‘Stop nominating separatists to CC’

        The Australia-based Society for Peace Unity and Human Rights (SPUR) in Sri Lanka in a media release issued on Friday March 6, has insisted that in appointing candidates to the Constitutional Council (CC) they should all take an oath swearing allegiance to a sovereign and unitary Sri Lanka rejecting ideological and political commitments to separatism. SPUR represents the World Alliance for Peace in Sri Lanka (WAPS) that comprises over 25 Sri Lankan expatriate organisations.

                   In the context SPUR has requested either the withdrawal of the nominations or prevention of the appointment to the council of retired Chief Justice C.V. Wigneswaran and Dr. J Uyangoda to the Constitutional Council since they do not possess the necessary credentials to be worthy of being appointed to the Constitutional Council.

                              SPUR has also urged all political parties not to convert the Constitutional Council to a home for the retired elitists or to promoters of separatism. If not it will be an act against the will of the people and the integrity of the country, according to the society. Here SPUR has recalled Wigneswaran’s March 7 speech (welcoming Justice Yapa) where he expressed the view that North and the East of Sri Lanka were independent entities and that the Tamil speaking people were being robbed and converted to a minority by the Sinhalese after Independence.

                                   As for Uyangoda SPUR notes that he is a convicted terrorist guilty of crimes against the Sri Lanka and that he has written copiously for the separatist cause stressed the need for providing space for LTTE terrorists.

SPUR further states:

                           “Both the nominees have not renounced their allegiances to separatism and its violence and nor have they apologized for their questionable utterances and views. These two individuals cannot be expected to perform their duties objectively given their past record and ideological commitments.”

                                 SPUR has stressed the need for members of the Constitutional Council to be representative of a balanced cross section of eminent persons reflecting the changing patterns in Sri Lankan society.

Following is the full text of the media release:

                              It is reported that there are plans afoot to nominate and appoint members of the Constitution Council.

                               While the masses, especially the people in the villages of Sri Lanka either directly or indirectly are on the verge of extricating themselves from the clutches of the LTTE terrorists and the interfering NGOs, quietly but surely another segment of our society mainly consisting of individuals and groups rejected by masses, is proceeding on a social engineering project to limit the powers of the elected President Their plan unfortunately is not to ensure good governance through proper checks and balances, but to promote individuals who are will obstruct the elected President in implementing his mandate.

                                   Our views should not be taken as unconditionally encouraging the Chief Executive to abuse his power. More importantly the objective is to stop the Chief Executive and the people who elected him or her to be a helpless captive in the hands of individuals who are neither elected nor suitable to hold an office of this importance as they have openly acted or spoken against the changes which have taken place in Sri Lankan society over the years including the defeat of the LTTE terrorists.

                                                              The Constitutional Council is bound to play a critical role in setting standards at the highest level. It is of prime importance therefore that those who are to occupy the seats in the council should posses impeccable credentials in their careers. In the recent American elections President Obama came under heavy fire for his associations with activists linked to violent organizations. He unequivocally denied and disassociated himself with those activists and organizations. Sri Lanka should emulate this example and leave no room for anyone who had any links with separatist or terrorist organizations that had destabilized the nation with brutal violence and threatened the elected governments, subverting the will of the people.

                                                      Among the nominees who are now known to the public, Retired Justice V. Wigneswaran and J Uyangoda stand out as persons who do not posses the necessary credentials to be worthy of being appointed to the Constitutional Council.

                                                     The Retd Justice has expressed the view that the North and the East of Sri Lanka were independent entities and that the Tamil speaking people were being robbed and converted to a minority by the Sinhalese after Independence etc, etc (Pls. ref to SC Justice C.V Wigneswaran’s speech on 07 March welcoming Justice Yapa)

                                                 J. Uyangoda, a convicted terrorist guilty of crimes against the Sri Lanka people and is a well-known biased commentator on Sri Lankan affairs and a writer on political and social issues. He has written copiously for the separatist cause against a unitary Sri Lanka and also about the necessity to provide space for the terrorist LTTE in democratic Sri Lanka. In fact, he is one of the main commentators who have been critical of the actions taken by a number of Sri Lankan Governments in their attempts to get rid of the LTTE terrorists while misleading the world’s academic and think tank institutions on socio economic issues relating to Sri Lanka.

                                                  We are of the view that Retd. Justice Wigeswaran and J Uyangoda are not men of eminence and integrity as required by the Article 41 (4) and have definitely proven themselves by their actions to be out of step with the thinking of the vast majority of Sri Lankan populous. If they are appointed, they will be act as a barrier to the President in discharging his functions for the benefit of the country at large.

                                               Both the nominees have not renounced their allegiances to separatism and its violence and nor have they apologized for their questionable utterances and views. These two individuals cannot be expected to perform their duties objectively given their past record and ideological commitments.

                                                     We request either to withdraw the nominations or prevent the appointment of Retd Justice Wigneswarn and J Uyangoda to the Constitutional Council .We also request all political parties NOT to convert the Constitutional Council to a home for the retired elitists or to promoters of terrorism and separatism If not it will be an act against the will of the people and the integrity of the country.

                                           Arising from this we wish to insist that any candidate, before they are appointed, should take an oath swearing allegiance to sovereign, unitary Sri Lanka rejecting ideological and political commitments to separatism and violence which undermines the democratic state of Sri Lanka.

Yours truly,

Ranjith Soysa Spokesperson

WAPS

[Copied from COLOMBO, Sinhala.Net 2009.03.07 06:04AM]

LTTE takes heavy beating as troops close-in on last LTTE stronghold- Mullaittivu

Troops of the Task Force- 8 operating under the overall command of 53 Division made further advances into the remaining terrorist resistance positions located further Northeast of Puthukkudiyirippu junction March 3.

According to military reports received, scores of terrorists were killed in the fighting and as many injured. Troops have also uncovered 8 LTTE bodies, 08x T-56 assault riffles, 03x I-com sets and a grenade launcher during subsequent search operations conducted in the area. Meanwhile, military citing intercepted LTTE communication said that senior LTTE cadres including Swarnam, Bahnu, Adithyan and Chithrangan accusing each other for failing to stall the military advances into the area.

15VIR troops uncovered an LTTE cemetery with over 300 graves of terrorists killed during recent battles with security forces Wets of Puthukkudiyirippu, on 2nd March, 2009.

Scores of terrorists were killed and as many injured during the recent confrontations at the Mullaittivu battlefront

Green Economy – solution to the crisis

               One of the main reasons of this financial crisis is that a bunch of few powerful businessmen tried to produce quick money using high risk, high interest investments. Golden Key – Sakvithi scenes are global phenomenon.

                                                    This excessive greediness creates a credit crunch and recession. The same phenomenon is happening when we tried to solve our economic woes by exploiting more and more natural resources in an unsustainable manner. The current global rate of extraction of natural resources is 25 per cent more than the replenishment rate.

                                                   Increasing production       

That means that the humankind already possesses an ecological deficit, which would lead to an ecological credit crunch if we were to accelerate the exploitation to overcome the economic recession by producing more goods and services.

On the other hand, carbon budget for the whole century identified by the UN to avoid catastrophic environmental disasters to humankind is in the range 50:50 probability which will expire in 2032 if the present trend continues.

So we are in a very delicate situation. The normal solution to existing economic crisis may lead to irreversible ecological crisis that would be the end of the history of the humankind.

                                       Creating A Green Economy

So the only way to resolve both economic and ecological problem is to create a Green Economy within a sustainable development paradigm.

Emphasis should be paid on few underline fundamentals if we were to shift towards green economy.

First of all, each and every policy maker who are in various political colours should reach a consensus about the long-term sustainability of the development and the present modern development model and the highly globalized economies could not be able to sustain its growth without causing irreparable damage to eco systems.

Therefore, they all should principally agree to explore new sustainable development and green economy as long-term solutions, both globally and nationally. That political consensus and strong political will should be the basic pillar of these fundamentals.

Secondly, having mindful of this final everlasting long term solution, policy makers should reach a consensus about the present context and conditions and how to transit from present to future.

Thirdly, there should be a serious commitment to convert existing economies to Green Economies by appreciating the full potentials of the environmental industries and green technologies as the new engine of sustainable growth . Fourthly, we should change our existing legal systems, financial regulations, social characters, cultural attitudes which are the basis of the Green Economy.

Fifthly, we should focus on existing social structures and economic conditions emphasizing eradication of extreme poverty and necessary sacrifices to be made by extreme affluency.

Structural Changes

There should be some new changes to existing administrative systems and political systems as well. National, cultural and political differences on these change in structure could be overcome. These might be the guiding fundamentals when we are exploring the Green Economy.

The priority economic sectors may be, – production of clean energy and focus on local and rural energy access, Bio diversely based business including organic agriculture commercial forestry, fishing and marine based industries, natural resources based other industries, nature based tourism and social services.

Cultural structures include

*Low carbon emitting green cities, common facilities, housing and transport

*Ecological infrastructure including conservation and restoration of nature reserves, protected areas, watersheds and waterways.

*Waste management including toxic and electronic waste management through reduction, recycling and reuse.

A Green Economy would not lay emphasis on final products in valuating pricing and measuring efficiency of this product. Instead it creates a new wholistic evaluation methodology based on cyclic process from extraction to waste. Both present free market system and autocratic government controlled system would not be able to do such holistic valuation. Green market and governance are different from what we experienced.

Equal Opportunities

The social base of the Green Economy is very vital. Both extreme poverty and affluancy have to be eradicated. All should enjoy equal opportunities without having any social discriminations based on gender, wealthiness, ethnicity, extent of urbanization. Meritocracy over bureaucracy should be adopted.

It should be emphasized that cultural diversity, cultural and knowledge system diversity like bio diversity are necessary condition to continue the Green Economics in sustainable future.

                                                          Important Steps

In Sri Lanka, we have already taken a few important steps in achieving a Green Economy. We are the pioneers in this regard when we introduced the environment conservation levy to discourage environmentally unhealthy products.

On the other hand UNEP forums are always talking how to convince Heads of States and Financial Ministers in introducing green economic policies and collaboration between various sectoral ministries.

Sri Lanka is the very first country which introduced the ‘Green Lanka’ program which activates a pro Green Economy and a national platform headed by head of state cum finance minister to monitor the national policies and action plan.

Now in this context it is of paramount importance to create green jobs to face the economic recession and resulting job cuts. What we lack is the political consensus and bureaucratic commitments.

If we were to follow the strong government-private sector leadership in providing macro economic policy support for the transition, Green would be the new big deal in Sri Lanka.