(Daily Mirror – by Wijedasa Rajapaksha) William Shakespeare said that “some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them”. That reminds us of late Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike on whose very birthday to be exact 17th April 1916 at Pussaliyadda Walawwa, Mahawelatanna, Balangoda, a well-known astrologer by the name of Hetuwa Gurunnanse told her parents Barnes Rathwatte, Rate Mahattaya and Rosmend Hilda Kumararihamy that the future Queen of Ceylon was born. As reminisced by Dr. Mackie Ratwatta in an article which appeared in a newspaper that there had been another phenomenon on that day when a herd of elephants forcefully entered the Kraal, an act which was considered a very rare omen. Her father laird of Balangoda was amused to hear that prophecy because then we were under the regime of King George V of the United Kingdom. Furthermore there was no woman political leader in any country in the world specially, where there were democratic forms of Government. Continue reading 5o years ago mrs.b made history
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As you commemorate the 40th death anniversary of Professor K N Jayatillake in Sri Lanka, from Melbourne, in Australia, I bring before you the life and times of a scholar, teacher, colleague and friend who had a great influence on my academic and personal life, as well as number of his students. (Daily News – by Professor Padmasiri De Silva) Born on November 1, 1920, Professor K N Jayatilleke completed his early education at Royal College, Colombo and pursued Indo-Aryan studies at the University
of Ceylon and in 1943 graduated with a first class. Having won the Government Scholarship, he pursued the Moral Tripos at Cambridge University. These were the days when both the brilliance and the eccentricities of Ludwig Wittgenstein pervaded the philosophical world and it was Jayatilleke’s mission to locate the empiricist and analytical philosophical trends of British philosophy, within the Buddhist tradition and he worked out the epistemological foundations of Pali Canonical thought in his book The Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge. The late Professor Robinson described this work, which won him the degree Ph.D from London University, as a masterpiece, judged by any standards. The late Ninian Smart highlighted the importance of this worker, in a celebrated review, in the journal, Mind. The Message of the Buddha, by K N Jayatillake, edited by Ninian Smart, a posthumous publication, is a very useful introduction to Buddhism for the General Reader, which gives a bird’s eye view of basic philosophical issues. Continue reading Tribute to Professor K N Jayatilleke: Profile of a scholar, teacher, colleague and friend (The Island – by Srinath Fernando) It would be opportune to reflect on the nature and duties of a Cabinet Government in the wake of recent controversial remarks made by a Cabinet Minister followed by a fast unto death which eventually became the farce of the century. When a minister is appointed his responsibilities are clearly demarcated through the allocation of functions by gazette notification. How functions of the Ministers are allocated is a prerogative of the Executive President, by virtue of powers vested in him. Once a Minister is appointed he can no longer identify himself as being a representative of a particular constituency and he would have to relinquish all the positions he held in his private capacity. He is considered to be a minister for all time even when he is fast asleep at home. The reason being that a Minister could be awakened by his staff if the matter is of national importance and it should be brought to the urgent consideration by the Minister. Assume for an instance an aircraft is hijacked at midnight and terrorists are demanding landing permission from the airport and the Airport authorities would require Minister responsible for civil aviation to be notified even at midnight. Since a Minister is for all time, he is duty bound to make a decision and also to defend his decision in respect of any particular action. As regards collective decisions made at the sessions of Cabinet of Ministers/ Council of Ministers he will also be required to defend the policy of a fellow cabinet member as well. This is called collective responsibility and no minister could abdicate his ministerial responsibility of defending the government policy. If he were to do so it would be to the detriment of his own government and would unnecessarily earn the wrath of his cabinet colleagues and the Executive ‘All Mighty’. The public opinion too would go against the government and then he would be an inevitable prey for the opposition looking for issues to exploit, as is the case with all functioning democracies world wide. Continue reading Doctrine of ministerial responsibility and Cabinet conventions
Let us start with the basic law of Sri Lanka. We didn’t have the kind of founding fathers with the sagacity that the US and India had, endowing those countries with Constitutions that have not only stood the test of time but have accommodated and facilitated change. Both Constitutions act as a beacon for their own societies and those further afield. It is transparent that the motive force for Constitutional change today is exactly what it was during the second term of President Kumaratunga, namely the striving to overcome to two term limit and prolong incumbency or the chance of incumbency by any other name. Our predominant political culture seemingly fails to enshrine the principle of the social contract, or even the simpler one of a trade-off, whereby a plenitude of power is vested in a single person in exchange for a strict limit on the period during which that person shall enjoy such enormous power. Continue reading Complementarities of constitutional change An Open Letter to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (TC – by P.Elmo J de Silva) The war is now over and the people of Sri Lanka are grateful to you for your contribution towards the country’s victory. The government should now look at the post war scenario and formulate a development strategy for the City of Colombo. The best and prime property in the Business District is occupied by the Armed Forces; this perhaps is a legacy from Colonial times when Colombo was a garrison city at the same time being the principal port and administrative centre. The time is now right for us to move on, and as you have the unique position as chairman of the UDA and Defence Secretary, it is possible for you to address the situation and make these important changes. Around 500 acres of prime land are occupied by the Armed forces with the country’s five star city hotels, banks and commercial buildings clustered in the same area. A few years ago an attempt was made by the UDA; the required land was acquired in Kotte for this purpose and preliminary plans were drawn by each of the selected consultants for each Service. Four architectural practices were selected to prepare plans for the relocation of the Army, Navy, Air force and Police. Unfortunately, due to the escalation of hostilities the projects were delayed and subsequently abandoned. Continue reading Prevent the armed forces from occupying prime property premises in Colombo city (The Island) Scientists have announced the discovery of a medicated gel which could halve a woman’s chances of contracting Aids. Aids experts called the vaginal gel a breakthrough in the long quest for a tool to help women whose partners won’t use condoms. “We are giving hope to women,” said Michel Sidibe, executive director of the World Health Organization’s UNAIDS program. “For the first time we have seen results for a woman-initiated and woman-controlled HIV prevention option.” Women account for most new HIV infections. A gel could “help us break the trajectory of the Aids epidemic,” he said. Dr Salim Abdool Karim, the South African researcher who led the study, will present his results in Austria on Tuesday at the International Aids Conference in Vienna. The results need to be confirmed in another study, and that level of protection is probably not enough to win approval of the microbicide gel in countries like the United States, researchers say. But they are optimistic it can be improved. Continue reading Medicated gel gives hope in fight against Aids
With reference to my Article which The Daily Mirror published yesterday ( 14th July) under the caption “ Some Random thoughts about the U.N. Advisory Panel”, my colleagues have asked me to explain how an Advisory opinion could be sought from the International Court of Justice (I.C.J.) when its jurisdiction to issue such opinions excludes requests made by States and includes, roughly, only fourteen U.N. bodies. This indeed is an important question and I must apologize for not being terribly clear in my writing. Therefore this explanation. It is correct that “Advisory opinions” as an international law concept could only be sought by one of the named U.N. bodies. Such opinions by definition are non-binding and are devoid of sanctions listed in Chapter VII from Articles 41 onwards under that Chapter. This is necessary for obvious reasons that one U.N Body cannot seek the help of the Security Council under that chapter to virtually sanction itself.Coming to our problem we begin with the Advisory opinion rendered by the I.C.J in the Reparation for injuries suffered in the Service of the United Nations ( 1949) and the several cases that have followed it. There the I.C.J gave the United Nations Organization an international legal identity as a body possessing “ a large measure of legal personality and the capacity to operate upon the international plane. It followed that the organization had the capacity to bring a claim and to give it the character of an international action for reparation for the damage that had been done to it . The Court further declared that the organization can claim reparation not only in respect of damage caused to itself , but also in respect of damage suffered by the victim or persons entitled through him”.( I.C.J. – U.N. Report at page 35). These features posits upon the U.N. Organization a legal personality in the nature of which it becomes co-terminus with that of the legal personality of any Sovereign State. Continue reading The Way to obtain an Advisory Opinion : Re U.N. Panel (The Island) The Nation/ANN Thailand’s Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva are being investigated for abusing their position when they used their government office to send out short messages, or SMS, via mobile phone service last year. In his and the prime minister’s defence, Korn said SMS was meant for the public interest and that there was no personal gain nor conflict of interest. The opposition, on the other hand, said it was a deal big enough for impeachment. They called on the counter corruption agency to go after them with no mercy. Sounds a bit trivial – government officials using state property for personal gain? Probably. But if this fiasco about the SMS is to be a benchmark for corrupt practices, then it would be safe to say that just about all our elected leaders have committed such a sin. Have any Thai politicians ever used a telephone in their office to call family members or friends for personal reasons, or used government cars and transportation for personal trips? The problem with Thai society is that we are living in shades of grey without any real guidelines as to what is acceptable or not. We have been living in this big shade of grey for so long that shady conduct and attitudes have, more or less, become a part of our national character. Continue reading Mindful changes needed to weed out corruption (Daily News – by Prof Sisira Pinnawala) Children when they play create a world that is make-believe. The parents who know that it is not the real thing pretend it is real so that the feelings of their children are not hurt. For the children it is not pretending for they really believe in it. Their’s is a world of fantasy and can be anything that children want it to be. In it an old car tyre is a car and a folded paper is a plane. It has fairies, goblins and monsters. Dolls as playthings are the most common way children create the real world in the world of make believe. Countless generations have spent their childhood among dolls and many more generations to come will continue to do so. In the liberation politics of Sri Lankan Tamils something similar is taking place.
Now that the liberation struggle is no more and the de facto state of Eelam is effectively dead the pro LTTE Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora leadership is creating a new make-believe in place of their dream that came down shattering on the banks of Nandikadal lagoon in Eastern Sri Lanka. This make-believe is the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE). Like the Barbie doll that became a craze and mesmerized teenage girls around the world the TGTE is taking over the LTTE sympathizers in the Diaspora. The realists in the Tamil community seem to be behaving like the parents who do not wish to hurt the feelings of their children by not commenting on the subject, at least openly and for now. This essay is a brief critique of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam Project and also an attempt to speculate on the future of the TGTE. Continue reading From de facto State to Barbie Doll Government: Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (The Island) President Mahinda Rajapaksa promised the public sector employees a pay hike of Rs. 2,500 in the run-up to the last presidential election. He was quite desperate for votes at that time. He won comfortably but has not yet honoured his promise, though the State workers voted overwhelmingly for him. His main contender Gen. Sarath Fonseka pledged a salary increase of Rs. 10,000 but failed to impress the workers. The State workers have fallen between two stools without either Rs. 2,500 or Rs. 10,000! The government says it will grant a wage hike when it presents the next budget in parliament in November, but the workers may be in for another disappointment if they count their chickens before they are hatched. The JVP-led trade unions have taken up the cause of the public worker. Demanding a pay hike of Rs. 8,000, they have threatened to resort to drastic trade union action unless the government meets their demand forthwith. However, the question is whether the JVP is equal to the task of coercing the government into submission. Its strike at the height of the war to win a salary increase of Rs. 5,000 became a grand flop. However, the fact remains that workers in all sectors deserve relief owing to the spiralling cost of living. One cannot but agree with the JVP that an average family of four persons needs an income of about Rs. 40,000 to survive. So, the trade unions cannot be faulted for demanding better salaries for their members. But they cannot be forgiven for having turned a Nelsonian eye to the serious lapses on the part of their membership in the State sector, which is characterized by waste, inefficiency, bribery, corruption, dereliction of duty and inordinate delays. It was only the other day that the Treasury Chief Dr. P. B. Jayasundera turned the spotlight on the colossal waste in the public sector. He pointed out that the cost of purchasing drugs for hospitals amounted to only ten percent of the waste in the public sector. Continue reading Rights and duties
Its centrality for the UPFA went for a six once the government took the upper hand over the international critics following the annihilation of the LTTE. One does not need to be a genius to figure as to why the minority parties in the opposition are attempting to stump the UPFA government over the APRC at a time the international community is attempting to push the ruling coalition against the wall. By tabling the government initiated proposals in parliament the parties are expecting the global powers to exert more pressure on the government to implement the proposals many of which the UPFA is not keen on putting into practice anymore. In the event of reluctance by the government the international community is likely to say ‘but they are your proposals after all’. This once added to the concerns over UN and loss of GSP plus loss could mean quite some pressure to any other nation. Continue reading predictions on the APRC (Daily News) The other day we dwelt in these columns about the directive issued by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to CEB officials to halt the slide of the CEB which is burdened with huge losses. We also spoke of the need for conservation to minimise these losses. Yesterday in our front page news item we quoted CEB Working Director Roshan Abeygunawardena as saying that between three to four percent of the country’s power generation are lost to unregistered power consumption of street lights and also to power piracy. This represents a sizeable quantum of power which the CEB can ill-afford to lose at a time when it needs all the available resources it could muster to tide over its losses. Street lamps are of course a free service to the public for which the CEB picks up the tab. But what about the unnecessary illuminations that we see around us that take a heavy toll on the national grid. Today we consume power with impunity while the CEB is forced to subsidize electricity to the public fearing a public outcry if it even attempts to break even and thus save losses to itself. Regrettably it is the Government institutions who are the main offenders when it comes to waste of electricity. One has only to step into a Government Department to get the true picture where air-conditioners function at full throttle in untenanted office space or fans whirring over unoccupied desks. In addition to this State Banks and many other Government buildings are draped in eye catching illuminations in the night. Perhaps they want to keep pace with their competitors in the private sector who have floodlit their buildings with garish neon lights. Continue reading Economising power (The Island) WASHINGTON (AP) – One day your annual flu shot could come in the mail. At least that’s the hope of researchers developing a new method of vaccine delivery that people could even use at home: a patch with microneedles. Microneedles? That’s right, tiny little needles so small you don’t even feel them. Attached to a patch like a Band-Aid, the little needles barely penetrate the skin before they dissolve and release their vaccine. Researchers led by Mark Prausnitz of Georgia Institute of Technology reported their research on microneedles in Sunday’s edition of Nature Medicine. The business side of the patch feels like fine sandpaper, he said. In tests of microneedles without vaccine, people rated the discomfort at one-tenth to one-twentieth that of getting a standard injection, he said. Nearly everyone said it was painless. Some medications are already delivered by patches, such as nicotine patches for people trying to quit smoking. That’s simply absorbed through the skin. But attempts to develop patches with the flu vaccine absorbed through the skin have not been successful so far. Continue reading Microneedles may make getting flu shots easier (Daily Mirror – by D.B.S.Jayaraj) The South Indian state of Tamil Nadu has a robust Film industry. From it’s nascent stages, film- making in the state has been inclusive in nature. Artistes and technicians from various parts of India have worked and continue to work in Tamil films. Many non –Tamils employed in the film sector have chosen to live in Chennai. Sri Lankas film industry too has had historical links with Tamil Nadu. The first Sinhala film produced by SM Nayagam a Tamil was shot in Madras as Chennai was known earlier. Several other Sinhala films in the forties and fifties were made in India. Several South Indian artistes were involved with Sinhala films then. The veteran director P. Neelakandan, music composer Vedha, Playback singers like AM Rajah, Jikki ,Ranee and Jamunarani have all left their imprint on Sinhala films.
What was remarkable is that Naidu went on to make and re-make the Tamil film in five more languages. Each version was a commercial success. This six-film phenomenon has not been replicated by anyone so far. Soorasena The Telugu film was “Aggi Ramudu”; the Malayalam version “Taskara Veeran’”; in Kannada it was “Bettada Kalla”; the Hindi movie was “Azad.” Now guess in which language the sixth film was made? Sinhala! The film was named “Soorasena.” I do not know who acted in the film but the music was composed by SM Subbiah Naidu. Among the songs were “athana methane” by Jamuna Rani, “Manaram Ranguman” by Jamuna Rani and Ranee. I believe the Sinhala singer duo Lata and Dharmadasa Walpola sang “ Aalokey Alokey” and “Ananda Shreeya” for “Soorasena.” Continue reading ACTRESS ASIN COMBATS TAMIL FILMDOM OVER SRI LANKA (Daily News – by Chamari Senanayake) In December 2006, Defence Ministry UK announced that the contract for the ‘Taranis’ unmanned air vehicle demonstrator program had been awarded to a team led by the Defence firm BAE Systems. Named after the Celtic god of thunder Taranis, it was to explore and demonstrate how emerging technologies and systems can deliver battle-winning capabilities for the UK Armed Forces
Amid tight security, the Taranis Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) was unveiled at BAE Systems’ Warton airfield in Lancashire, England on July 12. Uncleared visitors were not allowed to approach the aircraft, but the stealth-driven configuration seemed unchanged from artists’ impressions released previously. Defence Ministry UK has provided Pounds 143 million to construct the trial aircraft. This is a partnership of Defence Ministry UK and industry British engineering firms including BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, QinetiQ and GE Aviation. It is about the same size as a Hawk jet and is equipped with stealth equipment and an ‘autonomous’ artificial intelligence system. Almost invisible to ground radar, it is designed to travel at high jet speeds and cover massive distances between continents. The plane is built to carry out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance on enemy territory using onboard sensors. And it has been designed to carry a cache of weapons, including bombs and missiles, giving it a potential long-range strike capability. It can be controlled from anywhere in the world with satellite communications. Continue reading Meet Taranis, unmanned combat air vehicle (Sunday Observer – By Manjula Fernando)
He says the Kilinochchi Cabinet meeting had a greater symbolic value and carried a psychological message that the country was now truly united. Minister Rambukwella stressed that there was no deviation from the government’s opposition to the UN Chief’s advisory panel and unless there is an indication of a constructive, useful dialogue, the panel members will not be allowed access to Sri Lanka. Q: Is there a shift in Sri Lanka’s opposition to the appointment of the advisory panel by the UN Secretary General? A: We as a country opposed it with reasons. We showed our displeasure for a variety of reasons. One is that the Government itself agreed to look into accountability issues in the aftermath of the conflict. Secondly, why are they asking about just two weeks? This implies that they are specific and predetermined. Continue reading Govt committed to accountability – Minister Keheliya Rambukwella |
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(Daily Mirror – by Dr.Dayan Jayathilake) Much of the contemporary political comment in Sri Lanka is on the tale of two constitutions, the country’s basic law and that of the main democratic opposition party, the UNP. The commentary is also characterised by a zero-sum perspective, revolving around the question of whether or not the talks on changing the country’s constitution will dwarf and derail/deadlock the move for change in the UNP’s constitution and leadership. While there can be little doubt that one of the aims of the dialogue and its timing is to prop up the leadership of the main opposition and forestall a change, it does not seem to me that such an antinomian approach is the only possible or most productive one. In any event, the news that the UNP’s Working Committee has given its assent to the party reforms makes that assumption and line of discussion rather redundant.
I fail to see a reason why both the country and the main Opposition party cannot undergo a parallel or overlapping process of reform. This would be most apposite given that both are in need of change, comprising an overall moment of national reform.
(Daily Mirror – By Dr. Lakshman Marasinghe,Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.)
(Daily Mirror) Prof. Tissa Vitharana is a gentleman. He took the APRC quite seriously and gave it his best. However that does not make the last Constitution making process any less of a charade, a travesty to quell the tide of international pressure.
An interesting aspect of this Madras – Ceylon collaboration was the record created by Indian film producer- director Sri Ramulu Naidu in 1954. Naidu the owner of Pakshirajah studio in Coimbatore produced the blockbuster “Malaikallan” starring MGR and Bhanumathy that year. It was adapted from the Novel written by the state’s poet laureate Namakkal Ramalingampillai.
Media Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told the Sunday Observer that the cornerstone of the ongoing Government-Opposition talks on the proposed constitutional reforms is retaining the executive feature of the office of the head of state.