April 30, 2015 · 4:58 pm

Rajan and Jehan on the Present Government: Issues and Strengths

Rajan Philips in Sunday Island, 25 April 2015, two days before the vote on the 19th Amendment and where his  title is “The 100-Day Question: Will President Sirisena dissolve parliament and call the Rajapaksa bluff?”

 M SIRISENA WAVES If there is ever a time for political leadership to act in disregard of consensus, it is now. There was a time in Sri Lankan politics when that master rhetorician Colvin R. de Silva presaged the governing style of the SLFP-LSSP-CP United Front as one that would be “characterized not by consensus but by leadership.” Dr. Colvin’s foretelling was in anticipation of the massive United Front election victory in 1970. It turned out to be ill-advised at that time. But it is thoroughly appropriate at the present time. In politics, consensus is the preferred means to a desired end, but it is not an end itself. President Sirisena has the power to act and dissolve parliament and let the people elect a new parliament to end the current political uncertainty in parliament and in the country. Will he do it? That is the 100-Day question. And there will not be much else to talk about the 100 Days if parliament does not pass the 19th Amendment on Tuesday, the day after tomorrow. Continue reading →

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April 30, 2015 · 1:29 pm

The Passage of the Amended 19A has 4 Winners and Two Losers, says Dayan

DAYAN J in mountainsDayan Jayatilleka, in The Island, 30 April 2015 , where the title runs “19A Minus: A Middle Path”

There were four main winners in the battle over 19A. Of them, the second biggest winner was President Sirisena who was able to retain much of his power while balancing adroitly between the two contending components of his power base: his ally the UNP and his party the SLFP. The biggest winner however, was not President Sirisena. It was a dead man, President Junius Richard Jayewardene. His 1978 Constitution proved so robust a structure, that it successfully resisted the joint attempt of his distant nephew Ranil Wickremesinghe and his old rival Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga to upend its center-piece, the executive presidency. Continue reading →

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April 30, 2015 · 1:06 pm

Dayan nails Sampanthan and TNA unto Separatist Cross

Dayan Jayatilleka, courtesy of The Island, 5 April 2015, where the title reads ““Last nail in the coffin”

We have already had a bitter experience with Mr. Wigneswaran and we mustn’t repeat or compound it. Mr. Sampanthan is a cultured gentleman, a superb speaker and fine parliamentarian in the old tradition. But he would be most unsuitable to be made Leader of the Opposition. It is neither because he is an ethnic Tamil nor because he is the leader of the TNA that Mr. Sampanthan must not be appointed the Leader of the Opposition of the Sri Lankan parliament. It is because of the political project he subscribes to and the political views he holds. Going by those declared views, he would, as Opposition Leader, not oppose only the policies and practices of the Government of Sri Lanka. Indeed he probably won’t oppose the present Government at all, since he helped bring it into office; his party colleague Mr. Sumanthiran is a co-drafter of the 19th amendment which castrates the executive Presidency, turning that office into a constitutional eunuch; and his party the TNA has gone on to defend the 19th amendment in the Supreme Court. Instead, Mr. Sampanthan as Opposition Leader would be opposed to the very political community, the very political unit, which he would be sworn to uphold and operate squarely within. TNA leaders -island

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April 27, 2015 · 11:32 am

Pleasant Chimes from the 1960s and A Great Moment from Today

Radio Ceylon Music from the 1960s AND Kumar Sangakkara receiving an Award at the Fifth Asian Awards

SEE this link: http://worldtv.com/sunday_choice_tv/ …. From Radio Ceylon of the ’60s, a compilation from Sunday Choice … recomposed as a video production; …. and harking back – a brief history of Radio Ceylon –

Edward Harper, came to Ceylon as Chief Engineer of the Telegraph Office in 1921 and a few months after his arrival, in the first-ever radio experiments in Colombo, gramophone music was broadcast from a tiny room in the Central Telegraph Office with the aid of a small transmitter built by the Telegraph Department engineers from the radio equipment of a captured WW1 German submarine.  The experiment was a success and three years later, on 16 December 1925, a regular broadcasting service came to be instituted in Ceylon. The station was called “Colombo Radio,” with the call sign “Colombo Calling.” Colombo Radio was the first ever radio station in Asia and the second oldest radio station in the world.  Edward Harper is seen as the Father of Broadcasting in Ceylon.

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April 26, 2015 · 4:03 am

Nihal Fernando’s Odyssey in and with Sri Lanka: An Appreciation

Neville Weeraratne, in The Sunday Island, 26 April 2015
article_image

There is, on the title page of Nihal Fernando’s ‘Sri Lanka — A Personal Odyssey’ a photograph of a shadow of a man holding what must be a camera. It falls on a wide beach with a set of footprints leading to where the subject, Nihal Fernando himself stands. Beyond them and in the distance is a glimpse of the sea. This is an image that gently nudges me into recognizing Nihal himself, one of the finest men of our time, a great artist, a selfless devotee, his skills indisputable. I do not know who took the picture but it is surely an inspired gesture and helps to illustrate a confession Nihal made on another occasion, in the Prologue to his ‘The Wild, the Free, the Beautiful’: ” I do not choose my subjects, they chose me …” Continue reading →

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April 25, 2015 · 9:17 am

The Ode and The Last Post: Remembering the Anzacs

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.”

LAST POST 33 www.diggerhistory.info   Pic from www.awm.gov.au

SEE & HEAR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-Pz5KsyfN0…. 

Corporal Matthew Creek of the Royal Military College Band plays The Last Post at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. The Last Post is one of a number of bugle calls in military tradition that mark the phases of the day. In military tradition, the Last Post is the bugle call that signifies the end of the day’s activities. It is also sounded at military funerals to indicate that the soldier has gone to his final rest and at commemorative services such as ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day….. Published on Apr 9, 2012

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April 24, 2015 · 2:57 pm

Combat Trauma and Shell Shock in the Sri Lanka Army: “Palali” as Its Metaphor

Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge, courtesy of Lankaweb 15 April 2015, where the title is  “Shell Shock To Palali Syndrome,”  http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/04/15/shell-shock-to-palali-syndrome-2/

“In war, there are no unwounded soldiers” – Jose Narosky

Palali is a well-known area in the Jaffna Peninsula in the Northern Sri Lanka. Palali has an important airport that serves as the main lifeline in the North. A large number of soldiers travel to the Northern Peninsula through the Palali Airbase. During the Eelam War, Palali Air Base played a key role (like the Tan Son Nhut Air Base during the Vietnam conflict) providing essential food items, medicines and ammunition to the troops. Throughout the Eelam War, many battle casualties were transported to Colombo via Palali.

PALALI 22Therefore, Palali is a part of the combatants who fought in the Eelam War for nearly three decades. Palali is in their memories, sometimes in their intrusions. Palali has become a symbol and metaphor that recounts combat trauma in Sri Lanka.  Palali represents the symptom complex of battle stresses that has been experienced by the new generation of combatants. It has developed in to a syndrome.  Palali syndrome describes various clinical and psychosocial ailments experienced by the Sri Lankan combatants and in the final score how it affects the society at large. Continue reading →

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April 22, 2015 · 3:27 am

Eelam War IV and Issue of Collateral Damage & Civilian Deaths in International Law: Laduwahetty summarizes Desmond De Silva’s ‘Treatise’

Neville Laduwahetty, in The Island, 19 April 2015, where the title is “War crimes: A comment on what experts say” … with illustrations and emphases in the text added by Thuppahi

The comments presented below are in response to an edited and abbreviated version of a legal opinion by Sir Desmond de Silva on “Permissible parameters of collateral damage” carried by The Island of April 10, 2015. The article states: “Currently whether or not an attack that results in civilian deaths is legal under international humanitarian law depends on whether the attack meets the requirements of three principles: (1) Distinction; (2) Military Necessity and (3) Proportionality. A violation of international humanitarian law only occurs if there is an intentional attack directed against civilians, or if an attack is launched on a military objective with knowledge that the incidental civilian injuries would be clearly excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage”.

WAR ZONE- late April ICGThe War Theatre in mid-late April 2009 and Illustration of the Penultimate SLA Operation in Late april 2008 —Map courtesy of International Crisis Group

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April 17, 2015 · 2:30 am

Jayampathy’s Q and A on Supreme Court Decision on 19A

Exclusive interview with Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne, President’s Counsel and member of the Government’s constitution drafting team … courtesy of The Island, 16 April 2015

JAYAMPATHY

In your view, what are the main points of interest in the Supreme Court’s decision on the 19th Amendment Bill? For some time, various views have been expressed regarding the extent to which the executive power of the President can be restricted without having a referendum. Article 3 of the Constitution states that ‘sovereignty is in the people and is inalienable. Sovereignty includes the powers of government, fundamental rights and the franchise.’ Art. 4 (b), which is the provision relevant to us, says that ‘the executive power of the People including the defence of Sri Lanka, shall be exercised by the President of the Republic elected by the People.’ Art. 3 is in the list of provisions that require referendum but not Art. 4. In the Thirteenth Amendment case, a decision of a Full Bench, CJ Sharavananda stated for the majority that Article 3 would be violated only if there is a ‘prejudicial impact’ on the sovereignty of the People. But in 2002, in the earlier 19th Amendment case, the Court presided over by CJ Sarath Silva held that Article 4 must be read with Article 3 and this was interpreted by many to mean that every violation of Article 4 would require a referendum. In the present case, the Court used the phrase, ‘prejudicial impact’ and made it clear that ‘not all violations of Article 4 will necessarily result in a violation of Article 3.’ Continue reading →

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April 15, 2015 · 2:52 am

Where Liberal Fundamentalism opens the Door for Extremism in the Heart of Western Society

jennifer-orielJennifer Oriel, courtesy of  The Australian, 14 April 2015, where title is “Political Correctness shackles the War on Terror” … and where reader comments will be found

Guilty on all charges. When the Boston bombing trial jury handed down their verdict against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev last week, the courtroom was silent. The most important legacy of the trial was not the verdict, but the sombre realisation that the West must jettison political correctness to win the war against terror.

Boston_marathon_bombing_22The Boston bombings constituted a horrific slaughter of innocents and a radical failure of the state to fulfil its primary duty of care to citizens. Counter-terrorism should have stopped the Tsarnaev family at the border, rejecting their plea for political asylum on the advice of Russian authorities. Counter-radicalisation should have stopped the brothers at their mosque, part of a government-funded outreach program. Intelligence agencies should have caught the thugs online after they posted viciously anti-Western tracts. Continue reading →

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