By Neville Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island

A statement issued by the Foreign Ministry reported in The Island of Oct 27, 2017 states: “What this means is that the new government of Sri Lanka pledged to reassert lost sovereignty by taking ownership of processes that were in the international domain by bringing them to the local domain, and that the government of Sri Lanka as a Sovereign state that is responsible for all its citizens, and responsible to uphold the rule of law, democracy, and justice, would take responsibility for credible investigations locally …. As promised to the people by the 100-Day Programme (point 93), the National Unity Government proceeded to present its own set of national proposals for a transitional justice process … engaging in arguments and debates in the international domain over the number of civilians who may have died at a particular time in the country, will not help resolve any issues in a meaningful manner…”

Notwithstanding the above statement by the Foreign Ministry, the Sri Lankan delegation to Geneva has “recently reaffirmed the Govt.’s commitment to implementing the UNHRC Resolution 30/1 (Oct. 2015) which calls for the setting up of a War Crimes Tribunal with the participation of foreign judges, defense lawyers, prosecutors and investigators …” (The Island editorial November 17, 2017).

In view of these vastly contradictory statements coming from the Foreign Ministry, the country is at a loss to understand the true commitment of the government; is it for a “credible investigation locally”, or is it “for setting up of a War Crimes Tribunal with the participation of foreign judges etc.”? In this regard it is pertinent to recall that the Prime Minister has already warned that any process that involves the “participation” of foreign judges etc. would amount to a constitutional amendment which will have to be ratified by Parliament with a 2/3 majority and approved by people at a referendum. This means that the commitment given in Geneva by the Sri Lankan delegation cannot be met since the government would not resort to any measures to change the constitution merely in order to accommodate provisions in the 30/1 UNHRC resolution.

Whether Geneva would view the undertaking given by Sri Lanka, notwithstanding the associated constitutional constraints, as an attempt to trivialize the whole issue is not evident at this time. However, the comment by the UN High Commissioner that if matters are not addressed with the seriousness it deserves, the UNHRC would be compelled to explore measures such as universal jurisdiction should be treated as an indication of future possibilities. This means that consequences for inconsistency and commitment to undertakings that the government has no intention of fulfilling could result in dire consequences.

RELEVANCE of NUMBERS

Ever since the claim of 40,000 civilian deaths was in the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts or Darusman report, successive governments and committed individuals have gone to great lengths to refute that number. The latest to do so is Lord Naseby of the UK. His statement to the House of Lords reflects the sheer injustice that Sri Lanka has had to face because of unsubstantiated and baseless numbers concocted to satisfy politically driven agendas, and also his untiring compulsion to find the truth as to what really happened.

It is the combination of these two factors that has driven Lord Naseby to go to the lengths that he has done. During his address to the House of Lords, he stated:

“I have discovered an unpublished report from the United Nations country team, which stated that from August 2008 up to May 2009, the number of civilians killed was 7,721. The war ended six days later, so it cannot possibly have got up to 40,000. Then I looked at what Gordon Weiss, the former UN spokesman said. He produced an estimate in 2009 of 7,000 civilian deaths. He also made the simple observation that, for the Sri Lankan army, it made no tactical sense to kill civilians. University Teachers for Human Rights…commented that from what happened it could not say that the purpose of bombing or shelling by government forces was to kill civilians. It also said that ground troops took great trouble not to harm civilians… US Ambassador Blake stated on 7 April that there were deaths of 4,164 from January to 6 April. Major General Holmes in his expert military report of March 2015 concurs with 7,000 to 8,000. Above all, all the people I have cited stated that there was no policy to kill civilians – in fact the opposite…”.

Attempts by Lord Naseby to gain access to the dispatches of the British Defence Attaché, Lieutenant Colonel Anton Gash from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, failed. Appeals to higher authorities at the Foreign Office were rejected. Following these failures appeals to the Information Commissioner resulted in yielding a total of 39 highly redacted dispatches.

One of the revelations in these dispatches is that “It is not possible to distinguish from LTTE cadres as few are in uniform”. Similar admissions are there in the OISL report of the Office of the UN High Commission as well as in the Darusman report. Consequently, all reports admit that it is not possible to establish the number of civilian deaths. Since the context in which such an evaluation should be made is international humanitarian law as admitted in the reports of Darusman and OISL and more recently by Lord Naseby, under what grounds could it be established that breaches of humanitarian law amounting to war crimes or crimes against humanity were committed during the armed conflict that ended in May 2009? Furthermore, considering the difficulties encountered by Lord Naseby during his efforts to get at the truth, one could be certain that the UK government would not share information that would help to establish the truth as to what really happened.

NATIONAL INDEPENDENT JUDICIAL MECHANISM

Since Sri Lanka is not in a position to “to establish a judicial mechanism” in keeping with the provisions of UNHRC Resolution 30/1 due to constitutional constraints, the only option for Sri Lanka is to establish a “national independent judicial mechanism” within the context of international humanitarian law. Even if such an exercise is undertaken with all the seriousness and commitment that Sri Lanka could muster, the work of such a mechanism would be seriously handicapped and severely limited in scope, because most of the “evidence” would not be made available officially to a national judicial mechanism; a fact that was starkly evident from Lord Naseby’s experience to gather evidence together with the evidence that is currently held by the UN and its agencies.

Under such circumstances, how credible would be the outcome of a national judicial mechanism? And if it is not credible, what material purpose would it serve considering that charges of any alleged violations of humanitarian law would be based on partial evidence without the opportunity to challenge its authenticity? Consequently, the majority of the inquiries by a national judicial mechanism would clearly be inconclusive. Therefore, no material purpose would be served by any judicial mechanisms that are forced to function outside norms of natural justice, other than to retain the label of “alleged violations” indefinitely. Therefore, the government has to revisit the commitment made by the President in his 100 Day Programme for a national inquiry, and whether it would lead to any positive outcomes – and, if it does not, what next?

TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE PROCESSES

Perhaps the government realizes the intractable nature of the issues involved in respect of alleged violations of international humanitarian law. This realization has caused the government to shift its focus to issues relating to “transitional justice”. Consequently, the focus is on transitional justice mechanisms such as establishing an Office of Missing Persons, Truth Seeking Commissions, Reparations, etc. etc.

Commenting on the current situation the Secretary General of the Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms, Mr. Mano Tittawala stated: “Having now studied other transitional justice experiences in post-conflict settings, we know how complex and difficult such processes are, and we are aware that no country has operationalized four mechanisms in a two-year time frame. Perhaps our original time-frames were too ambitious but our objectives, and our commitment, remain unchanged, and our determination is strong and firm because we fully realize the importance of these processes for sustainable peace and reconciliation…” (Nation, November 26, 2017).

Despite these well intentioned approaches, these mechanisms are bound to experience similar obstacles and challenges as they would with regard to “national mechanisms” relating to alleged violations. For instance, take the case of the Office of Missing Persons. Everyone is aware of the hundreds of thousands of so-called “missing persons” who are currently living in foreign countries under altered identities. These countries have refused to share information regarding such persons living in their countries for reasons of their personal security. Consequently, it would be extremely difficult to establish whether such persons are actually “missing”, or are living under assumed names, but they would continue to be considered “missing” as far as the family and relatives are concerned. These imponderables are bound to affect reparations.

However committed the efforts of the government may be, the hard question that needs to be answered is whether the twin tracks pursued by government such as a national mechanism to address alleged violations of humanitarian law, and transitional justice mechanisms to foster reconciliation by this route would address the national question. The answer would be a resounding “No”. And if it does not address the national question, does it make sense to continue on a trajectory that is far removed from what the government set out to deliver – an answer to the first cause, namely, the National Question?

Whether one believes that such a question exists or not is not the issue, the fact is that such a question does exist as far as the Tamil community is concerned, and cannot be wished away.

THE NATIONAL QUESTION

The government is committed to undertake constitutional reforms of a form and nature that would address the national question. For the Tamil community this means maximum devolution. To the rest of the country this spells separation and division of their beloved country. The question of reconciling these competing demands is compounded by the structure at the center, because center-periphery relations are dependent on whether the system at the center is presidential or parliamentary. However, the structure at the center is not an abstract issue. It is directly and intrinsically linked with the personal ambitions of politicians in respect of their political survival as to which system at the center would serve their interests best. Consequently, the national question gets wrapped up in a web of complexities where devolution is not seen from a conceptual perspective of sharing power, but one aimed at surviving within the larger perspective of personal and national politics. This is the context in which the national question needs to be addressed.

The SLFP whose head is President Sirisena, has informed the Steering Committee for constitutional reform that it wishes to retain the presidential system in addition to several other key features of a unitary state. The principle feature of the presidential system is separation of power. This means that the President is responsible for all executive actions. It also means that the Governor would be the Agent of the President responsible for executive action as provided currently under the 13th Amendment. This would not amount to the “maximum devolution” called for by its proponents. Instead, what is expected by maximum devolution is for executive and legislative functions to be devolved to the provinces. This is one aspect of what is proposed for center-periphery relations. There is considerable opposition to maximum devolution as well as to other related proposals. Overall, the prospect of going beyond the 13th Amendment is very remote. If maximum devolution will not be possible , what other prospects are there for resolving the national question?

If the 13th Amendment is the outermost limit of what is possible, and if territorially based devolution to the degree aspired to by the Tamil community is not acceptable as the only means of sharing power, what other alternatives are available? There are proposals for a Second Chamber to enable regional representation at the center. However, this would amount to sharing only legislative power at the center. Why is it not possible to consider a constitutionally provided arrangement for legislative and executive power to be shared at the center among the three major communities in the ratio of their representation in parliament? Such proposals were incorporated in Chapter III of “Sri Lanka’s National Question” , by Ladduwahetty, N., 2010 (ISBN 978-955-665-106-5). A similar proposal was made recently by Dr. Nihal Jayawickrama in an article titled “Constitutional Reform” (The Island, November 20, 2017).

CENTRAL POWER SHARING

Considering the growing resistance to halt the constitutional reform process currently underway, there is a strong possibility that any reforms would not see the light of day because they would be either defeated in parliament, or defeated at a referendum by the people. While either outcome would be a serious disappointment to proponents of maximum devolution, the stark fact that is emerging is a resistance to the concept of territorially based devolution beyond the 13th Amendment . What has to be considered, therefore , is whether there are OTHER means of power sharing.

The lesson Sri Lanka would be compelled to learn following the likely disappointment with its attempt at maximum devolution, is that attention needs to be paid to other forms of sharing power. One such form is the sharing of legislative and executive power among the three major communities, both in parliament and in the cabinet. By way of suggestion, the existing Sectoral Committees of parliament should be expanded in scope to be responsible not only for legislation relating to their spheres of influence, but also responsible for monitoring executive action relating to these same spheres. The composition of such committees should be on the ratio of government in power to opposition in parliament, with the chairperson and the deputy of such committees being assigned to opposition members of the three communities in ratio to their representation in parliament. Furthermore, their status should be elevated to that of Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers in respect of perks and privileges. The cabinet should be structured on a similar basis. The sharing of legislative and executive power among the three major communities is an arrangement that has thus far not been explored. The inclusiveness of such an arrangement would foster far greater cohesion among communities than the approaches currently being pursued.

This aspect of unifying culturally divergent communities through structural arrangements was highlighted by Robert Dahl, Sterling Professor of Political Science Emeritus at Yale University, in his statement: “… countries such as Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands are stable because each created political arrangements that required unanimity or broad consensus for decisions made by the cabinet and the parliament. The principle of majority rule yielded (in varying degrees) to a principle of unanimity. Thus any government decision that would significantly affect the interests of one or more of the subcultures would be made only with the explicit agreement of the representatives of that group in the cabinet and parliament”.

The twin approaches currently pursued by the government, of a national mechanism to address alleged violations of humanitarian law and transitional justice to promote reconciliation would leave the all important national question unattended. The hopes of those addressing the national question through maximum devolution are likely to fail because of the current mood in country. Since this mood is not likely to change, Sri Lanka would be compelled to explore alternative approaches to power sharing instead of stubbornly pursuing devolution beyond the existing 13th Amendment.

Such an alternative should be central power sharing where legislative and executive powers of the people are shared constitutionally by the three major communities, in proportion to their representation in parliament. Since it is through structural arrangements at the center that foster inclusion that culturally divergent societies could hope to overcome the phobia of majority rule, Sri Lanka should give serious consideration to such alternative approaches. Therefore, instead of waiting until the current approaches fail, a committed member of parliament should initiate a motion in Parliament, recommending the appointment of a multi-party parliamentary group to explore structural arrangements at the center as the solution to Sri Lanka’s national question.

Concluded

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Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, Dehiwela

Needless to say politics is a dirty game and it is said no one get to  be otherwise in today’s political world – specially in Srilanka. Every time we think it cannot get any worse, it seems to be  getting worse and worse. Yahapalanaya was brought in to clean the existing dirty politics of that time, but it has not only not cleaned up anything, and  if at all,  it had made it even worse by absorbing all the dirt into it’s own self with a false semblance of superficial cleanliness but corrupt through and through exactly or even worse,  as the earlier  regime. How sad!

Even honest, god fearing, good intentioned youngsters wanting to get into the field and clean it up are often demotivated by the advice given, even by seasoned politicians, If you want to get corrupted, get into politics.”

But is it true? Is there no way politics can be a meritorious service to people? It can be. If there is a will there is always a way. It is time the intellectuals and social leaders and the disgusted youngsters  thought of this seriously and started acting on it to change the situation.

The basis of corruption in our country  is of course the party politics. Both the leaders and the common men of  our country are steeped in  party loyalties which is the absolute anti thesis of true democracy. If only our president who was expected to set a trend towards clean politics,  did not take the two legs in two boats attitude because of his party affiliation, the history of his presidency would have been written in glorious golden letters. It is not to be. He had broken every single promise he made to his trusting citizens, thanks to his party loyalty.  What a pity! Especially since he is not hoping to contest again he could have done what he was elected for  and performed miracles.

This has to change. It must. If not we are all doomed towards  a failed state forever and more so, we will leave a chaotic, immoral, through and through corrupt political culture  to our future generation who, for want of a better world, will follow suit.

How do we do it? Train and educate a substantial number of youngsters to become honest, sincere  leaders with a proper goal of building a morally sound society. Let us set our hearts on  training  them to be social minded, self sacrificing, well behaved leaders  with excellent  mannerism and impeccable character.   Let us train them to become perfect  country leaders, if not within the next few years, at least in the fore seeable future.

If we, the country men and women do not do it, no one is going to do it. After all Allah Himself says in the quran Surely Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change their own condition;” Sura 13:verse 11

Let the ”honest politician” not be an oxymoron any more.

Sent by:

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, Dehiwela

By Nalaka Godahewa

As you know , Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948. That was 69 years ago.

Since independence except for two years;1954 and 1955,  Sri Lanka  has always had a budget deficit. These deficits were mostly bridged through local and foreign borrowings.

When Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa became the 5th executive president of the country in 2005,  the total national debt stood at Rs  2,222 billion

But when he left the presidency after 9 years the national debt had grown to  Rs 7,391

Rs 5,169 billion had been added to the national debt within those 9 years.  That is an average of Rs 575 Bn per year.

Where did that money go ?  To understand this let us look at the accomplishments of the government during this period.

The 30 year long internal conflict ended in 2009 with the complete elimination of LTTE

A large number of development projects were completed while many others were already in progress.

Colombo city was rated the fasted growing city in Asia at a survey conducted by Master Card

Colombo Stock market was rated the most sustainable stock market in Asia by  Capital Finance International of UK.

The Sri Lankan Economy had grown 4 times from  USD 20 Bn to USD 80 Bn

The unemployment had reduced from 8.3% to 4.3%

Poverty had reduced from 15% to 8%

The total National Debt as a percentage of Economy had reduced from 102.3% to 70.3%

The inflation had reduced from 9 % to 3.3%

The house hold electricity availability had increased from 73% to 98%
Availability of clean drinking water had increased from 72% to 90%

Budget deficit had narrowed from 7.5% to 5.7%

The economy was growing as an average of 7% for three consecutive years.

But then the government changed in January 2015 . A new set of rulers assumed duties.

Almost 3 years later where do we stand now?

The National debt had been rising at an alarming rate.

By June 2017 the National Debt stood at 10,163 Billion.

That is a 37.5% increase in 2 ½ years.

Debts amounting to Rs 2,772 billion has been added in just 2 ½ years.

It is like increasing the national debt by Rs 3 billion every day

The previous government had borrowed Rs 5,169 billion over 9 years

The current government has borrowed 54% of that in just 2 ½ years.

Today the per capita debt burden of a citizen stands at  Rs 462,000

Rs 126,000 of this per capita debt has been added by the current government over  2 ½ years.

Previous administrations borrowed money and built national assets for the future generations

Habours, Airports, Roads, Highways, Irrigation projects, Power plants,

What has this government done with all the money that they borrowed?

Think for your self…… where have we gone wrong ?  How are we going to rectify the situation.

By Nalaka Godahewa

ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය මහජන උවමනාව සහ දේශපාලන උවමනාව පටලවා ගෙන ද?

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යන ලිපිය කියවන්නට ලැබුණි. කාලයකට පසු කියවන්නට ලැබුණ හර්යාත්මක වටිනාකමක් ඇති ලිපියක් බව පළමුව ඔබගේ අවධානයට යොමු කරමි.

ඔබ විසින් මෙයට පෙර ලියන ලද Attorney General in the dock  ලිපියේ සැළකීමේදී මෙම ලිපිය සුවිශේෂී වෙයි. 

ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 132* ව්‍යවස්ථාව ඔබ ගේ පාඨයට නිමිත්ත ය. එමෙන්ම 106 ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ ඇති නඩු කටයුතු ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ පැවැත්වීමට නියම කර තිබීමත් එලෙසම වැදගත් වේ.

*[132. (1) අග්‍රවිනිශ්චයකාරවරයා අන්‍යාකාර විධාන කළහොත් මිස, ශ්‍රේෂ්ධිකරණයේ වෙන් වෙන් අධිකරණ බලය සාමාන්‍යයෙන් කොළඹ දී ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ යුත්තේ ය.

(2) ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ අධිකරණ බලය, වෙන් වෙන්ව නඩු විභාග කරන ඒ අධිකරණයේ විනිශ්චයකාරවරයන් කිහිපදෙනකු විසින් එකම අවස්ථාවේ දී විවිධ කාරණා සම්බන්ධයෙන් ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ හැක්කේ ය :

එසේ වුව ද, සියලූ අවස්ථාවල දී එහි අධිකරණ බලය ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්යෙඅස්ථාවේ විධිවිධානවලට යටත්ව, ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ විනිශ්චයකාරවරයන් තිදෙනකුට නොඅඩු සංඛ්‍යාවක් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය වශයෙන් එක් රැස්ව සාමාන්‍යයෙන් ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ යුත්තේ ය.

(3) අග්‍රවිනිශ්චයකාරවරයා විසින් –

(i) සිය මෙහෙයවීමෙන් ම : හෝ

(ii) යම් කාරණයක් විභාග කරන විනිශ්චයකාරවරයන් දෙදෙනකු හෝ වැඩි සංඛ්‍යාවක් විසින් ඉල්ලා සිටිනු ලැබූ විට : හෝ

(iii) යම් අභියාචනයක්, නඩු කටයුත්තක් හෝ කාරණයක් හා සම්බන්ධ ප්‍රශ්නය අග්‍රවිනිශ්චයකාරවරයාගේ මතය අනුව ජනතාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් වැදගත් වන හා පොදු වැදගත්කමක් ඇති ප්‍රශ්නයක් වේ නම්, ඒ අභියාචනයේ, නඩු කටයුත්තේ හෝ කාරණයේ පාර්ශ්වකරුවකුගේ ඉල්ලීම පිට : හෝ

ඒ අභියාචනය, නඩු කටයුත්ත හෝ කාරණය ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ විනිශ්චයකාරවරයන් පස් දෙනකුගෙන් හෝ ඊට වැඩි සංඛ්‍යාවකගෙන් සමන්විත විනිශ්චය පීඨයක් විසින් විභාග කළ යුතු යයි විධාන කළ හැක්කේ ය.

(4) ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ නඩු තීන්දුව ඒකමතික තීරණයක් නොවන විට, ඒ තීන්දුව බහුතර සංඛ්‍යාවේ තීරණය විය යුත්තේ ය.]

ඔබගේ ලිපියේ දක්වා ඇති කරැණු සමාජයට ඉතා වැදගත්වනු ඇතැයි සිතමි. නීතීඥවරැන් අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම එම ලිපිය කියවිය යුතුය. මන්ද “ජනතාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් වැදගත් වන හා පොදු වැදගත්කමක් ඇති ප්‍රශ්නයක්”  ජනාධිපතිගේ අතින් පත්වීම ලබන අග්‍රවිනිශ්චයකාරවරයා ගේ පමණක් මතය නොවිය යුතුය. ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 134.3 ව්‍යවස්ථාව අනුව ලංකාවේ ඕනෑම තැනැත්තෙකුට ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ නඩුවකට මැදිහත් වීමේ අවස්ථාව සළසා දී ඇත.

134. (3) ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේවිසින් මේ පරිච්ඡේදය යටතේ ස්වකීය අධිකරණ බලය ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමේ දී වෙනත් යම් තැනැත්තකුට හෝ වෙනත් යම් තැනැත්තකුගේ නීත්‍යනුකූල නියෝජිතයාට හෝ අවශ්‍ය යයි අධිකරණයට පෙනී යා හැකි පරිදි කරුණු කියා සිටීමට ස්වකීය අභිමතය පරිදි ඉඩ සැලසිය හැක්කේ ය. 

ඒ අනුව ඉහත දක්වා ඇති ඔබ ඇතුළු ලංකාවේ ඕනෑම තැනැත්තෙකුට  ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ පවතින නඩුවකට මැදිහත් වී කරැණු දැක්විය හැකිය. ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 24.2 ව්‍යවස්ථාව අනුව එහිදී භාෂාව ගැටළුවක් නොවේ..

(2) යම්කිසි පාර්ශ්වයක් හෝ අයදුම්කරුවකු විසින් නැතහොත් ඒ පාර්ශ්වය හෝ අයදුම්කරු නියෝජනය කිරීමට නීතියෙන් බලය ලබා ඇති යම්කිසි තැනැත්තකු විසින්, නඩු කටයුතු ආරම්භ කිරීම ද, උත්තරවාද සහ වෙනත් ලේඛන අධිකරණයට ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම ද, අධිකරණ කටයුතුවලට සහභාගි වීම ද, සිංහල භාෂාවෙන් හෝ දෙමළ භාෂාවෙන් හෝ කරනු ලැබිය හැක්කේ ය. 

“පහුගිය වසර 30 තුල ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ විනිසුරුවන් ගේ වෘතීමය ගමන් මග විමසුවහොත් අපට පෙනෙන්නේ දේශපාලන සබඳතා බොහෝ දෙනාගේ ඉදිරි ගමන් වලට පිටුවහලක් වුන බවයි”….යන ඔබගේම අදහසෙන් මෙම කෙටි අදහස් දැක්වීම අවසන් කරමි.

වර්තමානයේ ස්වාධින කොමිෂන් සභා ඇති හෙයින් ඒවාට පත්වීමට ඇති කැමැත්තද මේ සමගම කියවිය යුතුය. 

ස්තුතියි….!

Courtesy https://roar.media

Many of us are well aware of Newton, Einstein, Curie and Hawking, and their contributions to science. But how much do we know about the eminent scientists that Sri Lanka has produced?

Most recently, a Sri Lankan scientist at Harvard University, Dr. Ranga Dias, and his colleague, Dr. Isaac Silvera, made headlines when they created metallic hydrogen, in what has been called a ‘breakthrough in physics’. A year ago, another Sri Lankan, Dr. Nipuni Palliyaguru, was part of the team that succeeded in detecting gravitational waves, confirming renowned physicist Albert Einstein’s century-old theory of General Relativity.

Sri Lankans have, in fact, been making contributions to science for many, many years. Here, we take a look at some of the more well-renowned Sri Lankan intellectuals who have made their mark on the world of science, and made this country proud.

Prof. Nalin Chandra Wickramasinghe

Born on January 20, 1939, Prof. Wickramasinghe is a Sri Lankan born British mathematician, astronomer, and astrobiologist, famous for his assertion that Life did not start here on Earth but in space” through his renowned theory of panspermia.

Prof. Wickramasinghe is an alumnus of Royal College Colombo, as well as the University of Ceylon, where he obtained his BSc first class honours in Mathematics, Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained his PhD, and Jesus College, Cambridge, where he obtained his ScD degree. For his PhD, he published his first scientific paper, On Graphite Particles as Interstellar Grains”, under the supervision of the late Sir Fred Hoyle.

In 1974, Prof. Wickramasinghe proposed the hypothesis that some dust in interstellar space is largely organic. The Hoyle-Wickramasinghe model of Panspermia, the belief that life on Earth is, at least in part, of extraterrestrial (outer earth and its atmosphere) origin, is one of his greatest achievements. Red rain in Kerala and meteorites fallen at Polonnaruwa were used as evidence to prove their model. His research interests include the interstellar medium, infrared astronomy, the light scattering theory, applications of solid-state physics to astronomy, the early solar system, comets, astrochemistry, the origin of life, and astrobiology. Prof. Wickramasinghe has written more than 30 books about astrophysics and related topics, and he has made appearances on radio, television, and film. He also writes online blogs and articles. He has been awarded six honours and awards including the Vidya Jyothiand the  Commonwealth Scholar. Check out his website here.

Dr. Cyril Andrew Ponnamperuma

Dr. Ponnamperuma is an eminent theoretician who worked in the fields of chemical evolution and the origin of life. Born on October 16, 1923, he completed his school education from St. Aloysius College,  Galle, and St. Joseph’s College, Colombo, and obtained his BA in Philosophy from University of Madras. After moving to the United Kingdom, he completed his BSc in Chemistry from the Birkbeck University of London. Meanwhile, he received the chance to research with a pioneering scientist, Prof. Bernal, on the origin of life. After obtaining his doctorate in Chemistry from University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Ponnamperuma was honoured with a National Academy of Science resident associateship with NASA at Ames Research Center.

In 1963, he joined NASA’s Exobiology Division and took over the helm of the Chemical Evolution Division. He was selected as the principal investigator for analysis of lunar soil brought to earth by Project Apollo. He was also closely involved with NASA in the Viking and Voyager programmes, and was offered memberships in both the Space Science Advisory Council and the Life Sciences Advisory Council of NASA.

Most notable among all his outstanding achievements and honours, is perhaps the Alexander Oparin Gold Medal for the ‘Best Sustained Programme’ on the origin of life awarded by the International Society for the study of the origin of life in 1980. He was awarded the Vidya Jyothi by the late President R. Premadasa in 1990, and he worked as the science adviser to the late President J.R. Jayawardena. After his excellent service of many years, Dr. Ponnamperuma died after suffering a heart attack at the Laboratory of Chemical Evolution in University of Maryland, USA, on December 20, 1994.

Dr. Sarath D. Gunapala

Dr. Gunapala is a research scientist who is highly recognised for his work in photonics based on infrared light. Originally from Yatiyantota in Kegalle, he received his school education from Nalanda College, Colombo, obtained his BSc in Physics from the University of Colombo, and obtained his MSc and PhD in Physics from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Gunapala currently works as a solid-state physicist, senior research scientist, and group supervisor of the Infrared Photonics Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA.

His work mainly includes Quantum Well Infrared Photo Detecting and he has served as Director of the Center for Infrared Photodetectors at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 1992. He was also a member of the Technical Staff, AT&T Bell Laboratories, New Jersey, and a research associate of Bell Communication Research. Dr. Gunapala’s long list of awards and honours consists of the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal 2014, the Nalanda Keerthi Sri Award 2007, several NASA Space Act Awards and the NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal.

Dr. Paules Edward Pieris Deraniyagala

Born in 1900 in Colombo, Dr. P. E. P. Deraniyagala was a zoologist, palaeontologist, and also an artist. He earned his BA and MA from the University of Cambridge, and obtained another MA from Harvard University in 1924. Dr. Deraniyagala specialised in fauna and human fossils of the Indian subcontinent. From 1939 to 1963 he was the Director of the National Museum of Ceylon, and from 1961 to 1964 he was the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the Vidyodaya University.

His fossil and species depictions included the prehistoric Balangoda Man, the extinct Sri Lankan lion, the extinct Sri Lankan gaur, the extinct Sri Lankan hippopotamus, and the extinct Sri Lankan rhinoceros. He also published a new genus name for Chinese Alligator and described many new species of lizards and snakes for the field of herpetology. Before passing away at the age of 76, Dr. Deraniyagala served as the President of the Ceylon Branch for the Royal Asiatic Society from 1952-1955.

Prof. Chandima Gomes

Prof. Chandima Gomes is a globally recognised physicist for his contribution to lightning protection technology. Born on September 12, 1966, he is an alumnus of Royal College Colombo and the University of Colombo, where he obtained his first class honours degree in Physics. Soon after, Prof. Gomes lectured at the same university, and then started a joint PhD programme at Uppsala University, Sweden. There, he conducted research in fields such as lightning physics, high voltage engineering, and discharge physics under the supervision of Prof. Vernon Cooray. For 10 years he had been a senior academic and a researcher at the University of Colombo, and was involved in promoting lightning safety and protection in the South Asian region.

Prof. Gomes also held the positions of Chairman of the Young Scientists Forum of NASTEC, Chairman of the Committee on developing National Policy on Lightning Protection, and the Sri Lanka Telecommunication Regulatory Commission’s National Policy on Antenna Structures.

After shifting to Malaysia as a Professor of electrical engineering, where he contributed in establishing the Centre for Electromagnetic and Lightning Protection, he became the first head of that institute. He spread his work to the African region and established a centre which was dedicated to research, education, awareness, and training on lightning-related engineering and physics. One of his most remarkable achievements was explaining the lightning protection technology of ancient Sri Lankan Buddhist monuments (called ‘stupas’) after ten years of research. Dr. Gomes’s professions include chartered engineer and chartered physicist registered in the UK, and also an engineering consultant and trainer in lightning protection, grounding and bonding, electromagnetic interference and research methodology. He now lives in Malaysia.

Prof. Mohan Munasinghe

Last but not least, Prof. Munasinghe is the first Sri Lankan to win a Nobel Prize. He is a physicist, an academic, and an economist who was a Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He completed his school education from Royal College, Colombo, and obtained his BA honours in Engineering in 1967 and later his Masters degree from the University of Cambridge, UK.

Prof. Munasinghe also holds the SM and Professional EE degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, a PhD degree in Solid State Physics from McGill University, Canada, and an MA degree in Development Economics from Concordia University, Canada. Prof. Munasinghe is the author of over one hundred scholarly books, and about three hundred technical papers in well-known scientific journals on climate change, disasters, environment, sustainable development, energy, transport, urban infrastructure, water resources, telecommunications, and sustainable consumption and production.

He has helped in formulating and implementing the national energy strategy and computer policy in Sri Lanka as a senior adviser of Energy and Information Technology from 1982-1987, and he was the founding chairman of the Computer and Information Technology Council. From 1990 to 1992, Prof. Munasinghe was Advisor to the US President’s Council on Environmental Quality (PCEQ).

Until 2002, he was a Senior Manager/Advisor at the World Bank. Though this versatile individual’s achievements will fill many pages, some of his long-listed awards and honours are the Sarvodaya Award for Humanity, Peace and Development (2007), the Eminence in Engineering Award (2014), the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award (2003) and the Zayed International Prize for Environment (2006). Presently, he is the founding Chairman of the Munasinghe Institute for Development (MIND) Colombo, distinguished guest Professor at Peking University China, and Honorary Senior Advisor to the Government of Sri Lanka. Visit his website here.

Think we missed out on someone? Let us know in the comments below.

Featured image: Dr. Cyril Ponnamperuma. Image courtesy wikipedia.org

Chaminda Pradeep Dissanayaka

ආබාධිත පොලිස්‌ රණවිරුවන් ඊයේ විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව වටලයි

යුද්ධය හේතුවෙන් ආබාධ තත්ත්වයට පත්වූ ආබාධිත පොලිස්‌ රණවිරුවන්ට ලබාදුන් දුබලතා විශ්‍රාම වැටුප අහිමි කිරීම ඇතුළු ඉල්ලීම් කිහිපයක්‌ ලබානොදීම හේතුවෙන් ආබාධිත පොලිස්‌ රණවිරුවන් ඊයේ (29 දා) විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව වටලනු ලැබීය.

පෙරවරු 11.00 ට පමණ විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට පැමිණි 300 ක පමණ ආබාධිත පොලිස්‌ රණවිරුවන් පිරිස විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් කොමසාරිස්‌ ජනරාල් ජගත් ඩයස්‌ මහතා රැඳී සිටින කාමරය අසල බිම හිඳගෙන කප්පාදු කළ රණවිරු අයිතීන් නැවත ලබාදෙන තෙක්‌ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවෙන් පිට නොවන බව පවසමින් විරෝධතාවයක්‌ ආරම්භ කරනු ලැබීය.

මෙම විරෝධතාවය පස්‌වරු 4.00 පසුවන තෙක්‌ පැවැති අතර නීතිය හා සාමය පිළිබඳ අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම් ජගත් පී. විඡේවීර මහතා හමුවීමට ආබාධිත රණවිරුවන්ගේ සංගමයේ නියෝජිතයන් දෙදෙනකු සහභාගීවූවද රණවිරුවන් කොමසාරිස්‌ ජනරාල්වරයාගේ කාමරය අසල රැකවල්ලා සිටින බවත් ඔවුන් ඉවත්ව යනතෙක්‌ කාමරයෙන් පිටතට පැමිණ සාකච්ඡාවට නොයන බව කොමසාරිස්‌ ජනරාල්වරයා දැනුම්දී තිබුණි.

සිද්ධිය සමථයකට පත්කර ගැනීම සඳහා ප්‍රදේශය භාර උසස්‌ පොලිස්‌ නිලධාරීන් විශ්‍රාමික පොලිස්‌ රණවිරුවන් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ පහළ මාලයට කැඳවා කොමසාරිස්‌ ජනරාල්වරයා ඉවත්කර ගැනීමට කළ උත්සාහයක්‌ද ව්‍යර්ථ වී තිබිණි.

කෙසේ වෙතත් විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් දෙපාර්තමේන්තු ආරංචි මාර්ග කියා සිටියේ ආබාධිත පොලිස්‌ රණවිරුවන්ට හිමි ගෙවීම් සිදුකරන ලෙස චක්‍රලේඛ මගින් උපදෙස්‌ දී ඇතත් එහි අඩුපාඩු තිබෙන නිසා එහි වගකීම භාරගෙන කොමසාරිස්‌ ජනරාල් වරයාට ගෙවීම් සිදුකළ නොහැකි බවයි. මේ නිසා නීතිය හා සාමය පිළිබඳ අමාත්‍යාංශය සමඟ සාකච්ඡා කර විසඳුමක්‌ ලබාගතයුතු බව ඔවුන්ගේ මතය වී තිබුණි.

චමින්ද සිල්වා

ඡායාරූප – සමන් රණවීර

By Global Research News

This article was first published by Global Research in November 2014. Today Libya as a Nation State has been destroyed by US-NATO.

What do you think of when you hear the name Colonel Gaddafi? Tyrant? Dictator? Terrorist? Well, a national citizen of Libya may disagree but we want you to decide.

For 41 years until his demise in October 2011, Muammar Gaddafi did some truly amazing things for his country and repeatedly tried to unite and empower the whole of Africa.

So despite what you’ve heard on the radio, seen in the media or on the TV, Gaddafi did some powerful things that are not characteristic of a vicious dictator” as portrayed by the western media.

Here are ten things Gaddafi did for Libya that you may not know about…

1. In Libya a home is considered a natural human right

In Gaddafi’s Green Book it states: ”The house is a basic need of both the individual and the family, therefore it should not be owned by others”. Gaddafi’s Green Book is the formal leader’s political philosophy, it was first published in 1975 and was intended reading for all Libyans even being included in the national curriculum.

2. Education and medical treatment were all free

Under Gaddafi, Libya could boast one of the best healthcare services in the Middle East and Africa.  Also if a Libyan citizen could not access the desired educational course or correct medical treatment in Libya they were funded to go abroad.

3. Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project

The largest irrigation system in the world also known as the great manmade river was designed to make water readily available to all Libyan’s across the entire country. It was funded by the Gaddafi government and it said that Gaddafi himself called it ”the eighth wonder of the world”.

4. It was free to start a farming business

If any Libyan wanted to start a farm they were given a house, farm land and live stock and seeds all free of charge.

5. A bursary was given to mothers with newborn babies

When a Libyan woman gave birth she was given 5000 (US dollars) for herself and the child.

6. Electricity was free

Electricity was free in Libya meaning absolutely no electric bills!

7.  Cheap petrol

During Gaddafi’s reign the price of petrol in Libya was as low as 0.14 (US dollars) per litre.

8. Gaddafi raised the level of education

Before Gaddafi only 25% of Libyans were literate. This figure was brought up to 87% with 25% earning university degrees.

9. Libya had It’s own state bank

Libya had its own State bank, which provided loans to citizens at zero percent interest by law and they had no external debt.

10. The gold dinar

Before the fall of Tripoli and his untimely demise, Gaddafi was trying to introduce a single African currency linked to gold. Following in the foot steps of the late great pioneer Marcus Garvey who first coined the term ”United States of Africa”. Gaddafi wanted to introduce and only trade in the African gold Dinar  – a move which would have thrown the world economy into chaos.

The Dinar was widely opposed by the ‘elite’ of today’s society and who could blame them. African nations would have finally had the power to bring itself out of debt and poverty and only trade in this precious commodity. They would have been able to finally say ‘no’ to external exploitation and charge whatever they felt suitable for precious resources. It has been said that the gold Dinar was the real reason for the NATO led rebellion, in a bid to oust the outspoken leader.

So, was Muammar Gaddafi a Terrorist?

Few can answer this question fairly, but if anyone can, it’s a Libyan citizen who has lived under his reign? Whatever the case, it seems rather apparent that he did some positive things for his country despite the infamous notoriety surrounding his name. And that’s something you should try to remember when judging in future.

This quirky video documentary spells out an interesting, if rather different, story from the one we think we know.

‘මේ කාලයේ කවදාවත් නැති විදිහට මහා වැසි, ගංවතුර, නාය යාම්.. ඇයි ඒ..-ජනාධිපති මෛත‍්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන

දේවෝ වස්සතු කාලේන-සස්ස සම්පත්ති හෝතුච
පීතෝ භවතු ලෝකෝච-රාජා භවතු ධම්මිකෝ

රජු ධාර්මික නොවුනාම ස්න්‍භාව ධර්මය අපෝ-තේජෝ-වායෝ කැළඹෙනව. තුන් දොස් කිපෙනව. මේකයි සිද්ද වෙලා තිබෙන්නෙ.

රජු දැහැමි නොවුන නිසා රජු අධර්මික පාලකයෙක් නිසා අද මුළු වායුගෝලයම කැළඹිලා.

මුළු ස්වභාව ධර්මයම අද සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම සුළු සමාජයම ලෝකමය විනාශ කරන තත්වයට ස්වභාව ධර්මයෙන් ගොඩනැගෙනව’ යයි ඔහු එම විඩියෝවේ සදහන් කරයි.

කතු වැකිය උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

දළ පූට්‌ටුවා අවසන් ගමන් ගියේ ශෝකජනක ලෙස ය. ගල්ගමුවේ වන ගහනයක්‌ මැද මෙයට දශක කිහිපයකට පෙර උපන් දළ පූට්‌ටුවාගේ දිරාගිය මළ සිරුර පසුගියදා පල්ලෙකැලේදී හමුවිය. ලංකාවේ වනගහනවල ඉතිරිව සිටි සද්දන්ත කුලයට අයත් ඇතුන් කිහිපදෙනාගෙන් එකකු වූ මේ සතා පසුගිය අවුරුදු කිහිපය පුරාත් ජීවිතයට වඩා මරණයේ සෙවනැල්ල යට කල්ගත කළේය. මෙහිදී සද්දන්ත කුලයේ ඇතා යනු කවරෙක්‌ දැයි පාඨකයාට හඳුන්වා දිය යුතුය. සිංහල සහ දෙමළ මිනිසුන්ගේ කුලය තීරණය වන්නේ ඔවුන් අතීතයේදී කළ රැකියාවට අනුව වන්නේ යම් සේ ද, අලියාගේ කුලය තීරණය වන්නේ උගේ කටේ ඇති දත් සංඛ්‍යාවට සමරූපව ය. මේ අනුව සද්දන්ත කුලයේ අලියකුගේ කටේ දත් හතක්‌ ඇත. සංස්‌කෘත බසින් එය ෂඩ් දන්ත ලෙස හඳුන්වන ලදුව පසුව සද්දන්ත විය. සද්දන්ත යනු උස මහත ප්‍රාංශු දේහධාරී යනුවෙන් දුර් මතයක්‌ පැතිර තිබේ. එය අදහන්නෝ බස නොදත් හරක්‌ ය.

දළ පූට්‌ටුවාගේ අසාමාන්‍ය දළ ලබා ගැනීම පිණිස මෙයට පෙරද ඌට වෙඩි තබන ලදී. උණ්‌ඩය අසරණ සතාගේ ඇස පසාරු කළේයá ඒ නමුදු පණ ගැලවිණ. ඉන් කලකට පසු උගේ තවත් ඇසකට හානි විය. එතැන් සිට දළ පූට්‌ටුවා පූර්ණ අඳ භාවයට පත් විය. කැලේ ගස්‌වල හැපෙමින්, වළවල්වල වැටෙමින් මේ සතා මහත් ශෝකී ජීවිතයක්‌ ගත කළේ ය. මුළු රටම දළ පූට්‌ටුවාට අනුකම්පා කළේ ය. ඒ අතර, තුවක්‌කු කටක්‌ හිsමින් සීරුවේ ඌ සිටින තැන සොයන්නට විය. තුවක්‌කු කට පිටුපස පස්‌දෙනෙක්‌ වූහ. එකෙක්‌ ආණ්‌ඩුවේ නිලධාරියෙකි. එකෙක්‌ ග්‍රාම සේවකයෙකි. අනෙකා ඉංජිනේරුවෙකි. සිවුවැන්නා චීවරධාරියෙකි. පස්‌වැන්නා රියෑදුරෙකි. මෙතැන් සිට කතාව මතු යම් දවසකදී උසාවියේදී හෙළිදරව් වන බැවින් අපි ඒ ගැන දැනට කිසිවක්‌ නොකියමු. දළ පූට්‌ටුවා ඝාතනය කිරීම සතකු මැරීමක්‌ ලෙස නොව මිනී මැරුමක්‌ ලෙස සලකා කටයුතු කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය අතීතයටත් බලපාන නීති ඇති කරන ලෙස ආණ්‌ඩුවෙන් ඉල්ලමු.
 
  මේ රටේ වනගහනය හා වනසත්ත්ව ගහනය භාර ඇමැතිතුමා ගාමිණී ජයවික්‍රම පෙරේරා ය. ඔහු හිටපු ඇමැති වන විජිත් විජිතමුණි සොයිසා කළාට වැඩි යමක්‌ කරන්නට උත්සාහ කරන කෙනෙකි. එහෙත් ඔහු කරන බොහෝ දේවල් බැක්‌ ෆයර් වේ. මේ ආණ්‌ඩුව බලයට පත් වූ වහාම අලි අයිතිකාරයන් හිරේÊදමා ඔවුන් සතු අලිත්, පන්සල්වල සිටි අලිත්, පින්නවලට ගෙන ගොස්‌ දැමීය. අන්තිමේදී එම ක්‍රියාවට විරුද්ධව මහත්වූ මතවාදී බලවේගයන් ගොඩනැගුණේය. දේශපාලන චීවරධාරීන් නොවන සැබෑ භික්‍ෂුන් වහන්සේලා ඒ කාර්යය නිසා ආණ්‌ඩුව සමඟ අමනාප වුහ. ඒ අතර අලි ගම්වැදීම වැඩි විය. අලින් ගම් වදින විට ගම්වැසියෝ උන්ට වෙඩි තැබූහ. මේ නිසා අලි මරණ ක්‍රමයෙන් වැඩි විය. කෙසේ වුවද කිසිදු බලපත්‍රයක්‌ නැතිව නීති විරෝධී ලෙස තම ගෙවත්ත පිටුපස අලින් ගාල් කරගෙන සිටි ඉකුත් රජයේ ජාවාරම්කරුවන් ඇතුළට දැමීම ගැන අපගේ විරෝධයක්‌ නැත.
 
 දළ පූට්‌ටුවා මැරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් වනජීවී දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ සහකාර අධ්‍යක්‍ෂවරයකුට චෝදනා එල්ල වී ඇත. විශ්‍රාම ගිය නමුත් ගාමිණී ජයවික්‍රම පෙරේරාගේ යාළුකමට ආපසු රස්‌සාවට පැමිණ සිටින මේ තැනැත්තා දළ පූට්‌ටුවාගේ මළ සිරුර සෙවීමට කළ මෙහෙයුමේදී කිසිදු සහායක්‌ දී නැත. ගාමිණී ජයවික්‍රම පෙරේරා උදව් කර ඇත්තේ පාප මිත්‍රයකුටය. එය ඇමැතිවරයාට කැළලකි. කොහොම වුණත් මේ යන ගැම්මට අලි මැරුවොත් අන්තිමේදී ඉතිරිවනු ඇත්තේ සිරිකොතේ එල්ලා ඇති පින්තූරයේ සිටින අලියා පමණි. එක්‌සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයේ නිල ලාංඡනය ද අලියා බැවින් ඉනුත් සෑහෙන කලක්‌ යන තුරු අලියා පිළිබඳ මතකය මනුෂ්‍ය සිත්වලින් ඈත් නොවනවා ඇත. සිද්ධියට සම්බන්ධ චීවරධාරියා වැරදිකරුවකු වුවහොත් ඔහුට පහර දී එළවා දමා සාසනයේ ගෞරවය රැක ගත යුතු ය. ග්‍රාම සේවක, ඉංජිනේරුවා, රියෑදුරා, සහකාර අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ යනාදීන් රිමාන්ඩ් කළ විට ඔවුන් ගැන වග බලා ගැනීම රිමාන්ඩ් සිරකරුවන්ගේ ජාතික වගකීම ය.

බුලිත ප්‍රදීප් කුමාර උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින
ඡායාරූප – මහගල්කඩවල සේනක ඉලංගකොන්, නිෂාන් ජිනේන්ද්‍ර හා ශෂිකලන රත්වත්ත

ගල්ගමුව දළ පූට්‌ටුවාගේ අවාසනාවන්ත ඉරණම සම්බන්ධයෙන් පසුගිය දිනවල අපට තිබූ සියලු සැක සංකා මේ වන විට පහව ගොස්‌ අවසන්ය.

  වලාන පොලිස්‌ දූෂණ මර්දන ඒකකය විසින් පොල්පිතිගම නිකවැව පන්සල තුළදී පසුගිය 23 වනදා කෙරුණු ගනුදෙනුවක්‌ මත අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනණු මිල කළ නොහැකි.. ගජමුතු හය හා ඇත් දළ යුවල මේ දළ පූට්‌ටුවා ගේම බව දැන් ඔප්පු වී හමාරය. එසේම ඒ දළ යුවල හා ගජමුතු කට්‌ටල 3 කැලේ ස්‌වභාවික ලෙස මැරී සිටි හස්‌තියකුගෙන් ලබා ගත්තක්‌ නොව, ඉතා සැලසුම් සහගතව වනයේ දී කොටු කර මරා බිම හෙලන ලද හස්‌තියෙකුගෙන් අමු අමුවේම උගුලා ගන්නා ලද සම්පතක්‌ බවද දැන් තහවුරු වී අවසන්ය.

 
 මේ සියල්ල ඉතාමත්ම සූක්‌ෂමව කාලයක්‌ තිස්‌සේ සැලසුම් කර, ගල්ගමුවේ දළ පූට්‌ටුවා යන එන තැන් නිරීක්‌ෂණය කර ඉවසීමෙන් යුතුව කරන ලද මෙහෙයුමක්‌ බව ද දැන් තොරතුරු තහවුරු කරගෙන ඇත.
 
 මහ කැලේ මැද කිසිවෙකුටත් ඉව නොවැටෙන සේ මේ මහා අපරාධය කර අවසන් වී ඇත් කුණ කැලයේ හැර දමා ඇත්දළ හා ගජමුතු පමණක්‌ වනයෙන් පිටතට ගෙන ගොස්‌ තිබේ. දල යුවළත් ගජමුතු කට්‌ටල 3 ත් නිකවැව වෙද හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ පන්සලට හෝ වෙනත් යම් ආරක්‌ෂිත ස්‌ථානයකට රැගෙන ගිය බවද පැහැදිලිය. සියලු සැලසුම් නිසි පරිදි සිදු වී තිබියදීත් වැඩේ කෙස්‌ ගහෙන් වැරදී ගොස්‌ තිබුණේ මේ මිල කළ නොහැකි වස්‌තු සම්භාරය රුපියල් ශත බවට පරිවර්තනය කරන්නට කළ සැලසුමේදීය.
 
ජාවාරම්කරුවන්ට කොතනක හෝ අංශු මාත්‍රයක්‌ වරදින්නට ඇති බව පැහැදිළිය. ඒ අනුව දෙරණ උකුස්‌සා වැඩ සටහනට ලැබුණු විශ්වාසදායක තොරතුරක්‌ මත සංවිධානය වූ මාධ්‍ය කණ්‌ඩායම හා පානදුර වලාන දූෂණ මර්දන ඒකකය ක්‍රියාත්මක නොවන්නට නිසැකයෙන්ම මේ මහා අපරාධයද සෙසු වනසත්ව අපරාධ ගොන්නට එක්‌ වී අතීත අපරාධ හමස්‌ පෙට්‌ටියේ පතුලේ සැඟවී යනු නිසැක ය. එහෙත් මාධ්‍යවේදීන්ගේ උකුසු ඇසින් හා වලාන දූෂණ මර්දන ඒකකයේ සැලසුම් සහගත වැටලීමෙන් මිදී පලා යන්නට අපරාධකරුවන්ට නොහැකි විය. තවත් සැලසුම් සහගත වනසත්ව අපරාධයක්‌ සහ අහස පොළව නූහුලන තරමේ සාහසික ක්‍රියාවක සුලමුල පමණක්‌ නොව, මේ රටේ වඳ වෙමින් යන වන අලි සම්පතේ අනාගතය අඳුරු කරවන රහසිගත ඇත්දළ ජාවාරමේ සුළමුල ද ඉකුත් 24 වන වනදා සිදු කරන ලද මේ මහා මෙහෙයුමත් සමගම හෙළදරව් වන්නට පටන් ගත් බව පැහැදිළිය.
 
 පොල්පිතිගම දී අත්අඩංගුවට ගනු ලැබූ ඇත් දළ යුවලත් ගජමුතු කට්‌ටල තුනත් පිළිබඳ ප්‍රවෘත්තිය දෙරණ රූපවාහිනියෙන් ප්‍රචලිත වීමත් සමඟම මේ රටේ වන සත්ව නිලධාරීන් හා පරිසරවේදීන් කඩිගුලක්‌ ඇවිස්‌සුනා සේ කලබල වන්නට වූහ .ඒ වන විට සති දෙක තුනක සිට ගල්ගමුවේ දළ පූට්‌ටුවා පිළිබඳ ආගිය තොරතුරක්‌ නොමැති වීම තුළ සමහරු කළබලයට පත් ව සිටියහ. තතු දත් සමහරු සැක පහළ කරන්නට වූයේ මේ ඇත් දළ යුවල නිසැකවම ගල්ගමුවේ දළ පූට්‌ටුවාට අයත්ය කියාය. ලංකාවේ අලි ඇතුන්ට මහත් සේ පෙම් බඳිමින් වන සංචාරයේ හා වනසත්ව ඡායාරූපකරණයේ යෙදෙන මා මිත්‍ර ලසන්ත මුණවීර මට කතා කළේ මේ අතරතුරය.
 
 අන්න ගල්ගමුවේ දළ පූට්‌ටුවාත් මරාදාලා. උගේ දළ දෙක විකුණන්න සූදානම් කරල තියෙද්දි පොලිසිය අල්ලගෙන. දැන් ඇතාට මොනවද වුණේ කියලා කවුරුත් හොයනවා. බලන්න ෆේස්‌බුක්‌ එක. නරකද මේ ගැන පත්තරේට ලිපියක්‌ ලිව්වොත්….
 
 ඔහු මට අන්තර්ජාලයේ තිබූ තොරතුරු කිහිපයක්‌ එවා අලුත් මිතුරකු ද හඳුන්වා දුන්නේය. ශෂිකලණ රත්වත්තේ නමින් හඳුන්වා දෙනු ලැබූ ඒ වනසත්වවේදියා ලියන ලද, අන්තර්ජාලයේ පළවූ ලිපි කීපයක්‌ ද ලසන්ත මට එවා තිබිණි.
 
මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් විස්‌තර ලබා ගැනීමට නම් ඒ සදහා සුදුසුම පුද්ගලයා කවුරුන්ද යනු මා දැන සිටියේ ය. ඒ විල්පත්තුවේදී අපි හඳුනාගත් වනජීවී නිලධාරියකු වූ ඩී. රාමසිංහ මහතා ය. මේ දිනවල ඔහු කලාවැව ජාතික වනෝද්‍යානයේ ගල්කිරියාගම වනජීවී සංරක්‌ෂණ කාර්යාලයේ වන සත්ව අඩවි ආරක්‌ෂකයා ලෙස කටයුතු කරන බව මට මතක්‌ විය. මම ඔහුට කතා කළෙමි. 28 වැනිදා මම ඔහුට දුරකථනයෙන් අමතන විට ඔහු සිටියේ ගල්ගමුවේ හස්‌ති රාජයා වෙනුවෙන් පවත්වනු ලබන පරීක්‌ෂණ වල කොටස්‌ කාරයෙකු ලෙස සහභාගී වෙමිනි. ඔහු වනාන්තරයේ ලොකු රාජකාරියක්‌ කරමින් සිටින බව මට වටහා ගත හැකි විය. ඉන්පසු ඉඩක්‌ ලද හැම මොහොතක වහාම ඔහු මා වෙත දුරකථනයෙන් සම්බන්ධ වූයේ ඔහුගේ තිබෙන හිත හොඳකම නිසා ය.
 
 පසුගිය 24 වැනිදා වැනිදා පොල්පිතිගමදී අල්ල ගත්තු ඇත් දළ යුවළ අපි ප්‍රවෘත්ති විකාශයෙන් දකිනකොටම අපට ඒ ගැන ලොකු සැකයක්‌ ඇති වුණා. මා සමග කටයුතු කරන වනජීවී නිලධාරීන් හුඟක්‌ දෙනෙක්‌ මේ ගල්ගමුවේ දළ පූට්‌ටුවාව හොඳට දන්නවා. ඒ අයත් මගේ සැකය තහවුරු කළා. මේ දළ පූට්‌ටුවා ගේ දල දැක්‌ක ගමන්ම ඒවා දළ පූට්‌ටුවාගේ බව සමහරු ලොකු විශ්වාසයකින් කිව්වා .
 
 ඊට පස්‌සේ අපි අන්තර්ජාලය ඔස්‌සේත් දෙරණ රූපවාහිනියට සම්බන්ධ වෙලා ඒ ඡායාරූප නැවත ලබා ගත්තා. නිසැක වශයෙන්ම ඒවා දළ පූට්‌ටුවාගෙම බව දැනගත්තු අපිට පුදුමාකාර වේදනාවක්‌ දැනෙන්න පටන් ගත්තා.
 
 පහුවදාම මේ පිළිබඳව අපි ඉහළ නිලධාරීන් දැනුවත් කරන්න කටයුතු කළා. ඊට පස්‌සේ තමයි අපි අපේ වනජීවී කාර්යාල හතරක නිලධාරීන් යොදවලා ගල්ගමුවේ දළ පූට්‌ටුවා ට මොනවා වෙලාද කියලා තොරතුරු හොයන්න පටන් ගත්තේ. රාමසිංහ පසුබිම විස්‌තර කළේ එසේය.
 
 සාමාන්‍යයෙන් දළ පූට්‌ටුවා ප්‍රකටව සිටියේ ගල්ගමුව වැව් තාවලු වල හා ගොවිබිම් ආශ්‍රිත ප්‍රදේශ වල නිතර දක්‌නට ලැබෙන කාටවත් කරදරයක්‌ හිරිහැරයක්‌ නැති අහිංසක හස්‌තිරාජයකු ලෙසය. එහෙත් මීට සති තුනකට පමණ පෙර අවසන් වරට හේරත්ගම වැව් පිටියකදී දුටුවාට පසු ඔහුව දුටු කෙනෙක්‌ සොයා ගත නොහැකි විය. සැප්තැම්බර් මාසය අග භාගය වන වට මේ හස්‌තියා ගල්ගමුව සියඹලා වැව ප්‍රදේශයේ සංචාරය කළ බවට තොරතුරු තිබුණි. ඔක්‌තෝම්බර් මාසයේ මැද පමණ වන විට මේ දළ පූට්‌ටුවා සියඹලන්ගමුව බෝගමුව මීගලෑව ප්‍රදේශයේ ඇවිදිමින් සිටි බවට ද වාර්තා වී තිබිණි. ඔක්‌තෝම්බර් මාසයේ අවසානයේදී මේ හස්‌තියා හේරත්ගම ප්‍රදේශය දක්‌වා පැමිණ තිබූ අතර පළමුව හේරත්ගම වනජීවී කාර්යාලය අවට ප්‍රදේශයද සැරිසරමින් සිටි බවට තොරතුරු ලැබී තිබිණි. ඉන් දින කීපයකට පසුව මේ සතා හොරොව්වැවේ වැව් තාවුල්ලට එපිට හේන්යාය මතින් කහල්ල පල්ලෙකැලේ අභය භූමිය ප්‍රදේශය දක්‌වා ගමන් කරනු දුටු අය ද සිටියහ. ඒ අනුව ගල්ගමුව හස්‌ති රාජයා මිනිස්‌ ඇසින් අවසන් වරට දැක ඇත්තේ හේරත්ගම මේ කියන හේන්යාය හරහා කහල්ල පල්ලෙකැලේ අභය භූමි ප්‍රදේශය වෙත යමින් සිටින විටදීය.
 
 මේ සිදුවීම වූයේ මීට සති තුනකට පමණ පෙරදී බව වන සත්ව අඩවි ආරක්‌ෂක රාමසිංහ පවසයි. මේ තොරතුරුවලට අනුව වනජීවී නිලධාරීන් කණ්‌ඩායම් හතරකට බෙදී කැලෑ වැදුනේ ගල්ගමුව හස්‌තියා පිළිබඳ යම් සතුටුදායක තොරතුරක්‌ සොයා ගත හැකිවේද කියා විමසා බලන්නට ය. ඒ වන විට වනසත්ව ලෝලීන්ගේ මෙහෙයවීමෙන් රටේ ලොකු ආන්දෝලනයක්‌ ඇතිවී තිබුණේ නිසැකවම මේ ඇත්දළ ගල්ගමුවේ දළ පූට්‌ටුවා ට අයත් බව විශ්වාස කරමිනි.
 
 25, 26, 27, දවස්‌ වල අපි මෙන්න මෙහෙම කැලේ හොයමින් ඉන්න අතරේ මට දුරකථන ඇමතුම් කිහිපයක්‌ ආවා. කතා කරපු අය අතරින් එක්‌කෙනෙක්‌ තමයි සජි¨ත් ප්‍රේමදාස මැතිතුමා. එතුමන්ට කවුරු හරි මං ගැන කියලා තියෙනව. එතුමා මෙහෙම කිව්වා.
 
 රාමසිංහ ගැන මම දන්නවා. ඔයාලා වෙනුවෙන් අවශ්‍ය ඕනම දෙයක්‌ මම කරන්නම්. ඕනම තැනක පෙනී ඉන්නම්. කොහොම හරි මේ ඇතා ගැන තොරතුරක්‌ හොයාගන්න.
 
 එතුමා එහෙම කියනකොටත් අපි මේ ගැන හොයන්න කණ්‌ඩායම් හතරක්‌ වැඩ ආරම්භ කරලයි තිබුණේ. මම ගල්කිරියාගම කාර්යාලයේ මගේ සේවක පිරිසත් එක්‌ක ගිහින් හිටියා. හේරත්ගම කාර්යාලයෙන් වීරකොන් මහත්තයා ඇතුළු කණ්‌ඩායම ඇවිත් හිටියා. මීගලෑව කාර්යාලයෙන් අභයරුවන් මහත්තයා පිරිස එක්‌ක ඇවිල්ල හිටියා. ගල්ගමුවෙන් රෝහිත මහත්තයා පැමිණියා. විශේෂ කාර්ය බලකායයි අපියි සිවිල් ආරක්‌ෂක බලකායයි පොලිසියයි පරිසරවේදීන් කට්‌ටියයි ඔක්‌කොම එකතු වෙලා මේ පැත්තේ කැලෑ පීරමින් ඇතාට මොකද උනේ කියල හොයන්න පටන් ගත්තා. ඒ විතරක්‌ නෙවෙයි. 28 වැනිදා අපි මේ දළ යුවල ගල්ගමුවේ ඇතාගෙමයි කියලා කරුණු දක්‌වමින් මහව උසාවියේ නඩුවකුත් ගොනුකළා.
 
මේ අතර පොල්පිතිගම පොලිසිය ඇත්දළ යුවළ සමග අල්ලා ගන්නා ලද හේරත්ගම ග්‍රාම සේවකවරයා වත් අනික්‌ සැකකරුවා වත් මහව උසාවියට ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබිණි. සැකකරුවන් දෙදෙනාව 28 වැනිදා දක්‌වා රිමාන්ඩ් බන්ධනාගාරයේ තබන්නට උසාවිය නියෝග කර තිබිණි. වන ජීවී සංරක්‌ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව නඩුව ගොනුකර තිබුණේ ද ඒ අතරය. මේ දළ යුවළ ගල්ගමුවේ දළ පූට්‌ටුවා ගේ බව විශ්වාස කරන බව ඒ සඳහා සාක්‌ෂි ඉදිරිපත් කරමින්, මෙම දළ දෙක ලබාගැනීම සඳහා ඉහත කී සැකකරුවන් දෙදෙනා අදාල දළ පූට්‌ටුවා මරා දමා ඇතැයි උසාවියට පෙන්වා දී තිබිණි. මේ සඳහා ඡායාරූප ඇතුළු අනෙකුත් විද්‍යාත්මක සාක්‌ෂි ද වනජීවී නිලධාරීන් ඉදිරිපත් කරනු ලැබූහ. 
 
 කෙසේ වෙතත් මේ වනවිට පොලිසියේ ක්‍රියාකාරිත්වය පිළිබද ජනතාවට හා පරිසරවේදීන්ට පමණක්‌ නොව වනජීවී නිලධාරීන්ට ද සැක සංකා හා ප්‍රශ්න පැන නැගී තිබිණි. අලියකු ඇතකු වන සතෙකු මරා දැමීම සාමාන්‍ය නීතියට අනුව දැනෙන්නේ අපරාධයක්‌ ලෙසය. දුර්ලභ දළ යුගළක්‌ හා ඉතා වටිනා ගජමුතු 6 ක්‌ විකිණීම සඳහා ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබියදී පොලීසිය මැදිහත්ව සැකකරුවන් දෙදෙනෙක්‌ අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් බව සැබෑය. එහෙත් එම ගනුදෙනුව සඳහා පහසුකම් සැලසූ නිකවැව පන්සලේ වෙද හාමුදුරුවන් වෙනුවෙන් කරන ලද රාජකාරිය කුමක්‌ද. අපරාධයක්‌ කිරීම මෙන්ම අපරාධයක්‌ කිරීමට අනුබල දීමද වරදකි. ඒ සඳහා පහසුකම් සැලසීම ද බරපතළ වරදකි. අපරාධයක්‌ පිළිබඳ තොරතුරු වසන් කරමින් අපරාධකරුවන්ට සහය දැක්‌වීම ද වරදකි. නිකවැව පන්සලේ වෙද හාමුදුරුවෝ කොයි තරම් දේශපාලන බලපුළුවන්කාර කම් තිබුණත්, කොයිතරම් දේශපාලඥයෝ හඳුනාගෙන සිටියත් කර ඇති වරද නම් සුළුපටු නොවේ. එසේ නම් උන්වහන්සේට එරෙහිව ද නීතිය ක්‍රියාවේ යෙදවිය යුතුය. එහෙත් පොලිසිය මේ හිමිනම වෙනුවෙන් ක්‍රියාත්මක කළ නීතිය කුමක්‌ද. 
 
 මේ ඇත්දළ සිද්ධියේ ප්‍රධාන සැකකරු වන හේරත්ගම ග්‍රාමසේවකයා සමග නිකවැව පන්සලේ වෙද හාමුදුරුවෝ පවත්වන ඇසුර ගමේ නොදන්නා කෙනෙක්‌ නොමැති තරම් ය. හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ සෑම වැඩකදීම පෙරමුණ ගෙන ක්‍රියා කරන්නේ මේ ග්‍රාමසේවකයාය. හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ රියෑදුරු නැති සෑම අවස්‌ථාවකම රියදුරා ලෙස ද සේවය කරන්නේද ඔහුය. එපමණක්‌ නොව, අනෙකුත් පුද්ගලික උවමනා එපාකම් ඉටු කර දෙන්නට විශ්වාසදායක ළඟම හිතවතා මෙන්න ළගම සේවකයාද ඔහුය. එබැවින් ස්‌වාමීන්වහන්සේගේ මේ ග්‍රාමසේවක නොදන්නා රහසක්‌ නොමැති සේම හාමුදුරුවන් ග්‍රාමසේවක ගැන නොදන්නා රහසක්‌ ද නැත. මෙවන් මහා දරුණු අපරාධයක්‌ සොරකමක්‌ ග්‍රාමසේවක මැදිහත්වී කරයි නම් එහි එක්‌ කෙළවරක්‌ නිසැක වශයෙන්ම මේ වෙද හාමුදුරුවෝ ද අල්ලාගෙන සිටියා නිසැකය. 
 
 මේ බව තහවුරු කරන්නට මෙන්ම සැක සංකා නොමැතිව කියන්නට වනජීවී නිලධාරීන්ට මෙන්ම ගම්වැසියන් අතරද ප්‍රමාණවත් තොරතුරු බොහෝ තිබේ. මේ ග්‍රාමසේවකට අදාල පත්වීම ලබා දෙන්නේද හාමුදුරුවන්ගේ මැදිහත් වීමෙන් බව ගම්මු කියති. එපමණක්‌ නොවේ .කිසිදු සුදුසුකමක්‌ නොමැතිව ග්‍රාමසේවකවරයාගේ අක්‌කාට තවත් ග්‍රාමසේවක පත්වීමක්‌ ලබා දෙන්නට මැදිහත් වන්නේ ද හාමුදුරුවෝ ය. 
 
 පොලිසිය අපරාධකරුවන්ගෙන් නිවැරදි තොරතුරු ලබා නොගත් නිසා මේ වැසි සමයේ කහල්ල පල්ලෙකැලේ අභය භූමිය පීරමින් දළ පූට්‌ටුවා පිළිබඳ තොරතුරු විමසන්නට වනජීවී නිලධාරීන්ට සහ ආරක්‌ෂක අංශවලට සිදු විය. 28 වනදා දවසම කරනු ලැබුවේ ග්‍රාමසේවකවරයාගේ පියාට සහ පියාගේ සහෝදරයා ට අයත් යෑයි කියන හේරත්ගම හේන්යායේ ඉඩම්වල අලුත සුද්ද කරන ලද ප්‍රදේශවල තොරතුරු සෙවීමය. පසුගිය දිනවල එම හේන් යායේ බැකෝ යන්ත්‍රයක්‌ ගෙනැවිත් මෙම ඉඩම්වල කැලෑ එළිපෙහෙළි කර තිබූ නිසා හස්‌තියාගේ ශරීර කොටස්‌ එහි වලදමා ඇත්දැයි සොයන්නට වගකිවයුත්තන්ට සිදුවිය. 
 
 ඉන්පසුව සමීක්‌ෂණ කණ්‌ඩායම් හතරේම අවධානය යොමු වූයේ කහල්ල පල්ලෙකැලේ අභය භූමිය පීරන්නට ය. 29 වන දා පාන්දර සිට මහ වැසි නොතකමින් ඒ රාජකාරියේ රණසිංහ ඇතුළු වන සංරක්‌ෂණ නිලධාරී කණ්‌ඩායම් යුහුසුළු වූහ. සිවිල් ආරක්‌ෂක බලකාය හා විශේෂ කාර්ය බලකායේ මෙන්ම වනජීවීන් පිළිබඳ ඇල්මක්‌ උනන්දුවක්‌ දක්‌වන පරිසර ලෝලීන් විශාල පිරිසක්‌ ද මේ සඳහා සහභාගි වී සිටීම විශේෂත්වයක්‌ විය.
 
 අවසානයේ 29 වන බදාදා දහවල් කහල්ල පල්ලෙකැලේ අභය භූමියේ හෙරෙව්වැව වැව් තාවුල්ලෙ විමර්ශන කටයුතු වල යෙදුණු කණ්‌ඩායමට ඇත්දළ ගලවාගෙන අතහැර දමා තිබුණු ගල්ගමුව දළ පූට්‌ටුවා ගේ දැවැන්ත ශරීරය සොයා ගන්නට හැකි විය.
 
 සති තුනක්‌ පමණ කල් යැම නිසාත් ප්‍රදේශයට බලපා තිබූ මහා වර්ෂාවත් නිසා හස්‌තියා ගේ ශරීරයේ සැලකිය යුතු කොටසක්‌ ජරාජීර්ණ වී, දිය වී මහ පොළොවට එක්‌ වී තිබෙන අයුරු දැකගත හැකි විය. එනමුත් ඒ සිරුර දළ පූට්‌ටුවා ගේ ම බව ඔප්පු කළ හැකි සාධක රාශියක්‌ එහි තිබිණි.
 
 ගල්ගමුවේ රජා හෙවත් ගල්ගමුවේ දළ පූට්‌ටුවා මරා දමා දැන් සති තුනකට වඩා ගතව ගොස්‌ අවසන්ය. එහෙත් මේ මහා වන අපරාධය කරන ලද්දේ කවුරු විසින් ද කියා සොයා ගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය ප්‍රබල සාක්‌ෂි දෙකක්‌ දැනටමත් පොලීසියට තිබේ. දෙදෙනකු අත්අඩංගුවට පත්වී පසුව තවත් දෙදෙනකු අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන අවසන් ය. සියලු අපරාධ වලට උපදෙස්‌ ලබාදුන් බවට විශ්වාස කරන නිකවැව පන්සලේ වෙද හාමුදුරුවෝ තවමත් නිදැල්ලේය. උන්වහන්සේ දැනටත් පන්සලේ නිදහසේ හැසිරෙමින් අවශ්‍ය හැම විටම වාරියපොල බන්ධනාගාරයට ගොස්‌ තම ගෝල බාලයන් ගේ දුක සැප බලමින් කිසි කරදරයකින් හිරිහැරයකින් තොරව වැඩ වාසය කරති. පොලිසියේ නීතිය උන්වහන්සේ වෙනුවෙන් මේ තරම් තදට නැමෙන්නේ මොන දේශපාලන බලවතාගේ බලපෑම පිට දැයි අපි තවම නොදනිමු. එහෙත් මේ සත්‍ය හෙළි කර නොගතහොත් යහපාලන ආණ්‌ඩුවේ සායම ගල්ගමුව දළ පූට්‌ටුවා ගේ ශරීරය දියවී ගියා සේ, ඊටත් වඩා හොඳින් දිය වී යන ප්‍රබල කාරණාවක්‌ ම වනු නිසැකය.
 
 ප්‍රදේශවාසීන් පවසන පරිදි ගල්ගමුව දළ පූට්‌ටුවා කිසිවකුටත් කරදරයක්‌ හිරිහැරයක්‌ නැති අවිහිංසක දිවි පෙවෙතක්‌ ගතකළ හස්‌ති රාජයෙකි. වෙඩිල්ලක්‌ වැදී උගේ දකුණු ඇස නොපෙනීම ඊට එක්‌ හේතුවක්‌ බව ද ජනතාව පවසති. කැලෑ මාර්ග ඔස්‌සේ ආහාර සොයා ගෙවතුවලට ඇදෙන මේ සතා ගොවියන් විසින් සපයා දෙන ආහාරයක්‌ ගිල දමා ආපසු වනයට යන සරල දිවි පෙවතක්‌ ඇත්තෙකු බව කියති. ඔහු දිගටම ගල් ගමුව වනජීවී කලාපය තුළ සැරි සරමින් ඒ ඒ ගම්වල ගොවි ජනතාව සමඟ සහයෝගයෙන් කටයුතු කළ බව කියන්නට අද ජනතාව මැලි නොවෙති 
 
 එහෙත් වනජීවී නිලධාරීන්ගේ නිරීක්‌ෂණවලට අනුව මේ හස්‌තියා අද වන විට වන විට වසර 55කට වඩා වයස, ජීවිතයේ සවස්‌ යාමය ගෙවන දැවැන්තයෙකි. අඩි 9 කට වඩා උස්‌ දැවැන්ත ශරීරයක්‌ මේ හස්‌තියාට හිමිය. නෙත් අඳව සිටියත් දිනකට කිලෝමීටර් 15 ක්‌ පමණ ප්‍රමාණයක්‌ ඇවිදින්නට මේ සත්ත්වයා සමත්ය.
 
 ගල්ගමුව දළ පූට්‌ටුවාගේ වර්තමානය මෙසේ වුවත් අතීතය නම් මේ තරම් අවිහිංසක නැති බව වනජීවී නිලධාරීන් පවසයි. මීට වසර කිහිපයකටපෙර එනම් 2011 දී පමණ පෙර එක්‌ දඩයක්‌ කාරයෙකුගෙ වෙඩිල්ලක්‌ හේතුවෙන් ඇතාගේ දකුණු ඇස සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම ආබාධයට පත්වී ඉන් කෝපයට පත් හස්‌තියා ගම්මානවලටත් පාරේ ගමන් කළ වාහන වලටත් එක දිගට පහරදුන් බවට තොරතුරු තිබේ. 2011 වෙසරේදී කැකිරාව මඩාටුගම, පුබ්බෝගම ප්‍රදේශවල පාරවල් වල සැරි සරමින් වාහන වලට පහර දුන් චණ්‌ඩ හස්‌තියා මොහුම බව වනජීවී නිලධාරීන් පවසයි. එහෙත් කාලයත් සමඟම ඔහු ඉතාම අහිංසක සතෙකු බවට පත් වී යයි දීර්ඝකාලීන නිරීක්‌ෂණයෙන් සිටි වනජීවී නිලධාරීන් කියයි. අද මේ හස්‌තියාගේ නුගුණ කිසිවෙක්‌ කියන්නේ නැති තරම්ය. කාටවත් කරදරයක්‌ නැති අහිංසක දිවි පෙවෙතකින් යුතු බව කියන්නට පමණක්‌ ගැමියාගේ ගැමි විඥානය පොහොසත්ය.
 
 මේ ගල්ගමුව දළ පූට්‌ටුවා මෙසේ සංචාරයේ යන අලි ඇතුන් කණ්‌ඩායම් වලට අයිති නැත. ඒ ඌට සිය ඇස්‌ නොපෙනීම නිසා මේ තරම් දුරක්‌ ඇවිද යන්නට ඇති නොහැකියාව නිසාය. එහෙත් ගල්ගමුව කලාපය තුළ බොහෝ දුර ඇවිද යාම ඔහුට ලොකු ගැටලුවක්‌ වන්නේ නැත. මේ හේතුවෙන් ගල්ගමුව දළ පූට්‌ටුවා මේ ප්‍රදේශයේ නිසැක ව ම දක්‌නට ලැබෙන සුලභ හස්‌තියකු මෙන්ම සුලභ දර්ශනයක්‌ වී තිබූ බව පැහැදිලිය. අඩි 9 ක්‌ පමණ උස ශරීරයත් දැවැන්ත විලාශයත් කලබලයක්‌ නැති හැඩකාර ගමනත් අඩි හතරහමාරක්‌ දිග දුර්ලභ දළ කට්‌ටලයත් වනයේ හැසිරෙන සංවේදී විලාසයත් නිසා පරිසරවේදීන්, පරිසර රසිකයන්, පරිසර ඡායාරූප ශිල්පීන් මේ හස්‌තියාට මහත් ආදරයක්‌ දක්‌වති. හස්‌තියාගේ වියෝව මේ හැමෝටම දරාගත නොහැකි දුකක්‌ වී ඇත්තේ ඒ නිසාය.
 
 අද ගල්ගමුවේ මේ මහා විශාල වනසත්ව අපරාධයට වගඋත්තරකරුවන් වී ඇත්තේ ග්‍රාමසේවකවරයෙක්‌, පොලිසියේ හිටපු පොලිස්‌ නිලධාරියෙක්‌ හෙවත් රියෑදුරෙක්‌, හස්‌තියාගේ දළ ගැලවීමට උදව් කළ තවත් දෙදෙනෙක්‌ ආදී කිහිප දෙනෙක්‌ පමණි. මෙහෙයුමේ මහ මොළකරු කවුදැයි කියා තවමත් සොයා ගන්නට පොලිසිය අසමත් ව තිබේ. සියලු කටයුතුවලට මේ අපරාධකරුවන්ට උදව් දුන්නේ යෑයි කියන පන්සලේ වෙද හාමුදුරුවෝ තවමත් නිදැල්ලේය. සෙවිය යුත්තේ මේ අපරාධය පිටුපස සිටින බලවත් දේශපාලන හස්‌තය කුමක්‌ද කියාය. නිසැක වශයෙන්ම ඒ යහපාලන ආණ්‌ඩුවේ ම බලවතෙකු බව විය යුතු බව අප දන්නා සරල සත්‍යයයි. අපේ යුතුකම ඒ කවුදැයි සොයා රටට හෙළිදරව් කිරීමය.

By Charles S.Perera

The ordinary people of Sri Lanka have gathered from evident facts  that there is sufficient circumstantial evidence to show that the Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe is directly or indirectly  involved in  the  planned Central Bank Bond robbery. And  it is being confirmed  from the way his UNP followers are trying to make  the Prime Minister a hero, because he appeared before the Bond Commission to answer questions on the part he had played in the Bank Robery.

Then again the Prime Minister’s good friend the former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake who was selected the Finance Minister of the Year for Asia-Pacific by the prestigious , The Banker ” Magazine, was forced to step down from his Ministerial position due to his involvement in the Central Bank Bond Robery.

The people now question why if Ravi Karunayake the former Finance Minister  had stepped down because of his involvement in the Bond Scam, why should not the Prime Minister follow suit as his presence before the  Commission  establishes the Prime Minister’s involvement in the Bond Scam.

Instead the Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe  who it seems , wants to claim that he got involved in the Bond scam as the Previous governments may have also got involved  in such a Bond Scams before him, has said in Parliament that he is calling for investigations into Bond Sales by the Central Bank under the previous governments in the years before 2014.

There is nothing so great in a Prime Minister appearing even in a court house, and be cross examined to clear his name from any theft he may have bee accused of ?  However  today the ordinary people of the country thinks that after the Bond Scam scandal Ranil Wickramasinghe has no moral right to continue to be the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.

Then the President Maithripala Sirisena, who had been a silent spectator of the Bond Scam comedy for a long time, payed scant attention when the Prime Minister appointed  the blacklisted Governor of the Central Bank Arujun Mahendran as an advisor to the Prime Minister in the area of investments.

This was  despite the President Sirisena’s demand to remove him, and he  appointed Indrajith Coomarswamy as the Governor of the Central Bank. But yet the President Sirisena  did nothing to  settle the raging scandal around the Bond Scam that took place on the 27 February,2015.

The President Sirisena was also acclaimed  a hero after the Prime Minitser Ranil Wickramasinghe put in motion his FCID to catch the thieves and bribe takers of the previous government.  However, the President became aware of the  seriousness of the Bond Scam only  when he read the news papers, and heard the noise raging outside in the streets about the bond scam scandal.

It was only then on the 27 January,2017, one year after the Bond Scam, that President Sirisena  woke up to appoint  a Commission  to investigate into the Bond scam. The ordinary people now asks what the President was doing all that time, and questions whether he is not partly to be blamed for allowing the Bond Scam to continue for so long without a proper investigation, The people begin to wonder  whether it would  now not be best for him to  step down from his office along with his Prime Minister.

There are the pro President Sirisena Ministers of the Yahapalanaya, who praise the President as a great patriot, who saved Sri Lanka by taking a risk to walk away  from a vicious leader who was keeping the people of Sri Lanka  under his  grip, a dictator who had done away with  democracy , and  the rule of law , for the benefit of his  family, making money  and antagonising the western countries. Hence the Yahapalanaya sympathisers  believe that  the President is another great Yahapalanaya hero.

But the ordinary people of this country knows,  that the  President Mahinda Rajapakse who was betrayed by his friend and the General Secretary of his party, was no dictator. He was one who was given the driving seat of a dilapidated vehicle to take it  safely through  a  jungle road infested with terrorists , with untrustworthy army commanders, and a set of local political  leaders manipulated by the West and the Tamil diaspora.  President Mahinda Rajapakse had no time for political niceties or justness, for  him it was then a live or die situation.

President Mahinda Rajapakse had to be careful and  had to be strict  with those  with whom he was to work, and  help him, in order to drive safely the  dilapidated political vehicle he was handed over.  And the people knows that he drove that dilapidated  car to safety and removed obstacles  and brought peace and security to the country what ever the now heroic betrayers say about him, and say about  lack of democracy under him.

But apparently it was not  patriotism and the desire to save the country from a demoniac’ leader that made Sirisena walk away from SLFP. He was rather  lured by the promise of the  Presidency of Sri Lanka offered to him by  Chandrika and  Ranil. It was the result of a secret plan,  a conspiracy hatched by the Ranil- Chandrika duo.

According to what Chandrika Kumaratunga said to a reporter of the HindustanTimes of the 15 September,2015:

……On Saturday morning, speaking to a small group of journalists in New Delhi, on her first trip to the Indian Capital after the political change in Sri Lanka, Kumaratunga traced back the past decade and then recalled how she narrowed down on Maithripala Sirisena, the current President as a common candidate.

He had worked under me, and was not known to be corrupt or a murdered. It was difficult to find someone in my party at the leadership level who met those parameters,” she said, with a smile.”

There you are,  that was how the choice was made  they wanted  a good honest malleable man from amoung the trusted people of  Mahinda Rajapakse, and that was how Chandrika picked the man who was  to back stab his leader.

That is not the end for Yahapalanya has created yet another hero. It is the former Yahapalana Minister of Foreign Affairs , the present Minister of Finance. Mangala Samaraweera a well known enemy of President Mahinda Rajapakse. His speciality was in selling Sri Lanka to the West and the Tamil diaspora, and do every thing to spit China in the face and promote the West as Sri Lanka’s new found friends.

The UNP and Chandrika went all out along with Mangala Samaraweera to kick out China’s influence in  Sri Lanka under President Mahinda Rajapakse, and welcome back the friends of the West neglected hitherto by Mahinda Rajapakse.

Mangala Samaraweera is quite proud of his smooth talk and ability to be servile to the white  West. Of course Chandrika and Ranil believed that it is the West that would help them to develop Sri Lanka, faster than Mahinda Rajapakse did with the help of China.

Mangala Samaraseera, Ranil and Chandrika won the West to their side, but the expected financial aid to develop the country failed to come from them. Yahapalanaya then had no alternative but to prostrate before  China begging for financial support to build Sri Lanka. China played their cards well with the traitors”,  and asked for Sri Lanka’s National wealth in return for crumbs to serve them with what ever development they envisaged.

Mangala Samaraweera did not stop with winning the West, he went all out to sponsor a resolution the USA and the West had moved at the UN Human Rights Council denouncing Sri Lanka’s own Armed Forces for war crimes in the course of the elimination of terrorism.

Samaraweera went on his  knees at the Geneva Human Rights Council shedding tears of complacence praising  the West for the well prepared  resolution against Sri Lanka’s own Armed Forces, which he said hew would sponsor with humility on behalf of Sri Lanka.

Mangala Samaraweera also went with TNA terrorists supporter MP M.A. Sumanthiran  to a meeting of  the pro-terrorist Tamil Diaspora Organisations in Singapore, to promise them amoung other matters, to write a New Constitution to Sri Lanka making secret provisions to make the Constitution Federal once it is passed on Parliament.

Mangala Samaraweera has strange bedfellows to promote his efforts to sell Sri Lanka to the Tamils-Dambara Amila, Vickramabahu Karunaratne, and M.A.Sumanthiran. They were addressing  a meeting of the third Sathyagraha Campaign of 6.2 Million on Alert” on 24 November, 2017  opposite the Sacred Bo Tree in Matara. In his speech to the gathering  Mangala Samaraweera said,

….The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP) have formed a consensus government to finalise and adopt a new constitution for Sri Lanka as we do not know who would be elected as the Executive President in the future; so let’s use this opportunity for the betterment of the country,”

M.A.Sumnthiran had said addressing the same gathering, power should be devolved for every citizen  to live amicably  as one family  and Sri Lanka to prevail as one Nation.” Vikramabahu Karunaratne had said , In the past, northern politicians who addressed people of the south in Sinhala were assassinated by northern extremists. “Sumanthiran has ignored this threat as this duration may be the last opportunity to adopt a new constitution,”

After all this in the North TNA MP Sivajilingam had celebrated  terrorist Prabhakaran’s Birth day , yet the West  prods on the Yahapalanaya Government to continue with the Reconciliation.

In reality there is nothing to write about the political heist of the 8^th January, 2015, that set up a Yahapalanaya Government displacing a government that was looking forward to greater development of Sri Lanka, for its security ,  peace and welfare of the people.

After  the elapse of more than  two years Yahapalanaya has done nothing for the country and the people , but what ever they did was  all for the benefit and enrichment of themselves.

Ranil Wicramasinghe and Sirisena keep making  more promises for the future to the people, already weighted down with financial burdens thrust upon them, and in poverty and distress caused  by the  Yahapalanaya Government’s  so far unfulfilled  promises.

Already fooled by this  rogue” government which keeps on promising wealth and prosperity in eight years to come, would the people once again give their votes to them at the forth coming  elections for the Provincial Councils ?

If the people of the country were to trust these Yahaplanaya tricksters once again   and votes them into power in the Provincial Councils as well, there would be neither  hope nor prosperity,  but disaster in a divided Sri Lanka lost to its Sinhala Buddhists for ever.

Is that what the Sinhala Buddhists want ?

Today the Sinhala Buddhists who  are the majority of the  population have been reduced to a minority status in political power and decision making where the Yahapalanaya Government has with a pseudo reconciliation move given more power to  Tamils and Muslims to decide on the future of Sri Lanka.

We see that in the preparation of a new  Constitution , protection of Buddhism and the Buddhist Sinhala cultural values would only be a name board, giving more consideration to  satisfy the Tamil and Muslim interests , which are also promoted by the anti Sri lanka West.

If the Sinhala Buddhists would be divided  in their votes at the forthcoming Prvincial Council elections, it would be the Tamils and Muslims that would put back into power the disastrous Yahapalanaya, pushing the Sinhala majority to insignificance.

The NGO vultures have become the political advisers to the President Sirisena, and Ranil and Chandrika will steamroll any decisions of the President Sirisena, which would be reduced t u high sounding Sinhala speeches unheard in the West and ineffective in Sri Lanka.

 Sudath Gunasekara.  B.A. PhD.  (S.L. A. S).

12.12. 2017

Abstract

The Central Hill Country of Sri Lanka is defined as the land above the 300 m (msl) contour that covers roughly about 20% of the total land area of the Island. It constitutes a heavily dissected terrain with spectacular scenic beauty providing the home for a unique biodiversity, both in flora and fauna, endemic and threatened. While serving as the main catalyst in rain making and a climatic regulator for the two Monsoon seasons it also serves as the major watershed that provides the source for almost all the rivers, the live fountains of life in Sri Lanka” with many beautiful waterfalls, in the Island. The World Heritage Convention 2010 also has declared the central Highlands of Sri Lanka as a World Natural Heritage.

In this essay the need for the preservation of this heritage has been highlighted in a broader perspective, both natural and cultural. Its unique geographical value and the critical role it plays in sustaining the watersheds that provide the source for almost all its rivers, which guarantees the survival of the entire life system and the civilization of this Island.

Virtually the hill country has determined and dictated the geographical and cultural landscape of this Island. The physical stability and the natural functions of this central land mass had been the bedrock of our life system and the different facets of civilization through out history. The influence it has exerted on the Island’s geopolitical history as a hideout for Kings and Princes of yore too cannot be overlooked. Therefore it is identified as the most important geographical sub-region that has fashioned both the natural and human landscape on this Island. This situation is a classic example of geographic determinism.  A brief reference is also made here to the Mackinder’s Heartland Theory and its evolution in the context of world geopolitics as he was the one who introduced the term ‘Heartland’ to geography.

The role the Central Hill country plays in the survival of the entire life system and the civilization in this country is as critical and important as the role played by the heart in a man’s life. It is primarily in this context that it is named as the ‘HADAMIMA’, meaning The Heartland” of this Island

Introduction

The central hill country of Sri Lanka, a roughly triangular mountainous area located at the south-centra0l part of the Island is defined as the land above the 300 m (msl) contour that covers roughly about 20% of the total area of the Island. Professor K. Kularatnam described it as a veritable palimpsest that displays many facets of geological evolution. With its highest peak at Pidurutalaga, 2,524 m rising above a high plain dotted by few more peaks like Hakgala, Kirigalpotha (2,389 m), Totupolakanda (2,357)m, and Adam’s Peak (2230 m), it constitutes a heavily dissected terrain of rugged mountain ranges, peaks and valleys, and steep escarpments with hundreds of beautiful waterfalls cascading down, the largest number for any given area of its size any where in the world. With its breathtaking scenic splendour the hill country has provided a multiplicity of habitats for many a unique fauna and flora both endemic and threatened. While serving as the major catalyst in rainmaking and a regulator for the two monsoon seasons, it also serves as the major watershed that provides the source for almost all the rivers (103) draining in all the directions in this Island.

The World Heritage Convention which met in Brazil in July 2010 also has declared the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka as a World Natural Heritage. Its unique biodiversity both in fauna and flora of which many species, that are endemic and some of them are threatened was the main criteria the Committee has adopted in making this decision. In this essay the case for the preservation of the Central Highlands in a broader perspective that covers the whole Island. Firstly, taking in to account the totality of its unique geography including the land, forests, fauna and flora and its natural beauty and secondly, the role it plays in preserving the survival of the entire life system and the civilization of this Island. A third, a cultural dimension is also included in view of the religious importance associated with the Adams Peak. All these three factors heavily support the claim for its preservation and to be declared a World Heritage.

The basic argument advanced here is that the Central Highland is a unique creation of nature, with its peculiar morphology, the drainage pattern, the climate, breathtaking scenery and bio-diversity which no other physiographic region of its size in any other country could claim.  Both functionally and analogically, it represents the ‘Geographical Heartland’ of this Island as discussed below.

Its south central location within the Island and its relative position with regard to the global wind belts, the altitude, peculiar morphology and the alignment of the mountain ranges and its spatial size in relation to the total land area of the country have played a critical role in the scale and nature of the impact it has exerted on the Islands geography and life system. Virtually it has determined and dictated the geographical and cultural landscape of this country. The climate, drainage pattern, diversity of fauna and flora and the physical and cultural landscape of the entire Island has been decisively influenced by its location, altitude, geology and structure and the alignment of its morphology. The physical stability and the resulting functional role of these central hills had been the bedrock of our life system and the different facets of civilization. It is also the most important and critical factor that finally decides the survival of the entire life system in this country. Therefore the making and the sustainability of both the geographical and the cultural landscape of this Island are critically dependent on the preservation of the physical stability of the high watersheds associated with this region. The influence it has exerted on the Islands geopolitical history by serving as a safe hideout for many Kings and Princes too, both from the Rajarata and the Kandyan Kingdom,  cannot be easily overlooked Therefore it is identified as the most important geographical sub-region that has fashioned both the natural and human landscape in this Island. This situation could be cited as a classic example of geographic determinism.

The functional role the central hill country plays in the survival of the entire life system in this country including floral, faunal and human and the country’s civilization is as critical and important as the role played by the heart in the survival of a man. It is primarily in this context that it is cited as the HADABIMA (Hardabhumi) meaning The Heartland” of this Island

The need to protect and conserve this part of the country had been recognized from the earliest times. During the days of the Sinhalese Kings it was declared as a Thanchikele (a protected forest). Eminent men on forestry like Douglus Hooker (1873) and FDA Vincent (1882) of the Indian Forestry Commission who was hired by the then Government to prepare a forestry policy for Sri Lanka (the father of modern forestry policy) also have strongly recommended the conservation of forest lands over 5000 feet. Even the forestry policy approved by the government in 1995 states that all the forest areas are to be managed in a sustainable manner, though no one has taken such advice seriously up to date.

According to the Report of the Land Utilization Committee 1968 the area > 5000 ft in the Island is 288 sq miles. Of this 187 square miles are found within the Nuwara Eliya district, Kandy district 47, Badulla dist 38 and Ratnapura and Kegalle 16. There are 120 sq miles > 6000 feet. Of this 94 sq miles are found in Nuwara Eliya and 8000 acres of tea are found on land > 6000 ft msl. This shows the magnitude of the devastation tea plantations have done to the central highlands.

Even Sir Henry Beresford, Director General of Forestry United Kingdom, giving evidence before the Land Utilization Committee has pointed out the need for preserving the forests of land above 5000 feet elevation where virtually all rivers have their origin as a matter of absolute necessity. This will enhance the dry weather flow of all rivers in the Island and also improve the ground water resources he said. The best way to restore the water resources and the ecological balance in the country, particularly the central highlands is to restore the original forest cover of the central hills above 5000 feet msl. As such the declaration of all lands over 5000 feet therefore is long overdue.

The origin of the Heartland Concept and its meaning

The concept of a ‘heartland’ had been in vogue in many countries from ancient time. It was usually associated with a core area in a given Kingdom where the capital was located It connotes many meanings such as central, most important, most prosperous and most powerful etc which are closely interlinked. Very often the capital city of a Kingdom was identified as the Heartland of that country. As such from the beginning of history the term heartland often implied a geopolitical meaning. In the modern context also it implies mainly a geopolitical notion. Geopolitics in its modern sense indicates the link and causal relationships between the centre of political power and geographic space in a given Kingdom. Therefore it could be surmised that even this ancient notion, the heartland had a geopolitical connotation

The term geopolitics was coined at the beginning of the 20th century by Rudolf Kjellén, a Swedish political scientist, inspired by the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel, whose book Politische Geographie (political geography) that was published in 1897. But the Heartland concept was first used by Sir Halford John Mackinder (1861-1947) in 1904 to conceptualize a geopolitical idea in an article named ‘The Geographical Pivot of History’ submitted to the Royal Geographical Society. Mackinder was an English geographer and one of the founding fathers of Political Geography and Geopolitics. He used the term ‘Heartland’ purely in a geopolitical context to designate a part of the Asian landmass what he described as the Pivot Area.

In his exposition he divided the world in to three parts

1 The world Island; Europe, Africa and Asia

2 The Offshore Islands; British Isles and the Island of Japan

3 The Outlying Islands; North America, South America and Australia. (Map1& 2)

Map1

After Mackinder 1904

Map 2

After Mackinder 1904

He named the land east of Volga to the Yangtze and from the Himalayas to the Arctic as the ‘Heartland’. This he also called the Pivot area.

He then summarized his theory as:

Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland;

Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island;

Who rules the World-Island controls the world”.

It is evident from this brief account that Mackinder’s Heartland theory was an outright geopolitical concept and was a very ambitious idea that covered the entire globe. It was also an abstract and sweeping generalization formulated by him based on the then prevailing global geopolitical situation and power structure.  He had not taken in to account possible changes that would occur in future in military, technological, the world economic and power politics. Therefore it had the inherent weakness of non-congruence with changes in time and space. As such some people consider Mackinder’s theory as obsolete in the present context.

Inspired by this hypothesis Karl Haushofer and Hitler of the Third Reich attempted to take control of the Heartland, during the Second World War, with the idea of world domination. As we know they failed in their mission and today it is only a part of history now. Subsequent developments in technology, navel and air power and the art of war as well as the decline of political and economic supremacy of Europe and the emergence of new core areas of economic and political power, such as USA, Japan and China, have largely disproved the validity of this theory. Still later people like Samuel Huntington in his notion of the clash of civilization and Dimitri Kitsikis in his “Intermediate Region” have given new dimensions to this concept.

Professor C.M.Meddumabandara in 1984 also attempted to replicate the Mackinder’s heartland theory to a section of the Kandyan Kingdom partly covered by the Mahaweli River in an article ‘Mahaweliya Saha Sinhale Hadabima’ published in Vol.1 Mahaweli Vansaya.  His approach seems to be more historical. According to him the area that afforded the Sinhalese to live as an independent                                                                                                                      nation before the advent of the British in 1815 is called Hadabima of the Sinhale. He argues that this land area was spread around the Mahaweli Basin. But firstly, the area named in his map as Hadabima (map 3) extents far outside the Mahaweli Basin even extending up to Kataragama in the South East. Thus there is a geographical overlap. Secondly it is also not identical with the Kadyan Kingdom as it was in 1815. Therefore his argument lacks consistency and appears to be irrelevant and not logical. Both these propositions therefore appear to be sweeping statements, imaginary and less realistic both in terms of time and space.

(Map 3)

Mahaweliya Saha Sinhale Hadabima

HADABIMA concept and the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka

The proposition discussed in this paper on the other hand is related to an actual situation on ground. The boundaries are clearly defined and not vague as in the previous two cases. Therefore it is realistic and more logical. It also has not been conceived by anyone else before. Unlike Mackinders theory and the Maddumabandaras proposition the validity of my concept will also not change over time unless some major changes in the physical characteristics of the Hill Country take place due to tectonic movements resulting in an upliftment or a subsidence of the Central Highland or a shift of the global wind belts occur due to a change in the inclination of the earth’s axis in relation to the plane of its orbit. Therefore its validity will remain as long as the present physical conditions[1] of the hill country and the position of the earth remain undisturbed.

Although the author too had been exposed to Mackinder’s Heartland Theory, this concept was not directly based on his proposition, though the term HADABIMA connotes heartland in English.  The term Hadabima is used to designate a definite unit of Land mass clearly positioned and marked on the map of Sri Lanka. Therefore it is an independent notion conceived to interpret the Sri Lanka situation per se. Unlike in Mackinder and Maddumabandara  the term Hadabima in this context is used in a much broader perspective to name the Hill Country without limiting it to a mere geopolitical or a historical interpretation, as already outlined in the opening paragraphs of this article

This concept is discussed under three perspectives

1 Location of the Hill Country at the centre of the country in relation to the spread of the land mass of the  Island

2Close analogy between the morphology of the central Hill country and the blood circulatory system

3The affinity between the functions of the blood circulatory system and the physical functional process of the Central Hill Country

Morphological

Secondly, if you look at the physiographic map of the central hill country of Sri Lanka after turning it by about fifteen degrees clockwise until you position Rakwana hills on the west and Dumbara hills (Knuckles) on the east and, superimpose the blood circulatory system, you will notice that by way of analogy, broadly it resembles a sketch of a diagram of a ˜HEART. The Central massif flanked by the two ‘LUNGS’, Rakwana and Dumbara (Knuckles) hills on either side resembles a veritable ˜HEART”[2] (Map 5). To this extent the morphological outline of these three land masses together represents a veritable replica of a heart with two lungs on either side.

Map        4                                                                              

                                                                              Map 5

Source: Sudath Gunasekara, 1991

Functional

Thereafter it is compared with the map showing the river basins of the Island. Within this broader perspective then one could visualized the rivers starting from the centre as a network of veins and arteries that carry the ˜blood” which is purified and returned back to the heart through the process that operates via the hydrological cycle. The analogy could be clearly verified and observed by superimposing the blood circulatory system of a human over the morphological map of the central highlands in this position along with the map showing the river basins of the whole Island (Map 5). This could be further verified by comparing this situation with the map depicting the hydrological cycle operating over Sri Lanka. (Map 7). In this position you will notice that by way of analogy the central hill country of Sri Lanka also resembles an important segment of the hydro-circulatory system that is very much similar to the heart in the blood circulatory system that we see in a human body. This adds a second dimension, a functional analogy to the physical process that is in action on these high lands.                                  

                                                                               Map 6

Source: Hydrological Survey Department

The Central Hill Country also provides the source for all the rivers in the Island. Out of a total of 103 rivers, nearly forty have their sources directly on these high watersheds. Even the other streams in the Island owe their origin and the courses to the broader foundation of land forms set by the underlying geological structure of the central high lands. Draining down the hills and the coastal lowlands all around sculpturing the landscape and feeding the whole country with their bountiful water resources, the rivers form the live ‘veins and arteries’ that keep the Islands entire life system alive.

The rivers transport the excess water that falls from the heavens together with the water released by the sub-surface in to the high seas. The forest cover and the sub-surface absorb part of the rainfall. The forest cover and the water bodies also transfer a part of the rainfall received by them back to the atmosphere by way of evapo-transpiration. Together with what is evaporated from the ocean the same rain water that falls from the heavens thus returns as rain through the process of evaporation and precipitation activated by solar radiation and atmospheric circulation. Once again the excess water is transported back to the seas by the rivers. This we call the hydrological cycle. (Map 7)

       Source: Sudath Gunasekara. 1991

If you observe this process carefully you will see a close affinity between this circulation and the blood circulation in a human body. As much as the heart does the purification and pump out purified blood and receive unpurified blood via the veins and arteries and keeps the being alive the central hill country also technically does its ˜purification and ˜pumping out and in water with the help of rivers, vegetation, the ocean, and the hydrological cycle and keeps the ‘body Sri Lanka’ alive and thereby guarantee the entire life system in the Island. Thus functionally too, it resembles a heart.

If these rivers cease to flow in their sources due to deforestation, land degradation or any other reason, they will also cease to flow in their entire lengths and as a result the above functional process will also come to an end. Then logically the country will turn in to a desert. Then the entire life system on this Island will disappear from its surface. This will draw the curtain on the Islands civilization as well.

Accordingly, just as the beat of the heart decides the fate of a being, even so, the proper functioning of the hill country that in turn depends on its physical and hydrological stability, will decide the fate of the entire life system in this country. The day the hill country stops its normal functioning, the beginning of the end of the Islands entire life system will firmly set in. Therefore just as the heart is the most important life-giving organ in the human anatomy, in the same way, the Central Hill Country is the prime life-giving agent (Hadabima) of the body that is Sri Lanka.

The heart is the most crucial organ of a man. The beat of the heart decides his fate.  Similarly the physical stability and the proper natural functioning of the Central Highlands are equally critical in deciding the survival of the entire life system in this Island. It is in this backdrop the central hill country is named as the Heartland” of Sri Lanka.

The approach adopted in this proposition is primarily geographical with emphasis on it as a watershed that decides the fate of the nation. However it also embraces a broader field and takes in to account the impact of the hill country on other aspects like geopolitics, environment, history, climate, agriculture and fauna and flora in the Island as well.

Besides the Islands relatively small size and its geographical location in relation to the global wind belts and the upper atmospheric circulations, location of the hill country and its peculiar physiography as a watershed have heavily influenced the rainfall pattern and the drainage pattern that has a critical impact on the life system of the Island.

Biggest natural reservoir

It also acts as a giant natural reservoir or a mega sponge that retains millions of gallons of water both underground and over ground. The underground deposits recharge the rivers and make them perennial, besides sustaining the forest cover on the watersheds. The central hill country also plays a vital role in rainmaking and also functions as a climatic regulator. This is a unique situation for any country in the world. The central hill country with its forest cover in fact could, therefore, be described as the Islands biggest natural reservoir and the most important natural asset that sustains the water resources of this country.

If you consider the quantum of water that is stored by a grown up tree, one can imagine the enormous volume of water that would be stored by the forest cover alone that envelopes these watersheds spanning over 20% of the Islands total area that is almost 13,000 square kilometers. These watersheds also store an enormous volume of water in its underground layers, which helps to recharge the entire drainage system of the Island. The springs, that spring up, right round the hill country, would not have been there, if not for these central hills. They also make the rivers perennial. Thus, the hill country maintains both the physical and hydrological stability of the central watersheds, the most crucial factor in sustaining the Islands life system. The physical stability of the Central Hill Country is particularly important in sustaining the perennial water resources of the Island

The forest cover on these watersheds acts as a protective umbrella for the hill country. Besides sustaining the physical and hydrological stability of the Island, they also protect and enrich the surface soil layer, biodiversity and maintain the ecological balance. More trees on the one hand mean less surface run-off, less erosion, less earth slips and less flashfloods and less siltation in riverbeds and down stream areas. On the other hand more trees also means more rain, more water, higher water table, a better soil layer, better irrigation and higher hydroelectricity potential, cheap power, more fauna and flora, optimum ecological balance, more crops, better agriculture, more industries, more employment, more people and finally better and higher standards of life for the people. An unprotected, degraded and barren hill country on the other hand will leave us with rivers without water, powerhouses without power and finally, a land without all these assets.

The day the forest cover is no more on these hills, the rain that falls on it will run down to the sea within few hours or even few minutes, churning up the soil layer and exposing the bed rock. The rivers will also cease to be perennial; their cascading beautiful waterfalls will disappear and the heartland will stops all its normal functions. The day the heartland stops its normal functions, water resources will get depleted and the curtain will fall on the survival of the entire life system and finally on the civilization of this Island. It is in this logical perspective that we should try to understand the critical importance of protecting the central hill country as the country’s Geographical HADABIMA” with the same care and caution that we take to protect our own hearts.

 “Those who protect the forests that envelope the HADABIMA protect the Islands watersheds.

Those who protect the watersheds will protect the ‘fountains of the nation’s water resources’ along with the springs, streams and rivers arising there from, and also the soil and the entire life system thereon.

Those who protect the fountains of the nation’s water resources including its watersheds, springs, streams and rivers will also protect the totality of the life system and the civilization on this beautiful Island.”

Post script: The word “HADABIMA” is commonly used today in Sri Lanka to designate the former NADSA project; which is now called the HADABIMA Authority of Sri Lanka. It is also widely and popularly used by geographers, nature lovers and journalists, to describe the central hill country. But unfortunately very few people know the history behind the origin of this word. As such I must mention it here for record purposes that it was I who coined this word in 1991 to describe the Central Hill Country and renamed the National Agricultural Diversification and Settlement Authority (NADSA) Project. In respect of the NADSA project it means Haritha Danav Bim Sanvardhana Madhyama Adikariya; (Hadabima Authority: The Green Habitat Development Authority of Sri Lanka). But in respect of the Central Hill Country and the Island at large it simply means the Geographical Heartland” that decides our future survival on this Island Nation.

What motivated to look for a new name for this Project was also interesting. The NADSA Project, started in August 1978, dealt with Watershed Management, Settlement Development and Agricultural Diversification of marginal tea and rubber lands in the mid-country (300-900 feet msl). The people involved with this Project were landless poor rural peasants from the neighboring Kandyan villages. The word NADSA did not mean anything to them. It was also beyond their comprehension and alien to their emotions. In fact when I took it over in April 1986 it was already dead and the government had decided to close it down. Therefore it was difficult to get even the few settlers, who still had not left their allotments, motivated and inspired to give their best and total commitment to development. When I decided o give a new lease of life to this project I strongly felt for the need to invent a new mechanism and strategy that could inspire and motivate people around it in order to make them active and vibrant partners of development. Among many other strategies developed, the search for a new name for the Project, was on the top of my priority list. The word HADABIMA was the result. The new emotional and psychological feeling thus generated with the magic word HADABIMA inspired the people to feel that the Project area was like their heart. It really worked like a miracle. The message given to the settlers through the new name Hadabima therefore was that they should protect the Central Hill Country as if they are protecting their own hearts, not only for their own benefit but for the benefit of the whole nation and also the salvation of the whole country from an imminent nemesis in the foreseeable future.

I felt this message was relevant then, only to those settlers involved with the HADABIMA Project. But today I am convinced that it is relevant, more than ever before, to every man, woman and child in this country including those who are yet to be born.

(I suggest that this message be introduced to all the children in this country at school level, to be by hearted and observed as a sacrosanct ‘religion’, so that they will not make a mistake in their mission to preserve and leave the heritage they have inherited from mother nature and their forefathers, that is Sri Lanka for the benefit of the future generations)

References

1. Professor Kularatnam K. (1954) The Face of Ceylon’ 9^th Association of the Ceylon Advancement of Science
2. Mackinder, H.J. Democratic Ideals and Reality. Washington DC. National Defense University Press 1996 Pp175-194.
3. Wikipedia, The True Encyclopedia-Jump to Navigation Search
4. Huntington Samuel, Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of the World Order 1997.
5. Gunasekara Sudath. The Central Hill Country; Geographical Heartland of Sri Lanka. Concept Paper. 1991
6. Maddumabanda,  C.M. ( 1984)‘Mahaweliya Saha Sinhale Hadabima’  Vol.1 Mahaweli Vansaya

[1] Note:

Extreme caution has to be taken not to upset nature by constructing large reservoirs like Kotmale on these high watersheds. Because, as I have pointed out some time back to the President of this country, one day if there is going to be a dam breach at this level the resulting downstream devastations would be devastative and  unimaginable.

[2] In fact this was accidentally discovered one day as the author was examining the physiographic map of the Central Hill country as a student of geography, since these two mountain zones, Rakwana and Dumbara had always appeared as two outliers flanking the central massif at the center as two guards resembling lungs.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

(Revised)

The   Yahapalana image is starting to crumble.  It is now known that both  Sarath Fonseka and Maithripala Sirisena had contested on the New Democratic Front  ticket, headed   by Shalila Moonasinghe, who  was arrested for receiving foreign currency stolen from Taiwan’s Far Eastern International Bank recently.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has come in for heavy criticism. ‘Ranil bashing’ is today a fashionable pastime among commentators, said Sarath de Alwis. MP Bandula Gunawardena said that Sri Lanka experienced its worst economic crisis during 2001-2004 period under Wickremesinghe’s premiership. Tissa Vitarana said in December 2016 that LSSP demands the immediate resignation of Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister. The President should remove him from the post immediately.  Ranil Wickremesinghe is in the process of implementing the once halted programme ‘Regaining Sri Lanka’. The correct term is ’Re-capturing Sri Lanka’. It is connected to promoting US domination in the world.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s name came up in the Bond scam inquiry. The Attorney General’s department said Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was a key witness and the Attorney General expected to summon him before the Commission to give evidence.

A list of questions was sent to the Prime Minister, requesting him to submit answers by way of an affidavit. Once the answers were provided, he was asked to appear before the Commission. When that happened, Yahapalana put up posters hailing the Prime Minister as a hero for ‘deigning’ to appear before the Commission. Posters said ‘baya nethi Prime Minister’. Critics said ‘lajja bayak nathi amatituma.

Kishali Pinto Jayawardene commented. The new regime was elected to provide a clean government, she said. Here was its Prime Minister finding himself in the unpleasant situation of being called to clarify details of a gargantuan financial scandal swirling around the Central Bank of Sri Lanka implicating his own party and crony capitalist associates. Never mind the sophistry regarding whether he was summoned or came voluntarily for the Commission sittings. Even if his presence was voluntary, the mere fact that this was deemed necessary should have been seen as a serious matter. But that was not the case. The Prime Minister’s appearance at the Commission was no cause for joy. That must be emphasized, concluded Kishali.

Ranil Wickremesinghe responded to the long list of   questions asked by the Commission. Here are three of those responses. Ranil Wickremesinghe told the Commission via affidavit that upon the formation of the new government in January 2015 there was a general consensus within the Government that Mahendran should be appointed to the post of Governor of CBSL.

Mahendran was selected for appointment in view of his professional qualifications and experience in the field of banking and investments. He had functioned as the Chairman of the BOI during the period 2002 to 2004. He had also held senior positions in the banking industry in the Middle East and Singapore. The previous incumbent lacked comparable qualifications and experience and the administration of the CBSL during his tenure of his office had been the subject of severe criticism. Hence, prior to the General Election of 2015 there was a general demand from our political allies that a competent person versatile in banking and International finance should be appointed to the post of Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Although at the time of his appointment Mahendran had ceased to be a citizen of Sri Lanka, he was nevertheless, of Sri Lankan origin. He used to regularly visit his parents who were resident in Colombo and as such he had an abiding interest in, and connection with Sri Lanka. Many Sri Lankans had left the country for positions abroad due to the unsettled conditions prevalent in the country at various times. The fact that Mahendran was not a citizen of Sri Lanka did not affect his suitability or eligibility and was not a legal impediment to his appointment as the Governor of CBSL. In this context, it is to be noted that the very first Governor of the Central Bank, namely, Mr. John Exeter had been an American national. Likewise, Mr. Mark Joseph Carney who is not a British subject but a Canadian national is the current Governor of the Bank of England.

The Commission asked about a text message said to have been sent to Arjun Aloysius by his Personal Assistant Steve Samuel, which said, ‘Reminder to request Hon. PM & RK to get a copy of Monetary Board meeting/papers.” Ranil Wickremesinghe denied that he had ‘agreed’ to provide or provided copies of Minutes of Monetary Board meetings/papers to Aloysius or any other person. ‘I resent the insinuation’, he said. Ranil Wickremesinghe also said that he had not held formal meetings with Arjun Aloysius, on any matter.

JVP Kalutara District MP, Nalinda Jayatissa said it is clear that the Prime Minister should be held responsible for the massive loss created by the Treasury bond scam. He cannot get away from this crime. His complicity in the crime is now very clear. Jayatissa outlined ten factors that implicated Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The first factor was the Prime Minister taking over of the Central Bank separating it from the Finance Ministry. The second factor was appointing a foreign citizen for the post of Governor of the Central Bank irrespective of opposition from various quarters. Third factor was appointing three lawyers connected to the Sirikotha, UNP headquarters to investigate the bond scam. The three lawyers had no credentials to prove their ability to investigate a bond transaction. The fourth factor was removing UNP MP M. Velukumar from the COPE in the middle of the investigation into the bond scam and filling the vacancy with Deputy Minister Sujeewa Senasinghe, who had already written a book on the bond scam. Since Senasinghe has already given his judgment on the matter in his book, he is prejudiced in the investigation.

The fifth factor is that former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran’s statement to the COPE that it was Ranil who ordered the direct placement method for bond sales. The sixth factor was the behavior of UNP members in the COPE during the committee’s probe on the bond scam. The UNP members of the COPE ‘behaved’ under the direct instructions of the Prime Minister. Their actions in the Committee proved that they received instructions from the single source. The seventh factor was the addition of some facts which had no relevance to the COPE report by the UNP members of the committee.

The Governor of the Central Bank Arjuna Mahendran was kept in the same position till his terms ended, though the whole country was protesting against it. That was the eighth factor. The Prime Minister was against the removal and insisted that Mahendran should be there till the latter’s term ends. The ninth factor was to get Ven. Thiniyawala Palitha thera of the UNP’s Bhikku Front to file a petition before the Supreme Court against the COPE report after the release of the report. The final factor was not taking any action against those responsible for the bond scam crime even after its exposure and revelation. These ten factors would indicate to anyone that the Prime Minister is directly responsible for the bond scam. He cannot absolve himself of the crime now. The case is proven before the eyes of all, MP Jayatissa said.

Ravi Karunanayake, pompous as ever, still remains in full view, since he is now projected as the future leader of the UNP. Ravi Karunanayake seems to have enlarged his position among the UNP youth, with the help of a ‘bumptious political sprout in the Ja-Ela area’ observed Kamal Wickremasinghe sarcastically.  Karunanayake has initiated a new trend said Kamal, the public display of   ‘vice as virtue’.  Karunanayake has refused to acknowledge that accepting financial and material benefits from a business crony implied corruption.  Karunanayake     also said that he, Karunanayake, was not the only politician engaging in such behavior.

Karunanayake’s name never    fails to come up in bond scam discussion. Chairmen and senior officials of three banks, Bank of Ceylon, People’s Bank and National Savings Bank said, when giving evidence before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, in October 2017,   that on two occasions in 2016, the then Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake had instructed them to make bids at the treasury bond auctions at lower interest rates and their institutions had therefore been deprived of an opportunity to make substantial profits.

They also said that though they had followed the instructions given by Minister Karunanayake, the latter had failed to honor his promise that the Central Bank would not accept bids at rates higher than the yield rate range he had mentioned to them. General Manager of the People’s Bank N. Wasantha Kumara said it was the first time in the country’s history that a finance minister had asked the state banks to bid for treasury bonds at lower interest rates. .

Wasantha Kumara further said that at meetings held on March 2016 chaired by the then Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake these instructions had been given to the state banks and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Senior Advisor R. Paskaralingam had also been present there. In answer to a question why the state banks had carried out Karunanayake’s instructions, they said that the state banks belonged to the Treasury and therefore they had to abide by those instructions. Karunanayake was the line minister therefore they had followed his instructions.

The ‘front office’ NGOs are now taking a beating. The main CIA funded NGOs are of course, hidden from public view. Prof. Sarath Wijesooriya who took over the leadership of Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha’s National Movement for Social Justice had been soundly criticized on public platforms, television and social media.

Wijeyadasa Rajapakse pointed out that Wijesooriya could not even attend the main celebration of Sobitha’s death anniversary. This was held at Kotte Naga Vihara, in the presence of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, with the participation of about 500 Buddhist monks. Wijesooriya had to attend the second celebration at Ape Gama, Battaramulla attended by President Sirisena. Wijesooriya gave the main address at this function. This was televised.

Wijesooriya has distorted the vision and mission of late Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera to suit NGO requirements, said President, National Sangha Council,  Ven. Pahiyangala Ananda Sagara. He said that Prof. Wijesooriya had tried his best to cover up the Central Bank Bond issue while delivering his speech at late Sobitha Thera’s second commemoration held recently.

Wijeyadasa Rajapakse pointed out that Wijesooriya and his associates had failed to take a stand against those responsible for the Central Bank of Sri Lanka -Perpetual Treasuries bond scam. They were also silent over privatization of national assets, including Hambantota harbor, Mattala air port, Trincomalee oil tanks and smuggling of massive stocks of narcotics. Wijesooriya in his turn, challenged critics to prove the ‘widespread accusations’ that he is receiving funds from NGOs. Prof. Wijesooriya said that he wasn’t motivated by financial gains and he wasn’t a ‘dollar vulture’.

The Yahapalana government is getting more and more unpopular. ‘People are getting furiouser and furiouser,’ said Rajan Phillips.  In the past 32 months since this government came into power, they have managed to antagonize and alienate a remarkable number of people, said Chandraprema. Not a day has gone by without some protest or the other and most of them are multiple protests and demonstrations on issues which are not resolved by the government.  There is a pool of resentment building up in the country which could easily translate into a protest vote.

As this is being written, continued Chandraprema ,  in November 2017, a shortage of petrol has caused long queues outside petrol stations and all the angry people waiting to obtain fuel were blaming the government with the most often expressed sentiment being ‘the country is finished’. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this is the commonly prevalent sentiment in the country about the present government.

If you ask the Sirisena faction of the SLFP why they hold their May Day rallies in locations very far away from the Joint Opposition rally, they will quite candidly tell you that it  is a precaution to prevent the people they bring for the rally from going to the Joint Opposition rally instead, said Chandraprema. I was personally present at the 2015 May Day rally of the Sirisena faction at Hyde Park where people arriving for the rally just walked off without even looking at the stage.

In 2016, the SLFP Sirisena faction moved their rally to Galle to prevent a repeat of what happened in 2015. It is a well known fact that people were brought to this rally from the north and east as well. This year, they held their May Day rally in Kandy and true to form the people who had been brought from various parts of the country for the rally in Kandy were seen loitering in blue shirts and caps all over the Kandy town, the lake round, the Peradeniya gardens and virtually everywhere but at the grounds where the SLFP rally was being held. It was the same in 2015 when there were far more blue shirted individuals at the Viharamahadevi Park than at Hyde Park where the rally was being held, concluded Chandraprema.

Business Times and Research Consultancy Bureau (BT-RCB) conducted a street poll in Colombo and Galle in October 2017. Here is   a selection of the comments as given in Sunday Times”.  This Government has no policy. They talk about laws and the enforcement of the law. But they have not achieved even half of what [former President] Mahinda has done, said respondents. Nobody thinks about the country, anymore. No one is patriotic. There is no difference between this regime and the former regime. The culture is the same as in the past. The politicians have neglected the people and continue to rob the nation. People are burdened by paying for the perks enjoyed by the MPs. Yahapalanaya has no spine or any solution to any problem, said respondents.

The Government is tacitly encouraging corruption and pretends to reduce it. Tenders are offered to known parties who give commissions in return for the favour. Nothing happens without commissions in the procurement industry.  The Treasury bond case is treated as if it is a small issue and irrelevant. All are connected in the Treasury bond matter, including the Prime Minister and the ministers. Cost of living has increased, so has corruption. The US dollar is now 150 rupees,  the respondents concluded.  Sunday Times opinion poll on Budget 2018 also said cost of living has increased, so has corruption.

The public are frantically searching for an alternative to Yahapalana .Mahinda Rajapaksa continues to be hugely popular. The Joint Opposition mahajana rally at Salgado Park, Anuradhapura in November 2017,  was a mammoth one.  It could be considered the Rajarata equivalent of the May Day Galle Face rally. Television showed a large enthusiastic crowd packed tight in the Park. In the same month Rajapaksa was the chief guest at the 20^th anniversary of the All Island Samurdhi officers society.

Rajapaksa continues to be recognized by India and China. When he went   for an International Buddhist festival at Aurangabad in November 2017 he was given a ‘bodyguard escort’. Shangri La Hotel   was opened in Colombo on November 16 by President Sirisena.  The very next day, Shangri La hosted a dinner for Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabhaya Rajapakse.  Shangri-La Chairperson, Kuok Hui Kwong, the daughter of Robert Kuok Khoon Ean, was there to welcome Gotabhaya, who, observed the media, had cleared the way for this mega tourism project.

Yahapalana seems to have entirely lost the support of the sangha. The leading politicians and various other persons regularly go to Malwatte, Asgiriya and  Getambe temples, to state their positions and seek the support of the sangha. Petroleum officials went to Malwatte in November 2017, to state their petroleum concerns.  But Instead of supporting, the sangha are now emerging as vocal opponents of Yahapalana. ‘Eliya’ has several bhikkus speaking on its platform.

Keppetiyagoda Sirinimala of Getambe temple said ‘Yahapalana is playing around with the country. Now all of us and the country are going to be destroyed.   Usually when there was a crisis, the sangha came forward, now they are denigrating the sangha.’  (Derana news 22.10.17) On another occasion Ven. Sirinimala said there are lots of ‘prasna’ in the country.  ‘Rata okkoma anala thiyenne’. Government is simply prolonging problems instead of settling them promptly. We gave power to one person but that power is utilized by another’ he said. (Derana news 15.10.17)

The sangha are now involved in Yahapalana matters that range from constitutional reform to local issues. Let us take local issues first.  Members of the Asgiriya Chapter headed by Ven. Warakagoda Sri Gnanaratnana opposed a government decision to shift Yatinuwara Veediya Sinha Regiment camp. Senior members of the Karaka Sangha Sabha, Ven.  Narampanawe Ananda and Ven. Muruddeniya Dhammaratana, Viharadhipati of Muthiyangana Raja Maha Vihara said the camp had to be there to ensure security .It had been there even in colonial times.   ‘The regiment should not be shifted at all.’

Ven. Alutgama Upananda, Viharadhipati of Athuparayaya Bodhirukkarama is   President of the ‘Union of landowners Surrendering properties for the Central Expressway’. The process of acquiring land for the Kurunegala – Dambulla stretch of the proposed Central Expressway had caused great inconvenience to the respective land owners in Dambulla, he said.

One is that compensation payments relevant to the Dambulla Vihara’s rajakariya land was being paid to the Buddhist Affairs Commissioners Department rather than tenant residents in the lands. Only a part of the compensation on lands taken over are paid to the Dambulla Raja Maha Vihara.  Further, residents whose lands are to be taken over do not know how it is doing to be done and were living under deep mental distress.

Head of the Anti-Corruption Front Ven. Walapane Sri Sumangala Thera said that former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran had spent a whopping Rs. 66 million from the Central Bank funds, in addition to the salary for his luxury lifestyle. He had submitted bills for plush hotels here and overseas, dining at top class restaurants and purchasing expensive suits.

Now to national matters. Ven. Anamaduwe Dhammadassi said at Wattegama Pitiyegedera Rajamaha vihara renovations ceremony, that ‘we do not have a national policy that can survive changes of government’. (Derana news 21.10.17)  The Sangha supported the victory over Eelam. The Federation of National Organizations  had prepared a reported titled, ‘A factual appraisal of the OISL report: A rebuttal to the allegations against the armed forces’ and Ven. Bengamuwe Nalaka was delegated to hand it over to President Sirisena.

Ven.  Ven. Omalpe Sobhitha urged the Northern Province Governor to take legal action against Provincial Education Minister S. Sarveshwaran for refusing to hoist the national flag at a function at the Perakum Maha Vidyalaya in Irattaperiyakulam. He requested the Governor to remove Sarveshwaran from his post following an inquiry into the event.

As a public representative, Sarveshwaran is under oath of office to perform duties and discharge functions in accordance with the Constitution. Refusing to hoist the flag of the country is a breach of the oath. Sarveshwaran’s action violated the Constitution and also promotes the separatist Eelam ideology. Ramanna Nikaya condemns the incident and calls for immediate action against the Provincial Minister,

Anamaduwe Dhammadassi said that Chief Minister Vigneswaran had met the Malwatte and Asgiriya bhikkus and said they want federalism.  The sangha had straightaway said they cannot agree this. It appears that the Provincial Councils also have said they want greater powers. Power sharing can be both good and bad. With power sharing there will be problems like doing superhighways, he added.

The sangha are unanimous that there is no need for a new constitution. The Joint Councils of Asgiri and Malwatu chapters said that the country does not need a new Constitution or Amendments.  They demanded an immediate end to the constitution making process. Stick to the present constitution they said, only change the election system. Ven. Bellanwila Wimalarathana Thera and Keppetiyagoda Sirinimala of Getambe temple also took the same view.

The Yahapalana government is notable for the predominance of Ceylon Tamils in vital areas of administration. Some appointments are natural ones, others seem to be contrived. Some were brought in from abroad to take up the positions. Justice Sri Pavan who had functioned as acting Chief Justice on three occasions,  was appointed Chief Justice in  January 2015. He retired in February 2017.  Arjuna Mahendran, a close associate of Ranil Wickremesinghe and a citizen of Singapore, was appointed Governor, Central Bank. When Mahendran went, he was replaced by Indrajit Coomaraswamy. Mahendran was working in Singapore.

Eastern Commander of the navy, Neil Rosairo was transferred to Colombo and Rear Admiral Travis Sinniah was appointed Eastern naval commander in 2016. Sinniah had retired from the navy in 2011 and was living in Australia. Sinniah became Navy Commander in August 2017,  but was retired in October 2017 on reaching the age of 55 years, after just three months in office.   On retirement he was given the customary rank of Admiral.

2015. Paskaralingam, the influential former Finance Ministry Secretary, also President R. Premadasa’s right-hand anchor man, is back after eight years in self-exile and playing a key behind-the-scenes role in the present regime as advisor to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe since 2015. Paskaralingam was a key player in the 1989-1993 United National Party government. He was the Secretary to the mighty Ministry of Local Government, Housing and Construction and also the Chairman of the Urban Development Authority, entrusted with the planning and building of the new capital city arising out of the Diyawanna marshes and village reawakening programme during the Premadasa regime.

Paskaralingam is now advisor and close aide to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. He rarely appears in public and initially, on arrival in Sri Lanka at the start of Yahapalana rule, stayed incognito in a hotel. He has avoided media publicity and generally not seen at public events. He is currently entrusted with the task of co-coordinating and working with all government development agencies. Bank officials giving evidence on the bond scam said that when they met then Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake regarding the bids, Paskaralingam had also been present.

At a  business forum in Colombo chaired by him, organized by the National Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka,  he took immediate action, contacting relevant officials and arranging one-to-one meetings with them to assist at least 25 businessmen to sort out their business issues, Displaying his power over the country’s bureaucracy, he contacted the heads of RDA, BOI, Treasury and several other state agencies over the phone directly to find ways and means to settle issues of businessmen. These included the heavy cess levied on maize imports affecting the poultry industry, insurance company listing issues, road construction payment problems, gem industry grievances, investment and heavy taxes imposed on industrial ventures at the BOI Meerigama Investment zone and tender issues.

The Director General, of Customs, W.A. Chulananda Perera was transferred and P.S.M. Charles was appointed in September 2017.  Ms. Charles was from Jaffna.  She had been GA Batticaloa and GA Vavuniya. Reshan Dewapura was removed from the post of CEO, ICTA and Muhunthan Canagey, a young Tamil software entrepreneur, was appointed CEO  in February 2015,  within a month of Yahapalana taking over. Asian Mirror   headlined the appointment, ‘Controversial Dealer Muhunthan Canagey Appointed as ICTA Chief.  Canagey resigned at the request of the President in August 2017.

There was a significant clustering of Tamils in other sectors as well. The Western Province governor was K.C. Logeswaran. V. Sivagnanasothy was Secretary to Ministry of National integration and Reconciliation. The ministry is under President. Geoffrey Alagaratnam became President, Bar Association of Sri Lanka, 2015 t0 2017  and Bradley Emerson, the controversial former CEO of CIMA, Sri Lanka was appointed as CEO of Private Public Partnership (PPP) division  under the Treasury,  ‘at a massive salary’ by Ravi Karunanayake.  It appears that Emerson was also Director General, Department of Fiscal Policy. In August 2017, the media said that the National Project Management Division headed by its Director Bradley Emerson is expected to disband under the changes initiated by the new Finance Minister Samaraweera.

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando.

Dilshani Palugaswewa highlighted in the Ceylon Today (Sunday Edition), the discourse made by Ajitha Wickremesinghe, the Financial Legal Equality Advisor and Director of iProbono, and the Founding Trustee of Think Equal, at a function held at  the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies, on 21 November, to mark The International Day for Tolerance.

Ajitha Wickremesinghe’s speech at the forum was significantly thought provoking. He has opened his discourse by asking whether ‘any one wishes to be just tolerated,’ which is very much on a par with the present situation in Sri Lanka, especially in political circles.

Behavioural patterns of people certainly have an overall impact on any society. Everyone agrees with Aritha Wickremasinghe’s viewpoint that ‘tolerance is much desirous than discriminating, as no one wants to be treated negatively’. He has concentrated, in his sermon, mainly on the traffic situation in Sri Lanka, as well as on a wide-range of topics, from racial discrimination to associated violence (evidently displayed recently in Gintota), and on gender based discrimination in job opportunities, particularly on women, the disabled and, those confined to wheel chairs, and the transgender.

Tolerance in opposite order.

The tolerance can easily work in the opposite order as well! Sri Lankans, on this issue, expose their gullibility due to a long-term brainwashing done by politicians, which has managed to breed a ‘social smog’ tolerance. It would be more prudent to refer  to the inaugural speech made by President Maithripala Sirisena, when he addressed the newly elected Members of Parliament, after winning the Presidential election on 8 January 2015, by calling them as, Garu or Honourable Members of Parliament”.  From there onwards, he went on to congratulate the people of Sri Lanka, who voted for him, as well those who did not, et al.

The President, as a Parliamentarian with 26 years of experience, at the time, and as a Minister who had held a variety of portfolios in the government, appeared to have been caught unawares, to use the term ‘tolerance’ in the opposite order’ by addressing all as, ‘Honourable or Garu” members.

Could this be due to people in this Country being reduced for decades to a nationwide `smog tolerance,`  either by being naïve or purposely? It is mind-blowing to note how every one in this country is addressing parliamentarians as ‘Garu or honourable, as a spreading contagious disease. The Cabinet Ministers on the other hand, seem to believe that they have descended from heaven and dwell in cloud nine! It is such a travesty that they seem to forget their obligations as to why people in this country have elected them to such glorious positions. In the bygone years, even the cream of the civil servants displayed humility by signing official letters as `Your obedient servant’! Parliamentarians are not a special breed, but ordinary people elected by the citizenry, and get paid handsomely out of taxpayers’ hard earned money for which, they need to be duty bound officially as well as  morally.

Honourary Titles

Honourary titles exist academically in Universities and Colleges, as an accolade in recognition of students’ merits. In certain contexts, a title is added to someone’s name to signify veneration, or a professional or academic qualification. In a more general concept, the title of ‘ Doctor’ is used on non-medicos, who hold a philosophic degree. Senior Surgeons in Britain are addressed as ‘Mr ’ as an honour, instead of simply calling them ‘Dr. ’ Titles such as ‘ Sir ‘and ‘Dame,’ in the UK, are bestowed upon a special category of men and women, with the rank of Knight Commander, or holder of the Grand Cross in the Order of Chivalry. Therefore, to address someone as ‘honourary,’ the person needs to be engaged in voluntary work, without seeking any payment or remuneration for his services.

In such a backdrop, when the general public and politicians are addressing each other and among themselves, as ‘garu’ or honourary Member of Parliament, Prime Minister or President, the tolerance begins to work in opposite order, as the entire lot is not engaged in honourary work but earn fat salaries, allowances of many a kind, including millions worth of duty free luxury car permits and, the worse being becoming self centered, and clutch themselves to their parliamentary privileges, for five years, and qualify for a life time pension. It’s high time that the citizenry begin to cast-off such balderdash, and treat politicians for what they are, as none of them appears to be doing a voluntary service.

Young Aritha Wickremasinghe’s strategies ‘to push forward a new generation of identical thinkers and well mannered citizens’ in a steering programme, aimed at children of three years old, in a number of selected schools, need to be recognised and upheld.

tilakfernando@gmail.com

Champa Fernando Secretary,Kandy Association for Community Protection through Animal Welfare (KACPAW)

To complement the National Dog Sterilization Programme, Animal Welfare Organizations like KACPAW (Kandy Association for Community Protection through Animal Welfare), together with state institutions like the Municipal Councils carry out mass sterilization of dogs using their own money and get these animals mass vaccinated against rabies as well.

As an example, KACPAW funded dog and cat sterilizations in the Kandy Municipal Council (KMC) areas from 2015 to 2017 in which 2,238 animals have been sterilized, paying Rs 2.238 million to the vets for the surgeries.

So, Animal Welfare organizations DO NOT expect these sterilized and vaccinated dogs to be sedated and removed in the night and dumped in rubbish dumps to die.

But, that is exactly what  happened on the 2^nd of December night – 6 very friendly sterilized and vaccinated community dogs at the KMC site at Katukelle were sedated while they came wagging their tails and dumped at Thekkawatta Rubbish Dump in the icy cold and wet weather. It is anyone’s guess if they would survive!!

Reason for removal of these dogs: The President is to open a new building at this venue on 3/12!! What an inauspicious start!! I hope there would be no Buddhist Monks chanting Pirith at the event extolling the need to be compassionate to all living beings!!

Let the President also come out from the artificial bubble officials around him love to create and tell the officials to stop such inhumane and senseless acts against animals.

The least the Commissioner of the KMC could have done was to have contacted KACPAW, who in July 2017 took under its temporary care 80 dogs till the Perahera was over, and asked us to keep these much loved community dogs, just 6, safe till the Presidential function is over.

But no, the first bloody minded instinct of certain officials is to sedate and dump them in some No-Man’s land.

Sedated Dogs

Personally I believe the opening ceremony of the building is tarnished with cruelty to animals, when humane options were available had the KMC contacted KACPAW.

We sure do stand as a nation cursed as a result of the mindless and senseless cruelty we subject our animals, whether it be dogs or elephants or any other animal.

The daily chant of Let all living beings be well” rings hollow across this country, despite the loud bellowing of it each day.

We may be one of the most uncivilized nations in the world going by the way we treat our animals! Each day we hear of a new atrocity against some animal.

Champa Fernando

Secretary, KACPAW

Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge 

Meditation is a mental exercise and it enhances the state of awareness. Awareness is the ability to directly know and perceive, to feel, or to be cognizant of events (Wikipedia). The meditative awareness is often called blissful awareness which is a higher state of consciousness. Higher consciousness involves the ability to be conscious of being conscious.

Meditative awareness is an awareness of perception; an intuitive awareness. It is a form of calm mental state that upgrades compassion, equanimity and wisdom.  It provides a sense of tranquility and peace. Meditative awareness connected with the attention in the present moment self-regulating the mind. This awareness gives profound insight about the body/mind experience with heightened alertness. Furthermore it gives clarity of mind.

The meditative awareness helps to analyze the inner being and external environment in non judgmental manner. This process creates a profound mental harmony without any negative emotions. Then the life-stream becomes more focused achieving the wholeness. Then the meditator is living his originality.

In meditative awareness feelings and emotions are neutrally analyzed without any fixation. Thus the mediator finally achieves pure consciousness which is called Samadhi. Deshmukh (2006) describes Samadhi as a self-absorptive, adaptive state with realization of one’s being in harmony with reality.  It is unitive, undifferentiated, reality-consciousness, an essential being, which can only be experienced by spontaneous intuition and self-understanding.

Meditation and Consciousness

Consciousness has been one of the most important and tantalizing issues ever since the origin of philosophy and medicine (Facco et al., 2017). In general terms consciousness is defined as the state of awareness of self and the environment.  In biological terms, human consciousness appears as a feature associated with the functioning of the human brain (Gierer, 2008). The English philosopher John Locke stated that consciousness is the awareness of all that occurs in the mind of a person.

As described by van Gulick (2004) consciousness is the state or quality of awareness, or, of being aware of an external object or something within oneself. In modern science it is defined as a continuous state of full awareness of the Self and one’s relationship to the external and internal environment, describing the degree of wakefulness in which an organism recognizes stimuli (Jellinger, 2009).

According to the biological theories consciousness is some form of biological state of the brain depends on brain chemistry and electrical impulses. Current research suggests that human consciousness is associated with complex, synchronous interactions between multiple cortical networks (Panda et al, 2016). According to Szirmai and Kamondi  (2006) higher functions” of human mental ability have been ascribed to the prefrontal and parietal association cortices. The paleocerebrum, limbic system and their connections have been considered to be the center of emotions, feelings, attention, motivation and autonomic functions.

Consciousness is a state or function of the brain. It is individual awareness. There are four states of consciousness such as Waking: Sleeping: Dreaming: Meditation.

Consciousness is strongly connected with awareness. However there is no conscious perception without attention (Mack & Rock, 1998).

The American Psychologist William James postulated that our conscious mental life flows continuously like a stream in which the transition between the thought of one object and the thought of another is no more a break in the thought than a joint in a bamboo is a break in the wood. William James described consciousness as a stream – a continuous succession of experiences. For William James consciousness is something flowing uninterruptedly.

Meditation practice is geared to reach higher consciousness. A.K Nair of the Department of Neurophysiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences Bengaluru, India indicates that Meditation induces a modified state of consciousness that remains under voluntary control.

Meditative consciousness is characterized by receptive attention to and awareness of present events and experiences.  It constitutes the ability to become aware of mental activities such as sensations, images, feelings, and thoughts, and to disengage from judgment, conditioned emotions, and their cognitive processing or automatic inhibition (Gartenschläger et al., 2017). In meditative consciousness there are no cognitive elaborations or emotional reactivity. This state is characterized by improved task performance and decreased stress-related symptomolog and without maladaptive mental processes. Some experts state that in meditative consciousness brain activation in the left prefrontal cortex can be detected via Functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Meditation and Metacognition

Metacognition is “cognition about cognition” or thinking about thinking”. It is the  ability to recognize one’s own successful cognitive processing. It is the individual’s ability to assess their own cognitive ability. Meta-cognition is one of the distinctive characteristics of human mind that enables us to reflect on our own mental states ( Hussain, 2015). Metacognition is important in mental health. Metacognitive impairments are observed in chronic psychosis such as schizophrenia. In addition metacognition impairment are found among drug addicts.

The involvement of metacognition in mindfulness is already acknowledged in recent mindfulness models (Norman, 2017). Meta-cognition and mindfulness share many commonalities and are conceptually related in many ways ( Hussain, 2015).

Mindfulness involves a metacognitive level of mind that is aware of the cognitions or contents of the mind (Kabat-Zinn ,2003; Hussain, 2015).Some experts believe that mindfulness is related to the highest level of metacognition. Shapiro and colleagues (2006) linked mindfulness to metacognition, arguing that the process of mindfully attending with openness and nonjudgementalness leads to what is referred to as reperceiving. (Norman, 2017). Reperceiving is a principal effect of mindfulness meditation.

Meditation and Connecting with Inner Self

Abraham Maslow once stated: What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.  Meditation helps to reveal the inner self. Knowing inner self comes from self-awareness.  While practicing meditation the meditator understands the nature of existence achieving a lot of aha moments while reconnecting with inner-self.  This process leads to self realization. Once the inner self has been experienced, the mediator gains more wisdom.  As described by Swami Krishnananda the concept of Self-Realization can stir up highly balanced outlook of life, a sober approach to every event and factor in life, a policy of impersonality in regard to any kind of encounter in the world.

Meditation and Mind-Body Connection

René Descartes described the concept of mind-body dualism in the 16th century (Ventriglio & Bhugra , 2015). For centuries he mind and body has been viewed as distinct entities. This dualism has created boundaries between mind and body and Descartes dogma has caused tremendous amount of damage to Western psychiatry (Ventriglio & Bhugra , 2015). The mind and the body are clearly intertwined (Sullivan & Hudson, 2017).

Mind-body interventions are based on the holistic principle that mind, body and behaviour are all interconnected and it incorporates strategies that are thought to improve psychological and physical well-being (Theadom et al., 2015). According to Bonilla (2010) meditation is one of the mind-body healing procedures. Meditation is a method for synchronizing body and mind in the present moment. Research on mind-body exercises such as meditation has indicated significant mental and physical value (La Forge ,1997). Meditation augments the mind-body connection. Meditation develop a stronger mind-body connection through heightened somatic awareness and a focus on the present moment (Myers  et al.,2015).

Meditation; Self Awareness and Self Growth

Developing self awareness is a part of mental training. In general terms self-awareness is the capacity for introspection and the ability to recognize oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals. Self-Awareness occurs through reflection. Developing self awareness is a healing process. It is  is a dynamic process of recovery.

The power of self awareness is connected with know thyself. Know thyself is a huge part in meditation.  Many centuries ago Aristotle wrote: knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. Lao Tzu states that he who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.  According to Erich Fromm   know thyself is one of the fundamental commands that aim at human strength and happiness.

Meditation can be viewed as an introspection tool. Introspection is the examination or observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes. Self-analysis is one of the key factors in introspection. The meditation Guru Paramahansa Yogananda concluded; Introspection, or ‘sitting in the silence,’ is an unscientific way of trying to force apart the mind and senses, tied together by the life force. The contemplative mind, attempting its return to divinity, is constantly dragged back toward the senses by the life currents.

Meditation is a transformative experience. It can bring true personal transformation. Meditation is a means to (positive) transformations in consciousness (Sedlmeier et al., 2012).  Meditation is appreciation of life. Meditation builds internal energy. It is an internal effort that could be used to self regulate. Some call it intention cultivation. This is a process which is called healing from within. Meditation augments growth promotion. Personal and spiritual growth can be achieved via meditation. It is a conglomerate of mental,   social, emotional, and spiritual growth.

Meditation and Optimal Healing Environment 

As described by Craven (1989) meditation has five basic components: relaxation, concentration, altered state of consciousness, logic relaxation and self-observation attitude. Subjectively, meditative experience is said to be fundamentally different from “normal” mental state (Neumann & Frasch, 2006). It is a self-transcending experience. It is an active state that causes positive changes in self-esteem. Meditation is a dominant form of mental training. It is a practice of concentrated focus or to engage in contemplation or reflection.  It is also called mind cultivation, a form of act of extended thought (a focused exercise).   

Mediation maintains a moment-by-moment awareness of thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment. Meditation stabilizes the mind through focus. Meditation improves attention, self awareness and emotional self-regulation by calming the body and mind. It improves ability to process information quickly and accurately. Mediation helps to achieve inner balance and stability by transforming the mind recognizing natural wisdom.  This practice helps to heighten sense of well-being.

Meditation sharpens the mind. It is about improving one’s attention, attitude and cognitive skills positively managing emotions. Meditation could boost cognitive flexibility and responsible decision-making. It is a method to maintain stillness and inner calm above all enhance mental development. According to Ott (2004) meditation allows individuals to become compassionate witnesses to their own experiences, to avoid making premature decisions, and to be open to new possibilities, transformation, and healing. Meditation may change brain and immune function in positive ways (Davidson et al., 2003).

The meditative mind is an awaken mind. It is calm and serene; it leads to spiritual awaking. Dr Deepak Chopra states that the purpose of meditation is to stop thinking for a time, wait for the fog of thought to thin, and glimpse the spirit within. Therefore meditation opens an optimal healing environment (OHE).

Editorial Courtesy The Island

December 2, 2017, 7:13 pm
Bad weather, such as what Sri Lanka and the region have been experiencing recently, is undoubtedly a so-called “Act of God.” There is very little that mankind can do about it other that be prepared for weather-related disasters. In his regular column this week, commentator Sanjana Hattotuwa has severely faulted the Meteorology Department and its head for being backward in its forecasting and being dismissive of foreign expertise on this subject. We do not want to repeat what Hattotuwa has said in this space as readers will be able to read what he has written and make up their own minds. Certainly a great deal of destruction followed in the wake of the storm with 11 lives reportedly lost as this is being written, over 400 houses destroyed and hundreds temporarily lodged in welfare camps. It can be reasonably urged that even if there was earlier warning, similar damage would have occurred. People are understandably reluctant to leave their homes even when forewarned as human nature naturally hopes for the best. Nevertheless there is a need to tighten systems, something that has been raised in the past when similar disasters struck, but forgotten after the emergency has passed.

Obviously the Met Department operates within a variety of constraints including lack of staff and equipment. It is not possible to have observers all along the coast to warn of impending storms. But today, with the proliferation of mobile phones which almost every man and his brother own, physically visible signs can be quickly disseminated. Our columnist has made the point that social media has played an important role in this area and also writes of weather forecasting technology built into smart phones and many other devices that people carry in their pockets. It was as recently as September when the Sunday Times newspaper broke a story headlined “Weather monitoring: Equipment worth Rest. 72 million gone with the wind.” As far as we know, the accuracy of the report based on the findings of the Auditor General, has not been contested by the responsible authorities.

This report said that “Sri Lanka has abandoned an initiative to use satellite technology during natural disasters, leaving Rs. 72 million worth of equipment unused for four years before finally dismantling it, the Auditor General (AG) has found. The project was initiated in 2011 and given up despite the country facing severe natural disasters in previous years, states the latest report of the AG on the Disaster Management Centre (DMC). The DMC found out that the satellite technology equipment was not compatible with its other systems, only when the full system was installed. The DMC Director General admitted to the AG that the equipment was bought without first conducting a proper study. The project’s nerve centre was an Information Communication Centre (ICC) established in Padukka under the International Centre for Emergency Techniques based in the Netherlands. The centre and the equipment were valued at Rs. 72.47 million. Both remained idle from the inception, the AG says. After four long years, everything was dismantled and is in storage at the DMC since May 15, 2015.”

The Padukka site belongs to Sri Lanka Telecom, a public listed company in which a foreign company has a significant stake. Although the government has control of SLT there are also private shareholders in addition to the Malaysian party, many of them small, on the company’s share register. Now SLT wants the Padukka property returned. If this is done, whether that would be the end of attempting to use satellite technology during times of natural disaster at least in the short term, we do not know. Whether Sri Lanka paid for the equipment that is now found useless or whether it was grant aid received by the country is not clear. However that be, it is obvious that there have been many failures along the way – a malaise that is all too common. Hopefully somebody would be held to account on the basis of the Auditor General’s findings.

One of the better things about this country is the spontaneous generosity of people when natural disasters strike. That has been often seen with not only the State but ordinary people as well as businesses organizing relief efforts. The damage caused by the recent storm was relatively small not necessitating the kind of response earlier disasters demanded. The State, of course, carries the primary responsibility of caring for the victims and the prime minister has already directed that compensation be swiftly paid to those affected. Roofs of humble homes in coastal areas were blown off by the gale force winds and even St. Thomas’ Prep School in Kollupitiya suffered considerable damage. There has also been the usual damage to roads that come with heavy rainfall. This has been aggravated by drainage failures resulting in accumulation of water with sewers and often clogged drains unable to cope with the storm water. Sri Lanka has been recently suffering from drought and flood cycles attributable to climate change. Humans are largely responsible for much environmental damage which continues despite growing awareness.

Sanjana Hattotuwa Courtesy The Island

At the time of writing this column, 11 have died because of a storm that hit Sri Lanka. Five are missing. Over 61,000 people across the island are affected by the disaster. Images of the devastation are all over the news, including over updates on social media pushed out from the Sri Lanka Red Cross. In this context, worth recalling in some detail a news report published in the mainstream media in English quoting Met Department Director and “Forecaster” Anusha Warnasooriya.

Warnasooriya dismissed the storm system as one that would merely travel over Sri Lanka on its way to India. Warning people not to panic over “foreign reports” which according to her are “unreliable”, she went on to say that “the build-up of a storm could be identified early and the Met Department would know if there was such a threat”. Sri Lanka’s Met Dept, despite regional and global evidence to the contrary, had in under a day before a major storm hit Sri Lanka, no indication around its severity. It issued no public warning. It did nothing.

Warnasooriya’s last public Facebook update is from July this year, where she is interviewed by a TV channel on the Meteorological Department’s ability to forecast adverse weather. There are some incredible claims made in the course of a short interview. Referring to Doppler Radar technology, which Sri Lanka does not yet have, she claims that even with it, weather forecasts can only be done two hours in advance. She is asked what measures the Meteorological Department has taken to warn the public around sudden low-pressure systems and the resulting bad weather patterns. Warnasooriya stresses that the public has understood that her Department has made advances in how the public is engaged with and warned. Noting the dangers of false warning, she avers that the Department is able to warn the public no sooner than they are around seventy to eight percent certain of an impending bad weather.

Asked as to how she sees the technical or technological capacity and competence of the Department in relation to other countries, Warnasooriya notes that more than this, the problem lies in where Sri Lanka is situated, and due to the fact that the country “stores a lot of energy”, whatever that means. There is a fascination with numerical weather prediction, to what in the interview seems to be the repeated dismissal of technologies like Doppler Radar.

The numerical forecasting she speaks of, that the Meteorological Department in Sri Lanka seems to be married to, isn’t your average Excel spreadsheet running on a normal PC. Currently the world’s most powerful supercomputer – actually an array of three running in tandem – dedicated to weather analysis resides in Met Office in the United Kingdom. As the website of the Met Office notes, the computational power is mind-boggling – fourteen thousand trillion arithmetic operations per second or more than two million calculations per second for every man, woman and child on planet Earth. The supercomputer also has 24 petabytes of storage for saving data, which to put into perspective is enough to store over 100 years’ worth of high definition (Blu-ray) movies.

Warnasooriya’s misplaced patriotism and love for home-grown numerical weather prediction, one doubts very much, is founded on even a fraction of this computation power required to do any sort of accurate forecasting. And therein lies the rub. Sri Lanka’s Met Dept operates with near total impunity. Year and year, even as preventable deaths pile up, even as public anger over any sort of adequate warning grows, its officials claim they are doing a good job and contrary to all discernible evidence, assure us they provide the best possible information in a timely manner. The reality isn’t hard to find, and not just in the death and destruction around us today. The last update on the Met Dept.’s Twitter feed is, at the time of writing, from five days ago. It is an automated update from a service that tracks how many followed and unfollowed the account. The last actual weather update is from April 17. Every single tweet since is an automated tweet that bears no relation whatsoever to the purpose of the Met Dept, and its account on social media.

There is an enduring disaster in Sri Lanka. And it is our public weather forecasting system writ large. Earlier in the year, agencies, departments and line ministries engaged blamed each other for the lack of warning around catastrophic flooding that devastated large parts of the country and our farming output, for the second year in a row. From an incompetent, inconsiderate Minister of Disaster Management who doesn’t even rush back to the country when abroad and after a major disaster hits, to the farcical nature of updates from the Disaster Management Centre, official channels are at best terrible. At least over social media, which now informs many more than just those who have a Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp account, the Sri Lanka Red Cross, renowned journalists and climate change experts like Amantha Perera and even individuals like Gopiharan Perinpam, whose day job is at Sri Lanka Customs, provide trusted, timely and informative updates in the lead up to and during a disaster. It is a remarkable, revealing role reversal, where official information channels and authorities are the least trusted, most hated and the last to update, whereas citizens over social media are the first to inform others with trusted, reliable information sourced from recognised, respected international and regional weather reports which use the latest satellite imagery, forecasting models and weather updates.

Warnasooriya’s comments last week hint also at a larger malaise that bedevils our progress – misplaced patriotism. Weather knows no geographic or political boundary. Nature has no respect whatsoever for man-made borders and sovereignty. In suggesting that Sri Lanka should be inherently sceptical of forecasts issued by foreign agencies and trusted sources outside the country, the Met Dept suggests a modus operandi that is manifestly absurd if not downright tragic – that weather alerts and forecasting can only be done within Sri Lanka, and by Sri Lankans, if they are to be truly believed and reliable. Every single smartphone sold in Sri Lanka today has baked into its operating system weather forecasting better than what the Met Dept in Sri Lanka provides, the DMC alerts the public on, the Ministry of Disaster Management is capable of embracing and the Minister is possibly even remotely aware of.

The impunity around all of this is its own story – there appears to be no real interest in learning from mistakes or meaningful reform. Human resources around, for example, the basic translation of the few alerts that do make it out into Tamil, are almost wholly absent. But they abound in civil society, where a combination of technology, skills and information dissemination are now supplanting the role of official agencies. And that’s possibly where investment needs to occur – towards developing, in a country like Sri Lanka, citizen-driven, citizen-centric, technologically underpinned, public weather alerting models that leverage over twenty-one million SIM cards and coast to coast connectivity to disseminate reliable, fact-based warnings in a timely manner. If this strikes one as far-fetched or absurd, just think about the millions of dollars, year after year, from domestic budgets and foreign financing, that goes into propping up government agencies that openly say they can only predict weather two hours in advance.

The choice surely is clear, even if our weather is not.

SUNIL G WIJESINHA Colombo 5.Courtesy The Island

Heavy rains and strong winds Wednesday night and Thursday caused substantial damages to private and public property. Staff photographer Ranjith Wimalasiri captured this scene at Borella

Most international weather sites warned of downpours in Sri Lanka and South India this week. Some said it may lead to flooding. “accuweather.com” gave the warning titled “downpours return” on 23 November 2017, saying rains will come to Sri Lanka and South India the following week. In fact “weather-forecast.com” showed the expected path, day by day, of a depression. It currently shows another smaller depression east of Jaffna, which is expected to move towards Chennai and disappear by 5 December 2017.

By Monday 27 November, there were many messages and emails about an impending storm and floods this week. However, on Tuesday, 28 November, a daily newspaper carried an article that the Department of Meteorology says these foreign forecasts cannot be substantiated with data available to the Meteorological Department. People accepted that and relaxed.

The deep depression intensified into a cyclone named Ockhi, there was heavy rain and strong winds, and people were caught by surprise. Now there is more “fake news” spreading, because the Met Department has a credibility gap. More people will now rely on foreign weather sites. All the warnings given by the Met Department up to that point in time were of no avail, because seeing the statement published in the newspaper, people did not expect such bad weather.

Our Met Department is doing its best. It must be further strengthened with the equipment and personnel they need. It must be guided to have a working website which people could easily access. A 10 day forecast is essential. I often speak to a very efficient lady in the Department, who has substantially educated me on weather patterns and provides me information whenever I seek. They have the expertise and knowledge. It is better if such useful information is on their new website, and educates people on the weather, probably using more illustrations. Their old website was old style, but far easier to access.

SUNIL G WIJESINHA Colombo 5.

C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

Options available for Sirisena as LG elections loom
Elections Commission at last justifies its existence
RW heading for another bond fiasco

December 2, 2017, 7:57 pm
With the Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government Faizer Mustapha being forced to engineer the withdrawal of the six petitions against the delimitation gazette, the obstacle to holding elections to all the local government institutions vanished and now the long awaited election is to be held in early February. It was the Elections Commission that forced the hand of the government by declaring elections to 93 LG institutions where there was no dispute with regard to the delimitation of wards and fixing dates for nominations. Once the die was cast with elections declared for 93 local government institutions, the government had little option but to give way and have the six petitions they filed in the Appeal Court withdrawn. The ease with which Minister Mustapha managed to get the six petitions withdrawn made it only too plain that it was the SLFP group in Parliament that had filed them just as the Joint Opposition said.

If the elections were held in a limited area, all the Joint Opposition activists in other areas would have converged in the few areas in which elections were being held and the government would have had a tough time. However, when elections are held countrywide JO activists are forced to remain in their own areas – which is better for the government. This was also why the government both metaphorically and literally moved heaven and earth to postpone the elections to the Sabaragamuwa, North Central and Eastern PCs which stood dissolved by October 1 this year. It was better for them to allow the PCs to cease to exist and to take the inevitable fallout without allowing the elections to be held in a limited area and allowing Joint Opposition activists to converge on the areas going for elections.

One thing that this whole sorry episode highlighted is how easy it is to use the rule of law to undermine democracy in this country. If the government wants to postpone an election, all they have to do is to send some catchers to court claiming that their rights were infringed and the election is postponed. The Puthukudiirippu and Martime Pattu Pradesheeya Sabha elections were put off for several years in that manner. Be that as it may, the declaration of the local government election has put President Sirisena into a spot. What he is looking at is complete irrelevance after February next year if he fields his own list. He has several options before him. One is not to field a separate list and claim that he is not doing so because he does not want to split the SLFP. By not contesting the JO, he can lay the groundwork for future reconciliation of the two SLFP factions. He may have realized by now that he has no hope of being able to hold his own as a party leader beyond his term as President.

By not contesting the JO he can create positive vibes among the JO rank and file – they literally loathe him now. Thereby he can also ensure the political futures of the SLFP ministers who are with him today. On the other hand, if Sirisena decides to go ahead and contest the election in the midst of an anti government wave in the country, that may place the political futures of all those who follow him in jeorpardy and it may in fact precipitate some defections from his side simply for the sake of political survival. Since the Sirisena faction is not agreeable to leaving the government to contest on the same list with the JO, the next best option he can take is not to contest the JO on the ground. If he contests the JO and comes in as a poor third, that will be the end of his political career. However if he refrains from contesting his weakness would not have been revealed to the public and he would have kept the door open for future reconciliation with the JO as well.

No advantage for JO by teaming up with SLFP

It will be easier for President Sirisena if he simply gives up any delusions he may have of contesting the presidential elections again. The UNP rank and file members are not going to vote for him and for that matter neither will the rank and file of the SLFP. It was only after the talks between the SLFP and the JO commenced that the JO itself realized the extent of the visceral dislike that the SLFP voters at the village level had for Sirisena. If the JO forms an alliance with the SLFP to contest the local government elections, there is the very real possibility that they will lose more votes than they would gain by having the SLFP contesting together with the JO. The anti-government sentiment at the ground level is stronger than one would think. One must say that the mood even among the rank and file in the run up to the August 2015 election was different. At that time, there was the generally prevalent feeling that the two factions should contest together against the UNP under MR’s leadership.

However, even in August 2015, the SLFP/UPFA constituency defeated almost all SLFP candidates identified as loyalists of Sirisena. Only three managed to survive – Duminda Dissanayake, Mahinda Amaraweera and Ranjith Sitambalapitiya. This time, even that level of tolerance appeared to be absent. Moreover, under the new system of elections, if SLFP candidates are nominated for the wards on the JO list, there is the danger that JO voters may not vote for that candidate and the UNP may get a walkover in that ward. So accommodating SLFP candidates on the JO list would not be as easy as it sounds. Before the JO can think of attracting new voters, it stands to reason that they will have to retain their existing voters.

Even though the UNP has been saying that they will win the wards automatically if the SLFP vote splits, that may not hold true at this election, because the polarization has taken place on the basis of being anti-government or pro-government. It’s not as if the voting public is deaf and blind. They know that the Sirisena faction is a part of the government and that it is they who provide the UNP with the extra votes needed in parliament to do what they are doing. Furthermore this is not like the parliamentary elections of August 2015 when the yahapalana government was still new and to a large extent untested. By August 2015, all that the people knew was that the new government had given all government servants an allowance of Rs. 10,000 a month and reduced the prices of fuel, gas and electricity just as they promised during the presidential election campaign. There were no serious negatives to be seen against the yahapalana government at that time. It was the yahapalana government itself which started undermining itself from the very beginning by making the persecution of the opposition their main business in government and by bungling everything they touched.

Today the situation is very different to that which existed in August 2015. And electoral strategies will have to be decided on in a different manner. The next couple of weeks is going to be crucial in this regard.

RW to do his own bond investigation

Last week Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announced in Parliament that his government would launch a special probe into the direct placement of bonds from 2008 to 2014. He stated that bond sales had been made from 2008 to 2014 on direct placements without informing the Monetary Board of the Central Bank or Parliament and that 90% percent of those bond sales had been done on private placements using EPF, ETF and National Savings Bank funds as captive sources. He had also stated that these bond issues had been carried out according to whims and fancies of certain persons and that these are more or less similar to pyramid schemes. Many people would be left wondering how the direct placement of bonds can be likened to a pyramid scheme.

Pyramid scheme is more or less another term for a Ponzi scheme where deposit takers promise extraordinary returns but will be able to provide those returns only so long as the number of investors continues to increase. Neither of these two essential requirements of a Pyramid scheme apply to Central Bank bond issues. Firstly, the direct placements during the Rajapaksa government did not offer ‘extraordinary returns’. In fact direct placements were the one of the principal means by which interest rates were kept low during the previous government. Secondly, there was no need for an ever increasing investor base to keep paying the bond holders because they were paid out of government revenue. The PM seems to have forgotten that the central matter examined by the Committee on Public Enterprises with regard to the bond issue under JVP parliamentarian Sunil Handunnetti’s Chairmanship was this very question of selling bonds by auction versus private placements.

Back in May 2016 when this writer interviewed former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, the way he justified his decision to hold bond auctions instead of direct placements was to say that in the modern economy the government can’t manipulate market prices and the determination of interest rates should be left to market forces but that under the previous government, it was being done administratively by the people in the Central Bank. Mahendran argued that the rate of interest should be determined at an auction and that in the past they (meaning the Rajapaksa government) were using the EPF, the Insurance Corporation and the state banks to fund the government’s borrowing and administratively set the interest rate at whatever level they wanted. Mahendran charged that because of this system, EPF contributors were being short-changed by not being given the kind of interest they would otherwise have got.

However the Auditor General has held solidly in favour of direct placements, the majority of the COPE has also endorsed what the Auditor General said on this matter and finally even the UNP group had agreed to the recommendation that when the government needs to raise money through bonds, priority should be given to the state institutions that have the capacity to provide funds – which is what direct placement is about. So every political party represented in parliament ended up endorsing one of the mainstays of the Rajapaksa era economic policy. In discussing this matter, Handunnetti’s  COPE report observed that the Central Bank started issuing bonds in 1997 and that according to a Monetary Board paper that was issued that year, from March 1997, bonds would be sold to primary dealers through auctions except when there was a dearth of money in the market or in instances where interest rates were spiraling upwards, in which case money could be obtained through direct placements with the EPF. Later in 2008 another Monetary Board paper had authorized the issuance bonds through direct placements with the EPF and other captive sources. In the course of its inquiry, COPE found that the 2008 decision of the Monetary Board had not been incorporated in the handbook used by the Public Debt Department and Central Bank officials had said that the handbook still states that bonds should be sold ‘as much as possible through auctions’.

As could be expected in the circumstances, this point was seized upon by the UNP in the footnotes they added to the COPE report. They argued that when in 2008, direct placements were given priority by a Monetary Board decision, that was only for specified periods during 2008 and that the Monetary Board decision was not valid beyond the end of 2008. Furthermore they pointed out that the Operational Handbook of the Public Debt Department had stated very clearly that when raising money they had to do it ‘as much as possible through auctions’ and that the Auditor General has erred in considering direct placements to be the accepted system. Elsewhere in the footnotes, the UNP had contended that since the Monetary Board had not made a decision to give priority to direct placements after 2008, the direct placements that had been made between 2009 and 2014 were illegal and needed to be investigated. That basically is the straw that the Prime Minister is trying to cling on to.

The Auditor General had given COPE the breakdown of the manner in which money has been raised through auctions or direct placements between January 2014 and May 2016. The contrast between the practices of the previous government and the present one couldn’t be starker. From January 2014 till January 2015, money was raised mostly through direct placements. Auctions were certainly held during this period, but only for very small amounts compared to the amounts being sold through private placements. But after the new government came into power in January 2015, and especially after March 2015, direct placements cease completely and bonds are sold exclusively by auction. Pages 11 to  52   of the COPE report is in fact devoted to an examination of this question of auctions versus direct placements and the manner in which the auction of 27 February 2015 and other auctions were conducted.

The preferred method of the Rajapaksa government was direct placements which the former Governor Mahendran sneered at in the aforementioned interview with this writer as a case of the government administratively fixing interest rates – an outdated system which even Cuba has given up and was followed only by North Korea! However on page 44, the COPE report quoting the Auditor General has observed that the auctions system has increased the cost of raising money for the government and worked to the benefit of the primary dealers who have been able to dispose of their bonds in the secondary market at higher rates. The Auditor General had observed that this has resulted in a benefit that should go to the government going to the primary dealers instead. The UNP responded to this with a footnote that said that legally, priority had to be given to auctions according to the operational handbook of the Public Debt Department.

So the PM will be plumbing a technicality for all he is worth, while everybody else will be talking about the harm that the auctions system did to the economy. It is not too difficult to predict that all that the PM will succeed in doing with a bond investigation of his own will be to give everyone else another opportunity to keep on harping about the loss incurred by the UNP’s bond scam.

The COPE report also noted that the Auditor General has held that because of the switch to auctions, state institutions like the EPF and the state banks who are also primary dealers have fallen behind and had not been able to derive any benefit from the auctions. The Auditor General had also observed that the auctions system had given rise to a situation where primary dealers had begun putting in bids at very high rates of interest – in excess of what the Central Bank was willing to pay and this had led to all bids being rejected on five occasions between January 2015 and May 2016. One of the key recommendations of COPE which was endorsed by all its members was that in trying to meet the financial needs of the government, priority should be given to state institutions – which in effect means giving priority to direct placements. COPE had also recommended that the operational handbook of the Central Bank and other documents should be amended for this to become the norm and the UNP group also endorsed that recommendation.

Thus the entire COPE committee has ended up endorsing the Rajapaksa government’s policy of selling bonds mainly through direct placements. This mind you was in a situation where of the 26 members of the COPE Committee, only three – Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Chandrasiri Gajadeera and Weerakumara Dissanayake were members of the Joint Opposition with the other 23 being members of the yahapalana coalition. So how far can the PM hope to get with his investigation into direct placements? The only thing he will succeed in doing is showing the whole world once again that the system followed by the previous government was far better than that followed by his government.

Champika’s queer quest

Champika Ranawaka addressing a press conference last week said that his quest was to ensure that those rose to the top did so through merit and not through family connections. Though he is a member of parliament elected on the UNP, the example he took was from the Joint Opposition. He said that Mahinda was to be succeeded by Gotabhaya and Gotabhaya by Namal and so on and that this was the system that he wanted to put an end to. Why would a UNP parliamentarian have any concern as to who succeeds whom in the Joint Opposition? There’s not a snowflake’s chance in hell of Ranawaka ever being able to join the Joint Opposition so one would think that he should have been talking of the succession issues in the UNP or the SLFP rather than in the JO. As far as the Joint Opposition is concerned, everybody seems to be quite content to allow Mahinda, Gota and Basil do what they are doing for as long as they are physically capable of doing so because each has his own special ability which the JO is highly appreciative of.

One gets the distinct impression that even though Champika took the Rajapaksa family as an example, he was actually talking to the UNP where the likeliest candidates to succeed Ranil Wickremesinghe are Sajith Premadasa and Ruwan Wijewardene both of who are in politics due to family connections. Why are we not surprised?

විශේෂ ලියුම්කරු කීර්ති රත්නායක

රතු මුහුද තරණය කරමින් පොරොන්දු දේශය කරා මෝසස් මෙහෙයවූ ක්‍රියාන්විතය අප කියවා ඇත. මෙම ක්‍රියාදාමය එදා මෙදා තුර ඉතිහාසය උඩු යටිකුරු කල කල බව නොරහසකි. එදා ඊස්ශ්‍රායෙලියන්ගේ රතු මුහුදු තරනයට හේතු වූයේ පාරාවුන්ගේ වහල් භාවයෙන් මිදී පලා යාමය. එයින් වසර 3000 ක් ගතවෙත්ම ඊශ්‍රායෙලියන් යලිත් වරක් රතුමුහුද තරණයට සැරසී ඇත. නමුත් මෙදා ඔවුන් රතුමුහුද තරණය කරනුයේ මුසොල්මානුවන්ගේ මුදුන්මල්කඩ ආක්රමනය සදහාය. සවුද්ගේ අරාබිය ආරාජික කොට පොරොන්දු දේශය පූරනය කිරීම සදහාය.

ඉතිහාස කථාවට අනුව අවුරුදු ගණනාවක් ඊජිප්තුවේ ජීවත් වූ ඊස්ශ්රායෙලියන් බොහෝ ධන සම්පත් රැස් කරගත්හ. ඔවුන් දෙවියන් අමතක නොකල බවත් දෙවියන්ද ඔවුන් අමතක නොකල බව කියවෙයි . ඔවුන්ගේ බල පරාක්‍රමය දිනෙන් දින වැඩිවිය .මේ අතර ක්රි:පූ: 1301-1235 අතර කාලයේ මිසරයේ පාලකයා වශයෙන් දෙවන රමිඉසස් පත්විය මෙම රජ පෙළපත බයිබලයේ පාරාවෝ” යනුවෙන් හදුන්වන අතර අල්කුර්ආනයේ ෆිර්අව්න්” ලෙස හදුන්වයි.

කෲර ස්වෝත්තමවාදියෙකු ලෙස ගැනෙන රමිඉසස්, ඊස්ශ්‍රායෙලියන් පිලිබදව තැති ගත් බව සදහන් වෙයි. ඒ අනුව ඔවුන්ගේ ධන ධාන්ය රාජසන්තක කොට වහල් භාවයට පමුනුවා ලීය. ඊශ්‍රායෙල්වරුන්ට ඉපදෙන සෑම පිරිමි දරුවෙකුවම නයිල් ගඟේ ගිල්ලවා මරා දමන ලෙස ලෙස අණ කලේය.

මේ අතර එක් ඊස්ශ්‍රායෙලි මවක් තම පුතාව කූඩයක දමා නයිල් ගගේ පා කර හැරියේය. ගගේ පාවූ දරුවා ඇස ගැ‍ටුනේ පාරාවෝ රජ දියනියකටය. ඇය දරුවා හදා වඩා ගත්තාය. ඔහුට මෝසෙස් යන නම තැබූ අතර රජ පවුලේම කෙනෙකු ලෙස හැදී වැඩුනි. මෝසස් වයසින් මුහුකුරා ගියේය. දිනක් ඊජිප්තු රාජ පුරුශයෙකු අතින් පීඩා විඳිමින් සිටි වහලෙකු බේරාගැනීමට ගොස් මෝසෙස් කරදරයක වැටුනි. ඒ සිදුවීම නිසා ඔහු ඊජිප්තුවෙන් පලා යන ඔහු ඈත දේශයක ජීවත් විය. අවුරුදු ගණනාවක් ගෙවී ගිය පසු යෙහෝවා දෙවි මෝසෙස්ව නැවත ඊජිප්තුවට යැවීය. ඒ ඊශ්‍රායෙල්වරුන්ව නිදහස් කර ගැනීම උදෙසාය.

මෝසස්, පාරාවෝ රජ හමුවී ඊශ්‍රායෙලි වහලුන් නිදහස් කරන ලෙසට ඉල්ලීය. නමුත් පාරාවෝ මෝසෙස්ගේ ඉල්ලීම ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කලහ. ඒ අනුව දේව උදහසට ලක්වූ පාරාවෝ වසංගත ඇතුලු භයංකර විපත් 10 කට ලක්වූ බව කියවෙයි. දහවෙනි විපතින් රජුගේ කුලුඳුල් පුත්‍රයාද මිය ගියේය. මෙම සිදුවීමෙන් පසුව මෝසෙස් ඇතුලු ඊස්ශ්‍රායෙලියන්ට ඊජිප්තුවෙන් පිටව යාමට අවසර ලැබුනි. නමුත් පසුව, ඊස්ශ්‍රායෙලියන්ට නිරුපද්‍රිතව යන්න හැරීම මෝඩකමක් කියා සිතූ රජ, තමාගේ මුළු හමුදාව හා අශ්ව රථ සමඟ ඔවුන් පසුපස ලුහු බැදීය. ඊශ්‍රායෙල් සෙනඟ එක් පැත්තකින් රතු මුහුදත් අනික් පැත්තෙන් ඊජිප්තු සේනාවත් අතර කොටු විය. නමුත් දෙව්තෙමේ රතු මුහුද දෙබෑ කර ඊශ්‍රායෙලියන් ඉන් එතෙර කරවූ බව කියවෙයි.

මෝසස් මුහුද රතුමුහුද තරණය ස්ථානය ටිරාන් සමුද්ර සන්ධිය බව අද තහවුරු වී ඇත. එතෙර වූ ඊශ්‍රායෙලියන් පොරොන්දුදේශයට ඇතුල්වන තෙක් වාසය කලේ සීනායි කන්ද ආශ්‍රිතවය. සීනායි කන්ද අද සෞදිඅරාබියට අයත් භූමියකි. බයිබලයේ කියවෙන පරිදි දේව මහිමයෙන් පර්වතයක් දෙබෑ වී ජලය මතුවූ ස්ථානය, ඇතුලු සංධිස්ථාන ගනනාවක් සීනායි කන්ද ආශ්‍රිතව වෙයි. (පින්තූරය බලන්න )

සෞදි අරාබිය විසින් නියොම් නම් වූ සිහින පුරවරයක් ඉදිකිරීම ආරම්භ කලේ පසුගිය නොවැම්බර් මාසයෙදිය. මෙය එදා මෙදා තුර ඉතිහාසයේ වැඩිම ආයෝජනයක් සහිත ව්‍යපෘතිය ලෙසින් ඉතිහාසගත වෙයි . මෙහි දැකිය හැකි අතිවිශේෂ කරුනු දෙකකි, එකක් නම් එදා මෝසස් රතු මුහුද තරණය ස්ථානයේ ඊජිප්තුව සහ සෞදි අරාබිය යා කරමින් පාලමක් ඉදි වීමය, අනෙක නම් මෝසස්ගේ නැවතුම්පොල වූ සීනායි කන්ද අශ්‍රිතව වර්ග කි.මී 26500 ප්‍රදේශයක පුරවරයක් ඉදි වීමය. තවද එය ශරියා නීතිය අතික්රමනය කරන රාජ්‍යක් බව බලධාරීන් විසින් පිලිගෙන ඇත. මෙකී කරුනු අද කිසිවෙකුට රහසක් නොවේ , ඒවා පුවත්පත්වල සහ අන්තර්ජාලයේ සිරස්තල ලෙසින් විකාශනය වී ඇත.

නියොම් පුරවරය පිලිබද අප දන්නා කරුනු එසේ වුවද කෙස් කෙලින් කරවන කරුනු 5ක් ජනතාවගෙන් සගවා ඇත

1. නියොම් ව්යපෘතියේ ප්රධාන විධායක නිලධාරී කාලොස් ක්ලෙන්ෆිල්ඩ් Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld- ප්රධාන ආයෝජක දුරන්ධර ස්ටෙෆන්. එ ස්වොර්මන් Stephen A.Schwarzman සහ රොබෝ තාක්ෂන ප්රධානී මාර්ක් රිබර්ට් Marc Raibert යුදෙව් ජාතිකයන්ය.

2. පුරවරයේ ඉදිකරන නිෂ්චල දේපල වල සින්නක්කර අයිතිය ආයෝජකයන් සතුවෙයි.

3. නියොම් දේශයේ නෛතික ආර්ථික දේශපාලන සහ අරක්ෂක විධිවිධාන මෙහෙයවනුයේ ආයෝජකයන්ට බහුතර බලයක් හිමි මණ්ඩලයකිනි.

4. නියොම් ව්‍යාපෘතිය ජොර්දානයේ ඇකබා, ඊජිප්තුවේ තාබා සහ ඊශ්‍රායෙලයේ එයිලට් වරාය නගර හා එකට සම්බන්ද වූවකි.

5. යම් හෙයකින් ව්‍යපෘතිය නැවතුනහොත් මෙහි පාර්ශවකරුවන් වන යුදෙව්වන්ට ඩොලර් බිලියන ගනනක වන්දියක් ගෙවිය යුතු වෙයි.

ලෝකයේ දේශපාලන සහ ආර්ථික බල කේන්ද්රය පාලනය කරන ගුප්ත පැලන්තිය පිලිබදව ලියුම්කරුගේ පෙර ලිපිවල සදහන් කොට ඇත. ට්‍රම්ප්ලා, මෝදිලා , සෞද්ලා උන්ගේ ඉත්තන්ය .මොසාඩ් සී.අයි.ඒ, මී5 කුලී හේවායින්ය. නේටෝව සහ යූ.එන් උන්ගේ බත් බැලයින්ය. බයිබලය ඇදිවතය. මුදල් දෙවියන්ය – ගෝඩ්ෆාදර් රොත්ස්චයිල්ඩ්ය . නියොම් මෙහෙයුමෙ දුරන්ධරයන්, ආයෝජකයන් රොත්ස්චයිල්ඩ්ගේ රූකඩය . එදා බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයන් අල්ලේ නටවමින් ඊශ්‍රායෙලය බිහිකලේ යම්සේද ඔහු නියොම් දිගුව මෙහෙයවනු ලබයි

විශේෂ ලියුම්කරු කීර්ති රත්නායක

P.A.Samaraweera

During the Presidents trip to Korea this week, he had paid respect to the Korean martyrs who made the supreme sacrifice during 3 wars with invading forces. At a ceremony, he had placed a wreath and put incense at the Altar. Back at home, our disabled war heroes are protesting on the streets about their pensions. The general feeling among the people is that war heroes here are sidelined by this govt. For instance, while other countries celebrate their war victories, Sri Lanka called off the military parade the year the ‘Yahapalanaya’  came to power, to appease western countries , Human Right Activists, LTTE rump, NGO’s and so on.

Last week, some monks made representations to the President about the impending arrest of the former Defence Secy who was a key figure in winning the war with the terrorists. The govt is quick to take to task members of the opposition but not those involved in scandals such as Bond scams, corruption etc. On the other side of the fence, former supporters of the LTTE celebrated the Maveerar day and Prabhakaran’s 63rd birthday. According to some, cut outs of Prabhkaran had been displayed at the birthday commemoration.  Being a ruthless terrorist, he brought misery not only to the Sinhalese but also to the Tamils and the Muslims. Among those who had attended the function were TNA leaders. The Sinhalese students at the Vavuniya Campus had refused to join the celebrations and they had been threatened with assault. So they had to go to hiding and the campus is closed indefinitely. There are allegations that a TNA MP had released state funds amounting to Rs 4 million to construct a statue of Prabhakaran  at Kilinochchi and to restore a cemetery to commemorate fallen LTTE cadres. As the LTTE is a banned terrorist organisation such actions are illegal. 

The previous govt strictly prohibited commemoration of terrorists. Then, LTTE sympathisers did things behind close doors. With the ‘Yahapalanaya’ the boot is in the other foot. They do things openly.  Now there is a fear that the former LTTE supporters and their sympathisers here and overseas are trying to revive the LTTE. But the Yahapalanaya govt seems to be deaf to this. PM Ranil is too busy rounding his MP’s criticising the President and the President is battling to sort out the split in his party. Even for FM Sarath Fonseka, who nearly got killed by a LTTE suicide bomber, while he was Army Commander and who is now a Minister, it is a different ball game.  

P.A.Samaraweera

Bodhi Dhanapala, Quebec, Canada.

Just recently, construction workers doing a work site in Hamburg, Germany came across a buried giant Swastika from the Hitler era. Some antiquarians” called for its reservation as an object of history. No way”, said the the Mayor of Hamburg and other civic leaders concerned. This is a despicable sign that brings to memory the horrors committed by a regime of mass murderers. Immediately after the war, aided and abetted by the other Western Nations, Germany began a program of deNazification”.

In France, the leaders of the Vichy regime that worked closely with the Nazis were brought to book.

In contrast, after the end of Prabhakaran, those who collaborated with the LTTE and even acted as their political spokesmen are given a free hand to re-enact their old politics. There has been no move to bring them before judgment, while only the army has been claimed to have war criminals. Individuals whose family responsibility” was recruiting” children by force to be sent to the front lines for certain death today act as elected” officials, rush to Geneva talking of human-rights abuses.  Individuals who led suicide attacks on civilian targets like schools, buses, and trains are being commemorated as heroes”.

None of these fellow travelers of the old LTTE has come forward to denounce the murders of the best of the Tamil leaders, starting from Mayor Duraiappah, elected Tamil MPs, even the likes of Amirthalaingam whose own boys” killed him, thorough Neelan Thiruchelvam and Lakshman Kadirgamar. Those who disagreed with the LTTE were traitors”;  the LTTE poet Kasi Anandan it was who deemed that such traitors” should not die a natural death. It is this philosophy of blood, cyanide and hate that is being celebrated by some prominent members of the TNA and the now-defunct Northern Provincial council. While these people have the money to build memorials for dead terrorists, they have no money to settle the IDPs who can be used as a beggar’s wound of complaint as long as they are not settled. After all, the IDPs are low caste” people who are disposable people” in the context of the Eelam objective – they need not be settled, but should be kept as a perennial problem?

What do the liberal minded Tamils” say of all this? Why are the likes of Dr. Kumar David, who waxed eloquent of the technical prowess of the LTTE in making little war planes etc., contributed to the Tamil Net, worked  to elect  Yahapalanaya, and ever ready to comment on the barbarism of the Sinhala Buddhists, being silent on all this? Bishop Dulip Chikera, ever the urbane leader of civil society, who even at one time proposed to buy wine for christian ritual from Killinochchi as a gesture of reconciliation to Prabhakaran, should surely come forward to denounce the crass act of commemoration” of the dead LTTE terrorists as well as their apotheosis into heroes”?

How should we think of Thileepan? Was he not a deliberate human sacrifice – an LTTE murder – carried out in front of the Nallur Temple by the dicta of the LTTE leader? There have been many fasts unto death” in other struggles all over the world. But in the nick of time, death is averted by all civilized movements by ensuring that the fasting person is not sacrificed. But not so with Prabhakaran. When he took  300,000 Tamil people to Nandikadal as a human shield, he did not regard even one such life as valuable. It is documented that the wounded Tamils while in retreat were put in immobile buses and set fire by these LTTE heroes as they were considered a liability to them. What ever the  ISIS did a decade later, the LTTE heroes” did it more ghoulishly. It is they who are being commemorated by some TNA leaders with their Faustian pact, by Jaffna-University’s  servants of the devil, and all this tacitly allowed  by their political collaborators in the government. Is commemoration of evil a part of the Sudu Nelum” ideology? How can reconciliation be achieved by commemorating terrorists?

Is there no law against acts of  racial incitement that will surely lead to the kinds of riots that we had in the pre-Eelam era? Perhaps that is the very objective of some TNA leaders? Then they can call foul and   call for a Kosovo?

Those who attend such commemoration events are ghoulish misguided agents of the worst of the beast in man.   Where are the apostles of reconciliation, those pillars of policy alternatives well nourished on foreign dollars, and well aware of international values, who should rise to denounce such crass acts of homage to terror ?  Of course the diplomats are not supposed to comment on Sri Lanka’s internal matters, even though they do if they can point their finger at the majority who are labeled mere chauvinists.

 lanka C news

ප‍්‍රාදේශීය සංවර්ධන ඇමති සරත් ෆොන්සේකා සහ ඒකාබද්ද විඵක්‍ෂය නියෝජනය කරන සන්ධාන පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී ගාමිණි ලොකුගේ අතර ඉතා උණුසුම් විවාදයක් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී ඊයේ දිනයේ ඇති විය.

මහා නගර හා බස්නාහිර සංවර්ධන අමාත්‍යංශයේ වැය ශීර්ෂය සම්බන්ධයෙන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී පැවති කාරක සභා අවස්ථා විවාදයේදී මෙම සංවාදවය ඇති විය.

ඇමති සරත් ෆොන්සේකා විසින් දිගින් දිගටම ලොකුගේ මන්ත‍්‍රීවයරාගේ අදහස් දැක්වීමට බාධා කරද්දී ඔහු කෝපයට පත්ව ෆොන්සේකාට දිගට හරහට බැණ වැදිනි.

මූලාසනය විසින් මන්ත‍්‍රීවරයාගේ කතාවේ එම වචන හැන්සාඩ් වාර්තාවෙන් ඉවත් කරනු ලැබීය.

https://youtu.be/X5xpuSa1j2g

By M D P DISSANAYAKE

When we were chatting about newly appointed ODI captain of Sri Lanka, there was a general consensus that Thisara had more failures than successes.  Then a colleague of mine said failures are the Pillars of Success”.   Another friend promptly replied, Yes, he had more Pillars, but not a single building”.

Since the retirement of cricketing greats Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Dilshan Thilakaratne, the cricket captaincy was a game of musical chairs.  In different formats of the game, so far we had, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Upul Tharanga, Rangana Herath, Lahiru Thirimanne, Chamara Kapugedera and now Thisara Perera, since the retirement of Dilshan Thilekeratne in 2012.  Altogether 8 captains during past 5 years.  Now there are few other names being tossed around for the near future.  They are:  Asela Gunarantne, Dananjaya Silva, Milinda Siriwardene, Kusal Janith Perera, Kusal Mendis and Kaushal Silva.

A captain is a leader.  Prominent persons in charge of the game in Sri Lanka had promised us a glorified future, with a strategic plan for Leadership Succession.  We now ask them, where is your Leadership Succession Plan? We have invested large sums of limited resources to recruit top class   Coaches to achieve positive results of building Leadership Succession. In addition, the services of Araviinda, Vass, Hashan, Marvan, Sanath,Gurusinghe, Romesh Ratnayake, Roy Dias, Upul Chandana were integrated into different spheres of domestic and international competitions for training and development.

The Wheel fell apart, when suddenly Angelo fell ill.   In leadership succession, isn’t there a back-up or reserve pool of potential captains? Where and who were they?  If those names have been mentioned in the second para of this article, then question need to be asked, Why they were not given a fair chance and length of time to prove their talents?”

After the retirement of Kumar Sangakkara ( in quick succession after Mahela’s  retirement) Dilshan  was brought in, who held the role only for 2 years.  At that time there was a great sense of urgency to flush out Dilshan and crown Angelo, even though Angelo might not have completed all facets of So called Leadership Course”   pioneered by Sri Lanka Cricket.

Is Thisara Perera being USED in the current episode as a stop-gap and bring back Angelo just before the World Cup?  Do you call it   the Implementation of Strategic Plan?

According to veteran Management Guru Prof. Peter Drucker The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers.”

1. Let’s bring back the skippers who have already been tested:

Lasith Malinga

Angelo Mathews,

Dinesh Chandimal,

Upul Tharanga,

Rangana Herath,

Lahiru Thirimanne,

Chamara Kapugedera

Thisara Perera

1. Now let’s bring back the potential skippers:

Asela Gunarantne,

Dananjaya Silva,

Milinda Siriwardene,

Kusal Janith Perera,

Kausal Mendis

Kaushal Silva

Now, reverting to Prof. Drucker, we should ask Which Leader  has the Most Effective   followers within the team”?

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

These doctors who have received free education would have  spent money to go for private tuition .Their parents could afford to pay for the tuition .

If they want to pressurize the government to abolish private education they should also pressurize to  stop private tuition .

All specialist doctors do private practice to earn money .We all know how all specialist doctors spend more time in private hospitals including this doctor charging exorbitant fees from poor people.

If they want to abolish private medical education, they should expect the government to impose rules prohibiting them  to carry pout private practice .

Government should also enact a rule that doctors should serve the country at least for 10 years to recover the cost of education before they are allowed to leave the government service .

I am quoting a previous opinion I have written on the same subject .

GMOA stated that it will take measures to make the international community aware about the government’s conduct pertaining to patients’ rights with regard to SAITM Issue

Citizens in this country are stupid and naïve .We watch these educated people with poor man’s money while they  playing with their lives .We are  just watching the drama played by the GMOA Now they want to go international. !!

International community has been watching   the doctors  going on strikes and making the poor suffer. My colleagues from many countries keep asking me about the stupidity of the doctors .They keep asking why government allows them to do private practice while on strike

They may have to go to Somalia  ,or Ethiopia  and make their plight !Becuase in these countries there is no value for human lives >

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane

In the name of revival of Hinduism in India, between 830 CE and 966 CE (or mid 9^th to late 10^th centuries) the ancestors of the present Hindus of India were ruthless against Buddhists and brutally killed Buddhist monks and followers of Buddhism and wantonly destroyed many thousands of Buddha statues, stupes and vihares. According to Professor M.S. Jayaprakash, there are both indigenous and foreign sources, both literary and archaeological, which speak volumes on the havoc done to Buddhism by the Hindus of India.

Sankaracharyas were prominent Hindu leaders who were heads of Hindu monasteries of the Vedanta tradition. They along with many Hindu rulers at the time, took pride in demolishing Buddhist images and monuments, with the objective of eradicating Buddhist culture. It is recorded that Pushyamitra Sunga, a Hindu ruler was instrumental in demolishing 84,000 Buddhist stupes built by Emperor Asoka (Source: Romila Thaper, Ashoka and Decline of Mouryas, London, 1961, p. 200). This was followed by the destruction of many Buddhist centres in Magadha which was a highly significant Buddhist centre in ancient times. Here, it is reported that thousands of Buddhist monks were mercilessly killed. Jalaluka was another Hindu king who was instrumental in destroying Buddhist sites. Kinnara, the Hindu king of Kashmir demolished thousands of Buddhist viharas and caused untold suffering to many thousands of Buddhists in Kashmir which was a prominent Buddhist centre in ancient times. Many Buddhist viharas were forcibly occupied and converted to Hindu temples, by Hindu Brahmins, in Tirupati, Ahoble, Undavalli, Ellora, Bengal, Puri, Badrinath, Mathura, Ayodhya, Sringeri, Bodhgaya, Sarnath, Delhi, Nalanda, Gudiallam, Nagarjuna Konda, Srisailam and Sabarimala in Kerala.

Buddhist Nagarjunakonda

At Nagarjunakonda, located in Andra Pradesh, is another highly significant ancient Buddhist site. On its west side was Amaravathi which was another important ancient Buddhist site. The site was once the location of Buddhist universities and monasteries which attracted students from as far as China, Gandhara, Bengal and Sri Lanka. In ancient times, this site housed more than 30 Buddhist viharas and excavations have yielded art works and inscriptions of great significance. At its peak, there were more than thirty monasteries and was the largest Buddhist centre in South India.

Adi Sankara a Hindu monk played a demon’s role in destroying Buddhist statues and monuments. In a most ruthless manner all Buddhist buildings at Nagarjunakonda were destroyed. Many of the pillars, statues, and sculptures were wantonly destroyed. A.H.Longhurst who conducted excavations at Nagarjunakonda has recorded the wanton destruction caused to this outstanding ancient Buddhist centre, in his book Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India No: 54, The Buddhist Antiquities of Nagarjunakonda (Delhi, 1938, p.6.). Local tradition holds that the Hindu Brahmin teacher Sankaracharya who came to Nagarjunakonda with his followers were ruthless in destroying Buddhist monuments. Nagarjunakonda was one of India’s richest Buddhist sites but now lies almost entirely under the Nagarjunasagar Dam. It is named after Nagarjuna, who was an icon in Mahayana Buddhism and lived in the 2nd century CE.

Buddhist Kerala

Kerala was a prominent Buddhist centre for about 1200 years with a large Buddhist population and many Buddhist temples. The Paliyam Copper plate  proves that Buddhism was introduced to Kerala during the reign of Emperor Asoka. According to researchers and historians (P C Alexander, P K Gopalakrishnan, Pavanan, Puthussery Ramachandran, Aju Narayanan), Buddhism was introduced in Kerala in the 3rd Century BCE by the missionaries of Emperor Asoka on their way to Sri Lanka. Jainism also co-existed with Buddhism creating the great Sramana civilization of the South that has given birth to literary classics such as the Thirukural, Silapatikaram, Manimekhala and the whole canon of Sangham writing.

Buddhist, Jain and Ajivaka seers introduced the Brahmi script and the art of writing to South India. All the early inscriptions now available were written in Brahmi script. Buddhism left a strong impact on Kerala. Buddhists opened schools near the many monasteries. Buddhists were responsible for the development of the Ayurvedic system of medical treatment in Southern India, especially Kerala. Thirumulla Varam, Thottappally, Podiyil Mala, Sabarimala, Kodungallur, Thrissur, Kottakkal, Madappally and Bekal were world renowned Buddhist shrines of worship, learning, health care and nature conservation. In places like Mathilakam and Kiliroor in Kerala, there were Buddhist and Jian universities and Research centres that attracted intellectuals and students from many countries.

Shankaracharya and their close associates organized a religious crusade against the Buddhists in Kerala which led Buddhists and people of non-Hindu faith to be burnt alive. This is narrated in detail in the book Sankara Digvijaya. The Hindu Brahmin Kumarila Bhatta, instigated king Suddhavanan of Ujjaini of Madya Pradesh to torture and exterminate Buddhists including Buddhist monks. This barbaric and coveted Brahmanic Hindu invasion happened from the 5th to 8th centuries under cruel and reckless royal patronage. The most brutal persecution of Buddhist monks/nuns and conversion of temples happened in eighth and ninth centuries under the leadership of Sankara the furious advocate of Brahmanical propaganda and violence.

Thousands of Buddhists were killed on the banks of the river at Aluva in Kerala and river Vaiga in Tamil Nadu. The Thevaram which is a collection of Tamil devotional poetry consisting of several volumes, belonging to the 7th century, documents the brutal extermination of Buddhists. Kerala was forcibly transformed into a Brahmin Hindu state. Brahmin Hindus burned the Pali canon and the sacred texts of Buddhism in Kerala. They exterminated 1,200 years of Buddhist tradition. Buddhism does not promote or accept the caste system. The Hindu Brahmans forcibly enforced the Hindu Caste system among the people who were converted to Hinduism.

The extensive ravages caused to Buddhist buildings are well evident in the ruins of former Buddhist buildings in Kerala. Buddhist Architectural and sculptural reminiscences are numerous apart from the vital linguistic and cultural imprints like the abundance of Pali words in present south Indian regional languages. Many Buddhist viharas were transformed into Hindu temples. Kings of the Second Chera Empire in particular, took action to take over Buddhist and Jain temples and converting them into Hindu temples. Almost all the existing Savarna Hindu temples in Kerala are modified Buddhist or Jain temples. Many Kerala Hindu temples which were previously Buddhist temples, show traces of Buddhist art and architecture.

In the 7^th century, owing to extreme forms of persecution of Buddhists by the Pandyans in Tamil Nadu, there was an exodus of Buddhists from Tamil Nadu to Kerala. The Buddhists came to Kerala and established their temples and monasteries in different parts of Kerala and elsewhere. Buddhism flourished in Kerala until about the mid-19^th century.

The Kerala state is well known for the educational and health care achievements apart from its universal literacy. All these human development indicators are not just the product of 20th century evangelical Christian missionary activities and state welfare schemes but the lasting legacy of Buddhism, the democratic, egalitarian, and inclusive way of living of Buddhists that shaped the cultural contours of Kerala from the 3rd century BCE to 13th century CE.

Writing about the ruthless activities of Sankarachariyas, Swami Vivekananda observes  …such was the heart of Sankara that he burnt to death lots of the Buddhist monks by defeating them in the argument. What can you call such an action on Sankara’s part except fanaticism?” (Complete works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol.VII. p. 118, Calcutta, 1997).

Swami Vivekananda (1863 to 1902) was a Bengali Hindu Monk, who toured the Indian sub continent extensively acquiring first-hand knowledge of prevailing conditions. He was a key figure in the introduction of the Indian philosophies of Vedantha and Yoga to the Western world. He was a primary source of influence and inspiration to outstanding Indian leaders such as Mahathma Gandhi, Jawahallal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore, Subhas Chandra Bose, Annie Besant, Narendra Modi among others). According to Professor Jayaprakash, the Hindu atrocities on Buddhism in India has no parallel in the entire history of religious struggles.

Buddhist History of Tamil Nadu

Buddhist missionaries from the Maurya Empire of Emperor Ashoka, brought Buddhism to Southern India.  Most of the Cheras who originally arrived in Tamil Nadu were Buddhists. Manimekhalai – one of the Five Great ancient epics of Tamil literature indicates that in ancient times Buddhist missionaries were active in spreading Buddhism in Tamil Nadu and that Tamil Nadu was populated by Buddhists.  Being subject to strong persecution, Buddhism faded away gradually and disappeared completely in the 11^th century.

With the ascendency of Brahmanical Hinduism in the South, starting in the 7^th century, Buddhists of Tamil Nadu and elsewhere in the South were subject to acute forms of persecution by Brahmin Hindus with help from the Pandyan Dravidian royal family. Aalavaipathikam records that around 640 CE., Sambanda Murti, a Brahmin, with the help of the Pandyan Dravidian royal family, caused the massacre of 8,000 Buddhist monks in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Buddhist nuns were reportedly made into ‘devadasis’ or women “dedicated” to worship and service of a Hindu deity or a temple for the rest of her life. A steady decline of Buddhism began in the eighth century with the arrival of more Brahmin Hindu missionaries who forcibly converted Buddhist shrines to Hindu temples. Hindu monasteries were established, and Hindu priest-scholars were trained in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere in Southern India.

The following Hindu temples in the South were once Buddhist shrines:  the Vadakkunnathan Temple of Trichur, the Kurumba Bhagavathi Temple of Cranganore, and the Durga Temple at Paruvasseri near Trichur.  A large number of Buddha-images have been discovered in the coastal districts of Alleppey and Quilon, the most important Buddha-image being the famous Karumati Kuttan near Ambalappuzha.

Influence on Buddhist Sri Lanka

It is inevitable that the violence against Buddhists in India had its repercussions in Sri Lanka as well. Similar atrocities were  committed to Sinhala Buddhists when the Hindu Dravidians, the Pandyans and Cholas invaded Sri Lanka. The history of Hindu Dravidian involvement in Sri Lanka was marked by excessive violence against Sinhala Buddhists. This characterizes the history of Tamil invasions and involvements in Sri Lanka  from early times. Recorded history states that Sri Lanka was invaded as much as seventeen times by South Indian Hindu Dravidian invaders. Coming with armies they ruthlessly wiped out entire Sinhala villages along their way to Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa the royal capitals of the past. These highly prosperous Sinhala Buddhist capitals were ransacked and plundered and the people subject to untold atrocities. They killed Sinhala Kings or forced them to the retreat to the south. These Tamil invaders sat on the Sinhala throne and ruled over the Sinhala people for about 170 years at different times.

The Hindu Tamil threat to the Sinhala Buddhist kingdoms had become very real in the fifth and sixth centuries and intensified thereafter. At this time, the three Hindu empires in southern India–the Pandya, Pallava, and Chola, were becoming more assertive and Tamil ethnic and religious consciousness was strengthening during this period. In the meantime, in India, Buddhism was becoming increasingly vulnerable to pressure and persecution by Hinduism. It was during this time that the Hindu Chola, Pallava and Pandyans were instrumental in repeated invasions and threats to Buddhist Sinhala rulers of Sri Lanka.

By the middle of the 9^th century, the Pandyans who had risen to a position of ascendency in Southern India invaded Sri Lanka. It is reported that these Dravidian Hindus caused undue violence against the Sinhala Buddhists and destroyed many Buddhist monuments and sites in Sri Lanka, including the highly venerated Thuparamaya the first stupa of Sri Lanka.  The 9^th – 10^th century period was a time when Sri Lanka was politically unstable, owing to relatively weak rulers but more owing to Pandyan and Chola invasions. These Hindu Pandyans and Cholas were instrumental in harassing Buddhists and plundering and destroying Buddhist sites. It is recorded that on their way to the capital city Anuradhapura, these Hindu invaders destroyed and demolished entire villages occupied by Sinhala Buddhists.

During the period 846 to 866 CE, these ruthless Hindus ransacked and plundered  the magnificent royal capital Anuradhapura and caused extensive destruction of many Buddhist buildings and monuments of this historic city, the royal capital of 1400 years. In 993, the Chola Emperor Rajaraja-I, invaded Sri Lanka, forcing the Sri Lankan ruler Mahinda- V to flee to the southern part of the country. Rajendra I, the son of Rajaraja-I, launched a huge invasion and king Mahinda-V was captured and taken prisoner to India where he died in 1037. Mahinda- V (917-1007), was the last Sinhala king to rule from Anuradhapura. The Cholas moved the capital to Polonnaruwa. Subsequent Sri Lankan rulers who came into power after the Chola reign, continued to use Polonnaruwa as their capital, thus ending the Anuradhapura regime. South Indian invasions and violence led to the abandonment of Anuradhapura the historic royal capital for 14 centuries. Sri Lanka Buddhists experienced terror in its worst forms never known in our land before, during the invasions and rule of the Hindu Dravidian Kalinga Magha.

In 1201 Sri Lanka was invaded by Magha a Hindu Dravidian Kalinga prince who took the king captive, tortured him and robbed him of all riches. He ruled for 21 years until 1222 CE. The ferocity, cruelty and barbarism of Tamils were unprecedented. These Tamils ransacked the kingdom, killed man and beast, broke images, destroyed temples, viharas, tortured the rich of their wealth and gave land to Cholas. The Tooth and Bowl relics were hidden. Kalinga Magha tyrannized the inhabitants of Raja Rata and extended his invasion to the south of the country where he was counter-attacked and compelled to retreat by the forces of the Sinhala Buddhist king Vijaya Bahu-III of Maya Rata(1222-1226 CE).

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane

Primarily based on the article titled Hindu Violence against Buddhism in India has NO Parallel” by Professor of History: Dr. M. S. Jayaprakash (Courtesy: The Dalit Voice April-May 2006, Punnathala, Kollam District, Kerala). Other sources of information: Alexander, P C., Buddhism in Kerala. Buddhism in Kerala, 1949; Omvedt. Gail., Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste, New Delhi: Sage, 2007

Editorial Courtesy The Island

December 1, 2017, 10:13 pm
The National Election Commission (NEC) has said it is confident of holding the much-delayed local government elections, at last, on a single day early next year. This announcement couldn’t have come at a worse time for the government, which did its damnedest to postpone the mini polls further, but in vain. Public resentment is palpable due to economic woes. There is apparently no end in sight to the continuous rise in the general price level. Official inflation rates can be deceptive as is public knowledge; the prices of essential commodities have gone into the stratosphere

Aggravating people’s economic woes, rice prices continue to rise. Coconut prices which shot up some moons ago remain sticky. Low income groups are the worst affected; they constitute the majority of voters. A government that fails to make rice freely available at reasonable prices asks for trouble at elections. Rice once caused the fall of a government and another regime committed political hara-kiri by imposing restrictions on rice consumption.

The incumbent government made an intervention, on the eve of the presentation of its budget 2018, to reduce the prices of several food items. It was a salutary move, which benefited the low and middle income groups, but, unfortunately, price controls come with a short expiry date. Traders know how to circumvent such measures. They have jacked up prices again. Today, there is hardly any difference between sprats and sharks where their prices are concerned.

The worst times for a country are the best times for politicians out of power; they exploit burning issues to gain political traction. The Joint Opposition (JO) has sought to make the most of the current situation. It has attributed the high prices of rice to bulk purchases of that staple commodity by a beer company. JO firebrand MP Bandula Gunawardena, on Wednesday, lashed out at the government for permitting a particular brewery, owned by one of the yahapalana allies, to buy rice in the local market to produce beer, thus causing its prices to go through the roof. (The JO got the name of the beer company wrong!)

Time was when a UNP-led Opposition made a hue and cry about what it called an ethanol river flowing through the country during the Rajapaksa government which had some of its backers in the lucrative alcohol business. Ironically, today, a UNP-led government stands accused of causing the country to be flooded with beer.

It is wrong for the government to allow beer companies to use rice as a raw material, especially when its prices are high. But, breweries alone cannot be blamed for the high prices of rice. There is a powerful millers’ Mafia, manipulating the rice market. We have written extensively about this politically backed cartel which exploits the producer and the consumer alike. They purchase paddy from farmers at extremely low prices and hoard it, creating an artificial shortage so that they can sell it at extortionate prices.

The Rajapaksa government did precious little to neutralise the millers’ Mafia though the JO members who were in its Cabinet are today shedding copious tears for the hapless consumer. The previous regime, however, revived the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) and helped the paddy farmers reduce the cost of production, to some extent, by making fertilizer available at subsidised rates. But, it baulked at taking on the millers’ Mafia. The incumbent government ought to strengthen the PMB further as a countervailing force against the powerful millers’ cartel to protect the interests of both the rice growers and consumers as a national priority. But, the question is whether it is keen to do so because the kith and kin of some of the yahapalana leaders are prominent members of the millers’ Mafia.

Meanwhile, the allegation that huge stocks of rice are used for manufacturing beer ought to be investigated and remedial action taken. One man’s cheers must not be another man’s tears. Our happy-go-lucky Finance Minister stirred up a hornets’ nest by claiming in Parliament the other day during the budget debate that beer was better than soft drinks. We hope he won’t claim it is far better to ‘drink’ rice in the form of beer than to eat it.

By Lucien Rajakarunanayake Courtesy The Island

December 1, 2017, 10:14 pm

* Bond…Bond…here we come.

There is nothing as good as Bondage…which seems to be the new thinking of the UNP.

The Prime Minister wants to have a special probe into the Treasury Bond sales from 2008 to 2014 – that involves many billions of rupees.

Looks like the party that was not at all pleased with the Bond Commission that completed it hearings with the Prime Minister’s clarifications, is now in an elephantine mood to go on with bond probes as the stuff of new politics.

Will every one of these future probes involve COPE too?

Whether there are COPE inquiries or not, will the near-front and backbench members of the UNP have extended telephone chats with whoever happens to be the suspect dealers in the bond deals of the past?

This is certainly a new swing in the politics of coalition, the search for a balance of party interests. The President, who leads the official SLFP that is part of the ruling coalition – mainly comprising creeps into Cabinet positions – brought about the Bond Probe which, intentionally or not, exposed much of the Dirty Bondage of the UNP.

It has raised huge questions as to why the UNP Prime Miniter took the Central Bank under his ministry, away from the Finance Ministry: Why it was so keen to retain Arjuna Mahendran as the Central Bank Governor, when his name was associated with the in-law relationship in Treasury Bond fraud.

We also saw how the UNP Finance Minister did his own dirty meddling with the Bond auctions, asking State banks to make lower bids. That should place him in more than political bondage, but he remains a leading member of the UNP. It is not clear whether his status in the UNP leadership line has anything to do with the Rs million plus rent paid for his Penthouse delight by none other Bond Fraud Aloysius, entirely without his knowledge.

If this is the stuff of Bond probing of the UNP, are we to believe that any bond crooks of previous years, and the family regime/politics of the past, would fare any worse than the Forgetul Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake?

The Prime Minister has said that bond sales of the past, done on private placements, had used EPF, ETF and the National Savings Bank funds as captive sources. That is quite a revelation and deserves full exposure. Yet, how about acting much sooner on the evidence already available on how the EPF was made to lose in the auction deals done under the Arjuna/Arjun – Mahendran/Aloysius in-law-business of outlaw deals, where the EPF was prevented from initial bids at bond auctions?

Will it be necessary to have a separate probe, by a parliamentary committee of any others, to know how much of the savings of private and state sector employees were swindled through Arjuna/Arjun Crooked Bonding?

What will be the stuff of the new probes into the old bond sales?

Will it begin with a report from pre-UNP lawyers, which will somehow fail to learn of any frauds in the former deals? Or, better still, will there be a pro-Rajapaksa Regime – SLFP lawyers’ team to do the initial probe, and come out with a similar result? That is the stuff of an initial Ranil Probe.

There is plenty of politics on the Prime Minister’s call for more Bond probes. It could very well be the stuff of the UNP campaign in the coming Local Govt polls, if there are no other petitions, possibly to an Indian deity, or the smashing of post-budget-price coconuts at every devale to postpone the polls.

The UNP must certainly be planning to take the bond rackets of the past to the public in the polls campaign, because any exposure that comes about former bond deals, can affect the former Finance Minister – Mahinda Rajapaksa, who delightfully leads the Lotus Bud front.

The UNP also has the chance of making another hit at an undeclared but not unknown rival – the SLFP creeps within the Yahapalanaya; because any bond frauds that took place from 2008 tp 2014, were part of the huge corruption of the Rajapaksa Regime they were all part of with great delight. All Ministers of that regime.

We are certainly moving into a new era of politics, where Bond Frauds emerge as the stuff of political rivalry. It is a rivalry that moves from and with in-laws and outlaws, as well the telephone cacophony of pro-Ranil drum beaters of the UNP.

Let’s live through this new Bond Age in the politics of Sri Lanka!