Harim Peiris

Political and Reconciliation perspectives from Sri Lanka

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A Papal prayer for Middle East peace and a visit to Sri Lanka

Posted by harimpeiris on June 26, 2014

A Papal prayer for Middle East peace and a visit to Sri Lanka

By Harim Peiris

(Published in The Island and Groundviews)

The Catholic Church has announced that His Holiness Pope Francis would be visiting Sri Lanka from January 13th to 15th,  next year. Preceding the announcement, were visits to the Vatican by both the Sri Lankan Catholic hierarchy as well as senior government figures, both of whom extended the invitation for the Pope’s visit.

The incentive for the Sri Lankan Government to have a high level visitor is rather obvious, somewhat besieged as it is with a UNHRC probe on its human rights track record. For the Sri Lankan Catholic church, it is quite an achievement because the size of the Sri Lankan Catholic community relative to the global Catholic church would not normally merit Papal attention. The fact that the visit is occurring, demonstrates the influence that Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith wields in the dovecotes of power at the Vatican, dating back to his days in the Curia in Rome.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis since his elevation to the high office of Pontiff, the spiritual head of the global Catholic Church has moved swiftly to radically revamp the Papacy. He has made himself accessible and whether it is refusing to stay in the plush Papal apartment or insisting on using his own old private car, this Pope is acting very differently than his predecessor. His approach is very pastoral. He sees himself as a chief shepherd of the flock, rather than as the chief executive of an organization. More importantly he has sought to use his high office and his moral authority to address issues of justice and equity, focusing famously on poverty and capitalism and weighing in on the conflict in Syria. God, as revealed in the Bible, is as much a God of justice as He is a God of love.

Most recently Pope Francis took the bold step of visiting the Middle East and plunged head first into Middle Eastern diplomacy by inviting the President of Israel and the President of the Palestinian Authority to the Vatican for a united prayer summit for peace in the Middle East. The prayer summit itself was a remarkable event, with Jewish, Islamic and Catholic prayers, said in English, Arabic, Hebrew and Italian.

It is in this context, that the visit of Pope Francis to Sri Lanka must be viewed. Unfortunately post war Sri Lanka is no less a polarized and deeply divided society than it was pre war. Though the war ended, the underlying causes of the conflict nor its effects have been adequately addressed, the non implementation of the LLRC proposals, being a chief issue of contention even in the UNHRC resolutions on Sri Lanka.  The Sri Lankan government would be naïve if it believes as it indeed seem to have done with CHOGM, that a high profile international event or visit would pass off with no attention paid to Sri Lanka’s unfinished or barely started reconciliation efforts. The CHOGM last year ended up being the first CHOGM which was more about the host country than about the Commonwealth. Similarly, the Papal visit is unlikely to pass without a close Papal scrutiny of festering social tensions and conflicts in Sri Lanka.

For a Pope who has Muslim prayers in his garden in the quest for Middle Eastern peace, the attacks on Mosques in Sri Lanka and the attacks on the Sri Lankan Muslim community, as documented by the SLMC and Minister Rauff Hakeem’s report to UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay would surely be something His Holiness is likely to engage in. He is rarely dissuaded from his moral persuasions by diplomatic niceties.

Another issue that would also interest the Pope on his visit to Sri Lanka would be the state of the Christian Church in Sri Lanka. The vast majority of the followers of Jesus Christ in Sri Lanka do so in the Catholic tradition about 7% of the population, while only about 1.5% of the population is Christian in the protestant traditions. However it must be an irritant to the Catholic Church hierarchy that there has been some drift of the Catholic flock towards evangelical Christian groups. This phenomena is also however not a new one for Pope Francis who faced a similar situation as Cardinal of Argentina, where close upon 25% of that country’s predominantly Catholic population has moved towards evangelical Christianity. However, the Pontiff’s response to this phenomena was to neither encourage the military dictatorship of Argentina to “white van” evangelical leaders, nor to provide tacit support to regulations and legislation to delegitimize the informal worship practices of evangelical Christianity, but rather to increase the presence and credibility of the Catholic church within society by a renewed focus on pastoral care and concern for the poor, the down trodden and needy. The attacks on Christian churches in Sri Lanka, would also no doubt be an issue of concern to His Holiness.

In all likelihood, the Papal visit to Sri Lanka early next year, has all the hall marks of being what the CHOGM ended up being last year, an event for which the Sri Lankan government is required to be on its best behavior in terms of post war reconciliation as well as ethnic and religious minority rights, all issues on which the current Administration finds itself sadly wanting.

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Right royal battle; the BBS vs. Bathiudeen

Posted by harimpeiris on April 24, 2014

Right royal battle; the BBS vs. Bathiudeen

By Harim Peiris

(Published in The Island and Groundviews)

 The Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), a recent and chilling phenomena of Sri Lanka’s post war political landscape is locked in a battle with Minister Rishard Bathiudeen, leader of the All Ceylon Muslim Congress (ACMC), a constituent party of the ruling UPFA. The Minister accuses the BBS of desecrating the Holy Koran, attacking Mosques and Muslims, while the BBS accuses the Minister of supporting or providing political patronage to displaced Muslims encroaching in the Wilpattu forest reserve. The former is a violation of the penal code, while the latter is not. Accordingly, the Police are supposedly investigating the BBS for hate crimes.

The Vision for a Sinhala Buddhist Eelam Chinthanya 

 It was my old friend, colleague and fierce LTTE critic, Dr. Ram Manikkalingam, one time Senior Advisor to President Kumaratunga, who introduced me to the term “Sinhala Eelam” as opposed to the Peoples Republic of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is multi ethnic, multi religious, pluralistic and diverse. But there has been and is, another vision of life on this Island, mono ethnic (or mono ethno religious), intolerant, non accommodative of diversity and narrowly ethno nationalist. In the North and East, this vision was promoted and fought for through terrorism by the LTTE for a Tamil Eelam. Fortunately that endeavor was comprehensively defeated in 2009. Conversely and regrettably, in post war Sri Lanka, there is an attempt by extreme Sinhala Buddhist nationalist groups, such as the BBS (& its ideological incubator the JHU) to turn Sri Lanka in to a Sinhala “Eelam”, a mono Sinhala Buddhist, ethno religious enclave, unaccomadative and unwelcoming  of ethnic and religious minorities, where the Hallal label is banned on products, where Muslim women cannot wear their traditional religious attire, where mosques, churches and places of minority religious worship are attacked, where Christians cannot worship in homes, where Christian children are forced to perform Buddhist rites in public schools, where joint press conferences between Buddhists and Muslims are attacked with impunity, where prominent Muslim business ventures are vandalized, to name just a few of the fascistic features of what Sinhala Eelam looks like. Nothing like a democratic and pluralist Sri Lanka.

President Rajapakse refutes President Kumaratunga

 A few weeks ago, President Kumaratunga’s public policy think tank, the South Asia Policy Research Institute (SAPRI) released a report on religious intolerance in Sri Lanka. The report had been prepared by SAPRI, through high level interfaith dialogue between clergy, as its methodology and arrived at recommendations to promote religious amity and tolerance. The objective of President Kumaratunga’s intervention was to try and take the conclusions and recommendations of the interfaith dialogue to the current political leadership of the country, both in the government and in the opposition. While the opposition accepted the report and indicated engagement with its contents, in the course of public meetings, President Rajapakse rejected the contention that there was religious intolerance in the country. It is difficult to fathom the basis on which President Rajapakse believes that the BBS and it’s like minded fellow travelers are a non violent, tolerant and pluralistic organization. Evidence to the contrary is after all widely available on video footage.

The Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium (TRAC), a respected American based research organization has listed the BBS as a “terrorist” organization. A few months ago, in an issue of Time magazine (print edition banned in Sri Lanka) but online editions widely available, the “face of Buddhist terror” was the cover article, featuring the anti Muslim hate campaigners in Myanmar. Recent press reports claimed the BBS had invited the head of the Burmese anti Muslim hate group to visit Sri Lanka. It became incumbent on Media Minister and Government Spokesman Kheliya Rambukkwella to defend the BBS as not being a terrorist organization, but to also concede that there have been numerous claims of religious intolerance and violence in the country.

Minster Vasudeva Nanayakkara, an old leftist firebrand and Minister of National Integration has recommended that the BBS be banned. Former deputy mayor of Colombo, Azzath Salley, also sought to take on the BBS, including through legal action, but backed down after been detained by the Defense Ministry under the PTA.

A Basil acolyte verses friends of Gota    

Minster Rishard Bathiudeen, from his days in the President Task Force (PTF) for Northern rehabilitation headed by Minster Basil Rajapakse, has been and is, a loyal and close associate of Minster Basil Rajapakse.  The Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) and its ideological incubator the JHU (most of the BBS leaders were one time in the JHU) on the other hand have been publicly associated with Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse, including at the controversial opening of the BBS, Galle headquarters. Notwithstanding all the drama regarding the BBS and its controversial anti minority, mono ethno religious “Eelam Chinthanya” vision for Sri Lanka, there is a right royal battle verses an acolyte of Minister Basil Rajapakse (Bathiudeen) and an organization (BBS) whom political insiders, link with overt sympathies and covert support to the Defense establishment of Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse. Neither is backing down. The President seems unwilling or incapable of defusing the situation. The Muslim community is fed up of assaults against it and the President and the UPFA cannot lose Rishard, in a situation where Rauff is waiting  for an opportune moment to leave the Government. But he is also unwilling to crack the whip on the BBS, which has snatched the leadership of extreme Sinhala Buddhist nationalism away from the JHU, by becoming even more extreme than the JHU. Interestingly there seems to be a clash of visions for Sri Lanka’s future between the Basil acolyte and Gota’s friends. Whether this clash of vision, extends up to their political patrons, only time will tell.

Meanwhile the UNHRC process in Geneva, on an international inquiry on violations of human rights rolls on, while the battle for Sri Lanka’s future, a pluralist Sri Lanka or a mono ethno religious, Sinhala Buddhist Eelam, continues between power elites.

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Toy Pistol Local Governance in Hambanthota

Posted by harimpeiris on April 22, 2014

Toy Pistol Local Governance in Hambanthota

By Harim Peiris

(Published in Groundviews and the Island newspaper)

 The country woke up a few days ago to news that a group of opposition UNP MPs on a fact finding visit to the new airport and port in Hambanthota had come under attack from goon squads. Subsequently, photographs showed His Worship (the UPFA) Lord Mayor of Hambanthota, Eraj Ravindra Fernando, chasing the UNP MPs with a pistol in his hand, closely followed by members of the goon squad. Subsequently the mayor was to claim that he was only acting to protect the MPs and that too with a toy pistol. The UNP has lodged a protest with the international Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU), a complaint with the Police, naming the Mayor as an alleged perpetrator, plan to raise a privilege issue in Parliament, under the Parliament Privileges Act and have requested the Speaker of the House and presidential elder sibling Chamal Rajapakse, to oversea the investigation into the attack on the MPs.

Flash back to Allevedy, Killinochchi and now Hambanthota

 Go back a few years, to June 2011, to Allevedy in Jaffna, when a group of TNA MPs meeting with a group of party supporters and activists were attacked by a group in military fatigues, which the TNA insists were military intelligence personnel. Or go back to March 2013, when another motley mob attacks a group of TNA MPs meeting in the TNA Killinochchi office. These attacks were reported to the police, raised in parliament, mentioned in the press and unfortunately was passed off, as yet another regrettable hardship of post war Northern Sri Lanka. The Sinhala polity was generally silent when the recipients of violence were Tamil democratic politicians from the North. Now the same situation has been repeated in the heart of the Sinhala South. The elected political opposition, in a country with a proud democratic history and a government which likes to insist that there exists effective domestic institutions and processes to deal with all ills,  obviously cannot visit Sinhala areas in the country’s south. What was happening in the North previously has now extended to the South. The assaults on the democratic freedoms of the Tamil opposition MPs in the North has now been extended to Sinhala opposition MPs in the South.

High Security Zones and the Police Spokesman

 As a former presidential spokesman, I have been amazed at current official state institution spokespersons brazen ability to dispense with factual accuracy, consistency, sometimes plain decency or plausibility when presenting official state responses to matters of public importance. Accordingly in the past, we have had police spokespersons make jokes about white vans, claim they have no information of attacks on religious minorities (when it is there for all to see on YouTube), the then Attorney General claim that disappeared journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda was living abroad and then claim in Court that only God almighty would really know that. However in the current situation, the usual excuses by the government spokesmen will not suffice. There is a complaint, there is photographic evidence, there are corroborating witnesses and there is an alleged lethal weapon (or the novel defense that it is a toy gun). Really His Worship the Lord Mayor of Hambanthota should stop playing with such toys.

The Mayor who first put all responsibility for his actions to a directive to him by MP, Namal Rajapakse has subsequently, when it became apparent that the Sinhala south was reacting negatively to the attack, retracted, that he received a phone call from the young MP and has taken full personal responsibility for his actions. Of course a check on his phone logs will reveal the truth, which should be ascertained. If he did receive instructions from anyone else, then there was a pre meditated conspiracy to attack.

Anyway, the incident raises some very important questions to which the government should be held to account.

  1. The first is that the environs of a national airport and sea port are high security zones, with tight security, which anyone who has passed through either of such places would know only too well. Sri Lanka is South Asia’s most militarized society, where with close upon four hundred thousand personnel in the law enforcement and security services, we have the highest per capita security personnel to civilian ratio in South Asia, according to various independent international security publications, including the Jane’s Defense Review. Despite this there was a serious breach of security.
  1. Secondly the Mayor of Hambanthota runs around brandishing firearms or toy pistols according to him, for the express purpose, supposedly of maintaining law and order in Hambanthota. Somebody should really inform the first citizen of Hambanthota, that according to the Sri Lankan Constitution, the Attorney General’s department and all relevant statutory provisions, law and order is the preserve of the police and of course under public security ordinance in force throughout the country, also the security forces, but certainly not those of elected local bodies, municipal, urban or pradeshiya sabhas. Mayor Fernando should read the Municipal Council Ordinance, to understand his powers, duties and responsibilities. What would happen for instance if TNA mayors and UC chairmen ran around the North with toy guns, the BBS, the JHU and NFF would have a fit.
  1. Thirdly, the police have as this article is being written yet to question Mayor Eraj Fernando. This despite the fact, that he is a suspect in an attack on no less than five elected representatives of the sovereign people of Sri Lanka. One almost  pities the police under the 18thamendment.

The UNP goes international

 The United National Party (UNP), generally an opposition that acts more like a party supporting the government but from the outside, sprang into some sort of action in defense of its MPs. But its statements and actions were telling. The UNP stated that the goon attack on its MPs in broad daylight in high security zones lends credence to the international community’s charges against the Rajapakse regime in the UNHRC in Geneva and thereafter the UNP complained to the international Inter Parliamentary Union. In both cases the UNP’s response was linked to the outside world, demonstrating its own assessment of the lack of an effective domestic remedy for the assault on democratic opposition. The likely police whitewash in the next few days, will only confirm that assessment. If the main democratic opposition UNP believes it has no avenue for redress from within the Sri Lankan State, then we now have only the regime insisting on the efficacy of domestic remedies. No one buys it Geneva, they don’t buy it Sirikotha, they don’t buy it in the Northern Provincial Council, they don’t buy it in the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress. The only insistence of its existence is in the corridors of power of the Rajapakse Administration and it is increasingly sounding hollow.

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CBK takes on religious intolerance in Sri Lanka

Posted by harimpeiris on March 26, 2014

CBK takes on religious intolerance in Sri Lanka

(Published in the Island and on Groundviews)

By Harim Peiris

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has since her graceful retirement from office more than eight years ago after the completion of a constitutionally mandated two term limit, busied herself with an impressive portfolio of issues internationally, issues which are also crucial to our South Asia region. Her status as an elder stateswoman, allows her to address these issues with moral authority and at the highest levels of opinion and policy making. These issues have included the education of the girl child, HIV/AIDS prevention, universal access to potable drinking water, participation of women in conflict resolution, prevention of domestic violence and a range of other gender issues. She has done these through several institutional frameworks, all with the highest impeccable credentials, including the world renowned Clinton Global Initiative, the Club de Madrid, an exclusive association of former heads of state and government and her own Colombo based regional policy think tank, the South Asia Policy Research Institute (SAPRI).

For the major part of the past eight years, the former president has maintained a dignified silence on domestic issues, providing the space for her successor in office and one time prime minster to run the affairs of state as he sees fit. However on several prior occasions during this time, the former president, as an elder statesperson did break her stoic silence to express her angst and serious concerns with regard to domestic Sri Lankan governance issues, including the  jailing of the opposition presidential candidate, the impeaching of the Chief Justice, the shooting deaths of polluted water protesters in Weliveriya, Gampaha, the rushing through of the controversial 18th amendment to the constitution, the compromising of crucial foreign relations with India, ongoing human rights abuses, the non implementation of the LLRC recommendations and the consequential lack of progress towards post war national reconciliation.

 Religious intolerance in Sri Lanka 

In the above context, President Kumaratunga a couple of weeks ago released a report on religious intolerance in Sri Lanka. The report had been prepared by her policy think tank, SAPRI, which had used inter faith dialogue as its methodology to arrive at its recommendations. The objective of President Kumaratunga’s intervention was to try and take the conclusions and recommendations of the interfaith dialogue to the current political leadership of the country, both in the government and the opposition. Sadly while she received a cordial reception from the main opposition United National Party (UNP), the former President was cold shouldered by the government of her former Prime Minister, led by the SLFP, a party which her father and mother foundered and which she led back to power from near extinction in 1994.

Extremists tear into CBK

Sri Lanka has sadly seen the rise of neo fascist religious extremist groups, which hate monger with impunity against religious minority communities in Sri Lanka. Strengthened through sympathetic propaganda in the state media and emboldened by near impunity from the law, these groups which started their anti minority campaign, against Hallal certification on commercial products have since expanded it to include minority businesses, mosques and Christian churches. The modus operandi is simple, the lawlessness of the jungle, namely threats and mob violence.  These extremists have been the pit bulls which have torn into the former president, questioning her motives and generally attacking the messenger, since they saw her intervention as an obstruction to their bigotry. Notwithstanding regime propaganda, once hopes the moral beacon of light and hope ignited by the former president will shine brightly to dispel anti minority bigotry and intolerance in the Sri Lankan society and polity.

 The Government denies

The Rajapakse Administration’s official response to religious intolerance in Sri Lanka has been as predictable, as it has been sad. They have officially denied the existence of any religious intolerance problem in the country. Just like with judicial non independence, corruption, waste, abductions, custodial torture, non implementation of the LLRC, violent crackdowns on dissent and now religious intolerance, the government’s official response is to deny the existence of a problem, which also eliminates the need to address it and allows it to continue to flourish. This despite the fact that incidents like the assault on the Dambula mosque, the No Limit and Fashion Bug attack and the assault on the Kottawa and Hikkaduwa Christian churches are all captured on video,  shown on the local evening TV news and even today is safely stowed in cyber space and shown to the world on YouTube. The list of incidents are generally reported to the police, carefully documented and presented to authorities. Still the government response is no, this doesn’t happen. Complementary to the mob violence the government is seeking through circulars of the Ministry of Buddha Sassana to curb the free exercise and practice of the faith of religious minorities. The Ministry circulars, prima facie ultra vires the constitutional guarantees of religious liberty, are linked to the violence since the Police are now in the practice of telling victims of religious violence, to get “permission” or “registration” from the Ministry to practice their faith or otherwise stop. So providing via the law enforcement and an allegedly illegal circular, the objectives the mobs hoped to achieve.

It is in this context, that President Kumaratunga has taken a public stand and brought the issue to the forefront of the public debate. Blanket denials by the government of existential ground realities are not credible. Reining in the extremist attackers (identities clearly available on YouTube and their own well publicized press conferences) and engaging with the excellent recommendations of the inter faith dialogue brought together by the former head of state, would be a good way to address the situation.

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APPRECIATION – A Son’s Tribute to an Exceptional Father

Posted by harimpeiris on February 10, 2014

Hanwedige Nirmal Chirasri Peiris, MA (Cantab), passed away suddenly on 5th January 2014 at the age of eighty two (82) years. This is a son’s tribute to an exceptional father, a remarkable human being and a committed Christian, written in the format of a letter, from a son to his father.

Dearest Dada,

Now that you are with our Lord Jesus and my mother, I just want to publicly say thank you for the forty five years in which you were my inspiration and role model.  Words can never express, who you were to me, especially for many years after ammi’s death, you were both father and mother. Thank you for taking such good care of me. Thank you especially for investing your whole life for your family in such an unselfish way. When our Lord called you home, earlier than we expected, but after eight two full and healthy years, who can complain. You certainly hold the record in our family for never being hospitalized prior to your final night. Your life was also a tribute to the love, faith and prayers of Ammi, in your all too brief time together on earth.

I am truly thankful to you in adulthood for becoming my best friend, my confidante with whom I shared my hopes, dreams, fears and failures. I could never even dream of being the wonderful person you were. But my lifelong tribute to you would be that I will try and emulate your wonderful qualities. I would consider myself greatly successful if I am even half the person of integral character and faithfulness to God that you were. You taught me and indeed our whole family, so profoundly not so much by words but by example, of a Christ like life, modelled for us daily in the privacy of our home. You taught us that the most valuable things in life did not carry a price tag, but rather consisted of, faith, family and service to fellowman. You did not seek earthly recognition or excessive material comfort, but quietly served our God, family and community. Truly it could be said of you “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7)

I am thankful to God that he gave you wisdom and such a rich and varied life, which took you through the classrooms of Royal College, where your grandsons now follow you, through the hallowed portals of Selwyn College, Cambridge, a teaching stint at Kingswood College, government service, diplomacy at the UN and planting on your own estates, at all times as service unto our Lord. Above all, you were a full time single parent and best friend to me.  You showed me by example that serving Christ begins and is anchored in the Christian home. As the son of Watson Peiris and the nephew of Metropolitan Bishop Lakdasa De Mel, you were heir to a rich heritage of Christian service in both the Anglican and Methodist traditions, which calling was refined and developed in the Pentecostal traditions of the Assemblies of God, which you passed on to our family, for which we are eternally grateful. Thank you for all our wonderful years together, for walking beside me from childhood school days through work and home.  Every day, though often taken for granted, was always special. Whether simple evenings just chatting, which you loved or doing various things together, family occasions, get togethers or trips.

You were more than any son could dream, wish or hope for and God’s special gift and grace to our whole family. We built our lives around you, as indeed you did around us, not just personally, but also around the values you lived out daily.  I loved you dearly in life, admired you greatly and will always miss you. I look forward to seeing you again in glory. Bye Dada!  Till we meet again on that beautiful shore.

By Harim Peiris, together with Radhisha Peiris, Nivneth and Harsith, Thindhika and Jagath Navaratne, Tarea and Tarena.  

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