Asian values based on Human Rights
By John S ThangDec. 23, 2011
Members of ASEAN countries
Human rights
The idea of human rights has existed throughout history, and it was assumed “the human right idea is the belief that all human beings have, or hold, human rights.” In ancient time, “the main Greek contribution to the human right idea resides in the conception of natural law (Oriend 2002).”
Similarly, one of Asia’s primary religions, Buddhism, is apparently connected to human rights because Buddha explains “nirvana” in the language of “freedom,” to wit, freedom from the miseries of life (Bauer & Bell)”. These various kinds and ways of freedoms are known as human rights.
However, the terminology “human rights” was popularly used only after the World Wars. On 6 January 1941 President Roosevelt said in his state of the Union message: “freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain these rights or keep them” (Burgers 1992). To reaffirm, indeed, “it is that the contemporary human rights movement was born in appalled reaction to the Holocaust’s horrors” (Oriend 2002). The third general assembly of the United Nations adopted the universal declaration of human rights in December in 1948, three years after the end of the Second World War.
Subsequently, human rights became the main issues of international diplomacy and politics. “Human rights as guiding principles for national and international relations had begun in the period between the first and the Second World War”. In their [UN assembly] final comments, the delegates to that assembly made it abundantly clear that the declaration was born out of the experience of the war that had just ended (Morsinks 1993).
Uniqueness and nature of human rights
According to Jacques Maritan, the true philosophy of the rights of the human person is based upon the true idea of natural law. The genuine idea of natural law is a heritage of Greek and Christian thought (Aquinas). When we look back to Christianity, it is quite potential relevant to Jacques Maritan’s Natural law as Christian philosophy. It is similar in many ways to the Christian teachings, such as love one another, help each other, make harmony and peace in society, therefore, you can see many Christians used to do charity work in their communities.
Similarly, in the Nichomacbean Ethics (ca. 340 BC), Aristotle argued that in political affairs “justice” is to be “found among men who share a common life in order that their association bring them self-sufficiency, and who are free and equal…(Winston 1989).
It is understandable; human beings are unique that cannot be ignored. Aristotle described human nature as universal, “there is only one constitution that is by nature the best everywhere” (Winston 1989). And Lock defended the view that man has natural rights of life, liberty, and private property (Winston 1989).
According to (Orend) “Human rights do not tell us who or what we are; rather, they tell us how we should treat our fellow human beings. Human rights do not describe our nature; rather, they prescribe our behavior. Rights, most generally, are reasons to treat persons in certain respectful ways.”
Classifying human rights
Furthermore, we can classify human rights into four categories. According to Hohfeld in 1919, human rights are based upon: a claim, liberty, power, and immunity. Claim: is defined as “a demand or request for something considered as one’s due.” A liberty, defined as “the right or power to do as one pleases”. Immunity, defined as “freedom from an obligation” (Orend).
Moreover, the idea is that human rights should lead to bring the maximum amount of happiness for the maximum people. “A prominent example here would be utilitarianism, an elaborate ethical code designed to maximize the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people” (Orend).
Moral as human rights
According to (Winston 1989), “human right” can be seen to mean a kind of universal moral right that belongs equally to all human beings simply by virtue of the fact that they are human beings. “Most of the world’s major religions—Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism – support some form of the idea that each human person is the creation of some Divinity, has worth and value, and accordingly should be treated with a measure of dignity and respect (Oriend 2002).” Without morality, there will be no dignity and peace in the world. This morality must persuade humankind to enact world peace and harmony; this is the first step to implementing dignity and peace in the world.
On the other way, morality is possible to promote as human rights, if there is a good religious person, such as a good follower of Buddha or Christ. For example, the characteristic of good Buddha’s followers are having kindness, common sense, honesty, respecting elders and sincerity. This characteristic of the kindness is the same idea of human rights standards and norms. A religious institution and a good tradition practices in Asia did most of this kind of teaching. On the other hand, those practices are becoming very rare and deteriorating due to western capitalism being imported into Asia.
Social right
Donnelly says that “human rights arise from human action, and human rights specify a structure of social practices to achieve a particular realization of human potential” (Stammers, 1995). The social democratic approach shares the widespread view that human rights are, above all, moral rights (Stammers, 1995).
According to Rawl, his first principle is that “each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty of all.” The second principle deals with distributive justice. It holds that: “social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both: (a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged, consistent with the just savings principle, and (b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity” (Shestack 1998).
Moreover, Rawl’s principle of “social and economic inequalities”, we need to be seriously concerned about poor states, and the rich states have to bear the duty to balance the big gaps in development for the poor. Again this is a kind of obligation to rich states. In general, “a human right is violated when a duty-bearer fails to perform his correlative duty without just cause (Orend).”
Usually, it was seen that human rights stand for a weak people. Human rights protected and human rights activists tend to be seen on the side of the poor, minorities, lower classes, the underprivileged and the least strong person in term of power and wealth. (NHRI 53) said needing specialized human rights bodies to protect their interests are persons belonging to ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities, indigenous populations, non-nationals, migrants, immigrants, refugees, children, women, the poor and the disabled. Indeed, in general, these groups were faced oppression and victimized at the most.
In term of a philosophical point of view, human life is an art, and our future cannot always be fixed in a good position, because the world situation changes dramatically in terms of politics, culture and social changes every year. At the moment, you may be at the top or in the highest class but tomorrow you may be brought down to the least or lowest class. So, we have to accept the justification of this human rights protection and mechanism, to guard human beings in any circumstances at any level. That’s what you need to have balance, harmony, as well as human rights.
In my village tradition, when a group of us went fishing to gather with colleagues, we equally redistributed all which we caught in the end; even the one who didn’t catch any fish would receive an equal share. This is the custom and tradition that my villagers put into. This is an example of a collectivized based system. This is a good example of Asian values. However, it might be frustrating to someone who caught the most fishes but the system enabled the whole group to enjoy the benefits of his labor, so that no one went hunger. The negative point is that this system may make people not want to work hard and just rely on somebody else to do the work. In my view, we should given award to whom got the most in-order to maintain their incentive to work hard. In this way, we can encourage people to work efficiently, but, at the same time, we do not ignore the people who have nothing.
Contradiction of Asian Value
To be polite, smiling, greeting, courtesy, respecting the elderly and listening to elderly people are, in general, supposed to be Asian norms in terms of moral issues. According to some Asian leaders, Asian values place an emphasis on communitarianism rather than individualism. Sometimes Asian value was misled by just looking at the economic, particularly the Singapore city/state. Paradoxically, many of Singaporeans lost the right of freedom of expression. And Singapore has no system for redistributing wealth to the have-nots. It’s an argument, yes you can be material wealth for some limited time but on the other side, numbers of people are suffering and lack basic human rights.
Another case is Burma, where it is not possible to get detailed information of perpetrators and the victims of cases from the authorities. This clearly shows that the structure/system of governing is systematically failing. It is clear that human rights violations are happening.
Lack of human rights
Some Asian cultures have created worse standards of human liberty and dignity than others in their region. In some places, they still practice the cast system, kingship system, monarchy rule and misuse religious patterns. These have become bad aspects of Asian culture. Furthermore, in using this kind of culture system, particular Asian rulers benefit from it and make monopolistic governing institutions of power, such as a dictatorship, or militarization or communist systems.
In some parts of Asia, women are still under restriction and oppressed. According to the Confucian system, “Women should serve their husbands and parents-in-law. This even applies to one's kindly treatment of other relatives (younger wives, sister-in-laws, and so on), as well as of servants and even chickens and dogs.” Where women were traditionally considered merely servants, it is a challenge to advocate equal rights for women.
According to the international convention on Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, Article 3: “women are entitled to the equal enjoyment and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.” This declaration guarantees to women the same rights as men have.
The problem in Asia is that neither the human rights institute nor the commission is able to fulfill human rights functioning and structuring. It is one of the obstacles. Firstly, many Asian countries are still undemocratic; being an autocratic system is the main issue. Secondly, there are some democratic countries, but it is still a flawed democracy and it is not effective, in term of judicial system, policing, and independent human rights institutions. There need a lot to be done to become a real authentic democracy or a full democratic system. Subsequently, many Asian countries have discouraged about their ability to uphold human rights. An autocratic or undemocratic system in Asia has led to a loss of human dignity, a dilemma like half baked bread as there is neither a western liberal system nor a good Asian traditional norm.
A just law
According to AHRC, Feb. ‘06, for any society to be governed by the rule of law required that it recognize the supremacy of the law and that all individuals are held equal before the law, state agencies and officials themselves must be held accountable to this law.
For example, in Burma, unchanging leadership is the systematic suppression of oppositional expression (Aryeh). Burma is precisely a place where this "harmony" is lacking. Actually, "Asian values" does not refer to an absolute, monolithic body of values. It is rooted in Buddhism. More importantly, it is the result of bitter, painful experience of life of over 50 years under military atrocities and mis-rule.
Promoting human rights in Asia
According to AHRC, here are some key aspects for promoting human rights in Asia: Enforcement mechanism will include proper policing, impartial prosecution, and an independent judiciary. Many Asian countries lack this proper policing, impartial prosecution, and an independent judiciary.
In Asia, ASEAN Human Rights Body is the only institution that represents states and a binding human rights treaty. At the 12th ASEAN Summit in Cebu, the Philippines, in January 2007, the Heads of State/Government of the 10 ASEAN Member States signed the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers. Although the ASEAN became a complete 10 member states in 1999, ASEAN is the only regional based formal institution in Asia. The ASEAN Charter was signed by the 10 Heads of State/Government during the 13th ASEAN Summit in Singapore on 20 November 2007. The Charter has now been fully ratified by all ASEAN Member States.
Article 14 of the ASEAN Charter stipulates the following:
“1. In conformity with the purposes and principles of the ASEAN Charter relating to the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, ASEAN shall establish an ASEAN human rights body the ASEAN Charter as follows: “ADHERING to the principles of democracy, the rule of law and good governance, respect for and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms;”.
ASEAN Charter become forced to each member state party and became a formal regional mechanism and an institution. Although, ASEAN is a weak body and results in very little benefit. In fact, ASEAN is a formal regionally integrated institution. All the state members in ASEAN have responsibilities and have to follow the Charter. Through this ASEAN, a regional institution, can coordinate and conduct any regional issues. It is my hoped ASEAN will enable the region to become a strong in terms of future development and integration. Probably, ASEAN might be able to extend its activities to non-ASEAN members in Asia.
Conclusion
Both western and eastern cultures have human rights but the different how they are perceived and implemented. In the case of western democracies, they emphasized them on individual right and developed a systematic legal document, whilst in eastern cultures they emphasized them on a group, collective rights.
The skepticism in Asia is that they feel human rights are a tool used to encourage westernization of their own cultures. The view in Asia according to (Bauer & Bell) is that Liberal democracy is a specifically western value system alien to Asian culture and the western attempt to impose it on Asian countries must be denounced as cultural imperialism.
Asian people have historically preferred a collective system and a community based system. However, as part of the international economic system, capitalism has been forced into use around the world including in Asia, particularly in those Asian developed countries that are on their way to capitalism.
Therefore, here we need to make adjustments between regional based collective systems and the international economic system, state capitalism. This may involve a kind of modification of capitalism. It is possible to use capitalism to let regions continue their economic development, but the region rulers must adjust it to the local system and implement their own needs, such as redistributing the nation’s wealth into the grass roots level of the society where it is needed. It may be a kind of what Rawl calls social justice. Then, it will become a fair local collective system. Nobody will get suffer.
In my view, how to close the gap between the rich and the poor is a question that still needs to be discussed. In the end, this system can be called ‘neo-capitalism’ or a ‘modification of capitalism.’
The Global Digest editors Barry Welsh and Daniel Rhodes edited to this story.
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Srilanka
LLRC: Lesser Learnt Rajapaksa Commission report
Special ContributorBy Massey Subra
Dec. 20, 2011
A cartoon of Tasmanian devil
Sri Lanka calls it lessons learnt and Reconciliation Commission, I call it Lamentable, laughable and Regrettable commission. We can also call it lesser learned Rajapaksa commission. Some people like to call it learned lackeys remorse commission. Simply it is Rajapaksa report to white wash war crimes. The Sri Lankan Singhalese do it so well the art of deception.
The LLRC report released yesterday summarized the Sri Lankan dichotomy in one simple single commission; the Sri Lankan struggle is not about race and religion it is about the fundamental respect to morality and the universality of human nature. One community thinks of the right path and the other community thinks any path is okay as long as we get through the day. There is no mention of human life, human rights and human suffering in their minds, how can they? They are mindless people, Got it Mr. World leaders, do whatever you want to do with it. We survived the worst world war by 20 nations, 3 billion people and some of the most deadly weapons. Bring it on if you got any more; bring it on super powers that supported the senseless Sri Lankan savages.
Now a Rajapaksa talk about asking for forgiveness, amazing isn’t it? Two years ago we were terrorists now we are innocent and decent citizens, anything that suits you Mr.Rajapaksa, anything that Suits you mindless maniac. . We don’t need your apology, we are not ready to forgive, bring back our loved ones to life. Mr. Rajapaksa on 18th May 2009 was the turning point; no looking back, it is a new era for Tamils. We don’t need anything from you. We got a lot of work to do not only in Sorry Lanka, but all over South Asia.
Mahinda Rajapaksa triumphs again in his twisted manipulation of the educated minds of Sri Lanka; he has hired seven learned people and made lackeys out of them. He does it so well that we have to question the school curriculum and add dark side of the human mind to it so that the future generation lives with care and reservations.
The deepest question in my mind is; am I one of these human beings who behave so inhumanely, so unconsciously and so nastily. How can we be so bad to our own kind? How can man be so brutal, so uncaring and kill people and then other people set out to justify them, find them not guilty and set them free. It is unconceivable that we humans can go so far down in evolution and be lower than the lowest of the living form. It is a shame. We have so many thousand so powerful and lethal weapons but we could not the guts to go in take out one tyrant out of existence and he still runs around like Tasmanian devil. Sad indeed. It appears as though the Sri Lankan people and especially the President and his clans have been to a different school of ethics on planet earth. They appear to have a different set of values and yard ticks such as a human life is easily disposable without any deliberations. Yet they seek approval from the rest of the moral world; quite weird and quite unusual isn’t it?
When a nation of people are confusing civil liberty with civil tranquility, they have lost their sense of direction and they are mere subjects not citizens, that is what Rajapaksa wants and that is what people got. If you think Tamils lost, at least they have realised it, wait till the others find out what is in store for them, now they are in hallucinatory mood, wait till the mojo runs down. Mahinda Rajapaksa himself does not know that he does not know how to lead a society he wants to manage we want to empower. To give away power is the power of a powerful person; one remains powerful by having no power except reverence. God is invisible yet he is powerful through reverence. The power has diffused into the greater conscience, you feel it when you step into its realm, and you feel it in churches, temples mosques and synagogues and in the chamber of justice and sometimes in some people.
Why do people and nations waste their God given life in totally unwanted, unnecessary and un-defendable acts of inhumanness? Steve Jobs, the late Chairman of the Apple Computer Corporation said, “Knowing that one day I will be dead is the biggest motivator for me to live every moment of my life usefully and creatively. When a man has that kind of beliefs no wonder he is going to be one of the greatest. More than that I give credit to those who created the American mindset that promotes freedom and freedom for creativity. It is very sad indeed to see 20 million people in Sri Lanka for 60 years were lead in a path of self destruction; each one of them could have been either Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. Sad indeed! This LLRC was created to continue that path of self destruction; it was created to pull wool over our eyes and make stupid out of the whole world and to continue their path to the dungeon.
The members of the commission did not perform their duty as told by the creator but as told by the criminal. Sad indeed educated and elderly people have to behave so inhumanely. But having lived a life so far I know justice will never be denied that is my only consolation. Man cannot be a judge, justice, justifiable, justified; seeking justice from mankind is a false sense of hope and faith. I shall leave justice to the creator. This is Tamil culture, we do not seek justice or redemption from any one, we did not ask for an inquiry or for the LLRC, we did not set out to punish anyone. We cannot, for man cannot be his own judge however much he may have emancipated. We accept the verdict of the creator and we have the capacity to judge our behaviours and we have the capacity to correct ourselves and when something happens to us and if we cannot be our own judges we accept the verdict of the creator. This is why I want to be a Tamils, this why I am a Tamil and this is why I am proud to be a Tamil. There is no other way to life. There is no other culture like it. If we survived the year 2009, 20 nation and 2 billion people army and modern weaponry we can survive any holocaust. If you have any more moral strength and untested new weapons bring it on, savages bring it on. It is war between the morality and mindlessness, it not over, it has just begun.
LLRC Commission was made up of the criminals by the criminals for the criminals to white wash their war crimes and war against humanity. This commission was part of the grand plan formulated by the Sri Lankan government along with the other parties to the war before the beginning of the hostilities; but to believe that it was appointed as a result of the war is naivety and wrong. It was part of the propaganda aspect of the war. It was supposed to be a Biafra style massacre soon to be forgotten but unexpectedly something went wrong. That something was the Diaspora factor. Now they have pumpkins to bury but do not have much rice to do so. The Sri Lankan religious establishment hires criminals to run the government to drive out Tamils from Sri Lanka, it was, is and always will be the way till last of the Tamils are either killed or driven out of the country. Both India and Sri Lanka share the same sentiment. Some foolish among my community of Tamils believe otherwise. To some of us who happened to be Tamils by birth and by the language we speak and the domain we were born we were called Tamils, but we are humans too like anyone else. Through years of living in deprived land of water soil and climate we have developed a distinct way of living, this way of the culture as we call it is incompatible with the Southern psyche. I guess God has a separate plan for us that may be the reason why we end up in nations that are very wealthy in very many ways. Thank you God the almighty
I do not know if he knows it or not, Mahinda Rajapaksa is the prime suspect in the 2009 Sri Lankan war crimes investigations. I hope he knows it now if he didn’t know it before. There are so many things he does not know such as Duminda Silva is Drug dealers and his son Namal is a high profile pimp. Sir, you can take you LLRC report and shove it right up where it belongs, it is pulling wool over our eyes and send rest of the world on wild goose chase, and ridiculing of the world of people. Mahinda Rajapaksa needed some time to bury all the physical evidences in zone of war crimes and genocide under the pretext of de-mining while demeaning decent civil society and deceiving the diplomats
The LLRC report is out and as usual Mahinda Rajapaksa has declined responsibility, which is typical of criminals, criminals are not going to come forth, forthright and say we did kill people; it is for the victim or plaintiff to prove the case. He treats this like a court case drama. Folks remember that in a legal case it is an external investigation outside the realm of moral justice; moral justice has little to do with court room drama, and in court room as long as you are legally right you are innocent, free and clear. Actually speaking the legal system favours the accused and the accused has the right to remain silent and not to take the witness stand to favour him for it may go against him. Whereas the moral society knows it all by feeling, hunches etc; it a non verbal deliberation in the plasma of universal laws.
The king may err but God never. So they have put out the LLRC report claiming that they did not do any harm, it is for us to prove it, but the world knows otherwise. Mahinda Rajapaksa is vainly trying to exonerate him and his clan; he may escape man made justice but will not escape moral justice. People were killed indiscriminately in thousands and by thousands, the people are still being abused physically, morally and psychologically and he pretends not knowing anything. Somewhere there must be justice for all these crimes and sufferings.
Who are the criminals? The fronts of the criminals are the Rajapaksas and other politicians. Who are the real criminals? One has to go deep into the psyche of the conscience, I mean the Mahavamsa. The mahavamsa the mission, the Mahasangha the fanatical outfit and the Mahanayakes the fanatical criminals. Where from the orders emanate. The mission is to drive all Tamils out of Sri Lanka and whatever is left will be silent, subdued and subservient minority. Remember folks in this Sri Lankan struggle both India and Sri Lanka share the common agenda and common benefits. China may be an innocent victim of the grand larceny, Chinaman is natively a man of business and needs only to be convinced that some new method is to his advantage, but the Hindu I mean the Indian is a dreamer, remarkably lacking the business instinct, and is so deeply imbued with ancient religious, racial, social culture and it will be hard to rouse him from his fatalistic theories in which his whole nature is steeped in.
The Tamils are basically people of industry, frugality and spartanism. They are progressive people and are willing to put in their effort to live peacefully and pragmatically. They instinctively know that life is after all a gifted endeavour and the minds are fitted with a horn of plenty. This summarises the paradox of the Tamils. We are caught between and among tribes of fatalism.
The Sri Lankan conflict was a joint venture cooked up between Indians in the North and the Singhalese in the South against the Tamils caught in between them. This struggle has been going on for a couple of thousand years. It will go on forever as long as we are humans with animal instinct. What we need in Asia is an Asian spring, If not we will be left behind, the Arabians have realised it. Imagine South Asia being a breeding ground for menials. I cannot imagine for moment, but then there are educated, eminent people in India thinking otherwise. How can we break the backbone of the Indian fatalism that is in their minds? I am not boasting about us the Tamils, we see the future very clearly for we stand on the shoulders of the giants of philosophy. We are a gift to South Asia but they think otherwise. Singaporeans think we are great people because they are predominantly Chinese, they think with rest of the world quite differently to the Indian.
This is the back ground of the Sri Lankan conflict, for the present moment, if the western powers do not intervene and bring about a mind change in the whole region, this conflict will explode to engulf the whole region. Indian, Pakistanis and other do not have the depth of human nature to understand the nature of the conflict unfolding. I am proud to say that we Tamils have a road map for South Asia.
This appointment of the LLRC commission is a proof of the shallowness of their mind. Who in the world will appoint a tribunal to investigate his own criminal actions? Either that person is insane or intoxicated. The world knows, we know it, I know it that the President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brother Gothabaya Rajapaksa, the commander Sarath Fonseka are main and the most important players of the war, war against humanity, and subsequent genocide. For Mahinda Rajapaksa to appoint his own commission to investigate him looks little too naive on his part, isn’t it? Will he knowing that he is the one who gave the orders to kill people turn the gun on him? Either he thinks the world is stupid or does not care or he is extremely stupid. He got way with too many crimes too many times, that is all to it. Will he get away this time? It is up to us.
Looking at his back ground since 1970s, yes I mean 1970s; there are several strange murders and disappearance in his province of Hambantota, Sri Lanka. There is common sense and a common census that he was in the midst of all of it. The opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe and John Amaratunga are the living examples of his involvement in the murder of two politicians. Recently Lasantha Wicrematunge and Pregeeth Ehligoda murders are suspected to be his orchestrations. These are disturbing inputs. But folks rest assured that nothing will happen in this war crime investigation for India is part of it and they will ensure that it does not proceed any further. After all Indians have some moral values and they are not going to let down their trustworthy servant Mahinda Rajapaksa. It was India’s war that Sri Lanka fought. How can they forget it so easily?
LLRC and the Tamil perspective
LLRC for whom, for what and for why? After 60 years of racism, fanaticism, state terrorism and the finally a well planned massacre as depicted in the chronicle called Mahavamsa (Maha= great, Vamsa = race) they want to just white wash, brush aside and continue the path of fanaticism. It is in their own self interest this madness has to be stopped. The 2009 massacre in not the end of it, it became too obvious because of the Diaspora Tamils. Biafra massacre in Africa was never made into an international issue, but the Mullivaikal massacre was made to become an issue because we the Diaspora took up the issue with the International community.
Mahavamsa has been stopped and they can burn it now. When I mentioned the word Mahavamsa to a world renowned human rights organization they said they never heard of this plan for ethnic cleansing. There is no benefit to Tamils in this LLRC report. What we need is an investigation, let me put it straight into head of people; we want an investigation into the role played by Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gothabaya Rajapaksa and Sarath Fonseka. It is the Sri Lankan people who have to insist on it for their future depends on reclaiming their international image. And we Tamils will not keep silent either. We will within the laws of the land exercise our constitutional rights to ensure justice is upheld. For Sri Lankan Singhalese the trouble has just begun, if you want to live the way most communities live you have to chart a different path and choose a different breed of leaders. This ethno-centric, race, religion based policies will not take you anywhere.
A very simple suggestion, it took Jews 2500 years but we have done miracles in 25 years, but this a mere beginning, if you have Mahavamsa as your road map, we too have one for you. Look at Middle East and learn fast. Numbers may give false and distinct advantage but it does not ever give absolute advantage, it may in fact be disadvantage. In the Second World War what the combined military of the Allied forces could not do in 5 years one simple device did it over night. The biggest problem in South Asia is not Sri Lanka, it is India. If Parabaharan killed Rajiv Ghandi, and if Mahinda Rajapaksa killed Parabaharan, why then are you holding innocent people for Rajiv Ghandi’s murder? Innocent people lives are like innocent soldiers in the front line, we see innocent people and innocent soldiers dying on the streets daily. Why are they dying? Or precisely said whom are they dying for?
What I am trying to tell my Indian friends is justice works in strange ways and it works in places dark and invisible, and it crushes everyone on its way. When the Indian people are indifferent to the plight of the innocent people in the jail, they too are considered accessories to the injustice. When people do not rise, stand up and say that is wrong, those people too are punished for their inaction in that crime. But we all know one thing for sure we Tamils have nothing to do with Rajiv Ghandi’s murder. Someone took political advantage of a favourable situation. That is not for us to find out. A wife getting her husband murdered is not something new and is already recorded in annals of history!
As far as us Tamils are considered this LLRC is for the Singhalese to justify their position to the world, it will never be an answer to us. We know who the culprits are and we know what to be done about it, it does not change in any way or even a wee bit our verdict and our response to it. Our immediate plan is to educate our children and create that force of moral presence so that the world will begin to listen. The spectators and audiences are not ready, we are not ready but we have to ready our future generations to make the spectators and audiences pay attention. We need to educate the Indian masses and the Sri Lankan maniacs that there is better formula for life, not corruption, bribery, racism, fanaticism etc. To make them to listen we need that critical moral mass.
My appeal to the Singhalese people in Sri Lanka is I am willing to offer return flight to a few people to come and see the miracle unfolding in a nation without borders and a nation of people without a government that can still maintain their character. It is in our blood, it is in our nature and it is nurtured in our generations to come. But don’t be surprised if the future generation looks quite different to the dark skinned Tamils which your tourism industry likes to portray for we may be your future tourists! Got it? We may come to visit for the best of your food and best of comfort which you serve others with gratitude.
Your leaders told you Tamils were into drugs and credit card frauds but when you read the patents filed worldwide you will know what we have been doing. Moral justice works in strange places in strange ways. One day you will see a tower and you may wonder where it came from, we know what we have to do to get it up there. It was shear hard work, determination; perseverance and our ability to rise again and gain like the mythical bird phoenix.
We have risen, when bankers and politicians begin to receive us with respect, there is something miraculous and a miracle has happened just in mere 25 years. Amazing isn’t it. That is why the LLRC report was released to appease the Tamils and to get piece of the pie. And they say we are going to ask for forgiveness, but where are our loved ones? Or is it plan in disguise to continue your fanatical mentality. Will I ever let any Singhalese man into my home, how can I? When you have become low class scum basket. At the common wealth meeting, why did our Prime Minister walk out when the scum rise to speak? Because, we Canadians are very conscious about the character of a person and the content of his character.
You are a pariah nation in the face of the world community; they know what you do, how you talk and how you have clearly told the world we are a bunch of savages without any conscience. A community with conscience will never behave so erratically and to treat the world like garbage. If you had any morality you would have behaved differently. It was your culture you reveal so clearly to the world. We didn’t have to do thing, you did it yourself. As I always say Moral Justice, the mother of legal justice work quietly, slowly, patiently and ultimately it will come to haunt you. The ghost of moral justice has taken over from legal justice.
Remember and never forget that legal justice is only tiny portion and when that legal justice is insufficient moral justice takes over. Daily we wake up and the man who lives by moral justice get through the day like breeze and a man who breaks that go through the tempest. My advice to my Singhalese people is please take two minutes a day to pray to God to give you pathway of peaceful life. My mother did it for me; I do it for my children.
What Sri Lanka needs is a regime change.
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Sri Lanka vs Singapore
Special ContributionBy Kana Gopal
Dec. 8, 2011
Mr. Rajaratnam and Mr. Lee Kuan Yew
I am in the midst of reading the book – “My lifelong challenge” – by Lee Kuan Yew. It was released about two weeks ago.Would like to share excerpts (on page 60/61) from it.
"Following my experiences as a student in London and Cambridge, I believed firmly that knowing one’s mother tongue was a must. It gives one the sense of belonging to a culture, and increases self-confidence and self-respect. Hence, we decided that we must teach each student two languages – English and the mother tongue. However, implementing the policy was most difficult.
The Chinese challenge
The first bid for Chinese supremacy came eight weeks after separation from Malaysia. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce issued a challenge. It wanted the government to guarantee the status of the Chinese language in the constitution, although our constitution made the four major languages official languages. The Chamber’s treasurer, Kheng Chin Hock, a champion of the Chinese language, argued that Chinese was used by more than 80 per cent of the population and should be the first among the four languages.
I gave him a dressing down. Did he want Singapore to be like Sri-Lanka, with unending racial strife between Sinhalese and the Tamils because the Singhalese imposed their language upon the whole country? Did he want Malays and Indians to feel discriminated against?
I told the Chamber that if they wanted to continue pushing for the primacy of the Chinese language, they could go ahead and make that an election issue. That stopped them. I made it clear that every ethnic community in Singapore could keep what it already had. Nobody would stop them from learning their own language or using it. But if they did not learn English, they would pay a price. The price would be decided by the market."
To me, this sums up the reason why Sri Lanka (Ceylon) retrogressed and Singapore progressed and continues to progress.
His lifelong challenge reminds me of some of Mr. Rajaratnam’s (one of the founding fathers of Singapore) public statements:
In April 1978 he said: There are many parts of the world where to be a minority is to be resented and be oppressed. In the kind of Singapore we are creating there are no majorities and minorities but simply good men and bad men with the good men whatever their race, language and religion invariably triumphing over the bad men whatever their race, language and religion.In February 1985, when addressing the gathering of the Ceylon Tamil Association, he said: Racial and religious conflicts are growing at an unprecedented rate in many parts of the world and all of them arose as a consequence of crooked politics and cowardly leadership.
The aspiration of both Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and Mr. Rajaratnam (to achieve what they set out to achieve) is reflected in the Singapore pledge:
We, the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion, to build a democratic society based on justice and equality so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation.
Today many nations have adopted this Singaporean concept, in Canada we have the French and English. When the French wanted to separate from Canada the English Canada made so many concessions for them not to separate for we beleive that together we are better off than we on our own. Why is it almost impossible to teach our people in South Asia to rise up above and over our petty differnces and progress as one people? It is fear or is it famine or is it something that we lack make us feel inferior to each other. We treat our own people like inferior and then we go into their homes and invade their freedom.
How did a nation like Sri Lanka descend to such low level that it is close to nature and criminals and drug dealers are running the nation?
How did a known criminal become the President of the nation and went into rampage killing innocent people and above all why and how did the great nations stood by did nothng and doing nothing?
Calling a freedom fighter a terrorist and then go into his home loot, rape and kill people is the worst prostitution of our minds.
How can humans become animals and how can humans stand by and watch like animals!
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India
Sr. Valsa’s struggle with the poor tribals
Special ContributionBy Rajmahal Pahar Bachao andolan
Nov. 27, 2011
Sr. Valsa John
The funeral is over; The voice is silenced; Sr. Valsa John’s body was interned in a public cemetery at Vijaypur in Dumka, Jharkhand. Only her body has been interned; her spirit would live ever in the hearts of the poor and the marginalized and in the hearts of the all the people of good will. Let us remember she has shed her blood on the birthday of Jharkhand, Tuesday 15.11.2011. It is tragic that she has to shed her blood on this joyous day in order to proclaim that Jharkhand needs martyrs for the fullness of life to come in Jharkhand. That speaks of volume of the situation for the poor tribals in the newly created state.
Proclaiming and living out this hope and struggle has been her public life in the last twenty five years. whether working among Dalits in Patna or tribals in Santal Parganas, Valsa lived this struggle for hope, justice and life. Her determination to be part of the struggling masses, to a life of dignity and justice never wavered even once; The greatest indignity and injustice to the tribals in India is uprooting them from their heritage, God given, ancestor protected land. Once the land is snatched, the violence would follow and tribals would descend to abyss of brutalization and dehumanization. Sr. Valsa foresaw and mobilized the masses so that they would get justice and their voice would be heard. She dedicated her last fifteen years of her life to the cause of the displaced and the uprooted.
Her story was a story of self giving. She was born on February,19, 1958 in the village of Edapalli, kerela. She was a beloved girl child and that too the last of the six brothers and sisters. She received loads of love. Perhaps, Valsa’s was full of love that she wanted to share with those who needed most. Being the youngest in the family, she became a “didi” to poor and the exploited. How could the family of six brothers and sisters part with their youngest to a life of dedication and total love? So they educated her and she became a teacher; As a teacher she began reading newspapers and magazines of heroes and heroines in real life so that she can teach to her children. In the process, she was deeply affected and influenced by the lives of two women m missionary sisters in North India: One working in Jharkhand deep inside the jungle and another struggling among Gondhs in Madhya Pradesh. She joined the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary in 1984 with the intention of working among the poor. She was appointed in a school at Daltonganj, Jharkhand after her initial training, where she began observing the life of the poor much more closely.
The burning desire to commit radically to the cause of the poor had to be more strengthened. So she went for teachers’ training and taught briefly in Himachal Pradesh. The search for radicalism gradually began to see the light. She went to Kagaul, Patna for a guided experience among the Dalits. Immersion and participation were not mere words but acquired experiential meaning: Eating rat meat which was offered to her with love was indeed a test but Sr. Valsa ate immersed herself in the daily struggle of Dalits. Frugality became thus a lifelong companion for her; experiential knowledge of hunger and poverty was very important to her so that she is able to relate with the powerlessness of the exploited and the marginalized people.
Valsa then moved to Kodma in Sahibganj district of Jharkhand to work among Santals in 1993. Sona Santal Samaj Samiti formed after the martyrdom of Fr. Anthony Murmu and fifteen others welcomed her. She began walking to villages, meeting women going to hills with them. She endeared herself to the women of this area by gradually learning the language, customs and of course dances. She began organizing women systematically enabling them to participate in the traditional village councils and other meetings. It is at this time, tribals all over India were demanding legal recognition of their traditional governance system. Sr. Valsa mobilized women making them to understand the reasons for such a demand. She worked in Sona Santal Samaj Samiti and among the women of this area fr two years. Sr.Valsa moved out of Kodma in 1995.
She was appointed in a school at Jiapani near Amrapara of Pakur district of Jharkhand. It was indeed a tough decision for her to make, for her heart was in the villages with the exploited women and their struggles. She was appointed as a full time teacher that kept her in the school till 4.00 P.M. Sr. Valsa would not rest but began touring the nearby villages after the classes and during holidays. She would meet the traditional leaders and inter act with them; mobilizing their support for the recognition of local self governance system. The side effect of her touring the villages was an increase in the strength of the school; More students began attending the schools. She would go alone to the villages and often came back much after the sun set.
Movement in Pachuara:
It is during one of these walks-to-villages, she noticed, a camp of Geological Survey in the village Baromasia. She enquired about the purpose of such a camp. The officers thought that she would be the best person to persuade the people to part with the land for mining. So, they revealed the real intention of their stay. She began acquiring more information and realized that the tribals would be displaced at a massive scale if the project for mining comes through.
History teaches us that tribals have been the victims of development, and rehabilitation as promised has never reached the tribals. Valsa knew all these statistics. Here she is coming face to face with the actual displacement and the power of the private companies assisted by the administration within the context of liberalization of the economy.
Sr. Valsa requested her superiors to relieve her from the school. The superiors gladly granted her request knowing her earnestness and the need of the people. She moved to pachuwara village in 1998. She began informing the people about the intentions of the government. The people realized that they were being duped by the government. The Geological survey of India had casually told the villagers that they were doing some government work. No officials had told them about the impending mines and the procedures for the land acquisition. No rehabilitation packages were being announced.
IT IS ONLY WHEN Sr. Valsa began unifying the villagers the facts began emerging piece by peice. The Eastern Minines and Trading Agency in joint venture with the Punjab Electricity Board had acquired the coal block of the area and the extracted coal would be transported to Punjab for the electricity production. The Joint venture is known as (PANEM). The name Eastern Mines Trading Agency sounded ominously like East India Company. The colonization indeed continues in different forms.
Formation of the Samiti (orgnisation): Sr. Valsa began touring the villages, informing the villagers, mobilizing the people to resist the mine. Villagers deliberated first in hushed voice and then in public; As always, the people realized that organization of the poor alone would stand by them; they had to organize themselves. Sr. Valsa then inspired them, stood by them and animated them. The result was their decision to form a Samiti called “Rajmahal Pahar Bachao Andolan” (Rajmahal Hills protection Movment)
It is apt to recall a song by Fr. Anthony Murmu, another martyr for the cause of the tribals: He would often sing that Our God is as rock-steady as Rajmahal hills. These hills had protected the tribals, provided livelihood and now they are going to be destroyed. Oh! The hills that symbolized the compassion and the quality of God would be in peril. The tribals realized that resistance is the only way out for their life and future livelihood of their children.
The movement followed the following methodology in their resistance:
1. Writing memorandum: the simple people began writing to District authorities and to their representatives. This was a learning process for the people; They began understanding the constitutional provisions especially Fifth Schedule, SPT Act, PESA Act and the implications of Samata judgment in Supreme court. These memorandums went unanswered.
2. Blockades: The area was blockaded at various junctures. They had put up barriers to prevent strangers entering the area. Women, men, children and youth manned these for twenty four hours. It is significant that this blockade continued for six years.
3. Networking: Many organizations came forward to help the Movement with their supports. The movement began acquiring national limelight.
4. Empowerment through welfare measures: The agricultural land needs to be protected. The land had to be utilized fruitfully and improvement in the techniques of production was one of the main elements of the alternative to mining. Sr. Valsa began enabling the people for such a process.
One must realize that Sr. Valsa remained throughout with villagers. She ate with them sacrificed the comforts of the convent, walked to the hills even staying under the trees, sleeping on river beds after nightlong deliberations. Her intuitive power helped her in understanding the way tribals moved, organized and resisted. She did lead the movement yet allowing the traditional leadership to be in the forefront. It is the traditional leaders negotiated and guided the movement.
RESPONSE OF THE COMPANY AND THE ADMINISTRATION:
The PANEM company set up a an office in nearby market town called Amrapara. The Santals near and far depended on this market town for their provisions and necessities. The civil administration was at thebeck and call of the company. The middlemen of the company recruited Santal youth first. James Murmu a local geology graduate already working in the company was shifted to Amrapara. He began providing money and drinks to youth. Alubera leaders were the first one to be trapped. The youth recruited began to be in the payroll of the company.
They went around trying to convince the people to part with the land. They provided arguments such as that land belonged to government and government would not offer compensation all the time and this is the best time to receive compensation. The unity of the movement began cracking with the onslaught of the money and allurements. The tribals are poor and powerless. They too have desire to become rich and the educated unemployed youth are the most vulnerable. The movement began breaking. There was always tension the villages. People opposing the mines and the supporters began fighting. The social tension was tearing the social fabric of the harmonious tribal villages. The tribals began fighting among themselves for the cause of the PANEM. 2001-2004 witnessed tremendous tension in the villages.
Filing cases : The administration began filing cases on the leaders of the movement. The close associates like Joseph and the head of civil area the Pargana were picked up from the market and jailed. While Pargana was released after six months, Joseph remained for two years. Most of the cases filed were non-bailable in nature. Sr. Valsa alone had seven cases foisted on her. The police began catching people when they were going to market. Many men and women began going surreptitiously to the company office in order to receive compensation. As a result:
· The life became impossible: for ordinary people. They were unable to go to market for the fear of police; they were not able to visit their children staying in hostels.
· The children began to suspect their parents. Although Sr.valsa stood by them, consoled them but it was painful to notice the gradual decline in the unity and the conviction of the people.
· The village fights were increasing. The household members of the movement leaders began to be divided. There have been cases of children running away to Delhi and Punjab.
Sr.Valsa painfully bore the decline of the movement. She began contemplating on various ways to reach out to the people. She deliberated constantly with her supporters. Her supporters included journalist like Shaji who championed the cause fot he tribals. She spent hours at night discussing with the people in various villages. After a prolonged consultation, the Samiti decided to approach the court. The Samiti believed that constitutional provisions would be protected by the courts. They were in a shock when the High court ruled in favour of the company and the government. The Supreme Court recommended for an out of court settlement. Hence an MOU was signed between the company and the Samiti. The following would be relevant to understand the innovative significance of the MOU.
The company was made to acknowledge that land belonged to people and the company would be taking only the coal. Hence the land would be returned once the coal extraction is over. The land would be returned after filling and made cultivable. Until the return of the land, the company would pay crop compensation of Rs6000/- per acre per year to the owners of the land. The owners of the land also would be paid Rs.10000/- per acre as share of the profit earned from the coal.
The people would not be displaced and if need be resettled in vicinity itself. The concrete houses would be built for each household including separate houses for widows and divorced single women.
The company would offer free education to the children of the project affected people. It also promised to open a school and a hospital to the project affected people. The company gave an undertaking to comply with all the conditions and full it within a year.
Hence mining started in 2006: The monitoring committee consisted of 2 representatives from each village; 2 representatives of the samiti; 3 representatives of traditional leadership 3 and representatives from the company.
Sr. Valsa’s work, since then, has been to see that MOU is implemented in letter and spirit:
(a) The sick were brought to the dispensary (b) A dispensary was built till hospital was built and made operational so she made sure that the ambulance went around to fetch the patients(c) The school was to be built so she oversaw the running of the school (d) she made sure that Women participated and organized themselves.
The MOU was revolutionary influencing the RR policy of the Central government and the state government. Sr.Valsa was contributed the largest part with the inputs from the people themselves. She played the central part in making such a MOU and operationalising it. Thus she began earning many more friends but also foes. Huge amount of money began flowing to the people. Tribals who had never seen such a free flow of money began harbouring aspirations to become powerful.
The samiti members already had power and now they needed money in their hand so that they can hold sway over the community. Temptations to become rich faster saw then sacrificing their ideals learned so far. The movement had educated them to honour their tribal hatred for greed but they began succumbing to greed, power and money. The Company men began alluring them, nefarious methods were employed to allure these youth. The company middle men, government servants, local aspiring politicians, once again began providing allurement to youth of the samiti. The criminalization of the youth began to affect them too; The violence of the mining industry began influencing their character.
The presence of Sr.valsa, people’s trust in her, her moral strength, leadership and her over all supervision of the MOU monitoring activities became a hindrance to opponents’ evil aspirations. Sr. Valsa’s presence was a block to their becoming powerful. So, they began propagating false accusations against sister.
The opponents got a shot in the arm when she had to be in Kerala to be at the side of her cancer ailing brother for three months. The opponents began spreading rumors that sister had gone away permanently and they a formed a samiti of their own. They said that they would not allow the sister’s return. One must remember that only a handful of criminalized powerful youth having their vested interest stood agents the sister. The ordinary people were powerless against the mechanization of the politically supported powerful people.
The Immediate spark for the killing was the rape of the girl working with her. Surajmuni was picked up in Alubera weekly market by a group of youth and mass raped at night. Parents went to the police station next day and wanted to file the case. The police refused to file the case and chased them away; The parents reported to sister. The victim’s parents along with Surajmuni went to Police station second time, The police told them to settle the case out of court and receive monitory compensation. The rape victim refused to compromise and wanted justice. This time sister managed to get an appointment with District collector for the rape victim for 16th of Novemebr 2011.
Probably this was the last straw and the group felt that if they were to be hauled up, they would be inside the jail. Their anger flared; they thought that Sr.Valsa was not only hindrance to other greedy prosperity but also block to their life itself. The heinous act of her murder, already contemplated and planned, was the result of dehumanization assisted by the company and the violent atmosphere in the mining area. Sr. Valsa stood for the poor and the victimized in all situations. As always she stood for the cause of the poor and paid with her life.
She wanted to share the vulnerabilities of the poor people and like Jesus became vulnerable lamb to be sacrificed.
In kathaldi village concrete houses were made by the company and the people reserved one house for their beloved didi but Sr. Valsa preferred a mud house. Her simplicity and frugal life would remain a constant inspiration to the generation of activists. She was silenced by her murderers but her inspiring silent presence would always remain in the heart of all those who struggle for and with the poor.
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India
Campaign for Empowerment of Minorities
Special ContributionBy Soheb Lokhandwala
Nov. 25, 2011
Members of MPJ protest in Mumbai on 17/11/2011
Indian minorities and particularly the Muslims which comprise of near 15% of population are historically disadvantaged and vulnerable in spite of the Constitutional safeguards; continue to live in poverty and backwardness. The talks about welfare of minorities are since a day of Independence but very little has being done so far. Poor among the Muslims could not avail the opportunities in education, employment and economic activities because of isolation and various historical factors. To address this important issue Jus.Rajinder Sachar was constituted head of High Level Committee for preparation of Report on the Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India and the same was submitted to PM on 17th Nov.2006 and by 30th Nov.2006 it was presented in Parliament.
The report commonly known as ‘Sachar Committee Report’ consists of twelve chapters that analyze issue to demography, education, health, employment, credit, infrastructure and public programs, etc. After 5 long years we from concern citizen analyses and assesses that still Muslim community exhibits deficits and deprivation in most of the human development indicators. This deprivation is accentuated by the structural discrimination, social insecurity and the prejudice faced by the community.
The main recommendations according to report were to set up Equal Opportunities Commission and the Diversity Index. The President in her address to Parliament on 4 June 2009 said: “My Govt. will continue to accord the highest priority to the welfare of minorities and the action taken on the recommendations of the Sachar Committee have, to some extent succeeded in ensuring an equitable share to the minorities in govt. resources jobs and plans. Steps under way would be consolidated further. Govt. would strive to strengthen and modernize administration of Wakfs, reform the management of Hajj operations and set up an ‘Equal Opportunity Commissions’.”
The Sachar Committee report had revealed that Muslims had a shocking poverty rate of over 31% (compared to the national average of about 22%) and, at 15%, unemployment among Muslim graduates was double that of the majority community. Representation in civil services, central and state government service, armed forces and judiciary was less than 5% and ownership of assets or land was proportionally less than others. To overcome this PM had announced a refurbished 15-point program for educational and vocational deficits among Muslims. In 2007, the government surveyed and identified 90 Muslim concentration districts (MCDs). An ambitious multi-sectoral development plan (MSDP) was launched to provide better housing, sanitation, education, healthcare, credit facilities, employment opportunities etc to minority community members.
The recommendation suggested by the Sachar Committee to uplift Muslims on social, educational and economic fronts has failed to implement because of ‘lack of will’ and ‘Promise just to break the Promise’ on the part of the government and the procedure followed to implement it. Almost five years have passed by after the Sachar Committee submitted its overview on the plight of Muslims but nothing seems to have been done substantially on the ground towards implementing Sachar’s recommendations.
‘Functioning of the state in an impartial manner is an acid test for its being a just state’. We believes the growth and development story of our Nation should be ‘Inclusiveness’ and ‘mainstreaming’ while respecting diversity of minorities and marginalized section of our society. They should be empowered economically, socially and politically.
Therefore we demand the following for the welfare of Minorities:- 1) Need for transparency, monitoring and data availability therefore to create a National Data Bank where all relevant data are maintained.
2) Enhancing the legal basis for providing and establishing ‘Equal Opportunities Commission’ on the line of UK (United Kingdom) which should also interlink ‘Diversity Index’. (An expert group constituted to study and recommends the structure and functions of an Equal Opportunity Commission submitted its report on 13th March, 2008 to Govt but till this date matter is pending.)
3) Economic empowerment of Muslim can be achieved through safeguarding and developing Wakf properties. Wakf properties have been systematically encroached upon, converted and siphoned off for vested interest. Despite the Joint Parliamentary Committee’s visit, Qadri committee report, no action has been taken against the abuse of waqf and no property has been restored. We need the following actions a) Encroached Wakf properties should be vacated and handed over forming ‘National and state Wakf development Corporation’. b) Amendment to Wakf Act 95 Wakf tribunals should be manned by full time presiding officers appointed exclusively for Wakf properties. The public premises (eviction of unauthorized occupation) Act 1971, should be applied to recover encroachment from Wakf properties and arrears of rent at market rates should recovered as arrears of land revenue.
4) Effective implementation of PM 15 point program and enhance outlays to 19% of the total plan allocation.
5) Create Special Component Plan and allot INR 25,000 crore for education and economic upliftment of Muslims.
6) Immediately form Autonomous Assessment & Monitoring Authority as suggested in the Sachar report with powers of a civil court. Form State level structure and appoint independent district level Grievance Redressal Officers on the lines of National Authority and National Food Commission.
7) For Affirmative Action we need to Implement National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities — also known as ‘Ranganath Misra Report’ on Education and Employment.
8) Make provisions for mandatory Social Audit and Community Based Monitoring (CBM), on the lines as provided in NRHM, for all schemes initiated under PM 15 point program for better effectiveness and transparency.
9) Enhancing access to credit and loan facilities in Govt programs. (Public sector banks have failed to comply with PM 15points program, On the other hand Credit facility should be easily made available. a)RBI should direct all banks to give loans to minorities’ located area and try to setup Banks too. b) NABARD and SIDBI should set up funds for training minorities under Entrepreneurial Development Program and NABARD should also enhance its participation in micro-credit schemes.
10) Enhancing participation in Governance a) In Every Gram Sabhas at least two minorities seat to be reserved by modifying Panchayati Raj system. b) Muslim Minority constituencies must be reserved for Muslims only and the elimination of anomalies with respect to reserve constituencies under the delimitation scheme.
11) Eliminate discrimination in allotment/ utilization of funds. (A recent study by the Center for Equity Studies (CES) headed by Harsh Mander, has termed the Centre’s minority welfare schemes as a major failure. His findings in his report states--- The Ministry of Minorities Affairs has a plan allocation of Rs. 2,600 crore for 2010-11, but the utilization of MSDP funds for 2010-11, was a mere 22% by the middle of the third quarter for the whole country. Expenditures were as low as 18% in Bihar, and a little higher at 30% in West Bengal. Charging the central as well as state governments of institutional discrimination in even spending the MSDP funds, the study says that “officers (who prepare area development programme for the MSDP) are not required to - and are often actively discouraged from targeting expenditure to Muslim dominated villages.”)
12) Separate budgetary sub plan for Muslims and minorities on the lines of sub plan for SC / ST.
13) Empowerment of Minorities through social sector is a must. A large Muslim population in Rural and Urban slums shows them in poor physical and social infrastructure. a) The living condition of Minorities must be improved by providing access to adequate Healthcare, Education, Housing, Clean water, Sanitation, transport and Communication facilities.
Overall Implement ‘Sachar Committee Report’ in letter and spirit the main objective to eradicate socio-economic deprivation of minorities in our society.
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Srilanka
Reconciliation with Tamils in Sri Lanka – The Myths, The Mysteries, The Mindless and The Misleaders.
Special ContributionBy Subramaniam Masilamany
Nov. 23, 2011
John Amaratunga(L) and Ranil Wickremasinghe(2nd L)
Two men woke up in the morning, one man went straight to work to make life for himself, his family and his nation; he wanted to be an agent of change and charter of the future; the other man got up and wandered in the yonder as to how he can plunder from the former, whom he can fool, what he can misappropriate, whose life I can destroy to get a drink and a meal. Do you get it folks? Rest assured, the first man will never fail and the second man will never succeed. I have summarized the Sri Lankan situation in one simple small sentence. It is two different definitions to life and hence two different life styles. Lock up an eagle in cage and it will bite the bars. Why? Freedom; it is natural and an inborn effect.
If Sri Lanka desires peace and freedom, constitutional changes are the sincere and the path of least resistance to reconciliation. What is written below can be summarized in one sentence. We Tamils are winning and we Tamils have the vantage point, and hence there should not be any talk of reconciliation without constitutional guarantees. The rest is mere coffee table talk. All along they were able intimidate us, now they lost that advantage for we are living in the freer western jurisdiction so Tamil people exercise your freedom of choice; chose to be free. There is nothing more to lose, all you are left with is the ability to think, which no enemy can take it away. Get it?
I may be wrong, but did Mahinda Rajapaksa or any one associated with him is talking about reconciliation. An absolute no and a categorical negative. It is the gofers and catchers who are being paid to say so, I met one of those catchers but we caught him. Then once the international efforts and pressure wane off and Tamils divided, again, the crusade will continue and Mahinda will say I never said anything about reconciliation, it was the Tamils who were talking about reconciliation. Mahinda Aiya, we know too much about your intellect, flow of personality and the modus operandi, simply said it proxy politics. He is talking through the proxies; he is not talking about reconciliation. Mahinda Aiya, you always operate through proxies from murders to money making. It is too obvious.
I admire Mahinda Aiya’s false convictions, courage and audacity to stand by what is wrong instead of what is right. Only criminals believe in such a state of mind. A murderer while being read the verdict of guilty still believes that he is innocent or at least pretend to be innocent. Mahinda Aiya believes in nothing is impossible but we do believe that impossible is nothing, we will see what wins than who wins. Moral justice always wins. It is a war between Mahinda Rajapaksa and morality.
Reconciliation must begin with restitutive justice, that is one must find out if peoples fundamental rights were violated. In Sri Lanka it has been going on since 1950s and that is why we have a huge Diaspora population around the world. One must ask the question why people want to leave this nation of Sri Lanka. It is because there is no justice and hence no civil society. Reconciliation is the cover under which Mahinda Rajapaksa is trying to bury all his criminal activities, murders, massacres, rapes and torture. He is con artist, impostor, swindler, murderer, widow maker, wife killer, staterrorists etc. That investigation has to be done first for one cannot negotiate with a felon and make an agreement and pact with a criminal. The violated must know who the violator; and in any social agreement the criminal is isolated and excluded and sometime confined. In capital markets insider traders are banned for life from the market place. Mahinda Rajapaksa must allow an independent international tribunal to investigate his past 40 years and see if he is guilty of any wrong doing. And then he must be excluded from the civil society and public life, if found guilty. When criminals, drug dealers run the government, invariably there will be violence, deceit, connivance, corruption, murders etc.
Secondly there is more than ample evidence that there are criminals, drug dealers, and suspected murderers in the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa. That is a fact. How can people reconcile with criminals and the like? They are criminals because they have no jurisprudence hence they will never understand equitable justice but they understand summary executions and the like vices. It was all too obvious when Mahinda Rajapaksa told Premachnadra's daughter Hirunika to shut up for he thinks in his mind what happened was justifiable but it needs no justice. He thinks the strongest has the patent to what is right and what he thinks right is the equitable justice. He thinks if people need peace then they must be ready to forgo freedom, he considers himself above the constitution and above God. That is a very serious assumption. I do not know if Mahinda Rajapaksa is stupid like Mahathamuktha or if I am stupid. But let see if I make any sense, please let me know if I am stupid.
Isn’t democracy a government of the people by the people for the people? There is no government in the world without a nation of people. So people in the self interest make government. Then the government represents the aspirations of the people. But the very people can be over the generation imbued in poisonous feeling and hence may not be suitable for electing a just government. The question is which came first, the misguided Sri Lankan population or the monstrous Mahinda Rajapaksa as a leader. If one reads “The social Contract” by Jean Jacques Rousseau, he very clearly argues the contract among all people of the nation must be fair and equitable so that the people can bring forth their best in creativity. But the situation in Sri Lanka is, are the people ready for democracy based on freedom, peace and prosperity or one based on racism and fanaticism?
Let’s talk further; Mahinda Rajapaksa is a lawyer or so he says, G.L Peiries is a professor in law and there are lots lawyers in the government, then they all know that the right of the people are maintained through the application of laws as administered by the judiciary enshrined in the constitution. Then why are all these people talking about reconciliation via media propaganda. The easiest way is to amend the constitution and if there are any problems then people will seek remedy through the judiciary. Simple isn’t it? Oocam Razor principle is the maxim that behind all complicated situations are present a simple solution or behind all complicity there is simplicity. The simple solution to the complicated Sri Lankan dilemma is a constitution acceptable to both majority and the minority. But are the Sri Lankan magnanimous and deeper in understanding to know that in their self interest they must respect the interest of their neighbour? I am not ready to return to Sri Lankan until Sri Lankan people and polity becomes emancipated. We are part of the whole and the whole is not possible even if there is a tiny hole. When I compare the progress I made in Canada and the progress I have contributed to Canada, I now have an obligation to Canada, If there is need I am willing go to the front line, if the need will arise again. This is not based on racism or fanaticism, but based on how they have put people in charge of the nation. The Prime Minister and the Parliament is merely a law making factory and the rest is left to the people and the judiciary.
Criminals are made not born; unfortunately several of them were born in dysfunctional families. That breakdown in the family structure has caused this nation to return to nature. Every Tamil should be very weary and cautious for that family and the institution of marriage were the greatest contribution we made to the humanity that is under threat from the criminal government. When that social fabric breaks down, criminals are made. I hope the Singhalese leaders reflect on my contention and see where they went wrong or were they children of illegitimate parents and dysfunctional families. How else can you explain one child becomes magnanimous and other becomes murderous? Same children, same environment, same community but different behaviour, it must the parents, community and the alma mater Sad indeed. When I read on Sunday observer new paper praising Mahinda Rajapaksa as the greatest leader, I came to the conclusion that a man is willing prostitute his faculty of moral right for money.
Coming back to reconciliation and the role of the government, the parliament enacts the laws, and the executive branch administers the law and the judiciary as the moderator. Is there any problem with it? The people who are talking about reconciliation without constitutional amendments are either pulling wool over our eyes or sending us on wild goose chase. This idea of reconciliation is an eye wash and hogwash; it is to divide, confound, confuse, conquer, disorient and destroy a community of people called Tamils. Let us tread with trepidation. People must understand that in the absence of economic prosperity, parity is impossible and man as an animal will always look for advantage over the other man. A man must be physically, mentally and economically strong to live. That is the nature of the universe to select the best and propagate the strong. Let us not be naïve that the Cyclops will not devour us, if it does offer peace and sanctuary it is for it to consume the weak at a later time, but never in the interest of making the weak strong. Tamils must understand that Trust and faith have their limit and is of no use when not reinforced with raw physical power or unbiased constitutional power. Compassion, care, sympathy and understanding are only applicable when you are down and under, may be when you are equal, but never when you try to get ahead. Tamil worldwide must unite, improve their education and intellect and increase their material wealth. Always remember that man is an economic opportunistic animal ready to even kill for its own survival sake, but sometimes it talks about moral rights, and if it does it is weak. That is all to it, it is never great. No human being is well balanced in its poise. Don't be silly and don't become patsy. Always think man is another animal. One will never go wrong in being conservative and careful. Apathy and kindness are only for the weak. If you remain weak you are okay, but you can be weak only by surrendering your civil rights and liberty. Tamils have a long way to go in emancipating politically. Man is still an animal in nature kept under control by covenants. That is the only way it can be kept under control. It will never be a civic animal with this present hereditary configuration. There are animals with much better genetic configuration than human beings.
The next question is can Mahinda Rajapaksa lead reconciliation? No, his intellect is criminality. He even tells the loved ones of murdered person to calm down and reconcile with the enemy. Let’s go further, in 1991 there were two murders and he is suspected to have some thing to do with it. Who knew about it? The opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe and John Amaratunga. There is no possibility or even remote probabilities of reconciling with Mahinda Rajapaksa, why? Look at his past, how can one negotiate with the criminal? He is not serious and genuine about reconciliation, he is just responding to the current situation, when the situation changes he will go back his natural bahaviour after all he is a human animal. I will do the same, we all do. So then we need a new government in Sri Lanka to talk about reconciliation. What will happen if Tamils do not agree to reconcile? All that has to happen has happened, but the reconciliation is necessary for Mahinda Rajapaksa to survive and to get out from under the war crimes. There is nothing for Tamils in it. Then consider the Diaspora Tamils and 60 million Tamils in South India and the space between Sri Lanka and South Pole. Geographically, demographically and economically we are at vantage point, which Tamil National Alliance does not know and understand. That is why they want to reconcile, there is nothing for them to give us, and in fact they need us. But whatever we do has to be done through constitutional reform. There are few Tamils who have no clue except they received some perks such as sex, food or money.
For 60 years the Tamils kept on asking for their constitutional rights and it was never heeded. Why now? You won the war, at least you claim so, why are you desperate for reconciliation? Because there are allegations that need investigation and International laws have been violated and the Mahinda Rajapaksa is the prime respondent. He cannot escape but reconciliation is a means to get over it. If he can get Diaspora on his side then he can mitigate the outcome. So he thinks. LTTE was the out come of the Tamil frustration over negotiations. You say you won the war then it is your duty to offer concessions so that people can think of reconciliation. To ask the vindicated to reconcile is like asking the wounded soldier to donate blood. LTTE has transformed into new entity, LIFTING TAMIL TALENT EVERYWHERE, now that is what it is. It is socio-economic- political out fit,
Mr.Mahinda Rajapaksa and his educated and enlightened followers, stop your nonsense. You are trying to divide the Diaspora and divide the world community. I will give you one guarantee you will not succeed. We know who is who in Canada, which people are anti-Tamils, some people are against the Tamils, but they are Tamils, and they do not want Tamils to succeed. There is no pro- Singhalese or pro-Mahinda group in Canada. It is anti Tamils not because we are bad but we are hard working and enterprising, look the universities and the industrial heart land of Canada that will tell you all about who we are. We are now gaining political recognition. So go to plan B, that is make some serious and deep amendments to the constitution and bring it to us, let us study and give our feed back. What you need is a free country not only a peaceful country. Peace can be achieved with police state but freedom is only possible in a free nation. I will tell you we have some formidable people on this side who can think shrewder than you. Tamil are no more the pious, fearing, forgiving people. We stand up for our rights, rights identical and similar to yours, nothing more nothing less.
Recently one of your gofers was here and I was invited to meet him, I did not know it was him till I saw him. He wrote an article on Sri Lanka truth and he was lambasting the Tamils whom he came to ask for reconciliation. I offered but did not give $ 2500 for the rehabilitation of the IDPs, he spoke so eloquently about the plight of the IDPs and next day I read this article posted on Lankaweb damaging the Tamils in Canada... So you sent him to go divide the Tamils, isn’t it the motive? Mahinda Aiya, we all know you very well. King of proxies, you know that is your modus operandi. Try to see if you can change your operating system.
So all this talk about reconciliation is to get you off the war crime charges and if you can get the Diaspora divided, not necessarily divide and draw them to your side, you have made a major political coup and a victory, but Aiya, how are you going to silence voice of the Diaspora? It is time for you to plead guilty and step on the electric chair.
The moves are an ambitious and audacious and their success will depends on our failure to up hold universal laws of justice. But we must stand by our faith in the justice system of the world.
No Tamil should ever refuse to negotiate but not negotiate out of fear or deceit. Mahinda Rajapaksa has two third majorities in the parliament, does not matter how he got it, and then he has the means and tools to make constitutional amendments and guarantees. So then he should stop playing with the weak among the meek Tamils and feed them with bread crumbs to do the dirty work. Ignorance is the worst form of poverty, and there is limit ignorance, beyond ignorance it is evolution. Ignorance among the humans can be ameliorated but when that is not suffice it is evolution, then one has to be treated like a work animal. After 60 years of education and training if they are violent then it is definitely evolution, and hence we are dealing with two separate genera, plural of genus. 23 pair of chromosomes may not necessarily mean that we are on the same evolutionary plateau.
The reconciliation offered is like band aid solution to a severe social hemorrhage. There are a few fundamental cultural differences between the two communities. We Tamils cannot and will not ever follow their way of living. They have not shown any viable system in the last 60 years except all they did was to elect the most racist and fanatic of the two parties to power. The two main parties are one monster with two heads. Their only political tool and scapegoats are Tamils. It worked so well for the last 60 years and now they have none so they want to reconcile to see if they can find more palatable way to steal from us. I hope Tamils will be careful in making any investments in Sri Lanka. Why would I invest my hard work in Sri Lanka when I can better return and safety of my capital in other nations? Tamils in Sri Lanka may have to reconcile as an act of prudence, but the Diaspora do not have to.
I do not even understand why they want to reconcile with the Diaspora. We are not going to help to invest without substantial concessions and constitutional guarantees. Three things are considered in making any investment, one safety and security of the capital, two growth or appreciation potential and three income or dividend potential. These are the fundamental basics of any investments. Tamils you learned and earned your money in very many hard ways so be prudent, professional and practical with our money. There are world class cities where you can invest your money. You all know what happened to all the British investments in Sri Lanka., so be careful.
I am asking the Pseudo Diaspora Tamil are you acting through your ignorance or through corruption? Why would you go around breaking your community? You are either ignorant or you are inept. So go get a good immersion course on Sri Lankan politics and than come back with your sharp mind, I bet you will begin to see a better picture. If the Singhalese need it they will come to us and we will lay down all the conditions for equitable solution. Majority of Tamils are hard working people, they do not have the time to immerse in the nuts and bolts of the Sri Lankan situation. Trust us that we are at a stronger position to enter into negotiation but let see what they have to offer. Reconciliation is not an offer it is an eye wash and Mahinda Rajapaksa wants to pull wool over our eyes. Let see who wins. It is in your able hands, play is wisely, think of your utopian culture and heritage, you future generations, we are winning why should be reconcile when we can have it all. Rest assured that we are winning.
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India
Analysis of Documentary ‘Brokering News’
Special ReportBy Soheb Lokhandwala
Nov. 21, 2011
‘Brokering News’ reporting in India
I saw ‘Brokering News’ documentary by Umesh Aggarwal which relates with Political, Business, Sports and News Entertainment. It has tried to project the issues of ‘Paid News’ in our society which has harmed and corrupted the very essence of our Democratic system.
Interview with Election Commission Mr.Qureshi has made clear that election reforms are due; documentary had shown the nexus between some Media Editors as ‘Brokers ‘enabling the politicians with Media packages to show them of emphatic image and their works in good light to public. The case of lobbyist Nira Radia was shown and telephonic transcript with some known media personalities in regards to 2G scams. Also the case of a journalist from Kurushetra where the known press ‘Jagran’ managed to garner the paid news and advt. in their newspaper.
The business nexus of corporate was little known to public, a case of Reliance telecom how it had misguided its investors and public at large by ‘Paid News’ of tying up with giant MTN and other telecomm.
Media becoming ‘media net’ giving packages in spots field to entertainment area in page3 was shocking.But in case of ‘Brokering’ by editors was just shown more at a times, a feeling given of a tussle between NDTV (Barkha) v/s CNN IBN(Rajdeep) which could be avoided by interviewing to much more ‘Bipartisan’ and ‘Neutral’, this is where the documentary lacked its ‘Fairness’ and the end of the documentary could have being on more positive note rather than taunting at individual journalist.
Overall this was a good attempt and the ball has started to roll to highlight the issue of ‘paid news’.Our media which is the fourth pillar of Constitution can play vital role, if it reflects the core issue of our society. A second attempt is needed with more robust and broad base approach in making ‘Brokering News’.
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Sri Lanka Massacre: 50 times Srebrenica, 800 times My Lai, says German weekly
Special ContributionBy Subramaniam Masilamany
Nov. 14, 2011
Sri Lanka's Killing Fields image
Largest number of innocent and non combatant people massacred in the shortest period of time
Referring to the Channel-4 documentary Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, journalists, Dirk Maxeiner and Michael Miersch, in an opinion column that appeared in German weekly Die Zeit said that the massacre of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka by the State military is five times the killings from Srebrenica genocide, and 80 times the numbers killed in the Mai Lai massacre. "Colombo successfully covered up the killings by sending away the UN observers on the grounds that the State will not be able to ensure their safety, and then began the mass murder," Die Zeit said.
Sri Lanka Killing fields
Die Zeit, a popular German weekly with a circulation around half a million copies and an estimated readership of 2 million people, is respected for its high quality journalism in Germany.
Noting that internet technology has given the world audience unprecedented access to information occurring anywhere in the world, the article said, "this week our daily mood was affected as we watched in horror the British documentary uncovering the brutal mass murder in Sri Lanka where 40,000 civilians died in 2009, 800 times more than those killed in Vietnam's My Lai."
Information reaching us in the early months of 2009, said thousands of civilians were fleeing from the combat zone between the army and the terrorist Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but "now it has been established that 40,000 of them fell victim to a massacre."
The "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields" documented by a British Television crew has created a storm of indignation on the massacre, the paper said. "The documentary shows how the Sri Lanka Army in the final battle against the "terrorist" organization Tamil Tigers in the north of the island, lured hundreds of thousands of people using the insidious strategy of leadership to safe protection zones, and relentlessly shelled the area. This was deliberately planned, and about 40,000 civilians lost their lives by the shelling," the paper said.
For two years, covering up the war crimes
The mass murder in My Lai Vietnam where American soldiers killed 503 villagers, women, children, and old people, created a storm of protest in Germany. The announcement of the crime led to a turnaround in public opinion for war. After all, the officer in charge was later tried and punished, the article said.
"In Sri Lanka, 40 000 unarmed civilians were killed, which is 800 times My Lai, and five times Srebrenica. We read in 2009 that there was a terrible final battle against the "terrorists" and talk of civilian casualties from cross-fire. Only now the real truth is being revealed by the documentary by Channel-4. The documentary shows mainly mobile phone recordings of eye witnesses, combined with so-called trophy pictures that were taken from offenders. The Government of Sri Lanka was able, for two years to hide their war crimes before the world.
Thousands of German have made the palm-fringed beaches to the south of the island as their holiday destinations since 2009. . The successful cover-up was possible because the military sent away the last UN observers, on the grounds that they could no longer guarantee their safety. As they left, there were no more foreign witnesses and the mass murder began, the paper said.
Die Zeit, a popular German weekly with a circulation around half a million copies and an estimated readership of 2 million people. The paper is respected for its high quality journalism in Germany.
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Srilanka
Poem: Fox and the Fiddle
Special ContributionBy Massey Subra
Nov. 11, 2011
A cartoon of Fox and the Fiddle
Mahinda Rajapaksa playing social justice fiddle this time and who is going to be his victim! I have dedicated this song to My Excellency Fox Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The fox played the fiddle for the sheep in the bay
He played all night and he played all day
The fox played fast and the fox played slow
The fox played the waltz in an even tempo
Out came the sheep
And he gobbled them up
The fox ran away
And drank honey from a cup
He lay in the meadow
‘til the sun went down
He picked up his fiddle
and played another round
The fox played fiddle for the hens as they lay
He played all night and he played all day
he played on his belly and he played on his toes
the fox played a lullaby sweet and low
Out came the hens
And he gobbled them up
The fox ran away
And drank honey from a cup
He lay in the meadow
‘til the sun went down
He picked up his fiddle
and he went down town
Sly is the fox with a fiddle and a bow
where he’ll play next you never know
Sly is the fox with a fiddle and a bow
Round and round the circle goes
Round and round the circle goes
Oh yeah hey, hey all you hens and sheep,
you know, you'd better watch out for that fox,
you know, he's a bad guy
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Srilanka
SANCTIONS AGAINST SRI LANKA
Special ContributionBy Subramaniam Masilamany
Nov. 7, 2011
Pastor Martin Niemoller
How can ordinary Tamils Participate? Let me say something to my people at the very outset.
“Our freedom is already here on a gold platter and served with a smile, but we Tamils do not have the courage to take it. Take it today. You either have freedom or death, I am free and alive! I have taken mine, have you taken yours?” Take your dose of freedom today, it is one time medication for all your struggle in life.
Sixty years and two generation ago a mad man turned the mind of the people of the nation of Sri Lanka in a wrong direction and today it has become a land of raw nature. It took thousands of years to turn this raw nature with roaming animals into a civilized and organised society, but in 60 years it has returned to nature. Society as we live today is too intelligent and sophisticated for ordinary people live in it. Is society that frail and fragile to fragment so fast and so quickly? Today in Sri Lanka has gone back in nature but with lethal weapons in hand. It was Tamils at first, it will be Muslims, then the opposition among the Singhalese and ultimately it will be among the dictators. All along the economic pie gets smaller and smaller and the fight gets bigger and bigger. Here below Pastor Martin Niemoller has summarized it in four verses.
Pastor Martin Niemoller (1892–1984)
First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.
The fear among people is that this nation is going to break out into a fully blown tribal and group war. The current leadership does not seem to have the intellect and the know how as to how to guide this coutry out of its dungeon and doldrums. The internal srife has already burdened the nation economic immune system and the debt owed to foreign nations are now swapped for equity. What does it mean? Simply put when I owe money and if I have no money pay the debt, I have to surrender my property. Simple, we all know that. It is the continued destruction of national wealth and the purchase of weapons and the balloning militray has exhausted the nations of its economic stamia.One will never prosper or profit by destroying or disparaging ones family, friends, partners and fellow citizens. What happened in Sri Lankan was in the name of race and religion the state unleased a poisoneous and destructive policy on one sectors of the people, that people happened to be the Tamils. The Tamils left the nation, who is next? It will be interesting see from outside in.
I think every Tamil who has so far not affected by the ethnic cleansing pogrom of the genocidal regime of Sri Lanka can learn a thing or two from the above quotation. And I personally learned that as I focus more and more on the well being of my community and the world community at large my life is getting better. Thence if we all become public servants without any anticipated remuneration our lives will get better. So then what is holding us behind from our participation to up hold universal laws of good and bad, right and wrong, what is stopping us from rising up against monstrosity.
The atrocities going on in Sri Lanka to Tamils are not specific to Tamils, the Tamils are mere incidental to the whole affairs, and they were the wrong people at the wrong time and wrong place. It can happen any time anywhere to anyone. Therefore it is the responsibility of the world to stand up and stamp out this menace that has infected the Singhalese people and have become a pestilence and epidemic. People can call me an ultra racist, that is fine, but I have not killed any human being and have not killed any living thing knowingly.
Almost 3 years have passed since the mass scale Genocide and holocaust of innocent Tamils in Sri Lanka. We spoke to several Jewish friends and they kept on reiterating that it is our task, our primary task to keep up the campaign. It is easy and does not cost you any money, we are only asking for your time, energy and effort to stamp out bad behaviour. All Tamils in their small and large ways must actively participate.
While campaigning among the world of Nations, we Tamils have to honestly, sincerely and with dedication and absolute focus demonstrate our faith in our own freedom. If we do not sincerely believe in our own contribution toward our liberation, we cannot expect others to come to our rescue. We have to set the example, precedence, mass and energy. We have to discard the inferior, insecure and second class mentality and insist on our right as citizens of the world. Firstly we have to get rid of selfish mentality and become worldly citizens taking responsibility for and of the greater world. We will never be free within our own enclave, we have to participate and demand our portion of the world. The way we are we don’t know what freedom and we are not at all worried or bothered about it. Why 40,000 Tamil people were killed in Sri Lanka, because none of them stood up and ask, why are you suffering us, instead we kept on backing off. Our freedom is already here on a gold plate, we do not have the courage to take it. Take it today. I have taken mine have you taken yours?
We are asking our Tamils are you sincere about your commitment to your freedom? Do you know what freedom is? After having lived under foreign and Singhalese domination and majority rule for almost 500 years you have lost the concept of freedom. We see that every day in our Tamil people, living as subservient, subjugated, and submissive and subordinated people. It has to change. There are several things to do and we all must get together and do it individually and as group. Every one has to prevail and every one has to contribute and every one has to be recognised as capable contributors. Most of the Tamils born in Sri Lanka either under the British rule or the ignorant rule of the Singhalese majority freedom are mere peace and existence. They merely existed to survive; it was a subservient subsistence not exuberant existence.
But now we are in the free world, where to improve and increase your creativity the government encourages you to exercise your right to freedom. These are enshrined in the constitution and are called the Bill of rights or charter of rights and freedoms. These things simply mean you must fight for your right when it is violated. At the same time we have to keep the insecure and inferior forces at bay so that they do not interfere with your freedom. The Singhalese in Sri Lanka are mere weak, insecure, inefficient and ineffective people, but they have the masses behind them. We have to defeat them. In a civil society you do not defeat the enemy by hard means, we use soft means and mechanisms, one of them is sanction. I have listed below number sanction that we can employ and enforce. Please do it today and every day.
There are several forms of sanctions
a. Monetary sanctions b. Political sanctions c. Psychological sanctions d. Travel sanctions e. Tourism sanctions f. Regulatory sanctions g. Import export sanctions h. Capital market sanctions i. Distribution sanctions j. Embargo k. Work place wareness l. Commuinity events propaganda m. Bill Boards display n. Boycott Sri Lankan Products o. Public burning and destruction of Sri Lankan goods p. Calling for International boycott of Sri Lankan products q. Public speeches and condemnations r. Mass scale flooding of media s. Social media propaganda t. Exclusion u. Suspension v. Expulsion w. Diplomatic sanctions x. Sport sanctions y. Cultural sanctions z. Trade sanctions aa. Military sanctions bb. Individuals sanctions cc. Punitive sanctions dd. Investment sanctions ee. Medical sanctions ff. Criminality sanctions gg. Technology transfer sanctions hh. Intellectual sanctions ii. Black Listing traders jj. Buyers embargo kk. Bumper Stickers ll. Mass scale mail campaign mm. Flogging and flooding with messages via mail and media.
These are few of the things you can do, chose the one is appropriate for your intellect and use it. You can do your own You tube or face book campaign. It is easy all you need is webcam and sofyware costs about $50.00, three people can share it.
Napoleon said an army travel on its stomach. Starvation is the best way to weaken an intransigent and belligerent enemy. Singhalese are not our enemy, but Tamils are Singhalese’s enemy, that is how they were indoctrinated. By putting their government under economic, financial, political and other forms of pressure we can make them to realise their erroneous beliefs.
The regime that does not recognises the right to life, human rights and freedom are ignorant and hence are tyrannical and they harass and unnecessarily and unduly punish people of their same composition.
In this modern world of abundant wealth and prosperity there is room all 7,000,000,000 people to live comfortably and more new ideas of how to improve and increase creativity are made every day. Then why should there be social and racial strife in the world. It is due to shear ignorance and incapability.
Sri Lanka has been on the destructive path of Racism, Fanaticism, Narcissism, and recently into staterrorism and narcotism, these are dangerous trends and directions and what ever plea for change of heart has not made its way into their minds. So sanctions, embargo and boycott are the way to bring sense and semblance into their minds.
How can the Tamils help themselves? The most important thing they can do is to stop buying Sri Lankan made goods and services and two to stop sending more than required hard currency to Sri Lanka. I know it helps our people in one way and hurts us in multiplied ways. But we can do whatever we can do.
Secondly one must reduce the amount to travel to Sri Lanka especially by Sri Lankan airlines. We must stop importing goods that are made Sri Lankan except made in our traditional Tamil areas. Exporting to Sri Lanka item that will help them directly must be avoided or reduced. When you send hard currencies you are basically exporting high value items to them, which can used against Tamils.
Civilization is not a status quo, it is an ever evolving and growing and progressing hope in progress, it the hope that keep us living, life is hope in progress. Never surrender your hope to despair or to a destructive enemy. Take you freedom and never ever give it away.
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SRI LANKA
A Nation Inexorably Drifting and Darting Towards the Black Hole
Special ContributionBy Massey Subra
Nov. 1, 2011
Criminal Yakadaya
The Sri Lankan situation can be summarized in one sentence, “When a murderer is the head of any organization, that organization is bound to become murderous”.
In sixty years since independence this nation of Sri Lanka is slowly and steadily drifting and accelerating towards self destruction. The rule of the law, the constitution of the nation, etiquette of the government and our god given moral direction are being violated by a succession of criminals. Mahinda Rajapaksa is product of this narcissistic nation and its culture. Mahinda Rajapaksa is criminal turned staterrorsits. When a society sees a criminal as their saviour and a leader that nation has already rotten from inside. What we see is a Pumpkin Nation, a pumpkin rots from inside and all along it looks so beautiful till one day all of sudden it collapses. The social immune system has failed and the anti-social viruses have invaded and taken over the whole body politic and people. Sri Lankan people have proven beyond any doubt that they cannot manage themselves. Racism, Fanaticism and Narcissism has given birth to impunity, infallibility and invincibility.
They need a foreign agency to administer the rule of the law. It needs a Sir Winston Churchill and a George Marshall to straighten things out. As a Tamil, I am telling my Singhalese brethren that you must stop living in a world of racism, fanaticism, narcissism and in emotion induced exuberance and hallucination; you must change the course and chart a new direction, either you do it or it will be force upon you. The choice is yours and yours only. Watch what is happening in the Middle East and learn fast. Rajapksa is your baby and your product and was incubated in your own belly and the monster is born. He has taken over the state and has become a staterrorist. You have chosen a confounded and confirmed murderer as your President, what were you folks thinking? A criminal dressed like clown amidst the world of well attired leaders and diplomats. He is an eyesore. In the mean time pay attention to the Arab Spring and the Asian spring that is coming.
I hope visiting TNA to USA pay attention to what the Americans suggest. Tamils have to lead the liberation of Singhalese and Sri Lanka. If you do not understand the intellect of the American dialect call us and we will interpret it for you. Democracy is sweeping the globe and be part of it, that is the fundamental message to all people and their tyrants. I wonder where Mahinda Rajapaksa will go! Will he hide in the Yala jungle or swim to South Pole. I super imposed the bloodied face of Ghaddafi on top of Mahinda Rajapaksa and said Thank you God. Please, please give him a chance to listen to the people who suffered under him.
Can a suspected murderer become the President of a nation? The chronological, historical, circumstantial, implied and expressed evidences indicate that Mahinda Rajapaksa has criminal journal entries to his credit, since 1970. Yes, it is 40 years of criminality that went uninvestigated, unpunished and with impunity. It may be all hearsay, but hearsay can be credible too, for why there is so much of murder and murderer talk surrounds Mahinda Rajapaksa? It can be corroborated by his actions and behaviour too, such as inviting an island reconvicted criminal Maradankadawela Yakadaya Jinadasa to the presidential palace, then having Mervin Silva, Duminsa Silva, etc by his throne side. On top of it today he sent a letter of condolence to Hannibal Ghadafi, the son of Maummar Ghadafi. Maummar Gaddafi may be a hero to Libyans but when a man commit even one single murder whether as an ordinary person or as the head of nation he cannot be the head of nation. Democracy and freedom are the hall mark of civilization and that clearly distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom.
In his condolence letter to Hannibal Ghadafi, Rakapaksa say besides other things, “These ungrateful bastards, who try so hard to rule and control with iron fists, do not appreciate us”. I wonder whom is he calling Bastards, Is he the pot calling the kettle black, I think either he has a different set of moral code of ethics or he is insane or suffering from memory loss and a combination of all. He further states that, ‘we have seen this type of behaviour (of the bastards) happen many, many times here in Sri Lanka. Last week some of my people killed some of my people. This is how we get thanked every day, in trying to do good. We must thank him for being forthright in accepting that he has thugs, criminals and murderer within his rank. By the way whom was he calling bastards? Is he referring to the Libyans or the NATO? Calling Libyan peoples as bastards and calling Bin Laden a terrorist is not going to go well in the Arab countries.
Maummar Ghaddafi may be your friend sir, but he ruled for 42 years and he killed several thousand people, like the way you killed innocent Tamils, 40,000 killed and 150,000 unaccounted for. As a President you have not even concerned about it. To you one life of your friend is worth more than the 40,000 innocent lives. You cannot be head of a nation even if one murder goes uninvestigated and one murderer goes unpunished, but you have the audacity to invite a serial killer and celebrate and congratulate him. Birds of the same feather flock together. Are you a murderer too? As I told you earlier the chronological, historical, circumstantial, implied and expressed evidences indicate that you are a criminal since 1970. I do not know if you were married before, but some one told me that you killed your first wife circa 1970.
When we say you killed, it was always a proxy killing, you never committed these murders yourself; these murders were done by your local criminals and all evidences were buried by murdering the murderer. It is a standard procedure among organized criminals like mafia. If under your watch and rule how comes there is huge proliferation of drug trade and mafia and paramilitary gangs? That is your intellect and modus operandi. Don’t you know that the same trade mark is obvious in the 2009 genocide of the Tamils? I know ultimately you will agree for a full blown investigation, but not until you are satisfied that all evidences have been removed, hidden or obliterated. You think as a murderer and we think like a murderer. Let see who wins.
In 1956, a man by the name of S.W.R.D Bandaranayake indoctrinated and intoxicated a nation of innocent people into the hall of shame, racism and fanaticism. These were innocent people for some reason were told that if they have to progress they have to regress into destructive behaviour. Two generations and 60 years later the nation is at the brink of black hole and tipping point. In 2 generations it has become a culture. In a world of international affairs this nation is unable to accommodate and adopt.
I do not know if it was a curse on this nation, but such a well run and beautiful nation was turned in the wrong direction by S.W.R.D. Bandaranayake, then by J.R Jeyawardene and continued by Mahinda Percy Rajapaksa. Once I traveled through Horragola in Athanagala in Sri Lanka, I saw the tomb stone of this man SWRD, a huge rock was placed on top his burial spot. I asked the driver why such a huge stone, he said sir, he died with a huge burden and huge responsibility, my boss who is well educated Singhalese said, no it is not true, we do not want this devil to rise up and ruin our nation again. He has ruined it enough. This changed as envisaged by him took this nation close to the precipice and to the black hole. Now let me ask my Sri Lankan Singhalese, what do you think? Did your life get any better in the last 60 years? You could not live side by side with 2 million Tamils now you have to put up with 5 billion people breathing down your throat.
Sri Lankan people for some reason are becoming introvert and cannot see the point of views and the diverse views of the world. They are defiant and detrimental. We understand their unique nature and position in the planet earth. They want to maintain their culture, language and heritage, but that is not what their leaders are doing, they are taking these people in the wrong direction. The leaders have and are blaming their inability on the other people. The other people are like them with the same anatomy and physiology, why cannot they simply learn to live with other communities? How do I maintain my uniqueness? Simply by working hard everyday so that I do not become dependent on others, in fact I make more, create more and share with others and that way they honor me, respect me and identify me as a great citizen. That is what every Singhalese have to become, I am not blaming them, it is their corrupt leaders who have led them on a disastrous path., and they are taking them close to the black hole.
Some one said about the October 8th 2011 shoot out between two criminals Duminda Silva, a drug dealers and Lakshan Premachandra, a local enforcer, why is that Duminda Silva was not arrested? One law maker replied how can they arrest Duminda Silva, he is their baby and besides in that case the drug cartel will ask why Mahinda Rajapaksa is not arrested for the 1991 twin murders? Mahinda Rajapaksa will further say it is an internal matter with in our cartel, why should others be worried. Damned of he does, damned if he doesn’t. He has already sent a subtle but implied message to the law enforcement what outcome he expects.
Remember the 18th amendment to the constitution. Maharajah Mahanthanmutha, Mahendra Mahinda Rajah Rajapaksa. The king of kings! How can Mahinda Rajapaksa openly accept that Duminda Silva is wrong and guilty, then it implies that he was guilty of the two murders that were committed in 1991, to which Ranil Wickremasinghe is the best witness, alive and it is a surprise why he was not killed by Mahinda Rajapaksa.. It will be interesting to see if Duminda Silva will be charged and found guilty with the murder of Bharatha Lakshan Premachandra. The paradox Mahinda will be facing is his own conscience, how can I charge a man for murder when I have not been charged for my own murders. Human mind is so funny. Our conscience is a very powerful adjudicator, a governor, a gyroscope and a gyrostabilizer. In most investigations especially the investigators keep grilling till at one point the suspect will be forced into answers and either way he answers he will be proved guilty.
Mahinda Rajapaksa has been forced into a situation where he will be guilty of crimes either way. If Rajapaksa does not charge Duminda with murder and find him guilty with murder Rajapaksa is guilty of cover up and if he charge him with murder he will be found guilty by his own acolytes for having double standards as to why he is not guilty of the twin murders in 199i then and Dumnida is guilty of a single murder now. Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa you have been check mated. Wise people must not use their wise ness to vice ness, for you will end up in the vice grip of the justice.
When about 100 people armed with rifles and revolvers roam the streets it is not simply an act of violence it is a culture violence with impunity. That is a small army, reminiscent of the Mexican drug cartel. We all know what the out come of a trial. Duminda Silva , not guilty! Folks rest assured. In a country like Sri Lanka it is hard to prove a case if you are not on the right side of the ruling criminals. If you are on the side of the ruling side of the criminals you don’t need justice, it will be delivered by the criminals in favour of you and the country will be less one citizen the next day.
As it is Mahinda is not going to charge Duminda Silva with murder, after all he is a close buddy of his son Namal Rajapaksa and part of the drug cartel, therefore Mahinda Rajapaksa is guilty impeding justice and he should be arrested in any country where ever he goes. He has lost his diplomatic immunity as provided to head of the states. But if the head of state is guilty of crime especially murder he should not be permitted into any civil nation. What we need in this world is at least one leader with guts and courage to arrest him and put him on trial. Some one has to set precedence and say no to suspected murderers and tyrants.
Mahinda Rajapaksa has about 40 years experience in criminal activities and most of the crimes were done by proxies, which means he hires criminals to carry out anything from murder to extortions. And then the proxy is murdered by another proxy thus the evidence and the connection is broken. When the first proxy is killed, his crimes die with him and the second proxy is charged for the murder of the first proxy. Mahinda Rajapaksa is a criminal with the criminal law education. An unbeatable combination for underworld activities. Remember that he is getting old so he looks pathetic and patient. Being from Hambantota a remote arid area there is nothing much of civilization and people live side by side with animals in the ‘Yala” forest.
There seems to a pattern and patent to his modus operandi. This same pattern has been extended and extensively used around the nation. The problem in Sri Lanka is that if you speak against the Rajapaksa cartel you are dead and how you get killed will never bear any connection to Rajapaksas. Being a criminal and a criminal lawyer he knows what exactly to do. Within Sri Lanka, the chances of him brought before a criminal justice commission is nil or almost nil. The law enforcement, the judiciary, the police and military are all either his men or men who dispense injustice without fear of consequences. It is not unusual to hear of people missing or disappearing without any traces or evidences.
The million dollar dilemma is that there are no international protocols to arrest when he travels to other countries. What evidence other countries have to arrest him; besides he is not allowing international investigators to enter and investigate; and more over people are terrified to lead evidence for fear of consequences. But what other nations can do is to ban Sri Lanka from world and regional organizations. I think the commonwealth should impose their own economic sanctions on Sri Lanka
It was very intriguing and interesting to hear about the reaction of Maharajah Mahendra Mahinda Rajapaksa to the death of Colonel Gaddafi. He was your friend and financier, why didn’t you offer him sanctuary and asylum? If no Arab country intervened in this Libyan internal affair there must be very many compelling reasons for them to let it happen and let him go. All this goes to prove your inability to judge pragmatically and accurately. Mahinda Rajapaksa is a morally corrupted, mentally underdeveloped, physically overdeveloped, emotionally unstable and z psychologically disturbed man.
All these current incidences and the historical events of riots, rapes, murders, plundering indicate that Sri Lanka is on a de-evolutionary direction that will end up in more and more exaggerated and exacerbated forms of racism, narcissism, fanaticism, state sponsored internal strife and staterrorism. The Sri Lankan government lacks credible law enforcement, unbiased judiciary and all appointments are politically accented and accentuated. There are two set of rules one for the ruling party and other for the people. If you are with the ruling party you may be exonerated but if you are no with the ruling party you will exacerbated. So then there is not state, no nation, no sovereign state except Rajapaksas. The Rajapkasas and their cronies can override and over rule the constitution of the nation. The constitution is the supreme power and supreme law of the nation. That has been assuaged by the Rajapaksa dysentery and dynasty. Now you know why Rajapaksas like china, Russia, Iran, Colonel Ghaddafi, Robert Mugabe, Rwanda and Somalia. They fit his nature.
The Tamil issue was a mere distraction from their inability of the Sri Lankan leaders to manage their affairs, the family, community and the nation. They used Tamils as scapegoats and took their people on a wild goose chase. Fooling Singhalese people was very easy, they say look at the Themilo, they got every thing and you have nothing, so go kill them, go loot them, go rape their women. Race and religion are the heroin and opium of the masses, and racism and fanaticism can become very lethal and destructive. It went on for 60 years and the Mahinda Rajapaksa and his gang of criminals and drug dealers are the product of a narcissistic society. There is a sliver of opportunity for the Singhalese people, that is join the Tamils to chart a new direction based on peace, freedom, equality, fraternity, respect and responsibility. One man looked at the society and said there is nothing good to salvage in them, another man said what a grand opportunity to create a great new society. That second person is a Tamil. Tamils are world class people. I am proud that I am a Tamil. More you abuse Tamils more Tamils we become, we simply multiply exponentially.
When a government is headed by criminal there is only one way to justice, make every one a criminal. One lady said, the only way to justify my compromised modesty is to allow my husband to flirt, daughter prostitute and my sons to become pimps. Can you see it now? Do see what I see? If I am guilty, let me make everyone guilty of some crime or same crime then it is all well justified. Can you name one person in Sri Lanka who is not deceitful, who is not a thief, who is not a criminal, who is not a murderer, who is not a pimp or prostitute, who is not a drug dealer or the least a corrupt government employee?
They say the way the mother is the way the child will be, similarly the way the yarn is the way the fabric will be. When you have a murderer, criminal and self righteous president the people are bound to be like him. That is what Mahinda Rajapaksa is doing. Mind you folks I have lots of respect for him, he is a smart crook and a wise criminal. That noble and nobel prize and honorary degree goes to him and its not easily challengeable. So then 18 million out of 20 million people are now not free but loose in the nature, they can do whatever they want to do. No Singhalese will be ever found guilty of any crime against a Tamil, and if you belong to the ruling Rajapaksa party, no holds barred, no restraints and any thing goes. The law enforcement and the judiciary cannot intervene lest they may be dead or destined to some deserted hinterland.
Imagine a nation of 250,000 thugs, criminals and drug dealers hired, trained and uniformed and called the military, and 100,000 half educated people hired and trained as government servants to implement the wishes of the ruling party, what can a nation do? One Sri Lankan senior minister said we have to send more of our ladies to work in the Middle East to bring in the foreign exchange to pay for the luxuries of the ruling elite, where in the nation darting towards? It is going towards the black hole.
When the law makers are the law breakers armed with military weapons, now it is rifles soon it will be bazookas and then missiles. Soon there will chaos on the streets. Already people are spending their time on crime, but soon it will be war among gangs. Where is the nation heading towards? It is heading towards the black hole!
What Sri Lanka needs is Sir Winston Churchill to go in clean up the mess, A George Marshall to go in an impose rule of the Law to rebuild the nation and a Nuremberg trial to sweep up the criminals, drug dealers and the Rajapaksas and their gang and put them on trial. A new constitution made like the one that was imposed on Japan and Germany so that the ugly head of racism and fanaticism do not raise its head and law enforcement recruited based on family and individual character who will uphold the constitution and the laws above all.
It is the responsibility of the Tamils especially the Diaspora to align with powerful nations to impose this Marshall decree upon every one in Sri Lanka. As I always said Sri Lanka needs a Tamil President.
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India
Nature of poverty
Special ContributionBy Soheb Lokhandwala
Oct. 13, 2011
Sonia Gandhi, Chairwoman of Indian ruling party UPA
In the village of Marenahalli Bunde — a settlement of quarry workers supplying Bangalore with stone for its seemingly unceasing building boom — I recently listened to 30-year-old Kayelveli (she uses one name), a third standard dropout, who narrated how she toiled from a day break to dusk.
“It takes a week to bash a truckload of stone,” she told me on the windswept bluff of the quarry, a giant, ugly gash about six storeys deep.
Kayelveli, an energetic woman with jasmine in her hair and a smile on her round face, was not unhappy with life. Though her husband died of a heart attack three years ago, her 10-year-old daughter, Kirtishri, was a fourth standard student at a school for poor, young achievers. The Rs 6,000 that Kayelveli earned every month was enough to buy food from local farmers for herself and her younger daughter and install a satellite-television dish on one of the sticks supporting her two-room shack. Kayelveli does not have a ration card and is not officially recognised as poor. “It’s a hard life, but it is better than before,” she said, “And I know my children will escape this.”
No optimism was evident when, a few months earlier, I met 25-year-old Rajkumar, a tired-looking, clean-shaven odd-jobs man — in other words, unemployed — as he watched over his tuberculosis-afflicted wife, Rekha (both use one name), in a spare hospital in a shabby backstreet of old Gurgaon, a 20-minute drive from the chrome-and-steel towers of its flashy, globalised avatar. Their only satisfaction was that Rekha was getting free medical care, thanks to the National Health Insurance Scheme, which charges Rs 30 and covers medical expenses up to R30,000 for families with ration cards. “This system works for people like us, but I do not know what will happen now,” said Rajkumar, an 8th class pass. “I need a steady job more than anything else, but I have no qualifications.”
As UPA chief Sonia Gandhi prepares to give her verdict next week on the uproar over India’s official poverty line — declared as the ability to spend Rs 32 every day in urban areas and Rs 26 in rural — the stories of Rajkumar and Kayelveli indicate that India’s anti-poverty measures require rewiring and alignment with a word that increasingly defines 21st-century India: aspiration.
Those on the left of the debate, including Sonia Gandhi, believe India underestimates the numbers of the poor. The official figure is about 400 million; the highest estimate is 800 million. They argue welfare spending must rise in what is one of the world’s most unequal nations. One way to do it is, some say, to withdraw tax exemptions to India Inc, now worth Rs 4 lakh crore.
Those on the right, including the prime minister, believe that India cannot afford to spend R4.5 lakh crore a year on the social sector. The benefits are uncertain (about 60% of food subsidies never reach the poor, for instance), at a time of slowing growth and a fiscal deficit tipped to hit 5% this year, instead of the budget target of 4.6%. Better, they say, to invest instead in India’s collapsing infrastructure and push the most effective anti-poverty measure — growth.
The truth appears to be somewhere in between; it requires a step back from established positions to create a blend of subsidies, investments and re-imagined public services.
First, with growing uncertainties, economic and otherwise, safety nets are vital. As a new study from the advocacy group Action Aid warns, India is ranked seventh, ahead of Pakistan, Nigeria and 21 other countries, for its vulnerability in growing food and feeding its poor. So tenuous is the existence of those just above the poverty line, about 250 million people, that it takes just one health crisis to slip below, says a 2010 report by the Independent Commission on Development and Health in India. Yet, as Rajkumar explained, without a job, subsidised food and basic health care were, at best, band aids. In his village, 16 km from Gurgaon, farming is receding and there is little on offer for a semi-educated man.
Second, welfare spending cannot be India’s long-term fix. That can only come from investments in infrastructure and agriculture. As data from the world’s largest jobs-for-work programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, indicates, the rural poor are better off than before, but digging ditches and ponds does not create strong assets, skews the labour market and could slow growth needed to generate real jobs.
Third, as Kayelveli’s story shows, India’s poor are willing and eager to haul themselves up the ladder. In Marenahalli Bunde, the grim, backbreaking job of smashing stones had delivered mobile phones and satellite dishes to most of the village, even those in shacks.
Fourth, those moving up the ladder need access to basic public services. As part of Hindustan Times’ and Mint’s ‘Tracking Hunger’ series, my colleague Pramit Bhattacharya recently chronicled the life of ‘Pipeline’, a precarious Mumbai slum — it literally sits atop a water pipeline — home to maids, drivers and others just below the lower middle-class. Most people here earn twice as much as the R32-cutoff, get no doles and can afford food. But they have no health care and sanitation. So, most children in ‘Pipeline’ are malnourished, as are nearly 80,000 in India’s richest city.
This is not to suggest that the malnourished, in general, are rich enough to buy food, especially at a time of record inflation. Poorer slums and India’s most deprived tribal areas resemble a failed State with millions consigned to real, grinding poverty. The common thread is the failure to invest in public services.
With only 1% of its GDP spent on healthcare, India will continue to house the greatest share of the earth’s malnourished people. So, too, without more and better teachers, schools and universities, it will continue to produce semi-educated young people — and the statistic that only 15% of Indian graduates are employable. India must urgently decide how it can better returns on its investments.
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Sri Lanka
A Mafia controlled Government- Government sponsored Racism, Fanaticism, Narcissism and State Terrorism.
Special ContributionBy Subramaniam Masilamany
Oct. 11, 2011
S.W.R.D Bandaranayke
Behind this veil of “isms” is a Mafia state. Racism, fanaticism, state terrorism have become a marketing tool of the mafia state. There are two kinds of societies; one that operates under certain accepted civility, norms, etiquette, traditions, heritage and culture and the other that take advantage of such societies. Mahinda Rajapaksa knows the difference and how to make use of it. He reminds me of Gambino Family and mobster John Gotti. Today he looks more like an advisor and counselor, but he is the head of it.
Democracy is a very weak soul that needs social immune system and active participation of the citizens; otherwise it becomes a victim in the hands of the unscrupulous elements. In Sri Lanka, Rajapaksas are known criminals from the Sri Lankan south who have taken over the nation’s administration skillfully and control the institution that control the lives of people. Behind a purport and democratically elected government lies a mafia style infrastructure. If one is wise and vice democracy is an excellent pathway to power, wrong kind of power and not good for the citizens. The great gentlemen who proposed the idea of democracy never thought wise ness and wickedness can be together in one man.
At the same time, successive Singhalese politicians have marketed the idea that Tamils do not belong to Sri Lanka and hence Singhalese have never accepted Tamils as part of their nation, Tamils are aliens and must go or who ever wants to stay will have no civil rights. It is back to animal kingdom. We already see this plan and policy in action, my own Tamils behave like slaves, serfs and second-class subjects; Fear, subordination and servitude predominates their character, they do not behave like modern liberated free people, even after coming into the western civilization. Sad indeed the capacity of human endeavor has been doused, diminished and denied. It is the greatest crime to deny freedom and to prevent a brother of same birth from creativity and expression.
My main mission before departing is to reverse the misnomers, misdirection and erroneous mindset of the Singhalese in Sri Lanka. For 60 years they have been living in a false sense of belief that they are a superior race and are being becoming an extinct species. I after suffering at their stupidity migrated out of Sri Lanka suffering discrimination and suffering for serving the Singhalese people in their areas. I personally don’t think they have anything to think great of themselves. Instead of displaying their superior qualities they are showing their barbaric, racist, fanatic and narcissistic tendencies.
Some people disagree with me but my contention is who elected these characters such a S.W.R.D Bandaranayke, the man who initiated this racial strife, J.R.Jeyawardene, who said if you want war I will give you war and Mahinda Rajapaksa who said we cannot wait to differentiate civilians from terrorist just kill them all. I want to see Mahinda Rajapaksa stand not only as a defendant but also as witness to the 2009 genocide. The Singhalese people have only two choices, change their attitude towards people of other denomination or forever live in fear. It is the human nature to revenge, so whatever happened in the last 60 years and particularly the genocide in May 2009 calls for revenge. Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gothabaya Rajapaksa may live for another decade or two but the Singhalese people have to live with it forever. They do not seem to learn as I infer from the recent local elections, where they keep repeating the same racial and fanatical mindset. Mahinda and his mafia will continue to plunder the people, but they don’t care or they don’t know for they are imbued in something else. A leader who is interested in building a just society and decent nation will not encourage tourism and Middle East mistress service. There are much better systems such as Agriculture, Industry, Intelligence systems to build a nation. I do not want to name the countries but you can buy a house with wife for 1000 dollars. You know the wife I mean. When women are sanctioned to immorality the children are bound to become Rajapaksas. Sri Lanka has to be turned around and made to point north.
One thing l learned that we Tamils must learn not to expect others to come to our rescue or to fight for our freedom. It is us and only we fight for our freedom. I kind of get a feeling that most Tamils expect some one to go, do and die for them. It is not going to work. We have to do our own struggle. We have to unite, we have work hard, we have to build world communities, and we have build mount Sinai hospitals and great universities for the world, for now we have been shown a larger world to live. The difficulties of our brothers and sisters in Sri Lankan are in our hearts and minds, but when we do well in the world they will do well too. But now God has shown us a bigger world, better world, better food and health. Let us make the world a better place for they gave us their life and land to live when the tyrants made our life difficult in Sri Lanka. Some one told me we should go back to India, thanks for the idea we went all over the world. What we have to fight is ignorance among Singhalese. In this context every battle has to be fought and every battle has to be won and every son of bitch has to be tamed. There is nothing called surrendering or giving up to the corrupt, criminal, cunning and uncaring; for the world is full of cunning animals that live by the rule of the jungle. We are not trying to defeat people; we are trying to defeat a mindset of primitiveness, cunningness, timidity, ignorance, indifference, stupidity, illiteracy, slavery and poverty. When freedom, democracy, equality, fraternity, friendship and professionalism are threatened for the selfish purpose of a few, one has to wage a campaign to subdue the beast. Alas, today some men still live as primitive animals that have to be caged, controlled, trained and tamed. Until such time it can be educated to be part of civil society it has to be disciplined to live an orderly existence.
It is a great concern to find in Sri Lanka it is the government or the state is the greatest threat and cause of the problems. It appears that the Sri Lankan people subscribe to racism and fanaticism over peace and prosperity. These governments were elected by democratic process and they become kind of terror to the Tamils and others. One expert quipped that Sri Lanka has successfully high jacked democracy for a narcissistic purpose to destroy another ethnicity and in that process ultimately destroy them. Repeated different political government pursuing the same policy points the cause and culprit to the religious and racial establishment and the Mahasangha and the Mahanayakes have been identified as the seminal source and cause of this on going civil strife. In fact one cannot get to power without out the sanction and blessing on the Mahasangha. When religion becomes politics bloodshed is unavoidable and the poor peasants who go to war are innocent, ignorant people looking for a breadwinner even if he becomes are killer of fellow humans. This little man does not know he is killing the very life that the religion is trying to protect. Ignorance of our minds is our biggest enemy. When will this man learn to differentiate fanaticism from religion?
Before the advent of the Europeans into Sri Lanka, it was a two nation one country. The Tamils who are Hindus lived in the north and east of the country and the Singhalese who are supposed to be Buddhists live in the South and west of the country. The south and west are fertile and plenty of rain and water. The north and east are arid and lack of rain water. This climatic divide divided the two cultures one of lethargy and laziness and other of industry and hard work. Why god destined two different people to two different environments he only will know.
In Sri Lanka the government is the main instigator of civil unrest and civil wars. When governments become racial, fanatical, and tyrannical and partial there is very little minorities can do. But Tamils are like Germans and Japanese who have the resilience to rise up and soar again like the mythical bird phoenix, which rises from its own ashes and soar to new heights. We Tamils are rising in the world, not because we are smart but we really care for the world. When my friend Punithavel jumped from 15,000 feet to raise money for cancer research he established the fact that we have to become greater than our self and become the whole man kind. We have to dissolve and permeate our consciousness into the plasma of the universe.
Sri Lanka is definitely on a wrong path. Not just being anti-Tamil but in general conduct. But it is the Tamils who bear the major brunt of it, any problem or inability among the Singhalese is twists towards the Tamils and we are blamed for their inability and ineptitude. It is politically the right thing to do but the consequences of these policies are far reaching and whatever they did in the last 60 has come to roost them. I am eager to find out how they will deal with their problems henceforth. Recently two of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s members of the parliament involved in a shoot out. A young man by the name Dhuminda Silva, if survives, will be the living witness to the tyranny unleashed on Tamils. And another young man Bharatha Lakshaman Premachandra paid with his life. Why?
How do we provide protection to our brethren in Sri Lanka? We Diaspora must have two prong approaches, one becoming financially, intellectually and politically very acute and active and join hands with our resident nations and act through them. In the era when the government are becoming less relevant less effective and are burdened with unwanted and unnecessary tasks and debts it is the Non Governmental organization that have to carry burden. Individuals and corporations are flushed with surplus capacity and capital and we must employ those resources to help our brethren back in Sri Lanka. There is no financial crisis in the world except the governments do not have the money to keep the people on hand outs handed out more freebees. The politician is his greed to get elected promised people the undeliverable. And the people who are used to hand outs and bailouts are fast to spend the money and come back to the politician for more. But the people with means and money say NO. You go back and ask them to tighten their belt. Debauchery of the people and currency are sure way to destroy a nation. Sri Lanka has done it several times.
I am going to give a small example of how rich people live and the poor people live. Rich people, live on a shoe string budget; in the first place do not eat outside their home; they brown paper bag to work, that saves money and improves health, if they need to eat outside, they go to McDonalds where a small coffee and a Muffin costs $1.46 tax included. Now the poor man goes to the same place and orders large potato fries, a medium hamburger and large cola, 8.99 plus tax equals $10.16 cts. When you repeat this 30 times in a month you have saved $260.96. 260.96 invested every month for one year will yield more than $3000 per year, you do that for 10 years and you have $30,000. I have not applied any interest on it. When 800,000 Diaspora Tamil saved for 25 years it amounts to $60,000,000,000 savings. That is how we Tamils became the 10th richest community in the world. Imagine the prosperity Sri Lankans would have enjoyed have they not jettisoned the geese that lay golden eggs. But God was watching and said to himself I am going to give these people better life in more fertile and better people to live with that is why he dispersed us only in rich nations. Thank you god!
What about the Singhalese in Sri Lanka. Calling me a racist is not a problem, I will accept it with a smile. But every morning I get up and be at work 6.00 a.m. sharp and I encourage my associates to work as hard as they can and when they go home with the fist full of hard earned money, they call me Uncle Massey. I have become the IMF to several people. As Confucius said give a man fish you feed him for a day, but teach him to fish he will feed the whole world. That is my maxim, my parents and my alma mater showed me a path way to prosperity, I showed that way to my associates and they fly. This is what has to be done in Sri Lanka, instead of bring Tamils down to their level. If you want to make the shorter line of the two lines longer, you can do it two ways, one is make the shorter line longer or as the Singhalese did; make the longer line shorter!. But in 1971 I told this to the Sri Lankan government they said we don’t need any advice from thamilo (Tamil), but the very Tamils are now helping to run the world. Now you decide who the real terrorists are. The people who put people to work, put food on the table and roof over their head or people arm themselves and enter a free man’s home rape his females, kill the males and loot their property. It is a shame the world did not know how to differentiate good from the bad. But God is watching.
People need a religion, any religion, a government and law enforcement. But then the very religion is turned into fanaticism and government is turned into racism and law enforcement is turned into state terrorism, there is some thing terribly wrong in that nation. The nation has been hijacked by nefarious and narcissistic elements. It did not happen over night it happened over a period of 60 years and today we have nation that is in serious trouble.
That is Sri Lanka, next to Somalia. When you have a President who is accused of murders, murderer are invited and recognized for their heroism and when you have law makers become law breakers armed with automatic weapons, the fence has begun to eat the crop, when that happens there is no return to civility.
Today Governments are becoming less relevant, militaries are ineffective, and they can destroy nations from the sky, but they cannot destroy the psyche of the people, you know what is gathering momentum? The people power is gathering momentum. That power is grounded on justice and the desire to live, that no tyrant can stop. Mahinda Rajapaksa and his gang will be running soon, little they know that there is no land between Sri Lanka and South Pole. I had a dream that Rajapaksa jumping into Hambantota beach swim south wards, let see how far he goes.
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>> Jul-Sep, 2011
Mahinda Rajapaksa- Let his conscience be his own judge
Wife killer, Widow Maker, Murderer, Criminal, Racist and Play Boy in New York
Let us, UPA, NDA, Opposition parties, Media, Anti-corruption Movement and Trade Unions learn from the signs of the time
SRI LANKA A BASTARDIZED NATION: Sri Lanka businesses warn against economic sanctions
Privilege Motion against Om Puri and Kiran Bedi?
Should we not stop Capital Punishment once and for all?
SRI LANKA HIGH COMMISSIONER TO CANADA SAYS MURDERS ARE OKAY AND CAN BE FORGOTTEN
MAHINDA RAJAPAKSA, A SICK MAN AND HIS SILLY MEN OF SOUTH ASIA
DISAPPOINTED YES, DISCOURAGED NO: Listen to Rudrakumar
Now we speak the language the enemy understands, Rajapaksa will understand. The world will pay more attention.
Sixty years of progress in sixty minutes
THE SAGA OF ADOLF EICHMANN
In the Sleep Room
The Story of Exodus and The Saga of Tamils
PARADIGM SHIFT OR SEISMIC SHIFT- which one we need in Srilanka?
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>> Apr-Jun, 2011
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>> Jan-Mar, 2011
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