By M D P DISSANAYAKE

If you have travelled to Sri Lanka late 2013, you might have thought that after flushing out tamil terrorists, Prez Rajapakse and Dr Gotabaya Rajapakse converted a hell into a almost a heaven.  Not as glorious as Singapore, but admittedly moving towards the flying path with an aggressive plan.

If you have travelled to Sri Lanka now in 2017, you will be disappointed, disgusted. The dream Singapore you had back in 2013 all gone. Is Sri Lanka now  like pre Tamil War?  Yes.  Is  Sri Lanka now look like Malaysia? No way.  Is Sri Lanka look like Bangladesh?   Is Sri Lanka look like Pakistan? Is Sri Lanka look like Vietnam, Thailand?  No, No, No.

What does it look like now?

Does it look like :

Delhi, India  YES

Patna, India  YES

Gwalior, India YES

Raipur, India  YES

Khorramabhad, Iran  YES

Antananarivo, Mexico  YES

Ithiopia YES

This bunch of team, will convert Sri Lanka to “look alike” KAMPALA, UGANDA in less than one year.

Sri Lanka News

 It is reported that the Public Interest Rights Activist, Nagananda Kodituwaku has demanded CIABOC to tender an unqualified apology to the Chief Justice for deceiving the Supreme Court by making a manifestly falsified submission to the Court that the CIABO has already commenced a credible investigation into the activist’s complaint made in August 2016 on MP permit abuse.

When the matter was taken up for support on 15^th June 2017, activist asserted that the  that the undertaking given to Court by the CIBOC was a diabolical lie uttered to deceive the Supreme Court and the people with serious accusation leveled against the CIABOC that it simply cannot carryout its functions as required by law in cases where the Executive President, the Cabinet of Ministers and the MPs are involved.

In the written notice served on CIABOC dated 21^st June 2017, the activist Nagananda says that the said undertaking given to the Supreme Court by the CIABOC is simply another ploy to suppress this day light robbery of public funds involving the corrupt MPs and the Cabinet of Ministers.

In his submission made to the Court on 15^th June 2017, he drew the attention of the Court to the letter he was served with by the former Director General, Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe wherein she informed him that ‘although the government had incurred a loss due to the abuse of MP tax-free car permits it had been incurred due to the implementation of the government policy and therefore the CIABOC would not inquire into the abuse of tax-free permits issued to MPs’. The Court also heard that the former Director General, Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe, deliberately declined to inquire in to activist’s complaint compelling him to charge her for ‘Corruption’ and when the government was determined remove her from the office for different reasons, the corruption charges leveled against her by the activist Nagananda was used to justify her removal from office of the Director General of CIABOC.

In the activist’s hard-hitting letter addressed to the Chairman of the CIABOC on 21^st June 2017 the activist says that the undertaking given to Court by the CIABOC that it has already commenced a credible investigation was manifestly false and that the former Director General Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe had earlier at a press briefing had threatened and intimidated the activist with a criminal prosecution under Section 21 of the CIABOC Act for making a false allegation.

In the submission made to the Court the activist submitted to the Court that since the CIABOC fatally failed to act as required by law on activist’s complaint, private companies and individuals who are prohibited to enjoy this tax exemption had imported over 100 Land Cruiser Jeeps on these MP tax-free permits.  The Supreme Court also heard with attention drawn to the relevant documentary evidence that the total failure of the CIABOC has opened the floodgates for corrupt MPs and Ministers to abuse the MP tax-free permits with no respect or regard to the Rule of Law. And even the Executive President M Sirisena, has taken the advantage and imported a Land Cruiser Jeep on 14^th Oct 2016 claiming himself to be an MP for Polonnaruwa District and the former President, Mahinda Rajapakse, (now a Kurunegala District MP) too has imported a similar vehicle on 19^th Sep 2016 on a MP tax-free permit, defrauding the payment of fiscal levies of Rs  33,457,500.00 for each vehicle.

In this backdrop the activist Nagananda claimes that this totally deplorable conduct on the part of the CIABOC has patently proved that although on paper it is an independent body created by law to combat bribery and Corruption, in practice it is completely an impotent statutory body that does not enjoy any independence at all, particularly when it comes to matters involving corrupt MPs, Ministers and the Executive President.

Setting out examples of the dismal failure of the CIABOC and reason for not to accept its undertaking to conduct a credible investigation, the activist submitted to the Court that when President Mahinda Rajapakse was determined to remove the Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, he used the CIABOC as a tool. On 26^th of July 2013, the then Director General of CIABOC Luckshme Jayawickrama, brought three charges before the Chief Magistrate Court, Colombo (copies enclosed) against the Chief Justice on which the Chief Justice was unjustly impeached. Once the duty entrusted on the CIABOC was duly accomplished, the Attorney General later made an application to the Court on behalf of the CIABOC, seeking permission to withdraw all the charges. And the Court exonerated the Chief Justice from all the unsubstantiated criminal charges leveled against her.

In the demand sent to the CIABOC the activist claims that CIABOC was created by law for a purpose; that is to combat bribery and corruption against any person who violates the law, guaranteeing the Commissioners total independence to perform the public office for ‘public good’ with due respect and regard to the public trust doctrine without violating the integrity and the public confidence placed in it. However, the conduct of the extant Commissioners and the Director General of the CIABOC has proved, beyond any doubt, about their inability to deal with high profile major fraud inquiries. And that the CIABOC has fatally failed to realize the expectations of people and blatantly violated the people’s trust placed in the CIABOC.

The activist Nagananda Kodituwakku charged that the CIABOC had intentionally deceived the Supreme Court with manifestly falsified submission that it had already initiated a credible investigation into activist’s complaint and cautions the CIABOC that unless an unqualified apology is tendered to the Chief Justice for deceiving the Supreme Court, it will be charged for contempt, seeking for an order against all three Commissioners and the Director General for punishment in terms Article 105 (3) of the Constitution.

The notice served on the CIABOC by the activist Lawyer Nagananda has also been served on the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Switzerland and also on the Commonwealth Secretariat, London, since they have already expressed their concerns about the state of administration of justice in Sri Lanka.  The government has already conceded these serious charges and has co-sponsored a resolution passed against the government of Sri Lanka by the UN Human Rights Council, which dictates that the people have no confidence in the Judiciary, which lack accountability.

By Rohana R. Wasala

Although we do not in any way approve of Bhikkhu Gnanasara’s agitated behavior and style of expressing his views, we do not dismiss his ideas. We strongly condemn the vilification of the whole Sangha community based on those incidents instead of investigating the truth or otherwise of the matters raised by him and applying appropriate remedies……”

• Statement issued by the Karaka Sangha Sabha of the Asgiriye Chapter under the signature of Mahanayake of the chapter the Most Reverend Warakagoda Sri Gnanarathana Thera on June 20, 2017

The name Galaboda-aththe Gnasara Thera” is synonymous with the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) organization. The terse authoritative Asgiriya Statement gives the object of the monk’s struggle unprecedented official recognition within the Maha Sangha (community). To date, it was the personality of the messenger that attracted much negative attention and comment from the world, obscuring the real issue that he passionately articulates. Now there is a chance for the message to be heard and acted upon. What matters is the truth and validity of the monk’s grievances and protests. Though his excitable personality is of only secondary importance, it provided inveterate BBS-bashers a convenient excuse to excoriate him and the organization he leads. With this virtual grant of imprimatur, which is largely his own achievement, Ven. Gnanasara stands vindicated, and cleared of the calumnies heaped upon him (and the BBS) by the likes of Ezeth Hussain.

The following was written on June 02, 2017, but remained unpublished. I touched it up a bit to make it up to date, and here it is being offered to Lankaweb readers. Though, like many, I do not endorse his outwardly aggressive, unconventional (‘patisothagami’ or ‘against the current’ as he claims trying to justify his method by deviating from the phrase’s real meaning of against humanity’s selfish desires”) mode of protest, I believe that he is bravely fighting to forestall a catastrophic  religious conflagration in the country, by revealing and extinguishing hidden sparks of trouble that are being kindled by a few extremists among the Christian and Muslim minorities. The fact that the narrow-minded power-hungry politicians of both the government and the Joint Opposition studiously but irresponsibly avoid making their stand known to the country regarding the very real problem that the BBS is at present demanding a solution for further vindicates Ven. Gnanasara. These are my personal views, politely submitted for critical examination by the discriminating reader who has the national interest at heart.

Ezeth Hussain (Israel, Islamophobia, and the question of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty”/The Island/May 27, 2017) tries to prop up the patently false argument that……. there was a serious erosion of sovereignty under the last Government. We have to be emphatic on this because the Opposition holds that the last Government was authentically nationalist whereas the present one is expected to sell the country to the West. The truth, the horrible truth, is that it was the last Government that acquiesced in, connived at, and virtually supported a very serious erosion of our sovereignty. We refer to the Islamophobic hate campaign of the BBS. It was quite evidently well funded, supposedly by Norwegian Christian fundamentalist groups”. Elsewhere in the same article Hussain states that, during the last government, the BBS …… were acting as proxies for Israel”. Ven. Galaboda-aththe Gnanasara Thera, the General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena organization, has repeatedly denied any such connection with either Norway or Israel as alleged by his detractors. In both countries faith-based religious orthodoxy reigns, unlike in Sri Lanka. They don’t look kindly on Buddhism. I believe the monk is telling the truth.

Hussain makes the same farcical allegations against the BBS in a later article in The Island (June 1, 2017, ‘BBS – farce of tragedy or both?’), and true to his warped imagination, attributes to the Buddhist organization what he calls ‘blood-lust’. Where the term ‘blood-lust’ may be meaningfully applied is well known to all and needs no reiteration here. In any case, the raising of such charges against Buddhist monks by a prejudiced individual will be tolerated by compassionate Buddhists who know better. Ezeth Hussain also talks about the ‘Wirathu gang’ of Myanmar. Though the Myanmar monk is also only peacefully reacting, as a reluctant last resort, to the depredations of some fundamentalist Islamists from among the so-called ‘Rohingiya’ Muslim community, Bangladeshi (pre-1972 Indian) immigrants, in his 88% Buddhist to 4.3% Muslim country, he too has been demonized by the ‘international’ media pandering to Western nations pursuing their geopolitical interests at the expense of the rest of the world.

We need not go to great lengths to demolish Hussain’s consciously false charges against the BBS. No sane person, here or abroad, friend or foe of Sri Lanka, would deny that the war winning previous government that called the LTTE’s bluff reasserted Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and national dignity, both of which had been seriously compromised by the UNP, the major partner of the present yahapalana regime, through its policy of slavishly following the dictates of the West and India, and  of appeasing the Tamil separatist sympathizers.  Most readers, it is certain, know very well by now who to blame for the erosion of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.  Hussain tries vainly to add weight to his frivolous assertion by saying: We have to be emphatic on this because the Opposition holds that the last Government was authentically nationalist whereas the present one is expected to sell the country to the West”. Where is this formidable ‘Opposition’ that he clearly wants to inflate? Isn’t it the acquiescent opposition comprising the TNA and the JVP whose combined strength is only 22 members? Hussain doesn’t even register the JO’s presence, which, with its 51 members forms the real opposition. It is not that his recognition matters to the JO. We are sure that his deliberate lies against the peaceful legitimate activism of Buddhist monks launched after years, nay decades, of restraint could contribute towards leading the country to hell on earth.

IAt the same time, Hussain is wrong to charge that the present government is expected to sell the country to the West”. It is only leasing out or is going to lease out the country’s assets including large portions of arable land for long periods of time such as 99 year terms, which of course is tantamount to outright sale as far as the present generations are concerned. Don’t India and China also feature in the government’s clearly spelled out economic policy, which heavily depends on attracting foreign capital investment?  The lessees are not only from the West; they are from the East as well. Right or wrong, that is the economic policy of the present elected government. If that policy is not popular, and if the government refuses to change it despite its unpopularity, then the people have the democratic right to change the government when the time comes for elections. Unlike losses caused by wrong economic policies, what the monks of the BBS and others are warning of is a loss that will be irrecoverable for ever.

Hussain writes: The truth, the horrible truth, is that it was the last Government that acquiesced in, connived at, and virtually supported a very serious erosion of our sovereignty. We refer to the Islamophobic hate campaign of the BBS”. What he asserts about the BBS is  funny. Why should our sovereignty suffer simply because, as alleged by Hussain, the last  government  ‘acquiesced in, connived at, and virtually supported…… the so-called ‘Islamophobic hate campaign of the BBS’? The truth is that none of these things happened under the previous government. Quite the opposite happened: the previous government, like the present  one, did not take any action to investigate the activities of a fundamentalist Islamic sect against which the BBS was agitating nonviolently, though in a loud voice.  Its activists have often argued that the violence attributed to the BBS was not the work of that organization. However, they warn that though the BBS monks do not commit acts of violence themselves, the young people around them, however peaceful they are, could be provoked by extremist Islamic troublemakers; some of these Muslims can even get into a yellow robe to assume the guise of a monk, and indulge in questionable behavior  so as to falsely incriminate Buddhist monks. We could see a video of such an incident circulating in the internet a few months ago. Thorough investigation of alleged incidents like that with a view to apprehending the miscreants is the only way to deal with them.

Most average citizens still depend on the traditional print and electronic media sources for information, which are at present as free as we all know. True information about the doings of religious fundamentalists targeting Sinhalese Buddhists and their ancient sacred places and authentic news about the monks of the BBS and others who criticize them are considered too sensitive to be made freely available in these desperate times of persistent efforts at reconciliation between still not exactly estranged communities.

The BBS is only about five years old. But the problem that led to its emergence has a history of at least forty-five years. Of course, the onslaught of Christianity on the established indigenous Buddhist religious system or dispensation (Buddhasasana) began in the early 16^th century. But even by the time of independence in the mid 20^th century, only about six percent (6%) of the population had converted to Christianity despite intense missionary work under the auspices of the imperial government. The form of Islam that came to be traditional here did not enjoy the same government patronage then. Its impact on Buddhists was negligible in terms of proselytizing activity. Sufism is the form of the Muslim religion traditionally professed here.

But things started changing in the last quarter of the 20^th century. The fundamentalist Wahab version of Islam is the official religion of Saudi Arabia, where it originated. With the desert kingdom suddenly becoming a super rich nation in the wake of the 1973-74 Arab Oil Embargo imposed on oil hungry America in retaliation to its support for Israel, it began its religious expansionism by exporting its extremist Wahabism to other countries. It is said that the ISIS organization is inspired by this form of Islam. Wahabism has made inroads in Sri Lanka, too. The Wahabis hate Sufis. There have been internecine clashes between them, which were definitely more violent than those falsely linked to the BBS. In order that Hussain be persuaded to stop spreading venom among peaceful communities through his malicious anti-Buddhist propaganda, he is kindly directed to read the well researched article: The Wahhabi Invasion of Sri Lanka” by Stephen Schwartz and Irfan Al-Alawi” (FacebookTwitterGoogle+Share), which had been first published elsewhere in 2012.

Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by distortions in thinking, perception, emotions, language, sense of self and behaviour (WHO) and it is one of the most complex and disabling diseases (Weinberger & Harrison, 2011). Processing of social and emotional information has been shown to be disturbed in Schizophrenia(McCormick et al., 2012).  Schizophrenia has a multifactorial etiology (Siever & Davis, 2004) and it is affecting up to 1% of the population Searles , Makarewicz & Dumas ,2017).

Schizophrenia was originally called the senility of youth by the Psychiatrist E. Kraepelin in 1911. Kraepelin(1856-1926) originally called schizophrenia Dementia Praecox. He believed that the typical symptoms were due to a form of mental deterioration which began in adolescence.  Patients’ cognitive dysfunction led Kraepelin to the assumption that schizophrenia is a form of juvenile dementia caused by a degenerative process of the human brain (Falkai et al., 2015).

In 1911 Eugene Beuler first used the term schizophrenia elucidating the major symptomatology such as blunted emotions, disordered thoughts, and loss of awareness. Bleuler believed that schizophrenia patients experienced essential (fundamental) and accessory features. The essential features alone identified the patient Dementia praecox to schizophrenia (Adityanjee et al., 1999).  Bleuler deepened psychopathology, which depicted schizophrenic symptoms and their relation, and the importance of psychoanalysis for psychiatry (Tölle, 2008). Furthermore Bleuler criticized the term ‘dementia praecox’ because schizophrenia did not always first appear in adolescence and did not invariably end in deterioration (Adityanjee et al., 1999).

Sigmund Freud (1856-1936) maintained an interest in the evolutionary origins of the human mind and its neurotic and psychotic disorders (Young, 2006).  Freud argued that the ego’s alienation from reality could cause psychosis. In 1924 Freud wrote that in psychosis the ego is dragged away from reality. Furthermore Freud predicted that paranoid delusions are motivated by unconscious homosexual impulses (Lester, 1975).

Freud was interested in Schizophrenia (which he called Dementia Praecox).  Freud’s interest in psychosis can be noticed since the very beginning of his theoretical work, as, motivated by his investigations regarding neurosis’ etiology, he compared characteristics of neurosis to classic psychotic pictures, such as melancholy and paranoia  (de Oliveira Moreira & Drawin 2015). Moreover Freud used to examine the blood of psychotic patients for the presence of infectious agents such as spirochete. Freud’s early consideration of schizophrenia as a non-psychotic continuation of mental disorders, he later concluded that some of its aspects could be comprehended from a psychological point of view.

Freud accepted Kraepelin’s nosology, therefore, but he didn’t share Kraepelin’s views on causes (Dalzell, 2009). Freud thought that Schizophrenia was a form of attachment disorder and stated that schizophrenia develops when a child did not successfully develop an attachment” with the parent of the opposite sex. Freud considered that infantis born into a state of mutual adaptation with the mother (Cohen, 2007). As described by Freud disordered family patterns (schizophrenogenic mothers) are the cause of Schizophrenia. From the late 1940s to the early 1970s, the concept of the “Schizophrenogenic mother” was popular in the psychiatric literature. Research later confirmed that the mother who could cause schizophrenia in her offspring did not exist (Neill, 1990).

Eugene Bleuler and Harry Stack Sullivan were influenced by Sigmund Freud. In  1911, Eugene  Bleuler  highlighted particular  characteristics  in  the  family of  schizophrenic patients,  such  as  extreme inflexibility, incapability  of  communication,  and  mutual hostility  (Avramaki & E Tsekeris  2011).

Harry Stack Sullivan promulgated the importance of the child’s earliest interaction with the parents and its major distorting influence as etiologic in the pathology of schizophrenia (Neill, 1990). In the later years Harry Stack Sullivan echoed that mental illnesses are related to interpersonal relationships. Sullivan’s version of the developmental theory conceived by Freud was that schizophrenia is the outcome of interpersonal problems.Sullivan (1892-1949), well-known for his interpersonal theory of mental illness, is believed to have accomplished a high recovery rate in his treatment of schizophrenia during the 1920s (Wake, 2008).

Bateson and colleagues (1956) believed that if a child receives contradictory messages from their parents they are unable to construct an internally coherent perception of reality and it could lead to develop schizophrenic symptoms.

Evidence suggests that attachment styles may influence subclinical psychosis phenotypes (schizotypy) and affective disorders and may play a part in the association between psychosis and childhood adversity (Russo et al, 2017). Social attachment is a biological and affective need (Trémeau et al., 2016). In the later years Pinto, Ashworth and Jones (2008) hypothesized that the risk of developing schizophrenia can increase particular types of deprived childhood environments. Although schizophrenia is primarily genetic the social environment cannot be ignored. Studies show that the social environment can increase the 1% schizophrenia average by a factor of ten (Pinto et al., 2008). In addition Rajkumar (2014) indicates that disturbed childhood attachment leads to core psychological and neurochemical abnormalities which are implicated in the genesis of schizophrenia and also affect its outcome.

Although Freud was unacquainted with neurochemical abnormalities he based his theory of schizophrenia on a pre-structural libido model (Goldstein, 1978). As Freud described the libido is part of the id and is the driving force of all behavior. Libido is a motivational energy of the life instincts.

According to the psycho-dynamic approach Schizophrenia is the result of the disintegration of the ego (Clarke, 2012). The Ego operates according to the reality principle. Fundamentally, the Ego has a set of psychic functions able to distinguish between fantasy and reality. It organizes thoughts and makes sense of the world. The Ego represents reason and common sense (Siegfried, 2014). Freud regarded Ego as a coherent organization of mental processes. Ego death represents a complete loss of subjective self-identity.

Freud stated that hysteria, obsessional neurosis and hallucinatory confusion are three forms of defense (Freud, 1894). For Freud psychotic delusion was a defensive psychical reaction with a narcissistic dimension. As described by Freud delusional thinking arises as a result of the reaction-formation and projection of threatening unconscious homosexual wishes (Chalus, 1977). Furthermore he considered paranoia is a form of psychoneuroses (Freud, 1892).  Freud concluded that psychosis is triggered by a disturbance in the relationship between the ego and the external world (Freud, 1924a).  Feldmann (1989) indicated that in schizophrenic delusion, there is some ‘effort after meaning’ manifest, compensating for psychotic disintegration.

Freud’s 1911 hypothesis explains the basic disorder in schizophrenia consists in the patient’s inability to maintain the object relations. The Object Relations theories emphasize the first years of life, ‘the pre oedipal period’ in which nature of early human relationships determine the healthy physical and psychological development of the person, which are supposed to be developed through experiences with significant persons and situations. The individuals with schizophrenia lack basic trust; have poor ego boundaries, and a vulnerability to psychosis, which may follow reality testing disturbances (Khanum & Ahmad, 2012).

In 1911 Freud argued that there is a unidirectional relationship between a delusional belief and consensually validatable reality: the delusion structures reality in accordance with the delusion’s demand (Hole, Rush& Beck, 1979).

Klein (1948) concluded that object relation is a theoretical-derived concept comprising aspects of interpersonal functioning. Object-relations theory explains human behavior in terms of a person’s inner experiences of others, which are called objects. Internalization of relationships, projective identification, and containment are concepts within object-relations theory that help to explain the confusing and frustrating behavior of acutely psychotic patients (Connick Jamison & Kane, 1996).

According to Khanum and Ahmad (2012) Object relation deficits are well studied in patients of schizophrenia. The disturbed object relation may take the form of either physical or emotional withdrawal (Weiner, 1966).

Between 1905 and 1911 a perspective slowly appeared in Freud’s works — a perspective which he considered “historical” and which he eventually named “history of the libido’s development” (“Entwicklungsgeschichte der Libido”) in 1911( Cotti ,2004). The psychoanalytic sense of “libido,” which Freud describes as an energy that can be directed to human beings or, as in the case of the anchorite in the example, sublimated and directed toward non-human objects such as God or nature. For Freud, libido was the major force in personality development, and he posited sexual conflicts as the heart of neuroses, sexual fixations as the essence of perversions (Person, 2005).

Freud believed that schizophrenia occurs when the ego becomes overwhelmed by demands of id or besieged by unbearable guilt from the superego. In schizophrenia disintegration of the ego occurs. The ego cannot cope so it uses defense mechanisms to protect itself which is regression. The schizophrenic’s fantasies become confused with reality which gives rise to hallucinations and delusions. Freud is suggesting that the schizophrenic is dreaming and the hallucinations are not really happening, but they cannot tell the difference between dreams and reality.

For Freud Schizophrenia was an infantile state. He stated that symptoms such as delusions of grandeur reflect this primitive state. He further thought that auditory hallucinations reflect the persons attempt to re- establish ego control. Freud assumed that that patients with Schizophrenia regress to a state of primary narcissism. The conception of narcissism according to Freud involves a number of different issues and hypotheses (Palmowski, 1989).

Primary narcissism is the initial focus on the self with which all infants start and happens from around six month up to around six years. It is a defense mechanism that is used to protect the child from psychic damage during the formation of the individual self. According to Freud   new-born babies are characterized by primary narcissism, that he defines as the libidinal complement to the egoism of the instinct of self-preservation.” In other words, primary narcissism, which would predominate until the development of the Ego, corresponds to an innate instinctual behavior which is mainly driven by the desire and energy of the newborn to survive, and by a capability of satisfying these instincts on itself (auto-ero-tism”) ( Perogamvros,  2012)

In 1911 Freud analyzed the Daniel Paul Schreber ‘s  memoirs. Schreber – a German judge was diagnosed with Dementia Praecox. Freud used his “libido” theory to analyze Schreber’s illness. Freud considered this to be a consequence of two libidinal cathectic fixations (Silber, 2014).

Based on his analysis Freud concluded that the disorder could not be treated psychoanalytically because of the disorder’s inherent deficits in the capacity for object relatedness, including the therapeutically necessary development of transference to the treating person (McGlashan, 2009). However Around 1907 to 1908, some of Freud’s inner circle, Federn, Jung, and Abraham, began to express that psychoanalysis could be applied effectively to schizophrenia (Osborn, 2009).

According to Freud’s libido decathexis-restitution model of schizophrenia in 1914 he argued that these patients cannot develop transferences towards the analyst, and therefore, analysis cannot be effective. However in 1924 Freud attempted to widen the scope of psychoanalysis to include more severe psychiatric illness, including schizophrenia (Ridenour, 2016). Freud’s approach coincide with Kohut (1984) who argued that psychoanalytic treatment begins with the understanding phase –empathy and moves towards the explaining phase –interpretation  (Ridenour, 2016; Kohut,  1984).

Freud’s “Project for a Scientific Psychology” (1895) reflected his attempt to explain psychic phenomena in neurobiological terms. His basic hypothesis was that neurons were vehicles for the conduction of “currents” or “excitations,” and that they were connected to one another. Using this model, Freud attempted to describe a number of mental phenomena, including: consciousnesses, perception, affect self, cognition, dreaming, memory, and symptom formation. However, he was unable to complete his exploration of these mental processes because he lacked the information and technology that became available over the following century (Glucksman, 2016). If Freud had lived several more productive years he would have given a more rational explanation of Schizophrenia.

 Acknowledgement

Dr. Tom Dalzell – St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

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මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ හිටපු ජනාධිපති

ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය සරසවි අරගල ඉතිහාසයේ ආණ්ඩුවක් විසින් සිදුකරනු ලැබූ මිලේච්ඡතම පහරදීම ලෙස ඊයේ සරසවි සිසුන්ට එල්ල කරනු ලැබූ ප්‍ර‍හාරය ඉතිහාසයේ සටහන් වනවා නොඅනුමානය. පාකිස්ථානයේ සංචාරයක නිරත  මා එම පහරදීම් අතුළත් සමහර දර්ශන නැරඹුවේ දැඩි කම්පනයෙනි. තිරස්චීන පහරදීම මුළුමනින්ම හෙළා දකිමි. නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනය සුරැකීම සහ ඒ වෙනුවෙන් දළ දේශිත නිශ්පාදිතයෙන් 6%ක් වැය කරන බව සපථ කොට බලය ලබාගත් ආණ්ඩුවක් යටතේ නිදහස් අධ්‍යාපනය සුරැකීම සඳහා අරගල කරන්නට සිදුවීම එක් අතකින් විකාරයකි. ලිච්ඡවී ප්‍ර‍තිපත්ති මත රට පාලනය කරණ බවට පොරොන්දු දුන් පාලකයින් විසින් එම සිසුනට වනචාරී ලෙස පහරදීම අනෙක් අතට ඛේදවාචකයකි.

රටපුරා වෛද්‍ය ශිෂ්‍ය ශිෂ්‍යාවන් තම ඉගෙනුමෙන් ඈත් වී දැනට අඩවසරකි. වෛද්‍ය වෘත්තිකයින් තම අනාගත වෘත්තීය ගරුත්වය වෙනුවෙන් ආණ්ඩුවට අවසන් අණතුරු ඇඟවීමද කර තිබේ. මේ පසුබිම යටතේ පාලකයින් සිදුකල යුත්තේ වෘත්තිකයින්ට අපහාස කිරීම හා අවලාද නැගීම නවත්වා, සිසුනට තිරිසන් සතුන්ට ලෙස සැලකීම නවත්වා, වහාම අවසන් විසඳුමක් වෙනුවෙන් දෑත් දිගු කිරීමය. සාකච්ඡා මාර්ගයට පිවිසීමය.

මරාගෙන මැරෙන ත්‍ර‍ස්තවාදය සමඟ අවසන් විසඳුම සාකච්ඡා මේසය බව එකල අපට ඒත්තු ගැන්වීමට උත්සාහ ගත්ඇතැම් දේශපාලඥයින්ට සරසවි සිසුන් මරාගෙන මැරෙන ත්‍ර‍ස්තවාදීන්ටත් වඩා දරුණු පිරිසක්ලෙස පෙනීම තේරුම්ගත හැක්කේ කෙසේද?සෑම ප්‍ර‍ශ්නයකටම විසඳුම කල්මැරීම තම ප්‍ර‍තිපත්තිය කොටගත් ජනාධිපති, අගමැති ප්‍ර‍මුඛ සමස්ථ ආණ්ඩුවට මා අවධාරණය කරනුයේ වෛද්‍ය අධ්‍යාපනයේ අනාගතය නිරෝගී කිරීම සඳහා සිසුන්, විශ්වවිද්‍යාල ප්‍ර‍ජාව සහ වෛද්‍යවරුන් සමඟ වහා සාකච්ඡා මේසයේ අසුන් ගන්නා ලෙසයි. ඔබේ ප්‍ර‍මාදය, රටද, අධ්‍යාපනයද, අරාජිකත්වය කරා ගමන් කිරීම ඉක්මන් කරනවා නිසැකය.

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE

Dr Parakrama Waidyanatha Courtesy The Island

June 22, 2017, 9:40 pm
This refers to the news item in the Island of 19th June titled ‘Ratana Thera vows move to defeat glyphosate ban’.

I was full of admiration for Ven. Ratana for the active role he played in the Mavil Aru fiasco when the LTTE disrupted the water supply to the villages of Mutur , Seruvila and Ischachalampattu Divisional Secretariats by closing the sluice gates of the annicut. This deprived 15000 farming families water even for drinking and thousands of acres of paddy fields were also affected. In fact, this, among other circumstances, triggered the last Eelam war that finally culminated in the total annihilation of the LTTE in 2009 . He also dared to carry out substantial social work in the border villages which were frequently subjected to LTTE attacks, risking his own life which only a few, other than the armed forces, dared to do.

By contrast, his ‘agriculture sutta’ have been totally irrational and ineffective causing serious losses to the farmer and the country at large. He was for a total ban of all agrochemicals over a period of two years from 2015. According to the publication released by the Presidential Secretariat in 2016 titled “A Toxin Free Nation” and spelling out the new agriculture policy and strategies, of which he is a leader, all chemical fertilizers are to be banned by the end of 2018. The date is soon approaching! In that mission apart from banning all chemical pesticides, chemical fertilizers were to be replaced by organic and microbial fertilizers, for the production of which he set up the “Pivithuru Pohora” project with a factory at Jayanthipura, Welkanda. A fertilizer ‘concoction’ for rice was produced at this factory named “Rhizon”, of which even the manufacturers were unaware of the composition. (See picture). When enquiries were made of the chemical and /or microbial composition of Rhizon comprising four components, I was told, that there is no question of N PK (the usual main chemicals in fertilizer mixtures)or the microbial composition but that when applied to the soil it works! There are labels on instructions to use, but not giving the NPK content. I was also invited to visit Mahaweli System B where many farmers had, according to the informant, ‘successfully’ used Rhizon. Consequently, on my visit accompanied by two former extension directors of the Department Agriculture, last March, before the crop was harvested, several farmers whispered to us that following application of Rhizon the rice crop turned yellow and , hence, they surreptitiously applied urea! The paddy was eventually sold as ‘organic’ at a premium price! That’s the secret!

There is no evidence of the ‘Pivithuru Pohora’ been subjected to sound experimentation. In fact, it appears that the makers of this fertilizer are reticent of experimenting with it collaboratively with the Department of Agriculture.

According to the commercial leaflet just one quantity of this fertilizer is recommended to more than one million acres of rice grown in the whole country including Mannar, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Amparai, Udawalawe, Kalutara, Galle, Baddegama, Hambantota, Udawalawe, Amparai, Polonnaruwa. Anuradhapura and Mannar. The Department of Agriculture on the other hand has specific fertilizer recommendations for the “Govijana Seva Bala Predashas” based on the inherent soil fertility levels and other agro-ecological factors. I do not think that such a fake fertilizer has been produced and marketed anywhere else in the world!

Should not the Auditor General investigate the amount of public funds spent in hiring consultants, extension officers, purchase of vehicles, their maintenance and other expenses on a worthless fertilizer? Is that not as serious a matter as ‘the bond scam’!

This shows what happens when a person who has no knowledge or training in scientific agriculture misuses political power overriding the agricultural professionals. The “Hamuduruwo” should be asked to pay back to the country the millions and millions of rupees spent on this worthless exercise.

Last year when I argued in an article in the Lankadeepa that chemical fertilizers cannot be totally dispensed with, the Priest rejoined questioning me how forests grow without chemical fertilizers, displaying his knowledge in agriculture and ecology (Lankadeepa of 15th June 2016)! He is the chief of the ‘Toxin –Free Agriculture’ programme which, hitherto is a total failure! Everybody not towing his line is branded ‘agents of the multinationals’!

As for the glyphosate ban Ven Ratana’s argument that if paddy cultivation can do without this weed killer why cannot the tea growers, rings hollow in the face of facts! Paddy cultivation has impounding of water an alternative to kill weeds, but probably the Ven. Priest is not aware that 20% more water per crop is need to be used for paddy weed control and the water at a huge cost! It is not only the large plantations but also the smallholders who are badly affected by the ban of the weed killer. Whereas the plantation companies, according to the Chairman of the Planters’ Association, have lost some six billion rupees in 2015 due to the ban of glyphosate, severe labour shortages is afflicting the tea industry across all operations and weeding is one most affected. Weeds apart from competing with the crop is seriously hampering the plucking operation, leading to reduced per plucker yield, apart from the risk of snake bites etc. Tea cultivators, big or small, are now using smuggled glyphosate costing 3 -4 times more than the authentic product.

Nearly a century of scraping the tea soils with implements such as the ‘sorandiya’ has caused huge soil and fertility losses over the years which have drastically affected crop growth and yield. This has over the years led to abandonment of large tracts of land, especially from the mid country, coupled with lower prices than for the high and low-grown teas. It is the chemical control of weeds from the 1960s that substantially reduced soil erosion. The weed killer then most widely used for over 20 years in all crops was paraquat

(Gramoxone) including rice and tea, but over a hundred times more toxic than glyphosate! It, however, killed only those who ingested it voluntarily, and largely for this reason banned in 2007. On the other hand, the lethal toxic doze of glyphosate is as over 85 ml which is about 17 teaspoons!

The glyphosate ban in Sri Lanka was instigated by a faulty hypothesis propounded by a few scientists that glyphosate in hard water prevalent in the Rajarata was probably responsible for the chronic kidney disease of uncertain aetiology (CKDu). This hypothesis has been ‘torn to bits’ by several reputed scientists including several senior professors of chemistry at the Peradeniya University. No other subsequent research has supported this hypothesis. In fact at a meeting at which the ban was discussed, chaired by the President, one of the professors when trying to explain matters was shouted down by the Priest resulting in all the professionals attending the meeting keeping mum! This is how professional decisions are made in this country! In India, for example, this matter would have gone before the National Planning Commission (NPC) and the decision would have been the responsibility of main stream professionals in the field and not of extremist professionals and politicians as often happens here. The NPC was set up by Sri Nehru in 1946, soon after achieving independence. It is now known by a different name (the National Technology Commission of India?) under Premier Modi, but its structure and functions have hardly changed.. Modi wanted to give priority to technology policy making therein; hence the name change. It is high time we follow suit.

Neither the 2013 WHO study on CKDu nor the International Expert Consultation on CKDu held in Sri Lanka in 2016 in any way implicated glyphosate in the causation of CKDu. There is no other study that implicates glyphosate in this disease when used in dosages as recommended for weed control. Global concern about glyphosate was aroused by a 2015 report of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) which declared that glyphosate was” probably cancer causing”. The IARC report has been heavily criticised by numerous scientists and highly reputed scientific associations. In May 2016 the Joint Meeting for Pesticide Residues of the FAO & WHO proclaimed that there is no evidence of glyphosate causing carcinogenicity or genotoxicity. In addition many other countries, following in-depth studies on glyphosate, has cleared it as being a safe herbicide. It is today the most widely used pesticide globally. This is exemplified by the frequency of urine glyphosate residues in countries where it is widely used: over 40% of Europians are reported to have some glyphosate residues in their urine whereas the figure is over 90% for people of Malta. But no country in the world has banned glyphosate other than Sri Lanka. After much deliberation as a sequel to the re-classification of glyphosate as regards carcinogenicity, the Europian Union has recently extended the permit for glyphosate use for a further eight years.

Nowhere else in the world has there been any concern of glyphosate causing kidney damage when used as prescribed. With all pesticides what is needed is judicious and safe use, and our extension services have failed to convey this message to farmers effectively. As for the use of both drugs and pesticides the famous saying of the father of the science of pharmacology, Bombastus Paracelsus (149s-1541) as also professor of chemistry, of physics and of pharmacology of the University of Basel, concurrently, is opportune here: “All substances are poisons; there is nothing which is not a poison; it is the dosage that differentiates poison and remedy” Someone had, incidentally, remarked on this saying that even spring water can be dangerous, if you jump into it and cannot swim!

By Shyam Nuwan Ganewatte and Sarath Dharmasena Courtesy The Island

June 22, 2017, 10:06 pm

Additional Director of Supervisory Department of the Non Banking Financial Institutions of the Central Bank, Suresh Sedera, testifying before the Presidential Commission probing alleged bond scams yesterday revealed that three primary dealers had not paid taxes on profits from bond transactions during the 2015/16 financial year.

Sedera told the Commission that according to the audit statements, Perpetual Treasuries, Netwealth Securities and First Capital for 2015-2016 had not paid taxes after making profits though there had been provision for tax payment.

Sdera said so after submitting the financial statements of those companies to the Commission.

Pointing out that the net profit Perpetual Treasuries had made from bond transactions amounted to Rs.5.4 billion, Sedera said that among the three companies, Netwealth Securities had incurred losses and the NSB Fund Management company had paid taxes.

Although Netwealth Securities had made allocations it had not paid taxes, he said.

When the Counsel appearing for Perpetual Treasuries Nihal Fernando was allowed to cross-examine Sedera, Additional Solicitor General Milinda Gunatillake raised objections, saying that the counsel was asking unnecessary questions. That led to a heated argument between the Defence Counsel and the Additional Solicitor General.

The Commission will resume sittings today at 9.45 a.m.

නලින් ද සිල්වා

 පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් දෙසිය විසිපස් දෙනාගෙන් කී දෙනකු මෙරට සිංහල බෞද්ධ රටක් කියලා ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ කීමට සූදානම් ද? පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් කී දෙනකු සිටිනවා ද කියා කීමට මා දන්නේ නැහැ. ජනගහන අනුපාතය අනුව නම් එකසිය හැටක් පමණ සිටිය යුතුයි. ඒ සිංහල බෞද්ධ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ගෙන් කී දෙනකු මෙරට සිංහල බෞද්ධ රටක් බව ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ කියාවි ද? මේ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන්ගෙන් යම් පිරිසක් එ ජා පක්‍ෂයේ. ඔවුන් නම් ඊනියා සංහිඳියාව වෙනුවෙන් මෙය සිංහල බෞද්ධ රටක් කියලා කියන එකක් නැහැ. මේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් එකසිය පනහක්වත් මෙරට සිංහල බෞද්ධ රටක් කියලා පිළිගන්න තෙක් මේ රටට සෙතක් වන්නේ නැහැ. දෙමළ මුස්ලිම් දේශපාලනඥයන් සිංහල බුද්ධාගමට විශේෂිත තැනක් දෙනවාට කැමති වෙන්නෙත් නැහැ.

 දෙමළ මුස්ලිම් දේශපාලනඥයන් මෙහෙයවනු ලබන්නේ බටහිර රටවල් හා බටහිර ආසියාවේ රටවල් මගින්. ඇතැම් සිංහල බෞද්ධ ඇමතිවරුන් ද ඒ රටවලින් මෙහෙයවෙනවා. මේ රටේ දේශපාලනය ගැන අවබෝධයක් උඩින් පල්ලෙන් ලබා ගන්න බැහැ. සමහර ජනමාධ්‍යවේදීන් උදේ පාන්දර අපට කියා දෙන දේවල් අහන කොට නම් තේරෙන්නෙ අප මහ මෝඩයන් කියා. අපට ඒ අය තරම් හොඳට කල්පනා කරන්න බැරි ඇයි ද කියලත් හිතෙනවා. සමහර වෙලාවට මට හිතෙනවා ජනමාධ්‍යවේදීන් ටික දෙනකුට රට පාලනය බාර දුන්නොත් නරක ද කියලා. ඔවුන්ට ඒ තරම් දැනුමක් මෙන් ම බුද්ධියක් ද තියෙනවා.

 ඊයේ සයිටම් විරෝධී ශිෂ්‍යයන් සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යාංශයට ඇතුළු වුණා. මෙය පොලීසිය කල් තියා දැනගෙන හිටියෙ නැහැ කියලා හිතන්න බැහැ. එහෙම හිතන්න පුළුවන් ජනමාධ්‍ය පඬියන්ට නම්. ශිෂ්‍යයන් කරන්න යන දේ පොලීසිය කල් ඇතුව ම දන්නවා. ආණ්ඩුවත් මෙය දැන සිටින්න ඇති. ඒත් ඔවුන් ඒ බව කියයි කියලා හිතන්න බැහැ. ඊයේ තිබුණෙ පොලිස් පෙරහුරුවක් පමණයි. ඇතැම් ජනමාධ්‍ය පඬියන් දැන නොසිටියාට සයිටම් ප්‍රශ්නයට විසඳුමක් දීලා ඉවරයි. මේ බව මා කලින් ලිපිවල ද කියා ඇති. එහෙත් ජනමාධ්‍ය පඬියන් ඒ ලිපි කියවන්නේ නැහැ. පඬියන් මා වැන්නකුගේ ලිපි කියවන්නේ අහවල් දෙයකට ද? සයිටම් අහෝසි කරනු යනු වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරීන්ගේ සංගමය පසුව එකතු කළ ඉල්ලීමක්. පඬියන් විසඳුම කියලා කියන්නෙ සයිටම් අහෝසි කිරීමට. සයිටම් අප කැඳවා ගෙන යන්නේ මර්දනයකට. සිංහල බෞද්ධ විරෝධී ව්‍යවස්ථාවකට.

 මෙරට සිදු වෙමින් පවතින දේ ගැන සිංහල බෞද්ධයකුට සතුටට පත් වීමට හැකි ද? සයිටම් මගින් ආණ්ඩුව පෙරළීමට බලා සිටින ජනමාධ්‍ය නම් සමහර විට සතුටින් ඇති. සයිටම් කෙසේ වෙතත් අවසානයේ දී ඒ ජනමාධ්‍ය නම් අහෝසි වෙන්න පුළුවන්. ඊයේ ගලබඩඅත්තේ හාමුදුරුවන්ට ඇප වැලක් ම ලැබුණා. පොලීසිය ඇප දීමට විරුද්ධ වුණෙ නැහැ. අධිකරණය පොලීසියෙන් ප්‍රශ්න කළා ඇප දීමට විරුද්ධ නොවීම ගැන. සති තුනක් ඇතුළත පොලීසිය අවශ්‍ය තොරතුරු සියල්ල හොයා ගත්ත ද? ගලබඩඅත්තේ හාමුුදුරුවන් රක්‍ෂිත බන්ධනාගාරගත කරන ලෙස පොලීසිය කලින් ඉල්ලා සිටියේ පරීක්‍ෂණ කටයුතු පහසු කර ගැනීමට. පොලීසිය කොහොම හරි පරීක්‍ෂණ ඉවර කරලා. හාමුදුරුවන් වැඩ සිටියේ පොලිස් භාරයේ ද? පොලීසිය ස්වාධීන නැති බව තවත් වරක් පෙන්නුවා. පොලිස් කොමිසම සහ අනෙක් ඊනියා ස්වාධීන කොමිසම් ඇත්තේ කා රැවටීමට ද? ඒවා ව්‍යවස්ථාවට සීමා වූ කොමිසම්.

 ගලබඩඅත්තෙ හාමුදුරුවන් ඇප මත නිදහස් කිරීමට පෙර දිනයේ අස්ගිරි සංඝ සභාව ප්‍රකාශයක් නිකුත් කිරීම වැදගත්. මේ හුදෙක් එකිනෙකට සම්බන්ධකමක් නැති අහඹු ස්වායත්ත සිදුවීම් ද? ගලබඩඅත්තෙ හාමුදුරුවන් නිදහස් කිරීමෙන් පසුව දූෂණ විරෝධී පෙරමුණක ප්‍රධාන හාමුදුරුනමක් ගලබඩඅත්තෙ හාමුදුරුවන් වෙනුවෙන් කතා කළා. ඒ දූෂණ විරෝධී පෙරමුණ යහපාලනය වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටියා. ඇප මත නිදහස් වීමෙන් පසු ගලබඩඅත්තෙ හාමුදුරුවන් ප්‍රකාශ කළා මින් මතු විනයධර භික්‍ෂුන් වහන්සේ ප්‍රශ්නය අතට ගනීවි කියා.

 උන්වහන්සේ ඒ ප්‍රකාශයෙන් කුමක් අදහස් කළත් අස්ගිරි ප්‍රකාශය සමග දඹුලු විහාරය පවරා ගැනීමක් ගැන කියැවෙනවා. ඒ සඳහා මෙතරම් හදිසියක් මොක ද? දඹුලු විහාරයේ ක්‍රියාකාරකම් ගැන අපට සතුටු වන්න බැහැ. ඒත් ආණ්ඩුවට මේ තදියම කුමකට ද? මෙහි යටි අරමුණ කුමක් ද? දඹුල්ල හා අස්ගිරිය අතර එතරම් සුහදතාවක් තිබුණේ නැහැ. කණ්ඩලම හෝටලය කාලයෙත් ඒ සුහදකම නොතිබූ බව එකල නිතර දඹුලු ගිය අය දන්නවා. අප ජීවත් වන්නේ ඩොයිලිගේ ඩීල් දේශයේ බව අමතක කරන්න බැහැ. ඇතැම් සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් හිතන්න පුළුවන් ආණ්ඩුව අස්ගිරියෙන් පළිගන්න හදනවා කියා.

 සයිටම් අවසාන වශයෙන් සිංහල බෞද්ධ විරෝධී ව්‍යවස්ථාවකට මග පාදාවි. සිංහල බෞද්ධයන්ට අද කාගේ පිහිට ද? අස්ගිරි ප්‍රකාශයට කෙතරම් දුරක් යා හැකි ද? භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේ දේශපාලනඥයන්ගෙන් සම්පූර්ණයෙන් ම නිදහස් වන්නේ නම් හා ඕල්කට් බෞද්ධකමට නොව සිංහල බෞද්ධකමට කැප වන්නේ නම් රටට නායකත්වයක් දෙන්න පුළුවන්. අස්ගිරි ප්‍රකාශයට ආණ්ඩුව පිළිතුරක් දෙනවා කියලා රාජිත කියනවා.  කවුරුන් ඒ පිළිතුර කෙටුම්පත් කරනව ද කියලා දන්නෙ නැහැ. ඒ කවුරුන් කළත් ආණ්ඩුව පිළිතුරක් දුන්නත් නැතත් මෙරට භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේගේ ප්‍රධානත්වය නැති කිරීමට ආණ්ඩුවට ඉඩ නොදිය යුතුයි. එස් බී අස්ගිරි සංඝ සභාවෙන් සමාව ගත්ත එක හොඳයි. එය හුදෙක් වචනයට සීමා නොකිරීමට ක්‍රියා කළ හැක්කේ භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේට ම බව අප අමතක නොකළ යුතුයි.

 එංගලන්තය ක්‍රිස්තියානි රටක්. ඒත් එහි ලන්ඩන්, බර්මින්හම්, ලූට්න් වැනි නගර කිහිපයක ම නගරාධිපතිවරුන් ඉස්ලාම් භක්තිකයන්. පසුගිය දා ලූට්න් නගරයේ මුස්ලිමුන් පෙළපාලි ගියේ එංගලන්තය මුස්ලිම් කියමින්. මෙරටත් මුස්ලිමුන් බලවත්. ඒ සිංහල බෞද්ධ නායකයන් මුස්ලිම් ඡන්ද නොලැබුණත් මුස්ලිම් ඡන්ද බලාපොරෙත්තුවෙන් සිටින නිසා. මේ තත්වය නැති කිරීමට ඉන්න සිංහල බෞද්ධ නායකයන් එකතු කළ යුතුයි. එය කළ හැක්කේ භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේට. උන්වහන්සේ ඩීල් දේශයේ වැඩ නොවැසිය යුතුයි. සිංහල බෞද්ධයන්ගෙන් තුනෙන් දෙකක් එකට සිටින්නේ නම් ඩීල් කාරයන් පන්නන්න පුළුවන්. 

නලින් ද සිල්වා

2017 ජූනි 22

නලින් ද සිල්වා

 ජාතික ව්‍යාපාරයට සටන් කාමීන්, දේශපාලන විචාරකයන්, දාර්ශනිකයන් ආදී වශයෙන් දැන් තරුණ ජවය එකතු වී තිබෙනවා. ඔවුන් ජනමාධ්‍යයෙහි වීර වික්‍රම ප්‍රකාශ කරනවා. මා එවැනි කිසිවකුවත් නො වෙයි. එවැන්නන්ට අනුව මා වැඩකට ඇති දෙයක් කියන්නේ නැහැ. පසුගිය දා එක්තරා භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේ නමක් ඊනියා රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධානවලින් මෙරටට වී ඇති හානිය පිළිබඳ මගෙන් තොරතුරු ඉල්ලුවා. මා ළඟ එහෙම තොරතුරු නැහැ. උන්වහන්සේ ඒ බව විශ්වාස කළා ය කියා මා හිතන්නේ නැහැ. මා දන්නේ ඊනියා රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන ගැන මිසක් ඔවුන්ගේ එදිනෙදා කටයුතු ගැන නො වෙයි. මා දත්ත බැංකුවක් නො වෙයි.  මා දන්නා දේට කියන දේට ප්‍රචාරයක් ලැබෙන්නේ නැහැ. අපේ රැස්වීම් වාර්තා කිරීමටවත් අපේ යැයි කියා ගන්නා ජනමාධ්‍ය එන්නේ නැහැ. ඔවුන් අපේ රැස්වීම් ආවරණය කරනවා. ඉංගිරිසි කවර් කියන වචනයට තේරුම් කිහිපයක් තිබෙනවා. සිංහලෙන් ආවරණය කරනවා කියන්නේ වසා දැමීමට. එක් ජනමාධ්‍ය ප්‍රධානියකු කීවේ මා ගේම්කාරයකු බවයි. අවුරුදු විසිපහකට පමණ පෙර මා ඔහුගේ ජීවිතය වෙනුවෙන් ගේමක් ගැසූ බව ඔහු කියනවා ද කියා මා දන්නේ නැහැ.

 ඒ කොහොම වුණත් මට මගේ අදහස් ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමෙන් වැළකී ඉන්න බැහැ. ඊයේ ජනමාධ්‍යයෙහි මා සිතන ආකාරයට වැදගත් කරුණු දෙකක් කියැවුණා. එකක් උතුරු පළාත් සභාවේ ප්‍රශ්නය තාවකාලික ව වුවත් විසඳා ගැනීම. එහි සම්බන්ධන් පාර්ශ්වය හා විග්නේස්වරන් පාර්ශ්වය අතර ගැටුමක් තිබෙනවා. විග්නේස්වරන්ට විරුද්ධ ව විශ්වාස භංග යෝජනාවක් ගෙන ඒමට සම්බන්ධන් පාර්ශ්වය කටයුතු කළා. විග්නේස්වරන් සුචරිතවාදියකු වූ නිසා නොව බලය රැක ගැනීම සඳහා අනෙක් පාර්ශ්වයේ මන්ත්‍රීන් හය දෙනකුට විරුද්ධව පියවර ගැනීමට කටයුතු කළා. ප්‍රශ්නය උග්‍ර අතට යොමු වූ අවස්ථාවේ හින්දු පූජකවරයකු වූ පරමාචාර්යතුමා හා කතෝලික පූජකවරයකු වූ ඥානප්‍රගාසම් පියතුමා මැදිහත් වී ප්‍රශ්නය නිරාකරණය කර තිබෙනවා. තාවකාලික වුවත් උතුරු පළාත්  සභාව අර්බුදයෙන් ගොඩ ඇවිත්.

 දෙමළ හා මුස්ලිම් දේශපාලන පක්‍ෂ කෙතරම් විරුද්ධවාදී වුවත් තීරණාත්මක අවස්ථාවන් හි එකතු වෙනවා. විග්නේස්වරන් හා සම්බන්ධන් ලිපි හුවමාරුවක ද යෙදී තිබෙනවා. ඉංගිරිසි පුවත්පතකට අනුව ඔවුන් එකිනෙකා ආමන්ත්‍රණය කර ගෙන ඇත්තේ මගේ ආදරණිය ආදී වශයෙන්. මේ ලිපි ලියා ඇත්තේ ඉංගිරිසියෙන් ද දෙමළෙන් ද යන්න පැහැදිලි නැහැ. කෙසේ වෙතත් ඉංගිරිසි ව්‍යවහාරය මේ දෙමළ ජාතිවාදීන්ගේ හිත් පොජ්ජට ගිහින් තිබෙන බව පැහැදිලියි.

 මේ රටේ මූලික ප්‍රශ්නයක් වී ඇත්තේ සිංහල නායකයන්, විශේෂයෙන් ම සිංහල බෞද්ධ නායකයන් අතර සමගියක් ඇති කිරීමට කිසිවකු නැති වීම. වලගම්බා කාලයේ රජු හා ඇමතිවරුන් සමගි කිරීමට භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේ කටයුතු කර තිබෙනවා. අද ඇතැම් භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේ දේශපාලනඥයන් පසුපස වඩිනවා. භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේගේ කාර්යභාරය තරමක් අමතක වී තිබෙන බවක් පේන්න තියෙනවා.

 මේ තත්වය යටතේ ඊයේ නිකුත් වූ අස්ගිරි මහා විහාරයේ මහානායක හිමිපාණන් වහන්සේ ප්‍රධාන කාරක සභාව විසින් කරන ලද ප්‍රකාශය ඉතා වැදගත්. කලකට පසු නිකුත් වූ වැදගත් ම ප්‍රකාශයක් ලෙස එය සලකන්න පුළුවන්. අස්ගිරි විහාරීය කාරක සභාවෙන් කියැවෙන්නේ මේ සිංහල බෞද්ධ රටේ සිංහල බුද්ධාගමට (සංස්කෘතියට) ඇති වී තිබෙන තත්වය. සිංහල බෞද්ධයා අද පහත් ම තත්වයකට පත් වී තිබෙනවා. අද ජනමාධ්‍යයෙහි ඊනියා රාජ්‍ය නොවන බත්බැළයන් භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේට නම කියා කතා කරනවා. භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේ කෙනකුගේ නම කීමට පෙර අවසර ගැනීමේ සම්ප්‍රදායක් මේ රටේ තිබෙනවා. ඒ නමට පසු හා පෙර ගෞරවයෙන් කතා කරද්දී. අද ඕනෑම පාහරයකුට ජනමාධ්‍යයෙහි අහවලා කියා නමින් භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේ නමක් ගැන කතා කරන්න පුළුවන්. ජනමාධ්‍ය ඒ කතා ප්‍රචාරය කරනවා. ජනමාධ්‍ය ඇමතිවරුන්ගේත් කුණුහරුප ප්‍රචාරය කරන්නේ නැහැ. ඒත් මේ කුණුහරුප ප්‍රචාරය කරනවා. හාමුදුරුකෙනකුගේ නම පමණක් කීමත් කුණුහරුපයක් කීමට සමානයි. ජනමාධ්‍ය කියාවි ඔවුන්ගේ කාර්ය ඔවුන්ට හිතෙන අන්දමට ඕනෑම කුණුහරුපයක් ප්‍රචාරය කිරීම කියා. මේ ජනමාධ්‍ය ගැන අපට කිසිවක් කිරීමට නොහැක්කේ ඇයි? 

 අස්ගිරි මහා විහාරය ගලබඩඅත්තේ ඥානසාර හිමියන් ගැනත් සඳහන් කර තිබුණා. උන්වහන්සේගේ භාෂා විලාශය කුමක් වුවත් උන්වහන්සේ ප්‍රකාශ කරන කරුණු ගැන සැලකිලිමත් විය යුතු බව අස්ගිරි මහා විහාරයේ අදහසයි. මෙරට පමණක් නොව ලෝකයේත් අද මුස්ලිම් සංස්කෘතික ආක්‍රමණයක් තිබෙනවා. එය ඉස්ලාම් ආගමත් එක්ක සම්බන්ධ වන්නේ බොහෝ සංස්කෘතීන් මෙන් ම මුස්ලිම් සංස්කෘතියත් ආගමක් සමග සම්බන්ධ නිසා. බටහිරයන් තම රටවල මුස්ලිම් සංස්කෘතියට එරෙහිව ක්‍රියා කළත් ථෙරවාදී රටවල ථෙරවාදයට එරෙහිව මුස්ලිම් සංස්කෘතිය යොදා ගන්නවා. ඔවුන් ථෙරවාද රටවල බෞද්ධ මුස්ලිම් ගැටුම් උග්‍ර කරනවා. එය බටහිරයන්ගේ දෙබිඩි ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් නො වෙයි. ඒ තමයි ඔවුන්ගේ සැලසුම. මේ ගැන මා ලියා ඇති ලිපි කිසිවකුගේවත් අවධානයට යොමු වූයේ නැහැ. එහි ඊනියා තොරතුරු නැති නිසා ද මා අනන් මනන් කියවන නිසා ද යන්න පැහැදිලි නැහැ.

 මා ආසනික් ගැන කී දේත් අද බොහෝ දෙනකුට අමතක වෙලා. වකුගඩු සටනේ මා සිටි බවක් චන්න ජයසුමනවත් රතන හාමුදුරුවන්වත් මතක් කරන්නේ නැහැ. මා ගුණදාස අමරසේකර තරම් වකුගඩු සටනට මැදිහත් වී නැති බවයි චන්නමතය. ජනමතයත් එහෙම වෙන්න ඇති. එහෙත් සහල්වල ආසනික් තිබීම ප්‍රකාශ කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් රාජපක්‍ෂලා දොස් කීවේ මටයි. මා ප්‍රීමා සමාගමෙන් මුදල් ගෙන බත් කෑමට විරුද්ධව කටයුතු කරන බව එක් ඇමතියකු කීවා. කෘෂිරසායනික යෙදීම ගැන කීමෙන් තේවගාවට පාඩුවන බව එදත් කිව්වා. එසේ කිවේ එසේ මෙසේ අයකු නො වෙයි. ග්ලයිෆොසේට් ගැන මට කීමට ඇති දේ බොහොමයි. මා විරුද්ධ වන්නේ ග්ලයිෆොසේට්වලට පමණක් නො වෙයි. කෘෂි රසායනික කෘෂිකර්මාන්තයට මා මූලික වශයෙන් විරුද්ධයි. මට ලැබෙන්නේ ගල් මුල් පමණයි. මා වීරයෙක් නො වෙයි.

 ගලබඩඅත්තේ හාමුදුරුවන් ගැන මට ඇති ප්‍රශ්නය කතා විලාශය නොව උන්වහන්සේ ඇසුරු කරන පුද්ගලයන් ගැනයි. වාසනාවකට මොහොට්ටිවත්තේ ගුණානන්ද හිමියන්ගේ ක්‍රියා ගැන කතා කිරීමට එදා පඬියන් හිටියේ නැහැ. මට සිතෙන්නේ ගලබඩඅත්තේ හාමුදුරුවන් අන් අය විසින් ඔවුන්ගේ දේශපාලන අරමුණු වෙනුවෙන් මෙහෙයවෙන බවයි. ජාතික හෙළ උරුමය එකල උන්වහන්සේ යොදා ගත්තා. ජාතික හෙළ උරුමය භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේට තිබූ ගෞරවය නැති කිරීමට කටයුතු කෙළේ උන්වහන්සේලා සෘජු දේශපාලනයට ඈඳා ගැනීමෙන්. අද අස්ගිරිපාර්ශ්වය  ඒ ගෞරවය නැවත ඇති කිරීමට කටයුතු කරන්නේ නම් එය බුදුසසුනේ යහපතට හේතු වේවි. ගලබඩඅත්තේ හාමුදුරුවන් දැන් ඊනියා රාජ්‍ය නොවන අය මගින් මෙහෙයවන බව පෙනෙනවා. මේ අය මෙහෙයවෙන්නේ බටහිරයන් විසින්. ගෝඨාභය මෙහි දී වරදක් කර නැහැ. මේ කුණු ආණ්ඩුවේ හා බටහිරයන්ගේ සහායක් නැතිව ගලබඩඅත්තේ හාමුදුරුවන්ට සැඟ වී ඉන්න බැහැ. කුණු ප්‍රශ්නයවත් විසඳගන්න බැරි ආණ්ඩුව කුණුවෙන කුණු ආණ්ඩුවක්. කුණු ආණ්ඩුව පවතින්නේත් බටහිරයන්ගේ ආධාරයෙන්.

 මහින්ද පැරදුණේ ගලබඩඅත්තේ හාමුදුරුවන් මුස්ලිම් ඡන්ද නැති කළ නිසා නොවෙයි. බටහිරයන් ඒ සඳහා උත්සාහ ගන්න ඇති. මහින්දට ඔය කියන තරම් මුස්ලිම් ඡන්ද ලැබෙන්නේ නැහැ. මහින්ද පැරදුණේ බටහිරයන්ගේ වෙනත් උපක්‍රම නිසා.  ඔවුන් මුහුණු පොතත් එහි දී යොදා ගත්තා. මහින්ද කළ යුතුව තිබුණේ තව තවත් සිංහලයන්ට කතා කිරීමයි. එහෙත් ඔහු නොකළේ ද එයයි. අද සිංහලයන්ට විශේෂයෙන් ම සිංහල බෞද්ධයන්ට නායකයකු නැහැ. අස්ගිරි පාර්ශ්වය ඇතුළු මහා සංඝයා වහන්සේ මෛත්‍රිපාල මහින්ද සමගි කරවීමට කටයුතු කරනු දැකීමට මා කැමතියි. මේ ඔවුන් දෙදෙනාගේ අතීත වැරදි කිය කියා ඉන්න කාලයක් නොවෙයි. හින්දු පූජකයන් හා කතෝලික පූජකයන් දෙමළ නායකත්වය සමගි කිරීමට කටයුතු කරනවා. භික්‍ෂූන් වහන්සේට හා බුදුසසුනට පහර ගැසීමට පාහරයන් ඉදිරියට එන්නේ රනිල්ගේ හයිය අරගෙන. රනිල් ඉවත් කිරීම අද ප්‍රධාන කාර්යයි.

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 2017 ජූනි 21

lanka C news | ලංකා සී නිවුස්

දඹුළු විහාරස්ථානයේ විහාරාධිපති හිමියන්ගේ ක‍්‍රියාපටිපාටිය කිසිසේතම අනුමත කල නොහැකි බව ඇමති අකිල විරාජ් කාරියවසම් මහතා පවසයි.

මෙම විහාරස්ථානයේ දිනක ආදායම ලක්‍ෂ 35-80 අතර වන බවද පවසන ඇමතිවරයා මොන තත්වය යටතේ වුවද කල යුතු දේ කරන බවද සදහන් කරයි.

ලංකා සී නිවුස්

කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් මහතා දුෂණ විරෝධී පෙරමුණේ උපදේශක ධුරයෙන් ඉල්ලා අස්වී තිබේ.

එසේ ඉල්ලා අස්වීම ගැන තම ෆේස්බුක් ගිණුමේ තබා ඇති සටහන මෙසේය.

Shenali D Waduge

 This is being written at the request of a Muslim Activist who wants the Sri Lankan public to be aware of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia. It is also known as “female circumcision”. It is not mandated in the Koran but it does have religious basis. The tragedy is that it is, in its more severe forms, harmful to the female and questions whether some religious customs should be allowed to continue. In such a scenario, with global attention on FGM, the question is where are the feminists and organizations that claim to work for the interests of women and children, why are they not coming forward to stop this harmful practice? It is time this topic came into the open and women themselves are allowed to speak against it – after all it is their body that is being cut and no mother wants to knowingly allow her daughter to undergo the same suffering she had no choice about!

The religious books revere women but how is it that in practice women have no choice? Women have been forced to believe that FGM is essential to control their sexuality and to ensure she remains a virgin before marriage. Another set of women believe that FGM makes a girl part of a community. There are others who float the notion of hygiene, while others claim it is part of religious duty while in most instances a cultural necessity is projected alongside the most important belief that it is obligatory for girls to undergo FGM in order to get married. However, it is now globally accepted that FGM is a violation of human rights of girls and women on whatever grounds it is argued in favour of. So where are the feminist groups? Why are they not coming forward on behalf of women & girls?

Unlike for male circumcision, FGM has No health benefits, only health risks. FGM is a means of controlling female sexuality though some claim the less severe form (cutting the prepuce of the clitoris) offers health benefits, though this is not at all proven. Some even claim it improves sexual satisfaction in women, again without any evidence. Actually circumcised women have difficulty reaching orgasm they are less active sexually and are not able to sexually please their partners. They also find difficulty in self-lubricating during sex which leads to tearing and painful intercourse. What is more dangerous is the possibility of the closed opening in more severe forms tearing during childbirth leading to death of the child. Every year several million women approach childbirth knowing that the risk will be greater because some or all of their genitalia has been cut away.

FGM is practiced in at least 26 of 43 African countries. FGM is also found among some ethnic groups in Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, as well as in parts of India, Indonesia, and Malaysia. We now learn it is taking place in Sri Lanka, secretly too.

According to Amnesty International 500,000 Europeans are victims of FGM. FGM is illegal in the US since 1996 punishable by law upto 5 years in prison. In May 2017, Michigan U.S. Attorney’s Office indicted 2 Muslim doctors for FGM. However, the number of women and girls subject to FGM is estimated to have doubled in the past decade. (Population Reference Bureau (PRB).)

Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Ghana, Great Britain, Guinea, Sudan, Sweden, and the United States have laws against FGM.In 2015 Nigeria made history by outlawing female genital mutilation. UNICEF claims 44 million victims of FGM around the world are aged 14 or younger, and the majority of girls who have had their genitals mutilated were cut before they were five years old.

It is estimated that 88% of Sierra Leonean girls were cut, the seventh highest rate of the 28 countries in Africa where FGM is practised. However, quite a number of men are against the practice though the stigma of how Muslim society will treat them entails their silence.

In 2012, a regional court in Cologne, western Germany ruled that the “fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents”, setting a legal precedent. In 2012, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to eliminate female genital mutilation by increasing education on the harms of the practice

FGM violates the following international conventions that protect women and children

Sri Lanka has no law against FGM, it happens underground. Renuka Senanayake writing to the Inter Press Service confirms this Few people outside Sri Lanka know that infant girls in the small Muslim community undergo what is known as female circumcision” Forty days after birth, tiny thighs are firmly held apart by mothers and grandmothers as the traditional ‘osthimami’ removes the clitoris.” She goes on to say A study by a non-governmental organisation, however, reveals that nearly 90 percent of Sri Lankan Muslims and Borahs, a sect of Muslims, support FGM. http://www.ipsnews.net/1996/08/sri-lanka-culture-mothers-watch-as-daughters-are-circumcised/

Is it out of fear that they are supporting or are they looking for more voices to emerge against it?

Zameena, a young mother of a five-year-old girl did not want her daughter circumcised either. She refused outright when her mother-in-law said she must continue with a practice that is part of traditional culture. But the older woman went ahead anyway. I was furious when I returned home to find my daughter, then 3 months old, howling in pain,” she recalls. I am helpless when members of my family still believe that it is part of our religion.”

How many Sri Lankan Muslim women hold Zameena’s view?

Lankaweb carries an expose on the practice of FGM in Sri Lanka. It is shocking to know that ‘almost all Sri Lankan Muslim women are circumcised’. This includes  Moors & Malays who belong to the Shafi Mazhab which regards FGM as compulsory. This means 98% of Sri Lanka’s Muslim populace have no choice. Even the Bohras practice it.

What is equally shocking is that the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulama (ACJU) regarded as the Supreme Council of Muslims in Sri Lanka has issued a fatwa in Tamil making it compulsory. According to the Shafee school of thought its compulsory circumcising Muslim both male as well as females. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiyqxYe4ZJY

Sri Lankan Muslim girls are being circumcised on the 40^th day while Bohra girls are cut between the ages of 7-10 years. These cuts are done by a woman called Ostha-maami” while educated women will go to lady doctors.

The Lankaweb expose gives three interviews giving accounts of circumcision of their daughters. The first believing that it was a must for Muslim girls not to be promiscuous, the second female, angry at having hurt her baby daughter and the last who had not been circumcised and was reprimanded by her husband on the day they were to consume their marriage! The husband had gone to the extent of arranging a woman to arrive to cut her at the age of 29!

https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2017/06/16/fgm-female-genital-mutilation-in-sri-lanka/

It is surprising that the very prominent Muslim women in Sri Lanka are not taking up this issue at least citing the health risks or do their feminism have brakes!

Jezima Ismail in the interview with IPS says there was a lack of research to back a campaign for the outlawing of the brutal practice” while Dr.Mareena Riffai contradicts herself in the interview with Renuka S. Dr. Riffai says orthodox women believe they will be wracked by sexual desire if the clitoris is not scraped off. They are not willing to admit that the crude operation leads to infection, abscesses, infertility and painful sex” though she claims the rise of Islamic fundamentalism on the island and the fact that female circumcision does not have religious sanction, has forced it to go underground”.

But if the ritual has been turned into a religious custom, considering that the risk factors are high to the health of both child & mother, and if many Muslim women do not want their daughters to go through the pain (physical and mental) that they went through why is this practice continuing in the 21^st century especially when globally countries are now dealing with the issue and even banning the practice while the UN too has declared it a violation on the human rights of both the woman and child.

However there is no Muslim women, women’s groups or the human rights champions to speak on behalf of the Muslim women in Sri Lanka and address this practice which is getting global attention leading to its complete ban as seen in the case of Nigeria.

It is time the subject was brought into the open and addressed.

Shenali D Waduge

Listen to the horrific stories of women –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X1-CXYHtOY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN1mulqwv5g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKXXVilKCwc – India’s Dark Secret

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDJIUk2_S7g – a Cut against lust

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3449674/I-thought-virgin-meant-look-Muslim-FGM-victim-vagina-stitched-blade-woman-cuts-30-girls-day.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYqefTTEMcM – I watched my sister die in childbirth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0qk3CV8FbM – Mummy why did you cut me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwPD9Bl93Is – Female genital mutilation is about controlling women’s sexuality

https://mic.com/articles/143289/what-it-s-like-to-have-sex-after-undergoing-female-genital-mutilation#.e4S0dajuD – sex after FGM

CENWOR, (1993). Shadows and Vistas: On Being a Girl Child in Sri Lanka (Colombo, Centre for Women’s Research).

http://16days.thepixelproject.net/16-organisations-charities-and-grassroots-groups-working-to-stop-fgm/

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

June 22 (EN) Doctors at Sri Lanka’s main hospital refused to treat four police officers who sustained injuries when hundreds of university students stormed the health ministry, official sources said.

When the tamil tigers blew up and wounded thousands of soldiers and police, Tamil doctors never refused to treat Sinhalese ?

This may be the waterloo of  GMOA .

Government should stop paying their salaries and ask police to stop treating  differently  doctors  who drive cars with a red/green badge on windscreen for traffic violation ?

Am I  to take the badge off today which my wife has put on windscreen?

She works in a private hospital and keep saving  hundreds of dengue patients.

This is the time patients may take law into their hands.

Policemen will surely refuse to take any action when doctors who may get hurt by angry citizens of this country and make complain to police  ?

This country has become a animal kingdom with doctors and politicians behave alike.

Doctors  and  politicians  have become animals under Yahaplanaya .

It is high time we have  a Premadasa or Pincohet ?

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති

මේ ලිපියේ මාතෘකාව දැකපු ගමන් ම අපේ අය කලබලවෙන්න පුළුවන්. මේ මොන විකාර කතාවක් ද කියලාත් අපේ අයට හිතෙන්න පුළුවන්. ‍මේක අපේ සංස්කෘතිය විනාශකරන්න හදන අයකු ගේ උප්පරවැට්ටියක් කියලාත් කියන්න පුළුවන්. අපි කවුරුත් කැමැති වැවක්, කුඹුරු යායක්, පන්සලක් තියෙන ගමක් ගැන හිතන්න. ඒත් ඒ ගම දැන් නෑ. පන්සල නම් තාමත් තියෙන බව ඇත්ත. ඒත් 1980 න් විතර පස්සේ අපේ ගම් බරපතල විදිහට වෙනස්වෙන්න ගත්තා. ප්‍රේමදාස මහත්තයා ගේ උදාගම් ව්‍යාපාරයත් මේකට බලපෑවා. ඒත් ඒක එක හේතුවක් විතරයි. මේ විපරියාසය වෙන්න බලපෑවේ එක ම එක හේතුවක් කියලා කියන්න බෑ. තව තව හේතු ගොඩක් තියෙනවා. මේ කියන්නේ ඒ හේතු ගැන නෙවෙයි. ඒ වගේ ම, අද අපේ ගම්වලට වෙලා තියෙන දේ ගැනත් නෙවෙයි. මේ කියන්න හදන්නේ අපේ මිනිස්සු ශක්තිමත් කරන්න පුළුවන් මාර්ගයක් ගැන.

අපේ ගම්වල මිනිස්සු සෑහෙන ප්‍රමාණයක් තමන්ට සල්ලි කීයක් හරි ලැබුණාම කරන්නේ කඩයක් දාගන්න එක. ඒත් මාස කීපයක්වත් මේ විදිහට හදාගන්න කඩ පවත්වගෙන යන්න ඒ අයට බෑ. එක පැත්තකින් අපේ අයට මේ වෙළෙඳාම ගැන වැටහීමක් නෑ. අනික් පැත්තෙන් පොතට – ඒ කියන්නේ ණයට, බඩුගන්න අයත් සෑහෙන ප්‍රමාණයක් ගම්වල ඉන්නවා. ඉතින් මාය දෙක තුනක් යද්දී මේ විදිහට අටවාගන්න කඩ වැහිලා යනවා. තමන් ගේ ගමෙත් මේ විදිහට අවසන් ගමන් ගිය කඩ පනහකට හැටකට වඩා තියෙන බව මේ ලේඛකයා දන්නවා. මේ මුදල් නාස්තිය වලක්වාගන්න විදිහක් නැති ද?

මේ අතර පිරමීඩ ක්‍රමවල, ව්‍යාජ ක්‍ෂුද්‍ර මූල්‍ය ක්‍රමවල, වෙළෙඳ සැලැසුම් ක්‍රමවල සල්ලි ආයෝජනය කරන්නත් අපේ අය යොමුවෙලා. මේවාට අහුවෙන්න එපා කියලා මහ බැංකුව වගේ ආයතන උදේ රෑ කියනවා. රැවටෙන්න එපා කියලා කිය කියා හිටියාට මදි. මිනිස්සුන්ට විකල්ප මාර්ග කියලා දෙන්නත් ඕන. සුළු හා මධ්‍යම පරිමාණ කර්මාන්ත ඇතිකරගන්න විධික්‍රමත් කියලා දෙනවා තමයි. ඒත් අපේ මනසට ඒ වගේ කතා තේරෙන්නේ නෑ. දෙකයි එක්ස් එකතුකිරීම තුනයි වයි වගේ කතා තේරුම්ගන්න පුළුවන් මනසක් නෙවෙයි අපිට තියෙන්නේ. අපේ මිනිස්සුන්ට ඊට වඩා ප්‍රායෝගික විදිහට තේරුම්කරලා දෙන්න පුළුවන් ක්‍රම හඳුන්වලා දෙන්න පුළුවන්කමක් අපිට තියෙන්න ඕන.

අපි සාමූහික වැඩවලට කැමැතියි. පන්සල්වල දායක සභාවලින් සෑහෙන වැඩක් වෙනවා. මොන මොන අඩුපාඩු තිබුණත් මරණාධාර සමිතිවලිනුත් යමක් වෙනවා. ඒත් ආර්ථික වැඩපිළිවෙලක් විදිහට යම් ප්‍රමාණයකට හරි සාර්ථක වුනේ සණස සමිති විතරයි. ඒ, සණස සභාවාරවලට සහභාගී නොවන අයට දඩ ගහන ක්‍රමයක් ඒ යටතේ ක්‍රියාත්මක වෙච්ච හින්දා. ඒත් සණස කියන්නෙත් නිශ්චිත ආර්ථික වැඩපිළිවෙලක් නෙවෙයි. මීට අමතරව, සමෘද්ධිය යටතේත් යම් යම් දේවල් කරන්න හදනවා. අනිවාර්ය ඉතිරිකිරීම් හඳුන්වලා දීලා තියෙනවා. ඒ මත සමෘද්ධි බැංකු පවා ඇතිකරලා තියෙනවා. ඒත් මිනිස්සුන් ව නිශ්චිත ආර්ථික වැඩපිළිවෙලකට යොමු කිරීමක් ඒ යටතේ වෙන්නේත් නෑ. තමන් උපයන, ඉතිරිකරන මුදල්වලින් වැඩක් ගන්න විදිහක් මිනිස්සුන්ට කියලා දීලාත් නෑ. ඉතින් මේ ප්‍රශ්න හඳුනාගෙන නිශ්චිත ආර්ථික වැඩපිළිවෙලක් පටන්ගන්න මාර්ගයක් මතුකරගන්න බැරි ද? මේ කියන්න හදන්නේ මේ ප්‍රශ්නයට උත්තරයක්.

කිසිම තේරුමක් නැතිව කරන කඩ දැමිල්ලෙන්, පිරමීඩ ක්‍රම පස්සේ යන එකෙන් පැහැදිළි වෙන දේ තමයි අපේ මිනිස්සු අතර යම් මුදලක් තියෙන බව. ඒ වගේ ම, ඒ මුදල් ආයෝජනය කරන ක්‍රමයක් අපේ මිනිස්සු නොදන්න බව. ඉතින් මේ මුදල් යම් ආකාරයකින් ගමේ ම සංචිතයකට, ආයෝජන අරමුදලකට යොමුකරලා ඒ වෙනුවෙන් ප්‍රතිලාභයක් ලබාදෙන ක්‍රමයක් හඳුන්වලා දෙන්න අපිට පුළුවන් වෙන්න ඕන. මේ කාරණේ පැහැදිළි කරන්න පුළුවන් නිශ්චිත උදාහරණවලින්. ඉතින් සුදුසු යෝජනා කිහිපයක් මේ ලිපියෙන් ඉදිරිපත් කරන්නම්.

අද ගම්වල වත්තක් සුද්ද කරගන්න කෙනෙක් හොයාගන්න එක අමාරු වැඩක්. මොකද ඉස්කෝලේ ගිහිල්ලා, විශ්වවිද්‍යාලේ ගිහිල්ලා විභාග පාස්වෙච්ච අය කැමැති මැදපු ඇඳුමක් ඇඳගෙන, බත්මුලකුත් බැඳගෙන මාස් පඩියක් වෙනුවෙන් කන්තෝරුවක රස්සාවකට යන්න. වත්තක් සුද්ද කරනවා වගේ දේ සළකන්නේ කුලී වැඩ විදිහට. ඇයි ගමක ඇතිකරන කුඩා සමාගමකින් මේ වැඩේ කරන්න බැරි? හැම ගමක ම ඒ වගේ වැඩකරන කුඩා සමාගමක් ඇතිකරලා ඒකට බලපත්‍රයක් දෙන්න පුළුවන්. නියමිත මුදලක් ඉඩම් හිමියන්ගෙන් ලබාගෙන ඒවා සුද්ද පවිත්‍ර කරලා දෙන්න මේ සමාගමට සම්බන්ධ අයට පුළුවන්. අවශ්‍ය නම් ඒ අයට නිල ඇඳුමක් දෙන්නත් පුළුවන්. ඉතින් මෙහෙම කරනවා නම් ඩෙංගු මදුරුවෝ නැතිකරනවා වගේ වැඩවලට ආණ්ඩුව කරගහන්න උවමනා නෑ.

හැම අවුරුද්දේ ම වගේ පාසල් පටන්ගන්න කලින් පංති කාමර පිරිසිදු කරන, ඒවාගේ තීන්ත ගාන වැඩක් සිද්දවෙනවා. මේවා කරන්නේ දෙමව්පියන් ගේ ශ්‍රම දායකත්වයෙන්. ඒත් ඒ වැඩ සංවිධානය කරන රැස්වීම්වලට ඇවිල්ලා පම්පෝරි කියවන අය ඒවාට හවුල්වෙන්නේ බොහොම අඩුවෙන්. හැම දා ම වැඩකරන අය තමයි අන්තිමට ඉතිරිවෙන්නේ. ඉතින් මේ වගේ වැඩත් ගම්වල පිහිටුවන කුඩා සමාගමකට පවරන්න පුළුවන්. දෙමව්පියන්ගෙන් එකතුකරන මුදලකින් ඒ වැඩේට වියදම්කරන්න පුළුවන්. එහෙම වුනා ම පම්පෝරි කතා කියන අයවත් එක විදිහට මේ වැඩේට දායකකරගන්න පුළුවන් වෙනවා. වැඩේ හරියට වෙන බවට සහකික කරගන්නත් පුළුවන් වෙනවා.

කුඹුරු වැවිල්ලට, කුඹුරු කැපිල්ලට වුනත් මෙහෙම වැඩ පිළිවෙලක් ගැලපෙනවා. දැන් කාලේ කුඹුරක් අඳේකට දෙන එක වුනත් ලේසි නෑ. ඉතින් ගමක ගොවි සමාගමක් තියෙනවා නම් ඒ අයට පුළුවන් ඒ වැඩේ භාරගන්න. එහෙම වුනා ම ගමේ සල්ලි ගමේ ම ඉතිරි කරගන්න වුනත් පුළුවන්. මේ වගේ ගොවි සමාගමකට පුළුවන් කුඹුරු කරනවාට අමතර ව ගොඩ ඉඩම් වගාකරන වැඩේට වුනත් කරගහන්න. අපේ පොල් ඉඩම්වල යටි වගාවක් කෙරෙන්නේ ඉතාමත් අඩුවෙන්. ඉතින් මේක විශාල සම්පත් නාස්තියක්. මේවා මිනිස්සුන්ට තනි තනියෙන් කරගන්න බැරිවුනාට සමාගමකට පවරලා කරවාගන්න පුළුවන්. මේ වැඩට හවුල්වෙන්නේ තමන් ගේ ගමේ ම සමාගමක් හින්දා ඒ ගැන හොයලා බලන එක කාටත් අමාරු නෑ.

එක්තරා සමීක්‍ෂණ කටයුත්තකට මේ ලේඛකයා කුරුණෑගල දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ උස්ගල සියඹලන්ගමුව වැව කිට්ටුව තියෙන ගමකට ගියා. ඒ දවස්වල මේ වැවේ මාළු අල්ලන වැඩේ පාලනය කෙරුනේ ධීවර සමිතියකින්. ආණ්ඩුවක් පෙරලිච්ච ගමන් අලුත් ආණ්ඩුවට හිතවත් අය පැනලා ඒ සමිතියේ බලය අල්ලගන්නවා. ඉතින් ඒ වැවේ මාළු ඇල්ලීමත් දේශපාලන බලපොරයක ගොදුරක් බවට පත්වෙලා. වැවට කොච්චරක් නම් මාළු පැටව් මුදාහැරියත් උන් ලොකු මහත්වෙන්න කලින් අල්ලන එක වළක්වන්න විදිහක් නෑ කියලා ඒ ගමේ ගැමියෙක් මේ ලේඛකයාත් එක්ක කිව්වා. මේ මාළු දේශපාලනය නවත්තන්න පුළුවන් කොහොම ද? මේ ගමේ ධීවරයෝ එකතුකරලා සමාගමක් පිහිටුවන එක තමයි මේකට තියෙන හොඳ ම විසඳුම. සමාගමක් කියන්නේ ධීවර සමිතියක් වගේ ආණ්ඩු පෙරළිත් එක්ක බලය මාරුවෙන ආයතනයක් නෙවෙයි.

ගම්වල ඩිස්පැන්සරි සෑහෙන ප්‍රමාණයකුත් තියෙනවා. මේ ලේඛකයා ගේ නිවසේ ඉඳලා මීටර් 400 ක් විතර නැගෙනහිර පැත්තට මහ පාරේ ඇවිදගෙන යද්දී මේ විදිහේ ඩිස්පැන්සරි හයක් පහුකරන්න පුළුවන්. මේ ඩිස්පැන්සරිවල ලෙඩ්ඩු බලන්නේ ඒ ප්‍රදේශයේ ම ඉස්පිරිතාලවල වැඩකරන දොස්තර මහත්තුරු. හැම දා ම හවසට, සති අන්තයට මේ අය ඩිස්පැන්සරිවලට එනවා. ඒ හැම ඩිස්පැන්සරියක ම පොඩි ෆාමසියකුත් තියෙනවා. දොස්තර මහත්තයා ලෙඩ බැලුවාට පස්සේ එතැන වැඩකරන ගෑණු ළමයෙක් සල්ලි ඇරගෙන බෙහෙත් ටික දෙනවා. ඉතින් රුපියල් සීයක් හමාරක් වියදම් කරලා මේ විදිහට බෙහෙත් ගන්න එක අපේ හැම ගමක ම පාහේ සිද්දවෙන දෙයක්. මේ විදිහට විසිරිලා තියෙන ඩිස්පැන්සරි වෙනුවට හැම ගමක ම එක වෛද්‍ය මධ්‍යස්ථානයක් හදන්න බැරි ද? මේ වැඩේට ආණ්ඩුව වියදම්කරන්න ඕන නෑ. ගමේ සල්ලිවලින් ඒ වැඩේ කරගන්න පුළුවන්. ඕන කරන්නේ ඒ වැඩේට උවමනාකරන පරිපාලන හා නෛතික අවසරය ලබාදෙන එක විතරයි. එහෙම වුනොත් මේ වැඩේ පිළිවෙලක් වෙනවා.

ගමේ සමූපකාරය පවා මේ විදිහේ සමාගමකින් පවත්වාගෙන යන්න පුළුවන්. තැපැල් කාර්යාලයත් මේ වගේ සමාගමකට පවරන්න පුළුවන්. තැපැල් කාර්යාලය කියන්නේ ලියුම් බෙදන වැඩේ විතරක් කරන තැනක් වෙන්න ඕන නෑ. පත්තර විකුණනවා වගේ වැඩ පවා ඒකට භාරගන්න පුළුවන්. මංගත (ඔන්-ලයින්) වෙළෙඳාමට පහසුකම් සළසන ආයතනයක් බවටත් පත්කරගන්න පුළුවන්. ඒත් මේ තරම් සල්ලි හම්බකරන්න පුළුවන් ආයතන අද පවත්වාගෙන යන්නේ පාඩුවට. ඒකට හේතුව මේවා දෙපාර්තමේන්තු යටතේ පාලනය කරන්න උත්සාහ කරන එක. ඉතින් මේ විදිහට ගමේ සල්ලි ආයෝජනය කරන්න පුළුවන් වැඩ මොන තරමක් තියෙනවා ද?

කොහොම වුනත්, මේ සමාගම් ඇතිකරන්න ඕන යම් ආකාරයක හවුල් සමාගම් විදිහට. ලාභයක් උපයන්න පුළුවන් කියලා පැහැදිළි වුනා ම ගමේ අය ම ඒ වැඩට හවුල්වෙයි. ආණ්ඩුව කරන්න ඕන ඒවා හරියට වෙනවා ද කියලා අධීක්‍ෂණය කරන ක්‍රමයක් හදන එක විතරයි. ඊට අමතර ව මේ සමාගම්වල වැඩ විගණනය කරනවා වගේ වැඩ ප්‍රාදේශීය මට්ටමෙන් පිහිටුවාගන්න සමාගම්වලින් කරන්නත් පුළුවන්. ඒ ගැන මී ළඟ ලිපියෙන් කියන්නම්.

වරුණ චන්ද්‍රකීර්ති ෴

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

 බුද්ධ වර්ෂ තුන්වන සියවසේ සකස් කරන ලදැයි පැවසෙන ගල් ලෙන් සහිත බෞද්ධ පූජා භූමියක් වන රන්ගිරි දඹුලු රජ මහ විහාරය ලෝක උරුමයක් ලෙසට නම් කරන ලද්දේ 1991 වසරේදීය. මෙලෙස නම් කළ පසු එක්සත් ජාතීන් ගේ සංවිධානයේ යුනෙස්කෝ ප්‍රඥප්තීන් ට අනුව ලෝක උරුම ස්මාරක පවත්වා ගෙන යා යුතුය. ඔවුන් ගේ වාර්ෂික කමිටු රැස්වීම් වලදී මෙම ස්මාරක පිළිබඳ තොරතුරු සහ සංරක්ෂණ කටයුතු වල තොරතුරු සලකා බලා යාවත්කාලීන කළ යුතු කාරණා ගැන අදාල රටවලට දන්වති.

      පසුගිය කාලයේ දඹුලු පූජා භූමියේ කටයුතු නොලසකා හැරීමත් විහාර අධිකාරියේ බලපෑම් මත කරන ලද ඉඳි කිරීම් හේතු කොට ගෙනත් මෙම ස්ථානය ලෝක උරුම ලැයිස්තුවෙන් ඉවත් කිරීමට කටයුතු කරගෙන යන බවට රාවයක් පැතිරුණි. රජයේ ඇතැම් බලධාරීන් විසින්ද එවැනි මතයක් ප්‍රචාරය කිරීමට උත්සාහ දරන ලදී.යුනෙස්කෝ ආයතනයේ ලෝක උරුම කමිටුවේ හතලිස් වන සැසි වාරය ඉස්තාන්බුල් නගරයේ දී පවත්වන ලද්දේ 2106 වසරේදීය. එහිදී එම කමිටුව විසින් දඹුලු විහාරය පිළිබඳ ගන්නා ලද තීරණ ප්‍රංශ තානාපති තිලක් රණවිරාජා මහතාට දන්වා යවා තිබේ. ඒ අනුව 2017 දෙසැම්බර් මස පළමුවන දාට පෙර මේ පිළිබඳ වාර්තාවක් අදාල කමිටුවට ඉදිරිපත් කළ යුතුය. එම වාර්තාව සලකා බැලීම සිදු වන්නේ 2018 වසරේදී මුළු ගැන්වෙන 42 වන  සැසිවාරයේදීය.ලංකාවේ දේශපාලන අධිකාරියට ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලද ලිපියේ මෙවැනි නිර්ණායක කීපයක් අන්තර්ගතව තිබේ. ඒවා මෙසේය.

• ස්මාරක කළමනාකරණ කමිටුවක් ස්ථාපිත කිරීම. දඹුලු රජමහා විහාරය භාරකාර ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේලා රජයේ නියෝජිතයන් සහ විශේෂඥතාවය ඇති මහජන නියෝජිතයන් ඊට ඇතුලත් විය යුතුය.
• කළමනාකරණ සැලැස්ම වරින් වර යාවත්කාලීන කළ යුතුය. එය කළ යුත්තේ සාම්ප්‍රදායික විහාර පාලනය සමග සහයෝගීතාවයෙන්ය.රජය සහ විහාර පරිපාලනය අතර එකඟතාවයෙන් කෙටිකාලීන සහ දිගු කාලීන උපාය මාර්ග සකස් කිරීමට කටයුතු කළ යුත්තේ විහාර සංරක්ෂණ කටයුතු සහ වන්දනා කරුවන්ගේ පැමිණීම කළමානාකරණය පිණිසය.
• උපාය මාර්ගික සැලැස්ම සකස් කිරීමේදී සංරක්ෂණ එල්ලයන් ගැන සැලකිලිමත් විය යුතුය. එසේම ලෙන් වලට පිවිසෙන වන්දනා කරුවන් ප්‍රමාණය ගැන තක්සේරුවක්ද එහි ඇතුලත් විය යුතුය.මෙම ලෙන් තුළ විදුලි පහර සහිත කැමරා භාවිතය තහනම් කරලීමටද කටයුතු කිරීම සුදුසුය.

           වර්ෂ 1991 දී ලෝක උරුම සමාර්කයක් වශයෙන් ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කළ පසු මෙම රන් ගිරි දඹුලු විහාරය පිළිබඳ ඔවුන් ගේ පැවති මතය එම ප්‍රඥප්තියෙන්ද හොඳින් ප්‍රකට වේ.එහි සඳහන් මෙම වගන්ති කීපයක කොටස් මගින් එම අර්ථය විදහා දක්වන්නට උපකාරී වෙයි.

• මෙම ස්මාරකය සහස්‍ර වර්ෂ ගණනාවක කාලයක සිට මේ  දක්වා ජීවමාන බෞද්ධ පිළිවෙත් සමග බැඳී  අඛණ්ඩ වන්දනා සම්ප්‍රදායක් සමඟ සම්බන්ධ වන බෞද්ධ ලෝකයේ විශිෂ්ට නියෝජනයකි.
• දඹුල්ල රන් ගිරි විහාරය මානව වර්ගයාගේ කලාත්මක කුසලතා පෙන්නුම් කරන බිතු සිතුවම් කලාවේ විවිධ පැතිකඩ සහිත විශේෂ ස්ථානයකි. මේ නියෝජනය ගැමියාගේ නිර්මාණශීලිත්වය හොඳින් ප්‍රකට කරනවා සේම බෞද්ධ වත් පිළිවෙත් සහ පූජා විධි  භාවිත කැපීපෙනෙන උදාහරණයක් සහිත ස්ථානයක්  වේ. 
• දඹුල්ල රන්ගිරි විහාරය ක්‍රි.පූ 3 වන සියවසේ සිට මේ ජීවමාන බෞද්ධ සම්ප්‍රදාය හා පුද පිළිවෙත් අවිච්ඡින්නව පවත්වාගෙන යනු ලබන කදිම උදාහරණයකි.
• මෙම සමාරකයේ පවතින බිතු සිතුවම් මූර්ති ඇතුළු භෞතික පෙනුම තවමත් හොඳ තත්ත්වයේ පවතී.එසේම එම වටිනාකම් ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමට,එම සංරක්ෂණයන් උපයෝගී වී ඇත. මෙම සංස්කෘතික දේපල  සංවර්ධන ක්‍රියාකාරකම් නිසා හෝ හෝ වෙනත්  අහිතකර බලපෑම් නිසා අගතියට පත් වී නැත.

      වලගම්බා රාජ සමයෙන් පසු රන්ගිරි දඹුලු පුදබිම කීර්ති ශ්‍රී රාජසිංහ රාජ්‍ය කාලය තුළ අත්පත් කරගන්නා ලද රාජකීය අනුග්‍රහය ඉතා විශේෂිතය. බෝධිනාරායන බුවනෙකබාහු නම් අඛණ්ඩ චිත්‍ර ශිල්පී පරම්පරාවක් මෙම චිත්‍ර සංරක්ෂණයට දායක වී තිබේ. අවසාන වශයෙන් මධ්‍යම සංස්කෘතික අරමුදල මගින් මෙම චිත්‍ර සංරක්ෂණය කරන අවස්ථාවේ දී ගලේවෙල නිලගම ජීවත්ව සිටි ඉහතකී පරපුරේ ජීවන් නයිදේ මහතා සිය දායකත්වය එයට ලබා දී තිබුණි. මෙම විහාරය මහා විහාර සම්ප්‍රදායට අනුව අස්ගිරි මහා විහාරයට අයත්ය. කීර්ති ශ්‍රී රාජසිංහ රජු දවස දී නිකුත් කළ දඹුලු විහාර සන්නස අනුව මෙම විහාරයට කළ යුතු වත් පිළිවෙත් රාජකාරිය සඳහා වෙන් කළ ගම්මානයන් ගැන පැහැදිලිව සඳහන් වේ. 1848 ජාතික විමුක්ති අරගලයේ දී මෙම විහාරය මුල් කොට ඉංග්‍රීසි ආණ්ඩුවට විරුද්ධව ඇතිවූ අරගලය මධ්‍යයේ වුවද එහි අඛණ්ඩ සම්ප්‍රදාය රැකී ඇත.ඉංග්‍රීසින් විසින් බෞද්ධ විහාර ගම් දේවාලගම් යටතට මෙම විහාර ඝණය ඇතුලත් කළ අතර වාර්ෂිකව අස්ගිරි මහ නාහිමියන් විසින් මෙහි භාරකාරත්වයට යතුරු පයිණ්ඩ දීමේ ක්‍රමයක් අද දක්වාමත් පැවත පැමිණේ. යුනෙස්කෝව සිය ප්‍රඥප්තියෙන් අර්ථ දක්වන්නේ එම වටිනා සම්ප්‍රදායයි.එම නිසා ජීවමාන අඛණ්ඩ අවිච්ඡින්න බෞද්ධ සම්ප්‍රදායකට අතුලත් වන මෙම ස්ථානය හුදෙක් සංචාරකයන් පිනවන කලාගාරයක් බවට පත් කරලීමට හැකි නොවේ.එය පළමුව සිංහල බෞද්ධයන්ගේ ජීවමාන බෞද්ධ සිද්ධස්ථානයකි.මල් සුවඳ මෙන්ම පහන් සිලෙන් ද  අදටත් රන්ගිරි දඹුලු රජමහා විහාරය ඒකාලෝක විය යුතුය.එක් විදේශික කාන්තාවක් මෙහිදී පවසා ඇත්තේ දැන් රන්ගිරි දඹලු විහාරයේ මෙම පන්සල් සුවඳ නැති බවයි.

       1994 වර්ෂයෙන් පමණ පසුව මධ්‍යම සංස්කෘතික අරමුදල මෙහි එකාධිකාරය දරමින් මෙම තත්ත්වයට පරිවර්තනය කිරීමට ගත් උත්සායක් ඇත. නමුත් මෙම ස්ථානය භාරව සිටි ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේලා ඊට ඉඩ නුදුන්හ.මෙහිදී අතර මැද තත්ත්වයකට පත් පුරාවිද්‍යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව අතින් යම් අතපසු වීම් සිදුව ඇත. විහාරයේ සංවර්ධන උදෙසා යම් යම් ක්‍රියාකාරකම් කිරීම අත්‍යවශ්‍යය.ඒ වා මෙම  ස්ථානයේ විශ්ව අගය පහත හෙලීමට සමත් නොවිය යුතුය. යුනෙස්කෝව බලාපොරොත්තු වන්නේද එයයි.ජීවමාන බෞද්ධ පිළිවෙත් සම්ප්‍රදායන් රකිමින් දෙස් විදෙස් වන්දනා කරුවන් මෙන්ම සංචාරකයන්ද මෙහි අද්දවා ගැනීමට හැකි ස්ථානයක් බවට පත් කිරීම එහි අරමුණ වේ.

        එහෙත් වත්මන් රජය පත් වූ අලුත මෙම ස්ථානයේ පාලනය බෞද්ධ භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලාගෙන් ඉවත් කොට මධ්‍යම සංස්කෘතික අරමුදල යටතට ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කළහ.ඒ සඳහා නීතිපති උපදෙස්ද ලබාගෙන තිබුණි. එහිදී එයට විරෝධය පෑ  විහාර පාලනය නිසා එම යෝජනාව ඉවත ලන්නට සිදු විය. පුරා විද්‍යා අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් වරයාව සිටි අචාර්ය සෙනරත් දිසානායක මහතා ඉවත් කරලීමට ආසන්න හේතු අතර මෙම දඹුල්ල පුදබිමේ වෙනස් කම් ද දක්වා ලිය හැකිය.දැන් නැවතත් මේ උත්සාහයන් රජය තුළින් පැන නැගී ඇතැයි වාර්තා වේ. එයට ඔවුන් උපයෝගී කර ගන්නේ විහාර පාලනය මගින් මෙම පුදබිමේ විශ්ව අගය කෙලෙසා ඇතැයි යන ප්‍රසිද්දිය ලබා දෙමිනි. එය පට්ටපල් බොරුවකි.  යුනෙස්කෝ ප්‍රධාන කාර්යාලයේ ලෝක උරුම කමිටුවේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ වරයා විසින් 2016 අගෝස්තු 16 වන දින   නිකුත් කරන ලද ලිපියේ කොතනකවත් එවැනි දෙයක් සඳහන් නොවේ. එම නිසා කළ යුත්තේ මෙම ඓතිහාසික ස්ථානය පළමුව ජාතික උරුමයක් ලෙසට සංරක්ෂණය කොට පවත්වා ගෙන යෑමයි. ජාතික උරුමය යනු සිංහල බෞද්ධ වත් පිළිවෙත් අනුගත සංස්කෘතික ප්‍රඥප්තියකි. දෙවනුව ලෝක උරුම භූමියක් වශයෙන් එහි විශ්වීය අගය පවත්වා ගෙන යෑමට අවශ්‍ය කළමනාකරණ ක්‍රමයක් ස්ථාපිත කිරීම කළ යුතුය. එහිදී යුනෙස්කෝව විසින් මග පෙන්වන ලද සීමාවන් හොඳටම ප්‍රමාණවත්ය. එසේ නොවී. ඇමතිවරුන්ට සහ රජයේ දේශපාලන න්‍යාය පත්‍රයට අනුව මෙම ස්මාරකය වෙළෙඳ දේපළක් බවට පරිවර්තනය කිරීම සියළුම දෙනාගේම දෝෂ දර්ශනයට ලක් වන්නකි.පසුගිය දා අස්ගිරි කාරක සංඝ සභාව රැස්ව කළ ඓතිහාසික ප්‍රකාශනයෙන් මෙම අත්තනෝමතික තත්ත්වයන් පෙන්වා දී තිබුණි.

මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන්

Dr Sarath Obeyskera

Fast bowler Lasith Malinga made a scathing attack on Sports Minister after the Minister had questioned the fitness of Sri Lankan cricketers. After Sri Lanka’s disappointing Champions Trophy campaign last week, minister  addressing the media had said that Sri Lanka’s players were the most unfit in the world.

 Yesterday Malinga responded making a scathing attack on the Minister in an interview with the Hiru website.When parrots are on cage, monkeys outside are making noises. Only the parrots know what’s going on inside the cage. Parrots make cage and parrots need cage. When monkeys get in and try to answer (on behalf of the parrots) there could be issues,” Malinga said.

Comment …………………

We have selected a cricket captain as an MP and he is now a minister .Same SPORTS minister abused fat players and Arjuna was spared because his belly was not a problem when he won the world cup .If Sri Lanka won the cup in UK Malinga would have been CALLED differently. They may call him and PEA COCK (Sometime his hair makes him  a peak cock )

My opinion is that Malinga should be selected by JO as an opposition national MP so that he get parliamentary privilege, so that almost all ministers are monkeys or donkeys !

Why only Sports Minister ?

Today we see many ministers who behave like monkeys ( once PM was commenting that JO MP’s chatter like animals in the Zoo! }

We have voted for the monkeys in place of humans ,and we also should called asses ?

Dr Sarath Obeyskera

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Dear Friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information regarding Mrs. Siranji Siriyawathi Fernando. A resident of Chilaw, she migrated to Kuwait as a domestic helper in 2014. On 15 June, 2017 an official in the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau in Colombo informed Mrs. K Sumanawathi that her daughter had passed away in Kuwait. On the same day, the victim’s mother filed a complaint with the Chilaw Headquarters Police Station. She demanded that the Police Authorities set up an impartial and independent investigation into the death of her daughter.  AND SHE SEEKS JUSTICE.
CASE DETAILS:

The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information regarding Mrs. Siranji Siriyawathi Fernando (29) of Kanjukuliya, Chilaw in the Puttalam District. Siranji was a widow, her husband having died early in their marriage. They had two children, a daughter and a son. Siranji struggled to raise her two children with her mother’s help. Finally, she decided to migrate to Kuwait as a domestic helper to alleviate the severe financial difficulties she faced. She left Sri Lanka on 28 December 2014.

Three months into her job with her Kuwaiti employer, she faced relentless harassment from him. On several occasions she phoned her mother about the difficulties she was experiencing. She strongly suggested that her mother make a complaint to the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLBFE) in Colombo. She should request their assistance in relieving her dismal situation.

In April, the situation worsened. Her employer threatened to kill her. On 10 June 2017, Siranji again called her mother. She said that in addition to her main employer, the family members also made death threats against her. She is TERRORIZED and IN FEAR OF HER LIFE.

She pleaded with her mother to save her life. She urged her mother to return to the offices of the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau in Colombo and urgently request their assistance in bringing her back to Sri Lanka. The mother, Sumanawathi, went to the SLBFE and filed a written complaint. She pleaded with the officers to extricate her daughter from the dangerous situation she was in AND facilitate the return of her daughter to Sri Lanka immediately. She expressed concern about the fate of her two grandchildren. If her daughter died then the children would have no parents. She requested them to quickly take all necessary actions to bring her daughter back safely to Sri Lanka.

On the morning of 15 June, SLBFE Officers called her and informed her that Siranji was dead. They were awaiting the reception of the body to be handed over to her. The officers offered a further clarification. According to the Sri Lankan-Kuwaiti Embassy staff, her daughter Siranji’s death occurred due to strangulation by hanging. A suicide? Murder?

Sumanawathi states that she can never accept the suicide explanation given as the reason for her daughter’s death. She refutes their explanation. She wants justice. This can be done by initiating an official, independent, impartial and efficient INVESTIGATION into her daughter’s death. She is demanding an extensive Death Inquest, including a post-mortem by Sri Lankan authorities. The alleged family culprits must be searched out, held responsible before the Law and punished for their actions. In all of this, two children have lost their mother and compassion dictates adequate compensation is given for their future.

She vehemently accused the SLBFE Authority and its Officers of overt Negligence. If the Authorities had comprehensively looked into the employer’s harassment in a timely manner, her daughter would still be alive. Her life and the lives of her two children would have been saved. Siranji comes from a low- economic background. Is this why she is being denied her right to justice? Is this why Sri Lanka’s highest Authority is denying her justice??
Suggested Action:

Please send letters to the authorities listed below expressing your concern about this case. Request an immediate inquiry into the allegations of non-investigation of a complaint by the SLBFE officers. All officers involved must be examined by an internal investigation for breach of Duty of Care. Finally, please appeal to the SLBFE and the Inspector General of Police to set up a special investigation into the death of this migrant worker.

To support this case, please click here:

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear ________,

SRI LANKA: Mother Seeks Justice for the death of her migrant-worker daughter in Kuwait
Name of Victims:

1) Mrs. Siranji Siriyawathi Fernando (29) of Kanjukuliya, Chilaw in the Puttalam District
2) Two children of the victim Siranji Siriyawathi Fernando
3) K Sumanawathi of Kanjukuliya, Chilaw in the Puttalam District, the mother of the victim
Alleged Perpetrators: Officers at The Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau

Date of incident: 15 June 2017
Place of incident: Kuwait

According to information I have received regarding Mrs. Siranji Siriyawathi Fernando (29) of Kanjukuliya, Chilaw in the Puttalam District. Siranji was a widow, her husband having died early in their marriage. They had two children, a daughter and a son. Siranji struggled to raise her two children with her mother’s help. Finally, she decided to migrate to Kuwait as a domestic helper to alleviate the severe financial difficulties she faced. She left Sri Lanka on 28 December 2014.

Three months into her job with her Kuwaiti employer, she faced relentless harassment from him. On several occasions she phoned her mother about the difficulties she was experiencing. She strongly suggested that her mother make a complaint to the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLBFE) in Colombo. She should request their assistance in relieving her dismal situation.

In April, the situation worsened. Her employer threatened to kill her. On 10 June 2017, Siranji again called her mother. She said that in addition to her main employer, the family members also made death threats against her. She is TERRORIZED and IN FEAR OF HER LIFE.

She pleaded with her mother to save her life. She urged her mother to return to the offices of the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau in Colombo and urgently request their assistance in bringing her back to Sri Lanka. The mother, Sumanawathi, went to the SLBFE and filed a written complaint. She pleaded with the officers to extricate her daughter from the dangerous situation she was in AND facilitate the return of her daughter to Sri Lanka immediately. She expressed concern about the fate of her two grandchildren. If her daughter died then the children would have no parents. She requested them to quickly take all necessary actions to bring her daughter back safely to Sri Lanka.

On the morning of 15 June, SLBFE Officers called her and informed her that Siranji was dead. They were awaiting the reception of the body to be handed over to her. The officers offered a further clarification. According to the Sri Lankan-Kuwaiti Embassy staff, her daughter Siranji’s death occurred due to strangulation by hanging. A suicide? Murder?

Sumanawathi states that she can never accept the suicide explanation given as the reason for her daughter’s death. She refutes their explanation. She wants justice. This can be done by initiating an official, independent, impartial and efficient INVESTIGATION into her daughter’s death. She is demanding an extensive Death Inquest, including a post-mortem by Sri Lankan authorities. The alleged family culprits must be searched out, held responsible before the Law and punished for their actions. In all of this, two children have lost their mother and compassion dictates adequate compensation is given for their future.

She vehemently accused the SLBFE Authority and its Officers of overt Negligence. If the Authorities had comprehensively looked into the employer’s harassment in a timely manner, her daughter would still be alive. Her life and the lives of her two children would have been saved. Siranji comes from a low- economic background. Is this why she is being denied her right to justice? Is this why Sri Lanka’s highest Authority is denying her justice??

I request the intervention of your good offices. Ensure that the authorities listed below open an immediate investigation into allegations of violations of the rights of the victim by Officers of the Sri Lankan Foreign Employment Bureau (SLBFE). All officers involved should be subject to an internal investigation.

Yours sincerely,

———————
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Mr. Pujith Jayasundara
   Inspector General of Police
   New Secretariat
   Colombo 1
   SRI LANKA
   Fax: +94 11 2 440440 / 327877
   E-mail: igp@police.lk
2. Mr. Jayantha Jayasooriya PC
   Attorney General
   Attorney General’s Department
   Colombo 12
   SRI LANKA
   Fax: +94 11 2 436421
   E-mail: ag@attorneygeneral.gov.lk
3. Secretary
   National Police Commission
   3rd Floor, Rotunda Towers
   109 Galle Road
   Colombo 03
   SRI LANKA
   Tel: +94 11 2 395310
   Fax: +94 11 2 395867
   E-mail: npcgen@sltnet.lk or polcom@sltnet.lk
4. Secretary
   Human Rights Commission
   No. 36, Kynsey Road
   Colombo 8
   SRI LANKA
   Tel: +94 11 2 694 925 / 673 806
   Fax: +94 11 2 694 924 / 696 470
   E-mail: sechrc@sltnet.lk
5. Mr. R. K. Obeyesekere
   Chairman
   Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment
   No: 234
   Denzil Kobbekaduwa Mawatha
   Koswatta, Battaramulla
   Email: info@slbfe.lk

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme

Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)

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By DR. DAYAN JAYATILLEKA Courtesy The Island

The day before yesterday’s impassioned, strongly worded statement issued by the Asgiriya Chapter meant that the writing is on the wall. But there is more than one thing written on the wall, and there is also something written between the lines.

What the writing on the wall clearly says is that we have reached a point similar to that of 1955 when the Buddhist Commission issued its report. Already the government (effectively) of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe looks like that of Sir John Kotelawela in the famous Mara Yuddha cartoon, except that this leadership clique as well as its lifestyle isn’t seen as symbolized by the macho Sir John in the cartoon but more by Zou Zou Mohammed!

How do we understand the Asgiriya Chapter’s statement—because the crucial challenge is to comprehend it, whether or not one agrees with it in whole or in part (and I for one, do not). The statement is a throwback to the 1940s and 1950s, and is a nationalist cultural backlash against a perceived erosion of the national by the alien. I am greatly helped by the writings of my late father Mervyn de Silva in understanding it:

“Already, by the forties, the sensitive ear could pick up the first rumblings: the free education agitation, the Swabhasha movement, the Buddhist Commission. The challenger, the ‘new class’ which was to lead the assault was sounding the alarm, choosing the battleground and shrewdly creating the casus belli which would best rally the masses behind it. This was the necessary prelude to 1956…

Meanwhile the masses lay dormant; watching, waiting, resentful. By 1956 the equation was complete, the issues, the new class, the leader, the political alignments, the socioeconomic forces which would jet-propel the masses into action. In 1956 they moved: they moved with such a terrific momentum that it shattered the Right…

Language was not only an issue in 1956 but its banner, and it was more than a contest between parties: it was a far more fundamental clash of the “two nations”… It was more than party politics; it was social ferment…

… How do a people assert their national identity, especially a people who believe that their own way of life has been willfully neglected, disrupted or partially destroyed? How does a man do it? He searches for marks of distinction and (because his emotional need is so compulsive) stresses and overstresses them. So do a people. They find these “marks” in religion, language, customs and ceremony. This is the traditionalist impulse; it looks back.”(Mervyn de Silva, “1956: The Cultural Revolution That Shook the Left”,Ceylon Observer Magazine Edition, May 16th & 23rd, 1967)

The dominant ideology of the newly formed SLPP and perhaps increasingly the dominant ideological line of the JO seems to be the same as that of SWRD Bandaranaike after he shifted to accommodate the Sinhala Only slogan. All that’s missing from the pre-1956 scenario is the Hartal of 1953 but that too will come, though it may assume or be diverted into the grotesquely distorted ethno-religious form of 1915 unless the Left trade unions, the student unions and the JVP and FSP unions are able to dominate it.

This present government is doomed. The only question is does it happen the easy way or the hard way; does it go head first or feet first? If it (A) goes for a new Constitution any time soon or within the rest of this term, with a referendum inevitably in train, or (B) if it strives to implement the Geneva resolutions, the Asgiriya chapter’s recent move will prove only the tip of the iceberg and there will be a unified Sangha-led nationalist social avalanche which will bury the Government.

This Government can go home at a referendum or an election. But it can survive or reduce the margin of defeat (avoiding a landslide) if and only if the Ranil-Mangala-CBK crew is dumped not only by President Sirisena but by the UNP as a party, and substituted by a new “Macronist” centrist-moderate alliance consisting of the patriotic UNP, SLFP and moderate progressives of the JO.

In the alternative, the ethno-religious radical Right that has mobilized can be counterbalanced somewhat and the ratio of the gathering forces modified, only if the official SLFP cuts the tie with the Ranil-CBK Govt and goes into Opposition, taking with it dissident UNPers and drawing a moderate JO faction, thereby constituting a moderate progressive center within the opposition space.

If neither of these outcomes materialize, then we are indubitably looking at a 1956 and 1970 scenario, perhaps closer the latter than the former, given the probability of a violent post-election backlash against the UNP and collaborationist SLFP.

Since the Tamil and Muslim minorities haven’t had the prudence to hedge their bets by being shareholders of both the Government and the Opposition, backing both the UNP and the Rajapaksas, the inevitable replay of 1956-1970 will bring into office a majoritarian administration.

This in turn will benefit neither the Sinhalese nor the Sinhala Buddhists, nor the country as a whole. Just as the minorities will realize that this isn’t the country it was in 2015 still less in 1947-1956, the majority will learn that this isn’t the world and the region, of 1956, 1970, 2005 or 2009/10.

BY PANCHAMEE HEWAVISSENTI Courtesy Ceylon Today

Religious unrest in the country is one of the chief challenges that the good governance government, which promised equal rights to the followers of all religions, is faced with today. In a statement issued by the Chief Prelate of the Asgiriya Chapter of Siyam Nikaya recently, it is mentioned that Sinhala Buddhists have faced discrimination and the government should come forward to protect the Buddha Sasana and Buddhist monks, who are targeted by extremists.

In an interview with Ceylon Today, Minister of Justice and Buddha Sasana, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, stated that those who are funded by the NGOs are engaging in disrespecting Buddhist monks and creating religious unrest in the country. “Traitors who live by NGO funds need to create unrest in the country in order to retain their income. If the country is peaceful they will lose their income,” alleged the Minister. He added that some media organizations have boosted the image of NGO funded traitors who blaspheme Buddhist monks.

Excerpts of the interview:

? The Mahanayaka Thera of the Asgiriya Chapter has pointed out in a statement that those who appear in the guise of Buddhists and some non-Buddhist movements have embarked on a mission to drag the Sinhala community into a brawl by issuing racist and anti-Buddhist remarks. The Thera also disapproved of the government‘s failure to take actions against politicians who deliver racist and antagonizing speeches and its witch-hunt of the Buddhist monks who react to racist and antagonizing speeches delivered by such politicians. What is your view as the Minister of Buddha Sasana on the statement made by the Mahanayaka Thera?

A: The government has not warranted any acts pertaining to maltreatment or harming of Buddhist monks. The Mahanayaka Thera has issued the statement to condemn the statements made by some extremist groups. That statement did not censure the government.

? The Asgiriya Mahanayaka Thera also reprimanded the act of referring to Buddhist monks merely by their names, without ascribing due reverence to them, which is highly unethical in the Buddhist tradition. The Mahanayaka Thera brought this matter to the attention of the government. What actions is the Ministry of Buddha Sasana going to take against those who do not revere the Order of the Sangha in the country?

A: No one in the government is alleged to have addressed a Buddhist monk merely by the name. Such wrongs are committed by a few lunatic imbeciles. The media too highlight the statements made by those insane people. It is the responsibility of the media to be selective of what is being printed, telecast or broadcast. Without systematic filtering, media has the audacity to carry out any crap. Even today’s media appear to be atheists and have no veneration to the religion or the Buddhist monks of this country. It is unethical for the media to give publicity to those who make disrespectful statements about Buddhist monks in the country. Some extremists in fact disrespect and refer to Buddhist monks by their names.

As I know, true Buddhists never disrespect monks. Only extremist politicians speak malignantly of them.

? You are alleged to have provided a hideout for Ven. Gnanasara Thera. Any comment?

A: That implies the idea that the Minister of Justice is to be blamed for providing custody for the accused. Do you blame then Minister of Justice Rauff Hakeem for providing custody to Ven. Gnanasara Thera when the Aluthgama crisis had erupted? Has the Minister Hakeem interfered to protect Ven. Gnanasara from being apprehended?

The Minister of Justice does not have the authority to provide custody to anyone. Extremists are spreading this type of allegations to aggravate unrest in the country.

? The United National Party says it is a secular political party. As a member of the Party and as the Minister of Buddha Sasana, do you agree with this stance of the Party?

A: I totally disagree with that allegation. The UNP has nowhere mentioned to be so and there is no possibility of happening that. It is the prime duty and the responsibility of the country as a whole to safeguard the pre-eminency of Buddhism and to protect the Buddha Sasana. That responsibility does not lie with a singular political party.

? You recently said that you will take action to disbar a lawyer if he fails to apologize to the nation for his statement regarding alleged attacks on 166 Christian places of worship. Many organizations criticized your statement in support of the lawyer. As a President‘s Counsel, who is well-versed on the provisions of the law, do you think this lawyer‘s disbarment is possible?

A: He is a traitor and is in a mission to spoil the reconciliation process. He is eagerly waiting to grab an opportunity to create unrest in the country. These people behave in a manner similar to animals.

I am taking action against his statement. You can see the results in a couple of days.

? Do you agree that those who attempt to curb the voice of Sinhala Buddhists are funded by NGOs? And those NGOs pay thumping amounts of money to those who engage in portraying a bad image of Sri Lanka that the minority ethnic groups are discriminated and tortured in the country by the majority?

A: Yes, of course! The more the religious unrest is prevailing in the country, the merrier for those who live by the aids of extremist foreign organizations. Some people, for instance the alleged lawyer who claimed that 166 Christian places of worship were assaulted, openly work for NGOs and some do not publicly appear to be so. But, all of them are being funded by NGOs.

They are prepared to engage in any unethical act if they are paid well. They neither practise a religion, nor they belonged to an ethnic group, and they do not have roots. They act in accordance with the whims and fancies of NGOs. If there is no crisis in the country and if it is peaceful, those NGOs will have to pack their bags and leave the country. If so happens, they will lose their means of living. They attempt to create religious and ethnic unrest merely for their survival.

That is why they create crises in the country to retain their income. They operated during the previous regime as well. In comparison to the previous regime, the freedom of expression and freedom of media are assured by this government. Hence, their presence and activities have become intense after this government came to power.

As we have assured media freedom, the media recklessly report what these NGO funded traitors jabber before the cameras and mikes. That is also one of the main reasons to aggravate this problem. Media has no idea what should or shouldn’t be done.Nowadays we cannot find journalists. There are only reporters who report whatever is being said by someone.

? Don‘t you think that reconciliation has led to making unethical movements against Buddhists and Buddhist monks more intense as they engage in attacking the Sinhala and Buddhist community in the guise of reconciliation?

A: After we have paved the way for reconciliation in the country, NGOs and anti Buddhist and Sinhala movements began to operate with no hindrance. They abuse their freedom overtly. If this government was also to adhere to the procedures of the Mahinda regime, those movements and organizations would maintain low profiles. This government does not suppress them and have assured their freedom and that is the reason for their unwarranted behaviour.

I agree that they make use of the tender side of the reconciliation to operate in an unethical manner.

? When Buddhist monks speak against the injustices caused to the Buddha Sasana, they are being subdued with allegations of causing harm to the reconciliation of the country. Do you agree?

A: We do not subdue Buddhist monks in the country. Extremist NGO cohorts are the ones who attempt to suppress monks and Buddhists. They appear before media and blaspheme Buddhist monks. None in the government has reviled Buddhist monks.

? All Muslim politicians were united to urge the government to arrest Gnanasara Thera, in spite of their political stance. Some referred to their action of rising against a Buddhist monk and urging to arrest the monk as unethical as Sinhala Buddhists have voted to elect them. What is your view on this?

A: People belonging to an ethnic group get together when they are collectively faced with a problem. Our Sinhala politicians are not intelligent enough to do so. The Sinhala Buddhist politicians do not have the vision to get together and stand up for their own ethnicity and religion. The disunity among the Sinhalese is the main problem why we cannot solve the racist and ethnic problems.

? Do you think a Sanghadhikarana (the Buddhist Court system to solve the matters pertaining to the Bhikkus) should be introduced to Sri Lanka when a Buddhist monk is to be apprehended as it is not appropriate for lay people to arrest Buddhist monks?

A: I perceive that a Sanghadhikarana is needed for a Buddhist country like Sri Lanka. Some steps were taken to implement a Sanghadhikarana and we did not receive the approval of the Maha Sangha Ratna in the country. That can be implemented if the Buddhist monks agree on that.

? It was reported recently that Sri Lanka is targeted by ISIS recruiters. You have spoken on this subject extensively in Parliament. What do you think of this new finding?

A: That report states that Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh are targeted by the ISIS recruiter. The government takes actions to eradicate terrorism despite the religion of that terror outfit. Any government will not let terrorists thrive in the country.

? As the Minister of Buddha Sasana, do you admit that unethical conversion is taking place in the country? Have you taken any steps to bring that under control?

A: Unethical conversion does not take place in a large-scale in the country. Christians are highly affected by unethical conversions that take place in the country. Fundamentalists convert ordinary Christians to their cults. Buddhists are not being largely converted into other religions.

? Buddhist religious sites such as Kuragala, Devanagala, Muhudu Maha Viharaya and Digha Vapiya are being captured by Muslims who now claim ownership of such Buddhist sites. Many a Buddhist archaeological sites in the Eastern Province have been destroyed by Muslim settlers in those areas. Have you forwarded any proposal to preserve Buddhist archaeological sites?

A: That subject does not come under my ministry. I visited many archaeological sites in North and East that are said be in a state of controversy. I reported on the destruction of Buddhist archaeological sites to the President and the President advised the Commissioner General of Archaeology to implement a programme to preserve Buddhist archaeological sites. We deployed 2,000 members of Civil Security Force in protection of those sites. For the past 40 years no government has taken action to preserve the Buddhist archaeological sites. The Department of Archaeology has done nothing to preserve them.

? Broadcasting of Pirith chanting by some temples were inhibited after receiving complaints by non- Buddhists. This happened after the good governance government came to power and no previous regime was reprimanded for doing so. Is the Yahapalana Government in a mission to wipe out attributes of Buddhism to satisfy extremists in the name of reconciliation?

A: Chanting of Pirith is acclaimed to be sacred by Buddhists and the Bhikkus chant Pirith or broadcast them in temple for the betterment of the people. They do not earn any profit by that. Those who cannot comprehend this truth have lodged complaints against broadcasts of Pirith at temples. That is a problem with their comprehension and knowledge. Pirith is chanted to bless people and the surroundings and the Bukkhus never curse or reprimand the believers of other religions. If someone is against chanting of Pirith I can say that they lack understanding.

? Could you elaborate on the Shakya Janapadaya set up at Piliyandala, which comprises the Bodh Gaya, the palace of Suddodhana and other Buddhist religious sites existed in India?

A: This place is set up in the intention of facilitating spiritual uplift of the Buddhists. Facilities have been made for 10,000 devotees to engage in meditation. The devotees can also study Buddhist history.

It is also intended to attract Buddhist tourists to Sri Lanka. Many devotees in Sri Lanka spend colossal amounts of money to go on pilgrimage to the ruins of Buddhist sites in Bodh Gaya. We intend to save those monies from being going out of the country by encouraging the devotees to visit Shakya Janapadaya, which is a model of Shakhya Janapadaya that existed during the Buddha’s time in India.

As we decided on the International UN Vesak Day celebrations, we intend to make Sri Lanka the main hub for Buddhism in the world. We also have planned to set up vernacular media institution to propagate Buddhism to the world.

? For what purpose have you acquired the controversial Malwana bungalow that was said to have belonged to Basil Rajapaksa formerly?

A: I presented a Cabinet Paper with that regard and I was granted permission to use that property. We intend to convert that bungalow into a training centre for law students. We also intend to set up a Police Training School in a part of that premises.

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando

To set up an airline and operate is an arduous task. Running it profitably is even much harder and demanding. In such a backdrop the National Carrier (Air Ceylon) established in 1947 has gone through a metamorphosis at various stages without a having a single accident reported.  When the Government declared bankruptcy on Air Ceylon, Air Lanka was established with Singapore Airlines, who did not have any ulterior motives to exploit the national carrier. Subsequently UTA negotiated an agreement in 1971 with the promise of training hundreds of pilots to fly bigger aircrafts. That relationship too ended up on 31 August 1979.

Subsequently, Sri Lankan government signed an agreement for a ten-year strategic partnership with Emirates Group, which included exclusive rights for all aircraft ground handling and airline catering at Bandaranaike  International airport. Emirates’s share capital of 40% stake was worth US$70 million (which it later increased to 43.6%). Although the government retained majority of shares of the airline, full control was given to Emirates for investment and management decisions. In 1998, the Air Lanka changed its corporate image to SriLankan Airlines, thus losing its years of earned publicity and reputation as Air Lanka.

By 1998 Emirates decided not to renew the Sri Lankan Management contract  claiming the Sri Lanka government was seeking greater control over the day-to-day management of the airline, thus ended their contract on 31 March 2008. Emirates sold their 43.63% shares to the government of Sri Lanka. By 2010 the airlines ended any relationship with each other. The accumulated profit of SriLankan Airlines in that financial year was Rs.9.288 billion when Emirates pulled out.  Political interference and installation of square pegs into round holes created the depressing scenario (From 2008 to 2015 when the Rajapaksa administration ran it), where the loss for the seven years was Rs. 128.238 billion (US$875 million).

Corruption.

In the recent past SriLankan airlines has been accused of  corruption, and the former Chairman lacking the experience or formal education that would qualify him to be the head of an airline, which has been the cause for the airline to lose hundreds of millions of rupees from the time company’s management was taken back from Emirates Airlines!

In October 2015, the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to Investigate and Inquire into Serious Acts of Fraud, Corruption and Abuse of Power, State Resources and Privileges (PRECIFAC) attempted to summon the former Chairman to inquire about various irregularities in the Airline; however, it became a futile  attempt as his wife  seemed to have claimed  that she was unaware of his warebouts, and he had not  come home for three years ! Later he had notified the PRECIFAC that he was abroad, and was unable to give a statement.

Financial Mess

The Unity Government since coming into power has had to face a major financial issue in trying to find ways and means of bailing out the National carrier, which appear to have been in a real arduous task. According to SriLankan statement quoted in the Press, even during under the present government, the year 2016-2017, the draft loss to the airline has been Rs.27.7 billion. Government efforts to woo several international airlines to take over, or even come into partnership with SriLankan Airways has so far been unsuccessful, instead the government had run into deeper problems although operational costs appear to be impressive. This was believed to be purely due to political interference in the past whereby installation of square pegs into round holes has created the present scenario.

State Minister for State Enterprise Development, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, was quoted recently in the press as saying, what the government was trying to find out was ‘why the airline is still accumulating losses when all the flights seemed to be fully booked. Given the serious financial issues, the airline would find it difficult to function beyond September unless other financial arrangements are done’.

Open Tender

With this in view, a tender procedure has been followed where there had been nine proposals to invest in SriLankan Airlines, out of which only three were shortlisted. Subsequently, even those three shortlisted bids have been rejected.  In the meanwhile, as the writer understands, an unsolicited bidder, from an aviation consortium, has handed over their proposal to the Prime Minister on 19 April 2017.

Their attractive impressive proposal seems to include an initial investment of 5 billion Euros, and an additional remittance of 10 billion to an Astro account to immediately bail out the government with an added undertaking of settling all the outstanding debts of the Airline and restructure it to a profitable level. For this purpose, it is mentioned they have negotiated with Japan Airlines to come as a joint venture Partner without any investment from Japanese but only for the purpose of prestige value. The Consortium has also given the assurance that the Airline would be handed back to the Sri Lanka Government within twelve years.

Should the Government decide to reconsider in getting back to the same old union with Emirates for whatever reasons, critics say Emirates Airlines does not invest any money and the damaged done by Emirates during 1998 and 2008 is highlighted as follows:

1. All SITA shares were sold out. Operation system of telegraphic.
2. Solely owned 06 Aircraft (340) sold out, and bought replacements on lease basis.
3. Prestigious landing rights maintained by Air Ceylon, later Emirates used for AirLanka for their benefit and finally few were sold out.
4. Hanger awarded by manufacturers when purchasing 08 aircraft was fixed at the Dubai base instead in Sri Lanka.
5. Profits were secretly transferred including international operations.
6. One simulator (used for Pilot training) received in 2002 when purchased 06 x 330 aircraft was also fixed at Dubai Centre instead of at Bandaranaike airport.
7. Total operating system was centralised and taken to Dubai and operated all information, intelligence, IT, including the Call Centre.
8. Monitoring of sales information and training utilised for their own manipulation of marketing and corporate clientele.
9. Changing of the name from AirLanka to SriLankan, including the airline’s logo has affected years of publicity earned by the national carrier.
10. On ‘information Arrival – Departures Boards’ at International airports, National Carrier (Air Ceylon) name which appeared on top of the list has been pushed down further to ‘ coincide with the ‘S’ stands for SriLankan Airlines, according to the alphabetical order.
11. Manipulation of the entire ticketing system and installed in Dubai to be favourable to them which means first to sell the Emirates tickets and then the Sri Lankan.
12. Violating the Staff Collective Agreement.
13. Introduced the  (Business Module) operating system in their favour.

If Emirates are given the second chance, critics say:

1. They will grab the remaining landing rights.
2. Manipulate Code sharing and continue with One World Alliance.
3. Emirates are not happy with SriLankan Airlines operating to Australia and London routes as Emirates operations will be affected, as such, they will want to block and operate those routes solely by Emirates from Dubai.
4. Receive new 30 aircraft ordered by Emirates having created a major issue by, where to run and parking with the present global airline crisis.
5. Plan and block London & Australian operations, including the balance SriLankan rights, thereby to limit SriLankan to a regional airline.
6. To destroy the International worldwide airline title.
7. Emirates joining SriLankan Airlines without a single investment, but showing the already purchased aircraft as an eye wash, thus misleading Sri Lankan government and officials.
8. Especially when the Government of Sri Lanka is concentrating on the expansion of future tourism, utilizing its own airline image, confining the national carrier, as a regional operation will destroy all Sri Lankan government aspirations.
9. Years of efforts in the form of prestige building and publicity with its name ‘Air Ceylon’ since 1947, AirLanka, will be totally lost with SriLankan

Air Line business generally has many variables and challenges such as it is capital-intensive, thus making it fiercely competitive.  As far as the capital investment is involved, Japan Airlines will not have to worry about any type of financial investment in this instance, as the Consortium will be financing the project on their own right. Should the Japan Airlines takes over the responsibility of running Sri Lankan Airways, then the labour incentive operational costs could be minimised, because of Sri Lankan low cost labour, including that of Sri Lankan pilots, will be comparatively beneficial to Japan airlines. Invitation to join Japanese appears to be purely on an image building exercise, and with possible and available increased recourses for a mutual benefit.

The consortium seems to believe that with their know- how and experience of Japan Airline Management, it will be possible to identify the need to enhance its understanding and experience of the mechanisms of and implications of code share agreements,  in order to better fulfill its role of ensuring fair competition within the world wide airline markets

tilakfernando@gmail.com

තේජා ගොඩකන්දෙආරච්චි

මගේ ආදරණීය ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට කුමක් සිදුවීද? සිදු වෙමින් පවතින්නේද? අද වනවිට මේ වසර තුල වාර්තා වූ ඩෙංගු රෝගීන් සංඛ්‍යාව 63,000 ඉක්මවයි. මින් 42.6% ක් ම බස්නාහිර පලාතෙනි. කිරි – කැකිරි න්‍යාය අනුව ගෙන බැලූ කල්හි කිරි හා කැකිරි යන දෙකම වැඩිපුරම ලැබෙන්නේ බස්නාහිර පලාතටය. නමුත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ  සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍යවරයාට මේ ගැන කියන්නට නොයෙක් කතා ඇත. ඩෙංගු වෛරසය මර්ධනය කරන බැක්ටීරියාවක් ඔස්ට්‍රේලියාවෙන් ගෙන්වීම, ඩෙංගු කීටයාව අනුභව කරන ‘ශාක භක්ෂක‘ (?) මදුරුවෙකු බෝ කිරීම මේ දන්ත වෛද්‍යවරයා ලඟ ඇති විසඳුම්ය. ඒ සමගම පසුගිය දිනෙක ඔහු පැවසුවේ ඩෙංගු පැතිරීම යනු සංවර්ධනය වේගවත් වීමේ ලක්ෂණයක් බවය!!

ඩෙංගු රෝගය ගැන දිනපතා විකාශනය වන ප්‍රවෘත්ති ඉතා දුක්ඛිත ස්වරූපයක් ගනී. එක ඇඳක රෝගීන් දෙදෙනෙකු හෝ තිදෙනෙකු සිටින අතර ඇඳ අතිරිලි එලාගෙන බිම වැතිර සිටින පිරිස නිමක් නැත. නමුත් ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානයෙන් අපේ සෞඛ්‍ය ඇමතිවරයාට සම්මානද පිරිනමා ඇති අතර ඔහු තම දත් වහල්ලද පා ගෙන සිනාසෙමින් මේ සම්මාන භාර ගැන්ම තරම් ලැජ්ජා නැති ක්‍රියාවක් ලෝකයේ තවත් ඇත්දැයි සිතේ. නමුත් ඔහු නම් ප්‍රතිකාර ලබා ගන්නට යන්නේ සිංගප්පූරුවේ මවුන්ට් එලිසබෙත් රෝහලටය. 2016 මාර්තු මාසයේදී එසේ ප්‍රතිකාර ගෙන සියරට පැමිනි සෞඛ්‍ය ඇමතිවරයා පැවසුවේ මවුන්ට් එලිසබෙත් වැනි සියලු නවීන අංගෝපාංග සහිත රෝහල් 3 ක් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ හදන්නට තමා දැනටමත් විදේශීය සමාගම් සමග ගිවිසුම් අත්සන් කර ඇති බවය. එමෙන්ම මහරගම පිලිකා රෝහලට බලවත් අඩුපාඩුවක්ව තිබූ පෙට් ස්කෑන් යන්ත්‍රයක් මිලට ගැනීමට රජය විසින් අහක බලාගෙන සිටි වෙලාවේ මහජනතාව විසින් රු. කෝටි 20 ක මුදලක් එක්රැස් කරන ලදී. 2016 ජුනි 13 වනදා එම මුදල සම්පූර්ණ විය. ජුනි 15 වන දින මාධ්‍ය හමුවේදී මාධ්‍යවේදීන් මේ ගැන ප්‍රශ්න කලවිට සෞඛ්‍ය ඇමතිවරයා පැවසුවේ, ජනතාව තම මුදල් රැස් කරද්දී තමන් ඇනවුම්කල පෙට් ස්කෑනරය දැනටමත් මග එන බවයි. එමෙන්ම මාධ්‍යයන් එක උපකරණයක් ගැන පමනක් කතා කරද්දී තමන් ජනාධිපතිතුමා සමග එක්ව ජුලි 4 වන දා හක්මන ‘රෝහලක්ම‘ විවෘත කරන බවද ඔහු එදා පැවසීය. දැන් වසරක් ගතවී ඇත. ‘දැනටමත් මග එන‘ බව කී පෙට් ස්කෑනරය තබා ජනතා මුදලින් මිලට ගන්නට අපේක්ෂා කල පෙට් ස්කෑනරයවත් මෙරටට ආ බවක් දැන ගන්නට නැත. හදන්නට ගිවිසුම් අත්සන්කල රෝහල් 3 තබා විවෘත කරනවාය කී රෝහලත් නැත. අප අද ඩෙංගු වසංගතය පිටු දැකීම සඳහා යමක් අපේක්ෂා කල යුත්තේ මෙවැනි දිවේ ලොම් ඇති ගනයේ, බොරුවම තම ආත්මය කර ගත්තා වූද, ජනතාවගේ සහ මාධ්‍යවේදීන්ගේ මතක ශක්තිය හා බුද්ධිය දෙකේ කොළයට දමා සලකන්නා වූද අති අමානුෂික සහ පහත් ගතිගුණ ඇති සෞඛ්‍ය ඇමතිවරයෙකු සමගය.

අද රට පුරා පැතිර යන ඩෙංගු වසංගතය ගැන රජයේ නොවන මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් නැඟූ ප්‍රශ්න සඳහා සෞඛ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය රාජිත සේනාරත්න පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී ඊයේ (ජුනි 20 දා) විශේෂ ප්‍රකාශයක් කලේය. මෙම ප්‍රශ්න කිරීම ගැන තමා නොදැන සිටි බව ඔහුගේ පලමු වචන කිහිපය වීය. රටේ මෙවන් බරපතල වසංගත තත්වයක් මතුව ඇතිවිට සෞඛ්‍ය ඇමති ලෙස මේ ගැන කතා කිරීම තම වගකීමක් බවවත් ඔහු නොදනී!!  ඔහුගේ ප්‍රකාශය වගකිව යුතු ඇමතිවරයෙකුගෙන් අපේක්ෂා කල හැකි වචන නොවේ. හුදෙක් නිදහසට කරුණු දැක්වීමකි.

ඔහු දන්නා කරුණු අනුව (සාමාන්‍යයෙන් ඔහු නොදන්නා දෙයක් නැත) 2009 දී ඩෙංගු රෝගය නිසා මියගිය සංඛ්‍යාව 349 කි. ඩෙංගු අසාදිත ජනගහනය  1% කි.  නමුත් මේ වසරේ ඩෙංගු අසාදිත ජනගහනය .3% කි. (දැනට 200 ක ට ආසන්න පිරිසක් මියගොස් ඇති බව සඳහන් වූයේ නැත) ලෝක සෞඛ්‍ය සංවිධානය අප රටේ සෞඛ්‍ය ක්ෂේත්‍රයට ප්‍රශංසා කරයි. 2009 සහ 2017 අතරතුර වර්ෂ ගැන කතාවක් නැත. ඔහුට මේවා නිකම්ම සංඛ්‍යා ලේඛණ නමුත් මේ ගණන් හිලව්වලින් කතා කරන්නේ මනුෂ්‍ය ජීවිත ගැනය. සෞඛ්‍ය ඇමති ලෙස මොහුගේ මේ ස්ථාවරය ලැජ්ජා සහගතය.

2009 දී සිටි සෞඛ්‍ය ඇමතිවරයාද අද සිටින්නේ යහපාලන කැබිනෙට්ටුවේමය.

ගංවතුර සහ නායයාම්වලින් පුද්ගලයන් ලක්ෂ සංඛ්‍යාවක් අවතැන්ව තවම මාසයක්වත් ගෙවී ගියේ නැත. වැස්ස නතර වී ගංවතුර බැස ගිය පසු මාධ්‍ය තුල ඒ කතා අවසන්ව යන විට එයට මුහුණ පෑ ජනතාව ගැන මතකයද පොදු ජනයාගේ සිතින් කෙමෙන් ගිලිහී යයි. එහි අසාධාරණයක් නොමැත. ඒ මිනිසුන්ටද සිතන්නට ප්‍රශ්න ඉහටත් උඩින් තිබේ. මේවා ගැන වගකීම තිබෙන්නේ ‘අපි කරන්නම්‘ කියා උඩ පැනගෙන බලය ලබා ගන්නා රට කරවන අය අතේය. මියගිය අය ගැන කතා අවසානය. නමුත් ජීවත්ව සිටින අය? ආපදාවකට ගොදුරු වී, තමන් ජීවිත කාලයක්ම හරි හම්බ කරගත් දේ සියල්ල විනාශ වී ගිය පසු යලිත් තමන් පෙර සිටි තත්වයට එන්නට කොපමන කල් ගතවේද, එය ඉටුකර ගන්නේ කෙසේද යන ප්‍රශ්න ඉතිරි වන්නේ ඔවුන්ටය. අප්‍රේල් මාසයේදී මීතොටමුල්ලේ  සිදු වූ ඛෙදවාචකය තුල කසල බැහැර කිරීම සම්බන්ධව විශාල කතිකාවක් රට තුල ගොඩ නැගීගෙන ආ මුත්, දැන් යලි ඒ සියල්ල නතර වී, අලුත් තැනකින් ඇරඹී ඇත. අද වනවිට කසල බැහැර කරන විධිමත් ක්‍රමවේදයක් නැතිකමින් කොළඹ සහ රටේ බොහෝ නගරවල තතවය බෙහෙවින් අප්‍රසන්න වෙමින් පවතී. ඩෙංගු රෝගය වසංගතයක් ලෙසින් පැතිර යාමට ප්‍රධාන හේතුව මෙයයි. දැන් අරණායක නායයාම සිදුවී වසරකට වැඩිය. අදටත් ඒ අවතැන්වූ ජනතාව රැඳී සිටින, අව්වට වැස්සට හසුව ඉරී පරණ වුන කූඩාරම් වටා ලඳු කැලෑද වැවී ඇත. මෑතකදී ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී නාමල් රාජපක්ෂ රාජ්‍ය නිළධාරීන් පිරිසක් සමග ඒ ජනතාව හමුවන්නට ගියවිට ඒ ගැන කෝප වූ පලාතේ නියෝජ්‍ය ඇමතිවරයෙක්, නාමල් සමග එම චාරිකාවට එක්වූ නිළධාරීන් දුෂ්කර පලාත්වලට මාරු කරන බව කියා ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ තර්ජනය කලේය. අප රටේ දේශය හා දේශපාලනය යන සාධකයන් අතර සම්බන්ධය මෙබඳුය. එම දේශපාලකයාට අනුව වරද  ඇත්තේ උන්හිටි තැන් අහිමිව ගිය ජනතාව වසරක් ගතවීත් අදටත් කිසිදු අරමුණක් හෝ පෙනෙන මානයේ විසඳුමක් නැතිව කූඩාරම්වල දිවි ගෙවන්නට සලස්වා ඇති පාලන ක්‍රමයේ නොව ඒ ජනතාවගේ තත්වය විමර්ශනය කරන්නට ගිය නිළධාරීන් අතය. එම නිළධාරීන් මේ මිනිසුන්ගේ සැබෑ තත්වය දන්නවා ඇත. බලයේ සිටින දේශපාලකයාගේ බිය ඇත්තේ එතැනය. මේ තොරතුරු විරුද්ධවාදීන්ගේ අතට ගියොත් යන බිය මිසෙක මේ ජනතාව ගැන හිතේ අමාරුවක් මොහුට නැති බව මින් පැහැදිලි වෙයි.

කැලිකසල ප්‍රශ්නයද එසේමය. කොළඹ නගරයේ කසල සංවිධානාත්මක පිරිසක් විසින් ගොඩගසන බවට කොළඹ මහ නගර සභාවේ නාගරික කොමසාරිස්වරයා චෝදනා කරයි. සැමදාම පරිදි ඔහුද අල්ලාගෙන සිටින්නේ ප්‍රශ්නයේ මුලින් නොව අග කෙලවරෙනි. කැලි කසල බැහැර කිරීම පිලිබඳ ප්‍රශ්නය අද ඊයෙක සිට නොව දශක ගණනාවක සිට පැවත එන්නකි. කසල කලමණාකරනය ගැන වැඩසටහනක් නොමැතිව තමන්ට අවැසි පරිදි කොතැනක හෝ හිස් බිමකට පටවා නිදහස් විය හැකි පාලන ක්‍රමයක් අපට තිබෙන්නේ දිගු කලෙක සිටය. මේ ගැන බරපතල සංවාදයක් ඇති වූයේ මීතොටමුල්ල කසල කන්ද එහි පාමුල ජීවත් වූවන්ගේ හිස මත කඩා වැටුන විටය.

දින තුනක් ඇතුලත කොළඹ පිරී ඉතිරෙන කසල ඉවත් නොකලොත් බස්නාහිර පලාත් මහ ඇමති පදවියෙන් ඉසුර දේවප්‍රියව නෙරපා දමන බවට ජනාධිපති (පරිසර ඇමති) තර්ජනය කල බව පුවත්පත්වල සඳහන් විය. කෙසේ වුවත් සතියක් ඉක්මෙන්නට පලමුව තමන් කසල සියල්ල ඉවත් කරවන බව කී මහ ඇමතිවරයා ජනාධිපති තමන්ට තර්ජනය කල කතාව බොරුවක් බව පැවසීය. මේවායේ ඇත්ත බොරු කෙසේ වෙතත් අද ඉසුර දේවප්‍රියට තම තානාන්තරය ඇපයට තබා කරගසා ගන්නට සිදුවූ කුණුගොඩ පිලිබඳව සැබෑවටම වගකිව යුතු වන්නේ කවුද? අද කසල සම්බන්ධව ප්‍රශ්නය ගැන වගකීම ‘සංවිධානාත්මක කල්ලි‘ මත පටවමින් කර අරින කොළඹ මහ නගර සභාව පසුගිය කාලය තුල මේ සම්බන්ධව කලේ කුමක්ද? කොළඹ මහ නගර සභාවේ හිටපු පුණ්‍ය කටයුතු පිලිබඳ කොමසාරිස්වරයා තමා ලත් දැනුම හා ඉගෙනුම අනුව සකස්කල කසල කලමණාකරන යෝජනා සැලැස්ම කුණු කූඩයට ගිය අතර, ඔහුට බලංගොඩට දඬුවම් මාරුවක් ලැබිනි. මේ අපේ දේශපාලන සංස්කෘතියයි. මිනිසුන්ට හානි සිදුවනවිට අඩු තරමින් ඒ ගැන හඬක් නගන්නටවත් හැකියාවක් ඔවුන්ට ඇත. නමුත් පරිසරයට හා සත්ව ප්‍රජාවට සිදුවන හානි? මනම්පිටියේ ජල ගැලුම් නිම්නයේ හෝ හම්බන්තොට හෝ දඹුල්ලේදී මේ තත්වයේ දරුණුකම ගැන වැටහීමක් ලබාගත හැක. මෙවන් දේ සමග ගැට ගැසී එන කරුණු රාශියකි. මේ සියල්ලටම මුල ඉතා වැරදි ලෙස දේශපාලනීකරනය වූ සමාජ රටාවක් තුල අන්තර්ගත වන අනිටු පල විපාකයන්ය. 

මේ වන විට පලාත් පාලන ආයතන දේශපාලනික වශයෙන් අක්‍රීය වී වසර දෙකකට වැඩිය. එබැවින් පලාත් පාලන ආයතන හරහා කෙරෙන්නට නියමිත බොහෝ වැඩ කටයුතු ඉතා දරුණු ලෙස අඩාලව ඇත. රජය මෙම පලාත් පාලන මැතිවරණය පවත්වන්නට මෙතරම් පසුපසට අදින්නේ ඇයි? පලාත් පාලන ඇමති ලෙස රජයෙන් ලැබෙන සියලු වරප්‍රසාද භුක්ති විඳින ෆයිසර් මුස්තාපාට මේ ගැන පවසන්නට හැමදාම මෝඩ පහේ හේතුවක් තිබේ. මැතිවරණ කොමසාරිස්වරයා වන මහින්ද දේශප්‍රිය මැතිවරණ කොමිසම් සභාවේ සභාපතිද වෙයි. එදා 2015 දී මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂව ගෙදර යවන්නට ඒකරාශී වූ පෙරමුණේදී සිංහ සෙයියාවෙන් කට පත්ත ඇදගෙන තම භූමිකාව ඉටුකල ඔහු අද පවසන්නේ තමන්ට බලයක් නැති බවය. වඩා දරදඬු කුමන රජයද කියා මෙයින් නොපෙනේද? එදා පැවසූ පරිදි ඔහුට සවිමත් පිටකොන්දක් ඇතිනම්, ඔහුට පක්ෂයකුත් නැතිනම්, තමන්ට බලයක්ද නැති තැන කුමට මේ රජයේ කුණු කොන්ත්‍රාත් කර ගසාගෙන අදිනවාද? හරිනම් ඔහුට තිබෙන්නේ කලින් ඔහු පවසමින් සිටි පරිදි විශ්‍රාම යාමටය. නිකම් තමන්ගෙන් ප්‍රශ්න අසන මාධ්‍යවේදීන්ට බුරාගෙන පැන්නාට හෝ දෙකයි පණහේ විහිලු තහලු කලාට මේ ප්‍රශ්න නොවිසඳේ. දැන් පෙනෙන හැටියට නම් ඔහු 2015 දී ඉටුකල භූමිකාව සඳහා ඔහුද යමකු අතේ නැටවුන රූකඩයක් වූ බව පැහැදිලිය. අවසානයේදී මේ සියලු ආත්මාර්ථකාමී, ජඩ පාලකයන්ගේ සහ නිළධාරීන්ගේ එකතුව මහා කුණු ගොඩක් බවට හැරී ජන ජීවිත වසාගෙන පැතිරී යයි. 

ස්වභාවික ආපදා පිලිබඳ තත්වයද එසේමය. 2011 දී ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ගෙන්වූ ඩොප්ලර් රෙඩාර් යන්ත්‍රය පිලිබඳ කතාව මෑතකදී යලි ඇදී ආවේය. එවකට ආපදා කලමණාකරන ඇමතිව සිටියේ මහින්ද අමරවීරය. අද ඔහු පසුවන්නේ මීලඟ අගමැති වීමේ සිහිනයෙන් බව පෙනේ. ඔහු සිහිනෙන් මෙන් නන් දොඩවන්නේ ඒ අනුව විය යුතුය. තමාට පැවරී ඇති ධීවර අමාත්‍යංශය ඉතා දූෂිත එකක් වූ බවත්, මේ රජය වෙන කිසිදු රජයක් නොකල තරම් ආපදා වින්දිතයන්ට උදව් උපකාර කල බවත් ඔහු පවසයි. වෙන කවර දා වත් නොවූ පරිදි ආපදාවන් සිදුවේ නම්, එම ආපදා ඇතිවන පරිදි කටයුතු සිදුවන්නේ රාජ්‍ය අනුග්‍රහය ඇතිවද නම් වෙන කවරදාවත් නැති පරිදි ආපදා වින්දිතයන්ට උදව් කරන්නටත් සිදුවීම ප්‍රත්‍යක්ෂය. අනික ඔහුට ලැබෙනවිට ධීවර අමාත්‍යංශය දූෂිතව තිබූ බව පවසනවිට මින් පෙර ධීවර ඇමතිව සිටියේ කවුද කියා ඔහුට මතක්විය යුතුය. අද සෞඛ්‍ය ක්ෂේත්‍රයට අත්වී ඇති ඉරණම දකිනවිට මෙයට පෙර ධීවර අමාත්‍යංශය ඉහවහා ගිය දූෂිත බවඔප්පු වනවාක් මෙන්ම අද ආපදාවන් ඇතිවීම සහ ඒවා කලමණාකරනය කිරීම ගැන කතා කරනවිට මීට පෙර ආපදා කලමණාකරන අමාත්‍යංශයේ තිබූ දූෂිත බව හා නොසැලකිලිමත් බවද ඔප්පුවේ.

දැන් සිටින නායකයා එනම් ජනාධිපතිවරයා නම් මොන්ටිසෝරි බබෙකු බඳුය. ඉහ උඩ කසල කඳු ගොඩගැසී තිබියදී, ආපදාවලින් රටම වෙලී පෙඟී වැලලී යද්දී ඔහු කිසිවක් සිදු නොවුනා සේ ඉන්දීය අගමැති සමග ස්කයිප් ඔස්සේ කතා කරමින් යෝග ව්‍යායාම්වල යෙදේ. (සුපුරුදු පරිදි ඒ සඳහා අලුතෙන් නිර්මාණය වූ ටී ෂර්ට් එක සහ කැප් තොප්පියද ඇත) පරිසරයද භාර මොහුටය.  පසුගිය රජයේ 2011 දක්වා හිටපු ආපදා කලමණාකරන ඇමති රිෂාඩ් බදුර්දීන්ගේ මූලිකත්වයෙන් සිදුකරන විල්පත්තු වන විනාශය සාධාරණීකරනය කල ඔහු අද එලුවන්කුලම දෙසින් සිදුවන වන විනාශයද නොදැක්කා සේ සිටියි. තමන්ට මුතුරාජවෙලට කසල බැහැර කරන්නට අණ දුන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා බව ඇමති ජෝන් අමරතුංග ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ පැවසුවද එය ඔහුගේ බුද්ධි පථයට අසුව ඇති බවක් නොපෙනේ. පසුගිය දවස්වල ඔහුට තිබුනු බරපතලම ප්‍රශ්නය කැබලිතිගොල්ලෑවේ උස්සලගොඩ සුසාන භූමියක තිබී අසුවූ තමාට එරෙහිව කලාය කියන හූනියමයි. මෙවන් ළදරු මානසිකත්වයක් ඇති ජනාධිපතිවරයෙකු තරම් හූනියමක් රටකට තවත් වෙත්ද?

කසල වර්ගීකරනය නොකරනවායි ජනතාවට දොස් පවරන රජය ඒ සඳහා කසල බඳුන් ලබා දීමට කටයුතු නොකරන්නේ ඇයි? මෙය අද රටේ ප්‍රමුඛතාවය බවට පත්විය යුතුව තිබියදී එය එසේ නොවන්නේ මූල්‍ය අර්බුද නිසා විය යුතුය. ඇමතිවරුන්ගේ රථ ගායට මෙන්ම ඊලඟ චන්දය සඳහා තම නමට ඉදිරියෙන් ලකුණු දමා ගැනීම උදෙසා විවිධ අමාත්‍යංශයන් යටතේ සැමදාම පවත්වන නිරර්ථක උත්සව ආදියට නිකරුණේ වැයවන මුදල් කන්දරාව නවතීනම් මේ මුදල සුලු දෙයක් වනු ඇත. දැනටමත් රටේ පවතින පාලන ව්‍යුහයන් සහ අපතේ යන විශේෂඥ දැනුම් සම්භාරයන් ඵලදායි ලෙස යොදා ගන්නේනම් මෙය අසීරු ඉලක්කයක් නොවේ.

මේ සියලු කරදර අමතක කර සිනාසෙන්නට වටින කතාවක්ද ඇසිනි. හිටපු අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ඩඩ්ලි සේනානායක මහතාගේ 106 වන ජන්ම සමරුව නිමිත්තෙන් පැවති උත්සවයේදී කරු ජයසූරිය, වත්මන් කථානායකවරයා අපූරු කතාවක් කීවේය. එනම් ඩඩ්ලි සේනානායක මහතා විධායක ජනාධිපතිකම නිසා අත්විය හැකි පල විපාක ගැන ඉතා ඍණාත්මකව කරුණු කල් තබාම කතාකල බවය. පුදුමය කියන්නේ ඔය කටු ඔටුණ්න කාගේ නිර්මාණයක්ද කියා මොවුන්ට අමතක වීමය. දැන් දැන් සිදුවන ආපදා නිසා මොලය මංඥං වී ඇති නිසා, යන යන කුණු බේරුවල බොක්කටමය කීවාක් මෙන් එයද මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂගේ ගිණුමටම බැර කරන්නට යනවාවත්ද? සමහරවිට විධායක ජනාධිපති පදවියේ සැබෑ නිර්මාතෘ වන ජේ. ආර්. ජයවර්ධනගේ ජන්ම දිනය වන සැප්තැම්බර් 17 දින හෝ ඔහු මියගිය නොවැම්බර් 1 වන දින පවත්වන උත්සවයකදී මොවුන්ට මේ බව මතක් වනවා ඇත. 

ඒ අතර හමුදාව කුණු අදින්නට යොදා ගන්නට අපේක්ෂා කරන බවත් එය ‘ගෝඨාභය‘ ද කල බවත් සෞඛ්‍ය ඇමතිවරයා මෑතකදී පැවසීය. මෙය හමුදාව සහ හිටපු ආරක්ෂක ලේකම්වරයා අතර විරසකයක් ඇති කරන්නට මෙන්ම ඔහු ජනතාව අතර අප්‍රසන්න කිරීමේ තැතක් වූ අතර තමා ජනාධිපතිව සිටිනා තාක් හමුදාව කුණු අදින්නට නොයොදවන බව කියා ලකුණු දමා ගන්නට ජනාධිපතිවරයා වහා කටයුතු කලේද මෙම උපක්‍රමයේ දිගුවක් ලෙස විය යුතුය.

කෙසේ වුවද 2015 දී මොවුන් භාර ගන්නාවිට තිබූ සුන්දර කොළඹ නගරය දැන් අන්ත අපායක්ව ගොසිනි. මේවා ගැන පසුගිය රජයට දොස් පවරනු වෙනුවට බය නැතිව මැතිවරණයකට ගොස් අද අක්‍රීය වී ඇති පලාත් පාලන ආයතන නැවත සක්‍රීයකර වගකීම් නිසි පරිදි බෙදා හරිනවා නම් අද පවතින ප්‍රශ්න බොහොමයකට පිලිතුරු ලැබෙනු ඇත.

ලංකා සී නිවුස්

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ රජය පෙරලා දැමීමට ක්‍රියාත්මක වූ සිවිල් සංවිධානයන් අතර එවකට ප්‍රබල චරිතයක් වු උලපනේ ශ්‍රි සුමංගල හිමි ඇතුළු සිවිල් සංවිධාන ක්‍රියාකාරින් පිරිසක් එම ආණ්ඩුව වෙනස් කිරීමෙන් පසුව එනම් 2016 ජනවාරි 14 වෙනිදා දූෂණ විරෝධී පෙරමුණ පිහිටුවා ගත්හ. විස්තරය මෙතනින්

එම දූෂණ විරෝධී පෙරමුණේ සභාපති ලෙස උලපනේ ශ්‍රි සුමංගල හිමියන් කටයුතු කරන අතර එහි ලේකම් ලෙස කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් කටයුතු කරයි. මෙහි කාර්යාලය රාජගිරියේ වැලිකඩ වත්ත පාරේ පිහිටුවා තිබෙන අතර එම කාර්යාලය ජනාධිපති සම්බන්ධීකරණ ලේකම් ශ්‍රිරාල් ලක්තිලක මහතාගේ රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධානයට අයත් කාර්යාලයේ කොටසක මෙසේ පිහිටුවා ඇත. Link

https://youtu.be/3TxRqBz9hDQ

එම දූෂණ විරෝධී පෙරමුණ පසුගිය රජයේ අමාත්‍යවරුන්ට මෙන්ම රජයේ නිලධාරින්ට විරුද්ධව පොලිස් විශේෂ මූල්‍ය අපරාධ කොට්ඨාසය FCID වෙත පැමිණිලි භාර දුන් අතර එහි පැමිණිලිකරු වශයෙන් ද උලපනේ ශ්‍රි සුමංගල හිමියනගේ සභාපතිත්වයෙන් යුත් දූෂණ විරෝධී පෙරමුණ කටයුතු කරයි. එවැනි කල පැමිණිලි එම පෙරමුණේ වෙබ් අඩවියෙන් Link

එසේ දූෂණ විරෝධී පෙරමුණේ සභාපති ලෙස ක්‍රියාත්මක වන ජනාධිපති කාර්යාලය සමඟ නිරන්තරයෙන් සම්බන්ධකම් පවත්වන උලපනේ ශ්‍රි සුමංගල හිමියන් ගලගොඩාත්තේ හිමියන් සඳහා ඇප දීමට කොළඹ මහේස්ත්‍රාත් අධිකරණයට ගොස් ඇප ලබාගැනිමෙන් පසුව මාධ්‍ය ඉදිරියේ ප්‍රකාශ කොට සිටිමෙන් පැහැදිලි වනුයේ මෙම සියලු ක්‍රියාකාරකම් පසුපස සිටින්නේ කවුදැයි මෙම සියලු විස්තර හැදාරිමෙන් මනා අවබෝධ කර ගත හැකිය. Link

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Dear Friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information regarding Mr. Kaluthantri Arachchilage Shanka Sanjaya Perera (24). On 17 June 2017, returning home after work, he was illegally arrested and detained by police officers attached to the Pamunugama Police Station. He was not involved in any crime. The Police Officers stopped him and demanded to see his National Identity Card (ID). He told the officers that it is in his home just a few yards away. He asked the officers to return home with him to get his ID. Instead, the officers brought him to the Pamunugama Police Station and placed him in a cell. The next morning, 18 June, his mother and two sisters requested the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) to release him on Police Bail under the Bail Act. Mr.Perera stated that the Police acted arbitrarily–violating the Law.

Case Narrative:

The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information regarding Mr. Kaluthantri Arachchilage Shanka Sanjaya Perera (24) of No: 324/G/85, Pubudu Gama, Uswetakeyyawa in Gampahga District. Sanjaya is single, a day laborer, on salary, working on a Building Material Construction Site in his village. He can walk back and forth to work on foot. He has two sisters. Sanjaya is responsible to care for his elderly mother and maternal grandmother.

On 17 June 2017 at 7:30 p.m., on his way back home, at the Pubudugama Highway Bridge, three police officers in uniform stopped him. They demanded to see his National Identity Card. Sanjaya explained that he is a laborer by profession, working on the Building Material Construction Site at a very close distance. So, he did not bring his ID with him this morning. Then he asked the officers to accompany him home to pick up his ID.

The officers refused his request. He was ordered him to stay with them. Meanwhile Sanjaya tried to communicate with several pedestrians passing by. He asked them to give a message to his mother to bring his ID. He was prevented from talking to them as well. Sanjaya was then brought to the Pamunugama Police Station. At the station he was able to convey his message to his mother. After observing his telephone conversation, the Police ordered him to hand over his mobile phone, wallet and other belongings. He was then detained in a cell.

At 9:30 p.m. one of his sisters and his brother-in-law visited him at the police station. They brought him a bottle of water and a mosquito coil. They requested the officers on duty to release their brother as he is innocent. They were told to return the next morning.

On 18 June, 6 a.m. he was released from his cell. Officers informed him that they were recording a statement that he was brought to the police station as he failed to produced his ID for the officers. Sanjaya is not aware of the content of the statement. It was neither explained to him nor was he allowed to read it. At 7:45 a.m. some officers photographed him several times and he was fingerprinted. Sanjaya was in fear of his life. He was in fear of further harassment as well. He could only simply follow their orders.

His sister, K A Samanthi Shamali and his mother entered the police station and spoke directly to the Officer-in-Charge of the police station. The OIC justified the arrest. They can arrest anyone who does not produce his ID to the officers. The sister refuted the officer. The Police have not shown any reasonable doubt with credible evidence or any involvement in a crime or attempt to commit a crime by her brother. This makes the officers’ acts unlawful. Not answering the sister, the OIC requested both mother and sister to record their signatures on a Police Bail Bond under the Bail Act. Sanjaya was released.

Sanjaya declared that he was illegally arrested and detained by the Police. He states that police officers violated his fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. HE SEEKS JUSTICE.

Suggested Action:

Please send letters to the authorities listed below expressing your concern about this case. Request an immediate investigation into the allegations of illegal arrest and detention by the Police. Those proven to be responsible under criminal law for misusing the powers of the State should be prosecuted. All officers involved must be scrutinized by an internal investigation for breach of Police Departmental Orders. Finally, please appeal to the National Police Commissioner and the Inspector General of Police for a special investigation into the malpractice of police officers who abuse their powers.

To support this case, please click here:

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear ________,

SRI LANKA: INNOCENT MAN ARRESTED AND DETAINED FOR NOT PRODUCING ID

Name of Victims: Mr. Kaluthantri Arachchilage Shanka Sanjaya Perera (24) of No: 324/G/85, Pubudu Gama, Uswetakeyyawa in Gampahga District
Alleged perpetrators:

1) OIC of the Pamunugama Police Station.
2) PC 19035–another police officer and an officer representing the Civil Defense Force, all attached to the Pamunugama Police Station

Date of incident: 17 June 2017
Place of incident: Pamunugama Police Division

According to the information I have received Mr. Kaluthantri Arachchilage Shanka Sanjaya Perera (24) of No: 324/G/85, Pubudu Gama, Uswetakeyyawa in Gampahga District. Sanjaya is single, a day laborer, on salary, working on a Building Material Construction Site in his village. He can walk back and forth to work on foot. He has two sisters. Sanjaya is responsible to care for his elderly mother and maternal grandmother.

On 17 June 2017 at 7:30 p.m., on his way back home, at the Pubudugama Highway Bridge, three police officers in uniform stopped him. They demanded to see his National Identity Card. Sanjaya explained that he is a laborer by profession, working on the Building Material Construction Site at a very close distance. So, he did not bring his ID with him this morning. Then he asked the officers to accompany him home to pick up his ID.

The officers refused his request. He was ordered him to stay with them. Meanwhile Sanjaya tried to communicate with several pedestrians passing by. He asked them to give a message to his mother to bring his ID. He was prevented from talking to them as well. Sanjaya was then brought to the Pamunugama Police Station. At the station he was able to convey his message to his mother. After observing his telephone conversation, the Police ordered him to hand over his mobile phone, wallet and other belongings. He was then detained in a cell.

At 9:30 p.m. one of his sisters and his brother-in-law visited him at the police station. They brought him a bottle of water and a mosquito coil. They requested the officers on duty to release their brother as he is innocent. They were told to return the next morning.

On 18 June, 6 a.m. he was released from his cell. Officers informed him that they were recording a statement that he was brought to the police station as he failed to produced his ID for the officers. Sanjaya is not aware of the content of the statement. It was neither explained to him nor was he allowed to read it. At 7:45 a.m. some officers photographed him several times and he was fingerprinted. Sanjaya was in fear of his life. He was in fear of further harassment as well. He could only simply follow their orders.

His sister, K A Samanthi Shamali and his mother entered the police station and spoke directly to the Officer-in-Charge of the police station. The OIC justified the arrest. They can arrest anyone who does not produce his ID to the officers. The sister refuted the officer. The Police have not shown any reasonable doubt with credible evidence or any involvement in a crime or attempt to commit a crime by her brother. This makes the officers’ acts unlawful. Not answering the sister, the OIC requested both mother and sister to record their signatures on a Police Bail Bond under the Bail Act. Sanjaya was released.

Sanjaya declared that he was illegally arrested and detained by the Police. He states that police officers violated his fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. HE SEEKS JUSTICE.

I request the intervention of your good offices. Ensure that the authorities listed below open an immediate investigation into the allegations of violations of fundamental rights of the victim by officers of the Sri Lankan Police Department. All officers involved should be subject to an internal investigation for breach of Police Departmental Orders.

Yours sincerely,

———————
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Mr. Pujith Jayasundara
   Inspector General of Police
   New Secretariat
   Colombo 1
   SRI LANKA
   Fax: +94 11 2 440440 / 327877
   E-mail: igp@police.lk
2. Mr. Jayantha Jayasooriya PC
   Attorney General
   Attorney General’s Department
   Colombo 12
   SRI LANKA
   Fax: +94 11 2 436421
   E-mail: ag@attorneygeneral.gov.lk
3. Secretary
   National Police Commission
   3rd Floor, Rotunda Towers
   109 Galle Road
   Colombo 03
   SRI LANKA
   Tel: +94 11 2 395310
   Fax: +94 11 2 395867
   E-mail: npcgen@sltnet.lk or polcom@sltnet.lk
4. Secretary
   Human Rights Commission
   No. 36, Kynsey Road
   Colombo 8
   SRI LANKA
   Tel: +94 11 2 694 925 / 673 806
   Fax: +94 11 2 694 924 / 696 470
   E-mail: sechrc@sltnet.lk

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)

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By Dr. Kamal Wickremasinghe Courtesy The Island

June 20, 2017, 8:18 pm
Many similarities between the characters and events associated with the November 2014 regime change in Sri Lanka and the historical events that preceded the conspiracy to assassinate Julius Caesar in ancient Rome were previously noted in an article on The Island, 24 November 2015, titled, The Sri Lankan regime change – a Caesarian analogy. That particular comparison however, did not anticipate the subsequent political chaos and economic and social decline the regime change appears to have brought about.

Sri Lanka currently is on a downward spiral unmistakably in all spheres of life, leading to a dark domain of a kind without precedent in the country’s recorded history: worryingly, the current malaise is accompanied by an apparent regress of the political leadership and a large portion of the population to seek refuge in voodoo and black magic-like rituals. The general population is clearly taking their cue from the political leadership who seem to frequent all places of worship,including those in South India, seeking favours from all deities and demons that could be of help. They, of course, are cynically seeking divine (or demonic) intervention for holding on to power as long as possible, and for personal prosperity (how else but through continued stealing from the public purse). The general public on the other hand are engaged in a vain effort to keep the wolf from the door. Notwithstanding the motives, such patently non-Buddhist regression portends future trouble not just to Sri Lanka, but for the world, in desperate need of ‘awakened’ philosophies that discard such myth-based idolatry.

The abysmal breakdown of law and order in the wider social sphere appears to reflect the ultimate futility of such retrograde practices. The blight of internecine gang violence including attacks on the police — with no regard for the lives of innocent bystanders— is out of control. The appallingly high daily death toll on the roads suggests the virtual non-adherence to road rules by motorists, many of whom may not have properly learnt to safely operate a motor vehicle, but obtained driving licences corruptly. The raging Dengue epidemic points to general chaos in the administration of vital public health services, and garbage piling up in Colombo streets adds to the already unbearable shame of more than 200 people getting buried under their own waste. School and higher education systems face a crisis of unprecedented proportions. The list is too numerous.

National tragedy

The extent and severity of the national tragedy appears to be only surpassed by the total lack of any government strategies aimed at addressing the grave problems. Those holding power appear to be preoccupied with enjoying their ‘entitlements’ such as foreign travel, including for trivial and undisclosed reasons,and in acquiring permits for the importation of latest model luxury motor vehicles for on-selling, making piles of money at great cost to the treasury. Ministers are appointed to an ever-expanding cabinet that represents nothing more than the dreaded spoils system. The meaning of the word ‘portfolio’— which traditionally refers to a minister’s area of responsibility — is being stretched beyond all logic by collating completely disparate agencies under ministries with no relevance to the tasks involved. Shockingly, politicians, who are privy to information on political and other deals demand specific agencies with money-making potential, as ransom.The diplomatic service is being stacked with henchmen who have no relevant experience or vision required in the service. It is clear that a heightened sense of political power and entitlement mentality is preventing the government and its ministers acquiring an inkling about attending to the needsofthe people by making and implementing policies aimed at problem solving.

An army of cabinet ‘spokespeople’ deliver only grandiose procedural steps taken by cabinet — mingled with blatant lies — rarely reveals any practical measures aimed at easing the pain of the people, such as longer term solutions to address droughts, floods, and landslides, beyond a miserly few thousand rupees paid to the never-ending stream of victims, with motives of political expediency rather than true compassion.

This particular behaviour of the governmentand its leadership reminds the rumoured fiddling of emperor Nero Claudius Caesar (37-68 AD) on the roof of his palace, singing from the Greek epic ‘The Sack of Ilium’, during the six-day fire that ravaged most of Rome’s 14 districts in 64 AD. Nero’s deviousness however could not have extended to the callous act of fiddling while Rome was burning because, despite his known passion for music, bowed string instruments of the viola class had not appeared in Europe at least until the 11th century CE!

Siri Gunasinghe’s concept of ‘shamelessness’ explains the current situation

The recent demise of Professor Siri Gunasinghe intersected the current pathetic state of absence of effective governance in Sri Lanka — and the despicable behaviour of politicians — by bringing back to focus the content of a speech he delivered at the convocation of the University of Peradeniya in 2002.

In one of the most systematic and perceptive sociological analyses, Gunasinghe used the occasion of the convocation to focus on the failure of university education to ‘culture the mind’ of their charges as the root cause of our national problems. He began by pointing to the error in viewing the university merely as a degree awarding institution rather than a centre that should enable the ‘culture of the mind’. He lamented the widespread social normof accepting the university degree as the ultimate proof of being ‘educated’. While acknowledging the contribution Peradeniya has made to the cultural life of the country in the past— by way of dramatic and literary works; written histories,social,political, and other studies —he asserted thatsuchformal learning has dismally failed to ‘culture the minds’ of the university educated.

Gunasinghe identified the ability to recognise the elusive sense of ‘shame’ an essential part of mental culture. In his view, developing the ability to discern shame — as distinct fromthe socially face-saving reactionof personalembarrassment —is the real test of one’seducational achievements. He justified placing such importance on the culture of the mind because it enables one not only to see strengths, but also deficiencies in one’ intellectual and moral make-up.

Gunasinghe noted that academic training of people at Peradeniya, and elsewhere in Sri Lanka, showed a bias towards ‘book learning’ and was deficient in imparting cultural and moral learning that would enable them to become socially responsible individuals,armed with the ability to understand shame. He also noted that this deficiency prevented us from even recognising the lack of shame as the root cause of many of the evils evident in our society.

He went on to note that the lack of culture in individuals having a more deleterious effect on society as a whole, than on the particular individual without culture. While an individual with no culture may be able to hide in society, a society had no place to hide. He saw it as the responsibility of society (of the so-called educated people) not to ignore or tolerate people without culture. He saw the need to treat the awareness of this responsibility to see shame as a means of avoiding evil as the ultimate aim of universityeducation. In his own words: “If we depart from the university without that vision, we will have laboured in vain”.

The concluding remarks of Professor Gunasinghe’s oration need to be quoted verbatim in order to convey the true relevance of his thesis to the current situationin Sri Lanka. He said:

“It is unconscionable that in a country such as ours, with a sizeable sector of the population that does not know where the next meal is coming from, and an equally large segment that does not have a half decent roof over their heads, those in power can live lives of mindlessly luxurious abandon and lounge in princely comfort in their sprawling mansions, ruminating over their good fortune. Such blatant disregard for the well-being of one’s fellow creatures is possible only because the fortunate few, the ones who have political or economic power and are blinded by that power, do not recognise or understand shame; they do not even see the shame that dominates their little world. So, leaders who should be visionaries capable of guiding us, fail in their mission because shame has no control over their socially and politically unacceptable behaviour. They sanctimoniously hold out before us their ill-conceived ideals, without understanding the culture of shame. And we too are willing to be led deeper and deeper into the morass. This is when the wisdom we have discovered at the university must become our guiding light.”

Professor Gunasinghe’s valuable observations relevant to our national problems and his prescriptions for ordinary citizens in terms of exposing the shamelessness of politicians are extremely relevant to the issues Sri Lanka is facing today.

Siri Gunasinghe and the Sinhala poetry

While Professor Gunasinghe’s contributions in many areas of Sri Lankan art up to about 1970 need no further embellishment, his role in advocating and popularising ‘free verse’ in Sinhala poetry deserves critique due to its significance in the historical context. After all, in any language, the ‘form’ of a poem is the ‘skeleton and skin’ that holds its content together. (It is also notable that Gunasinghe named the publication that introduced free verse in Sinhala ‘mas le nethi eta’, a simile that signified the true nature of free verse poetry). The longer term impact of removing those elements from Sinhala poetry deserves to be reviewed. The intention here is to evaluate the impact free verse has had on Sri Lankan ‘culture’, through its effect on poetry, in a narrower sense than Gunasinghe’s reference in the 2002 convocation oration.

A considered critique of Gunasinghe’s so-called ‘modernist realism’ of free verse and its impact on Sinhala poetry needs to be preceded by its proper placement in the literary history of Sri Lanka, and in the West where he had borrowed the idea from. A casual glance at the history of Sri Lankan poetry shows that the 1950s movement towards free verse (Nisandas)—pioneered by that underrated genius G. B. Senanayake and Siri Gunasinghe — was only a ‘rebirth’ of such ‘formless’ poetry. Professor Senarat Paranavitana had determined that the formless graffiti on Kedapath Pavura of Sigiriya dated back to the seventh century AD. This rudimentary form of poetry however, had evolved in to such great literary monuments as ‘Kavsilumina’ by the 13th century, and to works of the ‘maha-kavya’ genre (modelled on the ornate Sanskrit form) and later in to Sandesha poems of the 18th century.

The reasons behind this evolution probably is the best argument against the scourge of free verse that does nothing more than filling the pages of poetry supplements in Sunday papers with drivel with the capacity to generate emotional warmth comparable to that of a dead fish!

Like all other cultural ethos, the early transfusion of metrical patterns into Sinhala poetry streamed from the Indian tradition that had developed sophisticated metrical poetry as a consequence of a philosophical system that considered vocal articulation an essential prerequisite for proper materialisation of literary ideasarising from the belief that proper cognizance of allworldly phenomena classed as ‘namarupa’ require listening to the unique sounds associated with them.

There was another, practical objective behind the invention of meter, preservation of the Vedas in its original form. Memorisation by listening to normal speech as a suitable means of accurately preserving the Vedas was ruled out due to the inevitability of distortionof the word that would follow. Rigorous rhythms (chandas) were developed a as a means of accurately preserving the shape of Vedic hymns over time.

Elements of the Sanskrit meter were first elaborated in a text titled Chanda śāstra(the rules of meter), written by a sage named Pingala.He identified the akaara (syllable) as the fundamental unit of a poetic composition arranged into pāda, (lines of fixed length), to form vrtta, (stanzas) the basic unit of poetry. Sanskrit meter is classified using a ‘gana’ systembased on heavy or light emphasis (da or DUM) placed on each of three syllables in blocks of three syllables known asgana.

Sanskrit poetry from the Rg and Sama Veda, to the epics the Ramayana and Mahabharata are based on elaborate arrangement of syllables. The literary style of Sanskrit mahakavya (great poems) such as Ashvaghosa’s Buddhacarita and Kalidasa’s Raghuwamsa and Kumarasambhava took this practice to an extremeby strict adherence to the strophic lyric (two or more lines repeated as a unit), using complicated metresand often, lyrics full of hyperbole. It is notable that masters of Sinhala diction such as Gurulugomi campaigned against the influence of this excessive Sanskrit form on Sinhala poetry, as far back as the 12th century.

Metric poetry and free verse in the West

Metric poetry made up of stanzas of four lines (quatrain) — with the first and third lines of eight syllables each and the second and fourth rhyming lines with six syllables — have also existed in the West since the Middle Ages. The rhythms of such ‘ballad stanza’ were adopted by poets like Rudyard Kipling and John Keats. Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) is credited with introducing alliterative poetry using the heroic couplet—a verse having five accents with the lines rhyming in pairs —in to English poetry. The 16th century English poets and dramatists including Shakespeare used the iambic pentametre (a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable), that was compatible with the rhythms of normal English speech at the time, as the dominant form of English verse.

Similar to its history in the East, formless poetry described as free verse, is not a particularly modern form of writing in the West. Examples of free verse poetry based on attempts to imitate the speech patterns of particular community groups can be found in the John Wycliffe translation of the (biblical) Psalms in the 1380s and repeated in most bible translations since, including the King James Bible. Earliest records of free verse go back to John Dryden (1631-1700) — the greatest English playwright of the 17th century after William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson—and the greatest poet after John Donne and John Milton—keeping with his prose writing style based on patterns and rhythms of everyday speech. Victor Hugo (1802-1885) is also known to have experimented with it.

Free verse is a label coined by French poets of the late 1880s to early 20th century (led by Gustave Kahn and Jules Laforgue) to describe poetry without rhyme and a regular metre. As is well known, Siri Gunasinghe‘s time at Sorbonne coincided with the free verse movement that was ‘all the rage’ in Paris in the early-mid 20th century.

The free verse idea originates from the earlier ‘vers libre’ movement that campaigned for the need to ‘liberate’ French poetry from the strictures of meter. They proposed verse shaped around the content, without adherence to any conventions of feet, rhyme or meter, essentiallyreplacing the stanza with the sentence as the unit of meaning. Vers libre theorists in England also began attacking the iambic pentameter, giving scant recognition to the fact that the French language marked an easier transition due to equal weight giveto each spoken syllable, in contrast to English, a language with syllables varying in quantity according to levels of stress given.

The widespread adoption of vers libre in France at the end of the 19th century however, influenced a poetic trend towards free verse in other Western countries including Britain. The first English-language poets to be influenced by vers libre however wereAmericanswho have exhibited their penchant for ‘fast-food’ culture throughout their short history of 200 years. The founder of the Imagist movement Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot were the early proponents, with other students of French poetry: T. E. Hulme, F.S. Flint, and Richard Aldington also becoming keen free verse poets. Rhyme-less and meterless poetry took root in the US until recently, causing the extinction of American poets who write solely in rhyme and meter.

The need to come back to senses

In reviewing the take-up of free verse by Sinhala poets, it becomes apparent that early enthusiasm of literary giants of the calibre of Martin Wickramasinghe and Gunadasa Amarasekara quickly waned. Martin Wickramasinghe, who initially condemned metrical poetry in samudraghosha metre in particular, later dissociated himself with the free verse movement. Likewise, Gunadasa Amarasekara returned to narrative poetry following the tradition of classical and folk poetry. It was only Mahagama Sekara among the truly creative poets who maintained commitment to free verse until his death. But, Sekera’s poetry rarely conformed to the blandest of the free verse without rhyme or meter. Free verse of Sekara — as easy conversion to song lyrics by Amaradeva shows —still followed a meter, though withoutrhyme.

Similarly, in the West, key early proponents of free verse have toned down their enthusiasm with the benefits of emotional maturity. T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), one of the leading figures of the modern English free verse movement (if not the leading figure) in his essay Reflections on vers libre written in 1917, following the publication of the much celebrated “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” in 1915, took issue with the movement’s attack on iambic pentameter of Shakespeare, Milton and the English poetic tradition. Eliot called free verse a ‘preposterous fiction’ and complained that it could only be defined and understood in negatives and the absence of pattern (form), rhyme and meter. Eliot concluded that “the division between conservative verse and vers libre does not exist, for there is only good verse, bad verse, and chaos”.

In the final analysis, the wise will admit that the form in itself can not make a poem superior. Best poems usually exhibit a confluence of many factors— subject matter, word choice, metaphors and rhythm — as reasons of success.Some of the best poems of Rabindranath Tagore (Punashcha, Shesh saptak, Patraput and Shyamali) are metreless rhythmic verse whereas most free verse published these days, labelled ‘poetry’, deserve to be thrown in to rubbish. As T. S. Eliot wrote, ‘no verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job.’

The real reason behind traditional poetry employing meter is to set a poem apart from prose. Meter helps in establishingacharacteristic tone of a poem in the same manner a drum beat sets the mood for a song by varying the speed of the rhythmic cycle. Meter based rhythmic patterns originate from syllables that form words. Skilled poets create rhythmic patterns by stacking together stressed and unstressed syllables in words in different orders. Verse formed of iambs, trochets, dactyls or anapests, an isochronic rhythm, as in musical measures, helps in relieving monotony and enlivening meaning. Good meter is unvaryingly exalting and is unique aesthetic potential.

As the ancient Indians discovered, rhythm also help develop rapport with the reader or listenerof poetry by utilising the natural brain function of filling in the gaps in patterns such asrhymes and rhythm, to improve the ‘memory’ of verse even by illiterate people. The long memory of nursery rhymes, quatrains and song lines made so by using an easy seven syllable metric, and an easy rhyming scheme (ABCB) bear evidence to this fact. The other key component of traditional poetry, rhyme, is the native condition of lyric verse, a rhyme-less lyric sounds embryonic and malformed, and crucially, halts and stammers in the delivery of its message.

Writing poetry made up of rhyming and measuring verses, like all creative activity that imposes constraints, demands skill and craftsmanship. Admittedly, such work usually requires far more talent, thought and effort that far exceed the requirement of smearing a bunch of disjointed words and phrases in something labelled poetic verse.

The phonetic make-up of Sinhala, like all languages, exhibits complicated links between meter, rhythm, alliteration and rhyme. Work of poets of the calibre of Wimalaratna Kumaragama and Meemana Prematillake, among others, bear ample testimony to the beauty of expression in rhyme and meter. Attempts to compose Sinhala poetry ignoring the role ofphonetic features of the language can only generate collections of ‘dead’ words that fail to combine form and meaning.

In conclusion, Professor Gunasinghe’s 2002 observations on the non-existence of culture among the ‘educated’ Lankans are eminently agreeable. His promotion of free verse— essentially a foreign means of expression of inferior quality — appears inconsistent and is out of character with his more mature views on culture in general.

Free verse has been partly responsible for the degradation of quality of Sinhala poetry over the last 50 years or so, and Gunasinghe himself probably regretted it like Martin Wickramasinghe and Gunadasa Amarasekara did earlier. The current absence of quality song lyrics writers (apart from the notable few who are continuing since the 1970s) can directly be attributed to the destruction of the soul of Sinhala poetry by free verse. The work of Sri Chandraratna Manawasinghe demonstrates the radiance of song lyrics constructed with rhyme and meter.

At the end of the day, free verse is the lazy man’s sonnet, analogous to jazz in musical composition terms. As the British-American poet Robert Frost complained ‘it is like ‘playing tennis without the net’, and non-metrical poetry is actually prose. It is time we abandoned mediocrity and start learning the basics of meter and rhyme in order to prevent further destruction of Sinhala poetry.

Courtesy NewsIn. Asia

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

Alleging that the yahapalana government had taken contradictory positions in respect of continuing UN interventions made in accordance with 2015 and 2017 resolutions co-sponsored by Sri Lanka, the Joint Opposition Leader Dinesh Gunawardena, MP, yesterday demanded an immediate clarification from the UNP-SLFP coalition.

Gunawardena accused the government of repeatedly deceiving parliament regarding its Geneva commitments.

The MP pointed out that Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha and Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakse had issued vastly contradictory statements in response to former Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Monica Pinto’s adverse report taken up at the 35th session of the human rights council. Pinto called for foreign judges and other international experts in proposed war crimes courts in accordance with 2015 resolution.

Ambassador Aryasinha responded positively to Pinto’s report presented by her successor Diego Garcia-Sayan on June 12. MP Gunawardena pointed out that Sri Lanka thereby had refrained from challenging Pinto’s damaging observations and recommendations.

MP Gunawardena told The Island that Ambassador Aryasinha had reassured Sri Lanka’s commitment to addressing issues raised by Garcia-Sayan and also to provide unhindered access to Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

“A week later, in Parliament, Justice Minister flayed the UN system, alleging the report was meant to substantiate allegations made by NGOs and various other interested parties,” MP Gunawardena said.

The former minister said the government certainly owed the country an explanation as regards co-operation extended to the UN against the backdrop of Justice Minister Rajapakse’s attack. Obviously, Foreign and Justice ministries couldn’t take different views the campaign for the participation of foreign judges in a war crimes court to be set up here.

Responding to a query by The Island, Gunawardena said that he had moved an adjournment motion in Parliament on June 6,demanding that the controversial Geneva resolution adopted on the basis of unfounded allegations be revoked. MP Gunawardena said that the government had no option but to review its position on 2015 resolution reaffirmed in 2017. The JO leader pointed out that a member of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) Ambika Satkunanathan, too, had recently pointed out that the government had agreed to foreign judges in accordance with the Geneva resolution.

The MP alleged that in spite of both President Maithripala Sirisena and Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe repeatedly ruling out foreign judges, Geneva had taken up the issue again. The veteran parliamentarian said that the June 12 statement had extensively dealt with the Sri Lankan judicial structures and post-January 2015 developments in respect of the judiciary.

Due to UNP-SLFP coalition’s failure, Geneva was pushing for defence lawyers, prosecutors and investigators in addition to judges in an unconstitutional ‘hybrid’ court, Gunawardena said.

Former UPFA MP and navy Chief of Staff Sarath Weerasekera, too, made representations on the sidelines of Geneva sessions against Pinto’s report.

MP Gunawardena said that the yahapalana statements on Pinto’s report had exposed growing divisions within the coalition.

Responding to another question, Gunawardena said the JO would like to know whether the yahapalana constituents, particularly the SLFP shared Minister Rajapakse’s views or subscribed to the June 12 statement made in Geneva. Gunawardena alleged that having accepted Western powers’ backed TNA and Tamil Diaspora proposals for foreign judges, yahapalana leaders were now pulling in different directions.

The JO leader appreciated the Justice Minister’s stand on Pinto’s report.

He asked whether the Justice Minister’s position was acceptable to the rest of the UNP parliamentary group.

ලංකා සී නිවුස්

මෙරටට විදේශ විනිසුරුවන් ගෙන ඒම සදහා ආණ්ඩුව දෙවත්වක්ම ජිනීවාහිදී එකග වූ බව දෙමල ජාතික සන්ධානයේ මහ ලේකම් පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත‍්‍රී එම්.ඒ. සුමන්තිරන් මහතා පවසයි.

එසේ ජිනීවාහිදී පොරොන්දු වූ ආණ්ඩුව මෙරටදී සිංහල ජනතාව රවටමින් සිටින බවද ඔහු කියා සිටියේ හිරු රූපවාහිනියේ ‘සලකුණ’ වැඩසටහනට එක්වෙමිනි

Buddhist News

Following a meeting of the Karaka Sangha Sabha, the Mahanayake of the Asgiriya Chapter, the Most Venerable Warakagoda Gnanaratana Thera in a strongly worded statement today highlighted concerns about the challenges posed by internal and external conspiracies against Sinhala Buddhists and emphasized the need for the Mahanayake Theras of the Three Nikayas and the patriotic people of the country to act in unison to face such injustices.

All other religious groups in the country should keep it in mind that Buddhists in Sri Lanka had always respected and allowed unhindered the existence of other religions. We condemn acts by other religious groups that insult this tolerant Buddhist ethic,” the statement said. Although we do not approve the aggressive behaviour and speech of Bhikku Galabodaatte Gnanasara the viewpoint expressed by him cannot be discarded. Insulting Bhikkus by various groups without inquiring into the veracity of the issues raised by him cannot be condoned.”

BY SHIVANTHI RANASAINGHE Courtesy Ceylon Today

Monk Galagodaatta Gnanasara is up to his antics again. This time however, the police have been instructed to arrest him. The media for the past week has been carrying the latest updates of the absconding monk. The Police failure is attributed to a powerful minister’s interference, alleged none other than the cabinet spokesman Rajitha Seneratne.

The Rajapaksa administration was toppled for its failure to contain this monk. As a result Gotabaya Rajapaksa stood accused of giving patronage to this monk and his organization, Bodu Bala Sena. Indeed, after the successful regime mchange, for a while Gnanasara Thera laid low, further giving credence to the notion that Rajapaksas backed him.

He did make sudden appearances when emotions were high and against the government. Despite his claims of patriotism, he only worsened the crisis. He is such an embarrassment to the Buddhists that they disappear when he appears.

The brouhaha he created during the Court hearing over the alleged disappearance of Eknaligoda is a case in point. Seven military intelligence personnel were detained over the matter, despite absence of evidence. On 26 January 2016, after months of failed investigations by the CID, there were indications that they would be granted bail. That day, Gnanasara Thera stormed into the Homagama Magistrate’s Courts, demanding release of the war heroes, hurling insults at the Judge and the government lawyers for betraying our country and apparently was especially abusive towards Eknaligoda’s wife.

Needless to say, the men did not get bail that day and remained in custody for many months more. The stunt however, landed Gnanasara Thera in Police custody.

An experience, according to CA Chandraprema, he did not relish. In his Sunday column, Political Watch, Chandraprema on 10 June traces the history of Gnanasara Thera and the BBS. Gnanasara Thera, he notes, likes his creature comforts. Indeed, if one does not go by appearances, Gnanasara Thera is no Buddhist monk.

Lately though, Gnanasara Thera is again becoming increasingly active. As Gotabaya is no longer in power, he obviously is not the BBS’s patron. Whether it will exonerate him is another matter, as for us, first impressions are lasting irrespective of subsequent evidence to the contrary.

Halal angle…

The point is, Gnanasara Thera had immunity from the Rajapaksa administration and protection from the incumbent government. As Chandraprema notes, BBS came to our attention only in 2012 with an anti-Halal campaign. It started with a starkly simple poster protesting against halal products. Halal procedure is antithetical to Buddhist thinking, but Buddhists have opted to respect the practice of another religion than the animal’s plight. This was the first time this issue was brought out into the open. During the ensuing debate, it was highlighted that other products, such as biscuits etcetera also had the halal symbol. It was alleged that certain parties were unethically earning money from using this symbol.

While the campaign affected neither the symbol nor the practice, BBS then garnered the support from the Sinhala Buddhist community, especially as it was projected that using the halal symbol, non-Muslims are duped into funding an extremist and devious Islamic project. With even tea packs having this symbol gave credibility to the accusation.

BBS increasingly became vociferous and boisterous. The anti-halal campaign was followed by an anti-cattle slaughter campaign and peaked into the Aluthgama riots. BBS accused Muslims in the area of harassing the Buddhist monks, which eventually ignited the Aluthgama riots.

Interestingly, around this time, two questionable incidents came to this writer’s attention. One incident in 2014 was related by Udaya Gammanpila.

“Two nights before BBS’s rally in Polgahawela, around 4:00 a.m., the householder living close to the mosque heard a noise. When he investigated, he saw someone trying to remove the mosque’s name board. Quietly alerting the neighbours, they caught the culprit, who turned out to be a Muslim, who wanted to discredit BBS by damaging the board.”

The other incident was while at a Muslim owned shop selling from sewing needs to cosmetics, this writer witnessed a saffron robed man, accompanied with an equally rough character, photographing cosmetic jewellery. As is the norm, this Muslim shop too is staffed with only Muslims. While the young staff members were getting agitated, a senior employee politely asked this duo to stop, which they refused. They claimed somewhat belligerently, their purpose was selecting jewellery to decorate deity statues and not to be reproducing the designs. It is that employee’s maturity and patience that stopped the situation from becoming an incident.

Shadow guardian – Ranawaka?

Clearly, there is a group that is up to some terrible mischief. BBS happens to be one of its faces. The other faces Chandraprema identifies are as Norway and the Jathika Hela Urumaya. He writes the anti-halal campaign took places “a few months after several monks including Gnanasara Thera returned from a trip to Norway where he met Erik Solheim among others. From that time onwards, every step of the way, the JHU made common cause with everything that was done by the BBS. The street action was taken by the monks of the BBS led by Gnanasara Thera while the JHU held press conferences, defending or encouraging the action taken by the BBS. In the wake of the Aluthgama riots, Champika Ranawaka distributed aid to the Sinhala victims of the riots.”

When the Aluthgama violence erupted, both President Rajapaksa and Gotabaya ordered Gnanasara Thera to be arrested.However, as Chandraprema notes, “it was Ranawaka who had opposed any such move in Cabinet and said that the monks should not be touched and if any monk is arrested he would bring the entire monkhood onto the streets.”

The greatest irony is, having prevented the arrest, which pushed the Muslim votes towards the then Common Candidate, Ranawaka also followed.

This did not confuse the Muslims, as their anger was fixated on the Rajapaksas. In the Aluthgama fiasco, there is another hand that is still invisible to the public. This was exposed with a video footage of the Aluthgama incident, which was circulated in social media sometime ago. It clearly shows crowds peacefully dispersing after the BBS rally. Gnanasara had already left the premises.

Due to the crowds, a motorcyclist was pushing his cycle when he was hit with a rock from the upper floor of a building. This was followed with a rain of rocks from the top floors of other buildings, injuring the crowds below. The propaganda machines were already set to blame Gnanasara Thera for the fiasco, which it did with remarkable success. Clearly, a trap had been set.

When President Rajapaksa ordered Ven. Gnanasara’s arrest, the MI exposed this sinister plan. If he was arrested, Ranawaka would have made good of his threat.

The other party was ready with forces to ‘avenge’ the Muslim community. Realizing that this was a turf war, the Rajapaksas backtracked.

The damage was however done. Our relationship with Arab was strongest during the Rajapaksa administration. Yet, the anti-Muslim label is still fast stuck on them.

For all appearances, Ranawaka too appear politically knocked out. His supporters are disenchanted that he is in the United National Party camp. However, Ranawaka is a man who made his career playing politically dead and seizing the issue of the day to make a sudden comeback.

During the late ’80s, the Sinhala Buddhists felt voiceless with the two main parties – UNP and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party – appeasing the minority political parties to gain a parliamentary majority. The answer was Sinhalaye Mahasammatha Bhoomiputra Pakshaya, founded by Harischandra Wijayatunga in 1990. In the 1994 presidential elections, he polled 32,651 votes, which six years later increased to 35,854.

Bhoomiputra was cannibalized soon after by the emergence of a new party along the same theme – the Sihala Urumaya. In the 2000 parliamentary elections, SU won one national seat. However, the party’s President, SL Gunasekera was publicly fought off by a junior member, Ranawaka. Gunasekera was a fearless patriot and the supporters were deeply embarrassed by the way he was treated.

However, for the 2004 parliamentary elections, Ranawaka fielded prominent Buddhist monks and evolved the party as Jathika Hela Urumaya. Considering its late entrants, the result was satisfactory. However, hope was short lived as the party members’ behaviour was most unsavoury. Again, it seemed Ranawaka and his party is history.

Yet, Ranawaka survived by supporting Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidential campaign in 2005. In 2007 he was both the Environmental and Natural Resources Minister, and had somehow also become the JHU’s leader. He clawed his support base again by making the closure of the Marvil Oya sluice gates by the LTTE, his cause.

Beginning of the end

In 2015, he had left the Rajapaksa administration clutching on good governance. Though he contested the 2015 Parliamentary elections on the UNP ticket, he acts as Maithripala Sirisena’s man and distances himself from the UNP, perceived by many as a pro-west, anti-national party. Many think however he is finally over.

It is in this background, we again are back to the same scenario that marked the beginning of the Rajapaksa administration’s end. Gnanasara Thera is engaging in racial disharmony and has earned a warrant for his arrest. If he was indeed arrested, would Ranawaka be back in the fighting ring? Or is it a plot by another hand to create unrest between the Buddhists and the Muslims to enforce the emergency law and thereby do away with elections? Interesting times ahead!

ranasingheshivanthi@gmail.com