Category: Foreign Affairs

By John Kerry –

Mangala, thank you very, very much. Thank you for a wonderful introduction, notwithstanding that you reminded me that I disappointed you in 2004. (Laughter.) I disappointed myself and a few other people.

I am really happy to be here (inaudible) and I’m very happy to welcome all of you here. No, you are welcoming me – it’s a mutual welcome, admiration, effort. And I can’t thank Mangala and Sri Lanka enough for the very generous welcome that you gave me this morning when I first came here. I came over to that historic building that is now the foreign ministry. Thank you for that, my friend.

I also want to thank you for your remarkable efforts – yours and the president’s and prime minister’s – on behalf of the people of Sri Lanka. And I thank you for something else. A week ago I was in northern Canada, just below the Arctic Circle, not far from the Arctic Ocean, where I was assuming the chairmanship of the Arctic Council. And I want you to know it is a welcome change to enjoy the warm weather here. (Laughter.) I didn’t see a lot of igloos around, happily.

I also want to say thank you to all of you who have come here – students, educators, civil society activists, religious leaders, and to everyone from the government, the diplomatic community, and the private sector who has committed time to be here to share some thoughts this afternoon.

It is fitting that we gather today under the auspices of the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute. Lakshman was, to put it simply, a brave man and a good man. He rejected recrimination in favor of reconciliation. He knew that the future demanded that his country move beyond the more difficult chapters of its past. And he devoted his last years to healing Sri Lanka and to leading it to its rightful place within the community of nations. He said wisely, “We have to live in Sri Lanka as Sri Lankans, tolerating all races and religions.”

So many of you here are the fathers and mothers of this vision. But as any parent will tell you, your obligations don’t end with a child’s birth; they’re just beginning. Sri Lanka’s newfound civil peace has to be nurtured; it must be allowed to grow and become stronger until it is, in fact, fully mature.

If Lakshman Kadirgamar was here and he had lived to see this new era, I know he would be inspired by the people of this country – Sinhalese and Tamil, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, and Muslim. He would see the possibilities of a Sri Lanka reconciled, democratic, and prosperous, with a united and entrepreneurial people dedicated to making their country a shining jewel of the Indian Ocean and of the broader Indo-Pacific. The United States, I am here to tell you, believes in that vision. We believe in the potential of Sri Lanka, the potential of Sri Lanka’s people – and I mean all of its people. And I can assure you that the United States, that America will stand with you by your side as you build a stronger democracy and a future that is marked by peace and prosperity after so many years of suffering and hardship.

Now, I don’t have to tell you that history. You know it; you’ve lived it. You’ve experienced it for 30 years. Terrorism, sectarian violence, suffering, death, anger, disappearances, moments of hope followed by more loss, more hate, and more fear.

Having gone to war myself, as Mangala mentioned, not very far from here, I know the tragic truth that in peacetime, children bury their parents, but in wartime, parents bury their children. Sri Lanka has known too many generations of parents forced to bury children.

Let me be very clear about this: It is sometimes necessary to go to war, despite the pain it brings. For all of my country’s disagreements with the previous government in Sri Lanka over how it fought the LTTE, we clearly understood the necessity of ridding this country of a murderous terrorist group and the fear that it sowed.

I believe that you learned in the final, bloody days of that struggle what my country discovered to our own anguish during our civil war: There were no true victors – only victims. You saw, I trust, that it is obvious the value of ending wars in a way that builds a foundation for the peace to follow.

And I know you recognize today that the true peace is more than the absence of war. True and lasting peace, especially after a civil conflict, requires policies that foster reconciliation, not resentment. It demands that all citizens of the nation be treated with equal respect and equal rights, and that no one be made to feel excluded or subjugated. It calls for a military that projects its power outward to protect its people, not inward to police them.

It necessitates, as America’s great president Abraham Lincoln said, binding up the nation’s wounds, with malice towards none and with charity towards all.

Today, there are young people in this country who are experiencing peace for the first time in their lives. We need to hope, we need to make certain that they will know anything – that they will never know anything except for peace.

And that isn’t easy – recovering from conflict, believe me, never is easy. Under President Sirisena’s leadership, Sri Lanka’s traditions of critical debate, free press, and independent civil society are returning. The armed forces have started to give back land to people in the north. Your citizens have been asked to mourn all the dead – not just those from one part of the country or one ethnicity or one faith. Incidents of violence have decreased.

The government has stood up against hate speech and created a presidential task force on reconciliation led by former President Kumaratunga. And just this week, the parliament passed and the president championed, as Mangala said, a constitutional amendment that actually limits the powers of his office. Promise made; promise kept.

Now, the problems of Sri Lanka are clearly going to be solved by Sri Lankans. That’s the way it ought to be, but it’s also the only way it’s going to work. And you wouldn’t have it any other way.

But if – but we also know that, in today’s world, everyone and everything is connected. And when we are connected unlike any time in history – everybody’s walking around, even in places where they’re poor, with a smartphone and a cellphone; they’re in touch, they’re in touch with the world. So if there are steps the United States can take to help, we will do so. I know you have your own plan and your own notions about what is necessary, and by no means whatsoever do we intend to try to usurp that or evade that or dismiss that. That would be inappropriate and unwise at the same time. But we do have some suggestions, as friends. And let’s offer four possible areas for cooperation.

First – reconciliation. The majority of you voted for a government that is committed to the difficult task of literally healing the wounds of war. But that’s a difficult job with many components.

Years ago, I want you to know that when I was a member of the United States Senate – in the early years in the ‘90s, Mangala– I was put in charge of an investigation to try to determine the fate of American soldiers, sailors, and aviators who were still missing from the Vietnam War during the 1960s and the 1970s. The families of those in America whose loved ones had been lost were desperately trying to get answers from the government and demanding answers, and they had every right to do so. And we knew that it was impossible for us to try to move forward if we didn’t try to provide those answers. So we did everything possible that there was to try to find out what happened to their loved ones. I traveled to Vietnam something like 17 or 20 times in the span of two years, working with the Vietnamese to let us into their history houses, to their museums, to their documents – even to interview with the generals that we had fought against to see if we could provide those answers.

So we experienced the same emotions and the same search for answers that are present in your country today. And that is why it is so critical for your government to work with the ICRC and the UN in order to investigate missing person cases and try wherever you can – I can’t guarantee it; nobody can that you’ll find the answer for sure – but try to find wherever the truth may lead. No matter how painful that truth is. It’s the right and the humane thing to do – and it is, believe it or not, an essential part of the healing process.

Now, reconciliation obviously doesn’t happen all at once; it requires time and concrete actions. And those have to replace the suspicion with mutual trust and mutual fears have to be replaced with mutual confidence. I want you to know that the United States stands ready to be a partner with you in that effort.

We’ll do all we can to support the government as it makes progress in such areas as returning land, limiting the role of the military in civilian life, and trying to provide the answers on disappeared people. None of us wants to live in a country where the military is stopping its own citizens at checkpoints. And Sri Lanka’s military has so much more to contribute in defending this country, protecting vital sea lanes, and taking part in UN peacekeeping missions all over the world. And as your armed forces make that transition, we’re going to be very eager to work with you and to work with them and to help.

That said, the job of bringing Sri Lankans together also cannot be done by the government alone. So it matters what you say, it matters what people say, and that they have the right to say it. It matters what civil society – that many of you here represent – what you have to say. It matters what religious groups are saying and what they’re able to accomplish, and that they have the freedom to be able to move to do so. And it matters what communities are able to do in order to fix the kind of social problems that impact everyone – from promoting health care and a clean environment to countering domestic violence and drug use – and that the central government trusts people to take the lead.

Now in all this – some may think this goes without saying, but in too many parts of the world it doesn’t – the women of Sri Lanka are playing a critical role, and must. They are helping the needy and the displaced. They’re encouraging people to build secure and prosperous neighborhoods. They are supporting ex-combatants and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, and they’re providing counseling and other social services. And these efforts are absolutely vital and we should all support them.

But we also have to do more than that. Here, as in every country, it’s crystal clear that for any society to thrive, women have to be in full control – they have to be full participants in the economics and in the political life. There is no excuse in the 21st century for discrimination or violence against women. Not now, and not ever.

Now, that brings me to the second area of possible cooperation on justice and accountability. Restoring your country’s judiciary is a long-term undertaking that requires high standards for judicial independence, fairness, and due process under the law. Those reforms are often difficult to achieve anyway – we’re still working on some things in our system, believe me; you can see some of it on television – not easy, but it is absolutely essential to be open and honest about trying to do it. Every citizen has a right to seek justice, and every citizen has a right to expect justice for victims of war crimes or crimes against humanity. They’re painful issues; I know that. But if you try to compel people to simply forget the past and try to wipe it away, believe me: They will be more likely, not less, to cling to it. And if you tell them to forego justice under the law, they will be more likely to seek it outside of the law. It will be harder, not easier, to move forward as one country at peace.

And that is why we hope your government will continue to cooperate with the United Nations as it explores the best way to mount a credible domestic investigation into allegations of human rights abuses – an investigation that meets international standards and at the same time, and most importantly, is legitimate in your eyes, in the eyes of the people here. The United States is prepared to furnish whatever legal, whatever technical assistance, whatever help we can to support Sri Lanka as it moves down this path.

A third area where we can work together is the advancement of human rights, here and around the world. The new government that you’ve elected is laser focused on establishing a strong reputation for your country on human rights. And the United States could not be more supportive of that goal. Until just recently, our diplomats routinely clashed with yours on these issues at the Human Rights Council in Geneva and the UN in New York. Now, with the new government, with the turning of this critical page, we have an opportunity to work together. But we also continue to urge your government to release remaining political prisoners, and we would be pleased to assist in those efforts by sending a team of legal experts to advise on assessment and release, which is a critical component of the documents that have to be made in that.

And I say this fully mindful of the fact – believe me – no nation, including the United States, has a perfect record on human rights. We all have to do our best in order to improve. And I hope that the momentum that has been created in Sri Lanka will continue to build, and I’m confident that with the government you have and their commitments reiterated to me today, I have no doubt that you will.

Now, a final challenge on which our two governments may be able to work together is the strengthening of democratic institutions. Here, you have a very strong foundation on which to build. Your former president reminded me that they had lunch, that you had the first – the longest serving supreme court in all of Asia, and that you have one of the oldest parliaments. You have this extraordinary foundation on which to build. We simply offer our support to help you in any way that we can on this effort of capacity building and the challenge of restoring the tradition that you have always had with respect to the fullness of your democracy. We want to help support you in the upcoming electoral processes. Timely elections will be yet another sign of the government following through on its commitments.

Now, the people of Sri Lanka deserve great credit for the recent elections. And I want to congratulate all of you. They’re quite remarkable. You turned out in huge numbers to exercise your rights. Every vote was a victory for your country. And you insisted on historic reforms, including a constitutional amendment that was just restoring the independence of the electoral commission. But hard work remains, my friends, including devolving power to the provinces. The United States stands ready to provide technical assistance to make it easier to implement these measures and to strengthen such critical institutions as the ministries and parliament. We’re also ready to help with asset recovery and the enforcement of anti-corruption rules. Our investigators are prepared to work with your investigators. Our prosecutors are prepared to work with your prosecutors. And we commit that any stolen assets in the United States will be returned to their rightful owners.

We’ve seen in recent decades that free countries can learn from one another, and that, to prosper, they have to be prepared to help one another. And that is why I’m pleased to announce that our governments will launch a partnership dialogue to intensify our cooperation across the board. President Obama has nominated a new ambassador, and as a symbol of our renewed commitment to this relationship, I am happy to announce that we are going to build a new embassy compound. And our partnership dialogue and expanded bilateral assistance will help consolidate Sri Lanka’s very impressive gains. We also want to do this in a spirit of friendship and mutual respect. We’re not doing this as part of any global countering or whatever – make your choices. That’s your right as independent people. But we appreciate and respect and admire the steps that have been taken by you to give yourself a government that wants to restore that government. And in any way that we can help, we stand ready to do so.

So to sum up, Sri Lanka is at a pivotal point. Peace has come, but true reconciliation will take time. Your institutions of governance are regaining strength, but further progress will have to be made. The United States will help when and where we can. And no part of this transition, obviously, will be easy, but if Sri Lanka keeps moving forward, I have every confidence it will take its rightful place of respect and of influence on the world stage.

Sri Lankans should take enormous pride – I’m sure you do – in what has been happening within your borders. But every nation also has to look beyond its borders as well.

For Sri Lankans, that’s nothing new. Your country sits at the crossroads of Africa, South Asia, and East Asia. And for centuries, it’s served as a gateway for merchant ships. The Indian Ocean is the world’s most important commercial highway. Today, 40 percent of all seaborne oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz and half of the world’s merchant fleet capacity sails through the Straits of Malacca. And with its strategic location near deep-water ports in India and Myanmar, Sri Lanka could serve as the fulcrum of a modern and dynamic Indo-Pacific region.

The questions now are: How do we get there and what role can the United States play in that journey? Well, let me answer that question by saying that we see our role partly as a leader, because we have a strong economy and an ability to be able to project, but also we see our role as a convener, and most importantly, as a partner.

The United States is already providing leadership on maritime security in the India Ocean in association with close friends and allies across the region, including India, Australia, Indonesia, and Japan. And that requires, in part, a focus on counter-piracy and counter-trafficking operations. It requires investments in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, so that the next big storm doesn’t inflict catastrophic damage on coastal communities. The United States and Sri Lanka are also working together to oppose the use of intimidation or force to assert a territorial or maritime claim by anyone. And we reject any suggestion that freedom of navigation and overflight and other lawful uses of the sea and airspace are somehow privileges granted by big states to small ones. They’re not privileges; they’re rights. And these principles bind all nations equally. And the recent decision by India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh to submit to binding arbitration – that’s an example of how maritime claims can be resolved peacefully and through good-faith negotiations.

Now, I’ve said convene also – is a convener. The United States is also a convener when it comes to promoting economic integration. South Asia is one of the globe’s least economically integrated regions. Trade among its countries amounts to some 5 percent of total trade and the cost of doing business across borders due to non-tariff barriers, import duties, and bottlenecks at border crossings is a huge impediment to growth.

That is why the United States is promoting the Indo-Pacific Economic Corridor to connect South Asia to Southeast Asia and to spur sustainable development in both regions. IPEC will strengthen energy, transit, trade, and people-to-people ties – on land and sea. And the challenge is: What’s the pace going to be of this integration? If commerce across South Asia is going to become the economic driver that it ought to be, governments have to act with urgency, not settle for half-measures or wait for the next country to go first. And we look forward to working with the Sri Lankan Government as it increases trade and investment with its neighbors in the Indian Ocean and beyond.

So the United States I’ve described as a leader and convener. Most importantly, though, I want to talk about being a partner. We’re a partner in something like disaster relief, climate change, clean energy. Here in Sri Lanka, you lived through the devastating impact of the 2004 tsunami. I’ll never forget hearing the news. The images are absolutely extraordinary, gut-wrenching –entire towns obliterated; raging waters sweeping away people’s homes; hundreds of thousands killed and many more separated from families.

And after the devastation, the American people moved quickly and generously to provide relief. And I’m proud that the United States Marines were among the first responders in the recovery efforts. And USAID alone provided about $ 135 million of assistance, with many millions more coming from the American people’s personal donations.

The earthquake that caused the tsunami was unprecedented in its destructive impact. And as searing as images from Kathmandu this week remind us, the nations of this region have to find common cause in enhancing the preparedness for natural disasters. But we also know that because of climate change, we’re actually going to be facing more frequent and intense disasters across the board. I’m not drawing that out of thin air, and I hate to be the bearer of that kind of a warning, but it’s science that’s telling us – the IPCC of the United Nations, the world’s scientists. And we’re seeing the changes already in so many different places, including the Arctic, that I visited the other day. So the United States stands ready to help respond and prevent climate change by leading the world towards a global agreement at the end of this year in Paris.

I can’t tell whether one storm – nobody can – or another storm specifically was caused by climate change, but I can tell you that scientists are telling us unequivocally that there will be more storms of greater intensity unless we stop and reverse course in what we are doing to send greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Now, some people might shrug their shoulders and just say, “Well, there’s nothing that I can do about it.” That’s not true. There’s something everybody can do about it. In fact, all of us know exactly what we have to do. The solution to climate change is a transformed energy policy. Just as climate change presents the United States, Sri Lanka, and the region with a common threat, my friends, the need to develop secure and sustainable energy sources presents us with a remarkable shared opportunity – the greatest market in the history of humankind. It’s an opportunity to make the right choices about conservation, about wind power, or solar power, hydro – which you have, significantly – about fuel and utility standards, about efficiency standards, about building codes, about transportation. And we can – and with all those things – reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and save ourselves, save the planet, literally, from a catastrophe that would be the unrestrained effects of climate change.

Good energy solutions are good climate solutions. And the market represents a multi-trillion dollar opportunity, with 4 to 5 billion users around the world today. Just so you have a little comparison on that, the market of the 1990s that drove our economy to the greatest wealth creation since the early 1900s was a $ 1 trillion market, not multitrillion. And it had one billion users. And that was the technology, communications market. The energy market is 6, 7 trillion now and rising – maybe 9 by the mid part of the century. By 2040, investment in the energy sector is expected to reach nearly $ 20 trillion. That’s a lot of money, my friends – that’s a lot of jobs. So we want to see clean, accessible energy be the biggest slice of the economic pie.

Now, of course, Sri Lanka is much more of a marketplace for clean energy. It is much more than simply a market to attract clean energy, and you know that, and I know that. It’s a cultural model; it’s a huge economic mosaic. It could well become, as you march down this road with the effectiveness you have been these days, a model for democracy and the restoration of democracy. It could show unity in remarkable ways to the region. We see even now, regrettably, that there are signs – troubling signs that democracy is under threat in Maldives, where former President Nasheed has been imprisoned without due process. And that is an injustice that must be addressed soon. But Sri Lanka’s story carries the promise that people can hold their government accountable, use peaceful dissent, use the power of the ballot box and change the course of history. And we can already see here the power of that promise.

We see it in the hard work of a Sinhalese mother who struggles to give her child a good education. We see it in the dignity that comes when a young Tamil man secures a job in which he can take pride. We see it in the common desire of all Sri Lankans to live in a safe neighborhood and a secure nation. We see it in the demand that leaders protect the rights of people and be responsive to the basic needs and aspirations. Those are the values that connect all of us across every boundary, no matter our history, no matter our background, no matter our beliefs and our creed. That’s who we are. Now, I want to leave you with just one story of that kind of belief today.

Karthika is from a Tamil Hindu family. When she was 14, the Tigers kidnapped her and sent her north to Jaffna. She was forced to carry a gun and move through the jungle. She was given barely enough food to survive. And in a firefight one day, bullets and shrapnel blinded her in one eye. For 11 years, her family had no idea whether she was alive or dead.

Eventually, Karthika escaped that hell by fleeing through areas of heavy fighting. She returned home, but in many ways, her struggle was only just beginning. She had limited education, limited skills, having spent half her life surrounded by war. She had few friends, and even fewer prospects to find a job or even to start a life.

After several false starts, Karthika found a USAID program in the Eastern Province that offered her a way out. She trained for months and learned the skills she needed to get her a job in a new garment factory. She started earning an income. And she made an effort to befriend women from the Sinhalese community, something that would have been unimaginable for her just a few short years ago. Asked why she was able to find hope when others didn’t, Karthika said very simply, “Now, it has changed.”

My friends, everywhere there is an injustice, there are men and women who are ready to be the Karthikas of their moment. Men and women who survive a war that wrecks families, and then build their own. Men and women who see what the worst of what people can do, and then dedicate their lives to finding the best in others. You have all borne the costs of war. It’s now time for you to experience and hold onto the benefits of peace. “Now, it has changed” is a claim that each and every one of you can make together. And I am certain that you will make it a proud claim – a badge of merit and honor and success that will be heard and seen by your neighbors and friends all across the globe.

So thank you once again for welcoming me here. It’s an honor for me to be here at this point in your history. And I can tell you that we will not walk away from our pledge to work with you, to go together on this road and on this journey. Good luck to all. Godspeed on the road ahead. Thank you.

*Remarks by John Kerry, Secretary of State – Colombo, Sri Lanka -May 2, 2015

By Christopher Rezel &#8211

It&#8217s time for Sri Lanka to decriminalize sex perform or validate it in some manner in order to handle what is a decades-old reality.

Bringing prostitution inside the bounds of legality will curb the spread of sexual illnesses, which includes AIDS, and eliminate barriers that drive away social workers from providing these vulnerable guys and girls medical and counselling assistance.

It will get rid of underground criminal elements that now operate brothels and derive the most financial advantage, besides stop exploitation of the desperate and helpless involved in the trade.

In our attitude towards these and other much less fortunate folks in society, we should be guided by the Buddhist perfect of compassion.

Sri Lankan is a nation of higher literacy and the above observations would be self-evident. But there is a tendency in most of us to surrender our rights on ethical problems to the various religions that seek to monopolise them.

Media reports of occasional brothel raids in poorer neighbourhoods may grab public interest but has done small to cease an business that is resilient and widespread. Police raids are scarce at the top finish of town, on star-class hotels and other exclusive venues, exactly where city-savvy prostitutes transact encounters.

In this regard, it would be naive to promote tourism and feel that single male and female visitors devote their dollars on merely experiencing beaches, landscapes and archaeological artefacts. The reality is that soon after dark they seek out physical excitement and fulfilment in bars, pubs and clubs, such as they would normally do at residence.

Police harassment of sex workers have to only place greater burdens on the lives of men and girls forced into the trade, mainly because of a lack of option employment or a social security network. In many instances, desperation and the require to supply for children would drive divorced or widowed women to the simple option of sex work. That reasoning need to go for the thousands of child-burdened war widows, especially in the north and east, who have all of a sudden turn out to be breadwinners without education or employable abilities.

If their lives are to be turned around, those ladies need to be provided with education and abilities. Subjecting them to the trauma of abuse and humiliation through arrest, production just before a judge, fining and then releasing, is never ever a solution.

Police and judicial resources are much better directed at significant crime locations swamping Sri Lanka, such as homicides, armed robberies, illicit drugs and alcohol, gangs and connected illegal trades. These and other regions of harmful and violent criminality bear tiny comparison with somebody providing sexual solutions, at most a benign trade. In addition, sexual crime is bound to increase exponentially if brothels have been to be eliminated.

Sharmila Seyyid

The topic naturally brings to mind journalist Sharmila Seyyid and her contact for sex work to be legalized and its providers protected (Colombo Telegraph, April 27, 2015. Safeguard Sri Lankan Muslim Journalist Sharmila Seyyid Who Supports Sex Workers’ Rights: Muslim Civil Society.) Sharmila’s contact has led to a regional Taliban element taking it upon themselves to “punish” her and her household, the usual reaction of men in patriarchal societies who hold quick to the view that their power over a woman’s physique should never be challenged.

We should recognise that Islam is a single of the world’s fantastic religions and it is unfortunate that a handful of extremist give it a poor name by interpreting sacred text to suit their own twisted agendas. Such reprehensible activities are now helped by social media by means of which anonymous cowards can stir up these segments of society who are impressionable and like buffalos, appear to a leader.

The authorities must stamp down difficult on such deviants. Otherwise, the Taliban illness may possibly expand right here also and give rise to a plague of self-styled and scheming pseudo imams who victimise innocent citizen beneath the guise of defending Islam. We do not want such loathsome situations, as has occurred in Pakistan, exactly where a young girl, Rimsha Masih, was arrested for allegedly desecrating pages of the Quran, a charge punishable by death in that country, and subsequently the man who had brought about the charge, imam, Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti, getting arrested for desecrating the Quran himself and planting the pages in Rimsha&#8217s bag.

Rimsha also, like Sharmila, has been forced into exile in a foreign land due to the fact of death threats.

Double requirements

It is unfortunate that in Sri Lanka, as with most Asian nations, sex is a taboo subject. But it would be delusional to think about that all Sri Lankan adults are asexual till marriage, except for that percentage coerced by religious or moral motives, or simply because of physical or psychological failing that require remedial intervention.

Even so, it wouldn’t be far wrong in stating that most Sri Lankan males practise double standards and subterfuge when it comes to sex. We are all virgins and insist on our marriage partners getting untouched as well.

In this regard, it would be intriguing to know the quantity of Sri Lankans who own computers and access sex websites, keeping in thoughts that even lusting is sex, in a cerebral way. (Of course, we would all say we had been only getting curious.)

Belief hurdles

Religious barricades should be overcome if Sri Lanka is to decriminalize the sex industry. The paradox is the uncertainty of no matter whether the country is a secular state, where there is distance amongst organised religion and the nation state, or a theocratic 1, like Iran, where all important choices must have clerical approval.

Buddhist, Christian and Islamic clergy (stated in alphabetic order) have always had a say in the nation’s political life, regularly with bloody impact. Policy-makers in turn exploit politicized clergy, conscious of its capability to influence voters.

That is element of Sri Lanka’s tragedy. But in this, the 21st century, it may be time to bring about a clear separation of church and state. Clerical meddling in civil matters need to be stopped. It is an area lawmakers are voted in to oversee. Mixing religion with a nation’s legal base is bound to trigger strife in between peoples, as it has devastatingly proved repeatedly.

Following all, the clergy is also produced up of fallible guys and girls and their weaknesses are universal. In Europe and Australia, exactly where sex has been an open subject, the systemic sexual molestations or physical assaults carried out in religious institutions over the years has been under scrutiny and public discussion. Such openness might take but much more years to arrive in Sri Lanka and the rest of conservative Asia. But it could be time to cease suffering alone or, alternatively, laughing behind our hands at passed-on secrets. Instead, social taboos need to be stamped out and circumstances created for victims to come forward. Frank and open discussions are the only way to heal.

Smile awhile

Let me finish with an episode that may possibly bring on a smile. My initial sex-connected report, written in the early eighties, never ever got into print. At that time, I was a reporter on the Ceylon Everyday News and my every day rounds brought me in contact with a specialist in venereal illness. He took me to the government clinic down De Saram Spot, Colombo 10, and offered me with statistics and reports on the spread of VD, particularly the tough to treat syphilis. His concern was that sexually transmitted illness was spreading wild and going untreated simply because of a lack of public details. Back at office, I wrote my report and submitted it to the news editor. Sometime later, the political stooge designated deputy editor, who by no means wrote and published a line, named me up and just before spiking my story, told me to refrain from writing indecent reports due to the fact “ours is a household paper”.

It is my hope that Sri Lanka has left such backwardness behind.

It is also my hope that this article will market further public discussion on sexual workers and their sad plight.

*Christopher Rezel, Australia. Writer and journalist formerly a reporter on the Ceylon Everyday News.

By Romesh Hettiarachchi –

It is not genuinely newsworthy to recommend several Sri Lankans these days are skeptical about “the Diaspora”.

For several Sri Lankans, “the Diaspora” is perceived to be exclusively Tamil and overwhelmingly supportive of the Tamil Tigers. This of course is not correct. Several members in “the Diaspora” are Sinhalese and Muslim, vehemently opposing almost everything the Tamil Tigers stood for. Furthermore rarely are criticisms of the Tamil Tigers by members of the “Tamil Diaspora” ever acknowledged by Sri Lankan intellectuals and media.

This of course is not the only misconception about “the Diaspora”. Some Sri Lankans consider all members of “the Diaspora” are universally wealthy as if leaving the shores of Sri Lanka is a golden ticket for wealth and riches. Once again not correct. Sure, some members of the Diaspora, Tamil and otherwise, attain economic and skilled successes outside Sri Lanka. However substantial populations of &#8220the Diaspora&#8221 have encountered and continue to encounter considerable challenges in employment and making sure their kids get a excellent education outdoors Sri Lanka. This is of course not new many members of the “Tamil Diaspora” encountered comparable challenges after fleeing the discrimination and violence in Sri Lanka in the 70s and 80s.

Other Sri Lankans think “the Diaspora” has no interest in permitting Sri Lankans to reside together peacefully. This is only half true. Some members of “the Diaspora” are deeply invested in manufacturing clashes in between the Tamil and the Sri Lankan communities. Even so seldom do Sri Lankans recognize that often leaders in the Sri Lankan Diaspora are as complicit in manufacturing these conflicts as their Tamil Diaspora counterparts.

Furthermore it need to be acknowledged that most obstacles when it comes to Sri Lankans living together peacefully soon after Might 2009 have been internal i.e. the result of the strength of Sinhalese nationalism in Sri Lankan politics. This has been a significant challenge in the past and will most likely continue to be a issue in the future. Consequently whilst Tamil nationalism may be a barrier to some reconciliation initiatives in Sri Lanka, any prospects of peace in Sri Lanka are most likely significantly influenced by the effectiveness and strength of those opposing Sinhalese nationalism.

The Potential Part of the Diaspora in Sri Lankan Affairs post January 2015

These misconceptions demonstrate the inaccuracy of most generalizations about “The Diaspora”. The reality is each member of “The Diaspora” shares their own special connection with the men and women and communities in Sri Lanka. Although for some, this partnership is basic and complete of happiness, for other people in the Diaspora, this relationship is complicated and &#8211 at occasions &#8211 traumatic. Typically the differences amongst these relationships run along communal lines.

Nevertheless, given that January, it is secure to say most in the Diaspora are muddling by way of how to respond to what at least superficially appear to be new political developments in Sri Lanka. Whilst some in the Diaspora continue their mission to invent collective identities for populations that are in truth diverse &#8211 terrorists, throhi, kalu suddha, privileged &#8211 other folks in the Diaspora are now prepared to help Sri Lankans in living collectively and functioning with each other in a lot more intriguing ways than either politicians or community activists can either think about or allow.

Understanding the Relationship among the Diasporas with Communities in Sri Lanka

To that end, a little group of professionals from the Sri Lankan and Tamil Diaspora from Australia, UK and Canada are exploring the partnership among members of the Diaspora and their counterparts in Sri Lanka via the use of an informal survey. This functioning group hopes to construct on this understanding to develop formal and informal mechanisms that leverage these relationships for the advantage of all Sri Lankans living across the island.

Who Developed the Survey? Who is Involved?

The working group is comprised of men and women who have substantial knowledge in attempting to construct bridges between the Sri Lankan Diaspora and their Tamil counterparts. Most of us are Sri Lankan born experts who are seeking means to give back to the communities we have come from. All these involved with building the survey have volunteered their expertise and time.

Names! I want Names!

Sorry to disappoint, but the functioning group has chosen to remain anonymous at least till this period of exploration is completed. This is for two motives:

1. In the Diaspora, transparency about new initiatives has at times been interpreted as a license to criticize the initiative. Often instances such criticism is just a result of the perceived on the political and/or social baggage that these involved are perceived to carry.
2. So instead of providing this chance to critics, these involved have made a decision to remain largely unidentified simply in order for the survey to speak for itself.

That said, if you want to support construct this initiative, please total the survey and email us separately at [email protected]. While the operating group comprises of many of the ethnic communities in Sri Lanka, we are especially encouraging young female leaders in the Diaspora to get in touch with us.

Are any Governments involved with the survey?

No. This survey has not been funded or supported by any government, not for profit or community group. We have no affiliation with, or have received any monies from any neighborhood group, government, political celebration or not for profit to create this survey.

Why the distinction among the Sri Lankan and Tamil Diaspora?

Whilst we are quite conscious of the numerous Tamils who are comfy calling themselves Sri Lankan, we are also recognize that there are numerous Tamil who are not. That is why for the purposes of this survey, members of the Tamil Diaspora are those of Tamil ethnicity, who live outside Sri Lanka, who do not call themselves Sri Lankan.

Is My Privacy Protected?

Provided the difficult and conflicted history of Sri Lanka, reservations in filling the survey are not only expected but affordable. This is why responses can be submitted anonymously. Participants are not necessary to provide their name or any other identifiable details linking them to their submission.

The survey has other precautions to defend the privacy/security of respondents:

1. Most inquiries are optional.
2. Though participants will have the chance to share their e mail address, the provision of the e mail address is not mandatory.
3. If you select to share your e mail address, you will be added to a mailing list that will assist you keep updated with the progress of this initiative and acquire your assistance in creating this initiative. However if no e-mail address is offered, then the survey is anonymously.
4. No email addresses will be shared with third celebration without prior consent. In other words no get in touch with details of respondents will be given to neighborhood organizations or the government with out the consent of the person.
5. Even though survey Benefits will be aggregated, at no time will person survey final results will be shared with third party without prior consent
6. If following you submit the survey anonymously, you wish to be added to the mailing list, e mail [email protected] with the topic line &#8220Mailing List&#8221.

The survey will be open until June 15, 2015. After the survey closes, and if we get a lot more than one hundred submissions, we will release a short evaluation of the aggregate survey results by August 31, 2015. Even though the survey is an informal and voluntary survey, we firmly believe the aggregate evaluation of these outcomes will be of interest to a lot of in the Diaspora and in Sri Lanka.

Needless to say, this survey will not most likely do justice to sheer diversity of the Sri Lankan and Tamil Diaspora knowledge. Don’t forget this is an informal survey an experiment which is only becoming performed simply because no other neighborhood or international organization has selected to do so. If you do want to let us know how badly we have accomplished, please e mail [email protected] .

So without having further ado, go to http://survey.epicentre.ventures/ to full the survey or alternatively click

Start

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Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest worry is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We are all meant to shine, as youngsters do. It is not just in some of us it is in all of us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other folks permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our personal fear, our presence automatically liberates other individuals.

Marianne Willliamson

*Romesh Hettiarachchi is a lawyer and mediator in Toronto, Canada. For a lot more info about this initiative, go to @epicentre_vntrs or email info [at] epicentre.ventures. For those interested in continuing these discussions, specifically those in Canada, check out the Kathae Kadai facebook forum.

By M.K. Eelaventhan –

Maithiri’s considerably publicized vote catching 100 days promised actions commencing from January eight began with a whimsy and has ended with a whimper, considerably to the disappointment of all Sri Lankans. Nevertheless, some actions have been taken and/or initiated and the noteworthy step is the introduction of the 19th amendment. Reviving the independent police judicial and public service commissions and lowering the powers of president without having abolishing it as promised and demanded by some political parties. This bill is likely to reach the statute book. The other notable alterations are:

• The reduction of fear psychosis from government sponsored criminals and ruling politicians
• The fresh air of press freedom in the south although the north is nonetheless a haunting area for the Tamil journalists
• Avoiding diplomatic and state appointments based on political favouritism and nepotism
• Curtailing China’s hold on Sri Lanka whilst forging much more friendly relationships with India and U.S
• So far there are no indicators of any abuse or misuse of energy by Maithiri and also any dictatorial attitude. Maithiri has also not shown any lust or styles to cling onto the position of Executive President
• Maithiri is nonetheless lacking the dominant spirit and move like a President with decisive step

The Maithiri-Ranil brittle and uneasy union is meandering and plodding to fulfill the promises and meet the aspirations of all Sri Lankans. Firstly, the disgusting pampering of the past regime’s corrupt officials, ministers, and such as the self-produced king of corruption, the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa is still continuing. Maithiripala Sirisena promised to close the airports to quit the fleeing of the corrupt like criminals. This promise is dead and no one knows the names of those who fled to stay away from the extended arm of the laws in Sri Lanka.

Secondly, some investigations have been initiated against the members of the Rajapaksa dynasty for their involvements in bribery, tamashas, frolics, misuse and abuse of state machinery, sexual trysts in houses and airlines. The media is exposing the disgusting details of numerous disgraceful episodes, but there is inexplicable slowness and reluctance to bring them to face the crimes and culpability upholding the rule of law, although the arrest of Basil Rajapaksa is a bold step and it is hoped that this will be followed by a lot of a lot more arrests which includes the defiant Mahinda. Ranil Wickremesinghe for his component has blocked the arrest of Gothabaya Rajapaksa, as a result freeing from a lot more grilling investigation. This lawless step of Ranil is just the writing on the wall and a single can be rest assured that the Rajapaksa dynasty could be leniently dealt with although giving a body blow to good governance in Sri Lanka. It appears like Maithiri is haunted by the menacing spectre of Mahinda like a phoenix bird.

There are indicators of this uneasy coalition of two major rival partires of Sri Lanka breaking up as elections close to. Maithiri’s soft method and attitude is a cannon fodder to Ranil who is exploting it to the hilt to strengthen his party while engineering divisions inside the currently fragmented Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Ranil is also playing his usual game of “divide and rule” policy towards TNA. His very first move seems to have succeeded, with his indecent outbursts directed at C. V. Wigneswaran calling him a “Liar and not worth speaking to him”, at the exact same time nursing a friendly relationship with R. Sampanthan. Ranil has certainly forgotten the truth that ‘Wigneswaran’, was elected by the folks to run the Northern Provincial Council, whilst Ranil usurped the position of Prime Minister illegally and unelected with the assistance of a mere 45 UNP members, in violation of parliamentary democracy.

Ranil is also trying to produce a parallel administration in the north aiming to destabilize the northern provincial council’s administration with styles to isolate and weaken the well-liked Wigneswaran.

The most glaring neglect and inaction or no-action of Maithiri includes the sixty years old Tamils’ problems.

Maithiri is ominously silent on this matter and so far no proposals of settlement, not even any expression of determination has been created by Maithiri. Ranil on his pact as usual harps on national unity co-operation, while focusing his efforts to strengthen his party in the north with elections in thoughts. The handing more than of 470 acres of army seized lands out of 6030 acres in the Vadamaratchi is just the tip of the iceberg to paint a picture of reconciliation and hoodwink the globe neighborhood.

The safety forces entrenched in the north are continuing their presence which is now declared permanent by Maithiri’s government. Displaced Tamils continue to reside in camps as refugees and adequate compensatory measures have not however been effected. Maithiri has appointed however one more commission to deal with truth and reconciliation. The earlier LLRC report and some of its constructive and useful recommendations have been laid to rest. There is practically nothing new for the new commission to search, investigate and advise. The truths are there for the whole planet to see and know. They are merely militarization, Sinhalisation, Buddhisisation, genocide, racial discrimination and crimes against Tamil females and kids more soon after the war.

Maithiri and Ranil have also vowed not to accept any international investigation into the roles of Sri Lankan government, state officials, and security forces. The proposed internal investigation will commence and end up with covering of perpetrators who executed the crimes lest Maithiri runs the threat of dethroning by Mahinda who is waiting in the wings to pounce on Maithiri and Ranil at the opportune time. The grim truth is that the difficulties of Tamils as usual will be kept dormant partly aided by a sleepy and inactive TNA as the priorities of Sinhala political parties are solely winning Sinhala votes and capture political power and for this goal Tamils will be exploited in what ever way possible leaving them to pursue their life of misery, sufferings, degradation and final decimation in their classic homelands.

Mahinda has to some extent succeeded in weakening the difficult posture of USA towards Sri Lanka, by relegating China’s dominance in Sri Lanka. For USA and some countries, Tamils are like curry leaves ‘ Use and then discard’.

Maithiri and Ranil business are channeling their energy and efforts to paralyse the impending UN commission’s report and make it sterile. It will not be a surprise some more commissions could be appointed targeting to resolve the grievances of Tamils although their suggestions are consigned to archives.

The current highly charged political atmosphere is testing Maithiri’s power, concentration and abilities to defeat the plots hatched by Mahinda gang who are channeling all their efforts to dethrone Maithiri and Ranil whilst paying scant respect to the rule of law by employing political thugs to avoid and disgrace the administration of justice to the political criminals. Maithiri is warned not to permit the Mahinda clan to recommence their autocratic rule by perverting the democratic program and ideals and turning Sri Lanka into a police state.

As for the Tamils and TNA, no light is observed at the finish of the tunnel and any hope of a dignified political settlement from Maithiri or Mahinda is as good as dead. It is higher time for Sampanthan and company to face the realities and ground situation and appear for new directions, concepts and moves to launch fresh campaign and agitations for a remedy with the help of the international community.

A disunited TNA only worsens the causes of Tamils and it seems that M. A. Sumanthiran is much more worried and concerned about the resurrection of the Tigers than the Sri Lankan government and other international community.

It is better late than in no way for the TNA to act in unison with 1 voice and note living on hopes, promises and tiger fantasies.

The 100 days programme discarded the cancerous ethnic difficulty and therefore treating the TNA and Tamils as irrelevant in their political agenda, and relegating it as a matter of less or no importance.

Whilst Sampanthan is chasing a mirage with hopes of settlement, Tamils feel isolated and desolate with no hopes without having a dynamic and bold leadership at this crucial period.

*M.K. Eelaventhan &#8211 Former Member of Parliament Sri Lanka &amp Member of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam Representing Canada

By Jehan Perera –

With the debate over the 19th Amendment to the constitution getting into its final phase this week, the nation is entering a decisive phase. The passage of this constitutional amendment will set in motion a procedure whereby Sri Lanka will turn into subject to the Rule of Law and not the rule of males as was advocated by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission in its report after having consulted a wide swarth of the nation&#8217s intellectuals, decisionmakers and neighborhood leaders. The presidential program in Sri Lanka was flawed at its really inception, as it did not supply for an adequate technique of checks and balances discovered in democratic nations with profitable presidential systems. The 19th Amendment will go a signficant portion of the way to produce situations for much better governance in the country.

The abolishing of the presidential technique has been portion of the election manifesto of previous presidents. But it has been President Maithripala Sirisena who has been most committed to shedding his powers. He has had to endure barbs that he is not a robust leader. But he has shown strength in getting committed to reform the presidency as he promised in the course of the presidential election campaign. Even though most other political leaders will fight for their personal powers, he is being accurate to the Buddhist ethos of his upbringing to transcend that fight in which he prevailed for a greater purpose. The President&#8217s efforts to push by way of a constitutional amendment that will reduce his own power is a uncommon instance of statesmanship, not only in Sri Lanka but worldwide.

There is a fantastic deal of international expectations about progress in Sri Lanka. The pay a visit to of US Secretary of State John Kerry will be taking place the following week. Sri Lanka is able to position itself as a post-war nation with a message to other nations that are struggling to come out of their own conflicts. The Sri Lankan model of changing governments, even quite potent and seemingly entrenched ones, through the democratic procedure is one particular that the international community would wish to support in other parts of the globe where adjust of governments are required. The Sri Lankan model of a president from one key party operating a government with a prime minister from a rival key party, and a government that has practically all parties in Parliament represented in it is exclusive.

Progressive Conference 

The new spirit of goodwill and openness to the planet, which President Maithripala Sirisena spoke of in his address to the nation final week on the occasion of the one hundred day anniversary of his government is also present in civil society. This was evident at an international conference on religious tolerance and hamony that took spot at the Buddhist and Pali University final week. The university is meant primarily for the tertiary education of Buddhist monks. As a result it has the possible to have a significant impact on the leadership role of the Buddhist religious clergy. Most often those from the religious community who have taken to politics do so in a parochial spirit. Nonetheless, there is an ethos of universality in the Buddhist teachings which is too often not manifested by politically motivated sections of the community. The international conference organised by the Buddhist and Pali University represented the universal and wholesome approach.

The conference attracted participation from different parts of the world, such as India, Myanmar, Maldives, Norway and the United States. From within Sri Lanka there was participation from numerous universities, most notably Jaffna University which had a contingent of students and lecturers. At the conclusion of the conference, these who had come from outdoors, and been guests of the Buddhist and Pali University were full of praise for the organisers of the conference. The participants from Jaffna have been also moved to defend the organisers who had come in for criticism from outside. There was damaging commentary in a section of the media that the conference organisers had accepted monetary help from the US embassy for the conference. There was also criticism that the Buddhist flag was not put up at the conference venue. The conference showed that when Buddhist monks are offered the space and support, they will act in a universal manner as befits the leadership of any religion.

Till last week it seemed that nationalism was on the rise once again. The impunity with which the Sinhalese nationalist supporters of the former government waved distorted national flags, from which the two strips that represent the Tamil and Muslim communities were removed, was reflective of the rawness of their nationalism. The rambunctious rallies organised by these who advocate the return of defeated former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the centre of politics have been also primarily based on the mobilisation of ethnic nationalism. Defeated at the presidential election on the major ground of corruption, they have been seeking to steer the political debate back to raw nationalism. Their nationalism was offered a increase by the resolution of the Northern Provincial Council which accused successive Sri Lankan governments of getting practised genocide against the Tamils from the time of Independence.

Equal Treatment 

Because the final week the government appears to be a lot more confident. Twenty six persons, such as leaders of the pro-Rajapaksa group of parliamentarians who defied a judicial order stopping them from staging a protest in front of the Bribery Commission workplace, have been summoned by the police. They not only defied the judicial order, but also waved the distorted national flags. In a lot of countries, desecrating the national flag is regarded as a punishable offence. In addition, the arrest of former minister Basil Rajapaksa for financial misappropriation of government funds belonging to his ministry would have come as a shock to those who believed in the continuing energy and influence of the former government leaders. The public protest has been muted. It seems that individuals accept the Rule of Law, even as they acquiesce in the abuse of power by politicians.

Due to the 3 decades of violence and conflict in the country and the propaganda of the rival nationalist camps numerous Sri Lankan folks at this point of time look to be confused about the way forward. The government has done nothing at all that is anti-national. But the opposition claims it is, even though the Tamil men and women in the North particularly complain that normalcy in their lives, and justice, has yet to come to them. At the identical time there is a deep underlying social and cultural unity in the nation, which was pointed out by one particular of the international participants at the conference organised by the Buddhist and Pali University. This unity manifests itself effortlessly when there is goodwill and hospitality, which the Sri Lankan individuals are capable of displaying from the heart. This unity tends to make the challenge of healing and reconciliation achievable, rather than impossible. The freedom and space to meet, to dialogue and to get to know each other is crucial to protect.

In his televised adddress to the individuals on the occasion of the 100th day anniversary, President Maithripala Sirisena mentioned that eliminating the culture of worry was 1 of the achievements of this period. It has taken away the worry that shackled the creativity and self-confidence of the people. Nevertheless, in the North of the country, the full enjoyment of the correct to be free of charge from fear is yet to be realised. According to participants who came to the conference from Jaffna, the military presence continues to be oppressive. The military is less directive than it was in the previous. There is no need to get permission to conduct events. But the military will come and ask queries and take photographs. This intimidates the individuals as they are fearful as to what use will be produced of this proof in the future. They too look to the president with hope, even as he fights for constitutional reform and power-sharing as no one particular else has, and to generate a new polity in which the deep cultural and social unity in the nation and amongst its distinct communities manifests itself as political unity also.

By Hilmy Ahamed –

The racist discards of the Rajapaksa era have opened a new front in their chauvinistic march to generate further ethnic turmoil in our nation by desecrating the National Flag. The protesters against the Sirisena government are now carrying a new National Flag that does not have the Orange and Green stripes that denote the minorities in the country. This was witnessed at the protests held each on Parliament Drive on 21^st April 2015 when Mahinda Rajapaksa was summoned by the Bribery Commission and the illegal protest in help of Gotabaya Rajapaksa on 23^rd April 2015 outdoors the premises of the Bribery Commission. This flag was first seen in some protests against the Muslims and other minorities that were organized by the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) in the course of the Rajapaksa regime.

The following is the justification for the style of the National Flag as recorded in a quantity of Government internet sites: “The National Flag of Sri Lanka has been made with fantastic care and goal. It not only represents the country and her heritage, but is a rallying device that integrates the minority races with the majority race”.

The lion flag lost its significance right after the British invaded Sri Lanka in 1815. It was the Union Jack, which was hoisted in its spot.

When Sri Lanka gained her independence from Wonderful Britain on February 04, 1948, it was the lion flag, which was hoisted when once again.

The 1st Prime Minister of independent Sri Lanka, D.S. Senanayake, appointed a committee to advice the government on the design of a new national flag. The design approved by the committee in February 1950 retained the symbol of the lion with the sword and the bo-leaves from the civil standard of the final king of Sri Lanka, with the inclusion of two vertical stripes green and orange in color. The orange stripe represents the Sri Lankan Tamils, the green stripe represents Sri Lankan Moors, and the maroon background represents the majority of Sinhalese:

Desecrating the National flag is a severe offence that warrants criminal prosecution. Wikipedia explains the desecration of the national flag as:

“Flag desecration is a term applied to the desecration of flags or flag protocol, a numerous set of acts that intentionally destroy, damage or mutilate a flag in public. Typically, in case of a national flag, such action is intended to make a political point against a nation or its policies. Some countries have laws forbidding techniques of destruction (such as burning in public) or forbidding specific utilizes.”

Udaya Gammanpila, the Western Provincial Councilor and leader of the Pivithuru Hetak National Movement was one particular of the principal organizer of the protest outside the Bribery Commission in support of the former Defense Secretary, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He not only defied a court order banning the protest, thereby liable to be charged for contempt of court, but also ought to be held responsible for desecrating the national flag, which is a criminal offence. He may possibly not have carried the flag himself, but he should be held responsible for the goons who carried it as the organizer of the protest. As a lawyer, he need to know much better.

Various persons have already produced police complaints and instant action must be taken by the Police to make sure that this menace is nipped in the bud. Most folks have a tendency to brush off these forms of racism as an insignificant nuisance, but the country witnessed a comparable campaign of blatant racism and hate that was spearheaded by the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), Sinhala Ravaya and Ravana Balaya with the assistance of a number of other racists groups and folks that grew in to a national crisis. The hate campaign against the Muslims by Buddhist extremists was the trigger of the violence in Aluthgama and Beruwela that destroyed the image of the nation as it did for the duration of the dark days of the 1983 riots against the Tamil minority. The 1983 riot is regarded as 1 of the factors that forced Tamil youth to take up arms to defend their neighborhood. The end of the 30 year armed conflict ought to be credited to the political leadership of the Rajapaksa regime and the military leadership of Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka and other commanders of the defense forces. Yet, the possibilities that have been on provide at the finish of the war for reconciliation was not produced use of by the Rajapaksa government. President Mahinda Rajapaksa could have gone down in history as the person who discovered a permanent remedy for all communities to reside in harmony in Sri Lanka, but his Sinhala chauvinism destroyed that chance.

The Sirisena government has taken some bold steps to stem the racist agenda of Buddhist extremists. The declaration that the national anthem could be sung in the Tamil language shows courage by President Maithripala Sirisena against the forces, which operate for narrow political acquire. The need to have for decisive action against the new nexus of racists that has been formed by the discards of the Rajapaksa era is paramount. The Inspector Basic of Police must order the immediate arrest of any individual or groups that promote racism or hate failure to do so would drive Sri Lanka to the dark days of racism witnessed below Rajapaksa rule.

By Lionel Bopage –

To All Honourable Members of Parliament

Assistance the passage of the proposed 19th Amendment to the Constitution 

As you debate the above Constitutional Amendment in the Parliament under challenging circumstances, we believed that it is crucial to encourage you to see to its effective passage.

One particular of the key political reforms put to the men and women of Sri Lanka at the January 2015 Presidential election was the abolition of the Executive Presidency. The Presidential Election Manifesto and the different promises made in the course of the election campaign led the folks of Sri Lanka elect President Maithripala Sirisena in the belief that an interim national government, with Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister, will enact constitutional amendments to abolish the Executive Presidency. Nearly all political entities and men and women who supported the ‘Common Opposition Candidate’, with the exception of Pivituru Hetak Jathika Sabhava, had the strongest expectation of totally abolishing the Executive Presidency.

The same manifesto also pledged to: … … abolish the 18th Amendment to the Constitution and replace it with the establishment of independent Commissions in order to safe the impartiality of institutions such as the judiciary, police, elections, auditing and the office of the Lawyer-Common (p.16). These far-reaching constitutional reforms are fundamentally important for ‘good governance’ the individuals of Sri Lanka rightfully deserve.

We recognise that the proposed 19th Amendment to the Constitution will abrogate the 18th Amendment, and allow the establishment of Constitutional Council and other Independent Commissions. The Amendment also upholds suitable procedures for making judicial appointments and recognises the ‘Right of access to information’ held by the government.

In light of the truth that the comprehensive abolition of the executive presidency could only be achieved with the approval at a Referendum, AAGGSL strongly urges all political entities and folks to help the passage of the proposed amendment, irrespective of their political differences. This will at least ensure partial fulfilment of the aspirations of the majority of the citizens, who voted for establishing Very good Governance and enduring peace in Sri Lanka. Issues of electoral reforms – although critical – are secondary for now, and they can be and should be addressed in the spirit of items, responsibly and separately.

The recent Supreme Court decision – that the Parliament with two-thirds majority could (a) take away the Executive powers to appoint judges of the Supreme Court (b) appoint Police Commission, Public Service Commission, Human Rights Commission, Elections Commission and Bribery Commission – gives renewed impetus for the passing of these essential amendments.

We urge that you act in the ideal interest of the country at heart with courage and good will.

Please be advised that the AAGGSL respects the rights and will of all peoples of Sri Lanka, and is committed to supporting the establishment of practicing democracy and rule of law in our motherland. Strengthening democracy and empowering folks often acquire worldwide recognition.

Yours sincerely

Dr Lionel Bopage &#8211 President, Australian Advocacy for Good Governance in Sri Lanka

By Sujata Gamage –

We ultimately have some legislative language to start off a discussion on electoral reforms. Kudos to the SLFP for carrying out a draft on the 97th day of the 100-day program. What was the government doing all this time is a very good query, but, for the moment let us feel positively and concentrate on enhancing the draft.

Frustrated by the lack of action by the government half-way into hundred day program, a group of us joined by CaFFEsrilanka.org started a campaign to jump-start electoral reforms using an proof-primarily based approach. The first workshop was held at Nagarodaya, Borella. The workshop was based on what-if simulations of benefits of the previous 4 common elections for which variations of the method proposed in the 2007 interim report of the Parliamentary Pick committee (PSC) on electoral reforms had been applied.

The approach proposed by PSC is what we called the MMM-LK approach. In MMM or Mixed Member Majoritarian systems, the parliament is created up two elements &#8211 the initial-past-the post FPP component and the PR element.

To pick the FPP component, slates of candidates are provided by parties for electorates in 1 or a lot more of the 22 electoral districts. The distinction from the ‘PR with Manape’ familiar to us in Sri Lanka is the fact that a candidate is designated for every single electorate. There are no excess candidates except in the nominations for national-list MPs. Whether there must be a district list is not specified however. At the polling station you would get a single ballot with the candidates for your electorate, say, Borella. You mark your preference with a single “X” and drop the ballot in the ballot box and you are done. The candidate who gets the most votes, even by a margin of 1, gets elected for the FPP element. A variation of this process will apply to multi-member electorates.

The PR element is typically primarily based on the benefits of a second ballot exactly where you vote for the party of your selection. The Sri Lankan twist in the PSC technique is that we have only 1 ballot (apparently, Taiwan started with 1 ballot prior to moving onto two). The tally of the votes cast in the FPP contest is also utilized to determine the PR component. The elections Commissioner allocates the PR seats to parties in proportion to the remainder votes or the total votes minus the votes of the FPP winners and these who got less than 5% of the vote in any electoral district. Given that these votes are basically votes received by the runners-up, the bulk of the PR seats go the ideal runners-up, with every celebration retaining some.

During previous handful of weeks we also place forward what we called the MMP-LK or a mixed member proportional technique primarily based on the New Zealand electoral system. In MMP, you essentially commence with a PR parliament and then accommodate FPP winners within it. Overhangs are an inevitable part of the MMP systems. Approaches to correct exist but, as we located out, politicians and officials are not comfortable with the overhang idea, even even though MMP will yield a final composition of the parliament which is essentially the same as what we presently have. According to our evaluation the MMM-LK as well offers a outcome close to the one hundred% proportional result thanks to the remainder vote notion, one more twist supplied in the PSC method, and we feel MM-LK is just as very good an option (though purists amongst us could be appalled).

What is the magic formula?

The original PSC formula was 140+70+25 = 225 for a 62% FPP element in a 225- member parliament. The 32% PR component is comprised of 70 District PR members returned on the basis of reminder votes and an additional 15 returned in proportion to the total votes. Tiny parties were not happy with a ratio 62:38. They felt it should 50:50.

The formula offered in the draft amendment is an expanded one particular, with 165 FPP seats, 65 District-PR seats and 25 National List seats for total quantity of members in parliament at 255 (or 165+65+25=255) and an ‘apparent’ FPP:PR ratio of 64:36.

At very first sight, the improve in size is disturbing, but, I believe it is a is excellent compromise contemplating that the percentage of FPP MPs not considerably higher at 64%, and modest parties, especially, those representing geographically dispersed minorities such as Indian-origin Tamils (IOTS), is to be accommodated through multi-member seats and other tools. This will in impact decrease the ‘effective’ FPP:PR ratio.

Modest parties will not be harmed, if the efficient PR percent is enhanced via multi-member electorates.

In MMM, the relative size of the FPP element determines the nature of the parliament. The greater the FPP %, greater is the FPP nature or majoritarian nature of the parliament. A significant complaint about majoritarian systems compared to the present PR method is the fact that small parties can’t get any seats in FPP contest. For example, the 2010 common election yielded a parliament with 144 seats for UPFA, 60 for UNP, 14 for ITAK and 7 for JVP, with the present 90% PR with 10% bonus strategy. All other parties came by means of on the lists place forward by key parties that they had been allied with. Judging by the vote count at every 160 polling divisions in the previous 4 elections, none of the parties except UPFA, UNP and ITAK, and SLMC marginally, would have won initial-past-the-post if they contested alone. In essence, if the proposed reforms are implemented and the voter behavior does not adjust substantially, only the UPFA, UNP and North and East Primarily based Parties (NEBPs) such as ITAK and SLMC would have a displaying in the FPP element, reducing the possibilities for little parties.

What precisely is a small celebration? Many parties or groups are registered with Elections Commissioner and they contest the elections, but, not all parties execute equally. If we take the benefits of four past common election final results and exclude the governing party or alliance and the principal opposition party or alliance, we discover ten ‘small parties’ and one particular independent group securing seats in the parliament. These parties are broadly of three kinds in terms of their voter base.

Two of the much more visible modest parties are the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) which may well be known as ideological parties. For the duration of the past four elections, JVP secured a maximum of 10 seats and JHU a maximum of 7 seats. Since their voter base is a larger Sinhala-Buddhist constituency, if their ideologies are nonetheless eye-catching, these parties will continue to be represented in Parliament even under the proposed system, although in slightly smaller sized numbers, if past voting patterns persist.

Parties such as the Eelam People&#8217s Democratic Party (EPDP), Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress represent geographically defined communities in the North and the East. Even though SLMC also represents geographically dispersed Muslim communities to some extent, in term of its overall performance in the past elections, it has proved itself to be a lot more of an Eastern Province primarily based celebration. These NEBPs collectively account for 20-23 seats out of the 225 seats in parliament or about 10% of the seats, though they acquire a small less than in term of total votes.. This is by virtue of district-wise determination of the number of members returned below the present PR technique. These parties would not be affected unduly by the proposed reforms because they can win a substantial percent of the 20-30 FPP seats in the North and the East (and some of district-PR seats if their candidates drop some seats but do properly as runners-up). NEBPs also would get many national-list seats.

Thirdly, we have parties such as the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), Up Nation People’s Front (UCPF) and Democratic Men and women&#8217s Liberation Front (DPLF) representing geographically dispersed minorities such as Indian-origin Tamils (IOT). SLMC also belongs in this category, presumably representing dispersed Muslims. Judging by the votes received when SLMC contested on its own, the party received its highest percent of votes outdoors the Eastern Province in Harispattuva and Udunuwara electorates in the Mahanuwara District. It had a smaller sized presence in Colombo, Beruwela, Puttalam, Horowpotana, Welimada, and Mawanella electorates in six other electoral districts.

We estimate that the parties representing dispersed communities stand to drop the most beneath the proposed Amendment 20 and therefore need to be provided protection in there by way of multi-member electorates.

Multimember electorates require to be defined far more strongly

Take the case of Indian origin Tamils (IOTs) who are now dispersed across the Central Province and beyond. Beneath the PR technique, leaders of IOT and Muslim communities have been in a position to negotiate with key parties to include their representatives in the candidate lists of these parties. They are able to negotiate due to the fact of their capacity to tap into this district-wide voter base and they get a reasonable representation by way of these negotiations. Beneath the mixed member method, which is largely primarily based on FPP contests in smaller sized electorates, the position of dispersed communities is weakened. An unfortunate outcome of proposed reforms, since dispersed communities, segments of the IOT neighborhood in particular, are amongst the most disadvantaged in our society.

The very best answer for dispersed communities is a sufficiently big and appropriately defined number of electorates returning two or a lot more members. These multi-members electorates are critical for other communities such as Sinhalese who live in majority Tamil or Muslim locations as properly. Caste concerns too may possibly nonetheless be relevant in some areas.

Whilst the larger aim of any sort of reform ought to be the integration of ethnic communities into 1 Sri Lankan neighborhood, the path to integration ought to be marked by respect and concern for differences. Unless a enough number of multi-member electorates are created in Mahanuwara, Kegalle, Badulla and other districts, the IOTs, for example, might shed representation. Therefore, I believe that an improve in the number of FPP units and hence the total quantity of seats in parliament to 255 is justified IF the increase is utilized to accommodate those who may get marginalized under the new technique.

The crucial report for IOT and other dispersed communities is the proposed new insertion in to Section 96Aof the constitution exactly where it says “it is acceptable to generate multi member electorates”, but the cause offered as follows:

“In order to avoid the number of members entitled to be returned to represent any electoral district from becoming excessive, it is appropriate to produce multi member electorates which are entitled to return a lot more than a single Member or the motives that led to the creation of a multi member electorate in the past are nevertheless valid and applicable.”

The multi-member situation is presented in the above section more as a solution to a technical dilemma than a human dilemma. An additional example is the clause which apparently is intended to steer clear of excessive creation of multi-member constituencies:

“Delimitation Commission shall have the energy to create a multi member electorate or multi member electorates, as the case may be. The Delimitation Commission nonetheless, shall make certain that the number of multi member electorates created, shall be kept at a minimum level.”

In contrast the language in the now repealed 14th amendment to create zones is virtually poetic. Beneath the Division of Electoral districts into Zone section in the 14^th Amendment, dispersed communities are articulated as follows :

“a substantial concentration of persons united by a community of interest , whether racial, religious or such other like interest but differing in 1 or much more respects from the majority of electors in that electoral district”

Inclusion of such language to define the beneficiaries of multi-member constituencies is a have to in the proposed amendment 20A.

The devil is in the details

There are more specifics that need to have to be expanded or clarified in the draft amendment. For instance, how are the district PRs seats to be awarded? What percent of the 65 district PR would go to the ideal runners-up and what percent would go to the parties? Will there be a district list or will there be extra persons in the National List designated for every single electoral district? I hope to address those issues in the next few articles based on our analysis.

By W.A Wijewardena –

‘Solid waste no more waste but like gold’ says Sri Lankan-born scientist C. Visvanathan

How would we react to a nauseatingly stinking dump of garbage in the vicinity? Stinking of all kinds of foul odours because it is in various stages of natural decomposition? Many of us would wrinkle up our noses and try to walk away from it as fast as possible. That is because for many of us, garbage is a waste, a polluter of environment and a violator of our aesthetic feelings. Hence, in our judgment, garbage is something that should not be there in a decent environment.

When you see a heap of dirt, you must see a beautiful rose

We hold this view, because our vision does not extend beyond our eyesight. However, if we are able to see the whole process of a natural phenomenon, our view on garbage would be different. This was beautifully explained by the Vietnam born Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, in a commentary he wrote on the Prajnaparamita Hrdaya Sutra, also known as Heart Sutra and said to have been preached by Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, under the title ‘The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra’.

Says Nhat Hanh: “Defiled or immaculate. Dirty or pure. These are concepts we form in our mind. A beautiful rose we have just cut and placed in our vase is immaculate. It smells so good, so pure, so fresh. It supports the idea of immaculateness. The opposite is a garbage can. It smells horrible, and it is filled with rotten things. But that is only when you look on the surface. If you look more deeply you will see that in just five or six days, the rose will become part of the garbage. You do not need to wait five days to see it. If you just look at the rose, and you look deeply, you can see it now. And if you look into the garbage can, you see that in a few months its contents can be transformed into lovely vegetables, and even a rose.

“If you are a good organic gardener and you have the eyes of a bodhisattva, looking at a rose you can see the garbage, and looking at the garbage you can see a rose. Roses and garbage inter-are (or inter-dependent). Without a rose, we cannot have garbage; and without garbage, we cannot have a rose. They need each other very much. The rose and garbage are equal. The garbage is just as precious as the rose. If we look deeply at the concepts of defilement and immaculateness, we return to the notion of inter-being” (p 44)

Professor C. Visvanathan: waste is no more waste but a resource

A Sri Lankan-born scientist, Professor C. Visvanathan, Dean of the School of Environment, Resources and Development at the Asian Institute of Technology or AIT in Bangkok expresses the same view as the Zen Master Nhat Hanh. In an interview with this writer at AIT, Visvanathan boldly declares: “Solid waste is no more waste to be condemned; it is like gold which we could put back to human benefits.”

His academic credentials are from three prestigious institutions of higher learning: A bachelor’s degree in technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, a Master of Engineering from AIT and a doctorate in chemical/environmental engineering from France’s Institut National Polytechnique in Toulouse.

Environmental economists: Waste management a must

Visvanathan, the scientist, speaks like an environmental economist here. To an environmental economist, waste-matter is an undesired by-product that is unavoidably generated in the natural processes of all economic activities. Since it is undesired, it is called a ‘bad’ as against its desired counterpart which is called a ‘good’. However, goods cannot be produced without producing bads. For instance, at a very elementary level, one cannot inhale oxygen, a good, without having to exhale carbon dioxide, the bad. If one is prohibited from exhaling carbon dioxide, one cannot live because he cannot take in the good, oxygen. Hence, both the good and the bad come as a package together.

What has been done so far has been to use the environment as a dumping ground for bads. However, the unplanned dumping of bads into environment has caused, first at the local level, and then at the national level and finally at the global level now, irreversible environmental catastrophes. Hence, environmental economists have recommended the proper management of waste-matter so that it could be converted to a beneficial-matter for mankind’s use.

This issue was brought to public focus by this writer in a previous article in this series relating to the proper management of polythene under the title ‘Banning polythene to green the globe: alternatives are not that green either’. Visvanathan, through research, has come up with the engineering possibilities for producing beneficial matter out of waste-matter so that such possibilities are practical, economical and sustainable.

The ugly side of increased urbanisation

The globe is being increasingly urbanised day by day. But the increased urbanisation also produces increased volumes of solid waste creating gigantic issues for solid waste management by municipal authorities. Says Visvanathan: “Worldwide, about 5.2 million tonnes of municipal waste is being produced a day and out of this, 3.8 million tonnes of solid waste is produced in developing countries.

It has now been projected that by 2025, the global annual solid waste production would be around 2.2 billion tonnes, up from 1.3 billion tonnes in 2012. Of this, urban Asia will account for about 657 million tonnes of solid waste, about a third of solid waste in the whole globe by 2025. Hence, solid waste growth in Asia is inevitable and proper waste management solutions should be put in place right from now if Asia is to avoid a waste catastrophe”

Land-filling is a primitive option for waste disposal

Developing countries use land-filling as the main method of disposing solid waste produced by their growing urban populations. With the limitation of the available land for this purpose, it has become necessary for identifying other methods of solid waste disposal. Visvanathan notes that solid waste disposal options should necessarily change and these options are in fact fast changing worldwide. They have principally changed from land-filling to recycling, energy production and composting. But, these are hampered by four types of constraints: lack of money, technology, proper policy and capacity.

However, the proper policy should be directed from the present concern for waste management to resource management where waste is considered as a valuable asset, like gold. It is an evolutionary process and Visvanathan identifies five stages through which the world has now gone through in this process. He calls them ‘drivers for solid waste modernisation’ that will offer new economic opportunities for the globe.

Countries in the world today have been in different stages of this evolutionary process depending on the state of economic development they have attained. Accordingly, low and lower middle income countries like Sri Lanka have been in the initial stage of the evolutionary process. Higher middle income countries are at the mid-level while the developed countries are at the highest level of evolutionary process.

Public health concerns of solid waste management

At the initial point, the driver for waste management was the concern for public health. This was the main reason for designing public policy on waste management during 1900-1970. Accordingly, governmental regulations were imposed setting out guidelines as to how waste-matter should be disposed by individuals as well as businesses without causing harm to public health. The main method was to collect waste-matter regularly and dispose of it by burning or dumping into waterways or using for land-filling.

However, all these methods were just a postponement of a major environmental issue to the future by solving the problem in one place and creating a problem elsewhere.

Management of solid waste to avert environmental problems

The second evolutionary process commenced after 1970s when the whole globe became concerned about the growing environmental problems due to the accumulation of solid waste in the environment. However, waste was still a waste and not a resource. Hence, public policy on waste management was principally directed how waste-matter should be disposed without causing harm to environment. Sri Lanka is still in this stage of the evolution of waste management process.

Waste as a resource

In the third stage, waste-matter is considered as a resource and policies are being formulated to harness their resource value to society. The concern for this has emerged due to two reasons. First, the fast economic growth throughout the world in the last few decades has demanded a higher utilisation of non-renewable natural resources. Second, the finite supply of these non-renewable natural resources has led to their fast depletion.

This issue was first raised by the Club of Rome, an independent think-tank of scientists concerned with emerging global resource issues, in mid 1960s. In a publication in 1972 titled ‘The Limits to Growth’ which soon became an international bestseller attracting millions of fans worldwide, the Club of Rome called for limiting economic growth in order to sustain future economic prosperity. This call has been answered only in after the onset of the second millennium where waste-matter is now considered as a resource that could be used for enhancing the global prosperity.

Waste management and climate change issues

The fourth stage is now emerging with global concerns for climate change as principally pronounced by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change or IPCC. Thus, the waste management issue which was hitherto a national issue has now become a global issue. The political force which has sprung up with concerns about global climate change issues is now emerging as a powerful global lobbying group. As a result, no country today can be oblivious to the need for proper solid waste management.

Holistic waste management a must for sustainability

The fifth stage is the future of the evolutionary process involving the solid waste management, according to Visvanathan. The world is now concerned about the sustainability of its prosperity and sustainability has been defined by the UN Commission on Environment and Development, also known as the Brundtland Commission going by its Chairperson Gro Harem Brundtland, as ‘meeting the requirements of the present generation without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet theirs’.

Visvanathan says that it is a circular economy from resources to production, from production to consumption, from consumption to waste-matter and from waste-matter to resources once again. When waste-matter was considered a mere waste in the past, this last loop had been broken. It is now time to close the loop and have a holistic solid waste management in which waste-matter will be converted to resources once again and allow the world to go by the circular process. This last thread of the evolutionary process into which the world is now moving has been facilitated by environmental engineers like Visvanathan.

Segregation of solid waste

A holistic waste management does not permit waste to be dumped or used for land-filling without extracting its resource value first. The process starts by segregating it into recyclables, garbage and solid waste. Recyclables, after the primary treatment, will end up as new resources for use in the production of new outputs. For instance, plastic bottles, especially plastic Coca-cola bottles, can be recycled to produce rayon, according to Visvanathan, which is the basic fibre for producing synthetic clothing materials.

The garbage will be used for producing anaerobic composting which can be used as fertiliser in agriculture and cover soil in land-filling of the remaining waste after incineration. The solid waste can be used for incinerating and producing energy. The ash remaining after incineration, non-recyclable parts of recyclables and other inert remains can be used for land-filling. So, Visvanathan says that no waste should be permitted to end up in a land-fill without first using it for the benefit of mankind.

Sri Lanka’s infantile strategy at waste management

Sri Lanka’s Colombo Municipality produces about 1000 tonnes of solid waste a day. The satellite towns around Colombo produce about a further 1500 tonnes of solid waste a day. It has become a gigantic challenge for municipal authorities to safely dispose of these solid wastes. The strategy they currently use is simply to dump them in waste dumps and use for land-filling. Hence, Sri Lanka’s largest waste producers are still in the first and second stages of the evolutionary process of waste management identified by Visvanathan.

As such, they are still infants in a holistic waste management strategy. With proper policy focus, they should grow from infanthood to adulthood in waste management in which waste is no longer a stinking waste, but a resource which can be used for the betterment of the citizens. The team of researchers at AIT, led by Visvanathan, has developed easy to use and cost-effective technology for holistic urban solid waste management. In many parts of Thailand and other East Asian countries, this technology is now being used.

An important breakthrough in this connection has been the development of technology to recover natural gas available abundantly in the places where solid waste has been used for land-filling. The use of such land for any commercial purpose should be done, according to Visvanathan, only after extracting the natural gas remaining trapped beneath such land.

AIT’s offer of a collaborative hand

According to Visvanathan, AIT has been very liberal in sharing its new discoveries and knowledge with anyone who wishes to use them for the furtherance of mankind. It can provide training, give technology support and even develop new technologies to suit individual customers to have better solid waste management systems. It is also willing to develop linkages with other research institutions and universities to have collaborative technology development projects.

Don’t solve your problem by creating problems elsewhere

Attempts have been made in the recent past to make Colombo a clean city, a development about which the Colombo elite has been openly happy. But little have they realised that they have cleaned themselves by dirtying elsewhere and that elsewhere is also within this island. Thus, Colombo has solved its problem by creating environmental issues for others. But Colombo and its satellite urbanites have a better option today in the form of holistic waste management where waste is used as a resource.

This is a public policy which Sri Lanka should adopt as a matter of priority. It is not a difficult task since the required technology is now available in the neighbouring countries. This public policy could be facilitated by private participation by going for a green lending policy by Sri Lankan banks. Visvanathan says he is willing to train Sri Lankan bankers in the art and science of assessing green banking projects.

It is up to Sri Lanka to tap this kind gesture by a world renowned Sri Lanka born scientist.

*W.A Wijewardena, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, can be reached at [email protected] 

By W.A Wijewardena –

‘Solid waste no more waste but like gold’ says Sri Lankan-born scientist C. Visvanathan

How would we react to a nauseatingly stinking dump of garbage in the vicinity? Stinking of all kinds of foul odours because it is in various stages of natural decomposition? Many of us would wrinkle up our noses and try to walk away from it as fast as possible. That is because for many of us, garbage is a waste, a polluter of environment and a violator of our aesthetic feelings. Hence, in our judgment, garbage is something that should not be there in a decent environment.

When you see a heap of dirt, you must see a beautiful rose

We hold this view, because our vision does not extend beyond our eyesight. However, if we are able to see the whole process of a natural phenomenon, our view on garbage would be different. This was beautifully explained by the Vietnam born Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, in a commentary he wrote on the Prajnaparamita Hrdaya Sutra, also known as Heart Sutra and said to have been preached by Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, under the title ‘The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra’.

Says Nhat Hanh: “Defiled or immaculate. Dirty or pure. These are concepts we form in our mind. A beautiful rose we have just cut and placed in our vase is immaculate. It smells so good, so pure, so fresh. It supports the idea of immaculateness. The opposite is a garbage can. It smells horrible, and it is filled with rotten things. But that is only when you look on the surface. If you look more deeply you will see that in just five or six days, the rose will become part of the garbage. You do not need to wait five days to see it. If you just look at the rose, and you look deeply, you can see it now. And if you look into the garbage can, you see that in a few months its contents can be transformed into lovely vegetables, and even a rose.

“If you are a good organic gardener and you have the eyes of a bodhisattva, looking at a rose you can see the garbage, and looking at the garbage you can see a rose. Roses and garbage inter-are (or inter-dependent). Without a rose, we cannot have garbage; and without garbage, we cannot have a rose. They need each other very much. The rose and garbage are equal. The garbage is just as precious as the rose. If we look deeply at the concepts of defilement and immaculateness, we return to the notion of inter-being” (p 44)

Professor C. Visvanathan: waste is no more waste but a resource

A Sri Lankan-born scientist, Professor C. Visvanathan, Dean of the School of Environment, Resources and Development at the Asian Institute of Technology or AIT in Bangkok expresses the same view as the Zen Master Nhat Hanh. In an interview with this writer at AIT, Visvanathan boldly declares: “Solid waste is no more waste to be condemned; it is like gold which we could put back to human benefits.”

His academic credentials are from three prestigious institutions of higher learning: A bachelor’s degree in technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, a Master of Engineering from AIT and a doctorate in chemical/environmental engineering from France’s Institut National Polytechnique in Toulouse.

Environmental economists: Waste management a must

Visvanathan, the scientist, speaks like an environmental economist here. To an environmental economist, waste-matter is an undesired by-product that is unavoidably generated in the natural processes of all economic activities. Since it is undesired, it is called a ‘bad’ as against its desired counterpart which is called a ‘good’. However, goods cannot be produced without producing bads. For instance, at a very elementary level, one cannot inhale oxygen, a good, without having to exhale carbon dioxide, the bad. If one is prohibited from exhaling carbon dioxide, one cannot live because he cannot take in the good, oxygen. Hence, both the good and the bad come as a package together.

What has been done so far has been to use the environment as a dumping ground for bads. However, the unplanned dumping of bads into environment has caused, first at the local level, and then at the national level and finally at the global level now, irreversible environmental catastrophes. Hence, environmental economists have recommended the proper management of waste-matter so that it could be converted to a beneficial-matter for mankind’s use.

This issue was brought to public focus by this writer in a previous article in this series relating to the proper management of polythene under the title ‘Banning polythene to green the globe: alternatives are not that green either’. Visvanathan, through research, has come up with the engineering possibilities for producing beneficial matter out of waste-matter so that such possibilities are practical, economical and sustainable.

The ugly side of increased urbanisation

The globe is being increasingly urbanised day by day. But the increased urbanisation also produces increased volumes of solid waste creating gigantic issues for solid waste management by municipal authorities. Says Visvanathan: “Worldwide, about 5.2 million tonnes of municipal waste is being produced a day and out of this, 3.8 million tonnes of solid waste is produced in developing countries.

It has now been projected that by 2025, the global annual solid waste production would be around 2.2 billion tonnes, up from 1.3 billion tonnes in 2012. Of this, urban Asia will account for about 657 million tonnes of solid waste, about a third of solid waste in the whole globe by 2025. Hence, solid waste growth in Asia is inevitable and proper waste management solutions should be put in place right from now if Asia is to avoid a waste catastrophe”

Land-filling is a primitive option for waste disposal

Developing countries use land-filling as the main method of disposing solid waste produced by their growing urban populations. With the limitation of the available land for this purpose, it has become necessary for identifying other methods of solid waste disposal. Visvanathan notes that solid waste disposal options should necessarily change and these options are in fact fast changing worldwide. They have principally changed from land-filling to recycling, energy production and composting. But, these are hampered by four types of constraints: lack of money, technology, proper policy and capacity.

However, the proper policy should be directed from the present concern for waste management to resource management where waste is considered as a valuable asset, like gold. It is an evolutionary process and Visvanathan identifies five stages through which the world has now gone through in this process. He calls them ‘drivers for solid waste modernisation’ that will offer new economic opportunities for the globe.

Countries in the world today have been in different stages of this evolutionary process depending on the state of economic development they have attained. Accordingly, low and lower middle income countries like Sri Lanka have been in the initial stage of the evolutionary process. Higher middle income countries are at the mid-level while the developed countries are at the highest level of evolutionary process.

Public health concerns of solid waste management

At the initial point, the driver for waste management was the concern for public health. This was the main reason for designing public policy on waste management during 1900-1970. Accordingly, governmental regulations were imposed setting out guidelines as to how waste-matter should be disposed by individuals as well as businesses without causing harm to public health. The main method was to collect waste-matter regularly and dispose of it by burning or dumping into waterways or using for land-filling.

However, all these methods were just a postponement of a major environmental issue to the future by solving the problem in one place and creating a problem elsewhere.

Management of solid waste to avert environmental problems

The second evolutionary process commenced after 1970s when the whole globe became concerned about the growing environmental problems due to the accumulation of solid waste in the environment. However, waste was still a waste and not a resource. Hence, public policy on waste management was principally directed how waste-matter should be disposed without causing harm to environment. Sri Lanka is still in this stage of the evolution of waste management process.

Waste as a resource

In the third stage, waste-matter is considered as a resource and policies are being formulated to harness their resource value to society. The concern for this has emerged due to two reasons. First, the fast economic growth throughout the world in the last few decades has demanded a higher utilisation of non-renewable natural resources. Second, the finite supply of these non-renewable natural resources has led to their fast depletion.

This issue was first raised by the Club of Rome, an independent think-tank of scientists concerned with emerging global resource issues, in mid 1960s. In a publication in 1972 titled ‘The Limits to Growth’ which soon became an international bestseller attracting millions of fans worldwide, the Club of Rome called for limiting economic growth in order to sustain future economic prosperity. This call has been answered only in after the onset of the second millennium where waste-matter is now considered as a resource that could be used for enhancing the global prosperity.

Waste management and climate change issues

The fourth stage is now emerging with global concerns for climate change as principally pronounced by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change or IPCC. Thus, the waste management issue which was hitherto a national issue has now become a global issue. The political force which has sprung up with concerns about global climate change issues is now emerging as a powerful global lobbying group. As a result, no country today can be oblivious to the need for proper solid waste management.

Holistic waste management a must for sustainability

The fifth stage is the future of the evolutionary process involving the solid waste management, according to Visvanathan. The world is now concerned about the sustainability of its prosperity and sustainability has been defined by the UN Commission on Environment and Development, also known as the Brundtland Commission going by its Chairperson Gro Harem Brundtland, as ‘meeting the requirements of the present generation without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet theirs’.

Visvanathan says that it is a circular economy from resources to production, from production to consumption, from consumption to waste-matter and from waste-matter to resources once again. When waste-matter was considered a mere waste in the past, this last loop had been broken. It is now time to close the loop and have a holistic solid waste management in which waste-matter will be converted to resources once again and allow the world to go by the circular process. This last thread of the evolutionary process into which the world is now moving has been facilitated by environmental engineers like Visvanathan.

Segregation of solid waste

A holistic waste management does not permit waste to be dumped or used for land-filling without extracting its resource value first. The process starts by segregating it into recyclables, garbage and solid waste. Recyclables, after the primary treatment, will end up as new resources for use in the production of new outputs. For instance, plastic bottles, especially plastic Coca-cola bottles, can be recycled to produce rayon, according to Visvanathan, which is the basic fibre for producing synthetic clothing materials.

The garbage will be used for producing anaerobic composting which can be used as fertiliser in agriculture and cover soil in land-filling of the remaining waste after incineration. The solid waste can be used for incinerating and producing energy. The ash remaining after incineration, non-recyclable parts of recyclables and other inert remains can be used for land-filling. So, Visvanathan says that no waste should be permitted to end up in a land-fill without first using it for the benefit of mankind.

Sri Lanka’s infantile strategy at waste management

Sri Lanka’s Colombo Municipality produces about 1000 tonnes of solid waste a day. The satellite towns around Colombo produce about a further 1500 tonnes of solid waste a day. It has become a gigantic challenge for municipal authorities to safely dispose of these solid wastes. The strategy they currently use is simply to dump them in waste dumps and use for land-filling. Hence, Sri Lanka’s largest waste producers are still in the first and second stages of the evolutionary process of waste management identified by Visvanathan.

As such, they are still infants in a holistic waste management strategy. With proper policy focus, they should grow from infanthood to adulthood in waste management in which waste is no longer a stinking waste, but a resource which can be used for the betterment of the citizens. The team of researchers at AIT, led by Visvanathan, has developed easy to use and cost-effective technology for holistic urban solid waste management. In many parts of Thailand and other East Asian countries, this technology is now being used.

An important breakthrough in this connection has been the development of technology to recover natural gas available abundantly in the places where solid waste has been used for land-filling. The use of such land for any commercial purpose should be done, according to Visvanathan, only after extracting the natural gas remaining trapped beneath such land.

AIT’s offer of a collaborative hand

According to Visvanathan, AIT has been very liberal in sharing its new discoveries and knowledge with anyone who wishes to use them for the furtherance of mankind. It can provide training, give technology support and even develop new technologies to suit individual customers to have better solid waste management systems. It is also willing to develop linkages with other research institutions and universities to have collaborative technology development projects.

Don’t solve your problem by creating problems elsewhere

Attempts have been made in the recent past to make Colombo a clean city, a development about which the Colombo elite has been openly happy. But little have they realised that they have cleaned themselves by dirtying elsewhere and that elsewhere is also within this island. Thus, Colombo has solved its problem by creating environmental issues for others. But Colombo and its satellite urbanites have a better option today in the form of holistic waste management where waste is used as a resource.

This is a public policy which Sri Lanka should adopt as a matter of priority. It is not a difficult task since the required technology is now available in the neighbouring countries. This public policy could be facilitated by private participation by going for a green lending policy by Sri Lankan banks. Visvanathan says he is willing to train Sri Lankan bankers in the art and science of assessing green banking projects.

It is up to Sri Lanka to tap this kind gesture by a world renowned Sri Lanka born scientist.

*W.A Wijewardena, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, can be reached at [email protected]