By Dr. Nalaka Godahewa

(Dr. Nalaka Godahewa is the former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Sri Lanka and the former Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism)

Newspapers these days cover more or less the same subjects. Corruption allegations led by the infamous bond scam, opposition to the proposed Constitution, the cry for elections, the rising cost of living, student protests and Police violence, plans to sell national assets, and United Nations (UN) pressure on the government to deliver on commitments are frequently highlighted.

The author of ‘The Great Hand Book of Quotes,’ Israel more Ayivor says:

“If the problems you have this year are the same problems you had last year, then you are not a leader. You are rather a problem on your own that must be solved.”

Isn’t this true in the case of the current leadership of Sri Lanka? For almost 3 years, we have been hearing sad stories from our leaders. They keep blaming the previous administration for all their problems. They seem to have completely forgotten the fact that the mandate of a democratically elected government is only for five years and at one point you must stop complaining and get on with the work.

What is the current status of our economy? The national debt, which was Rs 7.3 trillion in 2014, had gone above Rs 10.1 trillion by June 2017. The current figure is worse. Inflation, which was 3.3% in 2014, has now reached 8.6%. The economic growth rate, which was above 7% in 2014, is below 4% this year. Unemployment had increased from 4.3% in 2014 to 4.5% by June 2017.

The Sri Lankan Rupee has depreciated by over 17% from January 2014 up to now causing a negative impact on the economy. The budget deficit which was Rs 591 billion in 2014 is expected to increase threefold to Rs 1.8 trillion in 2018 according to the latest Appropriation Bill that has been submitted to Parliament.

Bond scam

The economic impact of the bond scam is over Rs 1 trillion according to the State Minister of Finance and that has been confirmed by several other analysts as well. The number of people employed in the country in 2016 was 476,000 less compared to 2014 according to the respective annual reports published by the Central Bank. The three most reputed international rating agencies;

Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P have all downgraded Sri Lanka’s ratings compared to 2014. Bloomberg now ranks Sri Lanka as one of the highest risk countries for investment. These facts raise the question, why do people need a government? A government is needed to protect the rights of all the people. It should promote peace, harmony, justice, and equality. The government has a responsibility to provide people with the right economic development opportunities. It should facilitate what the private sector cannot or wouldn’t do like providing people with infrastructure and public services and continue to improve the living standards of people. The government has a responsibility to protect its citizens from external forces and to hold together territory. To what extent is our current government living up to these expectations? In order to win, it is always important for political parties to bring novelty and excitement to an election campaign, but the real challenge goes beyond just winning the election. A government once formed cannot be catering only to those who supported them politically. A national government is responsible for all the citizens in the country. As President Abraham Lincoln said in his famous ‘Gettysburg Address’ in November 1863, “the government should be of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Those inspirational words should be true for every democratically elected government in the world, Sri Lanka included.

Needs of people

To lead a government, “of the people, by the people, and for the people” the political leadership must understand the real needs of the people. These needs manifest in different ways at different times. In the most basic form, people want a government that can assure ‘peace, happiness, and prosperity’ for the citizens. Isn’t this what we say to our neighbours, co-workers, friends, and relatives at the dawn of every New Year? How can these expectations be translated into action by the government? We can identify three contributory factors in achieving ‘peace, happiness, and prosperity’ namely; stability, progress, and dignity. A critical analysis of these factors helps us understand the reasons for the defeat of the previous regime.

Stability means one’s ability to meet the basic needs of his or her family. Essential requirements include a regular income helping one to take care of basic requirements of oneself and the family such as food, clothing, transportation, medicine, and other needs, a place to live, a home which is in close proximity to schools, ease when it comes to admission to school for children, and availability of quality education, affordable healthcare, healthcare facilities in close proximity to the home, affordability of medicine, the ability to pay for hospitalization in the event of an emergency, not being subject to social crimes, ethnic violence, religious violence, social tensions and enjoying a peaceful, safe, and secure environment.

People not only want stability, they also want to progress in life. So, it is important that the economic management of the government create these opportunities for its citizens to progress in their lives which include; opportunities to supplement income, career advancement opportunities, opportunities to start a business, convenience of doing business, investment opportunities, advancement in living standards, better education opportunities for children, better housing, vehicle ownership, entertainment opportunities, and a clean environment.

Dignity of people

The third and perhaps mostly frequently ignored factor is the dignity of people. Dignity is the honour and respect one seeks in life which manifests in different ways such as national pride, need to be identified with an ethnic group, freedom to practice one’s faith, need for recognition as a member of a social group, need for respect as a citizen, freedom of expression, assurance that one’s rights as a member of the general public are not taken away, and satisfaction that one has elected the right leader.

The stability and progress of the society come with the implementation of the macroeconomic strategies of the government. There was an unprecedented focus on infrastructure development since the end of the war. There were clear signs that the country was on the path of economic development, but something was not right despite those economic indicators.

Better governance

It is quite interesting how ‘the need for better governance’ evolved to be the main theme of the last two election campaigns; the presidential and the parliamentary. The primary issue was not just the cost of living as in many other previous elections. It was also not patriotism as in the 2010 election. It was mainly the anger of citizens, who felt their dignity had been compromised. This had an impact on the results of the election.

A government should always aims at ensuring stability, progress, and dignity for its citizens. If the voter feels comfortable in all these areas then they are less inclined to vote against the existing government. When they are uncomfortable with any one of those factors they vote against the existing government. For example, it is the lack of stability or people’s inability to meet the basic needs of their families, which brought the 1970-1977 coalition government down. It was the opportunities for citizens to progress, which kept the UNP in power for 17 years thereafter. It was dignity in the form of national pride that helped the former President to win the 2010 election. It was the perceived violation of the people’s dignity that made him lose in 2015.

If the leaders of the present government were smart, their focus from the beginning should have been to ensure economic stability, opportunities for social progress and protection of personal dignity for all Sri Lankan citizens, but it looks like they are already 2 years and 10 months late.

When are they going to learn?

By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA                      

Maithripala Sirisena has a chronic disease of telling flagrant lies, shamelessly denying anything and everything, conveniently pretending that he was not aware of certain things and has a forked tongue to speak differently to the people of the North and to the people of the Soouth. On 15^th November, 2015 standing before the mortal remains of the venerable monk Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero, minutes before they were consigned to the flames, and shedding crocodile tears the double tongued Sirisena swore to abolish the executive presidency. He said: I pledge that I will, to the best of my ability, take steps to abolish the executive presidency in order to create a just governance, to establish a democratic and just society and to usher in a just social system, in the manner the venerable Sobitha envisaged.”

The Maha Nayaka Theros of the Thri Nikayas issued a statement on 5^th July decreeing that there is no need for a new constitution and it is also not necessary to make any amendments to the existing constitution and wanted the government to abandon the constitution formulating process. The Maha Sangha guiding the rulers to take the right path and restrain them from venturing into or undertaking measures abominable to the people and the country was a hisroric tradition and the rulers of the past strictly adhered to this age old practice.  Buddhist history claims even Lord Buddha was involved in social matters and offered saner advice to the rulers whenever crisis situations occurred.

The present Constitution accords the “foremost place for Buddhism” and states that it is the “duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana”. There are over 30,000 Buddhist monks in the country and they are ordained by these three Nikayas and they represent 14 million Buddhists in the country. Under these circumstances the State is bound to oblige to the decree of the Maha Nayakas as Buddhists form 72% of the population of this country. It is sad to note that certain NGO vultures, particularly fellows like the illiterate and idiotic Male Nurse Saman Ratnapriya who is a bootlicker of Viyangoda and who some months ago was alleged to have received from a powerful Minister a property worth Rs. 212 Million from the Nugegoda area have scoffed the decree of the Maha Nayake theroes saying that the Maha Nayaka Theroes belong to an insignificant minority compared to the population in the countey and their opinions should be shunned.

On 6^th July Maithripala Sirisena on a visit to Kamdy met the Maha Nayaka Theros of the Thri Nikayas at the Kamdy Presidential house and said that there is no draft constitution and vowed that if a new Constitution is to be drafted it would be done only in consultation with the Maha Sanga and other stakeholders. The outcome of this discussion between the Maha Sangha and the President was disclosed to the media by the Ven. Omalpe Sobitha Nayake Thera.

The double tongued Sirisena has breached this vow already and the Parliament is to discuss on the Steering Committee proposals for three days starting end of this month and then start drafting the so-called Federal and Secular constitution and adopt it in the Parliament in January completely ignoring the Maha Sangha.

In the meantime Sirisena has started saying many things about the proposed new constitution.  He has stated that the devolution of power should occur within the country not to benefit politicians, but to empower the people. Speaking to a gathering in Vavuniya, he has stated that the devolution of power will occur to ensure that each and every citizen reaps the benefits of financial progress and have the opportunity to better their lives.

 Speaking in Ampara on 29^th September he has said that the Government is paying its prime attention to provide solutions for the problems faced by the people in the North and the East, ensuring sustainable peace in the country, building reconciliation among all the communities in a way which will prevent the recurrence of war.  Completely forgetting his July 6^th vow to the Mahanayake Theros, he has made a request to the Mahanayaka Theros and all the religious leaders including Hindu, Islamic and Christian religious leaders to discuss, sitting at the same table, on ways and means to be adopteed for building reconciliation among all the communities.

Sirisena seems to be very much obliged to please the Tamil people and provide them whatever they need and whatever they aspire.TNA Parliamentarian Sumanthiran has told in an interview given to the London based website Tamil Guardan on 1^st December, 2016 that Sirisena asked the TNA to come out with proposals for development, even if it’s a plan for the entie North-East and has promised that he will implement them without any hesitation.  He has added that Sirisena is working on developing a mechanism under which the MPs and provincial councillors of the region will look after the development in the North-East.

The double tongued Sirisena while spuriously boasting in the South that he is the son of a farmer has told a meeting in Kilinochchi that it is in the North that the best farmers of Sri Lanka are found.  He has said that in the past farmers in the North shed their sweat with determination to make our country a self sufficient country and a special programme should be implemented to save them from their debt burden and raise them once again as a strong farming community. He has further stated that he would discuss with officials of the State and Private Banks on the means to help the Northern farmers.  It seems that when he goes to North he feels that it is his genuine country.

Sirisena’s this claim of Northern farmers making this country self sufficient goes against the history of this country and the Tank and Temple (Vaewai Daagaebai) concept and was it to have as swimming pools that large tanks such as Parakrama Samudray, Minneriya wewa (in his own district Polonnaruwa), Kantale wewa, Tisawewa, Tissawewa, Nuwarawewa etc, were built by Sri Lanka’s ancient kings?

Minneriya Wewa

Reports said that prior to addressing the Kilinochchi meeting Sirisena held a special meeting with a group of people who claim that their family members are missing.  Sirisena has requested them to come and meet him at his office and promised them to do whatever it is possible to help them.

While telling to the people of the South there is no constitution being drafted, he has asked that if the people of the South oppose devolution of powers what is the alternative they have to propose? He has pointed out that power should be devolved not for the benefit of the politicians but for the benefit of the people.  He has made these comments at Vavuniya on the 21^st of September.  Ranil Wickremasinghe has also attended this function.

Speaking further at this function Sirisena has said that on the January 8^th Presidential Election 77% of the people of Vavuniya voted for him and he will give priority for the development of Vavuniya area which remains backward.  He has said that newspapers whch claims as national newspapers publish distorted and spiteful false news most of the time to mislead the people of the South and to create disharmony and communal divisions among the people misusing the freedom of expression that has been bestowed to them.  He has further stated that all those who speak against devolution of power should visit the Northern and Eastern provinces and see for themselves whether these provinces have the development as the developments that had been achieved by the Western province or even the Sabaragamuwa province. He has said that we have similar people throughout the country and all should have equal benefits and equal facilities without any form of discrimination and shortages.

Reports said that the parents of the slain Jaffna student Vidya met Sirisena at this function and he visited their house in Vavuniya at the end of the function.  The reports further stated that during this visit Sirisena promised to help Vidya’s brother for his educational activities and to provide all possible assistance to Vidya’s family. It is strange that he remains completely aloof on speaking about mayhem and destruction caused by the LTTE in the Northern and Eastern provinces, let alone the other parts of the country including Dalada Maligawa and Sri Maha Bodhiya, Anuradhapura.

Under these circumstances it is pertinent to ask Sirisena what is that it is lacking for the people of the North and East despite their receiving many concessions and special favours.  Since the end of war they had been receiving special concessions in almost all the fields including financial assistance. There are countries which had been at war and still the people in the war torn areas living in misery and as destitutes many years after ending the wars in those countries.  For example people in Iraq, newly created states of former Yugoslavia, Afghaanistan etc.

In Sri Lanka Tamils in the North discriminates the Sinhalese and Muslims nott allowing them to buy lands due to the despicable ‘Desavalamai’ Law. Why a separate Land Law for Tamils and the general Law for others? This is what that should be eliminated if all should be treated on an equal basis as Sirisena professes.  In the recently announced Grade V scholarship examination results it was shown that the cutoff marks for the Tamil medium students were much lower than the Sinhala medium students. My neighbour’s son got 159 marks and did not become qualified because the cutoff mark for Matara was 164.  If he wrote the exam in Tamil medium he would have become qualified. Were these discriminations or special favours?  Why Sinhala medium students get discriminated in this manner?

It was the so-called high class Wellala Tamils such as Sambandan Sumanthiran and their ilk who discriminated and still discriminates against the non-Wellala Tamils saying that they are low caste people, inhuman like animals and dogs and animals cannot be allowed to enter their Temples.  Sirisena can go to Nallur, Koneswaram and other Temples but not the Tamils branded as Low Caste Tamils.  Where is Sirisena’s much professed equality when Tamils get married? Can an upcountry or Eastern Province Tamil girl (even if she is highly qualified) can get married to a Tamil boy of Jaffnaa.  It was the late Prime Minister Mr. S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike who enacted laws in 1957 to eliminate discriminations and ill treatment of Tamils by Tamils. It was the Wellala Tamil former Minister of the D.S.Senanayake government Vavuniya MP Mr. C.Sunderalingam who slept across the Nallur Kovil gate obstructing low class Tamils from entering the Temple.   Karuna Amman has said that even in the LTTE Tamils of the Eastern province were ill treated and they were sent as front line soldiers in critical battles. These are the discriinatons and what Sirisena should think of eliminating without lecturing to the people of the South to build reconciliation with the Tamils.

During the unfortunate politically inspired riots in the South many Sinhalese saved the Tamils sheltered and fed them in their houses amd later personally took them to refugee camps.  Has any example of Tamils doing such things but there were reports (authencity not confirmed) that during the anti ‘Shri’ campagn in the North the Tamil ‘Shri’ symbol was painted on the breasts of Sinhala women with Tar.

What Sirisena is going to do for the Sinhala people who owned bakeries, groceries and restaurants (Matara Bath Kades), and who were engaged in fishing with their own boats who were chased out from the North by LTTE barbarians and had to languish in Southern areas having become paupers overnight? I have a cousin sister whose family was among those who were chased out from Jaffna in this manner.  Will Sirisena compensate them and facilitate them to return to their original habitats under Sirisena’s equal treatment policy?  Before returning the lands allegedly being held by the security forces return the lands and properties that belonged to these people.

Passing through Wellawatte, Bambalapitiya, Pamankada and many other areas of Colombo one can see high rise muulti storied housing and shopping complexes belonging to Tamils.  Will Sinhalese or Muslims be allowed to build housing and shopping complexes like this in Jaffna or Kilinochchi?

It also seems that Sirisena has become a spokesman of the Tamils.  Participating in a meeting in a meeting in Colombo on Monday 23^rd October he has said that Tamils claim that they have been discriminate for a prolonged period and because of that their faces look pale without signs of a drop of blood. He has said that hence something should be done to make them happy and lively.

Sirisena should read the marvellous speeches made by Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera, Dr. Nalaka Godahewa and Mrs. Anuraadha Yahampath at the 36^th UNHRC sessions to find out how the Sinhalese and non-Tamils were discriminated prior to 1956 and details of high posts held by Tamils and still being occupied by Tamils and then he would realize the folly of his Tamil slavish attitude and the extent of treason he is committing against this country. Will this Aappa Drohyya have an iota of patriotism to realize it?

(To be continued)

ආචාර්ය පී.ජී.පුංචිහේවා

මීට අවුරුදු එකසිය පනහකට දෙසියයකට පමණ පෙර අපේ සීයලා, ආච්චිලාගේ ජීවිතයේ සන්ධ්‍යා සමයේ තිබූ එකම ආශාව වට වන්දනාවේ යාමයි.  මා අසා තිබූ අන්දමට ඔවුන් වට වන්දනාවේ ගියේ ඔවුන්ගේ වතුපිටි, ගෙවල් දොරවල් ආදිය තම දරුවන්ට පවරා දීමෙන් පසුව ය.  මඟතොටවල් නොදියුණු, යාන වාහන දුලබ එකල එසේ කිරීම අරුමයක් නොවේ.  තිස්ස සිට කතරගමට ගියේ ගොන් බැඳි කරත්තෙනි.  දක්ෂිණ මහාමාර්ගය ඔස්සේ පැය 3 කින් කතරගමට දැන් ලගාවිය හැකිය. සේරුවිල රජමහා විහාරයට යා යුතු වූයේ පාරු පාලම් හතක් පසු කරමිනි.  දැන් ඒ පාරු පාලම් එකක්වත් නැත.  කැළණි විහාරයේ සිට සිරිමෙවන් කැළණියට යාමට තිබූ පාරුව ද දැන් අවශ්‍ය නැත.

වට වන්දනාව වශයෙන් හැඳින්වුවද, බොහෝ විට ගමනාන්තය වූයේ අනුරාධපුරය යි.  බුදුරජාණන්වහන්සේ තුන්වන වරට ලංකාවට වැඩි අවස්ථාවේ උන්වහන්සේ සමාධියෙන් වැඩ සිටි ශ්‍රී මහා බෝධිය, රුවන්වැලි සෑය ඇතුළත් අටමස්ථානය වට වන්දනාවට ඇතුළත් විය.

ගමනාගමන හා නවාතැන් පහසුකම් වැඩිවත් ම අනුරාධපුරය බලා එන වන්දනාකරුවන්ගේ සංඛ්‍යාව වැඩිවීම ස්වාභාවික ය.  දැන්  කොළඹ සිට අනුරාධපුරයට ගොස් අටමස්ථානය වැඳ පුදා ගෙන එදින ම ආපසු ඒමට පුළුවන.  සමහර වන්දනාකරුවෝ සංචාරයට පොළොන්නරුව හා සෝමාවතිය ද ඇතුළත් කර ගනිති.  කොටි උවදුර මඟහැරි යාම ත් සමග දිවයිනේ පූජනීය ස්ථාන වැඳ පුදා ගැනීමට යාමට දැන් අවස්ථාව ලැබී තිබේ.  ත්‍රිකුණාමලේ දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ විල්ගම් වෙහෙර, සේරුවිල, අම්පාර දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ අරන්තලාව, එදා කොටි ප්‍රහාරවලට ලක් වූ ස්ථාන ගණනාවෙන් කීපයකි.  දිවයිනේ නැ‍ගෙනහිර ද බෞද්ධ පූජනීය ස්ථාන රාශියක් ඇතත්, ඈත අතීතයේ වුව ගම් මට්ටමෙන් වන්දනා නඩ සංවිධාන වූයේ ඉඳ හිට ය.  රජයේ වුව අවධානය යොමුව ඇත්තේ ඉන් කීපයකට පමණි.  දීඝවාපියේ පවා පුනරුත්ථාපන කටයුතු නිමා වී නැත.  ඉඳ හිට එන වන්දනාකරුවන් ට පවා අවශ්‍ය පහසුකම් නැත.

ලාංකික බෞද්ධයන්ගේ අවධානය නැගෙනහිර ශුද්ධ භූමි කරා වඩ වඩා යොමු විය යුතු කාලය පැමිණ තිබේ.  තපස්සු භල්ලුක දෙබෑයන් බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේගේ කේශධාතු නිදන් කළ තිරියායෙන් අරඹා, විල්ගම්වෙහෙර, බුදුරජුන් පාද ස්පර්ෂයෙන් පූජනීය වූ දීඝවාපිය, මිහිදු හිමියන්ගේ භෂ්මවශේෂ තැන්පත් රාස්සගල, ඵෙතිහාසික මූදුමහ විහාරය, නිලගිරි විහාරය,  මගුල්මල් විහාරය ලාහුගල විහාරය ඇතුළත් වන සේ නැගෙනහිර අටමස්ථාන, වටවන්දනාව සංවිධානය කළ හැක.

වර්තමාන ලංකාණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 13වන සංශෝධනය අනුව, පුරාවිද්‍යා භූමි අයත් වන්නේ සමගාමී ලැයිස්තුවට ය.  යෝජිත නව ව්‍යවස්ථාව අනුව සමගාමී ලැයිස්තුව පළාත් සභා යටතට ගැනීමට යෝජනා කෙරේ.  නැගෙනහිර පළාතේ ඉහත සඳහන් කළ පූජනීය ස්ථානයන් ට අමතරව, තවත් ඵෙතිහාසික ස්ථාන ඇත. එය අනුමත වුවහොත් මේවා සංවර්ධනය කිරීම තබා, නඩත්තු කිරීම හෝ ආරක්ෂා කිරීම අනාගත ප්‍රාදේශීය පාලකයන්ගෙන් බලාපොරොත්තු විය නොහැක.  අප අසල්වාසී රටවල බෞද්ධ සිද්ධස්ථාන වලට වූ නස්පැන්තිය අප ඇස්පනාපිට දැක ඇත.

රුවන්වැලි සෑය අබියස නිතර පැවැත්වෙන විවිධ මල් පූජා වැනි ආමිස පූජාවන් නැගෙනහිර පුදබිම්වල ද ආරම්භ කිරීම වන්දනාකරුවන් මේ ස්ථානවලට යොමු කිරීමට හේතුවනු ඇත.  දැනට දඹදිව, තායිලන්තය, මියන්මාර් වැනි රටවලට සංචාර සංවිධාන කරන සමාගම් හා බෞද්ධ සංවිධාන නැගෙනහිර ගැන ද අවධානය යොමු කිරීම ජාතියේ නාමයෙන් සිදු කළ යුත්තකි.

ආචාර්ය පී.ජී.පුංචිහේවා

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

The GMOA today accused the Finance Ministry of attempting to reduce the tax on liquor through the 2018 budget and said this would encourage the liquor use.It said despite the national policy of the country which is to prevent the easy access to liquor, the Finance Ministry was attempting reduce tax with the intention of promoting the tourism sector. GMOA spokesman Samantha Ananda said the Finance Ministry’s move would destroy the values of the country as it would encourage alcoholism.

Meanwhile, GMOA Secretary Haritha Aluthge said the GMOA was informed of an attempt to open liquor outlets countrywide at SATHOSA outlets. He said if it was done it would influence liquor consumption. Dr. Aluthge said liquor and tobacco were not essential to the tourism industry and tourists could visit the country to view its landscape and nature.”

(We should be happy that a Muslim Minister in charge of Sathosa is encouraging liquor sales despite threats from ISIS!)

First and foremost when did GMOA or their members were worried about health issues of the people? They go on strike for planning abolition of vehicle permits .Do they complain importation of vehicles and three wheelers which generate much ait pollution which affects the health of the nation ?Are elite GMOA goes on strike mercilessly for any minor issue and threaten the state inconvenience people.

Vietnam and Thailand and even Indonesia and even Male Resorts  are growing faster because many tourists come to those countries .In Vietnam people drink so much of beer against  consuming hard liquor. These countries are growing fast despite being Buddhist country We should liberalize and reduce beer prices and allow selling them in any grocery shop with toddy .Encouraging  beer and wine drinking is not only good for health but also the discharges urine will enhance Urea content in soil ! Increase in beer sale will create more jobs for capitalist tycoons and also build more beer factories. .Abundant water flowing along Kelani and Kalu  Ganga etc. to the ocean can be used to make beer .We can ask beer companies to filter and clean river water and provide part of it to water- board so that they fulfil Corporate Social Responsibility

We should liberalise liquor  trade and also  increase production of wines so that ordinary people can take a glass of red wine ( which same doctors advice to heart patients to consume) ,This industry will flourish and grape and other fruit growing will increase which is use to make wine .We can make rice wine so that rice production increases. All restaurants will have more business

Regarding Sathosa planning to sell liquor means more people will visit Sathosa and buy other products for  their taste We will sell more meat which means we can also export.

More beer drinking can cure many kidney failures as your organs will work more efficiently ‘???

Sri Lank will have more and Machans .where people and youngsters will gather stop going for demonstrations where they provide hard liquor.

Beer Tycoons will flourish and they will re- invest the money .More tourists will come for Beer Festivals like in Germany and national income  will increase, More beer sales will increase sale of fridges and bottle coolers .People will sip beer and wine and forget about SAITM and problems of amending constitution .

My final advice is we should allow legal prostitution also where all of them are checked by the same GMOA members to give a clean health bill to stop women going to middles east and be victims of Arab Vultures and return with illegitimate children. Condom production will go up and rubber industry will flourish .We may also liberalize same -sex trade so that more youngsters from Europe and Scandinavia. West is becoming more and more liberal in same-sex marriage and hotels can advertise the service and we get more tourists.

Impose traffic rules like in Norway where you cannot drive even after a glass of wine which means people will not use cars but some other means to travel, our accident rate will reduce

Our Lion Flag can fly all over the world with a brand name like that and whole world will know about the branded beer in Sri Lanka. (Currently we are quite famous for illegal same sex trade!)

So GMOA should look at the pros but only cons,

They should stop  conning” the whole nation.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

October 24, 2017, 12:00 pm
The British parliament was told, on Oct 12, 2017 that Velupillai Prabhakaran killed Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraiappah in 1973. The statement was made by Michael Morris, Baron Naseby PC, during a debate on Sri Lanka. Having declared that he launched the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sri Lanka, way back in 1975, the politician urged Theresa May’s government to review its policy as regards post-war accountability process in relation to the Geneva Resolution 30/1 adopted on Oct 1, 2015.

Very few foreign politicians could have declared that they had known Sri Lanka for over 50 years. Baron Naseby said that he was the current President of the All-Party Parliamentary Group and knew Sri Lanka for over 50 years.

But, having perused Baron Naseby’s statement, the writer is of the opinion that for want of a clear strategy on Sri Lanka’s part, the world didn’t really know the origins of terrorism here. What his statement proved was that Baron Naseby lacked understanding of the situation here. Let me reproduce verbatim Baron Naseby’s comment on Duraiappah’s assassination: “In 1973 Prabhakaran killed the Mayor of Jaffna, along with six soldiers, whose bodies were brought to Colombo. There was a resentful response from the Sinhalese youth, very sadly it was three days before a curfew was brought in, and well over 1,000 Tamils were killed. From then on it has been a situation of Eelam, the independent state, on one side versus the unitary state of Sri Lanka on the other.”

Would you be able to swiftly recognize Baron Naseby’s mistake? Those who had shared the report on the debate, initiated by Baron Naseby on the internet, obviously didn’t recognize the glaring but inadvertent blunder that had distorted the picture. The British politician has, obviously, due to lack of understanding and knowledge of the situation here, considered the assassination of Duraiappah, in July 1975, and the killing of 13 soldiers at Thinnaveli, Jaffna, in July 1983, as one incident.

Duraiappah was gunned down on July 27, 1975 when he arrived by car at the Ponnalai Varadaraja Perumal Temple with two companions, as was his custom on Friday evenings.

Mixing up of Duraiappah’s assassination, in 1975, with the wiping out of an army patrol, eight years later, highlights Sri Lanka’s pathetic failure to brief the international community.

The LTTE killed two soldiers, outside a hardware store, in Jaffna in Oct 1981. They were the first SLA personnel to die in the hands of the LTTE.

At the time Prabhakaran shot dead Duraiappah, the victim didn’t have even a police bodyguard, let alone soldiers.

Baron Naseby has, inadvertently, stated that anti-Tamil riots, that claimed 1,000 lives, had taken place in 1973, whereas they occurred in July 1983.

Invasions on Sri Lanka

Baron Naseby referred to the Chola invasion of Sri Lanka and the subsequent Portuguese, Dutch and British colonisation of the country, though absolutely no reference was made to Indian intervention in the 80s. No less a person than the late Indian National Security Advisor (May 2004-Jan 2005) in his memoirs, Makers of India’s Foreign Policy: Raja Ram Mohun to Yashwant Sinha had admitted that India militarily intervened in Sri Lanka to thwart US-Israel-Pakistan using the country to New Delhi’s disadvantage. The shocking admission made by Jyotindra Nath Dixit, who had been New Delhi’s High Commissioner in Colombo during the deployment of the Indian Army (July 1987-March 1990) should be studied keeping in mind the then Cold War environment, with India solidly backing the Soviet Union. Dixit, boldly blamed the then PM Indira Gandhi for Sri Lanka destabilization project started by Delhi in the early 80s to teach a lesson to overtly pro-Western Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene, on top of tacit support for Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in Dec 1979. Dixit called those Gandhi decisions the only foreign policy blunders made during her tenure as the PM (1966-1984). She was assassinated on October 31, 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards for ordering the storming of their holiest site, Golden Temple in Amritsar in June of that year.

For want of a cohesive strategy, Sri Lanka hadn’t been able to counter the massive propaganda project meant to pave the way for a new Constitution in the guise of addressing accountability issues. If Sri Lanka hadn’t been able to properly brief its friends, there is absolutely no point in blaming those wanting to achieve their despicable objectives through constitutional means, after having failed to overwhelm the Sri Lankan military. Baron Naseby’s statement has proved beyond doubt that successive governments lacked strategy to brief both friend and foe and rectify glaring mistakes.

The military brought the war to a successful conclusion on May 19, 2009, not on May 18, 2009, as stated by Baron Naseby.

But, Baron Naseby, quite rightly, explained the urgent need to reexamine the primary allegation directed at the Sri Lankan military as regards the number of civilians killed. Baron Naseby did it much better than any Sri Lankan politician, or Foreign Ministry has done so far. Having pointed out the absurdity and unfairness in the allegation that 40,000 civilians had perished in the offensive, Baron Naseby said: “…the UK must now get the UN and the UNHCR in Geneva to accept a civilian casualty level of 7,000 to 8,000, not 40,000. On top of that, the UK must recognize that this was a war against terrorism, so the rules of engagement are based on international humanitarian law, not the European Convention on Human Rights.”

Having relentlessly pursued Sri Lanka during the Rajapaksa administration and forced the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government to co-sponsor Geneva Resolution 30/1 in spite of it being inimical to Sri Lanka, the UK will not, under any circumstances, accept a lower casualty figure.

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon of the Conservative Party, in his response, on behalf of the government, indicated, in no uncertain terms that the May administration wouldn’t seek reappraisal of casualty figures. “My noble friends Lord Naseby and Lord Sheikh talked about the numbers killed. While the differential may remain, what is undisputed is that a number of civilians died in the final stages of the war and there are still serious allegations of human rights abuses against both the Sri Lankan military and the Tamil Tigers.”

Lord Ahmad’s response revealed that they really didn’t know how many civilians died on the Vanni east front. The British response also disclosed that they didn’t have faith in the much touted UN Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka whose report released on March 31, 2011, placed the number of civilians killed at 40,000. Had the British accepted the UN report, Lord Ahmad, wouldn’t have hesitated to directly quote from it. Instead, Lord Ahmad side-stepped Baron Naseby’s challenge. Interestingly, the State Minister conveniently refrained from using specific information provided by Colombo-based wartime British Defence Attache Lieutenant Colonel Anton Gash to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office during January 1-May 19, 2009 period. Had the State Minister placed the confidential information that had been provided by Gash, the lies propagated against Sri Lanka would have been exposed.

Discipline and success of the Sri Lankan Army

Baron Naseby quoted Gash as having told him, in January 2009, that he was amazed at the controlled discipline and success of the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) and in particular the care that it was taking to encourage civilians to escape and how well they were looked after, and that certainly there was no policy to kill civilians. Baron Naseby said that there could not be a better military man than Gash to express such an opinion. The politician described Gash as knowledgeable, independent and would be authoritative about what happened on the Vanni front.

The writer had the opportunity to meet Baron Naseby twice during the Rajapaksa administration. Once, the British politician visited The Island editorial to meet Editor-in-Chief Prabath Sahabandu and the writer for journalistic perspective of the conflict.

Obviously, the British had been concerned about the reports sent by Gash as they certainly exposed the absurdity of accusations made against the SLA. The British had shamelessly suppressed those reports while stepping up pressure on Sri Lanka to address accountability issues on the basis of mass killings committed on the Vanni east front. Thanks to Baron Naseby’s effort to secure reports sent in by Gash, during the Vanni offensive, the entire world got to know how the British desperately tried to hold in vital information that would have cleared the SLA. Unfortunately, the SLA failed to gather the required information and evidence, in a systematic way, to counter lies. Since the conclusion of the war, in May 2009, the SLA had done precious nothing to defend itself much to the disappointment of families of those courageous officers and men who died in the battle against terrorism. (In June, 2011, the SLA, during Lt. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya’s command, simply ignored a statement made by the then US Defence Attache, Lt. Colonel Lawrence Smith in support of Sri Lanka. The statement made in response to a question posed by retired Indian Army Major General Ashok Mehta to Maj. Gen. Shavendra Silva regarding battlefield executions in May 2009 could have been the basis of SLA’s defence. But, the SLA didn’t even bother to examine it. The Island’s exclusive report by the writer on the US Defence Attache’s statement was not challenged by the US embassy. But, the US State Department declared that Lt. Colonel Smith wasn’t there in any official capacity. Whatever, his status at the first defence seminar, organized by the SLA, the officer was there, defended the SLA, though those in authority lacked the strength to exploit the opportunity for Sri Lanka’s advantage.)

Gash’s reports

Baron Naseby explained in parliament how the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office had dismissed his 2014 request for Gash’s reports pertaining to the period January 1 to May 19, 2009, in accordance with the freedom of information law. Thereafter, Baron Naseby’s appeals to higher officials, too, had been rejected, prompting the intrepid politician to seek the intervention of the Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioner’s intervention resulted in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office making available 26 pages of heavily redacted dispatches from Gash. Had Gash condemned the SLA, those reports would have been extensively used by the British and the British media outfits such as Channel 4 years ago. Had the British not done so, the May government would have used them during debate on Sri Lanka in response to Baron Naseby.

The Baron explained to British parliament how he had received an additional 12 pages, all redacted, from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office when he pointed out insufficient number of Gash reports.

Baron Naseby explained how he gave up his struggle for Sri Lanka when judges of the First-tier Tribunal upheld the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office assertion that had they revealed confidential information they wouldn’t receive such information in the future. It would be better to reproduce verbatim what Baron Naseby told parliament: “…Still concerned about the lack of dispatches in the past few days, I made a final appeal to the First-tier Tribunal, assisted my very good friend Amal Abeywardene. We had the sympathy of the judges for the cause, but they accepted the Foreign Office view that if confidential information was given out, nobody in future would give us any more. So I now have the princely sum of 39 pages of heavily redacted dispatches—nevertheless, if you dig deeply, as in life, you find some real gems. For example, on 28 January:

“It is not possible to distinguish civilians from LTTE cadres as few are in uniform”.

Then, from 16 February: “IDPs being cared for in Trincomalee. Welfare appears to be overriding security considerations”.

Then on 20 January they say, “no cluster munitions were used”, and on 26 April, “civilians killed Feb 1-April 26—6432”.

Obviously, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office stance cannot be acceptable as the person making available information in this case Lt. Colonel Gash was a British government employee. The British position could have been acceptable if those dispatches were sent by a mole within the Sri Lankan establishment. Those who had perused Wiki Leaks now know how our honourable members of parliament provided information to US diplomats in Colombo regarding a range of matters.

Situation on the Vanni east front.

The reports submitted by Gash and Smith should be compared to ascertain the situation on the Vanni east front. The British and the American defence attaches would have shared information as well as ‘sources’ within the then administration, including the military as well as the LTTE. A thorough examination of despatches from US, British, Indian, Japanese, ICRC and UN missions will establish how the SLA behaved on the Vanni east front.

In fact, the UN Panel of Experts, headed by one-time Indonesian Attorney General Marzuki Darusman, admitted the existence of UN report that placed the number of dead at 7,721 and 18,479 injured from Aug 2008 to May 13, 2009. For some strange reason, Sri Lanka never officially requested the UN to release that report or requested the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to examine it.

The UN report that dealt with 10 months should be compared with the UN Panel of Experts report which placed the number of civilians killed during the last phase (reference to Jan-May 2009 period) at 40,000.

Office of Missing Persons (OMP)

Can there be anything as unfair as demanding Sri Lanka to establish Office of Missing Persons (OMP) and introduce new law against enforced disappearances to ascertain the truth while refusing to share information vital to achieve the same purpose. The British should be ashamed, especially because British national Anton Balasingham influenced the murderous LTTE for over three decades. UK-based Balasingham played a significant role in overall LTTE strategy hence there cannot be any dispute regarding his culpability for political assassinations—from TULF leader Papilla Thingamajig in 1989, Raj iv Gandhi in May 1991 and Lakshman Margarita in Aug 2005.

Both Gash and Smith would have had to send many dispatches as the SLA rapidly encircled the LTTE after having inflicted the single biggest battlefield defeat on Prabhakaran in early April 2009. The LTTE had no chance of reaching an understanding with the government following the Anandapuram battle that resulted in irrevocable damages. Among the dead were top commanders, including Pathuman, once the proud commander of LTTE formations deployed on the northern front.

Baron Naseby has exposed the British efforts to suppress the truth.

Interestingly, during the Oct 12, 2017 debate there hadn’t been any reference to a previous debate in the House of Commons on ‘human rights in the Indian sub-continent.’

Long standing LTTE supporter Siobhain McDonagh (Mitcham and Morden) (Labour) told the House of Commons on Sept. 15, 2011 that Sri Lanka’s war, in its last five months alone, had claimed the lives of 100,000 people, 40,000 of them civilians.

The MP never explained how she had come to such a conclusion and her claim should be now re-examined against the backdrop of Minister of State Foreign and Commonwealth side-stepping Baron Naseby’s challenge. McDonagh never responded to The Island queries regarding her controversial statement while the British High Commission in Colombo declined to confirm whether the MP had sought information from the diplomatic mission. The British High Commission adopted a similar stance when the writer asked whether the politician sought information from the mission.

Sri Lanka never conducted a proper investigation into various allegations/claims made in respect of Sri Lanka’s war. Had the government done that Sri Lanka could have exposed the big lie propagated by various interested parties.

Number of civilians killed during war

UK-based Amnesty International, in its bulletin headlined ‘WHEN WILL THEY GET JUSTICE?,’ estimated the number of civilians killed at 10,000 on the basis of information provided by eye-witnesses and aid workers. The September 2011 report however didn’t make any reference to the number of combatants killed during Eelam war IV or the final five months.

If Amnesty International had based its report on eyewitnesses and aid workers, it would be interesting to know who briefed British MP McDonagh regarding the ground situation.

MP McDonagh thanked the previous British government for terminating the GSP plus trade facility given to Sri Lanka, opposing Sri Lanka receiving IMF stand-by facility amounting to $ 2.6 billion and thwarting a move to host the Commonwealth Summit in Colombo

The MP said: “Britain must take a brave and principled lead—just as we did in Kosovo and, with France, in Libya—and do all that it can to ensure that a full independent international investigation of war crimes takes place. Those of us who believe in justice want the people responsible to be held to account, just as all of us would agree about Colonel Gaddafi, Radovan Karadzic and Charles Taylor. Sri Lanka still wants to host the Commonwealth Summit in 2013. We should be clearly saying “No, not until there is a fully independent, UN-led international inquiry. I hope that if one thing comes out of today’s debate, it will be that commitment.”

That statement was clearly meant to prevent Sri Lanka hosting the useless Commonwealth Summit 2013. Had she succeeded, millions of taxpayers money could have been saved. Those who had been working with Tamil Diaspora pursued anti-Sri Lanka campaign at different levels. They had succeeded primarily due to Sri Lanka’s failure. Let there be a fresh call to the international community to re-examine allegations in the wake of debate on Sri Lanka in the UK parliament.

(To be continued on Nov. 1)

R.Manoj Gamage – නීතීඥ මනෝජ් ගමගේ 

https://www.facebook.com/RManojGamage/videos/383171732103566/

Editorial Courtesy The Island

October 26, 2017, 12:48 pm
National Freedom Front leader and Joint Opposition firebrand, Wimal Weerawansa, MP, has, true to form, rattled the cage of many a government politician. He said, with his trademark grin, that a bomb should be dropped on Parliament unless at least 76 MPs opposed constitutional reforms, thereby, denying the government a two-thirds majority. The yahapalana leaders have thrown up their hands in horror, asking for protection. At least, that is what Speaker Karu Jayasuriya has told the media; he has threatened action against Weerawansa for issuing what is being described as a threat.

Most of the yahapalana politicians in the current government were part of the UNP-led UNF administration from 2001 to 2004. They never so much as uttered a whimper of protest, let alone take action, while the LTTE was perpetrating numerous acts of terrorism. Nay, they grovelled before Prabhakaran, who posed the biggest threat to Parliament, and did their damnedest to appease him. Now, they pretend to be a bunch of terrified thothttha babas (babes in arms); they would have us believe that something, uttered by a loose-tongued Opposition politician, has given them a scare!

The yahapalana politicians are baying for Weerawansa’s blood over his statement because they are pursuing a vendetta against him. Their claim of a serious threat to their lives is, not to put too fine a point on it, pure bunkum. Instead, it is they who are a threat to others. A UNP provincial councillor with underworld links has recently been arrested following a fierce gun battle with the elite police commandos! A lethal haul has also been recovered from his residence. The SLFP also has underworld characters within its ranks.

President Maithripala Sirisena has, in a bid to make a public display of his compassion, pardoned an LTTE cadre who had tried to bomb him while he was in the Rajapaksa government. So, why is the government making an issue of a mere statement a frustrated Opposition MP has made?

Weerawansa’s statement in question would have caused serious concern to us if he had made it as a member of the JVP during the second southern insurrection in the late 1980s, when a grenade was lobbed at a government group meeting in Parliament. He and other JVP cadres who dreamt of blowing Parliament sky high have now been reduced to a bunch of lackeys at the beck and call of the two main parties. His erstwhile comrades, still flaunting a revolutionary cause, are cohabiting, for all practical purposes, with the very capitalists who unleashed barbaric violence to crush their bloody uprising and, above all, had their beloved founder leader cremated even before he had breathed his last.

With the kind of members it is burdened with, Parliament needs no enemies. The recently ratified Provincial Council Election (Amendment) Bill has had on Parliament a more devastating impact than a thousand bombs, in a manner of speaking. The original Bill had only one page containing four sections. By the time it was steamrollered through Parliament, it had as many as 21 pages. The yahapalana leaders had smuggled 27 sections into it at the committee stage so as to circumvent a Supreme Court ruling which thwarted their attempt to postpone the PC polls with the help of a previous Bill. The government has not only delivered a slap on the apex court but also caused a severe erosion of public faith in the legislative process. Bombs and guns, we repeat, can’t inflict so much of damage on Parliament.

Worryingly, standards of parliamentary debate continue to deteriorate. MPs are notorious for absenteeism and dereliction of duty. The House was half empty when Parliament celebrated its 70th anniversary on a grand scale recently. More often than not slanging matches and brawls pass for debates. Billions of rupees are unflinchingly allocated through supplementary estimates for ministers’ super luxury vehicles and perks for ordinary MPs.

So, instead of trying to make a mountain out of a molehill anent Weerawansa’s statement, the government ought to take cognizance of the fact that people are extremely resentful. Public anger can be far more destructive than bombs. The yahapalana leaders talk a blue streak while doing a precious little to improve people’s lot; they are busy feathering their nests instead. Corruption is rampant and so is the abuse of power. Most of the election promises have not been fulfilled. People have been denied their fundamental right to exercise their franchise and give vent to their pent-up anger. The government keeps postponing elections on some pretext or the other as it is scared of facing the electorate.

At this rate the day may not be far off when people seriously consider doing what is seen in the dramatic scene at the climax of the action flick, V for Vendetta, where thousands of livid pro-democracy protesters, wearing the Guy Fawkes masks, march on the British parliament.

P. S. MAHAWATTE Colombo 5 Courtesy The Island

October 26, 2017, 12:58 pm
The Most Ven. Maha Nayaka Theras, Kotugoda Dhammavasa, Ittapane Dhammalankara, Thirukunamale Ananda and Prof. Bellanwila Wimalaratne, having gone through the Report of the Steering Committee of the Constitutional Assembly with fine tooth comb, has warned of the dangers of this Report as “it seems that not only the alteration of the meanings of the constitution is fraudulent, it is also an attempt to mislead the Sinhala masses.”

“Among the proposals put forward is the proposal to amalgamate the northern and eastern provinces with the objective of legalizing the false and fraudulent demand for a historical Tamil homeland pursued by Tamil separatists”.

“We are constrained to point out that the advice given by the Maha Sangha on various occasions not to engage in such a distorted constitutional process has been ignored”.

These are only a few excerpts from the long Report of the Maha Sangha published in the Daily Mirror of 30th Sept.

Rev.Fr. Vimal Tirimanna, CSsR, in an analytical article in The Island of 11th October, 17 captioned “Yahapalanaya govt. has neither valid mandate nor credibility to draft a new constitution” concludes “The only way the government can have both a mandate and the necessary credibility to draft a new constitution is to call a general election and muster a clear-cut majority rather than hoodwinking the people with their fairy tale arguments, for postponing all elections. A new Constitution should not be a façade to achieve the egoistic agendas of its drafters irrespective of what the citizens really desire at this moment through such a Constitution”.

In The Island of 12th July, Mr.H.L.D. Mahindapala replying to Prof. L. Fernando’s letter “Sangha State behind the State” wrote “It is the Sangha that laid the foundation for this nation”.

In an article by NAN in The Sunday Island wrote “Buddhist Temples were ravaged, Sacred Books burnt and those of the Sangha whether Monks or nuns put to death, if they did not renounce their religion. This caused the demise of Nuns. Monks lived hiding in jungles or in disguise. Leadership of brave monks restored religion”.

It is a historical fact that all the invaders of our country committed so much atrocities to get rid of Buddhism, and if not for our Maha Sangha they may have even succeeded by resorting to the conversion of the Buddhists by all sorts of inducements to which only a few succumbed.

Seventy four percent of this country’s populace is Sinhalese and over 70 percent of them are Buddhists. And not the Tamils, not the Muslims, not the Hindus, not the Catholics, not the Christians ever asked for any change to Article 9 of the constitution. All knew that whatever decree on paper, Buddhism was deeply and indelibly written, etched in flesh and blood and transfused in every sinew, vein and artery of the majority’s Buddhist heart.

For what possible reason should any Sinhala Buddhist dominated government do that unless they had a death wish? Especially when no other religious leaders have ever called for it?

“Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo and Head of the Roman Catholic Church in Lanka, was even moved to publicly declare his opposition to any constitutional dilution of the foremost place granted to Buddhism in Article 9” says Don Manu captioned “Will Lanka’s constitutional scapegoat face sacrificial slaughter on the people’s alter?” in the Sunday Times of October 15th.

This yahapalana government cannot bring about any reconciliation by juggling with words in Article 9 of the Constitution, which clearly states “The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly, it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, while assuring to all religions the rights granted by Articles 10 and 14(1) (e)”.

P. S. MAHAWATTE

Colombo 5

By Tennakoon Rusiripala Courtesy The Island

October 26, 2017, 12:53 pm
The investigation into the Central Bank Bond issue is proceeding before the COI appointed by the President. It was reported that the Attorney General’s department had submitted a further list of witnesses it wants summoned before the Commission. The list reportedly includes the Prime Minister. A few days back a statement coming from Temple Trees announced that PM was ready to come before the COI if summoned. It will be a most welcome move for the consolation of all concerned if this is done.

The warrant issued by the President appointing the Commission to investigate and inquire into and report on several aspects related to the issuance of Treasury Bonds during the period 1st February 2015 and 31st March 2016, specifically include the following areas;

1. The Management and Administration and conduct of affairs of the CBSL in respect of,

a) The decision making process that preceded the issuance of bonds including decisions relating to Amounts to be raised

Determination of interest rates

The bond redeeming process

b) The disposal of Treasury Bonds by the dealers direct and indirect

2. Whether there has been any malpractice or irregularity or non -compliance in the procedure followed;

3. Whether the transactions have been carried out fraudulently, recklessly and negligently or irresponsibly resulting in any loss to the State;

4. Whether there has been non-compliance or disregard of the proper procedures applicable;

5. Whether such non -compliance and disregard of procedures have resulted in the improper or irregular or discriminatory award of bonds;

6. person or persons responsible for any such act , omission or conduct;

7. Whether any inquiry or probe into any of the above, had been obstructed or prevented in any manner resulting in damage or detriment to the Government;

The above provisions inter alia encompass the decisions and directions during the period prior to the issuance of the controversial bonds. Therefore the evidence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Minister in charge of the CBSL becomes important to clarify matters related to vital decisions taken based on directives said to be given by him regarding bond issues.

Testimony by the former Governor Arjuna Mahendran himself and several other officials from the CBSL before the COI , establish that the Governor acted on a directive by his Minister to do away with the direct Placement system in the bond auctions. There is no evidence of this directive being ratified or receiving the approval by the Monetary Board. In accordance with the warrant this matter falls within the ambit of the following;

Non-compliance in the procedure as it is an arbitrary change of procedure hitherto followed by the Public Debts Department,

A malpractice because the application of the new procedure was without any notice or pre-warning to the participating Primary Dealers,

An irregularity since it was not endorsed by the Monetary Board

While the governor is responsible for his unilateral action, the Minister has to explain and clarify how he expected his directive to be implemented besides the circumstances that compelled him to give such a directive. It is only by this one can determine whether there has been a disregard of the proper procedures applicable as required under the warrant.

The Auditor General, has stated before the 2nd COPE inquiry and also before the COI that the decision to increase the Bond sales to 10 Bn instead of the 2.6Bn, recommended by the PDD during the 1st Bond issuance on 27th February , has caused a financial loss to the Government. He has quantified the visible immediate loss and shown a projected accruing long term loss. These factors are relevant in the context of the Presidential decree as shown above under the clause, ” person or persons responsible for any such act omission or conduct”. According to evidence so far , as reported, the governor used the directive given to him by the PM to discontinue the direct placement practice as one of the reasons for his insistence to increase the bond issue to 10 Bn.

Ipso- facto the responsibility extends to the person who gave such a directive as regards the resulting loss.

The adverse effects of this directive becomes more significant and grave when we consider the bond transactions of 29th and 31stof March 2016. Due to the adhoc decision of the Governor, based on the Ministers directive, CBSL has closed these bond issues , by selling amounts much higher than the offers and at very high weighted average yield rates going far beyond the expected rates for settlement. In the 29th March bond issue the amount offered was 40 billion but the final accepted value risen up to 77.7 billion. The WAYR of these accepted bonds range between 12.78 and 14.23! This is a rate that could be categorised as unusually high when the relevant financial and economic factors are applied.

The same happened during the 31st March Bond issue that followed. Having offered to issue 20 Bn. they have issued 50 Billion. The applicable WAYR was between 11.75 and 13.72 much higher than the estimated rate for settlement. The Coupon rate applicable to the issue was ranging from 8.5% to 11.5 % only. These transactions took place under a virtually dealer dominated back ground asthe Bank was bound by a condition to accept auction offers only. Following factors have to be taken into consideration in this regard;

i. Two previous bond issues scheduled for 10th and 24th March were cancelled by the CBSL due to the bids received from the dealers being unacceptable due to unusually high rates

ii. The PD company related to the Governor’s son -in -law was the highest single beneficiary from these transactions and the procedure.

(1) It is observed that Perpetual Treasuries have been awarded 60% of the bonds issued in excess of the original amount called for (ie.77.7 less 40).

(2) This company has been provided Rs.36 Bn under the Reverse Repo and Intra Day Liquidity facility of the CBSL to settle their purchase liability on account of these bonds,

(3) The statistics show that they have obtained over 75% of the total such facilities extended compared to all other primary dealers.

(4) This company has failed to settle the CBSL on the due dates on account of these bond purchases and they were subject toa fine of Rs 26 million for this default.

iii. The action taken by the MOF Ravi Karunanayake, as revealed in evidence before the COI , to prevent the State banks from bidding freely at both auctions has immensely contributed towards the resulting illegitimate culmination

iv. The decision making influenced by the auction only process to accept whatever the bid rate submitted by the dealers has caused a big loss to the government, estimated by the Auditor General as Rs.784 million only for the day for the 29th March 2016 bond issue.

The direction given by Governor Mahendran to increase the Bank rate ( also known as SDF rate) to 6.5% from 5% on the morning of the 1st Bond issue of 27th February, helped him to justify the increase of the issuance to 10 Bn. This decision was contrary to a previous decision not to increase the rates by the Monetary Board. In effect the decision also contributed to creating a favourable secondary market to the successful bidders. It is established that his son-in-law’s company acquired 50% of the total bonds issued in that auction. However the rates were again reduced back to the previous position in April 2015.

In a strangely similar manner the SDF rates have been increased prior to the second bond issue on 29th March 2016 in the following manner;

On 30th December 2015, the rates were increased to 6.0% and 7.5%

On 19th February 2016 again the rates were increased to 6.5% and 8.00%

This undoubtedly lead to the creation of an artificial favourable market for bond dealers to demand high rates from the CBSL and also to sell them at an excessively higher rate in the secondary market subsequently. The transactions in the aftermath to the bond issue clearly establish the purpose and intentions of this manoeuvre. The overall resulting damage to the detriment of the Government is reflected in the following;

The market movements which caused an inflationary trend beyond the regulated limits,

EPF paying excess amounts to invest its funds in the secondary market,

The instant loss to the CBSL by selling bonds at very low prices offered by favoured PDs

The COI will decide whether this is an irresponsibility resulting in losses to the state and who are the persons that should be held responsible for such.

There are other fundamental issues centered round the relevant decision making process,

Viz. the failure and /or avoiding of proper precautionary action immediately following the furore of the 27th February 2015 bond issue;

a) Failure to suspend the Governor or to send him on compulsory leave at least pending the various investigations which were proceeding at a public level, 3 man committee appointed by the Minister, and two parliamentary COPE inquiries and suppressing the no confidence motion in the order book of parliament against the Governor signed by 90 MPs.

b) Not taking any action against the intransigence displayed by certain CBSL officials by not releasing required information to the Auditor General who was conducting an investigation on a directive by the COPE. It will be recalled that the Attorney General clarified the matter and stated that there is no reason for the CBSL officials not to provide the information sought by the auditor general. This is a lapse on the part of the Minister in charge of the CBSL since it is he who should have intervened in the matter due to the governor being under investigation.

c) There appears to be the existence ofsome collusion between the Minister of Finance and the Governor of the CBSL due to the accommodation of certain unprecedented acts like the placement of a central bank official above the head of treasury in the NSB and holding a meeting of Ministers and others to request funds from the CBSL by passing the Treasury.

The Minister in charge of the CBSL has to explain his position regarding these matters without which it would be difficult to determine whether there has been any omissions, oversights any lapses in the conduct of affairs falling within his responsibility.

The other area which needs to be explained or clarified is whether any inquiry or probe had been obstructed or prevented in any manner resulting in damage or detriment to the Government by any authority. It is the Ministers evidence that will be important in this regard. Any internal investigation following the revelations should have received his attention. Following events also need some authoritative explanation both in public interest and for assisting the COI.

The reason for the PM to appoint a committee of inquiry on the same day of the disputed 1st bond issue on 27th February 2015

Why was this report not allowed to be discussed in the parliament

Why did the PM state in the parliament that the Governor has done no wrong while the 3 man committee appointed by him was proceeding with its findings

Why did he recommend to dissolve the parliament on the day it was scheduled to table the 1st COPE report

Why did he not report to the parliament that the previous regime had entered into contracts beyond the provisions

Why did he give further instructions to the 3man committee while it was in progress

Why did the PM refer the COPE report that was tabled in parliament to the Attorney General before the parliament decided on the course of action to be taken.

In appointing the COI, the Presidential decree has stated as follows;

“And noting that this investigation and inquiry under this warrant is in addition to and without prejudice to any measures that have been taken or which will be taken by relevant authorities including the CBSL in the exercise of their statutory and legal responsibilities”

According to this the Minister in charge of the CBSL will have to explain and detail whether there are any ongoing other investigations under his purview or whether he has taken any steps towardssuch a course of action . In an issue of this magnitude, while obstructing and preventing will be considered as an irregularity, not taking any action that should be taken also will be considered as a non-compliance. The Public will welcome some explanation by the Minister in this regard.

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

October 26, 2017, 12:00 pm

War crimes:

Cabinet spokesman and Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera yesterday said that the government could act on Lord Naseby’s recent call to Theresa May’s government in the UK to review the much-touted UN allegation that 40,000 Tamil civilians perished on the Vanni front in 2009 in the final phase of the war.

Minister Jayasekera said so when The Island asked whether the cabinet of ministers had discussed Naseby’s Oct 12, 2017 declaration in British parliament that as there couldn’t have been more than 8,000 deaths, the UK government should intervene on behalf of Sri Lanka to set the record straight.

The issue hadn’t been taken up at the cabinet ministers’ meeting on Tuesday (Oct 24).

The SLFPer addressed the post-cabinet media briefing at the Information Department yesterday with military spokesman Maj. Gen. Roshan Seneviratne.

When The Island pointed out that the parliament nor government hadn’t so far reacted to a most favourable statement made on Sri Lanka’s behalf, Minister Jayasekera said that they appreciated Lord Naseby’s effort.

Lord Naseby, in his Oct 12 statement strongly denied accusations that the Sri Lankan military had deliberately targeted civilians.

Reiterating their resolve to defend the armed forces, Minister Jayasekera said that Lord Naseby had spoken for Sri Lanka whereas many foreign politicians succumbed to Tamil Diaspora pressure for domestic political reasons.

Asked whether the government didn’t realize the urgent requirement to challenge unsubstantiated war crimes allegations against the backdrop of Lord Naseby’s statement as such accusations were the basis for forcing Sri Lanka to introduce a new constitution, Minister Jayasekera said that there was longstanding demand from the Tamil community for constitutional reforms.

Minister Jayasekera insisted that the Geneva hadn’t intervened in the process to introduce a new Constitution. The SLFPer said so when The Island pointed out that Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) had specifically suggested in June 2016 that a new Constitution be introduced in 2017 subject to a referendum.

Minister Jayasekera inquired from The Island whether it accepted that the Tamil community experienced difficulties? In response to that query, The Island pointed out that they didn’t face any exceptional difficulties not experienced by other communities in Sri Lanka.

Minister Jayasekera said the government leaders had repeatedly assured that armed forces personnel wouldn’t be allowed to be harmed, when The Island pointed out that both the previous government in which he was a minister and the current administration had failed to make representations at the relevant forums.

The Island sought an explanation from Minister Jayasekera as to why Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan had urged the northerners to vote for Gen. Sarath Fonseka at the 2010 January presidential polls after having accused his army of massacring Tamils on the Vanni front, the SLFPer said that the TNA wanted to defeat war winning President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The minister refrained from commenting on The Island observation even if Sampanthan requested, the electorate would have ignored the TNA chief’s call if they really believed allegations the Army deliberately killed thousands.

The TNA took a similar stand at 2015 January presidential poll, the minister said, referring to large scale post-war rehabilitation and reconstruction projects undertaken by the then government for the benefit of people living in liberated areas.

Maj. Gen. Seneviratne explained the gradual releasing of land held by the military since the successful conclusion of the war in May 2009.

In the Jaffna peninsula, the army commenced releasing land in Oct 2010 on the instructions of the previous government.

Maj. Gen. Seneviratne dismissed claims that the military held land hadn’t been released so may years after the war.

Minister Jayasekera warned of dire consequences unless grievances of those who had been affected by the conflict weren’t addressed.

චමින්ද සිල්වා,උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

 යෝජිත නව ආණ්‌ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්‌ථාව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ තුනෙන් දෙකක ඡන්දයකින් සම්මත කරගත්ත ද එය ජනමත විචාරණයකට යැමේදී බහුතර ජන මතයකින් පරාජය කිරීමට මහා සංඝරත්නය පෙරටුව කටයුතු කරන බව ශ්‍රී ජයවර්ධනපුර විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ කුලපති මහාචාර්ය බෙල්ලන්විල විමලරතන නාහිමියෝ ඊයේ (24 දා) පැවසූහ.
 
 ආණ්‌ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්‌ථා සම්පාදක මණ්‌ඩලයේ මෙහෙයුම් කමිටු අතුරු වාර්තාව පිළිබඳව අදහස්‌ දැක්‌වීම සඳහා ඊයේ සමස්‌ත ලංකා බෞද්ධ මහා සම්මේලන මූලස්‌ථානයේ පැවැති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකට එක්‌වෙමින් උන්වහන්සේ එසේ ප්‍රකාශ කළහ.
 
 අගමැතිවරයා ඇතුළු විවිධ පාර්ශ්ව මේ වන විට නව ව්‍යවස්‌ථාවක්‌ හෝ කෙටුම්පතක්‌ සකස්‌ කර නොමැති බවත් එම නිසා ඒ ගැන කතා කරන අය කරුණු හරිහැටි නොදැන කතා කරන බවත් පැවසුවත් මහා සංඝරත්නය මේ ගැන ගැඹුරින් හදාරා කරුණු කාරණා දැනගෙන කතා කරන බව උන්වහන්සේ කීහ.
 
 මෙම යෝජනාවලිය අධ්‍යයනය කිරීමේදී ඉතා පැහැදිලිව පෙනී යන්නේ ශ්‍රී ලාංකේය සමස්‌ත ජනතාවගේ අනාගතය හා ජන සමාජයේ සහජීවනය අවදානමේ හෙළීමට හා බෙදුම්වාදී අරමුණුවලට රුකුල් දීමට පාදක විය හැකි ව්‍යවස්‌ථා නිර්දේශ එහි අන්තර්ගතව ඇති බව යෑයි උන්වහන්සේ කියා සිටියේය.

ඡායාරූපය- දිමුතු ප්‍රේමරත්න

 ඒවා අතර (අ) පාර්ලිමේන්තු බලතල දුර්වල කරන වගන්ති, (ආ) ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් ආණ්‌ඩුකාරවරයා හරහා පළාතක බලතල පාලනය කිරීමට දැනට තිබෙන ප්‍රතිපාදන අහෝසි කෙරෙන නිර්දේශ (ඇ) ඉඩම් ඇතුළු ඉතා වැදගත් ක්‍ෂේත්‍ර මත පවත්වා ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ බල වපසරිය ව්‍යවස්‌ථා අධිකරණයක්‌ (කොහොම පිsහිටුවනවද යන්න පැහැදිලි නැත) පිහිටුවීම තුළින් අහෝසි කෙරෙන වගන්ති (ඈ) උතුර හා නැගෙනහිර දෙපළාත් එක ඒකකයක්‌ ලෙස සැලකිය යුතු බවට නව ව්‍යවස්‌ථාවෙන් පිළිගැනෙන පරිදි පැනවෙන වගන්තිද, (ඉ) පළාත් තුළ ජාතික වැදගත්කමකින් යුතු කටයුත්තකදී මැදිහත්වීමට රජයට මෙතෙක්‌ තියෙන ඉඩකඩ අහෝසි වන පරිදි සමගාමී ලැයිස්‌තුව ඉවත් කිරීමට කෙරෙන යෝජනා ද (ඊ) ඕනෑම පක්‍ෂයක්‌ සඳහා ජාතික ප්‍රතිපත්ති සැකසීමේදී රජයට හා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට වර්තමානයේ ඇති ප්‍රතිපාදන ඉවත් කිරීමට කර තිබෙන නිර්දේශ ද (පළාත් සභාවකට අවශ්‍ය නම් පෝය නිවාඩුව වුවද එම පළාතේ බෞද්ධයන් අඩු නම් එය වෙනස්‌ කර වෙනත් දිනයක්‌ යොදා ගැනීමට හැකිය.) ඇතුළු තවත් බොහෝ යෝජිත පියවර ශ්‍රී ලංකා රාජ්‍යයේ ඒකීයත්වය විනාශ කිරීමට තුඩුදෙන බව මධ්‍යස්‌ථ හා නිර්දේශපාලනික මනසකින් මෙම ක්‍රියාවලිය දෙස බලන ඕනෑම අයෙකුට වැටහී යනු ඇතැයි උන්වහන්සේ පැවසූහ.
 
 තවද මෙම යෝජනාවලිය තුළ අන්තර්ගත වී තිබෙන විකල්ප යෝජනා හරහා මෙහි සත්‍ය තත්ත්වය රටේ ජනතාවට වසන් කෙරෙන පරිදි සිංහල, දෙමළ, ඉංග්‍රීසි යෙදුම්වල පරස්‌පර තේරුම් ඇතිවන ආකාරයට වගන්ති සකස්‌ කර තිබෙන බව පැහැදිලිව පෙනීයන බව ද උන්වහන්සේ කීහ.
 
 උදාහරණයක්‌ ලෙස යෝජිත ව්‍යවස්‌ථාවේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ෙµඩරල් රාජ්‍යයක්‌ ලෙස සෘජුව සඳහන් කර නොමැති වුවත් වක්‍රව ඒ බව ඉස්‌මතු කිරීමට මෙම එකිනෙකින් වෙනස්‌ තේරුම් සහිත සිංහල, දෙමළ, ඉංග්‍රීසි වචන භාවිතයෙන් උත්සාහ දරා ඇති බව ද උන්වහන්සේ අවධාරණය කර සිටියහ. එසේම බුදු සසුනට හිමි සුවිශේෂී ව්‍යවස්‌ථාමය ප්‍රමුඛස්‌ථානය ද ආණ්‌ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්‌ථාවේ 9 වැනි වගන්තියට සංශෝධන සහ විකල්ප ඉදිරිපත් කරමින් දියාරු කර ඇති බව ද උන්වහන්සේ කීහ.
 
 මාධ්‍ය හමුව සඳහා පූජ්‍ය බලන්ගොඩ සෝභිත, අතිපූජ්‍ය තිරිකුණාමලයේ ආනන්ද, මහාචාර්ය කෝන්ගස්‌තැන්නේ ආනන්ද, බෙල්ලන පුණ්‍යරතන, පූජ්‍ය හෑගොඩ විපස්‌සි, ආචාර්ය රොටුඹ ප්‍රේමරතන යන නාහිමිවරු ද එක්‌ව සිටියහ.

මනෝප‍්‍රිය ගුණසේකර සහ රන්ජන් කටුගම්පොළ උපුටාගැණීම ලංකාදීප

පර්පචුවල් ටෙ‍්‍රෂරීස් සමාගමේ අධ්‍යක්‍ෂ අර්ජුන් ඇලෝසියස් විසින් මිලදී ගෙන හිටපු මුදල් ඇමැති රවී කරුණානායක මහතාට දුන්නේ යැයි කියන ‘මොනෑක්’ නිවාස සංකීර්ණයේ හිමිකාරිය වු අනිකා විජේසුරිය මහත්මියට රවී කරුණානායක මහතාගේ සමීප ඥාතියකු බව කියන පුද්ගලයකුගෙන් එල්ල වු බව කියන ජීවිත තර්ජන පිළිබඳ පරීක්‍ෂණ  රහස් පොලිසියෙන් ඉවත් කරන්නැයි පොලිස්පතිවරයාට දේශපාලන බලපෑම් එල්ල වී ඇතැයි වාර්තා වේ.
අනිකා විජේසුරිය මහත්මියට සහ ඇගේ ඥාතීන්ට එල්ල වු බව කියන තර්ජන හේතුවෙන් බැඳුම්කර කොමිසම කළ නියෝග මත පොලිස්පතිවරයා විසින් අනිකා විජේසුරිය මහත්මියගේ සහ ඥාතීන්ගේ ආරක්‍ෂාව වෙනුවෙන් මීට පෙර අවස්ථාවක විශේෂ පොලිස්  ආරක්‍ෂාවක් ද ලබාදී තිබිණි.
මෙම තර්ජන වලින් පසු ජීවිත ආරක්‍ෂාව පතා විදේශ රටකට ගොස් ඇතැයි කියන ඇය එහි සිට තමන්ට එල්ල වු ජීවීත තර්ජන පිළිබඳව විද්‍යුත් පණිවිඩයක් මඟින් රහස් පොලිසියට පැමිණිල්ලක්ද ඉදිරිපත් කොට ඇත.
මෙම අපරාධය සම්බන්ධයෙන් පරීක්‍ෂණයක් පවත්වා වාර්තා කරන ලෙස දැනුම් දෙමින් පොලිස්පතිවරයා මෙම පැමිණිල්ල අපරාධ පරීක්‍ෂණ දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට නියම කොට ඇති අතර ඒ අනුව රහස් පොලිසිය මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් පරීක්‍ෂණ ආරම්භ කළ පසු මෙම පරීක්‍ෂණ කටයුතු රහස් පොලිසියෙන් ඉවත් කරන ලෙස පොලිස්පතිවරයාට බලපෑම් එල්ල වී ඇතැයි වාර්තා වේ.

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) today said the interim report compiled by the Constitutional Steering Committee was the ‘foetus’ of a future ‘devil child.’

PHU Leader MP Udaya Gammanpila said the government bigwigs continue to say that the opposition MPs had been scared for no reason and that not even a draft constitution had been prepared so far.

Though the government has forgotten, we remember the content of the proposal approved on March 9, 2016 which was about a new Constitution. If the interim report was approved, a draft constitution will be presented in Parliament. If Parliament gives it the two third majority, it will be subjected to a referendum,” he said.

He said, similar to how medical doctors could determine the state of an illness with the help of a scan, legislators can determine whether the steering committee report was good or bad.

The MP questioned as to why a steering committee headed by the Prime Minister was appointed if the committee report had no value.

Why was the committee convened on 73 occasions wasting public funds?,” he asked.

Referring to the Maha Sangha’s opposition for a new Constitution, he said the government should consider the opinions of the Maha Sangha.

He also said that if a referendum was held with regard to a new Constitution, the people in the North will opt for a federal state. If a federalist constitution was given approval, it will lead to a division of the country, and if defeated will lead to a foreign intervention,” he said. ()

By Gandara John

1939, British soldiers desperately defending Dunkirk, with friendly French forces on their flank, were terrified beyond description when the Germans launched a major assault on their lines; the faint-hearted British soldiers fled the battlefield and France in total disarray leaving in the lurch their French comrades who alas, now ergo utterly vulnerable, continued to defend the line bravely till the very end.

In a scandalous display of cowardice, contrary to the many fables spun in song and story, the British soldiers infamously abandoned their French comrades and the armaments that had been inducted into France in support of the British Army deployed therein.

It was in this background that the British rodomont famously bragged to the world about ‘fighting on the beaches and never surrendering’.

Came 1941, the garrulous British Lip, unable to match his walk with his talk and unnerved at the thought of a German invasion of Britain, furtively slipped away from the country to secretly rendezvous with Roosevelt on the seas of the Atlantic.

Churchill begged of Roosevelt to enter World War 2, to save Britain.

Roosevelt consented, but on condition; he insisted that Britain grants independence to all its Colonies.

On 14 August 1941 the British ‘Bulldog’, rolled over and exposed underbelly to Roosevelt; he agreed to wrap up the British Empire, on the successful completion of the war.

This was the essence of the ‘Atlantic Charter’ agreed upon by Churchill and Roosevelt and by other allied European powers of the time.

If any leader in a Third World Country were to claim credit for winning his country’s independence from the British, not only would he be deceiving himself and his people but he would alas be attempting to cheat history too.

It came as no surprise to many when historians and journalists presented copious evidence that cash strapped Churchill benefited financially in plunging a knife into the heart of the British Empire.

The dubious ancestry of the Churchills suggests that they were creatures of the Merchant Class and that their conduct was laced with greed. The ‘Bulldog’, egged on by his genes, seemingly acted according to his instincts.

Churchill perhaps was inspired by his not–so-great Grand ancestor who in 1688, demanded and received a substantial bribe for his treacherous role in deposing the English King and helping  install in his place on the British throne, a sundry marionette-prince from Holland (William de Orange), a favourite of the Merchant Class of Europe.

The one time lowly page in the House of Stuarts was bestowed with an Earldom and that unworthy was conferred the Title, ‘Duke of Marlborough’ by William de Orange.

With the Title also came the associated land and pecuniary benefits.

The British Empire that folded so tamely with Churchill’s betrayal was a classic model of an autocratic ‘Direct-Rule’ Empire.

The pattern of British colonialism is all too familiar to many in the Third World. The targeted country would be invaded by armed mercenaries from Britain who would then proceed to abuse that country and her people; these mercenaries had been given a commission by the British monarch to commit atrocities if needed to subdue the native people.

These mercenaries of the monarch thereafter annexed the violated territory to the British Empire.

Democracy was an obscene word in the British Empire especially to its monarch, its polity and its evangelical and administrative representatives.

Every country that was colonised was ruled according to the whims and fancies of some British monarch who demanded from the British public at all times, an ostentatious display of servility; this, despite the British people having to bear the gigantic cost of a parasitical ‘royal’ existence.

The British laid down the law; the native inhabitants who had been subdued and abused were compelled to unquestioningly comply with those laws, even though they may have been harsh, unreasonable and not in the interest of the colonised country and her people.

If these British laws were challenged by the inhabitants, as some times they were, the case would ultimately be determined by British judges; to these judges the interest of the Empire outweighed all other interests.

To crack down on people dissenting against these harsh laws, Human Rights violations and unfair governance, the British maintained a permanent armed presence, within the territories of each colony, which they had no qualms in unleashing..

The British Empire fed, nurtured and fattened itself on its customary menu of plunder, piracy, narcotics, slavery and indentured labour. This was the storyline of the ‘successful’ British Empire.

When the Colonies were granted Independence at the end of World War 2, as agreed upon by Britain and the US in their Atlantic Charter Agreement, the people of those Colonies were overjoyed at the prospect of getting rid of an accursed centuries-old yoke.

Were the people of the Third World aware that, with the curtain coming down on one Empire, another was beginning to rise portending the arrival of a new Empire to which the Third World was being artfully and blissfully lured?

Did the Third World realise that preparations were afoot to get them to jump from the frying pan into the fire? Evidence suggests that Churchill more than assisted the US in setting up its Empire when he unmoored the British Empire and not too subtly, nudged the British colonies towards the net of the nascent US Empire.

The people of the Third World were at the time inebriated with the thought of drinking the wine of Democracy and their perceptions on Colonisation were limited to ‘Direct-Rule’ Colonisation.

The type of colonisation that the US was ushering in was a more insidious and dangerous type of colonisation.

It is very unlikely that many in the Third World of that time had heard of ‘Hegemonic’ Colonisation where the broad technique of Colonising is different to the technique used in ‘Direct-Rule colonisation.

Between 1941 and 1950 the US built the seven pillars that would support and sustain the Corporate-Banker Empire; these seven pillars would define the nature of that Neo-Liberal Empire.

While 14 August 1941 saw the beginning of the end of the British Empire this date also marked the birth of the US ‘Corporate-Banker’ Empire.

Next/ The seven pillars of the US Corporate Empire

Gandara John is a freelance writer. 

E mail: gandarajohn@outlook.com

By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

The NGO Vulture Viyangoda further states that they do not encourage partisan politics or allow race or ethnicity based divisions and adds that ethnic identities are completely outdated and irrational divisions for a modern, progressive and forward looking Sri Lanka.

The main demand of this accidentally born Sinhala and Foreign and Tamil slavish Viyangoda was that Sri Lanka should be made a Secular State despite 75% of the population being Sinhala and out of this percentage 72% being Buddhists.  The prominence being given to the main religion in other countries nullify his argument.  For instance in the United States 70% of its population is Catholics and the President as a tradition takes oaths by placing his hands on the Bible and swearing his allegiance to the admonishes given in the Bible.  This practice is followed in almost all the European countries.  Islam is the state religion of Malaysia despite the Muslim population amounts to only 56% in that country. It is same in all other country where majority of the population is Muslims.

In his latest diatribe against the former President Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse this NGO vulture Viyangoda in his latest article dated 22^nd October 22^nd to Vikalpa.org attempts to mislead the masses with concocted lies saying that Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa accepted the ‘interim report’ of the new constitution and also accepted that there was a mandate for abolishing the Executive Presidential system.  This NGO Vultur says at the 8^th January, 2015 Presidential election the 6.2 Million voters exercised their franchise in favour of Maithripala Sirisena to abolish the presidential system and 5.8 Million voters exercised their franchise in favoir of Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa under the condition of abolishing the Presidential system.  Accordingly he says that as 12 Million voters acknowledge the need for abolishing the presidential system he asks what Sirisena needs further to abolish the Presidental system.  Throughout this article this NGO Vulture plays with words to confuse the people about the statement issued by Mr. Mahinda on the Steering Committee Interim Report which he wanted the government to abandon completely.  This shows that these NGO vultures are determined to confuse the masses, utter spiteful lies and get the constitution proposals adopted by whatever means.

Sunanda Deshapriya whose photograph is shown is an accidentally born Sinhala foreign and Tamil slavish NGO vulture, self exiled to Switzerland allegedly due to JVP death threats for his involvement in PRRA death squad activities with Rajitha Senratne and now enjoying a foreign funded luxurious life in that country. In the pretext of being a Socialist he has carried out intensive treacherous activities against Sri Lanka. He presented reports and gave evidence against Sri Lanka in almost all UNHRC sessions held against Sri Lanka projecting Sri Lanka barbarous inhuman State represented by a ruthless army.

Writing to Vikalpa website on the proposed new Constitution this treacherous NGO vulture said that the proposed constitution has now become a great expectation of the democratic political and progressive forces. He said that these forces expect that the new constitution would provide permanent solutions to the ethnic problem that remains unsolved for more than half a century and it would also provide a decisive impact for the future of this country.   He says that it was with this trust that all minority parties – TPA, TNA, SLMC, ACMC, EPDP, and CWC voted for the last budget supporting the government.

He points out that all Sinhala political leaders since gaining independence from the British have breached all promises given to the Tamil community.  If the trust that had been reposed on Maithri-Ranil government by the TNA gets breached, the TNA would fall into a deep abyss and that void will be filled by the Vigneswaran politics.

This NGO vulture states that it is happy to note that it seems President Sirisena is committed and determined to provide a reasonable political solution to the ethnic question and Ranil Wickremasinghe has indicated his commitment and determination to devolve powers.

He points out that Rajapaksa forces have already indicated that they will not allow the government to get a two third majority in the Parliament for the constitution and warns if that happens chauvinism will reign and adds that it is the policy of both Mahinda and Gotabhaya to project any solution that would provide justifiable solutions to the Tamils as conspiracies against the Sinhalese.

He commends the government steps to provide additional perks and privileges to Parliamentarians and says that these measures would help to keep the MPs loyal to the government. He also cautions that if this constitutional attempt fails the 2015 revolution would collapse and the country would plunge into chaos.

Readers can get more information on the treachery of this dollar voracious NGO vulture by reading many anti-Sri Lankan articles written by him in

http://groundviews.org/author/sunanda-deshapriya

https://www.slguardian.org/category/clms/columnists/sunandadeshapriya/page

http://www.vikalpa.org/?author=1004

The Janatha Vikurthi Peramuna (JVP) which even at its best showing got only 5% or thereabouts of the total votes whereas there were more votes spoiled than the amount it secured and the non-voters also outnumbered the JVP vote has become another gang of treacherous hooligans similar to the NGO ruffians to support the proposed constitution.

The present JVP hooligans who have become bourgeois class representing the richest political party in Sri Lanka and alleged by Mr. Somawansa Amarasinghe that the leaders of this party received several millions of rupees to extend their support to reactionary elements has completely distanced from and gone against ideals of JVP’s founder Rohana Wijeweera, and betrayed the hundred thousands of Southern youth who sacrificed their prime youth to uphold the JVP visions.

In order to fully solve the national question in Sri Lanka, to defeat the Tamil Eelam attempt, and to continue the maintenance of Sri Lanka as a multinational Unitary State, Rohana Wijeweera wrote his book Solutions to Tamil Eelam Struggle in 1985, and the JVP vehemently opposed any move by the government to grant a certain degree of self-rule to the Tamils in the North and East.

Rohana Wijeweera in this book accuses Tamil separatists of being motivated by the “Chola ambitions” of the DMK, and aspiring to create a Tamil empire based in Tamil Nadu and the Northern region of Sri Lanka. He alleged that the reason why the LTTE had adopted the tiger symbol was to resuscitate the symbolism of the Cholan empire, which also used the tiger symbol. Even the name Eelam he traced back to the Eela Mandalam of the 10th and 11th centuries, when the northern region of Sri Lanka was governed as the ninth province of the Cholan Empire.

Wijeweera exposed the Annadurai, Karunanidhi and Ramachandran plan to create a Dravida Nadu for the Dravidas, India for the Aryans and another India (Pakistan) for the Muslims. He said the Dravida Nadu was to be linked with Kerala, Andhra and Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Eelam. Wijeweera stated that this was based on the demand of the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie. Regarding the history of India and Sri Lanka, he stated that the Dravidas of the kingdoms of the Chola, Pandya, Chera, Pallawa and Vijayanagar had invaded Sri Lanka from the fourth century onwards, and when their kingdoms had fallen, they had settled in the island. Wijeweera also drew a parallel between the fact the symbol of the armies of Raja Raja Cholan and his son Rajendra was the Tiger, and that is also the symbol of the separatist ‘Tamil terrorists’. Wijeweera predicted in 1985 that Polonnaruwa could not be made capital of these ‘separatist terrorists’, but Trincomalee will be made the capital of Eelam. He also said that the separatists would chase away the Sinhalese from Padaviya and Kantalae areas, as they were within the confines of the ‘Tamil Eelam’. Recent statements made and actions taken by the treacherous JVP hooligans completely contradict the views expressed by Wijeweera whose death they commemorate annually for political expediency and to mislead the village masses.

Body of victim killed by the JVP, burnt in a tyre to prevent identification.April 1989. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Reports published on 23^rd April, 2017 said that For the first time in the history of Sri Lanka a leader of the Tamil National Alliance had come to the Head Office of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and has held discussions with the JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake.  Although this discussion was not open to media, Mr. Sambandan said that they discussed in length about the current political situation in the country. JVP Parliamentarian Vijitha Herath said that both parties agreed at this meeting on the necessity of a new constitution for the country. Report also said that they agreed a new constitution is essential and the JVP entered into a secret agreement with Sambandan.

Addressing a media conference in Jaffna, the General Secretary of the JVP Tilvin Silve (popularly known as Tin Tin Silva) in the first week of October said that the new constitution is an excellent one and their party is committed and determined to support it fully.  He said it is foolish to debate on mere words such as unitary and federal.

Responding to a challenge made by MP Wimal Weerawansa calling the JVP leader AnuraKumara Dissanatake for a debate one the proposed constitution the JVP MP Vijita Herath debased Mr. Weerawansa and rejected the challenge saying that his party leader has nothing to debate with him and said that they fully support the proposed Constitution.  Addressinhg a media conference in their party headquarters he said that their party leader has refrained from participating in public since a long time but addresses their party meetings and speaks in Parliament.

The newspaper Ceylon Today reported on 23^rd July 2017 that both 1978 and 1972 Constitutions were not passed through a referendum and the new Constitution is drafted, based on the 1978 Constitution. The Island editorial on 20^th June 2017 said that JVP leader got the post of the Chief Opposition Whip for services rendered to the yahapalana camp by the JVP. A report published by Daily Mirror on 1^st November 2016 claimed that the JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that vicious forces are preventing the enacting of the new constitution which is more suitable for the country.

Reports said that these double tongued JVP leadership recently urged Ranil Wickremasinghe to bring in soon the federal constitution of Ranil-Sumanthiran-Chandrika saying that the mandate for this purpose has been given by the people, and the JVP Parliamentarian Nalin de Jayatissa said that it is only an irrational fear that is being created in the hearts of people by Rajapaksa clan.  The JVP polit-bureau member Bimal Ratnayake said that the statement of Mahnaayakes on the proposed Constitution does not need to be taken seriously and they completely disrespected the traditions that existed in this country and downgraded the sanctity of the Maha Sangha.

The JVP  leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, said in  a TV  prohramme that it was with mutual understanding that Mr. Sambandan accepted the post of the leader of opposition and he accepted the post of the chief whip. Responding `to a question as to whether people’s representation is properly reflected in the opposition, avoiding the question he said that there is not much difference between his party and the TNA.

Meanwhile, Mr. Wimal Weerawansa has said that the founder of the JVP Rohanaweera advocated that it is n unconditional responsibility to fight for the Unitary Status of the country and pointed out the imminent dangers that cause to the country by Federalism.  He sid that if the JVP leaders have an iota of respect to Wijeweera’s policies it is they who should take the lead to counter the proposed constitution.  He made these comments at a function hekd in front of the Fort Railway Station to distribute one million handbills against the proposed constitution.

Another despicable NGO vulture singing fo the Tamil separatists is Jehan Perer of the NGO outfit called National Peace Council (NPC),funded by successive Norwegian governments, and the recipient of substantial funding from other foreign ‘sources.’ Throughout the war period this NGO vulture carrued out anti Sri Lana activities during UNHRC sessions n Geneva, This scoundrel accompanied the Sri Lankan delegation to the Geneva Human Rights Council sessions, in March 2017and backed Sri Lanka’s request for an additional two-year period to implement Resolution 30/1. He usually writes a weekly article to Island newspaper on uesdays and in this week’s article he says that the strident opposition to the government’s constitutional reform process highlights the regrettable fact that the country’s ethnic divide continues to be serious and thee opponents of the constitutional reform process have used the Steering Committee report to convince the Buddhist religious leadership that there is both a threat to the country’s national unity and to the foremost place of Buddhism within the polity. This Vulture says that based on this vituperative propaganda the leading Buddhist clergy have taken the position that the proposed Constitution is not suitable as it leads to division of power, including the assigning of powers to the Provincial Councils.

Jehan Perera is also an accidentally born Sinhalese and all his weekly writings focus on Northern Tamil viewpoints and urging the government to grant more and moe concessions to the Tamils andfacilitate self ruling for them.

(To be continued).

Dilrook Kannangara

There are two informal types of devolution in the world – devolution of power to the periphery without regard to ethnicity, and, racist devolution. In racist devolution, power is devolved to states/republics/units/regions based on race or ethnicity and decisions are taken by wholly or mostly mono-ethnic provincial Cabinets. There are not many living examples of racist devolution for obvious reasons! India is the only surviving nation with racist devolution. Successful power devolution (e.g. Australia, USA, Canada) devolve power to multi-ethnic governing Councils.

What is proposed for Sri Lanka is not the ordinary devolution as found in Australia, USA, etc. but racist devolution found in the relics of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and India.

Racist devolution is inherently divisive, unstable and tribal. It may work for a collection of a few existing nations to come together temporarily but doesn’t work for others. It is against reconciliation, co-existence and harmony. Even if one supports devolution, he/she must not support racist devolution as proposed for Sri Lanka.

NPC Has Always Veered into Ultra Tamil Racism

Northern Provincial Council and its key members have always veered into ultra Tamil racism. In 1988, India handpicked the members of the Northern and Eastern Provincial Council members from the north from the EPRLF. Eastern councillors were elected. However, within less than two years, the Council veered into ultra Tamil racism and ended when it had to be dissolved for declaring unilateral independence.

Recently elected NPC has already shown signs of Tamil ultra racism. Even TNA regulars find it disturbing! NPC Chief Minister demeans Sinhalese, insults Sinhala history and regularly makes statements that are not conducive to ethnic harmony. Sinhala villagers in Vavuniya have been totally neglected. Displaced Sinhalese from the north in 1977 and displaced Muslims from the north in 1990 are not allowed to be resettled.

NPC Cabinet is essentially Tamil-only and belongs to parties with Tamil” only slogans, members and names. A definite failure of reconciliation. If this mechanism continues, there will be conflict. This has happened because the Northern Provincial area is almost entirely Tamil-only and its politics has always been dominated by tribal politics. A province that has a mix of all ethnic groups will not end up like this. For instance, a state in a peaceful nation (USA, Canada or Australia) has a mix of many ethnic groups where politicians must rely on all to win. They cannot afford to be racist.

India Barely Survives as the Only Living Racist Devolution Example

After its close allies Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia demised along ethnic boundaries (and continue to disintegrate along ethnic lines in Ukraine, Georgia, Chechnya, Bosnia, Serbia, Armenia, etc.), India is the only surviving country with racist devolution. However, there are regular and persistent attacks and persecution of minorities in India. A former Chief Minister was complicit in large scale riots in a state, Muslims in Kashmir and most states are variously attacked and killed, churches are burnt almost every month and low-caste” people are denied fundamental rights. If Sri Lanka continues with 13A or worse, adopts the proposed new constitution, these things will happen in Sri Lanka as well. What happened to a train in Gujarat in 2001 will happen to Yal Devi, what happened in Ayodya will happen in Lanka, disputes over river water in South India will take place in the north and east and disputes of places of religious worship will worsen.

Is this what we want?

Even India Regrets Ethnicity Based Devolution Now!

India appointed the Sarkaria Commission in 1983 to look into centre-state relations. The following are excerpts from the Commission’s report.

If a particular community, religious or linguistic group claims one region of its country as its homeland, it generates antagonism of other communities or groups both within that region and elsewhere; for the very idea of ‘homeland within a country implies a pernicious discrimination between the so called original inhabitants, or ‘sons of the soil’ and so called ‘immigrants’ or ‘outsiders’ from other States. Practice and promotion of such unhealthy ideas eventually lead to the creation of two or more classes of citizens all over the country” (page 16, section 1.4.25).

Among the more pernicious of these motivations (for political power) can be recognized the role of vested interests in converting legitimate aspirations into strident discord and dissent by clever manipulation and encouragement of psychological alienation. The use of the sub-national plank for building of leadership which  commands attention at the national level is another strong motivation which is responsible for throwing up the most vociferous leaders. It is from these origins that the more extreme forms of dissent and revolt against the existing order emerge in the form of extremist and terrorist action” (page 16, section 1.4.27).

–          Sarkaria Commission Report

http://lawmin.nic.in/ncrwc/finalreport/v2b2-4.htm

This is the dangerous fate that awaits Sri Lanka too. However, Sri Lanka doesn’t have the safeguards India has.

A Better Devolution Model (Australia, USA, Canada) If Devolution is Needed

If Sri Lanka’s power devolution units can be broadened to have a sufficient ethnic mix, then the harmonious and prosperous Australian, US or Canadian devolution model can be implemented. This is real devolution that unites people. There is no room for mono-ethnic enclaves and parties. People of different ethnic groups work together.

This is not what 13A created and not what is proposed in the new constitution.

Those who support devolution but oppose racism must demand a devolution model as in Australia, USA or Canada where there are no mono-ethnic enclaves. Otherwise, devolutionists in Sri Lanka are racists in disguise.

Say no to racist devolution proposed for Sri Lanka. All nations that followed it (except one,) can be found only in museums and history books following bloodbaths. Sri Lanka cannot afford to have another conflict. Devolution units must be defined to have a sufficient ethnic mix for them to be harmonious and peaceful.

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්   

එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ නායක රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා ව්‍යවස්ථා සම්පාදක මන්ඩලයේ මෙහෙයුම් කමිටු වල අදහස් ඇතුලත් සංක්ෂිප්ත අතුරු වාර්තාවක්  පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇත. එම වාර්තාවට අමතර වශයෙන් ශ්‍රීලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය හෙළ උරුමය දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානය ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය ඇතුළු පක්ෂ කීපයකම අදහස් ද ඊට අමුණා තිබේ.එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ අදහස් මෙම ඇමුණුමට ඇතුලත් කර නොමැති බැවින් අතුරු වාර්තාව මගින් පිළිබිඹු වන යෝජනා එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ යෝජනා බව අපට පිළිගන්නට සිදුව තිබේ.ඒ අනුව බලන විට නව ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් සකස් කිරීම පිණිස උපයෝගී වන අවසාන වාර්තාවක් එළි දක්වා නොමැත. ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතාද දීපවාලී උත්සව කතාවේදී පවසා තිබෙන්නේ තවමත් ව්‍යවස්ථා කෙටුම් පතක් පිළිබඳ අවසන් නිගමනයකට එළඹ නොමැති බවයි. නමුත් අගමැති වරයා ඉහතකී අතුරු වාර්තාව මෙම මස අවසානයේ දී පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තුළ විවාදයකට බඳුන් කිරීමට අදහස් කර තිබෙන බව ප්‍රකාශ කර ඇත.

    අගමැතිවරයාගේ අතුරු වාර්තාවෙහි අන්තර්ගතය සලකා බලන විට එම යෝජනා සියල්ලේ ඉලක්කය වන්නේ දෙමළ බෙදුම්වාදීන් වන දෙමළ ජාතික සන්ධානයට අවශ්‍ය වන උපරිම බලය බෙදා හැරීමක් ඇත කළ හැකි යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත්  කිරීමයි.උපරිම බලය බෙදීම යන්නෙන් අපට පැහැදිලිව ගම්‍යා වන්නේ 1987 දී ජේ.ආර්. ජයවර්ධන මහතා විසින් ගෙනා 13 වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යස්ථා යෝජනා තුළ තිබෙන නමුත් දැනට ක්‍රියාත්මක නොමැති පොලිස් හා ඉඩම් බලතල ඇතුළු පළාතකට අවශ්‍ය සවයං පාලන බලතල ලබා දීමට සූදානම් අවන ආකාරයයි.නිදසුනක් වශයෙන් ගතහොත් වර්තමාන ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ පස් වන වගන්තියේහි දැක්වෙන දිස්ත්‍රික්ක විසිහතර සහ දේශසීමා වෙනුවට පළාත් වල දේශ සීමා යන්න අන්තරුගත කිරීම දැක්විය හැකිය.විසිවන සංශෝධනය මගින් පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණය ජාතික මැතිවරණයක් ලෙසට අසම්මත ලෙසට සම්මත කරගන්නේ ඉදිරියේදී ස්ථාපිත කළ යුතු(උතුරුනැගෙනහිර) පළාතට අනන්‍යතාවයක් ලබා දීමටයි.එවැනි පළාතක් ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන් බහි වුණහොත් එම පළාත තුළ වසන ජනතාවගේ කැමැත්ත ( පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණයකින් ) විමසා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙන් වෙන් විය හැකි ප්‍රතිපාදන සකස් කර ගත හැකිය.

       නමුත් ජනාධිපතිවරයා නායකත්වය සපයන ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පකෂය සිය යෝජනා මගින් දක්වන්නේ එවැනි බලතල බෙදීමකට ඔවුහු එකඟ නොවන බවයි.ඔවුහු වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ 1 සිට නව වන ව්‍යවස්ථාව දක්වා කිසිම සංශෝධනයක්( ජාතික ගීය ඇරුණු කොට) අපේක්ෂා නොකරති.එයින් කියැවෙන්නේ13 වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමේදී ජේ.ආර්. විසින් පැනවූ සීමා කිරීම් එලෙසම පවත්වාගෙන යායුතු බවයි. නමුත් ඔවුහු එම අන්තයේ සිට නැවතත් එ.ජා.ප. අතුරු වාර්තාවට එකඟ වෙමින් පළාත යන්න බලය බෙදා හැරීමේ ඒකකය ලෙස පිළිගනී. එලෙසම ඉඩම් හා පොලිස් බලතල සම්බන්ධයෙන් පළාතකට සැලැස්වෙන බලතල ගැන ලිහිල් අදහස් පල කරමින් එකඟ වෙමින් ලියා දක්වා ඇත.කෙසේ වෙතත් ඔවුහු සමස්ත වශයෙන් 13 වන ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාව තුළ පමණක් කටයුතු කළ යුතු බවට අදහස් ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබේ.

        රජයේ පාර්ශව කරුවෙකු වන ජාතික හෙළ උරුමයද එම මගම ගනිමින් සිය අදහස් දක්වා තිබ්.ඔවුහු ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයට වඩා ස්වාධින ව අදහස් පළ කරමින් සිය නිරීක්ෂණ ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබෙන්නේ යූඑන්පී වාර්තාව පොඩි පට්ටම් කරමිනි. අනුපූරකතාවය පිළිබඳ අදහස් පළ කිරීමේ දී වාර්තාවේ පැණ නගින කරුණුත්  සැබෑ අනුපූරකතාවය අතරත් පරස්පරයක් ඇති බවට දක්වා තිබෙන අදහසින් ඒ පිළිබඳ ගම්‍යා වේ.මේ තත්ත්වය මෙසේ වුවද පසුගිය සැතැම්බර් 20 දින පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලද විසිවන සංශෝධන පණත තුළින් කාන්තා නියෝජනය සහතික කරන අතර තුර වත්මන් ව්‍යස්ථාවේ 4වන වගන්තිය සංශෝධනය කරලීමට ඔවුහු එකඟතාවය පළ කර තිබේ.එනම් පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණය ජාතික මැතිවරනයක් දක්වා ඔසවා තැබීමට කරන ලද අතිරේක සංශෝධනයයි.එයින් ගම්‍ය වනුයේ ශ්‍රීලංකා නිදහස් පකෂයද නොමග යවමින් අගමැතිවරයා විසින් සිය මතයට ඔවුන් නම්මවා ගෙන ඇති ආකාරයයි. පාඨලී චම්පික රණවක අමාත්‍ය වරයාද සිය නිරීකණ මගින් ස්වාධිනව අදහස පළ කර ඇති නමුදු ඔහුද අගමැතිවරයාගේ උගුලේ පැටලී විස්සට ඡන්දය භාවිතා කොට තිබේ.

       ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් අනවශ්‍ය බව පවසන පිරිස ඊට විකල්ප ඉදිරිපත් කළ යුතු බව ජනාධිපතිවරයා පවසයි. විකල්ප ඉදිරිපත් කරලීමට නම් ප්‍රශ්ණයක් තිබිය යුතුය. මෙරට දෙමළ ජනතාවට අනන්‍ය වූ වෙනමම ප්‍රශ්ණ නැති බව තර්කානුකූල ලෙස ඔප්පු කර අවසන්ය.සාමාන්‍ය දෙමළ ජනතාවටඅවශ්‍ය වන්නේ රටේ අනෙක් මිනිසුන් මෙන් දිවි ගෙවන්නටයි. නමුත් විදෙස් මුදල් වලින් යැපෙන රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන සහ දෙමළ දේශපාලනඥයන් ඊට ඉඩ නොතබති. උතුර සහ නැගෙනහිර ඒකාබද්ධ කොට වෙනම කලාපයක් නිර්මාණය කොට ඒ සඳහා ස්වයං පරිපාලන බලතල ස්ථාපිත කර ගැනීම මේ අන්තවාදී පිරිසගේ අභිලාශයයි. එලෙස වෙනම කලාපයක් දෙන්නට තරම් ඔවුනට තිබෙන අයිතිය කුමක්දැයි සෘජුව ඇසුවහොත් කිසිවකුට දෙන්නට පිළිතුරක් නැත. දෙමළ නිජබිම් සංකල්පය නමැති ව්‍යාජ ඉතිහාසයක් පෙන්වා විදෙස් බලවතුන් මුලා කිරීමෙන් හෝ වසර තිහක් තිස්සේ කොටුව සිටි සාමාන්‍ය මිනිසුන් ඇන්දවීමෙන් පලක් නැත. ප්‍රශ්නය වන්නේ දකුණේ ජීවත් ව සිංහල දේශපාලනඥයන් බහුතරයක්ද මෙම මිථ්‍යා මතවල එල්බ ගෙන සිටීමයි. පසුගියදා වවුනියාවේ සංචාරයක නියුතු අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාද ප්‍රකාශ කර තිබුණේ වවුනියාව ඇතුළු උතුර දෙමළ රජවරුන්ද පාලනය කොට ඇති බවයි.නමුත් ඒ කුමන දෙමළ රජු දැයි පෙන්වා දෙන්නට ඔහු අසමත්ය.ජනාධිපතිවරයා ප්‍රශ්නයට විසඳුමක් සෙන්නට යැයි කියන්නේ ඔහුද මේ මිථ්‍යාවේ පැටලී  සිටින බැවිනි.

          කෙසේ වෙතත් ශ්‍රීලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය රටේ ඒකීය බවට හෝ බුද්ධාගමට තිබෙන තැන අහිමි කරලීමට අකමැතිය.ඔවුහු  බලය බෙදීමේ ඒකකය ලෙස පළාත පිළිගන්නේ  රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාගේ වැරදි මග පෙන්වීම මධ්‍යයේ බව පැහැදිලිය. ඒ නිසා කළ යුතු වන්නේ සියළුම දේශපාලන පක්ෂ වල නිරීක්ෂණ අනුව අවසන් අතුරු වාර්තාවක් ඇති කරලීමයි. ඒ සඳහා නැවත මෙහෙයුම් කමිටුව රැස්වී තීරණය ගත යුතුය. එසේ නැතහොත් දැනට තිබෙන වාර්තාව පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තුළ විවාදයට ගැනීම  යනු අනෙක් පක්ෂ වල මතය නොසලකා හැරීමකි.මේ පිළිබඳව ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ නිමල් සිරිපාල ඇමතිවරයා මෙන්ම පාඨලී චම්පිත ඇමතිවරයාද අගමැතිවරයා ගෙන් සෘජුව ප්‍රශ්ණ කළ යුතුය.සැප්තැම්බර් 30 වනදා කිරීමට යෝජිත විවාදය සදාචාරවත් නොවන බව පෙන්වා දිය යුතුය.ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය නියෝජනය කරන දිනේශ් ගුණවර්ධන මහතාගෙන්ද අපි එවැනි ප්‍රකාශයක් බලාපොරොත්තු වෙමු.      කොහොමටත් නව ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් අවශ්‍ය යයි ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය මැතිවරණ පොරොන්දුවක් දී නොමැත. සියළුම පක්ෂ එකඟ වූ මතය නම් මැතිවරණ ක්‍රමය වෙනස් කරලීමයි. එය විකෘති ලෙසට වෙනස් කොට විසිවන සංශෝධනය නමින් පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණය ජාතික මැතිවරණයක් තැනට ඇද දමා ඇත්තේ එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ කපටි උපාය මගිනි. එම නිසා මහා නායක ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේලා ගේ මතයට එක්කෝ ගරු කළ යුතුය. මේ අවස්ථාවේ දී රටේ දුගීභාවය නැති කොට ණය බරින් නිදහස් කරලීමට කටයුතු කරනවා හැරෙන්නට පවතිනා රජයකට කළ හැකි විශේෂ දෙයක් නැත. යුද්ධය දැන් අහවරය. යුධ අපරාධ සොයා බැලීමෙන් වත් සත්‍ය සෙවීමෙන්වත් අබමල් රෙණුවක් තරමින් රටේ සංවර්ධනයට ඉදිරිගමනට ප්‍රයෝජනයක් නැත. මේ බැව් ජාතික ආණ්ඩු උගුලේ සිරවී සිටින ශ්‍රී ලංකා කාරයන් දැන ගත යුතුය.

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

Editorial Courtesy The Island

October 24, 2017, 12:00 pm
Recalling the yahapalana leaders’ much-touted, pre-election claim that they had the backing of some rich, powerful members of the international community, JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake has asked where those friends are today. He has said the government is now left without anyone to turn to for aid. He is deriving some perverse pleasure from the government’s plight though he himself is a beneficiary of yahaalanaya.

It is said that nothing is so freely given as advice. The yahapalana leaders have had to settle for a great deal of unsolicited advice from its powerful friends instead of financial assistance they are badly in need of. They expected foreign aid to pour in after the 2015 regime change. Else, they wouldn’t have promised a massive pay hike for the public sector. If only the yahapalana grandees had realised their big friends would not part with funds so easily.

The UNP-led UNF government (2001-2004) also found itself in a similar predicament. The Tokyo Co-Chairs (the US, Norway, Japan and the EU) of the then peace process made an aid pledge to the tune of USD 4.5 billion and tied its implementation to the progress to be made in peace talks with the LTTE. Funds never came and the UNF administration committed political suicide by compromising national security to appease the LTTE and causing unbearable economic difficulties to the public.

It is not only on the economic front that the yahapalana leaders have been let down by their powerful friends in the West. They have been left high and dry in Geneva as well. They may have thought their international friends would help them avoid the implementation of the UNHRC resolution which calls for the establishment of a hybrid war crimes tribunal. President Maithripala Sirisena went so far as to brag that he had saved his predecessor cum bête noire, Mahinda Rajapaksa, from the electric chair. But, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government is still under heavy UN pressure to commence a war crimes probe in line with its Geneva commitments.

UN Special Rapporteur on transitional justice, Pablo de Greiff, on Monday, told the government in no uncertain terms that it had to commence a war crimes probe. He also warned that the case filed in Brazil against former Sri Lankan Ambassador to that country General (retd.) Jagath Jayasuriya was only the tip of the iceberg. The government’s failure to launch a war crimes probe would lead to more such efforts being made internationally, he said. Greiff went to the extent of taking exception to President Maithripala Sirisena’s much-publicised assurance that he will not allow ‘war heroes’ to be prosecuted for alleged war crimes. It will be interesting to know the government’s reaction to Greiff’s criticism.

Greiff may be right in claiming that there is the possibility of more law suits against Sri Lanka’s former generals being filed overseas. However, that won’t be a problem for Sri Lankan military personnel alone. Generals of other countries, engaged in fighting terrorism, too, won’t be safe outside their countries at this rate. Anyone can file legal action against them on foreign soil.

The countries behind the Geneva resolution calling for a war crimes probe among other things have no friends in this country; they have only geo-political interests. They helped oust President Mahinda Rajapaksa because of his pro-China policy. They backed the present bunch of rulers not out of any love for the enemies of the Rajapaksas; they did so to further their interests. They may have thought that after the ouster of the Rajapaksas Sri Lanka would be free from Chinese influence, but it was a big miscalculation. The present regime has become more dependent on China than the Rajapaksa administration because it is desperate for funds! Much to its international allies’ chagrin, it has even leased out a strategically important port to China and allowed the Chinese-funded Port City project to continue. This is something the US and India never bargained for. Human rights being a weapon the Global North uses to control the developing world, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government is likely face a turn of the screw in Geneva as evident from Greiff’s call.

Initiating a war crimes probe is the last thing the yahapalana leaders want to undertake as they fear a disastrous political blowback. They are apparently labouring under the impression that they won’t have to fulfil that commitment if they can win over the Tamil political parties which are pushing for a war crimes investigation by devolving more powers through a new Constitution. But, their constitution-making project aimed at changing the unitary character of the state has run into stiff resistance. They are now caught between a rock and a hard place.

By Maheesha Mudugamuwa Courtesy The Island

October 24, 2017, 11:27 pm
A group of leading Buddhist monks yesterday vowed to take to the streets to defeat the government’s move to bring in a new constitution or to amend the existing one – a move which they alleged would pave the way for the division of the country.

Ven. Prof. Bellanwila Wimalaratana Nayaka Thera, addressing a press conference, at All Ceylon Buddhist Congress auditorium in Colombo said: “We do not think the government will be able to get a two-thirds majority in parliament to bring in a new constitution or to amend the existing one. Even if it is passed by Parliament it will have to be placed before people at a referendum. Then we will bring out all members of Maha Sangha to the streets to defeat it.”

Supporting the views of the Karaka Sangha Sabha, of the Malwatu and Asgiriya Chapters, Ven. Wimalaratana Thera said the Maha Sangha was firmly of the view that a new constitution was not the need of the hour.

“We stress that even amendments to the constitution at this point should be restricted the electoral system,” he said.

Referring to President’s and Prime Minister’s claim attempts were being made to mislead the public as regards the new constitution, Ven. Wimalaratana Thera asked the President and PM to clarify those allegations and prove if they were wrong.

He said a close examination of the proposals for a new constitution clearly revealed that there were some proposals that would not only jeopardise peaceful co-existence of the citizens of Sri Lanka but also help promote separatism.

Stressing that the alternative proposals in the main document camouflaged the real intention of the government and some terms had different and conflicting meanings Sinhala, Tamil and English, Ven. Wimalaratana Thera said that even though the proposals did not use the term federal directly, it had been subtly introduced by use of words that had different meanings in the three languages.

In Sinhala version the word “Ekiya” (unitary) is there but the English version had the term, ‘United’,” he noted.

Similarly, the special priority position accorded to Buddhism had been diluted by the introduction of alternative amendments to Article 9 of the Constitution, the thera stressed.

“We are not influenced by any political party and we don’t want to topple the government. What we want is to defeat the proposed Constitution and if people think that they want to amend the executive presidency and electoral process it can be done later. But, for now, the country does not need a new constitution or amendments for the existing constitution.”

According to Maha Sangha, the contentious proposals aim at diluting the powers of Parliament, taking away the powers vested in the President to monitor the Provincial Councils through the Governors appointed him, establishing a Constitutional Court that will usurp the existing powers of the Supreme Court to make rulings on constitutionality of legislation pertaining to key areas such as land matters, recognising the Northern and Eastern Provinces, abolishing the Concurrent List in the 13th Amendment so as to eliminate the powers of government to intervene in any provincial issues with national implications and doing away with the prevailing provisions for the Government or the parliament to formulate national policies in any subject area.

By K. Ratnayake World Socialist Web Site
24 October 2017

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe presented a constitutional assembly” steering committee report last month. Although he declared the aim of a new constitution was reconciliation and development,” the accompanying debate shows that every faction of the ruling elite is thoroughly steeped in divisive Sinhala communalism.

The report presented on September 21 will be debated for three days from October 30 to November 1, during which time the Sri Lankan parliament will meet as a constitutional assembly.

In March last year, the parliament decided to act as a constitutional assembly (CA) to prepare a new constitution. This is an anti-democratic body and not a genuine constitutional assembly directly elected by workers and poor.

The decision was backed by the ruling coalition led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and United National Party (UNP), as well as the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and a faction of SLFP MPs supporting former president Mahinda Rajapakse.

Wickremesinghe boasted the CA would present a consensus constitution” of all political parties for the first time since independence in 1948. However, the discussion has dragged on for more than a year and, after 60 sittings of the steering committee,” only an interim report has been produced.

During the 2015 presidential election, President Maithripala Sirisena promised democratic changes” to the constitution, including the abolition of the executive presidency and the strengthening of parliament to ensure good governance.” This phony campaign, backed by the JVP, TNA and various pseudo-left organisations, was a means of exploiting popular anger toward Sirisena’s rival, the incumbent President Rajapakse, and his attacks on democratic rights.

The ousting of Rajapakse was in reality a regime-change operation backed by the US and India. Washington was hostile to Rajapakse’s close relations with Beijing and wanted Sri Lanka to line up behind its military build-up in Asia against China.

Presenting the report to parliament, Wickremesinghe said the new constitution would ensure no divisions on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity or social background. It would provide equal distribution of the benefits of economic development … widen democracy and establish peace and stability.”

At the same time, the prime minister declared: Sri Lanka should be a unitary state.” He stated: We are a proud Buddhist nation. And the constitution is to be drafted on ‘Buddhist policies and principles.’”

Wickremesinghe noted the report replaced the words unitary state” with more suitable words and formulas such as Sri Lanka should be an undivided and indivisible country.” He said Buddhism would be given the foremost place while assuring to all religions their rights.”

These comments demonstrated the utter hypocrisy of Wickremesinghe’s claims that the constitution will ensure no racial or religious divisions and will establish equality and democracy. His remarks are nothing but a vow to maintain the supremacy of the island’s ethnic majority Sinhalese Buddhists.

Under the banner of defending the unitary state and the foremost place to Buddhism,” the Sinhalese ruling elite has systematically discriminated against the Tamil minority and exploited communalism to divide the working class. That resulted in the 30-year communal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which was defeated in May 2009.

Sirisena and Wickremesinghe have promised some minor concessions to the Tamil elite and its main party, the TNA, in order to strengthen bourgeois rule. The US and India, which are concerned about the risk of communal unrest, have advised the government to accommodate the TNA in a power-sharing arrangement.

The TNA earlier presented a proposal for a federal system, but later dropped it. TNA leader R. Sambandan praised the interim report, adding, we must not be hanging on to words like federalism.” However, the TNA is hoping that the 13th Amendment to the existing constitution will be implemented, devolving greater powers to the majority Tamil provinces of the north and east.

The interim report demonstrates that the ruling coalition is not agreed on how far to go in making concessions to the Tamil elite. The UNP is proposing to merge the northern and eastern provinces—a longstanding TNA demand. But the SLFP is opposed. It demands the removal of a clause in the present constitution to hold a referendum to merge the provinces.

Just one week after the interim report was announced, Sirisena spoke at a Buddhist ceremony. He declared that the report does not project a concept of federal state,” then added: I will never allow a constitution that will break up this unitary status.” He affirmed there would be no downgrading in the new constitution of any clause or paragraphs pertaining to Buddhism that are in the current constitution.”

Sirisena and Wickremesinghe campaigned to abolish the executive presidency but there is also no agreement between the ruling parties on this matter.

For all its claims to be establishing a new democratic constitution, the government is in fact preparing dictatorial rule and taking repressive measures against workers and the poor.

After nearly three years in office, the government has been discredited because of its implementation of savage, IMF-dictated austerity measures. Struggles have erupted in the plantations, power sector, petroleum industry, railways and universities, to mention a few. About 8,000 medical students have boycotted lectures for nine months, while other students are continuing to campaign against the privatisation of education.

The government depends on the betrayals of the trade unions, on one hand, and, on the other, the unleashing of the police and military to crush strikes and student protests. Fearing defeat, the ruling coalition has postponed local government and provincial council elections.

Along with these repressive measures, the government has integrated the country more closely into US war plans against China. Last week, the Sri Lankan armed forces held joint exercises sponsored by the US military in Trincomalee. Next month, US Deputy Secretary for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon will visit Colombo for a Partnership Dialogue” between the two countries.

The Rajapakse-led faction of the SLFP, with the backing of various chauvinist groups and Buddhist monks, has launched a virulent communal campaign. While participating in the CA, this faction is accusing the government of seeking to divide the country and create a federal system to satisfy the TNA.

In a statement on October 16, Rajapakse warned the government to stop its destructive measures.” He is seeking to exploit the growing opposition to the government and divert it into reactionary communal channels. He is openly campaigning to topple the government.

The struggle for genuine democratic rights is bound up with the fight against war and attacks on living conditions. In the struggle for a secular democratic state, every form of discrimination, including on a racial or religious basis, must be opposed. These tasks can be achieved only by the working class, supported by the oppressed masses, in the fight for socialism.

UkrAgroConsult

Sri Lanka has launched an open international tender to import a fresh tranche of rice– a first call in recent times to be issued to suppliers worldwide.

We are making every effort to ensure that there will be no shortages for our consumers,” said Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen.

Under the directions of the government’s Cost of Living Committee (CoLC) we announced on October 13 that we will import 500,000 MT of rice. The aim of CoLC is to support our consumers with lowest prices and give steady supplies,” he added.

The 500,000 MT announced previously on October 13 was mostly on government to government rice procurement basis.

However, the latest tender for 200, 000MT, which too is a part of this 500,000 MT tranche, enlists a far wider supplier base and is under the international competitive bidding procedure, meaning any qualifying foreign government or even a foreign private sector supplier is able to bid.

The breakdown of the 200,000 MT is: 90,000MT of parboiled nadu rice, 60,000MT of samba (parboiled) rice, and 50,000 MT of white raw rice. Sri Lankan rice importers too are eligible to take part in the latest bidding.

Of the 200,000 MT rice called for, Sri Lanka expect 100,000 MT to arrive in Colombo by end November 2017 and the other 100,000 MT to arrive by end of December 2017.

Chaturanga Pradeep Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The country will get stuck in a federal system if the new Constitution is implemented, Bellanwila Rajamaha Vihara Chief Incumbent the Ven. Prof. Bellanwila Wimalarathana Thera told a news briefing today.

He said the Government could surreptitiously enact the new Constitution which would harm the entire country.

The attempts to reveal the true nature of the situation that would prevail if the new Constitution was passed, are not indications of attempting to go against the Government,” the prelate said. It is an attempt to educate the public. Some elements say the Maha Sangha are creating a fear psychosis among the people to fulfil the aspirations of a third party, which is not true.”

The prelate said if the new Constitution was implemented the Provincial Councils would have the authority to take their own decisions, including changing the Poya holidays based on the majority population.

A Provincial Council may even change the national policy according to its needs,” he said and added that a close examination of the new constitutional proposals clearly revealed that some proposals were helpful for future peaceful co-existence of all citizens, but the rest were directly supportive of separatist objectives.

The proposals include the diluting of the powers of Parliament, taking away the powers vested in the Executive President to monitor the Provincial Councils through the Governors appointed by the President, to establish a constitutional court that will usurp the existing powers of the Supreme Court to make rulings on the constitutionality of legislation pertaining to key areas such as land matters, to recognise the Northern and Eastern Provinces as one unit through the Constitution itself, eliminate the powers vested with the Central Government to intervene in any provincial issues that have national implications by removing the concurrent list and remove the prevailing provisions for the Government or the Parliament to frame national policies on any subject,” the Thera said.

He said the alternate proposals contained in the main document hide the real intention with regard to certain key proposals by the use of words that gave different and conflicting meanings in the three versions of Sinhala, Tamil, and English.

The proposals do not use the term federal directly, it is subtly introduced by the use of words that have different meanings in the three languages. Similarly, the foremost status accorded to Buddhism has been diluted by the introduction of alternative amendments to Article 9 of the Constitution, which have surprised and grieved us immensely. The Maha Sangha are of the view that a new Constitution is not the need of the hour. We stress that even any amendment to the Constitution at this point should be restricted only to those pertaining to bring in amendments to the electoral system. We earnestly request President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Government to stop all attempts at introducing a new Constitution,” the prelate said. “We urge members of the Maha Sangha and all religious leaders of other faiths to come forward without further delay to educate the public and their elected representatives regarding this national crisis situation that is developing, so that all patriotic forces will unite and join hands to reject the proposals for a new constitution that is uncalled for at this juncture.” ()

By Rajiva Wijesinha Courtesy Ceylon Today

A little learning is a dangerous thing. It is also sad when limited intellect leads to high appointments on the grounds that there will be unthinking support of the appointing authority. This seems to be the case with the current Attorney General (AG), who seems in a couple of weeks, to have completely destroyed the reputation of his department which had been considerably enhanced by the brilliant cross examination at the Bond Commission by senior officers.

What seemed the silencing of the forceful Dappula de Livera, the absence for some time of the incisive Yasantha Kodagoda, suggested that the AG had decided to hold back – and so the leading lights of the UNP have been preserved.

Then the AG went further, in delivering a preposterous opinion regarding the appalling move to postpone elections through introducing amendments to a Bill that was for an entirely different purpose. The amendments were referred to Jayantha Jayasuriya by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya whose reduction to being a mere tool of chicanery is extremely sad. The latter’s behaviour in the last couple of years suggests that the excuses he proffered to me, when I tried to make him act on the Good Governance issues in the President’s manifesto, that his hands were tied because he was not trusted by his Leader, now seem rank hypocrisy.

It is strange that he felt a need to refer amendments to the Attorney General, since this is mandatory only for Bills. The reason doubtless was that he realized that this was in fact a new Bill, so he wanted to cover himself.

On cue the Attorney General responded with a farrago of nonsense, beginning with citing Erskine May to the effect that ‘As in other matters of order, the admissibility of an amendment can ultimately be decided only by the House itself, there being no authority which can in advance rule an amendment out of order…’

The Attorney General then advises that the amendments can be passed with a two thirds majority. He has evidently forgotten that, in Britain, Parliament is indeed supreme, for there is no written Constitution. So there is no other authority to be consulted with regard to matters that in effect change the provisions of the Constitution – in this case the provision that Provincial Council elections must be held immediately after the term of an existing Council ends.

It is also ironic that, unlike in the situation Erskine May was talking about, the younger Jayasuriya refers to a two thirds majority.

Provisions about a two thirds majority spring from our Constitution, whereas May talks about a situation where a simple majority of Parliament can legislate at will. Since the amendments sprung upon Parliament and the nation affect the franchise, obviously the provisions in the Constitution regarding the franchise must come into play. Since it is on the basis of the Constitution that our righteous duo, deem a two thirds majority necessary, it is preposterous that they ignore the fundamental right on which the Constitution lays such stress.

This government noticeably ignored seniority in appointing both the Attorney General and the Auditor General. The latter has shown himself to be independent and incisive, leading the Prime Minister to declare that he would have to get rid of him and they should have appointed the Deputy instead. Ironically D.E.W. Gunasekara told me that the Deputy had perhaps forfeited his chances of being appointed because of the principled position he took at the COPE proceedings in 2015 on the bond issue. But Gamini Wijesinghe has proved admirable and, though I hope that Chula Wickramaratna will in time be appointed, we must be thankful for the continuing integrity under current leadership of the Department.

Jayantha Jayasuriya however does not seem to understand that his service is to the people of Sri Lanka, not his political masters.

And if he thinks the letter he sent Karu Jayasuriya is an adequate excuse for perverting democracy, he needs a refresher course in conceptualization and thinking skills. I can only hope that his able and forthright juniors make it clear that they will not be silenced, and will continue to serve the country well.

By Sanchith Karunaratna Courtesy adaderana

somapala Senarath 

Ex-international cricket umpire Darrell Hair has been sentenced to an 18-month good behaviour bond over stealing money from his employer.

Hair, who made headlines for calling a number of no-balls on Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan during the 1995 Boxing Day Test, pleaded guilty to a single charge of embezzlement and one charge of stealing in Orange Local Court yesterday.

The 65-year-old was working at D’Aquino’s Liquor in Orange and stole over $9,000 between February and April this year to fund a spiralling gambling addiction.

He was given the sack shortly after when his bosses found CCTV footage of him taking money from the cash register and putting it in his pocket.

When Hair’s employers confronted the former official about the missing money, he responded simply, yep you got me”.

He admitted guilt when interviewed by police.

A fact sheet presented to court stated Hair would either make unauthorised refunds and keep the money or pocket cash directly from customers.

“[Hair] stated that he had no excuse for his dishonesty and he had let his gambling get too far out of control during the early months of 2017 and failed to react to the signs that it was out of control,” the document said.

The former match official’s solicitor Andrew Rolfe, said his client was ashamed to be fronting court over the allegations after a successful career as an international cricket umpire.

“My client has been in the public eye for many years and this is a bit of a fall for him, to find himself before the court in these circumstances”.

“This is an aberration in the life of a man who, prior to this, had a lifetime of service to the community and to a sport that he loved.”

Magistrate Michael Allen made it clear that Hair’s actions were a breach of trust, but also highlighted how Hair had repaid the stolen money, written letters of apology, and was in counselling for depression and addiction.

In sentencing Hair, Magistrate Allen did not record a conviction and also underlined how gambling ads were everywhere, and gambling addiction was “no less real than an addiction to drugs … or alcohol”.

“It’s a journey he will live with, and no doubt struggle with, on a daily basis for the rest of his life.”

Hair was embroiled in controversy when he called Muralitharan for 7 no-balls during the MCG Boxing Day Test between Australian and Sri Lanka over 20 years ago.

He was also one of the umpires who decided to reprimand Pakistan for suspected ball tampering in the fourth Test against England in 2006.

Mohan Wijewickrama

මේ කියනදේවත් බුද්ධිමත්ව විග්‍රහ කිරීමට නොහැකි රට කරවන්නෝ දෙදෙනෙක්, අපිට අවාසනාවකට උරැම වී ඇත. අපේ රට මේ ව්‍යවස්ථා උගුලින් බේරා ගැනිමට ජනතාව ඉදිරියට පැමිනිම රටේ අවශ්‍යතාවකි .

https://www.facebook.com/mohan.wijewickrama.5/videos/1938353446180509/

By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

In Part I of this article, it was highlighted the extensive measures being taken by this Tamil slavish government and the Tamil separatists to impose an unwanted constitution on the behest of the foreign scoundrels and the Tamil separatists. Let us examine in this part of the article the shameless and the despicable roles being played by the accidentally born Sinhalese to get this loathsome move realised.

Father of Federalism and Secularism Ranil Wickremasinghe leads this band of pro constitution accidentally born Sinhalese gang and even on 19^th October he has flayed the statement issued by the Joint Sangha Council of the Malwathu and Asgiri Chapters of the Siam Sect and the media personnel of misleading the people propagating rubbish and has vowed to adopt the proposed new constitution disregarding any and everyone who oppose it. He is a person replete with Tamil slavishness.  For example he signed the ignominious ceasefire agreement with the megalomaniac Prabhakaran despite stern opposition, confined our gallant war heroes to the barracks, and allowed the terrorists to bring in container loads of weapons and sophisticated communication and other equipment unchecked.  It is due to political expediency he attends Buddhist functions and visits Temples and people close to him have said at various times that he is an adherent of his mother’s religion Christianity. In addition to this in order to please Tamil Hindus he frequently visits Hindu Temples in India including the Thirupathi temple which has become much venerated than Buddhagaya to Sri Lankan politicians with much publicity.  The best treatment that can be given to pseudo Bhudists like Ranil Wickremasinghe is for people to completely boycott from attending the temples when they visit temples. There is a great danger of plunging this country into a blood bath by these accidentally born Sinhalese through their rabid determination to get their new constitution dream realized.

Next comes the man named Jayampathi Wickremaratne who acts as a Co-Chairmen of the Management Committee to facilitate the work of the Steering Committee of the constitutional process along with the racist Tamil separatist Sumanthiran. Parliamentarian Mr. Wimal Weerawansa in one of his recent speeches gave a nice introduction about this man and given below is a verbatim translation of that introduction.

Who is this Jayampathi ?

When we talk about the Constitution that is being formulated on the behest of the United Nations Organization and the western powers we come across the name of a Lawyer named Jayampathi Wickremaratne who was in the Lanka Samasamaja Party previously and now in the United National Party.  This guy uses the prefix ‘Constitutional Expert’ as an adjective to his name. He is suffering from a minority complex as otherwise such a prefix will not be used before his name.  When this guy was studying in the Science Faculty of the Peradeniya University he was caught copying for the Chemistry Question paper.  Following this incident the Science Faculty imposed an examination ban for him.  He lost the Science degree holder title and left the Peradeniya University as an undergraduate.  How nice it would have been if he was not caught then copying for the Chemistry question paper? If that happened this guy would have been holding a Science degree and doing a job in that side.  For the bad luck of this country this guy who was dropped from the University entered the legal profession.  This constitution is being formulated by guys like this, dollar vultures and NGO rudiments.”

When Parliamentarian Mr. Udaya Gammanpila challenged this Jayampathi Wickremaratne for a TV debate on the Steering Committee report of the Constitution he declined to accept the challenge and said that it is more propitious to debate about it in the Parliament than having a person to person debate.

Jayampathi Wickremaratne participating in  a function held in Jaffna on 12^th June 2016 spelt out the the advantages that will be offered to the Tamil people through the proposed new Constitution.  The function was organized by the member of the Election Commission S.Ratnajeevan Hoole and the function was held under the title An evenng in Jaffna with Hon. Dt. Jayampathi Wickremaratne”.

Jayampathi starting his address equivocated on the legitimacy of the 1972 constitution. He said that in 1972 all Tamil MPs attended the initial meeting of the Constitutional Assembly and then they contributed to the lack of legitimacy by being absent at the final vote.

On the new proposals he said that this will not be the best constitution but the best in the circumstance and minoritie must ask for incremental changes. Jayampathy pointed out that if they ask for what they want, they will get nothing and if they ask for less than what they may be asked why they did not ask for it?

Jayampathy explained that the government has 163 votes, 13 more than 2/3. However in the recent no confidence motion against the Minister of Finance, the TNA abstained and the motion was defeated with only 145 votes, a simple majority. It shows the need, he said, for all to come together to grasp this unique opportunity and not foul it up like the many instances in the past.

On the constitution, he said:

1. i) The reversion to the Westminster model’s party system is coming. The President is the Head of State acting on the advice of the Prime Minister.
2. ii) A strong bill of rights is required, looking to the future with a futuristic vision.” Stronger civil and political rights

iii) Proportional representation will become if it was made with some compensatory seats.

1. iv) Devolution of power must be clear-cut with no concurrent list and local authorities strengthened. . He held up Austria as a good model where the centre makes the law and the provinces implement it. In the guise of making national policy and through circulars, the centre continues here to interfere in the provinces. Therefore we must have provincial participation in making national policy to give provinces ownership of policy. After calling the late Mark Fernando a great jurist, he faulted him for declaring agrarian services as a subject for the centre which led to the centre taking over the subject. However, subsequently, the Supreme Court declared tenant cultivators as a matter for the provinces. And yet, the provinces have not come forward to take control. He faulted the provinces for this as well as not making laws in subjects under them.
2. v) As for a unitary state (where all power resides in the centre and power given to the periphery is what the centre chooses to give) he said it is incompatible with devolution. He expressed agrees with most views asking for devolution. He too similar to Sumanthiran’s assertion said that labels are irrelevant and only the content is important.

Jayampathy said that his voice is one of those of 225 MPs. He said that after 10 years of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s rule,”the minds of the Sinhalese have been corrupted.” In the proposed constitution of 2000, Chandrika Bandaranaike was presiding and driving the changes and we do not have her now. However, he said that Ranil Wickremesinghe is driving change now as seen by how he has personally pushed for the participation of women. Jayampathy also said that Mr.Sampanthan’s hard hitting” speech in Parliament last Friday (Indian Express 11.06.2016) on how Tamils are still discriminated against, shows that minorities have not gained ground since electing the new government. HYe said that Ranil must take note and rise to the challenge, showing that he too can make minorities feel fully Sri Lankan.

Asked about a secular state, Jayampathy replied that despite Buddhism having foremost place, two different supreme court judgements declared Sri Lanka a secular state. Rajan Hoole disagreed saying if they fudge the issue of secularism, they will have a situation where each group would push for more prominence for itself, and they would all carry barbs to irritate each other. Unless there is strict secularism, those who feel edged out would resort to barbs like Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran appealing to the Vishva Hindu Parishad. (Justice C.V. Wigneswaran had mentioned in India that Bharat is the motherland of Hindus, and has to take care of the suffering of Hindus everywhere. These claims appear to denude Tamils of their right to Sri Lanka as their motherland.)

Jayampathy said he has no problems with excluding a special status for Buddhism but the head of a big denomination” whom he did not wish to identify had pleaded for a non-secular state. Rajan Hoole retorted Religious leaders want to remain in business.”

Jayampathy also stated devolution should be made a national issue, not just a Tamil issue.

The above referenced speech itself is sufficient to prove how much committed and determined this man is to formulate a constitution that would fulfil all the demands and aspiration of the Tamils living in the North and East.

Similar to his attempted cheating in respect of the Chemistry paper at thr University a latest report highlights a glaring fraud mad by Jayampathy.  He has been caught with pants down for selling his duty free Land Cruiser. A report ublished by Colombo Telegraph this errkrnf (22^nd October) said that on 13^th February, 2017 Bestair Services (PVT)  Ltd., imported a Rs 95,27,562.50 ( USD 62,500.00 X 152.4410) worth a brand new Toyota Land Cruiser for this swindler using his Duty Free permit and the vehicle was registered with the Commissioner of Motor Traffic on June 14, 2017 and transferred to the name of the vehicle permit buyer Yaden International (PVT) ltd. on August 22, 2017.  According to the custom’s declaration form the total tax waived off for this vehicle vehicle is Rs 31,774,450.00.

Given below is a photocopy of the Customs Declaration Form.

Now let us examine the very much Tamil slavish and anti Sri Lankan Dr,. Wickremabaahu Karunaratne is?

Wickremabahu Karunaratne joined the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) in 1962 whilst being an undergraduate at the University of Ceylon. He was elected to the LSSP’s Central Committee in 1972 but fell out with the party’s leadership over their support for the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and its 1972 Republican Constitution. He was expelled from the LSSP.

In 1977 Karunaratne joined with some other former members of the LSSP, including Vasudeva Nanayakkara, to form the Nava Sama Samaja Party. In 1978 he was arrested in Kandy for attempting to put up protest slogans against the President prior to his visit to Kandy. He was released without charge after a few months of detention, and the University of Peradeniya which suspended him from service soon after his arrest reinstated him after a rather delayed inquiry. He was forced to leave the University after he collected his back pay, .he was reinstated by Cabinet decision in 2001 but was not allowed by the university. The human rights commission intervened and present government paid back wages and restored status. In 1983 he went into hiding following proscription of Left parties by JR and surfaced in 1985 when the proscription was lifted.

This NGO activist has a very long history of Tamil servility and being an active supporter of the LTTE. In early 2000 he visited Canada with UNPs Nationalist MP the well known LTTE minion Dr. Jayalath Jayawardene and addressed the Pongu Tamil” event held in Toronto.  He extensively canvassed with all sorts of lies and character assassinations for the regime change in 2015 and may be with the intention of migrating to be with his diaspora friends in Canada if there was no regime change he applied for a temporary residence  Visa for Canada which was rejected.

When Wickremabahu returned to Sri Lanka he and his supporters were attacked at the Katunayake Airport by an angry crowd.  He has visited Britain with UNP MP Dr. Jayalath Jayawardene and addressed several public meetings and he had been one of the main speakers at the Tamil remembrance day 2010 held on 27th of November. Wickremabahu and Jayalath Jayawardene were accused of organising the protests in London in collaboration with Tamil Tiger supporters.

He was a candidate of the 2010 Presidential Election and received only 7,055 votes Islandwide which was only 0.07%. The Tamil separatists fully supported his election bid. The LTTE website TamilNet on 2^nd December, 2009 supporting Wickremabhu said An amazing irony of the decades-long Tamil struggle is that for the first time left-wing Sinhala political parties rallying behind Dr. Vikramabahu Karunaratne have come out with a better proposal to Tamils than what the Tamil parties in the island are able to spell out.
It said if the Tamil political parties are unable to think of creative themes not betraying the national liberation struggle, or if they can’t find an appealing Tamil candidate to represent their cause, then it will be advisable for them to forge alliance with the left wing and support Dr. Karunaratne’s candidature in the presidential election. The Website added that it will be a novel and revolutionary step, rather than playing the good old game of collaboration politics with oppressors that has brought in only disaster to Tamils in the past.”

The Sirisena-Ranil Junta appointed Wickremabahu to the National Executive Council (NEC)—a multi-party body established to oversee the implementation of government programmes. Wickremabahu joined the 13-member NEC, which is headed by Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe, on January 22. Other members include Chandrika Kumaratunga, Sarath Fonseka, and Champika Ranawaka, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

Let us see now the treachery and Tamil slavishness of Gamini Viyangoda a high profiled advocate of the proposed new constitution and who has become a lapdog of the anti-Sri Lankans elements.  His treacherous pronouncements against this country run into the terrorist period which he used to gain credence among the anti-Sri Lankan scoundrels. Let us start from his harsh criticism of people in the South celebrating the death of Tamilchelvan.  Writing an article to the ‘Groundviews’ on 13^th November, 2007 he condemned the people in the South for expressing their jubilance over the air force bombing and the killing of Tamilchelvan who can be considered as the guy next to Prabhakaran responsible for decades of misery suffered by all Sri Lankans including Tamils. He says that with the assassination of Tamilchelvan who held all communication with the outside world and coordinated with other peace-loving local bodies aimed at reaching a negotiated political settlement severely curtailed.

Viyangoda has written profusely on secularism and strongly advocates that Sri Lanka should be a secular state.  He says a secular state is a state which does not give any form of preference to a particular religion and religion is a subject that does not concern to the state and that does not patronize a particular religion.  He says that there is no restriction in a secular society for a person to perform the rites of a religion he worships, including the cultural norms of his religion. For example he says that in a secular state when a person is going to lay the foundation stone for a house he is going to build he can perform the traditional rites without any restriction.

He points that in our society face many unwanted problems because States being upholders of religion.  He says there had been many wars in consequent to States patronizing particular religions, and cites wars between Christians and Protestants, between Sunnis and Shias, and between Jews and Muslims.  He says that these kinds of tension exist in country due to our country being not secular and outlines the following as examples:

The government should accord prominence to a particular religion;

Thw government should ban cartoons, books, dramas and media that deride religions;

Schools should be religious oriented

If Laws clash with religious practices priority should be given to religious practices

It should be allowed to appear for ID card photographs in Hijab

Non applicability of unauthorized building rules to Buddhist statues within the premises of government buildings.

In another article explaining who they are and their objectives Viyangoda says that their membership is open and all are welcome, religious as well as non-religious, atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, secularists, skeptics, humanists, and individuals who are questioning and searching beliefs with open mind.  He says they campaign for a Secular Sri Lanka, moving forward with an amended Secular Constitution, promoting Science and Reason as the central doctrine in democratic governance. Religion should be strictly a private matter of Sri Lanka’s citizens, and The Republic needs strict separation from religion to foster freedom for religion and freedom from religion.  He also states that they encourage and promote a much needed dialogue for a constitutional amendment to separate religion from Sri Lankan State.

(To be continued)