Going For Broke

By Tisaranee Gunasekara

Maithripala Sirisena, Mahinda Rajapaksa and G. L. Peiris

“For both Prabhakaran’s war of national liberation and Rajapaksa’s war for national sovereignty, one unstated motive assumed the greatest significance – the entrenchment of unchallenged personal power”.
UTHR-J (Special Report No 34 – 13.12.2009)
Sri Lanka is to buy 14 Mi-171 military helicopters from Russia, two+ years after the war was won.
According to Wikipedia, the average unit-cost of a helicopter is US$11.5 million. The helicopters are being supplied “on account of the Russian state credit given to Sri Lanka by Russia in 2010 for purchasing Russian armaments” (ITAR-TASS – 15.8.2011). According to this loan-agreement, signed in February 2010 (by Lankan Ambassador and Rajapaksa-cousin Udayanga Weeratunga), Colombo is to purchase Russian weapons worth US$300 million within 10 years.
Under Vladimir Putin, armaments became a major Russian export, so the deal is in Russia’s interest. But is it beneficial for Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans? The deal was signed, post-war. This is a loan with interest and not a grant. Why exacerbate our already sky-high indebtedness, to buy exorbitant-weapons after the war has been won?

Who or what is the regime arming itself against? The Tigers are dead. Sri Lanka faces no external military-threat. Is this weapon buying-spree a way for the powers-that-be to make mega-bucks? Or is the regime preparing for the day it will have to defend itself against an Egyptian-type popular revolt?
Last week, Minister G. L. Peiris accused the Tamil Diaspora of launching an “economic onslaught against Sri Lanka to prevent and derail it from gaining economic prosperity” (Daily Mirror – 18.8.2011). The Minister should have pointed the finger inwards. The real obstructions to development are the Rajapaksas’ policy of exorbitant defence costs, post-war, the Rajapaksa proclivity for waste (Rs. 31 million on propaganda for ‘Api Wawamu’) and the Rajapaksa tolerance of official-corruption.
No sooner than the adulterated-petrol scandal subsided, an adulterated-cement crisis erupted. The latter is of far greater consequence, since builders are warning about a consequent debasement of construction-quality. Senior SLFP leader Minister Maitripala Sirisena recently sounded a warning about “the widespread corruption in the construction of highways” (The Sunday Times – 14.8.2011). Interestingly, President Rajapaksa is the Minister of Highways; and the warning was made at a top-level meeting chaired by Presidential-sibling Minister Basil Rajapaksa.

Suicidal Maximalism

The excessive defence costs stem, in part, from the Rajapaksa policy of peace-at-gun-point. The North is under de-facto military occupation, maintained at enormous politico-economic cost.
The only way out is to concede a degree of autonomy to the Tamils, ideally along Indian lines.

Grease Devils: Busting The Myth

People demanding answers, Enraged crowds burned a Police four wheel drive vehicle in Kinniya , Abubakr Kuddoos displays the scar on his neck inflicted by an army knife and He died young, a picture of Mowjood from his last election campaign

By Abdul H. Azeez - in Arugam Bay/Pottuvil

The Grease Devils or grease yakas’ hold on the public imagination is reaching epic levels. Mass paranoia, fear and outrage have broken out in the Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara districts with the public taking the law into their own hands.
Some blame law enforcement officials for not taking enough interest in the complaints, others blame a paranoid public and fear-mongering as the primary culprits and call them the real grease yakas. Whilst yet others, a growing majority, quietly point to actual attacks and instances of abuse and say that there is no smoke without fire.
The quiet beach front town of Arugam Bay is bustling with ever increasing tourist activity. I arrived on Wednesday (17) on the inaugural Sri Lankan airlines flight, a sea plane that starts from Kelaniya and reaches Arugam Bay in a record 50 minutes. The plane swoops over the lagoon affording a beautiful view and if I was not here exclusively on work, nothing but the beach would have been on my mind. But the relaxed attitude of the town, with its laid-back lifestyle that draws so many people there, was marred last week by a brief but bloody spurt of violence that left one man dead in the nearby town of Pottuvil.

Rajapaksa Govt. on razor's edge

• JVP goes into full-scale opposition with Weerawansa also coming out with all guns blazing
• CWC UPF and SLMC also sound warning of revolt
• Debate on telecom deal, questions as to who gets a US$ 10m brokerage commission

By  Political Editor

Trouble shooting seems never to end for President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is dogged by a plethora of issues after just 18 months in office.

The Government's moves to acquire MiG-29 multi-role combat aircraft from Russia at a substantial cost (to be paid later) and the controversy over the proposed sale of Sri Lanka Telecom shares held by Japan's NTT to a Malaysian company - both exclusive disclosures by The Sunday Times were clearly uppermost.

He returned on Tuesday night with a large retinue after visiting Jordan to attend the World Economic Forum and ending an official visit to Kuwait. For over 24 hours, the defence and security establishments were without an official head. His brother, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa left for Turkey on Monday night. Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga, who acts in his absence, was away with the President. As the political head, however, there was Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickreman-ayake.

Tale of two wars: Ground battle and media battle

• News management of Delft attack worsens crisis of credibility
• Undeclared war takes fearful turn as purchases worth billions are made in exclusive secrecy
• Was Reclamation Road bomb meant for military bus or some other target?

By Iqbal Athas

The island of Delft (Nedun Theevu or Long Island), off the northern Jaffna peninsula, was known centuries ago under Portuguese rule as Cow Island. There were plenty of cattle there. Yet the mortality rate was high because they sometimes fed on the venomous herbs that grew wild.

The Portuguese had a fort there. The ruins are still evident. During that period, they brought some horses into the island. A historian later recorded "multiplying in time produced a certain kind of horses that are very small, but hardy and very fit to travel on stony and rocky grounds."

Map of Jaffna

The descendants of the Portuguese horses, ponies as they call them now, are perhaps the only living remnants of that era that remain in Delft Island. It is 35 square miles (seven miles long and five miles wide). The island is the largest among the seven located off the peninsula. The main occupation for some 6,000 civilians is fishing. Located some 18 nautical miles from the Jaffna peninsula, access is only by boat from the Kurikattuvan jetty in the Kayts island. Another is the Kayts jetty. The area was under the control of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP). After the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement of February 2002, a Navy detachment was positioned there to supplement a Police Station that existed.

Is upcoming poll final nail in UNP coffin?

For the umpteenth week running, it is the turmoil in the opposition United National Party (UNP) that continues to make news - and last week was no different with new twists and turns emerging in this on-going saga.
It will be recalled that the present impasse in the UNP is because the so-called ‘reformist’ group of the UNP led by Sajith Premadasa is challenging party and opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe’s credentials to lead the party, especially in the context of several heavy election defeats.
Last week saw the first formal challenge to the leadership of Ranil Wickremesinghe. This came in the form of a proposal by the Premadasa faction at the UNP parliamentary group meeting suggesting that the leadership be handed over to Karu Jayasuriya.

Sparks fly at UNP group meeting

The prognostic we made in this column last week that the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting of the UNP Parliamentary group would be decisive for the future of the party came true when it unanimously adopted a resolution proposed by Sajith Premadasa and seconded by Ranjith Madduma Bandara calling for the appointment of Karu Jayasuriya as the leader of the party. UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was taken unawares by this resolution. A highly agitated Wickremesinghe made a bid to walk out of the meeting which was immediately thwarted by the MPs. Several MPs warned that if he left the meeting; they would continue the proceedings with Karu Jayasuriya in the chair. A visibly angry, but subdued Ranil Wickremesinghe returned to the chair.Plan to induct Karu as leader The action plan to install Karu Jayasuriya as the party leader by ousting Ranil Wickremesinghe was beaten into shape at a meeting of the Sajith group on August 8 Monday. The reformists wanted to meet Karu Jayasuriya to finalise the plan the same day. However, Jayasuriya at the time was in Matara attending a protest organised by Mangala Samaraweera. In the meantime, Imitiaz Bakir Markar and Ranjith Madduma Bandara got busy drafting the resolution to be moved at the Parliamentary group meeting the following day. Later the reformist group called on Karu Jayasuriya who had returned from Matara at his Amarasekera Mawatha residence about 10 in the night. Their deliberations continued till predawn the following day.

Colombo’s facelift and the one-way road to Chinatown at Galle Face

by Rajan Philips

The facelift operations in Colombo are impressive. The environmental police, cleanup crews and garbage collectors are keeping the streets clean. Pavement bricklayers and traffic police are busy on Galle Road as long sections of Colombo’s main thoroughfare are being turned into a one-way street and the pavement is being widened in some parts of the roadway. Newspapers are abuzz with the juicier news of land deals and glitzy development projects. The target of all deals is Galle Face and all of them appear to show a Chinese connection, as China seems to be taking India’s utmost isle on a good-as-long-as-it-lasts merry-go-round in the global circus.