Crisis In Sri Lanka: News & Updates

[KidRapper]

Hey people!

First of all, I want all of you to know that I started this thread after getting permission from the admins.

My main objective in starting this thread is to show the bitter truth about the present situation & expose the corrupted president & his government to the international community.

I'll just briefly go through the events which led to all of this:

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Most of you may know that the Civil War (Log in to see links) in our country that raged for over 26 years ended in May 2009. But soon afterward, in the election that followed, a new conflict came ashore.

The Commander & the General of the Sri Lankan Army, General Sarath Fonseka (Log in to see links), who played a major role to bring the Civil War to an end, resigned form his post & joined the United Opposition parties to enter the election as a candidate. His rival was Mahinda Rajapaksha (Log in to see links), the president who was elected in 2006, who was hoping to come into power again for the 2nd time.

In the election that followed President Rajapaksha won, & became the president for the second time (Many reliable sources claim that the election results were altered to favor Rajapaksha by IT technicians from India, & it should have been General Fonseka who should have become the rightful president.)

After the tyrant came into power (I'm using the word "Tyrant" because that is what he became after becoming president) he imprisoned General Fonseka (Knowing that as long as he stays in jail, the President's dirty secrets of corruption & injustice will stay with him) & then elected his trustworthy political henchmen as his ministers in the Parliamentary Election that followed (Again, using the IT Techs from India to doctor the results & select the ones absolutely trustworthy to him) last month. And now, his is going on the path of a dictator, driven on by the lust for power & wealth & unopposed by anyone. The next Presidential election won't be held until 2016!

N.B. - This description may sound like some banana republic kind of stuff that happens in Africa or South America, but it is the truth.
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The above description was brief, but I will continue to post more details. From the next post onwards I will keep posting news & events that are happening in Sri Lanka. They will be taken from Local news sites as well as international sites such as BBC, CNN etc.

If any of you have time, please, read some of these articles, & drop a comment. I will be glad if you do so. It will make me happy to know that people are willing understand the situation & help my country.

Don't take this as just an effort by me to evoke sympathy for our country. I'm trynna expose the injustice, the corruption & the discrimination, hoping that someday, the truth will make our country the Paradise of the Indian Ocean once again.

Thanx for your time!

[KidRapper]

Source - (Lanka-e-News 20.March.2010, 1.45AM) Log in to see links

An open letter to Election Commissioner: 'I challenge you, where and with whom, you were in night of Presidential election day?' -Veteran Lawyer Elmore

Dear Dayananda,

A Free and Fair Election – An impossible dream ?
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We, the People have a Sovereign right to exercise our franchise at free and fair elections. The very last time we could do so was in 1977. Giving vent to our disgust with the governance then prevailing, we gave J.R. Jayawardena, who claimed to be the long-awaited saviour of the Sri Lankan nation, a 5/6th majority. Free and fair elections were soon relegated to history. The election process rapidly degenerated to the level of the notorious Wayamba Provincial Council election in 1999.

In an attempt to stem this ominous trend, the OPA beginning in 1994, attempted to monitor elections. At the end of a discussion some of us had with you re monitoring the 1999 Presidential election, you claimed to have been at the receiving end of my lectures in SLIDA. I immediately assumed (rightly or wrongly?) that you had endorsed the need for exemplary conduct I consistently tried to instil into those who chose to listen to what I said.

In an attempt to reduce rigging at the Presidential election of 1999, you had affixed the now infamous “stickers” to Polling Cards. The potential abuse of such stickers was prevented by the accidental detection of this secret move of yours, by a VV.I.P. Consequent attempts made by a triumvirate of the most powerful personalities at that time, with the obvious connivance of a state agency, to sideline you and replicate the Wayamba election, were thwarted by justification of your bona fide and lawful, though admittedly futile and costly, act. However, you had not been vested with any power to control or even contain the violence and blatant violation of election laws that took place.

Disgusted with the mockery that passed off as “free and fair elections”, we the people, through our elected representatives in Parliament, adopted the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, drastically curtailing the extent of the Executive power of the Sovereign People which had been delegated to the President, and creating an Elections Commission of five members, endowed with extensive powers, for the sole purpose of restoring the conduct of free and fair elections.

The 17th Amendment, passed with only one abstention and no one against, became operative on 3rd October 2001, and provided the Elections Commission (EC) with sufficiently extensive powers, inter alia, to appoint other officers to the EC and delegate to them any power, duty or function of the EC, to notify the Inspector- General of Police of the facilities and the number of police officers required and then deploy them to secure the enforcement of all laws relating to the conduct of free and fair elections, to prohibit the misuse of any state property, and to enable the Competent Authority to take over the management of SLBC and SLRC in respect of all broadcasts which impinge on the election.

Regrettably, no Elections Commission was constituted and consequently, in terms of Section 27(2) of the said Act, you were vested with all the extensive powers, duties and functions of the Election Commission. Your failure to exercise most of these powers culminated in your validating the 2005 Presidential election where about 500,000 electors in the South and almost all the electors in the North were unlawfully disenfranchised.

Rather than invoking the extensive powers vested in you, so as to promote the conduct of a free and fair 2010 Presidential election, you only requested the IGP to continue to deploy the police officers himself, in the manner indicated by you. Belatedly, you issued directions for the immediate removal of cut-outs (and even provided the funds needed for same) and the cancellation of certain transfers. However, such directions were disregarded with impunity. You had chosen not to take cognisance of the fact that this IGP had been appointed by the President in violation of the Constitution, and had even been vested with the powers of the National Police Commission, also in violation of the Constitution, and certainly had to display greater allegiance to the President who appointed him, and to the Defence Secretary to whom he reports, rather than obey your commendable directives, confident that you would, deliberately or otherwise, not exercise the extensive powers vested in you to ensure compliance with your directives.

The “directives” reportedly issued by you to Ministry Secretaries and others re the abuse of state resources were largely disregarded, in violation of the Constitutional requirement that “every person under whose control such property is, for the time being, is required to comply with and give effect to such directions”. You did nothing further. You appointed a Competent Authority to control the broadcasts of SLBC and SLRC. The issuance of comprehensive Guidelines and even Directives failed to have any significant effect on the SLBC and SLRC. Without invoking any of the powers vested in you to “secure the enforcement of your directives”, you frequently appeared on TV, and attempted to exculpate yourself from your betrayal of the trust placed in you, by repeatedly complaining that your many directives, inter alia, to the IGP, to all Secretaries and the Media and those of your Competent Authority were not being heeded, and that you were helpless. You merely revoked the appointment of the Competent Authority without enabling him to take over the management of SLBC and SLRC, in respect of all political broadcasts or any other broadcast, which impinges on the election, under Arts 104 B(5)(c) and Act No. 3 of 2002.

To cap it all you announced that a “Sticker” would be placed on each ballot box to signify that it had been duly “checked”, “closed” and “sealed”. The necessary implication was that any ballot box which carried this “sticker” must necessarily be presumed to have been duly checked, closed and sealed by the Senior Presiding Officer in the presence of the Candidates and/or their duly nominated agents. You cannot plead that you did not realise that this procedure lent itself to mass-scale non-verifiable corruption. A news report of ballot boxes having been transported in a Navy Vehicle was immediately suppressed.

We the People, looked up to you to honour the trust placed in you by us, through our elected Representatives, and to hold a free and fair election. You signally failed to invoke the extensive powers set out in Articles 104C and 104E, to notify the IGP of the facilities and Police Officers required, appoint competent, non-partisan retired officers (of whom there are many) to direct the deployment of the facilities and Police Officers made available by the IGP, so as to ensure a “free and fair election”.

At about 2.30 p.m. on January 26th 2010, a public announcement was made on several TV Channels that casting a vote for General Sarath Fonseka was of no value because his name was not included in the list of Electors and that, even if elected, he could not lawfully hold the post of President. On this being brought to your notice, you issued a written statement that General Sarath Fonseka was indeed, lawfully entitled to be elected and function as President. Soon after this was broadcast on the TV, two or more VV.I.PP of the UPFA visited you at the Elections Secretariat and after some time you left the Secretariat in their Company. Thereafter you were seen in the Secretariat only minutes before you announced on 27th January, 2010, inter alia, that this was the worst election you have ever conducted, it was only when Indra de Silva was IGP that you were able to conduct a peaceful election, you had been told by powerful persons that your only function was to count the votes in the ballot boxes and announce the result, your election staff could not even ensure the safety of the ballot boxes, you will attend to the incidental functions relating to that election in the next few days in January and not thereafter even set foot in the Secretariat premises, and you wished to particularly thank the IGP Mahinda Balasuriya because he complied with all the requests made to him by you.

To the astonishment of the Public, you returned to the Elections Secretariat on 2nd February 2010, and retracted all the statements you made. You also declared that you were willing and able to conduct the General Election which will determine the future course of this country. Many, including me, have lost all faith in your commitment to conducting any free and fair election. You are, once again making attractive statements which, from your own recent experience, you no doubt know very well, will go unheeded. You have not even bothered to appoint a Competent Authority but have directed Party Secretaries to seek fairplay from the very Chairman who blatantly refused it. You have left it to the IGP to deal with any Police officers who failed to actively support the President. You have turned a blind eye to the flagrant abuse of State Resources. You are just going through the motions.

I challenge you to appear live on TV and truthfully divulge to the country where, and with whom, you and your wife were between 3.30 p.m. on 26th January 2010 and 4.45 p.m. on January 27th 2010, and also invoke all the Constitutional powers vested in you, not for the purpose of boosting your tarnished image, but for the purpose of conducting a free and fair election. If you do so, public confidence in your ability and willingness to conduct a free and fair election may well be restored, and it will not be necessary for me to tender an unqualified apology to you and your wife for having brought you to this state, and also to the Sri Lankan Nation for having prevented your removal from the election process in 1999 and thereby facilitating, what I believe, were fraudulent elections in Sri Lanka.

Please be aware of the maxim “Facts cannot lie, but men can”

With best wishes to you and your wife.

Yours sincerely,
Elmore M. Perera
B.Sc., LL.B, F.C.M.A., Dipl. PMD (U. Conn), TREND (U. Conn), CSSI,
Chartered Management Accountant, Chartered Surveyor,
Management and Training Consultant,
Attorney-at-Law, Commissioner for Oaths, E-mail: Log in to see links
Notary Public and Company Secretary,

Former Addl. Director SLIDA and Surveyor General,
Past President, Organisation of Professional Organisations,
Vice President, Citizens’ Movement for Good Governance.

*Note -
1. Dayananda Dishanayke - Election Commissionaire of Sri Lanka. Now believed to be under the payroll of the president.
2. The Election Commissionaire has not yet made any statement regarding this matter. That explains a lot. doesn't it?

[KidRapper]

Source - (Lanka-e-News 05.May.2010 8.30AM) Log in to see links

President and his brother enjoy the lion’s shares –President grabs 78 Institutions; Former PM gets just one!

According to the SL Democratic Socialist republic gazette notification dated April 30th, the President Mahinda Rajapakse under the powers vested in him by the constitution S 44 -1, has in the distribution of Ministries grabbed for himself four Cabinet portfolios. In other words, as many as 78 Institutions coming under those Ministries will be controlled by him.

The Urban development authority which was earlier under the urban development Ministry has also been brought under the defense Ministry which is under the President .

A section of the legal division which formulates laws in regard to the monetary matters under the Ministry of Finance has also been included under his control. It is not clear whether this division is what belongs to the Ministry of justice or the Attorney General’s Dept . itself.

The former Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremenayake who has been given the portfolio of public administration and reforms , has been allotted only one Institution , that is the National administrative reforms Commission.

The younger brother of the President, Basil Rajapakse, who is the Minister of economic development had got under his Ministry , 14 Statutory Institutions and Govt. Corporations. The National parks and wild life sanctuaries which came under the Tourist Ministry earlier have also now been given control to him.

The SL foreign employment Bureau which had formerly always been first under the Labor Ministry and later under the foreign employment promotion and welfare Ministry, being brought this time under the Foreign Ministry is something most contrasting.

Institutions which were earlier under other Ministries like, Samurdhi Commissioner’s Dept; Udarata Govi rehabilitation Dept.; SL investment Commission; SL tourism development division; SL tourism Organization Authority; Hotels and tourism management Institution; Samurdhi Authority; Southern development Authority, Wild life Dept; Udarata Development Authority as well as District development and zonal development programs have all been brought under the Ministry of economic development of Basil Rajapakse.

Those subjects or affairs which have not been entrusted to Ministries so far will also be controlled by the President until they are given over.

*Note -
1. Basil Rajapaksa - President's younger brother.
2. So far its only 78 Institutions. But more are in the process of being transferred to him (The president).

[KidRapper]

Source - (Lanka-e-News 02.April.2010 9.00AM) Log in to see links

Acts of the President can be challenged in Court

“Actions of the Executive are not above the law and certainly can be questioned in a Court of Law. Article 35 of the Constitution provides only for the personal immunity of the President during his tenure of office from proceedings in any Court. The President cannot be summoned to Court to justify his actions. But that is a far cry from saying that the President's acts cannot be examined by a Court of Law. Though the President is immune from proceedings in Court, a party who invokes the acts of the President in his support will have to bear the burden of demonstrating that such acts of the President are warranted by law; the seal of the President by itself will not be sufficient to bear that burden”.

So held a 9-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Neville Samarakoon Q.C. on 20th October 1983 in the “Visuvalingam v. Liyanage" case, reported in (1983) 1 SLR 203 to 304. Keeping in mind that the objectivity of their approach itself was in issue, in a spirit of detached objective inquiry which is a distinguishing feature of Judicial Process, the Supreme Court in 1983 in the full consciousness that it was their solemn duty and obligation to uphold the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka proceeded objectively and impersonally to discharge their duty “without fear or favour, affection or ill-will”.

One of the issues raised for decision was “Is the President’s act of making a fresh appointment of the Judges an executive act not questionable in a Court of Law?” It was contended on behalf of the Attorney General that “the personal allegiance which the Judges owed to the Sovereign in the days of the Monarchy is continued to the present day where the allegiance is owed to the President as representing the State. The Chief Justice responded stating “This is a startling proposition. Sovereignty of the People under the 1978 Constitution is one and indivisible. It remains with the People. It is only the exercise of certain powers of the Sovereign that are delegated under Article 4. Fundamental Rights and Franchise remain with the People and the Supreme Court has been constituted the guardian of such rights. I do not agree with the Deputy Solicitor General that the President has inherited the mantle of a Monarch and that allegiance is owed to him”.

As clearly stated by the Court of Appeal and affirmed by the Supreme Court in 1981 “the Attorney General holds an unique position endowed with wide powers, onerous duties and special rights in regard to matters involving the exercise of the Sovereignty of the People which, unlike in England where the Queen is the Sovereign, in the Republic of Sri Lanka Sovereignty is in the people and the Attorney General represents and acts for the People of the Republic".
However it is now being widely reported in both the print and electronic media that the present holder of the post of Attorney General (who has been appointed to that post by the President in violation of specific provisions in the Establishments Code as well as the Constitution) has submitted to the Court of Appeal that an “Act of the President cannot be challenged in Court”

Since this decision in 1983 a bench of 9 or more judges of the Supreme Court has been convened only once (in 1985) and that was a case not involving any act of the President.

Clearly the law is still that “the seal of the President by itself will not be sufficient to bear the burden of demonstrating that any act of the President is warranted by law.”

Elmore Perera,
Past President OPA,
Founder and Vice-President of CIMOGG

[emil07]

But there is still hope... Isn't it ?

[Fraziel]

Wait a minute, there won't be election until 2016? That's not right at all..

I'm praying for the best for you and your country Aki..

[KidRapper]

But there is still hope... Isn't it ?

Well, I don't know bro. During the Parliamentary election, the opposition was crushed. They are still struggling hard to rise back again but there are conflicts within the party, and that is making things difficult.

Wait a minute, there won't be election until 2016? That's not right at all..

I'm praying for the best for you and your country Aki..

Thanx my friend.

Yep, no election until 2016 bro.

The president holds his office for 6 years.

Thanx for your concern guys.

[Cyclonus]

If Mahinda Rajapaksa was your former president why he suddenly changed during this election was there any connection of tigers earlier

[KidRapper]

Source - Wikipedia (Log in to see links)

Political Parties In Sri Lanka

**(Present) Governing Party:

UPFA - United People's Freedom Alliance

**(Major) Opposition Parties:

UNF/UNP - United National Front

JVP/DNA - Democratic National Alliance

TNA/ITAK - Tamil National Alliance

The following should be noted.

1). UPFA (Log in to see links) is made up of 11 parties, the MAIN party being the SLFP (Sri Lanka Freedom Party - Log in to see links) which is the also the party of the president.

2). UNF (Log in to see links) is made up of 3 parties, the MAIN party being UNP (United National Party - Log in to see links)

3). DNA (Log in to see links) is made up of the JVP (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna - Log in to see links) along with General Fonseka & his supporters/allies.

4). TNA (Log in to see links) is made up of 3 parties. This party can be considered as the major Sri Lankan Tamil political alliance.

[KidRapper]

If Mahinda Rajapaksa was your former president why he suddenly changed during this election was there any connection of tigers earlier

It was not a sudden change bro. The thing happened when he first came into power back in 2006. Even I thought that he would be a good president & would change our country, But I was wrong, everybody was wrong. He ruined it, squeezed it little by little & filled up his bank account & did everything to make his family rich. By the time people realized, it was too late.

We thought we could change that at the election, but no.... We failed.

I don't quite understand your reference to the LTTE bro. Could you make it a bit more specific?