An overview of our education system

the UK is one of the strongest democracies in the world and has one of the strongest education systems because from a young age children are encouraged to form an opinion of their own, think outside the box and most of all QUESTION their subject matter. This is in stark contrast to the education system we have in sri l…anka which only sticks to subject matter, allows little or no outside thinking due to the lack of class and individual projects being implemented and worst of all due to the spoon feeding mentality of tutors and teachers which only provide adequate information to pass (sometimes well) in an exam. It looks like this model is not only going to be strengthened but also deeply politicised.

With the Presidents office demanding that every school child tunes into listen or watch the President inaugeration speech, it shows that the aim of the present regime is to purely establish and mantain power and indoctrinate their agenda not only amongst voters, but also amongst a future generation of voters. I am unsure how manyparents would be agreeable to seeing time being wasted hearing a speech on economic development when a child should be learning how to form sentences or long division.

I hope the children who have been forced by the education ministry to tune in, will remember the promises made in this speech and hold those responsible accountable should these promises remain unfulfilled. Perhaps their minds might hae longer memories than those of their parents who seem to have forgotten promises such as the abolishment of the presidency or the devolution of power which were pledgd in the last two elections.

Letter to the President

Dear Mr. President,

I’d like to congratulate you in advance for your impending victory of the Presidential election in the following days to come. With the SLFP consolidating their power through the provincial council polls in the aftermath of the war, a presidential re-election and another term with you as President seems inevitable.

The potential in Sri Lanka knows no bounds; therefore boundaries must be clearly drawn so that this potential is not exploited by a few for themselves and for their kith and kin. This has undoubtedly taken place in Sri Lanka time and again, with every administration that has governed the country. This needs to be addressed by the authorities and checks need to come into play. For example, it is not only unlawful but also very ugly to see policemen being transferred for obeying the rule of the law and for cleaning up the visual pollution that has plagued our country during the time of this election campaign.

Whatever the political outcome for the North and East, the citizens of those areas deserve a chance to embark on development with the rest of the country which I do not doubt would occur under the next regime. It is whether that development will take place while allowing those citizens to keep their dignity or whether they would have to go to the government, begging bowl in hand to request for the basic rights and security already promised to them through the UN convention and our constitution. For example, the number of those who go missing and finally arrested without warrant is a complete breach of human rights, yet it is a frequently occurring in the areas of Batticoloa and Ampara. The arrest of the journalist Tissanaiyagam is a clear example of an innocent man being kidnapped, then arrested and finally found guilty and sentenced to 20 years rigorous imprisonment for what the government feels are defamatory statements. His recent release prior to the election is another example of the ability by the government to manipulate the judiciary. A second example is of the reappointment of P.B Jayasundara who was ordered by court to resign, only to be later reappointed under the President’s orders. Yours.

The shockingly large cabinet that has grown under your previous term, 230 ministers to be exact, is another clear display of how citizens’ tax money is being thrown down the drain. With your entourage reaching a 2000 man squad, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Chamal Rajapaksa and Mr. Basil Rajapaksa at 500 each, Mr. Namal Rajapaksa and the ex-Col Karuna at 300 security guards each, the total amounting to Rs. 147 million a month for the salaries of security personal alone (at the rate of Rs.35,000 per Special Task Force soldier). This excludes the cost of petrol for the Rs.200 million rupee bullet proof vehicles that are used by most of those mentioned above. This does not go to say that security is not a necessity, I mean only to say that when this is the example set by the highest in authority, then it is inevitable that the rest of the 200 odd ministers will follow suit and continue to exploit the same system which they are meant to be protecting. The abuse of government property such as vehicles and labour are only two of things which are abused by numerous ministers to the knowledge of the public, judiciary and government. Sri Lanka is currently the 97th most corrupt country in the world according to Transparency International. The chairman of Transparency International has been threatened and even a grenade was thrown into his house where he lives with his wife and small children. Yet no one has been arrested. The varying types of corruption, from murder to theft is rife within the government departments in Sri Lanka, with those in the lowest of positions feeling the trickledown effect of corruption through the administrative lines and thus making the system inefficient and inaccessible to its citizens. More than ‘Mathata Thiththa’ it may be corruption that should be addressed with immediate effect. By empowering the citizens with the right to information is what will ensure that corruption would be monitored and then dealt with through the Supreme Court if no action is taken on corrupt individuals by the government.

According to PAFFREL, Caffe and the elections commissioner, the forthcoming elections have been rife with violence and irregularities. As of the 20th of January, 391 complaints have been confirmed. The elections commissioner has stated that he will resign after the Elections tomorrow.

Following the war, I feel we no longer need any more trouble. For the last 26 years Prabhakaran and his twisted political struggle was the blame for the deteriorating education and health services as well as other social services in the country. Billions had to be spent on the military while billions more was lost in money that was never made in the economy. Politically the focus, even in this post-war election, has been purely on defence and not on social development and empowerment. That work was left for the NGO’s to do and for some to abuse. However it was not only a few NGO’s who profited from crises like the 2004 Tsunami. Reports have it that USD$1 billion is missing to this day from the $2.5 Billion that was donated to the government.
Corruption continues to infest like a cancer in all corners of government at different levels and varying types of it. Whether it’s the drug market, commissions and sometimes thuggery or murder; sadly the finger always points towards government ‘servants’.

Sri Lanka has been given a new lease of life with the ending of the war but more importantly, we have been given an opportunity to finally divorce the political process from the military which had suffered due to the corruption and undisciplined nature of politics on institutions. Politics too has been given the opportunity to be separated from the military and be dealt with independently; therefore creating an effective and efficient system that is accessible to all citizens undisputedly. With these two issues settled, the single most important issue is corruption. An issue which ex-General Fonseka stressed on throughout his election campaign. An issue which got him neck and neck in these presidential elections.

As the government servant in the highest position, I ask you Mr. President to please put in place the tools such as the freedom of information Act and the 17th Amendment with immediate effect of your new term since transparency and the establishment of good governance is the need of the hour. A clean, independent police force is a requirement in order for us, the public to prosecute those violating our fundamental rights by using state resources and abusing state power for their personal benefit. Without these instruments in place, the ordinary citizen is powerless, leaving only you responsible for the losses made.

I wish you the best in your next term in office. I look forward to seeing real change and progress in state, society and the economy.

Kind regards,

Samath Gammampila

Everything up until Now:War, Media, Politicians, Money and Fireworks

With the war now practically over the questions on everyone’s minds are: Where is Prabhakaran? How many people died in the end for us to get where we are now? How many of us died within the last crucial, and evidently extremely bloody, days? Has peace been brought? Can we finally all be happy? I’m not saying I know the answers to these questions but there seems to be adequate information out there for us to develop a decent opinion by taking previous records into consideration as well. All these assumptions based on evidence will hopefully provide a decent opinion on the current stability and progress in Sri Lanka.

The answer to the first question is no one knows. Prabakharan, Pottu Amman and Soosai; the three big dogs of the LTTE have not yet been identified amongst the dead nor been captured by the  troops, even though those close to them including family members have either been arrested, died in conflict or have surrendered. But no one really knows where these three are yet. Army Commander Sarath Fonseka said back in  January that he wasn’t sure of Prabhakarans’ whereabouts and suggested that he could have left the country by submarine (article1). Since then the armed forces have recovered submarines and more, increasing the likelihood of Mr.Fonseka’s story. The fact that Prabhakaran was latterly operating on board Farah 111 (article2) further gives reason to think that he may have made a quick get away at some point of time.  However, a failed attempt by Soosai’s family to leave the shores secretly, together with new reports on Prabhakaran’s sons death could mean that Prabhakaran could still be on the island dead or alive as our shores and seas will probably now be monitored closer than ever before by the Navy. Therefore the hunt for Prabhakaran is still on.

Sri Lanka’s total death toll from this conflict which started in 1983  was estimated to be around 75,000  in March. However the exodus of over 200,000 civilians from the extremely small and dense rebel-controlled area to the government controlled area, together with the accelerated offensive during the last week may see that figure increase to my own estimate of around 100,000-120,000 altogether since the start of this war. Here are some figures to put things into perspective as to exactly how many other people have died due to poor governance and freak accidents in Sri Lanka. These are excluding those who died in the cross-fire, suicide attacks and ‘targetted’ bombings in the war. The death toll after the 2004 Tsunami was 35,000.  The death toll during the violent JVP insurgency was around 35,000 with the JVP ruthlessly killing around 800 people and the then UNP govt. killing roughly 30,000 predominantly Sinhalese youths. For the record, the use of white vans and death squads began sadly under this UNP regime and atrocities such as the assassination of journalists became an occurance and a serious threat. Have we now got passed those days of state terror?

Since the government denounced the LTTE as a terrorist outfit at the start of this year, violence and the death toll increased greatly. The following link takes you to an article written by an Indian colonel who has given a good military assessment throughout the war. The fact that it is a military official writing the report gives us a further understanding on the realities of war:  War and the Humanitarian crisis in Wanni

Wikipedia has this information on the number of battles since the civil war:    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sri_Lankan_Civil_War_battles

During these latter months, violence out of the war zone increased with many people being arrested under Terror laws by the police or being assaulted, kidnapped or murdered by sources unknown to anyone. On average 2-3 people a day go missing in Sri Lanka and don’t usually end up being found. Most of those arrestedby the police or assaulted, kidnapped or murdered by unknown sources are Sri Lankan Tamil civilians. However the general understanding is that this unknown group do not racially discriminate when taking out their targets. TV and radio stations, Newspaper editors and journalists and more have all been victims of these masked cowards.

Has peace been brought to Sri Lanka? Most definitely not yet. The excuse that was given to us citizens over the lack of progress for the last 30 years has been got rid of. At an extremely high human and economic cost. Both which must be stressed on immensely since preparation to face reality is vital for the stability of Sri Lanka. While the death toll is huge and completely distressing, the biggest and most pressing issue right now should be the safety and welfare of  those who survived this great ordeal, those who were able to walk to safety, many minus the company of a mother, father, brother,sister, son or daughter or all of those mentioned. The thousands of survivors, including our soldiers ,who lost their limbs so that we can walk freely cannot be forgotten. In a country where building standards are relatively unheard of and govt buildings are not accessible to everyone, these new factors which have altered our demographics must be considered in future development plans in order to ensure that people from the most vulnerable parts of society feel better connected to the bigger picture of prosperity even when the effects of war have left them scarred forever.

The cost of fighting this war has been immense.  Here are some figures to give you an idea. The defence budget in 2009 was around US$1.7 Billion (180 Billion rupees ) a 6.4% increase from 2008.  In 2007 the defence budget was Rs. 139.6 billion, a 45% increase from the 2006 buget of  Rs.96 billion. These budget increases were passed through parliament and it clearly showed that the majority were in favour of taking such high financial risk in order to eradicate terrorism. Note that it is predominantly the increase in military expenditure and the removal of military quotas that allowed the army to push on with their offensive without having to worry about running out of ammo. While this move may have been justified at the time by those who supported the end of the war at any cost, it is not clear as to why the government would want to spend public money on buying more helicopters from Russia as recent as the 16th of May 2009 (article 3).  I think most people would see the absurdity in spending this much money even if it is on the grounds of speeding up the humanitarian effort. Surely we have some diplomatic relations that would provide helicopters for our humanitarian needs.  What puts further suspicion into my mind is an article which clearly proves that any questioning of the Govts. spending habits could possibly lead to the death of those investigating it and definitely will put an end to that investigation (article 4). However these questions must be asked in order to ensure that tax payers money has been spent most efficiently especially when each chopper costs between US$3-US$8 million a piece. The end of the war brought hope that such costs would immediately be curbed and that the defence budget would increasingly be spent on the welfare of our armed forces and IDP’s instead of buying heavy duty weaponry. I am certain that we would be able to seek appropriate foreign assistance with the development of the north which includes de-mining areas and developing them for those civilians from those areas as well as the potential businesses that are expected to follow.

The support towards the government for backing the military victory has given them an unprecedented edge over the opposing parties without a  doubt. However it doesn’t help when members of the opposing parties are too engrossed in their internal party rivalries to think of what the people actually want and expect from them which is a strong opposition which would support the government in hours of need and provide the public with a strong alternative in case the present government is not able to live up to the peoples political, social, economical and environmental expectations.

Signs of a growing, mature opposition is yet to be seen. Corruption that has taken place in the past is still continuing and new forms of corruption are creeping up,  some MP’s still cross from party to party like trading horses, hoping that the party in power would protect them from the law and keep them in power. The level of public money that has been wasted on ministers can be seen by just calculating how many cars there are in all 119 ministries and how much it costs to buy, pump fuel and maintain these designer cars that are seen flying down the road at deadly speeds. Out of the 119 literally only a handful require tight security at all times and may need a large entourage due to the danger brought on them by their nature of government work.

The President of Sri Lanka returned from Jordan to a heroes victory while Ranil Wickramasinghe, leader of the opposition, was having talks with Eric Solheim. The environmental minister of Norway is seen more as an LTTE supporter rather than just a  sympathiser and has gained discredit in Sri Lanka. A meeting of such kind at a time when national pride and patriotism are running through most voters veins seems idiocentric and irresponsible of the Leader of the opposition as it could wreate further destruction of the party and reduce support further. By failing to provide us with a  strong opposition and becoming this unpopular amongst the masses, the opposition has put some politicians into serious jeopardy.

MP Mano Ganeshan of the Western Democratic Peoples Front is the latest to be attacked by the pro-government media who have chosen to carry out a smear campaign even on moderate Tamil politicians such as Mr.Ganeshan timing it perfectly with the forces military victory. This sort of unregulated behaviour carried out by state television is sickening. The only possible outcome to be gained from this sort of stunt by the state media is to insight further race hate at a time when Sinhala pride and Sinhala nationalism amongst the masses are sky high. Watching Mano Ganeshan defending himself in this clip made me feel even worse on the current situation. While some may empathies with Ganeshan, others might see it as the truth being told by the most watched tv station on the island who brought in daily news on the war front and became the number one propaganda tool for the most popular President.

This is the current reality in Sri Lanka. Territorial victory has been gained and for that we must be grateful to the armed forces for successfully carrying out their duties and ended the fighting altogether. Now it is up to the people to unlock the gates that have been barring us from peace, stability and prosperity for so long and get off the ground to work hard towards it without further delay. The key to doing this is by spreading knowledge.

Letter to Udaya Gammanpila (JHU)- candidate for the Western Provincial Council

I wrote this letter to Udaya Gammanpila roughly a month ago but unfortuntely received no response. I assume it must have somehow  ended up in his recycling bin. Udaya Gammanpila sounds like a pretty decent candidate primarily because of his pledge to declare all his assets prior to the campaign and remaining transparent from here on after.

He is also concerned about the environment and prohibited the use of posters during his campaign for this reason. For further information on him take a look at his website at www.udayagammanpila.com

While he may have many other flaws, the one that gets most peoples attention would be the party he sides with, the Jathika Hela Uramaya (JHU) which is classified in some parts of the world as a militant political group. The grenade attack on Shah Rukh Khan maybe a reason as to why. I personally don’t understand how Buddhist priests could join parliament without jeopardising their faith.  Therefore I wrote the following letter to him hoping that he could clear things up for me:

Dear Mr. Gammanpila,

Firstly let me congratulate you on your candidacy for the upcoming Western provinicial election. I can imagine that working on the campaign trial must be a difficult task and I wish you the best for that!

As you may have realised by reading the name on this email or when I was added by you via facebook, we almost share the same Surname, differentiating only with the letters ‘m’ and ‘n’. I too share the same concerns as yourself with regards to the environment. I applaud your polythene and poster free election campaign and hope that other candidates in this election as well as those in the future will follow suit as I feel that people of our country do not need constant reminding of what a candidate looks like in order to vote for him/her. Thank you for keeping our streets cleaner and utilising new technology such as your informative website, to reach out to people instead.

I think transparency in an election and then in government is an essential, but sadly I feel that it is something that is severely lacking in Sri Lanka. This can and is proven through facts and figures and unfortunately mismanagement of tax payers money is a continuous, what seems like ever-increasing and an eternal problem. Once again I am glad that you are willing to declare your assets from the start of your campaign onwards. I sincerely hope that this becomes a legality in the future for all politicians and figures of the state and I hope it would be something that you too will argue for on behalf of the citizens of our country.

For the reasons mentioned in your ten-fold pledge, I feel your candidacy is one which people could have hope in for the WPC elections. However Mr. Gammanpila, there are matters which do concern me, especially when it comes to your political party, the Jathika Hela Uramaya (JHU). I too am a Buddhist and I strongly believe in The Buddhas way of life and his teachings and would like to consider myself also as a ‘Buddhist Practitioner’. It is because of Lord Buddha that I too question things with regards to day to day life. However, this is the first time I have actually had to say it out loud as I feel that my religious beliefs are a matter of personal concern and not the concern of anyone else but me. Maybe it is because of this and because of my undying respect towards Lord Buddha that prevents me from supporting a party that has combined Politics; one of the most corrupting forces which has clearly proven to be corrupt in our country and all other countries I can think of, with Buddhism.

Initially I categorically opposed the JHU like so many other concerned Citizens and Buddhists of our country who, either felt worried that it was a party of ‘Radicals and religious chauvenists’ , or felt that the religion they follow wholeheartedly has been seized from them by a political party (JHU) and put on a political platform to allow critics in the political arena to discredit the religion as a whole by assuming that this political party represents all Buddhists in Sri Lanka as a whole.

However, certain objectives successfully carried out by the Party are accepted, such as the initiative to clamp down on foreign fundamental Christian organisations who promote forced conversions. I think this is a key issue as it is the most vulnerable people who get dragged into such situations. On the other hand, these people are this vulnerable and convert due to some sort of failure in government, usually due to socio-economic reasons. I do think this matter should be addressed and I understand that it can cause distress amongst some of the Buddhist clergy however I do not think that creating a political Buddhist party is the way to go about addressing such issues. I am sure the government would be more than receptive should the Buddhist clergy have simply voiced their opinion on such issues to the government instead of trying to become the government. I personally feel that the best way to overcome the problem of fundamentalists and immoral conversions would be if the respected heads of the Christian clergy worked closely with the government and members of all other faiths to tackle such problems. As a lawyer I’m sure you would know of any possible complications that a law banning conversions could potentially create to those who may want to convert simply out of choice.

In an interview of yours which I recently watched you say that ‘the state is the actor who has the exclusive right to use violence’. This maybe true in political philosophy and governments may argue that they require this power, however I do not understand how a political party made up of Buddhist priests and pious laymen support any sort of violence towards other beings without going against their religious beliefs. In the interview you said, “even during Gautama Buddha’s time not everybody complied with non-violent principles”, I too agree, however isn’t that why Prince Siddhartha left his political office to go in search of the middle path? Did he not leave because he could not have both attained nirvana and carried out duties of a political figure as they are contradictory? This is where I am most confused as to why the Buddhist monks who are members of the JHU would choose a political path and potentially jeopardise the noble path which they started on and inevitable confuse us lay people further when we try to come to a conclusion on issues such as acts of violence on human beings and tolerance of one another.

I wish you all the best in the upcoming Western Provincial elections, and wish you all the success in helping to build a cleaner, greener Sri Lanka which is unified as one country and considered every citizens motherland no matter what there race, religion, class or caste. I leave you with a quote from Lord Buddha:

I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done