Archive for Commentary

Denial of Rights of Sri Lanka Pensioners Abroad

November 1, 2009 at 10:37 pm · Filed under Commentary

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

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CJ vs The Monks; CJ comes out on top

September 9, 2008 at 10:45 pm · Filed under Commentary

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.

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A travesty in bilateralism for people of Sri Lanka and South Asia

July 3, 2008 at 6:31 pm · Filed under Commentary

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:

Waste of time, effort and money

by Saybhan Samat

The South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation [SAARC] will hold its Summit from July 29 to August 3 in Colombo. It was originally to be held in Kandy, but due to security reasons it was later decided to hold it in Colombo. Ordinary Sri Lankans are burdened with a sense of anxiety over this Summit meeting, justifiably because of many reasons.

Firstly because while the ordinary masses are asked to tighten their belts and are staggering in the face of the skyrocketing cost of living, the SAARC Summit is to cost Sri Lanka a whopping Rs. 3 billion. Secondly there is apprehension that to commemorate the anniversary of the July 83 pogram on the Tamils, during the tenure of JR Jayewardene regime, the LTTE may unleash a sensational attack in Colombo to abort the holding of the Summit. Thirdly most of the countries who will be participating in the Summit have expressed apprehension of the prevailing security situation in the island.

It has been reported that the Indian Prime Minister is to bring his own security contingent to Colombo for the Summit. Finally the citizens of the SAARC countries are not enamoured of SAARC as it has in no way improved their living standards in a tangible way. For them SAARC Summits are non-events and a wastage of time and money.

Inspired by the monumental success of two other regional organizations viz. the European Union [EU] and Association of South East Asian Nations [ASEAN], countries of the Asian region viz. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka formed the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation which held their first Summit in Dhaka in 1985. Recently Afghanistan too has joined SAAR.

The principles of the SAARC stated that :

I. Co-operation within the framework of the Association is based on respect for the principles of sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity, political independence, non-interference in the internal affairs of other states and mutual benefits.

II. Such co-operation is to complement and not to substitute bilateral or multilateral co-operation.

III. Such co-operation should be consistent with bilateral and multilateral agreements of the member states.

IV. Decisions at all levels in SAARC are to be taken on the basis of unanimity and

V. Bilateral and contentious issues are excluded from its deliberations.

Unlike the EU, though its member countries having earlier fought two world wars amongst themselves, they co-operated without prejudice or mistrust in the forming and running of the EU. However, in SAARC there is deep inter-state mistrust in the region and before evolving a practical plan in the formative stage, SAARC members were more engaged in confidence building measures.

India adopted a patronizing attitude which was disliked by Pakistan. India’s policy in Bhutan and Sikkim, together with its interference in Sri Lanka by the air dropping of food provisions for the Tamils in Jaffna in 1987, was viewedwith mistrust. On the other hand, India felt that the other nations were ganging up against her.

Feeling their way with mistrust, prejudice and suspicion, SAARC in the formative years initiated co-operation on non- economic issues considered to be non- controversial and therefore desirable. Most non- economic issues were soft and easy to agree upon such as sports, culture and education.

Perhaps, the only economic issue that entered the SAARC agenda during the early days of the association was the need to combat poverty in the region and setting up an independent commission to look into the matter in 1991. Poverty too was non-controversial and there was unanimity on the issue. Other than poverty during the first decade of SAARC’s operation, there were hardly any measures taken to promote economic co-operation in the region.

It was during the start of the second decade of SAARC that economic co-operation came into its agenda. Though SAARC emerged in 1985, only in 1995 did a key component economic connectivity in trade make an entry into the SAARC agenda. Intra- regional trade in goods was to be granted trade preference by the SAPTA.

Before the birth of SAPTA, private sector chambers of South Asia took note of the existing open economies of the region, especially after India’s reforms in 1991 and formed the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) in 1992 to promote trade and investment flows in the region.

The SAPTA was vulnerable to regional politics with a number of negotiation rounds being postponed until the political situation became conducive for negotiations.

The SAPTA was based on a ‘positive list’ approach and thus, the negotiations were based on product by product approach which was a time consuming process. Moreover, most actively traded goods were left out of preferential tariffs. Non- tariff barriers were not simultaneously addressed when granting tariff preferences. Consequently the SAPTA was not effective in stimulating intra regional trade in the region which averaged about 4%.

In 1997 at the ninth SAARC Summit, a GEP was formed to set goals and a vision for SAARC so that economic co- operation could be made more meaningful. The GEP suggested the following with regard to economic co-operation:

[A] Regional economic integration, including negotiating a treaty on South Asia Free Trade Area [SAFTA] and

[B] Reforming SAARC institutions.

It envisaged a SAARC customs union with harmonization of external tariffs by 2015 and a SAARC economic union with harmonization of monetary and fiscal policies by 2020. It also recommended a South Asia Development Fund [SADF] to finance development activities in the least developed countries.

The SAFTA treaty was ratified at the 12th Summit in early 2004. SAFTA came into operation in July 2006. Even this treaty, just like SAPTA for various reasons, has not still established any noteworthy inter-state trade and economic connectivity and regional integration in South.

It is now 23 years after SAARC was established, but it is still unable to get off the ground in any meaningful manner. The political leaders who have been constantly changing and the more permanent officials have not shown any real commitment to the concept. We in South Asia should indeed be ashamed of ourselves when we compare our near zero record with that of ASEAN during same period. A pall of apathy hangs over SAARC.

On account of its inability to deliver anything significant to the suffering people of South Asia, the whole exercise of SAARC Summits and other activities appears to have been a waste of time, effort and money of the people of South Asia.

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India duty bound to ‘Indian Tamils’ in Sri Lanka

July 2, 2008 at 7:52 pm · Filed under Commentary

By S. Thambyrajah

One of the greatest, noblest and most distinguished sons of India, Jawarharlal Nehru visited Ceylon in 1939. He drafted and prepared a document dated 25.7.1939 and his untiring efforts organised the Ceylon Indian Congress ( CIC), the forerunner to the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC). The CIC had 4 important aims and objects well worth re-producing.

They are:

* The attainment of “Puma Swaraj” for the people of India,

* The attainment of “Puma Swaraj” for the people of Ceylon,

* To promote and safeguard the interests of Indians in Ceylon,

* To promote amity and closer relations between India and Ceylon and co-operation of the people of India and Ceylon in the attainment of common ideals.

Its principal purpose no doubt was to organise the humbler classes of the Indian population, particularly the Indian immigrant workers.

Today, fifty years later, there are in Sri Lanka 15 lakh or more of “Indian Tamils”, (as opposed to “Ceylon Tamils” who are claiming the North and East as their traditional homeland.) The civil war which has lasted over a quarter century, arising from the claim of the traditional homeland is causing misery, fear and disastrous consequences to the “Indian Tamils” in Sri Lanka.

Therefore the Indian Government is duty bound to intervene. It is moral and obligatory and cannot by any stretch of logic be construed as “interference in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka.”

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Bomb blasts in Colombo and Tamil media

June 28, 2008 at 10:03 pm · Filed under Commentary

by C. Sugumar

There has been a spate of bombings targeting civilians in Colombo, its suburbs and other areas during the course of the past six months or so. These bombs have been placed in crowded buses and trains on most occasions. The perception that many people have of these bombings is that they are mindless acts of terrorism perpetrated by a desperate terrorist group unable to withstand the onslaught of the government’s mighty armed forces on the battlefield.

Certain persons in the government declare that the objective of these bombings is to provoke a backlash against the Tamils living in the south like in July, 1983 in the hope that it would destroy the economy and lead to foreign intervention. But what has to be said is that even without these bomb blasts the economy has already been destroyed anyway.

The Tamil newspapers however paint an entirely different picture. According to them most of the bus and train bombings of the recent past have been in the nature of retaliatory attacks triggered by the deaths or serious injuries caused to innocent civilians in the north by the government’s armed forces who oddly enough are portrayed as benevolent persons in a series of state sponsored television advertisements.

It is being reported that each incident relating to a bus or train bombing here was connected to some specific earlier event that occurred in the conflict areas resulting in civilian deaths and injuries. Some of these incidents are blamed on the Deep Penetration Units (DPUs) of the army which are deployed to carry out search and destroy missions in enemy territory.

They are supposed to attack strategic targets and also eliminate key personnel in the LTTE hierarchy whenever possible. Apparently the DPUs have a propensity to pick on civilian targets when they are unable to zero in on any hard target. This inevitably results in a very prompt ‘tit for tat’ bombing in the south.

Aerial bombings and heavy calibre machine guns fired from aircraft also cause a large number of civilian deaths, serious injuries and property damage in the north regularly. If the damage is heavy, swift retribution is meted out in some other place by way of a bus or train bombing. It would seem that every time there is an explosion or blast in the north its echo is heard in the south within two, three days.

The Tamil newspapers also state that little or no information is presented in the Colombo based Sinhala and English media about the regular massacres and mayhem inflicted on Tamil civilians in the conflict areas by the army, air force and other special forces. At most there may be a passing reference to some incident and that too after it is no longer newsworthy.

This, they say is in sharp contrast to the massive coverage given to the acts of violence unleashed by the LTTE in these parts with graphic footage and in such an impressive manner that even the wail of ambulance sirens is projected into the drawing rooms of persons living in places far removed from the scene of disaster!

As the Tamil newspapers continue to carry on in this vein, I just thought I should draw attention to these rather divergent views for the benefit of those who cannot or do not read these newspapers.

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Usefulness of SAARC and Indian Visas for Sri Lankans

June 27, 2008 at 9:39 pm · Filed under Commentary

by S. Rajaratnam

How useful is SAARC?

For sometime many Lankans have questioned the validity of the SAARC grouping. The Press has highlighted these concerns with little response from the Government. The time has come for us to seriously ask ourselves as to what good has SAARC done so far in terms of invigorating trade, freeing of travel restrictions to enable the different peoples of the region to visit each other? Has trade improved within the region in the past few years of the existence of SAARC? How many Lankans have seen merchandise from Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan here? Have our exporters found new markets in countries other than India and Pakistan? It may be noted the increased trade between India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka is due to specific bilateral trades between the 3 countries and has little to do with SAARC endeavours. Just because the EU and ASEAN were successes there is no reason why the already meagre resources of the smaller countries in the region should be wasted on the regular unnecessary tamashas under the SAARC flag.

Lankans have been demanding reciprocity from India for the “Visa on arrival” facility we extend to their nationals for years. This Sri Lanka has faithfully done in prompt compliance with SAARC resolutions. India flippantly continues to ignore her responsibility. She has only succeeded in convincing our weak Foreign Ministry officials with strange and untenable excuses of potential danger from imaginary LTTE and Pakistani terrorists. Hundreds of Lankans – old men and women, some of whom are in poor physical shape; pregnant women, children – are allowed to suffer only in search of a mere Visa. The escape route the IHC chose to be rid of the public glare by outsourcing Visa formalities at Bambalapitiya has only exacerbated the Lankan woe. Whereas earlier sometimes lucky applicants were able to get their Visas in a day, the present out-sourcing process requires one to hand over the documents one day and call to check the fate of their Visas many days later. Imagine the suffering and unnecessary expenses of an applicant coming from Jaffna, Trincomalee or Batticaloa – from where, in fact, many of the applications come from. I am tempted to believe it is suffering such as this that regional groupings – believed to be committed to assist their nationals should concentrate and not the wining and dining one often sees and hears. It is clear, where Sri Lanka is concerned, the return on investment on SAARC cannot be justified. SAARC seems to dominate TV and media time when in session to the bloated egos of politicians but has offered little to solve the problems of the people. I have not commented on the asymmetry between countries e.g. India and Maldives that immediately brings to question the wisdom of SAARC. The insensitive refusal by India to assist in the Visa matter makes it clear SAARC should be done away with pronto. It is not only Visa applicants to India will support my call but also several hundreds of mendicants who have been ordered “to get lost” from Colombo streets until the SAARC VIP’s leave. They will be as keen to be SAARCers as much as I. O tempora! O mores! [dailymirror.lk]

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