It fell on IGP N.K. Illangakoon, at a recent press conference to uncharacteristically speak out against those that sought to create social disharmony and incite violence on ethno religious grounds. The maintenance and promotion of social harmony is generally a task of a country’s political leaders. However when the political leaders fail, managing and dealing with the ensuring violence and social upheaval becomes the responsibility of the security forces, particularly the law enforcement agencies and accordingly such agencies are sensitive to situations that exacerbate conflicts and promote violence.

Sinhala Buddhist push back on the hate campaign

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce last week, brokered a compromise on the issue of the Hallal logo on products. This compromise, was given its blessing by leading members of the Maha Sanga, who made no bones about their opposition to a hate campaign against other the practice and adherents of other faiths. In fact Buddhism and Buddhist leaders have been historically very tolerant and indeed accommodative of other faiths and practices. Read the rest of this entry »

CR (Bulla) De Silva, former Royal rugby captain, attorney general and loyal friend of President Rajapakse, must indeed be a puzzled man, even as a whole host of senior officials from the Attorney General’s department, which he headed in the not too distant past, take wing to Geneva, to play defense, where the US is sponsoring a resolution in the UNHRC, regarding Sri Lanka and its post war reconciliation track record.

CR De Silva, chaired and together mostly with other distinguished former Sri Lankan State officials, were commissioned by President Mahinda Rajapakse to report on lessons learnt from and reconciliation (LLRC) after the end of Sri Lanka’s bitterly polarizing and devastating three decades long ethnic conflict. This appointment came after the UN Secretary General appointed his own panel of experts to advise him on similar matters on Sri Lanka. After over a year of country wide public hearings, written representation and field visits to the former conflict areas, the LLRC issued its final report and recommendations. Read the rest of this entry »

The above was the anguished and rather alarming cry that emanated a few weeks ago from Cabinet Minister and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauff Hakeem. That a minister, of justice at that and the leader of the preeminent Muslim political party had to make a plea for an end to ethno religious hate mongering in Sri Lanka was sobering enough. Coming as it does on the heels of a sustained and systematic low intensity civil assault on the Muslim community, that has included attacks on mosques and Muslim owned businesses is alarming. Sri Lanka is just emerging from nearly three decades of an ethnic based civil war and the signs are ominous that we seemed to have learned nothing from our past and are hell bent on starting a new conflict, this one an ethno religious conflict, with religion thrown into the toxic mix.

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Hats off to the Rajapakse regime, the Machiavelli of Medamulane has pulled it off. Sacking a Chief Justice and getting away with it is no easy task and few governments succeed.  The Fijian generals who periodically overthrow that tortured nation’s democratic governments usually follow up by sacking the chief justice, Mugabe’s Zimbabwe has found it necessary to curb an independent judiciary, the list is not long. Now Sri Lanka joins this group, where the government has successfully got rid of a Chief Justice who became in a very limited manner, an inconvenient obstacle to the executive’s wishes.

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Earlier this week the Rajapakse Administration added yet another dubious distinction to its governance records by braking decades of parliamentary tradition and forcing on the order paper of Parliament the debate and vote on the impeachment motion against Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranaike. Traditionally and historically the agenda of parliament, is agreed upon by consensus at the Party leaders meetings. However on this historic first occasion all the opposition party representatives walked out of the party leaders meeting after vehemently protesting that a report and process held null and void by the Supreme Court should not be proceeded with by Parliament. The constitutionally required procedure of enabling legislation and ensuring due process must be complied with. A UPFA government that wrapped up an inquiry in four weeks would have none of it.

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