Even the Rainto be Valued by Neo-liberalismPage 08

The Impact of Amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure

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The government expects to do justice to Rizana by donating a house for members of her family and naming a street after her. In these circumstances there is much to discuss regarding not only the killing of Rizana but also as to how justice could be done for expatriate Lankans.

The attention of the FrontLine Socialist Party has been drawn towards setting up a broad based centre of struggle to defeat the unpopular reforms to be brought up by the government which are threatening to set in motion the second innings of neo-liberal capitalism.

The farmers are getting organized against the new laws being drafted to turn water into a commodity and to bring varieties of seed and agricultural inputs entirely under the monopoly of multi-national corporations. New laws are being drafted aimed at turning

The 'Free Women Movement' states that it is ready to conduct several programmes for an ideological dialogue among oppressed women targeting the International Women's Day scheduled for the 8th of March. Comrade Dimuthu Attigala, the convener of 'Free Women' states that these programmes which will be conducted in number of districts of the island from the 1st to 5th of March will consist of several features including

discussions regarding problems faced by women and the exhibition of documentary programmes.

The 'Free Women' also states that a walk and a seminar regarding women's rights would also be held on 8th of March in view of International Women's Day. In response to an inquiry made by us, Comrade Dimuthu Attigala stated that priority will be given to building up community based activities among oppressed women.

education into a commodity and laying its financial burden on the people while students' resistance to it has already commenced.

The party declares that it is a compulsory requirement of the moment to build up a broad centre of struggle to consolidate all these struggles with struggles

springing up within the labour movement for more favourable conditions of work and to develop all these struggles beyond the limits of reformism to bind them to a common struggle against neo-liberal capitalism. Party sources reveal that discussions are to begin

shortly with organizations which are based on fighting elements regarding a common front against neo-liberal capitalist reforms which are being brought about in their respective fields and the repressive legislation being enacted by the government to facilitate such reforms.

Many Programmes across the Country for Women's Day

Comrade Raveendra Mudalige, the convener of the Movement for Equal Rights states that the struggle against division of the oppressed people will be carried forward not withstanding any obstructions posed by the government and racist groups sponsored by the government. comrade Mudalige states further that it is a responsibility of all progressives to defeat efforts made to spread racism and religionism in the country using puppet groups receiving the full patronage of the rulers and that nobody can prevent the Equal Rights Movement from

coming forward to discharge that responsibility. While the placing of signatures on a Public Banner demanding that the rights of the Tamil people be protected and expressing opposition to the military rule imposed on the North took place at Jaffna on 15th January, it was made a target for an attack of military groups of the government. The vehicle in which leaders of the Equal Rights Movements travelled was also attacked and damaged. While the distribution of leaflets disclosing the conspiracy to spread enmity between Sinhala

Movement for Equal Rights will discharge its responsibilities in the midst of obstructions and obstacles

Comrade Raveendra Mudalige

Frontline Socialist Party said that the cabinet reshuffle was just a meaningless show off and a cheat. It also said that this is how the government tries to show that it is new as there are no new victories.

Comrade Chameera Koswatte member of Polit-Beuro of the party issued a statement and said that although the government goes under the banner of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance and the

Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the cabinet reshuffle demonstrates that the government has become a group with Bonapartist characteristics in which all the powers have been centralized.

The statement further states as follows.“There has been another reshuffle to the

Cabinet on the 28th of January and changes have been made in relation to 10 ministers, 6 deputy

Cabinet reshuffle was just a meaningless show offComrade Chameera Koswatte

Front Line Socialist Partyorganized a protest in Colombo on 22nd of January against the proposed amendment of Criminal Procedure (Special Provisions) Bill. A campaign of distributing leaflets were organized with the aim of making the people aware of the Act.The photo above shows a moment of the protest.

Defeat the Suppressive Amendment to the Criminal Law

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2 Frontline/Fedruary 2013

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Comrade S. K. Subasinghe, National Steering Committee member, of Movement for Peasants' struggle states that the government should take the necessary steps to compensate the farmers whose crops were destroyed due to floods. As the government has removed the farmers from its development plans there are no other options to resolve issues and therefore Comrade Subasinghe requested the farmers to organize themselves to resolve their own issues.

He said this at a media conference held recently. Comrade J. B. Randeniya, National Operations Committee member of the Movement for Peasants' struggle, also attended the media conference.

Comrade S. K. Subasinghe also stated as follows.

“Paddy farming has been damaged in three major ways. Firstly, the paddy fields have been submerged and the vegetations have been rotten. Secondly, due to floods the soil of paddy fields has been washed away. Thirdly, paddy has been submerged under sand piles.

Around fifty thousand to one hundred thousand acres of area have been destroyed due to floods. The farmers who were affected due to drought have again been affected by floods.

Among the farmers who have been suffered are in the areas of Polonnaruwa, Ampara, Mahiyanganaya, Anuradhapura, Matale, SeruwilaHambamthota and Moneragala. But the government is telling different stories. One part of the government is claiming that only one percent

of the paddy fields have been destroyed. This version is from the Agriculture Minister, Mahinda Yapa. The Agrarian Services claims that around three thousand acres of paddy fields have been destroyed and the cost due to the damage is around 20 million Rs. Both versions are from the government. This demonstrates that the government not only does not have a preparation for a disaster but also it does not have a proper estimate after the damage. As a result of this, it is not difficult to believe what sort of relief that the farmers can expect.

On the 23rd, when the farmers of Polonnaruwa were under water, both the District Administrative Leader and the political leader were at a party. I say with responsibility that in the party Maithripala has said that he went to a camp around 12 midday, biscuits were being distributed. He had asked whether they were having biscuits before their lunch and the response from the people in the camp was that that was their lunch.While the people displaced as a result of floods were in camps, the government spends Rs. 2000 million for "Dayata Kirula" drama.

The reason for the aggravation of the damage caused by floods was the delay in releasing water to the farmers. Water was not released when the reservoirs had water. As a result of that, when there was flood, the paddy was not grown enough to withhold that. We do not say that the whole damage could have been prevented. It could have been prevented to a certain extent if the water was released. What do they do now?

They open the reservoir doors and send the water to the high sea for no reason. There is a danger of having a water scarcity in the next season. If the farmers were given water on time, the water level of the reservoirs would have gone down and filled with water with this rain. If that was the case, the water would have preserved for the next season.

When the crops were destroyed as a result of the previous drought, the president loudly said in front of cameras that he was going to write off cultivation loans. When the farmers went to the banks to claim insurance, the banks did not release those entitlements saying that they would set off those entitlements for loans. The banks did not write off those loans. The banks said that the president’s loud talk did not come in the form of writing. They also said that they couldn’t do what the TV stations loudly say.

We force government to pay compensation to all the farmers whose crops were destroyed. Already they have spent over Rs.25,000 per acre.

The government has excluded farmers from their fundamental development plans. It is doing everything to remove farmers from farming. The government policy is that it is profitable to import rice rather than producing rice in Sri Lanka. That is why the government treats the farmer in this way. There is no other solution for farmers other than fighting for their own cause. We therefore invite farmers to organize themselves to find solutions to their cause and fight.

Comrade Ajith Kumara, Member of Parliament and the National organizer of Movement for Peoples' Struggle, said that the executive, legislature and the judiciary are exercising their power on underprivileged people and what those institutions did was to undermine the sovereignty of people.

He said this in the impeachment debate on the report of special parliamentary select committee on 11th of January. He expressed

his ideas and said, “There is an issue with sovereignty with the impeachment against the Chief Justice. There is a huge question as to the supremacy of the executive, legislature and the judiciary. None of these is supreme. Supremacy lies with the sovereignty of people.

If the parliament is supreme, how did the legislative such as Criminal Justice Act of 1972, the Constitution of 1978 and the 18th amendment to the Constitution, that were against people were enacted? What the so called supreme parliament ways did was to undermine the sovereignty of people.

If this parliament acted in a supreme way, the issues of poverty, unemployment, cost of living, and housing would have been decreased. He said that the only thing he could say was as Lenin said, “the Parliament is reserved for cheating the average people”.

He further said, “We heard enough useless stories of the three pillars of the executive, legislature and the judiciary. In fact how these three pillars exercised their powers? These three pillars are standing on the stomachs of the underprivileged people.

The executive approved the 18th constitutional amendment. The judiciary approved it. The Legislature approved it. The private sector pension bill was approved by the executive and the judiciary. The legislature was expecting to approve that but the people’s sovereignty prevented that.

It is therefore very clear that these three pillars were not there for people. It was there to protect very limited number of people in the country” he said.

He further pointed out that the impeachment against Mrs. Shirani Bandaranayake obviously is politically motivated. He also said that if the government was genuinely interested in eradicating fraud and corruption, they should have started that with the people who were made culprits by the report of the public accounts committee.

He also said that he represented the democratic rights of the Chief Justice that has been breached as a result of this impeachment and the democratic rights of the people that have been breached through the executive, legislature and the judiciary. Concluding his ideas he said that both the democratic rights and the rights of the underprivileged could only be won by positive activities organized by people.

Comrade Dimuthu Attigala, convener of "Free Women" Organization said that there is no sign of any steps taken by the government about the women going to the Middle East even after Rinzana’s assassination.

She expressed these ideas in a leaflet distribution project that was organized by the "Free Women" Movement in front of the Fort Railway Station on the 17th January to improve people’s awareness.

“Rinzana was assassinated on the 9thof January. The government is conducting in such a way to show that they protested against it. Saudi ambassador was brought to Sri Lanka to show off. The government cannot wash their hands off the responsibility of this assassination.

There is no stop to similar situations. It appears that the cruelty against women who are going as housemaids to the Middle East is on the increase. A woman from Bloomendhal area was found unconscious along a road in Saudi Arabia after assaulting and leaving with broken arms and legs. Her relatives haven’t yet been able to bring her to Sri Lanka.

The government is not concerned about these people’s protection. They are only concerned about how to increase the current $6 billion income annually coming from people doing foreign jobs to $10 billion. We force the government not to give innocent women’s lives to realize their Dollar dream. The government should take immediate action to protect the lives of the women going for housemaid jobs in the Middle East.”

Comrade Duminda Nagamuwa, the Polit-Beuro member of the Frontline Socialist Party, said that the current government is making allegations against the party to cover up its own mistakes.

Comrade Duminda Nagamuwa expressed his ideas about the statement made by Mr S.B. Dissanayake, the Minister of Higher Education, stating that the party was behind the fight occurred in the Moratuwa University.

He also said as follows.“This fight started after the first batch of students completed their

course in 1991 after joining the H.N.D.E course with Morartuwa University in 1987.This fight has a history of over 20 years. The

Compensate farmers whose crops were destroyed

MOVEMENT FOR PEASENTS STRUGGLE

Do not give your life to realize dollar dream

Movement for Free Women

The three pillars are on the stomachs of the

underprivilegedComrade Ajith Kumara

The government makes false allegations to cover up its

own mistakesComrade Duminda Nagamuwa

3 Frontline/February 2013

In the Independent Day celebrations on the 4th of February, the President

stated thatracism and religionism must be defeated. Two days afterwards, the Minister, Nimal Siripala De Silva, stated in the parliament that the government was determined to defeat racism. So far, the government that tells deceptive stories about ‘co-operation’ has utilised racism and religionism against Tamil and Muslim people. In the North where the majority is Tamil, military rule still continues to be the case.

Last December, a number of student leaders were arrested and two of them are still detained under detention orders with the allegation of commotion. On the seventh of February, the agent who was distributing Thinakkural newspapers was assaulted and his motor cycle and the newspapers were burnt in an area with ‘high security’ where there is one army soldier for every two citizens. During the last few months, the shareholders of the government were in the forefront when the Muslim mosques were attacked and the provocative commotions against Muslims were taken place. Has the government changed their policies overnight? What is the reason for their attractive statements in relation to national unity?

The next session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission will commence in Geneva in March 2013.The United States of America has already indicated that they would bring a motion against Sri Lanka for not implementing the recommendations made by Sri Lankan government’s own “Lessons learned and Reconciliation Commission” (LLRC).It has been revealed that most of the countries that voted in favor of Sri Lanka last time will change their stand this time.

The government is trying to ensure the survival of their government that is in the middle of falling off and ruining by dividing the class by cultural and ethniclines and by disharmony. Racism and religionism are long-term strategies of falling off Sri Lankan backward Capitalism. However, the government is compelled to get to a short-term strategy with the aim of

Geneva Conference. In order to get the votes of Muslim countries in the Middle East and the Northern Africa, the government must at least hide the Muslim protest up until March. The reason for the government that has been openly spreading the germs of racism to give lectures about racism overnight is obvious.

The government promotes nationalism aiming at Geneva conference. It comes under the guise of ‘anti-imperialism’ and ‘nationalism’. The government television stations

have commenced preaching nationalism without religionist divisions and asking to put their hands together to protect the country from ‘imperialists’. Until the end of March, the government will replace the common enemy with ‘foreigner’ and ‘white national’. After that, the government will, as usual, nominate Tamils and Muslims as the common enemy of majority Sinhalese people. What is the role of the leftist Movement in the light of this narrow nationalism under the guise of anti imperialism?This needs to be commenced with a discussion of current tragic political foundation.

Sri Lankan capitalism came into being in the nature of superimposition of values of invading European nations. Initially, only the capitalistic victory was superimposed as most of the societal, cultural, and economical elements were not developed up to the capitalistic expectations. The capitalistic reforms in other areas were carried out through state force.

As a result of above reason, Sri Lankan Capitalism is by its birth contained elements of weakness, deformity and backwardness. As a main feature of backward capitalistic countries, there are a number of unresolved

capitalistic democratic

duties.

Therefore, the capitalism in Sri Lanka has a number of characteristics, such as underdevelopment, disorganization and incompleteness that the leadership cannot have solutions for. Neo Liberal Capitalism takes place within such a capitalistic society. In countries like Sri Lanka, the survival of this new liberal capitalism depends on those underdeveloped and backward characteristics. New Liberal Capitalism seeks the protection utilizing those backward tools. In countries like Sri Lanka, there is a development of very close bond between

new liberal capitalism and backwardness although it appears to be contradictory. Some philosophers have a tendency to say that the new liberal capitalism gets to the countries in the outer circle together with a certain kind of conservatism.

In developing the Sri Lankan society, Neo liberal capitalism is not only the main challenge. The backwardness of the system is also a huge challenge. Racism and religionism are only indications of that backwardness. The way the Leftist organisations

should enter

into

the struggle against the backwardness including racism and religionism is not with a strategic meaning. The deal that the leftist organisation has with the expansion of nationalism under the guise of anti-imperialism has nothing to do with change of strategic politics, game politics or deal politics. We do not enter into this struggle with Movement for Equal Rights including various Peoples Movements with the intention of speculation or compromise.

In a situation that the conflict of capitalism has grown into a boiling point of civilization, it is the

responsibility of the leftist organisation to create a common platform to defeat uncivilisedness. In executing that responsibility, there are politics that need to be done with apolitical citizen, minority capitalistic lunatics, liberalsand anarchists on the common platform. The idea is not to sacrifice the left to their politics but with the idea of changing them with the leadership of the left. The leftist organisation needs to be built with a cross section of intellectualsBrave people and with the people work according to their conscious.

In the exercise to strengthen the leftist organisation, it is not sufficient to have the intelligence and brave people it also

needs the morals and the leftist consciousness that has been inherited by the communist movement over one and a half centuries of its history. We can become revolutionists who fight against backwardness rather than political gamblers who engage in speculation with backwardness only if we open that consciousness. It is necessary to build a left with the determination to fight against all the statements in reactionism, utilitarianism, dictatorialism and sectarianism. This could only be achieved not by having discussions in the classroom but by facing the challenges that we face in the real world without avoiding them.

The government promotes nationalism

aiming at Geneva conference. It comes under the guise of ‘anti-imperialism’ and ‘nationalism’. The government television stations have commenced preaching nationalism without religionist divisions and asking to put their hands together to protect the country from ‘imperialists’.

4 Frontline/Fedruary 2013

The Boxing Day test in Melbourne is one of the biggest days in

world cricket. Every year on December 26, around 70,000 people pack the Melbourne Cricket Ground to enjoy the subtle pleasures of test match cricket. Late last year, when the Lankan cricket team arrived in Australia for the highly anticipated three-test match series – their first Boxing Day tour of Australia in

17 years – nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There certainly were no signs of the political controversy that was about to engulf the tour, in particular the Boxing Day test.

On December 10, four days before the first of three tests was due to begin in Hobart, refugee rights groups across Australia launched a mass media campaign urging a complete boycott of the Lankan cricket team’s tour. The Tamil Refugee Council, in alliance with Australia’s Refugee Action

Collective, stated that the war crimes committed by the Rajapaksa government during the closing stages of the civil war in 2009, as well as the government’s ongoing discrimination of Tamil people, has made normal relations between Australia and Lanka impossible. According to these groups, the Lankan Cricket team is being used by the Rajapaksa regime as a public relations tool to sanitize its bloody and brutal image. Protests were soon scheduled at all three test matches, with a particular focus on the Boxing Day test.

The unusual amount of

This article on the boycott campaign of Lankan cricket tour to Australia, was send by our reader. The ideas in this article is open for responce of our readers.

scheduled to play

against the Australian Prime

Ministers XI in Canberra, Lankan captain

Mahela Jayawardene was also penciled in for a personal meeting with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Although star Lankan batsmen Kumar Sangakkara stated prior to the Boxing Day test that “sport is beyond politics”, the organizers of the protest clearly saw them as intimately connected.

''Sporting boycotts have been important in building international pressure against cruel regimes and human rights abuses before. There is no good reason Sri Lanka should escape this pressure,'' the two groups said in a joint statement.

And so while just under 70,000 Australian cricket fans made their way to the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing day to watch the cricket, a small group of around 150 – significantly less than the 1000 people expected by the activists – protested outside the ground. Armed with a P.A

easily eclipsed by their desire to watch cricket and

drink beer. The most enthusiastic responses

came from the more inquisitive cricket fans,

who, intrigued by the protest, would casually stroll

up and take a quick look at the signs and slogans, before hesitantly walking off toward the ground to see what they came for.

I am not embarrassed to admit that I was one of the above-mentioned 'inquisitive cricket fans'. After taking a brief look at the protest, it was clear to me that the protesters’ commitment to the noble cause

of undermining the brutal tactics of the Rajapaksa

government could not be questioned. However, there were a few other questions about the integrity of the protest that came to mind.

First and foremost, where were all the Lankans?

After a quick head count I noted that roughly half appeared to be Lankan, totaling around 70.

Considering that in 2011 Melbourne was home to 16,941 people that spoke Tamil at home, this fact is not to be dismissed. The poor showing of Tamils at the protest is a reminder that not all Tamils necessarily share the concerns of the Tamil Refugee Council.

Secondly, why were there no references to the similarly brutal tactics employed by the Rajapaksa government against the Sinhalese population of Lanka?

If the Tamil Refugee Council were to be believed, the entire Sinhalese population of Lanka is more or less living

to Rajapaksa’s undemocratic regime. While there is no denying that the oppression felt by Tamil Lankans is generally more pronounced than that of Sinhala Lankans – as shown by the recent high rates of Tamil emigration and the extensive military presence in the north east – to completely ignore the

government go to in order to foster Sinhala support. The Rajapaksa government's coalition with the aggressive Buddhist-Nationalist political party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU- National Sinhala Heritage Party) is one such extreme. The JHU's zealous belief in a Sinhala-Buddhist state is a cause of great concern to many non-Sinhala Lankans. The recent anti-Muslim actions by the Bodu Bala Sena (The Buddhist Powerforce) – an ally of the JHU – are one of many incidents in which the JHU has been involved in promoting an aggressive form of Sinhala supremacy. Through the Rajapaksa government's coalition with the JHU, Sinhalese Lankans are insidiously encouraged to view their Tamil and Muslim countrymen as interlopers, rather than fellow citizens whose struggles they share. Instead of fighting the Rajapaksa government’s thinly veiled attempt to divide Lanka along ethnic and religious lines, the refugee groups find themselves actually reinforcing these divisions.

It is clear that an effective struggle against the Rajapaksa government has to unite all oppressed Lankans behind a common cause, be they Sinhala, Muslim or Tamil. By focusing primarily on the oppression and persecution of Tamils – horrifying and unique as it may be – the refugee groups are falling into Rajapaksa’s ethnic trap that above all seeks to divide Lanka and tighten his grip on power. Rather than boycotting the Lankan cricket team's tour in order to champion the exclusive struggles of Tamil Lankans, there is no reason why the activist groups can’t broaden the boycott to highlight the oppression of Sinhala and Muslim Lankans as well.

diplomatic pomp surrounding the tour seemed to confirm that playing cricket was not the sole aim of the Lankan team. Not only was the Lankan team

system, banners and flyers, the refugee activists tried to provoke the consciences of cricket fans into action about the brutalities committed by the Rajapaksa government against Tamil Lankans. Unfortunately for the refugee protesters, most encountered dismissive cricket fans whose concern for the plight of Tamil Lankans was

in complete harmony with the Rajapaksa regime. The recently passed amendments to the Criminal Procedure Bill – which extends the period in which a person can be detained without trial to 48 hours – is one of the many examples that show that all Lankans are equally vulnerable

It is no secret that the Rajapaksa government largely caters its propaganda to the Sinhalese-Buddhist majority in Lanka. Considering that Sinhala Lankans comprise 74.8% of Lanka’s population, this will come as no surprise. What’s more surprising, however, is the extremes the Rajapaksa

similarities between the Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala struggles against oppression is a grave mistake.

The fundamentally oppressive Lankan capitalist state that indiscriminately creates a whole class of severely impoverished and exploited Lankans – Muslim, Tamil and Sinhala alike – seems an unimportant detail for the refugee protest groups. Instead, Tamil Lankans are more or less seen as the sole victims of the Rajapaksa regime. Even the government’s notorious white vans that regularly ‘disappear’ Lankan citizens are considered an example of Tamil oppression, despite the countless number of Sinhala disappearances. By dividing the struggles of Lankans along ethnic lines in this way, the refugee protesters have found themselves playing right into the similarly divisive politics of the Rajapaksa government.

The fundamentally oppressive Lankan

capitalist state that indiscriminately creates a whole class of severely impoverished and exploited Lankans – Muslim, Tamil and Sinhala alike – seems an unimportant detail for the refugee protest groups.

5 Frontline/February 2013

Frontline:- When you launched the ‘Movement for Equal Rights’ you had some aims and objectives. Do you believe you entered successfully into your area of those objectives?

Com. Ravindra:- Yes, I should say firstly - that way before the MER Launch our country is Multi-National which are Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim State.

So for this reason all these different nationalities have their own differences such as the language they speak, the religion they believe and cultural value they adore.

So because of these differences - even during the British time -rulers used “divide and conquer” system in our country.

Even after Lanka gained so called “independence” from the British our rulers used the same method to rule Lanka. In order to build power of politics for their advantage these rulers used the same divide and conquer ideology amongst the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslims. Because of these racist policies of successive Governments and so called oppositions for the last three decades our county was filled with communal violence, divisions and ruthless war. This was destroyed the livelihoods of every community in our country as a result of Capitalist Rulers and there action. Even in the present day the Capitalist Rulers failed to identify socio-economic reasons and inequality created by short sighted polices and never looked into a solution and escalated the divisions amongst people instead.

I need to say as a result

of the current system in which they use differences of language, culture and Nationalities to rule and manage capitalist class. Movement of Equal Rights emerged to look for solutions faced by the minority groups in the country.

We will be working with oppressed masses who are suppressed because of their ethnicity, who suffer because of their religious beliefs and will have a collective struggle to win back their rights but we still don’t believe we did our part to resolve all issues affecting these communities but we are confident that we managed to start a proper dialogue within Tamil and Muslim communities to look for lasting solutions in the long term.

But still there is a long way to go for us to have a dialogue within the Sinhalese community to overcome the racist elements and propaganda generated by powerful elements.

These dialogues need to begin, not only in the area of Muslim people or Tamil people live but also in the area of the South.

While we accept that we have not fully penetrated the society as MER yet, we strongly believe we have started and are moving forward – especially so far we have been successful in building up broader and collective efforts to link and have a dialogue with these abovementioned Tamil and Muslim communities.

Frontline:- In the past on several occasions your activists were faced with unprovoked attacks by the Government. Why did the current Government supporters physically attack you?

Com. Ravindra:- It is very clear to all of us that the current regime of the President Mahinda Rajapakshe maintains military- style controls in the North and in the East.

We built up MER and

through various methods by using Government -controlled media and while we go about our campaign they started to physically attack us.

It shows the Government using the military victory they had over LTTE now using the same power to oppressed and dictate to the people in the North and East.

This situation invites us to campaign against this injustice and the Government's intentions are to stop people building power through collective action and to stop them organizing in the first instance. These are the reasons they see us as we are the number one political enemy of the current regime, however, we strongly believe that we can have a positive and broad dialogue within Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities and build up strong activism against the current undemocratic actions of the regime, and this is the only way possible for us to stop this Government.

Frontline:- How you explain the Anti Muslim Sentiment spreading all over the country?

Com. Ravindra:- The political base of racism did not emerge instantly in our society, as I mentioned before when we were under British imperialism the method they used ‘divide and conquer’ ideology and the homegrown capitalist class to use the same ideology to rule our country once the power was handed over to them under so called “Independence”.

This racism has developed over the years under the patronage of the capitalist class, especially for the last three decades this racism phenomena has developed drastically while in the North it is shown as “anti Sinhala or Muslim”, while in the South it was as “anti Tamil”.

This racism has been developed by the Sinhala Muslim Tamil capitalist political parties to gain the support of those nationalities so they can manipulate these

communities to stay in power.What so called minority

political parties did in the past was to use these methods and gain votes from those ethnically divided people and then use those votes to bargain with major political parties to help them to come to power, but in return those minority communities achieved nothing in qualitative sense.

Now current rulers for them to conquer our society they need to come up with new methods to create and fuel the tension between communities. In the past they used the war to build patriotic slogans to gain commercial benefits for the capitalist class – now the war is over capitalist rulers need to come up with new slogans to divide the oppressed and they are now with clear intentions using anti-Muslim slogans to create a new tension in the country.

While the Government is creating a picture that LTTE is emerging in the country – also spreading anti-Muslim slogans through certain organizations linked to the Government.

While University teachers and students fight to protect public education, farmers and peasants fighting for their crops, land rights, workers in garment industries are fighting to protect their Provident funds, the government wants to divert the working class into a different direction by spreading Muslim people as their new enemy.

If we have a look into the recent history in 1915 there were communal riots against Muslim traders fuelled by certain big business owned by majority Sinhalese to get the advantage over Muslim traders.

Now after 100 years we are facing the same issue in the country, and these elements are spreading anti Halal campaign and so called “Bodu Bala Sena” with the blessing of major political parties named 2013 as anti Halal year, they criticized because of Halal certificate commodity price going up. The truth is because of the current Neo-

then built up a voice and a campaign to address the issues affecting the minority communities in the country – especially those who live in the Northern and Eastern parts.

Once we started campaigning the capitalist regime started to counter us

Comrade Raveendra Mudalige Convener of Movement for Equal Rights

The political base of racism did not emerge instantly in our society, as I mentioned before when we were under British imperialism the method they used ‘divide and conquer’ ideology and the homegrown capitalist class to use the same ideology to rule our country once the power was handed over to them under so called “Independence”.

In this issue of Front Line we got the opportunity to discuss with Comrade Raveendra Mudalige, Convener of the Movement for Equal Rights. He discussed about the latest political trends in Lanka. This is the conversation Front Line had with him.

to page 11

6 Frontline/Fedruary 2013

Rizana Nafeek , a young Lankan woman who was condemned in a Saudi Arabia was put to death on 09 January 2013 by beheading. Subsequent to the said incident a discussion has sprung up on one hand regarding the sending of Lankan women for domestic work in Middle Eastern countries and the safety of their lives and conditions of work. On the other hand another group is attempting to build up propaganda against the Islamic religion citing Sharia law and to build up anti Muslim sentiments. The government expects to do justice to Rizana by donating a house for members of her family and naming a street after her. In these circumstances there is much to discuss regarding not only the killing of Rizana but also as to how justice could be done for expatriate Lankans.

Rizana and the Government

Now the government is trying to say that it did everything within its ability as a government to save Rizana. These evidence for that cited by them is that the president requested the King of Saudi Arabia twice to release her and those Lankan delegations towards Saudi Arabia led by ministers several times. However , a close investigation of the handing down of the death sentence to Rizana , the opportunity which was available for setting a-side they said penalty etc, reveal that Rizana’s life could have been saved if the Government had made some interventions.

Rizana Nafeek is a female child born to an impoverished Muslim family of the Saffi Nagar area in Muttur. Her father is wood cutter by occupation. Rizana decided at a tender age to migrate in order to relive the family from poverty. Migration of those who are under 18 years of age for purposes of employment is prohibited under Lanka law. She migrated by having a false passport fabricated since poverty made it extremely necessary for Rizana to migrate. The date of birth of Rizana was 04th of January 1988. However her date of birth is recorded as 2nd February 1982 in her passport. She went to Saudi Arabia using this false passport on 04 May 2005. By then her age was 17 years. In Saudi Arabia Rizana served under an employer named Naif in the city of Dawadiwi and on 22nd May 2005, a fortnight after her arrival in Saudi Arabia the employers 04 months old daughter died while she was feeding her milk. Rizana had later stated that the child’s eyes closed while she was being fed

and that she then stroked her neck. But the Childs parents accused Rizana of having killed of their child by strangulation.

In any event, Saudi Arabia claims that she signed a confession to a murder on the very date of her arrest. Rizana was compelled to be tried in a trial conducted in a language which she did not understand, and to place her signature on statements written in language which she did not know, that is, the Arabic language. She was not provided a proper interpreter by the court, and the interpreter provided was a Malayalam interpreter. While Rizana used the Tamil language as her mother tongue there are major differences between the Malayalam

language and the Tamil language though the two languages have a close affinity to each other. Thus it is clear that no justice was done to her in the interpretation. She was pronounced guilty of the murder and sentenced to death on 16th June 2007 after such an unjust trial. The government never intervened.

Lanka has two embassy offices within Saudi Arabia. A great number of embassy officers are also present. But those officers were unaware of the arrest and institution of proceedings against Rizana. There isn’t at least an agreement between the two countries for notification of the embassy when a Lankan is taken in to custody even though hundreds of thousands of Lankan house maids have been sent to Saudi Arabia from Lanka over a period of 35 years. The foreign employment bureau which conducts workshops for

migrating Lankan workers did not even instruct them that they should contact the embassy before signing any statements in the event of arrest. It is clear that the Lankan government had not taken enough steps with regard to safeguarding the workers.

Although it was necessary to provide Rizana with legal assistance when proceedings commenced against her , the Lankan embassy did not take steps to do so. There would have been at least a small opening for saving her life if the embassy officials had made efforts at least to provide her an interpreter.

The legal system of Saudi Arabia is tied up with

Islamic sharia Law. Rizana

would not be

guilty even

7 Frontline/February 2013

law contains many backward features which cannot be condoned by civilized society, Rizana’s life at least could have been saved had she been provided with services of skilled lawyers well versed therein.

The other relevant matter is that the death penalty is not applicable to minors under Saudi Arabian law. The Saudi Arabian court handed the death penalty to Rizana taking in to consideration the age stated in her passport. But what the government of Lanka ought to have done during the course of the trial was to submit authentic documents including her birth certificate and schoolcertificates to the Saudi Arabian court to prove that she was a minor. But the government did not make such an intervention. It is not only in respect of Rizana that the government does not make such interventions; there are no such interventions in respect of most Lankan workers serving in Middle Eastern countries. It is indicative of the regard shown by the Lankan rulers towards the oppressed female worker who earned much foreign exchange for the country.

It was imperative for the government to intervene even subsequent to the death penalty being pronounced in respect of Rizana. Subsequent to Rizana being sentenced to death Basil Fernando a Lankan living abroad had submitted an appeal to the Saudi appeals court. There was no intervention by the government even during the proceedings before the appeals court. In the end the appeals court also confirmed the death penalty. What had to be done there after was to try to get the death child's parents to agree to release her from the death penalty by accepting the blood compensation named “Diya” in Saudi law. Even for that there has been no intervention at diplomatic level. Though a few Lankans have met Rizana’s employers from time to time and pleaded

to spare her life, higher level government authorities have not met members of that family. The state ministers who went to Saudi Arabia from time to time with dozens of officials with the stated object of saving Rizana have not done the one thing which they had to do. They have instead stayed at superior hotels at state expense going on shopping sprees and visiting Rizana a few times in prison. The President also engaged in media shows sending letters to the Saudi king. According to Saudi Arabian law once a person is given a death sentence by a court in that country the king cannot change it while only the affected party can change it. Accordingly the President should have written letters not to the Saudi king but to the employers of Rizana.

Rizana and Neo Liberal Capitalism

Not only Rizana Nafeek but hundreds of thousands more women migrate due to the lack of any livelihood. Even minor female children migrate by falsifying their age as they have no means of earning their livelihood within the country. While unemployment has reached high figures many are unable to find permanent employment within the country. The wage levels of even the jobs which could be found are insufficient to maintain an acceptable standard of living. In this environment the dream of every oppressed worker is to migrate in the short term and earn, while women go to Middle Eastern countries by official methods, many young men attempt to enter either Australia or Italy by boat breaking immigration and emigration laws. There are frequent reports of the tragic fate of these migrants. A recent example is that of a fugitive boat sailing to Australia which came to grief striking rocks close to Jawa Island resulting in the deaths of two Lankans and the disappearance of another. That is only a very recent example. The same reason which compels young men to migrate in unsafe boats risking their very lives compelled Rizana to migrate on a passport fabricated to show that she was older that she actually was. In that sense Rizana is symbolic of the tragedy faced by the oppressed women of Lanka.

The question of migrant Lankan workers is a question which ties up with the neo liberal capitalist strategy in

Lanka. Sending women for domestic work as unskilled workers became part of the first innings of neo liberal capitalism around 1978. In backward countries such as Lanka, neo liberal capitalism provides the greatest space for the financial service sector which has failed to reach the expected growth while the industrial and agricultural production sector broke down. In the face of this monetary crisis, exporting women to Middle Eastern countries for slavery was chosen by the Lankan rulers as the easiest method of earning foreign exchange. The choice of the rulers to adopt the exportation of women in to slavery as opposed to exportation of goods as their economic strategy, and the pressure built up among the oppressed strata by the scarcity of jobs resulted in the migration of hundreds of thousands of women for short term employment.

The situation of women thus leaving for Middle Eastern countries for domestic work was very tragic. On one hand their conditions were worse that those under ordinary capitalist labor laws. They are required to work 12 to 14 or sometimes even more hours rather than 8 hours per day.

In this tragic situation the government does not intend to intervene even in a welfare sense. Their intervention is aimed at earning more and more foreign exchange even through this tragedy. The president in his budget speech on 8th November 2012 stated that it is intended to increase the earnings from expatriate Lankan workers which currently stand at six billion dollars by 30% in two years to eight billion USD. More and more women will have to be sent to Middle Eastern countries for slavery in order to increase foreign exchange earnings by that much. That means bringing upon more women the same fate which be fell Rizana. Justice can be done to Rizana not by naming a street after her or building a house for her family but by doing justice to the hundreds of thousands of Lankan women serving in the Middle East. That would only be a dream within the present Neo liberal capitalist society and the first step towards doing justice would be to defeat this murderous system. Then we would have the opportunity for the complete eradication of the tragic slavery revealed by Rizana at the cost of her life.

according to the tenets of Sharia Law. According to sharia law a child must be fed milk by the

childs mother until he or she is 2 years old. In terms of sharia law the mother would be guilty in respect of any harm which could happened to the child in the

event of any other person being entrusted with feeding milk to a 4 months old child. It is also prohibited under that law to admit a young woman in to a house without a guardian. The very act of employing Rizana without any such arrangement itself is breach of the law. Though Islamic sharia

8 Frontline/Fedruary 2013

A film has been released named ‘Even the rain’ which shows

the struggle of the Bolivians against attempts to sell the water through privatization. The theme of the film is that the rain water which human beings have regarded as a public resource now has been given a money value under neo-liberalism. Capitalist economic science has divided goods in to two fragments, namely economic and uneconomic at the very outset of its development. Uneconomic goods means the goods cannot be priced and sold forthwith. Water, air, forests were included in that category. Neo-liberalism emerged by valuing not only uneconomic goods but all the human relationships. The film ‘Even the rain’ confers the said devastating measure of converting the water to a saleable good.

We have mentioned the said film here, because the said scenario contained in the film will be emanated in near future in Sri Lanka. There are various signs that measures are being taken to implement the said propaganda using various names such as Privatize the water, selling the water resources. The chairman of the Water Board has divulged the fact that they are in the process of introducing a tax for underground water resources including wells. According to newspaper reports for wells consuming 100,000 litres of water have to pay Rs. 7500 per year and if the consumption is more the said tax will exceed Rs. 15,000.00.Furthermore if a person digs a hole exceeding the dimension of 12 feet, he has to pay a tax. In order to ease the tension of the people who have been appraised these new measures some Ministers openly refused the said news, putting the blame on the chairman of the Authority.

However we need not be astonished to hear that the Rajapaksha regime, which is preparing the ground for the 2nd Innings of neo-liberalism, will definitely convert water to a merchant good. First they will take the water from public ownership and transform it into a commodity. Then it will be the private property of businessmen, multinational companies. Ultimately they will continue their suppression over the oppressed class through their basic requirement of water. The history of attempting to

privatize the water goes back

to 15 years. In 1985 the

Jayawardena regime which had begun the neo-liberal capitalist reforms in 1978 conferred about how to sell the water. Thereafter on 12th July 1995 the World Bank submitted directions

namely National

Water resources

Management Policy, Water Resources Bill and Water resources regulations. On 28th March 2000 the People’s Alliance regime obtained the permission of the parliament for National Water Management policy but they were compelled to step back due to massive public protests. On 13the October 2003 the Ranil Wickramassingha regime published the ‘Water Service Reform Act’ in the gazette in order to sell the water. In 2004 the said UNP government had been toppled, but its successor the UPFA government continued the same policy. The UPFA government amended the said Water Resources Management Act on 22nd November 2004 and the cabinet approved the said Act on 31st December 2004.Accordingly the Mahinda Rajapaksha regime opened the ‘National Water Resources Management Policy’ for public opinion in 9th October 2006 and in the year 2008 the same was done for ‘National policy for Drinking

Water'. As a

consequence of the said steps

in 2012 the discussion on underground water resources has come

out.The

capitalist regimes are

now considering alternatives to

bringing their water privatizing policies

because there will be a huge disagreement from

the public on such reforms. Now

they are attempting to implement their

policy by three steps. First the underground water will be given a price by imposing taxes. Then underground water could be sold or purchased or could be transferred to multinational companies or private businessmen. In addition to that instead of taking these measures in the whole island the government is going to test it in provincial councils. Already the North-Central province and North Western Province have published it in the gazette in 2006. Before hand the ownership of the water was transferred to farmers' societies and there was plan to take over the said ownership from the farmers societies to privatize the water step by step. But in North-Western Province a law has been introduced to privatize the water directly.

According to clause No.12 of the said law the Water management Committees which are controlled by the farmers have been given ownership of the water. The ulterior motive was revealed where businessmen and companies could take part of these committees. Therefore the companies selling chemicals for agriculture and drinking water

could take ownership of the public water. Not only are those, these purported committees entitled to lease out water ways and lakes. These committees should maintain the water ways and thus the burden is shifted to farmers to maintain irrigation system. According to clause No 18 farmers who are failed to maintain the waterways can be punished. According to Clause No 13 the farmers who are using the water have to pay money for maintenance. This is nothing but the privatization of public water. There are clauses in North-Western laws

to charge for agricultural water. Subsequently in 1998 the People’s Alliance had prepared three documents with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations food and agricultural organization and the Netherlands government

to levy the wells and thus the government is secretly taking steps to privatize the water resources.

It is mandatory to manage the water resources due to the deficiency of usable water and the disparity of where the water resources have been located. But the World Bank and its followers are making efforts to assist capitalists to expand their capital through selling the water resources using the words of water management. There is an apparent difference between the two words protection and management. There is an old saying that cotton would not be protected in a home iron had been burned. One cannot expect water to be protected in a system where everything has a price. In the circumstances the leftist movement has to convey this message to the people who are struggling to preserve the public water resources while making up their minds for anti-system struggle as well. If we fail to focus our struggle against privatizing water, to an anti-system struggle, people will have to live under a system where ‘Even Rain’ is also be sold.

Capitalist economic science has

divided goods in to two fragments, namely economic and uneconomic at the very outset of its development. Neo-liberalism emerged by valuing not only uneconomic goods but all the human relationships.

There is an old saying that

cotton would not be protected in a home iron had been burned. One cannot expect water to be protected in a system where everything has a price.

9 Frontline/February 2013

to page 11

The Code of Criminal Procedure (Special Provisions) Act No

15 of 2005 was passed by Parliament in that year. Section 7 of that Act provided that the Act would be in operation for a period of two years from the date of its coming into operation. The Act was certified on 31st May 2005. Thereafter, Parliament passed a similar Code of Criminal Procedure (Special Provisions) Act No 42 of 2007, which was certified on 9th October 2007. The said Act provided in Section 7 for a two year period of operation, but permitted extension by Order made in the Gazette by the Minister, which would then be placed before Parliament for approval. Section 8 of the Act contained a retroactive clause which applied to acts during the period 31st May 2007 to 9th October 2007.

On 30th May 2009, the then Acting Minister of Justice and Law Reform made Order published in the Gazette extending the operation of the 2007 Special Provisions Act for a further period of two years, commencing from 31st May 2009.Despite this Order being made, such Order was not approved before Parliament, and as a result, it is common position that the Gazette lapsed on 31st May 2009, or at the latest, 9th October 2009.

Thereafter, general elections were held, and Parliament reassembled. On 30th May 2009, the Minister of Justice caused an Order to be published in the Gazette extending the operation of the Act for two years from 31st May 2011 onwards. However, when this Order was placed before Parliament for approval on 8th September 2011, several members objected on account of the Act having lapsed in 2009, and the Debate was adjourned for another day, but to date, has never been taken up.

Thereafter suddenly it was brought before parliament again in November 2012 and Parlimentarian Comrade Ajith Kumara and Young Lawyers Association of Sri Lanka challenged the said bill before Supreme Court on the basis that it infringed the fundamental rights of the people and some clauses are inconsistent with the provisions of the constitution.

Thereafter the Supreme Court declared its determination and stated that some clauses should be amended. However the Supreme Court was of the view that the legislature has power to extend the time period of detaining by the Police before producing to the court up to 48 hours and thus the main grievance of the public had not

been properly addressed by the said determination.

Clause 8 of the Act seeks to deem that any exercise of a power, duty or function assigned by the Criminal Procedure (Special Provisions) Act of 2007, but exercised after the Act had lapsed, was validly exercised. It thus retroactively deems previously illegal acts committed between 31st May

of the Magistrate by deeming the request of the Police to be valid. In the second scenario, where an identical request is made by the Police and the Magistrate wrongly under the impression that the 2007 Special Provisions Act was still law, granted the request of the Police, it is clear that in terms of the law, such an Order of the Magistrate could be either

appealed and/or revised by a Higher Court. Thus, in the event such an Appeal or Revision matter is pending before a Higher Court, the instant Bill would prevent such superior court from determining the illegality of the Magistrate’s Order, and would require such superior Court to hold that the Magistrate’s Order was valid. In both these scenarios, the exercise of judicial power is appropriated by the legislature.

Article 13(5) of the Constitution ensures the presumption of innocence of suspects, and as evidenced by judicial pronouncement, this presumption has applicability even in the pre-trial stage after arrest. In Sriyani Silva vs. Iddamalgoda, 2003 2 Sri LR 63, at page 78, Justice Mark Fernando held that “the 1st and 2nd respondents should have concentrated their efforts to have the allegations against the deceased determined by a competent Court, after a fair trial. Until then the deceased was entitled to the benefit of the presumption of innocence.”

Article 12(1) of the Constitution, which protects against unreasonableness, irrationality and ensures proportionality, also strengthens the right to presumption of innocence. Thus, any legislative provision that leads to irrational deprivation of liberty, detention for unreasonable reasons, and a disproportionate cost to liberty in relation to the benefit

derived from that cost would be inconsistent with Article 12(1) of the Constitution as well. The proviso to Clause 2 of the Bill, while it does grant discretion to the Magistrate to deny the request of the Police, debars the suspect from seeking release on Bail after 24 hours in custody. Instead, he will, if the Magistrate agrees with the request for further detention for the purpose of investigations, be sent back to Police custody. The Petitioner submits that the presumption of innocence militates against the detention of a suspect for any longer than is absolutely and demonstrably necessary. The Code of Criminal Procedure specifies the types of investigations that may be conducted pursuant to arrest. These involve questioning the suspect, questioning witnesses, visiting the scene, having the assistance of the Magistrate etc. It is submitted that none of these investigatory methods require the presence of the suspect in police custody.

Although the state was heard to say that the law needs to keep

pace with spiralling crime and sophisticated criminals, he did not disclose a reason as to why investigations require that the suspect be in Police custody for a period longer than 24 hours. For instance, there is no reason that was presented before Court as to why the denial of bail in the event it is feared the suspect would interfere with the investigation,

is insufficient. There was no reason as to why remanding the suspect would hurt the investigation. Thus, while on the one hand it is unclear as to why efficacious investigations require that the suspect be in police custody for longer than 24 hours, on the other, it is abundantly clear that depriving a suspect of the possibility of Bail after 24 hours infringes on the suspect’s rights to liberty, specifically his right to the presumption of innocence. Thus, on weighing of interests, there is no significant benefit gained in detaining the suspect by limiting his liberty. Thus, on proportionality analysis too, the Bill fails, and is thus inconsistent with Article 12(1).

Furthermore any detention of a suspect for a reason that is unconnected with his own fault, or a reasonable suspicion that he may commit a fault, infringes on the right of a suspect to the presumption of innocence and the right to equality and equal protection. According to the Bail Act Bail

2009 and the coming into operation of the instant Act to be valid. This retroactive bestowing of a garb of legality on illegal acts is a legislative judgment, and not within the power of Parliament to enact. It is a usurpation of judicial power by the legislature, in that it interferes with the judicial function.

Though the Parliament is entitled to pass retrospective laws, it is not entitled to interfere with the judicial function under the present system of the country. As an example, two alternative scenarios. In the first scenario, if at any time between 31st May 2009 and the coming into operation of the instant Act, a suspect was produced before a Magistrate at the end of 24 hours after arrest, and the Police made a request for a further 24 hours in Police custody, and the Magistrate correctly disallowed such request on the basis that the 2007 Special Provisions Act had lapsed, the instant Act would effectively overturn the Order

10 Frontline/Fedruary 2013

Washington-based lending institution that invests capital according to its priorities and is mainly funded by the interest it receives on its loans. It has an administration budget of $1.9 billion and its President Mr Robert B. Zoellick, formerly part of the Bush administration, earns a basic salary of $467,940 after tax. Its 25 Executive Directors each earn $244,350 after tax. The Bank is comprised of two parts, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD -founded in 1945) and the International Development Association (IDA). The IBRD's objectives are stated to be "promoting sustainable development and reducing poverty", while the IDA's are to "promote economic development, increase productivity and thus raise standards of living."

In its 344-page Annual Report, the World Bank says a great deal about reducing poverty but never once questions the principles of neo-liberal capitalism. For instance, the Bank lent a total of $6.6 billion in the Europe and Central Asia Region in 2012. This lending was in accordance with a regional strategy designed to "deepen reforms for improved competitiveness." In the Latin America and Caribbean Region the development agenda is similarly for a "stronger focus on increasing productivity". But increasing the productivity of labour is by no means a solution to poverty; rather it is a requirement of capital to increase its extraction of relative surplus-value from labour power. Similarly the World Bank invested $3 billion in education in 2012 and currently manages an education portfolio of $9 billion, with operations in 73 countries. In doing so its key priority is to "promote skills development by linking education to labour markets." This is the narrow-minded neo-liberal doctrine of education which reduces it to being only a servant to the needs of capital, that insists nothing should be taught in schools that can't be sold on the labour market.

Although 188 countries are members of the World Bank, the 2 that are not are the socialist countries Cuba and North Korea,

cont. page 11

Growth rate in Gross Domestic Product is a crude economic

measure which says nothing about inequality, unemployment and poverty. It also assigns no value to the non-market benefits offered by socialist states. Nevertheless it gives a rough idea of the health of the capitalist system. For example the fact that the rich countries' economies contracted by an overall 3 per cent during 2008 and 2009 ( the "Global Financial Crisis") indicated that capital – 'value that begets more value' – was for that period unable to expand. But since 2010 growth has started again in the rich countries, at the very low rate of around 1-2 per cent. In the poor, so-called developing countries, growth figures have been much higher, and never went into reverse during the worst period of the crisis. Last week the World Bank issued a statement which reduced their earlier growth forecasts.

"The economic recovery

remains fragile and uncertain" said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim in the new Global Economic Prospects Report. The World Bank estimated that global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 2.3 percent in 2012. This figure was greatly exceeded in the poor countries, which expanded 5.1 per cent, their slowest increase in the past decade. In the South Asia region, growth weakened to an estimated 5.4 percent in 2012 (7.4 percent in 2011), mainly due to a sharp slowdown in India. For nearly 20 years the poor countries have been growing considerably faster than the rich, during the last decade at a rate of 4 per cent faster per year. That real incomes are rising in the poor countries and falling in the rich, may indicate that the long term trend is towards convergence in living standards across the world.

Growth in high-income countries was downgraded from earlier forecasts. GDP in Europe is now expected not to grow at all during 2013, but to contract by 0.1 per cent. This has been ascribed to the financial crisis over the Euro, but is really a product of the deeper contradictions of the capitalist system which organises production socially but is privately owned. As Europe moves into another recession, unemployment has

reached levels not seen for 80 years – for example the official rate in Greece is 26 per cent, in Spain it is 26.4 per cent. In Greece, a country of 11 million people, there are only 3.7 million employed.

Although capital is presently unable to find profitable outlets

seeking higher profit than that offered by productive investment.

Despite the abundance of capital wealth, the world is still full of people whose basic necessities have not been met by capitalism. 2.5 billion people remain without sanitation and at least 780 million lack access to improved water. Electricity is only a dream for more than 1.3 billion people. About half the population of Africa lives at the extreme poverty level, $1.25 a day. Except for in China, these poverty levels have not improved much since 1981. The number of people living on less than $2 a day declined only modestly from 2.59 billion in 1981 to 2.47 billion in 2008. The Annual Report of the World Bank stated that: "To reduce poverty, the South Asia region needs to create 1.0 – 1.2 million additional jobs every month for the next 20 years." But in the absence of any central plan to achieve that goal, the World Bank is leaving it to the whims of private capital to decide whether it will invest in South Asia or not. By ignoring altogether the alternative approach of utilising the means of production under public ownership and control to meet social goals, the World Bank shows its own political bias in favour of imperialism.

The World Bank is a

in the real, value-producing economy, it is still flowing into financial securities and equities. The Report shows this by stating that stock-markets in the rich countries rose by 10.7 per cent since June and by 12.6 per cent in poor countries, but concludes: "However, the real-side of the economy has responded modestly." This dominance of finance capital over industrial capital signifies that we are at the stage of imperialism, where trillions of dollars are sloshing around freely in the world financial system, relentlessly

That real incomes are rising in the poor countries and falling in the rich, may indicate that the long term trend is towards convergence in living standards across the world.

Despite the abundance of capital wealth, the world is still full of people whose basic necessities have not been met by capitalism. 2.5 billion people remain without sanitation and at least 780 million lack access to improved water.

11 Frontline/February 2013

Cabinet reshuffle was From page 01

The impact of From page 10

Growth forecast From page 10

liberal system the price always goes up. Under Neo liberalism imposing tax, cutting

welfare, selling public assets will lead into price hikes – but blaming the “Halal” symbol is a pathetic action by the regime which is very reactionary.

Another theory spreading around is that the family planning was created to reduce the Sinhala population – and by 2020 the Muslim population will increase is another statement, but with current Neo -liberal policies ordinary families couldn’t afford to raise families and people will choose not to have children.

What the Government should focus on is to reduce the cost of living in the country, but instead they are spreading rumors against their own people by attacking the Halal symbol.

If we were against the Muslim values and principles why are we sending many Sri Lankans to work in Islamic nations and in return our major source of foreign currency comes from labourers and housemaids who work in Middle Eastern countries. It shows hypocrisy and these sentiments are not genuine. Then on the other hand within the Muslim community political leaders are also using this issue to create anti Sinhala sentiment within there people. We clearly say both these trends are not healthy for our society to go forward.

In July, 1983 riots also targeted commercially successful Tamil people and this time around it has turned against the Muslim people. If we do start a healthy community dialogue on these issues, we may face major conflict between the Sinhala and Muslim soon.

Frontline:- What is MER’s proposal to eradicate the racism trend developing in the country?

Com. Ravindra:- Clearly we need to start a proper dialogue within the society about the reasons “why these issues are spreading?” We are planning to have a broader discussions in the south as well as the oppressed masses in the North and the East, while we are having these discussions with the working class we also want to educate the masses about these racist trends and defeat racism to show people that the capitalist neo-liberal policies could not provide solutions for burning issues of the people.

We want to unite people who suffer in the South as well as North, we invited students, youths, farmers, workers, academics and everyone in the society, including progressive people, and left organization's to join hands with MER to build a bigger movement in the country to topple bankrupt policies of the capitalists and neo-liberals.

Frontline:- There have been reports by

certain media that in Switzerland comrade Premakumar has said that they are willing to work with LTTE.

What do MER think of LTTE? Com. Ravindra:- We all knew in the past

that there were grievances amongst the Tamil communities, and as a result, sections of Tamils fell into the armed confrontation with the government.

LTTE as a militant outfit were soundly defeated, but we believe that even though we have had criticism about the way LTTE have behaved in the past, we welcome anyone who is willing to accept our main objectives, we are ready to work with anyone as we believe by working together, shoulder to shoulder between Sinhala, Tamil and Muslims who are oppressed can only achieve victory for Lanka

may be refused after 24 hours in detention only on grounds that are related to the reasonable apprehension that the suspect may commit a wrong while enlarged on Bail. The only exception to this rule is in relation to public order concerns. However, in the instant Bill, the suspect’s liberty is deprived for causes that are completely unconnected to his own fault or doing. If for instance, the police do not commence investigations expeditiously, the suspect will be deprived of the opportunity of being enlarged on Bail after 24 hours. If for instance, the police are slow in their investigations, the suspect will be deprived of the opportunity of being enlarged on Bail after 24 hours. Thus, since the Bill is likely to lead to the deprivation of a person’s liberty for no fault of his, the suspect’s rights to presumption of innocence and equal protection are infringed which were introduced by the existing capitalist system as rights of the people.

There is another precarious provision in this Act, namely the Attorney General can file indictments to the High Court directly if he feels that there is a public upheaval. There is no interpretation for upheaval and thus the state could file indictments against public protests in the High Court and thus it will pave the way for a massive suppression of the rights of the people. As a result of this Act the state will be able to arrest the people who are fighting for their rights such as students, labourers, farmers, fishermen etc.

which reject the World Bank's neo-liberal approach to development. They prefer the socialist path to emancipation, which does away with the sacred right of private property and brings production under public ownership and control. Once that is done, and production is organised to a settled plan, then you will see real growth of a kind that will eliminate poverty. This is not just a theoretical claim, for we know from history that publicly owned centrally planned economies can work. Not only can they do better then the capitalist economies, they

have done better. After the USSR's economy was brought under public control in 1928, the country broke all records for economic growth. According to researcher S. Gowans, "From 1928 to 1989, Soviet GDP per capita not only exceeded growth in the rich countries but exceeded growth in all other regions of the world combined, and to a greater degree". Since the time of Karl Marx it has been known that socialism is theoretically far superior to capitalism, but the socialist countries of the 20th century proved it in practice.

ministers and 2 project ministers. The government that has failed to solve the living problems of the people of Sri Lanka, give a new life to them or give new expectation or victory to them is trying to create a new expectation by changing ministers. In the last few years, it has been demonstrated that the government cannot do anything else other than changing ministers. People of the country has realized by experience that nothing has changed in their lives despite the government making claims that the government has been changed by changing the faces of the ministers. This so called cabinet reshuffle is nothing less than an empty display and a cheat.

The current government is giving different ethnic groups contradictory promises. They are concentrating power in people in the same family and showing the Bonapartist characteristics. A country like Sri Lanka which has a backward and weak economy can establish liberal capitalism only by a rule mixed with Bonapartist and Fascist characters. This cabinet reshuffle confirms that the government is further extending the characteristics of Bonapartism.

The Rajapaksha government is fearful of having one minister being established an identity in working in the same portfolio for a long time and therefore keep changing portfolios and try to show that the functions of those portfolios belong to their family. Although the government says that the portfolios within the cabinet are decentralized, all the important decisions are taken by one central point and the portfolios are there for the sake of those portfolios. There is no logic in the division of those portfolios and the division is not on the basis of making different functions easier. The portfolios are used to make the loyal parties happy and to take revenge from the parties who contradict with their views. Even in this cabinet reshuffle, the people who were concerned about the way the governing group arbitrarily acted in the impeachment of the ex—chief justice and who were confused about the whole process were demoted. The government initially took revenge from the people who had different views to the government and fighting people forces. Now this has gone into the government circles.

Although the government goes under the banner of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the cabinet reshuffle demonstrates that the government has become a group with Bonapartist characteristics in which all the powers have been centralized.

Although this cabinet reshuffle displays the way the government cheats people and the way the government acts against the people who contradicts within the government, it does not do anything positive for the society. It also demonstrates that the Sri Lankan ruling regime systematically improving the Bonapartist characteristics. The indication is that the government is preparing for the implementation of the second inning of liberal capitalism in an uncivilized manner with more control. We request all the people in Sri Lanka not to be cheated by this meaningless display and come forward and work together to defeat this challenge.”

and Muslim people took place island wide on 31st January, it had to face an attack by a group of thugs led by government politicians at Badulla and to obstructions by the police at Mawanella. A

seminar organized by the Equal Rights Movement at Gampola on February 6th on the theme ' why these disputes among Muslims and Sinhalese?" also had to face obstructions from Jathika Hela Urumaya a constituent party of the government.

governments over 20 years did not find solutions to the problem but made it worse.

Sri Lanka has a backward and weak capitalistic economy. There is no room in that economy for the development of engineering fields such as construction technology. Engineering technologies are brought from other countries. All the constructions such as buildings and bridges so far in Sri Lanka have been designed in other countries. The engineering technology for the expressway and the railway were provided by foreign countries. As a result of this, Engineers in Sri Lanka is compelled to work in technological and technological supervisory fields. Even the students studying HNDE course are directly employed in these fields.

This fight in Moratuwa University started as a result of this high competition for a limited number of job opportunities. It is the United National

Party and the United Peoples Freedom Alliance governments that ought to be responsible for this fight for maintaining weak capitalistic economic strategies, but not the Frontline Socialist Party.

The day that this fight started both those student groups were fighting for nearly four hours. Some students have made requests to the relevant authorities of the university to interfere from the time the fight started. They have not interfered. They allowed the fight to continue. According to those facts, if there was a coup behind this fight, the university administrators have become a party to that coup. On the other hand, were the serious attacks against the students of Kelaniya and Ruhuna universities the coups of the Frontline Socialist party? It is therefore, these accusations are obviously made by the government to cover up the inability of their system."

The government makes From page 02

We began this From page 05

Movement for Equal Rights From page 01

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Opening the United Kingdom branch of the Movement for Equal rights in London, Comrade Premkumar Gunarathnam stated that developing peace and unity among different nationalities cannot be done neither by having an innocent wish nor by having false catchy slogans but it can only be achieved by the selfless struggle under taken by those respective communities towards protecting the democratic rights of other nationalities.

The Inauguration of the of the Movement for Equal Rights United Kingdom’s branch was held at the London Wembley Chalk hill civic centre. Members from Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim organisations and their representatives and a large number of British nationals representing various civic organisations attended the inauguration. The chairman of the UK branch Seelan Sivaguru, Secretary, Senaka Rodrgo, Comrade Nandana Ranatunga and Comrade Sabesan Naagalingam also addressed the gathering stating their views. Comrade Sugath Senevirathna was the media coordinator for the event.

Comrade Kumar Gunarathnam also emphasized that equal rights

for oppressed masses could only be won by having a joint struggle among the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities living in Sri Lanka and not by the help of imperialists countries or by so called international organizations. He requests all communities belonging to all ethnicities in Sri Lanka to be vigilant and be aware of the imperialists and so called human rights organizations attempt to drag the national issue into their imperialist agenda. Tensions and suspicion among different ethnic groups could only be overcome by integrating common struggle to win democratic rights with the struggle launch by the Movement for Equal Rights.

It is inevitable that the struggle to win true democracy will become

a part of the same struggle to win socialism. We can only win trust and respect of the Tamil and Muslims living in Northern and Eastern provinces by shouldering their struggle to win democratic rights. It is the duty of true progressive forces to take the lead and the ownership of this struggle of the oppressed minorities and not to allow the fake nationalists to capitalize on the situation. He also emphasized that masses in the south should not fall into the trap of this government and it’s so called patriots conspiracies to create disunity among the nation’s ethnic groups and must be ready and prepared to fight against the militarization of the North and the East.

The Movement for Equal Right’s Swiss branch was established on the 26th of December in Zurich, Switzerland. Its Executive committee and the officials were elected on this day. Marking this occasion, representing the Frontline Socialist party, its politburo member Comrade Premkumar Gunarathnam, representing the New Democratic front, comrade Rayaharan, representing the Italian branch of the Frontline Socialist party, comrade Theemas Vijith

and representing the Sinhala and Tamil collective in Switzerland comrade Carl Bruner joined this occasion among the large number of attendants.

Comrade Gamini Vandakoon and Comrade Thilakaraj as joint conveyors for the Movement for Equal Rights Swiss branch, Comrade Udaya R Thennakoon as the propaganda and Media coordinator and comrade Teral Abesinghe as the Secretary for finance were elected at this event.

The Swiss branch of the Movement for Equal Rights is established

Unity among Nationalities cannot be developed only by slogans

Comrade Kumar Gunarathnam

The history of rivers of blood flowing through this land, the history of a war filled with wailing and sighs of sadness, the history of oppressed people sharing the pains sufferred in the same jailhouse being set up to kill each other devided along lines of language, religion and culture is in the process of being re-created. The backward capitalism of Lanka which is becoming more and more rotten, dilapidated by the day and going from crisis to crisis has once again chosen the path of spreading enmity among oppressed people and dividing them as its way out. Smear campaign weapons once raised against the Tamil people are now directed at the Muslim people. At this moment when projects to spread the poisons of racism and religionism among the Sinhala and Muslim peoples are unfolding under State patronage the responsibilities of the Left Movement are further increased.

The Rajapasha rigime which is a salad made up of a mixture of not onlly the featurs of Neo Liberal Capitlalism, but of a selection of features of backwardness, Facism and Bonapartism is skilfully managing the remants in society hypocrisy, backwardness and self centeredness for its power projects. Faced with this situation what are the paths which could be taken by the Left movement? There is the exrreme of pragmatism and populism seeking to take advantage of the opportunity. The other extreme is to seek the path of purity in isolation from society which is sinking in prejudices. The end result for the Left movement of choosig such extreme would be either to become a self seving reactionary gang of to become a simple isolated name board. Such an end result would dissipate the potential of the Left movement to liberate.

The true Left movement bears a high responsibility of the class. Therefore, seeking shortcuts to power exploiting the weaknesses of the class as well as the politics of turning the party into and ultra pure sect while leaving the class to be a victim of its own prejudices should both be rejected. Politics of the Left is not politics of re-creating hypocrisy, when the entire society is sinking in hypocrisy the left does not respond hyppocritically. The Left movement has a spirit of humanism. It is not a dispassionate humanism without clear class lines. It is a humanism which is marked by the class of the Revolutionary movement. The task of the frontliner is what is now necessary for Lankan society. It must be repeated that, that task is not the re-creation of hypocrisy.

Curtain of the stage of history is now open accomplish the frontline task of liberating the oppresse led by the proletariat from racism, religionism and tribalism which are being artificially promoted by the Bougeois rulers for the purposes of their power projects. That is the reason why we should mix elements of the spirit of humanism in all philisophical pursuits aimed at analysing new developments of capitalism at the present instance and complications of the social consciousness. The Left is not merely an academic subject. It is politics mixed with high emotions of class love towards all types of oppressd people and the courageous strenght of the fire of class hatred towards class enimies. Victory over the challenge faced by us today can only be won through such politics.

What is the challenge of the crisis?