Columns
EAM blunders again, misquotes court
View(s):
The External Affairs Ministry (EAM) evidently needs a crash course in the European justice system. A media statement issued on Thursday said the Government of Sri Lanka had “noted with concern the decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on October 16, to annul the EU regulations proscribing the LTTE”.
“Concern” is certainly a valid sentiment to express — except that it was not the European Court of Justice that had reversed the proscription of the LTTE. It was the General Court of the European Union.
The difference is that the European Court of Justice is the highest in the hierarchy whereas the General Court is the first instance court of the Court of Justice. On appeal, the European Court of Justice can set aside a judgment or an order of the General Court.
The official statement from Luxembourg clearly states “General Court of the European Union” on top. At the bottom, it says: “An appeal, limited to points of law only, may be brought before the Court of Justice against the decision of the General Court within two months of notification of the decision.”
Does nobody at the EAM know to read either?
Booze trick at Mattala
A prominent businessman taking a SriLankan Airlines flight from Bangkok to Katunayake via Mattala saw some passengers arming themselves with two boarding passes. Not knowing why this was, he did not however request the same facility at the check-in counters.
When the aircraft landed in Mattala for its usual transit, he saw these passengers disembark. He was told he could not leave the plane since he did not have a boarding pass for his onward journey to Katunayake. A short while later, he saw the same passengers return to their seats with their arms laden with duty free bags.
Curious, he asked them why they had gone shopping at the airport. He was told that booze, in particular, was cheaper at the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport than at the Bandaranaike International Airport! Also, you can buy duty free items twice now when coming to Katunayake via Mattala.
He immediately resolved to do the same on his next trip on the BKK-HRI-BIA sector; if duty free alcohol isn’t an incentive to use that airport, what is?
There is another reason for enticing people to disembark at MRIA. The facility’s performance is still lacklustre, to put it mildly. Having passengers go in and out of the airport will clearly count as traffic and be reflected in performance figures for 2014.
By Gad Sir, ‘Mathata Thitha’, what!
Mayor vacates seat for dead man in the sky
The Saudi Airways flight from Jeddah to Jakarta with a stopover in Colombo was cruising at an altitude of some 38,000 feet.
Passengers on board had ended their dinner and the lights were dimmed. One passenger found he was lucky enough when he realised the two adjoining seats were vacant. So he decided to wrap himself comfortably in a blanket and catch some sleep till the aircraft lands in Colombo.
However, halfway through the flight the passenger was woken up and told to shift to another seat in front. He grudgingly obliged, wondering the need for the shift. The three seats he had been occupying were taken to place the body of an Indonesian passenger who had passed away during the flight.
The passenger who was told to shift to another seat was none other than Colombo’s Mayor A.J.M. Muzammil. He was returning from Mecca after the Haj pilgrimage.
JVP sneers at ‘ali thovil in labu’
The actions of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) was akin to “labu gediya athula thovil natanava” or performing a thovil (exorcising) ceremony inside a bottle gourd.
The remarks came from Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake at a public meeting in the outskirts of Colombo.
He was alluding to the internal clashes in the country’s main opposition party. Dissanayake said this had prevented the UNP from playing the role of the opposition openly in the public arena.
So many errors: MR may need fact checkers
A large number of bilateral deals were signed during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit in September.
Since then, there has been confusion about how a Chinese national had entered into one of the agreements on behalf of the Sri Lankan Government.
This fact was first revealed in a media statement widely circulated by Sri Lanka’s Presidential Spokesman and International Media Unit. It contained a list of 27 agreements that had been signed in the presence of President Xi and President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Number 21 was the Term Sheet Agreement of the Colombo Port City Development Project Phase I. It plainly said, “Signed for Sri Lanka: Mr. Mo Wenhe, Chairman of China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd” and “Signed for China: Mr. Hu Huaibang, Chairman, Executive Director, China Development Bank”.
This week, Sri Lanka Ports Authority Chairman Priyath B Wickrama expressed shock at what had been published in the media statement. He said he had not been aware of this. When shown the list he said: “This is a mistake, a serious mistake. It is totally incorrect and I say it with responsibility.”
What the two Chinese nationals had signed was a financial document binding them together. In other words, China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd had entered into a term sheet agreement with China Development Bank to finance the Colombo Port City Project which was a Chinese investment in Sri Lanka.
“It was an agreement for the bank to give a loan to the Port City,” Dr. Wickrama said. “The actual Port City Agreement was signed between the Chinese Company and our Secretary.” And that was number 22 on the list — entered into by Ports and Shipping Ministry Secretary R.W.R. Pemasiri, for Sri Lanka, and by Mr. Chen Fenjian, President of China Communication Construction Company Ltd, for China.
Appearing on this page is another report about a crucial factual error in a press release issued this week by the Ministry of External Affairs. The way standards are slipping, President Rajapaksa may have to hire fact-checkers.
Swamy wants India’s highest award for Rajapaksa
Dr. Subramanian Swamy, a leader of the ruling BJP in India, has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to confer India’s highest honour – Bharat Ratna – on President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
In a letter to Premier Modi, Dr. Swamy says, “It is undeniable that because of the resolute leadership of the Sri Lankan President Mr. Rajapaksa, an enemy of India, namely, the LTTE, was eliminated on the battlefield by the Sri Lanka Army, despite the usual international Liberal allegation of human rights excesses.”
In the past, Dr. Swamy says, “we have awarded Bharat Ratna to foreign citizens such as Nelson Mandela who, although had made an admirable contribution to South Africa, did not directly contribute to India in any way.”
The BJP leader adds that he was happy to see from the “newspaper that you are visiting Sri Lanka soon and will address the Parliament in that country. This is a great event and you should be congratulated for turning around a situation of alienation of Sri Lanka by the previous UPA Government.
UNHRC hits out at action against Maldivian HRC members
Five members of the Human Rights Commission of neighbouring Maldives submitted written contributions to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of their country, but are now facing criminal charges, a UN agency has said.
The UPR is the periodic review by the UN Human Rights Council of the human rights record of a member country. A UNHRC statement says:
“We are deeply concerned about the case initiated by the Supreme Court of the Maldives against the five members of the Human Rights Commission of the country.
“In making a UPR submission, the Commission operated in line with international principles governing national institutions (known as the Paris Principles). The Human Rights Council specifically encourages the participation of national human rights institutions in the UPR process. The case in the Maldives was initiated suo motu by the Supreme Court through a summons issued on 22 September, and is currently under way.
“We call on the Government to firmly defend the independence of the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives, in line with the commitments made during the first UPR of the Maldives in 2011. The Government has a responsibility to ensure a safe operating space for the Commission and for civil society actors in the country, so that they are able to cooperate with UN human rights mechanisms without fear of reprisals.
“UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has also written directly to the Government of the Maldives to express his concerns.
“The UPR of the Maldives is scheduled to be held between April and May 2015.”