Julie Bishop pulverizes ABC’s prejudiced misinformation

SEE http://www.juliebishop.com.au/transcripts/1277-abc-24-the-world-with-jane-hutcheon.html : “ABC 24 The World with Jane Hutcheon” .. with the Sri Lankan segment placed first in this re-presentation

JANE HUTCHEON    To discuss Syria and the state of the world the Deputy Opposition Leader and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop joins us in the studio. Julie Bishop welcome to ‘The World’, many thanks for coming in.
 JULIE BISHOP    Good evening.

          SEGMENT TWO : ……….. 
 JANE HUTCHEON    Let’s go to Sri Lanka now , and I wonder, do you support the return of Sri Lankan asylum seekers to their country of origin? 
 JULIE BISHOP    Yes, I do. Based on what I saw and have learned from a visit to Sri Lanka in January of this year, I’m convinced that the Sinhalese in particular have no reason to fear persecution in Sri Lanka. 
 JANE HUTCHEON    What about the Tamils? 
 JULIE BISHOP    Indeed the Tamils likewise are receiving much better treatment under the Sri Lankan government and if they were to fear persecution in any form, then paying a people smuggler and getting on a rickety boat and travelling thousands of kilometres across the sea is not the right thing to do. 
 If they do want to claim asylum, if they do claim a fear of persecution, which I would dispute, then they can go 30km into India, where they would be welcome and provided with health and medical support. 

An Australian Editor’s Advice: “Keep Sri Lanka in the Fold”

Editorial in The Australian, 29 April 2013

FORMER prime minister Malcolm Fraser and Greens senator Lee Rhiannon are singing from the same song sheet as Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, but they are misguided in calling for a boycott of the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka in November. Making that nation an international pariah is no answer to the human rights issues that have arisen since the Colombo government’s 2009 victory over the ethnic insurgency led by the barbarous Tamil Tigers, described by the American FBI as “the world’s deadliest terrorist group, worse (even) than Hamas”.

ABC can foul. See Niromi! Hear Niromi! Without a Knox …. No Demidenko

Michael Roberts, courtesy of Groundviews where a different title was used, namely, “ABC, Gordon Weiss and authoress Niromi de Soyza”

Like many people I used to think that such agencies as the BBC and ABC provided balanced reviews and were relatively unbiased. No more. Further confirmation: a recent panel presentation by ABC in March 2013 that was anchored by Jane Hutcheon,** exposed in blatant nudity the lop-sided perspectives within Aunty ABC. The presentation was timed to coincide with the UNHCR sessions in Geneva where the USA was sponsoring a resolution censuring Sri Lanka. No problem with that. But this was a serious ABC review dependent on two questionable “experts,” namely, Gordon Weiss and authoress Niromi de Soyza aka Subhodini Mariatta Anandarajah – known as Subha among her pals. When Australia has a bevy of possible commentators, from Ameer Ali to Rohan Bastin, Serge de Silva-Ranasinghe, Shanaka Jayasekera, Laksiri Jayasuirya, Noel Nadesan and Suri Ratnapala to choose from, their selections on this occasion indicated partisanship.

Niromi De Soyza’s Message to the Australians at Adelaide Writers’ Week

 Presented on 20 March 2013 — SEE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9uWKa5YfKQ

Thuppahi was led to this presentation of self by”Niromi” by a blog comment inserted in its ‘leaves.’ This was in the SECTION on “BOOK REVIEWS” rather than the initial review of Tamil Tigress by myself on 21 August 2011. I was on holiday when the Writers’ Week event took place, but those present at one of Subothini Mariatta Anandarajah, alias Niromi’s, presentations said that she shed tears on stage. Those present at two other events in Sydney and Melbourne also indicated that she burst into tears. The implications of this fact remain open to differing interpretations; but must enter everyone’s reading. As significantly, DBS Jeyaraj one of her erstwhile defenders, did not produce his fifth article as promised. In any event, apart from the different versions of the book the world is being presented with (see Bala’s comments) Subothini Anandarajah has shifted her stance and told her [silent] interviewer at Adelaide that she was confronted with the “enemy” when she functioned as  a female Tigress guerilla. But the first book’s back cover blurb speaks of her encounter with “government troops” during that first awful (because her bosom pal died) skirmish in December 1987 . Elsewhere in the book and in interviews she refers to encounters with both Indian and government troops. Again, one has to compare her initial 2009 newspaper account with the stories later. Unfortunately I was only led to the 2009 story AFTER I had written my initial essays.  The discrepancies are quite outstanding. Alas, readers seem to be guided by whether one is a good Tamil-for-the -Tamil-cause or a bad Tamil or a bad non-Tamil. Brand someone a government apologist and thereafter whatever  s/he says becomes unacceptable. Even women indulge in this tactic of playing the man not the ball.  Cheap tactics, simpleton minds! BALA  is a refreshing change [assuming he is truly a Bala].

Spare a moment’s reflection,too, for the Australian journalists and publishers who lap all this up without asking searching questions! Nikki Barraclough in Sydney reacted immediately when I first contacted her and sent the initial questioning of the book. She was on a flying visit abroad and said she would get back to me. Well, nothing followed. Likewise one of the book distributors in Melbourne who was organising a forum and inquired if I was available.When I said I would be severely critical and would not be a good choice, there was surprise expressed and I was not contacted again –no surprise that.         

Muslims under Fire: Ashes and Fear in Myanmar town

From Associated Press, in The Weekend Australian, 23/24 March 2013

CHARRED bodies lay unclaimed on the streets after riots in a town in central Myanmar yesterday, as global pressure mounted for an end to the Buddhist-Muslim unrest.  Parts of Meiktila, about 550km north of the main city of Yangon, have been reduced to ashes as the government struggles to bring the situation under control. Estimates of the casualties varied yesterday, but local MP Win Htein said about 25 people had been killed. Several bodies were seen on the streets, including the incinerated remains of one victim lying next to a burnt bicycle on a roadside late on Thursday. Angry mobs of men took to the streets for a third day after an overnight curfew ended. Flames raged from torched mosques and houses, sending acrid smoke into the sky. Mr Win Htein said angry Buddhist residents and monks were preventing authorities from putting out fires after Muslim homes were set ablaze.

A Traveller’s Anecdotal View of the Jaffna Peninsula Today

Amy Sarafin, courtesy of lankaacademic.com and http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/travel/sri-lanka-as-it-heals-from-war.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0 where the title reads “Sri Lanka, as it heals from war”

As soon as I arrived at the temple, an old man caught my eye and directed me to the inner sanctum. It was hot outside, and the sun was strong. But it was even hotter in the temple, where hundreds of festivalgoers had gathered.Once I walked beyond the crowds and entered the dark, smoky chamber, the air was cooler, though, with scents of burning ghee and faded coconut. The Hindu god Murugan, popular among the Tamil people of Sri Lanka, was in his alcove, garlanded in flowers and lighted by dozens of tiny oil lamps. I’m not a Hindu and tend toward agnostic, but my mother was sick, and the vibes here were strong. So I prayed.

The Rehabilitation of some Tigers and economic developmentnt

Camelia Nathaniel reporting from Kilinochchi in The Sunday Leader, 18 February 2013

The Civil Security Department (CSD) has recently recruited 3,500 former LTTE cadres despite requests by the TNA that rehabilitated cadres should be given a chance to lead normal lives as civilians and not be recruited into any military or paramilitary organizations.
While in the LTTE they had caused so much destruction to this country, but today having realized their mistake they have joined hands with the Civil Security Department (CSD) to rebuild the nation, said Ramalingam Kumar an ex-LTTE cadre who had joined the CSD after undergoing the government’s rehabilitation programme.

Mixed Messages and Dangerous Oversimplification in President Rajapaksa’s Independence Day Speech

Michael Roberts, courtesy of Groundviews, where it appeared a few days back with one difference in the title

In a significant act of outreach the Independence Day ceremonies were held in Trincomalee, a provincial city with a pronounced ethnic mix; while President Rajapaksa presented one part of his message in Tamil, repeating what he had said earlier (in English?) and then reiterating the same points in Sinhala. In keeping with the occasion and location, he referred to the Dutch and British interests in Trincomalee during the imperialist past as a prelude to his argument that Sri Lankans “have had to face continued challenges to protect the freedom and independence of our motherland.” In line with this emphasis, he also reminded the UN and the West of the obligations within the UN Charter which enjoin member nations to refrain from “interven[ing] in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.”

You are on the Path towards institutionalizing Lanka as a “failed state,” Sumanthiran tells Parliament

M.A. Sumanthiran M.P.

Full text of Speech made in Parliament on 10th January 2013 by MA SUMANTHIRAN M.P. during the debate on Impeachment of the Chief Justice

Thank you sir. Before I commence my speech I need to deal with two preliminaries, both relating to certain customs. The first one is that I must make a disclosure to this House of my involvement in my professional capacity in many matters relating to the matter under discussion and that is the proper thing to do. Even in this purported Report the first witness has referred to my name as seen in the proceedings of myself having appeared in the Ceylinco Shriram case.

The Other Side of the Impeachment Drama

S. L. Gunasekera, in the Daily Mirror, 20 January 2013

The impeachment of a judge of a superior court is indisputably a tragic event to be dealt with  due solemnity and wholly divorced from all considerations of extraneous matters such as party affiliations and `loyalties’; prospects of rewards; political gain etc. It is a solemn occasion where Members of Parliament are required and indeed bound to discard and ignore completely their party affiliations, the  decisions of their respective parties on such matter as well as the instructions of their party whips and decide wholly dispassionately and objectively whether on the evidence adduced before them, the Judge concerned was or was not guilty of any one or more of the charges against him that gave rise to the resolution for his impeachment and whether such charges were of sufficient gravity to warrant his dismissal.