Monday, 2 January 2012, 3:3

 Groundviews <updates@groundviews.org>

Extravagance veiled as National Pride: Brief analysis of Corrupt Public Expenditure in Sri Lanka

By J C Weliamuna

To me, the following deadly realities and features emerge, wherever such large scale corrupt extravagance exists, particularly, where there is virtually state capture:

• Coteries of corrupt political and bureaucratic network create or find an event, assignment or project,  suited for such expenditure.  They have a common element – vested interest in the government, economy or business.

• An identified and trustworthy mastermind plans the expenditure under the guise of “national” or “economic” advantage, with the support from a state propaganda machine. Without exception these groups exploit the ego and megalomania of the political leadership.

• Political leadership, if not directly involved in such operations, will be convinced of two things; firstly, that their names will not be dragged into an unsuccessful operation and secondly, that they will have the comforts of the outcome of such extravagance.

• All avenues of a challenging probing are effectively blocked – from parliamentary level to law enforcement levels – through manipulation of institutions and appointments into key positions.

• In case of a backfire of exposure resulting in street protests or unmanageable criticism, another strong public resources is kept ready to deal with it – that is the military, that is prepared to execute unlawful orders of a political master!

I request the readers to apply these principles carefully to the major areas of extravagance of the Government of Sri Lanka today, be it buying of Bell Helicopters, construction of Cricket stadiums, Hambantota airport, all types of projects ending with the word “Neguma”   or unsuccessful attempt to win Commonwealth Games busting public money. Wayne White, an adjunct scholar with the Washington-based Middle East Institute, cited  the fall of the Gadaphi regime for his extravagance and says he will be remembered for waste, misgovernment and corruption. Should our political leadership be worried? Is there a lesson to learn for the New Year?

Read the article in full here.

Wishes for a peaceful and a happy New Year from the President

By Cyberviews

I probably was one among millions of people in Sri Lanka privileged to receive a SMS from the President, wishing me “a peaceful and a happy New Year”. (A large majority who do not own a cell phone would receive no such wishes from the highest in the land). While many might argue this to be another gimmick of the President to gain popularity at the expense of the exchequer, I was prepared to grant His Excellency, these minor indulgences, since it causes little harm to anyone, and may even give an ego boost to some, to receive a direct wish from the President himself. However I thought if the President had taken the liberty to wish me out of the goodness of his heart, then I felt obliged to return his wishes…. My decision to send this reciprocal message stemmed from the fact that I remember receiving similar messages in 2011, both on Jan 1 and also for the Sinhala & Hindu New Year. But when one looks at the track record of the political administration of the year, what one saw was a trail of mismanagement which brought neither peace nor happiness to many people.

Read article in full here.

The LLRC report and ‘accountability’ in Sri Lanka

By Gibson Bateman

US State Department Spokesman Nuland’s recent statement not only decries the fact that the report is insufficient. She goes on to say that, in addition to fulfilling all of the recommendations in the LLRC report, the Sri Lankan government should deal with the issues (and there are many) that the report did not include.

It is hard imagine that the Rajapaksa regime will comply with this request with alacrity, if it does at all. If other influential governments come out with similar or far more critical responses to the LLRC, it will be interesting to see how the Sri Lanka government will respond. Of course, sovereignty will lie at the heart of their defense, but they will need a more nuanced riposte than that. Rajapaksa’s regime has proven itself to be extremely effective when it comes to consistent, coherent messaging and the manipulation of high-level diplomatic visits in Sri Lanka.

Yet, one would hope that the efficacy of the tactics and strategy that they have used quite well in the past would wane with the publication of this underwhelming report. Nuland’s comments are an encouraging sign. Hopefully, they will be followed by concrete action by Washington and many others, including those Sri Lankans who have already suffered so much and deserve a better, impartial, more detailed account of what actually happened in April and May of 2009.

Read article in full here.

A Petition to President Barack Obama

By Thrishantha Nanayakkara

Jailed Sri Lankan common opposition presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka obtained 40% of the votes in the 2010 presidential election. President Rajapaksa became the only president after JR Jayawardana to enjoy a 2/3 majority if he ever wished to reverse the anti-democratic elements of the 1978 constitution. To our astonishment, he did the opposite. He abrogated the independent judiciary committees under the 17th amendment to the constitution, so that he can appoint judges at his discretion. Under these circumstances, everything President Mahinda Rajapakse does against Sarath Fonseka may be legal. However, a cardinal historical lesson being repeatedly highlighted in the above historical examples of dealing with a defeated leader has been neglected in the nature of these legal maneuvers against Sarath Fonseka… President Rajapaksa further went on to say that “It is immaterial whether you deliver a petition with millions of signatures to President Barack Obama or adopt any other strategies but the final decision rests with me”. He left out one choice – to come and kneel down in front of him and beg for pardon. What if Sarath Fonseka and the public represented by him believe that he should not surrender to unfair terms?

Read the article in full here.

VIOLENCE AND ITS MORAL DILEMMAS: FIDEL ACCORDING TO DAYAN JAYATILLEKA

By Publius

There is, however, a striking incongruence between Dayan’s theorisation of Fidel’s ethics of violence – three key elements of which are the avoidance of the targeting non-combatants, physical torture, and the execution of captives – and the conduct of the Sri Lankan government in the last phases of the war. The entire raft of potential arguments made possible by this incongruence between theory and practice were never fully explored and debated, least of all by those who oppose Dayan as well as the regime. Such arguments include the nexus at the moral core between Fidel’s ethics of violence and the humane values underlying international human rights and humanitarian law, which has been the dominant discursive language of the Sri Lankan regime’s detractors in relation to international criminal accountability. The very possibility of this line of argument demonstrates the folly of supercilious disengagement, although in this respect, it should never be forgotten that eternal vigilance is the price of intellectual engagement with Dayan Jayatilleka.

Read article in full here.

LLRC REPORT: REASON, REFORM, ROADMAP

By Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

Perhaps the single most important contribution of the LLRC Report is its clear and unambiguous identification of the causes of the Sri Lankan conflict and crisis, the resolution of which remains the central challenge before the country. The LLRC has, in short, undertaken a diagnosis and provided a prescription.

“The Commission takes the view that the root cause of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka lies in the failure of successive Governments to address the genuine grievances of the Tamil people. The country may not have been confronted with a violent separatist agenda, if the political consensus at the time of independence had been sustained and if policies had been implemented to build up and strengthen the confidence of the minorities around the system which had gained a reasonable measure of acceptance. A political solution is imperative to address the causes of the conflict…” (p 291, articles 8.150, 8.151)

… Overall, perhaps the most vital contribution of the Report is its potential to re-balance the Sri Lankan policy (and political) discourse, re-constituting a tragically vacated middle ground or centre space. Indeed, the LLRC report is that rarity: a welcome example of an enlightened Middle Path, at a time of strident affirmations of dogmatic fundamental positions.

Read the article in full here.

Reconciliation – What is the Big Deal?

By Thrishantha Nanayakkara

It seems to me that a major need of the reconciliation process is to more accurately understand the differences of aspirations between the groups who contributed to the conflict that can not co-exist in a centralized administrative structure. The mere fact that LTTE was a terrorist outfit does not rule out the possibility that Tamils who sympathized LTTE at least in its early stages of development (ex. formation of Ealam Revolutionary Organization of Students (EROS)) do not have reasonable aspirations different from the South that is best realized in a devolved administrative structure. The mere fact that Sinhalese in the South feel insecure about power devolution amidst a separatist movement on the move does not mean that they are not willing to settle for a viable political solution either. It is equally wrong to take only one cross section of the society to arrive at conclusions. For instance, it is wrong to take a Tamil or Sinhalese farmer who spends a simple life-style to argue that there is no gulf of aspirations between people in the North and the South. It maybe also be true that a businessman is only interested in the bottom line (profit or loss figure) than his/her cultural identity, opportunity to obtain a local university education, or to enjoy rule of law. Therefore, it may well be that this whole problem is limited to middle and upper middle class communities. I am not sure if LLRC or other efforts towards reconciliation addressed this dimension of people’s aspirations deeply enough, partly due to their inherent limitations of mandates.

Read the article in full here.

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