Rajan Philips Courtesy The Island

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is expected to appear tomorrow at the inquiry to answer direct questions from the Commissioners, after submitting an affidavit of answers to their questions in writing. The revelations this week about phone calls between UNP parliamentarians, serving on the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), and Arjun Aloysius, the young principal of Perpetual Treasuries Pvt Limited (PTL), has led to wildly contrasting reactions. Second tier Joint Opposition MPs are calling for an inquiry into the alleged contacts between UNP MPs and the PTL chief. One of them has gone so far as to ask President Sirisena to leave the (UNP) government and appoint a new Prime Minister (Don’t JO MPs know that 19A has erased the President’s power to remove a sitting PM?). According to another story, dismissed by many as fake and floated by the Rajapaksa entourage, the President has been sending signals to the Prime Minister to temporarily step down before appearing at the inquiry.

On the other side, the UNPers on COPE are crying foul that they are being publicly tarnished based on phone records and that their social relationship with Mr. Aloysius (hence the calls) did not in any way compromise their roles and responsibilities in the Committee. They want a full inquiry into the contents of the phone calls involving not only the COPE UNPers, but all 225 parliamentarians. The media also appears to be split in that some of the outlets are reporting one side or the other, and not both. The build up to tomorrow’s full serial event has been going on for some time and is public knowledge. What the fallout would be after tomorrow is anyone’s guess. The government is about halfway through its term, a point where, and especially for this government, it could be either the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end. What will it be? It depends!

It depends on whether President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe are able to start all over again from where they stood before the country on 10 January 2015, made their pledges and raised people’s expectations – that together they will break with the past and take the country in a new and better direction. There has to be a free and frank discussion between the two men and honest acknowledgements of the mistakes and mistaken actions by one another, their ministers and their parties. Everyone knows the commissions and omissions of this government, but what no one can figure out is whether the President and the Prime Minister have ever tried to talk about them one on one, and to do anything about it.

Without a candid discussion and a united effort to reverse the wrongs that have been committed and act on what have hitherto been omitted, the derailed government train is not going to be put back on track. The blessing in disguise is that every instance of commission and of omission is so obvious and so wieldy that all that needs to be done is for the two leaders to keep working on them, one at a time, more than one at a time, or even all at a time – as their wit and resources would permit them. If so, it could be the end of a bad beginning. If not, it will be the beginning of a worse ending.

Ending a bad beginning

Take the biggest act of commission: the Central Bank fiasco. The Commission of Inquiry will do its work, thanks to the excellent choice of the three Commissioners and the way they have been acquitting themselves. There are many facets to this inquiry that are arrayed in a bewildering spectrum – ranging from human avarice, calculated impunity, plain stupidity, political misjudgement, and all the way to institutional breakdown and technical confusions. We all get what is at the human and political end of the spectrum. These facets are easy to grasp and easily digestible for instant gratification. But we would be poorer at the end of this accidental process of catharsis, if we do not learn about what went wrong technically and institutionally at the Central Bank, and how long they have been going wrong.

The rot certainly did not start in February 2015. It got metastasized. There have been plenty of allusions that the impunity in and around the Central Bank even after the election was predicated on an unspoken understanding of quid-pro-quo between those who came in the door after January 2015 and those who went out the door. The unspoken understanding spectacularly crashed when the cash hit the fan and the country. The sheer volume of transactions and their brazenness were breathtaking. Equally breathtaking were the highhanded attempts to cover up and the presumption that everything could be buried under an August parliamentary election victory and the crumps of a million jobs. In the end, it was poetic justice that the UNP did get a majority in parliament because of the bond scam.

Beneath all the layers of sensational stupidity, what went wrong institutionally and technically at the bank is yet to be fully exposed. At the inquiry itself, there has been plenty of cross-examination theatrics befitting a criminal trial in an original court. Precious little has been forthcoming in contrast, by way of technical education or enlightenment except when the Commissioners took to probing themselves. And they are our last best hope.

Nonetheless, the President and the Prime Minister do not have to wait for the Commission’s report and recommendations. There is plenty they can do starting now. As the Executive President, Mr. Sirisena has the constitutional duty and the responsibility to ask the Prime Minister if there is any good reason why the Central Bank should not be relocated to the Finance Ministry where it had been for all its life until 2015. There was no good reason why it was moved in the first place from the Finance Ministry to the Prime Minister’s portfolio by gazette notification. The only plausible reason might have been that the former Finance Minister, Ravi Karunanayake, could not be trusted with the commanding institutions of the Ministry: the Central Bank, the state banks and other financial institutions.

There could not have been a sillier reason than that. If someone is not fit for a job, don’t give the job to that candidate. Don’t change the job description to suit the candidate. What is common sense and commonplace in any low level hiring, public or private, is blatantly breached in making cabinet appointments. That is the second biggest commission of error by the President and the Prime Minister. But before I turn to the cabinet, let us see why the ministerial location of the Central Bank is such a litmus test for good governance.

First, it should not have been done in the first place. There is tradition and there are also legal implications of not having the CB in the Ministry of Finance. It has nothing to do with who the Finance Minister is, or who the Bank Governor is. Taking the Central Bank and other banks out of the Finance Ministry is no different from landing Legal Drafting under the Defence Secretary in the Rajapaksa government. Good governance does not mean that what was not permissible under country bumpkins in the old government is now allowable under a city sleek Prime Minister in a new government. Will relocating the Central Bank to the Finance Ministry start putting good governance back on track? No, but it is the wrong question to ask.

The right question is- if the President and the Prime Minister cannot reach agreement and restore the Central Bank to its natal home, how can they be trusted to undertake any other restorative measure and put good governance back on track? Moving the Central Bank out of the Finance Ministry was one of the first acts of derailment. How the government deals with it now will be a test, or a sign, to see which way the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government is heading in the second half of its mandate. The test, or the sign, can be applied to not just the Central Bank, but every other matter or instance of commission or omission, and how the President and Prime Minister will deal with each and every one of them as they move forward.

Restart, Muddling through, or Maverick Presidency

The first approach the two leaders could take is what I have been talking about, if not advocating: restarting from January 2015 and bringing to an end what has been for the most part a long and bad beginning. In this approach, call it the restart approach, the Central Bank and all other banking institutions will be reassigned to the Finance Ministry, to function as they used to not just before 2015, but really when the Finance Ministry was on its own and not a presidential portfolio as it has been from the time of President Premadasa. Then they can wait till the Commission of Inquiry produces its report to start acting on its recommendations in regard to bond procedures in the Bank.

The second approach is to keep going along the same old paths of the last two years. I will pejoratively call it ‘muddling through’ – although technically, in policy analysis, it describes one of the ways in which a government bureaucracy works. In this scenario, the Bank will remain under the PM, the PM and the President will keep going their separate ways, deliberately avoiding a principled confrontation about the government’s goings on, and conveniently pretending to see no corruption, hear no corruption, and speak no corruption. This will be the continuation of the status quo and the beginning of an inexorably disastrous end.

There is a third possibility, where the President can start asserting his powers far more than he has been doing until now. He has the constitutional authority to do that, although somewhat clipped by the 19th Amendment. In the current circumstances, the President also needs to show some maverick qualities. Does he have any? Historically, a good example would be Dahanayake, that most colourful MP from Galle and a short-term Prime Minister in sad circumstances. He would have gone to town if he is president now and perhaps all too gung ho for his own good. President Sirisena is quite measured, but can he be a little bit maverick – not only towards the PM and the UNP, but also to his SLFP Ministers who are acting as though they made Sirisena President?

Specifically, on the Central Bank, he will insist and make sure that the Central Bank and other financial institutions are reverted back to the Finance Ministry. He will show the same firmness and success that he did in having his away in not extending the tenure of the former Governor and getting the current Governor to occupy the position instead. He had his way as well in appointing the Commission of Inquiry into the bond matter, which although resented by many in the UNP has in fact given the government as a whole some respite and the opportunity to change direction. The ideal situation would be for the President and the Prime Minister to reach common ground and act in unity. That is the ‘restart approach.’ If that were not possible, the more rational way out for the President is to act maverick than to muddle through.

Acting maverick has political implications. They could be positive if President Sirisena could be more circumspect and even calculating in acting maverick. The challenge is if he would be so bold as to rely on his constitutional powers and distance him equally from the UNP wing of the cabinet and from the SLFP wing of the cabinet – not to play one side against the other, but to facilitate, or force if necessary, bipartisan consensus on the 100-Day Programme he campaigned for and most of which have not been touched even though he has been in office for over a 1000 days.

With Prime Minister and the UNP leaders, the President could and should insist on having people like Harsha de Silva and Eran Wickremaratne as frontline ministers in his cabinet while getting rid of old deadwood and corrupt UNPers. He could also insist on a more rational alignment of ministers and portfolios – and eliminate the odd pairings such as Highways and Higher Education, Finance and the Media etc. To the SLFP Ministers, the President should read the riot act and make it clear to them that he owes his position to the voters who gave him victory in January 2015, and they owe their position to him because he won and their candidate (Mahinda Rajapaksa) lost.

Vicious Triangle and the three wise men

Presidential power assertion could backfire, in that the UNP and the SLFP could start asserting themselves against one another, and severally against the President. The upshot will be a triangular stalemate, thanks to the 19th Amendment–because the President cannot fire the Prime Minister, even a reunited SLFP will not have the numbers to topple the UNP majority, the two parties are not going to unite to get the two-thirds majority to pass a resolution for dissolution and new election, and no one is likely to be interested in impeaching the President. Politically, it is the President who would be in a vantage position. He could reach out to the people over the heads of parliamentarians and mobilize their support to pressure parliament to implement the mandate they gave him in 2015.

But the President has his vulnerabilities too. The attacks against him in the LankaeNews have been apparently reason enough to have the electronic tabloid from abroad banned in Sri Lanka apparently under presidential orders. The former Finance Minister is alleged to be behind these attacks. But the three wise men of the UNP and all senior Ministers – Malik Samarawickrema (UNP Chairman), Kabir Hashim (UNP Secretary) and Mangala Samaraweera (man of both parties) took a different tack; and two weeks ago they went in delegation to express their concerns to President Sirisena about the political implications of Prime Minister Wickremasinghe testifying before the Commission of Inquiry. We do not know what the delegation of wise men was trying to achieve other than airing their concerns and indirectly appealing to the President to be more circumspect in his follow-up actions after the Commission releases its report.

The discussion apparently took a soul-searching turn to reflect on how a government that was popularly elected to expose the corrupt ways of the Rajapaksas has come to devouring its own leaders. The President’s deadpan answer was: “don’t blame me!” According to the Sunday Times political column last week, the President went on to name a “UNP Minister”, an “important person” and another “person holding a high office in a province”, as people who passed information to the Rajapaksas, tried to interfere on their behalf, or approached the President for potential mediation.

Those in political and social circles and many others know the identities of the Minister and the two important individuals. The question many are asking is why the President and the Prime Minister are not publicly naming (and shaming) these individuals and why they are allowing the Minister in question to remain in the cabinet. That is the ‘omission’ story of the government and its long and bad beginning that has lasted over two years. So will it be the end of that beginning, or the beginning of a worse end? It depends!

Editorial Courtesy The Island

November 18, 2017, 6:45 pm
We might follow Alice in Wonderland and say that proceedings at the Bond Commission are getting “curiouser and curiouser.” The technical evidence of a CID officer led before the probe last week revealed that Mr. Arjun Aloysius of Perpetual Treasuries has had many conversations with members of Parliament’s Committee on Public Enterprise (COPE) that was examining the so-called “bond scam.” These revelations predictably raised a great deal of dust with the Joint Opposition seizing the opportunity presented to demand among other things that President Maithripala Sirisena quits the incumbent government and appoints a new prime minister. With Prime Minister Wickremesinghe due to appear before the commission tomorrow, the ‘full serial’ as we dubbed it in this space some Sundays ago, appears to be approaching its climax. Public proceedings and recording of evidence would most likely end with the PM’s testimony but surprises have been plentiful during the commission’s proceedings and more cannot be ruled out altogether.

We don’t have long to wait before we will see whether lawyers from the Attorney General’s Department assisting the commission will have no questions for the premier as was the case when two other cabinet ministers appeared before the probe; and also whether counsel representing persons being investigated will seek elucidations and clarifications. The Commissioners themselves would probably have questions based on the responses by affidavit of the prime minister to matters that have been raised but these, certainly, would be sans the theatricals indulged in by counsel from the AG’s department which undoubtedly provided sensational news to the media and entertainment to newspaper readers and television viewers as scandalous revelations always do.

The former president did not do himself any good by saying that we seem headed towards a police state with telephone conversations of MPs “tapped.” He surely knew that the evidence led was not the result of surveillance of lawmakers but from extraction of data from the telephones of persons under investigation. Time was when even amateurs could eavesdrop on telephone calls by rapidly tapping the various digits of a number they were trying to break into on the cradles of their old-style dial phones. But surveillance methods have advanced by leaps and bounds in ensuing years and intelligence agencies as well as private snoopers now have massive technological support for activities routinely undertaken not only for reasons of national security but also for less defensible purposes. Mr. Rajapaksa who served as president of this country for over a decade would surely have had access to the security apparatus during his time in office and would know best what was done and ordered to be done in his day. Even though the national dress he customarily sports is pristine white, his image sadly is far from squeaky clean. He would have therefore done best keeping his mouth closed and letting events unfold without his assistance.

COPE members who have had telephone contact with Mr. Arjun Aloysius during the time their committee was examining the bond issues have neither done themselves, their party, nor yahapalanaya any good. The Island reported yesterday that former COPE Chairman DEW Gunasekera had called on his successor, the JVP’s Sunil Handunneti, to call on the Speaker to remove those MPs who have been implicated from COPE. One MP whose name has been mentioned said that Aloysius’ grandfather was his father’s friends and he had known the family from childhood. Having talked to him on the phone did not compromise his work on COPE, he said, pointing out that COPE had unanimously recommended that the bond issues are fully investigated. Be that as it may there have been demands that that all MPs, and not only those who are members of COPE, are investigated for contacts with bond scam suspects. This obviously is a task more formidable than calling for affidavits from all of them declaring that they are not dual citizens following Geetha Kumarasinghe’s case as has also been demanded by public interest activists and sections of civil society.

The bond investigation has demonstrated that no telephone communication is beyond investigation and even deleted data can be recovered. Criminals have found to their cost that signals of conversations on mobile phones can provide reliable indications of their places of origin pointing to where a suspect may be holed out. In the case involving the abduction and torture of journalist Keith Noyahr, it was possible to get very close to where he was being held thanks to data obtained from phone signals. The public perception of our legislators have sunk so low that the worst possible construction is placed on any contact between Aloysius, who has not been convicted of any offence and any lawmaker. The MPs have to blame themselves for that. Unfortunately all legislators are tarred with the same brush though the integrity of some is impeccable.

By Gagani Weerakoon and Methmalie Dissanayake Courtesy Ceylon Today

Controversial evidence revealed at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) investigating into the issuance of Treasury Bonds to the effect that Perpetual Treasuries Limited owner Arjun Aloysius had spoken to several members of the Parliamentary watchdog, Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) during the hearings, resulted in a heated situation in Parliament yesterday (17).

Joint Opposition Member C.B. Ratnayake urged Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to conduct an inquiry, through a special committee on COPE members, who were alleged to have had conversations with Aloysius, while COPE Chairman Sunil Handunnetti requested the Speaker to obtain voice recordings of the alleged phone conversations.

Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara said, for the sake of the dignity of all COPE members and Parliament, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) should be asked to handover all the conversations, with detailed voice recordings to the PCoI.

He said, this when United National Party (UNP) MP Hector Appuhamy raised a privilege issue accusing the media of carrying out a mudslinging campaign against him and the others.

“I have never discussed the Bonds issue with Aloysius. I can talk to Aloysius anytime, even tomorrow as I am clean and did not have any fraudulent deals with him,” he said.

Deputy Minister Lakshman Seneviratne who joined in the cross talk said that it was wrong for COPE members to have conversations with Aloysius. “I am a member of COPE and I believe it is wrong for any COPE member to have any conversations with Aloysius while sittings of the committee were in progress.”

The Hawk and the Dove is one of the best books on war experience that I have read after Erich Mariya Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front.” — Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge   The Author of PTSD Sri Lankan Experience

By Devin Beliveau
World War II veteran Roland Glenn knows that combat soldiers face unimaginable challenges both on the battlefield and when they return home following their service. With his new book, The Hawk and the Dove, Glenn hopes his own life story will illuminate those challenges.  Glenn, an 85-year old Kittery resident, served in the US Army from 1943-1946. As an Infantry Combat Company Commander, Glenn saw significant action at the Battle of Okinawa Island, Japan, the last battle of WWII. I was in charge of about 200 soldiers, an enormous amount of responsibility for someone 20 years old,”

Glenn reflected. Asked about his most vivid memories, Glenn doesn’t hesitate. The killing of fellow human beings in the name of democracy. I was brainwashed to think of the Japanese as sub-human monkey runts. At the time that I served I totally believed in the mission to obliterate the Japs.” Over 109,000 Japanese soldiers were killed at Okinawa, and 12,000 American lives were lost.  As fate would have it, Glenn’s next mission after Okinawa would not be to kill Japanese soldiers, but to help them. After Japan’s surrender following the dropping of two atomic bombs by the US, Glenn was sent to North Korea to repatriate the occupying Japanese soldiers back to Japan.

I had the fortunate experience during the time I was in Korea, getting to know the Japanese as fellow human beings rather than the enemy. In the matter of a few weeks I went from killing the Japs on Okinawa to collaborating with them in Korea, and I was able to see them as fellow human beings and develop some friendships, and I’ve written about that transition from killing to collaborating in my book.” Glenn began what would eventually become The Hawk and the Dove back in the 1985.

Following a major heart attack, a friend suggested I start writing stories about my life. I got up very early and just wrote whatever came into my head, stuck it in a file folder and stuck it away. In 1995, we had the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, and I realized I had written a number of stories about my life in the 1940s. I pulled those stories together into a manuscript and that ‘s how the book got started.” As his narrative progressed, the scope of Glenn’s story expanded beyond the 1940s.

The onset of the Middle East wars brought to my attention that I was writing about my own recovery from the massive killing I experienced on Okinawa. As we saw the thousands of personnel returning from the Middle East wars returning with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), my publisher and I began to see that I had written a story about my own recovery from the traumas of combat,” Glenn explained. There’s nothing in our training that prepares us for the taking of another human life, or observing that happening. I was trained to kill, and that’s exactly what I did on Okinawa Island.

One of my major concerns right now is all the veterans returning with the same condition (PTSD). This has got to be one of the biggest stories to come out of the Middle East wars. These veterans will require medical and psychological care for the remainder of their lives.”  Asked what he hopes readers will take away from his book, the retired educator stresses I do not think that wars solve problems. I strongly believe that stronger diplomatic efforts should be undertaken to resolve international problems. I’m hoping that youth who are considering careers in the military will have the opportunity to read my book. I’m not advocating that young people not have careers in the military, but I am suggesting to our youth that there are many more options to serve our country and our communities than going to war.” The Hawk and the Dove is now available at www.amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and through orders at local bookstores.

Roland Glenn 

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග

ප්‍රේමදාස අධ්‍යාපනය ලැබුවේ කොළඹ ශාන්ත ජෝෂප් විදුහලෙන් නොවේ. ඒකාලේ මරදානෙ තිබ්බා ශාන්ත ජෝෂප් නයිට් ස්කූල් කියලා දුප්පත් ලමයින්ට පොඩි පාසලක්.

මේ පාසල කොලඹ සෙන්ට් ජෝස්ෆ් එක සමග කිසිම සබඳතාවක් තිබ්බේ නෑ. ප්‍රේමදාස නයිට් ස්කූල් ගියේ කේ ජයතිලක සමග . කේ ජයතිලක මේක කිව්වේ ප්‍රේමදාස මිය ගිය පසුව​.

නමුත් කොලඹ සෙන්ට් ජෝස්ෆ් එක ප්‍රේමදාසව අන්දවලා පැවිලියන් එකකුත් හදා ගත්තා. වරක් කොලඹ සෙන්ට් ජෝස්ෆ් ඕබීඒ එකේ මීටිමක එක් පුද්ගලයෙක් ප්‍රේමදාසගේ ක්ලාස්මේට් කෙනෙක් ඉන්නවනම් ඇවිත් ගන්න කියලා රුපියල් 1000 කොලයක් පෙන්නුවා.

ඒ කාලේ රුපියල් 1000 කොලයක් කියන්නේ ලොකු මුදලක්. කවුරුවත් ආවේ නෑ. බොරුවක් බව දැනගෙනත් මෑතකදී අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා කොළඹ ශාන්ත ජෝෂප් විද්‍යලයට ගිහින් ප්‍රේමදාස ශාන්ත ජෝෂප් විද්‍යාලයේ සිටි උදාර ආදි සිසුවෙකු බව කිව්වා.

බොරුවක් බව දැනගෙනත් ශාන්ත ජෝෂප් විද්‍යලයේ ෆාදස්ලා ඒක අනුමත කරමින් අත්පුඩි ගැහුවා. ඇයි අපි බොරුව බොරුව වශයෙනුත් සත්‍ය සත්‍ය වශයෙනුත් දකින්න බය​? 

Dr Hector Perera, London

The proposal I find most congenial both as a cook and as a chemistry teacher is this.  Cooking is the whole series of operations used by humans to turn raw materials, mainly animal carcasses and harvested plants, into food, that is, into something edible, digestible and nutritious. Those operations which I’ll talk about is energy wasted in cooking.

What is cooking?

Cooking is one of those everyday words that everyone knows. But what does it really mean? Is reheating leftovers cooking? How about making an emulsified salad dressing? Scrambling eggs? Baking cookies? Back home in Sri Lanka majority of people didn’t have the present day modern facilities such as gas and electric cookers, microwaves and ovens. They mainly depended on firewood for cooking. Even at our home including our mum used firewood for cooking. Most of the times a kitchen servant helped cooking and we call her Kussi amma”. Majority of the present day people in Sri Lanka have these facilities just like in Western countries but they waste plenty of energy that is gas and electric during the process of cooking. Most British TV chefs hardly care about energy wastage in cooking. To believe me one should watch these British TV cooking programmes.

At its most basic, cooking means applying heat to food. But cooking is as much about the ways heat changes the food as it is about the heat itself. That’s because heating food does more than just make it hotter. It changes the food in other ways, too.

Proteins

The proteins in food (like in meats, poultry, and eggs) become firmer. This is why the liquid interior of an egg gets hard when you boil it, and why a well-done steak is tougher than one cooked medium-rare. You might have noticed that in majority of British TV cooking, steak is virtually blood dripping red meat even after their so called cooking. Who would say that kind of steak is safe to eat? You all know that steak is always contaminated with plenty of germs and bacteria. The outside might look cooked but the inside is virtually raw red meat with plenty of germs and bacteria.

Interestingly, other proteins, namely the collagens that make up cartilage and other connective tissues in meats, can be made to break down by heating them in certain ways, specifically through moist heat cooking methods. This is why tough cuts of meat like lamb shanks or oxtails can become so incredibly tender when braised slowly.

Cooking also causes proteins to lose moisture, typically via evaporation in the form of steam. This loss of moisture then causes protein-rich food to shrink, as we see with burgers that shrink when cooked on the grill.

Sugars & Starches

Carbohydrates like sugars and starches are also transformed by heating. Sugars turn brown, as we see when we caramelize the tops of a crème brûlée.

The browning of bread when we bake it is caused by the caramelization of the carbohydrates. Starches tend to act like sponges, soaking up water and expanding in size, as when pasta noodles expand when we cook them.

Fats & fibre

Fats, such as butter and oils, liquefy, and eventually start to smoke when they get too hot. In Sri Lanka majority of people use coconut oil for cooking and frying. The doctors agree that it is one of the best oils to use in cooking and frying.

The fibres in vegetables and fruits soften and break down, which is why a cooked carrot is softer than a raw one.

Other Changes

Cooking can affect the colour of foods, too. Green vegetables (like green beans) first brighten when cooked, but they eventually take on a drab olive hue if they’re cooked for too long. Sri Lankans eat plenty of green vegetable such as mukunuwenna, kankun, tampola, Gotukola” and many more. Only thing is they must be properly washed to get rid of the dust, mud, traces of insecticides and pesticides on them. I have my doubts that in most restaurants do they care for any hygienic and cleanliness in handling those valuable and nutritious vegetables. In home cooking they are properly washed before cooking. That is one of the reasons why I am scared to eat those things from hotels and restaurants.

Cooking food causes other, less obvious, changes, too. Nutrients like vitamins can be destroyed or leached out, literally cooked away. One must make use of the water that comes out from vegetables while cooking but you would not notice them if you put too much heat while cooking. Anytime you boil vegetables, some nutrients naturally dissolve into the cooking water or into the air via steam. Flavours can be lost in this same way, too. When you smell the aroma of food cooking, what you’re smelling are the flavour compounds evaporating into the air. And if they’re in the air, they’re not in the food, no wonder the people who cook get showered with cooking aroma then walk up and down like Tandoori Chickens”.

A lot of cooking terminology is pretty straight forward, but some terms can be a bit trickier. Simmering is one of those pesky culinary terms that can mean the difference between fluffy and burnt rice. What the term actually means is to bring a liquid to the state just before boiling. You’ll see lots of little bubbles forming and rising to the surface due to convection currents created by the heat. If your pot begins to boil, turn the heat down to maintain that gentle bubbling, this is where you lose some heat while cooking.

I have practically demonstrated in front of The Sustainable Energy Authority then to The Invention commission in Sri Lanka how to cut down wastage of energy in cooking. Not only I just pointed it out but I gave a solution as well. Before I went to see these authorities for many years I experimented out how to save some energy in cooking that is I cooked and tried how to save energy.

When I first arrived in England I had only one room for studies, sleeping and for cooking so cooking aroma depositing on my clothes was a problem. The room next to my room was a former kitchen but no one used it for years then I moved my cooker to that room to cook. Most Asians like me eat rice and curries and I ate that kind of things in the weekend and for supper. Just like any other University student, I had my lunch at the University and hardly ate takeaway food for supper. There were so many reasons why I didn’t like takeaway food.

Demonstrated how to cook scientifically

A whole team of officials arrived at our apartment in Colombo to witness my work. I knew they are visiting to witness my energy saving cooking but not to see how I added ingredients to a chicken curry so I added them before they arrived and allowed to marinate. Then cooked some rice with a measured amount of water but not checking the water level by dipping fingers into the water just like most people do. I explained my work with appropriate scientific terms so they understood my kind of scientific energy saving cooking.  All the scientific terms were explained in simple terms so they knew exactly what I was talking about. I talked about how energy is lost by, convection, conduction and radiation then how to cut down radiation energy in cooking so that some energy is saved in cooking. Once the temperature reached a thermodynamic equilibrium condition, I adjusted the temperature to maintain it like that way until cooking is completed. This time both the rice and chicken were cooking while I made these explanations to the officials who watched cooking by standing near the cooker. They were surprised that there was no cooking aroma to shower from the boiling chicken curry. Most British TV chef shower themselves with cooking aroma while cooking but there was none in my kind of scientific cooking. If the British TV wanted to know how it was done then I must show it by a cooking demonstration than limited to verbal explanation. I was thinking, if my work was good enough to be witnessed by the energy authority and for the Invention Commission in Sri Lanka, sure it should be good enough for British TV. Sometimes I feel that I am discriminated for no reason.

Some British TV chefs run run like Tandoori chickens

In most British TV cooking programmes, the contestants and even the chefs who judge the cooking, just waste energy and shower with cooking aroma. The contestants think that they also should follow the method and sometimes they even let the cooking aroma catch fire to excite the viewers and the judges. Sometimes back there was a famous chef who used rude words that means swears while cooking also set fire to the cooking aroma. Who would say that is acceptable kind of cooking and helpful to the public to cook something at home?  The TV broadcasting authorities just allow these programmes to be shown with an idea that they are entertaining and popular but I have my doubt. My idea is to cook and save a considerable amount of energy that means to save money wasted in energy then to avoid any cooking aroma while cooking. I have already helped some Sri Lankans to cook my way that is to cook scientifically and save some energy wasted. If British TV didn’t allowed me to demonstrate my scientific energy saving cooking then it does not matter me. What can I say, some British TV chefs, waste energy, burn money and shower with cooking aroma and run run just like Tandoori chickens and they are HANDSOMLY PAID, HONOURED BY GIVING AWARDS, REWARDS. HOW’S THAT UMPIRE?  Your comments are welcomed perera6@hotmail.co.uk

Dr Hector Perera

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando

 Sirasa TV1 initially stimulated the writer and wife to visit Habarana, when a little seven-day-old girl was mauled by a dog and died. Upon arrival in Habarana, it was found that the entire area, consisting three villages, Asirigama, Eppawala, and Haba Divul Wewa, did not have pure water for consumption, as a consequence the number of chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients was on the increase. It was revealed further, that these villages require a water purification unit (RO Plant) that is normally installed by the Sri Lanka Navy. In this respect, a detailed report indicating the current percentage of the CKD patients and so forth (covering all villages), is being prepared with the help of the Samurdi Officer, Dhanapala. He has undertaken the responsibility to obtain signatures from the full gamut of villagers, and post the petition direct to the Gammedda Secretariat, for onward transmission to the Sri Lanka Navy for their vetting purposes.

Such experiences increased the tendency of the writer towards concentration of the deprived and neglected in the Matara District, focussing particularly on one poor family, with three young kids, (shown on TV1), who has been discarded and abandoned completely for the past two years, and living under atrocious conditions in the rural village of Midigama, in Weligama.

Latrine Conditions

During the prolonged terrorist war in Sri Lanka, the LTTE did an effective propaganda campaign, by forcing innocent Tamils into disused latrines, photographed them and circulated throughout the world, to depict the level of inhuman discrimination on Tamils in the North and the East. Obviously, the naïve international community swallowed the bait, and believed such fabricated photographic evidence as the gospel truth, the results of which, are still hanging by a hair. This is evident from the amount of allegations still prevalent within the United Nations assemblies. Today, the LTTE terrorists have been eliminated and the country is supposed to enjoy freedom of speech, and people are able to move about

Today, the LTTE terrorists have been eliminated and the country is supposed to enjoy freedom of speech, and people are able to move about freely.

However, what is appalling was to come across a Sinhala family in Medigama, having to live in ‘latrine conditions’, due to deprivation. In this confined, disused latrine, they have managed to squeeze in two single beds, two plastic chairs, a ward robe and a wall rack, where a small battery operated radio keeps them entertained; a kerosene lantern supplies light in the night, and a mosquito net, hanging from the roof, protects them from the debilitating viral disease – dengue fever.

Eighteen giant type sewage tanks, in two rows, that collect all toilet waste from the area, surround this disused latrine. The family is frequently subjected to inhale the fumes that emanate from those sewer tanks; the worst being the family is forced to put up with the stench, which their nasal cavities have got accustomed to! The gloomiest aspect of all this is, that this family does not have any toilet facilities, nor water for their daily consumption, but having to depend on neighbours for toilet amenities and water.

Penury

Poverty is certainly the lack of material possessions or money, but outright destitution is the complete lack of means that are necessary to meet the basic personal needs such as food, clothing, and shelter which, in the case of Chaminda Prasanga, labourer, and his wife P. Chandanie, along with Charuka (8 years), and two young girls Tharusi (6) and Jennet (3), are compelled to bear the brunt. Considering this pathetic situation, the Government officials and the local authority cannot escape, but having to conceal their heads in shame, because it boils down to downright violation of human dignity, and denial of basic capacity for this discarded human beings to participate effectively in society.

The two little girls apparently attend a neighbouring school, while the malnourished mother looks after the youngest child. One needs to witness personally the atrocious conditions of such degrading human living. The writer has, therefore, taken the initiative to contact his worldwide acquaintances and charitable organizations, in liaison with the Sirasa Gammedda Secretariat, to organize and build a small house for this family. The plan has been drawn up for the house, and the estimated cost, including eight perches of land, will be around Rs.1.8 – Rs.2 million. There are so many Sri Lankan expatriates around the world, who would like to help and come forward to help this unfortunate family in many ways, to relieve them out of such woeful conditions.

The construction of the house will be undertaken, controlled and overseen by the Sirasa Gammedda Secretariat, at a minimum cost, by cutting expenses to the bone by their stringent auditing department, so as not to waste a cent unnecessarily. In the meanwhile, a Sri Lankan friend of the writer in Melbourne has kindly offered to broadcast this pathetic story and an appeal through a Sinhala Radio programme in Melbourne. He has also undertaken to export the necessary solar panels to the new house, free of charge, so that this family will not have to incur any electricity bills once occupied.

Any compassionate individuals, who would like to be part of this meritorious deed, may contact the writer through email, who will be pleased to guide and provide whatever information one needs.

“We cannot help everyone, but everyone can help someone” – Ronald Reagan

tilakfernando@gmail.com

By Lucien Rajakarunanayake Courtesy The Island

Ring, ring…..

Hello…Are you coping well…this is Arjun…

C’mon…is it the Governor or the Perpetual?

What difference does it make…both of us want to know about COPE…can we have a good deal with COPE?

I don’t know about any deal…I’m trying to get one footnote…not only me…my other green players, too…it’s not so easy…looks like we will leave our footprints all over and have no footnotes…

That could be the type of talk that went on, in what must be a world record of phone calls on Treasury Bonds.

This is a real Ring-along episode, in the Treasury bond scam. More than a thousand phone calls, on landlines and cell phones, smartphones – on WhatsApp and Viber, and SMS too. It is a fast move to the world of digital technology in the crooked world of Bond Fixing.

Imagine the contacts that Members of Parliament of Green Politics had with the Perpetual dealer in Bond Scams – this not likely to be explained as one more example of Blue-Green politics moving on to Vision 2025. It is very much the reality of the Crooked Vision that has embraced the players in Green Politics, who came with loud promises to do away with the Dirty Politics of the Rajapaksas.

You can’t blame the Rajapaksas for laughing. Nothing done so far about all those millions that the country lost in their own crooked days; instead, we are learning every day about how the yahapalana torchbearers are setting fire to the security of the Central Bank and the Employees’ Provident Fund.

Have you heard of any Governor of a Central Bank of any country talks so much on the phone on the crucial days of Treasury bond auctions, to those who were directly handling the bond transactions? Could this be part of the Singapore culture that Arjun Mahendran brought here? Many of his calls were to Indika Saman Kumara – the EPF Dealer in the Central Bank. They must have brought rings of great joy to Saman Kumara, coming from the Governor himself. Let’s not talk about profit. That would be in bank accounts.

The Governor’s calls went to Saman Kumara’s partner too – Ms. Thakshila Kumari. What a generous Governor this must be, one with an unusually extended interest in the affairs of an EPF dealer and his unmarried partner. Is this the opening up of a new phone call culture in this country? Governors or Chairmen of banks being so ‘phonely’ and profitably linked with the unmarried partners of their dealers?

There is another phone rascal or villain we must not forget. None other than Ravi Karunanayake, former Minister of Finance and still a member of parliament, too. The one who is known as the ‘Forgetful Hero’ of Perpetual Treasuries. Just imagine the Bond Connections of this penthouse personality. He talks to Arjuna Aloysius, his Perpetual Rentmaster, with 84 calls during the crucial Bond period.

That is not all. Ravi Penthouse K and members of his family spoke to the Perpetual Aloysius over 700 times, from early February 2015 to mid-June 2017. Do you think he will remember any of these calls? Not likely. It is not the stuff he is known to remember, as he stated before the Bond Commission not so long ago. What do you think the other members of his family spoke about, possibly without ever telling him about it all? Could it be about the penthouse facilities? Or could it be about better accommodation, in even better days to come? After all, let’s not forget that he remains the most forgetful leader in UNP or Green Politics of today.

What we have found is the Phone-O-Rama of Treasury Bond Racketeering. It is the UNPs great contribution to what it so often refers to as the new Knowledge Economy. I would not know whether all these phone contacts were meant to increase phone bill payments to support the economy. There may have been a little thought about that, with the former Governor of the Central Bank and the former Finance Minister being so phone committed in these crucial times and matters.

Yet, the other truth is the huge phone call footprint the UNP MPs left, in what were their desperate to leave footnotes to shade their party leader, and his trusted Governor, in the COPE Report on the Bond Scams. The calls were not green, but purple with the politics of the crooked.

Shenali D Waduge

In international relations there are no permanent friends only permanent interests. That explains why Germany & Japan are best of buddies with the very countries that bombed them! It also explains the manner politicians cross over and sing hosannas for those they previously were at loggerheads with. It should also explain that today’s world is run not by politicians but by think tanks, secret societies, transnational corporates & even invisible intelligence networks who are even capable of eliminating world leaders as JFK found out too late. Though diplomatic corps would have us believe that actions/inactions of our government have been responsible for the angst of the international community, in reality this perception is a farce as the strategies and plans are generally plotted and designed and diplomatic international relations is just a show – a charade to make the world believe that diplomats decide policy and strategy, which is in reality far from the truth. Diplomacy is not foreign policy but if there is no foreign policy there is certainly no diplomacy and diplomats become clueless to their exact role. Foreign policy is lacking when a country has no vision/mission for its future except to sustain those in power somehow while for their own career survival they follow an appeasement policy peddling the foreign policy of other nations!

It is important that we realize that all laws are Eurocentric and devised and designed to suit the advantage of Western hegemony. It is simply an advanced & sophisticated system of rule from the colonial murderous policies of the past. With R2P and military interventions as evidenced by bombing sprees that took place throughout Yugoslavia, Middle East and even parts of Africa, we can but wonder whether we are returning to that colonial era!

However, there is a major difference in the functions of Western diplomats and those of lesser powerful and smaller nations & the level of power they exert even diplomatically. The role played by the diplomats of the powerful countries is more like the Governor’s role during colonial rule. We can see how that has exceeded even decency and polite levels of diplomatic decorum in the manner some diplomats stationed in Sri Lanka have been behaving of late. So much so they have even been nicknamed ‘Viceroys’. A ‘new diplomacy’ is certainly taking shape. It is certainly not the Westphalian model of state to state relations that diplomats were originally taught.

There are plenty of non-diplomatic approaches too which get far more funding than embassies are allocated. New groups have emerged into the scene – Think Tanks, NGOs, lobby groups often government funded, lobby far more vigorously than the diplomats. They produce research, statistics, promote panel discussions, produce books & peddle public opinion in their favor. Making them powerful is the networks they have developed internationally & their ties to local entities.

An example is how Norway Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave $5m to its partner in US to lobby top officials at the White House, Treasury Dept & Congress to double spending on a US aid program. Think tanks do not disclose terms of agreements with foreign governments and neither do they register with US Govt as representatives of donor countries. Similarly, at times even politicians and government policy makers get roped into adopting policies that are detrimental to foreign relations. This can be seen by the manner that pro-LTTE fronts through their international networks both legal & illegal encompassing charities, humanitarian organizations, cultural & religious bodies, ethnic ghetto areas, money & lobby groups have been able to influence foreign governments & politicians against the Sri Lankan state. What needs to be reiterated is that these foreign governments have not fallen blindly but have found it convenient to ride on these channels as it advances their own foreign policy framework which meets the four pillars of their own foreign policy – protection, profits, principles & pride.

All these are direct challenges to a country’s diplomatic framework especially when the diplomats themselves are non-career diplomats, often political appointees.

As we see the influence of terrorism affecting foreign policy decisions of countries we cannot ignore answering where these terrorists are coming from, who is training them, who is funding them and who is transporting them to all corners of the world to stir trouble and exert pressure on countries to change foreign policy. India’s role in Sri Lanka’s LTTE militancy has still not been accounted for. When Sri Lanka banned 16 LTTE fronts and individuals using the UNSC Resolution 1373 why did no foreign government take action by investigating the organizations and individuals who were stationed and functioning from their countries, some even holding foreign passports.

Similarly, trade and terrorism have also become interlocked to foreign policy and so has human rights as can be seen by the manner that the UN and international trade bodies heavily influenced by and to the advantage of the West have found it very convenient to plug human rights with trade agreements whereby countries are forced to remove restrictions and regulations that protect natural assets by threatening action against countries citing human rights violations. UNHRC resolutions on Sri Lanka go far as to even insist on changes to constitution and amendment to internal structures all violations of the UN Charter itself. This has become an ugly trend that Sri Lanka has fallen victim to.

Similarly, we cannot ignore the role played by the Church in Sri Lanka’s terror. However, much adherents of the faith may not like to have this issue highlighted the fact remains that Church fathers/nuns openly helped LTTE terrorists over the entire period of terror in Sri Lanka – some have openly attended LTTE rallies and protests, had kept children whom were later given to turn into child soldiers. Those that deny, we challenge to explain why no action has been taken by the Church against Father Emmanuel, Bishop Rayappu Joseph and many others who have not minced words about their support for LTTE terrorism. It is as a result of Church lobbying and Faith-based organizations / NGOs that the anti-conversion bill or the animal-welfare bill in Sri Lanka has not been passed.

However, we have some diplomats and former diplomats who peddle the notion that Sri Lanka’s inertia has resulted in the international community going against us – generally citing the previous government’s faults. This is a very naïve opinion to promote given the reality that whether Sri Lanka gives or does not give the wish list of those exerting pressure on Sri Lanka, their foreign policy manoevres are unlikely to change. Giving in or applying the appeasement approach is only advancing the realization of the foreign policy objectives of those countries and exposes Sri Lanka’s lack or inability to counter these policies with proper policies themselves. In the absence of think tanks and country-friendly lobbying groups, the failure of Sri Lanka’s diplomats to counter or at least match the one’s at work overseas exposes our diplomats who have not developed a strategy to present to the Government in power on how to respond and counter foreign policies of countries trying to strangulate Sri Lanka.

In short there is a great game or competition for who rules the world and that often is determined by the power that countries can yield economically, militarily, in terms of numbers shown from the power of people belonging to a religious faith, terror groups, cults, liberal groups etc. All these generate international lobbying and are able to steer policy and determine the already designed plan & strategy. It is often a clash of civilizations when efforts are afoot to bring changes after dislodging people’s ties to their histories, traditions, cultures, ideologies and mindsets for only then can the enemies remove the will of the people to defend their nation. How far even Sri Lanka’s diplomats realize this status quo and diplomatically resolve to protect the ethos that has built the nation is a big question mark. The importance in the answer lies not so much in the training or policy imparted to them but the will of diplomats to defend the heritage of the nation that has to be embedded in them requiring no special tuition to be given. This is why it is ever more important for the foreign ministry to appraise its diplomats and officials of the need to foster, promote and protect that historical heritage. It is the last defense line of a country.

There was a reason for Sri Lanka’s terrorism to last 30 years without the West or India assisting it to be eliminated. There is a reason for the West to enter with their yellow umpire card citing accountability, human rights reconciliation etc. All these align with both West & India’s foreign policy objectives. The question is what did Sri Lanka’s foreign policy makers and the diplomats do to counter it rather than agreeing to implement what the foreign powers wanted!

Shenali D Waduge

This segment of WION brings to you exclusive interview with Lord Naseby. Watch this video for full interview.

ඇන්ටන් මාකස් සම ලේකම් නිදහස් වෙළඳ කලාප සහ පොදු සේවා සේවක සංගමය

2017 නොවැම්බර 16 වන දින

පසුගිය නොවැම්බර 09 වන දින මුදල් හා මාධ්‍ය ඇමති මංගල සමරවීර ඔහුගේ මංගල අයවැය 2018 වසර සඳහා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කළේ ය.

zzනීල හරිතZZ අයවැයක් ලෙස ඉදිරිපත් කළ එහි සාධනීය යෝජනා කිහිපයක් විය. ඉන් එක් වැදගත් යෝජනාවක් වූයේ පාරිසරික දූෂණයට හේතුවන ඉන්ධන මත ධානවය වන වාහන වෙනුවට විදුලියෙන් ධාවනයවන වාහන සඳහා ඉලක්කගත දිරි ගැන්වීම් ලබා දීමය. අනෙක නම්, විශේෂයෙන් සමාජයේ දුප්පත් බහුතරය අතර ඇති නීති විරෝධී, ප්‍රමිතියකින් තොර මත්පැන් සඳහාවන ඇබ්බැහිවීමට උත්තරයක් ලෙස ඇල්කහොල් සාන්ද්‍රණය මත බදු අයකරමින් බීර මිල අඩු කිරීමය. ඒවා වර්තමාන සමාජ ආර්ථීක සන්දර්භය තුල ඉහළ ප්‍රමුඛතාවක් සහිත යෝජනාදැයි ප්‍රශ්න කළ හැක්කේ, බහුතරයට අත්‍යාවශ්‍ය භාණ්ඩ හා සේවා සම්බන්ධ එවැනි වූ යෝජනා නොවීමෙනි.

එනමුත් බීර මිලට එරෙහිව ලොකු වාදයක් මාධ්‍ය හරහා ඉස්මතු කරනුවන් මේ රටේ ශ්‍රමිකයින් හා ආර්ථීක වර්ධනය ගැන ඇති සහසම්බන්ධය සඳහා එවැනි කිසිදු වැදගත් අවධානයක් නොදීම කණගාටුවට කරුණකි. මේ අයවැයෙහි මේ රටේ සේවක සේවිකාවන් ගැන මෙන්ම මැද පෙරදිග සංක්‍රමණික ශ්‍රමිකයින් ගැනද කිසිදු සඳහනක් නැත.

එහෙත් මංගල සමරවීර ඇමති විවිධ ව්‍යාපාරිකයින් හා ව්‍යවසායකයින් ගැන අවධාරණය කරන්නේ, zzදැනටමත් ව්‍යාපාර කටයුතුවල නිරත විශාල පෞද්ගලික ව්‍යාපාරවලට පමණක්ම නොව, අපගේ ආර්ථීක ව්‍යුහයේ වර්ධන යාන්ත්‍රණය වන සු`ඵ පරිමාණ ව්‍යාපාරිකයන්ටත්, ස්වයං රැකියාවල නියුතු වූවන්ටත්, ත්‍රිරෝද රථ ධාවකයින්ටත්, සිල්ලර වෙළ`දාමේ යෙදෙන කඩහිමියන්, සු`ඵ ව්‍යාපාර පවත්වාගෙන යන කාන්තාවන්ටත්, තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණය පදනම් කරගත් තරුණයන්ගේ ව්‍යාපාරවලටත් අවශ්‍ය පහසුකම් zzඑන්ටර්ප්‍රයිස් ශ්‍රී ලංකාZZ වැඩසටහනින් සපයනවා.ZZ යැයි සඳහන් කරමින්ය.

ඔවුන් ගැන ඔහු කියන්නේ, තරගකාරී වෙළ`දපල පරිසරයක සැමට සාර්ථක විය නොහැකි බවය. zzඑසේ වුවත් ඒ අය නොසලකා හැරිය නොහැක. රජය විසින් සමාජ ආරක්ෂණ ජාල යාන්ත්‍රණයක් තුළින් අවදානම් දරන ව්‍යවසායකයින් රැක බලා ගත යුතුයි.ZZ ඔහු කියන්නේය. අසාර්ථක ව්‍යාපාරිකයින් වෙනුවෙන්ද zzසමාජ ආරක්ෂණ ජාලZZ යාන්ත්‍රණයක් යෝජනා කරන මංගල සමරවීර ඇමතිවරයා ඒ වෙනුවෙන් වැය කරනු ඇත්තේ වැටුප්ලාභී සේවක සේවිකාවන්ද ඇතුලූ මේ රටේ ජනතාවගෙන් සෘජුව හා වක්‍රව අය කර ගන්නා බදු මුදල් ය.

අයවැය සඳහා යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කරන මෙන් ඇමතිවරයා කළ ප්‍රසිද්ධ ඉල්ලීමට අනුව එයට හාත්පසින් වෙනස් ආණ්ඩුවටත් රටේ ජනතාවටත් සතයක් හෝ අලූතින් වැය නොවන ලෙස පෞද්ගලික අංශයේ ලක්ෂ 23 ට වැඩි අර්ථසාධක අරමුදලේ සකී්‍රය සාමාජික සේවක සේවිකාවන් වෙනුවෙන් සෞඛ්‍ය ආරක්ෂණ ක්‍රමයක් තහවුරු කිරීම පිළිබඳව අප සංගමය මංගල සමරවීර ඇමතිවරයාට යෝජනාවක් ඉදිරිපත් කළේය. හැම ආණ්ඩුවක් මෙන්ම මේ ආණ්ඩුවද විශාල වශයෙන් සේවක අර්ථසාධක අරමුදල් මත අයුතු ලෙස යැපෙන්නේය. මහ බැංකු වාර්තා අනුව හිමිකරුවන් නොමැති, අතිශය විශාල මුදලක් එම අරමුදලේ ඇත. එබැවින් අප සංගමයේ යෝජනාව වූයේ පෞද්ගලික අංශයේ සේවක සේවිකාවන්ට සහ ඔවුන්ගේ යැපෙන්නන්ට එකී මුදල යොදා ගනිමින් විශේෂයෙන් වෛද්‍ය ප්‍රතිකාර සඳහාවන සෞඛ්‍ය ආරක්ෂණ ක්‍රමයක් අයවැය මගින් තහවුරු කිරීමය. ඒ සඳහා වන යාන්ත්‍රණය සැකසීම ගැන සාකච්ඡා කිරීමටද අප සංගමය සූදානම් බැව් අපි කල් තියා ඇමතිවරයාට දැනුම් දුන්නෙමු. එහෙත් ව්‍යාපාරිකයින්ට මහජන මුදලින් යෝජනා කරන සමාජ ආරක්ෂණය, සේවක සේවිකාවන්ට ඔවුන්ට හිමි ඔවුන්ගේ අර්ථසාධක අරමුදලින් හෝ ලබා දීමට මේ ඇමතිවරයා සූදානම් නැත.

එවගේම මංගල සමරවීර ඇමතිවරයා අධ්‍යාපනයේ බොහෝ වෙනස්කම් සඳහා මහජන මුදල් වැය කිරීමට යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත. එනමුත් ඒ කිසිවක් සඳහා අවශ්‍යයෙන්ම තිබිය යුතු ජාතික අධ්‍යාපන ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ වැඩසටහනක් නැත. අප තේරුම් ගන්නා තරමින් ඒවා සැරව ගලන වත්මන් අධ්‍යාපන අර්බූදයට පැලැස්තර තරම්වත් ප්‍රයෝජනවත් නොවේ.

zzඅනාගත රැකියා සඳහා අපගේ ශිෂ්‍යයන් සූදානම් කිරීම අරමුණු කර ගනිමින් පාසැල් විෂය මාලාව සඳහා ජාන විද්‍යාව, කේතකරණය, රොබෝ විද්‍යාව සහ නැනෝ තාක්ෂණය ඇතුලත් කරනවාZZ යැයි අයවැයෙහි ඇති සඳහන පරම්පරා ගණනාවක් තිස්සේ හරියාකාර ඉංගී්‍රසි ගුරුවරුන්වත් ලබාදිය නොහැකි අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රමයක ග්‍රාමීය පාසල් වලට වලංගු වන්නේ කෙසේදැයි අපි අසමු.

zzඊ-පෙළපොත් සංවර්ධනයත් සමග ඩිජිටල්කරණයේ මෙහෙයුම තුළින් zස්මාර්ට් පංති කාමරZ සංකල්පය තවදුරටත් ශක්තිමත් කෙරේZZ යැයි ඔහු කීවත් පසුගිය සැප්තැම්බරයේදී අගමැති කියුවේ එය සමස්ථ ලංකාවට ව්‍යාප්ත කිරීමට අවම අවුරුදු 10 ක් ගතවනු ඇත කියා ය. එතෙක් විශේෂයෙන් පාසල් 8,000 ට වැඩි ග්‍රාමීය පාසල්වල දරුවන් සිටින්නේ යුත්තේ වරප්‍රසාදිත ජාතික පාසල් සිසු සිසුවියනට පිටුපසින්ය.

එවැනි නගරයේ වරප්‍රසාදිත දරුවන්ගේ අනාගතය ගැන කතා කරන ඇමතිවරයාට, නිදහස් වෙළඳ කලාප සේවක සේවිකාවන්ගේ දරුවන්ට ඔවුන්ගේ අධ්‍යාපනය සඳහා කිසිදු අවකාශයක් ඒ අවටින් නොලැඛෙන හෙයින් දෙමාපියන්ට රැකියාව අතහැර ගමට යෑමටද සිදුවන්නේ යැයි අපි කරුණු ඉදිරිපත් කළෙමු. එබැවින් ඔවුන්ට නවීන දියුණු පෙර පාසලක් සමග ඔවුන්ටම විශේෂ වූ ප්‍රාථමික පාසලක් නිදහස් වෙළඳ කලාප ආසන්නයේ පිහිටුවීමට ආයෝජන මණ්ඩලයේ අරමුදල් ඇති බවත් අපි පෙන්වා දුන්නෙමු. එහෙත් එම සේවකයින් මේ අය වැයට අයත් නොමැති බැව් ඇමතිවරයා කල්පනා කර ඇත.

එසේ වූවත් හාම්පුතුන් කලක් තිස්සේ ඉල්ලා සිටි පැය 08 වැඩ දිනය අතහැර දැමීමේ යෝජනාව වක්‍රාකාරයෙන් ගෙනෙන්නට මංගල සමරවීර ඇමති අයවැය යොදා ගෙන ඇත. සාප්පු හා කාර්යාල පනත සංශෝධනය කිරීමට යෝජනා කරමින් සේවක සේවිකාවන්ට තමන්ගේ කැමැත්ත අනුව, තමන්ගේ නිදහස වෙනුවෙන් වැඩ කිරීමේ කාලය තීන්දු කළ හැකි අයුරු එය වෙනස් කරන්නේ යැයි කීම දෙව්දත්ගේ බණකි. විධිමත් ආයතනගත ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ සේවා කාලය එක් එක් සේවකයාට තමන්ගේ අභිමතය අනුව තීන්දු කළ නොහැකි බැව් සාමාන්‍ය දැනුමකි. එය තීන්දු කෙරෙන්නේ හාම්පුතාගේ අවශ්‍යතාව සහ සේවා හා නිෂ්පාදන අවශ්‍යතා අනුවය. එබැවින් ඉන් විය හැකි එකම දේ නම් හාම්පුතා පැය 08 වැඩ දිනය තව දිගු කිරීම පමණි. රාතී්‍ර 10 න් පසු ස්තී්‍රන් සේවයේ යෙදවීම සාමන්‍යකරණය කිරීමට ඉඩ දීමය.

ග්‍රාමීය සමාජයේ රැකියා ගැන ඇත්තේද බහුතරය අමතක කර යන ගමනකි. ඇමතිවරයා ක්ෂුද්‍ර, සුළු හා මධ්‍යම ප්‍රමාණයේ ව්‍යාපාර සඳහා ආයෝජන ලබාදීමට කරන ණය යෝජනා දසක ගණනාවක් පැරණි අසාර්ථක වූ යෝජනාවකි. ඒ වෙනුවට මේ රටේ කෘෂි නිෂ්පාදනය ග්‍රාමීය සමාජයේ තරුණ තරුණියන්ට නම්බුකාර ආදායම් මාර්ග සැපයිය හැකි අයුරු නවීකරණය කිරීමක් ගැන යෝජනා කිසිත් එහි නැත.

එවැනි වූ අයවැයක් ඉදිරිපත් කළ ආණ්ඩුවක් හා ගනු දෙනු කළ හැක්කේ අපගේ සංවිධානාත්මක ශක්තිය මත පමණි. ඒ වෙනුවෙන් මෙවර අයවැයෙන් අතහැර දැමුනු සියලූ ජනකොටස් සමගින් එක්ව කටයුතු කිරීමට වෘත්තීය සමිති ඉදිරිපත් විය යුතු යැයි අපි කියමු.

2017 නොවැම්බර් මස 15 වන දින නිදහස් වෙළඳ කලාප සහ පොදු සේවා සේවක සංගමයේ විධායක කාරක සභාවේ තීරණය පරිදි

ඇන්ටන් මාකස්
සම ලේකම්
නිදහස් වෙළඳ කලාප සහ
පොදු සේවා සේවක සංගමය

Website: www.newsfirst.lk

Editorial Courtesy The Island

November 17, 2017, 10:06 pm
Police have reportedly been ordered to take legal action against anyone who will commemorate the dead Tigers including LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran on Nov. 27. Curiously, if it is against the law to commemorate the slain Tigers how come the same law does not apply to the commemoration of the dead JVP leaders and cadres responsible for the reign of terror which plagued the country from 1987 to 1989? True, the JVP did not ask for a separate state, but the fact remains that what it employed in an abortive bid to achieve its goal of capturing state power was naked terrorism. It killed members of the armed forces and the police, civilians, destroyed public property worth billions of rupees, extorted money and robbed banks and people. It also suppressed political dissent in the most barbaric manner and killed people for exercising their franchise while involving children in subversive activities.

The LTTE, in its heyday, turned the areas under its control into an open prison. Child abductions were galore. Dissenters were gunned down. Politicians were kept under its jackboot. Illegal taxes were collected. Rights and freedoms were conspicuous by their absence in those parts of the country. Anyone who commemorates those who kept people in such inhuman conditions and advocates the LTTE’s cause has no moral right to speak of human rights let alone champion them.

Reconciliation is the new buzzword in this country. The Rajapaksa government branded anyone who refused to toe its line a ‘traitor’. The yahapalana administration pillories the opponents of its constitution-making project as ‘enemies of reconciliation’. The TNA was the mouthpiece of the LTTE. It went so far as to announce the LTTE’s presidential election boycott in 2005 and even recognised the LTTE, which was responsible for heinous crimes against civilians, as the sole representative of Tamils. It was the main beneficiary of the LTTE’s violence spree aimed at sabotaging parliamentary polls as the EU monitors noted in their report on the 2004 general election. Even the TNA is in reconciliation mode now! On Thursday, its leader R. Sampanthan treated former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Parliament to a long lecture on the value of communal harmony and how to keep the country undivided!

Rajapaksa needs to be told some home truths though the TNA leader may not be the right person to do so. He, as the war-winning President, did not care to grab the opportunity which presented itself after the conclusion of the war to rise above petty partisan politics, as a statesman, and win the hearts and minds of the people he had liberated from the clutches of terrorism in the North and the East. His mega infrastructural development drive stood the victims of war in good stead but the trust deficit remained. Politically motivated victory celebrations etc prevented the healing of wounds of war. His failure to manage the war victory and reach out to the people in the former conflict zone and reassure them enabled the extremist political groups to crawl out of the woodwork and tap public resentment to fuel their separatist project.

The biggest enemies of reconciliation are those who try to keep the LTTE flag flying on some pretext or the other. Former LTTE combatants must not be discriminated against in any manner. They must be able to live as equal citizens just like their JVP counterparts who are currently engaged in democratic politics. The onus is on the state to ensure that all ex-Tigers are properly rehabilitated and gainfully employed. But, not-so-surreptitious efforts being made in some quarters to revive the LTTE’s macabre cause must be thwarted for the sake of democracy lest the genie should be out of the bottle once again.

The present government consists of some leaders who once grovelled before the LTTE, turning as they did a blind eye to its terrorist activities and compromised national security to placate the big Tigers in the name of a ceasefire agreement. Their henchmen even hosted barbecue dinners for LTTE leaders at the BIA, which had come under devastating terrorist attacks. In an interesting turn of events replete with irony, they are today all out to prevent the commemoration of the slain LTTE leaders they shamelessly kowtowed to!

by Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

Alleging that the ruling UNP had been grossly implicated in the alleged Treasury bond scams involving the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Perpetual Treasuries Pvt. Limited, the Joint Opposition (JO) yesterday urged President Maithripala Sirisena to quit the unity government without further delay.

President Sirisena committed a section of the SLFP to the UNP-led government after the latter’s failure to secure a simple majority at 2015 Aug parliamentary polls. President Sirisena’s move caused a split in the SLFP with the majority of 95 members elected on the UPFA ticket throwing their weight behind former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Kandy District MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage made a public appeal on behalf of the JO at a hastily arranged media briefing at a Punchi Borella temple, in the wake of startling CID exposure of some UNP MPs of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) having clandestine contacts with Arjuna Aloysius of PTL.

MP Aluthgamage was flanked by colleagues, Ranjith Zoysa, Dilum Amunugama, Udaya Gammanpila, Saranath Basnayake, Shehan Semasinghe, Priyankara Jayaratne, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena and Bandula Gunawardena.

The JO called for the immediate suspension of all those named Deputy Ministers, Sujeewa Senasinghe, Ajith Perera, Gampaha District MP Harshana Rajakaruna and Puttalam District MP Hector Appuhamy of the UNP and Kurunegala District MP Dayasiri Jayasekera of the SLFP (Maithri faction) from the COPE for being in touch with Aloysius.

Pointing out that nearly 10 UNPers including its Chairman Malik Samarawickrema, General Secretary Kabir Hashim and its Assistant Leader Ravi Karunanayake had been summoned by the bond commission and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was scheduled to appear on Monday (Nov 21), President Sirisena couldn’t remain in the ruling alliance.

MP Aluthgamage urged President Sirisena to appoint a new PM in the wake of shocking revelations at the bond scam probe.

MP Aluthgamage alleged that the UNP distributed among its candidates at the 2015 August parliamentary elections funds to the tune of Rs 5 mn each though it found it difficult to pay monthly electricity bill of its headquarters, Sirikotha while it was in the Opposition.

Recalling how some UNPers on the COPE had been on their hand phones sometimes during sittings in Parliament, MP Aluthgamage said that they never believed their colleagues were in touch with Aloysius even at the time of the inquiry.

Obviously, they had received instructions from Aloysius and shared information and perhaps allowed him to listen to proceedings, MP said.

Aluthgamage said that massive sums of money that had been paid to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PLT, Kasun Palisena and some senior Central Bank officials by the PLT was in the public domain thanks to the bond commission. Against that background, it would be pertinent to ask whether those COPE members had received benefits from PTL, MP Aluthgamage said.

Anuradhapura District UPFA MP Shehan Semasinghe said Parliament couldn’t be allowed to be used to protect alleged bond racketeers. He said that recent revelations pertaining to some COPE members’ links with Aloysius couldn’t be ignored under any circumstances. The MP said that those who had voted for Maithripala Sirisena at 2015 presidential polls would not approve of what was happening in Parliament now.

Pivithuru Hela Urumaya leader Udaya Gammanpila, MP, pointed out that allegations against COPE members should be examined against the backdrop of Sports Minister Jayasekera declaring that he had turned down a request from Aloysius to defend him.

Gammanpila said Minister Jayasekera had received several calls as he didn’t give in. Had there been any involvement with Aloysius, those COPE members should have quit the watchdog committee citing conflict of interests, the MP said.

Attorney-at-law Gammanpila compared the COPE members’ clandestine links with Aloysius with that of wartime Army Chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka sitting on a board that procured equipment from Hicorp, an enterprise owned by his son-in-law Danuna Tillekaratne

MP Gammanpila urged Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to immediately suspend those five COPE members and initiate an inquiry. The MP also expressed the belief that the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) would act swiftly and decisively regarding a complaint on COPE members’ links with Aloysius lodged on Friday.

By Ranjith Kumara Samarakoone Courtesy Ceylon Today

Matara District UPFA Member of Parliament Kanchana Wijesekera said his leader is Mahinda Rajapaksa, and went on to say, “We engage in politics with policies. We are with the individual who represents the Party policies. Maithripala Sirisena became Party Chairman through various methods.”

Excerpts of interview :

If we say that you came into politics because of your father, is that correct?

A: Actually I did not plan and come into politics; however, it was a strength that my father was engaged in politics. My father was a victim of a bomb that exploded in the South on 10 March 2009. As a result he had to distance himself from politics. I was invited by the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Dullas Alahapperuma to contest the Provincial Council Election held after that. It was from there that I started.

Mahinda who was in power for many years was defeated and a new Government was established by two parties. Were you not invited to join them?

A: At the very first meeting itself, President Maithripala Sirisena invited us. The request he made was to join the National Government as a group. About 30 of us told him that the mandate received was not to govern with the United National Party. We said that in common and then sent him a letter as well. However, he said that several were ready to join. Then some joined.

Friends, who were with us and said that they would dedicate themselves to Mahinda’s victory, also joined the Government. However, we did not join. Even now they are trying to take some from us. But our numbers are increasing.

Did you not get a personal individual invitation?

A: I received continuous messages, but we engage in politics with policies and I cannot disillusion the people who voted for us. The other thing is that these are two parties and there can be no common journey. Then we had 41 members and today it has increased to 50.

Even though you say that, the Government of Good Governance which was going to defeat Mahinda said from the very beginning itself that they will establish a National Government. And the mandate was given for that. Why are you saying a contradictory story?

A: It was stated in the UNP Manifesto only, we never said so. From 8 January onwards we said that we will establish a Government led by the SLFP. The reason is because we know how Ranil Wickremesinghe runs Government. Today, it has been proven. See, a decisive debate on the Constitution is taking place in Parliament. Do the two parties have one opinion? No. Look at the Cabinet media briefings; there are three persons to give the same information. These are comical.

What is your party?

A: My Party is the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

So, the leader of that is not Mahinda. It is Maithri isn‘t it?

A: Yes.

So, it is he who says that we will stay within a National Government. Isn‘t it the Party stance?

A: Party leader is not important to us. We are doing politics with policies. If we were to think that Ranil Wickremesinghe became the leader of the SLFP, if he does not follow the policies of the Party, can we accept him? We are with the individual who represents the policies. Maithripala Sirisena became the Chairman of the Party through various methods. After which he did not get on any stage to help the Party to win, he did not even help with words; at that time, Mahinda came forward with an entire group to rebuild the Party. We invited Maithripala Sirisena to the rally in Anuradhapura, but he did not come. Then we invited him for all the other meetings too. He did not come. By that, he established that he was representing Ranil Wickremesinghe.

You are saying that. However, Mahinda contested from Kurunegala and polled a lesser number of votes than at the Presidential Election?

A: There are two reasons for that. One is that, at a General Election the voting pattern is different from that of a Presidential Election. At the same time, the UNP put greater weight on Kurunegala saying they would set up factories and even distributed job applications. The other thing is Mahinda did not campaign in Kurunegala. He had to go around the country. Finally the Chairman of the Party, himself, said that even if he won Mahinda was not going to be made the Prime Minister. With 48 hours to go for the election, the General Secretary of the Party even removed the General Secretary of the Alliance. Then people started thinking, if we are not given a chance to form a Government what is the point in voting.

Did you at sometime avoid working for the Joint Opposition?

A: Yes. It happened because of an incident in the district. We were not defeated because of Mahinda. He is the most distinguished leader this country produced. Even then there were a few people who were using his name for personal advantage. Such persons had got together and were coming forward; they are the ones who initially tried to cross to the other side after the election was lost. Later it was corrected.

What is your take on your father‘s politics?

A: Yes. My father was in several parties. He was in the JVP. He was the President of the Inter-University Students Union the Shishya Bala Mandalaya, then the Secretary was Ranil Wickremesinghe. Later my father left the JVP. That was because he was not in agreement with the armed struggle. When the SLFP joined the JVP then my father joined the UNP due to the incompatibility between those two parties.

Are you following him?

A: It is like this. He changed parties in keeping with policy. I am not joining this Government because of my policy. Ranil Wickremesinghe can get together with either the JVP or the TNA and rule the country, without us. Why has he taken members of our Party to do that?

When a Party wins an election isn‘t it obliged to fulfil the promises to the people?

A: Most definitely.

Whoever prepares the new Constitution, it has to be adopted in Parliament with a two thirds majority and then go for a Referendum.

Then only will it be passed. It is a complex task. However, what you are objecting to is the Interim Committee Report!

A: As soon as the war ended the then President Mahinda invited all Tamil Parties including the TNA to join an All-Party committee.

Did they come? No. They boycotted for several years. Then they doubted it. Today, it is those who did not come then, who have joined together.

Where is the room for our opinion today? Only seven members of the Joint Opposition got the opportunity to speak at this debate.

Can those seven give the opinion of fifty odd persons? The TNA is on all these committee. We are only in one or two. Does that mean that the right of a certain group is suppressed in order to provide someone else’s right? Anyway there is suspicion about this Government. Everything they do is suspect. See the speeches made by the TNA. They talk as if Prabakharan is still alive. The other thing is that, they think that Tamil people live only in the North. Do they not live in the South too? Don’t those people have any rights?

If the people in those areas also make a request, in a short time, will they also be provided with solutions? Rajitha and others say they thought about this for the past 40 years. A Constitution is prepared for several hundred years; it isnot the aspirations that existed then that are there now.

Even though you say that, if Mahinda had treated the other races properly, how could he have lost in the North? The other accusation against that Government was that they were not mindful of the minorities.

A: I will give you one example. As soon as the war ended an election was held in the North. Then Rajitha, Champika and others said not to hold the election. Those who are shouting today that power should be devolved, then said, that if an election was held then the power will go to the TNA. However, what Mahinda said was that we should give them that opportunity. The North has the same powers as the others have. However, do they carry out work there? No. Allocated money is sent back to the Treasury. What is the Bill this Government presented to strengthen democracy?

Your faction is accusing the Government of corruption and fraud. However, does the Government take any action against those?

A: What action!

The Minister accused in the Treasury Bond fraud resigned. Even the Prime Minister is ready to face the Commission. Other Ministers also left or were removed?

A: Resigning, being removed and having to go because of pressure are three things. When the President removed Arjuna Mahendran, the Prime Minister appointed him as his own Economic Adviser. After Marapana resigned he came back as the fourth citizen. Ravi Karunanayake resigned as otherwise the Government would have in peril. Karunanayake who resigned has now become the pilot in strengthening the UNP countrywide.

In reality Arjuna Mahendran, Aloysius and Ravi should have been in prison by now. Has that happened? However, they capture our people then put them in prison and only then start the rest of the work.

There were others in your Government, in the past, who had accusations against them?

A: Yes. That is our fault. Those persons have joined this Government of today. They are receiving protection from ministerial positions. There are accusations about hedging, about irrigation, so they are in this Government. Even the President is being targeted by accusations from Australia. This is the Government that took persons into custody merely on allegations.

Everyone was waiting for an election. Are you ready for it now?

A: We waited for years. We are ready. The Commissioner says it will be held in January. However, we have no faith until the date is announced. Meantime, if someone else goes to Court it could drag on.

If there is an election from where will you contest?

A: We will contest from wherever our policies are upheld. Now, anyway we are in two factions. We will contest with the SLFP only if they leave the Government.

Your party is the Sri Lanka Freedom Party?

A: Yes. I represent its policies.

Who is your leader?

A: Mahinda Rajapaksa

But then the leader of the SLFP is Maithripala Sirisena?

A: He could be the leader in name but what is important to us, are the leaders who safe guard the policies.

If Maithripala Sirisena leaves the Government with the SLFP?

A: If so we will provide total support and work with him. That is what we always said. The person who comes forward to protect our policies is our leader.

Now the Party has been broken into two?

A: Yes. That is not a secret. Now, everyone is leaving the Government. Already three have left.

Will you stop with the Podujana Peramuna?

A: There is no decision about that as yet. However, if the election is being contested from there we will win it.

Are you for abolishing the Executive Presidency?

A: We are against assigning executive powers to Provincial Councils. However, I agree with, to it being abolished.

Are there any allegations against Kanchana Wijesekera?

A: Nothing against me but I heard that they are looking to find out whether there was anything done by my father.

If you had joined the Government you would have been a minister?

A: My goodness, they will give me any ministry I ask for.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The British woman who was deported from Sri Lanka for having a tattoo of Buddha on her arm said she had to leave Facebook after being abused by extremists, the BBC reported today.

The 41-year-old Naomi Coleman from Coventry won compensation on Wednesday after being detained in the country for four days, in April 2014.

Ms Coleman, a Buddhist herself, said she will not return to Sri Lanka.

Following her deportation, she says she received online messages telling her she should die and burn in hell.

“I have never experienced anything like this with Buddhism. They mostly seemed to be sent from Buddhist extremists in Sri Lanka. They were writing that I should die and burn in hell. I came completely off Facebook for a few weeks and have now changed my name on social media. To me, this is not the Buddhist way. Buddhism is about compassion and understanding,”she said.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court said Ms. Coleman’s treatment while she was in custody was “scandalous and horrifying” and awarded her compensation of 800,000 Sri Lankan rupees – about £4,000.

It said there was “no legal basis” for her arrest and she had been subject to “degrading treatment” by some officers and a prison guard.

Ms Coleman, who has been a Buddhist for about 10 years, has travelled widely and continues to go to retreats in Thailand and Nepal.

She said she was “overwhelmed” by the ruling but would not be returning to Sri Lanka.

“It’s a shame – it’s a beautiful country and most of the people are very welcoming. However, it seems there is a small percentage of people who want to cause trouble for me. I’m not sure if it’s because I am a woman travelling alone. But, at the moment, I wouldn’t feel safe going back,” she said.

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1 Canada

15 November 2017

Michael Cooke, The Editor
Toronto Star
1 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
MSE 1E6

Dear Editor:

Having returned from abroad after an absence of just over two weeks, I have just read your article Sri Lanka’s military aren’t ready to be peacekeepers” which was published in your Toronto Star on 3rd November 2017.  That was Hogwash!

It happens that you had reported the words spoken by the Member of Parliament

Gary Anandasangaree (GA), who I gather,  happens to be  a Tamil from Sri Lanka.

So we are now on to Part 2 of the ‘Canadian Parliament’s  Tamil Tiger Blarney Gong Show’. The first one happened on the evening of February 4, 2009, when an all party Emergency Debate on Sri Lanka  happened in the Parliamentary Chambers called by the late leader of the NDP, Jack Layton.  It was a stupid Tamil vote soliciting Ha! Ha!!  Sri Lanka bashing exercise, as they were going after the Tamil Tiger terrorists who were on the run before they we annihilated militarily on May 19th on the shores of the Nandikadal lagoon along the east coast.

Of all  the Sri Lankan Tamils residing in  the Greater Toronto Area, it would be Gary A, a lawyer and a political activist, who would know best that eradicating the ruthless Tamil Tiger terrorists by the Sri Lankan Army, brought Peace to that beautiful island nation that Gary A and I come from.  The Sri Lankan Army knows best what Peace is, and they know how to achieve it too, having got it for the island peoples after a 27-year long war with the separatist Tamil Tiger terrorists who hemorrhaged. that island nation with their heavy armoury, truck bombs, suicide bombers, claymore mines and over 1.5 million buried land-mines

GA knows best that annihilating the Tamil Tiger terrorists by the Sri Lankan Army gave back the right-to-life to 21 million peoples, his and mine, which was hijacked by the Tamil Tiger terrorists for 27 bloodying years,   What more credentials does GA  honestly want to say that the Sri Lankan Army is ready for Peacekeeping.

Here are three more valid credentials of the Sri Lankan Army to prove to you, Editor, that the Sri Lankan Army is ready to take over the responsibility of Peacekeeping.  They have proved to the world, that they are the best Army that was, is and will be in the future to accept the role of peacekeeping,  and Member of Parliament Gary Anandasangaree was absolutely wrong, wrong and wrong with his unfortunate comment about the Sri Lankan Army.

GA knows pretty well, that it was the Sri Lankan Army who rescued 295,873 Tamil civilians from the clutches of the ruthless Tamil Tiger terrorists by the end of the war, who were used as a human shield.  They were herded from the west coast to the east coast like unwashed cattle under the scorching Jaffna sun for three months.  And who rescued them may I ask?  It were the Sri Lankan Army, an act of peace building by saving innocent Tamil lives from the  flying Tamil Tiger bullets and feeding them to sustain their starving lives.

GA also knows  very well how the Sri Lankan soldiers carried the Tamil GrandMums and GrandDads in their arms like babies and ran them to safety dodging the Tamil Tiger bullets.  An act of valour and courage risking their own lives to save Tamil lives and keeping Peace.

GA also knows that it were the Sri Lankan Army soldiers who joined the local Sinhalese to cook a million hearty meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day to sustain the lives of the 295,873 rescued Tamils  housed in temporary shelters.  If these acts by the Sri Lankan Army navigating the suicidal path  of flying-bullets and claymore mines detonating conflict, to life saving peace, I am not sure what it is then.  I am not quite sure what this Member of Parliament is griping about.

All these acts by the Sri Lankan Army is  proof-positive that they are Masters of providing security, and the political and peace building support to countries to make the  difficult early transitions from conflict to Peace and Peacekeeping.

I have proved positive that this member of  Parliament’s statement of ‘Sri Lanka’s military aren’t ready to be peacekeepers’ is a bunch of baloney hanging from a  delicatessen stall in the Byward Market.  I have no difficulty to dismiss this statement as poppycock without any more consideration.

As for the response from Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in Canada, Ahmed Jawad, it is sound, honest and foolproof.   He is a career diplomat and not a lackey of Sri Lanka’s President nor the Prime Minister, which would have made his thesis suspect.   It would be difficult for the Member of Parliament to pick holes in it.  I hope he would use it as a learning  curve on  the subject

As a concluding remark, I hope and wish that your Editorial Board would consider rebooting your policy on Sri Lanka and stop providing ink for such negative and malicious Statements on Sri Lanka.  It is time that the Toronto Star graduate to a higher level in journalism and provide your readers a balanced account on issues on Sri Lankan -Tamil separatism as fed by its sympathizers of this Eelam movement.

Sincerely,

Asoka Weerasinghe

Cc.  Sri Lanka High Commissioner, Ahmed Jawad

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Yahapalana eagerly compared its foreign policy with that of former President Rajapaksa. ‘During the last regime the Lankan mouse from its peephole was roaring at India Instead of fostering relations with India’, said Don Manu. India slammed the door in their face, similarly America, England, France, Germany and the rest of the powerful western world. Due to its anti Indian and anti west stance the island had no friend in the world except the       region’s superpower aspirant China, continued Don Manu. Lanka isolated and alone, with no friends, turned to China and gave it access to areas of strategic value. Rajapakse turned to China not because of a good foreign policy but because political survival depended on it, concluded Don Manu.

Foreign relations have been re-balanced from a ‘China weighted’ one, to one that has restored relations with India and the West, said Yahapalana. Under Rajapakse there was too much reliance on China, ignoring traditional friends like US, Europe and India. Now old friendships are restored and there is less reliance on China, said Razeen Sally.  Unlike the previous regime, the current regime has sought to balance its policy between India and China, giving India a stake in Hambantota airport, Colombo port project and a key expressway, besides preventing Chinese submarines in Sri Lankan waters , observed India’s Foreign secretary, S. Jaishankar.

Unfortunately, neither India nor America have a good public image in Sri Lanka today. The public see modern India as the enemy. Direct Indian involvement in operating Sri Lanka’s second international airport  at Mattala would be 100 times more dangerous than leasing Hambantota port to China said one critic. US is no longer considered a rich, happy, perfect country after the California forest fires and the shootings at Las Vegas and Texas.

Sri Lanka must learn to balance international relations, Sri Lanka cannot become a military facility of any one country,  Sri Lanka can’t play one country off against another,   said Jayanath Colombage. Dayan Jayatilleke warned, ‘Sinhala fundamentalists’ count on the rise of China as a counterweight to India as well as the combined weight of India and the US. India and US are the regional superpower and the world’s sole superpower, though admittedly it is in slow, relative decline. We are an easily blockaded, small island on India’s doorstep and unlike Pakistan, we have no land route to China.

Building and balancing military relationships with India, China,  US and Japan will be crucial if Sri Lanka is to remain ‘a friend of all and an enemy of none’, warned critics. It may be best therefore for Sri Lanka to take middle ground at this moment. We are located at a meeting point between the east and west in the Indian Ocean and our location is of significant geo strategic importance, said analysts. However, no analyst has pointed out that China is a rising power, USA is a declining power. It is ridiculous for Sri Lanka to link with a declining power instead of the  rising one.

The Yahapalana tilt to US has led to a couple of   issues at the UN. Sri Lanka shocked the Arab and Islamic world by not supporting a pro Palestine, at UNESCO, said critics.  They were referring to the Occupied Palestine Resolution passed in October 2016. The resolution condemned Israel for aggression against the Palestinian people. Sri Lanka abstained.

Island ran a headline, ‘Mangala denies being US lackey.’ Mangala Samaraweera, then Foreign minister, said that Sri Lanka’s stand on the Palestine issue was that both Israel and Palestine should find a negotiated settlement and Sri Lanka had not voted against Palestine, he said. Sri Lanka abstained because Sri Lanka had reservations about the text and not because Sri Lanka had changed its mind about Palestine, explained the Ministry of Foreign affairs. India had also opted to abstain, along with many other countries. ‘We have supported Palestine’s entry as observer state to the UN. Our position on Palestine has not shifted at all’.

‘Now it has refused to vote against a resolution on Iran in UN General Assembly’, howled critics in November 2016. Iran has stood by Sri Lanka with military aid and credit lines to buy oil and carry out development projects. Iran stood by Sri Lanka in Human Rights Council.  Sri Lanka position on the vote is eagerly watched. Sri Lanka abstained in this election too.

Sri Lanka is a small nation, surrounded by much larger countries, all with economic and military power, greater than its own. It is essential that Sri Lanka maintain mutually beneficial economic and political ties with them, but Sri Lanka has to take utmost care to ensure that it does not enter in to asymmetrical agreements of long duration with a super power. The damage to national interests will be irreparable, said Anura Gunasekera.

Once entrenched, the super power will not relinquish its hold, it will only ask for more. National interest will not be a consideration in their calculations. We have to bear in mind at all times that we do not have the wherewithal, to exert economic, political or military force to evict an undesirable occupant from our soil, warned Anura Gunasekera

The main military attraction in Sri Lanka is of course, Trincomalee. Trincomalee is one of Sri Lanka most valuable assets. Trincomalee is one of the largest deep water natural harbors in the world. It consists of approximately 2000 hectares of sea and 6000 hectares of land.  The entrance is four miles wide and five across.  The inner harbor which lies to the north covers about 12 sq miles and is securely enclosed by rocks and small islets.

Trincomalee harbor is very strategically located.  Also Trincomalee is a sheltered port unaffected by seasonal weather changes and tidal waves. A remarkable feature of this harbor is its great depth. It has an average depth of 25 m, which could accommodate even mega container ships carrying over 18,000 TEUs that requires a draught of 19 meters.

It has a submarine canyon with walls as high as 1350 cms and a depth of over 3350 meters.  This canyon is one of the 20 largest submarine canyons in the world. Trincomalee is therefore   ideal for nuclear submarines.  They can dive low in the inner harbor and effectively avoid radar and sonar detection. Therefore any power that controls Trincomalee   had a great advantage from naval and strategic perspective.

This has political implications. A fleet so protected is in a position to dominate the Bay of Bengal and the eastern Indian Ocean and   the foreign power owning such a fleet was at an advantage. Currently, it has been observed that Trincomalee can comfortably accommodate the Seventh fleet of the US Navy.

US does not hide its desire to get into Trincomalee. US is working towards establishing  its bases in Trincomalee for its Seventh Fleet and was making Sri Lanka military vacate strategically important locations in the port,  said a news report of 2015.    Accordingly, Sampur navy base was vacated in 2015. The entire camp was removed and its 400 sailors sent to Boossa navy camp in Galle. The reason given was that Sampur was going to be used for resettlement.

The government has decided to allow Trincomalee to be a US base for the 7th fleet said a news report in 2016. Speculation is rife that the Trincomalee Harbor, a portion of the Colombo Port and many other key resources will go to India and the US, said Sumanasiri Liyanage in January 2017.  In May 2017 Vitarana said that an American Naval camp is to be set up in Trincomalee, with the Trincomalee harbor as the focal point. A bilateral agreement has been signed secretly to establish an American naval camp in Trincomalee.

Several international conferences on the Indian Ocean have taken place  in Colombo and elsewhere. Yahapalana is going to lead in this as well. We will continue to take a leading role, in bringing our partners in the Indian Ocean together to deliberate on issues of importance to all of us, said Prime Minister Ranil  Wickremesinghe at the opening of the 2nd Indian Ocean Conference.

Pathfinder Foundation, Carnegie India together with Vivekananda International Foundation in India conducted a conference in Colombo discuss six major areas of connectivity in the Indian Ocean.  Pathfinder Foundation ‘s Centre for Indo-Lanka Initiatives  and National Maritime Foundation  based in New Delhi, India signed a Memorandum of Understanding to embark on research into maritime strategy and security studies in the Indian Ocean. Their first bilateral conference in February 2018 will be on maritime security.

Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKI) held a dialogue on the theme ‘Sri Lanka’s Foreign Policy: Choices in a Changing World’  at this Dialogue, Mahdev Mohan, Nominated Member of Parliament in Singapore, observed that Sri Lanka’s attempt to craft a dual identity as the centre of the Indian Ocean and a gateway to India would give it a competitive advantage. This was ‘a space that nobody had had the chance to exploit just yet.’

I end this series with a survey of Yahapalana utterances on the politics of the Bay of Bengal. These utterances range from the ridiculous to statements that show that Yahapalana is planning to lead Sri Lanka into war.

Sri Lanka is a small island right in the middle of a large world. For thousands of years we have benefitted from being located strategically. Unfortunately, we seem to have forgotten this competitive advantage of the location. Our vision is to reclaim that mantle of international connectivity, said Prime Minister Ranil  Wickremesinghe

The Government of Sri Lanka has a clear vision of what it wants Sri Lanka to be said Minister Harsha de Silva in January 2017, we would like to position Sri Lanka at the centre of the Indian Ocean.  Sri Lanka is going to be the Hub of the Indian Ocean said  Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in May 2017. Sri Lanka will be the Hub in the Indian Ocean announced Yahapalana in September 2017.

The notion of Sri Lanka as  a Hub is not as absurd as  I had  initially thought. Jayanath Colombage  made out the following case for Sri Lanka . Colombage  pointed out  that Sri Lanka has a  unique advantage in its geographical location.  Sri Lanka is located in the centre of the Indian Ocean, almost equal distance from the eastern and western Indian Ocean littorals. Sri Lanka is located just 12 nautical miles from the busiest east-west shipping route across this ocean, linking Europe, Americas, Far East, Middle East and Asia, which is considered a key shipping lane in the 21st century. .Further, Sri Lanka is blessed with deep-water ports and deep navigable waters around the country and especially along the approaches to major ports.. Port of Colombo is the only port in the region which is capable of docking and handling even the latest version of mega container ships.

Sri Lanka is well connected digitally to the world and possesses an advanced telecommunication network. Sri Lanka is also enjoying well connected aviation network linking major cities in the region and beyond.  Sri Lanka maintains a balanced and equi-distance diplomatic posture and is considered to be a friendly country by many countries. . Sri Lanka is the only country in this region, where all states arrive without any restrictions, be they  Indians, Chinese, Pakistanis or Americans. Sri Lanka has already taken leadership roles in the India Ocean with Indian Ocean as Zone of Peace initiative,  its role in creating SAARC and creating of UNCLOS. Sri Lanka has presently taken the initiative to discuss a Code of Conduct for Major Maritime Users in the Indian Ocean region and a new Indian Ocean Order.  

Therefore  the   ‘Hub’ possibility  is based on Sri Lanka’s strategic location as well as the availability of ports on all coasts and two international airports with good land connectivity. Colombo will also be a center for offshore finance and business, said Yahapalana . Once it becomes a Hub, Sri Lanka future  will depend on how well the country leverages its geo strategic location as an Indian Ocean hub, said analysts.

‘We don’t want the Indian Ocean to become a militarized arena for great power rivalry. We don’t see here maritime and territorial disputes like those in the South China Sea, said Frances Adamson, Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia. However, a maritime build up is taking place in the Indian Ocean, which includes  nuclear capability. India , USA and China are increasing their naval presence in the Indian Ocean. Very soon, countries will compete for naval power and control of the sea in the Bay of Bengal.  Naval power will play an important role in the region said analysts.

The US is interested in creating partnerships in the Indian Ocean. The U.S.-India-Japan ‘Malabar’ naval exercise in July 2017 was ‘our largest and most complex to date, involving over ten thousand personnel’ said US.  US is also interested in building the coast guard capacity of ‘our Indian Ocean partners’. US says it wants to see greater naval cooperation in the Indian Ocean. US wants to Improve community policing, aviation security, and forensics analysis in the region as well,    in order to combat terrorism, transnational crime, human trafficking and illicit drugs. There is no mention of war.  Analysts however say that US will not be fighting in the Indian Ocean, the fighting will be done on behalf of USA by its partner states.

Maritime security in the Bay of Bengal is now a matter of much concern, said analysts. No single power or coalition will be able to rule on their own in the Indian Ocean. South Asia will need to build military alliances  to effectively counter security threats. Small nations such as Sri Lanka, with comparatively limited maritime resources also can become an integral element of maritime security in the region, said Minister Harsha de Silva. Sri Lanka  should  carve out a role for itself in the region, said  admirers.

Sri Lanka is well positioned  to play a strategic role in the Indian Ocean, due  to its strategic location in the international maritime route.  Sri Lanka  is   also at the crucial entry points of the Bay of Bengal, observed analysts. ,Sri Lanka  has an important responsibility for regional security in addition to national security, announced Yahapalana   we share responsibility in keeping its waters safe said  Prime Minister Ranil  Wickremesinghe .

It was the duty of the Sri Lanka navy to protect the entire Indian Ocean region without limiting its operation to the exclusive economic zone of Sri Lanka, said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.  Critics pounced on this remark. This comment is cause for grave concern said Vitarana. Sri Lanka navy was been asked to protect the entire Indian ocean. Our navy cannot even protect us from the Indian fishermen. If Sri Lanka navy is to carry out this huge responsibility, then US ships will have to be berthed in Sri Lanka.   The US 7th fleet will come to Trincomalee.  (CONCLUDED)

Chanaka Bandarage

The current Northern Provincial Council (NPC) is a racist government. The NPC discriminates against the Sinhalese in the North.

At the moment the NPC does not have the Land and Police powers (under the 13^th  Amendment, the Land and Police powers were granted to the provincial governments; but JR Jayawardane, realising the danger, effected measures to stop the final grant). At the moment the central government holds these two powers.

Even without having these two powers, the NPC discriminates against the Sinhalese hugely in the  North. It is not difficult to imagine what would happen when those powers are formally granted to the NPC  – that would be the creation of the Tamil Eelam.

LAND

• NPC opposes Sinhalese people from living in the North. It even blocks the 2^nd and 3^rd generation Tamil speaking Sinhalese from returning to the North. Sri Lankan parliamentarians maintain a mum on this blatant discrimination.
• NPC Chief Minister openly campaigns against the settlement of Sinhalese in the His actions amount to contravening local and international laws including human rights laws. The Chief Minister has single handedly stopped the establishment of Sinhalese settlements in the North . He has done this with impunity; since establishment of the NPC in 2013. A fear psychosis has been created among the Sinhalese that they should not contemplate settling down in the North. The sad irony is that the NPC, since its establishment, has received the implied consent to do so from the central governments.
• There is hardly any land available in plenty for the growing populations of Sri Lanka to live except in the North and the East. The NPC and the central government instrumentalities (like the Tamil speaking Grama Sevakas) have imposed ‘red tape’ upon the Sinhalese from settling in the North. As it was impossible to comply with the stringent (unlawful) rules, the Sinhalese who wanted to settle in the North returned to the South (note, the North and the South have been traditional homelands of the Sinhalese).
• NPC has a huge budget and spends lavishly on the upliftment of the Tamil citizens in the North (funds largely provided to them  by the central government), it has basically done nothing to uplift the lives of the very few Sinhalese living in the North. Lots of the Northern Sinhalese still live in half built houses or tin sheds.  The roads in the areas where they live have been neglected.  The NPC has shown no desire to attend to repairing these roads.
• The Madu Road Sinhalese who were the first settlers of that area have been overlooked when allocating recently built shops. The Sinhalese in Silawathura have not been provided with proper drinking water (until the NGO that the writer is involved with went ahead to build wells and provide them with clean water). Kokilai Sinhalese (including the Buddhist monk) are constantly facing legal action in relation to land matters; the sinister objective is to evict them from those areas. Tamil speaking Navatkuli Sinhalese have been asked to return to the South alleging that they are illegal squatters. No attempts have been made by any government to rebuild the ‘Sinhala Maha Vidyalaya’ in Jaffna, flattened by Prabhakaran’s bombing in the early 1980s (it had over 2000 students and was considered to have one of the best school laboratories in the North). This prime land, adjoining the Jaffna Hospital, has been encroached by squatters, to a certain extent.
• The former TNA MP Suresh Premachandran (presently the Leader of EPRLF) threatened Navatkuli Sinhalese that they must return to the South (youtube.com/watch?v=fKfrUS–twIs). This is a good forewarning as to what we can expect from a future TNA or other Tamil government when they have full Land (and Police) powers in the North.
• After the war, the Madu Road Sinhalese were given 20 perches of land by the then central government to resettle, new Tamils who were brought into the area, probably under the instigation of the NPC, to live next to them were given 40 perches of land. The Sinhalese understand that they were discriminated against on the ground of race. In Madu Road, a prime block of land belonging to the central government was acquired by a Tamil businessman to establish a new business.
• NPC opposes and sometimes prevents the few Sinhalese Buddhists in the North from practising Buddhism. Even to build a ‘chaithya’ within their temple premises, the Sinhalese in the North had to seek orders from the Court of law. We are aware of incidents where Buddha statutes placed in public places in the North had been damaged by subversive elements.
• Sinhalese living in the North have been denied the right to practice their livelihoods – due to this some Sinhalese left the North and returned to the South. We are aware of incidents where self-employed Sinhalese have been harassed by the NPC officials imposing unfair conditions and restrictions on their businesses (Tamils doing the same businesses have not been imposed with such unfair restrictions and conditions). A Sinhala shop owner in the North was frequently harassed by errant officials alleging he had encroached into the pavement,  other adjoining non-Sinhalese shop owners, did not even receive a warning for committing the same offence.
• TNA runs the NPC. TNA was the LTTE proxy in the Sri Lankan parliament.
• TNA politicians have worked to chase out Sinhalese from lands and give those land to Tamils (eg. after the war, about 100 Sinhalese were chased out from the land (up to 1000 acres) in Dehiwatte in Trincomalee district (Eastern Province) and those lands were given to new Tamil settlers. A high level public servant of the Trincomalee District Registry related that the ‘order’ to evict the Sinhalese from the lands had come from a prominent TNA parliamentarian (who is ‘venerated’ in the South).

සංහිඳියාව (Reconciliation)

NPC has shown least regard to සංහිඳියාව (reconciliation), though the Central Governments preach this non-stop to the people in the South. In the North, government work is conducted in Tamil exclusively. The Sinhalese in the North who are unable to speak Tamil find it extremely difficult to obtain services from government offices. The Jaffna Railway station had not regularly announced the arrival of the train from Colombo in Sinhala language. Huge bill board advertisements in the North (eg on A9) are being confined to Tamil and English languages only (some advertisements are displayed by banks and leading businesses housed in the South).  To a traveler to the North, it is obvious that Sinhalese signage is largely lacking. This is not the situation in the South. A Northern Sinhalese Buddhist monk related to the writer that when buses are crowded, he had to travel standing on them as no one would offer him a seat.

Future

• Once they have the Land power, the NPC not only would be able to legally block the Southern Sinhalese from settling in the North, but also from visiting the North. The NPC may be able to impose a law that without its permission no person can enter the Northern lands, say, beyond Vavuniya. This means the Sinhalese can be asked not to enter the North.
• The very few Sinhalese who are already in the North could be repatriated to the South.
• Once the Land power is given, it will be easy for enemies of Sri Lanka in Thamilnadu, like Vaiiko, Nedumarann and Seman et al to set up anti-Sri Lankan establishments/institutions in the North.
• Tamilnadu people may have easy access to enter the province. Their fishermen may freely poach on our waters.
• As the land will be theirs, without Sri Lanka’s consent, the NPC would be able to negotiate with India and build a bridge to connect the two lands.
• With the Land power legally granted to them, the NPC can impose more pressure on the Army to vacate its camps (note even the Leader of the Opposition in the recent past trespassed into  the Kilinochchi Army camp and demanded that the Army should vacate that land). The NPC can agitate people to conduct hartals etc demanding the military to entirely vacate from the North. Such actions can endanger the lives of the military and the Sinhalese police (if any) stationed in the North. With Land powers fully in their control,  basically the NPC will be able to do anything in relation to land – sell, transfer, lease, mortgage, donate, acquire in any way it likes – without even paying just compensation to the land owners (note, there will  be some land still vested with the central government).

POLICE

• Historically the majority of the Policemen and Police women in the North have been Sinhalese. This is the situation even now. Once the Police powers are given, the new Northern Police Force may be comprised exclusively of Tamil speaking officers. If the NPC wants, it may be able to impose a condition that all police officers must speak Tamil fluently.  This would eliminate most Sinhalese police personnel from serving in the North.
• The NPC police will be like a para military force, it will bear arms. As the central government will have no control over recruitment to the NP police force, ex-Tigers may be able join. After the two powers are given, if the Sri Lankan military continues to remain in the North, it is possible that confrontation may occur between the two ‘armed’ forces.
• A Police officer from the South may not be able to enter the North without the permission from the Northern Chief Minister. If a federal Police Officer is allowed permission to enter the North, he/she could be asked to remove his/her federal uniform and wear civilian clothes.
• As the Northern Provincial Police Commission will come under the control of the NP Chief Ministry, it will be the Chief Minister who will appoint the head of its police force, not the President.
• It will be very difficult for the central government Police force (federal) to investigate offences committed by criminals; it will be largely the duty of the provincial government police forces (imagine, having nine separate Police forces, wearing nine different uniforms + a federal police force in this tiny Sri Lanka! – we are less than 1/3 of the population of Tamilnadu).
• The central government Police force (federal) will become a minute Police force who will be confined to duties in federal institutions like the Airports (2), Ports (about 4 or 5), Defence installations, Federal Parliament, Foreign Ministry, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court, Post Offices, SLBC/Rupavahini and the Customs etc. As the provinces are likely to get the powers currently in the concurrent list (still unsure); majority of the country’s public establishments/ buildings will be manned by the provincial police forces.
• A person who would commit a crime in the South, like planting a bomb (eg, a future Pottu Amman), can flee to the North and stay hiding there. It will be up to the Northern Police whether or not to arrest him. The Federal Police will have to seek an ‘extradition order’ from the NP Chief Minister to receive and prosecute the person in the South. Whether or not to issue such an order will be the prerogative of the NP Chief Minister.
• In 1991 Vartharaja Perumal (co-founder of EPRLF) used his paramilitary force like an ‘Army’ and unilaterally declared the ‘Tamil Eelam’ in Northern Sri Lanka. This led the then President Ranasinghe Premadasa to dissolve the provincial council and impose a direct rule on it. Such a scenario can recur; next time the situation would be more serious, given that NPC will have a police force in its command and under the proposed changes the Governor’s powers are likely to be severely curtailed.

TNA  has not given up on the separate state, it is foolish to think otherwise

• When overseas, TNA politicians speak in a different language and tone – they espouse separation. There are instances where the TNA has openly stated that they do not believe in a unitary Sri Lanka. In Geneva in the past, they have lobbied for the Tamil right for self- determination (ie, separate state).
• When overseas, TNA politicians make fabricated claims that Tamils are being discriminated in Sri Lanka, including the accusation that Tamil women are currently being raped by the military (this writer has confronted them in foreign western forums, the TNA leaders have then retracted).
• Tamil separatists follow their leader, Chelvanayakam’ s teaching – ‘little now, more later’ (please refer to my earlier article ‘Tamil demand for unfair and unreasonable power – due to Sinhala stupidity, complacency, ignorance and infighting).’
• NPC has openly indicated that they are not afraid to breach the country’s Constitution. That is why they have shown a desire to seek foreign aid and direct foreign participation (by passing the central government) to build the NP. According to the Constitution the NPC does not have the Foreign Affairs powers, it is vested with the central government.
• TNA, though leads the opposition in the current parliament shows little regard to issues relating to the whole of Sri Lanka. They are predominantly focused on Tamil rights. This should not be the behaviour of a responsible opposition.
• It is likely that the parliament will give 2/3 majority to further amend the Constitution (among other things to grant the Land and Police powers to all the nine provinces). Afterwards like JR Jayawardane did in 1987, sanction may be obtained from the Supreme Court  to the proposals (subject to the Supreme Court’s approval). If the matter is referred to the People at a Referendum, it is likely that the proposals would fail. Whatever the outcome of the Referendum,  TNA will use the results to show that in the North and the East they received a majority vote which shows that those people support the proposals. Based on the Referendum results, the NP Chief Minister may call for an UDI (unilateral declaration of independence). Given that the West (US and the European Union) and India are now in good terms with Sri Lanka, it is interesting to note whether or not they would accept the call or stick its loyalty with Sri Lanka. Whatever the situation, it is quite probable that a Tamil Eelam would be dawned one day as a new nation within Sri Lanka (Kosovo was accepted in that manner). The only way to defeat this is to have Sinhalese and Muslim people settled in the North (this is also the solution to the country’s land scarcity in order for people to live comfortably), and try to preserve as many as possible Army camps there.

Our weak fight thus far against the proposed amendments to the Constitution  (six subcommittee reports and the interim report)

Our fight has largely been confined to the below mentioned misguided areas (in bullet points). When the masses realise that these fears that we try to portray  are actually not there, they may consent to the new proposals (at the moment there is lukewarm interest in the South about the Constitutional debate):

• That the prominence currently being given in the Constitution to Buddhism may be removed. It is quite evident that the proponents of the proposals are not stupid to remove this prominence already given in Chapter II, Article 9 of the Constitution. Even the Cardinal of the Catholic Church has stated that that should not be done.
• We fight tooth and nail whether it will be ‘orumiththa nadu’ or ‘Otriyatchi’. In this debate does it really matter?  Surely, this should not be the key issue of the debate.
• We continue to argue that the proponents of the proposals are trying to convert the country into a federal state (even the proponents have sometimes stated that federalism would be the outcome!). It was the Banda-Chelva pact in 1957 that first tried to create a federal state in Sri Lanka.  In the mid 1990s the country attempted to do this again. But, in 1987 we in fact became a federal state (created by the 13th Amendment in 1987). Therefore, rather than making the shallow argument that the country will become a federal state as a result of the current proposals ; we must  demonstrate that they may lead to a much more sinister end – secession.  We have failed to understand that many ordinary Sri Lankans now believe that it is alright to grant federal status to the provinces, believing that the country will still remain a single nation.  There is justification to this belief. They know that countries that have federal governments such as Canada, Australia, India, France, Mexico, Brazil, Germany have remained a one nation. What we must also stress is that unlike those countries, in Sri Lanka, we deal with Tamil politicians most of who have the hidden agenda to create a separate state – Tamil Eelam.
• What we must do is to highlight the real damage these proposals might do to the country. Giving the Land and the Police powers to the NPC, the federal (central) government giving up its concurrent list powers are the most dangerous and scary proposals. They are changes that can lead us to lose our sovereignty and territorial integrity. Unfortunately, in our fight thus far, we have given less deference to them.
• Finally, the populace must be educated about the grave danger  that we will face if these powers are given to the NPC. To overcome the problem, we must all work together. Like our other problems, if we continue to  look at them as a UNP/SLFP/JA issue,  we would never win. What we ought to understand is that this is a National problem; we must disregard our party affinities and all of us must work as united Sri Lankans to defeat the threat we now face to our sovereignty and territorial integrity.
• This time, once we lose sovereignty and territorial integrity, it will be permanent. It will be impossible to regain them. Again, that is why  we must fight with full force and vigour to defeat the adverse proposals.

By Garvin Karunaratne

I enclose a Paper I wrote way back in 2008 detailing what has happened to Zimbabwe, to illustrate how the Superpowers strangled Mugabe. This provides the background to understand  what is currently happening in Zimbabwe.

The conclusion deals with what was happening to the economy of Sri Lanka in 2008. That also helps us to understand our predicament of today. It is high time our leaders take charge of the economy of Sri Lanka before following the IMF any further.

Mugabe’s Zimbabwe Today: The Stranglehold of the Superpowers & the IMF in action. Lessons for Sri Lanka.

Mon, 2008-07-21 01:03 — admin

By Garvin Karunaratne

Many of my friends and contacts have been surprised at my statement about President Mugabe, showing him as a victim of the Superpowers- how they have actually strangled him in my paper: Zimbabwe’s Election Results; The Double Standards of the Superpowers(Asian Tribune 20/04/2008). I wrote:

Why are the Superpowers so angry with Mugabe? When Mugabe came to power the Whites were ruling the economy. They had established plantations on most of the ideal cultivable land which was taken over from them virtually by force. Earlier this land was controlled by the communities and worked for the welfare of the people. This happened in every country that was colonized and this included countries like Sri Lanka and Kenya. The British did this in a subtle manner by declaring all unoccupied land as belonging to the Crown. In pre-colonial days the forest land near habitations belonged to the villages as common land used for water retention, firewood collection, for forest produce, for habitation as the populations grew, for cattle enclosures during the cultivation season etc. The land was thereafter sold to the white planters for a song and in Kenya, within the forest sold were entire villages, including the people.

In Out of Africa Karen Blixen documents how the planters sold their land including full villages with the people. In Sri Lanka it is on record that the Police were used to throw out villagers when their villages were situated in forest extents sold to the planters.

When we think of the Third World countries today we tend to forget that the Third World was entirely conque red by the Colonial Superpowers. In the words of Cecil John Rhodes, the aim of the British Empire was to bring the whole of the uncivilized world under British Rule”. The colonial masters changed the self reliant economies to become economies that brought about an income for them. The colonies were made to produce raw materials required for their industries and the goods manufactured were sold to the masses in the colonies. In this process the Third World countries were exploited with riches accumulating in the Countries of the Colonial Superpowers. Zimbabwe, earlier Rhodesia, was thus exploited to the maximum.

Mugabe was a guerilla fighter who fought tooth and nail against the colonial domination of his country. At last in 1978 the guerilla forces forced the British to cede independence. Under the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979, Britain, the country that had ruled Rhodesia from 1890 to 1965, when Ian Smith declared independence unilaterally, agreed to pay compensation to white famers who will be dispossessed of their land when the land will be taken over and distributed to the indigenous people. This was argued necessary because the colonial ruler, the British had taken over these lands from the communities that controlled these unoccupied commonly held lands without the payment of any compensation and had thereafter sold these lands to foreign-mainly British planters at nominal- very low rates and they had established plantations and had thereby amassed fortunes over decades. The prosperity of the UK was brought about by the profits that came from the plantations The vast bulk of the cultivable land of Rhodesia was in this process bought and occupied by 6000 white farmers. The dispossessed local people had no employment. It was an attempt to make these impoverished landless people farmers that made Mugabe argue for the plantations to be taken over for distribution.

However this takes over of plantations was to be done on a willing seller” basis. In fact the question of compensation payments rocked and almost aborted the Lancaster House Agreement which took three months of discussions to complete. An important premise of this agreement was that no repossessions out side the willing seller concept could be done for ten years. In 1981 Britain pledged to pay GB Pounds 630 millon, but there was continuous disagreement and haggling and ultimately in 1997, the British Government of Tony Blair, reneged on its commitment and paid only pounds 44 million. According to a Report from the Zimbabwe Government the amount paid was only Pounds 17 million.

Independent Zimbabwe under President Mugabe did well initially after independence. Little land was taken over because of the terms of the Lancaster House Agreement to find willing sellers and the White Farmers continued to work their farms. The indigenous population continued to be landless. There was rapid growth in the Eighties. and then came the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which Mugabe embraced in 1990. However it did not take long for Mugabe to realize that the Structural Adjustment Program did not bring about any development and he ditched the SAP in 2001.. IMF withdrew balance of payments support in 1999 and withdrew providing Aid in 1999.

During the period of the Structural Adjustment Program loans were made available even for consumption. T he tenet of the SAP was to allow free trade, deregulate and reduce or abolish tariffs on imports on the basis that the IMF will provide easy loans to bridge budget deficits. In this process the foreign debt ballooned to $ 4,500 million in 2001 to the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the European Investment Bank. Earlier Zimbabwe was not an indebted country at independence. It was the IMF that ruined Zimbabwe.

In the words of Richard Saunders, “Loan agreements emanating from the Structural Adjustment Programme have stretched Zimbabwe’s foreign and domestic debt to unmanageable proportions.”(Saunders:30)

As explained by Patrick Bond and Richard Saunders: 1991 was the turning point… The US was suddenly the sole superpower and the IMF, the World Bank and GATT(later WTO), wasted no time imposing a global neoliberal iron heel. Zimbabwe had significant international debts and suddenly new debt service was conditioned on yielding to the global neo liberal dictatorship. The large State Sector and protected local industries inherited from the prior regime were condemned as inefficient and an Economic Structural Adjustment Program was adopted by Mugabe with considerable enthusiasm. The results were disastrous.

Manufacturing output declined by 40% from 1991 to 1995 accompanied by a similar decline in worker’s real standard of living and dramatic increase in inflation that ravaged savings and those in the informal economy….Domestic Industry was destroyed in 1990 by the ESAP(Bond & Saunders)

The Government however was under constant pressure from the people to provide th em with land and Mugabe had no alternative but to take over the plantations without paying compensation. Mugabe commenced repossession of plantations in 1997. In March 2002, all whites were ordered to leave their land without compensation. The Current aim is to transfer 30% of farmland to black ownership by 2014. Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth in March 2002 Mugabe established a one party state but by 1990 changed his ideas and held multi party elections.

Many world authorities are unaware of the real reasons for the disaster that Zimbabwe faces today. Professor Paul Collier of Oxford in his book: The Bottom Billion:Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What can be done about it(Oxford 2007) states: Mugabe must take responsibility for the economic c collapse in Zimbabwe since 1998 culminating in inflation over 100.000 %.”

If the British Government had stood by the conditions that were agreed at the Lancaster House Agreement and had provided the 630 million pounds to be paid as compensation, there would have been no problem. But the British Government had reneged on its promise and President Mugabe cannot be blamed for this decision to take over the plantations. It was this act of President Mugabe that made the International Superpowers move sanctions on Zimbabwe.

No country with a massive foreign debt can face sanctions imposed. Though in the July 2008, G8 Meeting of the Superpowers, full sanctions were not agreed on because Russia and China did not support it, compliance with sanctions already imposed by Britain and Western Superpowers have ruined the economy.

Paul Collier has taken Mugabe’s present Zimbabwe out of context in castigating Mugabe. One has to castigate Tony Blair and his British Government for reneging on the aid that was agreed at the Lancaster House Agreement and also blame the IMF for implementing the Structural Adjustment Program that ruined local industry and local production. Once the development infrastructure in a country is abolished, it is an extremely difficult task to rebuild. Go through the IMF annals of ‘development’ and the Structural Adjustment Programme and one will find that each and every country that followed it have had their economies ruined.

In today’s context once a country has a high foreign debt which it cannot service and further its economy has been ruined by following the tenets of the Structural Adjustment programme, it has to depend on the grace of the International Superpowers for further Aid, if it is to pay its dues and survive. Mugabe came to a point where he had to displease the International Superpowers by his decision to take=2 0over the plantations without the payment of compensation and by his decision to not implement the Structural Adjustment Program. What happens is that through following the SAP the development infrastructure that is there in the country is abolished, the country’s assets are privatized and get into the foreign hands- hands of the multinationals and further through privatization of paying assets, the Government does not have a tax base to meet its development expenditure.

No country can face the sanctions of the International Community for long. Initially a country can raise a few foreign loans at high interest rates, through foreign banks, but this source dries up particularly because the countries cannot service those loans taken at high interest and further because the foreign banks eventually fall in line to the tunes of the International Community and the IMF.

Mugabe could not face the sanctions of the IMF and the International Superpowers. Thus his economy gradually got into ruins with the inflation rate reaching 7,000% in 2007 and this rising further to 100,000% in 2008. Today the unemployment rate is around 80% and about a fourth of the population work in foreign countries, mainly in South Africa. The people have their incomes from foreign funds remitted by the relatives working abroad.

So far I have never read anywhere that Mugabe had stached away dollars, as many other Third World rulers have done.

Due to the fact that the Presidential Election held in 2008 was inconclusive and at the run off the opposition backed out, Mugabe continues as the president. Mugabe faced an election and had every vote counted unlike the US Presidential Elections of 2000 and 2004 In 2000 George H. Bush20was pushed into the seat of the Presidency by the Supreme Court that abruptly stopped the recounts of ballots that were being counted in Florida under the instructions of the Florida Supreme Court. I was in the USA at the time of the election and this very undemocratic act of electing the US President without counting ballots made me document and write a book: The Administrative Bungling that Hijacked the 2000 US Presidential Election. The University Press of America) In 2004 it was the electronic voting machines that declared Bush the winner. The voting machines were prone to malfunction again and again- at times recording four million votes when only 400 ballots were fed into the machines. However as there was no paper documentation the fact whether the machines were correct or wrong in the totaling could not be verified. This very strange method of depending on errant voting machines to declare the winner made me document this new American style of holding elections in my book:The Electronic Stealing of the 2004 US Presidential Election.(Booksurge/Amazon.com).

What has happened to Mugabe and Zimbabwe is due not to Mugabe’s inefficiency, but entirely due to the fact that Mugabe failed to counter the machinations of the International Community that started imposing sanctions. In today’s neocolonialist era, it is the foreign funded Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) that are used by the Colonial Superpowers to sabotage the development of the Third World covertly. Overtly the Superpowers function as paragons of democracy and human rights and their educated Envoys in their verbosity continue to pose as if they are helping our countries and our leaders are snared. There is a catch in everything that the Superpowers tell us, if only we can decipher it.

There are a number of lessons for Sri Lanka from Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. The United National Party that ruled Sri Lanka from 1977 embraced the SAP and in the process the economy of the country was really ruine d. In 1977 when the SAP was embraced by President Jayewardene the Rupee was immediately devalued by 100%. The continued implementation of the Structural Adjustment Programme of high interest rates and free trade- allowing a free flow of foreign exchange to everyone for everything and meeting the excess with loans, increasing our debt is the easiest method of ruining any economy. See my book: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka & Alternate Programs of Success(Godages) for the process of ruination that took place. This is exactly what happened to Mugabe.

Sri Lanka has been kicked by the IMF and the World Bank. It is their refusal to give us aid that has made other financial authorities discredit us and it is this that has forced us to get loans with as high an interest as 8.25%. Why are we yet continuing the IMF precepts of the Structural Adjustment Program like high interest rates, which are the highest in Asia and due to which no local production can emerge. Why have we not commenced regulating the use of foreign exchange. Unfortunately Sri Lanka even free floated20the Rupee in 2001 under Chandrika’s Government with the result that the Central Bank no longer is in charge of the foreign exchange that comes to our country. We allow the Banks and this includes the foreign banks to use the foreign exchange that comes in- it is supposed to be according to the rules of supply and demand. In actual practice it has been proved that the foreign banks hoard the foreign exchange that comes in and bids the value of the foreign currency upwards as did happen on 25 th January 2001.( See pages 95-130 of my book: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka…)

Faced with sanctions by certain foreign superpowers and the IMF Mugabe, failed to take total control over the economy. He allowed the NGO to nibble at the economy and did not organize production to take place. Sri Lanka too has to face a grim future unless it is prepared to take total control over the economy, including its foreign exchange and control the use of foreign exchange in other interests of the country.

Garvin Karunaratne

16/11/2017

SL VLOG

දුෂිත තලතා, ඇතුළු විදේශ සේවා නියුක්ති දුෂිත අමනයන් නෙරපා දඬුවම් දිය යුතුය !.

https://youtu.be/kwLg8kFOYNc

it seems an innocent person in trouble for exposing 660M foreign employment Buero fraud by minster, working director and few. White vans sent to his house and he got arrested today

By Rohana R. Wasala

Ven. Abhayatissa’s more recent utterances show that he has been somewhat reassured by the president. He sounds hopeful that after all this constitution making problem will soon be resolved. The monk believes that the president is the only person who can be expected to do this and save the country from being divided on ethnic lines.

To date, however, important government representatives have contrived to be in the denial mode, when queried about the new constitution. They usually ask critics: How can you talk about a constitution of which there isn’t even a draft?” But now it is evident it has already been drafted, as Ven. Bellanwila Wimalarathana Thera said, though he did not reveal the names of the two persons who, he knew, drafted it. It is the venerable thera’s word against the two powerful political pragmatists, lately at cross purposes with each other. People know who to believe. Rear Admiral (Retired) Dr Sarath Weerasekera,(former UPFA MP for Ampara who led a three member delegation to Geneva in March 2017 with a 100 page dossier of factual information to refute war crimes allegations against the Sri Lankan armed forces as Chief Coordinator of The Federation of National Organisations sponsored by the Global Sri Lankan Forum) mentioned the names of two lawyers as the architects of the new constitution, both federalists: (old moribund Marxist) Jayampathy Wickremaratne and (overweening TNA politician) M.A. Sumanthiran. (These must be the names that the Ven. Bellanwila Wimalarathana Thera was hesitant to mention.) Anyway, this is now common knowledge.

To cut a long story short, we are talking about a constitutional plot by interested parties. Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa called the new constitution making programme a ‘constitutional conspiracy ’in parliament on November 2, 2017 while participating in debate on the so-called interim report. This conspiracy has been a few years in the making. Its purpose is to offer the  separate state that the LTTE fought for on a silver platter. Is it for this that over 29,000 of our young soldiers died and over 14,000 of them got permanently disabled in fighting? To this we need to add the incalculable cost that the conflict incurred in terms of the loss of civilian lives and property destruction. The Tamilnet, January 22, 2015 carried an article entitled Singapore Principles of 2013: Tamil polity taken for ride from Oslo to Singapore”. It refers to a meeting in Singapore in 2013 to which Mangala Samaraweera went, allegedly like a beggar” urging Tamil support for regime change in Sri Lanka.

QUOTE ‘Mr M.A. Sumanthiran, the non-elected national list ITAK parliamentarian and Mr V.T. Thamilmaran, the dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Colombo were the Tamil representatives from the island while representatives of the so-called Global Tamil Forum (GTF) were representing the Diaspora Tamils at a meeting in Singapore in 2013 when Dr Jayampathy Wickramaratne came with his proposal points to agree upon a conceptual framework aimed at regime change, the removal of Executive Presidency and other arrangements targeting good governance. Dr Jayampathy Wickramaratne was an adviser to Sri Lanka’s past two Presidents.

Mangala Samaraweera came as a ‘beggar’ urging Tamil support for regime change and abolition of the executive presidency. It was 2013,” said one of the participants, reflecting on the Singapore meeting.

When Tamil aspirations came for discussion, M.A. Sumanthiran wanted to avoid the mentioning of terms such as Nation and Right to Self Determination in the document.’ END OF QUOTE

What is in the interim report can be traced to the ten (so-called) Singapore Principles. The vagueness of the language adopted in formulating these principles and subsequently in preparing the interim report is deliberate. The first principle is: In describing the nature of the State what is important is the substance; the labels are secondary.” In the proposed constitution, the universally accepted English term ‘unitary’ is to be replaced by Sinhalese ‘a-keeya’ (a word coined by the republican constitution makers of 1972 as an equivalent of the English term ‘unitary) and Tamil ‘orumitta’ (meaning united, not unitary). The English word unitary will be dropped as inappropriate. So, the new federalist/separatist constitution makers are indulging in a kind of cynical verbal jugglery, by which they hope to leave the Sinhalese and other unitarists with the label the constitution makers think they will be satisfied with, and the Tamil communalists (not the ordinary Tamils) with the ‘substance’ they have always been clamouring for. The Republic of Sri Lanka shall be a secular state. Similarly, Principle No. 10: The Foremost place to Buddhism and equal status to other religions shall be assured” is an insult to the average intelligence and dignity of the Sinhalese Buddhist electorate. If all religions enjoy equal status, how can one of them be given the ‘foremost place’? Constitutionally granting Buddhism the foremost place will not harm the secular nature of the Lankan state just as the foremost place given to Christianity in the US, UK, and Norway, among other countries has not harmed the secular status of those countries. Monks get involved only when the country, the nation, and the Buddha Sasanaya are in danger, the protection of which is above politics.

What the news channels reported on parliamentary proceedings on October 30 – the first day of the scheduled three day debate (later extended by another two days) on the interim report of the proposed constitution making process – suggested the general direction it was moving. Minister Lakshman Kiriella, Leader of the House, was trying to assure the increasingly skeptical (public) that the unitary structure of the state and the foremost place given to Buddhism will remain untouched. (Having read the previous paragraph, the reader will have no difficulty in guessing how credible the writer thinks Kiriella is.) MP M.A. Sumanthiran forthrightly revealed what was up his (the government’s) sleeve: what was being proposed was ‘federation’. That was a direct contradiction of what Kiriella said. So, if the new constitution is passed, then Sri Lanka will be a confederation of states. Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva was shouting about being against anything that divides the country, while referring to a so-called ‘13+1’ that the former president had allegedly suggested. The sincerity of Joint Opposition leader Dinesh Gunawardane’s unequivocal opposition to what is proposed in the interim report was in stark contrast to the silly casuistry of Kiriella.

The interim report gives a strong indication that, if the proposed constitution is passed and becomes the basic law of the country, the survivors of the militarily defeated separatists will not only have their separate state, but they will also have written a constitution that will in effect be a death warrant on the unitary state that defeated them! However, when this small country is virtually divided into two or three or more independent sovereign states, life will be hell for all the communities, due to inevitable border disputes, resource sharing squabbles, problems about maintenance of law and order, and religious conflicts. The worst hit will be the majority community. But it will be no better for the others.

The recorded history of the island is the history of the Sinhalese majority. Though nowadays the Veddahs are exclusively described as the indigenes of the island, that is misleading. The tribe that built up the island civilization, known throughout history as the Sinhalese, are as much indigenous to the island as the Veddahs. There is nothing wrong with the written and epigraphical history of this country. That it cannot be cited in support of federalism is a problem for the supporters of that ideology. Northern provincial council chief minister Vigneshwaran’s call to rewrite the country’s history is ridiculous. A 78 year old man must be a little more graceful towards the young children of this country, and control his thoughts, speech, and actions so as to save them future distress. Prabhakaran might have got Tamil fiction writers to invent Devanam Piya Theesan to replace Devanampiya Tissa (during whose reign Buddhism was officially introduced to Lanka), or Kasiappa to answer to the name of Kashyapa (Kashyapa of Sigiriya fame). But according to the most coldly academic accounts of dedicated historians (e.g., Prof. K.M. de Silva), Tamils, who originated in Tamil Nadu (Tamil country) had no permanent presence in the island until the 13^th century CE. That is, their history in Sri Lanka does not go back more than 800 years, whereas the indigenous tribe that changed and survived as the Sinhalese after being conquered by a north Indian prince in the form of Vijaya around 600 BCE had been there from time immemorial. There were many invasions from South India, but they were all repelled. Magha of Kalinga who invaded the country in 1215, and who caused utmost destruction and delivered a mortal blow to the dry zone hydraulic civilization of the Sinhalese was driven back after 21 years of occupation. There were provincial Tamil rulers in the north, but they always ruled on sufferance. There were provincial Sinhalese rulers in the south as well. However, it was always recognized that the whole of Sri Lanka was one sovereign state, Sinhale, Ceylon, the country of the Sinhalese.

We must look back to our earlier as well as more recent heroic past in order understand the present problems and deal with them successfully. That is in order to leave a peaceable and prosperous land for our children. We don’t have to apologize for using the epithet heroic to describe our history because, unless it was heroic, we won’t have survived, as a people with their own country, unique language, universally benign religion, and  absolutely humane culture, the  numerous South Indian invasions and the subsequent, more lasting European intrusions over the past five hundred years. Sinhalese form nearly 75% of the population, and the rest all the minorities put together whom they have treated without discrimination, but with utmost humanity, kindness and generosity true to their Buddhist culture. These are self evident facts.

This beautiful country Sri Lanka belongs to the two major linguistic communities who have made it their common homeland for centuries: Sinhala speakers and Tamil speakers, who are culturally close relatives, that is, virtually members of one family. The majority of Sinhalese are Buddhists, while the majority of Tamils are Hindus. Christians and Muslims also largely belong to these two linguistic communities. Although earlier, English was used by the elite sections of the populations, it is now becoming a more and more universally used link language in education and work; English, as the most easily available global tongue for us, is set, whether we like it or not, to gradually replace both Sinhalese and Tamil in both fields. Multilingualism is not new to us Sri Lankans. It has been the case from time immemorial. Monks and prominent citizens learned Pali and Sanskrit in addition to Sinhala. Many native physicians acquired a knowledge of Sanskrit since Ayurveda medical treatises were in that language. Buddhist monks travelled to China, Cambodia, Thailand, etc. as missionary monks, and they had to learn appropriate foreign languages. Few who have learned Sinhala haven’t heard the ancient line of poetry demala saku magada nohasala sathata dada”,  by which the poet addresses his work to sathata dada”, that is, to people (meaning readers) who are ‘dada’, i.e., amateur: amateur/not so well educated monolingual Sinhala reader who has not studied Tamil, Sanskrit, and Magadha/Pali”. Sinhalese, though as an island people they jealously love their motherland, have historically been cosmopolitan in their outlook.

To survive in the modern world we have to be multilinguals. The trilingual policy (teaching Sinhala, Tamil, and English languages to school children) initiated by the previous government was a progressive move that should have continued. It is said that 94 members of the present parliament haven’t passed the GCE (OL). These can’t be expected to even their mother tongue properly. How many out of the 225 in parliament could we assume to have a decent knowledge of English? Very few, indeed. So, most of them are likely to have no idea of what is in interim report of the Steering Committee. Constitutional plotters are exploiting the lack of English among the Sinhala speaking parliamentarians.

The characteristic cosmopolitanism of the majority Sinhala Buddhist community, which foreign observers may be surprised to hear about because of the successful anti-Sinhalese propaganda that separatist communalists have carried out abroad for decades now remains unrecognized and unexploited by opportunistic politicians who try to appeal to communalistic sentiments among their constituents to gain support at elections. The accommodating spirit is most apparent at the grassroots level of the society. When what was claimed to be the tallest artificial Christmas tree in the world was being built at Galle Face Green for Christmas 2016, there was some controversy about it. The church hierarchy rightly condemned it as a costly unnecessary display in these difficult times, and the work on it was stopped, though it was later completed, presumably with altered dimensions. The harbor minister was apparently behind the project. It was, no doubt, a reconciliation gesture towards Catholics and Christians who form only 10% of the population in this Buddhist majority (70%) country. The main sponsor of the Christmas tree was the Buddhist Association of the harbor workers. When the project was temporarily halted,  the structure was taken apart, the sponsors were distressed. Media had pictures of workers in tears. What is there for anyone to do in the name of reconciliation between Buddhists and Christians? But some communalist minority politicians of the North and their soul mates in the South attack those who dare to speak up for the threatened rights of the Sinhalese Buddhists as tribalists. Though they are thus insulted as narrow-minded racists, it is always the majority Sinhalese Buddhists who create a conducive social environment for Sri Lankans of all faiths to live in peace and security.

While the vast majority of ordinary Sri Lankans of diverse ethnicities have no problem living as citizens of one state enjoying equal sovereign rights, human rights, etc., and sharing equal social responsibilities, certain self seeking minority politicians feel tempted to use shortcuts to power, that usually foment antagonism between the minorities and the majority. Stoking communalism is the easiest shortcut to electoral support within a minority community, but it doesn’t work among the majority community. Exploiting religious differences is another. Whatever happens, the majority community are concerned about the country. It is a historical fact that resistance to foreign rule always came from the Sinhalese. Peace and harmony, now gravely threatened, can only be restored by electorally defeating the forces that are poised to divide the country on ethnic lines by dismantling the unitary state. (Concluded)

KAMALIKA PIERIS

Before taking Sri Lanka into war, the US has to somehow loosen China’s grip on Sri Lanka. Since India is unpopular in Sri Lanka, the US has entrusted this task to Japan. In Oct 2015 Japan and Sri Lanka   signed a comprehensive partnership agreement. Japan will work with India on the Trincomalee port and also help in several major infrastructure projects including Light Rail and expressways.

Japan has openly expressed concern about China’s growing investment in Sri Lanka and its influence over the government in Colombo. China’s ‘development looking’ projects are in fact barely concealed tactics to increase its military abilities in the Indian Ocean. The new ports could be used as naval supply bases, said Japanese security expert Satoru Nagao, presently Research Fellow at the Sri Lanka Institute of National Security Studies (INSS).

China is not the only country that could help Sri Lanka, said Nagao. Japan could help fill the gap left by the Chinese. Closer ties to Japan and India would more than make up for any economic troubles caused by shunning the Chinese. Collaborative projects with them are preferable to accepting China’s support, which would create strategic difficulties. Also Japan can be the perfect mediator between India and Sri Lanka, said Nagao.

Japan wants Sri Lanka to be a member of US led military alliance presently developing in the Indian ocean  region   and is taking action to push Sri Lanka in that direction.  A Japan- India- Sri Lanka partnership in the security domain would be valuable. A win-win situation can be created under Japan-Sri Lanka-India cooperation, said Nagao.  Sri Lanka can be the base for strategic maritime surveillance over the Indian Ocean. If Japan and India collaborate to establish a maritime communications network system in Sri Lanka serving the entire Indian Ocean, it would be easy for the three countries to know what is happening in the Indian Ocean.

Japan’s military links with Sri Lanka are not completely new. The rank order of foreign warships visiting the Port of Colombo from 2008 to 2017 was India 73, Japan 64 and China 26.  Today, Japan has   established direct links with the Sri Lankan Navy and the Coast Guard. The  training squadron of the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF) has been visiting the Port of Colombo and engaging in exercises with Sri Lanka Navy and Sri Lanka  Coast Guards. In October 2016 by MSDF ships Kashima, Setoyuki and Asagiri visited. The MSDF also participated in ‘Pacific Partnership 2017’, a multilateral exercise with the participation of military and non-military personnel from the USA, Australia and Sri Lanka. Japan has stationed a Defence Attaché in Colombo, to coordinate the visits of MSDF vessels

In 2016, Government of Japan granted 1,830 million Japanese Yen (approximately Rs. 2.4 billion) to the Government of Sri Lanka, for procurement of two 30-meter patrol vessels from Japan, including construction of vessels, sea transportation from Japan to Sri Lanka, and familiarization training for coast guard personnel. In 2017, on a loan from Japanese government, the SLCG also placed an order for construction of two 85-meter Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) with the Colombo Dockyard (Pvt.) Ltd. (CDL) to enhance its capabilities in deep sea surveillance.

Japan has a clear anti-China, anti- North Korea, pro- America military policy. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on his re-election in October 2017 said My immediate task is to deal with North Korea  and also continue Japan’s policy of strengthening the alliance with the US. Japan wants a multi state coalition in the west Pacific. In 2012 Abe had suggested a strategy whereby Australia, India, Japan, and the US state of Hawaii form a diamond to safeguard the maritime commons stretching from the Indian Ocean region to the western Pacific”.

India and Japan issued a Joint statement in 2017, referred to enhancing maritime security cooperation, improving connectivity in the wider Indo-Pacific region, strengthening cooperation with ASEAN, and promoting discussions between strategists and experts of the two countries. For India, Japan made an exception to its rule of not conducting nuclear commerce with any state that is not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The joint anti-submarine warfare training between the Indian Navy and Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) will be expanded.

India and Japan will also collaborate in the development of India through the India-Japan Act East Forum. Japan is providing assistance to North East India ranging from key infrastructure such as road connectivity, electricity, water supply and sewage, to social and environmental sustainability, as well as people-to-people exchanges including the “IRIS Program” inviting youth from the region to Japan. Four Japan-India Institutes for Manufacturing (JIMs) in the States of Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu are planned.

India and Japan also propose to expand their activities globally. The India-Japan Joint Statement of 2017 linked Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy with India’s Act East Policy. India and Japan are also collaborating on the Asia Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC).Japan is giving $30 billion and India$10 billion. The project is aimed at building capacity and human resource development in Africa.

Yahapalana has attached itself to another US satellite, Australia. Australia is seen as a neutral power in the Pacific. Sri Lanka could be a stabilizer in the Indian Ocean, protecting and creating a peaceful surround at a time when ‘the rise of China and emerging India is happening in Asia’, said Yahapalana. Our trilateral engagement between the US, India, and Japan are bringing in rewards. There is room to invite others, including Australia, to build on shared objectives and initiatives,” said the US.

President Maithripala Sirisena visited Australia in May 2017 and signed a Joint Deceleration under the heading ‘security and defence cooperation’. This declaration spoke of a shared interest in regional security in the Indian Ocean and a commitment to closer cooperation. Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSSSL) thereafter held a workshop in Colombo in October 2017, in collaboration with the Australian High Commission. At this workshop they discussed what the defence policy of Yahapalana should be.

It appears that Yahapalana is preparing a ‘defence Policy’ and it is unable to do so without Australia’s assistance. The Ministry of Defence has   sought Australian expertise in preparing its own white paper and ‘viable defence policy’ said the press release. the defence white paper could assist to resolve the complexity of the nation’s defence strategy’ and thereby help to abate public apathy.” babbled Yahapalana. The creation of a viable defence policy would allow us to make an appraisal of the security environment we live in and adapt our military capabilities in proportion to what is required,” said Yahapalana idiotically. It should be the other way. You assess the need and then draw up a policy.

There is a fourth country that Yahapalana may have to take into consideration later on. Russia is now starting to assert itself in the international scene. It has good relations with China. The heads of state of China and Russia are friends. It also has good relation with India. President Putin visited India in 2000. India recently held a joint military exercise with Russia.

Now the Middle East is turning to Russia. Moscow has become an undeniable political force in the Middle East, said analysts. US influence in the region is receding and Russia’s is increasing.  in the last few months we have seen a good number of Middle Eastern leaders including those of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, all coming to Moscow, realizing that Russia is an emerging power and the US perhaps a declining one, said Al Jazeera in October 2017.

The most significant link up is that of Saudi Arabia.  The aging king of Saudi Arabia tottered into Moscow on a first ever visit in October 2017 and the two countries signed billion dollar arms and energy contracts. There is little doubt that Saudi Arabia greatly values its relations with Russia said political analysts. Saudi Arabia has been seen for decades as the staunchest ally of USA in the Middle East. This visit indicates that US influence in the Middle East is definitely waning.

The Pathfinder Foundation of Sri Lanka (PF), to its  credit, has entered into a collaboration agreement with the Moscow based Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC). The agreement, signed by Andrey Kortunov, Director General of RIAC and Bernard Goonetilleke, Chairman, PF, seeks to exchange analytical papers between the two institutions, implement joint projects to strengthen the stance of the two countries in the international arena, including conducting roundtable discussions and workshops; develop interaction between Russian and Sri Lankan institutions in international research activities; and engage in mutual informational support through the respective web-resources and social media channels.

Pathfinder Foundation, launched by Milinda Moragoda in 2006, is an independent, non–profit, non-partisan and advocacy think tank, which has played a catalytic role in promoting economic policy reforms in Sri Lanka. Among the areas focused by PF are promoting market oriented economic reforms, public-private partnerships, promotion of bilateral relations with major foreign countries and people-to-people relations as well as strategic issues.

Russian International Affairs Council  a non-profit academic and diplomatic think tank that was established in 2010 pursuant to a presidential decree is aimed at strengthening peace, friendship and solidarity between peoples, preventing international conflicts and promoting conflict resolution and crisis settlement. It is recognized as one of Moscow’s best-known and authoritative think-tanks. RIAC operates as a link between the state, scholarly community, business and civil society in an effort to find foreign policy solutions to complex conflict issues.(CONTINUED)

Chandre Dharmawardana,  Canada.

Regarding Kidney disease among the Vanniye-Aththo.

Unfortunately, this author (Dr Amarasiri De Silva, an anthopologist)  has not checked his facts and instead simply followed what a young Swedish Research student who had come to write a social studies  thesis on Anthopology has said, ignoring the excellent work done by local scientists and medics.

Even for the correct word form for “sinhalese”, this author relies on the Swedish student, as to whether we should write it as “Singhalese”, or “Sinhalese”. English is not a phonetic languages. Even the Sidath Sangara (mdieval sinhalese grammar and literary style book) says that common usage dictates the “right usage”.

Same for  the usage  “Vanniyala-Aththo” where he  follows the swede.

The attached note (included also as text below) may help in clarifying the issues).

Why do `Vanniye-Attho’ and NCP Farmers get CKDu while their cows don’t?

Dr. Amarasiri de Silva (AS), a retired anthropologist, has made a provocative contribution (Island, 15-11-2017) on chronic kidney disease of unknown origin (CKDu)  that goes counter to  main-stream scientific discourse (e.g., by Dr. Tilak Abesekera, Daily News, 9-3-2017), while strongly echoing the  beliefs immensely popular with a section of the wider public.  A young Swedish student named Wiveca Stegeborn (WS)  who prepared a social-anthropology thesis on the  Vanniye-Attho, i.e,  Veddahs”,  is his main source of information.  We are told that the Vanni-Attho contracted CKDu when they joined the Mahaweli settlements, adopted  urban foods,  and became farmers using toxic agrochemicals”.

If AS and WS also imply that DDT and GMO seeds are being used, then we have some truly astounding claims in the article.  AS pushes to extremes the seemingly  credible public view of agrochemicals creating a  toxic environment and causing chronic diseases. Accordingly,  (i) the use of agrochemicals since the 1970s has poisoned the soil, the water and the diet;  (ii) the NCP gets a `double whammy’ because  the  agrochemical runoff from the tea estates gets  to the NCP via the Mahaweli irrigation system. The NCP farmers get chronic kidney disease (CKDu) in due course.

The present author held similar views prior to 2012.  They had to be  drastically modified  during 2012 to 2014 when important field studies appeared. The first was the NSF-funded  WHO  study which medically bench-marked CKDu, and also showed that  toxins in the soil, water and the diet were well below the maximum allowed limits (MALS) for toxicity and hence safe. There was no arsenic or glyphosate, as claimed by the Natha Deviyo” devotees linked to Dr. Jayasumana.

Dr. Sarath Amarasiri, a retired Director General of agriculture points out that when farmers tilled the land, vast flocks of egrets (Kokku”) follow the ploughs to eat the exposed  earthworms and other bugs. If the soil had become toxic, it will not be teeming with organisms, and if they are toxic, the egrets should  also get sick. Clearly, the NCP soil and water are not awash with toxins”.

The present writer used to ask, if the people in some NCP villages get sick, why not the cows? If it is a presence of cadmium in the rice, the cows get even more of it from the straw and the grass which also accumulate cadmium.  Today many scientists think that they understand these puzzles, and why some Rajarata villagers get CKDu while their cows don’t, while other villagers and their  cows also don’t get CKDu!

Studies  of the blood and urine of the patients showed that 97% of them had no significant traces of glyphosate, the most commonly used herbicide. A mild warning was raised in the WHO-NSF report about possibly elevated levels of cadmium in the diet, but this was also true of the  diet used in the rest of the country that does not have CKDu. The traces of cadmium found in the rice are  amply counteracted by the presence of other substances like zinc and selenium (just as is the case with cadmium-containing shell fish sold in Europe).

The lack of toxic agents in the soil and water were confirmed by independent research including a Japanese-Sri Lankan study led  by Dr Nanayakkara.   A  National Water Board (NWB) study by Dr. Pathmakumara Jayasinghe showed that the canals, rivers and reservoirs in the NCP had clean water, and that expensive Reverse-Osmosis (RO)  machines are cleaning” water which is already clean! The poor farmers, frightened by the threat of CKDU and toxins buy bottled RO water at Rs 2-3 per litre while Colombo gets water for pennies.

Dr AS has ignored the good work of the local medics and scientists. The NSF-WHO study, the Japanese study, the NWB study etc. , have been summarized  in popular articles by Dr. Waidyanatha, Dr.  Tilak Abesekera and others.  The young Swedish student prepared her thesis on the Vanniye-Aettho, but not on the chemistry of the local environment.

Social anthopologists like AS and WS should study the two adjacent villages named Badulupura and Saaragama, both in Girandurukotte, with common life styles, food, and kinship. And yet Badulupura has CKDu, while Saaragama is healthy.  The Badulupura residents who use their private well water get CKDu, while neighbouring Saarapura , being closer to the agricultural land,  gets its water from irrigation canals or private wells connected  to the groundwater of the paddy fields. Research groups like CERTKID of the Kandy Hospital and the University find that  the consumption of water in isolated shallow household wells  may be causing CKDu.

Peradeniya Chemists like Prof. Illeperuma,  and Geologists like Professors Dissanayake, Chandrjith and others had noted that the endemic areas have hard water and a geology rich in fluoride.  The present author  and several colleagues argued (in a research paper) that Panabokke’s redox mechanism worked in the stagnant wells to progressively leach out fluorides and other mineral salts (known as Hofmeister-active salts) into the  well water.

Hard water has dissolved magensium and calcium. If hard water containing fluorides were the cause of CKDu, one can immediately explain why the people in Badulupura got CKDu, and why those in Saaragama are healthy. We also understand why the cows don’t get CKDu. The cows do not drink water from wells, but drink surface water in canals and fields connected to the agricultural system.  AS and SW claim agricultural water to be contaminated, where as it is not.

A milestone  in CKDu research was the work of Dr. Wasana, Dr. Bandarage et al. of the IFS, Kandy. They fed HARD water containing fluoride to laboratory rats, and established a dose dependent causal relationship between damaged kidneys in the rats, the fluoride, and hard water. If the water was free of fluoride, or if the water was soft, no kidney damage!  Both hardness and fluoride were simultaneously necessary. The present write provided evidence that the magnesium in hard water joined itself to the fluoride forming a pair. Magenisum is not toxic; but it synergistically augments the toxicity of fluoride. Independent  experiments by Dr. Tammityagoda et al. (veterinary science) used water from endemic village wells and showed that mice fed on such water contracted CKDu, while mice given normal water remained healthy. These experiments, the geology of the endemic villages and the chemistry of the well water  led most scientists  to  conclude that CKDu in the NCP  is caused by consuming hard water  containing fluoride. Professor Gamini Rajapaksa’s Moneragala studies confirmed these conclusions.  Provision of cheap clean water by harvesting rain water has been launched.

Scientists have shown that farmers are using agrochemicals in excess, especially with the free market in 1977 cutting out the agriculture department’s control on agrochemicals.  Such excessive use leads to algae blooms and environmental problems. The agriculture department has issued 25 booklets for the 25 districts, indicating where fertilizers are NOT needed, or how much is needed.  Agrochemicals are used thorough out the country, and especially in the hill plantations. But no CKDu and other diseases attributed to agrochemicals have been detected. We now understand why some villagers get CKDu while their cows stay healthy, or why other villagers escape the  illness. Fluoride and hard water are not found together in the hill country, or in Jaffna where there is heavy agrochemical usage, and so there is no CKDu in those areas.

Finally, let us look at the Swedish student’s views on the rural food culture, since they apply equally well to most of the country without CKDu.

(quote)… with time diabetes started to spread. It came with junk food, and with Cokes, Seven-Ups and Fantas … welfare coupons for sugar and white flour… The tea was no longer taken with honey or hackuru [Kithul jaggery], it was with refined sugar. …This is a common ailment among indigenous people introduced to a ‘western’ excessive food culture (end quote).

Honey and jaggery are nearly as bad as refined sugar. Sugar is 50% fructose and 50% glucose, while honey (i.e., bee’s vomit) contains 40% fructose, 30% glucose while the remaining 30% is water, pollen and bio-matter from the bee. Honey has  some 31% more calories than sugar. The pollen can cause botulism especially in children younger than 12. Honey has similar effects as sugar on blood glucose levels, causing problem for diabetics, whether they are Vanniye-Attheo or not. The digestive tract absorbs fructose poorly, and the fructose end up in the liver, leading to metabolic problems including type-II diabetes. The American Diabetes Association regards  palm sugars (e.g, Jaggery) to be no better than pure sugar.

The embrace of western food culture”, or the equally unhealthy Kalu dodol, Kaevum, athiraha, kiri-paeni, ala dosi” or baedum, ghee rice” etc by the Vanni-Aetto or anybody else reflects the lack of nutritional education in Sri Lanka. There were no courses on food science, environmental science etc., in any Sri Lankan university until the mid 1970s.  The present writer, as a Professor of Chemistry and as a  Vice Chancellor of the Vidyodaya (SJP) University  worked to introduce them to the university curriculum.   Course units in nutrition, health and environmental science  are badly needed even in our schools.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera 

Yesterday I was invited by EDB to the last public session in Galle Face Hotel where EU consultants have organized a forum for public consultations. Proposals to develop export strategy was mainly concentrated on   boat building, Wellness programs, selling spices etc  and changing the regulatory issues which is hampering development .

They were proposing to send EDB and BOI personnel for training in development of investment strategy, and involve universities and academia to research on new products.The state minister who mad the key note speech was trained in Harward and hopefully his young blood can infuse some sense to EDB and BOI,

What were  proposed were absurd and none of the highly paid EU consultants and EDB lasses and few young boys who were organizing the event had any idea what is priority .

On the same day I was requested by Sri Lanka Customs   to sign an agreement to import equipment and materials to build some boats for exports ( which has been also subjected to yesterday ‘s EDB exercise) .I had to  leave the forum ,anticipating to return in 20 minutes and it took 1 ½ hours waiting in Customs in the TIEP ( temporary import and export and  Permit) section to sign the agreement and they wanted me in person with the company embossed seal .Officers who were assigned were out and we were told to wait .Incidentally this is after 2 weeks from submission of the application following a letter of recommendation from ministry of industries,confirmimg that  our company has signed an export order with Male and the claim to import equipment and materials is genuine .I had to contact new secretary of the ministry on Industries to help to expedite approval ,and he aksed me to write a letter .I wrote the letter and so far to reply !

I had to use some of my close contacts to speak to Director of Customs to expedite signing and he was quite supportive and assigned someone else to sign on behalf customs to release me back to the EDB forum .

Back to approval from Ministry of Industries ,it tool 3-4 weeks since we made the application as they wanted to come and see the yard and after demanding a approval of the list of materials by an expert to confirm that the list is genuine . .I had to contact new secretary of the ministry on Industries to help to expedite approval ,and he aksed me to write a letter .I wrote the letter and so far to reply !

Bureaucracy is the state apparatchik is the biggest stumbling block for export .When I told that to the EU expert in Export and also mentioned the problems ,he was telling me that from 2018-2022 we will change !!

All these forms were talking about export promotion with no meaningful action proposed to get rid of bureaucracy nad corruption .One might argue that we should have been a BOI company which has a one-stop to help companies like ours ,but alas ,they are now a non-stop shop .

State  should consult people who worked under Premadasa who spearheaded export drive of garments for export ( opposition called the program a jungi” ( underwear) Export ,Today Amaleeen ,and the crowd are still bringing much needed foreign currency to our country  by selling Victoria Secrets ?

Country need a strong leadership which should take over EDB and BOI and drive the export in an aggressive manner.

Whole forum was a farce and I will go on my own crusade and export boats with my own tenacity and compassion .

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

යටැ ගිය දවසැ පොළොන්නරු නුවර ජාත්‍යන්තරයට අධිපති වූ, සංහිඳියාවට අධිගෘහිත වූ, සරලකමෙහි ප්‍රතිබිම්බය වූ, ශ්වේත වර්ණ වස්ත්‍රයෙන් බබලන්නා වූ, සිවුසැට ආභරණ පසෙක ලා උපැස් යුවලින් පමණක් සැරසුණා වු, වෛජයන්තී දේවීයට ස්වාමී වූ, දහම්සොඬ පුත් රුවනට හා චත්තාරිකා දු කුමරියට  පීතෘ වූ , විජයකලාවන්ට සකල කලාවන් පාන්නා වූ, රුපුනොද  එඩිය බිඳ, දෙසැට ලක්ෂයක් වෘෂභයන්ට  දිව්‍ය රාජෝත්තමයා  වූ, පොළවෙන් මතුවුණා වූ , මහානුභාව සම්පන්න මෙත්පල් නම්  නිරිඳෙකු රාජ්‍ය විචාරණ්නට විය.

මෙකල්හි රට වැසියෝ බොහෝ  සැප සම්පත් වලින් යුක්තවැ දැහැමින් සෙමින් දිවි ගෙවන කල්හි මෙය දරාගත නො හී යක්ෂයන්ට අධිපති වු, ගෝත්‍රික බයි වැසියනට රජ වු,  මහා තෙද බල පිරිබාහරන් ගේ ශීර්ෂය සතරකඩකට පැළුවා වූ , රන් කහවනු දහඅට කෝටියක් සොරාගෙන  උතුරු කුරු දිවයිනේ සැඟෙව්වා වු මහේන්ද්‍ර නම් යක් තෙමේ ලෝක පාලන දෙවියන් හා මිත්‍රව රට වැසියා මධුමේහය ආදී අට අනූවක් ව්‍යාධි බාහුල්ලයන්ගෙන් පෙළනු වස් මයිලෝ නැමති පානයක් මවා රට වැසියා එය පානයට පොළඹවා ශරීරගත ශර්කාරා ප්‍රමාණය ඉහල දමන්නට විය.

මෙත්පල් නිරිඳු  මෙ කාරණා දෙසවන් වැකුණු මොහොතේ ක්ෂීරපථය සොලවා, වේරම්බ වාතයෙන් කලම්ඹා, අහස් මුදුන් තෙක් දුහුවිලි නංවා මහේන්ද්‍රයාණෝ පරසක්වල ගසන්නෙමි යි කුංචනාද කරන්නට විය.

ඈත දූලීන් වැසී ගිය මෙත්පල්  රජු ය…
මෑත මයිලෝවක් අතින්ගත් මහේන්ද්‍රයෝ ය…
ඈත කෝපයෙන් රත්ව ගිය යවට වන් මෙත්පල් රජු ය….
මෑත ගත සිත පුබුදු කරන පානය ඇතැති මහේන්ද්‍රයෝ ය…
ඈත බැලූ බැලූවන් හිටං යැයි කියවෙන මෙත්පල් රජු ය….
මෑත දිව පිනවන  පානය ගත් මහේන්ද්‍රයෝ ය…
ඈත එබූ පයින් මහ පොළොව පලා යන මෙත්පල් රජු ය….
මෑත රත් පැහැ සාටකයෙන් බබලන මහේන්ද්‍රයෝ ය….

වෙන්නට යන මහා විපත දැක රජවාසලෙහි මොළයානන් වහන්සේ වන විකුම්සිහ තෙමේ මෙත්පල් නිරිඳු හා සතරකන් මන්ත්‍රණ පවත්වා ශර්කාරා පානය පිළිබඳව සොයා බැලීමට රජවාසලේ විශ්‍රාමික කේවට්ටයන් තිදෙනෙකුගෙන් යුත් කමිටුවක් පත් කිරීමට උපදෙස් දෙන්නා හු ය.මෙය අසා කෝපයට මෙත්පල් තෙමේ ඒ යෝජනා අලුයම ලූ කෙළ පිඩක් සේ ඉවත දමා රට වැසි තෙමේ දෙස මහා කරුණා නෙත් යොමා මයිලෝවක් රැගෙන ගෙයින් ගෙට වැද හොත්තේ ය.  ඉනික්බිති ඒ පාන පෙන්වා අනන්තාපරිමාණ අර්ථානර්ථ දක්වා ඒ වෙනුවට බීර පානය කරන ලෙස ආයාචනා කරන්නට වු හ. එ බස් අසා රට වැසියෝ මහත් සොම්නසට පැමිණැ මයිලෝ පාන ඉවත දමා මහා සිද්ධාර්ථ තෛලය වන් බීර පානය කිරීමට උත්සුක වු හ.

ඉක්බිති රට වැසියෝ සෞඛ්‍යසම්පන්න බීර පානයට හුරු වී, අට අනූවක් වූ  සියලු ව්‍යාධි බාහුල්ලයන්ගෙන් මිදී තෙද බලැති සිරුරැතිව යහපාලනගතව කල් යැවූ හ’යි මෙයින් දත යුතු.

මහා මයිලෝ ජාතකය මෙතකින් නිමියේ වෙයි.

ALI SUKHANVER

The Indian media, in collaboration with the Indian state machinery, is wasting all its efforts on proving two things now-a-days; Kalboshan Jhadev is not an officer of the Indian navy and that the permission granted to Kalboshan’s wife to meet her husband is result of the pressure exerted by the International Court of Justice.

The Financial Express of India reported a few days back, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said Pakistan was forced to grant permission to Kalboshan’s wife to meet him because of India’s constant pressure through international forums.

After the military court in Pakistan awarded death sentence to Jhadev, we went to the International Court of Justice, exposed Pakistan, managed to isolate Pakistan and got a stay on his death penalty.”

According to the paper, the minister further said, ‘Pakistan was constantly denying permission to his family to meet him, but the pressure exerted by India through the international forum, forced them to grant a permission to his family to meet him. We will continue to exert pressure on Pakistan through the external affairs minister to cancel the death punishment and release him.”

Same type of reporting could be seen in almost all newspapers and news-channels of India.

For Pakistan such type of’ media war’ from the Indian side is nothing new. For the last many decades India has been behaving in the same non-sense and stupid way. Everyone knows neither the International Court of Justice nor the Modi government has capability of pressurizing Pakistan with reference to the punishment announced for Commander Kalboshan Jhadev.

Pakistan is a sovereign and independent nuclear state having a very strong political and judicial system supported by a very strong Army and assisted by a very competent Intelligence Agency the ISI.

The permission granted to Kalboshan’s wife is not a result of any pressure; it is simply an action based on humanitarian grounds. We, the Pakistanis hate crime but not the criminals because they are also human beings though de-tracked ones.

Our religion has taught us to be kind not only on our fellow human beings but on birds, animals and plants also. It is true, Kalboshan is an agent of the RAW; it is also true that he is a serving officer of the Indian navy; it is also true that he has been involved in shattering the peaceful atmosphere of Balochistan and other areas of Pakistan but it is also true that he is a human being. The honorable court issued death sentence to the criminal and murderer Kalboshan Jhadev but the permission granted to his wife is in fact a permission granted to a human being for a human being.

It is just an act of kindness and for any act of kindness we, the Pakistanis, never need any pressure from the International Court of Justice or from the Modi government. If we were to come under any moral or political pressure, we would have sent Kalboshan back to his motherland in the very beginning when India was requesting us again and again to release Commander Kalboshan Jhadev.

Moreover there is no possibility of Kalboshan’s escape from the death-penalty as the security agencies of Pakistan caught him red-handed and presented his case to the honorable court.

From there he got death sentence for shedding the blood of so many innocent Pakistanis. The time when Kalboshan was arrested, the Indian media remained quiet and silent and the Indian government flatly refused to accept him as an Indian national. It even flatly denied his being an officer of the Indian navy working for the RAW but later on it started hidden efforts for his escape from the death-penalty. Since the government of Pakistan had very strong evidences against Kalboshan, no effort of the Indian government could prove him innocent.

As a last resort, India knocked at the door of the International Court of Justice but even there the guilty could not be proved innocent. The situation is no doubt very much embarrassing and agonizing for India; Kalboshan is their hero but no one in India is in a position to drag this hero out of his pathetic condition.  Sooner or later, this ‘hero’ would be hanging on the gallows. Let us wait and see to what extent Modi sarkar succeeds in pressurizing Pakistan to save this murderer from the gallows.

PRESS RELEASE. By A. Abdul Aziz.

A three member delegation from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Sri Lanka (AMJSL) comprising Mr. A. Abdul Aziz, Press Secretary and National Director Faith Outreach – AMJSL, Moulavi A.B. Musthaq Ahmad – Chief Missionary (AMJSL), and Moulavi K.M. Munir Ahmad, visited Ministry of Education and met State Minister of Education Honorable V.S. Radhakrishnan in Colombo recently (15 November 2017).

Welcoming the delegation, Minister commended the task of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at in translating Holy Qur’an into 76 languages world-over and explained the aim of this meeting to his staff officers.

Introducing Ahmadiyyat to the Minister, it was pointed out that the Ahmadiyya Community is the only sect in Islam which has Universal Leadership established by God almighty. The delegation went on to say while introducing the book ‘World Crisis and the Pathway To Peace, pointed out about the tireless efforts being made by the Khalifa and the Ahmadiyya worldwide leader, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, by spreading the true teachings of Islam through various means, particularly addressing lawmakers at Capitol Hill, EU Parliament, UK Parliament, Ireland Parliament, New Zealand Parliament, Dutch Parliament, Canada Parliament and so on so forth.

Minister was also presented a book in Tamil titled: Namathu Krishnar’ in which the teachings of Lord Krishna quoted from the Hindu Scriptures published.

Moreover, Minister was given a DVD in which the address of Moulana Molavi Muhammad Umar H.A. (from Kerala, India) delivered in 1994 at Ramakridhna Hall Colombo, recorded. In this particular address, Moulavi Umar Sahib put forward quotations from Bagavath Geetha in Sanskrit language about the foretold and teachings of Sri Krishna on the advent of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Minister was also given in a copy of Holy Qur’an Tamil Translation and the Sinhala Translation of the book ‘World Crisis and the Pathway To Peace’.

අද මුළු රටම බදු බරට ලක් වෙලා… හිටපු ජනපති පවසයි