VFM RADIO 107

VFM RADIO 107

e-Con e-News

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com

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

e-Con e-News 22-28 December 2024

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In 1770, William Pitt the Elder (then Earl of Chatham), ‘made uneasy

by the first manufacturing attempts of the New Englanders, declared that

the colonies should not be permitted to manufacture so much as a horseshoe nail’

– Ha-Joon Chang, Kicking Away the Ladder

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‘Intelligence agencies have been pushing universities:

The Swiss Federal Intelligence Agency’s Technopole Program

wants universities to implement knowledge security’

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‘The securitization trend coincides with the decreasing share of the US,

the EU, & OECD countries in global research & innovation,

& a rising weight of the global South, with China leading the way.’

(see ee Focus)

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The US demand to block certain university subjects to Asian & African students, is being meekly followed by Europe, led by England, rear and tail wagging, despite loud proclamations about ‘free trade’ & ‘free enquiry’ and ‘geopolitical neutrality.’ Luckily for them, while Sri Lanka is not on the lengthening list of countries sanctioned, we can assume that few Sri Lankan students even aim to take on such ‘sensitive’ modern industrial subjects, let alone enable such ‘undesirable knowledge transfer’. The starker truth is that the imperialists have always wished to prevent any type of modern industrialization in our countries:

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‘Yet everything can be military in an engineering school:

…Cybersecurity, robotics, drones , chemistry –

chemical weapons, applied math, artificial intelligence…

Almost all lessons can have dual applications.’

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Citing ‘research security’ concerns, universities are vetting engineering & science students from certain countries, as demanded by the US & European Union governments. Universities have to provide ‘a detailed outline’ of its rules for foreign students applying for masters and doctoral degrees in applied research areas, as well as for invitations to ‘scientific guests’ and new staff appointments. They are also designating certain universities in Asia, blocking their graduates from further study abroad. Many of these now-verboten technologies were in fact developed by the sweat and tears and blood of Asians and Africans.

Meanwhile all the US government NGOs, their thinktanks and economists sing the praises of mythical ‘free trade’ while vehemently opposing industrialization. The US online business journal and ‘lip service’ EconomyNext in Sri Lanka, mostly fabricated by AI algorithms and full of errors, has taken to claiming that ‘Karl Marx, Engels would have approved Sri Lanka Rice Imports for Working Class’ (see ee Random Notes). This is of course just not as simple as that, let alone true. Firstly, Sri Lanka is dominated not by the state-protected mafias but by multinational monopolies like England’s Unilever and the USA’s Proctor & Gamble, and Ceylon Tobacco Co. and US Exxon, etc. Secondly, Marx & Engels show how the early English ‘free-traders’ & ‘protectionists’ worked in tandem to promote slavery, Black & white; sell bread with fecal matter (they called it ‘sophistication’!), employ children under 10, and prevent any reduction in work hours, and to oppose trade unions. Two years after the so-called ‘Victory of Free Trade’ in England, the English state then perpetrated their genocide on the lands of the Sinhala in 1848 … So much for laissez-faire (see ee Focus).

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Welcome to the 350^th (almost weekly edition) of e-Con e-News, which we began in dedication to the work of SBD de Silva, as expressed in his classic The Political Economy of Underdevelopment, published in England in 1982. Ironically, in that very same year – rather coincidentally and we dare say, in astrological congruence – the English also published another The Political Economy of Underdevelopment by India’s Amiya Kumar Bagchi. Eleven years earlier, Hungary’s Akademiai Kiado had published Thomas Szentes’ The Political Economy of Underdevelopment, in 1971. It turns out, scholars from the socialist bloc in Eastern Europe and Central Asia had developed their own analysis of neo-colonial mechanisms in the world economy, and the role of internal class structure in the Global South.

Soviet political economist Sergei Tyulpanov, for instance, argued that the state had to isolate those domestic forces hindering industrialization (feudal landlords and merchant capital – mafias, anyone?) and create a strong public sector while encouraging the progressive potential of the national bourgeoisie in a private sector. Within this strategy of non-capitalist development, it was crucial that national-democratic parties take charge and not relinquish political power to the bourgeoisie. It turns out that SBD De Silva’s thesis and criticism of ‘dependency theory’ was also the position of many Soviet scholars: the ruling merchant and moneylender class in Sri Lanka is thrilled be the house-slave for the English industrial bourgeoisie, as their commercial puppy dog. So what, pray, is la difference between these 3 books of the same name? ee shall have to explore this matter at another time.

     We may say of such authors, as SBD de Silva noted in the introduction to his inquiry into Sri Lanka’s discontents:

‘This book is not the product of alienated labour.

There was throughout a psychological dimension, involving

a voluntariness and spontaneity of effort – unrelated to

considerations of professional survival or advancement’

So then, let’s examine the contribution of Bengal’s Amiya Kumar Bagchi, who passed last week (see ee Focus).

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Contents:

https://eesrilanka.wordpress.com/2024/12/29/us-european-universities-block-asian-african-students-from-advanced-technology/

C. Wijeyawickrema

මේ දිනවල ජනාධිපති AKD ගේ ආණ්ඩුව දෛනිකව මුහුණ පානා ඇබ්බැද්දි දකිනවිට මට ඇමෙරිකාවේ ජනාධිපතිලා දෙන්නෙක් ඒවාට මුහුණ දුන් අන්දම මතකයට ආවේය. ඇමතිකෙනෙක් හෝ මන්ත්‍රී කෙනෙක්ගේ යම් අහිතකර කතාවක් හෝ ක්‍රියාවක් නිසා ආණ්ඩුවේ ප්‍රතිරූපයට ඩැමේජ් එකක්වූ විට, එයට අවංක ලෙස මුහුණදී කල වරද නිවැරදි කර ගන්නවා වෙනුවට එය සුදුහුණු ගා වැසිය හැකියයි සිතා ක්‍රියාකිරීමෙන් සිදුවන්නේ ඩැමේජ් එකට පිහාටුද ලැබී ඉගිලී යාමය.

කතානායකගේ තොප්පිය, ඔහුගේ හා අන් අයගේ උපාධි අර්බුදය, නැති සුදුසුකම් කියා චන්ද්දායකයින් හා පක්ෂය රැවටීම, ජය මංගල ගාථා නතර කලත් ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලයේ නත්තල් සැරසිලි, රිලා ප්‍රශ්ණය, පොල්, ලුණු හිඟය කොට්ටච්චිගේ මෝඩ කතා, මන්ත්‍රීලාගේ අනියම් පෙම් සම්බන්ධකම්, මෝඩි කියන දේ හා විජිත හේරත් කියන දේ හා තායිවානය හා චීනය අතර  වෙනස  AKD විසින් කළමනාකරගත යුතුව තිබුණේ මීට වඩා ප්‍රඥාවන්ත ලෙසය. හාල් ප්‍රශ්නය වුනත් වී මාෆියාවට යට වුනේ නෑ යන අන්දමට හැසිරෙන්නට ඉඩ තිබුණි.

විශේෂයෙන් හොර රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන් දමනය කිරීම ඒ ගැන අත්දැකීම් හා දැණුමක් ඇති පක්ෂයෙන් බාහිර සවාධීන අයට භාරදී ඉෂ්ට කරගත හැකිය. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් තිලක් කන්දේගම, සනස නිර්මාතෘ, ගාර්වින් කරුණාරත්න, සුදත් ගුණසේකර, යාපනේ අරුන් සිද්ධාර්ථ් හා දිලිත් ජයවීර වුනත් ප්‍රයෝජනයට ගත හැකි පංචස්කන්ධය. හිමාලයා ප්‍රකාශණය නමැති ඊලම් අවතාරයට ගොදුරු නොවීම අ ගත් නිවැරදි තීරණයක් බව මෙහිදී සඳහන් කල යුතුය.

මෙය වැදගත් කාරණාවක් වන්නේ දුන් පොරොන්දු මතක් කරමින් අනිකුත් බොහෝ අයමෙන් තවදුරටත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ නොසිටිය යුතුව තිබූ මේ පඬරැල් මේවා අල්ලාගෙනවත් පණනළ රැකගන්නට බලන නිසාදය. ගලේ මොකක්ද කල බළලුන් මෙන් වී සිටින මේ විපක්ෂයට මෙවැනි ප්‍රමාද දෝෂ අල්ලාගැනීම මිස වෙන දෙයක් කිරීමට ශක්තියක් ඉතිරිව නැත. විපක්ෂයේ සිටින එකම  විපක්ෂය වන්නේ දිලිත් ජයවීර නවක මන්ත්‍රීවරයා පමණය.

(1)ඉන්දියාවට රට පාවා නොදීම (2) 13 A හරහා ඊලමට මඟ පාදා නොදීම (3) සිංහල බෞද්ධ ශිෂ්ටාචාරයට හානි නොකිරීම යන කාරණා තුන අමතක නොකරන්නේ නම් AKD බලයට ඒම ඓතිහාසික  වෙනසකි. රටේ කලයුතු මේ වෙනස්කම් සඳහා සහභාගී කරගත හැකි බොහෝ ස්වාධීන ලාංකිකයින් රටතුලත් පිටරටත් සිටී. චන්ද කාලයේදී මළිමාවට පක්ෂවූ අයට අමතරව, විශ්‍රාමගත් හා නොගත්, මේ පිරිස් රාජ්‍යපාලනයට හවුල් කර ගැනීම දූරදර්ශී විධායක ජනාධිපති කෙනෙකුට ඇති අනගි අවස්ථාවකි. 16 වෙනි ඇමෙරිකන් ජනාධිපති ලින්කන් 1861-65   සිය ධූර කාලයේදී කලේ එයය. ඔහු තම විරුද්ධවාදීන් ආණ්ඩුවට එකතුකර ගත්තේ නම්‍යශීලීවෙමින් රට ගැන සිතාය. වහල් ක්‍රමය රැක ගන්නට පක්ෂව චන්දය ඉල්ලු ඔහු ජයග්‍රහණයට පසු වහල් ක්‍රමය නැතිකිරීමට දුෂ්කර යුද්ධයක් කලේ, දකුණේ වහල් ක්‍රමයට පක්ෂ දකුණේ ජනපදවලට විශාල බලයක් තිබියදීය. අන්තිමේදී දකුණේ වහල් හිමියන් උතුරේ ලින්කන්ගේ යුදහමුදාවට විරුද්ධව ඔවුන් සමඟ එකතුවන ලෙස ආයාචනා කලේය.

36 වෙනි ඇමෙරිකන් ජනාධිපති ලින්ඩන් ජොන්සන් (1963-69) කාලයේදී ජනාධිපති ලින්කන්ගේ විරුද්ධවාදීන් තම රජයට එකතු කර ගැනීමට හා සමාන දෙයක් කලේය. Democratic පාක්ෂිකයෙකුවූ ඔහු, බලවත් රිපබ්ලිකන් පාක්ෂිකයෙකු (X) තම ආණ්ඩුවට බඳවා ගන්නට යෝජනා කලවිට අනිත් Democratic අය ඊට විරුද්ධවිය. එවිට ජොන්සන් කියා සිටියේ දැන් X එලියේ ඉදන් අපේ ටැංකියට චූ කරණවා, ඔහුව අපි ලඟට ගත් විට ඔහු අපේ ටැංකියේ සිට පිටට චූ කරණවා යනුවෙනි! සමහර අවස්ථාවලදී ජොන්සන් ජනාධිපති තම ලේකම්ලාට නියෝග/උපදෙස් දුන්නේ බාත් රූම් කොමොඩ් එකේ ඉඳගෙන ඉන්න ගමන් බාගෙට දොර ඇරගෙනය. ඔහු ප්‍රායෝගික යථාර්ථවාදියෙක් විය.

අනුර කුමාර ජනාධිපතිට මේ ජනාධිපතිලා දෙන්නා ගෙන් ගත හැකි ආදර්ශයක් නැද්ද? යම් ආණ්ඩුවකට හානිකර වන කාරණා දෙකක් රසික ජයකොඩි සඳහන් කරයි. එකක් නම් උද්දච්ච කමය. අනික නම කඩේ යන යන පිරිසය. මොවුන් කොටස් දෙකකි. ඉන් ඩෝබිලා, රෙද්දේ එක පැත්තක් හෝ අනිත් පැත්ත හෝ අවස්ථාවට අනුව පිලිවෙලින් දෙපැත්තම හෝදන්නේය. රසික කියන අනිත් කොටස නම් දායක සභාවය.

ප.ලි. මෙවැනි කරුණු හුදෙක් සද්භාවයෙන් ජනාධිපතිට, අගමැතිනිට හා පක්ෂයට ඊමේල් මඟින් දන්වා එවූවිට පසුගිය අවුරුදු පනහක කාලවල මෙන් ඔබගේ ලිපිය ලැබුණා, නිසි අයට යොමුකලා යයි පිළිතුරු දීම, අපේ ව්‍යායාමය ගඟට ඉණිකැපීමක් නොවේද යන සාංකාව ඇති කරන්නේය.

Courtesy The Guardian (UK)

Billionaire Trump adviser said his ‘significant investments’ in the country justify his wading into German politics

The tech entrepreneur and close adviser to Donald Trump Elon Musk has taken a stunning new public step in his support for the far-right German political party Alternative for Germany (AfD), publishing a supportive guest opinion piece for the country’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper that has prompted the commentary editor to resign in protest.

The commentary piece in German was launched online on Saturday before being published on Sunday in the flagship paper of the Axel Springer media group, which also owns the US politics news site Politico.

Musk uses populist and personal language to try to deny AfD’s extremist bent, and the essay expands on his post on his social media platform, X, on which he last week claimed that only the AfD can save Germany”.

Translated, Musk’s piece said: The portrayal of the AfD as rightwing extremist is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!”

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has classified the AfD at the national level as a suspected extremism case since 2021.

Shortly after the piece was published online, the editor of the opinion section, Eva Marie Kogel, used the US tech mogul’s own platform to post on X that she had submitted her resignation.

I always enjoyed heading the opinion department at Welt and Wams. Today a text by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. Yesterday I submitted my resignation after printing,” she posted.

She included a link to the Musk commentary article.

The AfD has a strong anti-immigration stance and, like incoming president Donald Trump in relation to the US, is calling for mass deportations from Germany. Earlier in December, Musk not only posted in favor of AfD but the party’s hard line on immigration appeared to resonate with the incoming US vice-president, JD Vance, MSNBC reported.

Senior Welt Group figures weighed in on Saturday.

Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression. This includes dealing with polarising positions and classifying them journalistically,” the newspaper’s editor-in-chief designate, Jan Philipp Burgard, and Ulf Poschardt, who takes over as publisher on 1 January, told Reuters.

They said discussion about Musk’s piece, which had about 340 comments several hours after it was published, was very revealing”.

Underneath Musk’s commentary, the newspaper published a response by Burgard.

Musk’s diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally false,” he wrote, referencing the AfD’s desire to leave the European Union and seek rapprochement with Russia as well as appease China.

Musk and Weidel both later posted a link to the article on X.

The AfD backing from Musk, who also defended his right to weigh in on German politics due to his significant investments”, comes as Germans are set to vote on 23 February after a coalition government led by the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, collapsed late this fall.

The AfD is running second in opinion polls and might be able to thwart either a centre-right or centre-left majority, but Germany’s mainstream, more centrist parties have pledged to shun any support from the AfD at the national level.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Sarath Amunugama observed that one of the many items which made Maname special was its melodious music. [1]Sarachchandra was an   accomplished musician. He had gone to Santiniketan in the 1940s to study music.  However, in his Pin ati Sarasavi, he spoke of ‘veenawa ata pata gawa,’ so I thought he was a dilettante musician.

His early childhood in a family of devout Christians had exposed him to the English language and western music. He is said to have played the organ in his village church.  This double exposure stimulated his intellectual interests which always remained unfettered, and also nurtured his sensitivity and love of music which quickly extended to eastern music and its musical instruments.  Much later, after his stay in Japan he was fascinated by the music of Noh performances.  Music is then a central element in his later achievements, said Ranjini Obeyesekere .[2]

The music in Maname was outstanding. Sarachchandra  had no difficulty  in composing lyrics to match the melody. Since he knew  Carnatic music,  he knew to combine word,  melody,  and raga to create emotions in us.  No other artist in Sinhala theatre has this ability. Dayananda Gunawardena  and Gunasena Galappaththy were not as successful as Sarachchandra  because they lacked this ability, said Sarath Amunugama.

Even at the time he came to Peradeniya in 1956, Gunasinghe Gurunnanse may have been past 50 years. However he was a perfect dancer in the Nadagam style and perfect singer with precise pronunciation of Sinhala, Sanskrit and Pail languages,” said Lionel Fernando.[3]

Gunasinghe Gurunnanse brought with him the drum known as the Maddalaya, used in operatic folk drama which proved the perfect ensemble along with other low country drums as Maname gradually took shape as a new stylized form of drama. We heard the Maddala playing well before we came to the school hall, said Sarath Amunugama  when as a schoolboy he had attended the Pushpadana performance. 

Gunadasa Amarasekera   stated in his Sinhala kavya sampradaya that in Maname, Sarachchandra was able to shatter the notion that Sinhala was an archaic language which could not evoke emotion on a stage. He showed that it was a living language that could be used dramatically to evoke emotion.  And that no other language could achieve this so well.

Sarachchandra   was able to forge a poetic diction which is capable of conveying emotion at a very refined level, critics added. Sarath Amunugama observed that language was used very creatively in Maname. Sarachchandra had a unique talent of using words to evoke emotion. He used known words in a new way to do so.  Sarachchandra  however  said  that  in Maname he was simply  trying to speak to his audience in an idiom that they would understand .

 Amunugama extensively analyses the language developed by Sarachchandra in Maname, RETAIN THIS REF.  Here is a quick example.  The   opening exchange between the prince and princess, giya veddo- thava veddo- noma viddo- pasu eddo-ida laddo -biya naddo,   anticipates their conflict later on.

It was Gunadasa Amarasekera who first noted the poetic richness of Maname, observed Amunugama. Gunadasa said that Sarachchandra was an outstanding poet   and had contributed to poetry through Maname.

Sarachchandra  developed a new poetic and dramatic idiom which combined several kavi traditions, said Amunugama.  He used  the classical poetic idiom of 13 and 14 century  ,  as well the idiom of the  Matara ( 1720-1830) and Udarata period.   He added to this  classical scholarship  the   rich usage of folk poetry. He  used idioms drawn from the folk and ritual dramas. Sarachchandra  then fused these diverse styles to create a modern poetic Language of the Heart”,  said Amunugama.

Sarachchandra  had an intimate knowledge of classical Sinhala poetry. Amaradeva, in a talk he gave in 2002, had  recalled how Sarachchandra would quote classical poetry while driving his car or seated in a corner of a wayside restaurant.

Once in order to convey the kind of subtle musical effect he needed for the love scene for his play Pabavati that he was then working on, Amaradeva says Sarachchandra suddenly quoted a verse from the 13^th century poem the Kavsilumina (Kataka bota mihivita)    and passionately expounded on it.

Sarachchandra described that drinking scene and expounded on the minimalist lines with which the poet describes the kiss, and then went into a long discourse on the poet’s descriptive power, his language and usage. This 13^th century classical Sinhala can hardly be understood by most of us today, but Sarachchandra’s fine poetic sensibility could bring out the nuances underlying the verse, Amaradeva observed.

Before I end this essay,  I would like to add my ‘two cents worth’ to this scholarly topic. Sinhala, unlike English, which is our gold standard for language, is  a very musical language. This is never mentioned. Buddhagosha  called Sinhala  ‘Manorama basha. Sinhala is   also  a very flexible language . Sinhala is able to indicate subtle humour or   sarcasm  quickly and easily,  with a flick of phrase, unlike English,  which needs  imagery. ( Continued)

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[1] Sarath amunugama Maname mathak vee.

[2] Ranjini Obeysekera https://thuppahis.com/2014/06/10/ediriweera-sarachchandra-a-renaisance-man/

[3] Chandani kirinde https://www.sundaytimes.lk/161023/plus/remembering-sarachchandras-maname-60-years-after-213018.html

Prof. Hudson McLean

Why Finland Needs Foreigners? 

Force-Feeding Finnish Language to Foreigners is Counter Productive!

Force-Feeding Finnish Language will Drive Most Educated & Intelligent Foreigners Out of Finland!

Why is English now the Global Language?

English is the foremost, and by some accounts The Only, World Language. 

English is widely used around the World in Internet Computers and all other Technological Equipment. 

For this reason, the English language is dominant in the world of science as well. Since science and technology play a huge role in our lives today, for English to lose its importance in the future.

The Population of Finland 5,6 million

Finland 2024 population is est:   5,617,310

Foreigners in Finland  (9,4%) 2024    528,129

Finnish Population Nett 2024           5,089,181

Finland 1975 population                   4,711,000

Finland Finnish Population Decrease 

During 2041 to 2050 by 103,000 = 4,986,181

Why Finland Needs Foreigners than Foreigners Need Finland?

The total land area is 303,890 Km2 (117,333 sq. miles). 86.4 % of the population is urban (4,853,952 people in 2024). The median age in Finland is 43.0 years.

With the Decrease  in the Overall Finnish Population – Finland has a Grave Problem.

By 2050 The Aging Old Population will Need Pensions, Medication, Healthcare workers,  General Services industry, and Most of all,  TAX PAYERS

Benefits of & Quality of Life in Finland! 

Positive Points Outweigh the Negative Points.

There are many Benefits of Life in Finland.

General Personality of the Finnish Citizen-;

Honest – Conservative – Caring – Empathy – Civilised!

Finland is Safe – No Corruption – Pollution & Crime Free.

Great Health Services – Free Education – Less Racism!

What are the major imports and exports of Finland?

Finland’s largest trading partners (imports and exports of goods) in 2022 were Germany, Sweden,  China, and the United States.  

Finland’s key Export Sectors are transportation, electronics, forestry, machinery, and chemicals.  20 Nov 2023  Export Language – ENGLISH!

https://wits.worldbank.org/CountryProfile/en/Country/FIN/Year/LTST/Summarytext

Exports and imports of Finland in 2022 are below, along with number of countries and products

• The total value of exports  (FoB) was 86,228 million.
•  The total value of imports (CIF) was 97,374 million.
• At the HS6 digit level, 
• 3,871 products were exported to 212 countries and 4,315 products were imported from 225 countries.

What language is Finnish derived from?  Proto-Uralic

Prehistory. The Uralic family of languages, of which Finnish is a member, between 8,000 and 2,000 BCE (estimates vary) in the vicinity of the Ural Mountains.

Compromise Solution:  

Make English the Third Language in Finland!

Express Your Opinion – Read What Others Say!
The Independent Interactive Voice of Sri Lanka on the Internet.

Please visit -: http://www.lankaweb.com/

By Sanjeewa Jayaweera Courtesy The Island

The government’s decision to increase the withholding tax (WHT) rate to 10%, effective 1 April 2025, deserves commendation. Too often, political leaders have avoided necessary but unpopular decisions, opting to appease the electorate. This has led to various issues, from economic stagnation to the erosion of minority and religious rights. The proposed tax increase, however, marks a significant step in addressing a pressing concern: Sri Lanka’s persistent tax evasion problem.

Tax evasion in Sri Lanka is alarmingly high. While some degree of evasion is common in many countries, effective tax compliance is largely achieved through a comprehensive tax policy and an efficient tax administration. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka has fallen short in both these areas. Since the early 1990s, successive governments have either reduced or eliminated key taxes, granted widespread exemptions, and failed to adequately develop the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) in terms of manpower and technology.

Rather than addressing these systemic issues, governments have relied on increasing indirect taxes. The contribution of direct taxes to overall revenue has fallen to a mere 20%. Indirect taxes, such as Value Added Tax (VAT), are largely hidden from the consumer, as the IRD has mandated that supplier invoices do not show VAT charged. This has created a society that is not accustomed to paying direct taxes. Additionally, the acceptance of corruption as a necessary evil” has contributed to the perception that tax evasion is acceptable.

Consequently, the imposition of new taxes, rate increases, and threshold reductions often generates confusion and frustration among the public. Opposition parties frequently exploit these sentiments to mislead the electorate, complicating the government’s efforts. To counter this, the government must invest in educating the public about taxes, the need for tax revenue, and the civic duty of tax compliance. This is a long-term effort that, if successful, could lead to improved tax revenues and higher compliance rates.

Policymakers should consider insights from an OECD report published in 2021, which analyzed taxpayer education initiatives in 59 developed and developing countries. The report revealed that over 80% of such initiatives improved tax morale—the intrinsic motivation to pay taxes. The findings underscore the importance of tax literacy in shaping a culture where citizens understand how their tax contributions affect their daily lives.

The report suggests a step-by-step approach for designing and implementing taxpayer education initiatives customized to local contexts. Three key strategies for promoting tax compliance emerged:

· Teaching tax: Engaging all audiences, including youth, adults, and entrepreneurs, through long-term educational programs.

· Communicating tax

: Raising awareness through campaigns, tax fairs, TV shows, and behavioural economics-based messaging.

· Supporting compliance

: Providing practical assistance, particularly for vulnerable taxpayers, to navigate modern e-administration tools and fulfill reporting requirements.

Verité Research, an independent think tank, has long advocated increasing the WHT rate on interest income from 5% to 10%. Their estimate suggests that this increase could generate an additional Rs. 90 billion in revenue for the state. Despite this, the government of Ranil Wickremesinghe hesitated to act, even though it had already raised VAT to 18% and introduced progressive income tax rates as high as 36% and reduced the monthly tax-free threshold to Rs. 100,000.

Importantly, WHT on interest income is not an additional tax; it is a prepayment of taxes collected by the payer on behalf of the government, similar to the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system used for salaried employees. The challenge, however, lies in the fact that individuals often earn interest from multiple banks, unlike salary income, which typically comes from a single employer. As a result, financial institutions cannot easily determine whether an individual’s total income surpasses the annual tax-free threshold of Rs. 1,200,000 (or Rs. 1,800,000 starting April 2025).

To address this, the IRD should implement a system allowing individuals over 18 to obtain a letter from the IRD confirming that WHT need not be deducted if their total annual income is below the threshold. While this will initially be challenging due to the lack of tax files for many individuals, it is a step that should be supported. Despite its complexities, the government’s decision to increase the WHT rate should be backed.

To illustrate the impact of this change, consider the following examples assuming the person’s total income is derived solely from interest:

Total Income Tax Due:

· Income: Rs. 5,000,000

· Single Person Allowance

: Rs. 1,200,000

· Taxable Income

: Rs. 3,800,000

· Income Tax at Progressive Rates

: Rs. 918,000

· Less WHT Collected at Source

: Rs. 250,000

· Tax Evaded

: Rs. 668,000

With the WHT Rate Increase:

· Income: Rs. 5,000,000

· Single Person Allowance

: Rs. 1,200,000

· Taxable Income

: Rs. 3,800,000

· Income Tax at Progressive Rates

: Rs. 918,000

· Less WHT Collected at Source

: Rs. 500,000

· Tax Evaded

: Rs. 418,000

As illustrated, raising the WHT rate to 10% would generate an additional Rs. 250,000 in tax revenue. I have assumed in my illustration that the recipient of interest income is not tax-compliant and is currently outside the tax net. This demonstrates how the rate increase could significantly reduce tax evasion. The IRD’s ultimate goal should be to recover the Rs. 418,000 currently evaded by taxpayers. By streamlining the reporting systems of financial institutions and integrating them with the RAMIS system, the IRD can take a significant step toward curbing tax evasion and boosting government revenue.

Sarath Wijesinghe President’s Counsel and former Ambassador to UAE and Israel and President ambassador’s forum in UK/SL

Rice is staple food in Sri Lanka

Rice is the staple food in Sri Lanka culturally linked to the history as an agricultural nation in addition being a beautiful compact nation. She has been self-sufficient from rice and historically exported rice to other countries. Invasion of the western powers and de-tabulation of the agricultural economy ended the agriculture to nature of the economy and livelihood of the citizen to be dependent on external factors and assistance due to the foreign domination of decades by Portuguese in 1505 and thereafter the full domination by the British in 1796, until the attainment of freedom in 1948 from British imperialists. Sri Lanka had an excellent irrigation system, connected to small and major’’ Weva’s ‘’ (reservoirs) covering the entire island preservation and collecting water for agriculture and other uses. It is King ‘’Parakramabahu 1’’ in 1153-1156 who declared that not a drop pf water that comes from rain flows into the seas without being use by the man for agricultures an adage that echoes up to today encouraging agriculture which is linked to Sri Lankan culture from time immemorial to date in agricultural traditions still in practice.

Rice culture converted to bread culture by foreign domination

 At the time of domination and thereafter Sri Lanka have been a rich country capable of assisting the dominant powers and self sufficient from rice with 20,000 varieties and food in pliantly with financial reserves to run the economy comfortably. Western powers introduced the bread culture to sell their food and consumer items  to the locals by destroying village self sufficiency where all products including agriculture and the rest were produced in the village to fee the foreign farmers and industrialists and foolish Sri Lankans got into the trap of the foreign dominations who succeeded in their attempts in changing the traditional rice culture to bread culture and the way of life to depend on the imports from the foreign countries for food and consumer items.

Culture based on agriculture

Traditional celebrations such as new year and other in Sri Lanka has also been linked to agriculture, harvesting periods and religious and cultural norms and practices on important events such as the planting, harvesting and other important events and steps on steps of agriculture such as application of fertilizer and  watering with religious steps given priority offering the first portions of rice to the temple and ‘’Dalada Maligawa’’ or the ‘’Bo tree’’ as the case be in ceremoniously and on religious order, and in short the culture and the religion has been given the priority on agriculture and agricultural events. Sri Lanka is bestowed with 20,000 varieties of rice which are of highest quality than the hybrid created artificially by modern scientists. Hector ‘’Kobbakudawa’’ research institution is a well-equipped institution of highest quality which is not given maximum use and capacity due to the lack of vision and strategy of the respective departments of water resources and agricultures.

Forced conversion to ‘’Bread Culture’’

Economy and culture were based on agriculture and water management and resources are of highest scientific quality that Suprises the modern agri – scientists on the unfloor of the water network to the entre country via rivers, ‘’Wevas’’ and canals access to the paddy friends in villages with levels and levitations for unfloor of water. Citizen was made lazy and discouraged to cultivate and depended on shipments for food and consumer items imported from the foreign companies using the ample foreign exchange available then even to feed the foreign powers, and as a result the government started to import rice, and wheat for convenience and more profits in addition to making the community lazy and dependent on the government and employment, whit the change of the system of education to help the government in place of creativity and innovations linked to business and agriculture as Singapore and Israel who easily surpassed Sri Lanka in all respects including agriculture and innovations them becoming leaders on agriculture and innovations when Sri Lanka was lagging behind expecting and depending on foreign loans with weak and lethargic governments fighting with each other for power with no aim or a vision for the nation to prosper. Foreigners ( Singaporean Company Prima) extracted the most nourishing part of wheat and send Sri Lanka the unproductive and malnourished part in place of rice which is nourishing and local that has been in used for ages with no burden to the nation exporting a part of it abroad.

Crisis in paddy production and shortage of rice for the consumer

Paddy production is in a crisis with no sufficient paddy for the nation once self-sufficient, and today the government is compelled to import a part of the needs of rice when the farmer too is dissatisfied due to lack of facilitates and a profit margin for the investment’s and make ends meet for the livelihood. The simplest process has become complicated with the fertilizer subsidy, expenditure for the cultivation, and the sale of the production depending on the governance, major mill owners and small timers not giving or not in a position to give the proper price to the farmer spending heavily on agriculture despite unexpected and unforeseen events such as natural calamities and destructions from wild animals which is common and disastrous. Government policy changes have made matters worse by not streamlining the paddy marketing board, the fleet of lorries, and the stores abundance today leaving fat cat millowners to purchase paddy from the field at a bargain price when inefficient paddy board laydown strict rules to the farmer to transport paddy cleaned and dried to the paddy board and pay less than the millowners out of whom 50% are ‘’fat cat ‘’leaders and the rest small timers. Tru it is complicated and it is the duty of the governance to adopt a strategy and a mechanism if the policy is to give priority to agricultures as promised and perched and expected by the nation.

Shortage of rice in the market

Some say shortage is due to the use on preparation of alcohol where only 30,000 mt tons are used. The shortage appears to be on popular kinds such as ‘’Keeri Samba ‘’and red rice which is in demand. Millers depend on bank loans and the government can have a direct and direct control over the price by legal and procedural mechanisms, which will be dealt later under a different topic. Shortage and disorganization are due to various factors including lack of vision, procedure, form commitment and lack of communication with respective ministries and departments.it is not a simple process as one thinks it is as in the past as the farmer is pressed with many responsibilities, commitments and needs in every step on the process of cultivation.

Israel 98%agritculture is technology for us to learn and follow

 Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation in in the hands of President AKD and Minister Lal Kantha land and irrigation with a thin lawyer with lot of responsibilities, and with main responsibilities with them on the entire agriculture process and it is timely and advisable to learn from Israel a tiny strip in the dry Middle East which is a leader on agriculture and innovators using 98% technology on agriculture innovations and star tups being s nuclear emerging world power today – a leader of agriculture  ever prepared to help Sri Lanka. It is time and advisable for moth ministers to discuss a strategy carefully and develop a process to the farmer in Sri Lanka a new life meeting the needs and grievances to bring expected results on regaining loss glory to make Sri Lanka the Granary of the East again soon with new technology and innovations.

Way out to be the granary of the East Again-Soon

The roadway is clear and it is our duty to implement the process with the masses who has given a clear mandate to work hard giving a clear single to the governance still not in the proper tract with a vision despite the educated and committed young and matured ever prepared to work. This opportunity is final and if it is missed the results are bound to be disastrous. We are full of scientists, agriculturists, educationists, strategists, who are still idling criticizing each other without coming forward with a vision and a programmer, based on their knowledge and experiences, and it is time for the leaders to harness the experiences and knowledge of the academics, professionals and all other wanting a Change. Author could be contacted on sarathdw28@gmail.com (https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&ik=97fa7fc339&attid=0.1&permmsgid=msg-a:r-5179345186687067377&th=18c489b559705391&view=att&disp=inline&realattid=f_lpwdrip30&zw ) ( law and impact 23.11.2006 telegraph/12.3.18 web/FT during festive season/5.10.21 web case of a consumer ombudsman/ consume law impact web/jan2 .23 telegraph and many more by browsing net against the authors name and subject)

By Nalliah Thayabharan

The Japanese economy was the biggest economic miracle in the 20th century after the United States,but a grim turning point occurred when the Plaza Accord was signed.

Japan’s GDP was less than $0.5 trillion in 1960, yet just 3 decades later, the economy grew to a stunning amount of over $3.1 trillion by 1990 and a further growth was seen where the Japanese economy peaked at $5.5 trillion in 1995. The gap between the US and Japan was very small in 1995 where the U.S. economy stood at just $7.6 trillion.

This was a pivotal moment that led many to believe Japan was going to surpass the United States. Other metrics even already showed that Japan had catched the U.S., For instance, in GDP per capita, Japan had overtaken the U.S in 1987 and had seen a big gap between the two nations in 1995. This was indeed an economic miracle. There was no other nation globally other than China that came close to overtaking the U.S.

But as many know the story wasn’t a happy ending. We saw the eventual stagnation of Japan’s economy not for one decade, nor two decades, but over three decades. Since 1995, Japan has not grown at all.

The U.S. played a very significant role in Japan’s slowdown. These all started from the decades leading up to  the 1980s. From the 1970s, Japan had established itself as a global manufacturing powerhouse, dominating industries such as automobiles, electronics, and machinery. These were the very same years that gave birth to Japan conquering a huge portion of the  semiconductor industry and saw the rise of Japanese automotive companies like Toyota. The semiconductor industry was one of the most pivotal aspects behind Japan’s rise, and had also played a key role in its stagnation.

In 1981, 70% of the market share in 64kb dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips was captured by Japan, with the remaining 30% by the United  States. Japanese companies like HITACHI, FUJITSU, and NEC were market leaders in this category. 64K DRAM memory chip was a technological marvel at the time. DRAM chips are critical components in computing devices, acting as temporary storage that enables faster processing of data compared to traditional storage like hard drives. In the early 1980s, the 64K DRAM represented the cutting edge of semiconductor technology, and its production showcased a country’s ability to lead in the tech-driven global economy.

It was in this industry, as well as others, that  gave rise to a concept called trade surplus. The U.S. has been exporting substantial amounts to Japan of billions of dollars, but at the same time,the U.S. has also been importing massively – much more than they export to Japan. This has then caused a trade surplus for Japan, and a trade deficit for the U.S.

There was a significant imbalance forming between the two economies. Japan’s trade surplus indicated that it was selling more goods to the U.S. than it was buying, leading to an accumulation of wealth and foreign reserves in Japan. This trade surplus for Japan then became an important part of Japan’s economic rise. From 1960 to 2000, they have gained a massive amount of total reserves, thanks to their strong exports globally and to the U.S. In the year 2000, Japan was even the world’s largest holder of total reserves with over $361 billion, a figure that far surpasses any other nation.

The trade imbalance between the U.S. and Japan had then become a source of political tension. American manufacturers, particularly in industries like automotive and electronics, felt increasingly threatened by cheaper, high-quality Japanese imports. As pressure mounted, the U.S. sought a solution to rebalance  global trade flows and reduce its deficit. This led to one of the most dramatic policy decisions in post-war economic history: the Plaza Accord.

On September 22, 1985, representatives from the G5 nations—the United States, Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom—met at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Their goal was to address the overvaluation of the U.S. dollar, which had appreciated by 44% against major currencies between 1980 and 1985.

The agreement was clear: the G5 countries would intervene in currency markets to weaken the dollar while allowing other currencies, particularly  the Japanese yen and the German Deutsche Mark, to appreciate. For the United States, this was a strategic move to make its  exports more competitive and reduce its  trade deficit. For Japan and Germany,it meant assuming a larger share of global demand by strengthening their currencies.

Initially, the plan seemed to work. The dollar depreciated by 40% between 1985 and 1987, and Japan’s trade surplus began to shrink. However, the yen’s appreciation turned out to be far steeper than anticipated. By the end of 1985, the yen had surged by over 50% against the dollar, sending shockwaves through Japan’s export-reliant economy.

From 1978 to 1985, Japan’s exchange rate to the US dollar was consistently trading around  210 to 249 yen to a dollar. Yet, by 1986 and further years, the yen had appreciated falling  to as low as 128 yen to a dollar by 1988. These were just a couple of years, and a huge surge in a country’s currency in such a small time frame was a recipe for disaster.

Whenever a country’s currency rises in value this makes their products more expensive on global markets. This would then cut deeply into their profits. The exports of goods and services as a percentage of GDP in Japan was 13.6% in 1985, yet it fell to 9.4% by 1988.

In 1984, the annual growth rate of Japan’s exports of goods and services was over 15.4%, yet by 1985, it fell  to 5.3% and then a contraction of 5% in 1986. This was largely because of the sharp increase in the yen’s value. This contraction in the export sector had a domino effect, leading to a recession in the mid-1980s.  

Faced with this economic slowdown, Japan’s policy makers acted swiftly, but their responses inadvertently laid the groundwork for future crises. To stimulate the economy, the Bank of Japan  implemented aggressive monetary easing, slashing interest rates to historic lows.

Japan’s  interest rates from 1983 to 1985 was over 5%, yet by 1987 to 1989 it fell to 2.5%. These interest rates were a response to the economic problems that the country was facing at that time. Then, on top of that, these were also accompanied by fiscal stimulus measures designed to boost  domestic demand. While these policies succeeded in reviving growth, they also fueled speculative excesses in the real estate and stock markets.

By the late 1980s, Japan was in the throes of an economic bubble. Land prices in Tokyo soared, and the Nikkei stock index tripled in value. At its peak, the value of land in Tokyo alone was estimated to be greater than the entire real estate value of the United States.

For a time, it seemed as though Japan was on  an unstoppable upward trajectory. The stock market of Japan was probably one of the best ways to understand this rise in speculative excesses. There was an insane rise in stock trade in value from 1985 to 1988, the same years when Japan’s economy had started to see the effects of the Plaza Accord.

In 1985, the total value of stocks traded was just a mere  small sum of $455 billion, yet three years later in 1988 this rose to over $2.54 trillion, and a further increase in 1989 to over $2.61 trillion. But in 1990, it shrunk to $1.54 trillion,  then further contraction was seen in 1992 to just $606 billion. The value was never seen  again until 2004, nearly two decades later.

The same story can be seen in the market  capitalization of listed domestic companies in the country. From 1985, the year where the market cap of listed companies was just $948 billion, yet it rose immediately to over $4.26 trillion by 1989, and only to come down  by nearly half to just $2.25 trillion by 1992.

The United States imposed the unfair “U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Agreement” on Japan in 1986, halting Japan’s dominance in the semiconductor industry and once again hindering the revival of the Japanese economy. Exactly the same is happening to China today. They are doing the same to HUAWEI and countless other companies what they did to HITACHI, FUJITSU, and NEC.

Since Douglas MacArthur entered Tokyo, Washington has been in charge of Japan, not Tokyo. Japan is a satellite of the US, a geopolitical term, which means that it is dependent on the US, after all the US is still occupying Japan. They have military bases there, just as they are occupying Germany.  Now the USA is doing the same to Germany. What is happening to Germany is fatal. It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.

This strange suicide by the Japanese is just like the suicide of the EU, in which the EU politicians happily destroyed the only advantage they had for their industry in international markets by boycotting the cheap Russian raw materials and the cheap energy that the Russians gave them.

Japan with its short sighted political leaders will never break free from America . Even if they wanted to, their master will never let that happen. 

The Plaza Accord caused Yen to appreciate, reducing export competitiveness. In response, the Japanese government implemented accommodative monetary policies to boost domestic demand, leading to a sharp rise in asset prices, particularly in stocks and real estate. Much like China today, many borrowed heavily for property purchases. However, when the bubble burst in the late 1980s, asset prices collapsed, banks were left with bad loans, and Japan entered a prolonged period of deflation and low growth.

During the ensuing recession, many Japanese companies moved manufacturing overseas to cut costs, with China emerging as a major destination. During the Cold War, the U.S. prioritized integrating China, viewing its growth as beneficial to maintaining the U.S.-led global economic order, and did not perceive Japanese expansion there as a threat. At the time, China was seen as a low-cost production base and a future market. Japanese firms supported China’s industrial growth by providing technical expertise and fostering mass production, laying the groundwork for its rise as the World’s Factory.”

For Japanese companies, expanding into China was not merely about cost-cutting but also about staying competitive and responding to globalization. However, the unexpected speed of technological absorption by Chinese firms led to the hollowing out of Japan’s domestic industry. Few foresaw China becoming both an economic superpower and a technological rival to the U.S. Unfortunately American antics aren’t going to work on China.

උපුටා ගැන්ම ලංකා සී නිව්ස්

වර්තමාන රජයේ 10 වැනි පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සැසිවාරයෙන් මංගල පසුව ලබාදුන් තේ පැන් සංග්‍රහය ඇතුළු වෙනත් සංග්‍රහ කටයුතු වෙනුවෙන් වැය කර ඇති මුදල රුපියල් 339,628.55 දැන ගැනීමේ බව තොරතුරු අයිතිවාසිකම යටතේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මහලේකම කාර්යාලය මගින් ලබාගත් තොරතුරු මගින් අනාවරණය වේ.

එමෙන්ම 10 වැනි පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ මංගල සැසිවාරයේ උත්සව කටයුතු වෙනුවෙන් තවත් රුපියල් 72,350,00 මුදලක් ද වැය කර තිබෙන බව එහිදී අනාවරණය විය.

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මහ ලේකම කාර්යාලය ලබාදුන් තොරතුරු අනුව, පාර්ලිමේන්තු වැය ශීර්ෂය යටතේ චාරිත්‍රානුකූලව පවත්වන උත්සව කටයුතු සහ තේ පැන් සංග්‍රහ කටයුතු වෙනුවෙන්, ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂගේ 09වැනි පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ මංගල සැසියේදී රුපියල් 287,340.00 ක මුදලක් වැය කර ඇති අතර උත්සව කටයුතු සඳහා සිදු කළ වියදම් ගණනය කිරීමක් සිදුකර නොමැත.

එමෙන්ම වර්තමාන ජනාධිපති අනුරකුමාර දිසානායකගේ 10 වැනි පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ මංගල සැසිවාරයෙන් පසුව ලබාදුන් තේ පැන් සංග්‍රහය වෙනුවෙන් රුපියල් 339,628.55 ක මුදලක් වැය කර තිබෙන බව ඒ අනුව අනාවරණය වේ.

– රාහුල සමන්ත හෙට්ටිආරච්චි

Courtesy Adaderana

The MSME Chamber of Sri Lanka has called for the immediate removal of the circular issued by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), which states that any suspension of ‘Parate’ law execution will not take place beyond 31 March 2025.

Speaking at a press briefing, Media Secretary of the MSME Chamber of Sri Lanka Susantha Liyanaarachchi emphasized the need for the CBSL to issue a new circular pertaining to the recent statement made by the Deputy Minister of Finance.

Commenting further, Liyanaarachchi said: The deputy minister of finance explained to the country’s banks what to do. His statement said that either the banks have to completely remove the interest or focus on a long-term debt repayment. He also instructed that no action should be taken if the defaulters have filed lawsuits. So, they must know that this must be activated before the 1st of January next year.”

The Governor of the Central Bank released a circular on the 20th of December, stating that the Sri Lanka Bank Association was of the view that any suspension of Parate execution will not be beyond the 31st of March 2025. How do they have the right to say these things? The governor cannot just release circulars according to what these associations say”, he added. 

However, if the Central Bank Governor is thinking of pulling tricks like in the previous government, he will not be able to do so now. Therefore, we request the repeal of the circular that was issued on the 20th of December and release a circular according to the statement made by the Deputy Minister of Finance. If it is not be done, we will predict what will happen next to the banks next year”, he stressed.

NEWS CENTER UNLIMITED

Dasatha News

Courtesy Hiru News

Amid a rice shortage in the market, the private sector has imported 75,000 metric tons of rice following the government’s decision to address the scarcity. According to Sri Lanka Customs, the imports include 32,000 metric tons of raw rice and 43,000 metric tons of Nadu rice.

However, consumers report a continued shortage of raw rice and allege that rice is being sold above the government-mandated prices. Instances of traders selling rice without displaying prices have also been reported.

To address potential salt shortages, Lanka Salt Company Chairman Nandanatalika announced plans to import 30,000 metric tons of salt as a precautionary measure.<

Meanwhile, the price of eggs, which recently exceeded Rs. 60 each, has dropped significantly, with eggs now available in the market for Rs. 25 to 30.

Shenali D Waduge

Does Anura Kumara Disanayake have a vision for the Nation. Did those who voted, vote because they thought he had a vision for the Nation? Is JVP really the Marxist” party it labels itself to be? These questions, can be answered in the actions and people are beginning to have their apprehensions. Anyone with a vision first needs to self-appraise the political playing field both at home & abroad in order to devise tactical & strategic actions, solutions to the challenges & threats to enforce that vision. It is well & fine to criticize actions of a government in power while in opposition which was a core reason for people to think AKD possessed the magic to solve Sri Lanka’s problems, but how well can one steer the ship after coming to power, is a totally different ballgame? AKD is finding this out too late. No leader should think that ideas will flow to mind like magic to govern the nation after sitting on the executive chair!

Thus, a question now on the minds of both voters & non-voters is where is AKD going to take the nation having got Executive & Parliamentary majority. Those who voted considered that AKD held the magic wand. Of those who did not, they had little choice, no alternative party to vote for, which is one reason why an unprecedented number of voters chose not to vote. By default, a somewhat artificial victory has prevailed. While the JVP bloc vote remains, the additional votes have come from the disgruntled voters of 2019-2020 who had no alternative while majority of them fell prey to deceptive fake campaigns. One noteworthy and positive feature of the election was that all the old guard who had been jumping sides over the years all lost their seats. While the old guard disappointed the nation by their selfish governance, how far a new & inexperienced Parliament can handle the hawks & eagles both locally & internationally has to be a cause for concern. The reason lies in a psychological assessment of the personalities now holding governance.

Firstly, we must understand that the JVP envisaged by its founder Rohana Wijeweera is not the JVP that is merged with the neo-liberal NPP of today. Rohana Wijeweera inspite of heading 2 insurrections, warned us of the dangers of Indian expansionist agenda including the likelihood of Indian boots well before Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987. How far his party was infiltrated by the West & Catholic movement since inception should be a separate case study, given most of his living stalwarts are today anti-Sinhala Buddhists & living in Western nations & have done nothing for Wijeweera’s family.

How far the JVP was really a rebellion against the State or how far the infiltrators objective was to sacrifice Sinhala Buddhist youth also needs to be investigated. The situation is no different to how the elite Tamil politicians sacrificed poor low caste Tamil youth to armed militancy to achieve their political objectives.

Just as LTTE changed hands from India to become pawns of the West’s geopolitical goals, the JVP since 1990s propped virtually every government in power or provided the ground support/campaigning to bring governments to power. When JVP was the richest political party, that they were funded not take power but to either bring parties to power & thereafter stir trouble for parties in power is a known secret. JVP had control over trade unions, university students’ unions, key academics, and JVP even had their own men dressed in Buddhist robes used to embarrass the Maha Sangha locally & internationally. JVP were masters at using these pawns.

One of the mistakes that political parties & politicians make is to undermine the international friends that support them before an election & their ulterior motives & expectations after the election. The same formula applies to those who come forward to sponsor election campaigns & post-election demand their return in excess of what they gave. Many of the critics of political parties are those unsatisfied with what they got in return for what they gave pre-election. This coterie of people often fund the opposition to bring down the govt. The international friends expect much more & they are difficult to shrug off as easily as the locals. Going against them may often lead to being upstaged from power. This ground reality is what prompts leaders to be happy to give in to all that the foreign friends seek even at the cost of the nation’s sovereignty.

The body language & statements are a dead give away as to the friendships forged & actions are enough to conclude that political survival wins over doing right by the nation & the People & remaining steadfast to one’s promises & assurances given prior to elections. This body language is now, very clear in the gestures to the US & Indian envoys.

As for the JVP old guard watching the political environment unfold under the leadership of their leaders, none of them expect their leader to become a closet chaser & within months vocalize the exact opposite of what won him their support. Top on the list of these reversals is the original JVP stand on India. The decision to continue the Provincial Councils, inspite of it being an unnecessary expense to the State, while being a looming threat & a stepping stone for secessionism, has to be taken together with the new links to LTTE Diaspora groups whose ban was only lifted as part of yahapalana reconciliation” bogey pursuant to co-sponsoring the treacherous UNHRC  Resolution which UVP did not denounce. These elements have now teamed up with some hired Theros to promote a bogus Himalayan Declaration” that wishes to make Sri Lanka plural”, make black money white” channeling to the Northern PC, demanding further devolution,  mentioning united” instead of unitary” and the eyes are watching the President’s actions though he should not endorse it.

We need to take a step back to 2015 when regime change took place with US, Indian support & JVP ground support. Noteworthy, is that alongside the regime change the architects split the 3 main political parties creating SLPP from SLFP & SJB from UNP & NPP merged to JVP.

SLPP won in 2019/2020 & JVP-NPP won in 2024, the SJB has been the lone failure.

NPP comprise breakaways from SLFP, UNP & other parties as these were neo-liberal pro-US/India. They comprised anti-Sinhala Buddhists & anti-national elements. This can be seen throughout the campaign & the manner the Jayamangala gatha was unceremoniously deleted from the Parliamentary Opening Ceremony while carols were sung at the Presidents Secretariat.

Despite the JVP cadre being from majority Sinhala Buddhist homes a key element was the party stand against Buddhism. The emphasis on secular” pluralism” advocated by the team headed to draft a new constitution in 2015 is a present NPP member & AKD manifesto claims to implement this draft. Turning a nation ‘secular’ ‘plural’ hides a hidden objective to erase the cultural-religious history & identity of nations after which the globalist rule decides what faith, what culture a nation is to follow. As we can see the competition is now between the Church-the Mosque & the Hindutva rule. Why they all feel challenged or threatened by Buddhism is a puzzle.

Understandably, JVP won the election not on its own. Many believe JVP would not have won the election on its own. Nevertheless, this very merger with NPP is seeing cracks. While the ideology of the old guard of the JVP which forms the backbone of the party remains true to its ideological past, the NPP is neo-liberal West-thinking players. The golden question now is – where does AKD the President, his Cabinet & Ministers of the JVP now stand. Are they tilting towards the NPP ideology, are they going to function as true Marxists” or are they happy to simply use the Marxist” label? The last option will sooner than later expose them amongst their own, while the second option may lead to clashes with NPP, & if the President & key heads tilt to West/India, they may well be upstaged by their own but if they do not, they well be upstaged by their friends turned foes”. Grabbing power by deceit & governing by deceit has limitations & repercussions – the general public with experience in people’s revolts are today ruthless and unforgiving.

Politics has no permanent friends but permanent interests. Nevertheless, Sri Lanka has always had a set of traditional friends who have backed us on international forums. The President must forge better ties with them. This is the only way to build the defenses needed. The President must not depend on one mode to take Sri Lanka from debt. Look for options. Forge trade agreements that are more powerful & offer win-win solutions. More importantly, keep the corrupt Public Sector of Sri Lanka in check & scrutinized in particular the Secretaries. Let us not forget that the Public Sector is more corrupt than the politicians. There are over 1.5million of them to a Parliament of 225 + 1. The officials are the one’s negotiating agreements. They are the one’s inserting clauses. They are the ones that draft the terms & conditions. They are the ones who forget” to include protective exit clauses or agree to detrimental & dangerous insertions that impact the sovereignty of the Nation including the State having to pay massive compensations. The damage they have done & can do has never been assessed or investigated. It should. It is often their actions, inactions or intentionally delayed actions that bring a government into disrepute & make the State vulnerable.

So far, the expectations on the President & Parliament are high. They promised a clean government. These promises have been in for some shocks with the qualification fiasco, the removal of a VC whose fault was that he stopped student ragging on his campus, extra-marital affairs & vehicle snatching, sudden disappearance of salt, coconuts, rice & the monkey drama have set the stage for people to watch the government with criticism than the euphoria that existed when they came to power.

Instead of taking the ugly path of resorting to victimization of political rivals, it is better to clean the Public Sector of corruption from the 3 main branches of governance, enter more powerful trade agreements that offer win-win solutions than trade agreements that JVP was originally against which would even change the demography of Sri Lanka & lose Sri Lankans their jobs, their land & even resources, refrain from any of the proposed connectivity” which would seriously threaten Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.

We are all watching the President & his Team – will they go left or right. If they go left, will the right upstage them. If they go left, what advantage will they bring. If they stay in the middle, what would be their fate?

Shenali D Waduge

By Nalliah Thayabharan

Germany’s political landscape is undergoing a seismic shift as the Bundestag has been officially dissolved triggering snap elections that could reshape the nation’s future.  President Frank-Walter Steinmeier made the dramatic announcement on December 27, 2024 marking a critical moment in German Democratic history. The dissolution follows Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unexpected loss of a confidence vote on December 16, 2024 effectively ending his coalition government.

The Free Democratic Party’s withdrawal from the ruling coalition precipitated this unprecedented political crisis. The move has left Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party without a parliamentary majority forcing an immediate electoral intervention.

Snap elections are now scheduled for February 23, 2025 – a date carefully negotiated by Germany’s major political parties. It’s a moment that could fundamentally alter the country’s political trajectory since significant changes are brewing. The Christian Democratic Union led by Friedrich Merz is currently leading by 10% over the Social Democratic Party. This shift represents a substantial realignment of German political power.

Alternative for Germany – a far-right and right-wing populist political party is also polling strongly though they continue to face significant challenges in forming potential coalitions. Their rise highlights the growing complexity of Germany’s political landscape.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier emphasized the critical nature of this moment warning against hatred and violence in the upcoming election campaign. He described political stability as a precious asset that must be carefully protected.

The upcoming elections will focus on several critical national issues including economic challenges, immigration policies, support for Ukraine and climate change strategies. Each party will be seeking to present compelling solutions to these complex problems.

Friedrich Merz has already positioned the Christian Democratic Union as an alternative to the current government criticizing Olaf Scholz’s Administration for what he describes as excessive economic regulation. His strategy involves presenting the Christian Democratic Union as a more dynamic and responsive political option.

The dissolution represents more than just a procedural political event – it’s a potential turning point that could reshape Germany’s domestic and international political approach. The
fragmentation of the current coalition signals deeper challenges within the nation’s political system.

Rolf Heinrich Mützenich – leader of the Social Democratic Party’s Parliamentary faction suggested the snap elections would allow German to refocus on what’s truly important. “We can now concentrate on what is really good for our country” he stated indicating a desire to move beyond current political deadlock. The geopolitical implications of these elections extend far beyond Germany’s borders.

With ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and economic uncertainties globally, the next government’s composition will have significant international consequences. As Germany prepares for this critical electoral moment politically the potential for significant political realignment has captured national and international attention making these upcoming elections a pivotal moment in contemporary European politics.  

Germany stands at a crossroads with voters set to determine the future direction of one of Europe’s most powerful and influential economies. The coming weeks will be crucial in shaping Germany’s political landscape.

We are living in a time of worldwide global political crisis, German government’s actions were very shortsighted and very incompetent and more and more Germans no longer feel represented by the political parties. Similar to Canadians, Germans rightly feel that the government no longer represents their interests and that the established parties hardly defer on key political issues. All four political parties – the Social Democrats, the Greens, the Liberals, and the Conservative Christian democrats support a toxic policy mix of participating in US proxy wars such as in Ukraine or in Gaza implementing economic sanctions and rearmament while at the same time cutting social spendings.

So the consequences in Germany are a shrinking economy, poor infrastructure and exploding energy prices and inflation and this unsettles many Germans and they don’t know what party to vote for or out of desperation they may turn to the right to the right-wing parties.

Like Canada, Germany will no longer be recognizable in 10 years time as the German Political parties failed on the issue of peace and abandoned Germany’s anti-war policies and positions.

Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party has become a party of progressive neoliberalism together with a focus on identity politics rather than leftwing class politics – economic and social policy in the interest of the working class people.

The extreme right party is gaining strength so the right-wing alternative for Germany is pulling at over 20% nationwide and even over 30% in some federal states in eastern Germany.

The economy in Germany is very much dependent on the geopolitical interest of the US. The sanctions and the economic warfare against Russia including the energy sanctions hit the German economy while the US economy is benefiting from the energy sanctions exporting more natural gas to European Countries including Germany.

Germany is a country poor in raw materials and strong in exports, so a large part of prosperity depends on industrial value creation, so that’s why Germany needs cheap energy from Russia.

Germany no longer relies on mediation, balancing interests and diplomacy but it’s playing the military card in more and more conflicts around the world, though the conflicts and wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East cannot be resolved militarily.

Germany needs a strong political force that consistently promotes peace diplomacy and negotiated solutions.

To widen the corridor of opinions, Germany should stop the cancel culture which is a poison for democracy. Anyone who does not agree with the mainstream opinion bubble is quickly defamed and this is unworthy for a democracy and it’s poison for Germany’s democracy.

More than half of the Germans no longer dares to speak their mind openly outside of a protected space and this is the poison for democracy.  That’s why bringing back anti-war politics is so important and we have that missing in the US and Canada as well.

Germans are very much not just in support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza but Germany is in many ways a participant and giving so much legal and diplomatic cover and constantly aiding Israel. Germany is after the United States and United Kingdom, the third largest arms and ammunition supplier for Israel.

There’s a popular dissatisfaction among Germans with Europe’s and Germany’s foreign policy of unconditional submission to the US hegemonic policy supporting all these US proxy wars.

Regarding Gaza and Ukraine in principle Europe must become an independent player instead of being a pawn in the conflict and a vassal to the United States.

In view of the suffering in West Asia and especially of the people in Gaza and the West Bank, there is no alternative to an immediate ceasefire. Ceasefire is not everything but without a ceasefire is everything nothing.

By supporting Israeli warfare the West shares responsibility for the mass murder of Palestinians.

The U.S. has done a frighteningly good job of binding its European vassals to itself, not only economically through trade measures and militarily through NATO, but by shaping their whole leadership class via American schools and institutions. Olaf Scholz  and his compatriots literally can’t see the damage they’re doing to their own countries because they’ve so thoroughly bought into the American mindset. The establishment across America, Germany, the UK, France, Canada, Italy seem to all be making the same fatal mistake with no ability to learn from their own or their counterparts’ mistakes. What did repeat though, several times, was US foreign policy causing trouble in Europe’s neighborhood, creating waves of immigrants. The cause of migration is directly linked to their adherence to free trade imperialism and their subservience to Washington. They could easily tackle the problem, but not without breaking with transatlanticism. And so they prefer to not do anything. They’re all going to go down with the Empire. The USA has only expendable pawns.  

ප්‍ර සමරසිංහ

රුහුණු විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ නවක වදය 99% කින්ම නවතා දැමීමට සහ මෙම ආයතනයේ ඇතැම් ගුරුවරුන්ගේ, ශිෂ්‍ය සංගම් නිලධාරීන්ගේ, අනධ්‍යන කාර්ය මණ්ඩල නිලධාරීන්ගේ රජයේ මුදල් අවභාවිතාව ඇතුළු අනෙකුත් දුෂණ වැළකීමට, මින් පෙර විසූ කිසිම උපකුලපතිවරයකු ක්‍රියා නොකල පරිදි නොපැකිලව නොබියව ඉමහත් පරිශ්‍රමයකින් කටයුතු කලේ ළමා රෝග විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍ය- උපකුලපති සුජීව අමරසේනය.

ඒ මහතාගේ දෙවෙන සේවා ධුර කාලය මාස 4 ක් පමණ ඉතිරිව තිබියදී, හොර බොරු වංචා, දූෂණ වලින් තොර සිරිලංකාවක් බිහිකිරීමට නව ආණ්ඩුවක් තේරී පත්විය. 

පහුගිය වසර 4-5ක කාලයක් එම විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයෙ මැඩ පැවැත්ව තිබු ගර්ජන, ‘අරගල’ නව ආණ්ඩුව සමඟින් පිබිදෙන්නට පටන් ගත් අයුරු පුදුම සහගතය. මහාචාර්ය සුජීව අමරසේනට එරෙහිව කිසිදු නිල චෝදනා පතක් හෝ ඉදිරිපත් නොකර උපකුලපති බලතල අත්හිටුවා වැඩ බලන උපකුලපතිවරයෙකු පත් කිරීම ඊටත් පුදුම සහගතය. එතුමන් කල වැරැද්ද වූයේ හොර බොරු වංචා දුෂණ වලින් තොර විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයක් සිරිලංකාවේ පවත්වා ගෙන යන්නට දරදිය ඇදීමය.    

හොර බොරු වංචා දුෂණ වලින් තොර සිරිලංකාවක් බිහිකිරීම තේමා පාඨය කොටගත් රජයක් මෙලෙස හැසිරෙන්නේ ඇයිදැයි තේරෙන්නේ නැත. සිරිලංකා පාලි හා බෞද්ධ විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය ඇතුළු සමස්ත සිරිලංකා විශ්ව විද්‍යාලවල යහ පාලනයට හා මුළුමහත් සිරිලක්වැසියනට මේ නව රජය පුදන කොටම කාපි යකා සේ දී ඇත්තේ ඉතාමත් භයානක පුර්වාදර්ශයක්ය.

ගම්පහ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී හිටපු කතානායක අශෝක රන්වලගේ, ලොව පිළිගත් පුද්ගලික විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයක් වන වසෙදා විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයෙ ‘බොරු හිමිකම් ආචාර්ය උපාධි පට්ටම ‘ බොහොමයක් ප්‍රධාන ජනමාධ්‍ය වල පුවත්පත් හෙඩිම වීමත්, මහාචාර්ය සුජීව අමරසේනගේ උපකුලපති බලතල අත්හිටුවීමේ සිද්ධි දාමය ප්‍රධාන පුවත්පත්වල ප්‍රධාන හෙඩිමේ හෝ කතුවැකිවල හෝ සඳහන් නොවීමත් විද්‍යමාන කරන්නේ සිරිලංකාව ඇදෙන දිශානතිය විය හැකිය. මේ සම්බන්ධව බොහෝ සමාජ මාධ්‍ය සිටියේද සිටින්නේද ඇස් කන් වසා ගෙනය.

සුජීව අමරසේන මහතා වැනි වැඩ කරන්නට දන්නා, ඒ වාගේම වැඩ කරන අවංක නායකයින් දුර්ලභය. ඔහුගේ සේවා කාලය තව දීර්ග කර එම මහඟු සේවාව විශ්ව විද්‍යාල සිසුනට ලබා දිය යුතුමය. 16,000 ක් පමණ සිසුන් ගෙන් සමන්විත රුහුණු විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය නිර්නාමික ලෙස සිසු-මත-විචාරණයක් ස්වාධීනව කරන්නේ නම් දිනන පරදින පාර්ශව සහ එයට හේතු පහත පළමුවන වීඩියෝවෙන් නිරවුල්ව පැහැදිලි කර ගත හැක.

හිටපු කතානායක අශෝක රන්වල

වියත්මගේ යෑමට, හිටපු ජනාධිපති ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂට සිද්ධ විය. ඒ මග යාමෙන් සිදුවූ අනර්ථය සුළුපටු නැත. වියත්මග ආදර්ශ කර ගත් ඇතැම් මාලිමාවෝ කොහෙවත් නැති අක්ෂර තම නම මුලට, අගට පාස්සන්නට  පටන් ගත්තෝය. අන්තිමට, බිල්ලක් වූයේ අශෝක රන්වලගේ කථානායක පට්ටමද? ඒ බිල්ල පූජා කර නිරුපද්‍රිතව සිටින්නෝ දියවන්නාවේ ඇත්තෙම නැතැයි කියා කාට නම් කිව හැකිද? 

වසෙදා විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයෙන් ‘ලබා ගත්’ තම පරණ ආචාර්ය උපාධි සහතිකය සොයා ගන්නා තෙක් බිලි වෙමියි කියා ලිස්සා යාම ‘බොරුවේ බොරුව’ සාමාන්‍යකරණය කිරීමක්ය. මේ සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධයෙන්, සිරිලංකාද්වීපයේ හැම අහුමුල්ලකටම අත පොවන, ඇමෙරිකානු තානාපතිවරියගේ මුනිවත අපූරුය! සිරිලංකා ජපන් තානාපති කාර්යාලයද වසෙදා විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ කීර්තිය බේරා ගන්නට එන පාටක් නැත.

ඒ කෙසේ වෙතත්, ‘ලංකාවේ මාධ්‍ය සදාචාර අනාගතය කෙසේ විය යුතුද’ කියා පහත දෙවන වීඩියෝවෙ අන්තිම විනාඩි තුනෙන් යමක් උගත හැකිය. 

ආචාර්ය අරුණ කීර්ති ගමගේ 

බුද්ධ ජයන්ති පාලි ත්‍රිපිටකය සහ අටුවා ටීකා ඉතාමත් මැනවින් පරිශීලනය කර, ව්‍යක්ත ලෙස පාලි බස හසුරුවන, දැනට ජර්මනියේ මාබර්ග් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ බෞද්ධ පශ්චාත් උපාධි අධ්‍යයනයක යෙදෙන ආචාර්ය අරුණ කීර්ති ගමගේ මහතා, සිරිලංකාවේ පාලි සහ බෞද්ධ විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ සිදු වන අකටයුතුකම් ගැන නොබියව කතා කරන ආචාර්‍යවරයෙක්ය. එහි ඇතැම් ආචාර්යවරුන් පාලි බස මනා ලෙස නොහදාරන බවත්, උපාධිය ලබා ගත් පසුව නිතර නිතර කලයුතු පාලි බස හැදැරීම් නොකරන බවත් පෙන්වා දී ඇත. 

එකිනෙකට පරස්පර මුලික අධ්‍යයන ක්‍රම වේද දෙපදයකින් සෑදුන ‘බෞද්ධ-මනෝවිද්‍යා’ විෂය අරබයා කෙරෙන දහම් විකෘති සමඟ පාලි බස ඉගෙන නොගත් බටහිර මනෝ වෛද්‍යවරුන් දෙදෙනෙකු ලියා ඇති පොත් දෙකක ජාතක කථා තුනක් හිතුමතේ විකෘති කර ඇති අයුරුත්, පහත අවසන් වීඩියෝවෙන් දැක ගත හැක. ( ආචාර්ය විජිත කුමාර ද මෙහි කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කරයි.) 

සිරිලංකාව ඇතුළු ලෝකයට විකෘති නොකළ බුදු දහම ඉතිරි කර රැක දෙන්නට නම් පාලි බස පරතෙරට හදාරා ත්‍රිපිටකය, අටුවා ටීකා මැනවින් අවබෝධ කරගත්  ‘සුජීව අමරසේන කෙනෙක්’ පාලි හා බෞද්ධ විශ්ව විද්‍යාල උප කුලපතිධුරයට පත් වෙන දවසක් උදා වෙන්නේ කවදාද?

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara (SLAS)   Mahanuwara    

Santhose Jah Esqr 
Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka,
21  Dhrsana,Gemunu Mwatha 
Colombo.                                              

                                         The Need to change the overall Kautilyan policy of Mathsya nyaaya and the Panikkar policies towards its neighbors, particularly Sri Lanka.

                         Dr. Sudath Gunasekara (SLAS) Former Secretary to Prime Minister Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranayake and the President of the Sri Lanka Administrative Services Association. (1991-1994)

     Dear Sir,

At the very outset I would like to request India, our big brother, to change the overall Kautilyan perception of Mathsya nyaaya and the Sardhar Panikkar policies towards its neighbors, particularly Sri Lanka, including its meddling with the migrant Tamils living in this country,  who has  a domicile history of less than 350 years in this country (KNL EELAM MYTH EXPOSED 2020), claiming that they are people of Indian origin, should first end, as a prerequisite to heal the wounds it has already inflicted upon this country in the recent past, starting from the infamous Rajeev Gandhi invasion of Sri Lanka 1987”, to open a new chapter  of an everlasting age of goodwill and friendship once again between our two countries, as it was at its peak during the Asokan period, c. 265–238 bce ) going back to the days  of The Gauthama Buddha, the Greatest human being India had ever given to this world in 623 BC.

I shall be grateful to you to advise your government to treat this country as a free and independent sovereign state as much as the India is, as it had been from the inception of history.

However, I must clearly and honestly state here, that the enviable and brotherly good will and the cordial relationship existed between our two countries in that distant past, starting in the classical days of Gautama Buddha and Emperor Asoka and even much later during the days of Nehru – Bandaranayake period (1956-1977) are now gone for good, since the 1987 Rajiv invasion of Sri Lanka.  

The infamous Rajiv/JR Accord of July 29.1987 that was forced on Sri Lanka at gun point, preceded by his shameless Parippu dropping by an Air invasion violating Sri Lankan territorial integrity, sovereignty and the independence, marks the worst invasion in its 2500-year history, as it affected the whole country against all previous foiled South Indian invasions in history, starting in the 2^nd century BC that were limited only to the northern parts of the Island. Even Rama’s invasion was confined to only rescuing Sita from where she was said to have been kept in secret by Ravana, but never had any effect on the whole country, other than Ravana’s death at the hands of Rama.  But Rajeev’s invasion had an Island wide and far-reaching effect, declaring 1/3 of its sovereign territory and it set the rhythm for a criminal travesty of the history of this 2500-year-old sovereign Sinhala Kingdom as an invasion of the whole country, while even Tamilnadu with 8.39 Crores of Tamils that had been the true historical homeland of the Tamil race for millennia is not recognized as a Tamil Homeland by India.

The infamous Rajiv/J R Accord of 29^th July 1987

1. It declared the North and East, of the country covering 1/3^rd the area of this Island including and 2/3 of the coastal belt with over from Puttalama on the West to Kumana in the South Eastern corner of the Island, as the historical Homeland of the Tamil people who were brought in to this country only in the late 17^th century (by Dutch) and by the British through the 19th century. It also merged Northen and Eastern provinces and provided for the amalgamation of 2 or more provinces for less than 12 % of the migrant population of the country, probably with the idea of including the Central, Uva and Sabaragamuwa provinces and even few parts of the Southern province like Rakwana and Deniyaaya, where few Estate Tamils are resident. This is Panikkar theory in fullaction

 Map showing the Provinces of Sri Lanka

2.DeclaringTamil also as an official Language in this country, (while it is not so, even in India where 8. 35b Crore Tamils live);

3 Granted citizenships to all Tamils in Sri Lanka, including even the illicit immigrants on the Street and villages as gypsies without fully adhering to the legal requirements regarding the registration of Citizens in any country.

4 The Accord was signed under pressure from India amid public protests all over the Island culminating with the national protest organized by the Opposition headed by the Leader of the Opposition Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranayaka in Petta Colombo where several participants were killed due to shooting by the armed forces on the orders of the Government.

 It should be noted here that Three prominent Cabinet Ministers including the Prime Minister Premadasa, Lalith Athulathamudali and Gamani Jayasuriya Boycotted the occasion in protest.

 5.Signing of the Accord was followed by the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution that ended the unitary character of the state, Sri Lanka that was there for 25 centuries and it laid the foundation for the division of the Island in to 9 semi-autonomous provincial Governments, thereby putting an end to the unitary state of Sri Lanka and (see below for more details)

I have identified the following main reasons as responsible for this sad and unfortunate situation.

1 Wrong attitudes and wrong policies of the Indian government towards this country, born out of fabricated information fed by Tamils in Tamilnadu, Sri Lanka and the so-called Tamil diaspora living all over the world.

2  Ignorance of the true history of this country and the history of Tamils living here,

3 Government of Indias dependence on the Tamilnadu votes to maintain political stability at the center.

4. the influence of the Colonial West

5. Ignorance or deliberate refusal on the part of the Indian Government to accept that Sinhalese are also of Indian origin who have come to this country 25 centuries before these Malaba people were brought here only in the late 17^th through the 19^th century 

6. Utter disregard to accept the fact that Sri Lanka is a separate sovereign country and not a part of India

7 Reluctance of India to accept this country is also an independent sovereign country of equal status although small in size.

8 Absence of patriotic and strong Sinhala political leadership who can convincingly put the record right and the weakness of the then Sri Lankan senile leadership  

 9 The big brother attitude of India and its reluctance to admit Sri Lanka as an independent sovereign State.

10 Absence of patriotic Sinhala leaders who knows their own history and who have the courage to stand up against this type of Indian invasion and the incompetence of Sri Lanka politician to protect and defend their own motherland

11.The influence of Panikkar policy which India is perusing that will antagonize its all neighbors

It was the British colonial invaders who picked up the EELAM concept from South Indian Eelaamists and introduced this strategy in Sri Lanka with 3 main objectives

First,

To destroy the millennia old Sinhala Buddhist civilization in this island nation, to avenge the humiliating defeats they suffered in Sri Lanka from 1803 to 1848 at the hands of brave Sinhala patriots

 Second,

To destroy the age old political and cultural good will that exist between two Asian twin brothers, India (the Elder) and Sri Lanka (the younger) and

 Third,

To divide Sri Lanka in to two rival ethnic States, Sinhalese and Tamils (EELAM) eternally fighting against each other, as they have done all over the world, with a hidden agenda to create a permanent Neocolonial political and strategic base in South Asia for the Westen neo colonial powers, to control the emerging Asia of the 21st century right at the center of the Indian Ocean and to stop the rise of China and India as great powers and also to stop Sri Lanka being developed as the hub of the emerging 21^st century Asia. Please remember, then it will be the biggest threat to the independence of India, once the age-old friend Sinhala Buddhist Sri Lanka state is no more.

In this backdrop, what I have proposed here, I think is the only way to defeat this Church backed Western neo-colonial global control strategy.

The first pre requisite of this master plan, I propose to defeat this vicious neocolonial game is to reinvent the age old, friendly and cordial relationship that was there between India and Sri Lanka as two independent and strong states by defeating the EELAM dream of the Kumari Kandam lobby of the Tamilnadu State and its Church allies in the neo-colonial West. It is extremely disastrous to both Sri Lanka and India as it will end up by balkanizing greater India and divide Sri Lanka also in to two separate ethnic States, eternally fighting each other. This is exactly what the Western neo-colonial world wants done. To destabilize India, Sri Lanka, and make Sri Lanka their hub to stop the emerging twenty first century world around the Indo Pacific Oceans. the QUAD that is called the Asian NATO is already actively engaged in this vicious game; by tactfully getting India and Japan to join this organization to set those two countries against other Asian countries. The chief and dominant members of the QUAD, USA and Australia, both of whom are Church backed powerful white colonial powers of colonial settlements of migrants from Europe who had established their white settlements by annihilating the native owners of those countries.

Building up of an independent and nonaligned India and Sri Lanka is a must to avoid this disaster.

The first step, rather the sine qua non in this long journey is to restore the age old friendly and strong relations between, India and Sri Lanka and create an Asian geopolitical heartland” based in Sri Lanka to realize the dream of the 21^st century Asia. Sri Lanka’s geographical location on the globe at the center of the Indian Ocean, where all the world’s busiest naval and air routes meet, confirm the ancient Indian Puranic concept of Lanka as the center of the world (Bhuu madhYayei lankiiyathithi Lanka) becoming a reality in the 21^st century. Its global location at the center of the world surrounded by the Indian Ocean extending from Africa in the west to Australia in the east and the Bay of Bengal in the north to Antarctica in the south, open all around to the world, with a long and rich Buddhist culture, makes Sri Lanka the ideal global strategical heartland for this role. With Sir Arthar Clerks prophesy in his Deep Range that by 2050 all religions based on God centered Abrahamic teachings will disappear. Therefore, Buddhism will be the only religion that can inspire the human mind and heart” (1954) and Sri Lanka being the home and the head quarter of the Theravaadha Buddhism in the world, it is not surprising that the Church dominated Westen powers are determined to wipe out Sri Lanka from the world map to avoid this imminent disaster to them.

The close and strong millennia old relationship between Sri Lanka and India underscores this 21^st century global geostrategic reality. The need to build up a mutually beneficial and closer and strong bondage between our two countries is therefore, a sine qua non to realize this dream Asia of the 21st century. The iron foundation for this Indo Sri Lanka relationship has to be based on the age-old classical and historical brotherhood that existed for millennia between our two countries. In order to realize this supreme goal, we have to build up the Indo-Sri Lanka connectivity based on the following background, described in detail below.

I don’t think for a moment, I need to elaborate to you, as a distinguished and a veteran officer of the IAS of your caliber, on the unique and close historical, political, the cultural and spiritual relationship that existed between our two countries from the time of Gautama the Buddha, the greatest human being ever given to this world by Bharath Desh. Lord Buddha ‘s first visit to this Island was in 588 BC, in the ninth month after he attained enlightenment, to Mahiyangana to settle a waring dispute between two native tribes Yakkas and Nagas.  On the verge of his attaining Parinibbana, (543) he also selected Sri Lanka as the only land in which his Dhamma will last for 5000 years to come in its purest form, although Jambudviipa was his beloved birth place and it is over 50 times the area of Sri Lanaka. He requested Sakka the King of Gods at the great assembly of devas, to protect Prince Vijaya, an Aryan Sakya Prince from northern Bharath and his retinue of 700 who landed on the same day, Buddha attained Nibbana in Lanka Deepa in 543 BC. The same day, marks the Birthday of the Sinhala Buddhist nation on this Island. Thence forth this country had been named as the land of the Buddha and also the land of the Sinhala race.

It was Emperor Asoka, another great son of Bharatha who was acclaimed as the greatest Emperor the world had ever known, officially gifted the Buddha sasana to this country during the reign of his erstwhile friend King Devaanampiyatissa who was the King here at that time, at the beginning of the 4^th century BC (307). Ever since the close political, religious, spiritual and cultural, ties between the two countries were made the stronger, by selecting his own son Mahinda and daughter Sangamittaa as the royal emissaries to bring the Budha’s noble message to this land of the Sinhala people, known as Lanka Deepa at that time.  This close relationship between these two countries laid the foundation for a unique and unmatched human civilization on this resplendent Island. Such was the unique and remarkable level of the close relationship that existed between our two countries, from the time of Gauthama the Buddha.

This however was unfortunately marred later by the successive invasions by the non-Aryans, like Chola a Pandya from south India starting in the 2nd century BC, which culminated and ended up with the Kalinga Maga invasion in the 12th century. The Maga  invasion  left behind an indelible devastations done to the political , social, economic and the cultural landscape of this Island nation that resulted in the inevitable shifting of a glorious Sinhala Buddhist civilization  in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa Kingdoms of world reputation from the dry zone, the cradle of that great civilization, to the hill country and the South West of the Island, converting the Rajarata in to a vast expansion of sprawling jungle that remained neglected until its reopening began again only after the British took over the governance of the whole island after entering in to a friendly Convention agreed upon between two  Kingdoms of equal status, with this country on 2^nd of March 1815,  that is the British Empire and the Kandyan Kingdom of Sinhale, being the only  Kingdom that was not captured by war in the whole British Empire. The Convention referred to here was the Kandyan Convention[S1] .

Thereafter, the cunning and the uncivilized British, having made the Kandyan Convention almost dysfunctional by the famous Royal Proclamation No. 21^st of Nov 1818 by Governor Brownrigg, started a period of callous, divisive and repressive 133-year-old exploitation and brutal regime in the whole British Empire, that has gone down in world history as one of the darkest periods, referring to which, John Davy surgeon to Governor Brown Wrigg  had said the history of British rule in Ceylon after the 1818 rebellion cannot be related without shame. None of the members of the leading families (all males over 16 years) in the Kandyan country have survived. Small pox and privation has destroyed those spared by the gun and the sword”.

Meanwhile,  they started a large scale Colonial Settler Colonization” program in this country with poverty stricken Malabar cooly labour gangs from South India, first, in the Islands Northern and Eastern provinces created by them in 1833, that were under dense jungle almost uninhabited, except for few sporadic settlements of native Sinhalese around the neglected Tanks, after the mass exodus of the native Sinhalese to the South West and the hill country, following the Maga devastation in the 13^th century AD.

The British colonial intruders got all these Malabar cooly labours gazetted as Ceylon Tamils in 1901 by intrigue having appointing a Malabar man, Ponnambalan Arunachalam, a grandson of a Dutch toilet keeper, who was made the first Ceylon Civil Servant of their Choice, as the first Registrar General of this country. That was how those Malabar labourers became Ceylon Tamils overnight in 1901, who were made aristocratic with one stroke of a Malabar descendant Ponnambalan  Arunaachalam, with the hidden intention of making them the rulers of this millennia old Sinhala Kingdom.

 Second, the same British, started to inundate the central hill country with the second wave of Malaba slave coolies, with the opening up of the Central hill country for largescale Coffee in 1840 s and later Tea plantation in 1870s to settle and work on these lands that were originally owned by the natives Sinhalese from the dawn of history up to 1840. In the post 1840 period, the British imported an army of South Indian Malabar indentured cooly labor nearing 1.2 million and settled them on these newly opened up plantations that were covered with primeval forest from the dawn of history. This opened up a sad period of destruction of forests, land and the rivers of the geographical Heartland (HADABIMA) of this Island followed by a prolonged period of cruel exploitation of natural resources of mother Lanka together with the sweat and blood of the poverty stricken poor South Indian labour, to fill the coffers of England.  

It is very important to be noted here that the Sinhalese also had come to this country 26 centuries before the Malabar who were brought to this country by the Western colonial invaders after 1780s with the triple objectives of a) finding cheap labour for their projects, b) destroy Sri Lanka and finally c) to create a war base in South Asia for them to control emerging future Asia.

Ironically, these immigrants are the people who are now claiming a separate kingdom on the land found, developed, civilization established and defended and protected against 18 South Indian invasions from the 2^nd century BC to 13^th century AD (ancestors of the same Malabars) and three western invasions from 1505 to 1948) by the native Sinhalese

The British left behind these people who were British citizens until then, as an army of stateless immigrant labour high and dry on this soil, leaving behind a bone of contention and an incurable chronic headache to this country, when they left the shores of the Island in 1948, after conferring the so-called fake Independence to this country, retaining all three cardinal requirements of an independent state, namely, Legislative, Executive and Judicial powers with them. Although countries like Burma and Uganda chased out such Indian immigrant labour gangs from their lands immediately after independence, the Sri Lankan leaders, partly being a product of a rich Buddhist culture and partly as a brain washed compradors of the west did not resort to such inhuman acts, although neither those laborers nor the present day Indian politicians have ever appreciated the benevolence conferred upon this army of immigrant labour by the Sinhalese Buddhist of this country up to date.

Sad colonial legacies

This, briefly summarizes the imposed on this Island nation by the British when they left in 1948 leaving behind their vicious cycle of colonial exploitation with more  ropes all around the neck of Mother Lanka keeping the colonial reins Fastly  holding  in their hands tied on to all techniques of state craft such as legislative, executive and judicial , and all  branches of statecraft like  internal governance, foreign affairs, the Islands security ,the import export economy, the language and the machinery of Public Administration, education while keeping the dependency trap tightly held in their own hands.

It is in this back drop of sad colonial legacies inherited by us, I decided to draw your kind attention to the three articles, already NKL Justice Perera has sent to you which I consider as authoritative master pieces on the artificially created Tamil Problem in Sri Lanka, that pose an intractable and also a big headache to both Sri Lanka and India due to prevailing ignorance on this subject  His book EELAM exposed is a magnum opus on this  subject, which no Tamil scholar or politician has challenge up to now. I have no doubt that his valuable contribution will help us to find a lasting solution to this decades old political impasse created by the crazy Tamil politicians 

These important and authentic articles compiled by an eminent lawyer, L.K.N. PERERA ( LL.B Cey)  Attorney at law,  and a senior Judge, based on the  results of a comprehensive and painstaking study  carried out by him over a long period of time that has covered wider and authentic historical sources that includes valuable, impartial and irreputable and first hand  historical information  on this subject, by Portuguese, Dutch and British authors, deliberately overlooked even by some acclaimed historians, (brain washed products of the colonial education)  for your information, so that you will get a realistic and a rational idea as to how you may address this  Tamil issue in Sri Lanka, impartially, as a true diplomat, in your future diplomatic dealings without getting misled by false propaganda by extremist Tamils, both here and abroad, specially South India who are quarrelling for a separate state and self-determination, for a dream Thamil State called EELAM ( which also means the Land of the Sinhalese, a term coined by South Indian Dravidayan people speaking Tamil language to call this land) on this land of the Sinhala nation, who had been the  sole hereditary owners of this country even before the historic times began, as has beenclearly proved and established beyond all reasonable doubts by the Mahavamsa and accepted by all the renowned historians of the world over, except the EELAMIST of South India, Sri Lanka and the so-called Church backed Tamil Diaspora living in the Western World.

 There is No Tamil nation here

May I add here that, how can there could be a Tamil nation here in Sri Lanka, with less than 350 years of white man’s immigrant labour domicile history, when there is no Tamil nation or an Independent Tamil Eelam even in South India which is said to be the historical Homeland of the Tamil Nation, where over 7 million Tamils live. I don’t think I need to remind you, as a senior officer of the IAS, how Jawar Lal Nehru, the great Statesman of Barath dealt with them when they demanded secession in 1963. Nehru brought in legislation making it illegal to demand secession and introduced the 16^th Amendment to the Constitution of India banning secession to protect the territorial integrity of Bharath Desh, in spite of the fact that South India had been the traditional historical homeland of the Tamils from the inception of history, although it is now dominated by the Western Church backed elements, trying to balkanize India. Hilary Clintons visit to Chennai in 2011 is speculated by many as a part of this strategy. But the irony to be noted here is they are not recognized as a nation even in India and nor are they given the status of a separate Independent and sovereign country with special privileges like a separate law similar to Thesavalamei law enjoyed by the Malabar community living in Sri Lanka. The Tamil language is also not given equal status with the official language Hindi in India unlike in this country where it is given equals status with the Sinhala language, the language of the native Sinhalese who had been there from the inception of history. But Rajiv got this too done through the same JR who signed the Indo Lanka Accord, by getting him to amend the Constitution of this country making Tamil also an official language in this country,

Isn’t it a big constitutional tragedy that the 16^th amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka in 1988 opened the doors for secession at the instigation of India whereas the 16^th Amendment to the Indian Constitution by the same India in 1963 prohibited Tamil secession in India.

Even though Tamil Nadu is the second largest State with a strong economy, the Tamils living there don’t ask for separation at present and even equal status or things such as the right for self-determination, equality, dignity and self-respect etc, as claimed by those who live here even though they are only Malabar immigrants  brought  here in the late 18th century and the 19^th century, by the Colonial Dutch and British, as slave labourers to work on their tobacco farms in a foreign country, the Jaffna peninsula and  other activities such as toddy tapping and public works as colonial rulers did in all colonies acquired by them to facilitate their divide and rule policy. Here in Sri Lanka, the Tamils in the North and East who have less than 350 years of domicile history want a separate State with everything such as right for self-determination, equality, dignity and self-respect etc. It is the Tamilnadu based Western church backed Tamils in South India who want an EELAM in Sri Lanka. Their underlying strategy here is to find a lounging pad outside India to capture Tamilnadu so that they can start balkanizing India from here, regardless of the 16^th Amendment to the Indian Constitution.

In this backdrop, my question, is why doesn’t the Malabar community living with more privileges here, than in India and the world over, demand the Indian Government to first accept them as a nation and ask India to give them a separate State in Tamilnadu, before they declare war for a separate State in some on else’s country here?  After all South India is the ‘de facto and de Jure’ traditional Homeland and the cradle of Tamils civilization in the world, who were supposed to have Migrated from Sudan through North Western India in prehistoric times.

Way back in 1799 in this country, when the Secretary to Governor North, Cleghorn addressed a brief note where he gave a dead rope to North to win his credentials as a Dutch captive , saying that Sri Lanka or Ceylon as it was called by them at that time “consists of two nations as Tamils and Sinhalese, (even though when there were no Tamils at that time here, as  they were named as Ceylon Tamils only in 1901 by Ponnambalan  Arunachalam). Please note even Cleghorn here has referred to the Tamils as Malabar people and Sinhalese as the natives of this Island. He also went on to say that this country consists of two Districts (countries) the Tamil district or Tamil country starting from Puttalam through-Jaffna-Trinco-Batticaloa to Walawe Ganga in the South. And the Sinhalese the natives on the other hand owned the rest from Walawe to Puttalam and the interior.  The poor Governor North had to depend entirely on this Dutch civil servant as he was only a novice to Sri Lanka at that time. This was a criminal fabrication of the true history of this country on the part of Cleghorne that was known to the whole world as the Sinhala Kingdom, at least from 543 BC.  The Sinhala Kingdom was one of the most ancient in the whole world, that stood in par with the then giants like China, India Greece, Rome and even Egypt. This was a criminal travesty of Sri Lanka history by Cleghorne and is nothing but mere pseudo intellectual bribery made to win the laurels of the new Governor for his survival as a captive of the British.

One more important point I would like to bring to your kind notice in this regard.

 I do not know whether you have seen “The Sinhalese and the Aryan Theory by Sivathiratnam published around 1970 in London, as a series of letters written by a Tamil Father to his Son” probably persuaded and funded by the colonial British who started this dirty game of dividing the land of the Sinhalese, in pursuance of their dirty divide and rule policy. As you know, the British Could never capture this Island nation by war unlike other countries, including India. Therefore, they had a very big issue to settle with the Sinhalese people, more so, with those who lived in the Kandyan kingdom who defeated them in three battles in 1803 and ,1818 and 1848 killing thousands of their men.  These defeats have been described as the most humiliating defeats the British ever have had anywhere in the world. As you probably know as an eminent Officer of the Indian Civil Service.Finally it was only on the shrewd and cunning John Doylies cleverness and intrigue that enabled them to annex the Kandyan Kingdom to the British empire in 1815. But please remember even that was done on equal terms as two sovereign Kingdoms, on the 2nd of March 1815 by a mutually agreed convention, where the conditions of the Buddhist clergy finally prevailed. I am proud as a Sinhalese to say that we were never defeated in war as an Asian nation, in spite of their superior gun power.  It was these Kandyan brave and patriotic men, women and the brave and learned Buddhist clergy like Wariyapola Sumangala and Kadahapola of the Asgiriya Chapter who prevented this Island nation being another America, Australia or New Zealand, that were completely routed and colonized by these invaders after total annihilation of the natives and finally naming those countries after their British sea pirates or some colonial criminals.

In this backdrop I hope you can play a very important role as a distinguished IAS officer at least in future in dealing with  the Sri Lanka-Indian issues, to educate the Indian Government  as a true Indian intellectual and an eminent civil servant hailing from the great Buddhist traditions as left behind by Lord Buddha, the Greatest human being and Teacher India had given to the world as H.G. Wells has once said, in the 6th century BC, and on the foundation of whose teachings this land and the Sinhala nation was built ever since 307 BC.  It is with the greatest adoration I mention here that it was another Great son of Bharath Dhesh, King Asoka the Great, the Greatest Emperor the world had ever known, gifted the Lord’s teachings that laid the eternal foundation for the Sinhala Buddhist civilization of this Island Nation, that will last until the sun and the moon shall shine in the high heavens. You can just see how much these two Great sons of Jambudeepa, Lord Buddha and Emperor Asoka had loved this Island when Buddha had first chosen Lanka as the land where his dispensation will last for 5000 years to come and second Asoka sent both of his own Son and Daughter, by his first Queen Maharani Devi to establish Buddhism as the state religion in this Island to King Devanampiyatissa his erstwhile friend , who was the King ruling over this Island at that time. That was the kind of close relationship that prevailed between this country and the Northern Indian civilization of the great Bharath Dhesh or Jambudweepa as it was known then.

However, the South Indians like Cholas, Pandyans had always been invaders and enemies of this Country from 2^nd century BC. They had invaded this Island nation 17 times up to the 13^th Century Kalinga Maga devastation, that devastated the entire NCP and even the South Eastern part of the country. But it should be clearly noted that none of these south Indian invaders could capture the whole Kingdom of Sri Lanka. Every time they invaded, they had been defeated by the Sinhale Kings and chased out and all of them had to lick their wounds. Those   who survived the war got integrated with the natives.

The EELAM quest by Prabhakaran assisted by Rajeev Ghandhi’s government

The latest episode was the EELAM quest by Prabhakaran who was heavily assisted by Rajeev Ghandhi’s government and it was on his benevolence that Murderer Prabakaran got the courage and stamina to fight the brave Sinhalese who had never got defeated in war against any invader at any time in known history. I must also mention it here with pride that we as a Buddhist nation had never invaded another country and stayed there to capture new territory as Kautillyan has always advocated in Indian history. There were only two or three occasions where King Parakaramabahu the Great and Gajabahu had done so to South India, Burma and Siam, purely in retaliation against some wrong they had done to our merchants. Apart from the bravery of our rulers coupled with that of the patriotic warriors, it was the blessings of the Triple Gem, Buddha, dhamma and Sangha that had protected this Island throughout history.  The whole world knows what happened at the end, to Rajeev, the benefactor of EELAm criminals was assassinated on his own motherland by Prabhakaran for all the help he gave to him including his own bullet proof jacket to continue the LTTE killings here. This is exactly what will happen at the end to everybody who tries to harm this land of the Buddha. Finally, at the end justice prevailed over injustice in 2009 and this Island nation thrice Blessed and sanctified by the Lord Buddha, was again saved by Mahinda Rajapaksa, by defeating Prabhakarans killer outfit LTTE, known as the most dangerous terrorist organization in the world.  

In this backdrop I would like you to advice the Indian politicians and bureaucrats as a veteran IAS officer to look at this Island nation as the younger brother of Great Bharath Desh admitting it as the land of the Sinhala nation, as it had been so from time immemorial and never a land of Tamils, although the South Indian Cholas and Magas have played hell here in the 2nd BC to 13AD.

 I would also like you and your government to refrain from entertaining mad ethnic lunatics like Vigneshwaran or any other ungrateful men like those of the slave trade leaders of the Thondaman clan who helped the White to tether South Indians in millions and who became rich Maharajas on the sweat and blood of those poor indentured labourers. These so-called saviors of Estate Tamils made their riches here but worship Tamilnadu (not India) like those who praise and worship the ocean after having drunk water from the well, to quench their thirst”.

In the same way, I would like to request you, to earnestly look at Indo-Lanka relationship from a pragmatic and realistic angle and not as a self-seeking and narrow-minded Indian politician or a bureaucrat of the same ilk. At the same time, I would also request you not to entertain the communal minded Sri Lankan Tamil politicians whether they come from the North, East, West or the Center and I would be thankful to you if you can ask them to settle their problems if they have any, with the Sri Lankan government as you are  here only as the representative of the Govt of India and not as a representative of the Tamilnadu  State or a representative of the Tamilnadu film idols like Vijekumar Chandrasekaram,  who has publicly vouched to erase Sri Lanka from the map of the world.  (Pl see Page 14 Aruna Sinhala Paper Sunday Nov 3^rd) Meanwhile I also request you to advice the Modi Government firstly, to asks to tender an open apology to the people of this country for what he has said and to stop this kind of aggressive talk at least in future.

One last word of warning about the global Tamil Forums aspiration for an Eelam on this soil.  I would like you   to resist all Tamil attempts to create an EELAM in Sri Lanka, a separate Tamil State on Sri Lanka soil, as the stepping stone for their World Eelam Empire whose Headquarters will be in Tamilnadu, that will finally control the whole of the Indian sub-continent.   This movement will be the biggest threat for the survival of the Hindu Bharath Desh concept you people cherish so much.  As such it is incumbent on the part of the Government of India not to support Tamils in Sri Lanka for a separate as it will pave the way for EELAM which will function as the launching pad for the greater Eeelam in India, that will finally balkanize the subcontinent and draw the curtain on your cherished Mahabharata dream. It is in this backdrop I request you to strongly advice your government in India, not to support these ungrateful Malabar people residents here and ask them to either integrate with the natives or go back to their historical Motherland in India, without trying to be a peg that is inimical to the long-standing friendship between our two countries, which is vital to our cherish and final goal of a greater Asia in future.

The EELam Dream

The EELam concept is a dream of a South Indian Eelaamist, the founders of the Kumari Kandam concept. Their plan was first to create an EELAM in the North and East of Sri Lanka first (EELAM in fact means the land of the Sinhalese as coined by the South Indians to call it in medieval times). Then second, to capture whole of Sri Lanka and call it Tamil EELAM. Third, add Tamilnadu (the first step of balkanization of India supported by the Catholic West) which the Tamils consider as the historical home land of the Tamil Nation and then using it as the lounging pad to capture whole of Indian subcontinent as the greater EELAM to teach a lesson to Nehru and the Indian Government who proscribed separatism spearheaded by the Dravid Munnethra Kasagam movement, by the Anti-secession Amendment No.16 in 1963. Finally, to expand it to all other countries around the globe where Tamils are living, like Fiji and Malaysia and end up with the establishment of their dream World Federation of Greater Tamil EELAM including Mohenjodaro Harappa which they consider as their original center of Eelam in India, after migrating from Sudan. I have no doubt that you fully understand the greater danger of the Eelam Tiger concept paused to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of India.

A historical tragedy for the Indian politicians and mandarins like Dixit to support the cause of EELAM without realizing the greater danger that will befall on India.

It is a pity and a historical tragedy too, for the Indian politicians like Rajiv Ghandhi and mandarins like Dixit former Ambassador to Sri Lanka, the present Prime minister Modi and Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar who is a strong patronizer of the cause of EELAM and supporter of the Sri Lankan Tamil Community, without knowing the greater implications of this vicious Eelam movement that is going to completely   balkanized the Greater Bharat at the end, unless India takes timely action to arrest this tragedy without  supporting Tamils   living in Sri Lanka in forming a separate State.

                Rajiv got killed on 21^st My 1991 as he did not accept my warning I posted to him in March 1991. I wrote that letter to PM Rajiv Ghandhi in mid-March 1991 about 2 months before he was assassinated on 21^st. May 1991, pleading him not to support LTTE Tigers and also warned him that in the event of his refusal to do so, it will definitely lead to his own assassination very soon. That letter was sent under the Signature of the Most Venerable Mahanaayaka Thero of the Asgiriya Chapter Sri Paliipaana Chandaananda Thero, who was one of the two most powerful national Heads of this country. Two months later as I predicted Rajiv was Assassinated on this own motherland by an agent of Prabhakaran, to whose killer gang, Rajiv had given all support, including money and special military training for the LTTE killer cadre all over India. Finally  he also presented even his own bullet proof security JACKET for him to survive,  to destabilize the Sri Lankan government and achieve his dream of establishing a separate state in this country  without knowing what Prabhakaran was planning to do in pursuit of his vicious move in establishing his World Greater Empire of the lost Tamil Eelam (something never existed on this earth) the day dream of the  inventors of Kumari Kandan, the lost Lemuria a Dravidayan dream land, that is supposed to have existed  billions of years ago according to them, their fathers, grandfathers, great grandfathers and the uncles and nephews of this mad idea.

Finally, in this backdrop of such dangers to come, I suppose India will take appropriate measures to protect the disintegration and disappearance of India                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  from the world  map due to the subversive activities of  the Greater World Eelam activists , I appeal to you as the Indian Ambassador to our country to refrain from paying any special attention to these Malabar Tamils   living in Sri Lanka or supporting them in keeping with the highest traditions of diplomatic protocol.

Also, I would like you to strictly adhere to the relevant provisions of the Geneva convention at least in future, keeping with the accepted diplomatic norms enshrined therein. We find that the Ambassadors of USA, UK and even Japan, having taken a lesson from you perhaps, also are now engaged in bilateral dealings directly with the Tamil and sometimes the Muslim community as well, violating the Geneva convention on diplomatic norms. I urge you to kindly refrain from these illegal and unconventional practices and treat this country as an independent sovereign country. That will open their eyes too, I hope. I also request you as a seasoned officer of the IAS to please advise your government as well, that the current policy of your government of taking the side of the Tamil community living in this country and treating them as people of Indian origin and supporting them directly is unconventional, unethical, undiplomatic illegal too, when it comes to diplomatic ethics between two independent sovereign nations. I bring this to your notice as a person who loves his country just like his mother and also sadly as there is no government or a single politician or a single national leader like Mahatma Ghandi, or T Lest Ranasingha Premadasain who declared David Gladstone Uk Ambassador this country, to tell those Ambassadors and their Governments to stop this kind of misbehavior or depart.

 Furthermore, I also would like to bring to your kind notice the following undiplomatic unconventional and suspicious actions currently followed by your government in dealing with the Tamil Community living in this country that impinges seriously on the independence and sovereignty of this Island nation and that thereby creating a reasonable suspicion in the minds of the people of this country that India is trying to consolidate its hold on this Island as well,  as a another State of India like what your country has already done in Bhutan and Nepal.  

I would like to highlight few issues that have drawn our serios concern in this regard

1 Having three Consular Generals Offices in Jaffna, Kandy and Hambanthota as if the High Commission in Colombo is unable to cover this small Island of 25,332 sq miles.  

 2 Your preferential treatment to the Tamil and Malabar community resident in this country by dealing directly with them bypassing the government of this country, by providing them with technical advice, scholarships to Tamils only, financial and political support and even housing and many other social upliftment programmers.

 4 You and your government also deal directly with Tamils instead telling them that they have to settle all their grievances with the Government of this country so long as they remain as citizens of this country where they live and make their living.

5 You and your government also entertain Tamils living in this country to make representations against the government of this country

The sum total of all these activities clearly shows a serios hidden agenda of Indias policy towards this country and also clear sings of territorial expansion behind Indian attitude and actions towards this country, reminding us of the fate of Bhutan and Nepal.

Therefore, I earnestly request you to recommend the closure of the above three Consular Offices with immediate effect and stop all kind of direct dealings with all Tamils living here to better our relationships with India and also to advise the Indian government and politicians to not to have any direct dealings with Tamils here or give any preferential treatment to Tamils and treat them as full citizens of this country and stop all dealings with Tamils living here.

 I also would request you to perform your duties as the Indian Ambassador to Sri Lanka   without going back to the days of Jyotindra Nath Dixit who behaved like the Indian viceroy in Sri Lankan during the times he was here.

And please request your government

6 To stop Illicit poaching by Tamilnadu fishermen in Sri Lanka waters, both in the Manar Bay and the eastern seas violating all accepted and international laws and basic civilized human ethics in using our marine territory and robbing the livelihood of Sri Lankan fishermen.

 7 To please advise your government to reprimand Indian citizens like Tamilnadu film idol Vijekumar Chandrasekaram, who has publicly vouched to erase Sri Lanka from the map of the world as if he can do it’ and all others of the ilk, to refrain from uttering such irresponsible and provocative statements that might lead to communal flaring up and displeasure towards India. Furthermore, we demand that he must tender an open apology to the government and the people of this country, for uttering such mischievous words and refrain from making such provocative activities impinging on the sovereignty of this country, at least in future. The dead silence on the part of Indian government on his provocative and uncivilized statement amounts to Indian approval of his mad utterance.

8 Another very serious issue I note is the so-called mythological Ramayana Trail project which covers the whole of this Island like a huge fishing net thrown over this Island by India. That also should be stopped immediately as it is also a disguised Indian invasion programme wearing an expansionist political

Map showing the Ramayana trail 

  It has been said that this programme is going to put up 21 Rama Kovils all over the Island covering the   whole (see above Map). In my opinion this is worse than Rajiv invasion 2087. I also request you to advise your government to drop this Indianization program as well.

Therefore, I would like to request you, as the Ambassador of the Indian government for the need to convince the Indian Government to drop this fabricated  Ramayan trail story and to treat Sri Lanka as a separate and Independent sovereign country and also to please advise the Indian Government to stop forthwith all these undiplomatic tactics and interventions that amounts to naked Indian invasion, disregarding the Independence and sovereignty of this country and let sanity and civilized diplomacy prevails in place of invasion and subversive politics.  

My most pertinent question is as to why India, which is 50 times the size of this small Island is using all these subversive tactics of territorial expansion to annex this Island?

I guess five reasons. The first is to satisfy the EELAM lobby in Thamilnadua to net their votes. Second, to satisfy the communal separatist Tamil community in Sri Lanka. Third, to satisfy the ambition of Colonial West to destroy the Sinhala Buddhist nation in this country for the reasons I have already stated above. Fourth to satisfy the never-ending Indian mentality of territorial expansion from the of Ramayana days.

But I would also like to remind you here that all Indian invasions starting from the days of mythical Ramayana narrative and ending with Rajiv Ghandhi’s arrogant, childish and unethical Parippu invasion in 1987 have failed up to date, and all attempts to capture this Island nation in history also have ended up in disaster. Therefore, we have no doubt that the present-day Modi’s manuring will also end up with the same fate.

So my Dear Santosh, finally, though it looks a bit undiplomatic, I am addressing this note to you , more at a personal level, as an elder brother of your own, and a retired senior member of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service, who is deeply concerned about the independence, freedom and sovereignty of his own country in the same way you do regarding your country, I would like to remind you of the tragic consequences that befell on your Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandhi in 1991 for ignoring the advice given to him by me in good faith under the signature of the most Venerable Mahanaayaka Thero of the Asgiriya Chapter as his personal Secretary. Had your Prime Minister listened to what I had said in March 1991 in that letter, he would have perhaps lived up to date in good health.

Today I predict, definitely the same fate will befall on all those who support the Malabar community in this country who were named as Ceylon Tamils only in 1901 by Ponnambalan Arunachachalam at the instigation of the British against the Sinha Buddhists in this country, irrespective of whether they live in the North East or the Center of this Island. The Sinhalese, the undisputed Bhumiputhras of the Island nation, were the people who had lived here from the beginning of history or even before, running in to more than 50,000 years, as you know. But Malabars living in this country have less than 350 years history in Sri Lanka as had been proved by my erstwhile friend Mr. LKN Perera, an honest judicial officer turned a patriotic historian in his retirement. If you like and if you have the time to spare, to read his Magnum opus on this subject, EELAM EXPOSED 2020” I can ask him to present a copy to you.

 So in this back drop, dear Ambassador, I would like to tender my sincere advice in all good faith to you, to advise your government to change its present  pro Sri Lankan Tamil mentality and give up its expansionist agenda forth with, especially towards this country and open a new chapter in Indo Sri Lanka relationships,  beginning from the year 2025 and try to treat all SARC members in particular and all Asian countries in general as friendly nations of one family, The Asian Family, as your real enemies are not in Asia but they are still in the West.  

As a devoted and proud Sinhala Buddhists we are ever prepared to forget all the unpleasant recent past on the part of India and let us open the doors to another  Lord Buddha and Asoka era or at least another Sirima Bandaranayake- Indhira Ghandhi era in our diplomatic, economic and cultural relations, in keeping with the unforgettable and  historic relationships we have had, starting from the time of Lord Buddha and Asoka The  Great, that laid down the concrete foundation for the  spiritual, political, economic, social and ethical foundation for the unique Sinhala Buddhist civilization in this Island nation.

Finally, I would like request you to please advise your leaders back at home, to follow the footsteps of those two Great Sons of early India, the Lord Buddha and Asoka the Great, only a land like India could have given to this world, in solving our present day problems facing our countries  that is entangled in tangles, both inner tangles and outer tangles, arising from lust, greed, hatred and ignorance, all of which are Fastly taking the whole world and humanity to total nemesis. We as Sinhalese Buddhists will follow the teachings of Lord Buddha and you pray your own gods.

I would appreciate it very much, if you could, as the Ambassadors to that Great civilization Bharath Dhesh, representing your governments in this country, will seriously take my advice as a brother officer of a parallel Service and act in conformity with the Geneva convents and more so as a true son of  that Great Bharath Buddhist tradition will advise your Government  to  refrain from meddling with the internal affairs of this country while  you yourself adhere  to the duties of an Ambassador of that Great nation,  within the covenants of the internationally accepted Geneva convention on ambassadorial duties, of cause keeping with the noble traditions given to the world by Bhagawath Geethaa and Dhammapadha.

I hope and wish you will not disagree with me when I say that the Tamils in Sri Lanka enjoy more rights and privileges than those in their historical and traditional Homeland in India or any other country in the world. As such why this big fuss and meddling over an artificial grievance, created by the self-seeking Tamil politicians living here and in Tamilnadu, backed by Indian politicians only to bag the Tamilnadu votes and the so-called Tamil Diaspora the world over for whom it is only a big business and finally the Church backed Western colonial elements and anti-Asian organizations like the newly found QUAD, duped as  The South Asian NATO’” by critics.    

All Tamils in this country as well as in India and the world over and countries who support the Tamils world over to protect their domestic political interests at Home specially like the governments of Canada, UK, USA, Norway and Sweeden and above all India should accept that;

First, Sri Lanka is the historical Home Land of the Sinhala Buddhist nation as it had been so at least from 543 BC and it was the Sinhala Buddhists who had found, developed and protected its unique culture and built up its civilization, defended its territorial integrity, sovereignty and freedom from the beginning of history and protected it against all foreign invasions from the 2^nd century BC up to date from South India and from Western Colonial invasions from 1505 to 1815. Even in 1815 this was the only country in the world that was added to the British Empire by an agreement mutually agreed upon between two Kingdoms on equal status and Sri Lanka had gone down in history as the only such country that was not captured by the British by war. Second, this tiny piece of 25,332 Square miles is the only land on earth, the Sinhalese have to live in, as an independent and sovereign nation, on this earth whereas Tamils have their own Motherland in South India from where they were brought by their colonial masters and Muslim practically have homelands all over the world covering about 1/3 the total area of the globe.

Present day minorities, Malabars (presently called Tamils baptized so only in 1901) and Muslims who were confined to Beruwala in the SW littoral when the Portuguese came in 1505 are only immigrant minorities in this country. The first batch of Malabars who were confined to the North and Eastern littorals were brought in to the Island by the Dutch in late 18^th century and thereafter by the British in the 19^th century mainly as slave labour from South India to work on their projects and toddy tapping and partly as colonial settlers. Second wave, by the British in large scale to work on the newly opened up Coffee and Tea plantations in the central hill country who were given citizenship only in 1988 under the Rajiv/JR accord of 1987 that was imposed on this country at gun point by India by invading the country.

 Talking about Muslims, there are two groups of Muslims in this country. That is those who came as traders from various Muslim countries in late 13th century and those who came from India later as marakkalas and Hambayas. Present day Muslims are the descendants of these people and who survived Portuguese massacre in 1505 and migrated to the Kandyan kingdom and who were accommodated as refugees by King Senarath of Kandy. He settled them in different parts of the country, the main settlement being the Panamapattuwa in the Eastern littorals.

Accordingly, both these communities are immigrant minorities only.  None of them has a right to claim nationality or citizenship in this country unless they integrate with the native Sinhalese, the Bhumiputhras of this land, agreeing in writing to abide by the laws of the land, and agree to live in one undivided country called Sri Lanka as one nation. Those who got citizenship by an affidavit under Rajiv/JR Accord of 1987 don’t fall in to this category, because none of them are legitimate citizens as yet, as they have not been duly registered under the Sri Lanka Citizenship Act. Therefore, it is necessary that all issues have to be settled within the Sri Lankan legal framework.

This, in my opinion, is The only way to restore the lost sanity, good will and friendship among the native Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim minorities and restore peace and prosperity once again on this Paradise Island. India or any other foreign country should not get involved in internal matters of this country. It should be left for Sri Lanka alone as an independent and sovereign country to decide its own destiny.

(We all Sri Lankans demand that India should immediately close down all these 3 peripheral consular generals offices to clear our minds of a planned Indian invasion)

Meanwhile I would also like you to advice your government to engage in the following exemplary pursuits immediately, for Indias own safety.

9.If India wants to be the leader of Asia or at least of South Asia or a co-leader within a collective group like China, Russia, Japan, Thailand and Sri Lanka of the 21^st Century Asian Continent. But India also has to be always exemplary and above board, going by the way it has handled the SAARC since 2014.

10. Finally  In this backdrop we Sri Lankans want India to withdraw immediately from pursuing any matter arising from the Rajiv /JR Accord  of 30^th July 1987  as  we Sri Lankans have decided to  abolish  it  as it amounts  to a complete travesty of  the true history of this 25 centuries old  written history of this island  nation  and  it also pave the way for the division of this country in to two separate States one Sinhala and the other Tamil leading to the end of its territorial integrity as a Sinhala Buddhist  Kingdom with a 2500 years of a glorious history. As you know since India has already unilaterally violated it several times, we have no legal bar in abolishing it with a 2/3 majority in Parliament.  The other curse that has to be got rid of is the the 13^th Amendment under which provincial councils were set up and the mechanism on ground is already laid down to divide the country in to 9 independent States. It has already completely destroyed the centuries old district administration in the Island. Therefore the 13 A also has to be abolished if this country is to remain as a Sinhala Buddhist country any more.

Overall, I am compelled to conclude with this wish.

 I pray for the dawn of a new era of goodwill, friendship, trust and mutual prosperity between our two countries in all fields like political, economic, social and cultural under your able guidance as the current High Commissioner of India to its younger Brother Sri Lanka. If you do your duty, I have no doubt that the two of us will go down in history as the two architects of the dawn of a neo- Gauthama Buddha-Asoka era for both India and Sri Lanka’s diplomatic relations. Let us hope and pray that with the blessings of all Gods ruling over our two countries the dawn of this new era of peace, prosperity and goodwill be a reality before we close our eyes. 

If this attempt also fails, we are planning to organize continuous Island wide massive public protests to defeat this ongoing Indian conspiracy, to save our motherland.

Please let me conclude this historic letter with the following quotation from Dhammapada.

Manasa che pudhutTeina- Bhasathi vaa -karothi vaa

Thatho nan dukka manveithi- chakkanva vahathopadan’

(If one speaks or act with an impure mind-Then that will always bring sorrow -as if the wheels that fallow the bulls two hindlegs} (yamaka vagga Dhammapada 1.1)

Manasaa che pasannena -Bhaasathi vaa karothivaa

Thatho nan suka manveithi -Chaayaava anapaayini” 

(If one speaks or act with a pure mind and good intention, then that will always bring good, as if one’s shadow also always follows him”) (yamaka vagga Dhammapada 1:2)

Hope you will bear with me for taking your precious time.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Sudath Gunasekara

---

 [S1]

Sarath Wijesinghe President’s Counsel and former Ambassador to UAE and Israel/President Ambassador’ forum in UK/SL

Cost of Living

Cost of living is the cost of living of an average family computed in various ways for the purpose of computation of the official cost of living giving guidance that increases every due to various factors beyond the control of the governance and the consumer who is always in the receiving end. It is the accepted norm that a consumer must have a sufficient earning to make ends meet always the governance is supposed to be responsible for, as it is governance that is responsible for the control of prices of consumer items directly and indirectly mainly in the open economy where trader and consumer meet eve to eve in dealing with the prices of consumer items. Prizes of consumer items are never static though the income varies based on the development of the economic situation of the country, where poor and poorest are the most affected. It is the duty of the rulers to find ways to ease their burden and the organization is bound to protect them and the legal system is duty-bound to protect the deprived group of the casualty.

Consumer

There is a general saying that the consumer is a king and powerful as he can control the trader by organized consumerism if and when they are well organized as in the west, which is not the reality as the consumer in Sri Lanka is not as organized as consumers in the west who are well organized. When ‘’Coka Cola’’ used water in Thams River it is the media and the consumer organization’s that agitated against to kneel down the company to correct the mistake made. 999agitations on consumerisms on behalf of the consumer agitating for consumer items and services of quality at a reasonable prize, but the prize hikes during the festive season continues to date and it is the duty if the consumer to take precautionary measures to take preventive measures. Despite the bread ordinance and act of measure of weights in force the price of bread and consumer items increase at a steady rate at the discretion of the trader enjoying free trade in the absence of the prize control act not in force on free economic regime. Price of bread few pence some years ago is over on pound today varying prizes depending on the weight and quality of bread in different supermarkets, which applies to all other consumer items when the consumer is complaining of the high prices, which is a universal scenario. In short every citizen is a computer and it is the duty of the governance to provide facilities to the cross section of the entire society considering every citizen a consumer.

solution

What is the solution for the high cost is a matter being discussed in many forums with no proper answer with one answer on application of competition and competition law and process linked to consumer activism via organize consumer organizations. Trader and industrialist is a group required for the society to carry on consumerism and they say consumer is always right and it is the duty of the trader , industrialist and the regulator to give due place to the consumer for a proper consumer regime and a successful trade to the nation to be economically balanced. It is a need to balance all together for a reasonable cost of living for the consumer to live peacefully and conformably. Who are responsible for a proper consumer regime and a comfortable life of the citizen is the most important question to find a solution for the high cost of living ever increasing. Successive regimes are attempting to find solutions with no success and this is a continuous struggle the consumer as a group going through ever in any society, mostly in socies of open economy mostly as in socialist setups there are more safeguards for the consumer than in the open trade society.

World Consumer Day- 15^th March every year celebrated worldwide

 More than ever it is the consumer itself you are responsible and at the receiving end  who are responsible to be organized and to be aware of their regents and duties to receive the attention of the public , governance and the media as the group most neglected in the society as John Kennady declared in 1962 at the congress that the consumers are a grip that is most neglected and disorganized no knowing what their rights and powers are and initiated the world consumer day and organization’s by initiating the world consumer day which is today celebrated in over 300 countries every 15^th of march with great funfair and celebrations to flex muscles of the consumer and to organize themselves. Every year Consumer International selects a timely topic and organize seminars workshop’s and activism worldwide with educational, activism and promotional programs and Sri Lanka too is engaged in the celebrations headed by the regulator CAA and the government as well and we are informed the new Minister of trade is taking seps with the consumer Affairs Authority number of programs all over the country  by organizing seminars, workshops and activism to  organize consumer for a proper consumer regime so that the consumer will be protected which is  the citizen will be benefited in brining down the cost of living which is unbearable today.

Festive Season

Why is the cost of living rising during the festive season is natural due to the demand and shortages of the consumer items and the unreasonable behavior of the trader and the disorganization of the consumer who are impatient to purchase consumer goods expecting shortages during the season. Consumer tends to store items expecting shortages and the errant trader too are sharp to understand the behaviors of the consumer. The theme of the World Consumer Day on 2025 march 15 would be on the topic just transition to sustainable life style and previously dealt with digitalization, food, just market place and similar topics that will be chosen in future based on the then needs of the society. Why is cost of living is rising and especially during festive reason is a matter addressed by the consumer experts finding a solution in the interest of the citizen daily finding hard to make ends meet everyday and especially during festive season to perform their duties for the rest of the family and the society. But finding a solution is hard as it is every changing and challenging as it is linked to politics, economy and governance. Gene ally it is the Venance, the regulator, the trader, industrialists and more importantly the consumer itself who are responsible for the fluctuation sob the prizes of consumer items dis – proportionately. It is an open secret that old expired, old stocks air coming back to the open during the festive season for the innocent consumers purchase as new at may be higher prizes sometimes.

Legal Basis

Legal basis and the practice of the governance on the consumer and trader is of great importance on the increases of prices especially on festive season in a society when the price of consumer items is generally on the high side due to exonymic situation and the imbalance of the trade pattern, for which the legal basis play a main role. In Sri Lanka the main regulator is the Consumer Affairs Authority established under act no 9 of 2003, by establishing the CAA with a statutory body by replacing the English modelled system replacing the traditional English modelled acts to set up the statutory body with a mixture of English. Australian Canadian modelled system based on regulation in place of price control system and mechanism which appear to be unsuccessful as a teethless lion expecting the consumer organizations, media and the regulator to work together with the assistance of the regulator, trader, consumer, media and industrialists which has not been proved successful as expected by the act. Therefore, it has become necessary to bring drastic changes by introducing a new act forthwith possible following the Indian model that has follow some parts of the English model and traditional Indian modelled subsystem with the guidance of the Supreme Court and principles of public interest litigation and similar concepts. We are proposing a consumer ombudsman in the system and it is a good idea to rethinks of introducing principles of prize control we are used to.

Festive Seasons

Festive seasons will come and go during seasons and it is the duty of the consumer to be sharp and smart consumers without getting into the traps of errant traders, who technically are expected to be genuine and honest traders as in ‘’Seravanija Jathaka’’ where the genuine trader is always victorious, which unfortunately not the situation in Sri Lanka where the consumer is inundated with adulterated food and consumer items of lower quality with hard pressed CAA struggling with a limited staff and inadequate legal and procedural mechanism, which means that it is the duty of the regulator to be active all the time and consumer to be active smart and vigilant all the time with organized consumer movement.

Way out and forward-looking steps by parties concerned

Parties concerned are the Citizen, – Consumer- Regulator – Ministry of Trade Governance- Trader Consumer, Industrialists, Media, who should be aware of their duties to the nation as a matter of duty and it is paramount they must do a thorough study on their duties to the sociality all the time not only during festive season alone. It appears that the CAA is not as active as expected and in the forefront in the media limelight in organizing and directing the citizen and the parties concerned and it is the duty of the young and energetic Minister to be active and give special attention to this areas as a matter of priority, as this is an area the citizen has utmost hope and trust for consumer items of quality at the reasonable price and of required and expected quality. (Auther could be contacted on sarathdw28@gmail.com References – Hyde Park interview with Indeevari SL must have consumer Courts/ Lanka Web 12.12.24 consumer be vigilant. Telegraph jan 23 Consumer, Consumer Ombudsman 28.10 Ceylon today Price control 2003 Telegraph- any more on Lanka Web, Telegraph, Daily news Observer by the author)

Centre for Policy Research

Machine Eye

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Twenty second death anniversary of Deshabandu Alec Robertson falls on the 31st of December, 2024. His passing away was widely lamented by all Sri Lankans as well as his numerous foreign friends and acquaintances who had at some time or other benefitted from his guidance, friendship and exemplary life, and more than anything else from his deep understanding and propagation of the Buddha Dhamma. Sri Lanka has no shortage of Buddhist scholars, among both the Sangha and the lay persons but not many would claim to have all the other wonderful attributes that were found in extraordinary abundance in Robertson. 

Looking back on Robertson’s life, one could assume that he has been fortunate in many ways, in his long sojourn as a servant of the Buddha and the Dhamma. 
Alec has the remarkable ability to expand, through his own efforts, his knowledge of the Dhamma through the mastery of Pali and a deep understanding of the three Piṭakas. His remarkable memory was his other forte, which adorned him as a shining armour in his many engaging discussions on the Dhamma, often in the company of others, with great eminence and erudition.
Practically all who have penned their appreciations of Alec and assessed his many contributions in the service of the Dhamma have been the most emphatic on his dexterity in responding to probing questions and clarifications on the Dhamma and the life of the Buddha. What was most remarkable about Alec was his unhesitating responses, and their clarity in delivery. 
Robertson has a large number of publications on the Dhamma to his credit. These included Buddhist Attitude Towards Christianity”, Nibbana-Happiness Supreme”, The Triple Gem and The Uposatha”, and Buddha-the Healer in Comparable”. He also contributed Buddhist articles to journals and newspapers. To the Buddhist Annual, Vesak Sirisara, he contributed articles on a variety of subjects over an unbroken period exceeding 20 years.
Let me end this short appreciation with the following quote by Asoka Jayasinghe (written in 2005) who considered himself as an adult ‘Shishya’ of Alec:
We are left with the memory of this great Buddhist layman whose life was that of an ideal Buddhist; both in erudition and practice”
Sabba danam dhamma danam jinati”

උපුටා ගැන්ම  ලංකා ලීඩර්

විපක්ෂ නායක සජිත් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා දේශපාලනයෙන් සමුගැනීමේ සූදානමක් පවතින බව මව්බිම ජනතා පක්ෂයේ නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී දිලිත් ජයවීර මහතා පවසයි.

අද (27) පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදී මාධ්‍යවේදියෙකු නැගූ ප්‍රශ්නයකට පිළිතුරු ලබාදෙමින් මන්ත්‍රීවරයා පැවසුවේ විපක්ෂ නායකවරයා සිය උප්පැන්න සහතිකයේ සිට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කරමින් පෙන්වා ඇති කාරණයෙන් ගම්‍ය වන්නේ ඔහු දේශපාලනයෙන් සමුගැනීමේ සූදානමක් ඇති බවයි.

විපක්ෂය යනු සර්වජන බලය පක්ෂය බවත් එය ඒඩිතර විපක්ෂ බවත් විපක්ෂය යනුවෙන් නමින් හැදිනවූ පළියට එය විපක්ෂය නොවන බවද මන්ත්‍රී දිලිත් ජයවීර මහතා පැවසුවා

විපක්ෂයේ ක්‍රියාදාමය විපක්ෂය කටයුතු කරන ආකාරය ඔවුන් ජනතාව සමග කටයුතු කරන ආකාරය ජනතාව තීරණය කරන බවද හෙතෙම වැඩිදුරටත් කියා සිටියා.

Courtesy Adaderana

The newly-appointed Chairman of Lanka Salt Company in Hambantota, T. Nandana Thilaka has urged the public to avoid panic-buying and hoarding salt amidst rumors of a shortage. 

Addressing the media after assuming office today (28), Mr. Thilaka clarified that the current salt supply is sufficient to meet household needs in the country.

Two 400-gram packets of salt powder and one kilogram of crystal salt are enough for an average household for a month,” he stated, emphasizing that unnecessary stockpiling is unwarranted. 

The chairman reassured the public that the Hambantota Lanka Salt Company currently has 6,000 metric tons of salt in stock, sufficient to last until January. Additionally, he added that plans are in place to import 30,000 metric tons of salt to prevent any potential shortages. 

Mr. Thilaka acknowledged that salt production has declined significantly this year, attributing the issue to long-standing neglect of the Jaffna salt pans.

Since the end of the civil war in 2009, no government has taken steps to rehabilitate and utilize the salt pans in the Jaffna region for production,” he explained. 

However, the chairman announced that development activities for the Jaffna salt pans are set to commence by mid-January, with production expected to begin by March 2025. 

He urged the public to remain calm and avoid creating unnecessary demand due to fear, assuring that all measures are being taken to maintain an adequate salt supply in the country.

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