වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

මට ජීවිතයේ සැබෑ මිනිසුන් හමුවී තිබෙන්නේ අතේ ඇඟිලි ගනනටය​. මේ සැබෑ මිනිසුන් අතර එයා චීෆ්මාෂල් හැරී ගුණතිලක මුලින්ම සිටියි.  චීෆ් මාෂල් හැරී ගුණතිලක සැබෑ මිනිසෙකු බව මම කියන්නේ අවංකකම , නිරහංකාර බව , චාම් බව , මානව දයාව මා ඔහු කෙරෙන් දුටු බැවිනි.

හිටපු ගුවන් හමුදාපති එයා චීෆ් මාෂල් හැරී ගුණතිලක මහතා සමග වැඩ කිරීමේ භාග්‍ය මට ලැබුනි. ඒ කාලයේ එතුමා රණවිරු වැන්දඹුවන් පුනරුථාපන වැඩසටහන භාරව සිටි අතර උපදේශන කටයුතු සඳහා මට ආරාධනා කලේය​. එතුමා සමග මම කොලඹ , කුරුණෑගල , මාතර , නුවර , අනුරාධපුරය යන ප්‍රදේශ වලට යමින් රණවිරු වැන්දඹුවන් සහ දරුවන් හමු වෙමින් ඔවුන් සඳහා මානසික උපදේශනය ලබා දුනිමි. එසේම එතුමාගේ මූලිකත්වයෙන් මේ රණවිරු වැන්දඹුවන් වෙත ආදායම් උපයා ගැනීමේ වැඩසටහන්, වෘත්තීය පුහුණුව , අධ්‍යාපනය​, ළමුන්ට ශිෂ්‍යත්ව යනාදියද ලබා දෙන ලදි. 

මේ වැඩසටහන් වලදී මම එතුමා සමග දිවයිනේ නොයෙකුත් ප්‍රදේශ වල සංචාරය කලෙමි. එසේම අදහස් හුවමාරු කර ගතිමි. එමගින් වඩ වඩාත් එතුමාට සමීප වීමට මට හැකි විය​. 

එයා චීෆ් මාෂල් හැරී ගුණතිලක මහතා ගුවන් හමුදාපතිව සිටියදී සතයක්වත් අයථා ලෙස උපයා නොගත්තේය​. එතුමාට පෙර සහ පසු කාලයක සිටි ගුවන් ගුවන් හමුදාපතිවරුන් සමහරක් කොමිස් වලින් මුදල් උපයා මන්දිර තනා ගත්හ ​. එසේම ගුවන් හමුදාවේ සෙබලියන් අන්තහ්පුර ළළනාවන් මෙන් රිසිසේ භාවිතා කලහ​. එහෙත් එයා චීෆ් මාෂල් හැරී ගුණතිලක මහතා නොකැලැල් සේවයකින් විශ්‍රාම ගියේය​. 

විශ්‍රාමව සිටියදී එතුමා ජීවත් වූයේ කුඩා නිවසකය​. වරක් විදුලි බිල ගෙවීම ප්‍රමාද වීම නිසා විදුලිබල මණ්ඩලයෙන් එවන ලද රතු බිලක් ගෙවීමට එතුමා මා සමග ගිය අයුරු මතක් වේ. විදුලිබල මණ්ඩලයෙන් රතු බිලක් ලද එකම ගුවන් හමුදාපතිවරයා එතුමා විය යුතුය​. 

හැරී ගුණතිලක මහතා රණවිරු වැන්දඹුවන් ගේ දුක තේරුම් ගෙන සිටි අයෙකි. ගුවන් නියමුවෙකුව සිටි එතුමාගේ පුත් බලඝන නායක ශිරන්ත ගුණතිලක 1995 අප්‍රේල්   29 යන දින ක්‍රියාන්විතයේ මිය යන ලදි. ඔහු පැදවූ ගුවන් යානයට කොටි විසින් මිසයිල ප්‍රහාරයක් එල්ල කරන ලදි. එතුමාගේ ලේලියද යුද වැන්දඹුවක් වූයෙන් රණවිරු වැන්දඹුවන් ගේ ලෝකය ගැන එතුමාට අවබෝධයක් තිබුණි. එම නිසා ආරක්‍ෂක අමාත්‍යංශය සමග ගැටෙමින් රණවිරු වැන්දඹු සුභසාදනය වෙත වඩාත් එලදායී සේවයක් ලබා ගැනීමට එතුමා සමත් විය​. 

තම පුතාගේ මරණයෙන් වසර ගනනාවකට පසු (2004 වසරේදී පමණ) මම එතුමා සමග මහනුවර පොදුරාජ්‍ය මණ්ඩල සුසානභූමි නරඹමින් සිටියෙමි. ඒ අවස්ථාවේදී හැරී ගුණතිලක මහතා පියෙකු ලෙස තම දරුවා අහිමිවීමේ ශෝකය මා සමග කථා කලේය​. ක්‍රිස්‍තු භක්තිකයෙකු වූවද ඒ වන විට හැරී ගුණතිලක මහතා බුදු දහම සහ අනිත්‍ය පිලිබඳ කියවා තිබූ හෙයින් පුතුගේ මරණය කෙරෙහි ඒ අවස්ථාවේදී එතුමා තුල තිබුනේ පෘථුල අදහසකි. එහෙත් තම බිරිඳ තවමත් මේ ක්‍ෂිතිමය සිද්ධියෙන් මුලුමනින්ම ප්‍රකෘති ස්වභාවයට පත් නොවී ඇති බව එතුමා මට වැඩිදුරටත් කීවේය​. 

තවද වරක් අප කොග්ගල ගුවන් හමුදා කඳවුරට ගියෙමු. එහිදී අදහස් දැක්වූ ගුණතිලක මහතා යම් ලෙසකින් තම දෙවන පුතු රොෂාන් ගුණතිලක ගුවන් හමුදාපති ධූරයට පත් වුවහොත් එය ලෝක වාර්තාවක් (පියා සහ පුතා ගුවන් හමුදාපති ධූරයට පත්වීම ) වන බව කීය​. වසර කීපයකට පසුව එය එතුමාගේ දෑස් ඉදිරියේම සැබෑවක් විය. ​එසේම එදින සවස එතුමාට තවත් ගුවන් හමුදා නිලධාරියෙකු හමුවූ අතර ඔහු ශිරන්ත ගුණතිලකගේ සමකාලීන නිලධාරියෙකු විය​. තමා ශිරන්ත සමහ හදිසියේ කොලඹ ඇවිත් රගර් තරඟයක් නැරඹූ අවස්ථාවක් ගැන එම නිලධාරියා හෙළි කල අතර ගුණතිලක මහතා එයට ඉතා ආශාවෙන් සවන් දුන්නේය​. 

ඊලාම් යුද්ධයේ අවසන් අදියර ඇරඹූ විට යුද්ධය පිළිබඳව ඔහු දැරුවේ මිශ්‍ර අදහස්‍ ය​. කොටි සංවිධානය යුදමය වශයෙන් පරාජය කල නොහැකි බව වරක් ගාල්ලට ගිය ගමනකදී එතුමා මට කීවේය​. මම එම අදහස අභියෝගයට ලක් කල හෙයින් කොලඹට එන තෙක් අප වාද කර ගත්තෙමු. එතුමාගේ අනාවැකිය සාවද්‍ය කරමින් එතුමාගේ පුත් රොෂාන් ගුණතිලක ඇතුළු ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාව කොටි සංවිධානය යුදමය වශයෙන් පරාජය කලහ​. ඒ වන විට එතුමා ජීවතුන් අතර නොවීය​. නමුත් අද දිනයේ එයා චීෆ් මාෂල් හැරී ගුණතිලක මහතා ගේ වැරදුන අනාවැකිය මම තව දුරටත් විශ්ලේෂණය කරමින් සිටින්නෙමි. මට තේරුම් යන අන්දමට  තම පුතා අහිමි වීමෙන් සහ හමුදා සහ සිවිල් වැසියන් රැසකගේ ජීවිත විනාශය දැකීමෙන් යුද්ධයේ නිරර්ථක භාවය එතුමා අපටත් වඩා ගැඹුරින් අවබෝධ කරගෙන සිටියේය​. කොටි සංවිධානය යුදමය වශයෙන් පරාජය කිරීම යනු මුල්ලෙවෛක්කාල්හිදී ප්‍රභාකරන් මරා දැමීම කියා අප බහුතරයක් සිතුවාට බෙදුම්වාදී වෛරසය සහ සිංහල සහ දෙමල ජාතීන්වල ස්වෝත්තමවාදයන් බොහෝ කාලයක් විනාශ නොවී පවතින බව එතුමා දැන සිටියේය​. එම නිසා එතුමාගේ එදා අණාවැකිය සාවද්‍ය නොමැත​. 

අප අවසන් වරට හමු වන්නේ එතුමාගේ මරණයට දින හතරකට පමණ පෙරය​. එදින අප අනුරාධපුරයේ පැවති වැඩසටහනකට ගියෙමු. එම වැඩසටහන නිම කිරීමෙන් පසුව ජය ශ්‍රී මහා බෝධියට භාරයක් වීමට එතුමාට අවශ්‍ය විය​. එම නිසා අප ජය ශ්‍රී මහා බෝධියට ගියෙමු. පසු දින මම කොලඹ ආවෙමි. එතුමා තව දිනක් අනුරාධපුරයේ සිටියේය​. ඉන් දින කීපයකට පසුව රණවිරු  වැන්දඹුවන් පුනරුථාපන වැඩසටහනේ සේවය කල නිලධාරිනියක් මට දුරකථනයෙන් කතා කලාය​. ” සර් ඉතාම කණගාටුදායක ආරංචියක් දෙන්න කතා කලේ හැරී ගුණතිලක සර් නැතිවෙලා ” මම මොහොතක් ගල් ගැසුනෙමි. 

බොරැල්ලේ ජයරත්න අවමංගල මධ්‍යස්ථානයේදී මම අවසාන වශයෙන් එයා චීෆ් මාෂල් හැරී ගුණතිලක මහතාට සමු දුන්නෙමි. එදින සවස “සැබෑ මිනිසෙකුගේ නික්ම යාම ” යනුවෙන් ලිපියක් ලියා රාවය පුවත්පතට යැවුවෙමි. 

එයා චීෆ් මාෂල් හැරී ගුණතිලක මහතා සැබෑ මිනිසෙකි. ක්‍රිස්තියානිය ආගම මගින් ඔහුගේ චරිතය නිර්මානය කරනු ලැබීය​. අවංකකම, චාම් බව, නිරහංකාර බව , අන්‍යන් කෙරෙහි කැපවීම වැනි ගුණාංග ඔහු ජීවිතයට අවශෝශනය කර ගන්නේ  ක්‍රිස්තියානි සභ්‍යත්වය හරහාය​. එසේම බුද්ධ දර්ශනය පුද පූජා පවත්වන ආමිස දහමක් ලෙස නොව දර්ශනයක් ලෙස අධ්‍යනය කිරීමෙන් ඔහුගේ විශ්වය තව දුරටත් පුලුල් විය​. එසේම යුද්ධය විසින් තම පුද්ගලික ජීවිතයට ඇති කල ක්‍ෂිතිමය සිද්ධීන් නිශේදනය කර ගැනීමට බුද්ධ දර්ශනය ඔහුට උපකාරී වූ බව මම සිතමි. 

By A. Abdul Aziz.

The three day 123rd Annual Convention (Jalsa Salana) of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Qadian, India, concluded with a faith inspiring address by the World Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the Fifth Khalifa (Caliph), His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, on 31 December 2017.

His Holiness addressed the final session via satellite link from the Baitul Futuh Mosque in London. Over 20,000 people attended the Convention in Qadian from 44 countries including Sri Lanka, while more than 5,000 gathered in London for the concluding session.

During his address, His Holiness explained the true meaning of the title, ‘Seal of the Prophets’ given to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in the Holy Quran.

His Holiness said that whilst Muslim religious clerics continued to allege that Ahmadi Muslims denied this status of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), nothing could be further from the truth. To the contrary, His Holiness said that Ahmadi Muslims understood and fully believed in the true status of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and always had.

Furthermore, His Holiness said that it was a cause of regret that so-called Muslim religious clerics continued to incite the masses against the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community by propagating grievous lies and making false claims.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

From its inception, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has constantly reiterated and proven the fact that that the Muslim religious clerics and opponents of the community are completely wrong in their assertion that Ahmadi Muslims do not believe the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) to be the Seal of the Prophets. Their assertions are not based upon facts but only upon lies.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

Whilst, the religious clerics have continued to incite the masses and sown seeds of hatred against us, those willing to look at the facts objectively are realising the truth. They understand that the Holy Quran and the sayings of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) testify to the fact that Ahmadi Muslims are true Muslims. They realise that the true exalted status of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) can only be understood once a person accepts that the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was the awaited Messiah and the true servant of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).” 

His Holiness said that the opponents of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community would remain forever frustrated in their efforts to stop the spread of Ahmadiyyat.

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

The opponents of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community seek to turn people against us, however they should remember that their human efforts and tactics are bound to fail and are worthless compared to the plans of God. It is destined by God Almighty that the followers of the Promised Messiah (peace be upon him) will one day become the majority.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

God Almighty revealed to the Promised Messiah (peace be upon him) that He would grant him honour and would increase his community and we are seeing the fulfilment of this prophecy every single day. Despite the opponents making all possible efforts to stop us by propagating falsehood about our belief in ‘Seal of the Prophets’, hundreds of thousands of people continue to join us each year, mostly from amongst other Muslims.”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad drew the attention of the attendees towards their individual responsibilities to inform people about the truth of their faith and the actual meaning of ‘Seal of the Prophets’ as given to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) by God Almighty.

Regarding the status of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him), His Holiness quoted the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah (peace be upon him).

The Promised Messiah (peace be upon him) said:

No person can be deemed a true Muslim and nor can anyone follow the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) until they accept him to be the ‘Seal of the Prophets’.”

Emphasising the true status of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him), Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad stated:

Let it be clear to the world that the Promised Messiah, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian (peace be upon him) brought no new religious law, nor can any new religious law henceforth be revealed. Furthermore, the Holy Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) exalted status is the very reason that God Almighty granted the status of Prophethood to the Promised Messiah (peace be upon him). He attained this status due to his complete obedience and servitude to his master, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).”

His Holiness also highlighted the need for the advent of the Promised Messiah (peace be upon him).

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

God Almighty sent the Promised Messiah (peace be upon him) to re-establish and spread the true religion of Islam, a faith established by the most beloved of God, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The Promised Messiah (peace be upon him) was sent with the promise of God that He will grant him victory and so how can the constraints of worldly powers or the injustices and abuse of so-called religious clerics hinder his Community from succeeding?”     

Discussing the continued opposition faced by Islam more generally, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:

In this era, where the so-called Muslim religious clerics are defaming Islam, we are also seeing worldly and materialistic people in all parts of the world opposing Islam and seeking to undermine it. They are vilifying Islam with the intention of gaining territorial and political power and seizing the wealth of Muslim countries. In other words, Islam and Muslims are being targeted through both religious and material channels.”

Concluding with an emotional and faith inspiring message to Ahmadi Muslims worldwide, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad stated:

Let the so-called religious Muslim scholars and governments pass edicts against us and incite common Muslims to harm and murder us by falsely stating that we do not believe in the ‘Seal of Prophethood’ or by claiming that we do not believe that the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was the last law-bearing prophet. Whatever they say or claim, they can never shake or weaken our faith, for we have found that which the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) desired for us to find. We have learned the principles of love for Allah the Almighty and for His Prophet (peace be upon him) through the Promised Messiah (peace be upon him).”

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad continued:

In the face of opposition and hatred, it is the responsibility of every Ahmadi Muslim to elevate themselves by seeking continuous spiritual and moral development and attaining the nearness of God Almighty.”

The session concluded with silent prayers followed by various poems recited by attendees in Qadian via satellite link.

By ; A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA 

Many countries have experienced the resignation of their Presidents and Prime Ministers when they face allegations of corruption and the latest to do so was the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Nawaz Sheriff.  Ihese resignations have occurred because those ressignees valued their integrity more than the luxury of the office they were holding.  We wonder whether such things will happen in our country as well?

All newspapers, websites, and TV outlets including the foreign press have given much publicity to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry report that probed the Treasury Bond Scam which is considered as the biggest robbery that has taken place in the history of our country.

The Commission in its 1257 Pages report of inquiry conducted for 10 months has recommended and stated the following:

• That Prime Minister had erred in going by the information and assurances given by the then Governor Mahendran, on the question of conflict of interest  in regard to his son in law and primary dealer Arjun Aloysius. It said that the Prime Minister has told Parliament that believing in information provided by Mr. Arjun Mahendran he appointed Mr. Mahendran as the Governor of the Central Bank and the Prime Minister should not have done that.
• That the penthouse apartment occupied by former Finance Minister Mr. Ravi Karunanyaake belonged to the Aloysius Family and their Walt and Rowe Company and has recommended that the government should take necessary action against Mr. Ravi Karunanayake under the section of bribery and corruption Act and further legal action under the penal codes for giving false evidence at the Commission.
• That Central Bank officials were rendered inactive before former Central Bank Governor Mahendran and that Mahendran has made interference into bond auctions through a system of incorrect and unconventional methods and he was responsible for providing internal information to outsiders.
• That Perpetual Treasuries Limited has earned a profit of at least Rs. 688 million from the bond auction held on Feb 27, 2015 and it has earned a profit of Rs. 11.545 billion from its secondary market deals and the losses caused to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and state institutions amounted to more than Rs 8,529 million (Rs 8.5 billion). The commission has identified Arjun Alloysius, Kasun Palisena of PTL as those responsible for these losses to government and has recommended civil and criminal action against all those responsible..
• That legal action should be taken against relevant persons and officials who are responsible for the fraud including Perpetual Treasuries Limited, Arjun Aloysius and Kasun Palihena.
• That Members of Monetary Board and Central Bank Governor must be appointed by the Constitutional Council in concurrence of the members and regulations must be amended accordingly.
• That there should be utmost supervision over the State Credit Department as auditing at the Central Bank has not been conducted in a proper manner, the Commission recommends that the Audit Department must be reconstituted completely. A Legal Department must be established in the Central Bank and ensure that the Legal Department functions efficiently.
• That the Attorney General and the Bribery or Corruption Commission must take legal actions to implement the recommendations of the Commission.
• That under normal circumstances, recovery of money is done through civil legal action but however, sincec it is a time consuming method an alternative, a Parliamentary Legislation should be passed and the money should be recovered in a speedy manner through a Parliamentary procedure.
• That all the expenditure occurred for the Commission must be recovered from the Perpetual Treasuries Limited.

(Thirudaathe paappa thirudaathe – Don’t rob babaa don’t rob –A song from the Tamil film Thirudaathe)

The President has assured that he will not attempt to cover anyone and promised to implement the Commission recommendarions by entrusting the task to the Attorney General’s Department.  Can we trust this assurance? Sri Lankans have not forgotten that when Mr. DEW Gunasekera was to present the first COPE report on the Tresury Bond Scam it was this same Sirissena who dissolved the then Parliament and obstructed Mr. Gunasekera from publishing that report.  If that report was published the profit earned by Perpetual Treasuries Limited would have been Rs. 688 million from the bond auction held on Feb 27, 2015, and the loss to the government of Rs. 11.545 billion from its secondary market deals could have been prevented.  As such President Sirisena should be directly held responsible for the loss incurred by the government from the second Treasury Bond Sales deal.

The Island editorial on 14^th November said that President Maithripala Sirisena who has lamented that the first bond scam occurred within weeks of the formation of the yahapalana government is blameworthy because he dissolved Parliament, foreclosing the submission of the COPE report on that financial crime and he cannot absolve himself of the responsibility for the second bond scam carried out by those who captured power in the August General Election with his help.

Was the issuance of this report was timed with a hidden sinister motive underneath. It has been observed that after the August 2015 parliamentary election, there was a clear deterioration in the relationship between the SLFP and the UNP when Sirisena grabbed many of the best ministries to be distributed to his SLFP loyalists while the UNP got the crumbs.For the last one year or so we do not find Sirisena and Ranil going on the same wave length.  Ranil is firmly on his usual and committed cosmopolitan neo liberalist path and Sirisena desperately attempting to get crowned as the rural based SLFP leader.  We wonder whether this Commission report was timed to release end of the year as Sirisena prevented some of the SLFP Ministers who were to leave the government asking them to wait until December end expecting some positive changes.

For the last several months we do not find Sirisena’s much hyped so-called national reconciliation talks as well.   It may be another aspect of his sinister plan that he made a formidable attempt to unify the two SLFP factions with the assistance of some prominent members of the Maha Sangha.  Whatever that may be it is naive for him to expect to form a government of his own and he will never succeed in mustering 113 MPs to appoint his own Prime Minister.

Upholding his infamous talk last week of chopping the heads off of anyone who indulge in wrong doings he may use the commission report to take action against the 2Rs and against the 2As and show that he is an upholder of justice.  But taking action against Ranil at this juncture he is bound to strike the hornets nest as he is a person who is being intensely despised by grass root level SLFPers who are waiting for a moment and a cause to rebel against him and they will be joined in this spectacle by the infuriated UNPers as well.

Meanwhile the Joint Opposition says the extra set of Cabinet and non-Cabinet ministers appointed by the Government have become unconstitutional and illegal. It said the number of Cabinet and non-Cabinet ministers had been determined by the 19th Amendment to the Constitution and that number stands at 70 and according to clause 46 (a) and (b) of the Constitution, the number of Cabinet ministers shouldn’t exceed 30 and non-Cabinet ministers 40. However, in an event where a National Government was formed, the number of ministers could be increased. Hence, we have 100 ministers, having 30 extra. The National Organiser of JO and MP Dullas Alahapperuma told a news briefing that with the expiration of the agreement between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP) for a National Government on December 31, the functioning of excess 30 ministers is unconstitutional and illegal.

This situation could lead to chaos in the country and collapse of the government as this Commission report has ruptured the SLFP-UNP ill fated honeymoon and the biggest losers will be the Ministers of the SLFP Sirisena faction.

Editorial Courtesy The Island

We waited, with bated breath, for a pulse-pounding, earth-shattering revelation on Wednesday. But, President Maithripala Sirisena only read out a statement, selectively disclosing some of the recommendations made by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI), which probed the Treasury bond scams. However, he, credit where credit is due, has at least done that much unlike his immediate predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who swallowed presidential probe committee reports whole and flashed grins like a Cheshire cat.

President Sirisena revealed that the PCoI had recommended criminal and civil action against former Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Arjuna Mahendran, his son-in-law and owner of Perpetual Treasuries Arjun Aloysius, former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake et al. We were also told that action would be taken to introduce new laws to recover the losses caused to the Employees’ Provident Fund, the Mahapola Scholarship Fund, the NSB etc.

The PCoI recommendations, as revealed by President Sirisena, are most welcome. However, what the President has done by way of a presidential commission probe is akin to reinventing the wheel. For, a similar course of action was recommended by the Attorney General’s (AG’s) Department way back on June 30, 2015. We pointed out, in this space, on August 2, 2017, while the bond probe commission proceedings were still on, that no probe into the racket would be complete without an investigation into the AG’s Department file which had been either shelved or made to disappear.

On June 30, 2015, the CID handed over a file (No: C/187/161/2015) on the first bond scam to the AG’s Department, during the tenure of Attorney General Yuwanjana Wijethilake. A senior official who happened to accept the file found a prima facie case of insider trading and market manipulation and duly opened a criminal file and handed it over to a counsel for further action. In the mean time, President Sirisena dissolved Parliament and held the August 2015 general election, thwarting an attempt by the COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) headed by D. E. W. Gunasekera to place its report on the first bond scam before Parliament. A UNP-SLFP government was formed after the polls.

We revealed that, strangely, criminal action against the bond racketeers had been terminated by the AG’s Department and the file at issue turned into a confidential document (CF/08/2015), which was passed on to another senior counsel. In June 2016, that counsel had, acting within the parameters set by his superiors, recommended that civil action be taken against Perpetual Treasuries to recover funds, we revealed. The file has not been sighted ever since.

We called upon the PCoI to summon the incumbent AG and ask him what had become of the file and why criminal action as regards the first bond scam had been terminated. But, no such action was taken and the mystery remains unsolved. Will President Sirisena care to order an investigation with a view to tracing that vital document? If action had been taken against the bond racketeers on the basis of the AG’s Department recommendations in June 2015, the second bond scam (2016) which was far worse than the first one—like the second wave of the Boxing Day tsunami—could have been averted.

President Sirisena told the nation in the lead-up to the Aug. 2015 general election that he had wanted Mahendran removed as the CBSL Governor in view of serious allegations against the latter. He should explain why he baulked at brining adequate pressure to bear on the government to remove Mahendran, who was under a cloud. Can he deny that he succumbed to political expediency at the expense of good governance?

The PCoI has not found anything irregular as regards the appointment of Mahendran as CBSL Governor by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, according to what the President told us on Wednesday. But, what about the PM’s all-out effort to re-appoint Mahendran as the CBSL Governor despite the availability of irrefutable evidence that the latter had been involved in the bond scams? It was the President’s intervention which put paid to the PM’s attempt. The President deserves praise for his bold decision which almost caused the collapse of the government. However, according to what the President revealed on Wednesday, it is not clear whether the PCoI has commented on the issue of the deplorable reappointment bid which dented the much-flaunted good governance credentials of the government irreparably. Has the PCoI chosen to ignore the vital issue completely?

The PCoI has suggested that the bond transactions during the period from 2008 and 2015, too, be probed. This is a welcome suggestion, but the government must not use such an investigation to obfuscate the issue at hand and delay action against the perpetrators of the mega bond scams in 2015 and 2016. It is imperative that the recommendations of the PCoI anent the scams it probed last year be implemented, first of all while a serious effort is made to bring the self-righteous politicians who masterminded the racket to justice.

Parliament must be summoned immediately and the new legislation as well as amendments to the existing laws, which the President promised on Wednesday, introduced as a national priority. This must be done before the LG polls. One shouldn’t be so naïve as to expect the ill-gotten wealth of the bond racketeers to be seized and the main culprits brought to justice. There is reason to believe that all the fraudulently acquired money has been taken out of the country. However, new laws are called for to enable the seizure of stolen funds because they will, at least, have a deterrent effect on other rogues of the same ilk. Besides, People have a right to know who will support the proposed course of legislative action to recover losses and who will not so that they can make an informed decision when they exercise their franchise on Feb. 10.

President Sirisena denied the public their right to know what the first COPE report on the Feb. 27, 2015 bond scam contained in time for the last general election. Voters were kept in the dark. The least the President can do to atone for that cardinal political sin, if at all, is to have the new laws and amendments drafted and Parliament summoned forthwith to pass them before the upcoming polls.

Meanwhile, a sine qua non of ensuring the success of the forensic audit, recommended by the PCoI, is to prevent the desperate racketeers from covering their tracks and trying to derail investigations. Let President Sirisena be urged to take over the CBSL immediately. A few moons ago, we reported that CBSL Deputy Governor P. Samarasiri, bracketed with Mahendran in the PCoI report, had removed a whole slew of files from the bank and security officers had been ordered not to stop him. The President must act fast if he is genuinely desirous of making the bond racketeers and their confederates in the CBSL pay for the biggest ever financial crime in the country. It is the moment of truth for the President, who wears his commitment to good governance on his sleeve. Now that he has talked the talk so eloquently, he has to walk the walk.

DR. JAYANTHA RATNAWEERA Courtesy The Island

According to media reports, when the name of Arjuna Mahendran came up to the Cabinet of Ministers as a nominee for the post of Governor of the Central Bank, several cabinet members had apparently objected to his being considered for the post, but the Prime Minister (PM) had insisted that Mahendran be appointed highlighting his merits and saying that he would take the full responsibility for the appointment.

Now that the misdeeds of Mahendran, as the Governor, have been revealed resulting in the loss of over eleven billion rupees to the government, the best the PM could do at this stage, as a gentleman to honour his word, is to tender his resignation from the position of Prime Minister. More than the loss of money, the loss of reputation of the Central Bank and the highly respected position it had both locally and internationally is a greater loss to the country.

When the Employees’ Provident Fund scheme was established many decades ago to grant retirement benefits to employees in the private sector who were not entitled to a pension, instead of establishing a separate body to manage it, its management was entrusted to the Central Bank on the presumption that the hard-earned money of the people would be in safe hands. But, now it was proved to be otherwise, breaching the trust the employees and the government had in the Bank.

In the President’s statement telecast over electronic media on the 3rd, reference was made to several recommendations made by the Commission to prevent recurring of such losses in the future, including amending existing laws and bringing in new laws. However, it is very doubtful whether such damage control measures could erase the damage already inflicted and restore the Bank’s reputation, which like a girl’s virginity once lost is lost forever.

It may be recalled that the PM on several occasions, both within and outside the Parliament, made attempts to cover up Mahendran’s misdeeds. He first appointed a committee of three attorneys handpicked up by him to report on the issue, who exonerated Mahendran fully. When the COPE report on the bond issue was submitted to Parliament, before the report was taken up for debate, it was conveneintly dissolved. Further, the PM defended Mahendran at every opportunity he got. Covering up a misdeed is equally an offence as doing the misdeed itself. The Commission did not want to take PM into task on this issue probably to avoid toppling the apple cart.

With all the damage done to the country and to its economy by Mahendran, the PM should not be allowed to go scot free for handing over the Central Bank to Mahendran, particularly when there was opposition at the Cabinet, as if the Bank was his inherited property. Though the Commission has not held the PM responsible explicitly for Mahendran’s misdeeds, unlike in the case of his buddy who was found guilty of lying to the Commission, the PM has no option other than to tender his resignation if he has even an iota of self-respect.

– ප‍්‍රදීප් අනුර කුමාර

ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතාගේ එකම අපේක්‍ෂාව රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ මහතා බැඳුම්කර චෝදනාවෙන් නිදහස් කර ගැනීම බව ඔහු කල විශේෂ ප‍්‍රකාශයෙන් තහවුරු වූ බව ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්‍ෂයේ කැඳවුම්කරු ගම්පහ දිස්ත‍්‍රික් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී ප‍්‍රසන්න රණතුංග මහතා අවධාරණය කරයි.

බැඳුම්කර කොමිසම රනිල් ගැලවීමේ කුමන්ත‍්‍රණයක් බව එයින් තහවුරු වූ බවත් මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන ජනාධිපතිවරයා උත්සහ කරන්නේ බැඳුම්කර වංචාවට සම්බන්ධ සැබෑ වරදකරුවන් සගවා වෙනත් කණ්ඩායමකට වරද පටවා බැඳුම්කර වංචාව යට ගැසීමට බවත් රණතුුංග මහතා
උඩුගම්පල කාර්යාලයේ පැවති මාධ්‍ය සාකච්ඡුාවකදී ප‍්‍රසන්න රණතුංග මහතා මේ බව සඳහන් කළේය.

මෙහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස් දැක්වූ රණතුංග මහතා මෙසේද කීවේය.

ජනතාව සැක කරපු විදිහටම ජනාධිපතිවරයා බැඳුම්කර කොමිසම දියාරු කලා, මේක ජනතාව රැවටීමක් ,මේකට රාජපක්‍ෂ කෙනෙක්ගේ නමක් යන්තන් ගෑවිලාවත් තිබුණා නම්, බලන්න තිබුණා ජනාධිපතිවරයා කටයුතු කරන විදිය. මඬ ගහලා බොරු කියල බලය ගත්තට, දැන් මේ ආණ්ඩුවට කලකම් පලදෙනවා. හොරකම් කරන් නෑ කියපු අය එළි පිට හොරකම් කරනවා. මේ හැමදේකින්ම කරන්න උත්සහ කරන්නේ ,බැඳුම් කරේ මහ හොරාව බේර ගන්න. ගමේ කසිප්පු අල්ලපුවාම, හිරේ යන්න කට්ටියක් ඉන්නවා.වෙසක් පෝයට පොදු සමාවෙන් උන් එළියට එනවා, ඒවගේ වැඩක් තමයි මේක.

මේ දවස් වල ආණ්ඩුව අපේ පෝස්ටරයකට බයයි. මේ පොස්ටරය තමයි ගම්පහ දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කයේ අපි අලවපු ජනතාවගේ නායකයා අගමැති කරන ගම්පහ සටන කියන පොස්ටරය. ඊයේ රාජිත ඇමතිවරයාත් කැබිනට් මාධ්‍ය හමුවේදී මේ පෝස්ටරය පෙන්නුවා.මේකෙ වගකීම මම ගන්නවා.

ඹගභගඡුග එකයි, ශ්‍රී ලංකා එකයි, මේ තේමාවට බයයි. ජනතාවගේ නායකයා මහින්ද මම එතුමාව අගමැති කරන්න, මහ ඇමතිකම අතෑරලා පාරට බැහැපු මිනිහා, ලංකාවේ මනාප තුන් ලක්‍ෂ 86 දාහක් අරගෙන දෙවනි තැනට ආපු මිනිහා, ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්‍ෂයේ අද ඉතුරුවෙලා ඉන්නෙ පරාජිතයෝ..අපි වගේ ඉහළ මනාප ගත්ත.සේරම ඉන්නෙ මහින්ද මහතා ගාව.

රටේ ජනතාව ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඡුන්දෙ දුන්නේ රනිල් අගමැති කරන්න නෙවේ…පසුගිය පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණයේදී ඡුන්ද දුන්නේ,රනිල් අගමැති කරන්න නෙවේ. නමුත් ඒකයි උනේ…ඒ දෙපාරම ජනතාවට කොකා පෙන්නුව

මේ ගමන අපිට වෙට්ටු දාන්න කාටවත් බැහැ.අපිට හිිටගන්න තැනක් නොතිබුණු නිසා තමයි, එහෙමවුනේ….අද බැසිල් මහතා මුල්වෙලා අපි ශ්‍රී ලංකා කාරයන්ට හිටගන්න තැනක් හදලා දුන්නා. ඒක ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ.

මම මේ සටන අතහරින්නේ නැහැ.ඒ වගේම මම මගේම ජනතාවගෙන් ඉල්ලනවා, මහින්ද අගමැති කිරීම දක්වා මේ ඡන්දය යොදා ගන්න ඔබේ ඡුන්දය පොහොට්ටුවට දෙන්න කියලා.

 lanka C news

ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ ජාතිය අමතමින් ඉදිරිපත් කල මහා බැංකුවේ බැදුම්කර මගඩිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් වූ ජනාධිපති කොමිසමේ එකම චූදිතයා වු හිටපු මහා බැංකුවේ අධිපති අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්‍රන් නොකියාම ශ්‍රී ලංකාව හැර තම පුරවැසිභාවය හිමි සිංගප්පූරුව බලා පිටත්ව ගොස් ඇති බව අන්තර්ජාප පුවත් අඩවි කිහිපයක්ම වාර්තා කර ඇත.

ඔහු මෙසේ සිට මවු රට බලා පිටත්ව ගොස් ඇත්තේ කටුනායක ගුවන්තොටුපොලේ විශේෂ පර්යන්තයෙනි.

එහිදි ඔහුගේ රටින් පිටව යෑම වැලැක්වීමට කිසිවකු උත්සහ ගෙන නොමැත්තේ ජනාධිපති කොමිසමේ වාර්තාව අනුව හිටපු මහා බැංකුවේ අධිපති අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් මහතා අවම වශයෙන් පොදු දේපල පනතේ ලා ගනයට අයත් වරදක් හෝ සිදු කොට ඇති බවට ජනාධිපති කොමිසමේ නිර්දේශ වල පැහැදිලිව සඳහන් වුයේදැයි පැහැදිලි නැති බැවිනි.

පසුගිය කාලයේදී රාජ්‍ය සේවකයින් වූ අමාත්‍යාංශය ලේකම්වරුන් ඇතුළු නිලධාරින් මෙන්ම දේශපාලඥයන් විශාල පිරිසක් වත්මන් පාලනය යටතේ අත් අඩංගුවට ගෙන රීමාන්ඩ් ගත කෙරුණේ පොදු දේපළ අවභාවිතය පනත යටතේ ය.

එමෙන්ම ඉදිරියේදී අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද‍්‍රන්ගෙන් කට උත්තරයක් හෝ මෙරටේ පොලිසියට ගැනිමට නොහැකි වනුයේ ඔහු ශ්‍රීලංකාවේ නීතියේ ආධිපත්‍යට අයත් නොවන මෙරටේ පුරවැසියෙකු නොවන බැවිනි.

මෙරටේ මූල්‍ය කළමනාකරණය පිලිබඳ ඉහළම ස්ථානය වන ශ්‍රීලංකාවේ මහා බැංකුවට අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් මහතා 2015 ජනවාරි 18 වෙනිදා පත් කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් බැදුම්කර වංචාව සෙවීමට පත්කල කොමිසමේ නිර්දේශ ගෙනහැර දක්වමින් ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා මාධ්‍ය මගින් ඔස්සේ පැවසුවේ ‘මහේන්ද්‍රන් මහතා මහ බැංකු අධිපති තනතුරට පත්කිරීම පිළිබදව ගරු අග‍්‍රාමාත්‍යතුමාගේ වගකීම විධිමත් බවත් වාර්තාවේ සදහන් වෙනවා’ යන්නයි.

By Anand Chandrasekhar Courtesy Swissinfo.ch

 Thirteen financiers accused of funnelling more than CH15 million ($15.3 million) to the Sri Lankan Tamil separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) will stand trial before the Swiss Federal Criminal Court on Monday.

The accused are from Switzerland, Germany and Sri Lanka. Some are former members of the World Tamil Coordinating Committee (WTCC), which represented the LTTE in Switzerland until 2009, and include its founder, his deputy and the person in charge of finances.

Between 1999 and 2009, they allegedly created a complex fundraising structure which involved coaxing members of the Tamil diaspora to obtain loans from banks. To raise higher amounts, the WTCC was accused of creating fictitious companies in the name of borrowers that issued fake salary certificates.

Up to a 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed during the 26-year brutal civil war between the LTTE and Sri Lankan armed forces(Keystone)

The 13 on trial face charges of fraud, false documentation, money laundering and extortion. As the LTTE was never declared a terror organisation in Switzerland, they will not face charges of funding a terror group, unlike cases involving Islamic State or al-Qaeda.

The Attorney General strongly suspects the LTTE fraction under investigation of having collected the money in question by means of threats and by creating a regime of fear to induce them to make the payments,” says a court documentexternal link.

The Swiss funds were transported in cash by couriers to Singapore and Dubai, eventually reaching the LTTE in Sri Lanka who allegedly used the money to purchase arms. This funding system collapsed in 2009 after the LTTE’s military defeat at the hands of the Sri Lankan armed forces.

I don’t think [the 13 suspects] should face trial as the LTTE struggled for the freedom and self-determination of Tamils, which is not a crime. It takes two parties to make a war and Switzerland should investigate the war crimes of the Sri Lankan army as well,” Anna Annor, president of Swiss Council of Eelam Tamils, told swissinfo.ch on Thursday.

Long-drawn saga

The whole process was set in motion in 2009 when the Office of the Attorney General launched an investigation against unknown persons” for extortion, coercion, money laundering and organised crime.

In 2011, a vast sting operation in several Swiss cantons resulted in the arrest of several suspects who were later released within a span of two months. A year later, a delegation from the Office of the Attorney General and the Federal Office of Police travelled to Sri Lanka to interview around 15 witnesses.

Around 80% of Tamils living in Switzerland had made payments to support LTTE at the time to support the struggle against genocide. That does not make Tamils supporters of terrorism,” says Kuruparan Kurusamy, former president of the Swiss Council of Eelam Tamils.

The trial of the accused was originally scheduled for June 2016. However, proceedings were delayed when the lawyer of one of the accused demanded that a bank involved in the financial transactions also be cited by the judge as one of the defendants. According to Kurusamy, the bank in question was Credit Suisse and he claims it had accepted 135 loans under the name of one Sri Lankan national based in Germany.

However, the Federal Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, allowing the trial to go ahead. A verdict is expected around mid-March.

Around 50,000 people from Sri Lanka live in Switzerland, mostly ethnic Tamils, who fled the island’s 30-year civil war that ended in 2009. Many applied for Swiss citizenship and as of 2016 there were slightly more than 28,000 people with Sri Lankan citizenship residing in Switzerland. In 2016, the Swiss government announced it would apply more stringent criteria for granting Sri Lankan nationals refugee status.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/ethnic-tamils_swiss-to-get-tough-on-sri-lankan-refugee-status/42282372

Swiss to get tough on Sri Lankan refugee status

Swiss authorities have announced that they will apply more stringent criteria for granting Sri Lankan nationals – mostly ethnic Tamils – refugee …

තොරතුරු තාක්‌ෂණ වෘත්තීයවේදීන්ගේ සංගමයේ ලේකම් ලසන්ත වික්‍රමසිංහ

 වෘත්තිකයන්ගේ ජාතික පෙරමුණ විසින් පසුගියදා කොළඹ මහජන පුස්‌තකාල ශ්‍රවනාගාරයේදී ‘රට විකිණීමට එරෙහිව් පැවැත්වූ සම්මන්ත්‍රණයේදී තොරතුරු තාක්‌ෂණ වෘත්තීයවේදීන්ගේ සංගමයේ ලේකම් ලසන්ත වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා විසින් එට්‌කා ගිවිසුම සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ආර්ථික ඝාතකයෝ යන තේමාව යටතේ පැවැත්වූ දේශනය:

 එට්‌කා ගිවිසුම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ප්‍රධාන වගකීම දරන අමාත්‍ය මලික්‌ සමරවික්‍රම මහත්තයාට මේ රටේ සංවර්ධනය සම්බන්ධයෙන් තිබෙන්නේ පුදුම උනන්දුවක්‌. හැබැයි එතුමා අමාත්‍යාංශයක්‌ ගත්ත දවසෙ ඉඳලා මේ වෙනකල් එට්‌කා ගිවිසුම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ක්‍රියා කළත් එතුමා තවම අසමත් වෙලා තියෙනවා එට්‌කා ගිවිසුම සම්බධන්ධයෙන් ශක්‍යතා අධ්‍යනයක්‌වත් කරන්න. ඒ නිසා අපි ශක්‍යතා අධ්‍යනයක්‌ කරලා ඒක පොතක්‌ විදියට ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරලා කථානායකවරයාගේ අනුමැතිය අරගෙන සියලු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ට දීලා තියෙනවා. කථානායකතුමාත් අපට ලිපියක්‌ යොමු කළා වගකිවයුත්තන්ගේ අවධානයට ලක්‌විය යුතු මෙවැනි කෘතියක්‌ රචනා කිරීම සමබන්ධයෙන් ස්‌තුතිය ප්‍රකාශ කරලා. ඉතින් මේකේ ප්‍රධානම වගකිවයුත්තෙක්‌ තමා මලික්‌ සමරවික්‍රම ඇමැතිතුමා. අපි හිතනවා එතුමා මේ පොත කියවයි කියලා. ඒ වගේම තමා එතුමාගේ රාජ්‍ය ඇමැතිතුමා, සුජීව සේනසිංහ. අපි කවුරුත් දන්නවා එතුමා පොත් ලියන කෙනෙක්‌. ළඟදී පොතක්‌ ලිව්වා බැඳුම්කර වංචාව ගැන. එනිසා එතුමා කොහොමත් මේ පොත බලන්න ඇති. මේ අවුරුද්දේ ඔක්‌තෝම්බර් මාසයේ එට්‌කා ගිවිසුම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ලංකා එට්‌කා කණ්‌ඩායමේ 12 දෙනා ඉන්දියාවේ එට්‌කා කණ්‌ඩායමත් එක්‌ක නවදිල්ලි නුවරදී 6 වැනි සාකච්ඡා වටය පැවැත්වූවා. එහිදී තීරණය වුණා 7 වැනි සාකච්ඡා වටය කොළඹදී දෙසැම්බර් මාසයෙදී පවත්වන්න. නමුත් මේවා කාටවත් දැනගන්න ලැබෙන්නේ නෑ. අපි මේ කතාකරන මොහොත වන විට ජාතියේ ගෙල සිරකරන මේ කුමන්ත්‍රණය ලංකා කණ්‌ඩායමේ 12 දෙනාත් ඉන්දියානු කණ්‌ඩායමේ කිහිප දෙනාත් අතර කොළඹ කොහේ හෝ තැනක සිදුවෙනවා වෙන්න පුළුවන්. එය බොහෝ විට මේ එට්‌කා ගිවිසුම සම්බන්ධයෙන් සිදුවන අවසන් සාකච්ඡා වටය වෙන්න පුළුවන්. එසේ වුවහොත් 2018 වසරේ මුල් කාර්තුව තුළ එට්‌කා ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කරන්නට සියලු කටයුතු සූදානම්. 
 
 එට්‌කා සාකච්ඡා කණ්‌ඩායමේ ඉන්න නිලධාරීන් පිරිස මේ දේශෙද්‍රaහී කටයුත්ත ජනතාවට හොරෙන් කරගෙන යද්දී, තවත් පිරිසක්‌ ඉන්නවා මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ක්‍රියාත්මක වන. ඒ තමයි මේ රටේ ඉන්න ආර්ථික ඝාතකයෝ. මේ ආර්ථික ඝාතකයෝ කියන පිරිස තමන්ව හඳුනාගන්නේ ‘ආර්ථික විශේෂඥයෝ’ කියලා. මොවුන් ඉංග්‍රීසි කතාකරන ටයි කෝට්‌ පළඳින ජාතියක්‌. හැංගිලා ඉන්න ඝාතකයෝ නෙමේ මේ අය. අපි මේ අයව රූපවාහිනියේ දකිනවා. පත්තරවල ඔවුන්ගේ ලිපි පළ වෙනවා. හැබැයි මේ පිරිස කරන්නේ මේ ජාතිය ඝාතනය කරන එක.
 
 අපි එකක්‌ මතක තියාගත යුතුයි. අපි අතරෙම අපිත් එක්‌ක සුහදව ඉන්න මේ ඝාතකයා, ඝාතකයෙක්‌ කියලා හඳුනාගන්න අපි අසමත් වුණොත් මේ ඝාතකයන් අතින් අපව ඝාතනය වන බව අපි තේරුම්ගන්න ඕනා.
 
 මේ ළඟදී, රසීන් සැලී කියන පුද්ගලයා, ප්‍රතිපත්ති අධ්‍යයන ආයතනයේ ප්‍රධානියා පවසනවා, වෙළෙඳ හිඟය කියන එක ප්‍රශ්නයක්‌ නෑ. ඒ ගැන කලබල වෙන්න ඕනැ නෑ කියලා. ඇයි මේ පුද්ගලයන්ට මෙහෙම කියන්න සිද්ධ වෙන්නේ?
 
 මේක ඉතාම වැදගත් කාරණයක්‌. අපි මේක හරියට තේරුම් ගත්තොත් අපිට පුළුවන් මේ ආර්ථික ඝාතකයන් කවුද කියලා හඳුනාගන්න. මේ ආර්ථික ඝාතකයන් මෙහෙම කියන්නේ සුවිශේෂී හේතුවක්‌ ඇතුව. ඇයි වෙළෙඳ හිඟය, එහෙමත් නැත්නම් ආනයන අපනයන් පරතරය වැඩිවීම ප්‍රශ්නයක්‌ නෙමෙයි කියලා මේ අයට කියන්න සිද්ධවෙලා තියෙන්නේ?
 
 ලංකාවේ වාර්ෂික වෙළෙද හිඟය ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් බිලියන 9 ක්‌. ඒ කියන්නේ එක අවුරුද්දකට හම්බන්තොට වරායවල් 9 ක්‌ වටින මුදලක්‌ අපේ රටින් පිටවෙනවා භාණ්‌ඩ වෙළෙ¹මෙන්. ඔබට මතක ඇති අපේ අගමැතිතුමා අර චෙක්‌පතක්‌ උස්‌සන් හිටියා හරියට තරගයක ‘මෑන් ඔෆ් ද මෑච්’ හම්බෙලා වගේ. ඒකේ තිබ්බේ කීයක්‌ ද ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් බිලියන බින්දුවයි දශම දෙකයි නවයයි (0.29). වාර්ෂික වෙළෙද හිඟය වන ඇමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් බිලියන 9 න් හතරක්‌ පමණ එන්නේ ඉන්දියාවත් එක්‌ක වෙළෙඳාමෙන්. ඒ හා සමාන වෙළෙඳ හිඟයක්‌ චීනයත් සමඟ තියෙන වෙළෙඳාමෙනුත් එනවා. ඒ කියන්න ඉන්දියාව සහ චීනය සමඟ එක වසරකට වෙළෙඳ හිඟය හම්බන්තොට වරායවල් 8 ක්‌.
 
 මේක අපේ ආර්ථිකයේ තියෙන එක්‌තරා රෝගයක්‌. ඇයි මේක ප්‍රශ්නයක්‌ වෙන්නේ? අපට ඩොලර් අච්චු ගහන්න බෑ. අපි භාණ්‌ඩ වෙළෙඳාම් කරලා වැඩිපුර රටෙන් පිටවන ඩොලර් ප්‍රමාණය කොහෙන් හරි හොයන්න ඕනා. කොහෙන්ද අපි ඒ වැඩිපුර පිටවන ඩොලර් ප්‍රමාණය හොයන්නේ? මේ ආර්ථික විශේෂඥයන්ට අපි අවධාරණය කරලා කියනවා, වෙළෙඳ හිඟය ප්‍රශ්නයක්‌ ද නැද්ද කියන එක තේරුම්ගන්න වෙන්නේ ඒ වෙළෙඳ හිඟය කිසියම් රටක්‌ පියවන්නේ කෙසේද කියන කාරණය උඩ. ඇමෙරිකාව වගේ රටක්‌ වෙන රටවල ආයෝජනය කරලා ඉන් ලැබෙන ලාභාංශ වලින් ඒ වෙළෙඳ හිඟය පියවනකොට ඒක ලොකු ප්‍රශ්නයක්‌ නොවෙන්න පුළුවන්. හැබැයි අපි කොහොමද මේ වෙළෙඳ හිඟය පියවන්නේ? අපේ රටට එක අවුරුද්දකට ඇමෙරිකානු බිලියන හතක්‌ එවන්නේ විදේශ රටවල සේවය කරන ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයෝ. ඒකෙන් හරි අඩක්‌ මේ රටට එවන්නේ මැදපෙරදිග වැඩකරන අම්මලා. වෙළෙඳාම් කරලා එළියට යන ඒ ඩොලර් ටික පියවන්නේ මේ අහිංසක මිනිස්‌සුන්ගේ සල්ලි. ඒ මිනිස්‌සුන්ගේ දහදිය සහ ඒ මිනුස්‌සුන්ගේ ජීවිත. මේ ආර්ථික ඝාතකයෝ අපිට කියනවා වෙළෙඳ හිඟය ප්‍රශ්නයක්‌ නෑ කියලා. එතකොට ඇයි මේ අය මෙහෙම කියන්නේ කියලා පැහැදිලියි. එට්‌කා ගිවිසුමෙන් යෝජනා කරනවා ඉන්දියා එට්‌කා ගිවිසුමෙන් යෝජනා කරනවා ඉන්දියාවෙන් ගෙන්වන භාණ්‌ඩවලින් 90% කටම ආනයනික බද්ධ සම්පූරණයෙන්ම ඉවත් කරන්න. අපි දන්නවා ඉන්දියාවත් එක්‌ක කිසියම් ගිවිසුමකට එළැඹුනොත් අපිට චීනයත් එක්‌කත් එවැනිම ගිවිසුමකට එළැඹෙන්න සිද්ධ වෙනවා. චීනය එක්‌කත් සාකච්ඡා කරන් යනවා එවැනිම ගිවිසුමක්‌ සඳහා. චීනයෙන් ආනයනික භාණ්‌ඩවලින් 90% කුත් සම්පූර්ණ ආනයනික බද්දෙන් නිදහස්‌ කරන්න යනවා.
 
 එතකොට ලංකාවට කෙරන ඉන්දියානු සහ චීන ආනයන ඉහළ යනවා. එතකොට ඔවුන් දන්නවා මේ වෙළෙඳ හිඟය ඉතා වේගයෙන් ඉහළ යන බව. රටෙන් පිටවන ඩොලර් ප්‍රමාණය වැඩිවෙනවා. මේ පීඩනය දරාගන්න වෙන්නේ මේ රටේ ජනතාවට. ඒ නිසා මේ රෝගයට මේක රෝගයක්‌ නෙමෙයි කියලා තමයි මේ ආර්ථික ඝාතකයෝ කියන්නේ. මොකද ඔවුන් යෝජනා කරන බෙහෙතෙන් මේ රෝගය ඔඩුදුවන බව ඔවුන් දන්නවා. ඉතින් ඒගොල්ලෝ අපිට කියනවා මේකේ ප්‍රශ්නයක්‌ නෑ. මේකේ ලෙඩක්‌ නෑ කියලා. වෙළෙඳ හිඟය ගැටලුවක්‌ නෙමෙයි කියන බොරුව සමාජගත කරලා විතරයි මේ අයට එට්‌කා ගිවිසුම ගැන කතා කරන්න පුළුවන් වෙන්නේ.
 
 මෙච්චර කල් මේ ලෙඩේට අපිට තිබුණ පිළියම තමයි අර මම කියපු විදේශ ශ්‍රමිකයෝ මෙහෙට එවන මුදල. දැන් මේ ගිවිසුමෙන් පස්‌සේ මොකද වෙන්නේ ඒ පිළියමට? ඒ පිළියමටත් විශාල තර්ජනයක්‌ ඇති වෙනවා.
 
 එට්‌කා ගිවිසුමෙන් යෝජනා කරනවා සෞඛ්‍ය, අධ්‍යාපනය, මහමාර්ග සහ ප්‍රවාහන සේවා, සංචාරක, තොරතුරු තාක්‌ෂණ, බලශක්‌තිය, බැංකු සහ මූල්‍ය සේවා, රක්‌ෂණ, විනෝදාශ්වාදය ආදී සෑම ක්‌ෂේත්‍රයක්‌ම ඉන්දියානුවන්ට විවර කරන්න. විනෝදාශ්වාදය කිව්වහම සියලු දේවල් අයත් වෙනවා සින්දු කියන එක, චිත්‍රපටි කරන එක විතරක්‌ නෙමේ මඟුල් ගෙවල්වල ඡායාරූප ගන්න එකත් ඒකට ඇතුළත් වෙනවා.
 
 මේ සියල්ල සඳහා ඉන්දියානු කර්මාන්ත සහ ඉන්දියානු ශ්‍රමිකයන්ට මෙහෙට එන්න පුළුවන් වෙනවා. එතකොට අර මැදපෙරදිග රටවල ලාංකික මවුවරුන් දහදුක්‌ විඳලා මෙහෙට එවන මුදල්, ඉන්දියානු ශ්‍රමිකයෝ මෙහෙට ඇවිල්ලා රුපියල්වලින් පඩි අරගෙන ඩොලර්වලට මාරු කරලා ඉන්දියාවට පිටකරන කොට අර පිළියමත් දුර්වල වෙනවා මේ එට්‌කා ගිවිසුමෙන්. එතකොට එක පැත්තකින් වෙළෙඳ හිඟය වැඩිවෙන කොට ඒකට මෙච්චර කල් පිළියම විදියට තිබිච්ච විදේශ සේවා නියුක්‌තිකයන්ගේ ප්‍රේෂණවල ශුද්ධ අගය අඩුවෙනවා. අපේ රටේ විදේශ සංචිත අඩු වෙනවා. ඒ කියන්නේ අපි ගාව තියෙන ඩොලර් අඩු වෙනවා. රුපියල අවප්‍රමාණය වෙනවා. එතකොට අපිට විදේශීය ණය ලබාගන්න වෙනවා. අපිට තව තව තීව්‍ර ලෙස අපේ ජාතික සම්පත් විකුණන්න වෙයි. එහෙම විකුණගෙන විකුණගෙන ගියාට පස්‌සේ අපිට තැනක්‌ එනවා අපි ළඟ තියෙන ජාතික සම්පත් ඔක්‌කොම විකුණලා ඉවර වෙන. සීගිරිය විකුණයි. සිංහරාජය විකුණන්න වෙයි. ඊට පස්‌සේ අපි මොනවද විකුණන්නේ? අන්න එදාට එනවා ගෙවුම් තුලන අර්බුදය. එතකොට මේ ආර්ථික විශේෂඥයෝ කියන අය කිසි කෙනෙක්‌ මේකේ වගකීම ගන්නවද? නැහැ. ඒක තමයි මනුෂ්‍ය ඝාතකයන්ගේ සහ ආර්ථික ඝාතකයන්ගේ තියෙන වෙනස. මනුෂ්‍ය ඝාතන කරපු අයව අල්ලලා උසාවියේ දඬුවම් දෙන්න පුළුවන්. මේ ආර්ථික ඝාතකයෝ සිය දහස්‌ ගණන් මිනිස්‌ ඝාතන සිදුකරලා, වැරදි ආර්ථික ක්‍රම රටවලට හඳුන්වලා දීලා එන්. ජී. ඕ. බත්බැලයෝ වෙලා එන්. ජී. ඕ. ඩොලර් අරගෙන බොහෝම සුව සේ තමන්ගේ ජීවිතය ගත කරනවා.
 
 මෙහෙම ආනයනික බදු අඩු කළහම රජයට ලැබෙන බදු ආදායමට මොකක්‌ද වෙන්නේ. රජය ඒ අහිමිවන බදු ආදායම වෙන කොහෙන් හෝ ලබාගත යුතුයි. කොහෙන්ද ගන්නේ? මේ රටේ දුප්පත් මිනිස්‌සුන්ගේ බොටුව මිරිකලා ඒ මිනිස්‌සුන්ගෙන් තමයි ගන්න වෙන්නේ. මේ රටේ ඉන්නවා නම් ආර්ථික විශේෂඥයෝ එට්‌කා හොඳයි කියන අපි ආරාධනා කරනවා විවාදයකට එන්න කියලා.
 
 දැන් කෙනෙකුට හිතෙන්න පුළුවන් වෙළෙඳ ගිවිසුම් මෙච්චර නරකද කියලා. තව රටවල් තියෙනෙවා වෙළෙඳ ගිවිසුම් ගහලා තියෙන. ඒක සාධාරණ පැනයක්‌. සමහර වෙළෙඳ ගිවිසුම් තියෙනවා ප්‍රවේශමෙන් අධ්‍යනය කරලා, ශක්‍යතා අධ්‍යනයක්‌ නිවැරදිව තේරුම් අරගෙන ගිවිසුම්ගත වෙලා යම්කිසි වාසීන් ලැබිය හැකියි. මම එක උදාහරණයක්‌ කියන්නම්. ඇමෙරිකාව සහ මෙක්‌සිකෝව අතර තියෙන වෙළෙඳ ගිවිසුමක්‌ සැලකුවොත් ඇමෙරිකාවට තියෙනවා අතිරික්‌ත ප්‍රාග්ධනය. මෙක්‌සිකෝවට තියෙනවා අඩු මිල ශ්‍රමය සහ අඩු නිෂ්පාදන පිරිවැය. එතකොට ඒ අඩු මිල ශ්‍රමය යොදා නිපදවන භාණ්‌ඩ ඇමෙරිකාවට අපනයනය කරලා වගේම මෙක්‌සිකානු වෘත්තිකයෝ ඇමෙරිකාව තුළ රැකියා කිරීම මඟිනුත් මෙක්‌සිකෝවට කිසියම් විදේශ විනිමය ප්‍රමාණයක්‌ ගෙන එනවා. ඒ වගේම මෙක්‌සිකෝව තුළ ඇමෙරිකාව සතු ප්‍රාග්ධනය ආයෝජනය කරලා ලාභාංශ විදියට ඇමෙරිකාවට මුදල් ගෙන එනවා. නමුත් මේ රටවල් දෙකටම මේ ගිවිසුමෙන් ගැටලු උදාවෙලා තියෙනවා. හැබැයි රටවල් දෙකකට කිසියම් හෝ වාසිත් තියෙනවා.
 
 හැබැයි ලංකාවයි ඉන්දියාවයි සලකලා බැලුවහම තත්ත්වය කුමක්‌ද? කාටද වැඩිපුර ප්‍රාග්ධනය හිමිවීමේ වාසිය තිබෙන්නේ? ඉන්දියාවට. කාටද අඩු මිල ශ්‍රමය තියෙන්නේ? ඉන්දියාවට. අපිට ඉන්දියාවත් එක්‌ක ගිවිසුමක කිසිදු වාසියක්‌ නෑ.
 
 දැන් මේ ගිවිසුම් ගහන්න කතා කරන අය අපට ඉන්දියාව තුළ තියෙන අවස්‌ථා ගැන කතා කරනවා අහලා තියෙනවා. එහෙම කතා කරන්නේ නෑ. ඒ අයත් කතා කරන්නේ අපි කොහොමද බේරෙන්නේ කියලා. මම කාට හරි ගහගන්න කතා කරලා මම කල්පනා කරනවා මම කොහොමද බේරෙන්නේ කියලා. මොකක්‌ද මේ, ධනවාදය ද මේක. නෑ මේක ධනවාදය නෙවෙයි. මේක බියගුළුකම. පාලකයන්ට කොන්ද පණ නැති කම. මේක ඉන්දියානු ආක්‍රමණිකයාට බයේ කරන කටයුත්තක්‌. මොළේ තියෙනවා කියලා ගෙනාවට අද වෙනකොට ඔප්පු වෙලා තියෙනවා මේ පාලකයන්ට උකුණු හිසක තරම්වත් මොළයක්‌ නෑ කියලා. අපේ රණවිරුවෝ දස දහස්‌ ගණන් ජීවිත පූජා කරලා බේරගත්ත මවුබිම මේ වගේ පාලකයන්ට පාවාලා දෙන්න ඉඩදෙන්න බෑ. ඒ සඳහා අපි සියලු දෙනා රොද බැඳගත යුතු වෙනවා. මේ පණිවුඩය ගමින් ගම අරන් යන්න වෙනවා. පාළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයේ ඡන්දය ඉල්ලන් කුමන පක්‌ෂයකින් ආවත් අපි හැමෝම අහමු මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඔයගොල්ලන්ගේ මතය කුමක්‌ද කියලා. මේ කාරණා ටික සභාව හමුවේ අවධාරණය කරමින් මම සමුගන්නවා. බොහෝම ස්‌තුතියි.

http://divaina.com/daily/index.php/visheshanga3/5514-2018-01-03-03-50-33

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE

Niranjan Dissanayake Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Government must be really disappointed that police still couldn’t find a valid reason to arrest former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Any foreigner who reads the above opening statement of this article may wonder what is happening in this country. A government is looking for reasons to arrest people? Such things happen only under dictatorships, fascist regimes and undemocratic circumstances. 

Kalathma Jayawardhane Courtesy The Daily Mirror

In the wake of President Maithripala Sirisena’s statement on the Central Bank bond scam, the joint opposition today said President Sirisena should also be held responsible for the fraud as he was the appointing authority of Arjuna Mahendran as the Central Bank Governor who cleaned out the Treasury.

Addressing a news conference on behalf of the joint opposition, former minister Prof. G.L. Peiris said President Sirisena had only appointed Mr. Mahendran. He also said yesterday’s President Sirisena’s statement was merely to distance himself from the fraud which had caused a whopping loss of Rs. 11 billion to the state.

Though President Sirisena vowed to recover money through legal means as Mr. Mahendran being a Singaporean would have spirited away the stolen money. Therefore, it is practically difficult to prosecute him. Even if he is prosecuted, the extradition law has to be applied which is a long and complicated process,” he added.

He said the second bond scam had taken place after the Parliament was dissolved and added that it could have been prevented if President Sirisena had not dissolved the Parliament allowing the the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) headed by former Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera to proceed with the investigations.

While referring to the statement by President Sirisena that the Bond Commission is of the opinion that similar incidents as revealed in the Commission Report had happened even in 2008, he said it was completely outside the scope of the commission to consider about it and urged the authorities not to distract the attention of the people. ()

Video by Sanjeewa

Courtesy newsin.Asia

Colombo, January 3 (newsin.asia): The report of the Sri Lankan Presidential Commission which probed a massive illegality in the issue of Treasury Bonds by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) in 2015, serves the political interest of President Maithripala Sirisena.

The report on the multi billion rupee scam, the main contents of which were revealed to the country by Sirisena on Wednesday, helps him keep the coalition with the United National Party (UNP) going despite sharp differences and moves within to scuttle it.

By only mildly ticking off UNP leader and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for going by the false assurances given by the erring bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, the report helps Sirisena safeguard his relations with his Prime Minister, who heads the single largest party in parliament.

By saying that similar scams had taken place when Mahinda Rajapaksa was President, and his man Ajith Cabraal was CBSL Governor, and that the bonds issued between 2008 and 2015 should also be investigated and legal action taken, the report helps put Joint Opposition leader and carping critic Rajapaksa and his henchmen in the dock.

With Sirisena saying that he has asked the Attorney General to begin the legal process, the Rajapaksa camp will have cause to worry in the run up to the crucial local bodies elections in February.

President Sirisena, who is now portraying himself as a crusader against corruption and thereby against the corrupt former regime headed by Rajapaksa, has declared that he will go by the commission’s recommendations to reform the monetary system and also the Central Bank.

The President’s faction of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), which has been losing public support for not living up to its 2015 election promises, is expected to use the anti-corruption plank provided by the bond scam report to weaken the Rajapaksa camp ahead of the February elections.

The report has recommended legal action against former Governor Arjuna Mahendran and his son in law Arjun Aloysius, head of Perpetual Treasuries (PTL), a primary dealer. The only politician singled out for punishment is former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, though the CBSL was under the purview of the Prime Minister and not the Finance Minister.

The Scam  

In late February 2015, soon after Sirisena and Wickremesinghe came to power replacing the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, the Central Bank suddenly decided to raise LKR 10 billion from a sale of 30-year government bonds with a coupon (fixed interest rate) of 12.5% , when it had initially advertised an offer of LKR 1 billion with a fixed interest rate of 9.5%.

Despite the sudden change in the terms, Perpetual Treasuries Limited, a primary dealer owned by Arjun Aloysius,  who is also the son-in-law of then Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, and its associate Bank of Ceylon, took 73.5% at an an interest rate of 11.5%.  It was suspected that Aloysius had inside information about the hike and was prepared for it while others were in the dark.

Arjuna Mahendran, a Sri Lankan-Singaporean banker, had been chosen for the top banking job by Wickremesinghe. But under a cloud over the scam, Mahendran resigned and was replaced by Dr.Indrajit Coomaraswamy, said to be a nominee of President Sirisena.

Sirisena’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) were sharply divided on the bond issue though they were both part of the National Unity government.

Early in 2017, Sirisena felt that the SLFP would lose political credibility if it did not clear itself of the charge that it was also protecting the wrong doers. Sirisena then asked the Prime Minister (under whom the Central Bank functioned) to clear his name. Instead of making his submissions in writing Wickremesinghe decided to appear before the commission and answer all questions.

Extent of Scam

The bond commission found that the illegal bond issue made to benefit the PTL headed by Arjun Aloysius , CBSL Governor Mahendran’s son-in-law,  had caused a total loss of LKR 11,145 million. Out of that LKR 8529 million had been from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), the Mahapola Scholarship Fund,  National Savings Bank and Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation. The balance was from private institutions.

Hence the loss to the public sector – EPF, Mahapola, NDB and SLIC – was over Rs 8.5 billion. Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL), the primary dealer and the kingpin of the scam, had made a profit of LKR 11,145 million within five months, the report found.

In the auction held on 27^th February 2015 alone, Perpetual Treasuries Limited has made a minimum profit not less than LKR 688 million. The Commission is of the opinion that further investigations could reveal that this amount could even be more than that. As revealed during the investigations, PTL had made an undue profit of Rs 11,145 millions in the secondary market. In this, EPF and other government institutions had lost more than LKR 8,524 million or LKR 8.5 billion,” the report said.

The report stated that PTL had earned profits through means that are not legal, with the involvement of Governor Arjuna Mahendran, CBSL officials and some external parties.

Prime Minister’s Role   

The report said that Prime Minister Wickremesinghe had erred in going by the information and assurances given by the then Governor,  Mahendran,  on the question of conflict of interest”  in regard to his son in law and primary dealer Arjun Aloysius.

The Commission is of the opinion that the Prime Minister made his statement in parliament regarding the appointment of Mahendran believing in the facts presented by Mahendran and Samarasiri, especially, the promises made by Mahendran. The report also says that the Prime Minister should not have done that. The Commission further stated that these facts were before the parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) and the Prime Minister had not stated these,  because of that he had not taken proper action against Mahendran,” President Sirisena quoted the report as saying.

When Wickremesinghe testified before the commission, he revealed that in January 2015, he was told that Aloysius would be resigning from PTL and that he was going to spend his time developing the Mendis distilleries business.

That was all I knew. Other than that, I didn’t know his affairs,” the Prime Minister had said. I had no information that he (Mahendran) in fact deliberately misled me,” he added.

After the matter went to parliament, he had left it to parliament to proceed further in the matter, the Prime Minister said. Wickremesinghe added that  the conflict of interest issue had been there before too, referring to former Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal’s sister’s alleged Directorship in PTL.

Spineless CBSL Officials

The report stated that senior officials of the CBSL were inactive” before Arjuna Mahendran. Bad decisions were made because these officers had become inactive.

Mahendran had made interference into Treasury bond auctions through a process of incorrect and unconventional methods and he was responsible for providing internal information to outsiders. Such conduct has allowed one party to obtain undue monetary gains,” the report states.

Former Finance Minister’s Role  

The Commission’s report refers to the allegation against former Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake regarding the payment of rent for the ‘Penthouse’ apartment by Walt and Raw Company owned and controlled by the Aloysius family.

Karunanayake was responsible for that and recommended that the government should to take necessary action against Ravi Karunanayake under the section of bribery and corruption, and further legal action should be taken under the penal code for giving false evidence at the Commission,” the President said.

Misuse of Employment Provident Fund

The Commission mentioned the misuse of funds of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), and stated that a forensic audit examination should be conducted to find out the amount of losses of EPF. The people responsible for these frauds have been identified and the Commission recommends legal action against them ,the President said.

The report recommends that, the legal action be taken against relevant persons and officials who are responsible for the fraud including Perpetual Treasuries Limited, Arjuna Aloysius and Kasun Palihena. It also recommends action to recover lost funds. Accordingly, the government is in consultation with the legal authorities ,the President said.

Probing Past Illegalities    

The Commission pointed out that similar scams had happened even in 2008-2015 (when Joint Opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa was in power). It recommended that the CBSL should first conduct a forensic audit with regard to the alleged fraud and corrupt practices from 2008 onwards, and based on such findings, legal actions should be taken.

The present report dealt only with the events in 2015 and 2016, but funds of the EPF were lost mostly between 2008 and 2015 ,the President said.

I have already submitted this report to Attorney-General and the Commission recommends that the criminal and civil court action must be taken through the Criminal Investigations Department and the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption,” he  said .

Recommendations

Considering the recommendations of the Commission, the government is to make new Monetary Law Act to avoid such malpractices in the CBSL in future. The existing legal provisions are old and need replacement,” President Sirisena said.

The commission  also recommended that the Registered Share Market Act must be replaced by a new legal act. Members of Monetary Board and Central Bank Governor must be appointed by the Constitutional Council in concurrence of the members. The regulations must be amended accordingly ,the report said.

The report recommended that there should be highest levels of supervision over the Public Debt Department.

As auditing at the Central Bank has not been conducted in a proper manner, the Commission recommends that the Audit Department must be reorganized completely. A Legal Department must be established in the Central Bank and ensure that the Legal Department functions efficiently.”

In a broader recommendation ,the commission  stated that the Attorney General and the Commission to investigate Bribery or Corruption must take legal actions to implement the recommendations of the Commission.

Recovering Money

As regards recovering money from fraudsters,  the Commission recommended that  parliament legislate for speedy recovery. The commission had also said that all the expenditure occurred for the Commission must be recovered from Perpetual Treasuries Limited.

We agree to that recommendation,” the President said.

I have already submitted a copy of the Commission Report to the Attorney-General and he will identify the persons against whom the legal action must be taken and initiate necessary criminal or civil legal action to implement the recommendations of the Commission , the President stated.

Reform of CBSL

The confidentiality, astuteness and auditing methods of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka were extremely weak, the report said. There were no tele-recording systems, electronic monitoring or even CCTVs. The current Governor of the Central bank has already taken steps to remove weaknesses and rectify these errors.

The Governor has informed that he has suspended some employees of the Central Bank after their malpractices were revealed in the investigations in the Commission and disciplinary actions are being taken against those officers. I expect the Governor to make a statement in the near future regarding the shortcomings in the Central bank as revealed in the commission’s report,” the President said.

Monthly Review

I have informed my Secretary to hold monthly review meetings with the heads of relevant departments and institutions to examine the progress in implementations of the recommendations of the commission to take legal steps against those individuals and take other required steps in an efficient and speedy manner,” the President said.

I would like to specifically state here that I would not hesitate to take steps to recover the loss of Rs 11,145 million to the government and take legal action against the offenders and punish them,” he assured.

The President said that his approach will be non-partisan and alleged wrong doers from both political parties will be investigated.

(The featured picture at the top shows Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena addressing the nation on the bond commission report)

Punsara Amarasinghe Doctoral Candidate in International Law Higher School of Economics Moscow, LL.B (Colombo), LL.M SAU( New Delhi )

 Love for the school as you love thy self is a common phase for those who have read the English novel Tom Brown’s School days” which vividly portrays the changes of English secondary education system in the19th century England. The plot in Tom Brown’s Schooldays was set in Rugby school in England, which was considered to be a potential academic center to build the needed gentleman for Victorian society. In fact the idea of loving one’s school was rather a strategy conceived in English psyche to inculcate one’s patriotism to country. After defeating Napoleon, Wellington had uttered The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton” and it was a symbolic statement to indicate how much school has affected in nourishing a personality of a boy to serve his country. The idea of school loyalty was not only confined within the corners in England when the empire on which the sun never set began to expand its frontiers in the East. Especially Lord Macaulay’s proposal on the colonial education in India in 1832 simply urged the idea of introducing English public school models to the British Raj in the subcontinent and being a colony of the British Empire Ceylon too was not exempted from Macaulay’s tactic. 1833 Coloboorke recommendation was the implementation of Macaulaite dream in Ceylon and few years after Colbrooke recommendations Governor Horton decided to patronize Colombo Academy as the foremost government school in the country.

Perhaps this article could agitate the old boys who have hailed from public schools in the island but my intention is purely to examine how such a loyalty on one’s own alma mater has made tremendous impacts in Sri Lankan society where the old public school mania still remains even 69 years after British left. Especially prominent members of Yahapalana government represent the old public school tradition or commonly called Royal Thomian bond which seems to be thicker than the blood in its action. Even the prime minster of the Government is notorious for his treating his classmates in a different level of dignity than treating his own loyal followers who have waited with him in the line to power. The psychological tactic of British in building schools in their colonies  happened to be mainly for producing a class for clerical service and local clergy which would reduce their expenditure of importing Englishmen for the colony , but the lessons taught in those British modeled public schools in the island strongly affected the young native  boys who studied there and they carried their legacy to become the leaders of nationalist movement in 20thncentry , moreover some of them became the leading statesmen of post-colonial Ceylon.

The remaining question regarding the school loyalties or glorifying the college even many years after le it is have such infatuations brought anything worthy to the nation. It is a fact beyond dispute that many of the children in the country are not educating in those so called colleges and this country still there are schools where very few number of teachers teach for students and some students just have to grin and bear every agony they undergo for the cause of learning. Mad love on own school is completely a peculiar ideal for such class of children. In the same country we have a prime minister who has complete trust on his school friends to hand over any responsibilities in the statehood and we have ministers who like to wear the school tie when they have been accused over fraud and corruption. The deplorable truth is that very British ideals planted by them in Sri Lanka are no longer exist in Britain now and the old Victorian myth of loving your school would lead you to serve your motherland better had been refuted within England.  Though many of English lads from best public schools had joined the army to serve the empire they were traitors came from the same schools like Kim Philby and Guy Bugrgges both of them had education at Eton and ended up being Soviet spies. In post independent Sri Lanka the 62 military coup was led by the military officers who emerged from British public school tradition in the island. In plain truth that illusion of school loyalty as a path to love your country or as a ladder to be a more successful man in life lies in tatters and the lessons from this country have simply proven how colonial we are in our psyche . Being the jewel of British Empire, India drastically got rid of her colonial legacies in the school education with the visionary idealism of Nehru and in the time of Indira Gandhi Indian policy makers developed concept of Kendriya Vidyalaya all around the country and today kendriya vidyalayas in India hold the helm of producing bureaucrats and military officers for the nation. Whereas the maha vidyalaya convept developed by C.W.W Kannangara has been faded into oblivion and still parents are eager to rally around those labeled schools to admit their children.

The school infatuation remaining in Sri Lanka can be aptly analyzed from the writings of Algerian writer Franz fanon and in his most popular work The Wretched on the Earth” , Fanon points out how minds of a colonized nation can be crippled after spending many years under a colonial occupation and even after gaining freedom the effects of colonial influence in every aspect of life continues to exist. The cult of venerating schools in Sri Lanka is a simple continuation of Fenon’s analysis of a colonial psyche. Ironically the schools emerged in the colonial period to resist the colonial education became the models of the same hierarchy.  As Prof. Nalin de Silva pointed out in his writings often those schools established by Olcott and his Theosophical Association simply followed the standards of Royal and S.Thomas’ in their structure and only difference was that fact that they had adopted a Buddhist and more nationalistic outlook which stands firm to this day. In my opinion creating a set of communal schools to react those British modeled public schools have made some repercussions as they stimulate sentiments confined to one particular community.

Sri Lankan is approaching the 70^th land mark of her independence in two months and the overall growth of the country stands in the doldrums. No wonder why the growth of the nation has been so sluggish, because we have been trained to be divided from their schools with different sets of ideologies. Moreover the products that are coming from the old elite school brigade would certainly carry the school ego in the public domain and the trend of getting more career opportunities for the students is another pathetic situation exists in Sri Lanka. If Lord Maccukay is alive today he would be over the moon to see how successfully  his dream of producing Englishmen in ideals have accomplished in this island where glorifying schools have benighted its people for a worthless cause.

රජිත් කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/කැෆේ සංවිධානය හිටපු උපදේශක/දුෂණ විරෝධී පෙරමුණ

ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ සිදු වූ මහා පරිමාණ වංචාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් මා මුලින්ම කථා කළේ අදට දවස් 1031 ට පෙර, 2015 මාර්තු 9 වන දින යි. එම අනාවරණයට මා යෙදු වදන ‘භාණ්ඩාගාර බිල්පත්‘ මිස බැදුම්කරය නොවේ. 

එම අනාවරණය මේ සමග අමුණා ඇත.  අප එදා කියූ දේ සියල්ල වැකියෙන් වැකිය නිවැරදි බව, අකුරටම නිවැරදි බව එය කියවා බලන ඔබ හට වැටහෙනු ඇත. 

අප බැදුම්කර වංචාවට සම්බන්ධ සියලු පාර්ශවයන් හෙළි කිරීම පමණක් නොව ඔවුන් වංචනිකව උපයාගත් මුදල් නැවත ජනතාවට ලබාදීම සදහා වන සමාජ වගකීම අප හමුවේ ඉතිරිව ඇත.  

ඒ ගමනේ දී ආණ්ඩුවේ ඉහළම දේශපාලනඥයින්ගේ කෝපයට ලක්වීමට මටත් දුෂණ විරෝධී පෙරමුණ, කැෆේ සංවිධානය අතුළු මා නියෝජනය කළ ආයතනයන්ටත් සිදු විය.  අප පූර්ණ රාජ්‍ය අනුග්‍ර‍හය යටතේ සිදු වූ, රජය සැලසුම් සහගත ලෙස සගවා ගැනීමට උත්සහ දරන ලංකා ඉතිහාසයේ විශාලතම මුල්‍ය වංචාවක් ජන අවධානයෙන් ගිලිහි නොයන ලෙස රදවා ගන්නට උත්සහ කළෙමු. ඒ සදහා මට සහාය වූ පිරිස අති විශාලය.

අප අද සීමිත ජයග්‍ර‍හණයක්  පමණක් ලබා ඇත.

බැදුම්කර වංචාවට සම්බන්ධ සියලු දෙනා අනාවරණය වන්නේ බැදුම්කර කොමිෂන් සභාවේ වාර්තාව පූර්ණ ලෙස ජනතාවට දැන ගැනීම සදහා අවස්ථාව සැලසීමෙන් පමණී.   එය වහා, අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම සිදු විය යුතුය.  

ගෙවී ගිය දින 1031 ක් අප කථා කළෙමු. විරෝධතා ව්‍යාපාර පැවැත්වීමු.  නඩු පැවරීමු. කළ හැකි දේ සියල්ල කළෙමු.  අද බැදුම්කර වංචාවේ නම කියවුණු එක් දේශපාලනඥයෙකු වන රවී කරුණානායක මහතා පමණක් ප්‍ර‍ති-අනාවරණයක් සිදු කර ඇති අතර එයට සම්බන්ධ ක්‍රියාකාරී දේශපාලනයේ සිටින තවත් බොහෝ අය සගවා ඇති බව පැහැදිලිය. බැදුම්කර වංචාව එක් දේශපාලනඥයෙකුගේ කාර්යයක් නොව සාමූහික, සැලසුම් සහගත ක්‍රියාවලියකි.  එයට තවත් බොහෝ අය සෘජුව හා වක්‍ර‍ව සම්බන්ධව සිටී.

බැදුම්කර වංචාව පිළිබද සිදුවූ පසුව එය ජනතාවට තේරුම් කර දීම අභියෝගයක් වූවේය.  ඒ සදහා ජනමාධ්‍ය දැක්වූ දායකත්වය මම අගයමි.  එම තේරුම්කර දීම පැහැදිලි කිරීම නොවන්නට බැදුම්කර වංචාව තවත් එක් මුල්‍ය වංචාවක් ලෙස සැගවී යන්නට ඉඩ තිබුණි.   ගෙවී ගිය දින 1031 තුල මා විසින් පුවත්පත් සාකච්ඡා 63 ක් හෝ එයට වැඩි අවස්ථා ගණනාවක දී බැදුම්කර වංචාව ගැන කථා කර ඇත. ගණන් කළ නොහැකි තරම් ‘සාකච්ඡා, සංවාද, විවාද සදහා දායක වී ඇත.  ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ලංකාවේ මුද්‍රිත මාධ්‍ය මා උපුටා දක්වමින් පළ කළ ප්‍ර‍වෘත්ති, විශේෂාංග, ලිපි හයසීයකට වැඩි සංඛ්‍යාවකි. විද්‍යුත් මාධ්‍ය මගින් විකාශයනය කරන ලද වාර්තා ගණන ද එවැනිම විය යුතුය.

බැදුම්කර වංචාව හෙළි කිරීමට මා වෙත ඉඩ ලබාදුන් සියලු ජනමාධ්‍ය ආයතන වෙත මම මාගේ පුද්ගලික ස්තුතිය පළ කරමි.  ඔබ නොවන්නට මේ මතවාදය ජනගත නොවන්නට තිබුණි! 

සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ද එහි දී ඉටු කළ මෙහෙය විශාලය.  විශේෂයෙන්ම බැදුම්කර වංචාව හෙළි කළ දින සිට අද දක්වා මාගේ අදහස්වලට ප්‍ර‍තිවිරුද්ධ අදහස් දැරූ පිරිසට මම ස්තුතිවන්ත වෙමි. දින 1031 ක් මෙම කාර්යයෙහි නිරත වන්නට අවශ්‍ය දෛනික උක්තේජනය සැපයූවේ ඔබයි.

ස්තුතියි,

අපි මේ රු. බිලියන 11 ට වැඩි ඔබේ, මගේ අප සැමගේ මුදල් නැවත මේ රටේ ජනතාවට හිමි විය යුතුය.  හෙටින් ඇරඹෙන්නේ ගජ මිතුරන් කිහිප දෙනෙකු සොරාගත් දැනට ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ ගිණුමේ ඇති එම මුදල්වලින් කොටසක් හෝ නැවත ජනතාවට ලබාදීම සදහා ජනතාව වෙත නිවැරදි තොරතුරු සන්නිවේදනය කිරීමේ වගකීමයි.  ඒ සදහා සියලු ජනමාධ්‍ය ආයතනයන් හි ද, ජනමාධ්‍යවේදීන්ගේ ද සහාය තීරණාත්මකය.

රජිත් කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන්

විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/කැෆේ සංවිධානය

හිටපු උපදේශක/දුෂණ විරෝධී පෙරමුණ

Jagath Sumathipala

Candidate for the Post of President of the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress (ACBC)

Dear Dhamma brothers and sisters

As you are aware, a new Executive Committee for the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress (ACBC) will soon be elected on January 06, 2018 with your vote.  I write to inform you of my well-considered decision to contest for the post of ACBC President. I seek your unqualified support to enable me to serve once again as head of the ACBC for the sustenance and uplift of the Buddha Sasana.  I have made this decision because I believe I will be a great asset to the ACBC in meeting the numerous challenges lying ahead.

I have led the ACBC during difficult times in the past.  I am totally committed to the cause of protection and promotion of Buddhism and fostering the Buddha Sasana. This has always been one of my main objectives in life since childhood.  As a past President of the ACBC, I have demonstrated sincerity and selfless approach, coupled with a proven track record of high achievement and significant universally-recognised contributions to the spread and consolidation of Buddhism. In managing the affairs of the ACBC I have helped in a variety of ways the enhancement of the Buddhist religion and culture, nationally and internationally.

I was privileged to serve as ACBC President for three consecutive terms in the past from (2006 to 2014).  During my tenure, I have delivered exemplary, disciplined and skilful leadership for the ACBC, bringing unprecedented operational stability from its disarrayed past, thus fostering respect, significance and esteemed community perception towards ACBC.  My leadership strategies have successfully and consistently achieved fine balance of economic viability and reputation building of ACBC, which was understandably a challenging and arduous task.  But, most importantly, I have launched and completed numerous initiatives, nationally and internationally, to deliver unparalleled contributions to promote Buddhism and culture through ACBC activities.  Wider Sri Lankan and overseas Buddhist communities, and the ACBC membership have overwhelmingly recognised and endorsed with gratitude my intense personal devotion and the highest priority given to uphold Buddhist values in a society fast changing  with diminishing respect for Sinhala cultural traditions and Buddhist tenets.

Serving the cause of Buddhism and its advancement is an inherent trait in my personal character for I belong to a very strong and conservative Buddhist family.  This disposition was enhanced by the guidance and direction that I have received from my education at Ananda College, the leading Buddhist School in Sri Lanka. Even during school days I developed an enthusiasm to participate in Buddhist social activities. I was actively involved in the school Buddhist Society, which I continued even after leaving school by becoming the President of the Old Anandians’ Buddhist Association.  I am currently the Patron of this Association.

Supported by my established family business background, I have pursued in adulthood my life-long ambition to serve Buddhism.   My association with ACBC commenced when I initially worked alongside my late mother Mrs Milina Sumathipala, who was the ACBC’s First Lady President.  Subsequently, I was elected as ACBC President.  In both these phases, I have made well-regarded and unique contributions to the consolidation of Buddhism of which some milestone achievements/deeds of the highest significance are listed below for purpose of information and reference.

• I have acted as Chair of ACBC’s Media and Publicity Committee whilst my mother was the President. At that time, ACBC was in a grave financial crisis with highly diminished and negative recognition coming from virtually all sections of the Buddhist community in Sri Lanka.  It needed an immediate and urgent salvaging operation. My entrepreneurial strategies and acumen coupled with foresight, effectively addressed the precarious financial situation the ACBC was in, reversed the decline, and made it into a financially sound institute of high repute.  The public assessment of ACBC was thus elevated to high unprecedented levels, helping sustenance and re-vitalization of Buddhism all over Sri Lanka.  Key underlying evidence of these includes:
• Revival of Bauddhaloka Sangarawa” (Buddhist Magazine), which has been left neglected for over a decade since its inception by Dr. Gunapala Malalasekera to commemorate the 2500 Buddha Jayanthiya” in 1956”;
• Organisation of a Devotional Public Walk involving thousands of Buddhists to endorse the society’s need to Build a Religiously-Disciplined (Dharmika) Nation”. Also, this movement acted wisely to rename the Borella roundabout near ACBC to highlight the Sathara Brakma Vivarana; 
• Production of a badge displaying Buddhist identity for devotees whereby their sense of belonging to the Buddhist faith, spirituality and practice are enhanced and uplifted. With overwhelming support, thousands of these badges have been circulated island-wide promoting public awareness and association with Buddhism;
• Launching of the Vesak Commemorative programme (Bauddhaloka Vesak) at the ACBC premises for the first time in its history to add significance and mark this sacred Buddhist annual event. Prior to this, ACBC was left in an uncelebrated and trifle state during Vesak, devoid of any marked celebration of the Buddha’s Themagula, with a grim uncared appearance of this highest lay Buddhist office.  Since then, this tradition of lighting has continued and rapidly spread to other regions of Sri Lanka, rejuvenating public interest and enhanced recognition for ACBC’s socio-religious undertakings;
• Resolving of many legal issues in respect to the rightful ownership of land donated to ACBC by numerous devoted philanthropists, hence freeing ACBC of legal encumbrances and ensuring future financial security (In many of these court cases, our personal funds were used to cover legal expenses, without any expectation of refund or re- imbursement);
• Launching ACBC sponsorship programme for rebuilding of Tsunami-affected temples. These religious sites in predominantly Buddhist Sri Lanka were not supported by international charities that were deliberately channelled to rehabilitate lay communities and non-Buddhist places of worship.
• Since I became the ACBC President after my mother’s term, I continued my implementation programmes and strategies with much vigour and enthusiasm to strengthen ACBC’s status as the highest lay Buddhist Office in the country. I launched initiatives to further improve the disposition, public perception and recognition of ACBC within Sri Lanka and in overseas Buddhist countries.  Unique projects were commenced to rediscover Buddhist archaeological heritage for generating public awareness and national pride.  The key  achievements include:
• Formulation of a 3-year strategic plan and governance policies for ACBC, allowing transparent and clear operational plan for all ACBC-related activities. Also, a committee was formed to set up action plans to highlight unethical religious conversions and eradicate alleged corruption practices.  A data bank was established to record any incidences of malpractice or injustice caused to the Buddhist community;
• Launched a Work Plan to rehabilitate regional Buddhist organisations in the country and to strengthen their financial position. These have enhanced participation of rural communities in Buddhist cultural activities i.e. commemorating significant religious events and attendant spiritual development;
• Launching an unique and ambitious archaeological programme to unearth buried Buddhist heritage. One such example is the excavation of over 2000-Year old Vijayarama Temple Complex in Anuradhapura that provided accommodation for monks to pursue spiritual development.  Similarly, refurbishment was carried out on the 1500-Year old Hennanithenna Temple Complex, thereby adding the name of ACBC to the historical record in Sri Lanka for such a rare deed;
• Organisation of the Inaugural Buddhist Literature Festival in 2007. Granting Literature Excellence Awards to recognise noted culture-based achievements of Buddhist monks and significant literary works. This Festival has now become a significant annual event of the ACBC. Such an esteemed and learned gathering was not convened in the country before although Sri Lanka was the first country in the world to have had Buddhist scriptures recited and recorded in writing;
• Re – establishment of the ACBC branch in Jaffna after 30 years to protect and restore Buddhist heritage affected by Tamil terrorism in Sri Lanka, and to facilitate the spread of Buddhism among the local Tamil community. This goodwill gesture acts as a bridge of humanity to curb animosities between ethnic groups and nurture racial and religious harmony through Buddhist practices and values;
• Development of children orphanages and senior citizens’ homes under ACBC management. These schemes care for orphaned children until adulthood whilst providing vocational training, and subsequently sponsoring their marriage, securing steady livelihood for them.  Also, ACBC-funded senior citizen homes offer alternative high-care residence for needy older people in the society, and
• Establishing new international links and partnerships for ACBC with prominent overseas Buddhist organisations, and restoring the old relationship with the World Fellowship of Buddhists, which had become strained due to the misconduct of the then officials of the ACBC in the late 1990s, thus becoming a voice for the Buddhists of Sri Lanka in these organisations,  and co – operating in  promoting Buddhism as a global religion.

Reflecting on the numerous contributions I have made and services rendered through ACBC, I am  inspired and highly motivated to carry on with these strategies and work plans into the future.  Contesting once again for the post of President provides a great opportunity for me to apply my proven leadership skills and past experience to further develop this prime lay Buddhist Office, to a new higher level of operational effectiveness and stability, and build upon my life-long aspiration and devotion to promote Buddhism.  In managing future challenges and making strategic decisions, I have very carefully assembled an executive team, who are well-disciplined, highly-experienced, exceptionally-dedicated and honest to support me in all areas of ACBC management.  The first and foremost aim of my team is to engage in the protection and development of Sinhala Buddhist culture in Sri Lanka through ACBC efforts, give leadership to the cause of Buddhism to forestall threats from whatever quarter including changes to the Constitution of Sri Lanka i.e. Article 9, which mandates the State to protect and give the foremost place to Buddhism, and foster the Buddha Sasana, and raise the ACBC to a higher level of recognition in the public arena and enhance its influence in the decision making process, locally and internationally.  I will also take steps to ensure that Buddhist opinion on crucial matters of public importance such as proposed reforms of the Constitution of Sri Lanka, Animal Welfare Bill, denigration of Buddhism and the Sangha in the mass media is given a due hearing by the ACBC with a view to addressing the dangers to Buddhism and erosion of Buddhist values in the country.

I am highly confident that under my leadership and the support from this outstanding executive team, ACBC will rise to new heights, fulfil its set of defined objectives in serving the Buddhist populace of Sri Lanka, comprising of both clergy and laity, whilst concomitantly serving the cause of global Buddhism seeking official recognition of Buddhism and freedom of worship and non – discrimination of Buddhists, in countries within and outside Asia.

In concluding, I appeal to you in earnest for your vote for my team and myself in support of our objective to serve the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress for another term of office, with dedication, honesty, diligence, respect and due care.

May all living beings be well and happy

May we be protected with the blessings of the Noble Triple Gem

Yours in the service of the Dhamma

Jagath Sumathipala

Courtesy TIMESOFINDIA.COM

NEW DELHI: Members of the BJP should refrain from wearing Western attire, as it is “foreign imposed slavishness” and not suited to the Indian climate, Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy averred on Tuesday.

Swamy took to Twitter and expounded on ways to improve and enforce party discipline in the BJP.

“Western dress is a foreign imposed slavishness. BJP should make it of party discipline for Ministers to wear Indian climate friendly clothes,” he said in a tweet.

The BJP leader also suggested that party members should not imbibe alcohol. Citing Article 49 of the constitution, Swamy said he was against penal action for consumption of liquor, but the saffron party should adopt a ban on alcohol as the official party line.

“Article 49 of Constitution directs alcohol drinks be banned. While I am not for penal action, BJP should make as part of party discipline,” he said in another tweet.
It should be noted that Article 49 does not in any way impose bans or penalize consumption of liquor. However, the Directive Principle in Article 47 states “the State shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of intoxicating drinks and drugs which are injurious to health.”

President’s special statement on Bond Commission and PRECIFAC reports

May the Triple Gem Bless You

First of all, I offer my best wishes for the New Year.

As the people of the country are very eagerly waiting with high interest, I wish to make a statement on the final report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) into the Bond Issuance of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, which was appointed by me taking into considerations the opinion of the people regarding allegations of corrupt practices and misdeed during the period 2015 and 2016. This report was handed over to me on December 30, 2017.
The Commission was mandated to inquire into the period from 1st February 2015 to 31st March 2016 to find out actual facts and to make recommendation with regard to the steps to be implemented in the future.

I thank the Supreme Court Judges and former Auditor General who functioned as members of the Commission and its Secretary and the staff, and those who assisted the work of the Commission, Attorney Generals Department, Police Department and other relevant organizations and individuals.

The Commission is of the opinion that similar incidents as revealed in the Commission Report had happened even in 2008. The Commission recommends that the Central Bank of Sri Lanka should first conduct a forensic audit with regard to the alleged fraud and corrupt practices from 2008 and based on such findings legal steps should be taken.

Commission states that funds of the Employment Provident Fund (EPF) were lost mostly during that period.

The Commission has submitted a full report covering the period 2015 and 2016, comprising 1257 pages and it is not an interim report. The Commission has taken 10 months for this task.

I have already submitted this report to the Attorney General and the Commission recommends that the criminal and civil court action must be taken through the Criminal Investigations Department and the Bribery or Corruption Commission.

The Commission has clearly stated the structure of the Central Bank, Public Debt Department, direct issuance of bonds and the pros and cons of the system of bond issues and bond auctions. The report stated that the Perpetual Treasuries Limited has made profits through illegal means with the involvement of Mr Arjuna Mahendran, Bank officials and some outside individuals.

In the auction held on 27th February 2015 alone the Perpetual Treasuries Limited has made a minimum benefit of over Rs 688 million. The Commission is of the opinion that further investigations could reveal that this amount could even be more than that. As revealed during the investigations this Employees Provident Fund and other government institutions had lost more than Rs 8,524million or Rs 8.5 billion.

It is stated that senior officials of the Central Bank were inactive before the former Governor of Central Bank, Arjuna Mahendran. It is believed that because they had not questioned about these and had become inactive, such incorrect decisions were made. Mr Mahendran has made interference into bond auctions through a system of incorrect and unconventional methods and he was responsible for providing internal information to outsiders. One party has used such information to obtain undue monetary profits.

The Commission report said that the honorable Prime Minister’s responsibility in the appointment of Mr. Arjuna Mahendren as the governor to the Central Bank was proper. The Commission is of the opinion that the Prime Minister made his statement in Parliament regarding the appointment of Mr Mahendran believing in the facts presented by Mr. Mahendran and Mr.Samarasiri, especially the promises made by Mr Mahendran. The Report also says that the Prime Minister should not have done that.

The Commission stated that moreover these facts were before the COPE committee and the Prime Minister had not stated that because of that he had not taken the proper action against Mr. Mahendern.

The Commission report refers to the allegation against former Finance Minister Mr Ravi Karunanayake regarding the payment of rent for the penthouse apartment belongs to the Aloysius Family and their Walt and Rowe Company and stated that Mr Karunanayake was responsible for that and recommended that the government should to take necessary action against Mr. Ravi Karunanayake under the section of bribery and corruption and further legal action under the penal codes for giving false evidence at the Commission.

The Commission stated to the misuse of funds of the Employees Provident Fund and stated that EPF should be investigated under the forensic audit examination to find out the amount of losses. The repot has recognized that, the dishonesty of a particular party had lead to this kind of malpractice on EPF funds. The people responsible for these frauds have been identified and the Commission recommends legal action against them.

The report recommends that, the legal action against relevant persons and officials who are responsible for the fraud including Perpetual Treasuries Limited, Arjun Aloysius and Kasun Palihena should be taken. Accordingly, the government is in consultation with the legal authorities.

Recommendation
*Considering the recommendations of the Commission, the government recommends adapting a new Monetary Law Act in order to avoid this kind of malpractices in the Central Bank in future. The existing legal provisions are old and need replacement.

*It is also recommended that the Registered Share Market Act must be replaced by a new legal act.

*Members of Monetary Board and Central Bank Governor must be appointed by the Constitutional Council in concurrence of the members. The regulations must be amended accordingly.

*The report recommends that there should be utmost supervision over the State Credit Department. As auditing at the Central Bank has not been conducted in a proper manner, the Commission recommended that the Audit Department must be reconstituted completely. A Legal Department must be established in the Central Bank and ensure that the Legal Department functions efficiently.

*As the Commission did not have the mandate to inquire into treasury bond issues from 2008 to 2015, the Commission had not done that. However, Commission recommends that there should be an investigation into that period too

*The Commission recommends that the dealings with the Pan Asia Bank and the conduct of Chairman must be investigated unto.

*The recommends that activities of the EPF must be looked into and in order to bring the ETF into a proper order, steps must be taken to restructure the ETF.

*A code of conduct for the officials of the Central Bank must be introduced. The code of conduct for Primary Dealers must be revised and updated.

*The Commission has stated that the Attorney General and the Bribery or Corruption Commission must take the legal actions to implement the recommendations of the Commission.

*Under normal circumstances, recovery of money is done through civil legal action. However, it is a time consuming method. As an alternative, the Commission recommend that a Parliamentary Legislation could be passed and the money could be recovered in a speedy manner through a Parliamentary procedure. We agree to that recommendation.

*The recommendation of te Commission is that all the expenditure occurred for the Commission must be recovered from the Perpetual Treasuries Limited.

*I have already submitted a copy of the Commission Report to the Attorney General and he will identify the persons against who the legal action must be taken and initiate necessary criminal or civil legal action to implement the recommendations of the Commission.

*I wish to clarify here, that a minor amendment to the Bribery or Corruption Commission Act must be enacted to take legal action on the recommendations of the Commission. For this purpose, already experts at the legal draughtsman are working on the required amendment.

*The steps needed to make Bribery or Corruption Commission more active and efficient should have The confidentiality, astuteness and auditing methods of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka were extremely weak. There were no tele-recording systems, electronic monitoring or even CCTVs. The current Governor of the Central bank has already taken steps to remove weaknesses and rectify these errors.

The Governor has informed that he has suspended some employees of the Central Bank after their malpractices were revealed in the investigations in the Commission and disciplinary actions are being taken against those officers.

I expect the Governor to make a statement in the near future regarding the shortcomings in the Central bank as revealed in the Commission Report.

I urge the Justice Ministry and the Attorney General to take early steps to draft the three bills proposed by the Commission present them to Parliament, in order to make required changes at the Central Bank to ensure such corrupt practices, frauds and malpractices would not take place in the future.

I have informed my Secretary to hold monthly review meetings with the heads of relevant departments and institutions to examine the progress in implementations of the recommendations of the Commission to take legal steps against those individuals and take other required steps in an
efficient and speedy manner.

I would like to specifically state here that I would not hesitate to take steps to recover the loss of Rs11,145 million and take legal action against the offenders and punish them.

The sum of Rs 8529 million of the total losses Rs 11,145 million was the funds of the Employees Provident Fund, Mahapola Scholarship Fund, National Savings Bank and Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation. The balance was from private institutions. Hence the loss to the public sector – EPF, Mahapola, NDB and SLIC was over Rs 8.5 billion. The Perpetual Treasuries Limited has made this this profit of Rs 11,145 million within a short period of 5 months.

Finally, especially I would like to mention that this final report must be presented to the Parliament and through this initiative the report must be open to the public. In the future, necessary as well as legal steps in this regard will be taken expeditiously according to the advice from the Attorney General. I kindly request to consider the openness of the facts of this Commission Report and I assure that any hesitation would not occur in filing cases against the offenders. Furthermore, I wish to state that this is the final report of the Commission.
I have previously appointed a Commission and the report of that has been handed over to me. It is the final report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to investigate and inquire into Serious Acts of Fraud, Corruption and Abuse of Power, State Resources and Privileges (PRECIFAC).

This Commission carried out their respective duties during the past two and half years. I extend my gratitude to the staff of the Commission and all the institutions including the Secretary and High Court judges for giving their support in this task. Already, 34 reports of that Commission had been handed over to me and recently 17 reports have been handed over and another 17 previously, the 17 reports handed over previously I have submitted to the Attorney General to take necessary actions through relevant institutions.

By now, the Fraud and Corruption Commission, institutions, departments and Police have taken actions to file cases based on the facts of these reports. The report which was handed over to me before two days I will submit to Attorney General within this week to take appropriate actions.

Especially I have to mention the actions on this report will be taken in the near future.

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry to investigate and inquire into Serious Acts of Fraud, Corruption and Abuse of Power, State Resources and Privileges has presented several major facts and it is the responsibility of the Government to implement facts presented at the Commission. I will explain to you regarding those facts for the general public information. Training and appointment of suitable officials as there is lack for skilled been appointed and only the qualified persons should be appointed to essential positions including the State institutions, Authorities and Constitutional Boards.

The Commission revealed that the money spent by the Government for the establishment of this Commission has already been recovered through the cases initiated through the findings of this Commission. A system must be implemented to hearing the cases in the courts in other areas as holding these cases only in Courts in Colombo is causing difficulties for those who travel from distances.

I must states a special thing, before I conclude the facts of these two reports, I saw a great eagerness and inquiring trend among the general public regarding these Commissions. At the same time when the Commissions were appointed, especially before the appointment of the Bond Commission, some people commented, even in Parliament that nothing had happened to previous commissions and the same fate would happen to this commission too. They also said the intention of appointment of acommission was to cover up the wrong doings.

But all of us must be very pleased regarding the fulfillment of duties of these Commissions and again I must thank the judges and all those who contributed in this regard for their great service rendered while wining the confidence of the general public.

Finally, I must state regarding the allegations leveled against me by some political parties for appointing these Commissions. I never appointed these commissions targeting any political party. I must specially mention in future when the cases are filed in accordance with the investigations and the recommendations and information of these Commissions, individuals belongs to two main political parties will be among the defendants in the legal process. We must be happy over our independent and impartial Judiciary. I must state all of us will provide our maximum support for this process.

Thank you

https://www.facebook.com/maithripalas/videos/10155786628376327/

ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ බැදුම්කර නිකුතුවේදී සිදුව ඇති බැදුම්කර වංචාව සම්බන්දයෙන් පරීක්‍ෂණ පවත්වන ලද ජනාධිපති කොමිසමේ වාර්තාව සම්බන්දයෙන් ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතාගේ විශේෂ ප‍්‍රකාශය.

By Yusuf Ariff Courtesy Adaderana

The final report of the Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry, which investigated the controversial Central Bank treasury bond issuance, reveals that Perpetual Treasuries Limited had gained an advantage of Rs 11,145 million from secondary market transactions within 5 months.

President Maithripala Sirisena revealed this while making a special statement to the media regarding the final reports of the Special Presidential Commission to inquire into the allegations of malpractices in the bond issue of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to investigate and inquire into Serious Acts of Fraud, Corruption and Abuse of Power, State Resources and Privileges (PRECIFAC).

The President stated that he has already sent the report of the Bond Commission to the Attorney General to pursue with onward legal action against those found responsible.

I have already handed over this report to the Attorney General while the commission’s report says that criminal cases and civil cases should be filed by through the Criminal Investigations Department and the Briery Commission based on the recommendations of the report,” the President said.

He said that according to the report, the primary dealer Perpetual Treasuries Limited had amassed wealth in an unlawful manner through the participation of Mr Arjuna Mahendran, bank officials and other external parties.

The report states that the minimum advantage gained by Perpetual Treasuries through the treasury bill auction held on February 27, 2015 alone exceeds Rs 688 million.

The report states that these information uncovered within the duration of this investigation and that figures could be even more sometimes, he said.

According to the finding of the commission, the company Perpetual Treasuries had gained an advantage of a minimum of Rs 11,145 million from secondary market transactions while out of that the losses connected to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and other state intuitions is Rs 8,529 million.

By Charles.S. Perera

Some may say that the Sinhala do not follow the teachings of the Buddha, but each one of them to a lesser or a greater degree has assimilated the essence of the Dhamma through generations of Buddhist culture in which they were nurtured. That is why we could safely say that the Sinhala have a balanced character not going towards emotionally  positive or negative extremes  not denying of course the exceptions.

That is why there was a willingness on the part of the Sinhala Majority to live with the other communities amicably accepting them as their compatriots, until recently when the Tamil politicians ambitious for political power, refused to accept their immigrant status and asked for equal rights with the Sinhala the majority community.

The Tamils of the diaspora are immigrants of the respective countries to which they have emigrated,   like the Tamils of Chola and Pandiya beginnings in Sri Lanka who came here as invaders, plunderers and settled down while others had been allowed to live by the Sinhala Kings some who even married Indian Princesses.

It may be this immigrant background that gives the Tamils an inferiority complex. The Tamil politicians, Chelvanayakam a Christian born in Malaysia, Naganathan also a Christian born in Madras, Sundaralingam, Ponnambalam  and so forth as educated high caste Tamils wanted to be the rulers over a people and as it was not possible being with the Sinhala as a minority community,  they aspired to have a country of their own to rule over it and demanded 50-50 or a separate Eelam.

Undoubtedly they also had an inferiority complex, a persistent sense of inadequacy or the tendency to diminish oneself, sometimes resulting in excessively aggressive behaviour through over compensation,” being high caste Tamils  having to work in a Sinhala majority government. They opposed the lion flag  or a government with an exclusive Sinhala Board of Ministers.

Coming to recent times , lets take the case of the Tamils of the diaspora (the Tamil emigrants settled down in foreign countries), they made an excuse of the 1983 riots to claim political emigrant status to accept their entry into foreign countries. And living meagrely , depending on subsidies offered  by the receiving countries, eventually  became a well to do  population in those countries and as years passed by became a substantially important vote bank in those countries to be sought by one political party or the other for political purposes.

But they remained  dark skinned strangers amoung the white population in the countries. These Western countries are forced to accept strangers into their counties, however they are  hostile to them. The Westerners are a biased people. They do not accept strangers amoung them sincerely as theirs. They have the colour bar, religious prejudice towards the Jewish people, and the Muslims.

To  Sri Lanka the Western whites come to help the poor Tamil people” discriminated by the bad ”  Sinhala majority, not through any genuine  love for the Tamils, but they have their own personal reasons sometimes political, spreading of Christianity or other religious Sects, or  simply for the chance to live comfortably as generous white altruist humanitarians-white angels amoung the poor wretches of the earth(we had lot of them working in the areas occupied by the  terrorists) or as highly paid NGOs looking after the  human rights of the poor Tamils.

Hence the  Tamils of the diaspora live with this inferiority complex in those countries and yearn to  be back in their motherland with their own people without being assailed by the white and black difference . It may be the reason why they looked to the Tamil terrorists in Sri Lanka, and contribute freely for their success as terrorists  to prepare a Tamil Eelam State for them, where they can live without any inferiority  complex.

They do not want to be with the Sinhala either  as they know  what it had been living with the Whites who never accepted them as theirs. But strangely the Tamils accept the insults from the whites and continue to live there, but refuse to accept the hands of genuine affection of the Sinhala,  requesting them to accept the Sinhala  as their own  people and come to live together.

The terrorist Prabhakaran knew that in creating a separate Tamil Eelam he would be the King looked up to by all these miserable Tamils the world over. We see how the State Minister Vijayakala Maheshvaran regrets the loss of Prabhakaran, and still pines for him.

Then the religion-the Tamil religion too has much to be desired vis-à-vis Buddhism. Some of the Tamils are Christians even Abraham Sumanthiran the TNA MP a Christian wants to remove special protection for Buddhism provided in the Constitution and make Sri Lanka a secular State.

The Tamils are all against Buddhism which is the cradle of our Civilisation, the culture of which had made the Tamils and Muslims accepted by the Sinhala as their compatriots and equals.  The difference was  created by the Tamils and not by the Sinhala.

Recently when the funeral rights for the NagaVihara Chief Incumbent and the Northern Province Chief Sangha Nayake the late Most Venerable Meegahajandure Gnanarathana Thera were proposed to be held at the Mutraveli Ground in Jaffna , the Tamils objected to holding the funeral rights at the  Muttraveli Grounds as they claimed there was a Hindu Kovil precisely, where the ceremony was to be held.

Can one imagine to what extent the inferiority complex-, a persistent sense of inadequacy or the tendency to diminish oneself, sometimes resulting in excessively aggressive behaviour through over compensation.”  could go ?

A Buddhist temple and its surrounding- the Bo tree, the white Dagaba clean large space, beautiful guard-stones  , moonstones , the silence  and walking in side,  the sublime Buddha statues, incense and  flowers laid before the serene statues all inspire peace and tranquillity  of mind.

The Nagavihara in Jaffna where the late Venerable Thera was the incumbent too  had this peaceful  sacred  atmosphere, compared to the Kovil that you first see as you get out of the boat to go to the Nagavihara which  in contrast is  frightening with a Gopuram with demon like statues,  big bellied human monsters, all  painted in garish colours.

Hence the  Tamils who find in side these Kovils  the sacred Lingam which they bathe with milk, and pour oil over it, and animal headed Gods, and gods with many heads and hands sitting on rats and birds, or  a statue of a blood thirsty Kali before  which the bare bodied priests make animal sacrifices find no peace and tranquillity but fear and hatred.

Naturally the Tamils would like to have Buddhist temples far away from their Kovils as a comparison of theirs against that of the Sinhala Buddhists make them feel down hearted and inferior despite the divine power their Kovils are supposed to emanate.

They become aware if they think deeply and intelligently that after all the culture that nurtured them had inculcated in their minds not love and willingness to live with  other in peace and brother hood , but hatred  and animosity to take revenge to satisfy their innermost desires.

In order to make up for this lack of an appropriate birthright to shape their lives without craving for what others possess and what they have not,  the Tamils continue  with their persistent sense of inadequacy or the tendency to diminish oneself, sometimes resulting in excessively aggressive behaviour through over compensation,”

The NP Chief Minister Visualingam Wigneswaran a high caste Tamil,  despite having been born and grown up with the Sinhala in the south is not an exception to other Tamils. He has same weaknesses but having been a Judge he perhaps aspires to be worshipped and treated as a Thalaivar by other Tamils like Vijayakala Maheshvaran holding the terrorist Prabhakaran in high esteem, and still pines for him.

He may also be regretting that his sons had married  Women from the Sinhala Community, as when he has to visit those now related Sinhala families ite may be despite his education and professional prestige have feelings of inferiority for which he cannot take corrective measures from them, which he therefore does by condemning the Sinhala, as people who had committed genocide  against the Tamils.

Where did he learn that from ? He was born in Hultsdorp in 1939 and lives in Colombo. Where did he learn about genocide against Tamils ? Isn’t he making up all that to get pardoned by the Tamils for allowing his sons to marry Sinhala ?

The Sinhala people have done nothing to make the Tamils feel inferior. The Sinhala are ready to forget all the damage the Tamils have done  to the Sinhala from immemorable times and live together with fraternal love with the Tamils.

The Sinhala only ask the Tamils to  come down to earth and understand that it is not a separate Tamil territory that they should have, but to forget  their Tamilness and be one with all Communities in Sri Lanka and build the country together as it now belongs to each one of us no matter from where we have come what language we speak and what religion we profess. Let us all be a one nation in this great country Sri Lanka like no other in the world.

Concluded.

H. L. D. Mahindapala

Universities are expected to perform two primary functions:1. teach and 2. engage in research to generate new knowledge that would light the darkness for the lost contemporaries to find their way into the future. There are 17 universities funded by the tax-payers money to serve these two objectives. But how many of them have been functioning as beacons to the ship of state tossing in perilous seas? Of course, there has been a good deal of theoretical waffling, most of which is self-serving punditry to promote the partisan politics of mediocrities posing as local Einsteins.

The tragedy, however is that none of the 17 universities can boast of the intellectual heights attained by giants like E. R. Sarathchandra, E. F. C. Ludowyk, K. M. de Silva, G. H. Peiris, K. N. Jayatilleke, etc.  These stellar gurus graced the bygone academic paradise at Peradeniya. They dominated the intellectual, cultural and political landscape of their time. Their collective contribution to academia raised the standards of tertiary education to the peak level of producing outstanding talent that fanned out to occupy chairs in some of the best universities in the world. Their academic brilliance that shine to this day have not been rivalled by their successors. Compared to them the contemporary academics are no taller than pygmies.

These mediocre hack-a-demics” are noted for producing only the next generation of mediocrities, nothing else. The universities, corrupted by power-hungry careerists, or political stooges are, sadly, at the same level as undertakers stuffing brain-dead dodos. Regurgitating borrowed theories from Western sources is their forte. In one case, his parting contributions to academia, on the eve of his retirement, consisted of recycling threadbare ideologies of the West that can be readily picked up from the internet. All their peer reviewed” tracts, aka research”, lie in the university morgues unopened, unread and unused because they are irrelevant to the needs of the day or the future.

Take, for instance, the most critical issue faced by the nation in the post-independent era: the North-South crisis. How useful have they been in working out viable solutions to the worsening inter-ethnic relations? How did the voluminous anti-Sinhala-Buddhist ideology help to narrow or eliminate the widening gap between the North and South? On the contrary, did not their partisan theories demonising the South add fuel to the raging fires of mono-ethnic Tamil extremism of the North? Did not the mono-causal theory of blaming only the Sinhala-Buddhists harden attitudes on both sides, obstructing the path to reconciliation and peace?

Of course, the academics flocked in droves to demonise the Sinhala-Buddhists because it was (1) the most marketable ideology where third-rate hacks could earn a fast buck and (2) advance their careers by falling in line with the official ideology approved by the intellectual mafia. Some egregious examples are Buddhism Betrayed? by Stanley Tambiah of Harvard and Work of Kings by H. L. Seneviratne. Lal Jayawardena, head of UNU-WIDER (The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research) set up with the aim of promoting peace and progress by bringing together leading scholars from around the world to tackle pressing global problems”, commissioned Tambiah to address the pressing problems” of Sri Lanka. With the generous funds of WIDER in his pockets Tambiah produced Buddhism Betrayed? denigrating Sinhala-Buddhism  — a partisan tract which worsened inter-ethnic relations contrary to the aims of UNU-WIDER.

Tambiah’s attack  on Sinhala-Buddhism set the trend from Harvard. He paved the way for the new American school of demonising Sinhala-Buddhism. After Tambiah came the deluge. The social scientists” fell in line with the mono-causal theory of blaming only the Sinhala-Buddhists. The American school of social scientists” in particular worked overtime to argue that in the complex universe of Sri Lankan politics only Sinhala-Buddhism has been the cause that worsened inter-ethnic relations. Seneviratne’s book that followed is a typical example that illustrates the herd instincts of the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist school of Tambiah. His book was written as a servile footnote to boost Tambiah’s attack on Sinhala-Buddhists. What made Tambiah’s book sensational were not the contents – it could have been written by even a juvenile sophomore — but the portrayal of Sinhala Buddhism as the demonic force that bedevils Sri Lankan society.

In plain language, it lacked the respectable balance expected of a professorial voice coming out of respected Harvard. The weight of the Harvardian authority overawed the rest of academia. Few dared to challenge Tambiah’s version of cause and effect : Buddhists caused it and the Tamil victims reacted to Sinhala-Buddhist violence. Soon it became the overwhelming ideological dogma that became the flavour of the time. The intellectual fashion of the day was for pundits to parrot theories that targeted Sinhala-Buddhism only. Digging into every nook and corner of Sinhala-Buddhists became the most profitable intellectual industry. The privatised research factories run by foreign-funded  NGOs hired unemployable Ph.Ds to manufacture tracts that could popularise the mono-causal theory of blaming everything, including Prabhakaran’s constipation, on Sinhala-Buddhists.

These hired researchers readily jumped into the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist bandwagon because it was one way of being a part of the elitist theoretical cabal, diagnosing and writing prescriptions on the North-South conflict, while sipping whiskey in the cocktail circuit of the Western embassies. The one-eyed Jacks and quacks in academia and NGOs were advancing a mono-causal theory knowing that they were manufacturing sounds of a clap with one hand. The most favoured theory claimed that if you take Sinhala-Buddhism out of the political equation the national problem would be solved without delay. The counter argument which says that the inter-ethnic problem could be solved faster if the Tamils dropped their mono-ethnic extremism and disproportionate demands was never factored in. Such a solution was considered heretical. In a multi-ethnic society only the mono-ethnic extremism of one community was considered valid. Giving into the political demands of one community was promoted as the politically correct formula. The role of other communities was simply to give into the ever escalating demands of one community at the expense of all other communities.

Legitimising this pro-Tamil ideology was a prime necessity for the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist lobby to win international and national sympathy. The Tambiah-Vadukoddai ideology became the main means of manipulating national and international public opinion. A two-pronged attack was launched to manipulate the pro-Tamil ideology: 1) demonise the Sinhalese and 2) simultaneously paint the Tamils as the victims of an oppressive majority. The national story was simplified into the goodies and baddies. In the popularised story the Sinhalese were the baddies and the Tamils were the goodies. History was re-written to blacken the image of the Sinhala-Buddhists and simultaneously leave the other side of the story as a white blank page. Explorers of Sri Lankan history moaned consistently about the missing chapters of the history of Jaffna but no one did anything about it. The situation has not changed to this day. No one has ever produced a comprehensive and authoritative history of Jaffna, though they have had no qualms in raking the history of Sinhala-Buddhists to pick up whatever dirt they can find in the South. The logical consequence is simple: you can’t blame things kept in the dark.

Faced with the overwhelming historical lacuna the Tamil historians lament about the absence of a Tamil history that could validate their politics of superiority and claims for self-determination. Writing in the 21^st century historian Dr. Murugar Gunasingham confessed that the ……the most important single shortcoming at this time  is that no historian, or archaeologist or even a social scientists, whether Sinhalese, Tamil or Western scholar has written a complete or comprehensive account  of the history  of the Tamils  in Sri Lanka.  On the other hand, Sinhalese scholars are actively engaged in researching and writing a full and comprehensive account of the Sinhalese history of Sri Lanka.”  He also said: Tamils did not actively pursue a systematic study of their past which would have contributed to the current and future health of Tamil studies. As a consequence, no comprehensive history of the Tamils in Sri Lanka has been written whereas the Sinhalese have successfully preserved and maintained their history from the beginning. Unquestionably, the Sinhalese people have quite valid grounds for claiming their own authentic rights within the country.”(p.13 – Primary Sources For History of the Sri Lanka Tamils, A World-Wide Search, South Asian Studies Centre, Sydney, 2005)

It is incredible that the Tamils who depend desperately on their version of history for the establishment of their separate state have never produced a comprehensive and authoritative study of their history. Of course, there is an advantage in keeping Jaffna in the dark. This enables the Tamils to fill the vacuum with illusions of grandeur. The Tamil political activists have taken advantage of the blank spaces in Tamil history to fill it with myths, fabrications and rewrites of history that would fit into their separatist political agenda.

Their version of manufactured history is encapsulated in the Vadukoddai Resolution of 1976 – the ultimate political manifesto of mono-ethnic extremism of Tamil separatists seeking to justify their disproportionate political claims of the 20^th century with a glorious past that exists only in their imagination. Whatever histories” that poured out of pro-Tamil factories stuck solidly to history” laid down in the Vadukoddai Resolution, boosted later by Tambiah’s anti-Sinhala-Buddhist tract. In the main,their histories were not to study the past but to justify the Tamil politics of the present. In the post- independent era they laboured breathlessly to create a history to match that of the Sinhala-Buddhists. But to date they have failed to produce a single volume that has been accepted as an authoritative and objective study of the history of Jaffna.

Without a solid backing of historical evidence the claims to a mono-ethnic enclave would lack gravitas. To produce historical justifications there should have been a comprehensive, objective and authoritative study of the North. There are, of course, patchy pieces throwing paper-thin slivers of light into one or two dark corners of Jaffna. But historiographers are concerned seriously about the failure of Tamil historians and allied social scientists to light up the past of Jaffna with a comprehensive and objective history.

Their most treasured historical document is Yal Pana Vaipava Malai written by poet Mylvaganam at the request of the Dutch Governor, Jan Maccra (1736). This is virtually the equivalent of the Tamil Mahavamsa – the highly valued historical document of the Tamils delineating their past. It runs into about 50 pages that are no bigger than the size of a notepad. Of course, this corresponds to the size of the Jaffna Tamils’ contribution to their history and, more importantly, to the nation’s history. In historiography size matters not for the sake of being voluminous but as an indicator of their commitment to  the land in  which .they created history, with  their blood, sweat and tears. A passionate and comprehensive history signposts the power of the people moving history to fulfil an evolving destiny. This is written unmistakeably in the Mahavamsa. It affirms that the destiny of the Sinhalese was tied, from day one, to this land. The Tamils, on the other hand, had one foot in Sri Lanka and the other in Tamil Nadu. Their heart was deeply rooted in their motherland across the Palk Strait. This mental make up is understandable. For instance, the tyranny of distance made it easy for the English migrants who settled down in America, Canada and Australia to sever connections with their motherland. But the proximity to Tamil Nadu made it difficult for the Tamil migrants to create an identity of their own in Sri Lanka. Of all the migrants only the Sinhalese who committed themselves totally to this land. The indelible and monumental legacy they left behind has proved their everlasting commitment to the land  by creating a unique identity of their own.

It should also be noted that poet Mylvaganam wrote his 50-page history not for the love of Tamil people or their history, unlike Maha Thera Mahanama who wrote the Mahavamsa with a missionary zeal for those who made history and covered themselves with glory all the way. He wrote it as a tribute to the pioneering makers of history who can claim to be the legitimate owners of the land because they alone made a unique history without vegetating as simian descendants imitating a borrowed culture from overseas. He was also unerringly conscious of his mission as a historian. He says that he wrote for the serene joy and emotion of the pious.”

Mylvaganam, on the other hand, wrote it to please the Dutch Governor. Why should the Tamils write a history of their Lilliputian escapades in Sri Lanka when their monumental history was in their only homeland which was across the Palk Strait? The next serious attempt to write a Tamil history was undertaken by Mudliyar C. Rasanayagam whose Ancient Jaffna was printed in 1928. Not surprisingly, he too dedicates his book to the British Governor. This makes it possible to argue that the Jaffna Tamils were not committed passionately to a sense of history like the Sinhalese. They wrote history to please their colonial masters.

It was only in the post-independent era that there was a rush among the Tamils to manufacture history, with a desperate sense of urgency. The Tamils suddenly discovered that they had to find political justifications for their increasing demands from a solid historical base. Political legitimacy derived from an irrefutable history for the creation of a new state has a greater force than the contestable modern theories of minority rights, or the principles that go to define a nation. The Sinhalese had no need to justify or substantiate their claim to territory or power because history was on their side. From the lips of caves to the highest points in the architectural monuments of ancient and medieval times the ownership of history was written, with unquestionable clarity and certainty. The Tamils, on the contrary, discovered that they had no history to match that of the Sinhalese. Besides, they also discovered that they had to rely heavily on their manufactured version of history to escalate their demands heading towards mono-ethnic extremities of power and territory.

This battle for history began in the thirties. The first shot attacking Sinhala-Buddhist history was fired by the acknowledged leader of the time, G. G. Ponnambalam. It was his attack on the Mahavamsa and the genealogy of the Sinhalese while glorifying the Tamil past that caused the first Sinhala-Tamil riots in Navalapitiya and the neighbouring towns in 1939. He set the foundations for the ideological battle. The ideological battle to be on the legitimate side of history has never ceased since then.

The moral in this tale is simple: he who wins the battle in the field of history wins the battle in the field of politics.

 To be continued

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane

 The exceptionally rich heritage of visual arts of Sri Lanka extends to a period that exceeds 2200 years, from the 3rd century BCE to the 21st CE. Buddhist paintings form a spectacular component of this heritage. An incredible collection of ancient sculpture and architecture further adorns the conspicuous elements of the Sinhala Buddhist culture, the national culture of Sri Lanka. For some 2500 years, the Sinhala Buddhists inhabited Sri Lanka as its dominant community, and up-to the 16th century, they accounted for over 95% of the island’s total population. (Almost all Buddhists are of Sinhala origin and of all Sinhala people, about 95% are Buddhists. Of the island’s present population of 22 million Buddhists account for about 70%).

This enchanting national cultural heritage reflects vividly the richness of imagination, creativity, aesthetic sense, and inspiration of the island’s Sinhala Buddhist artists. Buddhism, which was introduced to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BCE, was the primary source of inspiration and influence for artists, sculptors, and architects of the country. The life of the Buddha, ‘Jataka Tales’ based on former lives of the Buddha, the teachings of the Buddha, and incidences and important persons associated with Buddhist history of Sri Lanka, have been predominant themes of ancient artistic pursuits including paintings. Most ancient Buddhist works of art are known to generate inner calm, and evoke serene joy and emotion among people irrespective of their cultural background.

BUDDHIST SITES

Innumerable ancient sites with paintings are scattered throughout the country – north, south, east, and west, in the hill country and the coastal areas. The large majority of Buddhist paintings are found in Buddhist ‘vihara’ (shrine) and monasteries, the best known are those in ancient cities such as Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Dambulla, Sigiriya, and Mahanuwara (Kandy). All these cities were designated by the UNESCO as World Heritage Sites, owing to their artistic treasures, considered as masterpieces of human creative genius. Most of these sites are Buddhist temples established by Sinhala kings, or which received their patronage in ancient times. UNESCO has identified over a thousand shrines with paintings, which are more than 100 years old.

Paintings are found on ancient cave and rock surfaces, walls, ceilings, doors, wooden surfaces, statues and other sculpture, pottery/earthenware and on textiles. Some found in cave temples are over 2000 years old and some more than a 1000-year-old. Most of the earliest paintings are found in a fragmentary form. Among the oldest paintings are those on rock surfaces in caves, and walls of relic chambers inside ‘dagaba’ or ‘stupa’ (pagoda).

Relic chambers and surfaces inside ancient stupas (dagabas) were lavishly decorated with paintings in ancient times.  Some of these were times of discovered during stupa restorations. Some of these paintings have been reproduced on canvass by modern painters. These can be seen in the Museums of Colombo, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Mahanuwara. In the past, during temple restorations, new paintings were drawn on plaster applied over old paintings. Wall peelings in most old temples have revealed two or more layers of ancient paintings.

PAINTING MATERIAL

Paintings were done on a layer of plaster applied over various types of surfaces such as rock, walls, and ceilings and sometimes on wooden surfaces such as ceilings.  Material used in all surfaces was natural, most obtained from the immediate environment. Some of these products were boiled and processed in different ways to obtain necessary shades of colours.  A range of colours were derived by a system of blending basic colours. A specially made oily material was applied over completed paintings as a protective coat which also helped to enhance the brightness of colours used.

ANCIENT ARTISTS

Little is known of the artists of the ancient times especially about artists before the 18th century. During the 18th – 19th centuries, there were families of artists with their own traditions and techniques of art. There were traditional schools of art or groups of artists headed by a well-known prominent artist. They were referred to as Gurukula”. There were generations of artists in each Gurukula. There were several such gurukula groups during the 18th – 19th centuries (the Mahanuwara period of art). Each gurukula had developed and followed its own art forms and techniques.

STYLES AND TRADITIONS

Paintings are reflective of the variation in art styles, approaches, and traditions of art in the past. Characteristics of these paintings that are of much appeal to many are the colour choice and coordination, the intricate nature of line and brushwork, the elaborate designs, patterns, and exquisite motifs used for decorative purposes, and the fascinating symbolism adopted effectively to provide greater meaning and depth to paintings. Themes of most paintings are based on the life and teachings of the Buddha. ‘Jataka tales’ or tales of previous lives of the Buddha are common themes of paintings. Paintings reveal the great adoration the artists had towards the Buddha and the strong inspiration drawn from the Buddha’s life and teachings. Buddhist paintings have a strong impact on one’s inner spirit, transforming your mind to a state of innocence and overflowing compassion, joy, and peacefulness. According to the Buddha’s teachings, developing tranquility of mind is fundamental to the development of wisdom.

PERIODS OF ART

Based on general differences in art traditions the following major periods of art can be identified:

(1) Classical Period –                                                                                                            Anuradhapura Era: 3rd century BCE to 10th c. CE,                                                              Polonnaruwa Era:  11th to 13th century CE,

(2) Period of Changing Capitals: 13th to 17^th c. CE

(3) Mahanuwara Period: 18th to 19th c.  CE,

(4) Modern Period:  20th Century onwards

THE CLASSICAL STYLE

The classical style of Sinhala art is naturalistic exemplifying a transformation of nature by imaginative contemplation. Paintings show a highly tasteful use of a variety of colours and a skillful depiction of facial expressions of the figures.  With the exclusion of Sigiriya, most of the surviving ancient paintings of the Classical Period such as those of the Tivanka Pilimage in Polonnaruwa, are found in fragmentary form. Most were destroyed when foreigners such as the South Indian Dravidians and Europeans invaded the Sinhala kingdoms of Sri Lanka. Ancient paintings of the classical form of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and a few other places, are of overflowing aesthetic appeal. Most are considered as masterpieces of human creative ingenuity and imagination.  The outstanding quality of these paintings was a determining factor in the identification of World Heritage Sites of Sri Lanka by the UNESCO.

Political instability during the 13^th to 17^th century period had a negative impact on people’s artistic initiatives. South Indian invaders inflicted widespread damage to Buddhist temples and monasteries where works of art were concentrated. Although painting activity was not as prolific as before, some spectacular paintings were produced in a few viharas such as Gadaladeniya and Lankatilleka near Mahanuwara. Decorative paintings of on diverse wooden surfaces including ancient ola (palm-leaf) wooden book covers and exquisite paintings on textiles (referred to as ‘pethikada’), were also popular during this period.

MAHANUWARA (KANDYAN) STYLE

Paintings of the 18th-19th centuries (Mahanuwara Period) exhibit a predominantly stylized form, referred to by art professionals as ‘abstract symbolism’. It is a unique art form of great appeal, with its own dynamics and structural properties. Dalada Maligawa, Dambulla, Degaldoruwa, Medawela, Ridee viharaya, Mulgirigala are among the many sites with enchanting paintings of this period. They show several stylistic variations in different parts of the country, the most significant being those of Southern Sri Lanka which show a distinctive character. The impact of the European colonial period is partly responsible for variations evident in approaches and styles of paintings of some vihara paintings in the South. Painting drawn on diverse wooden surfaces, clay and pottery were popular during this period.

THE MODERN DEVELOPMENTS

The cultural resurgence that was taking place in the country in the latter part of the British colonial period, inevitably created the necessary atmosphere and conditions for the emergence of many talented artists and outstanding works of art, and many professionals of repute engaged in research and related publications on ancient works of art. Considering the infinitely rich cultural heritage of Sri Lanka, it is no surprise that modern and contemporary art in Sri Lanka is ever more complex and engaging. Paintings of the modern period is marked by some significant developments in techniques of paintings such as the use of oil paints, perspective, light and shade and three-dimensional modeling. Also evident are different modes of representation and characterization, which reflect a transformation of the country’s mural paintings to a significant degree.

Viharas with unique modern paintings are largely concentrated in and around Colombo. The better known among them, are the Kelani Rajamaha Vihara in Kelaniya, Gothami Vihara in Borella, Bellanwila Vihara in Dehiwela and Sedawatte Ganegodella Vihara. These are places with aesthetically pleasing and spiritually inspiring modern paintings of a high degree of artistic quality. These paintings are reflective of the inspiration drawn by modern artists from the traditional forms of Buddhist paintings of ancient classical period of the nation’s cultural history. Among the better-known artists of the modern period or in the 20th century and thereafter, who have produced painting that depict Buddhist themes include Solias Mendis (Kelaniya Rajamaha Vihare), Somabandu Vidyapathy (Bellanwila Vihare),George Keyt (Gothami Vihare), Albert Dharmasiri (Sedawatta), Upasena Gunawardena (Maligawa Annex), L.T.P. Manjusri, M. Sarlis and S. P. Charles. There were many other artists who have ventured into Buddhist paintings on their own but, are not directly associated with Viharas. Manjusri, was involved in the reproduction on canvas of ancient Buddhist works of art found on rock and wall surfaces in remote historic sites. Jayasiri Semage’s paintings related to Buddhism, are of high artistic quality.

PRESERVATION OF ANCIENT ART

Several modern artists and photographers have contributed to the conservation of ancient paintings by producing near perfect reproductions on canvas and some commendable photographic reproductions. Before they began to disintegrate fully, some ancient Buddhist paintings were copied on canvass by some concerned, committed and far-sighted Sinhala artists of the 20th and 21^st centuries. These reproductions can be seen in the national museums of Sri Lanka, such as those in Colombo, Mahanuwara, Anuradhapura Polonnaruwa, and in the Mahanuwara Dalada Maligawa and the Dambulla museum of Buddhist paintings established by the Central Cultural Triangle. There are five special paintings displayed in the Colombo Museum – four on canvas and one on paper. These were drawn in 1930 by an artist known as Ridiyagama Manik Appu. These are drawn in the classical style and are among the most enchanting paintings of modern times.

The ‘Cultural Triangle Project’, set up in 1980, was a joint venture of the UNESCO and the Department of Archaeology of Sri Lanka, under which action was taken to preserve some ancient artworks which led to a series of impressive publications with photographs and descriptions of paintings of 30 ancient Buddhist temples.

Some ancient paintings have been photographically reproduced and analyzed by several, including the author Daya Hewapathirane. Buddhist paintings of more than 60 historic sites across Sri Lanka were presented by him at several national and international exhibitions, including one at the United Nations in May 2012, in commemoration of Sambuddhathva Jayanthi Celebrations. Enlargements of some of his photographic images of ancient Buddhist paintings are exhibited in the first Photo Gallery of Buddhist paintings in Sri Lanka, established in 2011, at the Gangarama Vihara in Colombo. The documentary film he produced on The Heritage of Buddhist Paintings of Sri Lanka”, was presented nationally and internationally and was selected as the Best Buddhist documentary film at the International Buddhist Film Festival held in Sri Lanka in 2012. His recent book on Vihara Paintings published in Sinhala and English, describes, and assesses paintings of 100 sites across the island. Realizing that ancient murals will in time succumb to the natural course of deterioration, this book is expected to remain a valuable record, especially for generations of Sri Lankans to come, to appreciate their enchanting national cultural heritage, which reflects vividly, the richness of imagination, creativity, spirituality, and aesthetic sense of Sinhala Buddhists.

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

It is only Sri lanka that can protect and advance Sinhala language, its associated culture and heritage.  India can look after Tamil language.  Mr SWRD, though in power for relatively short period of time, made the change to place Sri Lanka at the highest place. Those who disagree with this policy, please go through the final examination results of BA. BSc. MSc. Phd., Chartered Accountants, Surveyors, Lawyers, Doctors., you can find for yourself until SWRD came into power, almost 85% of the lists of finalists were: Arsekularatnam, Argumugam, Annamuththu, Arunachalam,Balendran, Balachandran, Balakrishnan, Chenniah, Vigneswaran, etc. the endless lists from A to Z of Tamils.

Higher Education was confined to Tamils. Through systematic elimatination, those who progressed up the ladder were Tamils or those with Sinhala names, but puppets of Tamils or Muslims.  Lets see the First Cabinet of Sri Lanka:

D S SENANAYAKE

H W AMARASURIYA

SWRD BANDARANAIKE

GEORGE E DE SILVA

A E GUNATILLEKE

SIR OLIVER GUNATILEKE

SENARAT GUNAWARDENE

T B JAYAH

J R JAYAWARDENE

JOHN KOTALAWELA

A E NUGAWELA

G G PONNAMBALAM

LALITHA RAJAPAKSE

A RATNAYAKE

DUDLEY SENANAYAKE

C SITTAMPALAM

C SUNDARALINGAM

EDWIN WIJERATNE

When SWRD formed MEP to make Sinhala Official Language, none of these upper class were his comrades.

The 1952 cabinet of Mr Dudley Senanayake continued with:

EDWIN WIJERARATNE

C SITTAMPALAM

G G PONNAMBALAM, but added:

1. NADESAN

V NALLIAH

M C M KALEEL

Mr SWRD did not hesitate to eliminate Tamil domination from the Cabinet, he only had C A S         Marikar, a Muslim as a minister., but brought in those who fought for Sri Lanka and Sinhala Language for the past several years, including Greats such as:

PHILIP GUNAWARDENE

P H WILLIAM DE SILVA

W DAHANAYAKE

T B ILLANGARATNE.

The foundation laid down by SWRD in 1956  had produced encouraging results, whereby boys and girls of schools and colleges throughout the island are not advancing to the University education.  This disliked by Tamils such as Sambandam and Sinhala cronies like Ranil Wickremasinghe, Chandrika.  Chandrika is already eliminated from the political map of Sri Lanka, other remaining anti Sri Lankan cronies will have their days numbered.

Sinhala and English ought to be Official Languages of Sri Lanka  with National Language status for Tamil in North and East.  This policy should be given highest priority in its implementation to ensure the pride of place for Sinhalese.  

https://www.facebook.com/PresidentRajapaksa/videos/10154822458826467/

ප‍්‍රධාන ලේකම් ස.ලං.ප‍්‍ර.සේ.සංගමය

ගරු ජනාධිපති,
මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මැතිතුමා,
ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය,
කොළඹ 01.

ගරු ජනාධිපතිතුමනි,

2019 වසරේ සිටවත් ශ‍්‍රී ලංගමයේ අභිමානය රැකගෙන ශ‍්‍රී ලංගමය ආරක්ෂා කර ගැනීමට මාර්ගස්ථ ප‍්‍රවාහන සංවර්ධන ව්‍යාපෘතිය යටතේ අයවැය ලේඛනයෙන් ශ‍්‍රී ලංගමයට මුල්‍ය ප‍්‍රතිපාදන වෙන්කිරීම අත්හිටුවා ශ‍්‍රී ලංගමයේ අනන්‍යතාවය රැකෙන පරිදි ශ‍්‍රී ලංගමයේ නමට ප‍්‍රවාහන අමාත්‍යාංශය යටතේ අයවැය ලේඛනයෙන් මූල්‍ය ප‍්‍රතිපාදන ලබාදෙන ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටීම.

2018 වසර සඳහා අයවැය ලේඛනය තුළින් රුපියල් මිලියන 31,000 ක මුදලක් ශ‍්‍රී ලංගමයේ අනන්‍යතාවය ඇතිව ශ‍්‍රී ලංගමයේ නමටම  ලබාදීමට මැදිහත්වන ලෙස අප සංගමය ඔබතුමාගෙන් ලිඛිතව ඉල්ලා සිටින ලදී. නමුත්, එය සිදුවී නොමැත. 2018 වාර්ෂික අයවැය ඇස්තමේන්තු මගින් ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා ගමනාගමන මණ්ඩලයට මූල්‍ය ප‍්‍රතිපාදන වෙන්කිරිමට ජාතික අයවැය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව අනුගමනය කර ඇති ක‍්‍රියාපටිපාටියට දැඩි විරෝධතාවය අප සංගමය පලකර සිටින්නෙමු.  මෙහිදී විශේෂයෙන් ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා ගමනා ගමන මණ්ඩලය යනු මාර්ගස්ථ ප‍්‍රවාහන සංවර්ධන ව්‍යාපෘතිය නැමති ව්‍යාපෘතිය යටතේ ප‍්‍රතිපාදන වෙන් කළ යුතු ආයතනයක් නොවන බව අප සංගමය දැඩිව අවධාරණය කර සිටින්නෙමු. 

එමෙන්ම ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා ගමනාගමන මණ්ඩලය යනු දුම්රිය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව, මෝටර් රථ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව හා සමානවම රජයට අනුබද්ධ ආයතනයකි.  එවැනි ආයතනයක් ව්‍යාපෘතියකට නතුකොට වෙන්කරනු ලබන ප‍්‍රතිපාදන සැඟවීමට දරණ උත්සාහයක් මිස අන් යමක් නොවන බව පෙන්වා දෙන අතර මෙම තත්ත්වය වහා නිවැරදි විය යුතු බව අප සංගමය ඔබතුමාව දැනුවත් කරන්නෙමු.  එසේම මේ පිළිබඳව වහා සොයා බලා මෙවර අයවැය මගින් ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා ගමනාගමන මණ්ඩලය සඳහා රජය වෙන්කරනු ලබන සෘජු ප‍්‍රතිපාදන ප‍්‍රකාශයට පත්කරන ලෙසත්. එ් හරහා මෙරට ජනතාවගේ ප‍්‍රධාන ප‍්‍රවාහන මාධ්‍ය වන ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා ගමනාගමන මණ්ඩලය රැකගැනීම වෙනුවෙන් අප සංගමය කටයුතු කරන බව අවධාරණය කරන අතර මෙම ක‍්‍රියාවලිය නිවැරදි කිරීමට කඩිනමින් මැදිහත්වන ලෙස අප සංගමය ඔබතුමාගෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටින්නෙමු.

2018 වසරට  ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා ගමනා ගමන මණ්ඩලය සඳහා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලද අය-වැය විසර්ජන පනතින් ශ‍්‍රී ලංගම අනන්‍යතාවය ඇතිව මුදල් වෙන් නොකිරීම පිළිබඳව මුදල් ඇමතිවරයාට අප සංගමය ඉදිරිපත්  කරන ලද ලිපියට පිළිතුරු වශයෙන් ශ‍්‍රී ලංගමයට මුදල් වෙන්කර ඇත්තේ මාර්ගස්ථ ප‍්‍රවාහන සංවර්ධන ව්‍යාපෘතිය යටතේ බව ජාතික අයවැය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව අප සංගමයට ලිඛිතව දන්වා ඇත. අය-වැය විසර්ජන පනත තුලින් දුම්රිය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව, මෝටර්රථ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව, සිවිල් ගුවන්සේවා අධිකාරිය යන ආයතනවලට ඒ ඒ ආයතනවල අනන්‍යතාව රැුකෙන පරිදි එම ආයතන නමට ප‍්‍රවාහන හා සිවිල් ගුවන්සේවා අමාත්‍යාංශය යටතේ මුදල් වෙන්කර ඇත. නමුත් ශ‍්‍රීලංගමයට මාර්ගස්ථ ප‍්‍රවාහන සංවර්ධන ව්‍යාපෘතිය යටතේ මුදල් වෙන් කිරීම ශ‍්‍රීලංගමයට කරන ලද බලවත් අවමානයක් සහ හෑල්ලූ කිරීමකි. ශී‍්‍රලංගමයේ අභිමානය කෙලෙසීමකි. ශ‍්‍රීලංගමයට වෙන්කරන ලද මුදල් සෘජුව ස`දහන් නොකිරීම ඒ ස`දහා කරන ලද උපක‍්‍රමයකි.

ජාතික අය-වැය දෙපරේතමේන්තුව අප සංගමයට එවන ලද එම ලිපියේ පිටපතක් සහ අනිකුත් ලිපි ඔබතුමාගේ අවධානය සඳහා මේ සමඟ අමුණා එවන අතර 2019 වසර සඳහා මාර්ගස්ථ ප‍්‍රවාහන සංවර්ධන ව්‍යාපෘතිය යටතේ මුදල් වෙන් කිරීම අත්හිටුවා ශ‍්‍රී ලංගමයේ අනන්‍යතාවය රැකෙන පරිදි ශ‍්‍රී ලංගමයේ නමටම ප‍්‍රවාහන අමාත්‍යාංශය යටතේ මුදල් වෙන්කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය ක‍්‍රියාමාර්ග ගැනීමට මැදිහත්වන ලෙස අප සංගමය ඔබතුමාගෙන් ඉමහත් ගෞරවයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමි.

ස්තූතියි. 

මෙයට, 

විශ්වාසී,

සේපාල ලියනගේ 

ප‍්‍රධාන ලේකම්

ස.ලං.ප‍්‍ර.සේ.සංගමය

සම්බන්ධීකරණය – 071 5152319

පිටපත් :  

1. ගරු මුදල් අමාත්‍ය මංගල සමරවීර මැතිතුමා
2. ගරු ප‍්‍රවාහන අමාත්‍ය නිමල් සිරිපාල මැතිතුමා
3. ගරු ප‍්‍රවාහන නියෝජ්‍ය ඇමති අසෝක අබේසිංහ මැතිතුමා
4. ශ‍්‍රී ලංගම ගරු සභාපතිතුමා රමාල් සිරිවර්ධන මැතිතුමා
5. ජා.වෘ.ස.ම. ගරු සභාපති ලාල්කාන්ත මැතිතුමා
6. ශ‍්‍රී ලංගම සියලූම වෘත්තීය සමිති
7. ශ‍්‍රී ලංගම ප‍්‍රධාන විධායක නිලධාරී – පී.වී. බාලසූරිය                          මැතිතුමා
8. ශ‍්‍රී ලංගම ප‍්‍රධාන මුදල් කළමනාකාර – සුමිත්                                    හෙට්ටිආරච්චි මැති

By Hemantha Warnakulasuriya Courtesy The Island

President of the Court of Appeal L.T.B. Dehideniya, on the 29th November 2017, issued a ‘Stay Order’ preventing the arrest of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. In his order, the learned President of the Court of Appeal has stated “in this instance, the monument was constructed by the Corporation on a contract entered into with the Foundation, and the Foundation had no intention of defrauding.” He further says that, “in the present case there was no mental element for dishonesty or, misappropriation.”

I do not want to burden the reader with the treaties on criminal misappropriation and the Offences against Public Property Act. Suffice it to say that the Act at issue was brought to deal with the situation where the JVP and the LTTE wreaked havoc in the country, by burning buses, damaging power plants, etc. The government of the day found even the Emergency Regulations did not permit the suspects to be remanded for any length of time. Within three months, if no proper prosecution was instituted, the suspects had to be discharged. Therefore, the Emergency Regulation did not act as a deterrent to prevent misguided youth from thinking they could usher in a revolution of the proletariat. The lawmakers hurried through this legislation and called it the Offences Against Public Property Act.

No one then bothered about the draconian features of the law, but they just raised their hands and thumped their desks in approval. It was meant to be used against the Public Enemy Number One; the DJV and the LTTE. In drafting this legislation, the Law Makers forgot the basic principles of the Constitution of J. R. Jayewardene, which guarantees the personal liberty of the subject; that every person is presumed to be innocent until and unless proved guilty by a competent Court. One of the essential norms of the presumption of innocence also provides, according to the Constitution, the freedom of movement, freedom of expression and other basic rights.

But then, if legislation imposes a fetter on a person who is not even charged, but arrested merely on suspicion, and the law imposes a burden on the Magistrate to deprive the subject of being released on bail, it is indeed a serious matter.

No one in the Legal Profession or any Non Governmental Organization, mandated by their masters to protect the liberty of subject from such legislation, uttered a word. There were many reasons. Of all the suspects, alleged to have committed grave misdeeds , by burning buses and other terrorist related incidents, never had anyone representing them when facing their prosecutors in a Court of Law. Instead, they only had the pleasure of having their limbs tied and being garlanded with a burning tyre and being dumped on a street without even anybody recognizing who they were.

On the other hand, there were a few state officials who were brought to court for allegedly committing an offence as prescribed in the Offence Against the Public Property Act. They were remanded and very rarely were the accused given an opportunity to explain their innocence. But after being in remand a few months, they ultimately had to appeal to a Higher Court, and bail was granted. In most cases the reason adduced for granting of bail was nowhere comparable to the reasons given by Higher Courts, which played on the words, “exceptional circumstances”. At the same time there were exceptionally brilliant Magistrates who were clever enough to interpret the Law, when they found that suspects’ were being kept in remand and if the law was strictly interpreted, there was no hope for them to get bail, and neither did the accused have an opportunity of facing a trial in the immediate future; and they dared; without any contradiction, to release the suspects on bail. Once bail was granted, unless in a very rare and exceptional case; the Attorney General would never seek to revise such an order.

Although the Prevention of Terrorism Act was misused and abused by the then government nobody except the LTTE and its sympathisers raised a hue and cry. The present government is using the Offences Against Public Property Act to frighten the Opposition into submission. The Public Property Law is also used to back the governent.

It is unfortunate that the provisions of this Act are used by the law enforcement authorities to deal with matters which have nothing do with Section (2), (3),( 4) and (5) of the Act, at the behest of their poltiical masters.

If Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had not made an application to the Court of Appeal and secured an Interim Order, he would have been arrested and remanded till the conclusion of the case.

Irrespective of the utterly wild interpretation, the prosecuting authorities gave to a transaction, which is nothing more than a civil transaction, where the loss was based on a contractual obligation, to bring forth and waive the offences against the Public Property Act, that Gotabhaya has misappropriated Government funds; there is a limit to which a Prosecutor could extend his sardonic pleasure of remanding a person to satiate the mean pleasures of their political masters.

We should be grateful to our Courts for having issued the relative ‘Stay Order’, preventing such abuse of political authority to condemn a man without an iota of evidence of criminal misappropriation.

The following are facts which we should take cognisance of.

(1) No person charged with an offence against Public Property has been convicted whilst being in remand,

(2) the legislature in its wisdom, has made it mandatory that these cases be heard and concluded, and given priority over and above the other cases,

(3) When a person is suspected of having committed an offence under this Act, though he has to be remanded until the conclusion of the trial, the possibility of the trial being given priority is a matter that should concern every reasonable and prudent man,

(4) As the Act does not specify in which Court the action could be filed, the Legislature should have envisaged that the urgent nature of the matter needed urgent attention of the Prosecutors to file action even in the Magistrate’s Court, which gives ‘special powers’ to the Magistrate to hear and determine a case against a suspect.

(5) Today, with the subsequent Amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code, all matters are referred to the Attorney General for him to determine the sufficiency of evidence. It takes a number of years to file an indictment against the Accused.

(6) Therefore, the present stalemate and the delay of filing charges should be a matter that should be taken seriously and Courts’ should not act as an appendage to the Government in power by remanding political opponents with or without evidence.

Currently, the independence of the judiciary has been demonstrated by Justice Dehideniya, as the President of the Court of Appeal. Though there may be some critics of the procedure adopted and the manner in which the stay order was issued, the end justifies the means, and the stay order would enshrine and further bestow the independence of our judicial system.

By Yusuf Ariff Courtesy Adaderana

Presidential Commission of Inquiry appointed to investigate into Serious Acts of Fraud and Corruption handed over its final report to President Maithripala Sirisena, a short while ago.

It is an important step in our fight against corruption,” the President tweeted, while announcing the receiving of the report.

The report, consisting of 1135 pages, was handed over at the Presidential Secretariat by the chairman of the commission Preethi Padman Surasena while other members: High Court judge Vikum Kaluarachchi, Piyasena Ranasinghe, Gihan Kulathunga and retired Auditor General P.A. Premathilake, were also present.

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry to investigate and inquire into Serious Acts of Fraud, Corruption and Abuse of Power, State Resources and Privileges (PRECIfAC) had previously handed over reports of 17 investigations to the President.

The PRECIFAC, in addition to the reports of the 17 cases of serious fraud and corruption prepared after extensive investigations and analysis of evidence, will also hand over the recommendations on the measures to be taken in future to prevent such crimes.

It has been reported that report of suggestions including serious measures to be taken to prevent serious corruption is 1,200 pages long.

President Maithripala Sirisena by a gazette notification on 10th March 2015 established the PRECIFAC to investigate fraud and corruption as well as the misuse of power that took place during 10th January 2010 to 10th January 2015.