Editorial Courtesy The Island

September 8, 2017, 10:09 pm
Several yahapalana ministers lamented during a parliamentary debate on the draconian tax reforms on Thursday that the government revenue was falling rapidly and its expenditure rising steeply. Tax laws had to be amended to increase the government revenue, they argued. Ironically, they said so, one day after the presentation of a supplementary estimate which, among other things, sought as much as Rs. 58 mn for a ministerial vehicle.

Governments face financial difficulties, but burdening people with more taxes is not the only way to set about tackling the problem. If new Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera cares to ask any grandma how to increase government income, she will tell him to cut down on government waste urgently as the first step. A rupee saved is a rupee earned. The government won’t be able to have people believe that it is faced with pecuniary difficulties, given the criminal waste of public funds it shamelessly indulges in. The yahapalana regime has so far spent more than two billion rupees on brand new super luxury vehicles for its ministers in addition to the fleets of flashy limos and SUVs at their disposal. Perhaps, maintaining Buckingham Palace costs much less than repairs to the palaces of our political grandees.

The yahapalana leaders came to power, promising to be different from the Rajapaksa regime which was notorious for its members’ vulgar display of wealth. They used to shout pithy slogans such as ‘unta Lamborghini, apita badagini [‘Lamborghinis for rulers and pangs of hunger for the public’]. They pledged to adopt austerity measures so as to save enough money to repay loans and develop the country so much so that Maithripala Sirisena, in the run-up to the last presidential election, declared that he would operate from Polonnaruwa if elected President. But, today, another president’s house has come up in Colombo! Political rejects are holding ministerial posts and living in clover thanks to their ability to lick their leaders’ boots and sandals.

Corruption continues to cause staggering losses to the public purse. The most expensive expressway in the world is being built through the Central Province, according to Rathu Sahodarayas, who threw their weight behind the yahapalana camp. Bond scams have made state banks and the workers’ superannuation fund lose billions of rupees. The racketeers responsible for those financial rackets are seen moving about freely though incriminating evidence is available against them. Sri Lanka has become a dystopia like the one we find in Orwell’s Animal Farm. The government seems to believe that all Sri Lankans are equal before the law, but the yahapalana leaders and their kith and kin are more equal than others!

No government in the developing world can survive on its tax revenue alone. That may be possible in the Global North, where direct taxes from wealthy citizens and corporate giants generate enough revenue for governments. The yahapalana government ought to manage the profitable state ventures properly and turn around the loss incurring ones as a national priority if it is to increase its revenue without squeezing the public dry. Unfortunately, it seems to believe that the divestiture of state ventures is the key to economic prosperity! What it proposes to do after selling all public assets to foreigners is the question.

When the present government was formed its supporters may have thought their leaders would lead simple lives like former President of Uruguay Jose Mujica, who lived in his wife’s farmhouse instead of the grand presidential palace and donated to charity about 90 percent of his 12,000-US-dollar salary. He used a vintage Beetle, his only material asset! Even as the President he received treatment at state-run hospitals, that, too, after waiting in long queues. But, the yahapalana leaders fly away to foreign hospitals at the first sign of a cold, trotting out lame excuses.

We are reminded of a prominent leftist’s wisecrack in times of yore; he said his opponents were enjoying a whiskey lifestyle on a toddy income!

By Ajith Alahakoon and Kushan Subasinghe Courtesy The Island

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament yesterday that both the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank had informed the country that they would not provide any more grants after 2019.

Making a special ministerial statement, the Prime Minister said since the two leading bodies had expressed the stopping of grants, alternative measures had to be adopted to maintain economic development.

“Originally, there was a plan to construct an airport in Kandy,” he said.

“Also the central expressway comprises three tunnels. We will have to relook at them as well. One part of the expressway would be elevated. The expressways built earlier was done by filling the land. This has created environmental issues.”

The Prime Minister said the central expressway was just one of many development projects lined up for the Central Province. He said a tourism and cultural centre, agriculture technology centre, and an IT park would be constructed in the area.

The PM said the government had been able to reduce the cost of the central expressway by Rs. 25 billion. The initial estimated cost had been Rs. 159 billion while the new estimated cost was Rs. 134 billion.

The Prime Minister said the government had decided to borrow funds from Tokyo Mitshubishi Bank to save time. That, he said had been decided by the Department of External Resources. There had been no proper response when tenders were called initially. The Japanese government had given an assurance that it would ensure that there would be response later.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said tenders had been called for the second time in November 2016 and two Japanese companies namely Taisei and Fujita had responded. ‘The Cabinet decided to award the tender to Fujita but a Cabinet-appointed negotiation committee held that Fujita had not been able to meet two of the stipulated criteria. Then, it was decided to award the tender to Taisei as that company had reduced the price by then.

“Japan then inquired from me during my visit there whether it would be possible to get Fujitha also involved. Accordingly, it was decided to get Fuijtha to join Taisei.” Therefore those two companies would handle the first phase of the project, he said.

The PM said both India and China would be involved in other phases of the project.

by Eric Gamini Jinapriya Courtesy The Island

The Chief incumbent of Dharmayathanaya, Colombo Ven Elle Gunawansa Thera yesterday said that he would come forward to prevent the division of the country.

“I will join forces with patriots. I have no intention of contesting elections but will do everything possible for the victory of the motherland and patriotic forces,” Gunawansa thera said in a brief interview with The Island.

Commenting on Regional Development Minister Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka’s recent statement that Gunawansa Thera was a mad man in robes, Ven Thera said that statement had compelled him to decide to join the camp of patriotic forces and get on their political stage for the sake of the country. “I have no anger or animosity towards the former army commander, who made a statement without knowing facts. He, too, has visited this temple many times in the past. But, today he is in the camp of anti-nationalist forces. His statement helped me understand how much people love me. Soon after that controversial statement many former commanders of the forces arrived here. Politicians, devotees, civil society leaders and many others have condemned his statement.

කංචන  විජේසේකරගෙන් පක්ෂ නායකයාට අධි චෝදනා පත්‍රයක්

• 2014 නොවෙම්බර් මස පක්ෂයෙන් ඉදිරිපත් කල අපේක්ෂකයා පරාජයට පත් කිරීමට එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය සහ අනෙකුත් කණ්ඩායම් සමග අත්වැල් බැඳ ගැනීම .
• 2015 ජනවාරි 09 වන දින පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සන්ධානයට හිමිව තිබු අගමැතිධුරය සහ ආණ්ඩු බලය සුළුතරයක් හිමිව තිබු රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහට ලබා දීම. 
• 2015 ජනවාරි මස සන්ධානයට බලය තිබුනු ඌව පළාත UNP එකටත්, නැගෙනහිර බලය Muslim congress එකටත් ලබා දීම. 
• පක්ෂයේ මධ්‍යම කාරක සභාවක් තිබියදී දුමින්ද දිසානායක ලේකම් ලෙසත් , S.B. නාවින්න භාණ්ඩාගාරික ලෙස පත් කර ගත් මධ්‍යම කාරක සභාවක් නම් කිරීම. 
• පක්ෂයේ නව සභාපති ලෙස කලබල මැද පත්වී , භාණ්ඩාගාරිකව සිටි ඩලස් අලහප්පෙරුම ඉවත් කිරීම. 
• මධ්‍යම කාරක සභාවේ සිටි මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ හිතවාදින් ඉවත් කර සහ ආසන සංවිධායකවරු ඉවත් කර හංසයාට කතිරය ගැසූ සහ දුර්වල පිරිසක් ඒවෙනුවට පත් කිරීම. 
• පළාත් පාලන ආයතන විසුරුවා සන්ධානයට තිබු ග්‍රාමීය බලය නිෂ්ක්‍රීය කිරීම

• නාම යෝජනා ලබා දීමේදී මහින්ද හිතවාදීන් ලෙස සලකා පිරිසකට නාම යෝජනා ලබානොදීම 
• නාමයෝජනා ලබාදී පැය 48 කට පසුව ප්‍රසිද්ධ ලිපියක් මගින් මහින්ද මහතාට අගමැතිකම නොදෙන බව සඳහන් කිරීම. 
• පක්ෂයේ සභාපති වශයෙන් මැතිවරණයට දායක නොවීම. 
• ඡන්දයට පැය 48 ට පෙර පක්ෂයේ සහ සන්ධානයේ ලේකම් වරු දෙපළ ඉවත් කිරීම. 
• පළමු වතාවට පක්ෂයේ සභාපතිවරයාගේ ආසනය පරාජයට පත් වීම 
• අභියෝග සහ බාධක හමුවේ ලබාගත් මන්ත්‍රීධුර මගින් සන්ධානයට ආණ්ඩුවක් සැදීමට තිබු අවස්ථාව අහිමි කර ජාතික ලිස්තුවට පරාජිතයන් පත් කර රනිල්ට අගමැතිධුරය ලබා ගැනීමට අවකාශ සැලසීම.
• අවුරුදු දෙකකට ජාතික ආණ්ඩුවකට අත්සන්කර රනිල්ගේ ආණ්ඩුව ශක්තිමත් කිරීම. 
• විපක්ෂ නායක ධුරය මන්ත්‍රීවරු16ක් සිටින TNA එකට ලබා දීම.
• මන්ත්‍රීවරු 6ක් සිටින JVP එකට විපක්ෂයේ සංවිධායක ධුරය ලබා දීම 
• පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණය දිගින් දිගටම කල් දැමීම 
• අවුරුදු දෙක ඉක්මවන්න පෙර අවුරුදු පහකට ජාතික ආණ්ඩු දීගය දීර්ඝ කිරීම 
• පක්ෂයේ ප්‍රතිපත්ති වලින් බැහැරව රාජ්‍ය දේපල විකිණීම 
• පළාත් සභා තුල සිටින පක්ෂයේ ජේෂ්ඨ ඇමතිවරු ඉවත් කිරීම. 
• පළාත් සභා ඡන්දය කල් දැමීමට යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කර මධ්‍යම කාරක සභාවේ තීරණය නොසලකා උතුරැ මැද සභාවේ එය සම්මත කිරීම. 
• පළාත් පාලන ඡන්දයට සංශෝධන එකතු කර පක්ෂයේ විශාල පිරිසකට නැවත තරඟ කිරීමට තිබෙන අයිතිය අහිමි කිරීම සහ එයට පක්ෂව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ඡන්දය ලබා දීම. 
• UNP විරෝධී සටනේ සිටින පාක්ෂිකයන්ගේ සාමාජිකත්වය අහෝසි කිරීමට තීරණ ගැනීම. 

  මෙම කරුණු සලකා බලා පක්ෂයෙන් ඉවත් කළ යුත්තේ කවුද?

By Gagani Weerakoon Courtesy  Ceylon Today

With the sole intention of defeating any move to divide the country through constitutional means, ‘Eliya – Illuminating Aspirations’ an organization formed under the patronage of former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa was launched at Hotel Golden Rose, Boralesgamuwa on Wednesday (6) evening. Alleging that the proposed new Constitution would give separatists what they had failed to achieve through terrorism, Rajapaksa vowed to defeat the project.

The proposed constitutional reforms were meant to appease the LTTE rump, pro-LTTE Diaspora and a section of foreign powers, Rajapaksa said, lambasting the ruling UNP-SLFP Government for seeking to divide post-war Sri Lanka on ethnic lines.

The former Defence Secretary said ‘Eliya’ wouldn’t allow the government to betray the country under any circumstances.

Explaining the movement’s objective, Rajapaksa stressed the importance of educating and mobilizing the masses against the ongoing moves to introduce a new Constitution at the expense of the unitary status of the country.

He said the proposed Constitution had the backing of those countries which had made desperate attempts to save the LTTE during the final phase of the Vanni offensive.

Armed forces had made tremendous sacrifices to neutralize the LTTE militarily and any effort to undermine the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity must be resisted at any cost, Rajapaksa added.

The event attracted a large number of professionals, including artistes, doctors, engineers, lawyers, politicians and members of the general public.

Among those present were former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, former speaker Chamal Rajapaksa, former Cabinet Ministers, including Basil Rajapaksa, Wimal Weerawansa, Dullas Alahapperuma, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, Bandula Gunawardena, Leader of the Joint Opposition Dinesh Gunawardena, Janaka Bandara Tennakoon, Gamini Lokuge, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, former Governor of Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Manohara De Silva PC, Tamara Kunanayakam,
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka and Maj Gen (retd) Kamal Gunaratne.

Many key speakers at the event shared similar sentiments as former diplomat Tamara Kunanayakam, who said, “A radical overhaul is underway – of our political, economic, financial, social and cultural system. A new Constitution is being discussed, also a plethora of radical reforms are being rushed through. The fact that many are being challenged as unconstitutional indicates that the new Constitution is aimed at making what is constitutional today un-constitutional tomorrow, and making what is legal illegal, by a simple trick of changing the Law!”

The issue is not whether a new Constitution is needed or not, it is the fundamental and inalienable right of the people to determine the economic, social, political and cultural system in which they choose to live. But that choice will be theirs only if it is made freely, not with a gun pointed at their heads. Today, Sri Lanka finds itself practically under a form of tutelage to the US, a global power whose strategic objective is to maintain its global hegemony.

Kunanayakam said that it is symbolic that the US Ambassador chose to announce Washington’s decision to ‘assist’ Sri Lanka draft its Constitution and implement the Human Rights Council, standing on the amphibious warship USS New Orleans, which is used to land and support ground forces on enemy territory and patrols provocatively close to China.

“It is also ironic that it is from Temple Trees that the Acting US Secretary of State Alice Wells declared last week that ‘The United States is – and will continue to be – an Indo-Pacific power.’ She was the first to announce America’s ‘first ever naval exercise’ in Sri Lanka in October, in Trincomalee. You will agree that rewriting the Constitution under such conditions can only advance Washington’s cause, not ours! There are other guns pointed at us: the 2015 Human Rights Council resolution and the notorious IMF/World Bank conditionalities.”

The movement stated that what began as an agenda to abolish the Executive Presidency was transformed overnight into a full-blown reform of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, speaking on the lines of public’s duty in thwarting efforts to bring a new Constitution that would destabilize the State, Consultant

Dr. Seetha Arambepola said the majority of the public is of the opinion that their only weapon against what is happening is the universal franchise.

“We, as public, shamelessly continue to have faith in those whom we have elected to power, who continue to mercilessly betray our faith in them. We shamelessly believe that the one we voted into power will fulfil our aspirations. We have failed to realize the person we voted for has joined another camp and is being guided by another force, and is catering to their demands,” she added.

While noting that professionals and the educated working force have a right to guide or reprimand the rulers who have not gone through any examination or possess any qualification other than the fact that they had received people’s votes,

Dr. Arambepola stressed the public have the right to force the rulers to see, hear and feel the correct path when they act deaf, dumb or oblivious to burning issues.

By Nuwan Hettiarachchi Courtesy Ceylon Today

Chairman of the Public Platform National Movement Ven. Ulapane Sumangala Thera has questioned how the Sinhala newspaper, Janayugaya, which is alleged to have been…… published with funds accrued from the CB bond scam, is supplied with millions of rupees worth of Government advertisements.

The Thera told the media yesterday that the said newspaper has been supplied with Rs 500 million worth of advertisements from the banking sector and lotteries board in the recent past.

Ven. Sumangala Thera charged that the rent of houses occupied by Ministers supplying such advertisements had been allegedly paid by Arjuna Aloysius, the owner of the said newspaper.

He charged that the majority of such advertisements had been supplied to Janayugaya from institutions coming under the purview of the Finance and Media Ministry.

The Thera charged that the money accrued from the CB bond scam has been circulating throughout the country in various forms and cited the ethanol factory that was being built in the Eastern Province as an example.

Kelum Bandara Courtesy The Daily Mirror

A group of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) MPs are reported to have informed President Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday night that they would quit the government soon and yesterday met former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to discuss the next step.

The group included Ministers Susil Premajayantha and Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and Deputy Ministers T.B. Ekanayake, Dulip Wijesekara, Nimal Lansa and Arundika Fernando. According to Reports at least 12 SLFP MPs in the government are likely to cross over.

They had the President after the late night Central Committee meeting on Wednesday. These ministers were reported to have said they found it increasingly difficult to be in the government amid corruption allegations such as the bond scam and questionable highway projects and criticised the government’s move towards power devolution.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister Arundika Fernando and former President Chandrika Kumaratunga had reportedly crossed words at the Central Committee meeting with the deputy minister alleging that some UNP members were involved in fraud and corruption while Ms. Kumaratunga said the current government took office after ending a term riddled with rampant fraud and corruption.

Kelum Bandara Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The Ven. Elle Gunawansa Thera, in response to a statement by Minister and Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka describing the monk as a ‘mad man in robes’ said yesterday the United National Party (UNP) should decide whether it should have such a person as a Cabinet minister any longer.

The monk said senior UNPers such as Gamini Dissanayake, Lalith Athulathmudali and R. Premadasa had visited his temple on several occasions.

Mr. Fonseka is a political reject. Only the UNP accommodated him and gave him a portfolio. The UNP should now decide whether it should risk its credibility by having such a person in the Cabinet. However, the people will decide,” he said.

In a way, slandering me has turned out to be a blessing in guise. I was able to realize the magnitude of affection people have towards me. Throngs of people from all walks of life are visiting me. All the former army commanders frequented my temple. Mr. Fonseka’s claim that war crimes took place has become a reason for jubilation by pro-LTTE groups operating overseas,” the monk said.

He said Mr. Fonseka’s harsh attitude towards him had forced him to appear on the political stage for the first time.

So, far I have not stepped on anyone’s political stage but I will do it for the time when the occasion arises,” he said.

Chamil Rupasinghe Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa today said even the current First Lady could be sued as she was seen distributing ‘Sil Redi’ along with the President a few days ago.

Speaking to journalists in Kandy, Mr. Rajapaksa said he would visit former president’s secretary Lalith Weeratunga who was sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment.

Mr.Weeratunga was found guilty of misappropriating Rs.600 million belonging to the TRC and using it to distribute ‘Sil Redi’ during the 2015 presidential election campaign.

By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

The asinine and moron Sarath Fonseka before he was sponsored by the American Ambassador in Sri Lanka Patricia Butenis to contest the Presidential Election of 2010 against Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa was the most hated person in the Sri Lankan Army for the UNP politicians and was ridiculed and mercilessly attacked by them as a man who is only fit to lead the salvation army, a bovine, a man taking the army to Medawachchi instead of kilinochchi and to Pamankada instead of Alimankada, a man running a clandestine killer and torture unit of the army which was responsible for the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunga on Jan 8, 2009, attempt to kill the then Rivira editor Upali Tennakoon on January 23, 2009, abduction and assault of Deputy Editor and the then defence correspondent of The Nation, Keith Noyahr, on May 22, 2008 and so on. These allegations were mainly made in Parliament by Ranil Wickremasinghe, Joseph Michael Perera, Mangala Samaraweera, Lakshman Kiriella, Ravi Karunanayake and a host of others.

For political expediency and for washing the dirty linen of the government and for making threats to anti-government elements Ranil Wickremasinghe with the concurrence of Maithripala Sirisena got Fonseka who couldn’t even get 5,000 votes all over the island during the 2015 election appointed as a national list UNP MP to fill the vacancy created by the death of Minister M.K.A.D.S, Gunawardene.. At the same time his rank was upgraded as Field Marshal and was appointed as the Minister of Regional Development, we wonder what, where and which development he has made so far.

The pro-Tamil Diaspora and soul-mate of LTTE rump Jusmin Souka’s (member of infamous Darusman gang) South America based International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) has filed a war crime case in Brazil and Columbia against General Jagath Jayasuriya who was the Ambassador of Brazil, Columbia, Peru, , Argentina and Suriname. Jayasuriya returned to Sri Lanka hurriedly after the case was filed by Souka’s ITJP in each of these two countries under his purview as ambassador for Sri Lanka., While petitions are yet to be filed in Argentina, Chile and Peru. Only Suriname has downright refused to permit action to be filed against Jayasuriya. The aim of the ITJP is to utilize Jayasuriya as a pawn to initiate an investigation and later expand it to cover all our top war heroes such as Wasantha Karannagoda. Roshan Gunatilleke, Shavendra Silva and Kamal Gunaratne, who played crucial roles in the War to vanquish the Tiger Terrorists.  As per defence and legal analysts this move will also include former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena, and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa among others.

Immediately after Jagath Jayasuriya returned following the filing of cases against him, Fonseka told a media conference that he holds information with regard to war crimes committed by Jagath Jayasuriya and that he was ready to give evidence if proper legal action was instituted against him.  He said that Jayasuriya was engaged in crimes as Vanni commander and even after he was promoted as army commander. Fonseka’s this move is similar to his earlier attempt to implicate Gotabaya Rajapaksa saying that Mr. Gotabaya ordered to kill the surrendered LTTE high fliers in the so-called White-Flag incident.

Now he has come up with another serious allegation that General Jagath Jayasuriya, the Vanni Commander during his tenure as Army Commander had committed crimes. Political analysts indicate that as happened during the white flag controversy, the Tamil diaspora and the Tamil separatist groups here would pick up Fonseka’s allegations against Jayasuriya and it might come up during the next UNHRC sessions in Geneva as well. They say that even eight years after the end of the war, the allegations about war crimes and violation of international human rights and humanitarian laws are still haunting Sri Lank and the last report by UN Human Rights Chief Zeid Al- Hussein was not as friendly as his previous reports had been and therefore it is imperative for the government to speak in one voice about the issue. They commend the President’s vowing to defend all Commanders who played leading roles during the war, from alleged human rights violations and war crimes.

Fonseka who now stupidly tries to implicate Jagath Jayasuriya to attain his personal vendetta and allow Souka to use Jayasuriya as a prey against Sri Lanka has gone in records many a time the Army that he commanded during the war against the LTTE, never committed war crimes or violated international human rights or humanitarian laws.

Faizer Shheed who is a law tutor and an independent researcher of laws has in an article to the local newspaper’Ceylon Today’ has pointed out the following:

Perhaps Fonseka may have forgotten that Jayasuriya was being charged with command responsibility in the first place, and not for actions of his own volition. Perhaps, Fonseka had forgotten that he was the Commander of the Army during the final stages of the war when the alleged war crimes was said to have occurred.

Shaheed points out that command responsibility was instilled through the Geneva Conventions of 1929 and Article 26 of the Geneva Convention of 1929 a superior officer in the armed forces is held not to be absolved from any war crime of a lesser officer, is incriminated under Additional Protocol 1 (Article 87) and the Rome Statute which Sri Lanka has not ratified. However, command responsibility is also recognized in multiple places in the Hague Conventions, to which Sri Lanka is signatory. The Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions are recognized as Customary International Humanitarian Law, however, the protocols are exempt unless the country has ratified”

He says that Rule 153 of the Customary International Humanitarian Law states that: “Commanders and other superiors are criminally responsible for war crimes committed by their subordinates if they knew, or had reason to know, that the subordinates were about to commit or were committing such crimes and did not take all necessary and reasonable measures in their power to prevent their commission, or if such crimes had been committed, to punish the persons responsible.”

This would mean that, should Sarath Fonseka purvey incriminating evidence against Jayasuriya, Fonseka too would have to face the consequences as the Commander of the Army, particularly due to the fact that Jayasuriya was a subordinate at the time.

The Tamil Diaspora and the official opposition of the government the despicable TNA have come out in support of Fonseka’s  loathsome statement. The economic refugees outfit called the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) has welcomed the statement and said ‘confirmation of war crimes by Sri Lankan forces comes after eight years of denial by successive Sri Lankan governments. This outfit has issued a statement saying that Fonseka’s confession to war crimes committed by forces under his command came on September 1^st and said that he has information about General Jayasuriya committing war crimes and that he is ready to give evidence and readiness to testify before a proper investigation. It has also pointed out that Fonseka even said that war crimes were committed even after the war ended and he has information regarding other ‘Officers who committed crimes’. Based on these odious statements the outfit has urged the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNHRC and others to act swiftly to bring perpetrators of these international crimes to face justice and states that the UN should not miss this opportunity. Meanwhile, the TNA has said that they would support Fonseka if he is going to divulge the truth.  TNA leader Sambandqn has said that if Fonseka comes forward to give evidence before an international tribunal they are prepared to assist him.  He has told the Jaffna daily ‘Uthayan’ that this trial should be held in the form of a Hybrid Tribunal in the presence of foreign judges.  It is surprising to find their buddies in the government the red elephants JVP remaining silent on this issue implying their non-opposition to Fonseka’s utterances and the TNA stand..

However there are many comments by politicians in favour of and opposition to Fonseka’s mad utterances and would like to mention these comments briefly as well.

• His condemnation of Ven. Elle Gunawansa Thero as a madman is a very serious matter, and the Ven. Thero had corrected even the mistakes of President Premadasa by giving right admonishions”     former President Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa

• “Is Minister Fonseka in his proper senses? It is not a small matter for a Minister to claim that a former army general committed war crimes!” MP Mr. Wimal Weerawansa
• Fonseka is acting in a senseless manner” – Ven. Elle Gunawansa Thero,
• Fonseka’s statement is personal” – Minister Lakshman Kiriella
• Fonseka should be removed from the Minister post and the Field Marshal rank should be recalled” – MP Mr.Vasudeva Nanayakara
• Arrest Fonseka for telling lies and withholding information” MP Mr.Udaya Gammanila.
• Fonseka is not a traitor” Nincompoop Minister Mahinda Amaraweera
• Toppigala wild forest Ranil Wickremasinghe too remains deaf, dunb and blind (DDB) similar to JVP.

There seems to be a strong hatred among peace loving patriotic masses in the country about the despicable statement made by treacherous Fonseka.  This can be observed in the social media and comments that had been made by the public to news relating to this issue that appeared in the newspapers and websites.  It is a bounden duty and responsibility of the government to make a statement on this issue on a national level and take appropriate action against Fonseka as it has been demanded by many. (niz)

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE

  

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Poor little rich kids getting various allowances and other perks may go starving to reach Zero Size as they are all over grown ,Because they may eat less and less due to high prices .May even be that they may be taking a Rice Packet home which was earlier wrapped in polythene and now polythene is banned ,canteen may have raised the price like elsewhere. Relatives, friends visiting MP’s also get well treated .and now they may lose that luxury .

It may be that some MP’s may go on fasting in order to protest against the price hike and ask for a bigger meal allowance?

Not only meal prices, government should set an example by limiting fuel and or charge the cost of the same from all MP’s .

Medical insurance given to MP ‘shall also be taken out as Health Minister claim that National Health Service is in of high quality.

Thank you speaker..

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

by A. Abdul Aziz.

This is in reference to an article titled:  ARMED MUSLIM INSURGENTS STARTS VIOLENCE IN MYANMAR by Dr. Daya Hewapathirane (LW – 28.08.2017). In his lengthy article the writer throws number of criticism against Islam, quoting verses of Holy Qur’an here and there and put an image as if Qur’an promotes violence and religious disharmony. Writer says, the Koran forbids Muslims to closely associate non-Muslims.

This Holy Qur’an was sent through the Universal Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to guide all mankind. It is the book, not only for Muslims. An open book for all!! If anyone says there is no need to make people (non-Muslims) understand what Holy Qur’an teaches, it is ignorant. A person can understand the real teachings of Islam, only if he gone through this Holy Book. If we are not providing, presenting, donating this Holy Book to others –(non-Muslims), then we cannot blame them for their ignorant in understanding its teachings. As long as this attitude grows, i.e. Holy Qur’an should not be given to others – non-Muslims should not be allowed even to touch, it is obvious; a type of passion will emerge from their hearts and mind in such a level that we must read Holy Qur’an. To fulfill the thirst of others, this Holy Qur’an is being translated into various languages and thus reaching to the hands of non-Muslims. If a person in thirst, a glass of water will give him such a joy, similarly, these days, non-Muslims are also in thirst to know about Holy Qur’an and its teachings. In our country when we present this Holy Book – Sinhala Translation of Holy Qur’an to our fellow citizens, particularly to our non-Muslims brothers and sisters including Heads of other Faiths, Professors, Principals VIPs etc. they utter such a valuable words which clearly indicate about their passions to read this Holy Book.  Let me put some of their comments as below:-

1. This valuable gift will provide us the opportunity to read the scripture of other religion.
2. A necessary one and added these days people are quarrelling each other for unnecessary issues and I am pleased to have such a valuable book.
3. Our children should know what religions teach – not only their own religion, but also they should know what other religion say. This is the foundation for the religious harmony.
4. I did not find any source to have such a holy book even though I contacted Muslim friends.
5. I am in searching of such a Holy Book and will read it in full and hailed the task of Ahmadiyya Community in translating Holy Qur’an into Sinhala language.
6. I (she) am very keen to have a copy of Holy Qur’an and thanked for fulfilling my wish.
7. I (she) am pleased to have such a wonderful book for our library.
8. While accepting copy of Holy Qur’an Sinhala Translation, showed much interest to know about the real teachings of Islam as the name of Islam being damaged because of few evil elements. When explained, accepted Islam – a religion of peace.
9. A great gift and she was longing for.
10. When certain extremist elements launched a campaign against Islamic Holy Book, he was thinking he should read this book to know what it really says. Now this is the time for me to read this Holy Book, he added.
11. While accepting copy of Holy Qur’an Sinhala Translation, said she will read this Holy Book as she is in longing of to know about what it says. She opened the Holy Qur’an and read out the meaning of First Chapter (Sura Fathiha) and remarked that the beginning of the verses of this chapter resembles with beginning of the Buddhist Scripture and recited and explained. She immediately called the Chief Librarian of the School and introduced about the delegation and asked her to touch the Holy Book while the delegation took the photograph.
12. This the day he assumes his duty as Principal and glad to get this presentation.
13. I have never seen Holy Qur’an in my life and willingness to get the copy.
14. This is the need of the hour.
15. He was very much amazed to know about Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at’s wonderful task in translating Holy Qur’an into 75 languages and commended such a wonderful task.
16. Expressed his willingness to know about Islam as he remarked that the religion of peace cannot support any type of terrorism in any form.
17. Expressing her interest to know about Islam, while accepting the Copy of Holy Qur’an Sinhala Translation.
18. While accepting the Holy Qur’an Sinhala Translation, said, he will read.
19. She accepted Islam is a religion of Peace, even though certain elements creates bad image.
20. The Holy Prophet of Islam, admonished to respect all religions and that’s why he also is trying to promote religious harmony in the country.

These are the few out of many (https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/03/06/sri-lanka-we-should-read-quran-to-understand-real-teachings-of-islam-bandarawela-top-buddhist-monk-remarks/)

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane says: The Quran tells Muslims to slay the unbelievers wherever they find them (2:191)”.

But the previous verse of this particular verse goes on to say like this: And fight in the cause of Allah against those who fight against you, but do not transgress. Surely Allah, loves not the transgressors (2: 190).The verse contains the gist of the conditions which should regulate a religious war which were made binding on Muslims. The conditions mentioned in this verse are four in number:

1. Such a war should truly be undertaken with the object of removing obstacles placed in the way of God and His religion. Any war that is not fee sabeelillah;  is not a lawful religious war.
2. Such war is allowed only against those who first take up arms against Muslims as the words  (those who fight against you), indicate.
3. Great care should be taken that women, children and old men of belligerent nation who do not take actual part in the war against Islam are  you.  If,  however, if an old man or woman takes actual part in the fighting the responsibility lies on him or her and in such a case he or she loses the concession. Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: ‘Do not kill an old man or a child or a woman, always try to improve things and reform matters and act kindly towards others, for Allah loves those who act kindly’ (Abu Dawud).
4. Muslims should bring the war to an end as soon as the enemy desists from fighting, for in this case further fighting is not permissible, as the words ‘do not transgress; surely Allah loves not the transgressors’ clearly prove. What a just and noble teaching how tersely and beautifully expressed!

The verse under discussion (2: 191) says: ‘And kill them wherever you meet them and drive them out from where they have driven you out; for, persecution is worse than killing. And fight them not in, and near, the sacred Mosque until they fight you therein. But if they fight you, then fight them;  such is the requital for the disbelievers’.

The verse relates to conditions when a war has actually broken out. Obviously it does not apply to all disbelievers, for it only says ‘kill them’ and not ‘kill the disbelievers’. The pronoun ‘them’ clearly refers to those who fight against you as mentioned in the previous verse. The verse calls upon Muslims o fight against only such disbelievers as take up arms against them. It does not call upon to slay each and every disbelievers that may happen to come in their way. Indeed this verse affords a remarkable instance of the way in which the plain words of the Qur’an are generally distorted by the opponents of Islam like Dr. Daya Hewapathirane.

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane. quotes ‘do not befriend them’ (3:28).

Holy Qur’an Chapter 3 verse 28 says: ‘Let not the believers take disbelievers for friends in preference to believers, and whoever does that has no connection with Allah except that you cautiously guard against them. And Allah cautions you against His punishment; and to Allah is the returning’

With the accession of political power to Islam, as promised in the Qur’an, forging of political alliances became necessary for the Muslim State. The above verse embodies the guiding principle that no Muslim State should enter into treaty or alliance with a non Muslim State which should in any way inure or conflict with the interest of other Muslim States. The interests of Islam should transcend all other interest.

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane. quotes ‘fight them and show them harshness’ (9:123).

Holy Qur’an Chapter 9 verse 123 says: ‘O ye who believe! fight such of the disbelievers as are near to you and let them find hardness in you; and know that Allah is with the righteous’.                                                    

  The words such of the disbelievers as are near to you, signify those hypocrites who lived among the Muslims and intermixed with them. Muslims were enjoined to fight them as a class and not each and every and not each and every one of them individually. They were to fight them by exposing their malpractices and hypocritical deeds and by bringing these to the notice of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). The words  and let them find hardness in you; means that, like a hard thing which refuses to receive impressions, a Muslim should not allow himself to be influenced by his evil desires and the evil persons who surround him.

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane. quotes:  ‘and smite their heads’ (47:4).

Holy Qur’an says in Chapter 47 (Sura Muhammad)  and verse: 4 And when you meet in regular battle those who disbelieve, smite their necks; and, when you have overcome them, by causing great slaughter among them, bind fast the fetters – then afterwards either release them as a favour or by taking ransom – until the war lays down its burden. That is the ordinance.   And if Allah had so pleased, He could have punished them Himself, but He has willed that He may try some of you by others. And those who are killed in the way of Allah – He will never render their works vain”.

This verse is a nutshell lays down some important rules about the ethics of war and its conduct and incidentally deals a death blow to slavery. Briefly these are: When they are engaged in regular battle in the defence of their faith, honour, lives or property, the Muslims are enjoined to fight bravely and relentlessly, giving no quarter, and expecting none from the enemy; and not to flee from the field of battle under lame or weak excuses. They must either win or die. When war is once started, it should continue till peace is established and freedom of conscience secured. Prisoners are to be taken from the enemy, only after regular and pitched battle has been bought, and the enemy is decidedly and positively beaten. Thus regular war is declared to be the only reason for taking prisoners; for no other cause free men are to be deprived for their liberty. When war is over, prisoners should be released, either as an act of favour, or on taking ransom or by negotiating mutual exchange. They should not be held permanently in captivity or treated as slaves.       

(This chapter – sura is also known as Qital – war because it devotes a large portion of its text to the subject of war – its causes, ethics and consequences. It was revealed after Hijra (migration) – large part of it having revealed probably before the battle of Badr, in the early days of Prophet Muhammad’S (PBUH) life at Medina.  

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane. quotes ‘It prohibits Muslims to associate with their own brothers and fathers if they are non-believers (9:23), (3:28)’.

Holy Qur’an says in chapter 9 verse 23: ‘O ye who believe! take not your fathers and your brothers for friends if they prefer disbelief to faith. And whoso of you takes them for friends, such are the wrrongdoers’.

This verse refers to that class of disbelievers who were actively hostile to Islam and strove hard to exterminate it.

Holy Qur’an says in chapter 3 verse 28: ‘let not the believers take disbelievers for friends in preference to believers- and whoever does that has no connection with Allah-except that you guard yourself fully against them. And Allah cautions you against His punishment, and to Allah is the returning’.

With the accession of political power in Islam as promised, forging of political alliances became necessary for the Muslim State. The above verse embodies the guiding principle that no Muslim State should enter into treaty or alliance with a non-Muslim State which should in any way injure, or conflict with the interests of other Muslim States. The interests of Islam should transcend all other interests.

Before criticizing that Islam allows killing of non-Muslims, but what is not recognized is the context and history behind these verses. The history tells us that when Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) began preaching the unity of God he was persecuted for 13 years, much as Prophets Abraham and Jesus were. Since Muslims who are being persecuted are encouraged to leave for safer areas, rather than create disorder, Muhammad (PBUH) and his followers migrated to Medina. After they left, the Meccans attacked them in Medina on and off for a period of nine years.

For example, Muslim women had each of their legs tied to different camels who were then made to run in opposite directions so that the bodies of the Muslim ladies were wrenched apart.

Other Muslims were mercilessly beaten or made to lie on the burning desert sands of Arabia as heavy stones were placed upon them. Their persecutors demanded that the Muslims renounced their faith, yet they never countenanced abandoning Islam.

Further, after being driven out of their homes, the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and his followers were not left in peace, rather the opponents of Islam pursued them to wage war in order to eliminate Islam once and for all. It was then that Allah the Almighty permitted the Muslims to defend themselves but not just to defend Islam but to defend the institution of religion itself and in order to defend the principle of universal freedom of belief.

Muslims are only permitted to engage in war in a defensive capacity, when an attack is made to destroy religion. Wars are not permitted to pursue vested interests or in order to seize the wealth of others or to conquer lands or people.

Even in defensive warfare, Islam is very clear that only the aggressors can be targeted and it is not permitted to attack innocent people. Thus, if Muslim extremists are waging wars where innocents are being killed it is completely barbaric and can never be justified.

The cruelties and crimes committed by the Meccan non-Muslims over many years meant that the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) would have been justified in authorising all means of punishment. Yet, he who was the true ‘mercy for all of mankind’ and the ‘King of Peace’ proclaimed that all transgressions and cruelties were to be forgiven. He said that all those willing to live in peace were free and all would have the right to practice their beliefs without any fear.”

REFERENCE:

1. Tafseer e Kabeer by Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmood Ahmad.
2. Holy Qur’an with short commentary by Sher Ali.
3. Compilation of speeches by Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad.

(The writer can be reached at: pressamjsl@gmail.com )

By Chitra Weerarathne Courtesy The Island

Colombo High Court Judge Gihan Kulatunga yesterday convicted Anusha Pelpita, former Director General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) and the second accused Lalith Weeratunga, former Presidential Secretary and former Chairman of TRC, of misuse of state funds and aiding and abetting the same in spending Rs. 600 million on the distribution of sil redi in the run-up to the presidential election on January 8, 2015.

They were each sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment for all the charges with a fine of Rs. 2 million. They were also ordered to pay the TRC Rs. 50 million each.

In default of the fine the penalty will be one year rigorous imprisonment. In default of the compensation the penalty will be two years rigorous imprisonment.

The fine and compensation are to be paid on schedule.

The High Court Judge, delivering the judgement, said there had been a political motivation in the commission of the offence and it was to support their appointing authority.

President’s Counsel Kalinga Indatissa, who appeared for the convicts, requested the High Court Judge to take into consideration, in imposing the penalty, the health condition of the convicts and also the fact that they had no previous convictions. They had held public office for long years without any wrongdoing. The Counsel also stressed that a CID investigation officer in his evidence at the trial had said that the Rs. 600 million had not been not used for the personal benefit of the accused.

Deputy Solicitor General Thusith Mudalige appeared for the Attorney General.

Following the delivery of the judgement the counsel for the convicts told the court that the convicts would shortly file an appeal in the Court of Appeal against the judgment and the penalty imposed.

Lalith Weeratunga, who the Secretary to the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the time of the commission of the offence.

By Maheesha Mudugamuwa Courtesy The Island

‘Good Governance’ had been coined by the IMF, World Bank and the US Treasury, as a political conditionality for the enslavement of indebted countries such as Sri Lanka, former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva Tamara Kunanayakam said on Wednesday.

She said it had not been invented by Ranil, Chandrika, Sirisena or Mangala.

Speaking at the launch of ‘Eliya’ at the Golden Rose, Boralesgamuwa, former Sri Lankan diplomat said today Sri Lanka was under a kind of US tutelage, a global power whose strategic objective was to maintain its global hegemony.

‘Eliya’, an inclusive movement would be a new platform to discuss the crisis of constitutional changes in the country. Former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Ven. Madagoda Abhayatissa,Dr. Dayan Jayatileke, Maj. Gen. (Rtrd) Kamal Gunaratne, Dr. Sarath Weerasekera were among the speakers at the event.

Expressing her views on the new constitutional reforms initiated under the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe unity government, former diplomat Kunanayakam said, with the new constitution, the Yahapalana regime was trying to convert Sri Lankans into Washington’s little soldiers who would defend a hegemonic vision based on invisible threats.

Formulating a new constitution has been the talk of the town during last two years since the unity government was appointed in 2015 but during the National Conference on Constitutional Reforms held at BMICH in June, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe said the government had not yet decided whether it would go for a brand new constitution or adopt provisions that did not necessitate a referendum.

Even-though a draft of a new constitution had not yet been published, ‘Eliya’ was totally against for the formulating of a new constitution just because of the people who had initiated the formulating process.

Former Diplomat Kunanayakam highlighted that the issue was not whether a new Constitution was needed or not. It was the fundamental and inalienable right of the people to determine the economic, social, political and cultural system in which they chose to live. But that choice would be theirs only if it was made freely, not with a gun pointed at their heads.

She stressed that as Sri Lanka was subjected to the 2015 Human Rights Council resolution and the notorious IMF/World Bank conditionalities, rewriting the constitution under such conditions could only advance the US, not Sri Lankans.

The initial plan of the government to abolish the executive presidency has been transformed into a full-blown reform of the Constitution at the behest of the US, she claimed.

Kunanayakam said that even though the US interference in Sri Lanka began long before the resolution was adopted, it was the yahapalana regime that gave it wings and also its international legitimacy.

The demands of the US were so fundamental that they couldn’t be implemented without changing the republican constitution. The demands, she said, a hybrid war crime court, devolution of power, conversion of Sri Lanka armed forces into an auxiliary of the US armed forces.

Speaking at the event former Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Ajith Nivard Cabraal said a country would not establish good governance be mere words and governance in Sri Lanka had worsened over the past two years, and may worsen further if mere devolution was granted.

Cabraal said decisive and quick government responses were needed to tackle serious global challenges and delay in responses would pave the way for more social issues including unemployment and youth unrest.

Referring to the public debt, former CBSL Governor said the discussion on economic reforms in constitution making must not be limited to politicians and a few others only.

‘Eliya’ was a very refreshing approach to prepare the ground for establishing a new government to strengthen the country’s economy.

Highlighting the constitution reforming process of the country, former Sri Lanka Ambassador to France Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke said the government had failed to reveal the most important factor of the constitutional reforming process which was the concept. It had not yet revealed what was the concept for making a new constitution. Even though the government had not revealed the concept, it could be clearly seen by the statements made by the TNA politicians. As once TNA MP Sumanthirana said that it did not a matter whether the word unitary was in the constitution or not, but the two main parts of federal government system should be included to the draft constitution.

Federalisation was not separatism, but when it came to Sri Lanka a federal system would lead to separatism, Dr. Jayathilake added.

A new constitution could not be formulated by a government like the one at present as it had failed to identify the real opposition party in Parliament where it declared that TNA as the Opposition which had only 16 seats instead of the Joint Opposition which had more than 50 seats. Such a government could not formulate a proper constitution for a country, he said.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, former Speaker of parlaiment Chamal Rajapaksa, former cabinet Ministers including Basil Rajapaksa, Dullas Alhapperuma, Dinesh Gunawardena, Bandula Gunawardene, Gamini Lokuge, Kumara Welgama, Rohitha Abeygunawardene, Pavithra Wanniarachchi and many other members of joint opposition, former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, artists, lawyers, doctors, engineers and other supporters of former President Rajapaksa were present.

By Saman Indrajith Courtesy The Island

JVP MP Sunil Handunnettii told Parliament yesterday that the Inland Revenue Bill has been designed to collect tax from each and every living citizen.

Handunetti said the bill was so harmful to the people that the government should include the amendments submitted by the Opposition mitigate the adverse impact. He added that the new tax proposed to collect tax from the areas where the previous one had not collected.

Participating in the second reading stage debate on the Inland Revenue Bill, MP Handunnetti said the bill had been drafted by the IMF for Ghana and subsequently translated into Sinhala. We agree that the government has made changes. But we have submitted our amendments too. The indirect tax is 82 percent.

The Premier said in his policy statement that the indirect tax should be reduced to 60 percent on November 05. “But it has proved a failure although you introduced super gain taxes through the budget proposals.”

“Although they were not collected, the indirect taxes were raked in. That affected only the ordinary masses.”

Handunetti also said that the more than 43 percent of the population does not earn more than Rs 320 a day. “This Bill has proposals to impose a tax on dowry, and transfer of assets from parents to children”

“If someone gets a donation or a gift from the President’s Fund, that money also would be taxed. The writers who publish a book are taxed. Artistes also would not be spared.”

Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera responding to Handunnetti said that a tax would not be imposed on the assets transferred to the children from deceased parents and transfers among blood relations.

MP Handunnetti said that remittances from expatriate Sri Lankans workers would be taxed.  Minister Eran Wickramaratne said that the income of the employees in West Asia would not be taxed. He added that an income of USD 100,000 earned by Sri Lankans in other countries was exempt from taxes.

MP Handunnetti said that the TAX Bill had proposals to impose a tax on the donations made to the Buddhist Monks and the priests. Even a minister related to literature, art and sports would make a donation less than Rs 100,000 to someone, lest he or she should be taxed. “But earlier that money was not taxed,” “Even a small village association will have to pay taxes on their revenue,” he said

Editorial Courtesy The Island

September 7, 2017, 9:55 pm
No sooner had incriminating evidence of insider trading emerged before the presidential commission of inquiry probing the bond scams against Perpetual Treasuries bigwigs than the High Court judgment in the sil redi case was delivered on Thursday. Former Secretary to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and ex-Chairman of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) Lalith Weeratunga and former TRCSL Director General Anusha Pelpita were sentenced to three years RI and fined.

One may argue that the controversial distribution of sil redi (pieces of white cloth worn by Buddhists observing sil) does not bear comparison with the bond scams. But, they are not without some similarities in that they caused massive losses to the state and were carried out at the behest of top politicians. It was to help the then incumbent President Rajapaksa in the presidential fray garner more votes that the UPFA government distributed sil redi. The first bond scam would not have come about if the UNP hadn’t been cash strapped at the time of the last general election. Those who stuck their necks out for their political masters have got into trouble in both cases.

Meanwhile, President Maithripala Sirisena has received praise for appointing the current presidential commission of inquiry, which has, so far, lived up to people’s expectations. But, he has only sought to atone for a grave political sin and got the wheel reinvented, so to speak. It may be recalled that criminal action against the bond racketeers was recommended by the Attorney General’s Department more than two years ago as we have pointed out in this space previously. President Sirisena had no qualms about resorting to politically motivated action in favour of the bond racketeers and their political masters in mid 2015. He acted out of expediency rather than principle.

On June 30, 2015 the AG’s Department, having perused a file the CID submitted on the first bond scam, recommended criminal action. The file (No: C/187/161/2015) was handed over to a senior state counsel of the department. President Sirisena dissolved Parliament before the submission of the report of the COPE, headed by D. E. W. Gunasekera, on the first bond scam and a general election was held in August 2015. A joint administration was formed thereafter. The AG’s department surreptitiously terminated criminal action; it recommended civil action instead, for obvious reasons, and turned the file into a confidential one (CF/08/2015). Another senior AG’s Department official, working within the parameters his bosses had set, recommended that a civil case be filed against Perpetual Treasuries to recover losses. But, that file has since gone missing. Had criminal action been taken against the bond racketeers in 2015 they would have been in prison by now; they would not have been able to carry out the second bond racket in 2016 and there would have been no need for the ongoing presidential probe!

Intriguingly, neither President Sirisena nor the Joint Opposition nor any anti-corruption NGO has called for an investigation into the AG’s Department file which has gone missing. The bond commission investigators have succeeded in retrieving deleted data from the Perpetual Treasuries’ voice logger system and furnishing damning evidence against the bond racketeers. It was no mean achievement and they deserve public plaudits. But, nobody has cared to trace the aforesaid missing file containing a wealth of information about the first bond scam!

Yesterday, when the sil redi judgment was delivered not a single UPFA politician was present in the court house. Former President Rajapaksa and/or his siblings should have been there. The Rajapaksas are responsible for what has befallen Weeratunga and Pelpita. UNP politicians are conspicuous by their absence when Perpetual Treasuries big guns are grilled before the presidential commission of inquiry. Let all those who work for politicians bear in mind that they must not commit any transgressions to please politicians because their political masters won’t leap to their defence when they get into trouble.

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror

A new Constitution or Parliament shouldn’t be allowed to reverse the victories which were accomplished by uniting the country after defeating terrorism, former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa said.

Speaking at the launch of ‘Eliya’ (light) Forum in Colombo on Wednesday, Mr. Rajapaksa said people fear that the accomplished victories would be scraped by bringing in a new Constitution.

This is why experts coming from different fields decided to create the ‘Eliya’ to enlighten the public about the new Constitution. We want to inform the people that the new Constitution should not be brought in,” he said.

He admitted that there were shortcomings of the current Constitution but said the motives behind the introduction of a new Constitution were dreadful.

The same group which collected funds for the LTTE and supplied weapons to them, are today attempting to achieve what they couldn’t accomplish from terrorism. The new Constitution is a necessity of  separatist Tamil politicians and international organisations which attempted to hinder the war against the LTTE,” he said.

He said they have no faith in the government which is attempting to introduce the new Constitution.

We saw how the government assured army leaders that the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) would not be set up. However, it was established later on. The government always said it would protect war heroes but today a large number of soldiers had been imprisoned,” Mr. Rajapaksa charged.

Ven. (Prof.) Medagoda Abhayatissa Thera, Rev. Fr. Wimal Thirimanna, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, Sarath Weerasekara, Thamara Kunanayagam, Manohara de Silva PC, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Rushdi Habeeb and Dr. Seetha Arambepola also addressed the forum.

Members of clergy, a number of politicians, including former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, artistes, academics and professionals attended the event.

M.S.M.Ayub Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Two months ago, the supporters of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Parliament, who call themselves the Joint Opposition, claimed that 18 Parliament members of the Maithri faction of the Sri Lanka Freedom party (SLFP) were to join hands with them. But nobody has defected from the incumbent President’s faction to the former President’s faction yet. And interestingly, neither they continue with their claim nor do their adversaries question them about it, as if both groups had prior knowledge that it was mere rhetoric.

Now, some of the members of the Joint Opposition have started to claim again that eight ministers from the Government, probably those who represented the SLFP would soon leave the Government. And the Daily Mirror reported on Wednesday that the Central Committee of the SLFP headed by President Maithripala Sirisena was to hold a crisis meeting on the issue. The President had stated in a recent meeting with the media that irrespective of, who went out or came in, he had to continue as the President till the end of his tenure.

These occasional claims by the Joint Opposition and the fears of defection expressed by the Maithri faction of the SLFP indicate that the SLFP is already split into two practically, in spite of it being officially considered by the Elections Commission as one party.

However, neither group wants to admit it publicly. Responding to the journalists after visiting the former Deputy Minister Sarana Gunawardene in Welikada prison on Wednesday former President Rajapaksa said that he was still in the SLFP. Also he had recently made a highly controversial claim that he was still the Chairman of the SLFP.

But at the same time he lamented before the SLFP convention held on Sunday at Campbell Park in Colombo that he was not invited for the event.

Then he said he was invited reluctantly. And one of his close aides and former External Affairs Minister Professor G.L. Peiris stated that Mr. Rajapaksa would not attend the convention even if he were invited. What Rajapaksa and his loyalists were not bothered about was that these statements run counter to his claim of leadership of the party.

It is a well known fact that the SLFP faction led by Rajapaksa has borrowed a political party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) from its previous leaders and launched a membership drive under the leadership of Basil Rajapaksa.

The former President had told a gathering in Deniyaya on Tuesday that the Joint Opposition would contest future elections under the flower bud symbol of the SLPP. Promotion of and giving leadership to another party, while being members of the SLFP are no doubt against the Constitution of the SLFP.
Nevertheless, the official SLFP led by President Sirisena had invited the Mahinda faction to the convention, leave alone taking legal action against them for violating party constitution.

The Maithri faction seems to be worrying about a possible erosion of its strength in the event of a clear-cut separation of the two factions resulting from any disciplinary action against Rajapaksa faction for violating party rules, since such action would push those who were on the fence to side with Rajapaksas. Several ministers who are lenient towards the Rajapaksas have openly expressed their frustration over some of the activities of the Government.

Already several ministers such as Susil Premajayantha and W.D.J. Seneviratne who are lenient towards the Rajapaksas have openly expressed their frustration over some of the activities of the Government.

When the UNP took steps to sack Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe from his ministerial post last month on the grounds that he criticised the Government’s agreement with a Chinese firm to lease out the Hambantota Port and thereby breached the collective responsibility of the Cabinet, Premajayantha unhesitatingly and openly endorsed his stance.

However, the possibility of defection in a large scale from the Maithri faction to Rajapaksa faction seems to be remote as the factors that glued them with the Government led by the United National Party (UNP) have not changed. As we questioned in a previous article, if there were SLFP Ministers to quit the Government and join the Joint opposition, why didn’t they do so right away? What is the difference between leaving now and doing so on another day in future?

Needless to say that some of them are frustrated as their say within the Government is minimal and the UNP bulldozes through when it comes to decision making in major issues. All the important Ministries that can influence the overall policies of economy, defence and law and order are being handled by the UNP leaders.

Majority of the SLFP ministers, deputy ministers and State ministers did not join the Yahapalanaya Government, as it is commonly called, out of love. They worked hard to defeat Maithripala Sirisena at the 2015 January Presidential Election and the UNP at the August Parliamentary Elections in the same year. Susil Premajayantha, as the General Secretary of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA), called Sirisena an agent of the Western and the separatist powers on November 22, 2014, the very next day after the latter announced his common candidacy of the Opposition at the last Presidential Election.

Nishantha Muthuhettigama was accused of burning down a propaganda stage of the Opposition’s Common Candidate Sirisena. President Sirisena, as the leader of the UPFA and the SLFP, had to sack Premajayantha and Anura Priyadharshana Yapa from the secretary posts of those two parties, on the eve of the Parliamentary Elections, as they worked against his wishes.

It was the circumstances that compelled them to meekly join hands with the same person and the party they were hell bent to defeat a few days ago. On the one hand UNP did not get sufficient seats to form its own Government, leaving some space for a few members of the UPFA/SLFP to step in. Also it was an opportunity for them to conveniently save their skins from corruption charges while enjoying ministerial perks. It must be noted that all the MPs of the SLFP who joined the Government have been rewarded with portfolios.

The argument that the SLFP members want to leave the Government due to policy differences between the two parties is obsolete rubbish. As Minister Kabir Hashim pointed out on Wednesday at a press briefing there are no policy differences between the two parties with regard to any major issue. Both parties accept the open economic policy and the unitary state of the country.

Neither party has a consistent stand on the concept of Federalism. They are practically in favour of the Executive Presidential system, despite their intermittent support to the voices against that system, depending on how their stance serves their interest of the hour. Corruption has so far been a part of the mode of administration of both parties.

SLFP members of the Government would not see any change in the regime by breaking ranks with it, since the President cannot dissolve the Government until January, 2020 according to the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. The UNP has 106 MPs in the Parliament including the Speaker and they in fact need only eight more members to protect the Government even in case of a mass resignation of SLFP members from the Government.

However, Ministers Duminda Dissanayake, Sarath Amunugama, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Mahinda Amaraweera, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Wijith Wijayamuni Soyza and a few others would probably not let down the Government. So long as the survival of the Government is so assured, both the carrot and the stick would compel many other SLFP members in the Government also to stay put, even after the unity agreement between the UNP and the SLFP lapses in December.

On the other hand, even in case of an en masse resignation of SLFP Ministers from the Government to rally behind Mahinda Rajapaksa, they would need 18 more members to form a Government.

By Prageeth Sampath Courtesy Ceylon Today

The United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Member of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena says Mahinda Rajapaksa carried out development work while the war was being fought. “He ended the war and carried out massive development projects in the country. He built ports, airports, and expressways. If Rajapaksa had not built them, the yahapalana government would have sold the people as slaves”.

Excerpts:

? How is the new party?

A: It is still being talked about. Let’s see what will happen in the future.

? Minister Mahinda Amaraweera says next year there will be enough and more elections. Is this true?

A: That is what he says. But there is no sign of an election. The reason is that the government is attempting to fold up the election map.

? If they hold an election, what‘s your position?

A: We’ll consider it then.

? Will you contest the election from the new front or the SLFP?

A: There won’t be a general election. It will either be a Local Government or Provincial Council election. Whichever election is held we will contest through an alliance.

? Does that mean it will be the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna?

A: Most probably, yes.

? Will SLFPers join the alliance?

A: If they want, they can do so.

? Will they leave their ministerial posts and join the Joint Opposition?

A: They can join it in any way they like. That will be a task for those who have taken over ministerial posts saying that they belong to the SLFP.

? Party membership of those who support the Joint Opposition (JO) are being annulled. They are being removed from the posts of electoral organizers. Disciplinary inquiries are being held. Are you in agreement with such a process?

A: Definitely not. It is a decision of the SLFP. We are not in Parliament as the SLFP, but as members of an alliance. The UNP too is an alliance in Parliament. Therefore we too will contest every upcoming election as an alliance.

? The JO believes that they have 100 per cent advantage at the Local Government Elections. Is this a daydream?

A: It is not a daydream. That is the truth. Very clearly we will gain 100 per cent victory at the village level in elections.

? People in villages of course say that both the previous and the present governments are the same?

A: We have not been told so. However, people in villages are now disgusted with the government which is torturing people in both villages and the cities. All of them say that they do not want the yahapalana government.

? Will the JO make false election promises?

A: No.

? Why not?

A: We will not give political pledges. We cannot do politics by giving promises to the people. What they expect is how the country would be built by telling the truth and how the country would be taken forward. Today, at this moment, no one in the country thinks about the future. Today the country is in such a state that nobody can think of the future. There is no plan for tomorrow for the people of the country. The yahapalana government has created this situation. All hopes of the people have been dashed to the ground. Today people think how to exist. They cannot think of the future. There is no development in the country. Even the government has no development plans for the future.

? The Prime Minister says that by 2022 the country will be free from the debt burden. If that is so, JO‘s claims have no basis. Is the JO coming out with politically deceitful claims?

A: We never say politically deceitful things. The government said the country will be free from debt in 2022. Is it to fulfil that promise that they are selling off the country’s assets? They sold the Hambantota Port. Now they are going to sell the Mattala Airport. They are selling everything that can be sold. They are even trying to sell the Bathalagoda Paddy Research Institute which belongs to the Agricultural Department. They are also trying to sell the Mahailuppallama Farm. When everything is sold there will be nothing left for us by 2022.

? Certain national assets were sold when the alliance was in power. Do you deny it?

A: We love the country and we did not sell the country’s assets. We got investors to carry out projects. Mahinda Rajapaksa thought of the country before approving such projects. The people are aware of them. The former President carried out development work while fighting a ruthless war against the Tigers. He ended the war and continued with his development work. He built ports, airports, and expressways. If he had not built them, the yahapalana government would have sold off the people as slaves. Whenever the UNP came to power they always sold the country’s assets to foreigners. In a way, the SLFP builds and the UNP sells!

? However, the President is the former General Secretary of the SLFP. Do you say that he has no concern for the country?

A: We regret to say that SLFP policies are not being implemented today. That is what certain ministers of the SLFP in the government say.

? Is it because these things are being criticized that disciplinary inquiries are being held and people are chased away from the party?

A: I believe so. However, now we cannot find what the SLFP is. The SLFP has been betrayed. It was reported in last week’s Mawbima what the President had told the UNP backbenchers. When you look at that, what do you feel? The SLFP has already been mortgaged to the UNP.

? Do you mean to say that the Executive President is working according to what the Prime Minister says?

A: Yes, that is what is happening now.

? Is the JO against the new tax law?

A: Yes. Although the government says that both the SLFP and the UNP agreed with the contents of the law, there are conflicts within the ranks.

? Are the conflicts due to the divergence of opinions in the Unity Government?

A: Very clearly.

? If you do not like the government, what is the alternative?

A: The government should be defeated in an election to save the country.

? If you defeat the government, who will come to power?

A: That is what we are preparing for.

? Werern‘t you removed because you did not carry out your duties properly?

A: No. We were removed because of some of our faults. Now the people want us back.

? Will you support the 20th Amendment?

A: No. We won’t. The government is trying to postpone elections by bringing it.

? What do you really want?

A: We want an amendment to change the system of elections and abolish the post of President.

? What is the 20th Amendment about?

A: As we have suspicions about the 20th Amendment, we will not support it.

? The government says a good price is paid for paddy, tea and rubber. It also says that concessions have been given for agriculture. Do you agree with their claims?

A: What lies! Today there is no agricultural industry in the country. Everything is imported from abroad. When the government came to power there was no place to store excess paddy. As a result, excess paddy had to be stored at the Mattala Airport. Today more than 50 per cent of our requirements are imported to the country. That is the policy of the yahapalana government.

? Is there an attempt to make Chamal Rajapaksa the Prime Minister?

A: No. That will never happen. What we want is an election. When we were in power we held elections every six months.

? The President said the government can be toppled only through a conspiracy. Why did he say so?

A: The government is trying to create news. There is no use of toppling the government through a conspiracy. What will happen then is that the country will be in chaos. The government has to be toppled through an election.

? The government says there are rogues in the JO. However, the JO is bringing No Confidence Motions against the rogues in the government. Can you explain?

A: The government is trying to silence the JO by bringing in law suits against them. However, the government knows that it is fighting a losing battle. Very soon it will be toppled democratically.

? The government has charged that with the change of the Minister of Justice the JO is trying to fish in troubled waters. How far is this true?

A: The former Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe spoke up on behalf of the country. He objected to bringing foreign Judges to hear cases against Sri Lankan soldiers. Finally, the government removed him from the ministry.

? Is it true that he had deals with the JO?

A: They are baseless allegations. The government is trying to cover up the Central Bank Bond scam by diverting the people’s attention. The Hambantota Port deal is another fraud. The whole country has been mortgaged to foreign countries.

Shenali D Waduge

An unexpected turn of events gives hope that even after over 500 years the crimes committed by European explorers and the Church will be exposed and lead to an overdue accountability, apology & compensation. As Confederate Statues are being brought down including those of statues of Christopher Columbus, it should take the world to revisit crimes of the Colonial European invaders & the Church. To understand what white supremacist rule is about one has to return to colonial rule, a period wherein whites regarded themselves as Christian/Catholic & superior while all others were uncivilized. Civilizing non-whites became known as the ‘white man’s burden’. White supremacy rationalized unjust rule of people and lands, theft of land and resources, enslavement, and genocide. It is no better a time for the world to know the nature of the crimes committed by the European colonial rulers & the Church and questions their moral right to dictate human rights ignoring these heinous crimes some of which are taking place presently without any international accountability for the illegalities they continue to commit. It certainly questions the pontification of Joseph Vaz in Sri Lanka and calls for all of the injustices and historical falsehoods to now be corrected.

Following the election of President Abraham Lincoln (who was against slavery) in November 1860 – the American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 wherein 11 states that held slavery as legal, seceded to form the Confederate States of America. In 1865, after the loss of more than 600,000 lives, the Confederacy was defeated, and slavery was abolished. The whole point of confederate statues was to celebrate white supremacy and subjugation of blacks. Jim Crow laws segregated blacks from whites. Whites without a doubt enjoy structural advantage income/wealthwise, politically, educationally & even socially. There is nothing to be surprised about white supremacy as it emerged with colonial rule and has continued unabated though camouflaged to a great extent by creating cloned locals to carry out the what the while rulers wanted. These became known as sepoys, lascoreens, brown sahibs and kalu suddas! Today there are 1.3billion white people in a world of 7billion but the brown sahibs probably outnumber the whites!

In April 2017 the Charlottesville town council voted to remove the Robert E. Lee statue. A public protest with a candlelit vigil followed. In May an injunction temporarily stopped the removal. In June the statue was vandalized with paint. In July the Ku Klux Klan held a rally in Charlottesville to protest the statues removal and police had to be used. On 12 August 2017, a clash between remove the statue protestors and maintain the statue protestors resulted in the death of counter protester Heather Heyer. This eventually led to the removal of several Confederate Statues while in Durham North Carolina, a group toppled a statue. What is shocking is that part of America is against white supremacy but another part is not. So much so that Christopher Columbus, the man who committed genocide and murder even enjoyed a federal holiday and countless American history books projected him as a hero!

A 2017 study by Southern Poverty Law Center reported that at least 1,503 symbols of the Confederacy can be found in public spaces across the United States. These memorials include monuments and statues; flags; holidays and other observances; names of schools, roads, parks, bridges, counties, cities, lakes, dams, military bases, and other public works. The largest numbers were constructed in 1911! There are 10 major U.S. military bases named in honor of Confederate military leaders, all in former Confederate States.

The relevancy of the outcome is that all of a sudden people the world over began reading about Confederacy, the US Civil War, slavery, racism and the horrendous crimes of colonial European invaders and the Church are now coming out into the open. What the West had been so tightly guarding except for handful of people who dug deeper into the crimes of the countries who today pretend to be cherubic angels and guardians of human rights, are now beginning to come out with all the gory details.

Why would the US be still celebrating Columbus Day if the American populace did not know Christopher Columbus was a mass murderer?

How many historians will come boldly forward to point the finger at the Church & the Papal Bulls that divided the world between European countries (Treaty of Tordisillas 1494) and the Pope ordered to declare all lands that were not Christian/Catholic as ‘Discovered’ and sent thousands of missionaries to convert or kill the natives and plunder their lands? Between 1493 and 1820, Spain sent some 15,585 missionaries to the Americas. The book a Short Account of the Destruction of the West Indies’ by Bartolomé de las Casas details the atrocities committed.

Moreover, Americans cannot be selective and pick only Confederacy, slavery and racism chapters completely forgetting that the white nation called the US was built by confiscating the lands of the Native Indians, inflicting disease and killing them, making them landless in their own indigenous habitats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI13wMpvj3s

This part of the history cannot be ignored and removed from correcting the injustice. Simply removing statues that have stood for centuries cannot remove the scars that have been created. Americans celebrate Thanks Giving for all that they have but do they also remember how they got all that they have & the murky murderous past?

Spanish conquests of South America destroyed the Mayan, Inca, Aztec civilizations. Spanish Hernán Cortés de Monroy led the Conquistador that resulted in the fall of the Aztec empire. He was awarded the title of Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca. Francisco Pizarro led the conquest of the Incan Empire.

Similarly, how many know of the Scramble for Africa wherein taking a pen Africa became divided among Anglo-Europeans drawing artificial borders all of which are the root-cause of conflicts aroused by these same Anglo-Europeans for their thirst to plunder continues still. There is no historical monument in Africa because the white nations have destroyed them. The 14th century the city of Timbuktu in West Africa was five times bigger than the city of London, and was the richest city in the world? Today, Timbuktu is 236 times smaller than London. http://siliconafrica.com/terra-nullius/

King Leopold II of Belgium, who ran the Congo Free State as a personal property and said to have ordered the killings of over 10m Africans has statues of him erected throughout Belgium! Britain knighted SIR John Hawkins the first British slaver!

However the statue of British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes was defaced while statues of British monarchs Queen Victoria and King George V were splashed with paint in South Africa. Demonstrators even vandalized the statue of Gandhi! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3038655/Memorials-British-colonials-attacked-South-Africa-protesters-demand-statues-honouring-racist-figures-past-removed.html

In Sri Lanka we have named a road after Brownrigg the Butcher of Uva Wellassa. Many Portuguese, Dutch & British colonial rulers remain revered and knighted for their crimes regarded as service to their nations!

What is clear is that while there are thousands of statutes of colonial rulers, their governors etc because their murderous past have not been detailed and taught to natives of their countries, the Western citizens have come to revere these figures totally clueless of how they ruled in Africa, Asia and South America and their murderous past.

Pope Francis canonized Junipero Serra who decimated Native Indians in America. Francis Xavier was canonized but how many know that it was he who called for the Inquisition on Goa? Hindu India was subject to atrocities of unimaginable nature by these Catholic missionaries. https://satyavijayi.com/st-francis-xavier-christian-terrorist-tortured-murdered-hindus-goa/ Similarly Joseph Vaz was canonized in Sri Lanka in 2015 – yet how many are aware of his role in the Inquisition upon both India & Sri Lanka, when he came disguised as a beggar to forcibly propagate Catholicism and murder those that did not willingly convert. How many people know or have bothered to search the truth of their past and rationalize the validity of calling murderers as Saints! https://bharatabharati.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/holy-joseph-vaz-did-he-take-part-in-the-unholy-goa-inquisition-shenali-d-waduge/

It may be a shock to them now to realize that all these years they had been holding murderers with reverence. Many today, feel ashamed and guilty while another lot wish to continue the white supremacist dominance. Then there are the locals who have been mentality programmed to believe the white race to be their superior and that they are born to be slaves to the white race continue to hero worship the murderous heroes of the past and the present day murderers as well.

Nevertheless, the incidents that have taken place in the US has had a welcome domino effect. For starters people are now taking out their history books and doing their own research to find out the shocking truth. Ideally, what should happen instead of removing the statues or destroying them is to have an epitaph engraved giving the gory details of their crimes for all to remember. Possibly, the plan to remove the statues may be to remove even the remaining evidence of their crimes since the history books have all been doctored to showcase how lovely colonial rule was. That however is far from the truth.

We hope that the white natives that are now beginning to open their eyes and see the reality of the crimes that took place in the past will help us to get the overdue apology, acknowledgement and compensation and also help fend off these same nations that are now returning to the lands they destroyed for a new phase of plunder and murder this time with more sophistication and backed by Media & the UN their fronts to hide their crimes from public domain.

From colonialism’s horrid past we are now entering neocolonialism’s ghastly present.

Shenali D Waduge

MEDIA RELEASE.Global Sri Lankan Forum Australia

The statement of the Minister Sarath Fonseka that he would volunteer to testify against Gen.  Jagath Jaysooriya, if called upon to prove that the latter had committed war crimes,  is indeed distasteful and impetuous. The Minister has repeatedly said on previous occasions that the Defence forces did not commit any war crimes and it was a war to defend the country from the grip of a bunch of terrorists. He may have forgotten his own public utterances on the war as the Commander of the army or was it merely a case of raising a dust to embarrass a brother officer by acting indignantly.

Sarath Fonseka’s rush of words, added  insult to injury  when referring the Gen. Jayasooriya’s alleged mishandling of funds etc., which is entirely different to the issue of war crimes. His hasty reactions of wild irrationality failed to identify the pro- LTTE financed push to activate a number of FNGOs in some Latin American countries under the command of the infamous Yasmin Sooka who lead a number of operations to blacken the image of Sri Lanka including being a member of the highly biased Ban-ki Moon commission!

Fortunately, The President, a number of senior ministers, a good number of Parliamentarians, and members of the Maha Sanagha have registered their voice against this simple-minded approach of the Field Marshal.

We should not play the giddy goat to achieve the malicious objectives of one’s agenda at the expense of the defence forces which liberated over 285,000 Tamil children and adults from the tyranny of the brutal Tamil Tiger Terrorists and created a liveable space for all the Sri Lankans.

We trust that  Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka will not forget to affirm his much publicised statements assuring the world that  war crimes were not committed by the Sri Lankan defence forces.

While we, the Global Sri Lankan Forum,  deplore the statement made by the Field Marshall, we call upon all
right-thinking leaders and the public to stand firm with the defence forces which helped to create a peaceful Sri Lanka by sacrificing tens of thousands of their members including  the thousands that remain disabled or are counted as missing.

Ranjith Soysa.

Spokesperson
Global Sri Lankan Forum Australia

S. Akurugoda

As per media reports, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has received an assurance from India that it will support the ongoing constitutional making process until it could be brought to a successful conclusion.

According to the  said news item,  TNA  Leader Sampanthan has urged  the Indian Foreign Minister to exert pressure to the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure that the promise given to the people and to the International community.

It is a well known fact that the plotters of the 2015 regime change  have entered into  various secret understandings with the  TNA, so-called Tamil Diaspora, the West and India as a part of their political coup.

As a result, we are witnessing  how influential are the  separatist and foreign elements in day to day activities of the current Ranil- Sirisena administration. The bare truth about the current policies of both the UNP and the SLFP is that neither of the leaders of the day represents the interest of any community, but standing for their own self interest of either hanging onto power by hook or crook.

Seeking and receiving assurances from foreigners to resolve internal affairs of the country emerged as never before  after 1977, mainly due to the short-sighted policies adopted by the UNP government.

India became the first country, since independence, to interfere with the internal affairs of Sri Lanka.

The book ‘Assignment Colombo’ written by J. N. Dixit, the former Indian High commissioner to Sri Lanka (1985-1989), outlining his version of the story, tells us how the Indian government went all out to coerce Sri Lanka into submission.

India provided training to separatists to fight against the Sri Lankan security forces. Indian cargo planes invaded Sri Lanka’s air space challenging the sovereignty of our country, and almost forced former president JR Jayawardena (JR) to ‘invite’ Rajiv Gandhi to Sri Lanka to sign the agreement and to accept the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF). Sri Lanka had no alternative but to ‘surrender’ to India’s demands and sign a hurriedly prepared document endorsed by the Tamil separatist groups including the LTTE.

India had to pay a heavy price for its misdeeds later.

India’s above reported most recent assurance to ensure further constitutional reforms to please separatist elements, whom they assisted in the past, after forcing us a certain form of a Federal structure via 13^th Amendment to the Constitution 30 years ago  is a clear indication  that India is still in a confusion over its territories, despite its past failures.

බෝධි ධනපාල, කිබෙක්,  කැනඩාව

නලින් ද සිල්වා මයා ගැන ලංකාවෙබ් ප්ත්‍රයෙහි පලවෙන ලිපි බලා ඔහු පිලිබඳව මගේ අත් දැකීම් ද  සටහන් කිරීමට සිතුනි. සිල්වා මහතා කොලඹ විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයෙන් ගණිතය සඳහා බී එස් සී උපාධියක් ලබා ගත්තේය. එය ගැන ලියමින් සිල්වා මහතා කිව්වේ ඔහු සිංහල බෞධ ආචාර්ය වරුන්ගෙන් කිසිවක් උගත්තේ නැති බවය. එදාත්, (අදත්) ඔහුට සිංහල බෞද්ධයන්ට අපහාස කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය තාවයක් තුබුනි. පසුව මහා සිංහල බෞධයෙකු ලෙස පෙනී සිටමින් බුද්ධාගම ගැනත්, ඕල්කොට තුමා සහ අනගාරික තුමා ද ඉක්මවා යමින් තමන්ගේ බෞධත්වය නැගවීමට තැත් කරන මුත්, මුලදී ඔහු අමු මාක්ස්වාදියෙක් විය. අරමුන හොඳ නම් එය දිනා ගැනීමට හැකිනම්  කුමන ක්‍රමයක් යොදාගත්තත් කමක් නැත (end justifies the means) යන අබෞද්ධ තිරිසන් දර්ශණය සිසුන් අතර  පතුරව්මින් සිට ආචාර්ය උපාධියක් කරන්නට යයි සසෙක්ස් නැමැති එංගලන්ත සරසවියට සිල්වා මහතා ගියේය.

නමුත් සසෙක්ස් සරසවියේදී සිල්වා මහතා ඔහුට අදාල කෘතිය වෙනුවට වෙන මගඩි වල නියලුනේය. ඔහු විසින් ම ඉතාම පුරජේරිවෙන් කියා ඇත්තේ රට ගිය වහාම බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය කම්කරු පක්ෂයේ සටන්කාමික සගයෙකු වශයෙන් වැඩ කල බවය. ලංකාවේ පුර වැසියාගේ සල්ලි වලින් ඉගෙනගන්න යැයි රට ගොස් සිල්වා මහතා ඒකයි කලේ. ආචාර්ය උපාධියකට සාමාන්‍යයෙන් අවුරුදු 4ක් වත් ඉගෙනීම් සහ පර්යේෂණ කල යුතුය. නුමුත්, අවුරුද්දක් වත් යන්නට පෙර සිල්වා මහතා තමාගේ උපාධියට අනුසාසනා කරන මහාචාර්යයාට  කිව්වේ තමාට මෙම අන්දමේ “පට්ට පල් බොරු  බටහිර විද්‍යාව” ඉගෙනීමට නොහැකි බවත්, අප්‍රිය බවත්, ආපසු යෑමට අවශ්‍ය බවත් ය. මිදි වල්ල තිත්ත වූ නරියාගේ කතාව කවුරුත් දනී. තවද, සිල්වා මහත ගැට කාරයෙක් බවද, පෙරලිකාරයෙක් බවද එම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ කවුරුත් මෙවකට තේරුම් ගෙන තුබුනි. එහෙයින් මහාචාර්ය වරයා මෙම ඉල්ලීමට ඉතා කැමති විය. නුමුත්, උපාධියක් නැතිව සිසුවෙක් යෑම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට පමනක් නොව, සරසවියට ද පාඩුවකි. එනම්, එංගලන්තයේ යම් සරසවියකට  දෙන මුදල් ප්‍රතිපාදනය එම සරසවියෙන් පිටකෙරෙන උපාදිධරී සංඛ්‍යාවට අනුපාතික වෙන හෙයිනි. එහෙයින් මහාචාර්ය වරයාට උවමනා උනේ සිල්වා මහතාව හනික ලංකාවට ආපසු යැවීම පමනක් නොව, ඔහුගේ නාමයෙන් දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවට ලැබෙන දීමනාවද බේරාගැනීමය. එහෙයින් ඔහු සිල්වා මහතාට කිව්වේ තම   කණ්ඩායම කරන පර්යේෂණයකට ඔහු ද සම්මදම් වී තව හය මාසයක් වත් ඇත්තට වැඩ කරමින්  රැංදී හිටියොත් උපාධියත් ලාබෙට අරගෙන ලංකාවට යා හැකි බවය. එනම්, ඩිංගක් හෝ වැඩ කොලොත් සිල්වා මහතාගේ නාමයද ලාබෙටම අර කන්ඩායමෙන් ලියන ලිපියක කතෘ නාම පෙලට දාන්න හැකි බවය.   එම විධියට සිල්වා මහතා උපාධි කොලයද පෙරලියෙන් සහ ලාබෙන් ලබාගෙන ලංකාවට ඇවිත් කිව්වේ කුමක්ද? ඔහු කිව්වේ තමා ඉතාම දක්ෂ හෙයින් තමාට මාස 18කින් ආචාර්ය උපාධියක් ප්‍රධානය කෙරුනු බවය!

සිල්වා මහතා සසෙක්ස් සරසවියට  ගියේ සාපේක්ෂතා වාදය ඉගෙනීමටය. නුමුත් වැඩි කලක් එහි නොසිටි හෙයින් ද, එයින්ද  වැඩි කොටසක  බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය දෙශපාලන පක්ෂ වැඩ වලට ගත කල හෙයින් ද, සිල්වා මහතා ලංකාවට පැමිනියේ ගණිතය හෝ සාපේක්ෂ තා වාදය හෝ කිසිසේත් හදාරා නොවේ. නුමුත් ඔහු ලංකාවේ පෙනී සිටියේ තමා ගණිතයත්, සාපේක්ෂතා වාදයත්, භෞතික විද්‍යාවත්  ගැන හසල දැනීමක් ඇති අසහාය චින්තකයෙක් ලෙස පෙන්වමින්ය. හිස් කලය හය්යෙන්ම සද්ද කරන බව කවුරුත් දන්නා නුමුත් සිල්වා මහතාගේ ඒ හිස් බව, පුහු බව කෙලින්ම නොපෙනෙන්නට හේතුවක් විය. විද්‍යඥයෙක් නොවූ වත්, පෙරලිකාරී දේශපාලනයට සහ අන්‍ය්යන්ට පහර ගැනීම අතින් සිල්වා මතාට උපරිම ශක්තියක් තුබුනි.

බොරු ආචර්ය කොලයද ගෙන ලංකාවට පැමිනි සිල්වා මහතා සරසවිය තුල කල පෙරලි ගැන, සිසුන් සංවිදානය කරමින්, නොමග යවමින්, පාඩම් කරනවා වෙනුවට සටන්කාමීත්වය පුහුනු කරමින් කල මගඩි අන්තිම උනේ කොලඹ ගණිත දෙපර්තමේන්තුවේ ප්‍රධාන ආචාර්ය වී කේ සමරනායක මහතා ට අඩන්තේට්ටම් කරමිනි, මහචාර්ය ඈපාසිංහ මහතාට තර්ජනය කරමිනි. අන්තිමේදී සිල්ව මහතා කොලඹ සරසවියෙන් නෙරපා දැමුනි. ටිකක් කලක් රස්සවක් නොමැතිව සිටි සිල්වා මහතා ඔහිගේ මිතුරෙකු කැලනි සරසවියේ ඉහල තැනකට එනකන් සිට, අලුතෙන් පත් වූ ආණ්ඩුවක සහායද ලබාගෙන කැලනිය ගණිත අංශයට කථිකාචාර්ය වරයෙක් ලෙස පත්විය. එදා සිට කැලනිය විද්යා පීඨය විකාර පීඨයක් බවට පත්කර මහා පෙරලියක් කිරීමට සිල්වා මහතා පටන් ගත්තේය.

නුමුත් සිල්වා මහතාගේ පුහු බව වැසී ගියේ එකල ප්‍රබාකරන් නැගී සිට ඊලම් යුද්ධ පටන් ගත් හෙයිනි. ඔහු ඊලම් වාදයට සහ දෙමල ජාති වාදයට දක්ෂ ලෙස පුවත් පත් ලියුම් ලියමින් උද්ඝොෂන කරන්නට පටන් ගත්තේ ත්‍රස්තයන් සමඟ සාම සාකච්චා කිරීම නියම ක්‍රමය යැයි කිව් මැති ඇමති වරු සිටි අවිචාර සමයකය දීය.  එහෙයින් සිල්වා මහතා ඉහලම පෙලේ දෙශ ප්‍රේමීයෙක් ලෙස නමක් ලබාගැනීමට ප්‍රමුඛ විය. නුමුත් ඔහුගේ ඊලම් විරෝධී ලිපි වල පවා තුබුනු පුහු ලක්ෂණයක් වූයේ, එහි ද තමා සාපේක්ෂතා වාදය සහ අයින්ස්ටයින් ගේ මත දන්නා බවද, නුමුත් “බටහිර විද්‍යාව” පට්ට පල් බොරුවක් බවද නිතොරවම, අනවශ්‍ය තැන් වලද,  සඳහන් කිරීමය. මීට හේතුව මේ හිවලා තවමත් මිදි වැල තිත්තයැයි කියමින් තමාගේ අසාථකත්වය වසා ගැනීමට තැත් කරන  බව බොහෝ දෙනා නොදැන සිටියේ ඔහු ගේ ආචාර්ය උපාධිය සැබෑ ලෙස අවුරුදු 4ක් පර්යේෂණ කොට ලබා ගත්  උපාධියක් යැයි මහ ජනයා සිතූ හෙයින් ය.

 සිල්වා මහතාගේ විද්‍යා නූගත් කම මට පැහැදිලි වූයේ දන්ත වෛද්‍ය මහාචාර්ය  අසෝක අමරසිංහ මහතා විදුසරට ලිව් ලිපි වලට සහාසික ලෙස පහර ගහමින් නලින් ද සිල්වා මහතා ලියන්නට පටන් ගත් අමූලික බොරු වලින් පූර්ණ ලිපි මා දුටු විට ය. තව්ද, ඔහු අයිලන්ඩ් පත්‍රයට ඉංග්‍රීසියෙන් ද විද්‍යාව “පට්ට පල් බොරුවක්” යැයි කියමින් විකාර ලිපි පල කලේය. මහාචාර්ය කර්ලො ෆොන්සෙකා වනි කිහිප දෙනෙක් හැර, සිල්වා මහතාට විරුද්ධව ඇත්තක් කීමට කිසි කෙනෙක් ඉදිරි පත් වූයේ නැත. ඊට හේතුව, “ලංකා විත්ති”,  රංජිත් සොයිසා යනාදී සිල්වා මහතාගේ බොහෝ ඇම්බැට්ටයො ද සිටියේ කිතුල් පොලු දරාගෙන සිල්වා මහතා කියන ඕනෑ බොරුවක් සනාථ කිරීමටය.   ඔවුන්ගේ ඉතා පටු මතය වූවේ  සිල්වා මහතා ගේ වැරදි දැක්වීම සිංහල රටට පාඩු වන, ඊලම් සටනට ලාභ වෙන කතාවක් ලෙසය!  

සිල්වා මහතා දක්වන විද්‍යා මත සාවද්‍ය බව මම මහාචාර්ය කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් මහතාගෙන් ද, මහාචාර්ය චන්ද්‍ර ධර්මවර්ධන මහතා ගෙන් ද විමසා තහුවරු කර ගත්තෙමි. ඉන් පසු සිල්වා මහතාගේ බොරු විද්‍යා ප්‍රකාශ හෙලි කිරීමට මම පටන්ගත්තෙමි. එකල විදුසර සඟරාව නලින් සිල්වා නැමති පුහු “චින්තකයට”, “බොරු විද්‍යාඥයා” ට සින්නක්කාර ලෙස දී තුබුනු කාලයක් හෙයින් සිල්වා මහතා ගේ යතා තත්ත්වය හෙලි කිරීමට අපට ඉඩක් ලබා ගැනීමට මහාචර්ය ධර්මවර්ධන සහ මහාචාර්ය තෙන්නකෝන් ද සහාය යොමු කිරීමට අවශ්ය වි. මෙහිදී ලංකාවෙබ් කතුවරයාගේ පිහිට සහ විද්‍යා නිපුනත්වය ඉතාම ප්‍රොයෝජනවත්  විය.

සාපේක්ෂතා වාදය තබා E=MC2 යන සූත්‍රය වත් පැහදිලි ලෙස සිල්වා මහතා නොදන්නා බව ලෝකයාට දැක්වීමට අපට හැකි විය. ස්කන්ධයක් නැති ෆෝටොනයට ස්කන්ධයක් ඇතැයි කීමට තරම් සිල්වා මහතා නූගත් විය, සහාසික විය. එය වසා ගැනීමට බුද්ධගෝෂ හිමියන් පටලවා බුදු දහමටත් වින කිරීමට සිල්වා මහතා තැත් කලේය. එක ආලෝක ධාරවක් හරහා  තවක් ආලෝක ධාරවකට යන්නට හැකි බව අපි කවුරුත් දනිමු, සාමාන්‍ය පොදු පෙල සිසුවෙක් පමණක් නොව, ටෝච් එලි දෙකක් යොදා බැලූ ඕනා කෙනෙක් දනී. නුමුත් භෞතික විද්‍යාවෙහි හසලයෙක් මෙන් පෙන්නමින් සිටි සිල්වා මහතා මෙය නොදැන සිටියේය. අලෝක ධාර දෙක ඇට බෝල ප්‍රහාර දෙකක් මෙන් විසිරී යන බව ඔප්පු කිරීමට ද මෙම පුහු චින්තකයා ඉදිරිපත් ව  විදුරැස ට ලිපියක් ද ලිව්වේය – එවැනි අවිචාර  ලිපි විදුරැස පල කෙලේය! සිල්වා මහතා ගේ පුහු ලිපි තවම්ත් විදුරැස සඟරාවෙහි පූර්වස්ථව, කැපී පෙනෙන ලෙස  දක්වා ඇත!

මෙම විවාදය යන කාලයේ දී සිල්වා මහතා අපට කදිම අභියෝගයක් කලේය. තමාට ගුරුත්වාකර්ෂණයක්  නොදැනෙන බවද, ගුරුත්වාකර්ෂණයක් යන්නක් නොමැති බවද, එවන්නක් බෝධි ධනපල විද්‍යා මාන කරන්නේ නම් නලින් ද සිල්වා මහතා නාථ දෙවියන් විද්‍යාමාන කරන බව ද, එය සඳහා මට ලංකාවට පැමිනීමට ගුවන් ටිකට් එකක පවා දෙන්න සූදානම් බහව ද කීය. අහිකුන්ටිකයා නයා පෙන්න ගණනට නාථ දෙවියන් සිල්වා මහතාට වෙන්වීමට නොහැක. ඔහු විකාර දොඩවන බව පැහැදිලි මුත් මෙය ට දල වශයෙන් එකඟ වූ විට සිල්වා මහතා වහා අභියෝගය වෙනස් කලේය. ගුරුත්ව ආකර්ෂණයක් නොව, ව්‍යුක්ක්ත (abstract) ගුරුත්ව ආකර්ෂණ බලයක් දැකිවිය යුතු යැයි සිල්වා මහතා අලුතෙන් කීය. තවද, මගේ ලිපියෙහි සිල්වා වෙනුවට සිවලා යැයි යම් තැනක සඳහන් වී ඇතැයි ද, එහෙයින් ම ඔහු වැනි උත්තරීතර පුද්ගලයෙකුට අපහාස කෙලේ යැයි ද, කපටි සිවලෙකුට සමාන කලේ යැයි ද  චොදනා කලේය! අභියෝගය එතැනින්ම එවර විය. අපි අභියෝගය නොගෙන, ඔහුට අපහාස කොට පලා ගියේ යැයි චෝදනා කලේය!  

නිව්ටන් ආකර්ෂණ බලයක් ඇති බව දැක්වූ මුත්, එය ඇතිවන්නේ කෙසේ දැයි පැහැදිලි කලේ නැත. ගුරුත්ව ආකර්ෂණය මෙන් විද්‍යා මාන වන්නෙ අවකාශ-කාලයේ වක්‍රාතාවය බව අයින්ස්ට්යින් යෝජනා කලේය. මෙයින් ගුර්ත්ව ආකර්ෂණයක් නැතැයි තීරණය කිරීම වැරදි බව අයින්ස්ටයින් ම පැහැදිලිවම ඔහු ගේ පොතෙහි දක්වා ඇති බව්ට පිටු පවා දක්වමින් සිල්වා මහතාට කරුණු හුවා දැක්කූවෙමු. නුමුත් සිල්වා ට හෝ සිවලා ට හෝ, එයින් වැඩැක් ලැබුනේ  නැත!

සිල්වා මහතා දන්නා බුදු දහමක් නැත. ඔහු කාලාම සූත්‍රයට විරුද්ධ වන්නේ එහි ඇති විද්‍යානුකූල ක්‍රමය නිසාය. එහෙයින් එයට අලුත් තේරුමක් දී තිරශ්චීන (ගුප්ත ) විද්‍යා වලට ඉඩක් දීමය. නැකැත් බැලීම, පේන ඇහීම වැනි දේට, යකුන් භූතයන් ඇදහීමට  සිල්වා මහතා ඉඩක් සොයයි.

නවීන ව්ද්‍යාව ඒබ්‍රහමික ආගම් වලින් එන්නක් යැයි ඔහු කියන්නේ නවීන විද්‍යාවේ ග්‍රීක් පදනම, හෙරක්ලීටස්, සොක්‍රටීස්, ප්ලේටො, අර්කිමෙඩිස්, ආදීන් අමතක කරමිනි. ග්‍රීක චින්තනය ට පසු බිම් වූයේ ඊට ස්වල්ප කලක් ප්‍රථමයෙන් වූ ඉන්දීය බෞද්ධ චින්තනයයි. මෙය සේද මාර්ගයේ (silk road) තවලම් වලින් ග්‍රීකයට ද පැමිනියේය. විද්‍යාවේ ක්‍රමය කාලම සූත්‍රයෙහි, ඥන සූත්‍රයෙහි, සහ “එහි පස්සිකො” ධර්මයෙහි ප්‍රථමයෙන්ම ප්‍රකාශ කොට ඇත.

පුහු චින්තනය අත හැර දමා සිල්වා මහතා ලංකාවේ දරුවන් නොමග යැවීම නතර කොට, නිකන් ඉන්න බැරි නම්  නැවතත් එංගලන්තයට ගොස් කම්කරු පක්ෂයේ සටන්කාමියෙක්  ලෙස කටයුතු කිරීමට හෝ, නාථ දෙවියන් පෙන්නමින් නගරයෙන් නගරයට යමින් සිටීම්ට ද හැකි බව සලකන්න.

By Rohana R. Wasala

Excellent! Thank you, you anonymous scholar  writing under the pen name Nila Maha Yodaya  (Lankaweb/September 6, 2017)

සිල්වාගේ ප්‍රශ්නය – කතෝලික බැතිමතුන්ට ආගමේ අය යයි කියන්නේ ඇයි?

පිලිතුර– වචනයේ පරිසමාර්ත අර්ථයෙන්ම  කතෝලික ආගම ආගමකි. කතෝලික අය බෞද්ධගම් කාරයින්ට කියන්නේ අන්‍යාආගම් කාරයින් කියායි

Yes, I for one, agree with your answer to the question: ‘Why are Catholics called ‘people of religion?’

The Catholic religion is a religion in the categorical sense of the word.” Your answer correctly implies that Buddhism is not a religion in the same sense. When we were children in the 1950s and 60s, we always heard Catholics and Christians being referred to (by our parents and others in our Buddhist neighbourhood) as ‘aagam karayo’ or religionists. The implication was that Buddhism itself was not regarded as a religion. Buddhists were quite comfortable with that reality. Article 5 of the Sinhala version of the 1815 Kandyan Convention requires the incoming British imperial administration to protect and maintain the ‘Buddhasasanaya and the Devagama’ as a commitment that is never to be broken/infringed; its meaning was very clear to the Kandyan chiefs and the people of the Kandyan provinces. But the English translation erroneously substitutes the phrase ‘the religion of Boodhoo’ for the Sinhala ‘Buddhasasanaya and Devagama’. In any case, the crafty English cared little about honouring that pledge. When Europeans arrived at the beginning of the 16^th century, the Sinhalese Buddhists were almost innocent of religion. Some learned monks of the era even produced literary works attacking belief in, and supplicating to, Hindu gods for  help in worldly matters. Unfortunately, most of our fellow Sinhalese Buddhists today are easy prey to god men and god women who thrive on their gullibility.

We usually like to read only good things written about Anagarika Dharmapala. The fact that he had  to face many critics even among Sinhala Buddhists whose cause he championed is often attributed to their alleged ingrained ingratitude. An apparently frustrated and disillusioned Anagarika wrote in his diary (August 2, 1929): …..Sinhala Buddhist is devoid of good qualities. He is full of the vicious qualities set forth in the Vasala and Parabhava Suttas” (a point of view many of us would feel tempted to wholeheartedly embrace considering the plight of many patriots including war heroes who made such personal sacrifices to rid the country of terrorism recently).

However, the rift between the Anagarika and Olcott was not only on grounds of differing conceptions of Buddhism. His own personality seems to have played a role. In Chapter 9 of ‘The Lion’s Roar – Anagarika Dharmapala & the Making of Modern Buddhism’ by Dr Sarath Amunugama (Vijitha Yapa, 2016, there is a section under the sub-heading ‘Anagarika Arbudaya’  Anagarika  Crisis (pp. 659-65)dealing with this subject. Anagarika Dharmapala’s diary entry quoted in the above paragraph is from p. 661 of that book. The theosophists charged him of attempting treacherously to uproot the tree that was BTS and plant in its place the M.B.S. and establish his hegemony”. Dr Amunugama says that the authorship of this  document has been attributed to D.B. Jayatilake on account of its logical style, superb deployment of the Sinhala language, its knowledge of Buddhist teachings, detached tone…..” all characteristics that demonstrate the outstanding intellect of Jayatilake”. According to Dr Amunugama the publication is a well argued and comprehensive reply to all Anagarika Dharmapala’s unprovoked criticisms of the BTS. (BTS and M.B.S. respectively stand for the Buddhist Theosophical Society and the Maha Bodhi Society.) The author of ‘Anagarika Arbudaya’ gives a hint of his insight into the personality of Anagarika Dharmapala: When we analyse Mr Hewavitarne’s speeches and actions we find that he is skilled in self promotion by undertaking large projects without adequate preparation. He is good at self-praise. But we find that he is an incompetent person who cannot bring even small efforts to a successful conclusion” (Ibid., p. 665).

It is possible that otherwise excellent people tend to assume totalitarian attitudes in their ideologies as well as in their practice in any sphere of activity because of their egoism. It is a paradox that people who claim to be followers of Buddhism are in such blatant contravention of one of its basic teachings in their actual conduct. However, all of us patujjanas, worldlings, can’t help but succumb to this common human failing in varying degrees. What we may hope to do is to acquire the wisdom to be aware of it and keep it under control as best we can, while radiating thoughts of loving-kindness to all our fellow beings.

නීල මහා යෝදයා

දැන් නලින් ද සිල්වාට මහතාට ඇති එකම ප්‍රශ්නය නම්  මේ නීල මහා යෝදයා නමින් පුහු චින්තකයාගේ පුහු චින්තන එළිදරවු කරන තැනැත්තා කව්දැයි හඳුනා ගැනීමයි. වරක් ඔහු  ලංකවෙබ් වෙබ්ජාලයහි සංස්කාරක කර්තෘ නීලමහා යෝදයායි වරදවා හඳුනාගෙන  ද්‍යෝෂාරෝපණය කරමින් ඔහුගේම වෙබ්ජාලයහි සටහනක් තබා තිබුනි . නමුත් ලංකවෙබ් වෙබ්ජාලයහි සංස්කාරක කෙනෙක් හෝ කර්තෘ කෙනෙක් නැති බව එහි පලමුවෙනි පිටුවෙහින් දෙන පනිවිඩයේ සඳහන් වෙයි. මෙම පනිවිඩය අනුව ලංකවෙබ් ක්රියා කරනවන්නේ ස්වෙච්ඡාවෙන් ඉදිරිපත්වූ ශ්රීලාන්කිකයින් බව ඉතා පැහැදිලිය. තවත් වරක්  ධර්මසිරි වීරසිංහ නැමති තැනැත්තා නීලමහා යෝදයා නමින් පෙනීසිට  ඔහුගේ ලිපි වලට ප්‍රතිචාරය දෙන්නේයයි කියා දෝෂාරෝපනය කර තිබුනි.  මීට මාස කිහිපයකට ප්රථම ධර්මසිරි වීරසිංහ මහතා සහ නලින් ද සිල්වා මහතාට අතරේ විද්යත් මාර්ගයෙන් ඇතුවු ලොකු බහින් බස් වීමක් නිසා ධර්මසිරි වීරසිංහ මහතාව  මෙසේ සැකකරනබවත්  නලින් ද සිල්වා මහතාගේ මේ ප්රකාශයන් තරයේ ප්රතික්ෂේප කරන බවත් ධර්මසිරි වීරසිංහ මහතාගේ ප්‍රතිචාරවලින් හැඟීයයි.

මෙහි වැදගත්ම දේ වන්නේ නීල මහා යෝදයා එක්තරා පනිවිඩයක් සිංහල පමනක් කථාකරන මහ ජනතාව ඉදිරියෙන් දි දිගහැරීමයි. ඒ තමා පුහු චින්තකයාගේ පුහු චින්තන. නීලමහා යෝදයා කියන හැම සිද්ධාන්තයක් සහ පරිසිද්ධියක්ම ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් පලකරනලද කරුණු වන අතර සමහර කරුණු අන්තර්ජාලයෙන් උවත් ලබාගත හැකිය.

නලින් ද සිල්වාගේ පුහු චින්තන අතර ප්‍රධාන තැන ගන්නේ;

1. ඕල්කොට් බෞද්ධයෝ යයි ඉංග්‍රීසි උගත් සිංහල බෞද්ධයින් බෙදා වෙන්කිරීම
2. නවීන විද්යාව පට්ටපල් බොරුවක්යයි ප්‍රචාරය කිරීම
3. නවීන විද්යාව යුදෙව් ක්‍රිස්තියානි සංකල්පයකි ඇතිවූවක් බව ප්‍රචාරය කිරීම
4. ඥානය, ප්‍රඥාව, ‘සම්මා දිට්ඨිය’, සක්කාය දිට්ඨිය සහ විඥානය යන බෞද්ධ ධර්මතාවයන්ට අබෞද්ධ අර්ත්ථ කථනයන් ආරූඩ කිරීම

කාලාම සූත්‍රය කියා දෙන පරිදි ඥානවිභාගී යථාර්ථය හා සදාචාරාත්මක ශක්ති තුළ සත්ය ලෙස පිළිගන්නේ   පෞද්ගලිකව තේරුම් ගත හැකි     සැබෑදැයි පරීක්ෂාකර කළ හැකි දේ පමණි.

කාලාම සූත්‍රයෙහි සඳහන් පරිදි කේසපුත්ත නියම්ගම් වැසි කාලාම ශාක්‍යයෝහට භාග්‍යවතුන් වහන්සේ මෙසේ කීහ.

“කාලාමයෙනි, 

1. නුඹලාඅනුන් කියනු ඇසීමෙන් නොපිළිගත යුතුය. 
2. පරම්පරායෙහි ආ හෙයින් නොපිළිගත යුතුය.
3. මෙය මෙසේදවිය හැකියයිනොපිළිගත යුතුය.  
4. අපගේපොත පතෙහි සඳහන් බැවින්නොපිළිගත යුතුය. .
5. තර්‍කානුකූලයයිදනොපිළිගත යුතුය. 
6. න්‍යායට අනුකූලයයිදනොපිළිගත යුතුය. 
7. මේ කාරණය යහපතැයි කල්පනා කිරීමෙන්දනොපිළිගත යුතුය. 
8. අප නුවණින් තීරණයකොට ගන්නාලද දෘෂ්ටියට සමානයයිදනොපිළිගත යුතුය. 
9. මේ මහණ තෙමේ යහපත් කෙනෙකි, ඔහුගේ කීම පිළිගත යුතුයයිදනොපිළිගත යුතුය. 
10. මේ ශ්‍රමණ තෙමේ අපගේ ගුරුයයිදනොපිළිගත යුතුය. 

මේ  අනුව අනෙක් අය ධර්මයයයි තේරුම් ගන්නා දෙය කවුරුන් කීවත් තමාට එය කිසිසේත් අදාල නැත. ධර්මය පිලිබද තමාගේ ආකල්පය අනිකුන්ගේ සිතුවිලිමත වෙනස්වෙන්නේද  නැත. කෙසේ වෙතත්, කාලාම සූත්තගේ කියන පරිදි තමා විශ්වාස කරන දෙය ප්‍රඥාසම්පන්න බුද්ධිමතුන් විසින්ම ප්රශංසාවට ලක් කෙරෙයි නම්  තමාට ඒගැන සම්පූර්නයෙන්ම සන්තෘප්ත විය හැකිය. තමන්ගේ විශ්වාසයන් අනෙකුන් විසින් තහවුරු කරන ලද විට ද  එය  නිසැකවම තෘප්තිමත් අත්දැකීමක් බවට පත්වේ. ඔවුන්ගේ සදාචාර විශ්වාසයන්ගේ වලංගුභාවය පිළිබඳ සැකයක් ඇත්නම් අනිත් අයත් මෙම විශ්වාස අනුගමනය කරන්නේද කිය සොයා බලන්නේ අන්න ඒ කාරනය නිසාය.

නවීන විද්‍යාව

විද්යාව යනු සාක්ෂිය මත පදනම්වූ ක්රමානුකූල ක්රමවේදයක් අනුගමනය කිරීමෙන් ස්වාභාවික හා සමාජීය ලෝකය පිළිබඳ දැනුම හා අවබෝධය ලබා ගැනීම සඳහා අනුගමනය කරන මාර්ගය සහ එහි භාවිතයයි. ((එක්සත් රාජධානියේ විද්‍යා මණ්ඩලය)

විද්‍යාමක පර්යේෂණයන් සිදු කරන විට විද්යාඥයන් විසින් කරනුයේ විද්යාත්මක ක්රමවේදයක් භාවිතා කරමින් මැනිය හැකි ආනුභූතික (empirical ) සාක්ෂි එකතු කොට  ඉන්පසු උපකල්පිතයට (hypothesis) අනුකූලව හෝ ප්රතිවිරෝධී කිරීමට හෝ ඉලක්ක කරගත් ප්රතිඵල මත පදනම් වූ සමීක්ෂණයකි.

ශාස්ත්‍රාලිය (academic) විද්‍යාව  සහ කර්මාන්තයන් ( Industrial) පිළිබඳ විද්‍යාව වශයෙන් නවීන විද්‍යාව  ප්‍රධාන වශයෙන් කොටස් දෙකකට බෙදී ඇත.විශාරදයින් දිගු කලක් තිස්සේ ප්රකාශ කර ඇත්තේ, මෙම අංශ දෙක අතර තියුනු වෙනස්කම් ලංකාවේ පවතින බවය.

ලංකාවේ ශාස්ත්‍රාලිය විද්‍යාව නලින් ද සිල්වා මහතා පෙන්වාදෙන පරිදි පට්ටපල් බොරුවක් වුවත් කර්මාන්තයන් පිළිබඳ විද්‍යාව එසේ නොවන්නේ රටේ පැවැත්ම සඳහා නිෂ්පාදනය අවශ්‍ය වන බැවිනි.

රූපවාහිනිය, ගුවන් විදුලි, මෝටර් රථ, දුම්රිය බස් රථ වැනි කාර්මික නිෂ්පාදන  මහජනතාවට ලැබෙන තෙක් නවීන විද්‍යාව පට්ටපල් බොරුවක් නොවන බව කාහටත් පැහැදිලිය.

නලින් ද සිල්වා මහතා  බටහිර විද්‍යාවේ ප්‍රවාද (thesis )නිර්මාණය කරන්නේ කෙසේ දැයි අසයි? මේ ප්‍රවාද වියුක්ත (abstract) බවත් කිසියම්  වූ  ප්‍රවාදයක් ඇසුරෙන් නිගමනවලට ඒම චුල්ලහත්ථිපදොපම සූත්‍රයෙන් බැහැර කෙරෙන බව දන්නවාද කියා අසයි? මේකට උත්තරය ලෙහෙසියෙන් ගූග්ලෙ කර ලබාගටහ් හැකියි.

උදාහරනයකට ඉලෙක්ට්‍රෝනය සොයා ගැනීමේ දී පාවිච්චිකරන ලද  ප්‍රවාද සහ ප්‍රවාද වියුක්ත දෙකම පහත සඳහන් අන්තර්ජාල පිටුවෙන් ලබාගත හැකියි

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron

එසේම අහස් යානය සොයගත් හැටිද  සොයා ගැනීමේ දී පාවිච්චිකරන ලද  ප්රවාද සහ ප්රවාද වියුක්ත දෙකම පහත සඳහන් අන්තර්ජාල පිටුවෙන් ලබාගත හැකියි

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers

මේක පට්ටපල් බොරුවක්නම් බිමට කඩා වැටෙනවා නොවේද?

නලින් ද සිල්වා මහතාගේ  බටහිර විද්යාවේ ප්රවාද (thesis )නිර්මාණය සහ ප්රවාද වියුක්ත (abstract) කිරීම ගැන ඇති ප්‍රශ්නය ගැන තවදුරටත් කතාකිරීමට පෙර යථාර්ථයේ (realism) ස්වභාවය කුමක්ද කියා සොයා බලමු.

යථාර්ථයේ (realism) ස්වභාවය කුමක්ද?

ප්‍රථමයෙන් අපි යථාර්ථයේ ස්වභාවය කුමක්ද කිය සොයා බලමු.

අපි බොහොමයක් මේ ප්‍රශ්නය ගැන අපගේ කාලයෙන් සැලකියයුතු ප්‍රමානයක් මිඩන්ගු නොකලත් අපි සියල්ල ඉදහිට මේ ගැන අවදාරණය කරන්නෙමු

බටහිර දර්ශනවාදය අනුව යථාර්ථය යනු විශ්වාසය යයි හැඳින්වේ.

නමුත් බුදු දහමේ ඉගැන්වීම අනුව යථාර්ථය යනු සියලු පරමාර්ත දර්ම බව සූත්‍රපිටකයේද අභිධර්ම පිටකයේද සඳහන් වේ.

යථාර්ත වාදය ඉතා ආකර්ෂවත් අදහස වුවත් නවීන විද්‍යාවේ සමහර සොයාගැනීම් මෙයට සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම පටහැනිව පෙන්නුම් කර දී ඇත.

උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් ක්වොන්ටම් භෞතිකවිද්‍යාවේ අංශුවකට නිශ්චිත පිහිටීමක් හෝ නිශ්චිත ප්රවේගයක්  නිරීක්ෂකයකු මගින් මනිනු තෙක්  නොමැති නිසා අංශුවක අස්තිත්වය (existence) ගැන යථාර්තයක් නොමැත.

අංශුවකට නිශ්චිත පිහිටීමක් හෝ නිශ්චිත ප්රවේගයක්  නිරීක්ෂකයකු මගින් මනිනු තෙක් නොතිබුන නිසා එම මැනීමද සාවද්‍ය වේ.

එසේම ඇතැම් අවස්ථාවලදී  තනි වස්තූන් ස්වාධීනව පැවැතීමටද හැකිකමක් නැති වුවත් කණ්ඩායමේ කොටසක් වශයෙන් පැවැත්විය හැකිය.

එසේම වෙනස් න්යායන් එකිනෙකට වෙනස් සංකල්පමය රාමුව හරහා එකම සංසිද්ධිය වෙනස් ආකරයට සාර්ථකව විස්තර කළ හැකිය.

සාර්ථක ලෙස සනාථ කරනලද බොහෝ විද්‍යාත්මක සිද්ධාන්තයන් පසුකාලයේ දී නව විද්‍යාත්මක සිද්ධාන්තයන් විසින්  නව යථාර්ථයන් යටතේ ප්‍රතිස්ථාපනය කර ඇත.

මෙවැනි අවථාවලදී යථාර්ථය ගැන ප්‍රශ්න ඇතිවිය හැකිය

එපමනක්ද නොව පතසවිත්‍රණ මූලධර්මය (Holographic principle) යථාර්ථය (realism) වශයෙන් සනාථ කරනවානම් අපගේ චතුර්මාන ලෝකය  (four –dimensional world) (අවකාශය හා කාලය) යන සංකල්ප වල විලයනයවූ පඤ්චමාන ලෝකයක (five-dimensional world)  කඩඉම පටලය (boundary) මත වැටුන සෙවණැල්ලක් මෙන් පෙනෙන මායාවකි

නලින් ද සිල්වා වැනි යථාර්ථය පිලිනොගන්නවුන්  හඳුන්වන්නේ යථාර්ථ විරෝධී (anti-realist) වශයෙනි.

යථාර්ථ විරෝධීන් ආනුභූතික දැනුම (empirical knowledge) සහ න්යායික දැනුම (theoretical Knowledge) අතර වෙනසක් දක්වයි.

ඔවුන් සාමාන්යයෙන් තර්ක කරන්නේ නිරීක්ෂණ (observation) සහ අත්හදා බැලීම් (experiments)  අර්ථවත් උවත් සිද්ධාන්තයන්  අවශ්‍ය මෙව්ලමක් (instrument)  විනා නිරීක්ෂිත සංසිද්ධි (observed phenomena) මත පවතින ගැඹුරු සත්යතාවයක් (deeper truth) නොමැති බවයි

සමහර යථාර්ථ විරෝධීන් විද්යාව පියවි ඇසින් නිරීක්ෂ්‍යනය  කළ හැකි දේවල් වලට පමනක් සීමා කිරීමට වුවමනා විය. මේ අනුව 19 වෙනි සියවසේදී පරමාණුව යන සංකල්පනය පියවි ඇසින් නිරීක්ෂ්‍යනය  කළ නොහැකි නිසා එය ප්‍රතික්ෂේපද කලේය.

ජොර්ජ් බර්කලේ (1695-1753) අසාමාන්‍ය දෘෂ්ථිපථයේ සීමාවටම  ගොස් මනස සහ එහි සිතුවිලි හැර විද්‍යාව කියා කිසිවක් නොමැති බව ප්‍රකාශ කලේය.

නලින් ද සිල්වා වැනි පුහු චින්තකයින් සිතන්නේ විද්යාව නිරීක්ෂණය කළ හැකි දේවලට පමනක්  සීමා කලයුතුබවත් නිරීක්ෂණයෙන් ලබාගන්නා සිද්ධාන්තයන් පට්ටපල් බොරුබවත්ය.

මෙසේ යථාර්ථය ගැන ප්රශ්න ඇතිවූවත් නවීන විද්‍යාවෙන් ලබාගන්නා දැනුම නලින් ද සිල්වා වැනි පුහු චින්තකයින් කියන පලියට ප්‍රතික්ෂේප නොකල යුතුය.

නවතම  ආකල්පයක්වූ ආකෘතිය මත රඳා පවතින යථාර්තවාදය” (Model dependent realism) ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමෙන් යථාර්ථය ගැන තිබූ ප්‍රශ්න නිරාකරනය කිරීමට හැකිවී තිබේ.

ආකෘතිය මත රඳා පවතින යථාර්ථවාදය අනුව, ආකෘතිය සැබෑ වන්නේ දැයි විමසා බැලීම වැදගත් නොවන මුත් නිරීක්ෂනය හා එකඟ වියයුතුය.

සිංහල ජනප්රවාහයෙන් එන අලියා සහ අන්ධයින් හත් දෙනාගේ කතාවේ පරිදි අලියාගේ එක් එක් අවයව බලා අන්ධයින් කල විස්තරයට සමාන  සංකල්පයක් ආකෘතිය මත රඳා පවතින යථාර්තවාදය ඉදිරිපත් කරයි.

එක අන්ධයෙක් අලියාගේ වලිගය අල්ලා අලියා කඹයක් වගේයයිද තව අන්ධයෙක් අලියාගේ කකුල අල්ලා අලියා වන්ගෙඩියක් වගේයයිද තව අන්ධයෙක් අලියාගේ කන අල්ලා අලියා කුල්ලක් වගේයයිද කීවේ එක් එක් අන්ධයින්ගේ නිරීක්ෂණය මත අලියා ගැන සම්පාදනය කරනලද ආකෘතිය තුලිනි.

ආකෘතිය මත රඳා පවතින යථාර්ථවාදය අනුව හැම අන්ධයෙකුගේම නිරීක්ෂනය සහ නිගමනය නිවැරදි වන අතර එක් අන්ධයෙක් අනෙකුට වඩා සත්‍ය යයි කිව නොහැකිය.

එංගලන්තයේ සුප්‍රසිද්ධ මහාචාර්ය වරයෙක් වන ස්ටීවන් හෝකින්ග් ඔහුගේ The Grand Design  පොතේ දක්වා  ඇතිපරිදි ආකෘතිය මත රඳා පවතින යථාර්ථවාදය විද්යාත්මක ආකෘතීන්ට පමණක් නොව,විඥානයට හා භවාංග (උපවිඥානය) යන මානසික ආකෘතියටද එදිනෙදා ලෝකය අර්ථ නිරූපණය කිරීම හා අවබෝධ කර ගැනීම සඳහාද අදාළ වේ.

ආකෘතිය මත රඳා පවතින යථාර්ථවාදය අනුරූපව අපි අරමුණ ප්‍රත්‍යක්ෂ කරමු. අපි යම් දෙයක් දර්ශනය කරනවිට  අක්ෂි ස්නායුව හරහා මොළයට සංඥා මාලාවක් ලැබේ..එම සංඥා ඔබේ රූපවාහිනිය මත වැටෙන රූපයේ ආකාරයට සකස්වූවක් නොවේ. එය හිස්තැන්වලින් පිරි සම්පූර්න නොවූ චායා රූපයකි.

අක්ෂි ස්නායුව ඇසෙහි දෘෂ්ටී පටලය සම්බන්ද වන හැම ස්ථානයකම අන්ධ ස්ථානයක් ඇතිවන හෙයින් මොළය ලැබෙන සංඥා මාලාවෙන් සම්පූර්න වූ චායාවක් ගෙන නොදෙයි.

දර්ශනය හා සම්බන්ද දළ දත්ත දුර්වලවූ පික්සල් වලින් නිර්මානය කරනලද අන්ධ ලප වලින් පිරි චායාවකට සමානය.

වාසනාවකට, මිනිස් මොළය අමු දත්ත සම්ප්රේෂණය කරනවා පමනක් නොව ඇස් දෙකින්ම ලැබුනු දත්ත සංයෝග කොට ද්විමාන දත්ත වලින් ත්රිමාන අවකාශයක් නිර්මානය කරමින්. උඩුයටි නිවැරදි කොට සම්පූර්න චායාවක් නිර්මානය කරයි

නමුත් බෞද්ධ ධර්මයට අනුකූලව ගොඩ නංවන ආකෘතිය (Model) හාත්පසින් වෙනස්වූවකි. බෞද්ධ ධර්මයට අනුව ඇස තුල තිබෙන්නාවූ චක්ඛු ප්‍රසාද (චක්ඛූන්ද්‍රිය) නැමැති රූපස්කන්දය අරමුණක් හා ගැටී බොහෝ දීප්තිමත් වන කල්හි එයට අනුව රූපය හොඳින් දන්නා චක්ෂුර් විඥානයක් ඇතිවේ.ඇස තුලින් ගන්නා රූපය සිත (චිත්තය) තුල ගොඩනගන්නේ චක්ෂුර් විඥානය මගිනි.

ආකෘතිය මත රඳා පවතින යථාර්ථවාදය අනුව මෙම ආකෘතියද යථාර්ථයක් වශයෙන් පිළිගත හැකිය.

මේ අනුව නලින් ද සිල්වා මහතාගේ  බටහිර විද්යාවේ ප්රවාද (Thesis) නිර්මාණය සහ ප්රවාද වියුක්ත (abstract) කිරීම ගැන ඇති ප්රශ්නය ගැන තවදුරටත් කතාකිරීමට අනවශ්‍යය.

නවීන විද්‍යාව යුදෙව් ක්රිස්තියානි සංස්කෘතියේ ආභාශයෙන් ඇතිවුන සංකල්පයක් ද?

විද්යාව යනු සැබෑ ලෝකයේ සංසිද්ධි (phenomena) නිරීක්ෂණය කිරීම, පැහැදිලි කිරීම හා අනාවැකි අවධාරණය කරන විද්යාඥයින් විසින් නිපදවන ලද ස්වාභාවික ලෝකය පිළිබඳ  ආනුභූතික (empirical), න්යායාත්මක හා ප්රායෝගික දැනුමයි.

විද්යාඥයකු Scientist” යන ඉංග්රීසි වචනය සාපේක්ෂ නූතන වචනයක් වන අතර 19 වන සියවසේදී විලියම් විවෙල් විසින් මුල්ම වතාවට එය යොදා ගෙන ඇත. මීට පෙර, ස්වභාවික ලෝකය පිළිබඳ ආනුභූතික විමර්ශනයන් කරන්නන්  “ස්වාභාවික දර්ශනවාදීන්” “natural philosophers” නමින් හැඳින්වූහ.

ස්වභාවික ලෝකය පිළිබඳ ආනුභූතික විමර්ශනයන් සම්භාව්ය  (Classical) යුගයේ සිට (තලිස් සහ ඇරිස්ටෝ.ටෙල් විසින්) විස්තර කර ඇතත් විද්යාත්මක ක්රමවේදය භාවිතා කර ඇතතේ මධ්යකාලීන යුගයේ සිටය

නවීන විද්යාව ආරම්භ වී ඇත්තේ  නූතන යුගයේ  විශේෂයෙන්ම විශේෂයෙන් 16 වන හා 17 වන සියවස්වල යුරෝපයේ විද්යාත්මක විප්ලවය තුළ වර්ධනය විමෙනි. මේ අනුව සාම්ප්රදායිකව විද්යා ඉතිහාසඥයින් විසින් විද්යාවේ අතිතය ප්රමාණවත් තරම් පුළුල් ලෙස අර්ථ දක්වා ඇතත් නවීන විද්යාව යුදෙව් ක්රිස්තියානි සංස්කෘතියේ ආභාශයෙන් ඇතිවුන සංකල්පයක් වශයෙන් කිසිම තැනක සඳහන් වී නැත

නවීන විද්‍යාවට ඉන්දියානු චීන සහ ඊජිප්තියානු දායකත්වය යුදෙව් ක්රිස්තියානි දායකත්වයට වඩා කැපී පෙනෙන්නේ ඔවුනොවුන්ගේ විවිද සොයාගැනීම් පසු කාලවලදී නව සොයාගැනීම් මගින් තවදුරටත් දියුණු තියුණු කිරීමට හැකිවූ නිසාය.

පුරාණ ඊජිප්තුව තාරකා විද්යාව, ගණිතය හා වෛද්ය විද්යාව අතින් වැදගත් ප්රගතියක් ලබා ඇත.  නයිල් ගඟ ගැලීමෙන් වාර්ෂිකව ගංවතුරට ගොදුරු වූවන්ගේ වගා සැලැස්ම හා වගා අයිතිය ආරක්ෂා කිරීම සඳහා මැනුම් කටයුතු කිරීම අවශ්ය බැවින් ජ්‍යාමිති ශ්‍රාස්ත්‍රය වර්ධනය කිරීම සිදු වී ඇත.

බබිලෝනියානු තාරකා විද්යාවේදීන් විසින් ලියනලද ග්රන්ථවල ග්රහලෝකවල සහ චන්ද්රයාගේ චලනයන් පිළිබඳ විස්තර ඔවුන් විසින් නිර්මාණය කළ මැටි පුවරු දහස් ගණනක සඳහන් වී ඇත. මිසපොටේමියානු මූල විද්යාඥයන් විසින් හඳුනාගෙන ඇති තාරකා සහ විද්යාත්මක කාල පරිච්ඡේදය පවා සූර්ය වර්ෂය හා චන්ද්ර මාස වැනි බටහිර දින දර්ශනවල දී පුළුල් ලෙස භාවිතා කරනු ලැබේ. මෙම දත්ත උපයෝගි කර ගනිමින් වසර අවසානයේ දී දිවා කාලය ගණනය කිරීම සඳහා ගණිත ක්රම නිර්මාණය කර ඇති අතර එමගින් සූර්ය ග්රහයන් සහ චන්ද්රග්රහයන් පිලිබඳ අනාවැකි පළ කිරීම හැකිවී ඇත.

ඉන්දියානු අර්දධ්ද්වීපය තුළ ගණිතමය දැනුමෙහි මුල්ම ලක්ෂණ ඉන්දු නිම්න ශිෂ්ටාචාරය සමග ක්‍රි.පූ. 4 වලදී ඇතිවූ බවට පුරා විද්‍යා කැනීම් වලින් තහවුරු වී තිබේ . මෙම ශිෂ්ටාචාරයේ ජනතාව නිපදවන ලද ගඩොල  දිග පළල සහ ඝනකම 4: 2: 1 යන අනුපාතයට තිබීමෙන් ගොඩනැඟිලි  වල  ස්ථාවරත්වය සුරක්ෂිත කරවා ඇත. ප්‍රාමාණික දිග මිනුම් ඒකකයක් පාවිචිකිරීමෙන් ඔවුහු ඉතා  නිවැරදි මිනුම් ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කරඇත.  ඔවුහු ලෝකයේ ප්‍රථම මිනුම් දන්ඩ නිර්මාණය කළ අතර මෙම මොහෙන්ජො-දාරෝ මිනුම් දන්ඩ යයි නම්කර ඇති එය දිග ප්රමාණය අඟල් 1.32 හෝ සෙන්. මී. 3.4 වූ අතර සමාන කොටස් දහයකට ප්‍රණිත කර තිබුනි. පැරණි මොහෙන්ජෝ-දාරෝ හි නිපදවන ලද ගඩොල්වල දිග ප්රමාණය මෙම ඒකකයෙන් පූර්ණ සංඛ්‍යාත්මක යෙන් යුක්ත විය

ඉන්දියානු තාරකා විද්යාඥයකු සහ ගණිතඥයකු වන  ආර්යබාතා (ක්‍රි.ව 476-550), ඔහුගේ ආර්යබාතිය (ක්‍රි.ව.499) විසින් ත්රිකෝණමිතික ශ්රිත (සයින්,  කොසයින් සහ ප්රතිලෝම සයින් ඇතුළුව), ත්රිකෝණමිතික චක්‍ර සහ වීජගණිතය  සහ ක්රමවේදයන් හඳුන්වා දුන්නේය. ක්‍රි.ව. 628 දී බ්‍රහ්මගුප්ත ගුරුත්වාකර්ෂණය ආකර්ෂණීය බලයක් බවයෝජනා කළේය. තවද ලොව පුරා පුර්ණ වශයෙන් භාවිතා වන හින්දු අරාබි සංඛ්යාලේඛන පද්ධතියක් සහිත අංකයක දශම නිරූපණයෙහි වැදගත් ශුන්යය භාවිතා කිරීම පැහැදිලි කළේය.

තාරකා විද්යාත්මක සංකල්ප මුලින්මසඳහන් වන්නේ ඉන්දියාවේ ආගමික ශාස්ත්‍රීය ග්‍රන්ථයක් වන වේදය හියි .  සර්මා (2008) අනුව: “රිග් වේදය ශූන්‍යයත්වයේ සිට විශ්වයේ උත්පාදනය පිළිබඳ බුද්ධිමත් සම්පේක්ෂණයක් කරමින්  විශ්වයේ වින්යාසය, ගෝලාකාර ස්වයං ආධාරක පෘථිවිය සහ සෑම වාරයක්ම අන්තරස්ථ මාසයක් සමඟ 360 කින් යුක්ත දින කොටස් 12 කට හා සමාන කොටස් 12 ක් බෙදා වෙන්කර ඇති අන්දම පෙන්වා දී ඇත.

වූට්ස්, තුත්ත සහ  මල නොකන වානේ ඉන්දියාවේ  පළමුවෙන්  සොයාගෙන ඇති අතර, පැරණි මධ්යධරණී ලෝකයට විශාල වශයෙන් අපනයනය කෙරී ඇත.  ඉන්දියානු වොට්ස් වානේ රෝම අධිරාජ්යයේ ඉහළ සැලකිල්ලක් දැක්වූ අතර බොහෝ විට එය හොඳම වානේ විය.          1000 වර්ෂයේදී සිරියාව තුල ආනයනය කොට  යොදාගත්විශේෂ තාක්ෂණික ක්රමක් මගින් දමස්කස් වානේ වශයෙන් නිශ්පාදනය  ලදී.

චීනයද විද්යා ක්ෂේත්රයට සැලකිය යුතු දායකත්වයක් දක්වා තිබේ.  බහුශාස්ත්‍රඥයෙක් වූ ෂෙන් කූඕ (1031-1095), නාවික යාත්රා සඳහා භාවිතා කරන මාලිමා යන්ත්‍රය අඳුන්වා දෙනලදී.  ඔහු සැබෑ උතුර (North) සංකල්පයක් වශයෙන් සොයා ගත් අතර,තාරකාවිද්‍යාත්මක ඡායා දණ්ඩ, කටු ගෝලය සහ පෑතැටිය යනාදිය සහ බෝට්ටු අලුත්වැඩියා කිරීම සඳහා වියළි නැව් තටාකය භාවිතා කිරීම අඳුන්වා දෙනලදී.

චීනයහි අභිනව නිපදවීම අතර ප්‍රධානයෙන් මාලිමා යන්ත්රය , වෙඩි බෙහෙත්, කඩදාසි සහ මුද්රණය ශිල්පය නිපද වීමයි. ටැංග් රාජවංශයේ දී චීනයේ මුද්රණය බෙහෙවින් වාර්තා කරන ලදී. නමුත් රෙදි මත මුද්‍රනය වාර්තා කර ඇත්තේ ක්‍රි. ව. 220 දී පමනි.

අපගේ ආදි සිංහලයින් විසින්ද නිර්මාණය කරනලද ගමයි පන්සලයි වැවයි දාගැබයි සංකල්පය ප්‍රගත සමාජ විද්‍යාමක නිර්මාණයක් බව අප විසින් පිලිගතයුතුය. නමින් විද්‍යත්මක සංකල්පයක යයි අපි නම් නොකලත් ජලසම්පාදනය සඳහා වැසි වතුර එකතුකොට වාරිමාර්ග සඳහා රඳවනවා තබන වැවත් බිසෝකොටුවත් අපේ මුතුන්මිත්තන් විසින්  නිර්මානය කරන ලද විද්‍යත්මක සංකල්පයකි.

මෙයින් පෙන්වා දිය හැක්කේ නවීන විද්යාව යුදෙව් ක්රිස්තියානි සංස්කෘතියේ ආභාශයෙන් ඇතිවුන සංකල්පයක් නොවන් බවයි

නලින් ද සිල්වාගේ ඥානකථා

නලින් ද සිල්වා ගේ ඥානකථා ගැන කියනවිට අපට එක විටම සිහිවන්නේ ගමේ තේකඩේ කෑම මේසය උඩ තිබෙන ප්‍රනීත පැණිරස කෑමකි.  විශේෂයෙන් නලින් ද සිල්වා ගේ ඥානකථා කියවනවිට අපට සිහිවන්නේ සිඳු ටෙලිනාට්‍යයේ හීංබබා සීයාගේ මනඃකල්පිත කථාන්දරයි.

මම දැන් විස්ථර කරන්නට බලාපොරොත්තුවන ඥානකථා ඇත්තවශයෙන්ම සූත්‍රපිටකයේ ඛුද්දක නිකායේ පටිසම්භිදා මාර්‍ගයෙහි දක්වා ඇති ධර්මයයි.

පටිසම්භිදා මාර්ගය සූත්‍ර පිටකයේ ඇති ගැබුරු අරුත් අර්ථ විවරණ කරමින් සැරුයුත් තෙරුවන් විසින් වදාරනලද විස්ථරාත්මක ධර්මයයි.

පටිසම්භිදා මාර්ගයෙහි ඥානය සහ ප්‍රඥාව මෙසේ අර්ථකථනය කර ඇත.

“තං ඤාතට්ඨෙන ඤණං, පජානනට්ඨෙන පඤඤා”

දන්නා අර්ථයෙන් ඥානය වෙයි, ප්‍රකාරයෙන් දන්නා අර්ථයෙන් ප්‍රඥා වේ.

එනම් ප්‍රභේද වශයෙන් දැනගැනීම අර්ථයෙන් ප්‍රඥා නම් වේ.

තව දුරටත් විස්තර කලහොත් සංඥාව නීල-පීතාදී වශයෙන් අරමුණ ගැනීම මාත්‍රය මුත් අනිත්‍යාදී ලක්ෂන දැනීම නොකෙරේ.

ඥානය නීල-පීතාදී වශයෙන් අරමුණ ගැනීම සහ  අනිත්‍යාදී වශයෙන් ලක්ෂන ප්‍රතිවේධයද කෙරේ, එහෙත් උත්සාහ කොට මාර්‍ග ඉපදවීමට සමර්‍ථ නො වේ.

ප්‍රඥාව නීල-පීතාදී වශයෙන් අරමුණ ගැනීමද   අනිත්‍යාදී වශයෙන් ලක්ෂන ප්‍රතිවේධයද කිරීමද, උදයව්‍යඥානාදී පිළිවෙලින් ව්‍යායාම කොට මාර්‍ග ඉපදවීමටද සමර්‍ථ  වේ.

ඥානය (knowledge) ලබාගත හැකි දැනුමකි. නමුත් ප්‍රඥාව, ඒකග්ගථාවය (සමාධිය) වැනි වැඩිය යුතු ශෝභන චෛතසිකයකි.

ප්‍රඥාව සම්පූර්ණ වන්නේ චතුරය්‍ය සත්‍යය අවබෝධ  කිරීමෙන් සම්මා දිට්ඨිය’ සහ සම්මා සංකප්ප යන ආර්ය අෂ්ඨාංගික මාර්ගයෙහි ඇති  කොටස් අවබෝධ කර ගැනීමෙනුයි

ලොව්තුරා බුද්ධ තත්වයට පත්වු උතුමෙකු දියුණු කර ඇති බුද්ධ ඥාණයන් (73) හැත්තෑ තුනකි. මෙයින් බුද්ධ ඥාණයන් (6) හයක් ලොව්තුරා බුද්ධ තත්වයට පත්වු උතුමෙකුට පමණක් දියුණු කලහැකි ඥාණයන්ය. හැට හතක් (67) ශ්රාවකයන්ටද මාර්‍ගඵල ලබාගැනීම සඳහා දියුණු කලහැක

සුතමය ඥානය , චින්තාමය ඥානය , හා භාවනාමය ඥානය යන තුන් ආකාර දැනුම ප්රඥා විමුක්තිය ලබාගැනීමට බොහෝ සෙයින්  පෘතග්ජනයන්ට උපකාරී වේ.

පටිසම්භිදා මාර්ගයහි සඳන් වන්නේ මෙසේයි;

ශ්‍රැතමය ඥානය නම් මේ ධර්මයෝ මැනැවින් දතයුත්තාහයි (අභිඤෙඤය්‍ය ) සෝතාවධාන යැ හෙවත් ශ්‍රැතයයි. ඒ ශ්‍රැතිය දැනගන්නා ප්‍රඥාව ශ්‍රැතමයඥානයයි.

ශ්‍රැතමය ඥානය නම් මේ ධර්මයෝ පිරිසිඳ දතයුත්තාහයි (පරිඤෙඤය්‍ය ) සෝතාවධාන යැ හෙවත් ශ්‍රැතයයි. ඒ ශ්‍රැතිය දැනගන්නා ප්‍රඥාව ශ්‍රැතමයඥානයයි.

අපි යමක් පිළිබඳ දැකීමෙන් ඇසීමෙන් ඇතිකර ගන්නා ඥානය සුතමය ඥානය වශයෙන් හඳුන්වනු ලැබේ සුතමය ඥානය ලබාගත යුත්තේ විමර්ශනශීලීව ය. එය ලබා ගැනීම සඳහා ද ඔහුට යම් ඥානයක් තිබිය යුතුම ය. එසේ නොමැතිව ඔහුට ඒ පිළිබඳ නිවැරැදි අවබෝධයක් ලබා ගැනීමට නොහැකි වනු ඇත.

ශ්රැතමය ඥානය වශයෙන් එකල ගත්තේ ධර්ම සාකච්චා හා ධර්ම ශ්රවණයෙන් ලබාගත් ඥානයි . එයට හේතුව එකල පොතපත නොමැතිවීමයි.

බොහෝ දෙනෙකුට යමක් ඇසුවට, ඇසූ පමණින් ඒ පිළිබඳව නුවණ පහළ වෙන්නේ නැත. එය ටික වෙලාවකින් අමතක වී යනවා ඇත. නමුත් අන් අයගෙන් ඇසූ පිරූ දැනුම ඇතුව, ඒ ඇසූ දේ පිළිබඳව ගැඹුරු ප්රඥාවක් අවදි කරගන්නට සමර්ථ වූවා නම් ඔවුන්ට ශ්රැතමය ඥානය ඇතිවේ.

චින්තාමය ඥානය යනු ඉතාමත් අසීරු අමාරු දෙයකි. එයට හේතුව වනුයේ සිතීම හැම දෙනාටම කළ හැකි වූවත් එය නිවැරැදිව හරියටම කළ යුතුවීමයි. අපි යමක් දැකීමෙන් ඇතිවන සිතීම විවිධාකාර විය හැකිය. එය ආශාවෙන් සිතන්නක් විය හැකිය. රාගයෙන් සිතන්නක් විය හැකිය. මෝහයෙන් සිතන්නක් විය හැකිය. සිතන දෙය ඉටුකර ගැනීමට යාමේදී එය තුළින් බොහෝ වැරැදි සිදුවීමට පුළුවන.

ලෝකයේ පහළ වූ විද්වතුන් යම් දෙයක් සොයා ගත්තේ නම් ඒ තවත් දෙයක් පිළිබඳ දුරදිග සිතා බැලීමෙනි.

දොස්තර වරයෙක් ලෙඩෙකු පරීක්ෂා කිරේමේදී ඔහු චින්තාමය ඥානය උපයෝගී කරගෙන රෝග විනිශ්චයක් කර ඔහුට අවශ්‍ය වන ඖෂධ නියමකරයි. ඉංජිනේරුවරයෙක් චින්තාමය ඥානය උපයෝගී කරගෙන නිර්මාණයක් සැලසුම් කරයි. විද්‍යාඤ්ඤයින් ඔවුන්ගේ  චින්තාමය ඥානය උපයෝගී කරගෙන අලුත් සොයා ගැනීම් එලිදරව් කරයි.

ඔබවිසින් ලබාගත් සුතමය ඥානහි නිවැරදි භාවය ශාක්ෂාත් කරගත හැකිවෙන්නේ ඔබ විසින් වඩාගත් චින්තාමය ඥානයේ දෘස්ටින් හීන වුනතරමටය.

භාවනාමය ඥානය තුළින් සිත ඉහළ මානසිකත්වයකට ගෙන යාමට හැකිය. එවිට ශීලාදී ගුණයන් සිත තුළ උපදිනු ඇත. ශීලාදී සිතුවිලි ඇතිවන විට පස් පව් දස අකුසල් සිදුවන්නේ නැත. එසේ වූ විට පුද්ගල දියුණුව ඇතිවේ.

දහම් දැණුමඅවබෝධයක් දක්වා එසේත් නැතිනම් ප්‍රඥා විමුක්තියක් දක්වා මෙහෙවිය හැක්කේ චින්තාමය හා භාවනාමය ඥානයක් තුලින්ම පමණකි. එසේ නැතිව තර්ක විතර්ක තුලින් නොවේ.

නිර්වාණ අවබෝධය සදහා ක්‍රියාත්මක වීම බෞද්ධ භාවන‍ාවේ අවසාන අරමුණයි. ඒ සදහා විශේෂයෙන් ම ඉවහල් වන්නේ  භාවනාමය ඥානය තුළින් කෙරෙන විදර්ශනා භාවනාවයි.

විදර්ශනා භාවනාව යනු පංචස්කන්ධය පිළිබදව අනිත්‍යාදි වශයෙන් විශේෂයෙන් බැලීමයි. වෙනත් ලෙසකින් කිව හොත් සියලු සංස්කාර ධර්මයන් අනිත්‍ය බව , දු:ඛ , අනාත්ම වශයෙන් ත්‍රිලක්ෂණයට නගා විශේෂයෙන් දැකීම පුහුණු විම විදර්ශනා භාවනාව නමි. ප්‍රඥාව දියුණු කර ගැනීමට ඉවහල් වන බැවින් ප්‍රඥා භාවනා නමින් ද මේ භාවනා ක්‍රමය හැදින් වෙයි. හොද සිහියත්, මනා දැකීමත්, අප්‍රමායත්, සියුමි නිරීක්ෂණයත් , මුල් කොට ඇති ව්ශලේශණ ක්‍රමයත් හැටියට ද මේ භාවනා කුමය හැදින් විය හැකි ය.

නාම රූප ස්කන්ධ සමුහය සමාන්‍ය ලෞකික ජනයා දකින්නේ ස්ත්‍රි පුරුෂ වශයෙන් මෙන් ම නිත්‍ය, සුඛ, ආත්ම වශයෙනි. එහෙත් විදර්ශනාව වඩන්නාවු ඒ සියලු සංඛත ධර්මයන් අනිත්‍යාදි වශයෙන් ඇති සැටියෙන් දකිය.

විදර්ශනා වඩා නිවන් අවබෝධ කර ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කරන පුද්ගලයින් දෙවර්ගයක් ගැන ධර්මයෙහි විස්තර වෙයි. එනමි සමථයානික හා විපස්සනායික යනු යි. කලින් විස්තර කළ සමථ භාවනාව පදනමි කොට ගෙන පසු ව විදර්ශනා භාවනාවක යෙදී (විදර්ශනා වඩා) නිවන් පසක් කර ගන්නා තැනැත්තා සමථයානික නමි. සමථ භාවනාව පදනමි කො‍ට නොගෙන හුදු විදරිශනාවෙන් ම ආරමිභ කොට විදර්ශනාවෙහි යෙදී නිවන් පසක් කර ගන්න‍ා තැනැත්ත‍ා විපස්සනායානික නමි.

සමිමස්ස ඤාණය (knowledge of comprehension), උදයබ්බය ඤාණය (knowledge of rise and fall of formations), භඩ්ගානුපස්සනා ඤාණය(knowledge of the dissolution (of formations), භයතුපට්ඨාන ඤාණය, knowledge of (of dissolving things) as fearful. ආදිනවානුපස්සනා ඤාණය, knowledge of (fearful) things as dangerous නිබ්බිද්‍රනුපස්සනා ඤාණය, knowledge of disenchantment (with all formations) මුඤචිතු කම්‍යතා ඤාණය, knowledge of desire for deliverance.  පටිසඩ්ඛානු පස්සනා ඤාණය, knowledge of contemplation. සඩ්ඛරුපෙක්ඛා ඤාණය, knowledge of equanimity towards formations සච්චනුලෝම ඤාණය knowledge of conformity යනුවෙන් විදර්ශනා ඤාණ දහයක් ඇත. ඉහත කී ඤාණයන් පටිපදා ඤාණ දස්සන විසුද්ධිය නමි වෙයි

සවැදෑරුමි විසුද්ධි වැඩීවමන් උපදවා ගත යුතු වු සෝවාන් මාර්මය, සකෘදාගාමී මාර්ගය, අනාගාමී මාර්ගය, අර්හත් මාර්ගය, යන සතර මාර්ගයෙන් චතුරා‍ර්ය්‍ය සත්‍ය අවබෝධ කිරිම ඤ‍ාණ දස්සන විසුද්ධි නමි.

සුඤ්ඤත විමෙක්ඛ, අනිමිත්ත විමොක්ඛ, අප්පණිහිත විමොක්ඛ යන තුනු වැදෑරුමි විමොක්ෂයන් ය. කෙලෙසුන්ගෙන් මුළුමනින්ම මීදීම විමොක්ෂ (විමොක්ඛ) නමි.

සූඤ්ඤත විමොක්ඛ මුඛ, අනිමිත්ත විමොක්ඛමුඛ, අප්‍රණීහිත විමොක්ඛ මුඛ යනු කෙළෙසුන්ගෙන් මිදෙන දොරටුවයි.

මීවනපලානේ සිරි ධම්මාලංකාර හිමි සහ සෝවාන් ඵලයට පත්වූවයි පවසන සිරිසේන උපාසක මහතා  දක්වන අන්දමට  ශ්‍රැතමය ඥානයෙන් සහ චින්තාමය ඥානයෙන්  ප්‍රඥාව  ඇතිකලයුතුයි යනුවෙනි. මෙය බෞද්ධ ධර්මයට සම්පූර්නයෙන්ම පටහැනි ධර්මයකි.

බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේගේ දේශනා අනුව සෑම පුද්ගලයෙක්ම කොටස් හතරකට බෙදිය හැකිය.

• උග්ඝටිතඤ්ඤ
• විපඤ්චිතඤ්ඤ
• නෙය්ය
• පදපරම

උග්ඝටිතඤ්ඤ පුද්ගලයෝ ස්වභාවයෙන්ම ශ්රැතමය ඥානයෙන් සහ චින්තාමය ඥානයෙන් යුක්තයි. භාවනාමය ඥානය නොමැත.

උග්ඝටිතඤ්ඤ යනු සසර බොහෝ කල් ශ්රැතමය ඥානය  හුරු පුරුදු කළ, චින්තාමය ඥානය  හුරු පුරුදු කළ මනසක් ඇති  පුද්ගලයෙකි. ඔහුට අවශ්ය වී ඇත්තේ  මාර්ගය ගැන, ප්රතිපදාව ගැන දැනුමක් පමණයි.  යම් වෙලාවක දී දුක් සහගත ලෝකෙන් එතෙර වෙන මාර්ගය පිළිබඳ කෙටියෙන් හෝ අහන්නට ලැබුනා නම් එපමණකින්ම ඔහු  ධර්මය අවබෝධ කරගන්නවාඇත.

විපඤ්චිතඤ්ඤ පුද්ගලයින්ට ශ්රැතමය ඥානය තිබෙන මුත්  චින්තාමය ඥානය සහ භාවනාමය ඥානය නොමැත.. විපඤ්චිතඤ්ඤ පුද්ගලයින්ට ඉතිරි ඥානයන් දෙකම ඇති කරගැනීමට හැකිය. මුලින්ම ශ්රැතමය ඥානයෙන් අහගත් දේ ගැන හිතා  චින්තාමය ඥානය  හුරු පුරුදු කරගත යුතුය. එසේ හුරු කරගත් කල ලෝකෙ විරාග ස්වභාවය දැනගෙන භාවනාමය ඥානයෙන් ධර්මය අවබෝධ කරගත හැකිය.

නෙය්ය පුද්ගලයින්ට ශ්රැතමය ඥානයත්, චින්තාමය ඥානයත්, භාවනාමය ඥානයත් නොමැත. නමුත් නෙය්ය පුද්ගලයාට මෙම ඥානයන් තුනම ඇති කරගැනීමට හැකි කමක් ඇත. මුලින්ම ශ්රැතමය ඥානය ලැබිය යුතුය. ඉන්පසු  අහගත් දේ ගැන හිතා  චින්තාමය ඥානය  හුරු පුරුදු කරගත යුතුය. එසේ හුරු කරගත් කල ලෝකෙ විරාග ස්වභාවය දැනගෙන භාවනාමය ඥානයෙන් ධර්මය අවබෝධ කරගත හැකිය.

පදපරම පුද්ගලයට ශ්රැතමය ඥානය, චින්තාමය ඥානය, භාවනාමය ඥානය අනාගතයේ ඇතිකර ගැනීමට හැකියාව තිබෙන පුත්ගලයිනුයි.

පදපරම පුද්ගලයට ධර්මය ශ්රවණය කරන විට වචන ටිකක් ඇහෙනවා මිස වචනවල අර්ථය මෙනෙහි කරන්නෙත් නැත. අර්ථය අවබෝධ කරගන්න උත්සාහවත්වෙන්නෙත් නැත. අහන වෙලාවෙ මෙනෙහි කරන්නෙත් නැත. නැගිටලා ගිහින් මෙනෙහි කරන්නෙත් නැත

මීවනපලානේ සිරි ධම්මාලංකාර හිමි සහ සෝවාන් ඵලයට පත්වූවයි පවසන සිරිසේන උපාසක මහතා  හැමකෙනෙක්ම උග්ඝටිතඤ්ඤ පුත්ගලයෝ කියා මුළා කරන අතර  ඔවුන්ට අවශ්ය මාර්ගය ගැන, ප්රතිපදාව ගැන දැනුමක් පමණයි අවදාරනය කරමින් අලුත් අභිවාදනයක් නිර්මාණය කරමින් සිටියි.

අවසාන වශයෙන්  නලින් ද සිල්වා නැමති පුහු චින්තකයා කියන ඕල්කොට් බෞද්ධයෝ කවුරුදැයි සොයා බලමු.

අනගාරික ධර්මපාල තුමා අවුරුදු විස්සක කාලයක් තුල  කර්නල් හෙන්රි ස්ටීල් ඕල්කට් හා බ්ලැවට්ස්කි මැතිණිය සමග  බෞද්ධ පරම විඥානාර්ථ සංගමයේ යාව ජීව සාමාජිකයෙක් වශයෙන් ලංකාවේ බෞද්ධ අධ්යාපනයේ පුනර්ජීවනය කල සේවය නිසා අනගාරික ධර්මපාල තුමාද ඕල්කොට් තුමා මහින් පුනර්ජීවනය ලැබූ බෞද්ධයෙකි. එම නිසා අනගාරික ධර්මපාල තුමා සත්තකින්ම ඕල්කොට් බෞද්ධයෙකි.

එපමනක්ද නොව ඕල්කට්තුමා 1893 දී චිකාගෝහි පැවති පළමු ලෝක ආගම් පිලිබඳ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට සහභාගී වීම සඳහා ධර්මපාලතුමාට අනුග්රහය දැක්වීය. මෙය බෞද්ධ ධර්මය ගැන බටහිර ලෝකයට කල පළමු පිළිගැන්වීමයි. මෙහිදී ඔහු විද්යාව පිළිබඳ නව සොයා ගැනීම් සමඟ බුද්ධාගම  එකඟ වන බව තර්ක කළ පලමු වැන්නාද විය.

වයස අවුරුදු 16 දී, ඩේවිඩ් හේවාවිතාරණට ( පසුව අනගාරික ධර්මපාල නමින් හැඳින්වූ)  කර්නල් හෙන්රි ස්ටීල් ඕල්කට් හා බ්ලැවට්ස්කි මැතිණිය හඳුනා ගැනීමට ඉඩ සැලසුණි. වයස අවුරුදු 19 දී විශේෂ සාමාජිකත්වයකින් පරම විඥානාර්ථ සමාගමට බඳවා ගන්නා ලදි. ඔවුනගේ භාෂා පරිවර්තක ලෙස කටයුතු කිරීමට ඩේවිඩ් හේවාවිතාරණ රජයේ රැකියාවෙන් ඉවත් විය​. ඕල්කට්තුමා සමග රට පුරා කළ සංචාරය ඔහු ගේ ඇස් අරවන්නක් විය​. සිංහල ජාතියට හා බුදු දහමට​ සිදුව ඇති පරිහාණිය එහි දී ඔහු සියැසින් දුටුවේ ය​.

සිදුව ඇති පරිහාණියට ප්‍රතිකර්ම යෙදීම උදෙසා, තමන් ස්වකීය දිවියම බුදු දහමේ උන්නතිය උදෙසා කැප කිරීමට අධිෂ්ඨාන කර ගත් බවත්, තමාට ගිහි ගෙයින් ඵලක් නැති බවත්, අනගාරිකව විසීමට අවසර දෙන ලෙසත් ඉල්ලමින් 1886 ජනවාරි 12 වන දින තම පියාට ලිපියක් යවන ලදි. හික්කඩුවේ සුමංගල හිමි ගේ කරුණු පහදා දීමකින් අනතුරුව, පියා, ඩේවිඩ් හේවාවිතාරණට අනගාරික වීමට අවසර ලබා දුන්නේ ය​.

අනගාරික ධර්මපාලතුමාට පාලි ඉගෙන ගැනීමටත් මානව වර්ගයාගේ යහපත උදෙසා කටයුතු කිරීමටත් උපදෙස් දුන් මැඩම් බ්ලැවට්ස්කි සමග ඉතා සමීපව සිට අනගාරික ධර්මපාලතුමා බෞද්ධාගමේ පුනර්ජීවනය සඳහා ඉමහත් සේවයක් සිදුකලේය.

වර්‍ෂ 1886 සිට 1890 දක්වා කාලය තුළ බෞද්ධ පරම විඥානාර්ථ සංගමයේ බෞද්ධ අංශ​යේ මහ ලේකම්, බෞද්ධ මුද්‍රණාලයේ හා සඳරැස පත්‍රයේ කළමණාකරු, බෞද්ධ පාසල් කළමණාකරු, බෞද්ධ ආරක්‍ෂක කමිටුවේ සහයක ලේකම් යනාදි තනතුරු ධර්මපාලතුමා විසින් දරණ ලදි.

අභග්‍යයකට මෙන් 1904 අනගාරික ධර්මපාල තුමා ඉංදියාවේ බරණැස් සිට ලංකාවට එන අතරතුර දකුණු ඉංදියාවේ අඩියර් නගරයේ සිටි ඕල්කොට් තුමා හමුවීමට ගියබවත් එහිදී දන්ත ධාතුන් වහන්සේගේ ප්‍රතිරූපයක් පොත් රාක්කයක් යට තිබූ බව දැකීමෙන් කෝපයට පත් අනගාරික ධර්මපාල තුමා ඕල්කොට් තුමා  හා අතර ඇතිවූ බහින්බස් වීමකින් පසු අවුරුදු විස්සක් පුරා තිබූ මිත්‍රවය             අවසාන කලබව 1927 මහාබෝධි සංගමය විසින් ප්‍රකාශිත අනගාරික ධර්මපාල තුමාගේ වර්ෂක්‍රමානුගත වාර්තාවේ සඳහන් වේ.

ඉන් පසු 1906 සිට බෞද්ධ පරම විඥානාර්ථ සංගමයේ නමද වෙනස් කිරීමට බලවත් ව්‍යාපාරයය යෙදුන බවත් බෞද්ධ පරම විඥානාර්ථ සංගමයේ සිටි සිංහල බෞද්ධ නිලධාරීන් එයට විරුද්ධ වූ බවත් එම වාර්තාවේ සඳහන් වේ.

1907 පෙබරවාරි 17  ඕල්කොට් තුමා මියයන විට අනගාරික ධර්මපාල තුමා බෞද්ධ පරම විඥානාර්ථ සංගමයේ විනාශය සඳහා බලවත් ප්‍රයත්නයක යෙදී සිටියමුත් සිංහල බෞද්ධ නිලධාරීන්ගේ උත්සාහයෙන් බෞද්ධ පරම විඥානාර්ථ සංගමය, ප්‍රධාන පෙලේ පාසැල් වන කොළඹ ආනන්ද, නාලන්ද, නුවර ධර්මරාජ, ගාල්ලේ මහින්ද, කුරුනෑගල මලියදේව, පන්නිපිටියේ ධර්මපාල, මාතර ශ්‍රී රාහුල වැනි පාසැල්ද දෙදාහකට අදික ග්‍රාමීය පාසල්ද පවත්වා 1960 දී පාසැල් රජයට පවරාගන්නා තෙක් අසහාය සේවාවක් අකන්ඩව බෞද්ධ ශිෂ්‍යයන් හට ලබාදුනි

මෙහිදී අනගාරික ධර්මපාල තුමා සිංහල බෞද්ධයන්ගේ විශ්වාසය කඩ කිරීමෙකැයි චොදනා ලැබීමෙන් පසු සිංහල පුවත්පත් ඔහුට විරුද්ධව ලිපි පලකිරීමෙන් අනතුරුව බලවත් සිත් තැවුලකට පත්වී ඉංදියාව නිත්‍ය වාසස්ථානය බවට පත්කර ගත්තේය.

විශේෂ  සටහනක්

සිල්වාගේ ප්‍රශ්නය – කතෝලික බැතිමතුන්ට ආගමේ අය යයි කියන්නේ ඇයි?

පිලිතුර- වචනයේ පරිසමාර්ත අර්ථයෙන්ම  කතෝලික ආගම ආගමකි. කතෝලික අය බෞද්ධගම් කාරයින්ට කියන්නේ අන්‍යාආගම් කාරයින් කියායි

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane 

Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi has stated that the crisis in Rakhine state is being distorted by a “huge iceberg of misinformation”. She said that tensions were being fanned by fake news promoting the interests of terrorists.  Many fake news photographs are circulating. This creates a lot of problems between different communities and with the aim of promoting the interest of the terrorists”.  Fake news is generated primarily by the Western media and, as could be expected –  the media of Muslim countries. 

She has stated that her government had started defending all the people in Rakhine in the best way possible, and  “We know very well, more than most, what it means to be deprived of human rights and democratic protection. “So we make sure that all the people in our country are entitled to protection of their rights as well as, the right to, and not just political but social and humanitarian defence.”

It is a well known fact that the latest conflict was sparked on 25 August when Rohingya militants attacked police posts, triggering a military counter-offensive. The military says it is fighting against Rohingya militants who are attacking civilians.

Myanmar’s neighbours have come under criticism for not doing more to deal with the crisis. Bangladesh has previously refused to recognise the Rohingya as refugees, with Amnesty International accusing the country of sending people back to Myanmar to face an uncertain future. Recently the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Myanmar meeting with Suu Kyi and said that he shared the Myanmar government’s “concern” about extremist violence in Rakhine State. Suu Kyi thanked Modi for his “strength” in regard to the “terrorist threat” her security forces were facing.  It was last month that Modi vowed to deport the 40,000 Rohingya living in India.

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane 

Sugath Samarasinhe 

This is a response to the letter to the Editor published in the Opinion page of ‘The Island’ of August 22, 2017 titled New constitution a must”.

I do not agree with the opening statement of the Friday Forum which states:

The peoples’ verdict at the Presidential election of January 2015 reflected the mandate of the people for a new constitution to remedy democratic deficits in Sri Lanka’s governance arrangements, nearly 40 years after the enactment of the current constitution.”

My reasoning is as follows.

Mr. Maithripala Sirisena did NOT state in his Presidential election manifesto, that he was asking for a mandate to bring in a NEW CONSTITUTION. All that he said was that he would bring in legislation to reduce the executive powers of the office of the President by bringing in changes to the present Constitution, to the extent that he would not have to go for a Referendum. When he tried to do this within his first 100 days, the  Supreme Court ruled that he could not do what he intended with only a two third’s majority only in Parliament, because the intended changes would come into conflict with sovereignty of the people since it involved peoples’ franchise. At that time he did not inform court that he had in fact won the people’s mandate to do so at the Presidential elections. Thus he had to be satisfied with the 19^th amendment.

The group that assumed power to govern after the Parliamentary Elections of August 2015 too did not get such a mandate because it did not get the required numbers to get such a mandate, as the winners could only muster 106 seats. It was therefore a hung Parliament. How they eventually formed a government was by accommodating some MPs who had contested the elections opposed to the election manifesto of the winning party and worse, with some candidates who were rejected by the people at the polls, by illegitimately co-opting them as Appointed MPs on the pretext of forming what is called a National Government, when in fact most parties other than some renegades from the SLFP only became their partners while some other Parties such as the JVP and the TNA did not join them to make a National Government. In fact as far as we know, National Governments are formed when the nation is faced with a grave peril like a threat to the National Security. In this instance there was none. And funny enough that a Party that commanded only 17 Members was made the official Opposition and the leader of yet another smaller Party the Chief Opposition Whip,should while a group of Members who were really opposed to the Government was left in the lurch unrecognized, rendering Parliament a mockery! Could such a mock of a Parliament claim to have any legitimacy, have the temerity to claim the right to draw up a new constitution for the country? And can a group such as the Friday Forum who appear as a  group of intellectuals claim brazenly that such an adhoc contraption of a ‘government’ are the people who should usher a new constitution? Surely such a mockery of a ‘government’ could not claim that they have the peoples’ mandate to make a new constitution for the country?

In fact this contraption is avoiding the holding of the long overdue Local Government elections for the last two years and now to hold elections for three Provincial councils, trotting out lame excuses, to avoid holding them. If they have received the peoples’ mandate to usher a new constitution, why should they hedge the opportunity to demonstrate their mandate by holding these minor elections let alone a referendum? Thus, this group of people who call themselves Friday Forum must be living in Cookooland, but not in the real world.

The Friday Forum says that the intended constitutional exercise is in stark contrast to the passing of the 1972 and 1978 Constitutions, drafted by the political parties which had won election victories, enabling them to enact constitutions of their choosing”. But what they do not  mention is that in both those instances the Parties that won the General Elections had won the required majority vote to change the existing constitutions. In fact the UNP government of 1977 had won a 5/6th majority. It was very different from the present ‘government’ formed with aehindas” who were inveigled to join them by enticing them with offers of Ministerial posts, strictly speaking, in contravention of the Constitution. Thus, those two governments had genuinely earned mandate of the People, who trusted them to enact those constitutions and they were passed in Parliament with the required 2/3rd majority of the elected representatives unlike this government party composed of nominees rejected by the people at elections.

Quite apart from a claim to have earned a mandate to bring in a new constitution, we know that a main plank of this government to oust the corrupt Mahinda Rajapaksa administration was that, they would eliminate the rampant corruption under their administration. And some 6,2 million people voted them into power to enable them to do just that. But what we saw happening just within one month of their coming to power was the opposite, launching a grand Central Bank bond scam through a man whom they had imported from Singapore! It was just last week that the Parliament again postponed the National Audit Amendment Bill which has been postponed for the last 32 years by different corrupt Parliaments on various pretexts, fearing the proposals that they would be held accountable. That amendment would certainly become road block to large scale corruption. We think it would be a far more productive excise to discharge their main election promise of ushering a corruption free society by passing this Bill to law, rather than chasing an illusory and impractical ‘new constitution’ exercise. It is a far more achievable goal for those who call themselves ‘Yahapalana’ government and that will earn them some degree of credibility at least for the future.

We do not intend to address the rest of the material of the article of the Friday Forum elaborating the virtues of the fraudulent constitution making process engaged presently by the government, as it would be a waste of time, effort and space, because the very idea of making a new constitution is fundamentally flawed.

The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) on Tuesday welcomed the statement made by Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka that Sri Lankan security forces had committed war crimes against Tamils during and after the war ended.

Issuing a statement, the TGTE said ‘confirmation of war crimes by Sri Lankan forces comes after eight years of denial by successive Sri Lankan Governments that no war crimes were committed and calling Sri Lankan forces ’War Heroes’.

Sri Lankan Government rewarded ex-servicemen with senior Government positions, including appointing Field Marshal Fonseka as the Minister for Regional Development and General Jagath Jayasuriya as the Ambassador to Brazil,” the statement said.

It said Field Marshal Fonseka’s confession to war crimes committed by forces under his command came on September 1 and said that he has information about General Jayasuriya committing war crimes and that he is ready to give evidence.

I know he committed Crimes and I am ready to testify before a proper investigation. He committed crimes during and after the end of the war. I have a lot of information,” the TGTE said quoting Minister Fonseka.

It said the minister went on to say that war crimes were committed even after the war ended.

Minister Fonseka also said that he had information regarding other ‘Officers who committed crimes’. We urge the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNHRC and others to act swiftly to bring perpetrators of these international crimes to face justice. UN should not miss this opportunity,” it said.

Shehan Chamika Silva Courtesy The Daily Mirror

In the wake of the breakthrough made by Attorney General’s Department against Arjun Aloysius that he had received inside information with regard to the price sensitive details in bond trading, the PCoI had summoned him on September 5 to record a statement with CID officials.

However, ASG Yasantha Kodagoda informed the Commission that CID officials had visited Aloysius’ residence to serve the summons yesterday but failed to do so because he was not there at that time. The ASG said that Aloysius was not even at his office.

ASG Kodagoda also said that Aloysius’ personal secretary, ‘Sammuel’, whose name transpired during the proceedings, was also not cooperating with the investigators because Sammuel had said that he did not know about the whereabouts of his boss at that time.

In this backdrop, ASG Kodagoda asked Aloysius’ counsel Anuja Premaratne PC to convey the message to his client to appear before the CID.

Consequently, the ASG also requested the Counsel to provide numbers relating to the two legal passports of Aloysius (Australia and Sri Lanka). Counsel said he will contact his client and provide them.

However, the Commission was of the view that Aloysius will have to testify before the Commission from next Monday (September 11).

The Commission also informed the Counsel who appeared for Aloysius that the Commission had now summoned him to come and if he was not complying with it then he might have to deal with the consequences because now there was more convincing evidence against him before the PCoI.