By Rohana R. Wasala

The Island editorial of Monday  January 15^th 2018 paid a glowing tribute to  the incumbent Vaedda Chief Uruwarige  Wannialaeththo, describing him as the one true leader we still have, and further suggesting that he is perhaps ‘the last of the Mohicans’. Both descriptions are, no doubt, exaggerations prompted by the editor’s desire to express his deep moral indignation at the well known propensity of some  of our average politicians towards rank corruption and crude behaviour in the parliament and outside of it. But Wannialaeththo well deserves such praise for his striking intelligence, enviable composure, and regal mien. No one will dispute the validity of this highly appreciative editorial observation on the tribal chief’s wise comments during a recent TV interview on the current political situation in the country.  I, as a Sri Lankan, particularly agree with the editor’s unambiguous recognition of Wannialae Aeththo as a national leader and his possibly unrivalled stature in that position.

Let me start off with a crucial caveat, though. Such idolizing of the tribal leader as we see in the Island editorial referred to above seems to have been considered essential for emphasizing its message. People normally feel tempted to praise Wannilaeththo for the gems of wisdom that his conversation is usually strewn with, not only in the particular TV interview mentioned, but in other contexts as well. In addition to his customary ‘noble savage’ reputation, he has the contradictory distinction of being a man of the world. As the Vaedda Chief he enjoys frequent media attention both in Sri Lanka and abroad. He is wooed by prominent politicians in power as well as by those out of power. For decades now, the Vaeddas have also drawn the attention of international human rights activists on the basis of their alleged threatened status as an ‘indigenous’ community. Both sources of attention could be tainted with mercenary as well as manipulative intentions. Wannialaeththo cannot be expected to be completely free from mundane temptations, as the Island editor himself has at least faintly impled.

We are told that Wannialaeththo said, in the same interview, that he hoped that a member of his community would be elected to represent them in parliament. That is a highly commendable aspiration. However, the editor’s own suggestion (probably made half in jest) that the tribal chief be brought to parliament through the National List should be considered demeaning for the dignified Vaedda Chief in view of the history of some of his prospective companions there in case he is thus appointed to that supposedly august assembly. If, on the other hand, a commoner Vaedda representative is elected to parliament, it could turn out to be a long delayed first step towards restoring the traditional inter-communal harmony that prevailed throughout the island of Ceylon (Sinhale) from time immemorial down to the early decades of the 19^th century despite temporary setbacks and interruptions of varying duration caused by foreign invasions, and fratricidal domestic power struggles.

I was in the audience during a guest lecture delivered at the University of Perdeniya (The E.F.C. Ludowyk Memorial Lecture 2000 under the title: Voices from the Past: An Extended Footnote to Ludowyk’s ‘The Story of Ceylon’”) by Professor Emeritus of Princeton University, USA Gananath Obeyesekere on October 24, 2000. A key fact that the well known anthropologist made clear in his lecture was that the Vaeddas were everywhere in the island, an idea which contradicted the popular notion that they were found only in a few isolated places like Bintenne, Mahiyangana. While listening to him, I suddenly recalled, or rather realized, that we had had a Vaedda family living in the village of my childhood in the Hill Country, but as a child I had never even suspected that they were Vaeddas.  The paterfamilias of that family was an old man (a straight backed dark man of sturdy build of middling height) that my parents referred to as Vaedda mama (Uncle Vaedda) as many other adults in the village did. What I had always thought was that ‘Vaedda’ was the old man’s nickname.  His grandchildren attended the same primary school as I did. They had ordinary Sinhalese names. None of us children knew about their Vaedda identity. I don’t think, that even his grandchildren, did. Like most other peasants he did cultivation of rice paddy for a living. He didn’t go hunting. We saw him in the village Vihara  among others of his age clad in white for observing  ‘ata sil’. The adults of the village didn’t leave us children the slightest clue about the fact that they were Vaeddas. It was not that they deliberately concealed from us their different ethnicity; it was most probably that Vaedda presence among the ordinary Sinhalese, particularly in rural areas, was so common a thing that they paid no special attention to it; they were apparently unaware of any separateness from those socially integrated Vaeddas. This was an ‘epiphany’ of sorts that I experienced  in my personal life in connection with the reality of what could be called the Vaedda component of our national identity.

The professor invoked the view of Portuguese historian Fernao de Queyroz of the late 17^th century that the Vaeddas enjoyed an intimate relationship with the Kandyan king; they had easy access to him and referred to him familiarly as massina (which Obeysekere rendered into English as cross-cousin”). They were his loyal subjects. The king and the nobles reposed great trust in them. Often their personal security details consisted of appropriately dressed and armed Vaedda bodyguards. Vaeddas played an important part in the great 1818 rebellion. The famous Kivulegedara Mohottala belonged to a distinguished line of Bandara Vaeddas, according to Professor Obeyesekere . The scholar said that we should not imagine that well-dressed Vadda soldiers were a Kandyan period phenomenon”, and referred to the Vaedda regiment in the army of Parakramabahu I (1153-1186) quoting from the L.C. Wijesinghe translation of the Mahavamsa (1882): He [the king] trained many thousands of hunters [vyadha, that is, Vaddas] and made them skilled in the use of their weapons, and gave them swords, black clothes and the like”. Vaeddas had also served in the army of king Vijayabahu I (1055-1110) of Polonnaruwa who freed the country from Chola invaders.

(NB: The ubiquitous presence of Vaeddas in the island and the close historical relationship between the Vaeddas and the Sinhalese are ideas I found articulated in Professor Obeyesekere’s oration. The other  opinions expressed here are either my independent views or those derived from other sources than Professor Gananath Obeyesekere. My essay is not expected to give the faintest idea about the central argument of his lecture.)

In recent times though, the Vaeddas have been classified as an exclusively indigenous people similar to the Australian Aboriginals, as can be suspected, with the ulterior motive of conspiratorially alienating them from the native Sinhalese majority, who are as much indigenous to the island as the Vaeddas and most probably they are descended from common ancestors. The nomenclature ‘indigenous or aboriginal tribe’ applied to the Vaeddas came to wider circulation due to the influence of foreign human rights traffickers. The rural majority of Sri Lankans would be naturally surprised to learn about such an erroneous typological description of the Vaeddas. Needless to add, the aforementioned ‘human rights traffickers’ are agents of interventionist Western  and regional super powers, which are pursuing their own geopolitical agendas at the expense of the stability and even the very  survival of our country as a free, independent sovereign nation state. (This is said without prejudice to genuine human rights activists/campaigners.)

Actually, international human rights campaigners need not worry too much about our Vaeddas. The Island editor quotes global statistics to show that although indigenous peoples account for only 5% of the world’s population, 15% of the world’s poorest are among them. This means that indigenous communities are three times poorer than the rest of the world population. My opinion is that this does not apply to our Vaedda compatriots. For one thing, they hardly qualify for indigenous community status in view of the long history of peaceful coexistence and social integration with the Sinhalese (even if their hypothetical common ancestral roots are ignored). For another thing, if you look at any pictures of these people you find that they are some of the finest specimens of homo sapiens sapiens! They look well fed and healthy. Of course, they may still lack the ordinary modern amenities that reasonably well off city dwellers take for granted, and they may be resigned to giving those desirable features of decent living a miss. They may be eking out a living by exploiting the resources available in the jungle. But, as one may point out, most rural Sri Lankans, the Vaeddas’ close neighbours, are hardly better off.  There is no doubt that the two groups will cooperate in persuading the government to address their common grievances. For that to happen, their education levels must be raised; they must stop being mere anthropological exhibits and modernize in keeping up with the rest of the country. Before long, Vaedda representatives must get into local, provincial and national legislatures. It is a remarkable thing that the Vaeddas, as a distinct (but historically allied) community, have maintained to this day at least a vestigial form of their ancient stone age  hunter gatherer culture. One major contributory factor behind this could be the tolerant, nonaggressive nature of the dominant Buddhist civilization that their coeval tribal cousins the Sinhalese built up over the millennia (with which the island has from the earliest times been identified).

The Island editor’s unostentatious projection of Wannialaeththo as the national leader that he really is  brought to my mind a story I heard in my youth that struck me with the realization that the reigning  Vaedda Chief of recent times is given only perfunctory recognition, which falls far short of his due. He is the hereditary leader of that particular ‘primitive’ community living in or in close association with the jungle, but speaking a dialectal form of Sinhalese called Vaedi Basawa. The fact that he is actually of royal status within his community is forgotten. By the way, to most people a Vaedda is still a curiosity at best and a joke at worst. This attitude has somewhat changed today, and there are signs that the changing trend is accelerating. However, 40-50 years ago, the Vaeddas had a more isolated existence than now or a few decades before the time that I am now going to recall to the reader. This was towards the latter ‘60s. Unlike today, then, government ministers and the high civil servants serving under them were invariably treated as celebrities as they undoubtedly deserved to be treated, given their unblemished personal stature and professionalism. Among them there was a ministry secretary who was enjoying living legend status among the civil servants, and he was in charge of a department that was concerned with education and cultural affairs. According to a story that I heard from a friend, this person was the chief guest at a function held at a premier centre of education in the country. In the course of his guest speech, the senior bureaucrat regaled the audience with an anecdote about an encounter he had had with the then Vaedi Nayake (Vaedda Chief) Tisahamy of Dambana.

The speaker said he met Tisahamy at a public event in the Mahiyangana area that he (as a senior government official) was presiding over. (It could be guessed that the function was held in the open air.) The Vaedi Nayake was seated next to him on an improvised stage.  Suddenly, a young Vaedda boy passing by, a few feet away, stopped for a moment, casting  curious glances at the gathering. It looked as if the youngster thought that there was nothing  interesting happening there worth paying attention to. So, he started walking away. But as he did so, he whistled nonchalantly, assuming a superior irreverent manner. The important government official felt outraged at what he took to be an affront towards him. So, I turned to the Vaedi  Nayake”, the speaker went on, and said: ‘See how disrespectful this young fellow is towards me’”.  Then Tissahamy  calmly replied in the words of his Vaedi  Basawa (however, including the word ‘umba’ to address the visiting dignitary), which in colloquial Sinhala was something like this: umbawa ganangaththe naethi eka newei prasne. me matawath oo garusaruwak kale  nae ne!” (It doesn’t matter he ignored you; what is really offensive is that he didn’t show any respect for me!). Probably, most of the audience laughed at that august personage having been addressed as umba” by a mere Vaedda, for the vocative ‘umba’ (you) is usually reserved for addressing inferiors. But  what the celebrated administrator meant was that the incident was an educative experience for him. The lesson impressed on him as a result was that the more important person in that context was the tribal chief. He himself was only a paid government servant, whereas the Vaedi Nayake was the head of his clan, and hence, in terms of protocol, his superior. Treating the Vaeddas in a condescending manner is fast becoming a thing of the past.

චමින්ද මුණසිංහ  Courtesy  Lankadveepa

බැඳුම්කර වාර්තාව, එය සංස්කරණය කිරීමේ වුවමනාව කාටද? බැඳුම්කරයෙන් රටට වන බලපෑම, ආයෝජනවලට මෙමගින් බලපෑමක් වේ ද?, බැඳුම්කරය යටගහන්න ඒකාබද්ධය කටයුතු කරනවා ද? යනාදී කරුණු සම්බන්ධයෙන් එජනිස පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන මහතා දැක්වූ අදහස් සඳුදා හමුවෙන් මෙසේ එළි දක්වමු.

ප්‍රශ්නය:- බැඳුම්කරය ගැන ඔබ නිතරම කතා කළා. දැන් එහි වාර්තාව නිකුත් වී තිබෙනවා. ඔබට සතුටුයි ද දැන්?

පිළිතුර:- පූර්ණ සතුටක් නැහැ. බැඳුම්කර වාර්තාව නිකුත් වීමෙන් පසු ඒ පිළිබඳ සැකයක් එජාපය විසින් නිර්මාණය කර ගත්තා. මේ වාර්තාවේ පිටපතක් හිටපු මුදල් ඇමැතිවරයා ලබාගත්තා. මේ වාර්තාව අනුව ඔහු කිසිදු වරදක් කර නැහැ. බැඳුම්කර වාර්තාව පිළිගත නොහැකි එකක් බව ඔවුන් ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ කියා සිටියා. පර්පෙචුවල් ටේ‍රෂරීස් මෙහෙයවන පුවත්පතක හිටපු මුදල් ඇමැති නිදහස් කියා ප්‍රවෘත්තියක් පළ කර තිබුණා. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට දුන් වාර්තාවේ ජනාධිපතිතුමා ප්‍රකාශ කළ වාර්තාවට වඩා පිටු සියයකට වඩා වැඩි ගණනක් අඩුයි. පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ විවාද කරන්න සැරසෙන බැඳුම්කර වාර්තාව සංස්කරණය කරන ලද්දක් බව හැඟී යනවා. එජාපයට එහි මැති ඇමැතිවරුන්ට, තිබෙන චෝදනා හෝ විෂමාචාර පිළිබඳ කොටස් සංස්කරණය කර පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කළා යැයි කියන ප්‍රශ්නය තිබෙන නිසා මුල් වාර්තාව, සංස්කරණය නොකළ වාර්තාව ඒකාබද්ධයේ අපට ලබාදෙන ලෙස ජනාධිපතිතුමාට ලියනවා.

ප්‍රශ්නය:- ජනාධිපතිවරයා පත්කළ කොමිසමේ වාර්තාව සංස්කරණය කරන්න එතුමාට ඇති වුවමනාව මොකක් ද?

පිළිතුර:- සංස්කරණය කළානම් කරන්නේ ජනාධිපතිතුමා නෙමෙයි. මේ වාර්තාව තමන්ට ලැබුණු බවක් තමන්ට හෝ එජාපයට මෙමගින් කිසිදු චෝදනාවක් ඉදිරිපත් ව නැති බවත් හිටපු මුදල් ඇමැතිවරයා ප්‍රකාශ කළා. මේ ප්‍රකාශ අනුව මේ රටේ ප්‍රබුද්ධ ජනතාවට සාධාරණ සැකයක් ඇතිවෙනවා. එයට පිළිතුරු දිය යුත්තේ ජනාධිපතිතුමා හෝ ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලයයි. වාර්තාවේ අඩු පිටු ගණන සම්බන්ධයෙන් නිවැරදි ප්‍රකාශයක් කළාම එය පිළිගත හැකි එකක් නම් පිළිගන්න පුළුවන්.

ප්‍රශ්නය:- වැරැද්දක් කර නැති නම් ඒ බව සඳහන් කරනවා විනා කොමිසම වෙන මොනව කරන්නද?

පිළිතුර:– ලංකා ඉතිහාසයේ කිසි දිනකත් නොවු ආපසු සකස් කළ නොහැකි වැරදි රාශියක් සිදුව ඇති බව ජනතා අධිකරණයේ දී පෙන්නා තිබෙනවා. සමස්ත මුදල් ක්‍රමය, සමස්ත බැංකු ක්‍රමය, සමස්ත ණය ක්‍රමය කඩාවැටීමට අදාළව මේවා සිදුව ඇති බව කරුණු වශයෙන් පෙන්නා දෙන්න පුළුවන්. රටේ මූල්‍ය ක්‍රමයේ මුදුන් මල්කඩ වන පූර්ණ වශයෙන් මහජන විශ්වාසය රඳා පවතින ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ අධිපති ධුරයට සිංගප්පූරු පුරවැසියකු පත් කළා. ඔහු පත් කරන විට ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 165 වැනි වගන්තියට අනුව හතරවැනි උපලේඛනයේ ඇති දිවුරුම ලබා නොදීම තවත් කරුණක්. රජයේ ආයතන සංග්‍රහයේ විධිවිධානවලට අනුව රජයෙන් යම් තනතුරකට විදේශිකයකු පත්වන විට ඊට කලින් අදාළ ඇමැතිවරයාගෙන් පූර්ණ ලිඛිත අනුමැතිය ලබාගෙන නැහැ. මේ විදේශ පුරවැසියා තමන්ගේ බෑණාට වාසිදායක වන අයුරින් 2015 පෙබරවාරි 27 වැනිදා බැඳුම්කර වෙන්දේසීය පැවැත්වූවා. එයට සෘජු වෙන්දේසි ක්‍රමය හා සෘජු පෞද්ගලික නිකුතු ක්‍රමය වෙනස් කරන ලෙස අගමැතිවරයා උපදෙස් දී තිබුණා. මේවා සම්බන්ධව විමසීමට එජාපයේ කෘත්‍යාධිකාරි මණ්ඩලයට සම්බන්ධ නීතිඥයන්ගෙන් සමන්විත පිටිපන වාර්තාව ඉදිරිපත් කළා. අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්‍රන්ට ඒකාබද්ධය ඉදිරිපත් කළ විශ්වාසභංගය බාර නොගෙන කෝප් කමිටුවට යොමු කළා. එවකට කෝප් සභාපති ඩිව් ගුණසේකර මහතා ඉතා පුළුල් පරීක්ෂණයක් මේ ගැන කළා. වඩාත් පුළුල්ව මේ කරුණු ඔවුන් හෙළි කළා. එම කෝප් කමිටු වාර්තාව ඉදිරිපත් කරන්න ඔන්න මෙන්න කියා තිබිය දී එජාපයේ බලපෑමට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසිරෙව්වා.

මේ විසිරවීම නිසා දෙවැනි මහබැංකු බැඳුම්කර හොරකම කරන්න ඉඩ ලැබුණා. මේ සඳහා රාජ්‍ය බැංකුවල සභාපතිවරු, උසස් නිලධාරීන් කැඳවා අඩුවෙන් ලංසු තබන ලෙස උපදෙස් දී තිබුණා. එසේ උපදෙස් දීමෙන් එම බැංකුවලට විශාල අලාභයක් වූ බව එම බැංකු තුනේ සභාපතිවරු දිවුරා කොමිසම ඉදිරියේ සාක්ෂි ලබා දී තිබුණා. 2016 මාර්තු මාසයේ දී දෙවැනි බැඳුම්කර කොල්ලයක් සිදුවුණා. එම කොල්ලයට සම්බන්ධ පාර්ශ්වයන් අයථා ලෙස උපයා ගත් ධනය යොදවා මත්පැන් නිෂ්පාදනාගාර, මාධ්‍ය ආයතන හා බැංකු ආයතන යනාදියේ විශාල වශයෙන් මුදල් ආයෝජනය කළා. මේ පරීක්ෂණවලට උදව් කළ විගණකාධිපතිට විවිධ චෝදනා එල්ල කළා. මෙවැනි කරුණු රාශියක සමුචිත ප්‍රතිඵලයක් වශයෙන් හා කොමිසමේ නිර්දේශ අනුව එජාප ප්‍රභලයන් වැඩි දෙනෙක් නියත වශයෙන්ම වැරදිකරුවන් බව දක්වා තිබෙනවා. හිටපු මුදල් ඇමැති එක් උදාහරණයක්. ඔහුට නඩු පවරන ලෙස නිර්දේශ තිබෙනවා. මහ දවල් මහ බැංකුවේ මහා කොල්ලයක් සිදුව ඇති බව රටම දැනගෙන සිටිද්දීත් එය පිළිනොගෙන ඉන්නවා නම් ඒ ගැන මුළු මූල්‍ය වෙළෙඳ පොළම අර්බුදයට යනවා.
අද වනවිට ලංකාවේ සුරැකුම්පත් වෙළෙඳපොළ කඩා වැටෙමින් පවතිනවා. එපමණක් නොවෙයි. ලංකාවේ සමස්ත මුදල් ක්‍රමය, ණය ක්‍රමය, බැංකු ක්‍රමය දැවැන්ත නායයාමකට හසුවෙමින් පවතිනවා. අප කාටවත් ගලවා ගතනොහැකි දැවැන්ත මූල්‍ය අර්බුදයකට 2018දී රට ගොදුරු වෙනවා.

ප්‍රශ්නය:- බැඳුම්කර වාර්තාවේ දැක්වෙන ආකාරයට මේ ගනුදෙනුවෙන් රටට වන බලපෑම පිළිබඳව ඔබේ අර්ථ දැක්වීම කෙබඳු ද?

පිළිතුර:- එම බලපෑම ගැන මේ වාර්තාවේ දැක්වෙන කරුණු පිළිබඳ මගේ පෞද්ගලික එකඟතාවක් නැහැ. මේ කොමිසමේ සාක්කිකරුවන් හැත්තෑවෙන් කෙනෙක් මම.  මතුපිට පෙනෙන අලාභයට වඩා ආර්ථිකයේ විවිධ අංශවලට වී තිබෙන ආවස්ථික අලාභය ආර්ථික විද්‍යාත්මකව හා ශාස්ත්‍රීය පදනමක් යටතේ ගණනය කළ යුතු බවට මම කොමිසමට යෝජනා කළා. මේ පිළිබඳ විද්වතුන් සකස් කළ වාර්තාවක් ඉදිරිපත් කළ හැකි බව මම කිව්වා. එහෙත් යම් යම් කාරණා මතුකර එය පිළිගත නොහැකි බව කොමිසම ප්‍රකාශ කළා. වෙනස් විද්වතුන්ගේ ගණනය කිරීම් ද සැලකිල්ලට ගෙන 2015, 2016, 2017 යන වසර තුනට බැඳුම්කර හොරකමෙන් රටට වී ඇති ආවස්ථික අලාභය රුපියල් බිලියන 2000ක් ලෙස ගණනය කර එය මම පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සභාගත කළා. එනිසා මේ කොල්ලයෙන් පසු රටේ සමස්ත ණය පොලියට විශාල බලපෑමක් වුණා. විදේශ විනිමය අනුපාතයට බලපෑමක් වුණා. රට සතු විදේශ සංචිතවලට වූ බලපෑම අති විශාලයි. රුපියලේ අගය පහත වැටීම වළක්වා ගැනීම වෙනුවෙන් ඩොලර් අලෙවි කිරීමෙන් විශාල බලපෑමක් වුණා. සෘජු විදේශ ආයෝජන රටෙන් පිටට ගලායාමෙන් වූ අලාභයක් තිබෙනවා. රටේ ඉතුරුම් හා ආයෝජනය කෙරෙහි අහිතකරව බැඳුම්කරය බලපෑවා. ඒ වගේම ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ කීර්තිය, යශෝරාවය හා කීර්තිනාමයට වූ අලාභය යනා දී වශයෙන් පසුගිය වසර තුනක අලාභය ගණන් කළත් එය රුපියල් බිලියන 2000කට වඩා වැඩියි. මේ ආවස්ථික අලාභයත් අනාගත කාලයට තවත් බලපානවා.

2015 පෙබරවාරි 27 බැඳුම්කරය නිකුත් කර තිබෙන්නේ වසර 30කට. වසර 2045 දක්වා මේ බැඳුම්කර වෙළෙඳ පොළේ ගනුදෙනු වෙනවා. එනිසා මේ බැඳුම්කරයෙන් 2045 දක්වා වෙන අලාභය මුදලින් තක්සේරු කරන්න බැරි වෙන්න පුළුවන්. 2007 ලෝක මූල්‍ය අර්බුදයක් ඇතිවුණා. ඒක ඇතිවුණේ මෙවැනි සිද්ධි පදනම් කරගෙනයි. සමාගම් වැසුණා. බැංකු කඩා වැටුණා. මුළු බටහිරම බැංකු කඩා වැටී ලෝක මූල්‍ය අර්බුදයක් වර්ධනය වූවා. එනිසා මගේ කුඩා දැනුම අනුව මට තේරෙන්නේ ලංකා ඉතිහාසයේ නිදහසින් පසු කිසි දිනෙක අප මුහුණ නොදුන් ආකාරයේ දැවැන්ත මූල්‍ය අර්බුදයකට මේ රට ගොදුරු වෙනවා කියලයි. ඒ මේ බැඳුම්කර වංචාවේ ප්‍රතිඵලයක් හැටියටයි.

ප්‍රශ්නය:- අයෝජකයන්ට මෙය බලපෑමක් කරන බව ඔබ කිව්වා. ඒ කියන්නා වූ සම්බන්ධය මොකක්ද?

පිළිතුර:- සෑම වසරකම නිකුත් වන මහ බැංකු වාර්තාවේ සඳහන් රජය ණය ලබා ගැනීම, රාජ්‍ය මූල්‍ය පිළිබඳ සහ විදේශ මූල්‍ය පිළිබඳ පරිච්ජේද කියවීමෙන් ඒ ගැන අවබෝධයක් ගන්න පුළුවන්. රජයේ සුරැකුම්පත් වෙළෙඳ පොළේ විදේශ ආයෝජකයන් ප්‍රධානයි.

ආණ්ඩුව නිකුත් කරන බැඳුම්කර විදේශ ආයෝජකයන් මිලදී ගන්නේ විශ්වසනීයවයි. ඉස්තරම් ආරක්ෂාවක් සහිත ආයෝජනයක් ලෙස ඔවුන් මෙය පිළිගන්නවා. මේ තත්ත්වය තුළ අපේ රටෙත් භාණ්ඩාගාර බැඳුම්කර, ස්වෛරී බැඳුම්කර යනාදියේ විශාල වශයෙන් විදේශ ආයෝජකයන් ආයෝජනය කළා. පෙබරවාරි 27 වූ හොරකම අනෙක් කාටත් වඩා හොඳින් මුලින්ම දැනගත්තේ දේශපාලනඥයන් නොවෙයි. මේ ක්‍රමවේදය විසින්ම මූල්‍ය වෙළෙඳ පොළට, මූල්‍ය ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ විශේෂඥයන්ට සුළු වේලාවක දී මෙය දැණුනා. රජයේ සුරැකුම්පත්වල ආයෝජනය කර තිබෙන මුදල් එදා ඉඳන් ලංකාවෙන් පිටට ගෙන ගොස් ඇති ගණන ඇමෙරිකන් ඩොලර් බිලියන 2.4ක්. මේ මුදල රටෙන් නොගෙනිච්චා නම් මූල්‍ය අරමුදලෙන් බිලියන 1.5ක ණයක් ගන්න ඕන නෑ. හම්බන්තොට වරාය විකුණන්න ඕනෑ නෑ. මේ තත්ත්වය රට කඩා වැටීමට හේතුවක්. මෙරටින් නිකුත් කරන බැඳුම්කරවලින් සියයට 12ක් විදේශිකයන්ට ගතහැකිව තිබුණා. එහෙත් මේ සිද්ධියෙන් පසු එය සියයට 10ට අඩු කළා. තායිලන්තයේ, මැලේසියාවේ සෝරෝස්ලා අරන් ගියා වගේ මේ ආයෝජකයොත් සියලු ආයෝජන එක්වරම අරන් ගියොත් මුළු රටම කඩා වැටෙනවා. විනිමය අනුපාත රුපියල් 180ට 190ට යාවි. ලංකාවේ සුරැකුම්පත් වෙළෙඳ පොළ භයානක තැනක තිබෙන බව මහ බැංකු අධිපති හා එහි නියෝජ්‍ය අධිපතිවරු හමුවී පසුගිය දා අපි පෙන්නා දුන්නා.

2008 සිට 2014 දක්වාත් විනිවිදභාවයෙන් තොරව වංචනිකව බැඳුම්කර නිකුත් කර ඇති බව අගමැතිවරයා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ දී ප්‍රකාශ කළා. ඒවායේ වටිනාකම රුපියල් බිලියන 4702ක් බව ඔහු කිව්වා. මේ මුදල පසුගිය කාලයේ රජයේ වාර්ෂික ආදායම මෙන් සාමාන්‍යයෙන් තුන් ගුණයක්. රාජපක්ෂ යුගයේ දී 2008-2014 කාලයේ නිකුත් කළ බැඳුම්කර සියල්ල මේ වනවිට ද්විතීයික වෙළෙඳ පොළේ දේශීය හා විදේශීයව අලෙවි වනවා. ඒ අලෙවි වන ඒවායෙන් බිලියන 4702ක් සැක සහිත නම් අවිශ්වාස නම් බරපතළ ප්‍රශ්නයක් මතුවෙනවා. මෙහෙම සැකයක් ආණ්ඩුවම මතුකර තිබෙන නිසා විදේශිකයෙක් ලංකාවේ බැඳුම්කර මිලදී නොගන්නා තත්ත්වයක් ඇති වෙන්න පුළුවන්. එනිසා මේ සැකය නැති කරන්න ඕනත් ආණ්ඩුවමයි. බැඳුම්කර වෙළෙඳ පොළ කඩා වැටුණොත් ඉදිරියට කාගෙ ආණ්ඩුවක් ආවත් ගොඩයන්න බැරි තත්ත්වයක් වෙනවා. මහින්ද යුගයේත් බැඳුම්කර නිකුත් කළේ මහා බැංකුවේ රාජ්‍ය ණය දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවයි. එනිසා ඔවුන් මේවට වගකියන්න ඕන.

ප්‍රශ්නය:- බැඳුම්කරයෙන් පර්පචුවල් ලබා ඇති අයුතු ලාභය වන රු. බිලියන 9.2ක මුදලට වඩා එම සාමාගමේ රු. බිලියන 12ක මුදලක් මහ බැංකුව රඳවාගෙන තිබෙන බවත් එයින් කොමිසම නිර්දේශ කළ මුදල අය කර ගත හැකි බවත් ආණ්ඩුව කියනවා. එහෙම නම් ප්‍රශ්නයක් නැහැ නේද?

පිළිතුර:– අනේ නෑ. කිසිදු ප්‍රශ්නයක් නෑ. අපිට මේ සියල්ල අතහැර වෙච්ච පාඩුවට සමාව දෙන්න පුළුවන්. 2016 දී මේ රටේ දරුවන්ගේ අධ්‍යාපනයට වෙන් කළ මුදල රු. බිලියන 203යි. එයින් එම වසරේ දී අධ්‍යාපනය ට වියදම් කළේ බිලියන 65යි. ඉතිරි මුදල බිලියන 138. ඒ වසරේ අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ප්‍රගතිය සියයට 32යි. අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යාංශයෙන් පමණක් රුපියල් බිලියන 138ක මුදලක් ඉතිරි වී තිබෙනවා නම් මේ බිලියන 9.2කට බිලියන 12කට මේ තරම් මැරෙන්නේ මොකට ද? ඒක අත්හැරල දාන්න පුළුවන්නේ. වෙන්කරපු මුදල්වලින් රුපියල් කෝටි 13,800ක් වියදම් නොකර තිබෙනවා නම් මේක මොකක්ද? බැඳුම්කර පාඩුව එජාප වාසියට තීන්දු කර අත්හැර දමන්න පුළුවන්.

ප්‍රශ්නය:- බැඳුම්කරය යට ගහන්න ඒකාබද්ධයත් එජාපයත් කටයුතු කරන බවට එජනිස මහ ලේකම් කරන චෝදනාව ගැන මොක ද කියන්නේ?

පිළිතුර:- එතුමාගේ හෘදය සාක්ෂිය කොහොම ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙනව ද කියන්න මම දන්නේ නෑ. බැඳුම්කර වංචාව ඇති වූ අවස්ථාවේ මහ බැංකුව වැටලීමට ගියේ අපි. මහ බැංකුව ඇතුළට ගොස් පළමු ප්‍රශ්න කිරීම කළේ අපි. බැඳුම්කර ගැන ජනතාව දැනුවත් කිරීමට ප්‍රසිද්ධ සම්මන්ත්‍රණ පැවැත්වූවේ ඒකාබද්ධය පමණයි. මෙමගින් රටට වූ බලපෑම කියන්න ජාත්‍යන්තර මූල්‍ය ආයතන ප්‍රධානීන් හමුවට ගියේ අපි පමණයි. අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් නැවත පත් කරන්න එපා කියා කොළඹ උද්ඝෝෂණය කළේ අපි. කෝප් කමිටුවට පුළුවන් බුරන්න පමණයි. හපන්න බෑ. ඒ නිසා ජනාධිපති කොමිසමක් පත් කර වාර්තාවක් ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලෙස අපි බලපෑම් කළා. බැඳුම්කර හොරු අත්අඩංගුවට ගන්න කියා අඛණ්ඩව මුල පටන්ම කිව්වේ අපි. තව බොහෝ පියවර අපේ මන්ත්‍රීවරු ගත්තා. එනිසා එතුමගෙ ප්‍රකාශය සාධාරණයි කියා මම සිතන්නේ නැහැ.

ප්‍රශ්නය:- බැඳුම්කරය නිසා රට අවදානමක කියල ද ඔබලාගේ ස්ථාවරය?

පිළිතුර:- අවශ්‍යයෙන්ම ඔව්. ලංකා ඉතිහාසයේ කිසිම දිනක සමස්ත මුදල් ක්‍රමයට සමස්ත බැංකු ක්‍රමයට සමස්ත ණය ක්‍රමයට අකුණු ගැසුවා වගේ දැවැන්ත අර්බුදයක් නිර්මාණය වෙනවා. මේ වනවිට ජනතාව බරපතළ අර්බුදයකට ලක්වෙලා තිබෙන අර්බුදවලින් බේරීමට රාජ්‍ය බැංකු ප්‍රසිද්ධ වෙන්දේසියේ කොටස් කර විකුණන්න හදනවා. රාජ්‍ය බැංකු තුනක් සේවක අර්ථ සාධක අරමුදලක් සුරැකීම සඳහා විශේෂිත ව්‍යාපෘතියක් වහා ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ යුතු වෙනවා. බැංකු පද්ධතිය දැන් හෙල්ලිලා තිබෙන්නේ. ලංකාවේ මූල්‍ය වෙළෙඳ පොළ පමණට වඩා රත්වෙලා. ලංකාවෙ විදේශ ආයෝජකයන්ට අවදානම් වැඩිම රටක් හැටියට බ්ලුම්බරත් ආයතනය නම්කර තිබෙනවා. ආසියා කලාපයේ රටවල් 24ක් අතරින් දරුණු මූල්‍ය අර්බුදයකට මුහුණ දෙන රට ලංකාව බව මූඩි ආයතනය පසුගිය දා ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබුණා.

මහාචාර්ය සුමනසිරි ලියනගේ  Courtesy Lankadveepa

ආන්දෝලනාත්මක බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනුව නිසා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ මහ බැංකුවට සහ අර්ථසාධක අරමුදලට රටට සිදු වූ පාඩුව කුමක්දැයි බොහෝ දෙනා කතා වෙති. ඇත්තවශයෙන්ම මේ ගැන නිශ්චිත ගණන් බැලීම් තවම කර නැත. විගණකාධිපතිවරයා පවා කියන්නේ අදාළ ගණන් බැලීම් පවතින තත්ත්වය යටතේ දක්වන ගණන් හිලව් වුවද මෙහි ප්‍රතිඵල තවත් අවුරුදු ගණනාවක් දක්වා ඈතට දිවෙන අතර ඒ ගැන ගණන් බැලීමක් තමා නොකළ බවය.

ඒ අනුව මෙම ගනුදෙනුව හේතුකොටගෙන සේවක අර්ථසාධක අරමුදලට, මහ බැංකුවට, රටට හා ජනතාවට සිදු වූ පාඩුව අතිවිශාල බව පැහැදිලිය. අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා පවසන්නේ පර්පචුවෙල් ටේ‍රෂරීස් සමාගම අයුතු ලෙස උපයාගෙන ඇතැයි කියන රුපියල් බිලියන 9.2 ක මුදල මහ බැංකුව මගින් රඳවාගෙන ඇති එම සමාගමට අයත් මුදල්වලින් රජයට අයකරගන්නා බවය.

එහෙත් මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයා පවසන්නේ එවැනි මුදලක් මහ බැංකුව සතුව නැති බවය. ඒ අනුව මෙම ගණන් හිලව්වල නිශ්චිතභාවයක් නැති වග පැහැදිලිය.

කෙසේවුවද බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනුවෙන් සිදු වූ ප්‍රධාන හානිය අප මේ කතා කරන ප්‍රමාණාත්මක මූල්‍ය අලාභය නොවේ. රටේ ප්‍රධාන ආර්ථික හා මූල්‍ය අවයවය වන මධ්‍යම බැංකුව තුළ මෙවැනි දෙයක් සිදුවීම සමඟ සමස්ත ආර්ථිකය පිළිබඳ ඇති විශ්වාසය බිඳවැටීමය. මෙවැනි සිදුවීමක් සමඟ දේශීය විදේශීය ආයෝජකයන්ට රටේ ආර්ථික ක්‍රමය ගැන ඇතිවන සැකය සුළුපටු නැත.

මේ නිසා රටට සම්පත් ගලාඒමේදීත් රට තුළ පවතින සම්පත් අපනයනයටත් මෙය සෘජුව බලපායි. අප තේරුම්ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කළ යුත්තේ සමස්ත ආර්ථිකයේ දිශානතියට හා ක්‍රියාකාරිත්වයට එය විසින් ඇතිකරනු ලබන තෙරපුමය. මා සිතන්නේ බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනුවේ ප්‍රතිවිපාක ගැන කතාකිරීමේදී පළමුව කී ප්‍රමාණාත්මක මූල්‍යමය අලාභයට වඩා දැඩි අවධානය යොමුකළ යුත්තේ මෙම විශ්වාසය බිඳවැටීම ගැන බවය. මන්දයත් රටේ මහ බැංකුවට මෙසේ වී නම් මූල්‍ය පද්ධතියේ ධූරාවලියෙන් ඊට පහළින් පිහිටි සෙසු ආයතන ගැන කිසිදු විශ්වාසයක් තබා ගැනීමට නොහැකි වන හෙයිනි.

ආර්ථිකය ගැන ඇති අවිශ්වාසය පිළිබඳ ප්‍රශ්නය මූලිකවම බලපාන්නේ විධිමත් අංශයටය. විදේශීය ආයෝජකයන්ට, ව්‍යාපාර වෙළෙඳපොළට, ප්‍රාග්ධන වෙළෙඳපොළට හා සමාගම්වලටය. අනෙක් අතින් පුළුල් ජන කොටස්වලටය. විධිමත් අංශයේ සේවය කරන්නන්ගේ මූලික ඉතිරි කිරීම වන්නේ සේවක අර්ථසාධක අරමුදලය. එවිට අර්ථසාධක අරමුදලට මෙම ගනුදෙනුවෙන් ඇති වූ විශාල පාඩුව නිසා ඔවුන් විශ්‍රාම යනවිට ලැබෙන ප්‍රතිලාභ ගැන සැක සංකා හටගැනීම නොවැළැක්විය හැකිය.

ඒ අනුව අඩු ආදායම්ලාභී කම්කරු පිරිස්වලට සිය රැකියා කාලයෙන් පසුව අනාගතය පිළිබඳ ඇතිවන සාංකාව කරණකොටගෙන හටගන්නා අතිවිශාල ජන අප්‍රසාදය ද බරපතළ ප්‍රශ්නයක් වනු ඇත. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව සිය මූල්‍ය පාලන බලතල නිසි අයුරින් පාවිච්චි කළ අවස්ථාවක් බවට බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනුව සම්බන්ධයෙන් මතු වූ තත්ත්වය පත් වී යැයි අගමැතිවරයා පවසයි. මේ අතරේ ඉතා වේගවත් කතා පවත්වමින් ආවේගශීලීත්වයක් ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් පෙන්නුම් කරනු ලබයි. පැහැදිලිවම කිවයුත්තේ මේ දෙදෙනාගේම නිරීක්ෂණ සත්‍ය මත පදනම් වූ ඒවා නොවන බවය.

අප හොඳින්ම දන්නා පරිදි මෙම බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනු දෙවරක් සිදුවිය. එය එසේ වූ බව දැන දැනම හා එකී තතු ඩිව් ගුණසේකර කෝප් වාර්තාවේ ඇති බව දැන දැනම පාර්ලිමේන්තුව හදිසියේම විසුරුවා හරිනු ලැබුවේ ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා විසිනි. එහි ප්‍රතිඵලය වූයේ කෝප් කමිටු වාර්තාව නිකුත් නොවීමය. එම වරදින් ගැලවෙන්නට ජනාධිපතිවරයාට කිසිදු හැකියාවක් නැත. මෙම දූෂණය සැඟවීමේ පළමු පියවර තබනු ලැබුවේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසිනි.

එමෙන්ම මේ සිදුවීමේදී අග්‍රාමාත්‍යවරයා ක්‍රියා කළ අන්දම ද සැලකිල්ලට ගත යුතුය. විශේෂයෙන්ම මෙතක් කල් මුදල් ඇමැතිවරයා යටතේ තිබූ මහ බැංකුව අගමැතිවරයා යටතට ගැනීම ද මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයා හැටියට අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් පත්කිරීම ද ප්‍රශ්නගත අවස්ථාවේදීත් දිගින් දිගටම ධූරයේ සිටීමට ඉඩ දීම ද මෙම සිදුවීමට ලබා දී ඇත්තේ සංවිධානාත්මක මුහුණුවරකි.

කෙටියෙන් කිවහොත් බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනුව වහංගු කිරීමේ පළමු වගකීම ජනාධිපතිවරයා ද ඉන්පසුව එය අනවරතව කරගෙන යෑමේ වගකීම අගමැතිවරයා ද ගත යුතුය. දැන් සිදුවෙන්නේ බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනුව දේශපාලනික වශයෙන් පා පන්දුවක් කරගෙන දෙපාර්ශ්වයම ක්‍රීඩාවක නිරත වීමය.

බැඳුම්කර ජනපති කොමිසම් වාර්තාව නිකුත් වීමේ කීර්තියේ හිමිකාරිත්වය ගැන ද බොහෝ පාර්ශ්ව කරුණු දක්වති. මෙවැනි තැනකට එන්නට හැකිවුණේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා නිසා යැයි ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂ පාර්ශ්වය කියද්දී සිය පාරදෘෂ්‍යභාවය ගැන එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය පවසයි. එහෙත් මෙම කරුණු අනාවරණය සැබැවින්ම සිදුවන්නේ දේශපාලන ප්‍රශ්නයක් නිසාය. එය දේශපාලන ප්‍රශ්නයක් වූයේ විපක්ෂය, කෝප් කමිටුව ආදී විවිධ බලවේග විසින් මෙය එළියට දමනු ලැබීමත් ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ සිට එජාපයේ ඇතැම් සාමාජිකයන් දක්වා මෙය සැඟවීමට උත්සාහ දරනු ලැබීමත් නිසාය.

එහෙත් තම ධූර කාලය අවසන්වීම හා මැතිවරණ කීපයකට මුහුණදීමට සිදුවීම යන කාරණා සැලකිල්ලට ගනිමින් දේශපාලකයකු හැටියට මේ මොහොතේ කළයුත්තේ බැඳුම්කර සිදුවීම තම වාසියට පෙරළාගැනීම යැයි ජනාධිපතිවරයා සිතන්නට ඇත. සාමාන්‍යයෙන් දේශපාලනඥයකුගේ සිතුවිල්ල ද එයයි. විශේෂයෙන්ම ජනාධිපති කොමිසමේදී නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ භූමිකාව නිරීක්ෂණය කරද්දී මෙම කරුණු මුළුමනින්ම සමාජයට නිරාවරණයට ජනාධිපතිවරයාට තිබූ වුවමනාව පැහැදිලිය.

එහෙත් මාස හයකට පෙර මෙවැනි උනන්දුවක් තිබුණේ නැති බව ද අවධාරණකටයුතුය. තමා පවා මෙම කොමිසම හමුවට යාම උත්කර්ෂයට නඟන්නට අගමැතිවරයා උත්සාහ කරයි. එහෙත් වෙනදා කොමිසමේ ප්‍රශ්න කරන්නන් වෙනුවට නීතිපතිවරයාම යොදාගෙන ලබාගත් ප්‍රකාශය අප දුටුවේ සංවිධානාත්මක වැඩක් හැටියටය. සැබැවින්ම මෙම සිදුවීම්වල කිසියම් නාටකීය ස්වරූපයක් තිබේ. එය ජනතාව ද හොඳින් දනී.

කොමිසමේ නිර්දේශ අතර ඇති 2008 සිට සිදුවීම් සොයාබැලීම ගැන ඇතැම්හු කතා කරති. ඇත්තය. දූෂණ සිදුවීම ආරම්භ වුණේ මේ ආණ්ඩු කාලයේ නොවේ. 2015 ආණ්ඩු පෙරළියට බලපෑවේ ද එකී දූෂණය. අනෙක් අතට මීට පෙර මහ බැංකුවේ ඇතැම් ගනුදෙනු ගැන ප්‍රශ්න කිරීමකට ද මෙමගින් පාර කපා තිබේ. එහෙත් මේ සිදුවීම ඒ සියලු දූෂණවලින් වෙනස්ය.

කිසියම් අරමුණුසහගත පිරිසකට මෙම හොරකමට ඉඩකඩ විවර වූයේ මහ බැංකුව විසින් පවත්වාගෙන යනු ලැබුවා වූ සියලුම විධිවිධානවලින් හා රීතින්ගෙන් පිට පනිමිනි. එය හුදු කොමිස් කතාවක් නොවේ. එයට දොර හැරුණේ රටේ සමස්ත මූල්‍ය ව්‍යුහය අඩපණ කෙරෙන ක්‍රියාවලියක් මඟිනි. එනිසා 2015 ට පෙර සිදු වූ දූෂණ ගැන කතා කිරීමෙන් මේ කළු පැල්ලම මකා දැමිය නොහැකි වනු ඇත. තවද පාඩු වූ මුදල නැවත ලබාගැනීමට පමණක් ප්‍රශ්නය ලඝු කිරීම වනාහිම ඇත්ත ප්‍රශ්නය යටගැසීමකි. හොරකමක් සිදු වූ විට ආමන්ත්‍රණය කළ යුතු කේන්ද්‍රික කාරණය හොරකමය. එහි ප්‍රමාණය නොවේ. දැන් ප්‍රශ්නය ආමන්ත්‍රණය කෙරෙන්නේ නම් සිද්ධියේ බරපතළකම අවම කිරීමටය.

සිදුවීමේ බරපතළකම අවම කිරීමට නොයෙක් තර්ක ඉදිරිපත් කෙරුණ ද මේ සිදුවීම අරභයා කිසියම් හෝ නීතිමය ක්‍රියාමාර්ගයක් නොගෙන සිටීමට නොහැකි තත්ත්වයක් දැන් උදා වී ඇත. එහෙත් මේ අතරේ ඉකුත් සතියේ කැබිනට් රැස්වීමෙන් පසුව දේවල් සිදුවන ආකාරයෙන් පෙනෙන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා හා අගමැතිවරයා අතර කිසියම් වූ සම්මුතියකට යෑමේ ඉඩකඩක සලකුණු පහළ වී ඇති බවය. එනිසා මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ගනු ලබන තීරණ ඒ සා දැඩි ඒවා වීමේ හැකියාව අඩුය.

අනෙක් අතට එහි අවසානය කවර අතකට යනු ඇතිද යන්නට පැහැදිලිවම ඉදිරි පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණ ප්‍රතිඵලය ද බලපානු ඇත. පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණය මේ වනවිට තිබෙන්නේ තුන් කොන් සටනක් බවට පත්වෙලාය. එම තුන් කොන් සටනේ බල හුවමාරුව ද බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනු අවසාන තීන්දුවට බලපානු ඇති අතර බොහෝදුරට දේශපාලන වශයෙන් අස්ථාවර කාල පරිච්ඡේදයක් බවට ඉදිරිය පත්වනු ඇත. ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ ධූර කාලය වසර පහක් හැටියට ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය දුන් තීන්දුවද මෙම දේශපාලන පරිසරයට හේතුවක් වනු ඇත.

මහ බැංකුව ගැන යම් යම් විවේචන පැවැතිය ද ඒ ගැන ලොකු අවිශ්වාසයක් මෙතෙක් පැවැතියේ නැත. එල්.ටී.ටී.ඊ සංවිධානය එල්ල කළ මරාගෙන මැරෙන ප්‍රහාරයෙන් ඊට විශාල හානියක් වුව ද එය පැවැතියේ භෞතික තලයේය. මූල්‍ය ක්‍රමයේ ව්‍යුහයට ලොකු හානියක් වුණේ නැත. එහෙත් මේ බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනුවෙන් සිදුව ඇත්තේ ව්‍යුහාත්මක හානියකි. ලංකාවේ මූල්‍ය ක්‍රමය ඉදිරියේදී කෙසේ පවත්වාගෙනයාදැයි ව්‍යාපාරිකයන්ට දැන් දැඩි ප්‍රශ්නයක් වී තිබේ. අනෙක් අතට මෙය හෙළිදරවුවක් හැටියට සැලකුව ද අප නොදකින පැත්තක් ද තිබේ. එනම් මීළඟ ආණ්ඩුවලදී ද මෙවැනි සිදුවීම් වීමට ඉඩ තිබීමය.

බැඳුම්කර වංචාවක් සිදුකරන්නේ කෙසේද යන්න දැන් ප්‍රසිද්ධ රහසකි. මේ ආණ්ඩුව යටතේ පර්පචුවල් ටේ‍රෂරීස් සමාගම කළ වංචාව මීළඟ ආණ්ඩුවකදී තමන්ට හිතවත් මහ බැංකු අධිපතිවරයකු පත්කර හිතවත් සමාගමක් හරහා සිදුවීමට ඉඩ නැතැයි කිවහැකිද? මේ නිසාම මූල්‍යමය ක්‍ෂේත්‍රයේ දැඩි සැක සංකා මතුවිය හැකි අතර එහි අනෙක් පැතිකඩ දෙස බැලීමට ද තවත් සමාගම් කොටසක් පුරුදු වනු ඇත. එනම්, පර්පචුවල් ටේ‍රෂරීස් කළ වැඬේම තමන්ටත් කළ නොහැකිදැයි උත්සාහ කිරීමය.

විශේෂයෙන්ම මූල්‍ය ක්‍ෂේත්‍රය නියෝජනය කරන තැරැව්කාර සමාගම් ඊළඟ වටයකදී තමන්ට ද අවස්ථාවක් ගැනීමට උත්සාහ නොදරනු ඇතැයි අපට කිවහැකිද? ඊළඟ ආණ්ඩුවක් පත්වෙද්දී ඊට හිතෛෂී නව තැරැව්කරුවන් මේ යටතේ බිහිවීමට ඉඩ තිබේ.

ඇත්තවශයෙන්ම දූෂණ විරෝධය රටේ ප්‍රධාන දේශපාලන සටන් පාඨය බවට පත්කරගැනීම දේශපාලකයන්ගේ නාට්‍යයේ කොටසක් මිස රටේ ප්‍රධාන ප්‍රශ්නයක් නොවේ. මා සිතන හැටියට දූෂණ විරෝධය සටන් පාඨයක් හැටියට පෙරට දමන සෑම පුද්ගලයකුම උත්සාහ කරන්නේ රටේ සැබෑ ප්‍රශ්න යටපත්කරන්නටය. දූෂණ විරෝධී රටක් යන වටිනාකම යනු වෙනම කතාවකි. එහෙත් ලංකාවේ ප්‍රධාන සටන දූෂණ විරෝධය යැයි කරන අර්ථකථනයම අප විසින් කරනු ලබන අතිවිශාල දේශපාලන වරදකි.

ව්‍යාපාර ආයතන යනු කොහොමටත් නියමින් හා අනියමින් විවිධ අයථා වැඩවල නිරත වන ආයතනය. පර්පචුවල් ටේ‍රෂරීස් ආයතනය හෙළිදරවු වූ අතර හෙළිදරවු නොවූවෝ ද තව කොතෙකුත් වෙති. මෙම ක්‍රමය රැඳී තිබෙන්නේම චෞරයන් මතය. ධනේෂ්වර ක්‍රමය යනු එයයි. එහෙත් දැන් මේ රඟදැක්වෙන නාට්‍යයෙන් කියන්නට හදන්නේ වෙන කතාවකි.

එනම්, මේ ක්‍රමය හොඳ බවත් වරද නම් නරක මිනිසුන් පිරිසක් විසින් එය මෙහෙයවනු ලැබීම බවත්ය. ඒ නිසා අවසාන විග්‍රහයේදී මේ දූෂණ ප්‍රශ්නය මතු කරගෙන සිදුවන්නේ ලංකාවේ සැබෑ ප්‍රශ්නය උපායමාර්ගිකවම යටපත් කර දැමීමය. දේශපාලනයේ ආසන්න වසර ගණනක් තිස්සේ එය සිදුවෙමින් පවතී. දූෂණය හොඳ එකක් යැයි එයින් කිසි ලෙසකින් අර්ථවත් නොවන මුත් නැවතත් කිවයුත්තේ එය විසින් නිරූපණය කරනු ලබන්නේ ලංකාවේ දේශපාලනයේ වංචනිකත්වයම මිස අනෙකක් නොවන බවය.

සටහන – බිඟුන් මේනක ගමගේ

By Kelum Bandara

Joint Opposition MP Ranjith Zoysa, who was stripped of his post as the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) organizer for the Rakwana electorate in the Ratnapura district, speaks about the current political status of the country and mayhem in Parliament recently. The excerpts of the interview: 

You were stripped of your organizer post in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Do you fear whether it will lead to the loss of your parliamentary seat in the future?

We are not promoting another party. Instead, we cannot agree with President Maithripala Sirisena as the SLFP on what he does politically at the moment. The SLFP is a party founded, upon five great forces, by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike. It is a party that is socialist bent and opposed to colonialism in all its manifestations. Today, the SLFP has deviated from that stand. Nonetheless, it has teamed up with the United National Party (UNP) which toes the line of the western world in servitude. In fact, the SLFP tied up with the UNP in the project to dole out the national assets of the country to alien forces for a pittance.
We are thoroughbred SLFPers. So, we cannot stand the way the current SLFP is acting as an appendage of the UNP. We want to correct the party. I worked for it. Otherwise, I was not inimical to the party at all. I did not want the SLFP to be subjugated to the interests of the UNP.
Therefore, I did not regret the loss of my organizer post. Actually, it is difficult for me to be in the party under the current circumstances. I cannot condone any political cohabitation with the UNP. Therefore, I threw my weight behind the political force led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa who commands the respect of more than 95 percent of SLFPers.

Anyway, you have supported a political force while being a member of SLFP. It is an offence that can lead to the loss of your parliamentary seat. Do you have any fear about it?

We embarked on this political struggle against the government which has 160 parliamentary seats. We did not care about the possibility of losing our MP posts. We may face further problems in the future. However, there is no legal basis for the party leader or the General Secretary to unseat us from Parliament. For that, there is a procedure to be followed. We have to be charged properly. Afterwards, it has to be referred to a disciplinary committee. If they dismiss us from Parliament, we can resort to legal action.
Be that as it may, the SLFP is bound to meet the most unpleasant political defeat in its political history at the election on February 10. We hope the SLFP leadership will understand this predicament and act hastily to correct the course of the party.

• All the parties that remained united under the Swan symbol in 2015 contest separately today

• It is a novel political plop

• We ask people not be deceived by it

• UNP turned wild against us in Parliament at the instigation of PM 

• We fear whether the much-dreaded JR era violence is making a re-visit 

• Today, the ground situation is favourable to us

The President always says he will form an SLFP-led government in 2020. Also, he is at loggerheads with the UNP these days. How do you see it?

The President’s remarks cannot be fully trusted. In the run to the parliamentary election in August, 2015, he made some remarks at a rally in Dambadeniya. He asked for the formation of a government led by the SLFP or the Untied People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA). Just a day or two prior to the General Election, he said he would not offer premiership to Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa. Instead, he said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s name had not been tainted with any corruption allegation. It was a blow to the campaign of the UPFA at that moment. We were able to get only 95 seats finally. We were relegated to the opposition. Also, we were denied the chance to become the main opposition of Parliament. It was offered to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). For us, the President is not trustworthy because of his repulsive actions in this manner.
At the Presidential Election, all the political forces – the UNP, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) and others – remained under the symbol of the Swan. It is a strategy. There is a different strategy being adopted this time. Today, all these parties contest separately. The UNP canvasses votes for the formation of its own government. It is an appeal to the party members who are disgruntled today. President Sirisena asks for votes as a prelude to the formation of an SLFP government in 2020. The JVP also does the same. They will contest separately. Finally, after the election, they will be united to run the councils. That is the strategy. We are asking our people not to get carried away by such political manoeuvering.

“The SLFP is bound to meet the most unpleasant political defeat in its political history at the election on February 10. We hope the SLFP leadership will understand this predicament and act hastily”

The UNP says it will emerge victorious due to the split of the SLFP vote base. What is your view? 

If it is a mathematical equation, it will be correct. There are two groups. One group is divided down the middle. Then, the other group becomes the largest one. Yet, it is not reality at grassroots level. In fact, the SLFP is not divided down the middle. It is like 95 percent for us, and the remaining five percent for the President’s group.
The UNP vote base is scattered today. It is facing a political landslide. A lot of UNPers have joined hands with us. Tamils and Muslims have started abandoning the UNP and the President increasingly. We are optimistic about the election. Only the SLFP and the UNP have all the disadvantages.

You were among the MPs involved in the fracas in Parliament. You sustained injuries. What is your view?

That incident should not have happened. It is an unpleasant moment. The Speaker is not competent enough to conduct the business of the House with decorum. That is the reason for that incident. He does not have that personality. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe tried to undermine all norms of parliamentary democracy. As a result, that mayhem could not have been avoided.

“The SLFP tied up with the UNP in the project to dole out the national assets of the country to alien forces for a pittance”

You were involved in the brawl. What do you feel?

We demonstrated in the Well of the House against the Prime Minister’s statement. We remember such incidents took place during our time as well. After that, we used to part ways. During such protests in the Well of the House, we used to crack jokes with protesting MPs.
Today, we, despite party differences, have meals and tea together in the parliamentary canteen. We exchange pleasantries. However, the government MPs, all of a sudden, turned wild at the instigation of the Prime Minister and stormed into the Well for confrontation. They behaved like wild beasts. In fact, they assaulted our MP Gamini Lokuge who is an elderly person. He collapsed on the ground. It provoked the other MPs of the Joint Opposition.
During the 2002/2004 UNP government, I recall how the then UNP MPs crumpled pieces of paper into balls and hurled them at the then Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa and Chief Opposition Whip Jeyaraj Fernandopulle. Once, MPs such as Dinesh Gunawardane, Vasudeva Nanayakkara and others were brutally beaten in the House. We fear whether the UNP is heading this Parliament down that path.
During the period of late President Jayawardane, a labourer called Somapala was trampled to death. We fear whether that dreaded period is making a re-visit. These UNP MPs have arrogated power to themselves. During the 1988/89 period, we could recall how violence prevailed.
One UNP MP, who was involved in that brawl, unleashed thugs against petroleum workers who were on strike last year. That is what we can expect when drug traffickers and loitering elements are given political power. If this is the political strategy contemplated by the UNP, we will not allow that to happen. It is an outdated strategy. We are asking the UNP leader not to think of such violent, repressive strategies.

“The SLFP is a party founded, upon five great forces, by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike. It is a party that is socialist bent and opposed to colonialism in all its manifestations”

Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge

The Nobel Prize-winning Russian poet and writer Boris Pasternak became world famous for his controversial novel Doctor Zhivago which underscores the plight of the Russian upper middle class during the Bolshevik Revolution. Pasternak was a great composer of images. His grand novel is full of humanism and Pasternak presents the character formation in a poetic vision. He saw the gigantic social changes of 1917 in a human kaleidoscope.

Although the novel was written during the years surrounding the revolution (1910-1920), it was published several decades later. Pasternak’s vision of cosmology, and passion for the individual as well as for life splendidly written in this great novel.  It is a snapshot into Russian life Russian Revolution and the early Soviet era of life.

Pasternak highlights the problem of modern sociopolitical existence through his masterpiece Dr Zivago.  It is a panoramic social and political chronicle, which describes the social turmoil during and after the Russian Revolution and how the Russian upper middle class was despondently affected by it. Pasternak’s revelation highlights a dramatic question. Is it fare to sacrifice personal freedom and personal life for a social ideology?

In every generation there has to be some fool who will speak the truth as he sees it. (Boris Pasternak)

The concept of ideology is most generally associated with power relations and often has no regard to human feelings. The ideology can be interpreted as the way in which people think about the world and their ideal concept of how to live in the world. It is a shared belief of a group of people, groups deliberately planning to oppress people or alter their ‘consciousness. In this process violence, torture and terror are used and people are judged by their ideological views.

The Bolshevik Revolution had brought about a fundamental change in the organization of Russian society. The Bolshevik idea of “building a new man via social construction was an indigestible paragon for people like Uri Zhivago. Such people should adopt, perish or leave the system. When there is a dynamic social, change it, gives no place for personal feelings and everybody should get used to a collective life. Ideology and slogans become the center of life. People are judged politically. In such an environment, individuals are given less choices. Dr Yury Zhivago  was one of the countless victims of such a system.

The romance between Yuri Zhivago and Larissa Antipova was a personnel issue and it had no place in the Bolshevik concepts although Lenin enjoyed his private married life with Krupskaya and Stalin with Nadia Alliluyeva.  Even though the Red hardliner Strelnikove states that, the personal life is dead in Russia it was not applicable  for everyone.

Uri Zhivago a doctor and a sensitive man dramatically torn apart by forces beyond his control. Dr Zhivago became a victim of a personal tragedy as well as a collective tragedy. Yuri’s mother died when he was a child, leaving him only a balalaika. Young Uri was adopted by his uncle. While living in Moscow he had a passionate interest in poetry. Doctor Uri Zhivago was recognized as a professional as well as a poet in the Russian society. But his life was   torn between his two lovesTonia Gromyko his wife and Lara Antipova the beautiful nurse.

When the Civil War erupted, Doctor Zhivago was forcibly removed from his wife and family by the Red Partisans and eventually his wife Tonia escapes to Paris with the children. When Strelnikove was arrested, Lara’s life was in danger and she was compelled to go with Victor Komarovsky –the immoral man and an opportunist. Thus, Dr Uri Zhivago lost Lara as well and becomes a fragile man.  Lara disappeared off the street during Stalin’s Great Purge. “Perhaps in a labor camp,” narrated General Yevgraf, “A nameless number, on a nameless list which was later mislaid.” Love and innocence lost he was aimless. Dr Zhivago dies of a heart attack while pursuing a woman he believes to be Lara  down a Moscow street.

The collective tragedy fell upon on him with the Revolution. The bourgeois Moscovites   grand lifestyle of enjoying champagne, caviar and vodka came to a hold with the Revolution. Their lives became topsy-turvy. Doctor Zhivago’s   family wealth was confiscated and their house had been divided into tenements by the new Soviet Government. Zhivago’s family was confined to a small room. Dr Uri Zhivago was hated by the Bolsheviks   because of his middle class bourgeois roots. His poetry was considered as lines of petty indulging verses.
The revolution brought them misery and disappointments. Thousands were shot dead. The Revolutionary Committee could arrest or execute anyone labeling a counter revolutionary. Wealthy landowners were exterminated classifying them as Kulaks. There was no clear definition or a demarcation of a Kulak. A person owned thousand hectares of land was considered a Kulak. At the height of the state terror under Joseph Stalin, a farmer owned two pounds of grain also labeled as a Kulak and executed.

Bolsheviks believed that they had found the pathway to Utopia. They rationalized the devastation followed by the Revolution stating that if you want to make an omelet, you’ve got to break some eggs.’  Boris Pasternak indirectly puts the question to Bolsheviks through his book Dr Zhivago.Pasternak is questioning –`I see the broken eggs, but Where’s the omelet?’

Pasternak passionately renounced the Bolshevik idea of “building a new man” according to the Revolutionary measurements. Pasternak knew it was against nature. He argued that you could cut the tumors of injustice, which is a painful operation, provided that the patient should be kept alive.

The novel Dr Zhivago is a saga, spanning Zhivago’s life depicting several authentic characters.Boris Pasternak adored the poet Alexander Block Dr. Zhivago may have been based in part on the real life Russian poet Alexander Blok who was the most famous and influential in Russia. Alexander Block was a symbolist poet who sought to convey individual emotional experience through the subtle, suggestive use of highly metaphorical language. In the years after the revolution, Blok was very involved in social and political journalism and in criticism. Blok’s disillusionment with the Soviet bureaucracy and censorship is suggested in his fierce and eloquent essay in 1921 “On the Poet’s Calling” Blok died in Petrograd on Aug. 7, 1921 at the age of thirty-seven. Like the fictitious character, Dr Uri Zhivago Block died under physical and emotional exhaustion and with a great disillusionment.

The second character Pavel  Antipov or Strelnikov’s personality is much similar to Leon Trotsky (Lev Davidovich Bronshtein). Pavel Antipov  was a son of a railway worker. He marred Lara and  moved to the Urals. He joined the army as a volunteer during the World War One and fought in the German lines.  Wounded in the battle Pavel  Antipov was   presumed dead but later returns, using the pseudonym Strelnikov with a total personality change. He was not a warm caring man anymore, turned in to a bloodthirsty military commissar.

Like Pavel  Antipov,  Trotsky was against the Bolsheviks in the early stages but later deeply embraced the Bolshevism. Leon Trotsky formed the Red Army that fought with the White Guard in the Civil War. Leon Trotsky spent his time during the civil war in a train traveling widely across the young Soviet Union. According to the novel   Pavel  Antipov alias  Strelnikov was a ruthless character who travels by a special guarded train destroying  villages and eliminating people who help the Whites.

When Dr Zhivago accidentally encountered Strelnikov’s well-protected locomotive he was arrested and taken before Strelnikov.  When Strelnikov sees Dr Zhivago he immediately recognizes the famous Russian Poet. These were the words of Strelnikov when he denounced Zhivago ‘s poetry.

I used to admire your poems. I shouldn’t admire it now. I should find it absurdly personal. Don’t you agree? Feelings, insights, affections… it’s suddenly trivial now. You don’t agree; you’re wrong. The personal life is dead in Russia. History has killed it. I can see why you might hate me.

Leon Trotsky and Strelnikov shred a common fate. Both of them fell from grace.  he Bolsheviks relinquished both.  Strelnikov committed suicide while he was taken to a firing squad and Trotsky was murdered in Mexico.

Yevgraf  Zhivago is another  Character Pasternak  introduced in this novel.  According to the bookYevgraf was Dr Uri Zhivago ‘s younger illegitimate half-brother who was working for the Cheka.Cheka was a secret police force that was founded soon after the Revolution.  Cheka had power to arrest people.  No judicial process was involved in assessing the guilt or innocence of any of its prisoners. Punishments, including the death penalty, were arbitrarily applied. The Cheka was granted the power of summary trials and execution of   death sentence.

There are much resemblance between Yevgraf  Zhivago and Felix  Dzerzhinsky – the founder of Bolshevik secret police the Cheka. Dzerzhinsky was not a Russian, he was a Polish. InPasternak’s book Yevgraf  Zhivago was illegitimate (non Russian ?). Like Dzerzhinsky, Yevgraf Zhivago combats internal political threats executing suspects.

Dzerzhinsky once publicly stated that   “We represent in ourselves organized terror — this must be said very clearly and   the terrorization, arrests and extermination of enemies of the revolution on the basis of their class affiliation or of their pre-revolutionary roles.”

Yevgraf  Zhivago ‘s words correspond to the power that Cheka members had.
Indeed as a policeman I would say, get hold of a man’s brother and you’re halfway home. Nor was it admiration for a better man than me. I did admire him, but I didn’t think he was the better man. Besides, I’ve executed better men than me with a small pistol. 

Cheka became ill famous  for large-scale human rights abuses, including torture and mass summary executions, carried out especially during the Russian Civil War.

Another relatively small but rousing character was introduced in the novel whose name is Lieutenant Razin. He was categorically against demobilizing Dr Zhivago from the Red Army Partisan unit. In a public debate, he expresses his opinion thus …

 As the military struggle draws to a close, the political struggle intensifies. In the hour of victory, the military will have served its purpose – and all men will be judged politically regardless of their military record. (Please compare this with the   power struggle between President Rajapaksha and General Sarath Fonseka. Was Pasternak a genius?)

Lieutenant Razin could be Kliment Voroshilov who was the commissar of the 1^st Cavalry Army and later became the People’s Commissioner for Military and Navy Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR.   Voroshilov gave his full support to Joseph Stalin’s 1930 Great Purge, denouncing a large number of his colleagues who served in the Army.

John Locke and Jeremy Bentham described society as comprising individuals interacting through market relations. However, Bolsheviks went further and wanted to create a socialist Utopia through revolution and subsequently via Stalinism. Nonetheless, Pasternak viewed it as a colossal social upheaval caused millions of human lives in Gulags or slave labor concentration camps that became a symbol of tyranny and oppression.
Pasternak’s novel Dr Zhivago was banned in Russia for 30 years when  he attempted to publish in 1957. As the protagonist of the novel, Uri Zhivago Pasternak was once considered by the system as a misfit. He was persecuted by the Soviet authorities as a traitor. Pasternak won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958, but he was compelled to deny it following the pressure put by the Soviet regime. In 1987, the Union of Soviet Writers posthumously reinstated Pasternak.Doctor Zhivago was finally published in Russia in 1988 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Pasternak left us with moral questions that are convoluted to find answers.    But words of Alexander Berkman coincide Pasternak’s inner thought about the revolution.

“No revolution has yet tried the true way of liberty. None has had sufficient faith in it. Force and suppression, persecution, revenge, and terror have characterized all revolutions in the past and have thereby defeated their original aims. The time has come to try new methods, new ways. The social revolution is to achieve the emancipation of man through liberty, but if we have no faith in the latter, revolution becomes a denial and betrayal of itself.”

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍රය

බදුල්ල දෙමළ බාලිකා විද්‍යාලයේ විදුහල්පතිනි ආර්. බවානි මහත්මිය දණ ගැස්සවීම සහ ඇයට බලපෑම් සිදුකර ප්‍රකාශයක් ලබා ගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙන්   ඊයේ පැය 10 කට ආසන්න කාලයක් තිස්සේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කොමිසමේදී විමර්ශනයක් පැවැත්වීය. මෙම විමර්ශනය සඳහා පැමිණිලිකාර පාර්ශවය වෙනුවෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍රයේ විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් සහ ලංකා ගුරු සංගමයේ ප්‍රධාන ලේකම් ජෝෂප් ස්ටාලින් සහභාගි විය.  මෙහි වගඋත්තරකාර පාර්ශවය වෙනුවෙන් ඌව පළාත් අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්ෂ වරයා සහ ඌව පළාත් අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම් සන්ධ්‍යා අඹන්වල මහත්මිය ඇතුළු වග උත්තරකාර පාර්ශ්වයේ හය දෙනකු කැඳවා තිබිණ.

මෙම විමර්ශනයෙන් අනතුරුව රැස්ව සිටි මාධ්‍යවේදීන් ඌව පළාත් අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම් සන්ධ්‍යා අඹන්වල මහත්මිය මහත්මියගෙන් ප්‍රකාශයක් ලබාගැනීමට උත්සහ කළද ඇය ප්‍රකාශ ලබාදීම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරමින් පලා ගියේය. නමුත් සිද්ධියට මුහුණ දුන් විදුහල්පතිනිය සහ පැමිණිලි කාර පාර්ශවයේ කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් සහ ජෝෂප් ස්ටාලිං මාධ්‍ය වෙත අදහස් දැක්වීය. එහි දී කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා සඳහන් කළේ මෙම සිදුවීමට අදාළ රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන්ගේ  ක්‍රියා කලාපය කිසිසේත්ම අනුමත කළ නොහැකි බවයි.  පොලිසිය සහ රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන් ඉතා සූක්ෂ්ම ලෙස සත්‍යය වසන් කිරීමට  කටයුතු කර ඇති බව මෙහිදී පැහැදිලි වූ බව ඒ මහතා සඳහන් කළේය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කොමිෂන් සභාවේ එච්.ආර්.සී./236/18 අංකය යටතේ  ඌව පළාත් අධ්‍යාපන ලේකම්වරිය, බදුල්ල පළාත් අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්ෂ, කලාප අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්ෂ, බදුල්ල පොලිස් ස්ථානාධිපති, ඌව පළාත් සභාවේ මාධ්‍ය ඒකකයේ මාධ්‍ය උපදේශක සහ එම ඒකකයේ තවත් සේවකයන් දෙදෙනකු මේ අනුව කැඳවා  තිබූ නමුත් බදුල්ල පොලිස් ස්ථානාධිපති වරයා සහ ඌව පළාත් සභාවේ මාධ්‍ය උපදේශකවරයා මෙම විමර්ශණය සඳහ සහභාගී වූයේ නැත. මෙම විමර්ශනය අතරතුර මෙම සිදුවීමට අදාළ ලියකියවිලි 150කට අධික සංඛ්‍යාවක් ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කොමිසම භාරයට ගත්තේය.

පළාත් ප්‍රධාන ඇමැති චාමර සම්පත් දසනායක ඇතුළු පිරිස විදුහල්පතිනියට සිදු කළ ක්‍රියාව මඟින් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 12 (1) ව්‍යවස්ථාව සහ 13 වැනි ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ අදාළ භාෂණයේ හා ප්‍රකාශනයේ අයිතිය මෙන්ම දහ වැනි ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ සඳහන් හෘදය සාක්ෂියේ නිදහස දැඩි ලෙස උල්ලංඝනය වී ඇති බව සමාජ ක්‍රියාකාරීන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කොමිෂන් සභාව වෙත ඉදිරිපත් කළ පැමිණිල්ලේ සඳහන් වේ.

විදුහල්පතිනිය දණ ගැස්සවීමේ සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍රයේ විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් සහ ලංකා ගුරු සංගමයේ ප්‍රධාන ලේකම් ජෝශප් ස්ටාලින් යන මහත්වරුන් විසින් ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍රය වෙත ඉදිරිපත් කළ පැමිණිල්ලක් මත මෙම කැඳවීම කර තිබේ.

ආර්. බවානි මහත්මිය වින්දිත පාර්ශ්වය ලෙස සලකා මෙම විමර්ශනය සිදු කෙරේ. උෟව පළාත් ප්‍රධාන ඇමැති චාමර සම්පත් දසනායක ඇතුළු පිරිස විදුහල්පතිනියට සිදු කළ ක්‍රියාව මඟින් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 12 (1) ව්‍යවස්ථාව සහ 13 වැනි ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ අදාළ භාෂණයේ හා ප්‍රකාශනයේ අයිතිය මෙන්ම දහ වැනි ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ සඳහන් හෘදය සාක්ෂියේ නිදහස දැඩි ලෙස උල්ලංඝනය වී ඇති බව සමාජ ක්‍රියාකාරීන් ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කොමිෂන් සභාව වෙත ඉදිරිපත් කළ පැමිණිල්ලේ සඳහන් විය.

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය

ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍රය

2018 ජනවාරි මස 26 වැනිදා 

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, Dehiwela

Nowadays you open the daily newspaper every single page is filled with bad news. Someone got killed by drunken driver, someone snatched  the chain from a woman, someone caught drug smuggling, some politician being questioned about the corruption/ fraud, doctors fighting etc. etc.

It is as if this country with  20 million people do not do a single thing right or a single good act. It is bad bad  news day in day out – page after page. Why, o why  do we lap up bad news and why do the newspapers thrive on dishing out bad news?

We are all familiar with the poem – CHILDREN LEARN WHAT THEY LIVE by Dorothy Law Nolte

If a child lives with criticism,

he learns to condemn.

If a child lives with hostility,

he learns to fight.

If a child lives with fear,

he learns to be apprehensive.

If a child lives with pity,

he learns to feel sorry for himself.

If a child lives with ridicule,

he learns to be shy.

If a child lives with jealousy,

he learns what envy is.

If a child lives with shame,

he learns to feel guilty.

This is not only true for children but for any aged person – and for the nation too.

On the other hand, the poem continues –

If a child lives with encouragement,

he learns to be confident.

If a child lives with tolerance,

he learns to be patient.

If a child lives with praise,

he learns to be appreciative.

If a child lives with acceptance,

he learns to love.

If a child lives with approval,

he learns to like himself.

If a child lives with recognition,

he learns that it is good to have a goal.

If a child lives with sharing,

he learns about generosity.

If a child lives with honesty and fairness,

he learns what truth and justice are.

If a child lives with security,

he learns to have faith in himself and in those about him.

If a child lives with friendliness,

he learns that the world is a nice place in which to live.

If you live with serenity,

your child will live with peace of mind.

With what is your child living?

The question here is WITH WHAT DOES OUR  NATION LIVING?

The pen is a mighty weapon. The journalist can change the mentality of the people. I have heard that the past prime minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew forbade newspapers carrying bad news as a rule to set the mood of the nation to one of hope, good will and positive thinking. And it worked.

Ok, we may not be able to do that, but at least give us some good news to realize our country is not so bad after all. For every cheating politician there are thousands of citizens who are trustworthy and law abiding. For every theft there are thousands who return the lost money and valuables. For every drug smugglers there are thousands of social workers who are helping people to do the right thing. So on and on.

Why not write about them? Please.

Sent by:

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai,

Dehiwela

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, Dehiwela

Much has been said and written about the shameful  behavior of our politicians in the parliament. It was shocking that even  the usually well behaved gentleman Prime minister too stooping to the degrading act of shouting slogans in the highest echelon of our nation. Such a shame! Is it a case of those  living  with  dung-beetles  ending up in dung?

This has been going on for ages. But is anything going to be done about it? Why is it so difficult to impart  some common sense into the thick skulls  of a few thugs called members of parliament  by our whole nation? They are not only setting bad example to the others in the nation, specially the children, but now, with everything being aired world over, they are utterly shaming our country’s image as a whole.

Yet, we the citizens too, watch, aghast, but don’t do anything to stop it. Surely it is not impossible to pass a ruling in the parliament that if anyone behaves in unbecoming way that they should be expelled by the speaker? According to the Wikipedia “The Speaker presides over the House’s debates, determining which members may speak. The Speaker is also responsible for maintaining order during debate, and may punish members who break the rules of the House”.

So Mr. speaker, why aren’t  you doing your duty? Are you afraid to abide by the rules of the country and exert your authority? If you cannot do your duty you must resign and leave the way for a stronger personality to take over.  It is much more disgusting to watch the impotent speaker doing nothing, but  looking on helplessly than watching  the despicable behavior of the politicians. And to think that absolutely not a single  person in that shameful crowd who  has the guts to speak up stop the hooliganism. The decent citizens feel the shame  in the pit of their stomach that these are the so called rulers and law makers of our blessed country.  Thumping the tables, shouting while another is speaking and gathering in the well of the house, getting into fisticuffs – even a fish market is more respectable than this motely  crowd.

Is there any lower level  than this our so called leaders  can stoop to? I doubt.

Sent by:

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai,

 Dehiwela

 lanka C news

වසර 99ක කාලයක් සදහා හම්බන්තොට වරාය චීනයට ලබා දීමට එරෙහිව හිටපු අධිකරණ හා බුද්ධශාසන ඇමති විජේදාස රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා විසින් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ නඩු පවරා තිබේ.

සිය පෙත්සම මගින් ඒ මහතා සදහන් කරන්නේ මෙම ගිවිසුම මගින් රජය මෙරට ආණ්ඩු ක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව මුළුමනින්ම උල්ලංගණය කර ඇති බවයි.

මෙම පෙත්සම සම්බන්දයෙන් කරුණු දැක්වීමට නීතිපතිවරයා කාලය ඉල්ලා සිටි නිසා මෙම පෙත්සම සලකා බැලීම එළැඹෙන අපේ‍්‍රල් මස 04 වැනි දා දක්වා කල් දමනු ලැබීය.

පැමිණිලිකාර පාර්ශවයේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නීතීඥයා ලෙස පෙනී සිටින්නේද ජනාධිපති නීතීඥ ආචාර්ය විජේදාස රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතායි.

 lanka C news

මෙරට දේශපාලන ඉතිහාසයේ දැවැන්තම පාවාදීම නම් ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්‍ෂය සිරිකොතට පාවාදීම බව හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා පවසයි.

වත්මන් ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා විසින් ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්‍ෂය සිරිකොතට පාවාදීම එම විශාලම පාවාදීම බවද ඒ මහතා සදහන් කරයි.

එස්.ඩබ්.ආර්.ඩී. බණ්ඩාරනායක මහතා එජාපයෙන් ඉවත් වී ශ‍්‍රීලනිපය නිර්මාණය කලත් වත්මන් ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් පක්‍ෂය සිරිකොතට පාවා දී ඇති බවද ඔහු සදහන් කරයි.

හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා මෙම අදහස් පල කරන ලද්දේ දඹුල්ලේදී පැවති ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණේ ජනරැළියක් අමතමිනි.

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy  The Island

Former Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Ajith Nivard Cabraal and former Chairman Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) Dr. Nalaka Godahewa yesterday alleged that there were glaring omissions and gaping holes in the recommendations made by the presidential bond probe commission in its report. Asserting that the recommendations didn’t reflect what had actually transpired during the commission proceedings, the duo said the omissions amounted to a grave lapse on the part of the probe commission.

Cabraal and Godahewa said so in response to a query by The Island at a media briefing at Ramada in Colombo.

The bond commission consisted of Supreme Court Justices K.T. Chitrasiri and Prasanna Jayawardena and former Deputy Auditor General Kandasamy Velupillai. Sumathipala Udugamsuriya functioned as its Secretary.

Stressing that he respected the commissioners, Cabraal said some obstacles may have caused the flaws in the report. Dr. Godahewa endorsed Cabraal’s view.

Godahewa said those who closely followed media reports on the treasury bond scam commission proceedings since March 2015 had seen that though there were important recommendations some critical information revealed before the commission had not been taken into consideration.

The former CSE Chairman faulted the fact-finding commission for not making specific recommendation in respect of the Bank of Ceylon (BoC) financing the Perpetual Treasuries (PTL) Limited to the tune of Rs. 10 bn to carry out the operation. Declaring that the BoC had never granted such a huge facility to any other primary dealer through its Intra-day

Liquidity Fund (ILF), Godahewa said who had made it possible was the mastermind of the first bond scam.

A comprehensive investigation into the circumstances under which BoC had made available required funds would expose the mastermind, he said.

Cabraal and Godahewa said that in addition to the Rs. 10 bn that had been made available in Feb 2015, a further Rs. 40 billion had been provided by the BoC in March 2016 to the PTL under mysterious circumstances.

The former SEC Chief flayed the government for giving preferential treatment to those suspected and accused of bond scams. “For three years, there have been many statements made, both in and outside parliament in defence of bond thieves,” Godahewa said, pointing out that almost four weeks had lapsed since the handing over of the report to President Maithripala Sirisena without there being any action taken against any of the wrongdoers.

Godahewa said that Deputy Governor and Chairman of the Treasury tender board P. Samarasiri, named in the report had been allowed to serve his full term until his retirement in August 2017. When a print media journalist pointed out that Samarasiri had been elevated to the post of Deputy Governor during Cabraal’s tenure (July 2006-January 2015), the former Governor claimed Samarasiri was given critical responsibilities after the change of government in January 2015. Cabraal alleged Samarasiri had received authority from his (Cabraal’s) successor Singaporean Arjuna Mahendran.

Cabraal and Godahewa said President Maithripala Sirisena’s recent appeal to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to back his efforts to clean up the administration was a ruse aimed at saving the government. Cabraal asked how President Sirisena could ask Wickremesinghe for help as the latter was yet to clear his name. “The primary allegation is the decision to do away with time-tested, transparent and well-thought out auction cum direct placement system that had been introduced by former CB Governor Amarananda Somasiri Jayawardena in 1997,” Cabraal said.

Cabraal said the UNP leader certainly owed an explanation to the country as to why he had instructed Mahendran to change the system just before the first treasury bond scam in Feb 2015. Following a far bigger scam in March 2016, the old system had been re-introduced in July 2017, Cabraal said, emphasising that President Sirisena couldn’t absolve himself of the responsibility for the second scam as well as the dissolution of parliament in mid 2015 to thwart exposure of the UNP over the first bond scam.

“What is happening now is nothing but an elaborate face-saving operation ahead of Feb. 10 local government polls. The electorate is unlikely to be deceived by the yahapalana show,” Cabraal said, adding that the administration was in an extremely embarrassing and tricky situation. He explained the culpability of the top UNP leadership as well as President Sirisena beginning with the appointment of a foreigner as the Governor of the Central Bank. Cabraal pointed out that Arjuna Mahendran had already fled the country, though none of those accused of corruption by yahapalana administration had left the country.

“Here, I’m, ready to face any probe,” Cabraal said, challenging the government to prove unsubstantiated allegations against him.

Following the conclusion of the briefing, Cabraal told The Island that the Attorney General’s team who assisted the commission would be the best suited to decide whether the recommendations reflected the proceedings and vital information made available to the three member commission. “We understand that the AG’s team wasn’t consulted in the preparation of the report,” Cabraal said.

Courtesy Adaderana

President Maithripala Sirisena says that he has not yet decided whether he will contest at the next Presidential Elections.

However, President Sirisena said that he will continue in politics throughout his life .

President Sirisena made this statement today (26)at a meeting held with heads of media institutions and news editors at President’s House, Fort.

President Maithripala Sirisena sought the Supreme Courts opinion earlier this month, if he could be the president for six years, a request which contradicts the amendment he introduced to reduce the presidential term to five years.

However, conveying its decision on the reference made by the President, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka on January 15th said that President Maithripala Sirisenas term in office is five years.

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE

Another January 25^th is upon us.  No big deal.  Not the first, not the last.  Follows a January 24^th and will be followed by a January 26^th.  In a sense dates are meaningless things, relevant only in part and irrelevant in the larger order of things.  We are, however, frail creatures who do not always move on and beyond moment, event and encounter.  As such we assign values to dates, mark calendars, celebrate, commemorate and mourn, depending on the strength of our attachment to these things or even our revulsion.

There have been 13 January 25^ths since 1998 and none of those days are significant to me personally.  On each of those January 25^ths I forgot that on a particular January 25^th, that of 1998, the LTTE carried out a cowardly and devastating attack on the place of religious significance held most sacred by the Buddhists, the Dalada Maligawa.

I would not have remembered that incident today had I not received an email containing a fairly comprehensive account of the attack and its implications, written by Daya Hewapathirana, reproduced in today’s Daily News (that’s January 25, 2011).  No other English newspaper found the day significant, one observes.  Perhaps we’ve all been immunized by the terrible violence we’ve suffered as a people, as individuals and as a nation for us to remember day, event and damage caused, even though the Dalada Maligawa is not some piece of pavement that got damaged when some drunk driver crashed into a lamppost.

Indeed, it is pertinent to reflect on what would have happened if say a group dedicated to some self-understood ‘Islamic’ cause ran a vehicle full of explosives into the Vatican on January 25, 1998.  I am pretty sure that 1/25 would have ensured that 9/11 died a quick death in the collective memory of the world.  That’s beside the point as far as this article is concerned, however.

The point, as far as I am concerned, is about forgetting.  Why is it that we forget such monumental acts of terrorism?  Do we suffer from selective amnesia as a nation or do we have short memories as some claim?  Is it because of the common perception that that which was destroyed was later restored to previous glory with no sign of blemish (Daya Hewapathirana’s article would be a rude awakening in this regard)?

There’s something in our society that makes us better able (than most other societies) to take the blows and move on without being over-fascinated with blow-moment.  It is about coming to terms with realities, not just those of the moment such as deed-done and cannot-turn-back-clock, but the eternal verities, the ata lo dahama of profit-loss, joy-sorrow, praise-blame etc., and treating these with equanimity.  This is how we recovered from the bloody insurrections of 1971 and 1988-89 and the tsunami of 2004 with a speed few nations suffering similar tragedies have emulated.

Putting aside the requirement of remembering in terms of learning lessons, watching out for patterns and re-enactment with view to prevent, such ‘forgetting’ does have an important and healthy social function which moreover could very well be one of the defining characteristics of our culture.  It can be sourced to the overwhelming significance and contribution of Buddhism to who we are today, but the quality is not over-represented among Buddhists.  It cuts across all identities.  We cheer our cricketing heroes when they do well but when they fail we don’t burn their houses to use an example that is relatively current given the World Cup is around the corner.

The attack on the Maligawa in fact affirmed the fundamental teachings of the Buddha, in particular that of impermanence.  We live in a country where misguided individuals desecrate the temple of Jesus Christ and operate in accordance with a de-contextualized reading of the Book of Deuteronomy or on account of having internalized the unholy Papal Bulls that sanctioned and justified the massacre of Buddhists in their thousands.  When they ask recent ‘converts’ or those to whom they want to prove a point to smash images of the Buddha, they do not seem to understand that they are in fact affirming this same principle.  Those who react by attaching such individuals or their so-called churches are not being ‘Buddhists’ in terms of the dhamma but ironically operate in much the same way as their detractors (so imagined).  The better response is to delve deeper into the dhamma, to meditate on impermanence and move on.

The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues, similarly, affirmed the principle of impermanence.  There was horror, yes.  Buddhists in this country did not turn that horror into anger and hatred. It didn’t spill over into Buddhist-Islamic conflict as such incidents do in the case of certain Hindu groups in India.

I did not remember the significance of January 25^th.  Maybe I should have.  Maybe we all should have.  If only to remind ourselves that it could happen again and that therefore we need to be vigilant.  On the other hand, perhaps that forgetting speaks of a certain civilizational maturity.  Or a civilizational identifier.  A positive that rises above the negative overtones of the word ‘forgetting’.  It’s all good, I think.

*First published in the ‘Daily News’ (January 26, 2011).  Interestingly, since I am the Editor of  Sunday Newspaper and this Sunday is the 25th, I could have carried something on this attack. I forgot.

Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer who can be reached at msenevira@gmail.com

Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera Courtesy Daily News

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said yesterday he had not received a letter extending the agreement of the national government.

The Speaker said this when JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake asked him whether the agreement to form the national government has been renewed and if so whether he received the renewal agreement.

JO MP Dinesh Gunawardane said the government had violated the Constitution by appointing a Cabinet, State and deputy ministers exceeding the amount stipulated in the Constitution as the period of the national government had expired.

“The agreement of the national government between the UNP and the SLFP expired on December 31. Accordingly, Cabinet ministers should be limited to 30,” he said.

He asked the Prime Minister if he admitted to the fact that the government had violated the Constitution by appointing Cabinet, State and Deputy ministers exceeding the amount stipulated in the constitution and the fact that agreement of the national government had expired.

MP Gunawardane also asked whether the appointment of Sriyani Wijewickrama and Piyasena Gamage as State ministers had been approved by the President and the Prime Minister as required by the Constitution. He said appointment of ministers should be approved by the President and the Prime Minister according to the Constitution. ()

Darshana Sanjeewa Courtesy Adaderana

The Police Special Investigation Unit (SIU) today arrested a former Additional Secretary and an Accountant of the Presidential Secretariat in connection with allegedly misappropriating state funds amounting to Rs. 17.9 million in 2010.

Police Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekara said former additional secretary D.S. Gunaratna and former accountant L.D. Gunaratna had been arrested for allegedly  misappropriating state funds when purchasing eight luxury vehicles for the Presidential Secretariat.

He said the suspects had allegedly misappropriated the funds through vehicles which had been imported for the Presidential Secretariat on duty free vehicle permits.

The arrested suspects are to be produced in the Fort Magistrate’s Court.

Earlier, the SIU also recorded statement from former presidential secretary Lalith Weeratunge in connection with the same allegation.

එරික්‌ ගාමිණි ජිනප්‍රිය උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

ජනාධිපතිතුමා ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම දූෂණයට එරෙහි පුද්ගලයකු ලෙස සැලකීමට නම් එතුමා විසින් අගමැතිතුමා හෝ අධිකරණ ඇමැතිතුමිය යටතේ තිබෙන නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව තමන් යටතට පවරාගෙන බැඳුම්කර කොමිසමේදී නිසි පරිදි ප්‍රශ්න කිරීමට ලක්‌නොවූ අගමැතිතුමා ඇතුළු පුද්ගලයන් පිළිබඳව දප්පුල ද ලිවේරා මහතා වැනි පුද්ගලයන් යොදවා සැබෑ පරීක්‍ෂණයන් සිදු කළ යුතු බව මානව හිමිකම් කටයුතු පිළිබඳ නීතිඥ කල්‍යානන්ද තිරාණගම මහතා පැවසීය.
 
 තිරාණගම මහතා ඒ බව සඳහන් කළේ ඊයේ (23 දා) නාවල පාර, රාජගිරියේ පිහිටි ජාතික සංවිධාන පොදු මධ්‍යස්‌ථානයේදී මහජන රාජ්‍ය සභාව විසින් පැවැත්වූ මාධ්‍ය හමුවේදීය. වැඩිදුරටත් අදහස්‌ දැක්‌වූ ඒ මහතා මෙසේ ද පැවසීය.
 
 ආණ්‌ඩුව නියෝජනය කරන සහ ඊට හිතවත් පක්‍ෂ ඉදිරි පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණය ගම හදන, නගරය පිරිසිදු කරන මැතිවරණයක්‌ බව ප්‍රකාශ කරනවා. ඔවුන් කටයුතු කරන්නේ එය මෙම මැතිවරණයේ ප්‍රධාන සටන් පාඨය බවට පත් කිරීමට. නමුත් මෙම මැතිවරණය ඊට වඩා තීරණාත්මක එකක්‌. මෙම මැතිවරණයේ ප්‍රතිඵලය රටේ අනාගතය තීරණය කරනවා. මේ රට එක රටක්‌ ලෙස පවතිනවා ද? කෑලිවලට කඩනවා ද? බුද්ධාගමට හිමි තැන ආරක්‍ෂා වනවාද? යන කාරණා තීරණය කරන්නේ මේ මැතිවරණයේ ප්‍රතිඵලය විසින් බව පැහැදිලියි.
 
 මේ ආණ්‌ඩුව රටේ සම්පත් විකුණමින් සිටිනවා. එයාර් ලංකා ගුවන් සේවය, මත්තල ගුවන්තොටුපළ විකිණීමට සූදානම් වෙනවා. විල්පත්තුව ඇතුළුව පරිසරය විනාශ කිරීමට කටයුතු කරමින් සිටිනවා. සුද්දන්ගේ සේවය සඳහා කාන්තාවන් යෙදවීමට පුහුණු කරනවා.
 
 එක්‌සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මානව හිමිකම් කොමිසම හරහා ඉදිරිපත් වූ යෝජනාවට සම අනුග්‍රහය දැක්‌වීම නිසා අපේ හමුදා නිලධාරීන්ට ඇමරිකාව, එංගලන්තය වැනි රටවලට යැමට නොහැකි තත්ත්වයක්‌ ඇති වී තිබෙනවා. එම රටවලට යන්න වීසා දෙන්නේ නෑ. ගියත් කොයි මොහොතේ අත්අඩංගුවට ගනීවිද දන්නේ නෑ.
 
 ඉදිරි පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයේදී ජනාධිපතිවරයාට හෝ අගමැතිවරයාට ඡන්දය දුන්නොත් ලබන සිංහල අවුරුද්දට පෙර මේ රට බෙදන ව්‍යවස්‌ථාව සවිමත් කරනවා. ආර්. සම්බන්ධන් මහතා ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබෙනවා ඔහුට ජනාධිපතිතුමා විශ්වාස බව. එන්. ජී. ඕ. සංවිධානත් නව ව්‍යවස්‌ථාව සවිමත් කළ යුතු බව ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබෙනවා. එම නිසා මෙම මැතිවරණයේදී ජනාධිපතිතුමාට හෝ අගමැතිතුමාට ඡන්දය දීම එම ප්‍රතිපත්ති ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට දුන් ඡන්දය බවට පත්වෙනවා.
 
 19 වැනි සංශෝධනයට අනුව කාර්යයන් පැවරීමේ බලය තිබෙන්නේ ජනාධිපතිතුමාට. එම නිසා දූෂිතයන්ට එරෙහිව කටයුතු කිරීමට සැබෑ වුවමනාවක්‌ තිබෙනවා නම් ජනාධිපතිතුමා නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව තමන් යටතට පවරාගෙන බැඳුම්කර කොමිසමේදී නිසි පරිදි ප්‍රශ්න කිරීමට ලක්‌ නොවූ අගමැතිතුමා ඇතුළු පුද්ගලයන් පිළිබඳව දප්පුල ද ලිවේරා මහතා වැනි පුද්ගලයන් යොදවා සැබෑ පරීක්‍ෂණයක්‌ සිදුකළ යුතුයි. එලෙස කටයුතු කළහොත් පමණයි දූෂණය මර්දනය කිරීම සඳහා ජනාධිපතිතුමාට සැබෑ වුවමනාවක්‌ තිබෙන බව පිළිගන්න පුළුවන් වන්නේ.
 
 එසේ නොවුණහොත් ජනාධිපතිතුමා දූෂිතයන් ආරක්‍ෂා කරන තවත් දූෂිත නායකයකු ලෙස පිළිගැනීමට සිද්ධ වෙනවා.

By Manushi Silva Courtesy Adaderana

In a situation where the ministries related to finance and economy are being controlled by Ministers of  UNP,   President Sirisena has no authority to manipulate or manage the economic affairs of the country as per the constitution , said former parliamentarian G. L. Peiris.

He made this sentiment at a media briefing of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) held in Colombo today (24).

The President recently made a statement without any hesitation that he will take responsibility for all the economic affairs which were in the hands of the UNP for the last three years. He has now awakened from his three year slumber and making statements.”

However all the weak points of the economy including the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade and Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs are in the hands of senior UNP ministers.”

Therefore, Peiris pointed out that President should take over those Ministries from the UNP MPs if he is willing to take control over the economy.
Otherwise he has no power to do so as per the constitution,” said Peiris.

President Maithripala Sirisena said he would directly manage the economy through a special economic council headed by him, taking over the responsibility from the Prime Minister and the UNP during a political rally of the UPFA on January 20.

Sirisena joined hands with the UNP to topple Mahinda Rajapaksa  in January 2015, ending the strongman president’s decade in power.

But since then their alliance has fractured, with Sirisena clashing with free-market champion Wickremesinghe over economic policy.

Courtesy  The Daily Mirror

The Bribery Commission should probe the allegations made by MP Sivashakthi Anandan that 15 Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MPs had been bribed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Ministry of National Policy and Economic Affairs, the Joint Opposition said today.

SLPP chairman G.L. Peiris told a news conference that with regard to the MP’s claims they were bribed to vote in favour of the Budget and that each TNA MP was paid Rs.20 million.

The BC should probe these allegations, or else the President should take action against this incident. If not, the JO itself would file a case in this regard,” he said.

Mr. Peiris said this incident was as an insult to Parliament.

Meanwhile, he said according to the Constitution, the President did not have the authority to manage the country’s economy.

All the ministries related to the economy are under the control of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and the UNP ministers. To make this statement a reality, he should take control of ministries such as Ministry of Economic Development and Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs. Otherwise, it will be a mere statement,” Mr. Peiris said. (Kalathma Jayawardhane)

Courtesy  The Daily Mirror

The Presidential Secretariat today contradicted the Speaker Karu Jayasuriya when it confirmed that a copy of the bond commission report was given to UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake on January 17.

The secretariat’s information officer said the MP was charged Rs.5,000 for the bound copy of the report.

The MP had requested for a copy under the Right to Information (RTI) Act,” he said.

However, on Wednesday in Parliament the Speaker dismissed claims made by the MP that he had obtained a copy of the report and confirmed that the copies of the report were only forwarded to the President, Parliament, the Attorney General and the Central Bank. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)

පුවත්පත් නිවේදනය  කිර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/ කැෆේ සංවිධානය

බැදුම්කර වාර්තාවට අයත් අතිරේක ලේඛන ඉතා විශාල ප්‍රමාණයක් ප්‍රසිද්ධියට පත් කර නොමැති බව පිළිගනිමින් ගරු ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඊයේ (ජන. 23) කොළඹ පැවති ව්‍යාපාරික රැස්වීමක දී ප්‍රකාශයක් කළේය.  සත්‍යය පිළිගනිමින් එවැනි ප්‍රකාශයක් කිරීම පිළිබඳව ගරු ජනාධිපතිවරයාට  අපගේ ස්තුතිය පිරිනමමු.

කැෆේ සංවිධානය මෙයට පෙර ද අවධාරණය කළේ බැඳුම්කර වාර්තාවේ “සළකුණු කළ ලේඛණ” සහ “සාක්ෂි සටහන්” යන වෙළුම් දෙක ප්‍රසිද්ධියට පත් කර නොමැති බවයි.

ඊයේ (ජන. 23) දින පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ප්‍ර‍කාශයක් කරමින් ගරු කථානායක කරූ ජයසූරිය මහතා බැඳුම්කර වාර්තාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් ප්‍ර‍කාශ කළේ  උපුටා දැක්වීම // …… එකී වාර්තාවට වෙළුම් නොමැති බවත්, සලකුණු කළ වාර්තා සහ සාක්ෂි පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට එවන ලද වාර්තාවේ අන්තර්ගත කර තිබෙන බවත් ජනාධිපති ලේකම්වරයා…………..// දක්වා ඇති බවයි.

එමෙන්ම කථානායකතුමා සිය නිවේදනයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටින්නේ ……..// එම වාර්තා සම්බන්ධයෙන් සාව්‍ය මත සමාජගත කිරීම සුදුසු නොවන බව……..//ය.

ගරු ජනාධිපතිතුමා විසින් තහවුරු කර ඇති පරිදි මේ වන විට අසත්‍ය කරුණු සමාජගත කොට ඇත්තේ කැෆේ සංවිධානය නොව වෙනත් පාර්ශව විසින් බව මම අවධාරණය කරමි.  ගරු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී උදය ගම්මන්පිල මහතා ගේ ප්‍ර‍කාශය එනම් පිටු 103 ක් අඩු බව එවැනි පැහැදිලි අසත්‍ය ප්‍ර‍කාශයකි. 

කැෆේ සංවිධානය නැවත වරක් අවධානයට යොමු කරන්නේ බැඳුම්කර වාර්තාවට අදාල පිටු දහස් ගණනක් ප්‍රසිද්ධියට පත් කර නොමැති බවයි. (අවධාරණය – අපගේ ඇස්තමේන්තුව එය පිටු 9000කට මදක් වැඩි වන බවයි. කෙසේ නමුත්, අවම වශයෙන් එය පිටු 5000 ඉක්මවන බව නිසැකය)  

කැෆේ සංවිධානය විසින් ගරු කථානායක වරයා වෙත යොමු කළ ලිපිය මඟින් ප්‍ර‍කාශ කළේ උපුටා දැක්වීම //“උදාහරණයක් ලෙස ‘සී 350′ ලෙස සලකුණු කොට ඇති ලේඛනය මත පදනම් වූ නිරීක්ෂණ පිළිබද ප්‍ර‍ධාන වාර්තාවේ සදහන් වේ.  නමුත්, එම ලේඛනය මේ දක්වා පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් වෙත ලැබී නැත. 

ගරු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ට බැදුම්කර වංචාව  හා එයට සම්බන්ධ පාර්ශව පිළිබද සම්පූර්ණ අවබෝධයක් ලබා ගැනීම හා තාර්කික, දත්ත පාදක නිගමනයන්ට එලැඹීම උදෙසා මෙම අතිරේක ලේඛන පරිශීලනය අනිවාර්ය වූ අවශ්‍යතාවයකි.  එබැවින්, අදාළ සලකුණු කළ ලේඛන හා සාක්ෂි සටහන්  අතුලත් වෙළුම කොටස් 2 ද, ගරු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් වෙත ලබාදීම පිණිස ඔබගේ ඉක්මන් අවධානය යොමු කරන ලෙස ඉතා කාරුණිකව ඉල්ලා සිටිමි. “// උපුටා ගැනීම අවසන්.

බැදුම්කර වාර්තාවේ ප්‍ර‍සිද්ධියට පත් නොකළ ලේඛන පිළිබද පිළිබද සත්‍ය හෙළි කිරීම පිළිබද කැෆේ සංවිධානය ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ස්තුතිවන්ත වන අතර, මෙම බැඳුම්කර වාර්තාවේ පිටු දහස් ගණනක් නොමැතිව අද පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ එය  විවාදයට ගන්නේ බැඳුම්කර මගඩියේ මහ මොළ කරුවන් ආරක්ෂා කිරීම සඳහා වන බව ඉතා පැහැදිලිය.

කිර්ති තෙන්නකෝන්

විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ/ කැෆේ සංවිධානය

2018 ජනවාරි 24

Rajith Keerthi Tennakoonජනාධිපතිතුමා ප්‍කාශය  නරඹන්න

Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon බැදුම්කර වාර්ථාවේ පිටු දහස් ගනනක් අඩුයි කියලා මම කියද්දි කථානායකවරයා එය අසත්‍යයක් බව කීවා….මෙන්න දැන් ජනාධිපති…

Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon
Executive Director/CaFFE
Executive Director/CHR-Sri Lanka
100/19 A, Welikadawatta Road,
Rajagiriya,Sri Lanka.

www.caffe.lk

+94 777791225

By Kelum Bandara Courtesy  The Daily Mirror

Dengue cases dropped drastically due to former Defence Secretary’s city development  

It is not advisable to build high-rise buildings on narrow roads

Housing is a pressing issue in Colombo

I decided to follow former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in politics because he saved the country from terrorism

65 percent of people in six percent of Colombo land area  

It is far below WHO” requirement for space  

Former Chief Medical Offic

er of Colombo Municipal Council Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam is contesting the local government elections as mayoral candidate to the Colombo Municipal Council under the ‘Flower Bud’ symbol of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna [SLPP]. He says it is better to have a professional as a mayor of Colombo.  

Q As the Chief Medical Officer of the Colombo Municipal Council for 26 years, what made you to contest the local government elections as the mayoral candidate under the Flower Bud symbol?

My whole family has been supporters of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) traditionally. My father’s youngest brother was the party’s organizer for Akmeemana in the 1980s. Now, there is a breakaway faction. Actually, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa saved our country from the scourge of terrorism and prevented it from disintegration. I thought I should follow his footsteps politically. He is someone who did a lot for the country despite various allegations.

Q Colombo Municipality has been a UNP stronghold. In fact, even when Mahinda Rajapaksa was at the height of his popularity, the UNP won in Colombo. How challenging would it be for you this time?

It is a challenge. I have always taken up challenges. For example, in my Public Service Department, I should have had at least 1200 workers. I had only half of them. Yet, I did better than any of the former Chief Medical Officers. I managed to get Colombo declared as a Polio free zone.

How I did it was that I got all the staff members except labourers trained in Polio vaccination. That was to put drops in the mouths of children. In one way, we vaccinated all the children in the city who were under five years of age. Actually, this should have been done by nurses and midwives. I thought I should get the maximum out of my staff. I followed the same steps in terms of controlling Dengue, Cholera etc. I utilized the facilities and available manpower.

Actually, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa saved our country from the scourge of terrorism and prevented it from disintegration. I thought I should follow his footsteps politically. He is someone who did a lot for the country despite various allegations

Q What are the pressing concerns you have identified in Colombo?

The main thing is housing. Actually, 65% of people in the city live in underserved settlements. These underserved settlements are in 6% of the land area in Colombo. You can imagine the gravity of the problem. Their houses are too small. That is a matter of concern. In a house of 400-500 sq ft, two to three families are living. However, the WHO norm is 120-150 sq ft per person.

Housing is a pressing concern, while land is another issue. I suggest constructing three-story buildings and give the people adequate space at the same abode where they live now. People could use the ground floor for business purposes. Women can do such activities for income generation.
There is a need to have a better transport system to get rid of traffic congestion. We find a lot of high-rise buildings on narrow strips of lands. We must ensure that no more high-rise buildings are put up in this manner. In fact, residents cannot park their vehicles. These small roads are used to ease traffic congestion on major roads.

This is one of the major complaints raised during my door-to-door canvassing process. We have to look for improved traffic designs. These narrow roads should not be used for uni-flow traffic. During rush hours, residents cannot even get out. People who live peacefully on these lands abutting narrow roads cannot do so any more. When high-rise buildings are put up on narrow roads, there is no ventilation coming to houses.

Housing is a pressing concern, while land is another issue. I suggest constructing three-story buildings and give the people adequate space at the same abode where they live now. People could use the ground floor for business purposes. Women can do such activities for income generation

Q What is your plan for eradication of Dengue?

Actually, I implemented a very successful programme. After I retired, they stalled it. New types of Dengue fever are found in Sri Lanka. It happens with the arrival of some foreign nationals infected with the disease. We have to contain the spread of the disease in Colombo first. It is like the head of a body. We have to protect the head first. They stopped the anti-Dengue campaign which we initiated. After that, it spread to other areas. We had a programme that received an international award. I would like to resume it if elected to office. For that, we have to fill in the vacancies. There are about 120 vacancies for health instructors and around 50 vacancies for field assistants to control mosquito breeding. We have some other vacancies for health educators and midwives as well. All these people could be used for Dengue-control work.

If we contain the disease in Colombo, it could be contained easily in other parts of the country.

Q Your rival candidate Rosy Senanayake of the UNP said former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa made only cosmetic changes in the city in his city development drive. What is your response?

He developed the city starting from the Port up to Gregory Road. It spread to Bauddaloka Mawatha, Bambalapitya Junction and Galle Face. That was the triangle he developed. That was how he started. After developing, we did not find a single Dengue patient in that area. The area surrounding Gregory’s lane was full of Dengue patients. Once it was developed with properly laid drainage lines, we did not find any patient in the area. What is happening now is that no one is maintaining these areas. The other thing is that it serves as a catalyst for people in the area to clean their own residential gardens. They noticed how the government did it. Then, residents also followed suit. The government’s initiative, at that time, bore fruit to people in that manner.

Q What is your message to the city voters this time?

I saw the 2018 budget. It is only Rs.18 billion. Out of that, Rs.10 billion is meant for the municipal engineers. Out of that also, Rs. 3.5 billion is spent for garbage disposal. Last time, they allocated only Rs.1.5 billion for it. This time, it has been increased by 50%. Garbage collection is outsourced to the private sector. The private sector should collect garbage daily if they receive an increased allocation. It should be looked into.

Q How important is it for professionals to join politics?

I have been in the CMC for 26 years. It always had commissioners who were professionals. During the last ten years, we had administrators from the SLAS. Before that, it was either engineers or doctors who served as the Municipal Commissioners.

If we had a mayor who was also a professional like in Singapore, we know exactly what the problems and technical solutions to them are. Rather than apportioning blame on each other, we have to find solutions in that manner. We must have a clear idea about the cost. It is a good idea that professionals are joining politics. They have the practical knowledge.

Q There is ethnic and religious diversity in Colombo. What do you suggest to foster unity among all
these groups?

We should always think that we are all Sri Lankans. We should forget the religious and caste differences. We have to elect knowledgeable and qualified people to run the Council. Otherwise, we would end up being countries like Libya, Syria or Lebanon.

They stopped the anti-Dengue campaign which we initiated. After that, it spread to other areas. We had a programme that received an international award. I would like to resume it if elected to office. If we contain the disease in Colombo, it could be contained easily in other parts of the country

Q During the previous government, there was a proposal to make a Colombo Municipal Corporation. How do you see the practicality of it?

I think Colombo should be expanded now. Rather than building all the institutions within the city limit, they should be taken out of the city. There are high-rise buildings coming up. Who will take the burden of all the sewer lines? It is better to have pockets of areas surrounded by parks and greenery.
That is always better to expand the city to Nugegoda, Battaramulla and Angoda areas. Also, we must have proper transport systems and roads. It is a good idea that we expand and introduce a corporation system.

Q What do you think of the new election laws governing the local government polls?

It is a good thing that we got rid of the preferential voting system. Candidates are very less. In my case, I have to print a certain number of leaflets and make door-to-door visits. We do not put up posters and we held small pocket meetings.

I think Colombo should be expanded now. Rather than building all the institutions within the city limit, they should be taken out of the city. There are high-rise buildings coming up. Who will take the burden of all the sewer lines? It is better to have pockets of areas surrounded by parks and greenery

It is good in that way. The number of members to be elected has increased. It is not a good idea. There are too many members, and therefore the cost would be high. A job which is normally done by one person, has to be done by three or four people as the result.

Courtesy  The Daily Mirror

Ahead of the government’s move to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Singapore, a collective of professional movements said yesterday there were serious violations of the law, best practices and good governance in the negotiation process of the agreement.

Issuing a communique, they said they took steps to inform all the Cabinet Ministers including President Maithripala Sirisena urging them not to grant Cabinet approval to go ahead with the agreement.

The professional bodies that signed the agreement are Government Medical Officers Association,· Inland Revenue Trade Unions Joint Committee, Customs Officers Union, Ceylon Bank Employees Union, Association of Information Technology Professionals, Engineering Union of Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau, · Government Ayurveda Medical Officers Association, Public Service United Nurses’ Union, Government Dental Surgeons Association, National University Teachers Association, Railway Professionals Trade Unions Alliance, CPC Engineers Union, Lanka Pragathi Teachers Association, Progressive Bank Employees Front and Executive Officers’ Association of Sri Lanka Technical College

The statement said the Cabinet approval had been obtained during the cabinet meeting held on January 16, 2018. As per media reports, this is the same meeting that the President addressed the Cabinet vociferously against corruption. Unfortunately, the Singapore-Sri Lanka FTA which was a result of a corrupt process has obtained the Cabinet approval at the same meeting. We would like to mention that Professionals’ National Front brought these malpractices to the attention of the President in a letter dated on September 13, 2017 and made sure that the letter received his attention as well.

The statement said, Professionals and industrialists of Sri Lanka continuously requested to make a national trade policy for Sri Lanka before jump into FTA negotiations with our major importing countries. It is evident that government had accepted that it is a due requirement because Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade appointed a New Zealand nationalist, Dr. Ravi Ratnayake to draft a so-called New Trade Policy”. That draft which clearly shows the lack of professionalism in the field has also been able to obtain the cabinet approval. It is a very bad practice to ask one person to write a national trade policy, especially when he is already in the FTA negotiation process with several countries. This New Zealander is representing Sri Lanka in negotiations of FTAs which is a complete conflict of interest.

The late Dr. Saman Kelegama was the chairman of a leading multinational company in Sri Lanka which imports several million rupees worth of goods annually from India, China and Singapore. Surprisingly, he was the chief negotiator for Sri Lanka for FTAs with very same countries at the same time, until his demise. This is an unbelievable conflict of interest caused with plenty of evidence. Though he has passed away, several rounds of current negotiations have taken place while he was leading the Sri Lankan negotiation team.

Mr. K.J. Weerasinghe, the successor of Kelegama, has been in the negotiation team while obtaining a salary as an adviser to apparel industry of Sri Lanka which is another serious conflict of interest.

Ravi will definitely have to go to prison – DEW Gunasekara රවීට නිසැකයෙන්ම සිරගත වීමට සිදුවන බව ඩිව් කියයි

Sarath Bulathsinghala

 Sri Lanka was drifting towards China. This was obvious in the aftermath of Sri Lanka successfully concluding a terrorist war that was aided and abetted by the Christian West and India. What would the Christian West and India do?

China is slowly and steadily progressing to become the dominant trading power of the world. Their modus operandi are different from those of others or of days gone by. Their policy towards the Third World is not Gunboat Diplomacy or its modern variants but one of accommodation and mutual benefit with little or no conditions attached. It was more co-existence than sheer dominance and all that entails. In this enterprise China is promoting new trade routes, called the new Silk Road. This is happening through land routes as well as through sea lanes.

Even before the end of the Tamil Racist War called Eelam War, the Rajapakse Adminstration embarked on major infrastructure improvement projects. These involved building of major road networks followed by the development of sea ports and airports. Would foreign countries come to build infrastructure projects in other countries out of generosity? It is the duty of individual countries to invest on such projects. Then only it becomes feasible for investors – foreign and local to pitch-in and engage in commerce, trade and industry.

One of the main items in the Chain of Pearls Project of China is the Hambantota Sea Port and the Mattala Airport. Although most of these projects were in the drawing boards for decades, funds were in short supply as well as the political will and courage to embark on such large ventures. Finally, funds came flowing from China and these projects became a reality. Sri Lanka was ready to ‘take off’ reaching Middle Income Earning Country status.

It is obvious that these achievements were and are being viewed with jaundiced eyes by India as well as by US and their US led allies in the Christian West. Situation in Sri Lanka didn’t fit in with their vision of the Third World in the new Millennium where the new normal is CHAOS – a la Tunesia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq Afghanistan and a myriad other big and small!

India has Great Power ambitions in South Asia and in the Indian Ocean Region and then in the world. One of their unrealized dreams was to have Sri Lanka as one of their provinces.  Failing their ambition is to have a weak government in Sri Lanka which can be easily cajoled to fall in line. One of India’s ambitions is to have the deep water harbor of Trincomalee as their southern most naval post. It is in this connection that they were contemplating projects such as Sethu Samudra Sea Lanes, Power Project in Sampur and the Road from Mannar to Trinco as well as bridge or tunnel to connect Sri Lanka to mainland India. It is with this picture in the background that one must visualize the Indian manipulations in Sri Lanka at present. Eelam Project which is still alive and the sizeable Indian Community in the hill country constitute political as well as manipulative assets that can be commandeered to do their bidding.

As for the Eelam Project which was earlier financed and executed partly from India, there is not much appetite in India to give power to the Tamils per se. They know very well if Eelam comes into being that it will be US and her allies who will have sway and influence over them. This can one day lead to the balkanization of India through a series of ‘color revolutions across India. Unlike China which is a more a monolith than other and power well consolidated through the Communist Party of China, India is for all purposes and intents still remain a political construct of the British Empire – largely made up of extremely diverse and at times adverse groups of nationalities.  Their geography being what is bestowed to them by the British is not an easy task to manage the centripetal forces that tend to explode India from within. Only way India can bring about a reverse force that can keep India intact is to conjure up external threats from her neighbors.  Pakistan, Bangladesh and China and Nepal and Sri Lanka provide this excuse to India. It is only the external threats that bring up Indian-ness in Indians. At all other times Tamilians,  Maratis, Bengalis, North Indians and Punjabis on the one hand and Hindus and Muslims not to mention the tiny but influential Christian minority are constantly trying to undermine each other in a social fabric that is still enmeshed in caste based discrimination and dominance.  This is why Tamil Nadu adding up Eelam to make up greater Tamil Nadu is a big No No for India. India’s only ambition at present is to have Sri Lanka as a weak vassal state kept forever destabilized doing their bidding when required, same as Nepal and Bhutan!

Western Christian Powers led by the US too invested on the Eelam project with an eye on Trincomalee as their next Sea Base after Diego Garcia. They are more interested in sea lanes and maintenance of global dominance. Though the powers of the Western Christian nations are in the wane they are not yet ready to give in without a fight. Therefore, their power and influence though residual and intimidatory, cannot be wished away. They still exercise power over and above their ability as movers and shakers of the world! Soon they will realize that theirs is not the only game in town!

It is with this picture in the background India, US and her allies invested on a project to depose the powerful Rajapakse Administration. Given the background of Sri Lankan politics and the mentality of the Sri Lankans it was an easier project than the other Colour Revolutions” elsewhere in the world. All what was required was massive disinformation campaign on the ground through the mobile phones, internet, so called ‘civil society’ well financed with dollars and willing knaves who could betray party, friends and the nation.

Rajapakses were depicted as utterly corrupt and incorrigible. They made use of some of the already disgruntled and left aside politicians of the SLFP to switch sides at appropriate times to bring about regime change. First to persuade was Maithreepala Sirisena, the most disgruntled of the lack luster politicians of the lot.  It is no secret Mahinda Rajapakse by passed most of these inefficient and party hangers-on to get through most of the important jobs mainly the infrastructure projects. He placed implicit trust on those who could be trusted and his very capable brothers came in very handy. He even ‘imported’ some ‘go getter’ politicians from the UNP for these purposes.

Let us look at the voting pattern, those who voted for Sarath Fonseka in 2010  and those who voted for Maithreepala Sirisena in 2015. Did people personally vote for Sirisena – No.

It was a repetition of 2010 when sizeable number of the population voted for Sarath Fonseka seeking CHANGE not to Fonseka per se. However, in 2015 the disinformation exercise was in high gear favored by excesses of some of the high-handed work of the Rajapakse Second Term. That too was buttressed by the fiat votes of the Tamils and Muslims who vote en-block on the dictates of their leaders. These leaders frequently change allegiances to bring about regime change in line with their race base or faith base politics. While Racist Tamils are working towards dismemberment of Sri Lanka and carving out a separate state for themselves, the Muslims are working towards total domination through population increase, land acquisition and economic dominance!

Sarath Fonseka who polled nearly 4.5 million in the 2010 Presidential Elections polled less than 10,000 island wide when he contested elections in 2015 on his own steam. In the case of Sirisena he was not a Presidential aspirant 3 months prior to the election and it was not even in his wildest dreams he could be President of Sri Lanka. His only wish was to become Prime Minister succeeding D M Jayaratne before retiring from politics. What happened was a political coup masterminded by the Christian West aided and abetted by the Indians. They failed in 2010 but succeeded in 2015. The script of the coup is very clear and obvious; it is Made in USA!

When one looks at the Big Picture it is easy to surmise that the plot was hatched by the same think tanks in the US that plotted the overthrow of former Yugoslavia, Tunesia, Libya, Egypt and now trying hard on Syria. They were assisted by RAW operations from India. On their own admission US had spent over US$500 Million to destabilize Sri Lanka and Burma and India’s RAW may have used unknown Millions for the same purpose each to their own ends!

With 8^th January 2015 Presidential Election the so called Yahapalana Administration came into being. The foreign agenda for Sri Lanka ran as follows:

• Topple Rajapakse Administration – done
• Appoint Ranil Wickramasinghe as PM – brings the Central Bank under his command – done
• Change of Constitution – Out goes 18^th and incomes the 19^th reducing Presidential powers and increasing Prime Ministerial powers – done
• Rob the Central Bank to find finances for fund depleted UNP reserves, finance next parliamentary elections, wreck Sri Lanka’s economy – done
• Stop Rice Farming and destroy food security – done
• Stop Fertilizer subsidies to Rice Farmers – done
• Deny promised prices for Tea, Rubber, Coconut and Pepper Farmers – done
• Increase taxes – done
• Depreciate the Sri Lanka Rupee – done
• Sell state assets – in progress
• Destroy Sri Lanka’s Buddhist Establishment – in progress
• Move armed forces from the North and East paving way to re-emergence of terrorism – in progress 75% complete
• Bring Geneva threats against Sri Lanka and denounce War Heroes as war criminals to satisfy the Diaspora Racist Tamils – done
• Revamp the entire Constitution of Sri Lanka to suit meddling by the Christian West as a means to balkanize Sri Lanka. This they are depicting as a measure to bring reconciliation among the communities in Sri Lanka and other groups in the shadows such as the LGBTQ. Whether separation of communities and coming out of the closet for the LGBTQ will bring about reconciliation is entirely a different subject! – in progress

After 3 years of Yahapalana Administration, most of the above have come to pass or are earmarked for implementation and Sri Lanka is on the way to be another Failed State. This is where the importance of the coming Local Government Elections become obvious.

All political parties aligned with the ruling cabal – the UNP, SLFP (Sirisena Clique), the JVP, Muslim and Tamil political parties, who were not interested in having Local Government Elections in a hurry could not keep the façade of a democratic regime any longer. After nearly 3 years of constantly postponing Local Government Elections finally there will be elections on 10 Feb 2018. The rulers have suddenly realized that they need  Local Government bodies to bring about development, despite !

They have seen the popular adulation for the ‘defeated’ Mahinda Rajapakse  with the Nugegoda Rally – not long after the ‘change’ of 8 Jan 2105 – Mahinda Handa and now later Pohottuwa, the ruling cabal is very afraid!

People have seen what the Change in 8 Jan 2015 has brought about. Though the older generations have been fooled before by the likes of Rice from the Moon and Dharmista Samajayak , but now even the younger generations whose dreams are more cyber than real have had a chance to see the reality of chasing after mirages. The promises of Saadharana Samajaya, Wasa wisa thora ratak, Dooshanayen thora Ratak have evaporated like the morning dew. Their proponents – one dead and the other no where to be seen!

They have a chance to show their pleasure or displeasure on the way the Yahapalana has succeeded in bringing about CHANGE”! Ranil- Sirisena joint enterprise is for all purposes and intents gone for good. Only reason it keeps going is self preservation for the incumbent keeping  all the strappings of political  power intact. They say that the country is now stabilized economically and diplomatically abroad and they are now ready to take on developing the villages, towns and cities. They are  promising, they will do the same thing they have done to the Country on a Macro Scale to the villages on a micro scale. It would be good to see if the population be they – Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim or other will have a taste and an appetite for more of the same of Yahapalanaya after a dismall 3 years in power. The nation must see that what remains is only complete subjugation to external forces as a Failed State.

There is no political establishment that is totally squeaky clean. We have seen what has become of Mr Clean. We simply have to choose the party that is less corrupt – just because we are human! Just because we need leaders to rule a country and we need who are capable, experienced and confident. Would South Korea be what they are today if they had Yahapalanaya? Would Samsung, Hyundai, Daiwoo, LG and others would be where they are today if there was no political patronage? Only thing a country can do is to keep it all that is bad to a minimum and within acceptable and economically manageable limits.

It is now up to the people of Sri Lanka to take into consideration all what has happened during the last 3 years and give their verdict on 10 Feb 2018. This is not about getting things done at village, town and city and municipality level. This should be vote on how Yahapalanaya have performed during the last 3 years, how they have kept their promises to the people and on a bigger scale of what is to become of Sri Lanka under the proposed change of Constitution and secret and not so secret dealings with foreign countries.

Go out early on 10 February and vote. See that your vote count. Don’t stay at home unconcerned. We are talking about the future of our sons and daughters. See that you stand to be counted among those who love our Motherland – Sri Lanka! Not a FAILED STATE and a dismembered land continuously at war!

Sarath Bulathsinghala

22 Jan 2018

Dr Sudath Gunasekara 

Some fundamental flaws of the 2015 and 2017 Delimitation of Local government Councils and electoral system.

Obviously you all might say that it is too late and useless talking about this subject now as it has already become the law and there is no point in trying to close the gate after the horse has already bolted. But even if I had written this before the law was enacted everyone knows how our Parliament responds to public opinion and how they rush in collectively and unanimously to make laws to meet their political ends for personal gain completely ignoring the good of the country or the people. or the traditional national interests of the sons of the soil.

As such I thought it would be useful for readers at least to have an idea about some serious flaws that have got in to the law books so that some patriotic law maker or citizen can take necessary steps to rectify these treacherous blunders inflicted upon this nation by politicians, one day or the other.

The chances of the members in the list, was brought to the notice of a discussion group held in Mahanuwara few days ago by one of its participants. Thereafter having got interested and being inquisitive on this issue I tried to find some more details about this electoral system.

Having gone through the relevant instructions issued by the Election Department I found the following serious flaws that impinge on the fundamental rights of the sons of the soil, I mean the Sinhalese and also the basic principles of the spirit and substance of democracy and the very future of this country as a unitary State. I thought to put them down here as it might be useful for the patriotic citizens to think over them.

1 The Delimitation Commission has taken three factors namely the population, land area and ethnicity in to consideration in identifying the Local Government divisions. Usually only population and land area are considered in traditional electoral demarcations. One can argue that such consideration is needed to do justice to the minority groups, which is a must in the ongoing much hyped so-called reconciliation process. But in my view this consideration overlooks the broad national interests. This is particularly so in a county where extremist, separatist, minority movements have been very active and where deep conspiracies to subdue the native majority to the extent of claiming their own homelands within this country had been active for over a period of 100 years. At the same time the British colonial conspiracies of divide and rule deployed centuries ago with the final objective of destroying the Sinahala Buddhist nation of this country also has to be kept in mind in this regard. Was it by accident or by design and conspiracy that the subject of Local Government was brought under a Muslim who is also a nominated MP of the United People’s Freedom Alliance now under the UNP government is also a moot question to be noted. The composition of the Delimitation Commission K.Thivalingam, Anila Dias Bandaranayaka and Prof Hisbulla appointed by Faiser Musthapa one needs not be surprised as to its minority bias. Furthermore the close relationship between Faiser Musthapa and Balachandran Nagalingam of the Globalal Tamil EELAM Government aptly proves the joint Tamil-Muslim conspiracy behind the delimitation.

Taking ethnicity in to consideration in this exercise I think is definitely counterproductive and goes against reconciliation and national integrationinterests in this country. Historically All immigrants who came to this country over time had been fully integrated to the native society as that was the law of the Government of this country. Even the four Nyakkara Kings of the Kandyan Kingdom had to take Sinhala names that were given to them by the Chief priests and embrace Buddhism before they were consecrated as the King of Sinhale. It was also compulsory for them to take a public oath before the Mahasangha that they will protect the Sinhala Rata and the Buddhasasana. Why can’t the present day rulers learn their lessons from their own past?  Even in recent times this has been attempted when Nehru=Kotalawala  Accord 1954 laid down the condition that all those Indian estate labour who wish to be citizens of this country have to first learn the language of the natives (Sinhala) within 10 years and get integrated or get back to their motherland in South India if they are not prepared to do so.  But unfortunately this Accord was never implemented by successive governments up to date. Instead they dabbled in a continuous vote hunting game and finally in 1987 J.R, Jayawardhana was compelled to give citizenship to all estate Tamils of Indian origin by India under the JR/Rajiv Accord of July 29^th of that year at gun point under threat. JR meekly did it for fear of life and political survival.

2 The second issue is the increase in the number of representatives to the Local Councils by 100 % with no rationality at all. This has been increased first, by increasing the number of divisions and secondly, by adding 40% to the present number of sitting members in spite of the fact thereby killing the spirit and substance of democracy and made electoral representation and democracy a big joke. This was also design to make room for increase minority representation in all Local Government councils with a long term conspiracy in mind. For example if you take Kandy MC as a case in point that has 24 Members representing the 24 Wards at present has been awarded additional 40 Members under the present system. Under this situation even the Party or an independent group gets a majority number of seats there is a possibility of not getting the power in the Council if the 16 PR Members mostly representing minority and independent groups get together and form a coalition of 21 seats. This situation may be less conspicuous in the villages but in MCC and other urban areas where there is a sizable minority votes it can be extremely chaotic. MCC like Colombo, Kandy Galle and Matale may face this problem seriously. The net result will badly affects the rights of the majority community both in the key urban areas and the villages indirectly as the cities on the overall control the villages.

Besides this danger the resulting increase in expenditure and other complications due to the increase in the number of politicians also has to be taken in to view in the broader context of the total number of politicians in all political bodies. For example at present we have 225 in Parliament, over 650 in Provincial Councils and some 8346 in Local Government Councils (total 9221). The staff attached to these politicians as drivers, private secretaries and other staff also has to be added to this number of unproductive list of parasitic lotus eaters taxing on the public coffer.

Among these politicians further we have about 157 Ministers at national and provincial level including Governors and their staff. That might most probably make this number even 10,000 or more. Can a poor country like ours shoulder the burden of such a heavy unproductive luxury, eating in to a lion’s share of the national budget? Why not our policy makers reduce this burden on the masses by reducing these numbers to a reasonable level say like 150 MPP in Parliament and 15 to 20 Ministers and leave the 4000 odd local Government members as it was before and scrap the curse that is Provincial Councils that have not served any purpose other than wasting public funds in hundreds of Billions a year to maintain a parasitic outfit messing up governance in the periphery and providing employment for a band of third grade uneducated rogue politicians with no contribution to the National development at all.

3 The idea of Multimember seats is another element promoting ethnic polarization that hinders social integration. Even in Parliamentary elections this has come to stay as the norm and now a day it is getting even worse. Each minority community thinks the multimember constitutions are especially tailored to elect their members only and therefore there is a common tendency among them not to vote with the main parties and not to integrate with the majority community. This situation strengthens and aggravates ethnic polarization and distances the minorities from the core natives and communal groups drift apart with time. This I believe is a continuation of communal representation invented by the British to drive a wedge between the Sinhalese the majority and the minorities to achieve their vicious targets of divide and rule. The local politicians and intellectual must understand this vicious colonial trick and seriously sit down to evolve a homemade solution to reconcile this situation so that all communities begin to think as one nation instead of engaging in throat cutting and subversive politics aspiring to overrun the natives. In this context it is high time that all minority ethnic groups accept the fact that this is the land of the Sinhala Buddhist and resolve to live as brothers and sisters within that nonnegotiable framework.

Beside looking at the flaws I have noted in respect of the Local Government politics, I have been wondering as to why our politicians as individuals don’t look at these problems rationally as we ordinary people who love this country do and try to begin to think at least now that politics is a service to people and the motherland and not a way of luxurious life at the expense of the suffering masses at any cost.

It reminds me here what a great contemporary politician scribed on his sons autograph on Jan 9^th 1959.

Minisage parama yutkama minisata sevaya kiriimai!” S.W.R.D. Bandaranayaka

How many present day politicians, at least in their dreams, have ever seriously indulged in such great thoughts?

Before the foreign conquest in 1815 this country was ruled by a monarchy. It had its merits and demerits. But the country was ruled under the Buddhist concept of Bahujana hitaya Bahujana sukhaya (wellbeing of the many and the good of the many).

Democracy is on the other hand a Western concept introduced by the West under conquest. An d even that Democracy when put in to practice is interpreted differently by the west to suit their needs and interests. It is therefore alien to our socio-cultural milieu and age old art of State craft. We had a much deeper socio-political philosophy that was based on the Buddhist concept of State craft which is l26 centuries old. My question is as to why, our scholars and clergy don’t sit down and evolve out a system of our own which is suitable to our culture.

Editorial Courtesy  The Island

The SLFP, under the stewardship of its founder leader S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, mobilised what came to be known as the Pancha Maha Balawegaya or ‘Five Great Forces’ (Buddhist monks, physicians, teachers, farmers and industrial workers) in a bid to achieve its goals. But, over the years, the SLFP has accommodated within its ranks various evil forces; some of these anti-social elements have even secured key positions in the party.

The news of Uva Chief Minister (CM) Chamara Sampath Dassanayake harassing a female principal the other day came as no surprise. The victim has told the media that the CM made her kneel in front of several others at his official residence because she had turned down a request from him for admitting a child to her Tamil medium school.

The Uva CM’s opponents have made an issue of his educational qualifications, but, we believe, he is a good learner. It may be recalled that in 2013, under the Rajapaksa government, the then North Western Provincial Council member, Ananda Sarath Kumara, forced himself into a school, where he verbally abused a female teacher before making her kneel in front of other teachers and students for having chided his daughter over a disciplinary matter. Teachers’ unions and the media took up the cudgels for the victim and the mighty Rajapaksa government buckled under pressure; it had to take legal action against its man. The hero, hauled up before courts, was given a suspended sentence. We thought the yahapalana government wouldn’t’ touch him with a barge pole. How mistaken we were! Following the 2015 regime change, he was appointed the Anamaduwa SLFP organiser! The SLFP sent the wrong message to others of his ilk. What one gathers from the incident at issue in Uva is that the SLFP politicians have graduated from harassing ordinary teachers to making principals kneel down. At this rate, they may target education directors next.

In 1999, in the run-up to the North-Western Provincial Council elections, some influential SLFP members of the Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga government stripped a group of female UNP activists naked and paraded them on roads. They got away with that crime as they were above the law. This, the SLFP did, having condemned the J. R. Jayewardene regime, of which the current Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was a minister, for granting a presidential pardon to a notorious criminal convicted of raping a teenage girl. Gonawala Sunil was his name. Thankfully he is pushing up daisies.

The Joint Opposition (JO) worthies have, true to form, sought to take moral high ground. They have condemned the Uva CM, and rightly so. But, what did they do when Mervyn Silva, as a powerful minister of the Rajapaksa Cabinet, publicly ridiculed a state official and tied him to a tree in Kelaniya? They did not utter a whimper because Silva was a pet of the Rajapaksas. He was a law unto himself.

An SLFP Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman notorious for raping many women and throwing parties to celebrate those crimes has gone scot free. He enjoyed free rein under the Mahinda Rajapaksa government. The late Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera made mention of this savage in the garb of a politician, at a public rally in Colombo, and demanded to know why no action had been taken against him, even after the 2015 regime change. This monster was one of the organisers of the SLFP’s May Day rally in Galle in 2016. So much for yahapalanaya!

The SLFP leadership has, unable to defend the Uva CM owing to mounting pressure, removed him as the provincial minister of education purportedly to facilitate an impartial investigation into the incident. It is reported that President Maithripala Sirisena has ordered the IGP to conduct a thorough probe. Is it that the police chief wouldn’t have done so if not for the presidential order? Yesterday, CM Dassanayake surrendered to the police through a lawyer; he was produced before the Badulla Magistrate, who granted him bail.

This shouldn’t be the end of the story. It behoves President Sirisena to sack the Uva CM immediately if an impartial investigation is to be conducted. So long as Dassanayake remains in that high post, he can influence and intimidate investigating officers and witnesses.

Several women’s outfits are raking President Sirisena over the coals for having overruled Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera, who tried to do away with some archaic laws which prevent women from buying liquor and working in places where liquor is sold or manufactured. Shouldn’t they take to the streets demanding the resignation of the Uva CM?

The biggest problem this country is faced with is that political leaders who come to power, promising to restore the rule of law and revive democracy, make Justitia kneel at Hulftsdorp with impunity. No wonder their lackeys go about meting out the same treatment to ordinary women.

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය කැෆේ සංවිධානය

ඌව අධ්‍යාපන ලේකම්, පළාත් අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්ෂ, කලාප අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්ෂ, බදුල්ල පොලිස් ස්ථානාධිපති,  පළාත් සභා මාධ්‍යවේදීන් 3 ට ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කොමිෂන් සභාවෙන් නොතීසි

බදුල්ල දෙමළ බාලිකා විද්‍යාලයේ විදුහල්පතිනිය දණ ගැස්විම, තර්ජනය කළ ප්‍ර‍කාශයක් ලබා ගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් විමර්ශනයක් සදහා ඌව අධ්‍යාපන ලේකම් සන්ධ්‍යා අඹන්වල, පළාත් අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්ෂ රත්නායක, කලාප අධ්‍යාපන අධ්‍යක්ෂ රණසිංහ , බදුල්ල පොලිස් ස්ථානාධිපති,  පළාත් සභා සේවකයින් වන පාලිත ආරියවංශ, ප්‍ර‍සන්න පත්මසිරි, අමිල ක්‍රිෂාන්ත රත්නායක යන අතට ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කොමිෂන් සභාවෙන් විසින් සිතාසි නිකුත් කර ඇත.

2018 ජනවාරි 25 දින පෙ.ව. 10 ට කොළඹ ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කොමිෂන් සභාවේ කොළඹ 4 කාර්යාලයේ පෙනී සිටින ලෙස පැමිණිලි අංක එච්ආර්සී/236/18 අංකය යටතේ මෙම පිරිසට සිතාසි යවා ඇත.

ලංකා ගුරු සංගමයේ ජෝසප් ස්ටාලින් සහ ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍රයේ විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් විසින් සිදුකළ පැමිණිලි 2 කට අනුව මෙම කැදවීම් සිදු කර ඇත.

දෙමළ බාලිකා විද්‍යාලයේ විදුහල්පතිනිය වන ආර්.බවානි මහත්මිය වින්දිත පාර්ශවය ලෙස සලකා මෙම විභාගය සිදුවේ.  පැමිණිල්ලේ දැක්වෙන්නේ ඌව ප්‍ර‍ධාන අමාත්‍යවරයා හා මෙම පිරිස සිදු කළ  ක්‍රියාව මගින් ආණ්ඩුක්‍ර‍ම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 12 (1) ව්‍යවස්ථාව  හා 13 ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ සදහන් අදාල භාෂාණයේ හා ප්‍ර‍කාශනයේ අයිතිය මෙන්ම 10 වන ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ සදහන් හෘදය සාක්ෂියේ නිදහස ද දැඩි ලෙස උල්ලංඝනය වී ඇති බවයි.

(අදාල නොතීසි දැන්වීමේ ලිපිය මේ සමඟ අමුණා ඇත )

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය

කැෆේ සංවිධානය

2018 ජනවාරි 24

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane

Twenty years ago, on Sunday January 25^th, 1998, the savage Tamil terrorists attacked by means of a bomb blast, the Sri Dalada Maligawa – one of the greatest national treasures of our country. Built originally in the late 15th century, this fabulous architectural marvel is more than 550 years old. In the centuries that followed, on the initiative of several kings, improvements were made to the Dalada Maligawa, making it one of the most captivating historic buildings in the country. Several pilgrims including children who were at the Dalada Maligawa died on the spot along with several police personnel providing security at the Maligawa entrance at this time.

This magnificent structure enshrines the sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha which is the most sacred object of worship in the Buddhist world. It is of utmost symbolic value for Buddhists and the Nation as a whole, because from historic times the possession and custodianship of the Sacred Tooth Relic was tantamount to acquisition of the sovereignty of the nation. It was first brought to Sri Lanka in the fourth century CE and has been treated with utmost veneration by our kings of the past. The possession of the Sacred Tooth Relic was required for a king to be acknowledged as the ruler of the country.

SAVAGE ACTION OF TAMIL TERRORISTS 

Cruel and violent actions, characteristic of Tamil terrorists reached their highest levels with this ghastly event of bombing one of the most sacred places of veneration of Buddhists across the world. Structures and monuments associated with the entrance to the Dalada Maligawa were subject to severe damage. The blast led to the demolition of a good part of the roof and the exposure of the Dalada Maligawa to the open sky. Extensive peeling off of the wall plaster resulted in the destruction of exquisite paintings that adorned these walls besides damage to other priceless artifacts of the Maligawa.

The UNESCO Director General Mr. Federico Mayor’s reaction to this tragedy is noteworthy. He said “I am deeply shocked by this act of blind violence perpetrated against a place of meditation, joy and peace. All religions are based on love and respect for life. Attacking a holy place means striking the very best in humanity, undermining its innocence and purity. Those who attack people through their faith can only be condemned. Religious differences can absolutely not be justification for conflict, and places of worship should in no case be used as targets.”

PRICELESS CULTURAL WEALTH

The bomb blast resulted in the total destruction of two of the most precious items of the Maligawa – the historic granite moonstones sandakada-pahana’ that were found at the main outside entrance to the Maligawa before the rock pandol, and the equally precious  moonstone at the entrance to the ‘ambarava’ which is the tunnel-like entrance to the ‘hevisi mandapaya’ of the Maligava.  ‘Hevisi Mandapaya’ is the open verandah-like area with granite pillars where ‘pujas’ and drumming are performed. These two outstanding sandakada pahana were among the few most precious moonstones of the Mahanuwara era, that observed the design and shape of the unique Mahanuwara moonstone tradition, somewhat similar to the one at the entrance to the Degaldoruwa Rajamaha viharaya. The blast damaged the granite rock pillars before the ambarava, adorned with exquisite rock carvings of enchanting traditional motifs. The bomb attack resulted in the complete destruction of the enchanting paintings of the ‘Ambarawa’. The entire curved surface of the Ambarava was adorned with vibrant breath-taking paintings that belonged to the 17th and 18th centuries.

Many ancient ola palm leaf manuscripts and delicate traditional ornaments and artifacts stored in the Pattirippuwa octagonal building were destroyed.

The blast led to some structural damages to some walls and ceiling surfaces and disintegration of wall plaster adorned with mural paintings.  Also, some dislodging of parts of the carved wooden ceiling structures was evident. However, most miraculously the ancient inner relic chamber structure at the centre of the Maligawa building where the Sacred Tooth relic was housed remained intact.

When conservationists sifted through the rubble after the terrorist attack, they made an unexpected discovery. Beneath the existing wall paintings, two earlier layers of plaster with paintings were detected. Images of an elephant and a dancer’s leg were revealed which appear to be a part of a wider artistic composition of a ceremonial pageant. This painting is attributed to the beginning of the 18^th century, to the period of King Narendrasinha. Fragments of these paintings are displayed today in the new Maligawa museum, along with pictures of the destruction wreaked by the terrorist attack.

EXCEPTIONAL PAINTINGS OF MALIGAWA

The earliest paintings of the period of the Mahanuvara kingdom are in the inner chambers of the Dalada Maligawa. They were completed during the reign of king Wimaladarmasuriya -II (1687-1707). Other paintings in the old Maligava building were done during king Kirthisri Rajasinghe (1747-1786).

In front of the ‘hevisi mandapaya’ is the two storied building where the Tooth relic of the Buddha is enshrined.  This was built by king Narendrasinghe who ruled from 1707-1739. The intricately carved wooden structures decorating the upper portion of the outer walls of the two storeys also contain exceptionally captivating paintings. Some of these paintings were done on plaster applied over wooden surfaces.

Most breathtaking paintings of the Dalaga Maligava, found on its walls, ceilings, on wooden structures and surfaces and on the covers of the many ola palm leaf manuscripts found in the Dalada Maligava. The paintings on the walls and ceilings of both floors of the Maligava building are  exquisite works of art. Most paintings are elaborate, thematic or decorative ones and  those decorating the walls and ceiling of the inner relic chamber in particular, are most breathtaking. Paintings found on the carved wooden ceiling structures associated with the relic chamber. The wooden structures of the outer walls of the two storeys are decorated with intricate carving. Paintings found in these structures are exceptionally captivating. There are paintings of beautiful designs using human figures. animals, birds, and flowers. Among some of the most appealing paintings found here are those depicting King Wimaladarmasuriya-I (1591-1604), King Kirthisri Rajasinghe, Weliwita Saranankara thera, jataka tales and the Esala perahera. Paintings of the Suvisi Vivarana” or the 24 former Buddhas, deities and heavenly beings are captivating.

The Dalada Maligawa museum established in recent years on the upper floor of the Maligawa Annex contains segments of the painting layers damaged by the bomb blast and photographs of some of the damaged original paintings and parts of the paintings of several inner wall surfaces that were exposed after as a result of the bomb blast and peeling off of walls. Canvas replicas of some Maligawa paintings adorn the stairways leading to the Museum.

GREATEST OF NATIONAL TREASURES

The destroyed moonstones and other rock structures have been replaced with new ones bearing the same shape and design and the ‘Ambarawa’ paintings have been re-drawn. However, can they ever replace these invaluable historic treasures, the unique cultural wealth that glorified and embellished this cultural paradise?  The sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha venerated by Buddhists all over the world is enshrined in this fabulous building. It is of utmost symbolic value for Buddhists and the Nation as a whole. Besides, the Dalada Maligawa is also famous internationally for it colourful 10 day procession called the Dalada Perahera, which has an unbroken tradition extending up to the 4th c .CE. This captivating and delightful pageant has been conducted for the past 1700 years in several historic capitals in the country, when it was customary for our kings to built special Dalada Maligava structures in those capitals to enshrine the Tooth relic. Sri Dalada Maligawa is one of the greatest national cultural treasures of our country and  should receive the highest level of protection.

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

1951 වසරේ දී අචාර්ය කොල්වින් ආර්.ද සිල්වා මහතා මිනීමැරුම් නඩුවකට පෙනී සිටියේය. එම නඩුව එකල හැඳින්වූයේ සතාසිවම් නඩුව යනුවෙනි. හතළිහ දශකයේ බිහිවූ දක්ෂ ක්‍රිකට් ක්‍රීඩකයෙකු වූ මහාදේවන් සතාසිවම් මෙම නඩුවේ ප්‍රධාන චූදිතයා විය.ඔහුගේ බිරිඳ වූ පොන්නම්බලම් රාමනාදන් මහතාගේ මිණිබිරිය වන පරිපූර්ණම් රාජනේද්‍ර මහත්මිය ඝතනයට සැකපිට ඔහු අත්අඩංගුවට පත් විය. නිවසේ මෙහෙකාර විලියම්ද සැකපිට අත්අඩංගුවට පත් විය.පසුව ඔහු රජයේ සාක්ෂි කරුවෙකු විය. දක්ෂ නීතිඥයෙකු වූ සිල්වා මහතා සහ මහාචාර්ය සිඩ්නි ස්මිත් යන දෙදෙන එක්ව තම විත්තිකාර පක්ෂය වෙනුවෙන්  උපරිම සේවය සලසමින් මිනී මරණ ලද්දේ සතාසිවම් නොවන බවට ඔප්පු කරන ලද්දේය.නමුත් මහජනතාව එය පිළිනොගත්හ. සතාසිවම් මහත්මියගේ ගෙල ළඟ තිබූ වංගෙඩිය විසින් එම මිනීමැරම කරන ලද්දේ යැයි ජනප්‍රවාදයක් ඇති විය.ඕනෑම දක්ෂ නීතිඥයෙකුට එලෙස කළ හැකිය.සත්‍යය යුක්තිය කෙසේ වුවත් තර්කයෙන් සහ කපටිකමින් ප්‍රශ්ණ මගහැර යා හැකි බව ලෝක ඉතිහාසයේ වරින් වර ඔප්පු කර පෙන්වා දී ඇත.වර්තමාන භාණ්ඩාගාර බිල්පත් වංචාවට අදාල කොමිෂම සහ එහි වාර්තාව මත දැන් වංචාව මෙහෙයවූ තැනැත්තන් නොව එයට සම්බන්ධ පාර්ශව කරුවන් වැරදිකරුවන් බවට පත් කර තිබේ.

         අර්ජුන් ඇලෝෂියස් ගේ සමාගම විසින් මහ භාණ්ඩාගර බිල්පත් මිළට ගැනීමේ දී කරන ලද සාපරාධී වංචාවට අනුබල දෙන ලද්දේ හිටපු බැංකු අධිපති අර්ජුන් මහෙන්ද්‍රන් බව කොමිෂමේ දී හෙළි දරව් විය.සිංගප්පූරුවේ සිට විශාල ධන ව්‍යාපාර වල යෙදී සිටින තැනැත්තෙකු සහ ඔහුගේ බෑනා විසින් මෙවැනි වංචාවක් කරන ලද්දේ තමන්ගේ ව්‍යාපාර තර කර ගැනීමටද යන්න පිළිබඳ අපට දෙවරක් සිතන්නට සිදු වී ඇත.භාණ්ඩාගර බිල්පත් සඳහා බිලියන 12 ක ඇපකරයක් ඔවුන් විසින්  මහ බැංකුවේ තැන්පත් කර ඇතැයි අගමැතිවරයා පවසයි.එය රජයට ගැනීමෙන් මේ වංචාවෙන් සිදුවූ පාඩුව මගහරවා ගත හැකි බවද ඔහු  කියයි. එහෙත් පසුගිය වසර දෙකහමාරක කාලය තුලදී මෙම වංචාවෙන් හරි හම්බ කරගත් මුදල්  ආයෝජනය කරන ලද ව්‍යාපාර කුමක්දැයි කිසිම තැනක සඳහනක් නැත. අප දන්නා පරිදි ස්කාගාර ව්‍යාපර සහ මාධ්‍ය ව්‍යාපාර සඳහා එම මුදල් ආයෝජනය කර තිබේ.මෙහි බරපතලම කාරණය නම් මෙම වංචාවෙන් පසුව රාජ්‍ය ආර්ථිකයට එල්ල වූ ප්‍රහාරයයි.රාජ්‍ය ණය පොළිය වැඩිවී ඇත.සේවක අර්ථ සාධක අරමුදල් සහ බැංකු සහ රාජ්‍ය ආයතන අර්බුදයට පත් විය. එම බිඳවැටීම කිසිසේත්ම නැවත  ක්ෂණයකින් හරි ගස්සා ගත නොහැකිය.එම නිසා මෙය වංචාවකට එහා යන ආර්ථික ඝාතනයක් ලෙසට අර්ථ දැක්විය හැකිය.

       මට පෙනෙනා ආකාරයට බැඳුම්කර කොමිෂම මගින් මෙම වංචාවේ බරපතල කම වසා සැබෑ චූදිතයන් නිදහස කර හැරීමක් කර තිබෙන බවයි. අද අගමැතිවරයා මාධ්‍ය ඉදිරියේ බබා රැඟුම් පාන්නේ මේ නිසාය.2016 න් පසු මෙම වංචාවට අදාළව පැවති කෝප් කමිටුවේ සභාපති වරයා වූ සුනිල් හඳුන්නෙත්ති මහතා ද මෙහි වරද එනම් අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්‍රන් පත් කිරීමේ වරද ජනපතිවරයාට පටවා තොත්ත බබෙකු වන්නට තැත් කරයි. ඔහු සභාපතිත්වය දැරූ කෝප් කමිටුව මගින් නිවරදිව මෙම කරුණ වාර්තා කලේ නම් කොමිෂමට කලින් චූදිතයන් හෙළි දරව් වනවා නිසැකය. නමුත් එලෙස නියම චූදිතයන් හෙළිවන්නට ඉඩ තිබුණු ඩිව් ගුණසේකර වාර්තාව එළියට යා නොදී ජනපතිවරයා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසිරුවා හැරියේය. එය කරන ලද්දේ බටහිර රටක උපදෙස් පිටයයි කතාවක් දැනට ප්‍රචාරය වී තිබේ.

    කෙසේ වෙතත් මෙම වංචාව හුදෙක් මුදල් හම්බ කර ගැනීමකට වඩා රටේ ආර්ථිකය බිඳ වැට්වීමකට කරන ලද කුමන්ත්‍රණයක් ලෙසට දැක්විය හැකිය.වංචාවෙන් හම්බ කරගත් මුදල් එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ සුභ සිද්දිය සඳහා යෙදීම කලා දැයි පැහැදිලි නැති නමුත් 2015 ජනවාර් 08 න් පසු  මහින්ද රැල්ල  පැරදවීමට පෙළ ගැසුණු බලවේගය දිරිමත් කරලීමට මෙම මුදල් අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම යොදවා ගන්නට ඇත.ඒ නිසාම අගමැතිවරයා චූදිතයෙකු නොකර මෙම ප්‍රශ්නය ගොඩින් බේරා ගැනීමට ජනපතිවරයා උත්සාහ ගන්නට ඇත. දැන් අප සලකා බැලිය යුත්තේ මෙවැනි සිද්දියකින් පසුව වුවද අගමැතිවරයා බේරා ගෙන ජනපතිවරයා නිර්භයව චන්දය ට ඉදිරිපත් වන්නේ කුමන පදනමකින්ද යන්නයි.

           මෙම යහපාලන රජය බලයට පත් කිරීම හුදෙක් මහින්ද රජය පරදවා එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය බලයට පත් කිරීමේ අරගලයක් නොවේ. මහින්ද රජයේ තිබූ වැරදි උළුප්පා ලමින් මහජනතාවගෙන් ලක්ෂ හයක පමණ කොටසක් හරවා ගනිමින් ජනාධිපතිවරණයෙන් ජයගත් සිරිසේන මහතා මේ ජයග්‍රහණය සඳහා උපයෝගී කරගත් ඩමියක් බව අද ඔප්පු කර ඇත. ඔහුට තනි තීරණ ගෙන කරන්නට කිසිවක් නැත.යහපාලන රජයේ වැරදි ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ විවේචන කරමින් දේශපාලන වේදිකාවල බෙරිහන් දෙන නමුත් කොහොල්ලෑ බබෙකු මෙන් යහපාලන රජය ආරක්ෂා කරමින් එහිම ඇලී සිටී. ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය ඉදිරියට දමා මැතිවරණය ට තරඟ වැදුණද තරඟය අවසානයේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය සමග නැවත සංධානයට යෑමේ ඉඩකට බොහෝ තිබේ. මෙයට හේතුව කුමක්ද.

      මෙරට තිස් වසරක් පැවති යුද්ධය නිමා කොට රටට සාමය උදා කරන ලද්දේ පැවති රජයයි.එයින් පසු රටේ ඒකීයත්වය පිලිබඳව බෙදුම්වාදීන් ප්‍රශ්ණ කලේ නැත.නමුත් ප්‍රභාකරන් ගේ දඩයම් වපසරිය තුළින් රට තම ආධිපත්‍යයට ගැනීමට මාන බලමින් සිටි ඇමරිකාව සහ ඉන්දියාව ඇතුළු රටවලට මෙම පියවර ඉතා තදින් රිදුණු කරුණක් විය. යුද්ධය පැවති කාල වකවානුවේදී ඉන්දියාවට මහින්ද විසින් දුන් පොරොන්දු කෙසේ වෙතත් ඒවා ඉටු වුණු බවක් පෙනෙන්නට නැත. නමුත් ත්‍රස්තවාදය අවසන් කිරීම වෙනුවෙන් සමස්ත රජයත් ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදාවත් කල කැපවීම කිසිවෙකුටත් අවතක්සේරු කල නොහැකිය. එවැනි වීරෝධාර පුද්ගලයන්ට මුක්තිය ලබා දුන් ආකාරය පනාකඩුව තඹසන්නස විමර්ශනය කරන්නෙකුට වටහා ගත හැකිය. නමුත් යහපාලන රජය පත් වූ පසු ජිනීවාවල දී ඇති කරගත් එකඟතාවය මත යුද්ධයේදී සක්‍රීය දායකත්වය දැක්වූ හමුදා සොල්දාදුවන්  හට හිරිහැර කොට සිපිරි ගෙට දමා ඇත.සාලාව අවි ගබඩාව පුපුරුව හරින ලද්දේ විදෙස් රටවල උපදෙස් මතය. අනතුරුව භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලා සිරගත කොට බුද්ධ ශාසනයට කළ අවමානයන් නිමක් නැත. මේ කෙණෙහිලිකම් කිසිවෙකුටත් අමතක කළ නොහැකිය. ජිනීවා යෝජනා වලට එකඟවූවා සේම යුද අපරාධ සෙවීමට අතුරුදහන් වූවන් ගැන සෙවීමට කාර්යාල පණත් සම්මත කරගත්තේ රජය පාලනය කරන ලබන්නේ විදෙස් පාලකයන්  ගේ කීම අනුව බව සනාථ කරමිනි. 40000 ක් යුද්ධයේ දී මැරුණු බවට කේලාම් කීවේ කවුරුදැයි විකිලිස් වෙබ් අඩවිය පරීක්ෂා කරලීමෙන් දත හැකිය.දැන් ඔහු බබා රැඟුම්පායි. 2015 රජය පත් වූ අලුතම ව්‍යවස්ථා සම්පාදක මණ්ඩලයක් පත් කොට රට බෙදීම නොහොත් ෆෙඩරල් පාලනයක් ස්ථාපිත කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය ව්‍යවස්ථා යොජනාවලියක් සකස් විය. ඒ පිළිබඳ අතුරු වාර්තාවක්ද පාර්ලිමේන්තු ගත කර ඇත.

       වර්තමාන මැතිවරණ ක්‍රියාවලිය පිළිබඳ ගැසට් නිවේදනය නිකුත් වන විට මෙම අතුරු ව්‍යවස්ථා යොජනාවලිය මදකට පසෙකට කරමින් රජය නිහඬ වූයේ මහාවිහාරය සහ සමස්ත භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලාගේ ද විරෝධය එයට එල්ල වීම නිසාවෙනි. නමුත් මෙම මැතිවරණය අවසන් වූ පසු මාර්තු මස එළඹෙන ජිනීවා සමුළුවට සමගාමීව නැවතත් මෙම ව්‍යවස්ථා වෙනස් කිරීම සිදු කිරීම ඔවුන් ගේ බලාපොරොත්තුවයි. පසුගිය තෛයිපොංගල් උත්සව දිනයේ දී එබැව් අගමැති වරයා ප්‍රකාශ කොට තිබේ.එම නිසා මෙම මැතිවරණය පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයකටත් වඩා ජනමත විචාරණයක් බවට පත් වෙමින් ඇත.බැඳුම්කර මගඩිය පිළිබඳ බොහෝ දේ කරළියට පැමිණෙන විට නාට්‍යමය රංගනයකට දායක වීමට රජයට සිදු ඇත්තේ මේ නිසයි. කෙසේ හෝ රජය ආරක්ෂා කර නොගතහොත්  ව්‍යවස්ථා යෝජනාවලිය සම්මත කර ගැනීමට නොලැබෙන බව සිරිසේන මහතාත් රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාත් දනී. තමුන් පැරදීමට වඩා විදෙස් හාම්පුතුන් ගේ නියෝග පිළිපැදීමට තිබෙන කැමැත්ත ඉන් ප්‍රකාශ වේ. සතාසිවම් නඩුවට පෙනී සිටි කොල්වින් ආර්. ද සිල්වා මහතා 1951 දී දෙහිවල මැතිවරණයෙන් ජනතාව විසින් පරාජයට පත් කරන ලද්දේ යම් සේද මේ යහපාලන රජය පරාජයට පත් කිරීම අත්‍යවශ්‍ය වේ.මුස්ලිම් සහ දෙමළ පක්ෂ සිය බලකොටු වලදී උපරිම ලෙසට මෙවර ලකුණ රැස් කිරීමේ යෙදෙන හෙයින් මැතිවරණයෙන් පසු රජයට එකතු වීමට හෝ සිය බලය ප්‍රදර්ශනය කරමින් අන්තවාදී ඉල්ලීම දිනා ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කරනු නිසැකය. මැතිවරණයට කලින් අගමැතිට බලපෑම් කරමින් කැබිනට් තීරණයක් මගින් අඹගමුව ප්‍රා දෙශීය සභාව තුනකට කඩා ගත්තේ එලෙසය. මේ භයානක තීරණාත්මක සමය තුළ සිහිබුද්ධියෙන් කටයුතු නොකළහොත් සිංහල ජාතිය සතු ශක්තිය විනාශ කිරීමේ කුමන්ත්‍රණ තව දුරටත් සිදු වනු නිසැකය.

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්