Editorial Courtesy The Island

August 14, 2017, 12:00 pm
The yahapalana government is apparently in the suicidal mode. It is planning to move two no-faith motions against Justice Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakshe and Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government Faiszer Mustapha. This is an interesting turn of events.

A motion of no-confidence is long overdue against Minister Mustapha, who keeps postponing local government elections on some flimsy pretexts albeit at the behest of his political masters who suffer from ‘polls phobia’. But, Minister Rajapakshe has incurred the wrath of the government by opposing the leasing of the Hambantota Port. Yahapalanaya or good governance consists in tolerating dissent among other things. Why should anyone bay for Rajapakshe’s blood simply because he has opposed the disastrous port deal?

The government is not serious about removing Mustapha, who is only a minor irritant. It, no doubt, wants Rajapakshe ousted as he has criticised what passes for the government’s economic strategy. But, it is not likely to go ahead with the no-faith vote against him because if it fails in its endeavour the motion will boomerang on it. Rajapakshe got it right when he said the other day that the government would have to resign in case of its failure to remove him through a no-confidence motion.

The government has had to lease or sell public assets to foreigners mainly because of its expensive election bribes such as the huge pay hike for the public sector workers. It also cooked its goose by antagonising China, which alone has the funds to grant loans. Now, it has had to placate China by leasing strategically important assets to Chinese companies. It has chosen to remain in India’s good books by handing over the Mattala airport to an Indian firm. One hopes that Hambantota won’t end up being Sri Lanka’s Doklam.

What the country desperately needs is frugal economic management. It doesn’t need a government to sell its assets to shore up the national economy. If it contracts some auctioneers they will certainly do a much better job!

The government ought to refrain from taking punitive action against Minister Rajapakshe, who has emulated the truthful boy in Hans Anderson’s tale, The emperor’s new clothes.

Meanwhile, it behoves the Opposition to ask Speaker Karu Jayasuriya what the Attorney General has said about the no-faith motion which was to be moved against Ravi Karunanayake. Now that Karunanayake has made a tactical withdrawal by way of his resignation as the Foreign Minister there may not be any need for it to be taken up. But, the public has a right to know the AG’s opinion thereon because the government insisted that it was sub judice.

Brave women!

A story that lifts one’s spirits has been reported from a southern township. A life-giving pot of curd never gives a scare to anyone. Instead, it may make one’s mouth water. But, if coupled with a woman’s intrepidity and sangfroid, a pot of curd can become so scary as to make even an armed hardcore criminal show his victims a clean pair of heels. This is exactly what happened to a gunman who entered a house in Baddegama at night and shot a former sailor, injuring him, according to a report in this newspaper yesterday. The assailant was about to accomplish his mission when trouble for him came from unexpected quarters. The victim’s wife materialised before him, carrying a pot of curd, which landed on his head before he could say Jack Robinson. Scared out of his wits, he ran as fast as his legs could carry him. What would the gunman tell his fellow criminals now? He will have to concoct something like the UNP lawyers’ report on the Central Bank bond scams, to save his face!

A few moons ago, we reported a somewhat similar incident. A gunman forced himself into a house in Matara and tried to relieve a woman of her jewellery by holding her at gunpoint only to run away minus his gun, which the victim grabbed and dashed on the floor damaging it. Last year, in Dambulla a female garment worker pounced on two armed military deserters who tried to flee on a motorcycle after snatching her chain. They lost their balance, fell on the road and faced a citizen’s arrest.

The moral: Never underestimate a woman!

Whenever we read about fearless women who make machos bolt we wonder why they don’t take to the sickeningly male-dominated politics. The problem is that women generally underestimate themselves. They keep the economy afloat by toiling on plantations, in garment factories and in the deserts of West Asia. Besides their contribution to the national economy, they account for more than one half of the population. Sadly, they settle for less when it comes to representation in Parliament, Provincial Councils and local government bodies. They must demand that at least 50 percent of the seats in those institutions be reserved for them and more female candidates fielded at future elections. If the selection of candidates were ever to be left to us we wouldn’t hesitate to nominate formidable women of the calibre of the ‘pot thrower’ of Baddegama. Else, the kapati suit clad, corrupt, violent males who come to blows at the drop of a hat and turn the once-august assembly into a fish market of sorts will continue to rule the roost.

Darshana Sanjeewa

MP Namal Rajapaksa said today said the government had started victimizing the Rajapaksa family members as a ruse to cover up the bond scam.

In a twitter message, he said his mother Shirathi and brothers Yoshitha and Rohitha had been calledby the CID and the FCID.

Sri Lanka government using Rajapaksas to cover up bond scam. Former First Lady, Yoshitha Rajapaksa and Rohitha called to CID/FCID this week,” he tweeted.

The Police said today the CID asked former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s wife Shiranthi and their son Yoshitha to report to the CID to record statements in connection with the defender jeep which had allegedly been used to provide protection to a VIP after it was given to the Siriliya Saviya Foundation by the Red Cross in 2011.

They said Rohitha Rajapaksa was asked to report to the FCID tomorrow to record statement over an ongoing investigation.

By Charles.S.Perera

A felicitation Ceremony in the house of Parliament should be for a politician who had given lifetime of his  service  for the welfare of the people and the protection of the country.

In the case of the recently held felicitation ceremony to Ranil Wickramasinghe for his 40 years in politics, if there was a necessity for such a Ceremony it should have been more appropriate to have organised it amoung friends in the Nelum Pokuna, rather than in the house of Parliament.

If there was to have been a felicitation ceremony in the Parliament  it should have been in May,2009, to honour President Mahinda Rajapakse who ended a 30 years of suffering of the people, saved the country from being divided, and held back the Tamil separatist tendencies.

But instead that great man President Mahinda Rajapakse is being vilified, scandalised and treated as a thief, while  a man who was an egoist working for his own self aggrandisement,  selling the country, signing agreements with the terrorists allowing the country to be divided, forcing the Armed Forces to remain in barracks while allowing the terrorists freedom to go about where ever they want and kill, gun down, massacre, assassinate, snipe, and blast people to smithereens, is felicitated in the well of the Parliament for 40 years of scandal ridden life with a political non existence.

Well, Ranil Wickramasinghe had been in politics for 40 years but what has he contributed to the development of the country, welfare of the people and make Sri Lanka an independent sovereign states without its sovereignty interfered by the west who wants to divide the country separate the communities , and make Sri Lanka a poor developing country dependent on the West, and the country divided amoung the Tamils, the Muslims and the Sinhala.

Ranil Wickramasinghe won  the Parliamentary elections in 1977 to become a UNP Member of Parliament. With the assassination of Gamini Dissanayake under mysterious circumstances in 1994 Ranil W became the leader of the UNP. Sri Lanka after Independence was ruled  under constitutions written by the English and followed a Western capitalist system of government.

It changed only after 1956 when SWRD Bandaranayake was elected into parliament as a member of his newly founded Sri Lanka Freedom Party, and became  the Prime Miister of Si Lanka. Thereafter  Sri Lanka was being taken on a semi socialist system of government, departing from its capitalist beginnings. It was under this  Socialist system of governance that Sri Lanka found its national pride, with the renaissance of a  surging Sinhala Buddhist culture.

Sri Lanka changed governments oft and on and every time there was a UNP Government Sri Lanka went many steps backward in development and in  its socio cultural awakening.

The UNP political system that follows a half baked  Western Capitalism is not suitable to a developing country like Sri Lanka with its Buddhist cultural back ground which is its riches the cradle in which not only the Sinhala Community has been enriched , but also where  the other Communities too  have been greatly influenced.

Ranil Wickramasinghe’s political carrier is worth being examined to find out whether it is worthy of a Felicitation Ceremony in the house of Parliament. Ranil Wickramasinghe  has been credited for  radical changes in the education system of the country in 1980, and for  an exceptional economic development and industrial promotion in rural areas and  making  his Biyagama electorate a model of suburban development with the Biyagama Free Industrial Zone as his creation to provide employment to youth. Later on during his second period from 9 December,2001 to 6^th April, 2004 he is credited with improving the ailing economy and for bringing  the terrorist to a negotiating table for peace talk.

But all had not been well under Ranil Wickramasinghe in his capacity of a Minister or a Prime Minister.  May be he had good intentions but he did not know how well to organise his political system for the welfare of the people and the development of the country. He was idealistically attached to Western capitalist system and would not deviate from that as he valued his inborn servility to Western culture.

His idea of a negotiated settlement of terrorism prompted by the west was  a tragedy. He trusted in the Western Governments and  failed to understand that Western Governments are a set of hypocrites working for their own benefit. Ranil Wickramasinghe believed in West as a safety net which could be brought in to help if Sri Lanka faced political or internal communal problems.

Eric Solheim the Norvegian negotiator and Robert O Blake the American Ambassador both who were  more or less undercover agents” of Prabhakaran the terrorist leader of Sri Lanka, discouraged a military solution against terrorism in Sri Lanka and insisted on a negotiated settlement. Ranil Wickramasinghe blindly walked into the trap and signed the CFA with the Terrorist Prabhakaran.

It was the same mistake that J.R.jayawardhane had made before him. When Indian Air Force trespassed  itself into Sri Lanka airspace to defend the terrorists and forced  JR to enter into an agreement, JR may have expected America of which he was a great friend and admirer, to intervene. But he found himself isolated and had to give into the demands of India. Ranil Wickramasinghe never took a lesson from the deception of his uncle  the President J.R.Jayawardhane. He continues his blind allegiance to the West and India.

The Agreement –the CFA,  he entered into with the terrorists was a disaster. Under the agreement the terrorists were given control over areas they occupied allowing them to come into areas out side their controlled areas for political activities, but the Sri Lanka Police or the Armed Forces were not allowed into the terrorist controlled areas. It was sheer suicide.

Ranil Wickramasinghe restricted Armed Forces to remain in military barracks, and made the Armed Forces  helpless when from time to time the terrorist came out and placed bombs, sent suicide bombers, and committed atrocities against the civilians in Sinhala villages, and escaped into terrorists controlled areas. Any police officer going into these areas in search of wrong doers were arrested by the terrorists, tortured and killed.

Was this  the contribution of  Ranil Wickramasinghe to the Independent Sri Lanka that had to be celebrated with a Felicitation Ceremony in the House of Parliament ?

Under Ranil Wickramasinghe’s CFA the whole of North and East were controlled by the terrorists. Many meetings-six in all  he arranged between the representatives of the  terrorists, and the representatives of the Government of Sri Lanka for a negotiated settlement ended in failure, with the representatives of the terrorists walking away from negotiations.

Ranil’s CFA opened the whole of Sri Lanka for the terrorists to carry out, at their pleasure, multifarious murders, massacres, bomb blasts which resulted in the death of thousands of innocent civilians, and the personnel of the Armed Force, and the Police.

Fortunately this doomed period of Sri Lankan history under the Premiership of Ranil Wickramasinghe ended in 7^th February, 2004. The worst of Ranil Wickramasinghe’s contribution to Sri Lanka was what he perpetrated during the period1988 to 1990, which was the darkest period of  Sri Lankan history, after the rein of the tyrant Kalingha Magha who destroyed Buddhist monasteries and dispersed the Sinhala people from their lands.

During this dark period of  the history of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickramasinghe had organised an illegal detention Camp in Batalanda, where thousands of Sinhala youth were detained tortured and killed and those who disappeared in that period have not been traced.

In 1997 the President Chandrika Kumaratunga  appointed a Special Presidental Commission of Inquiry Act,  to investigate the activities of Batalanda.  One of the findings of the Commission  which recommended  to bring the guilty to book was  that,  (Ranil) Wickramasinghe and the SSP Nalin Delgoda are indirectly responsible  for the maintenance  of places of unlawful detention and torture chambers in houses of the Batalanda Housing Scheme, and unauthorised meetings  of police officers involved in counter insurgency  operations  in the housing complex and that as such he has abused his authority.”

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batalanda_detention_centre)

It is also worth noting that the President Maithripala Sirisena, in August, 2012, when he was the Minister of Health in the  Government of President Mahinda Rajapakse and the General Secretary of the SLFP while addressing an election committee  meeting held at Siripura, Polonnaruwa had said, …that during the 1994 presidential election campaign , all campaign details  concerning the UNP Presidential Candidate Gamini Dissanayake were being secretly passed on to his opponent Chandrika Kumaratunga by Ranil Wickramasinghe and that he has ample proof  to validate his claim and allegation.”

Ranil Wickramasinghe ..Is he a dictator ?

The Mahanayake Thero of the Asgiriya Chapter the most Venerable Udugama Sri Buddharakkhita thero had once said that since recently the Opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe is acting like a Dictator. In 2010, UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekara said  that within the constitution of the UNP,Ranil Wickramasinghe is not a democratic leader but a Dictator. Then again a Former Minister and a UNP MP Mahinda Wijesekara had accusing  Ranil Wickramasinghe said  that, ….we do not want a Dictator in the Party.”, as Wickramasinghe opposed party reforms.

That is  not all the fantastic work accomplished by the Prime Monister Ranil Wickramasinghe, which probably valued this Felicitation Ceremonies in the House in the context of  the Yahapalanaya Governed Sri Lanka where every thing abnormal are taken as normal by the President and his SLFP break away group, and the Prime Minister and his UNP cohorts.

In December 2001 Ranil Wickramasinghe became the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. In 2002 he signed the disastrous CFA with Prabhakaran the terrorist. But by then the Armed Forces were making plans to carryout successful military operations to weaken and defeat terrorism. The Armed Forces had set up a Covert Operation Unit in Millenium City Housing Scheme held in Athurigiriya,. where they trained army personnel to infiltrate into the terrorist headquarters as spies  to collect information about terrorists and their activities. This was extremely confidential and very few were even aware of the existence of this meeting place of  the Special Unit.

Ranil Wickramasinghe who was more concerned about himself and his safety, after allegation made by Charitha Ratwatte had a special police force to raid the house in question. It resulted in the names of the members of the Covert Operation Unit of the Armed Forces being made public. Most of them were Tamils.

This allowed the terrorists to track down the members of the Unit and have them assassinated.  The Sunday Times defence columnist Iqbal Athas in February 2004 had revealed  the names of 24 Tamil members of the Special Unit  assassinated by the LTTE, some of them were abducted by the LTTE and subjected to intense torture for days before they were murdered. More than 80 members of the Special Unit was killed by the LTTE.

(http://www.island.lk/2005/04/01/opinion1.html)

Fortunately that dark period of Sri Lanka ushered in by Ranil Wickramasinghe as Prime Minister on  9^th December, 2001 ended in February 2004. After 2005 when Mahinda Rajapakse became the President of Sri Lanka and was taking determined steps to end terrorism  60 UNP MPs left the UNP to join the government of the President Mahinda Rajapakse to help him in his war effort.

Ranil Wickramasinghe as the leader of the Opposition through out  the period of military operations against the terrorists,  ridiculed the Government of the President Mahinda Rajapakse  and the Armed Forces and discouraged soldiers in their heroic effort to eliminate terrorism.

Ranil Wickramasinghe  was responsible for luring away Maithripala Sirisena from the SLFP and from the Government of the President Mahinda Rajapakse to make of him a puppet President, reducing his executive powers and takeover the administrative powers over to himself as the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe since his appointment to the office in 2015 had made his principle object the accusation of the President Mahinda Rajpakse as a thief who had enriched himself taking bribes and stealing state funds,  and accusing his family and all those who had any connection to him for bribery and corruption. To facilitate this principle activity of his government he set up the FCID which takes instructions directly from him.

When Ranil W became the Prime Minister all development projects in Sri Lanka were temporarily stopped, putting thousands of people out of work. And subsequent efforts of development by his government has been made difficult as it had antagonised the  principle investor the Chinese Government, and to get them back to invest in development had necessitated the giving of thousands of acres of land and the Hambantota Harbour to the Chinese investors on long lease- almost an outright sale to China..

Ranil Wickramasinghe’s government has taken Sri Lanka from what it was before 8^th January,2015 and after May,2009,  many years back words with even the likelihood of terrorism raising its head again”.

He is now working on a Western Agenda which means giving the North and East  of Sri Lanka to the Tamils under a new (Federal) Constitution. Already the North and East have their own National Anthem sung in Tamil. Sampanthan and Wigneswaran would want police powers and powers over Land to the North and East Provincial Council.

Ranil Wickramasinghe betrayed Sri Lanka by appointing Mano Ganeshan as a Minister giving him a very important subject under his Ministry, and appointing Sampanthan the leader of TNA as the leader of the Opposition.

Is it correct that Sampanthan  the Leader of the Opposition in Sri Lanka Parliament Sampanthan meeting a USA Congressman  and invite America to interfere into Sri Lanka’s internal Affairs ?

The United States has been urged (by TNA Leader Sampanthan), to ensure that Sri Lanka fully implemented the Geneva Resolution 30/1 co-sponsored by Colombo on Oct 1, 2015.

The Geneva resolution has proposed setting up of a hybrid war crimes court including foreign judges among other things.A statement issued by the Office of the Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan quoted the veteran politician as having told a visiting delegation of US Congressmen accompanied by US Ambassador in Colombo Atul Keshap that their government should hold the Sri Lankan Government responsible the commitments they had made to the international community, particularly with regard to the Geneva Resolution.”

(http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=169810)

The people of Sri Lanka are behind their beloved  President Mahinda Rajapakse, except perhaps the Tamils, Muslims and Catholics who voted against President Mahinda Rajapakse to brink Sirisena-Ranil Government into power.

Sri Lanka is facing serious political problems. China had been a country that helped the development of Sri Lanka without any conditions attached, but India has ulterior motives and getting too close to India is a danger to the Sovereignty of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka  should have a strong political leadership in dealing with India and the West. Prime Minister Wickramasinghe with his attachment to West and India is politically weak . The President Maithripala Sirisena is not kept well informed by his Prime Minister of the dangers Sri Lanka runs into in dealing with these two pseudo-friendly powers-West and India.

Under these circumstance, is it not right to question,  for doing what during  40 years in politics,  Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe deserves a  Felicitation Ceremony in the House of Parliament ?

It is foolish politicians who attempt to attack and wreck the AttorneyGeneral’s Department.  – Minister Dr, Wijedasa Rajapaksa

(Translated by : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA)

Given below is the translation of an interview given to Sunday Divayina by the Minister of Justice and Buddhist Affairs Dr. Wijedasa Rajapaksa who is to be impeached by the government. He bcame prominent in the political arena this week because of the debatable ideas expressed by him on leasing of the Hambantota harbour to China, implementation of law and order in the country, and on Bond Scam investigation.

Because of these opinions he has to got involved in a single handed fight against the other Mnisters of the government within and ouside the cabinet. It is in a background of this battle becoming very hot and having assumed a stage in which allegations are being made both ways we met him and built up this debate.

Q: Most of the people in this country do not know that the handover of the Hambantota harbour to China was the most dangerous loss incurred by this country although the hot topic of discussion is the Bond Scam.

A: Yes.  Superficially you will see that what I am waging is a solitary battle.  But within this battle there are several unseen forces.  That is the people of this country.  I have not got isolated.  It is based on facts I say that the sale of this harbour is wrong.  I say it based on arguments and with valid reasons.  I have shown the reasons. The President, the Prime Minister and all of us agreed to sign this agreement to discuss about it in the Parliament, include the points raised in that discussion as amendments to the agreement and present it in a transparent manner.  But there was no such discussion, no amendments were included, and the agreement was signed in a hurry on Saturday. I come forward to argue in this regard that it was a wrong precedent created in taking decisions on national wealth of this country….

Q: This transaction has taken place at a time in which there was no alternative other than givng the Hambantota harbour to China. What is the justifiable alternative that exists?

A: It is necessary to understand the question prior to finding an alternative.  I declared that this transactin was wrong based on facts.  I will repeat those facts if it is necessary.

The Ports Authority is not empowered to sell or lease out the harbour to anyone.  The Ports Authority is there to take decisions on sustaining the harbour, and not sell the harbour.  It can however lease out a part of it, or sell a part of it or sell some properties belonging to it for sustaining the harbour. But how the port can be sold? Then the objective of theirs has got violated.

Point No, 2 is the economy. The Colombo harbour is a financial spring that brings money to our economy. Under the leasing out of the Hambantota harbour to China, if China together with its chain of harbours and shipping companies start to make all its operations from the Hambantota harbour what will happen to the Colombo harbour? All our investments for Colombo will get washed out.  With all facilities intact in the Hambantota harbour which shipping company will come to Colombo to get te facilities they require by sailing 400 nautical miles and wasting their time? Ultimately it is Colombo that will become a swimming pool and not Hambantota.    .

Q; Some people point out that we got entrapped in a big ambush by handing over the Hambantota harbour to China.

A: It was an ambush.  Let me explain.  Habantota is a harbour we built by becoming indebted.  We lease it out to Cina for 99 years.  Colombo harbour was built by China.  They give us back this harbour built by them after 25 years.  What China will do is get all the ships coming to Colombo harbour diverted to Hambantota and give us only the trash to us after making Colombo harbour bankrupt after 25 years. They will get the future wealth.  Therefore it is indeed an ambush.  We are now globally indebted by 78 Billion U.S.Dollars.  How much of our debts will get deducted by handing over Hambantota? Only 1 Billion U.S.Dollars. After having got indebted so much if we get another 400 Million Dollars and get the remaining infrastructure requirements done we ourselves can sustain the harbour.  It seems that we have got scared because of this 400 Million Dollars. We, by blaming the past and cursing Rajapaksas give out even the remaining national wealth.  We do not think of making use of it and use them for development actitvities.    .

Q: You said that under this harbour transaction there will be a politicl problem and a security problem in the country..

A: Yes.  When we give Hambantota to China, India is asking for the Trincmalee.  Both these parties are attempting to make it their power bases by getting hold of Sri Lanka.  Is it good for Sri Lanka? And the other thing is that in this question, the United States, India, Europe, Japan and powerful countres in the world are all with one view. Because they know that it was in this manner that China got hold of the African harbour Dibouti and built a military base there. It is a dangerous example.

Q: A Minister responding to this argument of yours says that you are attempting to show a non-existing ghost.  He said that in a background of giving American contracts to China and giving Chinese works to America that the fear being espoused by you is only hilarious.

A: America is a large country. It’s 50 States is like 50 countries.  Therefore not only giving one harbour to China, America will not feel about it even if 10 harbours were given to China.  What is Sri Lanka to compare with America? Who are we? Yes.  When I expressed my opinion some Ministers who think that they are intelligent said it was a tribal opinion”.  That means only tribals who think about the country and the others do not want a country.

Q: What is the latest status of this harbour agreement?

A: In the legal sector the opinion that this agreement is wrong is prevailing now.  There is also a Court Case against this transaction.  We argue that the Port can sell a property of it’s for the welfare of the Port, but how can the port sell the port itself? The Government Trust can sell a land belonging to the government.  But can the Government Trust sell the Government Trust itself.  That is the argument.

Q: We saw you isolated in the Cabinet as well as outside of it when discussing about this matter.

A: Yes.  I got isolated.  I have the strength to speak about the right thing even by being isolated.  This strength is lacking in other Ministers.  That is my speciality. It was only I:who opened my mouth during Mahinda’s government when these rebellious Ministers remained completely silent and unable to open their mouths. That was for the right thing.

Q: Some people say that even if you are isolated you are carrying a big struggle because there is a powerful strength backing you.  Some even say that the President is behind you.  Some people say like this also.  That in the next government that wll be established amidst all these troubles that you will be the Prime Minister.

A; I will give a fitting reply to that.  But do not think that this is a boasting to build up my image.

The strength I have is nothing else but the ability to stand for the right thing, defeat the fallcy and deception and the strength of making the right thing and the truth victorius.  I am a person who has fought solitarily for these things.  I have saved the wealth and resources of this country that were belongng to the people of this country worth more than 1000 Billions.  That is my strength.

Q: On what you are talking about?

A: I will tell a few incidents.  In 2003 the SLTB of the Central, Sabaragama and Western provinces, the 3 provinces were sold with its mobile and immobile assets to Ravi Wettasinghe for a sun of Rs. 865 Million.  If this sale took place Sri Lanka will not have the SLTB as well. The employees went to Courts.  The Court cases were dismissed.  The cases were defeated.  After that I came forward independently and filed a case in the Supreme Court.  There were a bunch of Presidents Counsels who appeared against me.  I was alone. I proved that the agreement was wrong. Ultimately the then Chief Justice, Mr. Sarath N.Silva said that all you Lawyers appeared as defence lawyers were talking for green colour currency notes.  (It is only during that time that the green colour Rs. 1000 currency notes were issued)  But this Lawyer was not talking for money and he talked on behalf of the country.  He said so and issued a historical verdict.  He annulled the SLTB Sales Agreement.  At that time the land of Pettah Bus Stand was worth more than 860 Million? The value of the whole country was more than 1000 Billion. Who has given such a victory for the country? Have any of those big politicians who talk so much has given even a thing equivalent to a stalk of a mustard seed to the country?

I am not talking about the SLTB. I came to the COPE.  Mahinda forcibly gave me the post of Minister in charge of Banks.  During that period I recovered 4000 Million for Bank of Ceylon and the People’s Bank.  When I carried out a solitary fight in the COPE I received death threats.  My house was surrounded by 82 STF personnel.  I unearthed robberies amounting to 300 Billion.

At that time the Insurance Corporation which was worth 125 Billion was sold to 6 Billion.  A perch in Vauxhall street was valued at Rs. 17,000.  A brand new vehicle was valued at Rs. 15,000. These were the valuations of P.B.Jayasundera and Milinda Moragoda.  We told the government that it was a national crime.  Don’t do it.  But it was sold.  We went to Courts against the sale and got the Insurance Corporation rescued.  In the Court verdict the judges have made a special note about the service I rendered..  When we re-acquired the Insurance Corporation it had wealth worth more than 200 Billion. It is because we re-acquired the Insurance Corporation we got the Apollo Hospital with it.  We re-acquired Shell Gas by local currency.  We also re-acquired 8% of shares of the Banks.

I have the fame of these things.  It is by going to Courts we rescued the Lanka Marine Services Institution.  I have an honest happiness about it.

I only have the strength of mediating for rendering such national service.  I do not have the strength of anyone else.  I would like to say today that as I got the above referenced national wealth back to the country that I would reverse the sale of this harbour as well.  This agreement is faulty.  I would re-acquire this harbour from China and vest it with the country.  It would be done definitely. I have a programme for that.

Q: You have another serious allegation against you.  This government came to power by making a pledge to the people that thieves and robbers will be apprehended, they will be taken to Courts and punishments will be instituted againsted them.  But even after two years of coming to power the government did not apprehend those said thieves.  No punishment has been given.  People like Ajith Perera directly accuse you for these lapses and delays.  They say that these Court cases are getting delayed because of you.

A: People who do not know even a matter worth of banana flower say such things just to show that they are knowledgeable.  The stupid ignoramus guys attempt to show that they are erudite by telling such stories to the media.  How can a servitude become an erudite? It is sheer lack of knowledge.

It is true that before we formed the yahapalana government we pledged to the people that thieves, robbers and corrupt will be pulled by their ears and will be punished.  But it was not according to whatever those people say.  As per the yahapalana policies cases will be filed and punishments will be meted out after the allegations were proved.  But punishments will not be meted out on the basis of personal rivalry, jealousy and on matters like business rivalry.

These activities are being carried out today on the basis of rules and regulations applicable to the Police and institutions such as Attorney General’s Department.  Some peiole are impatient.  Because some people want to urgently avenge people they hate, they envy and they dislike. What they want is to interfere with the work of the Police and the Attorney General’s Department and order them to take up this case prior to that case and do things like that.  They may be able to control the Police but they cannot do that with the Attorney General’s Department.

There is a Minister and a Ministry not to contol the cases belonging to the Attorney General’s Department.  The Attorney General’s Department is an independent entity.  It is true that some who cannot understand this reality blames me.

Q: Not by few people. We saw that you were isolated in that question as well.  We saw Ministers attacking you even in the Cabinet.

A: No it is wrong.  Even the President accepts my point of view.The Prime Minister clearly said in Hatton recently that no one can interfere in the work of the Attorney General’s Department. They are in my stance.  Only a few are shouting.  And the other thing is that I should remind those people about the past. I remember that in 1994 a Commission was appointed to apprehend thieves.  They abolished the Bribery Department and aappointed the Commission to investigate Bribery or Corruption. It was said that this commission will be empowered to enquire with retrospective effect to include the past 17 years in order to catch the thieves of those 17 years.  But when the Act was brought in, it was effective only for the future.  Commissiiners were appointed with very high salaries.  From 1994 to the year 2000 they enquired only one case for that period of 5 years. It was relating to a teacher admitting a student to the Anula Vidyalaya by taking 5 cups and saucers.  It was the only bribe they were able to find out.  See the results.  It was so even after that.  The people remember that two COPE reports brought by me were strategically made to lapse by these people.

When I became the Minister of Justice I corrected all these mistakes.  I stopped political interference with these commissions.  Today no one can control the Attorney General’s Department.  That is why the Bond Scam enquiry is beautifully going ahead day by day.  What they say is to halt this enquiry, and allow them to take control of delaying the cases and bring forward whatever the cases they want.  As per the yahapalana policies these things will not happen.

Q: I am asking that question once again. Are you the next Prime Minister of this country?

A: Do not create unwanted stories and help them get publicised.  In tge same I am not a person who carry out my work in anticipation of perks and privileges.  As long as I remain I will serve the people by safeguarding the honour and dignity of the positions.  Otherwise I will go home.  I do not have dreams.

Discussed by Bulitha Pradeep Kumara of Divayina.

(niz)

SudathGunasekara  

I thank you for inviting me for the above meeting

But I am afraid whether I would hurt your feelings by making these observations. In the first place participants were not given a clear idea as to what the Organizers mean by the heritage city of Kandy is and what its proposed boundaries are. Having listened to the main speakers the impression we got is that Kandy like any other city is also a model of another multi –cultural, multi religious and multi ethnic city in keeping with the often spoken current political interpretation and fashion prevailing among politicians for meeting their political ends and public officials to repeat such jargon to win favours from their political masters and also by certain academics with western training fancied by neo-liberal thinking to exhibit perhaps their intellectual attainments. The remarks made by the official from the UDA that day regarding Kandy city clearly proves my point. As such neither the government officials nor the JICA team of 17 be allowed to decide the future urban morphology of this historic city. And you being a Sinhala Buddhist from Matale and an academic from Peradeniya, I think will have to take precaution to protect this pristine and unique heritage of ours. It is your onerous duty and responsibility as well, I think.

I also went through the sketch of the Project Area for the Detailed Plan (Preliminary) prepared by JICA you gave me. I have a big problem regarding the demarcation, location as well as the nomenclature they have adopted in that plan. I think this is arbitrary and does not conform to reality on ground and therefore highly controversial. When you talk of a Heritage Area in Kandy the first and foremost factor I think is the identification of the Sacred Areas. That should form the core of the Project I think. Things like cultural and environment heritages then follow. Things like heritage, commerce, public transit, sacredness, civic and culture could be found all over. In fact they intermingle isn’t it. Out of this big list priority has to be given to sacredness and heritage in this case I think. Sacred areas cannot be relocated as such they need to be restored and protected in situ. Before marking Sacred and Heritage areas on map you will have to discuss it with the Asgiriya, Malwatta, DN, Bssnayakas of the 4 Devales and any others who are well versed in the Archaeology and history of the Kingdom. Since all these elements are intermingled in an ancient city like Kandy much care has to be paid in marking out commercial areas within the city. I suggest you suggest shifting whole sale business to Pallekele or Katugastota. Congestion, especially the traffic jam, could be reduced at least by 50% if you do that. The western most tail end part of the Colombo Street is the worse in this regard.

As for me Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist country as it had continued to be so for the past 2500 years and I think Kandy has been recognized as a world heritage only  in that context. It is the Sri Daladamaligawa, the Esela Perahera, the Four Devalas, the Kandy Lake and Asgiriya and Malwatta, the two Head Quarters of the Theravada Buddhist tradition and the unique Arts and architecture associated with these institutions and the Sinhala Buddhist cultural heritage akin to them that have made it a world heritage. In other words they form the core elements of this Sinhala Buddhist heritage. St Paul Church or the Meeramakkam, Cross street or Rajaveediya Mosques built on temple lands have no role in making Kandy a world Heritage city. People who talk about multiculturalism in Kandy should know that they have nothing to do with the spirit or the substance of the historical heritage of Kandy

Though we call this city as a Sinhala Buddhist Heritage city, going by the present subversive trends in action, as for me I do not know as to how long it will remain so. For example 65 to 70 % of the business premises in the heart of the city are already owned by Muslims and Tamils. If you come to the town at 12 noon on any Friday and take a stroll around you can see what I am trying to say. The tragedy here is all these lands were owned either by Asgirya and Malwatta or the Four Devalas or Suduhumpola Temple and still come under the jurisdiction of the Buddhist Temporalities Ordinance. They had been either directly leased out from these institutions or purchased at exorbitant prices from previous owners by Muslims with money lavishly given by the Mosque or provided by Arab countries in the Middle East for a long time. Just walk round the streets incognito and see how many mosques are there within the precincts of the city yelling, ‘Allahu akbar’ etc, which they call praying, 5 time s day in a language none of us understand.. We don’t know what they say and what they do inside as no one is allowed to enter these places either. But one thing is certain they all gather in the mosque to work out their strategy to capture the city by way of land, business and political power. Just see around as to how many streets have been already named after Muslim names. Also look for the number of taverns and the number of meat and fish stalls are there in and around this Buddhist sacred city. The Municipality has not been able to ban fish and meat stalls even in the Central market within few hundred feet from the Sacred Tooth Relict, the most revered palladium of the Whole Buddhist world. That is how the heritage and the sacredness of this last capital city of the 2500 year old Sinhala Buddhist Kingdom had been protected by the authorities. These are only few vital issues that come to my mind just now.

I suggest you recommend invocation of the Buddhist Temporalities Act and direct all temple and Devala authorities to cancel all leases given to non-Buddhists within a specific time frame and give such land in future only to Sinhala Buddhists if you are really serious in protecting the heritage of Kandy.

Talking about the Greater Kandy Area just go round and see how the suburban towns like Kadugannawa, Pilimatalawa, Peradeniya, Gelioya, Gampola, Digana, Teldeniya, Medamahanuwara, Madawala, Katugastota, Akurana and Galagedara have already come under the siege of Muslims. My information is in all these places already over 50% is under them going up to 100% in places like Akurana. In some of these areas Sinhalese are not allowed to buy land or business places. They have already become Muslim enclaves.

Business sector is dominated by them. The monopoly of both whole sale and retail trade in spices like Cloves, Pepper, Nutmegs Arica and Coffee is entirely in their hand. The Sinhala villagers around these centers sweat and toil day and night. The benefit goes to the Muslims. With the new money they buy the land, build palatial buildings, buy super luxury vehicles, send their children to the International Schools in the town and get them educated in the English medium and invade all sectors like banking, business and now even public service. The Sinhalese villagers on the other hand with their meager resources send their children to the village schools and the elder folk provide the cheap labour for the Muslim businessmen. They are being exploited by the non-Sinhala traders deceived by the politicians continue to go down the social and economic Gadarene slope. This is the vicious circle that operates in the suburbs around our dream heritage city.

Therefore I suggest you take action to revolutionize the minor Export crops sector with a broad package of subsidies, technical assistance, extension and marketing and by introducing agro business like essential oil and other value added industries on a cooperative basis at village level to increase farmer income and protect them from exploitation by the middlemen. This will also motivate younger generation to remain in agriculture and minimize rural-urban migration. If the prevailing disastrous trends are not arrested immediately and remedial measures are not taken within another 25 years there want be a Sinhala heritage to be seen either in the village or in the  City. The same will be true of Matale as well. And finally of the whole country as it has already happened to Colombo, Galle, Aluthgama, ,Puttalam and the Eastern Province.

You as the Key advisor in this Project I think can do a lot to prevent this tragedy happening to  Mahanuwara at least.

In this mission I suggest you adopt an independent and apolitical approach in formulating and implementing this Project.

I suggest you seek the advice of the Asgiriya and Malwatta Chapters, Diyawadana Nilame of Sri Dalada Maligawa and the Basnayaka Nilames of the Four Devalas and the Pitisara Devalas around the city as they are the true custodians and repositories of the Heritage what is called Kandyan and I also suggest that you keep all NGO agents and politicians at arm’s length in this exercise, if you wants to formulate a realistic Plan that will guarantee the protection of the Heritage of the last Capital of the 2500 year old Sinhala Buddhist Kingdom of this Island nations. Also I suggest you have a word with Gerry and Maddu as well on this subject. You may also draw your attention to improving the 76 Pirivenas in the hinterland giving priority to Asgirya and Malwatta maha Piriven to give a new lease of life to native education in the face of destruction being done to the very foundation of our educational system by the International school mafia.

Also I suggest that you immediately start a comprehensive socio-economic survey of the whole hinterland of the Kandy city as the core to get a firsthand knowledge as to how the core periphery relationship operates in this sub-region. I am sure you must be fully familiar with Gunda Frank’s thesis on this subject. I do not think you can formulate a comprehensive development plan for Kandy without first doing a survey like that.

PS I do not know whether you are familiar with the multi- billion 5.5 Km Mulgampola-Tennekumbura tunnel proposal that is being worked on with a view to solve the Traffic congestion in Kandy town. Its possible negative impacts on the Heritage city and its environment with possible disastrous outcomes like what happened in the Uma Oya project may have to be addressed by you Project.

Finally, as for me, we should take all steps to conserve and protect the distinct Sinhala Buddhist heritage of this city at any cost to preserve the city as the mirror image of its cultural hinterland. As you know villages are usually invaded by urban culture resulting in disintegration of very foundation of the native culture. If we are to preserve our identity adequate measures will have to be taken in time to protect the village from urban invasion. I am convinced that Kandy city should ever remain as the epitome of the last capital of a 2500 year old great Sinhala Buddhist civilization. It should never be converted to another Hanoi, Rome or London or another Hindu, Muslim or Christian heritage city. It should be restored to its pristine glory by removing all what is not Sinhala Buddhist in spirit, form and substance. It should be jealously guarded for ever to remain as Mahanuwara (Kandy) the last word of a Sinhala Buddhist capital so that even future visitors who visit this city will get mesmerized as Governor Hue Clifford did in 1825 by calling it the legendary ‘Garden of Hesperides in the Paradise Island of Ceylon’

The main purpose of this note is to focus the attention of Project Designers and Managers as well as the general Public on the need to be extremely circumspective in this kind of projects with foresight in order to achieve desired results while protecting the heritage of a nation. and avoid possible  irreparable damage in future as it has already witnessed in the Uma Oya Project.

SudathGunasekara

ජනමාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයයි පූජ්‍ය වකමුල්ලේ උදිත හිමි ලේකම් ජාතික භික්‍ෂු පෙරමුණ.

     යහපාලන ආණ්ඩුවේ නරිවාදන් රෙද්ද පල්ලෙන් බේරෙන තවත් මහා සොරකමක් මේ වන විට රට හමුවේ හෙළිදරව් වී ඇත. එහි ප‍්‍රතිඵලයක් ලෙස විදෙස් ඇමතිව සිිටි හා ඊට පෙර මුදල් ඇමතිව සිටි රවී කරුණානායක මහතා අමාත්‍ය ධුරයෙන් ඉල්ලා අස්වී ඇත. ඇමතිවරයෙකුට දූෂණ චෝදනා ඇතිවිට ධුරයෙන් ඉල්ලා අස්වී පරික්‍ෂණවලට සාධාරණය ඉටුකිරීම මහත්මා දේශපාලනය වුවත් රවී කරුණානායක මහතාගේ ඉල්ලා අස්වීමෙන් ඒ මහාත්මා දේශපාලනය පෙන්වා නැත.

සිදු වූයේ ජනතාවාදී දේශපාලන පක්ෂ හා ජනතාවත්, මාධ්‍යයත්, කෝප් කමිටුව, දූෂණ විරෝධී හඬ, වෘත්තීය සමිති, හා ජාතික භික්‍ෂු පෙරමුණ වැනි බලපෑම් කණ්ඩායම් බොහෝ වෙහෙසදරා කළ නොනවතින අරගලයක ප‍්‍රතිඵලයක් ලෙස ඉල්ලා අස්වීමට සිදුවූවා මිස මහත්මයෙකු මහාත්මාකම පෙන්වීමක් නොවේ. ආණ්ඩුව හා ධනපති කල්ලි කණ්ඩායම් සියල්ල සමගින් ඇතැම් මාධ්‍ය උත්සාහ කළේ මේ මහබැංකු සොරකම වසන් කර හොරු රැකිීමටයි. 

            පසුගිය ආණ්ඩුවේ සොරකම්වලට නම් දරා ඇති පිරිස් මේ කි‍්‍රයාදාමයට සම්මාදන් වූයේ ”දැන් ඉතිං උඹලත් අපි වගේම එක මල්ලෙ පොල් ” කියන න්‍යායට අනුවයි. එසේ නොවී බැඳුම්කර සිද්ධියෙන් රටට, මහජනතාවට සිදුකර ඇති අලාභය ගැන කම්පාවෙන් නොවේ.

            කෙසේ වෙතත් මහජන ධනය විලිලැජ්ජාවකින් තොරව හොරාකන හොරු රැලක් හෙළිදරව් වෙමින් තිබීම පින් ඇති මහත්තුරුයැයි වන්දනාමාන කරමින් සිටි ජනතාවට හොඳ පාඩමකි. එහෙයින් ජනතාවගේ පැත්තේ සිට අපට අසන්නට ඇත්තේ ඒ හොරත්, මේ හොරත් හැර තවත් හොරු සිටිත්ද? කියාය. ආණ්ඩුව යහපාලන නම්, පාලකයින් යහපාලකයින් නම් ”උතුම් මාතෘ භූමිය” ගැන කියවන ජනාධිපතිතුමා හා ”ලිච්ඡවි පාලනයක්” ගැන කියවන අගමැතිතුමා, තව දුරටත් හොරු රකිනවද? නැද්ද? කියා වහාම ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් උත්තර බැඳිය යුතු බව අප අවධාරණය කරනු කැමැත්තෙමු.         

ස්තූතියි.

මෙයට,

පූජ්‍ය වකමුල්ලේ උදිත හිමි

ලේකම් 

ජාතික භික්‍ෂු පෙරමුණ.

 lanka C news

නූගත් අඥන ඇතැම් මිනිසුන් නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නිලධාරින්ට එරෙහිව බොරු චෝදනා ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නේ යැයි ප්‍රශ්නගත බැදුම්කර වංචාවට අදාළව නිතීපතිවරයා වෙනුවෙන් පැමිල්ල මෙහෙයවන නීතිඥ අතිරේක සොලිසිටර් ජෙනරාල් ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ යසන්ත කොදාගොඩ මහතා බැදුම්කර කොමිෂන් හමුවේ පැවසී යයි අද ලංකාදීප පුවත්පත වාර්තා කරයි.

නූගත් අඥන ඇතැම් පුද්ගලයින් කරුණු නොදැන මෙලෙස අසත්‍ය චෝදනා ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නේ යයිද පර්පුචුවෙල් ට්‍රෙසරිස් සමාගමේ අධ්‍යක්ෂක අර්ජුන ඇලෝසියස් මහතාගේ ජංගම දුරකතනයෙන් පිටු 8600 ක් තොරතුරු උපුටා ගත්තතක් පසුගිය දා සාක්ෂි විමසීමට යොදාගනු ලැබුවේ ඉන් පිටු 25 ක් පමණ ප්‍රමාණයක තිබු තොරතුරු පමණක්” යයි අතිරේක සොලිසිටර් ජෙනරාල් ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ යසන්ත කොදාගොඩ මහතා කොමිසම හමුවේ පැවසු බව එම පුවතේ වැඩිදුරටත් සඳහන් වේ.

ඒ අනුව තවත් ආරංචි මාර්ගයක් සඳහන් කලේ හෙට අනිද්දා ඉතිරි පිටු 8575 ක් විමර්ශනය කොට කොමිසම හමුවේ සාක්ෂි කැදවීමේදි තවත් කී දෙනෙකුට ඇමති ධූරයන් වලින් ඉල්ලා අස්විමට සිදු වේ දැයි කිව නොහැකි බවයි.

එමෙන්ම මේ සතියේ ඉරිදා ලංකාදීප සමඟ සම්මුඛ සාකච්ඡාවකට සහභාගි වෙමින් වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුවේ අධිකරණ හා බුද්ධශාසන අමාත්‍ය ආචාර්ය විජේදාස රාජපක්ෂ මහතා ද ඒ ප්‍රකාශය සනාථ කරමින් ප්‍රකාශයක් ලබදුනි.

මෙරටේ අධිකරණය ගැන මෙන්ම ආයෝජන ගැන අවබෝධයක් ඇති පසුගිය රජයේ මෙන්ම වර්තමාන රජයේ අමාත්‍යවරු දෙදෙනකු මෙසේ පැවසුවේ කරුණු හැදාරිමකකින් පසුව වර්තමානයේ ක්‍රියාත්මක වන ශ්‍රීලංකාවේ නීති රාමුව තුල එය ඉතා පහසුවෙන් කිරීමට හැකි බැව් දන්නා බැවිනි.

මෙයට උදාහරණයක් ලෙස චන්ද්‍රිකා ආණ්ඩුව සමයෙදි දේශීය ව්‍යවසායකයින් සඳහා ශ්‍රීලංකා ආයෝජන මණ්ඩලය හරහා ලබදුන්

1. බත්තරමුල්ල වෝටර්ස් එජ් ව්‍යපතිය,
2. අත්තිඩිය වෙට් පාර්ක් ව්‍යාපතිය, හැදින්වීමට හැකිය.

අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල තීරණය අනුව ශ්‍රීලංකා ආයෝජන මණ්ඩලය අනුමැතිය යටතේ වසර 50 ක් සඳහා දීර්ඝකාලීන බදු ක්‍රමයට ලබාදුන් බත්තරමුල්ල වෝටර්ස් එජ් අක්කර 200 සහ අතිතිඩිය වෙට් පාර්ක් සඳහා ලබාදුන් අක්කර 40 ක (සංවර්ධනය නොකළ ඉඩම්) එම ආයෝජකයින් විසින් සංවර්ධන කිරීමෙන් පසුව ප්‍රදේශවාසීන් විසින් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය වෙත යොමුකල මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් පිලිබඳ පෙත්සමක් විභාග කිරීමෙන් අනතුරුව විධායකය සහ ව්‍යවස්ථාදාව්කය ගනු ලැබු පරිපාලන තීරණය වැරැදි බව හගවමින් එම ඉඩම් සහ සංවර්ධනය කල දේපළ වන්දි ගෙවීමකින් තොරව ආණ්ඩුවට භාරදීමට එම ආයෝජකයින්ට සිදු විය. මෙතෙක් ඒ සඳහා එම දේශිය ආයෝජකයන්ට සාධාරණ වන්දියක් ගෙවා නොමැත.

3. කොළඹ වරායේ ලංකා මැරයින් සර්විසස් LMS සහ
4. ශ්‍රීලංකා රක්ෂණ සංස්ථාව,

ජෝන් කීල්ස් හෝල්ඩින්ග්ස් සමාගමට බදු වශයෙන් ලබාදුන් දුන් එල්.එම්.එස් (LMS) නාවික තෙල් බංකරින් අංශය එම සමාගම ආණ්ඩුව ලබාගත් රුපියල් මිලියන 1200 ක් ද ආපසු නොගෙවීමට යටත්ව ආණ්ඩුවට පවරා ගැනීමට ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය තීරණය කලහ. එමෙන්ම ඉහත පැවරිම නීතිවිරෝධී යයි පවසමින් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය එවකට මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම්වරයා එම තනතුරින් ඉවත් කරන ලෙස ද රජයට නියෝග කලේය. පාර්ලිමේන්තුව මන්ත්‍රී වාසුදේව නානයක්කාර මහතා විසින් ගොනුකළ මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් පෙත්සම විභාග කරමින් ශ්‍රීලංකා රක්ෂණ සංස්ථාව විකුණූ මුදලටම නැවත සුප්‍රසිද්ධ ව්‍යාපාරික හැරි ජයවර්ධන මහතාගෙන් ආණ්ඩුවට පවරා ගෙන එයා ආණ්ඩුව යටතේ සාර්ථකව පාලනය කිරීමට පාලනධිකාරියක් ද ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය පත්කරමින් නියෝගයක් නිකුත් කලේය.

ඉහත ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය තීන්දුව හරහා රටට එන ආයෝජන අධෛර්මත් වීම වැලැක්වීමට එවකට ආර්ථික සංවර්ධන අමාත්‍යවරයා විසින් ඉදිරිපත් කල 2010 මැයි මස 17 දින අමප/10/0963/424/002 සඳහා අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල පත්‍රිකාව අනුව ආයෝජන සඳහා බාධක වශයෙන් ඇති නීති සහ රෙගුලාසි හදුනා ගැනීම සඳහා උප කමිටුවක් පත් කිරිම” යන ශීර්ෂය යටතේ අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලය විසින් 2010 මැයි 31 දින තීරණයක් ගන්නා ලදි.

ඒ අනුව
ආයෝජනවලට බධා පමුණුවන හා කඩිනම් තීරණ ගැනීමේ ක්‍රියාවලිය වලක්වාලන ව්‍යස්ථාමය හා රෙගුලාසිමය බාධාවන් පිලිබඳව ඇගයීමක් කොට, එම තත්ත්වය යහපත් කිරීම උදෙසා ගත හැකි ප්‍රතිකර්ම පිලිබඳ නිර්දේශ සමගින් වාර්තාවක් ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම පිණිස පහත සඳහන් අයගෙන් සමන්විත කමිටුවක් පත්කිරිම සඳහා අනුමැතිය දෙන ලදි” යටතේ අමාත්‍ය අනු කමිටුවක් පත් කරන ලදි.

එය පහත සඳහන් සාමාජිකයින්ගෙන් සමන්විතයි :-

1.ගරු. ආචාර්ය සරත් අමුණුගම, ජනාධිපති ජේෂඨ උපදේශක හා මුදල් හා ක්‍රමසම්පාදන නියෝජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය (සභාපති)
2.ගරු.ලක්ෂමන් යපා අබේවර්ධන,
3.ගරු.ඩිලාන් පෙරේරා,
4.ගරු.ෆයිසර් මුස්තාෆා,
5.ගරු.ගුණරතන වීරකෝන් යන අමාත්‍යවරුන්ගෙන් ගෙන් සමන්විත කමිටුවක් අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලය විසින් පත්කොට අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලය වෙත වාර්තාවක් ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලෙස දැනුම් දුනි.

ඒ කමිටුව සඳහා සහායවීම පිණිස මල්කාන්ති වික්‍රමසිංහ මහත්මිය, ලේකම්. ජාතික එකාබද්ධතා අමාත්‍යාංශය, ඇතුළු රජයේ නිලධාරින් 9 දෙනෙකු ද අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩලය විසින් පත්කරන ලදි.

ඒ අනුව 2010 නොවැම්බර් ” LAW AND REGULATIONS OBSTRUCTING INVESTMENT” ශීර්ෂය යටතේ අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල අනු කමිටුව විසින් වාර්තාව පිලියෙල කලත් එම වාර්තාව අනුව ඉහත ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණ තීන්දු සම්බන්ධ තීරණයන් හරහා දේශීය ආයෝජකයන් වූ අලාභය සඳහා සහන මේ වනතෙක් සලසා නොමැති අතර බාධා ඉවත්කොට රෙගුලාසි සංශෝධනය කොට නොමැත.

එහෙත් හම්බන්තොට වරාය වසර 99 කට විදේශිකයන් වන චීන සමාගමකට බදු දීමට ඉහත කරුණු ගැන අවබෝධයක් ඇති එම කමිටුවේ සභාපති ලෙස කටයුතු කල අමාත්‍ය ආචාර්ය සරත් අමුණුගම මෙන්ම එහි සමාජිකයින් ලෙස සිටි අමාත්‍ය ලක්ෂමන් යපා අබේවර්ධන,ඩිලාන් පෙරේරා, ෆියිසර් මුස්තාෆා, වැන්නන් සිටින සම්මුති ආණ්ඩුවක් යටතේ අමාත්‍ය ආචාර්ය සරත් අමුණුගම හම්බන්තොට වරාය චීනයට පැවරිමේ අමාත්‍ය කමිටුව” සභාපති ලෙස කටයුතු කොට ඇත. එහිදි මෙම කමිටුව රජයේ සියලු ප්‍රසම්පාදන නිති රිති උල්ලංඝනය කොට ශ්‍රීලංකා වරාය අධිකාරියේ පනත උල්ලංඝනය කරමින් ක්‍රියා කොට ඇත.

එමෙන්ම හම්බන්තොට වරාය බදු දීමේදී රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරින් ලෙස
1.මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම් ආචාර්ය ආර් එච් එස් සමරතුංග,
2.වරාය හා නාවුක අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම් එල් පි ජයම්පති
3.උපායමාර්ග සංවර්ධනය හා ජාත්‍යන්තර වෙලද කටයුතු අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම් චාන්දනී විජේවර්ධන,
4.අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල ලේකම් සුමිත් අබේසිංහ.
5. ප්‍රවාහන හා සිවිල් ගුවන් සේවා අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ලේකම් නිහාල් සෝමවීර

යන රජයේ ලේකම්වරුන් සමන්විත කමිටුවක් මගින් හම්බන්තොට වරාය වසර 99 කට විදේශීය සමාගමකට බදු දීමට නිර්දේශ කිරීමට ගත් තීරණය ඇතුළු ඉහත සියලුම තීරණයන් අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය ඉදිරියේදී මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් පෙත්සමක් මගින් අභියෝගයට ලක් කර කරනු ඇත. ඒ අනුව මෙම බදු ගිවිසුම අත්සන් කල ශ්‍රී ලංකා වරාය අධිකාරියේ සභාපති ප්‍රරාක්‍රම දිසානායක හා ඊට සම්බන්ධ ඉහත රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරින් ඇතුළු කිහිප දෙනෙකුටම තනතුරු පමණක් නොව තම විශ්‍රාම වැටුප් ද අහිමි කිරීම සහ ආණ්ඩුවට වන්දි වශයෙන් දඩ මුදලක් ගෙවීමට ගරු ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය තීරණය කිරීමක් ඉහත නඩු තීන්දු අනුව බොහෝ දුරට ඉඩ ඇත.

මෙරටේ දේශීය ආයෝජකයින් විසින් විශාල මුදලක් වැයකොට සංවර්ධනය කල දේපළ වන්දියක් නොගෙවා ආණ්ඩුවට පවරා ගනිමින් මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් පෙත්සම් ගොනුකළ පෙත්සම්කරුවන්ට නඩු ගාස්තු පවා ගෙවීමට එදා ආණ්ඩුවට සහ රජයේ නිලධාරින්ට සිදු විය.
අද බත්තරමුල්ල වෝටස් එජ් හෝටලය, Waters Edge” මෙගාපොලිසි අමාත්‍යාංශය යටතේ සහ අත්තිඩිය වෙට්පාර්ක් මිහිඳු සෙවන” ලෙස ආරක්ෂක අමාත්‍යාංශය යටතේ නැවත ආණ්ඩුවට පවරාගෙන ඇත. ශ්‍රීලංකා රක්ෂණ සංස්ථාව, මුදල් අමාත්‍යාංශය යටතේ අදටත් ක්‍රියාත්මකයි. මෙය හම්බන්තොට වරාය නැවත ආණ්ඩුවට පවරාගැනීමට ඇති හැකියාව ඉතා පැහැදිලිව සනාථ කරන හොදම සාක්ෂියකි.

කරුණු එසේ නම් රටේ ජාතික සම්පතක් වන මෙන්ම අනාගතයේදි රටේ ජාතික ආරක්ෂාවටද තර්ජනයක් විය හැකි හම්බන්තොට වරාය සහ ඉඩම් හෙක්ටයාර 1700 ක්, සහ ශ්‍රි ලංකා ආණ්ඩුවට බදු දිය නොහැකි සාගරය සම්පත සහ ජලය ආශ්‍රිත ප්‍රදේශයක් විදේශිකයන්ට වසර 99 ක් සඳහා බදු දීම වර්තමාන නීති හා රෙගුලාසි අනුව කෙසේවත් කල නොහැකි ය.

එමෙන්ම ශ්‍රී ලංකා වරාය අධිකාරියේ පනත උල්ලංඝනය කොට මෙම වරාය බදු දීම අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම ශ්‍රීලංකාවේ වර්තමාන ව්‍යස්ථාමය හා රෙගුලාසිමය නීති උල්ලංඝනය කිරීමකි. ඉහත ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය තීන්දු 4 සලකා බැලීමේදී මේ බැව් තහවරු කරගත හැකිය. හම්බන්තොට වරාය වසර 99 කට විදේශීය සමාගමේ පාලනයට නතු කිරීම හෝ බදු දීම ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවට පටහැනි යි. ඒ මෙරටේ පවතින නීතිය අනුව ගරු ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය මෙතෙක් ලබා දුන් තීන්දුවන් පූර්වාදර්ශයක් ලෙස සැලකීමේදි සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම නීතිවිරෝධී බව නිසැකව සාක්ෂි සහිතව පැහැදිලිව කිව හැකි බව මෙරටේ නීති විශාරදයන්ගේ මතයයි.

ඉහත දේපල ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය විසින් ආණ්ඩුව සතු කොට ලබා දුන් නියෝගය පරිශීලනය කිරීමෙන් මෙය මනාව අවබෝධ කර ගත හැකිය. එමෙන්ම එම රෙගුලාසි සංශෝධනය කිරීමට 2010 මැයි මස 31 දින අමප/10/0963/424/002 සඳහා අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල අනු කමිටුවක් පත් කොට ආයෝජන සඳහා බාධක වශයෙන් ඇති නීති සහ රෙගුලාසි හදුනා ගැනීම සඳහා උප කමිටුවක් පත් කිරිම” සහ 2010 නොවැම්බර් ” LAW AND REGULATIONS OBSTRUCTING INVESTMENT” ශීර්ෂය යටතේ අමාත්‍ය මණ්ඩල අනු කමිටුව විසින් වාර්තාව පිලියෙල කලහ.

– ප‍්‍රදීප් අනුර කුමාර  lanka C news

හම්බන්තොට වරාය ඇතුළු ජාතික සම්පත් විකුණා දැමීමට සිදුව ඇත්තේ ඒවා පවත්වාගෙන යා නොහැකි නිසා නොව ආණ්ඩුවට වැඩ බැරි නිසා බව පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන මහතා ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

වරාය පමණක් නොව මත්තල ගුවන් තොට, ඩී. ආර්. විජයවර්ධන මාවතේ ඇති ඉඩම්, නුවරඑළිය වැනි ඵෙතිහාසික වටිනාකමකින් යුත් තැපැල් කන්තෝරු පවා විකිණීමට ආණ්ඩුව සැලසුම් කර ඇති බවත් ගුණවර්ධන මහතා පෙන්වා දුන්නේය.

ඒ මහතා මෙසේ ප්‍රකාශ කළේ ගම්පහ දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ ස්වයං රැකියා නියුක්තිකයන් දැනුවත් කිරීම සඳහා මිනුවන්ගොඩ, උඩුගම්පොළ දී පසුගිය සෙනසුරාදා  (12) පැවැති වැඩමුළුවක් අමතමිනි. බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධන මහතා එහිදී වැඩිදුරටත් මෙසේ ද ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

අද අපි රටක් වශයෙන් ඉන්නේ ඉතාමත් තීරණාත්මක ස්ථානයකයි. මෙතැන ඉන්න තමුන්නාන්සේලා කවුරුත් පසුගිය කාලවකවානුවල අභියෝග රාශියක් යටතේ දුක් කරදර වින්ද උදවියයි. අපේ පෙර පරම්පරාවලට අත්දැකීමක් නොතිබුණු සුනාමි ව්‍යසනය වගේම ත්‍රස්තවාදය නිසාත් තමුන්නාන්සේලා දුක්වින්ද බව අමතක කරන්න බැහැ.මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතා තමයි ත්‍රස්තවාදය පරාජය කරලා මේ ජනතාවට නිදහස දිනා දුන් එකම නායකයා.

මහින්ද මහත්තයා රට පාලනය කරන කාලයේ යුද්ධය තිබුණා. කෝටි ගණන් මුදල් යුද්ධයට වැය වුණා. ඒ වගේම තෙල් අර්බුදය, ආහාර අර්බුදය වගේම මූල්‍ය අර්බුදයකටත් ලෝකය මුහුණ පා සිටියා. අද එහෙම කිසිම අර්බුදයක් නැහැ. අද රටේ කිසිම තැනක යුද්ධයක් නැහැ. යුද්ධයක් නැති හින්දා වියදමක් නැහැ. එහෙනම් එදා වගේ නොවෙයි අද සල්ලි කඳක් රට ඇතුළේ ඉතුරු වෙලා තියෙන්‍න ඕනේ.

එදා අපි භාණ්ඩ ගෙන්වන්න රුපියල් සියයක් වැය කළොත් ඉන් විසි පහක්ම වැය කෙරුණේ තෙල් ගෙන්වන්නයි. මම ඕනේම ආර්ථික ඔස්තාර් කෙනකුට අභියෝග කරනවා පුළුවන් නම් ඒක එහෙම නෙමෙයි කියලා ඔප්පු කරලා පෙන්වන්න කියලා. අමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් බිලියන 4ක් ගියා එදා තෙල් ගෙන්වන්න. නමුත් ලෝකයේ තෙල් මිල දැන් අඩු වෙලා. 2015 සහ 2016 වර්ෂවල පමණක් එසේ අඩු වීම නිසා ඉතුරු විය යුතු මුදල ඩොලර් බිලියන 4කට වැඩියි.

ඩොලර් බිලියන 4ක් කියන්නේ රුපියල් කෝටි 60,000ක් පමණ මුදලක්. හම්බන්තොට වරාය චීනයට විකුණලා මේ ආණ්ඩුව හම්බ කරන්න යන්නේ ඩොලර් බිලියන 1.1යි. පසුගිය අවුරුදු දෙකේ තෙල්වලින් ඉතුරු වුණ මුදලෙන් හම්බන්තොට වරාය වගේ වරායන් තුනක් අලුතෙන් ඉදිකරන්න තිබුණා. අපේ රට ලබාගෙන තිබෙන ණයවල වාරික සහ පොළිය වාර්ෂිකව ගෙවන්න ඩොලර් බිලියන තුනක්, හතරහමාරක් හෝ පහක් වැනි මුදලක් සාමාන්‍යයෙන් අවශ්‍යයි.

2015 දී එම මුදල ඩොලර් බිලියන 4.6යි. 2026 දී 4.3යි. වෙන මොන මුදලක්වත් නැතුව තෙල්වලින් ඉතුරු වුණ මුදලෙන් පමණක් මේ ණය පොලී වාර්ක තිබුණා. පුළුවන් නම් අගමැතිවරයාගෙන් අහන්න තෙල් මිල අඩු වීම නිසා ඉතුරු වුණ රුපියල් කෝටි 60,000ට මොකද වුණේ කියලා. එතුමා කියන්නේ නැහැ. මේ ආණ්ඩුව ඉතිහාසයේ ප්‍රථම වතාවට අමෙරිකානු ඩොලර් බිලියන 4ක් පිච්චුවා. මහ බැංකු අධිපති ඉන්ද්‍රජිත් කුමාරස්වාමි මහතා දන්නවා මේ සල්ලි පුච්චපු හැටි.

ඒ මුදල් තිබුණා නම් වරාය විකුණන්න වෙන්නේ නැහැ. වරාය විතරක් නොවෙයි මත්තල ගුවන්තොටුපළ, ඩී. ආර්. විජයවර්ධන මාවතේ ඉඩම් ටික, ඵෙතිහාසික තැපැල් කන්තෝරු ටිකත් විකුණන්න මේ ආණ්ඩුව සැලසුම් කරලා ඉවරයි. මේවා විකුණන්න වෙන්නේ නැහැ අර මුදල තිබුණා නම්. මේ විකුණන්නේ ආණ්ඩුවට වැඩ බැරි නිසා මිසක් වෙන හේතුවක් හින්දා නොවෙයි කියන එකත් මතක තබා ගත යුතුයි.

රවී කරුණානායක හිරේ යන්න ඕනේ මුදල් විශුද්ධිකරණය හින්දා නොවෙයි මුදල් ඇමැතිකමේ වගකීම් හරිහැටි ඉටු නොකළ හින්දයි. අපේ රටේ තියෙනවා මූල්‍ය කළමනාකරණ වගකීම් පනත කියලා එකක්. ඒක ගෙනාවේ 2003 දී රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහගේ ආණ්ඩුවෙන්. ඒ පනතට අනුව ණය ගන්න විට පාර්ලිමේන්තුව දැනුවත් කරන්න ඕනේ. ඒ පනතේ තියෙනවා රටේ ණය බර දළ දේශීය නිෂ්පාදිතයෙන් සියයට 80 ඉක්මවා යන්න බැහැ කියලා.

නමුත් විගණකාධිපති කියනවා රටේ ණය බය දළ දේශීය නිෂ්පාදිතයෙන් සියයට 83.3ක් දක්වා ඉහළ ගිහින් ගියලා. එහෙම නම් රවී කරුණානායක අස්වෙන්න තිබුණේ එදායි. විපක්ෂයේ ඉන්න කාගේ හරි නූල් පොටකවත් වංචාවක් තිබුණොත් ඇපත් නැහැ. විමල් වීරවංශ, උදය ගම්මන්පිල වගේ අය ඇප නොදී මාස ගණන් රඳවා ගත්තා. හැබැයි රවී කරුණානායක ශ්‍රීමතාණන්ට එහෙම දුක්කරදරවලට මුහුණ දෙන්න වෙන්නේ නැහැ.

එතුමාගේ පවුලේ අය හිමිකාරිත්වය දරන සමාගමේ සභාපතිවරයා පෝර උර වගේ ලොකු මලු දෙකක රුපියල් කෝටි 1450ක් දාගෙන ගිහින් සේප්පුවේ දැම්මා කියලා කොමිසම හමුවේ අනාවරණය වුණා. ඒ මුදල් දීලා තමයි මොනෑක් එපාර්ට්මන්ට් එකේ ගෙයක් මිල දී ගත්තේ. සාමාන්‍ය මිනිහෙක්ගේ ගෙදර එහෙම මලුවල සල්ලි තිබ්බා නම් රටේ ඉන්න සේරම හමුදාව ඒ ගේ වට කරලා එකම යුද්ධයයි.

හැබැයි මෙතුමාට නම් එහෙම නැහැ. අස්වෙන එක එතුමට ආඩම්බරයක්. එදා ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය වශයෙන් මමත් නිමල් සිරිපාල ඇමැතුතමත්, තිලංග සුමතිපාල නියෝජ්‍ය කතානායකවරයාත් ගිහින් මහ බැංකුව වටලලා බැඳුම්කර මගඩිය ගැන ප්‍රශ්න කරා. අද කෑගහන අය කවුරුත් එදා හිටියේ නැහැ. එහෙම තමයි අපි මේ ප්‍රශ්නය සමාජය ඉදිරියට ගෙනාවේ. නැත්නම් මේවත් දැන් යටගහලා ඉවරයි.

නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ උගත් නීතිඥයන් හරි හෝ වැරැදි වෙන්න පුළුවන් දේශපාලනඥයන්ට එම තීන්දුවලට අභියෝග කරන්න පුළුවන්කමක් නැහැ. එහෙම වුණොත් සාමාන්‍ය මිනිස්සුන්ටත් අධිකරණය ගැන තියෙන විශ්වාසය බිඳ වැටිලා රටම අරාජික වෙන්න පුළුවන්. අපට මොන අසාධාරණකම් වුණත් ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂය විදියට අපි අධිකරණයේ ගෞරවය ආරක්ෂා කළ යුතුයි කියන මතයේ ඉන්නවා.

විජයදාස රාජපක්ෂ කියන්නේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ නායකයෙක්. අපේ රටට ඇවිත් අපේම ජනතාවට එරෙහිව කටයුතු කරපු මානව හිමිකම් කොමිසමේ ඉහළම නිලධාරීන්ට එරෙහිව කොන්ද පණ තියාගෙන කතා කරන්න පුළුවන් වුණේ විජයදාස රාජපක්ෂට පමණයි. එතුමා කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලය පෙන්වා දුන්නා එහෙම කොන්ද පණ තියාගෙන කටයුතු කරන්නේ කොහාමද කියන කාරණය.

ALI SUKHANVER

12^th August 2017, another day of brutality and cruelty for the people of Pakistan. At least 15 people were killed and so many wounded when a powerful bomb went off near an army truck in Quetta. The death toll is feared to go up as some of the injured ones are in critical condition. According to the ISPR, the blast took place near Mehdi Hospital at Pishin Stop and an army truck was the main target of the terrorists. Certainly as per tradition, this terrorist activity was also a part of the plan of keeping the people away from Pakistan Day celebrations. The terrorists are misguided by the notion that they can frighten the people of Balochistan with bomb blasts and other terrorist activities. And this is not a new practice of their; every year in the month August, a handful of terrorists start planning to give a new pungent colour to Pakistan Independence Day celebrations in Balochistan; fortunately such plans never succeed though the country has to face a grave loss of some very precious lives.

Let us look back to 8th August, 2016; that was the day when a suicide bomber struck as more than 100 mourners, mostly lawyers and journalists, crowded into the emergency department of Quetta’s Civil Hospital. They all were there to accompany the body of the president of Balochistan Bar Association Advocate Bilal Anwar Kasi who was shot dead by an unknown gunman. Various militant groups claimed the responsibility for this massacre. Just three days after this incident, a roadside bomb hit a Pakistani security vehicle and wounded 13 people again in Quetta. Earlier in 2013 on the same date 8th August, a suicide attacker exploded a bomb at a funeral being held for a police officer in Quetta, and killed as many as thirty-one people and injured over fifty people. According to the details a senior police officer Fayaz Sumbal was doing the body-search of all those who were coming there to participate in the funeral when a suicide-bomber wearing a jacket blew him up. The jacket had a huge amount of ball bearings and shrapnel inside. No group claimed the responsibility for the bombing.

The actual game behind all these terrorist activities could be easily understood by a very brief comment of the Reuters in a report which said, ‘A Chinese-funded trade corridor with promised investment of $46 billion is due to pass through the gas-rich province and the government has promised to boost security.’ The terrorists are simply trying to stop China from funding this project and on the other hand are trying to give an impression to the common people of Balochistan that the government of Pakistan has no guts to provide security to the people and foreign funded development projects. But strange thing is that why do the terrorists become more active in the month of August.

It is a very common misunderstanding about the terrorist activities in Balochistan that the terrorists are backed and supported by extremist religious groups. This false notion is actually a product of the Indian brains who wish to divert the attention of the people from the real culprits and instigate them against the religious people. The facts are altogether otherwise. Whatever is happening there in Balochistan has nothing to do with religious elements. Creating disturbance in Balochistan has ever been the joint aim and objective of India, US and Israel. For this purpose they support and patronize a very few self-claimed so-called Baloch separatist leaders who have taken refuge in Switzerland, Sweden, US and London. These so-called and self-claimed separatist leaders remain busy in defaming Pakistan’s security agencies in relation to extrajudicial killings, mutilated bodies and the missing persons with full support of various NGOs and human rights organizations. August is their most favourite time for the anti-Pakistan activities as August is the month of Pakistan Independence. The terrorists believe that their activities would frighten the people of Balochistan and they would not take part in any type of Pakistan Day celebrations.  Unfortunately these foreign funded terrorists are blind to this reality that Pakistan is a passion, and passions could not be crushed with weapons.

by Elmo de Silva Courtesy The Island

August 5, 2017, 6:35 pm

I retired from the S.L.A.S after serving in several Departments, Ministries and in several districts. I served in the World Customs Organization (W.C.O ) in Brussels , Belgium for five years, promoting an International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures. After this I worked in the Private Sector for nearly 10 years. When I served as Dy. Controller Import and Exports I was responsible for the disbursement of Forex, except that needed for local industries. My work at Customs as Dy. Director General Customs and at the W.C.O. took me to 22 countries, where I have observed Customs, port operations etc. Just to cite one example of my work in Sri Lanka , I co-ordinated the opening of the stage two Kaudulla wewa project, in the Polonnaruwa district, which made available 5,000 acres for cultivation .

There is a waste of Forex which is beyond my understanding and is a threat to the Countries’ economic and political stability. A trend commenced by the previous Regime has been accelerated by the present one. I have requested information from the Central Bank regarding the amount of Forex expended for the import of cars, by Sri Lanka in 2016 and the first half of 2017. I have had no reply. I intend demanding this information under the Right to Information Act.

It is my view that over three billion U.S. Dollars are expended on the import of vehicles, most of which are luxury vehicles. One example as I have being informed, is the import of 1,600 B.M.W cars where each car costs U.S.$ 42,000, which amounts to a total of U.S.$ 70 million. This is in addition to the uncontrolled import of other luxury cars such as Benz, Audi, Volvo, Jaguar, Prado and even Rolls Royce cars. It is on this basis that I estimate that nearly three billion U.S. $ are spent on the import of luxury cars. In the twenty two countries I have been to, including many countries in Europe , I have not seen so many luxury cars on the roads. To this should be added the large entourages of politicians attending at times, unnecessary conferences etc . Mr.Modi the Indian P.M. travels alone. His visit to S.L was 151 days after his last trip abroad. Mr Ronnie de Mel always attended meetings at the I.M.F , World Bank etc alone, as he knew all the data relating to Foreign Aid Projects and needed no assistance. Besides people travel frequently, other than for health or business purposes. The Island News paper reported that over 100,000 have travelled to Singapore this year. All this means large commitments on the country’s Forex.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE IS NOT BUDGETED NOR AUDITED, and there is therefore no fiscal control. There is a need to exercise very strict control on our Forex expenditure. During the Govt. of Mrs. Bandaranaike the country had a shortage of rice and there was no Forex to import the rice. Pakistan loaned/gifted the rice. I know this as I disbursed Forex in my capacity as Dy. Contrller Imports and Exports ( 1970 to 1975 )

What has being stated above is to point out that there is no need to lease out ports to other countries if our Forex expenditure is properly managed. I have not heard of any country leasing out ports to foreign countries. Most countries borrow for development purposes. If the S.L. govt had borrowed funds and find it difficult to pay this off, the payment instalments could be rescheduled and the amount of each instalment could be substantially reduced. I am of the view that the assistance of the Chinese Government could be sought in this regard. If the sacrilegious waste of Forex is curtailed our foreign debts could be paid with ease.

On the question of the countries foreign debt, every country borrows money especially for infrastructure projects. Our Debt to G.D.P. ratio is 76% ,while that of the U.S.A. is 102%.The U.S.A has issued sovereign bonds up to U.S.$ 4 trillion to China and 3 trillion U.S.$ to Japan.

Regarding I.M.F. standby credit, Sri Lanka has being offered USD 1.5 billion in three tranches. Compare this with the nearly U.S.$ 3 billion expended only on the import of luxury cars. Greece was given an I.M.F. credit of U.S.$ 360 billion, Egypt U.S.$ 12 billion and even Mongolia U.S.$ 5 billion.

All these luxury cars are imported whilst people are struggling to MERELY EXIST. This is injustice of the highest order.70% of the Forex expended on luxury car imports is earned by our maids in the Middle East , who undergo torture. I have being told of this by a maid who works for me and has worked in the Middle East . Her sister who yet works in the Middle East, and is fluent in English, Arabic , Sinhalese and Tamil, rescues the maids who are ill treated and houses them in a church pending they obtaining their documents to return to Sri Lanka . Forex is also earned by girls in the garment industry who are worked to the bone . When I visited the L.M.K. Browns garment industry in Katunayake, some time back, the girls who worked there (I was told by the mangement) fainted at about 10 a.m. because they could not afford to have their breakfast. Subsequently when I visited this factory with the then Minister of Finance, Mr. Ronnie de Mel he stated that when he goes abroad, he is ashamed to speak about the very low salaries we pay these workers. This is why there are nearly 15,000 vacancies in the B.O.I. Zones. Then there are the tea estate workers who toil daily to pluck tea for a pittance; and when the final product is exported, the Forex earned is wasted on the Import of luxury cars.

As for Govt Revenue, 300 duty free cars have been imported with a loss of Rs. 33 million on each car. On the import of the B.M.W. cars the value of these cars are under valued by U.S. $. 12 million (real price U.S.$ 42 million undervalued price U.S.$ 30 million) to satisfy the import permit conditions. Besides, apart from corruption in the Customs the Inland Revenue Dept. is as corrupt. I know this as I worked in the Private sector. To obtain a refund of accumulated Turnover tax of Rs. 120 million the I.R.D. officers had to be paid Rs. 5 million. There are other instances too. Why are all those who import luxury cars and build massive houses or high rise buildings not taxed? IN THIS COUNTRY THE RICH ARE SUBSIDIZED (EXEMPTION OR REDUCED CUSTOMS DUTIES, TAX EXEMPTIONS OR TAX EVASION) AND THE POOR ARE TAXED (INDIRECT TAXES).

Besides why should public servants or any others be permitted to import cars, sell these after five years and repeat this every five years. When I joined the public service we were given a Treasury loan, which had to be paid back in instalments. The car could be used for official work and payment was made for the cost incurred. Later, President Premadasa allowed heads of Ministries or Departments to pay a nominal price and own the car on retirement.

I gather from news reports that the debt incurred on construction of the H’tota port is U.S.$ 1.1 billion. If our forex is sensibly managed and the debt rescheduled, this debt could be easily paid off, without taking the proposed action, which amounts to a virtual sell off the H’tota Port. THE RECKLESS OBSESSION WITH CAR IMPORTS DEFIES ONE’S UNDERSTANDING.

It is also observed that there is no progress in the development of agriculture, Industry, international trade , infrastructure etc. If rice production could be doubled in the acreage now under cultivation much Forex could be earned if rice is exported. This is easily attainable. When I worked in the Hambantota district as D.L.O, while the farmers on land given by the Govt. produced about 25 bushels per acre the adjoining privately owed Jayawickrema yaya produced about 100 bushels per acre, as superior agricultural practices were employed.

Let me end this by saying that as a senior public servant and as a senior citizen with a great deal of experience that I am very perturbed regarding the present economic position in S.L. The Government appears not to be receiving the correct advice, as all seem to be “YES MEN”. I have tried to make this note as brief as possible.

I do not prescribe to any political party or government, but what I state is only in the National Interest. I am not an economist, but as I tell my friends I have one degree in geography from the Peradeniya University and another degree from the University of Experience .

වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

මතක විදිහට ඒ ගතවෙමින් තිබුණේ 1993 අවුරුද්ද. ඉරිදා පත්තරේක පළ කරලා තිබුණු වාර්තාවකින් කියැවුනේ අම්පාර මහඔය පැත්තේ මනුස්සයෙක් තනියෙන් වැවක් හදනවා කියලා. කොළඹ විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ විද්‍යා පීඨයේ සහෝදර ශිෂ්‍යයන් කිහිප දෙනෙකුත් මොරටුව විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ ඉංජිනේරු ශිෂ්‍යයන් කිහිපදෙනෙකුත් එකතුවෙලා මේ ගැන කතාකළා. ඊට පස්සේ තීරණයක් ගත්තා අවශ්‍ය මුදල්, උපකරණ, ආහාර පාන එකතුකරගෙන කණ්ඩායමක් විදිහට මහඔයට ගිහිල්ලා ඒ වැව හදන මනුස්සයාට උදව්වක් කරමු කියලා. විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ ගුරුවරු, සහෝදර ශිෂ්‍ය ශිෂ්‍යාවෝ, ඇතැම් ව්‍යාපාරිකයෝ මේ වැඩේට අතහිත දුන්නා. මහඔය හමුදා කඳවුරෙන් ට්‍රක් රථයකුත් විශාල ප්‍රමාණයේ කූඩාරමකුත් ආහාර පිසින කල්දේරමුත් ලබාදුන්නා. හමුදා කඳවුරෙන් උපකාර ලබාගන්න උදව් කළේ බෙංගමුවේ නාලක හාමුදුරුවෝ.

ඉතින් වීල්බැරෝ, උදලු, තාච්චි, යවුල් වගේ උපකරණත් හාල්, පොල්, පරිප්පු, මිරිස් තුනපහ වගේ කන බොන දේවලුත් බෙහෙත් අඩුවැඩියත් මිල දී ගත්ත මේ ලේඛකයා ඇතුළු විසි දෙනෙක් විතර පිරිසක් හමුදාවෙන් ලබාදුන්න ට්‍රක් රථයෙන් මහඔයට ගියා. සති දෙකක් විතර ඒ ගමේ නැවැතිලා ඉඳගෙන අර මනුස්සයාත් එක්ක හරි හරියට වැව හැදුවා. පුළුවන් තරමින් ඒ කටයුත්තට දායකවෙච්ච අපේ කණ්ඩායම ආපහු කොළඹට ආවා. මේ වැඩේ වෙනුවෙන් ආධාර උපකාර කරපු අයට ප්‍රණාමය පළකරන්න පුළුවන් වෙන්නේ කරපු දේ ගැන වචනයක් දෙකක් ඡායාරූපයක් එක්ක පත්තරේක පළකිරීමෙන් කියලා අපේ පිරිස තීරණය කළා. ඉතින් ඒ වැඩේ කරගන්න කියලා හිතලා පොඩි සටහනක් ලියාගත්ත මේ ලේඛකයා ඡායාරූප කිහිපයකුත් ඇරගෙන පත්තර කන්තෝරුවලට යන්න පටන්ගත්තා. ඒත් මේ වෙනුවෙන් ඉඩක් ලබාගන්න පුළුවන් වුනේ නෑ.

අපේ කට්ටිය මෙහෙම දෙයක් නොකර තර්ස්ටන් පාරේ දී බස් එකකට ගිනි තිබ්බා නම් ඒකට පත්තරවල මුල් පිටුවේ ම ඉඩ ලැබෙන්න තිබුණා. ඊට පස්සේ අපේ කට්ටියට ශිෂ්‍ය වීරයෝ බවට පත්වෙන්නත් තිබුණා. මෙහෙම වෙන්නේ ඇයි? මේ ලෝකයේ වෙන හැම දේක ම ප්‍රවෘත්ති වටිනාකමක් නෑ. ඒක ඉතින් අමුතුවෙන් කියන්න ඕන නෑ. බටහිර පර්යේෂකයෝ අපිට කියලා දීලා තියෙනවා ප්‍රවෘත්ති වටිනාකම් තියෙන්නේ මොන මොන විදිහේ සිදුවීම්වල ද කියලා. මුල් කාලේ කිව්වේ වටිනාකම් හතක් ගැන. දැන් නම් ප්‍රවෘත්ති වටිනාකම් හඳුනාගන්න නිර්ණායක විස්සක් විතර යොදාගන්නවා.

හැම දා ම සිද්දවෙන ඉර පායනවා ඉර බහිනවා වගේ දේවල් ප්‍රවෘත්ති නෙවෙයි. අපිට හුරුපුරුදු නැති අහලාවත් නැති වනවාටු වගේ රටක සිද්දවෙන දේවලුත් අපිට ප්‍රවෘත්ති නෙවෙයි. ප්‍රවෘත්තියක් වෙන්න නම් අදාළ සිද්දිය නෙගටිව් එකක් – ඒ කියන්නේ අපි පිළිගන්න හොඳ දේවල්වලට පටහැනි එකක්; වෙන්න ඕන. පොසිටිව් සිදුවීම්වල ප්‍රවෘත්ති වටිනාකමක් නෑ. ඒ වගේ ම අදාළ සිද්දිය අමුතු විප්‍රකාර එකක් වෙන්නත් ඕන. බල්ලෙක් මිනිහෙක් ව හපාකෑම ප්‍රවෘත්තියක් නෙවෙයි. හැබැයි මිනිහෙක් විසින් බල්ලෙක් ව හපාකෑම ප්‍රවෘත්තියක්. සිද්දිය ලොකු රටකට, ලොකු පවුලකට සම්බන්ධ නම් තවත් හොඳයි. අපේ ගමේ සුනිමල් කුරුණෑගල ගෑණු ළමයෙක් එක්ක චිත්‍රපටියක් බලන්න ගිය එක ප්‍රවෘත්තියක් නෙවෙයි. ඒත් අහවල් ඇමැතිතුමා ගේ පුතා අහවල් නායකතුමා ගේ දුවත් එක්ක රාත්‍රි සමාජශාලාවකට ගිහිල්ලා එද්දි වාහනේ ලයිට් කණුවක හැප්පුනා කියන එක මහ විශාල ප්‍රවෘත්තියක්. අපි වුනත් දැනගන්න කැමැති ඒ වගේ දේවල්.

වැව් හැදිල්ල ප්‍රවෘත්තියක් නො වී බස් ගිනි තැබිල්ල ප්‍රවෘත්තියක් වෙන්නේ මෙන්න මේ වගේ කාරණා හින්දා. මේ සෙල්ලමට ජනමාධ්‍යවේදීන්ට හරි මාධ්‍ය ආයතනවල ලොක්කන්ට හරි දොස් කියලා වැඩක් නෑ. අපේ මනසත් කැමැති කුණු රහ තියෙන දේවල් තළු මර මරා කන්න. ඉතින් අපි දැන් ලෝකය ගැන දැන ගන්නේ මේ විදිහට. අපි වටේ විතරක් නෙවෙයි ලෝකේ වටේ තියෙන හැම රටක ම සිද්දවෙන නරක දේවල්, විප්‍රකාර දේවල් අපි දන්නවා. ඒවා ගැන අපි උදේ හවස කතාකරනවා. අනිත් අයටත් කියලා දෙනවා. මේ වැඩේ අදාළ ප්‍රවෘත්තිවලට විතරක් නෙවෙයි.

බණ දහම් ගැන කතාකරන ඇතැම් අයත් මෙහෙමයි. මොකක් හරි විප්‍රකාර බණක් කිව්වොත් තමයි තමන්ට මිනිස්සුන් ගේ අවධානය දිනාගන්න පුළුවන් කියලා ඒ අය දන්නවා. ඉස්සර ඉඳලා කියාගෙන ආපු බණ ඒ විදිහට ම කියනවා නම් ඒ අයට තමන් ව මාර්කට් කරගන්න බෑ. ඉතින් අපේ පිළිගත් දහම් පිළිවෙත්වලට ගරහන එකත් ඒ අය ගේ දෛනික කටයුත්තක් බවට පත්වෙලා.

ඒ වගේ සමහර අය දැන් කියනවා පද්‍යයෙන් තියෙන සූත්‍ර අලුත් ඒවා. බුදුහාමුදුරුවෝ දේශනා කරලා තියෙන්නේ ගද්‍යයෙන් විතරයි” කියලා. මෙහෙම කියන අය හිතන්නේ නෑ අංගුත්තර, අරියවංශ, උභතෝ විභංග, ජාතක, දීඝ, ධම්මපද, සංයුක්ත, මජ්ඣිම, මහා වත්තාරියක වගේ භාණකවරු කට පාඩමින් ධර්මය රැකගන්න යොදාගත්ත උපක්‍රම ගැන. තවත් සමහරු කියනවා ආනන්ද හාමුදුරුවෝ බොරු කියලා තියෙනවා. මොකද ධම්මචක්කපවත්තන සූත්‍රය දේශනා කරද්දි ආනන්ද හාමුදුරුවෝ මහණ වෙන්න හිතලාවත් තිබුණේ නෑ. ඉතින් කොහොම ද තමන් විසින් එ සේ අසන ලදී කියලා එයා කියන්නේ” කියලා. මෙහෙම කියන අය අමතක කරනවා අග්‍ර උපස්ථායකකම භාරගනිද්දි තමන් නොසිටි තැනක දී කරපු දේශනා තමන්ට නැවතත් අහන්න අවස්ථාවක් ලබාදෙන්න කියලා ආනන්ද හාමුදුරුවෝ බුදුරජාණන්වහන්සේගෙන් කරපු ඉල්ලීම.

ඉතින් දැන් දැන් අපේ රටේ මේ වගේ හපන්කම් පෙන්නන ධර්ම විප්ලවවාදීයෝත් පහළවෙලා. අභිධර්මය ගැන කිසිම හැදෑරීමක් නැති ව ඒ ගැන විවේචනය කරන අයත් ඉන්නවා. විසුද්ධි මාර්ගය සම්බන්ධයෙන් එල්ලවෙලා තියෙන පදනමක් නැති විවේචන ගැන මේ ළඟ දී ආරණ්‍යවාසී ව භාවනා යෝගී ව වැඩවසන එක්තරා ස්වාමීන්වහන්සේ නමක් මේ ලේඛකයාත් එක්ක කිව්වා. විසුද්ධි මාර්ගය කියන්නේ ආර්ය පර්යේෂණයේ යෙදෙන උන්වහන්සේලාට මග පෙන්වලා දෙන්න ථෙරවාදී මහාවිහාර සම්ප්‍රදාය තුළ රචනා කෙරුණු විශිෂ්ඨතම ග්‍රන්ථය. ඒ මහා ග්‍රන්ථයේ අන්තර්ගතය තර්ක බුද්ධියෙන් වටහාගන්න බෑ. ඒක අවබෝධ වෙන්නේ අදාළ මාර්ගයේ ගමන්කරන පුද්ගලයාට යි. උදාහරණයක් විදිහට කියනවා නම් සූප ශාස්ත්‍රය පිළිබඳ ව ලියැවිච්ච පොතක තියෙන දේ වැටහෙන්නේ ඒ ඇසුරෙන් කෑම පිසින්න උත්සාහ කරන කෙනාටයි. එහෙම නැතිව ඒක කියවලා තර්ක බුද්ධියෙන් ඒක ගැන කරුණු කිව්වා කියලා වැඩක් වෙන්නේ නෑ. ඒත් විප්‍රකාර කියවලා අවධානය දිනාගන්න උත්සාහකරන අයට ඒවා අදාළ නෑ.

මේ විදිහේ සෙල්ලම්කරන අයට පිනුම්ගහන්න පුළුවන් තවත් තැනැක් තමයි අපේ ඉතිහාසය. ඉතින් අපේ පිළිගත්ත ඉතිහාසයටත් මේ වගේ අය උඩ පැන පැන බැට දෙනවා. රාවණා කතාව කියන අය, බුදුහාමුදුරුවෝ අපේ රටේ ඉපැදුණා කියන අය, යක්‍ෂ කතාව උස්ස උස්ස පෙන්නන අය මේ වගේ වීරක්‍රියාවල යෙදිලා ඉන්නවා. ඉතින් මේ වර්ගයට අයිති සමහර අය පෙන්නලා දෙනවා අපේ හෙළ මුතුන්මිත්තෝ අහස්යාත්‍රාවල නැගිලා මෙසපොතේමියාවට ගිය විදිහ. මේ කියන කාලයට අයත් ගොඩනැගිලිවල නෂ්ටාවශේෂ මෙසපොතේමියාවෙන් හමුවෙලා තියෙන හින්දා ඒ අතර තමයි මේ අය හෙළ ලකුණු හොයන්නේ. ඒත් ඒ කාලයේ අපේ රටේ හෙළයෝ හදපු ගොඩනැගිලිවල නශ්ටාවශේෂ හොයාගන්න බෑ. ඒ කාලේ මේ රටේ හදලා තිබුණු ගොඩනැගිලිත් අහස්යාත්‍රාවලින් මෙසපොතේමියාවට ගෙනිච්චා ද දන්නේ නෑ!

කොහොම වුනත් මේ කියන්නේ පවතින දේ ඒ විදිහට ම පිළිගන්න කියන එක නෙවෙයි. මොන දේ වුනත් පිළිගන්න ඕන විචාර බුද්ධියෙන්. අපේ වංශකතාවල අඩුපාඩු තියෙන්න පුළුවන්. අතීතයේ සිද්දවෙච්ච හැම දෙයක් ම අංගසම්පූර්ණ ව වාර්තාකිරීමක් ඒ වංශකතාවලින් වුනා කියලා හිතන්න බෑ. අනිත් වැදගත් ම කාරණය තමයි ඒ ඉතිහාස‍ය ලිවීමේ අරමුණ තේරුම්ගැනීම. අපේ මහා විහාර සම්ප්‍රදාය ඇතුළේ හැම දෙයක් ම වගේ කරලා තියෙන්නේ බුද්ධ ශාසනයේ චිරස්ථිතිය කියන අරමුණ මුල් කරගෙන. අටුවා පවා ලියවලා තියෙන්නේ ඒ වෙනුවෙන්. ඉතින් පර්සියානු සංක්‍රමණිකයන් ගේ බලය මුළුමනින් ම බිඳලා බුද්ධ ශාසනයේ ස්ථාවරත්වය තහවුරු කරපු දුටුගැමුණු රජතුමා ව අපේ අසහාය ජාතික වීරයා බවට පත්කරන්නත් ඒ සංක්‍රමණිකයන්ට යක්‍ෂ ලේබලය අලවන්නත් අපේ ඉතිහාස රචකයෝ කටයුතු කරලා තියෙනවා. මේ ලේඛකයා ලියපු පෙරදිගට ගමනක්” පොතේ මේ ගැන කරුණු ඇතුළත්.

ළමයෙක් ලියපු රචනයක වැරැදි තියෙනවා දැක්කත් ඒ ළමයාට ඒක කියලා දෙන්න පුළුවන් පුතා ලියලා තියෙනවා බොහොම හොඳයි. හැබැයි මෙන්න මේ දේ මෙහෙම වුනා නම් වඩාත් හොඳයි” කියලා පෙන්නලා දෙනවා නම්. මේකයි වැරැදි අඩුපාඩු නැති කරන කලාව. එහෙම නැතිව ඒ රචනයයි ඒක ලියපු ළමයාවයි පතුරුගහලා අලුත් ළමයෙක් හදන්න අපි යොමුවෙන්නේ නෑ. ඉතින් රට, ජාතිය, ආගම එක්ක සම්බන්ධ කරුණු ඊටත් වඩා ගැඹුරුයි, බරපතලයි, සංකීර්ණයි. ඒවාට කරන අලාභ හින්දා මුළු ජාතිය ම අනතුරට ලක්වෙන්න පුළුවන්.

ලෙනින් විසින් මාක්ස්වාදය පෝෂණය කළා කියලා ඒ අදහස්වලට ගරුකරන අය කියනවා. ඒ අදහස් මාඕ විසින් තවදුරටත් පෝෂණය කළා කියලාත් කියනවා. ට්‍රොට්ස්කි විසින් මාක්ස් – ලෙනින් ගේ අදහස් පෝෂණය කළා කියලා කියන අයත් ඉන්නවා. මේක තමයි මොකක් හරි සම්ප්‍රදායක් වවන කලාව. එහෙම නැතිව මුල් සම්ප්‍රදායේ අඩු පාඩු කියවා කියවා ඉඳලා ඉස්සරහට යන්න කාටවත් බෑ. අඩුපාඩු සම්පූර්ණ කරන්න ඕන මූලික අරමුණට හානියක් නොවෙන විදිහට. අඩුපාඩුවලට පිළියම් යොදන්න ඕන හොඳ වැඩෙන විදිහට. ක්‍රම ක්‍රමයෙන් හොඳ වැඩෙද්දී තියෙන අඩුපාඩු ඉබේ ම මැකිලා යාවි. මේක තමයි හොඳ වඩන කලාව.

වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

with Ravi Ladduwahetty Courtesy Ceylon Today

“I will not agree with what you say. But, I will defend to death, your right to say it. I will not agree with what you write, but, I will make every room for you to write”

– VOLTAIRE

Voltaire was the nom-de-plume of Frenchman François-Marie Arouet (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778) who was enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and separation of church and state. He was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets.

RESIGNATION DRAMA

So, Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake has resigned at last on Thursday for the sins and crimes he has allegedly committed during his tenure as Finance Minister.

He made a very emotional farewell speech following his resignation as a Member of the Cabinet of Ministers and sitting in the rear seats in the Government benches. But the merits of what he said in his special statement, merits conjecture.

He stressed that he resigned on a matter of principle and in the name of democracy and good governance and that history will decide his place in it. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also echoed sentiments of ushering a new era in principled politics in Sri Lanka by Karunanayake’s resignation and all the jazz and the diatribe which went with it !!

This columnist begs to disagree on both counts with both Karunanayake and Wickremesinghe. Did Karunanayake not resign as he had his back to the wall under the circumstances with the daughter of business magnate Nahil Wijesuriya going public on the Monarch apartment?

Had Karunanayake not resigned, even though he was back to the wall, what would have happened had Speaker Karu Jayasuriya proceeded with the No- Confidence Motion? Then, Karunanayake and the Government would have realized the hard way how many friends he had both in the two major parties, the UNP and the SLFP!

Now, we have the news of Minister of Development Assignments. He was a former Minister of law and Order, Prison reforms serving from September 2015 to November 2015, but resigned on the grounds of the Avant Garde.

He resigned on the grounds of the Avant Garde case which is still in Court. This rings a bell! Ravi Karunanayake was sworn in as Finance Minister also at a time when there was a serious Court Case bordering on money laundering

If Karunanayake is still singing hosannas of the virtuous stand that he has taken in resigning, then he should have resigned soon after his name was embroiled in the Monarch Apartment controversy. That should have been Yahapalanaya or Good Governance.

There are countless examples of resignations of Cabinet ranked Ministers for far lesser reasons. There was an Australian Foreign Minister who promptly resigned when he genuinely forgot to declare at Customs a radio that he had brought from overseas for personal use! Seemed to be so trivial! Each time there has been a train derailment in neighbouring India, the Indian Railways Minister who is a Cabinet ranked Minister, resigns. That is democracy and good governance. Not what the unadulterated rubbish and tripe dished out under the incumbent Yahapalanaya dispensation.

There is also the speculation of three other frontrunners to the post in Plantation Industries Minister Navin Dissanayake, Minister of Law and Order and Southern Development Sagala Ratnayaka and Deputy Minister of Policy Planning Dr. Harsha de Silva who was Deputy to former Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera. If the thinking is that the slot has to be allocated to the UNP, then it is a different story.

But just as much as Ports and Shipping was given to Mahinda Samarasinghe of the SLFP, and if merit and performance was the sole criteria, then one of the best choices would have been Dr. Sarath Leelananda Amunugama, incumbent Minister of Special Assignments. After all, he has the maturity and the insights, having international exposure, having founded and having served as Founding Director of the International Programme for the Development of Communication, a Paris based UNESCO organization. It is also moot to note that his slain Cabinet colleague and fellow Trinitian Lakshman Kadirgamar was also the Founding Director of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Also, with his vast knowledge on local and international finance, being independent Sri Lanka’s 16th Finance Minister and also later as Minister of International Monetary Cooperation, he could liaise with the two Brettonwoods Institutions the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Whatever the theories and the hypotheses are and were, there were the salted derisory jibes all over the social media on both Karunanayake and Wickremesinghe! With Karunanayake spelling out to the special Presidential Commission on the Bonds Scam that he had forgotten about the Monarch deal! Now, there are postings on Facebook that he has already forgotten that he has resigned as Foreign Minister!

Then, there is also another “salted” barb on the Prime Minister. The anecdote goes to say that the Premier had gone to get a brain scan. The Neurosurgeon who recommended the scan and the Radiologist who did the report have told Sri Lanka’s second citizen that they have some disappointing news for him in that there are two sides to his brain. When the Prime Minister indignantly and innocuously told the Radiologist and the Neurosurgeon that it was the natural case with every human being, the two medical specialists have told him: “Mr. Prime Minister, the issue here is that your brain has something quite different from the normal and average Sri Lankan’s. The issue here is that the left side of your brain has nothing right and the right side of your brain has nothing left!!

The anecdote by itself is humourous and mirth provoking indeed, but indeed a sad reflection and public perception of incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who, (inter alia) has the unique distinction of being the only Sri Lankan Prime Minister in independent Sri Lanka to be a graduate of a Sri Lankan University!

However, if the Prime Minister is talking about returning to the Lichchavi rule and if he is still talking of the good old days of the Parakramabahu era, and if he is taking such high moral ground on all these, he should have resigned first following the Central Bank Bond Scam. After all, it is he who brought the Central Bank under his aegis and purview for whatever the reasons best known to him!

This columnist could be contacted on raviladu@gmail.com

නව අධිකරණයක් පිහිටුවා හෝ බැඳුම්කර වැරදිකරුවන්ට දඬුවම්දිය යුතුයි – ජවිපෙ 

Commissions have already lost their credibility – Wimal (English)

The public is not plagued by debt but by fraud – Mahinda (English)

ඔබතුමා කරන ප්‍රකාශ නිසා ආණ්ඩුවෙම සතුරෙක් වෙලා – මොකද වුනේ?

Ravi is stating false facts. a case can be filed in court – Bandula (English)

Ravi invokes blessings at Asgiriya (English)

Editorial Courtesy The Island

Some government pundits have made an issue of the manner in which the AG’s Department personnel questioned Ravi Karunanayake before the bond probe commission about two week ago while he was the Foreign Minister. Journalists covering the commission proceedings will vouch for the fact that the legal brains of the AG’s Department have treated all witnesses in a similar manner.

The Attorney General (AG) is the state prosecutor and his department is answerable to the public and not self-important politicians. The government is different from the state. So, the AG’s Department is not there to serve the interests of governments in power, especially when they happen to be in conflict with those of the public; it must work for the state.

If the government thinks it can cover up its rackets and regain public sympathy by blaming the media and the AG’s Department officers it is mistaken. The yahapalana grandees never so much as uttered a whimper of protest when the UNP members of the COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) probing bond scams, rode rough shod over the Central Bank officials who testified against the then Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran. They went to the extent of abusing an upright female officer in a bid to scare her into submission. No less a person than COPE Chairman Sunil Handunnetti threatened to resign from his post, unable to bear undue pressure and harassment at the hands of the UNP members. None of the UNP heavyweights faulted their MPs for such boorish behaviour.

A female Colombo High Court judge was abused in raw filth by a group of pro-UNP lawyers, who went so far as to smash up court furniture, when the White Flag case judgment was given in Nov. 2011. She also received threats from the pettifoggers on the rampage. The UNP leaders didn’t condemn the black-coated rowdies who brought their profession into disrepute. Sadly, even the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), which claims to defend the dignity of the judiciary chose to ignore the incident. Besides, on several occasions during the last several years, Speakers have asked schoolchildren to leave the public gallery of Parliament during fisticuffs in the chamber where abuse is freely traded. We have seen on television some ministers of the yahapalana regime insulting senior state officials in public with impunity. These politicians also have private armies at their disposal and their pet criminals clash during election campaigns. But, the government leaders ululate when a minister is asked tough questions before the bond probe commission!

If the government expects kid glove treatment to its ministers facing damning allegations anent the bond scams, let it provide the presidential probe commission with cradles, diapers and soothers besides nannies to pacify the yahapalana crybabies!

The yahapalana regime is like a lorry with ‘budu saranai, devi pihitai’ written thereon, illegally transporting cattle for slaughter. Its leaders are obviously trying to intimidate the AG’s Department officials by inveighing against the latter in public. It is doubtful whether their soft terror tactics will help demoralise the intrepid AG’s Department officials who have done the country proud and, with the help of their Central Bank counterparts, demonstrated, much to the relief of the public, there is still some hope left as regards the nation’s crusade against corruption.

Let the Opposition, professional organisations, the media and civil society outfits come forward in their numbers and circle the wagons at Hulftsdorp for the sake of the educated, intelligent, and patriotic public officials who have taken on a bunch of corrupt, arrogant politicians.

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍ර‍ය

උමා ඔය හේතුවෙන් විනාශයට පත් වැලිමඩ ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කොට්ඨාශයේ දික්කාපිටිය, පුහුල්පොල ප්‍රදේශයේ එකම ගොවියෙකුට හෝ මේ දක්වා වගා සහන අයදුම්පතක් හෝ ලැබී නොමැති බව ‘ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍ර‍ය‘ අගෝ. 12 සිදු කළ සමීක්ෂණයක දී හෙළි විය.

ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයේ නඩු තීන්දුවක් මගින් ද, ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ නියෝගයකින් ද, කැබිනට් මණ්ඩල තීරණයකින් ද, දිස්ත්‍රික් සංවර්ධන කමිටු තීරණයකින් ද, උමා ඔය විනාශය හේතුවෙන් පීඩාවට පත් වැලිමඩ ගොවීන් වෙත ‘වගා සහන‘ සැලසීමට තීරණය විය.  බණ්ඩාරවෙල පැවති උමා ඔය හර්තාලයෙන් දින 45 ක් ගතවී ඇති නමුත්, අවම වශයෙන් වගා සහන අයදුම්පත බෙදීමට හෝ ඌව පළාත් කෘෂිකර්ම අධ්‍යකෂ, ඌව පළාත් ප්‍ර‍ධාන අමාත්‍යා කාර්යාලය, බදුල්ල දිසාපති, වැලිමඩ ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාලය කටයුතු කොට නැත. උමා ඔය හේතුවෙන් පීඩාවට පත් වැලිමඩ ගොවීන් කන්න දෙකකින් රුපියලක හෝ වගා වන්දියක් මේ දක්වා ගෙනා නැත. 

දික්කාපිටිය, පුහුල්පොල ප්‍රදේශයේ විශාල වැව් තුනක් උමා ඔය නිසා විනාශයට පත්වී ඇති අතර මාර්ග අබලන්වී ඇත.  ගොවි බිම් හි සිට ප්‍ර‍වාහන කටයුතු සදහා මාර්ග ඉදිකිරීමක් මේ දක්වා සිදුව නැත.

ඌව පළාත් කෘෂිකර්ම අධ්‍යක්ෂවරයා පවසන්නේ ඉදිරි සතිය තුල ‘වගා සහන අයදුම්පත් බෙදීම‘ ආරම්භ කළ හැකි බවයි. මාස දෙකක් තුල ‘වගා වන්දි ගෙවීම ආරම්භ කළ හැකි වෙතැයි‘ ඔහු පවසයි.

ඊසාන දිග මෝසම් වැසි ඇරඹීමට තවත් දින 40 කට ආසන්න කාලයක් පමණක් ඉතිරිව ඇති බැවින් ඉක්මනින් වගා වන්දි නොලැබෙන්නේ නම් මෙවර ද, වගා කටයුතු ඇරඹිය නොහැකි වනු ඇති  බව ඌව පරණගම, වැලිමඩ හා හාළිඇල ගොවීන් පවසයි.  තමන් දැඩි ලෙස විරුද්ධ වූ උමා ඔය ව්‍යාපෘතිය‘ හේතුවෙන් අදායම් මාර්ග සියල්ල විනාශ වී, නිවාස ඉදිතලා, දේපල අහිමිවී ඇති බැවින් තමන්ට සහන සැලසීම වහා සිදුවිය යුතු බව ඔවුන් පවසයි.

 ලංකාවේ ඉහළම අදායම් ලබන ගොවීන් ඉහළ ඌව එළවළු වගාකරුවන් වන අතර පරිසරය හා ප්‍ර‍මාණවත් ජලය හේතුවෙන් ඔවුන් ගෙන් 46% රු. 50,000 – 100,000 දක්වා මාසික ආදායම් ලැබූහ.  උමා ඔය හේතුවෙන් ඔවුන් කන්න 5 ක වගාව හානි වී ඇත.

උමා ඔය සහන සැලසීම සදහා රුපියල් මිලියන 300 ක් වෙන් කර ඇති අතර එයින් රුපියල් මිලියන 200 ක් මේ වන විට බදුල්ල දිසාපතිවරයා වෙත යොමු කර ඇත. ඌව පරණගම, වැලිමඩ, හාලිඇළ ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කොට්ඨාශ වහා සහන කටයුතු ප්‍ර‍ගතිය අවම මට්ටමක පවතී.  බදුල්ල දිසාපතිවරයා පමණක් නොව වැලිමඩ ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම්වරිය ද අවම වශයෙන් මේ වසර තුල එකම වතාවක් හෝ උමා ඔය හානි බලන්නට දික්කාපිටිය හා පුහුල්පොල ප්‍රදේශයන් ට නොපැමිණි බව ද ගොවීන් පවසති.

ජුලි 28 හා 29, අගෝ. 4 සහ 8  දිනවල මේ පිළිබද ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍ර‍ය බදුල්ල දිසාපති, ඌව පළාත් ප්‍ර‍ධාන ලේකම් ඇතුළු රජයේ නිලධාරීන්ට ලිපි යොමු කර ඇති නමුත් එම ලිපි සදහා ද, ගොවි සංවිධාන විසින්පසුගිය වසර දෙක පුරා යොමු කළ ලිපි 400 කට වැඩි ප්‍ර‍මාණයකට එකම පිළිතුරක් හෝ ලැබී නොමැති බව ද, දික්කාපිටිය විහාරස්ථානයේ දී ඊයේ පැවති රැස්වීමේ දී හෙළි විය.

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය

ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කේන්ද්‍ර‍ය

 By Kalani Kumarasinghe Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Rajapaksa claims conspiracy behind Ravi’s resignation

Shenali D Waduge

A country has every right to protect its history & heritage. A country has every right to react to the sinister plans taking place to create an artificial history by removing a history that is over 2600 years old. A country has every right to protect the many plots and plans now being put in place to create a pseudo national identity in keeping with those that fund initiatives whereby the main goal is to remove the sacred place held by Buddhism and the role Buddhism has placed in shaping the nation’s identity and the culture and values of people. How right is it and who has the right to decide what gets removed and doesn’t and what new identity and history everyone has to accept. Can Governments and their cronies through Ministries be given rights to experiment with history and plug in their notions and ideologies & do they expect everyone to accept these?

For people to realize what is taking place they need to be aware of the strategies and methodologies used in the past and compare them with what is taking place in the present. It only then that people will realize the dangers and what is at stake.

Presently a wave of actions is taking place which cannot be ignored. Sealing of temple tills, attempts to remove elephants from Buddhist cultural events like the perahera, while azan’s are allowed temple pirith is banned, only Buddhist monks are arrested while Church priests who had openly sided with LTTE terrorists get away, state funds to pirivenas are stopped, controversial Buddhist monks are tapped to bring disrepute to Buddhism/Buddhists, Govt is silent over attacks, destruction and theft of Buddhist artefacts, state funds to the preservation of Buddhist archaeological sites are being reduced, actions are not taken against officials who are being bought over to compromise Buddhist heritage sites, incursions on Buddhist heritage sites are ignored, history is being removed from school syllabus, Buddhist daham pasal teachers are being forced to teach merits of other religions during Buddhist classes, academics are being rewarded to re-write false history and projecting a step-motherly version to the place held by Buddhism, bizarre notion of shared values is being rolled out trying to confuse young minds and distance Buddhist children from their religion and cultural background….all these and more are taking place with a long term plan and are in keeping with a historical objective.

When European Christian colonial rulers arrived their objective was to take over countries by force, plunder their resources/wealth, declare these new territories as Christian and forcibly convert the natives and increase their flock. The missionaries became the brainwashers and intelligence gatherers just like the CIA & NGOs of present times.

Part and parcel of that methodology was to win over natives, give them honorary titles and place them above the rest and get them to do the dirty work on behalf of the European colonials. Notice how titles are continuing to be bestowed upon people who still work on behalf of Western agenda! The methods have changed and become more sophisticated but the objective remains the same. It is our duty to realize what these goals are and counter them.

The natives were clueless to handle the European Christian explorers. If natives had no inkling of the methods used for subjugating them are we to play ignorant and ignore the same strategies being applied packaged differently?

Formerly missionaries approached the chief humbly and asked a small piece of land to set up their station. The station soon became a ‘trader’ resulting in an ‘agreement’ on the guise of ‘friend and protector’ of the chief but it meant the ‘foreigner’ had rights to take land, interfere in the lives of the people and with time split them and generate animosity among them. This became the famous ‘divide & rule’. Soon the ‘friend & protector’ wants to become bigger than the Chief and decides to take lands, use natives, abuse natives and even murder natives that didn’t tow the line.  If explorers worked in conjunction with the Christian/Catholic missionaries – isn’t what the Western governments & their faith-based NGO agencies doing the same presently?

To understand the psyche of the Western European rulers and their mission which has not changed one has to study the speech delivered by King Leopold II to the Missionaries sent to Congo in 1883. The colonial and neocolonial agendas are the same in substance.

Some excerpts from this speech

The main goal of your mission in the Congo is not to teach the Negro the knowledge of God, ….. you will interpret the gospel in a way to protect and serve the interest of Belgium”

Your knowledge of the scriptures will help us to use special text that recommended the fidels to love poverty such as….Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom…… You will do all that you can to cause the Negro to fear being rich in order that they may go to heaven.

From time to time…… keep them in fear that you will use violence”

You will take them away from anything or act that procures them with the courage to confront us.”

Your action will be essentially on the younger people that might not rebel….. the child should learn to obey what the missionary teaches him because he is the father of his soul. We must force them into submission and obedience.”

Teach the Gospel to the Negroes in an African style, in order that they are kept submissive to the White colonist. They would not rebel against the injustice done to them by the colonist.”

Avoid, by all means, the Blacks becoming rich.”

Make pay tithes each Sunday for church. Utilize this money, that is intended for the poor, for our own business investments.”

Institute a system of confession which will make you good detectives in order to denounce/put down every Black which has a spirit of rebellion against the system.”

Teach the Negroes that their statues, idols, are works of the devil, confiscate them and fill our museums with them. Teach the Negro to forget about their heroes in order to worship and give praise to ours.”

Don’t give a seat to a Negro when they come to see you, at the most just give him a cigarette.”

Don’t invite him to break bread with you, even if he gave you a chicken every time you went to see him.”

My dear compatriots; if you apply to the letter all this, the interest of Belgium in the Congo will be protected for many centuries. I thank you.

King Leopold II

(Translated from French by Prince Asiel Center for International Studies, USA)

http://www.afrikaglobalnetwork.com/htm/leopold.htm

The text is certainly shocking. But it is very much consistent with orders given by all other colonial rulers/administrators and post-colonial former colonies cannot forget these orders because they are continuing in the vision and mission of the neocolonial agencies now operating world over.

This is what Dr. Philip, Superintendent of the London Missionary Society wrote in The Preface to his Researches in South Africa” in 19^th century.

” ‘While our missionaries are everywhere scattering the seeds of civilization . . . they are extending British interests, British influences and the British Empire. . . . Wherever the missionary places his standard among a savage tribe, their prejudices against the colonial government give way; their dependence upon the colony is increased by the creation of artificial wants”.  

European explorers like Vasco da Gama, David Livingston, Cecil Rhodes and the many Christian missionaries were ONLY following the religious texts.

Bible New Testament St Mark 16 Verse 5 Go ye to the entire world, baptizing all men in the name of Jesus Christ”.

A chaplain attached to the British East India Company is quoted by Norman Hetherington as saying

We’ve annihilated the political importance of the natives, stripped them off their power, laid them prostrate without giving them anything in return”.

The envoys deployed in Third World nations follow the same objectives. The British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka is now projecting a ‘shared history’ – the gameplan is obviously to distort history and whitewash the blood soaked hands of colonial rulers from the history books wherein the younger generation would not be aware of the crimes committed by European rulers.

Histories of former colonies cannot be re-written by colonial rulers that have yet to account for their crimes & sins. Their acolytes who are rewarded by titles and tasked to re-write the history on behalf of these former colonial rulers cannot be allowed as well.

The pattern of how the Western rulers ruled directly and through their subservient local traitors is a replica of what is today taking place in front of our very eyes. To understand the gravity of this, people must know and comprehend the damage that Europeans & even Islamic invaders committed to the natives of Asia, Africa and other parts of the world where lands and territories were forcibly taken and people were subjugated.

No modern nomenclature or slogans like ‘let us forgive and forget’ can wipe out that horrendous and murderous past and the only way people can prepare and counter the same objectives under more sophisticated onslaughts is to be aware of the patterns & players involved.

Shenali D Waduge

Sudath Gunasekara 12.8.2017

At last after failing all manipulations and tricks the Alibaba and the 40 thieves have sacrificed one of the key gang men to save the Government from an imminent defeat in Parliament at the vote of no confidence motion that was scheduled to be taken up. But all the major characters in the robbery are still at large. Reading through the papers this resignation appears to be temporary measure manipulated by the leader of the gang, Furthermore it also appears to be an attempt to hoodwink the masses. According to the Sunday papers Ravi has agreed to hand over resignation papers reluctantly at the instigation and persuasion by a prominent Buddhist monk and Rajitha Senarathna after a long and shady discussion he had with Preside  Sirisena in the company of Ranil Wickramasingha and Rajita Senaratna. Apparently RK was adamant not to go has finally agreed to hand over resignation only after the President agreed to grant four concessions

The conditions he had demanded were

1 CB scam Commission probe should be completed within three months

2 Only an acting F/minister should be appointed for this period

3 None of his appointees in the Ministry should  be removed

4 all privilege he enjoyed as F/Minister should remain as they are.

Probably these are the conditions Ranil Wickramasingha and Rajitha Senarathna together with Ravi have demanded from the President on Thursday night before he agreed to resign..

What do all these mean if not keeping that position almost vacant for him to be re-appointed after 3 months again as the F/Minister after finding out a way to silence the opposition? Unless there was full agreement on this stand between the President and the other three and a guarantee on the part of the President Ravi would have never agreed to resign. The way he spoke in the house and the confidence he displayed is enough proof what is underlying

If the President has agreed to these demands as preconditions for his resignation without asking him to resign, then one can imagine the pitiful plight of the President within this Government. Is he the President of this country or a hostage or a prisoner of this yahapalanaya Government is the million dollar question the general public would ask?.

As I have pointed out in another article on 5^th of August RK is only one out of a gang of 40 or even more and he is also not the no 1 of this mega hoard.

I do not know as to why the President can’t understand this simple logic.

The first man who should resign on this issue is not Ravi. It should be none other than Ranil who was the mastermind behind all this public scandal. He is the one who got Arjuna there and supported him throughout and continues to do so even now. He being a lawyer should know better that even his appointment as PM was against the Constitution. The fact he took over the Central Bank from the Finance Ministry was obviously a part of this meticulously planned conspiracy.

I do not know as to why the JO is not asking him to resign as well. Not only him there are many more cabinet Ministers who have to resign. I am also lost to understand as to why the President neither ask them to resign or sack them in the alternative.

You don’t need to wait until a court of law pronounces them guilty to take actions against his Ministers as Sambandan or Daya Gamage has said in the face of the rising public opinion against them as elected members by the people

The failure on the part of the Government to arrest Mahendran and Alloyseus against the startling revelations made public so far itself speaks volumes about the honesty , integrity and the character of all these people, including the President.

In my opinion first the JO and then the whole country must ask the entire Government to resign as it is not going to make any difference whether it is there or not as already there is no government at all in this country. Now that the President has withheld all local Government elections for two years why not he dissolve all the Provincial Councils and the Parliament as well and run the country with the help of Government institutions so that we can save all money amounting to billions wasted on these political institutions and the corrupt and parasitic politicians who are only a dead weight round the neck of the nation and unbearable burden to the people, not rendering any service to the country.

Both the president and the PM will have to pay with compound interest for these follies they are committing now with arrogance and foresight.

Masses know why Ravi K resigned and how it was manipulated and by whom with what ulterior motives.

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane

Located near Galgamuwa in the Kurunegala district, about 3.5 km away from the Mahagalkadawala junction on the Padeniya–Anuradhapura road, Haththikuchchi is an extensive area of about 300 acres of ruins of a large ancient vihara complex. These ruins lie within highly picturesque surroundings that consist of differently shaped rock boulders and imposing forest trees. The view of this largely forested area from the top of the highest rock mass is spectacular. It is a fascinating site with an assortment of diverse archaeological remains of various types of monuments and structures that belong to different historic periods, but predominantly the early Anuradhapura era. It is one of the most ancient and important Buddhist archaeological sites of Sri Lanka.

Located at close proximity to the ancient road that existed during ancient times, which extended from Isurumuniya in Anuradhapura to the Maya-rata in the south, Hachchikuchchi was situated in a highly  strategic location in ancient times. Originally, Haththikuchchi had been a typical Buddhist Forest Hermitage, established in the 2nd century BCE by king Devanampiyatissa (307-267 BCE), the first Buddhist king of the island. Subsequently, it was developed by king Saddatissa (137- 119 BCE), also as a forest hermitage. In later years, especially from 2nd century CE to 10th century CE, with the patronage of several kings of the Anuradhapura era, Haththikuchchi developed and expanded as a highly important Monastery-Shrine complex. In the 13th century, Haththikuchchi was destroyed by Kalinga Maaga the Dravidian Tamil terrorist invader from Southern India but was soon restored with the patronage of later Sinhala kings.

The precincts of this huge monastery-shrine complex consists of many rock caves used as dwellings of monks, including 38 caves with drip ledges and many rock inscriptions, 16 ponds including a perennial pond on top of the large boulder where the meditation cave of king Sirisangabo is located, a Chapter House or Pohoya Geya, remains of eight Stupas, a Vatadage, an Image House, a Bodhighara, an Uposathaghara, a Pasmahal Prasadaya, a three-storeyed Dhathu mandeeraya, a dhana salawa or dining Hall, and many more unidentified structures, architectural monuments and decorations carved out of stones.  There is a cave shrine, with a large reclining Buddha statue that belongs to the Mahanuwara period – 18th century. The face of the Buddha in this statue is exceptionally serene.

According to records of Venerable Buddhagosha of the 5th century CE, during the early Anuradhapura era, there were four highly developed  Buddhist shrines in the country, namely, Dakshinagiriya, Mihintalaya, Sithulpahuwa and Haththikuchchi. Haththikuchchi forest hermitage was a large and highly important Buddhist centre, especially a reputed meditation centre.

The historical significance of Haththikuchchi is largely owing to its association with king Sirisangabo of the mid 3rd century CE (252 -254 CE). This was the site where this pious king was meditating and where he offered his own head to a peasant. According to Venerable Buddhagosha, King Sirisangabo was meditating in the cave among the overhanging rock, and it was among the best meditation caves in the island.

A ancient tomb has been discovered among the archeological remains in this site, which is considered to have the ashes of the king Sirisangabo. Here, the tombstone was built from bricks and resembles a human body but with a granite sphere placed as the head piece, implying the missing head in the dead body. His body was found at the foot of the cave where the king was meditating and was later cremated and the ashes were enshrined in a stupa, the ruins of which is evident today.

There are different explanations about the association of king Sirisangabo with Haththikuchchi and with Attanagalla. This has   led to controversies regarding this site. But according to reputed research scholars, such as Venerable Nochchiye Somananda Mahathera, there is no doubt that Haththikuchchi had been the place associated with the king Sirisangabo story. He refers to and interprets the accounts of this king cited in ancient chronicles such as Deepavamsa, Mahavamsa, Mahavamsa Tikaava, Rajavaliya, Rajarathnakaraya and Pujavaliya. In his book titled Hachchikuchchi Vihara Vansaya, Venerable Somananda cites evidence from an ancient chronicle titled Sahassavaththuppakarana”, written in the 1st century CE, which contains a clear description of the king Sirisangabo story.  Additionally, he cites archaeological evidence, rock inscriptional information, and folk lore, to establish that the king Sirisangabo story is directly associated with Haththikuchchi.

 වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග

නාරද මහා ස්ථවිරයන් වහන්සේගේ සෙවනේ ධර්මය හැදෑරීමටත් උන් වහන්සේ ගේ කරුණා ගුණයන් විඳීමටත් දැණුම උකහා ගැනීමටත් අප වාසනාවන්ත වූයෙමු. වචනයේ පරිසමාප්තියෙන් උන් වහන්සේ බුද්ධ පුත්‍රයෙකු වූ සේක .  නාරද මාහිමියන් යනු දැණුම ගංගාවකි. උන් වහන්සේ විසින් ලියන ලද ධර්ම පොත පත ඉතා ගැඹුරුය​. නාරද හිමියන් වැනි පරිපූර්ණවූ භික්‍ෂුවක් මට මෙතෙක් හමුවී නැත​. අද දිනයේදී මම නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් ගේ ශිෂ්‍යයෙකු බව  කියන්නේ  ඉතා අභිමානයෙනි. 

 වජිරාරාමයේ නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් ගේ කරුණාභරිත දෙනෙත් ප්‍රිය වචනයන් අර්ථසම්පන්න දැහැමි දිවිය ගැන කල්පනා කිරිමේදී අද දිනයේ මෙවැනි භික්‍ෂූන් ගේ  විරළභාවය  අප දකින්නෙමු. එහෙත් අහේතුවකට මෙන් අද දිනයේ  අප බොහෝ සෙයින් දකින්නේ සිත කය වචනය අසංවර සිවුරුකාරයෝ වෙති.  නැතහොත් ගෝල්ඩන් කී ආයතන වල මිලියන ගනන් මුදල්  තැන්පත් කරන බිස්නස් උන්නාන්සේලාය.   එක් අතකට බුදු සසුන විලෝපනය කරන මෙම මදාවි චීවරධාරීන්  මෙන්ම බිස්නස් උන්නාන්සේලා තම දෙනෙතින් නොදැකීමට නාරද මාහිමියන් පින් කොට තිබුණු බව පෙනේ. 

නාරද මාහිමියන්  උපත ලබන්නේ 1898 වසරේදීය​. සාන්ත බෙනඩික් විද්‍යාලයේ  සහ සිලෝන් යුනිවර්සිටි කොලීජියේ අධ්‍යාපනය ලබා වයස 18 දී මහණ දිවියට ඇතුළු වන නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් ලොව පතල ධර්ම දේශකයෙකු බවට පත් වෙති. උන් වහන්සේ ඉන්දියාව , යුරෝපය , ඉන්දුනීසියාව , වියට්නාමය , උතුරු ඇමරිකාව යනාදී රටවල් රැසකට වැඩම කොට බුදු දහම ප්‍රචාරය කළහ​.  

 වජිරාරාමය බැබලුනේ නාරද හිමියන් නිසාවෙනි.  වජිරාරාමයේ දහම් පාසල දිවයිනේ ප්‍රමුඛ දහම් පාසල විය​. සමහරක් විට උන් වහන්සේ පන්ති වලට වැඩම කොට ධර්ම ප්‍රශ්න අසති. උන් වහන්සේ කතා කරන්නේ ඉතා කාරුණික ස්වරයෙනි. මේ නිසා කිසිදු බියක් නොමැතිව කුඩා අප නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් අසන ප්‍රශ්න වලට පිලිතුරු දුන්නෙමු. නිවැරදි පිලිතුර දෙන ළමුන්ට එතුමන් බැජ් එකක් දෙති . මෙම බැජ් එකක්  නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් ගෙන් ලද විට එය අපට  මහත් ආඩඹරයක් වූ අතර එය පාසල වෙත ගෙන ගොස් මිතුරන්ටද පෙන්නුවෙමු. වරක් වජිරාරාම දහම් පාසලේ දෙක හෝ තුන් වසරේදී පන්තියේ පළවනියා වී මම නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් අතින් තිළිණයක් ලැබුවෙමි. එය ධර්ම පොතකි. මෙම පොතද ලියන ලද්දේ නාරද මාහිමියන් විසිනි. එම පොත බොහෝ කාලයක් අපගේ මහ ගෙදර තිබුනේය​. 

නාරද හමුදුරුවන් ගේ කීර්තිය ජාත්‍යන්තරව පැතිරී තිබුනේය​. ඒ කාලයේදී ලෝකයේ විවිධ රට වල ධීමතුන් නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් හමු වීමට එති. ඔවුන්ව අපට හඳුන්වා දීමටත් ඔවුන් ගේ කතා සිංහලට පරිවර්තනය කිරීමත් නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් කළහ​. මෙලෙස ආ පිරිස අතර බෞද්ධයන් පමණක් නොව ඉන්දියාවේ හිංදු පූජකයන් , ඇමරිකාවේ දේවගැතියන් යනාදී පිරිස් පවා සිටි බව මට මතකය​. නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් සියළු ආගම් වලට ගරු කල අතර අන්‍යගමිකයන් සමගද සංවාද පවත්වාගෙන යන ලදි. 

නරද හාමුදුරුවන් පිටරට ගොස් යලි මෙරටට වඩින  විට දහම් පාසලේ ළමුන් වූ අපට ඇපල්, චීස් , මුද්දරප්පලම් , මිදි ආදිය ගෙන එති. මේ 1977 පෙර කාලය හෙවත් මෙකී අනර්ඝ කෑම දකින්නටවත් නොතිබූ කාලයකි​.  නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් මෙවැනි කෑම වර්ග ගෙනවිත් අපට දෙති. මේ නිසා  නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් පිටරට සිට වැඩම කරන විට අප ආශාවෙන් උන් වහන්සේ පන්සලට වඩින තෙක් බලා සිටියෙමු. 

වරක් දහම් පාසලේ ඉහළ පන්තියක සිටියදී මමත් ඩී.එස් සේනානායක විද්‍යාලයේ  සිසුවෙකුත් මැජෙස්ටික් සිනමා ශාලාවේ තිරගත වූ ස්ටා වෝස් චිත්‍රපටය  බැලීම සඳහා කට්ටි පැන්නෙමු. අහේතුවකට මෙන් අප දෙදෙනාව ශිෂ්‍ය ආචාර්‍යවරයෙකුට හසු විය​. ඔහු අප දෙදෙනාව නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් වෙත ඉදිරිපත් කලේය​. තෙමුණු කුකුලන් දෙදෙනෙකු මෙන් අප දෙදෙනා නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් ඉදිරියේ වරදකරී දෙනෙත් වලින් බිම බලාගෙන සිටි අතර නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් අප දෙදෙනාට ඉතා කරුණාවෙන් කතා කොට විස්තර ඇසූහ​. ඉන් පසු අප දෙදෙනාට අවවාද දී තුටු පඞුරු ලෙස   බෞද්ධ පොත් දෙකක් ද දුන්හ​. එපමණක් නොවේ. මේ වේලාවේ පන්සලේ කුස්සියේ  කේක් වගයක් තිබෙන බවත් කේක් කෑලි දෙකක් කා තේ බොන ලෙසටද කීහ​. අප දෙදෙනා නාරද හාමුදුරුවන්ට වැඳ කුස්සියට ගියේ යලි දහම් පාසල් කට් නොකරමි යන අධිෂ්ඨානයෙනි. උන් වහන්සේ නඩු ඇසුවේ එසේය​.  වරදකරුවන්ට අවමාන කලේ හෝ ඔවුන්ව  දඞු කඳේ ගැසුවේ නැත.  

නාරද හාමුදුරුවන්ට දේශපාලකයන් ගරු කල අතර උන් වහන්සේ ඔවුන් ගේ වල්ගා පසුපස නොගියේය​. එසේම දේශපාලකයන්ට සෙත් පිරිත්  කීම පිරිත් නූල් ගැට ගැසීම   වැනි ලාමක දෙකයි පනහේ වැඩද නොකලේය​. මේ නිසා සියළු පක්‍ෂ වල නායකයෝ නාරද හාමුදුරුවන්ට ගරු බුහුමන් කළහ​.

වරක් අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ප්‍රේමදාස මහතා දහම් පාසලේ සිසුන්ට තෑගි බෙදා දීමට පැමිනි අතර එක් ආචාර්‍යවරයෙකු ප්‍රේමදාස මහතාට , ප්‍රේමදාස  මහත්මියට මෙන්ම ඔවුන් ගේ දරුවන් වූ  සජිත්ටත් දුලාංජලීටත් ආසන පනවා තිබුනේය​. එවකට සජිත් ගේ වයස අවුරුදු දොලහක් පමණ වන්නට ඇත​. උත්සවයට වැඩම කල නාරද මාහිමියන් සජිත්ටත් දුලාංජලීටත් අනෙකුත් ළමුන් අතර ඉඳ ගැනීමට නියම කළහ​. උන් වහන්සේ තමන් ගේ කතාව ආරම්භ කලේ අගමැතිතුමාගේ ළමුන් දෙදෙනාත් මේ දහම් පාසලේ ඉන්න අනෙක් ළමුනුත් මට එකයි කියමිනි. අද කාලයේ දේශපාලකයන් ඉදිරියේ මෙවැනි පෞරුෂයක් පෙන්විය හැකි යතිවරයෙකු සිටීද කියා මම නොදනිමි. 

නාරද හාමුදුරුවන්  කුඩා අපගේ සිත් වලට ආගම්වාදයේ , ජාතිවාදයේ වර්ගවාදයේ විශ එන්නත් කලේ නැත​. එතුමන් අපව හුරු කලේ මානුෂිකවාදීව සිතීමටය​. මේ නිසා අගතීන් ගෙන් තොරව ලෝකය දෙස බැලීමට අප පුරුදු වූයෙමු. 

නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් අපවත් වන්නේ 1983 වසරේදීය​. ඒ  වන විට මම උසස් පෙළ පන්තියට අවතීර්ණව සිටියෙමි.  පසු කාලයක වජිරරාමයට යන විට උන් වහන්සේ වැඩ සිටි විහාර ගෙය , දම් දෙසූ ශාලාව දකින විට නාරද මාහිමියන් නොමැති අඩුව දැණුනි. 

නාරද මාහිමියන් තුල බුදු දහම පිළිබඳව ගැඹුරු අවබෝධයක් තිබුනු බව මට තේරුම් ගියේ පසු කාලයක උන් වහන්සේ ලියූ පොත් කියවන විටදීය​. සිංහලෙන් මෙන්ම ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් පොත් ලිවීමට නාරද හාමුදුරුවන්ට දැණුම තිබුනේය​. තවද පාලි භාෂාව පිලිබඳව ඉංග්‍රීසියෙන්ද උන් වහන්සේ පොතක් ලියා තිබුනේය​. නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් ගේ පොත පත කියවා බුදු දහම වැළඳ ගත් සුදු ජාතිකයෝ බොහෝ වෙති. මින් සමහරක් පැවිදිද වූහ​. 

නාරද හාමුදුරුවන් ගේ පොතක තිබූ පාඨයක් මගේ මතකයට නැගේ. බුදු දහම යනු සර්වඅශුභවාදයට (pessimism  ) මෙන්ම  සර්වශුභවාදයට (optimism   ) අයත් නොවන දහමක් වන අතර බුදු දහම අයත් වන්නේ යථාර්ථවාදයටය​. ලෝකයේ දුක තිබෙන බව බුදුරදුන් පිලිගත් අතර දුක නිවීම සඳහා මාර්ගයක්ද දේශනා කල සේක​. ඒ නිසා බුදු දහම සර්වඅශුභවාදයට අයත් වන්නේ නැත​. 

නාරද මාහිමියන් අපවත්වී වසර ගනනකට පසු දෙවන ජුවාම් පාවුළු පාප් වහන්සේ පොතක් ලියූ අතර එම පොතේ බුදු දහම සර්වඅශුභවාදයට යටත් දෝ කියා ප්‍රශ්න කොට තිබුනේය​. දෙවන ජුවාම් පාවුළු පාප් වහන්සේ විසින් නැගූ ප්‍රශ්නයට වසර ගනනාවකට ඉහතදී නාරද මාහිමියන් විසින් පිළිතුර දී තිබුනේය​. 

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

I can tolerate students ,Doctors ,GMOA ,Motor Cyclists,Samurdi recipients,Three wheel drivers Disabled Soldiers , Nataami’s ,going on strike but ………Railways guards resorting to strike over bed bugs ?

I am sure that they are the only humans sleeping on the beds given to them ,the  bugs may have come from their own homes ?

It is very simple for them to buy a Ninja Spray and kill them .They may be of Super Bug grade who can withstand the unkind blood of the Railway Guards

When we travelled by train to Colombo during our school days we call the ticket checking chaps ( we hated them ) as Tikka”.These gurads may have got ticks from these Tikka’s  ?

How can the Minister who does not have any difficulty in performing a  act on any chair irrespective of any bugs ?

That may be the reason why the Railway Bigshots do not bother?

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

from Groundviews;

As the media predicted last week, alluding to an off-guard comment made by a junior member of the Attorney-General’s legal team of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Central Bank bond scam, a star witness has turned the public discussion on high profile corruption into a major political drama.

Ms. Anika Wijesuriya, a young woman entrepreneur from an extraordinarily rich business family in Colombo, has done what the Joint Opposition of ex-president Mahinda Rajapakse, or Mr. Anura Dissanayake’s radical JVP, has failed to achieve in more than two years. In half a day of evidence before the presidential commission of inquiry into the central bank bond scam, she has rocked the very foundations of the current yahapalanaya regime. She has also changed the terms of the political debate between the government and the opposition. All these unwittingly though.

Ms. Wijesuriya’s evidence provided a detailed account of questionable financial deals between the family of Ravi Karunanayake, the former Finance Minister, and Arjun Aloysius, the young businessman whose name has figured as the main actor in the massive bond scam. To make the drama unbelievable, Aloysius happens to be the son-in-law of the Central Bank Governor, Arjuna Mahendran – son of a longstanding UNP stalwart – who oversaw all the transactions, including the bond auctions, of the Central Bank. Mahendran as well as Prime Minister Wickremasinghe, and his cabinet team of economic whiz-kids, did not seem to have any idea about the principles of conflict of interest and public trust. In the process, Ministers Harsha de Silva and Eran Wickramaratne also lost their credibility in a rather sad manner.

Karunanayake’s claim to innocence before the supreme court judges through pleading ignorance of those deals over the renting of the penthouse apartment was not only unconvincing, but also appeared to be out and out deceit. Denial has made his case most indefensible. And the yahapalanaya government now finds itself in its most serious crisis since it was formed in January 2015. The UNP, led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, has fallen victim to its own false promise of corruption-free good governance. After Wickremasinghe went lackadaisical about the corruption inquiries into the dealings of the big wigs of the Rajapakse regime for obviously narrow political reasons, he now faces what one may call the poetic justice.

Unless Karunanayake resigns or is sacked from the cabinet, the UNP will be in deep trouble. Even then, problems for the UNP will not be over. Attempts to recover the lost moral high ground by making claims to renewed yahapalanaya spirit will not help Prime Minister Wickremasinghe or his UNP. People, even those who supported him and his government, are now totally disenchanted with his politics of deception and tactics of deceit on the bond scam. He is facing a truly serious crisis of credibility before the citizens. Re-building that lost trust between the prime minister and the citizens will require a wholesale clean-up of the UNP section of the present coalition government.  That process might even put his own position at risk. Meanwhile, under normal circumstances, democratic politicians who lose public trust so badly tend to look for authoritarian alternatives. Wickremasinghe has no access to that option either, thanks to the much-maligned system of diarchy introduced by the 19th Amendment.

Who is the immediate beneficiary of this crisis? President Sirisena or the former President Mahinda Rajapakse, or Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the JVP leader? Rajapakse is unlikely to benefit much, even though the joint opposition will try to make political capital out of the UNP’s crisis.  The Rajapakse brothers and sons have not replied to the allegations of massive scale corruption in any manner that can bring back any political credibility to the former first family.  The Rajapakse outfit, with its claims to having a couple of advisors or propagandists with some academic credentials, is one with no sense of self-criticism whatsoever. Sri Lankan voters are not lured by the personality cult alone. The JVP will certainly benefit from the UNP’s predicament, since their MPs have been in the forefront of the anti-corruption campaign, particularly exposing the central back bond scam.

The person who can benefit most from the UNP’s crisis is President Maithripala Sirisena. Unlike the Prime Minister, President Sirisena has not got his own Mr. Clean image badly tarnished by defending, and covering up, the misdeeds of the former Central Bank governor. But President Sirisena does not have a totally clean slate either. He is also surrounded by a bunch of people with little credibility when it comes to the question of corruption while holding political office. Some of them joined him after the December 2014 elections primarily to avoid investigations and prosecution. President Sirisena does not hide it, especially when he tells even his sympathetic critics like me: ‘an ounce of political practice is more valuable than a ton of political theory’.

It is against such a backdrop that the citizens and anti-corruption activists should show immediate interest in the meticulous investigations conducted by the lawyers of the Attorney General’s department. The latter are professionals who have not been known for being so efficient in their normal corruption investigations and prosecution during the past so many years. Yet, suddenly they have found a new spirit of professional efficiency, pride and commitment. In what particular way the yahapalanaya agenda has contributed to that change is not yet clear. However, before the investigating agencies and public prosecutors become fatigued or intimidated, citizens must ask them through President Sirisena to investigate all those whose names figure in the 5,000 odd pages of transcripts of Mr. Arjun Aloysius’s short messages, which the Attorney-General’s Department has produced before the Commission. Obviously, Ravi Karunanayake is only one among many political and bureaucratic names mentioned in those messages. Moreover, Aloysius’s phone messages with incriminating data might have a history going back to days well before January 2015, as should his Central Bank’s bond business too.

Such a demand by citizens, the media and civil society groups for full disclosure of Aloysius’s messages should not be motivated by partisan politics. It should not aim it proving the mere point that all are corrupt. Citizens already know it. What is not known are the data, evidence and concrete information how the nexus, or the unholy alliance, between the business and politics works to the detriment of democracy, good governance and public welfare. Just briefly look at Ms. Anika Wijesuriya’s evidence. She gave the Commission startling details about how businessmen and politicians make and operate mutually beneficial deals involving public money as well as hoarded private funds of enormous proportions. These businessmen and politicians are close family friends. They have close school ties through themselves, their spouses, lovers, and children.

In Ravi Karunanayake’s case, the alliance is between the alumni of the Royal College and the Colombo International School. These are not the Sinhala or Tamil speaking vernacular godayamudalalis. They are men and women from a small class of the unbelievably rich. All the men wear expensive suits. They are children of the open economy and globalization. They freely loot the public wealth as if it is their right and privilege.  A new class of businessmen and politicians, with insatiable greed for accumulation of money and material wealth began to capture the state power. In the investigations into some of them under the yahapalanayaregime, the same processes and structures seem to continue with a few new names replacing the old.

When a big minister looking for a house, a businessmen volunteers to donate a rent free pent house apartment. The minister accepts all this with no idea of conflict of interest or the principles of governance he himself promoted when out of power. Obviously, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Young Ms. Onella Karunanayake is absolutely right. Why only target her father, when there are so many who have been doing it?

The citizens, the media and civil society groups must demand from President Sirisena to continue these probes through presidential commissions on previous bond scams as well. There is now forgotten Greek bond issue which the UNP leaders told us that days that it cost the country billions of rupees. Obviously, there have many Aloysius’s in Colombo who made a lot of money on bond business. And also politicians and officials who amassed ill-gotten wealth through these deals. Targeting a few individuals like Karunanayake, Aloysius and Mahendran is not enough. The entire system needs to be cleaned up. That is the yahapalanaya promise. That is what the citizens expect from President Sirisena. That is also the only way he can prove himself to be a statesman, qualitatively different from the Rajapaksas and Wickremasinghes.

Meanwhile, citizens of Sri Lanka should thank the Presidential Commission for providing a forum where concrete details about the unholy alliance between business and politics are exposed. These are details that cannot be obtained under the RTI Act. Neither have such details been discovered by the government’s investigating agencies about highly publicized corruption allegations against the powerful individuals of the previous regime. Now, citizens have some concrete data about how domains of business and politics allow themselves to be interpenetrated and how businessmen capture individual politicians, political parties and even government’s decision-making process. Now, we have a slightly better idea of how our democracy gets distorted by this business-politics nexus.

Obviously, Sri Lankan citizens can now begin to re-think their political loyalties, electoral strategies and expectations.

ශ්‍යාම් නුවන් ගනේවත්ත උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

අද දිනයේ මුළු රටම බලා සිටින්නේ ජනාධිපති බැඳුම්කර කොමිසම දෙසය. මේ කොමිසමේ මහා වීර චරිතයට පණ පොවන්නේ ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ අතිරේක සොලිසිටර් ජනරාල් ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ දප්පුල ද ලිවේරා මහතා ය. අද මේ නාමය රටටම ප්‍රසිද්ධය. එසේම රවි කරුණානායක මහතා ද (හොඳට හෝ නරකට) අද රටේම අවධානය යොමුව සිටින පුද්ගල චරිතයයි. මේ රවී කරුණානායකගෙන් කොමිසම හමුවේ අභීතව ප්‍රශ්න කළේ දප්පුල ද ලිවේරා මහතාය. ඔහු රවි කරුණානායක මහතාගෙන් ප්‍රශ්න කළේද වෙනදා මෙන්ම ඔහුගේ සුපුරුදු හඬින් සහ ඔහුටම ආවේණික සුපුරුදු විලාසයෙනි. එහි කිසිම වෙනසක්‌ දක්‌නට නොලැබිණි. දප්පුල ද ලිවේරා මහතා බැඳුම්කර කොමිසම හමුවේ මීට පෙර වරක්‌ ප්‍රකාශ කළ් නීතිපති මෙහිදී කටයුතු කරන්නේ මහජනයාට යුක්‌තිය ඉටු කරදීම වෙනුවෙන් බවයි. මේ නිසා යුක්‌තියේ ජයග්‍රහණය උදෙසා දප්පුල ද ලිවේරා මහතා ප්‍රමුඛ කණ්‌ඩායම බැඳුම්කර කොමිසම තුළ අභීතව කටයුතු කරන බව අපට පෙනෙන්නට තිබේ. ඒ උදෙසා ඉමහත් කැපවීමෙන් ඔවුන් කටයුතු කරන බවද අපට දැනෙන දෙයකි. ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් දප්පුල ද ලිවේරා මහතා ඇතුළු කණ්‌ඩායම බැඳුම්කර කොමිසම හමුවේ ඉටු කරමින් සිටින කාර්යභාරය ගැන අද කාගේත් අවධානය යොමුව තිබේ. ඒ පිළිබඳ ඇතැමුන්ට කෙසේ වෙතත් බොහෝ දෙනෙක්‌ තුළ ගෞරවයක්‌ ද ජනිත වී තිබේ. ඒ අන් කිසිවක්‌ නිසා නොව මේ බැඳුම්කර මගඩියෙන් ඉමහත් අගතියට පත්ව සිටින මේ රටේ අතිමහත් මහජනතාවට යුක්‌තිය ඉටු කර දිය යුතුව ඇති නිසාය.

පසුගියදා වැඩබලන නීතිපතිවරයා ලෙස ද කටයුතු කළ දප්පුල ද ලිවේරා මහතා රජයේ නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ සේවයට බැඳෙන්නේ වර්ෂ 1985 දීය. එදා මෙදා තුර අද දක්‌වා වසර 32 ක සේවා කාලයක්‌ සම්පූර්ණ කර සිටින ඔහු සහ නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ සෙසු නීතිඥ මණ්‌ඩලය මේ අතගසා ඇත්තේ ඉමහත් අභියෝගාත්මක භාරදූර කාර්යයකටය. ඒ අභියෝග ජයගෙන ඉදිරියට යැමේ සියලු ශක්‌තිය සහ හැකියාව ලිවේරා මහතා ඇතුළු කණ්‌ඩායමට හොඳටම ඇති බව අපගේ අදහසයි.

රජයේ නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ මේ නිලධාරීන්ට වැටුප් ගෙවන්නේ මේ රටේ අතිමහත් බහුතර බදු ගෙවන ජනතාවයි. එසේ නැතුව රවි කරුණානායකවත්, අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහවත් එසේත් නැත්නම් බන්දුල ගුණවර්ධනවත් නොවේ. මේ නිසා නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නීතිඥයන්ගේ සැබෑම සේවාදායකයා මේ රටේ රජයට බදු ගෙවන අති මහත් බහුතර ජනතාව මිස වෙන කවුරුද? ඒ ජනතාවට යුක්‌තිය ඉටු කර දීමට ක්‍රියා කිරීම ඔවුන්ගේ පරම යුතුකමයි. ඒ යුතුකම ඉටු කරන විට ආණ්‌ඩුව රකිනවාටත් වඩා බැඳුම්කර මගඩියේ චූදිතයන් රකින්නට ක්‍රියා කළ මේ රජයේම ඇතැම් දේශපාලනඥයන්ගෙන් දප්පුල ද ලිවේරා මහතාටත් රජයේ නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවටත් නොයෙකුත් චෝදනා එල්ල වීම පුදුමයක්‌ නොවේ. ඒ චෝදනා එල්ල කරන අය සම්බන්ධයෙන් අපට ඇත්තේ අප්‍රසන්න, හිරිකිත හැඟීමක්‌ පමණි. මේ අය යහපාලනය වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටින මහත්වරු ද? මේ සියලු අපහාස තුට්‌ටුවකටවත් නොතකා යුක්‌තියේ ජයග්‍රහණය වෙනුවෙන් දිගටම පෙනී සිටින ලෙස ජනාධිපති බැඳුම්කර කොමිසම හමුවේ පෙනී සිටින රජයේ නීතිඥ මණ්‌ඩලයට නායකත්වය දෙන ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ දප්පුල ද ලිවේරා මහතා ප්‍රමුඛ නීතිඥ මණ්‌ඩලයට අපි කියා සිටිමු. ඒ බැඳුම්කර මගඩියෙන් ඉමහත් අගතියට පත් පොදු මහජන ශුභ සිද්ධිය වෙනුවෙනි. මේ සියලු කරුණු කාරණා ජනතා පරමාධිපත්‍යය බලය හිමි බලගතුම අධිකරණය වන මහජන අධිකරණයේ ද විනිශ්චයට භාජනය වෙමින් තිබේ. නීතියෙන් ගැලවුණත් මහජන අධිකරණයේ විනිශ්චයෙන් ගැලවෙන්නට මේ කිසිවකුටත් නොහැකිය. එහෙත් අපට අවශ්‍ය මේ සඳහා නීතියෙන්ද යුක්‌තිය ඉටුවනු දැකීමයි. “බැඳුම්කර මගඬිය” තුළින් මහජනයාගෙන් කොල්ලකාගත් ධනය නැවත මහජනයාට අත්පත් කරදෙනු දැකීමයි. එසේ වුවහොත් මේ ජනාධිපති කොමිසම ඉතිහාස ගත වනු නිසැකය. දැනටමත් මේ කොමිසමෙන් ලැබී ඇති ප්‍රතිඵල, හෙළිදරව් වී ඇති තොරතුරු අති විශාලය. ඒ ගැන කොමිසම කෙරෙහිත් නීතිපති දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව කෙරෙහිත් අප තුළ අප්‍රමාණ ගෞරවයක්‌ද තිබේ. ජනතාව මේ දෙස බලා සිටින්නේ ද ඉමහත් විශ්වාසයකින් යුතුවය. කොමිසම හමුවේ දප්පුල ද ලිවේරා නඟන හඬ මහජනතාවට නොඇසුණත්, අපට හැඟෙන්නේ එය යුක්‌තිය උදෙසා මහජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් නඟන හඬක්‌ ලෙසය. අනෙක්‌ සාක්‍ෂිකරුවන්ගෙන් මෙන්ම ඇමැති රවි කරුණානායක මහතාගෙන් සාක්‍ෂි විභාග කරන විටද එය අපට හැඟුණුq සහ දැනුණු දෙයකි.
රවි කරුණානායක ඇමැතිවරයාට ඇමැතිකමෙන් ඉල්ලා අස්‌වීමට පවා සිදුවූ ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා විසින් පත් කළ ජනාධිපති බැඳුම්කර කොමිසම මගින් සිදු කරන සාක්‍ෂි විභාගයට අද මුළු මහත් රටවැසියාගේම දැඩි අවධානය යොමුව තිබේ. මේ කොමිසම පත් කළේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස්‌ පක්‍ෂයේ කමිටුවක්‌ මගින් ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ඉදිරිපත් කළ වාර්තාවේ තිබූ ප්‍රධාන නිර්දේශ පදනම් කරගෙනය. එම ශ්‍රී ලනිප කමිටු වාර්තාවේ පළමු නිර්දේශය වූයේ මේ ප්‍රශ්නගත බැඳුම්කර නිකුතු සම්බන්ධයෙන් වහාම ජනාධිපති කොමිසමක්‌ පත් කළ යුතු බවයි. මෙසේ ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතාට ජනාධිපති කොමිසමක්‌ පත් කිරීමට සිදුවූයේ ඇයි? මේ ආණ්‌ඩුවේම එජාප පාර්ශ්වය විසින් ආණ්‌ඩුව රකිනවාටත් වඩා ප්‍රමුඛතාවයෙන් යුතුව මේ බැඳුම්කර මගඩිය සහ එහි චූදිතයන් රකින්නට කටයුතු කළ නිසා නොවේද? කෙටියෙන්ම කියනවා නම් මේ ජනපති කොමිසම පත් කළේ සුනිල් හඳුන්නෙත්ති මහතා ඉදිරිපත් කළ කෝප් කමිටු වාර්තාව කතානායකවරයා විසින් නීතිපතිවරයාට යෑවීමටත් ප්‍රථම අගමැතිවරයා විසින් කඩිනමින් එය අතට ගෙන වහාම නීතිපතිවරයාට යොමු කිරීම තුළ ඊට නිසි සාධාරණය ඉටු වන බවක්‌ ජනාධිපතිවරයාට දකින්නට නොතිබූ නිසා ය. ඒ බව ජනාධිපතිවරයා ඒ දිනවල රටටම කීවේය. එය අපට මතකය. ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම මේ කාරණය ගැන ආණ්‌ඩුව තුළ යහපාලනය ක්‍රියාත්මක නොවූ නිසා ජනාධිපතිවරයාට මැදිහත් වී වෙනම ශ්‍රී ලනිප කමිටුවක්‌ පත් කර නිර්දේශ ලබාගෙන මේ ජනාධිපති කොමිසම පත් කිරීමට ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතාට සිදු විය. ඇත්ත කතාව එයයි. ඒ ගැන ජනාධිපතිවරයාට ගෞරවය හිමි විය යුතුය. එහෙත් මේ ආණ්‌ඩුවේම මෙය යට ගැසීමට හැම උත්සාහයක්‌ම ගත් ඇතැම් එජාප දේශපාලනඥයන් කොමිසමක්‌ පත් කිරීම ගැන ඔවුන් යහපාලනය නාමයෙන් ලකුණු දමා ගනිමින් ලොකු කතන්දර මාධ්‍යය ඉදිරියට පැමිණ මේ දිනවල කියන්නට පටන් ගෙන තිබේ. එය කොතරම් හිරිකිත පිළිවෙතක්‌ දැයි අමුතුවෙන් කිව යුතු නොවේ. රවි කරුණානායක ඇමැතිවරයා ඉල්ලා අස්‌වීම නිසා සියල්ල හරියන්නේ නැත. මේ දේශපාලන නාටකවලින් අප මුලාවට පත් විය යුතු නැත. තරාතිරම නොබලා බැඳුම්කර මගඩිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් පූර්ණ සත්‍ය මතුකර ගැනීමට අවැසි සියලු සාක්‍ෂිකරුවන් බැඳුම්කර කොමිසම හමුවට කැඳවිය යුතුව ඇති බව මේ මොහොතේ යුක්‌තිය අපේක්‍ෂා කරන සියලු දෙනාගේ අපේක්‍ෂාව බව අපගේ හැඟීමයි. මේ පසුබිම තුළ දප්පුල ද ලිවේරා වැනි චරිත ඉටු කරමින් තිබෙන මෙහෙය අතිශයින් වැදගත්ය.

බැඳුම්කර කොමිසමේ සාමාජිකයන් 

1.කේ. ටී. චිත්‍රසිරි මහතා (සභාපති) – ශේ්‍රෂ්ඨාධිකරණ විනිසුරු

– රජයේ අධිනීතිඥ

ඡායා – ජූඩ් ඩෙන්සිල් පතිරාජ