By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

In 1971, even before the lapse of one year of establishing a government of patriotic progressives headed by Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the JVP hooligans launched their first rebellion with slogans including” what is the path we are tracking – We are tracking the path taken by Che Guevara” (Api Yannne Koi Paareda? – Che Guevara giya paare), Death or Motherland” (Mawbima nethinam Maranaya), It is precious to die rather than living kneeling down” (Danin Vetee Jeevvath wanawaata vadaa Maranay Uthum). Danaavadaya thuuran karamu” (Let us eliminate Capitalism).

Several thousand youths, male and female, who had got indoctrinated at clandestine classes conducted by JVP leaders which consisted 5 lessons including a class on perils capitalism” and a class on Indian expansionism” gave up their education and in helping these hooligans to capture power and for establishing what they called a government for proletariats. Their general plan was to capture and kill the Prime Minister. The Ministers, MPs., senior government officials, and Police stations throughout the country.   The plan misfired due to a communication error and Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike became hyper alert like 1962 coup attempt alert and got all the leaders including Somawansa Amarasinghe the man assigned to capture her arrested.  J.R.Jayawardemne and other prominent leaders in the UNP such as Ranjan Wijeratne voluntarily came forward to help clamp down this uprising and execute all rebel leaders but Madam Siririmavo Bandaranaike who  had motherly affection towards these misguided youth decided to set up special camps to rehabilitate them and it is because of this action of hers that Jayadeva Uyangoda became a Senior University Lecturer, Lionel Bopaage became an Australian citizen, Mahinda Wijesekera, a leading Lawyer in Matara, Victor Ivan a leading Journalist to name a few.

Then in 1989-1990 they launched their second uprising in which Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Tilwin Silva, Vijitha Herath, Lal Kantha and others in the present JVP politburo who were in the age group of 28 – 30 at that time would undoubtedly have played prominent roles in the killing wing of the group, the DJV – The Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya, or in the groups that torched buses, trains, Agrarian Service Offices, Paddy Marketing Board warehouses. government buildings, smashed electricity transmission and telecommunication towers, robbed and looted banks, forcibly taken gold jewellery and ID cards from the people and assassinated scores of people.  During this time the prominent Lawyer Wijedasa Liynarachchi of Beliatte was killed together with several others at the Batalanda Torture Camp allegedly run and operated by the present UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe.

With this gruesome history of killing, persecution and oppression of JVP activists by the UNP, making many of their family members destitute the current JVP leadership has become close collaborators and saviours of the UNP IN ITS ALL FORMS OF MISDEEDS. It was the JVP leadership which has become a super rich clan that was extensively responsible for installing the UNP in power and making foreign puppet Ranil Wickremasinghe, the Prime Minister of this country.  The late JVP leader Mr. Somawansa Amarasinghe has gone on record saying that the present JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake
received Rs. 25 Million from Malik Samarawickrema prior to the 2015 August election to help UNP win the elections.

It is strange that the JVP stalwarts remain silent over the alleged purchase of a palatial residence in Ireland by Anura Kumara without questioning him from where he got funds for this.  He was in Ireland recently for a period of almost one month and his partners in swindling have said that he went to Ireland for propagation of the party in that country where there is less than 10 Sri Lankans.
Since Ranil Wickremasinghe became the Prime Minister on 18^th August 2015 Anura Kumara Dissana and his vicious clan has extensively extended their support to Ranil Wickremasinghe which includes:

• Occupying an office in the Temple Trees and acting as an unofficial advisor to Ranil;
• Helping in the formation of the despicable FCID and in directing this vicious illegal Unit on persons to be interrogated charged and directing on what are the charges to be framed against them;
• Help introduce anti national Acts and clauses to be incorporated in revision of legislations;
• Accepting the illegitimate post of the Chief Opposition Whip and collaborating with the illegitimate Leader of the Opposition and making efforts to protect the government always;
• Speaking on behalf of the government on all and sundry issues;
• Fully acknowledging the necessity of introducing a new constitution in order to establish a federal and secular stat as demanded by the Tamil diaspora and western powers;
• Making no objections for the illegal denial of holding Local Government Elections and thereby curtailing the voting rights of the people.  This is not an offence in their eyes as they prevented Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike becoming the President of this country in11989 by shooting and killing village voters;
• Despite the anti-Indian policy of their founder leaders were and one of their policy lessons was titled as Indian Expansionism” fully collaborating with Ranil Wickremasinghe’s Indianization programme of our national assets and natural resources;
• Helping to introduce illegal clauses during 3^rd stage reading of acts thereby to avoid Supreme Court Rulings;
• Endorsed leasing out of the Hambantota harbour and 1,500 acres of people’s lands containing places of worship from Hambantota district to China despite Hambantota district being the only district which sent the first JVP MP Nihal Galappathi to Parliament and it was Tissamaharama in the district which elected the first ever Local Government Institution held by JVP.
• They agitated and got legislation enacted for banning sale of lands when they were in the probationary government but endorsed repeal of this same legislation and facilitated sale of lands to foreigners by Ranil’s government.
• Remaining silent on denying voting rights for the people by postponing Provincial Council Elections;
• Endorsing the co-signing of the despicable American UMHRC resolution by Quisling Mangala Samaraweera. without the consent of the President and without Cabinet approval.
• The .JVP. Leadership remained silent about this resolution as it had been drawn up by western powers on the behest of Tamil diaspora and which makes Sri Lanka obligatory to permi-foreign powers to prorosecute our war heroes on concocted chargers;
• Remained silent when Ranil introduced legislations utterly detrimental to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty ty and as demanded in the UNHRC resolution.
• Endorsed establishment of institutions demanded by UNHCR and appointment of anti Sri Lankan and terrorist proxy Nimaka Fernando and her ilk to man these institutions;
• Did not utter a word when Wigneswaran spoke against Sinhalese people resettling in the North, against placing statues of Lord Buddha in [places that had been destroyed by the war, and made moves to take over temple lands in the North;
• Remained silent when terrorist grandpa Sambandan visiting foreign dignitaries and foreign diplomats to urge the Sri Lankan government to adopt a federal and secular constitution;
• Never condemned but fully encouraged terrorist proxy Sumanthiran’ repeated calls for enacting the federal and secular constitution he has formulated with Jayampathy’
• Never spoke a word against UNP MP Vijayakala’s call for revival of the LTTE
• Never spoke against construction of statues and monuments for slain or deceased terrorists and against holding of commemoration ceremonies for the terrorists.
• Remaining silent on the despicable clauses containing in the Malik Samarawickrema’s designed Singapore-Sri Lanka Trade Pact;
• Remaining silent on the offensive conditions of ETCA which was scheduled to be signed in December this year and to be followed by another vicious agreement with Thailand;
• Remaining silent on non-payment of compensation to Raja Rata farmers extensively affected by floods, droughts and lack of fertilizer;
• Remaining silent on failure to pay compensation to people who got affected by Meethotamulla tragedy, Aranayake mountain erosion, and several landslides;
• Remaining utterly silent on deterioration of the economy, taking foreign loans at extensively high interest rates, failure to curtail rupee depreciation and indulging luxury imports; etc.
• Bring in a constitutional amendment, 20tjh Amendment to nullify the powers of the Pre4sident and empower Ranil as the Executive Prime Minister of the country;
• Flaying the President for the legitimate constitutional step taken by the President to dismiss Ranil who is alleged to be behind the coup attempt to kill the President
• Ranil slavish and dollar voracious Anura KD has said that they will never recognize Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister even if he affirms that h3e has the majority in the Parliament;
• The JVP who misused the University students for their agitations and kept the Universities closed for several years remained silent when Ranil’s government inhumanly suppressed by beating, baton charging, using high pressured water cannons and tear gassing demonstrations of University students which demanded justice for their grievances and demonstrated against SAITM
• They also remained silent when disabled war heroes staged demonstrations demanding justice for their grievances and against non-payment of their pensions and despite, they are being disabled they were inhumanly assaulted by Ranil’s Police battalions;
• They treat their ordinary misguided members as slaves and these people working for them without any renumeration was evident at Anura Kumara’s wife’s son’s church wedding and at LAL Kantha’s mother’s funeral house.  These JEPPOs said that they are volunteers.
• These dollar voracious JEPPOs who would settle down in foreign countries soon following the guidance provided by Lionel Bopage and Anura Kumara will know their real stand in the country if they at least read comments being made by people whenever a news item appears in websites or newspapers.  Their mothers even in their graves May be3 regretting for giving birth to them.

These are some more treacherous acts done by thes3e JVP hooligans and listing of all their treachery acts will run to several pages.  I feel it is also pertinent to mention that other than Ranil and the UNP they have now found a new ally in the Tamil separatists Tamil National Alliance.  It was to please these terrorist proxies that they held their official May Day rally in Jaffna this year with the participation Terrorist Grandpa Sambandan and terrorist comrade Sumanthiran.  Since these terrorist proxies are fast losing their popularity and Wigneswwaran’s Tamil Makkal Katchi (TMK) which is backed by the Tamil diaspora is fast gaining grounds it will not be strange to find these treacherous JEPPOs aligning soon with the TMK.

The misguided or4dinary JVP members who spend their hard earned money to erect platforms for them, at their own expenses or through hat collection hire buses to pull villagers to attend their rallies for survival and deception, perform various other activities should seriously view the UNP and terrorist affiliations of their so-called leaders and discard them forever and align with the progressive patriots to serve and build this country..

Sudath Gunasekara Mahanuwara

4.11.2018

Going by the way he had been behaving in Parliament ever since he was appointed  Speaker and especially how partially and madly he conducts these days as an epileptic patient, I think the first thing the newly summoned Parliament on the 16th should do is to replace this man with a sane person who can understand the role of a Speaker in the Hose and who can maintain the dignity, decorum and independence of the Chair of the legislature

Why don’t the Government get a court order to arrest the whole gang illicitly occupying the Temple by force, having illicitly entered and remaining unlawfully causing nuisance etc etc…and clear the PM’S official residence a public property and take legal action against the whole lot and put an end to this political melodrama otherwise they might even blow it up in desperation as all of them including Ranil are clearly out of their normal sense. Considering the mental depression and frustration are subjected to they might even commit suicide and put the blame on the President and the Prime minister to create an international issue for the West vultures to intervene.

By Laksiri Fernando Courtesy The Island

November 4, 2018, 12:00 pm
The ‘dismissal debate’ has now turned into a ‘prorogation debate.’ The latest statement by liberal/left academics and professionals demands the revocation of the prorogation and urges the Speaker to reconvene Parliament forthwith. The controversy over the appointment of a new PM has become quite stale perhaps though some ‘experts’ still bat on.

The Speaker agreed to allocate the Prime Minister’s seat to Mahinda Rajapaksa when he met the President on 31 October. This is a ‘de facto’ admission of the constitutional position that the dismissal of Ranil Wickremesighe and the appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa are legally valid or ‘recte valet.’

The dispute over the PM’s chair is probably one reason why the Parliament was prorogued until 16 November, but obviously not the most important reason. The others reasons could be: (1) To buy time for the necessary crossovers. (2) To appoint a new Cabinet. (3) To announce and implement popular concessions to the people. (4) To formulate a new Budget or a Vote on Account. (5) To exhaust and drain the opposition with their arguments, protest and emotional anger.

Musical Chairs

In the Sri Lankan culture, one’s status or power is determined by the Chair one occupies! It is not easy to give this important seat in Parliament to two persons like what was done to the Kalawana seat under J. R. Jayewardene’s hegemony in 1981, course, unless the Constitution is amended!

When the Speaker met the President, the latter agreed to consider reconvening Parliament before 16 November though no firm promise was given.

It is possible that the Speaker also conveyed to the President that the whole international community wanted Parliament reconvened as soon as possible. That is a valid concern on the part of Western countries although they themselves prorogue Parliaments under similar circumstances. They have not clearly objected to the removal of Ranil Wickremesinghe or the appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new Prime Minister; they have not yet greeted the new PM. The circumstances are understandable.

Fake News?

There are a lot of fake news, miss communication or blatant ‘dead ropes’ given to the opponents. When the new PM was meeting with NUTA (not FUTA), there was a telephone call apparently from the Presidential Secretariat and when the PM came back to the meeting he commented that the Parliament may be convened on 5 November. However, this was not even technically possible as there needs to be three working days between the necessary gazette notification and the commencement day.

He probably was giving ‘fake hopes,’ not to that audience, but to the media. Because those university teachers were not at all interested in convening the Parliament.

Then again when a group of MPs met the Speaker, it was announced that the President had agreed to convene the Parliament on 7 November. But that claim was denied by the SLFP sources with the President keeping mum. It has become extremely difficult to know who is telling the truth. Counting numbers also has become extremely difficult for the politicians. Apart from counting the required number in Parliament, counting the people who go for a meeting or endorsing a resolution also has become difficult (118 or 109).

Mahinda Rajapaksa is famous for sarcastic or misleading comments. On the day the Prime Minister was changed, he asked former Minister Harsha de Silva at lunch time in Parliament whether he would join him, saying that he was going to form a new government. Harsha thought it was a joke. Harsha’s father probably knows better of MR, as they were working in the same building, Sri Sumangala, upstairs and downstairs, at Vidyodaya in late 1960s. Former at Archives and the latter at the university library.

Understandable Anger

Some people were disturbed and angered when I said last Monday, “Ranil Wickremesinghe holding on to power is unconstitutional and undemocratic.” I even received threatening and insulting emails. One sender was David, pretending to disbelieve I was the author.

When Reeza Hameed wrote “President is powerless to remove Prime Minister” on 13 April 2018, I argued to the contrary. My main points were the following.

[1] Interpretation of the constitution based on the ‘objectives’ of the drafters is subjective. [2] Whatever the ‘objectives,’ those cannot contradict the main thrust of the 1978 constitution i.e. the Presidential system without a referendum.

I also asked the following questions: If the absence of ‘removal clause’ in 42 (4) is deliberate, why it is present in Articles 47 (2), 47 (3) and 48 (1)? Do you think that the constitutional drafters must have thought the absence or not inclusion of ‘removal clause’ in 42 (4) is sufficient, whatever present in other articles? Do you admit that 19A is a messy and a bad piece of constitutional amendment?

Of course Hameed gave some answers. On his part, he has been fairly consistent. My point here is not about I was correct or he was wrong, but I have maintained this position at least since April, well before the present crisis that the President can remove the PM under certain circumstances.

Not the First Time

Since January 2015, the President of Sri Lanka has used his powers three times in appointing the Prime Minister, one may say when it was required under the constitution, based on Article 42 (4). In all these instances, it was not clear whether the appointed PM would hold a majority in Parliament at the outset. The last two instances were after the 19th Amendment and therefore it is difficult to argue that amendment made much difference in President’s powers in this respect.

However, there were political differences between these three instances. The first was after a presidential election without any change to the political composition of Parliament, nevertheless given the dramatic change of the election, there was no much political controversy. The second one was after a parliamentary election and the appointed PM was the same as before and again, there was no much political controversy.

However, this time it has not been after any popular election, presidential or parliamentary, and therefore there is much confusion as well as controversy though it followed the collapse of the National Government. This is something not very familiar to the country though it is defined in the constitution after the 19th Amendment. When a National Government collapses, the Cabinet becomes dissolved, including the PM and the President is empowered to appoint a new PM and a new Cabinet.

An Example from Australia

The controversy is because of the unexpected and the dramatic nature that it had happened apart from its secretive or ‘conspiratorial’ nature. Such dramatic changes have not been uncommon in Westminster model democracies as well. Among many examples, the dismissal of the sitting Prime Minister, with even a majority in Parliament, was enacted in 1975 in Australia. For easy reference I am quoting from Wikipedia. However, there are many books written on the subject.

“On 11 November 1975, [Prime Minister Gough] Whitlam intended to call a half-Senate election in an attempt to break the deadlock. When he went to seek [Governor-General Sir John] Kerr’s approval of the election, Kerr instead dismissed him as Prime Minister and shortly thereafter installed [Malcolm] Fraser in his place.”

That was also called a constitutional crisis. Jenny Hocking (‘The Dismissal Dossier,’ 2015) in her award winning biography of Gough Whitlam, reveals the astonishing secret story of the planning, the people and the collusion behind the removal of the sitting Prime Minister, Whitlam.

However, Whitlam did not resist, did not claim he was the Prime Minister or did not refuse to leave the official residence. Within a month, the election was held and Fraser returned with a massive majority. The Parliament was not prorogued but dissolved! Now our constitutional pundits claim that the President even cannot dissolve Parliament and it requires a two-thirds majority. People may have to very carefully look at this anarchist 19th Amendment and look for alternatives.

Story of Ranil

Although I supported the January 2015 change with much hope, I did not support the UNFGG at the August 2015 parliamentary elections, because of the bond scam in between. After the first bond scam, I was extremely critical of Ranil Wickremesinghe. Those were expressed in my articles though I am not usually a person to refer to my past articles or claim I said so. Therefore, no one needs to get upset about my last article about Ranil and his adamance in holding on to power which can create much harm to the country.

In August last year (2017) I wrote “Remove Ravi and Investigate Ranil” after the Bond Commission Report. In November I wrote “It’s Time to Go, Ranil.” These are clear enough reasons for my positions on the evolving scenario. I have always expressed my opinions as an independent person without aligning with any group or clique, let alone a political party.

Once Asanga Welikala (CPA) invited me to be part of an email network of left minded people to see how the Left Movement could be rejuvenated! I declined the invitation.

I still strongly maintain that Ranil Wickremesinghe and the UNP are planning a major disaster. According to the ‘Economy Next’ website (3 November), he has said “We will be calling on our people not to resort to violence. But you don’t know what arises in a situation like this…”

I leave the readers to figure out what he was saying. He was referring to his own people.

Call for General Election

Yes, there is a risk of violence, a major disaster and clashes. The best measure to avoid such a situation is for the five main political leaders, Maithripala Sirisena, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Ranil Wickremesinghe, R. Sampanthan and Anura Kumara Dissanayake to come to the table and, in my view, to agree for a general election to be held as soon as possible, probably early December.

The Parliament could be convened to approve a Vote on Account before 16 November, but then dissolved. Ranil Wickremesinghe can reside at Temple Trees!

By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya Courtesy The Island

November 4, 2018, 12:00 pm

Maithripala Sirisena is not exactly a type of politician described as ‘charismatic’ or ‘revolutionary.’ But in the space of three and a half years he has pulled off two dramatic political reversals in the country’s electoral history. The first was in 2014 ,when he broke ranks with the ruling UPFA coalition to be the UNP-led Opposition’s common candidate in the 2015 election. Now he’s unceremoniously dumped his UNP coalition partner, pulling the UPFA along with him to appoint his one-time bete noire Mahinda Rajapaksa as his prime minister.

With the UPFA having to prove a majority in the House in the days ahead in order to chrystalise the move, the situation has parallels with that which prevailed when the UNP-led coalition failed to garner a clear majority in 2015, and multiple cross-overs helped to consolidate power.

There has been furious debate on the legality/constitutionality or otherwise of the president’s actions, by loyalists on either side. This discussion related to the 19th amendment that redefined the presidential powers. The main point of contention is that the Sinhala version of the Constitution is said to include ‘removal’ by the president as one of the circumstances in which the prime minister ceases to hold office, whereas this condition is missing in the English version. It is the Sinhala version that prevails when there is a dispute, according to lawyers. A Supreme Court determination, if sought, would no doubt help settle the legal question.

Meanwhile, a closer look at the social context might help understand the forces at work in this drama. While constitutional experts split hairs over the interpretation of Article 48 subsection (1), or the meaning of Article 46 subsection (2), the reality is that these events come at a time of deep discontent among ordinary people across the country. The mood was best summed up by the chief prelate of a Colombo temple. In rough translation what he said was “Voters, when these things happened, did not cry, lament, light lamps, or curse. There was not a sound.” Ven. Galaboda Gnanissara Thera told reporters: “The people were hard-pressed, trampled upon, saddened and living in fear. In any other country if a government elected by a majority was toppled, people would rise up. But here nobody lost any sleep. I too slept well.”

As the monk suggested, it has been business as usual for the most part – in fact, stocks hit a six-week high. The mainstream media has not gone into overdrive, and service chiefs called on the new PM within days of his appointment.

Interestingly, those who rushed to Ranil Wickremesinghe’s side were western diplomats, who went into a huddle with him at Temple Trees and then came out with almost identical statements calling on the President to ‘reconvene parliament immediately.’ This call reflected the demand of the UNP camp, for the government to prove its majority on the floor of the House immediately, without waiting for the assigned date of 16th Nov. It is the president’s prerogative to prorogue parliament, and the inordinate ‘concern’ expressed by these ambassadors and high commissioners in what is essentially an internal problem, could be seen as unwarranted meddling.

“The meeting as well as subsequent declarations can be construed as a concerted and deliberate act against the Head of State, openly challenging the authority vested in the President by the people, interfering in internal political processes, and violating Sri Lanka’s sovereignty,” said Tamara Kunanayakam, Sri Lanka’s former ambassador to the UN, addressing an ‘Eliya’ briefing.

She drew public attention to the hypocrisy of these statements made by those who had nothing to say when Wickremesinghe was made prime minister in 2015 with the UNP in a minority while the UPFA held a two thirds majority in parliament, and when local and provincial council elections were endlessly postponed.

“How do you explain that the same indignation was missing when Germany was unable to form a government for five months, when Belgium had no government for almost two years (541 days) and Northern Ireland was without government for even longer?” she asked.

In a more respectful response, the Chinese ambassador called on both Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe, while a spokesman in Beijing said “What is going on in Sri Lanka is their domestic affairs.” It should be mentioned that when Wickremesinghe was asked in an interview with NDTV if he saw a ‘Chinese hand’ behind what was going on, his categorically reply was “I don’t see a Chinese hand.”

In a development that could raise some eyebrows, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, in a phone call with President Sirisena on 1st Nov., echoed the call of the western powers, urging the latter to “revert to Parliamentary procedures and allow the Parliament to vote as soon as possible,” according to a readout of the conversation on the UN website. “He encouraged the government to uphold its earlier commitments to human rights, justice and reconciliation, in line with Human Rights Council resolutions,” the statement dated 2nd Nov. said. In a previous statement of 28th Oct. however, the UNSG had only said he was ‘following the latest developments with great concern’ and calling on the government to respect democratic values and constitutional process, uphold rule of law and ensure the safety of all Sri Lankans.

The reference to HRC resolutions raises the question as to whether the UNSG’s ‘second thoughts’ on the matter were influenced by those same western powers that led the 2015 Geneva resolution against Sri Lanka. The other question is whether the western powers ‘concerns’ for Sri Lanka have more to do with their own vested interests, than peace and stability in Sri Lanka.

The UNSG’s revised remarks come on the heels of a visit to the Speaker of Parliament on 30th Oct. by a delegation of ambassadors and high commissioners from the EU, Canada, UK and Germany along with the UN resident representative. At this meeting they reportedly warned of ‘inimical consequences’ of the power transition. It’s relevant to recall here how, during the 2014 CIA-backed coup in Ukraine, the US roped in a UN representative to help legitimise its actions. Or in other words ‘glue the thing together’ as a US official famously said in a leaked phone call with the US ambassador in Ukraine at the time.

The sequence of events in Sri Lanka would suggest western powers have gone into high-gear over the current political impasse, presumably with a view to influencing the outcome. These developments serve as a pointer to intense underlying geopolitical tensions in the region. Western powers alarmed at a rising China’s expanding footprint in this small but strategically located state, had counted on Wickremesinghe to bring the country within the western sphere of influence. The prospect of that project being undermined has rung alarm bells.

The new government will have more to deal with than revelations of an assassination plot targeting the president and former defence secretary. It will also have to navigate the threat of possible interventions by western powers alarmed by the prospect of further inroads by China. Such interventions will no doubt come packaged in the guise of a ‘concern for democracy and human rights.’

By G. H. Peiris Courtesy The Island

November 4, 2018, 12:00 pm

It is with a sense of gratitude that I read the ‘Opinion’ titled ‘A Flawed Argument’ by Savitri Goonesekere in last Friday’s issue of The Island, in which she has explained that it is not the discrepancy between the Sinhala and the English versions of the 19th Amendment, but the principle – “the Golden Rule” – of relevance to an adjudication of President Sirisena’s removal of Ranil Wickremesinghe from the premiership is that “Constitutional Provisions must be given a meaning that is purposive to fulfill the objective and intention” of the related provisions. When a legal luminary of the stature of Professor Goonesekere imparts her wisdom and knowledge no sensible layman would dare dispute her. Yet it would not be insensible for a layman like me to request several vitally important further clarifications on her interpretation.

First of all, is it not essential to take into consideration the qualifications pertaining to the near unanimity that prevailed in our parliament over the need to curtail presidential powers at the time the 19th Amendment was enacted. In that context, Professor Goonesekere, shouldn’t we look carefully at the general stipulations of the constitution (copied below) on how the “sovereignty of the people” should find expression in the legislative, executive and judicial power configurations of government? Or, is this concept of ‘sovereignty of the people’ a whole lot of rubbish?

Constitution of Sri Lanka – Chapter 1 – Exercise of Sovereignty

The Sovereignty of the people shall be exercised and enjoyed in the following manner—

(a)  the legislative power of the people shall be exercised by Parliament, consisting of elected representatives of the people and by the people at a referendum.

(b)  the executive power of the people, including the defence of Sri Lanka, shall be exercised by the President of the Republic elected by the people.

(c)  the judicial power of the people shall be exercised by Parliament through courts, tribunals and institutions created and established or recognised by the Constitution or created and established by law, except in regard to matters relating to the privileges, immunities and powers of Parliament and of its Members wherein the judicial power of the people may be exercised directly by Parliament according to law.

Likewise, among the new constitutional provisions brought into being by the ‘19th A’, there were several others that did not relate to presidential powers vis-à-vis the Prime Minister and the Parliament. For instance, there were those that elevated the concept of ‘National Government’ to constitutional status, those pertaining to presidential powers over Provincial Councils, and those providing for the establishment of a Constitutional Council and nine “independent” Commissions. In deciding on the ‘objective and intention’ of the legislators lending their support to the clause of the bill in professorial dispute between Goonesekera and her former Law Faculty colleague G. L. Peiris, is it not relevant to take into account the possibility of impulses other than those pertaining to the powers exercised by the President last week that swayed them to support the amendment?

Among the other impulses I refer to, there were, for instance, the introduction of the concept of ‘National Government’ and the expansion of the size of the cabinet and the number of ministerial posts which that entailed. Thus, does Professor Goonesekera imply that the related considerations are of no relevance now to determining the ‘objective and intention’ of the members of parliament? If the good lady does, it would be quite incredible.

The discrepancy between the Sinhala and English versions of a single provision of the ‘19th A’ which Professor Goonesekera considers as being of little relevance to a probe into the ‘objective and intention’ of the ‘19th A’ comes closely in the heels of other more general submissions made in an article co-authored by her on behalf of the illustrious ‘Friday Forum’ (which The Island carried), the thematic thrust of which was that President Sirisena is guilty of gross violations of the Constitution. In that context I find it necessary to argue that the near-exclusive focus on constitutional issues in the ongoing public discussions, regardless of the unassailable eminence of the ‘Man Fridays’ on whose behalf she had written that piece, is it itself thoroughly flawed.

The crux of my submission here is that the disclosures made by President Sirisena in the course of his ‘Address to the Nation’ on the evening of 28 October are of far greater relevance to the debate on propriety of the reforms he implemented than constitutional issues. Admittedly, the president’s charges such as the likely complicity of his former prime minister in the gigantic “Robbery of the Central Bank” caused no surprise in that they were no more than confirmations of widely prevalent suspicions based on the well known relations that prevailed among the main participants in that heist, and on media reports on proceedings of the ‘Bond Commission’. Several other indictments such as Ranil Wickreme-singhe’s autocratic disregard of the president’s constitutional authority (as he did even in his earlier spell as prime minister from December 2000 to April 2004), and his violation of the tenets of cabinet government were also widely known as features of his personal style of leadership and management. Nor is there a surprise in his pathetic dependence on the support of his guardians among the global powers to recover the lost position as the country’s ‘strongman’, and in the blatant duplicity seen in the response of the NATO powers to his appeal. But there were two other presidential indictments of far greater significance which were well within the realm of criminality and moral turpitude that have remained sidetracked.

Elaborating on one such accusation (as recorded in the English translation of President Sirisena’s address published in The Island of 29th October) the president stated:

“I must tell you that the committee set up by Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe to manage the economy was totally fraudulent. The decisions taken by that committee were fraudulent. It was a major challenge to abolish it. As an alternative to that committee, I have established the National Economic Council. Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe has taken (sic.) everything possible to weaken that Commission (sic.) The monthly emoluments for the economic expert was paid by an international monetary institution respected by all of us. On Mr. Wickremesinghe’s advice, that payment was stopped. Mr. Wickremesinghe took steps to prevent the Commission from functioning”…

The other, which ought to be considered more damning than all else, constituted a part of the President’s reference to the alleged conspiracy to assassinate him. The relevant extracts from the published translation read as follows:

“The reports provided by the CID and other investigating authorities including the Intelligence Bureau showed that this is a very serious matter. In this plot, there is a wide range of information which has not been disclosed to the public. There is also a Cabinet Minister in this plot to assassinate me. Furthermore, there have been tremendous pressures on investigations. There were instances of some responsible officers of the Attorney General’s Department evading the investigation duties.”

The ‘Address to the Nation’ was not read from a script. The president, as usual, was employing his extraordinary communication skills in flawless Sinhala. Yet, since there were public announcements about the impending ‘Address’ throughout that day, listeners were entitled to assume that it was well prepared and carefully designed, quite unlike the extempore pronouncements which some of our garrulous politicians make from public platforms and the floor of the ‘House’. It must also be recalled that the indictment was made after protracted investigations including prolonged interrogation and the incarceration of a Deputy Inspector General of Police.

Many in the President’s audience are also aware of the enormity of the losses our nation has suffered since the late 1950s as a result of assassinations targeted at national leaders. It has also been widely observed that such losses have not been confined to scarce leadership talent, but have invariably resulted in the emergence of mediocrity at the apex of the political system and at various levels of its sub-national hierarchy.

Another fact which perhaps is somewhat less well known is the probable involvement of some of the major world powers in assassinations and mass exterminations that have occurred in other countries of South Asia and elsewhere – also since the late 1950s. Patrice Lumumba, Salvador Allende and Zulfifer Ali Bhuto rank among the more prominent victims of the Cold War era. In the more recent past there were other contributions of the West to safeguarding democracy such as setting in motion the chaos in Libya (and the murder of Muamma Gaddafi),

Iraq (and the annihilation of an estimated 700,000 Iraqis including Saddam Hussain), and the reduction of the unique city of Damascus to rubble rank among its other major contributions to safeguarding democracy. In Nepal the officially published version of King Birendra’s assassination being attributed to Prince Dipendra (his son and heir to the throne) is considered by some as the cover-up of an externally engineered plot. These are only a few examples known to us of ‘regime changes’ operations conducted in the past few decades.

What the foregoing considerations point at is that people urgently need the President to elaborate and substantiate his indictments and the former Prime Minister to answer them without confining himself to stating mama eva prathikshepa karanava (I reject them). The latter, in particular, is absolutely vital because his image has been severely tarnished.

That the popular support he had at the time his party secured about 106 parliamentary seats has been severely eroded was made plainly evident by the results of the nation-wide local government polls of February 2018. There is also no secret about the fact that the delays in conducting elections to Provincial Councils is due mainly to his fear of facing the electorate. The parliament remaining prorogued until 16th November gives both of them – President and the ex-PM – adequate time to elaborate their case.

Courtesy The Island

November 4, 2018, 11:43 pm

Mangala Samaraweera, yesterday, issued a statement warning of dire consequences of the governent decision to abolish the oil pricing formula. Insisting that he remains the minister in charge of finance, Samaraweera said:

“By shelving the fuel pricing formula, the illegal administration is attempting to revert to the opaque, politicised regime of fuel pricing that resulted in the CPC being landed with debt of more than Rs. 350 billion – which is eventually borne by tax payers.

There has been a 12% reduction in the Singapore Platts price of refined petrol since October 10th, which would have enabled a reduction in pricing as per the fuel price formula as well.”

The following is the full text of the statement:

“As a result of the illegal and unconstitutional coup, led by President Maithripala Sirisena, Sri Lanka’s economy has been placed in great peril. The uncertainty created has triggered an immediate negative impact at a time of tremendous fragility in global financial markets.

“The first impact was felt in the stock market. Between Monday and Thursday net foreign outflows from the Colombo stock exchange were Rs. 4 billion in just a four-day period. For the entire 9 months (270 days) from January to September 2018, the total net outflow from the stock market was Rs. 6.1 billion.

“Foreigners are selling out rapidly due to a sharp drop in confidence in Sri Lanka’s economic management. These outflows are putting major pressure on the Sri Lankan rupee in an already fragile global economy.

“The yield on the USD 1 billion international sovereign bond maturing in January 2019 increased from 5.6% to 9.9% this week – almost doubling in an unprecedented manner. The spike in yield is because global investors are demanding a higher return for the very recently increased risk associated with Sri Lankan debt. This means Sri Lanka’s external borrowing costs will almost double.

“If Sri Lanka is unable to meet its external obligations we will collapse into a situation like Argentina or worse Venezuela, where similar reckless policies were implemented. It is our citizens that will suffer as a result of this reckless, opportunistic behaviour. In Argentina, a country with similar challenges to Sri Lanka and made key policy errors like what we saw this week, interest rate just reached 74%, inflation is 22%, and the Peso depreciated 115% this year.

“As a result of the accelerated foreign sales of Sri Lankan debt and equity, there will be significant pressure on the value of the rupee and will cause domestic interest rates to spike. The selling rate of the SL rupee that had stabilized below 175 spiked from 174 to 177.3 in just 4 days. The old Rajapaksa strategy of selling off our hard earned reserves to try and defend the Rupee has no doubt already been deployed – this has been proved time and again to be a failed strategy. Lost reserves will make it even more difficult to meet our upcoming external debt repayments.

“There is already significant upward pressure on domestic interest rates as liquidity has tightened sharply – it is highly probable that the Central Bank will have to increase interest rates in order to withstand the pressure that has developed this week. This will increase costs in borrowing across the board and will stifle investment and economic activity.

“Sri Lanka has just managed to turn around our declining exports and stagnating FDI. In 2017, we had our best ever exports and FDI and in the first half of 2018 these figures continued to grow. Unfortunately, the blatantly undemocratic, unconstitutional measures by this illegal regime have put at risk our hard won access to the EU market through the GSP + scheme. If we lose this market we will severely undermine our fishing & seafood sector and apparel sector, which were making strong inroads into the world’s largest single market. A return to inward looking, protectionist, regressive policies will put us back on the fast lane to economic crisis.

“These negative developments have immediately attracted the attention of global rating agencies. Fitch is quoted as stating “Prolonged political upheaval accompanied by deterioration of policy continuity could undermine investor confidence and make it more challenging for the government to meet its large external financing needs in 2019-2022”. Another rating agency Moody’s stated “At a time when global financial markets are turbulent, uncertainty about the direction of future policy could have a large and lasting negative impact on international investor confidence”

“There is a serious risk that rating agencies will downgrade their Sri Lanka ratings. In addition to the spike in yields on Sri Lankan international sovereign debt, the incoherent policy of this week will make creditors extremely reluctant to lend to Sri Lanka to enable us to refinance our USD 15 billion debt payments in the next three years. We are at very serious risk of our first ever international default unless the economy is restabilised immediately by reverting to the policy path that our government had carefully put in place.

“Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Finance and Central Bank had worked hard to build fiscal consolidation and macroeconomic stability in the last 2 years – sacrifices were made in order to ensure we gained the trust and credibility of global financial markets since we have such high external debt obligations between 2019 and 2022. This credibility has been eviscerated in the most irresponsible manner by an illegal regime in just one week.

“The range of tax cuts made on Thursday will severely undermine government revenue. In a context where we have Rs. 2 trillion worth of debt service in 2019 and our revenue in 2018 was just touching Rs. 2 trillion – any revenue slippage will be disastrous for the government’s ability to meet its financial obligations and to fund public services.

“Taking just three of the 15 tax measures proposed – telecommunications levy reduction, VAT threshold increase, and WHT on interest income – the revenue impact would be around Rs. 75 billion (almost double the annual expenditure on Samurdhi). Unless of course by removing the 5% Final Withholding tax they are expecting interest income to be declared as income tax and charged 24% tax instead of 5% applicable at present.

“It is not clear as to how this illegal administration expects to reduce government expenditure in order to balance the budget after these erratic, irresponsible, and populist tax cuts. In the first 6 months of 2018, total revenue was Rs. 925 billion. Expenditure on salaries and wages was Rs. 316 billion, interest payments Rs. 391 billion, welfare Rs. 223 billion. These 3 items alone add up to Rs. 930 billion. Will Mahinda Rajapaksa reduce the size of the public service? Will he cut salaries? Perhaps he will reduce pensions?

“In fact with the spike in treasury yields as a result of this coup interest expenditure will be far higher than previously estimated. The only other option is drastic cuts to development expenditure which our government was not willing to do. Simply saying that lost revenue will be caught up by “rationalising cabinet ministers” and “re-examining capital expenditure” is an irresponsible and lazy attempt to deceive the public.

“By shelving the fuel pricing formula, the illegal administration is attempting to revert to the opaque, politicized regime of fuel pricing that resulted in the CPC being landed with debt of more than Rs. 350 billion – which is eventually borne by tax payers. There has been a 12% reduction in the Singapore Platts price of refined petrol since October 10th, which would have enabled a reduction in pricing as per the fuel price formula as well.

“The irresponsible measures during this week have gone against the basic principles of economic management. These short-term, cheap, populist measures are an attempt to deceive the public to capture political power and avert impending court cases, whilst putting the country risk of major economic peril.

“Our government had put in place a carefully thought out, responsible set of programmes to stimulate economic growth and uplift the people. Enterprise Sri Lanka loan schemes have been making great progress in empowering small business and entrepreneurs, Gampereliya has resulted in a major drive to boost economic infrastructure in rural areas. Our pragmatic macroeconomic policies brought inflation under control and in fact food prices declined by 2.3% in October. We did not resort to cheap, short sighted, irresponsible measures like what have been proposed this week. I urge the public to not be fooled by these unsustainable gimmicks and to reject all undemocratic, unconstitutional measures of this illegal regime.”

lanka C news

රවුෆ් හකීම් මහතාගේ නායකත්වයෙන් යුතු ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා මුස්ලිම් කොංග‍්‍රසය නව රජයයට එක්වීම සදහා තීන්දු කර ඇති බව විශ්වාස කටයුතු ආරංචි මාර්ග කියා සිටී.

ඒ අනුව එම පක්‍ෂයට කැබිනට් ඇමති ධුර හා නියෝජ්‍ය ඇමති ධුර කිහිපයක් ලබා දීමට නියමිතය.

මීලග මැතිවරණයේදී තම පක්‍ෂය තරග වදින්නේ කෙසේද යන්න සම්බන්දයෙන් යම් ගැටළුවක් තිබුණද මේ වන විට එම ගැටළුව නිරාකණය කරගෙන ඇතැයිද වාර්තා වෙයි.

ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා මුස්ලිම් කොංග‍්‍රසය පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තුල මන්ත‍්‍රී ධුර හතක් නියෝජනය කරයි.

ඉක්මන් ක‍්‍රියාමාර්ගයක් නොගන්නේ නම් තව දුරටත් අල්ලාගෙන සිටීමට නොහැකි බව පක්‍ෂ නායක රවුෆ් හකීම් ඊයේ දිනයේදී හිටපු අගමැති රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ මහතා දැනුවත් කර තිබින.

මෙම මන්ත‍්‍රී පිරිස එක්වීමත් සමග ආණ්ඩුවේ මන්ත‍්‍රී ආසන ප‍්‍රමාණය 112 දක්වා ඉහල යනු ඇත.

Courtesy Ceylon Today

Ranil Wickremesinghe is under severe pressure to hand over leadership of the UNP, Ceylon Today reliably learns.

UNP sources said a number of senior former Ministers had met Wickremesinghe at Temple Trees today and told him in no uncertain terms that  a ‘fresh face’ was the need of the hour if the UNP is to be victorious in future elections.

Sajith Premadasa was suggested to be the new face to the UNP as his speech received rapturous applause. The massive crowd that  thronged the vicinity in Colpetty a few days ago protesting the ouster of Wickremesinghe broke into thunderous applause the moment Premadasa took the stage, giving a clear indication that Ranil should hand over leadership to young Premadasa, sources who witnessed the episode said.

ඩබ්ලිව්.කේ. ප්‍රසාද් මංජු  උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

මෙරට දේශපාලන ක්‍ෂේත්‍රයේ විශාලතම පෙරළිකාර දේශපාලන විසඳුම පසුගිය 26 වැනි සිකුරාදා සවස 6.41ට කොළඹ, ගාලු මුව‍ෙදාර පිහිටි ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලයේදී සිදුවිය. එතෙක් මේ රටේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා වශයෙන් සිටි රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ඉවත් කර මෙරට 22 වැනි අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා වශයෙන් හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ පත් කිරීමට ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන විසින් තීන්දු කිරීම මෙම දේශපාලන පෙරළියයි.

මෙම දේශපාලන පෙරළියත් සමඟ මෙරට දේශපාලන ක්‍ෂේත්‍රය මෙන්ම ආණ්ඩුව උඩුයටිකුරු වී නව දේශපාලන ප්‍රවණතාවක් සහ නව ආණ්ඩුවක් මේ වන විට බිහි වී ඇත.

26 වැනිදා සවස සිදුවූ මෙම පෙරළිකාර දේශපාලන තීන්දුවෙන් පසුවත් ටික වේලාවක් යනතුරු මේ රටේ බොහෝ දෙනකු තුළ පැවැති ප්‍රශ්නයක් විය.

මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද සමඟි වුණේ කොහොමද?’ එම ප්‍රශ්නයයි.

එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයේ අහිතකර ප්‍රතිපත්තිවලින් රට බේරාගැනීම සහ තමාව ඝාතනය කිරීමට කුමන්ත්‍රණ කළ පිරිස්වලින් අෑත්වීම සඳහා මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා තීරණයක් ගැනීමත් සමඟම අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ධුරය මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂට ලබාදෙන්නේ ඊට අවශ්‍ය කරනු ලබන දේශපාලන වාතාවරණය ඒ වන විට නිර්මාණය වී තිබූ බැවිනි.

එසේ නම් මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද රටේ පෙරළිකාර දේශපාලන වෙනසක් සඳහා සමඟි වුණේ කොහොමද?

ඊට අවශ්‍ය පසුබිම හා මූලික කටයුතු සකස් වුණේ කොහොමද? මෙම කාරණා දැනගැනීමට බොහෝ දෙනකු සිටින්නේ නොඉවසිල්ලෙනි.

මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද සමඟි කිරීම සඳහා වන මූලික පසුබිම සකස් වෙන්නේ එවකට අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහට එරෙහිව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලද විශ්වාසභංග යෝජනාව හේතු කොටගෙනය.

මෙම විශ්වාසභංග යෝජනාව පරාජයට පත්කිරීමට රනිල් සමත් වුවද එමඟින් මතු වූ රනිල් විරෝධී, ජාතික ආණ්ඩු විරෝධී, එජාප විරෝධී බීජ අංකුර විනාශ කිරීමට රනිල් එතරම් උනන්දුවක් දක්වන්නේ නැත.

එම අංකුර කුඩා පැළ බවට පත්වී මහ වෘක්‍ෂ බවට පත්වී මෙරට දේශපාලනය උඩු යටිකුරු කරමින් ඔක්තෝබර් 26 වැනිදා සවස 6.30ට එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය ජාතික ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ඉවත් වන්නේය.

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ නව අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා බවට පත්කිරීමට පාර කැපෙන්නේ මෙම තීරණය හේතුවෙනි.

ඊට අමතරව මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද සමඟි කිරීමේ මෙහෙයුමද මෙම දේශපාලන පෙරළිය සඳහා ප්‍රධාන කාරණයයි.

මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද සමඟි කිරීම සහ එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය ජාතික ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ඉවත්වීමේ යෝජනාවට අදාළ කරුණු මාස 6ක් තිස්සේ පියවරෙන් පියවර එකිනෙකට සමගාමීව ක්‍රමානුකූලව සිදුවිය.

පසුගිය අප්‍රේල් මාසයේදී රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයාට එරෙහිව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් වුණු විශ්වාසභංග යෝජනාවට පක්‍ෂව ඡන්දය ලබාදීමෙන් අනතුරුව එතෙක් වෙලා ජාතික ආණ්ඩුවේ මැති ඇමැතිකම් දැරූ පිරිසක් ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ඉවත් වී විපක්‍ෂයෙන් අසුන් ගත්හ.

එස්.බී. දිසානායක, ජෝන් සෙනෙවිරත්න, සුසිල් ප්‍රේමජයන්ත, අනුර ප්‍රියදර්ශන යාපා, ඩිලාන් පෙරේරා, තිලංග සුමතිපාල, ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා, ලක්‍ෂ්මන් යාපා අබේවර්ධන, දයාසිරි ජයසේකර, සුමේධා ජී. ජයසේන, සුදර්ශනී ප්‍රනාන්දුපුල්ලේ, තාරානාත් බස්නායක, අනුරාධ ජයරත්න, චන්දිම වීරක්කොඩි, සුසන්ත පුංචි නිලමේ, ටී.බී. ඒකනායක යන මන්ත්‍රිවරුන් 16 දෙනා ජාතික ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ඉවත් වී පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තුළ විපක්‍ෂයෙන් අසුන් ගැනීම නිසා ඔවුන් හැඳින්වූයේ 16 කණ්ඩායම හැටියටය.

රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා විශ්වාසභංග යෝජනාවෙන් පරාජය කර ඉවත් කිරීමට නොහැකි වුවද 16 කණ්ඩායම නිතරම කතිකා කරගත්තේ මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද සමඟි කිරීම වෙනුවෙන් යම් වැඩපිළිවෙළක් දියත් කළ යුතු බවයි.

මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද සමඟිවීම තුළ රටේ අනාගතයට බොහෝ සුබදායක වාතාවරණයක් සැකසෙන බවත් ඒ වෙනුවෙන් කැපවීමටත් ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්‍ෂයේ 16 කණ්ඩායම තීරණයක් ගත්තේ පුංචි බොරැල්ලේ පිහිටි තිලංග සුමතිපාලගේ නිවසේදීය. එම තීරණය ගනු ලැබුවේ සිංහල, හින්දු අලුත් අවුරුද්දෙන් පසුව අප්‍රේල් මස අග දිනයකදීය.

ජාතික ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ඉවත් වන අවස්ථාවේදී 16 කණ්ඩායම මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාට කියා සිටියේ මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද සමඟි කිරීම වෙනුවෙන් දිගටම මෙම කණ්ඩායම පෙනී සිටින බවයි.

පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ ලක්‍ෂ 50කට ආසන්න ඡන්ද ප්‍රමාණයක් ලබා ගන්නා විට ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්‍ෂය ප්‍රමුඛ එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය ලක්‍ෂ 15කට ආසන්න ඡන්ද ප්‍රමාණයක් ලබාගෙන තිබෙන බවත් දෙගොල්ලන්ම එකතු වූ විට එම ඡන්ද ප්‍රමාණය ලක්‍ෂ 65කට ආසන්න වෙන බවත් මේ නිසා රටේ අති බහුතරයක් පොදු මහජනතාව සිටින්නේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයට එරෙහි කඳවුරේ බව 16 දෙනාගේ කණ්ඩායම විසින් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාට පෙන්වා දෙන ලදී.

මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද සමඟිය පිළිබඳව 16 දෙනාගේ කණ්ඩායමට දැඩි වුවමනාව තිබුණත් මෙම කාර්යය නිශ්චිත වශයෙන් කරගෙන යෑමට කණ්ඩායම් කිහිපයකට භාර කළ යුතු බව 16 දෙනාගේ කණ්ඩායම එක් අවස්ථාවකදී තීරණය කළහ. එම තීරණය ගනු ලැබුවේ පුංචි බොරැල්ලේ තිලංග සුමතිපාලගේ නිවෙසේදීය.

සිවුදෙනෙක් එම කණ්ඩායමට නම් කළහ.

එස්.බී. දිසානායක, ඩිලාන් පෙරේරා, තිලංග සුමතිපාල, ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා එම සිවුදෙනාය.

මෙම සිවුදෙනාට මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද සමඟි කිරීමේ කාර්යය සිදුකිරීමට 16 කණ්ඩායමේ අනුමැතිය හිමිවූ අතර විටින් විට එහි ප්‍රගතිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෙම සිවුදෙනා විසින් 16 කණ්ඩායම දැනුවත් කිරීමටද තීරණය කරන ලදී.

එස්.බී. දිසානායක, ඩිලාන් පෙරේරා, ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා, තිලංග සුමතිපාල යන සිවුදෙනා පමණක් තිලංගගේ පුංචි බොරැල්ලේ පිහිටි නිවෙසේ සහ එස්.බී.ගේ බත්තරමුල්ලේ පාලම් තුන මංසන්ධිය අසල පිහිටි නිවෙසේ විටින් විට රැස්වී මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද සමඟි කිරීමේ මෙහෙයුම ගැන සාකච්ඡා කළහ. රාත්‍රියේ පටන් ගත් මෙම සමහර සාකච්ඡා අවසන් වූයේ එළිවෙන පාන්දරය.

ඔවුන් විසින් එය කොටස් 4කට බෙදා එක් එක් කොටස එම සිවුදෙනාට පැවරීමට කටයුතු කෙරිණි.

මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා සහ එම පවුලේ අය සහ සමීපතමයන් සමඟ සාකච්ඡා කිරීමේ වගකීම පැවරුණේ තිලංග සුමතිපාලටය.

ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරාට පැවරුණේ මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඇතුළු පවුලේ සාමාජිකයන් ඇතුළු සමීපතමයන් සමඟ කතාබහ කිරීමේ වගකීමයි.

ජාතික ආණ්ඩුවෙන් එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය ඉවත්වීමට අදාළ කරුණු හා එම නීතිමය තත්ත්වයන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් කටයුතු කිරීමේ වගකීම පැවැරුණේ එස්.බී. දිසානායකටය.

මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද සමඟිය සමඟ ඇතිවන නව දේශපාලන සන්ධානයට අනෙකුත් දේශපාලන පක්‍ෂ ඇතුළු සුළු දේශපාලන පක්‍ෂවල සහයෝගය ලබාගැනීමේ වගකීම පැවැරුණේ ඩිලාන් පෙරේරාටය.

මේ සමඟ අප්‍රේල් මාසය උදාවිය. මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා එංගලන්තයේ පැවැත්වෙන පොදු රාජ්‍ය මණ්ඩලය රාජ්‍ය නායක සමුළුවට සහභාගිවීම සඳහා එංගලන්තය බලා පිටත්ව ගියේය.

ජනාධිපතිවරයා ලන්ඩන් ගොස් දිනකට පමණ පසුව 16 කණ්ඩායමේ තිදෙනෙක් අප්‍රේල් 04 වැනිදා ලන්ඩන් නුවර බලා ගියහ.

ඩිලාන් පෙරේරා, චන්දිම වීරක්කොඩි, ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා එම තිදෙනාය. මෙම ගමන සඳහා යෝජනා කරමින් අවශ්‍ය කටයුතු සංවිධානය කළේ ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරාය.

ලන්ඩන් නුවරදී තමාව හමුවීමට පැමිණි මෙම තිදෙනා මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් ඉතා සුහදව පිළිගන්නා ලදී.

උඹලා තුන්දෙනා මොකද මං හම්බ වෙන්න මෙහෙට ආවේ? යනුවෙන් සිනහමුසු මුහුණින් යුතුව ඉතා සුහදව මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා කතාව ආරම්භ කළේය.

‘සර් එක්ක නිදහසේ ටිකක් කතා කරන්න ඕන නිසායි අපි මෙහාට ආවේ’ ඩිලාන් පෙරේරා පිළිතුරු ලබාදුන්නේය.

‘ඇයි අපේ රටේදී කතා කරන්න බැරිද?’ යනුවෙන් ජනාධිපතිවරයා පෙරළා ප්‍රශ්න කළේය.

ලංකාවේදී කතා කරන්න බැරි දේවල් තමයි සර් මෙහේ කතා කරගන්න ආවේ. ලංකාවේදී කතා කරලා අපි එකක් සවුත්තු කර ගත්තා. ඒ තමයි විශ්වාසභංගය. ඒ නිසා ආපසු එහෙම නොවෙන්න තමයි මේ පාර කතා කරගන්න ඕන. මේ රට බේරාගන්න අපට වුවමනාවක් තියෙනවා. සර්ටත් ඒ වුවමනාව තියෙන බව අපි දන්නවා’ යනුවෙන් ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා කීවේය.

එතැනින් ඇරැඹුණු කතාබහ ඩිලාන් පෙරේරා, චන්දිම වීරක්කොඩ, ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා, මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා සමඟ පැය 3කට ආසන්න වේලාවක් සාකච්ඡා කළහ.

එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයේ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය දිගටම ක්‍රියාත්මක වුවහොත් රට විනාශය කරා ගමන් කරන බවත් ඒ වෙනුවට මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද අතර සමඟියක් ඇති වුවහොත් රට යහමඟකට ගෙන යෑමට අවශ්‍ය පදනම සකස් වෙන බව මේ සාම දූතයන් තිදෙනා දීර්ඝ වශයෙන් අදහස් දක්වමින් ජනාධිපතිවරයාට පෙන්වා දුන්හ.

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා අගමැති ධුරයට පත්කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් කිසිදු අදහසක් මෙහිදී සාකච්ඡා නොවීය. මෙහිදී සාකච්ඡා කෙරුණු තොරතුරු මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද අතර යම් සමඟියක් ඇති කිරීම සඳහා යම් ප්‍රවේශයක් ගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් පමණි. නමුත් මෙහිදී නිශ්චිත යමක් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාගෙන් ප්‍රකාශ නොවුණි. නමුත් පක්‍ෂයේ සමඟිය වෙනුවෙන් මේ ආකාරයෙන් පෙනී සිටීම ගැන මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා සිටියේ සුබදායි ස්ථාවරයකය.

ඉන් දින දෙකකට පසුව ඔවුන් තිදෙනා යළි මෙරටට පැමිණි අතර එම සාකච්ඡා කළ කරුණු දැනුම්දීම සඳහා ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා විජේරාම මාවතේ පිහිටි නිල නිවෙසට ගොස් මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා මුණ ගැසුණේය.

‘පක්‍ෂයේ සමඟිය වෙනුවෙන් මෙවැනි සාකච්ඡාවක් ආරම්භ කිරීම හොඳයි. මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා පක්‍ෂයේ මහ ලේකම් විදියට වැඩ කොටසක් කළා. මං ඒක දන්නවා. ඇති වී තිබෙන තත්ත්වය අනුව අපි දෙදෙනා අතර ඉක්මනින්ම සමඟියක් ඇති වේවි කියලා කියන්න බැහැ. නමුත් අපි බලමු’ යනුවෙන් යම් බලාපොරොත්තු සහගත පිළිතුරක් මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාගෙන් ලැබුණේය.

යම් සමඟියක් වෙනුවෙන් යම් වැඩපිළිවෙළක් ක්‍රියාත්මක වන බව මේ වන විට මෛත්‍රිත්, මහින්දත් දැන සිටි අතර මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් 16 දෙනාගේ කණ්ඩායම දැනුවත් කිරීමට හතර දෙනාගේ කණ්ඩායම විසින් කටයුතු කරන ලදී.

ඒ වන විට දයාසිරි ජයසේකර 16 දෙනාගේ කණ්ඩායමේ නොසිටියද ඔහු මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද සමඟි කිරීම වෙනුවෙන් එම ස්ථාවරයේම සිටියේය. මේ නිසා සාකච්ඡාවල ප්‍රගතිය ගැන ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා විසින් විටින් විට දයාසිරි ජයසේකරව දැනුවත් කරන ලදී.

මෙම සිවුදෙනාගෙන් එස්.බී. දිසානායක ජේ‍යෂ්ඨ වන නිසාත් ඔහු මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද කාලයක් තිස්සේ මිතුරන් මෙන් ඇසුරු කරන නිසාත් මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද සමඟ විටින් විට මෙම සමඟිය ගැන කතා කිරීමේ වගකීමක්ද එස්.බී. දිසානායකටම පවරා තිබිණි.

මෙම කටයුත්ත සඳහා ඍජුව සම්බන්ධ නොවූවද ජාතික ආණ්ඩුවේ සිටි ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්‍ෂයේ මැති ඇමැතිවරුන් කිහිප දෙනකුගේ සහයෝගයද යම් යම් ආකාරයෙන් හිමිව තිබිණි.

16 දෙනාගේ කණ්ඩායම මේ සමඟිය ගැන සාකච්ඡා කිරීමට දින දෙක තුනක්වත් පුංචි බොරැල්ලේ පිහිටි තිලංග සුමතිපාලගේ නිවෙසට රැස්වූහ. බොහෝ දේවල් සාකච්ඡා කිරීමෙන් අනතුරුව බොහෝ දිනවල මෙම සාකච්ඡා අවසන් වන්නේ රාත්‍රි ආහාරයද ලබාගැනීමෙන් අනතුරුවය.

මෙසේ සිදුවන සාකච්ඡාවල කිසිදු තොරතුරක් පිට නොකිරීමට දයාසිරි ජයසේකර ඇතුළු 16 කණ්ඩායම වගබලා ගත්හ. අඩුම තරමින් මෙම තොරතුරු කිසිවක් තම තමන්ගේ පවුල්වල සාමාජිකයන් සමඟවත් සාකච්ඡා නොකිරීමට ඔවුහු පරිස්සම් වූහ.

දුරකථනයෙන් නම් මේවා ගැන කිසිවක් සාකච්ඡා නොවුණ අතර හමුවී පමණක් මේ ගැන තොරතුරු කතා කිරීමට 16 කණ්ඩායම වගබලා ගත්තේ දැඩි පරිස්සමටය.

මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද අතර සුහදතාව ගොඩනැංවීම සඳහා වන සිද්ධි කිහිපයකට ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරාට මුහුණදීමට සිදුවිය.

දිනක් විජේරාම මාවතේ පිහිටි නිල නිවෙසේදී මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා සමඟ යම් කාරණයක් ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා සාකච්ඡා කරමින් සිටියේය.

එතන සිටි කිසිවකු ‘මෛත්‍රි’ යනුවෙන් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා ගැන යමක් සඳහන් කරන බවක් මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ඇසුණේය.

එම ආමන්ත්‍රණයට මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාට තරමක් කේන්ති ගියේය.

‘රටක නායකයකුට නම කියලා කතා කරන්න එපා. යම් යම් මතවාද තියෙන්න පුළුවන්. ඒ මොනව වුණත් ඒ අපේ රටේ ජනාධිපතිතුමා. ඔයා අපිටත් කතා කරන්නේ ඔය වගේ තමයි’ යනුවෙන් මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා ප්‍රකාශ කෙළේය.

මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් කරන ලද යම් ප්‍රකාශයක් ගැන මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා දැනුවත් කිරීමට ගොස් ජනාධිපතිතුමාට ‘මෛත්‍රි’ පමණක් යනුවෙන් කරන ලද ආමන්ත්‍රණයට මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් එසේ දෝෂාරෝපණය එල්ල කරන ලදී.

මෙම සිද්ධිය පිළිබඳව ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා විසින් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා දැනුවත් කරන ලදී.

ඉන් පසුවද මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද සමඟියට අදාළ තවත් සාකච්ඡා වට කිහිපයක්ම මෙම සිවුදෙනාගේ සහභාගිත්වයෙන් පුංචි බොරැල්ලේ පිහිටි තිලංග සුමතිපාලගේ නිවෙසේත්, බත්තරමුල්ලේ පිහිටි එස්.බී. දිසානායකගේ නිවෙසේත් පැවැත්විණි.

මෙම සාකච්ඡාවලට සහභාගි වීම සඳහා ඇතැම් අවස්ථාවලදී එස්.බී. හඟුරන්කෙත සිටත්, ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත මාතලේ සිටත්, ඩිලාන් බදුල්ලේ සිටත් පැමිණියහ.
විරසකයකට පත්වී සිටින නායකයන් දෙදෙනකු සමඟ කිරීම එතරම් පහසු නොවන නිසා මෙම ක්‍රියාවලියේදී මතුවීමට හැකි අභියෝග සහ ඒවාට ලබාදිය යුතු විසඳුම් සම්බන්ධයෙන්ද මෙම සිවුදෙනා දීර්ඝ වශයෙන් සාකච්ඡා කළහ.

මෙසේ ක්‍රම ක්‍රමයෙන් දින ගෙවී ගිය අතර ජූලි මාසයේ එක්තරා දිනයකදී සිවුදෙනාගේ කණ්ඩායම විසින් අලුත් යෝජනාවක් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාටත් මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාටත් ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලදී.

‘සර්ලා පොඩ්ඩක් හමුවෙලා කතා කළොත් හොඳ නැද්ද?’ යනුවෙන් තිලංග සුමතිපාල විසින් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාට යෝජනා කරන ලදී.

මෙම යෝජනාවම මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලද්දේ ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා විසිනි.

එම හමුවට තමාගේ අකැමැත්තක් නොමැති බව මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා ප්‍රකාශ කෙළේය.

‘අපේ පක්‍ෂයේ හිටපු මහ ලේකම්. අපි එකට වැඩ කරලා තියෙනවා. මටත් හමුවීම ප්‍රශ්නයක් නොවේ’ යන ප්‍රතිචාරය මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබිණි.

ඊට දින කිහිපයකට පසුව කොළඹ එක්තරා නිවෙසක රාත්‍රි මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාත් මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාත් හමුවූහ. ඔවුන් දෙදෙනා හැර එම අවස්ථාවේ සිටි එකම එක පුද්ගලයා වන්නේ හතර දෙනාගෙන් එක් අයකු පමණි.

‘ඔබතුමා රටට ආදරය කරපු නායකයෙක්. නමුත් ඔබතුමා යම් අසරණ තත්ත්වයකට පත්වෙලා කියලා පේනවා. රට පිරිහෙමින් පවතිනවා. ඒක නවත්වන්න වැඩපිළිවෙළක් සකස් කරන්න’ යනුවෙන් මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා මෙහිදී මෛත්‍රිපාල ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ප්‍රකාශ කෙළේය.

‘ඒක මම පිළිගන්නවා. රටේ ප්‍රශ්න විසඳන්නේ නැහැ කියලා ජනතාවගෙන් නිතරම චෝදනා එල්ල වෙනවා. ඇතුළේ තත්ත්වය මට එතරම් අල්ලන්නේ නැහැ. මාත් ඉන්නේ යම් පීඩනයකින්’ යනුවෙන් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාද පිළිතුරු දුන්නේය.

පැයකට ආසන්න වේලාවක් මෙම සාකච්ඡාව සිදුවිය.

නායකයන් දෙදෙනාම සාකච්ඡා කරමින් රාත්‍රි ආහාරයද ගැනීම විශේෂත්වයකි.

දීර්ඝ ගමනකට පළමු හමුවේදී යම් මුලපිරීමක් සිදුවූ බව සඳහන් කරමින් එම ස්ථානයේ සිටි සගයා අනෙක් 15 දෙනාටම මෙම හමුව ගැන දැනුම් දුන් අතර එම සතුට වෙනුවෙන් සාදයක්ද සංවිධානය කරන ලදී. නායකයන් දෙදෙනා පමණක් මුහුණට මුහුණ හමුවී වසර ගණනාවකට පසුව සිදුකෙරුණු මෙම සාකච්ඡාවේදී සතුට භුක්ති විඳීම වෙනුවෙන් 16 දෙනාගේ කණ්ඩායම වෙනුවෙන් රාත්‍රි භෝජන සංග්‍රහයක් සමඟ සාදය සූදානම් කළේ තිලංග සුමතිපාලගේ පුංචි බොරැල්ලේ පිහිටි නිවෙසේදීය.

ඉන් මාසයකට පසුව එනම් අගෝස්තු මාසයේ දිනක මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිතුමාගෙන් ඇමැතුමක් ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරාගේ ජංගම දුරකථනයට ලැබෙන්නේය.

‘මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිතුමා අද කොහෙද ඉන්නේ’ යනුවෙන් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා විමසුවේය.

‘මං බලලා කියන්නම් සර්’ යනුවෙන් ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා ප්‍රතිචාර දැක්වීය.

ඉන් පසු ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා දුරකථන ඇමැතුමක් මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ලබා දුන්නේය.

මේ බව දැනුම්දුන් පසුව මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා ප්‍රකාශ කෙළේ තමා අද දින කොළඹ ඉන්නා බවයි.

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා කොළඹ සිටින බව ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා විසින් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාට නැවත දැනුම් දෙන ලදී.

‘අද සවස කොහොමද දන්නේ නැහැ නේද?’ යනුවෙන් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා පැවැසුවේ අද සවස හමුවීමට වේලාවක් තිබෙනවාද යන පැනයද ඉදිරිපත් කරමිනි.

එම පණිවිඩය ලක්‍ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා විසින් මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාට දැනුම් දුන් අතර අද සවස හමුවීමට ගැටලුවක් නොමැති බව මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා ප්‍රතිචාර දක්වා තිබිණි.

ඉන් පසුව එදින රාත්‍රියේදීත් කොළඹ නගරයේ යම්කිසි ස්ථානයකදී නායකයෝ දෙදෙනාම හමුවූහ.

ජාතික ආණ්ඩුවේ ප්‍රතිපත්තිමය ගැටුම් ගැන මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් මෙහිදී පැහැදිලි කරන ලදී.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ පිහිටෙව්වේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්‍ෂයේ සාමාජිකයන්ට විකල්පයක් නොමැති නිසා බවත් රට වෙනුවෙන් එක්ව ගමනක් යනවා නම් ඒකට තමාගේ විරුද්ධත්වයක් නොමැති බවත් මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා මෙහිදී පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

රාජ්‍ය දේපළ විකිණීමට තිබෙන සැලසුම්, රණවිරුවන් සිරගත කිරීම වැනි දේවල්ද මෙහිදී සාකච්ඡා වූ අතර මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා කියා සිටියේ මෙවැනි සිද්ධි ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ දේශපාලනයට එතරම් හිතකර නොමැති බවයි.

තමන් ඒ ගැන දන්නා බවත් ඒ ගැන අවදියෙන් සිටින බවත් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් මෙහිදී ප්‍රකාශ කරන ලදී.

පැය දෙකක් පමණ මෙම සාකච්ඡාව සිදුවූ අතර නායකයන් දෙදෙනා වෙන්ව ගියේ රාත්‍රි ආහාරය ගැනීමෙන්ද අනතුරුවය.

ඉන් ටික දවසකට පසුව නායකයන් දෙදෙනා අතර තෙවැනි හමුව පැවැත්වුණේ එස්.බී. දිසානායකගේ නිවසේදීය.

එස්.බී. දිසානායක, ඩිලාන් පෙරේරා හා ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා යන මන්ත්‍රිවරු පමණක් මෙම අවස්ථාවට සහභාගි වූහ.

ඉතා සුහදව දීර්ඝ වේලාවක් මෙම සාකච්ඡාව සිදුවූ අතර රාත්‍රි භෝජන සංග්‍රහයක්ද සංවිධාන කර තිබිණි.

එස්.බී. දිසානායක විසින් නායකයන් දෙදෙනාටම රටේ පවතින දේශපාලන තත්ත්වය සහ රටේ අනාගතය පිළිබඳ දීර්ඝ වශයෙන් කරුණු පැහැදිලි කරන ලදී.

පළමු වරට එස්.බී. දිසානායකගේ නිවසේ හමුව පිළිබඳව මාධ්‍ය මඟින් විශාල ප්‍රසිද්ධියක් ලබාදී තිබුණු අතර මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඒ පිළිබඳ සිටියේ එතරම් කැමැත්තකින් නොවේ.

ඉන් පසු දිනක ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා හමුවීමට නිවසට ගිය අතර එස්.බී. දිසානායකගේ නිවසේ සිදුවූ හමුව ඇතැම් මාධ්‍යවල වාර්තා වූ ක්‍රියාවලියට ජනාධිපතිවරයා තම දැඩි අප්‍රසාදය පළකර සිටියේය.
මේ ගැන කිසිම දෙයක් මං කතා කරන්න කැමැති නැහැ යනුවෙන් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා දැඩි ලෙස ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

පොල්ලෙන් ගැහුවා වැනි එම පිළිතුරෙන් පසුව කරබාගෙනම ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා ජනාධිපති නිල නිවසින් පිටත් විය.

එම සිද්ධිය මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාටද සැලකිරීමට ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා පියවර ගත්තේය.

මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද සමඟි කිරීමේ ක්‍රියාවලියට කොමාවක් වැටී ඇති බවත් එයට නැවතීමේ තිත තැබීමට නම් ඉඩනොදිය යුතු බව හතර දෙනාගේ කණ්ඩායම තීරණය කළහ.

එස්.බී. දිසානායකගේ නිවසේ හමුව ඇතැම් පුවත්පත්වල පළවීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් බොහෝ දෝෂාරෝපණවලට මුහුණදීමට එස්.බී. දිසානායකට සිදුවිය. නමුත් එම තොරතුරු ඇතැම් මාධ්‍යවලට ලබාදුන්නේ එස්.බී. දිසානායක නොව එතැන සිටි වෙනත් බාහිර පුද්ගලයකු බව සියලු දෙනාටම අවබෝධ විය.

මේ දෝෂාරෝපණ සමඟ යම් කලකිරීමකට පත්වූ එස්.බී. දිසානායක අනෙක් සගයන් තිදෙනාට ප්‍රකාශ කළේ “මං ෆෝන් ඕෆ් කරගන්නවා. උඹලා ඕන මඟුලක් කරගනිල්ලා” යැයි කියමිනි.

“මෙච්චර දුරක් ඇවිල්ලා මේක අත්හරින්න බැහැ” යනුවෙන් තිලංග සුමතිපාලත්, ඩිලාන් පෙරේරත් දිගින් දිගටම ප්‍රකාශ කළහ.

‘මහින්දට අගමැතිකම දෙන්න සාකච්ඡා කළා’ කියලා ඇතැම් පුවත්පත් වාර්තා කර තිබීම ගැන මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා සිය නොසතුට ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබිණි.

“නායකයන් දෙදෙනා අතර හොඳ හිතට ප්‍රශ්නයක් වෙලා නැහැ. මේ වෙලා තියෙන්නේ සාකච්ඡාව පත්තරවලට වැරදි විදියට ලීක්වෙලා තිබීමයි” යනුවෙන් ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා අනෙක් සගයන් තිදෙනාට ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

“මං කොහොමත් හෙට ජනාධිපතිතුමාට කතා කරනවා” ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

“සර් කොහොමද තත්ත්වය. පොඩ්ඩක් හමුවෙන්න පුළුවන්ද?” යනුවෙන් ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා විසින් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාට දුරකථන ඇමතුමක් ලබාදෙන ලදී.
“ඇයි? මොකද?” ජනාධිපතිවරයා විමසුවේය.

“සර්… අර කරගෙන ආපු සාකච්ඡාව ගැන කතා කරගන්න” යනුවෙන් ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා පැවසුවේය.

“එනවකෝ ගෙදරට” යනුවෙන් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා මහගමසේකර මාවතේ පිහිටි ජනාධිපති නිල නිවසට ගියේය.

“මොකක්ද? මේ අගමැතිකමක් දෙනවා කියලා පත්තරවල ගිහිල්ලා තියෙන්නේ යනුවෙන් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා ප්‍රකාශ කළේ එතරම් හිත හොඳකින් නම් නොවේ.

ඉතා රහසේ පටන් ගත් මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද සාකච්ඡා පුවත්පත් මඟින් අනාවරණය වීම මඟින් සමඟි වෑයම අතරමඟ බිඳ වැටෙන වාතාවරණයක් උදාවීම ගැන ඊට මැදිහත් වූවන් පසුවූයේ දැඩි කම්පාවෙනි.

මේ වාතාවරණය මැද සමඟි වෑයම කඩාකප්පල්වීමට කිසිසේත් ඉඩ නොතැබිය යුතු බව වටහාගත් තුන්වැනි පාර්ශ්වයක් ඒ සඳහා මැදිහත් වන්නට තීරණය කළේය.

ඔහු ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතාටත්, හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාටත් වෙන වෙනම කතා කරමින් යළි සාම වෑයම පණ ගැන්වෙන තත්ත්වයක් උදාකර ගන්නට සමත් විය.

එහි ප්‍රතිඵලය වූයේ නුදුරු දිනෙකම එම තුන්වැනි පාර්ශ්වයේ නිවහනේදී මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද – බැසිල් හමුවකට ඉඩකඩ විවර වීමය. එහිදී ඔවුන් තිදෙනා පවතින දේශපාලන වාතාවරණය ගැනත් රටේ අනාගතය වෙනුවෙන් ගත යුතුව තිබෙන පියවර ගැනත් බොහෝ දේ කතා කළහ. ඒ අනුව සාම වෑයම නැවතත් හරි පීල්ලට ගෙන එන්නට තුන්වැනි පාර්ශ්වය ගත් උත්සාහය සාර්ථක විය.

එම සාකච්ඡාවේ සාර්ථකත්වය තහවුරු කෙරෙන සංඥාවක් පසු දිනයේදීම නිකුත් විය. එම සංඥාව වූයේ මෛත්‍රි – මහින්ද – බැසිල් හමුව සිදු වූ තුන්වැනි පාර්ශ්වයේ නිවසේදීම ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා හා ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා අතර තීරණාත්මක හමුවක් සිදුවීමය. එහිදීද ජනාධිපතිවරයාත් හිටපු ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම්වරයාත් රටේ දේශපාලන වාතාවරණය ගැන බොහෝ දේ සාකච්ඡා කළහ. එම හමුව සාර්ථකව නිමාවීමත් සමඟ සාම වෑයමේ අරුණලු උදාවෙමින් පවතින බවට තහවුරු වන්නට පටන් ගෙන තිබිණි.

මේ කාලය ඇතුළත මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා පිළිබඳව මහත් ඕනෑකමකින් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා අධ්‍යයනය කළ අතර දේශපාලනයටත් එහා ගිය සමීප මිත්‍රත්වයක් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාගෙන් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා දුටුවේය.

ඒ සමඟම දැඩි විශ්වාසයක්ද මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ කෙරෙහි මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන තුළ ඇතිවී තිබිණි.

ඉන් පසුව දිනෙක ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා හමුවීමට ගියේය.

එහිදී ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා තම ජංගම දුරකථනයෙන් ඇමතුමක් මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ලබාදී මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාට දුරකථනය ලබාදුන්නේය.

නායකයන් දෙදෙනා අතර කෙටි දුරකථන සංවාදයක් සිදුවිය. සියල්ල මෙසේ සුබවාදීව සිදුවෙද්දී ඔක්තෝබර් 25 වැනිදාට තමා හමුවන ලෙස මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාගෙන් එස්.බී. දිසානායක, තිලංග සුමතිපාල, ඩිලාන් පෙරේරා හා ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරාට පණිවුඩ ලැබිණි.

ඒ වන විට එස්.බී. දිසානායක සිටියේ නුවරඑළියේය.

හවස 3.00ට පමණ එස්.බී. නොමැතිව අනෙක් තිදෙනා ජනාධිපතිවරයා හමුවීමට ජනාධිපති නිල නිවසට පැමිණියහ.

“මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිතුමා කොහෙද ඉන්නේ” ජනාධිපතිවරයා විමසුවේය.

ඒ අවස්ථාවේදී ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා දුරකථන ඇමතුමක් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ලබාදුන් අතර ඔහු එම අවස්ථාවේදී සිටියේ හික්කඩුව ප්‍රදේශයේ උත්සවයකට සහභාගි වෙමිනි.

ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා විසින් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා දුරකථනයට සම්බන්ධ කරගැනීමෙන් අනතුරුව එම දුරකථනය මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ලබාදුන්නේය.

“මං යම් කිසි වෙනසක් කරන්න බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනවා. එවිට යම් වගකීමක් ඔබතුමාට ගන්න වේවි” මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා දුරකථනයෙන් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.
මේ ගැන කිසිවකුටත් ප්‍රකාශ නොකිරීමට සියලුම දෙනා වගබලා ගත්හ.

මේ අතර මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා, එස්.බී. දිසානායක, තිලංග සුමතිපාල, ඩිලාන් පෙරේරා ඇතුළු සීමිත කිහිපදෙනකුට ප්‍රකාශ කළේ ඔක්තෝබර් 26 වැනිදා සවස 6.00ට පමණ ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලයේදී එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානයේ පක්ෂ නායකයන් ඇතුළු සියලුම පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රිවරුන්ට රැස්වීමක් පැවැත්වෙන බවයි.

26 වැනිදා සවස යම් අමතර වෙනසක් සිදුවන බව එස්.බී. මෙන්ම තිලංග, ලක්ෂ්මන්, ඩිලාන් ද දැන සිටියහ.

මේ අතරේ අනෙක් තිදෙනාට අවශ්‍ය වී තිබුණේ නුවරඑළියේ සිටින එස්.බී.ට ලණුවක් දීමටය.

ඒ බව ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාට දැනුම් දුන්නේය.

ඒ සමඟම එස්.බී.ට දුරකථන ඇමතුමක් ලබාදුන් මහින්ද ප්‍රකාශ කළේ හෙට සිදුවන වැඩේ ගැන තමාට ෂුවර් එකක් නැති නිසා වැඩේට නොයන බවයි.

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ මෙම ප්‍රකාශයෙන් එස්.බී.ට හීන්දාඩිය දැම්මේය. ඔහු වහාම ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරාට කතා කරමින් කිව්වේ හෙට සිදුවන වැඩේ ගැන මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට විශ්වාසයක් ඇතිකළ යුතු බවයි.

කොළඹට පැමිණෙනතුරු එස්.බී. දිසානායක තමාට දුන්නු ලණුව ගැන දැනගෙන සිටියේ නැත.

එස්.බී. සිටියේ නුවරඑළියේ ඥාතියකුගේ මංගල උත්සවයකට සහභාගි වෙලාය.

“අනේ ලකී.. මං වෙඩින් එකක ඉන්නේ. කොහොම හරි ඔයා ගිහිල්ලා මහින්ද මහත්තයා කැමති කරගන්න” යනුවෙන් එස්.බී. දිසානායක ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.
“මොන වෙඩින්ද? මේකත් වෙඩින් එකක් තමයි ඔයා ඉක්මනට එන්න” ලක්ෂ්මන් වසන්ත පෙරේරා ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

මංගල උත්සවයේ කටයුතු අවසන් කිරීමෙන් අනතුරුව එස්.බී. කොළඹ පැමිණියේ දැඩි කුතුහලයකිනි.

සවස 6.00ට පමණ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඇතුළු එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානයේ සියලුම දෙනා ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලයට පැමිණියහ.
මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා සහ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා අතර කෙටි සාකච්ඡාවක් එහි ඇතුළු කාමරයක පැවැත්විණි.

ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලයට පැමිණ සිටි බොහෝ දෙනකු උනන්දුවෙන් පසුවූයේ මේ සිදුවීමට යන දේ පිළිබඳව යම් කුතුහලයකිනි.

ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලයේ පිරිස අසුන්ගෙන සිටින විට ජෝන් සෙනෙවිරත්න ඇමැතිවරයා මහත් කුතුහලයකින් විමසුවේ මේ මොකක්ද වෙන්නේ කියායි.

“මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහත්තයා දැන් අගමැති ධුරයේ දිවුරුම් දෙන්න යන්නේ” හතර දෙනාගෙන් කෙනකු ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

“අනේ පලයං යන්න ඔය ඇත්තමද?” ජෝන් සෙනෙවිරත්න විමසුවේ තරමක විස්මයෙනි.

එස්.බී. දිසානායක පැමිණ සිටියේ ටී. ෂර්ට් එකක් ඇඳගෙනය. ඊට හේතුවක් තිබිණි. ඔහු නුවරඑළියේ සිට කෙළින්ම පැමිණ තිබුණේ ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලයටය. බත්තරමුල්ලේ නිවසට ගොස් ඇඳුම් මාරුකරගෙන එන්නට ඔහුට කාලයක් තිබුණේ නැත.

ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලයේදී එස්.බී.ට ඩිලාන් පෙරේරා ප්‍රකාශ කළේ තව සුළු වේලාවකින් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අගමැති ධුරයේ දිවුරුම් දෙන බවයි. එස්.බී.ගේ ඇඟට ලේ ටිකක් ඉනුවේ එවිටය.

ඉන්පසුව ඔක්තෝබර් මස 26 වැනිදා සවස 6.41ට පමණ ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා ඉදිරියේ මෙරට 22 වැනි අගමැතිවරයා වශයෙන් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ධුරයේ දිවුරුම් දුන්නේය.

ඩබ්ලිව්.කේ. ප්‍රසාද් මංජු

ප්‍රගීත් සම්පත් කරුණාතිලක  උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

ඇමැතිතුමා මොකද වුණේ? බලාපොරොත්තු නැති මොහොතක ආණ්ඩුවෙන් එළෙව්වේ ඇයි?

කවුරුත් නොසිතූ මොහොතක ජනාධිපතිතුමා මේ වැඩේ කළේ. ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්‍ෂයේ අය කියන්නෙත් ඒ අය දන්නේ නැහැ ශ්‍රී ලනිපය ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ඉවත් වෙලා අගමැති විදියට මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ පත් කරනකම්. පොහොට්ටුවේ අයත් දන්නේ නැහැ. මේක සිදු වෙනකම් හරියට මොකක්ද වෙන්නේ කියලා.

කවුරුත් දන්නේ නැති වුණාට වැඩේ වෙලානේ?

ඒකයි දැන් තියෙන ප්‍රශ්නය. කඩිමුඩියේ ව්‍යවස්ථාවට පටහැනිව අගමැති කෙනෙක් පත් කළාට මොකද දැන් බහුතරය හොයන්න බැරිව දඟලනවා. ඒකයි ඇත්ත.

ජනාධිපතිතුමා මේ විදියට එජාප අගමැති ඉවත් කරලා මහින්ද පත්කර ගැනීමට පෙර නීති විශාරදයන්ගෙන් විමසුවා කියනවා. එහෙම නම් කොහොමද කියන්නේ ව්‍යවස්ථා විරෝධියි කියලා?

නීතිපතිවරයෙක් එහෙම කරන්න කියා දුන්නනම් ආයෙ නීතියෙන් මතය විමසන්න ඕන වෙන්නේ නෑනේ. ලෝකයේ කිසිම රජයක් මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ අගමැති කියලා පිළිගන්නේ නැහැ. ව්‍යවස්ථාව අනුව අගමැති පත්කරන්නේ කොහොමද කියලා පැහැදිලිව තියෙනවා. එතැනදී අගමැති පත්කරන්න ඕන ප්‍රතිපාදන තියෙනවා. 19 වැනි ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයට අනුව ජනාධිපතිට බැªහැ අගමැතිවරු අයින් කරන්න. ඒක සිදු වෙන්නේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව හරහා.

ඔබ කෙසේ කීවත් එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානයේ මතය වන්නේ ව්‍යවස්ථාවට අනුව අගමැති පත්කළ බවයි. එය නීත්‍යනුකූල බවයි?

19 ව්‍යවස්ථාවට අනුව 42 වගන්තියේ පැහැදිලිව තියෙනවා, කොහොමද අගමැති කෙනෙක් අයින් කරන්නේ කියා. ඒ කොහේවත් නැහැ ජනාධිපතිට අගමැති අයින් කරන්න පුළුවන් කියා. 18 වැනි ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයට අනුව එහෙම බලතල ජනාධිපතිට තිබුණා. නමුත් 19 වැනි සංශෝධනයේ එහෙම නැහැ.

ඔබ කියන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා 19 වැනි ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය ගැන දැනුවත් නෑ කියාද?

පැහැදිලිවම.

නමුත් එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානයේ නීති විශාරදයන් පෙන්නා දෙන්නේ මේ පත්කිරීම හරියි කියා. ඔබ වෙන කතාවක් කියනවා. ජනතාවට ඕන අගමැති අර්බුදයට හරි විසඳුමක්?

ඒක නිසා තමයි අපි කියන්නේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කැඳවන්න කියලා. අගමැතිකම ගත්තට බහුතරය නැහැ. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කැඳවලා තමයි බහුතරය පෙන්වන්න ඕන. ඒකට මේ අය බයයි. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කල් දාලා එළියේ ඉඳන් නීති තර්ක ගේනවා. බහුතර බලය නැත්නම් අපි විපක්‍ෂයට යනවා. නමුත් අපට බහුතරය තියෙනවා. අපි කියන්නේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කැඳවන්න එතකොට ඔය නීති තර්කවලට උත්තර ලැබෙයි.

බහුතරය එජාපයට තියෙනවාද?

ඔව්.

නමුත් අපි දවසින් දවස දකින්නේ එජාප මන්ත්‍රිවරු ගිහින් ඇමැතිකම් ගන්නවා. එතකොට කොහොමද බහුතරය පෙන්වන්නේ?

මෙහෙ අයව විවිධ වරදාන දීලා ගත්තාට ආණ්ඩුවෙන් කැඩිලා අපට කොටසක් එනවා. ඒ එන ගාණ අපෙන් යන අයට වඩා විශාල සංඛ්‍යාවක් එහෙන් එකතුවෙයි කියලා බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනවා.

බලාපොරොත්තුවක් විතරද?

බලන්නකො ඉස්සරහට මොකද වෙන්නේ කියලා.

පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ලබන 16ට පෙර කැඳවිය යුතුයි කියා ආරංචියි. කථානායකට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කැඳවන්න බැරිද? 19 වැනි සංශෝධනයට අනුව ජනාධිපතිවරයාට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කල්දාන්න බැහැ කියනවා. මොකක්ද ඇත්ත?

පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කැඳවන්න බලතල තියෙන්නේ කථානායකවරයාට. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවක් කල් තැබීම හෝ විවෘත කිරීම ගැන ජනාධිපතිට තනි තීන්දුවක් ගන්න බැහැ. 19 වැනි ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයට අනුව පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කැඳවන්න, කල්දාන්න කථානායකවරයා එක්ක, අගමැතිවරයා එක්ක කතා කරලයි කළ යුත්තේ. එදා ව්‍යවස්ථාවට අනුවත් කථානායකවරයා එක්ක කතා කරලයි පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ගැන තීරණ ගන්න ඕනෑ

. 19 වැනි සංශෝධනයේ වගන්ති ගැන නොසලකා තමයි ජනාධිපතිවරයා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සැසිවාරය කල් දැම්මේ. අගමැතිවරයාගෙන් හෝ කථානායකවරයාගෙන් නොවිමසා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කල් තැබීමත් ව්‍යවස්ථා විරෝධියි. මේ නිසා කථානායකවරයාට බලය තියෙනවා ඉදිරි දින කිහිපයේදී පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කැඳවන්න. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව නියෝජනය කරන අපේ මන්ත්‍රිවරු, අනෙකුත් පක්‍ෂවලා මන්ත්‍රිවරු, පක්‍ෂ නායකයෝ දැනුවත් කරල ලිපියක් දීලා තියෙනවා කථානායකට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කැඳවන්න කියලා.

ඒ කියන්නේ කථානායකවරයාට සම්පූර්ණ බලය තියෙනවා කියන එකද?

ඔව්, කථානායකවරයාට සම්පූර්ණ බලය තියෙනවා. මොකද මේක නීතිමය වශයෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කල් තැබීමක් නොවෙයි.

2015 බලයට ආවේ ජනාධිපති සතු විධායක බලය අඩු කරන්න. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට වග කියන්න. නමුත් ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන කළත් ජනතාව බලාපොරොත්තු වූ කාරණා ඉටුවෙලා නැහැ. ඒකට එජාපයත් වගකියන්න ඕනෑ?

අපි සංශෝධන ගෙනත් අවශ්‍ය පසුබිම දැම්මා. 20 වැනි සංශෝධනය ගේන්න හැදුවා. නමුත් ඒකට සහායක් ලැබුණේ නැහැ. ඒ වෙනුවට ලැබුණේ කකුලෙන් ඇදීමක් විතරයි. ජනාධිපතිවරයා බලයට ආවේ ඒකාධිපති ව්‍යවස්ථාව අහෝසි කරනවා, විධායක බලය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම අයින් කරනවා කියා. එතුමා සෝභිත හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ දේහය ඉදිරිපිටත් ඔය කතාව කිව්වා. එහෙම කියපු කෙනෙක් බලය පාවිච්චි කළ විදිය සදාචාර විරෝධියි. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිකමෙන් අයින් කරන්න ඕන නම් ජනාධිපතිතුමාට ව්‍යවස්ථාවට අනුව නීතියට අනුව කරන්න ඕන තරම් ඉඩකඩ තිබුණා. නමුත් කළේ වෙනත් දෙයක්.

ජනාධිපතිවරයා, හිටපු ආරක්‍ෂක ලේකම් සහ හිටපු ජනාධිපති ඝාතන සැලැසුමක් පසුගියදා දැනගන්න ලැබුණා. නාමල් කුමාරගේ ප්‍රකාශ සමඟ පොලිසිය ජනාධිපති ඝාතනයේ තොරතුරු සොයාගෙන තිබුණා. මේ නිසා නේද අගමැති අර්බුද ඇතිවුණේ?

කවුද ඔය නාමල් කුමාර කියන්නේ?

නිර්ධන පන්තියේ ඉන්න නන්නත්තාර වෙච්ච මිනිහෙක්. ලුන්පන්ලා වගේ. මේ කතාව කියන්නේ කවුද පොලිස් ඔත්තුකාරයෙක්. සල්ලිවලට පොලිසියට ඔත්තු දීලා තමන්ගේම මිනිස්සු පාවා දීලා සල්ලි හම්බ කළ මිනිහෙක්. ඔය ගැන හඬපට එකසිය විසිහතරක් තිබෙනවා. නාලක සිල්වා සහ පොලිස් ඔත්තුකරුවා අතර ඒ හඬපට එකසිය විසි හතරෙන් එකසිය විසි තුනක් රස පරීක්‍ෂක විසින් නිවැරැදියි කියා හඳුනාගෙන තියෙනවා. ඒ හඬපට එකසිය විසිහතරම ගත්තත් ඒ එක හඬපටයකවත් ඝාතන සැලසුමක් ගැන කතා කරන්නේ නැහැ. ඒ එක තැනකවත් නාමල් කුමාර කියන කතාව නැහැ.

එක තැනක තියෙනවා අපි අගමැතිතුමාව උස්සලා තියන්න ඕන කියලා. ඒකේ කවුරුත් ඝාතන කිරීමක් ගැන නැහැ. නාලක ද සිල්වාගේ අභිලාෂය වෙලා තිබ්බේ පොලිස්පති වෙන්න. ඒක නිසා ඒ වෙනුවෙන් කියපු දෙයක්. එහෙම නැතිව එම හඬපටවල ඝාතන සැලැස්මක් නැහැ.

නීතිපතිවරයාගෙන් කථානායකවරයා ඊමේල් පණිවුඩයක් යොමුකරලා විමසා තිබුණා අගමැති පත් කිරීම නීත්‍යනුකූලද කියා. එහිදී වැඩබලන නීතිපතිවරයා එවූ ඊමෙල් පණිවුඩයට මහින්ද සමරසිංහ මහතා මාධ්‍ය හමුවේ කියා තිබුණේ වැඩබලන නීතිපතිත් කියා තිබුණේ මේ පත්වීම නීතියට අනුව සිදුවුණා කියායි. මහින්ද සමරසිංහ කියා සිටියේ. එහෙම නම් දැන් විපක්‍ෂයට යන එක නේද කළ යුත්තේ?

නැහැ! ඒ කතාව වැරැදියි. මේ ගැන නීතිපතිවරයා ජනාධිපතිවරයාට කියනවා තීන්දුවක් ගැනීමට පෙර ජනාධිපතිවරයා නීතිපතිවරයාගෙන් විමසා බැලිය යුතුයි කියා. නීතිපති කියන්නේ අපෙන් අහන්නේ නැතිව කරලා ඉවර වෙලා එසේ නීතිය කොහොමද කියලා අහනකොට ඒකට උත්තර දෙන්නේ කොහොමද කියා නීතිපතිවරයා නියම නීතිය පෙන්නුවොත් ඒක ජනාධිපතිවරයාට විරුද්ධව යනවා. එතකොට කොහොමද අපි ඒක පෙන්වන්නේ කියා. ඒ නිසා නීතිපතිවරයා කියනවා 41 වගන්තියට යොමු කරන්න කියා.

41 වගන්තියට අනුව ප්‍රශ්නයට උත්තරේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවන එකද?

ඔව් එහෙම තමා නීතිපතිවරයා පෙන්නා දී තිබෙන්නේ. 41 වගන්තිය හරහා කියන්නේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හරින ක්‍රමයයි. ඒකට ආණ්ඩු ක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ මේ ප්‍රතිපාදනය කියවා බලන්න කියායි නීතිපති දන්වලා එව්වේ. ඒක කියෙව්වාම ඕන අයකුට තේරෙනවා මොකද්ද කියලා. නීතිපති දැන් මේ ප්‍රශ්නයට උත්තරයක් දෙන්නේ නැහැ. දීලා වැඩක් නැති නිසා.

නීතිපති ස්වාධීන නම් ඇත්ත කියන එක නේද වටින්නේ?

ඇත්ත. දැන් නීතිපතිට එහෙම කියන්න බැරි වෙලා. ඔහු රජයේ සේවකයෙක්. නීතිපතිවරයා දෙන තීන්දුව මත යම්හෙයකින් මේ කාරණව උසාවියට ගියොත් ඔහුට වෙන ස්ථාවරයකට යන්න බැහැ. ආණ්ඩුව වැරැද්දක් කළෙත් ඒ වැරැද්ද ආරක්ෂා කිරීමට තමයි ඔහු ඉන්නේ නීතිපතිවරයා විදියට. කථානායකවරයාට හරි තීන්දුවක් නීතිපති දෙන්නේ නැත්තේ ඒකයි. මොකද එම තීන්දුව උසාවියේ දෙන නීති තර්කත් එක්ක ගැටෙන්න පුළුවන්.

පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කල් දීලා ව්‍යවස්ථා විරෝධීව අගමැති පත් කළා නම් ඇයි නීති මාර්ගයට යොමු වෙන්නේ නැත්තේ? උසාවි ගියොත් එජාපය පරදින බයට නේද එහෙම වෙන්නේ. ජනතාව අතර මතය එහෙමයි තියෙන්නේ?

හොඳම නීතිය තියෙන්නේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ. නීතිය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ තියෙන්නේ ව්‍යවස්ථා දායකය සහ අධිකරණ ක්‍රියාමාර්ගයයි දෙකම. ඒ නිසා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තමයි උඩින්ම ඉන්නේ. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තමයි නීති සම්පාදනය කරන්නේ. ඒ නිසා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තමයි මේ නීතිය ගැන කතා කරන්න තියෙන හොඳම තැන. ඒක නිසා තමයි අපි කියන්නේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කැඳවන්න කියලා.

ඔබ හා ජනාධිපතිවරයා අතර ලොකු විශ්වාසයක් තිබ්බා. ඔබෙන් තොරතුරු විමසලා තමයි සමහර තීන්දු ගන්නේ. මේ තීන්දුව ගැන ඔබට කිව්වෙත් නැද්ද?

එතුමා මගෙන් තොරතුරු විමසූ කාල පරිච්ඡේදයක් තිබුණා. ඒ කාලයේදී ජනාධිපතිතුමා ගත් තීන්දු තීරණවලට මුළු ලංකාවේම ජන ප්‍රසාදයක් ලැබුණා. විදේශයේ ජනප්‍රසාදය ලැබුණා. පසුගිය කාලය වන විට ජනාධිපතිවරයා ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ නායකයා විදියට ක්‍රියා කළා. ඔහු ළං කර ගත්තේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ අය. ඒවත් එක්කයි ජනාධිපතිතුමා වැඩ කළේ. මේ නිසා ජනාධිපතිතුමාගේ ප්‍රතිරූපය කඩා වැටුණා. එතැන හිටපු කිසි කෙනකුට යහපාලනය ගැන අවබෝධයක් නැහැ. යහපාලනයට සම්බන්ධ වූ අය එතැන නැහැ. එතැන ඉන්න සමහර දඩ්බර අයගේ මතයට තීන්දු තීරණ ගන්න ගියාම අවසානයේ සිදුවන්නේ මේකයි. එතුමාට ඒ තැන ඉඳගෙන බැහැ මගෙත් එක්ක කතා කරලා තීන්දුවක් ගන්න.

2019 ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකත්වය ගැන ජනාධිපතිවරයා බලාපොරොත්තු වන නිසාද මෙහෙම වුණේ? දේශපාලන කරළියේ ඒ ගැනත් කතා වෙනවා.

එහෙම අවබෝධයක් හරි එවැනි බලාපොරොත්තුවන් හරි තිබුණේ නැහැ. අපි දෙගොල්ලෝ එකතු වෙලා තරග කරනවා නම් හොඳ අපේක්ෂකයෙක් එනවා නම් මම ලෑස්තියි එයාට සහාය දෙන්න කිව්වා. නමුත් ජනාධිපතිවරයාව ශ්‍රී ලනිපයේ අය වැරැදි පාරට ඇදලා ගත්තා. එදා මුළු ලෝකයම මෛත්‍රිට ගරු කළා. ජී-7 රැස්වීමට ජනාධිපතිවරයා සහභාගි වුණා. ජී-7 කියන්නේ ලෝකයේ ඉන්න ප්‍රධානම නායකයෝ රැස්වෙන සමුළුව. මේ නායකයෝ ටික ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ පුටුව ළඟට ඇවිත් කතා කළා.

නමුත් අද මුළු ලෝකයම මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිතුමා ගත්ත තීරණය හෙළා දකිනවා. බි්‍රතාන්‍ය පාර්ලිමේන්තුව පවා කියන්නේ තවමත් අගමැති විදියට පිළිගන්නේ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා කියලයි. එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානය මේ ක්‍රියාමාර්ගය හෙළා දකිනවා. අද වන විට ජනාධිපතිතුමා ගත් තීරණය පිළිගන්න රටක් නැහැ. නව අගමැතිවරයා පිළිගන්න එක රටක් නැහැ. නව කැබිනට් එක පිළිගන්නේ නැහැ. මේ අය බලය ගන්න මේ රටේ බලපරාක්‍රමය පාවිච්චි කළාට ඒක හරියන්නේ නැහැ.

පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කැඳවලා බලය පෙන්නපු පසු අය-වැය ඉදිරිපත් කරලා එය පරාජය කර ආණ්ඩුව විසුරුවා හැරීමට සූදානමක් පවතින බව ආරංචියි. ඒක ඇත්තද?

මේ වෙලාවේ ආණ්ඩුව විසුරුවන එකයි වැදගත්. තීන්දුවකට එන්න බැරි නම් බලෙන් ආණ්ඩු කරන්න දෙන්න බැහැ. ඒ නිසා හැමෝගේම එකඟතාව මත ජන්දයකට යන්නයි ඕන. අද වන විට මුළු එජාප පාක්ෂිකයන්ම එජාපය වටා එක්වෙලා ඉවරයි. ඔවුන් පත්කළ ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඔවුන්ට ද්‍රෝහි වුණා කියලා එජාපය වටා හැමෝම එකතු වෙනවා. මේ නිසා ශ්‍රී ලනිපය තමන්ගේ ඡන්දත් දැන් නැති කරගෙන. එජාප පාක්ෂිකයා කවදාවත් නැතිව එජාපය වටා එක්වෙනවා. මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහත්තයා එජාපයට කළ විශාලම සේවාව තමයි ඔය කළේ.

බහුතරය පෙන්නා අලුත් අගමැති බලය ගත්තොත් එජාපයට විපක්ෂ නායකකමත් නැතිවෙන තැනට පත්වෙනවා කියලා මත ප්‍රකාශ වෙනවා? මොකක්ද ඒ ගැන කියන්නේ?

එයාට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ බහුතරය පෙන්වන්න බැහැ. බහුතරය තිබ්බා නම් මේ අය කලින්ම පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවලා.

රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා බහුතරය පෙන්නුවොත් අගමැති ඔහුද?

අනිවාර්යෙන්ම.

බහුතරය පෙන්නුවත් අගමැතිකම දෙන්නේ නැහැ කියාල විජයදාස රාජපක්ෂ ඇමැතිතුමා කියනවා. එතකොට මොකද වෙන්නේ?

දුන්නේ නැත්නම් ඒක ඒ වෙලාවට බලාගමු. ව්‍යවස්ථාවට පිටින් කාටවත් වැඩ කරන්න බෑනේ. ඔවුන්ට කරන්න පුළුවන් එකම දේ තමයි කරලා තියෙන්නේ. පාර්ලිමේන්තු සැසිවාරය කල් දාලා එතැනින් එහාට කරන්න කිසි දෙයක් නැහැ.

ජාතික ආණ්ඩුවක් හදන්න නැවත කතා කළා සාර්ථක වෙයිද?

ගොඩාක් අය එකඟයි. වැඩේ සාර්ථක කර ගන්න පුළුවන්.

ගොඩක් අය හිටියා නම් ශ්‍රී ලනිපයට වෙනම ආරාධනයක් ඇයි?

ශ්‍රී ලනිපයේ ගොඩක් අය ඉන්නවා එකට වැඩ කරන්න. අපි ඔවුන්ට විවෘත ආරාධනාවක් කළේ ඒකයි.

ජාතික ආණ්ඩු හදලා බලය ගිලිහිලා තවත් ලැජ්ජා නැතිව ජාතික ආණ්ඩු හදන්න කතා කරන්නේ ඇයි?

අපි නෙවෙයි ජාතික ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ඉවත් වුණේ ශ්‍රී ලනිපය. ඉතින් ඒ අයට අපි නැවත විවෘත ආරාධනාවක් කළා. පසුගිය ජාතික ආණ්ඩුවේ වුණු වැරැදි තේරුම් අරගෙන ක්‍රමවේදයකටයි සැලසුමකටයි වැඩ කරන්න ආරාධනා කරන්නේ.

අගමැති හටනේ අන්තිමට මොකක් වෙයිද? කවුද දිනන්නේ කියා බලන්න වෙන්නේ කාටද?

අපි වැඩ කළේ ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් යටතේ. ඒ ව්‍යවස්ථාව අනුවයි අපි සටන ගෙන යන්නේ. ඒ සටන අපි දිනනවා. මේකට ශ්‍රී ලනිපයේ ගොඩක් අය එකතු වෙනවා. අනික් අය සල්ලි දීලා තනතුරු දීලා ගත්තාට ප්‍රශ්නය විසඳෙන්නේ නැහැ. ඒක මුළු ලංකාවම දන්නවා. මේ අය යන්නේ මොකටද කියලා. ඒක නිසා ව්‍යවස්ථා විරෝධීව පත් කළ අගමැති පරාජය කරලා ව්‍යවස්ථාවට අනුව ජනතා කැමැත්ත අනුව පත්වුණු අගමැති ආරක්ෂා කරන්නයි අපි මේ සටන ගෙනියන්නේ. ඒ සටන අපි දිනනවා.

ප්‍රගීත් සම්පත් කරුණාතිලක

සංවාදය – අනුරාධා හේරත්  උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ 113 හදන්න ‘පනින ගෙම්බන් ඇහිඳීම‘ තවම ඉවර නැද්ද?

ජනාධිපතිතුමා ජාතිය අමතමින් රට දරුණු අගාධයක තිබෙන බව ප්‍රකාශ කරලා පක්ෂ පැත්තක තියලා රට හදන්න එකතු වෙන්න කියලා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ඉන්න 225ටම ආරාධනා කළා. බොහෝ රටවල් වගේ නෙවේ අපේ රටේ ඇමැතිවරයෙක් ලෙස පත් කළ හැක්කේ මන්ත්‍රිවරුන් පමණයි.

උදා- ලෙස ඇමෙරිකාවේ නම් ඕනෑම පුරවැසියෙක් ඇමැතිවරයෙක් කරන්න ජනපතිට බලය තියෙනවා. ඒ නිසා මන්ත්‍රිවරුන් 225න් අපි ආණ්ඩුව සකසා ගත යුතුයි. ඒ නිසා අපි විපක්ෂයේ මන්ත්‍රිවරුන්ගේ සහාය ආණ්ඩුවට ලබා ගනිමින් ඉන්නවා. එහි ඇති වරද මොකක්ද?

මහජන නියෝජිතයකුගේ එකඟතාවෙන් බැහැරව මුදලට මන්ත්‍රිවරුන් බිලී බා ගැනීම සාධාරණද?

කිසිසේත්ම නෑ. ඒ චෝදනාව එල්ල වෙන්නේ අපිට නෙමේ. අනෙක් පැත්තටයි. අපි ගාව සල්ලි ඇත්තෙත් නෑ. අපිට උදවු කරන්න එහෙම අයත් නෑ. මහ බැංකුව දෙපාරක් බිඳලා බැඳුම්කර වංචාවක් කළා. දෙපාරක් මේ වංචාවෙන් ප්‍රකෝටි ගණන් මුදල් ඉපැයුවේ එජාපයයි. කොටි සංවිධානයේ සල්ලි යහමින් ලැබෙන්නේ එජාපයටයි. ලෝකයේ ධනවත්ම රටවල්වල, ඇමෙරිකාව සහ යුරෝපය සහාය දෙන්නෙ එජාපෙට. අපිට සහාය දෙන්න කිසිම රටක් ඉන්නවද? නැහැ. අපි එජාපයට කියනවා මේ රටේ ජනතාව පුංචි ඡන්දයේදී 30%කටත් අඩුවෙන් ලබාදී ඔබව ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කළා. ඒ නිසා ජනමතයට ඉඩ දෙන්න. සල්ලිවලින් ජනමතය වහන්න හදන්න එපා.

ඔබලාට බහුතරය තියෙනවා නම් ඇයි පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කල් දැම්මේ?

පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කල් දැම්මේ බහුතරය සම්බන්ධ ප්‍රශ්නයකට නෙවේ. මේ වසරේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු න්‍යාය පත්‍රයේ ඉතිරිව තිබුණේ එකම එක අයිතමයක් පමණයි. ඒ තමයි නව වසරේ අය-වැය. පෙර ආණ්ඩුව සංවිධානය කර තිබුණේ නොවැම්බර් 05දා අය _ වැය ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නත් නොවැම්බර් 08දා සිට දෙසැම්බර් 08දා දක්වා එය විවාදයට ලක්කර 08 වැනිදා එය සභා සම්මත කරගන්නත්. එපමණමයි තිබෙන්නෙ. නමුත් මේ ආණ්ඩුව ජනතාව විසින් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කිරීමට ප්‍රබලම හේතුව මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ ආර්ථික ප්‍රතිපත්තිය. බදු බර, අත්‍යවශ්‍ය භාණ්ඩවල මිල ඉහළ යෑම වගේම ඉන්ධන මිල සූත්‍රය වැනි දේවල් හා ජාතික සම්පත් විදේශීයකරණයට ලක් කිරීම. ඒ නිසා ඒ ආණ්ඩුව ඉදිරිපත් කරන්න ඉන්න අය _ වැයම අපිත් ඉදිරිපත් කරනවා නම් මේ ආණ්ඩු වෙනස අවශ්‍ය වෙන්නෙ නෑ. අපිට ඕනෑ විප්ලවීය අය _ වැයක් ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට. ඊට යම් කාලයක් ගත වෙනවා. ඒ නිසා තමයි දින 20ක් වැනි කෙටි කාලයකට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කල් දැම්මේ. එහි බල අරගලයක හේතුවක් නෑ.

ඉතින් ඔබලාට තිබුණනේ මෙහෙම ලහිලහියෙ ආණ්ඩුව වෙනස් නොකර අය වැයෙන්ම ආණ්ඩුව පරද්දලා දාන්න?

අපි පැහැදිලිවම විශ්වාසභංග යෝජනාවක් අප්‍රේල් මාසයෙ ඉදිරිපත් කළේ ආණ්ඩුව ඒ ආකාරයෙන් පරාජය කරන්න. නමුත් අවාසනාවට රටේ ආර්ථික මරමස්ථාන කුණු කොල්ලයට දෙන්න බලාගෙන සිටින ආණ්ඩුවේ ෆෙඩරල් ව්‍යවස්ථාව බලා සිටින බෙදුම්වාදී බලවේග කෝටි ගණන් වැය කරමින් මන්ත්‍රිවරුන් මිලදී ගනිමින් ඒ ජනතා මතය විකෘති කිරීමට කටයුතු කළා. ඒ නිසා අපිට සිදුවුණා ක්ෂණික රහසිගත පියවරකට රට බේරාගන්න යන්න. වෙන විකල්පයක් තිබුණෙ නෑ. මොකද ඊළඟ මැතිවරණය එනතුරු රනිල් සිටියොත් අපේ රට කෑලි 9ක්. ෆෙඩරල් ව්‍යවස්ථාවත් ජනතාවගේ කනින් රිංගා ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍ර විරෝධීව සම්මත කර තිබේවි. රටේ වටිනා මරමස්ථාන සියල්ල ලෝක බලවතුන්ට විකුණා තිබේවි.

ගංවතුරකටත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කැඳවන්න කියලා කෑමොර දෙන ඔබලා රටේ මෙවැනි ව්‍යාකූල තත්ත්වයකදී පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කල්දැමීම සාධාරණ නැහැ නේද?

පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ඇත්තෙන්ම කැඳවීමට සිටියෙ නොවැම්බර් 05දා. දින 11යි කල්දාලා තියෙන්නෙ. හැබැයි 2018 අප්‍රේල් 12 දින 28කට කල් දැම්මා. හැබැයි ඒකට කවුරුත් හඬ නැඟුවේ නෑ. ඒ වගේම ප්‍රේමදාස ජනාධිපතිතුමා 1991දී මාස 2කට ආසන්න කාලයක් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කල් තැබුවා. ඒ අවස්ථාවෙත් කවුරුවත් ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය අනතුරේ කියලා කිව්වේ නෑ.

ලස්සනම වැඩේ තිබෙන්නෙ ව්‍යවස්ථානුකූලව දින 11ක් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කල් තැබුවම ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදය අනතුරේ කියලා පාරට බහින, කුරුඳුවත්තෙ නෝනලා ඒ වගේම ජාත්‍යන්තර ප්‍රජාව අවුරුදු 3ක් පුංචි ඡන්දෙ කල්දාද්දි මීක් කියලා හඬක් නැඟුවේ නෑ. පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණය වසරකට වඩා වැඩි කාලයක් කල්දාලා. ඒ ජනතාවගේ අයිතිය උදුරා ගත්ත එක ගැන ප්‍රශ්නයක් නොවුණු මේ බලවේග එජාපයට දින 11ක් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කල් දැමීම බරපතළ ප්‍රශ්නයක් කර ගැනීමෙන්ම පේනවා ඔවුන් ආදරේ රටටවත් ජනතාවටවත් ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදයටවත් නෙවේ ඔවුන්ගේ කොල්ලකෑමේ න්‍යාය පත්‍රයට පමණයි.

ඔබගේ කඳවුර ජනපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතාට දේශපාලන වගේම පෞද්ගලික ලෙසත් විවිධ පන්නයේ අවලාද අපහාස එල්ල කළා. දැන් ඔහු යටතේ හිඳීම හිරිකිතයක් දනවන්නෙ නැද්ද?

කිසිසේත්ම නෑ. මං පෞද්ගලිකව කිසිම දවසක එතුමට අපහාස උපහාස එල්ල කරලා නෑ. එතුමාගේ දේශපාලනය අපි විවේචනය කළා. හැබැයි 2014 නොවැම්බර් මාසෙට පෙර අපි එතුමව විවේචනය කළේ නෑ. අහසෙන් වැටෙන දිය බිඳුවක් මල් පෙත්තක් මත පතිත වුණොත් අපි ඒ දිය බිඳුව උරාබොනවා. හැබැයි ඒ දියබිඳුවම අසූචි ගොඩක් මත පතිත වුණොත් අපි පයින්වත් පාගන්නෙ නෑ. ඒ නිසා ප්‍රශ්නෙ තිබුණෙ දිය බිඳුවේ නෙවේ. දිය බිඳුව තිබුණු ස්ථානය. මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මැතිතුමා ගැන අපිට විවේචනයක් තිබුණේ ඔහු සිටි ස්ථානය අනුව.

ඔහු ව්‍යවස්ථාවට ගරු කරලා වැරැදි තැනින් හරි තැනට අද ඇවිත් තියෙනවා. තවදුරටත් ඔහු අපි විවේචනය කළ යුතුද?

නමුත් ජනපති මෛත්‍රිට ඔබ කියන ආකාරයේ අසූචි ගොඩෙන් ඉවත්වීමට වසර 3 1/2ක් ගත වුණා නේද?

ඔව් සමහරුන්ට එය ප්‍රශ්නයක්. මේක මතක තියා ගන්න. අපේ ඓතිහාසික වීරයෙක් වන කැප්පෙටිපොළට ඉංග්‍රීසි අධිරාජ්‍යවාදීන්ගේ පැත්තේ සිට දේශප්‍රේමීන්ගේ පැත්තට එන්න වසර 3ක් ගත වුණා. එහෙම කියලා අපි කැප්පෙටිපොළ වීරයෙක් නෙවෙයි කියලා නොසලකා ඉන්නවද?

ඔබට විශ්වාසද ඔබ පාර්ශ්වයේ බහුතර බලය මේ වනවිට පෙන්විය හැකියි කියලා?

මේ රටේ ජනාධිපතිවරයාට අගමැතිවරයා තමන්ගෙ බහුතර බලය පෙන්වා තිබෙන නිසයි ආණ්ඩු ක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 42 (4) වගන්තිය යටතේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාව අගමැති ධුරයට පත්කර තිබෙන්නේ.

අපේ රටේ බහුතරයේ ප්‍රශ්නයත් හරි විකාරයක්. 2015 අප්‍රේල් 09දා රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මැතිතුමා අගමැති ධුරයෙ දිවුරුම් දෙනවිට සහාය දෙන්න සිටියේ මන්ත්‍රිවරු 46ක් පමණයි. හැබැයි ඔහු අගමැති ධුරයට එක්වුණු විට ඔබට බහුතරය තිබෙනවාද කියා කිසිම මාධ්‍යවේදියෙක් ප්‍රශ්න කළාද?

නෑ. රත්නසිරි වික්‍රමනායක අගමැති ධුරයට පත් වූ විට ඔහුට බහුතරය සිටිනවාද කියා එදා කිසිවෙක් ප්‍රශ්න කළේ නෑ. හැබැයි මේ වනවිටත් 102ක් සිටිනවා යැයි පෙන්වා සිටින මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ අගමැතිතුමාගෙන් බහුතරය විමසනවා. මෙහි වෙනසක් තියෙනවා නේද? ජනපති බහුතරය තිබේ යැයි විශ්වාස කරන පුද්ගලයා අගමැති ධුරයට පත් කළ පසු නැවත ඔහු බහුතර බලය පෙන්වීමේ අවශ්‍යතාවක් මතු වන්නේ නෑ. එහෙම අවශ්‍යතාවක් ලංකාවේ ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ නෑ. වෙන රටවල තිබෙන නමුත් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට බහුතරය නැතැයි විපක්ෂය කල්පනා කරනවා නම් ඔවුන් කළ යුත්තේ එතුමාට එරෙහිව විශ්වාසභංග යෝජනාවක් ගෙන ඒමයි. අද වනතුරු එවැනි යෝජනාවකට අස්සන් තැබීමවත් ආරම්භ කර නැත්තේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාට බහුතරය තිබෙන බව රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා දන්න නිසයි.

පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුව ගත් විනාශකාරි ක්‍රියාවලට ඔබලා දේශද්‍රෝහීන්, පාවාදෙන්නන් බවට ඔවුන් වෙත ප්‍රබල චෝදනා එල්ල කළා. ඒ අය ඔබලා සමඟ එකතු වීමෙන් අර කුණු හේදිලා යන තරම් මොකක්ද වෙන විශ්වකර්මය?

අරාබි කියමනක් තිබෙනවා සිංහයෙක් නායකත්වය දෙන බූරුවන්ගෙ හමුදාවකට බූරුවෙක් නායකත්වය දෙන සිංහයන්ගේ හමුදාවක් පරාජය කළ හැකියි කියලා. වැදගත් වෙන්නෙ සහායකයන්ගේ ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් නොව නායකයාගේ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය. සහායකයන් කරන්නේ නායකයන්ගේ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය අනුගමනය කිරීමයි.

ඒ නිසා තමයි රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මැතිතුමාගේ යුගයේදී විනාශකාරි තැනකට ගිය රට ඒ පිරිසත් සමඟම මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාගේ පාලනයෙන් ගොඩනැඟිය හැකි බව මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මැතිතුමා විශ්වාස කරන්නෙ. මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමා යටතේ සිටිද්දී රාජිත, චම්පික වැනි පුද්ගලයන් දක්ෂ ඇමැතිවරුන් ලෙස විරුදාවලිය ලැබුවා. හැබැයි ඒ ඇමැතිවරුන්ම රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා යටතේ අසාර්ථක ඇමැතිවරුන් බවට පත් වුණා. එයින් පෙනෙන්නේ වඩා වැදගත් වන්නේ පුද්ගලයා නොව නායකයායි.

තවමත් මෙරට නීත්‍යනුකූල අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ බවට බි්‍රතාන්‍ය ඇතුළු රටවල් කිහිපයක්ම දන්වා තිබෙනවා. නමුත් ඔබගේ ජනපති මෛත්‍රිම නේද බි්‍රතාන්‍ය මහරැජන මුණ ගැසුණු විට ඇය ගැන මහත් ආස්වාදයකින් කතා කළෙත්?

මුලින්ම අපේ රටේ අගමැතිවරයා කවුද කියන ප්‍රශ්නයක් තිබෙනවා නම්, එය ව්‍යවස්ථානුකූලද කියන ප්‍රශ්නයක් තිබෙනවා නම් රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා යා යුත්තේ ජාත්‍යන්තර ප්‍රජාව ඉදිරියට නොව ශේ‍ර්ෂ්ඨාධිකරණය ඉදිරියටයි. මෙතෙක් ශේ‍ර්ෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට නොයෑමෙන් ව්‍යවස්ථානුකූල ප්‍රශ්නයක් නොමැති බව රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මැතිතුමා ලොවට තහවුරු කර තිබෙනවා. ඔහු තමන්ට බහුතරය තිබෙනවා යැයි අවංකව හිතනවා නම් කළ යුත්තේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාට එරෙහිව විශ්වාසභංග යෝජනාවක් ගෙන ඒමයි. එයත් මේ දක්වා නොකර සිටීමෙන් තමන්ට බහුතරය නැති බවත් පිළිගෙන තිබෙනවා.

වඩාත් හොඳම විකල්පය ලෙස උත්තරීතරම අධිකරණය වන්නේ ජනතා අධිකරණයයි. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසිරුවා හැර ජනතා අධිකරණයට භාර දෙන්න පුළුවන්. මහින්දයි රනිලුයි කියන දෙන්නගේ අගමැති ධුරයට වඩා සුදුසු කවුදැයි ජනතාවට තීරණය කිරීමට ඉඩ දිය යුතුයි. එය තමයි ප්‍රශස්තම විසඳුම. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මැතිතුමා එයටත් පැකිළෙන්නේ ජනතාව ඔහු ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරන බව අත්දැකීමෙන් දන්න නිසයි. එතුමට සහාය දෙන්න ඉන්නෙ ජාත්‍යන්තර ප්‍රජාව පමණමයි. නමුත් ජාතියේ වාසනාවට ඔය කියන ප්‍රජාවට ලංකාවේ කියන එක ඡන්දයක්වත් නෑ. බි්‍රතාන්‍යයට මේ රටේ ස්වාධිපත්‍ය තිබුණා 1948 පෙබරවාරි 08දා දක්වා. ඔවුන්ට ලංකාවට නිදහස දුන් බව අමතක වෙලා අවාසනාවට තවත් විකාර ප්‍රකාශ නිකුත් කරනවා.

ඔබේ පාර්ශ්වය හැර එජාපය ඇතුළු සියලුම පක්ෂවල ඉල්ලීම පාර්ලිමේන්තුව වහාම කැඳවිය යුතු බව. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාට බහුතරය ගැන විශ්වාසයක් නොමැති නම් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව වහා කැඳවන්න කියලා යෝජනා කරන්නෙ නෑ නේද?

රට ව්‍යාකූල කර රට අස්ථාවර කිරීම පමණමයි එතුමගේ අරමුණ. හරි පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කැඳවූවා කියමුකො. අගමැති ඉවත් වෙලා ඔහුට අගමැති ධුරය ලැබෙනවද? නෑනේ. එතුමා 46ක් එක්ක ගිහිල්ලා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ වාඩි වුණාම එතුමට අගමැතිකම අහිමිවීමේ තර්ජන ආවේ නෑ නේද?

එතුමට බහුතරය තිබෙනවා නම් ඔහු කළ යුත්තේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කැඳවීමට මොරගසනවා වෙනුවට අගමැතිවරයාට එරෙහිව විශ්වාසභංගයක් භාරදීම. අපේ ස්ථාවර නියෝගවලට අනුව අගමැතිවරයාට එරෙහිව විශ්වාසභංග යෝජනාවක් කියන්නේ ආණ්ඩුවට එරෙහි විශ්වාසභංග යෝජනාවක්. ඒ නිසා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවෙ අනෙකුත් කරුණු කාරණා සියල්ල පසෙක තබා ප්‍රමුඛතා පදනමින් මෙම විශ්වාසභංග යෝජනාව විවාද කිරීමට දින නියම කරනවා. දැන් භාර දුන්නොත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව කැඳවන පළමු දිනයේ හෝ දෙවැනි දිනයේම මෙය විවාදයට ගත හැකියි. එය භාර නොදී කරන සටන පුස් වෙඩිල්ලක් විතරයි.

තිබුණ ආණ්ඩුව වට්ටවලා ඔබලා නව ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවනු ලැබුවා. සුබ වෙයිද ඉතින් ජනතාවට..?

ජනතාව එය සුබ බව තීරණය කරලා ඉවරයි. උතුරු කොනේ සිට දකුණු කොන දක්වා මුළු රටම එක හ¾ඩින් රතිඤ්ඤා පත්තු කළේ ඔවුන්ට ලොකු නිදහසක් ලැබුණු බව ලෝකයට කියන්න. ඒ වගේම සාමාන්‍ය එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයට හිතවත්ය කියන ආයෝජක ප්‍රජාව මේ වෙනසින් මහත් පිබිදීමට ලක්වුණා. ඊට හොඳම උදාහරණය තමයි මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා බලයට ආපු පළමු දවසේම ඔක්තෝබර් 29 දා අපේ කොටස් වෙළෙඳපොළ ඒකක 115කින් වැටිලා 2%කින් වර්ධනය වුණා. කොටස් වෙළෙඳපොළ එක දිනයකදී 2%කින් වර්ධනය වෙනවා කියන්නෙ මහා දැවැන්ත ජයග්‍රහණයක්. ඒ නිසා රට ඉදිරියට යන බවට පළමු දිනයේම සුබ නිමිති පෙන්වා හමාරයි.

නමුත් රුපියල කඩා වැටීම ඒ ලෙසම සිදුවෙනවා..?

ඇත්තෙන්ම ඒකට හේතු 2ක් බලපානවා. එක පැත්තකින් රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ කියන රටට ඇති වෙලා තිබ්බ ශාපය තවම අවසන්ද කියන විචිකිච්ඡාව ආයෝජකයන්ගේ සහ ජනතාව තුළ ඇති වී තිබෙනවා. ඒකට හේතු වෙලා තිබෙන්නෙ ඔහු තමන්ට අගමැති ධුරය අහිමි වීම පිළිනොගැනීමයි. ව්‍යවස්ථාව ඉතාම පැහැදිලි වුණත් ඔහු ශේ්‍රෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට යන්නෙත් නෑ. විශ්වාසභංගයක් ගේන්නෙත් නෑ. ජනතා අධිකරණයට යන්නෙත් නෑ. හැබැයි අරලියගහ මන්දිරයෙ අරක් ගෙන ඉන්නවා. ඒකෙන් පෙන්නන්නෙ සාමාන්‍යයෙන් රටේ නිල අගමැතිට අමතරව මමයි අගමැති කියන අය ඉන්නවා. ඒ අය සාමාන්‍යයෙන් ඉන්නෙ මානසික රෝහලේ. මානසික රෝහලෙන් බැහැරවත් එවැනි පුද්ගලයෙක් සිටීමයි මේ ප්‍රශ්නයට මූලික හේතුව.

ඔබ පාර්ශ්වය ඉන්ධන මිල පිළිබඳ පසුගිය කාලය තුළ බරපතළ විවේචන ඉදිරිපත් කළා. ඔන්න දැන් අවස්ථාව තිබෙනවා ඔබේ ආණ්ඩුවට ඔබලා කියූ පරිදි තෙල් රුපියල් 95ට දෙන්න. ලෑස්තිද එයට..?

මේ ආණ්ඩුව ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුව ජනතාවට පොරොන්දුවක් දුන්නා ඉන්ධන මත අය කරන කෝටි 40,000කට අධික බදු ඉවත් කිරීමෙන් ඉන්ධන මිල අඩු කෙරේ කියලා. ජනාධිපතිවරණ ප්‍රතිපත්ති ප්‍රකාශනයේ 10 වන ඡේදයේ මෙය සඳහන් වුණා? ඒ අනුව තමයි අපි ආණ්ඩුවට කිව්වේ දුන් පොරොන්දු ඉටු කළොත් රුපියල් 95ට ඉන්ධන දෙන්න පුළුවන් කියලා. අපිටත් කියන්න තිබුණනේ ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී ඉන්ධන මත තිබෙන සියලු බදු ඉවත් කෙරේ කියලා. අපි එහෙම එකක් කිව්වේ නෑ.

අපි මිල සූත්‍රය ඉවත් කරනවා. අපි ඉන්ධන මිල ස්ථාවර කරනවා. එතකොට ඉන්ධන මිල ඕනෑවට වඩා ඉහළ යද්දි පාඩුව දරාගෙන අපි ස්ථාවර මිලකට ඉන්ධන ලබාදෙනවා. ඒ වගේම ඉන්ධන මිල පහත යනකොට අර කලින් දැරූ පාඩුව කපාගෙන ස්ථාවර මිල පවත්වාගෙන යමින් පාඩුව කපා ගත් පසුවයි මිල අඩු කිරීම සිද්ධ කරන්නෙ. ඒක තමයි අපි එදත් කළ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය. අදත් ඒ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය ඒ ආකාරයෙන්ම ක්‍රියාත්මක කරනවා. අපි ආණ්ඩුවට බල කළේ දුන් පොරොන්දු ඉටු කරනු කියලා. මොකද ඉන්ධන සතු සියලු බදු අඩු කෙරේ කියලා කිව්වේ ගරු පා.ච. රණවක ඇමැතිතුමා මිස අපි නෙමේ.

පොලිස්පතිවරයා සම්බන්ධව ඔබලාට ප්‍රබල විවේචනයක් තිබුණා. ඔබලාට අනුව නීතිය නවන තනතුරට සුදුසු නොවන පොලිස්පතිවරයා ධුරයෙන් ඉවත් කරන්න සූදානම්ද?

පොලිස්පතිවරයා ඉවත් කිරීම පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ කටයුත්තක්. 2001 අංක 5 දරන නිලධාරීන් ඉවත් කිරීමේ කාර්ය පටිපාටිය යටතේ ඔහු ඉවත් කිරීමේ බලය තියෙන්නෙ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට පමණයි. තවම පාර්ලිමේන්තුව රැස්වෙලා නෑ. ඒ වගේම මේ ආණ්ඩුව තවම බලයට පැමිණියා විතරයි. විස¼දාගත යුතු ප්‍රශ්න ගණනාවක් තියෙනවා. ප්‍රතිපත්තිමය තීන්දු ගණනාවක් තියෙනවා. මේ සියල්ල කිරීමට පෙර අපි ඇමැති මණ්ඩලයක් පත් කරලා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව රැස්වෙලා අය-වැය ඉදිරිපත් කරලා ආණ්ඩුව අත්‍යවශ්‍යයෙන් කළ යුතු කාරණා ටික කරලා අවසන් කළ යුතුයි.

නමුත් මා මෙය ඔබෙන් විමසුවේ පසුගිය කාලය තුළ රටේ නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට සිටින ප්‍රධානියාගේ ක්‍රියාකලාපය සමස්ත ජනතාවගේම පවා විවේචනයට බඳුන් වූ නිසයි?

ඔව්. ඒකයි මා කිව්වේ ඒක පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ යෝජනාව අනුව තීරණය වේවි. පොලිස්පතිතුමා ඉවත් නොකළොත් පොලිස්පතිවරයාගෙන් අයුතු දේ නොගන්නා තරමට කටයුතු කළ යුතුයි. මා මේ කියන්නෙ ඔහු තියා ගතයුතුයි කියලා නෙමේ. නමුත් මේ මොහොතේ ප්‍රමුඛතම කාරණය එය නොවේ. අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලය පත්කරලා අය-වැය ඉදිරිපත් කරලා සිටිය යුතුයි. අය-වැය ඉදිරිපත් නොකළොත් ලබන ජනවාරි සිට රාජ්‍ය සේවකයාගේ වැටුප ගෙවන්න වෙන්නෙ නෑ. රජයේ කාර්යාලයක් පවතින්න බෑ. ඒ නිසා අත්‍යවශ්‍ය කාරණා ටික ඉවර කරලා ඊළගට අපේ ප්‍රමුඛතා ලැයිස්තුවට එනවා.

ඔබලාට අනුව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ හානි පූර්ණ පනතින් හිටපු එල්.ටී.ටී.ඊ. සාමාජිකයන්ට වන්දි ගෙවන බවට පැහැදිලි විවේචනයක් ඉදිරිපත් කළා. එම පනතට ඡන්දය දුන් අයත් අද ඔබලා සමඟ? දැන් මොකද කියන්න තියෙන්නේ?

වැදගත් වන්නේ නායකයා. වැදගත් වන්නේ ප්‍රතිපත්තියයි. ඔබ බෝධිසත්වයන් වහන්සේ ගන්න. වසර කීයක් අත්තකිලමතානු යෝගයේ යෙදුණද? දැන් උන්වහන්සේම එය අත්හැරලා මධ්‍යම ප්‍රතිපදාවට එකතු වීම වරදක්ද? මිය යන තුරුම අත්තකිලමතානු යෝගයේ සිටිය යුතුද? ඒ වගේ ජනපතිත් විවෘත ආරාධනාවක් කළේ ඕනෑම කෙනකුට අපේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති පිළිඅරගෙන අපිත් එක්ක එකතු වෙන්න පුළුවන් කියලා. අපිත් එක්ක එකතු වෙන්න අපේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති සමඟ කටයුතු කරන්න මිස ඔවුන්ගේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති අපේ මත බලෙන් පටවන්න නෙවෙයි.

මෙම හානිපූර්ණ පනත අහෝසි කිරීමේ බලාපොරොත්තුවක් තිබෙනවාද?

විශේෂයෙන්ම අපි තවම ආණ්ඩුව ස්ථාවර කර ගැනීමේ කටයුත්තේ යෙදිලා ඉන්නේ. ඒ නිසා ප්‍රතිපත්තිමය කාරණා කිසිවක් මේ වන විට කතා කර නැහැ. නමුත් අපේ ස්ථාවරය තමයි රටට හානිකර බවට අපි පෙන්වා දුන් සියලුම පනත් අකර්මණ්‍ය කරන්න. එහි බලපෑම අවම කරන්න අපි අනිවාර්යෙන්ම කටයුතු කරනවා.

එහෙනම් ඊට අනිවාර්යෙන්ම සිංගප්පූරු ගිවිසුමත් ඇතුළත් ඇති?

මතක තබා ගන්න ගිවිසුම් ගැන අපෙන් බොහෝ දෙනෙක් අහනවා. හම්බන්තොට වරාය ගිවිසුමට මොකද කරන්නේ? සිංගප්පූරු ගිවිසුමට මොකද කරන්නේ? මේවා ද්වි පාර්ශ්වික ගිවිසුම්. ඒවාට ඇතුළු වෙන්න තරම් ලේසි නෑ ඉවත් වෙන්න. ඇතුළු වෙන්නෙ දෙපාර්ශ්වයේම කරුණුවලට එකඟ වී. ඒ අනුව ඒ කරුණු වෙනස් කරන්නත් දෙපාර්ශ්වයම එකතු විය යුතුයි. අපි අනිවාර්යෙන්ම මේවා පිළිබඳ නැවත අදාළ පාර්ශ්ව සමඟ සාකච්ඡා කරමින් රටට අහිතකර කොන්දේසි වෙනස් කරන්න කටයුතු කරනවා.

ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී පොදු අපේක්ෂකයා ලෙස මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට එකඟතාවක් තිබෙන බව කියනවා?

කිසිසේත්ම එවැනි එකඟතාවක් නෑ. එතුමත් එක්ක එකඟතාව තිබෙන්නේ වැටුණ වළෙන් රට ගොඩගැනීමට පමණයි. ජනාධිපතිවරණය පැමිණි විට ඒ අවස්ථාවේ අප අතර සිටින අයගෙන් ජනාධිපතිවරණය ජයග්‍රහණය කිරීමට වඩාත් ඉදිරියෙන් සිටින පුද්ගලයා ජනපති අපේක්ෂක ලෙස ඉදිරිපත් කරනවා.

ඔබ ඉදිරිපත් කළ ඔබේ පොදු අපේක්ෂකයා වූ ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතා මේ පෙරළියත් සමඟ යට ගියාද?

ගෝඨාභය මැතිතුමා ජනපති අපේක්ෂකයා ලෙස ඉදිරිපත් වුණේ නෑ. මම ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ නම යෝජනා කරද්දී වාසුදේව මන්ත්‍රිවරයා, චමල් රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාගේ නම ඉදිරිපත් කළා. විමලවීර දිසානායක මන්ත්‍රිතුමා බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාගෙ නම ඉදිරිපත් කළා.

වෙල්ගම මන්ත්‍රිතුමා තමන්ගේ නම යෝජනා කර ගත්තා. තවත් අය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මන්ත්‍රිතුමාගේ නම කිව්වා. මේ ආකාරයට නම් කිහිපයක් ඉදිරිපත් වුණා.

අවසන් තීරණයක් නෑ. ඒ නම් ගොඩට මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මැතිතුමාගේ නමත් දාන්න පුළුවන්. ලබන නොවැම්බර් මැතිවරණය කැඳවන්න නියමිතයි. ඔක්තෝබර් නාම යෝජනා කැඳවීමට නියමිතයි. එවිට මේ නම් පසෙකට ගොස් වෙන නමක් එන්නත් පුළුවන්. මෙතන කෙනෙක් වෙන්නත් පුළුවන්.

පසුගියදා වූ පෙරළිය ඇති කිරීමට මමයි වැඩි දායකත්වයක් දැරුවේ. මමයි වැඩි දායකත්වයක් දැරුවේ කියලා ඔබ හා වීරවංශ මන්ත්‍රිවරයා අතරේ යම් ගැටුමක් තිබෙනවද?

එහෙම කිසිම ගැටුමක් නෑ. විමල් වීරවංශ මන්ත්‍රිතුමා මගේ දේශපාලනයේ ඉන්න සමීපතම මිතුරෙක්. අපි අතරෙ ගැටුම් ඇත්තෙත් නෑ. අනිත් අයට කේළම් කියලා ගැටුම් ඇති කරන්න බැරි තරම් දැඩි අනේ‍යාන්‍ය බැඳීමක් විශ්වාසයක් අපි අතර තියෙනවා. එහෙම ගැටුමක්, සැලසුමක් හදන්න හිතනවා නම් ඒක හීනයක් විතරයි.

නව පාලනයෙන් ඔබලා ජනතාවට දෙන සහන එහෙම නැත්නම් සුබවාදී බලාපොරොත්තු මොනවාද?

දැන්ම ආර්ථිකයේ නැඟීිමක් පෙන්නුම් කරනවා. නව අණ්ඩුව බලයට පත්වූ ගමන්ම මිල සූත්‍රය අහෝසි වී තිබෙනවා. උපායමාර්ග වශයෙන් වැදගත් දේශීය සම්පතක් විදේශිකයන්ට විකුණන්න දෙන්නේ නෑ කියලා අපි සහතික කරනවා. ඒ වගේම ෆෙඩරල් ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ මළගම දැන් සූදානම් කරගත යුතුයි කියලා සුමන්තිරන්, සුරේන්, ජයම්පති තුන්බෑයන්ට අපි දැනුම් දෙනවා. ඉදිරි ජයග්‍රහණ ජනපති පාර්ලිමේන්තුව අමතා කරන කතාවෙන් දැනගත හැකියි.

සංවාදය – අනුරාධා හේරත්

KAMALIKA PIERIS

 Pub 3.11.18 Revised  7.11.18, 16.11.18

This essay looks at certain matters which emerged in the appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister in October 2018. There is far too much emphasis at the moment on the legal issues relating to this matter and none at all on the politics which are at the bottom of it all. The Parliament of Sri Lanka is primarily a political institution, and there are certain political imperatives that rank way above the procedures for appointing the Prime Minister.  Let us look at some of these imperatives.

The primary requirement in a democracy (sic) is to give effect to the ‘will of the people’.  (For those who know political theory, this is not Rousseau, this is me) This ‘general will’ or ‘will of the people’ as regards the government it wants is demonstrated in three ways in Sri Lanka. Firstly in elections, which Sri Lankans love, secondly, in public assemblies and utterances. Thirdly, by strategic   hoots and jeers indicating political disgust.

There is also a new development in the general will, worldwide. Voters at national elections now want an opportunity to change things if they got it wrong the first time. They say they were mislead by wrong information and want to undo the damage. We see this in the request for a second Brexist vote in UK.  We also see it in Sri Lanka in the reaction to the   defeat of Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2015.

When the Presidential election results were announced, there was disbelief.  When they saw the voting pattern, voters realized that they had been taken for a ride. ‘Meka keruve api ne’ they said and decided to try and reverse the decision. The Sri Lanka      electorate is politically very mature,  very savvy   and alert. It is also highly literate. It was used to having its own way at elections.

The very next day, the public ran, in droves, to Rajapaksa at his home in Medamulana. They discovered that they loved him. Throughout the past four years, they kept up the momentum. Crowds pursued him everywhere he went.  The crowds at his functions were greater than those for Sirisena or Ranil Wickremasinghe .

Rajapaksa’s May Day rallies were  bursting, the Pada Yathra and Janabalaya Kolambata  had much support. The decisive event was the  public voting in huge numbers for Rajapaksa‘s new, untested Pohottuwa party at the local government election of February 2018.  By all this, the public had made it abundantly clear that they wanted Mahinda Rajapaksa back and they wanted Ranil Wickremasinghe out.

The public in the hinterland of the country were well aware of the doings of the Yahapalana government. Are people in the villages actually aware of the Central Bank bond scam and other such deals,’ asked the Colombo elite. After recent visits to the Uva, Central and Eastern provinces, the answer to that query is in the positive, said an analyst.  Smart phones are in use not only in urban areas but also in the rural areas. Users of these mobile phones know what is going on the centers of power.   Claims that complex issues, like the bond scam did not reach the countryside were incorrect.

To their delight, and initial disbelief, Mahinda Rajapaksa was suddenly made Prime Minister. This was no accident. Discussions had started after the Pohottu win of February 2018,  reported Chandraprema. The 16 dissident SLFPers had maintained constant contact with President Sirisena and continued their efforts to bring the two estranged factions of the SLFP together again. The high point in this was Basil Rajapaksa’s secret meeting with President Sirisena. The mere fact that there was a meeting between the two was the first indication that something very serious was afoot, said Chandraprema. Also the repeated announcement on televisions, ‘we want Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister ‘

The precipitating factor , according to President Sirisena was the threat of assassination. No one was surprised to hear this. It was perfectly obvious to  us all, that if the USA wanted to  achieve its objectives through Yahapalana, then  USA would have to kill. In his address to the nation, President Sirisena  said,  ‘I would now like to explain  the reason that made me appoint former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister and remove Ranil Wickremesinghe from the post of Prime Minister. Recently, a person called Namal Kumara came before the media and disclosed about a plot to assassinate me and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. There is also an involvement of a Cabinet Minister in this plot to assassinate me.’

Nalaka Kumara  went public. He held a press briefing at his home in Ampara on 28.10.18.  Daily News reported.‘ In a special media conference Nalaka Kumara alleged that former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and former Minister Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka are behind giving instructions to the assassination plot against President Sirisena and former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. According to Kumara, DIG Nalaka Silva received instructions from Wickremesinghe and Fonseka to use Makandure Madush in the assassination plot. He does not have evidence”, [on the matter] said Kumara, he is simply revealing what he knows.( Daily News 29.10.18).  I saw this on Derana evening news as well.

When Mahinda Rajapaksa became Prime Minister , there was jubilation. There were  dan salas with kiribath.   Trishaws carried pictures of Rajapaksa. There was also an ashirvada puja in a temple.   Copies of the Gazette announcing Mahinda Rajapaksa ‘s  appointment were distributed free.  Crackers   were lit in towns. Crackers had been lit when  Premadasa was killed, when Kilinocchi fell, when Prabhakaran was killed and now  when Ranil Wickremasinghe was removed..

At the same time, the public also showed their deep dislike of the Yahapalana government and its leader Ranil Wickremasinghe. The UNP ministers held a press conference at Temple Trees and when it was relayed live on Face book, all the comments made were hearty curses against the Yahapalana government and expressions of jubilation at their ouster, said Chandraprema.

When  Mangala Samaraweera, Rajitha Senaratne and his son Chatura went to the Rupavahini Corporation to give a live broadcast to protest against their ouster, they were prevented from doing so by the staff of Rupavahini . TV news showed this at length because it was not  the usual reaction. They were chased away amidst loudly uttered curses, jeers and obscenities, said Chandraprema. They hooted and jeered and chased after the departing cars for quite a length. This  alone shows the extent of their  dislike. I cannot recall such anger towards a government before.

Yahapalanites  were shocked and  furious over the removal of Ranil Wickremasinghe. They challenged it immediately on the basis of numbers. They said it was Ranil Wickremasinghe who had the majority in Parliament, not Mahinda Rajapaksa . They wanted Parliament  to meet immediately, to decide if Ranil Wickremesinghe or Mahinda Rajapaksa commands a majority in the House.  But there is nothing in the Constitution about majority.

Critics  pointed out that when Ranil Wickremasinghe became Prime Minister in 2015,  UNP only had 41 seats, SLFP had 161.  At the time Ranil Wickremasinghe was appointed Prime Minister, there was a sitting Prime Minister, DMU Jayaratne. Yahapalanites were told  if the appointment was not lawful,  why did not Ranil Wickremasinghe go to Supreme Court and challenge the appointment. Some  wanted Ranil Wickremasinghe expelled from the country.

An entertaining discussion about the validity of the new Prime Ministerial appointment started thereafter.  Thanks to the 19th amendment to the Constitution, the only person who can remove the Prime Minister is the Prime Minister himself, either by dying, resigning or losing support. This  amendment was brought in May 2015, after Ranil Wickremasinghe was made Prime Minister . It was  done to make sure Ranil Wickremasinghe stayed in power. The President cannot remove him, said Yahapalana supporters triumphantly. ’Oh yes, he can’ replied the Rajapaksa team and rattled off the relevant clauses.

They pointed out, inter alia, that   certainly, both the Sinhala and English versions say at 46/2 that The Prime Minister shall continue to hold office until he either resigns, or ceases to be an MP. That was Yahapalana‘s argument.   But  section 47/2 says something   different.  Notwithstanding the death, removal from office or resignation of the Prime Minister”  said the English text. Agamethi  miya giye vuvada, durayen evat karanu labu veda, asvuye vu vada said the Sinhala text.  At 48/1 the Sinhala text repeats this statement in a different tense, ‘ Durayen ivat karanu labeemen’  and that,  said the Mahinda Rajapaksa team clinches the issue.

The Mahinda Rajapaksa team stated that it is the Sinhala version which is legal. This cannot be contested. It has been long accepted that where texts differ, the Sinhala text takes precedence.  G.L. Pieris  added ‘I was a member of Parliament when the 19th Amendment was discussed and enacted by Parliament. It was the Sinhala version which was put to the House, clause by clause, during the Committee Stage. The English version did not receive the attention of Parliament at all.

Yahapalanites   refused to stay silent.”If a Sinhala translation of the Constitution has a reference to “removal”, that word cannot be used to undermine the specific provisions on termination of the term of office of a PM, and argue for an open ended, discretionary, and different concept of Presidential “removal”, said one critic.  It is hard to understand how a single word incorporated into the Sinhala copy of the Constitution (perhaps by a single legal draftsman struggling with translating a legal document using two languages) can give legitimacy to actions taken by the President  Sirisena last week when they are contrary to specific provisions in the Constitution.

It is very clear that President Sirisena, in his appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister, replacing former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, has acted constitutionally and practically, said Dr. Jayatissa de Costa. The country is still governed by the 1978 Constitution and it is Presidential rule. The Constitution says, ‘the President shall appoint as Prime Minister, a member of Parliament who, in his opinion, is most likely to command the confidence of parliament. ‘Therefore, I think this decision taken by the President is in accordance with the Constitution.”  A similar incident happened in Pakistan in the case Asma Jilani Vs the Govt. of the Punjab over the awarding of military degrees. The judges of the Supreme Court had to decide and they used the doctrine of necessity.

Pointing to the recent Local Government elections, de Costa  said,  Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna had swept the boards across the country and they clearly won the election.Hence, the SLFP and the SLPP together would far exceed over 50% even at a General election. This combination is adequate,” he said, adding that it is clear that the President had exercised his powers in this instance in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and in a practical sense.

In addition, all the Governors of the nine provinces have also accepted the new government under Sirisena and Rajapaksa.. Hence, the above doctrines are applicable here,” Costa blamed the 19th Amendment to the Constitution for the current predicament. What was promulgated as the 19th Amendment is a recipe for disaster,” he said,  however, the country must run.

Mahinda Rajapaksa was recognized as Prime Minister  by no less a country than China. The ambassador for China met Ranil Wickremasinghe and Mahinda Rajapaksa and thereafter recognized Mahinda Rajapaksa  as Prime Minister and conveyed to him the  greetings of the  President of China. He posed for a photo with Mahinda Rajapaksa . The nine Governors of Provinces also stated that they unanimously supported Mahinda Rajapaksa. K.C.Loganathan, Governor Western Province,   the  spokesman said that [with Yahapalana]  they   could not carry out any work in the Province due to interference from Colombo.

There are two opposite reactions to the return of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Ven. Keppetiyagoda Siriwimala Nayake Thera of Rajopawanaramaya Peradeniya and members of the Sri Lanka Ramanna Nikaya issued s statement  where he hailed the action taken by President Sirisena at a time of political crisis in the country.

The Yahapalana administration led by former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was responsible for the political chaos in the country during the past three and a half years he said. former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his capacity as the New Prime Minister would be competent to restore the country to normalcy after resolving the many issues created by his predecessor. The entire Sri Lankan nation had  confidence that Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, with his far-sighted patriotism and courage,   would efficiently resolve the many burning issues created by the Wickremasinghe regime during the past years.

The National Christian Council of Sri Lanka (NCCSL) said in its statement: It is with a sense of shock and dismay we received the announcement on the evening of Friday 26 October 2018 of the swearing-in of Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister of our country by President  Sirisena, and the removal of the serving Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe from such office.

The NCCSL takes serious note of this political development and considers this unprecedented move which is questionable in terms of the accepted norms of democratic principles and the provisions in our Constitution. It is our belief that the matter should have been best resolved in Parliament in a transparent manner with adherence to stipulated and clear procedures. The turn of events shrouded in secrecy and surprise, we regret, has raised many questions in the minds of our people instilling fear and uncertainty as we witness two competing Prime Ministers together with their respective parties jostling for power, authority and legitimacy for state rule.

The NCCSL statement has been signed by Rev. Heshan de Silva, Chairperson of the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka, and President, Sri Lanka Baptist Sangamaya Rt. Rev. D.R. Canagasabey, Bishop of Colombo, Church of Ceylon, Diocese of Colombo, Rev. Saman Perera, President, Presbytery of Lanka, Rt. Rev. Dr. Daniel S. Thiagarajah, Bishop of Jaffna Diocese, Church of South India, Rev. Asiri P. Perera, President/Bishop, Methodist Church of Sri Lanka, Rt. Rev. Keerthisiri Fernando, Bishop of the Church of Ceylon, Diocese of Kurunegala, Rev. Shirley Faber, President, Christian Reformed Church, Colonel Yousaf Masiah, Territorial Commander, The Salvation Army, Rev. G. Nadarajah, President, Lanka Lutheran Church, Rev. Michael Dissanayake, General Superintendent and Chairman, Assemblies of God of Ceylon, Rev. Leslie Keegal, President, Church of the Four Square Gospel Church in Sri Lanka, Rev. T. Thevanesan, President, Church of the American Ceylon Mission and Rev. W.P. Ebenezer Joseph, General Secretary, National Christian Council of Sri Lanka. The NCCSL also represents Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), Student Christian Movement (SCM), The Ceylon Bible Society Christian Literature Society, Theological College of Lanka. Back to the Bible Broadcast, Colombo Theological Seminary and Youth for Christ.

The world reaction to the appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister is significant and should act as a wakeup call  for the public .The UN acted correctly. Its representative  met the President who  responded.

The Delegation of the European Union said in a statement issued in agreement with the EU Heads of Mission resident in Colombo  that  the Ambassador of the European Union as well as the Ambassadors of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania and UK  are closely following the events as they are unfolding in Sri Lanka. UK parliament  said  that  they recognize Ranil Wickremasinghe as Prime Minister.

Canada issued a  separate statement. “Canada is very concerned by the recent events in Sri Lanka and is closely monitoring the situation.” A number of countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and several other European countries, Australia and India have  expressed concern over the sudden transition of power by President sacking Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointing former president Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister, concluded Canada.

USA  which was so brash and confident in 2015,  has turned cautious. The acting US Ambassador  together with the  Head of the Political Division in the embassy had met  with Speaker. They     said they were surprised at the developments and they were watching. In Washington, the spokesman for the Secretary of State was evasive when   asked whether USA would take action on the coup. The spokesman replied that the United States believes the determination should be made in accordance with the Sri Lankan law and due process.

Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway  advised, “Sri Lanka is facing an unprecedented constitutional crisis which must be urgently resolved by peaceful and legal means. The country cannot afford reckless political maneuvers advised. Lakhdar Brahimi, former Foreign Minister of Algeria, said:”In all its years of conflict and anguish, Sri Lanka has never experienced such a serious constitutional crisis. The country’s leaders must abide by its traditions of constitutional law and parliamentary democracy.

This  transfer of power is a good opportunity for the watching public to see how the western media and western agencies distort local events and also  how local events are stage managed  for the purpose. The UNP show of strength  is a good example. This  smallish gathering  included NGOs and civil society members as well. That explains why the crowd looked  unconcerned and indifferent.  Some were dancing the baila. A true UNP gathering would have been very different. They would have wanted to tell Ranil Wickremasinghe a few things.

BBC  showed a shot of the crowd, referred to it as a massive meeting , said that Temple Tress was the true seat of power in Colombo  and asked for comment from their reporter in Colombo. The reporter told the truth. She said that the public disliked Ranil Wickremasinghe , the gathering    shown on  video was mostly ‘civil society’ and that the Sinhala version of the Constitution  supported the transfer of power. But Reporters without Borders (RSF) said  ‘Tens of thousands of Wickremesinghe supporters blocked roads in Colombo on Tuesday’.

Reporters without Borders” (RSF)  also said supporters of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa stormed state-owned media institutions shortly after he was controversially named Prime Minister on Friday. “The violence with which Mahinda Rajapaksa’s bully boys took over the state media is absolutely unacceptable,” RSF  said

Minutes after Rajapaksa was sworn in, his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party activists invaded the newsrooms of various state media. RSF said the SLPP activists forced journalists at the Daily News and the Lake House group’s two leading weeklies, Silumina and Sunday Observer, to change the front pages of their next issues. They took control of the two public service TV channels, Rupavahini and ITN, the radio stations that are part of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, and the Lake House press group.RSF said the constitutional crisis recalled the “darkest hours of the Rajapaksa presidency between 2005 and 2015,” when he lost an election to current president Maithripala Sirisena, said RSF.

From simple distortion we move on to more serious  observations, containing veiled threats. .My  example is from Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch issued a statement, where it said, inter alia, ”Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision on October 26, 2018, to appoint former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister has raised fears about a return to past abusive practices in the country The sudden announcement to sack Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, was made without informing Parliament or the Cabinet.

“Rajapaksa’s return to high office without any justice for past crimes raises chilling concerns for human rights in Sri Lanka,”  continued Human Rights Watch. The current government’s failure to bring justice to victims of war crimes under the Rajapaksa government reopens the door for past abusers to return to their terrible practices.”

Rajapaksa’s administration was implicated in violations during the final stages of Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war and in suppression of freedoms of the media, expression, and association.  Military forces under Rajapaksa’s authority indiscriminately attacked civilians and summarily executed prisoners during the final months of fighting against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), continued Human Rights Watch.

People with suspected links to the LTTE were subject to arbitrary arrest, torture and sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances. Journalists and activists critical of the Rajapaksa government faced harassment, arrest, and even physical attack. The media outlets, rights organizations, and victims’ groups who had been vocal and free from government threats now fear a return to anxiety and fear, concluded Human Rights Watch.”

The Yahapalana reliance on foreign countries was made clear when Ranil Wickremasinghe invited the ambassadors of EU, USA, India, Japan, Australia and Canada for a discussion at Temple Trees after he was deposed as Prime Minister. He has wanted to internationalize the issue.

Thereafter he wrote to the ambassadors of USA, UK, Germany France, Norway and Italy, on the letter head of the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, saying that he sought their cooperation to protect Sri Lanka and its peace. He said, please consider the possibility of deploying UN Peacekeeping Force here, and let me know.

It is of note that instead of seeking the support of his own people when removed as Premier, Ranil Wickremasinghe turned to his mostly Western friends and allies, said Tamara Kunanayagam. The intention was to agree on a narrative that helps legitimize external intervention, she said. A photo of this letter is available on Lankaweb (https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2018/10/31/call-for-ranil-to-be-indicted-for-high-treason)

Ambassadors of EU, UK, Canada, and Germany   had warned the Speaker of inimical outcome of the unexpected transfer of political power’ and the unfriendly situation the country could face. There was also a comment that the crisis could lead to a “bloodbath” on the streets if   Parliament does not hold a vote soon.  The Speaker’s Office said that Jayasuriya urged the delegation not to take action against Sri Lanka.

Foreign intervention can be carried out in several ways. One possibility is the Right to Protect Strategy (R2P) which gives countries the right to invade other countries saying the people in it need to be protected.  R2P” is definitely the line which interested western countries will try to use to invade Sri Lanka and therefore, Sri Lanka should   be alert about R2P. Tamara Kunanayagam has repeatedly drawn attention to this danger. , Damien Kingsbury has written on Sri Lanka and the Responsibility to Protect”.

Sri Lanka tumbled into the R2P scenario in 2008. In 2008, there was an attempt to make the International Centre for Ethnic Studies in Colombo into the Southern affiliated centre of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. ICES was listed as such on the website of the Global Centre. Rama Mani, the ICES director responsible for this activity had her visa revoked and was asked to leave the country.  Rama Mani and Radhika Coomaraswamy were on Advisory Board of the Global Centre.

Before that, Gareth Evans, the head of Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, was invited to deliver the Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Lecture 2007. In his talk he said that mismanagement of the Eelam issue could lead to international intervention. There were murmurs but since this was almost a private function, nothing transpired.

In 2000 an International Commission on Intervention and State sovereignty (ICSS) was created in Canada, with funding from the government of Canada. Its head was Gareth Evans, also head of the International Crisis Group. ICISS was convened, to provide information to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, on the subject of  intervention .

ICISS issued a report titled ‘Responsibility to Protect’  in 2001.This put forward the idea that  when any group  faced a crisis in a sovereign state,  the international community   could respond by, inter alia,  coercive actions and military intervention,  and  bring ‘security and justice’ to the victim population. This was an attempt to set a new set of rules that might allow intervention in sovereign matters.

R2P argued that when the sovereign state was unable or unwilling to protect its people from internal war or repression the principle of non-intervention in the affair of sovereign states must give way to the international responsibility to protect. R2P wanted to bypass Security Council permission to invade. This was rejected. Security Council authorization remained.

Countries feared that R2P would be used to legitimize military actions intended to advance imperial ambitions, rather than human protection. R2P is just another pretext to justify neo colonial intervention in the domestic affairs of developing nations, said Ajit Randeniya. R2P has still not been formally accepted, observed G.L.Pieris.

R2P has not been accepted by the UN though supporters of R2P say so. At the UN World Summit, 2005 R2P was reluctantly included into the statement, and given minimum mention in items 138 and 139.This is not the victory it is made out to be. UN appointed a Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect in 2009.  This Special Adviser is responsible for the further development and refinement of the concept as well as for the continuation of dialogue with Member States.

R2P was debated in UN General Assembly in 2009 with 94 member states voicing concerns and the resulting resolution only records that it had taken note of R2P.  In 2018, UN General Assembly include R2P, with prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity” as part of the Agenda of its 72nd session. Delegates have talked and talked but nothing seems to have been decided. It is most unlikely that UN member states will allow blanket R2P,  but it is best to be watchful.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka has  been invoked in the appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister.  The present  Constitution is the old 1978 Constitution with 19 amendments added on. The original  1978 Constitution  converted  Sri Lanka abruptly from  traditional Parliamentary rule to extreme Presidential rule. It was specifically   designed to  give excessive powers to the then President, J.R.Jayewardene, who was  pro USA. These powers   were hidden in the body of the text.

I had looked at the original 1978 Constitution but not its numerous amendments. The present ‘crisis’   sent me to the 2015 version of the Constitution of Sri Lanka. This Constitution  contains howlers.  The Legislative function of Parliament usually takes precedence over the Executive and the Judiciary. But in the Constitution of Sri Lanka, the Legislature   appears at Chapter X, behind Executive, Cabinet, Constitutional Council and Public Service Commission. In Chapter XI, legislative power’ (75) comes after ‘voting’ (72) ‘quorum’ (73).This indicates the low importance placed on actual law making.

The Constitution declares at 30/1   that   ‘there shall be a President of the Republic of Sri Lanka who is the Head of the State, the Head of the Executive and of the Government, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces’. Section 33/2 says President shall have the sole ‘power to declare war and peace’ . Yahapalanites state that these powers are now restricted by Section 33A which says ‘The President shall be responsible to Parliament for the due exercise, performance and discharge of his powers’.  Howlers appear when you look at this provision closely. They make it difficult to go ahead with 33A.

Section 33/2/C states that the President shall have the power to summon, prorogue and dissolve parliament. Therefore, the President has to summon Parliament before Parliament can summon the President.  Section 32/3 says ‘The President shall, by virtue of his office attend Parliament once in every three months” but Section 70/2    says ‘Parliament shall be summoned to meet once at least every year’. This means is that the President can summon Parliament  once a year, (or once in three months,) and tell Parliament what he did or what he  plans to do.

The problem does not end there. Section 33A is far too vague for the vast powers given to the President.   Section 33A   does not say what Parliament should do after listening to the President. Does it have the power to approve, ratify or cancel any action taken by the President?   If so, why have an Executive President at all. The work can be done better by a Prime Minister     answerable to Parliament, like in the old days.

We could attach another observation to this analysis. The value of Parliament lies in the fact that its members are elected by the people. When Parliament includes persons who actually lost the election, (coming in through the National list), it no longer represents the people.  It is a tainted Parliament, sort of ‘kiri hattiyata goma.’ If so, it also loses the right to judge the President, who at least is directly elected.

A constitution must be able to accommodate change and respond to public opinion. When the public are  fed up with the government they elected,  the head of state must be able to dissolve Parliament and go for elections.  If the Prime Minister is  exceeding his role and also the trust  placed in him,  the Constitution must enable the Head of State to dismiss the Prime Minister. Sri  Lanka  showed through demonstrations and elections  that they wanted a change of  government and also that it wanted Ranil Wickremasinghe removed.

The 19th amendment was set in place to make sure that neither of these happened and  that the present puppet government would continue till its purpose was achieved. Under the 19^th amendment, there were two undemocratic features.  the Prime Minister  could not be dismissed by the Head of State once appointed, and  the Yahapalana Parliament could not be dissolved for four years. Within those four years, it was  hoped  that USA could take full  control of the country, own its land, destroy its people and move  the USA’s 7th fleet” into Trincomalee.

(to be Continued)

By Noor Nizam, Convener – “The Muslim Voice”. November 3rd., 2018.

The 72% Sinhala people will finally support Mahinda, including the Police and the 3 Security Forces, which they have already done. That is the powerful political force needed to safeguard our MAATHRUBOOMIYA” from the crutches of the Western powers that are trying to make us their slaves economically and destroy our SOVEREIGNTY as an independent FREE STATE of the UN and a member of the COMMONWEALTH FAMILY, in the international political arena. It is the free trade policy of the UNF/UNP and the free for all attitude of the UNF/UNP in the handling of all state and public matters and the economy of the country and the UNF/UNP political and hierarchical system of the big wigs of the UNP, since January 8th, 2015, involved in mega corruption with their minority coalition partners, which has resulted in the pathetic state of affairs in our country and the selling of our country’s assets to the political vultures of the eastern and western world by the UNF government of former PM Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The BURDEN has befallen our poor citizens and the nation to redeem them for our next generations which cannot continue. Look at how IGP and the heads of the 3 forces have acted, respecting the need of the hour. With my involvement with the SLFP since 1969, beginning with the Late Sirimavo R.D.Bandaranaike and to supporting Mahinda at the 2015 Presidential and General elections, being a staunch supporter of the SLFP/Mahinda Pela/JO and the SLPP, I know that the political cuemanship of the late T.B.Jaya’s advice “that we Muslims should not place all our eggs in one basket” has to be the best political “SAFETY VALUE”, Insha Allah for the Muslims of Sri Lanka. I am proud that I have stood with the SLFP/Mahinda Pela/JO and the SLPP, along one or two other Muslims without changing colours or the party till to-date, Alhamdulillah.

The advice of “The Muslim Voice” to our so-called political leaders and the community is, that we should see reality now – Insha Allah. Though the Muslim political leaders may say they are supporting Ranil standing or sitting beside him at Temple Trees press conferences, they will finally crawl towards Mahinda and Maithri (MY3) at the last moment. There seems already signals reaching out that both Muslim leaders, especially Rishard Bathiudeen and Rauf Hakeem are trying to make a deal with Basil Rajapaksa to cross over at the appropriate moment. Basil Rajapaksa knows much about the corruption of these “deceptive Muslim leaders”. It seems that ALREADY 2 ACMC MP’s AND ONE SLMC MP HAVE FINALIZED DEALS TO CROSS OVER TO MAHINDA PELA. But it is reported that Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa has “REJECTED THEM”. We should therefore warn Hon. PM Mahinda Rajapaksa and group to be ALERT about the “MUNAAFIKK” Muslim politicians, who will FLOCK to him to gain personal benefits trying to say they are the Muslim votes.

Deceptive and hoodwinking MP Mujeebu Rahuman should STOP making statements like ” ஜனாதிபதி மாளிகையிலிருந்து மைத்திரிபால சிறிசேனவை விரட்டியடிக்கும் காலம் வெகு தொலைவில் இல்லை என்று ஐக்கிய தேசியக் கட்சியின் கொழும்பு மாவட்ட எம்.பி முஜிபுர் ரஹ்மான் பகிரங்கமாக எச்சரிக்கை விடுத்துள்ளார். (English translation) – “The time is not far for us to beat and chase away Maithripala Sirisena from the Presidential place”. THIS CAN BE DETRIMENTAL FOR THE FUTURE OF THE MUSLIMS IN SRI LANKA AT LARGE, WHATEVER PARTY THEY MAY BELONG. The Muslim community should publicly denounce such statements in the future interest of our community.

Hon. PM Mahinda Rajapaksa should NOT forget those Muslims, Muslim voters and Muslim politicians who stood with “Mahinda pela”,Basil and Gotabaya since they were defeated in January 8th., 2015. In recent times, the Beruwela and Aluthgama and Eastern province Muslims have extended their support to Mahinda Rajapaksa with a hope of understating and trust that the New PM will resolve their issues democratically. They are the people/Muslim representatives who should be our VOICE in the new Mahinda – MY3 government, Insha Allah. I hope and pray that this message will reach all Muslims and Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa our new PM, Hon. Basil Rajapaksa and former Defense secretary Gotabya Rajapaksa.

The fact remains NOW, the Muslim voters are acting on their own and do NOT wish to be represented by these “MUNAAFIKK and DECEPTIVE POLITICIANS”, Insha Allah. It is time up that a NEW POLITICAL FORCE that will be honest and sincere that will produce “CLEAN” and diligent Muslim Politicians to stand up and defend the Muslim Community politically and otherwise, especially from among the YOUTH, and to support the news government of PM Mahinda Rajapaksa, has to emerge from within the Sri Lanka Muslim Community to face any new election in the coming future, Insha Allah. The Muslim “PAMARAMAKKAL”/voters should begin to work to REMOVE both the leaders from the ACMC and SLMC and bring about changes (DEMOCRACY) to the Muslim parties. This should happen soon, Insha Allah. OTHERWISE A NEW “MUSLIM DEMOCRATIC PEOPLES PARTY” WILL EVOLVE/TAKE SHARE SOON, INSHA ALLAH. 

Sudath Gunasekara

2.11,2018

Isn’t this the biggest joke of the week?. How can a sacked Minister or a Minister of the former Government unless he is reappointed by the president claim to be a Minister and enter the Ministry room accompanied by a gang of acolytes and declare he is still Minister unless that man is mad. A sane person will never do that.

Why can’ the Government declare all ministries out of bound for All former ex-Ministers and take simple precautionary measures such as locking the rooms and instructing the security not to allow these intruders to enter the premises. Mad hatters like Champaka and Rajita may be either aspiring to be the leaders of the UNP after Ranil, displacing Sajit or expecting to be the next UNP Presidential candidates not realizing that there is hardly any UNP left as a national Party in this country thanks to Ranil. It is a real tragedy that there isn’t a single man or woman in the UNP hierarchy who has the brain to understand this simple truth.

I can still remember how Champaka destroyed the Helaurumaya form the beginning

I remember this same man declaring authoritatively that Helaurumaya can win 20 seats, according to an Islandwide survey he conducted at the 2005 elections, at it first meeting at Omega Hotel Wellawatta.  I told the gathering that I would be the happiest if that could happen but that will be impossible given the strength of the established major political parties. I bluntly said to delete 2 so that finally he will be left with the real result. I felt extremely sorry for the plight of my friends SL Gunasekara, Tilak Karunaratna and others present like Prof Indraratna, HNS Karunatilak, Prof Maddumabandara and SW Walpita who were present and I walked out of that meeting as I realized there is no point in trying to start a national moment with such mad people of the like of Champaka

As I walked out Parangama a retired Army officer pleaded me to stay behind. I told him they will not win a single seat at the forthcoming election. The most they might get is one seat on the basis of the total polled by the party and that has to be given to SL or Tilak. Further I also told that it is Tilka’s money, SL’S banner but Champika will be the driver who will drive the vehicle as I see and he will plunge it down the precipice to disaster.  Also I told him as a first step Champika will pull out one who gets in to Parliament by his tie or collar and replace him with self. That is how I assessed him the first day I saw him.

The election was held. As I rightly predicted they did not win a single seat. But thanks to the manapa system invented by JR they got one seat. After my first prediction came true Paranagama my friend rang me up and told me what I had told him has come true and he wanted me to tell him as to how I predicted it so accurately as if I had said it with Divyagnanaya I said it is not supernatural sight but only simple common sense. I told him to wait for the second prediction and then speak to me again so that I will tell him how I predicted it.

After Champika and his click pulled out SL Gunsekara from Parliament after pulling old Professor Indrapala by his collar again Paranagama asked me the same question. I only asked him to go home and read Munidasa Kumaratungas Hathpana, if he has not read it, and find out how the prediction of the small Samanera having seen the Kirihamy the fool bathing at the village well came true.

I have never seen this man before. I saw him for the first time at the Omega Hotel that day. But that was the first impression I got of him on that day which I believe is even valid today

He destroyed the HELAURUMAYA, the child of Arisen Ahubudu. Now he will do the same thing where ever he goes. As far as UNP is concerned there is nothing left for him to do as Ranil has completed the job? Now those faithful who still blindly hang on have only to perform the final rituals (Pansakula).  Those who have an atom of brain will have only one option to do. That is to forget their diehard UNP affiliations and join the patriotic forces even at this last moment with Mahinda Rajapaksa, if they wish at least to remain in politics.

As for the UNP it has no future at all again as a national party unless it is headed by a new leader replacing Ranil and his royal gang.

Dr Sudath Gunasekara  

3. 11. 2018

News item

“Group of UNP MPs Led By Ravi K Seen At Wasantha Senanayake's Colombo Residence Last Morning November 03, 2018

A group of UNP MPs were seen at Tourism and Wildlife Minister Wasantha Senanayake’s Colombo residence, last morning.

The group of MPs was led by UNP Colombo District Parliamentarian Ravi Karunanayake.

The MPs had visited Senanayake’s house after 118 Paeliamentarians supported a motion claiming former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s appointment as the Prime Minister was unconstitutional and unacceptable.

Their aim was to convince the crossover MP to support Ranil Wickremesinghe again.

Senanayake switched allegiance earlier this week and pledged support to President Maithripala Sirisena and his new Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.”

In the context of the above news item I would like to make the following warning and advice to the young Minister WASANTHA Senanayaka

Sudath Gunasekara3 11.2018

Dear Mr Wasanthha Sennayaka.

I have never seen you or met you. But I know you as a grandson of that Great Leader DS Senanayaka the first Prime Minister of our country who died when I was in my 8^th standard in School. In your decision to join the new Government I see a potential national leader of the future. I hope you will remember that even Badranayaka was in UNP before he left it to form the SLFP and created a new chapter in our history by ushering in a new era in the history of this nation by restoring the lost heritage of the Sinhala nation in 1956.

Whether a man is UNP or SLFP is not important for the people. What is important for them is what you do for them and the country and the Sasana. If you go through the Mahavamsa, you will see the longest Chapters and the most lavish praise has been paid to those Kings who rendered a notable service to religion, its people and who defended the country against foreign invasions.

I am happy to see that you have done the correct thing at the correct time as true patriot of that Senanayaka tradition at a time this country is being by Ranil and his outfit by bringing it under unprecedented Western colonial rule against which people like your grand Farther has relentlessly fought.

Therefore Don’t listen to these crooks and rogues who have ruined that great party UNP founded by your grand farther. Remember you are the real successor and true heir to UNP that has been brutally murdered and buried by Ranil, the sworn stooge of the West who has gone down in history as a great traitor like Do Juwan Dharmapala of Kotte

I would strongly suggest you stay with the patriotic group led by MR and Sirisena and show your true colours as a future Sri Lankan leader.

If you succumbed to pressure by these crooks, remember that is the end of your political future. I am giving this advice to you as an elderly patriot of this country who loves the country, its people, the Sassan and its Sinhala Buddhist civilization more than his life.

I hope and wish wisdom will dawn upon you so that you will end up as a great leader one day in future

Remember all people born to this world die; some appear to be dead even when they are alive. But there is a third category that never dies even after death. The best example in the worldfor this category is Lord Buddha. In Sri Lankan politics your grand farther DS, SWRD, Sirima are such people. So please try to live up to that tradition and I warn you not to get caught to the trap laid by these crooks led by Ravi to save an unpatriotic man like Ranil who designed the biggest Robbery, that is the Central Bank, and who is cursed and despised by at least by 90 % of Sinhala Buddhist and all Sinhalese who love this country.

I am sure you will understand what I say better if you listen to what Rev Cardinal Malcom Ranjit said to Ravi and crowed today when they went to canvas for support to Ranil and also the Anusasana Ven Kollupitiye Sangharakkita Thera, the chief incumbent of Kelani Viharaya delivered today to MR when he visited to pay respect to Kelani Viharaya

I wish you good luck and an illustrious future

by C.A. Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

November 3, 2018, 8:30 pm

Since January 9, 2015, we have been witnessing what is nothing short of a political miracle. A powerful President, defeated by a combination of local political parties and foreign interests defeated at a Presidential election through the manipulation of block votes. Having been first deprived of his presidency, within a matter of days he was deprived of the leadership of his political party as well. Thus over a short period of time, he was reduced from being the leader of one of the most powerful governments that this country has seen to the level of an ordinary citizen holding no elected post of any kind and having no political party. Yet the ordinary people of this country refused to give up on him.

As the defeated Mahinda went back to his village in Medamulana to his ancestral home, the spontaneous crowd that had assembled in the compound of the house was angry and defiant. In the days that followed, the mood turned to one of unbearable grief, the crowd grew into a flood and a permanent queue two to three kilometers long formed outside his home in the Tangalle town. People from all over the country came in vans and buses to Tangalle to see him and for a while there was a whole industry where van and bus owners ferried people to see the fallen leader. For weeks and months after his defeat, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s main occupation was to sit behind a desk at his Tangalle home greeting with clasped hands in the traditional manner, the thousands who filed past – each visitor being able to see him for just a split second.

In the meantime, in Colombo politicians loyal to the fallen leader were regrouping. Telephone calls were being exchanged, meetings were being arranged, the smaller political parties that were in alliance with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party earlier led by Mahinda Rajapaksa had greater freedom of action than the MPs of the SLFP who were now under a new leader and under restraint. Within days, the nucleus of an opposition movement had formed. One major opportuinity left open to the pro-Mahinda Rajapaksa camp by the defeat of January 2015 was that the country was left without an opposition. Since all those who had opposed the Mahinda Rajapaksa government had united to defeat him, they were now the governing party and the people perceived them as such. This left the opposition space open to Mahinda Rajapaksa loyalists. It would not be incorrect to say that the latter had a monopoly over the opposition space, which was a great boon.

Mahinda Sulanga

What rapidly took shape was a people’s opposition from the ground level upwards. The first meeting of this nascent people’s opposition was held in Nugegoda forty days after the defeat and was led mainly by the smaller political parties with only one or two figures from the SLFP. But it had the blessings of a large number of SLFP politicians who sent their followers to the meeting. At that time, it was the best attended political rally ever held in Nugegoda and that was a clear indication that Mahinda Rajapaksa was not finished yet. In the weeks and months that followed, more rallies of the kind styled ‘Mahinda sulanga’ were held in Kandy, Ratnapura, Matara and Anuradhapura. With each meeting, more and more SLFP members came out into the open and declared themselves to be Mahinda loyalists.

The most important thing was that all the Mahinda Sulanga rallies were a case of staging Hamlet without the prince. Mahinda Rajapaksa himself never appeared on the stage and all that the people saw was a photograph of him. Yet they came in their thousands just to see the photograph of their fallen leader and to pledge their loyalty. That itself was a very unusual occurrence and probably unprecedented in the world. Usually when a fallen leader regroups, he has to lead the movement himself and give the people the assurance that he would lead them. In the case of the Mahinda Sulanga rallies, the most the assembled crowd got was to hear a message from Mahinda Rajapaksa read out to the crowd. The first time that Mahinda Rajapaksa appeared at one of these rallies was at the Matara rally where he did not get on to the stage but was seen on the ramparts of the Matara fort observing the unprecedented crowd that had assembled in Matara to demand his return to politics.

Though his detractors claim that all this was ‘orchestrated’ by the Rajapaksas, that was nonsense. The movement to bring him back into politics was spontaneous. Within weeks of the change of government when the new leader of the SLFP Maithripala Sirisena summoned the local government representatives of the UPFA to the ‘Ape Gama’ auditorium, there was an open mutiny on the part of the local councilors who basically refused to accept the new leadership of the SLFP. On May Day in 2015, the SLFP crowds that were brought to Colombo by SLFP parliamentarians were seen everywhere except at Hyde Park where the rally was being held. This writer was at that rally and SLFP contingents that came down Darley Road in procession went off towards Town Hall without so much as a glance towards the stage where their new leadership sat. Some of those walking away from the SLFP meeting had made a bee line to the Mahinda group’s May Day rally in Kirullapone.

By the time, the Parliamentary election of August 2015 came around, it was obvious that the SLFP led UPFA was not going to get anywhere without Mahinda Rajapaksa, and Maithripala Sirisena, who had taken over the SLFP from Mahinda Rajapaksa took a step backwards and bowing to popular pressure, he allowed Mahinda Rajapaksa to lead the campaign for the Parliamentary election. When it seemed as if Mahinda Rajapaksa would actually win the parliamentary election, and would have to be appointed as Prime Minister, the new leader of the SLFP President Sirisena played a dirty trick on him by publishing a letter just days before the poll saying that he would not appoint Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister even if the UPFA wins the election.

That was just 48 hours before the poll. To show that he meant what he said, President Sirisena sacked the General Secretaries of both the SLFP and the UPFA and appointed two of his loyalists to those posts. When this happened, the final rally of the UPFA was in progress just before the campaigning for the election closed. Needless to say the UPFA lost the election. Mahinda Rajapaksa became just an MP for the Kurunegala district in parliament. Two electoral defeats in one year after having led a government would have finished off any other politician. It is certainly true that the record for electoral defeats is held by Ranil Wickremasinghe and his party has not been able to get rid of him no matter what.

But RW clung to his party leadership by various subterfuges and strategems which saw multiple rebellions against his leadership and multiple splits in the UNP when those rebellions failed. In Mahinda Rajapaksa’s case, the defeat saw a reduction in the UPFA vote from 5.8 million to 4.8 million, but there was no rebellion against Mahinda. On the contrary, from the very next day after the 2015 parliamentary election, his followers regrouped and the bulk of the UPFA parliamentarians who were elected to parliament at the 2015 parliamentary election opted to remain in the opposition with Mahinda Rajapaksa – some 53 MPs who styled themselves the ‘Joint Opposition’.

The black hole

About six months after the the second defeat of 2015, when the newly formed ‘Joint Opposition’ held its first May Day rally in Kirullapone in May 2016, the crowd assembled dwarfed that of the ruling UNP. When this writer went to the Kirullapone rally and phoned a couple of friends to say that the crowd there was much bigger than both the UNP and JVP rallies combined, which I had observed before going to Kirullapone, nobody believed me. The crowd was not only huge, it was an angry, emotionally charged crowd and nowhere else had this writer seen people packed so densely together over such a large area. After the defeat at the 2015 parliamentary election, began a persecution of Mahinda loyalists such as this country has never seen. The new leader of the SLFP tried every trick in the book to break the resolve of the Mahinda loyalists within the SLFP and the UPFA.

Mahinda loyalists were removed one by one from the Central Committee of the SLFP and from party posts. When that did not work, Maithripala Sirisena took the drastic step of removing them from their electoral organizer posts. Being an electoral organizer is the lifeblood of an elected parliamentarian. That is what gives him the status of the main representative of his political party in a given constituency. Even under the proportional representation system, the importance of these constituency organizer positions had not diminished because the candidates got the bulk of their preference votes from the constituency assigned to them and a certain proportion of preference votes from other constituencies as well.

Thus this electoral organizer post was arguably the single most important position for a politician belonging to one of the two main political parties. In what can only be described as a political miracle, not one of Mahinda’s loyalists even flinched when they were deprived of these all important electoral positions. To turn your back on an established political party in that manner was tantamount to political suicide. From the time the UNP and the SLFP came into being six or seven decades ago, these two parties had dominated the politics of this country and one needed to be nominated through one of these two political parties and also to be in control of an electoral organizer’s position in order to win elections. To stand by Mahinda Rajapaksa when they were being deprived of these all important electoral posts and watch them being given to various upstarts was one of the greatest acts of political fortitude that one has witnessed in this country.

It was not just deprivation of their political positions that the MPs who stood with Mahinda had to face. Combined with their sidelining within the SLFP and being stripped of everything except their party membership, these politicians also had to face the worst harassment at the hands of the police and the law enforcement authorities that any opposition has had to face. Mahinda loyalists were hauled before various Commissions, courts and police units where there often were parallel investigations running into the same matter. The Mahinda loyalist MPs and even members of their families were subject to this persecution. In addition to being hauled before a commission of inquiry himself, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s two elder sons were both remanded by the yahapalana government. Very few MPs in the Joint Opposition managed to avoid this persecution.

To have stood by Mahinda in the middle of all this, was political valor of epic proportions. That he could inspire such loyalty is what makes Mahinda Rajapaksa unique among the politicians we have seen in this country. Even in 2015 before the parliamentary election, after Maithripala Sirisena had seized control of the SLFP, there were discussions about those with Mahinda Rajapaksa forming a separate political party to contest the parliamentary election. But one of the reasons why everyone finally decided to contest together with the Sirisena led UPFA was because no one knew how the loyalty of the party members towards the established political party would play out at the polls.

One of the signs that these terror tactics were not working and that the people were behind Mahinda Rajapaksa regardless of political party loyalties was demonstrated by the Galle Face May Day rally of the Joint Opposition in 2017. That was by far the largest crowd to ever to attend a political event in this country. Later that year, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna was formed to contest the local government elections of February 2018. Even when the newly formed SLPP went to the local government polls, no one knew how the party loyalty factor would play out. No one knew whether the traditional SLFP voter would remain within the SLFP and UPFA without voting for the SLPP. The UNP was carrying out the propaganda that when the SLFP vote was split between the SLFP and the SLPP, the UNP would automatically come out on top.

Changing world history

At the time the local government elections were held, it was a manifest fact that the SLFP voters were divided at village level and the UNP was right to entertain high hopes. Nowhere in the world in any mature democracy which had enjoyed a system of representative government based on universal suffrage and a two party system had any new party challenging the established parties suceeeded and the SLPP was going to contest against the UNP and the SLFP in such unpromising circumstances. However when the votes were finally counted, the SLPP had done what was considered impossible. It had soundly defeated both the UNP and the SLFP and become the largest political party in the country. That was a watershed in the history of this country.

From that turning point until the next presidential or parliamentary election, there was only one trajectory that the country can take. The result of the February local government election is the single event that has influenced the politics of this country in the months that have followed. It would not be an exaggeration to say that there was a headlong quest from within both the SLFP and the UPFA to join up with the SLPP following the local government election. It would have been disastrous for the SLFP or the UPFA to go to another election without joining up with the SLPP. The attempt to get a motion of no confidence passed against Ranil Wickremesinghe was one step that was taken to bring the SLFP and the SLPP together in a united political endeavor. Even though that attempt failed, it resulted in the Joint Opposition’s numbers in Parliament going up by 15 MPs.

The fact that the President clearly was behind the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe drew a wedge between the SLFP and UNP partners in the government. It was no secret that in the event the Prime Minister was defeated through a no confidence motion, the President’s preferred candidate for the Premiership was the Speaker Karu Jayasuriya. However, the latter had backed off, because he knew that the country was now in such a state that no one could turn things around. The news coming down the grapevine is that the President had then offered the position to Sajith Premadasa and Ranjith Madduma Bandra but they too had turned down the officer. As the rift between the Prime Minister and the president widened, another factor that entered the equation was the revelation by a police informer that there was a plot against the lives of the President and former Defence Secretary both of whom were being mentioned as possible contenders for the presidency against the UNP candidate next year.

For days, the TV channels were abuzz with claims and counterclaims being made about the existence of such a plot and the involvement of a police DIG with very high connections in the UNP. The final nail in the coffin of the UNP-UPFA coalition government was when someone in the cabinet leaked out the story that president Sirisena had said in Cabinet that the Indian intelligence agency RAW was engaged in a plot to assassinate him. This was reported in an Indian newspaper and led to a diplomatic issue between the two countries. It was in this context that President Sirisena’s UPFA left the government and with its exit, the government fell apart and Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as the new Prime Minister.

This was an unexpected turn of events but perhaps not totally unexpected. Members of the President’s party had been angling for this since the local government election of February this year. This was coming sooner or later but it came sooner than most people expected. As the situation in the country deteriorated, the Joint Opposition had been calling for a parliamentary election or at least for the long postponed provincial council elections to be held. From the moment he took oaths as the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his followers have been insisting that this is not a government that was meant to rule the country but an interim arrangement until a parliamentary election is held and concluded.

After MR’s swearing in, we were able to witness another phenomenon that only Mahinda and no other leader would have been able to bring about. Even as members of the UNP and the Maithripala Sirisena faction of the SLFP were sworn in as ministers in the interim government, no member of the Joint Opposition joined the government. Even at the point of writing, the only member of the Joint Opposition in the newly formed government is Mahinda Rajapaksa himself. All the others are waiting for an election to accept ministerial office. The conventional wisdom is that the ministers in power have the edge over those who do not have ministries when it comes to an election. But the Joint Opposition knows that at the next election, the main factor that will decide whether one gets into parliament on the SLPP side is whether one is a loyalist of Mahinda Rajapaksa or not.

That is the Mahinda Rajapaksa phenomenon. Politicians who have been defeated have made comebacks. Two examples that readily come to mind are that of Winston Churchill in the 1950s and Indira Gandhi in 1980. The fact that Mahinda has sworn in as Prime Minister is not really a political come back. But it is clearly a soft opening for what is to follow. Even if the UNP manages to claw back a majority with the help of the TNA and the JVP, they will be fatally hobbled with the president being opposed to them. The only thing that they will be able to do in terms of wielding power will be to enjoy the perks of office for the remainder of the one year and few months they have until a parliamentary election can be called. A presidential election will be due before December 9, 2019.

The reaction of the man on the street to Mahinda Rajapaksa’s appointment as Prime Minister said it all. There was a palpable feeling of relief in the country. The Gangarama Podihamuduruwo articulated this feeling well. If an election is held at this moment, there is little doubt that the group led by Mahinda Rajapaksa will sweep the polls which is why the UNP is not responding to the call that an election be called even though they have been demanding that Parliament be summoned after it was prorogued for a few days by the President.

දිනසේන රතුගමගේ

දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරු හතර දෙනෙකු ඉදිරි දින දක ඇතුළතදී මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට සහය පලකිරීම සදහා එක්වීමට ඇති ඉඩකඩ වැඩි බව දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානයෙන් වෙන්ව ස්වාධීන වූ වන්නි දිස්ත්‍රික් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මනත්‍රී ශිවශක්ති ආනන්දන් මහතා 3 දා පැවසීය.

තමන් මුලින්ම කවරෙකුටවත් සහය නොදක්වා සිටීමට සූදානමින් සිටියත් පළාතේ ජනතාවගේ ඉල්ලීමත් පළාත් සංවර්ධනය කිරීමට අවස්ථාවක් ලැබීමත් නිසා තමන්  2 දා හෝ 3 දා මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට සහය පලකිරීමට එක්වන බව පැවසීය.

මේ එක්වීම නිසා තමන්ට අමාත්‍ය පදවියක් ලැබීමට ඉඩ ඇති බව කී මන්ත්‍රීවරයා තමන්ගේ මන්ත්‍රී පදවියෙන් වන්නියේ ජනතාවට කළ සේවයට වඩා විශාල සේවාවක් කළ හැකි නිසා තමන් මෙම තීරණය ගත් බවද කියා සිටියේය.

තමන්ට අමතරව දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානයේ  යාපනය දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් වන පී.සරවන බවන්,ටී.සිද්ධාර්ථන් යන මන්ත්‍රීවරුද,කිළිනොච්චියේ එස්.ශ්‍රීධරන් මන්ත්‍රීවරයාද,මුලතිව් චාර්ල්ස් නිර්මලනාදන් මන්ත්‍රීවරයාද ඉදිරි දින දෙක ඇතුළත මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට සහය දැක්වීමට එකතු වීමට නියමිත බවද ශිවශක්ති ආනන්දන් මන්ත්‍රීවරයා පැවසීය.

දිනසේන රතුගමගේ

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට සහය ලබාදෙන්නේ නම් තමන්ට ලබාදෙන බවට පොරොන්දු වූ දේ පිළිබදව විශාල ගැටළුවක් පැනනැගී ඇති බැවින් තමන් අමාත්‍යවරයෙකු වශයෙන් දිවුරුම්දීමත් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට සහය දීමත් ප්‍රමාද වන බව වන්නි දිස්ත්‍රික් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ශිවශක්ති ආනන්දන් මහතා 3 දා සවස ඉන්දීය මාධ්‍ය ආයතනයකට ප්‍රකාශ කොට තිබේ.

දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානයේ වන්නි දිස්ත්‍රික් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ශිවශක්ති ආනන්දන් මහතා 3 දා උදෑසනම ජනමාධ්‍ය වෙත කියා සිටියේ තමන්ට මුදල් හා අමාත්‍යධූරයක් ලබා දෙන බැවින් තමන් 3 දා හෝ 4 දා අමාත්‍යවරයෙකු වශයෙන් දිවුරුම් දීමට නියමිත බවයි.

දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානයේ වන්නි දිස්ත්‍රික් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ශිවශක්ති ආනන්දන් මහතා 3 දා උදෑසනම ජනමාධ්‍ය වෙත කියා සිටියේ තමන්ට මුදල් හා අමාත්‍යධූරයක් ලබා දෙන බැවින් තමන් 3 දා හෝ 4 දා අමාත්‍යවරයෙකු වශයෙන් දිවුරුම් දීමට නියමිත බවයි.

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

The change of political administration Sri Lanka has given an opportunity to a renaissance of Sri Lanka in relation to many aspects of the country, which may be different areas.  Terrorist war in the country had caused to backward the unity and the economy of the country, however, the strategies used by Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government was able to eliminate the terrorism and the economic policies had been used by the former government under the leadership of Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe created a mess in the country in relation to many aspects.  The new political and social environment created appointing former president Mr Rajapaksa to Prime Ministership would be a convincing chance to many reforms and uniting the country as a one nation and renaissance of the economy

The economy in modern era divulge as a dynamic and idiosyncratic force that reflect the power of a country and it is subject to changes by the influences of macroeconomic factors. The pace of influence in different macroeconomic factors shall be varied from one country to other.  This situation makes affliction to develop effective policies for a long-term stability and it also seems that predicting the success of contemporary policies in the future might not effective as in the past and current information may not exactly relevant to the future. The economic cycles during the past century helped policy makers and ordinary people for adaptation to the changing economic environment. Although the public has experienced hardships when economic downturns incurred, economies had been gradually recovered in medium term.

The last economic recession that Asian nations faced was in 1997-98 in the 20^th century, which radically depreciated the foreign value of many Asian currencies and the depreciation of Indonesian currency was beyond the expectation. Some Asian leaders such as Mahathir Mohamod in Malaysia blamed American currency speculators for such a financial crisis and Thaksin Shinawatra in Thailand interested in developing Asian bond market with a view to using Asian savings in Asia than investing them in Western bond market and borrowing from domestic banks for development purposes.  Sri Lanka also had an idea to combine with Asian bond market, but it was not successful due to heavy involvement in war spending and the economy during the war period did not support to successfully develop a corporate bond market.

During the twentieth century, it seemed that people had more wants in addition to needs and the twenty first century appears that wants are becoming needs because of the influence of dynamic factors such as environment, competition and technology.  To understand the change of attitudes of Sri Lankans in relation to economic needs, we should look at the changes from the point of views of technology and how dynamic factors are vital to analyse without a deviation of the economy as rural and urban. Many disparities have been appeared in rural and urban development process since 1950s, it was observable that the government spending mechanism had not focused the reducing or eliminating disparity in urban and rural area. It can be seen that rural people are demanding never ending supports from the government and urban people make large spending for wants. There is a conflict in wants and needs in the country, the economic planners of the country have not seen this issue, which was the disguised causal factor for ethnic and many other issues in Sri Lanka.

The existence of imbalance development was not the wish of rural people and such situation was motivated to the origination of LTTE and JVP movements.  Economic planners have become impotent to maintaining a balanced growth and development of the country, although it was an easy task in a small country like Sri Lanka. The poverty of rural people was fundamentally supported to origination of Sinhala and Tamil radical groups, later these groups were used by international power players and currently many politicians in the country have become refugees of international power playing politics. On the other hand, it also seems that Sri Lanka has been relegating an anarchic situation because of the lack of right vision and blindly following misguided politics like Mr Wickramasinghe played.

However, this doesn’t mean that policy makers should act like emasculate people, when the service and intelligence of them are desperately needed by the country at this moment. Politicians of the country are seemed to be stupids, who are covetous for money and attempting to make something out of all development projects of the country.  Although the yahapalana advocates used Gobbles theory during 2015 elections they have not departed from disgrace politics, but they were like gophers in the dark involved in more and more corruptions.

The other vital point that Sri Lanka has been depending on the economic advices of Western economists, who provided advices consistent with the ideology and needs of Western countries. The experience also indicate that Sri Lanka had encountered many difficulties changing policy focus from time to time due to imbalance growth and development needs. Western economic advisors lightly consider the elimination of development disparities between urban and rural development and clearly knowing the corruption of project implementations attempted hide the truth from people.  If they disclosed to public about corruptions with a responsibility, people would have not supported corrupt politicians and the West wanted to achieve their hidden goals using supportive politicians in Sri Lanka.  It was the mythical aspects of Wickramasinghe government.

The next vital point regarding economic renaissance is that the government policy needs to focus on addicting to public welfare by a large volume of people in the country.  Government welfare is a part of many countries in the world and it is an essential part of the government spending, which cannot be eliminated. Late 1980s many countries in the world attempted to change the policy of welfare spending as an incentive for employing people without addicting welfare benefits.  Sri Lanka attempted to change subsidies in1952, but it was not success because there were not alternative strategy people to earn without depending on subsidies.  The politicization of the welfare system by political parties as a strategy to gain the power has been a vicious dilemma and the dependence on welfare by people never reduced as planners expected.  New government needs to develop strategy to get the participation of welfare recipients to economic activities helping them to be independent with a greater supervision.

The concentration on too much welfare without educating people on the negative impact on the economy has pushed the country to a vicious circle of poverty. This situation has been reflecting since independence. Although some politicians talked about giving a fishing rode, it has not actively implemented with a view to attracting poor people.  The demanding of welfare has not changed despite political rhetoric and promises during the elections and the right policies have not been focused by the governments.

The purpose of the 13^th amendment to the constitution was to give more power to regional Sri Lanka to implement vigorous economic policies at regional level eliminating or reducing the growing disparities between the urban and rural areas, notwithstanding the practical and actual results, provincial governments had not been played the desired role and have worsened the corrupt economy.  The bottom to top planning approach was not implemented to achieve the expectation regional Sri Lanka. The delegation of the central government power to regional country had been used as a debating point for a long time and such debate did not focus on the achievement of objectives and reasons for the failure. Sinhala people displayed an apathy to this matter and Tamil politicians were talking about the insufficiency of delegated power rather than using the granted funds and the authority for eliminating economic disparities between urban and rural level.

The political motivation to change the economic policies should be with good objectives and the ultimate achievements need to be educated to people before implementing and during the past four years, people have realized that vicious manipulation was done during the election period in 2015.

The new government needs to focus in the renaissance of the economy while working on micro economic reforms in public institutions, it should develop macroeconomic targets as macroeconomic performs impact on the long-term stability of the economy and the living standards of people.  There are many macroeconomic factors in which the rate of economic growth, the exchange value of domestic currency unit, foreign reserve, inflation, interest rate, budget deficit, foreign reserves, investment, unemployment, population growth, foreign and domestic debts, balance of payment adjustment, trade balance and terms of trade are highly significant macroeconomic variables and they are factors could be quantitatively monitored and make remedial management when variations incurred.  The new secretary of the Ministry of Finance is a quantitative analyst, he can effectively managed macroeconomic variables for renaissance of the economy in medium term.

While the planning and monitoring process is under the arrest of macroeconomic factors, the production and service sectors should be improved by microeconomic reforms, which strongly support to enhance productivity in individual organizations reducing imports and saving foreign exchange outflow, which would be an incentive for increase in foreign reserves and assets. The working successfully in this way the government can gradually increase the foreign value of Sri Lanka rupee and other macroeconomic factors also ameliorate reducing unemployment giving a clear signal to the world that the renaissance of the economy began and the stability of the country is under the control of the government.  It will be an inward trend of foreign and domestic investments and many positive signs will reflect the economy such as reducing debts, increasing GDP and per capita income and creating a balance budget.

The renaissance of Sri Lanka’s economy is not an impossible task, but it needs a right political leadership and sacrifice of people with determination to achieve objectives.  When people were in an innocent situation without hopes during LTTE war period, Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa rose and gave a political leadership to eliminate the war giving a fresh hope to people. Unfortunately, UNP, JVP traitors associated with foreign forces to reverse renaissance.  However, the traitors failed with three years period, as Alexander Gerschenkron stated in the history,  the more backward a country’s economy, the more strongly its industrialization tend start discontinuously as a sudden great spurt proceeding a  relatively high rate of growth of manufacturing output Sri Lanka tends to begin a strong growth and the renaissance of the economy.

by REV. FR. VIMAL TIRIMANNA, CSsR Courtesy The Island

November 2, 2018, 9:45 pm

Since President Maithripala Sirisena officially dismissed his own hand-picked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe last Friday (26th October) and installed his bête-noir Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place, more than the surprise element inherent in this action, there have been endless debates as to whether the President acted according to the Constitution or not. Interestingly, the EU, the USA, Britain, India and a few other countries have even urged Sri Lankan leaders to follow the Constitution as if they were the guardians or god fathers of this country. Still worse, one British Member of Parliament has gone even to the extent of saying that the so-called “international community” (which is a carefully coined Western term to refer to the Western countries themselves) recognizes Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister. Mark the implication: it is they the so-called “international community” or the West that would decide as to who the Prime Minister of this country should be, and not our own Sri Lankan citizens! When he faced the exit orders last Friday from the Executive President, Ranil Wickremesinghe himself did not first turn to the citizens of our country or the judicial system or the constitution of Sri Lanka but to the so-called “international community” by calling their ambassadors for a special meeting at Temple Trees. Thus he has not only shown his true colours but also revealed who his real allies and sponsors are.

What amazes and amuses this writer is the sudden awakening in some vociferous quarters – both local and international – to the central issue of whether the events unfolding in Sri Lanka since last Friday are in accordance with the Sri Lankan Constitution or not. More or less the same voices could be heard before January 2015 too, crying foul with the then government of Mahinda Rajapaksa and haranguing that democracy was at peril in Sri Lanka, so much so they dared to call the eventual election of the common candidate Maithripala Sirisena as President “a non-violent revolution in Sri Lanka” that saved democracy in the country. However, the same voices could not be heard at all since 2015 till last Friday, simply because they had simply assumed that those who came to office were immaculately clean in upholding democracy and the Constitution in Sri Lanka. One wonders where they were really in Sri Lanka, somewhere else in the world or in a remote corner of outer space? Where were they when democracy was threatened and the Sri Lankan Constitution was openly flawed by the government under President Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe. Suffice it to enumerate and highlight just the following undemocratic and unconstitutional events/issues that were carried out in broad day light by the so-called “yahapalanaya” without a whimper from those who were vociferous for democracy before their election to office in January 2015:

The installation of Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister with just 46 seats in a parliament of 225 members. The then Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne and his party enjoyed 141 seats at that time. Let us not forget that what we had on 15th January 2015 was a Presidential Election (to elect a President) and not a Parliamentary Election (in which the leader of the majority of members elected would be nominated as Prime Minister). Simply put, in January 2015, people elected a new President and not a new Parliament or a Prime Minister. But Ranil Wickremasinghe with just 46 seats was appointed Prime Mininster by the new President!

The betrayal of the millions of UPFA voters who voted (against the UNP) at the last General Elections in August 2015 when the leaders of the UPFA (headed by President Sirisena) undemocratically and unilaterally decided to join the UNP to form what they themselves called a “National/Unity Government”. To do this, they did not have a mandate of their supporters (who voted against the UNP just as the SLFP asked the voters to do at the general elections), and so, it is undemocratic and a betrayal of the voters of the SLFP/UPFA.

The deprivation of the post of the Leader of the Opposition to the Joint Opposition which had some 54 seats as against 16 held by the Tamil National Alliance whose leader nevertheless was given on a platter the post of the Opposition Leader, violating all traditions of parliamentary democracy.

The undemocratic appointment of those candidates rejected by the voters to the parliament through the back door by both Sirisena and Wickremesinghe within their respective parties.

The establishment of the non-democratic and extra-judicial institution of FCID to investigate the alleged crimes of only those who opposed the National/Unity government.

The shameless efforts of the ruling UNP and its leading Ministers and Deputy Ministers to sweep under the carpet the Report of the COPE (with their now well-known footnotes and appendices to that Report!) which first found the then Governor of the Central Bank Arjuna Mahendran (who was a personal friend and special nominee of Ranil Wickremesinghe) allegedly guilty of serious financial fraud linked to the biggest financial fraud in the history of Sri Lanka.

Arjuna Mahendran himself testifying before the Bond Commission of Inquiry that the Prime Minister was directly involved in recommending the immoral and faulty auction method that was at the base of the Central Bank Bond Scam. Moreover, the appointment of the same Mahendran as an advisor to the Ministry of Finance by the Prime Minister.

The secrecy that surrounded the Bond Report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry and the missing parts of it (some 103 pages) that were hushed up thanks to the dedicated efforts of the yahapalana government of Sirisena/Wickremesinghe to keep the obvious culprits safe. Even non-political civil societal organizations such as CaFFE raised the issue with the government in January 2018 but without any success.

The sidelining of the Elections Commission in the process of enacting the Provincial Council Elections Amendment Act as alleged by no lesser person than the chairman of the Commission, Mahinda Deshapriya himself.

The utterly undemocratic and anti-Constitutional way in which the Provincial Council Elections Amendment Act was finally bull-dozed through the Parliament in March 2018 which the Island Editorial of 9th March 2018 called “The Rape of Democracy”! The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) too pointed out that the due parliamentary process was not followed in passing this Act.

The above-mentioned Act was rushed through and passed in parliament when the Supreme Court had given a clear ruling that the extension of the terms of the Provincial Councils or a postponement of their elections would require a referendum in addition to a two thirds majority in parliament. The yahapalana government completely sidelined this Supreme Court decision and had their way in order not to have provincial council elections, thus robbing in broad daylight the franchise of the people guaranteed by the Constitution.

The continuous and shameless postponement of the holding of Provincial Council elections with all sorts of whimsical reasons though it is already overdue with regard to at least six Provincial Councils. It was just last week that no lesser person than the Chairman of the Elections Commission himself who said such undue postponement of elections and letting the Provincial Councils to be run by government officials tantamount to a sort of a “dictatorial” style of governing!

The postponement of the holding of local government elections with all sorts of flimsy and ludicrous reasons given by the government till they were finally forced to hold them in February this year.

The government’s efforts to bring in a new Constitution (to suit their own whims and fancies) without a mandate to do so when they, the rulers (of the past three years) could not muster even a proper, decent mandate to rule the country!

The tear-gassing and suppression of peaceful protests for just causes such as the most recent protest by the up-country tea plantation workers to raise their daily salary to 1000 rupees.

The refusal of granting the venue to the Joint Opposition for their recent protest rally in Colombo by the Colombo Municipal Council controlled by the ruling UNP a couple of months ago, though the organizers of the rally had booked the place long before with all the payments, reservations,…etc. made weeks ahead.

The reader ought to note that the events listed above are not mere subjective opinions but objective facts that unfolded in this country since January 2015 till last Friday. But ironically (it has been this writer’s experience) whenever such objective facts are mentioned, the immediate reaction of those self-appointed “defenders/advocates of democracy and the Sri Lankan constitution” is invariably: “Are you a Mahinda supporter?” Why one of my fellow Catholic priests even went to the extent of saying: “Yes, all those are true, but when you mention them, you are supporting MR (Mahindata Kade Yanawa)”. Such emotional, highly prejudiced and one-sided remarks are the main reasons for getting blinded deliberately to the above-mentioned objective facts that are clearly undemocratic and anti-Constitutional.

Let us not forget that all those above-mentioned events happened under the government that was headed by the same President who now claims that he acted according to the Constitution last Friday in removing and installing the persons for the post of Prime Minister. The now eloquent voices clamouring to uphold the Constitution, both local and foreign (including the religious, political and civil organizations who claim to be independent politically and the NGO’s) were all silent when these glaring aberrations and serious violations of democracy were in full swing during the last three years under the same President with the able support of Ranil Wickremesinghe. Did any of them find fault with the then government for not holding local/provincial government elections on time, for example? Did any of them ever openly state the need to implement justice fully in the case of the Central Bank Bond Scam that was allegedly hushed up by the then government? Did any of them ever raise even a feeble voice for the democratic need to give the post of the Leader of the Opposition to the group that enjoyed a majority in parliament as it has always been done? Most of all, did those who are very vociferous today about following the Constitution with regard to removing and installing the Prime Minister ever utter a single word when a party leader with just 46 seats was installed as Prime Minister while the incumbent had already the support of 141 members, and thus, seriously violating the Constitution? In short, during the past three years where were those champions of democracy who are now shedding crocodile tears for democracy and the upholding of the Constitution? One cannot resist but raise the question: why this sudden concern for democracy by these voices while they were in deep slumber when democracy and democratic institutions were seriously throttled and threatened in recent times? Is it because their favourite political party is now in apparent danger of losing power? Or else, it ought to be pure political hypocrisy, on the part of both religious and political/civil leaders (both local and international) who now make a loud cry all of a sudden for democratic values and the upholding of the Constitution. After all, the same President who allegedly “violated the Constitution” last Friday was the head of the government when the above-mentioned anti-democratic things were done violating the same Constitution during the past three years. Things could not be simply right then and wrong now! Such an attitude would lead us to moral relativism. Those who had decided to conveniently and deliberately be indifferent during the past three years when the Constitution was violated openly, have now become very alert and concerned about upholding the Constitution. Those who had decided to forget the need to uphold the Constitution have suddenly remembered the utmost need to uphold the same Constitution! Talk about selective forgetting/indifference and selective remembering, and here we are! Such persons seem to have had a miraculous healing of their self-imposed, selective Alzheimers’ last Friday with President Sirisena’s unexpected decisions. But then, was it really a ‘miracle’ or was it the dire need to support their political cronies which has now healed such a deadly disease as selective Alzheimers’ of those who are very vociferous about democracy and the upholding of the Constitution?

By Garvin Karunaratne

The Chinese Company- the China Merchants Port Holdings to whom the Hambantota Port and its 1235 acres of land was leased, insisting on as much as Rupees 23 million as Ground Rent for the miniscule bit of land where the five Wind Turbines are sited is a fore runner of what is in store for my Motherland.

The Five Turbines are sited on a very small section of the seashore that can even be claimed to belong to the sea.

The five Wind Turbines, the first  built in Sri Lanka in 1999 are outmoded and hardly turn out electricity that will warrant such a demanding amount. Generally a Ground Rent is a very small amount and it is used more to signify who is the owner. Evidently, the Chinese Company has decided to hold a sovereign country to ransom..

The Lesson is what is in store from this Shylock. To me it indicates that the country will be ruined and. to my thinking the earlier we get back this Port and its land the better.

We have a long history dating from 1977 when under the IMF dictate the Jayawardena Government made us privatize many commercial undertakings that the earlier Governments of leaders DS Senanayake and Sirimavo had established for the sake of the people. These Systems and Departments were very efficiently run by our administrators. We became self sufficient in rice production, in vegetables, eggs and fruit and fruit processing, in small industrial goods  and in producing textiles through PowerLooms and Handlooms.

I can write books on this aspect because I was one of the administrative officers who implemented the programmes. Our great leaders D.S.Senanayake and Sirimavo built up the infrastructure that helped the people, provided incentives for them to get into producing what the country needed. From 1977 when we accepted the dictate of the IMF we were compelled to close down all commercial undertakings and privatize them because otherwise the IMF would not give us assistance in the form of loans. The IMF and World Bank through giving us loans saw to it that we ruined the already developed production so that we had to have everything imported.. Our funds end in their countries to enrich them

In my words,

By the privatization of the Paddy Marketing Board and the Marketing Department Sri Lanka has dismantled the infrastructure for development established by the Government of D.S.Senanayake and had been built up over decades. It was this infrastructure that enabled the Government to implement the guaranteed and floor price scheme  for rice, other cereals, vegetables and fruits. Now the producers are at the mercy of the  traders and farmers are not interested in producing for the market because they cannot get a reasonable price. It is in the interests of Multinationals and Developed Countries  for our agricultural production to be sacrificed. This is a ploy to sell their wheat, other agricultural products and processed foods to the Third World countries.”

Privatization was the chief agenda of the Jayawardena Government.. Privatization- selling national assets to foreigners to get some cash has also been the policy of the Ranil Wickremasinghe Government.

The privatization of the Lanka Loha saw to it that small implements like spoons and knives had to be imported. Last year I saw knives made in Brazil and Mexico for sale in Colombo supermarkets. When I wanted  to buy a step ladder- a basic item that we can easily produce I could not find one made in Sri Lanka. At Matara I established a Factory making Crayons. My Planning Officer, a basic chemistry graduate found the art of making crayons at the Rahula College Science Lab and a Factory was established under Sumanapala Dahanayake, the Member of Parliament for Deniyaya in his capacity as President of the Cooperative Union. It was a grand success with island wide sales till the Jayawardena’s Open Economy killed it.  If we could have produced crayons of high quality there is nothing- absolutely nothing we cannot produce.

Today our Supermarkets are full of jam, fruit juice etc made in Australia and the USA. Before 1977 we were self sufficient in all Jam and Fruit Juice. That programme also meant that our producers mainly Chena farmers got high incomes for tomatoes, oranges, red pumpkin, ash pumpkin, melon  and many other vegetables and fruits. I was once in charge of the Tripoli Market the headquarters of the vegetable and fruit marketing scheme. It was I that was held responsible for studying the availability of vegetable produce all over the island, planning the purchase and sale throughout the country. We commanded a staff over  a thousand men and over a hundred lorries. We were  covering every producer fair in the country, to ensure that we purchased produce in competition with the traders, by offering a higher price than what the trader offered. Then we transported the goods to Colombo overnight and sold it in small sales outlets- there were around a hundred of our in Colombo- at rock bottom prices compelling the retailers to sell at low prices if they were to be in business. . This was the mechanism by which we controlled inflation.  The Department kept a margin of only 15% to cover transport costs and wastage in handling whereas the traders kept around a hundred percent- shared between the trader who purchased at the Fairs, the transport costs, the wholesaler in Colombo and the retailer.  I fixed the prices to purchase goods all over the island and the Department had large cold stores and a Canning Factory to produce processed food like Jam, Fruit Juice and Tomatoe Sauce.  Our canning factory worked 24 hours a day and our Assistant Commissioner Oswald Tillekeratne even built up overseas sales for our pineapples. That was a time when our producers got high incomes all due to the working of the Marketing Department. All Gone today- the result: poverty to our farmers and our dependance on imports- riches to foreign producers!

Every month the profit that we made was gone into in detail by our Commissioner BLW Fernando  and if we had incurred either a loss or a profit of over 10% we had to do  a lot of explaining. That was indeed a difficult task.

We Assistant Commissioners were always on the run, controlling purchases and supervising our shops.. It was aiding the farmer by purchasing produce. We purchased around 10 % of the crop, but we controlled the prices offered by the traders because they too had to increase their prices. That was the time when there were Van Sales of fruits and vegetables functioning till late at night on the streets in Colombo.

That was a System offering high prices to the producer  as well as ensuring  low prices to the consumer, a system that I have not seen in any other country-I have been working in five countries and roaming all over the world since leaving Sri Lanka.

Let me look forward to the day when we will take back the Hambantota Port. It is a national asset that has to be developed. Let me also hope that other privatized ventures like the Marketing Department and the Canning Factory will be re established. That is an essential part of the infrastructure that we require to provide good prices for our farmers and also to produce all our requirements of processed food.

. I have worked long in many districts including Hambantota and can assure anyone that we can produce fruit in the Districts of Hambantota, Matara, Ratnapura and Moneragala that can get processed for export and the Port is an essential part of that infrastructure. On a recent visit to the Lunugamvehera area, there were children with luscious mangoes chasing behind my car to sell them. The mango trees in Lunugamvehera, Tissa, Kataragama are full of mangoes- more than half go to waste.  This is true of other areas like Matale and Anuradhapura too.

The privatization of the Hambantota Port is not in our interest. The Port has to handle our produce for export As of now we have with great difficulty- even becoming indebted- built up a Port and have handed it over for a song  to a foreigner who can use that asset. We are the real loser.

With my experience of handling commercial type of undertakings in the Marketing Department and the Small Industries Department  and my studies in Agricultural Economics at doctoral level at accepted seats of learning- I can assure that all above ventures that have been privatized can be run efficiently and profitably.

The above assurance comes from someone who established the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh in 1983, which is today the premier programme of employment creation the world has known. It has established a record of guiding millions to become self employed.

Let me live to see that day when we can re establish our  lost development infrastructure and also take back the Port of Hambantota,. This Port will play an essential role in our country’s development.

Garvin Karunaratne,

Ph.D Michigan State University

Author of:How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka, (Godages )

                 How the IMF Saboitaged Third World Development,(Kindle/Godages)

1 st November 2018

Rohan Welivita Media Secretary to The Prime Minister

The Office of the Prime Minister hereby rejects and disowns the statement issued by parliamentarian Sagala Ratnayake on the 1st November 2018. His Excellency the President has appointed the Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. The Secretary to the Prime Minister has also been appointed by the President.

The Office of the Prime Minister therefore stresses that the statement issued by Parliamentarian Sagala Ratnayake on a letterhead of the Prime Minister’s Office, has no validity whatsoever. We wish to inform the public that no official by the name of Sagala Ratnayake works at the Prime Minister’s Office and that it is completely illegal for him to issue statements on a letterhead of the Prime Minister’s Office claiming to be the Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister’s Office.

SPUR   (Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka Inc) Mulgrave, VIC 3170, Australia

Hon Scott Morrison

Prime Minister

Dear Prime Minister

SRI LANKA’S RECENT POLITICAL CHANGES.

We wish to draw your attention to the recent changes in the Government of Sri Lanka and write to indicate that the appointment of a new Prime Minister by the President of Sri Lanka is in keeping with the Constitution of Republic of Sri Lanka.

The two party National Government of Sri Lanka which came to office in 2015 lost its mandate to rule when the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) of President Maithripala Sirisena withdrew from the Coalition. The subsequent appointment of Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister has led to a stable alliance which includes several lawmakers from the former PM’s United National Party.

As per section 42 (4) the Constitution of Sri Lanka, President can appoint a person who according to his belief can win the confidence of the House of Representatives as the Prime Minister. Further, the President can change the Ministers and the subjects handled by them

It has to be mentioned that when Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe was appointed as the Prime Minister in 2015, by the present President of Sri Lanka ,he had only 42 MPs backing him whereas the sitting Prime Minister had the support of over 120 MPs. The former Prime Minister, Mr D. M.Jayaratne left the office accepting the constitutional stand of the President.

As you are aware there was a conspiracy to kill the elected President of Sri Lanka and the investigations are being conducted by the Criminal Investigation Division of the Sri Lanka Police. As alleged by the informant, in public, names of Ranil Wickramasinghe and one of his cabinet colleague were mentioned as possible links to the conspiracy.  President addressing the nation, recently, said the plot to assassinate him had prompted him to appoint former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the PM and confirmed the involvement of a Cabinet Minister too in this plot. You will no doubt agree what could have been the consequences to Sri Lanka, if the President was killed under such circumstances. To avert any such danger to the country and the people it was necessary for the President to have taken action using powers bestowed in him by the constitution.

Further, it has to be mentioned as Australia has expressed their wish for Sri Lanka to use democratic means in facing the present issue,  that the base of democratic government in Sri Lanka was crushed by Ranil Wickramasinghe’s administration when they decided not have Provincial Council elections, after his party’s island wide defeat in local government elections conducted early this year. His party, UNP, received only 34% compared to the 48% of the votes received by the party led by the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa . Further, Ranil Wickramasinghe’s administration chose to undemocratically appoint the Leader of the Opposition in the country’s Parliament, a MP who had only 16 MPs, ignoring the 56 MPs of the Joint Opposition led by the former President. It is unfortunate that Australia opted to ignore so long such basic violations of democratic rights of Sri Lankans without even having a friendly discussion with the former Prime Minister.

While welcoming .Australia’s friendly relationship with Sri Lanka, we as Australians of Sri Lankan origin wish to reiterate that Sri Lanka is a sovereign country with a long history of Parliamentary democracy has the wisdom and the right to manage its domestic issues as much as Australian Coalition Government democratically has to seek the support of the cross benchers in the approval of new bills.

We trust that our clarification will assist you with regard to the your evaluation of the appointment of the new Prime Minister in Sri Lanka

Thanking you

Ranjith Soysa

SPOKESPERSON

COPY

1 Hon Bill Shorten – The Leader of the Opposition

2 Hon Micheal McCormack- Dy Prime Minister

3 Hon M,Payne – Foreign Minister

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය කැෆේ සංවිධානය

2018 නොවැම්බර් 2

උදය ආර්. සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා,
ජනාධිපති ලේකම්තුමා,
ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය,
කොළඹ 01.

ප්‍රිය ලේකම්තුමනි,

බැදුම්කර වාර්තාවේ ඇමුණුම් ලබා ගැනීම සදහා ඉල්ලීමයි

1. 2018 ජනවාරි18 දින සිට අද දක්වා මාස 11 කට ආසන්න කාලයක්, බැදුම්කර වංචා විමර්ශනය සදහා පත් කළ ජනාධිපති කොමිෂන් සභාවේ සියළුම ලේඛන ලබා දෙන ලෙස මා විසින් එවකට ජනාධිපති ලේකම් ඔස්ටින් ප්‍ර‍නාන්දු මහතා වෙත අවස්ථා ගණනාවක දී, ඉල්ලීම් කොට ඇත.  ඒ පිළිබද අවසන් ඉල්ලීම 2018 ජූනි 12 දින සිදු කරන ලදී.
2. මෙම ඉල්ලීම, ගරු කථානායකතුමා වෙත ද යොමු කර ඇති නමුත්, ඒ සදහා ද පිළිතුරු ලැබී නැත. මෙ වාර්තාවේ පිටපත ඔබ දන්නා පරිදි මේ වන විට ශ්‍රී ලංකා ලේඛනාරක්ෂක දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව වෙත බාර දී ඇති අතර, ජනාධිපති ලේකම්වරයාගේ උපදෙස් නොමැතිව එහි පිටපත් නිකුත් කිරීම හෝ පරිහරණය සදහා ලබාදීම සිදු කළ නොහැකි බව මා වෙත දන්වා ඇත.

ජාතික ලේඛනාරක්ෂක පනතේ 3 වන වගන්තිය යටතේ, ජනාධිපති කොමිෂන් සභා වාර්තාවක පිටපත් ලබා ගැනීමට, ජනාධිපති ලේකම්වරයා ලිඛිත අවසරය ලැබිය යුතුය. 

බැදුම්කර වාර්තාවේ සියළු ලේඛණ පිටපත් ලබා ගැනීම සදහා වන වන අවසරය හා අනුමැතිය ජාතික ලේඛනාරක්ෂක දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අධ්‍යක්ෂකවරිය වෙත ලබා දෙන ලෙස ඉතා කාරුණිකව ඉල්ලමි.

මෙයට

විශ්වාසී,

කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන්

විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/කැෆේ සංවිධානය

 Dr Sudath Gunasekara

My Dear Gota, 1.11 2018

First of all let me congratulate you for getting cleared the first and the most crucial hurdle of removing Ranil the traitor. I am also happy that MR is now under full control of the Three Forces and the Police Dept, the Treasury and the entire machinery of Government as the de-facto head of the new Government.

I am addressing this timely and very important note to you to request you to personally  intervene immediately and get the Parliament dissolved ASAP, without desperately waiting to count numbers on the 16 as none of these rouges in Parliament, in my view are dependable and reliable as you also know it and as you are the only man who can and who will do this as well.

Me atisayinma avadanam tatvayen Rata,Jatiya ha Sasanaya bera geniimata  avasya saktiya ha dairya Budusaranin ha siyaludevi pihiten oba tumata labevai mama itasitin ha desapremayen pratana karami..

I have already stressed the importance of dissolving Parliament to my good friend Rev Muruttettuwe Ananda Thero as well this morning

To Dinesh Gunawardhana 1.11 2018

Yadamini please tell Tatta to get the President and MR to immediately dissolve the Parliament ASAP without desperately  waiting to count the most unpredictable and unreliable numbers on the 16th as none of these rascals in Parliament are reliable.

For instance look at Wasantha Senanayaka who openly declares that he is still a UNP man in spite of the fact  he had been given a key Ministry

Me marantika satanin goda ena nivaradina ekama kramaya tama Parlimentuwa visuruwa hera chandekata yema.

Den chandayak tibboth oya tawama Agameti kiyana minihage paksayata asana 30k wath labenne ne.

Me gena mama Gotata saha Muruttettuwe hamuduruwantath adad ude kiva

I would like to be kept informed of the progress pl.

Budusaranai!

Sudath mama

දෙනගම ධම්මික රණවීර උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ඒකීය බව නමට පමණක් තිබීම ප්‍රමාණවත් නැති බවත් බෙදුම්වාදීන්ගේ සහ ජාත්‍යන්තර මැදිහත් වීම් අනවශ්‍ය බවත් ගෝලීය ශ්‍රී ලංකා සංසදයේ සංස්කාරක නීතිඥ ගැමුණු කරුණාරත්න ප්‍රකාශ කෙළේය.

ඔහු එම අදහස් පළ කළේ ඊයේ (1දා) මහජන පුස්තකාලයේ දී ගෝලීය ශ්‍රී ලංකා සංසදය පැවැත්වූ මාධ්‍ය හමුවකට සහභාගි වෙමින්ය.
එහිදී ගැමුණු කරුණාරත්න මහතා මෙසේද පැවැසීය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ස්වාධීන රටක් බව නොතකා ඇතැම් විදේශ රටවල් කරන බලපෑම් අපි ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරනවා. පරමාධිපත්‍ය ජනතාව සතුයි. එසේ නම් ඇයි පිටස්තර බලවේග ඊට සම්බන්ධ වෙන්නෙ?

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ඒකීය බවට විරුද්ධව බෙදුම්වාදීන් කටයුතු කරනවා. නව ව්‍යස්ථාව මඟින් මේ රට ‘ඔරුමිත්තනාඩු’ කියල හඳුන්වා දී තිබෙන්නෙත් ඒ සඳහායි. රට තුළ සිටින සහ විදේශවල සිටින බෙදුම්වාදීන් ඊට අනුබල දෙනවා. ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නමින් පමණින් නෙවෙයි ක්‍රියාවෙනුත් ඒකීය විය යුතුයි.

සංහිඳියාව ගෝලීය ශ්‍රී ලංකා සංසදය අගය කරනවා. කර්නල් රත්නප්‍රිය බන්දු ජිනීවා එක්කගෙන යමින් සැබෑ සංහිඳියාව ගැන අදහස් දැක්වීමට අප බලාපොරොත්තු වෙනවා. ප්‍රායෝගික විදියට සංහිඳියාව කුමක්ද කියලා ඔප්පු කළ අයට ඒ සඳහා සහාය දෙන මෙන් වත්මන් රජයෙනුත් අපි ඉල්ලා සිටිනවා.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව අස්ථාවර රටක් කියල විදේශ රටවලට ගිහින් කියන විට ඒ රටවල් සරණාගතභාවය ලබා දීමට සලකා බලනවා. ඒක ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට කැළලක්.

විවිධාකාරයෙන් ලෝකයේ රටවල් බෙදන්න කටයුතු කළ ආකාරයන් ලෝකයේ තිබෙනවා. සයිප්‍රසයත් එවැනි උදාහරණයක්. උතුර වෙන්කර ගැනීමට උතුරට පමණක් සීමා වූ වීසා නිකුත් කිරීමේ ක්‍රමවේද පවා ක්‍රියාවට නැංවිය හැකියි. එවැනි අනතුරු හඳුනාගෙන නව ගමනක් යෑමට හොඳ අවස්ථාවක් උදා වී තිබෙනවා.

අධ්‍යක්ෂ මණ්ඩල සාමාජික ශලින්ද්‍ර වික්‍රමාරච්චි
රටේ ඇති වී තිබෙන දේශපාලන සමාජ ව්‍යාකූලත්වය හමුවේ රටේ අභ්‍යන්තර කටයුතුවලට විදේශ මැදිහත්වීම් අපි හෙළා දකිනවා. පසුගිය වසර තුනහමාර තුළ මේ රටේ පාලකයන් ජාත්‍යන්තරය හමුවේ නිහීන විදියට හැසිරීමේ ප්‍රතිඵලයක් තමයි ඒක.

අපි ස්වෛරී රාජ්‍යයක් බව පෙර සිටි පාලකයන් කැමැත්තෙන් අමතක කිරීමේ ප්‍රතිඵල අද භුක්ති විඳින්න වෙලා. අපේ රට තවදුරටත් විදේශ කොළනියක් නෙවෙයි. ඒක තේරුම් ගෙන වැඩකළ යුතුයි.

පසුගිය කාලයේ පැවැතියේ බෞද්ධ සංස්කෘතිය හඳුනා නොගත් ඊට ගරු නොකළ ආණ්ඩුවක්. හාමුදුරුවන් පවා සිරගත කරමින් තමයි ඔවුන් පාලනය ගෙන ගියේ.
ගෝලීය ශ්‍රී ලංකා සංසදය ආරම්භ කළේ රටේ ඒකීයභාවය ආරක්ෂා කිරීම, රණවිරුවන්ගේ අයිතීන් ආරක්ෂා කිරීම වැනි පොදු පරමාර්ථ වෙනුවෙන්. ඒකට පක්ෂ දේශපාලනයක් නැහැ. තිබෙන්නේ ජාතික න්‍යායපත්‍රයක්.

විදේශවල ජීවත් වන, රැකියා කරන දේශප්‍රේමී එකමුතුවකින් යුතුව ගෝලීය ශ්‍රී ලංකා සංසදය රටවල් ගණනාවක ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙනවා. විශේෂයෙන් මානව හිමිකම් අභියෝගයට මුහුණ දීමේදී ස්වේච්ඡාවෙන් රට වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටිනවා.

ලබන මාර්තු මාසයේදීත් අපට විශාල අභියෝගයක් තිබෙනවා. පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුවේ ක්‍රියාකලාපය නිසා අපේ රටේ අභිමානයට කැළලක් වුණා. ඒක ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීමට නව ආණ්ඩුවට වගකීමක් තිබෙනවා.

බෙංගමුවේ නාලක හිමි
ආණ්ඩුවක් කළ යුතු දේ තමයි ගෝලීය ශ්‍රී ලංකා සංසදය ජාත්‍යන්තරය තුළ සිදු කරන්නේ. පසුගිය වසර තුනහමාර තුළ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ජාත්‍යන්තරයේ කොලනියක් බව සිතාගෙනයි කටයුතු කළේ.

අද ජනාධිපතිතුමා ඍජු තීරණ ගන්නවා. එවැනි නායකයන් තමයි අපි රැකගත යුත්තෙ. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ වැනි මිනිස්සු මේ රටට තවදුරටත් අවශ්‍ය නැහැ.

By Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island

The JVP yesterday said it would remain neutral as regards the ongoing power struggle between the UPFA and the UNP. It denied rumours that it had pledged support to ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe during a meeting, chaird by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, at the parliamentary complex yesterday.

JVP Kalutara District MP Dr Nalinda Jayatissa, contacted for comment, told The Island that he and his parliamentary colleague Vijitha Herath had attended the meeting, summoned by the Speaker.

Dr Jayatissa said MP Herath had vehemently opposed an attempt by the UNP to move a resolution to the effect that the 118 MPs, who were present at the meeting were supportive of Wickremesinghe.

The MPs met in the Committee room one to discuss the current situation and the next sitting date of Parliament.

UNP MPs proposed a two-point resolution to condemn the prorogation of Parliament and condemn the appointment of the new Prime Minister and Cabinet of ministers. However, the parties including the JVP, refused to sign the resolution stating that they had been summoned for a different purpose, which was to discuss the issue and not to signa resolution against the government.

The resolution was presented to the group of 118 MPs by UNP MP Ajith P Perera and was seconded by MP Champika Ranawaka.

Former Minister of Public Enterprise and Kandy City Development Lakshman Kiriella said, at the meeting, that the President of the country had acted against his mandate.

“First it was wrong to appoint a new MP who does not have a majority in parliament. Second, the prime minister was appointed from a party which had lost the last general election. The prorogation of parliament was against parliamentary traditions. As per the traditions of parliament, the President should have consulted the Speaker before proroguing parliament. There had been no such consultation. We follow the traditions of British parliament. Even the Queen of England does not prorogue the British Parliament without consulting the Speaker. We should stand against this. We have the majority of MPs here and we are asking the Speaker to oppose the unjust act.

JVP Propaganda Secretary MP Vijitha Herath said that he and his colleague Kalutara District JVP MP Dr Nalinda Jayatissa were at the meeting to discuss the next course of action with regard to the convening of parliament and not to support either party to the dispute. We are not signing the resolution and if we are to sign any such we need to discuss it before within our party and make a decision.

JVP MP Dr Jayatissa later said that some pro-UNP websites had reported that JVP”, too, had supported the UNP resolution and that was wrong. The party issued an official statement stating that it only wanted the reconvening of Parliament and nothing else.

MPs of UNP, SLMC, TNA, JVP, ACMC, JHU, Tamil Progressive Alliance and Democratic People’s Movement attended the meeting.

The meeting lasted for nearly two hours from 10.15 am.

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror

If UNP MP Palitha Range Bandara was offered money by the government to cross over, he should lodge a compliant to the police without delay, UPFA MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage said today.

When asked whether anyone from the government had offered a bribe to MP Range Bandara or others to join it, the MP said, I saw that MP Range Bandara has made such an allegation. All I have to say is that if he was offered money, he should go to the police and lodge a complaint in this regard,” Aluthgamage said.

MP Range Bandara yesterday revealed that he was offered USD 2.8 million and a ministerial portfolio to join the government.