Professor A.H.Sheriffdeen FRCS, Emeritus Professor of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Colombo.
Dr. Ruvaiz Haniffa MD, Head, Family Medicine Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo

October 7, 2018, 12:00 pm
Introduction

Female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other forms of deliberate injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. This practice is mostly carried out by traditional circumcisers, who often play other central roles in communities, such as attending on child births and assisting religious preparation of the dead (especially females) for burial. In many settings. Even health care providers perform FGM taking comfort in the erroneous belief that the procedure is safer when medicalized. The World Health Organization (WHO) strongly urges health professionals not to perform such procedures as it has no health benefits for girls or women. The data indicated that FGM is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and age of 15 years.

The reason why it is performed vary from a religious to a mix of sociocultural factors within families and communities. The commonly cited reasons are;

1. Religious belief – Religious leaders take varying positions with regards to FGM, some promote it, some consider it irrelevant to religion and others contribute toward its elimination.

2. Social convention – pressure to conform to what others do and have been doing as well so as to be accepted socially and the fear of being rejected by the community over a myriad of communal settings. (In some communities FGM is universally performed and is unquestioned)

Research shows that, if practicing communities themselves decide to abandon FGM, the practice could be rapidly eliminated

In 2008, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution (WHA 61.16) on the elimination of FGM emphasizing the need for concerted action in all sectors – health, education, finance, justice and women’s affairs.This l ed to the United Nations General Assembly adopting a resolution to eliminate the practice of FGM in December 2012. Furthermore, in May 2016, the WHO in collaboration with the UNFPA-UNICEF joint programme on FGM launched the first evidence-based guidelines on the management of health complications from FGM. The guidelines were developed based on systematic review of the best available evidence on health interventions for women living with FGM – estimated to be around 200 million in 30 countries across Africa, Middle East and Asia where FGM is concentrated.

We shall deal with the topic under 4 headings;

1. The Islamic basis for/against female circumcision

2. Health benefits or lack of it as a result of female circumcision

3. The definitions/nomenclature/semantics

4. Brief discussion

1. The Islamic basis for/against female circumcision

We admit straightaway that we are not qualified at all to contest the religious scholars on the finality over this heading and we seek their learned guidance. A review of the Islamic literature indicates that religious scholars over the millennia have agreed that the “hadiths”which deal with female circumcision are at the very best ‘weak’.This means that they cannot be used to create an Islamic ruling since it is not certain whether it came from the Prophet or not.

The Quran does not mention female circumcision, even though a whole sura (chapter) is devoted to the Islamic life of the female and protection of the Health of the female. Moreover, a feature of concern is that there is evidence that the Holy Prophet

Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) did not subject his daughters to any of the procedures of circumcision. There is also an oft repeated narration that the Holy Prophet once looked at his eldest daughter Fathima and tears poured from his eyes and that moments later he had looked at her again and smiled. When questioned as to why he wept and smiled soon after, he had said that a vision had appeared to him of her funeral and that tears had come to his eyes and that soon after a vision had come showing him meeting up with her in paradise, which had brought the smile to his face. We leave our readers to infer and to come to their own conclusions from this relevant to this discussion.

2. Health benefits or lack of it as a result of female circumcision

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), any type of female circumcision has no known health benefit. One needs to understand that the male and female genital anatomy are totally different in terms of structure, function and susceptibility to diseases and infections and what applies to one need not necessarily apply to the other.

In the female, the clitoris is the uppermost organ in the perineum. It is a vestigial structure with no useful physiological function. It has a prepuce or “hood”.A little distance below it is the urethral orifice which transmits urine and does not get involved in sexual activity. Further below this is the vaginal orifice and passage which is a canal for sexual activity and the passage for childbirth. Sexually transmitted infections infect the vagina.

The male organ, the penis on the other hand serves as a passage for urine, sperms and comes into direct mucosal contact with the vagina during intercourse. Mucosal to mucosal contact facilitates transmission of sexually transmittable diseases from female to male and vice versa. The male urethra is thus vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases, especially gonorrhea.

Circumcision in the male exposes the distal end of the penis, the glans penis to outside air resulting in change of its outer covering from mucosa to stratified squamous epithelium. There is Level 3 (weak) evidence to show that such circumcision protects some males from HIV infections. The clitoris on the other hand, being some distance from the site of sexual activity, has no role to play in transmitting or receiving sexually transmitted diseases. Female circumcision therefore plays no part in protecting a female from these diseases including the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). HPV is commonly found in females who have unprotected sex with multiple partners; whether the female is circumcised or not. A more reliable preventive strategy of prevention of HPV infection and its consequences and complications is vaccination. The HPV vaccine is offered to all females routinely through the world.

The role of smegma (a sebaceous secretion in the folds of the skin, especially under the foreskin of the male penis), as a causative factor in genital tract malignancies particularly in the male is under continuing discussion. The current evidence suggests that smegma itself is probably not responsible for penile cancer, but it can irritate and inflame the penis, which can increase the risk of cancer (American Cancer Society). In this context the smegma originating from the uncircumcised clitoris and it leading to unpleasant and other more serious health consequences pale into comparison as in the female more smegma is produced under the labia. No amount of ‘hoodectomy’(Type 1a Female Genital Mutilation) or washing only the clitoris is going to reduce this.

3. The definitions/nomenclature/semantics

The words “Hoodectomy”,”Clitoridectomy”and “Infibulation”are certainly meaningful to the informed. The complete typology and subdivisions of Female Genital Mutilation can be obtained from: http:/www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/fgm/overview/en/)

4. Discussion

The vital questions in the performance of female circumcision are;

a. Who is going to perform this surgical procedure?

b. Who maintains standards/ quality control?

The person undertaking such procedure should mandatorily be required to be aware of the different types of procedures as described in medical/surgical texts and been trained in them.

This training will require also managing the associated complication of such procedure primarily the complication of scarring. There is evidence that such scarring causes stricture or severe narrowing of vaginal passage giving rise to complications such as obstructed labour, foetal and even maternal death of the mutilated child later on in life. (http:/data.unicef.org)

For males, there is the traditional village “Ostad”who has acquired expertise passing it from father to son or an acolyte through apprenticeship. Then there are MBBS doctors trained to carry this out usually under local anesthesia in an operation theatre environment. Thirdly there are even Consultant Surgeons who carry them out.

Circumcision in the male is a therapeutic operation for a condition called “Phimosis”where the foreskin or prepuce cannot be retracted. One of us has over 50 years of experience in surgical practice. He has seen a fair number of young boys, even infants with horrendous injuries to the penis as a result of errors/misadventures during the act of circumcision. These have occurred in spite of the male penis being very much larger and easily accessible when compared to the clitoris and its hood which is hidden in the labial folds, especially in children. Such injuries usually go undisclosed and are closely hidden as parents do not want negative publicity for and stigmatization of the unfortunate victim.

During the times of “ignorance”before the birth of Islam, as propagated by Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), female children were often killed soon after birth or even buried alive. Female circumcision too was a cultural practice prevalent in pre-Islamic Arabia. One of the proud achievements of Islam is the banning and stopping of these barbaric practices, together with emancipation of the innocent little girl child and protection of women. We need not go back.

We wish to conclude by reminding the reader that as recommended by the First International Conference on Islamic Medicine held in Kuwait in January 1981, the following were identified as six basic characteristics of Islamic Medicine;

i. Adhering to Islamic teachings and etiquette

ii. Adhering to logic in practicing medicine

iii. Holistic approach paying equal attention to body, mind and soul for individuals as well as for societies

iv. Universal approach, taking into account all resources and aiming to benefit all people

v. Scientific approach, based on logical conclusions drawn from sound observations, accurate statistics and trustworthy experience

vi. Excellence, achieving what other kinds of treatment has failed to achieve”.

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today

India must be gnashing teeth. The government they installed in Sri Lanka has not only failed them miserably, but is also tarnishing their image. This government did stop Chinese submarines from docking at the Colombo Port. This is of cold comfort when the entire Hambantota Port was leased to China along with another 15,000 acres of land for the next 99 years. India can pretend to the world that China ‘forced’ Sri Lanka to hand over the Seaport, but they know the Sri Lankan Government ‘dropped’ the Seaport on China’s lap. Getting the Mattala Airport would only be a face saver, for without the Seaport, the Airport’s full value cannot be garnered.

Revelation at UN

At the recently concluded United Nations General Assembly in New York, Maithripala Sirisena revealed that during the last two weeks of the war, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were planning an aerial attack on Colombo from India, possibly Chennai. If India were to claim that they were unaware of such an attack, which would be to admit that their own intelligence was lacking. Neither can they admit to being aware of such plans, for that would tantamount to planning the invasion of a sovereign country. All India can do is studiously ignore the comment, as they had to with the Hambantota Port matter.

Meanwhile, in the Jaffna Peninsula and Batticaloa, a number of commemoration events were organized to remember the hardcore terrorist Thileepan. The commemoration commenced at the Thileepan memorial statue near Nallur Kovil, in Jaffna, and spanned to other areas over the days. These events were attended by Tamil politicians and families of the missing and dead terrorists. The injunction, the Police filed, failed to ban the commemoration events and remove all decorations for a terrorist who belonged to an organization that is banned in Sri Lanka. The Jaffna Magistrate, Sinnathurai Satheeskaran, rejected the Police request after the Tamil National Alliance spokesman, Parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran, with a team of lawyers represented the Jaffna Municipal Councillor S. Jayaseelan who was summoned by the Magistrate following the injunction filed by Police. The government did not bat an eyelid.

While the media hardly makes a flutter about the significance of 19 May, anymore, a number of articles appeared waxing eloquent phrases about Thileepan. One newspaper article even equated this hardcore terrorist to Mahatma Gandhi.

True, Mahatma Gandhi too engaged in a number of fasts to pressurize the powers of the day. However, that hardly makes Thileepan another Mahatma Gandhi, just because he too engaged in a fast-unto-death protest. The article stated that he was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. A greater insult could not have been levelled against the humanitarian, which bounces on to India as well.

Mahatma Gandhi is a celebrated figure of righteousness, even amongst those whom he protested against, because his fight was not for exclusive rights, but for collective rights. He stood for religious harmony and acceptance. He eschewed violence on principle, not because he was incapacitated.

Thileepan on the other hand had to be relegated to the LTTE ‘political’ wing after he sustained injuries at Operation Vadamarachchi. His fight was to get rid of the Sinhalese from one third of our country’s land. In his fight, he did not only battle with Sri Lanka’s  professional military forces, but also engaged in murderous and marauding acts against innocent Sinhala villagers and acts of intimidation against his own people.

Incidentally, his fast-unto-death protest was not against the Sri Lankan Government, but against the Indian Government. He was pressurizing the Indian Government to withdraw the Indian Peace Keeping Force that was installed in Sri Lanka’s North and the East.

The background to the IPKF ending up in Sri Lanka was revealed at the recently held dinner in honour of Mahinda Rajapaksa by ruling Bharatiya Janata Party MP Dr. Subramanyam Swamy. At the event, Rajiv Gandhi’s Minister of State for External Affairs, Natwar Singh recalled that Rajiv Gandhi rushed the IPKF without Cabinet knowledge after receiving a frantic phone call from the then Sri Lankan President, J.R. Jayewardene.

Panic call  

Contrary to popular belief that India forced its troops on us, Singh recalls that Jayewardene had called in panic for Gandhi’s help after the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement was signed. Apparently, Jayewardene had said, There will be a coup tonight. I need your help. Unless help arrives immediately, the situation will get out of hand.”

The journalist S. Venkat Narayan who accompanied Gandhi also remembers the tense situation that was developing when Gandhi arrived in Sri Lanka to sign the Accord. He writes that Colombo was burning and the entire entourage had to be airlifted to Galle Face Green and then taken to their hotel, The Taj Samudra.

It was at the conclusion of this ignominious trip that a naval rating assaulted Gandhi with a rifle butt. While his action caused a huge embarrassment to the then Sri Lankan Government, Wijemuni Vijitha Rohana de Silva became an instant hero among Sri Lankans. Subsequently, Jayewardene’s successor Ranasinghe Premadasa bestowed him a Presidential Pardon.

The important point here though is that India risked the relationship with Sri Lanka by coming with their Accord to give a political solution to the Sri Lankan Tamils. Interestingly though, their focus was on the Tamils in the North and the East than the Indian descendants in the Hills. The Indian descendants, under the leadership of Saumyamoorthi Thondaman, rather than fighting for exclusive rights, worked to integrate with the country’s system. Today, many are no longer estate workers engaged in menial tasks living in substandard living conditions. Rather, they have entered other fields as professionals and are living on par with other Sri Lankans.

Tamils in the North especially, who once dominated the top professional fields, are now struggling to find a livelihood to keep themselves afloat.

Instead of taking a leaf from the veteran politician Thondaman, India resorted to pressurize the Sri Lankan Government to adapt India’s model disregarding that the two countries are as different as chalk and cheese.

India was totally committed to the task of giving the Sri Lankan Tamils in the North and the East a political say and governing powers of self-determination. While all the terrorist groups, funded, trained and supported by the Indian Government, fell in line with India’s plans and entered the political stream, the LTTE alone refused. It is against this Indian intervention that Thileepan launched a fast-unto-death
protest.

India’s failure to get the LTTE to fall in line that resulted in Sri Lanka facing another 22 years of terrorism, is laid squarely on India’s shoulders. Despite the passage of years, the relationship between the two countries continues to be strained. That is one main reason for the failure of the free trade agreement that India has been promoting for years, first as CEPA and now as ECTA. Even when the Hambantota Port was being handed over to the Chinese, Sri Lankans, though sad, thought it is perhaps better to have a Chinese presence to neutralize India.

Until now, war crimes allegations were against Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka. However, Sirisena by accepting that it was he who was in charge during this questionable period has exonerated them and has wittingly or unwittingly taken on the responsibility. This makes India guilty of installing the very man who is now responsible for the war crime charges in which Darusman’s Report estimate as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians were indiscriminately killed by the Sri Lankan Government. Thus, India can, now, never openly acknowledge their contribution to end terrorism in Sri Lanka, nor their efforts to look after those caught in the crossfire. Sirisena’s further remarks that implicate India of planning to attack Sri Lanka makes matters worse for India’s image.

While Sirisena was making this remark, TNA leader R. Sampanthan, while on a tour in India with the Sri Lankan Government, asked Narendra Modi to be strict with Sri Lanka and have the new Constitution implemented. Few days later TNA Spokesman Sumanthiran was arguing in the Jaffna Magistrate Courts to allow the commemoration of Thileepan’s protest against India’s intervention.

When will India learn that elements treacherous to one’s own country, for selfish gains, do not make trustworthy partners?

(ranasingheshivanthi@gmail.com)

ජනමාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයයි සමස්ත ලංකා හෙද සංගමය

රටේ ප‍්‍රධානතම රෝහල මෙන්ම සියළුම රෝග තත්ව හදුනාගැනීමට හා ඒ සදහා වූ විශේෂ ප‍්‍රතිකාර ලබාදෙන ස්ථානයක් ලෙසත් මෙරට අහිංසක රෝගී ජනතාවගේ විශ්වාසයට පාත‍්‍රව තිබෙන්නේ ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා ජාතික රෝහලයි. එහි ප‍්‍රධාන විකිරණ අංශය යනු රෝගීන්ගේ විවිධ රෝග පරීක්ෂාවන් සිදු කරන ප‍්‍රධාන ස්ථානයයි.

නමුත් පසුගිය මාස 04ක පමණ කාලයක සිට ප‍්‍රධාන විකිරණ අංශයේ සිදුකල පටකවේදීය පරීක්ෂණ (biopsy test) මේ වනවිට  සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම නවතා ඇති බව අනාවරණය වේ. මේ පිළිබද සොයා බැලීමේ දී පටක වේදීය පරීක්ෂණ සිදු කිරීම සදහා භාවිතා කරන ඉදිකටු වර්ග (biopsy  needles)  නොමැතිකම නිසා මෙම පරීක්ෂණ නවතා ඇති බවට තොරතුරු වාර්ථා වේ. මෙම ඉදිකටු වර්ග ඉතා මිල අධික බවත්, ඒවා විකිරණ අංශයට සපයනු ලබන්නේ රටේ ප‍්‍රධාන පෙලේ් ඖෂධ හා ශල්‍ය උපකරණ ආනයනය කරනු ලබන සමාගම් කිහිපයක් හරහා බවත් පැවැසේ.

මෙම ඉදිකටු නොමැති බව බොහෝ කලකට පෙර විකිරණ අංශයත්, රෝහලේ විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍යවරු විසිනුත් රෝහල් අධ්‍යක්ෂක ඇතුළු බලධාරීන්ට දැනුම් දී තිබේ. එහෙත් එම උපකරණ  ගෙන්වීමට විධිමත් වැඩපිළිවෙලක් පසුගිය කාලය මුළුල්ලේම ක‍්‍රියාත්මක නොවූ බව සේවකයින් පවසයි. 2017 සහ 2018 වර්ෂ සදහා ඇස්තමේන්තුවක් හෝ සකස්කර නොමැති බවටද තොරතුරු ලැබී ඇත. මේ ක‍්‍රියාදාමයන් පිටුපස බරපතල කොමිස් ජාවාරමක් තිබෙන බවටද තොරතුරු ලැබී ඇත.

විවිධ පිළිකා රෝග හදුනාගැනීම සම්බන්ධව සිදුකරන පරීක්ෂණ කලට වෙලාවට සිදුකර ගැනීමට තිබුණු හැකියාව මේ තත්වය තුළ රෝගීන්ට අහිමි වී ඇත. මෙය මුදල් හැකියාව නොමැති අහිංසක ජනතාවගේ ජීවිත වලට දැඩිව බලපා තිබෙන බව වාර්තා වේ. එබැවින් උද්ගතව ඇති මේ තත්වය පිළිබද සොයා බලා අවශ්‍ය ඉදිකටු රෝහලට ලබා දී රෝගීන්ගේ ජීවත්වීමේ අයිතිය රැකදීම සදහා වහා මැදිහත් වන මෙන් සෞඛ්‍ය ඇමතිවරයා ඇතුළු සෞඛ්‍ය බලධාරීන්ගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

ස්තුතියි.

The Editorial Courtesy The Island

Despite some reassuring noises from the Central Bank, the rupee keeps depreciating and the repercussions across the national economy must necessarily be pervasive. We’ve already had a fuel and gas price increase and given the way the global oil markets are behaving, it is unlikely that local prices will remain frozen at current levels over any length of time. They are most likely to go up further. Up until now, the government has not revealed the oil pricing formula. A week ago we urged in this space that this formula be made public and predicted that if this is not done sooner than later, an application under the Right to Information (RTI) law will be inevitable. Such a formula, replete with technical jargon, will obviously not be intelligible to most ordinary people. But businessmen will need to know where the prices will go to plan for eventualities. This will not be possible if the formula is not made public. Meanwhile public transport fares, both bus and rail, have gone up. We dread to think of what the rising price of aviation fuel will do to SriLankan Airlines which has been bleeding the economy for a number of years since the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, for petty personal reasons, chose to terminate what was then a profitable partnership with Emirates.

The Colombo Stock Exchange is a barometer on the state of the economy and it has taken a heavy beating in recent months reaching a four and a half year low in the middle of last week. It looked up on Thursday and Friday and brokers reported that this reversed three consecutive weeks of downturn. But it is unlikely that the market is going improve dramatically in the short to medium term with the foreign sell-off continuing. While there are some hopes that a return to the market by the EPF, now being talked about but with no firm dates set, will improve the situation. The exchange rate and political uncertainties connected with upcoming elections will most likely continue to keep foreign investors who were a major prop on the CSE out of the market.

National Development Bank (NDB) recently floated a rights issue, priced at Rs. 105 a share which closed under-subscribed last week. The bank was issuing new shares in the proportion of one new share for every three held to its existing shareholders. State agencies were among the lead shareholders of the bank holding considerable stakes. Whether or not they had subscribed to their rights will be known shortly. The 105-rupee price was way below the net asset value per share which ran over Rs. 190 for the year ended Dec. 31, 2017, the last full year for which the bank had published its accounts. Although the NDB share, like most others, was caught up in the share market downturn soon after the rights issue was first announced, there was even then a comfortable premium favoring the rights issue price vis-a-vis the then prevailing secondary market price the share commanded on the CSE. So much so, the bank’s directors did not see the need to spend money underwriting the issue which has fallen short of the approximately Rs. 6.1 billion targeted. By the time the issue closed on October 4, the NDB share had fallen below the rights issue price.

NDB is one of the stronger banks in the country with the Bank of Ceylon as its lead shareholder. Though banking profits in recent years have been spectacular with prices of commercial banking shares shooting up, even these blue chips have taken a heavy beating in the current share market downturn. There is no doubt that the NDB rights issue was badly timed. But saying so now is wisdom after the fact. Shareholders of privately controlled commercial banks like Hatton National Bank and Sampath (that had two rights issues in quick succession) did very nicely out of these issues priced way above that of NDB and were fully subscribed. That, of course, is if they realized profit when the time was right. If they did not and held on to their shares hoping for a further appreciation and bigger capital gain, the market has moved against them.

The government has taken a raft of measures to stem the outflow of foreign exchange to fund imports but these came much later than they should have. It was in 1732 that Alexander Pope famously said in his “An Essay on Man” that “hope springs eternal in the human breast.” People and governments too often postpone difficult decisions in the hope that the situation would improve. Nobody would seriously doubt the proposition that we have far too many privately owned vehicles for a country of our size and resources. Part of the reason for this is the thoroughly inadequate public transport system that incentivizes people to get a vehicle of their own, be it a three-wheeler, motor car or motorbike. While import duties on vehicles have been prohibitively high, succeeding government had sweetened the pill for certain privileged categories including public servants and MPs with concessionary or duty free permits, most of which have been sold at mind-boggling profit. These have now been ‘temporarily’ suspended after nearly all the MPs – the PM and Speaker have been exceptions we’re told – have utilized their entitlements and the media has seized on this with glee.

While the government targets higher revenue, little if anything has been done to eliminate waste and profligacy in the public sector as pointed out by the JVP last week. Tax money is spent with gay abandon on extravaganzas that are obscene in the context of the hardships ordinary people have to face every day. These can only become worse with the decline of the macro economy.

By Udaya P Gammanpila Courtesy Ceylon Today

The rupee is now resting for a while in its continuous sliding journey, thanks to the Central Bank.  The Central Bank has generously released its foreign reserves to the forex market to stabilize the rupee. The Bank has released 184 million dollars for this purpose.

As a result, instead of the rupee, foreign currency reserves are now sliding at an alarming rate.  Any country should maintain foreign reserves  sufficient to cover import costs for three months. Sri Lanka is an import-dependent nation with a colossal foreign debt burden.  Hence, Sri Lanka cannot afford to lose foreign reserves in this manner for a long time.  In this backdrop, the rupee will recommence its downward slide in the near future.

When the rupee depreciation was obvious,  Ministers praised it as a positive trend.  Within weeks the very same Ministers urged the public to curtail foreign travel and imports to arrest the sliding rupee. The Government has imposed a rule that a 100% margin should be deposited with the Bank when Letters of Credit are opened to import household electrical appliances.

The deposit for vehicles is 200%.  In other words, vehicle importers should deposit double the value of the vehicle with the Bank to open LCs.  These measures were taken with a view to curtail import and to mitigate the pressure mounted by imports on the exchange rate.  However, these measures show the Government’s poor understanding in macroeconomics.

The import cost of vehicles and household electrical appliances constitute only 4.4% of total import expenditure in 2017.  Hence, even if the government imposes a total ban of importation of these goods, it can reduce the imports only by 4.4%.

The government entirely forgot its rupee coffers in its attempt to safeguard its Dollar coffers.  Taxes on a vehicle are several fold its value and such taxes are a major contributor to State revenue.  Low vehicle importation means low State revenue.  If there is a drastic drop in revenue, the Government will face difficulty in meeting essential expenses such as salaries and pensions.

The second blunder was the Central Bank’s lethargic attitude towards managing the exchange rate.  The Central Bank has a statutory obligation to stabilize the exchange rate.  However, it did not actively intervene to stabilize the rupee when the US Dollar appreciated by Rs 6 within seven working days from 13 to 21 September.  Traders’ perception play a crucial role in the forex market.  If the people believe that the dollar would further appreciate in the near future, importers expedite imports to purchase dollars at a lower rate.

Thus, the demand for the dollar increases.  On the other hand, exporters delay receiving export income expecting to receive more rupees for a dollar. Consequently, supply of the dollar goes down.  The result of these reactions is the further appreciation of the dollar.

If the Central Bank released several million dollars from its reserves at the early stages, rupee would have stabilized at Rs 163 levels.  Although the Central Bank intervened on 24 September, by then it was too late.  Market forces had already commenced to react expecting the rupee to rapidly slide.

Although the Government’s attempts to stabilize the rupee by curtailing imports, there was no significant increase in import expenditure in the recent past.  The actual cause for the rupee depreciation are three blunders committed by the Government during the first three months of its rule.  In January 2015, the Government announced unbelievable budget proposals to attract voters at the forthcoming parliamentary election.

Sharp drop of fuel prices, salary increase by Rs 10,000 for Government officers were among those.  International fund managers realized that the Sri Lankan economy is at the risk of collapsing since such luxuries cannot be afforded by the already vulnerable economy.  Hence, they commenced to withdraw their investments from the share market.  When they converted their rupee investments to dollars to withdraw from Sri Lanka, the demand for dollars increased appreciating the dollar.

In February 2015, the notorious Government bond scam took place.  The alleged culprit was no less a person than the former Governor of the Central Bank.  The Central Bank is the regulator of the money market.  The Governor is the top officer of the Bank.  When foreign investors are subject to fraud, the Governor is the highest person, they can complain to.  In this situation, the regulator is the culprit as well.

Hence, investors in the money market realized that their investments were not safe.  They began to withdraw from the Sri Lankan money market eying genuinely secure Government securities in other countries. In March 2015, the Government unilaterally stopped the Port City Project.  It is not only a massive Chinese investment and it was none other than the President of China who laid the foundation stone.  No nation in the world, including the USA, dare to terminate a project ceremonially commenced by the Chinese President.

The Chinese Government is the undisputed number one investor in the world.  The other foreign investors in Sri Lanka were terrified by this action.  They could not imagine their fate considering the arrogance of the Sri Lankan Government regarding the largest investor in the world.  Hence, direct foreign investors also began to withdraw from Sri Lanka placing added pressure on the exchange rate.

Friction between President Maithripala Sirisena  and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been obvious since the inception of the Government.  This column named it three years ago as the ‘Smith Syndrome’ elaborating the plot in the Hollywood movie titled ‘Mr& Mrs Smith’.  This friction and indecisiveness of the Government has devastated the confidence of investors in addition to the above-mentioned factors.

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, Oct 5 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lanka’s national air carrier, Sri Lankan Airlines, was named the ‘World’s Most Punctual Airline’ in September by global flight data analysis company ‘Flightstats’, a statement from the airline said here Friday.

පේශල පසන් කරුණාරත්න මාධ්‍ය සම්බන්ධීකාරක වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නන්ගේ සංවිධානය

රත්නපුර දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ කලවාන ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කොට්ඨාශයේ පිහිටා ඇති , ලෝක උරුම සිංහරාජ වනාන්තරයේ පරිවාර වනාන්තරයක් වන කුඩුමීරිය වැසි වනාන්තරය විස රසායන ද්‍රව්‍යය යොදාගනිමින් විනාශ කරන බවට 2018.10.04 වන දින අප විසින් නිකුත් කල මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය පිළිබඳව ඔබ මාධ්‍ය ආයතනයේ අවධානය යොමුකරීම පිළිබඳව වැසිවනාන්තර සුරකින්නන්ගේ සංවිධානයේ ස්තූතිය පිරිනමන අතර මේ වන විට එම රක්ෂිත කලාපයේ විනාශය පිිළිබඳව බොහෝ දෙනාගේ අවදානය යොමුව ඇත.

මෙම අනාවරයෙන් පසුව සමාජ ජාලා කණඩායමක් විසින් මෙම රක්ෂිත ප්‍රදේශය වෙත ගොස් ගම් වාසීන්ගේ අදහස් ඇතිව නිකුත් කල වීඩියෝවක් ඇති අතර එහි සබැඳියද මේ සමඟ අමුණා ඇත. එය ගමන් මෙම රක්ෂිත කලාපය සිදු කර ඇති හානිය තව තවත් මනාව අවබෝද කර ගත හැක.

අදාල බලධාරීන් මේ සම්බන්ධව කටයුතු කරන අයුරු ඉදිරියේදී ඔබ මාධ්‍ය අයතනය දැනවත් කිරීමට අප බලාපොරොත්තු වන අතර මේ පිළිබඳ වැඩිදුර තොරතුරු  වැසි වනාන්තර සුරකින්නන්ගේ සංවිධානයේ කැඳවුම්කරු ජයන්ත විජේසිංහ (0777771348)  මහතා ඇමතීමෙන් ලබාගත හැක.

සමාජ ජාලා කණඩායම විසින් නිකුත් කර ඇති වීඩියෝවෙහි සබැඳිය

https://www.facebook.com/LKulasooriya/videos/1540629896039265/

 Lanka Lead News

දුෂන හෝ අල්ලස් විමර්ශන කොමිසම වෙත අද දින පැමිනෙන ලෙස දන්වා එම කොමොසම විසින් ලිඛිතව සදහන් කර ලිපියක් එවා තිබු බවත් ඒ අනුව අද දින සිලොන් හයිස්පීඩ් රේල්වේස් සමාගමේ සභාපතිනී අනුෂ්කා රේණු මහත්මිය ලිපියේ සදහන් ස්ථානයට නියමිත වෙලාවට BMICH හී පිහිටි දුෂන හෝ අල්ලස් විමර්ශන කොමිසමට වාර්තා කලත් එම ස්ථානයෙන් ජාවත්තේ පිහිටි තවත් ශාකාවක් වෙත යොමු කළ බව අනුෂ්කා රේණු මහත්මිය සදහන් කරයි.

ඒ අනුව ජාවත්තේ පිහිටි එම ශාකාව වෙත ගිය අනුෂ්කා රේණු මහත්මියට එම ස්ථානයෙන් කියා ඇත්තේ අද දින එම පරික්ෂණ බාරව සිටින නිලධාරියා නොමැති බැවින් ඔක්තොම්බර් 12 වන දින නැවත පැමිණෙන ලෙසටයි.

බඩුත් හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ නඩුත් හාමුදුරුවන්ගෙ නීතියේ ස්වාධීනත්වය උජාරුවට කතා කරන යහපාලනය ආණ්ඩුවේ ස්වාධීනත්වය ගැන ජනතාවට අමුතුවෙන් පැහැදිලි කිරිමට අවශ්‍ය නැත.

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂලා හොරා කෑවා කියමින් චෝදනා එල්ල කරන යමපාලුවන් වසර 03ක් ඇතුලත සියල්ල පරදවා ඉදිරියට ඇදෙමින් ඇත.එයට කදිම නිදසුන නම් පසුගියදා මාධ්‍ය මගින් වාර්තා කර තිබුනේ මලික් සමරවික්‍රමගේ ගිනුමට ලක්ෂ 5500ක් එනම් කෝටි 15.5 ක් බැර කලේ කවුරුන්ද යන්න අමාත්‍යවරයා තහවුරු කිරිමට අසමත් වීම නිසා රජය විසින් තහනම් කර ඇති බවයි.

හොරුන්ට නැවත ඇමති කම් ලබා දෙන රජයක ජනාධිපතිවරයා ගැන රටේ ජනතාව කෙසේ විශ්වාස තවන්න්ද..?ලෝකේ වටේ ගිහින් පම්පොරි දොඩවා ඇවිත්.රනිල්ගේ අතකොලුවක් ලෙස අල්ලේ නැටවේන ජනාධිපති ගොයම් යායක මැද සිටවා තබන පබයෙකුට අන්තය.

හොරුන්ව ආරක්ෂා කිරීම රටේ ජනාධිපතිගේ වගකීමද…?මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂට වැරදුනේද එම හෙතුව නිසා බව වත්මන් ජනාධිපතිවරයාටද අමතක වී ඇත.

ජනාධිපති කොහොමද හොරුන්ට දඩුම් කරන්නේ..

වර්තමාන ජනාධිපතිවරයා බලයට පැමිණ මාස තුනක් ගතවන්නට මත්තේන් තම සහොදරයාගේ නමින් මහරගම විද්‍යාකර මාවතේ ඓතිහාසික බොරලැස්ගමුව වැවට මායිම්ව සුවිසල් මාලිගයක් ලක්ෂ 400කට මිලදී ගත් බව මාධ්‍ය වාර්තා කර තිබුනී.

එපමනක් නොව මේ වන විට චතුරිකා සිරිසේන පවා රජයේ ප්‍රචාරන කටයුතු හරහා විශාල මුදල් ඉපයිමක් කරමින් සිටින්නේ පසුගිය රජයේ දැයට කිරුළ වැඩ සටහනින් කෝටී ප්‍රකෝටී ගනන් මුදල් වංචා කළ ප්‍රචාරන ආයතන සමග එක්වෙමිනී.

පසුගිය දා ජල ව්‍යාපෘතියක් ගැන පුරාජේරු කියවන ජනාධිපති එම ව්‍යාපෘතියේ කෙලවර නිර්මාණය කළ බුදුන්ගේ පිළිරුවෙන් පවා මුදල් ගසා ගත්තේ එම රුව නිර්මාණය කිරිමට මාස 09ක් පුරා මහන්සී වූ නිර්මාණ කරුවා එලවා දමා මිරිස්ගල් කොටන්නකු ගෙන්වා නිර්මාණය අවසන් කරමින් ලක්ෂ 126ක් ජනතා මුදල් පිල්ලි ගැසිමෙනී.

ඉතින් කොහොමද ජනාධිපති හොරුන්ට දඩුවම් කරන්නේ..?

රටේ ජනාතව් වෙනුවෙන් රටට ආදය කරන මැති ඇමති වරු දැන් නැත.සියළුම දෙනා තම බඩ ගැන පමනක් සිතන්න උන්‍ ය.

වසර 70ක් තිස්සේ ශ්‍රි ලංකාව පාලනය කර ඇත්තේ වළව් හතරක් විසින්‍ බව ඔබට අප කිව යුතුය.එම වලව් හතර සහ වත්මන් ජනාධිපතිද රටට කළ ලබ්බක් නැත.මේ වන විට ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙමින් තිබෙන්නේ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ විසින් ආරම්භ කරන ලද ව්‍යාපෘති පමනී.

Lanka Lead News

එළැඹෙන අයවැයට පෙර කැබිනට් සංශෝධනයක් සිදුවීමට නියමිත බව රජයේ ආරංචි මාර්ග සඳහන් කරයි.

පසුගිය කාලයේදී ඇමැතිකම අහිමි වූ හිටපු ප්‍රබල ඇමැතිවරයකු ඇතුළු කණ්ඩායමක් අයවැයට පක්ෂව ඡන්දය දීමට නම් අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලයේ වෙනසක් කර තමන්ටද කැබිනට් අමාත්‍ය ධුර ලබා දෙන ලෙස ආණ්ඩුවේ පාර්ශ්වයන්ට බලපෑම් කර ඇතැයි එම ආරංචි මාර්ග තවදුරටත් සඳහන් කරයි.

එසේ කැබිනට් සංශෝධනයක් නොකළහොත් ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය සමග අයවැයට එරෙහිව ඡන්දය පාවිච්චි කර රජය පරාද කිරීමට කටයුතු කරන බව එම කණ්ඩායම ආණ්ඩු ප්‍රධානියා වෙත දන්වා තිබේ.

මේ අතර ශ්‍රී ලංකා ‍පොදු ජන පෙරමුණද එළැඹෙන අයවැයේදී ආණ්ඩුව පරාජය කිරීම සඳහා මන්ත්‍රී ඡන්ද එකතු කිරීමේ ව්‍යාපාරයක මේ දිනවල නිරත වී සිටින බවද දේශපාලන ආරංචි මාර්ග සඳහන් කරයි.

ඒ සමග ආණ්ඩුවේ සිටින ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ ඇතැම් ඇමැතිවරු සහ ආණ්ඩුවෙන් ඉවත් වූ ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ ඇමැතිවරුද ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ සිටින ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂ මන්ත්‍රීවරුද එළැඹෙන අයවැය පරාද කිරීම සඳහා ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ අවසරය ගැනීමට සූදානම් වන බවද වාර්තාවේ.

Courtesy

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)

Screening of internationally acclaimed film by director Jude Ratnam ‘Demons in Paradise’ was canceled by the organizers of the Jaffna International Film Festival in Sri Lanka citing pressure from local groups. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliate the Free Media Movement – Sri Lanka in strongly criticising the decision to cancel the screening, and urges the film festival organizers to respect freedom of expression.

The Tamil-language film, which won the best film award at the Film South Asia 2017 in Kathmandu, explored the civil war in Sri Lanka depicting the life of victims of war, especially in Jaffna. In a statement, director Ratnam claimed the festival organizers decided to remove the film from its scheduled screening on October 5 allegedly over pressure from a group known only as the ‘Community’ in Jaffna.

Ratnam said: I have not yet been given a proper explanation for the removal of my film from the festival schedule. I feel this is a case of censorship and an infringement on the fundamental rights to freedom of expression.”

The organizers of the Jaffna Film Festival in a press release claimed that since Ratnam had failed to observe the respective regulations governing the event, ‘Demons in Paradise’ was not included in the list of films to be screened at the Festival.

FMM convener C. Dodawatta said: The FMM believes the banning of the screening of the film Demons in Paradise is a clear restriction on the exercise of the freedom of expression of the Jaffna residents. It is not necessary to reiterate here the fact that the government forces and the Tamil extremists have taken away the freedom of expression of the civilians in the Jaffna peninsula. The People could enjoy the fruits of democracy only in the instance of being able to exercise the freedom of expression.”

The IFJ said: The cancellation of the scheduled screening of a film citing the pressure from unknown group is censorship and is against the principle of the freedom of expression. The IFJ believes that all citizens of Sri Lanka have the constitutional rights of freedom of expression, and the film is an artistic product enjoying the freedom of artistic expression therefore should be freely screened regardless of its contents. The IFJ condemns the decision of the Jaffna Film Festival organizers, and urges them to respect the rights of the citizens and the filmmakers.”

Kalathma Jayawardhane Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Referring to speculations about the Joint Opposition planning to join hands with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led by President Maithripala Sirisena, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa today said the SLFP should first break ties with the United National Party (UNP) and subsequently they could consider such a tie-up.

Addressing the media following an event held in Colombo, former president Rajapaksa said they would not support the SLFP while they are with the UNP and added that no agreement had been made reached between the joint opposition and the SLFP in this regard.

When inquired whether he discussed these matter with President Sirisena, Mr. Rajapaksa said they had held several discussions earlier.

Meanwhile, he said the Police had now become a corrupt department and added that it was similar to the underworld.

The underworld will not be curbed as long as this government is in power. The underworld nowadays have the sponsorship of the government. The government is protecting IGP Pujith Jayasundara even though some serious allegations have been levelled against him,” he said.

Not only the IGP, but the government would also protect any state officer as its responsibility,” he added. 

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

A meeting between President Maithripala Sirisena and former president Mahinda Rajapaksa had reportedly taken place at a residence of one of the SLFP MPs in Colombo recently, political sources said.

They said the meeting could lead to a change in the political landscape of the country.  However, what was discussed at the meeting is not known.

Source: PTI Courtesy Adaderana

China is using debt diplomacy” to expand its global influence, US Vice President Mike Pence alleged, citing example of a Sri Lankan port which he said could soon become a forward military base for Beijing’s growing blue-water navy.

Pence said China was offering hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure loans to governments from Asia to Africa to Europe to even Latin America. Yet the terms of those loans are opaque at best, and the benefits flow overwhelmingly to Beijing,” Pence said on Thursday.

China uses so-called ‘debt diplomacy’ to expand its influence,” Pence alleged in a major foreign policy speech at the Hudson Institute, a top American think-tank. Just ask Sri Lanka, which took on massive debt to let Chinese state companies build a port with questionable commercial value. Two years ago, that country could no longer afford its payments – so Beijing pressured Sri Lanka to deliver the new port directly into Chinese hands. It may soon become a forward military base for China’s growing blue-water navy,” Pence said.

Within the American hemisphere, Beijing has extended a lifeline to the corrupt and incompetent Maduro regime in Venezuela, pledging USD 5 billion in questionable loans that can be repaid with oil, Pence told the Washington audience. China is also that country’s single largest creditor, saddling the Venezuelan people with more than USD 50 billion in debt.

Beijing is also corrupting some nations’ politics by providing direct support to parties and candidates who promise to accommodate China’s strategic objectives, he said.

Since last year, the Chinese Communist Party has convinced three Latin American nations to sever ties with Taipei and recognise Beijing. These actions threaten the stability of the Taiwan Strait – and the United States of America condemns these actions,” Pence said. He said while the Trump administration will continue to respect One China Policy, as reflected in the three joint communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act, America will always believe Taiwan’s embrace of democracy shows a better path for all the Chinese people.

These are only a few of the ways that China has sought to advance its strategic interests across the world, with growing intensity and sophistication. Yet previous administrations all but ignored China’s actions – and in many cases, they abetted them. But those days are over,” Pence asserted.

Under President Trump’s leadership, the US interests have been defended with renewed American strength, he claimed.

We’ve been making the strongest military in the history of the world stronger still. Earlier this year, the President signed into law the largest increase in our national defense since the days of Ronald Reagan – USD 716 billion to extend our military dominance in every domain,” he said.

We’re modernising our nuclear arsenal, we’re fielding and developing new cutting-edge fighters and bombers, we’re building a new generation of aircraft carriers and warships, and we’re investing as never before in our Armed Forces.

This includes initiating the process to establish the United States Space Force to ensure our continued dominance in space, and authorising increased capability in the cyber world to build deterrence against our adversaries,” he added.

China now spends as much on its military as the rest of Asia combined, and Beijing has prioritised capabilities to erode America’s military advantages – on land, at sea, in the air, and in space, Pence alleged.

China wants nothing less than to push the United States of America from the Western Pacific and attempt to prevent us from coming to the aid of our allies,” he alleged.

Source: PTI

-Agencies

උපුටාගැණීම අද දෙරණ

රට විකුණන කණ්ඩායම් සමඟ රජයක් පිහිටුවීමට තමා කිසිලෙසක කටයුතු නොකරන බව හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පවසයි.

බේරුවල පැවති උත්සවයකදී හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේය.

පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී පියල් නිශාන්ත මහතාගේ සංකල්පයකට අනුව ක්‍රියාත්මක වු ‘සිසු නැණ ප්‍රදීප ගුරු උපහාර උළෙල’ අද(06) බේරුවලදී පැවැත් වුණේ හිටපු ජනපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන්ය.

පයාගල – සුජිත් මාරියෝ   උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

ඒ මෙරට ආරක්ෂක අංශ හා එල්ටීටීඊ ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් යුද වැදුණු සමයයි. එදා 1990 වසරේ ජුනි මස 13දායි. ඔඩ්ඩුසුඩාන් පොලිසියට ප්‍රහාරයක් එල්ල කළ කොටි ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් එහි සිටි පොලිස් නිලධාරීහු 44 දෙනකු අත්අඩංගුවට ගත්හ.

ඔවුන්ගේ අත් හා පාවලට මාංචු දමා දම්වැල්වලින් බැඳ පොළොවේ හාරන ලද විශාල වළවල් තුළ දමා දස වධ දෙමින් තබා ගත් අතර ඔවුන්ට දිනකට පානය කිරීම සඳහා ජලය ලබාදී ඇත්තේ කුඩා වීදුරුවකින් එකකි. ආහාර ලබාදී ඇත්තේ දිනකට එක් වේලකි.

මෙසේ සිටි ඔවුහු තමන් නිදහස් කරන ලෙස ඉල්ලා ආහාර නොගෙන ජලය පමණක් පානය කරමින් උපවාසයක් ආරම්භ කළහ. එලෙස උපවාසය කළ ඔවුන් කොටි ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් විසින් යාපනයේ සුභාෂ් හෝටලයට ගෙන එන ලදී. දින 19ක් තිස්සේ උපවාසයක නිරත වූ ඔවුහු පසුව ජලය පානය කිරීමද අත්හැරියහ.

උපවාස කළ පිරිස අතරෙන් 6 දෙනකුගේ තත්ත්වය අසාධ්‍ය විය. සුදුවන්තුවගේ සනත් ගුණවර්ධන (492) නම් වූ පොලිස් නිලධාරියකු ඒ අතරෙන් එක් අයෙකි. ඔහුට ජලය පානය කිරීම පවා අපහසු වූ බව අප සමඟ පැවැසුවේ ඔහු සමඟ කොටි වධකාගාරයේ සිට නිදහස්ව ආ දැනට මීගහතැන්න පොලිසියේ පාලන අංශයේ ස්ථානාධිපතිවරයා ලෙස කටයුතු කරන උප පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක යූ. අමරසිංහ මහතාය.
කෙසේ හෝ ඊට වසර 4 මාස 3කට පසුව මොවුන්ට වරින්වර නිදහස ලැබිණි. රතු කුරුස සංගමයට භාර දෙනු ලැබූ මොවුන් පළමුව කන්කසන්තුරයටද ඉන්පසු වැල්වැටිතුරේටද ගෙන එනු ලැබූ අතර ඉන්පසු පලාලි සිට ගුවනින් රත්මලානට එවිණි.

සනත් ගුණවර්ධන නම් වූ පොලිස් නිලධාරියා කළුතර පොලිස් අධිකාරි කොට්ඨාසයේ රාජකාරි කරමින් සිටියදී කිසියම් සිද්ධියකට මුහුණ දුන්නේය.

කළුතර වෙට්ටුමකඩ ප්‍රදේශයේ සිදුවූ කලබලකාරී සිද්ධියකදී වෙඩි ප්‍රහාරයකට ලක්ව පුද්ගලයෙක් මිය ගියේය. තමා වෙඩි තැබීමට අණ නුදුන් බව පොලිස් අධිකාරිවරයා කියා සිටියදී නඩු පැවරුණේ නිලධාරීන්ට එරෙහිවය. එම නඩුව තවමත් කළුතර මහාධිකරණයේ විභාග වෙමින් පවතී.

මෙම නඩු කටයුතු නිසා ඔහුට උසස්වීම් නොලැබිණි. සහෝදර පොලිස් නිලධාරීන් පවසන ආකාරයට අද දිවයිනේ සිටින පැරැණිම පොලිස් සැරයන්වරයා ඔහුය.

තෙබුවන පොලිසියට අනුයුක්ත සනත් ගුණවර්ධන සාජන් මහත්තයා ගැන කොයි කවුරුත් කතා කරන්නට පටන් ගත්තේ ඉකුත් 3දා සිටය.

ඔහු පවසන ආකාරයට බලපත්‍ර රෙගුලාසි උල්ලංඝනය කරමින් වැලි ප්‍රවාහනය කළ ටිපර් රථයක් ඔහු අත්අඩංගුවට ගත්තේය.

අදාළ පුද්ගලයන් අධිකරණයට ඉදිරිපත් කර දඬුවම් ලබාදෙනු ඇතැයි ඔහු බලාපොරොත්තු වුවද සිදුවූයේ අනෙකකි. උසස් පොලිස් නිලධාරීන්ගේ උපදෙස් මත එම සැකකරුවන් පොලිසිය විසින් මුදා හරිනු ලැබ තිබිණි.
තෙබුවන පොලිසියට අදාළ මේ නඩුව මතුගම අධිකරණයේ විභාග වීමට නියමිතව තිබුණේ 3දාය.

තමා අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් වැලි ටිපරය හා සැකකරු අධිකරණයට ඉදිරිපත් නොකරන බව තේරුම් ගත් සනත් ගුණවර්ධන සාජන් මහත්තයා ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් පොලිස් ස්ථානාධිපතිවරයාගෙන් විමසීය.
ඔහු අධිකරණයට ඉදිරිපත්

නොකළහොත් වෙඩි තබා ගන්නා බව කියමින් ටී 56 ගිනි අවියක් හා උණ්ඩ 30ක් පිරවූ පතරොම් තුවක්කුද සමඟ ඔහු පොලිසියෙන් පිටතට ආවේය.
චිත්‍රපට රූගත කිරීමක් වැනි වූ ඊළඟ දර්ශන පෙළ දැක ගත හැකි වූයේ ඉන්පසුවය.

ගිනි අවියක් අතැතිව නිල ඇඳුමෙන් සැරසුණු පොලිස් නිලධාරියකු පාරේ සිටීම අරුමයක් නොවුණද තෙබුවන හන්දියේ ගිනි අවිය සමඟ සිටින මොහු ප්‍රදේශයම භීතියට පත් කළේය.
“ඕක පැත්තකින් තියලා එමු” යැයි සහෝදර නිලධාරීන් නොයෙක් ඇවටිලි කළද ඔහු ඊට එකඟ නොවීය.

පසුව කළුතර කොට්ඨාස භාර පොලිස් අධිකාරි උපුල් නිල්මිණි ආරියරත්න මහතාද ඔහු ඉදිරියට ගියේය.

“මම ඔයා වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටිනවා. වෙපන් එක තියලා සාකච්ඡා කරමු” යැයි පොලිස් අධිකාරිවරයා කීය.

“මට අසාධාරණයක් වුණා. මම අල්ලපු වැලි ලොරිය නිදහස් කළා. මම ආපසු එන්නේ එයාව උසාවියට දමලා අදාළ පත්‍රිකාව මට පෙන්වූ පසුවයි” ඔහු කීය.
මෙම පුවත සැලවී එහි පැමිණි ඔහුගේ බිරිය හා දියණියද ඔහු පන්නා දැම්මේය. “යන්නයි කිව්වේ ගෙදර” ඔහු ඔවුන්ට සැරෙන් කීය.

“මම කොටි හිරේ අවුරුදු ගණනක් හිටියා. මට මාංචු පුරුදුයි. මට පොලිසියෙන් අසාධාරණයක් සිදු වුණා. මගේ පඩි කැපුවා. උසස්වීම් නැවත්තුවා.” ඔහු හඬ නඟා කීය.
මෙහිදී පොලිස් විශේෂ කාර්ය
බළකාය කැඳවීමට පොලිස් අධිකාරි උපුල් නිල්මිණි ආරියරත්න මහතාට සිදුවූ අතර බෆල් රථද සමඟ ඔවුහු එම ස්ථානයට පැමිණියහ
.
නිල ඇඳුමින් සැරසුණු පොලිස් විශේෂ කාර්ය බළකායේ එක් උසස් නිලධාරියකු සනත් ඉදිරියට පැමිණ තම අත වූ පිස්තෝලය තවත් නිලධාරියකුට දී අත් දෙපසට විහිදුවා තමා ළඟ අවි ආයුධ නැති බව පෙන්වමින් ඔහු සමඟ සාකච්ඡා කළේය.

එහෙත් ඔහු කියා සිටියේ සැකකරුවන් උසාවි දමන තුරු තමා මෙම ස්ථානයෙන් නොයන බවයි.

පැය දෙකකට අධික කාලයක් තෙබුවන හන්දිය භීතියට පත් කරමින් පැවැති මෙම රංගනය අවසන් වූයේ පස්වරු 2කට පමණය.

සිවිල් ඇඳුමෙන් සැරසුණු පොලිස් විශේෂ කාර්ය බළකායේ නිලධාරීහු දෙදෙනකු

ක්ෂණිකව පැන මොහු සහ මොහු සතුව තිබූ ගිනි අවිය තමන්ගේ ග්‍රහණයට ගත්හ.

එකෙණෙහිම ඔහු ගිනි අවිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමත් සමඟ “ඩෝං……….ඩෝං…….” යනුවෙන් ගිනි අවියෙන් උණ්ඩ දෙකක් නිකුත් වී ගියේය.

මේ අවස්ථාවේ එතැන සිටි ඔහුගේ දුව හා බිරිය ඇතුළු ඥාතීන් විලාප දුන්නේ පොලිස් නිලධාරීන් මොහුට වෙඩි තැබුවේ යැයි ය හැඟීමෙනි.
අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් සැරයන්වරයා පොලිස් ජීප් රථයකින් මතුගමට ගෙනයනු ලැබිණි.

මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් අප කළ විමසුමේදී කළුතර කොට්ඨාස භාර පොලිස් අධිකාරි උපුල් නිල්මිණි ආරියරත්න මහතා කියා සිටියේ පොලිස් සැරයන්වරයා අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන තිබූ වැලි ටිපරයට වැලි ප්‍රවාහනය සඳහා බලපත්‍ර තිබූ බවයි. ඒ අනුව ඔහු මුදාහැරිය බව ඒ මහතා සඳහන් කළේය.

මෙය වැරැදි පූර්වාදර්ශයක් විය හැකි බැවින් මොහුගේ වැඩ තහනම් කරන බවද ඒ මහතා කීය.

සැරයන්වරයා මානසික රෝග විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍යවරයකු වෙත යොමු කරන ලෙස අධිකරණයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටින බවද පොලිස් අධිකාරිවරයා සඳහන් කළේය.

මොහු මතුගම මහෙස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමෙන් අනතුරුව ඔක්තෝබර් මස 9දා දක්වා රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාර ගත කරන ලෙස මතුගම අතිරේක මහෙස්ත්‍රාත් තරංගා මහවත්ත මහත්මිය නියම කළාය.
ලංකාවේ පැරැණිම සාජන් මහත්තයා රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාරයට නියම වූයේ ඒ අයුරිනි.

කළුතර දිසා භාර නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පති රන්මල් කොඩිතුවක්කු, කළුතර කොට්ඨාසය භාර පොලිස් අධිකාරි උපුල් නිල්මිණි ආරියරත්න හා පානදුර පොලිස් අධිකාරි කපිල ප්‍රේමදාස යන මහත්වරු වැඩිදුර පරීක්ෂණ පවත්වති.

තේජා ගොඩකන්දෙආරච්චි

‘ලිප ගිනි මොලවන තෙක් දිය සැලියේ….’ යනුවෙන් වන කවිය කුඩා කල කට පාඩම්කල අපි දැන් එහි අරුත ප්‍රායෝගිකව අත්විඳිමින් සිටින්නෙමු. රටේ ඇති උතුරායන ප්‍රශ්න සමුදාය ගැන යලි යලිත් කිවයුතු නොවේ. ‘රාජපක්ෂලාගේ කාලයේ තරම් රටේ ප්‍රශ්න තියෙනවාදැ’යි අසමින් පාලක පක්ෂයේ දේශපාලකයන් හදාගන්නට දඟලන්නේ ජනතාවගේ නොව තමන්ගේම සිතය. රාජපක්ෂටත් කලින් රට පාලනයකල විවිධ කණ්ඩායම් සිටි බවත්, එක් එක් කාලයේ මිනිසුන් විඳවන්නට හේතු වූ විශේෂිත ප්‍රශ්න තිබුන බවත්,  ඒ ප්‍රශ්න ඇතිවුනේද තම තමන්ගේම පාලන ක්‍රමයේ තිබූ හිදැස්  නිසා බවත්, ඔවුන්ට අමතක වූවා සේය. මොවුන්ට තවත් වැදගත් යමක් මතක් කරදිය යුතුය. ඒ, ජනතාව ගැලවීමක් අපේක්ෂා කරන්නේ, තමන් පෙලන ‘ප්‍රශ්න’ වලින් මිස ‘රාජපක්ෂ යුගයෙන්’, ‘බණ්ඩාරනායක යුගයෙන්’ හෝ වෙනත් යුගයකින් නොවන බවයි. ඒ ඒ යුගයේ තිබූ ප්‍රශ්න සංඛ්‍යාව සසඳා බැලීමක් ජනතාවට අවශ්‍ය නැත. කාලෙන් කාලෙට යුග මාරුවන්නේ එබැවිනි.

 එකල නම් ප්‍රශ්නයක් ඇතිවූ සෑම විටෙකම ජනතාවට පවසන්නට නිදහසට කාරණාවක් පාලකයන් වෙත තිබුනේය. නමුත් දැන් ඒ බරපතලම කාරණය වන වර්ගවාදී සන්නද්ධ යුද්ධය අවසන්ව ගොසිනි. යුද්ධය අවසන්ව ගිය පසුව, රාජපක්ෂ රජය වෙත ජාත්‍යන්තරයෙන් එල්ල වූ බව කියන පීඩනය, වර්තමාන රජයට නැති බව ඔවුන්ගේ පම්පෝරියෙන් පෙනීයයි. එසේ නම් මෙම ආර්ථික අර්බුධයට හේතුව කවරේද? රාජපක්ෂලා ඉතිරිකර ගිය ණය කන්දම පමනක්ද? ඒ අනුව දැන් ඔවුන්ට මේ ගැන තම නිදහසට දෙන්නට ඇති කාරණය කුමක් විය හැකිද කියා, තම කයිවාරු නවතා විමසා බලන්නේ නම් මැනවි.

 ඒ කාරණා මොනවා වුනත්, ජනතාවට, දැනෙන වෙනසක් අවශ්‍ය නම්, ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී රටක් නිසාම, ජනතාවට සිදුව ඇත්තේ මේ ක්‍රමය වෙනස් කිරීම සඳහා මැතිවරණ දිනයක් එනතුරු බලාසිටීමය. නමුත් එක අතකින් මැතිවරණයක් තුලින් වන වෙනසක් වුව, ‘හිසරදයට කොට්ට මාරුකිරීමක්’ පමනක් නොවේයැයි සහතිකකර කියන්නට බැරි අතර, අනිත් අතට නිසි කලට වේලාවට මැතිවරණ පැවැත්වේද නැද්ද යන්නත් ප්‍රශ්නයකි.

දැන් දැන් රටේ පාලකයන් තම කතන්දර කියන්නට තෝරාගෙන ඇත්තේ පාසල් යන පොඩි දරුවන්ය.

මෑතකදී මංගල සමරවීර, මුදල් ඇමතිවරයා, පටි තදකර ගන්නා ලෙස පැවසුවේ රාජකීය විදුහලේ දරුවන්ටයි. සිරිමාවෝ බණ්ඩාරනායක විදුහලේ ගෘහස්ත ක්‍රීඩාංගනය විවෘත කරන්නට එහි ගිය ජනාධිපතිවරයා, ශ්‍රී ලංකාව මත්ද්‍රව්‍ය නිවාරණය අතින් ඉහලින්ම සිටින රටවල් දෙකෙන් එකක් බව පැවසීය.

 ‘වැඩිහිටියන්ගේ කියුම් වලට කට දමන්නට සහ හරස් වචන කියන්නට හොඳ නැතැ’යි අපි දරුවන්ට කුඩාකල සිටම උගන්වන්නට පුරුදු වී සිටින්නෙමු. ඒ නිසා හෝ, තම වැඩිහිටියන්, තමන් පෙලන අසීරුතා දරුවන්ට දැනෙන්නට සලස්වන්නේ නැති නිසා මෙවැනි ප්‍රායෝගික නොවන කතා හමුවේ කථිකයා වෙත විරෝධයක් එල්ල නොවෙයි. එමෙන්ම මෙවන් ගොන් කතාවලට අභියෝග කල හැකි මට්ටමේ විෂය පරිබාහිර දැනුමක් ලබන්නට දරුවන්ට වැට බැඳ ඇත්තේද පවතින අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමය තුලින්මය. 

ඉදිරියට තම පටි තද කරගන්න සිදුවෙනු ඇතැයි මංගල සමරවීර පවසන්නේ මේ වනවිට රට මුහුණ දී සිටින ආර්ථික තත්වය මෙම දරු පරම්පරාව දක්වාම දික්ගැස්සෙන බවට වන පෙර ලකුණු දැනගෙන විය යුතුය. මෙවන් ආර්ථික අර්බුධයකදී රටක් වශයෙන් ගතයුතු පියවර ගැන ඔහු වෙත අවබෝධයක් ඇතිනම්, මෙසේ තම පටි තදකර ගන්නා ලෙස, රටේ තබා තම ගෙදර ආර්ථිකය හැසිරවීමට තරම්වත් නොමේරූ, යෞවන වයසේ දරුවන්ට මොහු නොපවසනු ඇත.

‘තම ආදායම අඩකින් අඩුවුනා නම්, ගෙදර ආර්ථිකය කඩා නොවැටී තබා ගන්නට කුමන පියවරක් ගත යුතුදැ’යි වරක් අපේ ගුරුවරයෙකු විමසූ ප්‍රශ්නය මට සිහිපත් වෙයි. ඊට පිළිතුර වූයේ තම වියදම් ලැයිස්තු ගතකර, ප්‍රමුඛතා අනුපිලිවෙලට පෙල ගස්වා, අත්‍යවශ්‍ය නොවන වියදම් කපා හැරීමත්, තමන්ට අමතර ආදායමක් උපයා ගතහැකි මාර්ගයන් වෙත්දැයි විමර්ශනයක් කිරීමත්ය. රටේ ආර්ථිකයද මීට වඩා වැඩි වෙනසක් නොවේ. මෙහිදී නැගෙන එකම ප්‍රශ්නය නම්, මෙවැනි අවස්ථාවකදී ප්‍රමුඛතා ලැයිස්තුවේ පහලම තැබිය යුතු කුමන වියදම්ද කියා මේ අය දන්නවාද යන්නයි.

එසේ නොදන්නවා වෙන්නටත් නොහැකිය. මැති ඇමතිවරුන්ගේ සැප වාහන ගෙන්වීම නතර කරන බව මුදල් ඇමතිවරයා පවසන්නේ එහෙයිනි. ඒ, ලබන වසර සඳහාය. නමුත් මේ වෙද්දී 225 දෙනාම තම වාහන ගෙන්වා අහවරය. වසර පහකට වරක් ලබාදෙන තීරුබදු රහිත වාහන බලපත්‍ර සම්බන්ධව නම් ලබන වසර තුල මෙම කතාව වලංගු නොවෙයි. පෙනෙන ආකාරයට ඇමතිවරුන් සඳහා සුඛෝපභෝගී වාහන නොගෙන්වීම, තමන් ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් කරන ‘මහා පරිත්‍යාගයක්’ ලෙස හුවා දැක්වීමේ උත්සායක්දමේ කතාව තුල ගැබ්ව ඇත. තම සැප වාහන කතාව ගැන, ‘මග කඩාහැලෙන වාහනවල’ තමන්ට යා නොහැකි බව, වනජීවී අමාත්‍ය සරත් ෆොන්සේකා තවමත් නහයෙන් අඬමින් සාධාරණීකරනය කරන්නට දඟලන්නේය. මැති ඇමතිවරුන්, මතක ඇති කාලයක ‘මග කඩාහැලෙන වාහනයක’ යනු ඔබ දැක ඇතිද? මේ තම තමන්ට ප්‍රමුඛතාවයන් දැනෙන අයුරුය.

සියයකට වැඩි ප්‍රමානයක් වන අමාත්‍යවරුන් වාහන ඉල්ලා සිටින්නේ තම අමාත්‍යංශ රාජකාරි නොපිරිහෙලා ඉටුකිරීමට බව පවසමිනි. මේ කියන තරමට, රාජකාරි ඉටුවුනා නම්, මේ වෙද්දී රටට මෙතරම් නරක දසාවක් ලැබී තිබෙන්නට නොහැකිය. වනජීවී ඇමතිවරයාම ගනිමු. ඔහු තම සැපවාහනයද සහිතව වැඩට බැස්සකල වනජීවී විෂය පථය යටතට ගැනෙන ප්‍රශ්න නියමාකාරයෙන් හඳුනාගැනීමක් සිදුවී තිබේද? එම ප්‍රශ්න කෘෂිකර්මාන්තයට ගැට ගැසෙන්නේ කෙසේද? මෙම අමාත්‍යංශ එකිනෙක හුදෙකලාව තම රාජකාරි කරගෙන යනු මිස කිසිදු සම්බන්ධීකරණයක් ඇති බවක් නොපෙනේ. වල්ඌරු මස් ප්‍රවාහනයට අවසර දීම තුල පමනක් මෙම සම්බන්ධීකරනය ඇති නොවේ. මෙම වනසත්ව ගහනය පාලනය කිරීමේ විධිමත් සැලැස්මක් අවශ්‍යය.

කෘෂිකර්මය යනු වෙනම කතාකල යුතු මාතෘකාවකි. ඒ ඒ වකවානුවල සිටි කෘෂිකර්ම ඇමතිවරු කවුද කියා යමෙකුගෙන් විමසුවොත්, ඒ නම් මතකයෙන් කිව හැකිද? හැබැයි මහින්ද අමරවීරට පෙර සිටි කෘෂිකර්ම ඇමතිවරයා කාටත් මතකය. ඒ ඔහු කෘෂිකර්මාන්තයට කල සුවිශේෂ සේවාවක් නිසා නොව රාජගිරියේ ජීවත් වූ සබීතා පෙරේරා නම් සිනමා නිළියට, තම බැංකු ගිණුම මිලියන ගණනින් තර කරගැනීමේදීත්, කොළඹ 7, වෝඩ් පෙදෙසින් අලුත් නිවහනක් මිලට ගැනීමෙහිදීත් ඔහුගේ පාර්ශ්වයෙන් ඉටුවූ සේවාව නිසාය. එම සේවාවන් ඉටුවෙද්දී, රටේ ගොවීහු තම පොහොර ටික මිලට ගන්නට, අස්වනු ගබඩා කරගන්නට, විකුණා ගන්නට මං මාවත් දිගේ දුක් වින්දහ. වනජීවී අමාත්‍යවරු සුඛෝපභෝගී වාහනවලට පාරට්ටු කරද්දී, වන සතුන්ගෙන් තම අස්වනු බේරා ගැනීමට අරගල කලහ.

මෙවර අයවැයෙන් ජනාධිපති වැය ශීර්ෂය යලි සැලකිය යුතු ප්‍රමානයකින් ඉහල නංවා ඇත. ඒ, පරිසරය යන විෂය ජනාධිපති යටතට වැටෙන බව පවසමිනි. මත්කුඩු කන්ටේනර් පිටින් හසු වෙත්දී, මත්ද්‍රව්‍ය නිවාරනයේ ලා ලොව ප්‍රමුඛම රටවල් දෙකින් එකක් බවට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව පත්ව ඇතැයි පාසල් දරුවන්ට පවසන ජනාධිපතිවරයෙකුගෙන් අප පරිසරය දියුණු කිරීමක් අපේක්ෂා කල හැකිද?

ඔක්තෝබර් 2 වන දින ප්‍රවෘත්ති විකාශයක් ඔස්සේ ප්‍රචාරය වූ ප්‍රවෘත්තිය රටේ පරිසරය ගැන කටයුතු කෙරෙන ආකාරය පිලිබඳව යලි සිතා බැලීමට හොඳ උදාහරණයකි. එහිදී කලුතර, තෙබුවන පොලිසියට අනුයුක්ත පොලිස් සැරයන්වරයෙකු ගිනි අවියක් අතට ගෙන, පෑ විරෝධතාවය ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොලිසියේ වර්තමාන තත්වය රටටම විදහා පෑවේය. සැප්තැම්බර් 29 වන දින එම සැරයන්වරයා  විසින් අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් අනවසර වැලි ලොරියක්, ස්ථානාධිපතිවරයා විසින් තම අභිමතය පරිදි මුදාහැරීම මෙම විරෝධයට හේතුවිනි. මෙවන් විරෝධතාවයකට එම සැරයන්වරයා තල්ලුවූයේ කෙසේද යන්න ඉතාම පැහැදිලිව ප්‍රකාශකලේ ඔහුගේ සොහොයුරිය විසිනි. (ඔක්තෝබර් 4 දා හිරු ප්‍රවෘත්ති සවස 6.55 ) අනවසර වැලි ගොඩ දැමීම නිසා සිදුවන පරිසර හානියත්, වැලි හෝ පස් ජාවාරම් ආශ්‍රිතව හිස ඔසවන පාතාලයත් දැන් මුලු රටටම හිසරදයක්ව ඇත්තේය. මේවාට අනුග්‍රහය ලැබෙන්නේ කොතැනින්ද කියා මෙම සිද්ධියෙන් පැහැදිලි වන අතර මෙවන් වාතාවරණයක් තුල පරිසරයට අත්වන ඉරණම ගැන සැකයක් නොවේ. තම වැය ශීර්ෂයන් ඉහල දමමින් ජනාධිපතිවරයාට රකින්නට පරිසරයක් ඉතිරිවේද කියා සැක සහිතය. 

එම සිද්ධියේදී කැකිල්ලේ තීන්දුව ලැබුනේ වැලි ලොරිය අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් සැරයන්වරයාටමය. වරක් අපේ ප්‍රහසන නලුවන් වන ගිරිරාජ් කෞෂල්‍යය සහ විජය නන්දසිරි විසින් රඟපෑ නාට්‍යයක කොටසක් මෙහිදී සිහිපත් වෙයි. ඉතාම අවංකව තම රාජකාරියේ නියැලෙන විජය නන්දසිරි පෙන්වමින් ගිරිරාජ් තව කාටදෝ පවසන්නේ ”මම හිතන්නෙ මිනිහ ජාන විකෘතියකින් පෙලෙන එකෙක් වගේ” කියායි. මෙම සැරයන්වරයාගේ සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධව, නීතිය හා සාමය පිලිබඳ ඇමතිවරයාත්, නියෝජ්‍ය ඇමතිවරයා වන නලින් බණ්ඩාර නම් එජාපයේ පෙත්තප්පුත් කතාකල අයුරු ඊට මැනැවින්ම ගැලපේ. ඔවුන්ගේ තීන්දුව වූයේ මේ සැරයන්වරයාට මානසික ආබාධයක් ඇති බවය. ඔවුන්ට අනුව මේ වැලි ලොරියේ කල් ඉකුත්වූ බලපත්‍රය වලංගු එකකි.

සොබාදහම කෙලෙසන්නා, තම වැදූ මවත් කෙලෙසන්නට හැකි අයෙකු විය යුතුය. එහෙව් අපරාධකරුවන්ට රැකවරණය සැලසූ පොලිස් ලොක්කා නිදොස් වෙද්දී, අපරාධයට එරෙහිව නැගී සිටි තැනැත්තාට දඬුවම් ලැබිනි. මේ අද රටේ නීතියයි. මහපොලවෙන් උපන් පරිසර හිතවාදී, අපේ අතිගරු ජනාධිපති තුමා මේවාට කුමක් කියාවිදැයි ඕනෑකමින් බලාසිටිමු.

එක අතකට මේවාට පුදුම වියයුතුත් නැත. නීතිය සහ සාමය පිලිබඳ ඇමතිට අනුව රටේ අපරාධ අඩුවී ඇත. හැබැයි සාහසික මිනීමැරුම් නම් ‘ටිකක්’ වැඩිවෙලාලු! එතකොට අනිත් අපරාධ කියන්නේ මොනවාද? සමහරවිට කෙසෙල්කැන් කැපීම ආදිය වෙන්නත් පුලුවන. රාජිත සේනාරත්නගෙන් ඇසුවොත්, ඇඟිලි නමා, ගණන් බලා, ”මිනීමැරුම් නම් වැඩියි තමා. ඒත් රාජපක්ෂගෙ කාලෙ තරම් නම් වැඩි නැහැ” යි පවසනු ඇත. සමහරවිට තමා ‘ප්‍රා’ එකේ වැඩකල කාලෙ තරම්නුත්!

පොලිස් මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශකට අනුව මේ වනවිට පාතාලයෙන් 75% ක් පමන අල්ලාගෙන අහවරය. මිනීමැරුමක් වූ විට, මියගිය තැනැත්තාට වරද පටවමින්, එම මිනීමැරුම ‘ඉල්ලන් කෑ’ එකක් ලෙස පවසා සාධාරණීකරනය කරන්නට පියවරගන්නා, මෙම පොලිස් මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශකයාත්, තමා වෙත අනන්ත චෝදනා එල්ල වද්දී, තම පට්ටමේම එල්ලීගෙන සිටින විලිලැජ්ජා නැති පොලිස්පතිවරයාත්, මොවුන් ආරක්ෂා කරමින්, ඔවුන්ගේ වැරදි සොයන බව පවසා මාධ්‍යයටම චෝදනා කරන විෂය භාර ඇමතිවරුත් විසින්, වර්තමානයේ පොලිස් සේවාවද, ඒ ඔස්සේ රජයද වැටී ඇති ආගාධය අපූරුවට පෙන්වයි.

රුපියල අවප්‍රමානය වීම සමහර ඇමතිවරුන්ට විහිලුවක් වී ඇති බව පෙනේ. පිටරටින් ගෙනෙන මුදල්වලට ඉහල අගයක් ලැබෙන නිසා ‘ඒකත් හොඳයි’ කියා වජිර අබේවර්ධන ඇමති පවසද්දී, රුපියල රාජපක්ෂ තරම් අවප්‍රමානය වී නැතැයි අමාත්‍ය අකිල විරාජ් පවසන්නේය. කණගාටුව නම් මේ විකාර අසා සිට අත්පොලසන් දෙන්නටද පිරිසක් සැදී පැහැදී සිටීමය. මේ පිරිස, තම මතය හා එකඟ නොවන අය ‘රාජක්ෂලාගේ වහලුන්’ කියා හංවඩු ගැසුවත්, නොදැනුවත්වම කවුරු කවුරුත්, කාගේ හෝ වහලුන් බවට පත්ව හමාරය.

අගමැතිවරයාද ‘ඉන්ටරස්ටිං කැරැක්ටර්’ එකකි. හැමදාම 2025 දී පූදින්නට පෙරුම් පුරන තම සිහින දේශය ගැන කතා පවත්වන ඔහුගේ සිහින ලැයිස්තුවට තවත් අපූරු හීනයක් එකතු වූයේය. ඒ නොර්වේහි ඔස්ලෝ නුවර ඇති XXL ගබඩා සංකීර්ණයේ, රොබෝ තාක්ෂණයෙන් ඇසුරුම් කටයුතු කරන ජාතියේ එකක් ලංකාවෙත් ඉදිකිරීමය. හරියට පුංචි දරුවෙකු තමන් දකින දෙයකට  ”මාත් ගන්නව ඒ ජාතියෙ එකක්” කියන්නාක් මෙනි. හරියට අපට මිනිසුන් මදිවී රොබෝවන්ද යොදාගන්නා තරමට අසුරන්නට ජාති පිරී ඉතිරී ගොස් ඇතුවාක් මෙනි.

ඉතින්! අප 2025 දක්වා ඉදිරියට යා යුත්තේ ළමයින් හමුවේ සෙල්ලම් කතා කියන, තමන් පිටරට සවාරිවල දුටු දේ ගැන රස කරමින්  කියන ළමා මානසිකත්වයක් ඇති දේශපාලක උත්තමයින් පිරිසක් සමගද?????

C.Wijeyawickrema

Yesterday, I saw a news item on how the trio above is running the liberalizing economic plan in Sri Lanka. I received about a year ago an email detailing how R Paskaralingam ran the finance ministry in Sri Lanka under R Premadasa and ruined the country. After RP was murdered, Paskaralingam fled the country, the next day. Now he is back again and running the show from behind the scene. After the news item, I felt that I have a duty to release the e-mail I received for the good of Sri Lanka. Besides, it is like a research paper, with so many facts deserving further investigation.   

It looks like Paskaralingam is another Arjuna Mahendran but, operating carefully and with a cool head unlike the greedy Mahendran. There is no question that they maintain regular contacts sharing plans. My purpose in releasing this e-mail is to let people understand the contents of it. I have no reason to doubt the bona fide of the writer of this detailed research report on Paskaralingam. In fact, I will be e-mailing this report to Paskaralingam and his associates at the Ranil ministry. I have also attached a Sunday Times interview with Paskaralingam.

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Confidential Information

How Corruption Officially Institutionalise in Sri Lanka

The person who institutionalise corruption was none other than Mr. Paskaralingam.

This information About Paskaralingam and how he demolished the Sri Lankan Economy to help LTTE from 1978 till 1992 and now under this government is provided without any malice or prejudice towards Mr. Paskaralingam as he is a Tamil.

Mr. R. Paskaralingam was the former Secretary to Ministry of Housing & Construction appointed by late Mr. Premadasa due to some reasons, unknown to the writer. Later he assumed duties as Secretary to the Treasury when late Premadasa’s assumed duties as the President.

 (He is now working as the Main Adviser to the present government and Ministry of Finance and also as the Senior Adviser to the PM he directs the PM in a garden path as he decides the future of Sri Lanka’s Economy and Economic Planning, till recent changes.)

Paskaralingam after passing his CCS Examination in 1955 or around, appointed to the Ministry of Works, Post & Telecommunication as an Assistant Secretary on 15^th September 1956, the same day the writer joined the Ministry of Works Post and Telecommunication and posted to Public Works Department. He is a very clever person and can convince anyone to believe on his opinion as well as a very quick decision maker.

(A).  His career details

1. He worked as an Assistant Secretary to the then Ministry of Works, Post and Telecommunication and later with other Ministries for few years and got transferred to the Ministry of Education during UNP Governments of 1965 under Minister I.M.R.A. Irriyagolla, as an Additional Secretary.
2. When UNP came to power in 1977, then Prime Minster Premadasa got him appointed as the Secretary of the Ministry of Buildings, Housing and Construction and worked for President Premadasa after he became the President as the Treasury Secretary.
3. When he was the Secretary to the Ministry of Buildings, Housing and Construction, in 1977/8, he established the ICTAD and appointed late Mr. Munasinghe then D/Director of Buildings of the Building Department as the Chairman of the ICTAD. He selected Mr. Munasinghe, because he lacks foresight and decision-making ability and a very weak manager, the main purpose published at that time when establishing ICTAD was to bring the Construction Industry under some control, but the hidden agenda was to change the procurements methods the Industry used, to create corruption in a very rapid but subtle manner. (As you explained during your recent interview in Aretha Tharka”) Procurement has become the biggest hindrance to stop Corruption in the country. I say this with confidence as I was a Hard Dollar Procurement Expert with wide experience in Procurements of Major Contracts, who presented facts to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to re-organised the NPA, but the Treasury Secretary, Dr. Jayasundera, close it down, but never change the source of corruption, the Guidelines)
4. During this time Paskaralingam, took full control of the ICTAD and appointed a committee comprising Five Engineers (all Tamils) and two UN specialists (from Tamil Nadu) to re-write the Conditions of Contracts PWD and other Departments used with permission from FIDIC, to change as a document belong to ICTAD and did some grave changes to the Condition of Contracts used till that time. [ I mentioned hear them as Tamils as Paskaralingam never trusted any Sinhala person if he is a very strong-minded person as his secret scheme was to take control of the country]

(B)    How he destroyed the Construction Industry and created large scale  

          Corruption

5. During this time he deliberately change the Condition of Contracts used at that time (FIDIC/ICE) Contract Condition by introducing certain changes and naming it as the ICTAD Condition of Contracts (replica of the FIDIC/ICE Conditions of Contract, by appointing a Committee comprising Five Tamil Engineers and two UN Consultants from Tamil Nadu, and change two very important Clauses of the original FIDIC Condition of Contract, Cl14 and Cl 60. Cl 14 change the authority of the Engineer by allowing the Supervisors to approve Construction Programmes give directions and orders, and Cl 60 to introduce an Advance payment of 20%+5%+5% = 30% as an advance payment for contractors, once they signed the contract after submitting a very simple bond without any responsibilities for the Contractor to complete the project.
6. This Advance payment changed the old system of Contractors getting Overdrafts from Banks with Department approval and payments directed to the Banks to settle the OD). This removal did demolished all the powers of the Engineer to take appropriate technical decisions. [This advance system is still in use in the Construction and Professional areas, but now it is reduced to 20% after many proposals to remove it completely by people with wide experience in Construction management]. The advance payment given to Contractor to be paid back by the contractor when the contract is 95% complete, forcing the Engineer to surrender his construction managing powers as the Administer to the contractor. This clause created wide discrepancies and corruption in the construction industry as well as among officials connected with the Construction and supply industry. This was the beginning of the destruction of the Construction Industry as well as the social fabric of this country. This Construction advance payment helped Mahinda Rajapaksa government to create our small island as a number one corrupted country.
7. Immediately after changing the Contract Conditions he introduced or established FIVE Construction companies belong to LTTE using them as Singapore base companies. The directors of all the five companies were Singapore citizens but they all were married to Sri Lankan Tamil women, and he managed to get all these companies either to tender for jobs or work as subcontractors for the International contractors. Hambantota Port Project first commissioned by Mrs. Chandrika Kumaratunge as the President and many other projects like UKPProject was abandoned on many occasions as these Singapore Base Contraction Companies provided very low tenders and then abandoned the contract. But Basil Rajapaksa by some means did do away with the normal procurement system to get the projects to go ahead) some of the Houses constructed by the National Housing Commission was given to these FIVE companies and thus with the Advance payment they bought weapons and other necessary equipment’s for the LTTE.
8. During this time he assembled a 20 Engineer team to supervise the Construction projects and only one Engineer among the 20 Engineers was a Sinhalese, his name was Eng. Weerarathne.
9. In my opinion and the LTTE informant who provided information about Paskaralingams activities, Paskaralingam is/was the Head of the LTTE and Vellupulle Prabakaran (VP) was the Military Commander of the LTTE. Paskaralingam did everything to get funds from the government to run the LTTE.
10. In 1992, Paskaralingam arranged a delegation to Australia (Sydney) headed by Munasinghe (Chairman of ICTAD) to look for a Chartered Quantity Surveyor with Engineering Experience to take up the Commercial division of the ICTAD and the Ministry of Building, Housing and Construction. They approached the University of Technology, Dean and requested information about Chartered Quantity Surveyor/ Engineer, they can recruit on WB terms for the ICTAD and the Ministry of Building Housing and Construction. They mentioned my name (Sri Lankan of Sinhala origin working for the University) as the only experienced CQS who can undertake the position, but they refused to meet me as Paskaralingam wanted a White Australian or Sri Lankan Tamil of Australian connection for the job. [ Munasinghe knew me during the PWD days]. Later they recruited a Kenyan through the Commonwealth Secretariat – CFTC- where my name also was submitted by the CFTC to the Sri Lankan government, but Paskaralingam rejected my name.
11. During this time Paskaralingam established a Pre-Mix Concrete company in his name or someone else’s name in a Seven/Eight Acres of land belong to State Engineering corporation at Paliyagoda, without paying any Rent for the period of 7/8 years on a fixed term contract, and at the end of the contract SEC to get all equipment’s and other vehicles etc. But this contract was in use till 2006, till I pursue the matter when I was working for the SEC as an Executive Consultants (Volunteer) responsible for Construction as well as Quantity Surveying Department with powers of an Additional General Manager, till SEC file a case against the present company to recover the land. The former Minister of Justice Hon. Wijedasa Rajapakse was the Lawyer who filed the case against the company, as he was the External lawyer of the SEC and the present Magistrate Mrs. Thilini Atygala was the SEC lawyer, to recover the rent and the land and other equipment’s. As I left SEC on 10^th April 2007, I am not aware how the case proceeded.
12. At the time the Town House complexes constructed during PM Premadasa’s time, ( I introduced President Premadasa to these Housing Construction when he was in Kenya after returning from Zambia after Commonwealth Heads meeting, I arranged with UN Permission a Three day inspection and study tour for him) when Paskaralingam was the Secretary of the Ministry of Building Housing and Construction and these housing complexes were getting completed, Paskaralingam trapped the then Chairman of the Building Materials Corporation Mr. Ajantha Wijesena, who was supposed to be a close friend of Mrs. Hema Premadasa, wife of Prime Minister Premadasa, and forced him to introduced Mrs Hema Premadasa, (after getting him to his office),  trapped Mrs. Hema Premadasa and charged Rs.10,000, Rs, 15,000, Rs. 20,000 and Rs 25,000 to the various houses constructed at Ratmalana, Piliyandaala Anderson Golf Course, Bamabalapitiya near Police training school area, and in Wattala and trapping PM Premadasa to sell those houses for over Rs.450,000 each well over the construction cost of Rs.165,000 to Rs.195,000 each.
13. By trapping Premadasa with the help of his wife Hema Premadasa, he robbed over Rs 7 billion, (some money was shared between Premadasa and Paskaralingam) to help the LTTE. During this time he forced President Premadasa to hand over weapons belongs to the Army and Police to LTTE and we lost 600 brave police officers due to Paskaralingams planning.

How he collected Funds for the LTTE.

14. Kotte Parliament house estimated at Rs 350 million was completed with an increased cost of Rs. 1 billion. Total cost of the Parliament house was Rs 1,380 billion.
15. Kalutara twin bridges were estimated for Rs 480, million, but the final cost was Rs.1, 480 billion. As Paskaralingam helped the contractors to cut the Steel Bridge Frames when their tenders was to remove and secure them to use for other areas. Contractors got paid for preserving the Bridge Frames and for cutting them and dismantling them with and additional cost.
16. Ragama Hospital estimated at Rs 420 million the end cost was Rs 1, 540 billion.
17. Samanalawewa Hydro Power (Dam) plant and the Reservoir cost is not known but Paskaralingam got Rs. 1 billion from Alfa Betty and it is not recorded in CEB records as the Project Engineer was a Tamil supporting the LTTE. Paskaralingam used to go the Alfa Beatty’s office at Collepitya Liberty Plaza daily and meet the Contractors and discuss about the Variations according to the Accountant who worked for Alfa Beatty now working in Australia.
18. I did my research on the 14 Construction Projects Paskaralingam and the group handle for my Thesis ‘How Discounting Effect the Environmentally Sensitive projects’ and found out most of this information from my research.
19. Contract Arbitration Cost (around US $ 30 billion) of failed Contract Administration, was another way Paskaralingam made money for the LTTE work, Kotte Parliament House variations which caused the cost increase are created many times and never completed and some of the variation were on going while the parliament is in operation.

BABU who killed President Premadasa on 1^st may 1993 and his connection to Paskaralingam.

20. Paskaralingam sister’s son was a student at UTS and he is the one who narrated this storey to the writer.
21. Babu was brought to Colombo by Paskaralingam and he stayed with Paskaralingam sisters in her house at Dehiwala for nearly two (2) weeks till he was introduced to President Premadasa’ personal groomer the Muslim man. According to his nephew he slept with him for the two weeks in the same room till he was introduced to Premadasa’s man. Premadasa was killed according to him to get the money stack in Banks belong to Premadasa (Swiss Bank Numbers Accounts was managed by Paskaralingam as Premadasa never left SL after he did his last trip to Zambia and China) to use for LTTE and half of that money was taken by Paskaralingam (This may be true as he confirmed Paskaralingam left SL on the day (morning flight) Premadasa was killed. After that Paskaralingam never sighted Sri Lanka till 2000 end when Ranil was contesting the General election and later became his Adviser and the man who control Ranils short government, where he was forced to sign the CFA by Paskaralingam (CFA was prepared by Paskaralingam) . Paskaralingam used his powers as the head of the government and was the real ruler during that time. (Former PM’s Secretary Bradman Weerakoon may be aware of most of these things).

Information provided by LTTE Informant: How Ranil W got money to buy the MP’s from CBK.

22. In 1999, Ranil was contacted by G.L.Peiris and few others to say that they are ready to leave President CBK’s Government if they get Rs.4 million each, but the Tamil Minister Thondaman from the Estates wanted Rs. 8 million.
23. When Ranil was contacted by G.L.Peiris, Ranil spoke to late Charles Ganakoon about getting some money to pay the MP’s. Charles volunteered to provide the funds, as he acted as a Shipping Magnate running the shipping fleet belong to LTTE. He was stationed in Singapore and was the man who was running the 17 LTTE ships. Charles asked Ranil to come to Singapore to give the money.
24. Ranil went to Singapore with late Lasantha Wickramatunge to collect the money. The writer who got this information from the LTTE informant informed the then Secretary to President Kususmsiri Balapatabendi ( a personal friend for over 50 years) about this trip and they are going to get funds to buy the MP’s from the LTTE.
25. Balapatabendi arranged then DIG CID Sumanasekara (now retired) to follow Ranil and Lasantha and to check on this transaction. DIG Sumanasekara went to Singapore with another two SP’s but they lost Ranil and Lasantha and failed to follow them.
26. Ranil was given US $ 50 million or amount close to that by Charles, Paskaralingam and KP in Singapore Sheraton Hotel, to buy the MP’s and spend for the election. Ranil won the election.
27. On the day before the election Paskaralingam came to Sri Lanka and stayed at the Galadari hotel ( I stayed in the same Hotel after coming on University work) and later became the adviser to Ranil and the man who control Ranil’s government.
28. Now he is back and will do the same damages he did before. Paskaralingam is the person who wanted Arjuna Mahendran to be appointed as the CB Governor as Paskaralingam is a very close friend or relation of Arjuna Aloysius’s family. (Arjuna Aloysius’s mother may be Paskaralingam other sister).
29. People appointed to Sri Lankan Airlines from Tamil origin are all Diaspora members and they are planning to buy the Air Line according to LTTE informant.

Information provided by Late Minister Ranjan Wijerathna’s Private Secretary, a classmate and a cousin of the writer.

30. The day Minister Ranjan Wijerathne was assassinated by the LTTE, he changed his normal route and has informed President Premadasa about the new route, as he was presenting a Cabinet paper to stop Paskaralingam attending Cabinet meetings. The reason for submitting this Cabinet paper was due to General Kobbekaduwa’s others murder by the LTTE.
31. According to Minister Ranjan’s PS, Minister Ranjan has discussed Kobbekaduwa’s impending visit to the area he got killed and the information was leaked, so he suspected Paskaralingam for this leak and the killing of General Denzil Kobbekaduawa and other Army officers.
32. Ranjan’s PS is of the opinion that his telephoned call may have gone to Paskaralingam and the killing was arranged by him with the LTTE.
33. As Premadasa’s PS was my classmate and a very close friend Paskaralingam had a very close relationship with Premadasa.

Additional Information. {Need to check the following information]

34. According to LTTE informant, Paskaralingam is the key person with Soleihm (Norwegian) with late Balasingham responsible for the CFA. When Ranil signed the CFA without reading the document, handed over to him by Paskaralingam.
35. The signing of the CFA was witnessed (this was not planned) by then Army Commander General Balagalle and Brigadier (later Major General) Kapila Hendawitharana (responsible for Army Intelligence and the Long Distance Resistance group), as they were trying to meet PM Ranil Wickramasinghe to hand over a document about Long Distance Resistance Group or Rangers and their inability to full them out from Wanni in a very short time.
36. The same informant told the writer that ISGA was prepared by Paskaralingam with Balasingham, which was refused to implement by Ranil. This refusal angered Prabakaran. Ranil’s refusal to implement the ISGA forced VP to FORCED the Tamils in the North to avoid casting their votes at the 2005 Presidential Election.

Why KP is not arrested?

37. KP, Paskaralingam and VP were working together. KP is the main person who helped Ranil W to get funds to buy the SLFP MP’s in 2000.
38. Now Paskaralingam is in power and KP will be safe as long as Paskaralingam is in power.

END of the Information.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/020414/bus/5.html

The return of R. Paskaralingam
R. Paskaralingam, the influential former Finance Ministry Secretary widely known as late President R. Premadasa’s right-hand man, is back after eight years in self-exile and is playing a key behind-the-scenes role in the present regime as advisor to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The soft-spoken bureaucrat is keeping a low profile and lives at the Galadari Hotel under a different name. Hotel staff refuse to even acknowledge his presence or put through telephone calls. The Sunday Times spent weeks trying to track him down. Last week, Paskaralingam, or ‘Paski’ as he is known, finally relented and gave a rare interview in which he describes his present role but would not talk about the past. Citing legal advice, he declined to comment on the allegations against him or the Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry into malpractices in public bodies that found him guilty of ‘misuse or abuse of power’ and recommended that he be deprived of his civic rights.

That verdict was overturned by the Supreme Court on technical grounds. Paskaralingam says the allegations against him were probably the work of those jealous of his work and position. During his stint as Treasury Secretary, he says he used to work virtually 18 hours a day and neglected his private life to work for the betterment of the country. “When you take decisions you’re bound to displease some people,” he says. “You can’t please all the people all the time.” One of the reasons that prompted him to remain in self-imposed exile all these years, he says, was that he feared for his personal safety.

• You were a key player in the previous United National Party government. You have returned after a long period abroad. Can you describe what role you are playing in this government?

I have been appointed as advisor to the Ministry of Policy Development and Implementation. The development of the economy, especially from a position of negative growth, is going to be an uphill task. My role is advisory – it is not a line position. I expect to co-ordinate and work with all government development agencies in order to accelerate the pace of growth.

• Will you move into a more permanent position?

I don’t expect to move into a more permanent position. I prefer to continue in an advisory role purely because I have held line positions in the past and after retirement I don’t want to take on a line position. An advisory role gives me a lot of flexibility in order to express my own views on various matters and not be bound by various rules and regulations of the government bureaucracy.

I especially like to work with the private sector and to put forward their issues and concerns and assist in the rapid development which the country needs through private sector investment.

• Why have you been keeping such a low profile. You are living in this hotel under a different name. Why the ‘hush-hush’ nature of your presence? Also, who is paying the hotel bills?

I decided on my own volition to be an advisor and as an advisor it is not proper to project my image and my authority over the line positions and the various officials who shoulder the responsibilities of administration.

• But your role right now is being seen as a kind of ‘super-bureaucrat’ where you sometimes even exceed the authority of the line officials. In that context you’re playing a very influential role.

No. It is not correct to call it the role of a ‘super-bureaucrat’. It is purely an advisory and a co-ordinating role. It is true that having been in the public service almost all the secretaries and the officials have worked with me in the past and that is a big help because I can count on their co-operation.

Rapid economic development needs a co-ordinated effort. It’s not possible to do it through one or two people. It has to be the combined effort of all ministries and the various agencies. So if I am able to get the co-operation of the entire bureaucracy to deliver the goods and accelerate the pace of implementation then I feel that I would have contributed towards the development effort of the government.

• But why the ‘hush-hush’ nature of your presence?

That is purely because if you’re available, it is not possible to do any work. There would be innumerable phone calls. It is difficult for any officer or an advisor to keep on answering all the telephone calls. Because I have to answer them myself since there is no secretary to support me.

• Why live in a hotel? Is the government paying for it?

I am paying for it. It is a temporary arrangement till I get my residence organised. My family is living in England. I have come here after eight years. It is not easy to get organised in a hurry and run a residence. I also have to go out of the country a few times.

I have been doing some work outside. I have still not wound up my work outside the country. So taking all that into consideration the hotel arrangement is the best for the present.

• Why were you abroad for eight years? It was some kind of self-imposed exile. What was the reason? And why have you returned now?

There is no specific reason why I was out for eight years. I started several projects on my own in the United Kingdom and I have been working with my family and close relatives. While I was working here I had neglected the family. So this gave me an opportunity to be with the family. They have all settled down in the UK. Not only my own family, but even my brothers, sisters and close relations.

• But you left when the government changed. The impression given is that you ran away. That you wanted to avoid the Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry?

I left in 1993, one year before the government changed. I was only in President D.B. Wijetunge’s government for four or five months.

• Can you at least say why you didn’t bother to appear before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry?

I don’t want to answer that question either. These are legal matters which have been dealt with and finally the Supreme Court had found me not guilty of whatever charges that were brought against me. So I don’t like to go into the pros and cons of it.

• The Supreme Court decision was on technical grounds?

In my opinion, legally I’ve been found not guilty. The Supreme Court decided not to go into the substance of it. That is a matter on which I cannot answer.

• During the previous UNP government you were seen as a kind of a ‘super-bureaucrat’ who was able to cut through red tape and speed up the decision making process. And also your personal relationship with President Premadasa counted a lot. Are such personal relationships required to run the administration? Shouldn’t there be a system where personalities are irrelevant and the system takes care of the decision-making?

Always, a proper system must be in place. Personal relationships and arrangements are only temporary.

• Do you think such a system is in place now?

A system is being developed.

• What would you say are the shortcomings of the existing arrangement?

It is too early for me to comment on the shortcomings of the existing arrangement but I find that the decision making process has to be accelerated. Confidence among the bureaucrats has to be improved. The bureaucracy must be able to make decisions in an environment in which they should not fear the consequences for taking the right decisions.

• Are you referring to your experience?

No, I’m referring to the general thinking of the bureaucrats.

• In which areas do you think decision-making needs to be speeded up? How do you think this should be done? Is it the people that have to be changed or the procedures?

The bureaucracy has to become more confident about their role and they should not be frightened of unnecessary victimisation. It is difficult to elaborate. What they fear is unjust and unnecessary victimisation.

• Do you think some kind of system should be built to prevent that kind of victimisation?

Some kind of system has to be built but it is difficult for me to explain all that at a meeting like this. Maybe the reforms which the present government expects to bring in will be able to improve the climate for the bureaucrats to work with a lot of confidence.

• One of the issues that was brought up during your previous stint in government was your connections with certain business groups – that you had a very close relationship with certain business groups like the Maharajas. Can you explain what kind of relationship you had with them?

I do not like to answer that question because there was no such relationship with any special group.

• But there was an impression like that?

I don’t know. Maybe because I am a Tamil and the group was Tamil they thought there was a relationship but there was absolutely no such relationship with any group as such.

By Rohana R. Wasala

Defusing a live grenade before dumping it in a garbage heap

Old clothes upon old sticks to scare a bird”

K.K. Srinath’s novel Budunge Rasthiyaduwa”  is probably intended to be a literary hand grenade against the most radical spiritual thinker of all time, the Buddha. Though the novel looks like an ideological hand grenade, it will only succeed in exploding far short of its target, resulting in an unimpressive fireworks display in the local literary scene. From my point of view, in more prosaic terms, it promises to be a negative contribution to the rising healthy radicalism among the current  Sri Lankan youth. It is a potentially harmful, largely worthless  piece of fiction, though I don’t deny that the young writer shows a high level of literary talent, which, l for one, sincerely hope he  put to better use, in the interest of himself, and far more important, in the interest of all Sri Lankans including the majority Sinhala speaking community.

The target  readership is composed largely of millennials (those born between 1981-1996) and still unnamed(?) post- 1997 ns.  According to the dating system I am adopting here, the oldest millennials are 37 and the youngest 22. The oldest target readers in the last group are in their late teens. Srinath’s self styled ‘radical offering’ is perhaps not meant for members of the baby boomer generation (those born between 1946-1964) to which I belong, who are among the oldest Sri Lankans living anywhere in the world. The reactions to the novel found in the internet suggest that the millennials and the post-millennials can manage it without the benefit of our advice. The fact that there are many internet posts attacking the book particularly for cocking a snook at the country’s benign Buddhist cultural establishment proves this. I came across even a song poking fun at the copies of the book going abegging in the book stores due the appearance of a number of PDF versions on the internet.

But I still have to justify my intervention through this article. It is not hard to guess that at least some readers are likely to blame me for writing on this work of a juvenile author that has already earned so much public opprobrium for its casual swipe at Sri Lanka’s major religious culture. However, my feeling is that the controversial publication originating from the millennial generation has already galvanized its own nemesis from within itself. The negative marketing strategy that, according to young social media activists, the publishers used seems to have backfired. Instead of increasing, it tended to reduce, its sales. That reflects the fact that the internet can be used to defeat attempts to bamboozle people into making uncritical book purchases or into buying into unacceptable ideas, particularly among the millennial generation of Sri Lankans. Through their patient, perceptive, and practical response to a lost sheep of their own generation, the target readers of the novel have shown that they are confidently capable of successfully meeting Srinath’s kind of scurrilous attack on Buddhism and the  age old Buddhist foundation of the country’s tolerant cosmopolitan culture.  This article will contribute towards further neutralizing the harmful impact of the book, if any, on the wellbeing of the Buddhasasana and the Buddhism dominated culture.

Another, more important,  reason for this essay is that the hostile reception that the novel is accorded in Sri Lanka will invariably be bruited abroad by the usual enemies to the further deterioration of the country’s status in the eyes of the world. Powerful foreign observers  already look askance at everything said and done in defence of Sri Lanka due to the falsehoods propagated by the Tamil separatist lobbyists, and the so-called international community that use them as a cat’s paw for the promotion of their geopolitical goals in the region, while being indifferent to the suffering they knowingly or unknowingly cause to all Sri Lankans through their interference in our domestic affairs. These foreigners will not know the legitimate reasons why the book is attacked. But they will further confirm their misconceptions about Sri Lanka, such as that Sinhalese Buddhists are religious fanatics, that they don’t believe in the freedom of expression for minorities, etc. They don’t know the truth that it looks as if the most persecuted religious community in Sri Lanka are the Buddhists. So, the best thing to do on this occasion in order to counter such anti- Sinhala Buddhist criticisms is to explain what the controversy is all about in a language that they understand, that is, English.

When the first part of this article was published on September 29, 2018, I had very little to draw on. A couple of days later, I hit upon a PDF version of the novel, which enabled me to include more relevant information in this second part of the article. What appears in PDF form is a scanned copy of the book stamped with a capitalized logo repeated across several pages in faint colour: ‘Dedicated to the Holy Trinity of Gottfried, Peter, and Frederick’. These are three names famous in marketing; perhaps it is a dig at the alleged preoccupation of the author and the publisher  with the successful marketing of the product. This I take as an arbitrary negative comment on the book. Writing or talking about the book is usually frowned upon as giving undue publicity to this obviously anti-Buddhist publication. There are other similar PDF versions of the novel in the internet. I don’t know whether these are authorized or not, probably not. The availability of the book free online gravely undermines the negative advertising strategy of the publishers. Be that as it may, this allows me to talk about Budunge Rasthiyaduwa” with some familiarity.

I must confess, though, I only managed to rush through the volume once. That was enough for me to grasp the anti-Buddhist frame of mind of the author. But I grant that definitely there appears to be something in Srinath’s novel beyond the mindless dribble that constitutes a serious misrepresentation of the Buddhist moral philosophy and humanity’s Buddhist ‘religious’ legacy of the past two thousand five hundred years . Srinath’s sights are on an educated young patronage/readership. His choice of words is good; it is prose poetry or poetic prose.  There are literary allusions, echoes, parallelisms, and what not. Though he reflects a skewed view of fundamental Buddhist teachings, the country’s history, state handling of separatist terrorism, what he imagines to be the proper response to these from his contemporaries, and so on. However, much misreading of these things seems to bloat his false-prophetic ego. In the nonlinear narrative, the first person narrator’s identity remains in a surrealistic interzone of remembered reality and psychedelic hallucination.

A big mistake he commits is to assume that ‘radicalism’ is something new, something unique to the youngsters of today. It is not.  In our teenage years  in the 1960s, we were equally, if not more, ‘radical’, though that word was yet to come. Our society was more conservative than now, and hence unconventional ways were more challenging to adopt. Anti-establishmentarian was the word that had come into existence in the UK to describe a revolutionary ideology among the youth that demanded traditional values in art, music, politics, economics to be re-examined and changed. Jack Kerouac (1922-69) pioneered the Beat generation of writers in America with his novel On the Road” (1957) based on his travels across the US that involved indulgence in experimenting with drugs, listening to jazz music, and writing poetry. Nevertheless, he was a spiritual seeker inspired by Zen Buddhism. His novel Dharma Bums” (1958) is the story of a group of friends going in search of Dharma or the Ultimate Truth. The narrator in his contemporary William S. Burroughs’ novel  The Naked Lunch” (1959) is the junkie William Lee who passes through a series of false identities while moving from America to Mexico, ending up in Tangiers in Morocco, where his identity dissolves in a dreamlike state. William S. Burroughs was a junkie himself, and he admitted it. Burroughs was a kind of prophet, though.  In his The Naked Lunch, he accurately predicted ‘a virus venereal disease’ which he said would have a partiality for Negroes, though the Whites were not going to be immune to it. This was AIDS. He also predicted the emergence of Radical Islam more than fifty years before it actually did. Burroughs also foretold an epidemic of drug addiction, and a surgical method to remove fat from the stomach to control obesity, which today we call liposuction.  He claimed later in life that he was completely cured of his own drug addiction. Early to mid-60s saw the birth of the Rock band the Beatles in the UK, with their radical innovations in music, singing, and lyric writing. The countercultural  Hippie movement that began in America in the 1960s spread to the rest of the West. They rejected the social mores of the mainstream American society, and saw middleclass values as materialistic, exploitative and repressive. They adopted their own dress codes that showed voluntary poverty: rags, long hair, generally unkempt appearance, etc; they travelled on little, and used drugs. It was held at that time that druggies remained unwashed. This seemed true because Hippies were sighted among tourists in Sri Lanka at that time, and they looked dirty; locals considered them invariably dirty, but looked at them some amusement as well as kindness.  Westerners have long tended to look at Indian spiritual recluses as if they were a species of Hippies. I have read an educated Westerner, who has great regard for Buddhism, referring to the Buddha by that term in a non-derogatory, rather amused, way. Srinath’s story seems to have echoes of Western countercultural movements mentioned above.

A glance at the beginning and the end of Srinath’s novel may give the reader an idea about his thematic focus. He dedicates his ‘radical offering’ to my little son who came to my life uninvited, and whose arrival gave a keen sense of sight and purpose to me, who floated in the air aimlessly like a kite for amusement”.  In his son’s neck is a crucifix. A reader might feel that this evokes the allusion to prince Siddhartha’s silently taking leave of his wife and newborn son in the first paragraph of the book. It is in fact  a contrast: Siddhartha effected his renunciation on the birth of his son and left on his search for meaning, but in the case of Srinath, his son brought clear vision and purpose to his life. On the Dedication page there are three photos of the author; one taken alone, two with his son, with different significant pictorial features, which the reader can easily unravel the meaning of.  The cover is designed to highlight the central preoccupation of the novel. The name of the book is printed on a maroon coloured robe, the Buddha cheevaraya (robe), which is the most conspicuous external sign of the Buddha and his disciples, therefore, an object of veneration. In the case of Buddhist monks today, whatever the image of the individual monks, good or bad, the Buddha cheevaraya is held to be more worthy of veneration (being the symbol of the Buddha) than the individual wearer of the robe. The use of the Buddha’s robe as a feature of the cover design may be denounced as a form of desecration of a sacred object, too.

On the last page, is a poem, which could be put into English as follows:

This is not an epoch devoid of Buddhas.

Buddhas still wander about.

Their names and whereabouts are unknown.

There still are speaking animals

Miracles and wonders haven’t ended.

All hells and heavens do exist.

Therefore eternity

Has invaded this era.

Is deathless, no one dies.

Although all conditioned things

Are impermaneny

In this era, that rule not valid.

That is,

Anything is possible here.

In the 219 page book, there are many not very flattering references to incidents in the life of the Buddha, and doctrinal points. For example, on p.130, there is a sentence which may be translated as follows: A man enters civilization, not on lotuses, but through faeces.” There are other instances in the text where the narrator makes such scatological references as when he observes: If someone has not poked their finger in their excrement (played with faeces), they must be mentally ill. However, saying that a person connects to civilization, not through lotuses, but through faeces, is an unmistakable allusion to the Buddha-to-be baby Siddhartha’s fabled walking on seven lotuses soon after his birth.  The narrator says on p.169 that the best name for Renunciation is ‘Rasthiyaduwa’, that is, he conceives of Siddhartha’s renunciation and his six year long search for realizing the ultimate truth (Nirvana) as a ‘rasthiyaduwa’ (an aimless tramp). Towards the bottom of p.22 and top of p.23, we read something like this: Fighting for something meaningless like our kings fought over a piece of bone…. Similarly, people live for something useless. But finding something like that is very difficult. Nivana is something like that. Who benefits from Nivana, when the even person who acquires it does not benefit from it?” On p. 167-8, we read about a male who gets imprisoned in three palaces…

Both of the young social media critics of the novel mentioned in the first part of this article condemned the author for choosing a title that is so outrageously disrespectful  towards the Buddha; both warned the viewers not to be deceived by the apparent advertising ploy.  While denouncing the novelist for his despicable insensitivity to Buddhist religious sentiments in the choice of his title, they didn’t rule out the possibility of there being literary merit in it. In the first video, the uploader asked the viewers to warn their friends against buying this book by sharing his video. The second video I watched which had been made by a reviewer known by the pen name Vidu gave  a much clearer idea about the book. His impression was that the book title which was in bad taste was meant to create a pre-sale public controversy surrounding the book as a ‘negative marketing’ tactic. He didn’t  see in the book any significant attack on the Buddhist doctrine itself. His opinion was that the first person narrative was probably the delirious prattle of a fever-stricken patient or that of an overdosed drug addict” who imagined himself to be an enlightened one”, hence the sacrilegious title. (Phrases in brackets immediately above are my translations). Alluding to the Buddha’s famous words of wisdom to the young Kalamas who came to consult him, Vidu said that in a situation like this, we should not be influenced by what other people or sources say about the book, but that we should find out the truth about it for ourselves. He read the novel, found it to be a worthless  read and made his video to warn the viewers not to waste their money and time on it. Vidu ends his video with a quote from the Dhammapada about restraining the aimlessly wandering mind, which in English translation runs as follows:

Dwelling in the cave (of the heart),

The mind, without form,

Wanders far and alone.

Those who subdue this mind

Are liberated from the bonds of Mara

(This is verse 37 of the Dhammapada as translated by Indian scholar monk and meditation teacher Ven. Acharya Buddharakkhita. He explains Mara mainly as mental defilements.)

Vidu’s invocation of the Kalama Sutta and the Dhammapada is apt. His intellectual and ideological response to ‘Budunge Rasthiyaduwa’ is characteristic of the way that the younger generation are equipped and disposed to lead the emerging regenerative forces among themselves towards a stronger reaffirmation of the country’s traditional Buddhist identity. We of the older generation should be happy about this. It will definitely prove more effective than the ranting of some maverick monks, who, though, well meaning, are handicapped by the absence of a central Sangha leadership to report back to from the battlefront. Nevertheless, protecting the Buddhasasana has become the responsibility of these monks and the enlightened young Buddhist laity.

It is appropriate here to dwell a bit longer on Buddha’s advice to the young Kalamas. They came to him with a question. Their question was: Sir, various recluses and brahmanas visit our village Kesaputta. Each of them extols their own doctrines and criticize and condemn others. We are in doubt and perplexity regarding who among them to accept as telling the truth.” The Buddha’s reply was simple: Look you Kalamas, do not be led by reports, or tradition, or hearsay. Be not led by the authority of religious texts, nor by mere logic or inference, nor by considering appearances, nor by the delight in speculative opinions, nor by seeming possibilities, nor by the idea: ‘this is our teacher’. But O Kalamas, when you know for yourselves that certain things are unwholesome (akusala), and wrong and bad, then give them up…….And when you know for yourselves that certain things are wholesome (kusala) and good, then accept them and follow them”. Ven. Dr Walpola Rahula, in his classic ‘What the Buddha Taught’ (The Gordon Fraser Gallery Ltd, London, ) from which I am quoting above with very slight adaptation, adds the following: The Buddha went even further. He told the bhikkhus that a disciple should examine even the Tathagatha (Buddha)himself, so that he (the disciple)might be fully convinced of the true value of the teacher whom he followed.” (The source for this is, as Ven. Rahula , mentions in a footnote, Vimansaka-sutta of the Majjhima-nikaya).

So, on prima facie evidence, we may  conclude that ‘Budunge Rasthiyaduwa’ is a juvenile’s attempt at writing fiction based on an unnecessarily carping attitude towards Sri Lanka’s Buddhist cultural foundation. The novel is being overwhelmed by adverse criticism leveled at it by the majority of his own generation.  Both the writer and his critics represent two aspects of the religio-cultural-political melting pot that Sri Lanka has turned into at present. In my view, the agitated mixture of conflicting views among the youth augurs well for our currently beleaguered motherland. ‘Budunge Rasthiyaduwa’ can also be seen as criticism of the Buddha Dhamma aimed at proselytizing Buddhists. The attempted desacralization of symbolic events in the life of the Buddha, ridiculing key doctrinal concepts, tilting at the  history of the Sinhalese who are the foremost Theravada Buddhist nation in the world (The Pali  Tripitaka was committed to writing in Sri Lanka in the first century BCE) could qualify this work of fiction to be considered a part of a global movement that aims to destroy Buddhism, which is the strongest ideological challenge to the politically and economically more powerful religions in the modern scientifically enlightened world.

 ඉතා හදිසි වැදගත් පුවත්පත් නිවේදනයි කැෆේ සංවිධානය හා ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍ර‍ය

ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව සතු ඩොලර් සංචිතය 2018 අප්‍රේල් සිට සැප්තෑම්බර් දක්වා කාර්තුව තුල ඩොලර් මිලියන 1268 කින් පහත වැටී ඇතැයි ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍ර‍ය පුවත්පත් නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කරමින් පවසයි.

2018 අප්‍රෙල් මස බැංකුව සතු සංචිත ඩොලර් මිලියන 9015 ක් වූ අතර, එය ඔක්තෝබර් 1 දින ආරම්භය වන විට ඩොලර් මිලියන 7747 දක්වා පහත වැටී ඇත.  ඒ අනුව, මෙම මාස 5 තුල පමණක් රුපියල අවප්‍ර‍මාණය වීම වලක්වා ගැනීම සදහා මහ බැංකුව සිය විදේශීය මුදල් සංචිතය ඩොලර් මිලියන 1268 කින් පහත දමා ඇත.

2018 අප්‍රේල් මස අලුත් අවුරුද්දෙන් පසුව රුපියල අවප්‍ර‍මාණය වීම ආරම්භ වූ අතර, රු. 155.75 සිට රුපියල අවප්‍ර‍මාණය වීම ඇරඹුණි. 

මෙම සතිය පුරාම අඛණ්ඩව ඩොලර් සංචිත පහත වැටීම සිදුව ඇති නමුත්, ඒ පිළිබදව නිශ්චිත සංඛ්‍යා ලේඛන මේ දක්වා ප්‍ර‍කාශයට පත්වී නොමැත.

කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන්

විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/

කැෆේ සංවිධානය හා ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍ර‍ය

2018 ඔක්තෝබර් 5 සවස 6.00

Letter to the editor: Sent by:Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, Dehiwala

Dear President of Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka!

You have been putting goals on your own side these days.  You criticizing the nuts in your own national career Srilankan, berating  your own police force in spite of the relevant Minister assuring the crime rates have gone down or lamenting that a case in the courts take too long to complete – begs the 60 mission dollar question to whom is the president complaining?” and who are you expecting to handle these matters? These are matters – if at all –  that should have been raised by the opposition. Not that they are just sitting and waiting either. They are busy unsettling your government and why are you feeding ammunition to them?

Remember? You are the president!  You were elected to manage these matters – be it the Chinese involvement in building the Greater Colombo, the rupee value falling  or your subjects eating murunga leaves to survive, it is you to whom the people turn to solve. It si you who took the responsibility over. Whether you do it yourself like changing the nuts in the aeroplane, or delegate the duty to others is a matter you are supposed to decide. Complaining about these matters in public is like looking up and spitting. All the officers concerned are people working for you and you have absolute authority over them. Why are you berating them in public? It obviously  indicates  poor management.

You seem to be having a very inexperienced public relations officer whoever that may be, who is letting absolutely trivial matters that you say to get into the press and make a fool of you. Why isn’t he getting any of your statements – that is if you are making such statements – regarding cost of living, future plans or even the oncoming election – published?  It is time you changed  who is giving your statements to the press.

Remember Mr. President, for at least another one year and odd number of months you are OUR  President and we want you to solve the problems, not to tell us the problems. We are very much aware of them. Much more than you’ll ever imagine!

Kalathma Jayawardhane Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Referring to speculations about the Joint Opposition planning to join hands with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led by President Maithripala Sirisena, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa today said the SLFP should first break ties with the United National Party (UNP) and subsequently they could consider such a tie-up.

Addressing the media following an event held in Colombo, former president Rajapaksa said they would not support the SLFP while they are with the UNP and added that no agreement had been made reached between the joint opposition and the SLFP in this regard.

When inquired whether he discussed these matter with President Sirisena, Mr. Rajapaksa said they had held several discussions earlier.

Meanwhile, he said the Police had now become a corrupt department and added that it was similar to the underworld.

The underworld will not be curbed as long as this government is in power. The underworld nowadays have the sponsorship of the government. The government is protecting IGP Pujith Jayasundara even though some serious allegations have been levelled against him,” he said.

Not only the IGP, but the government would also protect any state officer as its responsibility,” he added. 

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Chinese Government did not get Sri Lanka into a debt trap by lending money to it,” Sri Lankan Ambassador to China Karunasena Kodituwakku has said.

If anybody is saying that the Chinese government lent money to us to put Sri Lanka into a debt trap, I don’t agree with that statement. It’s an absolutely wrong conclusion,” Kodituwakku told CGTN’s “The Point”.

He said the Chinese government assisted Sri Lanka to build the Hambantota project and that it was up to the Government of Sri Lanka to decide whether to build on the basis of feasibility studies, then to make business decisions.

“Of course, we have difficulties in paying back the loan, however the Chinese government never asked us to hand the Port over to them or to the Chinese venture in question. It was a proposal that came from Sri Lanka, asking to enter into a partnership with China,” he added.

As a response to media concerns that China is ‘militarising’ the Port, Kodituwakku pointed out that “in Sri Lanka’s case from the very beginning we very clearly indicated to the Chinese side that it was only an economic venture.”

He said Sri Lanka does not allow anybody to interfere with the security of Sri Lanka.We took a decision to shift a naval base to Hambantota Port in July, Kodituwakku explained, adding The security of the Hambantota Port, the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean, is entirely a matter for the Sri Lankan security forces to worry about. China never asks us to compromise on this aspect.”

Kodituwakku said he remains optimistic over the long-term prospects of the Port and the future of Sri Lanka’s role in an emerging Asia.

ජනිත සෙනෙවිරත්න උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

 එක අතකින් දිනෙන් දින ඉහළ යන ජීවන වියදම, බඩු මිල මෙන්ම ඩොලරය ජන ජීවිතය අසීරු කර තිබේ. අනෙක් පැත්තෙන් රටම වසා ගෙන ඇති දූෂණය වංචාව මෙන්ම දිනෙන් දින ඉහළ යන පාතාල ලෝකයේ ක‍්‍රියාකාරකම් ජන ජීවිතයට විවිධ බලපෑම් ඇති කර තිබේ. මේ සියල්ල පාලනය කරන්නට රජය අපොහොසත් බව මේ වන විට පැහැදිලිව පෙනෙන්නට තිබේ.
 
 පොලිස්පතිවරයාගේ සිට පොලිස් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව කඩිනමින් ප‍්‍රතිසංවිධානය කළ යුතුව ඇතැයි ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා පසුගියදා කැබිනට් රැුස්වීමේදී ප‍්‍රකාශකර තිබිණි. එහිදී පොලිස්පතිවරයාගේ ක‍්‍රියාකලාපය විවේචනය කර ඇති ජනාධිපතිවරයා පොලිස්පතිවරයාගේ නොමනා හැසිරීම් නිසා වැඩියෙන්ම බැනුම් අහන්නේ තමන් සහ අගමැතිවරයා බවද පොලිසියේ ඇතැමුන්ගේ විනය පිරිහී, හික්මීමත් පිරිහී ඇතැයි ද අපරාධ අඩුවී ඇති බවට ඇතැමුන් කරනා ප‍්‍රකාශ පිළිගත නොහැකි බවද පවසා ඇත.
 
 ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ අදහස අපද අනුමත කරන්නෙමු. රටේ මේ ආකාරයට පාතාලය රජ කළ කාලයක් අපට මතක නැත. ඝාතන හා වෙඩි තැබීම් මෙතරම් ප‍්‍රමාණයක් මෑත ඉතිහාසයේ අප දැක නොමැත.
 
 මේ අතර මංගල සමරවීර ඇමැතිවරයා කැබිනට් රැුස්වීමේදී අදහස් දක්වමින් රට තුළ අපරාධ විශාල වශයෙන් අඩුවී ඇතැයි ප‍්‍රකාශ කර ඇත. අපරාධ වැඩි වී ඇති බව පවසන්නේ මාධ්‍ය වලින් බවද මාධ්‍ය සංදර්ශන වල අරමුණ රට අස්ථාවර කිරීම බව මංගල සමරවීර මහතා සඳහන් කර තිබේ. ඇමැතිවරයා මැල්කම් රන්ජිත් කාදිනල් තුමන් සමග ඇතිකරගෙන ඇති ගැටුම ගැන රටම දන්නා බැවින් මාධ්‍ය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඔහුගේ අදහස් ගැන අප ඔහු සමග වාදයකට යාමෙන් පලක් නොමැත. අනෙක් අතට පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සියලූ දෙනා තීරු බදු රහිත වාහන ආනයන බලපත‍්‍රයෙන් වාහන ලබාගත් පසු ඒවා ලබා ගැනීම නතර කිරීම මගින් ඇමැතිවරයා තම දක්ෂතාවය මානව පෙන්නුම් කර තිබේ. පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රීවරුන්ට හිමිවන තීරු බදු රහිත වාහන ආනයන බලපත‍්‍ර 228 ක් නිකුත් කර ඇති අතර රටේ ඩොලර් ඉතිරි කර ගැනීම සඳහා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සියලූ දෙනා තීරු බදු රහිත වාහන ආනයන බලපත‍්‍රයෙන් වාහන ලබාගත් පසුව වසරක කාලයකට එය නතර කරන්නට ඔහු කටයුතු කළ විට ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් වාර්තා කිරීම ඔහුට අනුව මාධ්‍ය මගින් සිදු කරන රට අස්ථාවර කිරීමේ ක‍්‍රියාවලියේ අංගයක් ලෙස සැලකිය හැකිය.
 
 මේ අතර ආණ්ඩුවේ ප‍්‍රබල ඇමැතිවරයකුගේ ගිණුමට විදේශ රටකින් රුපියල් මිලියන 150 ක් බැර වීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් දැඩි ආන්දෝලනයක් හට ගෙන තිබේ. මීට පෙර මේ ඇමැතිවරයාටම හම්බන්තොට වරාය චීනයට පැවරීම වෙනුවෙන් ඩොලර් මිලියන සියයක් ලබාගත් බවටත් හොරණ ටයර් කම්හලක් සම්බන්ධයෙනුත් චෝදනා නැගිණි. සෘජු රැුකියා අවස්ථා විසිදෙදහස් පන්සියයකට ආසන්න ප‍්‍රමාණයක් නිර්මාණය කරමින් යුරෝ බිලියන පහක වාර්ෂික අඛණ්ඩ විදෙස් අපනයන ආදායමක් රටට ලැබීමට සලස්වමින් පරිසර හිතකාමී ක‍්‍රමයක් යටතේ ඇමෙරිකන් ඩොලර් මිලියන 500ක විදේශ ආයෝජනයකින් ආරම්භ කිරීමට සැලසුම්කර තිබු විදුලි දුම්රිය නිෂ්පාදන ව්‍යාපෘතිය කොමිස් මුදල් හා ව්‍යාපාර කොටස් මුදල් ලබා ගැනීමේ චේතනාවෙන් වසර දෙකක් තිස්සේ ප‍්‍රමාද කරන බව එම සමාගමේ නිලධාරීන් විසින් ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා වෙත පැමිණිලිකර තිබේ.
 
 මේ අතර ගිං-නිල්වලා යෝජනාක‍්‍රමය ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම වර්තමාන ආණ්ඩුව යටතේ ප‍්‍රමාද වී තිබෙන්නේ ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන තිහක කොමිස් මුදලක් හරස් වී තිබීම නිසා බවට චෝදනා එල්ල වී තිබේ.
 
 ආසියානු සංවර්ධන බැංකුව හා ලෝක බැංකුව සමඟ සමීප සබඳතා පවත්වාගෙන යන ආණ්ඩුවේ ඉහළම පුද්ගලයකුගේ උපදේශකයකුගේ හා ඇමැතිවරුන් දෙදෙනකුගේ නම් මේ කොමිස් මුදල සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඈඳී තිබේ.
 
 මේ අතර ප‍්‍රවාහන ක්‍ෂේත‍්‍රයේ ප‍්‍රධානතම ටෙන්ඩරයක් ඊට අදාළ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේම තවත් ව්‍යාපෘතියකට ව්‍යාජ ලේඛන ලබාදීම නිසා අසාදු ලේඛනගත කළයුතු සමාගමකට එසේ නොකර ලබාදීම සඳහා රුපියල් මිලියන තුන් සියයක් ලබාගත් බවට තවත් ඇමැතිවරයෙකුට චෝදනා එල්ලවී තිබේ. මෙවන් දූෂණ රටේ සිදුවීම වළක්වන තෙක් රට දියුණු කළ නොහැක.
 
 අද ඩොලරයේ අගය ඉහළයාම බරපතළ ප‍්‍රශ්නයක් වී තිබේ. එහෙත් අපේ රටේ විදේශ විනිමය විදෙස් රටවලට ගලායන්නේ දූෂිත ටෙන්ඩර් ගනු දෙනු නිසාය. අපේ රටේ චිපයක් සහිත ස්මාර්ට් කාඞ් රියැදුරු බලපත‍්‍රය සඳහා දකුණු අප‍්‍රිකානු සමාගමකට 2009 වසරේ සිට ඩොලර් 13 බැගින් ගෙවමින් සිටින්නෙමු. මේ ටෙන්ඩරය ඉතාම දූෂිත ආකාරයකට ලබාදෙන ලද්දේ වසර පහක කාලයකට වන අතර එය පසුව වසර හතකට දීර්ඝ කරන ලදී. මේ වන විට එය වසර දහයකට ආසන්න කාලයක් ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වුවද මේ දක්වා එහි චිපය ප‍්‍රයෝජනයට ගෙන හෝ ඒවා පරීක්ෂා කිරීමට අදාළ උපකරණ මෙරටට ගෙන්වා නැත. එදා එවැනි කාඞ් පතක මිල ඩොලර් එකක් වෙද්දී අපේ රට වසර දහයකට ආසන්න කාලයක් ඊට ඩොලර් 13 බැගින් ගෙවමින් සිටින්නෙමු. මේ නිසා විදේශ රටවලට ඇදී ගිය බිලියන ගණන් මුදල් වලට වගකිව යුත්තේ ඒ සම්බන්ධව කටයුතු කළ දේශපාලනඥයන් හා නිලධාරීන්ය. දැන් එම කාඞ් පතක වටිනාකම තවත් අඩුවී තිබේ. එසේම එය මේ වන විට යල්පැනගිය ක‍්‍රමයක් බවට පත්ව තිබෙන නමුදු එය දිගටම පවත්වා ගෙන යාමට බලධාරීන් කටයුතු කරන්නේ ලැබෙන කොමිස් මුදල නිසාය.
 
 මෙවැනි චිපයක් සහිත කාඞ්පතක් අවශ්‍යම නම් රාජ්‍ය මුද්‍රණ සංස්ථාව මගින් අඩුමිලට මුද්‍රණය කර ගත හැක. අද වන විට බැංකු හා රක්ෂණ සමාගම් පවා මුද්‍රණ යන්ත‍්‍ර මගින් ඒ මොහොතේම කාඞ්පත් නිකුත් කරනු ලැබේ. රජයට මෙවැන්නක් රාජ්‍ය ආයතනයක් හරහා අඩුමිලට මෙරටදීම සිදු කර ගත හැකිව තිබියදී එය විශාල විදේශ විනිමයක් වෙනත් රටවලට ලබාදී සිදු කර ගන්නට යන්නේ කොමිස් කතාන්දරය නිසාය. එවැන්නක් මගින් රාජ්‍ය ආයතන ශක්තිමත් වන අතරම විදේශ විනිමයද ඉතිරිවේ. මේ සඳහා යළිත් වරක් අති දූෂිත ටෙන්ඩර් ක‍්‍රමවේදයක් ආරම්භ වී ඇති අතර වහාම රජය මැදිහත්වී එය නවතා දමා රජය විසින්ම එය සිදු කරන්නට කටයුතු කළ යුතුව තිබේ.
 
 දේශීයව සිදුකළ හැකි සියලූ දේ විදේශ රටවලට ලබා නොදීමට රජය පැහැදිලි තීරණයක් ගත යුතුය. එක්කෝ ඒවා රජය මගින් සිදු කළ යුතුය. එසේ නොමැතිනම් දේශීය ව්‍යාපාරිකයන් ලවා සහන මිලකට සිදු කළ යුතුව තිබේ. එවිට අපේ රට තුළ නව රැුකියා ඇතිවන අතරම රටේ විදේශ විනිමය පිටතට ගලායාමක් සිදු නොවේ.
 
 අනෙක් ප‍්‍රශ්නය අද රට තුළ නීතිය ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වීමේ ඇති දුර්වලතා නිසා ව්‍යාපාරිකයන්ට ජනතාව ගසා කන්නට අවස්ථාව සෑදී තිබේ. සීනි සඳහා බදු වැඩි කරන්නට පෙර මෙරටට ගෙන්වන ලද සීනි මෙටි‍්‍රක් ටොන් හැටදහසක් වැඩි මිලට ජනතාවට අලෙවි කරන විට ඊට එරෙහිව පියවරගන්නට පාරිභෝගික අධිකාරියට හෝ මුදල් අමාත්‍යංශයට නොහැකි නම් රටට නීතියක් හෝ රජයක් අවශ්‍ය නැත. ඒ හරහා වෙළෙඳුන් තිදෙනෙකු ලැබූ අයථා ලාභය රුපියල් මිලියන 750 කි. රටේ යහපාලනයක් පැවතෙන්නේ නම් ඒ සඳහා පියවර ගන්නට රජයට හැකි විය යුතුය.
 
 පළාත් සභා ඡුන්ද කල්යන බව පැවසේ. පළාත් සභා සීමා නිර්ණ කමිටු වාර්තාව අධ්‍යයනය කර නිර්දේශ කිරීම සඳහා පත්කළ කමිටුව පසුගියදා රැුස්වූ අතර පළාත් සභා ඡුන්දය පැරණි ක‍්‍රමයටම පවත්වන්නේද නැතිනම් අලූත් ක‍්‍රමයට පවත්වන්නේ ද යන්න සම්බන්ධයෙන් අවසන් තීරණයක් ගෙන නොමැත.
 
 පළාත් සභා ඡුන්දය පැරණි ක‍්‍රමයට පැවැත්වීමට දේශපාලන පක්ෂ වැඩි කැමැත්තක් දක්වන අතර ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ ස්ථාවරය කොට්ඨාස ක‍්‍රමයට මැතිවරණය පැවැත්වීමය. ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය 19 වැනි ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනයට පක්ෂව ඡුන්දය දෙන්නේ ද කොට්ඨාස ක‍්‍රමයට මැතිවරණය පැවැත්වීමේ එකඟතාව අනුව බව ඇමැති නිමල් සිරිපාල ද සිල්වා මහතා පසුගියදා ප‍්‍රකාශ කර තිබේ.
 
 අලූතින් සම්මත කරන ලද පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණ පනත අහෝසි කර පැරණි ක‍්‍රමයට ඡුන්දය පැවැත්වීම, අලූත් පනතේ අඩුපාඩු නිවැරදි කර අලූත් ක‍්‍රමයට ඡුන්දය පැවැත්වීම, සීමා නිර්ණ කමිටු වාර්තාවේ අඩුපාඩු නිවැරදි කර ඊළඟ මැතිවරණය කොට්ඨාස ක‍්‍රමයට පවත්වන තෙක් මේ මැතිවරණය පැරණි ක‍්‍රමයට පැවැත්වීම යන ක‍්‍රම තුනෙන් එකක් ඒ සඳහා තෝරා ගත යුතුය.
 
 මේ නිසා මැතිවරණ ක‍්‍රමය සම්බන්ධයෙන් සාකච්ඡුා කිරීමට සියලූ දේශපාලන පක්ෂවල නායකයින්ගේ සහභාගිත්වයෙන් යුතු සාකච්ඡුාවක් පැවැත්වීමට ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා තීරණය කර තිබේ.
 
 මේ අතර ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ නායකත්වය හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට ඉදිරි දිනවලදී පැවැත්වෙන ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජාතික මහා සම්මේලනයේදී බාර දීමට නියමිතය. හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාද පක්ෂ නායකත්වය බාරගැනීමට කැමැත්ත පළකර තිබේ. පොදු ජන පෙරමුණේ ඡුන්ද මැෂිම වන බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා මේ වන විට ශ‍්‍රීලංකාවට පැමිණ ඇති නිසා පක්ෂයේ කටයුතු වේගවත්ව හා සංවිධානාත්මකව සිදුවේ.
 
 මේ වනවිට ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ව්‍යවස්ථාව සකස්කිරීම අවසන් අදියරේ පවතින අතර ඊට අමතරව තරුණ පෙරමුණු ව්‍යවස්ථාව, කාන්තා පෙරමුණු ව්‍යවස්ථාව ද සකස් කෙරෙමින් පවතී.
 
 විශාල ප‍්‍රමාණයකින් දුම්රිය ගාස්තු වැඩි කිරීම නිසා දුම්රිය මගීන් දැඩි දුෂ්කරතාවට පත්ව සිටිති. ගාස්තු වැඩි කළේ 15% කින් පමණක් යැයි පැවසුවද ගාස්තුවලට අදාළ දුර ප‍්‍රමාණ අඩු කිරීම මගින් එහි සැබෑ අගය 35 % ක් පමණ වන්නේ යැයි ද දුම්රිය සේවය සුරැුකීමේ සේවක මගී ව්‍යාපාරය චෝදනා කරයි.
 
 අවම දුම්රිය ගාස්තුව වැඩි නොකරන බව කීවත් අදාළ ගෙවීමට නියමිත දුර අඩු කිරීම මගින් අවම ගාස්තුවේ ද වෙනසක් වී ඇතැයි ද මෙමගින් තනිකරම ජනතාව රැුවටීමට රජය කටයුතු කර ඇතැයි ද එම සංවිධානයේ කැඳවුම්කරු අඳුරත්විල චන්ද්‍රජෝති හිමියෝ පවසති.
 
 කොටස් වෙළෙඳපොළේ කඩා වැටීම බරපතළ ගැටලූවක් වී තිබේ. 2018 වසරේ මුල් මාස 09 තුළ දී කොළඹ කොටස් වෙළෙඳපොළ සියලූ කොටස් මිල දර්ශකය 7.96% කින් පහළ ගොස් තිබේ. ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලරයට සාපේක්ෂව දිගින් දිගටම සිදුවන ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා රුපියලේ අවප‍්‍රමාණයවීම පාලනය කිරීම සඳහා මෙම වසරේ ගත වූ කාලයේදී ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව සතු ඩොලර් සංචිත වලින් ඩොලර් මිලියන 184 ක් වැය කර තිබෙන බව ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකු අධිපති ආචාර්ය ඉන්ද්‍රජිත් කුමාරස්වාමි මහතා පවසා ඇත. රාජ්‍ය සුරැුකුම්පත් මත විදේශිකයන් සිදුකර ඇති ආයෝජන අහිමිවීම හේතුවෙන් ජනවාරි සිට මේ දක්වා ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් මිලියන 467 ක් රටේ ආර්ථිකයෙන් පිටට ඇදී ගොස් ඇතැයි ද ඔහු කියා තිබේ.
 
 මේ අතර අද වන විට ඇතිව තිබෙන ගෝලීය ආර්ථික අර්බුදය ලබන 2019 වසර දක්වාද යන බව අගමැති රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ මහතා වනාතවිල්ලූව පොලිස් ස්ථානයේ නව පරිපාලන ගොඩනැගිල්ල විවෘත කිරීමේ උත්සවයේදී පවසා තිබිණි.
 
 එනිසා විදේශ විනිමය රටින් පිටවීම වැළැක්වීම සඳහා අත්‍යවශ්‍ය නොවන භාණ්ඩ අඩු කිරීමට හෝ නැවැත්වීමට කටයුතු කරන්නැයි තමන් මුදල් ඇමැතිවරයාට උපදෙස් දුන් බවද ඒ මහතා සඳහන් කළේය.
 
 මේ අතර රටේ පවතින ආර්ථික ගැටලූවලට හා දේශපාලනික ගැටලූවලට පිළියමක් ලෙස ජනාධිපතිවරයා ප‍්‍රබල වෙනස්කම් කීපයක් සිදු කරන බව සඳහන්ය. මෙහිදී ඇමැතිවරුන් කීපදෙනෙකු හා ලේකම්වරු කීප දෙනෙකු හා ආයතන ප‍්‍රධානීන් කීපදෙනකු වෙනස් කිරීමට නියමිත බව සඳහන්ය. චෝදනා එල්ලවී ඇති ඇමැතිවරුන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් ජනාධිපතිවරයා දැඩි තීරණයක් ගනු ඇතැයි සඳහන්ය.
 
 මේ අතර රටේ ආර්ථික තත්ත්වය හා ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් වගකිවයුතු අංශ නිසිපරිදි තීරණ නොගැනීම එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ පසුපෙළ මන්ත‍්‍රීවරුන් අතරද දැඩි සාකච්ඡුාවට භාජනය වී තිබේ. ඉදිරි මැතිවරණ වලදී මේ තත්ත්වය අහිතකර බවද ආර්ථිකය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ආණ්ඩුවේ තීරණ ජනතාවාදී නොවන බවද මෙහිදී කතාබහට ලක්ව තිබේ. ඇමැතිවරුන් කීපදෙනෙකු නිලධාරීන් කීපදෙනෙකු හා ප‍්‍රබල කාන්තාවක් ගන්නා තීරණවලට අවසානයේ කර ගසන්නට සිදුවන්නේ පක්ෂයට බවත් එම නිසා පක්ෂයක් ලෙස ඉක්මන් තීරණයක් ගත යුතු බවත් මෙම පිරිස සාකච්ඡුා කර තිබේ. එසේම පක්ෂයේ ඡුන්ද පදනමට ඍජුව බලපාන ඇතැම් ඇමැතිවරුන්ගේ කටයුතුද විශේෂයෙන්ම කතෝලික ආගමික නායකයන්ට එරෙහිව සිදුකරන ලද ප‍්‍රකාශ සම්බන්ධයෙන්ද මෙහිදී සාකච්ඡුාවී ඇත.

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando Courtesy Ceylon Today

It has to be a curse on the nation itself that bribery and corruption has reached the apex at present. The venality, exposed by some of the Sri Lankan Parliamentarians, Ministers, Provincial Councillors, Town Councillors, and even among the Administrators, has become disreputable and is spreading like a contagious disease, akin to a common nose cold.

The people in this land are getting sickened and repulsed on a daily basis when they become inundated with some form of hanky- panky related to corruption, either by the previous regime or the present governors, who have come to power wearing saintly masks with solemn promises to eradicate sleaze and exploitation.

Every day, it has been a case of Media having to expose some kind of jiggery-pokery involving corruption in our social system for which, the Yahapalanaya takes full credit for liberalizing Freedom of Speech. Only a few days ago, skeletons in the closet of a senior Minister and State Minister were pulled out by investigative journalists in the form of a scoop, alleging the Government officials of an act of dishonesty surrounding the proposed electric train network involving staggering commissions that made the foreign investor to withdraw from the project. This, in fact, has affected the progress of the country’s railway network, as much as denying the comfort of travel to thousands of train commuters; and equally losing many employment opportunities.

Such hideous actions not only appear as a gross humiliation to the country, but act as an adversity for the Ceylon Government Railway’s expectation to move with the times. On the other hand, it will reflect as a warning for any prospective foreign investor(s) to even consider Sri Lanka as a future investment base.

The people in this land are quite accustomed to hear about astronomical percentages as commissions demanded by various Ministers in the previous Government. The irony is that the latest infringement has taken place under the very nose of President Maithripala Sirisena who, only a few weeks ago, categorically issued a statement to all Ministers to ‘not get involved in deals’ when it comes to development programmes in the country. By the same token, it is extremely strange how various delinquencies amounting to millions and billions of rupees get concealed, following Media exposures, and in return the very Media gets blustered for such revelations! In such a backdrop, how will the country progress?

History

History reveals how the British planters and entrepreneurs coached ‘Ceylonese’ to become masters of their own, in both legislative and executive functions, prior to achieving independence. British were mindful of the fact that ‘Ceylonese’ were not ready during that era to govern the country, which has clearly indicated  this fact over the past 70 years where the island nation has got left behind, while other South Asian countries have managed to progress and overtake Sri Lanka (Ceylon), which is today buried with an unprecedented debt element, and the citizenry is squeezed to the hilt with unbearable cost of living with various kinds of taxes, thus leaving the whole economy in doldrums.

Dilly-dally

Despite election promises to expose the charlatans and swindlers of the past, the new rulers who promised prior to the election, four years ago, have not brought a single politician to book in a manner they assured, rather, procrastination has become the order of the day with intermittent Court hearings, sentencing the odd politician to jail, and bailing them out etc. This kind of television drama has only made the people immune to such activities, which is seen as the Government ‘playing for the gallery’.
However, during the ‘Yahapalanaya administration’, Sri Lanka has never seen such democracy and Court freedom to maintain law and order, and allowed Media freedom. Yet, at times, the Media is accused for exposing Government members. The general consensus of the public, in such a dilemma, is for the Government to come clean in all its dealings as, obviously, there is no smoke without fire.

Assassination plot

The latest political drama that has come to the fore is about a plot uncovered to assassinate the country’s President and the former Secretary of Defence by a senior Police official. Finally, after significant public protests, the alleged D.I.G has been interdicted.

What is the function of a Police force in a country? It is deployed to maintain law and order. However, when a D.I.G gets allegedly accused of a murder attempt, the entire scenario becomes not only serious, but more than a buffoonery. People have begun to question, after such revelations, as to why this alleged D.I.G was initially transferred to a different (IT) department, and the interdiction order came to play only after pressure was exerted from all sides. The incident turned more vinegary when the Opposition came out with the allegation  that this  particular D.I.G was spotted in the Kelaniya Temple performing a ‘Bodhi Pooja’, with the Inspector General of Police, which  of course takes the cake. How can a country run in this manner?

Deterioration from all sides

Generally speaking, the progress of a nation cannot be identified only by changing the skyline, with umpteen numbers of skyscrapers and/or building expressways on borrowed money from international monetary institutions, but it is the responsibility of rulers to think about the quality of living of citizens and education of children that have deteriorated over the years.  Some years ago, the ‘history’ subject was removed from the school syllabus by a former Minister of Education. Likewise, the health sector has worsened despite some of the prices of costly drugs been reduced by the current Minister of Health. Hospitals throughout the country have reached a critical state where hospital pharmacies have dried up of drugs and the patients have to buy medicine from private pharmacies, which have sprung up like mushrooms particularly around hospitals. The latest news revealed how many patients have gone blind after using a particular eye drop, which is followed by a commission of enquiry. Do we have to wait until disasters happen to take action, which seems to be the Sri Lankan style? This is the greatest folly or weakness amongst Sri Lankan rulers, politicians as well as administrative staff – the lack of common-sense or the lack of presence of mind.

Pharmacies

Sri Lanka Medical Ordinance No. 26 of 1927 makes provision for registration of the pharmacists’ community, governed by the Sri Lanka Medical Council, to dispense drugs and poisons only to registered pharmacists and pharmaceutical chemists. A special provision in the Medical Ordinance exists to register Apothecaries (or Assistant Medical Practitioners) and Estate Apothecaries as pharmacists.

An alarming state of affairs that is common countrywide is where qualified and registered pharmacists becoming entrepreneurs by sub-letting their pharmacies (blatantly using their registration certificate) to agents who are not qualified pharmacists. Agents, in turn, employ cashiers without any knowledge about the drugs they dispense to the public, except their basic knowledge on brand names.

When inspectors from the Ministry of Health raid pharmacies on ‘flying visits’ and find the licence holder not present inside the premises, the cashier reportedly seems to come out with the excuse that the boss just went out”. By law, the licence holder of a pharmacy should be present on site always when dispensing drugs to the public, and in case of his absence, the law dictates to shut the pharmacy for the public. It is also alleged that some of the corrupt Health Ministry inspectors turn a blind eye to the situation for a monthly cash reward of Rs. 15,000.

A qualified pharmacist’s duty should be to label the drugs with its name, strength, and dosage, rather than placing assorted tablets into small envelopes and marking only as TDS, BD, and Nocte respectively.

In developed countries, pharmacists advise patients on dosages, interactions, and side effects of drugs they dispense to the public, contrary to dumping a few tablets into a small unmarked envelope where even the patient does not know what he/she is consuming and for what! This
practice is only common to Sri Lanka.

කුරුණෑගල අධිකරණ_ ඉන්දුජ හිරුජි උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

‘මූල්‍ය අපරාධ විමර්ශන ඒකකයේ බණ්ඩාර මහතා ඇතුළු නිලධාරීන් තුන් දෙනකු පැමිණ ණය මැම පත් වෙනස් කර ලියන ලෙස මට බල කළා. අපේ ෂොප් එකේ තිබූ ණය මැම පොතකින් කොළ ඉරාගෙන එයාලා ළඟ තිබූ ලැයිස්තුවක් අනුව එහි ලියන ලෙස මට කිව්වා. මගේ නිවෙස සතොසට යාබදව තිබෙන නිසා මේ දේවල් නොකළොත් මටත් ප්‍රශ්නයක් වෙන බව කිව්වා’ යැයි ඊයේ (04දා) කුරුණෑගල මහාධිකරණයේ සාක්කි දෙමින් ලක් සතොස යන්තම්පලාව ශාඛාවේ වෙළෙඳ සහායිකාවක් වන අෑන් රොෂානි කොක් මහත්මිය කියා සිටියාය.

හිටපු අමාත්‍ය ජොන්ස්ටන් ප්‍රනාන්දු මහතා ඇතුළු තිදෙනකුට එරෙහි නඩුව මහාධිකරණ විනිසුරු මේනකා විජේසුන්දර මෙනෙවිය ඉදිරියේ අඛණ්ඩව විභාගයට ගැනෙන අතර, විත්තිය වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටින ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ කාලිංග ඉන්ද්‍රතිස්ස මහතා විසින් යොමු කළ හරස් ප්‍රශ්නවලට පිළිතුරු දෙමින් අෑන් රොෂානි මහත්මිය එසේ කීවාය.

රුපියල් තිස් අට ලක්ෂයක් වටිනාකමින් යුතු භාණ්ඩ යන්තම්පලාව ලක් සතොසෙන් ලබාගෙන සාවද්‍ය ලෙස පරිහරණය කළ බව කියමින් මූල්‍ය අපරාධ විමර්ශන ඒකකය විසින් මෙම නඩුව පවරා ඇත.
ජනාධිපති නීතිඥවරයා ඇසූ ප්‍රශ්න හමුවේ සාක්කිකාරිය මෙසේද කීවාය.

‘ඊයේ මගෙන් ප්‍රශ්න කළෙත් මේ ‘අල’ සිද්ධිය ගැන. ඒ ගැන මට මතකයි. මට එයාලා අර්තාපල්වලට ‘අල’ කියලා ලියන්න කිව්වා. මම එහෙම ලිව්වා. මට හිනාවෙවී විහිළු කරමින් ඒ අය මට උපදෙස් දුන්නා. ඔය මැම පත් විමර්ශනවලට කලින් අවුරුදු එකහමාරක් ශාඛාවේ තිබුණා. ඒවා වෙනස් කරන්න මට වුවමනාවක් තිබුණේ නැහැ. මට බලපෑම් කරපු නිසයි මම ඒවා වෙනස් කළේ. පොලිසියේ අය මැම පත් ඉරාගත් පොත මම අරගෙන ආවා.’

ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ කාලිංග ඉන්ද්‍රතිස්ස මහතා විසින් සාක්කිකාරිය විසින් ලබාදුන් මැම පොත 1 වි 91 ලෙස සලකුණු කර මහාධිකරණ විනිසුරුතුමියගේ අවසරය මත අධිකරණයට ඉදිරිපත් කළේය.

ඊයේ දිනයේදි මෙම සාක්කිකාරිය කියා සිටියේ කලාප කළමනාකරු සහ ප්‍රධාන කාර්යාලයේ උපදෙස් මත මෙම මැම පත් වෙනස් කළ බවයි. රජය වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටින ජේ‍යෂ්ඨ නියෝජ්‍ය සොලිසිටර් ජනරාල් රොහන්ත අබේසූරිය මහතා සාක්කිකාරියගෙන් ප්‍රශ්න කරමින්, මැම පත්වල මුළු මුදල සහ වටිනාකම් වෙනස් කළාදැයි විමසා සිටියේය. සාක්කිකාරිය කියා සිටියේ පොලිසිය විමර්ශන සඳහා පැමිණි අවස්ථාවේදී ඒවා වෙනස් කළ බවයි.

මහාධිකරණ විනිසුරුතුමිය විසින් නඩු විභාගය මෙම මස 08 වැනි දින දක්වා කල්තැබූ අතර විත්තිකරුවන් තිදෙනා නැවතත් එදින තෙක් රක්ෂිත බන්ධනාගාරගත කරන ලෙසට නියෝග කළාය.

රජය වෙනුවෙන් ජේ‍යෂ්ඨ නියෝජ්‍ය සොලිසිටර් ජනරාල් රොහන්ත අබේසූරිය මහතා සහ රජයේ අධිනීතිඥ විරාජ් වීරසූරිය මහතා පෙනී සිටි අතර විත්තිය වෙනුවෙන් ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ කාලිංග ඉන්ද්‍රතිස්ස මහතා සමඟ නීතිඥ ලක්මාල් රත්නායක, ඉන්දික ගිරාගම, ඩේල් ගුණවර්ධන, නෙරන්ජන් ඊරියගොල්ල, චලක විදානගේ ඇතුළු නීතිඥ පිරිසක් පෙනී සිටියහ.

එෆ්.සී.අයි.ඩීය විසුරුවා හැරීමට රජය වහා කටයුතු කළ යුතු බවත් එය නීති විරෝධී ආයතනයක් බවත් මෙම නීතිවිරෝධී ආයතනයට එරෙහිව මේ වනවිට සුප්‍රීම් අධිකරණයට ගොස් තිබෙන බවත් හිටපු ජනපති,පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පැවසීය.

සියම් මහා නිකායේ මල්වතු පාර්ශ්වයේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ කාරක සංඝ සභික, අග්ගමහා පණ්ඩිත අපවත් වි වදාළ අලුත්ගම ධම්මානන්ද හිමිපාණන් වහන්සේගේ දේහයට අවසන් ගෞරව පුද කිරීමෙන් පසුව හිටපු ජනපතිවරයා අද (5) මෙසේ පැවසීය.

ජොන්ස්ටන් ප්‍රනාන්දු මහතාට එරෙහිව බොරු නඩුවක් ගොනුකර තිබෙන බවත් එෆ්.සී.අයි.ඩී ආයතනය මගින් සිදු කෙරෙන්නේ දේශපාලන පළිගැනීම් බවත් එවන් දේ සිදු නොකරන ලෙස තමන් රජයට ප්‍රකාශ කරන බවද මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පැවැසිය.

හිටපු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය දිමු ජයරත්න,මහනුවර දිස්ත්‍රික් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් වන ලොහාන් රත්වත්තේ, දිලුම් අමුණුගම, මහින්දානන්ද අලුත්ගමගේ,මධ්‍යම පළාත් හිටපු ආණ්ඩුකාර ටිකිරි කොබ්බෑකඩුව යන මහත්වරුද මෙම අවස්ථාවට සහභාගී වූහ.

ඩබ්ලිව්.කේ. ප්‍රසාද් මංජු උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

මේ රටේ පොදු මහජනතාවගෙන් අති බහුතරයකගේ ඉල්ලීම මත තමා ඉදිරියේදී ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ නායකත්වය භාරගන්නා බව හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ‘මව්බිම’ට ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.
ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ නායකත්වය භාරගන්නවාද කියා අප කළ විමසුමකට පිළිතුරු දෙමින් හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා මේ බව පැවැසීය.

පක්ෂයේ නායකත්වය භාරගන්නා ලෙසට තමාට ආරාධනා දිගින් දිගටම ලැබෙමින් පවතින බවත් විශේෂයෙන් ජනතාවගෙන් අතිබහුතරයක් මේ ඉල්ලීම කරන බවත් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පැවැසීය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයට තමා බෙහෙවින් ආදරය කළද එය එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයට පාවා දුන් දිනයේ සිට රට විනාශය කරා ගෙන යන ගමනට ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයද මේ වනවිට හවුල් වී තිබෙන බවද තමා ඇතුළු විශාල පිරිසක් ඒ නිසා ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයෙන් ක්‍රමයෙන් අෑත් වෙමින් සිටින බවද හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා කියා සිටී.

එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ ප්‍රතිපත්තිවලට ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය පාවාදීමත් සමඟම ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයට ආදරය කළ සියලුම දෙනාට විකල්ප බලවේගයක අවශ්‍යතාව තදින්ම දැනුණු බවත් ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ මේ රට වෙනුවෙන් හා රටේ පොදු මහජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් එම විකල්ප බලවේගය බවට සාර්ථකව පත් වී තිබෙන බවත් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පෙන්වා දෙයි.

එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ විනාශකාරී ප්‍රතිපත්තිවලින් රට බේරාගෙන රට ඉදිරියට ගෙනයෑමට දායක වන ඕනෑම බලවේගයකට ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ සමඟ සන්ධාන ගතවීමට අවස්ථාව තිබෙන බවද හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා වැඩිදුරටත් ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

කැලණිය – කුසුම් එස්. හැන්නදි,ගම්පහ – දොන් විතානආරච්චි,ගම්පහ – කේ.ඒ. සිසිර කුමාර උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයට තනි ආණ්ඩුවක් ගෙනියන්න බලයක් කිසිසේත්ම නැහැ. ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය මේ ආණ්ඩුවට මුක්කු ගහපු නිසයි අද ඔවුන් බලයේ ඉන්නේ. දැන් රටේ පවතින බැරෑරුම් තත්ත්වයන් ගැන ජනාධිපතිවරයාට අවබෝධයක් තිබේ නම් එතුමා වහාම මේ ආණ්ඩුවට ගැසූ මුක්කුව ගලවා දැමිය යුතුයි. එය එසේ නොකර බලා සිටීමෙන් මාතෘ භූමිය දිනෙන් දින අගාධයට ඇදවැටෙන බව ජනාධිපතිවරයා අවබෝධ කර ගත යුතුව ඇතැයි හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ පෙරේදා (03දා) ගම්පහ ප්‍රාදේශීය සභාවේ ගලහිටියාව උප කාර්යාලයේදී පැවැසීය.

රුපියල් එක්කෝටි නව ලක්‍ෂයක වියදමින් අභිනවයෙන් ඉදිකරන ලද මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහජන පුස්තකාලය මහජන අයිතියට පැවැරීමේ උත්සවයට පැමිණි ජනතාව අමතමින් වැඩිදුරටත් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා මෙසේද පැවැසීය.

‘මේ වන විට රටේ සිද්ධ වෙන කනගාටුදායක සිදුවීම් ගැන හිතනකොට මේවා බුද්ධාගමට පමණක් සිදු කරන කෙනෙහිලිකම් නොව අනෙකුත් සෑම ආගමටම රනිල් ඇතුළු කණ්ඩායම කෙනෙහිලිකම් කරන බව ඉතාම හොඳින් රටේ පුරවැසියන්ට අවබෝධ වෙනවා.

පසුගිය දවසක කතෝලික ජනතාවගේ මෙන්ම රටේ සෑම පුරවැසියකුගේම ඉමහත් ගෞරවාදරයට පාත්‍රවන අගරදගුරු මැල්කම් කාදිනල් හිමිපාණන් වහන්සේ පැවැසූ අහිංසක අදහසට රනිල්ගේ කණ්ඩායම කොයිතරම් බරපතළ වචනවලින් පහර දුන්නද? විවේචනය කළාද? ආගමික නායකයකුගේ අහිංසක ප්‍රකාශයට මේ තරම් ප්‍රහාර එල්ල කරන්න තරම් අද ඔවුන් බලගතු වෙලා.

අද පන්සලක් දහම් පාසලක් හදන්නත් අන්‍යාගමිකයන්ගෙන් සැදුම්ලත් කමිටුවකින් අවසර ගන්න වෙලා. හැබැයි පුරාවිද්‍යා වටිනාකම් ඇති පන්සල් ඩෝසර් කරලා නිවාස ව්‍යාපෘති හදන්න මේ අය කාගෙවත්ම අවසර ගන්නේ නෑ. මේක පුරාවස්තු විනාශ කරලා ගෙවල් හදන ආණ්ඩුවක්.

මේ විනාශ වෙන්නේ රටේ ඉතිහාසය, සංස්කෘතිය නේද කියලා ඔවුන්ට වගක් නැහැ. නමුත් පුරවැසියන් වශයෙන් ඔබලා අපි ඒ ගැන අවබෝධයෙන් සිටිය යුතුයි. එක් පැත්තකින් රටේ ආර්ථිකය කඩාවැටිලා. රුපියල බාල්දු වෙලා පාවෙනවා. මහින්දගේ ණය නිසාලු රුපියල බාල්දු වුණේ. මේක තමයි මේ ආණ්ඩුව බලයට ආපුදා පටන් වැඩියෙන්ම කියපු දේ. අපේ ආණ්ඩුව කාලෙත් ඩොලරය ශක්තිමත් වුණා. ලෝකේ අනෙක් රටවල් වගේම ආසියාවේ රටවලත් ආර්ථිකය කඩාවැටෙද්දී අපි කෙළින් හිටියා.

මේ වසර තුනට මං ගත්තා වගේ දෙගුණයක් මේගොල්ලෝ ණය අරන්. ඒත් කරපු කිසි දෙයක් නෑ. කරපු එකම දේ අපි හදපුවා ගිහින් ඒගොල්ලන්ගේ වගේ විවෘත කරපු එක විතරයි. දක්‍ෂයි රටේ සම්පත් විදෙස් රටවලට විකුණන්න. පිටරටවල කුණු අපේ රටේ දාන්න අවසර දෙන්න ගිවිසුම් ගහනවා.

දසදහස් ගණනක් රණවිරුවන් ජීවිත පරිත්‍යාග කරලා නිදහස් කරලා දුන්න මාතෘ භූමිය මේ අය හදන්නේ කුණු ගොඩක් කරන්න.

ජීවන වියදම ජෙට් එක වගේ ඉහළ ගිහින්. ලෝකෙට ණය වෙලා බැංකු කඩාවැටෙන තත්ත්වයක් අනාගතයේදී උදා වෙනවා. එතෙක් අපි බලා සිටිය යුතු නැහැ. ඉදිරිය ඉතාම භයානකයි. සිද්ධ වෙන්න යන විනාශයෙන් රට බේරා ගැනීමට නිසි පියවර ගන්න කියන එකයි මගේ එකම ඉල්ලීම.’

We demand answers. Ban Ki Moon 3 member panel is a personally appointed panel, how did this report become the foundation for a UNHRC investigation against a UN member state & how did this investigation & Ban Ki Moon report become the basis for 3 resolutions against Sri Lanka is the explanation UN has to offer Sri Lanka FIRST before Sri Lanka agrees to anything else. Let’s stop going round the mulberry bush until UN provides a legally acceptable explanation.

UN Security Council Resolutions are binding. UN General Assembly Resolutions are non-binding.

According to Sir Hersch Lauterpacht, a former member judge of the International Court of Justice:

… the General Assembly has no legal power to legislate or bind its members by way of recommendation.”

Professor Judge Schwebel, former President of the International Court of Justice, states that:

… the General Assembly of the United Nations can only, in principle, issue ‘recommendation’ which are not of a binding character, according to Article 10 of the Charter of the United Nations.”

This means no UN body can exert aggressive & authoritarian ruling over a UN member state. Therefore, the UNHRC which is simply an associate body within the UN system has no mandate to issue demarches against Sri Lanka. Having said that, there are a plethora of in congruencies that have been committed by the UNHRC against Sri Lanka while at the same time plenty of faux pas committed by the GOSL the last & silliest being co-sponsorship of the resolution by a minister sans the approval of the Sri Lankan President or endorsement of the Sri Lankan Cabinet.

Since the UNGA cannot compel action against any governments the alternate path has been to use diplomatic pressure to force action on selected states through a new precedence created using the power of money & lobby groups to create country-specific resolutions & use diplomatic pressures to bring countries to their knees. Sri Lanka is a victim of this new ploy.

If UN resolutions are non-binding why has Sri Lanka wasted time & money lobbying without simply challenging the UN & associate entities to produce evidence before drafting resolutions?

UNHRC is simply an inter-government entity within the UN system it has no legal authority whatsoever over any UN member state. Any Human Rights issues committed by Sri Lanka should have been dealt with during the Universal Periodic Review sessions.

We list the inconsistences bordering illegalities committed by the UN/UNSG/UNHRC against a UN member state

• The 3-member panel appointed by then UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon was a personally commissioned panel report WITHOUT UN Security Council or UN General Assembly Mandate. It was a personally commissioned ‘ADVISORY’ report on the FINAL STAGES (last phase) of the conflict. This personally commissioned report had no basis to be used for an Investigation by UNHRC or 3 successive resolutions against a UN member state.
• The UNHRC Resolutions even go beyond the period covered by the Ban Ki Moon panel another violation.
• Sample formats appearing on internet to show Tamils how to compile complaint cases against Sri Lanka Army for OISL investigation.
• Discovery of UNHRC blank war crimes forms with signatures being collected by LTTE-TNA (explains why UNHRC wishes to freeze ‘witness’ details for 20 years)
• In the supposed Joint-Statement made on 22 May 2009, Sri Lanka does not commit to undertaking any investigation or agree to any international investigation.
• Ban Ki must explain why he was so impatient to appoint his own panel (which he has not done for other international conflicts) hardly a month after Sri Lanka appointed the LLRC. LLRC appointed in March 2010, Ban Ki Moon panel appointed in June 2010.
• If the 3-member Panel report was not a fact-finding or investigative report on what basis did it conclude on violations of humanitarian law, how can the panel classify sources as ‘confidential’ denying cross-examination for 20 years, how can Ban Ki Moon’s panel describe LTTE as ‘the most disciplined & nationalist of the Tamil militant groups”? How can the panel claim the conflict ended ‘tragically’ when the entire nation breathed in relief that there would be no more LTTE bombs & suicide attacks? More importantly why is this panel commenting on the family of the then President – that has nothing to do with their reporting on the last stages of the conflict?
• The 3 members selected by Ban Ki Moon were also controversial figures. Darusman the head of the panel has been openly critical of Sri Lanka while member of the IIGEP in 2007. Yasmin Sooka has been a very active attendee of pro-LTTE events, she also serves in the Advisory Council of an anti-SL campaign.
• Immediately after presenting their report the 3 panelists co-authored an article ‘Revisiting Sri Lanka’s Bloody War” in which they replaced ‘credible allegations’ (phrase used in their Report) with ‘credible evidence’.http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/03/opinion/revisiting-sri-lankas-bloody-war.html?_r=0
• How can this 3 member panel REFUSE to accept the UN Country Team estimate of 7721 dead? On 13 March 2009 then UNHRC head Navi Pillay quoted 2800 dead. 25 April 2009 UN claimed 6432 deaths. 13 May 2009 UN Country Team claims 7721 dead. Why is the UN not releasing the UN Country Team report? GOSL gave 7432 deaths while even pro-LTTE website Tamilnet claimed 7398 in May 2009. To camouflage UN’s failures, it appoints Charles Petrie to release a report that promotes the notion that UN failed the ‘invisible’ dead completely ignoring UN failures over 30 years to stop LTTE terror.
• The Panel of Experts report concludes ‘credible allegations’ but ‘credible allegations’ is soon substituted with ‘credible evidence’ by global media & human rights groups. https://www.onlanka.com/news/how-media-and-hr-groups-purposely-misinterpreted-ban-ki-moons-panel-of-expert-report.html The same entities manipulated the PoE statement that ‘there could have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths’ to promote that 40,000 actually died. To date no one has given details of the 40,000 supposedly dead people while they are silent about the 300,000 saved by the very people they are accusing to have killed the 40,000! Sri Lankan Army cannot be accused of murder without dead bodies or even details of the dead!
• The inconsistences about the No Fire Zone. Rules of armed conflicts & creation of no fire zones requires consent by both parties on its demarcation. Only the GOSL declared a NFZ, LTTE did not agree or sign its consent. Such a one-sided demarcation has not legal authority but LTTE has to abide by rules of war which denies it to fire from among civilians or keep artillery among civilians – LTTE committing this places LTTE as a guilty party.
• UN ignored repeated requests for UNHRC head Navi Pillai to recuse herself on account of her ethnicity being Tamil. This explains her derogatory statements & frequent quoting from LTTE sources against Sri Lanka & committing a procedural bias by circulating her own incriminating report while refusing to attach Sri Lanka’s response. Her statements made against Sri Lanka have been without evidence & highly derogatory.
• Isnt it also strange that the man tasked to head the investigation on Sri Lanka was accused of accepting bribes by the Albanian mafia to deliver Kosovo independence & KLA & LTTE have much in common! https://www.onlanka.com/news/navi-pillai-appoints-martti-ahtisaari-bribed-by-albanian-mafia-to-deliver-kosovo-independence-to-investigate-sri-lanka.html
• Now let’s look at those making the allegations – every ‘source’ quoted making these wild allegations were attendees to a pro-LTTE event in 2012 held inside the UK Parliament! Siobhain McDonagh MP (claims 100,000 dead), Yasmin Sooka (GTF describes her as ‘comrade’) Eric Solheim (cried at LTTE ideologue Anton Balasingham’s funeral & now UN auditors accuse him of defraud) Prof William Schabas (who recommended an international investigation on Sri Lanka), Callum Macrae (Director of C4 documentary Killing Fields), TNA MP & present Opposition Leader R Sambanthan as well as TNA MP Sumanthiran Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International’s Senior Researcher (Amnesty accepted money from another proscribed LTTE front), Frances Harrison author of book ‘Still Counting the Dead’, Gordon Weiss, former UN spokesman in Sri Lanka besotted with his own book & inflating civilian dead figures at every book launch, In addition a host of British MP including the former PM Cameron also spoke – NONE OF THESE PERSONS OR THEIR STATEMENTS CAN BE ACCEPTED on account of speaking at a pro-terrorist event but these are the very sources that the UN & UNHRC are using against a sovereign state. Any sane person should be able to understand that people who are mixing with pro-terrorist elements have no credibility to make any allegations whatsoever. https://www.globaltamilforum.org/media/6250/3rd-Anniversary-Conference-report.pdf
• While UN is accepting the statements of above persons as their ‘sources’ the UNHRC will not accept the UN Country Team’s assessment of 7721 dead,

UNHRC will not accept the GOSL figure of 7432 dead

UNHRC will not accept Lord Naseby’s statements

UNHRC will not accept US Defence Advisor in Colombo Lt. Colonel Lawrence Smith comments at the Defence Seminar in 2011 who questioned the very basis of allegations made against the Sri Lankan Army.

UNHRC will not accept embedded journalist Murali Reddy’s account & he unlike all of the 3^rd party sources the UN/UNHRC & Ban Ki Moon panel quote was with the civilians & saw first hand what was happening.

UNHRC will not accept the dispatches from Lt. Col. Anton Gash, Defence Attache at the British High Commission in Colombo, to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/New-light-on-last-stages-of-the-war-Michael-Roberts-unpacks-the-Gash-Files–149598.html

UNHRC will also not accept that LTTE kept weapons in hospitals a cable by ICRC head to US & UN https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/wikileaks-ltte-stored-weapons-at-hospitals-icrc-to-us-mission-to-un/

The list of incriminating evidence against the LTTE are many however none of these are accepted or even inserted to any UN/UNHRC report however the UN/UNHRC takes pains to list out every unsubstantiated allegation made by people who were not even in Sri Lanka at the time. These 3^rd & 4^th party unverifiable statements are the sources on which a national army is being held to task! The scale of hypocrisies and double standards are shocking.

Therefore, it is ridiculous to even consider drafting a counter-resolution WITHOUT challenging the Ban Ki Moon Panel Report, the OISL investigation & the 3 successive resolutions that was based on this personally appointed panel.

More importantly, the Ban Ki Moon report was not even tabled in the UNHRC or the UN General Assembly or handed over to the UN Security Council, if in fact war crimes had been committed. Instead, a handful of bloc nations deems it their right to be slapping allegations that come with no evidence & demand not only an international tribunal but with every resolution & Geneva Session there are demands to reduce the national army, to remove the military bases, to change the penal codes, to even draft a new constitution – what do all these have to do with eliminating terrorism & a terrorist movement in May 2009?

Therefore, neither the Sri Lankan Government nor any of the Sri Lankan groups attending Geneva sessions should even consider making any counter resolutions until & unless the UN is challenged to give a legal response to how a personally commissioned report could become the basis for a UNHRC investigation on Sri Lanka & 3 successive resolutions against Sri Lanka all demanding an international investigation together with drastic changes to Sri Lanka’s internal administrative systems which are all violations of the UN Charter & the spirit with which UN is expected to treat all of its member states.

Shenali D Waduge