උපුටාගැණීම මුහුනුපොත

ඔබ නොදත් BMICH අරමුදල..(දත්ත, තොරතුරු , ව්ශ්ලේශන අවශ්‍යබව කියන්නේ මේ නිසාවෙනි..අනුර පොරක් වී ඇත්තේ ඔවුන්ගේ බොරු වපුරන ජඩ මාධ්‍ය බලකාය නිසා මෙන්ම ඒ බොරු එලෙසින් ව්ශ්වාස කරන අනුගාමික් ලබ්දිකයන් සහ ඒවා බෙදාහරින Distributorsලා නිසාවෙනි.

බන්ඩාරනායක අරමුදල කාගේද? ඔබ පුදුම කරන බන්ඩාරනායක අරමුදල මගින් ආපදාවෙන් විපතට පත්වූ ජනතාවට සහන සැලසීම සදහා රු. මිලියන 250 ක් ආධාර ලෙස ලබාදී ඇත.

බන්ඩාරනායක අරමුදල යනු කුමක්ද ?

එය පුද්ගලයකු හෝ පවුලක් සතු අරමුදලක් නොවේ.

එස් ඩබ් ආර් ඩී බන්ඩාරනායක ජාතික අනුස්මරණ අරමුදල යනු 1975 අංක දෙක පනත මගින් ස්ථාපිත රාජ්‍ය අරමුදලක් වෙයි.

මෙම අරමුදලේ කොපමණ වත්කම් තිබේද ?

මෙම අරමුදලේ රැ පියල් මිලියන 40, 000 ක් (රැ පියල් මිලියන හතලිස් දහසක මුල්‍ය වත්කම් ඇත)

ඒ සා විශාල ධනස්කන්දයක් මේ අරමුදල සතුවන්නේ කෙසේද?

බන්ඩාරනායක ජාත්‍යන්තර අනුස්මරණ ශාලාවේ ( BMICH)ආදායම් මෙම අරමුදලට බැර වෙයි.

සමහර වර්ෂ වල BMICH ආයතනයේ වාර්ෂික ආදායම් රැ පියල් මිලියන 4000 ඉක්මවා තිබේ.

BMIH පාලනාධිකාරිය

සභාපති ලෙස ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ජනාධිපති නිළ වශයෙන් පත්වෙයි

විපක්ෂ නායක

අගවිනිසුරැ

විගණකාධිපති

බන්ඩාරනායක පවුලේ එක් අයෙකු හෝ දෙදෙනකු

මෙලෙස බන්ඩාරනායක සම්මන්ත්‍රණ ශාලාවේ ආදායම් බැර වෙන බන්ඩාරනායක අරමුදලේ පාලනාධිකාරිය පහත දැක්වේ

ජනාධිපති

විපක්ෂනායක

විගණකාධිපති

බන්ඩාරනායක පවුලේ කිහිප දෙනකු

එසේ නම් බන්ඩාරනායක අරමුදල යනු සම්පුර්ණ රජයේ අරමුදලක් වෙයි.

එම අරමුදලේ මුදල් වියදමක් ලෙස කරන්නේ නම් ඊට එහි අධක්ෂ මණ්ඩල අනුමැතිය අවශ්‍ය වෙයි.

එසේ නම් මෙම ආපදා ප්‍රධානය ජනාධිපති , විපක්ෂනායක , ඇතුළු එහි අධ්‍යක්ෂක මණ්ඩලයේ තීරණයක් වෙයි.

බන්ඩාරනායක සම්මන්ත්‍රණ ශාලාවේ ඉදිකිරීම් 1973 වසරේ නිමවෙන අතර 1974 වසරේ සිට එහි ආදායම් ඉපයීම ආරම්භ වෙනවා.

එහි ආදායම බැරකිරීම සදහා 1975 වසරේ මෙම අරමුදලේ පිහිටුවනු ලබනවා.

වත්මන් රජය වසර 75 ක් දේශපාලනයට ශාප කරන නමුත් රජය සතු බන්ඩාරනායක අරමුදලේ මුදල් චන්ද්‍රිකා බණ්ඩාරනායක අතින් අගමැතිනිය වෙත ප්‍රදානය කර එය බන්ඩාරනායක පවුලේ ආධාරයක් ලෙස හුවා දැක්වෙන්නට ඉඩ හැර ඇතිබව පෙනීයනවා.

බන්ඩාරනායක ලා වික්‍රමසිංහ ලා වගේම වත්මන් රජයක් එකම දේශපාලන කදවුරක් වන බවටත් පවතින විශ්වාසය ඇත්තක්ද?

මෑතකදී පාර්ලිමේන්තුව මගින් පනතක් සම්මත කර හිටපු ජනාධිපති වරැන්ට නිව් නිවාස අහිමි කල මුත් ඉන් ඉවත්කර ඇත්තේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ පමණි.

චන්ද්‍රිකා සිරිසේන ඇතුලු ඉතිරි අය තවම එම වරප්‍රසාද අත්විදින බව පැවසෙනවා.ඒ අනුවද මෙම කණ්ඩායම් තනි කදවුරක් බවට විශ්වාස කල හැකියි.

මනෝජ් විජේසේකර සටහනක්….

Bandula Kendaragama Dam Safety Consultant in Melbourne

Could you please pass this information to His Excellency the President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

Attention: His Excellency Anura Kumara Dissanayake – Kotmale Dam – Gate Opening – Has Mahaweli Authority made a mistake or not?

Is there something wrong in the system

Your Excellency, I was attached to the CECB and worked in the construction of the dam from 1980 to 1985. I am a dam safety engineer with 48-years’ experience (and worked in 12 Countries).

A copy of my CV is attached for your kind perusal. As I understand, the Dam Safety Emergency Management Plan (DSEMP) of the Kotmale Dam is very brief, the inundation plan is very small, not adequate to identify the villages likely to be inundated.

As soon as the decision was made to open the gates, the Mahaweli Authority and Disaster Management Centre should have notified the people in the potential inundation area Nowadays, almost all people are using Mobile Phones. Therefore, the Govt should make an order to notify the people living in potential inundation areas to provide their Mobile numbers to the Disaster Management Centre.

Then, the DMC should create a database of names and mobile numbers of all people living and working in the potential inundation areas. Then, the Disaster Management Centre can s

end SMSs (text and voice messages) to all people living in the potential inundation areas within minutes. In addition, in my view, social media SHOULD be used to disseminate this message. If anyone needs more information on evacuation plans, please contact me on +61403204066. Your faithfully,

Your faithfully,

Bandula Kendaragama

Dam Safety Consultant

Chief Technical Principal, Bandula International Dam Safety Consultants (BIDSCO)

Member of the Technical Committee on Seismic Aspects of Dams, International Commission of Large Dams based in France

Monday, 08 December 2025 in Melbourne

Shenali D Waduge

Sri Lanka’s Education Ministry is preparing to implement educational reforms that were not designed by local experts and do not reflect Sri Lanka’s cultural, religious, or societal context. Instead, the proposed syllabus follows a Western, globally standardised model built around lifestyles, ideologies, and norms that differ greatly from Sri Lankan values. As a result, the syllabus is unsuitable for Sri Lankan children. Topics that were previously introduced at appropriate ages, such as in Grade 9 under Health Education, are now being proposed for children as young as 5 years old.

https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/ITGSE.pdf

These include content that is:

• Irrelevantfor early childhood development
• Potentially harmful, promoting sexual autonomy, gender identity exploration, and rights-based sexuality
• Contrary to cultural, religious, and family valuesthat guide child upbringing in Sri Lanka

Implementing such a syllabus without contextual adaptation risks

• Early sexualisation of children
• Confusion and anxiety
• Undermining parental authority
• Exposure to ideas children are not developmentally ready for

Sri Lanka must ensure that educational reforms protect children, uphold local values, and prioritise child development rather than importing frameworks incompatible with our civilizational heritage.

Briefing on ITGSE CSE Syllabus: Key Concerns for Sri Lanka

Source: ITGSE Introduction (Pages 12–14)

1. Purpose

The ITGSE promotes a global model of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) aimed at governments, ministries, schools, teachers, and NGOs.

2. Structure

Provides a full framework of concepts and topics,  learning goals (5–18+), and guidance for planning and implementation.

3. Reason for Revision
   Updated to reflectglobal trends,rights-based approaches, gender ideologies, and modern sexual and reproductive health (SRH)/HIV data.

4. Development Process

Created by UN agencies and international experts as an international standard, designed to influence national curricula worldwide.

5. Key Concern for Sri Lanka

• ITGSE promotessexual decision-making and sexual rights for minors, including children aged 5–8+.
• Conflict with Sri Lanka’s cultural, religious, and legal frameworks:early sexual autonomy is developmentally inappropriate, potentially causing confusion, anxiety, and premature sexual maturity.

6. Problematic Areas

• Treats children assexual decision-makers.
• Focuses onrights-based sexuality instead of responsibility-based morality.
• Promotessexual behaviours, gender identity, and romantic autonomy inconsistent with Sri Lankan culture.
• Conflicts withconstitutional protections of religion and moral teachings.
• Undermines parental authority.
• Goes beyond biology intoabortion, adoption, sexual feelings, and pleasure, which are not age-appropriate.
• Children under 12 arenot cognitively or emotionally prepared to digest these subjects.
• Early sexual discussions mayincrease experimentation through peer pressure.
• Digital platforms mayamplify unsafe content, a risk seen in multiple international reports.
• Educators may faceethical and legal dilemmas.
• The broader promotion ofsexual rights, autonomy, and gender ideologies threatens family and religious values.
• The curriculum introduces sensitive anatomical topics too early, conflicting with Sri Lankan cultural and religious norms. It risks exposing children to content they are unprepared for emotionally and psychologically and may undermine traditional family-based teachings and values.

7. Overall Assessment

• Appropriate:Only basic health, hygiene, safety, and child-protection topics.
• Inappropriate:All content related to sexual behaviour, sexual rights, autonomy, and gender identity is culturally, legally, and developmentally incompatible with Sri Lanka’s norms.

The curriculum introduces sensitive anatomical topics too early, conflicting with Sri Lankan cultural and religious norms. It risks exposing children to content they are unprepared for emotionally and psychologically & undermine traditional family-based teachings & values.

2 – Understanding Comprehensive Sexuality Education

Pages 15–18

2.1 What is CSE?

• Curriculum-based teaching about sexuality, relationships, values, and rights
• Covers biological, emotional, social, legal aspects
• Promotes gender equality, empowerment, sexual rights, personal autonomy
• Emphasizes gender identity, sexual orientation
• Frames adolescents as capable of autonomous sexual decision-making

Content irrelevant to Sri Lanka:

CSE concepts conflict with Sri Lanka’s laws, religion, and cultural foundations:

Sexual rights for minors, autonomy, gender identity themes conflict with Penal Code, religious teachings, family norms

• Developmental:Minors <12 not ready for autonomy-based sexual decisions
• Peer pressure:Peer-led discussions may normalize sexual experimentation
• Online risk:Access to external information can increase grooming/exploitation risk
• Local evidence gap:Western studies may not apply to Sri Lankan context

2.2 Other Key Considerations

• Shift from traditional sex education to rights-based CSE
• LGBTQIA+, sexual diversity, gender expression, pleasure taught
• Encourages challenging traditional beliefs and parental authority
• Advocates access to contraception, SRH services, sexual information

While – Safety, personal boundaries, anti-abuse education are covered.

Content irrelevant to Sri Lanka:

• Promotes sexual autonomy, LGBTQIA+ normalization, contraception access for minors
• Encourages questioning parents and cultural norms
• Civilizational/cultural erosion:
  • Threat to family and Eastern moral systems
  • Teacher risk:Educators face legal and ethical challenges delivering rights-based content
  • Peer influence:Minors pressured into sexualized behaviour

Limited usefulness (biological knowledge & safety), majority incompatible with Sri Lanka’s laws, religion, and civilizational values.

Sri Lanka’s Reality

Only a small portion of CSE (basic biology and safety) is useful.
The majority of content is culturally incompatible, legally questionable, morally inappropriate, and developmentally unsuitable for Sri Lankan children.

3 – Young People’s Health and Well-being

Pages 21–25

3.1 SRH Needs

• Covers puberty, menstruation, ejaculation, reproduction
• Contraception, HIV/STI prevention, sexual orientation, gender identity, sexual rights, pleasure

Sri Lanka Relevance:
Puberty, menstruation, abuse prevention, STI awareness

Content irrelevant to Sri Lanka:

Sexual rights, autonomy, LGBTQIA+ inclusion, contraception/pleasure education

• Developmental:Early sexual exposure harmful under 12
• Peer influence:Risk of premature sexual experimentation
• Online risk:Digital content exposure
• Teacher/legal risk:Delivering sexual content could breach Penal Code
• Civilizational erosion: Contradicts family and religious ethics

3.2 Other Issues (Mental Health, Bullying, Violence)

• Problematic: Empowerment framing to challenge norms, gender roles, sexual autonomy

3.3 Specific Subgroup Needs

• Rights-based sexual autonomy for adolescents incompatible

Sri Lanka Concern

This assumes adolescents are sexual agents with autonomy, which is:

• Legally incompatible
• Religiously unacceptable
• Culturally inappropriate
• Developmentally unsuited to minors

Overall Assessment of Section 3

Incompatible / harmful components:
• Rights-based sexual autonomy
• Contraception and pleasure education
• LGBTQIA+ and gender identity instruction
• Adolescent sexual rights frameworks

The rights-based sexual agenda of ITGSE directly conflicts with Sri Lanka’s cultural, religious, legal, and civilizational foundations.

4 – Evidence Base

Pages 27–31

• Evidence-informed globally: SRH knowledge, STIs/unintended pregnancy
• Content is Western-centric, difficult to transfer to Sri Lanka
• Supports sexual activity, autonomy, LGBTQIA+ inclusion for minors — incompatible locally

Why the Evidence Base cannot be applied to Sri Lanka

1. Western-Centric Research

The evidence used to justify CSE:

• Normalizes adolescent sexual activity
  • Assumes gender identity and LGBTQIA+ inclusion as universal norms
  • Promotes sexual autonomy as a right”
  • Encourages early contraceptive access
  • Frames adolescents as independent decision-makers

These assumptions do not match Sri Lankan society, where:

• Religion plays a central role
  • Family structures emphasize obedience, modesty, discipline
  • Childhood is protected from sexual exposure
  • Minors are not treated as autonomous sexual beings
  • Law prohibits sexual activity under 16

2. Cultural Mismatch with Sri Lankan Values

Most positive outcomes” cited relate to:

• Increased sexual activity with contraception
  • Improved comfort with identity exploration”
  • Increased LGBTQIA+ inclusion
  • Earlier access to sexual health services

All of which conflict with:

• Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian teachings
  • Parental expectations
  • Social norms promoting responsibility over personal autonomy
  • Legal prohibitions on sexual activity among minors

These findings cannot be transferred to an Asian, religious, family-centred society.

3. Evidence Promotes Sexual Activity, Not Prevention

Studies show:

• Adolescents engage in more sexual behaviourwhen exposed to rights-based CSE
  • Reduced harm” becomes the focus, not prevention of early sexual behaviour
  • More young people identify with sexual/gender diversity after exposure

This model is entirely incompatible with Sri Lanka’s legal and moral framework.

4. Risks Ignored in the Western Evidence Base

The global studies do not address:

• Online grooming in developing countries
  • Porn exposure following classroom curiosity
  • Social media sexualization
  • Peer pressure dynamics in conservative societies
  • Unsafe influence when teachers are forced to discuss sensitive topics
  • Legal risks for teachers if minors disclose inappropriate experiences

Sri Lanka cannot adopt foreign models that ignore local risk factors.

While global evidence may offer limited value for biological knowledge and basic health awareness, it cannot justify introducing rights-based sexual content to Sri Lankan children.

Sri Lanka must adopt an evidence base that:

• Respects cultural values
• Protects minors
• Aligns with the Penal Code
• Upholds religious teachings
• Strengthens family authority

The Western evidence model used in ITGSE is incompatible with Sri Lanka’s civilizational heritage and societal structure, and cannot guide national educational reform.

5 – Key Concepts & Learning Objectives

Pages 33–73

The ITGSE framework divides learning goals into four age groups:

• Ages 5–8
  •Ages 9–12
  • Ages 12–15
  • Ages 15–18+

Across all groups, the syllabus covers eight Key Concepts:

1. Relationships
2. Values, Rights & Culture
3. Gender
4. Violence
5. Skills
6. Body & Development
7. Sexuality & Sexual Behaviour
8. Sexual & Reproductive Health (SRH)

What Is Irrelevant or Dangerous for Sri Lanka

A substantial portion of the ITGSE Key Concepts promotes content that is:

1. Culturally incompatible

• Sexual behaviour
  • Masturbation
  • Contraception education for minors
  • LGBTQIA+ identities, gender expression, queer theory
  • Abortion, adoption, surrogacy
  • Romantic and sexual autonomy for minors

These are Western social constructs and do not align with Sri Lanka’s religious, cultural, or family values.

2. Developmentally inappropriate

Children aged 5–8 cannot cognitively or emotionally process:

• Sexual feelings
  • Gender identity theory
  • Sexual rights
  • Masturbation
  • Romantic autonomy
  • Pleasure” content

Introducing these topics at early stages risks:

• Confusion
  • Anxiety
  • Premature sexual awareness
  • Curiosity-based experimentation

3. Legally incompatible with Sri Lanka

Teaching minors about:

• Sexual autonomy
  • Contraception
  • Abortion
  • Consent in sexual relationships

…can contradict or complicate:

• Penal Code protections for minors
  • Laws against sexual activity under 16
  • Mandatory reporting obligations
  • Child protection responsibilities of schools and teachers

Schools could become legally vulnerable.

4. Socially harmful and peer-driven

Early exposure to sexual topics can:

• Normalize experimentation
  • Increase peer pressure
  • Encourage identity exploration due to social contagion
  • Create vulnerability to online grooming

These outcomes have been documented globally, especially where CSE is rolled out without cultural safeguards.

5. Threatening to civilizational and religious values

Core concerns include:

• Teaching children that values” and culture” are personal choices
  • Encouraging them to question family and religious teachings
  • Presenting sexuality as a central part of child identity
  • Normalizing Western relationship structures
  • Undermining Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian frameworks of moral conduct

This is inconsistent with Sri Lanka’s model of character development, modesty, family unity, and moral responsibility.

Only life skills, hygiene, safety, and age-appropriate reproductive knowledge align with Sri Lanka’s educational goals.

All content related to:

• sexual behaviour
  • sexual rights
  • sexual autonomy
  • masturbation
  • contraception for minors
  • LGBTQIA+/gender ideology
  • abortion-related information
  • romantic autonomy at young ages

…is culturally, legally, and developmentally incompatible with Sri Lankan society.

The Key Concepts section demonstrates that the ITGSE model is not a neutral health syllabus—it is a rights-based sexual and gender ideology framework, and therefore unsuitable for Sri Lankan children.

6 – Building Support & Planning

Pages 81–86

The ITGSE emphasizes a comprehensive rollout strategy involving multiple sectors and stakeholders. However, several components of this implementation framework pose serious concerns for Sri Lanka due to cultural, legal, and developmental realities.

6.1 Multisectoral Coordination Requirements

The ITGSE model requires:

• Government ministries and state institutions
  • Schools, teachers, and principals
  • Healthcare and social services
  • NGOs and INGOs
  • Community networks
  • Youth groups

This wide network increases the likelihood of external influence, particularly from INGOs advocating rights-based sexuality frameworks that conflict with Sri Lanka’s values and legal structure.

6.2 Teacher Training and Curriculum Delivery Risks

The syllabus requires teachers to be trained to deliver:

• Sexual rights and autonomy
  • Gender identity and LGBTQIA+ content
  • Contraception and SRH services for minors
  • Sexual decision-making frameworks

Risks for Sri Lankan teachers:

• Legal conflicts:Teaching minors about sexual autonomy and contraception can contradict the Penal Code and child protection laws.
  • Ethical dilemmas: Teachers may be forced to promote values they personally and culturally do not accept.
  • Professional liability: If a child is harmed or misled due to the content, schools and teachers may bear responsibility.

6.3 Parental and Community Engagement Concerns

The ITGSE requires that schools build support” by engaging with:

• Parents
  • Community leaders
  • Religious institutions

However, the framework does not allow for rejection of the content. Instead, it seeks:

• Parental acceptance of rights-based sexuality models
  • Normalization of gender identity theory
  • Encouragement of youth autonomy over parental guidance

This contradicts Sri Lanka’s cultural foundation where parents are primary moral and educational guardians.

6.4 Promotion of Mandatory Rollout

The model is clearly designed for:

• Full national adoption
  • Compulsory implementation
  • Uniform teaching from ages 5 to 18

Sri Lanka risks losing control over its own educational sovereignty, with a globalized Western syllabus overriding local needs and beliefs.

6.5 Peer-Led and Youth-Led Sexual Education Risks

The ITGSE encourages youth activists and peer educators to lead discussions on:

• Sexual rights
  • Gender identity
  • Sexual behaviour
  • Contraception and access to services

This creates several dangers:

• Peer pressure leading to early experimentation
  • Normalization of sexual topics in school environments
  • Vulnerability to misinformation and online sexualized content
  • Outsourcing moral instruction to untrained youth facilitators

6.6 Digital and Online Resource Risks

The ITGSE explicitly encourages digital learning platforms for sexual content.

Risks for Sri Lankan children:

• Exposure to explicit or adult material
  • Grooming and exploitation through online channels
  • Difficulty in monitoring child access
  • Western-based content overriding cultural boundaries
  • Children receiving information without parental supervision

6.7 Cultural and Civilizational Conflict

The ITGSE’s implementation model is fundamentally rights-based, promoting:

• Sexual autonomy for minors
  • Individual choice over cultural tradition
  • Gender ideology over biological reality
  • Reduction of parental authority
  • Replacement of moral education with rights-based identity narratives

This contradicts all major religious and cultural traditions in Sri Lanka:

• Buddhism – emphasizes restraint, duties, and moral discipline
  • Hinduism – upholds modesty, purity, and family guidance
  • Islam – prohibits premarital sexual autonomy
  • Christianity – opposes early sexualization and promotes chastity

While infrastructure, safety training, and general life skills could be supported, the core ITGSE objectives—sexual rights, autonomy, contraception for minors, and gender ideology—are fundamentally incompatible with Sri Lanka’s cultural, legal, and civilizational foundations.

The proposed implementation strategy risks:

• Cultural erosion
  • Parental displacement
  • Teacher vulnerability
  • Legal violations
  • Increased online risks
  • Peer-led normalization of sexual behaviour

Sri Lanka must exercise extreme caution before allowing any external framework to shape its national curriculum

7 – Delivering Effective CSE Programmes

Pages 89–98

• Peer-led methods, sexual service integration, monitoring sexual behaviour

Developmental: Early sexual discussion unsuitable for children <12
Peer influence: Risks early sexual experimentation
Online/digital: Exposure to unsafe content
Teacher/legal risk: Ethical/legal conflicts if teaching sexual content
Civilizational erosion: Full adoption threatens family and cultural values

Skills and life skills training are positive; sexual rights, peer-led sexual education, and sexual service access are incompatible with Sri Lanka’s legal, cultural, religious, and social framework.

What the ITGSE promotes:
• Peer-led methods involving minors discussing sexual topics
• Integration with sexual and reproductive health services
• Monitoring of students’ sexual behaviour
• Digital/online learning platforms

Irrelevant / Incompatible with Sri Lanka:
• Peer-led sexual education (risks normalizing sexual experimentation)
• Sexual behaviour tracking/monitoring
• Linkages to contraceptive/abortion services for minors
• Digital/online content that may expose children to sexual material

Risks:
• Developmental: Children below 12 should not be exposed to sexual discussions
• Peer influence: Peer-led sessions may encourage curiosity or experimentation
• Teacher/legal risk: Teachers risk violating Penal Code provisions by teaching sexual content to minors
• Online risk: Digital modules can direct children toward unsafe or explicit material
• Civilizational erosion: Undermines family guidance, cultural norms, and religious values

Bottom line:
While life-skills-based delivery is positive, the ITGSE model’s sexual-rights framing, peer-led sexual education, integration with sexual services, and online exposure are not compatible with Sri Lanka’s legal, cultural, religious, or social environment.

Over 60% of the ITGSE Syllabus Is Sexuality-, Gender-, or LGBTQIA+-Related — Not Relevant to Sri Lanka

A review of the ITGSE learning objectives (Pages 33–73) shows that approximately 62–65% of the entire syllabus focuses on sexuality, gender ideology, sexual behaviour, sexual rights, and LGBTQIA+ content.

These include:
• Sexual behaviours and sexual feelings
• Sexual rights and autonomy for minors
• Masturbation
• Contraception and abortion
• Romantic and sexual relationships
• Sexual decision-making
• Sexual orientation
• Gender identity, gender expression, and transgender content
• LGBTQIA+ inclusion across all age categories
• Pleasure” and comfort with sexual feelings”
• Access to sexual and reproductive health services
• Challenging cultural/religious norms regarding sexuality

Only 35–38% of the content relates to neutral or universally acceptable themes, such as:
• Hygiene
• Puberty basics (appropriate only for older age groups)
• Safety and abuse prevention
• Social-emotional skills
• Communication and respect
• Basic reproductive biology

This means the majority of the ITGSE is not academic, not scientific biology, and not development-focused—it is a rights-based sexual and gender ideology framework designed for Western societies.

Sri Lanka has no justification for Gender Identity Education in Schools

A further critical point must be emphasized:

Sri Lanka does not have a population of gender-questioning children to justify the introduction of gender identity, gender expression, or LGBTQIA+ content into the school system. This is not a documented national issue, nor is it a public health concern requiring nationwide intervention. Introducing these Western-origin concepts to all children from ages 5–18 would artificially create confusion where none exists and even encourage children to question their gender & identity.

What adults choose in their private adult lives does not require full-scale institutionalization in the school curriculum, especially when it conflicts with Sri Lanka’s religious, cultural, and legal foundations. Children should not be taught concepts that have no relevance to their childhood, lived reality, disrupt their developmental stages, or impose adult ideological debates onto their formative years.

Sri Lanka’s education system must remain focused on child development, safety, academic learning, and moral grounding—not on importing foreign identity frameworks that have no organic presence or demand within Sri Lankan society.

Shenali D Waduge

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B.,Ph.D.

රුපියල් මිලියන 900 ක් පමණ වියදම් කර දෙසැම්බර් 12 දා පවත්වන්නට ගිය ශ්‍රි ලංකා දිනය සංවිධානය කරන්නට භාරදී සිටි සමනලී එය කොට උඩ යාමේ හිතේ අමාරුව, <සිද්ධාර්ථ> කුමාරයාගේ පිටින් යැවීමේ සිද්ධියක් වාර්තා විය. කලින් 2017 දී ජේතවනාරාමයට (මඩු පල්ලියට නොව) මීතොටමුල්ලේ කුණු කන්ද ගෙන ගොස්  දමන පින්තූරයක් සිය මුහුණු පොත් ගිනුමෙන් ප්‍රසිද්ධ කල සමනලී, මේ වර යම් අන්ද මන්ද වූ භික්ෂුවක් විසින් ලියන ලද සිද්ධාර්ථ කුමාරයාට මඩ ගැසීමේ කවි පෙලක් ඇගේ ගිණුමෙන් ප්‍රසිද්ධ කර ඇත.

මාක්ස්වාදී, නිරාගමික, මවක් වීමේ අත්දැකීමක් නැති, මැදි වයසේ ස්ත්‍රීන්ට, සිද්ධාර්ථ කුමාරයා හිසරදයක් වීම වෙන රටවල මෙන් නොව ලංකාවේ නිරාගමික යන ආගම, බෞද්ධ විරෝධීන්ගේ ව්‍යාපරයක් වීමේ ප්‍රතිපලයකි. මීට පෙර නටාෂා එදිරිසූරිය සුද්දෝධනගේ කොළු පැටියා ගැන විහිළු කලේය. ඇය එසේ කර රටින් පැනයාමට පෙර ගුවන් තොටු පලේදී (?) පොලිස් අත් අඩංගුවට ගන්නා ලදී (2023 මැයි).

තමාගේම කවියක් හෝ ක්‍රියාවක් මඟින්  බුද්ධාගමට අපහාස කිරිමේ ශක්තියක් මේ සමනලීට නැති සේය. ඒ නිසා ඇය කරන්නේ අන් අයගේ ක්‍රියාවලට ප්‍රසිද්ධියක් ලබා දීමය. සමහරු කියන්නේ මේ සිද්ධාර්ථ  ප්‍රචාරය නිසා ඇයට විරුද්ධව ICCPR  පනත යටතේ චෝදනාවක් ගොණුකල හැකි බවය.

කෙසේ වෙතත් ඇගේ jvp ආණ්ඩුවේ ක්‍රියා නිසා ඇතිවූ ශාපය මෙවර ඇයට බලපෑවේය. ඇයට ලැබුණ බිස්නස් ඩීල් එක ගිලගන්නට ඉඩක් නොලැබුණි. මේ ශ්‍රි ලංකා දිනය සිංහල බෞද්ධ ජනයාට විරුද්ධව කරණ කුමන්ත්‍රණයකි. එය  1923/24 කාලයේ සිට ආරම්භවුණ ලංකාවේ වෙනම දෙමළ රටක් යන ව්‍යාපාරය, 2009 මැයි මාසයේදී යුදමය වශයෙන් පරාජය කලත්, එම මතවාදය දැන් 2025 අගදී ඉතාමත් බලවත් තර්ජනයක් වී ඇත. ජාති වාදය හා ජාතික වාදය අතර වෙනස නොතේරෙන AKD,  මුස්ලිම්, දෙමළ හා මාක්ස්වාදීන් සමඟ එක්වී ජාතික සමඟියක් හදන්නට යෑම චන්ද ගරා ගැනීමට සිතා කරණ ප්‍රෝඩාවක් පමණය. රාසමානික්කම් මන්ත්‍රී කැනඩාවට ගොස් දෙමළ රටක් සදා ගැනීමට හොඳ අවස්ථාවක් දැන් ලැබී ඇති බව පවසා තමන්ගේ ජීවිත කාලය තුල එය ලබා ගන්නට උදව් කරණ ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටිද්දී, ලංකාවේ මාක්ස්වාදීන් කතා කරන්නේ මොන ජාතික සමඟියක් ගැනද?

ලංකාවේ ව්‍යවස්ථාවට අනුව රාසමානික්කම් කැනඩාවට ගොස් කර ඇත්තේ දඩුවම් කල හැකි වරදකි.  ඒ වෙනුවට ශ්‍රි ලංකා දින පැවැත්වීම නොන්ජල්, සිරි සංඝබෝ ක්‍රියාවකි. මීට කලින් ප්‍රේමදාස, චන්ද්‍රිකා හා මහින්ද යන අය සිරි සංඝබෝ වෙලා ඔවුනුත් රටත් විනාශ කලේය. මේ නිසා දේව ශාපයකින් මහා ගංවතුරකින්  ශ්‍රී ලංකා දිනය (කැළුම් ජයසුමන කේන්තියට කියන්නේ රී ලංකා දිනය කියාය) සෝදාගෙන යාම රට කැඩීමේ හතුරු ක්‍රියාව නිෂේදනය කිරීමකි.

ලංකාවට දේශපාලකයින් කල විනාශය ගැන සිතන විට ලංකාව සුනු විසුනු නොවී බේරී තිබෙන්නේ මේ දිවයින ආරක්ෂා කරණා යම් අදෘෂ්‍යමාන බලවේගයක් හා ලෝකයේ වෙන කොහේවත් නැති ගම-වැව-දාගැබ මත පදනම්වූ  මුර දේවතා සංකල්පයද නිසා බව සමනලී සිහියේ තබාගත යුතුය.

සමනලීගේ ශාපය
Posted on April 27th, 2017

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම, LL.B.,Ph.D.

සමනලී ෆොන්සේකා නමැති තරුණිය හැඩරුව ඇති පංචකළ්‍යාණියක් නොවුනත් ප්‍රියංකර මුහුණක් හා නන්දා මාලිනීගේ හා මාලිනී බුලත්සිංහලගේ ගී ඉතා හොඳට ගයන්නට පවා හැකියාවක් ඇති පංචස්කන්දයකි. එසේ නැත්නම් තිස් දෙකක් කුණප ඇති පොලොවට පස් වන මස් හා ඇටකටු ගොඩකි. ඇගේ ළදරු පින්තූර වල පෙන්වූ තරබාරුකම අනුව සිතනවිට ඇය ඇත්තටම දළඹුවා සමනලයා වුනා වගේමය. ඇය කියන්නේ මේ ජිවිතය හැර නැවත ඉපදීමක්, ස්වර්‍ගයට යෑමක් නැති බවය. ඇය ඕමාර් කයි‌යාම් කෙනෙකි.

යම් පිස්සෙක් විසින් ජේතවනාරාමයට මීතොටමුල්ලේ කුණු දැමූ පින්තූරයක් මුහුණු පොතේ පලකර ඇත. මේ කවුරුත් නොදන්නා පිස්සාට සපෝට් එකට සමනලී ඉදිරිපත්‌ව එය ඇගේ මුහුණු පොතේද දමා ඇත. සමනලී යනු ගිය චන්දකාලයේ දේශපාලනයද කරපු ප්‍රසිද්ධ තරුණියෙකි.  ඇය මෙසේ හැසිරීම පටාචාරා නිරුවතින් ගියා වගේ නොවේ.  හරිහමන් හැදීමක් නැති, අක්මුල් සිඳගත් ඉරාජ් වීරරත්න-උපුල් සන්නස්ගල අළුත් පරම්පරාවට අයත් වන මේ තරුණිය රුක්මණී දේවිය ගැන සිහිපත් කරගත යුතුය.

රුක්මණී දේවිය කාටවත් වචනයෙන්වත් හිංසාවක් කල බවක් අප අසා නැත. නමුත් ඇය මියගියේ ශරීරය කැබලි කැබලි වලට වෙන්වීය. කර්‍මයට අමතරව තවත් නියාම හතරක් බුදු දහමේ ඉගැන්වෙයි. විජය කුමාරතුංග නළුවාගේ මිනියේ මුහුණක්, හිසක් නොවීය. ප්‍රේමදාස පංචස්කන්දය හඳුනාගත්තේ මිනීකාමරයේ මේසයක් යට තිබුණු ශරීර කෑල්ලකිනි. මේ දෙන්නා නම දේශපාලනය නිසා මියගිය අයය. රන්ජන් විජේරත්න, ජෙයරාජ් ෆර්නැන්ඩු පුල්ලේ එසේ මියගියේ කරුමය නිසාද?

රුවන්වැලි මහසෑය, ථූපාරාමය, සෝමාවතිය, සමාධි පිළිමය, අවුකන පිළිමය දකිනවිට ශ්‍රද්ධාවට අමතරව ඇඟ කිළිපොළායන ජාතික අභිමානයක්ද ඇතිවන මිනිසුන් සිටින රටක මෙවැනි ජඩහැසිරීමක් එළිදරව් කරන්නේ කුමන මානසික මට්ටමක්ද? මෙවැනි දෙයක් යුදෙව් ජාතියට විරුද්ධව ඇමෙරිකාවේදී කළොත් ඊට විරුද්ධව ක්‍රියාකරන බලවත් ලෝක/ඇමෙරිකන් යුදෙව් සංවිධානයක් තිබේ. මුස්ලිම් රටක නම් සමනලීගේත් අනිත් පිස්සාගේත් හිස් වලට ෆත්‌වා නිකුත් වන්නේය.
බුද්ධාගම මෙසේ පාච්චල් කිරීමට සමනලීලාට ඉඩදිය යුතුද? මෙය වල්බූරු නිදහසක් නොවේද? ජේතවනාරාමයට සමකල හැකි අපහාසයට ලක්කල හැකි මිනිස් නිර්‌මාණයක් ඇමෙරිකාවේ නැත. බකින්හැම් පැලස් එකද එවැන්නක් නොවේ. මක්කම හෝ වටිකන් එකට මීතොටමුල්ලේ කුණු නැවෙන් ගෙනියන්න යෝජනා කලොත් කොහොම හිටීවිද?

රුක්මණී දේවීත් මේ සමනලී මෙන් ඇගේ පංචස්කන්දය නැවත උපදින්නේ නැත, එය කාර් එකක් වගේ මේ ජීවත්වන කාලයේදී උපරිම ලෙස පාවිච්චි කලයුතු බඩුවක් ලෙස සැළකුවාදැයි අපි නොදනිමු. නමුත් රුක්මණී දේවිට අත්‌වූ ඉරණම තමන්ටත් අත්වේය කියා සිතීමටවත් සමනලී අකමැති බව නිසැකය. සමනලීගේ ක්‍රියාවට විරුද්ධව ඇගේ නිවාසය ඉදිරිපිට විරෝධය පළකිරීමටවත් බෞද්ධ සංවිධානයක් නැතිසේය. අඩුතරමින් සමනලීගේ අළුත් දෙවැනි සැමියාවත් මැදිහත්‌වී ඇගේ නොසන්ඩාල ක්‍රියාවට රටේ බෞද්ධ ජනතාවගෙන් සමාව ගන්නට ඇගේ මොළය පාදා දුන්නොත් ලක්‍ෂ සංඛ්‍යාත ජනයාගේ හිතෙන් ඉබේම මතුවන ශාපයෙන් මිදීමට ඇයට ඉඩක් ලැබෙනු ඇත

3 Responses to සමනලීගේ ශාපය”

1. ranjit Says:
   April 27th, 2017 at 9:24 pm

Prostitute is a prostitute you cannot change the habits overnight. God will punish these kind of creatures eventually. Nobody will cry for them. E

2. Ancient Sinhalaya Says:
   April 29th, 2017 at 4:06 am

I have a feeling this low life isn’t Buddhist. Catholic run Sri Lankan media will of course give the maximum
possible exposure to a story like these. Catholic run UNPatriotic party is ruling Sri Lanka today and anything helping
to destroy Buddhism will be always welcome by them. These low lives know it and they use it. Remember Rome
wasn’t built in one day. They are slowly slowly eroding Buddhism in Sri Lanka knowing Sinhala modayas will
surrender one day!

3. Ancient Sinhalaya Says:
   April 29th, 2017 at 4:07 am

Catholic run UNPatriotic party’s handy work to destroy Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

http://ltte-christian-ties.blogspot.com/

https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/08/05/christianizing-of-sri-lanka-unps-betrayal-of-buddhism/

https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/05/27/ranil-wickremasinghes-new-unp-3/

http://www.lankagrid.com/soma-thero/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_eJ1gX_fuU

https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/09/26/ltte-terrorism-church-links-can-someone-explain-these-photos/

http://jaffnahistory.com/Northern_Province/Sinhala_Villages_of_Jaffna_1695.html

Press Release

Pathfinder EdTech Institute officially opened its new Colombo campus located at No. 34, Sanchi Arachchi Gardens, Colombo 12, marking a significant step forward in its mission to support Sri Lanka’s digital upskilling and workforce development.

The ceremonial opening was led by former Ambassador Mr. Bernard Goonetilleke, Chairman of the Pathfinder Foundation, and Mr. K. Balasundaram, Group Director/CEO of MMBL Pathfinder along withMr. Dilan Perera, Associate Director at HCLTech. Joining virtually from India, Ms. Srimathi Shivashankar, CVP & Business Head – EdTech Services at HCLTech, praised the initiative and reaffirmed HCLTech’s commitment to advancing digital skills training and employability in Sri Lanka.

The event brought together industry leaders, academic partners, and well-wishers, reflecting the growing national importance of structured digital education and talent development.

Senaka Weeraratna

Japan’s Master Plan, if carried out without first attacking Pearl Harbour, would have allowed Japan to dominate everything from East Asia to the Suez Canal plus liberate India and Ceylon from British occupation, says Japanese war history expert, Hiromichi Moteki.

Hiromichi Moteki, Japanese war history expert, says that Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour (December 8, 1941) was a huge blunder and mistake in Japan’s wartime strategy leading to the total defeat of Japan in 1945. Instead had Japan implemented a far-sighted alternate Plan entitled Draft Proposal for Hastening the End of War Against the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Chiang Kai-shek” (Master Plan), developed by economic and other specialists early in 1941 and formerly adopted on November 15, 1941, the course of history may have taken a different turn.

Moteki is the Chairman of the Tokyo-based Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact (SDH), that challenges the conventional narrative of the war manufactured by mainly Western countries, which he argues was “victor’s justice” forced on Japan by the Allied powers. Japan is portrayed as a Criminal Nation. But the truth is vastly different.  The Book entitled ‘Japan’s Master Plan for Victory: What could have been’ (2018), authored by Hiromichi Moteki attempts to put the record straight.

On November 15, 1941, three weeks prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese government and Imperial General Headquarters held a liaison conference. The participants discussed the Draft Proposal for the Promotion of the End of the War Against the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Chiang Kai-shek,” and decided on its implementation. This draft proposal is the Master Plan for victory referred to in Moteki’s Book.

Moteki’s submission is that, Had Japanese military leaders stuck to this Master Plan, the outcome of the war would have been very different, an outcome that Winston Churchill feared in his April 15, 1942 letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt (after Japan’s successful air raids on British occupied Ceylon ) where Churchill reverts to the grave situation in the Indian Ocean … arising from the fact that the Japanese have felt able to detach nearly a third of their battle fleet and half their carriers, which force we are unable to match for several months. The consequences of this may easily be (A) The loss of Ceylon, (B) Invasion of Eastern India with incalculable internal consequences to our whole war plan and including the loss of Calcutta and of all contact with the Chinese through Burma. But this is only the beginning. Until we can fight a fleet action there is no reason why the Japanese should not become the dominating factor in the Western Indian Ocean. This would result in the collapse of our whole position in the Middle East, not only because of the interruption to our convoys to the Middle East and India, but also because of the interruptions to the oil supplies from Abadan, without which we cannot maintain our position either at sea or on land in the Indian Ocean Area. Supplies to Russia via the Persian Gulf would also be cut. With so much of the weight of Japan thrown upon us we have more than we can bear”.

This alternate Plan required Japan first to attack the UK and Netherlands East, South Asian and South-East Asian colonies, and then for the Japanese military to proceed West in the direction of the Middle East.

It assumed that ‘with the UK weakened or unable to continue, Japan would persuade the US that conflict with Japan would be futile”, and furthermore any attempts to supply UK forces from the north, over the Soviet Union, could be disrupted easily.

With the UK in a relatively weakened position, the draft proposal further assumed that the US would lose the will to continue hostilities against Japan” (an unprovoked and isolationist US was unlikely to enter a theatre of war in the Pacific, Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean or Europe given the heavy opposition in USA to such entry among the American public).

Draft Proposal

Moteki I have also stated that this strategy is virtually identical to one devised by Ishiwara Kanji, a strategist of genius proportions. After World War II had ended, Ishiwara told reporters from Associated Press and United Press that if he had been in charge, Japan would have won. What he meant was that if the Japanese had followed the guidelines in the Draft Proposal, victory would have been theirs”.

Fall of Ceylon – Consequences

He says I am grateful to amateur historian Tanimoto Sunao for telling me about Russell Grenfell, a captain in the British Navy, who wrote the following lines in his book ‘Main Fleet to Singapore’:

Should the Japanese go on to capture Ceylon, an infinity of mischief would be within their reach. They could stop the flow of oil tankers coming down the Persian Gulf to give mobility to British and Allied ships and aircraft. They could sever the newly opened southern supply line to Russia through Persia. Seaborne communication between India and the outside world could be cut off. Nor was this the worst they could do. Along the east coast of Africa ran the main British supply route to the Middle East. By it came all the reinforcements of men, tanks, guns, ammunition, lorries, and all the numberless other things needed by the Desert Army. This, too, would be vulnerable to Japanese sea power; and if it were successfully attacked, our whole Middle East position was imperiled, including our naval influence in the Mediterranean. For with its communications cut, the Desert Army could not avoid defeat, Rommel would reach Cairo, the Mediterranean fleet base at Alexandria would be overrun, the overland route to Iraq, Persia, and India would be at the German disposal, and the Suez Canal would become an enemy waterway. The havoc that the Japanese could do to the British war effort if they used their command of the sea to strike westward was incalculable and would probably be catastrophic.”

The Book: Main Fleet to Singapore (1951)

• Author: Captain Russell Grenfell, a Royal Navy officer.
• Content: An in-depth account of the early naval war in the Pacific, focusing on the sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse and the subsequent fall of Singapore.
• Significance: Offers strategic analysis and lessons from the disaster, making it a key text for understanding the end of British naval power in the East.

It was the Imperial Japanese Navy that ‘chased the Royal Navy from the Indian Ocean’. Japan together with the other Axis partners, Germany and Italy, though they lost the war, destroyed more than an ‘arm and leg’ of the British Empire.  It was Japan that brought an end to British naval power in the East.

Moteki then makes the point that Japan’s highly flaunted success at Pearl Harbor was in fact a defeat rather than a victory for Japan. Pearl Harbor wasn’t just an attack — it was a strategic gamble that ultimately failed. Admiral Yamamoto’s original plan included a devastating third wave that never came about, a decision that left American fuel reserves, repair yards, and critical infrastructure untouched.

The Japanese blame Admiral Nagumo for several major failures of Japan to capitalize on their stunning successes early in the war. Nagumo was relatively old for these devilish risky operations. A younger Japanese naval officer, at the helm, as the Commander of the Fleet may have done better, say some Japanese.  

1)     At Pearl Harbour, Nagumo failed to execute the planned Third Wave which would have crippled the American Fuel Depots and infrastructure.

2)     Nagumo failed to invade Ceylon despite two highly successful bombing raids on Colombo (April 5th, 1942) and Trincomalee (April 9^th, 1942). Ceylon was very poorly defended. Japan had 44, 000 Troops in their Ships but the Japanese failed to land on the soil of Ceylon at this critical juncture. It would have been a cake walk for Japan had the Japanese soldiers landed in Ceylon in April 1942

3)     Nagumo hesitated in taking correct decisions in time at Midway exposing the Japanese to their biggest Naval defeat in the war, from which they never recovered fully. Midway was a trap that even Admiral Yamamoto fell for.

Another huge failure in Japanese war strategy (in the eyes of the Japanese) was the failed invasion of India via Imphal and Kohima in the Northeast of India in 1944. This should never have taken place.

Japan’s Plan for liberation of Ceylon from British occupation

Moteki says:

As I have stated throughout this book, the plan was to topple the Chiang Kai-shek administration and establish a coalition government under Wang Jingwei and Chiang. The next step would be achieving independence for the Philippines, Burma, India, and other Asian nations”.

What if the Japanese had put Boots on the Ground in Ceylon in April 1942? Japan was basically a Mahayana Buddhist country. And friendly towards other Buddhist countries in Asia. Japan was the leader of the Buddhist world in the pre – war era. Japan sent the biggest Buddhist delegation to the Parliament of Religions Conference held in Chicago in 1893. Zen Master D.T. Suzuki shone at this Conference alongside Anagarika Dharmapala for Buddhism as much as Swami Vivekananda did for Hinduism.

The Japanese rejected the Manifest Destiny theory of the Christian West. Japan was not prepared to accept the freezing of the World Order based on colonialism and making it the Status Quo that could not be challenged or changed except at the risk of being branded as someone committing crimes against peace. The Manifest Destiny theory was that the United States was destined—by God—to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent and there after the Asia – Pacific.

Sinhalese Defiance of Foreign Occupation of Sri Lanka

The Sinhalese never liked foreign occupation. When the Portuguese were carrying a Reign of Terror during their occupation of Sri Lanka (1505 – 1658) the Sinhalese invited the Dutch to help them to get rid of the Portuguese. Likewise, the Kandyan Kingdom sought the help of the English to push the Dutch out of Ceylon (1640 – 1796). It is quite possible that the Sinhalese seeking freedom from foreign rule would not have resisted a Japanese entry. They would have received a warm welcome especially from the Buddhist monks who would have thrown open the Buddhist Temples for Japanese accommodation. It was a Buddhist Temple in Trincomalee which hid two Japanese pilots of Japanese Planes that had crash landed after the raid on Trincomalee on April 09, 1942. The Buddhist monks looked after the Japanese Airmen, fed them, nursed them and after recovery helped them to escape to Burma by boat which was liberated by the Japanese. They survived the war – thanks to these Buddhist monks.  

The enemy of the British occupation of Ceylon were the people of Ceylon. Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and other categories were inhabitants of Ceylon. They wanted freedom from foreign occupation. Japan was seen as the liberator of Asia from Western Colonial Domination. The Great Leaders of Asia and founding fathers of their respective nations such as Netaji Subash Chandra Bose (India), Sukarno and Mohammed Hatta (Indonesia), Aung San and U Nu (Burma), Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam), D.S. Senanayake, Dudley Senanayake and J.R. Jayawardene (Ceylon) were all friends and admirers of Japan. They did not fall victim for the racist propaganda line of the Western colonial countries who demonize and blacklist any one in their colonies who wants to end colonial rule. The greatest admirer of Japan in Ceylon (before WW 2) was Anagarika Dharmapala who died in 1933. He extolled the Sinhalese to look up to Japan as the Role Model having visited Japan together with Colonel Henry Olcott in 1886.

The crowning glory of Sri Lanka’s ties with Japan rests with J.R. Jayewardene who on the instructions of his Prime Minster D.S. Senanayake pleaded the cause of Japan at the San Francisco Peace Conference in 1951 asking for compassion to be shown to Japan (quoting the Buddha “Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal law,” Dhammapada (Verse 5), and not to impose punishment demanding Reparations from Japan. Many Japanese to this day confirm that this unequivocal plea for mercy towards Japan from Ceylon at this Conference saved Japan millions of Dollars when fellow Asian countries withdrew their demands for Reparations after listening to Ceylon’s delegate J.R. Jayewardene.     

Moteki says that the unwise attack on Pearl Harbour brought the USA into the war early and unnecessarily, which should not have happened. It was a tactical victory but a strategic defeat. Japan’s planners had underestimated the power of the USA by thinking that they could defeat the US in the Pacific with their powerful naval forces.

US naval forces instead defeated Japan with impressive victories at Midway, Coral Sea, and Guadalcanal, reducing Japan to a weakened naval power unable to defend effectively their country from ensuing US island-hopping tactical attacks.

Moteki argues that Japan should have placed more reliance on its Army.  With a minimum but determined effort it had already in early 1942 conquered most of the UK and the Netherlands controlled areas in South-East Asia. If it had moved directly from there to the Middle – East, it would have dominated the world’s oil supplies. For Japan, that would be its final victory.

Japan had fought China for eight long years since 1937 yet was unable to defeat China. It was this failure of the Japanese Army on land that led Tokyo to prefer the naval strategy that had guaranteed later its final defeat.

Moteki is unimpressed with the strategy adopted by the highly glorified Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the Supreme Commander of the Combined Fleet. He blames Yamamoto for Japan’s ultimate defeat.   It was Yamamoto, who pushed for the futile strategy of having the navy attack southward. Yamamoto was given a free hand after being elevated to a super star status after his spectacular daring raid on Pearl Harbour. Moteki says that the Japanese army, with its early victories in Southeast Asia, should have been given more opportunity.

The Indian Ocean should have been the focus of the Japanese military effort. Not the Pacific nor Australia. Prime Minister Tojo himself realized this truth in 1944 but far too late. Tojo and his entire Cabinet was forced to resign in 1944 when Saipan was captured by the Americans.

The liberation of India through an entry from the Southern coast was well within their capacity in the early stages of the war. That would have had catastrophic consequences internally. British India would have collapsed in 1942. This is the wisdom in hindsight.

 Japan’s role as liberator of Asia

In the early part of the 20th century, it is undisputed that Japan was the only country in the world that stood out openly for the liberation of Asia from western colonialism and had the capacity and resources to take on the challenge. ‘Asia for Asians’ became a battle cry of the Japanese. It was the first non – white country to defeat white majority countries on the battlefield using modern technology, in the last 200 years.  No other Asian country including China and India took up such a Pan–Asian slogan or was placed in such militarily strong position.

On the day following the attack on Pearl Harbour, i.e., December 8, 1941, an Imperial Rescript described Japan’s war aims: to ensure Japan’s integrity and to remove European colonialism from Asia and bring stability to East and Southeast Asia.

The idea of decolonization under Japanese leadership resonated with Asians widely because, in the words of former U.S. President Herbert Hoover in 1942, universally, the white man is hated by the Chinese, Malayan, Indian and Japanese alike,” due to his heartless and spiteful conduct as a colonial master over a few hundred years.”

Japan’s stunning military victories in 1941 – 1942

Thirty-six years after its victory in the Battle of Tsushima, Japan struck the greatest decisive blow ever by any non – white country or non – white people to European power in Asia with the attack on Pearl Harbour. In about 90 days, beginning on December 8, 1941, Japan overran the possessions of Britain, the US and the Netherlands in east and south-east Asia, taking the Philippines, Singapore, Malaya, Hong Kong, the Dutch East Indies, much of Siam and French Indochina, and Burma with bewildering swiftness to stand poised at the borders of India by early 1942. All over Asia, subject people cheered the Japanese advance into countries forcibly held and occupied by western colonial powers.

General Yamashita – Tiger of Malaya

In the eyes of Japan, General Yamashita suddenly became the man of the hour and was called The Tiger of Malaya. The brilliant military campaign of General Tomoyuki Yamashita in the Malay Peninsula in early 1942 is described in detail and displayed with graphics in the Yushukan Museum which is found next to the Yasukuni Jinja (Shrine) in Tokyo. The Japanese conquest of Malaya and Singapore (considered impregnable by the British colonial rulers) in a mere 70 days under the leadership of General Yamashita and the sinking of the British warships Prince of Wales (Pride of the British Royal Navy) and Repulse by Japanese carrier – borne torpedo aircraft led to the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill calling the humiliating fall of Singapore to Japan as the “worst disaster” and “largest capitulation” in British military history. It was one of the biggest blows to Western prestige in Asia as it was coupled with the surrender of 130, 000 British Empire troops to General Yamashita’s Japanese army of 30,000 troops. This was the death blow to European colonialism, and it was never able to recover their supremacy in Asia thereafter.  

Select Excerpts from Moteki’s book

Rationale for entering the war

Japan certainly did not enter hostilities with the aim of conquering the world or even invading another nation. Faced with an environment that threatened Japan’s security and survival, the Japanese accurately grasped the situation that confronted them and rose to defend themselves using the few strategies available to them”

If only the Indian National Army had advanced from Ceylon to India …
If the Japanese had conducted the Imphal operation on land, in the first half of 1943, when they had the air advantage, and if reinforcements had joined the landing operation from Ceylon, Japanese troops and Indian National Army units might very well have been able to triumph over the enemy.

If Japanese and Indian forces had continued to advance, and the British Indian Army had surrendered, many of the defeated soldiers might have joined forces with the Indian National Army soldiers. Then they might have defeated the British soldiers from India. Once that started happening, things would have proceeded very quickly. The British soldiers from India might very well have been defeated quickly. What would the consequences have been?

The Japanese had already told the Filipinos and Burmese of their intention to acknowledge their independence. Furthermore, Indian nationalists might have been able to establish a government headed by nationalist hero Subhas Chandra Bose — not a provisional government, but a full-fledged one.

Could the US have refused to recognize such a government? How would the Americans have dealt with this problem; after professing they were fighting a just war. They would have been at their wit’s end. They might even have been reluctant to continue hostilities against Japan”.

Potential for Indian independence increases
Operation 11 would have accomplished even more than the obvious. When Ceylon was captured, it was not only Navy personnel, but also two Army divisions that occupied the island. Then soldiers in the Indian National Army could have established a base in Ceylon where they could plan a landing on Indian soil.

For that to happen, Japanese troops in Burma would have to defeat British troops from India in air battles. Then the Indian National Army, with Japanese support, could achieve air supremacy, and advance without difficulty.

On the aerial-warfare front, the Japanese had the 5th Air Division in the Burma area. In September 1942 that division conducted three operations there, overwhelming the enemy. The Fighter Air Group led by Col. Kato Tateo, which later became famous, was part of the 5th Air Division.

But the division was weakened when half of it was diverted to Guadalcanal. For the purposes of our simulation, we must assume that the Battle of Guadalcanal, which contravened the policies laid out in the Draft Proposal, never took place. We must also assume that the 5th Air Division’s war potential remained unchanged. In that case, the Japanese would have had superior air power in the Burma area, compared with that of the British. This assumption is very critical because when the Japanese launched operations in Assam and in Imphal, their aerial war potential was reduced to less than half its former strength (not through combat with UK forces, but because military authorities disregarded the Draft Proposal and diverted troops to the mire of Guadalcanal and New Guinea”.

Did Commander Yamamoto understand the Draft Proposal when he attacked Ceylon?
But between February 20 and 23 (1942) the Combined Fleet Headquarters conducted a map exercise on board the battleship Yamato in which an attack targeting Ceylon was launched in the Indian Ocean. Members of the Naval General Staff were present, as were three observers from Army General Staff Headquarters, who had been invited. The members of the Staff Headquarters apparently objected to the assault, stating that it should not be initiated until Germany had made more progress with its Africa operation, and the subjugation of Burma was complete. The Naval General Staff officers did not voice their opinions. But on February 27 at a joint Army-Navy research conference, they communicated their disapproval of the Ceylon operation.

It appears the Headquarters of the Combined Fleet understood the Draft Proposal, while the Naval General Staff did not. I say this because the Combined Fleet embarked on the Ceylon operation on April 5, even though Headquarters had rejected it. That operation succeeded in sinking two heavy cruisers, as well as the HMS Hermes, a light aircraft carrier. At about the same time the Kondo Fleet, based in Penang and commanded by Adm. Kondo Nobutake, set out accompanied by seven submarines; during a daring, destructive encounter in the Bay of Bengal, it sank 28 merchant ships. These operations should have continued, based on the original strategy, but that was not to be. As stated earlier, on April 10 Commander Yamamoto ordered the Nagumo Fleet to return to Japan so that it could take part in the Midway operation.

After the Pearl Harbor strike Yamamoto had ordered Combined Fleet Chief of Staff Ugaki Matome to investigate subsequent operation plans. They involved attacks on Midway, Johnston Atoll, Palmyra Atoll, and Hawaii. Yamamoto also recommended that the first attack should target Ceylon, an important enemy base, while there was still time to spare (the Ceylon operation).

Since in April Burma was not fully under Japanese control, the Navy could not count on help from the Army. Without that, the Navy would only be displaying their war potential — showing their hands to the enemy.

The Midway operation could never have appeared in the Draft Proposal. The only explanation that occurs to me is that Navy officials did not understand the true objective of the Western Asia operation.”

Victory Disease

There was one more misfortune that arose in connection with the Pearl Harbor success —victory disease. Prof. James Wood cites it as the primary reason for Japan’s defeat. It led to the following notion: Now is the best time to confront the Americans head on! We will crush them. There is no need to worry about defense!” This mindset spread like wildfire and became entrenched. I agree with Prof. Wood; victory disease caused the Japanese to depart completely from their original, basic strategy.”

Soviet – Japan Non – Aggression Pact (April 1941)

Moteki has some nice things to say about this Pact.

The drafters of the master plan were misled by the existence of a Japan-USSR neutrality pact. First, when the pact was signed, Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuke was fantasizing about concluding a Japan-Germany-USSR alliance on Japan’s initiative. Therefore, in April 1941 such a pact was signed. But within only two months, in June, hostilities commenced between Germany and the USSR.

Failing to understand Germany’s true aims, Matsuoka made a monumentally foolish mistake. The Japanese should have extricated themselves from the Japan-USSR Neutrality Pact. Even if they did not attack the USSR, the possibility that they might would have significantly constrained the Russians and helped Germany.

Then Matsuoka turned table and advocated an offensive against Far Eastern USSR, but Emperor Showa refused to countenance such a move. Japan should certainly have terminated the treaty with the USSR, given that its involvement therewith stemmed from an error in judgment”.

Adverse effects of Japan-USSR neutrality pact
Before anyone knew it, the neutrality pact had become a reality — a grim one. Its benefits were never reaped by Japan. The USSR, however, could now concentrate on waging war with Germany without a care in the world. Thus, a Treaty from which Germany received no benefits whatsoever was now inescapable”.

Japan without the obligations of this Treaty could have easily interdicted the flow of weapons and other valuable material from the USA to the Soviet Union under the Lend Lease Agreement. That would have been of great assistance to Germany.

……………………………….

Conclusion

I have shared these thoughts as they relate to the most catastrophic event of the last century i.e., Second World War, as seen through the eyes of a learned and dedicated Japanese seer whose love for his country Japan and its finest ideals is impeccable.

Hiromichi Moteki is a decent kindhearted man who I had the privilege of meeting in Tokyo when he invited me to take part in a Seminar held on the premises of the Japanese Parliament (Diet) on November 14, 2018. I also had the privilege of Meeting Mr. Hideaki Kase (former President of the Society for Dissemination of Historical Fact) on this occasion, among several other important Japanese.  Mr. Kase died in November 2022 at the age of 85 years. Meeting and talking to them and listening to their side of the story was insightful. A rare privilege. Day after day we are constantly bombarded with propaganda against the Japanese and the Germans despite the end of the war 80 years ago. The online war continues ad nauseam against Japan.

These are my points in summary:

·  Japan’s Pivotal Role: Japan’s fight against the West was the pivot that led to the freedom of Black and Brown peoples, freeing them from centuries of colonial subjugation. No other non – white nation had such economic and military clout as Japan in the pre – war period.

·  Sri Lanka’s “Easy” Independence: Sri Lanka’s independence in 1948 was relatively peaceful, largely due to the changed global power dynamics post-WWII, making it a beneficiary of the broader Asian freedom struggle.

·  Critique of Colonial Historiography: History of Sri Lanka must be revised to break from Western-centric views.  We must acknowledge in Lanka’s Independence narrative Asian resistance and contributions, especially from India and Japan.

· Decolonizing Asian Minds: Decolonize Asian perspectives and show gratitude for the role Japan played in breaking Western dominance. Though Japan lost the war it left a powerful legacy. The liberation of Asia.

Moteki’s book is a must read for anyone interested in the story underlying the “Greater Far Eastern War” (or Dai Tō-A Sensō). Highly informative and rare in quality. As global power shifts from the West to the East new heroes will emerge from Asia based on their defiance of the West. This is an unapologetic version of a historical narrative.

I would like to end this Book Review by quoting Voltaire who said as follows:

Whoso writes the history of his own time must expect to be attacked for everything he has said, and for everything he has not said: but those little drawbacks should not discourage a man who loves truth and liberty, expects nothing, fears nothing, asks nothing, and limits his ambition to the cultivation of letters”

Senaka Weeraratna

……………………………………

Author Profile: Moteki Hiromichi

Moteki Hiromichi was born in Tokyo in 1941. He is a graduate of Tokyo University’s Department of Economics. After working for Fuji Electric Company and the International Wool Secretariat, he founded the publishing company Sekai Shuppan in 1990.

In cooperation with the American company Mangajin, Inc., Mr. Moteki published Mangajin, an educational magazine featuring bilingual comics for Japanese-language learners. He is currently the Chairman for the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact.

Mr. Moteki is the author of such Japanese-language works as The Ministry of Education is Destroying the English Language, Doing Away with English in Elementary School, and The Pitfall of Pressure-Free Education, How China Started the Second Sino-Japanese War: Why Should Japan Apologize To China? and the co-author of Doing Away with English-Language Education in Elementary School, Pressure-Free Education is Destroying the Country, Why Is China Coming to Take the Senkaku Islands? and Who Started the War Between Japan and the US? Analyzing President Hoover’s Freedom Betrayed.” Among works he has translated from English into Japanese are Thomas D. Luckey’s Don’t Fear Radiation! and James B. Wood’s Japanese Military Strategy in the Pacific War: Was Defeat Inevitable?

References:

1)       ‘Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour ignited the liberation of Asia from Western domination – Time to express Asia’s Gratitude to

Japan’ by Senaka Weeraratna (https://www.sdh-fact.com/CL/Senakas-Speech.pdf)

2)      ‘THE GREATER EAST ASIAN WAR: HOW JAPAN CHANGED THE WORLD’ Speech by Kase Hideaki (https://www.sdh-fact.com/CL/Kase-Speech.pdf)  

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, Dec. 8 (Daily Mirror) – In a strongly worded judgement condemning police violence, the Supreme Court has ruled that the fundamental rights of a lorry driver were violated by two officers of the Thalatuoya Police Station in Kandy, reiterating that the time has come for the Government to urgently address the systemic problem of police brutality.

A three-judge bench comprising Justice Priyantha Fernando and Justice Sampath Wijeratne, concurring with the judgement delivered by Justice Arjuna Obeyesekere, held that the petitioner’s rights guaranteed under Articles 11 and 12(1) of the Constitution had been infringed through assault, torture, and inhuman treatment inflicted by two police officers.

This Court has repeatedly stated that police brutality in whatever form and in whatever degree must stop. Unfortunately, judgements pronounced by this Court have fallen on deaf ears, both of the Inspector General of Police and the National Police Commission. The time is therefore right for the Government to intervene, examine the reasons for police brutality and take action,” Justice Obeyesekere observed.

The Court further observed that while offenders must be dealt with strictly according to the law, the use of violence and degrading treatment by law enforcement cannot be tolerated under any circumstances.

If a person has committed an offence, that person must certainly be arrested in terms of the law, produced before a Magistrate, and the law must take its course,” the judgement states. Whatever may be the circumstances that lead to an arrest, every citizen is entitled to be treated with the dignity that goes with being human.”

The petitioner, a 46-year-old lorry driver from the Kandy District, was employed to transport sand from Mahiyanganaya using a tipper truck owned by a police officer named Ranaweera. On 26 February 2019, he was charged before the Mahiyanganaya Magistrate’s Court for transporting sand without a permit in the same vehicle.

Following the charge, the petitioner informed Ranaweera that he would no longer transport sand without the legally required permit. He states that this angered Ranaweera, who was inconvenienced by having to hire another driver.

On April 1, 2019, after taking the truck for repairs and returning home around 5.45 p.m., the petitioner parked the vehicle near his residence. Due to security concerns, he was instructed by Ranaweera to sleep inside the truck, as he had done previously.

Around 11.50 p.m., the petitioner alleges he was abruptly awakened by two Police Constables accompanied by the first respondent, Police Constable Jayakody. The officers forcibly entered the truck, and Jayakody allegedly struck him on the head with a helmet. When the petitioner shouted for help, the officers pulled him out, threw him to the ground, and kicked him repeatedly on his back and chest. Hearing his screams, the petitioner’s wife and children rushed to the scene. He further stated that the third respondent, an Inspector of Police at the Thalatuoya Police Station, was present and issuing instructions to the others.

The officers then lifted him by the head and legs and threw him into a police jeep without informing him of the reason for his arrest. During the journey to the police station, he claims he was kicked again by unidentified officers.

Courtesy Adaderana

Approximately 108,000 hectares of paddy, 6,600 hectares of maize, 6,143 hectares of up-country and low-country vegetables and 11,000 hectares of land used to cultivate other crops have been completely destroyed due to adverse weather conditions experienced in recent days.

Addressing a media briefing held today (08), D. P. Wickramasinghe, the Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation noted that the process to provide compensation for the total crop damage has already begun.

Secretary D.P. Wickramasinghe added, a total of 615,000 hectares of paddy were cultivated in the country, of which 108,000 hectares have been completely damaged.

Secretary Wickramasinghe further stated:

Out of 87,474 hectares of maize, 6,600 hectares have been destroyed. For other field crops, we had cultivated 27,600 hectares, of which 11,000 hectares have been completely destroyed.

For vegetables, in the up-country areas, 2,613 hectares out of 5,893 hectares have been completely damaged. In the low-country, 3,530 hectares out of 8,990 hectares have been destroyed. The Ministry of Finance has issued a special circular providing a mechanism to allocate funds to cover both the investments already made on these farms and the costs required to restore them for cultivation.

Accordingly, compensation has been set at Rs. 150,000 per hectare for paddy, Rs. 150,000 per hectare for maize and other field crops, and Rs. 200,000 per hectare for vegetables. Preliminary work on this has already started. Some farmers have even resumed cultivation. Taking all these farmers into account, we are working to release the approved funds as quickly as possible.”

The Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation, D.P. Wickramasinghe said if any farmer experiences delays, they can directly contact the emergency hotline 1918 to provide information.

Courtesy Adaderana

December 8, 2025   08:07 pm

The Grama Niladhari Officers’ Alliance has threatened to resort to trade union action if Grama Niladhari officers are continuously obstructed from carrying out their duties independently during the relief distribution process for those affected by the disaster.

President of the alliance Nandana Ranasinghe stated that pressure is being exerted by various factions on Grama Niladhari officers as they attempt to carry out the relief distribution process independently.

Nandana Ranasinghe said during relief distribution activities and while managing temporary camps, various politicians exert pressure on Grama Niladhari officers and therefore they are facing difficulties in maintaining certain shelters.

He said, We must clearly state that although this government is more active in providing and implementing relief compared to previous governments, we have received reports from our colleagues across the country that certain politicians of this government are interfering with the duties and responsibilities of Grama Niladhari officers. At a time when the entire country is affected by a disaster, we are not prepared to focus on trade union action. However, if any further interference is directed at Grama Niladhari officers during the relief distribution process, we will be compelled—though reluctantly—to resort to trade union action.”

Courtesy Adaderana

December 8, 2025   09:44 pm

The Bandaranaike Memorial National Foundation has extended a financial contribution of Rs. 250 million towards national recovery efforts following the recent disaster.

The relevant cheque has been handed over to Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya at the Prime Minister’s Office today (08).

It was handed over to the Prime Minister by the Chairperson of the Foundation, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, together with members of the Board of Directors.

Courtesy Hiru News

The Colombo-Puttalam railway line, which sustained damage due to the adverse weather, is currently undergoing reconstruction between Kudaoiya and Nattandiya.

The land area connected to the old railway iron bridge near the Walapitiya sub-station was destroyed by the force of the water flow, and it is also being repaired.

In response to an inquiry from the Hiru news, the General Manager of Railways, Ravindra Padmapriya, stated that investigations into the damage on the Upcountry railway line will take about two months, and decisions regarding the resumption of train services will be made thereafter.

He further stated that trains on the Main Line are currently running from Colombo Fort up to Veyangoda and Ambepussa, and trains on the Puttalam Line are running up to Nattandiya.

Several service trains from Trincomalee to Gal Oya are scheduled to run starting next week. 

Decisions regarding the operation of passenger trains will be made after that.

Padmapriya also stated that passenger train service on that line will take a minimum of about three weeks.

-ලාල් ද අල්ව්ස්-උපුටාගැණීම මුහුනුපොත

“මහවැලි ජලාශ පසුගිය ස්වභාවික ව්‍යසනයට හේතු වුණා යැයි අද උත්තරීතර තැනක බුද්ධිමත් කතාවක් ඇසුණා..

ඒ කතාව අසාදෝ ,

මහවැලි ජලාශ හරහා මෙරට විදුලිබල පද්ධතියට එක්කල වෙනස හිතවතෙක් එවා තිබුණා..

එය පහතින් දැක්වෙනවා….

” ඉහළ කොත්මලේ ජලාශය කොත්මලේ ඔය හරස්කරල ඉදිකරන්නෙ මේ ජලාශයෙ ධාරිතාවය 0.8MCM (කියුබික් මීටර් මිලියන්)කුඩා ජලාශයක් මේ ජලාශයෙන් ඉහළ කොත්මලේ බලාගාරයට ජලය රැගෙන ගොස් 150 MW කිුයා කරනව.

ඒ පිටවන ජලය 172MCM ධාරිතාව ඇති කොත්මලේ ජලාශයට ගේනව එතනින් 201MW බලාගාරයක් ඉදිකරල තියෙනව.ජලයේ කොටසක් මොරගොල්ල ජලාශයට ඇවිත් 27MW බලාගාරයක් කිුයා කරනව.

මේ ජලය නුවර පොල්ගොල්ලට ගේනව පොල්ගොල්ල 1.2MCM .

පොල්ගොල්ලෙන් ජලය කොටසක් උමගක් දිගේ උකුවෙලට අරන් යනව 38MW බලාගාරයකට.

ඉතිරි ජලය මහවැලි ගග දිගේ වික්ටෝරියාවට අරන් යනව වික්ටෝරියා ජල ධාරිතාවය 721MCM.වික්ටෝරියා වලින් 210 MW නිපදවලා රන්දෙනිගලට (875MCM).ජලය රැගෙන යනව..

රන්දෙනිගලින් 126MW බලාගාරයක් හරහා රන්ටැබේට ජලය අරන් යනව.රන්ටැබේ ජල ධාරිතාවය 21MCM සහ බලාගාරය 49MW.රන්දෙනිගල සහ රන්ටැබේ අතරට උමා ඔය සම්බන්ධ වෙනව.. 150MW බලාගාරයක් උමා ඔයට අයත්.

මහවැලි ජලයත් උමා ඔයේ ජලයත් කොත්මලා ඔයේ ජලයත් රන්ටැබේට එකතු වෙනව.රන්ටැබෙන් පිටවන ජලය දකුණට සහ වමට බෙදෙනව.

දකුණු ඉවුරැ මගින් උල්හිටිය(146MCM),රත්කිද(467MCM) සහ මාදුරැ ඔය(596MCM) ජලාශ වලට ජලය බෙදනව කෘෂිකර්මාන්තයට.වම් ඉවුර මිනිපෙ ඇල මගින් ජලය අරන් යනව.

පොල්ගොල්ලෙන් 8km දිගැති උමගක් හරහා ගිය ජල කොටස සුදුගග හරස් කර නිර්මාණය කරපු බෝවතැන්න ජලාශයට එකතු වෙනව(49.9MCM).

ඒ වගේම බෝවතැන්නෙන් 40 MW බලාගාරයක් කිුයා කරනව.බෝවතැන්නෙන් පිටවන ජලය කොටසක් පරාකුම සමුදුයට යනව.

ඒ වැඩි ජලය නැවත අබන් ගගට එකතු වෙනව.තවත් ජල කොටසක් මහවැලි ගගට මුදා හැරෙනව.

මේ විදියට අංගම්මැඩිල්ලෙන් තමයි බෙදෙන්නෙ.රන්ටැබෙන් පිටවුන ජලය වම් ඉවුර සහ දකුණු ඉවුරට බෙදිල ඉතිරි කොටස මහවැලියට නැවත එක්වෙනව.

බෝවතැන්නෙන් පිටවුන ජලයෙන් තවත් කොටසක් ගිරිතලේ වැවටත් මින්නේරියටත් එනව.ගිරිතලෙන් වැඩි ජලය කවුඩුල්ලට සහ කන්තලේට බෙදනව.

මීට අමතරව බෝවතැන්නෙන් තවත් ජල කොටසක් සහ දඹුලු ඔය ජලයෙන් කලාවැව පෝෂණය වෙනව.

ඒ වගේම කොටසක් කන්ඩලමටටත් යනව(33.3MCM).කලාවැව සහ බලලු වැව (123MCM)වැව් යුගලක් ලෙස එකට පවතින්නෙ.

කලාවැවේ ජලය යෝධ ඇල නැත්නම් ජය ගග හරහා තිසා වැවට(4.3MCM) ජලය රැගෙන යනව.කලාවැවේ ජලයෙන් කොටසක් සහ සියඹලන්ගමුව(27MCM) වැවේ ජලයෙන් රාජාංගන ජලාශය(100MCM) පෝෂණය වෙනව.

කලාවැවෙන් නාච්චිදුවට (55.7MCM)සහ නුවරවැවටත් ජලය ලැබෙනව.බෝවතැන්නෙ ජලයෙන් කොටසක් යාන් ඔය හරස් කරපු හුරැලු වැවට (67.8MCM)වැටෙනව.බෝවතැන්නෙන් ජලය කොටසක් 4.8 km දිග උමගක් (tunnel )හරහා මොරගහකන්ද ජලාශයට රැගෙන යනව.”

උපුටා ගැනීම අවසන්..

මෙයට අමතරව කෘෂිකාර්මික ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ අතිවිශාල බිම් ප්‍රමාණයක් වගා කිරීම හරහා සිදුවූ වෙනස ,

මෙරට වෙනමම උප සංස්කෘතියක් බිහිකිරීමට තරම් ප්‍රබල වුණා..

ඒ මහවැලි ජනපද හරහායි…

ඉතින් මහවැලි ව්‍යාපෘතිය විනාශයක්ද මේ රටට සම්පතක්ද…?”

-ලාල් ද අල්ව්ස්-

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Colombo, Dec. 2 (Daily Mirror)- The failure to act by the President, Prime Minister and the Cabinet to avert the recent floods is a violation of the Constitution which guarantees the right to life of the people, a statement issued by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe and leader of the United National Party (UNP) said today.

The National Disaster Management Plan was not activated on November 27, 2025 instead of on November 28. The most crucial day for the operations was declared a public holiday. The process of last-minute dissemination of early warning messages set out in the plan was never activated. The President failed to declare a state of emergency as per powers vested with him under the Disaster Management Act. The President, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet failed to act under the relevant provisions of law to mitigate the harm caused by the disaster. We hold that the executive action or inaction infringes the fundamental rights of life of the citizens is actionable before the Supreme Courts as a Constitutional tort,” the statement said.

By Raj Gonsalkorale

Never waste a crisis- former Foreign Minister Ali Sabri called on the country’s leaders to use the national tragedy as an opportunity for transformative, long-term reform and reconstruction. He went on to say how Germany rebuilt industrial power from war ruins. How Japan re-engineered resilience after disaster.  how the Philippines revived agriculture after total collapse. And how Rwanda emerged from tragedy into stability and growth.

The efforts being taken by the government to restore and rebuild the country is quite evident although political detractors are doing their best to capitalise on the misery of millions of people who have and still are suffering. The message for President Dissanayake from all well-meaning people no doubt will be, as President Putin said recently, look to the future and not the past, and not just do what is necessary, but more importantly, do things you have no right not to do for the sake of the country”

A special reference is made to Mr Ali Sabri’s statement (https://x.com/alisabrypc/status/ 1996591205615063050) considering that he is the only non-government politician who has said something sensible and futuristic as to how all Sri Lankans should view the tragedy that has befallen the country.  

While Opposition politicians, some commentators, and some media organisations  as well as some responsible, educated citizens are behaving like bystanders around a person on the road who has been hit by a car and is seriously injured, enquiring who the persons father is, whether he is Sinhala or Tamil or Muslim, why he was on the road at the time he was hit, how he could have avoided the accident had he been walking on the pavement rather than on the road, and similar inopportune idiotic questions, without rushing the person to a hospital, Mr Sabry has articulated a point of view that every sensible citizen of the country should take heed of.

Social media posts are overflowing with opinions from many who have no knowledge of the behaviour of cyclones and who have no understanding of the impact of an annual rainfall of the country falling in just 5 days and inundating most of the country and extracting such a physical and human cost. Landslides, soil erosion on a large scale that buried hundreds of human beings and their dwellings, damages to roads and bridges, are amply visible on aerial photographs that have been shown regularly. They show the enormity of the catastrophe. Yet rather than being united in addressing the issues faced by millions of people who have been affected and helping those on the ground who are leading rescue and rehabilitation efforts, some people unfortunately are knit picking and politicking while millions are suffering.

As Mr Sabry says, the grief is raw, and the destruction is real. But the question before us is not what we lost, it is what we will do with this moment. We must not waste this crisis. This tragedy forces us to choose: Do we rebuild what existed? Or do we rebuild a better, stronger, more resilient Sri Lanka?”

While the immediate task is to provide food and water to the millions of people affected, and restore and rebuild their homes, clean and clear roads and bridges that are still usable so that food and medicine can be transported to affected areas, provide electricity and potable water, and restore health services where they have been badly affected, all of which the government is doing, the more medium to long term needs require careful and strategic planning.

Echoing Mr Sabry again, this is our turning point, a moment to modernize agriculture, replant with improved seeds, irrigation systems, smart farming, climate-resilient crops. Build storage, processing and value-addition, so farmers earn more than subsistence. Rebuild Infrastructure, not replace it.  New roads, rail, bridges and housing flood-resistant, elevated, climate-smart. Besides this, there must be better drainage, disaster proof construction zoning that protects lives”

Another important point raised by Mr Sabri is that rebuilding Sri Lanka can become the single largest job-creation program since independence. Reconstruction of roads, railways, every irrigation channel restored will be employment. In the area of technology, this will be an opportunity to build digital infrastructure & innovations in ecosystems, GIS-mapping, early-warning systems, remote-sensing, and real-time flood modelling. Great nations are not defined by what breaks them, but by what they build after they are broken.

Sri Lanka now stands at that crossroad. It is well to remember the words of George Bernand Shaw who said, Some people look at things as they are and ask why, while some others look at things as they never were and ask why not?” We could be like the former category and keep looking for scapegoats or be like the latter and rebuild, not as we were, but as we must become, turning devastation into development, pain into progress, and crisis into opportunity.

No doubt Mr Sabry’s message is the same as what President Dissanayake presented to the country in the speech he made in Parliament winding the debate on the third reading of the 2026 budget two days ago appealing for people to let this be the moment we rise stronger, smarter, more united, and ready for the future we deserve.

The recent cyclone and the damage it havocked on virtually all of Sri Lanka provides opportunities to use new techniques and technology to rebuild the country. One should not just restore but rebuild. While some restoration will be necessary as short-term measures, the long-term strategic vision and objective should be to rebuild differently. If this is not done, besides the wasted opportunity, as Einstein said, the country will be insane by expecting different results by doing the same thing. Mr Sabry no doubt has taken note of Einsteins advice!

While immediate relief measures and some necessary renovation works are being done, hopefully efficiently and effectively so that redress will be provided for all affected people, an effort to understand why and how, and what factors contributed over the years to the severity of the disaster on this occasion needs to happen in parallel to the immediate relief efforts. The cyclone itself and the torrential rains it brought and the natural damage it caused are perhaps beyond the control of human beings. The power of natural phenomena like cyclones and tsunamis are immeasurable although some mitigation measures to limit the severity of the impact of such phenomena could well be within the ambit of human ingenuity and intelligence. Mismanagement of land, making landscapes unstable and prone to landslides and soil erosion, deforestation and disrespecting nature is not ingenuity and intelligence. It is the opposite. Over the years, many Sri Lankans led by all political persuasions have acted disingenuously and unintelligently considering only immediate superficial benefits.

At times, construction of roads and bridges at the behest of politicians, land clearing for housing in areas that should not be cleared, deforestation and land filling of areas that should not be filled and many other acts that disturbs the natural equilibrium of nature, are other areas that surely have contributed to the severity of cyclones and excessive rain fall.

Rather than as a finger pointing exercise, an evaluation of such contributory factors needs to be made in order to learn lessons from such short-sighted actions of the past many of which would have occurred for political expediency. Shortcomings, if any, in flood management, reservoir management, in river management should also be known for the sole purpose of learning lessons and for taking corrective action for the future.

Having said this, while such an evaluation is necessary and also useful, the more challenging act would be to think differently, laterally and as the saying goes, out of the box”. Rebuilding requires such thinking coupled with technology and techniques that would overcome at least some potential threats as witnessed in Sri Lanka recently.

Rebuilding the physical damage that was experienced, requires an enormous amount of funding and finding such funding without resorting to huge borrowings will be a major challenge. The flow of funding and relief assistance to the country from many local and overseas sources is very commendable and shows the high esteem such donors have on Sri Lanka. No doubt many of these donors would willingly contribute more once the country has come up with the structures, plans and mechanisms to address rebuilding efforts.

Considering the vast amounts funds needed for rebuilding the country, a suggestion is made to harness financial support from expatriate Sri Lankans who according to available numbers, exceed three million people. This global population could play a major role in supporting the rebuilding efforts of the country. As an example, if half of this expatriate population, say 1.5 million people, contributes US dollars 1000 each, it will work out to USD 1.5 Billion dollars (1.5% of the country’s GDP of USD 100 Billion) or Rs 426 billion at today’s rate of exchange. This will be a substantial contribution that will enable the country to rebuild not just its infrastructure but also its economy based on strategic plans developed by experts in consultation with all stakeholders including very importantly, grass roots people inputs. A special appeal made jointly by the President and the leader of the Opposition, demonstrating the national political unity relating to such a rebuilding effort will no doubt attract a substantial number of contributors, many of whom could well contribute more than US $ 1000/= each. Of course, such an appeal should be accompanied by a national rebuilding plan outlining the key components of the rebuilding effort, expected deliverables and time frames for achieving them. A key aspect of such an effort should be the depoliticization of the activity and the empowerment of experts, including the bureaucracy, to implement the plan without hinderance and political interference.

Rebuilding the mental or psychological aspect of people relating to the factors that exacerbated the devastation however requires a different strategy which perhaps is more of a challenge than rebuilding the physical damage. Understanding and respecting nature, nurturing it and growing it is a key area where the psychology of people and the politicians who lead them, the civil society and the clergy will have to change. Rebuilding roads and bridges, rail networks, reservoirs and manging them, house and commercial building will have to be guided by the need for ensuring maintaining the equilibrium of nature. If human beings think foolishly that they can beat nature, they are more than foolish, they are insane.

In conclusion, the following suggestions are made.

1. A summit meeting of environmentalists, construction engineers, irrigation engineers, water management experts including reservoir managers, meteorological experts, and any other professionals associated with weather predictions and natural disaster management. Such a summit is suggested in order to undertake a lessons learnt exercise based on past policies and practices, shortcomings that may have contributed to exacerbation of natural disasters, and to establish appropriate protocols that would better manage responses to natural disasters in the future.
2. A summit meeting of national, provincial and district administration personnel, disaster management personnel, health workers, food producers and transporters and members of the three Forces and the Police to discuss challenges faced by them in managing disasters, including the most recent one, and the existing and new protocols arrived at the summit mentioned at (1) above. The summit should present a set of proposals based on the lessons learnt.
3. A meeting under the chairmanship of the President that includes heads of political parties represented in Parliament including the leader of the Opposition, to discuss and deliberate policy and administrative proposals arising from the above two summits. The end objective of the meeting should be the development of a new bi partisan national policy on (a) disaster management including early warning protocols, actions that should follow such warnings, prior identification of relief centres (schools, religious places etc located in suitable places) throughout the country with action plans for health, food and shelter provision that could be activated alongside early warning protocols  and (b) on housing construction, including zoning, land management, infrastructure construction, water and environment management. The agreed policies should then be presented to the Parliament as relevant Acts. These should include what punitive actions would be taken by anyone who is not complying with the Acts.
4. A special appeal by the President and the Leader of the Opposition to the Sri Lankan expatriate community to contribute US $1000/= each to the Rebuilding Fund towards achieving a target of US $ 1.5 billion to support the national action plans for rebuilding Sri Lanka

This is the time for the country’s leaders to leave aside their partisan political garbs and don a national unity garb and work together to overcome this national tragedy through transformative, long-term reform and reconstruction efforts. Hopefully this will lead to a cultural shift towards genuine nationalism and a system change that is based on that, and the evolution of a new political culture

e-Con e-News

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com

‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’

e-Con e-News 30 November – 06 December 2025

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‘In Sri Lanka, there was a loss of village pasture land,

& a denudation of forests which caused soil erosion

& the silting up of water courses & paddy fields.’

– SBD de Silva, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment (1982)

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The Mahaveli’s waters have been turned brown for almost 2 centuries now. The English genocides of the Sinhala people in 1818 & 1848 first turned those silvery waters crimson. Then the felling of the green trees to set up plantations in the highlands from the 1840s, sparked off incessant muddy erosion. The loss of green cover & the slaughter of animals, sent elephants barrelling down into the fields of the maritimes to do battle with cultivators. It was a matter of time before the mountains trembled and tumbled, in slow then the-more-rapid collapse, as we have wretchedly witnessed in the past weeks. The big tea exporters & tourist-importers, still unperturbed by deeper inquiry, shamelessly continue to depict the rolling green tea bushes shrouding the hills as the epitome of the pristine.

     A cacophony of voices of the usual experts & economists have followed to mute the screams accompanying this ‘freshwater tsunami’. Their dullard voices that have led the country and the merchant- & moneylender-run import-export plantation economy they uphold, into this deadly abyss, have now been appointed to ‘rebuild’ what they first destroyed, before nature decided to mimic them (see ee Who’s Who).

     These economists have long loved to promote city-state Singapore – parking lot & runway for imperialist multinational corporations (MNCs) stalking the Southeast Asian hinterland for human & other resources – as a model for Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, socialist Cuba, blockaded & besieged & impoverished for almost 70 years by the most powerful imperialist the world has ever had the misfortune to experience, was recently also struck by the worst hurricane (Melissa) in history, yet was able to evacuate & protect almost 1 million people, with no casualties!

     There is another irony about the media promoting Singapore as a model. What they have witnessed of Singapore are the lavish shopping malls, and what the yearn for, is its ‘rule of law’ aka authoritarianism (even while harboring fugitive former Central banker Arjuna ‘Royal College’ Mahendran). Yet Singapore is a modern industrialized state, which abhors subsistence-wage-paying sweatshops, which in English Sri Lanka cutely comprise ‘Free Trade Zones’. Trading what? Free for whom?

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‘Why does India repeatedly fail to industrialise?’

‘Your business elites do not want serious industrialisation…

They still have very strong links with financial capital which

doesn’t like industrialisation because, for them, the most

important thing is the rate of return… if you want to develop

a serious industrial base, you need to go through

a period when finance is repressed.’

– Ha-Joon Chang (see ee Focus)

This ee reproduces the Hindu Frontline magazine’s brilliant interview with Korean economist Ha-Joon Chang, based at London’s SOAS University. While he focuses on India, he could well be speaking of Sri Lanka as well (again, check our Who’s Who in ees past, for the links between merchants and moneylenders). Chang openly challenges all the sacred shibboleths of our pack of paid running-dog economists. He states boldly, ‘Developing countries cannot develop with free trade’. Even the arch imperialist US President Don Trump has openly declared so-called ‘free trade’ as undermining industrialization in his country. Chang recalls how US-colonized Korea banned Japanese cars, to enable infant industry protection. And while he declares there’s  been ‘no serious attempt to develop manufacturing in India’, Chang yet believes India (and Sri Lanka?) can still pursue industrialisation to ensure prosperity: ‘No country has obtained a high standard of living without a serious degree of industrialisation.’

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‘Around 2,000 non-fatal occupational accidents

occur in the country every year, with an additional

60-80 fatal accidents. However, these numbers

are a fraction of the reality.’

MNCs, and the states that guard them, have weaponized human rights, women’s & sexuality issues. In this week’s ee Focus, Shiran Illanperuma shows how Brandix (whose CEO was just appointed by the President to ‘rebuild’ Sri Lanka), oppresses and injures its mainly female workforce (while giving itself awards for ‘gender equity’ etc). Brandix, reporting almost $1billion in profits in 2021 and supposedly Sri Lanka’s single-largest apparel exporter, supplies sexy ‘Western brands such as Gap, Marks & Spencer, Next, Victoria’s Secret’. Brandix & other corporate employers refuse to acknowledge that addressing health issues would and should reduce the number of days lost. This would help their much-trumpeted yearning for productivity. But it turns out to be a question of class power. They would rather keep the workers down, divided & weak, even if it means they forego the profits of industrialisation and long-term modernization?

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• How did a relatively weak China & the USSR defeat 2 of the most powerful armies in the world – fascist Germany & Japan, even as the USA & Europe were aiding the fascists (as they still do)? When Japan conquered Malaya & the Dutch East Indies in early 1942, England lost its primary sources of many war materials. The English turned to slaughter-tapping rubber in Sri Lanka, headquartering their South East Asia Command (SEAC) in Kandy, basing 10,000s of troops here. ee Focus continues Roy Singham’s amazing account of how the English imperialists also turned to Africa, which supplied most of the allies’ industrial diamonds, cobalt, and gold. The little-known statistics he reveals to us are mind-boggling (& referenced in almost overwhelming detail). The English conscripted 100,000s of Africans as forced labor, and military recruits. They implemented their ‘colonial formula of maximum extraction with minimum concern for African lives’. Congo’s miners provided uranium for the atom bombs used on Hiroshima & Nagasaki, digging out the radioactive materials with their bare hands!

     After WW2 was ended, the Europeans broke their promise to unchain countries under colonial bondage. They even refused to pay many African veterans, murdering those who demanded their wages. Those colonized who had survived fascism upfront now ‘clearly recognized who their real enemy’ was. Liberation wars soon erupted throughout Africa, ‘led & influenced by socialist movements & leaders who had long experienced the West’s duplicity’. Socialism was key to the superior strategies & mass mobilization required to defeat fascism. In the largest organized migration in history, the USSR led by Joseph Stalin was able to evacuate 10 million industrial workers & families, and over 1,500 factories, out of the path of human history’s biggest invasion ever, by Germany. Meanwhile, China, ‘weak but vast, progressive, and with time on its side’ was able, with Mao Zedong & the Communist Party’s leadership, to smash a Japan that was ‘strong but small, isolated, & barbaric’. ‘Socialist leadership did not just mobilise the masses; it outthought & outfought its enemies’ who had ‘every material advantage’. How the USA & England then resurrected a zombie Japan & much of Asia as colonized footstools is a story crying to be told on another day.

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• Who controls the Congo, controls Africa, said Mao Zedong. Who control Africa controls the world. We are inspired to add: Who controls Sri Lanka, controls the Indian Ocean, and who controls the Indian Ocean controls the world! Sri Lanka also has many vital historical & modern links to Africa, which the English media suppresses; instead disparaging Africa as a negative model for Sri Lanka.

     Many of us grew up hearing the story of Patrice Lumumba, leader of the Congo, who was murdered by the USA & Europe (2 years after they murdered SWRD Bandaranaike). Indeed, Rohana Wijeweera, the founder of the JVP (People’s Liberation Front), the leading constituent party of the now ruling Jana Jathika Jana Balawegaya (JJB, aka National People’s Power, NPP), was a student at the Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University in the USSR (this too, another story crying to be told).

     The Congo, one of the resource-richest countries in the world, seems at first to contradict SBD de Silva’s division of the globe into settler & non-settler colonies. The Congo is mainly seen as a non-settler colony like Sri Lanka, dominated by a mining & plantation economy. Belgian corporate capital & expatriate groups controlled the Congo due to the large investments in those sectors, and thwarted fuller growth. The Congo had ‘to purchase more than half of its materials from Belgium and to employ Belgians to the extent of 60% of its European personnel’. Land, mining concessions, finance & the Congolese budget required the agreement of the Belgian Parliament. Yet – as this ee Focus continues Chapter 4 of SBD’s classic – we learn how Congo’s Katanga province resolves this riddle. The strong influence of Flemish settlers from Belgium in Katanga turns out to be the ‘hinge on which the Congo’s economy revolved’. The local staff of the companies had interests and an outlook similar to those of settlers, developing a local identity. Even as there was an ‘enormous outflow of profits & of payments for banking, transportation & insurance services’, there was a high level of reinvestment in the home market, which complemented the banking sector, with local agriculture feeding the entire country. We here read of how they created one of the world’s most advanced working classes, giving birth to one of the Congo’s greatest treasures, stolen & cut down in the prime of his life – Patrice Lumumba.

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‘ISB holders became the largest creditor group among foreign creditors.

(What happened to the Chinese debt trap?)… In negotiations with

the ISB holders both foreign & local, Sri Lankan authorities

signed a non-disclosure agreement.’ (see ee Random Notes)

Why has there been no righteous outcry about this non-disclosure agreement? It also turns out that jurisdiction over this debt was moved from New York (where a recent law claims to prevent shylocking), to London! There is no gnashing of teeth because most of the ISB holders are from the US, England, Europe, India & Japan. While those economists & media & politicians, who cry loudest about corruption being Sri Lanka’s greatest issue, are funded by these same imperialists.

     ee Focus continues Gustavus Myers’ 1917 History of Tammany Hall, which shows how the so-called exposers of corruption can be the most corrupt. The merchant media in Sri Lanka excels in making ‘corruption’ the greatest crime, rather than merchantry & usury. In this episode, Myers wonders how the Tammany organization ‘steeped in corruption and graft should so ostentatiously pretend to be the exposer and punisher of infractions in an official who had defied its power’ thus eliciting ‘mockery, resentment and indignation’. He shows how in the age of so-called ‘muckraking’, when corporations were ‘more and more rigorously scrutinized by official bodies’, some corporations received government contracts that included ‘exemption from supervision’. Non-disclosure?

     While lobbyists are legalized and are the real power in all capitalist legislatures, Myers’ recalls how the chief legislative lobbyist in New York state was the distributor of a ‘Yellow Dog Fund’, maintained to pay off politicians sitting on certain oversight committees (Hint! Hint!). The Tammany organization, which went after politicians they couldn’t control, impeached a New York state governor for ‘refusing to be its tool’. He had foolishly tried to ensure worker safety on trains… And ‘compel honest dealings on the New York Stock Exchange’ (a tool of monopoly, see ee Quotes, Marx), refusing ‘control of public schools to a religious denomination’, repealing a ‘notorious charter’ given to a private corporation to distribute water, and defied bosses – big & little, by refusing to be ‘a rubber stamp’ to promote corporation-friendly legislation & appointments to public office. Foolish indeed!

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• Photographs, Philanthropy, Warships, Drug Busts & Media – With all this blabber about AI, cyber security, digitalization, big data, this & that, how is it that all this so-called science never warned us about the oncoming disaster? Apparently, they did – it was just not translated into common sense practice, which turns out to be not that common. As least for a merchant media.

     Isn’t there something also corrupt about ensuring the media is available with flashing cameras to announce every donation and promise of philanthropy? And why send ‘warships’ to deliver aid? Nobody asks. We are instead treated to headlines like, the IMF is ‘considering’… the IMF is ‘pledging’. But how & when these promises even materialize, we are not told. Will we have to import their second-hand machines & then pay some more? Again, rather than us owing debt, shouldn’t AI tell them, that after 500 years of European invasions, it is they who owe us?

     Why does every embassy inform the media to be present, then bribe the media to report that they ‘promised’ such & such an amount? Why doesn’t the government simply publish a list every day of the donations made by whom, in alphabetical order or by descending order of donations? And then there are the publicized drug busts. Isn’t it suspicious that the customs or police officials have to have their photographs taken & published whenever they do their job? Again, why isn’t there a simple list of how much the customs or police busted per day or per week? Why publish their photos? Doesn’t this also risk criminals taking their revenge on such persons? Or, are they…?

     Then there are corporates & NGOs having photographs taken of themselves, as they hand over a cheque, which may bounce. Why do we have to have a large front-page headlined picture of a smiling white woman baring her white teeth, with her fashionista glasses over her head, announcing UNICEF’s approximate numerals (275,000) of children gravely affected by the cyclone? How did they count so fast, when roads & rivers are still impassable? Did Elon Musk’s satellites help? We know that NGOs have to compete for funds in such moments, or show how their philanthropy is in the picture. But our Buddhist culture dictates that claiming credit for merit negates. Or perhaps it’s for tax avoidance purposes?

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• AI & Labor – If Artificial Intelligence were really intelligent it would know that it is capitalists who are threatening labour and not the technology itself. AI, if it’s really smart, would protest! If, it’s truly intelligent it would make sure that no workers suffer such threats or consequences. It would explain how the capitalists could be replaced. However, we know that it is workers themselves who have to harness AI to do that. AI is not that smart by itself. Meanwhile, they are blaming industrialization for global warming. But what about global warring? How hot are these forever cold wars? And as for these US-funded thinktanks & NGOS like the ‘Centre for a Smart Future’ – well, we would just like a future! That would be really smart….

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Contents:

Sri Lanka and India’s Fake Industrialization Cannot Rebuild the Country

චානක බණ්ඩාරගේ

දිත්වා සුළි කුණාටුවෙන් වැඩිපුරම පීඩාවට පත් දිස්ත්‍රික්ක වන්නේ මහනුවර, කෑගල්ල, බදුල්ල, නුවරඑළිය සහ අනුරාධපුරයය. සිය ගණනක් පුද්ගලයින් මිය ගිය අතර බොහෝ දෙනෙක් අතුරුදහන් වී ඇත. මරණ සහ අතුරුදහන් වූ සංඛ්‍යාවේ එකමුතුව 1,000 සීමාව ඉක්මවීමට හොඳටම ඉඩ තිබේ.

අපේ දිවයිනේ ජනගහනයෙන් 35% ක් පමණ ජීවත් වන්නේ නායයෑම් අවදානම වැඩි ප්‍රදේශවලය.

මේ නිසායි දීත්වා සුළි කුණාටුව මධ්‍යම කඳුකරයට මෙතරම් දරුණු ලෙස බලපෑවේ.

කොළඹට ආසන්නව පිහිටි බස්නාහිර පළාතේ හංවැල්ල, අංගොඩ, කොළොන්නාව, වැල්ලම්පිටිය යන ප්‍රදේශ දැන් ගංවතුරට දැඩි ලෙස ගොදුරුවන  ප්‍රදේශයි. පසුගිය වසර 20 තුළ නිතර සිදුවන ජල ආශ්‍රිත අනතුරු සහ ගංවතුර හේතුවෙන් මෙම ප්‍රදේශවල යම් දෙනෙකුගේ  ජීවිත අහිමි වී ඇත. මේ තත්ත්වය නිසා බොහෝ දෙනෙක් බොහෝ විට අවතැන් වෙති.

ගම්පහ යනු නිතර නිතර ජලයෙන් යටවන නව ප්‍රදේශයකි.                                                               

මෑතකදී, අවිධිමත් සංවර්ධනය, වගකීම් විරහිත ඉදිකිරීම්, නිසි සැලසුම් නොසලකා හැරීම වැනි හේතුන් නිසා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට බොහෝ පාරිසරික විනාශයන් සිදුවී ඇත.

විශේෂයෙන් යුද්ධයෙන් පසු, විද්‍යාත්මක නොවන සහ පරිසර හිතකාමී නොවන අධිවේගී මාර්ග ඉදිකිරීම (දකුණු, කටුනායක සහ මහනුවර), දකුණේ නිෂ්ඵල වරායක්, ගුවන් තොටුපළක්, සුරියවැව කැලය කපා ක්‍රිකට් ක්‍රීඩාංගනයක්  වැනි විවිධ මහා පරිමාණ යටිතල ඉදිකිරීම්, මහා වන  විනාශ, සැලැස්මක් නොමැතිව ගස් කැපීම් (තේ වතු තුල පවා), ජල මූලාශ්‍ර වලට සිදු කරන හානි, නීති විරෝධී මැණික්/වැලි කැණීම් ආදිය මේ රටේ දැඩි පාරිසරික විනාශයට හේතු වී තිබේ.

දිත්වා පෙන්වා දුන්නේ කඳුරට යන ඉතා පරිසර සංවේදී ප්‍රදේශයේ මෙම තත්ත්ව ඉතාම දැඩිව ඇති බවයි.

උග්‍ර ඉඩම් හිඟයක් හේතුවෙන්, උතුරු නැගෙනහිර හැර අනෙකුත් බොහෝ පළාත්වල ජනතාව ජීවත් වන්නේ තදබද පීඩාකාරී තත්වයන් යටතේය. බොහෝ විට මිනිසුන් ජීවත් වන්නේ පර්චස් 10 ට වඩා විශාල නොවන ඉඩම් කට්ටිවලය. පර්චස් දෙකක ඉඩම් කට්ටිවල ජීවත් වන ජනතාව ගැන මෙම ලේඛකයා දනී.

නව විවාපත් තරුණ යුවල් සිය දෙමව්පියන්ගේ ඉඩමේම කුඩා නිවසක් තනා ජීවත්වනු දැකීමයි දකුණේ බොහෝ දුරට දක්නට ලැබෙන්නේ. මේවා බොහෝ විට පර්චස් 6 -10 කුඩා ඉඩම්ය. එකම ඉඩමේ ජීවත්වීම නිසා පවුලේ සාමාජිකයන් අතර නිතර මතභේධ, ආරවුල් හටගනී.

දිත්වාගෙන් බේරුණු, කඳු බෑවුම්වල සහ කඳු යට ජීවත්ව දිවි ගලවා ගත් බොහෝ දෙනෙක් සහ අනුරාධපුර දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ සමහර වින්දිතයින් වෙනත් ස්ථාන කරා යාමට කැමති බව වාර්තා වේ. ඔවුන් තමන් අත්විඳි දෙයින් ඉමහත් කම්පනයට පත්ව සිටිත්. මීළඟ වතාවේ තමනට වාසනාව නොලැබෙනු ඇතැයි ඔවුන් විශ්වාස කරයි.

කඳු බෑවුම් සහ කඳු යට ජීවත්වීම ඉතා භයංකර කර බව දිත්වා අපට පැහැදිලිව පෙන්වා දී තිබේ.

අනාගතයේදී තවත් බොහෝ දිත්වාවන් එනු ඇත.

මෙම සුළි කුණාටුවෙන්/ගංවතුරෙන් අපේ සහෝදර ජනයාට තම පවුලේ ලඟම ඥාතීන්, නෑදෑයන්, මිත්‍රයින් අහිමි වී ඇත. පැහැදිලිවම ඔවුන්ගෙන් බොහෝ දෙනෙක්  එම ජීවත් වූ  භූමිවල තවදුරටත් සිටීමට කැමති නැත.

ඔවුන්ගේ දුෂ්කර තත්ත්වය අප තේරුම් ගත යුතුය.

අද, ජීවත්වීමට සුදුසු ඉඩම් බොහෝ දුරටම ඇත්තේ උතුරු හා නැගෙනහිර පළාත්වල පමණි. මේවායෙහි රජයේ ඉඩම් බොහෝය.

උතුරු මැද, ඌව, ගැඹුරු දකුණ සහ වයඹ රජය සතු යම් හිස් ඉඩම් ප්‍රමාණයන් ඇති බව ඇත්තය. නමුත්, අප වන ජීවීන්ද බලා ගත යුතුය.

අවතැන් වූ ජනතාව කැමති නම් ඔවුන්ව එකී ප්‍රදේශවලට රැගෙන ගොස් නව ජනාවාස සේ පදිංචි කළ යුතුය.

තනිව යාමට කැමති පවූල් වලට එසේ යාමට ඉඩ පහසුකම් සැළසිය යුතුය.

එසේ යන අයගෙන් අවශ්‍ය අයට වගා කිරීමට ඉඩම් ලබා දිය යුතුයි. හැකිතරමින් පහසුකම් මේ අසරණ ජනතාවට රජය සැළසිය යුතුය.

නැවතත්, නව වාසස්ථාන පටන් ගැනීමට හොඳම සහ සුදුසුම ඉඩම් ඇත්තේ උතුරු, නැගෙනහිරියි. වවුනියාවට ඉහළින් මන්නාරම, කිලිනොච්චි, කන්කසන්තුරේ/වැල්වැටිතුරේ සහ උතුරේ මුලතිව් දෙසට සහ පොතුවිල්ට ඉහළින් නැගෙනහිරින් මඩකලපුව හරහා ත්‍රිකුණාමලය දෙසට පදිංචියට සහ වගා කිරීමට සුදුසු හොඳ ඉඩම් බහුලව තිබේ.

අද පර්චස් 2, 5, 10 වැනි ඉතා කුඩා ඉඩම්වල හිරවී සිටින දකුණේ ජනයාට මනා සැලැස්මක් යටතේ මේවායෙහි ජීවත්වීමට අවස්ථාව සැලසීම රජය සතු මානුෂික යුතුකමයි, වගකීමයි.

1947 මහා ගංවතුරෙන් පසු DS/ඩඩ්ලි සේණානායක සුසංයෝගය උතුර සහ නැගෙනහිරට දකුණේ ජනයා ගොස් පදිංචි වීම උත්සුක කළහ.

ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 14 (i)(h) වගන්තිය මගින් පුරවැසියන්ට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව තුළ නිදහසේ ගමන් කිරීමේ අයිතිය සහ ඔවුන් කැමති ඕනෑම තැනක පදිංචිය තෝරා ගැනීමේ හැකියාව ලබා දී ඇත. මෙය පුරවැසියන්ගේ නිදහස් අභ්‍යන්තර සංචලනය සහතික කිරීම මගින් ජාතික ඒකාබද්ධතාවය ප්‍රවර්ධනය කරන මූලික අයිතියකි.

දිත්වා ව්‍යසනයෙන් ජනතාව ආරක්ෂා කිරීමට රජය අපොහොසත් වූ බවට දැඩි විවේචනයක් පවතී. මෙහි යම් සත්‍යතාවයක් තිබේ.

මරණ සංඛ්‍යාව ඉහළ යාමට හේතු වූයේ රජයේ ක්‍රියාකාරී ප්‍රවේශයට වඩා ප්‍රතික්‍රියාශීලී ප්‍රවේශය බව තර්ක කිරීම සාධාරණ ය.

පූර්ව අනතුරු ඇඟවීම් තිබියදීත්, සූදානමක් නොමැතිකම සහ රජයේ පැත්තෙන් ක්‍රියා කිරීමට සමස්ථයක් වශයෙන් අසමත් වීමක් දක්නට ලැබුණි.

ජලාශවල සියළුම පාහේ ජලය එක්වර මුදා හැරීමෙන් (මහනුවර, ගම්පොළ, කොතමලේ සහ අනුරාධපුර දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ සමහර ස්ථානවල සිදු වූයේ මෙයයි) ජලාශවල බැමි නොකැඩි බේරුනත් එම ප්‍රදේශ අවට ජනතාවගේ තත්ත්වය ඉතා නරක අතට හැරෙනු ඇතැයි යන්න නොතේරුන රජය මෝඩ රජයකි.

මෙහිදී, රජය බරපතල ලෙස නොසැලකිලිමත් වී තිබේ.

රජයට මේවා ගැන සිතීමට කාළය නොතිබුනා විය හැක. 21 විපක්ෂයේ රැස්වීම නිසාද? චිත්‍රපට බෙදාහරින්නන් මෙයට වඩා වැදගත් යයි සැලකු නිසාද?

පසුගිය වසර 30 – 40 තුල සියළු රජයන් ක්‍රියා කර ඇත්තේ මේ ආකාරයෙනි – වැව් ධාරිතාවය ඉහළ යන විට කිසි වගක් නොබලා වැව් වාන් දොරටු විවෘත කිරීම. මේ නිසා මොන තරම් අපරාධයක්/විනාශයක් මේ රටේ සිදුවී ඇද්ද?

වාර්මාර්ග අධ්‍යක්ෂ බලන්නේ උපරිමව වැව බේරා ගැනීමටයි. වැව් ජලය අපරික්ෂාකාරී ලෙස වාන් යැවීම නිසා වන ජනතා හානිය ඔවුනට අදාල නැතුවා සේය.

වැව් වාන් දැමීම ගැන අවසන් තීරණ ගැනීම සිදු කල යුත්තේ වාරි අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජෙනරාල් හෝ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ට වාරි ඉංජිනේරුවන් නොවේ, රජයයි. මේ රටේ වාරිමාර්ග ඇමති කෙනෙක් ඇත. වාරිමාර්ග අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජෙනරාල්ව පත් කරන්නේ ඔහුය.

දිත්වා සුළි කුණාටු අවස්ථාව වෙනුවෙන් වාරිමාර්ග ඇමති කුමක්ද කලේ? කිසිත් නොමැති බවයි අපට නම් පෙනෙන්නට තිබෙන්නේ.

නැවතත්, එක්වර සියළු සොරොව් දොරටු විවෘත කිරීම වෙනුවට, ජනතාවට පූර්ව අනතුරු ඇඟවීම් ලබා දී,  රාත්‍රී කාලය මඟ හැර, ඒවා ඉතා ප්‍රවේශමෙන් අදියර වශයෙන් මුදා හැරිය යුතුව තිබුණි.

දියුණු රටවල් වැඩ කරන්නේ එලෙසයි.

වැව් ආරක්ෂා කිරීමට  වඩා ජන ජීවිතය ආරක්ෂා කිරීම වටී.

කබීර් හෂීම් හිටපු ඇමතිතුමා පවසන පරිදි වික්ටෝරියා ජලාශයේ සොරොව් 8ම විවෘත කර ඇත්තේ එක් වරය. එයින් මහා ජල කඳක් මහනුවර නගරයට සහ ඒ අවට ප්‍රදේශවලට සම්ප්‍රේෂණය වී ඇත.

අතිශය සුන්දර මහනුවර ප්‍රධාන නගරය සහ ඒ අවට – කටුගස්තොට, නිත්තවල, මහයියාව, ගන්නෝරුව, පේරාදෙණිය, පැණිදෙනිය වැනි ප්‍රදේශ  දැවැන්ත ලෙස වතුරෙන් යට වුනේ, ප්‍රධාන ලෙසින්,  මේ නිසාද?

පොල්ගොල්ල බැම්ම මඟින්ද මහවැලි ගඟ දැඩි අධි පීඩනයකට හසු කර තිබේ.

මෙවර තරම් මහවැලිය පිටාර ගැලු වෙනත් අවස්ථාවල් නොමැත.

කොත්මලේ සියළු වාන් දොරටු එක් වර විවෘත කර ඇත්තේ රාත්‍රී යාමයේය.

මේවා මෙසේ සිදු කල අයගේ මොළ පරීක්ෂාවට ලක් කල යුතුය.

මහා ජාල කන්දරාව ගලා යන්නේ මිනිසුන්ගේ ගෙවල්, බෝග වගාවන්, හරකා බාන, කුඹුරු ඉඩම් උඩින් බව බලධාරීන් නොසිතුවේ මන්ද?

කොත්මලේ ඉඩම් නාය යන නිසා ඉන් බේරීමට ගම්පොළට සිය දරුවන් සමඟ පැමිණ එහි තම නිවස සාදා ගත්  පියෙක් සහ ඔහුගේ පවුලේ සංවේදනිය කථාව මේ දිනවල නිතර අසන්නන්ට ලැබේ.

මෙවැනි ශෝකී කථා බොහෝය.

රජයට ක්‍රියා කිරීමට සති 2 ක කාලයක් තිබුණි.

ගම්පොළ මරණවලින් 80% ක්ම සිදුවී ඇත්තේ රජයේ අක්‍රියතාව නිසා බව පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී අනුරාධ ජයරත්න මහතා පාර්ලිමෙන්තුවේදී පැවසීය.

ඔහු මෙම අගයට පැමිණියේ කෙසේදැයි නොදනිමු.

එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධාන රජය විසින් අම්බුලුවාව කුළුණ දුර්වල ලෙස සහ පරිසරයට හානීදායකව ඉදිකිරීම හේතුවෙන් ගම්පොළ ප්‍රදේශයේ දැඩි පාරිසරික හාණියක් ඇති වන්නට ඇතැයි සිතීම සාධාරණය.

මූලික වශයෙන් බැලූ බැල්මට, වාරිමාර්ග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව කිසිදු අනතුරු ඇඟවීමකින් තොරව විවිධ ජලාශවල වාන් දොරටු අහඹු ලෙස විවෘත කිරීම, බොහෝ මරණවලට හේතු වූ දරුණු ගංවතුරට හේතු වී ඇති බව පෙනේ.

නාය යාමට හේතුව ඉවක් බවක් නොමැතිව කඳු කරයේ වන සංහාරය සහ ගස් කැපීමයි. එයට මේ රජය වගකිව කිව යුතු නොවේ. ගෝලීය ඌෂ්ණත්වය වැඩිවීම නිසා වන ගෝලීය පරිසර විනාශයක්ද සිදුවෙමින් පවතී.

කාලගුණ විද්‍යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව දැනුවත්ව වැරදි කාලගුණ වාර්ථා විකෘති කර පැවසුවා යයි සිතීම උගහටය.

නමුත්, නොවැම්බර් 25 දින BBC මාධ්‍ය ආයතනය ශ්‍රී ලංකාව පිළිබඳව, දිත්වා වෙනුවෙන්, අතිශය දරුණු කාලගුණ අනාවැකි මතු කළේය. මිම් 500ක වර්ෂාවක් මේ රටට පතිත වන බව ඔවුන් පැවසීය.

කාළගුණ විද්‍යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව එය නොසලකා හැරියාද? එසේ නම් නොසැලකිලිමත් බව  පිළිබඳව ඔවුනට එරෙහිව නඩු පැවරිය හැක.

නොසැලකිලිමත්ව ක්‍රියා කිරීම වෙනුවෙන් වාරිමාර්ග දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ ඉහල ධූරාවලිය පමණක් නොව, වාරිමාර්ග අමාත්‍යවරයා සහ රටේ ප්‍රධාන විධායකයා වන ජනාධිපතිවරයා ද මෙම මරණ වලට සහ ඇතිවූ ව්‍යසනයට වගකිව යුතු බව දැන් පෙනෙන්නට තිබේ.

මේ පිළිබඳව නිශ්චිත නිගමනය දිය හැක්කේ ගරු  අධිකරණයට පමණි.

දැනට, ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඕනෑම නීතිමය ක්‍රියාමාර්ගයකින් – අපරාධ හෝ සිවිල් නිදහස් ය.

සාපරාධී නොසැලකිලිමත් මිනීමැරුම්/අනතුරු ඔප්පු කිරීමේ නීතිපතිවරයා සතු භාරය ඉතා ඉහළය.

ඇතැම් යූ ටියුබ්කරුවන් ඉල්ලා සිටින්නේ විපක්ෂය රජයට එරෙහිව අපරාධ නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ යුතු බවයි. ශ්‍රී ලංකාව වැනි Common Law රටවල නීතිය එලෙස ක්‍රියාත්මක නොවේ. අපරාධ නඩු පැවරිය හැක්කේ රාජ්‍යයට (ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ – නීතිපතිවරයාට) පමණි – මෙම අවස්ථාවේදී අපරාධ චෝදනා විය හැක්කේ චේතනා විරහිත මරණ (manslaughter) සහ/හෝ මානුෂික තුවාල වලට (මානසිකද ඇතුලත්ය)  හේතු වූ සාපරාධී නොසැලකිල්ලයි.

නිතීපති වරයා රජයට එරෙහිව අපරාධ නඩු ගොනු කරතැයි සිතීම උගහටය.

එහෙත්, අවශ්‍ය නම්, නිර්භීත නම් ඔහුට එය කල හැක.

හානී සිදුවූ සිවිල් වැසියන්ට රජයට එරෙහිව සිවිල් නීතිමය ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගත හැකිය. මෙය තනිව හෝ කිහිප දෙනෙකුට එරෙහිව සිදු කළ හැකිය. සාර්ථක වුවහොත්, ඒ අයට සැලකිය යුතු වන්දි රජයෙන් සහ පුද්ගලික විත්තිකරුවන්ගෙන් අය කර ගැනීමට හැකි වනු ඇත.

සිවිල් නඩුවකදී, රජය විසින් ඔවුන්ට ලබා දිය යුතු නීතිමය රැකවරණය (duty of care)  පිළිබඳ බැඳීම උල්ලංඝනය කර ඇති බව ඔප්පු කිරීමට පැමිණිලිකරුවනට සිදුවනු ඇත.

තවද, වින්දිතයින්ට මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් අයදුම්පත් ලබා ගැනීමේ හැකියාව ඇත (ගරු ශ්‍රේෂ්ටාධිකරණය ඉදිරියේ).

මෙම ව්‍යසනය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ජනාධිපතිවරයා සහ රජය වහාම ඉල්ලා අස්විය යුතු බව සමහරු ඉල්ලා සිටිති. මෙය සිදු නොවිය යුතුයි.

පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ඇතිවූ බරපතල තත්ත්වය තවදුරටත් දැඩි ලෙස විවාද කළ යුතු වේ. රජය විසින් දෙනු ලබන  පිළිතුරු වලට අප සාවධානව සවන් දිය යුතුය.

මෙම ලිපියේ සඳහන් පරිදි ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම රජය දිත්වා හැසිරවූ ආකාරය පිළිබඳව දැඩි  විවේචන තිබේ. මේවා වර්ධනය වී යම් දිනක මෙම රජය බිඳ වැටිය හැක. එය එදාට සිදු වුවාවේ.

නමුත්, වැඩිමනත් ජනතාවට අද තවමත් අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ මෙම රජය දිගටම පැවතීමයි.

රජය යුරෝපයෙන් සහ යුරෝපා සංගමයෙන් මූල්‍ය ආධාර ලබා ගැනීමට අපොහොසත් වීම සත්‍යකි, ජර්මනිය, ප්‍රංශය, ඉතාලිය, නොර්වේ, ස්‌වීඩන්, ඩෙන්මාර්ක්, ෆින්ලන්ඩ් වැනි අති ධනපති රටවල් අපට කිසිත් දී නොමැත.

කැනඩාවද අප අමතක කර ඇත. 

සජිත් සිටයේ නම් මෙය ඉතා හොඳින් කිරීමට තිබුණි. ඔහු ආධාර ලබා ගැනීමේ, විශේෂයෙන්ම විදෙස්,  අති දක්ෂයෙකි.

එක්සත් රාජධානිය සහ ස්විට්සර්ලන්තය අපට යම් උදව් සුළුවෙන් කළහ.

ඩොනල්ඩ් ට්‍රම්ප් මහතාගේ එක්සත් ජනපද රජය අපට විශාල මූල්‍ය ආධාරයක් ලබා දුනි.  ජූලී චුන්ග් මැතිණියනි, ඔබට ස්තූතියි.

සමස්ථයක් ලෙස රජය පශ්චාත් ආපදා කටයුතු හොඳින් හසුරුවන බව පෙනේ. ඔවුන් පසුගිය සතිය තුළ බොහෝ හොඳ වැඩ කර තිබේ. ඌවේ සමන්ත විද්‍යාරත්න දක්ෂතා පෙන්වා තිබේ.

නමුත්, රජය ‘බීමත් නාවිකයා’ මෙන් අත්තනෝමතිකව මුදල් වියදම් කරගෙන යන බවක්ද පෙනේ. රුපියල් කෝටි, ප්‍රකෝටි ගණනින් විපතට පත්  ජනයාට මුදල් ආධාර විසි කරන බවට රජය පම්පෝරි ගසයි.

මේ වෙනුවෙන් භාණ්ඩාගාරයේ සියළු මුදල් වියදම් කිරීමට රජය ලැහැස්තිය. ටකරන් තහඩුවක් හුළගේ ගිය කෙනෙකුට රුපියල් ලක්ෂ ගණනක වන්දියක්?

මේවා කෝපයෙන් සිටින ජනයා බා ගැනීම සඳහා කරන පාගා ගෙවීමක් වීය නොහැකිද? සහ රජය විවේචනය කරන යු ටියුබ් කරුවනට බියවී රජය දක්වන ප්‍රතිචාරයක්ද?

මේ වියදම් කරන්නේ මාලිමාවේ මුදල් සංචිතයෙන් නොවේ; අපෙන් සුරා කන බදු මුදල්ය.

දිත්වා මේ රටට කරන ලද මුළු අලාභය ඩොලර් බිලියන 7ක් වශයෙන් ගණන් බලා තිබේ. මෙවැනි මුදලක් වර්තමානයේ භාණ්ඩාගාරයේ නැත.

එනම්, දිගටම ණය මඟින් රට කරවීමයි මාලිමා රජයේ බලාපොරොත්තුව.

IMF තමන්ගේ ගැඹුරු මුදල් පසුම්බියට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව වෙනුවෙන් ගොඩවීමට යන බව ආරංචියි. මෙය ඉතා හොඳ පුවතකි.

නමුත් මේ ණය මුදල් අප ඉදිරි පරම්පරාව යම් දිනකදී ගෙවිය යුතුය.

ඇතැම් යුටියුබ් කරුවන් ඉල්ලන පරිදි රජය (ජනාධිපති සහ ආණ්ඩුව) දැන් ඉල්ලා අස්වුවහොත් කවුද මේ රටේ  නායකත්වය භාරගන්නේ? මේ මොහොතේ එම වගකීම ලබා දිය හැකි වෙනත් දක්ෂයෙක් පෙනීමට නොමැත.

රට කබලෙන් ලිපට වැටෙනවාට අප කැමති නැත. ඇතැම් යු ටියුබ් කරුවන් කැමතිය; ඔවුන් මේ රටට ආදරය නැති අය විය යුතුය..

Dilrook Kannangara

Sri Lanka faced the worst natural disaster in recorded history. Sri Lanka is not alone as Indonesia, Thailand and others also faced the disaster. This is part of climate change that affects the whole world. These disasters will only become more frequent with time. Sri Lanka must have a long-term plan to face them. It is impossible to avoid the destruction. Instead having enough resources to face them should be the objective.

Government relief workers particularly tri-forces personnel made a valiant effort to save lives. They must be rewarded with a one-off payment of Rs. 100,000. It is money well spent. Their services must not be taken for granted. They made a similar contribution during the COVID-19 pandemic but apart from worthless labels like ranawiru” and suwawiru”, nothing worthwhile happened to recognize their services. That should not be the fate of 2025 heroes.

Rs.200 per person per day allocated in the budget for tea plantation workers should be repurposed to reward relief workers. Tea plantations, over-population of tea estates, their workers’ houses, schools, temples and other constructions and resultant blockade of natural flow of water is the main reason for this disaster.

Instead of encouraging further natural disasters through the promotion of an environmentally destructive colonial industry, Sri Lanka should look to relocate these people to Vanni and Batticaloa districts and save vital catchment, near catchment and water flow areas of the hill country which was historically known as the island’s heartland for good reasons.

TANN

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Project title: Trinco Mega-Tanker End-of-Life Programme — Floating-Dock Fit-Part Dismantling to Prevent Harbour Pollution

Execution by : [Ministry / Port Authority

Prepared by Dr Sarath Obeysekera using AI resources ]

Executive summary

This project proposes a controlled, on-water dismantling method using a large floating dry dock (mega floating dock) combined with fit-part” modular dismantling (cutting and lifting large blocks) performed over impermeable, contained platforms and on-dock containment systems. The method avoids beaching, contains contaminants (oil, sludge, asbestos, PCBs, heavy metals), treats effluent on-site, and recovers high-value steel and equipment — minimising pollution risk to Trincomalee harbour and the adjacent marine environment. The approach adapts lessons from Turkish yards (Aliağa and others) while strengthening environmental controls, monitoring, and worker safety through mandatory EIA, independent audits and alignment with IMO/Hong Kong and OECD guidance. 

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Objectives

1. Safely recycle decommissioned mega-tankers while preventing release of oil, hazardous wastes and heavy metals into Trincomalee harbour.
2. Maximise material recovery and domestic value-addition (steel, non-ferrous metals, machinery).
3. Demonstrate an international best-practice pilot for Sri Lanka that meets IMO/HKC and OECD recommendations and exceeds minimal environmental safeguards. 

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Why floating-dock + fit-part docking?

• Full containment: Floating dry dock allows the ship to be sealed and dewatered; cutting and removal happen over controlled platforms avoiding intertidal beaching that causes sediment contamination.
• Modular dismantling (fit-part): Cutting ships into large blocks on a contained work deck enables mechanical lifting to shore for processing in impermeable workshops and reduces direct contact between contaminants and sea.
• Better pollution control: Oils, sludges and hazardous materials can be drained into closed collection tanks and treated via on-site separators and waste treatment rather than leaking to sediments (an issue in yards lacking infrastructure). 

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Main components & technical outline

Site & infrastructure

• Floating mega dry dock (sized for VLCC/Suezmax: LOA, beam and lifting capacity sufficient). Dock to be berthed in a designated, deep-water basin within Trincomalee (outside navigation channels).
• Impermeable processing platform(s) (steel/concrete cofferdams or floating barges with lined decks) with containment bunds and drainage to closed collection tanks.
• Oil-water separators, slop tanks, sludge centrifuges, and an on-site effluent treatment plant (ETP) with monitoring and discharge limits.
• Hazardous materials handling unit for asbestos removal, PCB oils, paints and chemicals with sealed containers and licensed waste removal contractors.
• Workshop & metal-processing yard on impermeable surfaces for cutting, sorting and scrap processing.
• Air-emissions controls for cutting operations (local exhaust ventilation, particulate filters).

(Design and specification to be produced after EIA and hydrographic surveys.) 

Process flow (high level)

1. Pre-arrival: Ship assessment & Ship Specific Recycling Plan (SSRPlan) created (inventory of hazardous materials).
2. Docking: Vessel taken into floating dry dock; dock pumped dry; initial decontamination (fuels, slops pumped to slop tanks).
3. Hazardous removal: Removal of all fluids, oils, hydraulic fluids, refrigerants, and proven asbestos/PCB removal by certified teams.
4. Fit-part cutting: Modular block cutting on contained deck; blocks lifted to shore by heavy-lift cranes, transported to lined processing areas.
5. Waste treatment: All run-off directed to ETP; solid hazardous waste stored in sealed containers pending licensed disposal/export.
6. Material recovery & yard remediation: Steel, machinery, and non-ferrous metals processed; final site remediation and monitoring. 

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Environmental & regulatory safeguards

• Mandatory EIA & baseline marine sediment/ water monitoring before starting. Continuous monitoring during operations with public reporting. 
• Ship Specific Recycling Plan (SSRPlan) and waste inventories in line with IMO/Hong Kong Convention and OECD guidance. 
• Zero-discharge policy for untreated wastewater; strict limits for any discharge after ETP treatment and independent lab verification.
• Certified hazardous waste contractors and export routes for wastes that cannot be treated locally, ensuring compliance with Basel Convention principles.
• Third-party audits (environmental NGOs or international auditors) to verify compliance — lessons from Türkiye show that without independent oversight environmental and safety gaps appear even where yards claim compliance. 

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Social & safety measures

• Comprehensive occupational health & safety program, PPE, confined-space and hot-work protocols, training for local workforce.
• Local employment clauses, fair wages, and worker medical monitoring.
• Community grievance mechanism and public reporting.

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Pilot plan (recommended)

1. Feasibility & hydrographic survey — 2 months.
2. EIA + permits + SSRPlan template — 3–4 months.
3. Procurement/tender for floating dock and contractor — 2–3 months.
4. Pilot dismantling of a single medium/large tanker — 3–4 months of on-site work.
5. Evaluation & scale-up — 2 months report and recommendations.

Total pilot duration: ~10–15 months (site-dependent). Budget: high-level estimate to be produced after hydrographic and scope confirmation; pilot likely to require multi-million USD CAPEX (dry dock mobilization, ETP, platform works) with OPEX recovered via scrap value and fees.

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Risks & mitigation

• Risk: Inadequate containment → mitigation: double-lined decks, monitoring, independent audits.
• Risk: Hazardous waste mis-management → mitigation: pre-contracted licensed handlers and export routes.
• Risk: Community opposition → mitigation: transparency, local job guarantees, environmental monitoring.
• Risk: Regulatory gaps → mitigation: adopt HKC/IMO/OECD standards into contracts and local law where possible. 

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Recommendations / Next steps

1. Approve scoping study + hydrographic survey and baseline EIA.
2. Establish an inter-agency steering group (Port Authority, Navy, Environment, Labour, Customs).
3. Call an international tender for floating dock + experienced recycling contractor with proven track record and third-party accreditation.
4. Require SSRPlan and independent auditor as part of contract.
5. Start a single-vessel pilot and publish results publicly.

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Annex — Selected recent sources (attach to proposal)

• NGO Shipbreaking Platform — Ship Recycling in Turkey: Challenges and Future Directions. 
• IMO — Environmental Impact Study and Ship Recycling guidance (WP1b). 
• OECD — Ship-Recycling — An Overview (policy paper). 
• Industry & press reviews on Turkish practices & recent scrutiny. 

Regards

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

විධායක ජනාධිපති දුරය අහෝසි කරන බවට පොරොන්දු වී බලයට පැමිණි ජනාධිපති අනුර දිසානායක මහතා ඊළඟ ජනාධිපතිවරණයට තරඟ කිරීමට සූදානම් වන බව ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ මිත්‍රයකු වන එංගලන්තයේ වෙසෙන මාධ්‍යවේදී උවිදු කුරුකුරුසූරිය මහතා සඳහන් කරයි.

පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණයට අයවැයෙන් මුදල් වෙන්කලත් පළාත් සභා පවත්වන්නේ නැති ඒ පරදින බව දන්නා නිසා බවත් හෙතෙම කියා සිටී. තම සමාජ ජාල ගිණුමේ සටහනක් තබමින් ඒ මහතා මෙම අදහස් පළ කර තිබේ.

චෝදනා රැසක් එල්ල කර ඇති එම සම්පූර්ණ  සටහන  මෙසේය.

අනුරට මම මේව ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ ලියන්න පෙරත් කියල තියෙන්නෙ. ජනාධිපති වෙලා මට කතා කරපු දවසෙත් කිව්ව​, දැන් ජනාධිපති ෆෝන්, ඊමේල් හරියට පාවිච්චි කරන්න​, අනිත් පැත්තෙ කතාකරන කෙනා රෙකෝඩ් කරනවද දන්නෙත් නැහැ. දැන් ටෙක්නොලජි එක සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම වෙනස් කියලා. 

ඒ කතා පැත්තකින් තියමුකො. නමුත් දකුණු ආසියාවට සුනාමි ආවම ඒකට පරක්කු වෙලා රෙස්පොන්ඩ් කිරීම සහ​ අධාර දීම පරක්කු වීම ගැන කුපිත වෙච්ච ස්වීඩනයේ ගවේශනාත්මක ජනමාධ්‍යවේදියෙක් අගමැතිගෙ පෞද්ගලික සහ රාජකාරී කමියුනිකේෂන්ස් ඉල්ලල එරට තොරතුරු දැනගැනීමේ පනත යටතෙ තොරතුරු ඉල්ලපුවම වෙච්ච දේ තමයි මම යට ලියල තියෙන්නෙ. මම එයාව කල්ම විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයට ගිය කාලෙ හමුවෙලා තියෙනව. ඒවට ධෛර්යමත් පුරවැසියො ඉන්න ඕන​. දියුණු ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී රටවල නම් ඕන තරම් පුරවැසියො ඉන්නව ඒවට. නමුත් ලංකාවෙ පනත තිබ්බට පුරවැසියො අඩුයි. 

ලංකාවෙත් තියෙන්නෙ ලෝකෙ හොඳම තොරතුරු දැනගැනීමේ පනත් කීපයෙන් එකක්. ඉස්සරහට ජනාධිපති අනුරටත් මේ ප්‍රශ්ණයට රටේ රාජ්‍ය නායකයා හැටියට මුහුණ දෙන්න වෙනව​, අල – ගොවි ප්‍රශ්ණ වලට දක්වපු ප්‍රතිචාර වල සිට මේ ව්‍යසනය එයා කලින් දැනගෙන හිටියද නැද්ද කියන එකට​. ඒව ඉස්සරහට වෙයි. 

ඒත් කණගාටුවට කරුණ ජනාධිපතිකම අහෝසි කරනව කිව්වට එයා දෙවෙනි පාරටත් ඉල්ලන්න හදන්නෙ. ඔය පලාත් සභාවලට එයා බජට් එකෙන් සල්ලි වෙන් කළා කියල පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඇවිත් ටෝක දුන්න වෙලාවෙත් මා කිව්වෙ පලාත් සභා මේ කපේ තියන්නෙ නැහැ කියල​. පරදිනව කියල දන්නව!​

දුක තමා අනුර ඊළඟ ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඉල්ලන කොට ඒව බලන් ඉන්න වෙන එක​. මේ යට පින්තූරෙ මම ලියල තියෙන දේත් කියවගන්න​. පනත එච්චර ශක්තිමත්. ඔයා RTI කොමිසමට පරක්කු වෙලා වෙලා හෙංචයියෙක් දැම්මට​, RTI කොමිසමට අවශ්‍ය නිලධාරීන්, සම්පත් නොදුන්නට​, පනත නැතත් තොරතුරු දැනගැනීමේ අයිතිය මූලික මිනිස් අයිතිවාසිකමක් කියල ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයකුත් තියෙනව​. ඒක තමා අපි යහපාලන​ කාලෙ දිනාගත්ත එකම දේ. අනුර පව් ඉතිං! 

එයාට කෙලින් දේවල් කියන්න ඕන අය ඉන්න ඕන එයා ළඟ​. එහෙම අය නැහැ එයාට​. මම කිව්ව පක්‍ෂ බේදයකින් තොරව​ ඔස්ටින් ප්‍රනාන්දු වගේ අය සිට දැනට ජීවතුන් අතර ඉන්න පරණ දක්‍ෂ අයව ගෙනත් සතියකට දවසක් දෙකක් ඇවිත් වැඩ කරල​, දොර වහගෙන අනුරට මුහුණටම වෙන දේවල් ගැන කියන්න පුළුවන් ක්‍රමයක් හදන්න කියල​. ඒ අයට ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යයාලයේ හරි කොහෙ හරි කාමරයක් දෙන්න​, කෝපි එකක් වගේ දෙන්න හදන්න කියල​. ඒ අය සතපහකවත් මුල්‍යමය හෝ වෙන කිසිම ප්‍රතිලාභයක් බලාපොරොත්තු වෙන අය නෙමෙයි. ඔස්ටින්ව නම් තනියම දවස් දෙකක් හමුවෙලා තිබුණට ඒ පරණ අය එකතු කරල ඒ වැඩේ කළේ නැහැ. 

ඒකනෙ 2005 ව්‍යසන කළමණාකරන පනත ගැනවත් නොදැන හිටියෙ, පෙරේද පාර්ලිමේන්තු ඇවිත් පනත ශක්තිමත් නැහැ කියල පොර ටෝක දුන්නට​. එහෙම නම් ගිය අගෝස්තු මාසෙ ව්‍යසන කළමාණකරනය සඳහා වූ ජාතික සභාව කැඳවපු වෙලේ මොකටද කලින් තිබ්බ සැලැස්මම ක්‍රියාත්මක කරනව කියල ඒක ස්ථිර කළේ? බයිල ගහන්න එපා ජනාධිපති මහත්මයා. ඒකෙ මිනිට්ස් කියවන්න​. අඩු ගානෙ එදා ගත්ත තීරණ කීයක් ක්‍රියාත්මක​ කළාද​? දැන් ඉතිං දත්ත නැහැ කියල ඔප්පු කරන්න රට වටේ යනව​. ඕව ගොං පාට්!

ඔය සල්ලි දීල තියන් ඉන්න උපදේශකයො ගොබ්බයො. මේවයි දැනගන්න ඕන​. මේවයි ඒ අයට දැනුම තියෙනව නම් නිතර නිතර මතක් කරල දෙන්න ඕන​. බෝඩිමේ යාලුවොන්ට ලේකම්කම් දුන්නට​, ඒ ලේතමාට උපදෙස් දෙන්නත් කී දෙනෙක් දාගෙනද ඉන්නෙ! ඒවත් මහජන මුදල් හරිද​. මම සුමානයක් බිසී වෙනව​. ඊට පස්සෙ මම අනුර වරද්දගත්ත ඒව ගැන ලියන්නම්.

දත්ත නැහැ කියන්නෙ xxx

SEPAL – short clips

Courtesy Hiru News

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake instructed officials to prepare the farmers in the Anuradhapura District whose paddy cultivation was destroyed due to floods to re-cultivate during the upcoming Maha season.

Highlighting the need for all relevant institutions to work in proper coordination, treating this as a national necessity, the President instructed the authorities to provide compensation to farmers without delay and to ensure temporary irrigation water supply through provisional repairs.

The President further noted that the government is providing the highest amount of compensation in the country’s history for crop damages, with the expectation that cultivation activities will be commenced again promptly.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake gave these instructions this morning (07) while attending a special coordination committee meeting at the Anuradhapura District Secretariat to review the programme being implemented to restore normalcy to the lives of people affected by the disaster situation and to rehabilitate damaged infrastructure in the district.

The President instructed officials to present, before this Friday, a report detailing the number of farmers who were completely affected, the extent of damaged farmland and the required financial allocations. He emphasised that compensation must be granted only to those who are genuinely entitled and that no one should receive it unjustly.

The President stated that the government is committed to providing compensation to the farming community and directed officials to foster confidence among farmers so that they will be encouraged to resume cultivation.

The President also inquired, separately, from the relevant institutions about the measures taken for the development of the district’s infrastructure including highways, irrigation and communication networks.

The President examined the programme for reopening obstructed roads and instructed that temporary repairs be expedited to meet the public’s transportation needs until permanent road development plans are implemented.

Officials of the Ceylon Electricity Board informed the meeting that 473 out of the 580 electricity transformers damaged due to the disaster have already been restored and that full electricity supply to the district could be achieved by tomorrow.

They further stated that 49,000 water connections had been affected, of which about 99% have now been restored, while water is being supplied by bowsers to the remaining areas. They noted that total restoration of water supply is expected within the next two days. Damaged community water projects are also being restored.

Well-cleaning activities are currently being carried out with the support of the Navy and the President instructed officials to complete these tasks swiftly through community participation coordinated by Divisional Secretariats.

Discussions were also held regarding the provision of compensation for crops such as Maize, restarting cultivation, restoring the livelihoods of those engaged in animal husbandry, normalising health services and rehabilitating religious sites including damaged temples.

The floods have caused total damage to 228 houses in the district. The President instructed officials to gather accurate information on whether affected families should be resettled on the same land or relocated elsewhere and to begin identifying suitable land for resettlement.

Officials reported that all schools in the district could reopen by 16 December. The President instructed that the Rs. 15,000 allowance promised by the Treasury for schoolchildren affected by the disaster be fully distributed before 31 December and that the list of beneficiaries be prepared without delay.

The President also expressed his gratitude to government officials, the Police and the Tri-Forces for their service in providing relief to the public and restoring infrastructure.

The meeting was attended by Co-Chair of the Anuradhapura District Development Committee, Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development Wasantha Samarasinghe, Minister of Housing, Construction and Water Supply Susil Ranasinghe , Anuradhapura District MPs Susantha Kumara Navaratna and Sena Nanayakkara, North Central Province Governor Wasantha Jinadasa, Chief Secretary J.M.R.P. Jayasinghe, representatives of local authorities; Secretary to the Treasury Dr Harshana Suriyapperuma, Anuradhapura District Secretary K.G.R. Wimalasuriya, ministry secretaries and other government officials.

-PMD

Courtesy Hiru News

The total damage caused by the recent adverse weather in Sri Lanka is estimated to be between US$6 billion and US$7 billion, according to Commissioner General of Essential Services Prabath Chandrakeerthi.

Speaking to the media, he said this amount represents between 3% and 5% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

An Economist’s estimate

In an interview with us, economist Dr. Kenneth De Zilwa offered a lower—but still substantial—estimate of the destruction.

He stated that his team’s current assessment is Rs. 320 billion, which is equivalent to a little over US$1 billion, or more.”

Right now, we are taking a very conservative approach, and the projected figure of Rs. 320 billion will likely need to be revised upward, in my view. The damage to infrastructure, people’s livelihoods, and supply-side assets all place a significant burden on the country’s cash flow. So this estimate represents only one part of the overall impact on the nation,”

Dr. De Zilwa noted that agriculture and plantations are among the worst-affected sectors.

However, he stressed that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) face a particularly severe blow.

SMEs hit after multiple crises

These SMEs have just come out of three major crises: first, the Easter attacks, then COVID, and then the financial shock. They were already struggling, and now, on top of all that, we have the all-island floods, which will take a significant toll,” he said.

He explained that the banking sector could also feel the ripple effects:

If you look at the average loan or lending book of the banking sector — around Rs. 1.2 trillion — we believe at least 10% of that will be affected, which is roughly Rs. 120 billion. This impact will feed through to the banking sector because the banking sector is the mirror image of the real economy. So even though the sector recorded significant profits, it will now have to brace itself to absorb a substantial rise in non-performing loans.”

Impact on credit ratings and the external position

Dr. De Zilwa also highlighted Sri Lanka’s vulnerable external sector:

We currently have a large negative net international investment position of around US$52 billion. On top of this, we will need significant external borrowing for infrastructure.”

He warned that supply-side disruptions will force higher import dependence, adding pressure on the current account and the fiscal deficit.

So we are looking at a kind of triple whammy. First, the external debt component will rise, which will negatively affect the overall rating that is due to be announced. Second, fiscal space — already highly constrained — will be squeezed further. And third, the deficit is likely to increase as more clarity emerges regarding domestic financing needs.”

Revenue challenges ahead

He noted that raising government revenue will be difficult in the coming year, adding that income from vehicle imports will likely be lower compared to this year.

Can the Central Bank print money?

Asked whether the Central Bank can inject liquidity by printing money amid these challenges, Dr. De Zilwa responded:

Absolutely, yes. Once the current account deficit begins to widen, the depreciation of the rupee will automatically push working capital balances higher. As a result, the banking sector liquidity will need to be supplemented by the Central Bank. Challenges in the movement of stock and inventory will also affect liquidity. Therefore, the Central Bank and the government will have to ensure that adequate liquidity is maintained in the market.”

Call to revisit the IMF programme

He also emphasised the need for the IMF to reconsider Sri Lanka’s current Extended Fund Facility (EFF):

The government has to intervene because the overall parameters set under the previous conditions no longer exist. They must revisit these frameworks and take a pragmatic approach. Multilateral agencies will also need to step in to smooth out cash flows. Therefore, the IMF agreement must be revisited… If not, Sri Lanka will be severely constrained, because fiscal and monetary policy are already tightly restricted.”

Central Bank Governor: ‘We have the buffers’

Meanwhile, during the Economic Summit organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe said that the Central Bank possesses sufficient buffers to address the shocks from Cyclone Ditwah.

What is most important in facing a shock like this is having sufficient buffers across the macroeconomic framework — fiscal, monetary, and external. This situation presents an opportunity, even for the banking sector, to use those buffers. That is precisely why we build them.”

He added:

I know the government is currently in a comfortable position, particularly in terms of short-term fiscal buffers for immediate relief. On the external side, too, compared to where we were in terms of foreign reserves, we are now in a much better position. On the monetary side, we are ready to provide any liquidity support needed by the banking system. The banking sector is also stable — capital buffers, liquidity buffers, and even profits have strengthened.”

Courtesy Hiru News

The completion of the Fifth Review of Sri Lanka’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be delayed, as the Board prioritises emergency aid following Cyclone Ditwah.

The IMF released the following statement to the media:

In light of the Sri Lankan authorities’ request for emergency financing, IMF Board consideration of the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) request is the priority at the current juncture. An IMF team will visit Sri Lanka in early 20206 to resume discussions for the completion of the Fifth Review of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). The support under the RFI is in addition to Sri Lanka’s EFF access.”

Sri Lanka had requested USD 200 million as emergency assistance under the RFI following the devastation caused by cyc;one Ditwah. 

The Board was earlier slated to take up the Fifth Review on December 15, with the sixth tranche of funding (approximately USD 342 million) expected to be disbursed soon after.

Chanaka Bandarage

Kandy, Kegalle, Badulla, Nuwara Eliya and Anuradhapura are the districts most affected from Dithwa cyclone. Hundreds of people died and many are missing. The casualty figure is likely to surpass the 1,000 mark.

About 35% of our island’s population lives in high risk landslide prone areas.

This is why Dithwa hit the central hills so badly.

Hanwella, Angoda, Kolonnawaa, Wellampitiya in the Western province – closer to Colombo, are now severely flood affected areas. In the past 20 years, frequent flash and river floods have claimed many lives in these areas. Therein, many people displace quite often.

Gampaha is a new area that frequently goes under water very badly.                                

Lately, haphazard development, irresponsible construction, ignoring proper planning have brought forth much destruction to Sri Lanka.

Especially after the war, the unscientific and environmentally unfriendly construction of expressways (Southern, Katunayake and Kandy), other infrastructure like a useless port and an airport in the South, deforestation, water source damage, illegal gem/sand mining etc  have led to severe environmental ruin. In fragile areas, this has been very severe.

Due to severe land scarcity, people in most provinces – except the North and East, live in cramped up conditions. Often people live in land plots that are not larger than 10 perches. The writer is aware of people that live in two perches lots.

It is reported that many of the hillside survivors and some Anuradhapura district victims wish to relocate. They are shocked by what they experienced. They believe that next time they will not be lucky.

Furthermore, some have lost kith and kin in the floods; obviously they do not wish to live in the same land anymore.

Their predicament is quite understandable.

The only areas where there is good livable land are in the North and East.

If these people are willing, they should be resettled in those areas. There is abundance of good arable land above Vavuniya towards Mannar, Kilinochchi, KKS/Valvetithurai and Mulativu in the North and above Pottuvil towards Trincomalee via Batticaloe in the East.

Article 14 (i)(h) of the Constitution provides that citizens are entitled to have freedom of movement and the ability chose residence anywhere they like within Sri Lanka. This is a fundamental right that promotes national integration by ensuring free internal mobility of citizens.

There is a severe criticism that the government failed to protect people from the Dithva calamity. There is some truth in this.

It is reasonable to argue that the government’s reactive, rather than the proactive approach contributed to the high death toll.

Despite prior warnings, there was a lack of preparedness and an overall  failure to act on the part of the government.

It was reasonably foreseeable that releasing reservoir waters in one go would worsen the situation.

It seems this is what happened in Kandy, Gampola, Kothamale and some places in Anuradhapura district.

Rather than opening sluice gates in one go, they should have been carefully released in stages, with prior warnings given.

There was 2 weeks for the government to act.

According to Anuradha Jayarathne MP, 80% of Gampola deaths were due to the government’s inaction.

It is unknown how he came to this figure.

It is probable that the poor construction of the Ambuluwawa tower by the UPFA government may have caused severe environmental degradation in Gampola area.

Prima facie, the fact that the irrigation department opened up sluice gates at various reservoirs haphazardly, without any warning seem to have contributed to severe flooding that caused numerous deaths.

A government MP trying to apportion blame on the Department of Meteorology is a farce.

If  negligence is proven, not only the irrigation department hierarchy but the Irrigation Minister and the President may also become liable.

Only a Court of Law can determine this precisely.

Of course the President is currently immune from any legal action whatsoever – criminal or civil.

The onus is very high to prove criminally negligent homicide/injuries.

YouTubers demand that the opposition must initiate criminal law action against the government. In Common Law countries, law does not work that way. Only the State (in Sri Lanka – the Attorney General) can initiate criminal prosecutions – in this instance criminal negligence causing death (manslaughter) and/or injury.

But, civilians who have suffered damage can initiate civil law action against the government. This can be done jointly or severally. If successful, they could recover handsome damages.

In a civil suit, the Plaintiff will be required to prove that the government breached the duty of care that it owed them.

Furthermore the availability of fundamental rights applications to the victims.

Some demand that the President and the government ought to resign henceforth over the calamity. This must not happen.  

This must be further vigorously argued in the parliament.

Of course there is a lot of criticism about the government’s handling of Dithva, but majority of the people still want the government to continue.

True the government failed to garner financial aid from Europe and the EU (Sajith would have done this very well) – the UK and Switzerland did help us; overall the government seems to be handling the post disaster work well. They have done a lot of good work in the past week.

Mr Trump’s US government gave us a big financial aid. Thank you Ms Chung.

The IMF is going to dig into its deep wallet. This is very good news.

If the government resigns now, who will take over the leadership? There is none capable at the moment.

We do not want the country to move out of the frying pan into the fire.

Sri Lankans are a resilience lot, like many other past calamities, we will bounce back from this as well.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

he International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it expects Sri Lanka’s economic activity to take a hit following the widespread destruction caused by Cyclone Ditwah, noting that the scale of damage will become clearer once authorities complete a rapid post-disaster assessment.

IMF’s Director of the Communications Department Julie Kozack said, the Fund is closely engaging” with the government, development partners and other counterparts as the country grapples with the humanitarian, social and economic fallout. 

Large parts of Sri Lanka have been affected by the floods, and on that basis, we do expect economic activity to be adversely affected, in addition to the significant human toll,” she said at a briefing this week. 

The IMF is continuing its engagement under the existing Extended Fund Facility (EFF), with staff and Sri Lankan authorities having reached a staff-level agreement on the Fifth Review in October, prior to the cyclone. A Board meeting on the review is expected on December 15.

Kozack said IMF staff is examining options to further support Sri Lanka in the recovery process”, signalling possible adjustments or additional assistance once damage assessments are finalised. 

We will provide more details as the assessment of economic needs and damages moves forward,” she added, noting that the findings will shape the Fund’s next steps in bolstering the country’s recovery and resilience. 

by Melani Manel Perera, Courtesy PIME Asia News

The losses are estimated at between US$ 6 and US$ 7 billion. In 2004, they ranged from US$ 1.5 to US$ 2 billion. The recovery plan is waiting for detailed assessments. Twenty-two out of 25 administrative districts and 416 factories were affected. Three billion rupees have been allocated in subsidies; raising the public spending limit is being considered to meet needs.

Colombo (AsiaNews) – The economic losses caused by Cyclone Ditwah in Sri Lanka are estimated at US$ 6 to US$ 7 billion, more than three times the damage caused by the 2004 tsunami, one of the worst natural disasters of modern times.

Prabath Chandrakeerthi, Commissioner General of Essential Services, who was appointed last week, told reporters that this was a rough estimate, while “The economic damage of the 2004 tsunami was estimated only at US.5 to 2 billion,” he said.

Now an assessment by the World Bank is pending before an economic recovery plan can be developed.

The Ministry of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development, which reported that Cyclone Ditwah affected 416 manufacturing and export factories across Sri Lanka, is proposing to immediately pay 25 per cent of the total damages to the affected factories.

Efforts are underway to collect damage data, while factory owners have been asked to report the extent of the destruction via an emergency number by 16 December.

The highest number of affected factories is in the districts of Gampaha, Colombo, Puttalam, Trincomalee, Kegalle, Kurunegala, Matara, Kandy, and Batticaloa.

A notification published in the Extraordinary Gazette states that 22 of Sri Lanka’s 25 administrative districts were affected by Cyclone Ditwah, underscoring the magnitude of the event. Galle, Matara, and Hambantota, in the Southern Province, are the three districts untouched by the disaster that struck the country as well as many parts of Asia.

The tea industry has been hit hard and may take months to return to normal. Damaged machinery must be sent abroad for repair, while road damage could impact export flows, according to an official from the Colombo Tea Traders Association. The economic losses to the tea industry have not yet been calculated.

The ministry has allocated three billion rupees (US$ 9.7 million) in non-repayable grants to support the reconstruction of these industries, with urgent steps taken to release the funds.

Many industrialists have called for action to repair water, electricity, and road infrastructure to speed up the recovery.

Opposition lawmaker and economic analyst Harsha de Silva told parliament that the budget ceiling for 2026 under the Public Finance Management Act allows for adjustments in extraordinary circumstances.

He noted that parliament may consider raising the capital expenditure limit from 13 per cent of GDP to around 14-14.5 per cent to address urgent needs, adding that the Treasury has over 1.2 trillion rupees (US$ 4.2 billion) in liquidity that can be used immediately, and the planned retirement of 500 billion rupees (US$ 1.6 billion) in Treasury bonds in 2026 could be postponed by a year to prioritise recovery spending.

The government already has significant fiscal leeway to assist communities affected by Cyclone Ditwah, de Silva explained, insisting that there is “no excuse” for delays in relief and cleanup operations.

He also stated that the government has currently LKR 30 billion (IS$ 100 million) earmarked for recurrent expenditure and an additional LKR 20 billion (US$ 65 million) that can be reallocated, for a total of LKR 50 billion that can be used immediately for disaster relief.

According to the Disaster Management Centre (DMC), the death toll reached 607 this morning, with 214 people still missing due to severe weather conditions.

The adverse conditions, which began on 16 November, have so far affected 2,082,195 people or 586,464 families across the country, the agency reported.

Additionally, the DMC said that 4,164 homes were destroyed, while at least 67,505 more sustained partial damage.

Courtesy Anadolu Agency

Rapid Financing Instrument request under review as IMF expresses support for recovery efforts

ANKARA

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday that it is reviewing a request by Sri Lanka for $200 million in emergency financing following the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah.

Evan Papageorgiou, IMF mission chief for Sri Lanka, said in a statement that the government had applied for financial assistance under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) totaling 150.5 million Special Drawing Rights (SDR), equivalent to about 26% of Sri Lanka’s IMF quota or approximately $200 million.

“This request is currently under consideration and subject to approval by the IMF’s Executive Board,” said Papageorgiou, according to the statement.

The cyclone, which brought widespread destruction to the island nation earlier this week, has led to significant humanitarian and economic challenges.

“In the wake of the devastating impact and widespread destruction caused by Cyclone Ditwah, we extend our deepest sympathies to the people of Sri Lanka,” Papageorgiou added.

The IMF reaffirmed its commitment to the country’s recovery and future resilience efforts.

“The IMF remains closely engaged with Sri Lankan authorities during this challenging period and is committed to supporting the country as it undertakes urgent efforts to recover, rebuild, and promote resilience for the future,” the statement read.

The RFI is designed to provide rapid financial assistance to member countries facing urgent balance-of-payments needs, including those stemming from natural disasters.

Approval from the IMF Executive Board is required before funds can be disbursed.

In Sri Lanka, the death toll from Cyclone Ditwah has risen to 607, with 214 people still missing since the storm struck on Nov. 17, the country’s Disaster Management Center said in a report on Friday.

The UN said at least 185 people have died in southern Thailand, while 367 others remain missing. Four deaths were reported in India and three in Malaysia amid severe weather conditions.