Dr Sudath Gunasekara 

2018.12 10

Such as

1 Defying the President’s order in sacking him and illegally occupying the Temple Trees and thereby misusing State property.

2  Calling for and canvassing international intervention in  the present crisis a making of his own.

3 Conspiring to overthraw the legitimately appointed Cabinet and the Government by the President,  the Head of the State  and acting against public interest  and causing political, social and economic  brake down  to the country and thereby causing billions of losses to the country

4 Engaging in conspiracies and coups against the legitimate government, the Head of the Sta, th epeople and the country with foreign Diplomats by regularly summoning them to Temple Trees and conspiring with them to overthraw the Government and thereby committing high treason against the State.

5 Engaging in conspiracies to divide the coutry in to politically oriented ethnic enclaves  such as Tamil  North, East and Central and Muslim south East by enacting a  new Constitution on Nov 6th 2018  that was averted thanks to the swift and timely actions of the President.

6  Signin illegal treaties and agreements with Foreing countries even without Cabinet approval that are detrimental to   national interest, its economy  and security, selling nation’s Ports, Harbours Airports and lands to foreigners.

7Appointing Paskaarlingam, a man who wa sdeprived of his civil rights as Advisor to the Ministry of Finance  and  Arjun Mahendran as another Advisor to the Prime Minister after he was removed as Governor Central Bank

8 Leasing out Hambantota Port for 99 years to China.

9 Covering and hiding Arjun Mahendran   without   allowing the authorities to arrest him

he has committed against the State as Prime Minister from  Jan 8th 2015

This step will be the shortest  and the best strategy to get out of the present political imbroglio in the country. If the ex-Prime Minister of Malaysia could be arrested, why cant the Sri Lanka Government  do the same thhing?

No sooner this is done the following chain of reactions will follow.

1The debate on the majority problem for the Government in Parliament will cease to exist thereafter

2 Karu Jayasuriya want be able to conduct UNP properganda  work from at State expense   under the guise of  conducting sessions in Parliament.

3 Karu J the UNP Speaker (rather the Speaker for the UNP in  Parliament) who made the Parliament a big joke and a mockery and after that has converted it to a UNP Head quaters, will either have to resign or say good by to politics with his dreams of becoming the Predisentt of this country and making his son-inlaw the Prime Minister.

4 The UNP will be left leaderless and will run into disarray beyond recovery.

5 Sajith, Navin, Rajitha, Ravi and even Champaka will begin quarrelling for its leadership and it will split in to pieces and that will be the end of the UNP as a political party and it will become a forgotten chapter of the political history of this country therafter unsung and  unwept

6 Whoever wins the leadership those disgruntled will join MR’s Government consolidating its majority until the next election comes an deven thereafter consolidationg  political satability in the country.

7 Political destitutes like the JVP and Hela Urumaya (Champika brand) and cancerous communal  day dreamers who depend on UNP for their msurvival will disappear in political wilderness.

8Thereafter even the Courts will have to accept MR as the legitimate Prime MInister

MR then can go on either until the 4 and ½ year period ban imposed by the 19 A   is complete or in the event of the SC decides dissolution is in order, then he can request the President to issue a new Gazette  fixing the dates for the election and go for elections and he will win the election with at least a 2/3 majority if not more in the new Parliament so that he will have a strong Government under which he can have a new constitution  incorporating all the aspirations of the Bhumiputras, fully restoring the independence and freedom we lost to the British in 1815. Whatever election that follows the UNP will get routed out like in 1956 . Thw maximum number of seats it could will be around 30,  if they limit the number of seats 196 to represent the196 elctorates,  after abolishing the so-called National list, the heaven  of political ring worms who eat in to the pith of the democratic tree and  have converted representative democracy in to a big joke in this country.  If the existing preferance system is also abolished and the qualifying percentage is also increased to the original 12 % the Muslim and Tamil who opt to contest alone  might together get about 20  seats  and I can guarentee the anachronistic and politically cancerous JVP  (the Jatiya Vinasa kirime Pakshaya)  will get none.

I also annex  the first article I posted under this subject as to  why repeatedly I make this request  from the President

Punish all those who have masterminded the Central Bank gang robbery ASAP.

Posted on February 15th, 2018 (published in Lankaweb)

Dr Sudath Gunasekara

15.2.2018.

As I was listening to yesterday’s (14) 7 pm Hiru news bulletin, I saw Dr. P. Mahanamahewa explaining in detail how to deal with Arjuna Mahendaran in case if he does not turn up at the CID Office before the 15th. Today is 15th but still Mahendran, the third accused as I have stated before has not turned up.  Leaving aside the legal intricacies, my question is, are we going to leave it at that and  forget the trilions of immediate losses caused to the country and all the spill over  serious                      effects on the country’s econonomy   for decades to come. Suppose he never comes back and escape the Sri Lankan Government, then what next?

If that happens on whom are we going to fix responsibility regarding this mega robbery which has completely ruined a nation with spillover effects on the nation’s ailing economy for decades and generations to come?

How the conspiracy was hatched and carried out AND BY WHOM

The whole country knows it was Ranil Wickramasinha who brought Arjuna Mahendran to Sri Lanka and got him appointed as the Governor of the Central Bank in spite of strong objections raised by the President, as the Head of the State

It was he who invited him to come offering the Governorship of the CB

It was he who got the CB under him as pre-planned from the Finance Ministry.

It was he who took full responsibility for his selection and insisted that Mahendran should be appointed, when the President objected for his request to appoint his buddy

Taking the Central Bank under him from the Finance Ministry was the first conspiracy and crime committed by Ranil to ensure that this mega robbery will be carried out to its perfection with impunity.

I have no doubt Ranil did all this knowing that Mahendaran was not even a citizen of this country and therefore he cannot be taken to task by the Government of this country  once he send him out after the job is over. This clearly proves beyond all reasonable doubts that Ranil was the master mind behind the CB scam and he is the man who planned and got it implemented from the beginning tot the end.

Therefore he is definitely the Accused no 1 in this mega robbery.

When the matter was raised in Parliament it was Ranil who defended him in the House on 17th March 2015

It was also Ranil who introduced the new system of Bond auctions as revealed by Arjuna Mahendran before the commission in his evidence

It was also Ranil who got the President to dissolve Parliament in August 2015 a day before the Dew Gunasekara COPE Report was to be presented to Parliament and thereby criminally avoided the Report being debated in Parliament.

(This lapse led to the second Bond Scam the subject of the present debate)

He also appointed his own commission of Party lawyers and got Mahendran exonerated before the President appointed his Commission

Then he also wanted Mahendran appointed for a Second term which the President refused and got Coomaraswamy appointed

After that Ranil appointed Mahendran to another high post under his Ministry disregarding and ignoring his highly questionable role in the CB scam and also ignoring the President, probably thinking that it was he who got Mr Sirisena elected as the President, which is partly true.

When he was asked to give evidence before the Commission he got the Commissioners to send him a list of questions to be asked AT THE INQUIRY in advance carefully prepared, so that he can come prepared to answer them, perhaps designed to exonerate him.  This is like the Commissioner of Examinations sending the Question papers to a candidate and accepting his answer scripts at the examiners home and pass him with distinction.

He also got Ravi Karunanayaka the Finance Minister his confidante and Deputy Leader of the UNP to instruct all State Banks to bid at the auction at lower interest rate ( 9.5%) so that Ajun Aloysius, who was perhaps advised in advance either by Mahendran his father-in-law who was living with him in his home  or jointly by Ranil and Mahendran asked  him to quote 12.5 % interest as pre-planned.

He was also responsible for increasing the 10 Billion to 40 Billion as Mahendran has revealed in his evidence before the Commission

It was also he who got Sujiiva Serasinha, the Author of the famous Book on CB SCAM, appointed to the COPE as a member.

It was also he who sent Mahendran to Singapore when dark clouds were gathering over the sky.

(It is beyond comprehension how and why a suspect of such a crime was allowed to leave the country, unless there was some powerful intervention behind it). Ranil should know better than anybody else as to how he left Katunayaka Airport without any problem. Ranil knows better than any if Mahendran is arrested and grilled by the CID and by people like Dappula Livera and Kodagoda he will spill out all the beans and the entire gang of Alibaba and 40 thieves and all others who have jointly conspired, aided and abetted in different ways assigned to them by the leader, like writing books, adding foot notes and those benefitted directly or indirectly will be exposed.

He also has taken full responsibility in Parliament and before the President as well for all actions of Mahendraran which makes him responsible before the law for all crimes Mahendaran  has committed.

In this backdrop I don’t think this man will ever come to Sri Lanka. The perpetrators must have done their homework so that he could be kept in hiding safely forever.

Why can’t the President or law enforcing authorities take action against Ranil taking these commitments as serious crimes he has committed against the State and take action accordingly? Of cause one could argue that he cannot be treated under that law as he has not duly singed a bond in court to that effect. Can’t it be accepted as a verbal bond under common law interpreting all what he has done as commissions and omissions against public interest?   I am sure what I have said here could be converted to legal jargon to frame the charges

Therefore the citizens of this country who are the owners of the Central Bank should demand the President to at least now arrest the Golden brain, whoever it is, that conspired, planned and executed this crime with a gang of thieves and who is also doing everything he could, under the sun to protect Mahendran his erstwhile friend for nothing but shear political and personal gain. I don’t think anybody needs to name him. The President should know it better than anybody else. So I leave it to him to decide. I do not know whether he will take the correct decision. But as responsible citizens it is our duty by the country and its people to raise these issues for public debate. If he takes the correct decision on this issue at least now I have no doubt that he will at least partially emerge out of the abysmal political mire in to which he has fallen, not because of anybody else’s fault, but only of his own fault and lapses and lack of far sight.  It will also open the doors for an entirely a new political culture in this country, free from corruption and misgovernment, which the people of this country have been desperately dreaming for decades.

As I rate it

First accused Ranil Wickramasinha

Second Arjun Mahendran and

Third Ravi Karunanayaka

I leave it to the AG to list the others in order.

The President has to take the lead  in this matter  more than any other as  he is also partly rsponsible for most of these crimes committed by him as the Head of the State at that time.More importantly before he is gunned down by these elments, going by serious statements issued by  different people, with or without foreign intervention.0

It is only the direct intervention by the President   that can save the from

Those of you who read this will know many more involvements and finer points than this. I beg your pardon for shortcomings in this note.

The background for his selection

Mahendrans are Ranil’s Family friends and strong UNP supporters. Mahendran is also said to be hisschool mate at Royal. He has been appointed to several posts includinf the Sri Lanka  Ayojana Mandalaya,  even in 2001 when Ranil became PM. During that time he also appointed Charless Mahendran, Ajun’s farther to the UN.  While he was there he is supposed to have given some vital secret information to Ranil bypassing Chandrika, over which Chandrika got damn annoyed and dissolved the Parliament making room for the 2004 General Elections that routed Ranil’s Government and sent him to the opposition. It is in this backdrop one has to understand as to why Ranil brought Mahendran to the Central Bank

ගීතාංජන  

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් මංගල ජයතුංග මහතා විසින් “නලීන් ද සිල්වා, ගුණදාස අමරසේකර සහ ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර” යන ලිපි ශීර්ෂය යටතේ කෙටි ලිපියක් ලංකා වෙබ් ෆෝරමයේ පල කොට තිබිණි. එම ලිපියට සන්නයක් (comment ) සපයමින් ම විසින් පහත දැක්වෙන අදහස් සටහන් කලෙමි.

“කිසිදු අගක් මුලක්, හේතුභුතයක් නැති මෙම ලිපිය ඔබ ලීවේ කුමකටදැයි පාඨක අපට සිතා ගත නොහැක. (සැබවින්ම මෙය ලිපියකට වඩා මඩ comment එකක් යයි කීවොත් වඩාත් නිවැරදිය) වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග යන නමින් ලියා ඇති නිසා මෙය මෝඩයෙකුගේ හුදු උද්ධච්ච ප්‍රලාපයක් යයි කියා අපට බැහැර කලද නොහැක. සැබවින්ම මෙය ඔබ නොලීවානම් වඩා හොඳ යැයි මට සිතෙන්නේ, මෙහි ඔබ කියා ඇති කිසිවක් බුද්ධි විෂයක වශයෙන් විශ්ලේෂණයකට භාජනය කර නැති නිසාවෙනි.

උදාහරණයක් ලෙස ඔබ කියා ඇති මේ කාරණය ගෙන බලන්න. නලීන් ද සිල්වා සහ ගුණදාස අමරසේකර යනු බටහිර ලෝකය සියළු අයහපතේ මූලය ලෙස සිතන්නෝය.” තවත් කරුණක් ගෙන බලමු. නලීන් ද සිල්වා සිතන්නේ බටහිර ලෝකයට ඔහු බින් ලාඩ්න් කෙනෙකු කියාය. නලීන් ද සිල්වා ජීවත් වන්නේ ඔහු විසින්ම සදාගත් මනංකල්පිත විශ්වයකය. ඒ අතින් ගුණදාස අමරසේකර පොළවේ පය ගසාගෙන සිටින්නෙකි. එහෙත් ඔහු තදින්ම කුමන්ත්‍රණ න්‍යාය විශ්වාස කරන්නෙකි.” මේ චෝදනා ඔප්පු කිරීමට මෙතැනින් ඔබ්බට කෙතරම් කරුණු ඔබගෙන් අප බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනවාද? එම වාක්‍යයනට අමතරව කිසිවක් ඔබ කියා නැත්තේ ඔබගේ එම වාක්‍යයන් දේව වාක්‍යය ලෙස අප පිළිගනීවි යැයි ඔබ සිතූ නිසාද? ඊළඟ ඡේදය ඔබ ලියා ඇත්තේ දැඩි වෛරයකින් බව අපට පෙනේ. එය ඔබම නැවත කියවා බලන්න.

ගුණදාස අමරසේකර යනු ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නම් කුඩා දිවයිනට පමණක් සීමාවූ හිටපු දන්ත වෛද්‍යවරයෙකි. ඔහු ගැන අනුරාධපුරයෙන් එහාට මිනිසුන් දන්නේ නැති තරම් ය. නලීන් ද සිල්වා උසස් අධ්‍යාපනය ලබන්නේ බටහිරය. ඔහුට බටහිර රටක විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයක තනතුරක් අවශ්‍යව තිබුණි. එහෙත් ඔහුට බටහිර ලෝකයේ තැනක් ලැබෙන්නේ නැත. ඔහුගේ බටහිර විරෝධයේ ආරම්භය එතැනය. එහෙත් ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර යනු බටහිර ලෝකයේ ගරුත්වයට පාත්වූ ධීමතෙකි. ඔහු නලීන් ද සිල්වා සහ ගුණදාස අමරසේකර මෙන් ජෝකර් කෙනෙකු නොවේ.”

ඔබගේ බොහෝ චෝදනා කිපීමෙන් ගන්නාලද, හුදු ව්‍යාපනයන් මගින් කල නිගමනයන්ය (based on hasty generalizations). ඇතැම් චෝදනා වැදගැම්මකට නැති මඩ ගැහීමේ චේතනාවෙන්ම කල ඒවා බව පෙනී යයි. එම චෝදනා එකින් එක වෙන වෙනම ගෙන, බුද්ධිමය වශයෙන් කරනු ලබන විශ්ලේෂණයක් මගින් පාඨකයිනට ඔප්පුකොට පෙන්වීමට ඔබ සදාචාරාත්මකව බැඳී සිටී. වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග මහතාණෙනි, ඔබ විසින් එල්ල කර ඇති මෙම චෝදනා ඔප්පු කර පෙන්වන ලෙස ඔබ ඉදිරිපිට ඇති මෙම අභියෝගයට මුහුණදී, බුද්ධිමය සාකච්ඡාවක් තුලින් ඔප්පුකොට පෙන්වන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටිමි. එසේ නොකළහොත් ඔබ හුදු මඩ ප්‍රචාරකයෙකුගේ තත්වයට වැටෙනු ඇති බව මෙහිදී සඳහන් කරන්නේ කනගාටුවෙනි.”

පළමුවෙන්ම කිව යුත්තේ මා මේ පිළිතුරු ලිපිය ලියන්නේ වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග මහතාට ගැරහීමේ අරමුණින් වත්, නින්දා අපහාස කිරීමටවත් නොවන බවය. එමෙන්ම එතුමා සතුරකු, විරුද්ධ වාදියකු සේ සලකා විවේචනය කිරීමටද නොව. මා මෙම ලිපිය ලියන්නේ සමස්තයක් ලෙස ගත් කල, ඔහු මෙන්ම ඔහු වැනි තවත් අය විසින් නියෝජනය කරනු ලබන දේශපාලන ආස්තානයට පිළිතුරු සැපයීම කාලෝචිත යැයි සිතූ නිසාවෙනි. ඊට අමතරව මෙම ලිපියෙන් අරමුණු කරන්නේ, අද ශ්‍රීලංකාව තුල මෙන්ම, විදේශ ගතව සිටින්නාවුද, දේශපාලනය පිලිබඳ විමිසිලිමත් වූත්, ඒ පිලිබඳ විවිධවූ මත දරනාවුත් අය අතර ඇති එක්තරා ප්‍රවනතාවක් වන, ආචාර්ය නලින් ද සිල්වා මහතාට සහ දොස්තර ගුණදාස අමරසේකර මහතාට පහර ගැසීම හා පරිභව කිරීම තුලින්, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ජාතික ගැටලුව පිළිබඳව වඩාත් මධ්‍යස්තවුත් සාධාරණවුත් මත දරන්නේ තමන් යයි ලෝකයාට ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමේ විලාසිතාවට අනුගතවූ සියල්ලන්ටද ආමන්ත්‍රණය කිරීමේ අරමුණිනි. මේ විලාසිතාව සමාජ දේහය තුල කෙතරම් ඔඩුදුවා ඇත්දැයි කිවහොත්, නලින් සිල්වා මහතාගේ හෝ අමරසේකරමහතාගේ මතවාද මොනවාද කියා කිසිවක් සොයා නොබලාම, ඒ පිලිබඳ හැදෑරීමක් නොකොටම ඔවුන් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කොට හෙලාදකීමේ ප්‍රවනතාවක් තිබේ. මා වටා එවැනි මිතුරන්ද සිටී.

මෙම ප්‍රවනතාවේ තවත් සැඟවුණු අරමුනක්ද පවතී. එනම් ඊලාම් වාදී සංකල්ප වලට, රට බෙදීමේ දර්ශනයට, වෙනම රාජ්‍යය සංකල්පයට, සම්ප්‍රදායික නිජභූමි සංකල්පයට එරෙහිවූ මතවාද දරන චින්තකයිනට පහර ගැසීම හා ගැරහීම, ශ්‍රී ලංකාව බෙදා වෙන්කිරීමේ ව්‍යාපාරයට මිලියන ගණනින් මුදල් යොදවන බටහිර ආයතන වල අවධානය දිනාගැනීමේ කෙටි ක්‍රමයක් ලෙස මෙම පරිභව කිරීම ඇතැමුන් විසින් යොදා ගැනීම එම යටි අරමුනයි.

කෙසේ වුවද, නලීන් ද සිල්වා සහ ගුණදාස අමරසේකර යන අය ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර සමග සැසැඳීම වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග මහතා විසින් මොන පදනමක් මත සිදු කළා දැයි පාඨක අපට නොතේරෙන බව පැවසිය යුතු ය. නලින් හා අමරසේකර මහතුන් ගනනාථ මහතා සමග සැසඳීම හරියට ඇපල් හා දොඩම් සැසඳීම හා සමානය. මේ දෙවර්ගයම පලතුරු ගණයට අයත් වනවා සේම, අපගේ ප්‍රස්තුතයට මුල් වී ඇති පුද්ගලයින්ද බුද්ධිමතුන් ගණයට අයත් වුවත්, නලින් හා අමරසේකර මහතුන්ගේ ග්‍රහණයට නතුවූ විෂය කරුණු හා ඒවායේ බුද්ධිමය විශ්ලේෂණය ගනනාථ මහතාගේ කාර්යයට හසු වූ බවක් අප අසා නැත. නමුත් මේ තිදෙනාම එකම විශ්ව විද්‍යාල මාතාවකගේ දරුවන් වීම සුවිශේෂ කරුණකි.

මෑත කාලයේ, එනම් පසුගිය වසර තිස් පහක පමණ කාලයේ නලින් ද සිල්වා සහ ගුණදාස අමරසේකර යන නම් රටතුල ආන්දෝලනයකට ලක්වන්නෙත්, ඔවුන්ව අප හඳුනා ගන්නේත්, සිල්වා මහතා විශ්වවිද්‍යාල කථිකාචාර්ය වරයෙකු ලෙස නිසා හෝ අමරසේකර මහතාව කවියකු හා ලේඛකයෙකු ලෙස නිසා පමණක්ම නොවේ. ඔවුන් වැඩිපුරම ආන්දෝලනයකට ලක්වන්නේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ජාතික ප්‍රශ්නය පිළිබඳව ඇතිවූ කතිකාවතේ දේශීය ජනයාගේ, විශේෂයෙන්ම සිංහල ජනයාගේ අපේක්ෂා සහ අයිතීන් පිළිබඳව අදහස් දැක්වූ වියතුන් ලෙසය. මෙය කිරීමේදී මොන තරම් නිදා අපහාස ඔවුන් විසින් වින්දාද කියා අපි දනිමු. ඒ නින්දා අපහාස විඳීම තවමත් නිම වී නොමැත. මෙසේ ඔවුන් තම මතවාදී අදහස් ඉදිරිපත් කලේ බෙදුම්වාදී මතවාදී ආධිපත්‍යය විසින් මුළු මහත් ශ්‍රී ලාංකික සමාජයම බුද්ධිමය වශයෙන් හිරිවට්ටා, ගොලුකොට, ප්‍රතිතර්ක විරහිතව ගොලුවී සිටි කාලයකදී වීම විශේෂයෙන්ම සඳහන් කල යුතු කරුණකි.  

නලින් ද සිල්වා සහ ගුණදාස අමරසේකර මහතුන් විසින් එය කෙතරම් සාර්ථක හා සාධනීය ලෙස කලාද කිවහොත්, ටික කලකින්ම ප්‍රධාන පෙලේ ඊලාම් වාදී න්‍යායාචාර්යවරුන් පසුබැස යාමටත්, සාකච්චා මේස වලදී ගොත ගැස්සවීමටත් ඔවුහු සමත් වූහ. එපමණක්ද නොව, නලින් ද සිල්වා මහතා විසින් ඊලාම් පෙරහරේ පෙර ගමන් කරුවෙකු වූ කුමාර් පොන්නම්බලම්ට ඉදිරිපත් කල අදටත් වලංගු ප්‍රශ්නය වූ, දෙමල ජනතාවට මුහුණදීමට සිදුව ඇති, එහෙත් සිංහල ජනතාවට නොමැති, හුදු දෙමල වීම නිසාම සිදුව ඇතැයි කියන සමාජ දේශපාලන අසාධාරණකම් නම් කරන ලෙස දිගින් දිගටම එල්ල කල ප්‍රශ්නයට මැරෙන තුරුත් පිළිතුරු දී ගත නොහැකිව, පොන්නම්බලම් මහතා ඔහු කිරිපොවා හදාවඩා ගත් ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් අතින් ඝාතනයට ලක්ව  මිය ගියේය. ඔහු පරලොවදී තවමත් ඊට පිළිතුරු සොයනවා නොඅනුමානය. ඉන් සිල්වා මහතා ලෝකයට ඔප්පු කර පෙන්වූයේ බොරුව මත පදනම්වූ සටනකට, රට තුල නොමැති ප්‍රශ්නයකට, පිළිතුරු සොයාගත නොහැකි බවය. එම හෙළිදරව්ව සමස්ත ඊලාම් ව්‍යාපාරයේම උපක්‍රම නැවත සලකා බැලීමට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සතුරනට බලකර සිටි බව නොරහසකි.

එවන් සේවාවක් ඔබ කර තිබේද? ගනනාථ ඔබේසේකර මහතා කර තිබේද? මට නම් කරනවා තබා සිතා ගැනීමටවත් නොහැක. ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවේ සිට මානවවිද්‍යාවට හුවමාරු වූ ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර මහතා අතින් හරිනම් එය සිදුවිය යුතුව තිබූ කාර්යයකි. නමුත් ඔහු අතින් එය සිදුවූ බවක් මම නම් අසා නොමැත. ඉතිහාසය පිලිබඳ හෝ මානවවිද්‍යාව පිලිබඳ බුද්ධි විෂයමය වශයෙන් පෙර සූදානමකින් තොරව, තමන් ලැබූ අධ්‍යාපන හා බුද්ධිමය ශික්ෂණයට පරිබාහිර කාර්යයක නියැලුණු නලින් ද සිල්වා සහ ගුණදාස අමරසේකර මහතුන් අතින්, පෘතඃජන පුද්ගලයින් ලෙස අනේක වැරදීම් සිදුවී ඇතුවාට සැකයක් අප තුල නොමැත. එහෙත් ඔවුන් කල දුෂ්කර කාර්යයයේ ශ්‍රේෂ්ට බව අප වටහා නොගන්නේනම් ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයින් වන අප අතිශය අකෘතඥ ජාතියක් වනවාට නොඅනුමානය.

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග මහතාණෙනි, ඔබ මෙවැනි අදහස් පල කිරීමක් කලේ, ජාතික ප්‍රශ්නය පිළිබඳව ඔවුන් විසින් පල කල අදහස් එම කරුණ අරභයා ගනනාථ ඔබේසේකර මහතා විසින් පල කල අදහස් වලට පටහැනි නිසාද? නැතහොත් ගනනාථ ඔබේසේකර මහතා වඩාත් වැදගත් අදහස් ජාතික ප්‍රශ්නය පිළිබඳව දක්වා තිබෙන නිසාද? විවිධ කරුණු පිළිබඳව ඔවුන්ගේ මත වල වෙනස්කම් තිබිය හැකි වුවත්, මා දන්නා පරිදි ජාතික ගැටලුව පිළිබඳව එවන් විවෘත මත ගැටුමක් ඔවුන් අතර හටගෙන නොමැත.  අවම තරමින් සමාජයේ අවධානය යොමුවන තරමේ මතවාදී ගැටුමක් මා දන්නා පරිදි අසා නොමැත.

ඔබ මෙසේ කියයි. “නලීන් ද සිල්වා සහ ගුණදාස අමරසේකර යනු බටහිර ලෝකය සියළු අයහපතේ මූලය ලෙස සිතන්නෝය.”නලීන් ද සිල්වා සහ ගුණදාස අමරසේකර බටහිර ලෝකය සියලු අයහපතේ මුලය ලෙස කියා ඇති බවක් මම නොදනිමි. එසේ වුවද බටහිරින් එන සියලු දේ අවිචාරයෙන් ඔහු ප්‍රතික්ෂේප නොකරන බව රුපවාහිනී චැනලයක සාකච්චාවකදී නලින් ද සිල්වා මහතා විසින් කියනු මා අසා ඇත. එමෙන්ම ශ්‍රී ලංකාව අරභයා බටහිර සතු ප්‍රතිපත්ති ඔවුන් විවේචනය කර ඇත. එමෙන්ම, බටහිර දර්ශන වාදයේ ඇති පුහු බව පිළිබඳව ඔවුන් විවේචනය කර ඇත.

නමුත් කෙසේවුවද ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයින් ඇතුළු නුතන මිනිසා සතු බොහෝ අයහපත්වලට මුලය බටහිර දර්ශන්වාදයේත්, විශේෂයෙන්ම නුතනවාදී දර්ශනයේත් ගැබ්ව ඇති බව ඔවුන් කියා ඇත. එය ඔවුන් පමණක් නොව, බොහොමයක් බටහිර විචාරකයින්ද පවසා ඇති, අද වනවිට දර්ශනවාදී ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ අවිවාදයෙන් පිළිගත් කරුණකි. එය ඔබ නොදැන සිටීම ඔබගේ ඉහතකී ප්‍රකාශයට හේතු වුවා නම්, එය ඉතාම අවාසනාවන්ත තත්වයකි. පහත දැක්වෙන්නේ එවන් කතිකාවතකට සම්බන්ධවී සිටි සහ සිටින බටහිර හා අනෙක් වියතුන් කිහිප දෙනෙකි.

යුරෝපීයයන් වන Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, එමෙන්ම බටහිරදී විචාරකයින් ලෙස කීර්තියක් දිනාගත්තද ආසියානුන් වන Edward Wadie Said (originally Palestinian), Homi K. Bhabha (originally Indian), එමෙන්ම ප්‍රංශ ජාතිකයෙකු වුවත් Martinique හි උපන්, Frantz Fanon. එමෙන්ම ආජන්ටිනියානු චින්තකයකු වන Enrique Dussel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrique_Dussel

එපමණක් නොව වෙනත් ක්ෂේත්‍ර වල සිටින බටහිර බටහිර බුද්ධිමතුන් හා දේශපාලන විචාරකයින් පවසන්නේ, බටහිර දේශපාලනය හා දර්ශනය මුළුමහත් මානව සංහතියම විනාශය කරා රැගෙන යන බවය. Paul Craig Roberts ගේ ලිපි  https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/

එමෙන්ම Marshall Berman, David Harvey and Noam Chomsky යන අය විසින් ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කර ඇති දුසිම් ගණන් වන පොත් පත් හා ලිපි ලේඛන.

එමෙන්ම ඔබ වෛද්‍යවරයෙකු නිසා නුතනවාදී විද්‍යාවේ සුසමාදර්ශ පිලිබඳ විචාරයක යෙදෙන Paul Feyerabend ගේ Against Method ඔබට ඉතාම රසවත් කියවීමක් වනු ඇතියි මම සිතමි. 

ඉහතින් සඳහන් කලේ බටහිරින් එන යුරෝකේන්ද්‍රීය ප්‍රවාද වලින් යුරෝපයටත්, ලෝකයේ අනෙකුත් කලාප වලටත් ඇති හානිකර ප්‍රතිපල පිළිබඳවත් ඒවායේ ඇති දාර්ශනික බංකොලොත් බවත් පිළිබඳව සාකච්චා කර ඇති බටහිර අර්ධ ගෝලයේ සිටිනා කිහිප දෙනෙකු පමණි. එනයින් ගත කල තත් කාලීන ලෝකයේ බොහොමයක්  අයහපත් තත්වයන්ට මූලය බටහිර දේශපාලනය හා දර්ශනවාදී සංකල්ප බව සිතන්නේ නලීන් ද සිල්වා  සහ  ගුණදාස අමරසේකර පමණක් නොවන බව ඔබට වැටහෙනු ඇත. 

ඔබගේ ඊළඟ ප්‍රකාශය බලන්න. “ගුණදාස අමරසේකර යනු ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නම් කුඩා දිවයිනට පමණක් සීමාවූ හිටපු දන්ත වෛද්‍යවරයෙකි. ඔහු ගැන අනුරාධපුරයෙන් එහාට මිනිසුන් දන්නේ නැති තරම් ය.” ගුණදාස අමරසේකර ගැන ඔබ දන්නේ දන්ත වෛද්‍යවරයෙක් ලෙස පමණක්ද? ඔහු ලේඛකයෙක්, කවියෙක් ලෙස ඔබ දැනගෙන සිටියේම නැතිද? කෙසේ වුවත්, ඔබ මේ ගැරහීම අමරසේකර මහතාට කරන්නේ ඔහු දන්තවෛද්‍යවරයෙක් නිසාවත්, සාහිත්‍යධරයෙක් නිසාවත් නොවෙයි නේ. ඔබ ගරහන්නේ ඔහු ශ්‍රී ලංකා දේශපාලන ඉතිහාසයට කර ඇති දායකත්වය බරපතල ලෙස ඔබට බලපෑ ඇති නිසා නේ? එයින් වැටහෙන්නේ කුමක්ද? අමරසේකර මහතාගේ අයිතිහාසික සුවිශේෂතාව වන්නේ ඔහු දන්ත වෛද්‍යවරයෙක් වීමවත්, සාහිත්‍යධරයෙක් වීමවත් නොව, ඔහුගේ දේශපාලන මතවාදී දායකත්වයම නොවේද?  

පළමුවෙන්ම අපට ඇතිවන ගැටලුව වන්නේ, ලංකාව තුල පමණක් දැන සිටීම කිසියම් පුද්ගලයෙකුගේ බුධිමය වටිනාකම අඩුවීමට හේතුවන සාධකයක්ද යන්නයි. වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග මහතානෙනි, මම දන්නා පරිධි, ඔබ පිළිබඳව දන්නේ අපි පමණි. එය කිසිසේත්ම ඔබගේ වටිනාකම අඩුකොට සිතීමට මට නම් හේතුවක් නොවේ. අමරදේව, සරත්චන්ද්‍ර, නන්දා මාලිනි ගැන දන්නේ අපි පමණි. බටහිර ඔවුන් ගැන නොදත් පමණින් අපට ඔවුන් වටින්නේ නැතිද? බටහිර ඔවුන් පිලිබඳව නොදන්නා නිසා අප ඔවුන්ව ඉතිහාසයේ කුණු කූඩයට දමන්නෙමුද? 

ඔබ කියා ඇති පරිදි අනුරාධපුරයෙන් එහාට අමරසේකර මහතාව දන්නේ නැති කරුණ පිළිබඳව කියන්නේ නම්, මා කිව යුතු වන්නේ ඇත්තටම ඔවුන් ගැන දන්නේ අනුරාධපුරයෙන් මෙහා ඔබ වැනි අයට වඩා අනුරාධපුරයෙන් එහා අය බවය. සැබවින්ම, ඊළාම්වාදී පෙරගමන් කරුවන් සියල්ලෝම ඔවුන් පිළිබඳව දන සිටියහ. බටහිර INGO සහ ඔවුන්ගෙන් මුදල් ලබන ලංකාවේ ක්‍රියාත්මකවූ NGO ඔවුන් ගැන දන සිටියහ. එපමණක් නොව තමන්ගේ බත් පතට වැලි දමන අය ලෙස නලීන් ද සිල්වාට සහ ගුණදාස අමරසේකරට ඔවුහු වෛර කළහ. මේ පිලිබඳ දෘශ්‍යමය වශයෙන් හොඳම උදාහරණය නම්, එක්තරා රූපවාහිනී වැඩසටහනකදී නිමල්කා ප්‍රනාන්දු විසින් ප්‍රකට කල ගුණදාස අමරසේකර පිලිබඳ ‘ඇගේ වෛරයයි.’ නිමල්කා විසින් හෙළි දක්වනලද ‘ඇගේ වෛරය’ හටගන්නේත්, ඉන් විශද කරන්නෙත් වෙනත් කිසිවක් නොව, ගුණදාස අමරසේකර මහතාගේ අදහස් විසින් තමන්ගේ බත් පතට වැලි දැමෙන නිසාවෙන් ඇය තුල හට ගන්නා භීතිය හා ද්වේශයයි. අනික් හේතුව නම් බෙදුම්වාදී මතවාදයට එරෙහිව බලවත් තර්ජනයක් එල්ලකරන   අමරසේකර වැනි මතවාදීන් වෙත පෙරලා පහර ගැසීම වෙනුවෙන්, හා රට බෙදීමේ කර්තව්‍යය වෙනුවෙන් නිර්ලෝභී ලෙස නාය යාමට සැදී පැහැදී සිටි ඩොලර් කඳු තමන්ගේ දිසාවට නාය යාමට සැලැස්වීම මෙම පහර දීම තුල සැඟවුණු නිමල්කාගේ ඊළඟ අරමුනයි. එකල නිමල්කා ප්‍රනාන්දු රෙද්ද උස්සගෙන දැඟලුවේ ඩොලර් භක්තියෙන් විනා මානව භක්තියෙන් නොවන බව ඇත් දැකීම් අඩු තරුණයින් වූ අපිට පවා ඉතා පැහැදිලිව පෙනුනි.  

ඊළඟට ඔබ මෙසේ කියයි. “එහෙත් ඔවුන් තම දරුවන් උසස් අධ්‍යාපනය සඳහාද ජීවත් වීම සඳහාද යැව්වේ බටහිරටය.” නලින් ද සිල්වා හෝ ගුණදාස අමරසේකර මහත්වරුන්ගේ දරුවන් විදේශ ගතවී සිටිනවාදැයි මම නොදනිමි. විදේශ ගතවී සිටියත් මට නම් එහි වරදක් නොපෙනේ. එකල පැවතී හින්දු හා ජයින දර්ශනවාදී පදනම පැරදවීමට උවමනාව තිබූ නිසා බුදුන් වහන්සේ පවා ආලාර කාලාම, උද්දකරාම පුත්ත වෙත ගිය සේක. උන්වහන්සේ එසේ ගියේ, එකල පැවතී අග්‍රස්ථ දාර්ශනික සංස්ථා අභිභවා යාමට විනා එම දැනුමේ සිසුවකු වීමට නොවේ. එනයින් ගත් කල බටහිර දර්ශන වාදයේ යහපත හා අයහපත තේරුම් ගැනීමට නම් අප බටහිර දැනුම උකහා ගැනීම අවශ්‍ය වෙයි. වත්මන් ඇමෙරිකාවේ කෙතරම් චීන සිසු සිසුවියන් ඉගෙන ගන්නවාද කියා ඔබ දන්නවා යයි මට සැකය. තම අනාගත පරපුර චීනය විසින් දහස් ගණනින් අධ්‍යාපනය සඳහා ඇමෙරිකාවට එවන්නේ යම්කිසි හේතුවක් නිසා විය යුතුය. අනික බටහිර දැනුම තුල පවා කෙතරම් ජයග්‍රහණ මානව සංහතිය ලබා තිබෙනවාද. මගේ මතය නම්, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ආදරය කරන සියලු දෙනා හැකිනම් ලෝකයේ සියලු කලාපවල සැරිසරා දැනුම උකහා ගත යුතුය. එම දැනුම අපගේ දැනුම් සම්භාරයට ආදේශ කරගත යුතුය. නොවැදගත් යයි හැඟෙන දේ ඉවත් කොට එම දැනුම අපේ කර ගත යුතුය. මෙහි වරදක් මට නොපෙනේ.

ඔබ කරන මේ ඉහත ප්‍රකාශය එනම් නලීන් ද සිල්වා සහ ගුණදාස අමරසේකර තම දරුවන් උසස් අධ්‍යාපනය සඳහාද ජීවත් වීම සඳහාද යැව්වේ බටහිරටය” යන්න සාධාරණද කියා සිතා බලන්න? සුද්දාට අපව විවෙච්චනය කර කර, අපට උඩින් සහ යටින් වල කප කපා, ලංකාවේ ජීවත් විය හැක, ලංකාවට පැමිණිය හැක, ඉඩකඩම් මිලදී ගත හැක, ව්‍යාපාරද කල හැක. ජීවන මාර්ගය සලසා ගත හැක. නමුත් අපට, නලීන් ද සිල්වා , ගුණදාස අමරසේකර නොහැක. ඔබ සතුව සුද්දට එක ප්‍රතිපතියකුත් අපට තවත් ප්‍රතිපත්තියකුත් තිබෙන්නේ ඇයි? එසේ තිබිය නොහැක. එය අසාධාරණ ය.

ඔබ භාවිතා කරන ඉහත තර්කය ඉතා පැරණි තර්කයකි. එය භාවිතා කලේ එංගලන්තය ප්‍රංශය වැනි යටත්විජිත වාදී මව් රටවල් තමන්ට පමණක් සීමා කර ගැනීමට උත්සුක වූ, යටත්විජිත වාදීන්ට තම මනස හා සිරුර ක්‍රීඩා භාණ්ඩයක් ලෙස භාවිතා කිරීමට ඉඩහළ, සහ දැනටත් ඉඩහරින, රටක්, සංස්කෘතියක්, පවුලක් හෝ රැකගැනීමට දෙයක් නොමැති, අමරසේකර මහතාගේ වචනයෙන් කිවහොත් ‘තුප්පහියන්’ එහෙම නැතිනම්, හෝමි කේ. බාබා ගේ වචනයෙන් කිවහොත් ‘hybrid’ සුළුතරය වන කොළඹ ලුම්පන් සුලුතරයයි. බටහිර ජීවත් වන වෙනත් ආසියාතික, ලතින් ඇමෙරිකානු හෝ අප්‍රිකානු ජාතීන් අතර එවැනි ප්‍රශ්න නැත. ඔවුන් ඔවුන්ගේ මව් රට වල අයිතීන් සඳහා බටහිර රටවල සිට සටන් කරති. ඔවුන් බටහිර විවේචනය කරමින් එහි ජීවත් වෙති. හොඳම උදාහරණය වන්නේ පලස්තීන ජාතික Edward Said ය.

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග මහතාණෙනි, ඔබගේ තර්කය අනුව ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ආදරය කරන අයට බටහිරට යාමට සදාචාරාත්මක අයිතියක් නොමැත. එවැනි අය බටහිරට ගොස් තම රට වෙනුවෙන් සටන් කිරීම කුහක කමකි. නමුත් එම අයිතිය ඇත්තේ රට බෙදීමට සටන් කරන අයට පමණි. එනම්, ඊලාම් වාදීන්ට පමණි.  මොන තරම් කුහක තර්කයක්ද. ඔබගේ මේ ලිපිය බටහිර රටක තිබෙන තුන්වන ලෝකයේ රටවල ව්‍යසන ඇතිකිරීමේ අභිලාෂයෙන්ම මුදල් සපයන ආයතනයක් දුටුවානම්, ඔබට අලුතින්ම NGO ආයතනයක් විවුර්ත කරදී, ඩොලර් මිලියන ගණනින් මුදල් සපයනු ඇත. ඔබ මේ ලිපිය ලිවීමේ අරමුණ එයම නම්, මා එය විවේචනය කලාට අනේ දෙවියනේ මට සමාවෙන්න.   

බටහිර මේ දිනවල බහුලව ක්‍රියාත්මක වන සරණාගතයින් හා විදේශ සංක්‍රමණිකයන්ට එරෙහිව තැන තැන හටගත් සුදු මිනිසුන්ගේ විරෝධතා වලට ප්‍රති විරෝධය දක්වමින් පැවතී උද්ඝෝෂණයක තිබුණු සටන් පාටයක් පිළිබඳව ඉන්දීය දේශපාලන විචාරක ශෂී තරූර් (Shashi Tharoor) වරක් සඳහන් කලේ ඔහු දුටු විදේශීය සංක්‍රමණිකයන් හා සරණාගතයින්ගේ සටන් පාටයක මෙලෙස සටහන්ව තිබූ බවකි. “WE ARE HERE BECAUSE YOU WERE THERE” සාධාරණයි නේද ජයතුංගමහතාණෙනි? බටහිර ජාතීන් අපේ රට වලට විත් අපව කාබාසීනියා කල නිසාත්, අපේ සාරය උරාගෙන ගොස් අපව බංකොලොත් කොට ඔවුන්ගේ රටවල් ගොඩ නගපු නිසාත්, අපිට ඔවුන්ගේ රට වලට ගොස් ධනය ඉපයීමේ තහනමක් තිබිය නොහැක. අනික අපේ රට වල් බටහිර ජාතීනට තවමත් විවුර්තයි නේ? බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය යටත්විජිත කරණය තුලින් ඔවුන්ගේ යටත් විජිත් ජාතීන් නූතන යුගයට රැගෙන ගියාය කියා උදම් අනන අපගේ කොළඹ ජීවත්වන ඉංග්‍රීසි තෙපලන ආත්මයක් නැති අයගේ තර්කයට කදිම පිළිතුරක් පහත දැක්වෙන වීඩියෝවෙන් දැකගත හැක. කරුණාකර එය නරඹන්න.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL2Pa8OMML-D8geRbVpuEaxEZeCn0sZt41&time_continue=19&v=f7CW7S0zxv4

කෙසේ වුවත් ඔබ කියා ඇති පරිදි නලින් ද සිල්වා සහ ගුණදාස අමරසේකර යන අය හුදු ජෝකරයන් වන්නේ කෙසේද යන්න අප වැනි හුදී ජනයාගේ පටු දැනුම පුළුල් කර ගැනීම සඳහා කියා දෙනමෙන් වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග මහතාගෙන් අප උදක්ම ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

ඊළඟ චේදයෙන් ඔබ මෙසේ කියයි. “ප්‍රිංස්ටන් විශ්ව විද්‍යලයේ මහාචාර්‍ය ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර අන්තර් ජාතික කීර්තියට පත්වූ උගතෙකි.  ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර පිලිබඳව එංගලන්තයේ, ඇමරිකාවේ, කැනඩාවේ මෙන්ම ප්‍රංශයේ සිටින මා හඳුනන මනෝ විද්වතුන් අදහස් පළ කොට ඇත. උදාහරණ ලෙස එංගලන්තයේ ආචාර්‍ය ස්ටීවන් හීත්, ඇමරිකාවේ ආචාර්‍ය රොජර් බෘක් ,  කැනඩාවේ මහාචාර්‍ය රිචඩ් ලේලොන්ඩ් , කැනඩාවේ වෛද්‍ය එරික් ස්මඩ්ජා යන්නවුන් මා සමග ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර  ගේ කෘතීන් ගැන කතා කොට තිබේ. එහෙත් ගුණදාස අමරසේකර පිලිබඳව මා සමග කතා කොට ඇත්තේ දිවයින පුවත්පතේ පාඨකයන්‍ ය.  නලීන් ද සිල්වා පිලිබඳව මා සමග කතා කොට ඇත්තේ විදුසර පුවත් පතේ පාඨකයන් ය.” මෙය කියැවු මා තුල ඇතිවූ හැඟීම් මා මෙහි සටහන් නොකරමි. කෙසේ වුවද ඔබගේ මෙම ලිපිය මහාචාර්ය ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර මහතා ට දැකීමට ඉඩ සලසන්න. ඔහු විසින් ඔබට ප්‍රින්ස්ටන් විස්වා විද්‍යාලයේ පශ්චාත් උපාදියකට රෙකමදාරුවක් ලබා දීමට තරම් එය හේතු වීමට ඉඩ ඇත. මා මෙලෙස පවසන්නේ මීට සමාන දේවල් මීට පෙර මා දැක ඇති නිසාවෙනි. 

අවසානයේදී ඔබ මෙසේ කියයි. “මේ ත්‍රිත්වයෙන් ලංකාවට වටින්නේ ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර ය. අනෙක් දෙදෙනා ඉතිහාසයේ කුණු කූඩයට යාමට නියමිතය.” මෙය හාස්‍ය ජනක ප්‍රකාශයකි. ඔබ මෙහි සඳහන් කරන්නේ මොන ඉතිහාසයේ කුනුකූඩය ගැනද වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග මහතාණෙනි?  එය මොන කුණු කුනුකූඩයද යන්න ඔබ පැහැදිලිව සඳහන් කල යුතුය.  මන්ද, විවිධාකාර ඉතිහාසසයේ කුණු ගොඩවල් තිබිය හැකි නිසාවෙනි.

ජයතුංග මහතාණෙනි, ඉතිහාසකරණය (historiography) යනු ඉමහත් සංකීර්ණ කර්තව්‍යයකි. එය දේශපාලන කර්තව්‍යයකි. ඉතිහාස කරණයේ යෙදෙන පාර්ශ්වයට අනුව, ඉතිහාසයක ආඛ්‍යානය වෙනස් විය හැක. ඔවුන් දෙදෙනා වැටෙන්නට නියමිත වී තිබෙන්නේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව පිළිබඳව ඉන්දියාව විසින් රචනා කෙරෙන ඉතිහාසයක ඉන්දියානු කුණු කූඩයටද, බටහිර කුණු කූඩයටද එහෙමත් නැතිනම් ඔබේ කුණු කූඩයටද? කරුණාකර මට අනුමාන කිරීමට ඉඩ දෙන්න. මේ ඔබ සඳහන් කරන්නේ ඔබේ කුණු කූඩය ගැන නේද රුවන් මංගල ජයතුංග මහතාණෙනි? කෙසේවුවත් ඔබට මෙන්ම අපටත් කුණුකුඩ තිබෙන බව අමතක නොකරනු මැනව.

මෙයින් කියවෙන්නේ ඔබේ කුණු කූඩය සහ මගේ කුණු කූඩය අතර අහසට පොලොව මෙන් වෙනසක් පවතින බවය. ප්‍රිය ජයතුංග මහතාණෙනි, කරුණාකර ඔබගේ කුණු කූඩයේ සිටින අන් අය කවරෙක්දැයි නැවත පරීක්ෂා කර බලන්න. ඇතැම්විට, වැරදීමකින් දුටුගැමුණු, දෙවෙනි රාජසිංහ, විමලධර්මසූරිය, අනගාරික ධර්මපාල, මුනිදාස කුමාරතුංග, කන්නන්ගර, අමරදේව වැනි අයත් එහි සිටීමට ඉඩ ඇත. එවැනි අය එහි සිට ඔබට හමු වුවහොත්, කරුණාකර ඔවුන් කහ වතුරෙන් සෝදා, ඔබගේ බුදු පහන ලඟින් තැන්පත් කොට, හැමදා සවසට මල් පහන් තියා වඳින්න. ඔබ එසේ කිරීමට අකමැතිනම්  අපගේ කුනුකූඩ අප දෙදෙනා අතර හුවමාරු කර ගැනීමට හෝ එකඟ වන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටිමි. එවිට මගේ කුණු කූඩයේ සිටින බොහෝ අය ඔබගේ බුදු පහන ලඟින් තැන්පත් කොට නිති පතා නැමදීමට ඔබට හැකි වනු ඇත.  

ප්‍රිය ජයතුංග මහතාණෙනි. මා ඔබ තරුණයෙක්ද, වියපත් අයෙක්ද කියා නොදනිමි. නමුත් ඔබගේ ලිපි වලට අනුව, ඔබ අවම තරමින් මැදි වයසේ පසු වෙතයි මා සිතමි. ඔබගේ අදහස් තුලින් මා ඔබ තුල නලියන ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකත්වය දකිමි. ඔබතුල සිටින ගැමි තාරුණ්‍යය වටහා ගනිමි. නමුත් ඔබගේ මතවාදී අදහසකට මගේ ඇති මතවාදී වෙනස නිසා ඔබව සම්පූර්ණයෙන් බැහැර කිරීමට මම මැළි වෙමි. මන්ද, ඔබගේ අර ඉහත කී ගැමි තාරුණ්‍යයේ ඇති කලහකාරී බුද්ධිමය කුතුහලයට මම ආදරය කරන නිසාය. අහෝ, අප රැක ගත යුත්තේ මොනවාද, බැහැරකළ යුතේ මොනවාද කියා ඔබ වැන්නන් නිවැරදිව දකින්නේ නම්, ඉමහත් තර්ජනයට ලක්ව ඇති ශ්‍රී ලංකා මාතාවට විශාල හයියක් නොවේද?  ඒ පිළිබඳව නැවත සිතා බලන්න.

ඔබ ඉදිරියේ පවතින බව මවිසින් මීට පෙර සඳහන් කල අභියෝගය තවමත් වලංගු අභියෝගයකි. නලීන් ද සිල්වා, ගුණදාස අමරසේකර මහතුනට එරෙහිව ඔබ එල්ල කල චෝදනා හා අපකීර්තියට ලක් කරන ප්‍රකාශ ඔප්පු කිරීම හා සාධාරණී කරණය කිරීම ඔබගේ සදාචාරාත්මක වගකීමකි. එම ලිපි ඔබ විසින් ඉදිරි දිනවලදී ලංකා වෙබ් ෆෝරමය තුල පල කරනු ඇතැයි අප අපේක්ෂා කරන අතර, එවන් කතිකාවතකට මුල පිරීම තුලින් සත්‍ය කුමක්ද යන්න හෙළි කර ගැනීමට අප සැමට ඉන් මහඟු අවස්තාවක් උදා වෙනු ඇත. ඔබට ස්තුතියි

දේශනයක් ඇසුරෙන් ලීවේ හර්ෂනී අර්සකුලරත්න

“අද අගමැති ප්‍රමුඛ ආණ්ඩුවක් තිබුණත් රාජකාරි කටයුතු කළ නොහැකියි. මේ තත්ත්වය යටතේ තවදුරටත් රට අගාධයකට වැටීමට ඉඩනොදී ගලවගන්න අවශ්‍ය නම් ස්ථාවර ආණ්ඩුවක් අත්‍යවශ්‍ය වෙනවා. නව ආරම්භයක් අත්‍යවශ්‍ය වෙනවා. රට තුළ තිබෙන වාතාවරණය වෙනස් කළ යුතු වෙනවා.

ඒ වගේම පත්වන ආණ්ඩුවට ශක්තියක් වගකීමක් හා නායකත්වයක් මෙන්ම පුළුල් ආර්ථික දැක්මක් තිබිය යුතුයි. පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුව රට වට්ටවා ඇති ආර්ථික අගාධයෙන් ගොඩ ගැනීමට ඒ නිසා මූලිකවම කළ යුතු වන්නේ රට තුළ ස්ථාවරයක් ඇතිකොට නව දැක්මක් හරහා ආර්ථිකයට සම්බන්ධ අයට නව බලාපොරොත්තු ලබා දීමයි.

මේ ගැන සිතා බලා ජනාධිපතිවරයා ගත් උත්සාහයට මා අවංකවම ස්තුතිවන්ත වෙනවා. නව අගමැතිවරයා පත් කිරීම හරහා බිහිවුණු කෙටිකාලීන රජයකින් මේවා සාර්ථකව ඉටු කරගැනීමට නොහැකි නිසයි ජනාධිපතිවරයා හැකි ඉක්මනින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවීමට ජනතාවට බලය දීමට සූදානම් වුණේ. එය එසේ වූවා නම් ජනතාවට අවශ්‍ය ලෙස නව ආණ්ඩුවක් පත්කරගෙන පවතින අඳුරු කාලය ජනවාරි 05දා වනවිට අවසන් කරගන්න හැකියාව තිබුණා.

රටේ අස්ථාවර භාවය කෙටි කාලයක් පමණයි එවිට පැවැතීමට නියමිතව තිබුණේ. එහෙම වුණා නම් ඒ කෙටි කාලයෙන් පසුව රටේ ආර්ථිකය හරි දිශානතියකට ගෙන යා හැකි වුණා. අවාසනාවන්ත ලෙස නීතිමය අභියෝග එල්ල වීමත් සමඟ රට කෙටි කලකින් ස්ථාවර කරගැනීමේ අවස්ථාවත් ගිලිහුණා.

මෙහෙම දිගින් දිගටම සිදුවුණොත් රට දැවැන්ත අර්බුදයක් කරා ගමන් කරයි. මේ අර්බුදය තව තවත් දීර්ඝ වුණොත් රටේ ආර්ථිකයට දැවැන්ත පරිහානියක් සිදුවෙන්නේ.

රටේ මෙවැනි ආර්ථික අර්බුදයක් ඇතිවන බවට පෙර පැවැති ආණ්ඩුවට අපිම විටින් විට අනතුරු ඇඟෙව්වා. ඔවුන් ඒවා කනකටවත් ගත්තෙ නෑ. පසුගිය වසරේ ජූලි මාසයේදී අපි අනාවැකි කිහිපයක්ම පළ කළා. මේ වනවිට ඒවා සත්‍ය වෙලා. අපි එදා කිව්වා මෙරට විදෙස් සංචිත අඩුවෙමින් පවතින්නේ, මේක භයානක තත්ත්වයක් කියලා. එවිට විවිධ අය ඒක බොරු කිව්වා. 2014 වර්ෂයේ අගවෙද්දි ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් බිලියන 8ක් රටේ තිබ්බා. ඒක 2017දී ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් 7 දක්වා අඩු වුණා. හරිනම් මේ වෙද්දි විදෙස් සංචිත ඩොලර් බිලියන 12ක් රටේ පැවැතිය යුතු වුණා. විවිධ ආකාරවලට ඒවා එවකට ආණ්ඩු විසින් කාබාසිනියා කරලා දාද්දි අපි පැවැසුවා හැකි ඉක්මනින් වැඩි කරගන්න කියලා. කියන දේවල් ඔවුන් ඇහුවෙ නෑ. මේ තත්ත්වය තුළ රුපියල මස්තබාල්දු වෙයි කියලා අපි කිව්වා.

ණය ශේ්‍රණිගත කරන ෆිච්, මුඩීස් වැනි ආයතන ඔවුන්ගේ වාර්තාවලින් මෙරට ශේ්‍රණීන් පහත හෙළයි කියලා. ඊට මුකුත්ම නොකර දේශපාලනික හේතූන් මත එහෙම කරනවා කියලා චෝදනා කළා.

ඒ වගේම අය වැය පරතරය ඉහළ යන බව පෙන්වා දුන්නා. රට තුළ ව්‍යාපාර කඩා වැටීම නිසා ඔවුන් ගෙවන බදු ප්‍රමාණයන් අඩුවෙනවා, රටේ බහුතර ව්‍යාපාර කඩාවැටෙන බව අපි කිව්වා. 2018 වසරේ දෙවැනි හා තෙවැනි කාර්තුවලදී ලැයිස්තුගත සමාගම් සෑම එකකම ලාභ 10%කින් අඩුවෙලා තිබ්බා. මේක අපි දැක්කා, ඒ වගේම කිව්වා. මේකට කිසිම පිළියමක් යෙදුවෙත් නෑ.

රජයේ ආදායම් අඩු වුණාට රජයේ ගෙවීම් අඩු වුණේ නෑ. කළයුතු ගෙවීම් කරද්දි පරතරය වැඩි වෙනවා. එවිට ගන්න ණය ප්‍රමාණය වැඩිවෙනවා. ගෙවිය යුතු පොලී අනුපාත වැඩිවෙනවා.
ඒ වගේම රටේ අනෙකුත් ශේ්‍රණිගත කිරීම්වලින් පහළට යන බවත් පැවැති ආණ්ඩුවට අපි පෙන්නලා දුන්නා. නීතියේ ආධිපත්‍ය සම්බන්ධව දකුණු ආසියාවේ 1 වැනි ස්ථානයේ සිටි ශ්‍රී ලංකාව 3 වැනි තැනට වැටුණා. ලෝකේ 48 වැනි තැනෙන් 68 වැනි තැනට වැටුණා.

ආර්ථික නිදහස සම්බන්ධව දකුණු ආසියාවෙන් 1 වැනි ස්ථානයේ සිට 2 වැනි ස්ථානයටත් ලෝකයෙන් 90 සිට 102 වැනි ස්ථානයටත් වැටුණා.

ජාත්‍යන්තර තරගකාරීත්වය සම්බන්ධව දකුණු ආසියාවේ 1 වැනි ස්ථානය හිමි කරගත් අපි 2 වැනි තැනට වැටුණා. ලෝකයෙන්ම 68 වැනි තැනින් 85 වැනි ස්ථානයට වැටුණා.

ට්‍රාන්ස්පේරන්සි ඉන්ටර්නැෂනල් ආයතනයේ එළි දක්වන දූෂණ ප්‍රත්‍යක්ෂය සම්බන්ධව දකුණු ආසියාවේ අපි හිටියේ 2 වැනි තැන. අපි 2018 දී 3 වැනි තැනට වැටුණා. ලෝකෙන්ම 85 වැනි තැනේ හිටිය අපි 95 වැනි ස්ථානයට වැටුණා.

මේ විදියට හැම පැත්තකින්ම රටේ ආර්ථිකය දිගින් දිගටම කඩා වැටෙමින් තිබුණා. අපි වසරින් වසර මේ කඩා වැටීම සිදුවූ ආකාරය පෙන්වා දුන්නා. මෙහෙම වෙලා අද අපි අමාරු තත්ත්වයකටයි ඇද වැටිලා තියෙන්නේ.
මෙතැනදි තවත් එක් ලොකු ගැටලුවක් තිබුණා මීට බලපාපු. ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදලට අනුව අපට අපේ රටේ ආර්ථික ප්‍රතිපත්ති වෙනස් කරන්න බැහැ. අපිත් ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය අරමුදලෙන් ණය ගත්තත් අපි ඔවුන්ගේ ප්‍රතිපත්තිවලට එකඟ වුණේ නැතිවයි වැඩ කළේ. මෙවර වුණේ එහි ප්‍රතිපත්ති අනුව වැඩ කරලා දරුණු ප්‍රපාතයකට ඇද වැටුණා.

ඒ වගේම 2014 අගවෙද්දි රුපියල් ටි්‍රලියන 7ක් වුණු ණය බර 2018 සැප්තැම්බර් අගවෙද්දී රුපියල් ටි්‍රලියන 12ක් දක්වා වැඩි වුණා.

දළ දේශීය නිෂ්පාදිතයට සාපේක්ෂව 2014දී තිබුණු ණය බර 71% සිට 90% දක්වා වැඩි වුණා. බැඳුම්කරවල තිබූ පොලී අනුපාත සියල්ල අපට ඉසිලිය හැකි ස්ථානවලයි තිබුණෙ. සියලු පොලී අනුපාත තිබුණෙ තනි ඉලක්කමෙන්. මාස තුනේ භාණ්ඩාගාර බිල්පත්වලට ගෙවූ පොලී අනුපාතය 5.6%යි.

අවුරුදු 30 භාණ්ඩාගාර බැඳුම්කරවලට ගෙවපු පොලී අනුපාතය 9.3%යි. එහෙම තිබුණු පොලී අනුපාත සියල්ලම බැඳුම්කර වංචාවෙන් පස්සෙ ඉතා ඉක්මනින් ඉතා දරුණු ලෙස ඉහළ ගියා.

ඒ වැඩිවීම හරහා අපේ රටේ අය-වැයට දරුණු පීඩනයක් එල්ල වුණා. එයින් පසුව අපිට පෙනුණේ ඒ තත්ත්වය මඟ හරවාගන්න බැරි තත්ත්වයක් බව. ඉන් අනතුරුව දිගටම පොලී අනුපාතය ඉහළ ගියා.

පොලී අනුපාතය ඉහළ ගියාම අපට හිතාගන්න පුළුවන් කෙතරම් පීඩනයක් රටේ අය වැයට දැනෙනවද? අපේ රටේ ජනතාවට දැනෙනවද කියලා. 2014 අග වනවිට නිවෙසක් හදන්නට අයෙක් යම් පොලී අනුපාතයකට ණයක් ගත්ත නම් ඒක 10%යි. නැත්තම් 11%යි වුණේ. අද ඒක 17%යි. මෝටර් සයිකලයක් ලීස් කළා නම් ඒ කාලෙ ගෙවිය යුතු පොලී අනුපාත වුණේ 12%යි. 13%යි. අද 22%, 23%, 24%යි.

එසේ පොලී අනුපාතය ඉහළ ගියාම තිබෙන පීඩනය, අවදානම වැඩියි. ව්‍යාපාරවලට පාඩුයි. ඒවා කරගෙන යන්න බැරි තත්ත්වයක් එනවා.
ඒ විතරක් නෙවෙයි බොල් ණය වැඩි වුණා. සියලු බැංකු පෙන්වා දුන්නා ඒ අයගේ ආයෝජන කලඹවල බොල් ණය වැඩිවෙමින් පවතින බව. ඒ කාලෙ රාජ්‍ය සම්පත් කුණු කොල්ලයට විකුණන්න පටන් ගත්තා. මොකද? වෙන විකල්පයක් නැහැ.

2014 වර්ෂයේදී සියලු බදු එකතු කළ විට රුපියල් ටි්‍රලියන 1යි තිබ්බේ. රුපියල් ටි්‍රලියන 1ට තිබ්බ බදු බර 2018 වනවිට ටි්‍රලියන 2 දක්වා අවුරුදු 4කින් ඩබල් කරලා තියෙනවා.
දේශීය සහ විදේශීය නව ආයෝජන නතර වුණා. අලුතින් ආයෝජන ආවෙ නෑ. මේ බව කොළඹ වටේ ගිහින් බැලුවොත් පේනවා.

බැඳුම්කර මගඩිය නිසා දැවැන්ත මූල්‍ය දූෂණ පවතින බව ලෝකයටම හෙළි වුණා. එයත් විශාල බලපෑමක් මෙරට ආර්ථිකයට එල්ල කළා.

අපි ඒ අනාවැකි සමඟම ඊට පසුව සිදුවන දේවල් ටිකත් කිව්වා. ව්‍යාපාර තවදුරටත් කඩා වැටෙන බව අපි පෙන්වා දුන්නා. ආණ්ඩුව බලාපොරොත්තු වන ආදායම ලැබෙන්නේ නැහැ කියලත් අපි කිව්වා. විදෙස් ආයෝජකයන් ඉක්මනින්ම තමන්ගේ ආයෝජන පාඩුවට හෝ විකුණා මුදල් රැගෙන පිටරටවලට යන බව අපි පෙන්වා දුන්නා. ශේ්‍රණිගත කරන ආයතන ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ශේ්‍රණීන් පහළ හෙළන බව අපි කිව්වා.

ණය බරතාව තවදුරටත් ඉහළ යන බව අපි පෙන්වා දුන්නා. රුපියල තවදුරටත් කඩා වැටෙන බව අපි සඳහන් කළා. පොලී අනුපාතය ශීඝ්‍රයෙන් වැඩිවන බව කිව්වා. කොටස් වෙළෙඳපොළ කඩා වැටෙන බව, රැකියා ජීවනෝපායන් දස දහස් ගණනින් අහිමි වන බව අපි කිව්වා.

මේ සියලු දේ අපි සිදුවීමට පෙර කිව්වා. අවසානයේ එයම වුණා.

මේ තත්ත්වය තුළ ජනාධිපතිතුමා ඔක්තෝබර් 26 වැනිදා ඒ ආණ්ඩුව වෙනස් කළහම අපට කළ යුතුව පැවැති දේවල් තිබුණා.

ණය උගුලෙන් ගැලවෙන්නට නම් ආර්ථිකයට නව පණක් දිය යුතුව තිබුණා. ඒ කියන්නේ ආර්ථිකය හසුරුවන අය පමණක් නෙවෙයි ආ
ර්ථිකයේ කොටස්කරුවන්ව යළි පුබුදුවාලීම අවශ්‍යයි.

මේ ආර්ථිකමය කටයුතු එක රැයකින්, ක්‍ෂණයකින් සිදුවන දේවල් නෙවෙයි. ඒ සඳහා හරි විදියට යොමු වූ විට ඒවා කෙරෙන්න පටන් ගන්නවා.

එහෙම කරගෙන යද්දී යම් සාධක තිබෙනවා. ඒවා ගැනත් සිතීමට අවශ්‍යයි.

මෙහෙම කරන්න නම් රට තුළ ස්ථාවර ආණ්ඩුවක් තිබීම අවශ්‍යයි. අපට මැතිවරණයක් අවශ්‍යයි. ඒ ඔස්සේ ස්ථාවර ආණ්ඩුවක් බිහිකර ගැනීමයි කාලීන අවශ්‍යතාව. කවුරු වුණත් කමක් නෑ. ස්ථාවර ආණ්ඩුවක් තියෙනවා නම් මේ ආර්ථිකමය ප්‍රතිපත්ති රටට ඔබින විදියට ගොනු කරලා ඒවා හරහා වාසි ලබා ගන්න අපිට හැකි වේවි.

ආණ්ඩුවේ අනවශ්‍ය වියදම් කපා හැරිය යුතු බව අපි යෝජනා කළා. මෙවැනි විසඳුම් හරහා රුපියල ස්ථාවර වේවි. පොලී අනුපාතය අඩු වේවි. ව්‍යාපාර වැඩිවේවි. ආයතනවලින් සේවකයන්ට රැකියාදීම ඉහළ යාවි කියලා අපි සැලසුම් සහිතව ක්‍රියාවට නැංවිය යුතු දේ ගොනු කරලයි තිබුණේ.

රටට මෙහෙම වෙද්දී ජනාධිපති නව අගමැතිවරයෙක් කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලයක් පත් කළා. එවැනි කෙටි කාලීන ආණ්ඩුවකින් සැලසුම් සාර්ථක කරගන්න බැරි බව තේරුම් ගත් ජනාධිපතිවරයා හැකි ඉක්මනින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවලා නව ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවා ගැනීමට ජනතාවට බලය දීමට යොමු වුණේ. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවන්න නොවැම්බර් 09දා ජනාධිපතිතුමා ගැසට්ටුවක් නිකුත් කරලා 2019 ජනවාරි 05දා මැතිවරණයක් පවත්වා නව රජයක් පිහිටුවන්නට එතුමා කටයුතු කළා.

ඒ ඔස්සේ සිදුවෙන්න තිබුණේ මොකක්ද? ජනතාවට ඕන විදියට නව ආණ්ඩුවක් බිහිවී ඒ ආණ්ඩුවට මේ තීරණ අරගෙන ඉදිරි කටයුතු කිරීමේ හැකියාව ඇති වෙනවා. කෙටි කාලයක් තුළ ප්‍රශ්නවලට මුහුණදීලා ජනතාවට දෙන්න පුළුවන් වුණා නව හැඟීමක්. අවිනිශ්චිත තත්ත්වය ඉවරයි, ඉන් පසුව අපට ඉදිරියට යන්න පුළුවන් කියලා.

මට තියෙන අත්දැකීම් හරහා මම මේ කියන්නේ. වසර 9ක් මේ රටේ මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයා ලෙස සේවය කරන්න මට පුළුවන් වුණා. ඒ කාලෙදි අපේ රටේ ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් බිලියන 24ක්ව තිබූ දළ දේශීය නිෂ්පාදනය ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් බිලියන 79 දක්වා වැඩි කර ගැනීමට හැකි වුණා. අපේ සංචිත ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් බිලියන 2.6 සිට බිලියන 8.2 දක්වා වැඩි කරගන්න අපට පුළුවන් වුණා. අපේ රුපියලේ අව ප්‍රමාණය සිදුවුණේ වසරකට 2.8ක් පමණයි. දැන් දවස් දෙක තුනකට සැරයක් 2.8ක් රුපියල අව ප්‍රමාණය වෙනවා.

2006 වර්ෂයේ සිට 2014 වසර දක්වා අපි දැවැන්ත අභියෝගවලට මුහුණ දුන්නා. ඒවා අපි බොහොම හොඳට කළමනාකරණය කර ගත්තා.

එවැනි වාතාවරණයක් අපට ඇති කරගන්න පුළුවන් වුණේ අපි බොහොම කල්පනාකාරීව රටේ ආර්ථිකය කළමනාකරණය කරපු නිසයි. අද එහෙම තත්ත්වයක් නෑ. අපට දැන් අවශ්‍ය නැවත වරක් මේ රට ස්ථාවරත්වය කරා ගෙන යන්න.

දේශනයක් ඇසුරෙන් ලීවේ
හර්ෂනී අර්සකුලරත්න

Sheain Fernandopulle Courtesy The Daily Mirror

UPFA MP Keheliya Rambukwella said that they don’t accept the motion of confidence presented and passed in support of United National Party (UNP) Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe in Parliament today.

Addressing a news briefing, MP Rambukwella said they were not in a position to accept anything done and said in ‘an illegal and undemocratic parliament’.

Anything passed in this parliament becomes null and void. That is the very reason why we have been boycotting the parliamentary sessions,” Rambukwella said.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya has been partial and bias to the UNP and acted according to their agenda in Parliament which is undemocratic,” the MP said.

He added that the Speaker had violated the Democracy, the Standing Orders and the Tradition of parliament when considering his recent tactics.

That’s why we reiterate that the only solution to resolve this prevailing political impasse is to let people elect their representatives by way of a general election,” he said.

Kelum Bandara Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said today that its support for the vote of confidence on United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was conditional to the granting of power devolution to the north and the east, the release of political prisoners and the land.

TNA MP for Jaffna district Dharmalingam Sidaththan told Daily Mirror that his party extended conditional support for Mr. Wickremesinghe to get the required majority to become the Prime Minister.

Mr. Sidaththan said these were usual demands of the TNA right throughout.

We asked for power devolution. It means the constitution making process should continue,” he said.

Also, he said there were lands to be released in the north.

It is not only the lands held by the military but also the private lands earmarked by the archaeological authorities. Besides, there are private lands held by authorities as national parks. All land issues should be addressed,” he said.

He said the TNA put forward a condition that all development work in the north should be coordinated with his party.

Sheain Fernandopulle Courtesy The Daily Mirror

While claiming that the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary can’t find a solution to the prevailing political impasse, UPFA MP Dullas Alahapperuma said it was only the people who could bring to an end this crisis by way of a General Election.

Addressing a news briefing, he said these three pillars of democracy had failed to end this crisis which had almost reached its climax.

The prevailing political crisis has become worse and none of these three have been able to sort this out. The only option left is to go for a general election and let people elect their representatives,” MP Alahapperuma said.

The UNP is saying that the solution to resolve this crisis is to have a presidential election. The presidential election won’t become an effective method whatsoever to end this political turmoil. It would only make it worse,” MP Alahapperuma added.

He further said that the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary comprise of 1, 225 and 335 members respectively whereas there are nearly 16 million people who have the franchise.

Therefore, it is apparent that people should be given the opportunity by way of a general election to resolve this crisis by which the country can start a new political chapter,” he added.

Meanwhile, he said the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) had no moral rights to be in the Opposition in Parliament because they voted in favour of the motion of confidence presented in support of Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday.

The TNA should forgo their post in the Opposition if this Parliament is to continue any further,” he added.

By Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island

Avote of confidence in ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, taken up in Parliament, yesterday, was passed with 117 MPs voting in favour of it and no votes against it as government MPs continued their boycott of the House.

All UNF MPs voted for the motion. The JVP MPs who were present abstained from voting. TNA MP Siavashakthi Anandan too abstained from voting while his party members voted with the UNP.

The motion extending support to Wickremesinghe was presented to Parliament by UNP Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa. It had been signed by MPs Sajith Premadasa, Ravi Karunanayake, Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, Lakshman Kiriella, Dr. Rajitha Senaratne, Palany Thigambaram, Mangala Samaraweera and Rishad Bathiudeen. The vote of confidence said: “That this House resolves that Ranil Wickremesinghe, Member of Parliament, commands the confidence of Parliament to function as the Prime Minister.”

UNP leader Wickremesinghe thanking TNA leader R. Sampanthan after the latter’s grouping voted for the UNP in parliament yesterday (pic by Kamal Bogoda)

Moving the motion for debate MP Premadasa said that it should be taken up for a vote yesterday itself. He spoke for nearly one hour. The motion was seconded by MP Mangala Samaraweera.

TNA MP Mavai Senathiraja, too, spoke in favour of the motion. JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake stated that his party had nothing to do with the motion. MPs Ravi Karunanayake and Gayantha Karunathilaka too spoke for the motion and debate came to an end around 2.50 pm.

Thereafter the motion was put for a vote.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya announcing the results said that the motion had been approved by 117 MPs and Wickremesinghe commanded the confidence of the Parliament to function as the Prime Minister.

Wickremesinghe thanked all those who had voted for the motion and sessions of parliament were adjourned around 3.05 pm till 1 pm on Dec 18.

Courtesy Adaderana

A petition has been filed with the Court of Appeal requesting the court to issue a Writ of Quo Warranto preventing Ranil Wickremesinghe from being a Member of Parliament.

The petition has been filed by Sharmila Gonawala, the Co-President of ‘Women for Justice’.

Leader of the United National Party (UNP) Ranil Wickremesinghe, UNP General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam and the Secretary General of Parliament are among the four respondents named in the petition.

The petitioner states that according to the provisions of the Constitution, it has been interpreted that MPs who engage in businesses by entering into contracts with state institutions are deemed disqualified from holding a set in Parliament.

She further states that she has received information that MP Ranil Wickremesinghe is a shareholder of Lake House group and that Lake House Printers and Publishers PLC, a company in that group, is engaged in the business of printing of check leaves for the state-owned Bank of Ceylon and People’s Bank.

The petitioner hence argues that by doing business after entering into contracts with Bank of Ceylon and People’s Bank, as a shareholder of Lake House, Ranil Wickremesinghe has become ineligible to hold a seat in parliament.

She states that as per Constitutional provisions, under this condition Wickremesinghe is not qualified to hold office as a Member of Parliament (MP).

The petition also refers to a similar petition which had been filed by the then deputy minister Dilan Perera and Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe in 1999 against UNP MP Dr. Rajitha Senaratne, who lost his seat as a result.

Diannah Paramour Australia

Ayubowan

I feel a burning need to talk about Sharmini Sereasinghe.

I guess she’s been sheltered her entire life from the hard facts surrounding Sri Lanka’s grandiose yet terrifying history.

Those whose blood soaks the white sands are that of soldiers who gave their lives in service, in service to save everyone, including her.

As if her article a few years back defaming and insulting the Monks wasn’t enough, now the nasty pen scribbles away yet more hate.

In regards to His Excellency Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa I think she must be so immensely jealous of him that she sees no other recourse other than humiliating herself with her nasty words against him.

You all know, even the enemy knows that we all touched his feet for his bravery in ending the terrorist war.

With his hands towards the international community to help, alas Sri Lanka was alone in her darkest days, it took only sheer bravery to stop the war.

As to his brother Goatabya Rajapaksa, it was his brains outstanding ability for strategy and empathy for all concerned that allowed the kidnapped citizens to be released, it was not his fault that people died, when terrorists unleash their evil, of course people will die after all it was a war zone.

The combination of the two Rajapaksa brothers does not make for a dictatorship, it will be a strong bind that the people understand, when some are still running a mockery of their dedication to you all, unwise mouths like Sharmini dare to flap out ugly words against them, I’m astounded.

As to her continual condemnation of Sri Lankan Monks….

What’s her genuine problem?

Does she seek to strip every single tradition of reverence until nothing is left except a dust bowl of lost opportunities?

Just remember your ancestors and how with dignity your Kings lay their heads down for evil colonial execution.

Does that kind of ultimate gift to Serendip only exist in storybooks?

Or are you prepared to be brave enough to speak up in protection of your Monks and all those who died in the war?

Does Sharmini wish for every Monk to be vanished in some ‘tragedy’ or do they change their direction to help her bit by bit dismantle Sinhala Buddhism?

We have a saying down here:

‘Never pick up mud from the ground and throw it in your own face’

Yes Sharmini you have done just this.

Please, I think deep down she might be a kind person but I’ve yet to see one inch of foresight.

If….

‘Whoever holds the sacred Buddha tooth relic, rules the country’

Then move out of their way Sharmini and stop trying to sell articles by insulting those who meant you no harm.

Without the Rajapaksa brothers bravery you too would be dead right now, in my eyes you are a traitor to the Pearl of the Indian Ocean and all her people.

Trust me, this is not the way to bring about reconciliation and long lasting peace.

Peace be with you Sharmini, just try it for once.

You are a very rude disrespectful little girl, your family must be extremely ashamed of you.

From:

Without prejudice

Diannah Paramour

Australia

By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror/newsin.asia

චාමර ලක්ෂාන් කුමාර

මේ සටහන ලිවීමට පෙලඹවූයේ එංගලන්තයේ සිටින මනීෂ චාමර අමරසේකර තම මුහුණුපොත ගිණුමට තැබු සටහනක් මා තුළ ඇතිකළ කම්පනයයි. සැතපුම් දහස් ගණනක් ඈතින් සිටිය ද තවමත් රට තොට සිදුවන දෑ පිළිබඳ උනන්දුවෙන් සිටින්නකු වන මනීෂ කොටා” තිබු සටහන සැබැවින්ම, සංවේදී එකක් ම විය. ඔහු ලියා තිබුණේ නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනයේ පියා ලෙස සැලකෙන සී ඩබ්ලිව් ඩබ්ලිව් කන්නන්ගර මහතා පිළිබඳවය. චේ ගැන පොස්ට් දුටුවෙමි. සැමරුම් උත්සව පාපැදි සවාරි දුටුවෙමි. ඔහු ලංකාවට හෝ මෙහි මිනිසුන්ට කළ දෙයක් මා නම් අසා නැත. පසුගිය 13 වැනිදා නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනයේ පියා වන කන්නන්ගර මහතාගේ 132 වැනි ජන්ම දිනය යෙදී තිබිණි. සැමරුම් නැත. පොස්ට් නැත. නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනයේ අයිතිකරුවන් වී සිටින අන්තරයට අදාළම නැත. කැම්පස්වල චේ ගේ රූපය ඇතිමුත් කන්නන්ගරගේ රූපය නැත. ඔහු නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපන පනත හඳුන්වා දෙන විට ජවිපෙ, එජාප හෝ ශ්‍රීලනිපය බිහි වී වත් නැත. බණ්ඩාරනායකලා, සේනානායකලා, රාජපක්ෂලා, ඉල්මහ විරුවන් සමරන රටේ එතුමා ගැන පුවතක්වත් පළ නොවීම කනගාටුදායකය. එතුමා නොසිටින්නට අද බහුතරයක් අයට චේ සමරන්න තියා චේ වචනයවත් කියවීමට හැකියාවක් නොතිබෙන්නට තිබිණි. ලංකාව වටේ ඇති අනිත් රටවල සාක්ෂරතාව බැලීම පමණක් මා කියන දෙය තේරුම් ගැනීමට ඉවහල් වනු ඇත.” (උපුටා ගැනුම අවසන්).

මේ රට වෙනුවෙන් කිසිදු සාධනීය මැදිහත් වීමක් සිදු කර නොමැති පුද්ගලයන් සැමරීමට දින ගණන් කාලය කා දමන රටක පිටු ගණන් කඩදාසි කොළ නාස්ති කරන පැය ගණන් තම මාධ්‍ය අවකාශය අවභාවිතාවේ යොදවන රටක සී ඩබ්ලිව් ඩබ්ලිව් කන්නන්ගර වැනි මාහැඟි සේවාවක් මේ රට වෙනුවෙන් කළ පුද්ගලයකු අමතක වීම යනු එක් අතකින් විමතිය දනවන කාරණයක් ම නොවේ. තාක්ෂණයෙන් ඩිජිටල් වූවත් සංස්කෘතියෙත් තවමත් ගල් යුගයේ ජීවත් වන ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයන්ගේ සැබෑ ස්වභාවය මෙයයි. එසේ කියා ආචාර්ය සී ඩබ්ලිව් ඩබ්ලිව් කන්නන්ගර වැන්නකු පහසුවෙන් අපට අමතක කළ හැකි ද යන්න පැහැදිලි ප්‍රශ්නාර්ථයකි. ඒ ඔහු මේ රට වෙනුවෙන් කර ඇති අද්විතීය මෙහෙවර දෙස අවධානය යොමු කරන ‍කලය.

වචනයේ පරිසමාප්ත අර්ථයෙන්ම දැවැන්ත විප්ලවයක් කන්නන්ගර මහතාගේ මැදිහත් වීම තුළ මෙරට සමාජ දේහය තුළ සිදු විණි. නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපන පනත හඳුන්වා දෙමින් අධ්‍යාපනයට ප්‍රවේශ වීමට ඇති අයිතිය ඈත ගම්බද දරුවන්ට ලබා දීම තුළ සිදු වූ විප්ලවය පිළිබඳව අටුවා ටීකා ටිප්පණි පැවසීම අවශ්‍ය නැත. කැලේ පිපුණු මල් කැලේම පර වී නොයන්නට එය ඉඩ සැලසුවේය. තවත් සරලව කිවහොත් නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනය නොතිබිණි නම් ඈත ගම්වල අති බහුතරයක් දෙනා අධිපති ගෙවල්වල මෙහෙකරුවන් වන්නට ඉඩ තිබිණි. මේ සියලු අර්ථයන් ගෙන බලද්දී ආචාර්ය සී ඩබ්ලිව් ඩබ්ලිව් කන්නන්ගර යනු දැවැන්ත යුග පුරුෂයෙක්මය.

1945 ජූලියේදී නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපන පනත සම්මත වීමෙන් පසු කන්නන්ගර මහතා සභා ගැබෙන් පිටතට පැමිණෙද්දී ඔහු අසලට අමුත්තෙක් කිට්ටු විය. ඒ එවකට කොළඹ ඉන්දියානු මහකොමසාරිස්වරයා ලෙස කටයුතු කළ එච් එම් ආනේ මහතාය.

අයියා අපේ රටේ ඉපදිලා මේ වගේ පනතක් ඉදිරිපත් කළා නම් දෙවියන්ට වගේ සලකනවා.” ඔහු කන්නන්ගර මහතාට අත දෙමින් එසේ පැවසුවේය. ඉන්දියානුවන් එසේ කරන බව පැවසුව ද අපේ අය නම් කන්නන්ගර මහතාට 1947 මහ මැතිවරණයේදී ඉහළම සැලකිල්ල දැක්වූයේ ඔහුව පරාජයට පත් කරමිනි. නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනයේ පියා ගෙදර යවමින් ධන කුවේරයකු වූ විල්මට් ඒ පෙරේරාව රටේ ව්‍යවස්ථාදායකයට පත් කිරීමට තරම් පස්යොදුන් කෝරලයේ ජනතාව එදා අකෘතඥ වී තිබිණි.

දේශපාලනඥයකු ලෙස කන්නන්ගර මහතාගේ අගය වැඩි කරනුයේ ඔහු එය තම පැවැත්ම වෙනුවෙන් කිසිදා භාවිත නොකළ කෙනකු බැවිනි. වසර විස්සකට වැඩි කාලයක් රටේ ව්‍යවස්ථාදායකය නියෝජනය කළ ද පෞද්ගලිකව ලාභ උපරීම කරගැනීමේ අදහසක් ඔහුට කිසි දිනක නොතිබිණි. ඒ නිසාම ජිවිතයේ සැඳෑ කාලය සතුටින් ගෙවීමට තරම් හැකියාවක් ඔහුට නොවීය. 1961 ඔක්තෝබර් මස 26 වැනි දින නියෝජිත මන්ත්‍රී මණ්ඩලයේ කථානායක ආර් එස් පැල්පොල මහතා වෙත කන්නන්ගර මහතා යැවූ ලිපිය අපට පෙන්වා දෙනුයේ අවංක දේශපාලනඥයකුගේ ශෝකාලාපය මිස වෙනෙකක් නොවේ. ජීවත්වීම සඳහා තමනට පිං පඩියක් ඉල්ලමින් කන්නන්ගර මහතා යැවූ ඒ මුල් ලිපියේ කොටස් දෙකක් මෙසේ උපුටා දක්වමි.

සී ඩබ්ලිව් ඩබ්ලිව් කන්නන්ගර
නො 36
තිඹිරිගස්යාය පාර
හැව්ලොක් ටවුම
කොළඹ 06

1961 ඔක්තෝබර් මස 26 දින

ශ්‍රී ලංකා නියෝජිත මන්ත්‍රී මණ්ඩලයේ කථානායක ගරු ආර් එස් පැල්පොල මැතිතුමා වෙතයි

රජයේ ඉහළම රාජ්‍ය සභාවල සියවස් කාලකටත් වැඩි කාලයක් සේවය කිරීමෙන් පසුව මා දැනට පත්වී තිබෙන අසරණ තත්ත්වයන් නිසා හදිසි මූල්‍යමය ආධාරයක් අපේක්ෂාවෙන් මෙම ඉල්ලීම ඔබතුමා වෙත ඉදිරිපත් කරන බව ගෞරවාන්විතව දන්වා සිටිමි.

මගේ මේ ඉල්ලීම ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට හේතු සාධක වශයෙන් පහත සඳහන් වැදගත් කරුණු කිහිපය ඔබතුමා ඉදිරියේ තැබීමට අදහස් කරමි.

ආයෝජනවලින්, නිවාසවලින්, ඉඩකඩම්වලින් හෝ වෙනත් ප්‍රභවයන්ගෙන් මට කිසිදු පෞද්ගලික ආදායමක් නොලැබෙන බැවින් මා වසර ගණනාවකම යැපුණේ මගේ මිත්‍රයින්ගෙන් හා හිතවතුන්ගෙන් ලැබුණු පරිත්‍යාගවලිනි. මගේ සෞඛ්‍ය රැකගැනීම සඳහා කළ යුතු අත්‍යවශ්‍ය වියදම් වෙනුවෙන් ගෙවිය යුතු බිල්පත් දිනපතා ගොඩගැසෙමින් පවතී. මිත්‍රයන්ගෙන් හා නැදෑයන්ගෙන් සහනාධාර යැදීම සියවසකින් තුනෙන් එකක් තරම් වූ කාලයක් තිස්සේ රජයේ ඇමැති තනතුරක් දැරූ මා වැන්නකුට කිසිසේත් තරම් නොවන බවට ඔබතුමා ද එකඟ වනු ඇත යනු මාගේ විශ්වාසයයි.

රජයෙන් ක්ෂණික සහනයක් අපේක්ෂාවෙන් මගේ මේ ආයාචනය ඔබතුමා වෙත ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නේ අද මා මුහුණ පා සිටින අවාසනාවන්ත තත්ත්වය නිසාම බැව් සැලකුව මැනවි. එසේම සියවස් කාලකට වැඩි කාලයක් තිස්සේ මගෙන් කිසියම් ගෞරවයකට හා පිළිගැනීමකට ලක් වූ සේවයක් ඉටු වී ඇති බව ද මා අදහස් කරන නිසාත්ය.

ඒ වගත් මෙසේම ඔබතුමාගේ යටහත් කීකරු සේවක,

සී ඩබ්ලිව් ඩබ්ලිව් කන්නන්ගර

(මුල් ලිපියේ කොටස් දෙකක් පමණි)

ජාතියට දේශයට නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනයේ ආශීර්වාදය ලබා දුන් ආචාර්ය සී ඩබ්ලිව් ඩබ්ලිව් කන්නන්ගර ඇමැතිතුමාට අවසානයේදී අත් වූයේ එවන් දුක්ඛදායක ඉරණමකි.

මේ ඉල්ලීමට ප්‍රතිචාර දක්වමින් එතුමාට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවෙන් රුපියල් දස දහසක පාරිතෝෂික මුදලක් ගෙවූ අතර, පසුව මසකට රුපියල් 500 බැගින් පින් පඩියක් පිරිනැමිණ.

පසුව බලයට පැමිණි රජය යටතේ එම මුදල රුපියල් 1,000 දක්වා වැඩි කරන ලදී. මේ ආකාරයට දුක්ඛිත දිවියක් ගෙවූ කන්නන්ගර මහතා 1969 සැප්තැම්බර් 23 වැනිදා මිය පරලොව ගියේ තවත් අමතක කර දමනු ලැබූ පුද්ගලයකු වශයෙනි.

සී ඩබ්ලිව් ඩබ්ලිව්. කන්නන්ගර වැනි පරමාදර්ශි දේශපාලනඥයන්ගෙන් ආදර්ශ ලබා ගන්නවා වෙනුවට අපේ බහුතරයක් දේශපාලනඥයන් පෙලඹී ඇත්තේ ඊට පිටුපෑමටය. ඒ වග පෙන්වීමට උදාහරණ අනන්තවත් සැපයිය හැකිය. එජාප හා ශ්‍රීලනිපය නියෝජනය කරන ඇමැතිවරුන් දෙදෙනකු හබරාදුව ප්‍රදේශයේ එකම පාරක් දෙකොනින් විවෘත කර රට හිනස්සවා තවම ගතව ඇත්තේ දින කිහිපයකි. සිනාසීම වෙනුවට මෙම කාරණය දේශපාලනඥයන්ගේ කාර්යභාරය කුමක් විය යුතු ද යන්න සිතා බැලීමේ අවස්ථාවක් අපට ලබා දෙයි. 1948 සිට ක්‍රියාත්මක ජනප්‍රිය දේශපාලන සංස්කෘතියෙන් පිට පැනීමට තවමත් අපේ දේශපාලනඥයන්ට නොහැකි වී ඇති බව පීත්ත පටි කපමින් කරන මේ මාදිලියේ විවෘත කිරීම්වලට තවමත් ඔවුන් සම්බන්ධ වීමෙන් පෙනී යයි. ජනතා කැමැත්ත දිනු දේශපාලනඥයකුගේ කාර්යභාරය විය යුත්තේ පීත්ත පටි කැපීම, ඡන්දදායකයන්ගේ මඟුලට, අවමඟුලට සහභාගි වීම නොව රට හා එහි වැසියන් වෙනුවෙන් ප්‍රතිපත්ති සම්පාදනයයි. මෙසේ පීත්ත පටි කැපීමට යෑමෙන් සිදු වනුයේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති සම්පාදනයට ඇති කාලය අපතේ යෑමකි. ප්‍රාදේශීය හා පළාත් සභා මට්ටම නියෝජනය කරමින් ඒ ඒ තලවල දේශපාලනඥයන් කොතරම් සිටිය ද පාරක් විවෘත කිරීමට වීදි ලාම්පු විවෘත කිරීම වැනි සරල කාරණාවලට පවා සම්බන්ධ වීමට කැමැත්ත දක්වන ජාතික තලයේ දේශපාලනඥයන් අතිබහුතරයක් මේ රටේ සිටිති. පීත්ත පටි කැපීමට දක්වන උනන්දුව ප්‍රතිපත්ති සම්පාදනයට හා සමාන්තර වෙනත් රටවල සාර්ථකත්වයේ අත්දැකීම් ගැන කියැවීමට ඔවුන් වැය කළේ නම් සැබැවින්ම මේ රට සුරපුරයක් බවට පත් වී බොහෝ කල්ය.

හුදු ප්‍රදර්ශන කාමයට අමතරව වරප්‍රසාද පසුපස හඹා යෑමට වත්මන් දේශපාලනඥයන් තුළ ඇති කැමැත්ත රටේ දේශපාලනය තවත් දුර්වර්ණ ගන්වයි. දේශපාලන බලය හා වරප්‍රසාද අතර ඉතා කිට්ටු සම්බන්ධතාවක් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව වැනි දේශපාලන වශයෙන් අව-සංවර්ධිත රටක පැහැදිලිවම දැකගත හැකිය. සාමාන්‍යයෙන් දියුණු යැයි සම්මත රටවල බලයට පත්වීම යන යෙදුම හෝ දේශපාලන ශබ්ද කෝෂය තුළ දක්නට නොමැති අතර ඒ වෙනුවට ඇත්තේ ‘කමින් ටු ඔෆිස්’ නොඑසේ නම්: කාර්යාලයට පැමිණ රාජකාරි කටයුතු ඇරැඹීම යන්නය.

බොහෝ රටවල් ‘කමින් ටු ඔෆිස්’ කියද්දී අපි තවමත් ‘කමින් ටු පවර්’ යනුවෙන් කියමින් සිටින්නෙමු. එය, අපට ගැටලුවක් වුවද දේශපාලනඥයන්ට නම් වරප්‍රසාදවලින් තොරව පැවැත්මක් නොමැති බව දිගින් දිගටම පෙනෙන්නට තිබීම අතිශයින්ම කනගාටුදායකය.

Chandre Dharmawardana

What happened to CWW Kannagara happened to many legislators of limited means of that era who worked selflessly, without thinking of how they are to fend for themselves when they reach old age. They died poor although they were expected to maintain a high social standard. In deed, it is an irony that some segments of Sri Lankan’s commemorate Che Guevera but pay scant attention to Kannangara. Similalrly, some Tamils commemorate Prabhakaran, a man who butchered more Tamils than even all the Sinhalese Kings put together, as stated by a Tamil writer named Sebastian Rasalingam:

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=63836

Militant students are cultivated by  political leaders who were/are  themselves misguided by their blind support for Marxist ideologies.  When I was in charge of the Vidyodaya University, I proposed that the main Hall at Vidyodaya University, used mostly by the Arts students, be named Kannangara Hall, but the student leaders strongly objected and name it Lenin Hall, almost out of spite for my suggestion. Even the “marxism” of the students was hollow. It is/was more driven by the idea of gaining some status and power “(Thathvaya)” in the campus by aligning with some political party. The JVP slogans claimed that the degree can come later – after the revolution.

The students also held a one day strike against me when I denounced their action in an interview with an editor of the Daily News. Most of the teaching staff also remained mute, perhaps in fear of the student leaders, or to curry favour with them.

The Vice-Chancellor of the unified single university covering all the campuses was Mr. Sumanadasa who did the bidding of student leaders, or the bidding of Mr. Paskaralingam who was the Permanent Secretary for Education at that time. He had no policiy of his own.

The attitude and ideology of militant students was set by Philip, N. M. Perera, Colvin and others who were inspired by Marxist Ideology and saw little value in the traditional values and ideologies of the country nourished in Buddhism.

Philip Goonawardena was the main Marxist leader who considered that some national values should be supported –  but mainly for political-strategy reasons.

While they brought important socialist values of equality, such values  actually existed in early Buddhism and Jainism. The Marxitst brought in the immoral idea that the “end justified the means”, and that violent methods of political struggle – revolutions modelled of the Russian revolution or that of Che Guevara are necessary.

Actually, CWW Kannangara was originally opposed to free education. It was A. Ratnayaka who consistantly pushed it (as is clear from the Hansard record), and personally convinced Kannangara (the Minister) of its value and importance. N.M. Perera and other Marxist revolutionaries opposed it, and N. M. Perera even wrote a book explaining that free education should be introduced ONLY AFTER THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTION. He argued that the militancy of the working class, necessary for the revolution, will be mollified by free education which will be used   by the capitalist class to create a “brain-washed” middle class.

D.S. Senanayake and others also opposed it stating that it is an extremely expensive extravagance. He was the prime minister and he could have killed it, but did not do so as he probably decided to allow it on a trial basis. The country actually became prosperous during DS Senanayake’s time, even with the  war, and during the Korean war, by selling rubber and other exports needed by war conditions, and hence free education stayed on. In 1956 a large amount of foreign capital left when SWRD threatened to nationalize them.

The British reduced buying tea from Sri Lanka and switched to buying more from South Africa. Meanwhile the leftists began a series of crippling strikes, hoping to capture power by revolution. The rupee began to tumble. Then came the more dangerous game of Language-policy conflicts that inflamed the country in race riots.

By Poet in the Wilderness

The present by force occupant of Temple Trees

Seems to have a mindset of the Nineteen Forties

Foreign powers are his Masters dark

Our lives are too precious for his Royalist lark

Move over and let those who truly love Lanka fair

Take Lanka to success and joy rather rare

Remove forever the ghostly nightmare

And allow rule by those who truly care.

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

Information published in print and electronic media regarding the debate and actions for the constitutional and political crisis in Sri Lanka show that they have gone beyond the limits.  How many people of Sri Lanka are interested in these matters is difficult to estimate? Few people as a percentage of population in Sri Lanka purchase English, Sinhala and Tamil newspapers and read this information. According to my estimate a less than 0.001% of people are used internet.  In this situation it is quite clear that gossips are dominating in the country than true information.

According to news media I feel that the issue has gone beyond the limit and unnecessary issues are emerging to degrade the quality, discipline and knowledge of people in the country.  If there is a problem incurred, it is the responsibility of the relevant authority to resolve the problem without delaying and considering the spreading of the issue, the relevant authorities need to quickly act to resolve the problem and there is no exception to executive, legislative and the judiciary.

Mental condition of a person can be assessed only by a medical expert, who has knowledge, skills and experience in the subject area.  As an ordinary person, I have a doubt whether the judiciary could decide of such matter looking at the face on it rather than deeply investigating the matter. How long it will take to decide? And is it worth to spending so much of resources to it.  Sri Lanka has wasted so much of resources for this matter and the country cannot afford for it.

When I look at the issue from outside the historical experience in UK between King John and his cabinet comes to mind. Is the current crisis in Sri Lanka is like King John issue in the UK?

When we critically looking at the issue it is quite clear that Sri Lanka needs a partial dictatorship to give political leadership to the country.  Singapore became a developed country under the partial dictatorship and many Asian countries had similar leadership.  If the executive authority of the country goes to the parliament, there is doubt that more problems would be arisen.  At this time ordinary people in the country must be careful and make intelligent decisions to save the motherland.

Finally, I have a feeling that Late Dr NM Perera was quite correct because the constitution of the country is good for the layers to argue in the court but not for the ordinary people to depend on it for governance.  Sri Lanka a new constitution after abolishing 19^th amendment.

By Charles S.Perera

Since Maithreepala Sirisena was elected to the high post of the President of Sri Lanka some of us did  not speak well of the President. It was because he sold his mother political party to join a group of vindictive traitors led by the most unloved political leader of the UNP- Ranil Wickramasinghe, to be their common Presidential candidate to become a  rival candidate against  President Mahinda Rajapakse,  after  erasing the memory of  27 years or more of loyal , trusted political bond he had cultivated in a political party in which he  matured for 47 years since he was a young boy of 17 years.

Maithripala Sirisena after he was elected President of Sri Lanka became fondly attached to Ranil Wickramasinghe first through his natural Sinhala Buddhist character of gratitude for having given him the chance to be the President of Sri Lanka, where as Mahinda Rajapakse to whom he was devoted as the President of the SLFP and companion in politics did not so much as made him the Prime Minister despite all the qualifications he had.

President Maithripala Sirisena was so happy to accept Ranil Wickramasinghe as his friend.  He made him his Prime Minister immediately after  taking oath as the President of Sri Lanka. All the UNP supporters were immensely pleased and accepted the President as  one of theirs and praised his goodness. Rajitha Senarathne, Mangala Samaraweera , Ravi Karunananayake , Chandrka Kumarathunga, JVP, the TNA and the rest were singing hosannas in praise of him.

Sirisena provided  a chance for the UNP to come back to have political power again which they would have never got  through an election. Those who knew that it was an unholy alliance was most critical of Maithripala Sirisena, but others thought it was a chance for Sri Lanka to get away from a family rule to experience real democracy in action.

Beside being a criminal of ill-famed Batalanda torture camps Ranil Wickramasinghe was thought of by his supporters as a  corruption free clean political wizard with a mindful of  economic projects to make Sri Lanka the paradise of  Asia.  Some thought that with Ranil back in politics investments will  pour in from the Western countries which  had been in the fore front for the regime change to take UNP back into  politics after 20 years of political isolation.

There were a combination of political errors by President Mahinda Rajapakse and a perfect political strategy, perhaps put in place by the Western and Indian secret services, which helped fishing out Maithripala Sirisena from the President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s own camp to make him the Presidential candidate of the opposition. They did not do that because of any love or for any special qualities they thought Maithripala Sirisena possessed to be the President , but they believed that an ordinary farmer’s son would be naïve, and could be made to dance to their tune if he is elected President. (Reminds one of the French  film Le Dinner de Cons).

President Maithripala Sirisena thrilled from the unexpected turn of events which made him  the President of Sri Lanka ,  placed his entire  confidence on Ranil Wickramasinghe and the UNP, Rajitha Senaratne, Chandrika Kumaratunga and the rest,  without being aware of the secret political plot they were hatching behind his back, to make him their cat’s paw to arrive at their objective of eventually make Ranil W as the Prime Minister take over the powers of an executive President.

Maithripala Sirisena’s  critics blamed him for his endless foreign trips enjoying the benefits of power that had been thrust  on him , allowing Ranil and his UNP Ministers to do what they want while he is away,  enjoying the apparent friendly hospitality he received in various Western and other  countries  he visited  invited by them and received by them  with great honour  acclaiming him as a  saviour of democracy  who has assured the human rights of the minorities in Sri Lanka.

Maithripala Sirisena was in the meantime made the President of the SLFP which he abandoned in November, 2015 to embrace his enemies providing them with political power which  had escaped  them for a considerable period of time. Though the former President very generously relinquished his Presidency of the SLFP to the new President of Sri Lanka , it was not enough and far too  late for Mahinda Rajapakse to make it a gesture  to set right his past error of not having accepted to make the General Secretary of the  SLFP his Prime Minister.

President Maithripala Sirisena was not ready to forgive his former  chief and political companion for denying him the rightful place in the Government after his loyal service to the Party and the government  for a considerable number of years. Therefore, President Sirisena would  not allow Mahinda  Rajapakse to replace  Ranil Wickramasinghe as the Prime Minister  in the future, and did all he can to thwart the ambition of a defeated President to come back to power as the Prime Minister by winning the General election of August,2015.

President Sirisena wrote to Mahinda Rajapakse that even if he were to win the elections by a majority at the general elections, he will not be made the Prime Minister as there were  qualified seniors in the SLFP suitable to take that place.

President Sirisena out to take revenge from Mahinda Rajapakse, became a close friend and confidant of  his Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe. Ranil Wickramasinghe was in the meantime slowly and gradually grabbing the powers of the executive president and making himself powerful to openly defy the orders of President Sirisena, collecting around him  money launderers, homosexuals, dentists of doubtful honesty, knaves who will do any thing to please him, sexually depraved Buddhist party leaders, un-socialist Marxists and even made a citizen of Singapore a friend of LTTE financier Raja Rajaratnam Arjun Mahendran his old pal from Royal College the Governor of the Central Bank.

Finally when President appointed another Governor to the Central Bank, Ranil Wickramasinghe still employed the ex-Governor of the Central Bank Arjun Mahendrn  as advisor to the Prime Minister.  Ranil Stole the Central Bank with the Bond Scam  assisted by  its Governor Arjun Mahendran and a year after the first, he staged another  Bond Scam of which not much is heard.

These daylight robberies of the Central Bank made Ranil  and the UNP  immensely rich, rich  enough to make Temple Trees his private abode, and challenge the President to turn him out if he dares.   Ranil has the baking of the Western Embassies, India and apparently the Sri Lanka Judiciary as well.

Ranil- the Prime Minister simply ignored  President Sirisena whose powers Ranil had reduced through the introduction of 19A to the Constitution, and started acting on his own without consulting the President. He signed a Contract of 1000 pages with Singapore and no one still knows what it contains. He then agreed with the Prime Minister of India Modi to sell the East Container terminal to India together with the Trincomalee Oil Tanks. Ranil sent his partner in Bank theft Arjun Mahendran to Singapore. He is being searched by the Sri Lanka CID in  Singapore where he apparently  remains invisible” to investigators and even to the Interpol.

Finally after three and a half years when a plot to assassinate the President and the former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse came to light, and DIG Nalaka Silva was proved by voice recordings revealed to the press as the man behind the assassination plot, and that the IGP was covering up DIG Nalaka Silva, President Maithripala realised that he had been duped through out the past three and a half years by Ranil Wickramasinghe  and his gang of plotters. He realised that Ranil as his Prime Minister had been and is a greater danger, than Mahinda Rajapakse ever was.

With that realisation,  at the first opportunity he had to appoint another Prime Minister, when the UPFA section of the Yahapalanaya Government withdrew from the Yahapalanaya Cabinet of Ministers dissolving the coalition partnership of the Yahapalanaya, he called upon Mahinda Rajapakse who President Sirisena had earlier  thought was a rival to fear, but yet  knew having worked with him that he is a reliable  patriotic Sinhala Buddhist politician , to be his Prime Minister and  form a government together even at this late stage.

That broke loose the hell under Ranil Wickramasinghe and his den of political plotters and thieves, who refused to give into the President and vowed  to replace the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and his Ministers sworn in by the President , by Ranil Wickramasinghe and his thieves and plotters of the UNP,  TNA,JVP and JHU.

But Ranil Wickramasinghe along with all his  former Ministers- all of doubtful honesty  including the Speaker of he House, TNA, JVP, and  his other supporters are up in  arms against the new Government of the President  headed by the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse  and his cabinet of Ministers. Ranil Wickcramsinghe has become the hero of every one of them,  and they all want him back as the Prime Minister.  Sajith Premadasa refused to lead the UNP vowing his loyalty to Ranil .

This along with strange judgments given first by the Supreme Court and then by the Appeal Court,  numerous unconstitutional decision and No Confidence motions  passed in an illegally constituted Parliamentary sessions have challenged the Constitutional decisions taken by the President. The Courts have in extra ordinary judicial decisions ordered the Constitutionally sworn in Prime Minister and his Ministers to stop carrying out their official functions until a final decision is taken by the Courts in a future unmentioned date.

Why do the UNP, JVP, TNA and the rest of the allied parties insist that they want Ranil Wickramasinghe back as the Prime Minister ? What is the catch, do they fear the consequences of another Government  taking their place discovering   their corrupt activities, and lay before the people evidence of their betrayal of the country by theft, complots, and hidden agreements with minority political parties such as TNA and JVP, with individuals ,  and with other countries, or do they fear the revelation  of the names of those who benefitted from the Bond Scams  ?

They have to win over the Judiciary to hide their three and a half years of utter corrupt activities which have no equal.  This reason  for the  desire to have Ranil Wickramasinghe and no other as the Prime Minister has no meaning unless there is some thing they have to hide at all cost which have  not been  revealed before. Is the Judiciary a party to this complots ? After all the case before them is not so complicated as the Courts seem to make it out, for them to take  such a long period of time take a decision. Every thing seem to be cut an dry even some one with a brain the size of a pea nut” will not take such a long time to understand and take a wise decision.

As a  political figure Ranil Wickramasinghe has proved more than once that he has nothing that he himself can be proud of, nor has he done any thing that the country could be proud of him.

Rajitha Senarathna swears he will not remain silent until Ranil Wickramasinghe is brought back as the  Prime Ministers, and made to sit  in Parliament, in the seat meant for the Prime Minister.

But why this craze for Ranil Wickramasinghe ?

Ranil Wickramasinghe is a  criminal of the ill famed  Batalanda torture camps,  where the Commission report  points its finger at Ranil Wickramasinghe’s role in the torture camp as questionable. Ranil Wickramasinghe  is a political coward beyond question as he willingly consented to sign a CFA prepared by Solheim and Prabhakaran without informing either the President, nor the Parliament, rather than carry out a military operation against terrorism, he even discouraged President Mahinda Rajapakse’s successful military operations against terrorism.

Ranil Wickramasinghe was a traitor who ordered  the police to raid an army safe house  in Millenium City resulting in the assassination of  army secret agents,  Ranil Wickramasinghe was a thief who organised the Central Bank Bond Scam having planted his agent as the Governor of the Central Bank. Ranil Wickramasinghe is a sly underhand dealer who secretly negotiated and signed a trade Agreement with Singapore without having informed the President or the Parliament.

Ranil Wickramasinghe is not a democrat  but a cowered who would swim against the current when he is accused for wrong doings and failure of his government to keep promises made to the people. Ranil Wickramasinghe is a dictator in his own party not allowing any capable leader to arise to lead the Party despite its failure to keep intact the party’s past reputation.  He manipulates even the Parliament presenting a legislation, and changing it completely at the Committee Stage.

Ranil Wickramasinghe is such a slave of the west, he got  his Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera at the Geneva Council Session to accept to sponsor  along with  America its  Resolution against Sri Lanka Armed Forces for war crimes and violation of Human Rights.

Ranil Wickramasinghe is responsible for  agreeing with TNA and the West  to write a New Constitution to Sri Lanka removing the hitherto held special place for the protection of Buddhism, and allowing  to change the Name of Sri Lanka into Orimitta Nadu under  a  Federal System of Governance.

Is this the man that UNP, TNA, JVP and the rest of the Tamil and Muslim Parties want to lead the Country as their Prime Minister ?

The people do not want Ranil Wickramasinghe any more playing any political role inside the Parliament or outside of it. He is not an honourable man who would  resign in the face of wide criticism.

Is he and his supporters prepared to face the people and know what the people think of them ? 

Then resign and face an Election. The Judiciary is independent but it  too should allow sovereignty of the voice of the people be  heard ?

 Asoka Weerasinghe  Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . Canada

December 10, 2018

High Commissioner David McKinnon
Canadian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka
33A, 5th Lane
Colpetty, Colombo 3
Sri Lanka.

Dear High Commissioner David McKinnon:

I was a bit chafed to see your photo with former LTTE fighters in Mullaitivu in the latest TAMIL GUARDIAN.  The text below the photo read:

The former NPC member, T.Ravikaran met with Canada’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka today and urged action on ongoing Tamil concerns.

The continued occupation of land, the Buddhisation of the North-East (that got my goat. I am a Buddhist and former President of Ottawa Buddhist Association,  and will comment on it later), the disappeared and political prisoners were discussed during the meeting.”

So the photo is proof-positive that you are one more Canadian diplomat who is pushing the Canadian envelope to get involved in the internal affairs of this little sovereign nation.  Sri Lanka, which happens to be my Motherland,  is not even a colony of ours,  So what the heck is this all about?  Canadian Tamil votes for your employer?  Phew! Man, this is not right…this isn’t kosher…this is not cricket!

Mr. High Commissioner, can you imagine one of Sri Lanka’s High Commissioners meeting with the First Nation people’s Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence who was on a hunger strike, protesting  that their human rights had been violated by the Canadian Government.  Just wondered what your comments would be if that had

happened.  Well, I suppose our Secretary to the Foreign Minister would have summoned the Sri Lanka High Commisioner to rap him/her knuckles and admonish the diplomat for poking his/her nose into Canada’s internal affairs and shown our displeasure and give the diplomat the third degree and that if it happened again would be declared  a persona-non grata and put the Sri Lanka High Commissioner on the first plane to the coconut palm fringed Katunayake International Airport.  Ha! What disingenuous double-standard by Canada.  Not Canadian, is it!

I for one, a Sri Lankan-Sinhalese-Canadian  who has stomached and endured the arrogance, bullying, attitude of We-are-holier-than-Thou, and lying through our teeth, to secure the mono-ethnic separate, racist Tamil State, Eelam for the Tamil’s,  and resent all of this.

Let’s not kid us and pull wool over our eyes.  Please don’t challenge Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese men and women’s intelligence.

Permit me to elaborate my observations of our Politicians of all three major political parties, the Liberal, Conservatives and NDP.  Here are some incidents that have got my goat,

1:  Arrogance – Judy Sgro, the Liberal Minister of Immigration and Citizenship  announced in Parliament, that she doesn’t need to get permission from the Sri     Lankan Government to set up an Immigration Office in Jaffna to siphon Tamils  who were affected by the Tsunami and bring them over to Canada and not the      Sinhalese who were the most affected.

Damn arrogance I thought and in a letter told her not to embarrass Canada as  Sri Lanka Government had every right to close that Canadian Immigration        Councillor office in Jaffna and kick her out of the island.  Remember how  we treated France’s General De Gaulle?

I advised her in a letter to go back to college and take the  Introductory Course on  International Diplomacy 101, which will do her and Canada a lot of good;

2: Bullying –  After Prime Minister Stephen Harper got into a hissy-fit and boycotted  the Commonwealth Conference held in Colombo, as he was  concerned about alleged Human Rights violations in Sri Lanka.  So he sends his emissary Minister Deepak Obhrai to  represent him and Canada   And he had a Mission to garner every federal Tamil vote in the Greater Toronto Area for his Conservative Party at the next Federal election.

So what did he do?  He flies into Jaffna, I believe accompanied by our Canadian High Commissioner, and then got back to Colombo by land transport. The reason we were told was  because the plane that they were going to be brought back let them down.  But when asked from the Canadian Mission the name of the Company that they had contracted to provide the return flight, I did not get an answer.

But here is what killed  Canada’s slimy-truth.  Deepak Obhrai had an entourage with Him on the return by land transport, and among them was a photographer and a wreath with a printed sign of sympathy for the Tamil Eelamist Terrorists who died in battle  with the Sri Lankan Government soldiers at Elephant Pass, Obhrai deliberately ignored the fact that there were two armies at war, the Tamil Tiger terrorists  and Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces who were defending the Island’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity, and the other soldiers who died at battle were Sri Lankan, mainly Sinhalese soldiers. That’s how the Canadian Government  was so disingenuous with this public act. It was a case of vomiting-sick.

When he was requested by a Sri Lankan Government Officer not to lay the wreath, Deepak Obhrai  put on a cloak  of a  Canadian High School Bully, and laid  the wreath anyway. and the photographer clicked his Camera to show proof what he did for the GTA Tamil-separatists when he returned  saying See what I did for you all, now give us, Conservatives your Vote at the next federal election!.”

 When Obhrai was questioned why he did it, his explanation was that Elephant Pass  was a neutral spot to lay the wreath.  That was not only foolish, he was asinine. I pointed out to him in a letter that Elephant Pass was the Eelam War Theatre where three major battles were fought and the Sri Lankan Army got a good pounding in one of them..  Damn! Western Pinocchio-Bullies, I say, who wants to hurt my Motherland, unfairly. O!   No, no..don’t even try it.  If you do  you will hear my voice loud and clearly like the Westminster’s BIG BEN’s noon hour ding-dong chime” I say to the  Canadian politician-bullies.

3. We are Holier than Thou – Conservative Minister Jason Kenney, after a stint in Sri Lanka on January 7, 2013, meeting the Sri Lankan Government Officials to discuss how to curb Tamil human smuggling, switched his mask to, I am the son of an Anglo-Saxon Evangelical  Preacher Man, preaching to Sri Lankans about Human Rights violations during a 27 year long bloody Tamil Tiger Terrorist Eelam War which Canada aided and abetted, And that We are Holier than Thou”, all that Evangelical Blarney BS when Amnesty International had already pinned Canada onto their Human Rights Violator Rogues Gallery,was despicable, uncouth and sick.  Especially, when on that very day when the First Nations Peoples Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence was on a hunger strike on Victoria Island, a stone’s throw away from Kenney’s parliament office, for the very reason that Canada has violated their human rights.”  What nonsense is all this High Commissioner, McKinnon?  I am not impressed, not a bit.

If I was the President  of Sri Lanka then, I would have told Minister Jason Kenney;

 Listen, my son, why don’t you take the first flight  home to Canada,  and help eradicate your Government’s Human Rights violations of  the peoples of the First  Nations, like Chief Theresa Spence.  They  need you more than my people.  We can look after ours.  Once you   solve your Country’s Human Rights violations, then come to me and I   will listen to you.  Until then, please keep off your feet from my island’s kabook soil.

 You can now take my leave and hurry back home to Canada. Those  First Nations peoples of yours need you.”

4; Lying through our Teeth:  It was during the Tamil Blarney Gong Show that  took place in the Parliament’s chambers on the evening of 4 February 2009,  called by Jack Layton, the leader of the NDP.  It was supposed to be an Emergency Meeting on Sri Lanka, with a packed Gallery of Sri Lankan Tamils.  What a stupid hoot.   I watched it on CPAC.

It was on this afternoon that Liberal’s Terrible Lying Five, Robert Oliphant, Jim Karygiannis, Derek Lee, Judy Sgro and Albina Guarnieri, charged  Sri Lanka of Genocide”.  What tosh, what garbage, what poppycock, what buckets of dead capelin from the shores of Newfoundland’s Middle Cove Beach, what strings of baloney hanging from Deli stalls in Byward  Market.

They were off the mark by lying miles as they were not capable even of gathering Nuts in May…Nuts in May, even though they were taken to a field to harvest nuts, as they couldn’t distinguish a nut from a stone.  The Word Genocide has no place in Sri Lanka as this stupid five wouldn’t be able to reconcile the fact that on 19 May 2009, when the Tamil Tiger Terrorists were annihilated  militarily, how come the Sri Lankan, mainly Sinhalese  soldiers, rescued 295,873 Tamils from the clutches of the Tamil Tigers who marched them from the west coast to the east coast for 30 Month under the Jaffna-Killinochchi scorching sun like unwashed cattle.

They were not shot dead by the Sri Lankan soldiers, as that would have been easy.  But they didn’t. Genocide” my foot.  Nor were they starved to death when they were housed in  temporary refugee camps and the Government of Sri lanka prepared a million meals a day to feed the Tamil Refugees hearty breakfasts, lunches and dinners.

Do you know what High Commissioner, a good percent of the cooks were army soldiers.  Genocide” my foot.  The Liberals Terrible Five were a nasty bunch.

Do you know what Mr. High Commissioner, if my late Mother was alive, it wouldn’t have mattered to her whether the Liberals Terrible Lying Five were Canadian parliamentarians, she would have marched every one of them by their ears to the Parliament’s kitchen sink and forced them to wash  their  lying mouths with Carbolic soap.  She didn’t liked liars.

And now to deal with the Northern separatist Tamils  complaining to  you about Buddhisation of the North and East.”

 If you have any inclination to get involved with this comment, my advise to you is don’t even touch it with a barge pole.  If you do you will be skating  on thin ice. Here is why!.

I suppose Ravikaran did not brief you that in ancient  times the  north and east of Sri Lanka were spotted with Buddhist temples  When I say ancient”, I mean Sinhalese-Buddhist culture goes back for over 2,500 years,  Canadians might have difficulty to comprehend it when Canada is only 151 years old since Confederation, and we have a Department of Heritage to preserve our 151 year old heritage,  So let’s not get involved in tinkering with Sri Lanka’s over 2,500 year old Heritage, when we have absolutely no business there.

So what is Ravikaran belly aching about!

Among scores of ancient Buddhist shrines and sites did he not brief you about the Muhudu Maha Viharaya which is over 2000 years old in Pottuvil, in the Ampara District and built by King Kavan Tissa?

Ravikaran’s Tamils are trying to claim that the North and East is theirs.  And that’s hog wash.  There were 74 ancient Buddhist shrines and Archeological sites in the Trincomalee District, and 55 such ancient Buddhist  shrines in the Batticaloa and Ampara Districts

Didn’t Ravikaran brief you that the Seruwila Mangala  Raja Maha Viharaya in the Trincomalee District was built in the 2nd century BC by King Kavan Tissa.   So what were the Tamils belly aching about asking you to stop Buddhisation” which got my goat.

Well, if I were you, High Commissioner David McKinnon, I would keep your nose out of this nonsense as you might feel the simmering winds of the unnatural Sinhalese Buddhist wrath wafting within the walls of your offices in Colombo.  Their anger will be visceral.

And they will charge you with cultural genocide as we in Canada have been accused of  by the indigenous peoples  with the forced Residential Schools policy.  And the cultural genocide by the white-man of the Beothuks in Newfoundland when by 1829, with the death of Shanawdithit  the Beothuks were officially declared extinct after suffering epidemics, starvation, loss of access to food sources and the slaughter by white English and French fishermen and traders.

Remember Mr. High Commissioner that the Tamils have a Motherland to return to. It’s India’s Tamil Nadu just 18 salt water miles from the northern tip of Jaffna peninsula of Sri Lanka where 80 million Dravidian kith and kin of theirs live.  And the Sinhalese Buddhists as well as Christians are indigenous to Sri Lanka which is their Motherland..

So High Commissioner David McKinnon, as a diplomat, you have a choice of either to get involved in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka which is high-hypocrisy and  an act  of colonial like condescension which is none of your business to act like a pseudo-viceroy.

The active involvement like going and meeting former Tamil Tiger terrorists in Mullaitivu and discussing  ongoing Tamil concerns  that cannot be justified in any manner. The eagerness of Canada to get involved in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka is explicable.  Or keep your nose out of trouble, and not expose yourself to a possible embarrassing event like the David Gladstone syndrome of 1991.

May be that you will be troubled by my frank discussion here, and want to reject all what I had to say.  But I pray, that you will  not open a window for me to tell you”Didn’t I tell you so!”

And, by the way, my enthusiasm for the heritage and culture of Canada was recognized by the Mayor of Ottawa and was the recipient of the Annual prestigious  City of Ottawa, Appreciation Award for Arts and Culture in  2003.

And my resentment of a Fundamentalist Christian decapitating the large Buddha Statue on the front lawn of my Buddhist Monastery, Hilda Jayewardenaramaya at 1481 Heron Road, is documented in the Ottawa Citizen of. May 1, 2018. He is been charged by the Ottawa Police.  Little wonder why and how I reacted to the former Tamil Tiger T. Ravikaran’s belly aching to you about Buddhist sites in the North and East.  You bet, it will be so in the future too.

Have a magical holiday season and hope that Santa will be good to you and keep well.

Sincerely,

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.)

BY A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

The treacherous TNA continues to  demand directly or indirectly through its proxies from UNP to implement the 13^th amendment in  full and grant a written commitment in this regard.  Following the precarious situation faced by the foreign servile UNP and their vicious  attempt to hang on to the government the TNA proxy TELO has demanded from the UNP to give a written assurance that they would implement the 13th Amendment in full, along with land and Police powers and to merge the North and the East as a condition for support  to UNP too form a Government. The TELO representatives have said the TNA should secure a written commitment to address five demands as a conditional to support the UNP at this hour.

The release of military held land, the repealing of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and the freeing of LTTE suspects commonly called Tamil political prisoners, are the three other demands. The former Provincial Councillor  and  the slain Prabhakaran’s cousin TELO member M.K. Sivajilingam has reiterated these demands.

The TNA has 16 seats in Parliament. One of them has already joined the Government, and another remains neutral. Out of the remaining 14 MPs, TELO is represented by two members.

The ITAK is the dominant party represented by TNA terrorist Grandpa Sambamdan  and influential members in the coterie are  diaspora bank rolled Sumanthiran and Mavai Senathirajah Commenting on this TNA demand the leader of the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya Attorney at Law Udaya Gammanpila ha said the UNP and the TNA should reveal of any agreement between them which had compelled the TNA to back the UNP, Addressing a news briefing, he has said the TNA had been reiterating in the past that they would not support the UNP to form a Government for more than one month and all of sudden, the TNA has changed its stand and decided to support Ranil Wickremesinghe to be the Prime Minister,” Gammanpila asked as to.What are the promises given by the UNP to the TNA for the TNA to suddenly change its stand?” He said the people of this country have a right to know the contents of the agreement since the people may have to face its disastrous consequences and  reminded that during the 2001 Parliamentary election campaign,  Mangala Samaraweera disclosed a UNP – LTTE agreement.Although the UNP denied it, and  they implemented the contents of the agreement after coming to office. Similarly, Tissa Attanayake disclosed an agreement between the UNP and TNA just before the Presidential Election in 2015.Although the UNP denied it, most of the promises mentioned therein were implemented by the UNP. Hence,  he urged both the UNP and TNA to disclose the agreement which compelled the TNA to pledge its support to Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The ITAK is the dominant party represented by TNA’s terrorist Grandpa Sambamdan  and influential members such as diaspora bank rolled Sumanthiran and Mavai Senathirajah Gammanpila asked as to.What are the promises given by the UNP to the TNA for the TNA to suddenly change its stand?” He said the people of this country have a right to know the agreement since the people may have to face its disastrous consequences and  reminded that during g the 2001 Parliamentary election campaign, Mr Gammanpila said, Mangala Samaraweera disclosed a UNP – LTTE agreement.Although the UNP denied it, they implemented the contents of the agreement after coming to office. Similarly, Tis sa Attanayake disclosed an agreement between the UNP and TNA just before the Presidential Election in 2015.Although the UNP denied it, most of the promises mentioned therein were implemented by the UNP. Hence,  he urged both the UNP and TNA to disclose the agreement which compelled the TNA to pledge its support to Mr Wickremesinghe.

It has become clear now that the TNA has now become a leading partner of UNP and their leading role was evident in the Parliament recently when the diaspora bank rolled treacherous Sumanthiran was shown in the TV channels getting up from his seat and rushing up to the senior UNP vice President Lakshman Kirill and warning him about some comments made by Kiriella. Whatever our political affiliations may be Sumanthioran should understand the Mr. Kiriella hails from a respectable Kandyan family, a leader ,lawyer unlike the jungle law practised by him, and a senior parliamentarian who  entered parliament first as an SLP parliamentarian in 1989.  It was shame for the UNP members to allow this terrorist representing the diaspora to humiliate one of their Vice Presidents.  Even the demented Karu Jayasuriya remained silent but his reactions would have been completely different if such a thing was done by Mr. Wimal Weerawansa or someone else from the government

Someday after this incident hat this diaspora proxy Sumanthiran has attended an internal meeting of the UNP chaired by party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.  Reports said that many UNP members were puzzled that how Ranil has allowed Sumanthiran to attend this internal party meeting. UNP sources said that this was the first ever occasion offer a TNA member participated in one of their internal meetings.

It has become clear now that TNA has presently become a leading partner of UNP.

The TNA comprises  ITAK, TELO, PLOTE and EPRLF. It is reported that EP[RLF has dropped out of the TNA due to alleged political differences. The TNA contested the August 2015 Parliamentary polls under the house symbol of its chief constituent the ITAK The TNA contesting as ITAK won sixteen seats consisting of fourteen elected and two National list MP’s in the last election. After the EPRLF pull -out the number has dropped to 15 from 16 MP’s

As per political analysts the TNA which was formed by Tamil journalists, including Taraki and some professionals in the year 2001 as the political wing of the terrorist LTTE with the blessings of the megalomaniac terrorist supremo the slain Prabhakaran is facing an erosion of its political prospects and the February Local Government election its voter base has lost by 34% from 2015 August election and February election and the Tamil Makkal Katchi  (TMK) headed by Wigneswaran iis gaining popularity. In the LG elections the TNA haswon full control of only a few Pradeshiya Sabhas and many institutions including the Jaffna Municipality it has formed councils with the support of other parties obliging to their demands.  It is said that that in a future election it will become an insignificant party with only a few members getting elected and as a party unable to play any significant role in the Sri Lankan political arena.

That is why the 86-year-old terrorist grandpa Saambandan keeps on meeting all western ambassadors and high commissioners and meeting all western and Indian diplomats  strongly  urging them to demand the government to adopt  the proposed constitution before the end of this year, which he asserts that Ranill has promised to implement before the end of this year.  May be the terrorist grandpa visualises that by adopting this Federal and Secular constitution he could breath his last as a man achieved something for his community.

All his dreams have been shattered by the 26^th October revolution and that may be one reason that he is spending sleepless nights against the ouster of the western slavish Ranil who was popular as Paragathi Agamathi (foreign inclined Prime Minister).  Other than the challenge  that will be posed by the new  political formation of Wigneswaran and other political groups the TNA could also face an internal party crisis if Sambandan becomes no more before the next election which would split the TNA into the original 4 parties or more.

This may be the reason that Sumanthiran who became a National List member from the North getting closer to the UNP and seems to be playing a major role in that party with the blessings of Ranil the dictator of the UNP. Due to the volatile political situation in the North Sumanthiran will not be able to get a National list appointment from the TNA as they could be severely dented in the next election.  It should also be remembered that Sumanthioran’s intent to somersault to other parties was also evident earlier by his participation in the JEPPOs May Day rally held in Jaffna sporting a Red Shirt. This diaspora proxy seems to be inclined to join UNP or JEPPOs because the current policies of both parties are to destabilize and destroy Sri Lanka which perfectly fits with his diaspora policies.

Sumanthiran at the2918 JVP May Day Rally held in Jaffna

From the day Sri Lanka’s sworn enemy Singapore born Chelvaayagam entered Sri Lankan politics he has accused Sri Lankan governments of discriminating Tamil s and instigated Tamils to revolt against the Sinhalese.  When granting of independent to Sri Lanka (Ceylon) was being contemplated, speaking in the Legislative Council this  Droginayagam has said that if independence is to be granted to Ceylon Tamils should be granted a separate State because Tamils are superior to Sinhalese and  it should not be allowed Tamil to be ruled by Sinhalese and they should be granted a separate State.   In response to his speech the Council member Sir Marcan Markar, the then Minister of Communications and Works has emphasized that Sinhalese are the majority in this country and the Muslims would be happy to be ruled by the Sinhalese as they had been ruling this country without any discrimination and amicably for several centuries.

This Drohinayagam was responsible for all ethnic problems in Sri Lanka and some shameless accidentally born Sinhala politicians such as Rajitha Senaratne, the ship owner and Wickremabahu Karunaratne, the green hearted bogus Marxist address praising him at his commemoration ceremonies.  This Drohinayagams categorisation of Tamils were only Tamils living in the North and East and the elite Tamils living in Colombo. Estate Tamils were considered by him as low caste  coolies or Kallarthonis.

It is strange to find these ethnic chauvinists who shout discriminations remain tight lipped when there is something that5 is advantageous for them. For instance, see the chart below relating to the 2015 General Election.

As per this chart while the JEPPOS have got 543,944 votes amounting to 4.87% of votes and buy this they have become entitled to 6 seats in the Parliament the TNA (ITAK) got 515,963 votes with 4,62% of votes and bagged 16 seats nearly three times of seats than JEPPOS.  What a discrimination?  Which is solely due to discrepancies in our election system.  How can a party with 4.87% votes get only 6 seats and  a party with 4,62%b of votes get 16 seats and due to the despicable nature of the preferential voting system.  Therefore, all attempts should be made  to hold the next general election on the first past post system known as the Electorate System at least using the old electorate register that used to exist before 1989 if there is insufficient time to complete the new delimitation process which was deliberately delayed by despotic Ranil as it would become disadvantageous to the UNP. For instance, in the Matara district there is no member for certain electorates while there is more than one member for certain electorates.  It is same throughout all the districts in the country.

The messages written in Sinhala in the chart  says:

• Gentlemen, who raise the voice for Democracy, will you endorse this?
• Further examples are not necessary to prove that Sri Lanka has now become a Fascist regime lacking even the basic democratic signs.

Another matter that is strange to find is that the Examination Department announce low cut-off marks to Tamil medium students for Grade V and other examinations whereas Sinhala medium students are subject to higher cut off  marks. What is the rationale in this method? Why all should compel to get same cut off marks?

(To be continued)

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Court of Appeal’s restraining order had only stopped the prime minister and the ministers from functioning in their offices and had not declared them unlawful, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) chairman G. L. Peiris said today.

He said there was a misconception that the posts of prime minister and those of the ministers had fallen vacant.

This is completely false. The court order has not removed the PM and the ministers from office but had stopped them from carrying out their duties and functioning in their posts,” Prof. Peiris said and added that there had been instances in world history where prime ministers had been removed but said this was the first instance where a prime minister was suspended from carrying out his duties.

Once, a Pakistani Court removed a prime minister. However, this is the first time in the history where a prime minister and ministers were suspended from functioning. Though we respect the court order, we don’t agree with it. That’s why we filed an appeal in the Supreme Court,” he said and added that the only solution available to the current political crisis was to hold a general election.

Courtesy Adaderana

President Maithripala Sirisena has stated that he will request the Chief Justice through the Attorney General to deliver the verdict on the dissolution of the parliament without delay.

MP Wimal Weerawansa mentioned this earlier today (10) with regard to the fundamental rights petitions filed at the Supreme Court against the President’s decision to dissolve the parliament.

By Palitha Senanayake

As responsible citizens of this country, I am sure all of us are waiting with bated breath to hear the judgment that is due on the constitutional crisis the country currently faces. The issue before the judiciary is how best to pronounce the way forward for the country when its Executive and the Legislator have locked horns, or in other words when they are not compatible to each other. The purpose of this analysis is not to judge whether the executive is right or the Legislature is right but to envisage the way forward for the country.

The people of this country had been wise enough to understand this anomalist position of governance and hence they have been consistently voting at elections since 1978 to bring either the legislator that suited the executive that came to power or to bring the executive that suited the legislator that won power. The issue this time is that the UNP brought in a candidate, who had practically been the second in command of the other political camp(SLFP) as the nominee for Executive. This was a politically strategic move by the UNP on the one hand as they had little chance of coming to power with a candidate of their own and of the second in command of the SLFP on the other, as he too, had no ‘hope in hell’ of becoming the President of this country. Thus, it appeared a brilliant move of soring a positive in capturing political power out of two political negatives. Yes, it proved to be a brilliant move to capture political power, but the question is, how brilliant a move it is in governing this country? Thus, the ‘brilliant’ strategist who once claimed credit for Yahapalanaya’ should take the blame for the perilous and unstable situation the country is in today.

That apart, let us analyze the issue before the Supreme court today. On the face of it ( Prima facie) it appears as if the issue is between the Legislator and Executive and therefore warrants analysis only on those clauses of the constitution that details the duties and powers of those two. However, if the Supreme Court, buried in legal technicalities, adopts this prima facie positions, it would be a case of ‘missing the jungle for its trees’.  This is because there is a third party in this case, though not represented, that is omnipresent in this case. That is ‘People’ and whoever who interprets the clauses of the constitution cannot do so without taking the interest of the people, whom the constitution says are the owners of the country, into account.

Therefore, leaving out all the legal technicalities aside, let us take a simple situation of an estate who has an owner but runs it by appointing managers with power to manage the estate. In that situation the owner appoints the managers with clear powers in their appointment letters that may constitute a constitution in the context of a country. This arrangement is arrived at because the owner cannot be bothered with the details of management but only in seeing that the estate prospers and bring profits. However if the management starts fighting with each other and the land is being threatened in every way with regard to its wellbeing, security and day to day running, could the managers fall back on their letters appointment and say that I am the manager for 5 years as per this letter of appointment and therefore you cannot seek the views of the owner on this situation until my period expires.

It is not a question of sacking one manager of the other but a question of seeking the views of the owner and giving him a chance to decide on the way out of this crisis. If that is not done the inevitable will be doom and gloom and no democracy will survive under such situations.

When Roman’s invented democracy the idea was to get the people’s consent on each and every issue of governance. Yet, later they found that it is too difficult in practice and therefore settled for a representative democracy in compromise. Thus, the representatives are obliged to act in accordance with the peoples wishes and to act otherwise would to kill the very spirit of democracy and an act of default.  The period of representation is for practical reasons and it is not to take advantage of.

Therefore, a decision by the Supreme Court that says that the ‘Dissolution of the Parliament by the President is legal’ has a way forward. It does not mean that the present legislators are sacked but only that they have been asked to seek a mandate of the people (the owners of the country). On the other hand, if the Supreme Court maintains that the ‘Dissolution is illegal’ that verdict may push the country into anarchy inviting a revolutionary type of situation. The people of a country cannon act like an owner of an estate and that is why we have a constitution to avoid chores.  Therefore, the purpose of the Constitution is to prevent chores and not to create chores. It is not a question of restoring the fundamental rights of few who stand to gain by the continuation of the Parliament in its present form but in restoring law and order in a country and saving the fundamental rights of a population.

To be impartial, the writer does not claim to know whether it is the executive or the Legislator that is right on this matter. But what is before the Supreme Court is the dissolution of the Parliament and not the impeachment of the President. Therefore, if the impeachment of the President also comes before the Supreme Court eventually the Courts have the right to pass judgment considering the way forward and the purpose for which a constitution is enacted by a country. The basic law is that the rulers are elected by the people for a temporary period and they could come and go, but the country and its people should go on forever!

 වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග

නලීන් ද සිල්වා  සහ  ගුණදාස අමරසේකර යනු බටහිර ලෝකය සියළු  අයහපතේ මූලය ලෙස සිතන්නෝය. ඔවුන්ට බටහිර අජීර්ණය. එහෙත් ඔවුන් තම දරුවන් උසස් අධ්‍යාපනය සඳහාද ජීවත් වීම සඳහාද යැව්වේ බටහිරටය.  

ගුණදාස අමරසේකර යනු ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නම් කුඩා දිවයිනට පමණක් සීමාවූ හිටපු දන්ත වෛද්‍යවරයෙකි. ඔහු ගැන අනුරාධපුරයෙන් එහාට මිනිසුන් දන්නේ නැති තරම් ය. නලීන් ද සිල්වා  උසස් අධ්‍යාපනය ලබන්නේ බටහිරය.  ඔහුට බටහිර රටක විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයක තනතුරක් අවශ්‍යව තිබුණි. එහෙත් ඔහුට බටහිර ලෝකයේ තැනක් ලැබෙන්නේ නැත. ඔහුගේ බටහිර විරෝධයේ ආරම්භය එතැනය.එහෙත් ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර යනු  බටහිර ලෝකයේ ගරුත්වයට පාත්වූ ධීමතෙකි. ඔහු නලීන් ද සිල්වා  සහ  ගුණදාස අමරසේකර  මෙන් ජෝකර් කෙනෙකු නොවේ. 

ප්‍රිංස්ටන් විශ්ව විද්‍යලයේ  මහාචාර්‍ය ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර අන්තර් ජාතික කීර්තියට පත්වූ උගතෙකි.  ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර පිලිබඳව එංගලන්තයේ , ඇමරිකාවේ , කැනඩාවේ මෙන්ම ප්‍රංශයේ සිටින මා හඳුනන මනෝ විද්වතුන් අදහස් පළ කොට ඇත. උදාහරණ ලෙස එංගලන්තයේ ආචාර්‍ය ස්ටීවන් හීත්, ඇමරිකාවේ  ආචාර්‍ය රොජර් බෘක් ,  කැනඩාවේ මහාචාර්‍ය රිචඩ් ලේලොන්ඩ් , කැනඩාවේ වෛද්‍ය එරික් ස්මඩ්ජා යන්නවුන් මා සමග ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර  ගේ කෘතීන් ගැන කතා කොට තිබේ. එහෙත්  ගුණදාස අමරසේකර පිලිබඳව මා සමග කතා කොට ඇත්තේ දිවයින පුවත්පතේ පාඨකයන්‍ ය.  නලීන් ද සිල්වා පිලිබඳව මා සමග කතා කොට ඇත්තේ විදුසර පුවත් පතේ පාඨකයන් ය. 

අවාසනාවකට මෙන් ගනනාථ ගේ කීර්තිය නලීන් ද සිල්වාට නැත. නලීන් ද සිල්වා පිලිබඳව බටහිර ලෝකය දන්නේ නැති තරම් ය. නමුත් නලීන් ද සිල්වා සිතන්නේ  බටහිර ලෝකයට ඔහු බින් ලාඩ්න් කෙනෙකු කියාය. නලීන් ද සිල්වා ජීවත් වන්නේ ඔහු විසින්ම සදාගත් මනංකල්පිත විශ්වයකය. ඒ අතින් ගුණදාස අමරසේකර පොළවේ පය ගසාගෙන සිටින්නෙකි. එහෙත් ඔහු තදින්ම කුමන්ත්‍රණ න්‍යාය විශ්වාස කරන්නෙකි. මේ ත්‍රිත්වයෙන් ලංකාවට වටින්නේ ගණනාථ ඔබේසේකර ය. අනෙක් දෙදෙනා ඉතිහාසයේ කුණු කූඩයට යාමට නියමිතය.

Countries that indulge in regime change to remove nationalist/populist leaders & replace with pro-western puppet leaders have found a new tool – the social media. Social media means people’s voice, people’s sentiment but these Western countries have now created templates to manipulate people’s voice, pay to vocalize sentiments that align to their bigger agenda. This is complimented via foreign-funded NGOs that also pay locals to carry out various protests, strikes, forums, musical shows all of course nicely camouflaged as being non-violent, pro-democratic, pro-people as a means to fool the masses to follow them. If Sri Lankans wish to remain naïve & think that the same countries that rolled out these regime change programs using social media & NGOs will not do the same in Sri Lanka, they are more stupid than we thought. The tell-tale signs are right in front of us. Look at the unusual interference of the diplomatic corps. When have you ever seen them in the gallery of Parliament or inside the country’s court or paying regular visited to an ousted PM & issuing 24×7 statements that spell – return the country to the status quo they created in January 2015 or else! Let us understand the magnitude of the problem we face. It’s a question of saving our national sovereignty or becoming a vassal puppet state.

The Web is mightier than the sword.

Dr. Jeanne Bramhall writing to GlobalResearch reviews a book by Ahmed Bensada titled Investigation into the US role in the Arab Uprisings”. The review is interesting in the context of Sri Lanka’s political scenario & offensive involvement of the Western diplomatic corps flouting all forms of diplomatic protocols & general decencies.

According to the review the book admits that people received CIA funding, some in Egypt & Syria have been charged with espionage.

What is interesting & relevant to Sri Lanka is that the author confirms that ‘Democracy is America’s biggest export’ – he underlines 4 features that are common – all features relevant to Sri Lanka.

1. None of the events were spontaneous – these had been planned for minimum 5 years initially by the US State Dept, then through various CIA front foundations & local NGOs
2. The focus of events was always to claim objective to remove a ‘dictator’
3. None of the protests were anti-West
4. All of the instigators were middle-class & well educated youth who had mysteriously vanished after the success of the spring.

In the book there is reference to a non-violent guru Gene Sharp – apparently this ‘guru’ has links to US intelligence, as director of the Albert Einstein Institution & assisted coloured revolutions in Eastern Europe & attempted 2002 coup against Hugo Chavez.

Sri Lankans have any of our NGOs being sent for similar training?

Bensada has taken pains to source wikileak cables & websites of CIA-linked foundations & lists State Dept conference & workshops that the Arab Spring ‘heroes’ had attended, the dollars spent to ‘promote democracy’ as well as the involvement of Google, Facebook, Twitter in this exercise. Something that Sri Lanka should also do.

Bensada takes readers to Egypt’s Tahrir Square where the US-funded agitators began ‘democracy promotion’. He cites Washington Post as estimating 10,000 Egyptians taking part in NED & USAID training in social media & non-violent organizing techniques including the involvement of a former Egyptian policemen in exile coordinating from his office in US. Wikileaks claims the NED paid policemen Omar Suleiman a yearly stipend of $200,000+ between 2008-2011.

We have plenty of journo’s in exile from Sri Lanka working to destabilize Sri Lanka too.

Are we not justified in wondering how much is being paid to the sudden ‘democracy’ protestors in Sri Lanka all in favor of the party that the West wants to return to power?

Bensada claims 11 key US assets engineered the overthrow of Gaddafi – they too had participated in State Dept trainings as Middle East opposition activists.

We would like to know who are the Sri Lankans who had been trained in non-violent protests & handling of Facebook & Twitter protests  

According to Bensada between 2005 & 2010 the State dept had funneled $12m to opposition groups to topple Assad of Syria as well as financing Syrian exiles in UK helping start an anti-Syrian cable tv channel that would beam into Syria & brainwash people.

He mentions Ausama Monajed who featured in a 2011 film & had been working closely with US embassy & funded by the Middle East Partnership Initiative – a State Dept program operating in Libya & Syria as USAID was banned.

The plan was simple – in 2011 February these trained groups used Twitter & Facebook to call for a Day of Rage. It didn’t work. Not to worry they had Plan B. All it took was some calls to allies in Saudi, Turkey, Qatar & Jordan & hey presto came the Islamic mercenaries to declare war against Assad.

Bensada mentions Forum Fikra a forum for Arab activists which had been funded by Nathan & Esther K Wagner Family Foundation

The take away from this is that these colour revolutions were all CIA-instigated uprisings to replace leaders with ones friendly to US corporate interests.

Bulldozer Revolution in Serbia (2000),

Rose Revolution in Georgia (2002),

Orange Revolution in Ukraine (2004),

Tulip Revolution in Kyrgystan (2005) claimed to promote ‘democracy’ but they were only promoting capitalism.

Bensada cites the entities that funded the Arab Springs – our question is simple are these the same entities funding Sri Lankans?

USAID – a State Dept agency with a history of destabilizing countries

NED – supported by State Dept & CIA funded to promote ‘democracy’

IRI – International Republican Institute another democracy promoting agency funded by NED (linked to Republican Party)

NDI – National Democratic Institute for International Affairs – also funded by NED chaired by Madelaine Albright (linked to Democratic Party)

OSI – Open Society Institute funded by Soros in 1993 specifically for colored revolutions in Eastern Europe

Freedom House – supporting non-violent citizen initiatives, funded by USAID, NED, Soros

CANVAS – Centre for Applied Non Violent Action & Strategies – run by Serbian activists funded by Freedom House, IRI, OSI to overthrow Slobadan Milosevic, trained Arab Spring activists

Do we need to ask who are the activists that have been similarly trained in Sri Lanka?

According to F. William Engdahl of Princeton University, Srđa Popović & his organization CANVAS helped topple Serbian President Milosevic.

Popvic was also involved in Hungary to topple populist PM Victor Orban pretending to arrive in Hungry to promote his book but ended up giving aid to anti-Organ parties for the 2018 elections. Now we have to be skeptical about people launching books!

Engdahl says that Popović gained notice after he founded the organization Otpor in 1998 in Belgrade. He was trained in methods of US regime-change by Gene Sharp founder of Albert Einstein Institute in US & by State dept soft coup specialists Richard Miles (US Ambassador) as well as other US intelligence operatives. Miles was instrumental in the CIA coup in Azerbaijan that brought US-friendly Aliyev to power in 1993. Miles also orchestrated the CIA coup in Georgia to bring US asset Mikheil Saakashvili to power.

So we again ask who have undergone soft coup regime change training in Sri Lanka?

According to William Engdahl USAID a known CIA front had channeled Otpor MILLIONS of dollars through NGOs – NED, NDI, IRI, Soros’ Open Society Institute to topple Milosevic, reconfirming all that Bensada had written in his book.

NED was a project of Ronald Reagan. Allen Weinstein co-founder of NED admitted to Washington Post a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA”. What it means is that the foreign government funded NGOs are carrying out what CIA once did.

According to Michael Dobbs, investigative reporter for Washington Post, IRI had trained Popovic & other Otpor leaders at the Hilton Hotel in Budapest in October 1999. The training covered – how to organize a strike, how to communicate with symbols (ex: clenched fist became their logo) After the training 70,000 copies on non-violent resistance was distributed. Gene Sharp is mentioned by Bensada too! The Albert Einstein Institute teaches techniques to US government to conceal coup d’etats under the guise of non-violence.

It all began with street uprisings – something Sri Lanka must watch out for. Were anyone in Sri Lanka trained by this institute?

What was shown to be a spontaneous public rising against Milosevic was actually not spontaneous at all – behind the scenes were Western advisors, pollsters, consultants training thousands of opposition activists & helping organize a parallel vote count.

Hmm this is very interesting & recalls the delay in preferential counting in Colombo District!

According to William Engdah, Popovic & Otpor had received over $41m for their ‘democracy-building’ campaign in Serbia.

5000 cans of spray paint were given to student activists to scrawl anti-Milosevic graffiti on walls (all UNKNOWINGLY paid by US tax payers)

After Otpor’s success in 2000 – Popvic created CANVAS again mentioned by Bensada – the supposedly non-governmental non-profit organization is to ‘educate pro-democracy activists around the world’. The Green Revolution in Iran in 2009 however was a failure.

CANVAS boasts of training pro-democracy activists in more than 50 countries including Ukraine, Georgia, Zimbabwe, Burma, Georgia, Eritrea, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Tunisia, Egpyt & Syria. Sri Lanka is also mentioned elsewhere.

How does Popovic, CANVAS connect to Sri Lanka you may wonder… here is how!!

The Harvard Kennedy School online leadership program on Leading Non Violent Movements for Social Progress under curriculum mentions Sri Lanka & guess who a co-instructor of this program is Srdja Popovic (of Otpor & CANVAS)

The successes—and failures—of mass campaigns for change will also be explored, including the Serbian democracy movement of the late 1990s and early 2000s, as well as movements in Egypt, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Burma, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere.”

https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/HKSEE/HKSEE%20Files/LNM_Brochure.pdf

Therefore, we need to find out who are the activists trained in Sri Lanka.

William Engdah’s article also covers US ‘intelligence consultancy’ Stratfor, claiming that to be a shadow CIA for corporate clients Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon & US Govt agencies including Dept of Homeland Security & Defense Intelligence Agency. Hacker Anonymous had released 5m emails from Stratfor in 2012 Popvic’s CANVAS working as spy for Stratfor and Wikileaks revealed from the same email hacking that Goldman Sachs, Wall Street Bank was mysteriously funding CANVAS.

That Popvic delivered as per requirement is shown by the awards dished out to him – 2011 Foreign Policy magazine puts him on ‘Top 100 Global Thinkers’ – what’s big about being paid create a false public demand to overthrow an anti-West government?

2012 – Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize – little said about this award

2014 – World Economic Forum lists him as a Young Global Leader”

2017 – Elected Rector of University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Looks like people who help West over throw anti-West government can go places!

What we can conclude is that the US has been involved in a big way in regime change in Sri Lanka assisted by other Western states & even India & Japan. In June 2015 the US called for proposals from NGOs for projects on Democracy, Human Rights & Rule of Law. Reconciliation/Ethno-Religious projects were allocated $750,000, $1m was allocated for transparency, accountability & anti-corruption – who are the recipients of the funding because it is through their assistance & engaging their staff for various training that what Ahmed Bensada & William Engdahl describe will take shape in Sri Lanka if not happening already in miniature doses just to test the water & filter feedback to see what best option can be adopted to suit Sri Lankans & what is likely to work to deliver the desired results.

The only way that these strategies & tactics can be countered is to know all of the templates that have been adopted, to treat ALL NGOs & their programs & initiatives with caution & refuse to be part of protests that have NGOs & questionable characters linked to them. It is also good to watch out for sudden arrivals of Sri Lankans with a shopping list of ‘what I will do if I come to power’ or ‘complaints & charges against those that the West wish to oust’.

It would be good to note that the majority of people have no regard for any of the NGO heads these diplomatic corps are paying and that may be the reason that all tactics rolled out are not working so far.

We do not wish to be a pawn of any country. We want our nation to belong to us, we want to be able to elect the leaders we want on our terms, we don’t want to be told who we should or should not vote for & we certainly do not like the present interferences & involvements of the diplomatic corps in Sri Lanka.

We are a nation of highly literate people – let us not allow our beautiful nation to be turned into a theatre of conflict for regional powers who wish to use Sri Lanka as a watch tower for their greater geopolitical games.

Shenali D Waduge

https://www.globalresearch.ca/cia-backed-color-revolutions/5611641

http://www.colombopage.com/archive_15B/Jun19_1434654584CH.php

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

Sunday newspapers in Sri Lanka in Sinhala, English and Tamil published many articles in relation to constitutional crisis of the country and the points mentioned in many articles were beyond the level of understanding of ordinary Sri Lankans as they referred to various legislations and academic style of points and arguments mentioned by lawyers. The points mentioned in the articles were talking about the human rights, power and authority and many aspects.  It seemed that the constitutional matters in Sri Lanka like tax legislation in Wester countries, which cannot be understood by ordinary people, who must seek professional advice spending more money.

Many people filed cases against the decision of the president to dissolve the parliament for a fresh election to elect representatives to the parliament.  People has an open question why these so-called protectors of human rights went the highest court of the country when common people got an opportunity to exercise their power.

The other point people mentioned is that the president of Sri Lanka mentioned that the parliament was dissolved by him as the members of the parliament, who were elected by votes offered by free of charged by people put them to a tender for highest bidders.  The members of parliament who were elected by votes, which was free of charge and elected members free votes of public can sell them for millions of monies.  This is also a human rights related question.

The ordinary people of the country think that the right to gain an employment, finding food for living, building a house for living are their fundamental human rights, but nobody is talking about their rights and argue about so-called rights written in a piece of paper (Constitution).

In fact, people are of opinion that when they got an opportunity to exercise their power through an election, it must be given to them and nobody has authority prevent such right.

Geethanjana Kudaligamage

Is judiciary independent? This is the question that is buzzing around us and the Colombo city day and night now. One thing we must understand is that Judiciary is occupied by men and women, like any others, who are also members of the same social fabric of the country in point. If the society is virtuous full of law-abiding people, then the people holding positions in the judiciary also might be righteous, honorable and moral, at least majority of them would be so. When a society become corrupt to its core, I doubt if the people in the judiciary can be immune to such conditions.

For several times judges have been caught in the USA for accepting bribes. USA is said to be the ‘best’ democracy, with a sound system of judiciary and law and order in the world with independent institutions. But they also have judges getting bribes on the basis of pay to play. For example, some judges have received kickbacks for convicting and incarcerating mostly minority people for minor crimes like smoking marijuana. These judges had received money from privately owned prison companies. Because these prisons need steady supply of prisoners to thrive their business. And there are allegations that even politicians receiving hefty illegal payments in millions for bizarre things like making speeches. Then there are campaign donations received by politicians on agreement to work on behalf of those donners. That type of bribery is legalized in the US. So, if that is the case of USA, then can Sri Lanka be different?

But hope is good. Hope keeps us alive to live another day. If it is a false hope due to our ignorance of the realities, then that hope keeps us happy only for short time? As the saying goes, ignorance is bliss. Eventually we will confront with the harsh reality. We hope that our supreme court will be immune to the heavy bags of dollars coming from the west these days to manipulate politics in Sri Lanka. We hope that our judges look other way if they were offered money to make a favorable verdict/decision favorable to the west.

The following article was published by maestro H. L. D. Mahindapala six years ago, in December 2012. I quote the entire article here since it is so relevant to the issues concerning us today.

How independent is the Judiciary?
Posted on December 3rd, 2012 

H. L. D. Mahindapala

The following anecdotal evidence is narrated to test the independence of the judiciary that was supposed to exist before the current contest between Parliament and the Judiciary broke out. The raging controversy is based on the claim that the Judiciary was independent and the appointment of a Parliamentary Select Committee to probe into the conduct of the Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake erodes the independence of the Judiciary. The following anecdotal evidence presents a skeletal profile of the hidden legal system on which the sovereign people were dependent solely for the rule of law and their share of justice:

First story: Reminiscing about the good old days at Hulftsdorp a lawyer friend once told me that it was common in his day to see bewigged lawyers getting off their cars and walking down the solemn corridors of red- brick Hulftsdorp, followed by peons carrying heavy legal tomes on their stretched scrawny arms.

That is all gone now,” he added ruefully. Learned counsel do not take volumes to court now. Nowadays they take the short cut, the easy path, by visiting judges at home with bulging envelopes, offering the kind of irresistible hard evidence that judges cannot refuse.”

Second story: Going back to the late sixties I remember meeting a cross-section of professionals at the AAA — a popular watering hole of journos, politicos, lawyers, etc.– which was located then just behind Gall Face Flats. I also remember having hot, spicy bites of seer fish or venison, washed down with sips of gin, lime and tonic, with a prosperous lawyer-politico who was boasting that he fixes his cases the previous evening before it comes to trial the next morning. I asked him how. That’s easy,” he said. I invite …… (all names withheld for obvious reasons) for drinks the previous evening and over one-too-many he hears the evidence and the verdict he would deliver next morning in courts.”

Third story: I also knew a Magistrate’s driver with an exceptional knowledge of the inner workings of court, especially in the art of making vital evidence disappear the day before the case is due to be taken up. Once he made a miris gala, a vital bit of evidence, disappear just like that from the courts store room — a feat that could have been performed only by someone like Houdini. I have, of course, lost count of the number of times I’ve read or heard of the record rooms of courts going  up in flames, particularly if  it contains files of tax cases of rich big wigs.

Fourth story: Judges, in cahoots with their mates at the bar, offer liberal extensions to lawyers who postpone their clients cases, over and over again, which, in effect, means the helpless clients pays out of their pockets for the needs of the hired lawyers and not theirs.

Fifth Story: The stories about the former Chief Justice, Sarath N. Silva are a legion. Every lawyer and judge know how he tyrannised the judiciary and ran it like his own fiefdom. But one story that sticks out goes right to the top where he colluded with the former President, Chandrika Kumaranatunga, to hold a secret swearing in for the second time, after holding a public one earlier, with the sole intent of extending the President’s term in office.

Sixth story: Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, who has held her sister’s power of attorney for 22 years to manage her investments in Sri Lanka, uses the power embedded in the office of the Chief Justice to sit in judgement over her sister’s case concerning a property deal, knowing that she should not touch it even with a barge pole mile long. Since she, in her defence, claims that the principle of justice seen to be done” should apply to her, how will the public see this sacred principle in operation when she comes to court grabbing her sister’s case in one hand and the sister’s power of attorney in the other? Even illiterate Punchi Banda, who lives in remote Yakdessagala and never heard of the existence of Standing Orders or the Constitution of 1978, won’t take two seconds to see through it.

The anecdotal evidence cited above covers a wide range, from top to bottom. This, of course, is not even the tip of the iceberg. It is only the last tiny flake sitting on the tip of the iceberg. Every practitioner in the legal system knows more than one story which they will not talk about in public because it reflects badly on the integrity and the professional standards. The tragedy — or rather the hypocrisy (Jesus had a lot to say about this) — is that these black-coated professionals are the first to pontificate on the unimpeachable standards that must be preserved at all levels to (1) protect the independence of the judiciary (2) rule of law and (3) delivery of justice to the sovereign people.

With the damning inside knowledge of the goings-on in courts the legal fraternity, which is tearing its hair now about the rule of law” should seriously ask: is Hulftsdorp governed by rule of law or by corrupt, underhand, illegal, immoral practices? Can the judiciary be independent when those in the profession are the first to undermine the independence of the judiciary by selling justice to the highest bidder? The vocal lawyers and moralists are babbling and demonstrating about political threats to the judiciary as if the law-makers are about to pluck judges from their benches and hurl them into the nearest dustbin. But how many of these lawyers have shown the same concern to the sovereign people in villages and cities, who have been fleeced by unscrupulous lawyers because of their incompetence, postponements of cases to suit their personal agendas, corrupt practices or by greasing the palm of judges? When have the lawyers fought as passionately as they do now to protect the independence of the judiciary from the black-coated enemy within?

When have they ever demonstrated publicly protesting that justice cannot be delivered at the exorbitant fees they extract from the sovereign poor? Which lawyer ever broke a coconut in defence of a penurious villager who had been wronged by malpractices of lawyers and judges in courts? The Kalu Koat Karayas have invariably been on the side of the rich and the powerful. Justice was constantly bought and sold over the counter at Hulftsdorp. When did the poor ever have the rule of law on their side? On whose side was the independent judiciary? There were intrepid judges (example: T. S. Fernando) who stood their ground resisting all pressures but they were few and far between. By and large the judiciary would go with the flow. So will the President of Bar Council, the ever-so- righteous Wijedasa Rajapakse, PC, initiate action among fellow black coats to clean up the Augean stables at Hulftsdorp to reform the legal system which he, like his fellow-lawyers, knows is corrupt to the core? Can a corrupt legal system deliver justice to the sovereign people? How can the superficial separation powers at the top deliver justice to the sovereign people if the process at the bottom on which justice depends is rotten to the core?

Standing up for the independence of the judiciary does not begin and end with combating external forces — political, underworld, money bags, reforming outdated and bad laws, etc. These, of course, constitute a part of defending the independence of the judiciary. The struggle to defend the judiciary goes beyond these to the internal factors that corrode the integrity of the judiciary, starting from crooked lawyers and going up to some of the untrained, lazy, judges who sit on the bench with befuddled heads in the morning after the night before.

Independence of the judiciary also does not mean fighting for the privileges of those in upper bracket in the official and unofficial bar. If independence of the bar means delivering justice to the sovereign people, without tilting it  in favour of one side or the other, then there are greater issues at stake like protecting the citizens victimized by the tyranny of courts, malpractices of black-coated hypocrites, costs involved in getting justice, impartiality of the judges, incompetence of  lawyers, and generally lifting the standards of the legal profession to  make it user-friendly for the public who have to wait for donkeys years just to get their cases heard, let alone justice. It is the Bar Association that must be in the forefront of this battle to reform the judiciary to make it independent in a meaningful way to serve the sovereign people. But so far no one has seen lawyers dashing coconuts on behalf of the poor people who had been denied justice from the exploitative legal system.

Independence of the judiciary has had no meaning to the average citizen who had suffered throughout their lives oppressed by the lawyers, judges, and those connected to the legal system. Ask anyone who has come out of the nightmarish legal process and he/she would come out breathing a sigh of relief never wanting to go back to gruelling process ever again. So far the vociferous cry of independence of the judiciary” boils down to ensuring the right of those in the legal profession to rake in as much profit as they can with no consideration for the rights of their clients, especially the poor ones, to obtain some measure of justice. If the Bar Association and those black-coated coconut dashers had devoted one fraction of the concern they spend on saving their privileges in the name of saving the independence of the judiciary to bring some justice and relief to their poor clients by reforming the legal system, the sovereign people could look up to those on Hulftsdorp hill as valuable and sincere contributors to life, liberty and happiness. But one has to wait and see when — if the day ever comes –Wijedasa Rajapakse, who wants to reform everything around him, will ever dare to clean up the rot in his professional backyard and restore an independent judiciary free from legal tyranny and corruption.

It is in this background that respected Justice C. G. Weeramantry’s judiciously couched phraseology directs it censorious force to question the ethics of legal practitioners. In his writing he has been very critical of the legal profession. His latest statement on this aspect goes to the heart of the crisis within the profession. He said: If a judge fails in his duty of judicial integrity, that entire nation is lost. It is only when the community has confidence in the integrity and the capacity of the judiciary that that community is governed by the rule of law. In other words, you don’t have the rule of law, you don’t have democracy in any community where the judge is lacking in integrity.”

Before I place this statement in its local context, I must digress to sketch briefly Justice Weeramantry’s role in the Sri Lankan judiciary. Earlier I mentioned that there are two models established at Hulftsdorp: 1) the model of T. S and Mark Fernandos, both of whom adhered to the law and its spirit with redoubtable tenacity to preserve the purity and the integrity of the judiciary; (2) the model at the other extreme of Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva which doesn’t need any more elaboration.

The third model was established by Justice Weeramantry who reached the pinnacle not only in  the legal profession when he was appointed to the highest court  in the world, the International Court of Justice, but also in his scholarly approach to the law, bringing in inter-disciplinary perspectives to enrich the law and serve the sovereign people through the use of the most civilized and humane force available to humanity: the righteous principles of  law. Those who had read his numerous volumes, including the published two volumes of his biography (the third is on the way), will agree that his legal philosophy is influenced deeply by religion. Just not his Christian faith but all mainstream religions. He sees religious leaders as the primary law-givers for mankind and he draws deeply from religious sources to give depth and meaning to the laws of day. One outstanding contribution in this vein is his book titled The Lord’s Prayer — a path-breaking approach to Christianity from a legal perspective. He delineates the oppressive socio-economic conditions that prevailed in the time of Jesus in Jerusalem and teases out the profound legal principles enshrined in the Lord’s Prayer.

He relates the crises of modernity to either the neglect or abandonment of the fundamentals contained in the highest principles of religions. His criticisms of the crises in environment, politics, science and technology, law etc., are based on religious values and, in his main thesis, he concludes that the security. stability and the future of the good earth — the exclusive home of mankind — can be assured only by returning to the religious values and the life-style prescribed in the sacred texts. By this he does not mean a return to institutionalised religions. He refers essentially to the life-enriching values that can take the individuals lost in crass materialism into the next level of a moral and meaningful life. It is in this spirit of his concern for humanity and their future that he delivered the landmark judgment which declared all weapons of mass destruction illegal at the International Court of Justice. It was a dissenting judgement no doubt. Nevertheless, it resonated globally with a lasting moral impact that is slowly but surely gathering a momentum of its own.

His attitude towards his own legal profession too is drawn from religion. Talking about lawyers at a recent dinner in Melbourne I heard him telling another lawyer that he must read Jesus on lawyers. You must read Mathew from 23: 22. Jesus was very severe on lawyers.”  True. Jesus had never excoriated any other profession as that of the lawyers. His angry verbal explosion is devastating. He calls them hypocrites”, blind fools”, blind guides”. He tears into them saying: You snakes, you vipers’ brood, how can you escape being condemned to hell?” (23:33). He begins his tirade against lawyers on a quieter tone. This is how the long text begins: The doctors of  the law and the Pharisees sit in the chair of Moses; therefore do what they tell you; pay attention to their  words. But do not follow their practice; for they say one thing and do another. They make up heavy packs and pile them on men’s shoulders, but will not raise a finger to life the load themselves. Whatever they do is done for show….” (p.51 — The New English Bible, The British and Foreign Bible Society in association with Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press, 1962)

The source of Judge Weeramantry’s statement referring to the duty of judicial integrity” can be traced to the Bible. He is quite emphatic when he says: If a judge fails in his duty of judicial integrity, that entire nation is lost.” He, of course, is not referring to the current crisis. He is focused in general on the principle of a judge’s duty to uphold judicial integrity. But there is no doubt that it is a principle that applies directly to the Sri Lankan judiciary. He leaves no doubt that judicial integrity must of the highest unimpeachable standards. The last word on lawyers is with Jesus who said: Alas, for you, lawyers and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel over sea and land to win one convert; and when you have won him you make him twice as fit for hell as you are yourselves” (Mathew, 23: 15). The lawyers at the bar indeed have done just that — dragged Sri Lanka into another hell!

The current contest between the legislature and the judiciary revolves mainly round the issues of judicial integrity”, independence of the judiciary: rule of law”, separation of powers”, leading finally to who has the final legal authority to lay down the law to whom — is it the judiciary to parliament or vice versa? CJ’s team of lawyers is appealing to the courts urging that in the contest between the courts and the Parliamentary Select Committee the Courts must take away the option available to Parliament to hear the case of the CJ and hand it over to court. On that selection it is respectfully submitted hangs the future of the independence of the judiciary,” says K. Kanag-Iswaran the counsel for CJ.

The issue before the Appellate Court is not that of the independence of the judiciary”. The issue is whether courts can impose a new and arbitrary interpretations of the law and take away the powers vested by the Constitution in Parliament to appoint a select committee and hear the cases of misconduct of the judges in superior courts, including CJ. In his submission Kanag-Iswaran is openly and unequivocally appealing to the Courts to interpret the law in favour of the Courts. He would not ask the courts to interpret it in favour of the courts if the law had not given Parliament the right to hear the case. It is because Parliament is vested with the power of hearing the case of a superior courts judge that Kanag-Iswarn is asking the courts to deny that right to Parliament and hand it over to the courts. If the courts had that exclusive right in law he should ask the Appellate Court to uphold the law — not to interpret it in favour of the courts.

So if the Courts go out of its way to take away the power of Parliament to hear cases against judges in superior courts and hand it over to the courts then it would amount to a dictatorial grab of power to strengthen the hands of judges who can pervert the law with no one to  check them. It would also question the independence of the judiciary”. Can a court be trusted to judge independently, without bias, a case in which the judicial powers constitutionally vested in Parliament is contested with a view to grab it from the legislature and hand it over to the judiciary? Yes, if the judge was like T. S. Fernando. So it is the judges who will be on trial with the issue of the independence of the judiciary”.

Considering that granting judicial powers to an external institution would erode its own powers the natural temptation would be for the courts to interpret the law in its favour. It would be something like the CJ deciding to hear the case of her sister because she has a stake in the investments of her sister by holding in her hands the power of attorney to the family property.

As stated earlier, this issue tests the integrity of the judiciary. Given the high voltage electrifying the political landscape, can the judiciary uphold the rule of law when their interests are at stake? This case as argued by CJ’s counsel, K. Kanag-Isveran, unequivocally concedes that Parliament has the right to hear the case of judges in superior courts. But — hold your breath! —  he says that this right must be transferred to courts for the courts to maintain its independence, disregarding what the Constitution states in black and white. In 107 (3) of the Constitution the law states that Parliament is as good as a court in trying judges of superior courts ONLY. After the Constitution vested in Parliament the legal power to try judges of superior court in principle it was left to Parliament to structure the mechanism for trying judges which is laid down in Standing Order 78A.

The law vesting power to Parliament is in 107 (3) of the Constitution. What is in 78A is the mechanism to implement that power vested in Parliament and it is the right of Parliament to devise its own instrumentality to implement the powers vested in it. It is similar to the Constitution vesting powers in the Judiciary in principle and the judiciary devising its own mechanism to implement those powers. So it’s not a question of what is right and wrong in law. Or who has the power to try judges or not. It is because the Constitution has vested the power in Parliament that the Judiciary is fighting now to grab that power from Parliament.

The precedent for Parliament to act as judge has also been established. Harold Peiris, the Editor of the Sunday Observer, was tried before Parliament on an issue of Parliamentary privilege, and fined Rs. 1,000.00. If citizen Harold Peiris can be tried by Parliament why can’t citizen Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake be tried, especially when the law says that judges of the superior courts, including the Chief Justice, should be tried by the Standing Order of Parliament. Neither the Chief Justice nor the Judiciary is above the law. Trying the superior judges by Parliament is another way of maintaining the checks and balances entailed in the principle of separation of powers. Allowing judges to try each other (no pun intended) is not a healthy practice for the preservation of the rule of law or the independence of the judiciary.

If the courts decide to usurp powers that it does not have and grab power vested in Parliament to empower the judiciary, which is something like grabbing your neighbour’s property to expand and strengthen the base in your little acre, then it amounts to the judiciary acting illegally to place the judiciary above the law with no checks and balances. It would lead to reinforce the Actonian principle that would tend to establish the untrammelled dictatorship of the judiciary. Such a scenario can have serious consequences to the nation. Powers that invariably corrupt individuals and institutions tend to propel both to demand more powers, all in the name of high principles. This leads to the erosion of the integrity and credibility of institutions and individuals. That is why there are checks and balances in the separation of powers.

It is in this context that the warnings of Justice Weeramantry becomes germane. As he stated: If a judge fails in his duty of judicial integrity, that entire nation is lost. It is only when the community has confidence in the integrity and the capacity of the judiciary that that community is governed by the rule of law. In other words, you don’t have the rule of law, you don’t have democracy in any community where the judge is lacking in integrity.”

Next question: So will the judiciary uphold the law or will it bend over backwards to uphold its own interests under the cover of upholding the independence of the judiciary” which doesn’t exist as shown in the anecdotal introduction?

By Shivanthi Ranasinghev Courtesy Ceylon Today

Press Release German Dharmaduta Society

The 100^th Birth anniversary of Asoka Weeraratna will be commemorated at the Mahaweli Centre, Colombo commencing at 3.00 p.m. on Wednesday December 12. 2018

Asoka Weeraratna, born on 12^th December 1918 in Galle, played a pioneering role in the dissemination of Buddhism in Germany in the post war period through the German Dharmaduta Society that he founded in 1952. He converted Dr. Paul Dahlke’s Das Buddhistische Haus in Berlin – Frohnau, into a Buddhist Vihara in 1957 by stationing Buddhist monks on a long term footing to spread Buddhism in the West.  He established the Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya (Mitirigala Forest Hermitage) in 1967 and entered the Order of the Sangha in 1972 as Ven. Mitirigala Dhammanissanti. His name finds resonance alongside other world renowned Buddhist missionaries of the 20^th century, for establishing the oldest Theravada Buddhist Vihara in Germany, which has now become the seat of Theravada Buddhism in  continental Europe, conducting a variety of Buddhism related activities.  

A highlight of the event will be the release of a commemorative postage stamp and a Special Commemorative First Day Cover in honour of the Birth Centenary of the late Asoka Weeraratna, by the Philatelic Bureau of the Department of Post.

Life and Legacy of Asoka Weeraratna

Leading Buddhist monks including Ven. (Dr.) Omalpe Sobitha Thera, Ven. Uda Iriyagama Dhammajiva Thera, Chief Preceptor (Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya), and Buddhist lay leaders such as Mr. Jagath Sumathipala, President, All Ceylon Buddhist Congress, Professor Jayasiri Lankage (President, German Dharmaduta Society) and Mr. Senaka Weeraratna ( Hony. Secretary, GDS), Mr. Ranjith Wickrematilaka (President, Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya Sanrakshana Sabhawa) and Mr. Hemantha Ranawaka (Secretary, Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya Sanrakshana Sabhawa) will be addressing the meeting dealing with the life and legacy of Asoka Weeraratna to posterity. A Short documentary will also be screened.

Recital of Poems (Kavi), and a short drama focused on the espousal of vegetarianism and the success Ven. Dhammanissanti achieved in lobbying former President R. Premadasa to stop State Patronage of Inland Fisheries in Sri Lanka, will be staged by children from the Bodhiraja Childrens’ Home, Embilipitiya.

German Dharmaduta Society

December 05, 2018

Press Statement

Bribery Commission is presently in an age of transformation. A prominent aspect in this regard is the maintenance of highest professionalism in the fields of investigation and prosecution. Moreover, for the first time in history, processes are underway to recruit specialised investigators and prevention officers to the commission. after the lapse of 25 years, steps have been taken to amend corresponding laws. Formulation of a National Action Plan as well as the strengthening of international relationships are other key achievements of this year. Above all, the commission has consistently maintained its independence and nonpartisan persona in delivering its various functions.

The progress achieved in the past year can be surmised as follows.

1. As a result of successful prosecution, convictions have been achieved of 62 trials. In the year 2017, that number was 57. This must be compared with the statistics of the period between 2005 and 2010. In most instances, the number of convictions ranged from 15 to 20. Considering this, it is submitted that the officers of the bribery commission have conducted prosecutions with an aim to achieve convictions, rather than merely filing cases.
2. A main criticism levelled against the commission is how cases are filed against individuals holding lower positions in the society, while those individuals who hold higher positions, are disregarded. Yet when one looks at the last two years, cases have been filed against the former Attorney General, former judge of the Court of Appeal, 3 former ministers, chairman to the State Printing corporation, chairman to the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation, Director of Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation, Chairman of Laksala, Managing Director of Laksala, Director of Finance of Laksala, Project Manager of Laksala, former District Court Judge, official of the Ceylon Electericity Board, Chairman of Avant Guard, Former Brigadier of the Army, Director of Customs, Superintendent of Customs, former Governor, former member of pradeshiya sabha and other officials holding high ranks. A special case has been filed for  two offences of giving and accepting a bribe by a former Brigadier and the Chairman of Avant guard.
3. 03. Within the span of this year, 48 arrests have been made during raids conducted while bribes were taken. As such, among the arrests made, high ranking officials such as Import and Exports controller, Chairman of the Timber Corporation, Chairman of the Department of Animal Production and Health, Senior Assessor and inspector of police are present.
4. 04. While for the last 5 years investigations were carried out by police officers, the bribery commission has succeeded in getting the approval to recruit 200 specialised investigators. As such state approval has been taken to recruit accountants, auditors, financial analysts, digital investigators, bonds, securities, banking, international conventions, procurement, construction, engineering, management and public administration as special investigators. Applications have already been called. 8000 applications have been received and the Examination Commissioner has already conducted an aptitude test.
5. Whilst the Bribery Commission has only focused on investigations and prosecutions, anti- corruption agencies from around the world have prevention mechanisms in place. Drawing inspiration from them, processes are underway to establish a prevention division in the commission. as such, approval has been taking to recruit 50 such prevention officers and applications have already been called. 5000 applications have been received and interviews are underway for recruitment purposes.
6. Cabinet approval has been taken to amend the 25-year-old law pertaining to bribery and corruption. As such, amendments have been made to the Bribery Act, where jurisdiction has been granted to High Courts to hear bribery cases apart from Magistrate Courts. however, amendments must be done pertaining to other areas as well. as such amendments pertaining to, private sector bribery, sexual bribery, sports bribery, bribery pertaining to foreign diplomats are being carried out by the legal draftsman department.
7. Amendment to the Commission of Inquiry Act has already been placed before the Parliament. Debates with regards to the amendment was taken up by the Parliament and has been postponed for a future date. This amendment would empower the Bribery Commission to file cases based on the evidence revealed at the Presidential Commissions of Inquiries. As such, the statements made for Presidential Commissions of Inquiries need not be repeated before the Bribery Commission.
8. As a result of various consultations conducted with national and international experts, processes are underway in the legal draftsman department in order to make the necessary amendments to the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Act. Additionally, the necessary amendments to the Bribery Commission Act are already underway by the legal draftsman.
9. The main hurdle in combatting bribery and corruption in the country was the lack of a national policy in this regard. As a member of the United National Convention Against Corruption, the Cabinet has entrusted the Bribery Commission with the task of the formulation of a national action plan. Accordingly, 30 consolations were carried out throughout Sri Lanka, out of which, 4 were carried out in the Parliament. As such, various fields such as public representatives have been given the opportunity to express their views in this regard. Views of public servants, professionals, members of the civil societies, artists have been collated to form 04 strategies for the next 05 years. Formulation of this action plan has already been completed and is intended to be launched soon. The four strategies are Prevention Mechanism, Value-Based Education and Community Engagement, Strengthening of CIABOC and Other Law Enforcement Agencies and Law and Policy Reform.

04 additional handbooks that play a key role in combatting bribery and corruption have also been introduced visa-vi the national action plan. They are,

1. Proposed guidelines on Gift Rules
2. Proposed guidelines on Conflict of Interests

• Handbook pertaining to integrity of public officials

1. Proposals about asset declaration Law, CIABOC Act, Bribery Act, election campaigns finance Law, Proceeds of crimes Law and whist blower protection Law.

As such, 5 publications including the national action plan and 4 handbooks will be launched, where all publications will be available in all three languages. This would amount to 15 publications altogether.

1. The past year saw the attention and fellowship of the international community extended to the bribery commission. As such, the bribery commission contributed to the regaining of the GSP+ concession by making successful presentations in the European Union. In order to enhance the specialities of the bribery commission, continuous technical support has been granted by the United Nation. As an appreciation of the bribery commission’s progress, the Global Expert Meeting drawing 35 international experts, was held in Colombo, July this year. This endeavour seemed to enhance the 2012 Jakarta Declaration on strengthening the independence of anti-corruption agencies of the world. as a result, the Colombo Commentary would be published int he near future.
2. Training programs have been conducted in countries such as Malaysia, Hong-Kong, Bhutan, Korea, Japan and China, for the benefit of investigators and legal officers of the bribery commission. The Hong-Kong anti-corruption agency has already agreed to conduct a more in-depth training session next year. The bribery commission has been able to organise study tours for state officials, with regards to the successful mechanism employed by other countries in the eradication of bribery and corruption. As such the Attorney General, the Secretary to the President, Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration, Secretary to the Ministry of Local Government and the Legal Draftsman were given the opportunity head to Bhutan and Hong Kong to gather experience. Several consultations have been organised with the chairman of the Malaysian institute and senior state officials of Sri Lanka.
3. 12. 54 awareness programs have been conducted among school children, youth and public officials across Sri Lanka. Whilst it was not part of the official duties of the legal officers and investigators of the bribery commission, they have dedicated their time and effort to make these programs a success. Discussions are underway to conduct educational-sector-oriented awareness programs in the next year.
4. As a result of the dangerous situation created by a dilapidated building in the commission premises, the Presidential Secretariat has offered a premise in the Department for Registration of Persons at Keppetipola Road, to relocate the investigations division. The same location is expected to house the prospective prevention officers soon. The Cabinet has granted its approval to utilise the space in Keppetipola Road till a new building has been constructed at the bribery commission premises.
5. 14. The main challenge faced by the bribery commission is the lack of adequate space. Presently, the commission had to exert much effort to acquire the approval to construct a building in the nearby plot of land. After the lapse of 1.5 years, the National Housing Development Authority has granted its approval.
6. 15. A proposed framework of prevention for the public sector has already been given approval by the Cabinet. As such, 200 million rupees have been allocated for the next year in this regard. Additionally, Cabinet approval has already been granted for the allocation of 200 million rupees for the training of lawyers, investigators and prevention officers. A massive plan has been formulated to use electronic and other print media to raise awareness among the public by promoting an ideological change towards bribery and corruption. Requests have already been made to the Ministry of Finance in this regard.
7. 16. A main challenge faced by the bribery commission is the inadequate salary regime which renders the commission unable to attract talented lawyers as legal officers. Most talented lawyers are attracted to the Attorney General’s Department due to its recent salary raise. A main drawback in the success of the bribery commission, is the rejection of its request to increase the salaries of its staff.
8. 17. Currently, there are 200 investigators in the bribery commission. There are 29 legal officers. This is a very low number compared to the ratio of the population. As an example, Hong Kong which has a population of 06 Million has 1000 investigation officers. 0.282% has been allocated by the budget to the Hong Kong anti-corruption agency.  Sri Lanka has only allocated 0.014% off the budget to CIABOC.
9. There are 05 investigation divisions and each division has approximately 20 officers. A single division is entrusted with approximately 700, 800 files. Investigations may be delayed due to the limited number of human resources. The year 2017 received 2768 complaints out of while investigations have been conducted on 1652 occasions. By 2018.11.30, the commission has received 3081 complaints, out of which 1863 has been decided for further investigations.

මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශය December 9th press release of CIABOC

අ‍ල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාව පසු කරමින් සිටින්නේ පරිවර්තනීය යුගයකි. ඒ අතරින් ප්‍රධාන වන්නේ පැමිණිලි මෙහෙයවීම් සහ විමර්ශනය කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඉහළම වෘත්තීමයභාවයක් මේ වන විට අත්පත් කර ගෙන සිටීමයි. එසේම ඉතිහාසයේ ප්‍රථම වතාවට විශේෂඥ විමර්ශකයන් බඳවා ගැනීමත් නිවාරණ නිලධාරීන් බඳවා ගැනීමත් සඳහා කටයුතු ආරම්භ කර ඇත. තවද අවුරුදු 25 කට පසුව නීතියේ ස‍ංශෝධන කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය පියවර ගනිමින් සිටී. ජාතික වැඩපිළිවෙලක් සකස් කිරීමත් අන්තර්ජාතික සබඳතාවයන් වැඩිදියුණු කිරීමත් මෙම වසර තුළ දී සිදු වූ ඉතාමත් වැදගත් කාර්යයන් වේ. ඒ සියල්ලටම වඩා ස්වාධීන සහ අපක්ෂපාතීභාවය අතින් ඉහළම ප්‍රතිරූපයක් ගොඩනගා ගැනීමට අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාව සමත් වී සිටී.

මෙම වසර දෙක තුළ දී පිළිබිඹු කළ ප්‍රගතිය ඉතා සැකෙවින් මෙසේ දැක්විය හැකිය.

6. අධිකරණයේ සාර්ථක ලෙස නඩු මෙහෙයවීමේ ප්‍රතිඵලයක් ලෙස නඩු 62 ක දී විත්තිකරුවන් වරදකරුවන් කරවීමට හැකි වී ඇත. 2017 වර්ෂයේ දී එම සංඛ්‍යාව 57 කි. මෙය සන්සන්දනය කළ යුත්තේ 2005 සිට 2010 දක්වා වූ කාල පරාසයත් සමඟ ය. බොහොමයක් අවස්ථාවල දී, එම කාලය තුළ වසරකට අධිකරණය මගින් වරදකරුවන් කළ විත්තිකරුවන් සංඛ්‍යාව 15 සිට 20 දක්වා වේ. ඒ අනුව හ‍ුදෙක් නඩු පැවරීම් නොව පවරන නඩුවල දී විත්තිකරුවන් වරදකරුවන් බවට පත් කිරීම ඉලක්ක කර ගෙන අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාවේ නිලධාරීන් විසින් පැමිණිල්ල මෙහෙයවා ඇත.
7. අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාවට නැගෙන ප්‍රධාන චෝදනාවක් වන්නේ සාමාන්‍ය ව්‍යවහාරයේ පවතින පරිදි සුළු තානාත්තර දරණ අයට එරෙහිව ඔවුන් පමණක් ඉලක්ක කර ගනිමින් නඩු පවරන බවයි. නමුත් පසුගිය දෙවසර පරීක්ෂා කිරීමේ දී හිටපු නීතිපති, හිටපු අභියාචනාධිකරණ විනිශ්චයකාර, හිටපු ඇමතිවරු තිදෙනෙක්, රාජ්‍ය මුද්‍රණ නීතිගත සංස්ථාවේ සභාපති, ශ්‍රී ලංකා රූපවාහිනී සංස්ථාවේ සභාපති, ශ්‍රී ලංකා රූපවාහිනී සංස්ථාවේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ, ලක්සල සභාපති, ලක්සල කළමනාකාර අධ්‍යක්ෂ, ලක්සල අධ්‍යක්ෂ මුදල්, ලක්සල ව්‍යාපෘති අධ්‍යක්ෂ, හිටපු දිසා විනිසුරු, විදුලි අධිකාරී, ඇවන්ගාඩ් සභාපති, යුධ හමුදාවේ හිටපු බිග්‍රේඩියර්වරයෙක්, රේගු අධිකාරී, සහකාර රේගු අධිකාරී, හිටපු නගරාධිපති, හිටපු ප්‍රාදේශීය සභා මන්ත්‍රී වැනි ඉහළ තනතුරු දරණ නිලධාරීන්ට ද නඩු පැවරීම් සිදු කර ඇත. ඇවන්ගාඩ් සභාපති සහ හිටපු බිග්‍රේඩියර්වරයෙකුට විරුද්ධව අල්ලස් ලබා දීම හා අල්ලස් ලබා ගැනීම යන වැරදි දෙකටම එකම නඩුවේ චෝදනා ගොනු කරමින් සුවිශේෂි නඩුවක් ද පවරා ඇත.
8. 03. මෙම වසර තුළ දී වැටලීම් සිදු කොට අල්ලස් ගන්නා අවස්ථාවල දී සැකකරුවන් 48 දෙනෙකු අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන ඇත. එසේ අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් සැකකරුවන් අතර රාජ්‍ය තන්ත්‍රයේ ඉහළම රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන් ද ආනයන අපනයන පාලක, දැව සංස්ථාවේ සභාපති, පශු සම්පත් සංවර්ධන මණ්ඩලයේ සභාපති, ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ තක්සේරුකරු, විදුලි අධිකාරී හා පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක වැනි තනතුරු දරණ අය ද වූහ.
9. 04. අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාවේ පසුගිය වසර 05 මුළුල්ලේම විමර්ශන කටයුතු සිදු කළේ පොලිස් නිලධාරීන් විසිනි. එහෙත් ඉතිහාසයේ පළමු වතාවට විශේෂඥ නිලධාරීන් බඳවා ගැනීමට අනුමැතිය ලබා ගන්නා ලදී. ඒ අනුව ගණකාධිකරණය, විගණනය, මූල්‍ය විශ්ලේෂණය, ඩිජිටල් විමර්ශන, බැඳුම්කර, ආරක්ෂණ, බැංකුකරණය, ජාත්‍යන්තර සම්මුතීන්, ප්‍රසම්පාදනය, ඉදිකිරීම්, ඉංජිනේරු විද්‍යාව, කළමනාකරණය හා රාජ්‍ය පරිපාලනය යන ක්‍ෂේත්‍ර වලට අයත් විශේෂඥයින් 200ක් බඳවා ගැනීමට රාජ්‍ය යාන්ත්‍රණය හරහා අනුමැතිය ලබා ගෙන ඉල්ලුම්පත්‍ර කැඳවන ලදී. ඉල්ලුම්පත්‍ර 8000 කට වැඩි සංඛ්‍යාවක් ලැබුණු අතර විභාග කොමසාරිස්තුමා ඔවුන් හට බුද්ධි පරීක්ෂණ විභාගයක් මේ වන විටත් පවත්වා ඇත.
10. අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාවේ මේ වන තෙක් අවධානය යොමු ‍කළේ විමර්ශනය සිදු කිරීම හා නඩු පැවරීමේ කාර්යයට පමණක් වුවත් අල්ලස දූෂණය තුරන් කළ ‍ලෝකයේ ‍බොහෝ රටවලින් ලත් අත්දැකීම් අනුව නිවාරණ ඒකකයක් පිහිටුවීමට කටයුතු යොදා ඇත. ඒ අනුව නිවාරණ නිලධාරීන් 50 දෙනෙක් බඳවා ගැනීම සඳහා අවශ්‍ය අනුමැතිය ලබා ගෙන ඔවුන් සඳහා ඉල්ලුම්පත්‍ර කැඳවා ඇත. එම තනතුරු සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඉල්ලුම්පත්‍ර 5000 ක් ලැබී තිබෙන අතර ඔවුන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණ මේ දිනවල සිදු කෙරමින් පවතී.
11. අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාව ඉතිහාසයේ පසුගිය අවුරුදු 25 ටම පවතින නීතිවල කිසිදු සංශෝධනයක් කර නොමැති බැවින් ඒ සඳහා අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල අනුමැතිය ලබා ගෙන ඇත. මෙතෙක් දූෂණ නඩු විභාග කිරීමේ බලය මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයට සීමා වුවද මින් ඉදිරියට එම නඩු මහාධිකරණය ඉදිරියේ දී ද විභාග කල හැකි අයුරින් නීතිය සංශෝධනය කර ඇත. ඊට අමතර කාරණා සම්බන්ධයෙන් ද සංශෝධන ඉදිරිපත් කළ යුතුව ඇත. ඒ අනුව පුද්ගලික අංශයේ අල්ලස්, ලිංගික අල්ලස්, ක්‍රීඩා කටයුතු වල අල්ලස්, විදේශීය රාජ්‍ය සේවකයන් සම්බන්ධ අල්ලස් යන ක්ෂේත්‍ර අළලා අල්ලස් නීතිය සංශෝධනය කිරීමේ කටයුතු මේ වන විටත් නීති කෙටුම්පත් සම්පාදකතුමිය සිදු කරමින් සිටී.
12. ජනාධිපති පරීක්ෂණ කොමිෂන් සභා පනත සංශෝධනය කිරීමට අදාළ කෙටුම්පත සකසා එය මේ අවස්ථාව වන විට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට යොමු කර ඇත. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ දී මෙම විවාදය ආරම්භ වී වෙනත් දිනයකට කල් දමා ඇත. මෙම සංශෝධනයේ ප්‍රතිඵලය වන්නේ ජනාධිපති පරීක්ෂණ කොමිෂන් සභාවකින් හෙළිදරව් වූ සාක්ෂි අධ්‍යයනය කොට නඩු පැවරීමේ බලය අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාව වෙත ලබා ගැනීමය. ඒ අනුව එම සාක්ෂිකරුවන්ගේ ප්‍රකාශ අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාව විසින් නැවත සටහන් කිරීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවයක් පැන නඟින්නේ නැත.
13. වත්කම් බැරකම් ප්‍රකාශයට අදාළ සංශෝධන සිදු කිරීම සඳහා දේශීය හා විදේශීය විශේෂඥයන් සමඟ සාකච්ඡා වාර ගණනාවක් පවත්වා ඇති අතර එහි ප්‍රතිඵලයක් ලෙස නීති කෙටුම්පත් සම්පාදකතුමිය විසින් මේ වන විටත් අදාළ නීතිය කෙටුම්පත් කිරීමේ කටයුත්ත සිදු කරමින් සිටී. තව ද වර්තමානයේ පවතින අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභා පනතේ ද අඩුලුහුඬුකම් ගණනාවක් පවතින බැවින් ඒවා පිළි සකස් කොට එම පනත සංශෝධනය කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය කෙටුම්පත් මේ වන විට නීති කෙටුම්පත් සම්පාදකතුමිය සකස් කරමින් සිටී.
14. අල්ලස දූෂණය මෙරටින් තුරන් කිරීම සඳහා මෙතෙක් පැවති ප්‍රබල පසුබෑමක් වූයේ ඒ සඳහා නිසි සැලැස්මක් නොතිබීමය. එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ දූෂණ විරෝධී ප්‍රඥප්තියේ සාමාජික රටක් ලෙස ජාතික වැඩපිළිවෙලක අවශ්‍යතාවය අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල‍යෙන් හඳුනා ගෙන එය සකස් කිරීමේ වගකීම අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාව වෙත භාර දී ඇත. එ් අනුව දිවයින පුරා විද්වත් කතිකා 30 කට ආසන්න ප්‍රමාණයක් පවත්වා ඇති අතර ඉන් අවස්ථා 04 ක් පවත්වා ඇත්තේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ දී ය. එ් අනුව මහජන න‍ිියෝජිතයන් හට තම අදහස් පළ කිරීමට අවස්ථාව ලබා දී ඇත. රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන්, වෘත්තිකයන්, සිවිල් සංවිධාන, කලාකරුවන් ආදී සෑම ක්ෂේත්‍රයකින්ම ලත් අදහස් අනුව ක්ෂේත්‍ර 04 ක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඉදිරි වසර 05 තුළ ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා මෙම සැලැස්ම මේ වන විටත් සකස් කර ඇති අතර නුදුරු දිනයක දී ම එය දියත් කිරීමට අපේක්ෂාවෙන් සිටී. එම ක්ෂේත්‍ර 04 නම් නිවාරණය, යහපත් ආකල්ප වර්ධනය කිරීම, විමර්ශනය හා පැහැදිලි ශක්තිමත් කිරීම සදහා වන නීති හා නව නීති සහ ප්‍රතිපත්ති හඳුන්වා දීම ය.

තවද අල්ලස දූෂණය තුරන් කිරීමේ ලා ඉතාමත්ම තීරණාත්මක සාධකයක් වන කරුණු සම්බන්ධයෙන් ද සකස් කරන ලද ග්‍රන්ථ 04 ක් ජාතික ක්‍රියාකාරී සැලැස්ම සමඟ නිකුත් කිරීමට බලාපෙ‍ාරොත්තු වේ. මෙම ග්‍රන්ථ 04 නම්,

1. ත්‍යාග රීති අඩංගු යෝජනා කෙටුම්පත
2. බැඳියාවන් අතර ඝට්ටනයට අදාළ රීති අඩංගු කොට සාදන ලද යෝජනා කෙටුම්පත

• රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන් සඳහා සුපිළිපන්නබවේ අත්පොත

1. අල්ලස් වත්කම්, බැරකම්, කොමිෂන් සභා මැතිවරණ ප්‍රචාරණ සහ හඬ නඟන්නන්ට අදාළ නීති කෙටුම්පත් යෝජනා

ඒ අනුව ජාතික වැඩපිළිවෙල සහ ඉහත ග්‍රන්ථ 4 දියත් කිරීමට සැලසුම් සකස් කොට ඇත. ජාතික ක්‍රියාකාරී සැලැස්ම සහ මෙම ග්‍රන්ථ 4 ද්‍රවිඩ හා ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් ද පරිවර්තන කටයුතු කරමින් ඇත. ඒ අනුව ග්‍රන්ථ 15 ක් එළිදැක්වීම සඳහා සූදානමින් සිටී.

10. පසුගිය වසර තුළ අන්තර්ජාතික අවධානය සහ සහයෝගීතාවය අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාව වෙත නොමදව ලැබුණි. ඒ අනුව GSP + සහනය ලබා ගැනීමේ දී අල්ලස් කොමිසමේ සක්‍රීය දායකත්වය විදේශ අමාත්‍යාංශයට ලබා දී යුරෝපා කොමිසමට ගොස් අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාව විසින් සාර්ථක ලෙස කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට හැකි විය. අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාවේ විශේෂඥතාවය වැඩිදියුණු කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය තාක්ෂණික සහය ලබා දීමට එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානය නිරන්තරයෙන්ම ඉදිරිපත් වී ඇත. අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාවේ ප්‍රගතිය ඇගයීමක් වශයෙන් එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ විශේෂඥ කණ්ඩායමේ රැස්වීමට මෙම වසරේ ජූලි මස කොළඹ දී විදේශ විශේෂඥයන් 35 කගේ සහභාගිත්වයෙන් පවත්වන්නට හැකි විය. එහි දී ලොව පුරා පිහිටි අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාවල ස්වාධීනත්වය හා ක්‍රියාශීලිත්වය වැඩිදියුණු කිරීම සඳහා 2012 වසරේ දී ඉන්දුනීසියාවේ ජාකර්තා නුවර දී එළි දක්වන ලද ජාකර්තා ප්‍රකාශය තවදුරටත් විවරණය කිරීම සිදු විය. ඒ අනුව ඉතා ඉක්මනින්ම ඊට අදාළ “කොළඹ විවරණය” එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානය විසින් එළි දැක්වීමට නියමිතය.
11. විමර්ශකයන් සහ නීති නිලධාරීන් පුහුණු කිරීම සඳහා මැලේසියාව, හොංකොං, භූතානය, කොරියාව, ජපානය, චීනය යන රටවලට යැවීමට කොමිෂන් සභාවට හැකි වී ඇත. ‍කොමිෂන් සභාවේ නිලධාරීන් හට ලබන වසරේ දී ඉතා ගැඹුරින් පුහුණුව ලබා දීම සඳහා හොංකොංහි කොමිෂන් සභාව විසින් දැනටමත් කැමැත්ත පළ කර ඇත. අල්ලස දූෂණය තුරන් කළ සාර්ථක රටවල් අනුගමනය කළ ක්‍රියාමාර්ග අධ්‍යයනය කිරීම සඳහා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ඉහළම රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන්ට අවස්ථාව ලබා දීමටත් එම කටයුතු සංවිධානය කිරීමටත් මෙම කොමිෂන් සභාවට හැකි විය. ඒ අනුව නීතිපතිතුමා, ජනාධිපති ලේකම්තුමා, රාජ්‍ය පරිපාලන අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම්තුමා, පළාත් සභා හා පළාත් පාලන අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම්තුමා හා නීති කෙටුම්පත් සම්පාදකතුමිය හට භූතානය හා හො‍ංකොං යන රටවල අත්දැකීම් ලබා ගැනීමට අවස්ථාව සලසා දෙන ලදී. මැලේසියාවේ සුපිළිපන් ආයතනයේ සභාපතිතුමා ලංකාවට කැඳවා ලංකාවේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨතම රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන් සමඟ සාකච්ඡා වාර ගණනාවක් පවත්වා ඇත.
12. 12. දිවයින පුරා පාසල් සිසුන්, තරුණයන් හා රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන් දැනුවත් කිරීම සඳහා පසුගිය වසර තුළ වැඩසටහන් 54 ක් පවත්වා ඇත. එම කාර්යය නීති නිලධාරීන් හෝ විමර්ශන නිලධාරීන්ගේ රාජකාරියේ කොටසක් නොවූව ද ඔවුන්ගේ කැපවීම නිසා මෙම වැඩමුළු සාර්ථක කර ගැනීමට අවස්ථාවක් ලැබුණි. ලබන වසර සඳහා අධ්‍යාපන ක්ෂේත්‍රය අළලා දැවැන්ත දැනුවත් කිරීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙලක් සංවිධානය කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය සාකච්ඡා පවත්වා ඇත.
13. අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභා පරිශ්‍රයේ පිහිටි එක් ගොඩනැගිල්ලක් කඩා වැටීමට ආසන්න තත්ත්වයකට පත් වී තිබීම නිසා ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලයේ මැදිහත් වීමෙන් කැප්පෙට්ටිපොළ මා‍වතේ පිහිටි පුද්ගලයින් ලියාපදිංචි කිරීමේ දෙපාර්තමේන්තු‍ව පිහිටා තිබූ පැරණි ගොඩනැගිල්ලට විමර්ශන අංශයේ කොටසක් ගෙන යාමට සිදු විය. එසේම නුදුරේදී ම බඳවා ගැනීමට නියමිත නිවාරණ නිලධාරීන් ද එම ස්ථාන‍යේ ස්ථානගත කිරීමට ‍අපේක්ෂා කෙරේ. අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාව වෙනුවෙන් නව ගොඩනැගිල්ලක් සාදන තෙක් කැප්පෙට්ටිපොළ මාවතේ පිහිටි එම ගොඩනැගිල්ල භාවිතා කිරීමට අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලය අනුමැතිය ලබා දී ඇත.
14. 14. අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාවට මුහුණ පෑමට සිදු වී ඇති ප්‍රබල අභියෝගයක් වන්නේ ඉඩ පහසුකම් නොමැති වීමයි. වර්තමාන කොමිෂන් සභා පරිශ්‍රයට යාබද භූමියේ ‍ගොඩනැගිල්ලක් ඉදි කිරීම සඳහා අනුමැතිය ලබා ගැනීමට දැඩි සටනක් කිරීමට සිදු විය. ඒ අනුව අවුරුදු 1 ½ ක කාලයකට පසුව නිවාස සංවර්ධන අධිකාරිය විසින් එම භූමියේ ගොඩනැලිලක් ඉදි කිරීමට අනුමැතිය මේ වන විට ලබා දී ඇත.
15. 15. රාජ්‍ය අංශය සඳහා නිවාරණ වැඩපිළිවෙලක් යෝජනා කොට ඇති අතර එයට මේ වන විටත් අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලයේ අනුමැතිය ලැබී ඇත. ඒ අනුව ලබන වසර සඳහා මිලියන 200 ක පමණ මුදලක් වෙන් කිරීමට අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල අනුමැතිය ලබා දී ඇත. තවද නීතිඥවරුන්, විමර්ශන නිලධාරීන් හා නිවාරණ නිලධාරීන් පුහුණු කිරීම සඳහා ලබන වසරේ සිට මිලියන 200 ක මුදල් ප්‍රමාණයක් වෙන් කිරීමේ යෝජනාවට ද අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල අනුමැතිය මේ වන විට ලබා දී ඇත. ලබන වසරේ දී විද්‍යුත් හා මුද්‍රිත මාධ්‍ය යොදා ගනිමින් ජනතාව දැනුවත් කිරීමටත් හරයන් හා ආකල්පයන් වෙනස් කිරීමටත් දැවැන්ත සැලසුම් සකස් කොට ඇත. ඒ සඳහා අවශ්‍ය ප්‍රතිපාදන ලබා ගැනීමට මේ වන විටත් මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශයෙන් ඉල්ලීමක් කොට ඇත.
16. 16. අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාව මුහුණ පා සිටින ප්‍රධාන අර්බුදයක් වන්නේ ඉතා දක්ෂ නීතිඥවරුන් ආකර්ෂණය කිරීමට තරම් වැටුපක් ලබා දීමට නොහැකි වීමය. මෑතක දී නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නිලධාරීන්ට වැඩි වැටුපක් ලබා දීම නිසා දක්ෂ නීතිඥවරුන් එම ආයතනයට ආකර්ෂණය කිරීමට හැකි වී ඇත. අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාවේ නිලධාරීන්ගේ වැටුප් වැඩි කිරීම සඳහා කරන ලද ඉල්ලීම් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප වීම කොමිෂන් සභාවේ සාර්ථකත්වයට බලපාන ප්‍රධාන අභියෝගයක් වී ඇත.
17. 17. වර්තමානයේ අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාවේ විමර්ශන නිලධාරීන් සංඛ්‍යාව 200 කි. නීති නිලධාරීන්ගේ සංඛ්‍යාව 29 කි. ර‍ටේ ජන ඝනත්වයට සමානුපාතිකව මෙය ඉතාමත්ම අල්ප සංඛ්‍යාවකි. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් මිලියන 06 ක් පමණ ජනගහනයක් සිටින හොංකොං දේශයේ අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාවේ විමර්ශන නිලධාරීන් 1000 ක සංඛ්‍යාවක් ඇත. එම දේශයේ ජාතික අයවැයෙන් 0.282% ප්‍රමාණයක් එම කොමිෂන් සභාව වෙනුවෙන් වෙන් කර ඇත. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අල්ලස් කොමිෂන් සභාවට වෙන් කර ඇත්තේ 0.014% ක ප්‍රමාණයකි.
18. දූෂණ විමර්ශනය කරන අංශ 05 ක් ඇති අතර එම අංශයක සිටින විමර්ශන නිලධාරීන් ගණන දළ වශයෙන් 20 ක් පමණ වේ. එක් විමර්ශන අංශයකට විමර්ශනය කිරීමට දළ වශයෙන් ගොනු 700, 800 ක පමණ ප්‍රමාණයක් ඇත. සීමිත මානව සම්පත් නිසා සමහර අවස්ථාවල දී විමර්ශනවල ප්‍රමාදයන් ඇති වේ. 2017 වර්ෂය තුළ පැමිණිලි 2768 ක් ලැබී ඇති අතර පැමිණිලි 1652 ක් විමර්ශනය කර ඇත. 2018.11.30 දින වන විට ලද පැමිණිලි 3081ක් වන අතර වැඩිදුර විමර්ශනය සඳහා තීරණය කරන ලද පැමිණිලි සංඛ්‍යාව 1863ක් වේ.

By Robert Blake Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The current political impasse in Sri Lanka marks an important opportunity for Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa to think about the consequences of their current actions for future support from the United States and others for a government a Rajapaksa could be elected to lead next year.
Despite two no-confidence motions against Prime Minister Rajapaksa’s Government and two motions to halt funding for government ministries, Mr. Rajapaksa has refused to step down.

“The Rajapaksas enjoyed famously good relations with China during Mahinda’s presidency“

His refusal not only calls into question his and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s (SLPP’s) adherence to Sri Lanka’s Constitution, it begs the question why they are inflicting unnecessary wounds on their and the SLPP’s future.
The strong showing of Rajapaksa and the SLPP in local council elections earlier this year demonstrated the support Rajapaksa continues to enjoy in Sri Lanka. New presidential elections could be called early next year. Although Mahinda Rajapaksa is prohibited by the Constitution from running again for presidency, his brother Gotabaya could be a strong contender.

“A new MCC programme for Sri Lanka is now under consideration”

The Rajapaksas enjoyed famously good relations with China during Mahinda’s presidency.  China financed the port of Hambantota and several other mega projects. The Hambantota port project has since become a cautionary tale for all recipients of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) largesse. When Sri Lanka could not service its debt payments, China instead negotiated equity control of the port for itself.

Since then, newly-elected governments in the Maldives, Pakistan and Malaysia all have announced reviews of BRI projects in their countries to be sure these projects benefit their countries and will generate good rates of return that would enable them to service their debt to China.
Indeed, as Xi Jinping doubles down on BRI and continues projects that will give Beijing the capacity to exert control over international waters in the South China Sea, countries across Asia increasingly want to maintain good relations with the United States, Japan, India and others to counter-balance China’s growing economic and military influence.

• SL well-positioned to benefit from new Indo-Pacific initiatives

• Results of recent mid-term polls in US to bring added scrutiny on SL

The United States, and other members of the Quad – India, Japan and Australia – have responded by enunciating a broad Indo-Pacific strategy to ensure a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific.  The US also passed the Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development (BUILD) Act earlier this year, creating a new International Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) to incentivize US corporations and institutional investors to invest in developing countries and provide an alternative financing mechanism to China’s BRI. The IDFC complements new US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) projects in countries that meet a host of good governance criteria. A new MCC programme for Sri Lanka is now under consideration. Japan and others have developed their own international infrastructure and Indo-Pacific initiatives.

• Hambantota port project a cautionary tale for all recipients of China’s Belt and Road Initiative  (BRI) largesse

• SL should expect more intensive congressional review of its recent actions, which could impact SL’s access to financing from the new IDFC or the MCC

Sri Lanka — with its strategic location on the busiest sea lanes in the Indian Ocean, its literate population and the tentative steps it had taken to achieve reconciliation after its bloody war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) — had been well-positioned to benefit from these new Indo-Pacific initiatives.
But President Sirisena’s and Prime Minister Rajapaksa’s recent actions have raised serious questions in Washington, New Delhi, Tokyo and elsewhere, about their commitment to democracy and good governance. The results of the recent mid-term elections in the United States will bring added scrutiny on Sri Lanka. The Democratic Party won back control of the House of Representatives and announced that promotion of human rights and democracy would be a priority. So Sri Lanka should expect more intensive congressional review of its recent actions, which could impact Sri Lanka’s access to financing from the new IDFC or the MCC.
The above analysis suggests that Mr. Rajapaksa would be wise to step down as Prime Minister, and instead put his considerable political skills toward helping the SLPP win next year’s presidential elections through a free and fair contest. This would resolve the current political impasse and position Sri Lanka to be a leader and winner as the new Indo-Pacific great game unfolds.

Ambassador Robert Blake served as US Ambassador to Sri Lanka from 2006 to 2009 and then as Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia from 2009 to 2013.
He retired from the US Government in 2016 and now advises US business overseas on behalf of
McLarty Associates.