CPEC- A NEW ERA OF AFFLUENCE AND PROSPERITY

February 12th, 2018

ALI SUKHANVER

The war being fought in the name of the Liberation of Balochistan is a war in which the commanding warriors are simply sitting in luxurious rooms, smoking precious cigars, riding the most comfortable limousines and enjoying a lot of VIP protocol in European countries. Seems their masters are taking a good care of them for their services in the so-called war of ‘Liberation of Balochistan’ from the ‘cruel clutches of Pakistan.’ It is also noteworthy they have been doing this difficult ‘assignment’ without any moral or political support of the local people of Balochistan.

The Baloch are a very brave and honest people and the most sacred thing to them is their motherland. Furthermore God has blessed them with a precious ability of differentiating between their friends and foes. They are the real owners of Pakistan as their forefathers had played a very active role in creation of Pakistan. It seems that the so-called and self-claimed ‘freedom-fighters’ are trying to liberate Balochistan from these real owners of the land.

It is also noteworthy that with the proceeding development work on CPEC project, these ‘freedom-fighters’ are becoming more eager and more fervent in depriving the ‘owners of Balochistan’ of the benefits they would be gaining out of this project. Another important point to be noted is that they are trying to liberate a province which has a sovereign political and democratic system, where there is a sovereign Provincial Assembly and the politicians belonging to that ‘captured-territory’ have a very strong representation and say in the National Assembly and the Senate.

As far as the CPEC is concerned, the whole of the country is going to get a huge benefit through this project but the second biggest share would certainly go to the people of Balochistan. The Institute of Strategic Studies Pakistan published a research paper in 2016 with the title ‘CPEC: Benefits for Balochistan.’ The paper said, Pangjur, a district in the west of Balochistan, comprises of three tehsils with a population of around 350,000.

Now, with the construction of the western route of CPEC, property value has skyrocketed in these areas where roads have been built. Other cities like Qalat, Quetta and Zhob will also become more vibrant with the completion of planned road network which will give a boost to economic activities and other development projects under CPEC.” The research report by Mir Sharbaz Khetran further said, Social and economic activities have picked up in Balochistan following the construction of road networks as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Local people have started setting up hotels, shops and houses along the completed portions of the CPEC’s western route linking Gwadar with China. Boom in construction industry and mining of marble and granite industry is expected. New oil storage facilities will also come up. Already social and economic change in Balochistan is becoming visible and this will be further strengthened as more jobs and business opportunities for youth of Balochistan are created.

Along with the CPEC projects, completion of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline and its linkage with CPEC would bring new economic dividends for Balochistan.” It is difficult to understand the aims and objectives of those who are doing so-called struggle for the independence of Balochistan. It has ever been a hard-luck of the people of Balochistan that a handful of miscreants start creating hurdles and hindrances whenever a project leading to their progress and prosperity is in the process. Opposition of the CPEC by the so-called ‘Freedom-Fighters’ of Balochistan is also a matter of the same nature. The value and importance of the CPEC could be well estimated by a recent statement of the Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

A few weeks back, addressing a news conference at World Economic Forum in Davos he said, Through China Pakistan Economic Corridor, Pakistan is working to promote connectivity among the countries of the region and across the world as well.”   The people of Balochistan are also well aware of the fact that they are going to play the central role in the difficult task of bringing the nations close to one another; certainly this all is an honour too for the people of Balochistan because they are accomplishing a task which always remained an unfulfilled dream even for the super powers like US. How brutal is the approach of the so-called ‘Freedom-Fighters’ of Balochistan that they are trying their people deprive of this honour in the name of a war which never belonged to the real owners of Balochistan. The CPEC would bring a new era of affluence and prosperity to the people of Balochistan.

New opportunities of jobs, trade and business activities would be available to the local people; their living standards would be uplifted and the comfort level of their life would reach new heights. In short CPEC is going to bring a social and economic revolution in the region. The people of Balochistan would get the lion’s share out of the benefits of the CPEC

A painful divorce?

February 12th, 2018

Editorial Island 

The outcome of the just concluded local government (LG) polls is bound to have a domino effect on the political front. It has already taken its toll on the unity of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government, which is showing early signs of disintegration. The constitution-making process is also in jeopardy. Now, it is reported that the UNP is going to jettison the SLFP, which has become a liability and form a government of its own.

Their political marriage of convenience has cost both the UNP and the SLFP dear in terms of votes as evident from the LG polls results. That unprecedented power-sharing arrangement may have helped President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe tackle some issues such as the former ruling family’s determined efforts to make a comeback, but their gains haven’t outweighed their losses. Their party members at the grassroots level were never united. The yahapalana government was split down the middle and its leaders were papering over the cracks at the top. In the aftermath of the LG polls disaster, the UNP seems to have told the SLFP, “United we fall, divided we stand.”

It is the SLFP Central Committee (CC) which can decide whether or not the SLFP MPs remain in the UNP-led government. That decision-making body is currently packed with Sirisena loyalists. The Joint Opposition (JO), which is opposed to the SLFP-UNP alliance, is all out to wrest control of the SLFP CC. The UNP apparently doesn’t want to wait till the SLFP, under pressure from the JO, opts for triple talaq, as it were, and pulls out of the unity government.

The Executive President becomes a figurehead to all intents and purposes if he loses control over Parliament. President Chandrika Kumaratunga had to put up with a hostile UNP government from 2001 to 2004. She suffered many indignities at the hands of some UNP ministers at Cabinet meetings even though she could dissolve Parliament. The 19th Amendment has taken away that power and the President now has to grin and bear it even if the party which controls Parliament turns hostile towards him. This must be a worrisome proposition for beleaguered President Sirisena.

In the run-up to Saturday’s polls, President Sirisena called upon the SLFP dissidents to join him so that he could form an SLFP government. Subsequently, he backpedalled obviously under pressure from his yahapalana allies. Ironically, the UNP is now said to be doing what he intended to do—bringing the joint administration to an end.

What will be President Sirisena’s position in the event of the UNP forming its own government? It has 107 seats in Parliament and needs only six more to muster a working majority. Many are the politicians who are ready to sell their souls and the UNP’s goal, therefore, is not unattainable. There are two precedents which President Sirisena can consider following in such an eventuality. He can do as the late President D. B. Wijetunga did under the SLFP-led People’s Alliance government with Chandrika Kumaratunga as the Prime Minister, in 1994. Wijetunga maintained a very low profile without obstructing the PA administration and retired gracefully. Or, President Sirisena can do a Chandrika; he can assert himself and continue to exercise his powers at the risk of antagonising the UNP government. Chandrika sacked the UNP-led UNF government in 2004, regained power in Parliament and then retired after completing her second term. But, the 19th Amendment has clipped President Sirisena’s wings drastically.

President Sirisena is in a dilemma. Many SLFPers who threw in their lot with him are dependent on him for their political survival. It was no secret that they expected him to seek a second term, but their plans have gone awry owing to the shocking LG polls results. Their strength or lack of it has now been exposed. They know the instauration of their political project is well-nigh impossible under the present circumstances. They will have a choice between defecting and retiring.

Immediately after forming the yahapalana government in 2015, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe likened the political journey he and President Sirisena had set out on to a smooth drive along the Southern Expressway. We argued in this space that the pleasure of their journey would be over when they reached the end of the expressway. Now, they have ahead of them an ordinary highway which may be called ‘hemingway’.

UNP decides to form UNF govt.

February 12th, 2018

The UNP has decided to form a United National Front (UNF) government ending the coalition with the SLFP Maithri faction, party sources say.

The decision to form a UNF government was taken following discussions between President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at the President’s official residence at Pajet Road in Colombo 07 on Sunday night, according to sources.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya was also present at the talks between the President and the Prime Minister.

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Prime Minister Wickremesinghe informed the President that he had been asked by UNP and its allies to form its own government if there was no practical means to continue with the national unity government with the SLFP (Maithri faction).

In response to the Prime Minister’s statement, the President told him to prove that the UNF could muster a majority in Parliament and if so it could form a government of its own.

Following the meeting with the President, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe met UNF’s coalition members and representatives of other parties represented in Parliament on the same evening and decided to form a UNF government without the SLFP.

Sources said as per the provisions of the Section 43 (3) of the Constitution an MP who commands the trust of majority of MPs in Parliament should be appointed Prime Minister by the President.

“Even if we leave out MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, we have 107 seats in Parliament including those of the SLMC. We need only six more to prove Parliament majority,” a senior UNP MP said.

He said that during the Sunday meeting, the President had told the Prime Minister the SLFP MPs who were not willing to join the SLPP would join the UNF government within the next two days.

UNP MP Nalin Bandara said their party would submit a list of names of MPs who were willing to form the UNF government to the President on Thursday evening and the list would prove the UNF’s majority in the House.

The portfolios of the SLFP ministers joining the UNF government would not change as per an agreement between the President and the Prime Minister. However, the two leaders have agreed to effect a change with regard to the Foreign Minister post which was now under the UNP, sources said.

The TNA had expressed its willingness to support the UNF government but would not accept any ministerial portfolios, its parliament group leader R Sampanthan said.

Excavator stuck? Call for tenders Business times …….

February 12th, 2018

 

Dr. Sarath Obeysekera

Government advertisements in newspapers are usually boring but not this one. An advertisement on Friday by the Provincial Road Development Authority in the Western Province called for public bids for a peculiar assignment – pulling out an excavator that is stuck in the mud!The bids will be opened on February 23, with the excavator continuing to be stuck in the mud till then for a job that would have taken a few hours with the right equipment or is it such a complicated exercise?

The authority says the Sunny-135 excavator belonging to the authority is mired in mud in the canal around 1 km away from the Jaela Bund road bordering the Muthurajawela marshy lands”. It was seeking bids from individuals and institutions with the capacity and the facilities to pull out the said machine. As per state rules, bid documents were available at Rs. 500 each.

Yahaplanaya in full swing !

Officers are scared to take any decision .Last year one of the new dredgers called Sayura got partially  grounded in Hakkaduwa and Fishery Harbour Corporation had to call tenders to salvage before it gets fully grounded  due to adverse weather conditions

.By the time tenders were opened and a shipyard was selected Dredget was full grounded on a rock .

It cost double the amount to salvage !!!!
 

The Society for Peace Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka (SPUR) congratulates the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) for its stunning victory

February 12th, 2018

SPUR   (Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka Inc)

Reg:  A 003 0777 MPO Box 4066, Mulgrave, VIC 3170, AustraliaTele/Fax: (03) 97957143  Fax: (03) 97957142 ranjiths@spur.asn.au

Website: www.spur.asn.au

MEDIA RELEASE – 11 February 2018

The Society for Peace Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka (SPUR) congratulates the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) for its stunning victory at the long awaited Local Government Elections held on 10 February 2108.

The Sri Lankan people have dealt a crushing blow to the Yahapalana regime which, in a short space of three years, has become synonymous with broken promises, economic stagnation, selling of national assets, the Central Bank bond scam, hounding of political opponents, Geneva betrayal of the war winning security forces, appeasement of the LTTE diaspora and the surreptitious agenda for a federal constitution.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, members of the parliamentary Joint Opposition, nationalist organisations and grass-root activists have guided the people to this historic result in spite of the enormous advantages of state power enjoyed the by the parties in government.

SPUR calls on President Maithripala Sirisena to exercise the powers vested in him to reconstitute the Parliament in line with the will of the people and call for a General Election at the earliest opportunity.

We also urge the Speaker, Mr Karu Jayasuriya, to immediately end the current façade and recognise the Joint Opposition as the legitimate holders of the position of Opposition Leader and Chief Opposition Whip.

We are of the view that the election results signify the demand for good governance and would request the SLPP to implement a plan immediately to launch a program locally as well as nationally

to manage the affairs of government to achieve the expectations of the voters.

In conclusion, SPUR appeals to all Sri Lankans to be vigilant in the face of both internal and external forces that seek to weaken the unitary status of the nation and to reject any proposal for constitutional changes that would encourage ethnic separatism or compromise national security.

Ranjith Soysa

(Spokesperson)

Re-emergence of His Excellency Mahinda Rajapakse

February 12th, 2018

Nimal Tissa Wijetunga

Your Excellency, Mahinda Rajapakse,

Masses or people of Sri Lanka has voted to you mainly as a Mark of Gratitude to your leadership in annihilating terrorist LTTE and its leader Prabhakaran and it is only the 06th occasion a Head of the State of Sri Lanka among long line of kings and residents did so in the history of more than 2500 years as you never ever bowed down to so called western powers.

In view of the above, we would like to bring to your serious attention to the following:

1) No to Constitutional reforms to give Tamil Elam on a platter where terrorists failed after 30 years of violence.

2) Must maintain the Unitary nature of Sri Lanka and its territorial integrity.

3) Maintain the very fabrication of Sri Lanka as Sinhalese Buddhist country.

4) No Corruption and accountability must be maintained.

5) Must take action to Ranil, Ravi, Mahendran, Aloysius, Palisena, Cope committee members involved in foot notes in the investigation of Bod Scam, whom involved in day light Robbery or Plunder of Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

6) No Human right cases or Prosecution by foreign or local judiciary for any act by victorious Armed forces of Sri Lanka during annihilation of Terrorist LTTE and its leader Prabhakaran.

7) Taking care of subsidies rovided to farmers, other governmental officials and Sri Lankan masses as a whole for their Economic development and day to day living.

8) Approach to so called Tamil problem as mere Economic problem as same as to all the people of Sri Lanka. Must make inroads to Northern Province with concerted effort to convince the Tamil People that their bretheran are mostly living out side the Northern Province among other races in the country without any problem and so called Tamil Leaders since the formation of Tamil Arasu Katchichi in 1933 by S.J.V.Chelvanayagam up to Appailai Amirthalingam’s Waddukodai resolution and finally by terrorist LTTE led by Prabhakaran taken them in violent path with unrealistic and non-existing demands with no benefits rather than destruction to the ordinary tamil population.

9) No ECTA under any circumstances with India as it is really detrimental to service market of Sri Lanka.

10) No Air or sea ports to be given to India on outright or as a joint venture. Please note that India was never ever a friend of Sri Lanka except for a brief period where Emperor Dharmasoka sent his son and daughter to inculcate Buddhism here. In fact, India the so called biggest democracy in the world aided, abetted, funded, trained LTTE Terrorist to destabilize another democratic country of Sri Lanka.

Finally, we wish you all the best for the re-emergence and look forward to a great country and great future to the people of Sri Lanka under your great leadership.

Thanking you.

Sincerely,

Nimal Tissa Wijetunga.

After the landslide: The bigger picture

February 12th, 2018

By Dr. DAYAN JAYATILLEKA

It was the well-established, UNP and West-friendly website ECONOMYNEXT that broke the story using the ‘L’ Word—Landslide:

“Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s proxy was set for an unexpected landslide victory in Saturday’s local council elections…Unofficial results showed that the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) was leading in almost all the districts outside the north and the east and was on its way to secure an unassailable 51 percent of the total votes polled.Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) was being pushed to a humiliating second place…”(‘Rajapaksa proxy heads for landslide in Sri Lanka vote’- Feb 10th)

“Landslide” certainly, “unexpected landslide”—er, not entirely. I was probably one of the very few (to put it exceedingly charitably) in the mainstream media who called it right, quite unambiguously, and on the record: “…or whether (as I think) the Pohottuwa will wind up quite simply, the largest single party, displacing the UNP from that historical role and status.” (‘Feb 10th and the Electoral Gamble that Failed’, The Island, Wednesday, Feb 7th 2018)

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The fact that I predicted this result proves that the result was predictable—all it needed was not to be blinded by the veils of Maya.My personal favourite piece of pre-election punditry was Sunanda Deshapriya’s firm prediction of MR’s crushing defeat, in a signed column in the Ravaya,saying that “Mahinda’s Pohottuwa won’t succeed in getting even 51% of the Sinhala majority”. The Island’s Political columnist CA Chandraprema and I cannot be faulted if we were the only ones to take serious note, repeatedly and in print (in my case, also on my fortnightly TV show on Sirasa), of the results of the Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society (MPCS) elections of last year in which the pro-Mahinda camp swept the board against all comers and all combinations of all comers. They were the precursor of what has now arrived.

Thus my initial response is not to write at length on the why and wherefore of the result, because my political writings in these pages have consistently given the reasons why this should and would happen.

What I am more concerned about are the larger strategic picture and what I had defined in the title of my first book (Vikas, New Delhi 1995) as Sri Lanka’s “Protracted Crisis”.

Sri Lankan politics is determined by the dynamics on two axis: the horizontal and the vertical. The horizontal axis pertains to the contestation for political power at the center between parties or blocs. This is the dimension of South-South competition. The vertical axis of Sri Lankan politics is the North-South one, dealing with the dynamics of the Northeastern and the South, as well as what I termed in my Deshamanya Nandadasa Kodagoda Lecture of 2013 as the Greater North or the Far North, i.e. the world. This horizontal dimension is that of Center-Periphery politics in which Colombo is the center and Jaffna the periphery , but this gets inverted the further away we move, and Colombo is the periphery while the developed world’s capitals are the center.

On the day of the election, the news broke that the TNA had joined 10 Tamil diaspora organizations to demand that Brigadier Priyanka Fernando be declared persona non grata.

What does this mean and portend? Let’s start with the ten Tamil Diaspora organizations which cover the entire politico-ideological spectrum in the UK: Tamil Conservatives, Tamils for Labour and Tamil Lib-Dems. They’ve written a lengthy petition to the British authorities in support of their demand.

These Tamil groups in the UK have petitioned Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs, Boris Johnson, requesting that the British government to “declare the Sri Lankan Military Attaché Brigadier Priyanka Fernando a Persona non Grata for committing a serious offence under British law, abusing diplomatic immunity in the UK and committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka and therefore, to curtail his leave to remain in the UK.”

The Tamil Diaspora groups that have made this request are the British Tamil Conservatives (BTC),British Tamils Forum (BTF),Global Tamil Forum (GTF),International Centre for the Prevention and Prosecution of Genocide (ICPPG),Tamils Coordinating Committee (TCC-UK), Tamils for Labour, Tamil Friends of the Liberal Democrats, Tamil Information Centre (TIC), Tamil National Alliance – UK (TNA-UK), Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), Tamil Solidarity (TS), Tamil Youth Organization (TYO), and World Tamils Historical Society (WTHS).

Very significantly the petition is not merely against Brigadier Fernando but is a 14 page long diatribe against the waging of the war, and the Sri Lankan state and government. The critique of Brigadier Fernando does not pertain merely to his hand gesture but to his role as a combat officer in our war of liberation from terrorism.

Not once in the petition do the signatories condemn or even refer to the incontrovertible fact that the demonstration by ‘Tamil Solidarity’ was replete with Tiger banners, sundry regalia and pro-terrorist slogans (‘Our Leader-Prabhakaran’).

The fact that they have not tried to put any distance between themselves and the LTTE driven nature of the mobilization shows they have no problem whatsoever with that Tiger/pro-Prabhakaran character. This in turn logically means that these ten Tamil Diaspora organizations are pro-separatist, pro-terrorist and pro-totalitarian. This is not democratic dissent.

It is also noteworthy that there has not been a Tamil political voice which is critical of both the Brigadier and the Tiger demonstrators. This means that the Tamil diaspora political space is either pro-separatist terrorist or lacks a strong and bold enough alternative within it; an alternative that could be anti-government and even anti-state, but is anti-LTTE.

What is striking is that this pro-Tiger militancy was demonstrated on Sri Lanka’s 70th Independence Day, with no Tamil cautionary note against it, precisely while there is a liberal Sri Lankan government in place, not a militantly majoritarian nationalist one.

If this is how the Tamil Diaspora treats the liberal reformist Sirisena government, we can clearly understand the true nature of that Diaspora and the underlying community.

If push comes to shove, the Tamil Diaspora is pro-Tiger or too scared to be otherwise, then it cannot be a legitimate partner for dialogue on the part of Sri Lankan democrats, progressives, liberals or the democratic Sri Lankan state.

But these are the UNP’s partners and allies! What is most striking and strikingly dangerous, is that these organizations are partners of the UNP in government. These are organizations that were unbanned by Mangala Samaraweera as Foreign Minister.

These are organizations which accompanied Samaraweera to Singapore before the election of January 2015. These are organizations which Samaraweera met officially in London when he was Foreign Minister. These are organizations which were received over the past three dismal years at the offices of the Sri Lankan Government and State in Colombo, including the Foreign Ministry.

Just several weeks ago, the GTF/BTF posted photographs and a statement announcing the discussion at the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry in Colombo, between the GTF-BTF’s Fr. Emmanuel and the Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and his closest comrade-in-arms.

Now we come to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) whose logo accompanies the statement of the ten Tamil Diaspora organizations. The TNA is supposed to be the “moderate” Tamil nationalist party. If this is Tamil moderation, one can well imagine what Tamil radicalism is like.

Whether or not the TNA logo at the bottom of the letter refers only to its UK branch (it does not say so), the results of the election and the TNA’s political behavior including the boycott by Mr. Sampanthan of our 70th Independence celebrations, show a yawning and growing gap which is perhaps unbridgeable.

The TNA is the Yahapalana government’s chosen Opposition. The Government chose the TNA with its 16 seats over Mahinda Rajapaksa and Dinesh Gunawardena’s Joint Opposition with its 50 plus seats, as the official Parliamentary Opposition.

The TNA chose to reciprocate this unwarranted and illegitimate generosity by pushing the government and the country for a new constitution instead of greater autonomy within the existing one, adding insult to injury by pushing for Geneva–driven accountability with an international aspect or component. The results of the Local Government election show the complete rejection of the Government’s West-backed or designed political experiment.

The Government’s pro-Western elitist minoritarianism has been decisively rejected at this election. On the one hand, the election result is a massive populist protest vote; a majoritarian backlash against liberal elitist cosmopolitanism. On the other hand, the mood of the largest minority, the Tamils living in and outside Sri Lanka, has become less accommodating and pragmatic, more unrealistic, militant and obdurate.

The nonsensical attempt at a new Constitution, killing off the unitary state, is itself now dead in the water. The Ranil-Mangala-Chandrika-Sumanthiran project, backed by the West, has been decisively defeated. The West’s allies have been crushed, leaving it with its traditional clients, the Tamils.

The Tamil nationalists’ allies, the UNP and Chandrika’s SLFP have lost. Even more so, the apt responses of UNP ‘Young Turks’ Navin Dissanayake and Ruwan Wijewardene to the issue of Brigadier Fernando show that not only have the Tamil nationalists’ Southern allies lost but that the Tamil nationalists have lost the support of their Southern allies. Similarly, the Southern liberals are no longer in any position to negotiate with the Tamils. They need to first renegotiate their political viability with the Sinhalese, including their own voters.

The 70th Independence Day behavior and the London affair show that Tamil sentiment is so far out on a limb that no deal seems possible with any Southern partner, be it the incoming SLPP, the struggling Government or the JVP. Having damaged their UNP-SLFP partners by putting them out of reach of their own Sinhala voters, and with a rather more nationalist-populist SLPP on the march, the Tamil nationalists no longer have any Southern partner. There are no Southern takers for the new Constitution, still less a new Constitution and the implementation of the Geneva resolution on accountability. There is no deal on the table, except perhaps for the one that was always there: a modest rectification and upgrade of really existing devolution. That too may be off the table at the moment and for the moment, i.e. not because of substance but timing. The time for a deal even on adjusting existing autonomy arrangements may have passed.

Reason dictates that the Tamil mainstream regards as its Southern partner or prospective partner, that political entity and personality most likely to form the next administration, in 2019-2020. That would mean entering serious negotiations on a basis that won’t be laughed out of court by the incoming national political formation and resisted by its vote base. The problem is that logic and reason have vacated the Tamil nationalist political space quite some time ago.

The vast majority of the country’s citizens, living in the bulk of the island and decisive in the matter of state power at the center, have gone one way; Tamil nationalist politics the other. One movement is clockwise, the other, counter-clockwise. The election is over, but Sri Lanka’s Long Crisis continues.

Sense and Sensibility

February 12th, 2018

S. Navaratne  


One feels somewhat disconcerted when a highly respected public servant makes comments that go far and beyond his remit albeit in his view to further yahapalana aims. The job of the Auditor General on matters relating to public debt is to provide to the public evidence based facts after stringent auditing of the Government`s domestic and foreign debt. It should include full disclosure of dummy accounts; accurate Government borrowings (foreign and local) to bridge the shortfalls of revenue to meet Government current and capital expenditure; aggregating  figures of annual interest on government foreign and local borrowing separately and their impact on the rise in foreign and local debt annually, and a breakdown of assets created  from borrowings. Likewise it is within his remit to quantify the monetary losses from waste, corruption and named irregularities.

In his recent media briefing, however, the Auditor General made a string of political, economic, administrative assessments including (i) the President should not be Finance Minister too, (ii) questioning so-called unproductive investments and (iii) the country faces an unprecedented massive debt crisis.

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Do these assessments undermine public perception of the role of the Auditor General? The allocation of Cabinet portfolios surely is a political decision best left to politicians.

So, too, the government priorities on revenue and expenditure. It is a political decision, for example, for Governments to decide how much the Government borrows to construct public goods such as schools, hospitals, public toilets, playgrounds, roads for which there is little or no money return on investment. These investments on public goods from borrowed money may not generate income but conform to government policy. It is disingenuous, moreover, to say that there is nothing to show from borrowings for public goods even though the current value of these investments are deemed low for accountancy purposes.

The Auditor General view that the country is in the midst of a “massive debt crisis” is an opinion, some would say an egregious exaggeration of the situation. The truth is that it depends on “unknown unknowns” such as future surpluses or deficits in the Budget, net inflows of foreign exchange on services such as remittances and tourism, and on FDI. Last but not least, the pieces of family silver such as the Hambantota port, the Mattala airport, the Trincomalee oil tanks and the Trincomalee port that the Prime Minister flogs for dollars to pay off debts that have vastly increased in the past three years. Moreover, intact for sale if required to pay off debts are the “Crown Jewels”, the Government holdings in banks and the financial sector that are worth billions of dollars. Crisis? What Crisis?

No one disputes that the forthcoming National Audit Bill should provide wide-ranging powers to the National Audit Commission with regard to accounting and auditing of government financial activities, publicizing its shortcomings as well as making recommendations for changes.  Is there a case, however, for the National Audit Commission and its staff to have license to go beyond evidence and facts and give opinions of a political and economic nature regarding public policy? Commonsense suggest that public officials should be discreet on matters outside their remit.

LG Election 2018: Voters Gave the Village to Mahinda for 17 Years, the Nation to Sirisena Alliance for 5 Years

February 12th, 2018

It is important to decipher the signals of the LG election 2018 correctly without bias. The king (voter) has spoken. But the arrogant king doesn’t repeat! If his signal is interpreted wrongly, there will be dire consequences for (public) servants. Readers must calmly analyze the outcome without hatred or favour.

Although voters gave a clear win for Mahinda’s SLPP, they deliberately avoided giving SLPP 50%. In fact, Mahinda’s party received 2% less votes than January 2015 when he was replaced by Sirisena. Put it differently, the Sirisena Alliance (DNA, Swan) retained its 6.2 million votes while Mahinda lost 700,000 votes from his 5.8 million.

It means the voter gave the village to Mahinda for another 5 years and at the same time gave the Sirisena alliance another 2 years to work together. Mahinda has been winning the village since 2006 and with this extension his continuing reign over the village goes on for 17 years (until 2023). Sirisena has already spent 3 years and with this extension for his alliance, he can legally and morally stay on for another 2 years.

JVP has dramatically improved their national standing for its small size from August 2015 and TNA has also increased their share within the Swan Alliance. UNP has suffered since August 2015. SLFP managed to hang in there. SLPP will be elated with their performance. All parties are now looking forward for the provincial council election.

Voters want the DNA alliance to keep pursuing the corrupt and punish them. This is particularly true about JVP and SLFP voters making up 20%. They are the kingmakers of any national election. Sirisena must recognize at least now that he cannot rely on Ranil and Sagala to deliver FCID goods. He must hand over the function to a competent minister or do it himself. Sirisena must realize that he would be sitting on a vote base of 56% had he punished the culprits by now. SLPP and UNP owners must not think voters delivered justice. Voters have no intention of messing with the courts system. They cannot do so even if they wished.

While the village needs Mahinda policies and the nation Sirisena policies (according to voters), they also want the two policies to work together. Hope politicians of all sides hear this loud and clear. Next stop PC elections followed by national elections.

Rest SLFP in peace

February 12th, 2018

Lionel Rajapakse

Electorate has spoken. There is a clear message to politicians who still keep alliance with SLFP. Leave SLFP now”. Yes, right now. Feb 10 election results proved people don’t care about the future of the SLFP and they do not trust the SLFP leadership any more. Hope, politicos who play a double game understand this clear message and honour people’s wish.

It is not a secret, most of the SLPP politicians still have their SLFP membership. For the sake of what? There is no need for these politicians to play a double game from now on. If they still think it is a risk to cut their ties with the SLFP, that is an insult for the millions of voters who voted for SLPP. Voters clearly said, they are ready to support for a third force. If these politicians who still have ties with SLFP thinks it is impossible to form a government without SLFP, this election proved they are wrong. Also, someone can argue if these politicos give up their SLFP memberships, they are going lose their parliament membership as well. Who cares. Voters like to see the leaders who play the game straight. So, the politicians in SLPP who still keep a foot in the rotten SLFP, should come out of that muddy puddle right now.

Same with the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA). It is high time for Dinesh, Wimal, Wasu and rest of the members to come out of this so-called Alliance. People clearly rejected President Sirisena’s leadership, so what kind of alliance with a party led by him? Now the electorate has chosen a new front to fight the UNP. So, let the Sirisena’s SLFP to have its own demise.

Feb 10 election is a good signal for the JVP as well. Now they should realise their dream to capture the power in 2020 is not real. Rather than supporting their real enemy UNP, JVP should re-consider where they should stand. If they want to make their dream a reality, it is better to let Ranil’s UNP to have the same fate as the Sirisena’s SLFP.

Also, this election result is the amber light given by the SLPP voters for their next presidential candidate, whoever that person is.  No need to play hide and seek. That person should come forward and lead this third force for the next victory.

Jayawewa!

 

 

Local Govt Polls

February 11th, 2018

P.A.Samaraweera

There had been an unexpected turnout at the recent local govt polls and as anticipated Mahinda Rajapaksa’s SLPP made a landslide victory. This noteworthy victory should open the eyes of Maithreepala Sirisena (MS) and Ranil, who under the pretext of ‘Yahapalanaya’ entertained the corrupt. The victory is a clear indication that the people are fed up with both of them. MS is an opportunist and he was eyeing the post of PM in Mahinda’s govt. By any chance if he had been offered the post of PM he would have never left MR.

Local govt polls involves the outskirts and the rural folk. During the war it was the rural youth who joined the forces to fight the terrorists. But since this govt came to power their welfare had been completely ignored. Many disabled soldiers had not been paid the promised pensions. They fought for 30 years and MS and Ranil cancelled the victory parade on the advise of western powers and in the name of so called ‘reconciliation’. Further, a number of army personnel had been remanded on various dubious allegations and not charged. During MR’s regime the morale of the army was high. So no wonder they all voted for MR at the local govt polls.

The SLFP-UPFA took a heavy beating at the polls coming third while the JVP came fourth. The UNP which expected to lead was humiliated, coming second. As expected, the Colombians voted for the UNP and won 60 seats. The SLPP 23, UPFA 12, and the JVP 6. Traditionally Colombo is UNP. 

During the elections, cracked appeared in the alliance between the SLFP-UNP govt. At election meetings, MS repeatedly said that he is not ready to work with corrupt politicians. In his SLFP frontline as well, there are  Ministers accused of corruption. Further, politicians who had been rejected at the polls had been appointed as Ministers. Now that the much awaited local govt polls are over, people are waiting to see what next !

Some say that the SLPP based on the public confidence it had obtained will push for a General Election. 

INDEPENDENCE- AN UNFULFILLED DREAM

February 11th, 2018

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando

The British created the first Constitution for British-Ceylon and crafted the Donoughmore Commission in 1927. It being not very successful, Ceylonese demanded a Constitutional reform. Consequently the State Council of Ceylon, consisting 58 members was formed in 1932, with A.F.Molamure as the first Chairman. The State Council granted the universal franchise to Ceylonese for the first time.

The Ceylon Constitution Order, in Council 1946, established the Soulbury Commission that consisted of a Board comprising several Ministers, along with D.S.Senanayake, and Lord Soulbury decided upon the      Independence for Ceylon. On 4 February 1948, Ceylon gained independence from the British, without      having to shed a single drop of blood; Lord Soulbury became the Ceylon’s first Governor General.

British planters and business tycoons trained Ceylonese politicians, in both legislative and executive         functions, during the struggle for independence, in order to become masters of their own. However, the    general consensus at the time was that ‘Ceylonese were not ready for Independence,’ which confirmed this fact, after 70 years of independence, by the ghastly display of behaviour of the present day parliamentarians, on 10th January 2018 from the August assembly. That may be the reason why Sri Lankans have failed     completely so far, in terms of progress in the country

Harmony                                                                                                        

Harmony among the Ceylonese appeared to be paramount during the British rule. It managed to preserve the centuries old moral, cultural, and economic values within a nation, where even the mighty colonials had to knuckle under to peoples’ apprehensions and agitations. Since achieving the so-called ‘ independence’, Sri Lankan leaders, through their self-importance and expansive egos, have turned a deaf ear to any public    concern, causing a steep decline in the overall progress of the country.

The biggest blunder made by politicians, after achieving independence, is believed to be the fragmentation of the nation into various political groups of different hues, concentrating only on their power, rather than    reaping the full benefit out of the gained freedom, which has continued up to date debauching the country’s overall values and progress.

Celebrations

Ever since 4 February 1948, every Sri Lankan administration has been ‘celebrating’ its anniversary;         Tomorrow, it will mark 70 years of ‘sovereignty! In the present political scenario, one becomes confused with the analysis of this hollow word ‘independence’ as, for far too long, Sri Lanka’s educational standards have gone down, health sector deteriorated, cost of living sky rocketed and the country has gone into more and more debt affecting the citizenry, who are even yet to be born!

This makes people to point an accusing finger at politicians for their utter failure to look into the general welfare of the society, whilst they enjoy fixed salaries with umpteen number of perks and privileges,        including special allowances to woo them to parliamentary sessions, and to enjoy an opulent canteen meal paying only Rs.06, Rs.20 and Rs.60 respectively, and the worst crime being dumping all the excesses into the  Diyawanna Oya to feed crocodiles, whilst millions in the country are starving. Despite all such          misdemeanor, politicians of all hues have been displaying how self-centred they could be when they nod their heads to salary increases, various allowances, and issuance of duty-free luxury car permits.

The word ‘Independence’ has turned into a hollow word in Sri Lanka, when one looks back at the historical background of the county, where people have suffered over seven decades due to riots of many a kind,     humanity downgraded to beastly levels where decapitated human bodies were seen burning on road sides on spikes, dead bodies floating on rivers, followed by a 30 year war from the North, and allowing the LTTE to become one of the coldblooded terrorist groups in the world, and to pioneer the suicide bombing novelty in terrorism. The million-dollar question, therefore, would be whether the meaning of the word independence has had any effect on Sri Lanka? What have the rulers have been doing for the past 70 years? Twiddling their thumbs and allowing the country to go downhill on roller coasters?

Election Gimmicks

Politicians intermingling with the voters, during election times, and promising the sun, moon and stars, in order to get them elected to power, is gradually getting diluted after seventy long years, and the people in this country have begun to use their wisdom through trial and error, and started to understand how politicians were and are dabbling in corruption, bribery & nepotism, to make only themselves richer, and to let the   people in this country go to hell!

After 67 years of independence, the majority of the nation voted for a change in January 2015, to appoint a common candidate as President, with the collaboration of all other political parties, in an attempt to get rid of what was termed as an existed ‘a corrupt regime’! The new administration, in a marriage with the UNP, formed a ‘Yahapalanaya,’ and absorbed several rotten apples, rejected by the voters, once again, and given them vital portfolios for the discontent of the society. As an election pledge, the Prime Minister was            appointed from the UNP.

At the very infant stages of Yahapalanaya, the biggest scandal of robbing the Central Bank for billions of taxpayers’ money slandered the new regime by appointing a foreigner to the Central Bank. Due to excessive media pressure, President Sirisena appointed a special Commission to investigate into the irregularities of the Bond Scam. ” Hairline cracks appearing at first, have begun to form prominent furrows in the                  Yahapalanaya itself, where the political rhetoric has become the order of the day, from local election        platforms, to the extent that the unruffled President too has begun to fly off the handle!

One does not have to be a political pundit to realise that Sri Lankans haven’t achieved any independence to its true meaning up to date. Unless and until a new political climate emerges, with new blood that can feel the pulse of the people, the meaning of independence will remain as an unfulfilled dream.

tilakfernando@gmail.com

 

 

මගේ රෝගියාට පහර දුන්නේ කවුරුන්ද ?

February 11th, 2018

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

පහත සිදුවීම මා දුටුවේ දිවයින පුවත්පතිනි. මෙම සිදුවීමට සබැඳි ඩයස් යනු යුද හමුදා රෝහලේදී (2002 – 2006 ) කාලයේදී මා විසින් ප්රතිකාරක කරන ලද රෝගියෙකි. ඔහු ක්ෂිතිමය ක්රියාන්විත සිදුවීම වල නියැලීම නිසා පශ්චාත් වියසන ක්ලමථ අක්රමතාවයට (PTSD) ගොදුරු වූ සොල්දාදුවෙකි. මෙම සොල්දාදුවා මනෝ වෛද් නීල් ප්රනාන්දු සහ මා යටතේ කොලඹ යුද හමුදා රෝහලේ ප්රතිකාර ලැබීය​. එක්සත් ශ්රී ලංකාවක් වෙනුවෙන් තමන් ගේ කායික මානසික සුවය කැප කල මෙවැනි ආබාධිත සොල්දාදුවන් සමාජයේ හිංසනයට ලක් වන්නේ නම් එය ඉතාම අවාසනාවන්ත තත්වයකි.

පහත විස්තරය 2018 පෙබරවාරි 11 දින දිවයින පුවත්පතෙනි.

වෛද් රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

කෝප්රල් ලසන්ත ඩයස්‌ 

විශ්‍රාම ලැබූ බුද්ධි අංශ සෙබළාට නුවරඑළියේදී එළව එළවා පහර දුන්නේ ඇයි…?

මේ වනවිට හතළිස්හත් හැවිරිදි වියේ පසුවන ලසන්ත ඩයස්යුද හමුදා සෙබළකු ලෙස ශ්රී ලංකා යුද හමුදාවට බැඳී ඇත්තේ මීට වසර විසි දෙකකට පමණ පෙරදීය.යාපනය, ඌරලුව, මනිපායි ආදී ප්රදේශවල ක්රියාන්විත රාජකාරි කටයුතුවල නියෑළුණු ඔහුගේ උපන් ගම වන්නේ නුවරඑළිය වජිරපුර ගම්මානයයි.

 වැඩිමහල් සහෝදරියන් දෙදෙනකු වැඩිමහල් සහෝදරයකු හා එක්බාල සහෝදරයකුගෙන් යුත් පවුලක ඔහු හතර වැන්නාය.

නුවරඑළිය බීර නිෂ්පාදන කම්හලේ සේවය කළ ඔහුගේ පියා මේ වනවිට ජීවතුන් අතර නොමැති අතර මව ජීවත්වන්නේය.

දැනට වසර හතකට පමණ පෙරදී පිළියන්දල රේණුකා සිල්වා සමඟ විවාහ දිවියට පිවිසි ඔහු සිඟිති දියණියකගේ පියකු වන්නේය.

 උතුර නැගෙනහිර ක්රියාන්විත රාජකාරියේ නියෑළි සමයේ ඌරලුව මංසන්ධියේදී ඔහු ගමන්ගත් මෝටර් බයිසිකලය අනතුරකට ලක්වීමෙන් ඔලුවට සිදු වූ හානි හේතුවෙන් යුද හමුදා රෝහලේ නේවාසිකව ප්රතිකාර ගැනීමට ඔහුට සිදු විය.

 ඉන්පසුව යුද හමුදාව සුළු රාජකාරි සඳහා යොදවා ඇති මොහු සේවය කොට ඇත්තේ යුද හමුදා බුද්ධි අංශයේය.

 සිය උපන් ගම වූ නුවරඑළියේ වරින් වර ඔහු බුද්ධි අංශ රාජකාරියේ නිරත වී ඇත

 වසර විසි දෙකක හමුදා සේවාවෙන් පසුව විශ්රාම යැම සඳහා ඔහු විශ්රාම නිවාඩු (පෙන්ෂන් නිවාඩු) ලබාගත්තේ මීට දින කිහිපයකට පෙරදීය.

 ඉකුත් තුන්වැනිදා සවස ඔහු නුවරඑළිය වජිර පුරයේ සිය නිවසින් පිටව ගොස්ඇත්තේ ගමේ පැවති දේශපාලන රැස්වීමකට සහභාගි වී අනතුරුව ද්රවිඩ ජාතික හිතවතකුගේ අවමංගල් නිවසකට යැම සඳහාය.

 සියල්ලක්අවසානයේ සිය මිතුරකු සමඟ ත්රීවීල් රථයකින් නිවස වෙත පිටත් වනවිට මැදියම් රාත්රිය ඉකුත් වී තිබුණි.

 තම නිවසට නුදුරු මාර්ගයේ මැදියම් රෑ කෑ ගසමින් සිටි පිරිසක්අසල ත්රීවීල් රථය නතර වී ඇත.

 ඉන් පසුව ඇති වූ ආරවුලකින් පසුව මේ දෙදෙනාටම ත්රීවීල් රථය දමා දෙපැත්තකට දිවයැමට සිදු විය.

 පොලු, මුගුරු අතැතිව ලසන්ත ඩයස්පසුපස හඹා ඔවුන් ඒවායින් ඔහුට ඉතාමත් අමානුෂික ලෙස වරින් වර පහර දුන්නේය.

 පහළොස්දෙනකුට අධික පිරිසක්ඔවුන් අතර විය. සියලු දෙනාම ද්රවිඩ ජාතිකයෝ වෙති.

 මැදියම් රෑ අඳුරේ වුව මේ සියල්ලක් අසල 

 පිහිටි ලැගුම් හලක සී. සී. ටී. වී. කැමරාවක සටහන් විය.

 මොහුට පහරදීමෙන් පසුව ත්රීවීල් රථය එම ස්ථානයේ දමා පහර දුන් පිරිස ඉවත්ව ගියහ.

පෙර වාසනා මහිමයකට දෝ ඔහුගේ බාල සොහොයුරු සංජය ලාල් ඩයස්කිසියම් ගමනක්ගොස්මෝටර් රථයකින් නිවස වෙත ගමන් කරමින් සිටියදී ත්රීවීල් රථයක්හා අසල වැටී සිටි පුද්ගලයකු දුටුවේය.

 මෝටර් රථයෙන් බැස බැලූ විට ඔහු දුටුවේ තම සොයුරා ලේ විලක්මැද වැටී සිටින අයුරුය.

  සමඟම ලසන්ත ඩයස්සමඟින් ත්රීවීල් රථයේ පැමිණි මිතුරාද එම ස්ථානයට පැමිණ ඇත.

 වහා ලසන්ත නුවරඑළිය දිස්ත්රික්මහ රෝහලට රැගෙන ගිය ඔවුන් මේ බව නුවරඑළිය පොලිසියට දැනුම් දුන්නේය.

 සී. සී. ටී. වී. කැමරා දර්ශන හා ලසන්ත ඩයස්සමඟින් සිටි මිතුරාගෙන් ලබාගත් තොරතුරු අනුව මේ වනවිට පොලිස්අත්අඩංගුවට පත් ප්රධාන ගනයේ සැකකරුවන් හතර දෙනකු ලබන 19 දා දක්වා රිමාන්ඩ් සිර භාරයට පත්කොට ඇත.

 මීට සම්බන්ධ තවත් සැකකරුවන් පිරිසක්සිටින අතර කිහිප දෙනකු තම පවුලේ උදවිය සමඟ නිවෙස්හැරදමා සැඟවී සිටින බව නුවරඑළිය මූලස්ථාන පොලිස්පරීක්ෂක චන්දන බස්නායක මහතා පැවසීය.

 ලසන්ත ඩයස්ගේ බාල සොයුරු සංජය ලාල් ඩයස්‌ ‘දිවයින කියා සිටියේ මේ සිද්ධියට පෙර දෙවතාවක්යම් යම් ද්රවිඩ පිරිස්‌ ‘ආමිකාරයා‘, ‘ආමිකාරයකියමින් තම සොයුරාට පහරදී ඇති බවය.

 මෙය තුන්වැනි සිද්ධිය බවත් යුද හමුදා බුද්ධි අංශයේ සේවය කළ නිසා එයින් වෙනත් ගැටලුවක්මතුවිය හැකි බවට ඇති වූ සැකය හේතුවෙන් තම සොහොයුරා සම්බන්ධව කිසිවකුට පැමිණිලි නොකළ බවත් සංජය ලාල් ඩයස්කියා සිටියේය.

 මුහුණට ඔලුවට කොඳු පෙදෙසට හා දෙපාවලට දැඩි ලෙස පහර කෑමට ලක්වූ ලසන්ත ඩයස් තවමත් කතා කිරීමේ හැකියාවක්නොමැත.

 ඩග්ලස්නානායක්කාරනුවරඑළිය විශේෂ

RESPECT THE PEOPLE’S VOICE: NO to Constitutional Changes, Division of Sri Lanka & Witch hunt against the Armed Forces

February 11th, 2018

For 3 years’ people’s democratic voice was stifled by denying elections. The so called international community kept silent not insisting on elections being held. However, finally after an island wide local government election, the People have spoken – the silent majority have spoken and the Government is bound to now listen. Though the official election results are being controversially delayed unofficial results reveal that an Arab Spring model does not work in Sri Lanka. The people have clearly rejected the Government, the President & the Prime Minister.

No political party has been able to create such an island wide impact within less than 2 years of its birth. The Prime Ministers party has come second while the President’s party (not the one he contested from) has come a distant third. The defeat was not so much for the candidates of the defeated parties but a clear rejection of all that the leaders of the defeated parties were forcefully promoting in Sri Lanka sans the approval of the citizens.

After denying people three years of their right to vote people came out to say they had had enough of the lies, drama and treacheries taking place before their eyes.

While official election results are yet to be revealed President Rajapakse has issued a statement asking victors to enjoy the victory in a peaceful manner. We can recall the former President accepting defeat and leaving office even before the official results were revealed. It is unfortunate that the elections office are delaying declaring the final results and exposes the biased nature of that office & its head and necessitates calls for his removal.

From 2015 an unprecedented list of unbelievable changes had taken place leaving the people voiceless and democratically unable to voice their objection. Even the international community chose to shower awards on rogues.

Every shocking action and decision taken by the yahapalana government has been democratically rejected and the Government must now listen and the President is now bound to take necessary action to nullify and veto the constitutional changes being drafted secretly, the removal of Buddhism which has been and must remain the national identity of Sri Lanka, the attempts to permanently divide Sri Lanka by changing its unitary form to create a Kosovo and South Sudan and the sale of national assets to foreigners. People have said they do not want to have a government that has to ask West & India permission to govern Sri Lanka or take decisions after seeking their approval first!

Moreso, people were angered by the manner that the armed forces personnel & intelligence officers were hurled on bogus charges and placed behind bars with bail denied. The mental agony that they suffered culminated in the suicide of a mother-in-law whose last letter pleaded that her son-in-law served the nation patriotically and was no murderer. The manner the 3 naval ratings were released and their faces revealed their relief. These were moments that touched the hearts of many a citizen who were angered by the manner that the government was going after the men who sacrificed their lives to give us peace from terrorism. The event that took place in London where pro-LTTE supporters influenced the removal of the Military attache Brig. Priyankara Fernando would have largely influenced many voters too even Tamils.

The results are certainly a major setback and embarrassment to both the President & the Prime Minister who in all of their speeches at election platforms chose to not talk on policy or what they had delivered but adapt a very crude form of attack which by the results have revealed that the people are not only not impressed but have chosen not to be fooled by them. The leadership ability, capability & effectiveness of both the President & the PM are now seriously in question. It will be an eye opener to the foreign forces that brought them to power and they must already be conniving and conspiring on plan B.

Over 2000 public officials were brought before an illegally constituted corruption body, questioned and humiliated while the magnitude of corruptions by the people that came to power on the platform of bringing good governance was not only ignored but completely immune from prosecution. The bending of law & order, the interference of judicial decision making even had magistrate courts opened in late hours of the night and people sent to prison and kept in prison without bail. The cleaning of the Central Bank took away the cake with committee after committee being appointed to exonerate themselves but using the platform of the Parliament turning it into a circus to cry ‘kawda hora’ at others.

The people watched, waited and waited hoping for an election to voice their dismay. It came finally on 10th February 2018. In many ways it was an apology by the people who had been taken for a ride and fooled and people had decided to put Country before their political party barring a handful who remained loyal to the party over the country.

The people had enough of lies fed to them on a daily basis undermining people’s intelligence with promises of starting factories like Volkswagen, propaganda using dead people became unacceptable, the people have rejected ETCA and the manner state enterprises are being doled out to India & the West while controversial figures are being strategically placed to put into effect promises and assurances given to LTTE diaspora from whom favors and perks have exchanged hands.

The results have clearly hailed the demise of the SLFP and exposed the JVP too.

For those that have been conspiring with the Government it was a message that clearly established that the Sinhalese are never for the division for the Island nation and that all citizens must live as ONE in this One Island. The results conveyed that any form of attempt to separate or divide the country would not be allowed.

The inefficiencies, lack of leadership, patriotism, nationalism largely contributed to an unprecedented show of citizens at a local government election to defeat all of the lies and drama of the present government.

The People have given a clear message to this government – You can fool some people for some time but you cannot fool all the people all the time. The only exclusion are those willing and proud to be fools!

It is ironically that days before the election the Prime Minister was chief guest at a new venture named ‘Drop Me’.

 

 

 

Shenali D Waduge

 

 

අගමැතිකම ගන්නවාද.. මහින්ද කණ පුපුරන්න පිලිතුරක් දෙයි..

February 11th, 2018

lanka C news

හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතාට අගමැති ධුරය බාරගන්නැයි ආරාධනා කල බවට පලවන වාර්තා සම්බන්ධයෙන් අප කල විමසීමකදී හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ අතිශය සමීපතමයෙකු කියා සිටියේ මෙම මැතිවරණය පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයක් මිස පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ අගමැතිවරයා තෝරන මැතිවරණයක් නොවන නිසා අගමැති ධුරය කිසිසේත්ම බාර නොගන්නා බවයි.

හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් කිසිසේත්ම පිං අගමැතිකම් බාර නොගනු ඇති බවත් ඔහු තහවුරු කලේය.

අගමැතිකම ගන්නවාද.. මහින්ද කණ පුපුරන්න පිලිතුරක් දෙයි..

කෙසේ වෙතත් වහාම පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ යෝජනා සම්මත කර පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හැර පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණයක් කැදවීමට ආණ්ඩුව වහා කටයුතු කල යුතු යයිද ඒ මහතා සදහන් කර ඇත.

නමුන් ආණ්ඩු විරෝධි ජනමතය ශ‍්‍රි ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණට ලැබී ඇති බැවින් වත්මන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ විපක්‍ෂ නායක ධුරය ඒකාබද්ද විපක්‍ෂයට ලබා දිය යුතුම බවත් එය බාර ගැනීමට සූදානම් බවත් ඔහු වැඩි දුරටත් කියා සිටියේය.

ජයග්‍රහණය සාමාකාමීව භුක්ති විදිමු

February 11th, 2018

මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ හිටපු ජනාධිපති  

මෙවර පලාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ අති විශිෂ්ඨ ජයග්‍රහණයක් ලබමින් සිටින බව නන් දෙසින් ලැබෙන පුවත් වලින් සනාථ වේ. අනේක විධි බාධා මැද මෙවන් සුවිශේෂී ජයග්‍රහණයක් ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණට ලබා දුන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සියළුම ඡන්ද දායකයින්ට මගේ ප්‍රණාමය පුදකර සිටිමි. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ විපාක්‍ෂික බලවේගය වන ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්‍ෂය ඉතිහාසයේ අන් කවරදාකටත් වඩා ඉතාමත්ම දුෂ්කර හා පීඩාකාරී තත්වයන් යටතේ මේ ජයග්‍රහණය ලබාගෙන තිබේ.

පසුගිය වකවාණුවේ තමන් ආණ්ඩුව පැත්තෙන් කොතරම් පීඩනයකට, දඩයමකට ලක් වී සිටියත්, ජනතාව අපට ලබා දී ඇති මේ විශිෂ්ඨ ජයග්‍රහණ ඉතාමත්ම සාමකාමීව, සංවරයකින් යුතුව, පරාජිත පාර්ශව වලට අගෞරවයක් සිදුනොවන ආකාරයට භුක්ති විදින මෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ යටතේ තරඟ කළ සියලුම පාර්ශව වලින් මම සහෝදරත්වයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමි. අප මේ රටේ ඡන්ද දායකයන්ට උපහාර දක්වන ප්‍රධානම විදිය එය බව කවුරුත් සිහිපත් කළ යුතු වේ.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවාසී ජනතාවට ජයවේවා !

ඔබ සැමට තෙරුවන් සරණයි.

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ හිටපු ජනාධිපති  

Celebrate the victory peacefully and with restraint

February 11th, 2018

MEDIA RELEASE MahindaRajapaksa Former President of Sri Lanka

 Reports coming in from all corners of the island, indicate that the Sri Lanka PodujanaPeramuna is heading for a historic victory at the local government elections. I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to the voting public of Sri Lanka who have reposed their trust in us, and made this victory possible. The opposition has been able to achieve this victory amidst unprecedented persecution and harassment.

Despite the personal harassment they may have had to face over the past three years, I earnestly request all those who contested under the Sri Lanka PodujanaPeramuna to celebrate this hard won victory peacefully and with restraint and in a manner that will not inconvenience the defeated side. Members of the SLPP should be mindful that such is the way we should show our appreciation to the voting public of Sri Lanka.

Victory to all Sri Lankans!

May the blessings of the Triple Gem be upon you.

MahindaRajapaksa

Former President of Sri Lanka

Early results shows a landslide victory for Mahinda Rajapakse’s party (SLPP)

February 10th, 2018

Sri Lanka News

Based on early results a landslide victory for Mahinda Rajapakse’s party is expected. Following a successful campaign SLPP Sri Lanka podujana peramuna has convinced the voters that the present government is corrupted to the core and unsuccessful in every field.Based on the election results released so far, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) is heading towards a victory at the Local Government election garnering 45 per cent of the majority votes.

ON 10 FEBRUARY 2018 SRI LANKAN GENERAL PUBLIC SAID “SORRY “ AND APOLOGISED TO PRESIDENT MAHINDA RAJAPAKSE FOR CAUSING HIS DEFEAT ON 8 JANUARY 2015

February 10th, 2018

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

On 8 January 2015, Sinhalese in Sri Lanka dropped a bomb-shell on President Mahinda Rajapakse.  Deeply disappointed for the foolish behaviour of his own men and women   and the way they let him down, The Great President of Sri Lanka disappeared quietly. He loved Sri Lanka, he loved Sinhalese and the mere fact was that as a consequence of his great love them, he Trusted them.  But Sinhalese did not trust their own man.  Sinhalese did not trust the man who saved their lives, children and above all for providing freedom to them.

It did not take months and years for Sinhalese to realize their foolish act, in fact it did not take even one month, just 3 days after giving the Marching Orders to their Saviour, they realized and cried for their own mistake.  They could not live without Mahinda.  They could not eat their meals without Mahinda.  They could not control their minds without Mahinda. To seek forgiveness, droves of clergy, men, women, children made daily trips to his private residence.

Having said Sorry, having promised to themselves never to make the same mistake ever again, the Sinhalese had to wait for 3 years to place their confidence on Mahinda.

The Election on 10 February was not about Local Government Elections.  The Election on 10

Feb was not about teaching a lesson to President Sirisena and PM Ranil.  The Election was not about their anger against the new draft Constitution.  The Election was not about rising cost of living, unemployment or Bond Scam.  The Election was a golden opportunity for the Sinhalese to say Sorry” to their man and urge him   to take care of them, because their is no one else they can love and trust.

Therefore, today is a day of celebration to Sinhalese, as they are released from the Mind Pressure suffered by them for 3 years. 

President Mahinda Rajapakse will also feel very happy today to accept the  Recall for Duty by Mahinda’s Army of People.

Pundits and forecasters were proved wrong.  Pundits may now predict these results may not necessarily translate to another massive victory for Mahinda either at the next Presidential or General Elections.

Lets ignore Astrologers and political pundits.  Lets leave the decision about future elections in the hands of Mahinda’s Army.

Real peace can only build by stopping a covert action of bad politician

February 10th, 2018

By Palitha Ariyarathna,Propaganda secretary,National Buddhist Authority

These days Tamil politician and LTTE propagandist harassing Buddhist and engaged in activity such as name changes of Sinhala villages to Tamil names and further now they are trying to convert name of ‘Naga deepa ‘to Nayinativu’(Tamil fantasy name).

So far Srilanka government did not agreed with a such falsify work and announcement by Sri Lanka Government promised that they will not change the name of Nagadeepa Island to ‘Nainativu’, Minister of Local Government and Provincial Councils, Faizer Mustapha has said its in his verbal statement Cleary.The Minister Faizer Mustapha made this observation in response to a proposal that is to be gazetted and approved by the Northern Provincial Council on 5th November to change the name of Nagadeepa Island to ‘Nainativu’.

Nagadeepa Vihara- Image courtesy by Google

Majority of Buddhist has been hurt by proposal given by North Council and some of Sinhala Buddhist says it’s and jokes and funny story ever they heard in their life time. Also many are claim that they couldn’t laugh enough seen such a Gazette.

However effort of C. Velupillai Kandaiah Sivagnanam (Northern Province Council Chairman) shows what exactly many Tamil politician needs.

Nagadeepa Island is a small island off the coast of Jaffna Peninsula in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. The ancient and historic Nagadeepa Rajamaha Viharaya in the Nagadeepa Island is one of the sixteen most sacred places of worship by the Buddhists in Sri Lanka. The Buddha paid three visits to Sri Lanka.

Image courtesy by Google

The Buddha’s first visit was in the ninth month after Buddhahood on Duruthu (January) Full Moon Day.(1 B.E. or 528 B.C.) That was to Mahiyangana where the Yaksa Clan of the entire island was meeting in the Mahanaga Garden. On this visit, the Buddha not only won the Yaksas/Raksas to Buddhism but also succeeded in getting the Naga clan King Maniakkhika of Kelaniya, who came to Mahiyangana to meet the Buddha, to embrace Buddhism.

Image courtesy by Google

The second visit was in the fifth year of Buddhahood (5 B.E. or 523 B.C.). The Buddha on seeing an imminent war between two Naga Kings – Culodara and Mahodara, uncle and nephew, over a Jewelled Throne, visited Nagadipa (Jaffna), settled the dispute and handed over the custody of the Jewelled Throne to Naga King Maniakkika of Kelaniya. On this visit the Buddha was accompanied by Samiddhi Sumana, a representative of Persian King Darius, who came to be referred to as Sakka (Sakkra), the King of Kings of Deva clan. Samiddhi Sumana brought with him a tree from Jetawanarama, which was also presented to Maniakkhika who in turn constructed a Cetiya covering the Jewelled Throne in Kelaniya and also planted the Na tree which precints is Kelaniya Viharaya.

Image courtesy by Google

The Buddha visited Sri Lanka for the third time (that was the last time, too) at the invitation of King Maniakkhika. On this third visit that the Buddha placed an imprint of his left foot on top of Sumanakuta (Samanalakanda) on the invitation of a Naga Prince named Sumanasaman as he left his foot imprints in Narmada and Saccabaddha in India. The Sumanakuta, after the arrival of the colonialists also came to be called Adams Peak.

(Observation by Author and popular truth -Every invader likes to change many Sinhala village or popular places and its names for their own taste of religion or belief or nationality. Currently many extremist are in favour of such a covert act which lot of Sinhala Buddhist much not aware. Name change can easily uses in future for a fraudulent or other illegal purpose. There for Srilanka must forbidden even writing or publically speaking such act.

In British period more than 3000 thousand Sinhala village names are has been change to Tamil abbreviation witch must re-correct now to show that there not living in Tamil Country but they are living in a Sinhala country. If historical mistaken are revise. It may help to educated Tamil for thinking their claim is wrong.

When Elara was a just king, his Tamil followers harassed the Buddhists and were actively engaged in anti-Buddhist activities. King Dutugemunu’s (161 BC to 137 BC) efforts ensured territorial integrity as well as cultural integrity. So is that current powers of Tamil leader are in opposition party make such a hidden names change game against Sinhala land? Answer can be No or Yes. But in the same time Sri Lanka’s opposition leader R Sampanthan said the demand by the Northern Provincial Council earlier this month to change the official name of an island of the Jaffna peninsula back into Tamil from Sinhala was a stupid proposal”.

Many Tamil politician can acting like a Fox and tiger covered with sheep skin. There for Sinhala Buddhist must aware about many things and they have to maintain their interest around protecting their own country.

Finally ending writing saying do we have a leaders likes Anagarika Dharmapala or King Like a Dutugemunu? A person for lead or protect us and who care deeply about Sinhala Buddhist problems and their mother country.

Theruwan Saranai!

Famous appeal to the Sinhala Buddhists’ in 1926 by Anagarika Dharmapala

Sinhala Buddhists – Wake Up!

A majority race declines because of its own failures

when that happens the minorities take advantage

the minorities become stronger and begin to dictate terms to the majority.

That is what has happened to the Sinhalese Buddhists. 

So long as Sinhalese Buddhists continue to divide themselves;

by caste – Govigama, Karawe, Durawe

by location – upcountry, low country

politically by party divisions

And if even the Buddhist clergy are divided by nikaya and sermons

even in marriage…..and Sinhalese Buddhists kept busy with these divisions

will realize too late their fall. 

Why do Sinhalese not grow jak fruit but instead grow grass

Why do Sinhalese look to the seas to await flour from the west

Does the Sinhalese not realize that in exchange for their resources they get tuppense?

Dayawati’s have changed their names to Daisy, Piyadasa’s are now Peter,

Look at the Muslims, have they ever taken any other name?
Sinhalese have given up their religion for a piece of meat

The Auditor General’s revelations about public debt

February 10th, 2018

by C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

On Wednesday February 7, 2018, the day on which campaigning closed for the local government elections, the Auditor General Gamini Wijesinghe called a media conference and made several explosive statements about Sri Lanka’s state of indebtedness. His statement received wide publicity over all TV channels. The Auditor General distributed a document titled “Public Debt Management in Sri Lanka” dated February 2, 2018 to journalists at this media briefing. The other side did not have the time to respond to his comments before the election. The words of the Auditor General taken from the Derana news bulletin were as follows:

“If anybody asks me what the debt of the country is, I will have to tell him to ask Vaima (the son of God Sakra). I can’t say what our national debt is because the management of public debt has been turned into such a mess over the past ten years….There has been excessive recourse to debt and the debt limits set by parliament have been exceeded. Debt has been shifted to other places to conceal the excessive debt…. The former Secretary to the Treasury referred to by some as an ‘economic assassin’ has done much to destroy the financial discipline of the country…The debt figures compiled by the finance ministry include only transactions that go through the consolidated fund. The debt of the provincial councils, local authorities and state enterprises have not been included in the public debt figures of the finance ministry, resulting in a situation where there are piles of debt everywhere….”

“It may be the case that long term loans with payment periods of 30 to 40 years, instalments may still be being paid even after they had been paid off in full…..Over the past five years, a lot of loans were taken and we are now in the grace period before the repayment of these loaans commence… All this happened because the Treasury Secretary began to work under the President with his powers…. If the Kapuwa defecates inside the devale, the God does not make an issue of it….”

In the part that Sirasa TV broadcast of the Auditor General’s speech, he was shown stating among other things that “Debt according to the records of the Central Bank is Rs. 10 trillion but the balance sheet contains only Rs.1.1 trillion in assets. Because they could not control debt, they concealed the debt. The loans taken for the Norochcholai Power Plant are with the CEB, and the Loans for the Mattala airport and the Suriyawewa stadium are with the Aviation authority and loans amounting to Rs. 136 billion taken for rebuilding rural roads are with the RDA. The Pensions Dept. has loans amounting to Rs. 37 billion taken to pay pensions and the interest payable for this money amounted to Rs. 1.3 billion in 2016.”

This was the Auditor General of the country telling the public that he has no idea of how much the country owes. The very next day, the Central Bank moved swiftly to control the damage. The CB issued a media release without referring to the Auditor General but to ‘recent media reports about the recording of government debt’. In this media release, the Central Bank has stated among other things that “the CBSL compiles and publishes Central Government debt based on its database on issuance of domestic debt and international commercial borrowings on behalf of the Government and also the information it receives from the Ministry of Finance and the External Resources Department…Central Government debt so compiled by CBSL has been reviewed and accepted by international agencies including the International Monetary Fund… to date, the Government of Sri Lanka has maintained an unblemished record of debt servicing…” The anxiety of the Central Bank to set the record straight was understandable. What got Greece locked out of the international financial markets and caused its spectacular financial collapse was the admission that it had been understating the size of its budget deficits.

How could the Auditor General not know?

Regarding the claim that the Auditor General is unaware of the total government debt because the figures compiled by the finance ministry relate only to debts that pass through the consolidated fund and did not include the debt of the state owned enterprises, provincial councils and the local authorities, it has to be pointed out that according to Article 154 of our Constitution, the Auditor General’s assigned task is to audit all departments and agencies of the central government, each and every public enterprise where the shareholding of the government is 50% or above, and all provincial councils and all local authorities – each taken separately. Article 154(5) of the Constitution vests the Auditor-General with sweeping powers to enable him to carry out his duties, making it mandatory for information to be provided to him and giving him as access to all books, records, returns and other documents, stores and other property belonging to the institutions that come under his jurisdiction.

According to Article 154(6) of the Constitution, the Auditor-General is mandatorily required to report to Parliament within ten months after the close of each financial year and as and when he deems it necessary, on the performance and, discharge of his duties and functions under the Constitution. It should be noted that the Auditor General’s responsibility according to the Constitution is not just to audit the yearly accounts but to make interventions “as and when he deems it necessary”. Moreover the position of Auditor General is an independent office answerable only to Parliament. Since it is the Auditor General’s responsibility to audit each and every agency and department in the central government, and each public enterprise, each provincial council and each local authority separately, he is the last person in this country who can say that he is unaware of how much money each such body owes and to whom.

When the Auditor General says that the debt owed by the public enterprises, the provincial councils and the local authorities have remained unaccounted for the past ten years, that raises the question as to how the four or five Auditor Generals over the past ten years including Gamini Wijesinghe himself had been signing the audit reports of these bodies all this while. Furthermore, there are only a limited number of state owned enterprises, a limited number of provincial councils and a limited number local authorities all of which fall under the direct jurisdiction of the Auditor General and if he comes before the public and claims that he does not know how much these bodies owe and to whom, the Auditor General should be removed from office immediately because he has not been doing the only task assigned to him. Furthermore, our local authorities and provincial councils cannot borrow money from overseas and they would borrow money only from local banks. Even our state owned enterprises will borrow only from local banks.

Only one or two of the best state owned enterprises like the National Savings Bank will have the clout to be able to raise money in international financial markets and that too only with a Treasury guarantee. So even the local banks will be able to provide the Auditor General comprehensive breakdowns of how much they have lent to what government body. Thus the Auditor General can collect the debt data from each public enterprise, provincial council and local authority and combine it with the debt passing through the consolidated fund and announce the sum total of public debt to the public.

Example of the RDA & the PCs

The Auditor General also charged that the Road Development Authority (RDA) which is not a revenue earning body also had debts of Rs. 136 billion, thus suggesting to the public that some shady practice has been going on. However in actual fact, Section 15 of the Road Development Act No: 73 of 1981, which goes as follows, expressly permits the RDA to borrow: “The Authority may, with the consent of the Minister, borrow temporarily by way of overdraft or otherwise, such sums as the Authority may require for meeting the obligations of the Authority in discharging its duties under this Act. Provided that the aggregate of the amounts outstanding in respect of any temporary loans raised by the Authority under this section shall not at any time exceed such sum as may be determined by the Minister in consultation with the Minister in charge of the subject of Finance.”

According to Section 14 of the RDA Act, the RDA shall have its own Fund, to which shall be paid all such sums voted for the RDA by Parliament, and all such sums of money as may be received by the Authority by way of loans, donations, gifts or grants from any source whatsoever. The RDA Act also lays down the purposes for which the Fund of the Authority can be used. “The Authority may utilize the funds of the Authority for the purpose of defraying any expenditure incurred in the management of the affairs of the Authority, the transaction of business of the Authority, the payment of remuneration to the employees of the Authority, the exercise of the powers and the performance of the duties and functions of the Authority…”

Hence, any loans taken by the RDA are perfectly legal and they are meant to be repaid as and when Parliament votes funds for the RDA through the annual budget. Most if not all state owned enterprises such as the Ceylon Electricity Board and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation are authorized by their Statutes to borrow and repay loans and these function for the most part are like what prevails in independent business enterprises; the only difference between such enterprises and a private company being that the state owned enterprises are owned by the state whereas private companies are owned by individuals. The functioning of the state owned enterprises is a matter that is specifically dealt with by the IMF in its Article IV consultations with the Sri Lankan government. The IMF has been pushing for market pricing of electricity and fuel so that these enterprises will be able to run on their own incomes with no reliance on fund infusions from the government.

Sections 35 and 36 of the Provincial Councils list in the Ninth Schedule of our Constitution confers on the Provincial Councils the power to borrow money and to levy certain taxes and fees. Under Section 154R(3) of the Constitution, the Central Government is obliged to vote from the annual budget only such sums as are necessary to meet the shortfall between the revenue of the provincial councils and the funds necessary for them to function. Hence the both the debt and the revenue of the provincial councils do not appear on the books of the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank. However the Auditor General has access to all this information in the provincial councils as well as the local government institutions because he has to audit them as well and he cannot claim ignorance of what the outstanding liabilities of these institutions are.

Even though the Auditor General claims to be clueless about the money owed by the state owned enterprises, the provincial councils and the local authorities, we don’t seem to hear of any local authority or provincial council or a public enterprise that has been denied credit by a bank for default. That we have not heard of such a thing even in the chaotic situation following the election to power of the yahapalana government appears to be testimony to the resilience of the system.

The ‘assets’ of the nation

One of the most questionable statements made by the Auditor General was that the country had borrowings of more than Rs.10 trillion in its books but that the assets of the country were only Rs. 1.1 trillion. The universal method of measuring the level of indebtedness of a country is to measure the total debt against the GDP. It is the growth in the GDP and the increase in government revenue that determines our ability to repay our debt. While this is the basic way of measuring debt used by all nations, it would appear that some countries have a convention of indicating the estimated value of a nation’s assets in its ‘balance sheet’. Privately owned companies indicate the value of their assets in their balance sheets which means the total value of the land, buildings, equipment, patents, rights, and even furniture and fixtures they may own. In fact as far as a private company is concerned, the balance sheet may be more important than the profit and loss account. Even if a private company has been making losses in its profit and loss account for years, still if it has more assets than liabilities, the company is still officially afloat.

Those of us educated in Sri Lanka would be quite familiar with the idea of a private company having a balance sheet but we were never taught to look at a country’s balance sheet with assets and liabilities! When a nation also adopts a convention of indicating the value of its assets, that means the value of everything in that nation to which a monetary value can be attached. Deposits of minerals, cultivated and uncultivated land, the value of every house, building, car, lorry, patent, and tourist attraction and the value of the human resources in that country can all be categorized as the assets of a nation. All this is added up and a notional figure of ‘assets’ of the nation are produced. Thus we see some writers claiming that there is nothing to be upset about the USA being about 19 trillion dollars in debt because the assets of the USA run into hundreds of trillions of dollars! Trying to measure the debt of a nation against the value of its assets serves no purpose other than to provide some psychological comfort to the inhabitants of that country.

If Sri Lanka also began giving notional values to our assets, the debt of 10 trillion will look trivial indeed. The land prices in Colombo rival that of developed Western countries. What should be understood is that different conventions apply to the accounts of a private company and to national accounts. While the assets vs liabilities balance sheet will be all important in a private company, it has little or no relevance for a nation state. For a nation state, what counts is the debt to GDP ratio and the revenue figures. In Sri Lanka it is the Department of State Accounts in the Treasury that compiles the national accounts in keeping with accepted international accounting conventions.

Our Department of State Accounts does not include an estimate of the value of the total assets of Sri Lanka. You cannot seek a correspondence between the debt incurred and the assets of a nation. If a project is being built with a loan, then there will be some correspondence between the debt incurred and the asset that is left at the end of it. But if a World Bank loan is taken for poverty alleviation, there will be no physical asset at the end of the programme unless you attach some notional value to human resources. In every nation in the world, as in Sri Lanka, a large proportion of the debt incurred is for recurrent expenditure which leaves no asset remaining. If the USA is 19 trillion dollars in debt, there wouldn’t be many assets that have been acquired with this 19 trillion dollars.

In a private company, the debt of the company appears as a liability in its balance sheet along with all its tangible and intangible assets. But national accounts are not prepared in that way. Those of us educated in this country have been looking at GDP figures and government revenue figures budget deficits and the like but we have never had a practice of looking at the assets of a country! Fortunately for us, the financial markets and the multilateral agencies such as the IMF that do business with Sri Lanka are well aware that this country was turned into a madhouse after 8 January 2015, and they do not take the pronouncements by leaders of this government seriously. Recently, when the President said that the country was Rs.10 trillion in debt but had only Rs. 1.1 trillion worth of assets to show for it, the former Governor of the Central Bank issued a statement to Reuters asking the financial markets not to panic and that the Sri Lankan leaders don’t know what they are talking about.

Now no less a personality than the Auditor General of the country has personally held a press conference and echoed the President by saying that the country was Rs. 10 trillion in debt and had only Rs.1.1 trillion in assets to show for it. Still, no one seems to have taken the slightest notice. The stock market did not collapse, and the exchange rate did not go haywire. Anywhere else in the world, the kind of pronouncements made by the President, the Prime Minister and now the Auditor General would have immediately resulted in a collapse of the economy and we would have been locked out of the international financial markets. Here miraculously, the country is still afloat despite the bizarre statements being routinely made by holders of high office. The question that all this raises is, how long can this irresponsibility continue before the chickens come home to roost?

Auditor General Gamini Wijesinghe draws flak for timing of national debt claim SLPP slams govt. over AG’s conduct, polls monitors differ

February 10th, 2018

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

Alleging that Auditor General Gamini Wijesinghe has issued a controversial statement in respect of national debt beneficial to the ruling coalition ahead of the Feb. 10 local government polls, National Polls Observation Center (NPOC) has urged the National Election Commission and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka to inquire into the official’s conduct.

NPOC National Organizer and attorney-at-law Rasanga Harischandra yesterday told The Island that Wijesinghe had thrown his weight behind the government at the expense of other political parties in the fray.

Pointing out that there was a sharp difference between the debt calculations by the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance, Wijesinghe said that the total debt, foreign and domestic, of Sri Lanka had been Rs. 10.3 trillion by November 30, 2017.

In a letter hand delivered to the CEO, Institute of Chartered Accountants, Aruna de Alwis on Thursday, Harischandra called for an immediate and comprehensive inquiry into the conduct of Wijesinghe, a Chartered Accountant, in accordance with Section 17 of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka. The NPOC has requested that the investigation especially deal with breach of the “General Applications of the Code’ as well as the breach of the Code by “Professional Accountants in Public Practice.”

Aruna de Alwis confirmed receiving a letter assuring that due process in respect of such a complaint would be followed.

Harischandra stressed that as the Auditor General had never played politics previously and Wijesinghe’s move had surprised them. Harischandra faulted Director General Information Sudarshana Gunawardena for allowing Wijesinghe to use the Information Department to address the media on Feb. 7 morning.

Harischandra stressed that Wijesinghe had no right whatsoever to disclose information pertaining to public sector institutes subjected to auditing process. The NPOC spokesman said that the outfit was yet to receive response from Chartered Accountants and the National Elections Commission.

Information Chief Gunawardena strongly defended his decision to allow the AG to use the Information Department. Gunawardena insisted that the AG’s right to use Information Department to deal with national debt couldn’t be challenged under any circumstances. Gunawardena was responding to a query by The Island as regards allegations made by NPOC and Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP).

SLPP Secretary and attorney-at-law Sagara Kariyawasam has, in a letter to Gunawardena, warned that he will be appropriately dealt in future. Kariyawasam has accused Gunawardena of running a special unit within the Information Department to undermine the SLPP/Joint Opposition.

Gunawardena made available a copy of the letter received from Kariyawasam to The Island.

CAFFE Executive Director Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon told The Island that his outfit really appreciated the AG’s stand. Of course anyone could challenge Wijesinghe in respect figures released at the media briefing, Tennakoon said, adding that the national economy wouldn’t have been in crisis if proper auditing systems had been in place. Tennakoon pointed out that Wijesinghe’s statement should be viewed against the backdrop of the Rajapaksa administration decision not to enact the National Audit Bill for a decade and the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government holding it up for the last three years.

PAFFREL chief Rohana Hettiarachchi told The Island that political parties or any other organisation couldn’t find fault with the AG for making a public statement regarding national debt. It would be the responsibility of politicians and relevant officials to address concerns expressed by the AG. However, the AG shouldn’t have caused unnecessary controversy on the eve of countrywide election, the first in three years, by calling a special media briefing, Hettiarachchi asserted. The civil activist said that different groups viewed the AG’s move from different perspectives.

Transparency International Sri Lanka representative told The Island that those responsible should take tangible measures to address concerns raised by the AG. Asked whether the TISL felt that the AG’s statement had given some advantage to a particular political party, the spokesman said: “While the timing of the revelation just before the moratorium on election campaigning is unfortunate, it is important for the integrity of the electoral process that it is interpreted as an issue of financial discipline and not as a politically sensitive matter.”

The CAFFE, PAFFREL and TISL admitted that there should be national discussion on the national debt issue.

Britain’s VVIP Terrorists the LTTE: Case of Brigadier Priyankara Fernando

February 9th, 2018

We want truth & justice” – oh yes, so do we. But we need to get some facts cleared first. Can the British Government please explain to the world why LTTE remains banned in the UK since 2001 while LTTE supporters are free to carry LTTE flags, hold pro-LTTE rallies and scream Our Nation Tamil Eelam – Our Leader Prabakaran? We are a little puzzled why banned terrorist movements get police protection for these rallies too. Why should the British Government molly-cuddle LTTE terrorists & their supporters. We would very much like to have an answer to this. British MPs are openly canvassing for LTTE fronts. This is totally against every protocol the Brits preach and nowhere near the supposed gentlemen’s behavior the British are so cocky about. Britain has a lot to answer in giving VVIP status to a terrorist organization that remains banned in the UK and it is damn hilarious to find the perpetrators of crimes pointing fingers and getting away because Governments like the UK are playing footsie.

Let’s first start with the issue at hand.

On 4th February 2018 Sri Lanka celebrated what we presume to be 70 years of independence. That same day a bunch of people holding LTTE flags decided to stage a protest outside the Sri Lanka High Commission in London. For what reason the Mission decided to send its officials out of the compound, we do not know, but we did see Brig. Priyankara Fernando serving as the Defense Counselor giving a hand message to the terrorist supporters. Let’s get it clear that there were LTTE supporters as they were all carrying LTTE flags and screaming Our Leader Prabakaran.

Our nation : Tamil Eelam

Our Leader : Prabakaran

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WhDtGLWBzQ pro-LTTE protest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uTiyacA22w pro-LTTE protest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwcn7l6qABQ&feature=youtu.be the video of Brig. Fernando making a throat slitting hand gesture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu6T5nfLZmA – an Indian questioning the Brig about 500 Indian fishermen killed… another fairytale

The video having gone viral over social media, suddenly has the Foreign Ministry suspending the Brigadier & recalling him back to Colombo sans investigation or explanation which days later led to the intervention of the Sri Lankan President to revoke the suspension.

Protestors carrying LTTE flags and shouting Our Eelam and Our Leader Prabakaran are NOT representing Tamil civilians. Let’s get that cleared. UN & International Community are on record and enough evidence is available to conclude that Tamils were kept as human shields and hostages during the final stages of the conflict despite appeals to release them and plenty of Tamils were shot by LTTE when trying to flee and enter Sri Lankan Government areas. Therefore, anyone commenting on the incident has to realize that the protestors were promoting LTTE and Eelam and using civilian slogans as a camouflage only. Anyone promoting a terrorist organization are no cherubic angels!

What a farcical tragi-comedy unfolded thereafter. The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam – that ‘government’ in the sky which continues to, by the way remain banned under UNSC 1373 as an LTTE front is urging the British Government to take action against the Brigadier for war crimes, genocide. The hilarious part about this allegation is that the intellectually-weak who actually believe and accept this notion have not thought for a minute to check the population statistics and wonder how Tamil population can be increasing while a genocide is taking place. Hilarious isn’t it? Maybe they all need a new maths teacher!

Meanwhile, the real crusader of truth, Chair of All Party Parliamentary Group on Sri Lanka, Lord Naseby remarked: If there is any genocide in Sri Lanka it is by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who hold civilian Tamils by force as a human shield in the war. This talk about genocide is rubbish. The only people who are causing genocide are the LTTE who are holding the civilians as a human shield.” (March 2009)

While the TGTE members, that government in the sky has been living in the UK and other foreign climes, making hay with the money generated from the very lucrative LTTE business kitty of illegal and legal activities, it was people like Brig Fernando who liberated many Tamils who were kept as hostages and human shields by the LTTE and the Tamil people he saved continue to shower praise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8QhSNwcau4

About Brig. Priyankara Fernando

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7nWiGffJ7I a friend’s version of Brig. Fernando

The social media circulated 2 letters the first letter was sent by Joan Ryan & Siobhan McDonagh.

This letter addressed to Boris Johnson, Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs and signed by MPs Joan Ryan and Siobhain McDonagh on 5th February 2018 claimed that Members of the Tamil community had been ‘congregating peacefully’ outside the Sri Lanka High Commission wherein Brig. Priyankara Fernando had made a throat slitting hand gesture and should be expelled from UK.

Who is Joan Ryan? Joan Marie Ryan, is a former Labour MP from Enfield. She is presently the CEO and Policy & Communication Advisor of the British Tamil Forum (named as a LTTE from in 2014 and removed by the present Government in 2015 and part of the umbrella organization headed by Global Tamil Forum also banned in 2014 and ban removed in 2015)

Her election campaign was helped by Dr. Muregeshu Vinayagamoorthy from Nottingham who provided Pratheepan Thavarasa, a former bodyguard of Prabakaran & later deputy head of LTTE procurement safe haven in his home. Dr. Moorthy was jailed in US for 4 years having attempted to bribe US officials to delist LTTE. His right to practice was also removed in the UK.

The All Party Parliamentary Group is one of the 4 Advocacy Lobby wings of the British Tamil Forum explicityly set up to lobby UK MPs. The other 3 groups are the Tamils for Labor, British Tamils for Liberal Democrats, British Tamil Conservatives. The tapped British MPs are in turn able to influence British Public Officials and the Commonwealth Office. Why else did David Miliband dash over to stop the military offensive in 2009 J The authenticity of this was confirmed in a wikileaks that revealed Milibands trip had nothing to do with human rights but everything to do with obtaining Tamil votes.

Now you can guess why British MPs are 24×7 issuing statements against Sri Lanka! How else are fronts associated with the LTTE able to hold inauguration sessions inside the British Parliament. You won’t find Al Qaeda or ISIS being so lucky – so what’s this special treatment the Brits are giving to LTTE?

If anyone is in doubt about the LTTE links, here’s another example the 1st President of BTF was Kandiah Senthilkumar who was an associate of then LTTE UK Chief Shanthan (cousin of Prabakaran’s wife) who was arrested by the British police in June 2007. The LTTE web site www.eelam.com was registered in A. C. Shanthan’s name, with the LTTE HQ, Eelam House, 202 Long Lane, London SE1 as the registered address

This is what former Tamil Guardian editor Rajasingham Jayadevan wrote of the LTTE-BTF relationship

Shanthan used the services of Liverpool basd Dr. N Satchthananthan & Senthilkumar to extend his forceful takeover efforts. Senthilkumar who is the present head of the British Tamil Forum who successfully brought the IBC and TTN under LTTE control while Dr. Satchithananthan played his role obediently to take over the Tamil Guardian. Those who did not co-operate were branded traitors & treated with contempt”.

The BTF set up the APPGT in May 2007 and its Chairman was Keith Vaz Labor MP who was investigated for corruption and of late for pimping too J APPGT Vice Chairman was MP Simon Hughes.

Anything coming out of their mouths is therefore controversial and biased given that they are holding portfolios in these fronts.

Incidentally, Simon Hughes constituency is Southwark and Burmondsey in London where the international headquarters of the LTTE is (Eelaam House 202 Long Lane, London) Britain you seriously need to redefine what a banned organization is because we are somewhat puzzled how a banned terrorist organization can openly run an international office in London itself!

By 2011, the BTF managed to expand APPGT to 69 British MPs which included Lee Scott as Chair, Virendra Sharma, Siobhain McDonagh, Gavin Barvell, Robert Halfon. It is alleged that the LTTE through its regional finance head Vasanthan from Southall funded the by-election which Sharma contested.

The 2nd letter’s authenticity is very much in question given that the date was 2nd February 2018 (2 days before the pro-LTTE protest) and signed by Mangala Samaraweera as Foreign Minister though he is no longer the Foreign Minister and does not have any mandate to sign as Foreign Minister. What is shocking about this letter is that it is claiming that the PM recommended to the President to suspend the defense attache and court martial him upon his return.

It is at the behest of the letter by pro-LTTE British stooges that the Foreign Ministry of Sri Lanka issued a media release on 6 February 2018 suspending the Defense Attache.

Foreign Ministry response on 6 February 2018 – http://www.mfa.gov.lk/images/stories/MediaRel-SLUK.pdf

The manner that the British MPs holding posts in the pro-LTTE fronts called for the removal of the Brigadier and the foreign ministry reaction automatically reasserts the allegation that Sri Lanka foreign policy was being decided and lobbied from overseas. This allegation gathers further momentum in the 2013 Singapore Principles where the former Foreign Minister and present promoter of a new constitution assured to change the Sri Lankan constitution to meet the desires of the LTTE diaspora lobby that they met in Singapore. 

UK banned LTTE (British Terrorism Act 2000) in February 2001 months before 9/11. Nevertheless, LTTE had been operating Eelam House” located in Mitcham, Surrey since 1970s which was opened by Bishop Rayappu Joseph. Anton & Adele Balasingham freely operated from UK. Adele who trained females & Tamil children to kill and even commit suicide lives very happily in the UK. What is stopping the UK government from pursuing criminal charges against her?

Are these ban’s worth its weight if the promoters of the banned organization get to hob-nob with British MPs and determine policy through their lobbying?

Every country that has banned LTTE but allow its fronts to influence foreign MPs are violating the rights of the citizens of these countries. British politicians are voted to represent the British people not citizens of foreign nations.

Here are a number of events that questions the policy of the British Government.

  • 2013 – Feb 27: Global Tamil Forum 3rd anniversary conference held at House of Parliament, Committee Room 14 – Speakers ere Nick Clegg, Ed Davey MP, Ed Miliband MP, Simon Hughes MP, Keith Vaz MP. Baroness Warsi, Yolanda Foster (Amnesty International), Erik Solheim, David Miliband and Callum Macrae. Vote of thanks was delivered by Rt. Hon Joan Ryan, Policy Advisor, GTF.
  • 2012 – Nov 10 – World Tamil Conference held at British House of Parliament.
  • 2011 June 15: After release of Channel 4 documentary, UK presses Sri Lanka to investigate alleged war crimes or face international inquiry.
  • 2009 – Jun 19: Arunachal Chrishanthakumar (A C Shanthan) of British Tamil Association jailed for 2 years for providing equipment for LTTE.
  • 2009 – May 31: Demonstrations outside UK Parliament by pro-LTTE demonstrators for 43 days has cost UK police 8million sterling pounds (Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson). Police had to reduce policing in London streets, demonstrators had pelted stones and other missiles at the Indian High Commission breaking the bullet proof windows and even stoning SL High Commission. Pro-LTTE supporter also waved LTTE flags with LTTE insignia – all violations of UK anti-terror laws.
  • 2009 – May 24: Pro-LTTE supporters attack 5 ‘Sam’ Chicken’ outlets owned by Sam Chandrasingha in Wembley, Kingsbury, Wilsden, Sudbury Hill and Cricklewood.
  • 2009 – May 14: Sri Lankan Buddhist temples in London attacked by LTTE
  • 2009 – May 13: Sri Saddhatissa International Buddhist Center in Kingsbury North West London attacked with stones. Ninth occasion that the temple has been attacked.
  • 2008 – Aug 7: Sri Lankan Tamil jailed in UK for 2 years and 9 months after confessing cloning credit cards of British customers for LTTE – sterling pounds 175,000 theft to LTTE.
  • 2008 – May 8: British police charge 4 Tamils for conspiring to support LTTE – Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar alias AC Shanthan, 51; Jegatheswaran Muraleetharan alias Muralee Tharan, 46; Jeyatheswaran Vythyatharan alias Vithy Tharan, 39; and Murugesu Jegatheeswaran alias M Jegan, 33.
  • 2008 – Apr 22: London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, addresses meeting co-organized by British Tamil Forum, an LTTE front though warned at highest diplomatic levels about terror links. At a BTF meeting held at Excel Center, Docklands on 27 Nov 2007 a video message from LTTE leader Prabakaran was played where he praises suicide bombing.
  • 2008 – Jan 22: a 2008 Calendar depicting LTTE logo and map of separate state of ‘Tamil Eelam’ sold outside Hindu temples in London on Jan 1st at the rate of five pounds and 10 pounds each.
  • 2008 – Jan 16: British Tamil Forum calls for boycott of Sri Lankan Airlines to deny estimated earnings of £12 million every year from British Tamils travelling to Sri Lanka – head of BTF Ivan Pedropillai also urged British tourists not to travel to Sri Lanka.
  • 2008 – Jul 16: British Tamil Forum organizes photo exhibition in British Parliament attended by UK MPs, Members of House of Lords, former cabinet ministers, mayors, international and UK organizations, even 3 MPs of TNA Ms Padmini Sithamparanathan MP, Jayananthamoorthi MP and Gagendran MP.
  • 2007 – Aug 28: LTTE cadres receiving ‘police’ training in UK after 2002 ceasefire agreement probed after arrest of LTTE suspect Kalimuttu Vinodkumar who informed that he was one of 12 LTTE cadres sent for a 3month training to Northern Ireland after CFA was signed and conducted by foreign instructors with help of Tamil translators.
  • 2007 – Jul 8: UK places LTTE as 2nd most dangerous terrorist group after Al Qaeda. UK has 44 groups on its list of terrorist organizations.
  • 2007 – Jul 5: UK Court freezes bank accounts of LTTE leader A C Shanthan – Krishnatha Kumar and wife. 28 charges are filed againt Shanthan including extortion, operation of business enterprises, printing press and oil storages with ill-gotten wealth. All employees were LTTE members. These businesses had earned sterling pounds 4billion upto Jul2nd. Goldan Lambert arrested along with Shanthan is under house arrest. Lambert faces charges of kidnapping for ransom and extortion. Pakyadevi a LTTE female cadre is absconding.
  • 2007 – May 16: London court told that Senthuraj Thavapalasingham alias ‘Psycho’ of Romford is leading LTTE extortionist gang called ‘East side boys’ in Newham. Chief Inspector Derrick Griffiths says ‘to my knowledge there are around 5 Tamil gangs operating in London. This is a gang of about 30 young men aged between 15 and 32 years paid by an organization called the LTTE. They were paid to extort money from local businessmen and residents. Their victims were paying anywhere between Pounds 5,000 and 25,000 a year. In one case a businessman was paying 25,000 a year for four years.”
  • 2007 – May 6: BBC report on Armulmihu Hindu temple in Tooting south London said to raise nearly £500,000 each year, is said to have links to the LTTE in Sri Lanka.
  • 2007 – Jan 19: Chennai police arrests G Elango, LTTE agent carrying a British passport along with 28 ATM cards. Elango withdraw INR30 lakhs from ATMs and sent to UK. Elango is a shareholder in ‘Thamilini’ a cash and carry grocery shop in UK.

Pro-LTTE Organizations

  • Tamil Rehabilitation organization (TRO)  –banned in the UK in August 2005 but not before it transferred its funds £1.3 million to White Pigeon. TRO quickly re-registered as ITRO. One of the trustees of TRO, UK, N. Sathyamoorthy is a director of ITRO. TRO has declared to the British authorities that since 1995 approximately 2.5 million pounds have gone from Britain to LTTE control, tax free, via the charity under the guise of rehabilitation work”. TRO has raised approximately 3 million pounds since 1995 and have no staff costs, most of those who canvass for the TRO are working for the other two charities and the Housing Association and are receiving salaries courtesy of the British tax payer. The total salary costs since 1995 of the Housing Association and the two charities (excluding TRO which has no salary costs) is approximately 1.5 million pounds.
  • White Pigeon transferred approx. £500,000 (SL Rs 98.64 million) from its account at the National Westminster Bank, Sutton branch. It regularly transmits funds to the Bumiputhra Commerce Bank in Kuala Lumpur which is the bank account of the World Tamil Relief Fund for procurement of military hardware for the LTTE.
  • World Tamil Movement (WTM),
  • Tamil Coordinating Committee (TCC),
  • Tamil Youth Organisation UK (TYO UK)
  • British Tamil Association (BTA)
  • British Tamil Forum(BTF) – launched in 2006,
  • Tamil Youth Organization (TYO),
  • London Tamil Manram
  • Tamil Co-ordinating Committee
  • Eelam Solidarity Campaign
  • Tamil Information Centre
  • International Federation of Tamils – publishes Kalathil a Tamil journal, N Satyendran, son of late S Nadesan QC legal brain of LTTE is its advisor
  • World Saiva Council
  • International Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (ITRO registered immediate after TRO was delisted).
  • The Tamil Refugee Action Group even got a British National Lottery grant of 78,450 pounds on 2nd December 1998.
  • Tamil Refugee Education and Training Centre received a British National Lottery grant of 155,484 pounds, on 4th March 1999.
  • The two leading LTTE front organizations are the BTF and the GTF (launched on 24 Feb 2010 at the UK House of Commons in the presence of then British Foreign Secretary David Miliband). There is also the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPG-T). The Chair is Lee Scott MP, Ilford North while Siobhain McDonough MP Mitcham and Morden is Vice Chair. MP Robert Halfon (Treasurer and Secretary)
  • Both BTF and GTF were launched in the UK.
  • GTF is led by 75 year old Catholic priest Father S J Emmanual
  • British Prime Minster Gordon Brown met with representatives of the GTF. The Conservative shadow” foreign secretary William Hague, and his Liberal Democrat counterpart, Ed Davery, addressed the GTF conference. Conservative Party leader David Cameron and Robert Blake, the current US Secretary of State for South and Central Asia and a former US ambassador to Sri Lanka, sent greetings. Reverend Jesse Jackson, who was introduced as President Obama’s friend,” gave a speech welcoming the GTF’s founding. Is this not imperialistic patronage at its best?

 

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=YOUR_MAJESTY_Are_you_aware_that_UK_MPs_openly_support_LTTE_terrorist_fronts_20130306_03

Human Rights Watch ‘Funding the final war- LTTE intimidation and extortion in the Tamil Diaspora, a case study of UK and Canada’ – extortion range from £2000 to £100,000 from Tamil families and businesses. Killings for non-payment ex: Subramaniam Sivakumar, a Tamil businessman operating a grocery (Apna Bazaar) in North West London was killed on 5 January 2006

Tamil gang violence – stabbing to death of a Tamil on 16 February 2006 at McDonalds, Tooting. In 2005, 16 killings were reported involving Sri Lankan Tamils.

Kovils collecting money – Sivayogam Temple in Tooting sending explosives as tsunami aid, sponsoring LTTE boatyard at Sampoor 

Annual remittances from UK is about £10 million through extortion and other illegal activities

UK Government watches LTTE stage 2 annual events held on 27 Nov (Prabakaran’s Birthday) and 25 July (Black July) 

If UK has banned LTTE in 2001, is it correct for

  • Keith Simpson to address British Tamil Conservatives in January 2010?
  • Siobhain McDonagh MP to demand UK take action against Sri Lanka – hansard transcript http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm101027/debtext/101027-0001.htm#10102752000011
  • Hon. Douglas Alexander to call for an international commission on inquiry at a Tamils for Labor event?
  • MP Gareth Thomas raising concerns about UK decision to deport Tamil asylum seekers?
  • MP Lee Scott who is the Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils calling for ‘justice for Tamils’
  • 41 British MPs to write to David Cameron in 2011 calling for an international inquiry against Sri Lanka?
  • Attendance of many UK MPs and foreign VIPs at the World Tamil Conference held in the British Parliament in 2012 where a resolution calling for the removal of the Sri Lankan military in the north, stopping Sinhalization of Tamil Homeland, stop decimation of Tamil Nation were endorsed

British MPs should focus on finding out how many Britishers who go to fill petrol and pay by credit card have their details cloned and their money illegally sent out to fund terror? LTTE operatives in the UK are key culprits of this crime.

British voters must demand that its Parliamentarians and the UK Prime Minister get hold of the organized crime taking place under their very noses.

LTTE fronts were forcing Tamil Diaspora to make ‘voluntary’ donations now every Britisher is being targeted. How many British citizens are aware that their money is being indirectly used to fund terror?

There are 9500 petrol sheds across the UK – calculate how many of these have LTTE operatives working in them and the credit card scams that take place. Already 200 filling stations have been identified in Edinburgh, Norwich, Bury St Edmunds, Peterborough, Nottingham, Leeds, Bristol and Hull. Conservative Party MP Andrew Selous wife was also a victim with 1000 pounds stolen from her account (in New York)

British MPs should find out how many other LTTE charities are manipulating the kindness of the British public and using their donations to buy arms and ammunition sending out the money tax-free.

British MPs should be concerned about how LTTE a foreign terrorist organization has defrauded the British Treasury, Her Majesty’s Inland Revenue and Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise of over 1million pounds by raising over 3million pounds in the UK without paying value added tax on turnover and transferring over 2.5million out of UK since 1995 exploiting the ‘charity status’ it has deceptively acquired.

British MPs must begin to wake up to the fact that LTTE fronts are at the center of everything from credit card frauds to money laundering, drug trafficking to international narcotics trade and operating illegal shipping network as well. With LTTE ground force now no more why have these LTTE fronts not discontinued its money collection? Annual remittances from UK through various illegal activities is around £10 million – this money belongs to Britain and not to LTTE fronts.

What can be more treacherous or diplomatically incorrect than a Brigadier showing a gesture with his hands & a government co-sponsoring a legally flawed, procedurally questionable resolution that accepts that its own national army committed war crimes and is agreeable to create tribunals in order to punish them? Anyone is welcome to take their time to answer the question.

Shenali D Waduge

The Government Distracts the People From Its Imminent Plans to Present in Parliament the ‘Sri Lanka-for-Sale’ Bill

February 9th, 2018

By Gandara John

What a circus! What a spectacle! The government has adroitly manoeuvered the forthcoming election on 10 Feb 18 to be fought, once again, on the theme of ‘Corruption’.

Corruption, as Sri Lanka’s great bank robbery revealed, is wildly rampant at all levels of our polity.

After evidence had been led at the ‘Bond-Scam’ hearings, Wickramasinghe has been, with reason, portrayed by the media as a common or garden swindler who, despite the revelations, continues to remain in office impeding further investigation and the cause of justice.

Sirisena, a self-styled Maoist, was by public admission a member of a family which had only 5 chairs to show as assets; today, the family is one of the richest in the country owning hotels, hospitals and warehouses.

Evidently, anyone having a monopoly of ownership of warehouses, as the Sirisena family has, is in a position to ‘fix’ the price of rice in this country.

Clearly associated with the heist were Wickramasinghe, Karunanayake, Samarawickrema, Hashim, Mahendran, Aloysius and a number of bit players like Senasinghe and the ‘foot-note’ battas who make up the numbers in the gang.

With the election drawing closer, Sirisena joined the circus, cracking his whip or rather ‘swinging his sword wildly’ more in the fashion of a ‘gam batta’ than a ‘dasa maha yodaya’.

With Sirisena’s pretentious display of anger and Wickramasinghe’s puerile behavior in parliament as a cheer leader at a Big Match, it is evident that the duo is attempting to divert the attention of the voters at the forthcoming election from the diabolic plans made by the government, which could result in the destruction of Sri Lanka, perhaps forever

With the ‘Bond scam’ spectacle, the Government cleverly concealed its imminent plans to ‘sell-off’ Sri Lanka piecemeal to the powerful countries operating in the Indian Ocean.

When the subject of discussion and address at election rallies should have been whether Sri Lanka, in its present configuration, could survive to the end of this Century as a Nation State (especially when plans are afoot to auction-off the country piecemeal to foreign powers), the opposition fell into the government trap by lending themselves to campaigning on a platform of ‘Corruption’.

Has the government been honest and told the people that it has already prepared this disastrous Bill and that it will be presented to parliament in February or March this year?

Has the government divulged the contents of the Bill which confers the powers of the Executive President, re leasing of land, to a Chinese (‘Government-controlled’) company?

Has the government revealed to the public the contents of the Bi-lateral Agreements, hurriedly signed between the governments of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, when their respective Heads of State made sudden official visits to the island, all within the space of one week?

Do the public of the country not have a right to know the detailed contents of those Agreements?

All these critical issues were drowned in the cacophony of the Bond-Scam; Sirisena and Wickramasinghe remain mute on the matter of the government literally auctioning off Sri Lanka piecemeal to foreign powers.

Ranawaka made a vague comment; he alluded to a Bill being presented to Parliament that would cover the Megapolis zones. He dared anyone, to go before Court if they were to consider the Bill unconstitutional.

The news on the grapevine is that the bi-lateral agreements hurriedly signed recently with the three visiting Heads of States are connected to the ‘Sri Lanka-for–Sale’ Bill. Was it a case of putting the cart before the horse or was the government working backwards to make sure the controversial Bill is a fait accompli?

The opposition must act more responsibly; they must demand that the draft Bill be made public as it affects the future of our Motherland.

It is very unlikely that the Government will divulge the details of the Bill, before the Election, as that would be a sure recipe for an ignominious defeat for the government at the polls.

Although the long-delayed election is not a National Election, it has taken on the aura of a National Election considering the dubious and treacherous track record of the government; a vote against the government, analysts say, is a warning shot over the bow of the government, to change immediately its policy direction.

The foreign governments that interfered in the 2015 Election are unhappy with the course of events and are back in business, pumping in huge sums of money to influence the election results; even media outlets that did not take a sycophantic line are now receiving money in the form of advertisements.

The ‘Sri Lanka-for-sale’ Bill is the ‘Colombo International Financial City’ Bill.

The Bill was drafted by Baker Mackenzie, the largest US law firm which works hand in glove with the US State Department and the CIA in their project for globalizing the world and achieving their ‘One-World-Government’ objective.

Baker Mackenzie, a company which Christine Lagarde once headed, works in lock step with the IMF and the World Bank.

John Flood, writing in the Boston College Law Review describes Baker Mackenzie as a ‘Born Global’ company which helps the process of globalization (US Colonisation) at an accelerated rate.

The Government of Sri Lanka hired the services of this undercover CIA legal company for a period of three months, paying it a 1.2 Million US Dollars to meddle with the Constitution and the land laws in the country.

Sri Lanka’s Constitution is discerningly silent on the matter of land rights and land ownership. Consequently, all land in the country belongs to the people and this land is held in custody, by the Government, for the people.

The powers of vesting, gifting, transferring, leasing et cetera of land are conferred on the President of Sri Lanka.

Baker Mackenzie, in drafting the ‘Sri Lanka- for- Sale’ Bill, has in blatant violation of the Constitution, conferred the powers of the President of Sri Lanka in this regard to the Chinese Company which will be managing the Colombo Port City; presently the extent is 269 hectares with the distinct likelihood of the Chinese Company’s jurisdiction extending far beyond.

The Chinese Company in terms of the treacherous Bill can sub-lease any portion of the 269 hectares to any person, company or country it pleases for a period of virtually 200 years (10 Generations).

But worse is to follow. If development projects similar to the Colombo Port City are initiated for instance in Jaffna or Anuradhapura or Kandy or even Bintenne for that matter, the ‘Sri Lanka-for-Sale’ bill has given latitude for this Chinese Company to extend its jurisdiction to these ‘annexed’ territory on the same conditions as the ‘Port City’.

The Bill also includes default clauses which empower the Chinese Company to seize, any land of its choice within Sri Lanka, to make good any default.

This Bill sounds the death knell for Sri Lanka.

What, with these enclaves, there would be Americans, Indians, Japanese, Australians, Chinese and whatever swarming all over the country for the next 200 years with no toe space for Sri Lankans to stand on.

In these ‘alien’ enclaves Sri Lankan laws and Courts will cease to exist; the laws would be British and the Courts would be foreign, both outside the purview of the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka.

And our professionals will have to contend with so-called high end professionals from abroad who are being encouraged into the Port city in numbers.

Our professionals will perforce have to register themselves anew, this time with the professional bodies regulating the Port city and ‘annexed’ cities, if they desire to practise their profession in the ‘enclaves’

And to boot what would we have, if atop all this, a new Constitution is adopted and the Centre (The Government) devolves its power to the provinces!

Baker Mackenzie was paid $1.2 Million by the people of this country from monies received as loans from China.

To avoid detection the government, unlike the proverbial ostrich, formulated a devious scheme; the government set up a local Company which would receive monies from foreign agencies, like US AID, Chinese Banks, Norwegian NGOs and a host of others.

When discreet payments have to be made, it is this Company that is made use of.

The Baker Mackenzie payment was made through this company; this company needs to be urgently investigated for money laundering, subversion and illegal election funding.

It is sad that a former, not-too-efficient, and out-of-job Attorney General lent himself to partake in this skullduggery.

The news on the street is that he made contact with a ‘friend’ working in Wickramasinghe’s office, to secure for himself, a ‘Directorship’ in the company and a fat cat salary.

Sadly, this former AG acts today as a conduit and a money launderer. For a few dollars more it is pathetic to see the former AG having no qualms in participating in the destruction of his Motherland.

When the Baker Mackenzie draft Bill had to be reviewed, the former AG hired another aging ‘gunman-for-hire’ from Australia; this worthy is no stranger to Sri Lanka having previously been hired by the Central Bank -using US AID funds – to draft Sri Lanka’s proposed new Constitution.

The ‘Sri Lanka-for-Sale’ Bill, violating the Constitution, has tinkered with the Land laws of the country, repealing certain provisions in the ‘Crown Land Ordinance No 12 of 1840, the Land Settlement Ordinance No 20 of 1931 and Act No 8 of 1947 which deal with the President’s powers over Land.

The ‘Sri Lanka-for- Sale’ Bill has empowered China no end, vis-à-vis Sri Lanka. The Bill enables China to ‘trade-off’ portions of Sri Lankan territory to any country – friend or foe – for any concessions China could exact from such countries.

For example, India is drilling for oil, off Vietnam, in the South China Sea. The Chinese are very unhappy about it and tensions have flared. If China, under the ‘Sri Lanka-for-Sale’ Bill is able to offer Trincomalee Harbour to the Indians for 200 years, it would be very likely that the Indians would stop their drilling in the South China Sea. Similarly, Japan and the US have serious problems with China in the Chinese Seas.

Although China has major problems with India, US and Japan in the China Sea, they appear to work in amity, in Sri Lanka.

India, Japan and the US are members of the Malabar Military alliance. Moragoda’s Pathfinder NGO, with close links to India and the US has worked hard to bring Sri Lanka into this military alliance; interestingly China has acknowledged this NGO as one of its top ten partners.

How does China’s policies, one of Sri Lanka’s closest allies during the terrorist conflict, harmonise with the changing scenario?

Having a firm control of Sri Lanka, lying in the Ocean centre, linking Europe, Africa and Asia, fits neatly into the Chinese plan of ‘One-Belt-One-Road’ (OBOR), which the US Neoliberals describe in slightly different terminology as ‘One-World-Government’.

In 2013, there was a paradigm shift in China’s policies when Xi addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, proclaimed to the world, that China accepted globalisation (World Colonisation) and was willing to give leadership to that process in the context of Trump’s purported reluctance to retain leadership.

Said Xi,  We must remain committed to developing global free trade and promote trade and investment liberalisation”.

‘One-Belt-One-Road’ and ‘One-World-Government’ are two sides of the same coin.

The circumstances suggest that China will sublease Sri Lanka to other foreign powers for a period of 200 years while ensuring their security at home in South and East China sea.

The result would be that Sri Lanka would be in smithereens.

Is this what Sri Lankans want in the name of ‘laptop’ development?

The people must show their opposition. The people are sovereign. Bear in mind that One man is a majority.

If Sirisena or Wickramasinghe claims that what has been said about the ‘Sri Lanka-for-Sale’ Bill is false, this writer politely requests either of them to bring the document into public domain immediately, for the public to judge.

LTTE  demonstration in London

February 9th, 2018

P.A.Samaraweera

It has become the common practice for LTTE supporters to brandish Tiger flags whenever they demonstrate against Sri Lanka. The LTTE is banned in the UK as a terrorist organisation. Despite this, British authorities and the Police permit LTTE  sympathisers to display terrorist flags during their parades.

During the recent incident, where Brigadier Fernando, Defence Attache, was involved, those who demonstrated in front of the Sri Lankan High Commission in London, had not only carried LTTE flags but also shouted slogans supporting the LTTE. In the past as well, there had been comments that these LTTE demonstrations displaying Tiger flags had  been provocative. Therefore, the Sri Lankan govt should protest to the British authorities against LTTE supporters demonstrating with terrrorist flags. Apart from this, Britain has also given refugee status to terrorist leaders who disappeared after the war from Sri Lanka. A prominent figure among them is Adele Balasingham, who was the leader in distributing cyanide capsules to young boys and girls, and who is now living comfortably in the UK. British govt because of their double standards is silent over these.

There had been two British MP’s leading the Tiger demonstration. Obviously, they are manoeuvring for Tamil diaspora votes. During the last days of the war, the LTTE terrorists were shielding Tamil civilians and all those who tried to flee from them were shot dead. Where were all those British MP’s who had come to the forefront now ? It is these British MP’s vying for diaspora votes who are fuelling the flames of hatred between the Sinhalese and the Tamils . What is also surprising is the attitude of the Foreign Ministry which is under a UNP Minister. The UNP leaders lost no time in suspending Brigadier Priyanka Fernando, Defence Attache, most probably to please Tamil politicians, who were one time henchmen of the terrorists. By the quick intervention of the President and revoking the suspension, UNP politicians had to bite the bullet. May be, the President took this step to score some points because of the Local Govt elections. Otherwise, he too would have been silent, in the name of so called ‘reconciliation”. 

During the ceasefire agreement under the UNP govt in 2001-2004, LTTE leaders were given VIP treatment, and stooped so low as to host them in five star hotels. UNP leaders have not changed. From this incident we hope UNP leaders and the UNP lackeys in the Foreign Ministry saw the patriotism shown by Brigadier Fernando, to the LTTE rump.

Sri Lankans should support and stand with Brigadier Fernando for his patriotism and the courage shown to the Tiger demonstrators who were slandering Sri Lanka.

No probe against Brigadier Priyanka-Army Chief

February 9th, 2018

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Army Commander Mahesh Senanayake said that they would not be conducting an inquiry the actions of the Defence Attache of the Sri Lankan High Commission in UK Brigadier Priyanka Fernando after he was spotted making a throat slitting gesture towards protesters who thronged the Embassy office in the UK.

“On the day of the incident the protesters who were carrying LTTE flags had shouted slogans against the Sri Lankan government and sung songs in praise of Prabhakaran. The Brigadier who was standing inside the premises of the Sri Lankan HC had pointed to the Sri Lankan flag on the shoulder of his uniform and gestured that the Sri Lankan government had already ‘taken care’ of Prabhakaran,”the Army Commander explained, added that it was not in any way or form a threat meant for the protesters, a claim made by those who had viewed the incident on the internet.

He said he would update the President on what had taken place tomorrow(9).(Indika Ramanayake)

Navin slams ‘pathetic’ British MPs supporting LTTE fronts

February 9th, 2018

By Yusuf Ariff Courtesy Adaderana

In scathing letter to the two British Labour MPs who had called for the expulsion of Sri Lanka’s defence attaché in London, Sri Lankan Minister Navin Dissanayake charges that their continued support to LTTE front organization is self-serving and pathetic” at a time when all communities are building bridges to live as one nation.

MPs Joan Ryan and Siobhain McDonagh had sent a letter to Britain’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, over Brigadier Priyanka Fernando’s attempt to intimidate” a group of protesting Tamils.

They urged Boris Johnson to make immediate representations to Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner about this matter and also requested that he withdraw  diplomatic papers and expel Sri Lanka’s Defence Attaché in London.

However, in his letter addressed to the two British MPs, Dissanayake says that Brigadier Fernando was within the premises of the Sri Lankan mission and his acts cannot be questioned as he enjoys full diplomatic immunity for acts done within the embassy compound.

Read the full letter below: 

Dear Hon John Ryan, MP/Siobhain McDonagh, MP,

In reference to your letter dated 05.02.2018 to Honorable Boris Johnson asking for the withdrawal of diplomatic status to Brigadier Priyanka Fernando I wish to make the following observations.

I am the son of the late Hon. Gamini Dissanayake, presidential candidate and deputy leader of the United National Party who was assassinated by the terrorist organization LTTE, the political wing which both of you surreptitiously support. The said organization has been banned in your country and has been designated as a terrorist organization by many countries including yours and the United States.

On the day in question 4th of February which marks the national day of independence for your country a day of joy and celebration to all Sri Lankans, the front organizations of the LTTE which the both of you support gathered a few hundred supporters to protest outside our Embassy in the UK. What is most disturbing and offensive to us Sri Lankans was the carrying of the LTTE flag and the abusive and vituperative comments made by the protesters. Brigadier Fernando was within the premises of the SL mission and his acts cannot be questioned as diplomatically and legally he is within Sri Lanka” and he enjoys full diplomatic immunity for acts done within the embassy compound. This tradition is accepted practice in diplomatic regulations and the tradition is followed in all countries.

As the protesters’ behavior was offensive to Sri Lanka, Brigadier Fernando a valiant officer of the Sri Lanka army pointed to the lion emblem in his uniform to countenance the disgust he felt when he saw the tiger flags displayed in front of him.

Both of you have been carrying a deeply hateful, vindictive and offensive campaign against Sri Lanka. At a time when brutal terrorism has been eradicated and all communities are building bridges to live as one nation your continued support to front organization of the LTTE is self-serving and pathetic. Tell your contacts in these front organizations to contribute to their own brethren in the north and east without continuing to fuel the flames of hatred and ethnic division. Sri Lanka needs a real sense of reconciliation without individuals like you trying your utmost to break the real achievements that are being done on the ground. In any event we stand with Brig. Fernando steadfastly and he will continue as our defence attaché in UK.

Navin Dissanayake (M.P.)
Minister of Plantation Industries

Before choosing right president or minister at Srilanka

February 9th, 2018

Article by Palitha Ariyarathna

Current transcend of political Changes in Srilanka must be reviewed rightly by its people for choose right president or minister.

My own obligation here as an author for this article can be various but Srilanka politics needs psychology change right now as we are going to choose right candidate for specially presidency ship. Wrong choice of the next President and Prime minster can destroy whole nation and can be lead to the falling under LTTE mafia or western interested.

Srilanka Citizen should never ever underestimate the coming president election and staying at home saying we will choose thou we will chose thee. To choose real leader is a quit difficult as many medias and propagandist (perfectionist) telling a story about each candidate. Citizen who don’t have a real political judgment can easily choose wrong one for become power (even who can destroy advance human civilization- traditional Sinhala Buddhist Culture.

There is much evidence that public opinion is downer these days. A majority of citizen rate current presidency ship for the future success of Srilanka also many journalists committed to same message.

Politic is full of trouble and ironic for many of us. War, crime, ignorance, disease, depression and anxiety, international human right issues, power. Ignorance has been produce by media in a people heart is a big challenge at Srilanka and apathy is increasing and right candidate for presidency ship has been become level to farmer who even don’t know well about paddy field.

Finding an expert to become a president or prime minster is an important subject. Peoples of srilanka looking for Stars and walking on dark ground without knowing there is many snakes nearby their feet on a ground looking for the right time for bite them.

As I told ignorance is danger and apathy must be overcome by us.

Death of democratic is not a slow process it’s happening by long term goal. Killing by an ambush is not unplanned operation. Don’t forget it has its own trick. Current political fear at Srilanka can lead to some action. Some politician need to stay continue in power and some are want to overtake the power. Those feared anger can lead to kill someone and take over the power. There for I would like to suggest following action for maintain peaceful election.

  1. Know about your candidate
  2. Read about your candidate
  3. Listen to them
  4. Watch them
  5. Judged them by how they seem to act on public stage
  6. Talk about current politic trend peacefully with family and friends
  7. Avoid involve your children in politic agenda
  8. Read article by smart and ambitious journalist
  9. Listen to expert
  10. Be realistic
  11. Study the history of action took by candidate
  12. Always remember news about your candidate can be a complex
  13. All the candidates can be talk bureaucratically
  14. Every candidate need to win the power, chose the right one who defend your countries and origin
  15. Listen to all political parties agendas and screen their action
  16. Carefully look where former LTTE propagandise going to support and witch candidate and why?
  17. Listen to local priest who are not proclaiming hidden agenda
  18. Take advice from Maha-Sanga
  19. Leave your physical and emotion weapon beside and never use them for defend your candidates
  20. Don’t involve in political fight
  21. Don’t spared rumours and gossip
  22. Make a list of prospective candidates and check each party political planning and study there website and other media source. Watch their answer to key response to the major question
  23. Do not influence by miss information given by site
  24. Try hard
  25. Avoid political disaster

There are many moral problems about ruling and each problem is different to each country. Confused voter naturally laps over in to the moral they do understand. Everyone have an weakness. But look for the candidates who not gambling, who not still other things and women. Srilanka and its people must be never neglecting current political trend and we should vote right person at the right time. Decision must be taken early not late after the election.

President character must be not simple and don’t forget qualities of character related to the strong government. Don’t throw away simply your vote and just pick up the better one even half hypocricts imperfect.

 

 

Sri Lanka celebrating independence in chains of its own making

February 9th, 2018

BY 

ON

First of 2 parts 
Bangkok: Sri Lanka is celebrating” this month 70 years of independence from British colonial rule, yet at no time since gaining independence in 1948 has Sri Lanka’s sovereignty stood threatened as it is today. One could say that Sri Lanka is celebrating independence in chains.

The strategically placed Indian Ocean island is an important lynchpin in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which Western powers—especially the United States and Britain—are keen to sabotage as its success would end their hegemony in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.

How it started
Sri Lanka’s predicament started in early 2009 when the country’s armed forces were about to crush one of the most ruthless terror groups in the world – the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In April 2009, British Foreign Secretary David Milliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner made a beeline for Colombo and met the then President Mahinda Rajapakse and his brother Gotabaya Rajapakse to call for a ceasefire under the pretext of saving civilians which the LTTE had taken as human shields. Rajapakses told them in no uncertain terms that it was not on and Sri Lanka would crush terrorism once and for all.

Sri Lankan forces had already opened a safe route” for civilians to escape and it was the LTTE that was not allowing them to do so. On May 19, 2009, Sri Lankan forces finally crushed the LTTE, killing their entire military leadership in the battlefield. It was no doubt a bitter bloody end to the conflict, but, many civilians were able to escape to the safety of the military, thousands more were killed in the final battle as well as an estimated 4,000 Sri Lankan soldiers. The formidable LTTE propaganda machine of the Tamil diaspora in Western capitals such as Toronto, London, Oslo and Washington were left unscathed, and with an estimated war chest of $300 million, they immediately went into action claiming war crimes with 40,000 civilian deaths, which many Western media reported uncritically (fake news” as President Trump would describe it).

Milliband and Kouchner who went back like humiliated bullies, were quick to pounce on this propaganda with some of their own, to mobilize the international community” that included many of the Western media and also international human rights organization and even the United Nations that included UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) head Navi Pillay (an ethnic Tamil from South Africa). They used arguments of accountability, though conveniently ignoring the fact that none of them have accounted for war crimes in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East. They embarked on a campaign to destabilize the Rajapakse regime, which was enjoying tremendous support within the country for ending a 30-year-old civil war.

Geopolitical factor
There was another factor—geopolitical issues arising from Sri Lanka’s strategic location in the middle of important shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean. When the West refused to sell arms to Sri Lanka, threatened to cut aid and take the issue to the UN Security Council (that would have forced a ceasefire and saved the LTTE), it was China that came to Sri Lanka’s aid. If Sri Lanka was allowed to get away with it, this would have encouraged many other developing countries to take the same path, ignoring Western pressure. With tacit support from neighboring India—which was worried about China’s incursions into the island such as building a port and an airport—the West mobilized its media, human rights organization and the UN, with Ban Ki-moon and Navi Pillay happy to join the bandwagon.

The Western media ignored the frantic rebuilding efforts of the Rajapakse regime where soldiers—without their guns—were working with Tamil civilians to rebuild their homes, roads and bridges destroyed during the war. This effort was mainly aided by Asian countries such as China and India. The Western media kept on harping about accountability for alleged war crimes. Britain’s Channel 4, for example, regularly broadcast unauthenticated video clips shot on mobile phones, provided presumably by the LTTE diaspora, claiming evidence of war crimes by Sri Lankan forces.

Having accused Sri Lankan armed forces of indiscriminate killing, Ban Ki-moon appointed a UNSG panel of experts (POE) in 2011 led by former Indonesian Attorney General Marzuki Darussman to submit to him a report. The Sri Lankan government refused to cooperate. The New York-based POE collected information by calling for submissions on their UN-based website. Failing to attract much interest, they subcontracted a Toronto-based so-called independent, non-partisan, human rights organization Center for War Victims and Human Rights (CWVHR) which provided sample letters and canvassed the Tamil diaspora to submit these to the POE. When it produced the report claiming to endorse the 40,000 figure, the Sri Lankan government questioned its credibility. But the UNHRC used the report to mount an accountability campaign against Sri Lanka leading to a UNHRC resolution in March 2012.

This campaign put enormous pressure on the Rajapakse government with threats of Western economic sanctions. At the same time, the West funded many NGOs within the country to mount a pro-democracy and anti-corruption campaign against the regime, especially the Rajapakse family. This succeeded in unseating the Rajapakse regime in January 2015, when the president unwisely called an early election. Many young voters were swayed by this NGO propaganda.

Asian version of ‘Arab Spring’
This was an Asian version of the Arab Spring,” which the West was able to successfully implement to the disbelief of many Sri Lankans. President Maitripala Sirisena, who defected from the Rajapakse government, was elected on a yahapalanaya (good governance) platform to rid the nation of endemic political corruption. But, what has followed is a cunning manipulation of the political system to serve the needs of Western powers. The divisive issue of framing and adopting a new constitution has taken over from rebuilding the nation. There are attempts to retrain” the military to serve US needs in the Indian Ocean. And the worse of all, the government has been entangled in the worst financial scandal in the country’s history perpetuated by the Governor of the Central Bank who was personally appointed by Sirisena’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe. The latter is currently doing his best to cover up the scandal.

This scandal, which has been widely reported and debated in Sri Lanka has been hardly covered by the Western media. This multi-billion rupee bond scam has drained the treasury leading to the government doing a deal with China to pay off debts by granting a 99-year lease of the China-built and -financed Hambantota harbor last year. The government is believed to be negotiating a similar deal with India for the adjoining China-built airport.

While we cannot expect the Western media to question the credibility of a government that is subservient to the West, the tragedy is that the Asian media has not picked up on this story. If the West succeeds in recolonizing” Sri Lanka, next in line will be countries like Myanmar, Malaysia and Cambodia that are also strategically important for China’s BRI. (To be continued tomorrow)

“පූර්ව මැතිවරණ සමය සාපේක්ෂව සාමකාමීයි – ප්‍රචණ්ඩ ක්‍රියාවල සාහසික බව අඩුයි. දේපළ හානි කිරීමේ පරිමාව පහළ මට්ටමක“

February 9th, 2018

– කැෆේ  සංවිධානය

2018 පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණය නිරීක්ෂණය සඳහා නිදහස් හා සාධාරණ මැතිවරණයක් සඳහා වූ ජනතා ව්‍යාපාරය හෙවත්  කැෆේ සංවිධානය දිවයින පුරා සියලුම දිස්ත්‍රික්ක නියෝජනය වන පරිදි මැතිවරණ නිරීක්ෂකයින් 5000 කට අධික පිරිසක් පෙබරවාරි 9 සහ 10 දිනවල යෙදවීමට නියමිත ය.   නව මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමයට අනුව ස්ථාපිත කෙරෙන ගණන් කිරීමේ මධ්‍යස්ථානවල ද මැතිවරණ නිරීක්ෂණ කටයුතු  සඳහා  කැෆේ සංවිධානය කටයුතු යොදා ඇත. 

අපේක්ෂකයින් 52000 කට අධික පිරිසක් ඉදිරිපත්ව  සිටින මෙවර මැතිවරණය, ලංකා ඉතිහාසයේ විශාලතම මැතිවරණයයි.  පළාත් පාලන ආයතන 340 ක ට ඡන්ද විමසීම පැවැත්වේ.  2012 අංක 22 දරණ සංශෝධිත පනත් සංශෝධනය මඟින් මෙම නව මිශ්‍ර මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමය හඳුන්වා දෙනු ලැබීය. මෙම ක්‍රමය යටතේ සමස්ත ආසන සංඛ්‍යාවෙන් 60% ක්  එනම් ආසන 5092 ක්  සඳහා කොට්ඨාස  ක්‍රමය යටතේ තෝරා ගන්නා අතර ඉතිරි 40% එනම් ආසන 3394 ක් සඳහා නියෝජිතයින් තෝරා ගැනීම සමානුපාතික ක්‍රමය යටතේ සිදුවෙයි. මෙවර පළාත් පාලන ඡන්ද විමසීම සඳහා ලියාපදිංචි ඡන්ද දායකයින් සංඛ්‍යාව 15,760,867 කි. එයින් 48.6% ක් පිරිමි වන අතර 51.4% ක් කාන්තාවන්  වෙයි.

මෑත ලංකා ඉතිහාසයේ පැවති වඩාත්ම සමකාමී ඡන්ද විමසීම මෙය වෙයි.  ප්‍ර‍චණ්ඩක්‍රියාවන් හි ස්වරූපය හා දේපල හානිවීම් ඉතාමත් පහත මට්ටමක පැවතුණි.  මේ වන විට ප්‍ර‍චණ්ඩ ක්‍රියා සදහා සම්බන්ධ වූ පුද්ගලයින් 56 කට වැඩි පිරිසක් පොලිස් අත්අඩංගුවට පත්වී ඇත. නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මකවීම ඉහළ මට්ටමින් පැවතීම තුල මැතිවරණ නීති ආරක්ෂා වී ඇත. 

මේ දක්වා වැඩිම ප්‍රචණ්ඩ ක්‍රියා වාර්තා වී ඇත්තේ නැගෙනහිර පළාතෙනි. එයින් බහුතරයක් සංවිධානාත්මක නොවන හුදෙකලා සිදුවීම් වීම විශේෂත්වයකි.   

ප්‍රචාරණයේ නිහඩ කාලය තුල ඊයේ සහ අද ලංකාවේ ස්ථාන 6 කින් සිදුවීම් වාර්තා වී ඇත.  මේ දක්වා කැෆේ සංවිධානය වෙත පැමිණිලි 345 ක් වාර්තා වී ඇත. 

Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon
Executive Director/CaFFE


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