tamilweek.com

by Col R Hariharan

Though Sri Lanka finished the Eelam War in triumph a year back, its battle with the international community does not appear to be over. It was joined in right earnest last week when the maverick Sri Lankan minister and ‘revolutionary’ turned politician Wimal Weerawansa spearheaded a siege of the UN office in Colombo. He was demanding the withdrawal of the UN expert panel appointed to advise the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sri Lanka’s human rights and humanitarian record during the war.

But Weerawansa added more spice to the protest when he went on “fast unto death.” The National Freedom Front leader being no Mahatma Gandhi nobody expected him to die a martyr. Though theatricals of the protest were overdone, it was more than a publicity gimmick or a photo opportunity for Weerawansa because it had official blessing. President Mahinda Rajapaksa showed his solidarity with the minister’s action by visiting the fasting minister and ‘persuaded’ him to break his fast on the second day.
If paralysing work at the UN office was the objective of the protest, the minister’s mission was eminently successful. Work at the UN office was paralysed and the UN asked its staffers not to come out. The UNDP Regional Centre in Colombo was shut down. The UN Resident Coordinator in Colombo, Neil Buhne was called back to New York.

Buhne is going back now after the UN clearly articulated its expectations from Colombo: better treatment of the U.N. family in Sri Lanka, progress of commitments covered in the Joint Statement of May 2009 including resettlement of internally displaced persons, political reconciliation and accountability. So the minister’s protest has not only failed, but also appears to have firmed up the UN Secretary General’s resolve to go ahead with the work of UN experts’ panel.

As Sri Lanka considers the action of the UN Secretary General an infringement of national sovereignty, its ire is understandable. But the way it is being handled as a populist ploy than through diplomatic moves makes one suspect the intentions. Is it part of President’s strategy to milk the issue for internal political gains? Although, his overwhelming public support was confirmed in the recent presidential and parliamentary polls, the protests focusing on outsider interference does put opposition on the defensive to temper their criticism of the government.

Ban Ki-moon was well within his powers to appoint a panel of experts to advise him on the issue. The Secretary General’s action would have provided a safe option to Sri Lanka to defer the issue from adverse limelight. It would also have given inkling on the follow up action likely at the UN Security Council or the UN Human Rights Commission.
But why Sri Lanka has chosen to do have a confrontation with the UN? Obviously it does not want any external body to investigate allegations of human rights violations.

The second explanation is the fear that allowing experts’ panel would lead to probe into war crimes allegations against Sri Lanka army during the last phase of war. Sri Lanka’s prickly reaction only strengthens suspicions of its conduct. The relentless efforts of influential international NGOs and diehard Tamil Diaspora Eelam lobby to bring Sri Lanka to the dock on this count are likely to continue regardless of Sri Lanka stand on UN panel.

Sri Lanka’s objection should be viewed in the backdrop of its long term skirmish with “foreign interference.” It started with its bitter experience of the way the Monitoring Mission of the peace process 2002 functioned. And international role in Sri Lanka’s conflict became a contentious issue in the presidential poll 2005. Its attitude hardened in 2006 after a disastrous experience with an international panel of eminent persons’ inquiry into alleged killings carried out by security men which was given up midway due to lack of cooperation from Sri Lankan side. And its international reputation had been on the down slide even before the war started when scores of people ‘disappeared’ and media men were hounded.

The common thread running in the UN action as well as the European Union’s suspension of the GSP+ export tariff concessions is the trust deficit in Sri Lanka’s words. And to dismiss as international prejudice or conspiracy to belittle Sri Lanka’s triumph against terrorism would be foolhardy. More situations of a similar kind are in the making.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has suggested to the Indian government to assess the situation in the affected areas in Sri Lanka and the progress of rehabilitation measures undertaken by the Sri Lankan government for internally displaced Tamils. Though he has left the option of who will carry out this task to Dr Manmohan Singh, unless a special envoy is sent the issue would hang fire in Tamil Nadu. And both the leaders cannot afford it as the state is getting ready for assembly poll. The chief minister was only reflecting public opinion and what the Indian government had been asking Colombo in private. How Sri Lanka is going to handle this ‘foreign interference’ is the moot question?

This time around nobody can accuse the TN chief minister of being anti-Sinhalese. Around the same time, he had arrested Seeman, the Kollywood director turned leader of the pro-LTTE Naam Tamilar party, under the National Security Act for ‘inciting the public’ against Sinhalese in Chennai.

Whatever be the President’s internal agenda, he urgently needs to repair fractured international credibility. And regardless of Sri Lanka’s own opinion, its waning credibility will expose it to more and more international criticism. The NAM (non aligned movement) lobby at the UN has already shown to be an unreliable forum to plead for Sri Lanka. China, Russia and India – considered as friends of Sri Lanka – cannot be expected repeatedly to bale out Sri Lanka in the face of strong international line up.

The reason is not merely the demand for greater international accountability of nations, but also greater global awareness of rights of people and citizens. So the issue cannot be wished away; the President is bound to be questioned locally and internationally till their credibility gap is bridged with reasoning.

Sri Lanka’s credibility is directly related to three issues: its human rights record and accountability, rehabilitation issues of displaced Tamils, and vintage grievances of Tamil population. Actions like holding the cabinet meeting in Kilinochi, or providing better connectivity from North do not convince the public when people in villages around are destitute and there is lack of security and trust in government.

For its own good Sri Lanka should seriously look at human rights record and improve it. It is not India or the international community, but almost all opposition parties, media, and President Rajapaksa’s erstwhile chief of defence staff have complained of serious human rights violations. And many of them continue to do so. The emergency regulations are still haunting the public; even now Tamils in Wellawatte are asked to register with the police as pointed out by the National Peace Council.

The strategy to ward off international intrusion in what governments do is simple: be proactive and develop systems to be so. This helps the nation to look beyond playing sleight of hand competition in international forums as Sri Lanka is doing now. And it also enables the nation build its value systems, a great asset in forging ethnic amity. But this is more easily said than done, particularly if those in power want to make political capital out of problems. Even in such an agenda improving leader’s credibility is never a liability.

(Col R Hariharan, a retired Military Intelligence specialist on South Asia, served with the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka as Head of Intelligence. He is associated with the Chennai Centre for China Studies and the South Asia Analysis Group. E-Mail: colhari@yahoo.com Blog: www.colhariharan.org)

By Shiyam Loganathan

The 2010 Winter Olympics Games in Vancouver have now come to an end. It’s very inspiring for us to watch the athletes compete and perform with such grace and passion. Olympic games are always a momentous occasion in that they come once every four years.

We don’t get the benefit of watching them on a yearly basis like the traditional sports such as football, basketball, and hockey. Neither do the athletes get the added benefit of coming back year after year to compete. Perhaps it’s these factors that make the Olympic games the special occasion that it is.

These athletes train long and hard for years leading up to the events. While training for the Games, it takes a lot of hard work, mental focus, and determination. They are constantly pushing themselves and making great strides to become the best that they can be and it’s all worth it once they make their mark at the Olympic Games.

We can’t help but notice the look of hope and victory in the eyes of the athletes leading up to the Games. In their mind, they are already victorious for simply having the opportunity to compete in Vancouver. These athletes started with a dream and a vision.

They could have easily settled for mediocrity and thought, “Well, what person doesn’t want to compete in the Olympics. What are the chances that I would even make it?” They didn’t accept those negative thoughts of defeat, they pushed beyond the odds and the fear and because of this, their passion took them a long way.

These Olympic athletes are no different then us. They started out at the same place we did, they applied themselves and took the extraordinary measures to accomplish the level of success in which they’ve arrived, something we all should be inspired to follow. A wise man once said, “The sky is the limit to what you can have.”

The Monsoon Journal joins in the call that ushers the Olympic Inspiration; to turn that inspiration into motivation that will push and propel yourself forward into your journey of success. [from the publisher's desk of The Monsoon Journal]

By Dharman Dharmaratnam
Colombo

Thai Poosam is a significant day for ethnic Tamils living in Malaysia, Mauritius, Reunion and Singapore. This year, it falls on Saturday, January 30. The holiday denotes the full moon of the month of Thai and is dedicated to the God Murukan or Skanda, also known as Seyon in the Sangam-era of Tamil literature.

Thai Poosam 2010, pics by Nomad YC

‘Tai Poosam Cavadee’ is a public holiday in Mauritius and Reunion . It is a holiday in certain states of Malaysia. There were moves to lobby the Singapore Government to make it an official holiday in Singapore in lieu of Wesak which had been declared an ‘Indian holiday’ though largely confined to Sino-Singaporeans influenced by Sri Lankan Buddhist missionary activity. [The Chinese, Malays and Indians in Singapore are entitled to two public holidays each. Two days had already been allocated for the Chinese lunar new year. Deepavali had been designated as one 'Indian holiday'].

Murugan Temple in Verugal, Sri Lanka East-pic by: drs. sarajevo

Thai Pongal is not a noteworthy event for the ethnic Tamils of those lands. It is not observed with the same Jaffna fervour amongst the estate workers of central Sri Lanka either. Is there a reason for this?

I would like to surmise why. Thai Pongal is a harvest festival dedicated to the Sun God. It coincides with the purported shift north in the movement of the sun. This is known as Uttaraayanam and has a special resonance for rural farming communities that have tilled their lands for generations. This is witnessed to this day in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. Each day in the entire month of Maarkali, Tamil farming communities draw decorative kolams using rice flour on their front porch and place a symbolic Pillaiyar [Ganesha as the patron deity of the farmer] at the center of the Kolam. The month long observance concludes with Thai Pongal.

However, the colonial interlude in the history of Tamil Nadu in the 1800s led to a breakdown of the vibrant rural paddy economy, of local authority and local irrigation networks. This resulted in repeated famines. The hunger and destitution forced many landless laborers to move across the seas to Malaya, Mauritius, Reunion and the tea plantations in Sri Lanka in the 1800s. The rural farmer lifestyle with its Vellalar/Mudaliyar-dominated caste feudalism had ended.

Like the God Murukan who moved out of his ‘parental home’ and sought his own ‘individual destiny’ as it were, the descendents of the indentured Tamil migrants who had been detached from their rural roots emphasized Thai Poosam as part of their new and at times more prosperous lives in far off lands. This was an expression of their independent tenacity in the new frontier of Tamil geographic space.

Many of the indentured laborers who moved overseas hailed from the fiercely independent Maravar/Thevar/Kallar/Thondaman caste noted for their devotion to the God Murukan. The Thevar Polygars/Palaiyakarar in Tirunelveli in the deep south of Tamil Nadu and the affiliated Thondamans in Pudukottai in central Tamil Nadu fiercely resisted the brief intrusion of the Delhi Sultanate in the 1300s, the raids of Tippu Sultan in the late 1700s and the onset of British rule in the 1800s. This militarized community formed regiments in the Vijayanagara and Madurai Mahratta Nayak armies. They were deeply religious and patronized Hindu religious institutions.

Thai Poosam therefore is a statement of displacement, independence and a tenacity of spirit, not agrarian conformity. While Ganesha went round his parents, Murukan went round the universe in search of the much sought after ‘Mango’. This holiday is a salute to self-reliance, perhaps even defiance. While this is conjecture on my part, it offers possible insights into the psyche of the 19th century Tamil diaspora.

Denial of Rights of SL Pensioners Abroad – New Payment Procedures

By Displaced Sri Lankan Pensioner

Also read related update to this article: More on ‘Denial of Rights of SL Pensioners Abroad’

Confusion surrounds the payment of monthly pension to pensioners living abroad with the Government of Sri Lanka imposing new procedures with no direct or indirect intimation given to the recipients of pensions. These changes that involve substantial departure from the pre-existing method of payments have been announced by Pension Circular 16 of September 2009 issued by the Director General of Pensions and published in the Sri Lanka’s Department of Pensions website (www.pensions.gov.lk).

Although many pensioners living abroad do not know that a new Circular has been issued, what is surprising is that its provisions are declared to be applicable immediately, that is October 2009. Not many have access to computers and also do not know how to use a computer.

According to the Pension Circular, at present “there are nearly 25,000 Sri Lankan pensioners living abroad, mostly in Australia (including New Zealand), India, Canada, United Kingdom and United States of America. A considerable number of them are also living in Middle East and few other countries as well.”

In an apparent attempt to justify the changes, the Circular confesses that “payment of pension in the past has proceeded (sic) without appropriate information of them in the Department of Pensions and without proper method of payment or management.” What a self-confessed indictment of the functioning of a government department that has been in the public eye for several decades? Despite its failings, one must accept that the old system of pension payments had served the retired government servants as well as many widows and orphans honourably who had joined government service because of the guaranteed pension benefit after retirement and in case of early death some assured income for their direct dependants.

New Procedure

Under the new procedures, payment of Civil Pension or Widows’ & Orphans’ pension are to be made to pensioners resident abroad through Sri Lanka overseas Missions or through a special bank account in a local (Sri Lanka) bank. Further facility will be made to draw the pension via Divisional Secretariats subject to certain conditions.

The new procedures set out indicate a substantial increase in the paper work and possible delay in payments. Moreover, the additional cost to the government both in Colombo and in overseas Sri Lankan Embassies and High Commissions because of the extra work involved will be considerable.

Via Embassies and High Commissions

With regard to the pension payments to be made through Embassies/and High Commissions of Sri Lanka, the circular states that this facility will be available only in five countries, namely, “United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, India and Australia. Payments to pensioners in New Zealand will be made through High Commission of Sri Lanka in Canberra, Australia”.

* Pension file for each country will be prepared and maintained by the Department of Pensions in Colombo. The payment file prepared will be sent to the specified Missions monthly.

* Embassy/High Commission will take action to pay pension accordingly and after verification of his/her existence. Payments will be made by cheques or by crediting to the relevant bank account of the pensioner. A life certificate must be submitted by the pensioner to the embassy every three months.

* The money needed by the overseas Missions for monthly pension payments will be sent through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Colombo. However, monthly payment details should be sent by the Missions to the Department of Pensions.

* Hereafter, all pension payments should be made only in compliance with the file prepared by the Department of Pensions in Colombo.

General instructions to SL Embassies/High Commissions/Missions

* Monthly pension file will be prepared by the Department of Pensions and dispatched to Missions from October 2009. Relevant data will be available in the official website www.pensions.gov.lk. This raises the question of the right to privacy of the pensioners. “The monthly pension file will be prepared in accordance with the information provided by pensioners via ‘Data Entry Forms’. Pension of pensioners who have not submitted the required information” will be temporarily nullified. These will be paid together with arrears from the approaching months on receipt of information”. Therefore, all pensioners resident abroad must, without fail, submit the necessary information via Data entry Forms to The Department of Elections, Colombo.

* The Missions must collect the Life Certificate of each pensioner at least once in three months to ascertain that the pensioner is living. Monthly pensions should be paid by the Missions only after verifying whether or not the pensioner is still living. Life Certificate may be prepared (as in Annexure 2) or as preferred by Heads of Missions in the specified countries. It should be certified by an officer in the Mission, Chief Incumbent or a Priest of other religions, officer in the (Sri Lankan) Army, Navy and Air Force who had migrated from Sri Lanka or any other government officer, Doctor, Engineer, Accountant or Notary Public/Justice of Peace. Ratification by the pensioner himself/herself is adequate “if the pensioner personally calls in the Mission to submit the life certificate”.

* After verification, pension payments will be made by the relevant Sri Lankan missions either by cheques or direct credit to the relevant bank accounts of pensioners as appropriate.

* In the case of widows’ & orphans’ pension, it is necessary to verify whether the pensioner has not remarried at the time when the pension is paid. The Embassies/High Commissions/Missions should get an affidavit from the widow/widower once in each year to ensure the pensioner is not remarried.

Payments through approved special bank account

i. The special account may be opened only at People’s Bank – Queen’s Branch’ Facilities are available for pensioners to open this bank account having arrived in Sri Lanka or while overseas.

ii. In order to open this account, pensioners are required to submit duly filled Data Entry Form, Mandate form, Affidavit, Letter of Consent, Documents submitted by pensioners resident abroad should have been ratified by Head of Embassy/High Commission/ Mission.

iii. The following conditions are applicable to this account:

Joint accounts or ATM cards may not be used. Money may be drawn by pensioners themselves having arrived in Sri Lanka. (Money in this account is not transferable, however this will be considered in due course).
iv. Pensions will be directly credited to this pensioner’s bank account and pensioners are required to submit life certificates to this department (Department of Pensions, Colombo) once in three months.

v. This Department will take action to instruct bank officials regarding recollection of money of expired pensioners or overpayments and making payments to heirs. (The writer’s comment: The readers should fathom the bureaucratic work involved).

Comments

The requirement that a bank account to be opened in a specified branch of a stipulated bank (People’s Bank, Queen’s Branch) and conditions imposed on the right of the pensioner to operate his/her bank account are unduly restrictive, plainly unreasonable and legally questionable. It seems to limit the right of the account holder who is resident abroad to withdraw his/her own money only when in Sri Lanka. It also seems to prohibit the right of the account holder to place a standing order via this account to meet a regular expenditure, or meet expenses in Sri Lanka by issuing cheques while being broad. It also makes it impossible for pensioners, resident abroad to use their pension money from this account to financially help their kith and kin on a regular basis, or make arrangements with the bank to meet their financial obligations within Sri Lanka.

At a time when the country needs to conserve foreign exchange, the rationale for the Government’s decision to pay pensioners living abroad their pensions in foreign currency is inexplicable.

If the proposed methods are to prevent the abuse of the pension rights by fraudsters, it is very doubtful whether there will be any financial benefit to the government. If the existing system has been properly administered with proper checking procedures, the overpayments would not have happened. The extent of this loss is not known. There are many areas where the waste of public funds is huge. These do not require elaborate administrative arrangements as in the case of pension payments to expatriates and the saving can be achieved just by policy changes, eradication of corruption and improved performances. Is the focus on the pensions of Sri Lankan retired officers and widows of government officers resident abroad would appear to be a diversion away from other important reforms needed to improve the efficiency of the public service, which now lacks proper controlling mechanisms as in the good old days when many of the present pensioners were serving the elected governments and the public honourably.

In order to give an idea of the additional demands on the pensioners in their twilight years, the aforementioned forms are given here in Adobe format.

Those who wish to fill in the forms are advised to logon to the website www.pensions.gov.lk

by Dushy Ranetunge in London

In the court of public opinion, in the case of the Chief Justice (CJ) vs the monks, the CJ has clearly come out on top, going by the various comments posted on web sites and comments by the general public.

This has proved to be an important case in testing support for the more radical elements in the Buddhist clergy who have suggested among others to carry out Sabda pooja (more noise pollution), a special court for Buddhist monks and even request for a Parliamentary select committee to investigate the Chief Justice.

If it was possible in Buddhism to declare a Soloman Rushdie style fatwa on the Chief Justice, even this might have been done by now.

The call for a Parliametary Select Committee investigation into the CJ came from the Ven. Galagodatte Gnanasara Thera, Director of the National Observation Centre against Unethical Conversions. He had stated that the CJ had demeaned the Buddhist clergy in a recent ruling, and verdicts had been questionable in around 100 cases heard by him. The monk seems to be questioning the verdicts of the Supreme Court, possibly placing him in contempt of court.

He has even taken a pot shot at the Mahanayake’s by stating that the top prelates had been out of their mind and belittled Buddhist traditions when the CJ challenged the dignity of the clergy.

Earlier a Mahanayake had come out in support of the Chief Justice and declared that the Buddhist priests must respect the law of the country. He suggested that they should stand and pay respects in Parliament and in court.

Since President J R Jayawarene’s Presidential constitution has placed the office of the President somewhat above the law, it seems that some of these radical monks also want to place the Buddhist Sanga above or outside the laws of the Republic.

Ven. Gnanasara Thera had also stated that had the country’s chief justice been a non-Buddhist, there would not have been a ruling against a monk in that manner
Lakshman Hettigoda, a reader, of the Lanka dissent website had posted a comment that “had the CJ been a non Buddhist he would have been crucified by now.”

There has also been a call for a Sanga-raja to be appointed.

Other than the case involving the Buddhist monk in relation to noise pollution, another monk had been arrested last week for vandalizing a Hindu temple in Colombo North.

There is little or no support for these radical monks and comments by the JHU this week, trying to deflect some of the flak coming its way from the radicals, dangerously exposes it in the eyes of the general public. The JHU may face a similar fate as what the JVP faced in the recent provincial council elections and face political obliteration.

Many have compared the Rajapakse presidency to be in the same mould as that of the SWRD Bandaranayake’s legacy. SWRD quite unintentionally gave the loony fringe of the Buddhist priests a sense of empowerment and in the end met his end at the hands of a Buddhist monk.

Rajapakse must be careful to distance himself from these radicals. The likes of Mervin Silva and the mad monks will only bring him grief and facilitate his downfall.

SAARC, the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation which held their first Summit in Dhaka in 1985 continues to be promoted to the people of South Asia as a beacon that will emulate the successes of ASEAN. Inspired by the success of regional organizations such as the European Union [EU] and Association of South East Asian Nations [ASEAN], SAARC is looked upon to deliver well being to all people of the South Asian region. Exercising bilateralism via SAARC is touted by leaders of South Asia as an effort that will benefit the people.

But when SAARC is compared with organizations such as ASAEN, ‘A pall of apathy hangs over SAARC’, says columnist Saybhan Samat of Rajagiriya, Sri Lanka: