B.Raman On Modi

Assertion Of Youth Power In Support Of Narendra Modi

B. Raman was our regular columnist since the Sri Lanka Guardian started. He was passed away in Chennai on 16 June 2013 after a prolonged battle with cancer. Here is republication of an article written by him in April 14, 2011 about Narendra Modi. Raman was an IPS officer of the 1961 batch who served for a time in the Madhya Pradesh cadre before deputation to the Intelligence Bureau in New Delhi. There, he was soon noticed by India’s legendary spymaster, R.N. Kao, who took him to the Research and Analysis Wing when it was formed in 1968. From very early on in his career, Raman displayed an unwavering commitment to his work. This, along with his vast knowledge and the ability to recall details of events even after the passage of decades (he could, in fact, tell you the contents of notes recorded by him many years ago) made him a near ideal intelligence officer These rare qualities prompted Kao and many of his successors to entrust Raman with some of the very sensitive tasks that the R&AW undertook. Raman was a bachelor. He lived alone since 1963 with a domestic assistant, except for a few years spent taking care of his aged mother, Alamelu Ammal.- Edts.

| by B.RAMAN

( May 31, 2014, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The storm in the tea cup raised by some so-called secular elements over the praise by Anna Hazare, the social activist, of the rural development achievements of Shri Narendra Modi, their whipping-boy, in his State of Gujarat underlines once again the determination of these elements to keep Modi quarantined in his past and not to take cognizance of his achievements in ushering in an era of prosperity and development in Gujarat. All sections of the population of the State---whatever be their religion or language--- have benefited from the efficient, corruption-free and people-friendly administration given by him to the State for the last three or four years.

The results achieved by him comparable to the results achieved in Western China---but not yet in coastal China--- demonstrate that we can catch up with China earlier than anticipated if only we had leaders with the kind of motivation, determination and vision that Modi has shown in developing his State.

Unfortunately, the so-called secular elements would rather keep Gujarat and the rest of the country backward and lagging behind China than acknowledge the record of Modi and let his Gujarat model of development become an Indian model.

The so-called secular elements that have taken up sword against Modi have only one objective---- keep him quarantined in his past and stop him from playing any role at the national level even if such a role would be of benefit to the country. The venom and hatred, which these elements keep spreading against him, are because of his strong Hindutva ideology, which is anathema to them, and his perceived sins of commission and omission during the horrendous acts of violence against our Muslim co-citizens in the aftermath of the massacre of a number of Hindu pilgrims by some Muslims at the Godhra railway station in Gujarat in the beginning of 2002.

There has been a perception---not unjustified---that Modi did not, in the initial stages, deal with the explosive situation vigorously in order to protect the members of the Muslim community from brutal and beastly reprisal attacks by the Hindus. The fact that the Police subsequently took vigorous action to protect the Muslims ---as evidenced by the large number of Hindus killed in police-firing--- would not mitigate from the fact that in the initial hours after the news of the Godhra massacre spread across the State, the administration dragged its feet in protecting the Muslims, thereby wittingly or unwittingly giving a free run to frenzied Hindu mobs. It was a horrible episode of which all of us have to be ashamed.

After the frenzy of the initial hours, the State Administration did move in vigorously to bring the situation under control. The fact that no effective action was taken in the initial hours has left a scar in the minds and hearts of Muslims. This scar is likely to take a long time to heal. The cases registered in connection with the brutal attacks on the Muslim community are under investigation or prosecution. The investigation made so far has not produced any evidence of complicity by Modi.

Under these circumstances, the right thing would have been to let the law take its own course in the cases registered and proposed to be registered and let Modi continue on the path of development of the State and not stand in the way of the aspirations of people, who want to see him play a much a larger political role at the national level so that the country as a whole benefits from the kind of efficient administration he has given Gujarat.

Modi enjoys the unqualified support of large sections of the Gujarat population and is increasingly admired for his drive and administrative acumen in other parts of the country too by people who can by no means be called Hindutva ideologues. People, who look up to him and want him to increasingly play a pan-Indian role, are nationalists and as much secular in their outlook and beliefs as the so-called secularists whose main preoccupation has become stopping Modi at every stage. They are concerned over the slow rate of development, over the aggravating internal security situation and over India lagging behind China. They feel that the type of governance and leadership that Modi has provided to the people of Gujarat needs to be tried out in other parts of India too, but these so-called secular elements are not prepared to let Modi play his due role for the development of the country.

The unexpected success of the Anna Hazare movement in the initial stages of the battle against corruption was made possible by the assertion of youth power in support of his movement. There is a need for a similar assertion of youth power in support of the development model as experimented with in Gujarat by Modi and for its spread to other parts of India. The Stop Modi Movement by these elements has to be stopped and rolled back. Only youth power can do it. ( 15-4-11)

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Virtual LTTE Resurrection Is Vital For Govt.To Remain In Power .

| by Pearl Thevanayagam

(May 31, 2014, Bradford UK, Sri Lanka Guardian) UK media is outraged that the government would only publish the details of the gist of talks between Blair and Bush before Iraq invasion and not transcripts and full notes of conversations although Chilcot inquiry is in possession of these.

David Cameron’s government is going along with this charade since if the invasion of Iraq was proven to be a grave injustice UK could be hauled up for war crimes.

These two democracies preach human rights to third world nations but their own actions belie the very concept of democracy it touts. UK makes use of the 30 year ban under Official Secrets Act to whitewash its actions. It is against the law to even ask a colleague what his/her salary is.

It is not as though UK lies but it keeps mum on sensitive information. The silence on Iraq invasion at the behest of US amounts to not just lying but gross violation of the rights of Iraqi people who are still reeling from the mayhem caused by two super-powers who took it upon themselves the mantle as defenders of human rights. Whichever government is in power British stiff upper-lip believes what Britain does in the name of national security should be kept private and should not come out in the open.Its strategy worked when it was the colonial power but not any longer. Nations, particularly third world nations, are not taking its arrogance lying down.

Which brings us closer home to the actions of the government on resurrecting the LTTE to retain its hold on the North and East and justify its militarising these zones. Jesus, a refugee, who was crucified on the cross and left to die in front of witnesses, resurrected himself on the third day and even his disciples showed disbelief. LTTE leader Pirabkaran was killed along with his many cadres and tens of thousands of civilians by government security forces and their bodies exhibited to prove their annihilation and thus an end to the rebel outfit.

But unlike Jesus, Pirabakaran is not coming back in life form nor are those who perished in Mullivaikkal.

Unearthing buried cache of LTTE weapons, arresting innocent youth who may or may not have links with the remnants of the LTTE is akin to US style of maintaining Al Quaeda is lurking round the corner despite the assassination of Osama Bin Laden.

US needs the Bin Ladens and Saddam Husseins to justify its invasions into countries which have oil supplies and minerals to protect its own economic interests and to hell with the rights of those citizens. Wherever US set foot in the name of peace it left destruction and human miseries. Its actions are reverberating in that those affected by the wars instigated by the US are converging on US and European shores seeking asylum.

There is no doubt the LTTE left behind its arms and ammunition plundered from the military but just because they were found in private properties does not prove the occupants are resurrecting the LTTE.

Leaders need fresh impetus to sustain their power. The propaganda machinery of the government is aided and abetted by scare-mongers such as sycophant Tamil websites, the editors of which are handsomely rewarded who plug in fabricated details and who have an axe to grind lend flimsy evidence the LTTE are re-grouping. It is ironic these website editors are spongers on western governments while bartering their own kith and kin to the Sri Lankan government to feed their debauchery and idle lifestyle.

Their revelations are going viral with India and Malaysia while the hard-core LTTE arms procurer Kumar Pathmanathan aka KP is kept in relative luxury and comfort by the government. The three hapless Sri Lankan Tamils would certainly have claimed they were either targeted by the government as LTTE activists or pursued by the now defunct LTTE for defecting.

The recent upsurge in cordon and search operations in the North East terrorising civilians, the continuous presence of the armed forces, the appointment of military hierarchy as governors and emissaries, procuring lands of Tamils and fortifying military cantonments proves the government is bent on embarking on a genocidal mission.

Victory parades are celebrated with the exhibition of war machinery for all and sundry to see and it is quite contradictory to the government’s declaration the war is over. It is also flouting war paraphernalia in Mullivaikkal to promote war tourism not unlike Auschwitz camp where Jews were tortured and gassed by Hitler’s Nazis which is now attracting tourists.

Propagandising LTTE resurgence could become a reality if the government carries on its vile campaign.

(The writer has been a journalist for 25 years and worked in national newspapers as sub-editor, news reporter and news editor. She was Colombo Correspondent for Times of India and has contributed to Wall Street Journal where she was on work experience from The Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley, California. Currently residing in UK she is also co-founder of EJN (Exiled Journalists Network) UK in 2005 the membership of which is 200 from 40 countries. She can be reached at pearltheva@hotmail.com)

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The Obama Doctrine

Up Yours!

| by John Stanton
Our Defense Correspondent 

( May 31, 2014, Virginia, Sri Lanka Guardian ) The Howard P. “Buck” McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2015 (Defense Authorization Act) should be renamed the Howard P. “Buck” McKeon Global Manifest Destiny Act of FY2015. The Defense Authorization Act reads like something that the Biffer-Baum Birds in Dr. Seuss’ Sleep Book might have written. And the image that most accurately depicts the collective efforts of President Obama, the Pentagon and the US Congress in the design of American national security strategy is Dr. Seuss’ illustration of the Biffer-Baum Birds constructing their nest out of bricks and threads: a precarious construction indeed.

The Defense Authorization Act, and the President’s recent speech to West Point Cadets, provides unshakeable evidence that the political-military-corporate leadership learned no lessons from one unnecessarily prolonged war (Afghanistan) and one needless conflict (Iraq). The millions displaced in Iraq and Afghanistan spilling into neighboring countries like Lebanon and Pakistan; the thousands of Americans and civilians killed, wounded or collateralized (with families left adrift); the creation of failed states in Syria and Libya, and the scam that is the “promise to American combat veterans” to take care of them upon return to an increasingly dilapidated homeland are all mere lint to be brushed off the shoulders of America’s elite.

Schemers

In the midst of horrific treatment of former US military personnel at the hands of the Veterans Administration and assorted military programs--and the fact that America’s political and military leaders never prepared its warfighters or its citizens for over a decade of war in Iraq, Afghanistan and “on terror”—this statement from the US Congress is totally hollow. “The committee remains committed to providing America’s warfighters, veterans, and their families with the care and support they need, deserve, and have earned. This bill would authorize an extension of a wide array of bonuses, special and incentive pays for the Nation’s men and women in uniform.”

Heath Ledger’s Joker in the Dark Knight was right about “authority.” Buck McKeon and his ilk “are all schemers.”

The President and his handlers seek to do it all over again this time against Russia and China through the Asia Pivot. There is some sort of weird neoconservative, neoliberal monster that now seems to exist in the form of President Obama (who is this guy, really?). And that means it’s “in your face” foreign and domestic policy. American activity in Ukraine serves as the best example of this “up yours” Obama Doctrine.

Up Yours! = Obama Doctrine

The Obama Doctrine narrative goes something like this: “Yeah, so we are going to brazenly assist in the overthrow of Ukraine’s elected-though controversial president--with help from Brown Shirt fascist groups and the CIA and assorted NGO’s. Our senior US State Department officials and senators are going to openly serve tea and crumpets to coup supporters in Maiden Square in Kiev. Once we have succeeded in toppling the elected government (nullifying the prior votes in Eastern Ukraine) we will then rob you of your Black Sea port of naval operations. Next we are going to send our vice president and CIA director to provide legitimacy to our marionettes in Kiev. After that we are going to have US military advisors/contractors assist in designing operations to destroy insurgent uprisings in Eastern Ukraine that oppose Kiev’s will. As this US government backed coup is a military operation, military information support operations (MISO) will be required and that means shaping opinion in the USA and Ukraine and the EU, which, in turn means propaganda to legitimize the coup. Yeah, you will try to get your propaganda out but it will not matter. Anyway we will trot out the Hitler ghosts for our purposes and will we get our legacy media outlets like the Washington Post and New York Times to vilify Russia (China too). And do you know what? There is nothing you can do about it. Oh, and for good measure we are going to ensure that member of the world’s richest club ascends to the presidency of the new Ukraine amidst a rigged election. And we are going to do the same thing in other countries. Up yours, man.”

Forget tribal, realist, idealist, neoconservative and neoliberal theories of international relations. The world is in the midst of some sort of emergent Gang Theory of international relations in which there is no Concert of Nations, or United Nations, but a Gang of Cultures. The USA’s culture of violence has made it ideally suited for such a world.

Coup’s for All!

The USA has given the green light to the coups in Ukraine, Thailand and Egypt. In doing so it has remained historically consistent in its debasement of representative democracy, hiding the real agenda. There was a time when the US government, in collaboration with the mainstream media, could control the flow of information about such coups comparing them to the glorious American Revolution. The Internet and World Wide Web has changed the dynamic. America’s leaders have exhausted their supply of credibility. The world has learned from Assange/Wikileaks; Edward Snowden/Glenn Greenwald; and NSA/CIA whistleblowers like John Kiriakou that the grand brains running America into the ground do so for money, power and market-share--nothing more. The ruthlessness of their buy-sell ideology is plain sight.

For example, note the similarity of the mercenary verbiage of Reuters and the Defense Authorization Act’s authors in the US Congress. The 21st Century version of Idi Amin, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, grabbed the presidency there recently. Al-Sisi led the military coup that toppled the former president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi. The turnout for Morsi was 52 percent, for al-Sisi 46 percent.

Reuters: “One of Sisi's biggest tests will be the politically-sensitive issue of energy subsidies which drain billions of dollars from the state budget every year. Businessmen have urged Sisi to raise energy prices even though that may trigger protests, or risk sinking the economy. Investors want Sisi to end energy subsidies, impose a clear tax regime and give guidance on the direction of the exchange rate.”

US Congress Defense Authorization Act: “This bill would also recognize the President’s determination that the Arab Republic of Egypt is progressing in its democratic transition and supports the President’s decision to deliver 10 Apache helicopters to Egypt for counterterrorism operations.”

In short, pillage Egypt’s middle and lower classes and use the money extracted from them to bow before investors and buy weapons ostensibly for counterterrorism. In fact, when the riots over rising food and energy prices take place in Egypt, or Ukraine or Thailand, those US Apache helicopters—and other American made military/law enforcement equipment-- will be used to drive women, children and other protestors from the streets.

Will the day arrive in the USA when local and state law enforcement is absorbed completely by the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security? Will officers of the National Police Department have licenses to kill?

Perhaps Ukraine is a window to the future of the USA’s Republic—maybe even Thailand or Egypt.

Secret Weapon for Asia Pivot: Diplomatic Functions to the US Military

How did the Human Terrain System (HTS) emerge as one of Obama’s secret weapons for the Asia Pivot? Apparently Secretary of the Army John McHugh is a proponent of the program. According to the Defense Authorization Act, PACOM gets the privilege of a Pilot Program for the Human Terrain System. “This section would require the Secretary of the Army to conduct a pilot program to utilize Human Terrain System assets in the U.S. Pacific Command area of responsibility to support Phase 0 shaping operations and to support the theater security cooperation plans of the geographic combatant commander."

Phase Zero Shaping, according to the Center for Global Development, can be seen as part of the Pentagon’s absorption of US diplomatic functions normally undertaken by the US State Department. The resources and latitude that the Pentagon provides to its Geographic Combatant Commanders is very broad. “The danger in this scheme is that it puts the Pentagon in the driver's seat and threatens to militarize U.S. engagement… Interagency coordination is one thing, but assigning leadership for this integration to the Pentagon is a risky proposition… What the Pentagon is calling ‘Phase Zero’ sounds suspiciously like what some of us still quaintly refer to as ‘diplomacy’ and ‘development assistance.’ Given the Pentagon's massive resources compared to civilian agencies, any ‘shaping’ activities that emerge…are likely to reflect U.S. military priorities and give short shrift to broader political and developmental considerations. After all, DOD's primary concern in weak and failing states is to build the capacity of local security forces. Whether those forces are under effective and accountable civilian control is a secondary concern,” said the Center for Global Development.

The ultimate “Up Yours” just might be saddling PACOM with the US Army’s HTS.

At any rate, the Defense Authorization Act--buttressed by Obama’s recent West Point speech--has put the world on notice that “The Yanks are coming for your markets and your land!” That, of course, means more coups and, with the US national fear factor dropping, perhaps a false flag operation or two.

Starship Troopers: Kill the Bug!

The movie Starship Troopers depicts galactic traveling insects fighting against humans for domination of the vast void of space. But one need not go to the movies to understand what a clear and present danger bugs or “invasive species” are to the US Homeland and the US military. The Defense Authorization Act recognizes this. “The committee notes that in the fall of 2013, the coconut rhinoceros beetle, an invasive species to the Hawaiian Islands and Guam, was discovered on the island of Oahu and has been found on Guam since 2007. While it is unknown how the species came to Hawaii or Guam, the committee is aware that a coconut rhinoceros beetle population was identified on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, which is in close proximity to Honolulu International Airport. Since discovering the existence of this invasive species on Hawaii, the committee notes that the Department of Agriculture has been leading the effort, jointly with the Department of Defense and appropriate State agencies, to eliminate breeding sites, and monitor and control the spread of the coconut rhinoceros beetle on the island of Oahu.”

According to the US Navy’s Shipboard Pest Management Manual, the German cockroach is the most common insect on US Navy surface vessels and submarines. They infest kitchen areas and lurk in the dark negatively impacting the morale of the sailors. There are scores of insects, like the Dermestid Beetle, that make their homes on US Navy vessels. Just a subtle reminder from the Earth that the most advanced American technology/weaponry literally has bugs living and breeding in and on it.

So what’s the point with “invasive species”? Post-911 hysteria led to a paper in the US Army magazine Parameters discussing the use of insects by terrorists to disrupt/damage daily life in the USA. In that paper (Invasive Threats to the American Homeland by Robert Pratt), prefaced by a quote from President George W. Bush, we learn that “A 1999 study by Cornell University estimated that approximately 50,000 foreign species have invaded the United States since the 1700s, and the number in the last 30 years has increased at an alarming rate.”

It is one thing to invest and engage in “pest management” but a war on terrorists and their bugs?”

Such is the warped mentality of American culture reflected in the authors of the Defense Authorization Act and, sadly, President Obama.

John Stanton is a Virginia based writer. Reach him at captainkong22@gmail.com

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Caste System & Governance

| by Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

( May 31, 2014, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) There have been feedbacks from various angles regarding the election of the Hon Narendra Modi to be India’s leader. The best one for me was that Swami Sathya Sai Baba had referred to Mr. Modi in 2004 as ‘future Prime Minister’.

Indian politicians have openly demonstrated that to them Swami Sai Baba is Divine and is respected above the highest political position in India. When we are therefore talking of structures – any structure under the leadership of Swami Sathya Sai Baba will merge with any good Indian structure to facilitate India’s merger with wider world – as Sathya Sai Organizations confirm. They quietly empower the Governments of the respective lands of their residence. That’s a lesson from which any Diaspora group could learn.

We are all born into one ‘system’ or the other. Initially they are our home-systems. Once we pay our dues to those home-systems we become independent of them. When we contribute more than we draw – we become owners. Thus a child becomes the parent many years later. By paying our dues – we become equal to the person holding the highest position in that structure. From then on it would not matter which individual makes the decision on behalf of the whole. Devolution of Powers facilitates us to not ‘takeover’ power from parents once we are allocated higher status than our parents by wider society. It is for this reason that in Thesawalamai – the Customary Law of Jaffna Tamils – sons are encouraged to be providers and daughters are encouraged to be beneficiaries. The parallel of that in terms of work based classification was Vellalar (Farmers) as providers and Pariahs(toilet-cleaners) as beneficiaries. So long as the dowry system is practiced by Jaffna Tamils along the above lines – Thesawalamai order within family structures and systems needs to prevail for justice to prevail. That way we are blessed by those who sacrificed immediate enjoyment of benefits to develop a system that would regulate our minds and therefore the social order. It is not different to the Judge being above the person being judged – including to be rewarded through the legal system. When we bow to the Judge we bow to the whole system – recognizing the unseen forces that gave us the current structure. They are there as our motivating Energy.

Some of us are ‘system’ developers whilst others seek to remain as beneficiaries. Those who live off past credits are of the latter category. This is fine – so long as they do not take up position above the system developers and providers.

Mr. Sebastian Rasalingam asks through his Sri Lanka Guardian article ‘Narendra Modi kicks out the Kshatriyas and Brahamins - Will the Vanni Vellalars be next?’

So long as Farmers as a group are considered to be of high status in Jaffna society they would continue to dominate governance in Northern Sri Lanka – one way or the other. The current challenges in relation to Land rights for example are closely linked to farming and hence Vanni area. LTTE knew about this power intuitively but failed to pay their dues to our ancestors from whom we inherited this hierarchy. Hence they did not rise high enough to include the whole community. Mr. Rasalingam presents his discovery in this regard as follows:

[The caste grip of the landed upper-caste Tamils (living in Karuvakkaddu – Cinnamon gardens) over the “lower caste” Tamils ensured that the same families continued to come to power in “elections”. They mounted anti-Sinhala Tamil nationalism against the Donoughmore reforms. After independence, they pushed separatism to counter the Sinhala-language act . The boiling point of this madness was the Vaddukkodai resolution to do battle against a majority ten times bigger than them.]

To me as an insider, the Vaddukoddai Resolution was not madness. It was confirmation of the existence of the Tamil Diaspora back then itself. The power of the Malaysian and Singapore dollars prevailed even then in Jaffna. These pensioners came back home to Jaffna-Vaddukoddai because they missed the feeling of family and community in Malaysia and Singapore. Other Tamils stayed on and developed the local Tamil communities in these countries – merging with Indian Tamils in those countries. The timing of the Vaddukoddai Resolution was politically perfect – confirming the Equal status of Tamils as a political group – through their position as Equal Opposition in Parliament.

Truth has a way of manifesting Itself when there are enough seekers. It’s the driving power of any system/individual. Senior Tamil politicians who endured pain rather than resort to violence were rewarded through the above non-violent political outcome. The system of Truth – manifested this outcome due to the path cleared by the Sinhalese who lost confidence in Mrs. Bandaranayake’s government. Majority Tamils living in Colombo (including those living in Colombo 7 - Cinnamon Gardens ) and other multicultural areas worked and lived under common operational systems as per their local areas. Every Tamil who felt at home in a Sinhalese dominated area contributed to the Tamil Community achieving this outcome through majority race. Once we believe – we are comfortable with any position in that system. Our own contribution would be as per the highest standards of our position – due to our belief which brings us the supporting empowerment of all those who contributed to those positions – beyond their personal interests. If there are enough of us to do so even now, Tamils will be a self-governing force in Sri Lanka. Those who developed this belief in multicultural areas would naturally empower other cultures also – including Sinhalese of that common area / system. Once we believe there is no form difference to our beneficiaries.

The blocks to this would come externally from Sinhalese leaders who are ‘beneficiaries’ of their separated positions as well as Tamil youth who have very little respect for their elders and their contributions to our cultural and administrative systems. They are the parallels of children who take-over power from their parents rather than merge with their parents’ system. Mr. Rasalingam confirms his version of this as follows:

[The Sinhalese extremist answer was the 1983 pogrom, supported by J.R. Jayawardene and tacitly also by Prabhakaran who wanted a final break in the “co-habitation” of Colombo Tamils with the Sinhalese. The militant “boys” assassinated the Vellalar leaders, hijacked Tamil nationalism and spawned a terrorist movement against the brutality of the State. This was in turn hijacked by the Vellalar leaders who controlled the diaspora and the dollars. They talked to Western governments and ran the NGOs.]

The caste system served Jaffna Tamils well at a time when son inherited father’s investment in work – including work-ethics and daughter from mother. Where our work cannot be pooled in common and then shared equally or freely as per each one’s natural skills, we need either separation or hierarchy so that one does not damage the work of another. Hence the work of women was separated from the work of men- so both could be seen in special areas. Likewise the work of farmer from the work of toilet-cleaner. In terms of gender separation – usually the older ones are providers and the younger ones are beneficiaries within their respective common groups. Likewise within the respective professions. In the common system – the judge is higher than the security officer of the court as per their hierarchy. The judicial system is higher in the national hierarchy than the welfare system or the business system. Likewise, farmers are higher as a group than toilet-cleaners in social structures. Work is represented by the outcomes produced and the hierarchical structures represent the Sacrifices made to raise ourselves to the higher level. So long as a structure satisfies this basic rule – it would function effectively to support its investors.

In the olden days when children inherited from parents – they inherited also the genes relating to their professions. Their family faith helped them work their profession and v.v.. Australian businessman James Packer for example inherited his father’s gambling genes and thus demoted himself by investing in casinos rather than global media. That is like a Vellalan inheriting the toilet-cleaning hobby of the father to develop a toilet-cleaning business and losing the empowerment from his ancestors.

The path of Truth is the most reliable system of all for any person. But so long as we are within an official system – we need to express our Truth through the structures of that system. Otherwise we need to step out of that official system and speak as individuals – as Lord Muruga – the Lord of Democracy did when He sat on the Hill of Palani after renouncing His share of parental wealth. That system develops automatically – even though we may not be conscious of it. The way that system develops is recognized through the operation of our own brain in relation to information. If we just register hearsay – all we are capable of is finding majority outcome through simple addition. To think deeper we need to see only the top – as one picture but are conscious of others supporting that top. Sacrificing earned benefits leads to such consciousness. The driving force to so arrange and find commonness through One form – is our true investment – in Truth personal to us – and/or through a common system. To that extent we are empowered to influence and to produce. At that stage where we contribute more than our dues, we raise our investment to Energy level and we lose consciousness even of the top and become the whole that we do not see but are a part of. That is the way of the Natural system.

During one of the public events in our Thunaivi village in the district of Vaddukoddai, a Tamil close to Central Government – said that like Murugan we were on the streets in our underwear. He meant it as a reduction in status. To me that was confirmation of Independent status as per Lord Muruga’s path. I had that ‘insight’ due to my genuine faith in Muruga. Tamil minorities led by Hindus will naturally tend towards self-governance. Once we completely separate from the physical structure – we are no longer representation of minority who earned Equal status as the parents. The two – minority status and the whole cannot be separated. Hence we lose this empowerment once we lose the value of minority pain to become majority by shrinking our area of governance.

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Pakistan: Farzana Parveen Stoned to Death - But Why?

| by Mahboob A. Khawaja

( May 31, 2014, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Farzana Parveen just 25 years old was born alone and died alone. The autopsy will show she did not die by natural causes but was stoned to death. She did not commit any crime except the dislike of her own parents and family members to marry Mohammad Iqbal. They viewed it a matter of honor to conspire to kill Farzana. The spectacular scene portrayed on the global news media showed hundreds of spectators witnessing the most horrifying crime to human nature, not in darkness but in broad daylight right where freedom, human dignity, and honor of the citizens should have been protected - The Lahore High Court compound and police in attendance. Farzana’s soul must be wondering, why did the society not protect her against this shameful act of extreme violence? Where are the concerned citizens who claim to be believers- the Muslims and day and night talk about Islam as being the faith and value of the society? The truth is Farzana is not the first victim of such a horrible tragedy.

Every day countless Farazans become object of the powerful monsters of this beleaguered and mindless trend of the society. There is no Islam and no believing Muslims, as Farzana was being stoned to death, nobody came to rescue her. Her husband Mohammad Iqbal begged the spectators to save his wife but none of them offered to help save Farzana from the stoning. Is the Pakistan society fast becoming a morally corrupt - moral and dead-ended nation? Iqbal disclosed that “police did nothing during the 15 minutes the violence lasted at the Lahore High Court. “I begged them to help us but they said, this is not our duty,' he said. “I took off my shirt (to be humble) and begged them to save her.” Jill Reilly and Mia De Graaf reported in the Daily Mail, UK, that “The 25-year-old had offended her family by marrying Iqbal instead of a cousin selected for her. Honour killings are common in Pakistan, but the brutality of this case caused outrage around the world. Police said her father, two brothers and a former fiance were among the attackers. Muhammad Aurangzeb, Farzana's 20-year-old stepson, described how one relative had tried to shoot her, then grabbed her head scarf, causing her to fall over. While a member of Iqbal's party wrestled the gun away, a female cousin grabbed a brick and hit Farzana with it, he said.

'She was screaming and crying 'don't kill me, we will give you money',' said Iqbal. He said he tried to save her but the mob of more than 20 beat him back. At one point, six people were beating her with bricks as she screamed, he said, and he and his stepson begged police to help. Finally she stopped screaming.’

If the face of a human being is the mirror of the character, surely, Farzana appears to be a decent, pious and respectable young lady. She was legally married to Mohammad Iqbal and reportedly pregnant since three months. None of her characteristic deserves this inhuman and sadistic atrocity by so many people watching the vengeful drama of the few.

After the fact, women and men of conscience across the nation and globe have expressed indignation and protest against such a vicious cruelty carried out at the premise of the place where law and justice should have been fully guarded. Not so, this is Pakistan, an emerging nation of indifference perpetuating individualistic interest and choices to survive in complete disregard to the terrible consequences in-waiting for the future. Many observers point out a pattern of deafening sense of insecurity to public life and often ignored by the politicians.

Just last year in Kohistan tribal area of Pakistan, four young women were ordered by a tribal elder decree to be killed because they sang and watched as two men danced in a wedding party. The official investigating report never came to public attention as to why they were murdered? The official debated the question as how to conduct investigation in a region overwhelmingly without official presence or no formal law and order in the governance. But Lahore is not a remote village in Kaghan Valley but an ancient city of several million people – a gateway to Asia - and would claim to be civilized and honorable in matters of moral conscience and human values. It was no tribal Kohistan to underscore the official incompetence to investigate an inhuman atrocity. At a time after winning the freedom from British colonial subjugation, common folks used to dream of Islamic glory, human values and triumph for progressive social harmony and peace across the new free nation. It appears that the dream was shattered and misplaced by so many martial laws and criminal rulers, the nation feels terrible sense helplessness as if nothing could rescue them from the continued cruelty of the few and wide spread moral and political viciousness. It seems more and more as if Pakistan under corrupt and morally decadent leadership is replicating the history of Romans. Colin Wilson (A Criminal History of Mankind, 1984), explains how the Roman Empire declined once its sadistic and egomaniac leaders full of the sensation of power behaved like children, the Roman civilization collapsed into chaos, ruins and dark ages:

“The Romans were slipping into violence by a process of self-justification, and once a nation or an individual has started down this particular slope, it is impossible to apply breaks the Roman people were too unimaginative and short sighted to realize that, once murder has been justified on grounds of expediency, it can become a habit, then a disease.”

Pakistani nation claims faith in God as the core value of its nationhood but the real world affairs depict a different emerging picture. Last September, a church was burnt down by reportedly the Taliban mob in Peshawar – a place to worship God and killing 85 or so innocent citizens of the minority Christian community. The insane killers forgot that God is God of all the human beings, not just of the Muslims and God loves all of His creations. Those who violate the sanctity of the Laws of God must be held accountable and punished. Few weeks earlier, 10 international hiker tourists were kidnapped and murdered in the K-2 mountainous region. Did anyone investigate and caught the perpetrators of such inhuman crime against the foreign tourists? Does it not discourage the prospective tourists to visit Pakistan in future? In short and long terms, this loss of national image and human values is irreversible. Again in late 2013, Muslims of Shia minority were repeatedly bombed in Quetta. The mourners kept the burial of the dead bodies on display for days as a token of protest and asking the military to safeguard their lives from in-house terrorism. It was clear that the citizens of the country were left unprotected from the gangsters and criminal elements of the society. None of these development foster rational sense of a valued-oriented Pakistani society except indignation, stagnation and insanity. The global image of Pakistan and its political governance is under scrutiny and being undermined. The scope of sadistic cruelty and viciousness is enlarged every day as every day becomes a killing day of the innocent. Are there any responsible people in the political governance who should be held accountable for the security of the nation? For a decade, Pakistan has endured senseless killings of the civilian population. Do the Muslim people of Pakistan have any collective consciousness intact to realize that killing of one innocent person is equal to the killing of the whole of the mankind? For what reason are these killings carried out and tolerated by the rulers? Is Pakistan governed by politicians with no consciousness of the global reactions to their incompetence, foolishness and self-defeating criminal practices? For more than a decade, Pakistan is engulfed with a culture of deadly events, under corrupt and gangster dominated politics, society is embracing kidnapping, threats of violence, deaths of civilians, destruction of the habitat and lost sense of public security, diminishing trades and commerce, businesses, authoritarian trends in governance and sharp indifference to the sacred values of tolerance, respect for varied ethnic diversity and co-existence in One Nation framework. There is no political, moral or religious justification for the on-going killings. These appear to be inhuman and desperate acts of psychopaths and cruel minds that plan to undermine the interests and the present and the future of the nation.

The mob thought that they could annihilate Farzana Perveen for ever but they failed miserably as they just killed her body not the soul. Today, there are thousands and millions of rising voice of reason asking for justice and protection to the rights of women in Pakistan and throughout the world. Why should women be targeted anywhere on the planet for acid attacks, strangulation and draconian stone to death eventuality? If Farzana was alive, she would have asked - why am I stoned to death? What have I done wrong to deserve this terrible cruelty? Would any of the investigating reports answer her question? The prevalent culture of political corruption and mismanagement knows no sense of rationality to respond to public fear of the unknown and prolonged hatred of the crime riddled politicians.

The nation continues to be governed by uneducated, indicted criminals and insane people who have no sense of time, intellect and history. Pakistan is fast drowning in its own dreadful act of indifference, faltering security and sickening history of killings its own people. You need intelligent and morally and intellectually capable leaders, not Bhuttos, not Zardaris, not Sharifs but educated people of the new generation with an inward eye not to politicking but to safeguard the rights, freedom and security of the citizens and to transform the sadistic present into a promising future for all. To change and reform the political governance, Pakistani nation must think critically and see the mirror for the past misconceptions and errors of judgment and to pursue political activism to bring the new-age educated and intelligent people into political leadership role who could think right, share new visions and plan and implement new and creative ideas for political change to safeguard the national interest, freedom of the nation and its future. The rulers hold the absolute power in Pakistan. There is no democracy, no political accountability and no law and order normalcy and safety of the ordinary citizens. Do the politicians need a high power jolt to change the course of history-making for the people of Pakistan? If so, such a powerful jolt could come from the determination and resolve of the will of the people to ensure protection of the rights of all the citizens of the nation, their freedom and honor and human dignity. The voices of REASON must be heard loud and clear.

(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: Global Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking. Lambert Publishing Germany, May 2012).

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The Danger Is Intervention, Not “Isolation”

| by Sheldon Richman

( May 31, 2014, New York City, Sri Lanka Guardian ) A lot of people are warning against America turning “isolationist.” We can dismiss the warnings—special pleadings, really—emanating from other countries, where people have free-ridden on American taxpayers for decades. If Europeans are worried about defending themselves, why are they cutting their military budgets? Not that we should mind if they do, but they should not look to us to pick up any slack.

President Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel are the latest to express concern that the American appetite for managing foreign conflicts is waning. In his West Point speech, Obama said the military is the “backbone” of American leadership, even as he claimed that force is not the first answer to every problem. And Hagel recently told some foreign-policy wonks in Chicago that it would be “a mistake to view our global responsibilities as a burden or charity.” How would he propose that we taxpayers view them? As a privilege?

Hagel said that withdrawing from the world would have a high cost. Has he checked lately on what military and political engagement is costing the taxpayers? The full cost of the military alone is over a trillion dollars a year. The U.S. government spends more on this than most of the rest of the world combined.

Hagel also said, “Turning inward, history teaches us, does not insulate us from the world’s troubles. It only forces us to be more engaged later—at a higher cost, at a higher cost in blood and treasure, and often on the terms of others.”

Hagel is wrong about history. When have American politicians ever disengaged from the world? The entire Western hemisphere was seen as America’s concern by its rulers. The refusal to join the League of Nations after World War I was more an assertion of unilateralism over encumbering multilateralism than a rejection of engagement.

And surely Hagel can’t be referring to the period before the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, because he must know that Franklin Delano Roosevelt did everything in his power to maneuver Germany or Japan, as Secretary of War Henry Stimson famously put it, into “firing the first shot.”

Many people think the al-Qaeda attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, resulted from disengagement, but that conflicts with the facts. Osama bin Laden said al-Qaeda was striking out against decades of brutal U.S. intervention, direct and indirect, in Iraq, Palestine, and elsewhere in the Arab Muslim world.

Those high costs in blood and treasure were the consequences of intervention, not “isolationism.” That’s why the case for political and military disengagement is so strong. The butcher’s bill and the money price cannot be tolerated. America’s record of death, injury, and destruction has on net created enemies. The gross cultural and economic distortions from worshipful militarism have yet to be calculated.

And let’s not forget another cost: the toll on Americans ordered to kill and repress fellow human beings in other countries. (I don’t mean to relieve individual members of the military of their responsibility; they volunteered and chose to obey orders unquestioningly.)

President Obama says he will draw down forces in Afghanistan, and this upsets the militarists, such as Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain and the editorial boards of the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. Yet under the plan, after 2015, a U.S. force will remain to support a regime that many Afghans don’t support. That is not disengagement.

Even people who are tired of Afghanistan after 13 years want Obama to intervene more directly in Syria. Have they learned nothing? There is no such thing as a clean and simple intervention with just the result sought. The war in Afghanistan, ostensibly intended to eradicate al-Qaeda, served to spread an intensified jihadist movement to Iraq, Syria, the Arabian Peninsula, and North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. NATO’s air strikes in Libya spread arms and battle-trained jihadis into west Africa. The law of unintended consequences makes fools of so-called leaders.

Danger, then, lies not in “isolationism”—a misnomer if global trade and travel are freed. Rather, it lies in a rogue and delusional U.S. government that tries to police the world.

Sheldon Richman is vice president of The Future of Freedom Foundation and editor of FFF's monthly journal, Future of Freedom. For 15 years he was editor of The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington, New York

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Things Should Not Fall Apart

| by Helasingha Bandara

( May 31, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) An exceptional group of people set an exceptional precedent in exceptional circumstances on 16 March this year at the National Institute of Education in Maharagama, Sri Lanka, formerly the Specialist Teachers College. In a society where politico-worship is the norm, any worthwhile event held has to be highlighted as a good example for the rest to follow. By launching such an event, a good precedent was set in motion by a group of golden oldies on that day.

Although it was a usual dawning of a new day, in a particular January morning in 1972 an unusual group of 161 youngsters, most of whom were between 19 and 23 years of age, gathered at LT4 (Lecture Theatre 4) of the Maharagama Specialist Teachers College to start their two year fulltime training course to become fully fledged Mathematics teachers . The teachers college had other faculties such as Science, Commerce, Physical Education, Handicraft, Special Education, Home Science etc. The whole student-teacher population was over 1500.

The mathematics faculty was unique because it comprised bright students most of whom had only failed to admit to Universities or had preferred to take up teaching posts due to reasons beyond their control. There were at least 10 in the batch who had earlier joined the Universities but had given up to take up a paid studentship as would-be teachers due to economic reasons. The batch became unique not because it comprised bright students but because of the versatility they brought in with them. For example, the batch had one who played for Sri Lanka national volleyball team, two had played for Sri Lanka national hockey team, one had been the pentathlon champion of Sri Lanka, some had taken athletics at national level, there were a few who had been non-commissioned officers in the respective battalions of the Ceylon Cadet Corps (CCC), a few highly talented musicians and some writers etc. Mathematics faculty won the annual inter-faculty sports meet for both the years of 1972 and 1973 including both male and female march past. Inter training college sports meet between Maharagama and Palali Jaffna was also won by Maharagama in both years mainly due to the contributions of the faculty of Mathematics.

Some names among the famous mathematics lecturers were Ashoka Lincoln Devendra, Leelasena, Samarasekara, Kannangara and Ranjith Ruberu. Although Ashoka Devendra became the Principal of the college later he did not sever his connection with the faculty of Mathematics. The students had great respect for the staff and for the Principal in particular for his close connection with the faculty of Mathematics.

At the end of 1973 students said adios to the college and to their loved teachers and took up teaching positions all over the country. Exactly forty years later one of them led a small group of old colleagues to organise a reunion of the batch mates.

It was an incredible task and the group had worked almost a year to collect contact details of the batch mates and to pass information. They managed to gather over 100 of their old colleagues on the 16th of March 2014.

In the morning of the 16th, now forty years later, one by one the gray haired golden oldies started coming into their old LT4. All of them are now in their sixties and retired.

The centre of attention was Ashoka Devendra who has been invited to be the chief guest at the occasion and was majestically sitting in front despite being in his nineties. The participants had moved on in their lives, fields and professions that the audience had the former Deputy Inspector General of police Colombo, a consultant of the National Institute of Education, all Island Maths Director, all Island Director for teacher training colleges , the Vice chancellor of a Technical University in Sri Lanka, retired directors, principals of recognised schools including Wesley College Colombo and people who have held highly recognised social and professional positions. They had come to honour an old teacher and to reunite.

The significance of this event lies in the fact that for teacher training colleges this was unprecedented. At the same time the golden oldies were setting an example by honouring someone who had dedicated his whole life for the people of this land and had been a worthy teacher. In contrast, most eulogies are sung for and events are organised to honour the unworthy. Therefore this particular event deserves publicity for others to realise that it is important not to let our good traditions fall apart.

One old student of this batch who is currently residing in the UK , speaking to the crowd quoted W.B. Yeats.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer

Things fall apart the centre cannot hold

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world

Drawing a parallel between falcon story and the current situation he said

“Today all the falcons who had flown away to various parts of the country and beyond, to various professions and to various positions have flown back to their old nest to see their falconer. This day is not only memorable for us but it is also memorable for our beloved teacher. We should not allow things to fall apart but make sure good traditions continue- Let us worship the worthy-(Pidiya yuththan pudamu).”

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Sri Lankan Youth Desperate for Change

| by Amantha Perera

Inter Press Service

( May 31, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It has been five years since Sri Lanka’s brutal three-decades-long civil conflict came to an end in May 2009, but for the country’s youth, true national reconciliation is still a long way off.

They blame a lack of understanding, and the older generation’s unwillingness to compromise, for on-going divisions in this country where years of ethnic strife created a culture of discord that was not defeated on the battlefield.

Youth activists and government officials have voiced a unanimous appeal to Sri Lanka’s national leaders to listen to the roughly five million citizens between the ages of 15 and 25 who will determine the country’s future.

If these young people are marginalised, a lasting peace will be impossible, they say.

Milinda Rajapaksha, working director at the National Youth Services Council, told IPS his organisation has been coordinating youth programmes across the country, which have made clear that young people from different ethnic backgrounds are willing to work together.

The Council is the largest government organisation of its kind working exclusively with young people. With chapters all over the island, it has already conducted some 20 nationwide programmes aimed at reconciliation.

“Understanding, collaboration and cooperation between young people is the only solution for fully achieved reconciliation,” Rajapaksha said.

Given that thousands of young people fought in the war – either as soldiers for the Sinhala-majority Sri Lankan government or as forced conscripts of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) – it is crucial that youth build bridges across their embattled and bloody history.

Another factor to keep in mind, according to Ramzi Zain Deen, national director of the advocacy body Sri Lanka Unites, is that the country’s population pyramid is becoming top-heavy.

“In Sri Lanka we are experiencing an aging population. There’ll be more people over 40 years of age in the next 10 to 15 years, including myself, which means there’ll be more people who [are] resistant to change,” Deen told IPS.

As of 2011, 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s population was over 60 years of age; the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that by 2025 the elderly will account for 20 percent of the population.

Although youth and adolescents comprise a higher portion of the population – roughly 26 percent – their lack of access to political power means they are reliant on the older generation to disseminate their views.

But far from feeling confident that they are in safe hands, many of the country’s young people say they are not even being listened to, much less represented as indispensible players in their nation’s future.

Leaving Behind the Baggage

Pradeep Dharmalingam is a young man hailing from the country’s northern province, which, until 2009, was under the control of the LTTE. Every week, the 20-year-old makes the 360-km journey from Jaffna to the capital Colombo.

But no matter where he is, he told IPS, he feels great reluctance on the part of the older generation to embrace change. Questions like the devolution of power to local provinces, for instance – particularly to the majority-Tamil northern and eastern regions – are highly loaded issues, with the older generation reluctant to let go of its staid ideas regarding the political future of the country.

“In Colombo I see one end of the spectrum, where people talk about development and money, and nothing else; in Jaffna the only thing I hear is talk about political change.

“There is no middle ground,” he complained, “no one from our parents’ generation telling us how we can break down the divisions within our country,” Dharmalingam, a member of the ethnic Tamil minority, added.

His friend and classmate in a Colombo-based computer programme, Anil Dassanayake, told IPS the older generation must stop “pointing accusing fingers and let go of the past.”

The 21-year-old Dassanayake acknowledged that young people couldn’t fully understand what it must have been like to live through a war that claimed an estimated 100,000 lives over three decades.

“It must have been terrible,” he said, “but we have to try our best to come together as a nation.”

One of the obstacles, says Deen, is that the older generation sees reconciliation and development as separate issues, whereas young people view them as parallel movements, working in tandem.

“It is important for everyone in this country to understand the concept of harmonious living,” he stressed. “That’s why we are working with the younger crowd [who] recognise that peace and harmony correlate highly with the development of this country.”

Deen’s fears find echo in the post-war development initiatives that have permeated Sri Lanka’s former war zones in the north and east.

Here, a young Tamil man named Benislos Thushan tells IPS, mega development projects have failed to improve the lives of the local population, possibly due to lingering racial discrimination against the Tamil minority.

“There are big highways [being built] and other projects in the works, but people in the province are still poor, still looking for jobs,” he said.

The government claims it has spent close to four billion dollars on large infrastructure development schemes in the northern province alone, but available data show that unemployment rates in the north are double the national average of four percent.

Officials in the province say that many graduates and other educated youth in the region remain unemployed, or seek jobs below their qualifications outside the province.

“There are no management jobs here,” Sivalingam Sathyaseelan, secretary to the provincial ministry of education, told IPS. “The only available employment falls in the category of day-labour. Most of the youth want something better than that.”

Visit IPS news for fresh perspectives on development and globalization.

Amantha Perera is a journalist and foreign correspondent based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He covers Sri Lanka for a variety of international media outlets.

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Narendra Modi kicks out the Kshatriyas and Brahamins

Will the Vanni Vellalars be next?

| by Sebastian Rasalingam

( May 30, 2014, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) India obtained Independence after a protracted struggle led by the British-educated brown sahibs of the Kshatriya and Brahamin castes. Ever since, their kith and kin ruled India. A few, like Dr. Ambedkar, a Dalit Buddhist, was the exception allowed by the Indian plutocracy as a sign of their “open-mindedness”. Laws were passed designating “scheduled castes”, “other backward castes (OBC) etc. An implicit Manu Dharma was there by cemented into the Indian constitution. It is no secret that Indian Universities are restricted to the upper castes, (de facto if not de jure), while a small stratum of the lower castes are allowed if they are wealthy enough.

Thus, the upper-caste plutocracy ruled India till Nardendra Modi broke the crust, nearly seven decades after the Indian Independence. Modi claims to be a tea-cart pusher form an OBC caste. In fact, he is from the “oil-pressing” caste, i.e., a “cekkati”. In Tamil usage, a “cekkati-mundan” is a “strong but senseless man, fit only to work an oil-press” (i.e., a “sekkuva” in Sinhalese) !

Normally, in Indian and Sri Lankan elections, being “lower caste” is a disqualification, especially among the Hindus, and to a lesser extent among the Buddhists and Jains. Indeed, at the turn of the 20th century, Arunachalam Ramanathan's win over E. W. Perera was based on Ramanathan being considered “more aupper-caste” even by the Sinhalese gentry (who alone had the vote), ruling out their own co-ethnic Perera. Ramanathan himself wanted the caste system inscribed in the Ceylon constitution, and was dumbfounded by the Donoughmore reforms.

Just as the elite Indian plutocracy ruled India for nearly seven decades, the Vellalar Tamils ruled the Ceylonese (both Tamil and Sinhala) as British proxies, at least up to the days of the State council. Donoughmore, and free-education transferred the proxy power to the “low-country” Sinhalese, although the Vellalar Tamils continued to dominate the public service, the University and the professions. Even the Tamil journalists and Tamil Marxists are from the Tamil upper castes. The Tamil Marxists (with Shanmugathasan an exception) did not want to discuss caste, and the rank discrimination of Tamils by Tamils. There are hardly any low-caste Tamil journalists to argue their case.

The caste grip of the landed upper-caste Tamils (living in Karuvakkaddu – Cinnamon gardens) over the “lower caste” Tamils ensured that the same families continued to come to power in “elections”. They mounted anti-Sinhala Tamil nationalism against the Donoughmore reforms. After independence, they pushed separatism to counter the Sinhala-language act . The boiling point of this madness was the Vaddukkodai resolution to do battle against a majority ten times bigger than them.

The Sinhalese extremist answer was the 1983 pogrom, supported by J.R. Jayawardene and tacitly also by Prabhakaran who wanted a final break in the “co-habitation” of Colombo Tamils with the Sinhalese. The militant “boys” assassinated the Vellalar leaders, hijacked Tamil nationalism and spawned a terrorist movement against the brutality of the State. This was in turn hijacked by the Vellalar leaders who controlled the diaspora and the dollars. They talked to Western governments and ran the NGOs.

So, the Eelam wars did not change the leadership. The Northern Provincial elections of 2013 saw the re-election of the kith and kin of the same old families that ruled the Tamils of Ceylon in 1930. The situation was identical in India. The rise of a low-caste Narendra Modi to the top was not expected even an year ago. At best, he was to be a puppet of Jayalalitha and other chief ministers! However, the “cekkati-mundan” has prevailed. Modi is a determined oil-presser ready to squeeze the oil. India is at last moving to what Donoughmore (and the British Fabians) wanted to achieve in 1930-Ceylon!

Tamil society, subject to the Nallur Orthodoxy of Wigneswaran and Sampanthan, will not change until the Vellalars, the upper-caste Jaffna-University Guru-Sisyan, and the Diaspora puppet-masters are overthrown. That is a tall order. But Narendra Modi carried through an even more tall order.

Narendra Modi is said to have egged Mahinda Rajapaksa to implement the 13th amendment “in full”. So, will Nardendra Modi expand on article 370 giving truly special status to Kashmir? What about Nagaland and other s who demand 370? Or is 370 an aberration to roll back? Modi's anti-caste “unitary-India” will irritate Tamil Nadu so used to flexing muscles against the center. Tamil Nadu will perhaps show Modi that the 13th amendment is Rajiv's folly. Why should Modi strengthen Tamil Nadu by installing a Jaffna-based, Prabhakaranist Eelamist chief minster?

And why would sober Vanni Tamils want the 13th amendment to legitimize upper-caste local Rajahs from the old land-owning Karuvakaddu aristocracy ? They were brutal enough to put Tamils in harm's way in a horrific war against a numerically superior, equally brutal state sector. What guarantees that the next set of local “chief ministers” of Jaffna would not become Sankilis, Prabhakarans, or Tamil versions of Mr. Mervin de Silva, a claimed “descendant of Dutugamunu”!

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Rule of Law in Sri Lanka: Professional Negligence

An open letter to the President of the Sri Lanka Bar Association ( BASL) on professional negligence of some magistrates by the Asian Human Rights Commission, a human rights body based in Hong Kong SAR, is follows;

 Cartoon by Awantha Artigala

( May 30, 2014, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka Guardian) Professional negligence of magistrates has gone unchallenged, says Mr. Bijo Francis of the Asian Human Rights Commision, in an open letter to the President of Sri Lanka Bar Association. 

Full text of the letter is follows;

Mr. Upul Jayasuriya

President

Sri Lanka Bar Association (BASL)

No. 153

Mihindu Mawatha

Colombo 12

Sri Lanka

Fax (+94) 11 244 80 90

Dear Mr. Upul Jayasuriya,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has closely monitored the situation of the rule of law in Sri Lanka, with particular emphasis on the way the criminal justice system functions. The AHRC wishes to draw your attention to some glaring acts of negligence on the part of certain magistrates that have resulted in serious consequences, including death, for persons who appeared before them.

We are writing to you, the President of the Bar Association, because such serious neglect on the part of the magistrates also reflects that members of the Bar have failed to fulfil their duties as required by their profession, i.e. to ensure objections are raised against such acts of neglect in order to prevent miscarriage of justice and to legitimize their role as lawyers representing clients.

The Bar Association also has a duty to ensure that it will intervene when reports of such negligence come to light. In any case, protecting the interests of lawyers, and ensuring proper professional conduct on their behalf, is an obligation of the Bar Association as a professional organisation.

We wish to bring to your notice the following recent acts of negligence:

a. Death in custody of 17-year-old P.H. Sadun Malinga:

The details of this case have been publicized and it is likely that you are already aware of it. In summary, this boy, together with a few other family members, was arrested without reason by a group of policemen from Kandaketiya police station. They were severely beaten. Later, they were produced before the Passara magistrate’s court. Two lawyers appearing for the boy and the boy himself complained of severe assault by the police. The magistrate was told that the boy was suffering from severe chest pains. The magistrate did not take any notice of these submissions and ordered that the boy and the other suspects should be remanded. The boy later died in remand prison. The judicial medical officer who conducted the post-mortem concluded that the reason for the boy’s death was internal bleeding caused by the assault. While the liability of the police and the prison authorities is obvious, the role of the magistrate in this death raises serious concerns about judicial neglect. Had the magistrate taken normal precautions, when such information regarding torture is brought to their notice and ordered immediate medical attention, this death could have been prevented. From a criminal law point of view, would this conduct of the magistrate amount to criminal negligence? If it does amount to criminal negligence, should the magistrate not be subjected to investigation for homicide? Besides the issues relating to professional failures, which should lead to appropriate inquiries, this issue of criminal neglect must be raised.

b. Deportation of British nurse Naomi Coleman:

The details of this case are also well known. The issue that we wish to raise is the order made by the magistrate for the deportation of this lady who had a tattoo of Lord Buddha on her arm. As has already been pointed out by some senior lawyers in letters published in newspapers, the magistrate had no authority to issue a deportation order on an immigration matter. In any case, what the magistrate had before him was only a B report and the magistrate was not authorized to make any judgment on the basis of such a report. What is demonstrated in this instance is also negligence: the magistrate did not examine the papers that were before him before making orders as demanded by the police. The magistrate also failed to follow the proper procedure of allowing the suspect to make a proper presentation of her position before the court.

c. Magistrate negligence in not inquiring into the circumstances of certain deaths where the police claimed the deaths were caused by actions taken in self-defence:

Recently, there have been six cases of deaths in police custody where the police claim that the suspects were shot in self-defence when they tried to attack the police as they were taken for the recovery of arms . Besides these six deaths, a large number of such deaths have been reported in recent years. Such deaths have become the subject of public ridicule. However, the magistrates, in recent years, have accepted such police reports and come to the finding of justifiable homicide. The failures of magistrates to conduct proper inquiries and to ensure that all the evidence that could lead to a proper judgment is brought to their notice has become a serious problem for the security of persons in police custody. This practice of magistrates has gone unchallenged.

We are bringing these few matters, which are part of a larger problem involving how magistrates carry out their duties, for the purpose of seeking your intervention as the premier association of lawyers in Sri Lanka, in order to challenge such neglect, for the purpose of ensuring the rule of law and the respect for law in the country.

We would like to request that you proceed with a study into these matters by your association and take appropriate measures to bring these priority matters to the attention of the judiciary. We reiterate that the proper practice of the legal profession requires the correction of such neglect and failures in the magistrates’ execution of duties.

Thank you.

Yours Sincerely,

(Signed)

Bijo Francis

Executive Director

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