Antony Blinken is concerned, poor man. The US Secretary of State, following talk of the current Niger leadership considering obtaining military support from the Wagner Group, told the BBC that ‘every single place that this Wagner Group has gone, death, destruction and exploitation have followed.’ Hold on to that.
What is referred to as the ‘Wagner Group’ is a Russian state-funded entity, the ‘Wagner Private Military Company’ controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin. A few months ago Prigozhin launched a rebellion following disagreements with Russia’s Ministry of Defence. Not surprisingly the Western media, which is largely cued by Washington, cheered Prigozhin on. The euphoria was short-lived. An agreement was reached, Prigozhin moved to Belarus but Blinken kept cheering.
Blinken said that the uprising showed real cracks in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government and expressed hope that this ‘may offer Ukraine a crucial advantage as it conducts a counteroffensive that could influence the outcome of the war.’
The gains and losses of the counteroffensive are largely speculative. If you believe Washington-Speak, everything is going well and the outcome that would please Blinken is still possible. Russia Today will tell you otherwise. What’s important is that six weeks after the Wagner move on Moscow was quashed, the military group has sent shivers down the spines of several countries bordering Belarus. Latvia closed its border with Russia and along with Lithuania requested NATO for additional troops while Poland beefed up its border with Belarus with 1,500 additional soldiers.
So, while even the Western media has dropped the ‘Cracks in Russia’ narrative, the outcome at least for now is increased angst among Washington’s allies. Whether this would solidify Washington’s intended putsch on Russia or rather Russian sway in Europe or would result in the Russia-Belarus combine stitching up the Western flanks is left to be seen. For now, Blinken isn’t talking about ‘cracks.’ Not in Russia anyway. He is worried about Niger and probably the African continent. We will get to that.
Antony Blinken is someone who called for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He bought into the lie about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction or maybe he knew the truth and endorsed the lie. Having held senior positions in the State Department and the National Security Council from 1994 to 2001, Blinken, we can assume, was in the know about Washington’s quiet and not so quiet wars. He knows how the USA funds, arms and trains people in other countries to wage war on governments that don’t toe Washington’s line. He knows about US mercenaries.
We know about the Wagner Group, thanks to Washington-echoing media but these outfits rarely talk of the US equivalents. There are exceptions, of course. On September 16, 2007, Blackwater contractors (well, mercenaries) guarding State Department employees entered a crowded square near the Mansour district in Baghdad, Iraq, opened fire and killed 20 civilians. At the time the US mercenary outfit’s ground forces in that country numbered 160,000. Sean McFate has detailed ‘America’s addiction to mercenaries’ talking about the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of it, in an article in ‘The Atlantic’ published on August 12, 2016. It’s an excellent entry-point for those who want to dig deeper into the ‘Deeper State’ of US interference in other countries which of course includes US military bases, US-sponsored coups, ‘revolutions,’ and rigging of elections in favour of Washington’s political lapdogs all over the world.
This is why Blinken’s statement is so out of order. Let’s re-quote: ‘every single place that this Wagner Group has gone, death, destruction and exploitation have followed.’
The United States of America invaded twenty-two countries just in the last 20 years. ‘Vivid Maps’ claims the following:
‘[The USA] has been involved in declared wars against the United Kingdom (1775 – 1783 and 1812 – 1815), Canada (1812 – 1815), Algeria (1815), Mexico (1836, 1842, 1844, 1846-1848), Japan (1853-1854), Korea (1871 and 1950-1953), Philippines (1898 and 1899-1902), Cuba (1898), Spain (1898), Vietnam (1964-1973), Cambodia (1969-1973), Iraq (1991, and 2003-present), Kueit (1991), Oman (1991), Afghanistan (1998 and 2001-present). The U.S. also has been involved in World War I (Germany, Austria, Belgium) and World War II (Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Morocco, Algeria, Japan, Philippines, Papua New Guinea).
‘The USA has been involved in some form of military conflicts and acitvity in France (1798-1800), French Guiana (1798-1800) Mexico (1818-1819), Cuba (1822-1825 and 1917-1922), Greece (1827, 2014), Indonesia (1832, 1838-1839), Arcgintina (1833, 1852-1853, 1890)Peru (1835-1836), Uriguay (1855, 1859), Nicaragua (1854, 1857, 1896, 1898, 1912 – 1925), Panama (1856, 1865, 1988-1989), Lebanon (1858, 1982-1983) Venesuela (1873,1895, 1902), Angola (1860), Puerto Rico (1898), Dominican Republic (1903-1904, 1965), Ethyopya (1993-1994), Syria (1903, 2017), Honduras (1911, 1983-1989), Hiati (1914, 1993-1996), Russia (1918-1922), Croatia (1919), Guatemala (1920), Germany (1948), Taiwan (1950-1955), Thailand (1952), Egipet (1956), Laos (1962-1975), Democratic Republic of Congo (1964), Iran (1980, 1920), El Salvador (1981), Chad (1983), Bolivia (1986), Saudabi Aravia (1990), Liberia (1990, 2003), Sierra Lione (1992), Sudan (1992-1993) Macedonia (1993-1994), Bosnia and Hertzegovina (1993-1999), Burundi (1994), Albania (1996-1998), Gabon (1997), Republic of Congo (1997), Sudan (1998), Kenia (1998), Tansania (1998), Serbia (1999-2000), Kosovo (1991-2001), South Sudan (2001), Mauritania (2003), Sinegal (2003), Eritea (2004-2006), Central African Republic (2011), Uganda (2011), Yemen (2012, 2016), Jiordania (2013), Niger (2013), Poland (2014), Ukraine (2015), Lithuania (2015), Cameroon (2015).’
Could Blinken claim that death, destruction and exploitation did not follow in any of these instances? He claims that the Wagner Group ‘brought nothing but bad things in their wake.’ Hmm. And the US brought…what? Life, construction and Christmas all around the year? No, Blinken cannot claim that the USA never brought death, destruction and exploitation to countries they invaded or intervened in through proxies.
Neither can Victoria Nuland, the current Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs who has been desperately urging the new Niger government not to get involved with the Wagner Group.
Nuland has not called for the ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum, to be reinstated. In fact Nuland’s plea comes after the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) threatened military action against Niger’s coup leaders unless they reinstated Bazoum. The new government has refused to back down and clearly Nuland isn’t taking the ECOWAS threat seriously. The deadline imposed by ECOWAS has come and gone and there’s no sign of military intervention by ECOWAS. Instead, Burkina Faso and Mali have declared that any foreign military action against Niger would be considered a declaration of war on them as well.
Prigozhin has made the pertinent observation on Nuland’s pleas to the Niger government to desist from talking to the Wagner Group. He points out that the thought of Niger-Wagner talks has forced Nuland to recognise a government it had not recognised the previous day.
Nuland, by the way, is widely known as ‘The Maidan Midwife,’ for her active role in the Ukraine coup in 2014, which by the way helped create conditions for what’s unfolding in the region right now. And what’s that? Well, death, destruction and exploitation.
Many African nations now see the range of options expanding; in a uni-polar world, arm twisting was the name of the game. ‘Things are changing,’ they might very well be thinking
Blinken also told the BBC that the Wagner Group was taking advantage of instability in Niger. He should know. When has the USA not taken advantage of political instability? Indeed, has not the USA created instability in order to take advantage of the chaos?
The world in general ought to be wary of mercenaries, all mercenaries and not just the Wagner Group. The world in generation ought to be wary of intervention of any kind by whichever country, not just Russia. The USA however does not have the moral authority to whine, but that’s exactly what we are seeing. Blinken is fretting, Nuland is midwifing. We are watching.
A Book entitled ‘ A Comparative Study – Animal Welfare Bill Proposed by the Law Commission (2006) and the
Animal Welfare Bill as Amended (2022) by Senaka Weeraratna, Attorney-at-Law, was launched at the Public Library, Colombo on Monday, August 07, 2023
A picture of the participants at the Press Conference conducted by the Coalition for a Pro Animal Protection Act for Sri Lanka held at the Public Library, Colombo on August 07, 2023.
This book was launched at this Press Conference.
Contents
Introduction 4
Sum-Up of My Observations on the 2022 Version 6
Annexure 1. The History and Current Status of the 2022 Draft Act 10
Annexure 2: Factual Details of My Observations on the 2022 Version 13
Part I: Chapters I-IV – Clauses 1-26 13
Part II: Clause 27 26
Part III: Clauses 28-45 31
Conclusion 34
Introduction
The Law Commission of Sri Lanka, responding to growing public demands invited representations from the public, conducted hearings, and thereafter had a comprehensive Draft Animal Welfare Act prepared (2000 – 2006). Altogether there were over 70 submissions, both oral and written from individuals and Associations. The laws of other jurisdictions were also examined.
In my capacity as an Honorary Legal Consultant to the Law Commission on Animal Welfare Legislation, I steered this project in addition to drafting the new Animal Welfare Act (hereinafter called the Animal Welfare Bill”) at the invitation and under the supervision of the Law Commission. The goal was to replace the antiquated Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance No. 13 of 1907 with a new statute and remedy several deficiencies in other pieces of legislation relating to Animals and Animal Welfare.
The Animal Welfare Bill proposed by the Law Commission and handed to the then President, Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa in June 2006, was a comprehensive document. Upon enactment, it was felt that it would set the standard for other countries, particularly in Asia to adopt. Unfortunately, the Bill has had an uneasy ride over the last 17 years largely owing to the opposition of people with vested interests.
It has reappeared in a new incarnation in the year 2022 as a Bill of Parliament with many of the outstanding features that made the 2006 draft Animal Welfare Bill admirable and highly valued, discarded. Today, the Bill (2022 Version) is at the penultimate stage of its passage. Some of the content is draconian. It has fallen short in critical areas vis-à-vis the original Animal Welfare Bill, henceforth referred to as the 2006 Version. The potential of creating room for possible committing of greater harm to a wider number of animals through misinterpretation and misconstruction of words, though not conceived at the time of drafting, is very high and alarming.
The history and status of the Animal Welfare Bill, providing comprehensive background information vital to a better understanding of the issues we are raising, is in Annexure 1.
The moral challenge for the people of Sri Lanka is to either give effect to the long-suppressed voice of the voiceless animals via an effective piece of Animal Welfare legislation or accommodate the demands of those who see animals in an entirely different light i.e., as fit only for abuse and exploitation for profit, and thereby belying the noble purpose of the Animal Welfare Bill
Sum-up of My Observations on the 2022 Version
1. The need for modern legislation to govern Animal Welfare in Sri Lanka can no longer be disregarded or brushed aside. This proposed Animal Welfare Act bereft of an up-to-date legal framework containing modern standards on Animal Welfare, if passed, will be a source of shame and national embarrassment, as well as a slur on Sri Lanka’s International image.
2. A Bill (2006 version) that had the input and scrutiny of about 15 senior lawyers being members of the Law Commission of Sri Lanka plus consideration of submissions both oral and written from the public i.e., over 70 individuals and Associations, and examination of laws of other Jurisdictions, during the drafting stage with Animal Welfare as its only focus, unfortunately, has had a few people representing vested interests exploiting animals, changing/adding/deleting key Clauses over the years to primarily provide trade benefits over and above the welfare of the animals. This uncalled-for interference is causing serious disfigurement to a well-planned and well-drafted Animal Welfare Bill (2006) that would have won the hearts and minds of civilized people anywhere in the world. The recent changes (2022) contain contradictions and ambiguities that will render most acts of cruelty to animals not legally definable and furthermore will obstruct State and public rescue operations to save threatened animals or animals in danger difficult.
3. A Bill that is in the process of being enacted to replace an archaic 1907 Ordinance, nevertheless, retains the applicability of the 1893 Butcher’s Ordinance with all its obnoxious and medieval methods of slaughter without consideration of bringing any improvement to the welfare of the animals at the time of passage in the slaughterhouse and time of slaughter.
4. Clause 18 is the ugly duckling of the entire Animal Welfare Bill (2022). It is tantamount to a blatant negation of the right to protection for all animals that is usually at the heart of credible Animal Welfare legislation in any part of the world. In the 2022 version, the AWB guarantees at the commencement of the legislation the right to protection of all animals but with a sleight of hand excludes certain species of animals, including both quadrupeds and bipeds, which are of economic value from such protection.
5. Clause 18 with sub-clauses (a-g and h incorporated as recently as on 20th June 2023 with trade benefits and profits in mind for business houses, allows selected Animals despite being ‘sentient beings’ to be treated as inanimate objects or chattels contradicting the Act’s own definition of Animal” and subverting its own Objects. This is unconscionable and immoral as, for example, Chicken is excluded from the welfare provisions of the Draft Act.
6. Clause 18 prohibits farm animals and live animals that are being used in experiments and teaching from gaining the protection of this Act and has added yet another sub-clause (h) to include Poultry as a food product to Clause 18 as recently as 20th June 2023, purely for trade and economic benefits. The welfare of the animal is being sacrificed in the rush to accommodate the meat trade in these provisions. All this defeats the primary purpose of this Act, as Poultry (fowls, hens) are also animals, and their welfare is entitled to protection under the draft Act.
7. Clauses 1-17 mostly deal with the refinement of the language used in the provisions and the increase in the quantum of fines and jail terms.
8. Clause 18 (e) says that the draft Act does not apply to the use of animals for testing of drugs or cosmetics in accordance with the prescribed procedure”. This provision is morally indefensible and glaringly contradictory to another identically worded provision. In one provision of the Act (Clause 12) the use of live animals is prohibited, adding a rider qualifier that was not there in the 2006 version – unless it is for prescribed purposes.” and in this Clause, it is allowed without any prohibition or qualifier. In fact, this Act will not protect these live animals. These two provisions, Clause 12 and Clause 18 (e) mutually contradict each other and if kept as they are in this manner, they will bring the 2022 Act to ridicule and disrepute. Chapter III which deals exclusively with ‘Use of live animals for Experimental and Teaching Purposes’ is rendered redundant as Clause 18 (e) prohibits the application of the draft Act to use of animals for testing of drugs or cosmetics in accordance with the prescribed procedure”. These blatant contradictions make a mockery of the Draft Act. Regulation 43 (1) (i) also deals with this subject which will be redundant by virtue of Clause 18 (e).
9. The word ‘Pests’ in Clause 41, raises new animal welfare concerns. ‘Pests’ back in the 2006 Bill were meant to be interpreted as ‘insects’ but never as bipeds or quadrupeds. The looming danger is that the term ‘Pests’ may provide a loophole for stretching the interpretation to include a whole range of other animals e.g., wild animals, stray cats, and dogs. This is alarming.
10. The provision for establishing an Animal Welfare Advisory Committee in place of a National Animal Welfare Authority as proposed in the 2006 Bill is another drawback. Drafting of legislation must be strict and not leave room for favourites of the framers of the legislation to creep in through the backdoor via an extended interpretation of a provision drafted for such purpose. Clause 27 (1) (b) (i) is one such disgraceful provision. In other provisions, suitable people involved in a particular field are acceptable for nomination to this Committee. In this sub-clause, the language used is ‘actively engaged in animal welfare’. This is an insult to all veterinarians as they are all engaged in the rendering of services to animals. The Act’s own interpretation of Animal Welfare Officer” means all Government Veterinary Surgeons.
11. Animal Welfare Advisory Committee — Clause 27 (Part II) of the AWB (2022) is an extended and lengthy provision devoted exclusively to the subject matter of the ‘Establishment of the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee’ and related aspects.
It is when one looks closely at the composition of the Advisory Committee and the basis of its duties in an Advisory capacity to the Minister that the sinister Agenda underlying the AWB (2022) is laid bare.
Using a hackneyed idiom, the framers have ‘let the cat out of the bag’ in composing Clause 27. Its unbalanced nature, one-sidedness, and bias in favour of vested interests that unabashedly exploit animals in the food industry, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, and laboratory sciences, are abundantly made clear. In comparison to the content of the 2006 version of AWB relating to the composition of the Authority and its functions (Part II) (Clause 3 -13), the 2022 version has downsized and circumscribed the work of the Advisory Committee.
In a glaring display of partisanship, the room is provided for the Advisory Committee to be packed with members representing the ‘users of animals for consumption and trade’ rather than the ‘carers’ and ‘voices’ for animals. The 2006 version allowed six members nominated by Animal Welfare Societies to be on the Committee of the Authority. This number has been reduced to just two members on the Advisory Committee in the 2022 version.
In the 2006 version the functions of the Authority in favour of the uplift of the cause of animals extended to 24 items in number (Part III – Clause 14 (a) – 14 (u)). These 24 lines of pursuit as set out were ennobling and dignified reflecting the historical and civilizational character of Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, this high-minded endeavour has been thwarted and the number of advisory functions has been reduced drastically to three (3) in the 2022 version while one function (outside these three) is to advise the Minister ‘on any matter relating to laboratory facilities for experiments on animals.’ There was no such function allocated to the Authority in the 2006 version.
Furthermore, the Poultry and Livestock Industries have been allowed to be represented by two members on the Advisory Committee being the same number (two) of representation provided to the Animal Welfare Societies in a draft statute dedicated to the welfare of animals.
The exclusivity of representation sought by vested interests on the Advisory Committee is such that even ‘an Ayurvedic Physician with experience in treating animals nominated by the Ayurvedic Medical Council’ (proposed in the 2006 version) has been dropped in the 2022 version of the draft Animal Welfare Act.
Concluding Remarks: The entire Animal Welfare Bill proposed by the Law Commission in 2006 has been hijacked by the Meat trade and its acolytes and converted into an AWB (2022) protecting not the innocent animals but more the interests of the Poultry and Meat trade, and those who use live Animals in totally unnecessary experiments despite the availability of viable non-violent and harmless alternatives.
Can the friends of voiceless animals remain silent in the face of enactment of a bad piece of draft legislation to be incredulously called the ‘Animal Welfare Act’ upon enactment?
Annexure 1
The History and Current Status
of the 2022 Draft Act
History
1. Mr. Senaka Weeraratna, Attorney-at-Law, upon the invitation of the then Chairman of the Law Commission, Justice A.R.B. Amerasinghe delivered a talk on ‘The Requirement for New Animal Welfare Legislation in Sri Lanka” to the members of the Law Commission, Senior Government Officials, and members of Animal Welfare Societies in the Board Room of the Law Commission on February 01, 2000. This talk highlighted the need to consider reviewing the laws relating to the welfare of animals in Sri Lanka as they were archaic and obsolete and were in need of urgent reforms.
2. The very next day Mr. Weeraratna received a hand-delivered letter to his residence from Dr. A.R.B. Amerasinghe saying that the Law Commission had decided to pursue work in relation to repealing the archaic Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance, No. 13 of 1907, and replacing it with an Animal Welfare Act and offered Mr. Weeraratna a position on the Law Commission staff as an (Honorary) Legal Consultant on Animal Welfare legislation with a clear mandate to draft a new Animal Welfare Act for the consideration of the members of the Law Commission.
3. Justice Dr. A R B Amerasinghe at the same time directed Ms. Lakshmi Gunasekera, Secretary, Law Commission of Sri Lanka to include Animal Welfare Laws in the Program of Work of the Law Commission of Sri Lanka for the period 2000 to 2004 and also in the Annual Report of 2002 to be submitted to the Minister of Justice, Law Reforms, Buddha Sasana and National Integration to be laid before Parliament.
4. Mr. Anande Amaraweera, Attorney- at- Law, and Assistant Secretary of the Law Commission was seconded to assist Mr. Weeraratna.
5. Mr. Weeraratna over a period of 6 years (2000 – 2006) drafted and steered the completion of the Project while being in consultation with the Public and Animal Welfare Societies. The draft of the AWB was read and reviewed six times (six versions) by the Law Commissioners before it was finally given approval by the Law Commission. A team comprising the Minister of Justice Hon. Amarasiri Dodangoda, Professor (Dr.) Lakshman Marasinghe (then Chairman, Law Commission) and Ms. Lakshmi Gunasekera, Secretary, Law Commission handed over to President Mahinda Rajapaksa the Animal Welfare Bill proposed by the Law Commission, in June 2006. The Law Commission Report accompanying the AWB singularly acknowledged the vital role of Mr. Senaka Weeraratna in the project.
6. When the AW Bill of 2006 was not enacted soon enough and was being foot dragged, Hon. Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thero, MP, tabled it in Parliament in 2010 as a Private Member’s Bill. It reproduced verbatim the Animal Welfare Bill proposed by the Law Commission in 2006 almost word to word.
7. But the Parliament was dissolved soon after in the same year resulting in the lapse of the AW Bill. AWT (Animal Welfare Trust) lobbied for the expeditious enactment and in protest over the delay.
8. The AWT together with several religious and animal welfare organizations filed a writ application in the Court of Appeal in 2010 seeking a court order directing the relevant Govt. authorities to adopt measures to implement the laws pertaining to animal welfare and to amend the laws for the better protection of animals.
9. In March 2015 the AW Bill was submitted to Cabinet by the then Minister of Social Services, Welfare and Livestock Development (Hon. P. Harrison).
10. The AWT then went to Courts and the Courts appointed a Select Committee.
11. On January 16, 2019, the Court of Appeal directed the Respondents including the Minister of Livestock & Animal Welfare to facilitate the enactment of the Animal Welfare Bill expeditiously and forthwith.
12. The failure to make headway to enact either the Law Commission AW Bill (2006) or the Private Member’s Animal Welfare Bill of Parliament (2010) has been largely due to the lack of political will on the part of the lawmakers in Sri Lanka to support the placement of a new humane Animal Welfare Act on the Statute Book.
The Current Status of the Draft Act of 2022
A substantially amended AW Bill far removed from the Law Commission 2006 version in both direction and values embracing animal welfare, was gazetted on February 07, 2022. It was presented to the Parliament by the Hon. Minister of Agriculture on March 24, 2022.
Chronology
1. The 1st reading in Parliament was done on March 24, 2022.
2. The 2nd reading which began in June 2022 is in progress. The critical debate in Parliament and the appointment of a Parliamentary Select Committee has yet to take place.
3. In 2023, the Hon. Mr. Udaya Gammanpila, MP, and leader of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya, took an initiative by coming forward to expedite the enactment of the Bill and now heads a Parliamentary Caucus for Animal Welfare.
4. Mr. Gammanpila convened a meeting on 7th June 2023 inviting MPs and AWs, but excluding the signatories who are key stakeholders, including Mr. Senaka Weeraratna who was largely instrumental in drafting the Law Commission-sponsored Animal Welfare Bill of 2006.
5. At this meeting an amendment was introduced and agreed upon and it was decided to not go back to the attendant legal procedures after an amendment is made to any Bill, on grounds of the need to avoid further delays.
6. On 20th June 2023 the Caucus met again, and three more amendments were proposed by the non-animal welfare parties, who it is reliably understood, are demanding further amendments to be made to the draft Animal Welfare Act (2022 version).
Some Excerpts
Clause 18 (2022) – Provisions relating to Offences not to apply for certain acts.
*Clause 18 – Newly introduced in the 2022 Version. No counterpart in the 2006 version.
*Mutually Contradictory Clauses repeated verbatim. Undermines the Act’s Very Purpose and Objects – Animal Welfare.
*No one should have a Constitutional right to destroy or sacrifice an animal in the name of any Religion.
*Making concessions in an Animal Welfare Bill on fundamental premises including allowing 5th Century methods of slaughter to prevail when developed countries are introducing modern methods/standards of slaughter to minimize suffering caused to the victim, weakens the moral basis of an Animal Welfare legislation as has been done to Sri Lanka’s AWB of 2022.
*The ‘halal’ method of slaughter based on 5th-century medieval practice in Arabia is called (in Islamic law) ‘dhabijah’. It comprises a swift, deep incision to the throat with a very sharp knife cutting the windpipe, jugular veins, and carotid arteries on both sides but leaving the spinal cord intact. This method of slaughter is being increasingly prohibited and sidelined all over the world including some Muslim countries because scientific studies have unfailingly shown that it (halal) causes immense suffering to the animal by way of cutting the neck and bleeding the animal to death. Stunning the animal prior to slaughter is the scientifically recommended modern (humane) method.
*The Protection of Animals at the time of slaughter is unaddressed in the AW Bill of 2022. No effort has been made in this draft Act (2022) to introduce measures to improve conditions in slaughterhouses in Sri Lanka, which are appalling, to say the least. In contrast, in Spain, slaughterhouses are required by law to install video surveillance to ensure animals are not mistreated before being killed. England, Scotland, and Israel have already introduced the measure in their abattoirs. These surveillance measures by installing CCTV video playback cameras are expected to ensure the welfare of animals during their passage through abattoirs. It would also strengthen food safety guarantees. Israel has a particularly effective system where all footage recorded in a slaughterhouse is transferred live to the Ministry of Agriculture, which acts as a strong crime deterrent.
* IMPORTANT: Compare Clause 18 in 2022 Version vis-a-vis Clauses 37 and 38 in 2006 Version
Clause 37 and 38 (given below for easy reference to compare) are not included in the 2022 version and have been replaced with a new Exemption Clause, i.e., Clause 18, exempting animals that generate economic profits and animals subjected to live testing experiments, etc. from the protection of this AWB.
The English Legislation – The Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) (Amendment) Regulations 1999
States as follows:
Prohibition against slaughter by a religious method elsewhere than in a slaughterhouse
No person shall slaughter any animal by a religious method, or cause or permit any animal to be so slaughtered, elsewhere than in a slaughterhouse licensed under regulation 4 of the Fresh Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations 1995(4).”
The purpose of Clause 38 in the 2006 version was to ban Home Slaughter and ensure that only persons certified as Competent with a Certificate of Competence issued or recognized by an Authority would carry out the slaughter in a registered abattoir and not in a private dwelling house in a residential area or place of business or a public place.
“Public place” has been defined as ‘for the purposes of this section includes any way, road, lane, square, court, alley, passage or open space whether a thoroughfare or not and any building to which the general public have access.’
FOR REFERENCE: AW Bill of 2006 – Clauses 37 and 38
37. (1) No person shall slaughter, or cause or permit to be slaughtered –
(a) any buffalo; or
(b) any cow, unless that cow is certified by a government Veterinary Surgeon or a Veterinary Surgeon employed by any local authority,
to be –
(i) not less than twelve years of age, or
(ii) incapable of breeding, or
(iii) unfit to be used for any agricultural purpose.
2) Any person who contravenes the provisions of this section shall be guilty of an offense and shall upon conviction after a trial by a Magistrate be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty thousand rupees or to imprisonment for a term of one year or to both such fine and imprisonment.
Comment: The above provision (Clause 37) is identical to Section 2 of the Animals Act, No.29 of 1958 except that ‘buffalo’ has been added for protection like the cow. See Clause 37 (1) (a) above.
38. (1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any other law with regard to the grant of licenses for the slaughter of any quadruped, no person shall slaughter or cause to be slaughtered a quadruped in a private dwelling house in a residential area or a place of business or a public place.
(2) No person shall slaughter any quadruped where the meat or any part of the carcass of the quadruped is meant to be sold or distributed for any purpose whatever unless such person holds a certificate of competence in the slaughter of animals issued or recognized by the Authority.
(3) Any person who contravenes the provisions of this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall upon conviction after a trial before a Magistrate, be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty thousand rupees or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to both such fine and imprisonment.
“public place” for the purposes of this section includes any way, road, lane, square, court, alley, passage, or open space whether a thoroughfare or not, and any building to which the general public has access.
Poultry:
The Poultry industry poses many threats to humans, environmental health, and the chickens themselves.
Animal Welfare Issues
The Poultry industry places the interest of consumers and their trade and profit above the animals themselves. Animal welfare issues, such as high stocking densities, the deprivation of adequate living space, painful mutilations, damage to the body parts of the chicken, and cruel slaughter methods, blight the industry. Chickens are among the most abused animals on earth, subjected at every stage of their lives to some of the most inhumane treatment of any factory-farmed animal.
Abuse of Chickens – some examples
a)Live Shackle Slaughter: A common method of killing factory-farmed chickens is known as live shackle slaughter. The Chickens are hung upside down, and their legs are forced into metal stirrups, which often results in broken bones. Chickens are then forced through an electrified bath of water meant to make them lose consciousness prior to slitting their throats and their bodies thrown into boiling water meant to de-feather them. Chickens that manage to avoid the stunning electrified water remain conscious during the subsequent steps of this inhumane slaughter process.
b)Forced Molting: Forced Molting is an inhumane treatment that layer hens are forced to endure. The process begins when the birds are about one-year-old before they are sent to the slaughterhouse. Forced molting requires the starving of hens of food and water, which can last anywhere from seven to 28 days. The process is meant to force the hen’s body to produce as many eggs as possible before they are killed. While still commonplace in many countries, forced molting is now treated as so cruel that many regions have banned the practice. In any Animal Welfare legislation that places the welfare of the animal as paramount, the abuse of chicken in the Poultry industry in Sri Lanka must be investigated and strict checks introduced to ensure minimum standards of humane treatment.
c)Battery Cages: Battery cages are normally used in egg production facilities. Battery cages are designed to allow each bird roughly the same amount of space as a piece of lined paper; birds are prevented from running, walking more than a few steps, and even fully stretching their wings. Hens are also denied from engaging in normal behaviour due to close confinement—resulting in psychological harm.
d) Debeaking: Debeaking, or beak trimming, requires the removal of portions of a chicken’s beak. This procedure is adopted when chicks are only a few hours old, and done without anesthesia, and is thought to inflict chronic pain throughout the bird’s life. The purpose of Debeaking is to prevent chickens from pecking at one another, a behavior that arises due to the typical close confinement conditions in factory farms. Egg-laying hens are typically debeaked, but the cruel operation is also performed on broiler chickens.
e)Genetic Manipulation: Chickens usually lay about 10 eggs per year. But however, through genetic manipulation and selective breeding, layer hens bred in factory farms are now able to lay upwards of 300 eggs per year. This excessive production of eggs has a huge adverse impact on hens’ bodies. They tend to develop osteoporosis, tumors, uterine prolapse, and other painful and often lethal conditions.
Comment
All aspects of the breeding of poultry including Battery Hens must be subjected to regulations and treatment upholding minimum standards as defined in modern legislation governing animal welfare. These aspects must come under the purview of the Animal Welfare Act.
Poultry = chicken/hen = animal –must come within the definition of ‘animal’ in the Act. No animal can be excluded from the welfare provisions of the Act.
Such exemption would connote Cherry Picking” of animals for the benefit of outsiders and therefore the Act will not be considered as true to its Vision, Purposes, and Objects.
Conclusion
The Animal Welfare Bill proposed by the Law Commission in 2006 (and verbatim reproduced in the Private Members Bill tabled by Ven. Athureliya Rathana Thera, in Parliament, in October 2010) has been hijacked by the Meat Trade and its collaborators and converted into an Animal Welfare Bill (2022) protecting not the innocent animals but the interests of the Poultry and Meat trade, and those who use live Animals in totally unnecessary experiments despite the availability of viable non-violent and harmless suitable alternatives.
The Animal Welfare Bill (2006) introduced a robust legal framework and powers for protecting all animals. It was destined to become an International Gold Standard at least for countries in Asia.
How we treat animals, and the legislation we must have to govern animal welfare, is a hallmark of a civilized society. Animals have always enjoyed a high priority status in our pre-colonial civilization running for over 2, 500 years. That has always been a source of pride for this nation and drew a lot of respect from the neighbouring countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia. In ancient times the inhabitants of Sri Lanka i.e., the Buddhist Sinhalese, were called the ‘Arya Vamsa’ (people of noble character) because of our caring and compassionate attitudes towards non–human living beings. This hallowed tradition should be continued.
Today, we should be constantly looking to improve and refine our legislation in the area of animal welfare. It is a moral duty.
The Animal Welfare Bill of Sri Lanka (2022) with its inhumane and draconian amendments enshrines ‘Cruelty’ within a facade of a legal framework. It is a retrograde step. A slur on Sri Lanka’s image. It must not be enacted in Parliament.
The Animal Welfare Bill of Ven. Athureliya Rathana Thera, MP, introduced in Parliament as a Private Members Bill, in October 2010 provides the precedent and way forward for enacting a true animal-friendly ‘ Animal Welfare Bill ‘ for Sri Lanka.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe has urged for all Sri Lankans to unite to solve the current issues concerning power devolution and provincial councils.
Delivering a special statement in Parliament this morning (09 August), the Head of State said. Let’s collectively endeavour as a united nation to tackle this challenge. We must find solutions to our dilemmas within our own capabilities. External parties or foreign nations cannot solve our issues for us”.
Following the revision of laws pertaining to Provincial Councils and the implementation of new legislation, should the Parliament endorse the amending the Provincial Council Voting Act, which includes voting based on the District Proportional System and allows Members of Parliament the right to contest in Provincial Councils, with a minimum of 25% female representation, President Ranil Wickremesinghe noted that once discussions have been held and consensus reached regarding the proposed increase in the number of provincial councils, measures will be undertaken to conduct provincial council elections.
The President made this declaration today (09) during a special statement in the Parliament, wherein he presented his suggestions and forthcoming actions concerning the 13th amendment of the Constitution and the delineation of powers.
He confirmed that the establishment of a committee, headed by the Prime Minister, will be pursued to re-evaluate the powers assigned to the central government, the functions assigned to provincial councils, and the shared responsibilities stipulated in the constitution. The resulting amendments will be proposed, garnering the support of all parliamentary factions.
Furthermore, President Ranil Wickremesinghe highlighted the intent to establish an advisory council to offer guidance to provincial governors until the operationalization of the provincial councils.
Noting the entrenched role of Provincial Councils within the governance structure and political landscape of the country, the President emphasized the opportunity to effect a substantial transformation in constructing an effective, transparent, and corruption-free Provincial Council system that commands public trust and addresses citizen concerns.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe acknowledged the challenges in reaching consensus, particularly with sensitive matters like police powers during the devolution of authority to Provincial Councils under the 13th Amendment. He underscored the importance of unity in executing these initiatives.
Following is the full speech delivered by President Ranil Wickremesinghe;
The provincial council system was introduced in 1987 through the 13th Amendment to the constitution. This system has been operational in our country for 36 years. Nevertheless, numerous issues surround the implementation of the 13th Amendment, as well as the functioning of provincial councils.
If our nation is to progress, these problems must be addressed. The 13th Amendment needs to be implemented in a manner that aligns with our country’s development and future. This can only be achieved if all parliament members come to a consensus after thorough and open-minded discussions. To facilitate this, we recently organized an all-party conference, which saw participation from representatives of various political parties, for which I am appreciative.
However, during the conference, we couldn’t arrive at a comprehensive agreement on power devolution. Divergent perspectives on a specific national decentralization program were evident. It became apparent that certain political parties were hesitant to share their ideas, possibly due to past negative experiences from prior all-party conferences.
It’s time to change this situation. We should shift away from the convention of viewing the opposition’s role solely as criticizing the government’s actions. Let’s also abstain from making decisions without considering opposition viewpoints. We must act with assurance and accountability. Our country’s progress hinges on collective advancement along a new path. Let’s work towards establishing this new approach.
I want to reiterate a point I consistently emphasize: instead of dwelling on the past, let’s focus on the future. Yes, we’ve encountered challenges in the past, but let’s refrain from debating them and instead concentrate on envisioning the country’s future. With genuine intentions, let’s unite and make joint decisions that consider the nation’s future.
Have we achieved success in implementing the provincial councils through the 13th Amendment over the past 36 years? Or has it been a failure? What factors have contributed to either outcome? Let’s engage in a discussion on this matter. Let’s delve deeper, examine new global trends, and explore cases worldwide.
In our region, notable examples from countries such as India and China, as well as in the Western world including the United States of America and Canada, reveal instances of successful power devolution. Even smaller countries like the United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Japan have adopted devolution.
For instance, let’s consider China, where ethnic minorities account for less than 9 percent of the population. Despite this, China has granted autonomous powers to these minorities through various administrative entities such as zones, county (korale), and cities.
We must explore cases from different nations where national policies have effectively decentralized power. By learning from these experiences, we can identify a suitable system for our own country.
Our annual expenditure on provincial councils amounts to around Rs. 550 billion. Have these councils justified this investment? Has this substantial funding truly benefited the populace? This is a crucial aspect that deserves attention.
We spend LKR 22,000 for each person every year. We are spending LKR 22,000 that could be spent on our students for provincial councils. That is LKR 88,000 that could be spent on a family of four. Are we getting benefits from it?
The division of power and authority between provincial councils, central government, and local governing bodies lacks clarity. Consequently, subjects overlap between provincial councils and the central government, resulting in duplication of efforts and delayed actions. Instead of resolving people’s issues, problems are escalating due to these inefficiencies.
Some individuals in our nation label provincial councils as white elephants” due to these challenges. Yet, amid these limitations, provincial councils have significantly influenced Sri Lanka’s political trajectory.
They have nurtured skilled political leaders and served as stepping stones to executive and parliamentary roles. Throughout history, numerous individuals who embarked on their political journey as provincial council members ascended to positions of power like the executive presidency, premiership, cabinet membership, and other significant roles.
Many of the Ministers currently seated in this House have traversed a path from provincial council members to Chief Ministers and beyond.
During the inception of provincial councils, certain political parties expressed opposition. Some parties chose democratic protests, while others resorted to undemocratic means to voice their dissent. Tragically, this period witnessed loss of lives and destruction of national assets. Nonetheless, those days belong to the past.
Notably, none of the parliamentary political parties advocate for the abolition of provincial councils. Representatives from all these parties have engaged with and been part of provincial councils.
An additional aspect demands our attention here. The devolution of power within provincial councils is governed by the 13th Constitutional Amendment, which holds the status of the highest law of our nation. We cannot afford to disregard it. Both the executive and the legislature are obligated to execute its provisions.
Today, I present my proposals and forthcoming actions concerning the 13th Amendment and the devolution of powers to this esteemed House. I urge a thorough examination of these suggestions. I invite you to contribute your ideas as well. Taking all these viewpoints into careful consideration, the responsibility of arriving at the final decision regarding the role and future of provincial councils rests solely with this honourable council.
What characterizes modern democracies? The establishment of decentralized governance as opposed to devolution. Devolution of power serves to bring political, economic, social, and cultural matters closer to the people. This goal is pursued using diverse methods in different nations across the globe. Decentralization is recognized as a pathway to achieving a form of direct democracy.
While no governmental system can fully transition to a direct democracy where all citizens gather to make decisions, it’s feasible to construct an institutional framework that facilitates people’s participation and their expression of will in political, economic, and social processes. The provincial council system serves as one such framework that brings power to the people.
Furthermore, we’ve recently initiated several other strategies to empower the populace. We’ve bolstered sectoral committees and fostered youth involvement for this purpose. Concurrently, efforts are underway to establish public assemblies, aiming to involve citizens in grassroots governance. The Janasabha Secretariat has been launched, and once model assemblies are established, we’ll advance the Assembly Act.
In light of these advancements, I believe our focus should be on devising methods and strategies to further empower the people through provincial councils. By doing so, we can transform provincial councils into institutions that safeguard national unity.
In recent years, numerous committees associated with the Parliament have produced several documents that thoroughly examine the subject of provincial councils and their prospective trajectory.
Among these documents is the interim report released on September 21, 2017, by the Steering Committee of the Constitutional Council of Sri Lanka, under my leadership. Importantly, all parties represented within the Parliament endorsed the recommendations outlined in this interim report.
The interim report offers recommendations concerning amendments to Articles 3, 4, and 5 of the Constitution. We now bring forward these proposed constitutional amendments for consideration by the Parliament.
The report also outlines the following points for implementation:
1. Ensuring the participation of provincial councils in the formulation of national policies concerning matters within the provincial list.
In formulating National Policy on matters contained in the Provincial List the Central Government shall adopt a participatory process with the Provincial Council;
2. No transfer of decentralized powers to the Central Government through the creation of national policies related to topics within the Provincial List, nor any impact on the executive and administrative powers under the jurisdiction of the Provincial Council.
Formulation of National Policy on a Provincial List matter would not have the effect of the Centre taking over executive or administrative powers with regard to the implementation of the said devolved power;
3. The executive and administrative powers required to enact the decentralized subject will remain under the jurisdiction of the Provincial Councils.
The Province will retain the executive or administrative powers (implementation powers) with regard to the said devolved power;
I will present the above proposals to parliament as constitutional amendments so the House could take it forward for necessary action.
In response to the interim report, several parties including Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Janatha Vimukti Peramuna, Tamil United Liberation Front, Jathika Hela Urumaya, United Opposition, All Ceylon Muslim Congress, All Ceylon People’s Congress, Eelam People’s Democratic Party, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, Tamil Progressive Party of Mr. Douglas Devananda, and President’s Counsel Mr. Jayampathi Wickramaratne presented documents. This aspect should also be duly noted.
Furthermore, attention should be directed towards the report from the committee established to examine the relationship between the Parliament and the Provincial Councils, as well as the report from the Sub-Committee on Centre Periphery Relations.
Through these documents, the provincial council system is affirmed as an institutional framework that cannot be excluded from our governance system. Even parties like the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and Jathika Hela Urumaya, which do not view provincial councils as a solution to ethnic conflicts or as units of decentralization, have acknowledged the need for specific amendments within the provincial council system and its unchanged aspects.
This reinforces the notion that the provincial council has become an enduring component that cannot be excised from Sri Lanka’s governmental structure or political landscape.
If we can achieve a consensus that garners everyone’s approval, we’ll have the opportunity to safeguard our national identity, unite as a single nation, and decentralize the country’s power, making it more accessible to the people. It’s important to note that provincial councils were established not exclusively in the Northern and Eastern provinces but across all nine provinces.
National unity is upheld by steering provincial councils in the right direction. Simultaneously, it can be confirmed as a more efficient and service-oriented organizational system. It presents a chance to decentralize power, bringing governance closer to the general populace.
Therefore, our primary aim should be to develop the provincial council system as an institution that aligns with public needs, caters to public requirements, and contributes to national development.
To pave the way for this, I propose introducing several bills to the Parliament and implementing a series of new measures:
Appointment of Divisional Secretaries
Granting Authority to Provincial Councils for Education-related Services This involves exercising all powers related to school education listed in Schedule 3 of the Provincial Council List.
Establishment of Provincial Boards for Vocational and Technical Training Services
Empowerment of Provincial Councils to Establish Universities
Authorization for Provincial Councils to Provide Grassroots Agricultural Innovation and Services
Creation of Provincial Tourism Promotion Boards
Amendment to the Industries Act to Increase the Limit For industries of national importance, the limit will be raised from Rs. 4 million to Rs. 250 million. If this Parliament agrees, we’re ready to elevate it to Rs. 500 million.
Correction of Errors in Delegated Functions to Provincial Councils
Establishment of District Development Councils in Accordance with the 13th Constitutional Amendment Develop a three-year development plan for each provincial council in alignment with central government national policies. Integrate central government development programs into this plan, customized to each jurisdiction. Execute this three-year plan via District Development Councils and entrust its implementation to Provincial Councils.
Additionally, formulate a legal framework wherein Members of Parliament, Members of Provincial Councils, and Members of Local Government Bodies representing each district can collaborate effectively in this endeavour.
We are currently in the process of establishing a committee, led by the Prime Minister, tasked with re-evaluating the list of powers held by the central government, the provincial council powers, and the concurrent list outlined in the constitution. The objective is to propose necessary amendments. We are actively seeking the support of all parties represented in the Parliament for this initiative.
The Provincial Council Act No. 42 of 1987 lacks precise definitions regarding the responsibilities of provincial council ministers, their secretaries, and other officials. As a result, misunderstandings, issues, and confusion can arise. To address this, amendments should be made to the Provincial Council Act, specifying their powers.
Following the revision of these laws concerning Provincial Councils and the enactment of new laws, subject to the Parliament’s agreement, we are prepared to amend the Provincial Council Elections Act.
Presently, three proposals have been submitted in this context:
Adoption of the District Proportional System for Voting
Allowing Members of Parliament to contest in provincial council elections
Raising the representation of women to 25% or higher
Efforts will be made to facilitate discussions, reach consensus, and proceed with the provincial council vote based on these proposals.
Our primary focus centers on establishing an advisory council to guide provincial governors until the provincial councils are fully operational. As members of this Advisory Council, we recommend appointing the Chairman or Chief of the Provincial Supervisory Committee, District Development Committee Chairman, and Members of Parliament representing political parties within the province.
Furthermore, we propose the establishment of a separate committee for legislative purposes. This committee would ensure that draft laws receive endorsement from the advisory committee before being enacted into law.
This Advisory Council would be co-chaired by the Governor and a nominated Member of Parliament from the respective province.
The governor would oversee executive matters, while the Member of Parliament would preside over legislative affairs.
Currently, there are 45 functioning Provincial Council Ministries. Oversight committees can be established for these ministries, with parliamentarians who have no other responsibilities being appointed as their heads.
Under the 13th Amendment, police powers have emerged as the most delicate issue in the transfer of authority to the Provincial Councils. As a result, I propose that it might be more practical for us to initially focus on reaching consensus concerning other powers. It’s advisable to progress step by step.
Prioritizing sensitive matters could potentially hinder the attainment of any mutual agreement. Instead of commencing with the end in mind, let’s initiate from the beginning.
Hence, let’s initiate discussions about the decentralization of other powers and work towards a shared understanding. Additionally, we can draw insights from the Chief Ministers of the South’s report on power decentralization there.
Our approach should be guided by mutual agreement. Let’s emphasize that this Parliament possesses the strength and wisdom required to collaboratively make decisions that will shape the nation’s future.
Hon Speaker,
It is my sincere intention to progress without any political motivation, addressing the issues faced by the Tamil people in the North and East, in order to secure a much needed sustainable national reconciliation in the country. Reconciliation undoubtedly is an indispensable factor for Sri Lanka’s own development.
My recent meeting with the Tamil Parliamentarians representing the Northern and Eastern provinces, was premised on this aspect. Subsequent to this meeting, I believe it is important to keep the Members of this august House informed of the matters discussed, as it forms the basis of the proposed trajectory, the Government would seek to pursue in this regard.
In this context, continued action on the relevant issues are envisioned to contribute towards national reconciliation, which I will now seek to outline:
a. Anti-Terrorism Bill
Following the discussions of the suggested amendments to the Bill, it would be presented to the Cabinet for approval. Subsequent to appropriate action the Bill will be re-gazetted And any person can then petition the Supreme Court and the SC will have the last say with regards to the provisions of the bill.
b. Anti- Corruption Bill
I am pleased that the Anti- Corruption Bill was passed in Parliament last month with amendments proposed by the Supreme Court in its determination and other stakeholders, but without a vote. It has already been gazetted.
c. Truth Seeking Mechanism and the Bill
The Interim Secretariat for the Truth Seeking Mechanism has been established and a Director General been appointed. In addition three Divisions have been established covering Legal and Policy, Public Relations and Information Technology.
Applications have been sought for key staff positions for the operationalization of the Secretariat, particularly for stakeholder consultations, preparations of drafting guidelines and policies, until the formal mechanisms could commence following relevant laws being enacted. Civil Society Stakeholder consultations including the UN agencies are continuing, and when exhausted, Cabinet approval will be sought and processed, to become a legal framework.
d. Office for the National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR) Bill
ONUR draft law has been submitted to the Attorney-General for the certification of constitutionality, which will subsequently be presented to Parliament. Additionally, the National Action Plan on Reconciliation drafted by ONUR will be presented to the Cabinet in the near future.
e. Office for Reparations
At present payments of monetary relief have been granted for 203 cases of missing persons from the North East Conflict amounting to Rs. 40.6 million as at July 2023. The process is continuing.
f. Office of Missing Persons (OMP)
I reiterate the need to uphold justice for the people of the North and East. Of the 21,374 complaints received by the OMP, investigations into 3,462 cases have been completed at present. Investigations are progressing for the remaining complaints, and this process could get accelerated following the Truth Seeking Mechanism being fully operationalized. It would now be appropriate for those seeking particulars of missing persons to submit detailed information to the Interim Secretariat. I table the document containing the relevant information (Annex1)
OMP has commenced tracking missing persons. Further, action is being taken to expedite the data entering process in order for its completion within three months. The issuance of the Certificate of Absence (COA) is being expedited. OMP and the AG’s Department are working on a Case Handling Policy, and have drafted guidelines focusing on effective management of complaints to the previous Commissions and the OMP.
Endorsement for the guidelines will be sought from the Cabinet. Further OMP with 10 new panels totaling 24, are expected to be in operation from August, and has planned to have a resource team per district for referral services.
Members of Parliament are free to take up relevant issues with the Offices of Reparations and Missing Persons. The OMP has already outlined its time frames in relation to their scope of work.
g. Granting Presidential Pardon to Prisoners involved in LTTE Activities
Prisoners are under the three categories of remand prisoners numbering 21, prisoners imposed with death sentence 3 and those imposed with other sentences 22. It has been decided to consider only the last two categories of prisoners for being granted Presidential Pardon in terms of Article 34(1) of the Constitution. In this context, considering the recommendations of the Hon. Minister of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms, Presidential approval has been granted to remit the balance sentences and release 11 of the prisoners under the last category.
h. Establishment of National Land Commission
Steps are being taken to expedite the establishment of the National Land Commission (NLC) and a National Land Policy. A draft NLC law has been prepared and is being further studied for formulating a policy pertaining to the alienation of State land. A Land Commission Policy Act is also expected to be in place by September for the NLC to be guided in their functions. The composition of the NLC would be amended to include 9 representatives from the Provinces and 12 government officials.
i. Resolution on Land Matters
It may be recalled that an injunction order had been obtained from the Supreme Court in 2020 on the release of residual forest lands by a Special Committee. Subsequently following discussions in May this year the possibility of demarcating forests and wild life conservation areas based on the 1985 land used maps were requested to be examined. Consequently, a Cabinet memorandum on this issue was submitted and approval was obtained to enforce the release of such forest lands by an Inter-Ministerial Committee. The withdrawal of the original interim order is being processed.
In the meantime a data base has been evolved focusing on the said land used maps, current land used patterns and proposals of the Divisional Secretaries related to the lands managed by the Forest Department in all districts of the North and East.
Maps containing information related to the districts have been made available for viewing by the Members of Parliament in the relevant District Secretariats for a period of two months. I table the list of contact details of the relevant official for this purpose (Annex II).
The proposals presented at the Divisional Secretariat level are to be considered by the Inter-Ministerial Committee following the legal proceedings on the withdrawal of the original interim order. A Committee chaired by the Secretary to the President will examine and facilitate matters relating to land.
j. National Plan for Archaeology
The Department of Archaeology and the Central Cultural Fund have been informed that land demarcation and excavation across the country should be done according to a National Plan. The Director General of Archaeology has been instructed to prioritize and plan excavation work, identification of sites and the manner in which they should be executed.
An Action Plan will be presented by the Archaeological Department for the activities related to the identification of the areas to be conserved and/or proper acquisition to take place.
k. Road Map for the Issuance of All Country Passports for Sri Lankans living in Rehabilitation Camps in South India
The Department of Immigration and Emigration has received a list of 2,678 Sri Lankans living in South Indian Rehabilitation Camps. Of the aforementioned number, those with both Sri Lankan Birth Certificates and National Identity Cards can be issued All Country Passports. The timelines for the issuance of the said documentation span two to four weeks. A considered decision would need to be taken with regard to the issuance of All Country Passports to those Sri Lankans living in Rehabilitation Camps in South India.
l. Resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North and East Provinces
The Presidential Secretariat Northern Province Coordination Office has been established to assist the IDPs who have been affected due to the North and East conflict. As you are aware, people who were internally displaced in the North and East were accommodated in welfare centres or been living with their friends and relatives. After the restoration of normalcy, they have largely returned to their places of origin. Following the resettlement of a majority of the people with housing and livelihood support, its current status in the Northern and Eastern provinces is hereby tabled. (Annex III)
Action continues to resettle IDP families in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Of the five districts in the Northern Province resettlement of IDPs remains only in Jaffna and Kilinochchi districts. In Jaffna there are 15 Welfare Centres with a total of 136 families and 2,175 families with friends and relatives. There are no IDP families living in Welfare Centres in Kilinochchi. However, 182 families remain with their friends and relatives in the Peninsula, and 177 in Pachchilaippalli Division.
In the Eastern Province IDPs are present only in Trincomalee and Ampara districts and they live with friends and relatives, and there are no Welfare Camps in this Province.
Particular attention has to be given to resolving problems associated with displaced persons resettlement, which also requires releasing privately held lands for public use. I have tasked the officials to take immediate action to settle these issues, by devising effective mechanisms for their resolution.
m. Lands to be released by the Armed Forces- Northern Province
Of the total land area in Jaffna amounting to approximately 253,283 acres, the occupation by the Security Forces and Police in 2009 was 26,812 acres.
Presently 90 to 92% of the land occupied by the Security Forces and Police in 2009 have been released from time to time. Accordingly, 22,919 acres comprising 817 acres of state and 22,101 acres of private land have been released.
The current extent of occupied land by the Security Forces and the Police is 3754 acres, of which 862 and 2892 acres are respectively state and privately owned.
The further release of land is envisaged under the categories of:
(i) Land for immediate release comprises 1.4 acres in Jaffna, 13 acres in Kilinochchi and 20 acres in Mullaithivu, as identified by the Army and Navy.
(ii) The Army has earmarked 53 acres in the Jaffna district to be released in 3 to 6 months time.
(iii) A land strip of approximately 290 acres from the Security Forces Army Cantonment, Palaly has been identified to be released temporarily for specific purposes, including agriculture and seasonal crops.
(iv) Regarding lands that cannot be presently released, a study is being carried out in this regard on the instructions of the Army Commander, to ascertain the possibility of further freeing up of land in the Northern Province.
I am aware that this is an area of contention for the Northern populace, and therefore we will continue to seek ways and means to release as far as possible the military occupied land in that Province.
There will be certain mattes that MPs in those areas may want to raise. They may suggest different timelines and amendments so I’ve asked the Foreign Minister and the Justice Minister to deal with all such requests.
n. Development Plans for North and East
It is imperative to create extensive and practicable Plans to develop the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Anticipating that renewable energy could meet 70% of the country’s national electricity need by 2030, one of the key objectives of the both Northern and Eastern Development Plans is to harness the region’s renewable energy potential through the production of green hydrogen and green ammonia using innovative technologies. This strategy aims to attract investments and could transform the Port of Colombo Pooneryn and even Trincomalee as hubs for export of green hydrogen.
We have already taken steps on creating a conducive environment for the investment and export of solar and wind power, culminating in a Memorandum of Understanding with India to facilitate collaborative efforts in this area. Adani Group has come forward to invest in the renewable energy sector of Sri Lanka. I believe that this collaborative approach would lead to substantial growth in this area.
Additionally the Water to the North” programme, comprises the development of various water ways. In this context the Government has already approved the projects for the Poonekeri Tank and Malwathu Oya irrigation which is being prioritized.
Talks are presently continuing on the River for Jaffna, which would bring fresh water to the Jaffna Lagoon and increase the capacity of the Iranamadu Tank. The Small Tanks Renewal Project, is important to be accomplished. In fact this project will give rise to developing the agricultural and solar energy sectors in the Northern Province.
In addition to this, the Economic sub-committee of Cabinet is today considering two Cabinet Papers. One by the Minister of Irrigation and the other by the Minister of Water Supply to look at the development of water supply of the Jaffna peninsula and other Projects.
There will be a committee chaired by my senior advisor Dr. R. Samaratunga to look at them and make a combined plan.
It is also essential to upgrade air and sea connectivity in the North. The development of the KKS Harbour, Vavuniya and Palali Airports and the ferry service connecting the Northern Province to the South of India are facilities which have been earmarked.
The establishment of Investment Promotion Zones in KKS, Paranthan and Mankulam are being worked towards. I will get the Board of Investment (BOI) to take these over. We also have plans for the development of tourists’ attractions in Jaffna and Mannar, through a tourist boating project around Mannar Fort, Kankesanthurai Port, the Islands and Vadamarachchi. Under an Agriculture Modernization programme we will seek to promote coconut cultivation in the Vanni. Jaffna being home to a seat of excellence in higher education with its University, would lend to developing it as an University City. Additionally, land has been identified in KKS for the establishment of a Campus under the aegis of SLIIT.
Similarly plans for developing the Eastern Province are progressing with Trincomalee being the core. India’s assistance as our closest neighbour in implementing the Trincomalee District Development Project is of immense value to Sri Lanka.
The ongoing cooperation in the development of the Trincomalee Tank Farms and India’s agreement to further enhance Trincomalee as a national and regional hub of industry, energy and economic activity is a fillip for developing further mutually beneficial cooperation.
The Eastern Province plays an important role in naval affairs and Trincomalee should be made into a leading strategic Port. It is important that we work together with India when developing the Eastern Province Port, by having discussions on several programmes in that region.
Further we cannot limit the economic activities of this Port solely to the Trincomalee District. This should be connected with the cities of Anuradhapura, Vavuniya and Dambulla, especially when the districts of Vanni, Eastern and North Central Provinces are responsible for the bulk of agricultural production. Since India has a lead to develop industries in this Province, an Industrial Zone should be created. The Port therefore will also be connected and we are planning to establish a Joint Task Force for this purpose.
From an economic point of view the Eastern Province has much to offer the tourism industry. In particular, there is the cultural triangle of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Dambulla, which is in close proximity to the Eastern Province and could be a natural route for enhanced visits by tourists to the beach fronted cities of Batticaloa, Arugam Bay and Trincomalee. Cabinet also approved Subana Jurong to cover planning from Werugalaaru to Arugam Bay for tourism purposes.
Cruise tourism initiatives could also be a part of this development plan. The fisheries, agriculture and animal husbandry sectors are well poised for modernization in the Eastern Province. In this context, the opening of Land Systems A and B of the Mahaweli right bank will provide the much needed impetus for enhancing agricultural pursuits.
I hope that the some of the Hon. Members of the Parliament who continue a misplaced refrain of the Government purportedly selling out the country to a third party, will now constructively understand that no country can progress alone, that too especially in the instance of a nation emerging from an unprecedented economic crisis, as has been the experience of Sri Lanka.
It must be understood that engaging in a robust relationship with our closest neighbour India would undoubtedly strengthen our ability towards ensuring mutually beneficial cooperation.
You have my assurance that I will not engage in initiatives inimical to the sovereignty and integrity of this country. In the same manner I urge all of you, for constructive engagement, in our quest for national reconciliation, considering that the interests of the people is the bedrock for our country’s development.
Today, we find ourselves navigating the challenging process of rebuilding a collapsed economy. This is a crucial juncture where we must strive for swift economic growth. However, achieving such rapid development seems unlikely within the existing provincial council system.
In 1977, during President JR Jayawardene’s tenure, our nation experienced remarkable economic progress. Unfortunately, due to the war, that progress was impeded, affecting every citizen profoundly.
Under the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the war was successfully concluded. It has now been 14 years since the conflict ended. Regrettably, we have not yet managed to address the issues concerning power devolution and provincial councils.
Hence, let’s collectively endeavour as a united nation to tackle this challenge. We must find solutions to our dilemmas within our own capabilities.
External parties or foreign nations cannot solve our issues for us. Instead, let’s unite to resolve our problems independently and guide our country back towards a path of swift economic and social growth.
Over the course of the past year since assuming the role of President, we’ve introduced a range of systemic reforms, highlighting transparency, accountability, responsibility, and good governance. In a time devoid of significant external influence for a constitutional amendment, I presented the 21st constitutional amendment to this House, which was adopted and led to a reduction in presidential powers.
The Election Expenses Control Act was brought before Parliament and ratified to curb various misuses of finances and irregularities during elections. Notably, a robust anti-corruption bill, aligned with international standards, was presented and approved to confront the corruption and fraud that have marred our nation’s reputation.
To prevent reckless financial management driven by political agendas, the Central Bank Independence Act was presented and passed.
Amidst previous youth movements and a widespread demand for systemic change, the need for an altered approach was vigorously underscored. A substantial portion of our population is echoing this call for change. Just as in the steps mentioned earlier, we embarked on transformative measures, now we must steer this transformation towards the provincial councils.
An opportunity presents itself to bring about a substantial shift, forging an efficient, transparent, and corruption-free provincial council system that the public can trust, one that effectively addresses their concerns. Moreover, provincial councils can be harnessed to foster greater unity among citizens and consolidate national cohesion.
I’ve laid out my proposals and strategies before this esteemed assembly. The floor is now yours. I encourage you to delve deeply into these propositions and express your viewpoints.
Within this Honourable House, you possess the authority to chart the course forward from here. I implore each of you to take that step together through a mutual consensus. I beseech this honourable assembly to join hands and affirm that our parliament possesses the strength and comprehensive knowledge to usher in the betterment of our nation.
India and Sri Lanka are giving a fresh push to the long-pending power grid connectivity between the two countries to trade electricity.
Work has started on updating a detailed project report for the connectivity either through overhead line or undersea cable in the sea portion of the connectivity, following a meeting on the proposal last month, said people familiar with the matter.
The timeline for a draft detailed project report is September 15, after which it will be discussed between the two sides for finalisation, they said.
Sri Lanka will carry out the necessary load flow studies for 2027-28 time frame of its network, considering 500 MW exchange from India through the proposed link, according to the people. India will study the necessary load flow studies on the combined network data based on the inputs from the Sri Lankan side. This is likely to be completed by August 21.
The reports will then be discussed with the officials in the joint technical team, comprising members from the Central Electricity Authority, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) formed in 2016.
The cross-border interconnection plan has been under discussion for nearly two decades now. It was marred by high project cost, making it unviable, according to people aware of the matter.
Dr. Shakuntala Bhabani a Kolkata-based educator and South Asian affairs researcher in Political Science
Shootings have continuously made headlines just seven months into the year. The gun violence epidemic continues unabated in the United States. As per some reports, the United States is averaging two mass shootings a day, so far this year. According to Economic Times newspaper, at least 3 killed, 2 injured in mass shooting in Washington DC’s nightlife district in US on Saturday.
The victims include two men and a woman who were shot in the Anacostia area of Southeast Washington, police said. Two men and a woman were pronounced dead at the scene and two men were transported to area hospitals, Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department Acting Chief Pamela Smith said during a news conference at the scene. The city has now recorded more than 150 homicides so far this year, putting it on track for the largest number of killings in more than two decades. Washington DC acting police Chief Pamela Smith called the shooting a senseless act of violence in Southeast”. The killings come amid a stream of shootings that have left at least a dozen people dead in the first five days of August, reported The Washington Post.
This kind of gun violence is not acceptable in the District of Columbia. This is not a war zone. We want our residents to feel safe,” Smith said.
Smith asked for help from the public in collecting information about what she called a disturbing fatal shooting. We realize that there may be others who may have been injured tonight. We are asking you to come forward,” Smith said, adding that the community needs to be involved in stopping the city’s violence. It can’t rest upon the metropolitan police department to determine what works and what doesn’t work.”
Washington experienced another mass shooting last month when nine people were wounded while celebrating Independence Day in a neighborhood about a 20-minute drive east of the White House.
As of Aug. 1, at least 25,198 people have died from gun violence in the U.S. this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive – which is an average of roughly 118 deaths each day. Of those who died, 879 were teens and 170 were children.
At least nine mass shootings rocked cities across the nation over the weekend, leaving five people dead and 56 wounded, according to a national website that tracks gun violence.
The mass casualty shootings occurred at parties, outside of a nightclub and a convenience store, during a street game of dominoes and even at a community meeting on how to combat gun violence, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as a single event with four or more victims either injured or killed.
The weekend violence upped the number of mass shootings in 2023 to 419, with still five months left in the year. The number of mass shootings this year has already surpassed the total number that occurred in all of 2019, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.
According to the website’s data, an average of two mass shootings have occurred every day this year. In all of 2022, there were 647 mass shootings nationwide, slightly down from 690 that occurred in 2021.
Deaths by suicide have made up the vast majority of gun violence deaths this year. There’s been more than 14,000 deaths by gun suicide this year, an average of about 66 deaths by suicide per day in 2023.
The majority of these deaths have occurred in Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Illinois and Louisiana.
The grim tally of gun violence deaths includes 488 people killed in police officer-involved shootings. Thirty-four police officers have been fatally shot in the line of duty this year.
There have also been 960 “unintentional” shootings, the Gun Violence Archive shows.
There have been more than 420 mass shootings in 2023 so far, which is defined by the Gun Violence Archive as an incident in which four or more victims are shot or killed. These mass shootings have led to 465 deaths and 1,781 injuries.
There have been at least 20 K-12 school shootings so far this year, including a March 27 incident at The Covenant School, a Christian school for students in preschool through sixth grade in Nashville, Tennessee, where three children and three staff members were shot and killed.
In Michigan, three students were killed and five others were injured when a gunman opened fire at two locations on Michigan State University’s main campus in East Lansing on Feb. 13, police said.
California saw three mass shootings in a matter of days in January, with one shooting leaving at least 11 people killed and 10 others injured after a gunman opened fire at a dance studio near a Lunar New Year celebration in Monterey Park, California.
The U.S. has surpassed 39,000 deaths from gun violence per year since 2014, according to data from Gun Violence Archive. Still, gun deaths are down from 2016, 2017 and 2018, when the total number of deaths each year surpassed 50,000. There were 44,310 such deaths in 2022.
Last June, President Joe Biden signed into law a gun safety package passed by Congress. It was the first gun reform bill from Congress in decades.
But advocates for gun reform continue to push for tougher measures. Florida lawmakers Rep. Jared Moskowitz and Rep. Maxwell Frost spoke with “GMA3” this month to mark the fifth anniversary of the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and called on Congress to do more to curb gun violence.
“Five years later, we feel like we’ve made some progress and then we were reminded that nothing has changed,” Moskowitz said.
Americans experience more significant shootings than any other nation in the West, and gun violence has left deep scars in the U.S. society, reported the California-based non-profit YR Media nrecently.
In spite of these mass shootings, our government does not act. The effects of gun violence continue to deepen the wounds in American communities while progress on gun safety legislation stagnates in many states,” said the report.
Appeals for stricter gun laws have been ignored by the US government as politics and big money step in, despite the increase in mass shootings in the country over recent years, Dubai-based daily Gulf News reported.
In a commentary titled “The politics behind gun violence in the US,” which was published on the Gulf News website on Sunday, Tariq A. Al Maeena, a Saudi sociopolitical commentator, said the US politicians, who have long turned deaf ears to the voices from more than half of the population for strict gun control, are more in tune with their backers, the special interest groups, than their voters.
The right to life is the biggest human right. The Declaration of Independence begins with the statement that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are unalienable rights. One gunshot after another have shattered the American Dream that all men are endowed with the unalienable rights to life and liberty, and lead people to reflect deeply on where the American-style human rights really are. Some US politicians have long treated the American people’s right to life with indifference. Faced with growing gun proliferation, they have done nothing more than empty talks and prolonged debates, while pointing fingers at the human rights conditions of other countries. The most important thing that they are duty-bound to do is face up to and address their own problems, and let the American people enjoy true freedom from the fear of gun violence let the American people enjoy true freedom from the fear of gun violence.
Nigeria’s Senate refuses to support ECOWAS plan for West-backed military intervention
A day after ECOWAS chiefs of staffs finalized plans for a military intervention, Nigeria’s Senate refused to support President Bola Tinubu’s proposal to deploy soldiers. Tinubu is the current chair of ECOWAS. Meanwhile, Niger has seen multiple demonstrations in support of the coup that overthrew Mohamed Bazoum
The regional bloc, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has drawn up a plan for a military invasion of Niger to restore the ousted Mohamed Bazoum to presidency. However, in Nigeria, whose president Bola Tinubu is the current chair of ECOWAS, the Senate has refused to support the military intervention.
On Saturday, August 5, at a closed-door executive session to deliberate on Tinubu’s letter seeking the Senate’s support for military buildup and deployment of personnel for military intervention,” almost all senators… totally ruled out the military options,” an unnamed senator told Premium Times.
Pointing out that our military is highly ill-equipped and not prepared to fight any war,” the Senators argued that the Federal Government should focus on solving the Boko Haram, banditry, and ESN/IPOB menaces… instead of contemplating going to war in a foreign country.”
The war plans were prepared at a meeting of the chiefs of staff of ECOWAS member countries which ended on Friday, August 4. All the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out here, including the resources needed, the how and when we are going to deploy the force,” said Abdel Fatau Musah, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political affairs, Peace and Security.
Earlier on July 30, ECOWAS had threatened military invasion of Niger if its military junta, the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), did not restore Bazoum as the president by Sunday, August 6. He was ousted on July 26 in a popularly-welcomed coup by Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, who was the head of the Presidential Guard.
France, which has up to 1,500 troops in Niger, and the US, with another 1,100 troops in two bases, are both backing ECOWAS. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday, August 3, We strongly support the very strong leadership of ECOWAS on Niger.” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby added that there was still time and space” for diplomacy, but that window is not going to be open forever.”
While the US President Joe Biden said that the Nigerien people have the right to choose their leaders,” the Nigerien people,” who perceive Bazoum as a corrupt puppet of France, have repeatedly mobilized in tens of thousands to support the coup.
A coalition of 14 trade union centers called the Unité d’Actions Syndicales du Niger (UAS-Niger), which had been demanding the withdrawal of French troops, has supported the coup and called on Nigeriens to rally behind the CNSP.
As Nigeriens celebrated the anniversary of its independence from France on August 3, the CNSP terminated five military agreements signed with France between 1977 and 2020, allowing the former colonizer to station up to 1,500 troops in the country.
Donning T-shirts with coup leader Tchiani’s image, thousands took to the streets once again that day, sloganeering Down with France,” and demanding the withdrawal of its troops and other foreign forces, including those of Italy which has 300 soldiers and the European Union (EU) which has a smaller contingent.
The mass-demonstration was organized by the anti-imperialist M62 Movement, formed last year as a coalition of 15 civil society organizations which have been protesting against French deployment in the country for at least two years. One demonstrator said, It is only security that interests us..[whether it is provided by] Russia, China, Turkey…We just don’t want the French who have been looting us since 1960.”
France, however, has refused to withdraw its troops, with its foreign ministry’s spokesperson Anne-Clair Legendre saying, We don’t answer to the putschists. We recognize one constitutional order only, that of President Bazoum.”
Under detention by the army, Bazoum, who had instituted a crackdown on the anti-French movement in the country, wrote a column in the Washington Post on independence day, calling for US intervention to restore his power. A US warplane C-17A — which is is capable of rapid strategic delivery of troops and all types of cargo to main operating bases or directly to forward bases in the deployment area” — arrived in Benin shortly after its government declared support to the military intervention.
In the meantime, as a part of ECOWAS sanctions, Nigeria has stopped electricity supply to Niger. While Niger’s high-grade uranium is used to power a third of the light bulbs in France, its own electrification rate is less than 18%. Up to 90% of its power is imported from Nigeria.
Difficult times
The weeks and months to come will certainly be difficult for our country. Those who oppose us have no limits when it comes to defending their selfish interests. They will only stop in the face of the firm determination of the Nigerien people,” Tchiani said.
Suspending Niger’s diplomatic ties with France, the US, Nigeria, and Togo, also an ECOWAS country, Tchiani warned that any aggression or attempted aggression against the State of Niger will see an immediate and unannounced response from the Niger Defense and Security Forces.”
Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea — three other suspended members of ECOWAS, sanctioned after similar popularly-supported coups — have expressed support to Niger. Together, they make up nearly 60% of the total land-area of ECOWAS countries. Mali and Burkina Faso, whose military juntas ordered the French troops out of their countries after taking power, have said they will mobilize their forces in defense of Niger if it is attacked.
The Vice-President of the CNSP, Lt. Gen. Salifou Mody, traveled to Mali and met its president, Colonel Assimi Goita. He also held a meeting with someone from Wagner” while in Mali, APreported. Mody also met with Burkina Faso’s leader, Captain Ibrahim Traore, and spoke about ECOWAS.
We spoke precisely about this situation because we would not like Niger to become the new Libya,” Mody said, adding that they have decided to undertake a number of activities to be able to deal with the situation.”
Ivory Coast, Benin, and Senegal have pledged to send troops for the ECOWAS invasion. Chad, whose president also took power in a coup but remained in the West’s good books, not having demanded the withdrawal of French troops, has refused to take part in the military intervention.
While supporting the call for restoration of Bazoum, Niger’s northern neighbor Algeria, has opposed foreign military intervention,” which it said will only complicate and exacerbate the current crisis.” Russia had also called for the restoration of constitutional order, but opposed military intervention.
Peoples’ movements across West Africa and other parts of the continent have opposed military intervention, and called for the withdrawal of all foreign bases in Niger and other countries of the region.
In a statement on August 4, the Workers Democratic Way party in Morocco expressed its strong rejection and condemnation of the imperialist threats, especially from the French, of direct military intervention or through its puppet regimes in the region against Niger,” adding that a war could ignite the entire region, leaving behind destruction, loss of lives, and horrific tragedies.” The Party further affirmed the right of the Nigerien people to self-determination away from foreign interference.”
The Communist Party of Kenya condemned foreign military bases in Africa, which serve as instruments of imperialistic control.” The party added that the presence of these military bases deepens historical wounds of colonization and reinforces the oppressive grip of foreign powers. We call for the immediate dismantling of all foreign military bases in Africa to protect our dignity and freedom.”
The Tamil Separatist Movement has shown strong opposition to the presence of Buddhist temples in the north and east. The Tamil Separatist Movement is opposing two things, the conservation of ancient Buddhist temples and the building of new Buddhist temples. It is good that this matter had now come before the attention of the general public, because it is a very important issue. It is the last stage in the conversion of the north to an exclusive Tamil-Hindu region.
The Tamil Separatist Movement complained loudly that Buddhist temples were being built in the north where there were no Buddhists. There are nine Buddha viharas being built in Mullaitivu district alone, said Tamil Separatist Movement in 2016. In Kokkilai, Mullaitivu district, a Buddha Vihara is coming up with army support despite a claim to the land by a local Tamil.
People in the north were worried and suspicions that Sinhala from outside would invade their villages because Buddhist temples were being constructed in places where no Buddhist reside and outside Sinhala Buddhist people” are being settled in Tamil villages, reported the media in 2016.
The military’s construction of Buddhist viharas in traditionally Tamil areas with no Buddhist population is a preliminary step to the Sinhala-Buddhist colonization of these areas and a re-assertion of Sinhala Buddhist dominance, said Adaalayam Centre for Policy Research , Jaffna.
Sinhala colonies, Buddhist temples and Buddha statues are being aggressively constructed with military sponsorship with the sole purpose of Sinhala Buddhisation of the North eastern Tamil homeland, said Tamil Peoples Council.
C.V. Wigneswaran issued a statement where he said, stop erecting Buddha statues and Buddhist temples illegally and in places where there are no Buddhists, except in the army camps. He also objected to putting up Buddha statues and temples illegally on private lands.
Tamil National People’s Front Leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam said ever since the end of the war, consecutive governments have accelerated the Sinhalization” of the north and east, he said, as if to catch up with the gap of the 30 years during the war .
The Tamil Separatist Movement takes the view that there are no ancient Buddhist monuments in the north. But they also they take the view that any Buddhist monuments found in the north is the work of Tamil Buddhists. These views contradict each other.
The government was accused of pursuing a project of Sihalisation”, targeting places of worship of the Tamils, based on claims that these are archeological sites, implying they have a Sinhala heritage. Even if these sites had archeological evidence of some Buddhist heritage, it may not necessarily be Sinhalese, because we know that Tamil Buddhists have lived in the north,” said Tamil Separatist Movement.
Tamil Separatist Movement also says that Hindu temples have been attacked by Sinhala forces. The military destroyed a Hindu temple in order to construct a Buddhist temple, said Adaalayam Centre, Jaffna. A very clear pattern and agenda” can be seen in the escalating instances of attacks and vandalism on Hindu temple deities across the north, said the Tamil Separatist Movement .This makes the Hindu population look like a martyr.
Two agencies were charged with the offence of introducing Buddhism into today’s north, they are Department of Archaeology and the Sri Lanka army. Sri Lanka’s Department of Archaeology has become very active in the north and east, said the Tamil Separatist Movement. It is assisted by overzealous Buddhist monks, who want to construct Buddhist temples in state land under the ruse that the land is a Buddhist archaeological site.
The department has also restricted access to some kovils, citing ongoing archaeological research” there. In one instance, media reported the arrest of a youth who attempted to worship at a temple in Vedukkunarimalai, Vavuniya.
The Sri Lanka army is charged with building Buddhist temples in the north. Many Buddhist temples have sprung up during the last few years inside and outside army camps, due to the presence of over 150,000 soldiers in the North. The army has built Buddhist temples on both state and private Tamil lands in Mullaitivu said Adaalayam. The army had built a Buddhist temple at Keppapilavu on privately owned land presently occupied by the Air Force, as well.
Tamil Separatist Movement strongly objected to the introduction of Buddhist temples into the north. Those in Mullaitivu have forcefully opposed the construction of Buddhist structures in areas with no Buddhist civilians said Adaalayam Centre. Hindu religious groups have gone to courts and engaged in multiple legal battles on this matter.M.A. Sumanthiran, of the TNA who is a senior lawyer, appears for them in court.
In 2016, after the Yahapalana government came to power, there were numerous demands for the removal of Buddhist temples, statues, and shrines built in the Northern Province, reported the media. In August 2016 TNA MPs met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and raised concerns about Buddhist temples and statues being built in the area.
The Tamil Peoples’ Council invited the public to join a mass protest in Jaffna on September 24, 2016 to demand a stop to the construction of Buddha statues and Buddhist temples in areas in the Northern Province where there are no Buddhists. The Northern Provincial Council passed a resolution in 2016 prohibiting the construction of Buddhist temples in the north. It had no legal standing, said lawyers.
In 2018, Supreme Court issued notice on the Vice Chancellor and several other officials of the Jaffna University, over a complaint made by five Buddhist students of the Faculty of Business studies, four Sinhalese and one Tamil. Five writ applications were filed by these students.
The petitioner students said they were prevented from entering the campus premises because they had attempted to install a dais to house a Buddha statue within their hostel premises. They had been suspended.
They have alleged arbitrary treatment and a denial of their right to abide by the religion of their choice and asserted a violation of Article 12(1), 12(1), and 14(1) (a) of the Constitution of Sri Lanka. They have requested the Court to direct the VC to allow them to enter the university premises and declare that their fundamental rights have been violated by the respondent university authorities.
Manohara de Silva, PC, who appeared for the students, told the Court of Appeal, that the students had been prevented from entering the university premises from April 18, 2018. It was without basis and was unlawful.
The university replied that the students had allegedly attempted to set up a structure to place the Buddha statue in the campus premises, without obtaining permission to do so. However at the hearing, the Attorney General informed the Court of Appeal that the Jaffna Campus authorities would not hold a disciplinary inquiry against the five undergraduates. ( Continued)
Pathfinder Foundation, in partnership with two prominent think tanks based in New Delhi, namely, NatStrat and Vivekananda International Foundation, and the Confederation of Indian Industry, will launch its report “Medium and Long-term Strategy for Indo-Japanese Collaboration to Support the Economic Transformation of Sri Lanka” on 10th August 2023 in New Delhi.
The event will take place in a hybrid format and expects to draw around 200 participants both physically and virtually, aiming to create greater awareness of the report, explore potential investment opportunities in Sri Lanka and interact with relevant Indian stakeholders who wish to identify concrete projects and financing modalities on priority sectors as identified in the report.
Pathfinder delegation to the event will be led by Bernard Goonetilleke, Chairman and Dr. Dayaratna Silva, Executive Director, while the Board of Investment and Sustainable Energy Authority of Sri Lanka will be represented by Mr. Prasanjith Wijayatilake, Executive Director and Mr. J. M. Athula, Director General respectively, together with Mr. Lalitha Perera, Managing Director of Perwiplast Industries Pvt. Ltd.
The Foundation launched the Report in Colombo in late March in the presence of Hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Ali Sabry, H.E. Gopal Baglay, High Commissioner of India and H.E. Mizukoshi Hideaki, Ambassador of Japan. Later, the report was presented to H.E. President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The report focuses on four priority areas for collaboration with India and Japan. Namely, Low-carbon power generation, focusing on LNG and grid connectivity between India and Sri Lanka, the Development of Trincomalee as an energy hub using the oil tank complex in Trincomalee as a starting point, logistics and connectivity covering ports, airports, railways and ferry transportation, and people-to-people contacts which covers tourism, education, training and skills development.
The report’s New Delhi launch follows an 18-member high-powered Indian delegation’s visit to the island to look at investment opportunities in the country. The team visited Jaffna, Mannar, and Trincomalee and ended their tour on 4th August with a visit to the Pathfinder Foundation for a briefing session. The report “Medium and Long-term Strategy for Indo-Japanese Collaboration to Support the Economic Transformation of Sri Lanka” can be read on the web section of https://pathfinderfoundation.org/publications
Inflation has been defined by various economists in the past, and three definitions were in economics texts, cost push, demand pull and the third interpretation came from monetarists such as Milton Friedman in early 1960s and monetarists suggested charging a tax as an effective solution. The meaning of inflation could be regarded as an increase in prices of goods and services and the reasons for increasing prices may be contributed by the combine of many factors. As the ordinary people could see, inflation has been working when they go to market places through the increase in prices of goods and services. The inflation had been worked since it beginning of the world, and various dynamic innovation such as computers, mobile phones and internet services contributed to the increase in inflation in modern time. From practical experience, it could define inflation is contributed by modern products innovation, which attracts expensive input and there is no harm interpreting modernisation is also a contributing factor for inflation. However, modernization is a qualitative factor which is complicate to calculate.
Is there a permanent solution to inflation, accurate answer for the question is no, as long as the world is from now, inflation exists within different areas, pushing pressure to consumers. When it considers the various innovations of products and services, prices of such products subject to increase and such situation is contributed by various factors, sometime complicate to identify. Entrepreneurs produce new products and services using newly invented products and services which have an increasing trend of prices could be assumed as a reason for increased in prices.
Modernisation seems to be a contributing factor for increasing prices, but it is a qualitative factor that is formidable to calculate. The figures presented by various governments as an increase or decrease in inflation is not purely accurate and the methods are used in many countries-based on inflation calculation for the prices of selected goods and services may be political purposes or for guidance for the community. In this way, a change prices of selected goods and services might not be accurate for inflation calculation and it. Should go beyond because the prices of production factors are increased by a certain percentage in each year, therefore, it could conclude that inflation is impossible to remove from the world and it is not an easy task, but it could be controlled by policy actions of governments.
Despite the potential problems in economic process, an increase in production and services could be used as a positive solution for controlling the inflation and the trend of increasing inflation in the world gives positive stimulation for demanding wages increase for trade unions, and it is also a survival strategy of trade unions. Various negotiations are going on between trade unions and the governments and firm owners, the reality of such negotiations might be further increase in inflation. The outcomes for the solutions for inflation are temporary and the struggle for an increase in wages is expanding, as seen in many countries is a positive encouragement for a further increase in inflation.
Modernization seems to be a major factor for increasing inflation as it sees that modernisation does means as innovating new products and services which can attract demand of consumers, however, modernisation associates with changing attitudes and a different way of thinking. Without modernising, the world cannot go forward and innovations in various areas could not be eventuated. Despite the traditional definitions of inflation, it could manipulate a new definition as the influences of modernisation for the goods and services. Mathematical model development using modernisation may not be easier and, for a descriptive study, this factor is appropriate.
In Sri Lanka, policies for increasing production of goods and services have not given the priority and popular talks and gossips are expanding about the increase in inflation. Ordinary people need to understand that inflation is the display of prices of goods and services is going up, the major reason is the prices of goods and services are subjected to boost by the modernization.
The monetary policy of the central bank developed focusing on the control of inflation since its beginning, however, disregarding the potential problems and ignoring active policies for increasing production and services got away from monetary policy tasks. Promoting innovation in specific production as technology is necessary, sometimes, for controlling the increasing inflation. This means more production than manual would reduce the market price. In this environment, policy leadership cannot ignore the modernisation and its relationship with the technology. Therefore, the challenge for the monetary authority is to developing policies for improving the relationship with the technology and modernisation and to connect budget policies as a method of combine operation not as an alternative. In Sri Lanka, budget policy and monetary policy work as alternatives and the control of inflation distances with the modernisation. The budget policy should be developed for the interest of politicians to attract votes and implementation of monetary policy and budget policy is an arduous task because the operating style of politics. It may need encouraging the government intervention, to reduce many subsidies and saved funds from such actions reallocating to investment for modernisation.
This message should be given to people by politicians and government officers to educate the mass community for controlling increasing inflation. Policy analysts of the country have not yet begun open talks about modernisation and the solution for increasing inflation. The division of the community based political parties restricts openly talks on inflation control and it needs educating about the government policy on controlling the inflation.
Inflation could not eliminate from the world and developing policies to easily adapt to the inflation is the way as a practical technique to control the inflation.
The present crisis in Uda Walave of the inability to provide water not only for irrigation but even for household use is tragic. But what is more tragic is the typical pollical game of passing the buck by our political leaders which is deplorable. They do not seem to realize that they are playing with the lives of the people who are facing an existential threat.
It is sad to see the Minister of Agriculture appealing to the good sense of the CEB to resolve the problem by releasing a minimum of water to the Walave tank from the Samanal Weva. But the CEB makes the excuse that it would mean a widespread power cut in the South. It is understood that the cabinet prefers an uninterrupted power supply rather than save the livelihood of the Walawe farmers. This is not an issue which should take into account only the sentiments of politicians and obdurate bureaucrats. It is an issue where an economic decision should be taken after a simple cost/benefit analysis of the two options.
If a political decision is preferable the government should take a lesson from the bitter experience of the organic fertilizer debacle.
What is worrisome is the lack of interest of the Preside to intervene to resolve this crisis.
It appears that the President who should intervene in this crisis is preoccupied with the ‘dignity” of the people in the North than the destiny of the people in the deep South.
It has also to be noted that irrigation water is given free to farmers who do not appreciate the need to economise its use. Some of the cultural practices of excessive flooding of fields to control weeds need modification. Agriculture and irrigation authorities have a vital role to play in educating the farmers about water use and also strictly following the schedules of the release of water. In the olden days the ‘nakaths’ were used to synchronise these events.
2. Research by Academics.
A few days back University Professors took umbrage against a statement alleged to have been made by the Minister of Justice Wijedasa Rajapakse that a university professor works only 4 hours a week but draws a high salary. A spokesman of the professors contesting this statement of the Minister said that the Minister has not considered the research work done by the professors.
It is unfortunate that such research is not available for the benefit of students and of the public and for scrutiny by the peers of their authors. During this writer’s days in Peradeniya, we were not aware of any research done by the Professor in charge of the Department. His contribution to teaching to final-year students was also limited to reading off pages from a small pocketbook from the Basic Series.
May be the present generation of Professors is engaged in original research. It is suggested that the University create a website where such research is published for the benefit of other academics, students, and the general public. Unlike in the past, there is no need to resort to printed hard copies which was quite expensive.
It is important that the unpublished research of academics in the past too is made available on such a website. It is noted that some of them may be critical in clarifying historical facts like the unpublished thesis of Professor Indrapala.
3.Indian Investment for Poultry and Dairy development
Aug 5 (Daily News reported that Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that two well-known companies from India have submitted requests to invest money to commence business activities to produce chicken and eggs in the country and Amul of India is interested in investing in milk production.
It is not understood why we need Indian investment to produce large-scale production of chicken and eggs. The technology of chicken and egg production on a commercial scale is already there in SL. Firms lik Bairaha on broilers and a number of other commercial farms have operated with success for many years. What the government should now support is the small-scale production of chicken on simple and tested technology like in deep litter which will be a source of employment and income generation.
The interest shown by Amul of India is encouraging. Their cooperative farms concept is attractive. They should be involved with the upgrading of our buffalo herd.(ones in the Diyawanna pastures are beyond help and needs extensive culling.)
The nation was deprived of its most versatile military leader with a gentle heart on 8th August 1992 at Araly Pont. Jaffna when Lt Gen Denzil Kobbekaduwa was killed by a remote-controlled bomb of the LTTE terrorists. If he survived, the threat paused by the separatists to the unitary Sri Lanka and her 21 million people would have been controlled much earlier than it took to root out the LTTE terrorists.
A quote from the well-known book, The Lost Art of War reminds us of Lt Gen Denzil K. The commanders must be JUST. If they are not, they will lack dignity. The commanders must be HUMAN. If they are mot, they will not be effective. The commanders must have INTEGRITY, if they are not, they will not have power”. Lt Gen Kobbekaduwa possessed all above qualities and was recognized as a true soldier who led his troops by example.
He was born in 1940 and had his secondary education at Trinity College, where he excelled as a rugby player captaining the team and was a prefect of the college. He joined the SrI Lanka army in 1960 as a second lieutenant. He then proceeded to the UK and received military training at Sandhurst.
His service period in the Army was not a bed of roses. He had to handle two-armed instructions of the JVP and then to combat LTTE terrorism from the late 70s. The war against the LTTE was critical as the aim of the terrorists was to carve out a separated country from the territory of Sri Lanka. Lt Gen Kobbekaduwa exhibited his skills in the strategy of warfare in pushing back the LTTE armed carders and defeating them in many a place such as in the East, Vanni and some vital areas in Jaffna in the Vadamarachchi operation and under his extremely skilful leadership the capture of Jaffna fort. He would have finished the war against the LTTE, if not for the intervention of India in 1987 when they violated the airspace of our country.
He was a man whose aim was always to protect the ordinary civilians and consider options to rehabilitate them to lead them back to normalcy. In fact, when he was commanding the Vanni forces. he worked with Ven Wimalagana thero of Tantirimale Raja Maha viharaya, a dedicated social service leader and initiated several welfare schemes. I met Lt Gen Kobbekaduwa in the 80s in Vavuniya when a team from Dharmavijaya Foundation. Colombo went to assist to provide housing to the Sinhala people who were driven away from Jaffna town. Under the able leadership of the Lt Gen and Wimalagana thero , we built a village called Sandamala Eliya. Lt Gen was involved actively giving directions and supervising connected activities and we were amazed how he was managing time while planning the war against the terrorists.
He arranged to supply basic food, planting material, fertilizer etc to the farmers in the area and repaired many small tanks and built about 250 wells. 1400 houses in Vanni area including the Veerapuram village for homeless Tamil people.
He won the hearts and minds of his fellow soldiers and the ordinary citizens, He was very close to his troops and called the soldiers ‘putha’ (son) and he provided solutions to their personal issues such as a sick person, at home, a problem regarding a child in the family of a soldier.
His services to the nation were recognized by the nation and was the recipient of a number of medals awarded for excellence such as Poorna Bhumi. Veera Wickrama, Uttaraseva and Desha Putra medals
On the 8th of August, the grateful people of Sri Lanka should resolve to remember Lt Gen Denzil Kobbekaduwa, a man of steel and a golden heart along with 29,000 armed personnel who sacrificed their lives and 14,000 maimed in defending the nation. Unfortunately, we seldom hear from our present-day youth or their social media about our war heroes as their mission and vision vary from the aspirations of the earlier generation.
When the sun rises, by its magnificent rays-
the dense darkness of the world gets dispelled but only during the day.
The deep sorrow of darkness both internal and external
Vanish at the mere sight of a noble leader, equally during day and night.
Anagarika Dharmapala is undoubtedly one of the greatest strategic thinkers; certainly the best ever in his community. His ability to strategize his plans for the optimum impact baffles an inquisitive thinker even today and is at times beyond belief. None of his contemporaries seems to have understood him fully as he was light years ahead of them in intellectual ability. Though came out as brash at times, he chose his words carefully considering the impact they had. He deliberately refrained from saying the obvious at times to make room for his strategies. But considering the context, unsaid words have the greatest meaning then and today.
His most famous clarion call was Sinhalas Awake! Save Bodh Gaya”. Save it from whom?
Was it from the British, the Christians, the Muslims? None of them posed any threat to Bodh Gaya and none showed any adverse interest towards it. In fact, the shrine was reestablished to its past glory by two British persons from Christian families.
Bodh Gaya had to be saved from Hindus.
He also included all Sinhalas in his call; not just Buddhists taking into account the context of the matter. Having experienced it first hand at Christian schools, he was aware that non-Buddhist Sinhalas during British time had little regard for Hindu religious beliefs.
Anagarika Dharmapala initiated legal battles to save Bodh Gaya from Hindus. It never fully succeeded.
Hindus have a long history of animosity towards Bodh Gaya and Buddhism in general. Chinese explorer Hsuan Tsang who visited the area now known as India around 631 to 645 AD describes how Hindu ruler Shashanka (590 to 625 AD) cut down the Bodhi Tree at Bodh Gaya and removed a Buddha statue and replaced it with an object used for the worship of Shiva.
This has direct relevance to today and Hindus in the island seem to be at it again in an attempt to replace ancient well-established Buddhist shrines with Hindu shrines (e.g. Kurundi Viharaya) and the practice of phallus worship which was not practiced by ancient islanders. History records just one instance of constructing a phallus for worship during King Panduka Abhaya’s time who established Anuradhapura, named after a person named Anuradha who arrived from the area now known as north India. It was part of a series of construction of shrines for visiting foreign trade parties at a time when foreign trade was significant.
A senior official of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC),under investigation for massive losses, suffered over a period of time, has resigned after having gone abroad, authoritative sources told The Island yesterday (07).
The former Deputy General Manager, responsible for the commercial and supply chain had been investigated for what sources called ‘out turn losses’ (difference between what the crude oil tanker pumped and what Sapugaskanda refinery received)
Sources said that it was going on for years and the then debt-ridden CPC had been compelled to pay huge amounts as ‘out turn losses’ to suppliers.
Informed sources said that contrary to the CPC’s claims, none of those responsible for the huge losses had been properly investigated. The Power and Energy Ministry and CPC would now place the entire blame on the ex-Deputy GM while his associates side-stepped the law.
Sources asked how the DGM concerned had obtained permission to leave the country if he had been under investigation.
Trade union sources said that a senior employee holding such a critically important position couldn’t have resigned without obtaining security clearance and properly relinquishing his duties. Sources said that one person couldn’t have perpetrated the alleged frauds, under any circumstances. Therefore, a thorough investigation was required to identify all persons responsible.
Responding to another query, sources asked how the senior employee concerned sent his letter of resignation through his wife. The CPC and Power and Energy Ministry owed an explanation whether the officer would be asked to come back to assist the ongoing investigation. He is believed to be in Canada (SF).
The tally of Dengue cases reported for 2023 has surpassed the 58,000 mark while one more death was reordered, according to the Epidemiology Unit.
Accordingly, as of July 07, a total of 58,138 cases have been reported so far in 2023, with the highest number of cases being recorded from the Gampaha district as 8,970. In addition, the fresh death pushed the total fatalities to 38.
Further, the Western Province has recorded over 28,000 cases, the highest in terms of provinces.
Moreover, the Epidemiology Unit has identified 47 high-risk MOH areas where dengue breeding places have been found in abundance.
The month of July has so far logged 1,449 Dengue cases.
The continuous practice of reusing single-use plastic bottles for drinking water will bring people to their own deaths, Secretary of the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) Dr. Sarath Edirisinghe said.
Meanwhile, addressing the media, the Director of the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children Dr. G. Wijesuriya said a trend has been again created among the people over the re-use of single-use plastic bottles made from plastic #1 (polyethylene terephthalate, also known as PET or PETE).
The water in these bottles is not suitable to be exposed to direct sunlight after its seal is broken, as there are possibilities of the chemicals in the bottle mixing with the water.
With the reuse of these one-time-use plastic bottles, there is a possibility of people getting infected with various diseases, such as cancer.
Therefore, the doctor requested the people to use only the recommended bottles for drinking water. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)
A fake history was created & promoted by Tamil politicians who fooled Tamil youth to take up arms and resulted in 30 years of brutal bloodshed & put Sri Lanka into $200billion debt. That bloodshed was ended by the sacrifices of our heroic armed forces. Yet, that debt together with unplanned governance has resulted in further debt & bankruptcy. While the Tamil political leadership & LTTE Diaspora has to be held to account for this $200b debt, a key factor negates the Indo-Lanka Accord clause & the demand for 13A as a foundation stone for self-determination & a Tamil Homeland quest. This key factor is that 50% of the Jaffna peninsula population are Koviyar caste who are in reality Tamilized Sinhalese, implying that they were originally Sinhalese.If 50% of the current population living in the Jaffna peninsula are in reality Sinhalese, this negates the Tamil homeland myth. President Ranil should be seeking justice for these koviyas who are considered untouchable” dalits before signing any land or police powers.
These are ground realities that President Ranil, holding executive powers for the 1sttime has to come to terms with. He could promise anything when not in power, but holding executive powers he cannot sign to give into racist demands based on a false history promoted for over 100 years.
Instead the President should take up a more important human rights violation. The koviars being Sinhalese are treated as untouchable dalits” – Justice for these Sinhalese untouchables” must be addressed first by the President.Of course, these Sinhalese are unlikely to get any assistance from the $ seeking human rights organizations & the usual mouthpieces. The Concise History of Tamils by MP Channa Jayasumana gives a detailed account of the caste system.
When did Tamils arrive to Sri Lanka?
Prof. Kartigesu Indrapala claims Tamils arrived 600 years back. This tallies with the Yalpana Vaipava Malai which claims Tamils were brought from South India during reign of a Sinhala king & majority returned after the Kings death as the Sinhalese who were living in the North did not like them. The book confirms the Sinhalese were original inhabitants of the North.
Capt Robert Percival’s book ‘An account of the island of Ceylon’ published in 1803 puts the arrival of Tamils to 300 years back and claims Tamils to be Malabars & not natives of Ceylon. The Tamils brought by Sinhalese King Jayatungka V and those brought as coolies differ.
The 1st invasion by Sena Guttika (2 horse traders) in 237BC was during the rule of a Sinhala King, whom they killed.
The 2nd invasion by Elara was during rule of King Asela (9th son of King Mutuseewa). Both invasions took place during the rule of Sinhalese kings. There was no Tamil independent kingdom when Sena Guttika arrived first to Sri Lanka in 237BC.
This negates the fake history started by Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam who made Malabars into Ceylon Tamils in 1911 and Chelvanayagam who began promoting a Tamil State in 1949. India who secretly trained Tamil militants, drafted the Indo-Lanka Accord in 1987 making use of this bogus history to their advantage to secure the world’s most sought after natural harbor – Trincomalee. The inclusion by India was not to provide any self-determination for Tamils, but to use Tamils to gain control over North & East of Sri Lanka. This was why India began training a separate Tamil militant group under the leadership of Varatharaja Perumal & why India tapped LTTE’s deputy Mahaththaya as their agent.
The TNA has to :
Prove on what basis TNA is claiming a homeland in North Sri Lanka & present historical & archaeological evidence – the President must demand this.
Explain why they failed in governing the Northern Provincial Council without land & police powers since 2013 & why they need land & police powers to administer the province?
Disprove Tamil lineage to Africa or Tamil Nadu & prove Tamil lineage in Sri Lanka’s North to claim a homeland”- Tamils cannot be demanding homelands all over the world. It will create an ugly precedent.
The question to President Ranil is
How can a fake history become the basis to separate an Island nation?
When previous Presidents have refrained from giving land & police powers after realizing the dangers of a fake history is likely to materialize into a separate state,-why should an interim president sign into effect a likely separation of Sri Lanka?
Does the President not realize that the issue is now more complex with not only Tamil leaders desiring a separate land but foreign nations also vying to take over the land that is likely to be separated & then work themselves down to take over the rest of the land too?
India thinks that breaking up Sri Lanka is advantageous to India, but Sri Lanka & India does not realize that the moment Sri Lanka is balkanized, India is next on target. If Sri Lanka falls, India’s fall is imminent & will take place sooner than India bargains for.Therefore, both President Ranil & Prime Minister Modi, need to play their cards discretely. The West are playing India against Sri Lanka while attempting to destabilize both countries. It is not to India’s advantage to destabalize Sri Lanka.
If India thinks, destabalizing Sri Lanka is advantageous to India, that gain is nowhere near the gain US/West will get by balkanizing India thereafter.
India appears to think that a greater Indian hold over Sri Lanka will prevent India’s destabalzing, however, that calculation is also incorrect. The Sri Lankan populace have never forgiven India for secretly training Tamil militants & preventing the capture of Prabakaran in May 1987 that would have ended militancy & not resulted in any of the deaths and assassinations that took place after May 1987 including that of PM Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 & close to 2000 Indian soldiers by 1990.
The first thing Sri Lanka’s Parliament must do is to finally nullify the fake history drummed by separatist Tamil politicians and foolishly accepted by Tamils. Unfortunately, we have no foreign policy strategists to devise an appropriate strategic plan to develop international relations with India, so that Sri Lanka’s sovereignty & territorial integrity is protected. All experts” have been happy to forsake Sri Lanka’s sovereignty & we have nothing much to now give up. We are trying to protect & preserve the little that we have. The officials are primarily to be held accountable. They cannot pass blame on the politicians only. They had a role to play but did they deliver? What’s, left is now the voice of the citizens who wish to ensure the sovereignty of Sri Lanka continues without being outsourced for the political survival of a handful, who are foolish to think that they will survive after handing over all to foreign hands. The ground reality is that they will be the first to be ousted – the Politicians are foolish not to understand this.
When the Eelam war ended in 2009, the government made no attempt to integrate the north with the rest of the country. Instead they paid puja to its Tamil-Hindu culture, ignoring the fact that this was one of the arguments used for waging the Eelam war.
In 2009, soon after the war ended Peoples Bank announced the opening of 5 new branches in Jaffna district. The advertisement, 12 inches by 8, in the Daily News showed a Hindu kovil.
In 2010 Mahinda Rajapakse went bare bodied to Nallur when he went electioneering to Jaffna. The German Ambassador participated in the Thai pongal festival at Nallur, bare bodied, in 2010 . In the same year, observers complained that the Central Cultural Fund was engaged in projects depicting Sri Lanka as a Hindu country. In 2011 the government indicated that it planned to give Kovils such as Thirukeetheswaram recognition as National monuments.
Kovil building received state support. In 1997 Rs 22 million had been released to rehabilitate three Hindu religious sited on order of President Chandrika. In May 2000 The Kathiresan Hindu kovil at Anuradhapura was renovated and restored on the directive of President Chandrika and was opened with a special a pooja attended by dignitaries of all religions.
There will be a cultural renaissance in Hindu temples in Kegalle district, said the media in 2003. 20 Hindu temples will be given funds for maintenance; Hindu cultural Ministry has allocated Rs 8 lakhs for the project.
The Tamil Separatist Movement made it a point to set up kovils all over the country. The intention was to present Sri Lanka to the world as a Hindu country. There was an explosion of kovil building from 1999 onwards. In 1999 Hanuman temple was constructed in Nuwara Eliya, facing Sri Pada and overlooking Kotmale.
The small insignificant Sita Eliya temple has been developed into a conspicuous edifice patronized by persons going along the Nuwara Eliya- Badulla road. This is now presented as a tourist attraction. Buddhists go there eagerly.The idea is to create a Hindu base for Nuwara Eliya and the Hill country. The construction of this temple was assisted by Forces commander Rohan Daluwatte in order to promote good relations between Tamils and Sinhala. It was done by workmen from Tamilnadu on visas.
A new kovil appeared in Akkaraipattu in 2000. A Kovil was constructed over night in Trincomalee on Orrs Hill, constructed in one day, reported the media in 2002. A large kovil was getting built on the Kandy Colombo road during this time.
Jaffna was not left out of this kovil activity. All the kovils in Jaffna are new ones, said Susantha Goonetilaka who had lived and worked in Jaffna some time back. In 2016 ‘Nan’ reported that she went to Jaffna and saw new kovils in very many places, including Kayts and Karainagar.
In 2016 it was announced that Shiva Sena in Mumbai has extended its support to a Sri Lankan Tamil outfit called Siva Senai, a group of Hindus in Vavuniya led by Maravanapulavi Sachithananthan. This is Sri Lanka’s first right wing Hindu organization. It accuses the government of supporting a Sinhala Buddhist colonization to undermine the importance of Hindus. (Island 15.10. 16 p 3)
Hindus agree that Hindu religion is highly decentralized. There is no central control over the practice of the religion. There is no higher authority which gives orders, and no control whatsoever over the setting up of kovils and the appointment of priests. A Hindu priest is not selected or certified by any central authority. He is accepted as a Hindu priest by his community if there is evidence of training, preparation and competence.
Village deities have been accepted into mainstream Hinduism, but kovils dedicated to these deities are not officiated by Brahmin priests. The traditions of those kovils are often morbid including the practice of blood sacrifices and ritual slaughter.
However, Hinduism is not completely without controls. There are standards and requirements for the Hindu priests officiating in the well recognized temples. The primary responsibility of a Hindu priest is to conduct daily prayers (puja) at the local temple and officiate in Hindu rituals and ceremonies.
.In order to perform a puja, the priests are required to have prior skills and knowledge. To be a qualified priest, they must know the required chants (mantrams and stotrams) fluently in Sanskrit, and be familiar with the materials required to perform the puja for various ceremonies and rituals. From an early age, they are trained to memorise hymns in order to chant them during rituals and ceremonies.
There are rules and regulations for building Hindu temples as well. This is to be expected.There are conditions laid dowon for the selectin of the site, the way the foundation is laid, there are rituals when insstllign the main deity and inviting the god to occupy the statue.
I have not been able to find an authoritative book on Hinduism, telling me all I need. I have therefore used sentences from authoritative statements obtained from Google. I trust that I have not hurt Hindu sensibilities in the above short account.
Hinduism in Sri Lanka has started to impact on Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Buddhists need to start looking deeply at the status of Hinduism in Sri Lanka .There are no legal provisions for registering Hindu temples in Sri Lanka said K.C. Logeswaran.
Hindu temples in Sri Lanka belong to two categories, he said. One where there was a Brahmin priest to conduct the ritual of the temple. These are less than a thousand in number. Other category is small temples under rule of madaalayam where no Brahmin poosaries and pandarams officiated. Over 70% of the Hindu temples in Sri Lanka were these, he said. I think Madalayam in this context means chapel.
In India courts have ruled that the temples belong to the gods, in Sri Lanka courts have ruled that the Hindu temples belong to the trustees, said K. Kanag Iswaran. In Sri Lanka the ownership of the Hindu temple is vested not in the priests but in the persons who built the temple and pays for the rites, observed the anthropologist B. Pfaffenberger. The owner of the temple got the donations, such as produce, etc which came not only form worships but also request for passing exams, journeys etc. (Continued)
‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’
In 1782, while the newly ‘independent’ USA was beginning its forays into the Indian & Pacific Oceans, the French & English fought 4 battles: The Battle of Sadras south of Madras, the Battle of Providien near Trincomalee, the Battle of Negapatam off Cuddalore, where the French seized Trincomalee forcing the English to surrender; and the Battle of Trincomalee.
In 2023, it appears Trincomalee has been captured without a shot. Or, is this what all that 3-decade bloodshed & terror, and this impasse, is all about? (see ee Quotes, Indian Warship in Trinco)
Also in 1782: There was a 2nd major English parliamentary investigation (1st, 1772) into the English East India Co (EIC). Edmund Burke noted: When English employees of the Company squabbled, ‘their complaints inter alia reveal the misery of the natives, but when the staff are all in agreement, the natives are said to be likewise content.’
The history that Canada’s ambassador in Colombo lives in, seems unsettled. He’s all ‘past tense’. He declared genocide in Canada was a thing long gone. Well, tell that to the ‘Indians’. (Or whatever it is they call the people whose land they stole and refuse to return – the ultimate ‘land acknowledgement’!)
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• Planning was turned into a synonym for sex in Sri Lanka. Most of the world – what English headlines always refer to as ‘developing’ – has a different meaning for the word ‘planning’.
Yes, planning in Sri Lanka was turned solely into ‘Family Planning’ in the so-called public mind. What the f#$#^%$#! Well, it’s no wonder. ‘Planning the economy’ – as in the sense of the USSR & China’s, and our very own sabotaged 5-Year Plans – was banned by the USA’s World Bank after 1977. Soon, government ministries, departments and NGOs adopted the sunny word ‘development’ to their names. And 7 decades hence, we ‘keep on developin’ – as any Mississippi satirist might twang.
‘The voters in our villages didn’t elect us to tell them with whom or how many times they should make love every night.’ Did Philip Gunawardena say that? Or is it yet more patient English fiction? The means and media, schemes and plots, literary and other, employed to sabotage a national industrial plan, let alone kill leaderships, besmirch Philip Gunawardena and other national-minded politicians, and then massacre 100,000s more, is the real ‘underrepresented anglophone tradition’ – the unwritten English fiction in Sri Lanka. We doubt apartheid’s Standard Chartered Bank and opium’s HSBC would sponsor such an award.
• Policy analyst Vagisha Gunasekara asserts that ‘green energy’ is being distorted to thwart industrialization in our countries. She was speaking at the recent Gamani Corea Foundation’s Innovators Forum on Industrial Development. This ee concludes its look at that forum, complete with audience inputs and panel responses. Dhammika Fernando, chair of the Free Trade Zone Manufacturers Association, who also spoke, noted that the exports of the apparel sector add little (less than 30%) to their costly imports. Therefore, economists Bram & Howard Nicholas as well as industry experts provide the calculus of what is and isn’t industrialization. The main conclusions are: we need the audacity of a plan and we need the optimism of the will!
Indeed, one question we’d have liked to ask JAAF director Fernando: How has the apparel fraud prevented its transformation into a bona-fide modern industry? – by not making a pin, let alone making a machine that makes machines that make pins, and other metalwork! Further, SBD de Silva linked high labor costs to the failure of rural industrialization that would reinforce rice production and labor.
ee also carries excerpts from Russian leader V Putin’s meeting in the Kremlin with the heads of Russia’s industrial enterprises. There Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Manturov noted that the main driver of Russia’s economy today is the state-owned companiesthat provideprocurement.
This recalls SBD de Silva’s MA thesis, published in Melbourne, 1954, Long-term Contracts & Bulk Trading, about how the English government during their World War 2 bought and sold important commodities wholesale in Ceylon. Despite all the media rhetoric opposing state involvement in the economy, it shows how English government always intervene to ‘rescue’ themselves & capitalism…
The Tamil agricultural laborers who migrated to Jaffna in the 17th century, probably set up shrines to the village gods they worshipped back home. The Bhakti religion had incorporated local gods into its philosophy. Due to their low caste they would not have been allowed into the major temples that existed at the time in Tamilnadu. They probably knew nothing about Siva or Vishnu.
This group could not have developed a strong Hindu culture in the North. They were an ignorant, low ranking, subordinate group of labourers, ruled by the Dutch. The Dutch were trying to push their own brand of Christianity. They would not have encouraged village Hinduism.
A small but strong Hindu community was created in Jaffna, much later, by Arumuka Navalar (1822-1879).The religious awakening among the Tamil Hindus in Jaffna was largely due to the pioneering efforts of Arumuka Navalar, said analysts.
When the American missionaries started converting Tamils to Christianity in Jaffna, Arumuka Navalar started to do the same for Hinduism. He established Hindu secondary schools and published books on Hindu theology and Hindu practices.
According to journalist Chelvatamby Maniccavasagar, Arumuka Navalar also encouraged the building of Hindu temples The Naga Pooshani Ambal temple at Nainativu was erected by Arumuga Navalar in 1882, Chelvatamby said. The first Kumbabhisekam of Durga Devi temple, at Tellipalai, Jaffna was performed in 1829. The poojas were performed by priests from Kanchipuram. In 1894, local Hindus led by Arumuga Navalar built the present temple.
Arumuka Navalar only taught the elite Tamils in Jaffna, he was not prepared to teach Hinduism to the low castes. The resulting Hinduism was therefore heavily caste based.
Low castes could not worship in high caste temples. Maviddapuram Kandasamy temple is one example of a high caste temple which chased away low caste Hindus. The situation is the same today. A few temples allow low castes to come into certain sections of the kovil, but most are continuing to worship village deities.
Hinduism entrenched itself in Jaffna and the north in the mid 19th century. Hindus seem to have worshipped both Vishnu and Shiva. The 1871 Census the Hindus were listed as Saivite and Vaishnavite, not Hindu.
Tamils have given an ancient origin to the Hindu temples in north and east. Hindu writers declare that the north-east had Hindu temples of ancient origin. Sri Lanka was blessed with five of the most ancient shrines of Lord Siva, they said.
Of these 5 temples Thirukoneswaram, (Trincomalee ) Thiruketheeswaram (Mannar) Munneswaram (Chilaw) and Naguleswaram (KKS) are functioning today. Nakuleswaram Temple in Jaffna is the oldest Siva temple in Sri Lanka.
Thirukoneswaram temple in Trincomalee was a great centre of Saiva worship said commentators. Religious songs were sung in honour of it by Saint Thiruganasampanthan in the 7th century. Thirukoneswaram (Trincomalee) and Thirukeetheswaram (Mantota) were part of the nine sacred sthalams of Hindus. The other seven are in India.
The origins of these prehistoric temples are shrouded in mythology. Commentators therefore felt free to say anything. One writer said that Vijaya promoted Hinduism in Sri Lanka and ordered five Shiva temples to be built in the four corners of Sri Lanka .
Another spoke of a local myth which states that a temple named Maviddapuram Murukan temple was built by a Pandya princess who was cured by the Keerimalai springs. This temple was destroyed by the Portuguese ‘but memories of the temple have existed in the minds of the people’.
However, there is no evidence to support the existence of these Hindu temples. Two explanations are offered for the lack of any archaeological evidence for these ancient kovils. One explanation is that the Portuguese destroyed all the kovils, the other is that the all the kovils fell into the sea. In Koneswaram the original temple fell into the sea during a flood and is still there said historian S. Pathmanathan in his book ‘ History of Hindu temples of Sri Lanka .
The bland statement that Portuguese destroyed all the Hindu temples in Jaffna cannot be accepted. The Portuguese did not destroy the Buddhist temples which they found in abundance everywhere they went. The argument that the kovils somehow managed to slide off into the sea cannot be accepted either. It is much more likely that these kovils never existed.
Hinduism as well as Islam got entrenched in Sri Lanka during British rule. There is no mention of Hindu Kovils and Muslim mosques in the Udarata Kingdom. The British rulers gave special recognition to the three religions that believed in God, namely Christianity, Islam and Hinduism.
During British rule, Churches, mosques and kovils came up all over the island. Many of the Hindu temples we see today were built during British rule. Hindu temples were constructed on an unprecedented scale in the 19th century, said .Pathmanathan. The American missionaries in Jaffna had commented on this.
Old Hindu temples in Jaffna, Trincomalee and Batticaloa were restored” in British times, continued Pathmanathan. British administrators have readily and unquestioningly accepted Tamil statements as to the antiquity of these temples. C. Pridham in his book ‘Historical, political and statistical account of Ceylon’ (1849) wrote about Koneswaram temple in Trincomalee, saying it was regarded with great reverence by its devotees. It is one of the peaks of the legendary Mahameru.
The idea of finding and restoring the Thirukeetheswaram temple came from Arumuga Navalar. He initiated the search for the site. He wrote a tract where he said that Illankai is fortunate to have two temples for Siva worship, Thirukeetheswaram and Tirukoneswaram, mentioned in hymns ‘sung by our saints.’ So many temples are coming up in different parts of Sri Lanka now, why are the Hindus not interested in Thirukeetheswaram, he asked.
The British administration was contacted. The British officials seem to have believed what they were told without asking for evidence. P de Hoeft, referred to as ‘Colonial Secretary’, visited the ruins several times in 1894-95 and wrote up his findings. ‘There was a low wall which was pointed out as a relic of the temple. And some broken pierces of sculpture of Hindu saints. .
W.J.S. Boake, AGA Mannar reported in 1886 that Thirukeetheswaram is one of the 64 sacred places of the Hindus. Its temple rivaled that of Rameswaram and was probably built at the same period. Nothing remains above ground except a few fragments of sculpture.
W. Twynam, Government Agent, Northern Province reported in 1887 that ‘there is a tradition that this temple was large and Hindus made pilgrimages to it from all parts of India as they now do to the temple as Rameswaram. The Portuguesa had destroyed it. Some images were found at the site.
This shows that the so-called ruins at Thirukeetheswaram were movable items that could have been brought there from elsewhere. Archaeologists would not accept such items as evidence. The British administrators accepted such flimsy evidence because they wanted to bring the northern coastline under ‘Ceylon Tamil” control.
S.Vaithilingam, Thambaiyah, Mudaliyar of Colombo made an application for the purchase of the site of the temple, so that it could be rebuilt. The Government Agent put the land up for sale in 1893 and 44 acres were bought by R.R. Palaniappa Chettiyar. Excavations started under the supervision of Pasupathy Chettiyar in 1894. The original location of the temple was found and the southwest corner wall located. A small temple was erected and consecrated in 1903.
Thereafter the project was managed by the Nagarathar, a Chetty community residing in Madampe but the temple came under the control of the Kathiresan temple in Colombo. The central shrine was improved in 1921 by Hindu public servants working in Mannar. A ‘Society for the restoration of the temple at Tirukketisvaram’ was set up in 1948 and work commenced under the guidance of Sir Kanthiah Vaithianathan. A new design was developed in 1952 and the building completed in 1969. In 2009 under Uthuru Vasanthaya the government renovated the temple.
Nallur Kandasamy kovil originally had a cadjan roof and two main halls. It was rebuilt for the fourth time in 1734 by Ragunatha Mappana Mudaliyar who worked at the Kachcheri. He had persuaded the Dutch to let him rebuild it. Descendants of Ragunatha continued the work.
Arumuga Mapaana Mudaliyar built the first bell tower in 1899. The main hall was refurbished using rocks in 1902. The fortified wall which demarcates the large kovil was built by him in 1909. It was renovated in 1964 ‘to have the present attractive and grand look’. Kumaradas Mudaliyar, the tenth custodian, is credited with restoring this kovil to its present position as the largest Hindu kovil in Sri Lanka, said journalist Dishan Joseph.
Coomaraswamy Mudaliyar, father in law of Ponnambalam Arunachalam, belonged to the first generation of Tamils to settle in Colombo. He was the first Tamil representative in the Legislative Council. A staunch and devoted Hindu hailing from Manipay, Jaffna, and Coomaraswamy Mudaliyar built two Hindu temples in Colombo, Kathiresan temple at Gintupitiya and Muttuvinayakara temple. Muttuvinayakara was built in Sea Street in 1856. Nattukottai chettiars gave the money. The Nattukottai chettiars were wealthy money lenders who spent large sums on religion. They built several Saivite temples in Ceylon, mainly dedicated to Kathiresan and Kataragama gods.
The Arulmihu Sivasubramaniya kovil was initially in Dam Street, built in 1822. The property was acquired by the British around 1867. They gave 500 pounds, a very big sum at the time, to Ponnambalam Mudaliyar, father of Ponnambalam Arunachalam to construct a new temple at another site in Colombo. Ponnambalam Mudaliyar built the new temple at Kew Road, Slave Island in 1870 and named it Kathiresan kovil. Ponnambalam Ramanathan enlarged it in 1902 and re-named it Shri Sivasubramaniya swamy kovil. A Board of Trustees was appointed in 1942. It was renovated in 1975. A gopuram of 82 feet was constructed in 1995 and a golden chariot in 1998. This kovil is a tourist attraction today.
The Ponnambalavanesvara temple in Kochchikade, near St Anthony’s Church was built in 1856 and consecrated in 1857. Dharmavan Ponnambalam Mudaliyar bought the land, originally a coconut plantation, using his own money. He constructed a small temple on the site in 1857, built modestly with lime and mortar. The indenture of 1857 gave the responsibility of the temple to the Arunasalam Ponnambalam family.
When Ponnambalam Mudaliyar died in 1887, the trusteeship devolved on his son Ponnambalam Ramanathan. He got down experts from India, started the renovation in 1907 and completed the temple in 1912. It was constructed entirely out of black granite from the Veyangoda quarry. The temple is similar to those in South India with gopuram and gateways facing east and west.
Mention must also be made of the four Hindu temples in Bambalapitiya practically adjacent to each other, ending at Vajira Road. Two are Pillayar temples, the other two Kathiresan. The total extent of land is around five acres or so, it extends from Galle Road down to Duplication Road. This huge extent shows that the land was probably given to these temples during the British administration.
Hindu temples were built in towns elsewhere in the island during British rule. Bandarawela Sri Sivasubramaniya devasthanam was built in 1837 by A.S. Muthiah Pillai and others. Pullaiyar kovil in Kandy, near Police station was built in 1840. Nuwara Eliya Hindu kovil was built in 1850. The Arulmigu Sri Muthumari Amman kovil in Matale was built in 1874 by the Hindu community in Matale, mostly traders who came from Tamilnadu and Kerala to do business in and around the tea estates. (Continued)
It was the Roman lawyer, Cicero, who in his De Re Publica, uses the literary device of the Dream of Scipio to give the authority of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, the greatest of the Roman Republic’s citizen soldiers, to the proposition that the ‘populus’, the people, served by a true republic is not any assemblage of individuals, but an assemblage associated in a particular common interest. And that common interest is in doing of justice to each other. For Cicero, a true republic is a state which serves the ‘res populi’, the thing of the people, that is the common good, by securing the practice of justice between them: a notion that the French citizens of 1789 would come to call ‘fraternité’. Hon Justice Patrick Keane AC https://www.monash.edu/_data/assets/pdf_file/0018/817101/01_Keane.pdf
The verse in the National Anthem that all children are of one mother(EkaMawakageDaruwo), would have been written with a view to promoting unity amongst all Sri Lankans, but it is possible that this verse in fact has had the effect of promoting disunity as it could have had the unintended consequence of not recognizing the challenges that cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity of Sri Lankans pose when it comes to equality and equity. On the one hand, it could be said that they all are of one mother, at least at the time they were born, and until they are labelled as Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Islamists etc, etc. On the other hand, it is possible that historical and contemporary cultural, linguistic, and religious realities assign different motherhood status in the minds of some considering that the country’s diversity has not been recognized and translated to equality for all children in all instances and it possibly has been difficult for them to identify all children of Sri Lanka as one mothers children.
Although the verse implies equality of all children of Mother Sri Lanka, it has not been the case with some being regarded as more equal than others. This has resulted in diversity becoming a hinderance rather than a positive quality towards achieving unity. If Sri Lanka is taken as the mother of all children, one must reflect whether this mother has treated all children equally and equitably. The National flag of the country has four Bo leaves representing Karuna, Metta, Muditha and Upekka, essentially love and compassion, but it is questionable whether these have in fact been practiced by all Sri Lankans when it comes to diversity amongst the communities.
Whatever the intent of this verse was, no doubt a very noble one, it is possible that communities have distanced themselves from each other wittingly or unwittingly rather than cohabiting with love and compassion and understanding, to live as children of one mother.
The psyche of inequality felt by some, and superiority felt by others, leading to discriminatory practices by one community over others, could have been the root cause of the ethnic conflict involving the North/East Tamil community and the Sinhala Buddhist community.
The pursuit of reconciliation between the aggrieved and the triumphant, has to recognize this anomaly and find ways and means of addressing it from within the ambit of realities rather than from the perspective of unrealistic and unfounded rhetoric.
Unless and until political and religious leaders demonstrate by example that all are equal and neither history nor the present day has accorded equals to become more equal than others, it is unlikely that followers of such leaders will think as they should.
It is unlikely that true, lasting reconciliation will happen until such a mindset change occurs. Reconciliation cannot be achieved through legislation; it has to be embedded in the minds of people.
Reconciliation also cannot happen if it is seen as a one-way process and where the triumphant is considered to be solely responsible for reaching out to the aggrieved with the latter not understanding and appreciating some reasons that would have contributed to the triumphalism. The deep-rooted desire of the Northern and Eastern people for self-governance and a deep-seated mistrust of the Tamils by the Sinhala Buddhist majority makes reconciliation a major challenge.
As an example, the demand for a land area as a homeland of one community based on questionable historical claims could have contributed to another community asserting their claim of historical superiority with both positions unhelpful for reconciliation due to this mistrust. A demand for a homeland area that provides a sense of cultural comfort and safety would have been a more reconcilable discussion point.
The 13th Amendment
The debates and discussions that are ongoing about reconciliation are centered around the 13th Amendment to the constitution. In reality, the 13th Amendment could be looked at as more of a drawback than a helpful way forward to achieve reconciliation through a deeper understanding, appreciation and acceptance of the diversity between the communities in question.
This far-reaching constitutional amendment, forced on the people of Sri Lanka as a panacea for overcoming the ethnic conflict has never been discussed publicly as it should have been. The Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka was passed in 1987 as part of the Indo-Lanka Accord as a solution to the ethnic conflict that had become an armed conflict between the armed forces of the country and those of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).The amendment in fact had no impact as a measure to overcome the armed conflict that lasted for more than 20 years since the enactment of the amendment. It is ironical that even the leading Tamil political parties considered the 13th Amendment as inadequate to meet the aspirations of the North and East Tamil people, a position they hold to this day.
Looking to the future
Neither the 13th Amendment or any other amendment and in fact the entire constitution becomes meaningless unless it reflects the will of the people and ensures justice for all. Justice Patrick Keane’s speech referred to earlier amplifies on this. It is debatable whether the 13th Amendment reflects the will of the people and whether it assures justice for all.
In regard to the ethnic issue, the amendment is supposed to provide limited measures for the Northern and Eastern Tamil people to achieve their aspiration of self-governance, while not providing an avenue for the creation of a separate State as demanded by the LTTE.
Tamil political parties representing the Northern and Eastern Tamils maintain that this amendment does not provide for achievement of their aspirations and that this is only the first step in moving towards eventual self-governance of the North and East of Sri Lanka by the Tamils in these two provinces.
In designing the Indo Lanka Accord in 1987, Indian political strategists perhaps provided for political devolution to all provinces as an appeasement to the Sinhala Buddhist majority to enact the 13th Amendment although at the time, such devolution was not called for by the Sinhala polity.
Three issues need to be considered. Firstly, whether devolution provided for in the 13th amendment is appropriate, adequate, inadequate and in fact necessary. Secondly, whether it address North and East Tamil aspirations of self-governance within what is referred to as a united Sri Lanka, and thirdly, whether consideration has been given to the aspirations of the rest of the country for Sri Lanka to be a unitary State.
Leaving aside the 13th Amendment, and any other legal, constitutional approaches, it will be useful to consider whether there are any other ways to address the aspirations of the Tamil and Sinhala population of the country, and of course all other communities in the country.
While it cannot be denied that the Tamils in Sri Lanka have been discriminated and treated inhumanely, with 1983 in particular being a turning point in inter community relations where the alleged complicity of sections of the State apparatus in the pogrom against the Tamils deepened the mistrust between the communities and with the State’s ability to provide security to some of its own citizens. Mass scale migration of Tamils began in 1983 and the Tamil Diaspora has become a strong lobby for the rights of Northern and Eastern province Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Having said this, no event could be looked at in isolation as enunciated in the theory of dependent origination. All events are linked to each other in one way or another. Colonialism, especially British colonialism, has had a deep-rooted negative impact on a substantial segment of the Sinhala Buddhist population and which in turn impacted negatively on Tamil/Sinhala relationships.
A futuristic question is whether constitutional approaches that has and will have the effect of segregating communities will be the answer to community amity and whether it will advance social healing and help in developing a better understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity amongst the people of Sri Lanka. In this context, it also needs to be questioned whether the four Brahma Viharas, Karuna, Metta, Muditha and Upekka would be practiced by all unless attitudes towards others change and give rise to more favourable relationships. .
Sinhala Buddhist institutional hegemony and the political power it wields does make equality of all Sri Lankans a challenging issue from a practical context although constitutional equality as already enshrined in the Constitution provides for legal equality. Unless Sri Lanka becomes truly secular in words and deeds and Sinhala Buddhist political dominance gives way to a multiethnic, multi religious power sharing model, a self determination model for Tamils in the North and East, leading even to a federal model could become inevitable. Whether it will end there is another matter to be considered.
Politicians from the present generation who are deliberating and sitting in judgement on avenues for reconciliation must give thought to how their decisions will impact on future generations. It would be unwise and unfair to leave behind a solution that could create more problems for the generations to come. A meaningful discourse must happen with the younger generation and their views sought as to how inter community amity maybe advanced. In the technology oriented, globalized world they live in and will continue to live in, historical reasoning may have little to do with how they would choose to charter a path for a more considerate, inclusive Mother Lanka.
Nearly 90% (33 of 38) of central banks monitored by the Bank for International Settlements raised interest rates in 2022, a dramatic shift away from the loose financial conditions that characterized the previous decade. With a rapid rise in rates, the risk of unintended consequences and policy error is high, with possible overshoot leading to a deeper and more prolonged economic downturn and potential global recession».
This is the alarm raised by the Global Risk Report 2023 of the World Economic Forum released during the annual international summit last January in which two of the major dangers foreseen for the next two years were the Crisis of the Cost of Living and the Geoeconomic Comparison, respectively in first and third place.
The NWO Great Reset Plot Behind Interest Rate Rises
It seems projected towards the goal of skyrocketing the public debt of states from the most fragile economies or the most indebted (such as Italy) leading them towards a forced privatization” through a diabolical plan already put on paper by the International Monetary Fund .
This could lead many stocks to go the way of Sri Lanka which has become hostage to the infamous New York investment fund BlackRock which controls most of its public debt.
The rate hike by the Federal Reserve preceded yet another increase, by 0.25% (decided on Thursday), also by the European Central Bank, which is also under pressure from criticism, including political ones, to put an end to this escalation infinity.
The US Federal Reserve has decided to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, between 5.25% and 5.5%. The decision comes after the Fed interrupted its cycle of rate hikes in June, leaving them unchanged.
«The Federal Reserve approved a much-anticipated interest rate hike that takes benchmark borrowing costs to their highest level in more than 22 years» NBC highlighted.
Brief Reminder on Bank Seigniorage
For those less accustomed to financial matters, we would like to remind you that both the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB) produce monetary liquidity without having the necessary financial backing in gold, silver, oil or any valuable commodity and therefore relying on the so-called phenomenon of bank seigniorage”.
An interesting article on the US money supply and Federals Reserve role – link a the bottom of the article
Furthermore, the FED is controlled by private banks that have participated in it since its inception, exactly like most of the National Central Banks which, like Banca Italia, after privatization plans must answer to private credit institutions which consequently also hold the public debt of states determining their reliability.
The Federal Reserve System is composed of several layers. It is governed by the presidentially-appointed board of governors or Federal Reserve Board (FRB). Twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks, located in cities throughout the nation, regulate and oversee privately-owned commercial banks. Nationally chartered commercial banks are required to hold stock in, and can elect some board members of, the Federal Reserve Bank of their region.
I apologize to the economics specialists if, for the sake of brevity, I have made a rough synthesis of much more articulated financial concepts.
But the question is another. If it is understandable that the US raises the cost of money to defend itself from the swings in devaluation following the suicidal maneuvers of the G7 to impose sanctions on Russia for the war in Ukraine, forcing Moscow to develop new alliances in Africa and Asia which project these markets towards even faster de-dollarisation”.
From a financial point of view, the behavior of the president of the ECB Christine Lagarde who stubbornly follows the course of the FED is totally incomprehensible despite the alarm raised by the World Economic Forum of which Lagarde herself is a member of the Foundation Board. To understand a maneuver that would appear suicidal, or indeed confirmation of a projection towards the Great Reset, it is essential to re-read the curriculum vitae of the manager herself.
As a lawyer you practiced for 20 years at the international law firm Baker McKenzie of which in 1999, you became Global Chairman. In 2005, you joined the French government as secretary of commerce. Two years later, she was the first woman to hold the position of finance and economy minister of a G7 country. Between 2011 and 2019 she became the first female managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Since November 2019 you are the President of the European Central Bank.
It is therefore clear that Lagarde, already a protagonist in the use of the dangerous bazooka” of Quantitative Easing in the midst of the pandemic, certainly has the interests of the IMF more at heart than those of the poorest citizens of the European Union who are already paying dearly price in real estate mortgages the surge in the cost of money post-pandemic which has not corresponded to a dynamic recovery in turnover in the field of small and medium-sized enterprises.
The Tragic Italian Situation
To highlight the situation, let us refer to Italy and take up an eloquent passage from an article in the newspaper Il SOLE 24 Ore of 7 July 2023.
«In March 2023, the total of unpaid installments by almost one million Italian families stood at almost 15 billion. The continuous rise in interest rates adopted by the ECB to counter the race of inflation weighed heavily on household budgets and on the possibility of meeting the payment deadlines of mortgages and loans».
«For the general secretary of the banking union, Lando Maria Sileoni, «it is now clear that the action of the European Central Bank to combat inflation is not generating the desired results. Prices are not falling significantly and the rapid increase in the cost of money is causing a rise in interest rates on loans and mortgages which is putting both households and businesses in difficulty».
The Alert of the World Economic Forum on the Cost of Living Crisis
The Global Risk Report 2023 of the World Economic Forum warned (PDF at the bottom of the article among the sources together with the full report in English):
«The next decade will be characterized by environmental and societal crises, driven by underlying geopolitical and economic trends. Cost- of-living crisis” is ranked as the most severe global risk over the next two years, peaking in the short term. Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse” is viewed as one of the fastest deteriorating global risks over the next decade, and all six environmental risks feature in the top 10 risks over the next 10 years. Nine risks are featured in the top 10 rankings over both the short and the long term, including Geoeconomic confrontation” and Erosion of social cohesion and societal polarisation”, alongside two new entrants to the top rankings: Widespread cybercrime and cyber insecurity” and Large-scale involuntary migration”».
And then he went into even more detail:
«Economic warfare is becoming the norm, with increasing clashes between global powers and state intervention in markets over the next two years. Economic policies will be used defensively, to build self-sufficiency and sovereignty from rival powers, but also will increasingly be deployed offensively to constrain the rise of others. Intensive geoeconomic weaponization will highlight security vulnerabilities posed by trade, financial and technological interdependence between globally integrated economies, risking an escalating cycle of distrust and decoupling.
«As geopolitics trumps economics, a longer-term rise in inefficient production and rising prices becomes more likely. Geographic hotspots that are critical to the effective functioning of the global financial and economic system, in particular in the Asia-Pacific, also pose a growing concern».
In greater detail, the chapter on Economic Downtown” highlighted:
«Last year’s edition of the Global Risks Report warned that inflation, debt and interest rate rises were emerging risks. Today, governments and central banks – led by developed markets, notably the United States of America, Eurozone and the United Kingdom of Great Britain – are walking a tightrope between managing inflation without triggering a deep or prolonged recession, and protecting citizens from a cost-of-living crisis while servicing historically high debt loads».
In a subsequent paragraph it is added:
«However, for developing economies, there is a risk of further economic distress and tougher trade-offs. Stubbornly high inflation and more disorderly containment will raise the likelihood of stagnant economic growth, liquidity shocks and debt distress on a global scale. Energy importers in particular will bear the brunt of higher energy prices stemming from a strengthened US dollar, but its continued strength is importing inflation worldwide».
Reread in the light of the continuous and obsessive rises in the cost of money by the FED and the ECB, these do not appear to be alarms but rather strategic objectives” comparable to budget forecasts to which the WEF itself has already found a solution which, just as in the case of Covid vaccines, risks being far more devastating than the problem…
The Tremendous Example of Staged Default in Sri Lanka
«Growth agendas, including the critical pivot to greener economies, have been based on the availability of cheap debt. The extent to which countries can continue to finance development will be dependent on domestic political and debt dynamics» The WEF Global Risk Report 2023 still stands out, which then cites the most striking case… .
«Sri Lanka’s recent crisis provides a very real example of the spiraling risks to human security and health that can arise from economic distress, where a debt default and shortage in foreign currency limited imports; disrupted access to food, fuel, healthcare and electricity; and led to violent protests and the resignation of the President» we can read in the dossier.
The financial experts of the WEF, however, forget to highlight that the instability of the Indian Ocean island was artfully created and represents a pilot project of the experimentation of new invasive action tools of the International Monetary Fund supported by the so-called Club of Paris and by the strong powers of the USA.
In fact, Gospa News International has the good fortune to have among its most assiduous collaborators the Sri Lankan professor of social anthropology Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake who works in Colombo and has published more than a dozen articles on the staged default” of Sri Lanka.
The professor, author of a worldwide appeal with other academics for the cancellation of the debt, analyzed both the causes and the objectives: the main one is to place the island, also strategic from a military point of view in the InfoPacific context at least as much as Italy is in the Mediterranean Sea.
«BlackRock, the world’s largest asset and investment management company with over $10 trillion is the largest holder of Sri Lanka’s opaque ISB debt that caused the country’s Staged Default in April this year. ISBs amounts to almost fifty percent of Sri Lanka’s external debt»
Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake remarked on Gospa News International highlighting a similar situation in Argentina which, precisely because of its economic problems, has asked to join the BRICS, the alliance between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa which has created a alternative financial platform to the IMF thanks to the New Development Bank, of which the sanctions against Moscow for the war in Ukraine has increased the global weight.
The devilish IMF plan to give states to private funds
But are these plans to privatize” sovereign debt to create geopolitical dominance over the state the result of a random plan? Absolutely not!. The Global Risk Report 2023 of the World Economic Forum explains it very well.
Here are the essential passages of the paragraph Acting Today” of the chapter on the Economic Crisis”:
«In recognition of the risks posed to broader financial stability, timely and deeper debt write-downs could allow a faster return to developmental progress for vulnerable countries and render a future default less likely. The private sector could be incentivized to participate in debt restructuring through a variety of mechanisms, including issuing of new bonds with stronger legal protections, loss reinstatement commitments and value recovery instruments – with the latter enabling private creditors to gain from upside developments in debtor countries in the future, such as GDP-linked instruments in Costa Rica, Argentina, Greece and Ukraine».
The ranking of global risks in the next 2 and 10 years according to the study of the World Economic Forum
«Finally, we are unlikely to be able to double down on debt to the same extent to cushion the next crisis. A more proactive approach to countries that are not yet on the verge of debt distress could help mitigate the systemic risk of sovereign debt contagion. Recognition of simultaneous crises – debt, climate impacts and food security – could be integrated into greater flexibility and more concessional forms of financing available to vulnerable markets».
So here is the diabolical solution of the privatization of public debt together with the implicit one of national political autonomy:
«With particular respect to the climate agenda, there is a growing expectation that packages will include grants, rather than rely solely on loans that add to overall debt burdens. Bilateral and multilateral underwriting of risk could also enable much-needed flows of private capital, while support for longer-term projects that can help crowd-in private capital, such as the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Trust, is also critical».
BlackRock and the Perils of Project RTD
«The IMF’s mandate is to promote members’ balance of payments stability, as well as foster global financial stability and economic growth. Today, low- and vulnerable middle-income countries confront the challenges of inflation, rising debt levels, and geopolitical uncertainty, as they also face longer-term, structural risks to macroeconomic and balance of payments stability, such as climate change and pandemic preparedness».
Here is the description of the project that will allow private funds to devour public debt with the support and promotion of the International Monetary Fund:
«The IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) helps low-income and vulnerable middle-income countries build resilience to external shocks and ensure sustainable growth, contributing to their longer-term balance of payments stability. It complements the IMF’s existing lending toolkit by providing longer-term affordable financing to address longer-term structural challenges, including climate change and pandemic preparedness».
The IMF’s existing lending instruments support members facing short- and medium-term challenges through two key financing sources: the General Resources Account (GRA) which is accessible to all countries; and the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) available to low-income countries on concessional terms (currently zero interest rates).
The RST will complement the existing lending instruments by providing affordable, longer-term financing to contribute to prospective balance of payments stability to enhance economic resilience and sustainability.
The RST will amplify the effect of the US$650 billion general SDR allocation implemented in 2021 by channeling resources from economically stronger members to countries where needs are greatest.
This new Trust allows the Fund to broaden its lending support within its mandate, while at the same time limiting risks to members’ financial positions at the Fund by permitting a subset of the membership—those with strong external positions—to pool financial resources that are separate from the Fund’s general resources for the benefit of another subset of the membership—low-income countries and vulnerable middle-income countries.
Here are some of the main features of the new financial instrument.
The RST is a loan-based trust administered by the IMF, with a governance and financial structure broadly similar to that of the long-standing Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT). RST resources are be mobilized based on voluntary contributions from IMF members with strong external positions, including those wishing to channel SDRs for the benefit of low-income and more vulnerable middle-income members.
The financial architecture is designed to ensure the safety and liquidity of contributors’ loan and deposit claims on the RST, which will retain their reserve asset character, while minimizing the need for budgetary contributions.
Fundraising for the RST aims to secure SDR 33 billion (about US$42 billion) to meet expected loan demand as well as for an adequate reserve account.
As of October 12, 2022, contribution agreements have been signed with 6 members for a total of SDR 15.3 billion (about US$20 billion), and good progress is being made to finalize contribution agreements toward pledges of SDR 29 billion (about US$37 billion).
At the moment, staffing agreements have been reached with our first three countries: Barbados, Costa Rica and Rwanda. The council will likely consider their approval requests by the end of 2022. Good progress is being made with 5 other countries.
BlackRock can already uncork a few Nebuchadnezzar bottles (15 litres…) of Champagne Krug.
The above article with links to the Sri Lanka crisis is available at : https://www.gospanews.net/en/2023/08/04/great-reset-fed-ecb-imf-ready-to-sell-the-nations-to-blackrock-devilish-plot-rst-thanks-to-interest-rate-hike/
It has been 14 years since Sri Lanka promised 13 Plus to the UN (May 29, 2009) but no government since then implemented it as a Constitutional amendment. For good reasons. When the President visited India recently, the Indian PM made it very clear that Sri Lanka must devolve more powers to Tamils. As this obviously goes well beyond current 13A it can be termed 13 Plus. Now is the perfect time for 13 Plus as there is very little opposition to it in parliament.
SJB, TNA, SLMC, CWC, EPDP will not oppose it due to Indian and own interest. SLPP leadership will not oppose it as they rely on the president for own safety and survival. SLPP breakaways will not oppose it wholeheartedly as they too have presidential ambitions. All elected presidents supported 13A.
A presidential election must be declared within the next year. Given the fragmentation of the Buddhist vote, minorities have become kingmakers. Appeasing minorities is key to winning the next presidential election and this means 13 Plus.
Hunger, frustration and hopelessness have made people immune to threats to national security. In fact, everything near and dear to the nation has become matters of laughter for most young Sri Lankans.
All these make 13 Plus a real possibility and a threat.
More minority appeasements will be dished out in the coming 12 months ahead of the next presidential election.
