Only Tamils are terrorists; not Pakistanis?

It is more than 48 hours Sri Lankan cricketers were attacked horribly by Pakistani terrorists in Lahore and the silence in Colombo surprises me. It is almost deafening.

For a moment imagine the reaction if the same happened here in Colombo. Having probably more suicide bombers than gunmen this is not the type of the attack LTTE would have dared, but for arguments sake, let us assume they did.

I can imagine the series of events that will follow.

Within no time we will see colorful posters from NMAT, JHU and Wimal Weerawansa all over the city condemning the attack with an emotional appeal. I am sure Weerawansa would have come up with a bright coloured poster of Ajantha Mendis in action with the slogan “Kuriru Koti Thrasthavaadhayen Kreedaava Surakimu!”

We would have also seen them calling press conferences one after the other. Newspapers would have been full of statements from every Tom Dick and Medhananda condemning the attack.

I am also sure to have received minimum twenty emails by now how LTTE tried to attack our sportsmen ever since its inception. (I am sure they would have dug enough evidence t prove the case.)

Not to mention the blogsphere. By this time Lanka Libertarian is sure to have taken a round of gunfire on peaceniks. (Yes, the usual lot. Everyone knows the names by heart now; no need to repeat.)

Is this what we see? Certainly not. Enough talk, but I do not see anyone seriously condemning the attack. I also do not see anyone angry. Isn’t that surprising?

Apart from the customary condolence messages from key political parties I do not see anyone bothered at all. The only exception is Udaya Gammanpila, who links the incident to LTTE – so that does not really count. He is contesting the elections, like me, so exploiting the opportunity to win some attention is acceptable. On the other hand Gammanpila will blame LTTE even if mother passes wind.

We see neither posters on walls nor press conferences.

In the blogsphere, Lanka Libertarian, who once wrote ‘i don’t refer much to patriotism in this blog. for instance my arguments for defeating terrorist pussies (with violence if needs be) are based not on patriotism but on preserving human rights, freedom, justice, and democracy’ is maintaining a deafening silence as if this incident has nothing to do with freedom, democracy and justice. Human rights of Sri Lankan cricketers have conveniently been forgotten.

Voice in Colombo has reported the incident but yet to offer his opinion and/or condemn the attack. So are so many other bloggers, Sinhala and English.

Suddenly they have become presenters of facts instead of opinions.

And our friend Ranuka, who once openly questioned me why I don’t condemn LTTE attacks has nothing to say about this incident. Why not he practices what he preaches? (As for me, I normally do not waste space condemning every attack; instead I voice my opinions only on incidents that I think worth talking about)

What does all this tell us?

Those who pretend they are forever anti-terrorist are actually not. They do not necessarily react to acts of terrorism. What they do is overreacting subconsciously to their inner feelings of racism. Tamils are the traditional enemies of Sinhalese for millennia. I will be surprised to see that racism not gone into our genes. This requires an effort from one to control overreacting to Tamil acts, terrorist or not. Most don’t care and let their feelings out. Same or worse done by other terrorist groups are ignored because that does not trigger their racist thinking. This includes racist wolves in libertarian clothes too. (Exaggerating and exploiting them for political gains, as Kurakkan uncle does now is another matter. )

So that is how only what Tamils do are branded acts of terrorism and no matter how brutal and inhuman they be, whatever done by Pakistanis may still not be called the same.

Who said there is no ethnic issue in Sri Lanka?

Who attacked Sri Lanka cricketers in Lahore: According to Conspiracy Theorists

See, No CCTV cameras!

Yesterday, Sri Lanka cricket team was attacked by ‘unidentified’ gunmen in Lahore; unknown to Pakistan police that is. Not to us. Our Conspiracy Theorists are far more advanced and smarter; especially after recent Sirasa attack, murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga and physical attack on Upali Tennakoone.

Don’t we know after every one of these incidents our Conspiracy Theorists lost no time in concluding the culprits? For example, now we all know Sirasa burned itself down (to claim insurance of US$ 6,000,000) with the help of a Municipal Councilor from Kotte – who just happened to be there at nearby Devram Vehera couple of hours before – and Lasantha Wickramatunga was killed by LTTE. Don’t we? (Come on, there are the facts: Police even found the son of the first cousin’s second cousin of the guy who picked Lasantha’s mobile phone has the number of the sister of the girl friend of a suspected LTTE suicide bomber.)

So we are sure people are interested in the opinions of Conspiracy Theorists about yesterday’s incident.

President Mahinda Rajapaksha:

Kumara Sangakkara is my close friend; as close as Lasantha Wickramatunga once was. So are Tilan Samawareera and Mahela Jayawardene. Ajantha Mendis too is very close to me. All are my close friends. So I was deeply shocked to hear this brutal attack. (At least this time I didn’t ask “oluvatama dheelada?” when somebody phoned me to inform.) This is a planned attempt to discredit our government’s military victories in North. I immediately ordered IGP use not one but TEN police teams to probe. (You see, with every incident we are increasing this number!) I also advised Dr. Hector Weerasinghe to send a special team of specialists from National Hospital to Pakistan and Rohitha Bogollagama to accompany them. But it was difficult to get tickets in short notice, so only Rohitha went, in the end, of course with his family and some family friends as usual.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksha (interviewed by Chris Morris of BBC):

What is Sri Lanka cricket team? (Heh Heh Heh) There are so many attacks everywhere. In the whole world there are attacks. Why are you asking only about Sri Lanka cricket team? (Heh Heh Heh) I am not concerned about that. People are panicking. Why people are worried about one cricket team? (Heh Heh Heh) LTTE kills so many people. Why you are not asking about them? (Heh Heh Heh Heh Heh) Somebody even reported this to CNN. I am going to put him in jail as soon as I can.

Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage:

I know for sure the Municipal Councilor who did this. Pakistan police received an anonymous call on 119, about the transfer of arms from a black defender van to a white van. This was done in front of the HSBC Lahore branch. So I can say for sure it was the Sri Lanka cricket team itself attacked themselves to claim US$ 6,000,000 insurance with the help of this Municipal Councilor. Otherwise tell me why they did not have CCTV cameras fixed in their vehicle?

Voice in Colombo (The Blogger):

Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage (One of the worst mouths out of 100 odd ministers we have), after a long time has said something meaningful. He asks “Why the attackers of Sri Lanka cricket team, were not captured on the CCTV system in the van?” Actually this was a question came to my mind; the first time I heard the story of the attack. (So I too am as intelligent as Mr. Aluthgamage)

Now these are the questions!
1) Wasn’t there a CCTV system fixed in the van that transported Sri Lanka cricket team?
2) If there were CCTV; then where are the footages of that incident?
3) If it was disabled or damaged by the thugs; why wasn’t it mentioned in the news?
Now answer!!

Lanka Libertarian (The Blogger):

in fact these peaceniks (except for few idiots, in literal sense) already know who did this well enough. they just ignore it and parrot the terrorist propaganda by deliberate choice. by peaceniks i mean people who think peace is worth any cost (even cost of human rights, justice, democracy, and freedom ). that is people like paikiasothy saravanamuttu, jehan perera, jayadeva uyangoda, sunila abeysekera, sunanda deshapriya, nimalka fernando, rohan edirisinha, jeevan thiagarajaha, and their ilk (and their underlings like sanjana hattotuwa). and their fellow travelers in the sl blogosphere like hypocrite indi.ca/padashow.wordpress.

Udaya Gammanpila of JHU:

There are wolf attacks and fox attacks. I think this is a dog attack.

IGP Jayantha Wickramaratne:

Yes, according to the President’s orders we have appointed TEN police teams to look into this. We have given highest priority to this matter. These TEN teams will certainly find the culprit in the same way they have found the culprits behind Lasantha Wickramatunga murder and Sirasa TV and Upali Tennekoone attacks, as soon as possible, that means next week, or if not week after, if not next month, if not month after, if not next year or the year after…

(No, I didn’t write this. Simply do not have time with an election around the corner. Just received by email with a request to post anonymously. – Ajith)

Sri Lanka cricket team bus attacked in Lahore, Pakistan – Reuters

Unidentified gunmen attacked the bus taking the Sri Lankan cricket squad and its police escort to a cricket stadium in the eastern Pakistan city of Lahore on Tuesday, according to witnesses and cricket officials.

Television channels reported that four people were killed, including at least three policemen, while a Pakistani cricket official said two members of the Sri Lankan squad were among the wounded.

http://www.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idUSTRE5220LW20090303

Is Sri Lanka heading for Anarchy?

A more competent and mature leader might have handled the situation better, but those are certainly not adjectives to describe our present rulers. So yesterday, for the second time, they stubbornly ignored the Supreme Court directive to reduce the petrol prices to Rs. 100, which it easily can, without incurring any losses. This can lead to a serious crisis between the government and judiciary.

Curbing tax will no doubt reduce the government revenue. Still it can easily live with what it earns. All what needs to go are the extravagances. Are these appropriate times for government ministers to indulge in extravagances? Can’t Rohitha Bogollagama cut down his pleasure trips by half? Can’t jumbo foreign entourages be reduced? Can’t the royal dinners at Temple Trees made less frequent? Why not the rulers themselves give an example to masses by tightening their belts a bit while public enjoy the benefit of the reduction of crude oil prices in world market?

Ignoring a Supreme Court decision is one of the worst precedents given in a democratic society. What example Kurakkan uncle sets to masses by ignoring the decisions of the highest court of the land? Does he, a lawyer by himself, imply that the government can do whatever it likes ignoring the law of the land? Or is he trying to imitate Prabhakaran by humiliating the judiciary?

It is even sadder that state media, especially Rupavahini and ITN, are used to project Chief Justice as a conspirator. We saw yesterday at least two senior ministers, including the Prime Minster himself taking pot shots at the judiciary. This will lead nowhere but anarchy. Government needs to listen to the wisdom of the judiciary.

At least he could have learnt from the mistakes of his dear friend Musharraf, but learning is not easy for Kurakkan uncle. The corridor he takes now leads to the same door Musharraf made his exit unceremoniously and dejected. Sadly he will make Sri Lanka another Pakistan before doing so. We had first indication yesterday. Stock market nearly crashed. Looks like the economy is going to hit us long before anybody steps into Killinochchi.

Do we, as a nation, have any hope when our elected leaders act in this stupid manner?

One Dictator Down: Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan resigns! (Don’t ask who will be next!)

After a lengthy address to the nation Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan finally resigned just few minutes back.

This was after after weeks of pressure on him to relinquish power.

More from the CNN report:

Musharraf told the nation in a televised address that he would step down — nearly nine years after he seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999.

It was unclear what the future would hold for Musharraf.

He quit just as the ruling party was taking steps to remove him in what would have been the first impeachment of a president in Pakistan’s history.

Local media reports said Musharraf has been granted “safe passage” out of the country. A spokeswoman for the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, which has taken steps to impeach Musharraf, did not rule out that possibility.

“The decision to give a safe passage to the president is on discretion of the coalition leadership,” Sherry Rehman told reporters Sunday.

Until now, Musharraf, 65, had stubbornly resisted pressure to resign. But his once-considerable power had eroded significantly since parties opposed to his rule swept to victory in parliamentary elections in February.

 
Musharraf spent a considerable chunk of his speech delivering a state-of-the-union style list of Pakistan’s “accomplishments” under his rule. He contrasted it with what he called the deteriorating economic situation now.

“After the elections, the nation wanted solutions from the new government,” he said. “But the politicians could not do so. A personal vendetta was started.”

The ruling coalition ratcheted up its attempts last week to force Musharraf to step down or face impeachment.

A coalition committee spent all last week compiling a list of charges against Musharraf, including corruption, economic mismanagement and violating the constitution.

Pakistan’s four provincial assemblies called on the president to give up power. Parliament was expected to consider an impeachment motion Monday or Tuesday.

“I think the people have mixed reviews to the news,” said Faisal Kapadia, a commodities trader in the city of Karachi. “Leading Pakistan is not an easy task, and anyone doing it comes under a lot of criticism.

“In the start, most Pakistanis were for him,” Kapadia said. “And he still has some supporters — especially because the new government, which promised to do things differently, has failed to do much in the past 100 days in power.”

A dramatic turn of events led Musharraf to power in 1999.

He was serving as military chief when then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif dismissed him, setting off a confrontation between the two men.

As Musharraf was returning from an overseas visit in October 1999, Sharif refused to allow the commercial airliner, with 200 passengers on board, to land.

Within hours, the army had deposed Sharif in a bloodless coup and the plane was allowed to touch down. By then, it had less than 10 minutes of fuel left.

Musharraf assumed control of the government, and a nation on the brink of economic ruins welcomed him with open arms.

“I think at this point, his intentions were good,” said Lt. Gen. Talat Masood, a political analyst. “He wanted to serve the country and to be different.”

During his rule, Pakistan attained respectable growth rates and established a generally favorable investment climate.

Along with that came a growing middle class, a more aggressive media, and a more assertive judiciary in this country of 164 million — the second most populous Muslim nation after Indonesia.

“He brought parliamentary reforms. He brought women into the parliament,” said Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, director of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency.

But Musharraf never lost his military mindset.

“He in a way, always believed in a unity of command, a very centralized command, which means his command, in fact,” said Masood.

After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, Musharraf found himself on the frontlines of America’s ‘war on terror.’

Pakistan had long supported the Taliban as it battled the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

(Library photos are from Colombo Page and Daily News)

SAARC summit 2008 in Sri Lanka makes thousands homeless: Has South Asia not seen urban poverty?

Sri Lanka is now categorized as a medium income country but it is no secret that a sizable section of population still lives below poverty line. According to UNDP statistics, 45% of Sri Lankan population lives less than US$ 2 a day (this means their spending for a day for food, shelter, clothes, transport, education etc., does not exceed Rs. 220) and 6% lives less than US$ 1 a day. It is inevitable that some of them live in urban areas, sometimes near city centers.

Urban poverty is not unique to Sri Lanka. Slums are seen in the cities of any developing country. Every South Asian country has its own share. In every Indian metro millions of people live in slums. They cannot afford proper sanitation facilities. Majority of them do not even have toilets. Though not a common sight in Colombo, mass public defecations are seen in many South Asian cities. Mumbai is so crowded that they say when a city train hits a person (which happens every day, it seems) the drivers don’t even stop. Even in Bangalore – claimed to be the high tech city in South Asia there are estimated number of 15,000 toilet cleaners who carry buckets of human refuse on their shoulders. That is the sad reality South Asia lives with.

So what is this big deal about ‘cleaning the city’ for the summit chasing off poor people from their homes? Whom are we trying to fool?

Are the leaders of our government so naïve that they assume other South Asian leaders have not witnessed urban poverty? Don’ they know these leaders, except President Gayoom of Maldives, come from countries with 30% of the population live in extreme poverty compared to Sri Lanka’s 6%. (US$ 1 per day) Colombo might have been a heaven compared to the places they come from. So why this attempt to make thousands of people unnecessarily suffer?

It is also customary now to use ‘National Security’ to justify any damaging act of the government. Some of the people who had been chased off from Glennie passes have been living for more than 50 or 60 years. If they had not been a security threat for all these days how come they are now? Have they been recruited by tigers overnight?

It is also funny that the demolition of houses and shops is not restricted to centre Colombo. Houses of poor people in areas like Kotte, Nawala, Battaramulla and Kaduwela too have been destroyed? Why? Do any of the SAARC leader visit Kaduwela? (20 km from city centre) Why these people were made to suffer unnecessarily?

For development purposes, relocation of human habitats sometimes becomes a dire need. For example, a land in the middle of the city might be required to construct a super market complex, so relocation of current occupants become necessary. It can be done, provided that those poor people not only get homes somewhere but their occupations are not disturbed. Even if they are given land to build homes, will it be of any use if the relocation disturbs their income? How they could find money to feed their children? Are there good schools to send their children?

Perhaps we should not ask these questions. The priority of any Mugabe type ruler is himself and his family. As long as his family could rob the national wealth they have no concerns what happen to the rest. Did Hitler ever worried about the Jew children’s’ education when they sent them to camps? Did Idi Amin ever worried about the welfare of the millions he cold blooded killed? Did Polpot think twice before he made half the population starve? More recently does Mugabe ever worries about what hardships his hunger for power brought to the people? So why should only Sri Lanka be different?

I only hope international journalists take note.

SAARC 2008….? What SAARC?

In two weeks time government/state leaders of eight South Asian nations with thousands of their delegates will have a get together in Kandy, Sri Lanka to have nice break, share few anecdotes, talk about the achievements their children/grand children and enjoy some good food. Then they will return to home countries. We call it 15th SAARC summit.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is a noble organization with some respectable objectives. It is the economic and political organization of eight countries in Southern Asia – the counter part of EU in Europe and ASEAN in Southeast Asia. In terms of population, its sphere of influence is the largest of any regional organization: almost 1.5 billion people, the combined population of its member states India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan and Afghanistan.

These are the objectives of SAARC, what these eight countries intend to achieve collectively:

· to promote the welfare of the peoples of South Asia and to improve their quality of life;

· to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and to provide all individuals the opportunity to live in dignity and to realize their full potential;

· to promote and strengthen collective self-reliance among the countries of South Asia;

· to contribute to mutual trust, understand and appreciation of one another’s problem;

· to promote active collaboration and mutual assistance in the economic, social, cultural, technical and scientific fields;

· to strengthen cooperation with other developing countries;

· to strengthen cooperation among themselves in international forums on matters of common interest; and

· to cooperate with international and regional organisations with similar aims and purposes.

How many of these noble objectives we have achieved so far?

For example, has this regional cooperation been able to improve the quality of life of South Asians in anyway? (No, I do not mean the quality of life of the leaders here – cooperation or not, that has surely improved!)

What economic achievements the group has made compared to European Union? Since 2002 EU has a single currency which has significantly appreciated against the dollar. Have SAARC countries ever being able to even lay a foundation for a common currency?

Do we accept currencies of each other? Is Indian Rupee acceptable in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh? Is Bangladesh Taka accepted in any of the other countries? Do we have any regional preferential treatment in trade? Does any SAARC country prefers the goods from another SAARC country than what is coming from outside? I doubt.

For cultural cooperation, all we have are Bollywood movies. Sharuk Khan in Karachchi, Chittagong or Katmandu is as popular as he is in Hyderabad, but that has more to do with globalization that any regional cooperation. Other than that we hardly share anything even remotely be called cultural, be it music, dancing, arts or literature. Apart from few Indian authours, have we ever heard literary figures from any other nation?

The regional cooperation we talk so much does not happen as long as we stay isolated. Each of these countries has to be open to each other. Does this happen now? Anyone who recently attempted getting visa for India or Bangladesh will not answer affirmative. It is lot more easy for Sri Lankans to get visa to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand than getting visa to any SAARC country. Sri Lanka has direct flights only to three SAARC countries. Even India that share borders with many does not have direct air links to all SAARC countries. Dhaka is better connected to Bangkok than any South Asian city. Is this how we facilitate intra-regional travelling? With each country trying so hard to maintain their borders will there be any practical economic cooperation possible among them?

Certainly this is not the case of other similar regional cooperation networks. A citizen of any EU country can enter any other EU nation without Visa. The same is true for ASEAN. This, if not for anything else will improve the tourism within region. Looks like none of us are interested in that potential.

SAARC it nothing new. It started in 1985. Twenty three years is a period more than enough to achieve something solid. We have not achieved anything. So the question is how justifiable by SAARC governments to spend colossal amounts for annual international tamashas, which will be of no use to extreme poor populations of these countries. Why not use that money to build more schools or hospitals?

The saddest part is to chasing off the poor people from their homes for this totally useless event. Perhaps this is the legacy of SLFP. Even in 1976 they did a similar thing for the Non Aligned Summit. (In 1977, one slogan at the famous UNP May rally was “Colonel Gaddafi – Pelpath Kadapi” – Libyan leader Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi was a key figure in the 1976 summit) Wasting public money for hopeless get-togethers is one thing but should we let the poor of the country suffer for that too?

Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, Musharraf’s Pakistan and Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka – ALL in FAILED STATES list! (Should we be surprised?)

Sri Lanka has once again been included in the Failed States Index by the Foreign Policy and The Fund for Peace which rank the countries where state collapse may be just one disaster away, reported Daily Mirror, along with Zimbabwe and Pakistan.

Sri Lanka has been ranked 20 in the list of 60 failed states with Somalia claiming the number one spot and the distinction of being the state most at risk of failure.

The rank order of the states is based on the total scores of the 12 indicators. For each indicator, the ratings are placed on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being the lowest intensity (most stable) and 10 being the highest intensity (least stable). The total score is the sum of the 12 indicators and is on a scale of 0–120.

Founded in 1970 by Samuel Huntington and Warren Demian Manshel, and now published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., FOREIGN POLICY is the premier, award-winning magazine of global politics, economics, and ideas. Its mission is to explain how the world works—in particular, how the process of globalization is reshaping nations, institutions, cultures, and, more fundamentally peoples daily lives.

In 2007, several countries that have long served as the poster children for failed states managed to achieve some unlikely gains. The Ivory Coast, which unraveled in 2002 after a flawed election divided north and south, experienced a year of relative calm thanks to a new peace agreement. Liberia, the most improved country in last year’s index, continued to make gains due to a renewed anticorruption effort and the resettlement of nearly 100,000 refugees. And Haiti, long considered the basket case of the Western Hemisphere, stepped back from the edge, with moderate improvements in security in the capital’s violence-ravaged slums.

Bangladesh took this year’s hardest fall, set off in part by postponed elections, a feuding, deadlocked government, and the imposition of emergency rule that has dragged on for more than 18 months. These political setbacks were followed by greater economic hardships after a devastating cyclone in November flooded large swaths of cropland and left 1.5 million people homeless. In nearby Pakistan, also one of this year’s worst performers, a beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf sparked waves of violent protests when he dismissed the head of the Supreme Court and declared martial law. In a tragic close to the year, the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto left many wondering about the future prospects of this fragile, nuclear-armed state.