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Seeking Divien Intervention
The SLFP
(M) on Friday organised a Deva
Kannalawwa at the Hindu Kovil in
Mutwal to call on the gods to grant
their blessings on the country that
is said to be plagued with war and
famine. Picture shows SLFP(M)
Convener and Parliamentarian,
Mangala Samaraweera and SLFP(M)
Secretary, Tiran Alles walking into
the kovil for the poojah.
Inset: Over 70 women who
participated at the event dashed
coconuts outside the kovil
while the poojah was going on
--
Photos by Asoka Fernando |
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Rajiva the newly appointed Sec to Human
Rights Ministry sets out govt. position
Govt. won't disarm paramilitary groups
The government has indicated that it will
not disarm paramilitary groups and allow
them to be slaughtered by the LTTE.
The government's policy on the disarming of
paramilitary groups was reflected in a
response to the religious superiors of the
CMRS (Conference of Major Religious
Superiors) on Friday by Secretary-General,
Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace
Process, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha.
Wijesinha's response was posted in the
Defence Ministry website on Friday, June 6,
the very day he was appointed by President
Mahinda Rajapakse as the new Secretary to
the Human Rights Ministry.
Wijesinha is to assume duties as the new
Secretary tomorrow.
The religious superiors of the CMRS had in a
recent letter to both the Government and the
LTTE called for an end to all forms of
violence and war and the resumption of
negotiations to end the ethnic conflict.
They have also called for all paramilitary
groups to be disarmed.
Opposition political parties including the
UNP, JVP and the SLMC hade earlier called
for the disarming of the TMVP on the basis
of its claim to have entered the democratic
process
In his response to the CMRS, Prof Wijesinha
has said that while the religious superiors
have asked that necessary steps be taken 'to
stop paramilitary groups functioning in the
north and east and to disarm them,' it was
"not clear whether this request is addressed
to the LTTE too, the paramilitary group par
excellence, which decimated all other Tamil
groups."
Wijesinha has thereafter said, "There is no
way the Government of Sri Lanka is going to
betray Tamils who have stood out against the
LTTE, to allow them to be slaughtered." He
has also said that the religious superiors
should ask that the LTTE too stop
functioning as paramilitary groups, "and
enter a democratic political process,
following the example of the most Catholic
Group of all, the Irish Republican Army,
which finally agreed to decommission arms so
that peace could be pursued."Prof. Wijesinha
has further said, "The singling out of more
vulnerable groups is however insidious,
given that the Religious Superiors cannot be
ignorant of the bloodshed to which earlier
selective disarming led."
Bill to be taken up on
June 17
JVP vows to defeat govt. over electricity
bill
By Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema
The JVP yesterday vowed to disrupt
parliamentary proceedings and even defeat
the government if it presented the Sri Lanka
Electricity Draft Bill in parliament for
approval.
JVP Parliamentarian and trade union wing
leader, K.D. Lalkantha told the media on
Friday that the JVP was prepared to defeat
the government if it made any attempts to
present the draft bill in parliament on June
17.
The JVP affiliated trade unions were to
launch a strike on June 6 when the draft
bill was initially scheduled to be taken up
in parliament. However, the strike was
called off after the government decided to
present the bill to parliament on June 17.
It is alleged that the Sri Lanka Electricity
Draft Bill would pave the way for the
privatisation of several divisions of the
Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB).
Present laws permit the CEB to generate,
transmit and distribute electricity and if
the new bill is passed, it would nullify the
Electricity Reform Act No. 28 of 2002 and
another law passed in 1950 upon which the
CEB was established.
Lalkantha said that page 10 of the new draft
bill has said that an institution could only
be given one license; either to transmit or
to generate and distribute electricity. One
institution could not be given more than one
license.He added that Clause 62 of page 61
in the draft bill states that once the new
act was enforced, the CEB would be given a
temporary licence for a period of six months
by the commission to generate, transmit and
distribute electricity. The commission
mentioned in the clause is said to be the
Public Utilities Commission, which Lalkantha
said was formed to privatise electricity and
water.
Lalkantha said that under the new law, CEB
would lose its hold in the country's power
sector and would only be involved in either
the generation or distribution of power.
He added that the privatisation of
electricity, which is an essential item to
the country and its economy would be
detrimental on the long run.
According to Lalkantha, the JVP would not
hesitate to defeat the government's attempt
to pass the bill in parliament with the
support of trade unions in the state and
private sectors.
He also charged that with the increase in
global fuel prices, the government would be
compelled to increase electricity tariffs.
"The government is already contemplating
increasing the electricity tariffs. However,
the Power and Energy Minister has so far
denied any such move. But the government
would have to increase the tariffs if the
oil prices increase any further. It is
therefore evident that the government is
trying to privatise the power sector so
that it could save its skin and blame the
private sector for any future tariff hikes,"
Lalkantha said.
Attempts by The Sunday Leader to contact
Power and Energy Minister John Seneviratne
failed.
JVP makes June the month
of protests
The JVP has decided to name the month of
June as an anti-government month by
launching a massive protest campaign against
the government.
The party's aim is to conduct protest
campaigns against the government this month
through the public, private and estate
sector employees.
The final protest in the campaign is to be
held at the Sugathadasa Stadium with the
participation of over 500 public sector
employees.
The party has also decided to launch a
protest campaign at electoral level against
the rising fuel prices and the cost of
living.
EIU report gloomy
Growth in 2008 to dip to 4.1%
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in its
country forecast for 2008-09 has predicted
that
Sri Lanka's
real economic growth will slow to 4.1% in
2008.
According to the EIU report dated May 30,
the 4.1% to be recorded in 2008 is a decline
from the 6.8% recorded in 2007.
However, the forecast has said that there
would be a marginal increase in the real
economic growth in 2009 to 4.5%, a figure
still well below the growth for 2007 and the
previous years.
The EIU has further said it believes that
Sri Lanka's economic outlook faces strong
downside risks - the exchange rate and
investment growth are areas of particular
concern.
The forecast has also noted that the
conflict would remain intense as the
government pursues a military campaign
against the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) and that the frequency of LTTE
attacks, including those on civilian
targets, would see an increase.
Internal split a
govt. bogey says UNP
The UNP has accused the government of
attempting to divert the masses' attention
from its failures by spreading falsehoods of
an internal crisis within the party and
moves to oust the leadership.
UNP Parliamentarians Ravi Karunanayake,
Johnston Fernando and Lakshman Seneviratne
have said that the government that is now
losing face with the people has resorted to
the only option left to save itself - to
divert the attention of the public by making
false statements that the UNP was faced with
a crisis.
They said according to the government
propaganda, MPs Lakshman Seneviratne and
Johnston Fernando were spearheading the
campaign to oust the Party Leader Ranil
Wickremesinghe and that the charge was
completely baseless."The present
administration is a complete failure. It is
inefficient in governing, corrupt, violates
human rights, and suppresses the media and
has therefore lost face before the people.
"It is a conspiracy to say that our party is
faced with a crisis. It is purely to divert
the attention of the people in another
direction. We will always be UNPers and
there is no internal crisis. We are a
democratic party and we exchange ideas, but
we will never leave the party," Seneviratne
told The Sunday Leader.
Meanwhile, Karunanayake and Fernando
vehemently denied stories being carried in
the state media on an internal crisis in the
party and said some media persons working
closely with the administration were
spreading falsehoods.
Fernando said the government was gasping for
breath and was looking at diversionary
tactics to overcome its troubles.
"We freely express our views on the way
forward for the party to achieve victory,
but to say there is a conspiracy to oust the
leader is absolutely false and cheap
propaganda by the government and its
henchmen," Fernando said.
It is learnt that a story about an internal
crisis in the UNP is being circulated by a
group of journalists associated with
Presidential advisor Basil Rajapakse.
Rajapakse who had met UNP Secretary General
Tissa Attanayake at parliamentarian Reggie
Ranatunge's funeral has inquired if the
party was faced with an internal crisis.
Attanayake had denied that there was any
such crisis in the party.
Rajapakse had then said, "Don't lie, being
the general secretary, you don't even know
that."
Attanayake it is learned had told Rajapakse
not to spread false stories in order to
divert the attention of the public from the
failures of the government.
Engineers to strike
for vehicle permits
By Nirmala Kannangara
Government Engineers in 14 institutions are
to resort to trade union action during this
week if they are not granted their duty free
vehicle permits, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB)
Engineers'
Union said.
Although several government engineers have
been granted duty free vehicle permits,
Engineers attached to the CEB, Road
Development Authority (RDA), National Water
Supply and Drainage Board (NWS&DB), Sri
Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and another 10
government departments have been deprived of
their entitlement according to the CEB
Engineers'
Union.
"We were agitating for this facility for the
past several months but the government's
failure to give the engineers in these 14
institutions duty free vehicle permits has
compelled us to resort to trade union
action," the sources further stated.
To decide on the date for the impending
trade union action the 14 unions are to meet
tomorrow (Monday) and according to these
sources, engineering work in these
institutions will come to a complete
standstill till the government sorts out
the issue.
"Ours is a reasonable request and it would
be unfair for the government to deny us this
facility. All the government engineers,
doctors and secretaries are entitled to this
facility. Doctors, secretaries and most of
the engineers have already been given
vehicle permits, and it is not understood on
what grounds the government has decided not
to grant us this facility," charged the
sources.
According to these sources since the 14
Engineers' Unions have decided to go on
strike, as a preliminary measure the
engineers have decided not to attend to any
extra work in their respective institutions.
"Since tender board and technical evaluation
committee meetings are extra work for us we
have decided to boycott all these meetings
until the government addresses our request,"
the sources further added.
According to these sources the government
has granted duty free permits to 17,000
officers to date. If so why is this facility
denied to the balance 1500 officers, they
questioned.
SLFP (M) special
convention
A special representative convention of the
SLFP (M) will be held on June 12 at 2 p.m.
at the New Town Hall.
The convention will be held under the
leadership of SLFP (M) Convenor and
Parliamentarian Mangala Samaraweera. Several
important proposals are to be approved at
the convention that would follow the theme
"We serve you" (Oba Venuven Api).
Members would also be given the "Let's
Protect Sri Lanka" (Surakimu Sri Lanka)
digital membership card at the convention.
Tourism has sunk beyond redemption
By Nirmala Kannangara
The continuing spate of bomb attacks on
civilians has caused a steep drop in tourist
arrivals to the country, Vice President,
Tourist Hotel Association of Sri Lanka and
Director/CEO, Serendib Leisure Hotel
Management, Srilal Miththapala said.
Although the Secretary Sri Lanka Tourist
Board, George Michael said that this would
not affect the leisure industry badly as the
country has gone through many setbacks in
the past, hoteliers and travel agents
expressed their concern over the situation.
Michael said that every possible attempt
would be made to promote tourism in the
country and expressed hope that tourism
would bounce back as it did following the
attack on Katunayake in 2001. "True the
present spate of explosions is unusual but
still looking back at the past we are
positive that we could bounce back easily,"
Michael told The Sunday Leader.
However Miththapala told The Sunday Leader
that tourism industry has been badly
affected and that it is no longer possible
to tell the tourism generating markets that
the war is confined only to the north and
east.
"The war has come to
Colombo
now. Every other day innocent civilians are
killed and the foreign countries update our
security situation for their travellers
without changing the level of their
advisories. This is the worst ever period
the industry is going through compared to
the past several years," added Miththapala.
According to Miththapala most of the small
hotels are now on the verge of closure and
that unless there are negotiations for a
settlement the situation would worsen in
the days to come.
"War is not the answer. Although we said
that 2007 was the bleakest year for tourism
in the country I would say that this year is
worse compared to the previous year," he
further said.
Meanwhile General Manager Marketing, Ocean
View Resorts, Ranjaka de Mel told The Sunday
Leader that there is nothing left to talk
about the industry looking at the present
situation in the country. "The present spate
of bomb attacks on civilians will have a
major impact on the industry. The ailing
industry got a severe beating with the
present situation and the hotels are
compelled to reduce staff to exist," De Mel
added.
Meanwhile Director Operations, Amaya Resorts
and Spas, Lalin Samarawickrema said there
was nothing left to comment on the state of
the country's tourism industry. "Nothing
would work out unless peace is ushered at
the earliest. The occupancy rates have come
down drastically and with the present cost
of living we cannot expect the locals to
patronise us either," added Samarawickrema.
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