguments, and the
rational minded have no difficulty in deciding which side to agree with.
A phobia is an unhealthy fear, like agoraphobia (fear of being in places that
cause unreasonable anxiety and panic in the sufferer) or claustrophobia
(irrational fear of closed spaces). A person’s fear of a venomous snake is not
a phobia, it is a healthy fear that can be sourced to our evolutionary history
that causes the person to avoid contact with dangerous snakes. If there is any
real Islamophobia (an unhealthy fear of Islam) at all, it has to be among
non-Muslims. Isn’t it up to the Islamic scholars themselves to dispel this fear
by explaining matters to them as they surely must be able to? Non-Muslims do
not fear a non-literal peaceful interpretation of the Koran, but they do fear
the literalist version of the fundamentalists (which is apparently not accepted
even by moderate Muslims, who far outnumber extremists), and this is not a
phobia. What Muslim fundamentalists actually attack as manifestations of
Islamophobia are criticisms of extremist interpretations of Islam.
Latheef Farook claims that ‘……the global Islamophobia entered
the island with all its ferocity in the wake of the Easter Sunday bombings and
killings on April 21’. This is a deliberate distortion of the true situation.
The (alleged IS) terrorist bombings killed 270 people, worshippers in churches
and others in hotels (bombs went off in eight places around the country)
including men, women, and children, and injured over 500, some grievously. What
does Farook imply when he asserts that ‘the global Islamophobia entered the
island with all its ferocity…’? The uncountable noun ‘ferocity’ does not refer
to the terrorist attacks. He actually suggests that there was a very violent
(‘ferocious’) reaction to these attacks by the (newly created) local
Islamophobes! But this is not at all what actually happened after the bombings.
What Farook describes as ferocious seem to be the few isolated incidents in
Kuliyapitiya and Minuwangoda – indiscriminate attacks on shops and houses of
both Muslim and Buddhist residents by strangers (charged by some Opposition
politicians to be agents provocateurs doing the bidding of some interested
party close to the government for fomenting the communal conflagoration that
they wanted to flare up after the bombings, but didn’t). It is also noteworthy
that these incidents happened a week or more after the attacks on April 21.
From that very day onwards, Opposition politicians pointed out, there was an sinister
attempt in certain quarters to somehow suggest that Sri Lankan Buddhists were
behind the Easter Sunday bombings, but later evidence showed that Islamic
extremists were responsible. Ordinary Sinhala Buddhist citizens from the
majority community led rescue operations immediately after the attacks. It was
Buddhist Sinhalese residents who successfully prevented those incidents at
Kuliyapitiya and Minuwandoda from escalating into major incidents. A young
Sinhalese Buddhist gem businessman (owner of the commercial establishment
‘Priyan Manik’), Priyanga Pushpakumara, offered to rebuild one of the damaged
churches at his own expense, but the Cardinal gracefully declined that
offer.
There was no Islamophobia in Sri Lanka in the past, and there is
none at present either. Buddhist monks have been turned into hate figures by
anti-Sinhala Buddhist propagandists through misinformation. These monks have
been protesting for many years now against the unacceptable activities of some
Christian and Islamic extremist sects that are trying to make inroads into the
country’s traditional Buddhist religious space. N. Arunkanthan, president of
the All Ceylon Hindu Federation, a close ally of Bodu Bala Sena (which, in
actuality, is not the violent extremist entity it is usually made out to be in
the biased media), says Hindu Tamils have the same problems as Buddhist
Sinhalese with these extremist groups. Actually, Sri Lankan Muslims are
persecuted by Islamic extremists, not by fanatical Buddhist monks or lay
Buddhists, as the fundamentalists and some Muslims sympathetic to them
claim. Ordinary Muslims harrassed by them seek the help of monks to save them
from the depredations of the extremist minority among themselves, who promote
something different from the traditional Islam that they have been following
for centuries in Sri Lanka in peaceful coexistence with the exceptionally
tolerant Buddhist and Hindu religions. A Muslim resident from the Eastern
Province has given a scholar monk, a well known Buddhist activist, as he publicly
declared a weeks ago, a written claim that some twenty Muslims have been
executed under Sharia in that province for such alleged offences as lending
money at interest, adultery, being a member of Sri Lanka Army etc.
Concerning point (2), Farook writes: ‘This global anti-Muslim
campaign entered the island under the Rajapaksa regime, when it opened the
country to Israelis and India’s Hindutva forces who have established close ties
with government backed local racist forces’. Spelling out fears of ‘growing’
Israeli connections being potentially detrimental to Sri Lanka’s minority
Muslims, he says: ‘Sri Lanka’s growing ties with Israel have also become cause
for serious concern among the Muslims, who always fear that this may spell
disaster for communal harmony, in view of Israel’s extreme hostility towards
Muslims.’ He makes a similar charge about alleged ties between Indian Hindutva
and Sri Lankan Buddhist organizations: ‘Meanwhile, extreme right wing militant
Hindus working tirelessly to eliminate Muslims in India, have also entered Sri
Lanka with their Hindutva agendas during former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s
regime.’
Farook’s complaints are baseless and ridiculous. Ordinary Muslims
do not share his concerns. Muslims of his mentality are a dwindling tribe in
Sri Lanka today. All racial and religious communities are uniting against
Islamic extremism, which seems to have grown particularly during the past five
years with the connivance of the authorities despite the desperate warnings of
the Buddhist monks, who were always held down as racists, lunatics, and
intolerant religious extremists. The vast majority of Sri Lankans are waiting
for the arrival of the leader who, they are sure, will be able to resolve the
country’s numerous crises including nascent IS terrorism. It is the eagerly
expected coming of this leader that Latheef Farook seems to have misgivings
about.
It was indeed a source of hope and encouragement to hear the statement of Presidential candidate , Gotabaya Rajapakse that he intends to reject the UNHRC resolution co-sponsored by the Yahapalanay government in Oct 2015 which created a world record by sponsoring and adverse ruling on its own country.
The resolution was based on the Darusman report which was essentially mandated ONLY to appraise the Secretary-General of the UN. It was emphatically mentioned by UNSG’s then spokesperson as ‘ not a fact-finding mission,,,,, not, an investigation,, not an inquiry.,only a panel to advise the SG. The evidence of the OISL report was so weak that it failed to establish the primary claim that Sri Lanka had committed war crimes. Without questioning the scope of the UNHRC controlled by the UN charter and the resolution 60/25 of 2006 which created UNHRC, Yahapalnaya government opted slavishly to punish Sri Lanka and her armed forces in the hope of winning favours from the West and also to gain the support of the extremist Tamil political including the FNGOs.
We now await to hear the response of the other contenders to this critical
issue
UPFA MP Thilanga Sumathipala yesterday said that abolition of the executive presidency shouldn’t be an issue at the Nov 16 presidential poll.
One-time Deputy Speaker Sumathipala emphasized that abolition of the executive presidency posed a grave danger to Sri Lanka’s unitary status.
The Colombo District lawmaker said so at the regular Friday morning briefing at his Ananda Rajakaruma Mawatha residence/office. The National List MP was flanked by attorney-at-law Keerthi Udawatte and Sumith Vijithamuni Zoysa, both former Provincial Council members.
MP Sumathipala said that the SLFP wouldn’t under any circumstances back the proposed abolition of the executive presidency especially against the backdrop of the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK)-led grouping declaring what he called a separatist agenda.
Referring to the controversial 13-point set of proposals meant to be discussed with the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa and New Democratic Front(NDF) contender Sajith Premadasa, lawmaker Sumathipala said that those conditions could not be acceptable to anyone seeking the highest Office in the land.
Alleging that the UNPer Sajith Premadasa was yet to comment specifically on those proposals, lawmaker Sumathipala said that Gotabaya Rajapaksa rejected them. According to MP Sumathipala, the TNA’s backing was crucial for Premadasa in the presidential fray under the swan symbol.
Parliamentarian Sumathipala emphasized that those backing Gotabaya Rajapaksa wouldn’t depend on extremist elements such as Zahran Hashim, the alleged leader of the gang of suicide bombers responsible for the Easter Sunday carnage.
In spite of the eradication of the LTTE over a decade ago, the country faced an uncertain future due to some pursing a separatist agenda, MP Sumathipala said. He explained as to how the abolition of executive presidency could facilitate a Federal structure in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Sumathipala alleged that the proposed Federal structure would in fact be a separate State therefore decisions on such matters couldn’t be taken in isolation.
The MP said that the latest proposals finalized this week in Jaffna demanded a separate State by rejecting the unitary status.
The Island sought an explanation as to why the SLFP opposed the abolition of the executive presidency having voted for the 19th Amendment in 2015 to dilute President Maithripala Sirisena’s powers. The Island asked when the SLFP realized the abolition of executive powers threatened the country as President Sirisena, in his capacity as the leader of the SLFP compelled the then UPFA members to provide required two-thirds majority to enact the law.
One-time Navy Chief of Staff and UPFA MP Sarath Weerasekera was the only MP to vote against the 19th Amendment.
MP Sumathipala said that they backed the 19th Amendment as it paved the way for Independent Commissions and other positive developments though the grouping never adopted strategies inimical to the national interest.
Lawmaker Sumathipala side-stepped The Island query as to how they criticized the TNA after having received the backing of the then four-party grouping at the January 2015 presidential election. The Island pointed out that the UNP-led grouping including the JVP and the TNA backed General Sarath Fonseka and Maithripala Sirisena at 2010 and 2015 presidential polls, though the SLFP now found fault with the TNA.
Sumathipala asserted that the ITAK led grouping was taking a tough line pertaining to the national issue as part of its overall strategy for the forthcoming parliamentary polls. The MP expressed confidence that the Tamil electorate couldn’t be influenced by the TNA.
Responding to another query from the electronic media as regards the latest proposals, lawmaker Sumathipala said that SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa should respond to them.
MP Sumathipala said that in case the SLPP and the SLFP couldn’t reach consensus on Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s candidature, the NDF would have definitely won the Nov 16 poll, with the support of the TNA. Had that happened, the division of the country on ethnic lines would have been only a matter of time, the MP said.
Lawmaker Sumathipala flayed Premier Wickremesinghe for treasury bond scams. Asked whether the SLFP accepted the responsibility for the second much bigger treasury bond scam perpetrated in late March 2016 due to President Sirisena saving the UNP by dissolving parliament in June 2015 to thwart tabling COPE report on the first scam, MP Sumathipala claimed that the President was to dissolve the House after completion of his 100-day programme.
The Island pointed out that the then Chairman of COPE Dew Gunasekera had declared that the dissolution saved those responsible for the first bond scam.
MP Sumathipala alleged that the bond scams were the biggest financial frauds committed here.
The Island pointed out that the much touted Presidential Commission wasn’t appointed till January 2017 to investigate the transactions. The parliament never took up the presidential commission report on the bond scams though the House received it in early 2018.
While thanking the SLFP for supporting him at the presidential election, SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday pledged that he would steer his future government with the SLFP like brothers working hand in hand.
Addressing a rally organised by the SLFP in Kegalle, Mr. Rajapaksa said the SLFP and the SLPP had joined not only for the election but also to go ahead with a stable set of principles and policies to rebuild the country.
Though President Maithripala Sirisena allied with the UNP, I knew that the relationship won’t last long. Two different cultures and two different sets of policies cannot be made compatible. However, the SLPP and SLFP have similar people-friendly policies and therefore, we don’t have any other option but to join hands with each other,” he said.
He said they were able to introduce a new political culture to the country but said that everyone was fed up with politics today. The people are not interested in politics anymore. We should promote to serve based on polices. Otherwise, people will have no alternative to turn to,” he said.
Mr. Rajapaksa said his election manifesto would be launched with the input and consultation of the SLFP. I’m honoured to have met the SLFP leaders and supporters in Kegalle today. We should work together as one team to create a people-friendly government,” he said.
SLFP MP Ranjith Siyambalapitiya was also present at the event.
The latest news about a haul of weapons and explosives by Kilinochchi Police, hidden in a former LTTE member’s house and two claymore bombs later, has made national security officials to seriously think whether the LTTE is attempting to raise its ugly head once again.
On 18 May 2009, Sri Lankan Security Forces decimated the entire LTTE terrorist unit. However, after a decade, does the latest arrest of Joseph Peter Robinson (alias Theepan) in Kilinochchi confirm the saying “The Tiger never changes its spots”.
Defunct
Although the entire LTTE team was thought to be defunct, yet this latest incident along with an Asian Tribune article on 25 June, by Journalist Glen Genvey and his exposure on Adele Balasingham has managed to disturb a hornet’s nest. Adele Balasingham is the wife of LTTE theoretician, who conscripted young children as soldiers and sent them to the battlefield as cannon fodder. She has been found to be living in London, leading a millionaire’s life by occupying a £1,169,000 (Rs 252,504,000) mansion out of funds extorted from Tamils, who still struggle in dire poverty.
Husband
Her husband, Anton Balasingham, was known the world over as the ‘Theoretician and the Chief spokesman for the LTTE, who executed terrorist activities from London. He started his career initially as a sub-editor at the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon (Lake House Group) during the 1960s, translating Reuters English News to Tamil along with other articles for the ‘Virakesari’ – the Tamil newspaper published by Lake House. Finally, he joined the British High Commission in Colombo as an official Tamil translator.
Anton married his first wife, Pearl Rasaratnam, in1968. She too was attached to the British Council in Colombo. Pearl was perpetually a sick woman, and that made the couple to decide to emigrate to the UK for medical treatment. The British High Commission in Colombo helped them in this regard.
In London
The Balasingham couple settled down in a town in South London called Camberwell. Anton found employment at the Inner London Executive Council, while Pearl’s health deteriorated with renal failure and she died in November 1976. Anton Balasingham brought his wife’s remains to Sri Lanka and the burial took place at the Kanatte, General Cemetery in Borella. After attending to funeral activities, Anton Balasingham returned to England. At a Camberwell Pub (Public House) he befriended Adele Ann Wilby, an Australian nurse who worked at the Pub at the time. The friendship led to the couple getting married on 1 September 1978.
Anton and Adele could travel to India frequently (Tamil Nadu) as they both held British passports. In India, they met the LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and seemingly became the Chief Adviser cum confidante of Prabhakaran. He was finally known as the ‘Theoretician and Chief Spokesman’ for the LTTE.
British attitude
What startles is how the British Government turned a blind eye to Anton Balasingham’s terrorist activities from London when the LTTE was officially proscribed by the British as an illegal, notorious and a ruthless terrorist organisation. Many other western countries had by then banned the LTTE along with a few Asian countries. Ironically, vacillating nature on the part of the Sri Lankan Government for a long time for not proscribing the LTTE gave the UK to take the upper hand, so to speak, and come out with unconvincingly feeble excuses such as “Anton Balasingham had not done any criminal activities officially in the UK, as such, no action could be taken against him!”
There is no need to be more eloquent about the British Government’s attitude, during that era, than the indecorous President R. Premadasa committed by expelling the then British High Commissioner, David Gladstone, CMG (Most Distinguished Order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later King George IV), from Colombo causing much embarrassment to the decorated diplomat himself, who was a descendant of one-time British Prime Minister, William Gladstone.
In 1990s Britain was considered as one of the biggest aid donors to Sri Lanka. Thus, the expulsion and the declaration of persona non grata on the Diplomat made the British to adopt a sangfroid attitude overtly but causing much damage to Sri Lanka covertly. Simultaneously, the British turned a blind eye to whatever terrorist activities Balasingham organised and executed from London. Finally, Anton Balasingham died on 14 December 2006 at his home in South London.
Adele Balasingham
Adele Balasingham was known as ‘The White Tiger’, the only ‘white-skinned person’ directly involved and helped the LTTE in Sri Lanka. After her husband’s demise, she has moved to New Malden, Surrey to a four-bedroom luxury house with the proceeds of the LTTE’s ‘ill-gotten gains’.
She was publicly known to be recruiting child soldiers, as young as nine-year-old, and sent before the Sri Lankan Security Forces as cannon fodder, after supplying a cyanide capsule in case of an emergency to commit suicide. Finally, Adele became the advisor to the women’s wing of the LTTE and conducted many a suicide attack. Some observers believe she was responsible for the assassination of the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa.
The Asian Tribune once before exposing her quoting the London’s popular Evening Standard tabloid in June 2007 with her photograph. She had been careful not to associate her aname or address online with any of UK’s public records. The cat was let out of the bag when “she accidentally used her email address with a domain belonging to the University of Surrey, to participate in a British event that celebrated ‘Women of War.’
The Evening Standard’s report in 2007 also quoted “A senior diplomat attached to the Sri Lanka High Commission in London confirming Adele Balasingham as having had connections with senior ranks of the LTTE in Sri Lanka. According to emerging records, she has been labelled, as the only survivor of the upper echelons of the LTTE and had regarded her as a ‘Security risk for Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom’. The tabloid article had demanded an international arrest warrant to be issued by India and Sri Lanka, as she was responsible for murdering hundreds of men, women, children as well as maiming thousands of innocent people with suicide bombings over 30-years. The Evening Standard had mentioned how “Adele Balasingham rarely leaves her mansion and made a request to both Sri Lanka and India to work hand in glove and expose this murderer and send her to prison for life”.
Private investigations
Jane’s Information Group’s investigations into LTTE activities in Sri Lanka between 1980 and 2000, have revealed the popular tactics of the Liberation of Tamil Eelam as the introduction of suicide bombs to the world at large. The LTTE had carried out 168 suicide attacks causing heavy damage to civilians, killing and maiming thousands of innocent people who had nothing to do with the war.
In 1998, the LTTE attacked one of the UNESCO’s world heritage sites in Sri Lanka, Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy slaughtering worshippers and Buddhist priests who were piously engaged in prayer. The LTTE also managed to destroy Sri Lanka’s economic targets including the blowing up of aero Planes at the Bandaranaike International Airport in 2001.
The list of the LTTE atrocities is endless. Their main aim was to eliminate every senior Army officer who was seen as an obstruction to them. In this respect, Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary, at the time, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, escaped death miraculously when a suicide bomber’s attempt ripped his bullet-proof vehicle in Colombo but escaped death. Another miraculous escape from death was the then Army Commander, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka who displayed his courageous nature by carrying his internal organs in his hand after a woman suicide bomber blew herself up but the Army Commander escaped death. The courageous Army Commander was heard vouching to decimate the entire terrorist organisation, which he managed to destroy into smithereens.
The ‘Organisation for the Protection of Muslim Rights’ today lodged a complaint with the Police Headquarters calling for the arrest Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader and Minister Rauff Hakeem, over his alleged ties to the ringleader of Easter Sunday terror attacks Zahran Hashim.
Members of the organization also handed over to police a CD containing footage and images from a discussion allegedly attended by both Hakeem and Zahran. The organization also released the controversial video to the media today (18).
Members of the ‘Organisation for the Protection of Muslim Rights’ had also staged a silent protest in front of the Police Headquarters this morning, demanding the arrest of Minister Rauff Hakeem.
The group claims that Hakeem had met with the leader of the now-banned National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) organization, Zahran Hashim, who has been identified as the alleged ringleader behind the Easter Sunday bomb attacks, at the NTJ’s office in Kattankudy during the 2015 general election period.
Parliamentarian of the United National Party (UNP) Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe says he would support the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the Presidential Election 2019.
Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe revealed this holding a press conference along with the members of the SLPP, which took place at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute.
The media briefing is chaired by MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa, SLPP chairman Prof. G.L. Peiris and Parliamentarians Dayasiri Jayasekara, Udaya Gammanpila, Wimal Weerawansa, Bandula Gunawardena, Vasudeva Nanayakkara and Nimal Siripala de Silva.
The responsibility of every citizen is to protect the country, he said further highlighting that people should make the correct decision at the Presidential Election.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe exercised presidential powers ever since President Maithripala Sirisena assumed power, he claims. Wickremesinghe included the Central Bank of Sri Lanka into his subject scope, Rajapakshe said further.
Commenting on the recently declared open international airport in Jaffna, Rajapakshe claimed the government is using the perfectly-built Mattala International Airport to store paddy while holding ceremonies to declare open a partially established airport.
He said the only alternative is to help Gotabaya Rajapaksa to win the Presidential Election so that the country does not fall into the hands of foreign forces.
Prior to the press conference, the SLPP and the Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding the upcoming Presidential Election.
The MoU was inked by the SLPP chairman and the CWC leader Arumugam Thondaman.
Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s presidential hopeful Gotabaya Rajapaksa says every student who passes the G.C.E. Advanced Level examination will be given the opportunity to pursue higher education at universities.
Addressing a public meeting at Warakapola in Kegalle, he also spoke of implementing a program to provide employment to intelligent youths.
Meanwhile, speaking at a public meeting held at Aranayaka area lat evening (16), Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised to establish a secure, developed country.
He said he will boost Sri Lanka’s economy by stabilizing the country and ensuring its security.
Minister of Primary Industries and Social Empowerment Daya Gamage today recorded his statement with the Presidential Commission of Inquiry over the probes into the alleged loss incurred to the government during the paddy storage at the Mattala International Airport.
Minister Gamage today (18) arrived at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing the serious acts of fraud, corruption, and abuse of power, state resources, and privileges from 2015 to 2018.
Responding to the questions raised by the media persons after recording his statement with the Commission, the Minister said the prices of local paddy went down in 2015 as then-government had largely imported paddy by the end of 2014.
Owing to this situation, the incumbent government had to purchase paddy from local farmers as private buyers did not come forward to purchase the paddy stocks and these were later stored at the Mattala International Airport, he added.
This decision was taken by the committee appointed to look into the issue concerning paddy purchase, the Minister said stressing that there had been no need to damage the paddy storage at the Airport.
Meanwhile, the former Chairman of the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) Mr. M. Bandara recently told the Presidential Commission of Inquiry that storing paddy at the Mattala International Airport was discussed with the relevant authorities as there had been limited facilities to store paddy back in 2015.
However, the authorities of the Airport had strictly rejected the idea, Mr. Bandara further told the Commission.
He also stated that this was discussed at length with Minister Daya Gamage and as a decision was taken at the time to store paddy at the Airport due to the promises given during election campaigns, nearly 4000 metric tonnes of paddy was stored at the Airport.Disclaimer: All the comments will be moderated by the AD editorial. Abstain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or slanderous. Please avoid outside hyperlinks inside the comment and avoid typing all capitalized comments. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by flagging them(mouse over a comment and click the flag icon on the right side). Do use these forums to voice your opinions and create healthy discourse.
