30 August 2021
PTA Covers Terrorism by Virus
Wikipedia presents Terrorism as:
‘Terrorism is, in the broadest sense, the
unlawful use of intentional violence to achieve political aims, especially
against civilians.’
As per my knowledge, the Prevention of Terrorism Act
(PTA) continues to be law in Sri Lanka. There has been some discussions
regarding legality of some of the Government’s actions against the pandemic.
The political editorial of Sunday Times,
dated 22 August was brought to my attention by the Tamil Diaspora:
[During the
first wave of the pandemic, the Government effectively imposed a lockdown and
effectively reduced the number of cases, while at the same time certain
politicians and legal experts questioned the constitutional legality of the
lockdown and the response of the Government. To this day, the Government has
not initiated any legislative process through Parliament to legalise and
regularise some of the actions taken and need to be taken. Most democracies
have acted swiftly by passing legislation in their parliaments, sometimes
recalling their legislature on grounds of public health emergency.
Some have chosen to older legislations and/or
some amend existing ones. Most except Sri Lanka have acted by legislating their
response to this pandemic. IMF policy tracker summarises the key economic
responses governments are taking to limit the human and economic impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic. The tracker includes 197 economies. Last updated on July 2,
2021, it clearly reflects the gaps between countries where pandemic response
was handled through a systematic and legalised process in contrast to Sri Lanka
where the response was haphazard. In Sri Lanka, powerful officials could wake
up one morning and decide to impose night-time curfew or regional lockdowns.
These actions if challenged in a court of law could expose the lack of legality
of some of these random actions.]
If such
questions of legality had been raised in relation to alleged Terrorism we would
have prevented war-crimes allegations. Then there is also Buddhism foremost article
9 in the constitution – according to which action of Dharma protected . The
power to so declare is vested with any governor who has no executive power in
that area.
My special attention was drawn to the
following:
[There is a much worse development due to
the exploding COVID-19 pandemic. There was a Tamil diaspora group that arranged
for 200 respirators for the Government. However, the Government could not
accept them. The reason – this organisation is one of six on which the
Government has imposed a ban. It was just this week that former Prime Minister
Ranil Wickremesinghe appealed to the Government to import 200 respirators to
prevent deaths in the provinces. Here is a story of how the bureaucracy
worked:
Respirators and ventilators are in short supply in the country,
particularly in rural hospitals. Some main Teaching Hospitals too lack
capacity. The daily growing numbers in hospitalisation if continued will even
further expose the lack of capacity in hospitals all over Sri Lanka. Members of
a prominent Global Tamil diaspora organisation organised some 200
respirators from a European donor country. Each respirator cost $13,000
which makes the total cost to be $2.6m. The country concerned also offered to
transport these respirators to Sri Lanka as an emergency assistance.
Experts from the Health Ministry, the respirator manufacturer
company and other specialists met up remotely to demonstrate the respirators to
senior members of the Health Ministry of Sri Lanka during late June 2021. The
Director General of Health Services – Dr Asela Gunawardena, Deputy Director
General (Planning) – Dr S. Sridharan, Deputy Director General (Bio Medical
Services) – Mr. S.A.J. Karunathilake and as an expert – Dr. Nilmini Wijesuriya
(MD, FCARCSI, FRCA) ERC and UK ALS Instructor, National Coordinator Working
Committee on
Resuscitation, College of Anaesthesiologists, and Intensivists
of Sri Lanka Kids Save Lives – Sri Lanka Project Coordinator, all professional
medical doctors, except the Deputy DG (Bio Medical Services) participated on
behalf of Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka. After an hour-long demonstration and
consultation, Ministry officials agreed to discuss internally and revert. Three
days later, the Deputy Director General (Planning) – Dr S Sritharan wrote back
to say that the Expert Anaesthesiologist Dr. Nilmini Wijesuriya has decided
that there is no requirement for these respirators in Sri Lanka and the donor
country should consider donating these respirators to “very resource poor
countries”.
The actual content of the correspondence is below:
Greetings from Sri
Lanka and thank you for assisting us in this challenging time.
Dr Nilmini, Consultant
Anaesthetist informed that unfortunately, there are no requests for this machine
from peripheries. The clinicians
managing these units will not increase ventilation at the moment. Then they may
be able to divert them to very resource-poor countries. Anyhow look at the
possibilities of donating Bipap machines, oxygen concentrators, and manikins
etc.
Thanks for your
contribution and understanding
Dr S Sridharan
Deputy Director
General (Planning)
Ministry of Health
Colombo – 10
Mob: +94 714 xxxx
In Sri Lanka there were nearly 70,000 cases just on June 21,
another 50,000 in July 21 and nearly another 50,000 in the first 17 days of
August 21. There were approximately 1,500 deaths each month in June and July
and another nearly 2,000 deaths recorded in the first 17 days of August.
After intervention from a high-ranking leader, the same Deputy
Director General (Planning) sent an official request this time stating that Sri
Lanka is in desperate need for these respirators. A similar formal request was
made by S Janaka Sri Chandraguptha the Additional Secretary (Development) to
the Ministry too on the same day in August. However, when the donor country’s
Head of Mission contacted the Ministry to organise the transportation and the
relevant clearances, unfortunately the Deputy Director General (Bio Medical
Services) who is reportedly in charge of receiving donations and aid relating
to this pandemic, possibly without realising that formal requests have been
sent to the capital of that country, in his freewill yet again, discouraged the
Head of Mission, stating that Sri Lanka has sufficient capacity to deal with
the emergencies. With such incompetence, lack of empathy prevailing within the
Health Ministry, it is surprise that the President decided to reshuffle the
minister concerned to another portfolio.]
To me – both sides seem to be anxious about legal actions
similar to war-crimes allegations. Added to this is the concern in this
particular matter – the report that ‘former Prime Minister Ranil
Wickremesinghe appealed to the Government to import 200 respirators’. Is it coincidence that Ranil would ask for 200
and the ‘Global Tamil diaspora
organisation organised some 200 respirators from a European donor country.’?
Transparency is needed here. We need to know the name of the donor
and the reason why it is working towards the Global Tamil Diaspora group? This
is not the time for political games. On personal basis – we have been
contacting the folks in Northern Sri Lanka with whom we have working
relationships and advising them to keep their confidence levels high during
this period. They express much gratitude because they consider us to be their
seniors. This confirms a relationship. Tamil culture as realised by me provides
the base for such supply and demand – to be on the basis of relationships
within a sovereign unit.
Those pampered by handouts turn out to be less intelligent than
those who earn benefits through firmly regulated structures. Hence I wrote in my review of my granddaughter’s
writeup on multiculturalism as follows
The declaration: what a privileged lifestyle I am living
My Review:
First it is important not to take junior or senior positions with other
cultures in appreciating multiculturalism. The above indicates ‘senior’
position. The word ‘privilege’ in this context denotes ‘good fortune’. This is
where Daddy’s bogan analysis comes in. One who is born in a bogan community
should not be assessed by one born and groomed in a highly structured part of
society. We have bogans in our Sri Lankan community also. Our family temple is
in such an area. Once when Appappa tried to discipline a guy who was walking
across the temple corridor with his thongs on, I said to Appappa that he lacked
the authority because he was conscious of his higher caste. I said I was not
and I was grooming them to merge with mainstream. Hence if I did not discipline
the guy – Appappa who had less authority than I had no jurisdiction.
In your
case the privileges came through hard work from your father’s side of the family.
I forewent earned benefits for a long time – towards developing my family in a
highly structured part of our community. I continue to do so even now at
community level. Hence at least half of you did not ‘happen’ out of good
fortune. It is your turn to pass on that structure to your juniors. That is how
you complete your duty to the community you are a part of.’
Like Bogan
in Australia, Terrorism in Sri Lanka is a stereotype. As highlighted yesterday,
An Australian of Sri Lankan origin referred to LTTE as Maverick and as being effectively
Equal to the President. That is the power of belief in one’s own sovereignty.
Many of us
who are writing the last chapters of our life in this current form feel the
urge to share our truth which leads to permanent freedom from desire and fear.
If the current government does what it does to itself – it is immune to desire
and its other side – fear. That is the basic tenet of Buddhism known to the
Common Non-Buddhist Sri Lankan. So why fear legality? On
"I consider these bail
conditions an obstruction in my path of justice as per anti‑discrimination laws
and equal employment opportunity policies for which I have paid the government,
the University of NSW and the police through my own work practices and through
my taxes, and I believe they are being imposed to intimidate me, subdue me and
break my spirit so I would crawl back to my Sri Lankan ghetto or go back to Sri
Lanka."
"The police still have not
gotten the section right despite my submission in Court that section
4(1)(a) relates to prescribed premises which UNSW is not. The Maroubra police who tried their best to
make me sign these bail conditions and who said that I will not ever get
employed by the UNSW but said I should be looking for employment
elsewhere. I said it is more painful for
me to be intellectually intimidated than to be physically punished, because I am
an intellectually driven person and my dignity comes from upholding the
truth."
My Sri Lanka does not take handouts
but welcomes transactions that confirm structure based relationships.
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