By Janaka Perera

Actions and deeds that disturb social peace and harmony are nothing new.  And the offenders do not belong to one particular community. However a trend is emerging in Sri Lanka where those pontificating on this  problem are very selective in their criticism.  They go for the soft-target – the Sinhala Buddhists – making them appear the chief culprits.

Sri Lanka’s mainstream English press is dominated by such one-sided critics. They keep on harping Sri Lanka is a multireligious country though it is predominantly Buddhist.  And when it comes to criticism it is Sinhala Buddhists who are shown in a bad light more than any other religious community.

Perjury charge raises questions for the PM, despite his defence that he is not responsible for a newspaper group’s actions.

David Cameron told MPs three months ago: “I’m responsible for the decisions I take, the people I employ, the government I run. The buck stops right here, and I take full responsibility for every single thing I do.”

It is one of those big remarks political leaders feel forced to make that can mean everything and nothing.

So now that his former director of communications Andy Coulson has been charged by police investigating alleged perjury during the trial of Tommy Sheridan – which took place while Coulson was a government employee in No 10 – the prime minister’s judgment comes under closer scrutiny.

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World No Tobacco Day is today

By Manjari Peiris

The Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr.  Margaret Chan has chosen “Tobacco Industry Interference” as the theme of World No Tobacco Day which falls on 31st May, 2012.

The campaign will focus on the need to expose and counter the tobacco industry’s blatant and increasingly aggressive attempts to undermine the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) because of the serious danger they pose to public health.

Tobacco use is one of the leading preventable causes of death. The global tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people each year, of which more than 600,000 are people exposed to second-hand smoke. Unless we act, it will kill up to 8 million people by 2030, of which more than 80% will live in low- and middle-income countries.

As more and more countries move fully to meet their obligations under the WHO FCTC, the tobacco industry’s efforts to undermine the treaty are becoming more and more energetic.

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The above line from a popular song of yesteryear, often blared forth on our English radio programmes, is certain to have drifted into the minds of many of our readers on perusing an observation by Defence and Urban Development Ministry Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa that the Northern Province is not the exclusive enclave of this or that community. If Sri Lanka is the Mother of all Lankans, then, this land is for all the citizens of this country, irrespective of petty differences.

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The Houla massacre in Syria on Friday shocked the world. It left 108 civilians dead including 49 children and 34 women. Although the identities of the perpetrators are not known, the blame for the heinous crime has naturally been pinned on the Assad government. Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Bulgaria lost no time in expelling Syrian diplomats in what is described as a coordinated blow to the Assad regime. They have gone so far as to threaten sanctions against Syria!

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An open letter to Hon. John Baird, MP., P.C.Minister of Foreign Affairs, House of Commons, Ottawa by Asoka weerasinghe, Canada.

My…My…John, how times have changed.

I watched yesterday’s Question Period on CPAC, and how righteous you looked and spoke for all of Canada, when you said that “Targeting civilians, especially executing children, is absolutely intolerable and inexcusable.”  You were referring to the killing of 108 adults and children in the Syrian town of Houla on May 27, and you had expelled the Syrian diplomats in retaliation for these killings.

By Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha

Freedom does not, we should emphasize, mean the freedom of the wild ass. As the former head of the FNS, Count Otto von Lambsdorff said, while Liberalism demands a small state, it also requires a strong state. Thus I believe my colleague who will talk about environmental issues will stress the need for forceful regulation, to ensure protection for vulnerable people and places. That is why true Liberalism, while being committed to a market economy, does not believe that market forces alone should dictate policy. The state must ensure that the vulnerable are protected, that a level playing field is promoted, that development is both balanced and enduring.

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‘කොල්ලකෑම්’ මෑත කාලයේ අපට වැඩිම වාර ගණනක්‌ අසන්නට ලැබුණු වචනයක්‌ වූයේ ඩෙංගු මදුරුවන් බෝවනවාටත් වඩා වැඩි වේගයකින් නිධන් කොල්ල කෑම් සිදුවන්නට වූ නිසා ය. මේ තත්ත්වය කොයි තරම් බරපතළ වුණා ද යත් මාස 3 ක්‌ ඇතුළත නිධන් හා පුරාවස්‌තු කොල්ලකෑම් 110 ක්‌ වාර්තා වුණි. මේ කොල්ලකෑම්වල කෙළවර ඇතැම් බලලත්තෝ මෙන්ම නිලලත්තෝ ද සිටින අයුරු දැකිය හැකි විය. මේ ගැන ජනමාධ්‍ය ඔස්‌සේ වැඩි අවධානයක්‌ යොමු වීම නිසා දැන් යම් පමණකට තත්ත්වය සංසිඳී ඇතැයි අපට සිතෙයි. එහෙත් ඊයේ (30 වැනිදා) පුවත්පතක සඳහන් ප්‍රවෘත්තියක්‌ වූයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ප්‍රථම අගමැති වූ ඩී. එස්‌. සේනානායක මහතාගේ දැදිගම බංගලාව ද නිධන් සොරුන් විසින් හාරන ලද බව ය. මේ හෑරිල්ල රුවන්මැලි සෑයෙන් වත් අවසන් වුණොත්….. කියා හිත හදා ගන්නට දැන් අපට සිදුවෙයි.

ඉතිරිය

By Malinda Seneviratne

British High Commissioner, John Rankin, has openly challenged a statement made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa regarding scaling down of military presence in the North and East.  Rankin has stated that the LTTE is no longer engaging in military activities and as such questioned the logic of a military presence in these areas that is of a magnitude not seen in other parts of the country.

We can forgive the man for being ignorant about the needs for surveillance and (re) educate him about the well-known English phrase ‘Better safe than sorry’, pointing out the following:  a) military consolidation is necessary in the aftermath of a 30 year long war, b) the road from relative calm to all out conflict is short, and the world is not lacking in governments that are ever ready to provide guns and money to further their interests, through ‘regime-change’ effors and/or fuelling bloody conflicts, and c) LTTE-backers in the West have not given up on their dream of a separate state and neither have they dropped their principal operative stance: By any means necessary.

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By Herbert A. Aponso

Apropos the letter by N. L. Mendis, published in ‘The Island’, I would like to make some brief comments and pose a few relevant questions.

Historically, it is well known that the British divided our country into nine provinces to suit their administration of the country. That division is certainly not one that is inviolable or sacrosanct.  For example, should the Eastern province be extended as far down to the South, as it is now?  Is there an absolute necessity for nine Provincial Councils?

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Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka Mission in Geneva had categorically stated that she is no more interested in holding any diplomatic position.

She said that she is not going to accept the position of Ambassador either to Cuba or Brazil and also not interested in continuing as the Head of the Permanent Mission in Geneva.

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The family of a shopkeeper stabbed to death in a botched robbery have expressed their ‘shame and sadness’ after his killer was acquitted of murder, despite graphic CCTV footage of the moment a knife was plunged into his throat.

Father-of-two Mahesh Wickramasingha was stabbed to death in a struggle with Sam Harrison, 19, after he attempted to foil a hold-up on his store in Huyton, Liverpool, last year.

Harrison’s ten-inch knife severed the Sri Lankan-born 30-year-old’s jugular vein, stopping only when the blade struck his spine.

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By Ranjith Soysa, Melbourne.

Mr Rankin the British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka is not happy about the presence of SL armed forces in the North and their involvement and their assistance rendered in rebuilding the civil life. He has even gone to the extent of challenging the position taken by the President in relation to this issue. Rankin has discovered that there is no terrorism in Sri Lanka and he is reported to have stated that the LTTE is banned in many countries.

If Rankin has to be taken seriously about terrorism and good civil administration one needs to seek responses to a few questions about the official British approach to some of the issues discussed.

By Chandra Kuruppu, Alawwa.

Sampanthan’s double standards exposed

“In the mean time the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says that the North is also a part of Sri Lanka and the citizens of Sri Lanka have the right to live in any part of the country. Do Sampanthan and his colleagues say that they cannot live with the Sinhalese and the Muslims? If they say so it is for their own political expediency and for nothing else. The Sinhalese will never say that they cannot live with the Tamils in Colombo or anywhere else.”

It is no secret that R Sampanthan, the Trincomalee District MP and leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is still clinging on to the LTTE demands of separatism. This is evident in the contradictory statements he and his colleagues make on the TNA’s participation in the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC). The TNA procrastinated to attend the PSC while having several rounds of meetings with the government. The TNA had discussed the issue with Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem and the UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and finally has decided to attend the PSC.

However the main demands of the TNA are the merger of North and East provinces and create a so called Tamil homeland. When the Indian Parliamentary delegation led by Sushma Swaraj was in Colombo Sampanthan told her that TNA favours a genuine political solution within a united Sri Lanka. But at the TNA causes at Trincomalee last weekend he said that he did not believe that the Tamils could find a solution to their problem through a United Sri Lanka.

By Dr. Dayan Jayathilleka

The keynote speech by Mr. R Sampanthan, the leader of the main Tamil parliamentary party at the recent congress of that organization is in many respects a landmark event. It sheds light on a number of key strategic issues and should make clear to the international community that the matter of political dialogue leading to ethnic reconciliation is, has become or is becoming rather more complex and fraught than is customarily thought.

The senior political leader of the Tamil community in the island’s strategically sensitive Northern Province reconfirms the political aim and goal of his party. Perhaps more importantly he clarifies the international strategy that is being, and is to be, adopted in furtherance of that political project, as well as the interconnection between the international strategy and domestic tactics in support of the project.

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