Amidst cries of foul play Milk Industries of Lanka Co. better known as MILCO recently awarded a tender for two massive UHT plants to the highest bidder. The tender was given to an Indian bidder selling a Finnish machine for 4.3 million Euros (approx Rs 700 million).

However, sources close to MILCO says that the tender was mismanaged and that much lower bids coming in at USD 2 million (approx Rs 220 million) were rejected in favour of the Indian bid.

The plants were imported to expand their reach in the Sri Lankan market. UHT or Ultra High Temperature processing is the sterilisation of milk using extreme heat at levels capable of killing the spores in milk. The new machines are said to be able to sterilise milk with a shelf life of up to 30 days whereas the current UHT plants in MILCO’s possession produce milk with a shelf life of only a few days.

Currently, however, MILCO is barely meeting production capacity of the existing plants. Sources said that the purchase of the new plants was impractical as MILCO currently brings in only 180,000 litres of milk per day at 90 percent capacity. The new plants add another 140,000 litres of capacity a day, rendering them effectively useless until MILCO can get its production levels up to speed as soon as the machines arrive – a virtually impossible task.

So why did MILCO go ahead with a purchase of machines at exorbitant rates only to have them possibly idling until Sri Lanka’s milk production can be almost doubled?

Chairman of MILCO, Sunil Wickremasinghe denied that any foul play had taken place. “I myself was not involved in the tender process, it was headed by a cabinet appointed committee comprising secretaries of various ministries,” he said. Wickremasinghe added that the machines were bought in order to step up milk production in the country as there was a serious gap in nutrition levels that could be improved by cheaper and more widely available milk products.

He says that the UHT plants that were purchased were custom built by Finnish company Elasta and were tailored to suit Sri Lanka’s tropical climate and  enable MILCO to produce milk pouches as opposed to the tetra packs (cartons) that are more expensive for the end customer.

Wickremasinghe said that the high difference in cost as compared to machines sold by regional manufacturers was due to the quality. “I personally would never recommend Chinese machines,” he said citing his many years of experience at Nestlé prior to taking up his current post at MILCO.

But inside sources said that many of the bidders from regional countries also placed low bids for the tender. “These companies are used to catering to the developing markets of the region and good at building tropicalised machines to suit it, so why did MILCO not choose one of them?” they asked. Wickremasinghe, in response, said that countries like Malaysia and China produce machines that are not completely reliable.

“For us to ascertain the reliability of these firms would have meant carrying out a detailed investigation into the matter, sending our people there, inspecting the machines in their working environments and developing a thorough knowledge of the supplier before purchasing from them. By contrast, companies like Elasta, the German GHIA, etc., are well established brand names and their machines are reputed to last for years,” he said, adding that Finnish and Danish machines at MILCO’s other plants are still functioning after decades, whereas cheaper Indian machines have broken down after a few years.

He says that up to six investors have expressed interest in starting mega farms in Sri Lanka and that the government is proactively looking to encourage investment in this area. But that does not explain what the new UHT machines which have already been installed at MILCO’s Polonnaruwa and Digana plants are going to be doing until the farms start producing milk, which takes typically up to two years from the start date.

To add to this MILCO has since of late had some serious problems sourcing milk. The company is heavily dependent on its network of small farmers which provides the bulk of its demand. This supply base hit a major setback late last year as floods killed more than 75,000 cattle.

MILCO’s milk production is now at 50,000 packets a month, a massive drop from a year ago where production reached peaks of almost 900,000. In recent times MILCO has even been forced to import milk to fill up its production quotas.

Wickremasinghe says the problems are real, but the new UHT plants form a part of an all new strategy to regain MILCO’s market share in the future. “We are going to launch a marketing campaign to promote liquid milk as a replacement for powdered milk,” he said with confidence. “Currently the public is consuming powdered milk which is not only expensive but also sends some sixty percent of revenue abroad. Using the new plants, we hope to create liquid milk in packets that last up to a month and can be consumed by the public instead of milk powder,” he said. He stressed that this is a huge undertaking and the new plants will play a key role in the strategy. “We are also planning on absorbing an additional 50,000 litres from Ambewela farms, owned by the Stassons group.”

Converting the public from drinking powdered milk to liquid milk will not be an easy task, and the increase in capacity will be gradual. The costs incurred in purchasing the plants will not be recovered for a long time. Critics have raised eyebrows at MILCO’s extreme confidence, especially given its recent performance and large drops in production levels, noting that nothing in MILCO’s recent performance history indicates their ability to achieve what they say they hope to.  The UHT machines no doubt, will play a central role in the success or failure of MILCO in the months to come.

On August 4, 2006 17 members of Action Contre La Faim (ACF or Action Against Hunger) were brutally shot and killed in Muttur in the midst of the war between the Sri Lankan Army and the LTTE.

Their young, promising lives were lost in an instant as each of them were executed at point blank range with their faces turned to the ground.

Four of the victims were 24 years old and the oldest was 54. They were four women and thirteen men, and eleven were under the age of thirty. The killings of the 17 workers are said to be the most serious crime perpetrated against a non-governmental organisation. Four years after the massacre the perpetrators have yet to be brought to justice.
Three judicial proceedings followed the executions but none yielded results. In 2008, after much deliberation about the likely success of the Sri Lankan judicial proceedings, ACF decided to withdraw from the country in order to detach itself from Sri Lanka. Since leaving the country ACF started making noise in the international arena and in 2009 called for an international inquiry into the matterwhile continuously denouncing legal proceedings here.
K. Ratnavale, the lawyer who represented the families in the Presidential Commission hearing and also represented ACF in the criminal courts told The Sunday Leader that the commission’s proceedings were ‘bungled’ by the ‘meddling’ of the Attorney General’s Department. He alleges that important evidence was disregarded and ignored. ‘There were several key witnesses from the victims’ families who could have given important information about what happened,’ said Ratnavale adding that witness protection programs were disrupted and finances were not provided for video conferencing with those family members who had fled abroad.
“The AG (through his representative) was basically operating with a conflict of interest, on the one hand playing the role of prosecutor while at the same time trying to protect elements of the armed forces,” he accused.
Meanwhile the victims families have been left with no one to turn to. Some have chosen to forget the injustice done to their kin and move on with their lives as best as possible, while other still hope for justice and closure.
Mahindana Wasanthan of Muttur lost a sister in the massacre; Kovarthani Kanavaratnam was 28 and single and died of gunshot wounds as the ACF base she was working in was overrun by armed men. Wasanthan is resigned to never getting closure over her sister’s death. She says that when ACF left the country the last hope of the victims families vanished along with them. “The CID (Criminal Investigation Bureau) came and had an inquiry immediately after the incident. We were then asked to come to Colombo for another inquiry. Though we went for that, we heard nothing from the CID, Police or any other authority afterwards.”
Rasaiah Thurarajah lost his only son when 27 year old Pradeepan was shot dead in the attack. His daughter has left the country and is in the UK. “After the presidential commission called us for a hearing on 1st April 2008, we heard nothing from the authorities. It was only through a BBC report in 2009 that we found out that the commission was to reconvene.” He is still eager for justice but with ACF out of the country and legal proceedings at a virtual standstill, he does not know how if this will ever happen.
The commission, though ostensibly done with their inquiries, is yet to release its report. According to Ratnavale this may never happen. “The inquiry was not satisfactory and it was far from impartial,” he said. He added foreign experts brought into the commission soon resigned expressing their inability to work with it and saying, “the government is not interested in bringing out the truth’.

By Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema

The jumbo Sri Lankan delegation – an estimated 110 — that traveled to New York to attend the UN General Assembly, included ten top businessmen from the country’s private sector – who were part of the Presidential delegation, all at public expense. For the first time in the country’s history the government paid for the air tickets, hotel rooms etc. for the business leaders. On earlier visits the businessmen paid for their own expenses.
The man behind this wastage of public funds is the infamous Coordinating Secretary to the President, Sajin Vass  Gunewardene who is well known for his extravagant life style at public expense. Vass Gunewardene now a member of parliament, is held responsible for the mammoth Rs. 3 billion loss endured by Mihin Air.
The President’s Coordinating Secretary was in New York in the first week of September to organise the President’s trip. Breaking all regulations for such visits, Vass Gunewardene ordered the Foreign Ministry to pay all ‘extras’ such as room service and laundry. He went further and provided cell phones with IDD facilities to all 110 delegates.
He ordered 40 limousines for the delegation but some of the private sector businessmen who were told that they have been provided with vehicles never saw them.
The Sri Lankan mission in New York is buzzing with gossip as to who collected the hundreds of thousands of dollars in kick-backs from the service providers.
Among the key businessmen who accompanied President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the government delegation to the UN were Mano Selvanathan, Susantha Ratnayake, Noel Selvanayagam, W.K.H. Wegapitiya, Dhammika Perera, Sanjeewa Wickramanayake, Dr. S. Selliah and Ashrof Omar.
CEO of the multi million dollar Brandix group  Ashrof Omar, when contacted by The Sunday Leader confirmed his visit to New York was on a government invitation and said his visit was sponsored by the state.
He said the delegates stayed in New York for about five to six days at the Waldorf Astoria.
Seventy rooms were booked at US$ 472 per night for five days at the Waldorf Astoria at a total cost of US$ 165,200. This was apart from the President’s suite which cost US $ 1000 per night.
Omar said the businessmen attended two sessions at the UN – the session on the Millennium Development Goals and the General Assembly.
Director, Carson Cumberbatch PLC, Mano Selvanathan also confirmed to The Sunday Leader that he visited New York as part of the government delegation. Pressed if he had paid the bill for his five-day stay at the Waldorf Astoria, Selvanathan said he did not know. “I do not know,” he said, maintaining he booked out of the luxury New York hotel unaware who was meeting his bill.
When asked who paid for his airfare to New York, he said he made the reservation for his air travel and is still awaiting the voucher. However The Sunday Leader can confirm that all of  Mano Selvanathan’s expenses including the air ticket was paid by public funds.
Several attempts to contact President, Senok Group, Noel Selvanayagam failed. Repeated attempts by us to get his response proved futile as he ignored all messages left by The Sunday Leader.
Selvanayagam in addition to accompanying the President to New York was also part of his private entourage to Germany and Houston. The air tickets, hotel expenses and all other extras such as laundry room service were paid by the State. Both the visit to Germany and Houston were billed as private visits. While there is no clear explanation as to why the President visited Germany he had visited Houston to meet his brother Dudley. In fact the only brother who does not hold a senior government post in his administration.
Chairman, John Keells Holdings, Susantha Ratnayake said he paid for his own air fare to and from New York.  He admitted however that his hotel bill had been met by the State. “When I tried to pay the bill I was told my room was being met as part of a master bill,” he said.
Group Chairman, Laugfs, Wegapitiya and former Chairman of the Board of Investments (BoI) and businessman, Dhammika Perera were not available for comment as they are yet overseas and expected to return to the country only this week.
The Sunday Leader was also unable to contact CEO/MD, E-Wis, Sanjeewa Wickramanayake and Deputy Chairman, Lanka Walltiles Limited, Dr. Sellaiah.
All the businessman were flown on Business Class.  A return air ticket on Emirates Airlines Colombo – New York is Rs. 425,200.

UNP Member of Parliament and President’s Counsel Mr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, who made allegations of corruption against a certain government minister during Tuesday (17) parliamentary session, refused to disclose names, places and other details when contacted by the Sunday Leader.

He claimed that the minister in question demanded a commission against a Japanese entity that offered to build USD 850 million worth of housing for communities threatened with elephant rampage and which are in constant fear of elephant attacks.

He told the Sunday Leader that the entity in question was a Japanese NGO and that the incident in question happened about 3 years ago. However, he said that further incriminatory details will be submitted to the Speaker in due course and cannot be revealed as yet.

It remains to be seen of the MP will follow through on his word as the public’s right to information and justice in the case has still gone unfulfilled.

an earlier draft referred MP Rajapakshe as a Minister when he is in fact an MP

JP’s are somewhat notorious for charging fees to carry out services that they are supposed to do for free. ‘These people are appointed without proper screening and are mostly political appointees’ said Mr. Suhada Gamlath, speaking to the Sunday Leader.

‘They exploit people by taking money. Poor people, especially, fall prey to their machinations. They even charge for pasting a rubber stamp. And all this for a job that must be done in voluntary capacity.’

‘We are trying to introduce screening measures like asking for A/Ls and police reports etc.’

Mr Gamlath went on to add that stricter measures must be adopted to addressing the issue. Serious reforms are needed in the manner JPs are recruited, monitored and how they carry their services out. ‘We are trying to introduce screening measures like asking for A/Ls and police reports etc.’

There are several weaknesses in the current system and it badly needs to be overhauled. ‘The position of JP used to command some respect in the past. They were almost on par with magistrates’ he said.

Currently, the ministry only takes action against those JPs whom people have complained against ‘We cannot do anything unless we receive complaints from people and we have received petition after petition regarding the misdemeanors conducted by the suspended mediators’  he said, adding that measures will be taken to make a good example of these individuals in order to send a strong message out.

The mediators in question hail from areas like Badulla and even Hulftzdorp itself. Immigration offices are notorious for the presence of corrupt JPs, Mr. Gamlath added.

The City of Delhi, India has one of the worst traffic violation rates in the world. Unable to cope up with the sheer numbers of violations occurring on a daily basis, the Delhi Police opened up a Facebook page and encouraged people to contribute ‘evidence’ of traffic violations in order to track down more wrong doers.

Now little more than two months old, the initiative has met with phenomenal success. The New York Times reports that up to 665 tickets have already been issued to violators based on pictures posted to the Facebook group. Surprisingly enough, 50 of those tickets were given to police officers who violated traffic laws. The police department now has four officers dedicated to monitoring the Facebook group around the clock.

The city’s joint commissioner of traffic, Satyendra Garg speaking to the NYT said ”With just 5,000 traffic officers in this city of 12 million people, the social networking site is filling a useful role. Traffic police can’t be present everywhere, but rules are always being broken. If people want to report it, we welcome it. A violation is a violation.”

The move has been met with approval by many Delhi residents. But dissent is also apparent with some calling the whole thing ‘Orwellian’.

Would techniques like this work in Sri Lanka? Can we apply them to other areas of crime such as corruption? Or even more importantly, would it encourage our sometimes errant Police force to discipline themselves? (see picture). Thoughts?

The Maha Oya may be polluted by industrial waste from the park

By Cassandra Mascarenhas

In August 2009, the Director of Environmental Management of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) attempted to illegally obtain environmental approval for the construction of an industrial park in Mirigama from the Central Environmental Authority.

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka commenced an environmental examination of the Mahayaya Estate in Mirigama for the establishment of a Chinese industrial park on 130 acres of land in July 1998. A letter granting permission for this was duly obtained from the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) on the grounds that the permission was only valid until 1 July, 2001, unless an extension was obtained.

Although the necessary documents and permission were received, the BOI did not commence work on the industrial park. However, in 2009 after cabinet approval was granted, the BOI decided to begin work once again – only they faced one problem. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) obtained in 1998 had expired almost ten years ago.

The BOI kept renewing this contract over the years, but rather than getting fresh approval this time around, they wrote to the CEA asking if a separate EIA was required to commence work. The Environmental Authority informed them that this was not necessary and that all that was to be done was to renew the old documents received in 1998 for a small fee.

The Director General of the CEA, Pasan Gunesena confirmed that an extension could be obtained. “As long as the situation has not changed, it does not matter how long a period has elapsed since the expiration of EIA, it can still be renewed”.

The BOI however deemed this unnecessary, and the Director, Environmental Management – BOI, M.A.S. Perera sent back a letter stating “we shall be thankful if you could issue a letter intimating that a fresh EIA approval is not required”; a highly illegal request.

When asked about this situation, Perera declined to comment stating that she was unauthorised to discuss the matter.

The CEA refused to grant permission in such a manner and in a letter dated 4 November 2009, again requested the BOI to apply for an extension of the validity period. By this time however, the BOI had already proceeded with the construction without obtaining the required approval from the Central Environmental Authority.

“Land preparation of the area began in November 2009 – over 25 acres of land have already been cleared of trees”, a resident of the area confirmed.

The BOI did receive the necessary approval within the course of November – the EIA has now been extended for another three years.

The relevant environmental authorities seem to be ignored in the whole process, for even when cabinet approval was passed for the construction of this industrial park in August 2009, the Ministers of Finance and Planning and Urban Development and Sacred Area Development were informed of this decision but not the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

Another serious issue regarding the establishment of this park are the plans to construct a pipeline to dump the industrial waste that will accumulate into the Maha Oya, a water body in the area. According to an analysis done by the irrigation department the area has a low water flow and there is a possibility that the waste would remain stagnant, resulting in the people of the area that is Negombo and Katana, drinking water contaminated with these industrial toxins.

Nevertheless, as the BOI has concurrent authority over such matters, they are progressing with the construction without consulting any of the environmental authorities involved to resolve the problems that could arise.

Gunawardena is using UDA vehicles for campaign work

By Nirmala Kannangara

Disregarding the Election Commissioner’s directives, the Urban Development Authority (UDA) has released several vehicles from its fleet for election campaign work in Matale, Deniyaya and Colombo, The Sunday Leader learns.

Seven UDA double cabs bearing registration numbers 59-214, 57-4068, 54-7027, 54-7502, 57-4065, 58-7245 and 56-3242, as well as a motor car, registration number 15-8430, have been released for election work since December 2009. Questions have now been raised as to why the Urban Development and Sacred Area Development Minister Dinesh Gunawardena allowed his officials to flout the election laws of the country, at a time when the Elections Commissioner has ordered all ministers and ministry secretaries not to use public property for election work.

“This was not the first instance where Minister Gunawardena has flouted election guidelines. Soon after the Elections Commissioner cancelled new appointments, promotions and transfers until the conclusion of the January 26 presidential poll, Minister Gunawardena and his Deputy held interviews at their respective party offices in Maharagama and Matale and offered 300 jobs for party supporters. Minister Gunawardena is known to be adopting double standards and now talks on good governance in public, but in private flouts election regulations,” reliable UDA sources told The Sunday Leader.

According to the sources, out of the eight vehicles that were released, the dark green and red (58-7245 and 56-3242) double cabs have been released to the Presidential Secretariat. Both have now been sent to Deniyaya for election campaign work, while the respective drivers Nihal Kithsiri and Ranjith Padmasiri are said to be claiming overtime round the clock in addition to other allowances.

Meanwhile the three gray coloured double cabs 54-7027, 54-7502 and 57-4065 have been sent to Matale – Urban Development Deputy Minister Rohana Dissanayake’s electorate for campaign work and the three respective drivers Damith, S.K. Gunaratne and Lal Amarasiri too are reported to have claimed overtime while the other three vehicles are in Colombo for Minister Gunawardena’s campaign work, according to the UDA sources.

“Apart from these eight vehicles, more have been sent to other parts of the country on the Minister’s request, and we are now in process of getting the details of these illegal vehicle releases,” claimed the sources.

All attempts to contact Gunawardena by The Sunday Leader for a comment failed.

Meanwhile it is also learnt that UDA Chairman Sanath Weerakoon has directed the UDA security to remove common candidate Gen. Sarath Fonseka’s posters from the premises.

“While delivering a political speech for the UDA employees on January 1, Chairman Weerakoon ordered the UDA security to remove Gen. Fonseka’s posters from the building, but not President Rajapaksa’s posters and cutouts. We are totally against the Chairman’s directives and have requested the security not to remove the General’s posters unless they remove President Rajapaksa’s posters as well. Although the UDA is not the UPFA property, the administration believes that we all are bound to work towards the incumbent President’s victory and that was why they make such directives openly,” the sources added.

Poverty weakens not only the body but the mind and spirit as well

Robert Burns claimed that, despite poverty, “A man’s a man for all that.” Those who know the circumstances of his early years will understand the defiant assertion of the song, but poverty means meagre food, if not starvation; inadequate protection from the weather, and shabby, tattered, clothes. It means a shrunken life-span, exposure to illness, and a lack of education for children. The last, in turn, means that the children grow up to be, and remain, poor. Class tends to perpetuate itself, and it is particularly the poor who stagnate:

But let the wrong cry out as raw as wounds. This time forgets and never heals, far less transcends.

(Stephen Spender, 1909-1995)

“The lower your socio-economic position the greater your risk of low birth-weight, infections, cancer, coronary heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, accident, nervous and mental illness. Class inequality is – literally – marked on the body.”  It is the poor who are at greatest risk of falling victim to violence and crime. The quotation (emphasis added) is from page 9 of the Runnymede Trust’s, Who Cares About The White Working Class? London, January, 2009. I acknowledge my debt, and express thanks to the Trust for sending me a copy of the publication.

The Trust’s statement is made within the context of contemporary England: the predicament of the poor in Sri Lanka is both far worse and more widespread. As I have written elsewhere, it is an almost-overwhelming sight to walk along certain streets of Colombo late in the evening, and see misshapen creatures, human beings, including children, settling down for the night by the road:

“Telling me plain what I escaped
And others could not, that night, as in I went.
And salted was my food, and my repose”
(Edward Thomas, The Owl).

A callus, a thickening of the skin, particularly in an area where there is discomfort, can be a protective growth, deadening pain and helping us to get on with life. It is from “callus” that we have the adjective “callous”, which the dictionary defines as having an insensitive or cruel disregard for others. But in certain circumstances, it is necessary for one’s daily survival to grow a callus, to become inured. And so it is that Hopkins, in his poem, Spring And Fall, observing a little girl crying because it is autumn and the poor tree is losing its leaves, reflects: “as (your) heart grows older / It will come to such sights colder (worse) / By and by, nor spare (even) a sigh.”

Statistics from the internet indicate that 14% of Sri Lankans live on 1.25 dollars a day, while 39. 7%, that is, over one third of the population gets by on under two dollars a day. These figures do not take into account the tens of thousands of children, women and men — thinly dressed, emaciated, wretchedly huddled under flimsy, makeshift, shelters — in government camps in the north. It is a sight that makes a mockery of humanity’s claim to humanity. Poverty, as Orwell writes in Down And Out In Paris And London, weakens not only the body, but the mind and spirit as well.

Yet, since independence, despite the prevalence of a poverty that is immediate, extreme and widespread, Sri Lanka’s preoccupation (one would say, obsession) has been with race, more specifically, with the Sinhalese / Tamil divide. It is the one issue that, if it does not cloud all others, attenuates them into insignificance. It was claimed that, during the years of British imperialism, the Tamils were favoured, implying that the Sinhalese, consequently, were disadvantaged. Tamils doing well (even those holding low-level posts in the government) were compared, resentfully, with the Sinhalese peasant and the Sinhalese poor: the Sinhalese poor, the Sinhalese peasants, were not compared with the Tamil poor and Tamil peasants.

The blame for Sinhalese poverty was shifted onto an ethnic group, and away from the failure of the state, away from exploitation and callous class indifference. In England, some political parties and groups focus attention on the white working-class, and on the white poor: the emphasis is on whiteness, and not on working-conditions, income and hardship. The lot of white workers is not compared with that of their fellow (nonwhite) workers. What is at root is an economic problem turned into an issue of “colour.” The fact is that the situation and daily experience, the problems and prospects, of the Sinhalese poor and the Tamil poor are similar. (See, among others, yke Berkouwer’s Anusha: A Homeless Life In Sri Lanka, Vishva Lekha Publishers, Ratmalana, 2005. I thank K. G. Kulasena for giving me a copy of this study.)

Expressed differently, the gap between rich Sinhalese and poor Sinhalese is far greater than that between the life-reality of poor Sinhalese, poor Tamils and poor Muslims. By focusing on ethnic distinction, and by building up that distinction into a division, exploitative class structures are left securely in place. It is to the advantage of the upper and middle classes to excite and keep alive racial consciousness; to lead the Sinhalese poor and working-class to believe that much, if not all, their problems stem from the Tamils.

Religion is another element in the deception of the masses: not religion per se but as mediated by some of those wielding religious and secular influence. Marx wrote: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, the spirit of unspiritual conditions. It is the opium of the people.” Marx’s focus was not on religion but on economic and social conditions. What, he wondered, are the root causes, the material conditions and prospects, which make people need, and turn to, various forms of “opium”?

With regard to Sri Lanka and Buddhism, Dr. K. S. Palihakkara, formerly Director of Education, Director of Pirivena Education, and Secretary to the Oriental Studies Society (which conducts examinations mainly for the Buddhist clergy), states the following in his Buddhism Sans Myths & Miracles. The Buddha was a revolutionary in advocating ‘anathma’ (no soul), when the entire world, in the past as well as the present, believes in the independent existence of a soul. If there is no soul, there can’t be rebirth. Yet the belief in past births and future lives, derived from Hinduism, persists in Buddhism. Among other things, this belief is advantageous to the ruling classes:

When the poor and the outcasts suffer in their poverty, sickness and squalor in their hovels it is said even now that their suffering is due to their own fault of inheriting bad ‘karma’ from past births. In other words, the downtrodden masses are made to believe that they themselves are responsible for their condition.
(Stamford Lake Publication, Pannipitiya, 2003, p. 120.)

However, if an opiate is associated with inducing a drowsy sense of well-being, religion can also have the opposite effect and act as an intoxicant, a drug that convinces people they are acting in the very highest, the noblest, of causes, and drive them to wild and violent acts. Brutality and cruelty are then not merely legitimised but sanctified. To murder, maim or destroy is inhumane, but we do it for Allah or the Buddha or Jesus or Ram (alphabetical order).

For things to change in Sri Lanka, there must be a new political order. The presidential election looms. “Election” implies choice, and choice, an opportunity.  One hopes the people will not choose the person who boasts of having the most racist credentials, but (at long last) the one who can unite and build a new Sri Lanka, a true paradise isle of political justice;  a country where religion is used not to divide and dominate;  where Buddhist compassion finds true expression; a land of social care and concern:  “Without a materialist politics one is unable to transcend the things that break people apart – one cannot find the shared experiences that bridge cultural, religious and racial differences” (Who Cares About The White Working Class? p. 51). Individual acts of charity within an uncaring order of things are merely palliative. New values and priorities are needed: in short, a new system, a new order of things.  Winston Churchill is perhaps Britain’s greatest war-hero, yet he lost the elections which immediately followed the end of the Second World War. I quote from ‘Elections And Emotional Gratitude’ (Sarvan, The Sunday Leader, 7 June 2009):

It’s not that the British were ingrates, but the country faced many and major problems of reconstruction and, while recognising and applauding Churchill’s gifts and contribution as a war-time leader, the people felt that Labour would be better able to deal with the tasks facing the country. In other words, they rationally kept their electoral choice for the future of the country separate from the emotions of admiration, gratitude and affection for services rendered to it in the immediate past.

Sri Lanka needs a new politics, one that emphasises commonality and community; one that, not destructively obsessed with race and religion, is caringly concerned about social problems: a new politics for the new Millennium, and a new Sri Lanka rising, Phoenix like, from the ashes of ethnic conflict and cruelty, destruction and tragedy. The following words are from Professor G.A. Cohen’s Why Not Socialism? (Princeton and Oxford), 2009, page 82:

I agree with Albert Einstein that socialism is humanity’s attempt to “overcome and advance beyond the predatory phase of human development.” Every market, even a socialist market, is a system of predation. Our attempt to get beyond predation has thus far failed. I do not think the right conclusion is to give up. (Emphasis added.)