Dr Sudath Gunasekara

Call to all Patriotic Citizens of this country to read the following news item, if you have not already seen this continuous Neo-colonial threats.

Please look at the following undiplomatic and uncalled-for absurd press release by the so-called Diplomatic community

Diplomatic community concerned over MR returning

Sunday Leader 20.2.2018

By Easwaran Rutnam

”The diplomatic community is concerned over the possibility of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa returning to power in the near future.

Western diplomats are believed to have raised their concerns with the Government and among the diplomatic community.

The concerns arise from steps taken by President Maithripala Sirisena to have talks with the joint opposition to form a United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Government.

There are fears that if a UPFA Government is formed it will set the path for the return of Rajapaksa to power.

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) led by Rajapaksa, which won the Local Government (LG) elections last week, has already called for early Parliament elections.

The SLPP has said it will support the President to bring the required amendments in Parliament to the 19th Amendment to allow the holding of early Parliament elections.

The United States, United Kingdom and EU member countries are concerned the human rights situation in Sri Lanka will return to its dark days if Rajapaksa is allowed to return to power.

Rajapaksa’s return to power could also see Sri Lanka once again lose the EU GSP plus trade concession in the event a Rajapaksa-led administration refuses to comply with the EU conventions related to human rights which the unity-Government followed in order to regain GSP plus.’

I do not propose to comment at length on the above as it is self- explanatory. However I would like to add few observations and some salt and spices for my readers benefit.

What is the role of a Diplomat of a country?

An Ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the commonwealth” so said Sir Henry Watton (1604) This may be true in an age where every nation was considered equal and diplomatic relations were maintained for mutual benefits and not for exploitation, unlike at present, an age of three dimensional war fare, where such relationships are maintained by powerful nations for one purpose and the poor for another. The powerful and rich, strictly wedded to the notion of the survival of the fittest, maintain it for keeping the week under subjugation and for exploitation through political, economic and military maneuvering. They want all smaller nations to dance according to their tunes and succumb to their dictates like a pack of meek vassals. The only country that resisted it successfully in modern times was Cuba.

Colonial powers made us poorer and destitute

Almost all smaller and less powerful nations, made poorer and destitute by the same colonial invaders for centuries, on the other hand maintain their relationships for subservience and begging at the door steps of colonial agencies like the World Bank, UN, UNICEF, FAO and ADB etc to name a few. Sri Lanka has turned out to be a classic example of this model under the present regime headed by naïve and servile leadership. During the period of colonial expansion they just invaded with the power of the gun and the sword, brutally shot and slaughtered the natives, set fire to their properties, destroyed by arson or poison and brought those who escaped their sword and gun, under their iron booted hegemonies and exploited everything that came within the invaders grip and took home to build their own Empires. Even today they do the same thing through lessor discernible and subversive methods and by destroying local patriotic leadership. This is exactly what they did in Libya, Iraq, Yugoslavia and many other places all over the globe, as if they were sent by God to kill murder and destroy all those who are not theirs. Isn’t it the same technique they are adopting in this country even at present?

2015 Conspiracies

First they removed Mahinda Rajapaksa who defeated the most dangerous and savages terrorist outfit the world ever had, the LTTE, which ran their de facto EELAM for 30 long years with their own armed forces including Air power as well and their Courts, banks, with their own currency, taxing system and administrative machinery. They also exerted their power to save the Tigers in 2015 who committed murder, arson, anarchy and disaster.

The recent Local Government election results clearly demonstrated the absolute failure of the puppet regime installed by them in Jan and August 2015 to meet even the basic needs apart from their cherished aspirations as an Independent and a sovereign nation. Nearly 65 % of the people of this country (SLPP 44.65%+UPFA 8.94% and SLFP 4.44% = 58.05%) have clearly rejected this three year no-Government regime under Ranil and firmly have declared they want a change. If we add the 6.27 the JVP polled, which is also anti UNP, this adds up to 64.30 against Ranil. That is their will and firm and absolute wish. That is why they demand an immediate change of Government. So what more proof the UNP wants to admit that it has been rejected outright. Whatever name by which the election is called, whether Local Government or General Election it is the wish of the same people that has been clearly expressed. Therefore the argument adduced by UNP that this is not a defeat, holds no water.

UK, US and EU desperately trying to give a new lease of life to LTTE and perpetuate the Sirisena-Ranil rouge and lame duck regime to destroy this country and the Sinhala Buddhist nation

The above news item clearly demonstrates that the Western powers are again trying desperately to throw their weight behind the LTTE elements, and furthermore reinstall the same corrupt and rouge outfit that has even emptied the nation’s Central Bank within 1 ½ months of coming to power in Aug 2015 and also to destroy the emerging national aspirations of the native Sinhala Buddhist Community’

Besides exerting pressure on the government these Western powers also now try to influence the other Diplomats as well to retain their favourite set in power. The following extract from the press report clearly proves their subversive attempts.

Western diplomats are believed to have raised their concerns with the Government and among the diplomatic community”.

This in my opinion is very high handed move by these Diplomats. It is also a serious violation of diplomatic norms and an infringement on the sovereignty of this country. These people should be immediately summoned at the Foreign Ministry and ask them to explain as to why they overstepped diplomatic immunity and etiquette as this amounts to interfering with the internal affairs of an independent country. Then as President Premadasa did to the British High Commissioner Gladstone the ambassadors involved should be immediately packed off to their countries.

Instead of taking such straight forward action this stupid Government keeps dead silent. How can we expect a spineless Government which cannot even stop Vignesvaran, one of its Provincial Council Chief Ministers, making representations to foreign governments, both in Colombo and abroad against the very Government under which he comes? This reminds me of the famous Sinhala adage’ nivata karanavemiya dutuwana  eluwath nikata panawa’

UK, US and EU concerns born out of jealousy

‘The United States, United Kingdom and EU member countries are concerned the human rights situation in Sri Lanka will return to its dark days if Rajapaksa is allowed to return to power’.

Why are they concerned over the possibility of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa returning to power in the near future? He is the choice of the majority of people in this country. Don’t they have the freedom to elect their own leader as a free and sovereign State? Democracy is their concept which defines it as majority rule. All their countries go by this same rule. If they can do it, why can’t we do it the same way? We only have followed their criterion of choosing our leader. Why this double standard and naked hypocrisy. Do they want us to define democracy as the dictatorship of the minority?

Why should Rajapaksa, be a problem to them. He is not going to rule their countries. He will only be in charge of this small Island. Isn’t it shear jealousy and anger against him for defeating the LTTE and for not listening to their dictates in 2009 to stop the war and hand over Prabhakaran to them in order to re-arm him to destroy this country and the Sinahla Buddhist nation. MR only followed the footsteps of our ancient Kings, with the able support of Gotabhaya (modern Lankanatha), like a true patriotic leader of this nation in protecting his motherland for which the people of this country, especially the Sinhala Buddhist majority hail him as their hero leader of modern times, when all other so-called leaders are falling on their shivering fours before the West and India and hiding their tails between the hind legs in front of the Tigers.

The cat has now come out of the bag when they say human rights situation in Sri Lanka will return to its dark days if Rajapaksa is allowed to return to power.  Whose human rights they are talking about is the most pertinent question.  They also have miserably failed to understand that MR was the man who rescued this country from 30 years of unprecedented terror, mayhem, fear and destruction. So how can they call 2005-2015 as dark days of Rajapaksa. Do they know that he was the first man who covered the whole Island with a first class network of highways after Governor Henry Ward (1855-1860).

Where these champions of human rights and what were they doing, when Prabhakaran was at the height of rampage against this country and its people for 30 years?    

Where were these so-called International communities sleeping when Prabakaran and his murderers were at the height of rampage, savagely and brutally slaughtering innocent men and women and even children sucking at their mothers breast and Buddhist monks in thousands and carrying out mass murder all over this Island, at the Airport, in busses , highways,   inside their own houses when they were sleeping in the dead of night, in their paddy fields, places of worship when they were observing Sill at the  Sacred Bo tree at Anuradhapura and when they demolished the Temple of the Tooth, the Sacred palladium of the entire Buddhist world, when they destroyed the Nation’s Central Bank in the capital and the Nation’s premier Airport, when they were murdering all promising future political leaders of this country like Atulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayaka including their own like Amithalingam, Doreappa (Jaffna Mayor), Thiruchelva and  Premadasa the President of this country and the Prime Minister Rajiv of India and when thousands of Tamil children were snatched from their parents and schools, conscripted and used as cannon fodder depriving their parents of their loved ones, threatening  thousands of Tamils to flee the country for their lives seeking refuge status, presently who live in their countries as self-styled Tamil Diaspora.

Were they not human right violations or were they not human right violations, according to their dictionaries. Only now they talk of this bullshit, as if they have risen from their deep false slumber, on behalf of Tamil immigrant voters living with them, their financiers and vote banks. Doesn’t this clearly show their naked duplicity and double standards? Doesn’t this clearly prove their anti-Sinhala Anti-Buddhist attitude in this game to satisfy the Tamil voters in their countries and Tamil Diaspora who fund them lavishly with their ill-gotten money through drugs, narcotics and human smuggling and other illicit activities?

Withdrawing EU GSP plus trade concession is another colonial threat.

Loosing the EU GSP plus trade concession in the event a Rajapaksa-led administration refuses to comply with the EU conventions related to human rights is another issue they have raised”.

How long they took to re-install this bait after 2015 elections. I am not aware as to how much we get even now. See how shrewd these Westerners are. As if we are living only on this penny as our life saving jacket. We never died during the time they stopped this damn thing. What is more is even we survived the worldwide economic recess at that time without their GPS plus.

The sleeping Giant Joint Opposition; Why not rise, like the Phoenix from the ashes, as sons born to lion parentage

What are those who emerged victorious at the Feb 10^th elections going to do, I do not know. Are they going to adopt the same lame duck attitude and wait or resort to the same approach they followed for the past 3 years while the Government was even transgressing the Constitution of the Republic blatantly? For example in cases like the appointment of the Prime Minister, Chief Justice, Leader of the Opposition, appointing defeated candidates at the 2015 Elections as Cabinet and other Ministers, appointing the Chief Organizer of the Opposition and singing the National Anthem at the Galle Face on Independent day celebrations and allowing Tamils to sing it publicly in Tamil at national events and schools in the North, and the East as if already the EELAM is established on Sri Lankan soil and  as if there are two distinct nations in this country could be cited as few glaring examples.

I call upon these sons of lion parentage to rise like the Phoenix from the ashes from their deep slumber and mobilize the masses to rescue this country and the nation before it is too late. This is the best time for a Dutugemunu or a Vijayabahu to emerge before the Feb 10^th public mandate gets again converted to a flicker and finally get extinguished.

I am wondering as to why at least now they don’t seek assistance from powerful countries like Russia, China and Pakistan, who are our real friends, and mobilize the masses to defeat these conspiracies, chase out the rouges in the seats of power and install a patriotic Government of the people, for the people and of the people (a Mahasammata Rajyak) as it had been here for 2600 years. Thereafter deport all unfriendly Ambassadors and discontinue all diplomatic relations with them, until they accept our independence and freedom and make a start at least now to rebuild this country as a peaceful, prosperous and vibrant nation in this 21^st century brave new world.

If you fail to respond the masses might revolt against all politicians? If that happens will the US and EUC invade this Island nation and do what they did to Libya, Iraq and Czechoslovakia. All these dangers are hanging over the heads of this nation now. Direct foreign intervention is very unlikely, partly, as they have enough problems of their own and moreover they will not dare to, when Russia and China are behind us.

Having taken over

1 Take immediate steps to reduce the spiraling cost of living

2 Restore the fertilizer subsidy to farmers and take immediate steps to reduce the cost of living

3 Set up a Cabinet of 15 Ministers and 15 Deputies

4 Abolish the JR/Rajiv Accord of 1978

5 Abolish the curse that is Provincial Councils

6 Ban all communal and religious political Parties

7 Put behind bars all those responsible for the CB Robbery and other major scams pending judicial proceedings

8 Restore the independence of and the highest degree of professionalism in the Judiciary and the Public Service including the Foreign Service

9 Prune all extravagant government expenses and privileges of politicians like, pension rights, duty free vehicle permits and save that money for development

10 Appoint specially selected 24 GAA of proven ability and record to the 24 Districts to be in charge of the development and administration at the district levels as the first step in re-organizing the Public Service

These ten steps alone will put you in the heavens of popularity and assure your continuity at least for 25 years of cause until you make some blunders.

That part of the International Community blindly led by USA, UK and EU must accept we are a free, Independent and Sovereign State and leave alone for us to decide our destinies.

Why don’t the USA, UK and other self-appointed International Communities, first admit that Sri Lanka is an Independent, Free and Sovereign State, though small in Size, as much as they all are and any other country, Is it not enough that they have robbed, exploited and destroyed this country for 500 years to their satisfaction in style, starting from 1505. It has been the home of the unique Sinhala Buddhist culture fore for 2 ½ millennia and the only country in the world known by 123 world languages. It is also the repository and fountain of Buddhism that has preserved a living Buddhist culture over the past 2500 years that should be protected and preserved for posterity as a country and a model civilization to admire for humanity, the world over without destroying it.   What morality do they have on earth to continue to destroy that heritage to humanity, even after the so-called made in Britain fake Independence supposed to have been granted in 1948 following 500 years of subjugation, exploitation, and wanton destruction.

They also must accept that we have declared this country as an Independent Democratic Socialist Republic in 1972 and we are no longer a colony of either UK or any other country.

What we need today is a strong patriotic leadership to give this message to these savage invaders and re-discover that was Sri Lanka or Sinhale that had been one of the greatest nations in the world for 2 ½ millennia when most of them were living naked in caves and creeping trees like monkeys.

Also who can tell them to mind their own business without conspiring to destroy this Island nation for alleged violations of human rights and what not, and ask them as to why don’t  they look in retrospect and see what crimes they have jointly committed against humanity during the first and second World wars and during colonial expansions in US, Africa and Australia by mass murder by the gun, sword, arson and poisons, before they point their blood stained fingers at us who are struggling to re-emerge from such colonial repressions destructions committed by the for 500 years.

Tomorrow they will have to pay the toll for the crimes they commit against us today as this is the only land on earth blessed by the Buddha

Finally, how come these Western powers, who are in their last lap and sunset days of world superiority as people like Samuel Huntingdon have predicted way back in 1997, hypocritically treat LTTE Tamils terrorist and their so-called Tamil Diaspora as equals of this sovereign nation, and take their side, as a last string to hang, while treating the Sovereign Sri Lankan nation, a permanent and loyal member of the UN for the past 65 odd years as a pack of criminals.

I wonder whether these Western nations have already admitted the New York based GTGE outfit as a permanent member of UN. We don’t mind their accepting even all the Tamils in the whole world as their beloved immigrants as long as these colonial powers don’t interfere with our Independence or freedom, which are sour privies as a sovereign State. I can vouch these Western powers that they will have to pay dearly one day as Rajiv had to do in 1997, for ignoring my appeal made to him not to help LTTE terrorist by providing them with military training on Indian soil and providing all other assistance to fight against Sri Lankan Government and warning of the consequences. I also predicted that his own guns will be aimed at him before and not at us, as this is the only land on earth that has been thrice Blesse by the Buddha. It will be blessed by his blessings and protected by the Gods for 5000 years to come at least. Therefore no enemy can destroy it or the Sinhala nation as it has been aptly proved from Rama (5000 BC) to Prabhakaran (2009 AD)

Therefore please note that you people don’t dabble with the internal affairs of this free, independent and sovereign nation, as we too have a right for self- determination and self- rule and the freedom to elect the leaders whom we want, as much as you all have, if not more, as we have been so for the past 2600 years, as cultured nation long before some of your nations were born.

Dear Patriots, these are only few inborn sorrowful sentiments of a solitary patriot whose heart is bleeding for his motherland and his nation. I earnestly appeal to all Sinhala Buddhist Patriots of this country as well as those living all over this planet earth to fall in line with me and fight against these glaring injustices committed against us by our enemies and to strive to liberate this Island nation from the cruel and vicious clutches of all these anti Sinhala and anti-Buddhist neocolonial forces. So that we could jealously protect it for posterity as our valiant forefathers had done for thousands of years.

A new definition to Ambassador

In this backdrop I think we also have to revisit and redefine the meaning of the word ambassador to be changed in the modern context as An Ambassador in the case of a powerful country or a carton of such countries is a  man and a spy sent to continue to interfere with and interrupt the freedom of ex-colonies  for perpetuating their colonial exploitation and expansion for their own benefit following the Kautilyan doctrine of Matsyanyaya, where the small fish is always the prey of the big fish.

Editorial Courtesy The Island

February 21, 2018, 10:15 pm
It is being argued in legal and political circles that the incumbent administration and its Cabinet are illegal because the MoU between the UNP and the UPFA to form a national government was valid only for two years from 2015. The validity or otherwise of this vital document is of crucial import. The number of Cabinet ministers cannot exceed 30 unless there is a national government, according to the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

Yesterday, in answer to a query from the Opposition, the Prime Minister declared, in Parliament, that the MoU at issue was still valid and consistent with the Constitution. It had not been rescinded, he insisted. General Secretary of the UPFA and minister Mahinda Amaraweera endorsed the PM’s statement. He said the two parties were still bound by the MoU at issue. Deputy Minister Ajith P. Perera said the MoU had not mentioned that the national government would end after two years.

Are we to conclude that the national government is legitimate simply because the PM and the General Secretary of the UPFA say so. Is this particular MoU open-ended as claimed by Deputy Minister Perera? Didn’t the government say in 2015 that the national government agreement was valid only for two years? Did its leaders lie to the public?

Can we take the PM’s word for it? When the Treasury bond scams first came to light with the government being pressured to answer questions from the Opposition, the PM insisted, in Parliament, that there had been no wrongdoing, didn’t he? Deputy Minister Perera is one of the UNP MPs who got now infamous footnotes incorporated into the COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) report on the bond scams, diluting its conclusion.

Amaraweera once defended the Rajapaksa government to the hilt while being a part of it, but now he tells us it was corrupt and President Sirisena is the best leader. The less said about the UPFA ministers the better. It was only the other day that many of them declared they would not be in a government which had Wickremesinghe as the PM. But, today, they are humming a different tune.

All politicians have a severe trust deficit. So, the question is whether anyone’s ex cathedra statements anent the national government can be taken as the gospel truth.

Will the JVP and the Joint Opposition (JO) buy into the PM’s claim backed by Amaraweera and abandon their protests? On Tuesday, no less a person than JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayaka together with JO big guns declared in Parliament that the government and the Cabinet were illegal. What a song and dance they made! They said the national government MoU had expired as it had not been extended with parliamentary approval. They have to either challenge the PM’s claim or admit that they got it all wrong and misled the public.

We can’t expect politicians, especially the ones in power, to tell us the truth when their interests are threatened. Nothing is scarier to them than the prospect of losing power and opportunities to amass ill-gotten wealth and live off the fat of the land at the expense of the taxpaying public. No one in his or her proper senses will expect them to tell the truth and run the risk of losing power in the process. No minister will ever admit that the UPFA-UNP MoU has expired, for fear of losing his or her portfolio, in the event of the Cabinet having to be downsized in keeping with the 19th Amendment. So, asking the current ministers whether the national government agreement is still valid or not is as stupid as inquiring from a Panchikawatta trader if the spare parts he deals in are genuine.

Let the JO and JVP worthies be urged to dare the government to produce the UPFA-UNP MoU and peruse it to see if it is open-ended or not. President Maithripala Sirisena should seriously consider seeking a Supreme Court opinion on the MoU at issue because its constitutionality stands questioned.

By Manushi Silva Courtesy Adaderana

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa says the time period of the national government has expired.

Rajapaksa made this statement at Battaramulla today (21).

There is no clear ruling party in the country at present and it had led the country to an unstable state. The President Prime Minister and the MPs of the national government are all working unto their whims and fancies” he said.

Therefore, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya should take a clear decision whether the national government was still in existence and give a ruling on the validity of the Cabinet as soon as possible, the Former President added.

By Colonel R Hariharan Courtesy Ceylon Today

After Mahinda Rajapaksa’s fledgling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) handed out a shocking defeat to both the UNP and the SLFP in the Local Government (LG) elections, the three-way political power game has become more complex than before. A gloating Rajapaksa, past master in political manoeuvring, is demanding fresh elections after dissolving the Parliament, though he knows it would not happen as both the SLFP and UNP would never oblige him.

For President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, more than power, credibility has become the main issue. They are trying to retain their credibility on multiple fronts – as leaders of the unity coalition that set out to provide an alternative to Rajapaksa’s autocratic rule, to survive as leaders of the party in the face of challengers making deals to dethrone them and to show the people that they can still deliver on what they promised before the end of this term.

Avadhānam

The current situation faced by the three leaders – Rajapaksa, Sirisena and Wickremesinghe – may be aptly described as ‘wheels in wheels’ – a number of different influences, reasons and actions which together make a situation complicated and difficult to understand, as Collins dictionary says. But, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe duo has a bigger burden than Rajapaksa, who is at the barricades, heckling them from the periphery.

Notwithstanding their internal party leadership compulsions, the skills of both Sirisena and Wickremesinghe will be tested on many aspects in the coming months as political uncertainty looms large in the horizon. LG election results show, their rule has raised a whole lot of questions in the minds of people of all hues – Sinhalas, Muslims, Tamils and others who believed them and voted them to power. Both of them need to answer these questions.

Perhaps, both the leaders need the multi-tasking ability of Avadhānam practitioners of ancient India. Avadhānaṃ used to be a popular literary entertainment performed in ancient days in India. It is still performed in isolated pockets of Andhra and Tamil Nadu. It involves the partial improvisation of poetry using specific themes, metres, forms, or words.

The two performances of Avadhānam I had seen in Tamil Nadu were performed in Tamil, though originally it was the preserve of Sanskrit scholars in ancient India. In Andhra Pradesh it is still in vogue. In both the performances I saw, the scholars showcased their mastery of cognitive skills in observation, memory, multitasking, recapitulation and logical reasoning in literature, poetry, music, mathematical skills and solving conundrums – all at the same time! Typically, the second line of a verse from a Tamil classic like Tirukkuralor Kamba Ramayanam was quoted by the questioner (Prcchaka) and the Avadhani countered it with the first line of the verse. At the same time the Avadhani had to keep count of cowrie shells, continuously thrown on his back, while another questioner posed a mathematical problem on the black board. Surprisingly, the Avadhanis came out with very impressive performance.

After the LG election, the first priority for both the leaders is to consciously reassure, not only their followers, but also people who brought them to power and that their alliance was not one of convenience, but to deliver value.

Walking the talk

The second, but perhaps the most difficult priority is walking the talk. Most of the initiatives they had taken are held up due to pulls and pressures or tangled in bureaucratic maze. Nearly forty cases of corruption, misuse of power, human rights violations, economic crimes, cronyism and even murders, are stagnating in various stages of investigation or prosecution.

They need to be taken to their logical conclusion. People have been waiting for answers to serious allegations made by responsible ministers that Rajapaksa family members and others had indulged in many of these crimes. And three years is a long time. As we say in Hindi, time has come for Doodh ka doodh aur pani ka pani (making things crystal clear). Otherwise, when Sirisena and Wickremesinghe go to the hustings again, people would not believe them. In this context, the duo has to speed up the prosecutions of the accused in Bonds scam; then only the Unity Government can refurbish its tarnished image.

The third and equally difficult priority is to draft the new Constitution now before time runs out. There is need for some honest soul searching on this issue among the leaders of political, civil society and media. They should help speed up the process for an equitable constitution. Otherwise, the lessons of the civil war in which over 100, 000 Sri Lankan shed their blood would be wasted. A business process approach of transparency in interactions among the stakeholders including the people and encouraging periodic interaction to take the public into confidence will create a less politicized environment for evolving a new Constitution.

In the early days leading to World War II, when Russia’s attitude to the brewing conflict was not known, Sir Winston Churchill speaking on the radio in October 1938 said, “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. The key is Russian national interests.” The Sri Lankan situation may be compared to Churchill’s Russian conundrum. Sri Lankan politicians would do well to remember that whatever they decide has to be in national interest; all other considerations are peripheral to this fundamental responsibility.

(Col R Hariharan, a retired MI specialist on South Asia, served as the head of Intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka from 1987 to 90. He is associated with the Chennai Centre for China Studies and the International Law and Strategic Analysis Institute, Chennai. E-mail: haridirect@gmail.com Blog: http://col.hariharan.info)

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය කැෆේ සංවිධානය

පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණය පවත්වා දින 10 ක් ගතවී තිබුනද මෙතෙක් පළාත් පාලන ආයතනවල සභාපති, උප සභාපති ආදී තනතුරු වලට පත්වන්නේ කවුද යන්න  තීරණය වී නැත්තේ මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමයේ විකෘතියක් නිසා නොව ජාතික දේශපාලනය තුළ පවතින බල අරගලය නිසා බව කැෆේ සංවිධානයේ විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා පවසයි.

අද(21) රාජගිරියේ පැවති  මැතිවරණ නිරීක්ෂකයින්ගේ හමුවකදී අදහස් දක්වමින් ඒ මහතා කියා  සිටියේ  ලංකා ඉතිහාසයේ ප්‍රථම වතාවට පළාත් පාලන ඡන්ද විමසීම අවසන් වීමෙන් පසු දින 10 ක් ගතවුනද  තවමත්  පළාත් පාලන ආයතනයේ බලය ලබාගන්නේ කවුද යන්න පිළිබඳව අවිනිශ්චිත තත්වයක  පවතින බවයි. මේකට ප්‍රධාන හේතුව වී ඇත්තේ අද වනවිට ජනාධිපතිවරයා, අගමැතිවරයා සහ බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ මහතා අතර පවතින බල අරගලය බව තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා මෙහිදී පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

නව මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමයට අනුව සන්ධාන ගත වීමේ අර්බුදයක් නොමැති බව පෙන්වා දුන් තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා අවධාරණය කලේ  ඡන්ද විමසීමට පෙර සහ පසු සන්ධාන ගත වීමට අවස්ථාව නව මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමය තුළ පවතින බවයි. නාම යෝජනා භාරදීමෙන් පසු සහ මැතිවරණ ප්‍රතිඵල ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමෙන් පසු සන්ධාන ගත වීමට මෙම ක්‍රමය තුළ අවස්ථාව ඇති බව තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා මෙහිදී සඳහන් කළේය. ඡනතාව තමන්ගේ පළාත් පාලන බල ප්‍රදේශය සඳහා නියෝජිතයින් තෝරා ගැනීමේ  කාර්යය මේ වනවිට අවසන් කර තිබුනද  ජාතික දේශපාලනය තුල මතුව ඇති අස්ථාවර තත්වය මත පළාත් පාලන ආයතනවල බලය අල්ලන්නේ කවුද යන්න පිළිබඳව ප්‍රශන්යක් මතුවී ඇති බවයි.

එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය තනි ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවන්නේ ද?, ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුන හා ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය සන්ධානගත වන්නේ ද ? නැතහොත් පවතින යහපාලන රජය ඉදිරියට ගෙනයන්නේ ද යන්න  මත  පළාත් පාලන ආයතනවල බලය අල්ලන්නේ  කවුද යන්න පිළිබඳව තීරනය කරනු ඇති බව තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා මෙහිදී පැවසීය.

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය

කැෆේ සංවිධානය

2018 පෙබරවාරි 21

අවමංගල

මාධ්‍යවේදියෙකු, පුවත්පත් කතුවරයෙකු, මානවවාදී දේශපාලන ක්‍රියාකාරිකයෙකු, හිටපු පළාත් සභා අමාත්‍යවරයෙකු සහ විශිෂ්ට ග්‍රන්ථ පරිවර්තකයෙකු වූ ජෝ සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා පසුගිය දාහත්වන සෙනසුරාදා අභාවප්‍රාප්ත විය. දශක පහකට ආසන්න කාලයක් දේශපාලනික සහ මාධ්‍ය කටයුතුවල නිරත වූ සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා පසුකාලීනව ඕෂෝ සංවාද පෙළ සිංහලට පරිවර්තනය කරමින් සිංහල පාඨකයාට එම සංවාද හඳුන්වා දීමේ පුරෝගාමියෙකු වූවේය. හැටේ දශකයේ මුල් භාගයේදී කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂයෙන් දේශපාලනයට අවතීර්ණව , වෘත්තීය සටන් නායකයෙකු ලෙස සටන් කර ජාතික ගැටළුව තුළ වාමාංශික ක්‍රියාධරයෙකු ලෙස ජනවාර්ගික සංහිඳියාව උදෙසා මැදිහත් වූ මූලිකයෙකි. මිය යන විට ඔහු පරිවර්තනය කොට තිබූ ග්‍රන්ථ සංඛ්‍යාව විසි පහකි.

ජෝ සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතාගේ දේහය මහජන ගෞරවය සඳහා පෙබරවාරි 23 වන සිකුරාදා උදෑසන 8.30 සිට 24 වන සෙනසුරාදා සවස දක්වා බොරැල්ල ජයරත්න අවමංගල්‍ය ශාලාවේ තැන්පත් කර තැඛෙන අතර දේහය පිළිබඳ අවසාන කටයුතු සෙනසුරාදා(24) සවස 4 ට බොරැල්ල කණත්තේ දී සිදු කෙරේ.

Dilrook Kannangara

For the second time in two months the president has asked the Supreme Court to interpret the 19A he passed using his power over the UNP and the UPFA. He doesn’t know what he passed! He comes to realise the hard way that his Prime Minister has taken him for a ride. By the time he comes to know about them, he has lost the two thirds and cannot fix it. The president has made himself a fool and painted himself into the naughty corner.

First Trap – Five Years

Sirisena was of the view he had a six (6) year term since he was elected with the mandate to govern for six (6) years. But that’s not what 19A stated. He came to know 3 (three) years into his rule that his tenure is only 5 (five) years. That messed up his plans seriously.

Second Trap – Prime Minister is Difficult to Remove

Sirisena was fooled again on the removal of the Prime Minister. He assumed 19A didn’t take away the president’s ability to remove the Prime Minister anytime. But he may be wrong; partly or completely. Now he has consulted the Supreme Court again. Ranil and his UNP fooled Sirisena again.

Sirisena has only 29 years of experience in national politics. Ranil has over 41 years’ experience in national politics. Mahinda has 36 years’ political experience at the national level. Chandrika has only 11 years’ experience at the national level.

The impact of the last Supreme Court interpretation and the upcoming interpretation have profound impact on Sirisena’s future and that of the nation. The parliament cannot be dissolved until February 16, 2020 but the presidential election must be held by November 8, 2019. In other words, the parliament will outlive the president. The parliament with a clear UNP and TNA combined majority will oversee the next presidential election. What’s worse is, November 2019 will be a budget month when the president depends on parliament to pass the budget. For the record, the president cannot pass the budget. This is when UNP will exert its influence.

If Sirisena thought surprises hidden in 19A end there, he is wrong. It gets worse!

Third Trap – Prime Minister Takes It

Before 19A, the president could change the Prime Minister anytime. It could be done even without notifying the parliament, the public or the Prime Minister as there is no such obligation on the President! It was possible under the law to change the Prime Minister by appointing another but keep the appointment secret. Nothing in the Constitution stopped this approach. For instance, faced with a hostile UNP Cabinet of ministers and a UNP Prime Minister, nothing prevented President Kumaratunga in 2002-2004 to appoint another as Prime Minister replacing Ranil but keep the appointment secret. Why this is important will be evident soon.

However, this cannot be done after 19A.

If the president dies in office, the Prime Minister was to assume that office before 19A. If the President had replaced the Prime Minister but kept the matter secret, the new Prime Minister could claim to be the real Prime Minister and succeed to the post of the President. For instance, if President Chandrika died (as a result of the UNP-LTTE CFA in 2002 or otherwise), her secret Prime Ministerial appointment could claim the Prime Minister post and succeed to the post of President. This allowance was kept by the makers of the Constitution for good reasons in a country three leaders died in office and another narrowly escaped!

Under 19A, any parliamentarian with most support can succeed the President if the post of President becomes suddenly vacant. That means Ranil becomes president if Sirisena ceased to function as President. The previous allowance that provided an indirect safeguard is no more!

Look at in the context of Ranil. He was nobody until 1993 but suddenly became the Prime Minister thanks to the killings of President Premadasa and Lalith Athulathmudali (the next in line for party leadership in the absence of the incumbent). However, Ranil’s leadership was again challenged for a few months a year later. Gamini Dissanaike was also killed by Tamil terrorists cementing Ranil’s unchallenged leadership within the UNP. Since then no one dared to challenge him. A few patriotic UNP leaders – General Janaka Perera and General Lucky Algama were also killed by Tamil terrorists. Surely, there is nothing to say Ranil had anything to do with these but Ranil was exceptionally lucky as his superiors and potential superiors fell like flies. If his luck continues, he has a clearly paved path to Presidency after 19A.

Fourth Trap – Reconciliation

Another Constitutional trap laid for Sirisena (yet unknown to him) under 19A is reconciliation. 19A introduced reconciliation as a duty of the president! Having won 85% of minority votes in January 2015, Sirisena was elated when 19A was passed and he didn’t question this change. However, by now Sirisena has lost almost all minority votes. In other words, Sirisena has failed in his duty to ensure reconciliation. This can be converted to Sirisena’s violation of the Constitution spearheaded by minority parties. They all support the UNP in parliamentary elections. On the other hand, if Sirisena upholds reconciliation, he loses Sinhala votes.

Fifth Trap – National Government

Another Constitution trap yet unknown to Sirisena is the national government gimmick. As per 19A the two parties elected in 2015 with the largest number of MPs may form a national government. What if Sirisena loses control of the largest SLFP faction in parliament? They can bypass Sirisena’s authority and form a national government with the UNP. A hapless Sirisena can only hope it doesn’t happen. If it happens heading to the November 2018 budget, it will spell disaster for Sirisena. As 2019 is an election year for Sirisena, he will ensure the next budget (in 8 months) has election goodies and sweeteners. But UNP can deny this by forming a majority without Sirisena’s blessing. There is nothing Sirisena can do.

Sirisena Taken for a Ride

Altogether there are five (5) Constitutional traps UNP laid for President Sirisena in the 19A. Sirisena is only aware of 1 (one) so far. Soon he will come to know another. Even then, there are three (3) more he will not come to know for some time. His own Prime Minister and his own party have undermined him. Sirisena had good PR consultants and political consultants but his legal consultants failed him this time. Ranil copied his uncle’s constitutional expertise to frame Sirisena. JR’s opponents knew what they were getting into but Sirisena is still unaware of the full scale of the trap.

However, he has one avenue to turn tables on them. That is to punish bond scam, FCID, CIABOC and PRECIFAC identified felons. He has about one year to confine them far away from politics and they will not pose any threat. The rest will be stunned into silence. Has he got the courage and foresight to do so?

UNP constitutional experts didn’t forget Rajapaksas in 19A. Two term restriction was reintroduced, minimum age to contest for presidency was raised to 30 (preventing Mahinda’s sons from contesting in 2019) and restrictions on foreign citizens to contest parliamentary election.

Trnslated by :A.A.,M.NIZAM – MATARA

It was with great difficulty we were able to gain the opportunity for the people of this country to face a local government election.  After making many unusual changes in the election process including making it possible to capture power even under defeat using so many technical processes the election process was formulated by this government..  After all these acts an election was held but the Election Commission still find difficulty to release the final official results.  The independent election commission, in the very first election held by them has got its trousers removed.

The confidence bestowed to the people, and the boasting made about the release of results, have nullified by the Chairman of the Commission. Similar to the inept government the commission n also has become an inept institution.  The government went to this poll saying that it is an election that would decide on the construction of culverts and the roads of the villages and interpreting the election as a regional issue.

The government’s confidante Red Friend the leader of the JVP said that most of those who won under the motor cycle symbol in Maharagama were those who are living in Kuliyapitiya and asking how they voted for them even without knowing who were the candidates? We would like to tell them although it was a local government election, that we mustered the people of this country to exercise their franchise considering it as a referendum.

The President’s and the Prime Minister’s people said if they vote for people in power only that the councils will get funds for the construction of other work.  People voted not looking for the culverts, roads and the light posts but as a protest against the destructive course this country was plunged into during the last three years they exercised their franchise against it.

It was because they wanted to get this country out of this destructive path.  Not only that they exercised their franchise to the youngest party  the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna out of all other parties As per the results from that election if the number of votes received by the United National Party was considered as the votes received in a parliament election, the UNP has got only 67 seats.  On our side, we faced the most difficult election.

The government postponed the local government election because the government knew that it will be very easy for the Podujana Peramuna to win the local government elections.  Therefore they brought a new election process upsetting the existing election process.   It was with the challenge of ‘contest in the new ground and see’ that you went for the election. It was a very difficult ground.

Under the new system it is possible for a large number of people to get antagonised with the candidate because they could not get the candidacy, due to reasons such as relationships, caste alliances, due to friendships the vote base could change and instead of national politics, regional politics will be superseded.  This was the most difficult and disadvantageous election we had to face.

However, we respectfully bow down and honour the hundreds of thousands of people who in order to exercise their national responsbility converted that election as a national election, and made Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna victorious in this national election. It was the most difficult election we had to face.  We faced it under its difficult nature and due to the extreme popularity of Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa and because of the trust the people had reposed on him they voted against the government parties owing to the destruction of the country by this government during the last three years.  What have you done during the last three years?  If it was not for the Prison buses, the Police, the FCID, people like us and Rajapaksas being taken to courts the TV channels and the newspapers may not have had news for the last three years.

The scenes we saw for the last three years as government activities were taking someone to the courts in the prison bus, another one coming from the courts on bail, taking someone to the prison, taking Buddhist monks on charges of raring elephants, and taking gallant war heroes to courts ot to prison.   If it was not for the Prison buses, the Police, the FCID, and the CID there is nothing you have done for the last three years.  It was a government that does not understand the feelings of th people, the difficulties of the people we had for the last three years.

Your Prime Minister does not understand the feelings and thoughts of the people of this country.  He speaks only about England.  In England there was a referendum about a Province recently.  Prime Minister David Cameron did not ignore the result of that referendum saying that it was not a referendum relating to his post.   He resigned from his post because his opinion was rejected in the referendum and his government resigned.  You people fraudulently talk of England and about the Westminster traditions.

There is no point of talking about and the greatness of English if you do not know to safeguard and follow the good traditions of that society.  How the Prime Minister was changed ub 2015.  He was changed based on the mandate of the Presidential election.  It was not a general election mandate. The mandate of the presidential election was used to remove Prime Minister D.M.Jayaratne who had the majority of members in the Parliament and to give the Premiership to Ranil Wickremasinghe who had only 40 odd members, a minority in the Parliament at that time.

Presidential election mandate was used to bring a UNP Prime Miniister, and for the power change. Today the people as a nation have given a verdict from this local government election.  If you do not have the wisdom to understand that verdict now this government has become a carcass. If you are going to keep this carcass further it will become stenchy, secreting and gangrenous carcass very soon and will have to be disposed.

There are members of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. They remained in this government for the last three years and for which they got the results they deserve.  They used all the state powers and assumed an anti UNP posture. It was the President who said that the UNP destroyed the economy of this country for the last three years.  It was not we who said, it was the President who said that.  It was the head of your cabinet who said that the economy was ruined.

After making such anti UNP speeches it was possible to get only about 1.4 million votes.  Just a little more than 1.3 million votes, after doing all those things.  Then how can Mr. Maithripala Sirisena claim ownership for the Sri Lanka Freedom Party? I am not a SLFPer but it is a question relevant to the group we are in.  They have lost Polonnaruwa as well.  A person who won when the UNP was in the opposition has also lost this time.

What is being shown by all these results?  You people are trying to add, you have funny methods.  You say that if the votes taken by the one who came second, third and fourth added together will become more than the votes of the person who came first. It is like if I came first in the school by getting more marks, they add the marks taken by the second and third and say that their marks are more than my marks.  Do not try to cover the nakedness of the defeat by various silly baseless arguments.  You people know the real reason for this defeat.

This was the 30^th defeat.  Thyerefore, both Presient Maihripala Siisena and the Prime Mnister Ranil Wickremasinghe have no right to be in those posts now.  President Sirisena who hols the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in his hands hss no right to hold it in his hands, a leader who dwindled that party to 1.3 million votes has no right to hold that party in his hands.

As regards Prrime Minister those in the UNP anticipated his exit but they got a pack while entering and after that they have become silent.  Their minds became blocked.  They got a large amount Treasury Bond money which got circulated here and there.  Our Vedaratchi MP is making a small sile. They got large amounts and with that all objections died down.  We do not mind if you want to keep him, but this government has no right to go like this.

The people have rejected this government. A government that has been rejected by the people, a government that has no mandate has no right to take decisions about this country.  Today the rupee is getting depreciated on every second, It has depreciated to 158, it would go to even 180, share market has collapsed, investors have withdrawn, new taxes are being introduced to increase the tax revenue, a new bill is to be introduced facilitating the Prime Minister to obtain loans from wherever  he wants without informing the Parliament.

After doing all these things there will remain no country.After you all have eaten this country it eill not be possible to rescue this country. Therefore we beg you not to commit further sins and without presenting silly arguments such as second plus third is larger than the first  to bow down to people’s verdict and go at least safeguarding the attires you are wearing on. (interruption by Rajitha) Why Mr. Dentist:? Mr. Ship owner? Go Ship-man go.

He owns seven ships.  Seven ships.  These bloody rogues shouted saying rogues, rogues.  This Rjitha is a bloody rogue.  They performed a drama saying rogues, rogues for three years and the drama is over now.  People’s verdit had been given to bloody rogues and the central bank robbers had also been given the peole’s verdict.

Therefore do not talk buffoon talks here.  Even the tail is full of dung.  Get the road prepred for the next world. If you believe in God or Lord Buddha perform some religious and virtuous activities.  The dentist who had bought ships has become a ship tiger,  Respect the people’s verdict and go, go before you are chased out.  ,

T. G. Supun Lahiru Prakash, P. K. Priyan Perera, A. G. K. Chethika Perera and Prithiviraj Fernando

Abstract. Tourism is a signifcant aspect of most ex-situ conservation establishmentsfor Asian Elephants. We assessed reasons for visitor discontent in fve highly visited establishments in Asia, by analysing on-line visitor comments. The proportion of negative reviews varied signifcantly between institutions. Ten reasons for visitor discontent were identifed. Unethical treatment of elephants was the commonest and lack of conservation relevance the second commonest reason stated for discontent. Other reasons for visitor discontent were related to misbehaviour of mahouts, management defciencies and inadequacy of facilities.

Read full Article

http://www.asesg.org/PDFfiles/2017/Gajah%2047/47-24-Prakash.pdf

ආසියාවේ වඩාත් සංචාරක ආකර්ෂණය දිනාගත් අලි අනාථාගාර පහ අතර අපකීර්තිමත්ම ආයතනය පින්නවල අලි අනාථාගාරයයි.

සමීක්ෂණයට භාජනයවූ රටවල් 35කට අයත් සංචාරකයින් 279 දෙනා අතරින් 37%ක් පින්නවල අලි අනාථාගාරයේදී ලැබූ අත්දැකීම් සෘනාත්මක බව සඳහන් කරයි.

අලි ඇතුන්ට අකාරුණික ලෙස සැලකීම, ඇත්ගොව්වන්ගේ අකටයුතුකම්, සංරක්ෂණය සම්බන්ධ උනන්දුව මද වීම, අධික මිල ගණන් ඇතුළු හේතු 10ක් මෙම තත්ත්වය ඇතිවීමට හේතුවී ඇතිබව සංචාරකයන්ගේ මතයයි.

ආසියාවේ අලි අනාථාගාර පිළිබඳව සංචාරකයන්ගේ අදහස් විමසමින් අප විසින් සිදුකරන ලද අධ්‍යනයේ ප්‍රතිපල “Visitor Discontent at Five Ex-Situ Elephant Conservation Establishments in Asia” යන ශීර්ෂය යටතේ පසුගියදා නිකුත්වූ ලෝක සංරක්ෂණ සංගමයේ ආසියානු අලි පිළිබඳ විශේෂඥ කමිටුවේ “Gajah” ජර්නලයේ 47 වන කලාපයේ විද්‍යාත්මක පර්යේෂණ පත්‍රිකාවක් ලෙස පලවී ඇත.

Written by-Eshan Jayawardane

The enigmatic nature of Sri Lanka was once again manifested by overall results of the recently held local elections.  The landslide victory marked by Former president Mahinda Rajapakshe’s newly established political party People’s Front” (Podu Jana Peramuna) has disorientated the two main political parties of the island. In fact the local elections were delayed for a longer period due to various reasons. According to the election commissioner of Sri Lanka Mahinda Deshapriya 8326 local councilors  have been elected from this election for 24 municipal councils, 41 urban councils, 275 pradeshiya sabhas (Local councils) which represent the third tier of the legislative body of Sri Lanka. Moreover this year local elections were marked by guaranteeing 25% women representation in each council and also the first time Sri Lanka followed a mixed electoral model whereby 60 % of the members are elected by the first-past-the-post system and the rest through closed list proportional representation.

Throughout the election campaign two main political parties in Sri Lanka United National party and Sri Lanka Freedom were driven by the usual political slogans and the tactic of critiquing each other. This was worsened when Sri Lankan president began to critique his own Prime Minister Ranil Wickrmaisnghe and his government for the Central Bank bond scam and for not investigating the alleged corruption charges on various persons of former president Mahinda Rajapakshe’s regime including his family members. Ironically none of the charges have been proven by law thus far and which has given a sense of resentment to the masses in rural heartland of Sri Lanka where former president is regarded as an icon. More importantly the government’s lethargic or rather stagnant concern over the economic development in Sri Lanka has palpably caused a detrimental impact on the unexpected comeback of Mahinda Rajapakshes’s newly formed party against all odds.

The famous ‘’Nugegoda Rally’’ which was organized by Dinesh Gunawardena just after weeks of former president Rajapaksha’s defeat as the presidential candidate brought mass number of people in support of the former president was the beginning of this comeback with a massive mass support and in the same time joint opposition in parliament led by Dinesh Gunawardena galvanized the organizational factors to set the ground for the victory of People’s Front” in a heavy margin. In examining the election results it’s a salient factor that still former president Mahinda Rajapakshe upholds his tremendous popularity in the Southern part of the island mainly among the Sinhalese masses in the rural areas. Rajapakshe’s newly established party People’s Front emerged victorious with 44.65% overall average and secured the power of 249 local governing bodies out of 340. Current Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe’s United National Party obtained 32.63 % average after upholding the power of 42 local governing bodies. Interestingly the party led by current Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena envisaged a crushing defeat. Above all former president Mahinda Rajapakshe is not the  leader or even  a member of this newly established political party Sri Lanka people’s Front albeit his open support to it in contesting in the local election 2018 and his charismatic public façade is the most obvious reason behind the ground breaking success of the party.

The results of the local elections held in Sri Lanka has demonstrated how rapidly political trajectory of the island can be changed. Especially the coalition government in Sri Lanka mainly consisted of United National Party and Sri Lanka Freedom Party has not been able to address the fundamental social economic issues of the island though it has been three years since they came into power. Stagnation of Economy and high inflation rate of Sri Lanka seem to have agitated the public opinion against the coalition government. Besides those given factors Prime Minister’s reputation was marred by infamous Central Bank bond scandal where the Prime Minister is being accused for being a party and Prime Minister has been safe guarding the former Central Bank Governor of Sri Lanka Arjun Mahendran who is the man behind the single largest bank robbery in the subcontinent. Perhaps it would be fair enough to assume Sri Lankan government’s repulsive decision on taking actions against the provoking behavior of Sri Lankan Brigadier attached to Sri Lankan High Commission in London in front of a protest organized by Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in Britain has caused a strong resentment among the Sinhalese majority towards Government.

However this stunning victory of former President Mahinda Rajapakshe’s party cannot be entirely regarded as an overwhelming change in Sri Lankan politics though it has created some uncertainties in island’s political sphere. Especially the Strong Indian and Western support to the present government have been a known factor since the day President Maitripla Sirisena decided to run for presidential election in 2015 as the common candidate of the opposition against powerful Mahinda Rajapakshe. Even after the defeat of the presidential election in 2015 Mahinda Rajapakshe claimed that his defeat was planned by RAW agents in Colombo though New Delhi had denied such charges. As a matter of fact it is certain that New Delhi shows a keen interest in defending the current government of Sri Lanka as a strategy to prevent Chinese presence in the island from growing stronger and reemergence of Rajapakshe’s power appears to be a setback to uphold Indian interest in Sri Lanka. In this context New Delhi as well as USA will undoubtedly play its role in every possible way of succoring the co government in Sri Lanka. In fact this was evident when Indian High Commissioner in Colombo Taranjit Singh met both President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickramasinghe separately and left for New Delhi on the same day to meet Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale. Furthermore the Ambassador of USA Atul Keshap met with President Sirisena when the election results were declared and paid lengthy attention on the current political situation.

It seems unlikely that sudden rise of Rajapakshe would continue to topple the existing government amidst its abrupt victory in island’s politics. Mainly the Tamil, Muslim and even Christian minorities in Sri Lanka have moved away from former president due to his more pro Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalistic image and this is purely visible by looking at the electorates won by Sri Lanka People’s Front as they are largely dominated by Sinhalese Buddhist votes. Nevertheless the external supportive factors upon the government in Sri Lanka from India and West may play a pivotal role in next few months in terms of securing the grip of power in the parliament, but the outcome of local elections in Sri Lanka has created a political storm in the island and it is still early to predict how fervently it would change the key political actors in Sri Lanka.

Written by-Eshan Jayawardane is a guest lecturer at Open University of Sri Lanka. He studied Sociology at Delhi University and holds MA in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He can be reached at eshan.jayawardena@gmail.com.

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය කැෆේ සංවිධානය 

කාන්තා නියෝජනය නිසා පළාත් පාලන ආයතනවල  සභික සංඛ්‍යාව වැඩිවී ඇති බවට කෙරෙන චෝදනාව පිළිගත නොහැකි බව කැෆේ සංවිධානය පවසයි.  එහි විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා අද (පෙබරවාරි 20) පැවැති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදී අවධාරණය කළේ දේශපාලන වුවමනාවන් පදනම් කරගනිමින්  සමානුපාතික සහ කොට්ඨාස ඡන්ද ක්‍රමයට සභිකයින් තෝරා ගැනීමේ අනුපාතය  හිතුවක්කාරී ලෙස වෙනස් කිරීම නිසා මෙම තත්වය ඇතිවී ඇති බවයි. මුලින් සමානුපාතික සහ කොට්ඨාස ක්‍රම වලට සභිකයින් තෝරා ගැනීම 70% ත් 30% ආදී වශයෙන් අනුපාත වලට සිදුකළ යුතු බවට යෝජනා වී තිබුනද පසුව මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමවේදය පිළිබඳව කිසිදු සොයාබැලීමකින් තොරව 60% ත් 40% ත් ආදී වශයෙන් අනුපාතයට වෙනස් කළ බව තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

පාර්ලිමේන්තුව වෙත පළාත් පාලන පනත ඉදිරිපත් කරන විට එහි කොට්ඨාස ක්‍රමයට 70% ක් සහ සමානුපාතික ක්‍රමය 30% ක් ආදී වශයෙන් නියෝජිතයින් තෝරාගැනීම පිළිබඳව සඳහන් වී තිබූ අතර ඊට ගැලපෙන ආකාරයට සීමා නිර්ණය කටයුතු සිදුවූ බව ඒ මහතා මෙහිදී පැවසීය.  නමුත්  පසුව පාර්ලිමේන්තු  කාරක සභා අවස්ථාවේදී මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමවේදය පිළිබඳ කිසිදු විශ්ලේෂණාත්මක විග්‍රහයක් නොමැතිව   එම අනුපාතය 60% ත් 40% ත් ලෙස වෙනස් කිරීම නිසා සභික සංඛ්‍යාව වැඩි කිරීම නිසා  සභික සංඛ්‍යාව 40%ත් 45%ත් අතර ප්‍රමාණයකින් වැඩිවී  ඇති බව තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා මෙහිදී පෙන්වා දුන්නේය. 

ලංකා ඉතිහාසය තුළ කුඩා දේශපාලන පක්ෂ හා කණ්ඩායම් විසින් වැඩිම දේශපාලන බලයක් හිමිකරගත් අවස්ථාවක් ලෙස මෙම ඡන්ද විමසීම දැක්විය හැකි බව  තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා මෙහිදී පැවසීය.එවන් අවස්ථාවන් හිමිවීම වැරදි යැයි අර්ථ දැක්වීමට උත්සහ කිරීම  දේශපාලඥයින්ගේ අතින් සිදුවූ වැරැද්දක් වසා ගැනීමට දැරූ මුග්ධ, උද්ච්ච ක්‍රියාවක්  බව  තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා මෙහිදි පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

ඇතැම් පාර්ශව මෙහි කාන්තා නියෝජනය පිළිබඳ ගැටළුවක් ඇති බව හුවා දක්වමින් මැතිවරණ නීතිය නෙතකා කටයුතු කිරීමට ඉඩ දෙන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටින බවත්, එලෙස පැවැත්වූ මැතිවරණයක නීති වෙනස් කිරීමට මැතිවරණ කොමිසමට හෝ දේශපාලන නායකත්වයට කිසිදු නීතිමය බලයක් නොමැති බව ද තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා මෙහිදී පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය 

කැෆේ සංවිධානය 

2018 පෙබරවාරි මස 20 වැනිදා 

මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය උදයාංග වීරතුංග – රුසියාවේ හිටපු ශ්‍රී ලංකා තානාපති.

2018 පෙබරවාරි 20 වෙනිදා

පෙබරවාරි 04 දින ඩුබායි හීදී එරට බලධාරීන් මාව රදවාගෙන සිටීමත්, පසුව මුදාහරිමත්      ලංකාවේ කවුරුත් හොදින් දන්නා පුවතකි. ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය විසින් මට එරෙහිව ඉන්ටර්පොල් රතු නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කිරීමට සුදානම් බවට සාවද්‍ය තොරතුරු ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම නිසා එක්සත් අරාබි එමීර් රාජ්‍යයේ බලධාරීන් විසින් මා අඩංගුවට ගත්තේය. නමුත් ඉන්ටර්පොල් රතු නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් නොකරන බවත් නිකුත්කර ඇත්තේ නිල් නිවේදනයක් බව සනාථ වූ පසු බලධාරීන් විසින් මා මුදා හරින ලදී. නීතියේ ආධිපත්‍යය මූලික පදනම වූ සහ මූලික නිදහස පවතින, ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදී ලෙස හඳුන්වනු ලබන මාගේ රටෙහි පොලිසිය විසින් මෙසේ නිතිය නැමීම ගැන මා කනගාටු වෙමි.

         ජාත්‍යන්තර පොලිසිය හරහා අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමට ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොලිසිය මගින් පසුගිය කාලයේ රතු නිවේදනය නිකුත් කර තිබූ ප්‍රබල බිහිසුණු අපරාධ කළ එල්ටීටීඊ ත්‍රස්‌තවාදීන් ඇතුළුව මත්ද්‍රව්‍ය ජාවාරම වලට සම්බන්ධ වූවන්ගේ ලැයිස්‌තුවෙන් ත්‍රස්‌තවාදීන් ඇතුළුව 150ට ආසන්න පිරිසකගේ නම් පසුගිය වසරේදී ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොලිසියේ ඉල්ලීම මත ඉවත්කර ඇති බව මාධ්‍ය තුලින් දැනගැනීම ලැබුණි. අද වන විට ජාත්‍යන්තර ඉන්ටර්පොල් රතු නිවේදන ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජයේ ඉල්ලීමට අනුව නිකුත්කර ඇත්තේ ලාංකිකයන් තුන්දෙනෙකුට පමණි. දෙමල දේශපාලකයින්ගේ ඉල්ලීම මත එල්ටීටීඊ ත්‍රස්‌තවාදීන් ඇතුළුව 150 ගේ නම් රතු වරෙන්තු ලැයිස්තුවෙන් ඉවත් කිරීමට කටයුතු කල යහපාලනය රජය, රාජපක්ෂ රජයේ සේවය කල නඩුවක්වත් නැති රුසියාවේ හිටපු තානාපතිට එරෙහිව රතු නිවේදනයක්‌ නිකුත්කරන ලෙස ඉන්ටර්පෝල් පොලිසියෙන් අයෑදුමක්‌ කරන ලද්දේ, මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයට ප්‍රකාශයක් ලබාදීමට ඉදිරිපත් නොවූ වරදට නිකුත්කල වරෙන්තුවටය. එහෙත් ත්‍රස්‌තවාදීන් ඇතුළු 150ක පිරිස ද උසාවියට ඉදිරිපත් වී නැති නමුත් එම නම් ඉවත්කර ඇත.

         ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ආණ්ඩුව දෙවැනි වරටත් කල ඉල්ලීමට අනුව ඉන්ටර්පොල් ආයතනය නිල් නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කර ඇත. එසේ නමුත් හිටපු රාජ්‍යතාන්ත්‍රික නිලධාරියකු වන මට එරෙහිව රතු වරෙන්තුවක් ලබා ගැනීමට යහපාලන රජයේ නිළධාරීන් මේ දිනවල අලුත්ම උත්සාහයක නිරත වී සිටින බව අප දනිමු. පොලිස් මුල්‍ය අපරාධ කොට්‌ඨාසය මට එරෙහිව මහේස්ත්‍රාත් උසාවියට බී වාර්තාවක් මගින් දන්වා ඇත්තේ, 2006 දී යුක්රේනියාවෙන් මිග් යානා මිලදීගැනීමට කිසිදු වලංගු ගිවිසුමක් නොතිබූණු බවත්, මම කූට ලේඛනයක් සකසා එයට ගුවන් හමුදාපතිගේ අත්සනත් ලබාගෙන, මිග් යානා මිලදීගැනීමට ගිය මුළු මුදලම වංචා කර ඇති බවයි. දේශපාලන විරුද්ධවාදීන්ගෙන් පළිගැනීමට ඕනෑම ගොන් කතාවක් ගොතා, පොලිස් බී වාර්තා මගීන් උසාවියට බොරුකියා නඩුවක් පවත්වාගෙන යාමට ඇති හැකියාව පිළිබඳ හොදම උදාහරණය මෙය වේ.

         2006 දී ලංකාව යුක්රේනියාවෙන් මිග් යානා හතරක් මිලදීගත් අතර, ලංකාවට තිබුණු තවත් මිග් යානා හතරක් සම්පුර්ණයෙන් අලුත්වැඩියා කරනු ලැබේ. මේ යානා අටම යුද්ධයෙදී භාවිතා වූ අතර තවමත් ගුවන් හමුදාව සතුව පවතී. මේ ගනුදෙනුව සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගිවිසුමක් නැතැයි කියා මුල්‍ය අපරාධ කොට්‌ඨාසය උසාවියට කියා සිටියේ, යුක්රේන්මාෂ් සමාගම වරදිමකින් එවපු ලිපියක් ප්‍රයෝජනයට ගෙනය. පසුව යුක්රේනියානු බලධාරීන් මේ වැරැද්ද නිවරදි කිරීමට පියවර ගෙන තිබුණාත්, පොලිසිය එය උසාවියට වාර්තා කර නොමැත. එමෙන්ම ගිවිසුමට අදාළව ගුවන් හමුදාව නිකුත්කල “භාවිත කරන්නාගේ සහතිකය” උපයෝගී කර යුක්රේනියානු රජය මිග් ගුවන්යානා 8 අපට ලබා දී ඇතිබව එරට බලධාරීන් පිළිගැනීම යනු මෙම ගිවිසුම ඒ රටෙහි භාවිතා වී ඇති බවයි.

          මොස්කව් ශ්‍රී ලංකා තානාපති කාර්යාලයේ දී යුක්රේන්මාෂ් අධ්‍යක්‍ෂක වෙනුවෙන් එහි නියෝජ්‍ය අධ්‍යක්‍ෂක ගේනාධි ස්තුදිනිකින් විසින් 2006 ජූලි මාසයේදී එම ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කල බව හා ගිවිසුම ගැන සාකච්ඡා කිරීමට ලංකාවට ගොස්‌ තිබෙන බවද පසුගිය වසරේදී යුක්‌රේන නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට ඔහු ලබාදුන් කටඋත්තරයේ සඳහන්ව ඇත. නමුත් ගිවිසුම අත්සන්කල එම නියෝජ්‍ය අධ්‍යක්‍ෂකගෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොලිසිය කටඋත්තරයක් ලබාගෙන නැති අතර යුක්රේනියානු රජයට ඔහු ලබාදුන් කටඋත්තරයේ පිටපත් උසාවියට ඉදිරිපත් නොකිරීම පිළිබඳ සැකය සහිතයි. එසේම මෙම ගුවන්යානා තත්ව පරික්ෂාකිරීමේන් පසු Factory Acceptance Certificate” ගුවන්හමුදාපති විසින් එම නියෝජ්‍ය අධ්‍යක්‍ෂක සමග යුක්රේනියාවේ ලුවෝෆ් කර්මාන්ත ශාලාවේදී අදාළ සහතික අත්සන් කර ඇත. මා විසින් ගනුදෙනුවට අදාළ ගිවිසුමට කිසිදු අත්සනක් යොදා නැති අතර එම අත්සන් හා ගිවිසුමට අදාළ සියලු වගකීම් ගුවන් හමුදාව භාරගත යුතු අතර ගුවන් හමුදාව ඔහු සමග ඍජු සම්බන්ධයක් තිබු බව හා ගිවිසුම කූඨටලේඛනක් ද යන්න රටට ප්‍රකාශ කල යුතුය.

           එසේ නමුත් යුක්රේන්මාෂ් සමාගමේ නියෝජ්‍ය අධ්‍යක්‍ෂකගේ අත්සන පිළිබඳ, මට එරෙහිව සාවද්‍ය තොරතුරු ඉදිරිපත් කර, දණ්‌ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහයේ 454 හා 457 යන වගන්තිවලට අදාළ කූඨටලේඛන සැකසීමක්‌ කර තිබෙන බව මූල්‍ය අපරාධ කොට්‌ඨාසය උසාවියට වාර්තා කර, මා සැකකරුවකු ලෙස නම් කිරීම හුදෙක් දේශපාලන පළිගැනීමකි. එසේම මෙම ගිවිසුම මා විසින් ලංකාවට රැගෙනවිත් ගුවන් හමුදාපතිගේ අත්සන් ලබාගෙන නැවත රැගෙන ගිය බවට පොලිස් මූල්‍ය අපරාධ විමර්ශන ඒකකය සාවද්‍ය තොරතුරු ඉදිරිපත්කර අධිකරණය නොමග යවා මා සැකකරුවකු ලෙස නම් කරන ලදී. නමුත් එම කාලයේදී මා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට හෝ පැමිණ නැති බව ආගමනය විගමන දත්ත පරික්ෂා කිරීමේන් එයද පොලිසියේ බොරුවක් බව ඔප්පුවන්නේය. මෙම සාවද්‍ය කරුණු දෙක මත අධිකරණය මා සැකකරුවකු කිරීමට එරෙහිව මේ මොහොතේ නිතියෙන්  සාධාරණයක් ඉටුනොවූවත්, ස්වභාවධර්මයත් කාලයත් මට යම් දිනයක සාධාරණය ඉටුකරනු ඇත.

          එදා මුළු ගනුදෙනුවම අධීක්‌ෂණය කිරීමට කැබිනට්‌ මණ්‌ඩලය විසින් පත්කරන ලද ටෙන්ඩර් කමිටුවක්‌ විය. එයට අමතරව ජාතික ප්‍රසම්පාදන ආයතනය විසින් පත්කරනු ලැබූ තාක්‌ෂණික ඇගයීම් කමිටුවක්‌” ද විය. මෙයට අමතරව මෙම ගනුදෙනුවේ අවසන් මිල ගණන් සාකච්ඡා කිරීමට මහා භාණ්‌ඩාගාරය ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් තවත් කමිටුවක්‌ පත්කර තිබූණි. එදා මිග් ගනුදෙනුවම පිළිබඳ කටයුතු කල එම කමිටු නිලධාරීන්ගෙන් මෙම විමර්ශන කටයුතු සඳහා අද පොලිසිය සහයෝගය ලබා නොගැනීම ද ප්‍රහේලිකාවකි. එසේ වුවත් මිග් ගිවිසුම යුක්රේන්මාෂ් අත්සන් නොකළ බව මුල්‍ය අපරාධ විමර්ශන ආයතනය චෝදනා කරයි. මිග් ගනුදෙනුවට අදාළ විමර්ෂණ කටයුතු සඳහා කටඋත්තරයක් යුක්රේනියාවේදී ලබා දීමට මම අවස්ථාවක් ඉල්ලා සිටි නමුත් පොලිස් මූල්‍ය අපරාධ විමර්ශන ඒකකය ඊට අවස්ථාවක් ලබා නොදීමෙන් පැහැදිලි වන්නේ, දේශපාලකයින්ගේ නියෝග මත, මා රිමාන්ඩ් කිරීමට රජයට ඇති අවශ්‍යතාවයයි. හිටපු විදේශ ඇමතිවරයා ඇතුළු නියෝජිතයන් විමර්ශන කටයුතු සඳහා යුක්රේනයට කිහිපවාරයක් පැමිණි ඇත.

          යුක්රේනියාවේ රාජකාරි සංචාරයකදී රාජ්‍යය නිලධාරියකුට දිනකට ඩොලර් 600 ක් යනු රුපියල් 93,000 ක ගෙවීමක් සිදූකරන බැවින්, මා ගැන සෙවීමට යුක්රේනියාවට දින 7-10 කට පැමිණෙන පොලිස් නිලධාරීන් මගෙන් කටඋත්තරයක් ලබා ගැනීමට කටයුතු නොකර මේ කරන සෙල්ලම කුමක්දැයි කාටවුවත් තේරුම් ගත හැක. පසුගිය දින නිලධාරීන් හත්දෙනෙක් ඩුබායි නගරයට පැමිණියේ ද මා නිදහස්කර ඇති බව හරියටම දැනගැනීමෙන් පසුව ජනතාවගේ බදු මුදලින් තවත් සංචාරයක නිරතවීමට පමණි. මා පිළිබඳ විටින් විට විවිධ තොරතුරු මාධ්‍යයට ලබා දෙමින් මිග් ගනුදෙනුවේ කුමක්‌ හෝ සැක සහිත දෙයක්‌ තිබෙනවාය යන අදහස පවත්වාගෙන යැමට පොලිස්‌ මූල්‍ය අපරාධ කොට්‌ඨාසයේ දැඩි උත්සාහයක්‌ තිබෙන බව පැහැදිලිය. ඔවුන් මට විරුද්ධව එල්ල කරන චෝදනා සියල්ල අමූලික බොරු බව ඉතා වගකීමෙන් ප්‍රකාශ කරමි.

උදයාංග වීරතුංග – රුසියාවේ හිටපු ශ්‍රී ලංකා තානාපති.

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

දේශපාලන නායකයන් ගේ මනෝ ගතිකයන් ඔවුන් ගේ දේශපාලන තීරණ වලටත් එසේම රටක අනාගතයටත් බලපාන බව මනෝ විද්‍යාඥයන් පෙන්වා දෙති.  A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness නම් ග්‍රන්ථය ලියූ සුප්‍රක​ට වෛද්‍යවරයෙකු වන Dr. Nassir Ghaemi රාජයක් අසාර්ථක වන විට , මහජන සාමය කඩවී යන යුගයක මානසික අක්‍රමතාවන් ඇති පුද්ගලයෝ අපව පාලනය කරන බව කියයි. එසේම සාමය සහිත සමෘධිමත් කාල වල ඔවුන් අපගේ රෝගීහු වන බව වෛද්‍ය Nassir Ghaemi වැඩි දුරටත් සඳහන් කරයි. 

දේශපාලන ඉතිහාසය හොඳින් විශ්ලේෂණය කරන වෛද්‍ය  Nassir Ghaemi චර්චිල් , හිට්ලර්, ස්ටාලින් යන නායකන් තුල තිබූ මනෝ භාවයන් මෙන්ම  මානසික අක්‍රමතාවයන් ඔවුන් ගේ දේශපාලන තීරණ වලදී ඉතා ස්ථිර ලෙස බලපෑ අයුරු තර්කාන්විතව පෙන්වා දෙයි. උදාහරණයක් ලෙස චර්චිල් විශාදයෙන් පෙළුනේය​. මේ නිසා නෙවිල් චේම්බලේන් මෙන් නොව හිට්ලර් ගේ අනාගත අභිප්‍රායන් පිලිබඳව යම් අවලෝකනයක් චර්චිල් තිල තිබූ බව වෛද්‍ය Nassir Ghaemi පවසයි. මෙම තත්වය වෛද්‍ය Nassir Ghaemi හඳුන්වන්නේ Depressive Realism යන නමිනි. තවද හිට්ලර් තුල තිබූ ඇම්ෆිටමීන් කෙරෙහි ඇබ්බැහි වීම මෙන්ම ඔහු තුල තිබූ ද්වී ද්‍රව විශාදය (Bipolar affective disorder) සහ පශ්චාත් ව්‍යසන ක්ලමථ අක්‍රමතාවය (PTSD)  නිසා අවසාන කාලයේදී හිට්ලර් සිහිමඳ ආකාරයෙන් යුද්දය පිලිබඳ තීරණ ගත් අයුරු වෛද්‍ය Nassir Ghaemi පෙන්වා දෙයි. 

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ දේශපාලනය කෙරෙහි බලපෑම් ඇති කරන ලද පුද්ගලයන් ගේ මනෝභාවයන් පිලිබඳව ශ්‍රී ලංකික මනෝ විද්වතුන් විග්‍රහ කොට නැත​. මේ සඳහා ඔවුන් තුල සාධාරණ බියක් පවතිනවා වන්නට පුලුවන​. එහෙත් වෘත්තීයවේදීන් ලෙස  තමන් ගේ දැණුම සහ අත්දැකීම් යොදාගෙන ජනතාවට ප්‍රතිවේධනයක් ලබා දීම ඔවුන් ගේ යුතුකමක් වෙයි. 

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ දේශපාලන පථය සඳහා පුද්ගලයන් බොහෝ දෙනෙකු දායක වී තිබේ. ඉන් ස්වල්ප දෙනෙකු වඩාත් අධික ලෙස ශ්‍රී ලංකා දේශපාලන පථය සඳහා බලපෑම් කොට බව නොරහසකි . වර්තමානයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවාසීන් ගේ ජීවන තත්වය  නිර්ණය වී තිබෙන්නේ සුළුතරයක් වූ මෙකී පුද්ගලයන් ගත් තීරණ තීන්දු මතය​. මේ නිසා එම තීන්දු ගන්නන් විධිමත් මානසිකත්වයෙන් එකී තීන්දු ගත යුතු බවට ජනතාව විසින් වග බලා ගත යුතුය​. 

ප්‍රභාකරන් සාධකය යනු නිදහසින් පසු ශ්‍රී ලංකාව මුහුණ දුන් බරපතලම අර්බුදය විය. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ දේශපාලන ආර්ථික සහ සමාජ ගමන් මග වෙනස් කිරීමට ප්‍රභාකරන්ට හැකි විය. ප්‍රභාකරන් තුල ව්‍යාථවේදී පෞරුෂ සාධක දක්නට ලැබුණි. නමුත් මේ ගැන කතිකාවට බඳුන් වී ඇත්තේ ඉතාම අඩුවෙනි.2004 වසරේ ප්‍රභාකරන් දේශපාලනමය සහ යුදමය වශයෙන් ඉතා බලවත්ව සිටි අවදියේ දී ඔහුගේ පෞරුෂ සාධක හෙළි කරමින් කරමින් ප්‍රභාකරන් සාධකය පිලිබඳ මනෝවිද්‍යාත්මක විශ්ලේෂණයක් යන කෘතිය (සරසවි ප්‍රකාශකයෝ)  මම එළි දැක්වුයෙමි. එම ගවේෂණාත්මක කෘතිය මගින් ළමා ප්‍රභාකරන් චර්යාත්මක අක්‍රමතාවයකින් (Conduct Disorder) පෙළුණු බවත් පසුකාලීනව වැඩිහිටි දිවියේදී ඔහු තුල සමාජ විරෝධී පෞරුෂ ලක්ෂණ (Antisocial Personality Disorder) තිබෙන බවද ඔහුගේ ජිවිත කතාව සහ චර්යාව මගින් පෙන්වා දුනිමි. මේ මතය ඇතැම් වියතුන්ගේ විවේචනයට ද ලක් විය. නමුත් 2011 වසරේ මම යාපනය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ මනෝවිද්‍යා අංශයේ මහාචාර්ය දයා සෝමසුන්දරම් මහතා අමතමින් 2004 වසරේ ප්‍රභාකරන් පිළිබඳව මගේ අධ්‍යනයන් ගැන තතු පැවසුවෙමි. වේලුපිල්ලේ ප්‍රභාකරන් සමාජ විරෝධී පෞරුෂ ලක්ෂණ වලින් යුතු පුද්ගලයෙකු බව මහාචාර්ය දයා සෝමසුන්දරම් ද පිලිගත්තේ ය. 

ජේ ආර් ජයවර්ධන යනු ලංකාවේ විවාදයට ලක්වූ දේශපාලකයෙකි. ඔහු විසින් කරන ලද හොඳ දේවල් මෙන්ම නරක දේවල් පිළිබඳව කථිකා තිබේ. 1977 ට මඳ කාලයකට පෙර ජේ ආර් ජයවර්ධන තම දකුණු අත මිටි කර  මේසයට ගසමින් අයි වෝන්ට් පවර්.. අයි වෝන්ට් පවර්… කියමින් කියූ බව වරක් ඩියු ගුණසේකර මහතා මා සමග කීවේය​. ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම ජේ ආර් බලය කෙරෙහි ආශක්තව සිටියේය​.  බලය ලැබීමත් සමගම ජේ.ආර් තුල  අහංකාර උන්මාදය සහිත  The Hubris Syndrome නම් සහලක්‍ෂණයේ සලකුණු මතු විය​. ඔහු බලය පිළිබඳ වගාඩම් බර කීවේය​. තමන්ට කල නොහැක්කේ ගැහැනියෙකු පිරිමියෙකු කිරීම බව කීවේය​. එසේම ප්‍රජාතන්තවාදී විරෝධී තීරණ ගැනීම සඳහා ජේ ආර් තුල තිබූ මෙම Hubris සින්ඩ්‍රෝමය ඉවහල් විය​. 

ආර් .ප්‍රේමදාස  ඉතා හොඳ අනුගාමික උප නායකයෙකු විය​. ඔහු තුල විචක්‍ෂණභාවයක් තිබුනේය​. එහෙත් ඔහු  පූර්ණ බලැති නායකයෙක් වූ වහාම කුලය සහ ඔහුගේ පන්තිය පිලිබඳව තිබූ  විරක්‍ෂීභාවයන් (insecurities ) උඩට මතු විය​. මීට අමතරව ප්‍රේමදාසව පෙලූ හීනතාමාන සංකීර්ණය ( inferiority complex)   මත  ඔහුගේ දේශපාලන චර්‍යාව සනිටුහන් විය​. මේ නිසා ආර් ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා දේශපාලන වශයෙන් වැරදි තීරණ ගනනාවක් ගත්තේය​. මෙම වැරදි තීරණ නිසා ඔහු උග්‍ර දේශපාලන අර්බුධ වලට මුහුණ දුන්නේය​. 

රෝහන විජේවීර යනු ප්‍රභාකරන් මෙන්ම ශ්‍රී ලාංකික දේශපාලනය බරපතල ලෙස වෙනසකට ලක් කරන ලද පුද්ගලයෙකි.   රෝහණ විජේවීර සංකීර්ණ චරිතයකි. විජේවීර තුල අසාමාන්‍ය දක්‍ෂතා මෙන්ම බොහෝ දුර්වලකම්ද තිබුනේය. දක්‍ෂතා අතර ඔහු තුල පැවති සංවිධානාත්මක හැකියාව පෙනී යයි. ධනය බලය රහිතව ඔහු විශාල සංවිධානයක් ගොඩ නැගුවේය​.ඔහු තුල තිබූ කැපවීම කිසිදු දේශපාලකයෙක් තුල තිබුනේ නැත. පයින් ගමෙන් ගමට ගොස් සාමාජිකයන් එකතු කරගෙන ඔහු විසින් ගොඩ නගන ලද සංවිධානය මේ වන විට ලංකාවේ තෙවන බලවේගයක් දක්වා වර්ධනයව තිබේ. 

රෝහණ විජේවීර සංකීර්ණ චරිතයක් වූ බව නිසැකය​. ඔහු තුල යහපත් ගති ගුණ මෙන්ම විනාශකාරී ලක්‍ෂණ තිබුනේය​.  මාගේ අදහස අනුව විජේවීර තුල  Posttraumatic embitterment disorder (PTED)  තත්වය තිබූ බවට සිතීමේ සාධක තිබේ. මෙම  Posttraumatic embitterment disorder (PTED)  තත්වය PTSD (Posttraumatic stress disorder ) නොහොත් පශ්චාත් ව්‍යසන ක්ලමථ අක්‍රමතාවය ආදර්ශයට ගෙන ජර්මානු මනෝ විද්‍යවරයෙකු වන මහාචාර්ය මයිකල් ලින්ඩෙන් විසින් ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලද්දකි. මෙම  Posttraumatic embitterment disorder (PTED) තත්වයෙන් පෙලෙන්නන් තුල අවිඥානික වෛරය , ක්‍රම විරෝධී බව , ලෝකය අයහපත් අසාධාරණ ස්ථානයක් බවත් එම ලෝකය කෙරෙහි එදිරිය​, සමාජය හා නීති පද්ධතීන්  කෙරෙහි  අප්‍රසන්න තිත්ත භාවය , අපිළිසරණ හැඟීම් , පළි ගැනීමේ ආශාව , සහකම්පනීය හැඟීම් අඩු බව , දුක්මුසු මනෝ භාවයන් , තිබෙන බව මහාචාර්ය මයිකල් ලින්ඩෙන් පෙන්වා දෙයි. 

පෙනී යන පරිදි රෝහණ විජේවීර තුල දත් බොල්ලෑව නිසා Body dysmorphic disorder තත්වය  තිබූ බවට  උපකල්පනය කිරීමේ සාධක තිබේ. බොහෝ අවස්ථාවලදී ඔහු තම දත් බොල්ලෑව පිළිබඳව චින්තාපර විය​. 71 කැරැල්ල ආසන්නයේදී පවා පේරාදෙනිය දන්ත පීඨයෙන්  තම ඉදිරියට නෙරා ඇති දත් ශල්‍යකර්මයක් මගින් සාමාන්‍යකරණය කර ගත යුතු බව ඔහු සෝමසිරි කුමානායකට කීවේය​. මෙම විකලතාව නිසා ඔහු තනිව සිටින විට අත් වලින් දත් පසුපසට තද කිරීම ග්‍රස්තියක් සේ වැඩුනේය​. එසේම ඔහු කණ්නාඩියකින් මුහුණ බැලීමටද අකමැති වූ බව ඔහුගේ සමකාලීනයෝ පෙන්වා දෙති. මෙම විකලතාව විජේවීරට චිරකාලික කාංසාමය තත්වයක් ඇති කරන ලදි. විජේවීර ගේ සමහර සර්වතෝභද්‍ර වාදී ප්‍රවණතාවල මූලයන් මෙම Body dysmorphic disorder තත්වය සමග බැඳී පැවතිනි. අවිඥානික මානසික ගැටුම් , කායික අඩු ලුහුඞුවක් නිසා Body dysmorphic disorder තත්වය මෙන්ම Posttraumatic embitterment disorder (PTED) ලක්‍ෂණ ඔහු තුල තිබුනේය​. මේ  සියළු ලක්‍ෂණයන් රෝහණ  විජේවීර චරිතයට බල පවත්වන ලදි. රෝහණ  විජේවීර යන චරිතය අවබෝධ කර ගත යුත්තේ මෙකී කියවීම් හරහාය​. 

1994 චන්ද්‍රිකා බණ්ඩාරනායක මැතිණිය බලයට පත් වන විට ඇය විසින් ලංකාව සෞභාග්‍යය කරා ගෙන යනු ඇතැයි බොහෝ දෙනෙකු අණාවැකි කියූහ​. එහෙත් එම අණාවැකි බොරු කරමින් චන්ද්‍රිකා අසමර්ථ දේශපාලන චරිතයක් වූවාය​. මේ සඳහා චන්ද්‍රිකා තුල තිබූ ඇතැම් මනෝ භාවයන් හේතු කාරක වන්නට ඇත​. චන්ද්‍රිකා තම පියාගේ මරණය​, තරුණ කාලයේදී තම ප්‍රථම ආදරවන්තයාගේ මරණය මෙන්ම පසුකාලිනව තම ස්වාමි පුරුෂයාගේ මරණය නිසා ක්‍ෂිතිමය අත්දැකීම් වලට ලක්ව සිටි කාන්තාවකි. එසේම පුරහල බෝම්බය නිසා ඇය තුල පශ්චාත් ව්‍යසන ක්ලමථ අක්‍රමතාවය (PTSD)ලක්‍ෂණයන් ද හට ගැනීමේ අවකාශයන් තිබුණු බව අමතක නොකල යුතුය​. මේ නිසා චන්ද්‍රිකා ගේ දේශපාලනය සඳහා මෙකී මානසික ලක්‍ෂණ බල පවත්තන්නට ඇත​. 

බලයේ සිටි කාලයේ සමහරක් චන්ද්‍රිකාට කීවේ පච මල්ල කියාය​. ඊට හේතුව ඇය බොහෝ විට බොරු ගොතා කීමයි. සමහර විට ඇය විසින් කියූ බොරු ඇයටම අමතක වූ අවස්ථාද තිබිනි.  චන්ද්‍රිකා  ඇබ්බැහියෙන් බොරු කිව්වේද කියා ඇතැමුන් අසති. එයට එක එල්ලයේ පිලිතුරු දිය නොහැක​. හේතුව සියළු දේශපාලකයන් බොරු කියති. නමුත් චන්ද්‍රිකා කියූ ඇතැම් බොරු විරළ වර්ගයේ ඒවාය​. 

 චන්ද්‍රිකා කියූ සෝබෝන් බොරුව  තුමුල බොරුවකි. ඇයට ප්‍රන්සයේ සෝබෝන් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයෙන් උපාධියක් තිබුනේ නැත​. එක් අවස්ථාවකදී ඇය තමන්ට සෝබෝන් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයෙන් ආචාර්‍ය උපාධියක් තිබෙන බවද කීවාය​. නමුත් මේ සියල්ල අසත්‍ය බව පසුව සනාත විය​.   තවත් අවස්ථාවකදී චන්ද්‍රිකා තම පුත් විමුක්තිව රාජකීය විද්‍යාලයට දැමීම සඳහා එවකට අධ්‍යාපන ඇමතිවරයා වූ රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ රුපියල් 25,000 ක අල්ලසක් ඉල්ලා සිටි බව කීවාය​. විජය ඝාතනය වූ අවස්ථාවේදී තමා එම ඝාතකයා බිම වැටී සිටි විජය දෙසට තුවක්කුව මානා ගෙන සිටි අයුරු දුටු බව චන්ද්‍රිකා වරක් රූපාවාහිනී වැඩ සටහනකදී කීවාය​. විජය කුමාරතුංග ඝාතනය පිලිබඳ රහස් පොලිස් පරීක්‍ෂණ කටයුතු කල චන්ද්‍රා ජයවර්ධන මහතා ගෙන් වරක් මම මේ ගැන ඇසුවෙමි. චන්ද්‍රා ජයවර්ධන මහතා කියූ පරිදි  චන්ද්‍රිකා ඝාතකයාව දැක නැත​. චන්ද්‍රිකා එක එල්ලේ  කීවේ තමා ඝාතකයා දුටු බවය​. සමහර විට තමා කියූ අසත්‍යය සත්‍යක් කියා තමාටම ඒත්තු ගියා විය හැකිය​. 

පරිචින්න වශයෙන් බොරු කීම Pseudologia fantastica  හෝ   Pathological Lying ලෙස හැඳින්වේ. මෙම ස්වභාවය  ව්‍යාථවේදී තත්වයක් බව  1891 දී ජර්මානු මනෝ වෛද්‍ය  Anton Delbrück විසින් පෙන්වා දෙන ලදි. පෞරුෂ අක්‍රමතා වලදීද  ව්‍යාථවේදී මුසාවාද කීමේ තත්වය දක්නට හැකි බව මනෝ විද්වතුන් පවසයි.  DSM මානසික රෝග වර්ගීකරණයේදී  Pathological Lying   නොහොත් ව්‍යාථවේදී මුසාවාද කීමේ තත්වය  factitious disorder යටතේ වර්ගීකරණය වෙයි.

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ යන චරිතය ශ්‍රී ලාංකික දේශපාලනයේ පතාක චරිතයකි. ඔහුගේ දක්‍ෂතා මෙන්ම දේශපාලන සඑලතා බොහෝ සෙයින් තිබුනේය​. එහෙත් ඔහු මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතාට පරාජය වන කාලය වන විට රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා දේශපාලනික වශයෙන් බොහෝ වැරදි කොට තිබූ නිසා ජනප්‍රියතාවයෙන් පහළ වැටී තිබුනේය​. රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා මෙලෙස දේශපාලනික වශයෙන් සද්‍යෝෂී ක්‍රියා වෙත යොමු වීම සඳහා ඔහු තුල ජේ. ආර් ජයවර්ධන තුල වර්ධනය වූ අහංකාර උන්මාදය සහිත  The Hubris Syndrome නම් සහලක්‍ෂණයේ සලකුණු  තිබූ බව මම සිතමි. 

දේශපාලනයේ මනෝ විද්‍යාව යනු දේශපාලකයන් මානසික රෝගීන් කියා ලේබල් ගැසීමක් නොවේ. බොහෝ දේශපාලකයන් නිරෝගී මානසිකත්වයකින් යුතුව හිතකර තීරණ ගනිති. නමුත් යම් යම් අවස්ථා වලදී ඔවුන් තුල තිබෙන්නා වූ මනෝ ගතිකයන් ඔවුන් ගේ දේශපාලන  තීරණ වලට බල පැවැත්වේ. මෙම මනෝ ගතිකයන් පිලිබඳව දේශපාලකයන් විසින් දැනුවත්ම සිටීම ඔවුනට මෙන්ම ජනතාවටද හිතකරය​. මෙවැනි අවලෝකනයක් ලබා දීම  මනෝ විද්‍යාව පිළිබඳ වෘත්තීයවේදීන් ගේ යුතුකමක් ද වන්නේය​. ඒ මන්ද යත් පෙර කී පරිදි ශ්‍රී ලංකාවාසීන් ගේ ජීවන තත්වය  නිර්ණය වී තිබෙන්නේ සුළුතරයක් වූ මෙකී පුද්ගලයන් ගත් තීරණ තීන්දු මතය​. එම තීරණ ගන්නේ නීරෝගී මානසිකත්වයකින් ද නැතහොත් ව්‍යාථවේදී මනසකින් ද කියා මනෝ විද්‍යාව පිළිබඳ වෘත්තීයවේදීන් නිසි විපරමින් සිටිය යුතුය​. එසේම ඒ පිළිබඳව ජනතාව දැණුවත් කල යුතුය​.  

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

( ලියුම්කරු වෘත්තියෙන් වෛද්‍යවරයෙකු වන අතර කැනඩාවේ යෝක් විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයේ මනෝ විද්‍යා උපාධිධාරියෙකි. එසේම වර්තමානයේ ඔස්ට්‍රියානු විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයක  මනෝ චිකිත්සනය පිළිබඳව ආචාර්‍ය උපාධිය හදාරන්නෙකි. තවද අන්තර්ජාතික  Posttraumatic Embitterment Disorder (PTED)  සම්මේලනයේ වෛඥානික කමිටු – International Scientific Committee සාමාජිකයෙකි ) 

Thilanka Kanakarathna Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Although the yahapalana government is attempting to obtain an Interpol ‘Red Warrant’ on him it had withdrawn some 150 some such warrants including those issued on former LTTE terrorists because of the influence by Tamil politicians, former envoy Udayanga Weeratunga said today.

He said in a statement that he was informed by several media reports that Red Warrants issued on terrorists, drug traffickers and other criminals had been withdrawn based on requests made by the Sri Lanka Police.

However, he said the government had asked Interpol to issue a Red warrant on him who did not have previous offenses other than for failing to appear in Court to record a statement and that Interpol had issued a ‘Blue Warrant’ on him following the second request made by the Sri Lankan Government,

Mr. Udayanga said he was arrested at the Dubai Air Port on February 4 based on false information provided by the government to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) however he was later released after confirming it was only a blue warrant that had been issued.

By Shamindra Ferdianndo Courtesy The Island

February 20, 2018, 8:19 pm

Yahapalana leaders as well as those who had furiously campaigned to thwart war-winning president Mahinda Rajapaksa securing a third term at the Jan. 2015 presidential polls, attributed the humiliating defeat suffered by the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe coalition at Feb. 10, 2018 countrywide local government polls, to its failure to honour pledges made at the 2015 presidential and parliamentary polls.

Addressing the media, at the Center for Society and Religion (CSR), Maradana, on Feb. 13,     co-convenor of the Purawesi Balaya, Gamini Viyangoda, flanked by former Ravaya editor K.W. Janarangana and Saman Ratnapriya asserted that the ruling coalition lost because of its failure to enact a new Constitution, subject to a countrywide referendum, and robust police-judicial action against corrupt and murderous Rajapaksas and their henchmen. The briefing at CSR was their first response to the LG polls outcome.

The then Gen. Sarath Fonseka, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya at an event in Colombo before the breakup of the team that spearheaded the war against the LTTE.

Two days later, Ven. Dambara Amila of the same outfit and at the same venue, called for the immediate appointment of Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka at the expense of Wickremesinghe loyalist, Sagala Ratnayake to carry out a special operation against the robber barons and murderous Rajapaksa clan. Interestingly, among those who had participated at the media briefing, under the ‘Purawesi Balaya’ banner, were executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives, Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, and Nimalka Fernando at the forefront at a campaign to inquire into accountability issues during the conflict, with the focus on Eelam War IV (Aug 2006-May 2009). The first briefing at CSR too had been held under the banner of ‘Purawesi Peramuna’, with Viyangoda and Janaranjana attacking the administration’s failure to enact the new Constitution, though progress was made in parliament to a certain extent.

Janaranjana also pointed out how the inordinate delay in enacting the much-touted National Audit Bill and taking action against the bond scams, involving the Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL), influenced the electorate.

An influential section of the UNP blamed party leader and Premier Wickremesinghe for the latest electoral drubbing, while President Sirisena, whose SLFP too experienced a shameful defeat, exploited the opportunity to oust his partner.

Sirisena’s so far failed plan was meant to pave the way for some sort of a political arrangement with his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa whose Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna/Joint Opposition dealt a massive blow to both the UNP and the SLFP.

Yahapalana proponent, the JVP, and the much troubled Tamil National Alliance (TNA) too suffered significant setbacks in the South and the North, respectively.

The JVP’s situation is far worse than that of the TNA with the electorate in no uncertain terms rejecting its efforts to attract voters on the basis of corruption charges levelled against the UNP, the SLFP and the Joint Opposition.

A spate of issues influenced the electorate with cost of living, waste, corruption, mismanagement, treasury bond scams, garbage mountains, breakdown in fertilizer supply, problems in school uniform material distribution, foolish move to lift existing restrictions on women buying alcohol and unemployment. The electorate dismissed as ridiculous a promise on the eve of the election to provide free Wi-Fi with disdain.

Both winners and losers obviously ignored perhaps one of the major influencing factors in respect of the Sinhala electorate in their post-poll analysis.

Hostility caused by a failed bid by President Sirisena to oust Premier Wickremesinghe will certainly undermine the project to enact a new Constitution, by end of this year, as demanded by the TNA.

LG polls outcome could have been worse for govt…

Had the UNP – UNP coalition tried to enact a new Constitution, on the basis of Geneva directives the ruling coalition would have had suffered a far bigger defeat. Geneva prescribed a new Constitution, in accordance with overall remedial measures to address accountability issues. Although two years later Lord Naseby produced irrefutable evidence, in the House of Lords, to justify reexamination of the Geneva Resolution 30/1, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government steadfastly refused to act. For nearly five months, the government ignored nationalist group and JO/SLPP calls to back Lord Naseby, much to the anger and disappointment of a vast majority of people. There had never been an instance of a government refusing to defend its own armed forces at an international forum.

Lord Naseby delivered a stunning blow to the conspiracy involving Western powers, foreign NGOs, civil society groups here, the TNA, LTTE rump and the incumbent regime against Sri Lanka by proving in no uncertain terms that 40,000 Tamil civilians hadn’t been killed during the Vanni offensive.

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government refused to act on Lord Naseby’s revelation made on the basis of confidential wartime (Jan-May 2009) British High Commission dispatches from the Office of the Defence Attaché. Reexamination of Geneva Resolution would have derailed the project to introduce a new Constitution.

Outgoing UNHRC chief, Zeid-Hussein, at the 32 Geneva sessions, on June 28, 2016, dealt extensively with Sri Lanka. The former Jordanian career diplomat, in a statement headlined ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’, explained, in no uncertain terms, what Geneva expected Sri Lanka to do.

The project to introduce a new Constitution should be examined along with Zeid-Hussein’s statement on June 28, 2016 and the findings and conclusion of the so-called comprehensive investigation undertaken by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Zeid-Hussein wanted Sri Lanka to implement recommendations contained therein. The Jordanian also wanted other countries to abide by the recommendations, in line with his request. Australia, last year, denied a visa to Maj. Gen. Chagi Gallage, Director General of Infantry. They found fault with the Gajaba Regiment veteran for commanding a fighting formation on the Vanni east front, during the last phase of the offensive.

Although President Sirisena assured the Army that he would look into foreign governments causing embarrassment to senior military officers, the government did absolutely nothing. Among those who had been present at the time the assurance was given were Defence Secretary Kapila Waidyaratne and Army Chief Lt.Gen. Mahesh Senanayake.

The bottom line is that Zeid-Hussein unveiled a despicable political agenda meant to transform Sri Lanka at the expense of its unitary status.

Western powers and India, at the onset of 2015, caused the change of government to enable the intended transformation. Sri Lanka’s triumph over terrorism in May 2009 had been used as a rallying point twice; against the war-winning President on the basis his armed forces committed war crimes. Although the first project, in which they used General Sarath Fonseka failed in January 2010, the second attempt succeeded. Maithripala Sirisena’s election was meant to ensure political transformation. The handing over of the Interim Report of the Steering Committee, tasked with framing a new Constitution, to the Constitutional Assembly, by Premier Wickremesinghe last year, marked an important step towards achieving that overall political objective, namely a brand new Constitution.

Delayed new Constitution project lessens impact

Although, the Geneva project has been delayed, it has been on track until the electorate inflicted a heavy defeat on those pushing for a new Constitution. Although, they hadn’t commented on how the project to introduce a new Constitution could have had caused/contributed to debilitating polls setback, they cannot ignore the Geneva factor with the next sessions scheduled to commence next week. Before discussing the matter further, let me reproduce verbatim what Zeid-Hussein stated in respect of the proposed new Constitution being pushed by them in his June 28, 2016, address in Geneva:

* Significant momentum has been achieved in the process of constitutional reform. On 10 March 2016, Parliament adopted a resolution establishing a constitutional assembly to draft and approve a new constitution or amendments by the end of 2016, which would then be put to a referendum in 2017. The drafting process has benefited from an inclusive public consultation process overseen by a Public Representations Committee that received submissions and held district level consultations in the first quarter of 2016.

= From a human rights perspective, the constitutional reform process presents an important opportunity to rectify structural deficiencies that contributed to human rights violations and abuses in the past and reinforce guarantees of non-recurrence. These could include a more comprehensive Bill of Rights, stronger institutional checks and balances, enhanced constitutional review, improved guarantees for the independence of the judiciary, effective individual complaints mechanisms and greater direct enforceability of international human rights treaty. Also, as demonstrated by other countries’ experience, is the strengthening of civilian oversight over the military in the form of multiple oversight and accountability mechanisms over defense policy, discipline and promotion, budgeting and procurement. The new Constitution will also be important in facilitating the establishment of the transitional justice mechanisms envisaged by the Government, for instance the criminalization of international crimes in national law or allowing for the involvement of international judicial personnel. At the same time, the High Commissioner hopes that the political process of adopting constitutional changes will not involve tradeoffs and compromises on core issues of accountability, transitional justice and human rights.

For some strange reason, the previous Rajapaksa government steadfastly refused to make representations on behalf of Sri Lanka. In fact, their refusal facilitated the UN project. The previous government’s foolish response to war crimes allegations certainly facilitated the UN project in which the US played a significant role in forming a UNP-led alliance that involved the TNA, the JVP the SLMC and well paid civil society groupings.

Unholy alliance intact

Having suffered an LG polls debacle, an influential section of the government and those civil society groups repeatedly claimed that President Sirisena’s 2015 mandate was still intact therefore the government should go ahead with the project to introduce a new Constitution. They insisted that the anti-Mahinda vote comprising the UNP, SLFP, JVP, TNA and the SLMC among others still amounted to nearly 55 per cent, whereas the former president received approximately 44 per cent.  They convincingly refrained from mentioning the so-called anti-Mahinda vote comprised the grouping that had received instructions from the US to bring Rajapaksa rule to an end in January 2010. The same grouping succeeded five years later. And in spite of the LG polls defeat, leading proponents of the yahapalana government seemed to be confident that even if President Sirisena quit his alliance with the UNP, the grouping can continue.

False, malicious and still unproven war crimes allegations remained intact and needed to be challenged in Geneva without further delay.

With crucial elections to nine Provincial Councils, including the Northern PC, now scheduled to be held in 2018 and 2019, in addition to presidential polls, in one year and 8 months, and parliamentary polls in two and half years, Sirisena and Wickremesinghe cannot continue to ignore the need to review their joint stand on the Geneva Resolution.

Yahapalana partners certainly paid a very heavy price for not addressing human rights issue in a professional manner. Instead of defending the country, they allowed the UN to pursue a high profile campaign against it on the basis of unproved allegations.

Foreign Ministry co-sponsored Geneva Resolution 30/1 just over a week after outgoing Sri Lankan’s Permanent Representative in Geneva, Ravinatha Aryasinha, rejected the original draft alleging it didn’t help post-war reconciliation process. Aryasinha will return to Colombo later this month.

The Foreign Ministry that had virtually turned a blind eye to Lord Naseby’s explosive revelations which could have been comfortably used in Sri Lanka’s defence, pounced on military attaché Brigadier Priyankara Fernando, attached to the Sri Lanka High Commission, in London, in the wake of his ‘throat slitting’ gesture during a protest outside the mission by British nationals of Sri Lankan origin. The Gemunu Watch officer is on record as having said that he only signalled the successful conclusion of the war against the LTTE. The writer, in the run up to the Feb. 10 polls, had an opportunity to present an alternative opinion regarding war crimes issue to authoritative British representatives. They reminded how former British HC translator Anton Balasingham, after having had received British nationality, ended up in the UK as LTTE theoretician ‘Dr Balasingham’ (although in actual fact he had no doctorate) and was allowed to operate with impunity, even after the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, in Aug. 2005.

A dismal past

The UNP hasn’t been able to stomach Sri Lanka’s triumph over the LTTE contrary to predictions of many pundits, in May 2009. In fact, the UNP pursued its strategy on the basis that the LTTE cannot be defeated, militarily, under any circumstances. Throughout the combined security forces campaign, beginning with the seizure of Sampur, in early Sept. 2006, close on the heels of Mavil-aru battle, the UNP, Colombo based diplomatic community, so-called civil society, as well as an influential section of the media, believed it was only a matter of time before the LTTE inflicted an irrevocable defeat on the Army. They believed the LTTE had the wherewithal to crush the Army on the Vanni west. They were certain that the Jaffna-based fighting Divisions couldn’t break through the Vanni front-line in the peninsula extending from Kilali across Muhamalai-Eluththumaduval to Nagarkovil.

The LTTE strategy could have succeeded had its assassination attempts on the then Army Chief Lt. Gen. Fonseka and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa came through in late April and early Dec. 2006.

Soon after the armed forces brought the war to a successful conclusion, on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon, on the morning of May 19, 2009, the UNP reached an understanding with the TNA and the JVP to field Fonseka against Rajapaksa. The UNP ignored that the TNA, until the very end of the war, stood by the LTTE after having declared it as the sole representative of the Tamil speaking people in late 2001. The parliament never responded to the TNA endorsement of both locally and internationally proscribed terrorist organization. The parliament also conveniently ignored the EU Election Observation Mission report that dealt with the April 2004 parliamentary polls. The EU accused the TNA of being the direct beneficiary of violence directed by the LTTE at those who contested the parliamentary polls in the then temporarily merged northern and eastern province. It even accused Tigers of stuffing ballot boxes to help the LTTE to secure victory.

The Kumaratunga-Rajapaksa administrations are accountable for not taking action against the TNA until the grouping ended up in the UNP-led group. All major political parties and the Elections Commission cannot be excused for not taking up with the TNA its part accountability in the Eelam War IV. The electorate never pardoned the UNP for belittling the war effort and post-war treatment of the armed forces. Sirisena’s SLFP too cannot absolve itself of its failure to defend the armed forces during the past three years, though the writer firmly believes a comprehensive judicial inquiry with full participation of foreign judges and other experts is mandatory to clear bogus charges. Stepping up on the earlier accusation against Sri Lanka of massacring over 40,000 civilians within five months, a British MP told UK parliament in Sept, 2015 that the SLA massacred 100,000 Tamils, including 60,000 LTTE cadres in 2009. Western powers and the UN should have presented all available information/data for verification. They refused to do so for obvious reasons. Thanks to Lord Naseby, the world now knows what the British government refused to divulge officially so far. In fact, Lord Naseby’s assertion tallied with wartime UN report that estimated the number of dead, including LTTE combatants at 7,721, between Aug. 2008 and May 13, 2009.

Wickremesinghe’s UNP never appreciated the Rajapaksa’s strategy. Addressing a public rally in Galle in mid-2007, the then Opposition Leader Wickremesinghe questioned the importance of the Army capturing strategically vital Thoppigala in the eastern theater of operations. Wickremesinghe belittled the army’s success and queried why the government felt regaining Thoppigala was so important. Wickremesinghe declared: Thoppigala is a big jungle. What is so important about Thoppigala? When we implemented the Mahaweli project, we left Thoppigala. How many times Thoppigala was captured? It was nothing but a massive forest, comprising 700 square kms. Thoppigala is bigger than the Colombo district.”

Minister Rajitha Senaratne, who had been a member of the Rajapaksa’s cabinet responded to Wickremesinghe: “Clearing of LTTE bases in Thoppigala region marked the liberation of the entire Eastern Province. All Sri Lankans are happy about the armed forces victory over terrorism.” Referring to Wickremesinghe’s declaration that clearing of Thoppigala jungles didn’t matter and wasn’t militarily important, Dr. Senaratne said Wickremesinghe always made such blunders. Wickremesinghe had paid a heavy price for disparaging statements on the armed forces. Wickremesinghe hadn’t been able to achieve political victories for want of a sensible approach towards the armed forces, Dr. Senaratne said. Senaratne said that no sensible person could be unhappy over the LTTE’s defeat in the east. The outspoken politician declared that those who couldn’t appreciate the armed forces triumph over terrorism were traitors.

(To be continued on Feb. 28)

මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/කැෆේ සංවිධානය

නව මිශ්‍ර‍ මැතිවරණ ක්‍ර‍මයක් යටතේ පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණයට  පැවැත්වීම සදහා වන සීමා නිර්ණය කිරීමට පත් කරනු ලැබූ කමිටු වාර්තාව අවසන් කර ඇත.  වහා සීමා නිර්ණය පිළිබද සර්ව පාක්ෂික සමුළුවක් කැදවා රජය පොරොන්දු වූ පරිදි 2018 අප්‍රේල් මස සබරගමුව, උතුරු මැද හා නැගෙනහිර පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණය පැවැත්විය යුතු බව නිදහස් හා සාධාරණ මැතිවරණයක් සදහා වූ ජනතා ව්‍යාපාරය (කැෆේ සංවිධානය) අවධාරණය කරයි.

පළාත් සභා ඡන්දය කල් දමා ගැනීමට දරනු ලබන කුමන හෝ උත්සාහයක් පරාජය කිරීමට කැෆේ සංවිධානය පෙරමුණ ගන්නා බවත්, පොරොන්දු වූ පරිදි 2018 අප්‍රේල් මස උතුරුමැද, සබරගමු හා නැගෙනහිර පළාත් ඡන්දය පැවැත්වීමට කටයුතු කරන ලෙසත් කැෆේ සංවිධානය බලකර සිටී.

2017 අංක 17 දරණ සංශෝධිත පනත මගින් කොට්ඨාශ සහ සමානුපාතික ක්‍ර‍මය යටතේ 50% – 50% අනුපාතනය යටතේ සභිකයින් පත් කර ගැනිමට ඡන්ද ක්‍ර‍මයේ සංශෝධනයක් ඇති කරනු ලැබීය. ඒ සදහා පත් කළ පංච පුද්ගල සීමා නිර්ණය කමිටුව සිය වාර්තාව මාස 4 කින් අවසන් කර පළාත් පාලන හා පළාත් සභා අමාත්‍ය ෆයිසර් මුස්තාෆා මහතාට බාර දී ඇත.

කාන්තා නියෝජනය ඉදිරියට දමා පළාත් සභා ඡන්දය කල් දමා ගැනීමට හොර පාරේ, ව්‍යාවස්ථා විරෝධී සංශෝධනයක් ලෙස එය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ පස්සා දොරින් සම්මත කර ගනු ලැබීය.   20 වන ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධනය ලෙස ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ අභියෝගයට ලක් වු කරුණු, ජනමත විචාරණයකින් සම්මත විය යුතු වගන්ති ඒ අනුව පනතට ඇතුලත් විය.   ‘‘එජාප-ශ්‍රීලනිප රජයට එල්ල වූ දැඩි විවේචන හා ජනතා විරෝධය හමුවේ මැතිවරණ සිතියම අකුලා දැමීමට‘‘ රජය උත්සහ කරන බව කැෆේ සංවිධානය එදා චෝදනා කළේය.  පාර්ලිමේන්තු විවාදයේ දී රජය අවධාරණය කළේ 2018 අප්‍රේල් මස පළාත් සභා ඡන්දය පැවැත්වෙන බව යි.

පළාත් පාලන හා පළාත් සභා අමාත්‍යාංශය පළාත් පාලන ඡන්දය වසර 2කට වැඩි කලක් කල් දමා ගැනීම සදහා අපකීර්තිමත්, ලැජ්ජා සහගත උත්සාහයක නිරත වූ අතර එය සමස්ථ පළාත් පාලනය අකර්මන්‍ය කිරීමට හේතු විය.  ෆයිසර් මුස්තාෆා අමාත්‍යවරයා ජනතාවගේ විරෝධය නොතකා කටයුතු කළ අතර, එහි අනිසි ප්‍ර‍තිඑල රජය ද, ජනතාව ද, මේ වන විට විදිමින් සිටී.   

ඡන්ද විමසීම් කල් දමමින්, පළාත් පාලනය ආයතන අක්‍රීයවන අයුරින් කටයුතු කළ ලෙසම, පළාත් සභා අක්‍රීය කිරීමට රජය කටයුතු කරයි නම් එය වැලැක්වීමට කැෆේ සංවිධානය සිය උපරිම ශක්තිය යොදා කටයුතු  කරනු ඇත.

කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන්

විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/කැෆේ සංවිධානය

2018 පෙබරවාරි 20

අද උසාවි පැමිණි විමල් වීරවංශ මැතිවරණ ජයග්‍රහණය ගැන ද ප්‍රකාශ කරමින්, ඔවුන් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ අගමැති පුටුවේ නොව ජනපති පුටුවේ වාඩි කරවන බවට ප්‍රකාශ කළා.

https://youtu.be/lzF1GIaJBOE

Editorial Courtesy The Island

There are unmistakable signs of a perfect political storm brewing in the wide dark yonder. People, all at sea, are left with no alternative but to batten down the hatches and hope for the best. The prevailing political uncertainty has cast a pall on the country, and not many people, we believe, are in a mood for political jokes, which are likely to go down like lead balloons instead of lightening up the atmosphere, fraught with doom and gloom. It is, however, said that many a true word is spoken in jest.

Music is said to be the food of love. Or, at least that is what lovelorn Duke Orsino says, albeit dejectedly, in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. If that be so, what is the food of treachery? Mahinda Rajapaksa, still reeling from the loss of his crown, may say it is hoppers, of all comestibles. Ranil Wickremesinghe, troubled by the fear of losing premiership, may slightly differ in his opinion; he may say, in keeping with his taste, it is egg hoppers. Anyway, be it plebeian aappa in squalid wayside kiosks or expensive egg hoppers at the high-end Independence Square Arcade, where parvenus gather in their numbers to be seen, eating hoppers with politicians is now considered something to be avoided.

For the uninitiated, the aforesaid joke, which sheds light on the treacherous nature of Sri Lankan politics, more than any erudite political commentary, has its genesis in the last hopper supper, as it were, President Rajapaksa had with the then Minister Maithripala Sirisena in 2014 on the eve of the latter defecting to run for President. Beleaguered PM Wickremesinghe, too, seems to have made the mistake of partaking of hoppers with Sirisena if the SLFP’s all-out efforts to oust him are any indication.

President Sirisena declared in the run-up to the recently concluded local government polls that there were no permanent friends or no permanent enemies in politics. In the late 2014, he defected from the SLFP, joined forces with the UNP to secure the executive presidency and unflinching brought down the SLFP-led UPFA government with a two-thirds majority. He took over the SLFP leadership thereafter and, did everything in his power, to prevent the UPFA from winning the general election and, thereby, succeeded in putting paid to his bete noire, Rajapaksa’s effort to secure premiership. Extolling the virtues of conciliatory politics, he formed a national government with the UNP. That was the best arrangement for the country, we were told.

In a dramatic turn of events replete with irony, President Sirisena had to undertake the uphill task of campaigning to ensure the victory of the SLFP/UPFA, which he had previously eviscerated to achieve his political objectives. Having pathetically failed in his endeavour he is now offering to smoke the peace pipe with his former enemies, whom he kept on condemning, for over three long years, as a bunch of rogues; he is also ready to dislodge the national government which he once made out to be the panacea for all ills of the country. He is trying to form a government led by the SLFP, which went all out to foil his presidential bid in 2015. This, he is doing at the expense of the UNP, which threw its weight behind him, enabling him to secure the much-coveted presidency against tremendous odds.

Not to be outdone, the UNP is striving to form a government of its own; it is even ready to engineer defections from the SLFP to muster a majority in Parliament. The reason both the SLFP and the UNP gave for their political marriage of convenience in 2015 was that they had to sink their differences and work in tandem if national progress was to be achieved. Development and national unity had eluded us for decades since Independence because the two main parties had been at loggerheads, we were told. They appointed a mega Cabinet and their grandees lived in clover. But, today, following the first electoral debacle, they are desperate to break ranks. Is it that they have abandoned their much avowed goal of working together to usher in national progress and reconciliation?

Actions are said to speak louder than words. The yahapalana leaders have amply demonstrated that they have only permanent interests, and their friends and foes are both expendable; they won’t miss a trick or hesitate to treat anyone to hoppers, so to speak.

C.Wijeyawickrema, LL.B., Ph.D.

Talking once with a miner I asked him when the housing shortage first became acute in his district; he answered, when we were told about it,” meaning that till recently people’s standards were so low that they took almost any degree of overcrowding for granted.

George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), 64

Give us what Colombo gets [Col. Karuna paradigm]

Jaffna man asks for water, schools and hospitals, not an Eelam [Raajitha Senaratna]

Missed the first bus

In 1987, who supported the 13-A?  JVP sacrificed 60,000 heads fighting against it. Mrs. B and the SLFP did not think it was a solution to Tamil separatism. Apart from the Vartharaja fiasco, the other southern provincial councils proved that they were a sin and a crime perpetrated against people. Therefore, it was a reasonable expectation of people and the mother of the Hasalaka hero, that the end of Prabakaran’s war on May 19, 2009 would also be an end of 13-A death trap. You Tube video clips showed how rescued Tamils in refugee camps addressed MahindaR as Maharajano in desperation. A presidential proclamation should have declared a second Civil War against the 13-A. But the destiny of the island was not to be that; Ban Ki Moon landed with a Trojan Horse!

Give war a chance

It took decades of concerted effort to sanitize the Nazi minds in Germany after Hitler’s suicide. Instead of deploying a welfare program to heal the hearts and minds of the wounded Tamils with houses, schools, hospitals, water and jobs, and simultaneously engaging the army to rehabilitate irrigation tanks and canals in the Rajarata, MahindaR succumbed to the infamous Vessantara-Siri Sangabo syndrome of Rpremadas and Mrs. Chandrika. Thus, in 2013, the northern province was handed over to the moderate Colombo Tamil Wigneswaran (so certified by Vasudeva N and Dayan Jayatilaka) on a platter. The trojan horse became a proverbial tiger’s tail!  So, W, with an all-expense paid legal platform goes badmouthing that Tamils have faced genocide since 1948; teaching Sumanthiran and Sampanthan, what Ponnambalam Arunachalam did not know in 1921, that the king Devanampiya Tissa in the Mahavamsa was not a Sinhala king but a Tamil (Buddhist) king named Theesan.  Apparently, Sinhala migrants invaded Lanka and converted Hindu Tamils to Buddhism, temporarily, hence, the Theesan story.  He does not want Tamils to marry Sinhala men or women, but his two sons are married to Colombo’s Sinhala girls, perhaps to escape from the Colombo genocide. Between 10-15 percent of the sacred space in a typical Buddhist temple in the South is devoted to Hindu gods and goddesses. But Wigneswaran opposes Buddha statutes in the North, thus poisoning the innocent Tamil mind. This was what caste-based feudal lunatics in the past such as QCs GG Ponnambalam, SJV Chelvanayagam, and the math professor Sundaralingam did, the Orwellian trap of Sinhalization of the Jaffna Tamil.

The second chance

The life and death issue in Sri Lanka today is, how to kill, not stop, the dishonestly run secret scheme by the trio -Ranil-Chandrika-hardcore Marxist Jayampathi- to balkanize the island. Other talks and gossips such as Central Bank robbery, selling the country or the price of a coconut etc., hides the gravity of this issue. MahindaR avoids it, and the educated and professional supporters behind him, the Viyath Maga and Eliya, follow a policy of walking on eggshells on this 13-A dilemma. No wonder among the prospective 2020 presidential candidates, Nagananda Kodituwakku is the only person who openly declared that he will remove the 13-A, the other two, Maalinda Seneviratne and Rohan Pallewaththa are silent. A much-rehabilitated, yet still a big 13-A fan, Dayan Jayatilaka, writes strongly in support of SLPP.

It is in this uncertain climate, that the maroon color Sri Lanka map of SLPP’s election victory presents a second chance to save the island (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_local_elections,_2018). Who cares if Ranil is replaced by an old wine bottle of SLFP or Mrs. Chandrika sells her property to move to London. One may never know true intentions of the SLPP leadership, but the people’s train is on the track, down the hill, reminding 1956 or the spirit of the Great Panadura Waadaya in 1873. Justice to Tamils, if anything further is needed to be done administratively in this regard, cannot come from the accelerated 13-A path of Ranil-Jayampathy-Lal Wijenayaka or Viyangoda-Shiral Laktilaka-monk Dambara Amila NGO dollars. SLPP map is a people’s resurrection of ideas of the late Ven. Gangodawila Soma and the movement commenced recently by the Asgiriya Sanga Karaka Sabha. It was people’s acceptance of a militant (disciplined) Buddhist approach, the kind of the monk Ashin Wirathu’s in Myanmar, and our own Bodu Bala Sena. Gandhi and MLK in USA were militants who broke unjust laws by peaceful means. Sinhala Buddhists gave the benefit of the doubt to SLPP, without a clear course correction demonstrated by MR on 13-A, because of the anti-Buddhist and anti-army work led by Ranil and Mrs. Chandrika.

If properly understood, SLPP map throws light on many political hot potatoes. Bodu Bala Sena leader Ven. Galabodaatte Gnanasara’s crime was not his copying the Anagarika Dharmapala method of verbal assault, but his calling a spade a spade. His sin was that he opened the eyes and ears of the Sinhala Buddhist masses to the fact that they have no proper or even an improper Sinhala Buddhist leader, and that politicians treat them like the way how some men treat the proverbial kind-hearted women. In Ven. Elle Gunawansa’s words Buddhists who carried Buddhist flags for these politicians ended up owing the flag pole! Fake Buddhist politicians are scared even to listen to Buddhist grievances because they do not want to appear as pro-Buddhist in the eyes of marginal Muslim and Tamil votes.  SLPP maroon map demonstrates if people are given back the right to elect their representative under the pre-1978 method Sinhala votes can still, before Muslim population multiply as part of world-wide Islam strategy, nullify this vote edge. Despite serious defects in the new law, the ward-based local government elections freed people from the democracy prison built by JRJ and Rpremadas.

Make majority, minority

White man after capturing Sinhale in 1815, followed a policy of favoring Tamils. In 1832 he made Sinhalese and Tamils equal in the Legislative Council. By 1921, when increasing voting rights made it unnatural to follow this undemocratic policy, Governor Manning in 1924 introduced a plan to balance the Sinhala majority with a combined minority, stating that no one community should be allowed to impose its will on the other communities. More electorates, multi-member seats, the Senate, appointed members etc., were examples of abandoning the Manning concept in favor of a more reasonable approach to minority fear. However, Section 29 (2) of the 1947 constitution was an unreasonable attempt to bury the discrimination perpetrated on the Sinhala people of Sinhale.  Christian-related Sinhala Buddhist” politicians mishandled Sinhala-Tamil conflict justice going against principles of Buddhist politics. After 1978 with new election laws JRJ and Rpremadas, knowingly or unintentionally, reintroduced the Manning method of 1924. Sinhala politicians became prisoners to Muslim and Tamil vote blocks. Minority began to control majority. Sinhala politicians were not willing to talk on behalf of Sinhala Buddhists for fear of antagonizing minority votes.  Ven. Soma or Ven. Gnanasara had to step into play this role. Finally, in 1987, 13-A, made Sri Lanka a federal state. Because of this Sinhala Buddhist lost Sinhala masses wanted to this situation changed, and it appeared as a demand for having an electorate to elect a local representative. The ward election, no matter how sick the law effected it, gave Sinhala Buddhist people an opportunity to reject this politician games operating since 1978. Majority must be majority, and minority must be protected. Sinhala Buddhist professionals who oppose this game and politicians like Wimal W and UdayaG, can now openly demand the abrogation of 13-A. This is what Sinhala Buddhists expect of them, sharpen and clarify the mission.

Rwandan genocide-1994

The history of Hutu majority and Tutsi minority in Rwanda is comparable to the situation of Sinhalese and Tamils in the colonial Ceylon. Ponnambalam Arunachalam in 1921 was a symbol of how the colonial master nursed the minority against majority of Christian Sinhalese. Thus, two Christians, James Peiris and E. J. Samarawickrema, made a deal with Arunachalam offering him a Tamil communal seat in the western province, which had to be abandoned due to protest led by F. R. Senanayaka inside the Ceylon National Congress. Tamil separatism in Ceylon began with this incident because it shattered any hope Arunachalam & co had of becoming controllers of Ceylon politics. It was unrealistic, but that was how Tutsi minority ran Rwanda under the Belgian sponsorship. The difference, however was that Buddhist way of life prevented a Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka during a thirty-year war. That was until Wigneswarn uncovered it suddenly after 2013!

From 1923, when Arunachalam openly embraced Tamilakam political doctrine to JRJ helplessly accepting a federal setup in 1987 under 13-A through the Wigneswaran episode in 2013, black-white, Christian-influenced Sri Lankan politicians mismanaged and mishandled Tamil politicians and Tamil separatism, for their personal gain, violating Buddhist principles of governing. From 1935 Marxists added their Bangawewa fuel to this mess, and different versions of JVP behave like headless chickens sunk in the western myths of multi-cultural and interfaith voter-directed frauds. So many in the world say that solutions to world problems could be found from Buddhism, and president Sirisena, who began his public life as a Marxist at the age of 17, said this so many times from political platforms. He even sponsored a book on how to practice Buddhist politics in the world’s state craft. Rpremadas, who erected more stupas in the island than any other king in the history, was suspected of delusional in dealing with Prabakaran. Mrs. Chandrika and Ranil knew nothing about Buddhist precepts or politics. They are full-Christians ended up as half-Christian political Buddhists.

Buddhists have no DNA traits of discriminating other human beings or unnecessary harming animals or even a tree. But for over 500 years they were the victims of aggression and cruelty by non-Buddhist humans, which became a new reality during the yahapalana interlude. Greedy politicians with vote-catching formulas cannot fathom the Buddhist ethos of villagers. Homo sexuality or women drinking toddy are private matters in a Buddhist jurisprudence. Sinhala Buddhist masses gave the country a new map of Sri Lanka covered with SLPP’s maroon color, at the first opportunity they got after 1977, under a half-baked yet ward-based direct electoral method. The message is for all though, including the SLPP leadership. It is no surprise, that this message hidden in the voting pattern map is yet to receive the attention of both 13-A plus crowd as well as the anti-13-A professionals. The new map cries out with an answer to the internationally raised question of how to make meaningful devolution empowering Tamil people (not separatist politicians) with adequate space for promoting Tamil identity (aspirations).

Other domestic questions are, how to get rid of Tamil separatism, removal of the white elephant provincial councils, reduction of corruption and promoting sustainable development. Global Tamil Eelam project now operating with dollar dowry of Prabakaran will face a natural death with the demise of its key managers, as the second generation of these Eelam fathers, most of them married to white men and women, have other material attractions in the western world. For example, even domestically, I doubt Wigenswaran’s sons or grandchildren will talk about Tamil genocide after W’s death. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the real (true) Sinhala Buddhist politicians to do justice to other minority ethnic groups without harming the majority Sinhalese.

Analysis-Synthesis

• 13-A, an unwanted burden placed on people, is not a geographic solution fulfilling Tamil wants and needs. Sri Lanka’s ethnic distribution map is like a scrambled egg, not possible to unscramble as separate homelands. Ward-based map of local government units is a map of a mixture of Tamil, Muslim, Sinhala, Christian, Islam and Buddhist voters. Within a ward method each individual and each family has room for its wants and needs, and political space for achieving reasonable levels of public aspirations known as ethnic identity, via agglomeration of local government units in appropriate geographic locations in the island, north, east, west or central regions. At local government level a Wigneswaran or Gajakumar Ponnambalam becomes a mere paper tiger.
• Ward-based map of SLPP demonstrates that for Tamils, Muslims and Christians reasonable geographic space (i.e. lots of local government units) could be identified for aspirational purposes going beyond basic human wants and needs, desired by Arunachalam as far back as in 1923.
• Ward-based local government units could be empowered with more responsibilities mentioned in the three lists of the 13-A. For example, giving local police functions to a local government unit is not like giving police power to chief minister crooks or to Wigneswaran under the 13-A.
• The boundary of wards should not be an arbitrary combination of several GSN division, which in turn are demarcated arbitrarily in the first place. Wards must be identified with natural boundaries, i.e. small river basins. Wards should not base on language or religion. If in a local government area, a certain caste, religion or language is not represented adequately by wards, that should be remedied by appointments made administratively.
• The SLPP map shows that maroon color encompassed almost the entire country even under the current unscientific, party-manipulated ward demarcation method. Therefore, objection to a language-blind ward demarcation system has no validity.
• Like the county councils in England or USA, a local government unit in Sri Lanka must have an organic, ecologic unity. A ward is not created to build culverts. The size of a ward, its geographical area, in most cases, could be too small for viable development projects unless it is considered as functional unit of the larger local government area. When wards are demarcated as mini river basins a collection of them (local government unit) becomes a much larger river basin. In New Zealand, by its constitutional law, local government units must follow natural (river) boundaries.
• Thus, instead of Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim local government units, country will have a system of ecologically demarcated local government units, numbering more or less than 340. The two aspects of ethnic mixture and ethnic differentiation at ward level would interact within a local government jurisdiction until the minority-majority fear psychosis in the country meets a natural death, when politician mosquitos such as Wigneswaran, Samanthiran, Hakim and Rishad, find the ethnic pond is empty. Actually, this could happen in 15 years, time needed for a child in a school to be fluent in Tamil and Sinhala.
• A blessing in disguise of the defective law made to satisfy JVP and SLMC, Rishad Bathuiddeen’s party, Mano Gansehan’s party and upcountry Tamil parties, is the fact that in 160 of the 340 local government units no party has won over 50% of the wards. This makes local situations rather than the dictates of Colombo party office determining local management decisions. Person not the party could become important.
• SLPP Ward map help solve the upside-down problem of the minority-majority issue. Ven. Sumanarathana Thero of Managalaraamaya, Batticaloa brought to light how Sinhala residents in that area are suffering in the hands of Tamil and Muslim GSNs, police and government officers without even the basic facility of getting a birth registered. A Buddhist living in Bandirippuwa, Nattandiya area said recently that he is living like a minority person in a Christian world. Sinhalese in Muslim population pockets are minorities. Similarly, if Tamils living in a non-Tamil Ward have reasonable fears of discrimination, and that local government unit has no Tamil elected, then law must have a provision to appoint a Tamil representative by administrative fiat.

You cannot legislate against geography

The nine-province division of Sri Lanka was a decision taken against the geography of the island. For the colonial power the 1832 five-province decision was rational because the purpose was to minimize the power of the Kandyan feudal leaders. It was extended later to reduce distance barrier from the Kachcheri. This rule applied even recently when the Gampaha district was created. Despite suggestions from several Buddhist Commissions to move the capital city to Rajarata, the conflict between geography and administrative division did not receive any attention from black-white politicians. Instead, there was the monumental environmental blunder of moving the parliament away from Colombo to a marshy-wetland area near Kotte.

Ironically, JRJ who had to accept the arbitrarily demarcated eastern and northern provinces as the Tamil traditional homeland, appointed a Land Commission in 1987, which in its 1990 report (Sessional paper no. 3) recommended to demarcate provincial and administrative boundaries using river basins. Then, for the first time after 1948, president Sirisena said publicly that the provincial division was a white man’s decision, without doubt, not knowing the recommendation above. One can understand that in the 1960s there was no serious concern on environmental protection but how could politicians and professionals ignore it in the 1990s and now in 2018?  With climate change, environmental degradation, floods, landslides and droughts, a sustainable development is not possible unless administration units are based on ecological boundaries.

The basic civil administrative unit is the GSN at the village level. There were 4,000 of them before Rpremadas increased them to a mindboggling 14,000. The nearly 8,000 wards for the 2018 elections came out of that number. The country needs to be re-demarcated using natural criteria, i.e. river basins so that a GSN division is also a ward. This means that the country has as its GSN and wards its mini-river basins (or a tank or a groundwater basin).

Our heritage

Sinhala Buddhist civilization survived in this island for over 2,500 years with an ecological model, a Trinity of village-tank-temple. Over 40,000 village names we find today is evidence of this Trinity with collections of such villages/hamlets. Gamsabhava from the times of king Pandukabhaya was this political unit. Unfortunately, American professors like Donald Horowitz, who write about nonmajoritarian solutions to minority human rights, never mention about the Gamsabha institution in Sri Lanka or the Panchyathi Raj in India. Instead, those who implement western proposals soon end up splitting into separate countries at war. Best example is Sudan from which a South Sudan sprang up, now in total ruin and starving with no white expert to help. 13-A path will take Sri Lanka on this Sudan trap.

Anagarika Dharmapala did not write specifically about the Trinity Model, but Ven. Kalukondayave Pragnashekara following his speeches on the need to serve people, resurrected the Gamsabha spirit successfully in the 1940s. It was known as an island-wide Village Reconstruction and Crime Control Program.  How many living in Sri Lanka today aware that this program rapidly spread into so many districts in Ceylon was sabotaged midway by the white and black-white politicians and officers?  D. B. Jayatilaka who also opposed Anagarika Dharmapala in the 1930s, either did not want to help or could not help the monk Ven. Kalukondayave, a fact that the monk had painfully recorded in his autobiography written in 1970 (pages 245,372).

All what the monk asked, and DBJ promised as possible, was to allow Osmond de Silva, the young ASP working with him to stay in the Kegalle police district for two more years. But DBJ who was going to be the PM of Ceylon could not overrule the white IGP who said that no exemption was possible to the transfer rule aimed at preventing police officers developing undue contacts in the locality they work.  In order to prevent Osmond having contacts with villagers he was transferred to the police training station at Bambalapitiya!  But, the concept of the monk was so significant, and same black-white civil servants who sabotaged when the monk was doing it, printed as a sessional paper a similar project started by Wilmot Perera in the Horana area, which faced a natural death. This incident with DBJ is comparable with what D S Senanayaka did to Ven. Henapitagedara Gnanaseeha. DSS asked the monk to help in the election, promising funds to establish a monk-training center. But after he won DSS said, that under the Section 29(2) of the constitution government funds cannot be allocated to a religious project. Ven. G left the Temple Trees vowing never to come back. SLPP as the train selected by people for the new journey, could benefit from the 99-point program of Ven. Kalukondayave, in preparing work plans at the ward level (p. 245).

Expert reports dusting under tables

The Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Local Government Reforms (Sessional Paper 1-1999) also known as the Abeyawardana Report, strongly recommended going back to the ward system. May be Dinesh Gunawardena knew about this report. The concept of ward demarcated as an ecological unit could be used as a foundation brick for all kinds of other administrative and functional divisions in the island. It can be the basic GSN units. Aggregation of wards at different geographical levels such as parliamentary electorates, districts or regions will be a blessing for all. For example, using it the island could be divided into seven river basins, each region having a sea face, unlike the NCP, Central, Uva and Sabaragamuwa provinces today. It allows a river basin region for the north. In future allocation of water to north from the south could become a geopolitical issue if the entire country is not managed as components of one hydrologic unit. Moragahakanda project and the demand Wigneswaran made for its water is a warning sign in this regard. From the days of the money order economy Jaffna had to depend on the south because gods did not endow it with sufficient land and water resources.

SLPP has a large number of experts and professionals behind it, a younger generation, if they are allowed to serve the country without politicians’ interference. For example, the speech given by ENT surgeon, Seetha Arambepola at the Viyath Maga 2017 annual conference was marvelous. Dedication of Anuradha Yahampath who confronted Vaiko at the UN Geneva meeting in 2017, Gevindu Kumaratunga’s handing of NGO dollar agents at TV debates makes those of us old and away from Sri Lanka proud.  Anuruddha Padeniya is another name. There must be hundreds of them ready to serve if allowed. Retired talent of government officers and others should not be allowed to go waste. There are two retired geography professors that SLPP could benefit from if so desire, Drs. G H Peiris and C M Maddumabandara. The geography departments have dozens of teachers who could be utilized for land use planning. When Ranjan Wijeratna was in charge of the then Agricultural Development Board, he implemented a project to collect land use planning data. Prabakaran did this at GSN level after 2002 CFA and generated maps! Hema Basnayaka, C.J., had collected data on tanks in Sri Lanka who became the chairman of the then Water Resources Board. Who has this database now? When I tried to get a copy of my birth certificate the Panadura AGA office replied with the word dirapath.” When England has records 700 years old, my 70-year old record got itself decayed,” the meaning of the word dirapath. It means the blame goes to the document registry for getting itself ruined and no officer is responsible for the loss! Sri Lanka must come out of the evil triangle of politician-officer-NGO.

Conclusion

A similar proposal was presented as evidence before the LLRC, and later president MahindaR indicated a willingness to study it. On one occasion he summoned Lalith Weeratunga and asked him to work on it, but that was the end of it. Then the Divi Naguma came and killed the Jana Sabha concept. Not only that, Gamin Diriya, a successfully run village development program, without politicians meddling with it, was abandoned, reminiscent of what had happened to Ven. Kalukondayave P’s successful program in the 1940s. Amidst all kinds of hairsplitting arguments and selfish interpretations, and the fear of loss of MP privileges, the message from the SLPP election map is very clear: remove JRJ-Rpremadas election laws, remove 13-A and attend to Sinhala Buddhist grievances and devolve maximum possible political power to people at village level. Small political parties and ethnic parties should not be allowed to take as hostages the country and its Sinhala Buddhists.

Next essay: Rwanda genocide 1994 and the ward-based election results

By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

It seems that Chandrka and Rajitha are two politicians extremely hated and despised by the Sri Lankans. Whenever a news item relating to them gets published, people hurry to use the most impolite language to flay them.   The following is a news item published recently with comments made by the readers on this news item.

When I lose those who were near me too flee away.  When Mahinda loses crowds surround him wherever he goes. Chandrika flayed his supporters thumping her feet on the ground and made them also to flee away.

It was reported that Mrs. Chndrika became very angry and furious about the colossal defeat suffered by her in the Attanagalle electorate for which she is the electoral organiser and in the Gampahaa district in the recently concluded local government elections.

Even before the announcement of the results many of her supporters had left the Horogolla premises and due to her flaying after the announcement of the results those who remained also left the area.

She has flayed the people saying that despite she was a former President those who were near her fled away when she lost but when Mahinda lost crowds surround him wherever he went.

It was also reported that she has told those close to her that she has decided to sell all her properties here and go abroad and settle down there.

Within a few hours after this item was published in the LakaCNews.lk website it received a flurry of comments from the readers which are as follows:

Podi Eka says:

Madam, when some is started with giving prominence to hate and anger such will be the result.  There is no use of going to temples carrying flower trays.  If at least some of the admonitions that has been preached by Lord Buddha were taken into the head it will become possible to correct the remaining short period of the life.

Booruva says:

Madam Any amount of people will come to you if Whisky was offered free

Samuel says:

No Madam nothing should be given. Chase out the ungrateful ones.  If you do not know Madam ask from a villager the pure Sinhala word that should be used to chase out them, the words beginning with Hu-pu,Aa and pa.

Ane mage kata says

She has the palace of Prince Andrew which as per British newspapers had been bought for 100 Million Sterling Pounds!

Sirima says

Here is the main reason:

This is the result of the secret talks you had to chase out Mr. Mahinda.  You are a former President. When you hit another former President you will get these kinds of results.  People’s love for them will get increased.  What about that for you? What you had been doing since January 8^th was working against the Sinhalese taking the form of a chameleon.  Intelligent people came to know who you actually are.  You are the sister who even hated your own brother.  Otherwise will your own son say that it is shameful to be a Sinhalese. At least now learn to have a simple life wherever and in which country you will be.  Criticize but do not hate.  It would definitely come after you as your own shadow.

Amda says:

Understand that the feudal times in which people slaved in the Walawwas by getting scolded at every turn is over.  Now the people respect only for the work done by the leaders, for strength and for the humanity.  If you and the Vaireepala cannot understand that nothing done with hate, anger and jealousy will not succeed then the thing that is inside the skull of both of you could be as small as a berry.  Go abroad and hatch another conspiracy against Sri Lanka.  No harm.  The so-called yahapalana that emerged because of your conspiracy taught a very good lesson for the people of this country that would be remembered for ever. But this country lost several billions because of that.  The amount of state properties already sold would even amount to trillions. No harm, if people like you, who are no use for this world and next do not come back.

Chandrikage mother says:

Just understand that you are not popular. Just understand that you haven’t done anything to become popular when you were the President. People who travel overseas know that they had to wait for hours till you came in Sri Lankan air lines.

Don Katugampola says:

pissu honama ekenma”

Jude says:

The whisky poison is still there like a wasp.  I have money and I have whisky.  Have no power when defeated. Now it is elder’s arrogance.  Sin no! this one is!.  Hik,Hik. .

Kolitha says:

This would not have happened if it was asked from the son before coming to beg for Sinhala votes. It is utter shame no!

The patriot says:

It is there no that you get those things cheaper! In Scotland? If you settled down there, how is that?

Pinguttara says:

Great thing as you were a great burden to the country! Bugger off to any country without getting further hateful.

Padmini says:

See there the princess has got isolated.  Maname has got isolated in the world.

By Dr. DAYAN JAYATILLEKA Courtesy The Island

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe scored a tactical victory in the power struggle with President Sirisena. He won it on terrain that was favorable to President Sirisena. This means that in the art of infighting and manipulation, Ranil Wickremesinghe has no peer in Lankan politics. What of Mahinda Rajapaksa who won the battle for the SLFP vote base, one may well ask. Mahinda did not win that battle by the art of infighting. He won it by taking the battle outside, to the people, and by reposing his trust in the people. Ranil has won the battle in the corridors and the backrooms. Mahinda won the ground game.

What makes it tactical is that it comes on top of an unprecedented defeat in the local government elections at the hands of a political party which is only a few months old, and a political phenomenon—the MR comeback—which is only three years old, if you date it back to the Nugegoda February 2015 mass mobilization.

What makes it tactical rather than strategic is also the fact that the only change that has happened at the level of mass popularity is the UNP’s drop by 13% and 1.3 million votes. At least the official SLFP has the factor of a split to blame. The UNP remains intact and the loss was therefore not the result of a split but rather of a drastic reduction of support at the ground level.

Why then do I say that Mahinda Rajapaksa won a strategic victory? Firstly he and his brother Basil have repeated SWRD Bandaranaike and DA Rajapaksa’s achievement but in a compressed time frame. The founders of the SLFP built a third force that swept to the top, but it did not do so on its first electoral outing. The SLFP was formed in 1951, contested the election of 1952 but could not displace either the UNP or the Left, which remained the main Opposition. The SLFP broke through at the next general election in 1956. By contrast, the Pohottuwa beat the UNP, the official SLFP and of course the JVP, at its very first electoral outing, mere months after formation.

Mahinda Rajapaksa not only holds the largest chunk of votes in the country– 45%– but he has also probably jumped the 50% mark by now, thanks to the way in which the UNP won the recent power struggle. That struggle has been won by the UNP at the expense of President Sirisena.

The President’s power base is the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He has no other political power base, only an institutional one. That power base is being drastically undermined.

That undermining was because its votes were hemorrhaging to the breakaway Pohottuwa. That hemorrhage was because the Sri Lanka Freedom Party was in alliance as a subordinate partner with the UNP.

The breakaway organization was the natural result and reaction of the SLFP shifting drastically from its traditional role as moderate nationalist opposition to the UNP.

It was a subordinate partner of the UNP in government because the SLFPers who crossed over to the project of a unity government with the UNP could not carry their party with them. They could neither convince the majority of their fellow MPs nor their vote base.

The SLFP’s vote base was repelled by the policies and profile of the UNP as it was led by Ranil Wickremesinghe. The UNP under Ranil Wickremesinghe was taking the government in a direction that was anathema to SLFP voters.

Therefore the official SLFP failed to retain the bulk of their base. Thus it is was weakened at this last election and by direct extension the President’s power base was weakened. Therefore the President had to act.

That action initially took the form of seeking to persuade the UNP to drop Mr. Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister because he was toxic to the SLFP base. The President was willing to stay with the alliance with the UNP and the SLFP was willing to remain within it provided the main center of neoliberalism and anti-nationalism, the leadership of Ranil Wickremesinghe, was surgically removed.

When the UNP stayed with Ranil and he eyeballed it with the President, the latter finally blinked. What happens next—or rather, now—is predictable, almost inevitable.

Though the Chandrika faction of the SLFP, supported by some who came from the UNP and were always UNP at heart, will remain within the government, many SLFP MPs will not. They will constitute the second wave of resistors, after the first wave that stayed with the August 2015 mandate against a coalition with Ranil’s UNP. The official SLFP will suffer its second split, this time a smaller one, but one which will leave Mahinda Rajapaksa with a larger number of SLFP MPs than before Feb. 10th.

In terms of MPs, Mahinda is not back to the day of the August 2015 election, at which he won 96, but he certainly will have more than the 50 plus he had after 44 SLFPers defected to the unity coalition with the UNP and the 56 he has now.

More important in the strategic character of Mahinda’s success, is the shift in the vote base. Though the number of SLFPers who cross over may or may not be larger than those who remain in government, what will almost certainly happened is that the 13% of the SLFP vote which stayed away from Mahinda’s camp will almost certainly switch to it.

That switch will come either with the move of the SLFP MPs from Government to Opposition, or simply by a shift of allegiance, as the official SLFP leadership has shown itself unwilling or unable to make good on its signals of dumping the UNP and forming an SLFP government or at the very least of retrenching Prime Minister Wickremesinghe.

The ensuing disappointment will shift a significant part of the official SLFP’s 13% vote to the Opposition. This 13% was basically an anti-UNP vote which stayed with the SLFP leadership because those voters gave him the benefit of the doubt especially after his critique of the UNP over the bond scam. All that is over now with the imminent formation of a government in which President Sirisena is weaker, his SLFP participation is smaller and the UNP’s grip is greater.

The shift of much of the residual SLFP vote to the Opposition, accompanied by or accompanying several SLFP MPs, will mean that three years after Nugegoda, Mahinda now has vaulted the magic 50% mark of popular support. This puts him in a situation better than he was when he lost in January 2015. Thus Prime Minister Wickremesinghe’s tactical victory in the eyeballing or hand wrestling with President Sirisena would have meant a strategic enhancement for Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The factor of the discrediting and thereby weakening of the Sirisena-ist SLFP at the expense of the rightist UNP can only help the populist Opposition which had already won the Feb. 10th election. Either the moderate center shifts to or slipstreams behind the populist Pohottuwa/JO, or the Pohottuwa/JO absorbs and becomes the moderate center.

The final factor that helps Mahinda and enhances his strategic gains are the policies that a predominantly UNP government is almost certain to impose or rather, continue to impose on the people. The result will be observable when the Provincial Council elections are held—and the later that is, the more pronounced Mahinda’s victory will be, as we saw with the delayed Local government elections. And then comes the Presidential election next year, followed by the parliamentary one. It is all visible on the horizon, and the trend—the “real dynamic” as Trotsky termed it—is clear.

By Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island

Ongoing political impasse was going to continue further as the SLFP’s Maithri faction had been instructed by President Maithripala Sirisena to wait till the Supreme Court interpreted the provisions of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution giving power to him to sack the Prime Minister, Parliament was told yesterday.

Deputy Speaker Thilanga Sumathipala, making a special statement, said the UPFA and its SLFP members had met President Maithripala Sirisena and demanded a review of the unity government formed on Sept 3, 2015 with the UNP.

The President was of the view that a sudden change of the unity government could lead to certain instability in the country; he had, therefore, decided to consult the Attorney General, Sumathipala said.

He said the Attorney General had informed the President that he alone could not give consultation on the matter and the Supreme Court should be consulted for an interpretation of the provisions of the 19th amendment. The President alone had the power to seek the consultation of the Supreme Court on the matters pertaining to the constitutional provisions and he would do so. Till the Supreme Court decision was conveyed to the President, the unity government would continue. The President informed the UPFA government members that the unity government would go ahead till the Supreme Court gave its opinion. The President also instructed them to act as a single group so none of the UPFA MPs would speak during the debate.

Deputy Speaker Sumathipala made the special statement following various remarks made by the Opposition and government during the course of the day. The Opposition said that both the General Secretary of the UPFA Minister Mahinda Amaraweera and Deputy Speaker Thilanga Sumathipala had told media on Sunday evening that the UPFA would withdraw from the unity government. Sumathipala admitted that he made a statement to that effect on Sunday evening. “I made that comment on Sunday evening. There were some developments thereafter. The latest situation is that the President is seeking the opinion of the Supreme Court on the matter and has instructed us to wait till it comes. The unity government will continue till …,” he said.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Former President and MP Mahinda Rajapaksa today said it was none other than President Maithripala Sirisena who keeps Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in his post without ousting him.

The former president said this in response to a question asked by a journalist when he was leaving Parliament.

When asked his opinion about President Sirisena seeking Attorney General’s opinion on the legality of removing the Premier, Mr. Rajapaksa said Why seek AG’s consultations? Shouldn’t forget that the President is the Executive,”

When asked whether it was President Sirisena who continues to protect the Premier, he said Definitely, who else?”

We said we will back the SLFP, if it appoints a Prime Minister among them. We won’t back a PM who is a UNPer. It seems the current Prime Minister will continues to function based on the agreement between the UNP and the President,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said the Joint Opposition has asked for the post of the Opposition Leader in Parliament.

We hope we will be given the place we deserve, the Opposition in Parliament,” he said.

By Yusuf Ariff Courtesy Adaderana

President Maithripala Sirisena has requested the UPFA members in the government not to quit the National Government, until the Supreme Court conveys its opinion, as it could destabilize the country, MP Thilanga Sumathipala said.

The SLFP Spokesman was delivering a statement during the Parliament debate today (19), in reference to a statement he made to the media last night after talks held with the President.

Sumathipala told media last night that the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) has decided to leave the National Government and that accordingly the President will seek the opinion of the Supreme Court on appointing a new Prime Minister.

That statement is true,” the MP told Parliament today.

He clarified that the UPFA, which is a partner of the national government, requested the President as the chairman of the party, whether they can leave the national government.

The request was based on the political opinion of the SLFP and UPFA, he said.

Sumathipala said that in response to the plea, the President stated that if the UPFA leaves the national government, it could affect the stability of the government and the country.

Therefore he stated that legal advice needs to be sought on the matter and he discussed it with the Attorney General, he said.

The advice of the AG was that, based on the provisions of the Constitution he cannot provide advice on the national government and that the President should seek the Supreme Court’s opinion on the matter.

Sumathipala said that today the UPFA parliamentary group which is with the government met with the President today for a discussion.

During the meeting, the request of the president was to maintain the stability of the government until the Supreme Court’s opinion is conveyed and to continue with the government for the next couple of days.

By Leon Berenger Courtesy Ceylon Today

By Arjuna Ranawana Courtesy Ceylon Today

One of the strongest pillars of mature, stable democracies is the presence of two established political parties.

In the West, countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and others see that power has changed hands over the years between two parties.

In Canada and the UK there are similar Centrist Parties, like Labour and the Conservatives in Britain and the Conservatives and Liberals in Canada.

There is also the existence of smaller parties, usually on the Left that add balance such as the New Democrats in Canada and the Social Democrats in the UK.

After many changes the situation in India has settled down with the Bharathiya Janata Party and the Congress taking turns to
govern.

In Sri Lanka too, we have more-or-less, had a two-party system ever since S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike broke off from the United National Party and formed the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in the mid-1950s.

Also, over the years, these main parties have split because of personality clashes or ideological rifts, but in all cases breakaway factions have never been able to defeat the main parties in elections.

Even when the powerful duo of Lalith Athulathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake left the UNP and formed the Democratic United National Front they could not make a dent in the UNP. Similarly the popular and charismatic duo of Vijaya Kumaranatunga and wife Chandrika could not defeat the SLFP at the polls.

So, it is truly remarkable that the newly-formed Mahinda Rajapaksa-led Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna was able to sweep the recently concluded Local Government elections in the manner it has. Its “parent” party, the SLFP/UPFA combine has been reduced at the poll to fourth place in many wards even beneath the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna.

It has proved that the Mahinda Rajapaksa brand is the most powerful in the country.

It has also caused a political crisis in the country that has now dragged on for days without a resolution in sight.

Fragile coalition

The fragile and somewhat incongruous coalition that has been ruling the country with a limited reform agenda, the first time the SLFP and the UNP have tried to rule together, has been seeing serious cracks appear in recent months. The Pohottuwa sweep of the poll has caused these cracks to widen to the point that the two parties may never come together again.

The SLFP seems doomed and replaced at the electorate by the SLPP.

But the surprising development is that it has caused a major crisis in the UNP.

The Grand Old Party was formed a year before Sri Lanka gained independence from the British colonialists in 1947. Its founders were the founding fathers of Independent Ceylon.

The UNP has been the governing party or in the governing coalition from 1947 to 1956, from 1965 to 1970, from 1977 to 1994 and 2001 to 2004.

Since 1994, Ranil Wickremesinghe has been the party leader and has suffered more defeats than victories. He is the current Prime Minister, the second time he has had a chance to lead the Government, and both times with an SLFP President at the top of the power structure.

While Rajapaksa swept the poll, decimating President Maithripala Sirisena’s SLFP/UPFA alliance, it has been Wickremesinghe who has had to face calls for him to step down from within his party as well as the supporters outside.

This is a rare and remarkable situation. The election was not a referendum on his performance, nor did it actually impact on governance per se. But after 24 years of his leadership it appears the UNP lower ranks have had enough, and cannot stomach another defeat.

It brought to the surface the frustrations with the UNP leadership that has been simmering beneath the surface.

Calls for reform

The loudest protests came from the UNP Parliamentary Back-benchers who had been calling for reform of the party for many years.

Several revolts against Wickremesinghe in the past seven or eight years had been successfully put down, and he remained at the top.

While Wickremesinghe is easily one of the most experienced and perhaps most able politicians in the country, the party itself has not moved on to harness the dynamic talents available to it because the Party Constitution has prevented the upward mobility of new leaders.

There appears that there is a realization of the seriousness of the problem after the latest defeat. At his first press conference after the LG Polls, Wickremesinghe talked at length about reform in the party. He said there would be a massive overhaul of the party to “build a new generation of leaders who will carry the party forward for the next twenty years.”

In Sri Lanka, political leaders tend to promote their friends and more than that their kith and kin as future leaders, as politics is often a family business.

In more developed countries, the parties tend to identify talent and promote individuals gradually into leadership positions.

For instance, in the UK and Canada every MP will have Parliamentary Secretaries who are often from the electorates selected by the party as a future candidate. They are usually given the opportunity to work as the liaison between the MP and the party organization in the electorate. While these or similar positions are available in our structure they are usually filled by the MP’s wife or children.

It is very important for our country to keep our main parties stable and strong for the future of the nation. Reforming the UNP and making the path clear for future leaders to emerge is an essential step towards that.

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

Sri Lanka’s newest and modern political machine is at work.   It has reached the hearts and minds of average Sri Lankan.  There is no need to soft peddle.

SLPP  is  not to be associated with corrupt UNP and SLFPers.  We need not talk about it any more.

The SLPP is the power house.  Do not enter into negotiations for political bargaining, something average Sri Lankan disapprove.

Ranil is UNP. Maithree is UNP. (MS has some unpaid bills in his Accounts Receivable Account to be collected ), Ranil is a Great Debt Collector from  LTTE Diaspora  to make a request for  an part payment as           agreed before January 2015 WOW!).   Ranil is buying time. MS is checking his international  inward transfers.  How many times to tell this  to Mr Mahinda Rajapakse?

SLPP’s  support to  a SLEEPING BEAUTY OF SLFP to become the Prime Minister is a Joke.

For the sake of country, SLPP must take to streets to keep the momentum, DEMAND THE GOVERNMENT TO SURRENDER. 

Wimal Weerawansa, Udaya Gammanpila and illustrious Basil Rajapakse  are all at cross roads at the moment, if they leave JO and join with Mr Gotabaya Rajapakse, unfortunately we will have to say GOOD NIGHT SEARJENT MAJOR to MR. What a missed opportunity!

I am sorry Mr President Mahinda Rajapakse if I hurt you.