It has been 10 years since the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the end of the protracted ethnic war in Sri Lanka. In any conflict transformation process, it is critical to find a lasting political settlement to resolve the r…

Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/main-article/whither-reconciliation-674829.html

By Kelum Bandara Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The JO consists of several parties. These parties have their distinct identities. They work together under the leadership of former President

 They want the government to deliver what it promised

JO will agitate for early parliamentary dissolution 

16-member group is not homogeneous at all

The situation in the country is totally chaotic. The government is dysfunctional even at the basic level

Chairman of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Prof. G.L. Peiris speaks about the current political situation and what his party plans for the future. The excerpts of the interview:   

 Q There are reports about a split in the camp of the Joint Opposition. In certain instances, there are some sort of open confrontations. Why is it?

There are no splits in the Joint Opposition (JO). That is a complete misunderstanding. The JO consists of several parties. They are Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP), Vasudeva Nanayakkara’s party, Pivithuru Hela Urumaya, the National Freedom Front, Lanka Samasamaja Party, Sri Lanka Mahajana Party etc.

The youngest party is Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) that came into existence a year and a half ago. These parties have their distinct identities. They work together under the leadership of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa towards common objectives. That is how it evolved since January, 2015 when the change occurred. The Nugegoda rally was the beginning. A strong characteristic of it is the close collaboration among these different parties. They will contest elections under the SLPP’s lotus bud symbol. There is no difference of opinion on those fundamental matters.

We should work with these 16 people in order to evolve a strategy in Parliament against the government. It is obvious that the days of the government are numbered

 Q Yet, there are reports about differences of opinion on the accommodation of 16 Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) MPs who defected from the government. What is your response?

With regard to them, what is happening is very natural. There is no reason for anyone to be astonished. It is to be expected. These are people who strongly backed President Maithripala Sirisena and accepted office under him. They were part and parcel of the government which carried out policies bringing down the country to the brink of ruin. They came only after the public opinion became very clear from the results of the elections on February 10, 2018. What the younger people in the Joint Opposition feel is this. There are strong feelings in this regard. They attacked the SLPP. They belonged to the government that pursued the Rajapaksa family and the SLPP leadership. Therefore, these feelings are to be expected.

However, there is the consideration that we should work with these 16 people in order to evolve a strategy in Parliament against the government. It is obvious that the days of the government are numbered. But, the various forces that installed this government are determined to get their agenda implemented during the short period available today. The chief item on that agenda is constitutional reforms. They want the government to deliver what it promised. The only way to thwart that exercise is to deprive the government of two-thirds in Parliament. Then, all these other initiatives become a nonstarter. For that, we have to receive people of the government into the rank of the opposition. From that point of view, the arrival of these 16 MPs is a salutatory move. It makes sense to work together with them in Parliament towards that objective.

The 16-member group is not a homogeneous group. Some members like Susil Premajayantha and John Seneviratne only said they would back the candidate to be nominated by Mahinda Rajapaksa. Others in the group said they were staying with the SLFP. They continue to accept the leadership of President Sirisena. There is a great deal of confusion.

The driving force will be Mahinda himself. Mahinda will spearhead and lead the campaign. There is no doubt about the results

Q Some of JO MPs did not vote for MP Sudarshani Fernandopulle to be appointed as the Deputy Speaker. She is a member of the 16-member group. Why is it?

It is not a division with regard to the course of action to be followed at elections. One from the 16 member group came over. All the members who are with Mahinda Rajapaksa were requested to support. They had certain reservations about doing it. It is human feeling. In politics, one has to conquer these feelings, though.

 Q You said earlier that the JO would launch a campaign targeting the dissolution of Parliament for snap general elections. How are you going to do it?

The situation in the country is totally chaotic. The government is dysfunctional even at the basic level. It is simply not possible to go that way. The President is publicly attacking the Prime Minister. The two parties are pointing fingers at each other for the failure of Yahapalana administration. In the midst of all these public bickering, it is the people of the country who have to pay a heavy price. It is quite evident that nothing useful to the people can be accomplished by the government that is so much at loggerheads. The need of the hour is a fresh beginning. That is possible only after a parliamentary election. The rupee value has depreciated to 160 against the dollar. The most acute hardships are with regard to the cost of living. There is the crippling burden of taxation. There is the ever burgeoning expenditure for luxuries for the Ministers and government MPs. There is absolutely no restraint for that. Let the people have the opportunity of deciding for themselves!

It is legally possible in terms of the 19th Amendment. That is by the adoption of a resolution by Parliament with two –thirds. All the parties in the opposition are of that view. People are waiting to cast their vote and throw the government out of office. The clamour for a general election is going to be very popular. There is very strong opposition to the alienation of public assets. All these factors are there.

 Q Some opposition parties such as the JVP and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) co-operate with the government overtly or covertly. How practical is it for you to muster two-thirds for dissolution of Parliament when the government has enough numbers to block it in that sense? 

All these parties have significant fissures within them. The UNP is also not monolith at all. Some of the younger party members have made public statements. They are profoundly dissatisfied with the party and its leadership. They want fundamental changes. When the No-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was brought, the feeling was that they could not allow their rivals to throw their Prime Minister out. That is contrary to the culture and discipline of the party. They said they would rally around the Prime Minister to defend him. Yet, there was one condition. They said there should be radical changes in the party soon after that. The Prime Minister makes such promises when he is in difficulty. He forgets all of them when he is strong. This has resulted in huge disillusionment within the rank and file of the UNP.

The President is publicly attacking the Prime Minister. The two parties are pointing fingers at each other for the failure of Yahapalana administration

The situation in the TNA is even more acute. The TNA has dropped 34 percent of their votes from the parliamentary elections in August, 2015 to the local polls on February 10, 2018. Now, of course, the drop could be even greater. How are they going to face their people in the North? After September, this year, the chief instrument of devolution ceases to exist. The east does not have a provincial council for eight months.

The TNA is losing ground there. The other elements are coming up there. We have sharp differences of views between the TNA and Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran. The Chief Minister is backed by other forces. It is in everyone’s interest to see the dissolution of Parliament. We will work towards that with the single-minded sense of focus.

Q The Presidential Elections is scheduled to be conducted at the end of next year. Why do you agitate for a parliamentary election in between?

That is still 16 months ahead of now. The harm that can be inflicted on the country during that period is enormous. People simply cannot make ends meet. There is a limit to human patience. The people cannot put up with this state of anarchy for a year and half. It is a long period in which they have to suffer.

Q There are different names being mentioned about prospective candidates. What do you think about it as the chairman of SLPP?

All this talk about the identity of the presidential candidate is a red herring across the trail. That is to divert public attention from other burning issues. The focus should be on current issues. Former President Rajapaksa said that, at the right time, he would decide who should be the candidate. He would announce it at the right time.

The driving force will be Mahinda himself. Mahinda will spearhead and lead the campaign. There is no doubt about the results.

 Q If you were in office, what would you do regarding the bond scam?

First and foremost, we will ensure that Arjun Mahendran is brought back to the country. The government is not interested in doing it at all. On the contrary, the government wants him to live in Singapore or elsewhere as long as he wants. The Prime Minister said, as in the media reports, he had no knowledge of where Mahendran was.

His presence is necessary to recover money lost to the country. Arjun Aloysius and Kasun Palisena did not do it on their own.

When the No-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was brought, the feeling was that they could not allow their rivals to throw their Prime Minister out

 Q As for the 20th Amendment brought by the JVP, there is objection to it today. Yet, the political parties, starting from 1994, have vowed to abolish the executive presidency. Now, are you opposed to it? Why is it?

Not that we are opposed to it. There is a parliamentary process at the moment considering all aspects of constitution making. It is a holistic process. It is not considering one component in isolation. The current 20th Amendment deals with one element. That is executive presidency. That is not realistic. If you take it away without doing anything to the totally flawed electoral reforms in operation at present, the result will involve a huge distortion. Executive presidency is one stabilizing factor. It has downsides though. In order to strengthen Parliament and effective governance taking place, you must deal with the issue of electoral reforms.

Sheain Fernandopulle Courtesy The Daily Mirror

While saying that it was useless to make comments on MP Dayasiri Jayasekara’s statement that the list of 118 was first mentioned by the CaFFE, Keerthi Tennakoon, Executive Director of Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE) said they would not bother what Dayasiri says.

He told Daily Mirror that people like Dayasiri always attempted to evade the issues and swept them under the carpet.

We at first raised concerns on bond scam on March 9, 2015 and disclosed the event of bond fraud at the Central Bank. Since then, we have been very vocal on the bond scam. We continued to fearlessly reveal some unexposed events on the bond scam. We are the ones who first said that there are 118 individuals including politicians, civil activists, journalists and religious leaders who have obtained funds from Arjuna Aloysius,” Tennakoon said.

The amount obtained from Arjuna Aloysius exceeds day by day. Some have admitted whereas some have been accused. Anyhow, we would carry on our study on bond scam and reveal what should be revealed,” Tennakoon added.

He further said he had written to the Speaker and the President’s Secretary urging them to release the un-revealed parts of the Presidential Commission report on the bond scam.

By Tatiana Nenova/www.infosrilanka@worldbank.org Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Sri Lanka and foreign investments read a bit like a hit and miss story. But it was not always the case. Before 1983, companies like Motorola and Harris Corporation had plans to establish plants in Sri Lanka’s export processing zones. Others including Marubeni, Sony, Sanyo, Bank of Tokyo and Chase Manhattan Bank, had investments in Sri Lanka in the pipeline in the early 1980s.

But all this changed when the war convulsed the country and derailed its growth. Companies left, and took their foreign direct investments (FDI) with them.

However, nearly a decade after the civil conflict ended in 2009, Sri Lanka is now in a very different place. In 2017, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Sri Lanka grew to over $1,710 billion including foreign loans received by companies registered with the BOI, more than doubling from the $801 million[1] achieved the previous year.

But Sri Lanka still has ways to go to attract more FDI. As a percentage of GDP, FDI currently stands at a mere 2 percent and lags behind Malaysia at 3 – 4 percent and Vietnam at 5 – 6 percent.

More importantly, FDI into Sri Lanka has been skewed away from high value-added global production networks. And currently the larger share of FDI inflows have been focused on infrastructure.

While they may boost jobs and growth temporarily during the construction period, these investments have little long-term impact. Compare this to a factory or a new IT service firm which would employ people as long as it makes profit, and export, pay taxes, and contribute to Sri Lanka’s growth for decades.

Moreover, high infrastructure FDI relies on a few and large infrastructure deals that are unlikely to be replicated and sustained over time. On the other hand, manufacturing and services hold a better promise for the long run, but even there, a large share of FDI is related to traditional sectors and local market-oriented activities with low value-added, where productivity gains are small.

Way Forward Is To Fill Gaps

To keep and increase FDI flows, Sri Lanka will need to make concerted and ambitious efforts to address gaps and play to its strengths. Sri Lanka can improve FDI by creating a more hospitable environment for investments. Taking steps in this direction is essential for domestic investment as well, not only FDI. And while the government has already begun targeting problem areas, much more is needed.

To that end, here are six ways Sri Lanka can improve FDI:

Reworking Trade Policy

Reforms in Sri Lanka’s trade policy saw eliminations or reductions of some 1200 para-tariff lines in late 2017, and further liberalization is expected with the budget in 2018 and beyond to boost trade. More trade will help diversify the economy and exports, and lift a burden off of the public sector to drive growth. It can also actively promote technology absorption, skill upgrading, and increased competitiveness; workers, consumers, producers and the state will benefit in the long-run as a result.

Improving Logistics And Trade Facilitation

Sri Lanka can leverage its unique location and trade agreements to overcome the dis-economies of its small scale. The Colombo port, which already sees 80 percent of its volume come from trans-shipment cargo, is poised to grow. However, Sri Lanka cannot take its position for granted with high growth in other ports in Pakistan and India.

Another way to compete is on speed and cost of trade processing. While domestic logistics are inefficient, internationally Sri Lanka is performing better. Currently, it ranks 57.7 out of 100 on the BMI Logistics Risk Index, and places 15th on the UNCTAD Liner Shipping Connectivity Index, which ranks countries according to their level of connectedness to international maritime networks.

The per-container cost for exporting and importing to and from Sri Lanka are much lower than the South Asia average but not at world class level (respectively, US$560 and US$690 – South Asian average is US$1,923 and US$2,118, 2015 data).

To go the extra mile to a regional logistics hub, the government has started reforms including establishing a Trade Information Portal and the National Single Window which will streamline trade processing across the 20 plus agencies involved.

Promoting Onvestments and Enabling Regulations. Avoiding Policy Uncertainty

The island was ranked 111th out of 190 economies in the Ease of Doing Business index 2018 which shows opportunity for improvement. The Government has carried out some focused reforms since 2016 to improve investment climate, and with the expected lag, reforms are cropping up.

In 2017, trade across borders was made more efficient, and this year improvements are expected relating to starting a business, property registration and construction permits.

Reforms are needed to address critical challenges in areas like land ownership. Currently, land is primarily state-owned in Sri Lanka, and land administration is weak and cumbersome. Anecdotal evidence points to discouraged FDI projects due to land issues.

A large share of exports and most export innovation has occurred in a few Export Processing Zones, primarily in the Western Province, that are now generally at capacity, new SEZs are being planned.

Further, the BOI (Sri Lanka’s main FDI facilitation body) is transitioning towards modern investment promotion. Internal Revenue Act streamlined and improved the efficiency and transparency of incentives applicable to foreign investments in Sri Lanka. The government is also liberalizing the foreign exchange controls.

Policy uncertainty in Sri Lanka has proven to be daunting for investors, with a lack of information on regulations, high fragmentation in policy making, frequent policy changes and slow policy implementation. Long-term policy strategies can serve as path-setters and expressed commitment to policy continuity in support of the Government vision.

Boosting Innovation By Way Of Competitive Product And Financial Markets

Sri Lanka has seen little transformation in what it exports over the last 20 years. There’s been limited innovation and diversification even into nearby product” space (new products closely related to existing ones) which is an easier step that happens organically with investment.

This difficulty moving into new space has also left the country out of step with regional and global production networks. Where innovation exists, it is limited to a handful of industries. A national innovation strategy seeks to address gaps and support start-ups and SMEs.

Financial products have also remained behind the firm needs – e.g. SMEs need factoring and leasing, supplier finance mechanisms and export-related financial instruments. Now the Secured Transactions Act is being amended to allow one of those innovative products – the use of movable collateral.

Assessing Labor Related Issues And Getting Women To Work

Efforts are also needed to expand the pool of labor, relax constraints in labor laws such as long and costly termination procedure, and equip Sri Lankans with skills in demand in the marketplace.

In particular, Sri Lanka can benefit tremendously from boosting its female labor force participation rate by addressing issues such as a lack of quality childcare, skills mismatch, unsafe transport and poor working conditions that keep women away from the labor force.

Sri Lanka could also ease the access of local companies to foreign expertise through introducing simpler visa procedures, which are currently complex and burdensome for foreign employees in Sri Lanka, limiting FDI especially for smaller ventures such as in tourism.

Providing Enabling Logistics And The Right Infrastructure Environment

Nationally, Sri Lanka needs to address transportation shortfalls, which have seen inequitable development with some regions disconnected from growth, increasing issues of congestion, and poor safety for women.

Different areas face different transportation gaps in roads, air travel and marine transportation infrastructure while rail infrastructure is outdated and limited, especially for the transport of goods.

(The featured image at the top shows Tatiana Nenova, World Bank Program Leader for growth and competitiveness for Sri Lanka and the Maldives)

By Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka/DailyFT Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

I was delighted to read Lalith Weeratunga’s revelatory article ‘The Troika’. (http://www.ft.lk/opinion/The-Troika–How-crucial-relations-with-India-were-managed-in-the-last-phase-of-the-separatist-war/14-656815).

I regard Lalith as a friend and I respect him as one of the finest public servants we have had. President Rajapaksa could not have had a better Secretary to the President, at a crucially testing time in our contemporary history. I have long encouraged Lalith to write his memoirs, and I hope what I see in the newspaper is but a ‘teaser’, which will eventuate in a full volume.

Lalith Weeratunga’s account of the Troika is the truth. However, while it is the truth, it is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. There are important pieces that require inclusion to establish a clearer account of the times and issues. These are of crucial importance, because unless we insert them back in and complete the diplomatic history of that time, we shall be unable to understand what happened in President Rajapaksa’s second term, how we got mired in the war crimes quagmire in Geneva, and the problems we shall have in extricating from them, even if the Troika returns, even with some in significantly elevated roles.

Lalith’s account is of a golden moment in Sri Lanka’s foreign relations, where we avoided the fate that the Jayewardene administration suffered when it rightly attempted to defeat the LTTE in 1987. That attempt triggered intervention. Under President Rajapaksa, the Troika helped avoid it and secure the space necessary to win the war.

However, Lalith’s account omits the two crucial and inextricably interrelated factors that enabled this success.

Let me back up a bit. The Indians had been negotiating a political settlement with President Jayewardene since 1984. In late 1985, Dr. HW Jayewardene signed off on an agreement on Provincial level devolution. Further talks took place in December 1986 and early 1987. LTTE provocations, and National Security Minister Lalith Athulathmudali’s faith in his Israeli military connection, delayed the agreement. The Vadamarachchi offensive therefore took place without the cover of a political agreement with Delhi, which could only be devolution-centred. When the electorally-powerful MGR lobbied Rajiv Gandhi, he caved in to pressure for intervention, because he had nothing with which to neutralise Tamil Nadu. Later, after the Indo-Lanka Accord was signed, the Indian stance pivoted so drastically that the IPKF was in combat with the Tigers by October that very year, 1987.

What this goes to show is that if we had this political solution in place (which had been in the pipeline for years) before launching the Vadamarachchi operation, the Indians would not have intervened to stop us, because Delhi would have had something to balance off Tamil Nadu.

Which brings me to my main point. What Lalith Weeratunga’s account omits is the heart of the matter, the meat in the sandwich: the policy and politics of it.

The Troika was brilliantly managing the relationship with Delhi, but they were representing and operating on the pragmatic policy decided on by President Rajapaksa, namely the promise to his Indian counterpart, to proceed with the implementation of the 13th amendment. The Troika’s managerial excellence was building on the policy equation and axis with Delhi, decided upon by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Any account of its success, without specific mention of that understanding, is like Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark.

It is this promise that kept India on side and gave us the space to finish the war, even in the face of US-UK pressure. President Rajapaksa was able to play the Delhi card to ward off the Hillary-Miliband-Norway driven ‘evacuation attempt’ by the US, the goalposts of which kept shifting.

That this policy was at the very heart of the Indo-Lanka equation during the war years, was amply and irrefutably proven by the content of the Joint Statement between the Government of Sri Lanka and the visiting Indian Troika (the Delhi counterparts of the Sri Lankan Troika that Lalith, a member, writes of).

The text of the Press Statement issued on May 21, 2009, after the top-level meeting with the Indian team, and posted on the GoSL website, read:

Mr M.K. Narayanan, National Security Advisor and Mr S. Menon, Foreign Secretary of India visited Sri Lanka on May 20 and 21. They called on His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka and met with senior officials, including Hon. Basil Rajapaksa, MP, Mr Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the President and Defence Secretary, Mr Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

They also interacted with a number of political parties in Sri Lanka … Both sides also emphasised the urgent necessity of arriving at a lasting political settlement in Sri Lanka. To this, the Government of Sri Lanka indicated that it will proceed with implementation of the 13th Amendment. Further, the Government of Sri Lanka also intends to begin a broader dialogue with all parties, including the Tamil parties, in the new circumstances, for further enhancement of political arrangements to bring about lasting peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.” (May 21, 2009)

Note that Colombo’s commitment to proceed with implementation of the 13th Amendment was not contingent upon the statement that GoSL ‘… also intends to begin a broader dialogue with all parties, including Tamil parties …’ and was therefore not contingent on the obstreperous behaviour of the TNA in 2011 (when the GoSL-TNA dialogue began) but was seen as preceding that ‘broader dialogue’.

I wrote earlier that Lalith’s testimony about the Troika omits two, not just one, crucial and interrelated points. The second point is what went wrong, post-war, despite this wonderful arrangement.

Three years after the war ended, in 2012, India voted against us in Geneva. It did not return to our side in 2013 and 2014, though it did abstain. Now, what is of greatest salience is the fact of continuity in leading personalities and managerial personnel! The Troika was still in place in Colombo. The President was the same as during the years of successful management of Indo-Lanka relations. The Government in New Delhi was that of the Congress, with the same Prime Minister in place. If so, what had gone so wrong? What could have?

If one sticks simply to Lalith’s account, one would not find the answer to the question. One would not even know there is a question. Let me reiterate: same Troika, same leaders in both capitals, no change in government in either capital, but a complete turnaround in Indian behaviour. Why so? Because our policy had changed or was not being implemented. We were perceived to have reneged on our promises – public, official promises which Lalith’s article makes no mention of! The Troika worked, not only because they were good chums with their Indian counterparts, but because they represented a policy pledge which was not being honoured, perhaps being blocked, and therefore made the Indians increasingly vulnerable to pressure from Jayalalithaa, Hillary Clinton and civil society opinion.  We did nothing to help them help us, though even our best friends the Chinese kept signalling us to do so.

By the time we held the Provincial Council election in the North (with Japan’s nudging) it was 2013. India had already voted against us in Geneva. The warning signals from Delhi were coming in by 2011, but were ignored by Colombo. However, the Indians were still not on board with the West, and were still running interference for us in 2011, which is why the US pulled back and did not back the Canadian attempt against us, which folded. But months later, when the West knew we no longer had India with us, it moved against us in 2012. When the Non-Aligned knew that India was no longer with us, our traditional support from the BRICS and the global South began to flake off. Rising Islamophobic discourse and unprosecuted violent activism in Sri Lanka even neutralised Malaysia’s vote.

We could have kept India with us, but we didn’t. What happened to the Troika? The Troika had nothing to sell. It was either internally divided or had shifted collectively from its wartime stand.

None of this is merely history. It is serial defeats in Geneva in 2012, 2013 and 2014 (with the Troika still intact in Colombo) that paved the way for the surrender in Geneva under the new Government in 2015. I have been and remain a harsh critic of the 2015 and 2017 resolutions and fervently hope to see us roll them back. But that cannot and will not happen by returning to the failed post-war policy of the second Rajapaksa term, which resulted in the serial defeats of 2012, 2013 and 2014. That failure was due to a deviation from, or at the least the non-implementation of, or the imprudently delayed implementation of, President Rajapaksa’s correct wartime policy agreement with India.

I have no doubt that there could be a 1977 or rather a reverse 1977” (the UNP at the receiving end) result at the next election. That is not my main concern. We all lived through the aftermath of that spectacular electoral victory, and the rapid growth (a phenomenal 8% at one moment) of the economy. All that came to naught with the mishandling of the Tamil question and the concomitant mishandling of the equation with India, notwithstanding excellent relations with the US Republican administration (under President Reagan) and strong security cooperation with Israel.

So, winning an election handsomely, experiencing a rapid spike in economic growth and an embrace of or by Washington and Tel Aviv, is only half of the story. Not plunging over the precipice is the more important half of that story. I do not think Sri Lanka can withstand a repeat performance after the experience of the 1980s. And that experience cannot be avoided by having a supposedly tougher, more patriotic leader than President Jayewardene. In fact, a leader without President Jayewardene’s pragmatic flexibility could result in a permanently divided island. After all, Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic was regarded as a more nationalist Serbian leader (who also spoke of ‘socialism’) than the enlightened multi-ethnic President Tito! Milosevic abolished the autonomous status of Kosovo. The result was the end of Yugoslavia.

There can be no sustainable Sri Lankan foreign policy which does not deal with the intermestic” issue (to use Kissinger’s category) of the State and the Tamil people as a community. Good relations with India cannot be restored, except by acknowledging the Indo-Lanka accord and its concomitant political commitment, the 13th amendment. Without the Indian umbrella or shield supplementing the Chinese, we shall be vulnerable to Western pressure. The Indo-Lanka Accord cannot be ignored or bypassed without consequence.

We shall be unable to rebuild the broad coalition, beginning with India, which would enable Sri Lanka to neutralise the Geneva 2015 Resolution, and exit what outgoing US Ambassador Atul Keshap calls the Geneva framework.”

Any delusion about an Israeli option of exit from the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva will only trigger a shift back to New York where the Darusman Report originated, and the activation of prosecutions under universal jurisdiction by a variety of countries, ending in unilateral sanctions by some.

Today in Sri Lanka, there is a growing social sentiment that all it takes is a return to competent management – as represented in this case by the Troika. While it is crucial, it is not enough.

What is necessary is the correct political policy, and it is only then that a managerial and technocratic stratum can implement it because it will have something to implement.

The basic distinction posited by right-wing neoconservative American scholar Thomas Sowell, with its implicit appreciation of the ‘doers’ over the ‘talkers’, if taken to a logical conclusion, would place Hitler over Heraclitus, Attila the Hun over the Buddha, Genghis Khan over Socrates, Pol Pot over Pope Francis, and Donald Trump over Dr. Martin Luther King.

This ‘doers/talkers’ hierarchy of practices and values is dangerous, because you can ‘do’ right and you can ‘do’ wrong. ‘Doing’ and ‘doing the right thing’ aren’t the same. Destruction, which is doing, is not the same as creation/construction. Thanos, in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, is the ultimate ‘doer’.

Wrong discourse cannot yield right deeds, only wrongdoing. That is why the Buddha preached (‘talked’) right thinking, right mindfulness. That is why the Bible says ‘In the beginning was the Word’– rendered as Logos, a complex Greek term, principally meaning ‘reason’.

(The featured image at the top is that of political commentator former Sri Lankan Ambassador in Geneva and France)

By Dr.Lopamudra Maitra Bajpai Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Ice manufacturing in colonial Sri Lanka in the second half of the 19 th.century was a landmark in South Asian history.  The Sri Lankan ice making industry was the first and the earliest in the region. The name of the pioneering company has changed several times over the years. Today it is known as Elephant House.

Of course, Elephant House is no longer limited to the manufacturing of ice. It is known for its ice creams and aerated drinks.

Till about the 1830s- the concept of ice was a far-fetched one. All over the world, food was mostly preserved through salting, spicing, pickling or smoking. Those days marine and aquatic items, meat and meat-products would last only a day. Dairy products, fresh fruits and vegetables were all sold in markets with spacious platforms for air-passages to provide for cross-ventilation. Examples of these are still to be seen in colonial-era baazars or markets  in many Indian cities like, Pune and Mumbai and Kolkata.

However, the problem of storage found an answer when ice began to be imported mainly from New England in Northern America. Being in the tropical and sub-tropical areas of the globe, the British colonies were introduced to ice as a preserver by colonial officers and the colonial business elite.

From the beginning of 19^th century, natural ice was exported from various parts of Northern Europe and America in padded sand-boxes. Ice was made by ice-harvesting. But the process of ice harvesting was a labour intensive one and needed 20 to 100 men for one to four weeks.

Therefore, experiments were conducted to find an easier method to making ice. The success of the experiments was  evident in the increase in the number of ice plants. The Louisiana Ice Manufacturing Company (1868) in America was one of the first to make artificial ice. Its prices were lower than those of natural ice.

Nevertheless, the shipping of harvested natural ice remained an important part of business especially in Northern America. In the 1830s and 1840s, ice was regularly exported to far-off eastern regions including England, India, South America, China and Australia.

However, export of natural ice declined in the second half of 19^th century due to various political events in the world, especially in the colonies. Among the catastrophic political events was the revolt of 1857 in India – referred to as the Sepoy Mutiny by the British and as the First War of Indian Independence by Indian nationalists. Exports from New England to India had peaked in 1856, just before the mutiny, when 146,000 tons (132 million kg) were shipped. After that, the Indian natural ice market dipped.

The ice market suffered a blow also because of the American Civil War. Import of ice slowly declined through the 1860s. As the monopoly of the American ice companies kept faltering, the introduction of artificial ice plants around the world by the British Royal Navy helped establish many new companies like the International Ice Company in Madras (now Chennai in India) in 1874 and the Bengal Ice Company in 1878 in Calcutta. Operating together as the Calcutta Ice Association, the artificial ice companies rapidly drove natural ice out of the market.

The Heritage sub-section of the Elephant House official website says that ice manufacturing in Sri Lanka began in 1866. The company was then known as the Colombo Ice Company. Ice was imported from New England and auctioned at the Colombo harbor.

The white glittering chunks of ice created tremendous interest amongst the social elite of the day and was available only at functions and houses of the socially priviledged,” a local report said.

Released in 1969 on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Ceylon Cold Stores, the publication Ceylon in Our Times 1894-1969 reports on the first production of ice in Sri Lanka, thus: The production of ice on a commercial scale began with the formation of the Colombo Ice Company in 1866 (it became New Colombo Ice Company in 1894 and then Ceylon Cold stores in 1941). Its premises in Glenie Street became known as the ‘Ice Kompaniya’.The name lingered, now the entire area has officially become ‘Kompaniveediya’.

The ice trade was controlled by the English East India Company. Therefore there is a possibility that the term ‘Kompannavidiya’ or ‘Company Road’ came from the name East India Company. The railway station in the area is also known as Kompannavidiya Railway Station.

One Von Possner of the Colombo Ice Company formed his own aerated drinks company in 1883 and introduced the ‘Elephant’ trademark to Sri Lanka. This trademark still used by Elephant House. Later, one Tom Walker, owner of a competing syndicate, bought The Colombo Ice Company and gave it a new name: New Colombo Ice Company Ltd in 1894. Many years later, a change once again took place. In 1934, the New Colombo Ice Company Ltd bought the Ceylon Ice and Cold Storage Company, pioneering the art of keeping frozen foods for selling. The New Colombo Ice Company Ltd changed its name to Ceylon Cold Stores in 1941.

(The featured image at the top shows an ice and aerate water factory in Colombo run by J.W.Fernando)

(Dr.Lopamudra Maitra Bajpai is a cultural and visual anthropologist)

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

Civil society activists who campaigned for Maithripala Sirisena at the January 2015 presidential election are sharply divided over the JVP proposed 20th Amendment intended to further dilute executive powers and do away with the next presidential election.

The 20 Amendment proposes that the parliament elects the next president.

Chrishmal

Presidential poll is scheduled to be held in Nov-Dec 2019 according to Additional Commissioner, Elections (parliamentary) M.A.P.C. Perera. Parliamentary poll is scheduled for the following year.

An influential section of the civil society led by Purawesi Balaya and National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) recently threw their weight behind the JVP project. They believe the 20th Amendment would be necessary at the moment due to delay in finalizing the new constitution.

Civil society activist and attorney-at-law Chrishmal Warnasuriya, in an interview with Indeewari Amuwatte on Derana 24X7, strongly criticized the JVP move.

Warnasuriya, who had been on the JVP National List at 2015 parliamentary poll emphasized that the move to empower the parliament to elect president wouldn’t be acceptable under any circumstances. Alleging that transferring of ‘executive powers’ to the legislature was against the principle of separation of powers, Warnasuriya questioned the suitability of the parliament to elect the president against the backdrop of allegations pertaining to some lawmakers involvement with tainted primary dealer, Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL).

Warnasuriya asserted that the 20 Amendment couldn’t be a priority for the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration as there were many contentious issues. The vast majority of people were struggling to make ends meet and the rapidly rising dollar debt was having a destabilizing effect on the national economy.

The convenor of civil society group Rata Surakimu discussed their role in strengthening democracy and shaping the political landscape in the wake of post-2015 January presidential election.

Asked whether he was happy with the current situation, Warnasuriya said that he was not totally disillusioned but certainly not happy. Warnasuriya acknowledged that they hadn’t been able to achieve what they really wanted to. Referring to the impeachment and removal of then Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake in January 2013, Warnasuriya said that though the restoration of judicial independence to a certain extent had succeeded, yet the situation was certainly not satisfactory. “I think, we have changed from one era centered around a clan in the South to another powerful Royal clan in Colombo.”

The lawyer said as only a cabal of few people were running the administration, they couldn’t be happy with the situation.

Commenting on public expectations, Warnasuriya pointed out that the debilitating setback suffered by the UNP and the SLFP at Feb. 10, 2018 Local Government poll reflected the public anger at the government’s failure to fulfill its promises, obligations.

Commenting on fresh JVP bid to further dilute executive powers, Warnasuriya explained his role and that of the civil society in introducing the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. The executive presidency had been weakened to such an extent, the public recently realized President Maithripala Sirisena was powerless to remove Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Warnasuriya was referring to failed bid to replace the PM over treasury bond scams exposure.

Warnasuriya strongly criticized the failure on the part of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government to bring the constitutional making process to a successful conclusion. The lawyer pointed out how the government wasted over three years on much touted process finally leading to the JVP moving the 20th Amendment.

Referring to UNP-SLFP confrontation over the treasury bond scams, Warnasuriya asserted that in spite of the enactment of 19th Amendment in April 2015, there were provisions in the Constitution to remove the PM. Warnasuriya said that President Sirisena for some reason didn’t want to utilize those constitutional provisions.

Recollecting the circumstances under which the Supreme Court blocked the 19th Amendment in its original form, Warnasuriya said that executive powers enjoyed by a person (in this case Maithripala Sirisena) elected through direct vote couldn’t be bestowed on another (PM Wickremesinghe) with a different mandate.

The constitutional affairs expert denied claims that the enactment of the 19th Amendment had weakened security of the state.

The 20th Amendment was meant to pave the way for a person who couldn’t secure presidency at a national level contest to achieve the same through the legislature, Warnasuriya said.

Responding to another query, Warnasuriya said that it wouldn’t be feasible to adopt a foreign constitutional model though the US and French systems could be examined if the country was to remain in the presidential system.

Warnasuriya said that he still believed in the presidential form of government.

By Rathindra Kuruwita Courtesy The Island

The Chairmen, CEOs and boards of directors appointed to SriLankan Airlines since the exit of Emirates management had not contributed to the development of the company, Captain Ruwan Vithanage, President of the Airline Pilots’ Guild of Sri Lanka (AAPGSL) told the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) on irregularities at SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering and Mihin Lanka, yesterday.

Vithanage said that Harry Jayawardena, who took over the airline after the exit of Emirates had tried to introduce accountability and transparency. “Most of the Chairmen, CEOs and Directors, appointed after the exit Emirates were selected on the basis of family and political connections. We know this because they spoke of their connections openly.

If someone eligible was appointed, others would undermine him, he said, adding that SriLankan Airlines CEO Manoj Gunawardena, appointed in 2009, had a clear vision, but he had been undermined.

Although pilots had been initially hopeful when appointments were made under the current administration, the situation had taken a turn for the worse, Vithanage said, adding that the former Chief Executive Officer of SriLankan Airlines Captain Suren Ratwatte had not been suitable for the post.

“He made some decisions that led to the pilot fatigue, which increased risk of accidents. For some people this is a place where they get on the job training, and we have seen the results of their actions.”

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The joint opposition (JO) today accepted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s challenge to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to explain how he would reduce taxes by 20 per cent if he comes to power.

JO MP Bandula Gunawardana said they would accept the challenge on behalf of Mr. Rajapaksa.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe continues to mislead the people by saying that Rajapaksa era loans had resulted in economic hardships. To cover up their inefficiency, the UNP-led government is resorting to their famous Goebbel’s Theory and blaming others,” he told a news briefing.

Rejecting reports that loans incurred during the Rajapaksa era had crippled the country’s economy, the MP said the Rajapaksa government was able to gradually increase the surplus income, even after loan repayments.

Meanwhile, the MP said the amount of state loans was Rs.2 trillion when the Rajapaksa government came to power and it increased to Rs.7 trillion within ten years. However, this government had obtained loans worth Rs.4 trillion within four years,” he said.

Opinion Letters to Editor – SWARNA HANSA FOUNDATION

262, Denzil Kobbakaduwa Mawatha, Battaramulla 

2018-06-12

When Ravi Karunanayaka was found jabbering and telling blatant lies at the Bond Scam investigation commission, his parliamentary colleagues were trying to safe guard him by requesting him to resign. Opposing the move the Swarna Hansa Foundation by a leaflet distributed throughout Colombo, requested the people, resignation? no way, he has to be punished and recover the plundered public money.

When parliamentarians tried to safe guard Prime Minister the Prime Conspirator and the main culprit of the whole issue, by having a no confidence motion, it was the Swarna Hansa Foundation that said, no way, the entire parliament which has turned out to be a sheer shameless and unbridled plundering house of national wealth, has to be put on hold, and take all parliamentarians into custody, for plundering as well as aiding and abetting plunder national wealth, and to have a Presidential rule.

Letters began to appear in the public opinion columns, in the press lamenting about the sorry situation in the government and the country. Highly concerned patriots were asking those on authority, who is fooling who? fooling the people for how long? Reminding the quotation from Abraham Lincoln one time the President of United States, that you may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” Another concerned patriot, being unable to tolerate corruption of parliamentarians any more was seen sending a public warning that days of the corrupt are numbered.

Mr. Dew Gunasekara highly concerned with the grave situation is asking the Parliament, the very corrupt institution to cleanse it. It is another desperate attempt mislead the people and save his parliamentary colleagues, and the Parliament from where he is getting his pension. As one editorial said DEW is whistling in the dark. The peoples’ understanding is it cannot be cleansed, it is a cesspit. All those so-called members of it are worms. Living on it, dining dancing playing and finally dying in it. There cannot be a question of cleansing it or restoring it at all.

As each passing day, some sort of plundering, robbing or syphoning of public money by parliamentarians is revealed. Adding insult to the injury to the victimized people, these parliamentarian worms are jabbering and trying to keep on fooling the people, as if general public are all fools, and utter fools. The most annoying aspect of it is these fellows who have robbed the peoples’ money are coming out to public surrounded by security guards maintained by public money, to fool the very people whose money have been robbed. It is in this situation, when the limit of patience, and discipline of the public is fast disappearing, that somebody writing to the media has said days of the gang are numbered.

It is in order to avert the worst, that Swarna Hansa Foundation is again requesting the President to immediately put on hold the Parliament, establish a Presidential rule, recover all national wealth plundered by sitting parliamentarians at least, for the start and punish them. Money recovered thus will be quite sufficient to run the administration with no additional taxes. No doubt the whole country will be with the President.

Gallege Punyawardana.

Keerthi Hewagoda Environmental Activist

Introduction

The Knuckles range or traditionally called the Dumbara Adaviya is a massif located in central hills in Sri Lanka.  The term range” encompasses not only the knuckles forest reserve but whole the ecological unit that geographically belongs to the Knuckles massif. The area above 1500 meters (approx. 4900 feet) in the Knuckles range was declared as a climatic reserve in 1873 and in 1988 the Knuckles Conservation Area was declared over all lands above 1,067 metres (Approx  3500 feet Amsl). The Knuckles conservation area was subjected to a floral and faunal survey under the National Conservation Review (1992-1996) (5). Considering the high biodiversity and significant cultural value, the Central Highlands, including Knuckles Conservation Forest was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Property in 2010

Under the Soil Conservation Ordinance of 1993, human activity had been restricted in certain areas in the Knuckles. As for management plan, the Knuckles Range was surveyed, demarcated and declared as a Conservation Forest in 2000 under the Forest Ordinance Act 1907 (Gazette No. 1130). And, in July 2007, with the objective of regulating unauthorized activities on the private lands in the vicinity of the knuckles conservation forest, all private land within the boundary of KCF were declared as an environmental protected area  (EPA) under National  Environmental Act No. 47 of 1980. (5) Further this Act facilitates acquire of non-state lands and include them to the forest reserve.

The knuckles forest is a refugium for number of point endemics;  Leaf nose lizard (Ceretophora Tennennti) Crestless Lizard (Calotes liocephalus) ,an  endemic fish Laubuka insularis, and Kirthisinghe Rock frog (Nannophrys marmorata) are found only in  knuckles range , and has been home to indigenous community since historic times, and represent their culture, traditions and spiritual beliefs, thus conserving an anthropological heritage.

Complaint

With cabinet directive 2017/81 dated 2017.11.23, the Sri Lankan government is going to lease the large tracts of land in Knuckles range to the private ownerships for long periods for,

1-      Factory farms (Livestock)
2-      Mineral excavation
3-      Tourism
4-      Bottled water industry
5-      Mini / small hydropower plants

The state owned Estates those will be leased are the Opalgala , Nikal Oya, Midlands, Kele bokka,  Alakola, Gomare,  Galpihilla, Kota gala, Rangala , Hare park and some others comprising a total of approx.: 21000 acres. And the Government ministers Kabir Hasheem and Lakshman Kiriella and the government institutions; SLSPC are involved in this land issue.  The critical observations could be summarized as follow;

Adverse Biological impacts

1-      Animal farms could make a devastating impact to the surrounding environment. (2,3).
(A)   Transmission of contagious animal disease to wild animals.(2)(7)

(B) Pollution of nature water ways by large amount of excreted nitrogenous substances. (8)

(C)  Direct affect into food webs by consumption, predation and parasitism etc.   This scenario will change the vectors in a sensitive eco system.(2)

(D) Random or voluntarily introduction of invasive plants (grass)

(C)   Herds may wander into the reserve

(D)   Pharmaceutical contaminants and residues from intensive animal breeding.

2-       Contamination by Fertilizers and pesticides.

3-      The hydropower plants have impact on the fish populations as their migration is effectively barred by dams and dry river beds (6)

4-      Bio-piracy and smuggling. (9)

Adverse Geological and Ecological impact

1-      Mineral excavation ( mining of quarts, blasting rocks with explosives gives rise to noise pollution, air pollution, damage to biodiversity and habitat destruction etc.)

2-      Landslides and flood risk.  (Removal of soil, Mining sites, roads and aggressive land usages).

3-      Change of hydrological patterns. (Run off and level ground water etc.). The Impediment of   natural flow of water causes the spillage or change in the direction of water current. As a result some areas will always be flooded during the rainy season.

4-      Hydropower dams modify natural cycles of high and low flows, and restricts sediment movement

Adverse Economic  and social impact

1– Diminish of water quality (waste from animal production, quarrying, fertilizer)

2- The shortage of drinking water and obstruction of natural water ways caused by the    bottled       water plants.

3- Deformed hydrological pattern will affect the local agriculture and compromise the Mahaweli    head waters fed by the Hulu Ganga. The Knuckles is the main catchment area of Sri Lanka’s longest river Mahaweli.

4- Cultural impact on indigenous inhabitants through the uncontrolled tourism, industrialisation and commercialisation. (Hotels, Alcoholic beverages, eco mafias, unethical customs etc.)

5- Waste management and garbage disposal in area will create serious problems (Pollution of natural water ways, soil and public health. Even now, the random garbage disposals right into the Hulu Ganga valley can be seen)

6-Exploitation and manipulation of cultural heritage (treasure hunting, vandalism of archaeological sites, constructions aimed for religious or cult practices)

7-Above mentioned projects will irreparably damage the aesthetic beauty of knuckles range

Further there are underlying political implications those should be addressed with time. It must be noted that the Knuckles range is already threatened by the spreading of invasive plants, ground fires, boundary encroachments, tourism related activities and by illegal agricultural practices etc.; and the leasing out of these lands will dramatically increase the damage. We strongly urge the Sri Lankan Government to stop handing these eco sensitive lands to environmentally destructive activities.

(Please check the files and sources attached herewith.)

Signed:-                                                                                                                       dated 10.06.2018

Environmental Activist

Keerthi Hewagoda

Tel  : +94 0765561912

Email-  hewagoda.k@gmail.com

The copies attached herewith

1-      Map of the Knuckles reserve and the proposed estates for lease. (4)

2-      Photo evidences of government papers related to this unethical land deal.

3-      Photos of  some of the locations/ implications mentioned in this paper taken by author after ground exploration in Knuckles range

Endnotes and Sources –

1-      Any singular group or complex network of people committing ‘Organized crimes’ that cause damage to the environment; or engaged in any lucrative activity related with the environment, represents what is currently known as Eco-Mafia.

2-      http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4891e.pdf

3-      Infectious animal diseases: the wildlife/ livestock interface. By R.G.Bengis, R.A.Kock & J.Fischer . 2002

4-      Knuckles environmental protection area by CEA.

5-      Management framework for the world heritage serial property central highlands of Sri Lanka.- IUCN, UK aid, Government of Sri Lanka- published in December 2011

6-      Notes of Chandra Bhushan (CSE Delhi) regarding the impact of small hydropower plants

7-      Careless dumping of livestock waste on farm lands and direct discharge to waterways and percolation to groundwater usually bypass via cracks and fissures is a great risk to human and animal health because livestock waste contains myriads of pathogens (Davies, 1997; Dizer et al 1984), some of which may be zoonotic and can cause systematic or local infections. (Dizer et al 1984 , Mackenzie et al 1998, Davies 1997,Cameron et al 1998, Fischer et al 2000, Stanley et al 1998). Highly contagious and pathogenic disease, such as foot and mouth disease and swine fever may spread with animal exertions through waterways  (Cameron et al 2000)

8-      Livestock waste produces ammonia that can be a potential pollutant causing serious eutrophication of rivers and lakes characterized by a high concentration of nutrients that creates an ecological imbalance in the water system that supports abnormally high levels of algae and aquatic plant growths.( Burton and Turner 2003: IAEA/ FAO 2008).This reduces oxygen levels in the waters and has serious implications on the survival of aquatic organisms and consequently  on food supply and biodiversity (IAEA/ FAO 2008)

9-      Companies that bio prospect do not, however, always respect the interests and values of the indigenous peoples from whom they gather ethnobotanical information and resources.”- Bioprospecting and Biopiracy in Latin America: The Case of Maca in Perú .Amanda J. Landon. 2007

10-  The cultural features of KCF relevant to its inclusion as a constituent of the property being nominated as a Mixed Heritage relates mainly to the evidence of cave dwelling humans dating back to the Mesolithic period- Nomination of the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka: Its Cultural and Natural Heritage. Submitted to Unesco 1 January 2008 by SL Government.
This compliant has been sent to :- Hon. President of Sri Lanka, Hon.Prime minister, politicians of the opposition, Buddha Sasana Amathyanshaya, Archaeological department, Mahaweli authority, Forest department, Wild life department, Central Environment authority, Sri Lanka state plantation corporation, Land Reform Commision, Ministry of Health, Sri lanka Mining bureau, NARA, Department of Geology, University of Peradeniya, National commission for Unesco,  UN, UNESCO, FAO, WWF, CAO, IUCN,UKAID, WHO, Environmental Law Centre and national and international mass media , Environmentalists, researchers and to academics and openly shared with common public . The author bears the responsibility of paper with belief of rationalism, knowledge and truthfulness.

දුම්රිය වෘත්තීය සමිති සන්ධානය. Railway Trade Unions Alliance. 

2018. 06. 12

ගරු ප‍්‍රවාහන හා සිවිල් ගුවන් සේවා අමාත්‍ය,

නිමල් සිරිපාල ද සිල්වා මැතිතුමා,

ප‍්‍රවාහන හා සිවිල් ගුවන් සේවා අමාත්‍යාංශය,

සෙත්සිරිපාය, බත්තරමුල්ල.

Hon. Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation,

Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva,

Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation,

Sethsiripaya, Battaramulla.

ඛනිජ තෙල් සංස්ථාවෙන් දුම්රිය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට අයවිය යුතු රුපියල් කෝටි 36 කට අධික මුදල වහා අයකර ගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය පියවර ගන්න

තෙල් ගබඩා සංකීර්ණ පවත්වාගෙන යාමට ලංකා ඛනිජ තෙල් නීතිගත සංසංථාවට ලබාදී ඇති දුම්රිය ඉඩම් සහා දුම්රිය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට එම සංස්ථාව ගෙවිය යුතු රුපියල් 328000000 (තිස් දෙකෝටි  අසූ ලක්‍ෂයක) මුදලක් ගෙවා නොමැත.

ඛනිජ තෙල් සංස්ථාව සහ දුම්රිය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව අත්සන් කර ඇති බදු ගිවිසුම් අනුව මෙම මුදල් නියමිත පරිද දුම්රිය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට ගෙවිය යුතු වුවත් 2017. 12. 31 දින දක්වා ම ඛනිජ තෙල් නීතිගත සංස්ථාව ගිවිසගත් පරිදි මුදල් ගෙවා නැත.  එය තව දුරටත් නොගෙවා හරින්නේ නම්, 2018. 12. 31 වන විට මෙම මුදල රුපියල් තිස් හය කෝටි හැට හතර ලක්‍ෂයක් (366400000) ඉක්මවන බව ද පෙන්වා දෙමු. 

කොළඹ බැස්ටියන් මාවත, මාලිගාවත්ත, පෑලියගොඩ, ගම්පහ, ගාල්ල, මාතර, අනුරාධපුර, කුරුණෑගල, ති‍්‍රකුණාමලය, මඩකලපුව, බදුල්ල, පොළොන්නරුව, මහනුවර, මාතලේ, රත්නපුර  දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කවලට අයත්, ප‍්‍රදේශ ගණනාවක පිහිටි දුම්රිය ඉඩම්වල තෙල්ගබඩා සංකීර්ණ හා පිරවුම්හල් පවත්වාගෙන යාම වෙනුවෙන් ගිවිසුම් අත්සන් කර ඇති අතර, ඒ අනුව ගෙවිය යුතු බදු මුදල් ගෙවීම ඛනිජ තෙල් නීතිගත සංස්ථාව පැහැර හැර ඇත.

පෙට්ට‍්‍රල් ලීටරයක් රුපියල් 63/= ක් ද ඞීසල් ලීටරයක් රුපියල් 24/= කට අධික මුදලක් හා තවත් විවිධ ක‍්‍රම මගින් විශාල වශයෙන් ලාභ ලබන තෙල් සංස්ථාව, මහජන සේවාවක් පවත්වාගෙන යන දුම්රිය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට ගෙවිය යුතු මුදල් නොගෙවා සිටීමේ කිසිදු  සාධාරණයක් නොවන බව ද පෙන්වා දෙමු.

මෙම මුදල නිසි පරිදි අයකර ගැනීමට කටයුතු කළ හොත් දුම්රිය සේවය පවත්වාගෙන යාමේ පාඩුව කෝටි ගණනකින් අඩුකර ගැනීමට හැකිවන අතර, ප‍්‍රමාදයකින් තොරව දුම්රිය සේවකයින්ගේ ආපදා ණය මුදල් ගෙවීමටද හැකි වන බවද පෙන්වා දෙමු.

මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඔබතුමාගේ අවධානය යොමුකර ඛනිජ තෙල් නීතිගත සංස්ථාවෙන් දුම්රිය දෙපාර්තමේනතුවට අය විය යුතු මුදල් විධිමත් පරිදි අය කර ගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය පියවර ගන්නා මෙන් කාරුණිකව ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

ස්තූතියි.,

මෙයට, 

දුම්රිය සේවයේ උන්නතිය වෙනුවෙන්,

එස්.පී.විතානගේ,

සම කැවුම්කරු                       

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය කැෆේ සංවිධානය 

බැදුම්කර වාර්තාවට අදාල ඇමුණුම් තමා වෙත ලබා දෙන්නේද නැද්ද යන්න පිළිබඳව ස්ථිර වශයෙන් ලිඛිතව පිළිතුරක් ලබාදෙන ලෙස  ඉල්ලා කැෆේ සංවිධානයේ හා ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍රයේ විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් විසින්  ගරු කථානායක වරයා හා ජනාධිපති ලේකම් වරයා වෙත ලිපියක් යොමු කළේය. අදාල ලිපිය පහතින් දැක්වේ.

2018 ජූනි 12 

ගරු කථානායකතුමා,

කරු ජයසූරිය මැතිතුමා,

ශ්‍රී ලංකා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව.

ඔස්ටින් ප්‍ර‍නාන්දු මහතා,

ජනාධිපති ලේකම්,

ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය.

ගරු කථානායකතුමනි, ප්‍රිය ලේකම්තුමනි,

බැදුම්කර වාර්තාවේ ඇමුණුම් ලබා ගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙනි

1.      2018 ජනවාරි 18 දින සිට මේ දක්වා මා විසින් ඉල්ලා සිටි, උක්ත ඇමුණුම් කිසිවක් ජූනි 12 (අද) දක්වාම මා වෙත ලැබී නොමැත.  කෙසේ නමුත්, මෙම ලේඛන ජනාධිපති කාර්යාලය වෙතින් ගරු කථානායකතුමා වෙත යොමු කර ඇති බවට පුවත්පත් වාර්තා දුටිමි.  නමුත්, මාගේ අවබෝධය නම් මා විසින් ඉල්ලා සිටි ඇමුණුම් කිසිවක් ම වෙත ලබා දෙනු තබා තවමත් ගරු කථානායතුමා වෙත හෝ ලැබී නොමැති බව ය.
2.      සී 350 ලේඛනය ප්‍ර‍සිද්ධි කිරීම සදහා නීතිපතිවරයා අනුමැතිය ලබා දී ඇති බව ද ජනමාධ්‍ය මගින් දුටිමි. එම ලේඛනය ද තවමත් මා වෙත නම් ලබා දී නොමැත.  එම ලේඛනය මා වෙත ලබා දෙන්නේ නම් ඒ කවදා ද යන්න නිශ්චිතව ප්‍ර‍කාශ කරන්නේ නම් මැනවි.
3.      අනෙක් අතට, අද ජාතික ලේඛනාරක්ෂක දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව වෙතින් දැනගැනීමට ලැබුණේ ජාතික ලේඛනාරක්ෂක පනතේ 3 වන වගන්තිය යටතේ සී 350 ලේඛනය මහජනතාව සදහා විවර කිරීම සදහා වන අනුමැතිය ජනාධිපති ලේකම්වරයා විසින් මේ දක්වාම ලබා දී නොමැති බැවින් තවත් වසර 30 කට මේ ලේඛන පරිශීලනය සදහා අවස්ථාව ලබා දිය නොහැකි බවය.
4.      මා නැවත වරක් අවධාරණය කරන්නේ මා ඉල්ලා සිටින්නේ බැදුම්කර වාර්තාවේ සියළු ඇමුණුම් ප්‍ර‍සිද්ධ කරන ලෙසය.

ගරු කථානායකතුමනි, ජනාධිපති ලේකම්තුමනි,

මාස 4ක් සහ දින 26 ක් ඔබතුමන්ලා වෙත මාගේ ඉල්ලීම නැවත නැවත සිදු කර ඇත. මාගේ ඉල්ලීම මා සදහා නොව පොදුජන සුභසෙත උදෙසා බව ඔබතුමන්ලා විසින් වටහා ගෙන නොමැති බව මාගේ අදහසයි.  මන්ද, ඒ බව වටහා ගන්නේ නම්, එම ලේඛන පිළිබද ප්‍ර‍කාශ නිකුත් කරමින්, එක් එක් කොන්දේසි පණවමින්, එක් එක් ආයතනයන් වෙත මා යොමු කරමින්, මා රස්තියාදු කිරීමට ඔබ කටයුතු නොකරන නිසාය.

1.      බැදුම්කර වාර්තාවේ ඇමුණුම් මා වෙත නිකුත් කරන්නේ ද?, නැති ද? යන්න මා වෙත ස්ථිර හා නිරවුල් ආකාරයක් ලිඛිතව ප්‍ර‍කාශ කරන ලෙස ද,
2.      එසේ ලබා දෙන්නේ නම්, ඒ කවදා, කවුරුන් මගින් ද? යන්න ලිඛිතව ප්‍ර‍කාශ කරන ලෙස ද, ඉතාමත් කාරුණිකව ඉල්ලා සිටිමි.

මෙයට 

විශ්වාසී, 

කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන්

විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/කැෆේ සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍ර‍ය

පිටපත්

1.      ගරු විපක්ෂ නායකතුමා – ගරු ආර්. සම්බන්ධන් මහතා
2.      ගරු සභානායකතුමා – ගරු ලක්ෂ්මන් කිරිඇල්ල මහතා
3.      ගරු අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක මහතා
4.      ගරු දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා
5.      පාර්ලිමේන්තුව නියෝජනය කරන සියළුම ලියාපදිංචි දේශපාලන පක්ෂ ලේකම්වරු වෙත

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග

විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍ය කාමලිකා අබේරත්න HIV ආසාදිත වන්නේ රුධිර පාරවිළනයකදී සිදුවූ අතපසුවීමක් නිසාය. HIV ආසදිත වීමෙන් පසු ඇයගේ වෘත්තීය සගයෝ ඇයව වසංගතයක් සේ බැහැර කරති. වෛද්‍යවරියක වූ කාමලිකා අබේරත්න මිය තම සහෝදර වෛද්‍යවරු වෛද්‍යවරියන් අතින් වෙනස්කම් කිරීමට ලක් වීම ඒඩ්ස් සම්බන්ධව සෞඛ්‍යය වෘත්තිකයන් තුල තිබෙන මුග්ධතාව මෙන්ම ප්‍රාග්විනිශ්චයන් පෙන්වන්නකි. මේ සාවද්‍ය ආකල්ප මෙන්ම කලංකයන් අප විසින් බිඳ දැමිය යුතුය.

මා විසින් ලියන ලද Stress Management පොත මා පුද කරන්නේ විශේෂඥ වෛද්‍ය කාමලිකා අබේරත්න මහත්මියටය. නමුත් ඒ කාලය වන විට ඇය ජීවතුන් අතර නොවූවාය. ඒ නිසා එම පොත මා පිලිගැන්වූයේ ඇයගේ සැමියා වූ විශේෂඥ ශල්‍ය වෛද්‍ය මයිකල් අබේරත්න මහතාටය.

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

June 13, 2018, 12:05 pm

Outgoing US Ambassador Atul Keshap has told former President Mahinda Rajapaksa that his brother, Gotabhaya was very unpopular.

Indian American Keshap has based his assessment on information received by him, a spokesperson for the former President’s Office told The Island yesterday.Career diplomat Keshap succeeded Michele J. Sison in March 2015. He took over the mission in late August 2015.

Keshap paid a courtesy call on former President Rajapaksa at the latter’s Wijerama Mawatha residence on Sunday evening.

Keshap has also inquired about Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s recent visit to China ahead of Viyathmaga 2018 annual convention on May 13 at the Shangri-la, Colombo.

The spokesperson said that Keshap had also referred to the then Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Indian American Nisha Biswal meeting with the then Defence Secretary Rajapaksa in early Feb. 2014. Keshap alleged that Rajapaksa hadn’t treated Biswal courteously.

Ambassador Keshap spearheaded high profile US project to adopt Geneva Resolution backed by Colombo to pave the way for foreigners including Commonwealth judges on a judicial mechanism to address accountability issues.

Following the meeting with Biswal before she left for Jaffna, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told The Island that the official hadn’t been properly briefed by the US Embassy in Colombo.

Fielding a query by The Island, the spokesperson for the ex-President categorically denied that the outgoing US Ambassador had warned the former President Rajapaksa against fielding Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (Joint Opposition) presidential candidate. He said the question of Gotabhaya’s candidature had not figured in talks.

Chairman of SLPP and former External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris on Monday told The Island that former President Rajapaksa would announce their presidential candidate at the most opportune moment.

Meanwhile, UPFA MP Udaya Gammanpila told the media on Monday (June 11) that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa could renounce his US citizenship anytime.

Addressing the media at his Pita Kotte office, Gammanpila explained the simple procedure in giving up the US nationality as and when one wanted to do so.

US embassy on Keshap’s meeting with MR

A spokesperson for the US embassy said: The Ambassador meets routinely with political leaders, civil society and community leaders. The official said so when The Island sought clarification as regards Tamil media claims that outgoing US Ambassador Atul Keshap had warned former President Rajapaksa against fielding Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as presidential candidate. The Island asked the embassy whether this particular issue was taken up with the former President?

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

If anybody still needed proof that the representatives who claimed to be holding the  legislative, executive and judicial powers of the people have turned their backs on them and have pursued a path of individual well-being, the developments during the past two weeks would have furnished enough evidence. All three wings of governance are packed with people who are corrupt, incapable and self-centred. The legislature has been sold to multi billion scammers while the executive remains so engrossed in a battle for survival and future preservation. The Judiciary, well, they need a lot of mettle to win the confidence that has been lost with regard to public perspective.

Imagine the scenario when the former President says that the PM calls Prez a rogue and vice versa; that 118 have been called rogues while the fact that he himself was called a rogue once, which led to his ignominious removal, is forgotten. The rub is that he doesn’t say that he isn’t a rogue. Simply that it has now been forgotten that he was branded a rogue by the present governing lot. After all, how can the pot call the kettle black?

The parliamentarians who have been in the payroll of Bond scammers think it a trivial matter that they received cheques from these dubious businessmen

On whose side are they ?

Joining the parliamentary debate on the ETI Fixed Deposit crisis, the JVP Leader asked one crucial question i.e. when it comes to the rights of the deposit holders of ETI and their group of companies as opposed to the interests of the Directors and owners of those companies, on whose side the public representatives were? This is a question that might sound redundant in a country where the representatives do champion the rights of the public. Yet things are so different in this nick of the woods, isn’t it?

The top three national leaders of this country have lost their credibility beyond reparation, but do not seem to have the decency to admit it. All three are like the proverbial king who walked naked in public yet feigned to be ceremoniously dressed with the most precious of garments. All three are very old, worn out and out of sync with regard to what this nation needs to pull itself out of the socio political and economic quagmire it has fallen into. A fresh face with a non political mindset aimed at developing this country while not sacrificing the hard won liberties for a democratic way of life is a burning need of the hour. They have not set up a credible second string leadership, either, a thing they seem to consider a threat and anathema to their interest of coming or remaining in power.

The way politics are done, or more aptly put, played, has not taken the vast segments of our society anywhere; a superficial increase in per capita income is a misnomer created by highly concentrated wealth in a select few. Then again that filthy lucre finds itself in the corridors of power, as revelations in the case against Arjun Aloysius et al fallen into indicates clearly.

What the law abiding citizen submits, the wealthy manipulates by a sleight of hand

The list becomes longer

While The Speaker has agreed to reveal the names of those representatives of the people who have had telephone conversations with those dubious individuals, while being members of the COPE committee and thus being privy to some of the highly sensitive details with regard to investigations, he, nevertheless refuses that there is a list of individuals at high places, which the media says includes Ministers, Parliamentarians, from both sides of the divide, Public servants, Police officers etc. who are in the payroll of big time gamers.

Investigations are revealing the true nature of politics in particular and governance in general; it’s clear that what turns the wheels of these public representatives is the ill gotten and filthy lucre

Investigations are revealing the true nature of politics in particular and governance in general; it’s clear that what turns the wheels of these public representatives is the ill gotten and filthy lucre and not the public aspirations by any stretch of the imagination.

As I pointed out in the last column, the threat posed by armed militancy both in the North and the South to the sovereignty of this nation is now replaced by a more sinister and illusive assailant. Those who are armed with hoards of ill-gotten cash and wealth have found in roads into the very heart of governance. The betrayal of the people’s aspiration by the parliamentarians and ministers is surely, but the tip of the iceberg.

 Might of filthy lucre

Might seems to be the norm that twists the hands of those who are perched comfortably and ceremoniously in the legislative, executive and judicial wings of the state. Unlike the DJV or the Black Tigers who attacked security installations of the state with military hardware, these illusive assailants are already inside the sacred temple of governance, either by themselves or through their cronies. They hold the strings, they stage-manage the political game and call all the cards!

People going to vote for their representatives at parliament and lower bodies, their extravagant and almost subservient respect to courts, their submission to law enforcing agencies are, but one great farce which is played by the public to fool themselves. Where the small man trembles, the mighty scorn with disdain; what the law abiding citizen submits, the wealthy manipulates by a sleight of hand. The ceremonious formalities of the rule of law are nothing but a box office level comedy!

The top three national leaders of this country have lost their credibility beyond reparation, but do not seem to have the decency to admit it.

Cleansing the Parliament?

There is very little doubt that politicians of all size shape and colour, whether blue, green or red have eaten the filthy morsels that fall from the tables of the shady billionaires. If one trembled at the figure of 118, as the number of MP s who have been happy recipients of the ‘perpetual’ lucre, I am quite sure, there is more to come. When Dear Old DEW, the former COPE Chairman, makes a fervent appeal to ‘cleanse’ the Parliament of these scumbags who are corrupt to the core, I hope , the noble gentleman, knows the magnitude of the task at hand. In my mind it would take nothing short of the ‘purges’ conducted during the Stalinist Era ( with wrong motives and sinister repercussions, of course) to cleanse our nation of this dirt, that man our august institutions of governance.

But the Stalin who lurks in the dark, scares the hell out of a lot of us, doesn’t he? By ‘us’ I do not simply mean the ordinary citizen. Did I ?

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

When the officials of the Attorney General’s Department first revealed that a member of Parliament had received one million rupees from a subsidiary company of Perpetual Treasuries Ltd. (PTL) headed by Arjun Aloysius- who has been remanded after being implicated in the Central Bank bond scandal- they also revealed that a VIP had also received the same amount of money from the same source.

According to the B- Report submitted to Courts the Parliamentarian who obtained money from Aloysius was none other than former Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara.

Then, a few days later it was revealed that State Minister Sujeewa Senasinghe had also received money from one of Aloysius’s companies. He had received three million rupees, according to the Attorney General’s Department. On the same day it was also revealed that Arjuna Mahendran. who was the Central Bank Governor when the scandal took place, also received Rs. 3.2 million from the PTL boss.

Aloysius giving money to Mahendran under normal circumstances cannot be faulted as the former is the latter’s son-in-law. But here, it is important because Mahendran had been accused of passing information on the controversial bond transaction that had been carried out on February 27, 2015 to Aloysius, one of the primary dealers of that transaction. Therefore it might amount to be a kick-back for insider dealing. Yet, that deal is also gradually being obscured by the revelation about Senasinghe.

Senasinghe’s defence seems to be very weak in this regard. He had said that he wasn’t aware that Aloysius had offered funds to his election campaign and argues that the funds received from the company linked to Aloysius months after the 2015 General Elections were meant for the same election. The transaction seems to be further suspicious as he had written a book justifying the controversial bond transaction.

Jayasekara had stated that he wasn’t the only Parliamentarian to receive money from PTL. His claim that 118 people had been recipients of Aloysius’ money took wings and some politicians and the media started to talk about a list of 118 MPs contained in the Bond Commission report. Then the Convener of the Voice Against Corruption and JVP provincial councillor Wasantha Samarasinghe said it was not 118, but 166 recipients who were on Aloysius’ pay list. Finally The Speaker of the Parliament Karu Jayasuriya put an end to all these speculations, saying that there was no such list in the Bond Commission report.

The whole episode has confused the people of the country while politicians were politicising the issue. This isn’t a matter that should be taken lightly or taken as a political football as it might be the largest financial fraud to have taken place in Sri Lankan history and the funds plundered by the scammers belonged to people of all
political parties.

This time it was exposed because the President and the Prime Minister represent two political parties. Had this been a Government with a President and a Prime Minister from the same party, this matter also would have been easily swept under the carpet. Hence all those involved even in a remote way should be exposed and brought to book, while taking measures to recover the public funds plundered.

Therefore, if the contents of the Bond Commission report do not hinder the court proceedings on the matter, it must be presented in Parliament and made a public document, putting an end to all speculations, irrespective of who is going to be affected by it. And also President Maithripala Sirisena should bring in forthwith the three Bills he promised to provide for the recovery of the monies plundered through such high profile rackets.

Sheain Fernandopulle Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Former Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa could relinquish the US citizenship without facing any barriers if he wishes to contest the upcoming Presidential Election, Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) leader and MP Udaya Gammanpila said yesterday.

Addressing a news conference, he said Mr. Rajapaksa had requested him to explain the true legal position and the procedure in respect of renunciation of the US citizenship.

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 is the governing law in respect of renunciation of citizenship. According to Section 349(a) (5) of the Act, any citizen who wishes to relinquish the citizenship can do so without any restriction. However, two restrictions have been introduced by case law. Firstly, if the citizen lodges the application, being in the USA, it will definitely be rejected. Secondly, if the applicant does not have any other citizenship, his application may be rejected,” Gammanpila said.

The first step towards renouncing US citizenship is obtaining citizenship in another country. The second step is collecting requirements mentioned in form DS4079 to DS4083. Thirdly, the applicant should make the renunciation appointment with the US embassy,” Gammanpila said

As the fourth step, you should attend the appointment with two persons to witness your signature. After briefing you about the consequences of renunciation of the citizenship, the documents will be executed. Thereafter, you will be issued with DS4083, Certificate of Loss of Nationality. It is like an insurance cover note or temporary driving license. It will be later replaced with a certificate issued by the Department of State. It is so simple and so quick,” Gammanpila added.

Therefore, he said the US Citizenship would not be an obstacle for Gotabaya Rajapaksa to contest the forthcoming presidential election. 

By Rohana R. Wasala

An intellectual hatred is the worst,

So let her think opinions are accursed. –B. Yeats/ ‘A Prayer for My Daughter’

In this concluding section of my article, I am making an attempt to suggest how anti-Buddhist propaganda has polluted even the academia, and how, as a potent factor, such misinformation has contributed to our country’s present predicament.

Johanson writes:

The Buddhist Protestantism of the 19th century, the monks who invoked Buddhist texts to justify the Sri Lankan civil war, and the extremist movements surging today all have one thing in common: a belief that Sri Lanka is a Buddhist nation that must be protected from foreign elements, violently if necessary. The Sri Lankan case shows that nationalism and extremism can be filtered through anything”.

This is complete nonsense. There are no ‘extremist movements surging today’ among the Sinhalese as Johansson alleges. The various nonviolent nationalist Buddhist movements led by some young lay Buddhists and Buddhist monks have come into being mainly because successive governments have failed to fulfill their constitutional obligation of protecting Buddhism. Their protests are partly against entrenched governmental inaction that is due to the misapplication of political correctness in the presence of valid complaints about the threatened state of the Buddhist cultural heritage of the country caused by tangible evidence of increasing non-Buddhist religious fundamentalist activism, destruction of archaeological sites and racist Tamil politicians advocating ethnic cleansing targeting the Sinhalese of the North.  Any government can put things right  provided they are determined to do so. They can do it with the willing participation of the leaders of Hindu, Christian and Muslim religions. The misinformation that is so liberally dished out by half baked ‘academics’ of Andreas Johansson’s type makes this task very difficult, because it undermines the already existing peace and harmony among the communities.

Johansson uses the term ‘nationalism’ in a pejorative sense and equates it with extremism. Critics of his kind condemn today’s powerful nationalist stream of politics in Sri Lanka as the direct malignant result of the national awakening movement and Buddhist renaissance (Sinhala Buddhist nationalism in short) that Dharmapala pioneered in the late 19^th century. Dharmapala was a ‘Sinhala zealot’ and a ‘Buddhist bigot’ to the Western biased local anthropologists and sociologists who had apparently no natural empathy with their own people. They were a culturally deracinated lot, although they might deny that fact. However, it is doubtful whether even the proponents of the theory of Buddhist Protestantism any longer believe in it.

What actually is Protestant Buddhism that Gananath Obeysekere et al propounded in the latter 1970s and 1980s? There is a succinct account of Protestant Buddhism and what they described as ‘Buddhist modernism’ in the Wikipedia, which I chose to quote here in full. I retrieved the following from the Wikipedia (June 7, 2018) for the purpose of this article as it gives the notion in a nutshell; it seems to have been inserted by a voluntary editor who is sympathetic to the scholars that Johansson relies on.

The term ‘Protestant Buddhism,’ coined by scholar Gananath Obeyesekere, is often applied to Dharmapala’s form of Buddhism. It is Protestant in two ways. First, it is influenced by Protestant ideals such as freedom from religious institutions, freedom of conscience, and focus on individual interior experience. Second, it is in itself a protest against claims of Christian superiority, colonialism, and Christian missionary work aimed at weakening Buddhism. “Its salient characteristic is the importance it assigns to the laity.” It arose among the new, literate, middle class centered in Colombo.

The term ‘Buddhist modernism’ is used to describe forms of Buddhism that suited the modern world, usually influenced by European enlightenment thinking, and often adapted by Asian Buddhists as a counter to claims of European or Christian superiority. Buddhist modernists emphasize certain aspects of traditional Buddhism, while de-emphasizing others. Some of the characteristics of Buddhist modernism are: importance of the laity as against the sangha; rationality and de-emphasis of supernatural and mythological aspects; consistency with (and anticipation of) modern science; emphasis on spontaneity, creativity, and intuition; democratic, anti-institutional character; emphasis on meditation over devotional and ceremonial actions.

Dharmapala is an excellent example of an Asian Buddhist modernist, and perhaps the paradigmatic example of Protestant Buddhism. He was particularly concerned with presenting Buddhism as consistent with science, especially the theory of evolution”.

Dr Susantha Goonatilake devotes  Chapter Seven (p.131-168) of his book ‘Recolonisation – Foreign Funded NGOs in Sri Lanka’ (Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, 2006) to a discussion of ‘Colonising Studies on Sri Lanka’ as its title indicates. He is, among other things, Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, and president of Royal Asiatic Society Sri Lanka (2009 to date) and a prolific writer and speaker on sociology, information and knowledge systems, and science topics. In Chapter Seven Dr Goonatilake refers to an earlier work of his entitled ‘Anthropologizing Sri Lanka: a Civilizational Misadventure’ published in 2001, which examines how four most productive and often quoted anthropologists, namely, Gananath Obeysekere and (the late)S.J. Tambiah (both of Sri Lankan origin, but mostly worked in Europe and USA), and Richard Gombrich and Bruce Kapferer (both British, and worked in Britain and Australia)analyzed the recent (as viewed from 2006) changes that have taken place in the Sinhalese Buddhist society. The conclusion that Goonatilake arrives at in ‘Anthropologizing Sri Lanka’ is that the works of these anthropologists are seriously flawed in terms of not only the basic facts on the ground, but also in terms of the methodology they use and the conclusions they draw. More damagingly, their post-colonial anthropology seems worse than even the nineteenth- and early twentieth- century colonial anthropological writings on Sri Lanka  in terms of the negative attitude with which they view their subject, i.e., the Sinhalese Buddhists.” (p.132, Recolonization). The four confirmed each other’s  interpretation of the Sri Lankan reality, and ensured that their common view became the definitive version of that reality. The distortions in their writings were fed by a set of persons associated with foreign funded NGOs, which collectively provide a social framework that helps filter their own version of Sri Lankan reality to authors living outside the country. This set of institutions and individuals, working largely outside the university structure and public domain, acts as a social cognitive matrix that filters the local reality for visiting anthropologists. The re-emergence of a virulent colonial anthropology in Sri Lanka is due partly to their efforts.” (ibid)

The so-called Buddhist Protestantism is an eminently untenable academic thesis that is little known among the ordinary Sinhalese Buddhists (though it is their interests that are harmed by such threadbare theories). Protestant Buddhism is the first of the two transformations that, according to these Eurocentric anthropologists, took place in Sinhalese Buddhism (by which is meant, I assume, the brand of  Buddhism they supposed was being  practiced among the Sinhalese the late 19^th and early 20^th century) both in terms of its theory and practice. The second alleged transformation took place in the 1970s according to these theorists, who dubbed it ‘post-protestant Buddhism’.  But before giving a brief idea about this so-called ‘post-protestant Buddhism’ (as I understand it as a layman), let me say something about what the aforementioned anthropologists call ‘protestant Buddhism’ that Andreas Johansson invokes in his article.

The Sinhalese have an unbroken recorded history of two thousand five hundred years. Nearly all of it (for two thousand three hundred years according to the Mahavamsa/The Great Chronicle) is as a Buddhist civilization, which even today forms the unshakable cultural foundation of the multilingual, multi-religious, multiethnic Sri Lankan society. How many other nations in the world can boast of such a long history with a single religious tradition?  There is nothing wrong in identifying Sri Lanka as a Buddhist nation, given that 70% of its population comprises Buddhists, and that Buddhism is not confined to one race. The former prime minister of Britain David Cameron once proudly claimed in a Christmas message that the British were a Christian nation and explained what his government had done to help the church, while describing how the institution served the nation. But Britain also prides itself on its multiculturalism. Cameron implied in the same message that the accommodativeness of the British society flowed from its dominant Christian culture. Did sociologists of Johansson’s type level any criticism at his words? Lutheranism, professed by 71.5% of its population is the state religion of Norway and dominates its culture (whereas Sri Lanka does not claim Buddhism to be its state religion). America is a Christian nation. All these reputedly secular democracies have a shorter history than the Buddhist Sri Lanka. Besides, there is no other religion that is so compatible as Buddhism with the notions of secularism and multiculturalism that are basic to democracy. So, what is so objectionable about the ‘belief that Sri Lanka is a Buddhist nation that must be protected from foreign elements…’.  It is mainly due to the characteristic Buddhist tolerance that prevails in our culture that minority communities professing other faiths follow their religions in absolute freedom from interference and subversion.

Buddhist monks feel compelled to respond to what they perceive as aggressive acts by non-Buddhist religious extremists that adversely affect the rights of the exceptionally tolerant, accommodative Buddhists. Under normal circumstances they would gladly keep out of mundane affairs. But they have no other option when the Nayake monks and relevant government authorities fail to address these issues according to the existing laws. Despite this, Johansson tries to prove that Buddhist monks justify their alleged violence by invoking Buddhist texts. He quotes what are purported to be some examples from religious studies professor Tessa J. Bartholomeuz’s book ‘In the Defence of Dharma and Just War Ideology in Buddhist Sri Lanka’. (It seems that Johansson hasn’t got even the name of the book right. It is ‘In Defense of Dharma”. (The book was published posthumously in 2002 by RoutledgeCurzon, London, for the author died in 2001.) One example is a verse from a song said to have been composed by a Buddhist monk. The verse is paraphrased in English translation thus:

Linked by the love of (Buddhist) religion and protected by the Motherland, brave soldiers you should go hand in hand.”

Given its nonsensical I doubt its authenticity. Soldiers are there to protect the Motherland, not the other way around! In what sense is this a Buddhist text? The other example given is also a verse where the metaphorical nuances of the original Sinhalese are totally lost sight of:

That Buddhism is a religion of ardent aspiration for the higher good of men is not surprising. It springs out of the mind of the Buddha, a man of martial spirit and high aims……Buddhism is made by a warrior spirit for warriors.

Use of military imagery is common in religious literature. So we have Soldiers of God in Christianity. Hindu gods are always armed. Comparing Buddha to a warrior does not mean that he was a war monger. He advocated a peaceful attitude, compassion and generosity towards all beings. Cultivation of inner virtue demands qualities such as courage, endurance, selflessness, and determination, qualities expected to be found in good soldiers at the mundane level. So, the second verse cannot be interpreted as a Buddhist religious text that could invoked to justify war against any community.

But then, Johansson could be alluding to the Mahavamsa tradition, frequently cited in support of the nationalist cause, that king Dutugemunu (who ruled from 161-137 BCE), as a strategy to create awareness about, and woo public support for, his campaign on the way,  had a group of monks in the vanguard of his army when marching against the Damila (Dravida) invader Elara (205-161 BCE) in Anuradhapura. It is a historical fact that  monks have always been in the forefront of national struggles to protect the country, the nation, and the Buddhist dispensation from internal and external enemies. But the important thing to remember is that the Mahavamsa (The Great Chronicle) is not Buddhist scripture, though some biased non-Buddhist fake scholars misrepresent it as such. The Mahavamsa is a poem of great sophistication composed in the Pali language while also being the history of  Sinhaladweepa (the Island of the Sinhalese) as a Buddhist kingdom. (However, latest research has revealed that the history of the Sinhalese on the island extends to the hoary past much before the advent of Buddhism.) The answer to Johansson on his point, then, is that just as there is nothing in Buddhism that advocates fighting to settle disputes (though the Buddha himself was born to the Kshatriya or Warrior caste in a Hindu society, and was formally trained as a warrior in his youth before he set off on his spiritual quest), so is there nothing in Buddhism that prevents its adherents from fighting lawless terrorists in self defence.

Any Sinhalese Buddhist with an average knowledge of Buddhism would reject the idea of ‘Protestant Buddhism’ offhand without giving much thought to it. They would rely on their culturally determined understanding of the Buddhist teaching. However, the four scholars mentioned above in this article did not probably realize this. The mostly village dwelling Sinhalese Buddhists of that era (late 19^th and early 20^th century), though a very high percentage of them were illiterate and uneducated, knew enough of the essence of Buddhism to know that Buddhism was not a ‘religion’ unlike Christianity.  So, even in the mid-twentieth century, in the village areas, the term ‘agamkarayo’  or ‘agame minissu’ (lit. people pursuing religion or people of religion) was reserved for Christians; ‘eya agamata gihilla’ meant ‘he has embraced Christianity’. So, the unspoken assumption was that Buddhism was not a religion. Of course, this was implicit in their understanding of Buddhism and in their practice as taught by the monks; neither the monks nor the lay Buddhists would have gone so far as to explicitly say that Buddhism indeed was not a religion. Supplicating to Hindu gods for help in mundane affairs is something most Buddhists do, for which there are historical reasons. But they know that it is not a part of Buddhism.  (Here I am using the term ‘religion’ to refer to the concept of belief, without the support of empirical or experiential evidence, in and worship of a supreme being or an ultimate truth, for the purpose of escaping the unsatisfactoriness of human/worldly existence. Of course, most ordinary people who profess a religion, hardly ever worry about what exactly ‘religion’ means.) Even at that time, Buddhists ‘worshipped’ – Buddhists perform certain set devotional practices like offering flowers, incense,  and food and drinks, chanting verses in praise of the trinity of the Buddha, Dhamma and the Sangha (The Triple Gem. But their ‘worship’ does not involve any form of praying to a higher power.

The lines from W.B. Yeats’ ‘A Prayer for My Daughter’ (in the epigraph) apply very meaningfully to Johansson and the social anthropologists who proposed the theory of Buddhist  Protestantism that he embraces as gospel truth. May Johansson understand that a hate filled intellectual, when opinionated, is much more harmful to the society than an ordinary person (That’s what the poet Yeats tells his infant daughter to remember when she grows up). Look at the chaotic situation that the country has been plunged into mainly due to the West’s misconception that the majority (Sinhalese Buddhist) community want to lord it over the minorities by denying them equality out of their alleged ethno-religious chauvinism, fanaticism, xenophobia, and what have you. It is the Tamil separatist extremists and religious fundamentalists, themselves minorities within, respectively, the Tamil and Muslim minorities, who (i.e. those extremist elements) actually display these deplorable attributes that the Sinhalese Buddhists are wrongly accused of. Since internationally the Sinhalese are a small minority their protests are easily drowned in the deafening hue and cry raised by their false accusers that far outnumber them. The West’s anti-Sinhalese, anti-Buddhist misconceptions are reinforced by the sort of powerful misinformation fed to them in various forms including fake academic theories.

Let me conclude with an extract from Dr Sarath Amunugama’s book aforementioned ‘THE LION’S ROAR’:

…..the writings of these social scientists ……………….. contributed significantly to the work of propagandists portraying Sinhala Budddhists as an intolerant community which opposed the ‘legitimate rights’ of minorities, as they were captives of the Anagarika’s ideology. Some writers have referred to this alleged phenomenon as Dharmapalian nationalism”. Even the writings of many scholars examining Sinhalese folk religion, the credibility of Sinhalese and Pali narratives, particularly the Mahavamsa, and episodes in Sri Lankan history such as the career of King Dutugemunu were all neatly dovetailed into a propagandist attack on modern Sinhala Buddhism. As if to mirror this ideological approach of the social scientists, the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) targeted Buddhist places of worship and Buddhist monks in their military operations.”(p.534)

All Ceylon Railway Employees’ General Union 

ලේකම්,
ජී.එස්.විතානගේ මැතිතුමා,
ප‍්‍රවාහන හා සිවිල් ගුවන් සේවා අමාත්‍යාංශය,
සෙත්සිරිපාය, බත්තරමුල්ල.

දුම්රිය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ ප‍්‍රධාන යාන්ත‍්‍රික ඉංජිනේරු අංශයේ සේවකයින්ගේ, සේවයට පැමිණිමේ හා පිටවීමේ වේලාවන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් මාස කිහිපයක සිට මතු වී ඇති ගැටළුවට නිසි විසඳුමක් ලබා නොදීම නිසා, එම අංශයේ නිශ්පාදන ඉලක්ක සපුරා ගැනීමට නොහැකි තත්වයක් උද්ගතව ඇත. මේ නිසා ධාවන තත්වයේ පවතින දුම්රිය එන්ජින් ප‍්‍රමානය 65 සිට 48 දක්වා පහල බැස ඇත.

මේ තත්වය  පිළිබඳව අවධානය යොමු නොකර තවත් කාලයක් ගත වුවහොත් ධාවනයට එක් කළ හැකි දුම්රිය එන්ජින් ප‍්‍රමානය තවත් අඩු වී යාහැකි බව පෙන්වා දෙන අතර, දුම්රිය එන්ජින් වල නඩත්තු කටයුතු දෛනිකව සිදු නොවීම මත දුම්රිය අවලංගු කිරීම, එන්ජින් අතරමග නතරවීම ආදිය සිදුවිමට ඉඩ ඇත. මේ මගින් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ ඵලදායිතාවය බිඳ වැටෙන අතර, දුම්රිය මගින් අනවශ්‍ය පීඩාවකට ද ලක්විය හැකි බවද පෙනවා දෙමු.

රත්මලාන ප‍්‍රධාන යාන්ති‍්‍රක ඉංජිනේරු අංශයේ මාස ගණනාවක් තිස්සේ මතු වි ඇති මෙම ගැටළුව විසඳීම සඳහා දුම්රිය නිලධාරීන්ගෙන් පංච පුද්ගල කමිටුවක් පත්කර ඇතත්, නිශ්චිත වේලාවක් නියමකර නිසි විසඳුමක් ලබා දීමට එම කමිටුව අපොහොසත් වී ඇත.

ප‍්‍රශ්නයට නිසි විසඳුම් ලබා නොදීම හේතුවෙන් වෘත්තීය සමිති සහ සේවක කණ්ඩායම් විවිධ කි‍්‍රයාමාර්ග වල නිරත වන අතර, අවිධිමත් කි‍්‍රයාමාර්ග හේතුකොට ගෙන පරිපාලන ප‍්‍රශ්න ගණනාවක් මතුවී ඇත. මෙම ප‍්‍රශ්නයට විසඳුම් ලබාදීම ප‍්‍රමාද කිරීම නිසා සේවක අසමගිතාවයක් ගොඩ නැගී ඇති අතර, දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ ඵලදායිතාවය සඳහා මෙය බරපතල ලෙස බලපා ඇත. අයිතීන් දිනා ගැනීමේදීත්, රාජකාරි කිරීමේදීත් එකට බැඳී සිටිය යුතු දුම්රිය සේවකයින්ගේ සමගිය ඉතා අත්‍යාවශ්‍ය වන බැවින් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ පැවැත්මට අයහපත් නොවන හා සේවකයින් හා වෘත්තීය සමිති වලට එකඟවිය හැකි නිශ්චිත විසඳුමක් කඩිනමින් ලබා දෙන ලෙස ගෞරවයෙන් යුතුව ඉල්ලා සිටිමු.

ස්තූතියි.,

මෙයට, 

සේවක අයිතීන් වෙනුවෙන්

එස්.පී.විතානගේ

ප‍්‍රධාන ලේකම්

 අරවින්ද අතුකෝරල

පිවිතුරු හෙල උරුමයේ නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී උදය ගම්මන්පිල මහතා එම පක්‍ෂ මූලස්ථානයේදී පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකදී මෙසේ අදහස් පල කලේය.

19 වන සංශෝධනයෙන් පස්සේ ද්විත්ව පුරවැසියෙකුට ජනපතිවරණයට තරග කරන්න බෑ.  ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාගේ ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසි භාවය ඉවත් කිරීමේ අයදුම්පත ප්‍රතික්ෂේප වුණු බවට බරපතල බොරු ප්‍රචාරයක් සමාජ ජාලා වල පැතිරෙනවා.  ඒ වගේම පුරවැසිභාවයෙන් ඉවත් වීම ඇමෙරිකාව විසින් අනුමත කරන්නේ ජනපතිවරණයෙන් පසුව බවට කටකතා පැතිරෙනවා.  එතකොට අල්ලපු අත්තයි පය ගහපු අත්තයි දෙකම නැති වෙනවා වගේ ගෝඨාභය මැතිතුමාට ජනපතිකමයි ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකමයි දෙකම නැති වෙනවා කියලායි පුවත්පත් වලට ලිපි ලියන ඩොලර් පවුම් විද්වතුන් කියන්නේ.  මේ තත්වය නිසා ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකම පිළිබඳව නීතිමය තත්වය රටට පැහැදිලි කරන්න කියලා ගෝඨාභය මැතිතුමා මගෙන් ඉල්ලීමක් කළා.

මුලින්ම කියන්න ඕනෑ ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකම අත් හැරීම ඇමෙරිකාවට නුහුරු දෙයක් නොවේ.  විවිධ හේතු මත සෑම වසරකම 5,000ක් වැනි විශාල පිරිසක් ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකම අත් හරිනවා.

ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකමට අදාළ නීතිය තමයි Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 නොහොත් 1952 සංක්‍රමණ සහ ජාතිකත්ව පනත.  මේ පනතේ 349(ඒ)(5) වගන්තිය යටතේ ඕනෑම පුරවැසියෙකුට ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකම අත්හරින්න පුළුවන්.  දෙපැත්තම කැමැති වෙන්න ඕනෑ නෑ.  පුරවැසියා කැමති නම් අත් හරින්න පුළුවන්.  පුරවැසිකම අත්හැරීම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කළ යුතු හෝ කළ හැකි අවස්ථා නීතියේ සඳහන් වෙන්නේ නෑ.  නමුත් නඩු තීන්දු වලින් තීරණය වී තිබෙනවා.

ඇමෙරිකාවේ සිටිමින් පුරවැසිකම අත් හැරීමට අයදුම් කළොත් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කළ යුතුයි.  ඒ වගේම අයදුම් කරන පුද්ගලයා සතු එකම පුරවැසිකම ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකම නම් ඔහුගේ ඉල්ලීමත් ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරන්න පුළුවන්.

පළමු පියවර තමයි වෙනත් රටක පුරවැසිභාවය ලබා ගැනීම.  රටක් නැති පුද්ගලයෙකුට බරපතල නීතිමය ගැටළු වලට මුහුණ දෙන්න වන නිසා බොහෝ විට ඇමෙරිකාව ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරනවා.  ඒ නිසා ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකම අත්හැරීමේ සම්මුඛ සාකච්ඡාවට යන විට පුරවැසිකම තිබෙන අනිත් රටේ ගමන් බලපත්‍රය රැගෙන යෑම අතිශයින්ම වැදගත්.  ගෝඨාභය මහතා දැනටමත් ලංකාවේ පුරවැසියෙකු නිසා පළමු පියවර සම්පූර්ණයි.

දෙවන පියවර වන්නේ ඩීඑස් 4079 සිට ඩීඑස් 4083 දක්වා වන පත්‍ර පිරවීමයි.  ඩීඑස් 4079 යනු පුරවැසිකම අත්හැරීමට අදාළ ප්‍රශ්න මාලාවක්.  ඩීඑස් 4080 කියන්නේ පුරවැසිකම අත්හැරීමේ දිවුරුම් ප්‍රකාශයයි.  ඩීඑස් 4081 යනු පුරවැසිකම අත්හැරීමේ ප්‍රතිවිපාක තමන් දන්නා බවට කරන ප්‍රකාශයයි.  ඩීඑස් 4082 යනු පුරවැසිකම අත්හැරීම පිළිබඳ සාක්ෂිකරුවන් පුරවන පත්‍රිකාවයි.  ඩීඑස් 4083 යනුවෙන් හඳුන්වන්නේ පුරවැසිකම අත්හැරීමේ සහතිකයයි.

මේ පත්‍රිකා අධ්‍යනය කරලා අවශ්‍ය තොරතුරු සූදානම් කර ගත් පසු තෙවන පියවර වන්නේ ඇමෙරිකානු තානාපති කාර්යාලයට අවශ්‍යතාවය දන්වලා වෙලාවක් වෙන් කර ගැනීමයි.  හතර වන පියවර වෙන්නේ අදාළ පත්‍රිකා පුරවලා සාක්ෂිකරුවන් දෙදෙනෙකු සමග තමන්ගේ දෙවන පුරවැසිකම තහවුරු කරන ලේඛණ ද සමග අදාළ වේලාවට ඇමෙරිකානු තානාපති කාර්යාලයට යෑමයි.

තානාපති කාර්යාලයේ දී පුරවැසිකම අත්හැරීමේ ලේඛණයට තානාපති කාර්යාලයේ නිලධාරියා සහ සාක්ෂිකරුවන් ඉදිරිපිට අත්සන් තැබුවාම ඒ මොහොතේ සිට පුරවැසිකම අවසන් වෙනවා.  ඒ බව සහතික කරලා ඩීඑස් 4083 කියන මෙන්න මේ ලේඛණය ලබා දෙනවා.  ඒකට තමයි පුරවැසිකම අත්හැරීමේ සහතිකය කියන්නේ.  රියදුරු බලපත්‍රය ලැබෙන තුරු දෙන තාවකාලික රියදුරු බලපත්‍රය වගේ, රක්ෂණ සහතිකය ලැබෙන තුරු දෙන තාවකාලික රක්ෂණ ආවරණය වගේ මේ සහතිකය තාවකාලිකයි.  ඇමෙරිකාවේ රාජ්‍ය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව විසින් පුරවැසිකම අත්හැරීමේ ස්ථිර සහතිකයක් නිකුත් කරන තෙක් මෙම ලේඛණය වලංගුයි.

අවසාන පියවර වන්නේ  අවසාන බදු වාර්තාව ගොනු කළ දිනයේ සිට පුරවැසිකම අත් හරින දිනය තෙක් වූ කාලයට අදාළ බදු වාර්තාව ගොනු කිරීමයි.  ඊට පස්සේ මාස දෙකක් සහ හයක් ඇතුලත පුරවැසිකම අත් හැරීමේ ස්ථිර සහතිකය නිකුත් කරනවා.

මේ ක්‍රියාවලිය දෙස බැලුවාම කාරණා දෙකක් පැහැදිලියි.  පළමු කාරණය තමයි වෙනත් රටක පුරවැසියෙකු වන ඇමෙරිකානුවෙකු විසින් ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකම අත්හැරීම නැවැත්වීමට ඇමෙරිකානු ආණ්ඩුවට හැකියාවක් නැති බවයි.  දෙවන කාරණය වන්නේ ඇමෙරිකානු තානාපති කාර්යාල නිලධාරියෙකු ඉදිරියේ පුරවැසිකම අත් හැරීමේ ප්‍රකාශය නිසි ලෙස සම්පූර්ණ කළ වහාම ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකම අත් හැරෙන බවයි.  මේ නිසා ගෝඨා භය කියන භීතිකාව වැළඳුනු පිරිස් පතුරුන ආකාරයෙන් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට ජනපතිවරණයට තරග කරන්න ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකම බාධාවක් නොවන වග ඉතාම වගකීමෙන් ප්‍රකාශ කරනවා.

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ඩබ්ලිව්.කේ. ප්‍රසාද් මංජු උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

ලෝකයේ දරුණුතම ත්‍රස්තවාදය පරාජය කරමින් රට වේගවත් සංවර්ධනයකට ගෙනගිය තමන්ට 20% කින් බදු බර අඩුකර ජනතාවට සහන ලබාදෙමින් රට ඉදිරියට ගෙනයෑම කිසිදු ගැටලුවක් නොවන බව හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අප කළ විමසීමකදී ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

සියයට 20කින් බදු බර අඩුකරන්නේ කෙසේදැයි කියා පෙන්වාදෙන ලෙසට අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාට කරන ලද අභියෝගය ගැන මව්බිමකළ විමසුමකට පිළිතුරු දෙමින් හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා මේ බව පැවැසීය.

ලෝකයේ දරුණුතම ත්‍රස්තවාදය පරාජය කිරීමට නොහැකි බව එදා ඇතැම් දේශපාලනඥයන් ප්‍රකාශ කරද්දී ත්‍රස්තවාදය පරාජය කිරීමට තමා නායකත්වය ලබා දෙමින් අභියෝග රැසක් මධ්‍යයේ ත්‍රස්තවාදය පරාජය කර රට සංවර්ධනය කළ තමාට රටේ ආර්ථිකය ශක්තිමත් කරමින් බදු බරෙන් ජනතාව නිදහස් කරමින් ඔවුන්ට යම් සහනයක් ලබාදීම අභියෝගයක් නොවන බවත් ඒ සඳහා තමා තුළ සැලසුම් තිබෙන බවත් මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පෙන්වා දෙයි.

වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව විසින් ජනතාව මත දිගින් දිගටම පටවන බදු බරට එරෙහිව ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය ප්‍රමුඛ ආණ්ඩු විරෝධී බලවේග දිගින් දිගටම හඬ නඟපු නිසා බදු බර ගැන අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා ප්‍රමුඛ ආණ්ඩුවේ අවධානය යම් ආකාරයකට යොමු වී තිබෙන බවත් හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා ප්‍රකාශ කරයි.

අවධානයට පමණක් සීමා නොවී බදු බරෙන් මිරිකී සිටින ජනතාවට යම් සහනයක් ලබාදීමට ආණ්ඩුව දැන්වත් ක්‍රියාකළ යුතු බවද හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා වැඩිදුරටත් ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

ආචාර්ය නාලක ගොඩහේවා උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

ලංකාවේ ආර්ථික වර්ධන වේගය පළමු වරට සෘණ අගයක් ගත්තේ 2001 වසරේ චන්ද්‍රිකා බණ්ඩාරනායක ජනාධිපතිනිය යටතේය. 1996 වසරේදී වසර 19ක එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ පාලනය අවසන් කරමින් 62.28%ක අති විශාල ඡන්ද ප්‍රතිශයකින් ජයග්‍රහණය කළ චන්ද්‍රිකා බණ්ඩාරනායක ජනාධිපතිනිය ගැන රටේ විශාල බලාපොරොත්තුවක් තිබුණද අවාසනාවකට මෙන් ඇය ඉතිහාසයට එක්වූයේ ආකාර්යක්ෂම නායිකාවක් ලෙසය.

විශේෂයෙන්ම වෙලාවට වැඩ කළ අතිශයින්ම කාර්යක්ෂම ජනාධිපතිවරයකු වූ ආර්. ප්‍රේමදාස වසර 3ක කෙටි කාලයක් තුළ සිදුකළ වැඩකටයුතු සමඟ සසඳන විට ඇගේ වසර 11ක පාලන කාලය රටට මෙලෝ වැඩක් සිදු නොවූ යුගයක් ලෙස නම් කළ හැකිය. එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය බලයට ආවොත් නම් රටේ සංවර්ධනය වේගවත් වනු ඇත යන මිථ්‍යාව රටේ මුල්බැස ගත්තේ චන්ද්‍රිකාගේ මේ දුර්වල පාලනය නිසාය.

වත්මන් එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ නායකත්වය ලංකාවේ ආර්ථික කළමනාකරණයට චන්ද්‍රිකා බණ්ඩාරනායකටත් වඩා දුර්වල බව අද ලංකාවේ ආර්ථිකය ගැන සුළු හෝ අවබෝධයක් ඇති අයකුට නම් වැටහී යා යුතුය. චන්ද්‍රිකා බණඩාරනායක 2004 බලයට එනවිට මේ රටේ යුද්ධයක් තිබිණි. රටේ ආර්ථික ගැටලු රැසක්ද තිබිණි. ඇගේ නොහැකියාව නිසා ඒවාට විසඳුම් සෙවීමට නොහැකි වූ බව සැබෑවකි.

එහෙත් වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව බලයට එනවිට යුද්ධය අවසන් වී තිබිණි. සෑම ආර්ථික දර්ශකයකින්ම වාගේ ලංකාව ආසියාවේ ඉදිරියෙන්ම සිටි රටවල් කිහිපය අතර සිටියේය. සංවර්ධන වේගය ආසියාව තුළ දෙවැනි වූයේ චීනයට පමණි. විදේශ ආයෝජන විශාල වශයෙන් රටට ගලා එමින් තිබිණි. කොළඹ නගරය පුරා විවිධ ඉදිකිරීම් සිදුවෙමින් එය දිස්වූයේ කාර්යබහුල වැඩපොළක් මෙනි. රටපුරා යටිතල පහසුකම් ඉදිවී තවත් සංවර්ධන ව්‍යාපෘතීන් ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙමින් තිබිණි. අලුත් ආණ්ඩුවට තිබුණේ එතැනින් පටන්ගෙන සංවර්ධන වැඩපිළිවෙළ තවත් වේගවත් හා කාර්යක්ෂම කිරීම පමණි.

පසුගිය වසර 3 1/2 තුළ අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ ප්‍රමුඛ වත්මන් රජය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම අවුල් කරගත්තේ එවැනි ස්වර්ණමය අවස්ථාවකි.

2017 වසර වනවිට ලංකාවේ සංවර්ධන වේගය 3.1%ට පහත වැටී තිබිණි. මේ ආසියාවේ දළ සංවර්ධන වේගය 6%ක් පමණ වන අවස්ථාවකය. ලංකාවේ මුදල් ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලරයට සාපේක්ෂව වත්මන් රජය යටතේ 20%කින් බාල්දු වී ඇත. නොපියවූ විදේශ ණය වසර 3ක් වැනි කෙටි කාලයක් තුළ 40%කින් ඉහළ ගොස් තිබුණු අතර මේ වන විට තත්ත්වය තවත් බරපතළය. ජනතාවගේ ජීවන වියදම අතිශයින් ඉහළ ගොස් තිබියදී රජයද ජනතාව මත විශාල බදු බරක් පටවා ඇත. 2014ට සාපේක්ෂව රජයේ බදු අයකිරීම් 100%කින් ඉහළ යෑමට නියමිත අතර අවසානයේ එහි බර දරන්නට වන්නේ සෘජු හා වක්‍ර මාර්වලින් රටේ පුරවැසියන්ටය.

මේ අර්බුදයට හේතුව මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයාට වැඩ කිරීමට බාධා කිරීමය යන අලුත් මිථ්‍යාවක් ජනගත කිරීමට එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ දේශපාලනඥයන් උත්සාහ කරන්නේ මීළඟ ඡන්දය ඉලක්ක කරගෙනය. තනි එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ ආණ්ඩුවක් යටතේ නම් ආර්ථික දියුණු කළ හැකිය යන මතයක් ජනතාවට ඒත්තු ගැන්වීම ඔවුන්ගේ අරමුණයි.

රටේ ආර්ථික අර්බුදයට හේතුව මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ ඇඟිලි ගැසීම නොවන බව තේරුම් ගත යුතුමය. වත්මන් රජය බලයට ආ පසු රටේ මුදල් ඇමැති තනතුර දිගටම දැරුවේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ ඇමැතිවරුය.

ආර්ථික ප්‍රතිපත්ති සකස් වන්නේ අගමැතිවරයා යටතේය. ආර්ථිකයට වැඩිම බලපෑමක් එල්ල කරන අමාත්‍යාංශ සියල්ලම වාගේ තිබෙන්නේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ ඇමැතිවරු යටතේය. හවුල් ආණ්ඩුව තුළ සිටින දෙපිරිසටම වැඩ බැරි බව මේ වන විට පැහැදිලි වුවත් ආර්ථික කළමනාකරණය අනාගැනීමේ මූලික වගකීම හවුල් ආණ්ඩුව මත පටවා නිදහස් වීමට රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයා ප්‍රමුඛ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ ඇමැතිවරුන්ට කිසිසේත්ම නොහැක.

උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් පසුගිය ජනාධිපතිවරණය අවසන් වී දින 50ක් ගතවන්නටත් පෙර මහ බැංකු මංකොල්ලය කරන්නය කියා දින 100 වැඩපිළිවෙළේ ලියා තිබුණේ නැති බව පසුගියදා මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයාම සෝභිත හිමි අනුස්මරණ උත්සවයේදී පැවැසීය. බැඳුම්කර කොල්ලයෙන් රටට වූ පාඩුව රුපියල් කෝටි ලක්ෂය පනින බව මුලින්ම පෙන්වා දුන්නේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ ඇමැතිවරයකු වන ලක්‍ෂ්මන් යාපා අබේවර්ධන මහතාය.

රුපියල් කෝටි ලක්ෂයක් යනු එසේ මෙසේ මුදලක් නොවේ. 2014 වසරේ ලංකා රජයේ සමස්ත ආදායම රුපියල් කෝටි ලක්ෂයක් විය. 2015 බැඳුම්කර මංකොල්ලයෙන් රටට වූ පාඩුව ඒ හා සමානය. මෙය ලංකාව වැනි රටකට දැරිය හැකි පාඩුවක්ද?

එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂ රජයක් යටතේ ව්‍යාපාරිකයන්ට හොඳ කලක් උදාවනු ඇති බවට තිබුණු බලාපොරොත්තුව බිඳ වැටීමට වත්මන් රජය පත්වී මාස 3ක් ගත නොවිණි. 2015 මාර්තු මාසයේ නව රජය විසින් ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලද අතුරු අය-වැයෙන් ඉතිහාසයේ කිසිවිටක අසා නැති අසාධාරණ බදු රැසක් ව්‍යාපාරිකයන් මත පැටවිණි. උදාහරණයක් ලෙස අතීතයට බලපාන ලෙස පැනවූ සුපිරි ආදායම් බද්ද නම් කළ හැකිය. ඊට පෙර වසරේ ඕනෑම සමාගමක් රුපියල් බිලියන 2කට වඩා ලාභයක් ලබා ඇත්නම් එය අයුතු ලෙස ඉපයූ ආදායමක් ලෙස නම් කළ මුදල් ඇමැති රවි කරුණානායක ඒ සෑම සමාගමකින්ම අතීතයට බලපාන ලෙස 25%ක බද්දක් ඔවුන් එතෙක් නීත්‍යනුකූලව ගෙවා තිබූ බදුවලට අමතරව පැනවීය.

සියලුම ජංගම දුරකථන සමාගම් මත කිසිදු සාධාරණ හේතුවක් නොදක්වා එකවරක් පමණක් ගෙවිය යුතු රුපියල් මිලියන 250ක බද්ඳක් පැනවිණි. ක්‍රීඩා ප්‍රචාරක නාළිකා මත එකවරක් පමණක් ගෙවන රුපියල් මිලියන 1000ක බද්දක් පැනවිණි. පිටරටක පදිංචියට යන ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයන්ගෙන් 20%ක බද්දක් ඔවුන් රැගෙන යන මුදල් මත පැනවිණි. මෙවැනි අත්තනෝමතික බදු පැනවීමේ ප්‍රතිඵලය වූයේ සමස්ත ව්‍යාපාර ක්‍ෂේත්‍රයම මවිතයට හා තැතිගැන්මට ලක්වීමයි. පිස්සන් රැළක් බලයට පැමිණ ඇත්දැයි සැක පහළ කිරීමට පළමු සංඥාව ඒ වූ බැවිනි. දේශීය හා විදේශීය ආයෝජකයන්ගේ නව රජය පිළිබඳ විශ්වාසය බිඳ වැටීම ආරම්භ වූයේ එතැනිනි.

පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුව යටතේ බොහෝ කෘෂි නිෂ්පාදනවලින් රට ස්වයංපෝෂිතව තිබිණි. රටේ හාල් අතිරික්තයක් පවා තිබිණි. නමුත් වත්මන් රජය බලයට ආ සිටම කළේ කෘෂිකර්මාන්තයට කෙනෙහිලි කිරීමය. පළමු අය-වැයෙන්ම පොහොර සහනාධාරය කපා දමන ලදී. විකල්ප විසඳුමක් සෙවීමට කල් නොදී යම් රසායනික පොහොර වර්ග තහනම් කරන ලදී. වී වගා කරන ඉඩම් ප්‍රමාණය වැඩියි. කියා කෘෂිකර්මාන්ත ඇමැතිවරයාම කර්මාන්තයට අපහාස කළේය. 2016 දී කෘෂිකර්මාන්ත 3.8%කිනුත් 2017 දී තවත් 0.8% කිනුත් කඩා වැටිණි. පසුගිය දශකය තුළ අඩුම වී නිෂ්පාදනය වාර්තා කරමින් වසරක් තුළ වී නිෂ්පාදනය මෙටි්‍රක් ටොන් 2.4ක් දක්වා සියයට 46.1කින් පහත වැටිණි. 2016/17 මහ සහ යල කන්න දෙකෙහි වාර්ෂික වී නිෂ්පාදනය සහල් මෙටි්‍රක් ටොන් මිලියන 1.7කට සමාන වූ අතර එය ප්‍රමාණවත් වුණේ මාස අටකට ආසන්න කාලයක දේශීය පරිභෝජනය සඳහා පමණි. කෘෂිකර්මාන්තයට කුඩම්මාගේ සැලකිලි දැක්වීමේ අවසන් ප්‍රතිඵලය වූයේ සහල් ආනයනයට රටට විශාල වියදමක් දරන්නට සිදුවීම හා වෙළෙඳපොළේ සහල් මිල ඉහළ යෑමයි.

රජයේ සමහරක් මෝඩ තීරණ නිසා රටට වූ පාඩුවද අපමණය. උදාහරණයක් ලෙස දේශපාලන ප්‍රචාරක වාසිය බලාපොරොත්තුවෙන් බලයට ආ විගස පෝට් සිටි ව්‍යාපෘතිය නතර කිරීම නිසා අවසානයේ චීනයට ගෙවන්නට වූ වන්දිය රුපියල් කෝටි 2,600ක් පමණ වේ. දුරදිග නොසිතා ශ්‍රී ලන්කන් ගුවන් සේවය විසින් ඇණවුම් කොට තිබූ නව ගුවන් යානා ඇණවුම අවලංගු කොට ගෙවන්නට වූ වන්දිය රුපියල් කෝටි 1,700ක් පමණ වේ. හයට් හෝටලයේ ගෘහ නිර්මාණ කොන්ත්‍රාත් අවලංගු කිරීමට ගත් එවැනිම තීරණයක් නිසා සැපයුම්කරුවන්ට ගෙවන්නට වූ වන්දිය රුපියල් කෝටි 160ක් පමණ වේ. මේ නව රජයේ වැරැදි තීරණ නිසා කරගත් පාඩුවලින් කිහිපයක් පමණි. අවසානයේ මේ සියලු වන්දි ගෙවන්නට සිදුවූයේ මහජන බදු මුදලිනි.

සෑම වසරකම රජයක් විසින් අය-වැයක් ඉදිරිපත් කොට අමාත්‍යාංශවලට මුදල් වෙන් කරන්නේ ඒ ඒ අමාත්‍යාංශවල අරමුණු යටතේ රටට වැඩ කරන්නටය. එහෙත් පසුගිය වසර කිහිපය පුරාම වසර අවසානයේ විශාල මුදලක් භාවිත නොකොට ඉතුරු වන බව රජයේ වාර්තාවලින් පෙනී යයි. මින් පෙනී යන්නේ සමස්ත රාජ්‍ය තන්ත්‍රයම අකර්මණ්‍ය වී වාර්ෂික අනුමත වැඩසටහන්වත් නිම කර ගත නොහැකි තත්ත්ත්වයට පත්වී ඇති බවය.
2014 වන විට ලංකාවට තවත් වසර ගණනාවක් සඳහා අවශ්‍ය යටිතල පහසුකම් බොහෝමයක් අවසන්ව තිබිණි. කඩිනමින් නිම කිරීමට අනුමතව තිබූ තවත් වැදගත් ව්‍යාපෘති කිහිපයක් වූයේ සාම්පූර් ගල් අඟුරු බලාගාර ව්‍යාපෘතිය, නුවර අධිවේගී මාර්ගය, අගනුවර එකතුවන කසළ සනීපාරක්ෂක ක්‍රමවේදයක් යටතේ ඉවත් කිරීමේ සැලැස්ම හා කොළඹ නගරයේ වැසි ජලය ප්‍රවාහන පද්ධතිය නවීකරණය කිරීමේ ව්‍යාපෘතියයි. මීට අමතරව බස්නාහිර ප්‍රවාහන තදබදය විසඳීමට නියමිත ගුවන් දුම්රිය සැලසුමද සාකච්ඡා මට්ටමේ තිබිණි. අද මේ සියල්ල එක්කෝ නැවතී ඇත නැත්නම් ඉබි ගමනින් ගාටමින් තිබෙනු දැකිය හැකිය.

මේ සියල්ලෙන් පෙනී යන්නේ කුමක්ද? හවුලේ කළත් තනිවම කළත් මේ උදවියට නම් රට කරන්නට බැරි බවය.

තිළිණි කෞශල්‍යා විජේසිංහ උපුටාගැණීම  මව්බිම

ප්‍රගීත් එක්නැලිගොඩ අතුරුදන් කළේ
රාජපක්ෂවරුන්ය කියා ප්‍රකාශ කරන මෙන් අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් හමුදා නිලධාරීන්ට විවිධ බලපෑම් එල්ල වෙන අතරේ ප්‍රගීත් එක්නැලිගොඩ අතුරුදන් කිරීමේ වගකීම පා.ච. රණවක ඇමැතිතුමා භාර ගැනීම සතුටට කාරණයක් බව පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමයේ නායක පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රි උදය ගම්මන්පිල පැවැසීය.

මන්ත්‍රිවරයා මෙසේ පැවැසුවේ ඊයේ (11දා) පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුම ප්‍රධාන කාර්යාලයේදී පැවැති මාධ්‍ය සාකච්ඡාවේදීය.

මන්ත්‍රිවරයා මෙසේද කීවේය.

‘මව්බිම’ පුවත්පත තමන්ට නිශ්චිතව සාක්ෂි තිබෙන නිසා ඉතාම වගකීමෙන් ප්‍රගීත් එක්නැලිගොඩ අතුරුදන් කළේ පා.ච. රණවක ඇමැතිතුමන්ය කියන කාරණය තමන්ගේ පුවත්පතේ ප්‍රසිද්ධ කළා. ඇමැතිතුමා කෝටි සියයක් වන්දි ඉල්ලලා ‘මව්බිම’ පුවත්පතට නඩු දැම්මා. නඩුව දැක්කම බයවෙලා සමථයකට පත් කරගමු කියා කියයි යැයි එතුමා හිතන්න ඇති. ‘මව්බිම’ පුවත්පත සතුව සාධාරණ සාක්ෂි තිබුණු නිසා ‘මව්බිම’ එහෙම කරන්න ගියේ නැහැ.

පා.ච. රණවක ඇමැතිතුමාගේ නීතිඥයෝ මව්බිම පුවත්පතේ නීතිඥයන්ට කතා කරලා අහනවා නඩුව ගොඩින් බේරගමුද කියලා. නඩුව කරගෙන යමු කියලා ‘මව්බිම’ පුවත්පත කියනවා. තමන්ට අපහාසයක් වුණාය කියලා නඩු දාපු රණවක ඇමැතිතුමාම නඩුව ඉල්ලා අස් කර ගන්නවා. කෝටි සියයටත් පයින් ගහලා.

ප්‍රගීත් එක්නැලිගොඩ අතුරුදන් කළේ පා.ච. රණවක ඇමැතිතුමන්ය කියලා පුවත්පතේ පළවීම තමන්ට අපහාසයක් වී නැතැයි කියා එතුමා පිළිගන්න නිසා තමයි අපහාසයට සිදුවූ වන්දිය ඉල්ලලා ගොනු කළ නඩුව ඉවත් කරගත්තේ.

එතුමාගේ පෞද්ගලික ජීවිතය පිළිබඳ ප්‍රගීත් එක්නැලිගොඩ, ලංකා ඊ නිවුස් එකට බරපතළ අශිෂ්ට ගණයේ ලිපියක් ලිව්වා. ඒ ලිපියෙන් පස්සේ එක්නැලිගොඩ අතුරුදන් වෙන්නේ. ඒ ලිපියයි අතුරුදන් වීමයි අතර කාල පරාසයේ සිදු වුණු දේවල් පිළිබඳ අපටත් යම් අවබෝධයක් තිබෙනවා. ඒ නඩුවේ සාක්ෂිකරුවන් වෙන්න අපිත් බලාපොරොත්තුවෙන් හිටියා. නමුත් අපිට ඒ අවස්ථාව අහිමි වුණා නඩුව ඉවත් කර ගැනීම නිසා.

අපි දෑස් දල්වා බලාගෙන ඉන්නවා අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ

දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව මෙවරවත් ප්‍රශ්න කරාවි කියලා. මීට පෙරත් මේ නම තමයි කියැවුණේ. නමුත් ආණ්ඩු පෙරළියෙන් පස්සේ මේ පැත්තෙන් ඒ පැත්තට පැන්න නිසා චම්පික ජම්පික වූ නිසා ඔහුට එරෙහිව නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක වුණේ නැහැ.

තමන්ම පිළිගත්තට පස්සේ සාක්ෂි හොයන්න දෙයක් නෑ. දඬුවම් කිරීම පමණයි තියෙන්නේ. සාක්ෂි ආඥා පනතේ ඉතාම පැහැදිලිව කියලා තියෙනවා ‘පිළිගත් දේ ඔප්පු කිරීම අනවශ්‍යයි’ කියලා. ඒ වගේම ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ හිටපු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රි වසන්ත සමරසිංහ මැතිතුමා දූෂණ විරෝධී හ‍ෙ¾ඩ් නායකයෙක් ලෙස මාධ්‍ය හමුවක් කැඳවලා ගල්අඟුරු වංචාවේ මහා මොළකරු පා.ච. රණවක ඇමැතිතුමන්ය කියලා ප්‍රකාශයක් කරලා, එය ‘මව්බිම’ පුවත්පතේ පළ වුණා. මේ ප්‍රකාශය නිසා තමන්ගේ කීර්ති නාමයට සිදුවූ හානියට වන්දි වශයෙන් රුපියල් මිලියන පන්සියයක් ඉල්ලලා නඩු දැම්මා. දැන් ඒ නඩුවත් අයින් කරගෙන.

එතුමා කියන්නේ ගල්අඟුරු වංචාවේ මහ මොළකරු පා.ච. රණවකය යන ප්‍රකාශයෙන් තමන්ට අපහාසයක් වෙන්නේ නෑ. අපහාසයක් නොවන්නේ ඇත්තටම කළ කෙනකුට පමණමයි. එතුමා ප්‍රගීත් එක්නැලිගොඩ අතුරුදන් කිරීමේ වගකීම විතරක් නෙමෙයි ගල්අඟුරු වංචාවේ මහා වගකීමද භාරගෙන තිබෙනවා. එතුමා වසර ගණනාවක් ගිහින් හෝ ඇත්ත ඇති සැටියෙන් පිළිගැනීම නිසා අපි සතුටු වෙනවා.

19 වැනි සංශෝධනයෙන් පස්සේ ද්විත්ව පුරවැසියකුට ජනපතිවරණයට තරග කරන්න බෑ. ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මැතිතුමාගේ ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිභාවය ඉවත් කිරීමේ අයැදුම්පත ප්‍රතික්ෂේප වුණු බවට බරපතළ බොරු ප්‍රචාරයක් සමාජ ජාලවල පැතිරෙනවා. ඒ වගේම පුරවැසිභාවයෙන් ඉවත් වීම ඇමෙරිකාව විසින් අනුමත කරන්නේ ජනපතිවරණයෙන් පසුව බවට කටකතා පැතිරෙනවා. එතකොට අල්ලපු අත්තයි පය ගහපු අත්තයි දෙකම නැති වෙනවා වගේ ගෝඨාභය මැතිතුමාට ජනපතිකමයි ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකමයි දෙකම නැති වෙනවා කියලයි පුවත්පත්වලට ලිපි ලියන ඩොලර් පවුම් විද්වතුන් කියන්නේ. මේ තත්ත්වය නිසා ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකම පිළිබඳව නීතිමය තත්ත්වය රටට පැහැදිලි කරන්න කියලා ගෝඨාභය මැතිතුමා මගෙන් ඉල්ලීමක් කළා.

ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකමට අදාළ නීතිය තමයි ධ්ථථඪඨපචබඪධද චදඤ ව්චබඪධදචතඪබර ඒජබ ධට 1952 නොහොත් 1952 සංක්‍රමණ සහ ජාතිකත්ව පනතේ 349 (ඒ)(5) වගන්තිය යටතේ ඕනෑම පුරවැසියකුට ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකම අත්හරින්න පුළුවන්. දෙපැත්තම කැමැති වෙන්න ඕනෑ නෑ. පුරවැසියා කැමැති නම් අත්හරින්න පුළුවන්. පුරවැසිකම අත්හැරීම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කළ යුතු හෝ කළ හැකි අවස්ථා නීතියේ සඳහන් වෙන්නේ නෑ.

පළමු කාරණය තමයි වෙනත් රටක පුරවැසියකු වන ඇමෙරිකානුවකු විසින් ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකම අත්හැරීම නැවැත්වීමට ඇමෙරිකානු ආණ්ඩුවට හැකියාවක් නැති බවයි. දෙවැනි කාරණය වන්නේ ඇමෙරිකානු තානාපති කාර්යාල නිලධාරියකු ඉදිරියේ පුරවැසිකම අත්හැරීමේ ප්‍රකාශය නිසි ලෙස සම්පූර්ණ කළ වහාම ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකම අත්හැරෙනවා. මේ නිසා ගෝඨාභය කියන භීතිකාව වැලඳුණු පිරිස් පතුරන ආකාරයෙන් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ මහතාට ජනපතිවරණයට තරග කරන්න ඇමෙරිකානු පුරවැසිකම බාධාවක් නොවන වග ඉතාම වගකීමෙන් ප්‍රකාශ කරනවා.

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Higher Education and Cultural Affairs Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe today said the presenting of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution on abolishing the executive presidency at a time such as this could pose a major problem.

After a visit to the Colombo Arts Gallery, he told the media that if the executive presidency was abolished at a time when even the local government bodies were unstable, the country would end up in anarchy.

There is a major issue with the 20A. This is not a personal or a party political issue, but an issue which effects the country. The executive presidency the Proportional Representation (PR) system were introduced together. There would not be major repercussions if the executive presidency was abolished while the PR system remained unchanged. However, the electoral system has been changed today resulting in ‘hung’ local government bodies. The provincial council electoral system had also been amended,” he said.

The minister said when all three levels of governance in the country including the Parliamentary system was changed resulting in ‘hung’ governing bodies, the country would become a ‘Somalia’ in the absence of an executive presidency.

Before making amendments, the repercussions should be properly evaluated,” he said.

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

June 12, 2018, 12:01 pm

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna/Joint Opposition yesterday ruled out the possibility of reunification of SLFP factions under any circumstances.

SLPP Chairman Prof. G.L. Peiris emphasized that the SLFP proposal to field President Maithripala Sirisena as its candidate was not acceptable to the dissident group and therefore that party shouldn’t expect their backing. The SLPP announced its position on the presidential poll, at Nelum Mawatha Office, Battaramulla.

Former External Affairs Minister Prof. Peiris quoted former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as having declared recently that their candidate would be announced at the appropriate time.

Prof. Peiris said so when The Island asked him whether the SLPP/JO would field its own Presidential candidate. Referring to statements made by SLFP General Secretary Prof. Rohana Lakshman Piyadasa and SLFP National Organizer Duminda Dissanayake as regards the formation of a broad coalition to back Sirisena at the next presidential poll, Prof. Peiris said that the outcome of the Feb. 10, 2018 Local Government polls indicated the public opinion. A political party in power had never suffered such a humiliating electoral defeat, Prof. Peiris said, urging the SLFP to review its strategies or face the consequences.

Of 95 lawmakers elected and appointed to parliament at Aug. 17, 2015 parliamentary polls, 41 (39 SLFP and two Ceylon Workers Congress) comprised the group loyal to President Sirisena. Although 16 of the SLFPers in Sirisena’s camp had formed a separate group, it remained with the ruling SLFP.

The SLFP and the UNP seemed still unable to grasp the ground situation, Prof. Peiris said, pointing out that in spite of much publicized appointment of office bearers of the party, key SLFPers were pulling in different directions.

Prof. Peiris said that Ministers Duminda Dissanayake and Mahinda Amaraweera continued to call the shots and Prof. Piyadasa lacked the required authority though being appointed General Secretary of the party.

The former minister asked how the SLFP even contemplated bringing all factions together in the wake of both National Organizer Dissanayake and UPFA General Secretary Amaraweera reiterating their commitment to yahapalana partnership with the UNP. Prof. Peiris insisted that there couldn’t be any dialogue between SLPP/JO with the SLFP as long as the SLFP protected the UNP. Prof. Peiris pointed out that Messrs Dissanayake and Amaraweera had very clearly contradicted Prof. Piyadasa as regards future co-operation with the UNP.

In response to The Island queries raised after the conclusion of the media briefing, Prof. Peiris said that especially after President Sirisena’s onslaught directed at the UNP on May 30, the SLFP couldn’t continue with the UNP. There couldn’t be two leaders, all elected and appointed members would have to decide soon whether they accepted former President Rajapaksa’s leadership.

Prof. Peiris said that those who had exercised their franchise in support of the SLPP at the Local Government polls wouldn’t like the party to throw its weight behind Sirisena’s candidature. Now that the SLFP had decided to remain in partnership with the UNP in spite of that party declaring its intention to field Ranil Wickremesinghe at the next presidential poll, there couldn’t be any justification in prolonging their ‘marriage.’

Prof. Peiris said that the SLFP had been in difficult times over the years though the party always managed to bounce back. The current situation could be described as the worst ever crisis experienced by the party due to poor management skills and shortsighted policies and strategies.

Prof. Peiris said that the Group of 16 comprising of SLFP lawmakers who voted for JO-led No Confidence Motion (NCM) against PM Wickremesinghe on April 4, 2018 couldn’t delay taking a decision now. The former minister said that as long as members of the Group of 16 functioned as SLFP office bearers, they, too, were responsible for deteriorating national economy.

In fact, they owed an explanation to the public why a final decision couldn’t be taken after President Sirisena not only accused the UNP leadership of perpetrating treasury bond scams but making a deplorable bid to undermine the entire state banking sector, Prof. Peiris said.