Cricket is not merely a sport in Sri Lanka. Like in the rest of the sub continent, it is a passion. Arguably it is Sri Lanka’s secular religion with millions of adherents, characterized by a zealous commitment and passion. In Sri Lanka, the high priests of cricket are the nationally treasured team and the icon who serves as its captain. The high standing and credibility of the national cricket captains are among other ways demonstrated through two of them Arjuna Ranatunga and Sanath Jayasuriya being popularly elected members of the national legislature, one on each side of the political divide.

1.     Kumar Sangakkara

Kumar Sangakkara is no ordinary cricketer. With over eight thousand runs in test cricket and even more in the limited over game, he captained the national team from 2009 till the conclusion of the World Cup in April. A former head prefect and Ryde medalist of Trinity College, he is also a law graduate. The invitation to deliver the Cowdrey Memorial Lecture at the MCC was a rare honor on the global cricket stage. The MCC is for cricket what the Oxford Union is in academia. It was here, before a distinguished audience of over a thousand of cricket’s good and great that the former Sri Lanka cricket captain choose to speak on being Sri Lankan, from a national cricketer’s perspective. Read the rest of this entry »

Last Sunday was general elections in Thailand and the results were a tribute to the Thai people, their political resilience and their commitment to a democratic, constitutional monarchy. The Thai elections one hopes would not only usher in a more representative government in Thailand but also be a beacon for more participatory political processes and governance in certain countries of the ASEAN region.

1.     The opposition won

The first lesson from the Thai election was that the opposition won by a landslide. During the campaign as the polls indicated support for the opposition, political analysts were suggesting a hung parliament. However, the electorate delivered to the opposition Phew Thai party, two hundred and sixty five seats in the five hundred seat legislature. With allies from other smaller parties, the new ruling alliance has two hundred and ninety nine seats. The scale of the victory is apparent when one considers that the formerly governing party garnered only one hundred and sixty seats. Outgoing Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva did the decent thing and resigned as leader of the Democratic Party.

2.     The Shinawatras’ are back

The winner of the election was political newcomer and businesswoman Yingluck Shinawatra. At forty four years, Ms.Shinawatra is set to make history not only as Thailand’s first female prime minister but also its youngest. With a master’s degree in political science from Kentucky State University in the United States, she was president of AIS, Thailand’s largest mobile phone company which was founded by her brother, former Prime Minister Thakshin Shinawatra, who has affectionately referred to his younger sister as his political clone. Never having run for political office before, the younger Shinawatra is largely seen as a front for her politician brother, who from exile in Dubai has been largely and effectively controlling as well as bank rolling the affairs of their Phew Thai Party.

3.     The military coup was repudiated by the people

Five years ago, in 2006, when then Prime Minster Thakshin Shinawatra was in New York to address the UN General Assembly, the Thai military, staged a coup de eta, deposed him and banned him from returning to the country. After briefly running the country directly, the military engineered the defection of several parliamentarians of Mr.Thakshin’s party, arrested a few more and enabled the establishment favored Democratic Party to cobble together a working majority in Parliament, to run a coalition government, which had not received a popular mandate, though having a working majority in Parliament. Last Sunday’s general election was the first real popular and democratic test for the civilian face of the military backed regime and it was routed at the polls. The Democratic Party, an established, traditional and liberal political entity, certainly seriously tarnished its democratic credentials by being a party to and legitimizing a military coup and the subsequent military machinations in civil government. Its rout at the polls and consignment to the political wilderness by the Thai people will enable the Democratic Party to reexamine where they went wrong and how they might more democratically contribute to Thai political reconciliation and nation building.

One hopes, purely for the sake of democratic values, constitutional government and the rule of law that the Thai military would respect the voice and the democratically expressed will of the Thai people. The current leadership of the Army, are all senior officers that were involved in the 2006 coup as well as being responsible for the bloody crackdown on the pro democracy ‘red shirt” protests last year that witnessed at least ninety demonstrators killed and scores more arrested and incarcerated under emergency rule. It is clear that the scale of the opposition victory and the complete repudiation of the military backed regime by the people has caught the generals by surprise and created the recognition that deposing democratic government by military might, necessitates governance through significant coercion and force, which are the very antithesis of what is required for economic growth through foreign investment, exports and tourism, the cornerstones of the Thai economy.

There are legitimate political issues and varied views on them within Thai society as well as between its ruling elites and populist politicians like the Shinawatras. Such issues however should be addressed through open debate and dialogued between the parties and decided by democratic means and not through the barrel of a gun or an Army tank. That is the lesson of last Sunday’s Thai election.

It should make even the casual observer wonder why the stridency of International calls for accountability in Sri Lanka has been increasing over time and has now reached a multi faceted crescendo. From the Indians to the UN system, from the US to the EU,from the Commonwealth Secretariat to the British Foreign Office, from the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to the Shadow Foreign Secretary of Britain, the calls for Sri Lanka on alleged violations of international laws in the context of conflict has been increasing. To add to that a law suit has been filed against President Rajapakse in the Federal District Court system in the USA, under the principal of command responsibility.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Legal proceedings in the United States
The problem with a dead body, in the event of a violent death is that it is irrefutable evidence that a crime has been committed. Accordingly the presence of the bodies of five young Tamil school boys on a beach in Trincomalee with bullets in their brains, as well as the bodies of seventeen aid workers shot execution style within the grounds of their own office premises at Muttur is irrefutable evidence that unnatural violent death and hence crimes had occurred. Unfortunately Sri Lanka’s domestic mechanism’s namely, the Presidential Commission on Grave Human Rights Abuses, with IIGEP monitoring, as well as judicial proceedings have neither established the facts nor punished the culprits. Accordingly the next of kin of one of the boys shot dead in Trincomalee as well as of one of the deceased in Muttur have filed action in the US Courts, under universal jurisdiction against President Mahinda Rajapakse. While the President is immune from prosecution within Sri Lanka, such immunity ceases to exist beyond our shores, except as sovereign immunity within limits while holding office. Summons for the case was duly served on the Secretary, Ministry of Justice as the appropriate authority under the relevant international covenants. In the event that Sri Lanka does not contest the case, as ex parte trial may proceed which could result in a prejudicial judgment and also provide legal precedents for other cases.

Read the rest of this entry »

Roshen Chanaka, a twenty two year old free trade zone worker has already paid the supreme sacrifice in the defense of and in defiance against the proposal to tinker with the EPF and ETF systems in the form of a pension scheme for private sector workers. The large scale protests, the shooting dead of a young demonstrator, the strong protest by the German Ambassador of the police assault on workers inside German investor factories, the consequent early retirement of the Inspector General of Police, the incoherence of the minister concerned regarding the proposal, the mixed messages from various government spokespersons, the sudden presidential decision to exempt free trade zone workers from the scheme, the lack of public information on the proposal as a whole and the strong caution by employer groups with regards the same, makes the proposed private sector pension scheme the most relevant and dominant topic in the public policy arena and an essential issue that needs close examination in the public interest.

Read the rest of this entry »